I have to wonder if these all came from the same collection, or same collector.

If so, I hope they're doing alright. From 2010, AAFES 10th Edition [New Avengers: X Exchange] #10. The GCD notes, no credits, but at least three art teams.

This actually makes the fourth of these oddly-sized AAFES military exchange comics that I've gotten from my local comic shops dollar bins: previously we've seen Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America issues. But, as you might expect, all three appear this time around, although not until near the end. Captain America saves a kid from being held hostage by Whiplash, while Thor fights the Abomination in Indonesia. When Thor picks up the Abomination and starts flying up with him, Abommy thinks Thor's trying to freeze him out, but that won't work. Nah, he just wanted to get him in the air to lightning the crap out of him.

Iron Man battles a recently-awakened, confused and cranky Fin Fang Foom; who may have been the victim of somebody trying to weaponize the dragon. Were these three events related...? Yes, but who cares, the Avengers were on their way to the opening of a new exchange, to honor the troops. 

 This particular copy wasn't in as good of shape as the others I've picked up, but it wasn't as good of an issue either; it kind of just trails off. Maybe bit off more than they had the page count for! But, at a glance, it looks like AAFES did maybe 17 little Marvel books, between 2005 and 2013.

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Here's another one I had been looking for, and again, the quarter bins provide! (Almost literally this time, it was a fifty-cent buy!) From 1996, Guy Gardner: Warrior #41, "Guys & Babes in Toyland" Written by Beau Smith, pencils by Marc Campos and Mike Parobeck, inks by Dan Davis.

I'd mentioned this before, as featuring animation-style art by the great Mike Parobeck: he had done something similar for Superboy #4, and we do see a thought balloon in the animated version as G'nort wishes he had got that job with Superboy! Here, two versions of the same story run simultaneously: the 'real' events of Guy's visit to Toy Fair '96; and a cleaner, TV-friendly cartoon version. Guy's there to promote his uncle Buck Fargo's planned toy line and tie-in cartoon for him. This version of Guy was way more chill than his JLI days, as well as more respectful to women: one of his sidekicks was jungle-girl Veronna, who was willing to do anything for Guy, but the idea of taking advantage of her seems too much for even him. Toy sales rep Olivia does think Veronna's action figure was going to sell well, though!

This being a comic book, of course some bad guys show up; and hey, why not get a team-up in there? A really, really awkward one, with guest-star Fire! With Ice currently dead, they had both been in mourning, but may have been drifting closer together in spite of themselves. In the animated version, the bad guy is "the Debt" and gets shut down by Olivia; but in real life it was goons from Quorum, who don't appear to have accomplished anything...except their true purpose, getting cell samples from Guy!

Later, Guy manages to catch his show, and is dismayed to see how G-rated/"Captain Marvel" he was portrayed; but too late to change it now. And Fire plans, to maybe see Guy again. 

 I'm actually a little sad I wasn't reading this one when it was released: it's good-natured fun, with Guy far more sympathetic than he'd ever been. I would've still remembered him as a grade-A jerk, though; and he's probably back there now. Also, is it going back to the well to have Parobeck do another animated-show riff? Maybe, but there was still water there! I feel like Wonder Woman deserved an issue of that: Diana, frustrated with executives, "...what, exactly, is a 'Star Rider'?" Parobeck was of course the best, but Campos does a great job here too. Dig it up!

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"Trickling."

Why is Mephisto behind this? If you've seen his accessories, you might have a clue; although his big one is yet another throne I don't really have room for. (I bought the big Super7 Silverhawks Transformation throne a while back: while it's eating a lot of shelf space, it is neat and a steal at that price!) Hell, I still have the Marvel Select Mephisto throne! Read more!

"Sure, he's big and scary and legit could kill you; but he's basically your training level."

 

I don't know that there's enough institutional memory at Marvel anymore for editorial to have suggested it, and I swear there's more examples, but for a new hero you're probably going to fight the Rhino pretty early on. Probably not in your first issue, what with origins and set-up and all, probably the second issue. And he's perfect for it, like an early boss fight in a game--like Spidey's PS1 classic, for example. Rhino is tough, but not too tough; a bad guy but not like a bad guy (he loves his grandma!) and beating him is a big confidence booster.

From 1995, Green Goblin #2, cover by Scott McDaniel.

From 2005, Gravity #2, cover by Mike Norton.

From 2019, Miles Morales: Spider-Man #2, cover by Sana Takeda. Hey, that's a cheat, Miles had been around for some time then, he was hardly a rookie. But, neither was the next one:

From 2023, Uncanny Spider-Man #2, "Blue Streak" Written by Simon Spurrier, art by Lee Garbett. Cover by Tony S. Daniel.

During the "Fall of X" event, most of the Krakoan mutants were missing and feared dead. Nightcrawler was hiding out (for certain values of "hiding out") in Central Park, wearing a Spider-Man suit for disguise. Which yeah, probably shouldn't work as well as it does: this issue, a confused Mystique is going on about losing her baby, but clocks him before he can unmask. She accuses him of helping humans and interfering in mutant matters, so Kurt lets her go, in a bit of a huff. He's then briefly visited by the white Bamf, that he isn't sure is a figment of his imagination; before getting a better visitor: Dagger, of Cloak and! Said Cloak had been MIA for a couple days, but might have been in his own bad mood. (Nope!) Kurt tries to reassure her, but after she leaves, he gets attacked by the Rhino!

Anti-mutant organization Orchis currently had control of the Rhino, but their tech guy wonders why Silver Sable International would need him, if they were so slick. Sable advises the reverse was also true, and that Orchis had all but begged to test out Rhino: she saw him only as bait, though. Meanwhile, Kurt was trying to get a red-lit gadget off of Rhino, and Sable recognizes it as similiar to something that had been on Kurt during his monsterized murder-spree. (Which, best recollection; I don't think we saw much of on panel?) While Sable renegoiates her contract, Kurt is thrown off Rhino, into a trap: an electrical field to keep him from bamfing out, then shot with tranquilizer darts and a capture-thing that looks like Doc Ock tentacles. Sable has words for her racist henchman Kremer, while Kurt cuts himself free--with a magic sword? Sable is less annoyed that he's done that, then the fact that said sword hadn't been in his file.

Doped up, Kurt's no match for Sable, who snags him by the "unexpectedly soft tail." When the Rhino charges them, Kurt is forced to pull an unsafe move: teleporting him and Sable down, into a tunnel. Sable is impressed, until Kurt admits that had been a guess, a leap of faith. In the dark, Sable had his tail in one hand and a gun in the other, and couldn't turn on the light in her helmet; but Kurt recognizes her accent as Symkarian, and tells her about a sunrise he had seen there as a teen. After an explosion knocks her on top of him, Sable kisses Kurt, then apologizes, as it felt unprofessional. 

The moment is interrupted by the Rhino, who appeared to be in pain from a malfunction in whatever was controlling him. Kurt teleports the Rhino, high above the park, and tries to pull the control mechanism off for proof. The white Bamf advises no one would believe that anyway, so maybe don't kill yourself trying; and Kurt acquiesces, bamfing the Rhino over the Orchis control van, crushing it. (The tech guy gets out.) Stuck in a hole, Sable considers this job might be more difficult than she had planned...

Spurrier had been writing Kurt for a while here, through Way of X and then Legion of X, but Uncanny Spider-Man is far better: less muddled with supporting characters and Krakoa morality and crossover mandates. Of course I'll still say "read them all!" but you know me. This series somehow still had room for Kurt to be charming as all get out, while still deep in PTSD/survivor guilt and a redemption arc for his moms.  

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But this storyline wraps up this issue, how is...oh, it's literal.

Also this issue: some nuclear safety tips that sound reasonable; maybe double-check that. From 1984, Jon Sable, Freelance #9, "Cliffhanger!" Story and art by Mike Grell.

Sable had been hired by a woman, Trina Cole, believed to have stolen $100,000 from her employer's safe; but after some research and running around, he and another young woman are confronted by said employer, and his squad of paramilitary--and foreign--goons. The employer, Sherman, had been ex-US military brass and made himself "General" of his little army: while he was thrilled Sable had recovered his documents, of course he now knew too much. (Sable deadpans, "If you thought my fee was too high, why didn't you just say so?") Fortunately, before he can be murdered, Sable pulls a hidden knife to kill two guards, then escapes with the woman through a window. It's a relatively short sequence and Sable makes it seem easy, getting away after tying his shirt to a rock and throwing it down a hill, to give the dogs a false trail! (Would that actually work? Maybe, since they had gotten to the water.)

Finding a secret base underneath the resort, Sable confronts the woman, who reveals herself as Angela Ryder, Air Force Office of Special Investigations. She had been keeping tabs on Sherman, who probably read as disgruntled long before. Sherman's safe had been robbed by an Air Force major, who had also tried to kill Sable because he thought he was working for him. But, Sherman now had a nuke! Worse, four of them! Still, Angela matter-of-factly explains they could be dealt with, either by blowing them up or burning them. "You can't 'cook off' a nuclear explosion," although I do wonder what your cancer risk is being around a bonfire of fissionable material...

Sable rigs a simple 'detonator' with a cigarette, a matchbook, and a box of ammo; before he and Angela are cornered by Sherman. Which is mostly so he can explain his game: he'd cheated his terrorist partners, with a live nuke, headed for New York City! (The terrorists had intended to park the first nuke, unarmed, at the UN; to show what they could do and as a 'gotcha' to the US military.) With an inside man at NORAD, it would look like a first strike; and the US would retaliate: he was convinced by actually making the first strike, the US could win a nuclear war before lunch. Sable isn't terribly impressed, since a large stack of wooden ammo boxes was already catching fire; he then throws a knife into a guard, who knocks Sherman off a rock bridge, leaving him paralyzed, presumably to be killed in the usual massive explosion. Sable and Angela escape, although Sable ditches her to go after the nuke: he didn't feel like he could trust her. One truck explosion later, and Sable is able to go home, and find out why Trina had been able to get past his security system, and had been desperate to prove her innocence: prior to taking a job with Sherman, she had been a burglar! 

 This feels like the tailend of a Bond movie, and the base is even lampshaded as such by Angela. Still, a fun read that just flies. I know I have a fair amount of Jon Sable, Freelance from the cheap bins, and you could probably find some yourself; I think it was a pretty good seller at the time. (EDIT: Hey, I didn't plan this, but I guess it's Mike Grell's birthday! He's done a ton of books I've liked.)

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Back then I don't think you were supposed to refer to a woman as "Queen-Size," yet here we are.

"Chili Special"? What, does that come with cornbread or somethin--oh. The GCD calls this one an annual, but the indica doesn't, so split the difference and call it a "Queen-Size Special" like the cover! From 1971, Chili Special #1, cover by Stan Goldberg. All stories written by Stan Lee, pencils by Stan Goldberg.

Millie also had a Mad About Millie Queen-Size Special, as did My Love; but I don't think Marvel had any female superheroines big enough to get one at the time! Chili is described as "Millie's Red-Headed Rival" on the cover, which feels reductive; but yeah, she was basically the Reggie to Millie's Archie, or maybe the Goofus to her Gallant. This issue has several stories reprinted from Chili's first two issues from 1969, which also were later reprinted again in 1973: they are very much in the style of Archie comics, and the thought may have been, how many of them do you need, before the readers grow out of them and you can just run them again to new kids?

That said, these are kinda fun, as Stan usually writes Chili as 100% that bitch, who most often receives immediate karmic retribution for her misdeeds; as when she thinks Millie is planning a party without her, so she goes around and tells everyone it was cancelled, only to find out it was a surprise party for her birthday. Still, some of the cutdown lines are just brutal: you might not think Stan would've had that in him, but you can see a bit of it in the Spidey/JJJ repartee. (One of my favorites there was Spidey taunting "anybody that pays a dime for your rag of a paper oughta get eleven cents change!") And Millie isn't above serving some back herself!

I don't think I'd read either Millie or Chili before, but you find something like this in the dollar books; you pretty much have to, right? Read more!

I do like how it takes like two pages for Joker and Harley to get into space.

The other Saturday was Batman Day, and even though I'm pretty lapsed, I still sat down with a pile of Bat-stuff: the TMNT crossover was great, the Doom That Came to Gotham is pretty good, Under the Red Hood is one of DC Animated's best and is better than its source material, and I watched the classic "Mad Love" again. But there's a line in Under the Red Hood where Batman admits every day he thinks about killing the Joker, and the Joker immediately responds, "Aw, so you do think about me." And it doesn't entirely feel like just another smartass crack; it does feel like there's something behind that? Of course if he starts seeing other people and forgot their anniversary, well, then I suppose all bets are off. From 2008, Justice League Unlimited #41, "The Anniversary Party" Written by Grace Randolph, art by Dario Brizuela. (There are probably other uses of that title, but it was also a 2001 movie.)

With Batman off in space with the Justice League on their anniversary--presumably when he fell into the vats at Ace Chemicals, which is marked as the 13th of some month--a miffed Joker hijacks a space shuttle. Meanwhile, on the Watchtower satellite, the heroes left on duty were settling in for a movie night when the shuttle crashes in, as the Joker intends to spruce the place up before Batman's return. While the Joker is able to block Zatanna's spells with trick gum, Zat still slugs him one; and Harley Quinn is left trying to outgun the Crimson Avenger, who she doesn't even recognize as a second-stringer. The pair run around causing trouble, with Joker wearing a Bat-cowl for a bit ("This thing is ridiculously hot and heavy! No wonder he's in a bad mood all the time!") before Elongated Man suggests, maybe they had been underestimating Joker and Harley because they didn't have powers or serious weapons. Zatanna later gets the duo with "Stekop ytmpe!" (which, honestly, should be game over for them) and Hawkgirl launches them into the anniversary pie (cake?) they had been preparing, which was full of mousetraps. Knowing he was stuck, the Joker also suddenly realizes, he had been in Batman's room, and all he did was try on his cape? Upon the return of the rest of the team, Joker and Harley are gifted to Batman, wrapped up in an Elongated Man bow.

Harley is furiously jealous, when the Joker describes being chased by "a crazy dame in fishnets," but continuity-wise I thought she had left the Joker before Justice League had started. Based on Hawkgirl's outfit, this story was post-Starcrossed and well into the Unlimited run. Harley had been prone to backslide, though; at least in that continuity: in current DC books, I don't think she's looked back in some time. But, I don't know if the Joker is still written as...stuck? Smitten? Sweet on? Batman, or if that's fallen by the wayside.

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