Overall: Meh.
The most amusing bit was a Bizarro take on Halloween. I was particularly amused by the Bizarro's notion of a Halloween prank: mowing someone's lawn!
Guy Gardner is back with Ice again? Wasn't she dead?
Huh? Roy Raymond, Jr., is Owlman? When did that happen? Kinda lousy art on this Outsiders story.
I've never liked the Creeper as a character. Here, I'll say it: In my opinion, Steve Ditko never could design a costume worth a darn.
So, they're bringing back Andrew Bennett? Never read any of them "I...Vampire" stories, I wonder if they was any good...
There's a new Aquagirl, now? Where'd she come from?
The rest of it's fairly forgettable filler.
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"So, they're bringing back Andrew Bennett? Never read any of them 'I...Vampire' stories, I wonder if they was any good . . . ."
Actually, the "I . . . Vampire" tales range from "not bad" to "remarkably good", over the course of its twenty-five-issue run in House of Mystery, from issue # 291 (Mar., 1981) through (not consistently) issue # 319 (Aug., 1983). Significantly, it is one of the rare 1980's series which I actually enjoyed.
The premise was this: In A.D. 1581, British nobleman Lord Andrew Bennett, military hero, courtier to Queen Elizabeth, and all-around good guy, falls victim to a vampire attack and becomes one of the undead himself. However, he has the strength of will to resist the evil urges of his vampiric state and retains his sense of decency. While he despises being a vampire, he reasons that there is one upside: that he can turn his fiancée, the lovely and wholesome Mary Seward, into a vampiress and they can live together forever. So he puts the bite on her, so to speak.
Lord Andrew, unfortunately, didn't think things through. Mary dies and is transformed into a vampiress, yes, but she does not have the internal fortitude to cast off the conversion to evil that goes with it. Lady Mary laughs in Andrew's face over the idea of living with him peacefully among humans, escapes his presence, and creates the cult of the Blood Red Moon. The Blood Red Moon, composed of vampires and human acolytes, works to take over the world. Mary, as its leader, assumes the sobriquet "Queen of Blood". Bennett swears to destroy Mary and her organisation.
Despite the similarities in concept to True Blood's Bill Compton, Andrew Bennett is a far more morally acceptable hero. Unlike Compton, who was the wanton slayer of many innocent lives, Bennett never subjects another innocent human to his fangs after Mary. Bennett subsists on animal blood and, later, bottles of stored human blood obtained from blood banks.
The central drama of the "I . . . Vampire" series is Bennett's attempts to destroy the Blood Red Moon and to stake Mary, in particular. At the time of the start of the series, which is set in the then-modern day, he has picked up two companions in his crusade. Dmitri Mishkin had been a child in Russia during the time immediately before the Revolution; he was taken on as Bennett's ward when Mary killed his mother and turned her into a vampiress. And there was Deborah Dancer, a beautiful girl who met Bennett when he saved her from Mary at Woodstock. Both were veteran vampire-slayers by the time of the beginning of the series.
While most of the stories ran along the typical lines of "small group of people take on a wide-spread secret organisation" plots, there were some interesting looks at the psychological drama inherent in the situations. For example, midway through the series, Mishkin, who is now an old man (though a robust one, typical of many Russians), encounters his undead mother, who is still looks the way he remembers her. The emotional conflict between Mishkin, who still loves and misses her, and his mother, now filled with evil and ready to kill her human son without an iota of remorse is written very well.
Another well-written psychological diversion is the three-part arc in which starts when Bennett has finally had his fill of fighting the Blood Red Moon and abandons his crusade. He sets off on his own to find some semblence of peace in his life. Circumstances place him in a small town where he takes up with a man, his wife, and their son. However, his past catches up to him and results in the deaths of, first, the father, then the son, and lastly, the mother. (I won't spoil the details, lest you read it, but the death of the boy, who looked to be about ten years old, is particularly shocking and catches the reader completely by surprise.)
There is a natural progression to the series, and it culminates in a final chapter in House of Mystery # 319. It's certainly worth looking into.
What I've seen of Kirby's design is nothing like the final product. I'm pretty sure it was Ditko. Ditko also may have designed the red-and-gold Iron Man armor. He was the first to have it in a published comic book.
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Actually, the "I . . . Vampire" tales range from "not bad" to "remarkably good", over the course of its twenty-five-issue run in House of Mystery, from issue # 291 (Mar., 1981) through (not consistently) issue # 319 (Aug., 1983). Significantly, it is one of the rare 1980's series which I actually enjoyed.
The premise was this: In A.D. 1581, British nobleman Lord Andrew Bennett, military hero, courtier to Queen Elizabeth, and all-around good guy, falls victim to a vampire attack and becomes one of the undead himself. However, he has the strength of will to resist the evil urges of his vampiric state and retains his sense of decency. While he despises being a vampire, he reasons that there is one upside: that he can turn his fiancée, the lovely and wholesome Mary Seward, into a vampiress and they can live together forever. So he puts the bite on her, so to speak.
Lord Andrew, unfortunately, didn't think things through. Mary dies and is transformed into a vampiress, yes, but she does not have the internal fortitude to cast off the conversion to evil that goes with it. Lady Mary laughs in Andrew's face over the idea of living with him peacefully among humans, escapes his presence, and creates the cult of the Blood Red Moon. The Blood Red Moon, composed of vampires and human acolytes, works to take over the world. Mary, as its leader, assumes the sobriquet "Queen of Blood". Bennett swears to destroy Mary and her organisation.
Despite the similarities in concept to True Blood's Bill Compton, Andrew Bennett is a far more morally acceptable hero. Unlike Compton, who was the wanton slayer of many innocent lives, Bennett never subjects another innocent human to his fangs after Mary. Bennett subsists on animal blood and, later, bottles of stored human blood obtained from blood banks.
The central drama of the "I . . . Vampire" series is Bennett's attempts to destroy the Blood Red Moon and to stake Mary, in particular. At the time of the start of the series, which is set in the then-modern day, he has picked up two companions in his crusade. Dmitri Mishkin had been a child in Russia during the time immediately before the Revolution; he was taken on as Bennett's ward when Mary killed his mother and turned her into a vampiress. And there was Deborah Dancer, a beautiful girl who met Bennett when he saved her from Mary at Woodstock. Both were veteran vampire-slayers by the time of the beginning of the series.
While most of the stories ran along the typical lines of "small group of people take on a wide-spread secret organisation" plots, there were some interesting looks at the psychological drama inherent in the situations. For example, midway through the series, Mishkin, who is now an old man (though a robust one, typical of many Russians), encounters his undead mother, who is still looks the way he remembers her. The emotional conflict between Mishkin, who still loves and misses her, and his mother, now filled with evil and ready to kill her human son without an iota of remorse is written very well.
Another well-written psychological diversion is the three-part arc in which starts when Bennett has finally had his fill of fighting the Blood Red Moon and abandons his crusade. He sets off on his own to find some semblence of peace in his life. Circumstances place him in a small town where he takes up with a man, his wife, and their son. However, his past catches up to him and results in the deaths of, first, the father, then the son, and lastly, the mother. (I won't spoil the details, lest you read it, but the death of the boy, who looked to be about ten years old, is particularly shocking and catches the reader completely by surprise.)
There is a natural progression to the series, and it culminates in a final chapter in House of Mystery # 319. It's certainly worth looking into.
You don't like the Spider-Man costume?
Did he diesgn that? I thought that Kirby was involved in that, somehow.