They really could use a bigger tank. Or habitat. Or whatever.

Got a pile of figures this weekend! Seventeen loose figures from eBay, including the classic Brainiac and Luthor there!

The only downside? A few duplicates, and short on accessories. Mr. Terrific didn't come with his stupid T-Sphere thing, for instance. I don't need it, probably wouldn't use it, yet it somehow gnaws on me that he doesn't have it. Ditto the silly Bat-Laptop thing that came with the Imperiex series Batman. I skipped him when he first came out, but the paint really makes him look like Burton-era Batman.

Anyway, finished a strip with some of the new figures already, but might not schedule it for a bit.

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I didn't think Comics Alliance had much effect on my purchases, then two from the same day. Weird.



First, a week or two back CA had a piece titled "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Guardians of the Galaxy; which covered a wee bit of the history of the older version of the team, which was set in the future. And the present book isn't quite set in the past, but may have a lot of flashbacks...

I know I read the Jim Valentino 90's version for a while; I still have the fancy-pants foil cover #25, where the future Silver Surfer calls himself the Keeper and has Quasar's quantum bands and what appears to be a cape or a shawl...I think I had mostly fallen off the book by that point, since I didn't recognize the cover for issue #50 used in the article.

This one's pretty far afield from where I remember the book, featuring Talon prominently: he was the future Inhuman cat-guy wizard. There's also the girl Yellowjacket from the 20th century (who would be immediately fridged upon her return) and the Beyonder and Mephisto and his daughter and a kid that I think was an offshoot of the Church of Universal Truth from old, better, Jim Starlin comics. The actual Guardians don't seem to have a ton to do, but there you go.

Then, in an interview with Batman '66 writer Jeff Parker, Chris Sims asks if he got the job because of his work on Age of the Sentry. Maybe not...

"Jeff Parker: I don't think anyone read Age of Sentry, I believe I just came up in discussion."

Aw, don't feel bad, Jeff! I read the first five issues...that I fished out of the quarter bin, but still! Never could find that last one, though; and #5 actually ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. A somewhat deranged looking Reed Richards tells his son Franklin, that he's going to tell him "the final Sentry story." Coincidentally, the classic Guardians of the Galaxy guest-star in issue #5 as well!

Even more coincidentally, I picked up Guardians of the Galaxy #50 and the Age of the Sentry trade the day after those articles, for a combined total of four bucks. The latter I had seen multiple times before, and was picking up this time because I had an upcoming strip poking a little fun at the Sentry; but he's a character I've liked on occasion. The occasions being his original limited series, and this one; everything else I've seen with him has been on a sliding scale of "kewl" to "reeks of effort." I haven't read all of the Sentry's funeral issue, but it falls squarely under the latter: let's have every hero say how great the Sentry was, and maybe it'll sweep the lame stories and mischaracterization under the rug.

The last issue is an imaginary story (although the whole series may just be stories Reed tells to Franklin) in the vein of the classic Superman ones; with the death of the Sentry. Even for an imaginary story about death, I felt it was a bit of a downer, as it implies the Sentry may not be what he thinks he is. But up to that point, the series is like the Silver Age Superman in the 60's Marvel Universe; and not too shabby. I wanted to pick it up since I was going to be making fun of the Sentry.

Age of the Sentry, written by Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin, art by Nick Dragotta, Ramon Rosanas, Michael Cho, Bill Galvan, and Colleen Coover. Guardians of the Galaxy #50, "Coldly Sublime, Intolerably Just!" Written by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Kevin West, inks by Steve Montano.


Well, Scathan approves, anyway.



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A surprisingly salient recap, from an unusual place:

Man, I really want to go see the Evil Dead remake. And my girlfriend, well, not so much. Still might go today...

Today's pages recap both Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness (which I saw in the theater it's last week of release...over twenty years ago!) but comes from a somewhat unexpected place: the second issue of IDW's Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness crossover. Wow, 19 covers for 6 issues. What happens the first issue? I'm not a hundred percent sure, but this month Ash is not in a good place, as everyone he sees appears to be a Deadite. Which leads to him accidentally punching his girlfriend, flashing a girl scout troop, and beating up a good number of possibly innocent bystanders. (He sees everyone as Deadites, but it isn't clear if they attack him or anything...) Ash knows someone must have messed with that stupid Necronomicon again, but ends up tased down by the cops.

Meanwhile, the girls of Danger Girl, in various sexy outfits, have the Necronomicon; then see news footage of Ash's booking. They recognize him from the Necronomicon, but wrongly assume he couldn't be the same guy; perhaps a descendant, whom they might have to break out of jail...

I got this issue for under a buck, so I'm not sure where it went from there, but the recap was all right. Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness #2, written by Andy Hartnell, art by Chris Bolson.

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I wonder if Mark Waid learned this the hard way:

For years, even though I've enjoyed tons of his work, my tag for the writer Mark Waid has been "a rare fumble from Mark Waid," because he messed up an admittedly dicey point of Captain America continuity. And I just kept using that tag; but today we see what may actually be a fumble...

The Beat posted a link to Jeremy Rock and Mark Waid's Gutters strip, "Four Panels That Never Work." It's a riff on Wally Wood's "22 Panels That Always Work." But something struck me as wrong about that second one; and it seemed a little harsh for no reason...

But part of the reason I have this blog is to remember old comics, and I remembered where I had seen a villain's speech from the Jumbotron! We looked at it before, but it's from Avengers #402, "End of the Line" Art by Mike Deodato and Tom Palmer, story by...Mark Waid! Hey, shenanigans!

Admittedly, Onslaught is probably a psychic projection, which would probably just have taken a single word balloon to explain; but that doesn't stop the assembled Avengers from smashing the hell out of the Jumbotron on the next page. Fortunately, Waid wouldn't take his own advice, and continues writing to this day...but I have to wonder if anyone called him on that story back in 1996!
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"More News at Eleven."

The DCUC Clark Kent figure and the new Marvel Legends Hyperion were both on my work table, so I wanted to do something with them both. Then, I wanted to compare Hyperion to the old Sentry Toy Biz figure, since the Sentry is the running change and will get a new figure with the Hyperion body. By that point, throwing in Captain Marvel (or Shazam, if you must) seemed like a given.

Hopefully, this one should remind you of classic wrestling, as Clark Kent is once again overrun on the mike. Both Sentry and Captain Marvel seem baby-faced compared to Hyperion, though.



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"Skill Crane."

I found that Squinkies Spider-Man Crane Dispenser at Target the other day, for six bucks--for the love of god, do not drop sixty on it at that link! There were little generic ones on Amazon as well, but be aware, it won't pick up any of the stuff I crammed into it.

Even though I still do Nightcrawler and Deadpool strips every so often...I miss them.

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Spoiling a 2011 DVD adapting a 1985 comic that you've read already:

So, I got Green Lantern: Emerald Knights from the pawn shop, probably a month or two ago, and finally watched it the other day. It wasn't bad: I wouldn't drop twenty bucks on it, but for two bucks? Why not?

There's a somewhat expanded adaptation of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons story "Mogo Doesn't Socialize," although Moore doesn't let his name be listed in the credits. It's not super: there's a somewhat unnecessary prologue with Bolphunga the Unrelenting, then his silly and unhelpful probes that he uses in his search. And in the end, Mogo's Green Lantern logo isn't part of the greenery and topography, but a shiny lantern construct. It even appears that Mogo kills Bolphunga, rather than sending him running home to his mama. Weak.

But it occurred to me, Hal tells this story to Arisia, so maybe that's how he heard it. Or maybe Hal can't tell a joke...

I also watched Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, which I got for four bucks on BluRay. Eh...it's okay, yeah. Not my favorite storyline to begin with. Although, Under the Red Hood wasn't necessarily a favorite either, and I liked that DVD. Off the top of my head, as far as DC's direct-to-video features go, I think Crisis on Two Earths has been my favorite; but I should get them all together. At the very least, it'd help me keep track of which ones I have...
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A blocking trick unique to comics there:

In the recent B.P.R.D. #1948 #3, Professor Bruttenholm goes out to dinner with a young nuclear physicist, Dr. Anna Rieu. The two seem to be a great match at first, but it soon becomes apparent that it's not going to work between them; especially when she freaks out a bit that Bruttenholm is raising the young Hellboy. You'd think being a single, working dad would be more of a draw...

But, he does show her the picture from Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1, which we've seen a few times before. This time, the Torch of Liberty is partially obscured by the word balloon there. Created by John Byrne, the Torch is sort-of in and sort-of out of Hellboy continuity. I wouldn't mind if the Torch showed up in the WWII-set Sledgehammer 44, but I don't think he will.
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Hmm. I don't think I've seen The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly since Clint Eastwood's chair speech at the RNC. I wish I could say that was coincidence...

While I don't consider myself a huge western fan, there have been several I've enjoyed over the years, both in movies and in comics. Somewhat surprisingly in comics, since with the exception of Jonah Hex, they're rather few and far between anymore. The last ones I remember paying for were DC's most recent run of Bat Lash, some Vertigo limiteds like El Diablo or Weird Western Tales, and Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever. (Most of the westerns I like aren't completely western...)

The other day at Hastings (between two locations, if I'm honest) I found almost the entire run of Dynamite Entertainment's 2009 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly series; all but issue #2. I knew of the book, but couldn't positively say I ever saw it on the racks. There was a Man With No Name series as well, but that one I don't think I remembered until seeing the ad for the trade paperback on the back of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly #8. I did a little research to try and find sales numbers, but couldn't; which makes me wonder if sales were below 5,000 copies. (Or 7,000? I don't know if the Beat was doing the indie sales chart back in 2009.)

As far as the actual comics, they aren't bad: Chuck Dixon is always good for a page-turner, and the first arc is a bit of fun, with art by Esteve Polls. There's no Angel Eyes or Tuco in these stories, but there's plenty of Bad and Ugly to go around. Blondie is on the trail of another bounty, train robber Miles Devereaux, but Devereaux overhears the details about a train full of gold looted by renegade French Legionnaires. And a one-handed bounty hunter is following them all, to see who comes out with the money...

They're not reinventing the wheel, but good enough. I had the same weird question reading these that I sometimes do reading Conan comics: if Blondie cashes in on the bounty, shouldn't he be rich enough not to have to chase them anymore? I sometimes suspect he makes a fortune then blows through it just as quickly.

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This is what happens when you only have one New 52 costumed figure...

"Who died? EVERYONE."

I wasn't even thinking of Damian on this one, more Bruce's over-sensitivity to the deaths of his parents and whatnot. And it's fun for Hal to pay for shooting his mouth off.

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My cup doesn't have a Batman logo, but is the size of a small bucket...

Longtime readers may know I'm a coffee drinker. Not so much a connoisseur, since I will drink just about whatever coffee convenient, either black or with tabasco or whatever's handy. And I have to drink a pot a day, or my head will implode. Which it did Monday, when my coffee pot at work burned out and I couldn't have a cup all morning. First I was sluggish and crabby, then it was like a hangover, then like...some unpleasant third thing that I can't think of since my skull hurts. Think "Scanners."

Since I drink a pot over the course of my shift, I tend to go through coffee makers the way other people go through shoes. Usually, the burner gives out, since apparently they aren't designed to be on for six hours a stretch. Bastards! It always strikes me as wasteful, throwing out a coffee maker, since if I had a soldering iron, some rudimentary electrical knowledge, and a wanton disregard for fire safety, I could probably get it going again. So, now I'm going to try something new: my sister gave me a carafe-thing a Christmas or two ago, and what I'll do is make the coffee and pour it in that. And then maybe have to race to chug it down before it gets cold. A friend at work got me a Green Lantern coffee cup that's surprisingly large, and makes for quicker drinking; but thus has a tendency to get too cool if left be: I had a cup the other day that somewhat implausibly bucked the laws of thermodynamics and was far colder than room temperature.

Panels from 1990's Excalibur #29, "Dream a Little Dream" Written by Michael Higgins (with a plot assist from Seth Kruchkow) pencils by Chris Wozniak, inks by Josef Rubinstein. It's a crossover with Power Pack, except their encounter with Nightmare is written off as just a dream. Still, more interesting than reading about my coffee drinking habits...hey!
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"Durable Good."

So, two Fridays back I mentioned still looking for the Marvel Legends Hyperion. Then I got him that very afternoon, along with Red She-Hulk and Protector, who we'll see later.

All three figures are pretty solid, with a couple little issues. Hyperion's upper cape clasp is a separate piece, that maybe should lie more flush. Protector has great range of motion but the same hands as Fantomex; they aren't great. And I hate his reused guns. Red She-Hulk is amazing looking, but are her hands disproportionately tiny? Minor nitpicks mostly, not deal-breakers.
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OK, This Week's Comics:

Just a couple quick bits this time around: the Youngest came with me to the Comic Book Shop and got the new issue of Adventure Time then talked me into getting him an issue of Bravest Warriors. He was pretty enthusiastic about it, probably moreso than I was about my batch of books.

I did like B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth #105. (Some of these books aren't in the GCD yet!) It's a book that plays the long game: plot threads can lie seemingly forgotten for some time, but they rarely are. This month: The comatose Abe Sapien wakes up and wanders off! Someone covers for him! The grotesque Director Iosif of the Russian Occult Bureau airlifts into a monster-infested warzone, but isn't there for the evacuation...B.P.R.D. is rarely a bad read, but is often more satisfying with a few issues at once than one at a time. But I would miss the cliffhangers if I trade-waited!

I haven't written up the last couple of Dark Horse Presents for 80-Page Thursdays--partially because I didn't want several in a row, but also the last couple were a little meh for me. This issue does have a Shannon (Too Much Coffee Man) Wheeler story, an odd alternate history of Custer from Howard Chaykin, and a kinda interesting interview with Geof Darrow...that isn't as interesting as new work from Darrow. And Mike Richardson asks him about "his dream car" and a ride with Frank Miller and Darrow doesn't elaborate! Patrick Alexander's "Villainman" is funny; but I wouldn't have scheduled it and Wheeler's "Villain House" the same month...No Finder either this month. I was considering dropping DHP, so of course next month has Nexus and I'm back on board.

Lastly, we have X-Termination #1: to get home to the Age of Apocalypse, the AoA Nightcrawler forces the Dark Beast to try and get them back. Wolverine, pissed over Nightcrawler's betrayal of X-Force, is on his tail (so to speak) with a team of X-Men. There are a few things wrong here already...even if the AoA Nightcrawler doesn't think of the 616 Marvel Universe as anything but a shadow, the Age of Apocalypse would be a dismal suckhole to live in. Yet he's willing to work with Dark Beast--who, if he isn't basically Hitler to him, is at least Mengele--to get back there. He's in the Marvel Universe: if anyone in the story stopped being a jerk for five minutes, there's other ways to get from one universe to another, right? And Wolverine is hunting down Nightcrawler because he might be dangerous...hey, Wolvie? You know who else is dangerous? Sabretooth, the guy that killed about a gazillion other people you knew? Maybe you could hunt him down instead? No? So, Wolvie is either after Nightcrawler because of narrative convenience, or because his feelings are hurt like a big baby...

There's a ponderous opening (that reminded me of Crisis on Infinite Earths) to set up the extra-dimensional big bads, who I don't think have ever been seen before. When Dark Beast and Nightcrawler teleport into the Dreaming Celestial, they "see" a control room, "the mind making sense of the cosmic energies." Because that's way more entertaining to see than crazy Kirby-style stuff...that bit reminded me of Contact, or South Park making fun of Contact. I liked the McGuinness cover, but there's no scene like that inside, and the cover stock is crappy...

I'm being a little harsh on this book, because of those holes; but also because it already seems obvious this crossover is (at least partially) about AoA Nightcrawler having to pay for his deeds, and probably killed off or written out. He came to the 616 to get revenge, got it, and was not all that sorry about it in Uncanny X-Force. But we can't have that: it'd be just fine for Wolverine to gut someone for payback (although he so rarely kills off anyone important) but not anyone else. I'm not a fan of Gambit, but he does call Wolvie on his double standard regarding side projects; but that's another problem with this series: I really don't much care about a lot of the characters thrown in this crossover pot. I'm only buying this stupid comic because it's got a version of my favorite character, a copy.

A lot of Marvel and DC comics feel that way for me lately, honestly.
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I'm sure the Thing would clean out the JLA...maybe.

Even though I've seen the Thing, Wolverine, and the Avengers playing poker any number of times, I'm hard-pressed to recall the last time I saw the Justice League of America, or any DC characters, dealing out a hand. So today's issue was a pleasant surprise: Justice League of America #152, "2,000 Light-Years to Christmas!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Frank McLaughlin.

Three odd alien travelers accidentally lose their power objects on earth, and while the objects are dangerous enough in the hands of a traumatized war orphan or a wounded deer; they'd be even more trouble in the hands of the lunatic dictator Major Macabre. I'm assuming he's a lunatic based on the name...Oddly, the JLA's endgame against the Major is the opposite of their usual tactics: the rest of the League charges in to get beat down, as a distraction for Red Tornado; who usually was the first one downed.

This was the first appearance of Traya, the little girl who would eventually be adopted by Red Tornado.

No 80-pager this week, but we may see more at some point. We managed to get 82 80-Page Thursdays, though! Got this issue from the Comic Book Shop the other day, marked down to dirt cheap, so thanks again!

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Two guys could be a Corps. Not these two, but still.

So, a couple of weeks ago, the Wal-Mart by my work finally put some new figures. Nothing I was really jumping up and down for, no, but new! It had been some time, leave it at that. And I had a little gift card from work, so on my lunch break I picked up the Ultimate Spider-Man Human Rocket Nova!

I was bored with him before I went home for the day.

Let's accentuate the positive first: Um...the blue paint is a nice shade. And the disc-shooter doohickey he came with shoots pretty well. But the articulation is surprisingly lacking for this scale--granted, this isn't a Legends figure or anything, but he only has shoulders, hips, knees, and neck. And the neck commits the same fatal flaw the ML Nova had: he's a flier that can't look up.





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"Red Team."

Odd that so far this year, I've picked up three red figures: Red Superman, Red Hulk, and Red She-Hulk. Red Tornado I've had for a while...

I am reading the actual Red Team comic from Garth Ennis and Craig Cermak: four members of a major crimes unit decide to murder a suspect, and as one explains, the absolute worst possible thing happens:

Detective Mellinger realizes, all too late, that even for professionals, beginner's luck is a curse...I liked the first issue, but am somewhat surprised that Ennis has this planned as a series, not a limited. Not because of the brutal realities of the comic book market in regards to non-superhero, non-big two books; but because I kinda figured Ennis would kill off all his characters inside of nine issues.
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Today, Kamandi vs. the nine-panel grid.

From 1977, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #51, "The Next to the Last Boy on Earth!" Written by Steve Englehart, art by Dick Ayers and Alfredo Alcala.

I've read a little bit of Kamandi only: the adventures of the last human boy on earth after the somewhat unspecified Great Disaster. Ala Planet of the Apes, the animals now can talk and use weapons, and most humans are barely at the level of cavemen. Kamandi was a Jack Kirby creation, but he left the book with issue #40, and the book was cancelled at #59, despite respectable sales and two issues completed.

This month, Kamandi revisits an old friend, Arna, who is now old: her group of humans lived out full lives in five years, and she was nearing the end of hers. Although she had told Kamandi she had lied about using a genetic sampler to create a son with him, Arna tells Kamandi he needs to meet Kamarni. Somewhat understandably, Kamarni is less than enthusiastic about meeting the father he feels left him without guidance and doomed to die inside of five years. Another five-year old, Bruno, had sworn revenge on Kamandi before; and plots to use Kamarni as his weapon. But there's more to the "next to last" boy than Kamandi realizes...

The rate DC's burning through New 52 candidates, I wonder if Kamandi might not have a shot before long.

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