Getting into the hard depression now:

I used to work at a music store (a terrible and now defunct chain store, where I worked not especially well) and I still have some promo CD's from that time. One of them was the soundtrack for Dancer in the Dark, which I had for several years before actually seeing the movie. Actually, I only think I caught the last half-hour of the movie, but while the soundtrack breaks my heart, even watching part of the movie was like watching a sack of puppies and kittens drown in your washing machine, then having to reach past them to put your clothes in the drier so you can go to a funeral. (Apparently making the film was no picnic either, and I'm not sure Björk ever made another film.)

Why do I bring this up? Because although it came out a couple years after today's issue, the Björk/Thom Yorke duet "I've Seen it All" always comes to mind when I read it. From 1998, The Incredible Hulk #467, "The Lone and Level Sands" Written by Peter David ("ex-writer"), pencils and inks by Adam Kubert ("X-artist").

In the previous issue, Betty Banner suddenly came down with severe radiation poisoning. Despite Bruce's valiant efforts, she dies; and he believes his gamma radiation may be what killed her. Ten years later...an unseen freelancer from the Daily Bugle (named Peter...) interviews Rick Jones.

Rick begins telling the story, even though he wasn't there for some of it: as he and Marlo get the news, and as Thunderbolt Ross screams and waves his arms at his son-in-law, Bruce calmly makes his first suicide attempt moments after Betty's death. Stopped by the doctors, Bruce is put in a secure room; with tranq-guns set to automatically fire if his heart rate goes up (which would signal his change into the Hulk) and Ross continues glaring at him.

When Rick (who was in a wheelchair at the time) visits Bruce, it's readily apparent that, to use the technical term, he's cracked. Describing it as "a going away party for me," in his mind Bruce is surrounded by dozens of friends and foes he's met over the years. Quoting Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias," Bruce tries to explain to Rick that those vast and trunkless legs are the Hulk's; there is nothing left without Betty.

Grasping at straws, Rick suggests the Leader's resurrection machine that saved Marlo around issue #400. Although he plans to check that out, Bruce is pretty sure it's been destroyed; with that, he turns into the Hulk. Rick describes the change as calm, as if giving up humanity was now a blessing for him; and his eyes as "envious." When the reporter follows up on that, Rick isn't sure why.

Bruce then makes multiple suicide attempts, but is always stopped by the Hulk, which Rick sees as not just Bruce's anger, but also his survival instinct. (Something David had touched on before in Hulk: The End, another not-especially-uplifting tale...) The events rattled off next could easily have been another year or so worth of Hulk comics: the army tries to stop the Hulk, fails. Bruce jumps off the Empire State Building, but lands as the Hulk, then the Avengers show up. Bruce tries black magic, but hell is even enjoying his torment and won't take him.

Rick also tells of Betty's funeral--closed casket, which he says led to conspiracy theories; but she was cremated later. Thor parts the rain clouds there, creating a rainbow: "It was like a reminder that you're just supposed to keep going, no matter what life throws at you." Which leads into Bruce's last visit to Rick.

Late at night, after a fight with his wife, Rick can't sleep, and plays the harmonica. Bruce seemingly appears from nowhere, wearing shades and smoking a pipe; making casual conversation about the blues and the song Rick was playing the day they met on the gamma bomb test range. (Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day That I Die," as described here.) Bruce describes his various suicide attempts as "a permanent solution to a temporary problem," and refers to "Ozymandias" again: someday, he will be gone; his legacy nothing but rubble. (Ironic, since the Hulk's legacy was rubble...) But that's OK: Bruce tried to find power, to be the strongest one there is, yet the only power that means anything is the power to help others. Leaving Rick for the last time, Bruce's eyes glow green.

The reporter asks if Rick worries about the Hulk, and Rick says he has other things to live for; like his daughter, Betty. (Rick also seems to have his "comic awareness" from his Captain Marvel days, since he wonders if he's not in an alternate, unofficial timeline.) Although the reporter wants to hear more, Rick feels he's said enough.

This was, of course, Peter David's last issue of the Incredible Hulk, ending a twelve-year run. (And it wasn't quite his "last" issue, he would have a brief return in 2005.) It really says something that this issue is so sad even though the new writer (poor Joe Casey, as we've seen a couple times) would have to immediately start backtracking from it--the Abomination poisoned Betty, not Bruce's radiation; and Thunderbolt Ross did save Betty's body. (Ross had been dead himself for a long stretch, so that's not completely unreasonable.) And of course, now Ross is the Red Hulk and Betty the Red She-Hulk, which strangely just makes me even sadder.



Read more!

Man, Robert Frost doesn't get a "written by" credit either issue!

It took us a few posts to find a few comics with the poem "Ozymandias," but today we double down with Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice." First up, from 2005, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #191, "Cold Snap, part 2" Written by J.Torres, pencils by David Lopez, inks by Fernando Blanco.

During Mr. Freeze's latest crime spree, when one of his hired goons suggests stealing a painting to sell later, and Freeze says "there will be no later," that should be a warning sign for that guy. Batman catches it, when he sees the video footage, and suspects Freeze of being suicidal; although he doesn't see Freeze as the type to do it simply. Unwilling to go on without his beloved Nora (and I'm not sure what had happened to her at this point) Freeze is gathering up some of her favorite things, and a few frozen corpses, then he's going to crank up his diamond-powered freeze machine to 11 and freeze the whole city. Batman points out that might not even kill him, but when the machine is about to blow, Freeze refuses to let himself be saved, and seemingly dies in the ensuing explosion. Batman figures like winter, Mr. Freeze would return. (In somewhat poor scheduling, Mr. Freeze would return the very next issue, albeit in a story set earlier in his career.) Alfred asks if he thought Freeze could ever get past his grief; with a painting of his parents behind him, Batman admits he might not be qualified to answer that one.

Mr. Freeze is less suicidal, somewhat more murdery in the next one: 2017's All-Star Batman #6, "Ends of the Earth, part one" Written by Scott Snyder, art by Jock. Attacking a research faculty in Alaska, with his zombie-like cryogenic revivals, Freeze intends to release a bacteria from an ice core that would kill about everything on earth. Batman tries to stop him, and points out Nora probably wouldn't be keen on waking up in the icy graveyard of the world. Freeze has Batman beat, but Batman had planned on that, and had infected himself with a hot-running virus to destroy the bacteria--even as the faculty is bombed!

This virus storyline would go on, but some of this issue isn't clear: Bats drags Freeze into a cryogenic chamber, to wait out the bombing? And the virus was heat resistant to destroy the bacteria, but wouldn't firebombing take care of that? And as is often the case, Batman seems to go out of his way to save the villain, but his henchmen? Screw 'em. Still, this time Mr. Freeze seems to have come around to the ice portion of Frost's poem; which kind of seemed like a given, but there you go.
Read more!

I think Ozymandias has appeared on this blog more than Black Bolt...

Maybe it should have its own tag. From 1994, Marvel Comics Presents #168, featuring "History Lesson" Written by Reggie Jones, art by Jeff Moore; "Sweet Revenge" Written by Nel Yomtov, pencils by John Czop, inks by Tim Dzon; "Ghost vs. the Machine" Written by Chris Cooper, breakdowns by Reggie Jones, finishes by Fred Harper; and "Freedom" Written by Mariano Nicieza, art by Pino Rinaldi.

After Percy Shelley's poem, the rest of Black Bolt's story is pretty straightforward: after catching a TV interview with an archeologist that may have discovered the former site of Attilan in the Himalayas, Black Bolt has to speak up and destroy the site before anything is discovered that shouldn't be. I'm not sure why they care...the archeologist mentions maybe being able to find out where these mysterious people came from, or went; and both those questions seem unlikely to be answered by digging. Next was the conclusion of a three-parter featuring Spider-Woman, who wraps up a gunman-stalker.

War Machine guest-stars with Vengeance, who was pretty much the lead for the series since around MCP #144 or so until the end. (And we'll see the end sometime.) This ties into continuity that is just on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite place: previously, Rhodey had imitators in the form of a gang calling themselves the War Machines. Here, Vengeance seems to have his own fans, the Revengers; and while they're supposed to be causing havoc and killing other gangs, they look like really earnest cosplayers with cardboard masks and lots of spikes. There may be more to their masks than first glanced, though. I know very little about Vengeance, and looking it up it appears the mantle has been passed, kind of the same way Venom changed hands a few times. I like the idea of him as Player-2 Ghost Rider, not unlike War Machine, come to think of it.

Lastly, even though the cover promises a Stingray story, this issue has Valkyrie instead. (Stingray may have been bumped to #173 and no cover billing there!) She wrecks up what I thought was going to be a deeply obscure Fantastic Four villain, but instead it's a "big-eared, petty little tyrant" who found Diablo's old talismans from Fantastic Four #232, John Byrne's first issue. Although Val looks like her old self, the captioning and footnote mention, "In her latest earthly incarnation, she shares the body of a black English woman, Genevieve Cross," since Doctor Strange #4. (Or a Dr. Strange #4; he's had more than a few...) I don't know how long that was the case; Valkyrie's continuity got pretty messy for a while. I think there were several fixes that didn't take into account the previous fixes...
Read more!

80-Page Thursday: Avengers: The Ultron Imperative!

Hmm, GCD says this is an 84-pager, but we're going to go ahead with it, since I was going to blog it anyway: from 2001, Avengers: The Ultron Imperative. Written by Kurt Busiek (with Roy Thomas, Roger Stern, and Steve Englehart scripting some) and art by John Paul Leon, Paul Smith, Tom Grummett, John McCrea, Jim Starlin, Pat Olliffe, Jorge Lucas, Klaus Janson, and more.

This probably isn't as well remembered as Busiek's previous Ultron story, "Ultron Unlimited" with George Perez, and Thor smashing in and "Ultron, we would have words with thee" and all. But it does have a ton of good art, robot copies of the Avengers, Ultron's crazy ex Alkhema, the Grim Reaper, and guest-star Hawkeye. (Hawkeye had been mostly written out of the Avengers book to free him up to lead the Thunderbolts; although Busiek would still bring him in three or so times...)

It also features several callbacks to classic Avengers stories, including two to the same page of Avengers #57. Here, Cap and the Vision discuss Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Ozymandias, which I think we've seen on this blog three times this year. Weird.

I keep this issue together with Avengers #38 through #56, the last stretch of Busiek's run, and probably my favorite run of Avengers ever.

Read more!

A post about Mark Millar's work, with no swears? Or movie hype? Really?

I was a fan of Mark Millar's for some time, but after the Unfunnies, the end of Wanted, and his hucksterism-level passing Stan Lee proportions; I haven't read Kick-Ass or Superior yet. Still, some of his old stuff still holds up, like today's comic: Superman Adventures #29, "Bride of Bizarro."

There was a stretch during the Azrael-Batman run, where the only way to get a proper Batman story was in the comic based on the animated series. It helped that Mike Parobeck was knocking The Batman Adventures out of the park then; but in the same vein, Millar was ostensibly working in the animated continuity, and still telling the best Superman stories in years. And this issue, he managed it with guest-star Lobo. (I don't mind Lobo, but he's not the first character you think of when you think classic stories.)


Cruising through space, Lobo sees a message written in giant flaming letters on a planet: "ME NEED RIDE HOME" Curious, Lobo checks it out, and meets Bizarro. Superman tricked the imperfect duplicate, making him the "guardian" of the alien creature "Krypto," on this "Bizarro World." Although he was happy with his job, Bizarro wanted companionship. Bizarro...needs women. Specifically, Lois Lane.

Lobo, having met Superman before, knows full well Lois is "Supergeek's main squeeze." Knowing this is going to be a riot, he offers Bizarro a ride home; and to keep Superman out of his way.


Meanwhile, in Metropolis, just about nothing is happening. For a slow news day, Clark is going to cover a local superhero fan club costume contest...until they hear an explosion across town. Millar has a nice bit of narration from Lois, where she tells Jimmy Olsen not to be fooled by Clark's hayseed bit, and that he's a shrewd reporter that could beat them all to the story. (Of course, Clark's ducked out as Superman.) Before they get going, Bizarro grabs Lois.


Across town, Lobo gets Superman's attention, but tips his hand too soon about freeing Bizarro. And on their date, Bizarro showers Lois with gifts: a nice tree (in place of flowers), a live pig (as ingredients for a nice dinner) and coal. Lois tries to make a run for it, and the hurt Bizarro plans on making them the same.


Lobo offers Superman a chance to end their fight: all he has to do, is light Lobo's cigar with his heat vision. That idea goes over about as well as you'd expect. Supes knocks Lobo into the convention center, then after Lobo is distracted by a ton of Supermen, throws him in the river. Still, Supes knows Lois could be in real danger, and takes off...too late. Bizarro actually gets an Ozymandias moment.



With Lois dead, Superman loses it. Lobo saves Bizarro, mostly just because he's amused that a simpleton like him could be the one to push Superman to kill. Bizarro doesn't understand what all the fuss is about, since the original Lois is just fine, in the "soundproof duplicator machine," so Supes couldn't hear her. Bizarro explains Bizarro-Lois "am duplicate of original Lois, just like Bizarro am copy of Superman, stupid!" Disgusted that everything is headed for a happy ending, Lobo takes off.

Bizarro plans to stay in Metropolis and help Superman, but Lois gives Superman an idea: they introduce Bizarro to the "Superman Emergency Squad," a veritable legion of back-up superheros, in reality the costume contest. Supes tells Bizarro he does know a certain world that's missing a protector, and a certain alien doggie that needs taking care of. Even though he doesn't plan on an immediate marriage, Bizarro is overjoyed to return to Bizarro World, building his imperfect love a place to work, to live, and a circle of friends for her to gripe about him to. That's quite a man, honestly.

From Superman Adventures #29, "Bride of Bizarro" Mark Millar, 'Writarro,' Aluir Amancio, 'pencillarro,' and Terry Austin, 'inkarro.' I have to wonder if Millar could write one like this anymore, but it probably wouldn't get him another movie deal if it did, so...

Read more!

"The lone and level sands (not included.)"

Since we brought it up again last week. The poem "Ozymandias" may need its own tag, since we saw it on posts for Avengers #57, Incredible Hulk #467, and Avengers: The Ultron Imperative.

Read more!