Is it spooky season? EEEK!

September 30? Ah, close enough. Some might consider October spooky season, but I saw a lot of Christmas stuff over the weekend. Way too much. But, I did find this from a clearance rack, too: from 2010, EEEK! #1, stories and art by Jason Paulos. Cover by Aly Fell. 

Paulos delivers 16 (!) short stories here, in the vein of classic Creepy or Eerie. Highlights include "Thrill Killer," in which a creep decides to try his hand at murdering strangers, but soon finds he's hardly the only one; and "Six Digit Disaster," where a spacefaring crook makes a fatal counting error. I think Paulos may still be crunching out horror tales for Asylum Press; good for him. 

As usual, I don't have a plan in my head, but do I have enough horror comics within arm's reach for the next month...? Mmm, tomorrow's book probably doesn't qualify as horror; but I guess it depends who you ask.

See if you can go halfsies on this one!

On my spinner rack, I have a couple issues of his original 1992 series and his 2017; but I haven't made a lot of progress completing either. Ghost Rider appears on the cover of 1993's #4, which might be tougher to find; and the 2017 is probably like his Mercs for Money teammate Solo, in that the latter issues of this one are going to be more scarce. Still, this one's here now, so...from 2017, Slapstick #2, "Saturday Morning Massacre!" Written by Reilly Brown and Fred Van Lente, storyboards by Reilly Brown, art by Diego Olortegui.

I think I've seen him guest a few times--like maybe a really bad Marvel Comics Presents serial--and then with the Mercs for Money, but this might be the first Slapstick I've read? Huh. Short origin, he entered a portal to another dimension, while dressed as a clown? Now he's made of "electroplasm" and is basically an indestructible cartoon character. Still, he'd like to be human again, and has started working with the computer Quasimodo; who also had body issues. This issue, Slapstick gets dragged to a football with his niece, nephew, and best friend; which is interrupted by the arrival of Bro-Man! Slappy doesn't exactly leap into action, since he learned to hold out for a cash offer from Deadpool; and the cartoon barbarian hacks the cops up, since he appeared to be indestructible like Slapstick.

The fight doesn't go great for Slapstick, when he finally gets in there, and there's also a Spider-Man pinned-by-something-heavy riff. Eventually, he halves Bro-Man, and takes half the body back to Quasimodo; but the remaining half manages to get a message to S.H.I--no, a division of that, A.R.M.O.R. Who follow him home, to his parents' basement, and Slapstick and Quasimodo are taken into custody. Slapstick puts up a brave front, then caves hard; and the government probably would throw the book at him for trying to open a portal to another dimension. Except, another threat has appeared in Westfield, the Smurf/My Little Pony hybrid Taurs. Will A.R.M.O.R. be forced to work with Slapstick? You can tell, they really don't want to, but...

So the story goes, when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were working on Amazing Spider-Man, when it came time to unmask the Green Goblin, that Ditko didn't think it should be someone they had seen before, but Lee thought it if was Harry Osborn's dad Norman, that would be more dramatic. That story may or may not be true, but you shouldn't assume every masked character is someone you actually know. Like today's book! From 2001, Universe X #8, story by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger, pencils by Doug (Dougie) Braithwaite, inks by Bill Reinhold. 

I've mentioned before, I haven't done a big re-read of the Earth X/Universe X/Paradise X epic for some time; but I keep picking up random issues out of the cheap bins. Could I put together another run of it? Doubtful, that'd be like 40-some books total (if you stick to the original!) and includes #0's, #1/2's, specials...This issue, the Earth X narrator Aaron Stack joins up with this title's narrator, Kyle Richmond--Machine Man and Nighthawk, although neither are near their classic looks! They go after Isaac, the Gargoyle, who had betrayed Kyle to Mephisto in exchange for getting to feel again; but Mephisto tells him, "you could always 'feel' guilt, Isaac."

The current Daredevil was an unkillable, um, daredevil; a circus performer who may or may not have been anyone we actually knew. (At this point, anyway; someone might sub in later!) New York City was basically a colossal riot today, but DD is lamenting the lack of his audience; when he's approached by Ransak the Reject, who was looking for Reed Richards, since he could cure the mutations that had been caused by the Terrigen Mists. Which I don't think would help Ransak; who, like Harvey Dent in Dark Knight Returns, was convinced he was hideous. Ransak doesn't have his usual pal Karkas here, to keep him level. The NYPD, which included Peter Parker and Luke Cage, was all that stood between a colossal mob of mutates bent on destroying the "Human Torch" built by Richards, that was designed to cure humanity. A paunchy, accountant-looking Iceman maintains ice walls around it, while wondering when his old pal Warren became so gloomy...and unstylish. Daredevil confronts "Mr. Church," actually Mephisto, and his Church of Immortus. DD refuses to join, because he wants them to kill him; Warren sees the crowd tear him apart but is unable to help.

There's a brief aside to Wakanda, where Mar-Vell's group asks the Black Panther for the Cosmic Cube: the Panther's Earth X mutation is a rare miss from Ross, since it's just T'Challa with a realistic panther head. Back in Latveria, the reunited Reed and Sue Richards may not have much time left together, as the mob of mutated humanity attacks, and the Tong of Creel is there as well, intent on reassembling the Absorbing Man. The Thing's cheerful kids, Buzz and Chuck, try to defend them; but Creel's head and Doom's time machine are both gone. Ransak the Reject arrives in time, with the "Monster Generation," mutated humans who wanted to be un-mutated. 

Re-checking the reading order, the Beasts special was next: it's a dark one!

"Bow."

Kate's close rate would be pretty impressive, if any of her cases led to convictions or anything. It's more like Kolchak or the X-Files, where the mystery might be solved, but not resolved in a concrete manner. That and I feel like she gets double-crossed, so much.

Wouldn't zombie Bane just be Solomon Grundy?

From 2022, Task Force Z #2, "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow." Written by Matthew Rosenberg, pencils by Eddy Barrows, inks by Eber Ferreira. The cover has the more delightful, "Bane, Bane, go away!"

I am super-not-up on current DC continuity, and I thought this was going to be in the DC zombie DCeased continuity, since I know there were a bunch of spin-offs for it. Nope! This was in regular continuity, and was yet another Jason Todd/Red Hood title. I'm really curious about his sale numbers now, since I feel like he's popular enough he keeps getting new titles, but he's not quite popular enough to maintain them? Or, like Venom in the 90's, everything he gets is designed to be a limited series, so a creative crew can do their story then hand it off. This also appeared to be kind of like something the Amazing Spider-Man books did a bit ago with Clone Conspiracy, namely, bringing back a bunch of dead characters in one go. Here, several have returned to life via the "Lazarus resin," which seems quicker than trundling their corpses all the way to a pit in Tibet or whatever.

So far, Task Force Z hadn't hit the ground running, as Jason nearly gets frozen to death by Mr. Freeze and eaten by the Arkham Knight. (I haven't played that game, I have no idea who that was in continuity!) Bane and Man-Bat had been killed, again; and Jason is barely saved by Bloom. Still, this is just a minor setback, or so his handlers claim: as long as their heads were still intact, they could be revived. Jason tries to tactfully suggest, do they have to? Really? The Arkham Knight, Astrid Arkham, apologizes to Jason for trying to eat him, but explains she can't quit the Force either, as without the resin she'd die. (I think with a full dose or treatment, she might be okay, but the handlers might be stringing them along with partial medication.)

The Force's next mission is pitched to Jason as a meeting, but they find a gathering of the Kobra Kult in an abandoned theatre, which leads to a fight after Man-Bat Leeroy Jenkin's that one. I also don't know how long he's had these, but Jason appears to be using electrified crowbars as his weapon, which...feels like a bit much. Bane is doing pretty well, until he caves in the floor and falls, possibly out of the title; but the Arkham Knight turns out the lights to release another member, the vampire-like Sundowner. The mission's sort-of a win, except Jason gets shot, by the revived corpse of Deadshot! 

I'm not positive how I got this comic--possibly in a pack or something? But, still, it was better than I was anticipating. I like the idea of Jason, who's usually the loose cannon, forced to be the adult in the room with the corpses.

It wasn't the first annual I ever read--that was probably Star Wars Annual #1, co-incidentally also by Claremont--but X-Men Annual #6 was one of the first for me; which in hindsight is almost a shame, since it's better than just about any annual since? Great story, Sienkiewicz art, friggin' Dracula; the only misstep is it kills off a Tomb of Dracula character in such a way that I don't think she's ever come back. Just as a package, though, pound for pound, it's a great comic, in a way annuals would rarely be later. Like today's book! From 1993, X-Men Annual #2, "A Bluer Slice of Heaven" Written by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Aron Wiesenfeld, inks by Al Milgrom, Bob Wiacek, and Keith Williams.

I had to look this up, since to compare this to X-Men Annual #6 again, that one was only 39 pages; I definitely would have said it was longer, as way more happens in it. This one's 64 pages, but the lead story is 45, then a 10-page throwaway Scott Lobdell/Ian Churchill Beast story. Although there were annuals chock-full of back-up features and pin-ups before--Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15 comes to mind, although the lead story is so good it carries it--for several years, starting maybe around X-Factor Annual #3 and the Evolutionary War crossover, it became exceedingly rare for an annual to make full use of it's page count, instead featuring a slightly longer lead-story, then shorter stuff of often varying quality. And we're nattering on about this, rather than getting into this issue's plot, since...? Most of the story is incremental steps of the larger ongoing plotline, and brief character bits. Or caricature: here's Scott and Jean being melodramatic about their relationship and the hardships of X-life, here's Beast in the lab grinding away, here's Gambit borderline sexually harassing. Beast does have a line about having to act all "morally perturbed and angst-ridden as everyone else" just to be taken seriously; he was just getting started on work on the Legacy Virus, and in a brief shot is drawn more lean than his usual broad-shouldered cartoon version. It probably isn't intentional, but it feels like a last goodbye to the old, fun Beast; you wouldn't be seeing him anytime soon. (Ah, I say that, but also feel like Joe Madureira maybe made him look fun, briefly.)

This also tries to set up a new villain, or at least antagonist: what he actually wants is supposed to be morally grey but instead just feels vague? It's Jonathan Chambers--no, not Chamber, this was Empyrean, who had some empathic emotion absorbing/redirecting powers. He was also setting up what he as much as calls a "leper colony" for mutants with the Legacy Virus, so he had the stricken Pyro there, along with the rest of the Brotherhood; who are reunited with estranged members Avalanche and the formerly Crimson Commando, now just Commando, saying he felt like the Crimson had been bled out of him on their last failed mission. (Although created in the 80's, CC had been a WWII hero, now cyborg'd up, not unlike Erik Larsen's Superpatriot.) There's a bit of a fight, but it's supposed to be open as to whether Empyrean is helping stricken mutants, or exploiting them; I think that would come down pretty solidly on the exploiting side later. Recurring government-man d-bag Henry Peter Gyrich makes an appearance, which I don't think was entirely common for the X-books? I'm used to him making things worse for the Avengers, and can't recall if he had any particular racism or was just always on the government's side.

Also, this was an early appearance of Kwannon, as Revanche, a name I never got: so, Betsy Braddock had got put in her (Japanese) body, while she got Betsy's British, purple haired one. Which, this issue, is revealed to have contracted the Legacy Virus. There's almost the germ of an idea, with Kwannon and Betsy playing off of each other; but it's ground to pulp in the mill of the X-Men soap opera long before anything really comes of it. She'd be back, much much later. The Legacy Virus plotline would run, usually in the background, from 1992 to Uncanny #390 in 2001: it was maybe intended as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS, but is somewhat muddled, since mutants could get it randomly.

I wouldn't be 100% comfortable hearing that from anyone, but particularly Hal Jordan.

Even though I liked when Palmiotti and Gray brought Jonah to the future for a bit in All-Star Western, I haven't liked some of the modern-day type Hex stuff I've seen recently. Maybe this issue will turn things around--aw, Bendis? Boo. From 2019, Batman Universe #4, reprinting stories from Batman Giant #9 and #10, written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Nick Derington.

On the trail of a Faberge egg stolen by Vandal Savage, Green Lantern and Batman end up in western times, in front of none other than Jonah Hex! The egg had belonged to his great-grand-daughter Jinny and somehow zapped them there; and a strangely deferential Batman talks things through with "Colonel Hex." (I'm not sure, but I think this whole story is a kindler, gentler Bats than the usual scowling "my way or the highway" know-it-all; which I maybe don't mind?) I don't think there's really continuity to speak of at DC anymore, so despite the fact that they hadn't met each other before, and Hex probably hadn't been back-and-forth in time or anything, he still believes them because their story is too much hogwash to not be true. They take a break to pick up period clothing, although Hal is concerned that his ring only has 39 minutes of charge left. (Was it a 24-hour charge again? I don't remember.) Still, he is able to fly them to the mining town where Jonah had seen Vandal, before his ring weirds out and he disappears! (I suspect Bendis only wanted to use Hal for a bit in the story, and this was the easiest way to get him out of it. Or maybe he was just sick of Hal.)

Jonah and Batman are left to face Vandal Savage, and his army of ninja-type assassins; and oddly enough Batman still tries to talk it out? Perhaps just as a means of exposition between chapters, but still. Vandal considers leaving Batman in the past, where he would probably be happier? But, he can't ignore the fact that Batman would probably "build a time machine out of rocks and pond water just to spite me," so he and Hex are gonna have to go; but that's why he was paying the assassins anyway, so...Hex puts a couple square into Vandal, which just annoys him, and Hex, and me: I thought Vandal was originally just long-lived, not necessarily Wolverine-type unkillable. In the ensuing fight, the egg again does something weird, picking up Batman, and zapping him back to Gotham, to Crime Alley!

Batman is momentarily worried that he isn't back to his present, but Alfred quickly reaches him on his earwig communicator. Bats isn't worried about the stuff he left in the past, saying it was built to self-destruct; but he's mildly concerned Vandal had seen his face. Still, he's thrilled Alfred took the Lamborghini to pick him up, except Alfred hadn't left yet--it's Vandal Savage, who had been waiting--and planning--for 150 years for that moment! He blasts Batman with a ray gun and grabs the egg, leaving Batman dying in the rain under a streetlight...to be continued? 

These were originally in the Wal-Mart exclusive Batman Giants, and checking my shelves, as typical for me, I had a couple random issues of it? The distribution locally could be spotty, and I'm not sure I would clamored for it every month since I already read Hush, which was reprinted again there; but there were also Batgirl and Nightwing New 52-era reprints. An earlier chapter of this egg storyline involves Gorilla City, the Riddler, and Thanagar; I think Bendis was trying to play with as many toys as he could!

Any other artist, I would bet Hercules got a simplified costume two issues later.

From 1977, Hercules Unbound #11, "The Dark Side of the Gods" Written by Cary Bates, art by Walter Simonson.

Oof, previous issues of this series had José Luis García-López and Wally Wood, but it barely made it to 12 issues? Also, this is a quarter-bin copy, but I have two reprints of it on the shelves; Showcase Presents the Great Disaster (the Amazon listing doesn't think it's there; I checked, it is!) and the 1989 the Art of Walter Simonson. As you might guess from the former book, this was set during DC's "Great Disaster" period, a vague number of years post-World War III, and the Atomic Knights guest-star here, helping Herc forge his new outfit, before they inadvertently destroy one of Detroit's "Big Three" factories. The GCD mentions, in the previous issue where the Atomic Knights appear there were tie-ins to OMAC continuity, which would lead to Kamandi: men could still talk at this point, so the "Great Disaster" might have actually been yet to come! (Or, this might have gotten bumped to another alternate earth besides that presumably got wiped in Crisis on Infinite Earths, 'cause that's fun.)

At the start of this series, Hercules had been found by the blind boy Kevin, chained to a rock in the Mediterranean for centuries. Herc had gotten free, although wasn't entirely sure how he had done so then, or maybe why he'd been chained up in the first place. Still, he had some adventures with Kevin, his dog Basil, and a young woman named Jennifer; but those appeared to be coming to an end. By the end of this issue, Jennifer was dead, Kevin had some weird power, and the gods in Olympus finally get through with a message, imploring Hercules to "destroy the deadly scourge" while he was able. Kevin tears off at Jennifer's funeral, stealing their flying wing transport, although Herc is able to leap aboard in time to go with him, back to the island he had been chained to; where Kevin is seemingly unmasked--as Ares! Who was planning to release the "Anti-Gods," which doesn't sound great: think "Skin of Evil," there would be more than a bit of exposition in the next, final issue.

I did like the stylised representations of the gods; I don't know if that had been established earlier in the series, or if Simonson just threw that in.

"Remembered."

How do those TempPads wipe memories...? Uh, time stuff maybe. Anyway.

I can't use "Shock to the System" again, I did that a couple of Daredevil posts ago.

Really! Maybe I should've saved it for this one: from 1993, Daredevil #315, "Shock Therapy" Written by D. G. Chichester, pencils by Scott McDaniel, inks by Bud LaRosa.

This was the conclusion of a two-parter with the debut of another new villain for DD, albeit one tied to an old one that had multiple incarnations already: Ariel Tremmore was the illegitimate daughter of Alan Fagan, the fourth Mister Fear. (I know causing fear seems like a great gimmick, but if you're the fourth to pick up the gear, maybe it's not working so great? Well, maybe it'll work for you.) To get revenge for her mom, and to bankroll health care for her; Ariel has her dad attacked in prison and part of his face removed, so she could reverse-engineer the fear juice-powers for herself. As Shock, she was able to cause "fear and hatred" all around her, just like a typical right-wing podcaster.

Daredevil was coming up on another shakeup--"Fall From Grace" was only a couple months out--but while he's not thrilled to see Mr. Fear's gimmick again, or get doused by it; he's still remarkably compassionate towards Ariel, and her victims. DD hits her with the chemicals again, to return her to "normal" (normal-looking, anyway) and asks Ben Urich to keep this one under his hat, to give the family a chance to heal. Fagan would return as Mr. Fear, and Ariel would later become Fearmaster, only to be killed by the new Punisher. I'm sure Matt will have words for that guy...(He's facing Elektra in the current Woman Without Fear series!)

Oh, good: even though I don't need any right now, I hadda check if FTD was still a thing, and it is! I was worried some venture capitalist "disruptor" would've gouged the industry until it bled to death.