A lucky break: at one of the closed Hastings locations, a store called "EntertainMart" opened up; with a layout and merchandise pretty similar to the old Hastings. I don't know if it's part of a chain or its own thing, but it'll be somewhere to check out for cheap books. I went through some back issue bins for as long as the Wife would wait, and got today's book on the cheap: from 1968, Action Comics #365, "Superman's Funeral!" Written by Leo Dorfman, pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Mike Esposito.

This was about the fourth chapter in this storyline, although spaced out in 12-page installments a month, since the rest of the issue is a Supergirl story. Lex Luthor infected Supes with a strain of Kryptonian leprosy, and Superman's body is being launched into "Flammbron, the hottest sun in the universe." While he's still alive! Partly because there's no cure for his condition, and partly to keep him from infecting the rest of the universe. Still, Superman's "space-bier" rocket coffin is taking the scenic route to Flammbron, passing planets like Knorr, Lexor, and Bizarro World. The Avians of Knorr mark the occasion with an hour blindfolded, to symbolize their darkest hour. (They're still wandering around gamely, though; so it seems like a party game. Maybe to cheer them up.) Although Lex's girl Ardora stands by her man, the rest of Lexor turns on Luthor...and science, which doesn't seem like a great idea. And the Bizarros celebrate by throwing red and white Kryptonite at Superman, because dying is fun!

Most of this story is flashback, as Superman's recalls his life. Supergirl brings his three big loves, Lois Lane, Lana Lang, and Lori Lemaris; out to see him off; and the issue ends with Supes about to plunge into a sun a thousand times times hotter than a normal one! The next issue blurb points out there is a clue here how Superman would get out of this, if you know your pre-Crisis continuity. Oddly, checking it on the GCD, this has never been reprinted in the U.S. I would've thought five 12-page chapters would make a good chunk of a digest or special or something.
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Somehow, this ended without Picard getting his back broke.

Let's see here: the Tholians, from "the Tholian Web," the Borg removed from the Collective seen in "Descent," Riker's dad from "the Icarius Factor," and Bane from Batman: Knightfall...hey, wait a minute! From 1995, Star Trek: the Next Generation #75, "War and Madness, part five: Cry Havoc" Written by Michael Jan Friedman, pencils by Gordon Purcell, inks by Terry Pallot.

This was the conclusion to a five-parter, with a rogue band of Borg, missing their old Collective, commandeer a Klingon ship after its crew dies of radiation poisoning. With the ship and their technology, the Borg go after the Tholians, since the Klingons' records indicated they also had a hivemind, biological instead of technological. The Tholians actually didn't anymore, not in centuries, but the Borg keep attacking Tholian outposts and kidnapping them for experiments. Meanwhile, the Tholians think the Klingons are moving into their territory, and are on the verge of war. Picard and the Enterprise are sent to iron the whole mess out, made somewhat more difficult since they're all a bit high strung anyway.

For good measure, "Enab," the leader of the rogue Borg, is based on Bane, the Batman villain! No particular reason, just because.
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"Wakeup."

We're emphasizing the old in Old Man Logan, but I'm not positive how different his timeline was from the regular 616 Marvel U. (Even though some writers are trying to retire that designation.) Is a snitch a snitch across timelines? I wouldn't think so, but maybe.

We last saw Kitty about two-and-a-half years ago; so this plotline has gone entirely too long. Ah, well. And that was the old, Toy Biz Kitty, and we've updated to the recent X-Men Legends figure. Come to think of it, the Star-Lord and Deadpool figures from that strip have both been updated since then, too.
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It's been over two years since the last issue of Fantastic Four, which I have and totally should get around to for "The End" week. And even though I got that Walgreens exclusive Invisible Woman figure last month, it feels like I'll have the rest of the team before a new FF comic hits the racks. (I wrote this before the reveal of...whatever Marvel's Legacy thing is; which I think has a new Two-In-One? A step in the right direction, but not the same.) So luckily, I picked up about a year's worth of their last run the other day; let's check out 2014's Fantastic Four #11, "East of Eden, part three" Written by James Robinson, pencils by Leonard Kirk, inks by Karl Kesel.

As was often the case for the FF...and most Marvel characters, honestly...the writer has to spend a lot of time tearing them down, to make their later victory more dramatic. That's great, but wading through the ten issues prior it felt like Robinson was really hammering on them! An attack on New York by monsters from the "Heroes Reborn" universe is blamed on the team, even though Johnny sacrificed his powers to stop it. The court ruled against the FF, taking the Baxter Building and Sue and Reed's Future Foundation kids away; Val was already staying with Dr. Doom! During the Original Sin crossover, Ben finds out how Johnny accidentally wrecked one of Reed's attempts to cure him of being the Thing; and that Reed didn't tell him. Worse, Ben is then framed for the murder of the Puppet Master, and thrown in super-villain jail! Meanwhile, Johnny's becoming a wastrel, Sue might be reverting to Malice as she fights for her kids, and Reed's working for a science guru that you know is going to end up being a villain. (Close! That latter part is probably the most thankless job in comics: create a new villain for the Fantastic Four. Remember Hyperstorm or Crucible or the Marquis of Death?)

This particular issue opens with the aftermath of a fight with the Wizard's latest Frightful Four--this time, the girls from Salem's Seven--versus Mr. Fantastic and his magical lifeline Dr. Strange the Scarlet Witch. Reed is feeling like he can't do anything right; but Wanda tells him she's been there, and it gets better. Longtime FF associates (and occasional couple) Wyatt Wingfoot and She-Hulk meet up, and agree to investigate who was coming after the team; maybe see if they could get Johnny into rehab while they're at it. (He wasn't quite that far gone, but close.) And the prison shower scene doesn't quite go into Oz territory for Ben, but he nearly catches a beating, saved only by the subtle intervention of the Sandman, who doesn't want to be seen helping him. She's on the cover but not inside: the top dog in the prison food chain, was none other than former FF member and Ben's ex, Sharon "She-Thing" Ventura!

As Wyatt calls Johnny, his cab driver catches an arrow in the head, and Wyatt is nearly killed by...the "Heroes Reborn" Hawkeye? Luckily, She-Hulk had asked Spider-Man to keep an eye on Wyatt, but they're both confused by this turn of events. Robinson had actually written "Heroes Reborn" before: he did the 13th issues for those, the Wildstorm/Marvel crossover World War III, which I loved to death. This FF issue isn't bad, but it only moves the plot forward incrementally: much more seems to happen in the recap, than anywhere else.
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Fine, Kurt, don't tell me.

This was one of the first X-Men comics I read as a kid; it would be years before I'd see the "flying carnival wagon" incident Nightcrawler refers to there! From 1981, Uncanny X-Men #149, "And the Dead Shall Bury the Living!" Written by Chris Claremont, art by Dave Cockrum and Joe Rubinstein. (Reprinted in X-Men Classic #53.)

The issue opens with the team--a surprisingly short roster of Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler--working on the Danger Room, while Professor X worries they would soon face Magneto, whom the current roster had never beat. (Aside from flashbacks and Days of Futures Past, Mags hadn't appeared in the book since 1978's X-Men #113! A surprisingly long absence.) Did I say four X-Men? Well, they also had Kitty Pryde, who shows up wearing a new Sprite costume and roller skates, and wrecks the Professor's computer by phasing through it: the Professor hammers home that she's still a trainee. So of course, Kitty sneaks along when the team flies to Antarctica to check out Magneto's old volcano base.

Said base had been flooded with lava the last time the X-Men were there, but has been cleared out some, by what's left of Garokk: he had fallen into a pit back in X-Men #116, and Storm had been unable to save him, so now he was an angry part-crystal, part-melted rock guy. After beating the team, he creates a smaller, bottomless pit to throw Storm into; but Kitty gets the X-Men back into the fight, and Garokk takes the dive down it. Meanwhile, in the Bermuda Triangle, Scott Summers and Lee Forester are guests of Magneto, who has risen a mysterious sunken city, and neutralized Cyclops' optic blasts! This might've been quite the cliffhanger, if I gave a crap about Cyclops. (I'm kidding; actually by this point, Cyke hadn't done any of the douchey things that soured me on the character.)

I'm positive I read X-Men #150 out of a certain spinner rack I mentioned before, but I don't think I had one for myself for some time! And my personal recollection was a bit fuzzy, I would've read both of those before 1982's X-Men Annual #6.
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So I found another copy for fifty cents, which made cracking and buying it easier than finding my copy somewhere: from 1989, Punisher Annual #2, featuring "Knight Fight" Written by Mike Baron, art by Bill Reinhold.

This would be the second of five straight Punisher Annuals that were involved in some crossover, starting with the Evolutionary War and going until 1992's the System Bytes: traditionally, Punisher would be scheduled fairly early in the crossover, before things got really nuts, to keep him grounded. And this Atlantis Attacks chapter starts both grounded and weird, as a passing Marc Spector sees a guy at a pet store eat a gerbil at the counter! Curious, Spector trails the guy back to a private drug rehab clinic; meanwhile, the Punisher is on the trail of a murderer, who turns out to have checked himself in with the same organization. Frank investigates the clinic's downtown office: Baron's Punisher was still able to pass in polite society; unlike say, Ennis's version, who usually looked like a monster. Staking out the office, Frank hears a tricked-out chopper, setting up the best panels in the whole crossover.

No Marvel misunderstanding brawl for these guys, they're professionals. I know some later writer would wreck this--Frank kills Marc's insane brother or something--but I love the idea of these two just being super-cool with each other.

The office has both armed guards and loose snakes, although the latter are too sluggish in the chill to be up to much; and the same actually applies to the creepy forked-tongued goons that jump the guys. Later, at Marc's mansion, we get a bit of recap, with oddly different lettering, tying the snake men back to Viper, and last year's "snake riot" from Captain America #344. (Such a great issue, I want to read that now!) Hitting the clinic, Moon Knight and Punisher realize while the riot had been considered a "mass hallucination," these goons really were turning into snakes! Then, Frank gets ambushed by Viper, who shoots him up full of...snake juice, I guess. Which doesn't turn him into a snake, yet, but he goes wild, shooting up the place. More so than usual, even. The Viper bugs out, and I'm not sure where she turns up next in the crossover; partly because I'm reading them in no particular order.

Moon Knight manages to if not hypnotize, at least confuse the Punisher, with his shiny crescent darts; and Frank goes into convulsions and passes out. Taking him back to the mansion, Marc takes care of him until he comes out of it, two days later, and that's that for this chapter, which is still probably one of my favorite single issues of the time. Also this issue: a surprisingly dark Microchip back-up, and not just because night-vision goggles play a big part in it. There were several of those over the years, but Micro has to go straight to murder-town on this one. Then some "Punisher's Fighting Techniques" with art by Jim Lee, and the fifth chapter of "The Saga of the Serpent Crown," featuring Conan vs. Thoth-Amon!

Let's see: Atlantis Attacks was 14 chapters, and so far we've looked at six now, with a seventh scheduled. Hoping I can dredge up the rest eventually!
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Oh, no! It's Mr. Flash!

When last we saw our hero, the Flash had just been reduced to a steaming puddle by the villainous Molder; which I can't help but think would be a major setback for most heroes. Except maybe Mr. Bill, I suppose.

As we saw the previous issue, the Elongated Man had been transformed into the Molder, by E-M taking a hit of his gingold-booster for his powers, while being carried at super-speed by the Flash. The Molder turns on his criminal partner, figuring he was no longer needed, although he only melts him into the ground rather than murdering him. Still, an ambulance crew scrapes what's left of the Flash off the tarmac and takes him to the hospital, where he's given a bed--seriously, I don't know what else they thought they could do for him. Fluids, maybe?

Iris is trying to keep it together, working on a Flash retrospective at the TV station, when she gets a visit from Sue Dibny, who has to tell her Ralph was Flash's killer. They have this discussion, somewhat unwisely, at a coffee shop, and are overheard by an eavesdropping Russian spy! Still, Iris disguises herself as a nurse and sneaks in to see the Flash, and gives him a good electric shock, which revives the Flash and causes a small explosion, throwing her through a window! Flash saves her, and the next day gets to work saving Ralph, with a gingold antidote made from a tree infected with fungus. When Sue won't answer the phone, Flash heads over to see her, and finds her the prisoner of Russian spies, who were using her as a hostage to get the Molder to destroy a defector's pro-America art exhibit. Flash beats up those spies, then injects the Molder with the antidote at super-speed, and together he and Ralph beat up the rest of the spies. Easy as pie.

The Russian spy angle feels a bit out of the blue, even for a book like this! Still, probably had to get that page count up somehow. Somewhat amusingly, a letter that issue notes suburban square Barry's "Flash alias has not brought any deep emotional scars," and while the letter writer considers that a positive, that's definitely been rolled back in recent years.
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"Goldilocks."

Ooh, behind schedule this week; but more fun with Old Man Logan next week!
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Like this character? Here's eight more! Now they're gone!

Marvel's publishing strategy is often to flood the market; and sometimes that involves spin-off versions of a popular character. That's nothing new, really; that's how you get a Supergirl or Batwoman. But then when the market contracts, usually Marvel has to clear the boards and go back to just the original flavor. Like today's book! From 2014, Hulk #6, "The Omega Hulk, part 2" Written by Gerry Duggan, pencils by Mark Bagley, inks by Andy Hennessy.

I had more than lost track of the Hulk at this point, but there's a helpful recap page: the Hulk's current persona, Doc Green, has decided to rid the world of gamma-powered weapons. Great, except most of those were his close friends and his son: A-Bomb, She-Hulk, Red She-Hulk, and Skaar. (Oh, and Red Hulk, but we know he's a dick.) This issue, he's starting with Rick Jones, the blue A-Bomb.

Doc Green may have a couple points: A-Bomb was created by MODOK, so there's every possibility he left a backdoor into Rick's mind. And who knows what would happen in the future, if A-Bomb mutated or got Alzheimer's or something. It's super-patronizing, actually; but he manages to stick Rick with his untested cure, and it seems to work. Rick isn't thrilled about this, but Doc Green's next stop is give MODOK--and his current employers, S.H.I.E.L.D.--a stern talking-to and beating, to encourage them not to mess with gamma radiation. Meanwhile, "Thunderbolt" Ross, the Red Hulk, isn't going to wait for Doc Green to come at him...!

If you're following Secret Empire, I don't think Doc Green did Rick any favors. But again, Marvel does this sometimes: clear out all the alternate versions or sidekicks or spin-offs, to try to bring focus back to the original. Probably, they do that about the time you've started to accept the Player-2 versions...
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Even the comic shop that sold me this didn't know it existed...

In their defense, they've got a million books in there; but I didn't even recognize the publisher, Hermes Press: from 2013, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century #2-4, story and art by Howard Chaykin.

The first issue wasn't in this pile, so I don't know how exactly Buck ended up in the future from around the 1920's; but as was typical for the character's various incarnations, he doesn't get the "Whoo!" moment that Fry gets upon waking up in the future on Futurama. This 25th century future is somewhat more crapshack than usual, though: while America wasn't a radioactive crater like most of the rest of the world, it was being invaded by the Han (Chinese) who planned to eliminate most of the Americans left and put the collaborating rest in a theme park/nature preserve called "Americaland." The Han forces might have a pretty good shot at it, since the Americans were divided on mostly racial gang lines, and faced being picked apart unless Buck could rally them under a single banner.

Man, there are a lot of racial slurs in this one, and while Buck aspires to get Americans to see each other as Americans, there are several occasions in these three issues alone where he has to kill in a very cold-blooded fashion. This isn't as, well, smutty as you might usually expect from Chaykin; although there are some bits with Ardala Kane that probably would've gotten there if the series had more room.

Just to muddy up the waters, when I got this, I also picked up Dynamite's 2011 Buck Rogers Annual #1, "Dear Buck..." Written by Matt Brady and Troy Brownfield, art by Carlos Rafael. This version appears to be more sci-fi and less political than Chaykin's; but is also hung up on being a man out of time. Albeit, a time closer to our own, since this Buck references Major Tom and mixtapes rather than Louis Armstrong and records. When Dr. Huer works out Buck's birthday correlates with a mysterious burst transmission, they head out into the wastelands to investigate a historical archive, and find a message from his time-lost girlfriend. And robots and cannibals. Still, it ends with Buck a bit more ready to face the future, not that he had much of a choice in the matter.

At first glance, I would've assumed the shinier Dynamite version to have been more recent than Chaykin's, but nope! Still, I think that license gets passed like a mike; there's probably still some mileage for Buck in the next hundred years or so...
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Man, Robert Frost doesn't get a "written by" credit either issue!

It took us a few posts to find a few comics with the poem "Ozymandias," but today we double down with Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice." First up, from 2005, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #191, "Cold Snap, part 2" Written by J.Torres, pencils by David Lopez, inks by Fernando Blanco.

During Mr. Freeze's latest crime spree, when one of his hired goons suggests stealing a painting to sell later, and Freeze says "there will be no later," that should be a warning sign for that guy. Batman catches it, when he sees the video footage, and suspects Freeze of being suicidal; although he doesn't see Freeze as the type to do it simply. Unwilling to go on without his beloved Nora (and I'm not sure what had happened to her at this point) Freeze is gathering up some of her favorite things, and a few frozen corpses, then he's going to crank up his diamond-powered freeze machine to 11 and freeze the whole city. Batman points out that might not even kill him, but when the machine is about to blow, Freeze refuses to let himself be saved, and seemingly dies in the ensuing explosion. Batman figures like winter, Mr. Freeze would return. (In somewhat poor scheduling, Mr. Freeze would return the very next issue, albeit in a story set earlier in his career.) Alfred asks if he thought Freeze could ever get past his grief; with a painting of his parents behind him, Batman admits he might not be qualified to answer that one.

Mr. Freeze is less suicidal, somewhat more murdery in the next one: 2017's All-Star Batman #6, "Ends of the Earth, part one" Written by Scott Snyder, art by Jock. Attacking a research faculty in Alaska, with his zombie-like cryogenic revivals, Freeze intends to release a bacteria from an ice core that would kill about everything on earth. Batman tries to stop him, and points out Nora probably wouldn't be keen on waking up in the icy graveyard of the world. Freeze has Batman beat, but Batman had planned on that, and had infected himself with a hot-running virus to destroy the bacteria--even as the faculty is bombed!

This virus storyline would go on, but some of this issue isn't clear: Bats drags Freeze into a cryogenic chamber, to wait out the bombing? And the virus was heat resistant to destroy the bacteria, but wouldn't firebombing take care of that? And as is often the case, Batman seems to go out of his way to save the villain, but his henchmen? Screw 'em. Still, this time Mr. Freeze seems to have come around to the ice portion of Frost's poem; which kind of seemed like a given, but there you go.
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Build your own miniature comic book spinner rack!

I do a craft project here maybe once or twice a year, and usually my Wife suggests getting a 3D printer and knocking it out in plastic instead of glue and backer boards. This time, she suggested just buying the damn thing instead of building it: a miniature comics spinner rack! Best of all: it's mildly functional! (I think I'm often described as such...)

Nerdist mentioned this, which I don't think has come out yet, and I don't know if it's going to be that price either. Maybe? DC Comics Miniature Comic Tiles Collection, which looks neat, but is 13 inches tall. That'd be closer to 1:6 scale, roughly; and Marvel Legends (and DC Multiverse, and a bunch of other stuff) is in a ballpark 1:12 scale. So, we have to do it ourselves!

Here's a scan of the backer board and some issues: for some reason, I had a scaled-down scan of 2011's My Greatest Adventure #1. That ended up being my template for the size. Then, I'd look up comic covers (and a few back covers) and paste them over that. I did waaaaay more than I needed to. So should you!

Cut out the backing board pieces. (NOTE: The last one I did, felt just a smidge wide, you might try shaving a centimeter or two off there.) Next, you'll need 28 paperclips: placing them on the lines, then bending them at a 90-degree angle. (The above one didn't come out as I wanted, but you can see how the paperclips are bent.) I had a sheet of foam from something the Wife ordered off Amazon, and I like to reuse that stuff: I cut a little piece for the middle, then hot-glued it and the four sides together. Once dry, you can put all the comics you want in the racks: I recommend at least two, but you could probably get three depending on how stiff the paperclip is.

On the bottom of the above scan, you can see two of the "Comics for All Ages/Hey!! Kids Comics" pieces: mount those on a piece of backing board, then take a kebab skewer and poke it through the foam. My base is just a couple of Powerade lids; you can do better than that! Still, while it won't spin like a real one would; doing it this way, the comics are removable, and you can change up the display!

We've got two unfinished ones to the left, have to finish up there.

Ah, I have a ton of fond memories of a very specific spinner rack: my hometown grocery store had one, that I would park myself in front of while my mom did the week's grocery shopping. There's a few books in the scan above I know I got there: Star Wars Annual #1 and ROM #25, for sure. Later, I started getting most of my books at a Circle K that I could badger the staff until they put the books out on Wednesdays. When I graduated, by then comics were being phased out of grocery stores, and I saw my old rack out behind the store. I considered stealing it, but I didn't know if it was free to take or not; and to this day I regret not taking it. (I at least should've asked!) Those racks are somewhat rare now, although you could probably find a non-vintage one...which would kind of defeat the purpose!

Now, if you wanted the advanced class; you could look up all the books that were on the racks during a specific month and create a more historically accurate version. An easy one to start with would be Marvel's 25th Anniversary covers, cover dated November 1986. I also thought a full rack of comics homaging Kevin Maguire's Justice League #1 could be doable, with a bit more digging. Which I did!

Which led to the homage cover from the TV show Fringe, an alternate universe's cover with Jonah Hex in Guy Gardner's spot! The Maguire inspired covers before, while most of them probably never hit a spinner rack, I think all were actual comics you could buy! Or with some tweaking, you could do a full rack of homage covers, books that never were.

I saw my sister this weekend, and she does a bit of antiquing: I asked her to keep an eye out for a spinner rack for me, but not to go nuts. Maybe someday...



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