I have been living in the late '80s recently (actually I have been commuting back and forth), and it occured to me that I have read almost the entire First Comics series Crossroads over the course of various discussions. I read issues #1-2 as part of my Sable discussion, #4 as part of Grimjack, and #5 as part of Dreadstar. It struck me that #3 is the only one I have left to read and that I might as well go for it. Then I got to thinking about one of my boxes labled "Miscellaneous New Universes" and that I might as well dip into that as well. My thesis will be that, in the '90s, one of the problems with the comic book field is that publishers were no longer content merely to publish good comic books, they wanted to launch entire universes. I think I have pin-pointed where this trend began, and I will identify it when I get to it. First, though, on to Crossroads.
Crossroads was a series of "done-in-one" stories in which characters from various First series met for the first time. ("Across infinite space and time, parallel lives meet at the Crossroads.") The beauty of this series is that each issue was entirely self-contained; one need not buy any issue of the connecting series nor even the entire crossover series itself in order to get a complete story. Each issue was done by a different writer/artist team, and Steve Rude provided the covers for all five. One character from each issue would carry over into the next, then "hand off" the series to the next character, and so on. For example, Jon Sable was the common character in issues #1 and #2. In issue #1 he met Whisper, and in #2 he met Badger. Of the three, Sable was the character most based in reality. Whisper wore a costume, but was still "realistic"; the Badger could be.
The Badger carried over from #2 to #3, where he met the comic relief character from American Flagg!, Luther Ironheart. In #4, Judah Macabbee met Grimjack (the "Luther" connection is there, but its tenuous), and in #5 Grimjack met both Dreadstar and Nexus. As I have written elsewhere, #4 and #5 blend seemlessly with Grimjack and Nexus and Dreadstar, but it is not necessary to have read the regular series to follow Crossroads or vice versa.
NEXT: Total Eclipse
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I have always said it takes at least two people to make a good discussion; thank you, Luis for providing "color commentary" to my "play-by-play" for CGW. NOw, moving on to...
STUPID HEROES:
Stupid Heroes is by Peter Laird, one half of the team who brought us the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I never did get into the Turtles, but here, I thought, was my opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the next "Big Thing." Stupid Heroes is one of three titles which debuted from Next Comics, and imprint of Mirage Publishing. The other two, for the record, were Bioneers and Xenotech, and all three of them were intended to cross over in the crossover series Maelstrom. Wghether that ever happened or not I do not know; Stupid Heroes was the only one I read, and that lasted only three issues.
The series is very heavily influenced by Jack Kirby, but Laird's intention was "to emulate rather than simply imitate." Kirby himself used to say that anyone who wanted to do comics the "Kirby way" should do their own thing rather than do their own version of his. I think Laird succeeded here. Here is the introductory caption from #1: "A modern civilization breeds modern menace!--And a 'high-tech' society beset by 'evil tech' requires special guardians, with special abilities! In an era of 'Ultracrime,' you need a superhero to deal with SUPER CROOKS!"
The main character is Poundstone (Scott Poundstone). His girlfriend is Alana Anderson, leader of the S.W.A.C. (Special Weapons and Containment) team formed to deal with rougue super-beings, called "Specials." Other "Specials" include Muscle Measter, Cinder, Rock Boy and MISTer. Dementia Dominus is the "Stupidhero disease, which infects Specials. Conflict arises when Poundstone discovers that S.W.A.C.'s "Tarbaby" project is designed to take down all Specials, himself included. I'm sorry this series didn't catch on because it's really a lot of fun.
MYSTERYMEN:
In 1999, after reading a positive review in the Comics Buyer's Guide, I went to see the Mysterymen movie in the theater, one of the few super-hero movies I have seen that I have liked. The Mysterymen first appeared in Flaming Carrot Comics #16-17, then spun off into their own four-issue mini-series after the movie. (Technically, Mysterymen does not qualify as a "new universe," but that's the box where I have it filed.) If Bob burden had had his way, however, his original concept was a series of three titles: Mysterymen Comics, Mysterious Origins, and All-Villain Comics. Burden: "We wanted the stories to be accessible to the general public. Thus, not only do the plots revolve more around the human condition and other more universal themes, but also, the stories are self-contained in each each issue (for at least the first ten issues of the series).
In retrospect, perhaps Burden's plans were a bit overly ambitious. Mysterious Origins, for example, was initially conceived to run at least 30 issues. Dark Horse, however, nixed the idea of a "line" and decided to fold all the concepts into the main title. But Burden decided to keep the idea alive with a double numbering system, thus the second issue was dually identified as Mysterious Origins #1, and Mysterymen #4 was also All-Villains #1. In Flamming Carrot, in additio n to the titular character, the Mysterymen were the Shoveller, Jackpot, Mr. Furious, Screwball, Captain Attack, Hondo Man, Jumpin' Jehoshaphat, and Red Rover. The movie featured its own vision of the concept, and the first issue of the mini-series introduced the strangler, Metro Marauder, the Hummer and the Spleen.
the stories themselves do not center around the characters' powers or their secret identities. According to Burden, "That aspect of the superhero formula took the back seat, in favor of stories that just stood on their own... All in all, our first and foremost consideration in choosing a Mysterymen story is entertainment value. The loose structure willhopefully make Mysterymen a home for good stories first and a comic-book series second. We are not here to preach a moral code, voice any political view, or condemn anyone. We are her to entertain with the art of the story and to sell a few comic books."
I recommend this four-issue series and wish it had lasted longer.
TEKNO COMIX and the WHEEL OF WORLDS:
Tekno Comix launched their company around the ideas of famous writers/creators, some of them deceased, developed by other people. For example...
Some of these titles have some kind of "twist." For example, whereas Star Trek was based on non-interferance, but Lost Universe was based on a space-faring society which imposed its values on every planet Xandar visited; Mike Danger was an unpublished "Mike Hammer" prototype with a futuristic bent; I-Robots was a team of super-hero robots. (Primortals was also based on some concept by Asimov.) I read at least some of all of these (except John Jakes' Mullkon Empire). What really makes Tekno Comics a "universe," though, is the four titles based on concepts by Neil Gaiman, tied together by Wheel of Worlds (#0 by Gaiman and John Ney Rieber and others; #1 by Bruce Jones, Jose Delba, Terry Beatty and Jose Villarrubia). It strikes me that this is the exact kind of thing Jack Kirby imagined for "Fourth World": a number of series he would eventually hand off to others and oversee.
That's quite a mix of talent overall I'm sure you will agree. The best of these titles, IMO, were Mr. Hero and Teknophage. (Gaiman's titles were the best. I think, because he was much more "hands on" when it came to their development than some of the other "creators" were, especially the dead ones.) I distinctly remember not liking Lost Universe or Primortals, but oddly I have no memory of I-Bots at all, although I'm sure I read it. I may need to go back and re-read it soon in one "satisfying chunk." One thing I do remember, however, is that Tekno Comics definitely contributed to my eventual "new universe fatigue." Has anyone else out there read any of these titles? If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Of the Tekno Comix line, the only title I ever saw was Mike Danger, which basically was "Mike Hammer in the Future." Y'know, the common, two-fisted man-out-of-time stuff. The work of the late Eduardo Barretto went a long way in selling me on this book, which, admittedly, was pretty average.
JIM SHOOTER (Yes, Shooter gets his own sub-section):
PART 1: Defiant
After his ouster from Valiant, he founded Defiant. "Many of us have taken some hits during our careers, but we've come through it stronger, and we're still DEFIANT. Hence, our name." I collected three Defiant series.
Defiant published several other titles as well, but I was alrerady suffering from "NUF" ("New Universe Fatique"), so I bought only the first issues of the following titles (and have never read them).
PART 2: Broadway
When Defiant didn't work out (for reasons unknown to me), Shooter found himself at the helm of yet another new company, Broadway Comics.
PART 3: Dark Horse
Finally, in 2010, Dark Horse Comics invited Shooter to reinvent the wheel... again (and I am not being redundant). The "VH3" universe had already launched by this time (more on that later, perhaps), but the former "Gold Key" characters were not included (for whatever legal reasons). Dark Horse acquired the rights and hired Shooter to reveamp them yet again. These series weren't bad (I read them all), but there are only a limited number of times any one person can return to the same creative well, I think, and none of them lasted very long. The series were...
CROSSGEN:
Deep in the throes of NUF by the year 2000, the only CrossGen title I got was the sampler, which was free. CrossGen launched with four titles (Mystic, Sigil, Scion & Meridian) and a unique money-back offer (extended to comic shop owners). A customer needed to buy the CrossGen Chronicles one-shot, and the first three issues of any one of their titles. If they were then unhappy, all they need do was return them to CrossgenGen with a handwritten letter "explaining why they didn't receive value" for a full refund. They later added a fifth title, The First, and that's all I know about CrossGen.
Our old pal Chris Fluit was a big fan of GrossGen, and he convinced me to give Scion a try. I really liked it and was this close to adding it to my P&H, but the timing was wrong. CrossGen had already announced that the entire line would be coming to an end in a month or so, and I wasn't convinced enough to buy up all the backissues.
CrossGen began with something of a gimmick (the sigils and the explicit claim that their initial main characters were all powered by those), but for the most part it seemed to make wise and interesting use of its universe, with a somewhat surprising variety of books and genres.
I read precious little of it, though. What I saw of "Ruse" (a not-quite-romantic detective duo book with elements of fantasy that connected to the sigils) was good.
If I am not mistaken, Marvel acquired their rights wholesale and even followed up on "Ruse" with a four-issue series in 2011.
The only CrossGen title I ever saw was Ruse, which was a take on Sherlock Holmes except the Watson figure, Emma Archard, was a hot blonde -- and thus, underestimated by everybody, Victorian mores being what they are. Also, there was some vague magic elements in the locale, and Emma herself had magical abilities she was careful to keep hidden from the stuffy detective Simon Archard.
The title and its spinoffs had first-rate talent -- Mark Waid, Chuck Dixon, Butch Guice.
I recall that CrossGen the company was situated in Florida and required all creators working on its comics to move there. I don't understand why they would insist on that; and it makes even less sense today with improved facility to transmite images and text from one place to another.
HELIX:
The next couple of posts are going to be more about new "imprints" rather than new universes per se, but which nonetheless contributed to my NUF. First up is "Helix," a short-lived (1996-1998) imprint of DC Comics which focused on science fiction and science fantasy. It was nowhere near as popular as their "Vertigo" imprint, but I tried many if no most of them. The only ones I ended up collecting were...
On of them I didn't try (although I do have the free sampler) is Michael Moorcock's Multiverse. The "multiverse" in question is self-contained within the title, but features...
I am largely unfamiliar with Moorcock's work (which is probably why I didn't try this series), but the eight-page sampler actually looks pretty good.
I used to have all my "Helix" comics filed together, but I have recently split the three I collected into Truman, Chaykin and "Time Travel" boxes respectively.
Anyone else have any thoughts on Helix comics?
Helix apparently just did not catch on, possibly because it did not have clear enough of a distinct identity. It lasted from 1996 to 1998 and seems to have published just about a dozen different titles in all.
"Multiverse" was, well, pretty much what it says on the tin. Michael Moorcock may or may not have invented the concept back in the early 1970s, but he sure is one of the main writers to emphasize the idea.
In a nutshell, apparently all of Moorcock's series are part of a single multiverse with a recurrence of variations of certain key items, ideas and characters, who often appear in unusual forms that may or may not have even an inkling of the whole "multiverse" idea.
The effect is basically a trick of perception, and may be entirely unmentioned in large parts of his works, while being put front and center in others. When it is very visible, mentions abound of such ideas as the Balance that strives to keep both Law and Chaos in check and employs human incarnations of an idealized Eternal Champion for that purpose, much to everyone's frustration; of Tanelorn, the City of Rest that appears in different forms across realities and is to a degree protected from the strife between Law and Chaos; of the Companions that help the Eternal Champion and the recurrent Enemy that opposes him, often in rather tragic ways; and of the Objects of Power that go by many names and take many forms, often including a Sword, a Shield, a Grail or Staff.
It is all gloriously ill-defined, ambiguous and even intentionally contradictory at times. When it is noticeable at all.
This specific series, "Michael Moorcock's Multiverse", has twelve issues telling the stories of three different aspects of the Eternal Champion that go through entirely distinct stories until they converge at the end. I am honestly uncertain that anyone understood how the story ends, and from what I read somewhere I suspect that Moorcock himself does not particularly expect anyone to.
It is something of an acquired taste, but Moorcock's high fantasy tales can be very engaging.
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