Ugh, are we Groundhog's Day'ing it again? In this timeline?

I mentioned this one yesterday, but had a copy handy! From 1994, Batman Adventures #22, "Good Face Bad Face" Written by Kelley Puckett, pencils by Mike Parobeck, inks by Rick Burchett.

This Two-Face story would have been set earlier in the animated continuity, as he busts out of Arkham; pausing only briefly to flip on whether or not to let the Joker out: nope! Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce is listening to the psych reports on Harvey over and over: his "Big Bad Harv" persona was seemingly gone, leaving something else...something dangerous. At Gotham Penitentiary--we've seen its motto, "Building Character Through Adversity" before!--Two-Face busts out a mob lieutenant he had prosecuted, but only to offer him a job.

Batman realizes, Two-Face was building a gang: none of the criminals he broke were simple muscle, but skilled specialists. (Many of whom might seem familiar, like that scurvy scallywag "Tim Bruce.") Bats knows, next he'll go for Blackgate Prison, and disguised as a guard, he realizes Two-Face was going for the secondary control room. Two-Face releases the prisoners, to try and take Batman as a group, but they get gassed; and the GCPD catches Two-Face and his crew in a very packed boat. All wrapped up--except, that wasn't really Two-Face, but a double! Batman isn't fooled by the feint or the fake--the body language was off--and confronts Two-Face: his theory was that Harvey was still in there, and that's why he needed the coin. Bats didn't think he could make a decision to be bad on his own, and puts a loaded gun in Two-Face's hands to confirm his theory. Without the coin, he can't shoot Batman, and collapses.

Commissioner Gordon is slightly upset at Batman risking that one; but he had been pretty sure. In the end, Batman flips the coin: he kept it, wanting something to remember Harvey by. Read more!

"What's the most you've ever lost on a coin toss?" (In the audience, Harvey Dent roars "YEAH!")

I wonder if Ty actually flipped any coins writing this one. I also wonder if the creative teams felt obligated, 22nd issue, have to trot out Two-Face: they did in the prior series for Batman Adventures #22, then again here, but not for the next series, Batman: Gotham Adventures #22. From 1997, Batman and Robin Adventures #22, "Fifty fifty" Written by Ty Templeton, pencils by Brandon Kruse, inks by Terry Beatty.

Two-Face is busted from an Arkham prison van, against his will; which doesn't trouble him nearly as much as losing his coin in the getaway. Batman and Robin are puzzled, since the escape was on Harvey's third visit to a skin-graft clinic, on a Friday at 9:45...nothing seems to add up there. In a mob bar, Two-Face is forced to make do with a mere quarter, scratching one side of it; when his benefactor arrives: "Little" Jonni Infantino, a third-rate mobster. Infantino had been having trouble with a rival, but knew when Harvey had been district attorney, he had built a case against that rival, that went nowhere without Harvey's notes. Flipping the coin, the scratched side comes up, and Two-Face refuses to help. Infantino then threatens Harvey's ex, Grace Lamont; but the scratched side comes up again, and he still refuses to help.

Consulting with Harvey's doctor, Batman comes to the conclusion that he had been abducted; and the doctor assures him Harvey's only remaining friends, Bruce Wayne and Grace Lamont, were in no danger; even as Infantino heads to Grace's house. Two-Face then gets away from Infantino's goons, sacrificing his quarter to call and warn Grace. Then, furious, he smashes the pay phone open to recover the quarter, but is then recaptured. Grace does get out, calling Bruce Wayne for help: claiming to be out-of-town, Batman has Alfred pick her up, then waits at Grace's house, to beat up Infantino. Robin figures he was dumb enough to have kept Harvey at his own bar, and they go to rescue him--except the coin turns on them, as Harvey cracks them both with a chair! A goon wants to make his rep by killing them while they're down, but the coin turns up unscarred again, and Two-Face takes a bullet to save them.

With the unscarred side again showing on the ground, Two-Face gives them the info to put the rival mobster away too, before complaining for his old coin back: "This one's a pain." Read more!

It is baller as hell to get Pérez on the cover here.

I feel like I didn't see a ton of Mighty Mouse cartoons as a kid--although I'm pretty sure I watched Heckle & Jeckle at least occasionally, so I don't see how I would've missed it...? Also, here's a book I never expected to find cheap, if only because I'm not sure the sales were ever huge for it. From 1991, Mighty Mouse #5, "The Final Fate of the Flashback!" Written by Michael Gallagher, pencils by Ernie Colón, inks by Marie Severin. Cover by Ernie Colón and the great George Pérez, a parody of Crisis on Infinite Earths #12.

Shoot, Pérez also did the cover for the previous issue, a riff on Crisis #7, with a ton of cartoon characters I'm not sure Marvel had the rights to...This issue would conclude the two-issue "Mices on Infinite Earths," as Mighty Mouse tries to come back after the death of Mighty Mousette, who perished in battle with the Anti-Minotaur. Knowing he was no match for the Anti-Minotaur and his own alternate universe counterpart Mangy Mouse; MM was forced to get help, including his buddy Bat-Bat, Prince Samor the Sub-Plotter from a previous issue, and old foe the Cow, from back "in the Bakshi days!"

Mighty Mouse had been somehow sidetracked last time, leading to Mighty Mousette's death; and the other heroes might be going the same way, as they get shellacked by the Anti-Minotaur while MM fought Mangy Mouse. The Minotaur pulls one more rabbit out of his hat--well, not a rabbit, but another, earlier mouse: the original Supermouse! I really wonder if Marvel cleared any of this with legal...Supermouse destroys the Anti-Minotaur's planet, and Mighty Mouse races to save the other heroes before they were sucked out of the universe. His power used up, MM was done for, but is saved by Supermouse, who disappears again, just before he can help Anti-Minotaur. The Minotaur puts all the heroes back, with no memory of what happened, except for Mighty Mouse and his super-memory, who would always remember Mighty Mousette.

Also this issue: yet another parody of Keaton-era Bat-Mania, with Bat-Bat in "Everyone's a Critic!" (Written by Mike Kanterovich and Tom Brevoort, pencils by Mike Kazelah, inks by Marie Severin.) As the much-hyped sequel "Bat-Bat 2" opens, the hero receives a threatening note, claiming his pic would close in two weeks! Bat-Bat suspects the villainous Brushtop...who seems familiar somehow, as do his henchmen Highbrow and Turtleneck! Bat-Bat catches them trying to replace stars on Hollywood Boulevard with their own; which may be the most meta joke in the whole thing; but are they who sent the note...? No, and you'll never guess; don't try. Read more!

Yeah, yeah, Luke; we all feel that way reading the news.

Aw, but Luke's reading about a Cap favorite: versus the Phoenix, who was Baron Zemo's son, from Captain America #168! The Spidey headline in the Bugle probably refers to Amazing Spider-Man #127 or #128; and all three of those were on racks a couple months before this issue! From 1973, Luke Cage, Power Man #17, "Rich Man: Iron Man--Power Man: Thief!" Written by Len Wein, pencils by George Tuska, inks by Billy Graham. Cover by Gil Kane and Billy Graham.

Luke is irritated not so much by bad press as no press, and smashes a hole in another desk considering what could improve his Q-rating: maybe a better name than "Hero for Hire," maybe? He doesn't have much time to consider it, as he's offered a job by Orville Smythe, on behalf of Stark Industries! The job is to test security, by trying to steal a new deep-space suit; but to keep things authentic, no one would know except them and Tony Stark himself. You already see where this is going, but the check in Luke's hands has too many zeroes in it for him to focus.

Luke of course ends up punching it out with Iron Man, eventually calling the fight for security: if he couldn't get it, who could? Iron Man's dismayed to hear about this 'test' set up by someone who didn't work for Stark Industries; and Luke realizes they've been had. Smythe steals the suit and an experimental "sky-skate" that looks like a jet-propelled minivan; but Luke gives chase and stops him: Smythe takes a pretty big fall, and I don't know if he survived or not. We don't see him again, but is there anybody at Marvel named Smythe that isn't a bad guy? As typical for his stories at the time, Luke comes away from it possibly more in the hole than he started: Iron Man offers to reimburse him, minus damages...so many damages. And subplots continue as well, with Luke receiving a mysterious unmarked package, which is probably either a bomb or Gwyneth Paltrow's head. Still, this would be the first issue with Luke using the name "Power Man," which, um, is kind of given away on the cover...and the title page...and the indica. Read more!

"Subbing."

We're off our usual set today, and I don't love the lighting or the placement of that pole, but I needed room for Stilt-Man! I forget how many of those ninjas I bought--two?--and I feel like some bought way more for theirs. We saw a Stilt-Man suit recently in Punisher War Journal #26, but that's not the only time we've seen criminals seemingly drooling over getting their hands on one. It would be an insanely impressive feat of engineering...if it wasn't in a universe with Stark armors and super-powers, and if it didn't have the win record of the Washington Generals. Admittedly, getting kicked in the face by Stilt-Man does look like it would hurt. 

Elektra teamed up with Spider-Man for a recent gang war thing, but I wonder if she just sees him as one of Matt's weird friends.

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I've seen some of those Fu Manchu movies; Shang didn't punish him enough.

We saw the double-sized last issue some time back, but today we have another double-sized issue that almost feels like more of an ending. From 1982, Master of Kung Fu #118, "Flesh of My Flesh" Written by Doug Moench, art by Gene Day.

It's an all-out action banger, as with Sir Denis Nayland Smith kidnapped and hidden somewhere in London; Shang-Chi parachutes into his father Fu Manchu's fortress in Honan, China. He accompanied by his comrades Black Jack Tarr and Clive Reston, and while Shang is glad they're with him, he also knows they will only be able to go so far with him. Despite having a solid army and later, a giant mantis! Fu was not at the top of his game: he had been kept alive for centuries with his "elixir vitae" serum of immortality, but he needed boosters every so often, which had to come from the blood of his children. Right now, that appeared to be Shang, his sister Fah Lo Suee (which I kept reading as "Fallacy"?) and a clone of Shang: Fu had him cloned years ago, and actually raised the clone in the same castle as Shang, who for years would maybe catch a glimpse of him every once in a while but not understand it. Fu says he had always suspected Shang could be "corrupted" by weak western ways, so he kept the clone in-house and always near him, and their relationship seems much stronger for it, although while Bizarro Shang has a facial scar and wears a black gi, I don't recall if he had a name? Although Fu probably had other kids, maybe just not handy: I think Moench would pull out another for Shang's Marvel Max mini with Paul Gulacy, which also looks coooooooool.

After smashing up the blood previously stolen from him, Shang kills the Death Dealer--maybe that one?--in a one page fight; then frees Fah Lo Suee and confronts his old teacher, who is still loyal to Fu since he wants a return to the old glories. Fah Lo Suee shoots him, then Fu's assistant Ducharme, then tries to kill Fu, who escapes underwater. While Sir Denis escapes in London, so Leiko Wu and Dark Angel (not that one! can save him; Shang runs a gauntlet of vipers and fights his way out of being eaten by that giant mantis, before facing his clone-brother. Meanwhile, Black Jack and Reston have planted bombs all over the place, but then the detonator is triggered in a fight, starting the 30 minute countdown early.

Shang defeats his brother, throwing him to his death: Fu mourns him with a screamed "MY SONNNNN!" before he starts trying to drink the blood before it all leaks out of the corpse. Black Jack and Reston try to warn Shang to get out, but he refuses, telling them their mission was to rescue Fah Lo Suee, and he had to do this. Pouring the elixir into the dirt, he watches the great Fu Manchu trying to lick it off the ground. After the explosions, and the collapse of the castle, they find Shang, not just fine, but "(alive)...for the first time, Reston." They're worried they never found out where Sir Denis was being held, but Shang already knows, his real father is fine, and he tells him so on the last page. 

This was a more than fitting end to the Marvel saga of Fu Manchu, so of course if you go to his Marvel Wiki entry it continues for pages after that. Also, Marvel calls him "Zheng Zu" now and doesn't keep the license, although at least some of his novels have got to be public domain by now. There were five Fu Manchu movies--with Christopher Lee as Fu!--and the last, the Castle of Fu Manchu was a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode that nearly broke Joel and the bots! So much stock footage...

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Hey, sort your trash! Some of that has gotta be recyclable.

Kurt Busiek has written a ton of great books--Astro City should be on everybody's reading list, but the latter half of his Avengers run is my favorite--and today we've got an early one from him, that probably should've got him the regular gig for the title! From 1984, Justice League of America #224, "The Supremacy Factor!" Written by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Chuck Patton, inks by Dick Giordano. And the cover is, of course, a homage to that page in Amazing Spider-Man #50!

Clark, Hal, and Ollie are enjoying a rare get-together out of costume; with a waitress thrilled to have three hot guys at her table, maybe just a hint of the civilian angle Busiek would take much later with Astro City. The guys are waiting for Dinah, who has been delayed by three guys mugging another--and getting the tar beat out of them! Black Canary has to step in to stop the masked figure from killing the muggers, but then he turns out to be a far more adept fighter than she expected, setting her up for a bad throw. Worse, he shrugs off her Canary cry, but that is heard by Superman, who arrives in time to save her. (I think other JLA stories from this time indicated Supes had a soft spot for her and might've been even more protective of her than Hal and Ollie were.) Somehow, the masked man is able to slug Superman so hard he hits the outer atmosphere; then he escapes at super-speed. Still, Superman had snagged the man's trenchcoat pocket, which contained some notes.

At the JLA satellite, neither Superman nor Red Tornado are able to get much out of the equations on the notes; so Green Arrow is surprised Firestorm wanted a look. But, we know there was more to him than met the eye: Professor Stein recognizes them as relating to RNA coding. Green Lantern then searches the database for recent scientific journals on the subject, finding Dr. Joel Cochin, a very smug looking three-time Nobel prize winner. Presumably, from back when the Nobel prize meant something; but the only three-time recipient is the Red Cross! Although Wonder Woman advises caution, even suggesting maybe the Atom should investigate, Ollie isn't one to let hitting Dinah slide, and Dinah isn't either: they head to Cochin's lab with Firestorm. The lab seems unusually closed off, with no windows; and Ollie is about to have Firestorm blow a hole in the wall, when someone else does: Cochin, now in costume as Paragon, with Firestorm's powers! Smugly, he explains he possesses the mental and physical powers of anyone within a certain range, only better, so nyah. The Leaguers are thumped and captured.

Paragon doesn't depose of them, possibly because he wanted Firestorm's powers, to use to make components for his machine. (He also mentions Ollie's engineering skills, which I'm pretty sure have long since fallen by the wayside.) Born with the mental portion of his powers, Paragon had long ago become sick of "hostile inferiority" from those he considered his lessers, namely everybody; so he was going to wipe out 90% of the population, figuring the rest would then acknowledge him as their superior. The rest of the League then arrives, giving him a ton of powers; but when Firestorm gets knocked out of his range, Canary realizes the trick to beating him: Paragon couldn't copy Red Tornado or Green Lantern's powers, and they were able to keep him off-balance. Canary lands the finishing blow, but Firestorm wonders, how were they going to keep him locked up...? 

I had to look it up: Paragon would return, sort-of, post-New 52, in Grayson of all places. I think he might have done a bit better, with maybe one more pass on the costume: the underwear-over-tights look is super-traditional, sure, but it made Paragon look like he was wearing tighty-whities on the outside of his clothes. And Firestorm could rock those sleeves, but they aren't for everybody.

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