Puck would maybe recognize one person on the team at that point, but I guess a lady in a flag suit would do it.

We saw Puck's secret origin some time back, and today we catch up with him after leaving the team--wait, he can do that? That feels super wrong. From 1988, Alpha Flight #59, "Comes a Dragon!" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Jim Lee, inks by Al Milgrom. 

 Despite having part of a big 'P' on his chest, Puck would be barely recognizable here: there had been a big roster change back in issue #50, and the demon Raazer had been removed from Puck, changing him back into "septuagenarian soldier-of-fortune Eugene Judd." Feeling Alpha Flight no longer needed him, as well as bemoaning the fact that Heather was seeing "Mr. Jeffries," Box; Puck had opted to head to China, in search of a mysterious monastery that supposedly had a doorway to other worlds. Uh, yeah, like every monastery in that part of the world? Are you new to the Marvel Universe? But, the Chinese army also wants the monastery, as part of defending their border with Russia, but also because they didn't approve of the priests' religion. The Red Army commander is of course, a zealot; but one of his men, Dei Guan, questions their methods.

When attacked, the priests defend themselves non-violently, with a flash of light and a force shield; but can't stand up to helicopter fire. Puck uses a chunk of plastique to create a landslide and cover the priests' retreat, but wonders if they would approve of him killing some soldiers. The commander does take that as confirmation of his own bias against the priests, and presses the attack: the priests extend their shield to protect against the helicopters, but being without malice Puck can walk through it. But, the commander had another card to play--one that had been forced upon him by, deep breath, "the running dog intellectuals who have curried favors with the Central Committee since the overthrow of Gang of Four." OK, that feels like it's laid a little thick. But he had been given a ringer: Dei Guan, who could turn himself into a good-sized Jade Dragon! The kid had lost his parents during cultural revolution, then while in a forced labor camp had been visited by a "geomancer" that gave him powers. (Or, that may have been a hallucination brought on by starvation and propaganda; Guan could simply be a mutant.) He wonders, though, if he had been given them to oppress others, and wants something different.

Meanwhile, back in Canada, on Alpha Flight's Tamarind Island base, a government official who looks like Canadian Constantine stops trespassers, who claim they were the ones trespassing: it was Veronica Langkowski and her lawyer, claiming the island was hers since the death of her husband Walter, a.k.a. Sasquatch. Pretty sure he was in the white 'quatch body, of his old teammate Snowbird; there would be a lot of explaining needed there. You may be wondering why that subplot would even matter: this was written back when popular fiction at least pretended a government would maybe obey legalities and not just cry 'national security' and do whatever they wanted to. Back in China, Puck makes a dramatic, window-smashing entrance to the monastery, where the High Lama pretty immediately tells him he wasn't worthy: Puck may have thought he wanted to be rid of his old life, but the Lama knows he just wants new adventures. Well, so what? Still, was Puck ready to die, to see what lay beyond? He doesn't really get much time to think about it, as Jade Dragon storms in, and also thinks the worst of the Lama for associating with an obvious spy-subversive type like Puck. Although he makes a good effort, Puck knows he's no match for the dragon, but at least he's going out a "free agent." The Lama also knows that isn't what Puck really wants, and takes a flame-breath blast for him, getting immediately incinerated, but freeing him to move onto the next life. While Jade Dragon turns on his commander to protect the remaining priests, the Lama appears as a Force ghost (no!) to tell Puck he could accompany him to other worlds...like this one where Alpha Flight was currently fighting Dreamqueen!

Although his feelings were still hurt, Puck can't let Alpha Flight die, but instead of being sent there, Dreamqueen is seemingly released, with her army, into our world! Alpha Flight is also brought there, even if I don't seem to recognize half the team; and the Chinese army is less than thrilled by any of this. To be continued! 

This was of course Jim Lee, before he was JIM LEE, but it's rock-solid and maybe a bit less flash, more fundamentals. It's maybe weirder to think of Alpha Flight without Puck; that feels like Wolverine quitting the X-Men. And while it seemed like Puck was back, that might've been short-lived, and it also might've been a bit before he was his usual self.  

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I'm usually more ahead in my posting, but...

Sometimes, if for some reason I'm not watching Star Trek reruns, I'll put in a DVD while I'm maybe going to be blogging. But, the audio is sometimes an issue: if it doesn't have captions, for instance, I might have to pay more attention, especially for something as wacky as Kung-Fu Zombies! There was a stretch about a year ago or two when the local dollar stores were getting DVD's and even some Blu-Rays--I think they were actually a dollar even, so maybe it was a bit ago. There were a few name brand ones in there: I know I got Child's Play, Return of the Living Dead, and the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But, there were a lot more cheap ones, and I'm having to go back through some of them and label them if they're awful, so I don't accidentally watch something like The Strangers: Prey at Night again. (Spoiler alert: it suuuuuuucked! It wasn't even my least favorite part, but the dad is pleading for his life, after his wife, Christina Hendricks, was killed: no, just kill me. You lose someone like her, you would give up on life at the earliest convenience.) 

Still, like we looked up before, the Criterion Closet has like 1500 discs in it, although a lot are probably duplicates. No way I'm going to get that many DVD's, but even the lowest end Criterion discs are like 15 bucks a pop new: I'm usually getting between three to fifteen DVD's for that! I did splurge about six bucks each for Event Horizon--the bestest horror movie I will never say an unkind word about--and, as I think H. suggested, Judge Dredd which...maybe has some good bonus features or something? I don't know if I'll watch the latter for spooky-season. Along with, um, six more movies in that Kung-Fu Zombies set, I still have the recent Nosferatu (wow, Nicholas Hoult is in everything!) and the first Black Phone; before I start digging back into Tubi or Shudder. I say that now, but I might see what they've got; and see you next week!

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I don't see how you're going to use disaster power for your planet's energy, but I guess I'm not the alien scientist.

All the days after the Great Disaster probably run together, and this might be a typical one for the Last Boy on Earth. From 1976, Kamandi #38, "Pyra Revealed" Written and edited by Gerry Conway, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Mike Royer.

While Kamandi is captured by a strange band of humans--they look human so far, which means they're probably going to peel their skin off any minute--Pyra's spaceship had been shot down and crashed, and after she pulls the shaken Dr. Canus from the wreck, the alien girl tells him her story. Her people, the Zirandians, were basically fireballs that occasionally took humanoid form to build or work; but when the planet started running out of energy, Pyra was sent searching for new sources, and saw what she later learned was the Great Disaster--whatever it was--from far in space, and began investigating earth. Unfortunately, most of earth was a flaming ruin by the time she arrived, with no one that could tell her what happened. She began collecting "artifacts," up to and apparently including the Great Sphinx from Egypt, and teleporting them back to Zirandus. But, she hadn't heard back from them, in all the decades she had been there.

One of the humans of "the tribe" had seemingly been a talking baby, and the girl Arna takes Kamandi to "the stalls." The tribe was what was left of a "top secret experimental population center," breeding children that grew from infancy to adulthood inside of three years...but they would also die around five or six. Arna asks Kamandi to put his hand in a machine, and he obliges, getting surprised with a "ZAZZZK" and a numb hand! Arna tells him that's only temporary, but that he'll soon be a father! The machine took "a reading of his genetic pattern," seemingly not even taking cells? And combining them with Arna's...shades of A Boy and His Dog there; not even having kids the fun way.

Kamandi, freaked, takes off running; and Arna gives chase, not just to get him back, but because losing a prisoner would be a sign of weakness and a death sentence in the tribe; so the guards were after them both. By the time Kamandi gets to a boat, the whole tribe was after them: a gaggle of really pissed off children with guns. As usual, Kamandi's too soft-hearted to leave Arna to die, so takes her onboard, but accidentally throws the boat into full speed. Arna also picks a bad time to admit, the machine wasn't a "genetic sampler," but took a sample of his "life energy," and would've taken more and more if he had remained: Kamandi considers putting her off the boat, but then has to knock her out when they struggle over the controls. Still, as usual Kamandi's out of the frying pan, into the fire, as their boat is attacked--and destroyed--by a giant lobster! Which seems a fairly typical Kamandi cliffhanger, as the next issue blurb teases "The Air-quarium!"

This was the first issue scripted by Gerry Conway, and Kirby only had a couple left on pencils. Read more!

"Deep."

In Mark Waid's Fantastic Four run, there were repeated jokey references to Ben and Johnny using, and probably abusing, the time machine. Reed had put notes all over like "THIS IS NOT A TOY" and "REMEMBER THE ALAMO," as well as repeatedly asking them to leave poor Davy Crockett alone, for some reason. Whenever he wants to go off by himself, I'm positive Ben has routines set up with H.E.R.B.I.E., maybe dating back to his Two-in-One days. Reed almost certainly could override those if he wanted, but doubtless at least tries to respect Ben's privacy. Also, I know Reed likes H.E.R.B.I.E. too much to T-Bob him like the character from M.A.S.K.. 

If you have too many toys or watch too much TV, you might recognize the recall devices: the bigger ones are WildC.A.T.s communicators, and I've had to type a lot of acronyms today. The little white one is a GDO from Stargate: SG-1. I had another device in mind for Ben's big-button remote; the big-antenna'd thing Madame Masque was using here.  

I would love to have a time sled vehicle, but it would be probably kind of big; since it needs like seven seats or spots.  Hey, we don't have human-Ben Grimm or She-Thing/Sharon Ventura, either! 

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The twist wasn't Identity Crisis-level bad, but I still booed the reveal.

Don't let this put you off getting them, but the day I got my shots, I felt pretty good and had fun getting DVD's the rest of the day; then the next day was really muddled through work and had a brutal headache in the afternoon. Then I took a nap, read some comics, and am all better? Even if they weren't my favorite comics: from 2019, Event Leviathan #1-6, written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Alex Maleev.

This feels mean to say, and might not be completely accurate, but it feels like Bendis is following the same path as Chris Claremont, and maybe even Jack Kirby: coming over from Marvel, they were seen as a big get for DC, then their DC stuff maybe didn't take off as expected. (Were the New Gods or the Demon big for DC at first? Sure, they made hay off of them over the years, but...) Event Leviathan was a spy/detective story, as the detectives try to figure out, what happened to all the spies? The big spy/clandestine organizations of the DC Universe--Argus, Spyral, the D.E.O., Cadmus, and probably Kobra on the bad guys side--are all seemingly wiped out; everyone that worked for them gone, even the buildings destroyed. Amanda Waller and Sam Lane are both attacked, with Waller disappearing and Lane hospitalized after a heart attack. Batgirl and Green Arrow are taken, with GA returned and Batgirl offered a spot in the new organization Leviathan was putting together. Several people are framed or set up as patsies, including Steve Trevor and the Red Hood. Even Lois is seen as a potential suspect, or a red herring, by some.

With Superman gone for part of this, Lois Lane teams up with Batman, and they put together a team of detectives to work the case: Plastic Man, the Kate Spencer Manhunter, GA, the Question, and Damian. Lois also sets up a group of mostly magic-types to work it as well: Zatanna, Constantine, Ralph Dibny, Harvey Bullock, Deathstroke. Damian maybe figures out the motive, telling a story Alfred had told him, about how being a spy largely blows: like so many jobs, it maybe isn't about what you actually accomplish, as much as it's about looking busy. Still, Leviathan seems to be going out of his (or her!) way, to avoid a big body count: it's implied that most of the missing spies joined him (or her!) in a mission to make the world for-real better, by revealing everyone's secrets, all at once. Still, I don't think Leviathan's reveal was fair play, even if you had been reading DC comics non-stop since the mid-80's or longer, but there are clues! Spoilers after the break! Batgirl was offered a job: Leviathan had worked with her as Oracle before, almost from the start. Bullock had been involved with Checkmate back in the day, which had a crossover with Suicide Squad and some other books. Manhunter realizes she's being set up as a suspect, and her tech is bugged with super-science. Leviathan tries to explain his goals to Superman, and reveals himself, as Mark Shaw, the 80's Manhunter! Making this like his second heel turn, after being used to kill some of the others that had used the name in Kate's book. Sam Lane had become aware of the discontent in the intelligence communities, with intelligent and good-intentioned people frustrated by never getting anything done: he had meant it as warning, Mark took it as a roadmap for action. He tries to turn Superman, revealing that Spyral had files for contingencies labeled--apparently literally--"things to do in case the Son of Superman hits puberty badly."

Actually, Mark probably had some heel-turns before I started reading him: he had been the Privateer and the Star-Tsar in old Justice League of America issues. I don't love the new mask at all though; either the full Leviathan one or the partial eyepatch like one, which maybe is a callback his Privateer days? Lois Lane writes an expose revealing Mark's new identity, but she didn't really have to do a lot of investigative work: he told Superman, who tells her, fairly straightforwardly. There's also a bit of Manhunter history, which New 52 either glosses over or outright cuts out Millennium: the Manhunters were basically the Green Lantern Corps before Green Lanterns, and had liberated multiple worlds...just not earth, which Shaw describes as "unfair," "total chaos," and "a circus." He's not wrong, but good luck bucking that status quo with Superman, Batman, etc. protecting it.

I can't quite tell if this is something anybody could've figured out: somebody had told me Manhunter was in this, but I assumed--rather, hoped--they just meant Kate Spencer. Plotwise I might not love it, but Bendis's real strength is dialogue, and there are some zingers here and there; although there's too many characters for anyone to get a lot. Read more!

I mentioned a bit ago, not being real up on current Batman continuity. But, I had a random issue from two years back handy; let's see if that does anything. From 2023, Batman #136 (Legacy #901), "Dusk to Dawn" Written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Belen Ortega.

I was trying to remember an issue, I want to say after "War Games," where Bruce takes a couple drinks, and everyone seems to think that was the worst thing in the world he could ever do; but if you drink every time he says "I'm fine" this issue, you will get more messed up! After a multiversal trip, Bruce gets a checkup from Mr. Terrific, and physically he's doing well; but emotionally? The wedding with Selina had recently fallen through, the Penguin was supposedly dead and that activated Batman's robot "Failsafe" against him, there was a multiverse full of Jokers out there, and Batman was losing time to his backup personality Zur En Arrh, who tells Bruce that Batman can't be weak. Batman gets back out into Gotham to intimidate the Penguin's kids, who were moving into illegal gambling there; then visits the incognito Selina at her favorite bagel shop. She had just broken out of jail, and Bats wishes she had let him use his lawyers to try and free her legally; but Selina is a bit more hands-on than that, and wanted a fresh start, not unlike the Penguin, who had faked his death for just that...Batman is stunned to hear that, since the Penguin's "death" had set Failsafe on him and his family. While he wishes they didn't have secrets from each other, Selina accurately points out they were both "all secrets," which prompts Bruce to admit he had just been in another universe's Gotham, where he fell for another universe's Selina, who betrayed him. That feels like a bit much, and Selina's less mad about that, then that Bruce has secrets even from himself.

After Selina leaves him in the rain, Batman gets an alarm message: someone was at Wayne Manor, where he didn't currently live. (And Alfred's still dead? Feels like that's lasted a spell.) He races there, expecting maybe the worst, since Zur En Arrh had built a backup Batcave under his; but instead finds the kids. All of them, from Dick down to Duke. They wanted to have breakfast with him, to see how he was: Bruce keeps it together, but inwardly is almost panicked, that he can't see what's coming next, he was blind as a bat...

Also this issue: "The Plans Below" Written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Jorge Corona. Some time back, when Alfred was still alive and Batman much newer, Zur En Arrh takes over for a bit, to test the Failsafe robot. They seem to agree there were lines that Batman, as a concept, couldn't cross; but Failsafe also seems to have an existential dilemma: if Batman goes too far and it stops him, then what does it do? Zur En Arrh tells the robot to await further programming, then lets Bruce/Batman take over again, after telling him to "be better" than taking hits from random thugs.

Coming into this cold, it felt familiar? Possibly because some bits reference other stories: I'm not sure I read all of Grant Morrison's Zur En Arrh stuff, but Failsafe feels like a callback to Mark Waid's "Tower of Babel." That and as usual, Batman has support just about everyone else in the multiverse can only wish for: a cadre of sidekicks and tech support, contacts with the JSA and JLA and everyone else; and yet he still goes it alone, because he's Batman. Geez, even his backup personality seems to work with others better, come on. Also, although we only see his early form this issue, and the clock is running out for McFarlane's DC license, there's a Failsafe figure coming. Reading the bio there just made me more angry at Bruce and his overplanning. Read more!

If even Thunderbolt Ross admits "yeah, that was a bad decision," you KNOW it's bad.

During the Red Hulk/Thunderbolt Ross era of...Thunderbolts; there's an issue--#7--where the rest of the team--Deadpool, Elektra, the Flash Thompson Venom, and the Punisher--decide they've had enough and try to jump him. And get clobbered, just shellacked. And Ross even had a secret weapon in reserve, one that even worried him, as he discusses today with Flash: from 2013, Thunderbolts #13, written by Charles Soule, art by Phil Noto.

On this team's first mission, Mercy had slaughtered a band of armed rebels, effortlessly and somewhat thoughtlessly; and Flash finally confronts her on it. She tells him, he no longer interests her: maybe once, when he had lost his legs and wanted to die, but now that he had "this creature," the Venom symbiote...testing a theory, Mercy tears the symbiote off Flash. Although he wants it back, Mercy can see he no longer wanted to die, so swipe left, bored now. Taking the symbiote back, Flash stomps into Ross's office...is it weird that even as vigilantes, Ross still has a desk and files like he was still a general? Ross downplays Flash's accusations of him "keeping a monster," since hey, what was one more? But he was unaware, and mildly dismayed, to hear Mercy had taken out those rebels, even if they probably weren't good guys. The amount of control Ross had over the rest of his 'team' was largely contingent on if he, as the Red Hulk, could currently reach them; but that didn't work on Mercy; and he tells Flash her story, as much as he knew.

Mercy had fought the Hulk--"the other Hulk"--and lost, going into a dormant, coma-like state. (Ross describes it like she had lost a punch-up, like she was the Abomination or something; but I believe it was more that Mercy wasn't able to 'help' the Hulk by putting him out of his misery, and she didn't know how to deal with that.) The Army had tried to study her, but learned nothing, and basically walled her up and left her. Ross describes the Army as like a "hoarder," and says he himself hung on to stuff like that...just in case. He had taken a couple soldiers with him, but didn't know one had just been left by his wife, and was pretty wrecked by it: enough that Mercy could feel it, killing him, then disappearing. Much later, as the Red Hulk, Ross investigated a report from the Himalayas, of a strange temple, where travelers went not in search of wisdom or healing, but to die. Mercy had taken a Kali-like form, and was pretty happy with her set up: people that wanted to die came to her, she killed them. So, what's the problem? Ross was still mad over the loss of his soldier: he was depressed, sure, but he probably would've come out of it. He thinks he can stop her, but killing everyone that come there to die, Mercy picks up enough juice to launch the Red Hulk off of her mountain. It was a good hit, but he recovers, climbs back up, and causes an avalanche to crush her temple.

Appearing as a young woman with purple hair--fairly normal looking, not alien or distorted like she maybe did back in her early Hulk appearances--Mercy tells him, now she had to go back out into the world, probably killing all willy-nilly. Ross makes a judgement call, that he admits to Flash was not a great decision; offering her "all the death you need" with his Thunderbolts. Mercy agrees to stay...for as long as she was interested. Neither Ross nor Flash now, had any idea what to do with Mercy: they couldn't control her, the best they could do was maybe point her at targets that deserved to die. Although, if said targets didn't want to die, did Mercy have any power over them? I can see the creative team maybe wanting a player on the team that Ross couldn't just Red Hulk over, but Mercy was a wild card with vague rules. And there would apparently be some reveals for her later, that I think make even less sense? She seemed possibly alien in her first appearances, or perhaps a metaphysical manifestation like Death; later in this series she would be neither. And I think Ross might make more bad decisions regarding her then... Read more!

The current Space Ghost book from Dynamite? Pretty good! The current Green Lantern books...um. Hmm. I know I had picked up one recently with a fun cover that wasn't as fun inside, so I'm not as sure. Today's book: back on the fun side, mostly! From 2017, Green Lantern/Space Ghost Special #1, "The Wonders of Space" Written by James Tynion IV and Christopher Sebela, art by Ariel Olivetti. Olivetti had done other Space Ghost stuff for DC and did the main cover for this one, but this is the Doug Mahnke/Christian Alamy variant.

Coming from their respective dimensions, Hal Jordan and Space Ghost land on a world in a darkened void, that believed it was alone in the universe and that there was no other life anywhere. They were becoming dicks about it, and the paid have to team up to help a scientist and his niece prove there was more to the universe (no Prime Directive for them!) although the scientist dies after getting to see the stars for the first time.

Also this issue: a deep cut from Hanna-Barbera, and a lesson in television history, from Howard Chaykin: Ruff 'n Ready! The pair had been the first color Saturday morning cartoon, Ruff the smarty cat and Reddy the dimmer dog; but they were pals instead of foes. In Chaykin's version the pair were stand-up comics, who find out their former partners were stealing their bits, which inspires them to team up themselves. It's not like the pair were Tom & Jerry, so there's probably more leeway, but there are jokes I'm surprised Chaykin got away with!

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"Busywork."

Part of the notion of this one is maybe from a book that's aged like milk: Warren Ellis's Ultimate Fantastic Four run. Instead of being from the Negative Zone, Annihilus was from the universe below ours...however that works...a universe nearing the heat death Mobius describes. So, Annihilus and his buggos were a little anxious to move up to a dimension that was warm! (That is one of the few things I recall from that run, except for the Ultimate FF being squarely in bed with the military-industrial complex: U-Reed, later the Maker, gets out of trouble by mentioning all the military applications for what he had just discovered, and T-Bolt Ross changes his tune right quick.) One of the last episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks also mentions multiversal travel being a wash: in that theory, if you open a hole into another universe, another hole will open somewhere else to balance the equation. ("Fissure Quest.") Of course, in comics, particularly Marvel comics that maybe try to explain the physics of the impossible, I think sometimes the explanation just leads to more questions.

For instance, I forget where exactly the Time Variance Authority is: it's not at the end of time (that's Vanishing Point over in the DC universe!) but somewhere outside of it, right? Pretty sure there are rules regarding relative time at the TVA, to keep people from leaving, then returning before they left and creating paradoxes all over the place.

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