Ereshkigal is a lot more sympathetic now, I think.

I said I was going to do more of a write-up on this issue, um, twelve years ago. Better get started! Actually, maybe we'll appreciate it more now, since something else from it has come up since. From 1993, Quasar #50, "Horizon of Holes" Written by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Andy Smith, inks by Ralph Cabrera. 

In the Man-Thing's swamp in Florida, the Nexus of Realities is visible today, which I think means the barometric pressure is dropping. No, it may be because of recent events in New York City: up until a couple minutes ago, Kayla Ballantine had possessed the Star Brand, accidentally passed to her by her boyfriend Wendell Vaughn, Quasar. Since she thought she misused it while lost in space, she gave the Brand to her friend Holly Steckley, who turned out to really be Ereshkigal! 'Holly Steckley' was the identity previously used by Moondragon to get close to Quasar; Ereshkigal picked it up when she stopped using it; there may have never been a real Holly. Ereshkigal claims to have tricked much smarter people over the millennia, but I didn't think Deviants lived anywhere near that long, usually. She also says she's not really evil, just "motivated in a very egocentric manner." (I like her motivation from the database better, trying to free herself from restrictions, even if the restrictions are from Eternity and the Living Tribunal. They're not the boss of her!) 

Quasar had been nearby in the hospital, visiting his mother; and was surprised to realize Kayla was back. After catching up with her and realizing what had happened, Quasar goes to check on Kismet, who had lost a fight with Kayla and was currently in a cocoon in the East River. (Think Adam Warlock!) Erishkigal hadn't just been sitting on her wings, though: she went to the Nexus of Realities, slightly annoyed that it was in a swamp. Attacked by Man-Thing, Erishkigal blows him up with the Star Brand, although not necessarily maliciously: she just didn't want it to stop her, and it was "a miserable creature doing a thankless job." Now, she had easy access to multiple realities, and checks a few out, before sending a pulse into several. 

The Silver Surfer cosmically notices something is up, and approaches a lava planet to use another Nexus of Realities, but finds it guarded by a creature calling itself Anakalak. (I didn't think there were multiple Nexuses here and there; just one per reality!)

Several extra-dimensional entities answer Erishkigal's summons, since the Star Brand was a power none of them recognized. She gives them the option of maybe doing something other than being multiversal custodians, and some side with her, including a big green cheese, and off-brand Starro and Ren & Stimpy! Erishkigal wipes out the rest. The Living Tribunal then appears, with Lord Chaos and Master Order; but that just tells her she's on the right track, and she's willing to destroy as much multiverse as she has to, to get out from under their thumb. Quasar and the Surfer arrive, as she starts using her power, increasing Lord Chaos and diminishing Master Order. The Tribunal doesn't let them hear the conversation, but offers a tournament of champions, because direct confrontation would do too much damage. With both heroes convinced the other was "fighting for little Miss Universe Wrecker!" they start the fight. 

Quasar may not have had the juice the Surfer did, but was adept at redirecting power. However, after taking a couple hits in a row, he notices Master Order grew when the Surfer hit him, and realizes he was going to have to throw the fight! He fights enough to not make it obvious, but gets thrashed. Erishkigal seemingly immolates herself with the loss, but I'm glad she would return. The Living Tribunal takes the Star Brand away, to determine how to dispose of it, and the Surfer and Quasar return through their Nexuses; Quasar to a ton of guest-stars that had come to help him out! (Pity they didn't squeeze Excalibur in there!)

This issue has a "foil enhanced prismatic cover," so I think it sold fairly well? You can probably find one pretty easily; even if I have more than one around here somewhere...

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"Advice."

Ah, no commentary yet! I'll update that later. Read more!

Look, if I wanna remember it with girls riding dinosaurs, I'm gonna remember it with girls riding dinosaurs.

I've mentioned this one before on the strength of its Bill Sienkiewicz cover, which is so great but also possibly indicative of this company's problem. From 1995, Gene Roddenberry's Lost Universe #2, "A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma" Written by Lawrence Watt-Evans, pencils by Mike Harris and James Callahan (page 3), inks by Aaron McClellan and Frank Percy.

This was arguably the flagship of new company Tekno-Comix, and despite having concepts from Gene, additional characters and such from his wife Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, additional additional work from D.C. Fontana and Ron Fortier, as well as a scientific advisor; it is largely unreadable. Having the first issue next to me might help, but only slightly: scientist Alexander Grange has been recovered by Penaltra, an operative for something like the Federation. Wait, their ship's name was the Deliverance? Go to warp nine, I hear banjos...Grange doesn't understand why the planet and the people are completely different from how he remembers them; and as he and Penaltra enter a simulation of the world, they find an inexplicable woman riding a dinosaur. Penaltra thinks Grange is imagining her, possibly not taking things seriously; but after a restart she's still there. The locals describe her as from a nearby tribe of wanderers, but they recognize her more than Grange: no one had been doing research like his studies of the "Old Ones" in decades.

Grange and Penaltra then review a massive info-dump, wherein billions of alien refugees from the Andromeda galaxy settled on the planet Malay, which was then going to be hit by an asteroid. While a missile was able to destroy the asteroid, the explosion also took out the hyperspace beacon, cutting the planet off. Both of them are starting to realize the planet might not look like they were expecting, but while Penaltra discusses it with her crew, the weirdly-pupilless Grange steals a shuttle, intent on finding answers... 

There's an old joke, how do you make a million in comics? Start with ten million! Somebody put some money into Tekno: they also had Leonard Nimoy's Primortals, a couple books from Neil Gaiman concepts, and Isaac Asimov's I-Bots had Howard Chaykin, Steven Grant, and George Perez working on it! I haven't read those, but I liked Mike Danger even if they totally backpedaled off of the original hook for the second series. It definitely feels like they put all of their money and effort into certain aspects, and completely whiffed on the others. Still, I hope this original cover is on a wall somewhere; it deserves to be seen.

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Somehow, I think using not one but two brand-new and untested sciences in your trial isn't going to go well.

Since I'm more of a reader than a collector, sometimes I don't care what format I get to read stories in. Which is good, since I think I had this one already in Showcase Presents #2: from 1978, Jonah Hex #16, "The Wyandott Verdict!" Written by Michael Fleisher, art by Vicente Alcázar.

Jonah doesn't get off to a good start this issue, as his horse breaks its leg, then he's captured by vigilantes and hung for the triple murder he'd been framed for back in #2. The vigilantes are part-timers, one of them has to get home and read their kid a bedtime story; so they don't hang out while Jonah hangs out, choking to death and kicking; while a hidden figure laments Jonah's death, since he wanted to kill Jonah himself. Luckily for the hidden figure, and Jonah; Jonah is cut down and saved by scientist Tobias Nostrum and his hired man Joseph. They plan on turning Jonah over to the law, but Nostrum's interest is piqued when he protests his innocence. They don't notice when Joseph goes out to cut wood, and gets murdered and replaced!

Nostrum demonstrates the then-new science of dactyloscopy, taking Jonah's fingerprints. Between that and ballistics, they maybe might be able to prove his innocence; but that's going to involve digging up some bodies. While they do that, Tobias asks "Joseph" to keep watch, and instead he takes off. Shortly thereafter, a new bar girl visits the sheriff to tell him where Jonah Hex could be found, then likewise disappears. The sheriff captures Hex, but Nostrum visits him in jail later: the slugs in the corpses were from a .38, definitely not a .45 like Jonah carried. That bodes well for his trial, until later when Nostrum is killed in his hotel room, by a duplicate of himself. There's also a shootout in the middle here, as a bad guy from a previous issue (Quentin Turnbull, probably) sends some guys to kill Nostrum, but even on trial Jonah still has to gun them down. Then, "Nostrum" starts putting some nails in his coffin.

Almost! The real Nostrum survives long enough to get to the courtroom, as his fake was giving testimony, then dies. The fake removes his "putty and greasepaint" latex-like mask, revealing himself to be scarred actor the Chameleon! Jonah kinda steps on his big reveal by throwing a knife into his heart. Case dismissed! Read more!

Set the Way-Back Machine for...2016?! I thought this was twenty years ago, easy.

I mean, I got the action figure for it in 2017, which impossibly feels even longer ago. It's always disappointing when a long-standing character gets a redesign that's very obviously not going to stick around long-term, yet sometimes still gets an action figure. Hal and Sonar also don't have their classic looks either, because it was apparently time to try something new, as in something old...from 2016, Green Lantern #48, "Close to Home" Written by Robert Venditti, pencils by Martin Coccolo and Billy Tan, inks by Martin Coccolo and Mark Irwin.

Hal was a fugitive from the Green Lantern Corps at this point, and instead of the traditional power ring was using a prototype power...glove, thing. His nephew Howard was among those injured in a bombing, the work of long-time GL foe Sonar. Despite having fought him about 80 times, Hal flies from Coast City to Gotham for intel from Batman...so who's this armored bunny-guy? It's Jim Gordon, in his cup-of-coffee replacement stint as Batman! Hal's still able to browbeat the 'Rookie' into making with the information, since, hey, Batman would've, right? Sonar was still fighting for Modoran independence, and had taken leadership of the separatist front with sound-powered bombs. The Rookie lets him know the Modarans had a training facility in Kahndaq: GL flies over to try and shake them down, but they kill themselves with those bombs rather than spill. Furious he was getting nowhere, Hal demolishes, then buries, the terrorists and their base; while asking his nephew not to die.

Meanwhile, in space, more specifically the space where Oa is supposed to be, Parallax isn't thrilled that Oa is gone and the universe had "Sinestro-worshippers," but at least Coast City was still okay, right? Better keep it that way...by getting rid of Hal Jordan. 

Woof, this issue also features ads for the last X-Files episodes, and Dark Knight III: the Master Race, more things that have aged terribly. (I just stared into space trying to think of something better than 'like a piece of Fruit Stripe gum after three chews,' or my go-to, 'like a microwaved banana.')

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80-Page Thursdays: the Superman Family #185!

As happens sometimes, we haven't had this tag out for a while; but maybe we've got a few lined up for later. From 1977, the Superman Family #185, featuring "The Fantastic Fists and Fury Feet of Jimmy Olsen!" Written by Tom DeFalco, art by Kurt Schaffenberger, "The Great Superman Locked-Room Puzzle!" Written by Martin Pasko, pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger, inks by Vince Colletta, "The Sinister Secret of the Street-Stalker!" Written by Tom DeFalco, pencils by Win Mortimer, inks by Vince Colletta, "The Stray Superdog! Written by Bob Toomey, pencils by Juan Ortiz, inks by Steve Mitchell, "Beginnings" Written by Paul Kupperberg, pencils by Ken Landgraf, inks by Romeo Tanghal, and "The Voodoo Machine!" Written by Jack C. Harris, pencils by José Delbo, inks by Vince Colletta. 

These 70's Jimmy Olsen story sometimes feel like they're trying to be more serious than his 60's stories; and this almost feels like an attempt at being topical. Late, but an attempt: when Jimmy tries to save a scientist from being mugged by masked thugs, he lets Jimmy use his invention: Computerized Atomic Powered Combat Clothing! With the powered boots and gloves, Jimmy is able to kung-fu the thugs away; but the scientist runs off, saying his invention would be safe enough with Jimmy. Jimmy takes the C.A.Po.C.C.'s to S.T.A.R. Labs to check them out, but the thugs attack there as well, and are driven off again. It is, of course, a scam: the scientist is in on it with the thugs, and the ploy was to wait until Jimmy got Superman to take him to the Fortress of Solitude to examine them. They would then learn the Fortress's secret location, and could then loot it. When that doesn't work, they try to remote-control Jimmy to fight Superman until they can escape, but come on.

In "The Great Superman Locked-Room Puzzle!" Clark and Lois are stuck in a ratty apartment, waiting for an interview with a rock star. Lois is getting impatient, but Clark can see the rocker is stuck in traffic, and surreptitiously crushes the doorknob to keep Lois from leaving. Which gives them time for cards and conversation: they had broken up recently, with Lois noting while they had worked together for years and were "seeing" each other for months, they didn't really know each other. The quotes around "seeing" are Lois's; which in another context could, ahem, signify something else; but in this case even when they were 'together' Clark probably always had to duck her to make time for Superman. Also, Clark can't shuffle cards and takes all day to make coffee: he's hardly a catch! But here we get into the same sort of territory as Commissioner Gordon: just how much do they actually know? The rocker shows up, saying there had been a fire, but Superman took care of it. Discussing it later, Clark says he's almost sorry Lois didn't believe he was Superman anymore, he would've enjoyed disproving her theories. Lois says he's not Superman, but if he was, he easily could've done all of that at super-speed while picking up cards or making coffee. He could even have faked a phone call with super-ventriloquism. Lois is dead-on with her assessment, only missing one thing: a momentary moisture on her cheek wasn't a leaky pipe, it was Supes kissing her cheek at super-speed! I'm...I'm not sure that's okay; but Superman reconsiders things with her, realizing Lois knows how he thinks, more than she thinks. I think.  

Next, Lois works the case of an old man vigilante roughing up muggers: in a bit of continuity, the cops are not thrilled with another vigilante in Metropolis, since Black Lightning had just debuted. Then a Krypto yarn, then Nightwing and Flamebird: that reads as an origin, as Kandorian citizens take up the mantles of those heroes since Superman and Jimmy Olsen weren't around. There's also continuity nods, as in the Jimmy Olsen story, to recent Justice League of America stories: Superman was a busy guy!

Lastly, "The Voodoo Machine!" pits Supergirl against criminals holding her foster dad hostage, threatening her foster mom, while her real parents have been forced back into the "Survival Zone." Which, is that related to the Phantom Zone? Separate? A rebranding for the Kryptonian non-criminals that tried to flee Krypton's destruction in it? That one appeared to be midway through maybe a three-parter, and wondered how many parents Supergirl would have left at the end of it. Read more!

"Ditch."

Why is Jack Russell wearing a lab coat...? Because he landed the coveted role of Dr. Canus, in a Kamandi strip that I apparently never got around to doing. Werewolf by Night, like the rest of his brethren from the Marvel Legends Monsters box set, has not received a new figure, putting him on the increasingly short-list of Toy Biz figures that have not been updated. (I did see some Universal-style monsters figures from Jada Toys in my search, though!) Jack is probably the third-best figure in his set: better than the Dracula, but not holding up as well as Frankenstein and the Zombie. The hips and shoulders are outdated, the neck doesn't have any range, and he falls victim to scale creep, since he's now shorter than Wolfsbane! 

We're not going to see whatever turned Cap into Capwolf--if we go down one more level of flashback, we're in Priest territory--but since Morbius was involved, it might've been the werewolf coup d'etat Kang mentioned last year! It was probably like Captain America #344, except werewolves instead of snakes.

The magically "radioactive" corpse may or may not be a thing in real Marvel continuity; but old Dr. Strange stories seemed pretty steadfast in the belief that magic was not for everybody, and you could get jacked up messing with things you should tamper with. I want to say there's a throwaway line in Marvel Comics Presents (possibly MCP #19, "Nightmare in Suburbia.") where radon poisonings were revealed to be less prevalent than was known; many of those deaths were actually amateur magicians summoning a demon and then having a heart attack on the spot.  

I've never been, so I thought Lake Minnetonka was going to be a small, isolated secret; but it's like the most popular lake in Minnesota! I'm more familiar with Dave Chappelle referencing it as Prince, since I didn't see Purple Rain until maybe last year. Chappelle has been kind of a jerk lately: it's not easy to apologize or admit you're wrong, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should double or triple down.  

What does any of this have to do with Moon Knight and Quasar? Oh, he's getting to it...

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"Deviant."

If you didn't watch it right away, there were deals to be had on Marvel Legends Eternals figures: I picked up two Kro figures for the price of one on Amazon now. I can't recall if he was a bit expensive for a 'deluxe' figure or not, but he was maybe cheaper than some? Maybe, maybe not. 

More importantly, it's the triumphant return of the most dynamic of duos, Timmy and Franklin! Hmm, not unlike...a figure showing up tomorrow, Franklin is on the shortlist of Toy Biz Legends that Hasbro hasn't remade. 

Reagan's Raiders was an actual comic somebody expected people to pay money for; but I don't know if it was a bad parody, or just bad. I don't think it's on the highlight reel for Dick Ayers or Rich Buckler.  

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Aw, man, I haven't blogged all the comics from the last comicon.

Last Saturday's Lilac City Comicon was a bit of a rough one for me, since it started with me locking myself out of my house! I haven't done that in years: I had a knife in my pocket, not my keys. But, I was able to pop a screen off, move some convenient cinder blocks from the Direct TV dish that's been in the front yard forever, and clamber through a window. It wasn't graceful, but it was alarmingly easy...

Unfortunately, I did get mildly soaked while going through the high grass by the side of my house; then soaked again while in line, then soaked again while in line again to get back in after I had to take a load of comics out to my car! I was wearing an old pair of shoes, since I changed after soaking the first pair at home; but between them and the floor of the convention center my legs were destroyed by the time I ran through my limit. (Same thing happens if I stay in Costco too long!) 

After all that, it was a pretty good pile of comics. I didn't take pictures like last year, since that was kind of a pain to do, but because I started sorting a bit right away. There were a few purchases that I was pretty sure were going to be duplicates; but sometimes it's worth just having a book in-hand; and I've been vaguely considering maybe opening up my own shop after I retire from my current job. That may or may not ever get close to happening, but it is an excuse to buy stuff: I'm just building up inventory, right? For a store that would be entirely my taste: I'd love it, sure, but I tend to doubt that would translate into folding-money sales. (I do have a back-up plan to that, involving t-shirt sales, that I don't want to go into since I actually think it could be a good idea! Most good comic shops do have more than one revenue stream, like cards and such.) 

The last several weeks, I swear I've picked up a big stack of comics every weekend. There was a ton from EntertainMart, a vein of Conans from Merlyn's, a load of Astro City from Monkey Biz, a batch of recent-ish books from my main store, the Comic Book Shop. My pull list is at the CBS, but they know I go where the cheap books are. I did feel a twinge of embarrassment when I asked Monkey Biz for a comicon ticket, but they were sold out, so they called the Comic Book Shop to see if they had any: that's very thoughtful, but it was like my side girl calling my main squeeze...

So, no shortage of stuff to read and blog. The main challenge is spacing them out: this is Random Happenstance, right; not "I just found 40 issues of the Shadow, that's two months sorted." Or Conan, or Jonah Hex, or 2000 AD stuff. I'm also not doing a whole week on (Marvel's) Solo either, although I'm good and stocked up on today's book, which had more variants than issues, and nobody had bothered to upload the cover for this issue! Ugh, I have to do everything around here. From 2017, Solo #5, written by Geoffrey Thorne and Gerry Duggan, art by Paco Diaz.

I hadn't read his 1994 limited, but this one goes a ways attempting to add a little depth to the "one man war on terror." While he had lost someone that set him off on his crusade, Solo also did merc work to pay the bills, and had an ex he was still in touch with, and a baby daughter with her. Dum Dum Dugan pulls Solo's name out of the Red File--washouts from S.H.I.E.L.D, and imminently disposable--and tasks him with pulling out an agent that had infiltrated the Zoo Crew. The Zoo Crew wasn't a crappy morning show, but gunrunners moving alien weapons: the agent hadn't moved, or taken out the crew, since he had a line on where the weapons were coming from, but dies before Solo uses image inducers to pull a Yojimbo to set the Crew against itself. (Or a Fistful of Dollars, or as the book mentions, Last Man Standing.)

Based on a text the gang's leader received, Solo sets S.H.I.E.L.D. on Egghead; but the texter may have meant a figurative Egghead rather than a literal one. Disguised as the Zoo Crew's leader, Solo has to explain to three angry, armored suppliers why the rest of the Crew was apparently dead? Labor dispute? Solo spins that as a positive: keep the circle close, less mouths to feed, more opportunity for them, right? And his pitch finds ears: the lead supplier teleports him to his base, abandoned space station Geocore. The supplier had been head scientist until budget cuts shut it down, but his codes were left active, so he went back up and kept it going. He also reached out to make friends in space, and did! Yondu, and the Ravagers.

Yondu had been helping the supplier "build a nest egg," to get off earth before it was inevitably conquered by somebody; but also can see through Solo's image inducer: his eyes were better than "you monkeys." But Solo had left a line open to S.H.I.E.L.D, who were hitting the suppliers' other locations. Yondu had actually been planning on taking over earth himself: stir up trouble, destabilize everything, then move on in. Repeatedly threatening to eat his face, he chases Solo around the station, while Solo realizes S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to blow it up, with him on it or not! Dum Dum is not unsympathetic, but "we all gotta find our own way in this life." Still, Solo might not be out yet...

Somehow, from different boxes, I've ended up with three copies of #5, which, honestly? Could be a fair chunk of the print run! I have another fifth issue of another limited series of another of Deadpool's Mercs of Money that I'm surprised I have any of: you could probably pull the first three issues of it or Solo easily from any quarter bin in the country; but orders were probably dialed back after that.

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