More like Presumptuous Woman, here.

Wonder Woman has a lot on her mind this issue: her friend Etta Candy has seemingly been sucked into hell by demons, the leader of which beat her down soundly. Waking up on the Potomac Parkway, she switches to her secret identity of Captain Diana Prince, to try and get access to the mysterious Delphi Foundation with Col. Steve Trevor, but they find nothing. Wonder Woman then turns to her mystic friend Mother Juju (groan...) who tips her the name of someone who could help. Maybe two names...

Jason has to be regretting sending out all those headshots now. Flying to Gotham, Wonder Woman barges through a window as Jason spars with his blind friend Randu, and calls him out immediately--which seems like a breach of super-hero etiquette, since she couldn't know if Randu was in on Jason's secret. They politely deny WW's ideas about Jason as "utter nonsense" and try to herd her to to the door. Instead, she goes all in, using the "Change! Change o'form of man!" spiel to turn Jason to Etrigan the Demon! That seems outright rude: you shouldn't just stomp into someone's house and use their magic words and everything.

I don't think it had been firmly established at this point, where Jason or Etrigan went when the other took over; but Etrigan is pretty thrilled to "live again" and seems completely willing to help Wonder Woman out with a trip to hell. Randu tries to stop Etrigan, warning he may lose his way back, and gets a shove for his trouble; which still doesn't deter WW.

Of course, I don't think I have two consecutive issues of Wonder Woman in my collection, so I don't know how this turned out. I also wonder if this related to post-Crisis Diana's trip to hell in the 80's, as mentioned a while back. From 1981, Wonder Woman #280, "In the Claws of Demons!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Jose Delbo, inks by Dave Hunt.


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With a name like "Lionmane," it has to be...a D-lister, yeah.

We'll look at the lead-in story from this issue next week, but we'll wrap up this one with a quick look at "Lion at Bay" from Wonder Woman #280, written by Paul Levitz, pencils by Joe Staton, inks by Steve Mitchell. We join our jailbreak already in progress, as the Huntress fights Lionmane. But Helena's not just there to stop the jailbreak, she has an old score to settle with him: he had been a goon in Catwoman's mob, who tried to take over. Catwoman was narrowly able to gas him and dump him on the police, but Huntress knows it took her mom some time to recover, and wants to pay him back.

I don't know if Lionmane is a mutant or anything, but he's ugly and strong. Since Huntress said she knew the secret of Fagan's Wood, Lionmane tries to beat the location of Catwoman's hidden jewels out of her. Huntress is nearly down, but creepily seems to hear her mother, and smashes Lionmane in the face with a good-sized rock, knocking him out. The cops surrounded the escaped prisoners during the fight, so the jailbreak is over...with only one escapee. Worse, she doesn't realize it yet, but the Huntress lost a friend: to keep him safe, Helena sent Harry Sims home, but he didn't make it.

We mentioned Brave and the Bold #200 had a senior citizen Joker: pre-Crisis on Earth-2, the Joker outlived Batman. Not sure why he'd be at the prison instead of the traditional Arkham, though. Hopefully Helena gets to deliver a stout beating about the face next issue...


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Still working my way through my pile of trades from Hastings, so we'll double up today. First, Captain America: Man Out of Time, written by Mark Waid, pencils by Jorge Molina, inks by Karl Kesel.

This limited series was an update of events running from the classic Avengers #4, where Cap is pulled out of the ice by the team; up to Avengers #8, where they face Kang the Conqueror. But Waid adds a lot to it. While Cap is still a man out of time and mopey over the death of his partner Bucky, Tony Stark takes Cap aside to show him the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (and Radiohead!) and that America did all right for itself after WWII. Tony also shows him Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech and the moon landing, America's highlight reel; conversely, Cap's old boss, the elderly General Simons, later gives him the lowlights: Vietnam, Watergate, MLK's assassination, and more. Further complicating the issue, Hank Pym accidentally lets slip that the Fantastic Four have a time machine (actually Dr. Doom's) and Cap gets the idea that he could just go back to when he left, possibly even saving Bucky. It takes a presidential order to make him stay--the President seems to be Obama, but is obscured so it could be the next guy or whoever.

So Cap is seemingly going through the motions, when the Avengers face Kang and get beat down. Kang "smells" the past on Cap, and inadvertently grants him his wish, sending him back to 1945! Will Cap give up and live the rest of his life in the past? Well...no, pretty obviously not. But it all comes together really well.

I also read Captain America: Fovever Allies, written by Roger Stern, with art by Nick Dragotta and Marco Santucci. This was a story with Bucky as Captain America, that also tied into his days with the Young Allies in World War II. The Young Allies are updated and fleshed out nicely, and thankfully moved away from their earlier portrayals, which were horrible and racist. There's a reprint of an old wartime Young Allies comic, and man, it's rough. I don't think I've even finished it yet. So this one's not a must-have or anything, but Stern's part is nice.

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"Post designed to sell flowers, cards, heart-shaped boxes of candy."

I was going to have Deadpool give the Cat a sweatshirt--the one from the first Spider-Man, pre-Marvel Legends Scarlet Spider. Because Deadpool wore one like it in the first issue of his comic I ever read--Deadpool #6! I mistakenly thought it was #4, but #6 features old Captain America villain the Vamp, and Pool wears the Scarlet Spider hoodie playing basketball. I'll dig it up sometime.

Don't make a deal with the devil this Valentine's Day, though. Or eHarmony. I'm not sure which would screw you over more...
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Ghosts: Flash Annual #11!

So, far the Martian Manhunter Annual has been the best of the Ghosts crossover, but today's maybe could beat it! Flash Annual #11, "Haunts" Written by Brian Augustyn, pencils by Anthony Williams, inks by Ray Kryssing.

Wally West didn't think he was prone to sleepwalking, until he found himself sprinting around the world, with the ghost of dead speedster Johnny Quick. Later, Wally contacts speed guru Max Mercury, who can't quite nail down what it could mean, but suggests he contact Quick's daughter/fellow speedster Jesse. (Jesse may be better known under her mom's identity, as the modern JSA's Liberty Belle.) Who promptly shows up, having a weird feeling about her dad. Wally wants to try to avoid that conversation, but can't get rid of her before Tina McGee, an old girlfriend, also arrives. Linda isn't bothered by that, because Tina has a bigger problem: her husband Jerry, creator of super-speed drug Velocity 9, had suddenly had a flashback relapse, and was tearing around as Speed Demon.

Briefly mixing it up with Speed Demon, Wally sees Johnny again momentarily; and realizes he only sees him when at full speed. Later, he tells Max that he wonders if he should've tried to go into the Speed Force to save Johnny. But usually when a speedster goes into the Speed Force, they don't return; while Wally has done so twice, he doesn't know if he could do it again. Fortunately, it doesn't come down to that: grabbing Speed Demon and accelerating him into the Speed Force to burn out the Velocity 9, Wally gets to finally talk to Johnny, who had been trying to reach Jesse, but she couldn't reach the level of speed needed to see him. Wally gives Jesse a boost, so she can say goodbye. Linda asks Wally if he still feels haunted, but all Wally's ghosts are friendly ones.

A little thin, and a bit of a throwback to the days when there were seemingly a bunch of Flashes and associated speedsters running all about. Next week: the conclusion of the "Ghosts" crossover, JLA Annual #2!
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(Not a) Review: Kre-O Optimus Prime!

The Lego Movie opened this weekend, so of course I spent the weekend playing with pseudo-Lego Kre-O's. I picked up the Kre-O Optimus Prime set, and it took me forever to put him together.

Wait, not that one! That's the Kreon Optimus Prime, the little minifigure version. Here's the build version:

I am in no sense a "master builder," so this probably took me longer than it needed to. (Possibly not helping, I started watching Attack on Titan while doing this, and it was subtitled, which took away a bit of focus.) Sorting the pieces was excruciating, since the pieces weren't bagged in any particular order; and there were a surprising amount. The instructions were clear, except I wonder if I don't have a bit of color-blindness, since I had a little trouble differentiating between grey, metallic-grey, and black in the booklet. (Maybe that's not just me, but my girlfriend was putting together the Lego Creator Furry Creatures set, and was having the same problem!) He's not a bad-looking Optimus, but like a lot of these Lego-type characters, it seems a little spindly.

There was also a fair-amount of pieces left for a little base, and Optimus's trailer; the latter intended for if I wanted to build him as a truck. Doubtful, but they might come in handy for a backdrop. This set came with Kreons of Optimus, Bluestreak, and the Decepticon jet Skywarp. (And two humans, but no one cares!) I'm rather enjoying the Kreons and Micro-Changers, partly because it's a fun way to build a bunch of characters.

Hasbro's website had a suggested retail price of $59.99, but I got this set at Big Lots for $15. That works out to about $5 bucks each for the Kreons that anyone wants, so not bad.


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Hey, Wolverine guest-starred in this one?

An odd pairing: at another Hastings Wednesday, I picked up a Grab Zags Wolverine light-up projector, and the Green Lantern/Red Lanterns #28 "flip-issue." Worth trying for the price, although some aspects of the book worked better than others for me.

Then I tried to read it on the ride home, in the dark, with the Wolverine light...results were also mixed, yes. Have a good weekend!
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More like TRADE-tradewaiting, at this point.

I read Ed Brubaker's Captain America for a long time, from his first issue up to around issue #600...which isn't as long as that sounds, thanks to the vagaries of Marvel's numbering. I think I fell off partially from cost-cutting, but I don't remember the book being particularly satisfying in single issues--not an uncommon problem for Marvel at the time. Which makes me wonder why books "written for the trade" bother me when Marvel does it, but Hellboy and B.P.R.D. have been like that for ever and I'm fine with it: maybe because Marvel used to come in readable chunks and was moving away from that, while the Mignola books had almost always been trade-written. Anyway, today we'll take a gander at a Cap trade that still manages to feel like an issue written for a bigger trade: From my post-Black Friday pickup at Hastings, Captain America: Prisoner of War. Written by Ed Brubaker, with art by Mike Deodato, Jackson Guice, and more.

After "the Trial of Captain America," Bucky was found guilty of murders committed while he was the brainwashed Soviet assassin Winter Soldier, and was thrown into a Russian gulag. Due to a deal with the State Department, Bucky can't simply break out, or he would be a criminal in America as well; and he's forced into prison fights with former Soviet heroes and operatives like Ursa Major and the Titanium Man. But his captors have a bigger plan in mind...

Meanwhile, the recently returned original Cap was in Commander Rogers mode, trying to do Nick Fury's job; and wondering how to get Bucky out without causing an international incident. Nick Fury makes a brief appearance, to help out and to needle Steve a bit about picking up the shield again. Everyone, the readers included, knows Steve is going to be Captain America again at some point, but he seems surprisingly reluctant to do so. And the Black Widow revisits her home turf and "goes rogue" (to give Steve deniability) to break Bucky out, but he's way ahead of her.

I bought this for about the price of a single issue, but somehow, it feels like a single issue! Too much is unresolved, or rather set up for later books: the larger plan of Bucky's captors, and whether or not Steve would be Cap again. The latter is teased for Fear Itself, I think the former wrapped up in Winter Soldier: the Longest Winter. Still, there's some nice back-up stories at the end of this one, including a Howard Chaykin one; so reckon this was worth the three bucks then.

(No scans today--out of the office!)
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"Subroutine for Empathy."

I actually like the title for this one. To me, sounds like a Star Trek episode...

Over at CBR's Comics Should Be Good, Chad Nevett wrote about Age of Ultron #10 every day for all of January. I honestly thought he was trolling comics fans, "This is the comics event You deserve." As it went on, I wondered if he was trying to turn around the prevailing view that AoU sucked: "Nah, man, it was really, really good. If you can't see that, that's on you."

Or maybe, this reminded me of an old friend, explaining that sometimes when he bought a tape (yes, I'm old) he would almost force himself to listen to and enjoy every song on it, instead of just the hits, to get his money's worth out of it. Which reminded me of being a kid, and maybe only getting one comic in a week or longer, and not having the internet or 90 channels to distract me from devoting a lot of time to absorbing said comic, even if it was something completely weak like Secret Wars II #5. Like two rival schools of thought in reading comics: one buys a single issue, then studies it at length and in intricate detail, dissecting and meticulously examining every nuance of every panel and every word balloon. The other buys a pile of comics at once, and tosses the crappy ones over their shoulder after reading; possibly while watching TV and the internet simultaneously.

So I'm not sure I get what Nevett was going for, but if he was able to wring any enjoyment out of Age of Ultron #10, more power to him. Meanwhile, I bought a spare Ultron the other day. No particular reason except it being cheap, really; and I could see Ultron having spares around sometimes.

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"Ghosts" Annuals: Batman Annual #22!

The Wonder Woman and Superman Annuals in the 1998 Ghosts crossover both dealt with deaths from 1988. Today's issue refers to a more recent death, from 1994, but of far less import: Batman Annual #22, "Bough Breaks" Written by Devin Grayson, pencils by Yvel Guichet, inks by Robert Campanella.

When a distraught pregnant woman arrives at the Gotham City police station claiming "Batman is trying to kill my baby!" Commissioner Gordon fields that one himself, noting usually it's only criminals complaining about Batman. She claims he's been trying to get her to miscarry and laughs at her, neither of which sound like Batman. Meanwhile, Batman faces a group of thugs who have some of his equipment, Batarangs and gas bombs! Later, Batman makes a phone call to his former replacement, Azrael, who can account for his whereabouts, hasn't lost any gear, and doesn't have his old armor.

Curious, Batman has Robin run the woman's name, and finds she was a blood relative of the serial killer known as Abattoir. Abattoir "liked to stalk and kill his own blood line," but was left to die by the Azrael-Batman, a situation that led to the death of one of his relatives that he had taken hostage. Batman wasn't there, but still felt guilty over that death, since he felt it showed Azrael had been unfit to replace him. Now, Abattoir has returned as a ghost, haunting the Azrael-Batman armor, and planning on taking his niece's baby's body for his own!

Abattoir lures Batman and Robin back to where he dies, the Nolan Steel Foundry. (Presumably named after Batman artist Graham Nolan!) Alfred and Robin wonder, if Batman can exorcise his guilt, would it do the same to the ghost; while Abattoir doesn't seem to realize he's not facing his killer. As Batman delivers the baby, Robin fights the costume, which he admits he has "an adversarial relationship" with, and forces it into a smelting crucible, destroying it.

Batman then stares down Abattoir, offering himself instead, claiming his soul wasn't with him and he didn't feel any guilt over Abattoir's murder. He also says Abattoir "apparently...didn't talk to anyone in hell either," and that the killer wouldn't have any idea how to get a new body, didn't cross the "River" or try to deal with Charon. Abattoir pipes up that he could so do that, and disappears. Robin asks where Batman sent him, and Batman admits he's not sure. That's kind of the dumbest exorcism I've ever seen...

Batman did buy some time, though, since he thinks Abattoir would be back, but I'm not sure he was. The baby is named Thomas, after Batman's father, while Robin has to ask if Batman's soul is where it belongs or not, but we don't get an answer.

Not my favorite of the Ghosts annuals, but it at least avoided the easy out of visiting Bruce's parents. (Or Dick's...or Tim's...) I suppose it took a little effort to pick a dead Batman villain that would stay dead, though.

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The most toyetic book in the quarter bin!

Good news! Got a new (used) car, that should last me for a stretch. Bad news, I did have to front a bit more cash up front than I expected. Anyone in the market for a used blog?

...no? Fine, then, we'll press on. Although don't be surprised if the quarterbooks tag is used a helluva lot in February. Like for today's book! I bought it back in 1989, but picked up a new copy of Manhunter #12, "Losers Weepers, conclusion" Written by John Ostrander and Kim Yale, pencils by Doug Rice, inks by Pablo Marcos.

In Australia after the crossover Invasion!, Manhunter Mark Shaw is working with a salvage company to recover a downed alien robot from a former employee. Said employee tried to keep the robot for himself, and the Yakuza, Lexcorp, and American and Russian governments have all sent agents to try and poach it. The Lexcorp agent has a variation of the green and purple battlesuit Luthor sometimes wore, while the Rocket Red armor and cool Checkmate uniform all play to the strengths of Doug Rice's art. Manhunter himself actually had an add-on suit upgrade the start of this storyline, but I had forgotten it was smashed before this issue.

The battle with the giant robot is wrapped up surprisingly quickly, since the second half of the book is a fairy tale from Kim Yale with art by Sam Kieth! This series would be cancelled by Manhunter #24, but I kinda suspect its sales would be considered staggeringly good by today's standards...
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