It's fun that they get a meetup that doesn't immediately turn into punching, or worse, Superboy-Prime.

From 1991, Superboy #16, "Metropolis: City of Tomorrow...Today!" Written by John Moore, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Kim DeMulder. Cover by Kevin Maguire and Ty Templeton.

We've seen a couple of these, tie-ins with the syndicated Superboy TV show; but this would've pushed the budget a bit too far. It's the conclusion of a time-travelling two-parter, as young Clark has an adventure in the Metropolis of the year 2240 with some "genetically altered J.D.'s" with an albino tiger caretaker, and the time-traveler Dancer, who brought him to destroy a malfunctioning time beacon. But, instead of 1991, he's returned to 2001! It takes Clark a moment to put that together, even after he sees himself fly into a white time void and disappear.

Clark figures, if he saw his future self, that must mean he gets back to 1991, right? Unless the whole timeline goes blooey or something. Still, he sees his old friend T.J. White on a storefront TV--man, there's a plot device that's gone away--and goes to him for help. T.J. believes him, since Clark was ten years younger than he should be, and takes him to the Daily Planet, where he would work in the future, but to see someone else. Clark takes off his glasses, and is introduced as his own cousin, "Clark Shuster," to Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen! T.J. knows Lois is going to be the one to figure things out, even if she is snowed by his lies about Clark's time-travel expertise. The four head to S.T.A.R. Labs, to see temporal physics expert Jessica Gary, and get there in time for another time rift to open, this time like a sinkhole. Clark thinks it's a path into the timestream, and Lois asks why he's the expert: Clark is about to come clean, although I don't know how much he was going to tell her, but is interrupted by Jimmy Olsen activating his signal watch! Clark can hear it, and is unused to the signal, so he's almost in pain. Jimmy thinks the watch must be "on the fritz," otherwise how could Clark hear it? You're...you're so close, Jimmy!

Dr. Gary and Clark climb down the time sinkhole, which changes Clark's clothes to Superboy's, then Dr. Gary slips, falls, and disappears. Superboy is lost in a featureless temporal soup, but comes through, to find Superman, on a sphinx! Superboy recognizes it as Dancer's headquarters, and they find an albino tiger cub and Dr. Gary inside. The doctor was acting weird, and her voice seems to have a reverb effect, but she deactivates the sphinx's time machine, then gets zapped out of existence! Only to return a moment later, as Dancer: she had set this up in the future, so she would be able to make things right. Superboy and Superman return to S.T.A.R. Labs, where Lois has questions about what happened to Dr. Gary and Clark Shuster, which Superman doesn't really want to get into but kinda seems like she'll wring it out of him. Superboy then disappears, returning to 1991 and Lana, who doesn't seem particularly interested in hearing about Clark's trip. 

 Perhaps serendipitous, but there's an ad for Armageddon 2001 in there, too! I had to take a look: this would have been just a couple months after Curt Swan got to do a few pages for Superman #50. He had been the Superman artist for so long, but DC seemed to think he was old hat: I wonder if his work on this series was an olive branch...or a consolation prize.

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"Guest."

We're spending a bit of time here talking up the Totally Awesome Hulk, to maybe cover the fact I'm not positive I've read a comic with him--or at least, with Amadeus as the TAH, since I read a lot of Incredible Hercules here or there. That and while we've had them appear here multiple times, I don't think I've read Champions, either! One of Ms. Marvel's best lines, in her own series, is "good isn't something you are, it's something you do," which is great, but I feel like the Champions get hung up a bit on appearances, setting a good example, and such. I don't think the usual Champions are going to show up this plotline, though.  Read more!

So the other day I got my pre-order in for the Marvel Legends Crystal and Lockjaw, and I also had some credit that I put towards the slightly marked down Sersi and Black Knight set. Sersi looks great, although it's a shame she probably won't get her classic green outfit look; while Black Knight looks like an angry dork, like his helmet and/or his codpiece are too tight. (The former, probably; the latter, unlikely.) Still, I didn't really read Avengers regularly, for the long stretch they were basically the leads; but conveniently enough, the quarter bin provides one from that era: from 1992, Avengers #354, "The Conqueror Worm" Written by Len Kaminski, pencils by M.C. Wyman, inks by Steve Alexandrov and Ariane Lenshoek.

The issue opens with a disclaimer: "We strongly advise that anyone with a heart condition, or who is easily upset, put this issue of Avengers back on the rack right now." And break up your collection? The Grim Reaper has played the old Legion of the Unliving card, a plotline used so often it actually has its own trade paperback! It boils down to, let's take a bunch of dead bad guys and throw them at the Avengers again; which opens another can of worms when somebody gets brought back later and maybe wasn't dead at the time: are these really the spirits of who they're supposed to be, or just demons or whatever playing the part? The latter explanation kinda sucks the air out of the concept, though: it'd diminish any emotional stakes.

I was going to say it was a sign of the times, but it actually seems a bit early: this time around, the Legion guys are more cadaverous and zombie-like, and seem largely intent on eating their foes. The injured Black Knight isn't doing great against three originals: Black Knight, Baron Zemo, and Red Guardian; even though he had a goddamn light saber--excuse me, "photonic sword"--and should be cutting those corpses into mulch. (Also, the Red Guardian bites right though BK's chainmail pants!) Vision is faring better, while Hercules gets pounded by Count Nefaria and...I don't know if that's a generic demon, or a deep-fried Stegron the Dinosaur Man. (He had a weird head and tail, but maybe lacked Stegron's sibilance; probably not him.) Crystal and Sersi can't seem to stop their respective foes: Sersi has Nebulon the Celestial Man, who is able to reverse her molecular transformations. The Vision makes his way to the Grim Reaper, who is watching all this via a magic flame and cackling like crazy. This was the white, emotionless Vision; so he couldn't fear the Reaper, as it were; but instead points out his illogical reasoning: the Avengers didn't murder him, the Reaper had killed himself. The Reaper is surprised to remember this, but doing so breaks his hold on the Legion, which immediately turns on him. Seriously, they make great time, it takes the Avengers another page to get there, and they do so in time to see a giant creepy hand with eyes grab the Reaper. That's one of the old Nameless Ones we've seen mentioned before, this one's named Lloigoroth...hey, wait a minute!

The Avengers are returned to earth, and head out for coffee. Next month, the book's regular creative team would be back, as the Proctor storyline continued. Despite the disclaimer, that felt like a pretty tame issue? It's not that I'm jaded or hardened inside; I don't think it would've hit harder in '92 either. I don't know if I'd recommend that Legion of the Unliving trade--even the Busiek/Perez story is alright, but I still don't think the dead Avengers used in that one were 'real.' Get Avengers Annual #16, though: it's the second of a two-parter, but reads just fine on its own, it's great! (Well, it's well-done fun; it's not Maus or anything, you know what I mean.) Read more!

I feel like she should have glasses, can't put my finger on why...

We've seen him on the blog a few times (mostly as a crowd filler in Serpent Society strips!) but I've always felt DC should do more with him. Even if modern readers would doubtless assume it was a riff on G.I. Joe. From 2003, Justice League Adventures #23, "Venomous Agenda" Written by Christopher Sequeira, pencils by Min S. Ku, inks by Rob Leigh. 

Of course, you have to somehow establish Kobra as a threat capable of not immediately getting crushed by the Justice League; something Kobra himself almost seems aware of. He usually spent two weeks a year disguised as one of his followers--like a more evil Undercover Boss, which would just be Undercover Boss--but has to call it early this time, as he's heard doubts in the rank-and-file, and needs to let them, and the world, know the score. A couple weeks later, Flash stops a basic bank robbery in Central City, then gets shivved by the bank manager! It's Kobra in disguise, hitting Flash with "electrified nano-particles" designed to keep him out of action for days. He then challenges the rest of the League on TV, reveals his Ark ship, and poisons a bunch of people with nerve gas. Batman and Superman investigate, and find a holographic message, with Kobra calling out Green Lantern and Hawkgirl, to face him and his second, the Baroness--er, Lady Eve, at the Grand Canyon, or he'll blow up a cannister of nerve gas already planted in a schoolyard somewhere.

Regular TV reporter Snapper Carr is already on the scene; and Lady Eve wonders if Kobra should be revealing his organization, but he claims "the media-hungry world needsss a lessson." While GL and Hawkgirl are able to wrap up the pair, Kobra still gets them with a blast of nerve gas, then teleports out, with the reporters as prisoners, and claiming the heroes would die in 24 hours. Superman and Wonder Woman had found the schoolyard gas cannister, but it was empty: they still didn't have a sample to try and make an antidote. Kobra then confronts the team in their own Watchtower headquarters, able to disable the Martian Manhunter with his own mental discipline, and the Ark hacked the Watchtower's systems. His next challenge: Wonder Woman and Superman, versus Kobra's elite troops, at the Colosseum in Rome! Or, he'll launch two separate missiles full of nerve gas. Still, Batman has realized Kobra's error: he saw the League as stereotypes, only taking into account their most surface powers.

Superman and Wonder Woman fight well, but eventually go down under a high-tech blaster barrage. Batman then challenges Kobra himself, one-on-one, no weapons, casually dropping his utility belt as he taunted him. Lady Eve advises against it--he had everything to lose, and nothing to gain--but Kobra's ego won't let that go. After a solid fight, Batman has him, and Eve has to intervene for her boss, trying to spin it as "the ways of the snake lead to victory!" Batman is down, but not beat, and tells Kobra so: even if he did fall, the Flash and the Manhunter would be back, or regular people would stand against him. "No one believes in you."

Furious, Kobra launches his missiles, which Batman had been waiting for: he had Superman and Wonder Woman playing possum, and WW plays to the camera as she smashes the Ark up. Flash had been tracking the missiles through dozens of weather and surveillance satellites, and could feed the trajectories to the Manhunter, to telepathically update Supes, who takes both missiles out. He saves the nerve gas, though, to make an antidote. Even wrapped up in Wonder Woman's magic lasso, Kobra still orders his troops to attack, but Lady Eve declines, refusing to sacrifice any for him; planning on bringing the cult back under her leadership. Kobra ends up in maximum security, although without his trademark hood he looks like Lex Luthor! 

I still don't have all of this series, which is mildly disappointing, but just means there's still some out there yet to be read. Previously, we've seen the last issue, #6, and #30; although we probably saw some of the later Justice League Unlimited as well.

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Damnit, I'm on record as liking the idea of the Outsiders way more than anything I've ever read with them; but I've liked other stuff from these writers. Still, I feel like I see what they were trying to do, and I hate it. From 2024, Outsiders #8, "Hex" Written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, art by Robert Carey.

In the ghost town of Zero, Batwoman confronts Virginia "Jinny" Hex, although she's really there to help; that's just kind of how she is. Jinny is being chased by ghost cowboys, and her gun is the only thing that works on them; although Batwoman buys them some time with salt. She explains, they maybe have a mutual friend: Jenny Crisis. She was a Century Baby, like Jenny Sparks had been, and maybe DC finally scraped bottom on stealing from Alan Moore, time to go for Warren Ellis. ('Stealing' might be harsh there, but this feels like playing with somebody else's toys maybe without permission. Which probably sounds weird from me, sure.) Jenny had been helped by the Outsiders before, but there were other Century Babies out there that needed help, like Jinny. Batwoman isn't sure what it all means, but knows those kids are important somehow. OK, fair enough. Then, the ghost of Jonah Hex shows up.

Jonah tells a three-page text story, of being maybe mortally wounded, before he found a magic gun in a crevasse; that saved him from dying, and helped him put down 37 of the Elliot Gang. It helps when you don't have to reload, I suppose. Jonah killed maybe two hundred with it, but was haunted by ghosts and felt he wasn't firing the gun anymore, it was firing him. He put it in a box and buried it; and asks Jinny why she had to use it: she had space guns, she didn't need it. Except, she did, during a burglary, when she put down a guy kicking down her bedroom door. Jonah feels bad about it, but tells Jinny she can't put the gun down: "...last life it took has gotta be yours." That feels like a load. He put it down...

Batwoman takes the gun instead, feeling that Jinny deserved a chance at a life; hers was already pretty wrecked, this wouldn't hurt much more. Jonah maybe is a little too sarcastic here, so Batwoman shoots him, then shoots the other ghosts...which, doesn't seem to do much? Like maybe the gun holds them off a bit, but doesn't permanently shut them down. She then calls the Outsiders: maybe they both said some things, but she needs them, since she could "contain the situation...but I can't solve it." But the others might not be in any position to help... 

Ugh, where to begin? Mystic stuff and Jonah Hex, that's only going to work in the absolute smallest of microdoses, or you get the Jonah Hex movie. And Jonah doesn't currently have a comic, so his corpse and/or his ghost have shown up in the present more than once, and once was probably more than enough. I like the idea of Batwoman trying to take somebody else's burden, but it feels like taking away from Jinny's story. I know Lanzing and Kelly maybe did some other stuff with Planetary characters in this title--the Drummer and Jakita are mentioned--but that was a book I loved to death yet don't feel ready to revisit, or continue. I don't know the magic gun's full story either, but good lord, I'm afraid it belongs to the Saint of Killers or something. And I liked Jinny as a legacy character, but this feels like saddling her with one or two more legacies, on top of that. (No spoilers, but Jinny would be back in two issues, so this maybe didn't completely break the character.)

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Try to imagine meeting your mom for the first time, and she's wearing those pants. Unavoidable psychic damage!

I know I read X-Man from like the fifth issue, though at least #26, but I don't think I still have most of those, and a lot of the details are pretty vague. Still, it's way longer than I ever read Cable! From 1997, Cable #44, "Temptation in the Wilderness" Written by James Robinson, pencils by Randy Green and Allen Im, inks by Scott Hanna and Scott Koblish. 

In what appears to be a musty dungeon, in a hanging cage, Nathan Summers finally comes face to face with Madelyne Pryor, his mother. Who was wearing a slightly more modest version of her Inferno outfit! Those low-rise pants maybe aren't helping...They were on the astral plane, but at Mister Sinister's old lab: Madelyne had entered Nathan's mind while he was meditating, to introduce herself, and show him her life. She also got to Nathan just before Jean Grey could warn him, that Maddy had somehow returned as a "psychic ghost," in a really tiny editorial footnote, in X-Man #25, although she had been back since X-Man #5. There had been at least one other writer on that title since then, though; #25 might've just been the reveal of 'how.'

Anyhow, Madelyne takes Nathan on a magical mystery tour, of her depressing origin and life. She also tricks Nathan into fighting an imaginary monster at Sinister's lab, just to see how far he would go to protect her. They walk and talk for two pages that are positively Claremont-esque, in that the letterer (Richard Starkings and Comicraft!) deserves combat pay: I'm only scanning part of one of those pages, because I know you probably have other things to do today. Nathan tells Madelyne, while she had a rough start, that doesn't excuse the pain she caused, and he can't feel pity for her. She changes to a slightly more demure, winter outfit; to show Nathan where she was happiest: in Alaska, the brief window of a "normal" life between Uncanny X-Men #201 and X-Factor #1. (Maybe a month between those issues actually hitting stands? Really?)

Next, a visit to New York City, which they both hate: Nathan thinks of it as Babel, "...where no one takes the time to listen and understand." Maddy's just mad she died there, and Nathan points out, wasn't she trying to sacrifice him when she died? Maddy claims that was a lie of the treacherous X-Men, and Nathan throws her off the building. Really, but it's just to transition to something he wants to show her: real evil, that of Apocalypse. Of course, even here Nathan is still Johnny Tightlips about his real goals, as he mentions "he is the one I am sworn to defeat. Perhaps not in the manner you might think, but it is still a task that requires all my attention." Ergo, no time for Ghost Mom: he doesn't consider Madelyne, as she was then, even 'real.' Madelyne comes back, if that was his real goal, why hadn't he done it yet? Why was Apocalypse still alive? A cold glower is his only response, and Maddy then pushes too far: they could take out Apocalypse, Sinister, and the X-Men. She calls mutants "evil" one too many times for Nathan's taste, and he remembers Jean raising him in the future, as his mother.

Madelyne asks if Nathan feels nothing for her, and he grudgingly admits he felt a moment of peace in Alaska; so that would be neutral territory for them, if they needed to meet. Still, he warns if she threatens innocent lives, including the X-Men, he would fight her; but Maddy still seems to take it as a win. Nathan wakes up, with Scott and Jean there for him; a moment that makes him feel like a little boy again, and he welcomes it. Probably should've ended the issue there, but nope! There's two pages with villain Ch'vayre, who...yeah, I got nothing. From the context, he had been sent from the future, to make sure Cable stuck to the right path, but seems to have decided to change tactics, and work with Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club. (I would've thought Shinobi Shaw would've still been in power then!)

I wonder if this is just because I reflexively oppose Cyclops nine times out of ten, but I'm still Team Maddy? And I kind of dig her new costume as well. I'm not positive where she went from here, but I'm glad she's around again. Also, I'm not sure how long he stuck around, but this was Robinson's first issue here: I feel like a lot of this was editorial-driven, but the Babel bit definitely feels like his. That might be the first time I've seen Cable explain anything, though.

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"Skye."

Skye is a Fortnite character--another figure from a game I don't play, drink! She has a backpack that holds her RPG-looking sword, and her look is just a bit much for a typical civilian...aw, maybe it isn't, I don't know. Still, between her look and her name, she seemed like she could've been a Doctor Who companion, so she's perfect for Death's Head. But, she's not going to be one of those companions with a whole arc or purpose in the mythology or anything: here Skye is a more classic companion, who wants to see weird things and have adventures. 

Also, I thought I misspelled it, but Death's Head's old partner/assistant/hanger-on was Spratt, not Sprat. And he was killed in the mini-series, in Death's Head II #3, which was also Tuck's first appearance? I think I get confused, because of the later reprint book, the Incomplete Death's Head, which had Tuck in the framing sequences. Anyway, I probably have that issue handy, and need to take a look; but I'm not sure DH II is really bent out of shape over Spratt's demise, if he even knows.

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If you read old Ostrander Suicide Squad comics now, if you weren't around when they were coming out, the politics might be somewhat opaque now; but it's to their credit that they're still readable at all even if some of the commentary sails right past you. Today's comic...I wasn't confident that it had aged well, and the second page confirmed that for me. From 1987, Green Lantern Corps #209, "Red Alert!" Written by Steve Englehart, pencils by Joe Staton, inks by Mark Farmer. ("Red Dawn" on the cover, because subtlety? Phooey on that!)

At the time, to prepare for a colossal misfire some upcoming big cosmic thing (not that one, although maybe it should've been!) there were seven (or eight!) Green Lanterns on earth; but they had just had a bit of a split: Kilowog had been talked into working with the Soviet Union, and Katma Tui and John Stewart had gone with him. (I don't think John had been retconned as a U.S. Marine at that point, or if that had been established, it wasn't brought up much.) President Reagan meets with the GL's staying on the "American" side--Hal, Arisia, Ch'p, and Salaak; although Hal's ID was still secret--to discuss their fears; that the Soviet-siding GL's could attack. While they agree they were there to protect the whole earth, not just America, the four don't present a unified front: the alien Lanterns defer to Hal (or John) in matters of earth politics, but they consider them "silly," as Ch'p puts it, which has to be somewhat devastating coming from a cartoony squirrel.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Gorbechev meets with Kilowog and the others, and the first Rocket Red, Josef Denisovich. This was like maybe Kilowog's ninth appearance, total: he's a little more squat and slouchy than he would usually appear. He seems to have bought in entirely, helping the Soviets with their armored super-suits and some genetic modification; but John doesn't believe the hype of a "workers' paradise." He argues with Gorbechev, who seems reasonable, but also wants John and Katma killed without Kilowog or Josef knowing...John and Kilowog argue, with some punctuation from their power rings, but Kilowog says he believes in socialism, and can do what he wants.

Back in America, Hal isn't thrilled with how their meeting had gone, and then they return to their headquarters to find Guy Gardner waiting for them. Guy hadn't taken his Justice League spot yet, and offers to take the fight to the commie Lanterns; before getting distracted by the recently aged-up Arisia and leering. Hal slugs him, but the fight is interrupted by the arrival of Guy's old flame, the psychic Kari Limbo. Guy had seen her kissing Hal, when they thought he was dead; and as they all argue, the dour pessimist Salaak watches almost noddingly: of course everything is going off the rails...

Seven Rocket Reds jump Katma and John in the street, and Kilowog apparently spilled a lot of beans about how their rings and their fail-safe feature worked: they get knocked out, and the Rockets just have to wait for their rings' charge to expire before they can kill them. There's a ton of witnesses to this fight, but the Rockets are confident no one will talk. Kari argues with Guy, trying to convince him not to attack Russia: Guy acts like he's not going to, just to prove Kari's prediction wrong, but refuses to be reverse-psychologied out of it, and heads to Moscow, laughing. Kilowog and Josef look for Katma and John, as Soviet officals try to cover their tracks; but Guy's attack sidetracks them. The Soviets give Guy too much credit, assuming he somehow knew Katma and John were in trouble; but go to orange alert; which is quickly escalated by red by the Americans. A final showdown was coming up...

A fun thing you can do--for certain values of 'fun'--is if you pick at any current problem in American society, you can pretty consistently find where Reagan made it worse; if he didn't outright cause the problem in the first place. I'm sure he would've handled a crisis like this with patience and diplomacy--no, his only saving grace was he was too senile to move quick. Still, Reagan comes off better here, than the other comic I remember him in, which we might have to dig up. Read more!

The Youngest doesn't read a ton of comics, but he seems to watch a lot of YouTube about them, and brought this one up the other day; so I was surprised to find it in the quarter bin! From 1990, Brute Force #2, "Black Gold!" Written by Simon Furman, pencils by Jose Delbo, inks by Mike DeCarlo.

Brute Force, as a title, was described to me as Marvel trying to reverse-engineer their success with licensed titles like G.I. Joe and the Transformers; trying to create something they could turn into toys, a cartoon, whatever, and keep all the money themselves. Brute Force, the team, were animals kitted out with cybernetics to make them more toyetic--er, to increase their intelligence. Their "creator," Dr. Pierce, worries he's already starting to lose control of them, as they have their own wills and agendas; like Lionheart, who really wants mutton for dinner. (Let's give the apex predator thumbs! I'm sure that won't be a problem; but only because it's a kid-friendly book.) Possible team leader Slipstream changes his name to Soar; which is either to express his individuality, or because there was already a Joe with that name. This issue introduces the bad guy team, Heavy Metal, which features similarly augmented animals, who seem only slightly angrier than Brute Force.

I only found three issues in the quarter bins, but the first is probably not particularly hard to come across. Brute Force has turned up a couple of times since, particularly in a Deadpool Bi-Annual.

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