"Venom Report."

Ah, Thunderbolts code! I'm sure Deadpool only thinks to use it to steal food from Elektra's fridge or something. ("Hey, do you have any Greek yogurt?" Pool asked, seconds before being stabbed with a sai...)

And when earth heroes like Venom, Captain Marvel, or even Iron Man hang out with the Guardians of the Galaxy, I'm sure they get the equivalent of child-safety locks and kiddie settings. Probably have to restrict their internet usage and lock out the adult channels...
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Falling behind, but I wasn't going to go deep on this issue anyway.

From 2000, the Batman Chronicles #20, featuring stories from Devin Grayson, Scott Beatty, and Ian Edginton; and art by Yvel Guichet, Dean Zachary, Mshindo, and more. Featuring three team-up stories...and no Batman! Catwoman meets the Weinbergs, of the Relative Heroes miniseries; who I'm not entirely sure I heard of before stumbling into this issue. As Catwoman helps the kids get away from the D.E.O, she also gives a little advice to the young Temper, who isn't really sure if she's not more super-villain than hero.

In the second story, at Tim Drake's private school, class photo day is made far more interesting when the photographer is former superheroine-slash-model Jade. Tim tries to dodge her, since he had been extra-protective of his secret identity at the time; but as Robin helps her out against some prep school thugs. (That kind of gets skeevy, when their assault on Jade seems like it's going to go dark.) Finally, Nightwing teams-up with the Peter David-era Supergirl, against some human traffickers.

A pretty inessential issue, then; but when they only run me a dollar or so, I'm pretty forgiving.
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Saturday Hastings had a sale, all used books $2.99--not graphic novels this time around, but I've picked over their selection already! Along with a couple Star Wars novels, I got the newest two Stephen King books, Finders Keepers and Revival. I'm not sure when either came out, and may have only read Mr. Mercedes and 11/22/1963 earlier this year, too. King will probably have another two books out by the time I finish these, and I read like a chainsaw...

Somewhat more germane to this blog, though, I did pick up a solid ten bucks worth of quarter books...over forty, yeah. Admittedly, some are replacing books I may have lost, or at least didn't have handy, because for a quarter why not? And here's one I love, even though that's not my favorite costume of his: from 1991, Quasar #19, "Refugees" Written by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Greg Capullo, inks by Keith Williams.

The story begins with a visit to the disembodied consciousness of the Eternal Kronos: some five thousand years ago, as he experimented to discover the secrets of the Eternals' life-force, he was blown apart, his molecules and mind expanding through the universe ever since. At this point, although possessed of vast cosmic power, he's also lost a bit of focus, as he explains to a visitor he meets; a being who seems to share Kronos's discorporeal existence. The visitor declines to give his name, saying only "beings jealous of my power forced me to hyper-enlarge myself," then letting Kronos go on. Kronos recounts his origin, and how he used to be a "benevolent god" to the Eternals on Titan, but has had a hard time caring anymore, even though he knows Thanos has returned and might be on his way to destroy the universe. Instead, Kronos spends most of his time trying to catch a glimpse of Infinity, one of the abstract entities of the Marvel Universe like Eternity. The nameless one realizes these abstracts might be able to back him, and resolves to make Thanos look like a piker: a bold statement, although he may want to work up some name recognition first.

Meanwhile, back on earth, Quasar is hanging out with the Squadron Supreme, who had been trapped in this dimension for some time. Doctor Strange makes a house call--oh, I'm sure he never gets tired of hearing that--to Project: Pegasus to try and help the Squadron get home. Strange is only able to get them halfway there, though, since he's getting pushback from their home dimension's Wizard Supreme. Now a jurisdictional issue, Strange is unable to help, and the disgruntled Squadron settle in. Elsewhere, Jack of Hearts gets probably his first splash page in years, as he tows several small ships to earth.

As Wendell Vaughn, Quasar visits his friends at his small security company, including bizarre new hire Miss Steckley, who disappeared for two weeks. Unknown to everyone, she saw behind Quasar's bookcase, where he keeps his cosmic mentor, Eon. Eon communicates telepathically with Ms. Steckley, who takes off her hair before taking a bath...! Quasar finally has a date with his secretary Kayla, who's really into him, but he keeps having to run off on emergencies. This time when one comes up, he just tells her, explaining his secret identity, and how he has to be on the lookout for an extraterrestrial threat to earth. "I'll take you flying, like in the Superman movie." Meeting Jack of Hearts at the edge of earth's atmosphere, Quasar asks him what's up with the ships, and a cranky Jack isn't the mood to talk about it. Against energy-based foes, Quasar usually used his quantum-bands to drain their power, but doing so nearly kills Jack and he lets up. Intending to get him to medical help, Quasar puts them both in a bubble, and Jack sucker-blasts him. Next, a helmeted figure Jack calls "Sergei" tells him to kill Quasar, so they can make their presence known to Eon...

If you had been reading Marvel Comics for some time, the nameless one, Ms. Steckley, and Sergei were all established characters; and you could have guessed them. I should've recognized the nameless one, since I actually had the issue where he had been discorporated! Ms. Steckley's reveal will leave you hitting your head "of course!" Sergei just isn't referred to by name here: he's the radiation-powered Russian villain the Presence, who is a total dick every time I see him even though he's usually accompanied by his girl. The second Red Guardian seems to have been attached to him just to mitigate his horribleness and is wasted there. By the way, we saw a little from Quasar #23 some time back: no spoilers, but things get much worse for Quasar before they get better!
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No scans yet, we'll see if I open everything...

Late today, since I went for a walk yesterday afternoon that kind of got away from me. But, I did pick up a batch of Funko's Game of Thrones figures! Man, I could've used those when I was doing Bastards of the Universe strips over at Poe's!

Tomorrow, Lego giveaway thing at Toys R Us for the Youngest; then Sunday I think I'm going to go see Evil Dead: the Musical! Now that I've said that, we'll see what happens. Best laid plans and all that...
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This will make such a good episode, in the fourth season or so.

Wow, I think it's been a couple of years since I blogged an issue of Daredevil, and today we're covering one...two issues from the last one we checked out! From 1989, Daredevil #268, "Golden Rut" Written by Ann Nocenti, pencils by John Romita Jr, inks by Al Williamson.

After Typhoid Mary and Inferno (the crossover, not...somebody) nearly did him in, and after cheating on Karen Page and breaking her heart, Daredevil is in just slightly better shape than the last time we saw him, and has recently left New York. Walking the earth like a bum Caine in Kung Fu, Matt stops at a bed and breakfast in a small town...possibly because with his heightened senses, he can hear the couple within and their troubles. Possibly because they take up the bulk of the issue...

The husband, Raymo, has a nightmare, about his childhood dog, Queenie, who had to have a leg amputated: he worries that she never forgave him for that. His older brother Hank says she was just a dog, and it didn't matter. But Hank isn't the sort to feel a lot of sympathy, since he's a loan shark, and is trying to get Raymo to crack some skulls, break some legs, whatever he needs to do to collect from those deadbeats. Outside in a tree, Daredevil listens to the brothers' conversation, taking mental notes for later...

As Raymo broods about his upcoming "collection," DD pays Hank a visit, using his earlier words against him. Oh, and putting his head in a noose. After finding their "bank" is funded by the Kingpin--or at least jumping to that conclusion--Daredevil leaves him hanging, perched on a stool. Meanwhile, Raymo can't bring himself to beat a "client," and instead tells him he's quitting. The next day, Raymo's wife gets a call that Hank's "closing down the business" and leaving town for a while. Matt chides himself to "stop eavesdropping, it's so rude" as he heads down the road...

It would be over a year before Daredevil would return to New York City, although few of those stories were as down-to-earth as this one: most featured characters like Blackheart, Ultron, and the Inhumans. This issue's cover has DD holding the noose, and it's as solid as the interior. Get it.
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"Mystery Machine."

Ah, set-up! Not a lot of jokes this week. But I've actually got strips scheduled through December right now--the concluding two episodes are also done, and I keep having to move them back! So, I've kinda wanted to do some other strips, maybe some centered on DC characters; but although I've bought some this year, my enthusiasm for DC is pretty low. I say that even though I bought a pile of Convergence comics--at four-for-one prices, but still.
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I'm not sure you should throw dung under a truce flag...

Since I have HBO again for a bit, I'm in the middle of catching up on Game of Thrones: midway through season three, and I have a good feeling about how things are going to turn out! But I'm only able to catch an episode or two a week, which occasionally leaves me scratching my head for a moment as I try to remember what happened last time, or what episode I was on. Not unlike today's comic! From 1986, Conan the King #33, "Day of Wrath" Written by Don Kraar, pencils by Mike Docherty, inks by Art Nichols.

Prince Conn, Conan's son, is after the slippery Stygian spy Crassus, who is in the middle of kidnapping Conn's sister Radegund. Crassus has an ace in the hole, though: Conn's younger brother, Taurus! Sick of living in his brother's shadow, Taurus had taken to black magic, ended up with a goat's foot, and was willing to switch sides to spite his father and maybe get his foot back. Crassus escapes with them, and a disgruntled Conn is left to deal with the siege of Tarantia; which is still surrounded by the forces of Argos, Nemedia, and Ophir. Meanwhile, King Conan keeps his forces in line by setting an example at the smithy, then parleys with King Xanthus, who isn't going to face Conan in single combat when he has superior numbers.

The blind witch Zelata casts a spell for Conan, bringing rain that turns the plains to mud and slows the enemy advance, but also causes the rivers to rise to the point that Conan's forces may be flooded out. Using his blacksmiths as decoys to make the enemy think he was staying put, Conan moves his forces through the fog to join his son and the city's troops...

I know I read these as a kid, but I'm not sure I ever had a long run of them to read at a time--I lent out a lot that never came back! We saw the last issue a couple years back, but that was by Priest, not Kraar, and I'm not sure how many plotlines Kraar wrapped up. Also, in the last issue Taurus seems repentant, but here he's a troll-faced bastard who laughs as a farm family is murdered; I don't know if Kraar had redemption planned for him.
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J, J, J, is for Julie...

Because she appeared so early in Batman's history, the character Julie Madison still makes appearances every so often. She's described as Batman's first love interest, but she was really Bruce Wayne's, and in most versions doesn't seem to have known he was Batman. Still, Julie Madison remains a go-to name to signify a girl that could mean something to Batman, as in today's book: from 2003, Batman Adventures #5, "Shot to the Heart" Written by Dan Slott, pencils by Ty Templeton, inks by Terry Beatty.

Sleazy private eye Ricky Squib believes he's finally got his "million-dollar shot," photos of Gotham City's current mayor, the Penguin. Black Mask puts a hit on Squib for his new "client," and Deadshot takes the job. Meanwhile, Batman questions Eel O'Brian, who tries to change the subject from Batman's "vendetta" against Penguin, to the rising threat of Black Mask. But Batman has to leave early? What? He has a date, with Julie Madison! Bruce had been seeing her for six months, which he admits is as much as a record for him, and wanted to give her a piece of his mother's jewelry. Julie is thrilled, although she had thought Bruce was going to ask her about the Penguin--that vendetta may be real, then--but the date is derailed when Bruce gets a call from Harvey Bullock, who's currently being chased by Deadshot!

Bruce has to make an excuse to leave, so Julie has had enough, and tells Alfred she plans to leave town. As Batman races to save Bullock, Bullock explains that since the Penguin had him kicked off the GCPD he had been working as a private eye with Squib, who had been trying to blackmail Penguin, and got shot for it. Bullock had the pictures, and while the suitcase with them gets shot open, he's still able to gather them up as Batman beats Deadshot. When the cops get there, led by Captain Montoya, they are there more to get Batman than save Bullock; but Montoya asks if Bullock had actually seen the pictures: while racy, Penguin wasn't married, and as such the photos weren't particularly scandalous. (One cop even suggests the mayor would probably want copies for himself!)

Boarding a plane to Star City, Julie turns as a familiar voice calls her name, but it's not Bruce. In the pictures of the Penguin, there were several of him, with Julie Madison. She confesses that her boyfriend hated the Penguin, that it would've ruined everything, she had ordered the hit. (Which is rather short-sighted: even if she had succeeded and married Bruce, wouldn't the Penguin have blackmailed her then? Well, it never gets that far. And I realize now, Bullock never said Squib was blackmailing the Penguin, only that the photos were in his "Cobblepot file," leaving the reader to jump to the same conclusion as Bullock! Well done.) A grim Bats leaves her handcuffed to the stairs, as Julie bemoans losing her one chance at landing a billionaire. I was honestly surprised by that twist, as well as that the next page didn't picture Batman punching someone really, really hard. Instead, as "Matches" Malone, Bats sets up a meet with Black Mask; who himself is introducing his False Face Society to their new "head of eliminations," the Phantasm!

The rest of the issue includes "Liar Liar," a short tale of the inauspicious beginnings of Penguin's mayoral campaign and why he had Harvey Bullock fired at his earliest opportunity. (Written by Ty Templeton, pencils by Rick Burchett, inks by Terry Beatty.) I really need to see if this was collected anywhere...

Today's title is from the classic MTV program "Just Say Julie," the theme of which haunts me to this day.


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This is my third win this year, but I swear I'm not cheating.

I've often joked that maybe Hastings should give me a kickback, and maybe they have: Wednesday I won a variant cover Invincible Iron Man #1! Picked up a copy to read as well, and...OK, now I feel kind of bad, since I won Secret Wars #1 before and didn't really care for it, but this was only a little better. There was a bit that felt like a jab at the X-Men, which may not have been the intent, but the way Marvel's treating that franchise lately that's how it came off; and another during Tony's date that seemed out of character for him. (The latter featuring a cameo from a character I wasn't sure Tony had even met at this point, but it was drawn well at least.) I don't want to say the Iron Man movies have made the comic redundant...but man, that's how this issue feels; and that should not be the case.

The new armor design isn't really doing it for me, either...

At any rate, I did pick up some other stuff, that of course we'll get to later. And I started getting the new Omega Men, since it felt like any book DC was going to cancel probably had to have something going for it. Took me a bit to find Convergence: Batman & Robin #2 with the first part of the story, though. (It is available a few places online, but I wanted the issue as well.)
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It's an $8.95 squarebound, but I'm willing to cram it into the scanner for you.

Partly, because it's not great: from 1993, Spider-Man, Punisher, Sabretooth: Designer Genes, written by Terry Kavanagh, pencils by Scott McDaniel, inks by Keith Williams. As Spider-Man finds a number of lab animals butchered as ESU, the Punisher kills some "Canadian arsonists" that were hired to take out some homeless from an upscale construction site. Some of the homeless were also killed, torn to pieces, but possibly not by Sabretooth, who's after some genetic engineers who remind him of his time in the Weapon X program.

The Punisher is absolutely willing to murder the engineers, their backers, Sabretooth, and Spider-Man at this point. The latter is a little crankier than he usually gets: it would probably give Frank a staggering amount of satisfaction to kill Daredevil, but he never would. Spidey defends Sabretooth, even though he is a known murderer, and teams up with Punisher even though he knows Frank is getting a little trigger-happy.

This is a 64-pager with a "Silver Foil Enhanced Cover " that it absolutely didn't deserve. I wonder, if I went through it again, if there were chapter breaks (or points where they would've gone) every eight pages, since this possibly could've been commissioned as an eight-part serial for Marvel Comics Presents.
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"Shadow."

Dale called Patsy's shadow cloak--she actually did have something like that for a brief period of old Defenders comics, before wadding it up into itself--but I was going to use Satana's, and it wouldn't fit around Hellcat's hair! The Vision cloak worked well enough, though; but I couldn't tell you how often I have everything all planned out and then still have to wing it.
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Because zombies, that'd be unbelievable...

From 1997, Action Comics Annual #9, "The Magnetic Medium" Written by David Michelinie, pencils by Vince Giarrano, inks by Brett Breeding.

This was part of DC's Pulp Heroes annuals, which I know I read a few of...yeah, the Legends of the Dark Knight Annual, back in the first year of this blog! And the Aquaman Annual much later. This one was set during the electric Superman era, and features a group of armored thieves that appear to be using technology but are actually using magic. Meanwhile, a young woman joins the order of Brother Serenity, since she felt like an outcast: she had magnetic powers and strange, snake-like protrusions on her face. Of course, there's more to Serenity than meets the eye...actually, he's got an eyepatch and goatee and looks like a pirate, so he's kinda suspicious, yeah.

Still, a fun done-in-one, like most of the "Pulp Heroes" annuals. I know I have the Hitman one floating around somewhere, though...
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Today, two stories that may or may not feature Nick Fury...

Also, how is "Kill Spider-Man" not number one on Norman Osborn's list? I'm surprised it's not on there two or three times. From 2009, Dark Reign: the List: Secret Warriors #1, "Leviathan" Written by Jonathan Hickman, pencils by Ed McGuinness, inks by Tom Palmer. Fury breaks into the Sentry's tower for a little meet-up with Norman Osborn, in a case involving a deep-cover agent in the Treasury who has funneled billions to a secret organization...called Leviathan.

This issue also features John Garrett, the cyborg agent from Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz's Elektra: Assassin. Always surprised when he appears: I don't think he was intended to be part of the Marvel Universe proper, let alone a recurring character, and Marvel has gotten a surprising amount of mileage out of him.

This issue also features a reprint of the Lee/Steranko classic "Today Earth Died!, featuring an alien invasion which may or may not be a nightmare. Then again, both stories this issue may or may not have the real Nick Fury, since some writers have decided that Fury, not unlike Dr. Doom, was probably a robot every time you saw him for the last several decades. (A Life Model Decoy versus Doombot story just sprang to mind, although it could well go into Spy vs. Spy territory...) Sometimes that seems like a dick move for a writer: "Fury was a LMD every story not written by me..." Read more!

Today, an inventory...er, imaginary story:

From 1984, Superman Special #2, "The Demon with a Cape!" Story by Cary Bates, art by Gil Kane.

I'm not positive this was an inventory story, but maybe: the main conceit of this "imaginary story" is that Brainiac here avoided transforming into the metallic new version, remaining the classic green-skinned alien. And...that's about it, it's a pretty standard Superman story otherwise. I say that because usually the imaginary stories go a little harder, like Superman dies or becomes a polygamist or a Canadian or something.

Brainiac has hoodwinked an alien planet into believing he was their "mystic seer," and that Superman was a demon bent on their destruction. With a satellite converting the star's orange radiation to red, Supes loses his powers, and is in pretty deep until a telepathic alien girl conspires to help him. Brainiac punches Superman up a bit, and sentences him to the "throne of agony," which has him worried for a minute. It's a fun little story with nice art, but I think they probably should've either set it...or maybe released it before Brainiac's upgrade.

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When did the Demon become a romantic lead?

So far in the New 52, I think I've seen Etrigan with more girls than Hal Jordan: Madame Xanadu in Demon Knights, Zatanna in Justice League Dark: Futures End, and here Fire, in Justice League 3000 #15, "Burning Bright!" Plot by Keith Giffen, dialog by J.M. DeMatteis, art by Howard Porter.

I really need to pick up more of this, even though this was technically the last issue: it's up to Justice League 3001 now. (When it reaches 3100, sell!) (Boo!) This issue features the cloned Justice League, Fire and Ice, a future Camelot, and the new Injustice League of Lois Lane!...I have no idea what is up with half of that, hence, need more comics.
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