"Reconnecting."

For years, I've wanted to get a door for the set. Maybe sometime.

No points for guessing "The Cat of Hel," although we'll come back to that one.
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This is a weird point for Superman, but at least Steel has something to do.

From 2000, Superman: the Man of Steel #100, "Creation Story" Written by Mark Schultz, pencils by Doug Mahnke, inks by Tom Nguyen. Superman and Steel--with the assistance of Steel's niece Natasha and the Kryptonian robot Kelex--work to restore the lost Fortress of Solitude. They also hope to bring back the likewise lost bottle city of Kandor, which had been sucked into the Phantom Zone, or something like it; but I don't think this was the Kandor from Krypton. Just a colony city now mostly inhabited by aliens, but anyway.

Unknown to our heroes, the band of tech-criminals known as the Cybermoths were plotting to hijack the Kryptonian databases when they came back up. The 'Moths weren't the most memorable of bad guys, certainly liking the panache of Skull, but they do succeed in bringing back a big Superman baddie: the Cyborg Superman! Who is defeated fairly quickly, by the arrival of the tiny Kandorian Rescue Squad!

The Fortress is restored, even if Kandor isn't yet; and Superman gives Steel a new cape, since he thinks of John Henry as his partner. A fun issue, but it feels like a bit of an odd time in the Superman titles, as shown by Superman having a persistent cough and by Lois acting uncharacteristically bitchy about it. This was about a year out from the start of the "President Luthor" storyline, and Steel would briefly be believed dead after "Our Worlds at War." He'd be back!
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"This is your captain, speaking: SSSSK!"

This is another comic where the cover somewhat misleads regarding the story within--or rather, writes a check the interior can't cash. Not to say it's bad, but...From 1994, "Dark Cargo" from Jurassic Park Adventures #2, reprinting Jurassic Park: Raptor #2, written by Steve Englehart, art by Armando Gil and Dell Barras, cover by Michael Golden!


Set immediately after the first Jurassic Park movie, Drs. Grant and Sattler have been trying to track down some raptor eggs that may have gone missing. They have, stolen with the raptor mom, by the hunter Lawala, who's working for parties unknown. Previously, the mom was killed, the eggs have hatched and grown remarkably quickly, and Grant, Sattler, and the young raptors are all in cages aboard a cargo jet. Grant tries picking the lock with a piece of his belt, but may have just shown the adaptive raptors how to do the same themselves! (Everyone seems surprised the raptors are smart enough not to blindly walk into ambushes or hazards like moving propellers or off cliffs, let alone have any stalking cleverness.)

The story appears to continue in Jurassic Park: Raptors Attack, or in reprints in Jurassic Park Adventures: the last issue appears to have a raptor willing to give flying another shot! Like another title I picked up recently, the early issues are readily available, but the print runs slid downward and the final issues are doubtless a little more scarce. Still, I saw the cover for this one at Kalispell Comics, and passed the first time; only to have to run back for it later!

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I love that third panel so much...

...and this isn't even the first issue it appears in! From 2008, Moon Knight #21, "The Death of Marc Spector, chapter one" Written by Marc Benson, art by Mark Texiera, layouts by Javier Saltares.

Previously, Moon Knight managed to get a registration card and become one of Iron Man's approved superheroes...and abuse the hell out of the privilege by continuing to beat up criminals and carve crescent moons on their foreheads. Spector would quite probably be utterly insane even if his god Khonshu wasn't talking to him, but after his long-time girlfriend Marlene catches him wearing the skinned face of his old enemy Bushman, well...that relationship's over. (Bushman's Marvel Wiki doesn't mention it, but Bushman would return even after being killed and his face torn off: the Hood would resurrect him! To probably get killed again.)

This issue, with his old friends Frenchie and Marlene given up on him, Khonshu forsaken him, and Iron Man after him; Spector gets back to the basics of punching criminals, hard. Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. are forced to turn Spector's case over to the CSA, as Norman Osborn makes plans for Spector's demise at the hands of his new Thunderbolts! This is Tony Stark at his peak of post-Civil War dickishness, while Osborn is just a loon that likes breaking things, with nothing against Spector as such.

I'd have to do a hard count, but I think I like every other writer's version of Marc Spector's insanity. I absolutely loathed Bendis's Avengers-hallucination storyline, but loved Warren Ellis's suit-wearing solo vigilante. I don't know who set up the notion that Spector had multiple personality disorder, either: he may be crazy, but I thought his personas were merely an act.
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80-Page Thursdays: Amazing Adventures!

Per the GCD this one has 84 pages; but it also calls it "Amazing Adventure," no 's,' per the indica. Well, let's go on with it anyway.
From 1988, Amazing Adventure #1, with stories by Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, J.M. DeMatteis, and more; and art by Michael Golden, Mike Vosburg, Rick Veitch, and more.

This issue perhaps should've picked a different title, since the adventures within are less amazing and more bleak. In the cover story from Claremont and Golden, a young woman raped and left for dead is offered the chance for revenge...or something better. Even with dragons and Golden's snazzy, Micronauts-style designs; it's a dark story. (And since this is a squarebound book, it was a pig to cram into the scanner, so that's about it for scans today.) There are two separate stories of Jews fighting oppression: a composer finds the will to fight in "Men of Peace," and a survivor confronts the leader of a massacre in "Pogrom."

A spy loses a loved one but completes his mission against Mata Hari, in Mike Vosburg's "Spies." That's the second-closest to a straight adventure story, just behind Mike Baron's history lesson "The Turtle," recounting the first use of a submarine in naval warfare, in 1776! (Baron may be taking a few liberties with the historical record!) "In the Dark Ages," about a knight in search of the Holy Grail, gets things grim again; as does the odd memoir "Ahhhh...Christmas," in which a young man spending the holidays alone receives a phone call offering him a reunion with his family, that doesn't take the turn you might expect. (Oddly, shortly after reading this issue, I was told of something similar happening, so perhaps you might!)

Certainly not a bad little issue, just not as thrilling "Yay! Adventure!" as you might expect.
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"Skull."

Ooh, forgot to add any commentary! Well, let's see...NECA had some Predator figures a while back (I think they're on like their eighteenth wave or so, albeit with some clever reuse and repaints) that came with various skulls for a display of the trophy wall from Predator 2. I had a few assorted loose skulls, but instead went with Predator taxidermy and a pterodactyl skeleton from a vending machine. Those dinosaur skeletons are a lot of fun with silly putty: instant fossils! Not that I'm doing that at my desk at work...Also, the "Predator blood" on Pool's knife is from a highlighter borrowed from the Wife!

Have Wolverine and Kraven met, in proper Marvel continuity? I wanted to say yeah, but I'm not positive. Of course Kraven would look down his nose at Logan, because he probably assumes with mutant powers and claws, being the great white hunter would be cake. Kraven ignores the fact that if he went through what Logan had, he'd be even more of a drooling psychotic.
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Today, Lord Abyss checks the status of his evil plan...

...and instead finds Adam Warlock "battling a giant warthog!" in today's book: from 1994, Warlock and the Infinity Watch #28, "Chaos at the U.N.!" Written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Jeff Moore, inks by Tim Dzon. (And I just noticed "awsome" is misspelled on the cover!)

The Avengers had been sent to Monster Island to fight the Infinity Watch, at the behest of U.S. Senator Munson, because the Watch had formed an alliance with the Mole Man to help him protect his sovereignty. After the prerequisite scuffle, the Avengers had come to agree; although Abyss's agent Lady Maya had accidentally been knocked out by Hercules. (She, and Abyss's plan, would continue next issue; but I find it hard to believe Herc knocked her out...not very gentlemanly.) As Munson speaks at the United Nations, declaring the Avengers murdered by Warlock; he, Captain America, and the Vision show up. Warlock makes a brief speech as much as threatening the U.N. to leave the Mole Man be, and then points out that Munson...

...is really his old foe the Man-Beast! Go, Man-Beast! Manny and his henchman, warthog-man Triax, immediately attack. Not because they were caught in a lie, but because the Man-Beast hates him some Adam Warlock. He had pretty much ruled the High Evolutionary's Counter-Earth, until a young Adam wrecked that for him--with some help from the Hulk!

Warlock beats Triax down handily, even laying some smack talk on him, and then he and Man-Beast punch it out for three solid (and not especially well-illustrated...) pages. Adam considers killing his old foe, but Cap convinces him to have poor Manny thrown in the Vault or something. (Worryingly, Man-Beast is an alien, evolved animal: I'm not sure he'd have a ton of civil rights...) Taking his leave of the Avengers and the U.N., Adam returns to Monster Island, where Pip the Troll tells him he has "other fish to fry," since Maya has regained consciousness...sadly, Moore may not have gotten the reference material from previous issues, and doesn't draw that great-looking bottle of wine seen prior.
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"They Shoot Hulks, Don't They?" is a helluva weird B-side for this.

We mentioned creepy bug villain Psyklop a while back, and I managed to pick up a fresh copy of this one:

Reprinting Avengers #88, Incredible Hulk #140 and #142. The first two were co-written by Harlan Ellison and feature Psyklop and the Hulk's first visit to the sub-atomic world of his love Jarella, while the latter is a odder duck, in which a fundraiser for the Hulk (guest-starring Tom Wolfe!) leads to the Enchantress and the Valkyrie!

From the same eBay seller, I snagged this Marvel Illustrated Books reprint of Giant-Size X-Men #1, backed with 'Psi-War!' from Uncanny X-Men #117. I know I had others of these paperbacks, like the two Star Wars paperbacks reprinting the British Marvel weekly comics...I know I had more! There's also an Avengers: Origin of the Vision one with a great cover: I already have those issues, and it's already too spendy, but a great cover...
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As good an excuse for Mike Parobeck's Man-Bat as any...

I was out for a couple days last week...and a couple more this week! Couldn't get them all off in a row, but taking the Youngest to some Apple thing where he can learn to edit videos and whatnot. Better he make his own YouTube nonsense than sit around watching it...

I miss this run so much: from 1993, the Batman Adventures #11, "The Beast Within!" Written by Kelley Puckett, pencils by Mike Parobeck, inks by Rick Burchett.
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"Stinkmonkey."

Kurt is not tied up especially well there. I don't think Kraven is at all curious what the guys are doing in space: if he can't hunt it, kill it, and mount it on his wall, he's not particularly interested. Actually, I'm not sure Kraven's even a big trophy guy, either. Sure, he'd love to kill Spider-Man, but he may or may not literally want his head. Maybe? I don't know if I've seen Kraven show any particular tendencies towards conservation.

I've had that Predator for some time, and NECA has done a bunch since: there's always the idea of getting a few of them for a little hunting party. Maybe sometime.
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2015, year of the Build-a-Figure!

We're two-thirds of the way through the year, and Hasbro's put out Marvel Legends figures in a quantity I don't think we've seen since Toy Biz's last year with the Marvel license, back in 2006. Along with con and store exclusives, five series have been released so far--six if the second batch of Spider-Man figures have turned up in your neighborhood--so we're up to five Build-a-Figures for the year! Wait, did I say five...?

The Captain America: the Winter Soldier figures came out in 2014, but I didn't finish the Mandroid until January of this year. Although you could build it by purchasing six figures, the case assortments split: the A.I.M. Soldier and Baron Zemo both came with an arm, as did the Hydra Soldier and the Red Skull. (I used the extra arms with my Iron Monger pieces!) The Stealth Suit Cap and the Winter Soldier weren't high on my list to get, but when I was found them for a few bucks off I grabbed both.

2015's first Build-a-Figure was the Allfather Odin! Or, alternately, you could build King Thor. Did anyone? Beats me! Odin's a bit static, because of the big cape; but the figure moves well enough for the character. Odin could be built with only five figures--but not the ones I wanted! Captain Marvel and Machine Man came with King Thor parts, while Scarlet Witch and Sentry came with the equivalent Odin pieces.

Given a choice, I might've passed on Sentry and Iron Fist, but they were worth getting for Odin. I grabbed the whole lot at once, from a local Wal-Mart at five in the morning, before they were hung on the pegs. (Incidentally, the Hawkeye figure which comes with the torso piece, is double-packed in a case: I mention it because I visited another Wal-Mart that had no less than ten.)

Although I had a few of the Thanos parts first, Hobgoblin was my next Build-a-Figure completed: I ordered the entire case from Hasbro Toy Shop. This left me with a spare Anti-Venom and "Pizza" Spidey; I gave Anti-Venom to one of my nephews, but kept Spidey because the first one's neck joint was popping out. Hobby is an odd duck for me: I'm not terribly familiar with this redesign; and the wings are on there unless you want to remove the arms, which I wouldn't recommend. The flaming sword is also slightly flimsy, and I don't know where I put his pumpkin grenade, either.

I really wanted the Spidey, Spider-Man 2099, and Daredevil figures from this series, to the point that I was willing to grab the whole case. The Spider-Girl wasn't bad, and Anti-Venom was surprisingly fun even though I didn't know anything about the character. The Ultimate Spider-Woman was disappointing, but maybe she'll come in handy later.

Next, Thanos! I really wanted Hellcat and Batroc, then thought maybe Spider-Woman was a worthwhile upgrade from the old Toy Biz one--mine had insanely loose hips! And of course then I decided I needed Thanos himself, which meant shelling out for Age of Ultron-style Hulk, Cap, and Iron Man. Then you have the toss-up between whether this Thanos is quantifiably better than the cheaper, not-terribly hard to find Marvel Select version.

On the other hand, the Hulkbuster Iron Man? So good it's worth buying all the other characters in the series! Even Blizzard! Actually, I rarely mind getting another villain; but most of the rest were modernizing or upgrading characters I already had: Valkyrie, Vision, War Machine, and Doctor Strange. They're all nice figures, but it may depend how attached you are to their older (or more classic) looks; or whether you enjoy them enough to buy them again. Thundra was a new character as far as getting a Marvel Legends figure (as was Blizzard) and I'm not sure if she's anyone's favorite even out of this series; but I was glad to have her.

I got a deal on the case, from Hasbro Toy Store again, which left me with a spare War Machine for my nephews. Who now have to convince my sister to buy them the rest of the figures...

Lastly, for now, we have Ultron! I thought Avengers: Age of Ultron was alright, if not as good as the first movie (or Guardians, or Winter Soldier...or Ant-Man) and he's probably the weakest of the BAF's so far. His somewhat glum face reminds me of Groot, but not in a good way: Ultron's face should've been more eeee-vil. Not as detailed, paint not as good, slightly disappointing design; yet I still had to get Bulldozer and Giant-Man to finish him! I had a gift card that alleviated the cost somewhat, but the normal-sized Giant-Man leaves me a bit cold so far; and I'd enjoy Bulldozer more if I had ever even seen the rest of his Wrecking Crew! (Maybe I saw Piledriver in the wild, but that was about it.)

In this series, I grabbed Tiger Shark and Grim Reaper immediately; then Ant-Man, then Wasp. Four out of six leaves a lot of Build-A-Figure parts, and if they had been readily available on eBay I might've snagged the last two there; but getting the figures doesn't hurt anything. They could always go to eBay later themselves.

I'm certain these aren't the last Marvel Legends I'll get this year: the upcoming Walgreens exclusive Daredevil comes with an unmasked Matt Murdock head, which just sold me on either a Chameleon or an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson for the suit body. But will I go all in for the Rhino? And are more figures still to come in 2015? Time will tell.
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Wow, the Ant-Man movie took a lot of liberties from the source material...

From "The Amazing Ant-Man" in 2000 AD #640, reprinted in Dredd Rules #8. Story by Alan Grant, art by Carlos Ezquerra. As young Henry Pymm takes his genetically-engineered ants for 'walkies,' Judge Dredd tails a drug supplier who has a run-in with Pymm's pets. Things go a bit sideways after that.

This issue also reprints some other fun Dredd short stories with allusions to other comic books, including "Curse of the Spiderman" and "Kirby's Demon."

Picked this up, along with a ton of other books, at Kalispell Comics! If you're in the Glacier Park area, check 'em out!

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It's getting old. By which I mean me.

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