"The End" Week: Legion of Super-Heroes #63!

I know I picked this issue up summer of 2017, but I had two Legion issues going and had to push this one back! And it's odd in that it's the last issue, but I had the next one! From 1989, Legion of Super-Heroes #63, "Where Has All the Magic Gone" Written by Paul Levitz, co-plot and layout pencils by Keith Giffen, finishes by Mike DeCarlo.

Concluding the four part "Magic Wars," the Legion is in final battle with the massive, toothy, Archmage; high above the Sorcerers' World. Although the shadowy monster is vulnerable to bright light, things are still looking pretty bad: Magnetic Kid, Cosmic Boy's brother, has already been killed; and most of the population of the Sorcerers' World has already fled this dimension. (To Valinor, one assumes.) Although the White Witch tries to rally the team to save the planet from destruction, the spirit of the world--who had once been Amythest--tells her to let it go. After the Legion ports out, the Archmage destroys his former prison, but then realizes doing so destroyed all magic, including himself. (You'd think that would affect White Witch and Sensor Girl, who both had powers from magic, but it doesn't here.)

Also this issue, a long running subplot is wrapped up, as Dream Girl finally realizes the sinister secret of that dick Atmos. And it's sewn up just in time, since the next issue of the Legion would be jarringly different, although technically not a reboot: three months later was the first issue of what would be known to some as the "Five Years Later" run of the book!

The letters page has responses from Paul Levitz, who was wrapping up his second run on the Legion, 93 monthly issues and 7 annuals. He would work more on the publishing end of DC after this, but would return to the Legion again later.
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"The End" Week: Captain America #454!

Well, this one was a long time coming: over the years we've seen the last issues before Heroes Reborn Fantastic Four #416, Thor #502, Iron Man #332, and Avengers #402, but we didn't get to this one until now. (Even thought I said "maybe we'll get to it next year" back in 2011.) From 1996, Captain America #454, "Sanctuary" Written by Mark Waid, pencils by Ron Garney, inks by Scott Koblish.


Sharon Carter had been dead for almost longer than I had been reading comics at that point, since 1979's Cap #233. She was going undercover against the terrorist white supremacist National Force, but was caught, brainwashed, and allegedly burned to death. I don't feel like that death was intended to stick--Cap was shown it on video, for one thing--but creative teams may have changed and she was just left by the wayside. Waid brought her back, as a spy that had been left out in the cold, channeling what seemed like her resentment at being forgotten. Maybe a bit too much, she seems petulant at times; but this issue gets into some of what she was up to when she was gone: a long stint as a POW in Tap-Kwai. (Tap-Kwai being a fictional Eastern dictatorship that I don't think had appeared before, or since. It's not a 1:1 analogue for North Korea, but enh, close enough.) Cap kind of steps all over her mission, to show her she's not alone, and that's that.


Traditionally, some of Marvel's best runs have come when a book seemed to be stagnant or sinking, so was then turned over to someone who would pull out all the stops to bring it back: Simonson on Thor is probably my favorite example. After ten years on Cap, Mark Gruenwald seemed old hat (and his last year, Fighting Chance, wasn't a favorite) so it was up to Waid and Garney to pep things up again. And they did, it was a complete turnaround...just in time for them to get taken out at the knees. Like the other books we mentioned, Captain America was going to Heroes Reborn, so Waid and Garney were out after eleven issues, to make way for Rob Liefeld. I know I wasn't the only reader just pissed by that one, but at least in print here W&G are magnanimous. Rob only made it six issues, and his retcon update of Cap's origin was itself retconned by #7; after the pretty sweet Wildstorm crossover #13, Cap returned to the Marvel Universe proper, and to Waid and Garney! Garney would only stay on to #5, and Waid to #23 (story but not script there, though) but it was a more than welcome return.
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"The End" Week: OMAC #8!

It's not by design, but the theme this year seems to be surprise cancellations: from 1975, OMAC #8, "Human Genius vs. Thinking Machine" Written and penciled by Jack Kirby, inks by Mike Royer.

OMAC barely appears this issue, as his alter ego Buddy Blank is stranded on a rocky island, then disappears before the satellite Brother Eye can feed him the power to transform. The confused Blank is captured by the monster-making Dr. Skuba, his creepy daughter Seaweed, and her boy-toy Apollo. Seaweed lets slip they, like the creatures Skuba had created, had been transformed by "atomic manipulation," which I think was an extreme cosmetic measure. Brother Eye continues fighting Skuba, defending Blank and turning Skuba's weapons against him. Skuba doesn't go down easy, though, and launches beams into space to attract space rocks to Brother Eye, enclosing it in rock. And in the last panel--not written or drawn by Kirby--Skuba's equipment overloads, destroying his island in a massive explosion! Is this the end of OMAC? Um, it's the last issue, so...

Well, not so much. Sequart has a pretty definitive look at OMAC, and even they aren't sure exactly what happened. Kirby's contract with DC was up at that point, and while he may have had one foot out the door, he may have been willing to do another issue and wrap things up. That didn't happen, but DC has gone back to this well more than once, with varying results. OMAC would return in Kamandi #59: the last issue of that book. Then the rest of his back-up stories went to Warlord. I've more than come around on Kamandi, but I always felt it would've been stronger with an actual ending; now I'm wondering if OMAC wouldn't have as well.
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"The End" Week: Extraordinary X-Men #20!

I do sympathize with Marvel on this one: I too have no idea what X-Men fans really want anymore. X-Men Gold just wrapped, after 36 issues that were by design very much in the Claremont mold. It's too soon to say if X-Men Disassembled is going to be a runaway hit, but it has at least one thing going for it: it doesn't have to push the Inhumans, like this series had to: from 2017, Extraordinary X-Men #20, written by Jeff Lemire, art by Victor Ibañez.

I think a lot of titles do this, but I'm using this and Amazing X-Men as an example: the series starts with all the hype for a big artist (in Amazing's case, Ed McGuinness) who's only going to stay maybe six issues. Extraordinary started with Humberto Ramos art, but Ibañez filled in for #6-7, then was the regular artist by #13. Ibañez may not have been helped out by being left with Ramos's redesigns, either. This particular issue was coming after three issues of Inhumans vs. X-Men, which wrapped up the Terrigan poisoning mutants plotline. Now the mutants can leave limbo and go home, so this was closing up shop. It would also be the end of (young) Jean Grey's stint with this line-up; when Gold began it was Kitty Pryde in charge. (Feels like they've really been back-seating Storm the last few years.)

This series ends with Iceman suggesting a softball game, which...did he ever get to play those, traditionally? Well, maybe he wanted in.
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"The End" Week: Marvel Comics Presents #175!

We mentioned having this one a couple months back discussing Vengeance, so from 1995, Marvel Comics Presents #175, featuring "Final Gambit" Written by Chris Cooper, pencils by Fred Harper, inks by Reggie Jones; "Punishment" Written and penciled by Keith Giffen, co-plot by Lovern Kindzierski, inks by Charlie Adlard; and "Lessons" and an untitled New Genix story, both with story and art by Steve Lightle, along with both covers.

This was the end of a seven year run of bi-weekly issues; and while Vengeance and Lunatik wrap up their serials, the New Genix and Steel Raven stories seem like the start of a new one. Set in the year 3065, some newly created heroes are tested, while on the other side Steel Raven seems to break in to make sure the test turns out. Tough to say if that would've gone anywhere with more episodes, but Steve Lightle's art is nice.

There was another Marvel Comics Presents in 2007; still with eight-page stories, but monthly. That seems too long to wait for short increments, but I don't know if I would've thought twelve-part Weapon Omega and Vanguard serials would be a big draw, either.
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"Missed."

With this strip, Kraven joins Deadpool, Kitty Pryde, and Star-Lord (EDIT: and the Punisher!) as appearing in this series with more than one figure: in his previous appearances, we used his old Toy Biz figure from 2003 or so. Meanwhile, every time Hasbro announces an upcoming figure that isn't Nightcrawler, it feels like they're straight trolling me personally.
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"The End" Week: Freedom Fighters #15!

I got a couple surprising last issues from a stout dollar-bin haul from my local Comic Book Shop; I may still be reading Kamandi's from that batch. But today we've got from 1978, Freedom Fighters #15, "Carnival of Death" Written by Bob Rozakis, pencils by Dick Ayers, inks by Jack Abel.

Like every other carnival in comic books, this one's a trap, but it's an alien one this time: little green ones, that Uncle Sam refers to as "gremlins." They've been kidnapping people, to use as raw material to make giant "warmakers." While the captured Ray, Phantom Lady, and Human Bomb fight them on their home turf; the rest of the Freedom Fighters team-up with Batgirl and Batwoman at the carnival. The aliens are wrapped up and flee, while Batgirl mentions cutting her vacation short, since she had previously just faced three super-villainesses, as we saw in Batman Family #17, and thought there would be more peace and quiet in Washington!

Uncle Sam tells his team they would be staying put, to establish new identities, then go after the Silver Ghost; which would be in the pages of Secret Society of Super-Villains...except it wouldn't, since that title was cancelled as well! Man, the Silver Ghost may still be at large...
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As usual, (all) Christmas reruns! Enjoy!

Darn it, I had a sliver of an idea for a Black Cat/Satana Christmas strip, but too late! Maybe we'll get to it around Easter or so. In the meantime, here's last year's Christmas short:


It's not a perennial holiday classic...yet; but I rerun this one every Christmas: "How Deadpool saved assisted didn't wreck had Christmas."

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





What the heck, you've been good this year...he says, based on nothing; so let's have another holiday re-run: "Jingle Bells, Blame Mattel..."


And for good measure, here's the 2015 Christmas strip, "Do They Know It's X-Mas Time at All?" Pool and Kurt had been in space for about 21 months at that point, so yeah, this plotline has gone on. (When are they getting home? The first of never, the rate I'm going...)


And more "The End" posts later today! Ooh, better get started...
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"The End" Week: Ghost Rider!

I scanned a panel or two from the reprint years back, but today we've got the last issues of the Johnny Blaze and Dan Ketch Ghost Riders! From 1983, Ghost Rider #81, "The End of the Ghost Rider" Written by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Bob Budiansky, inks by Danny Bulanadi and Kevin Dzuban; and 1998 and 2007, Ghost Rider #94, "Wedding of the Ghost Rider" Written by Ivan Velez Jr., pencils by Javier Saltares, inks by Mark Texeira; and "Acabado" Written by Ivan Velez Jr., pencils by Javier Saltares, inks by Mark Texeira, Javier Saltares, and Klaus Janson.

Ghost Rider #81 features a US Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation: Paid circulation, actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 112,534. Which apparently was crap sales in 1983? The checklist on the Bullpen Bulletins page notes Master of Kung Fu, Spider-Woman, and Marvel Two-in-One were all ending cover-date June 1983; so there may have been a bit of restructuring going on. And like those first two books, this seemed to be wrapping up with the notion that this was it and the character would never, ever be seen again: Zarathos was separated from Johnny Blaze, and seemingly imprisoned with the soulless Centurious forever.

In the 1990 Ghost Rider series, Zarathos would eventually return as a villain in the Siege of Darkness crossover, but it would be a long time into the run before that Ghost Rider's origins and backstory were revealed. The Ghost Rider was Noble Kale, an ancestor of Danny Ketch, who himself was under a long running family curse, as was his brother Johnny Blaze. In Ghost Rider #93, Noble had made a deal, in hell, with Blackheart: Noble was freed, in exchange for leading four new Spirits of Vengeance. To seal the deal, Noble was to be married to not one bride but two: the demon Black Rose, and new S-o-V Pao Fu. Meanwhile, the ghost of his mother guides Danny back to the Cypress Hills Cemetery, to try and get him to hell to help Ghost Rider. Her grave was a gateway, and she knew Danny had to get the Ghost Rider's memories out of his head.

Noble goes through with his wedding, but while flattered, "it's only a technicality," to get Pao and Rose out from under Blackheart's control: Noble knows Rose's identity, even if she doesn't, that she was Roxanne Blaze. The three of them wrestle around in a less-fun-than-after-a-wedding-should-be way, all of which Blackheart, still in a tux, finds hilarious. The Spirits and Vengeance get in on the fight, and Danny is able to get to Noble and return his memories, even ones he doesn't want back. Seemingly stronger than ever, Ghost Rider destroys Blackheart, becoming the new king of hell. Danny's mom has ended her family's curse, and beat the devil...but may have sacrificed Danny to do it.

There was a nine-year gap between Ghost Rider #93 and #94: as the text feature in #94 from Tom Brevoort explains, the plan was to end Danny's story, at least for the moment, and continue with Noble as the lead at least until #100. But during Marvel's bankruptcy, they couldn't publish a book that might lose money, so #94 was shelved even though it was mostly complete. Breevort points out Blaze had since returned as the Ghost Rider, so who knows where the continuity was, but here's what they were going to do: new king Noble is greeted by some rulers of neighboring hells, Pluto, Belasco, and Hela. They consider him a puppet, but at least an interesting puppet. Still, Dormammu and Satannish could be planning to move into his turf. Meanwhile, on earth, Johnny Blaze shows up at his brother Danny's, to hit him up for some cash for his search for his kids. Danny is inexplicably alive, and hadn't been the Ghost Rider for some time.

In hell, after Danny's mom ascends to the next life, Noble gives his subjects freedom, under one condition: "Do no more evil." He also banishes the angel Uriel, who wasn't thrilled with Noble's proclamation; then returns Roxanne to Johnny, before going on as Spirit of Vengeance, this time of his own free will.


This is an interesting piece of apocrypha, probably never to be followed up on again. Still, nice that it did get wrapped up eventually.
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