I'm momentarily at a loss if I read this one before or not: it wasn't in crossover hell yet, so maybe, but...from 1992, Batman #482, "Vengeance of the Harpy" Written by Doug Moench, art by Jim Aparo.

This was the conclusion of a two-parter, setting up a new villainess for Batman, the Harpy; who was tied via Greek mythology to Maxie Zeus. Mid-issue, when Batman visits Maxie in Arkham, the retiring director of the asylum says "not that madness is contagious, but..." (Setting up later stuff, the director was being replaced by Jeremiah Arkham!) Maxie seemed to have passed madness to his girl Iris, who had costumed up for revenge on some of Maxie's gang, who were trying to unload some swag without their boss's permission--worse than that, if Maxie was Zeus incarnate! As Harpy, she seemed pretty effective, though: circus trained and kitted out with gadgets, including a glider. She does off the disobedient gangsters, but can't kill the "Bat-demon." Sadly, she hasn't been used since, probably because Maxie Zeus sucks.

Despite the Aparo art, this stretch was kind of a fallow period for Batman: it still had Norm Breyfogle's Batman and Robin in the corner box, but he wouldn't be back until #492, the first chapter of Knightfall; then #493 would be his last on the series until one more, #556! Read more!

80-Page Thursdays: Avengers Academy Giant-Size #1!

Man alive, when was the last time we had a Marvel 80-pager here? Way back in 2019! But, we've got one I hadn't seen before, with a couple characters that were getting the push at the time, and maybe a couple Marvel's still trying to break big. And, it might set up not one but two series later! From 2011, Avengers Academy Giant-Size #1, written by Paul Tobin, pencils by David Baldeón, inks by Jordi Tarragona.

Full disclosure here, and absolutely personal bias: I don't love the Avengers Academy era. It didn't feel like a great use of some established characters--hey, Hank Pym's not in anything, I guess he's a teacher now. But just from this issue, the Academy kids seem to feel like they're treated like property, forbidden from using their powers unless it's in service to the Avengers or the government. (Pretty sure you should side with the kids, but it sucks that some Avengers get made the bad guys for enforcing that, even if they were getting the screws put to them as well.) On a rare day off in NYC, Reptil, Veil, Finesse, and Striker decide to enjoy the day; even if it's only a day and they were probably being watched by Avengers even if they promised they wouldn't...The kids happen to see Firestar and Spider-Girl fly/swing by, but after they wander off from each other, Reptil and Veil worry the others might have run off, and they might get in trouble themselves if so. Their search is cut short, when while checking out a somewhat suspicious Avengers Academy poster, they get hit by flying bricks and giant robots. No points will be given for guessing the baddie: it's Arcade.

While on their way to meet up with fellow Young Allies member Toro, Spider-Girl and Firestar are lured in by a giant Spider-Girl balloon and captured as well. Arcade intended to put them all in his patented death-traps, but Reptil and Spider-Girl wake up early, so Arcade improvises a competition between them, to score points and save their friends, or at least some of them. He seems to be enjoying creating on the fly; but the whole endeavor was meant to show he still had the juice to kill super-powered heroes, even if they were just kids. (Arcade claims to have killed 'scores' of regular people, an interesting choice of terms!) While gas-girl Veil figures out her trap, Spider-Girl and Reptil run Arcade's wild goose chase: eventually, Arcade murders them all, or at least appears to: no spoiler, but O.G. junior hero Kitty Pryde pulled the same on him, back in Uncanny X-Men #197! 

Traditional as hell: of course the Avengers and the government aren't looking when the kids are kidnapped: they can only surveil to punish you, not help you. This also seems to pretty much set up the later Avengers Arena and Avengers Undercover series with Arcade; but Reptil was the only hero from this issue to appear in those. I don't know if I've seen Reptil lately; which would kind of be standard for a younger hero like that after his book went away; except he was also in the Super-Hero Squad cartoon and comic! I wonder how many years we are away from a childhood fan of his bringing him back. (He did appear in a King in Black issue fairly recently.) 

Firestar...man, Firestar's been around since what, 1981? And Marvel still seems to be at a loss over what to do with her, at least consistently: her most recent appearances were the last West Coast Avengers, where I think she had PTSD and alcoholism, developed after her stint as a double agent against Orchis during the Krakoa era. Which may or may not be an improvement from having to sit at the kid's table? I'm not saying all of Firestar's stories should be sweetness and light, but that feels a bit much.

I had to look up the others: Veil had to give up her powers before they killed her, but Finesse seems to have settled into B-list bad guy for hire work. Her powers seemed like Taskmaster's, but part of her larger plot was that the Academy deemed her among the most likely to become a villain, so she just did. At least a bit; she maybe just didn't want to anything to do with Avengers after that, which, fair. Striker's maybe still out there, but not used for much except maybe crowd filler. The Young Allies Toro was a largish bull-guy, not the old Human Torch's sidekick, but while I thought he would've been phased out when the Liefeld-era girl Bucky was removed, he stuck around at least a little. He might be one of several refugees from alternate earths on 616, but the original Toro came back as an Inhuman, so we might not see YA Toro again.  

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"Case."

So I was going to try to be a bit more selective in my figure purchases, and maybe try to avoid buying some characters I already have maybe more than one of. And then I buy this new Spider-Man 2099, because he is a bit of improvement on the old one: perhaps taking a cue from the Spider-Verse movies, Miguel is a bit beefier than Peter. He probably has a more forceful voice than Peter usually would, too.

I mostly just wanted to establish some of the regulars were out, but I am curious about Howard and Death's Head's case; we'll see if I ever make it back to that.

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I still haven't watched his series, but honestly, Marvel/Disney is missing the boat by not getting "Secret Hospital" on there. From 1986, Wonder Man #1, written by David Michelinie, pencils by Kerry Gammill, inks by Vince Colletta. Cover by Bill Sienkiewicz!

Was this the first mention of the in-universe soap opera "Secret Hospital"? Michelinie would use it again years later, as Mary Jane Watson-Parker would get a role there in Amazing Spider-Man; but here Simon Williams flubs an audition for it, by not turning off his glowing ionic eyes. (Which I'm not sure he could do before!) Sulking over it, we get a recap of his origin, and this was post-Avengers #211, where Simon left the team to go Hollywood with Hercules, but rather unsurprisingly none of Herc's contacts had worked out for him. Headed back to Avengers Mansion for a workout, he gets a tip from another hero who never felt he was far from the unemployment lines either: Scott Lang, Ant-Man! He gives Simon a card for Cordco, a scientific research company set up by Tony Stark, before he lost his company to Obidiah Stane. (Ah, continuity! Like a warm hug when it does a good job.)

Cordco turns out to be weird science central, and after Simon goes through on the tour; a scientist desperate for a breakthrough blows open a dimensional portal and unleashes a horde of angry little gnomes. His prospective employers are somewhat blase about sending Wonder Man into the thick of it, but hey, he's invulnerable! He doesn't even have to breathe, which is kind of news to Simon: it feels like it took him a long, long time to get his head around his powers. While he does manage to save the day, he later loses the job when during another emergency, he gets called in by the Avengers to stop the Sandman from causing a nuclear meltdown. The Sandman's not usually like that (although, the splash page notes this was before Marvel Two-in-One #86!) but had been told he was dying of cancer. Simon is able to stop him, and whatever they did in the reactor room cures Sandman, but Simon's annoyed that they may have found a cure for cancer and lost it. Still, all of this maybe helps Simon get himself back on track. 

 This is also noted as being before West Coast Avengers #1--wait, the GCD even notes, this came out in '86 but is set before "Marvel Two-In-One #86 (April 1982) and West Coast Avengers #1 (September 1984)." It reads all the way like Michelinie is giving Simon his own supporting cast, for solo adventures, then nopes it away in the end.

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I will never quit this stupid blog, because I enjoy it too much when we find a comic, referencing back to a post from over ten years ago! From 1990, Uncle $crooge Adventures #20, reprinting 1960's Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge #28, "The 'Paul Bunyan' Machine" Story and art by Carl Barks.

While Uncle Scrooge was getting on in years, he was usually pretty spry; but today he's struck by a bout of the rheumatism. Not from the weather, as Donald suggests, but from burglars: Scrooge's doctor had described it as "radar nerves," but over years of crooks trying to get his Fruity Pebbles steal his money bin, he almost had Spider-sense for protecting his cash, and it was going off something fierce. And it should, as the Beagle Boys were at it again, building a 'Paul Bunyan' machine; a massive, ax-swinging beast of heavy machinery. Scrooge fears there weren't enough cops in Duckburg, or maybe the state, to stop that thing.

Now, the money bin contained about "ten umptillion, uncountabijillion dollars" but a lot of that appeared to be in coin. (There's still a penny shortage, Scrooge!) So, he was having a hard time even moving it; and the local banks were already stuffed to the gills with his cash and couldn't fit any more in. (Is that why Scrooge has the money bin? He has so much cash in holdings, he can't get a bank to take the risk of holding it all.) Worse, from down the street, the Beagle Boys were x-raying the money bin every couple hours to make sure the level didn't go down. Scrooge cleverly counters both problems: mailing box after box of cash to...ugh...Idaho, while filling the money bin with washers to fool the x-ray. (Aside: I'm often hard on my home state Montana as being less than progressive, but Idaho bluntly sucks. It's like it's racing to become the next Missouri, and it feels like anybody good with the means of getting outta there is.) With Donald and the nephews there to receive the packages, Scrooge arrives later, and they begin hiding the cash, in trees. OK, that last one isn't maybe the best idea I've ever heard, but Scrooge was enjoying the outdoor time.

Back in Duckburg, the Beagle Boys had realized Scrooge was gone, but see a newspaper article about the government building a dam (no points for guessing where!) and would pay well for logging the trees out of their way. Seems like a job for a machine, maybe even one named after a mythical logger? It's (relatively) honest work, but the Beagles might give it a shot. Scrooge had been gone for some time, and had been out of touch: either his staff in Duckburg had sold the land without being able to tell him, or the government eminent-domained him, so he no longer owned the land, and now had to scramble to get his cash back out of the trees before the Paul Bunyan machine got there...The whole affair seems like it should be a loss for Scrooge: a lot of mailing, buying timberland, a lot of cement, there's a line item here for 12,000 monkey wrenches; but he probably comes out ahead.

All in all, super-fun, and a pretty iconic one: The Paul Bunyan machine is referenced, in Badger #48, where the bad guy brings one in to A. deforest the Amazon, and B. turn endangered animals and trees into high-end consumer goods, and C. beat Badger's ass. As you'd expect, Badger is more than a little indignant: "...you couldn't beat me yourself so you invented a 45-ton machine to do it?" "Oh, I didn't invent it, I leased it." I always thought it was a Gyro Gearloose number, though! The Beagle Boys had some skills. 

Also, we've mentioned Uncle Scrooge is having a bit of a comeback at the comic shop, but his new comics are probably between $4.99 to $7.99: this issue was $1.95, but I paid a buck: usually Scrooge would approve, but I guess the original was a thin dime, so maybe not. Still, this reprint also comes with "On a Silver Platter," a fun bit of hijinks with Magica de Spell; "The Custom of the Country," in which a business deal comes with strings attached, namely a finicky goat; and "Family Fortune," where Scrooge tries to cash in on a promotional land giveaway from a cereal box. Now what would you pay!

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Looks like Kurt is more careful than Spidey with his comics, but I feel like he puts them back in the bags upside down.

I don't know if they've done as many lately, but I feel like I bought a bunch of variant covers at the start of this series. I usually don't, but c'mon. From 2024, Uncanny X-Men #3 (LEG #703) "Red Wave, part 3: the Inside Man" Written by Gail Simone, art by David Marquez. Variant cover by Mahmud Asrar.

This was early in Simone's run, and we get to know the new mutant kids a bit: there's also a mention of the prophecy, that one of them could be the last mutant; I'm not sure that's come up recently. The kids all have horribly sad stories, which is why Rogue is gung-ho to not only protect them, but give them a home. She gets Nightcrawler, for a bit of outdoors Danger Room tag with them; and Kurt gets surprised by the 'manga kid,' as Logan calls him: Deathdream. Still, charitable as always, Kurt feels like the kids have good hearts...even the ones literally without them!

Rogue's disappointed Logan doesn't stick around to learn the kids' names--he probably knows, he just acts like he doesn't--but he has to take off, I think for his own new book, as seen on the cover here! But, he's not done, as later here he throws down with new villain, Sarah Gaunt. She's stalking the kids, and we don't know much about her yet, except that she has some kind of history with Charles Xavier.

Uncanny is one of like three Marvel titles I'm reading now, and this run has been pretty good...but has it been everything I want in an X-book? Of course it hasn't met my completely arbitrary and unfair expectations. A recent issue finds the kids living out a What If--?! style scenario, with them as the first class of New Mutants; but I wonder if these kids will have any staying power. Who was the last mutant kid to catch on any...Glob Herman? Yeesh. (That and I don't like Kurt's girlfriend in this series; feels like we've been told how great she is, but we haven't really seen it?)

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I was blogging this on the strength of the cover; I wasn't expecting bangers here!

It's a Patrick Olliffe cover, for Amazing Spider-Man Family #3: the guy did Untold Tales of Spider-Man and still has it! But, it's covering a solid package of tales, some of which maybe even weren't reprints?

J.M. DeMatteis and Val Semeiks come out swinging (boo!) with "The Punch." Set very early after Peter first became Spider-Man, he fantasizes about giving Flash Thompson the what-for; until he accidentally wrecks a guy knocking over a convenience store. (Or 'bodega,' I guess; I've never been to NYC!) It looks like a Sal Buscema punch, which is great for hitting the Scorpion or the Rhino, but does a number on a regular person. As you can guess, Peter's pretty distraught after that one, especially when he tries to visit the guy in the hospital and just scares him more! Still, Aunt May puts him back on the right track, with Uncle Ben's video collection--no, not like that! It's a bunch of action movies, but Peter remembers what Ben told him about heroism; and later puts his spider-strength to better use, saving bystanders from a falling crane, including the attempted robber, who is also inspired to turn it around. And, it ends with a conversation between Peter and Flash, that maybe makes their later friendship make more sense.

Next, a couple alternate reality stories: a "Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man" tale, with the titular couple taking May to the emergency room...and recognizing the Rhino, plainclothes, bringing in his nanna! ("Common Ground," written by Tom DeFalco, art by Todd Nauck.) And, a bit of silliness, with "the Amazing Spider-Ma'am," an Aunt May that knew her nephew's secret, but played along. (Written by Abby Denson, art by Colleen Coover.) Then, one I think from the Marvel Adventures line, "Bridge and Tunnel" A snowy evening on the subway is made a mess when Spidey tries to catch a nickel-and-dime crook with a remarkable propensity for fleeing, and usually fleeing directly into the path of danger. The kind of guy that would run away from Spidey, directly into oncoming traffic. (Written by Stuart Moore, pencils by Val Semeiks, inks by Mark Irwin.)

But, I was most impressed with the last reprint: all of "Best of Enemies" from Spectacular Spider-Man #200! (Written by J.M. DeMatteis, art by Sal Buscema.) This would be the final battle between Spidey and the Harry Osborn Green Goblin, and it's a classic...that gets stepped on later for Brand New Day to bring Harry back like nothing happened. I'm behind on my current continuity, I think Harry's died again since maybe. Read more!