Ideally, the next one is "Timecrime," hopefully with Black Cat!

This is like a preview book, but also unlike one: from 2025, Timeslide #1, written by Steve Foxe, art by Ivan Fiorelli.

The main plot here is Bishop and Cable, teamed up to try and save Tempus, from the latest living weapon from the time-stretching Children of the Vault, Vacuna. (I think I've read all of two comics with Tempus in a speaking part, and was confusing her with the MLF's Tempo.) Mostly though, it's a framework to hang glimpses of the future, coming in the next year or so from Marvel! Or not, some of the future peeks are probably red herrings, or won't make it past later revisions. Skipped to a dark, techno-virus infested future, Bishop and Cable meet Bronze, who might be one of the last X-Men; and she gives them a list of events they should maybe do something about...no? Bishop at least acts like he wants to help, but Cable is more focused on the job at hand and kind of blows Bronze off.

Separated, Bishop and Cable land at earlier points in each other's timelines, to get a look at the tragedies that made them. Convenient! That gives them a little more appreciation, which leads to better teamwork, and they manage to loop Vacuna back on himself. The Children's Caretaker is given a harsh lecture about how the mutants adapted, and always would; although it's mildly unbelievable that Cable wouldn't immediately just put two bullets in him instead. Before leaving, Tempus advises them to forget the future teases they saw...I'm not sure how many I remember, that actually came about yet? And looking back at that list, at least four are Spider-Man storylines/problems; good luck getting help from Bishop and Cable there. (I'd actually love to see that, because they'd be both really condescending and completely unhelpful. "Have you considered just shooting the Rhino?" "Yeah, he's just a guy in a suit, he's not actually endangered." "Thanks, I got it, guys.")

Back in '22, Marvel did Timeless, which was not unlike this one except it featured Kang. Then another Timeless in 2023--still a #1, for that matter, as was Timeless #1 in 2024! I do have one of those three, although I didn't buy it new either; but it was handy for a reason...I think these remind me of some of the DC loss-leader/preview books, like Brave New World, but that was more a framing device around preview pages.  

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"Punch."

You very certainly could do a story where Pavitr Prabhakar takes down Hyperion, but it would have to be in a situation with more stakes for him. Like if whoever he had for an Aunt May or a Gwen Stacy was endangered. Doing it for Spider-Man 2099, or for pride...not quite. 

Also, I'm writing these like Grandmaster cares about seeing the fights: does he? Do the hardest of hardcore gamblers enjoy the actual event at all, or just the result? 

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I had the action figure, then the soundtrack, now this comic, and I still haven't played it?

Well, not the new one, anyway! From 2009, Bionic Commando: Chain of Command, written by Andy Diggle, art by Colin Wilson. Cover by Dave Gibbons!

No number, since this was a promo comic, no UPC, for the 2009 game, based on the '87 arcade game and its later ports and a 2008 enhanced remake, which retconned the unrelated 1985 Commando as part of the continuity! Nathan 'RAD' Spencer was the Bionic Commando, a decorated soldier after rescuing the captured Joseph "Super Joe" Gibson: Super Joe had been the player character in Commando as well as one of three choices in Mercs. Here, Joe was no longer a field officer, but gives Nathan his orders; to prevent a pair of bionically-augmented soldiers from defecting out of Alaska. In the course of the mission, Nathan discovers the soldiers weren't really defecting as much as running for their lives: bionic components had been forced upon them, but the government had maybe decided they didn't cost out and was decommissioning them, which would've been fatal. Taking their side, Nathan tries but seemingly fails to save them, when the army betrays him. His backup Magdalene is forced to retreat, while Nathan is arrested and court-martialed, ala the A-Team; setting up the start of the new game.

Plotwise, that's a little grim; and the original game was basically fighting neo-Nazis! Not necessarily here, but the remake also pulls a bit I didn't like from the first Mission: Impossible movie...I had only played the original arcade game, but I still got the update's NECA action figure in early 2009. Sadly, the update only got middling reviews, even though it had Mike Patton as Nathan's voice actor! Much later--maybe this year, even?--I got the Rearmed soundtrack from Internet Archive and love it. It's mostly remixes of the original game's music. Still, Bionic Commando hasn't been completely forgotten: he's managed to turn up in later Marvel vs. Capcom installments: you'd think I might play those, but honestly I haven't bought a system since PS2, and I still play that on occasion. Including the ported Bionic Commando! Maybe I'll take a run at it now... Read more!

It's been a while since we've had a random MCP, and here's one I would've been reading new off the rack: from 1988, Marvel Comics Presents #5, cover by John Buscema and Klaus Janson. 

Five issues in, this was five chapters into three serials, with only the last Daredevil feature a stand-alone. If I recall, this was Logan's second solo story, after his first limited. Having gotten his mutant clock cleaned by crimelord Roche and his thugs--namely vampiric Sapphire Styx and Razorfist--Logan spends this chapter recovering, rescued by Jessan Hoan. Who reveals, she knew he was Wolverine. The claws might've tipped her off. (Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by John Buscema, inks by Klaus Janson.)

I've read all of this Man-Thing story, but coming in now I'm at a loss: looks like yet another conspiracy around the Sallis version of the Super-Soldier Serum, a Satanist babe seemingly in control of Man-Thing, and an Ollie North-type testifying in front of Congress; that he may have acted 'unconventionally' but he did so for America, darn it. It's pretty obvious Gerber finds him more full of it than the Satanists. (Written by Steve Gerber, art by Tom Sutton.)

Likewise, the only thing I remember about this Shang-Chi serial, is that I think Leiko is taken hostage for most of it, and she loses a hand? I hadn't read much Master of Kung Fu when this came out, so Shang seemed strangely passive; like he's usually waiting for something to happen. Grindberg was doing a nice Neal Adams-feel there, though. (Written by Doug Moench, pencils by Tom Grindberg, inks by Dave Cockrum.)

Finally, the Daredevil short finds our hero trying to save a kid from a stalker. There's a little twist, but not much; but for eight pages, sure. (Written by Terry Kavanagh, pencils by Dwayne Turner, inks by Michael Gustovich.)

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You know what you need before the comic-con? Another big ol' stack of comics!

Maybe two, it's entirely possible between when I type this and now. (And sure enough, I did!)

There are honestly not a lot of good reasons why I live where I do--I'd tell you why, but I don't like remembering what a lout I was--except comics. Seriously. When I was a kid, probably from about seven years old until I graduated from high school; there was always at least three places in my tiny Montana hometown that had comic books. The last time I was there was at least fifteen years ago, and the only comic I saw was a clearance copy of WATCHMEN. (Which I bought!) 

Where I live now, my main comic book shop, where my pull list lives, has three locations; two of which often have cheap books. (The third is a bit more of a casual, gamer store) There's two other comic shops, a used bookstore that sells a bunch; and then two more places the next town over! Throw the local comicon on top of that, and more recently, a used toy store with two locations? That kind of explains why I remain. (Well, that and inertia...those boxes are heavy!) 

I think of this, not just because said comicon is tomorrow; or because I just bought a stack of books when I was trying to get a ticket for it; but because my dad turns 80 this month. And he's doing OK for an 80-year-old guy; although he's not driving anymore: he recently told his doctor that was kind of hard on my mom, since it cut into her drinking time...I don't think Mom's had a glass of wine in years, and I unfortunately see where my sense of humor comes from...Anyway, I was thinking, what if I had to go back to Montana and take care of my folks?  (Odds are I won't have to; my sister lives much closer!) I might not have a comic shop within a hundred miles or more; so stocking up on cheap books now while I can makes more sense! Get those issues of Damage while you can! Doesn't matter if I have time to immediately read them.

Anyway, here's a book from a mini-series that I bet you a quarter I don't find the rest of at that show: from 1989, Strikeforce: Morituri Electric Undertow #1, "Street Moves" Written by James D. Hudnall, pencils by Mark Bagley, inks by Carlos Garzón.

We checked out the last issue some time back, which had the same creative crew; but like a ton of other comics had the time this was an attempt to pivot to 'prestige format,' and maybe keep going as mini-series on their own schedule instead a month-in/month-out grind. Or maybe to charge $3.95 a pop instead of $1.50...Actually, before I bash that, let's math it out. This one's 52 adless pages for $3.95; while Strikeforce: Morituri #31 was $1.50 for 25 story pages, with ads. I'm basing the page counts on the GCD rather than counting myself, and I think the $1.50 book was a slightly higher-end than regular newsstand, newsprint comics, but it seems like a better deal. For readers, anyway; maybe the creative team got a bigger payout with the prestige format stuff. Also, I'm glad I looked this up, since this was a five issue mini and I wouldn't have guessed that. (A brief pause, as I just ordered a collection, with the tailend of the regular series and all of Electric Undertow!) 

You may be wondering if I ordered it just to save myself some hassle, or I saw it cheap and snatched it, or some vague completionist urge, or was it actually good? Three out of four of those; but mainly, it is pretty good! Set ten years after the end of the regular series, after the alien Horde had been defeated, earth has settled back into being largely corporate-run states, with the citizens affluent and kind of dumb; addicted to VR and computer learning and/or consumerism. There also seems to be a lot of people spontaneously combusting, although no one knows why. Dan Baker is a private investigator, and one of the few surviving Morituri recipients (the one-year lifespan having been cured in the series) and has a fairly good life: he married one of his teammates, and they have two kids. Except he was currently living in his office, since he was afraid he was losing his mind; as he kept seeing one of his dead teammates, Will Deguchi. (I'm not positive, but I think Will was designed after early series artist Whilce Portacio!) 

This was maybe less than a year out from New Warriors #1, so Bagley hadn't quite broken big yet; but this is nice work. Now, if I could just find that note I scribbled somewhere; I think I'm missing one, maybe two issues in the whole series; let's see if I can avoid buying the whole run twice!  

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80-Page Thursdays: Action Comics #1000!

This gets into Marvel-style numbering shenanigans; I had thought because of the Action Comics Weekly run, but also because there's Action #23.1 through 23.4! I also thought the jump would be from the previous issue, but no, they had earlier gone from #52 to #957...oh, comics. From 2018, Action Comics #1000, featuring stories from Dan Jurgens, Geoff Johns, Marv Wolfman, Louise Simonson, Paul Dini; and more; and art from Jim Lee, John Cassaday, Jerry Ordway, José Luis García-López, Curt Swan, Rafael Albuquerque, and more. Cover by Jim Lee, but there were like 43 variants to choose from; I think I have the Mike Allred one somewhere. 

Anyway, this is largely a celebration of Superman, what makes him inspiring for all of us; and aside from a couple visits to his 1930's beginnings and one to the future, a lot of the stories seemed to be from the Triangle era, which was probably the heyday of the book for a lot of the creators. I didn't love that it closed, as DC often seems to do now with this kind of milestone book, with an attempt to kick off like the next 1000 issues with a bang; here by introducing Brian Bendis as the writer, and new villain Rogol Zaar. Neither Bendis nor Zaar seemed to take off, there: Zaar is a big, chatty Mongul-type, who claimed to have been responsible for the destruction of Krypton; and this feels like any number of extraneous bits that have been bolted to and subsequently fallen off of the Joe Chill/Batman origin over the years.

But, in the plus column, there's a repurposed Curt Swan, and Butch Guice story, originally written by Cindy Goff but rewritten by Marv Wolfman: four previously unpublished pages from one of the greatest Superman artists ever, that then cheats a bit by reusing a page from Superman: the Secret Years #2, but we'll allow it! It is sad that we've lost Butch Guice and John Cassaday since then, though.  
 

This won't fit in the scanner, so this post is largely to gently bash Bendis a bit and maybe remind myself to not buy yet another copy; but I would be remiss if I didn't try to get a bit of José Luis García-López's "Actionland!" I...I want to go to there. 

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"Whizzer."

I forget how exactly Peter Parker climbs walls now, if it's weird little hairs or static electricity or.something else. But Spider-Man 2099 had little claws from the get-go: they are sharp as hell and pretty effective weapons, even if Miguel is understandably squeamish about slicing anyone up like that. That said, I can't remember offhand what, if anything, the arm spikes do or are for. 

We keep seeing the Elders refer to each other by name rather than title, which is a weird callback to old Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe issues. I don't think Ego had another name, but he wouldn't have been part of another race at some point like the other guys. I thought the Champion's real name was 'Tycho' and not Tryco Slatterus, though. The Collector, Taneleer Tivan, does have a daughter, Carina: I was thinking of her since she's an NPC in Contest of Champions, but she was Korvac's girlfriend back in the day!    

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