"Oh, I'll never finish Stilt-Man; I don't see that happening." Lies, all lies!

The local toy show returned for the first time in two years, and while I didn't buy much...actually, I think I spent more on comics at that show, but okay...it was a lot of fun just to walk around and see some stuff. But, I also got a ton the last week or so: The new M.O.D.O.K.! The Hellfire Club! And surprisingly, Stilt-Man! Mercari came through with several of the parts at once, so here we are.

At the show I picked up the recent Rogue from the Rogue/Pyro set, a couple of Fantastic Four bodies that I thought I needed but now wonder why, and some Build-a-Figure parts. I'm two short on both Crimson Dynamo and Demogoblin, and wonder when or if I'll finish them up. Or get any more Hand Ninjas to make Stilt-Man taller...seems unlikely. Read more!

If they called it "The Eye of Bitter Truth" nobody would come looking for the damn thing.

We saw the previous issue some years back, but today we're up to 1979's Warlord #27, "Atlantis Dying" Story and art by Mike Grell, inks by Vince Colletta.

Previously, Travis had tried to use the mystic Eye of Truth for a do-over, but maybe should've been more specific, as he's now reliving a prior life as a caveman! Luckily, he doesn't have to do that very long, as he's eaten by a saber-tooth tiger in short order. His next life seems a bit more upscale, as he's now an Atlantean, and living large as an engineer. Unfortunately, the project that saved Atlantis--pumping sea water into volcanoes to generate steam heat--also cooled the lava fields, causing them to contract and sink Atlantis! Well, bound to happen.

Travis's other lives include Lancelot, D'Artagnan, Jim Bowie, and Crazy Horse. Finally reliving his current life, Travis sees himself take the spy mission that would lead to him crash-landing in Skartaris, all he has to do is not, and Tara would have never met him and suffered for it. Except, when he first met her, she was just about to get eaten by a dinosaur, and might've died without him. Moreover, his friend Machiste was a galley slave; and most of the people were slaves: Travis asks himself if he can turn his back on them, and can't. Returning back through the Eye of Truth, Travis finds his friend Ashir, under attack by Deimos's man Chakal and his laser hand! Travis shoots him in the laser, and it explodes. He tells Ashir he can't remember exactly what happened (probably) but "a fool can't change the past and a wise man never tries!" I could've told him that, even if I'm not even sure I was a chimp in any past lives.
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We've never seen this guy before, but we're going to launch him on a round-trip of the time stream; I'm sure he'll be fine.

And he's pulling focus from the bikini-girl hijackers! From 1977, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #233, "The Infinite Man Who Conquered Time the Legion!" Written by Paul Levitz, pencils by James Sherman, inks by Bob Wiacek.

After a brief scuffle with Sklarian technology raiders--well, let's unpack that for a second: they were apparently Prime Directive'd out of getting the fancy earth tech, and they wanted it. I don't know if they were recurring foes, but I think Kono from the Five Years Later run was a Sklarian. The Sklarians were probably biting off more than they could chew by trying to take Star Boy and Lightning Lad, but with Superboy present as well they're wrapped up in four pages.

The Legion is helping recurring supporting cast member/honorary Legionnaire Rond Vidar, at the Time Institute, with an experiment meant to prove time was circular. I feel like this would be dangerous even if they sent lab rats, but they send volunteer Jaxon Rugarth on a round trip through time, and of course he returns as an omnipotent lunatic hellbent on revenge on Vidar. That doesn't explain the Infinity Man's headgear, though. And after that scan, I gotta admit I probably would've volunteered for that thing, if they promised a date with Phantom Girl there...

The Infinity Man summons tanks and dinosaurs, freezes Star Boy in time, launches Superboy out of this dimension; but then takes a break to hone his abilities. Team leader Wildfire figures he won't try to kill Vidar in the past, but splits the party, sending some of the less-combat-useful members in search of help. (I don't think he had been leader long, but this issue seems to be establishing Wildfire's management style: good in a crisis, poor at interpersonal stuff and getting worse...) Typical for comics, no help is forthcoming, except it gives Brainiac 5 the idea for overloading him. Rond launches the Infinite Man back through the timestream and traps him, although he and Brainy pledge to try and cure and rescue him. Which they don't, even if they do bring him back later.

In the back-up feature, "The Final Illusion," Princess Projectra is sinking into a coma, since she's been trapped in her own illusion-casting powers. Saturn Girl telepathically determines she's escaping reality since her boyfriend Karate Kid had gone to the 20th century (and his own series!) and Dream Girl suggests turning Projectra's dream into a nightmare. This doesn't quite work, until Chameleon Boy suggests a slight adjustment: in her nightmare, Karate Kid saves her, but then she realizes he was only an illusion, and would have to wake up for the real thing. (They would get married in 1983's Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #2.) 

Rond Vidar would make many appearances over the years: he was later revealed to secretly, and illegally, be earth's Green Lantern, in Legion #50. Post-Crisis, in the Five Years Later run, when Andromeda replaced Supergirl in the Legion and as Brainiac 5's crush object, he was also the father of Andromeda's child! Fans may not have loved that reveal, since Rond would later be killed by surrogate aggrieved fanboy Superboy Prime. Which may be where he stands now, but Legion continuity is of course on the iffy side.

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We blogged the last issue of this series about a decade ago; today we have the first: from 1984, Amazing High Adventure #1, featuring "The Pike!" Written by Steve Englehart, art by John Severin; "Gold!" Written by Ann Nocenti, art by Tony Salmons; "Ambrose A. Abernathy's Amazing Adventure Apparatus" Written by Mike Carlin, art by Gerry Talaoc, and "Death Stroke" Written by Louise Simonson, art by Steve Leialoha. Cover by Bill Sienkiewicz.

This was a short-lived adventure anthology, but with a pretty good creative pedigree; opening with "The Pike!" With John Severin art, it has a very EC horror comics feel. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell's forces put Irish loyalists to the sword, raising the ire of pagan wizards. But Cromwell proves to have a few tricks up his sleeve as well.

"Gold!" features renegade Spaniards in search of gold (duhr) and willing to do anything for it. Does an Aztec elder have the secret of making gold? "Ambrose A. Abernathy's Amazing Adventure Apparatus" is a more light-hearted piece: eccentric inventor Abernathy accidently creates "a machine that can generate adventures around itself...adding thrills to the dullest of people's lives." But is the machine causing drama, or renegade rival inventor Professor Edwin Grimmley to blame? That one's kind of fun.

"Death Stroke" is slightly grimmer, as Inuit shaman Manilak and his bear totem, Inua, circle around the end of their lives. But Manilak needs to stay alive long enough to teach lost Russian aristocrat Dimitry how to live--in the Arctic, and in general. It does have a happy ending, even with a horrible bear murder/suicide. Read more!

"Summon."

I don't know why Kurt is channelling Hank Hill today...actually, of course we have seen Kurt punch Mephisto in the face before, back in Nightcrawler #12.

Morbius is a smart fellow, but I'm not sure English is his first language, so "reconnoiter" could have snuck past him. Also, Doom probably knows Morby's name, but calling him by name would be too great an honor. He's actually fought Moon Knight, so he could probably give him that much. 

EDIT: Most of the joints in my old Marvel Select Mephisto are tight to the point I'm afraid they'll break, with the exception of his hips, which are as loose as Doom's mom...what, too soon? Marvel Select is at long last reissuing their Watcher figure; but I wonder if Mephisto would ever get the same consideration. I also think his throne has been bootlegged, possibly more than once; I see it more often on eBay. Read more!

If the Joker had tried that in the actual comic, it probably would have melted his face off.

This issue had a Darwyn Cooke cover, but what about the insides? From 2015, Action Comics #41, "Hard Truth, part one" Story by Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder, works by Pak, art by Kuder. 

We saw the fourth part to this one a couple months back, but here the largely de-powered Clark has just made his way from the Fortress of Solitude, to Alaska, on foot: not only does the whole world know his secret identity, but the Fortress also kicked him out! With money hidden in his boot, he buys a motorcycle from a local tough, who then tries to renege on the $800 sale price when he realizes who he was dealing with. Still, Clark was not completely powerless, and is able to fight off four guys who wanted the fame of kicking Superman's ass.

A motorcycle journey from Alaska to Metropolis doesn't sound completely fun, but Clark is enjoying taking his time, and simple pleasures like a good meal, a caffeine buzz, or staying in when it was cold. Still, Jimmy Olsen had signaled for him to return, and here Clark seems a bit simple: after getting outted, he was fired from the Daily Planet, his credit cards cancelled, "and sixteen different lawyers filed eight different class action lawsuits against me for Superman-related damages." (Why does that always only come up against the heroes? Just once I'd like to see Metallo's earnings garnished...) What did he think would happen? Also, this seems to be in a bit of a vacuum: no help from the bank of Bat, or the JLA; for that matter, what would the JLA do without Superman's power? (From an ad this issue, this was when Commissioner Gordon was the robot-suit Batman with the weird ears.)

The cops give Superman the hassle as soon as he rolls into town, including an officer in mirrored shades who is obviously going to be a problem later, but they let him through to his old neighborhood. Where Clark meets Jimmy, in the informally-nicknamed Kentville! The people there largely embrace their hero, although local firefighter Lee Lambert tells him not everyone; that some are still in hiding from him. But, when she gets an emergency call, Superman leaps into action! Literally, leaps: he could jump pretty good, but no flying. 

Finding firefighters confronted by a "shadow" creature, Supes gives it a pretty good punch; but the mirrorshades cop mobilizes his troops, "we've got a block to burn!"

I'm really, really not up on New 52 continuity for Superman: I know he was in the t-shirt/jeans look for his early days with Grant Morrison, then leveled up to the high collar/no trunks Jim Lee design, and this was a bit of a rollback? It also implied Clark had never been freezing cold or starving hungry before; but I feel like he had to have at some point before his powers really kicked in? 

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Every Canadian has wanted Logan to tell them that, regardless of the circumstances.

It's once again time to blog a comic I was absolutely going to blog, because I bought it specifically from the quarter bin to blog, like four goddamn times from different quarter bins. I literally had the same idea every time I saw it...From 1992, Alpha Flight Special (1992), "First Flight" Plot and script by Scott Lobdell, script by Simon Furman, pencils by Pat Broderick, inks by Bruce Patterson.

This was a flashback tale, to Alpha Flight's first mission, but opens with Canadian cop Benard in a shootout with three crooked cops. He is saved by Logan, who then takes him to the Prime Minister himself, to set up a transfer. Logan tells Benard he now "belong(s) to the Canadian government," which I feel like I've heard a lot in X-Men/Alpha Flight stories, and I gotta ask, is that common up north? One day Canada decides they need you and your ass is drafted right there? Logan then takes Benard by helicopter to a lodge near Thunder Bay, tells him his room is second floor, first door on the left, then takes off. But, his roommate talks incessantly in his sleep, so he heads for a couch, only to find the mysterious, and very nude, "Narya." Not yet Snowbird then, but she welcomes him to "the Flight," which tells him nothing. Nightie-night! 

As Egghead starts setting up new digs in Canada, and a solid fistful of villains head north; Benard is awakened by the bellicose "Saint Elmo--keeper of the Northern Lights!" He also meets his verbose roommate, Alec Thorne, "the smartest man in Canada!" "Smart Alec" claims to be smarter than Reed Richards, but doesn't get the press; but Logan interrupts his tirade to tell Benard he was due on the training course. Dr. "L," (for Langowski) and Dr. James MacDonald Hudson finally give him the lowdown, which involves a discussion of the recent appearance of the Fab Four--er, Fantastic Four. They are also overly cheerful at the reveal that Benard's ass had been conscripted to pilot Hudson's new exo-suit. Yes, apparently the Canadian government can pick you to pilot an untested, experimental suit against super-villains, terrorists, Giganto, whatever; and there's nothing you can do about it.

Canada's prospective new heroes train, not really gelling as any sort of team. Benard uses his new suit to eavesdrop on an argument between Logan and Hudson: Hudson wants Jodi to be involved with the team, Logan calls her a basket case. Benard meets the young mutant, a.k.a. Stitch, who could precisely control small bits of metal, but was afraid of her powers. (Although, she's using them to stitch up her own face when we meet her; why she needed to do so is also unclear.) She seems to take to him, though.

When Egghead announces he has a nuclear missile aimed at New York City, it's go time, even though Hudson was not sure about them, although you definitely shouldn't tell your team that beforehand. Some of Egghead's crew isn't sure either: he admits his demands were outrageous, and assumed he would have to nuke NYC, in order for later cities to capitulate; and Swordsman was not up for that. When fight time comes down, Stitch proves herself against the Swordsman, the Rhino is surprised to be cut by Logan, and Smart Alec proves useless in the crunch. The missile is disabled but not the warhead; and Egghead proves surprisingly resistant to Logan's intimidation. Saint Elmo sacrifices himself, to destroy the missile, and save his friends. 

Back at HQ, Hudson is getting chewed out by Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen (lotta doctors in AF...) when Benard tenders his resignation, not caring what Canada might to do him. Hudson defends his call to throw them in the deep end, since he had to use what he had to save lives; and Benard may have just given him the idea for a tiered system: an active 'A' team, a training 'B' team maybe. Benard walks away, and Hudson lets him return to his life as a cop. Over the years, Benard had since seen Alpha Flight rise and fall, multiple times by that point, and thought there would always be an Alpha Flight. Canadian optimism. 

I don't know if this was a story that had been aching to be told, or an excuse to slap Wolverine on the cover and move a few copies. OK, maybe I do know. I'm also not sure we'd ever seen 'Mac' Hudson not want to pilot his suit, I kind of thought that it was his baby.

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Much grimmer than the movie, but more accurate to the source material?

Well, maybe. From 2006, the Lone Ranger #3, written by Brett Matthews, art by Sergio Cariello.

John Reid may not have been able to save his parents and brother, but he does have some impressive woodworking skills, as he carves a mold then melts his Texas Rangers badge to make a silver bullet. Before he starts his quest for vengeance, the newly masked Lone Ranger visits the grave of his mother, and in turn is visited by Tonto, who looks more like Conan here. The Ranger pistolwhips Tonto, then apparently sets fire to his house and takes off on Tonto's horse, unwilling to be deterred from his mission.

It has to be disappointing, or at least anti-climactic, when he finds his target dead, an apparent suicide. Tonto somehow got there really quickly, and does return the punch owed to him, but John seems spent, giving Tonto his silver bullet, saying he only had the one murder in him. Still, there was money there, which Tonto suggests could be put towards a horse. Elsewhere, Butch Cavendish makes something like a campaign speech, then receives a telegram from his hired killer, advising that the Lone Ranger remained. On the next page, the killer murders a woman, then has to go back when he hears a baby crying, to finish the job...that's a little dark for this. But there's a little light in the end, when at the horse lot...I'm pretty sure that's not where you buy horses, but whatever...John is introduced to the toughest horse out there, a silver-colored beauty recovering after a fight with a buffalo. Do horses fight buffalo that often? Maybe Silver's just a jerk. Read more!

This one had bigger names in the creative team, but I liked the Ghost/Shadow crossover better. From 1994, the Shadow and the Mysterious 3, story and breakdowns by Michael Kaluta, additional script by Joel Goss, finishes by Stan Manoukian and Vince Roucher.

This issue featured three Shadow shorts, first using a junkie wife-killer to bring down a heroin smuggler that kept the goods in manequins. "Cold Day in Hell" is a clockwork-style scheme: a bunch of mobsters in a snow-covered cabin are going to divy up their loot, until the Shadow turns them against each other. Which seems overly clever for him; I'm used to him just gunning down everyone in the area and calling it a day.

"Ceiling Zero" has another elaborate scheme, this time a mobster returning for revenge on his betrayers, by stealing their assets on a plane, D.B. Cooper style? No, his scam runs deeper than that! There's a fake plane, the Shadow in disguise, and a loose bolt in a fire escape...I'm not sure the latter was planned, or just a lucky break. The stories weren't given enough space here; and I'm still surprised to see the Shadow work that hard at something that's not just pulling triggers. Still, I guess not every weed of crime has deep roots. Read more!

"Around."

...why did I lay that last panel out like the end of a Svengoolie episode? Ah, well. 

To Doom, lobster (or as an old friend from Maine insisted on saying, "lobstah," he could totally pronounce it correctly if he wanted to!) is peasant food. Something that can be trapped by any oaf with a boat and a completely fake accent? Bah! Doom has a far more refined palate...what's that Japanese thing, where you feed people to the fish and then eat said fish? I'm not looking it up, it sounds gross, but yeah, Doom's eaten that. I also expect that Doom eats exceedingly sparingly, yet has massive tables prepared every evening; extravagant feasts that he takes three bites of, grows bored, and has the rest fed to the pigs or the dogs. (Or first one, then the other...) And Doom enjoys his wine, but never gets drunk or probably even buzzed; it's just a prop for him to hold while he gestures with it. 

You may or may not recognize our creepy Darkhold dwarf, played by Wonder Woman baddie Dr. Psycho! Give him a little hand...Unlike most Build-a-Figures, or Collect-n-Connects if you're Mattel, you only had to buy two figures to build him: a Frank Miller Wonder Woman and modern Wonder Girl. Sigh...I bought the Multiverse figures for a long time, and I think they went a long stretch--maybe from DCUC series 7 Flash and others, until almost the end of the line, without the slightest bit of innovation. (I know there's an OAFE review that notes their improvement coming only well after they had already lost the DC license to McFarlane.) And yet, while a lot of DCUC figures used the same "bucks," Mattel probably could've done a lot more! There were scads of characters they could've done easily with new headsculpts and a bit of paint, and a lot of their fans would've been just jim-dandy with that. I suspect DCUC/Multiverse wasn't a big cash cow for them, though; the real money was probably in ImagiNext or whatever.

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Got the Death Dealer and Xialing from Amazon yesterday! And lucky I'm not a mint-on-card kind of guy, since Xialing's package was squozen nearly flat! Only the Mr. Hyde torso saved it.

I'm not sure Hyde's head is quite right, but okay. Also, got the Jurassic Park John Raymond Arnold the other day too: I took the above picture on the fly, and I might have been going for an Avengers initiative joke there somewhere and didn't make it there.

Next up is probably M.O.D.O.K. and She-Hulk, although they'll arrive a couple days apart, for some reason. And I did get a Fwoosh ninja that was marked down a bit, and he wasn't bad! My only complaint is the wrist pegs are like the Mezco One:12 figures, a little small. We'll probably see him later. Read more!

This one checks off two boxes! From 1990, Quasar #11, "By the Time I get to Phoenix" Written by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Mike Manley, inks by Fred Fredricks. 

I've never been a podcast listener, but I have recently enjoyed the Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Podcast, where they're trying to read an issue of Excalibur every week, for over 126 weeks. It's a more academic look at the books, and a good listen; although I worry they are in for some tough weeks in there later...And, since Quasar is finally getting a Marvel Legend this summer, we'll probably hit more issues of his book between now and then. 

Quasar's mentor Eon had warned him there was a massive threat to the entire universe coming (but when isn't one?) and here he's chasing a pair of underwater aliens. I think it's Marrina and the Plodex, but Quasar doesn't even get close enough to get a look at them; and he can't match their speed underwater without causing environmental damage. (It was the same for him in earth's atmosphere; Quasar could travel fast, but was limited by not wanting to create massive sonic boom damage, burn off the atmosphere, what have you.) He has to back-burner the underwater aliens, figuring they probably weren't a "cosmic" level threat; but then encounters some one else speeding on the surface of the ocean. With it outracing him, Quasar tags it with a light-construct parachute, bringing it to a skidding halt, and he finds what appears to be a costumed runner face down in the ocean when he gets there. Worried over accidentally injuring the runner, Quasar rushes him to the Avengers' West Coast base for treatment.

Meanwhile, in England, four-fifths of Excalibur had returned from their "Cross-Time Caper," Kitty was still missing. (They don't realize it, but I think Kitty had got back home before they did! Maybe she could've left a note...) While the rest of the team seems to be relaxing regardless, Rachel is still pretty bent out of shape about it, which may leave her open to suddenly being possessed by one of Captain Britain's old foes! Then, sort of a weird use of time here: Quasar drops off the injured runner, who Wonder Man recognizes as the Eternal Makkari. Quas then has to get to New York to make an appearance at work, which takes him an hour to cross the country...I still feel like he could've done that faster without blowing a hole in the ozone or whatever, but okay. At Four Freedoms Plaza in his civilian identity, Wendell walks into a weird scene: an unusual job applicant, a Ms. H.D. Steckley. (The "H.D." is a clue!) Wendell tries to turn her away, since his new security firm didn't have enough clients; H.D. says she will bring in five new clients within a week. He figures that's impossible, but agrees. Wendell then checks in with Eon, which was always a weird looking thing; and while tracking extraterrestial activity on the globe they see the Phoenix force flare up. Could this be the big threat...?

So, how much time has passed since we last saw Rachel? In England, over a sheep field, Phoenix tries and fails to fight off the mental control. Then, the controlled Rachel opens a portal to Otherworld, releasing Modred the Mystic! Modred wasn't always a villain...enh, maybe 70% of the time, but today he is, pissed at getting banished by Captains Britain and America in Captain America #306. When Quasar arrives, Modred immediately sics Phoenix on him. Quasar is able to defend himself against the Phoenix-force, which is pretty impressive; then completely vulnerable to Modred's "magicks," as he's trapped by a spell Doctor Strange made classic, the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak! Modred leaves Quasar to be crushed by them, as he had to free his master Chthon and wage war on Merlin. Busy day. With the squeeze on, Quasar calls his lifeline, but while Eon may be largely omnipotent, he doesn't necessarily have the answers off the top of his weird-shaped head, and tells Quasar he'll get back to him. Blinded by the bands over his eyes, Quasar remembered that iron disrupted magic, and was going to try and magnetize some over to him before he was crushed, when he's rescued by Captain Britain. After a quick intro to Excalibur, they set off after Modred.

Quasar quantum-bands up a little ship to carry Excalibur, faster than they could've flown, and catches up to Modred and Rachel, as Eon finally calls him back! Quasar wraps up Modred in his own version of the Crimson Bands, then has to create a funnel to keep Rachel's energy blast off of him, and here we see him hit a limit, unable to maintain focus on three "quantum-feats" simultaneously. His ship dissolves, dumping Excalibur into the ocean. Modred breaks his bonds, then Quasar redirects the funneled energy into him, until Modred screams for Rachel to stop. Quasar traps him in a quantum bubble, at least for the moment, and Nightcrawler and Widget step up to the plate: Kurt teleports up, as Widget opens a dimensional portal somewhere, and Kurt shoves him through it. That kind of feels like dumping your problem on somebody else, unless Widget somehow knew Modred was going somewhere 'safe.' And Widget was very rarely (if ever) that functional: he wasn't like a garage door opener, getting him to do anything was usually longer and more involved, but we only have a page left, so...

With Rachel back to normal, Quasar takes Excalibur home, with Eon still trying to contact him about magic. Still, this was a kick in the teeth to Quasar's confidence, as he's left convinced Eon made a bad choice for protector of the universe. Hey, we all have bad days, man. 

While Quasar's plots keep advancing here, this is pretty inconsequential for Excalibur: Rachel isn't upset about being mind-controlled later, this isn't even brought up in their book. Still, it's probably my favorite of the fistful of guest-spots they made around then: couple issues of Thor this same year, 1991's Sensational She-Hulk #26, 1992's Spider-Man #25 and Dark Angel #6. You'd have thought they would've shown up in more of the Marvel UK books there...

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