Vacation week: Akira!

I haven't read all of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, but after seeing the movie in a little theatre in Montana I wanted to check out an issue of Epic's 38-issue reprint. Huh, it would've run you a hundred and fifty bucks for the whole series back then. This particular issue is not only way into the series, there's also several scenes that aren't in the movie, like Kaneda and Kai tooling around on some kind of tank-platform-gun thing. Still cool.
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Reading list: The Ultimates: Tomorrow Men!

I'm curious how much I'll like this one, since I've pretty much soured on the Ultimates. The first two series are great spectacle, but the whole lot of them are generally unlikeable bastards; and later work has put me off the Ultimate universe entirely.

But, I'll give it a shot, and I know Michael Jan Friedman wrote a ton of Star Trek stuff, so it should be entertaining enough. I'll let you know.
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Vacation week: Iron Man: Hypervelocity!

Another trade that I actually managed to wait for: Iron Man: Hypervelocity, written by Adam Warren, art by Brian Denham. Not to slight Denham, who drew the hell out of this one; but I had been really hoping Warren would've drawn it. Still, he's done a spot of writing for Marvel on Fantastic Four, Livewires and his own book Empowered. I just hope he doesn't give up the art, though. (For my tastes, Adam Warren is up there with Evan Dorkin or Walt Simonson, guys who I want to see doing story and art, not just one or the other.)
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Reading list: Elric at the End of Time!

Another one from Michael Moorcock, I can't remember if I've read this before yet. Although the cover describes it as "The seventh book of Elric of Melniboné," I think it's set between books two and three.

(If you've ever read Stephen King's Dark Tower books, there are a few stories like that, that came out long after you probably read the end. How much you enjoy said stories may depend on how you felt about said end...)
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"The Terror of...someone."

A quick and silly one while I'm on vacation: I picked up the last parts I needed to complete the DCUC Collect-and-Connect figure from series 13, Trigon! Out of the six figures needed to build him, I bought four; and got the other parts off eBay. I had only planned on buying Negative Man and Blue Devil out of that batch, but lucked into Superboy, Blue Beetle, and Cyclotron on sale. (Cyclotron had a base, so he wasn't 100% necessary.)

Strangely, while I still may pick up a Cheetah later (a local store has like four, so I'm waiting them out) I once again avoided buying a Teen Titan, in this case, Wonder Girl. The one pictured above is the DC Direct version (and check the links to OAFE for more answers!) but I'm just not a huge Teen Titans fan. And I don't think I've ever actually read a comic with Trigon; but he's a big red demon, so why not put him together.
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Vacation week: Violent Cases!

The second print of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's Violent Cases--originally from 1987, this one's from 1992, and it's had two more prints since then. Maybe I'm prejudiced since it's been on my shelf for about twenty years, but I like this cover the best.

Gaiman is kinda like Alan Moore for me: I like his stuff when I get it, but I don't seem to go out of my way for it, either. (As opposed to Warren Ellis or Garth Ennis, who I'm more apt to follow.) I think this was a gift, and I'm still glad to have it.
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Reading list: Elric of Melnibone!

Another book I read as a kid, although I'm positive I read Michael Moorcock's second Elric first (Sailor on the Seas of Fate) and possibly even a couple others. Tomorrow's, if I stay on reading schedule, one I'm not sure I read before...

And I know I've mentioned this before, but I preferred these to the Lord of the Rings books.

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Vacation week: Beyond!

From 2006, Dwayne McDuffie and Scott Kolins' Beyond! A used trade from Hastings for the cost of an issue? Sold! (Oddly, I saw this same book at another location, along with some other books in the same vein: mid-to-lower tier Marvel trades.) Looking forward to reading it, since McDuffie's name overwhelms my distaste for the Hood or Kraven, Jr.
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Reading list: the Bachman Books, or at least a couple of them.

I had been keeping my eye out for a new copy of this for some time, but I needed an old one. Huh? Well, the first story in Richard Bachman Stephen King's Bachman Books is Rage, about a school shooting; has been taken out of print at King's request since several actual school shootings. Which is a shame, since it's still damn good. (The second story, the Long Walk, also scares the hell out of me, which won't stop me from walking while I read it.)


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Vacation Week: Featuring, things that don't fit in my scanner!

Well, the book itself might fit in my scanner, but I can't open these books up to scan out of them. Which is just as well, since I'm out all this week, visiting my ancestral homeland in Montana! It's also my birthday today, so I have no intention of doing any work in the slightest...

Today we'll start with a book I'll be reading up there: The Bulletproof Coffin, by David Hine and Shaky Kane. Or maybe Destroyovski. If this link still works, check out the first issue at Comic Book Resources! Looking forward to finishing this one: I missed the first issue and had to wait for the trade, which I forget to do about half the time.

Coming up later: other stuff I'm reading on vacation! (I read like a chainsaw, so it could be a pile!)

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Nightcrawler shouldn't be here, but OK:

From X-Men Annual #10, "Performance" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Art Adams, inks by Terry Austin.

The good: Art Adams art, duh. Cameo appearances from Walt and Louise Simonson, Puddlegulp (aka Frog Thor, now!) and in the page above, the Robot B-9 from Lost in Space!

The bad: Ugh, New Mutants! I just have never, ever liked them. Any of them. Mojo and Spiral...who turn the X-Men into kids...and the New Mutants have to step up to the a-team to rescue and/or avenge them. Longshot joins the team, and while he always looked sharp with Adams drawing him, for some reason Claremont wrote him as so dumb he didn't recognize water.

Admittedly, Longshot was kind of an alien, but still. Also, Kurt and Kitty probably shouldn't even be in this issue: they were both injured in the Mutant Massacre crossover and weren't on the team when Longshot joined. Ah, if Art Adams wants to draw them, why not?

And that's it, I'm on vacation! There'll still be posts here next week, but I'll be in my ancestral homeland in Montana, so have fun!
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More Pirate Kurt!

From Ultimate X-Men #50, "Cry Wolf" Written by Brian K. Vaughn, pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by Danny Miki. While most of the other X-Men can pass as normos and get to go to the carnival, Nightcrawler and Angel are left to play pirates in the holodeck Danger Room. Unfortunately, this issue also has Ultimate Gambit...

I read a bit of Ultimate X-Men, but after Ultimatum...yes, we shall speak no more of this.

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As usual, Alan Davis carries it...

From Uncanny X-Men #450, "The Cruelest Cut, part 1" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Alan Davis, inks by Mark Farmer.

After the dark times of Chuck Austen, Chris Claremont came back to Uncanny X-Men in issue #444, and stayed until #473. Of course, this run wasn't anywhere near as good as his glory days on the book, but it beat the hell out of his first return, with the Neo and the Shockwave Riders and crap like that.

And Claremont got a lot of support from Alan Davis and Mark Farmer. For me, it was usually worth the price of admission to see them draw Nightcrawler and Phoenix/Rachel Summers Grey again. Rachel at the time was using the Marvel Girl codename as well as her mom's last name, since she was pissed at her dad, Cyclops...and you know I love that. This month, as Kurt and Rachel play pirates in the Danger Room, and they kiss once before being interrupted by Wolverine and Storm.

Storm hadn't gotten together with the Black Panther yet, and Claremont seemed to be teasing a possible relationship with her and Kurt, or her and Logan. Nothing would come of that, or of Kurt/Rachel. And the rest of this issue is pretty terrible, with murders in District X, Tessa wondering if she will leave the X-Men, an armored girl gang called the Bacchae, and Logan's first meeting with X-23. Look, the Danger Room sequence is nice, at least.
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"Doom Idol" may be "Doom Factor" by the time this is done...

Funny, I had written something up for this, but apparently lost it. Oh, well.

Odds of a Star Sapphire joining the Doom Patrol: 45-to-1.

Odds of that stopping me: 1000-to-1. (A sucker's bet!...especially since I have another one of these done.)

Odds of Matty Collector.com's DC Universe subscription making an Elasti-Woman figure: Tough to put a number on it. How about, "no." Finishing up the Doom Patrol doesn't seem to be a priority, and she probably wouldn't make the lineup again until they push through a lot of the DC Reboot-look characters.

(It's All True has a post up on the DC sub, but I'm afraid I am by nature a cherry-picker, and don't have the cash to throw at that all at once. That said, if they did manage to get an Elasti-Woman made, I'd put some effort into getting her.)
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Why shouldn't Nightcrawler stab people? The rest of the X-Men get to!

Only two scans from this issue today: it's a personal favorite, and there was the temptation to scan half the book. Excalibur #100, "London's Burning" Written by Warren Ellis, pencils by Casey Jones, Randy Green, and Rob Haynes; inks by Tom Simmons, Jason Martin, Rick Ketchum, and Rob Haynes.

As you can tell from the first scan there, it's a very Ellis book from the dialog alone; but I'm more than all right with it: some of my favorite characters, taking the lead, and acting like they have some sense? About time! And even though this issue was part of the Onslaught crossover, it doesn't take over the main plotline either.

(The crossover scenes do seem like something the editors gave to Ellis and he ran with that ball: the X-Men arrive on Moira MacTaggert's Muir Island, to tell her Professor Xavier has become part of the monster Onslaught. On the ropes, the X-Men are there for a secret room Xavier left. When Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Moira investigate the Xavier Protocols are unlocked: in case he went bad, the Professor left notes and equipment on how to kill him. Unfortunately, he also left notes on how to kill several of the other X-Men; based on which ones showed for the information...)


Meanwhile, Excalibur has their own problems: the London Hellfire Club, a rogue group of British intelligence called Black Air, and their attempt to use Douglock the cyborg to control a demon imprisoned under the city. Evil mutant time-travelers, horrible biting bullets, the heel turn of Kurt's adopted mom Margali; a ton of plotlines Ellis had been building since he started in Excalibur #83 come due here.

Sadly, it couldn't last: Ellis would finish with the book on #103, and eventually Nightcrawler, Colossus, Shadowcat, and even Wolfsbane would be sent back to the United States...and rolled back from the professionals seen here to backups for Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, etc.

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The cover's pretty much the best thing about this one: blame Kevin Smith for Spider-Man and the Black Cat: the Evil that Men Do #5, "Trickle Down." Art by Terry and Rachel Dodson.


Spider-Man and Daredevil need some background on a teleporter, so they call in Nightcrawler to drop a ton of exposition about how this might be a mutant but probably isn't. He also lectures them about not knowing their mutant history and acts put out when they tell him they aren't mutants. Which is stupid, since even if that is something he'd say, I'm pretty sure Kurt would've known that, if for no other reason than Spidey and DD would've shown up on Cerebro all the time...

Worse, Spidey and DD take off at the end to deal with the creepy non-mutant teleporter/mind-controller/drug-pusher/rape-victim the Black Cat is dealing with; and Nightcrawler doesn't get to come help out! Yeah, I suppose Spidey and DD wouldn't want another guy coming with them on that one...


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As much of this one as would fit:

While I'm a big fan of Bill Sienkiewicz, I never warmed to the New Mutants. I think I read the "Demon Bear" issues at some point, probably. But, I did dig up New Mutants #22, "The Shadow Within" Written by Chris Claremont, art by Bill Sienkiewicz. Yeah, bought this just for the opening: Nightcrawler gives Cannonball some training in aerial acrobatics, then tries to win over the frightened Wolfsbane...by tricking her, which doesn't seem like a good idea.

Every so often, an issue or two would make reference to the X-Men actually teaching the students at Xavier's; but I don't recall if Kurt ever had his own team of students like some of the other X-Men, like Rogue.

More later today!
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Well, that's a bit on the nose:

Nightcrawler may be dead in Marvel Comics today, but we still have time to check out a few of his old appearances. This time, from Marvel Team-Up #89, "Shoot-Out over Center Ring!" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Michael Nasser and Rich Buckler, inks by Josef Rubinstein.

Nightcrawler picks up his girlfriend Amanda Sefton at the airport, but sees an airplane with a big A on it, for Arcade. That's kind of jumping to conclusions, yeah, but Kurt checks it out and overhears Arcade quitting a job: the extravagant hitman had been hired by Amos Jardine to kill Spider-Man, then Jardine decided to go with a lower bidder. Kurt knows Jardine as well: the sleazy tycoon had bought the circus he grew up in, then tried to put him in the freakshow.

At the circus, Kurt tries to draw out the killer, who obligingly takes a shot at him; before Spider-Man shows up. Together, they face bargain-basement assassin Cutrate Cutthroat, who gives them the hassle for a few more pages.


Cutthroat was, like many villains for Marvel Team-Up, completely throwaway...but he would return, in Captain America years later, revealed to be the older brother of Diamondback. Then Cutthroat tried to take Crossbone's job as the Red Skull's right-hand man, which goes about as well as you'd guess...

Like a lot of Marvel Team-Up's, this isn't a stupendous issue, but it's fun enough.

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This doesn't happen in Uncanny X-Force #11:

...since Fantomex uses the mind-whammy to make Kurt think it's happening. This, though, does happen:

Ah, even though I'm not a fan of X-Force, that takes me back. From Uncanny X-Force #11, "The Dark Angel Saga, chapter one: Journey to the Age of Apocalypse" Written by Rick Remender, pencils by Mark Brooks, inks by Andrew Curreie and Mark Brooks.

With Warren Worthington taken over by Archangel, the X-Force team shakes down the Dark Beast for a cure. Dark Beast says he had one, in his old dimension, back in the Age of Apocalypse. X-Force heads over and runs into what's left of the AoA X-Men, including that world's Nightcrawler and Sunfire. Sunfire destroys the doohickey they came over for, and the Dark Beast ditches them there. While Logan is glad to see his lost friends Kurt and Jean again, and they're glad to see him since their Wolverine is dead; the rest of the team quite rightly complains the AoA sucks and they don't wanna be stuck there...

I'm getting ready to go on vacation, but as usual, we'll have posts running even when I'm gone. So, this week will be Nightcrawler week! We'll have a spot of scans from Kurt's old appearances, and probably "Doom Idol" on Wednesday. Or something else. As usual, your guess is as good as mine.
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Captain America vs. the Red Skull! Skulls.

Another one of the first Captain America comics I read as a kid: Captain America #227, "This Deadly Gauntlet!" Written by Roger McKenzie, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Mike Esposito and John Tartag. I know this was the first issue in a three-pack sold way back in 1978, but this issue is the conclusion of at least a couple issues of storyline.

Fortunately, the previous issues don't matter much here, since Cap recaps (as it were...) things on the splash page: the Red Skull has transformed every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent on the helicarrier into a duplicate Skull, all dead set on killing Captain America. The agents are dangerous, but Cap fights his way through them, forced to fight his way to the Skull and the captive Nick Fury, chained up under a big magnifying glass set to burn him to death.

Cap tricks his way past one of the last guards, by putting his shield under his shirt. (Which would. Not. Work.) Facing the main Skull, Cap throws his shield, but it's trapped in a magnetic field. As Nick fries, the Skull tries to break Cap with the guilt of falling again and Bucky's death, but Cap's already put it together.

Namely, that Nick Fury wouldn't break even if he was being set on fire, but he would sweat! The Nick Fury under the magnifier was the ever-popular S.H.I.E.L.D. Life Model Decoy, while the head Red Skull was Nick. The plan was to trick Cap into beating Nick to death, but instead he destroys the Skull's satellite. Cap also realizes the satellite must not have had the power to turn earth into an army of slaves, or the Red Skull would've done it. You'd think a ray that could turn people into Red Skull slaves would get some more use at some later date, but no.

This is a pretty simple issue, and quick, even with only seventeen pages. And the art isn't overly deep or detailed, but again, it keeps things rolling. Please excuse the blocking on today's scans: my copy of this issue is over thirty years old and has been read many a time.

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