"Joined."

I didn't think we were going to get the Liefeld Cable in there, and yet, here we are. Also, having one Stryfe figure is weird enough; having two very slightly different ones feels perverse somehow. I've only read a few comics with him, but in the Krakoa era, there were notes from a Quiet Council meeting where his resurrection was up for a vote, and was maybe unanimously shot down. The fact that he's maybe not a mutant, but a clone of a mutant, feels like splitting hairs; but he probably was downvoted just because he's a jerk.  Read more!

If I was organized, I'd have a big box of mini-series missing one issue.

Somehow, I think I got three issues of this at the last show; and while it feels like the third issue should've been there, it's also not outside the realm of possibility that I have that missing issue, maybe even from the same collection! From 1990, the Saga of the Original Human Torch #4, "The Flaming Fifties!" Written by Roy Thomas, pencils by Rich Buckler, inks by Romeo Tanghal.

Darn, I know the Torch sets Hitler on fire in the third issue, too. This was a mini-series retelling the history of the classic, android Human Torch, and his sidekick Toro. Here, we see the Torch revived from being buried by mobsters and rendered inert, by an atomic test. As an android, it feels like it was easy to take the Torch out of action as needed in his publication history; maybe a bit harder to do the same with Toro; who had been sold to the Russians and brainwashed, long before Bucky got the Winter Soldier treatment! The Torch manages to rescue his friend, who later snaps out of his conditioning when his "pappy" is in trouble. (It kind of sucks that I think both the Torch and Toro are alive in continuity right now, but don't really get the chance to hang out or anything, anymore than Cap and Bucky really do.) The blazing pair have some more adventures, until radiation from the atomic blast finally overheats the Torch, and he flames up over the desert and crashes. Toro covers the hole the Torch melted into, and would later be "killed" by the Mad Thinker, who would then revive the Torch to use against Johnny Storm and the Fantastic Four, in Fantastic Four Annual #4, which really isn't gone into. Furthermore, then a bunch of events don't happen and likewise aren't brought up, as the Torch wasn't rebuilt as the Vision, as was thought for some years. He would return in Avengers West Coast #50, and has been kind of hanging around ever since; although I know he's been depowered or deactivated more than a couple times.

Man, I kind of wish the Torch hadn't been used as set dressing/an Easter Egg in the first Captain America movie: it's neat, but if we're not going to see more, why bother? Maybe if the FF ever get off the ground, they'll come back to it. Read more!

I'm a casual Transformers fan, and possibly a more casual G.I. Joe fan; despite the ever-growing pile of Classified figures I keep building up. But I read the book regularly for a bit around issue #100, with M.D. Bright on art, and we got this one from a quarter-bin recently: from 1990, G.I. Joe #103, "Amazing the Welkin" Written by Larry Hama, pencils by M.D. Bright, inks by Randy Emberlin.

Storm Shadow breaks into the Pentagon, to get a face-to-face meeting with "the Jugglers," a secret cabal of generals. (There's a couple M.P.'s there, which is hard to believe: those guys wouldn't want anyone that might talk--or testify--around them!) They immediately assume he's there to assassinate them, despite his recent face-turn; but Storm Shadow just wants a mission. Not for him, but for Snake-Eyes: Scarlett was currently in a coma, and fading fast; seemingly taking S-E with her. Storm Shadow demands a nice, juicy mission; to help his friend out of depression; and he had one in mind, since he had helped himself to the secret file of one George Strawhacker. The Jugglers call it blackmail, but S-S calls Strawhacker "some kind of real hero" that had been set up for a fall and was currently a prisoner in Borovia somewhere.

Most of the rest of the issue is two other plots: the Joes and the October Guard retreat in Sierra Gordo, with Roadblock and Misha injured while trying to cover their friends; while Spirit and Mutt (and presumably his dog, Junkyard!) get arrested in Millville by Hawk and Law (and his dog, Order!) While they claimed the town had been taken over by COBRA, everyone was acting normally, and with no proof Hawk had to bring them in. But, the mill workers are later triggered by the hypnotic codeword "Broca" and return to work on COBRA Terrordromes. I don't know who Cobra Commander is explaining that to in that scene, but he is obviously just thrilled to death with himself. And Scarlett's sister gets a court order, against Snake-Eyes: she claims Scarlett "never took up with a proper gentleman" because of him, but she also has the plug pulled on her life support. Storm Shadow then slaps the proverbial gauntlet down in front of Snake-Eyes: Scarlett was going to die, that was a given; but he could still save Strawhacker, who had been going to marry his twin sister before she died.

On a plane over eastern Europe, Storm Shadow pushes his friend even further; putting Snake-Eyes into the "Arashikage mindset," ninja beast-mode. As Snake-Eyes parachutes in to go to murder-town; Storm Shadow tells Stalker, it's tough-love, had to be done...also, that way, apparently neither of them had to go? Snake-Eyes has got it! But, back in New York, Scarlett wakes up from her coma, asking where Snake-Eyes was!

I had actually been looking for another M.D. Bright issue from around that time, which had an ending I really liked: some local insurgents fighting COBRA get the Joes to safety, then accept only reloads and a single shaped-charge to continue their fight...but that was maybe all they needed!

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