Aliens vs. Ninjas vs. Sound Engineers. Wait a second...

I picked this series up for a buck an issue, but I may have been thinking of another one when I did: from 1994, Aliens: Music of the Spears, written by Chet Williamson, pencils by Tim Hamilton, inks by Timothy Bradstreet.

The series opens with a team of ninjas attacking a secure corporate facility, in a curious act of industrial espionage, to harvest an Alien facehugger egg. It's part of a convoluted plan that leads back to frustrated musician Damon Eddington, who wants the sound of an Alien for his compositions. His employer at Synsound backs Damon's request for his own ulterior motives, namely getting back at a rival corporation's executive that stole his boss's mistress. Damon records every note he can, from the Alien embryo bursting from the chest of a deluded cultist, to the Alien stalking and killing the homeless victims fed to it; but he hasn't quite found the perfect sound yet, nor are the egg's former owners finished looking for it...

As mentioned on previous Aliens posts, this story is set further on in timeline than seen in the movies: by this point, while the Aliens (or Xenomorphs or whatever) are by no means domesticated, they are on occasion harvested for the Alien Queen's royal jelly, which has different effects depending on how it's processed, or the whims of the writer. This time, it's the people's drug of choice, apparently more common and easier to get than any other. The humans have also figured out that the Aliens aren't all one big happy hive, either: a harnessed warrior called "Ol' Blue" is pressed into service as a bloodhound, but hates any hive not his own.

Not my favorite Aliens story, but certainly not unreadable either, if you're a fan who's read a few. This series is very much about sound, though; and that may or may not work for you: I often think comics about music work about as well as, I don't know, songs about fuzziness or something. But again, if you've followed Aliens for a while...you probably can hear it, can't you?
Read more!

"Just add aliens" isn't the worst plotting advice ever, I guess...

My girlfriend and I watch Falling Skies together--in fact, it's one of the few shows we do watch together. But as of yet, we haven't watched the third season finale that aired a week or two back, for reasons that are somewhat unclear to me. "Once we watch it, it's over!" was one answer. The other being, she may be worried that Falling Skies season finales have traditionally been a little weak. The first year ends with the new alien overlords revealed, and Noah Wyle's character surrenders to them...the why of the latter I don't recall, except that they needed a cliffhanger to go out on. Year two, new aliens show up, and they turn out to be fighting the earlier alien overlords. Her money seems to be on more aliens showing up, quite possibly out of nowhere in particular. Just like in today's book!

From 1992, Excalibur #47, "Come One and All to the Ugly Bug-Eyed Monster Ball" Story and art by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer. Davis is more well known as an artist, but is not too shabby a writer, either: his first eight issues writing and drawing Excalibur wrapped a ton of loose ends and red herrings (his own and other writers) from the entire run of the book to date.

More and more mysterious occurrences and alien arrivals keep piling up in the basement of the team's lighthouse, opening this issue with the newly arrived Cerise fighting Nightcrawler's N-Men. (The N-Men are the aliens formerly known as the Technet, an amusingly slapstick batch of mercenaries currently exiled on earth and trained by Nightcrawler to keep them out of trouble.) After their Marvel-misunderstanding rumble wraps up, yet another team of aliens arrive, to offer the N-Men a contract, and after some negotiation they accept. A selling point in that negotiation may have been that the aliens' psychic member has an alarming prediction:

Also this issue: on Otherworld, Captain Britain gets a recap of most of the series to date, along with the Excalibur special that didn't really add up in continuity. Love this run: just read the first eight again the other day, and wish I'd the time for the rest.

Read more!

"Lost Face."

The other day, my girlfriend got me the Masters of the Universe Classics Faceless One figure. (She wanted to get me a figure for my birthday, so I said "that one!" Thanks sweetie!) And I picked up two others (that I won't name here yet...) at Big Lots, a discount chain that picked up some of Mattel's unsold backstock in that line. Which is either just Mattel clearing out some stuff, or a slap in the face to customers asked to subscribe to the line at $24 or so, plus shipping, a figure. Depending on who you ask...

It's probably not a big conspiracy on Mattel's part or anything, but they made a bit of a choice, to ask customers to front the money via subscriptions, to continue the line. They've done the same with their DC Universe Signature Collection or however they bill it now, and their Watchmen line. Even though I pick up a figure here or there (mostly through eBay...) I do not subscribe, mostly because I just want the figures I want, not necessarily all of them. Of course I say that, then grab every ten dollar figure I can lay hands on...

Read more!

"Cell."

If you ever read Mark Gruenwald's old Captain America serial Streets of Poison, Bullseye guest-stars; and starts his appearance in a cell. Since he was able to turn anything into a deadly thrown weapon, even items like pens or paperclips or orange seeds, Bullseye was not allowed solid food, toilet paper rolls, utensils, or a bunk or toilet. His food was dispensed into a recessed bowl on the floor, his toilet was basically a hole, I'm not sure he was given as much as a blanket or a pillow...and yet Bullseye still escapes, because Bullseye is scary effective and surprisingly clever. Still, before he does, Gruenwald mentions the ACLU protesting his conditions, which would be cruel and unusual for anyone else, but weren't quite good enough to keep him in...

When I got the Batcave a couple weeks ago, this came to mind.

Read more!

Michael Golden, John Buscema, Klaus Janson, and Bill Sienkiewicz; all on the same book.

And yet I still don't think it was ever a big seller, but not for lack of trying!

Since every so often I pull a random issue of Kull out of the quarter bins, hey, here's another with a strong creative lineup: from 1984, Marvel's Kull the Conqueror #6, "Goblin Moon" Written by Alan Zelenetz, pencils by John Buscema, inks and colors by Klaus Janson.

This struck me as a somewhat more fanciful story for this run, until I remembered the zombies and flying bull from a few issues prior. Brule the Spear-slayer is charged with guarding a nobleman's daughter, but they're on the verge of being caught out-of-doors on the "Goblin Moon." Kull hears the story from several sources, of how the goblins rise on this night and offer anyone unwise or unwary enough to be out their hearts' desire, at the cost of their soul. (My heart's desire was not to lose my soul, so I don't know how they'd work that out...) Even though Kull is a barbarian, he seems to take the goblins less seriously than the "civilized" folk and would probably write the whole thing off as superstitious nonsense; but he goes to look for Brule while everyone else apparently stays home and hides under the bed.

Of course the goblins do turn out to be real, quickly tempting the nobleman's daughter with eternal beauty, then turning her into a soulless zombie-like shell. Brule resists them, until he's tempted by a shiny new spear to kill the goblins with. ("Ha! Now I'll--oh, wait...") Kull finds the entranced pair before the goblins take them back to their Tower of Madness, and although he's tempted with "wisdom and empire" he still manages to fight the goblins until the sun comes up and drives them away. Neither Brule nor the nobleman's daughter remember anything, so Kull is left with no witnesses to the existence of goblins. Which he didn't really need, everyone believed in them already, but it would've been something.

Michael Golden did the cover for this issue, but there is also a teaser for the next issue by Bill Sienkiewicz:

I don't think Sienkiewicz did anything else for the next issue, but that's a nice piece there.
Read more!

A "Ghosts" Annual titled "Ghosts." Green Lantern Annual #7!

This issue has the same title as the crossover, and I wonder if it'll be the only one that does: Green Lantern Annual #7, "Ghosts" Written by Steve Vance, pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Doug Hazlewood and Kim DeMulder.

While taking care of a highway accident, new GL Kyle Rayner is moping over his dead girlfriend Alex, missing the days when his life was a lot less complicated. Things don't get any simpler today either, since dead GL Abin Sur shows up to help him out. (At this point in continuity, Hal was dead but a Hal from the past was still around...) Abin tells Kyle something is bringing back the dead; and while Kyle wants to see if Alex is back, Abin tells him to put aside his personal concerns and deal with the problem. Then Abin disappears, leaving it to Kyle.

After recharging his ring, Kyle follows the ring's scan into space, finding a planet reforming itself with green energy: Mojo. And other GL's are rising from Mojo's surface, including Kilowog! Kyle's freaked out by the "Green Lantern Corpses," who immediately attack him. Kilowog points out Kyle had recently been to the past, and maybe could've given them a heads-up about Hal Jordan destroying the Corps and killing most of them. He might have a point, but really the dead GL's are being controlled by Nekron, in what I think was his first appearance since the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps miniseries in 1981. Kyle is sucked into Nekron's death-realm, forced to listen to a lot of recap, then fights his way back, where he realizes he has to re-kill the dead Lanterns.

Mogo and Kilowog give Kyle the most trouble, but Kilowog tells Kyle "Thanks, poozer. Ya set us free." Cool even in death, although I don't know how this reconciles with their later return. (A common problem in this type of comic; you'd see the same sort of thing in Avengers "Legion of the Unliving" issues.) Kyle tells Nekron to bring on anything else he's got, and Nekron's...got nothing. Whatever brought back the ghosts wasn't his doing, he just tried to capitalize on it. After the portal to Nekron's realm closes, Kyle flies back to earth and visits Alex's grave, and finally lets her go. (Maybe.)

We'll continue our look at the Ghosts crossover...at some point, when I find where I put those...

Read more!

Today's book is frustrating on multiple levels:

Not the least of which being, I had almost thought it was an 80-pager, but no dice: from 1991, Eternals: the Herod Factor #1, written by Roy and Dann Thomas, pencils by Mark Texeira, inks by Bob McLeod, Chris Ivy, Mark McKenna, Ian Akin, and Sam de la Rosa.

The inking credits indicate the first problem: Texeira's art isn't really served by that, and may even be a bit rushed in places. Like the Master of Kung-Fu special we saw a while back, the Herod Factor was originally intended for serialization in Marvel Comics Presents, but for whatever reason was bumped into a single issue instead. Which is curious, since MCP ran more than its share of stinkers.

Then there's the Eternals, who as characters are somewhat less developed than their Marvel brethren the Inhumans, or their DC cousins the New Gods. (Neither of which is especially well developed, either...) Ikaris and Thena get a bit to do, and their Deviant pals Ransak and Karkas are there to get beat up to show the big bad monster is tough, but everyone else could probably be cut without missing anything. Sersi comes over from the Avengers for a key moment, but neither she nor Makkari are as fun as they are elsewhere. (Makkari was an occasional supporting character in Quasar.) There is a revelation regarding the Deviants occasional leader Warlord Kro, who is honestly a bit more interesting than most of the Eternals: while sometimes he was written as a straight bad guy, sometimes he had a subtle heroism, or seemed to have to play the part of the hardass because that's what his people needed him to be.

I did like a throwaway bit with mixed couple Khoryphos and Yrdisis--an Eternal and a Deviant--working to save Deviants from a purge of their former leaders. (And anyone else they felt like getting rid of...) The couple sub in a lifelike dummy, then take the "victim," and give her a human form, so she can expatriate to the surface world. That's the kind of crazy Marvel background stuff I love--it'd be great to see a supporting character reveal themselves as a former Deviant...
Read more!

Quality Control vs. Buyer Beware.

It still feels like a lull in the storm, as far as action figure releases go: any day now, I’m sure the new Star Wars Black and Batman ‘66 and maybe even new Marvel Legends will show up on store shelves. Right this second, though, it is clearance time; that wonderful, magical, possibly spazical time of year where I buy a lotta figures I never would have at full price.

Case in point: the Wal-Mart exclusive Amazing Spider-Man movie figure, with backpack, skateboard, and alternate Andrew Garfield head. (Hmm, almost typed Andrew McCarthy there…I don’t exactly picture that variant flying off the pegs.) I didn’t bite when he was $16.99, nor when marked down to $11. I could spring for nine bucks, though, and did. (The Lizard and the Ultimate Spider-Man were still there, and I may scoop them up if there are further drops.)

I made a grievous error, though, since I’m not used to seeing two of the same figure that I wanted on the peg at the same time: I didn’t remember to compare them before I bought one! Although, that may or may not have helped; but there was a glob on the belt line that looks like Spidey got gum stuck on him. I don't know what it is, but it seems like a stray bit of plastic that fell on the figure late in the process, possibly after painting? And since Spidey's costume has a certain texture to it (since everyone's costume has to have that now...) the blob really latched on there. In the same vein, there's just the tiniest little piece of stray mold, right under the chin of the Garfield head. Probably invisible in the photos here, and I didn't have enough light to take a good macro picture; but the Batman Legacy Catwoman I found had that as well. If I'd taken a moment to compare figures, I might have got a better one.

Then, more disaster: the neck joint is a rather small pin, that was stuck; and the left leg fell off! Luckily, the leg seems to pop right back on well enough, and a little time in the freezer and some warm water loosened that neck right up. And after all that? He's not a bad Spidey, and the texture is kind of interesting. If you have a rack of recent Marvel movie figures or DC Movie Masters, he ought to fit in just fine. But mostly he's a wake-up call for me to give my purchases a bit more of a look-over in the store, instead of just gibbering like a chimp as I run them up to the register...

Along with the alternate head, Spidey also came with a backpack and a skateboard: the wheels roll on the skateboard, and the backpack has a strap to hold said skateboard, which isn't too shabby. Then there's another of those re-purposed Heroscape bases, and I need to take a glance around at how many I have of those and whether I can do anything with them. Watch those clearance aisles!


Read more!

"Dummied."

We did something like this gag before, maybe five years back, but who's counting? Next week: A new Batman strip! Unless something else comes up between now and then, which always seems to happen when I try to play out something like that...
Read more!

Most Marvel contracts are hopefully like this now...

Good news! I finally found a cheap copy of Rocket Raccoon #4! Bad news: did I ever get around to buying issues #2 and #3? They were all over the place around here for some time...


I'm also not positive this is in continuity for the RR that's in the Guardians of the Galaxy--is it? He and Bug of the Micronauts appeared in the 2007 Starlord mini, with no explanation of how Rocket Raccoon left the Keystone Quadrant or his crew of animals; or how Bug was normal size...

Still, good timing, since the Build-a-Figure Rocket Raccoon could be in stores any day now, with the latest 2013 Marvel Legends. If they're distributed in your area. And you see any of the various versions of Hawkeye, the Wrecking Crew, or Jean Grey you were looking for. (There's a Puck BAF coming as well, about the same size, probably just as easy to find, or not.)

From 1985, "The Age of Enlightenment" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Mike Mignola, inks by Al Gordon.
Read more!

"Ghosts" of plans past...

A couple of times, we've covered one of DC or Marvel's annual crossover events, like the Terminus Factor or JLApe or Citizen Kang. I had most of DC's 1998 Ghosts crossover, where the various heroes of the Justice League are visited by spirits from their pasts, but was missing two of the issues. Well, I got those two now...and really may have to dig around for the rest, since I moved recently and my collection is a bit scattered. So, we'll take a look at a couple, set up a "Ghosts" tag, and hopefully get to the others later. Today, Aquaman Annual #4, "Dead Calm" Written by Peter David, pencils by Vince Giarrano, inks by Jonathan Sibal.

Set during the hook-hand 90's period of the book, Aquaman is having trouble sleeping, and has taken to reading back issues of the Atlantis Chronicles. He feels like he identifies more with those past kings and queens, than anyone from his own time, but is interrupted by the sudden appearance of his son Arthur Jr, who had been killed by Black Manta years ago. Still a baby, Arthur Jr asks "Why?" Aquaman takes that to mean, why is he dead, and doesn't have a good answer. Suspecting this may be an attack, Aquaman decides to try to take it out of the city; unaware that other ghosts are returning: a woman named Rivva is confronted by the ghost of her husband Mort, whom she murdered. At the church of the Shalakites, the titular sorceror Shalako returns, to tell them they're doing it all wrong, and should be trying to win the favor of the sky goddess.

Following Arthur Jr. to the old Aquacave, Aquaman finds the ghost of Queen Lorelei, who tries to seduce him; and Orin the First, who warns the ghosts of Atlantis are powerful. He has a point, since Honsu the Conqueror and Prince Kraken have also returned, and are rallying the citizens to attack the surface world. Shalako is preparing for much the same, Rivva keeps re-murdering her husband but he won't shut up, and Garth (former Aqualad, now Tempest) is visited by the ghost of Tula, the Aquagirl killed in the Crisis. Tula wants Garth to leave Dolphin, and join her instead.

Meanwhile, Orin the First explains how the ghosts are working up the people, to relive their history; and Aquaman says they must be stopped. Lorelei simply asks, "Why?" She has a somewhat valid point about the Atlanteans being "a fickle lot," who alternately worship and dethrone their king as needed, pretend to be more intellectual than they really are, and probably deserve whatever happens. Then she tries to seduce both Orins...they don't fall for it, although Orin I admits Lorelei is persuasive because there's always a little truth in her lies. As they swim to save the people, Aquaman and Orin I have a rather meta conversation, where Aquaman admits to spending most of his life, just wanting to be liked; but as king that couldn't be a concern for him anymore, and sometimes to demonstrate his confidence he may have unnecessarily alienated people. That's probably still happening to this day...

While Aquaman fights Honsu, Kraken, and later Lorelei; Orin I talks down his brother Shalako; and Garth says he can't go with Tula, which is what she wanted to her, that he was over her. The ghosts begin to disappear, but Arthur Jr. returns to ask "Why?" again.

OK, that made me tear up a little. Elsewhere, Garth is a little wrecked, but Dolphin, who slept through the whole thing, is there for him.

Finally, Rivva goes before the king, and confesses to the murder of her husband, waiving trial and going straight to exile. Aquaman tells her the dead are gone, and won't haunt her anymore, but he's dead wrong on that one.
Read more!

It's always night of the something...

Looking up the cover for this issue, I noticed most of the covers for DC's 1973 Shadow series were "Night of" something: the Ninja, the Mummy, the Three-Bean Salad, whatever. The cover for this issue didn't follow suit, but the interior did: The Shadow #11, "The Night of the Avenger!" Written by Michael Uslan, art by E.R. Cruz.

While the Avenger's men attack the Shadow's crew, Margo Lane betrays the Shadow and gives the Avenger the location of his secret base. The Shadow doesn't stand still for that, and soon it's war between the two. But the Shadow recognizes Richard Benson, the Avenger, from "reports...of a crime-fighter...with a face that is malleable like clay!" With a brief truce, the Shadow discovers Margo and the Avenger's man have been hypnotized, used by Shiwan Khan to play the two against each other.

Khan, somewhat unwisely, attacks both groups; and is seemingly killed when the Avenger throws a grenade into a submarine (seemingly not especially caring if he got the Shadow as well) but the Shadow doubts it. Although neither man seems to trust or care much for the other, they go their separate ways in the end.

I've read a few issues of Dynamite's new Shadow series and enjoyed them, but I don't know if they've played up the crew of operatives the Shadow traditionally employed. I've only read another comic or two with the Avenger, but really need to remember to try and find the old Justice, Inc. prestige two-issue series, with Kyle Baker art.
Read more!

(Mostly) a Review: Batman Power Attack Blast and Battle Batcave!

This is an odd time of year for action figure fans. San Diego Comic-Con just teased the rest of the year's new releases and brought a pile of exclusives; yet in many stores the shelves are being reset and old figures are being pushed out the door on clearance. Gently pushed in some cases: I saw more than a couple prices that were only maybe a dollar or so less, and didn't feel like a great deal. Today's purchase seemed like more of a steal, though: the Batman Power Attack Blast and Battle Batcave!

Actually, if you do a quick Amazon search for "Batcave" you can see there's been more than a few in recent years. Lego, Trio, Imaginext--that last one's pretty sweet. They all seem to share a few of the same design elements though: gray or black stone cave walls, with blueish metal supports; a door that may become a ramp or drawbridge; a big central computer terminal with multiple monitors inspired by the Burton Batman; maybe a holding cell (although I'm hard-pressed to think of the last time I saw Batman hold anyone in the cave...) and probably a huge and presumably neon Bat-symbol over the whole thing like a bar sign. BPAB&BBC follows suit, even with the optional extras like the "working elevator!" and the zip-line.

(Seriously, apparently Batman never sits...)

The zip-line is actually a metal rod, that snaps into to a pivot point, and has a little plastic clip to attach an action figure and slide them down. It's minutes of fun! Actually, it doesn't seem like that lengthy of a trip down the line, since the rod is less than two feet long; and the clip seems designed to clip on the forearm of a Power Attack figure--just not Batman, since his forearms have the traditional armguard ridges! The zip-line would work pretty well with any Power Attack Robin figure (sold separately!) and you can try to trigger the trapdoor to drop a bad guy figure (sold separately!) into the jail cell.

The jail cell is kind of neat, with a stout-seeming door with a turnable lock, and the aforementioned trapdoor roof. It might be my favorite feature of the set! The elevator is somewhat rickety, but slides well enough; and the drawbridge door appears to be the perfect width for either the Blast Lane or Power Attack Batmobiles (need I say it?) and hopefully the upcoming classic 1966 Batmobile.

As usual, the Batcave has absolutely no OSHA compliance. By the top of the elevator shaft, there is a little pop-out ledge where you can place the spring-loaded cannon. It reminds me of American Gladiators, honestly. Rounding out the set is an included Batman figure in gray with a cloth cape. The Power Attack figures only have five points of articulation (shoulders, hips, neck) but are very kid-friendly.

I am mildly disappointed the cave didn't come with a chair or console for Batman to work in front of the monitors, although the included figure wouldn't be articulated enough to use it. That upper floor isn't very deep, either; so you may not be able to pack the Batcave with figures.

Batman Power Attack Blast and Battle Batcave originally retailed for $42 or thereabouts; but Target (and apparently Amazon) are going half that now. Which makes me wonder if the bigger-ticket Batman items are moving off shelves: I picked up the Total Destruction Batmobile for $14.99, and you may even be able to do better than that, since you might find a pile of those at various discount retailers. This Batcave isn't an item aimed at the "adult collector," but it is a bit of fun and might make a nice backdrop, so keep an eye on those clearance aisles!
Read more!