"How Deadpool saved assisted didn't wreck had Christmas."

It's not a perennial holiday classic...yet; but I rerun this one every Christmas.

As usual, click to unwrap, er, enlarge. Not sure of the setup? The first strip's here.



Have a great Christmas, and remember, it's tacky to return gifts Christmas day, even if the stores are open...
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I can't post now, I'm blogging...

Urg, I'm behind on this year's Year in Toys and "The End last issue week, so I'll be grinding away on that for the next day or two. And opening some toys. Be back soon!

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Load up the car!

I'm off for my Christmas, heading over to Montana to see my folks, sister, brother-in-law, and nephews! It's going to be a bit of a bother to get everything into the girlfriend's car, but we'll manage. The nephews' presents are a bit bulky, though: a big box of assorted toys, including a bunch of blind-bags, Lego, Halo, Kre-O Transformers, Star Wars Angry Birds...

Also got both of them a Hot Wheels Fig Rig, which has little railings and posts for Lego hands and feet! I tried one out for myself there, and it's a bit of fun. Lego blind-bags, though, are a dangerous game, since there's always maybe two or three per series I'd like, and I always end up with others!
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A random Infinty War tie-in? A Moon Knight quarterbook? A jam issue? It's all three!

This one wasn't even on my radar at the time: from 1992, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #42, "Multiverse Madness!" Written by Terry Kavanagh, pencils by Gary Kwapisz, James Fry III, Norm Breyfogle, Kelley Jones, Klaus Janson; and inks by Tom Palmer, Klaus Janson, Kelley Jones, John Beatty, and Ty Templeton.

This issue continues what I loved about the Infinity War crossovers: each one made the book's headliner seem like a pivotal figure in the event, even if they only appeared in passing in the main book! In the previous issue of MS:MK, as the heroes fought the Magus's duplicates of themselves at Four Freedoms Plaza, Moon Knight's duplicate Moon Shade tried to steal the psychic power from Franklin Richards and his doppelganger. In a happy accident for him, Moon Shade inadvertently absorbs the Moon Knights of the multiverse into himself, gaining vast powers! Now, he just has to top his tank with a few remaining alternate versions of Moon Knight, and our universe's as well!

The assorted artists for this issue deliver vampire Moonfang, the Batman-styled Darkmoon, the zealot Crescent Moon; and more! Spirit and Space Ghost versions, a "Dino-Knight," even a Mermaid Moon Knight! A little surprised there wasn't a funny animal one, but there may not have been time. In the end, after defeating Moon Shade, Moon Knight wonders if he's the only one of him left in the omniverse...and he's not doing so well himself. (Don't be silly, Marc! An infinite number of Moon Shades couldn't destroy several infinities worth of alternate universes, anymore more than the Monitor could dial the DC multiverse back to just a couple!) A surprisingly enjoyable little lark, this one.

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"Jingle Bells, Blame Mattel..."

Still haven't picked up a Batman '66 Batmobile, although I have a sneaking suspicion that they'll turn up on the cheap later. But Batman and Robin fit pretty well in the Mach V!

In case you've ever wondered...I have so much fun making these.

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Another replacement, but I'll hang on to my originals too, thanks:

I had to order a Christmas present from Amazon, so I decided to throw in a couple books for myself and save on the shipping. One book didn't make it (but I found it in Everett myself!) and I thought the other one was going to be shipped separately. Then I checked the present and it was in there...Dark Horse's collection of rare or uncollected stories, Star Wars Omnibus: Wild Space, volume 1.

The big selling point is probably the creators: there's early work from Alan Moore, Chris Claremont, Walt Simonson, Alan Davis, and more. Some of the stories are pure apocrypha (the Alan Moore one in particular, I think) from the days before Star Wars had really settled into a solid look and feel; so it isn't necessarily "in continuity," but that may depend on your tastes. Some of the stories were from Marvel UK, where Star Wars was a weekly comic, and they had to generate a few more stories. (Or use backup features--I was looking at a cover that also featured Guardians of the Galaxy, Deathlok, and Tales of the Watcher.)

"The Day After the Death Star!" is a personal favorite: restless after the Rebellion's victory party, Luke takes Artoo and his X-wing for a quick flight to think...only to run into a lost TIE fighter. Forced to clip the fighter with his wing, Luke and the TIE fighter pilot end up face-to-face and hand-to-hand in a swamp on Yavin IV; where Luke learns more than a couple lessons. "The Weapons Master," is another, where Princess Leia explains how a young woman from the pacifist planet of Alderaan got so handy with a blaster. (Retroactively, I suppose they'd say because of her lineage; but this story is more interesting; she isn't a natural.) Those two were part of a Marvel paperback that I've had for what, thirty-some years, and it's kind of worn. This version actually has a few recap pages that were redundant when they were packaged together, but in the original black-and-white.

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More Crossover Debris:

Even though I'm the guy that loves a big, random pile of comics from the quarter bins, one of the hazards of such is getting pieces of a crossover, rather than the whole thing. Sometimes, that's enough to get the general idea. Like today's books!

We'll start with the conclusion of 1995's number-one consumer of neon green ink and the year's big crossover for DC, Underworld Unleashed #3, the cheekily-named "Seduction of the Innocent" Written by Mark Waid, pencils by Howard Porter, inks by Dennis Janke. This was a couple of years before Porter's work on JLA, but right in the middle of Waid's run on Flash. And the Flash is among a small team of heroes fighting their way through hell, in an attempt to recover Superman from the devil Neron, as things go more and more insane on earth. Longtime Flash rogue the Trickster, James Jesse, is one of the few villains to encounter Neron and not end up losing his soul; but he realizes Neron's inability to resist a deal may be his downfall...



Waid uses Captain Marvel well here, but there's so much ground to cover. Admittedly, some of that may have been covered in tie-ins, so you could follow Mystek, Triumph, and Gypsy as they defend Paris against gargoyles, if you wanted, maybe. But Alan Scott (who was probably Sentinel then) is captured by Neron and imprisoned, then freed to fight...for about a panel and a half. I'm not even sure you see him get out of hell with the rest of the heroes. Major Disaster also appears a couple of times, in a somewhat confusing sequence since I didn't recognize his rather nondescript costume here, to represent the villains who sold their souls for power: they seem to have got away with it, unless Neron comes back for them.

I know I was reading at least a pile of DC books at the time, but aside from Mr. Freeze selling his soul in Batman #525, I don't recall any of the Underworld Unleashed tie-ins. But I do remember there being at least occasional reminders: Aquaman villain Ocean Master sold his soul for a magic trident, which had the side effect of causing him agonizing pain if he let go of it! That one was referenced in Grant Morrison's JLA, and the packaging of the recent Ocean Master figure!



On the other hand, we've got a couple issues of 2008's Salvation Run, namely #4 (where Gorilla Grodd brains Monsieur Mallah with, um, the Brain) and #7--with Luthor's hands covered in blood, there was also a similar Joker cover. Not having the whole thing and only being vaguely aware of when it was released, I had to wikipedia that a bit: apparently it was based on a George R.R. Martin pitch! But these two issues were written by Matthew Sturges with pencils by Sean Chen. Sick of rampant super-villain attacks, Amanda Waller arranges to have...somehow...a ton of villains captured by the Suicide Squad, then deported to an alien world. Possibly not the alien world they thought they were ditching them on, either...



As usual, the Flash's Rogues Gallery kicks ass.

There's some potential here: the Joker and Lex Luthor end up leading two "tribes," while Vandal Savage takes some girls with him and heads his own way--we'll just say the immortal Vandal is more interested in the long game. Deadshot gets double-crossed and ends up stranded with some of the villains he put on that planet. The Martian Manhunter is there, in disguise as Blockbuster, but Lady Vic suspects, and Catwoman knows...and while Lex is playing both reasonable-sounding businessman and mad scientist, the Joker has a bit less depth. After Grodd violently rejects an alliance with Monsieur Mallah and the Brain, killing them both, the Joker kicks a wounded Grodd off a cliff, since he doesn't want to share power.

That's kind of the failing of this series: some of the villains die for shock value, but they're villains, so you aren't going to have the same emotional attachment to them that you would to a hero; and the villains seemingly die every other encounter anyway. Other villains seem like they should die: when Grodd returns, Luthor has to talk him out of killing the Joker, on the grounds of needing all hands against an army of Parademons. (Grodd suggests a compromise, tearing off only one of the Joker's arms; but is sadly interrupted.)

In the end, Luthor saves the day, by building a space bridge back to earth...out of some of the lesser known villains, telepathically coerced into place by Gorilla Grodd. Luthor appreciates their sacrifice, even if he has no intention of letting anyone derail his plans with sympathy for his pawns. His speech to them points out the heroes were the bad guys on this one, dumping them all on this planet to die, even as he's a complete monster...

The book closes with the Martian Manhunter, surrounded by flames, and opposite a house ad for Final Crisis that asks "Where were you when the Martian Manhunter died?" Which wasn't here, even. I'm not up on my Final Crisis, so I'm hard-pressed to tell you what, if anything, from Salvation Run was ever touched upon again--except I remember Catwoman having a bit of a problem with Batman afterwards.

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Slim, but a good-looking trade.

I did have time to read this trade the other day: on the cover, it just says "Captain America," which is a little less than helpful. It's Captain America by Ed Brubaker volume 3, at least according to Hastings. But...it's the 2011 Cap series, the last nineteen issues of Brubaker's run! Here we've got Captain America #11-14, "Shock to the System" with art by Patch Zircher and Mike Deodato. (There's also a reprint of Captain America #328 from Mark Gruenwald, Paul Neary, and Vince Colletta; which makes sense if you know who Scourge is...)

It's a pretty good story, with a new Scourge murdering super-villains in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret super-witness protection program. Diamondback--a former super-villain herself, and old flame of Cap's--recognizes Scourge, but is injured and put into a coma before she can tell anyone. This is a middle chapter of a larger storyline involving "Bravo and his queen," but still reads well, even if Scourge turns out to be...well, I won't say. Google your own spoilers!

I don't usually take off the dust jackets, but it's a nice looking book. Better than it deserves, though? Mmmmaybe.
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"But, I don't see how exactly L.E.G.I.O.N. '91 would tie into War of the Gods." "Well, if I knew the answer to that one, I'd be the writer."

Although, DC was able to get a Millennium crossover into Legion of Super-Heroes, a book set a thousand years away from the crossover. And those are usually the crossovers I enjoy, the ones set far afield from the main event; or the ones following a supporting character's POV. Today's book almost gets there, but not quite: L.E.G.I.O.N. '91 #31, "Where Dreams End" Written by Alan Grant, art by Barry Kitson. And a Dan Brereton cover!

While the regular storylines continued, like Dox trying to wrangle his team, a more sour than usual Lobo wants to blow off some steam and hit his favorite space dive bar. Co-incidentally, that's where Captain Marvel lands, after getting zapped in the main crossover book. Lobo wants to pound CM, but CM doesn't want to fight over an accident. However, after he sees a bar patron Lobo stuffed into a toilet, Captain Marvel is more than up for teaching him some manners. Sadly, he's zapped away before he can complete the lesson.

Picked this up with a pile of other quarter books in Everett, WA last weekend. Still haven't worked through that lot...
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"Endgame."

I don't see Satana as full-on evil, but she wanted enough power to be able to do whatever she wanted to and to be able to whup anyone who tried to stop her from doing whatever evil thing that crossed her mind. Wait a minute...
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Used to have an injured reserve here...

Cricked my back again in Everett. I was able to make the drive home OK, but I may be down for a few days. Wednesday's strip is all set, though; and a vaguely Christmasy one for the week after. Back soon...

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Security breach!

After posting all that stuff yesterday, we had a minor problem this morning, when there was a hold on my debit card when I tried to get gas. I briefly wondered if it was because some of the stuff I bought hadn't cleared yet, but when I called my bank, someone had used my card in Tennessee. So I had to go to the bank and get a new card and all. They were right on top of it, so good on them. I was considering laying low for the weekend, but I might have to get out of town for a bit. Ah, we'll see, but I'm taking today off!

It took me about a minute and a half to find a comic with a good 'security breach' scan. This one's from Atomic Robo and the Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur #3, written by Brian Clevinger, art by Scott Wegener.
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Currently, it's supposed to be about 14 degrees outside, which means I really should get my jacket back from my girlfriend. But I managed to generally avoid Black Friday and Cyber Monday and Ruby Tuesday or whatever the progression is; yet am still about 50 or 60% done with my Christmas shopping. Maybe. Of course I'll probably end up picking up things here and there until Christmas day, but I've made some headway. Which of course means I was able to justify picking up some books...

Saturday, after a slightly disappointing visit to a farm-slash-petting zoo (admittedly, we were well out of season...) we were near a Hastings, which had a surprising offer: all used trade paperbacks under $45 were $2.99. I know there was one X-Men trade that was over $45 that I had to leave on the rack (Aw!) but otherwise I made out like a bandit: ten books, over $300 in Marvel trades, for $30! So far, I've only had time to read Wolverine vs. the X-Men and Deadpool Max: Second Cut. And maybe a quarter of Doom 2099: The Complete Collection by Warren Ellis, but I'd actually scrounged up most of those issues, I'd thought.

And at the mall, getting the Youngest a quick haircut, I finally splurged and hit the Comic Book Shop for the reprint collection Star Wars: A Long Time Ago: Doomworld, reprinting the first twenty issues of the classic Marvel comic. Most of which I had, when they came out, but my copies are beat! And I'm not positive, but a couple of those issues--#7-9, #16--I may have never read! Now, if I could find the box I've got the other A Long Time Ago reprints in: I think I've got three or four of the seven...Maybe I need to ask for a bigger bookshelf for Christmas...
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"Salem."

Ugh, I am putting less effort into my backgrounds lately than Rob Liefeld...Couldn't find the gravestone from a Buffy set that I usually use.

Long-time Dr. Strange villains Dormammu, Nightmare, and Shuma-Gorath have yet to get the Marvel Legends (or Select) treatment; so today Mephisto's hanging out with DCUC's C&C Trigon and the Dark Alliance Lucifer. Lucifer's still a heck of a toy, though.

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I was about to go scrambling for Pope's next issue, too.

It always strikes me that Marvel somehow could never get continuity-light (or out of continuity) Spider-Man stories going for any length of time, when DC does it all the time with Batman. And then I wonder why I didn't get all of Spider-Man's Tangled Web. Like this issue! From 2002, Spider-Man's Tangled Web #15, "The Collaborator" Story and art by Paul Pope.

In an unassuming garage, a would-be super-villain is putting the finishing touches on his armor, when he comes home to find his young daughter jumping on the bed with her Spider-Man poster. Enraged, he tears it down; but after he's gone the girl tapes it back up, then hears a news report of a new villain calling himself "Stag Beetle" and hitting a bank near her. She bikes down to try to get a glimpse of the baddie, and gets behind the scenes at the bank. When Spidey arrives, she points him in the direction of the fleeing baddie, only to realize afterwards she had seen the Stag Beetle's Jets duffle bag before...!

I always forget how freakish and inhuman Spidey can seem, but it shows through in stories where he doesn't talk, like this one. The ending made me think there was another part to this one, but per the GCD, I guess not.
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