"The End" Week: What The--?! #26!

There were a couple last issues that I finally found this year...that almost immediately made me regret finding them, and realize why those titles were cancelled. Here's one of them: From 1993, What The--?! #26, featuring stories by Stan Lee, Barry Dutter, Dan Slott, and more, art by Aaron Lopresti, John Constanza, Marie Severin, and more.

What The--?! has had a tag on this blog for years: it was Marvel's in-house parody book from 1988 to this last "fall special!" in 1993. The title was always hit-and-miss, not just in the sense that not every joke lands, but some of the strips are polished and professional, while others are terrible and amateurish. And yeah, nowhere near every joke landed during the bulk of the series, but this issue is just dire.

Previous issues featured work from John Byrne, Mike Mignola, Kurt Busiek, Kyle Baker, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, and more: Stan Lee's the big name this issue, for a cornball "Silver Burper" origin. (With John Severin inks!) Later issues also featured some go-to creators like Aaron Lopresti and Rurik Tyler, who aren't their best this time. A disappointment, buy some older issues instead--I recommend the first eight, or any story with Hilary Barta art. While Marvel has done other comedy titles in recent years (and I'm not sure they were any good, either) What The--?! has yet to be relaunched, although the title would be used for a series of videos.

(I really wish I had all my What The--?! issues handy, but they're all over the place: I was looking all over for #8, for Kurt Busiek and James Fry's "The Son of Satan Censored!" and my copy was in Montana. There are a couple panels in #5's "Alien-ated Legion" that I still love, and a panel from #7's Avengers vs. JLA that I wanted for the year-end posts...)