"Sign from god."

I like to think that after his time dead and in the afterlife, Kurt is really open to other faiths, and that there are many paths to God. Even Khonshu. Or maybe he's just being polite...Pool has a point, though; that does seem like a weird thing for Khonshu to say, doesn't it? Hmm.
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Break's over, Jordan!

Huh, I felt like I hadn't blogged a Green Lantern comic in some time, but we looked at #200 in February. And it was even the same artist as today's book! From 1980, Green Lantern #132, "Sabotage Sinister!" Written by Paul Kupperberg, art by Joe Staton. And a nice George Perez cover!

I don't think this was a high-water point for the title, since some of the familiar bits seem worn away or used up. Hal was still at Ferris Air, but not as a test pilot, as "head of product testing." He's still working for Carol Ferris, who now knows he's Green Lantern but also seems pretty fed up with his nonsense: she makes a point of his office being on the other side of the complex, which sounds very intentional. Hal manages to get punched in the face because he hadn't charged his ring, then trapped by a yellow tarp later! All of this and a crime boss who's not afraid of GL, but is terrified of flying. Should've set up shop in Central or Gotham, then...

Also this issue: "The Trial of Arkkis Chummuck" (Written by Bob Toomey, pencils by Alex Saviuk, inks by Vince Colletta.) This was the conclusion of a three-parter; that, per the GCD, had been commissioned a couple years earlier and kept in inventory. Arkkis, like many Lanterns, received his ring when the prior ring-bearer died. However, unlike most Lanterns, Arkkis himself had killed, and eaten, the prior ring-bearer! A prosecuting GL argues "these are not the actions of a civilized member of the Green Lantern Corps," but Arkkis's defender, the brother of the aforementioned eaten ring-bearer, puts up a good counter: it would've been disrespectful to not eat him...Oddly, the trial seems to be an internal matter: some Guardians are shown, but only as watching the trial; three Lanterns reached the verdict assigning the prosecutor as Arkkis's probationary adviser. Arkkis would go on to appear here and there, but not for as long as I had thought: he was killed off in 1985's Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #1. (He would have a couple animated appearances, decades later!)

Also also this issue: an Adam Strange story, "Brain Beast" Written by Jack C. Harris, art by Rodin L. Rodriguez. As was often the case, Rann was at war; but today it was a civil war: Strange and his "Undergrounders" versus the Akalonians. The Akalonians don't look like any of the Rannians we've seen before, and were able to create a giant monster by mental projection; but Strange realizes not all of the Akalonians were warlike, some had been forced into the mental projection, and were the weak link in it. Other than the bad guy being homegrown, it's a pretty typical Adam Strange number.
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Rock may have had more brothers than Private Ryan, maybe.

The local comic-con is about a month away, which is good news, since the pile of quarterbooks I blog is mighty short. I had this issue left, but didn't think I liked it when I read it before, or else I would've probably blogged it already, right? Maybe a re-read would help. From 1982, Sgt. Rock Annual #2, "Sealed in Blood!" Created and written by Robert Kanigher, art by Dan Speigle.

I never read a lot of Sgt. Rock as a kid, but I remember a reprint of "Iron Major--Rock Sargeant!" which features an extended flashback of Rock and his brother testing an advanced paratrooping technique, without chutes; and his brother dies. It's basically to set up Rock jumping out of an alpine castle window later, but I would bet that brother had never been mentioned before, or since that issue. I would've said the same of Rock's other brother, Lt. Larry Rock; but he may have been mentioned earlier as stationed in the Pacific theater. However, after catching some shrapnel in his skull, he needed serious surgery, but refused to leave his men until they were killed covering General MacArthur's retreat from Corrigedor. (That should be Corregidor, but close enough.) Sgt. Rock is glad at least his brother is out of it, since MacArthur sent Larry to Switzerland for the surgery.

This issue guest-stars Jeb Stuart and the Haunted Tank, Mlle. Marie, and Johnny Cloud; all of whom are working on sealed orders to get Rock to a mountain castle, which might be the same one Rock last fought the Iron Major. Here, the Major defends a prisoner from torture: Larry, captured by Nazis who wanted to torture MacArthur's battle plans out of him. The Major, somewhat surprisingly, doesn't approve of torture or Nazis, and is about to be shot before Rock saves him--but that doesn't keep the Major from fighting Rock!

Without the surgery, Larry's head may not have been on straight: as he and Rock escape on the roof of a cable-car, he tells his brother to obey his orders, and kill him rather than allow him to be re-captured. When Rock refuses, Larry takes a shot at him, then tries to jump off, and Rock is unable to save him. When the cable-car reaches the other side, Easy Company and Mlle. Marie are waiting for him, so Larry's sacrifice was 100% unnecessary. Even with the Iron Major and a Nazi robot, that still makes this issue a downer. Yeah, like all of Rock's adventures were super-upbeat.
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Y'know, I think today's going to be a great day!

Evergreen, that one. But sometimes things can turn around. Or turn up, like today's issue! From 2016, Spidey #10, "Bad Reputation" Written by Robbie Thompson, art by Nathan Stockman.

Thanks to J.Jonah Jameson's editorials and headlines, Spidey is about as popular as the plague; although they might cheat a little bit on the pictures: this was basically year one Spider-Man, yet he's already shown fighting the Hobgoblin, Tarantula, and the Kangaroo! Admittedly, that last one might just be to set up the headline "Spider-Man in Kangaroo's Pouch." Ick.

Luckily--or possibly by plan--Captain America runs into Spidey on patrol. Spidey thinks maybe he needs to get frozen for thirty years or so, maybe then he'd be as popular as Cap. But a heart-to-heart about why they do what they do is interrupted by A.I.M. And where there's A.I.M, there's M.O.D.O.K! Who is wrapped up really quickly, but he wasn't the villain that needed to be beat here...

After a recap with Agent Coulson, Cap is pretty pleased with how Spidey is turning out; which makes him markedly displeased to see the next day's headline in the Bugle: "Spider-Man, Agent of A.I.M.?" Cap marches down to the Bugle to set the story straight...and maybe take care of something else that bothered him.

We mentioned we were looking for this one when we looked at the last issue of the series, and it turned up soon enough. Haven't seen the rest yet, though. Those issues should have been collected in a digest, and I'd suspect they could eventually end up in one of the newsstand Archie-style ones they've been doing recently.

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This is one of those evil will triumph while good is in committee things.

The toys came out when I was at that stupid age where I shouldn't play with them, but I know I read Crystar during its brief run; even if I don't think I got the Nightcrawler issue until much later. (Never did get that action figure from Kickstarter, either!) It was never G.I. Joe good, but better than you'd expect. From 1984, the Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior #7, "Malachon" Written by Jo Duffy, art by Ricardo Villamonte. And a Michael Golden cover! He covered most of the series, in fact.

The city of Galax already has a civil war going between their two princes--several years before the Spin Doctors song "Two Princes," which was obviously inspired by this--and their respective gangs of crystal and lava guys. But they weren't the only ones with a bone to pick: there was also the barbaric People of the Green Hills, who felt Galax was soft and decadent and deserved to fall. They're dicks, but their leader Malachon, has a spectacular updo. It's straight-up Marge Simpson, he's got an extra two feet of hair going. Huh, this does predate the Simpsons as well...
The crystal side's wizard, Ogeode, has a vision of the hill folk attacking the city; which particularly motivates Kalibar: his non-crystalized wife and kids still lived there. Malachon and his men are turned back quickly, but they would soon be recruited by the Chaos wizard Zardeth and turned into Malachite men! Presumably, if the toy line had sold at all, this would've been a way to get green figures out there to fight with your mostly
white and red ones.

Meanwhile, since our heroes did not have a lot of support in their homeland (the regent, half-crystal, half-magma Lord Feldspar, seems to resent both sides equally) they take a little cruise, across the ocean to visit the Council of Order. (The main characters imply sailing was novel to them, yet not particularly interesting! I wonder how well crystal types would swim, either.) While younger than Ogeode, Crystar finds them stuffy, and they would prove to be generally useless and unhelpful. Say what you will about Chaos, it got boots on the ground.


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"Queen."

I'm hoping the opening sounds familiar this time!
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So Boomerang was directly responsible for the fall of Camelot. Yeah, I can see that.

I'm not deeply versed in the legends of King Arthur, in less you count having seen Excalibur like forty times, but we've seen a few versions of Camelot here over the years: Iron Man and Dr. Doom's classic visit, DC's Camelot 3000 style, the Black Knight or the Demon. About the only common thread between them is there once was a Camelot, and it fell. Same with today's book! From 2012, Thunderbolts #170, "Days of Lore" Written by Jeff Parker, pencils by Kev Walker, inks by Terry Pallot.

This version of the Thunderbolts had been criminals in a rehabilitation program (reminiscent of Suicide Squad, although somewhat more humane) but had escaped through time with their tower. Currently at Camelot, the entire roster has been thrown into the dungeons, except for Ghost, who had been observing the team for some time. Ghost frees them, even as the assorted trolls and monsters imprisoned there beg for their freedom. Moonstone figures they can fly over to Thunderbolts Tower and escape (probably back to cavemen times, but at least away from Merlin) except several things are happening at once: the Black Knight went to the dungeon to confront Boomerang over their previous fight, and discovered they were gone. Merlin and Arthur were trying to get into Thunderbolts Tower, possibly by cutting into its engines with Excalibur, and Guinevere and Lancelot are, um, taking advantage of those other distractions.

The escape isn't going well, until the arrival of the monsters Boomerang freed from the dungeons; who seem a helluva lot less sympathetic when they're calling themselves the Son of Beowulf and tearing up the place. Before the team gets to the tower, Merlin confronts them, not to stop them, but to tell them how they've just doomed Camelot. Merlin knew the knights were becoming obsessed with the quest for the Grail, even though that probably wasn't the defense needed against Morgana le Fey and Modred. Merlin convinced the knights to capture the monsters and put them in the dungeons, since he knew Morgana and Modred would open the dungeons for allies, and then get immediately killed. Since the monsters were now being killed, Boomerang just blew that plan out of the water.

The Thunderbolts head on to the future, but don't quite get to the present; while Merlin has to pretend everything's peachy in Camelot to his king. Depressing life, being Merlin. Nothing but spoilers, I figure.

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