I'm sure the Thing would clean out the JLA...maybe.

Even though I've seen the Thing, Wolverine, and the Avengers playing poker any number of times, I'm hard-pressed to recall the last time I saw the Justice League of America, or any DC characters, dealing out a hand. So today's issue was a pleasant surprise: Justice League of America #152, "2,000 Light-Years to Christmas!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Frank McLaughlin.

Three odd alien travelers accidentally lose their power objects on earth, and while the objects are dangerous enough in the hands of a traumatized war orphan or a wounded deer; they'd be even more trouble in the hands of the lunatic dictator Major Macabre. I'm assuming he's a lunatic based on the name...Oddly, the JLA's endgame against the Major is the opposite of their usual tactics: the rest of the League charges in to get beat down, as a distraction for Red Tornado; who usually was the first one downed.

This was the first appearance of Traya, the little girl who would eventually be adopted by Red Tornado.

No 80-pager this week, but we may see more at some point. We managed to get 82 80-Page Thursdays, though! Got this issue from the Comic Book Shop the other day, marked down to dirt cheap, so thanks again!

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An X-Men post, with no scans of the X-Men, 'cause that's how we roll...

Today, a book from the dollar bins that I was thrilled to get a replacement copy of; since I bought it off the spinner-racks in 1989 for a dollar! From Uncanny X-Men #245, "Men!" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Rob Liefeld, inks by Dan Green.

This was the second in a pair of more humorous issues, since Uncanny X-Men was about to get pretty grim again in short order. Uncanny #251 was the cover that sprang to mind there, as the team is whittled down seemingly month by month. But #244 was the ladies' night out (and the first appearance of Jubilee) and the guys' night is far more broad; as well as being a parody of DC's Invasion! While Wolverine, Havok, Colossus, and Longshot get ready for a night out; a somewhat familiar looking batch of aliens invade Australia. The Australians, for their part, are nonplussed.

While Colossus brawls with the alien troops, Longshot charms the pants off of (figuratively speaking) the winged woman warriors, and Havok drunkenly shoots down an alien battlecruiser. Wolverine faces an alien commander in poker, and bets his life against the commander's...on a bluff. The guys have a fun night, but the issue ends on a dark note, as Donald Pierce has escaped from the Hellfire Club.

Actually, despite a lot of jokes, Claremont keeps most of his regular plots going as well: Colossus still couldn't turn back into human, Dazzler was worried that her powers seemed to be leveling up, and Wolverine didn't like the Reavers' surveillance systems watching him, telling Havok they may have corrupted Madeline Pryor and could do the same to him. So still a lot going on!

Still, I was glad to get this again, because I had a friend that just hated the cover...
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By now, we've seen the Thing try to make that straight, more often than we've seen him punch Dr. Doom...

Yet another one of Ben Grimm's famous poker games, and while we've seen Cap and Nick Fury dealt in before, we've got Reed in as well. I don't think Mr. Fantastic plays that often, though: figure it has to impossible for Reed to not count cards.


Sadly, not only does Nick not beat Cap's straight flush, he gets called away on a mission involving the Mandarin and statues coming to life. I would've rather watched the rest of the poker game, yeah. From Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #24, "The Camouflaged Commemoratives Affair" Written by Doug Murray, pencils by Norm Dwyer, inks by Jack Torrance.
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Do I have a tag for the Thing's poker games yet? I should.

It's another of the Thing's classic poker games, but with a couple of new wrinkles: Ben gets thrown into another dimension where the Fantastic Four formed in...1961! Instead of ten years ago or so in Marvel time. The FF's history unfolded in real time, so by 1998 Reed and Sue are semi-retired and on an archeological dig on Mars, Johnny married Crystal and had a couple of kids, and even Franklin's old enough to be married himself!

The seemingly ageless Thing pieces together what happened, but still makes his Wednesday night game; this time with the likewise still-youngish Thor, Wolverine, and Dr. Strange. Strange does have the bad news that Bruce Banner has just died, a heart attack while turning into the Hulk at age 70. After discovering that Ben isn't their Ben, a curious Wolverine grills him for info on his world's Spider-Man, since there, as Thor puts it: "He is forever young!"

From Fantastic Four Annual 1998, "In the Best of Families" Written by Karl Kesel, pencils by Stuart Immonen, inks by Cam Smith. A great single issue, that you could probably still pick up for a song. Kesel did more than a couple fill-ins and specials like this for the FF, but never seemed to get the full-time writer spot. And he should've.

That's it for this week: I stubbed my left middle finger on something, and it would quit bothering me if I lay off here...


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We've long since established around here that I have virtually no filing system. But, sometimes the comics find themselves in just the right place at the right time.

Flipping through a box, I first found Marvel Two-in-One #75, "By Blastaar--Betrayed!" Written by Tom DeFalco, art by Alan Kupperberg and Chic Stone. I grabbed it since it recently came up in the comments over at Comics Should Be Good's discussion of Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7. Which is better, but #75 isn't bad. And it got a great in-house ad, which still appears in the issue it advertises.

Ben's excited to clear out the rest of the Fantastic Four, just in time for his latest poker game, this time with most of the current Avengers. Since Celebrity Poker hadn't yet sold anyone on the idea of a whole issue of cards-playing action, the game's interrupted by a distress call from the Negative Zone. ("Ben, can we please have the next game at the Mansion?")

Some highlights include both Hawkeye and the Beast referring to Nyglar as "babe." Really, guys?

The betrayal mentioned in the title isn't Blastaar betraying Nyglar, but instead Annihilus. Blastaar sets up a partnership to retake his throne, but it was a doublecross: he had already reclaimed it, and laid a trap of "political prisoners...sentenced to death!" The prisoners are then slaughtered by Annihilus' forces, which leaves them in position to be killed themselves by Blastaar's real troops. I mention this because it's a pretty crafty plan for friggin' Blastaar, and because it was probably the first time as a kid that I heard the term "political prisoners." Weird.

Short one repellor-jetpack for the trip home out of the Negative Zone, the Wasp "hitches a ride" on Iron Man's face. That didn't sound right...

Almost right next to this issue in a random box, was Wolverine Annual '99--now, that's the 1999 annual, not the 99th one, although maybe doing an annual for every year Wolvie's supposedly been alive would be something. I don't know, I bought this thing for Deadpool, who appears in the bland first story involving a poncy, Lestat-like writer who's really a werewolf.

But the backup story's where the action is, at another of Ben's poker games!

We don't see much of it this time, since Wolvie gets sent on a beer run, that ends up with Hand ninjas summoning a dragon. Like most of Logan's beer runs. Much more fun than the main story. Plus, S.H.I.E.L.D. flying car!

Bite me, Logan, I love those things. Every year that one of these doesn't come out is another nail in the coffin of the American auto industry.

Weirdly, he only goes out for a sixer: I think if Ben, Fury, and possibly She-Hulk were drinking, they'd want some more. From "Beer Run" Written by Marc Andreyko, art by Massimiliano Frezzato. But, what's your favorite Thing poker game? I don't think I have all of them, but I can think of at least three others... Read more!