I was feeling a little down on comics the other day, but I managed to get to my local Comic Book Shop for their back issue Mondays sale, and recharged the batteries with a solid pile of stuff. Including one that brings us so close to the finish line! From 1989, Iron Man Annual #10, featuring "Two If By Sea" Written by David Michelinie, pencils by Paul Smith, inks by Mike Gustovich.

This was the second chapter of Atlantis Attacks, and the revived Lord Ghaur is already starting to build his alliance, with Attuma, Llyra, and Krang. But someone else is under the sea today: the invincible Iron Man, tailing a pair of Mafia Maggia mini-subs off the California coast. The subs are tailing a larger ship, which is itself stopped by Namor, the Sub-Mariner! It's innocent enough: Namor was looking for the creepy alien spawn of his wife Marrina, and was just going to ask if the crew had seen any. Instead they panic, since they were secretly Hydra! Routed, the Hydra goons elect to blow themselves up, leaving Iron Man to wonder what they were up to and why the Maggia was after them.

Iron Man and Namor team-up and work the case, which leads them to the Panama Canal, where Hydra is planning a big drug giveaway, in the hopes of taking over in the ensuing chaos. Speaking of ensuing chaos, the Atlantean army is also there, using the canal to prepare a sneak attack! While Iron Man scuffles with the Atlanteans, Namor has to split off to stop Hydra's drug ship, and that captain also opts to blow himself up--and Namor with him! This barely gets a page, so I don't know if this was mandated somewhere and had to be squeezed in, or if they just ran out of space, or what. Even with that, this isn't a great showing for Hydra: they're completely disposable villains, who act like even they think they're completely disposable.

I also don't think Smith and Gustovich were a good match, but the art was stronger for some of the next feature, the pin-up story "Can You Top This?" (Written by David Wohl, with art by Jackson Guice, Gene Colan, John Byrne, Keith Pollard, and Bob Layton.

There's also the inexplicably titled "There Are No Wire Hangers Underwater!" (Written by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Don Perlin, inks by Don Ald.) Returning to Atlantis after the reports of Namor's death, Andromeda confronts her father, Attuma. Then a few pin-ups, and the second chapter of "The Saga of the Serpent Crown," in which we discover that in the Marvel Universe, the battle between Set and Demogorge was what killed the dinosaurs! (Written by Peter Sanderson, pencils by Mark Bagley, inks by Keith Williams.) I don't think that comes up very often; I'd love it if it took like five different things to kill the dinosaurs there: a comet, giant god battle, the Celestials, multiple alien invasions...
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Yeah, but Carl's Jr. and 7Up haven't got me any comics lately.

I was fairly certain I hadn't read this one, but now I'm not sure if I did and just don't remember, or if Curt Swan's art always just looks familiar to me. Moreover, I didn't know there were Carl's Jr. restaurants in 1983, either. From 1983, The Superman Movie Special #1, "I Have Met the Enemy...and He is Me!" Adapted by Cary Bates, based on the film script by David and Leslie Newman, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Sal Amendola. This was a very beat-up copy, but I didn't find this cover in the GCD, so I uploaded it; we'll see if it sticks!

This adaptation of the movie came with a different cover, with 7Up and Carl's Jr. branding; so it was probably some kid's meal giveaway promo. It was 48 pages of story, so to their credit it looks like they sprung for the full issue and didn't cut it down any. Not that the story flows really well, which is hardly Bates or Swan's fault. It feels a little rushed in spots, with some pages that don't look like Swan: maybe because he was trying to go with the movie likenesses. Still, this page, some of the faces remind me of Klaus Janson:

There are some weird choices in this, though: a satellite changing weather in South America gets a full page, as does Gus Gorman trying to puzzle out what to do for the unidentifiable element in his synthetic Kryptonite. (It's been a while since I've seen it, but I think the punchline was "tar.") Some of the more fun scenes, like the dark Superman in a bar, are cut; possibly because they weren't kid-appropriate.

It's not the best one, but it's still impressive how wrong Christopher Reeve looks as dark Superman. Wish the comic had done more with that!
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"Fertilizer."

The "buggo corpses" and that helmet Pool's wearing indicate the alien invasion might've come from the DC Universe: it's the Parademons and the Collect-n-Connect Steppenwolf's helmet! I doubt I'm ever going to finish him.

Our friendly civilian colonist the last few episodes has been Qi'ra, from Solo: a Star Wars story, played by Emilia Clarke, who of course was also Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones. And we saw her figure just a bit ago with Kraven!

EDIT: Oh, and the idea of abandoning an entire continent for compost is almost certainly from Power Records Star Trek story, Alan Dean Foster's "The Logistics of Stampede." I listened to that about a million times as a kid, although "A Mirror for Futility" is probably my favorite: an anxious and agitated robot ship delivers a great reading of the line "Die, social misfit!"

I'm hoping to get back to Black Cat and Satana soon, but Pool and Kurt's apology tour for Gladiator is probably starting next week, as we catch up with someone we recently saw...briefly. Maybe two someones.

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DC has a ton of characters that, put bluntly, couldn't carry their own title in a bucket. That's not to say they don't have fans or aren't worthwhile; just that they get cancelled more often then not. I often thought, maybe these second and third-bananas should if not team-up, all be in the same book, that they could support together. I wonder if maybe they weren't headed towards that notion here: from 1977, Challengers of the Unknown #83, "Seven Doorways to Destiny!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Keith Giffen, inks by John Celardo.

In Perdition, NE; to try and save the life of Prof. Haley; the Challs face, and get beat down, by creepy cultists worshipping a fungus called "M'ynagala." Meanwhile, wannabe team member Clayburne does his research, and finds another expert that could help: Dr. Alec Holland, who had been believed dead but recently returned. He hadn't been dead, of course, he had been the Swamp Thing! I'm not an expert on him, but I think that happened towards the end of his '72-76 series: the last two covers look like they were trying to pivot from horror to super-heroing. Although Holland gets a moment to smooch his girl, he still goes with Clayburne to try and help.

The cultists keep Red and June as hostages, then send Ace and Rocky on their fetch-quest to complete a ritual and let M'ynagala into our world; which Rocky somewhat stupidly does, although he may not have expected it to work that well! Back at Perdition, Clayburne and Holland--suited up as Challengers--find Prof. Haley, infested with the fungus, but he thinks he knows a cure: sound. There's no cure for Holland, though: he had fought M'ynagala before, and knew he had to help, but that meant giving up time to work on his "bio-restorative" cure. Reverting back to the Swamp Thing, he runs away, not wanting to be remembered as a monster; but as Haley activates sirens to weaken M'ynagala, Swamp Thing is in position to finish it off.

Ace saves Rocky with a firebomb idea cribbed from Jaws, so all's well that ends well. Unless you're a Swamp Thing, again; perhaps forever. The next issue blurb promises another guest-star: Deadman! And I think both of them would remain for the rest of the series! Could've sworn I had that last issue somewhere...
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It happens sometimes, but it feels like it's been a week or more since I've read any comics. Well, any that I'd blog, anyway. I did read a couple weeks worth of Uncanny X-Men, as X-Men Disassembled trundles on...Crap, I just had to stop and order the variant cover for #8, I'll post it when it turns up. That's fitting though, since I was mildly enjoying the series to that point, and the last two issues didn't quite sit right with me. Maybe because I had gone back and read #2-#8 at once; or maybe because I've seen the upcoming Age of X-Man solicits: the series seemed to be moving along well enough, and then moved into a hard push to a bunch of spinoff miniseries. Marvel's chasing that Age of Apocalypse high; and not for the first time; but again, hard push.

Spoiler for #9, if you're not reading week-to-week: There's also a scene where Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man, who had been mind-controlled and turned into a weapon earlier in the series, is nearly taken over again. It doesn't work, since he had bagged out and sent a duplicate instead. X-Man (controlling Legion at the moment) isn't able to force him to make more dupes, and the dupe is less than thrilled with the original. I don't know if that had changed at some point, but I thought the dupes could make more dupes? Also, while he is doubtless the absolute easiest character for a writer to bring back from the dead, I don't recall if Jamie's most recent demise in Death of X was even mentioned.

Storm and Kitty also badmouth Jamie, which I thought was mean and beneath them. And unfair, since I don't recall the X-Men ever helping Jamie in the least. Storm gets taken over and turned into a "Horseman of Salvation" almost immediately thereafter; joining Magneto, Blob, and Omega Red under X-Man's control. Outpowered, the X-Men clear the benches; with a ton of mutants we haven't seen regularly getting the call. There's Meggan and Kylun from Excalibur, Dazzler, Firestar, Sunfire, Maggott...It's getting everybody in one place for that Age of X-Man, yeah. And I'm already on the hook for the Amazing Nightcrawler book, so we'll see how that goes.

Scans from Uncanny X-Men #9, "Disassembled, part 9" Written by Matthew Rosenberg, Kelly Thompson, and Ed Brisson; art by Yildiray Cinar, color art by Rachelle Rosenberg. We're up to 61 covers by the tenth issue, because Marvel, that's why. I did have a reason for ordering the variant I did, but man, that's a lot of them.
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Wouldn't a solid silver crossbow bolt be pretty heavy and fly like crap?

Well, I'm sure there's a reason for it. From 1979, Warlord #22, "The Beast in the Tower!" Written and penciled by Mike Grell, inks by Vince Colletta.

Travis is at a low point this month: in the previous issue he defeated Deimos again, but seemingly at the cost of his son's life. (Not really; Deimos had a clone made.) Without his wife or his companions, Travis is drinking abusively in a bar in the terminator area of Skartaris: that's a section of perpetual twilight instead of eternal daylight, and probably easier to drink your problems away in. An old seer offers to read his palm, and Travis drunkenly tells him he knows his future. He's not completely wasted, though, as he's able to fight off some bandits outside the tavern, with the help of a mysterious girl, who saves him by killing one with a silver crossbow bolt.

Immediately after, the girl is captured by soldiers, and locked in a tower before Travis can intervene. Shooting his way in, he finds the tower bigger on the inside, but enh, that probably wasn't even the weirdest thing he saw today. He's attacked by a giant snake that gives him two pages of hassle--with four pages of ads between them, which made it seem like a tougher fight--then the remaining soldiers, before encountering...whatever this thing is!

Pinned, Travis stabs the beast with the crossbow bolt he picked up earlier, killing it. Of course, it reverts into the girl, and he realizes she was a werewolf...of some sort. (Not the last he'd meet in the series; nor the first if you count the Snowbeast from Warlord #9.) The old seer explains she was his daughter, and this had been a ruse to set Travis up to save her.

This issue would be a return to single issue stories for a bit, and this might've been a start of pulling Travis out of depression. Maybe. I'm going to read the next issue in a moment, even if I won't post about it for years...
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Am I going to find the missing issue of this series?

We blogged the first issue of this series a couple months back, but a recent action figure pickup made me give this conclusion another look: from 1997, Imperial Guard #3, "A Mad God Awakens!" Written by Brian Augustyn, pencils by Chuck Wojtkiewicz, inks by Ray Snyder; and dedicated to the memory of Mark Gruenwald.

I had thought the Kree Commando may have been a conscript to the Imperial Guard, but he may have been a volunteer. Or obeying the voice in his head. Still, while his time on the Guard has impressed him of their heroism; as they face Kree convicts on earth, the mysterious voice seemingly abandons him. It may have found a new sucker: perennial hanger-on and second banana Rick Jones, who is being offered the chance to become a hero.

The Kree convicts plan on blowing "nega-energy" all over earth, which their leader thinks will get them both revenge on the Avengers and domain over what's left of the Kree. Rick is given power, which he is able to use to help, but then weakens after taking too much radiation. Gladiator braves it to throw the sabotaged reactor into space, but is then so weakened he will fall into earth's atmosphere and die. Commando saves him, and they return in time for the power to be sucked out of Rick--into the returned Supreme Intelligence! Which isn't a surprise, it's on the cover.

S-I offers Commando a spot at his right hand, but Commando can't get past how it sacrificed 90 percent of the Kree in the hopes of restarting their evolution. The Intelligence leaves, but Commando has earned his place on the Imperial Guard, even if I don't think he would be seen again. And Rick Jones, powerless again, has to comfort himself with the thought that he helped save the world here, as he slinks back to his wife. I'm not sure the Guard would be seen again until maybe Grant Morrison's run, with Smasher?

I picked up the Captain Marvel movie Yon-Rogg a week or so ago; and he has some of the Kree design elements that Commando does: the blaster-gauntlets, the fin helmet, the green. The starburst logo on the figure is stronger, though. Can't wait to see that movie...
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"Burnt."

Although I got a bunch done this weekend, the Black Cat/Satana strip needed paint, and I somehow managed to avoid going anywhere this weekend. Soon...

So "Nova" here was Mephisto the whole time, a callback to Nova's alleged return from the dead in Silver Surfer #97 or so, she would be revealed as Mephisto in #99. It's a toss-up which figure, the old Toy Biz Nova or the Marvel Select Mephisto, was a less expressive 'actor' for me. Mephisto's joints were stiff in the shoulders and loose in the hips; and I know he would be a bother to replace if anything gave out on him. (Over $200 in package on eBay right this second; he was $13 when I got him!)


Oh, and the flame effects here and last week's strip; they're from Ghost Rider's motorcycle!
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I was going to swear this happens more often in DC comics: where the exact same accident happens to give someone else the exact same powers. Oh, like there haven't been forty people bitten by radioactive spiders at Marvel. Anyway, today we've got Killer Frost's first appearance, from 1978, Firestorm #3, "Kiss Not the Lips of Killer Frost!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Al Milgrom, inks by Bob Mcleod.

This was Firestorm's first series, which was cut short by the DC Implosion at Firestorm #5, although he would go on as a back-up feature in Flash before eventually getting another shot in 1982 with Fury of Firestorm. Despite the shortness of this run, along with an origin issue and a terrible (and very Spider-Man influenced) supporting cast, three of his main villains were introduced before the end: Multiplex, Hyena, and probably the best known, Killer Frost. Here, Dr. Crystal Frost was a nuclear engineer, but also a woman in a very male-dominated field. Finding other men "boring, patronizing, and aggressive," she had developed a crush on Dr. Stein when she was his student. Stein didn't reciprocate, though: he had thought Frost had been almost psychotically withdrawn, and had tried to draw her out, but she may have taken it the wrong way. So that's where her head's at when a freak refrigeration accident freezes every molecule in her body! That may be a bit of poetic license there, but okay.

Since this was their third issue, we're still getting to know Professor Stein and Ronnie Raymond: since Stein had been unconscious during the accident that created Firestorm, he would only remember being Firestorm when he was. Every time he and Ronnie separated, Stein thought he had just had a blackout, and after like the fourth one he was starting to worry. Ronnie seems to feel a little bad about that, but not so bad that he won't dump Stein on the wrong end of town, just so Firestorm can hassle Ronnie's bully Cliff Carmichael. (It was supposed to be a reversal of traditional roles: Ronnie was a jock, getting put down by the brainier Carmichael. I was pretty sure he became a super-villain, and sure enough. He was even killed in Suicide Squad, like 93% of Firestorm's villains!)

With two characters making up Firestorm, that freed up the writer to put either one in danger, then they had to pull the other one out of whatever they were doing to help. Yay, drama! They usually weren't sitting around reading or in the bathroom or something. Freezing under Killer Frost's kiss, Stein initiates the change, causing Ronnie to have to ditch in the middle of a basketball game. Since Ronnie was in the driver's seat with Firestorm, he didn't initially struggle, until he realized Frost was freezing him! (His flaming hair appears to go flat when he's an ice cube!) It's a five-page fight, which, like a lot of Firestorm's fights, is probably five pages longer than it should've gone, but he was still figuring out his powers and what worked and what didn't. They also work out Frost's powers are slightly different than the usual ice-powered characters: she didn't make things cold directly, she sucked heat out of things. Putting her in a freezer leaves her powerless, which is sad, except she did kill like half a dozen people already.


Looking it up: it was the second Killer Frost in Crisis on Infinite Earths; I remember her having a scene or two in there.
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Say what you will about Batroc, he is inclusive...

The last Spider-Man/Captain America team-up we checked out tied into Spidey's current continuity quite a bit; this time was more on Cap's side: from 1976, Marvel Team-Up #52, "Danger: Demon on a Rampage!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Mike Esposito.

A demon appears through a strange portal, arriving in the middle of a New York City street; it's shortly followed by the Falcon, his girlfriend Leila, Texas Jack, then a bunch of mentally ill extradimensional refugees, then finally Captain America! Where did they come from? The end of Captain America #203, a Jack Kirby issue involving the Night People and a standoff against demons. Cap doesn't really have time to recap anything, since Falcon was still brainwashed and crazy; the cops were rounding up the "madmen," and one patrolman is already blaming Spider-Man for this mess. The demon is seemingly forgotten, and wanders down an alley near the penthouse hideout of none other than Batroc the Leaper! Calling it "le diable," Batroc befriends it quickly. Enh, it could do worse.

Almost immediately thereafter, Batroc and Diable hit a S.H.I.E.L.D. transport, hoping to make off with some "trans-uranium." Cap was already in the area, and Spidey shows up shortly, cue four page fight. Le Diable begins glowing at the end of it, though; which Cap finds troubling even if Batroc thinks he's just trying to scare him. The poor monster fights his way onto a ferry, struggling to find a way home...to a dimension Cap may have already blown up. Together Cap and Spidey blow up Diable as well, with Spidey having at least the decency to feel kind of bad about it.

Later, as Peter Parker gets his aunt from the hospital (and Mary Jane needles him) he sees a moping Cap, and wonders what it would be like to be an adored hero like him, with no problems...as his internal monologue goes on and on about his problems. Cap is seemingly still worried about the Falcon, who might've been okay by their next issue, so maybe Peter has a point.
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Oh, yeah: Coulson got wild. No doubt.

Eleven days into the new year, and action figure wise, we've got three guys in suits. I have to admit, I didn't see that coming. But, here's the young Nick Fury from the Captain Marvel wave; Everett Ross from the two-pack with unmasked Killmonger; and the Riddler from the lower-range Batman: Missions line. The Riddler came with a hat and cane; the cane's not bad, and probably goes the furthest towards making him look like the Riddler. Still, he was a mere $6.50 from Fred Meyer; Ross and Killmonger were $20 from Target. I was curious if Killmonger's head would work on Fury's body; not especially well?

From certain angles, maybe.
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I was certain I had read this before, but picked up another copy since I thought it was the last issue; I may have been wrong on both counts. From 2004, Iron Man #87/432, "The Singularity, part 2" Written by Mark Ricketts, pencils by Tony Harris, inks by Tom Feister and Charles Wallace.

The cover has a big banner for "Disassembled," even if it's blocked by Iron Man's head; and while that isn't as big a warning sign as say, Infinite Crisis or Mr. Yuk, it's gotta be up there. Tony had recently become Secretary of Defense, but the new direction Bendis was taking the Avengers would crap all over that; in fact, it would be a new writer for the last four issues of the series. (Moreover, that stretch of issues is probably only remembered for the ones with covers by Adi Granov, which seemed very influential to the movie look.) Tony seemed to be going off the rails, verbally berating the Latverian ambassador; and Iron Man has just murdered the Stark Industries board of directors! Pepper Potts narrowly survives: she had been late due to a problem with the art department. And Tony's long-suffering girlfriend--from #4 of this series!--had realized Tony had meant to propose to her, and was going to his house to say yes.

There's a flashback and some congressional testimony next, but Tony is oblivious to the current situation since he's in an isolation chamber. This was perhaps post-Disassembled, since he mentions Scott Lang's death; but Tony seems more concerned about either a possible health problem, or nanotechnology. Still, he's willing to come out of isolation for Rumiko--just in time to see her murdered by Iron Man! Tony doesn't get long to mourn, since "Iron Man" has him by the head--to be continued! Two more issue of this storyline, and I have no idea (or no recollection) who the bad guy was, or if I read them: it's entirely possible I had stopped reading the book when the Secretary of Defense plot was dropped. I also think that was the last time I read Iron Man regularly. And poor Rumiko's death feels less like a "fridging" than an editorial mandate to clean house. Like that makes it better.
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