We may be doubling-down on Quality/2000 AD reprints this week, but I remember the cover for this issue from the sell-through house ad on the backs of other Quality books that month. It was pretty unlike the others, but it might not be representative of what actually happens this issue, either! From 1988, Halo Jones #7, "The Last Dance" Reprinted from 1985's 2000 AD #414 and #415. Written by Alan Moore, art by Ian Gibson. Cover by Bart Sears!

After her battle with Toby the robot dog, Halo had been assigned "complete relaxation," and was chilling with the ship's dolphin--years before Star Trek had them, although I don't know if this dolphin does any proper duties! Her friend Toy wants her to get out of the water, and get kitted up for a party; this one thrown by the ship's owner, Lux Roth Chop. There is a moment in their cabin, that Halo and Toy both feel like something was missing, but eventually decide it wasn't important.

The party was maybe Halo's last chance to bag a guy she'd had her eye on, but he's poached by a glamourous, and entitled-seeming, woman. Halo has to stop her to ask, since she finally places her voice, as that of newscaster "Swifty Frisko." She has a laugh about that, since that was computerized and merely a hologram; perhaps either done for a lark or residuals. Halo is left wondering how she can tell her friend Rodice that Swifty Frisko stole her man, when a young boy approaches and asks her for a dance. Deciding why not, no one else was going to ask her that nicely, Halo dances with him, noticing he was both an excellent dancer, but also the crowd seemed to part for him. And why shouldn't it: he introduces himself afterwards, and Lux Roth Chop. (Lux is much younger in the story, and shorter, than he was on the cover!)

Finally arriving on the frozen planet Charlemagne, Halo makes her way to the Solid Air Bar, to see if she beat Rodice there. The bar was pretty empty, but a call comes in, asking for Halo: it was Rodice, calling from back on the Hoop on earth. She had decided not to leave, feeling more comfortable there. She wants to tell Halo more, but Halo tells her she won't be coming back to the Hoop. "Where will you go?" "Out." Settling in next to alien keyboard player Yortlebluzzgubbly, Halo looks like she's about to have more than a few drinks...This was the end of Book Two, and the next book maybe featured more action in the 2000 AD manner; but again, due to a rights dispute Alan Moore to date has never returned fo Fleetway.

And again, as was typical for these reprints, Halo only gets 10 pages and a couple pin-ups in her own mag! Judge Anderson gets ten, although a couple are out of order and she's inexplicably colored as a redhead instead of a blonde. This was another chapter of "Hour of the Wolf" from 1987, as an enemy psychic recovers the body of Russian assassin Orlok, and revives him. Aside from the Dark Judges, there aren't a lot of recurring bad guys in Judge Dredd stories (at least compared to American comics!) and this might have been a move to keep Orlok in play while also covering why Anderson couldn't just find him later with her psi-powers. (Story by Alan Grant and John Wagner, art by Barry Kitson.)

The issue wraps with another Alan Moore story, Abelard Snazz in "The Double Decker-Dome Strikes Back." (Art by Mike White.) Abelard was a super-genius problem-solver, with solutions that inevitably led to more problems, and previously had been abandoned in space to die with his fawning robot toadie Edwin. Frozen, Abelard is recovered by the alien defeatists the Farbians, who think he was their god Toglub of the Two-Fold Gaze. Surely he would be able to solve the three-pronged threat hanging over the planet's head...? (Amusingly, the long-suffering Farbians appear to have had other disasters, as their naysaying priest references some Alan Moore Future Shock strips! One, the alien cleaner, you might recognize from the cover of Quality's Time Twisters #1!) Can Abelard come up with the answers? And will he immediately shoot himself in the foot right after? You can probably guess, but it's done well.

I don't think there's a huge demand for Fleetway/Quality reprints in general, maybe slightly more for Halo Jones, but I am still surprised when I find any. Going to check my overflow box of 2000 AD-type stuff and see if I'm close to the set, here. Read more!

I'm 40% sure I got my dad this one already, but why not?

The Lone Ranger strikes me as neither pessimistic nor genre-savvy, so he maybe doesn't know that having a good feeling about anything is a recipe for disaster! Well, that feeling probably won't last, anyway. From 2009, the Lone Ranger #17, "Resolve" Written by Brett Matthews, art by Sergio Cariello. Cover by John Cassaday.

Despite still being relatively new to the job, this issue the Lone Ranger and Tonto stop some robbers and a runaway stage, with a relative minimum of violence: I've been reading too much Jonah Hex, because I was expecting a shotgun blast to the face, an arrow to the neck, and a guy thrown to his death, but the robbers are brought in alive. The Ranger and Tonto return the stage to the bank, with the tied-up robbers, and also drop off a big lump of silver with an old lady whose fence got smashed in the chase.

While Butch Cavendish and Winston Marle continue their respective plots, the Ranger and Tonto visit Linda and her boy Dan: while the Ranger is a terrible cook, he's still a catch! He tries to have a talk with Linda and explain his feelings; which kind of looks like he maybe thinks he can be the Lone Ranger and still have a family, which seems like a pipe dream. Sure enough, Dan interrupts them, saying someone was there asking for the Lone Ranger...to be continued! 

 I've read a few of these, but I'm not sure why Cavendish was a psycho-killer in this: he's in a room full of people he'd already killed in that panel there, with a prospective victim trying to buy his way out, and Cavendish is seemingly uninterested in the money. I maybe just like the idea of even a bad guy, being self-aware enough to realize he didn't like what money was making him. This series only ran 25 issues, and there's ads in the back for Man With No Name, Zorro, and the Boys, which Dynamite had picked up after DC dropped it. You'd suspect the Boys to be the sales juggernaut there, and I feel like it sold better than anything else mentioned here, but I'm not sure it was overwhelmingly so.

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There's maybe a swerve or two in this one, I have to admit.

And I wasn't expecting two-thirds of this creative team! From 1996, Wonder Woman Annual #5, "The Unremembered" Written by John Byrne, pencils by Dave Cockrum, inks by Norm Breyfogle.

Not unlike the Robin Annual for Legends of the Dead Earth, this one also starts with a colony ship, but this one has apparently been going for way longer and not come anywhere near a planet, possibly due to mishap. It's been going for so long that evolution has taken some weird turns for the inhabitants within, although there were still humans, like young AylXa of the Unremembered. They were a tribe of humans, living in what used to be a hydroponics bay; and she had left before what would have been her wedding day; although it's unclear why. Y'know what, she doesn't owe me an explanation: maybe she wasn't ready to settle down, maybe she wasn't into him, whatever. We see her betrothed, ValXan, leading a hunting party elsewhere in the ship, and he does smack one of his guys in the mouth for badmouthing AylXa. The party comes across a group of Ratbats, and kills them; but later that 'night' an older Unremembered tells a barely-recalled tale, that the Unremembered and the Ratbats could have common ancestry, just adapted for different conditions. And, they also share legends: the elder tells of earth's legendary heroes--which even had dames in their number!--while deeper in the ship, AylXa watches a larger, female Ratbat use a strange instrument, to relive the history of Wonder Woman!

AylXa tries the machine out herself, and realizes the Ratbats were not that unlike the Unremembered, even more advanced in some ways; but can she arrive in time to keep the hunting party from murdering the Ratbat tribe? She might not have to...

I won't spoil it, but yeah, there was at least one twist there I didn't expect. Also unexpected was the art pairing of Cockrum and Breyfogle, but I'm always glad to see anything from them. Byrne, however...Maybe I'm being oversensitive, since I think he's maybe been creepier, but some of this one feels leering, and maybe not respectfully. But that twist maybe flips that? I don't know. Anyway, I hadn't read this one before, but we've only got one more Legends of the Dead Earth annual to go! That one will probably be sooner rather than later, since I've already bought another sprocking one of it.. Read more!

"Cup."

I'm not a soccer fan, but it is fun to see some people having fun. (Even if FIFA is a racket!) 

I only read Miles's book here and there, but yeah, he can make swords now! In-continuity I think Colleen Wing is his trainer; but of course she has yet to get a figure--unless there was an MCU Iron Fist one? (There was, in a box set!) Miles is sadly probably too young to know the Thundercats--unless he liked the all-too-brief reboot from Cartoon Network a few years back. I'm also fairly certain he doesn't make swords appear with a 'pop!' either.

"Focused totality" is Psylocke's old phrase, often used as a shorthand recap before she shanked someone with her psychic knife. 

Kurt's had both the Soulsword and the 'Hopesword' inside of him. Where did his sword come from this time? Um...gotta go!  

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Vertigo Comics has recently returned to the racks--I'm quite enjoying End of Life myself--but I won't consider them back back until they start weird little mini-series like this one again. And now's the time for it, there are a ton of anthology horror books coming out now! Still, I haven't read all of this one anyway, so I still have a few to find: from 2015, Strange Sports Stories #2, cover by Dave Johnson.

DC had a six-issue Strange Sports Stories in 1973, but it's also not unlike gorillas, just something they like to do every so often. Honestly, I thought they did it more often; it was also in old, pre-Batman team-up Brave and the Bold (with the aforementioned gorillas!) but I'm thinking the sci-fi titles trotted it out as well, since I can picture the almost-clickbaity covers; probably dreamed up by an editor on a three-martini/six beer lunch and sketched on a cover by the first artist he saw back at the office. "Why is this boxing match being fought on the rings of Saturn?" "Who was the Phantom Umpire?" "What is the secret of the Alien Baseball League, and their sinister application of the infield fly rule?" "Why isn't my wife returning my calls?" "Can anyone defeat the Foosball Gorilla?" Like that.

This issue kicks off with "Skate Cynic," wherein said cynic grinds and grinds to land a new trick, only for it to immediately be copied, and he loses it so hard he spirals off the planet. (Written by Lee Loughridge, art by Nick Dragotta.) Then, it's Mike McCoy, Merchant Marine vs. "The Patchwork Palooka," as the boxer finds a derth of opponents and fights in harbor today, but an old foe may be putting something together for him...it's a fun one! Along with the alliteration, Mike McCoy legit sounds like a C-list, back-up story character like DC used to have in the day; probably less popular than Roy Raymond, TV Detective but more popular than Captain Compass. (Written by Mark Finn, art by John Lucas.)

"Not Allowed to Play Ball!" finds two young rookies getting their big try-out, but one worries that if his secret were discovered...and it of course is, but not what you'd guess. (Story and art by Tim Fish.) Finally, "Le Boules de Mal" is a rarity: how many Pétanque stories will you find in comics? Or anywhere? A spectator tells two players, of the greatest match ever thrown...against the devil. One player dismisses it as yeah, they've heard "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," but that might not have been the ending here. Read more!

I can't save this one for "The End" of the year? Aw, shoot.

Out in the garage I still have a small bin of orphan Build-a-Figure/Collect-n-Connect pieces, including several of Imperiex. Who we don't really see this time, except as a big ball of energy, at an increasingly crowded event in the DC Universe--even more crowded than this crossover event! From 2001, Action Comics #782, "Trial by Fire" Written by Joe Kelly, pencils by Kano, inks by Marlo Alquiza. (I didn't scan it, but there's a big "The End" on the cover!)

This was not-quite the big finish to the "Our Worlds At War" storyline, which is sadly probably best remembered for ending just before 9-11. So, there was some imagery of Luthor's wrecked twin towers that was just badly timed; and a lot of mourning for a bunch of characters who were killed over the course of OWaW: Aquaman, Hippolyta, Sam Lane, General Rock (if he was real) and the Kents...I think Steel and Guy Gardner both got it, too; but only some Superman regular antagonists like Massacre and Maxima stayed dead. (Justice for Maxima!) But, in this chapter, having flown through the sun to juice his powers up, Superman was headed at Imperiex like a bullet. Imperiex was already done, though, having been taken over by Brainiac-13. Back on earth, with General Zod seemingly there in an observer status, Lex Luthor was preparing to use his daughter Lena, to fire his LexCorp towers at Brainiac-13, but the computerized villain steals Lena away first, leaving Lex without a trigger for his weapon. Superman arrives, seemingly with nothing but death and destruction on his mind...

A bunch of events occur, only some of which maybe are seen in other comics: Wonder Woman helps Darkseid use Tempest (Aqualad!) and the Amazons to focus energy through Steel's "Entropy Aegis" armor, while Lex plugs Jimmy Olsen into his tower weapon. But, Imperiex appears to Superman, wanting him to destroy Warworld and Brainiac-13, so he would be released to return. Instead, Superman pushes Warworld back into position, while the Martian Manhunter co-ordinates the new plan with everyone: throwing Warworld, Brainiac-13, and Imperiex back to the big bang. Superman escapes back to the present with Lena, while Imperiex realizes the imperfection he always hated in the universe was actually himself.

With Lena seemingly de-aged back to a baby, Superman returns her to President Luthor, saying this was a second chance for him. (Which he'd doubtless blow, I have no idea what happened to that kid...) Darkseid returns home, since even Apokolips had suffered greatly giving cheap heat in battle against Imperiex. 

 I think they were trying to get across that Superman, being Superman, would have a better answer to Super-war than Super-murder; but I'm pretty sure if you get blowed up at the Big Bang you're still Super-Dead. Also, why don't we see the traditional giant hand you're not supposed to see, or Damage from Zero Hour there? The Big Bang is crowded in the DC Universe...We saw the wrap-up issue World's Finest: Our Worlds at War #1 like ten years back; but looking him up, about the only other thing Imperiex ever appeared in was the last season of the Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon. With a simplified design; that outfit was busy.

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It always strikes me as weird that "Choose Your Own Adventure" is like, a trademarked brand, since I remember reading a bunch of...well, I guess they'd be knock-offs, then. Although, some were with licensed characters: I know there were a couple Star Trek ones I'm sorry aren't in my collection now. In comics, I know they had a Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way recently, but I'm surprised Marvel didn't go to this well more often: from 1994, What If? #63, "What If War Machine had Not Destroyed the Living Laser?" Written by Dan Slott, pencils by Manny Galan, "ink battalion" Jim Amash, Kata Kane, and Mark Stegbauer.

This tied into one of my favorite Iron Man runs, the all-too-brief second Jim Rhodes term, which would lead to him taking the mantle War Machine. Tony Stark was believed dead but actually cryogenically frozen, which was known only to a few scientists; and he had left Rhodey in charge of Stark International and Iron Man. Still, inexplicably Tony Stark kept appearing around the facility; but that was really the Living Laser! All of this came to a head in Iron Man #289 but is largely the B-plot: after it was resolved, the real Tony was revived, but furious that Tony had lied to him, Rhodey quits. (Despite my usual tag for Tony, I don't think his dickery was intentional that time: Tony thought the cryo thing was a longshot, and he would probably not ever be revived.)

The Laser had intended revenge on Stark, but with him 'dead,' Rhodey instead offers the Laser a job: he was a brilliant scientist, after all. That was just a ruse, though, for Rhodey to lure him into a trap and beam the Laser to the Andromeda galaxy; which the Laser thought was a bit much. This issue, we see three other ways this could've gone down: instead, Rhodey relents, and actually does put the Laser to work. While undeniably great in his field, the Laser has trouble working within business confines, his fellow employees aren't comfortable around him, and he knows Iron Man doesn't completely trust him, either. Overhearing a message asking for Rhodey, the Laser holographically takes his form to answer the call, and is shown the frozen Tony Stark! In shock, he reverts back to his Laser form, and Rhodey arrives as Iron Man, equally surprised. How will it play out? 

Three different endings are offered: surprisingly for this title, not a one of them is "and everybody died!" I'm thinking of a recent issue, which was largely 'what if Cyclops was a stand-up guy' that of course ends with the earth exploding. I don't know why I expected anything else there...

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