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Comics for 25 April 2012

ABE SAPIEN TP VOL 02 DEVIL DOES NOT JEST
ACTIVITY #5
ADAM WARROCK WAR FOR INFINITY AUDIO CD
ADAM WARROCK YOU DARE CALL THAT THING..?
AIRBOY DEADEYE #1 (OF 5)
ALL STAR WESTERN #8
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #26 (MR)
ANGEL & FAITH #9
AQUAMAN #8
ARCHIE #632
ARCHIE ARCHIVES HC VOL 05
ARMY OF DARKNESS ONGOING #3
ART OF AMANDA CONNER HC
ASTONISHING X-MEN #49
ASTONISHING X-MEN EXALTED PREM HC
AVENGERS KIT
AVENGERS ROLL CALL
AVENGERS ULT GUIDE EARTHS MIGHTIEST HC
AVX VS #1 (OF 6)

BART SIMPSON COMICS #70
BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #2 2ND PTG
BATMAN KNIGHTFALL TP NEW ED VOL 01
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #8
BATTLE SCARS #6 (OF 6)
BLACK ORCHID DELUXE EDITION HC (MR)
BLACKHAWKS #8
BLOODSTRIKE #27
BPRD HELL EARTH PICKENS COUNTY HORROR #2

CAPTAIN AMERICA #10
CAPTAIN AMERICA AND HAWKEYE #629
CHEW TP VOL 05 MAJOR LEAGUE CHEW (MR)
CONNIE TP MENACE OF MO TUNG (RES)
CRUISIN W/ HOUND LIFE & TIMES TOOTE GN (MR)

DAKEN DARK WOLVERINE BIG BREAK TP
DANGER GIRL REVOLVER #4 (OF 4)
DAREDEVIL #11
DARK SHADOWS BEST OF ORIGINAL SERIES TP
DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER WAY STATION #5 (OF 5)
DARK TOWER TP BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL
DARKHAWK CLASSIC TP VOL 01
DARKNESS #102 (MR)

EXILE PLANET O/T APES #2 (OF 4)

FEVER PITCH HOT GIRLS ELIAS CHATZOUDIS SC (MR)
FF #17
FLASH #8
FRAZETTA FUNNY STUFF HC
FREAKY MONSTERS MAGAZINE #9
FURY OF FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MEN #8

GAME OF THRONES #7 (MR)
GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #12 (MR)
GEARS OF WAR #23
GEARS OF WAR TP BOOK 02
GFT ALICE IN WONDERLAND #5 (MR)
GFT JUNGLE BOOK #2 (OF 5) (MR)
GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS #15 (MR)
GI JOE 2 RETALIATION MOVIE PREQUEL #4
GOON #39
GOTHAM CENTRAL TP BOOK 04 CORRIGAN
GREEN HORNET #24
GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #8
GRIMM FAIRY TALES #72 (MR)
GRIMM FAIRY TALES DIFFERENT SEASONS TP VOL 02

HELLRAISER #13 (MR)

I VAMPIRE #8

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #636
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #8

KING CONAN PHOENIX ON THE SWORD #4 (OF 4)
KIRBY GENESIS #7

LIL DEPRESSED BOY #10

MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1
MASS EFFECT HOMEWORLDS #1
MASS EFFECT TP VOL 03 INVASION
MERCILESS RISE OF MING #1
MIGHTY THOR #13
MMW DAREDEVIL TP VOL 03
MOON KNIGHT #12

NETHERWORLD #5 (OF 5) (MR)
NEW AVENGERS #25 AVX
NEW DEADWARDIANS #2 (OF 8) (MR)
NINJETTES #3 (MR)

POPEYE #1 (OF 4)
POPEYE HC VOL 06 ME LIL SWEE PEA
PREVIEWS #284 MAY 2012

REBEL BLOOD #1 (OF 4) 2ND PTG (MR)
RICH JOHNSTONS CAPTAIN AMERICAN IDOL #1
RICHIE RICH GEMS #47
ROGER LANGRIDGES SNARKED #7

SAGA #1 VAR CVR 3RD PTG (MR)
SAVAGE HAWKMAN #8
SECRET AVENGERS #26 AVX
SECRET HISTORY BOOK 18 (MR)
SECRET HISTORY BOOK 19 (MR)
SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE SPECTRE TP VOL 01
SIMPSONS CONFIDENTIAL TP
SIX GUNS TP
SIXTH GUN TP VOL 03
SNAKE EYES ONGOING (IDW) #12
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG SELECT TP VOL 05
SPACEMAN #6 (OF 9) (MR)
STAR WARS BLOOD TIES BOBA FETT DEAD #1 (OF 4)
STAR WARS CRIMSON EMPIRE III EMPIRE LOST #6
STAR WARS DARK TIMES OUT WILDERNESS #5 (OF 5)
STAR WARS INVASION TP VOL 03 REVELATIONS
STEPHEN KING JOE HILL ROAD RAGE #3 (OF 4)
STORMWATCH HC VOL 01
SUPERCROOKS #2 (OF 4) (MR)
SUPERMAN #8
SUPERMAN SECRETS O/T FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE TP

TEEN TITANS #8
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ARCHIE 100 PG
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ONGOING #9
TITMOUSE HC VOL 02 (MR)
TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ONGOING #4
TRUE BLOOD HC VOL 03 THE FRENCH QUARTER
TWELVE #12 (OF 12)

ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #9
ULTIMATE COMICS X ORIGINS TP
UNCANNY X-MEN #11 AVX
UNCHARTED #6 (OF 6)

VAMPIRELLA RED ROOM #1
VOODOO #8

WAR GODDESS #7 (MR)
WARLORD OF MARS #17 (MR)
WINTER SOLDIER #1 2ND PTG
WINTER SOLDIER #2 2ND PTG
WINTER SOLDIER #3 2ND PTG
WOLVERINE #305
WOLVERINE WOLVERINE'S REVENGE TP

X-MEN LEGACY #265
X-MEN WAR MACHINES PREM HC

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CBG #1689: I Complain Not

The Golden Age of Reprints and Back Issues

I Complain Not


By Andrew A. Smith

Contributing Editor

 

March 2012: Regular readers of this column are familiar – probably too familiar – with my belief that this is the Golden Age of Reprints. But it’s also the Golden Age of Back Issues, and all credit goes to that beautiful series of tubes, the Interwebs.

 

Younger fans might very well ask what has changed since the Pre-Internet days, except that younger fans believe the world began when they were born and don’t really care what happened before that. Or maybe they don’t ask because some Crotchedy Old Fart Fan (COFF) will buttonhole them at the local comic shop and tell them anyway.

 

I complain not. The way of things, it is. [/Yoda]

 

But please, younger fans, allow this COFF to wander down Memory Lane and describe the bad old days. Don’t worry, I won’t go far, and if I get lost I’ll hit my MedicAlert bracelet. It’s more or less necessary to inform my answers to editor Brent Frankenhoffenstein’s questions below. If it gets too boring, you can go get a burger, and come back before I’m through. Onward:

 

Millions of years ago – well, before 1980 or so – the only places you could get back issues were from A) advertisements in the comics themselves (raise your cane if you remember the name Howard Rogofsky), B) flea markets, and C) trades with other kids. All of these options, for various reasons, were frustrating and unsatisfactory. But the main reason is that it was a rare thing indeed to find the exact book you most wanted. Usually you bought what was available, regardless of where those comics actually fell on your priority list. This is why I have a complete run of Captain Action but don’t have the first six issues of Amazing Spider-Man. If I’d had broader purchasing choices back in the day, I wouldn’t have wasted money on the second-tier books I saw everywhere, and instead snatched up the books I really wanted (that would today finance my retirement).

 

Oh, how things have changed. With the Internet, retailers no longer hold single-town monopolies, and must compete in price with every other online retailer – bringing back-issue prices to the lowest level I have ever seen. And, of course, the buyer can “shop” nationwide without ever leaving his or her La-Z-Boy. Today I get what I want, when I want it, and often at a reasonable price.

 

With that information under our belt, let’s address Frankenhoofenpfeffer’s questions:


1. Where do you buy your back issues?

 

Wherever I can find the highest grade for the lowest price. That includes online retailers, my local comic shops, and auctions.

 

Yeah, that’s kinda obvious, but re-read what I said about the miserable past above. Before the advent of the Internet, my options were few. The only good thing that can be said about living through the Dark Ages is that it taught me patience.

 

So now if I’m looking for Captain Phlegm #0, I check various places online and locally for the best book at the cheapest price, and if I’m unsatisfied I just wait it out. Eventually someone, somewhere, will price their entire Captain Phlegm run to move and I’m waiting right there in my La-Z-Boy with my credit card at the ready. Also, I can snack.

 

Just the other day, because of the new Earth-2 Huntress series, I bought online the issues I was missing of the old Earth-2 Huntress series (by Joey Cavalieri and Joe Staton, 1989-1990). It cost me less than a dollar apiece and about three minutes on Google Shopping. While I was at it, I finished off my El Diablo run (by Gerard Jones and Mike Parobeck, also 1989-1990), just to spend enough to get free shipping.

 

The next time someone says something about “the good old days,” slap them with a rolled-up issue of Captain Action.

 

2. What's your favorite find?

 

Before comic shops, comics were brought to various retail outlets by magazine distributors. This had various consequences, among which were A) not all comics were available at all outlets, and B) sometimes old comics were accidentally left on spinner racks at some locations far past their sell-by date.

 

For an example of B, I once found about 20 issues of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes #33 (“The Grandeur that Was Greece!”) about four years after it had been poublished, at a 7-11 where my family had stopped for gas on a vacation in Florida. (I’m guessing some employee found a stack of comics in a storeroom that some previous employee had failed to put out on display, and just threw them on the spinner rack.) It was weird – but as it happened I had missed that issue (perhaps they had all been sent to Florida?) and promptly bought it.

 

But my favorite find was a combination of A and B. I usually bought my comics at the Rexall Pharmacy at Summer and White Station in Memphis, see, but sometimes I went on a circuit of all the convenience stores and mom-and-pop shops within bicycle range of my house when I realized I was missing something. And I came to that realization when I saw Green Lantern #82 (Jan 71) on sale at the Rexall. I was floored.

 

Not just because of the gorgeous Neal Adams artwork, although that was stunning. But because I had assumed Green Lantern had been canceled sometime during the Gil Kane era, because that’s when Green Lantern stopped showing up at the Rexall. (Yes, younger fans, back then you only knew a title had been canceled when you could no longer find new issues. Strange but true. Also, we had no toys, and had to play with rocks.)

 

I immediately hitched up old faithful – my Schwinn Stingray – and set out on a miles-long foray to dozens of stores in search of old Green Lanterns the distributor might have failed to replace. And, amazingly, I found the entire Neal Adams run of Green Lantern to that point! In one day, I bought Green Lantern #76-82 at places as diverse as B&F Market, Stop-N-Go, and Walgreens!

 

They were stolen later that day, but that’s not the point. I still remember that magic afternoon.

3. What's your Holy Grail?

Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, the third issue of a new series had the lowest print run, and were therefore the hardest to find. For more than a decade, my Holy Grail was Conan the Barbarian #3 (Feb 71). After finding that, my Grail became Amazing Spider-Man #11 (Apr 64), because I had every Amazing Spider-Man from #7 on (except for #11), and I got tired of saying “I have every Amazing Spider-Man From #7 on (except for #11).” But I found that one, too. Now my Grail is whatever I’m looking for that I think is overpriced. Currently that’s All-Star Western #10 (Mar 72), which I failed to buy when it was reasonably priced and in the last year has inexplicably shot through the roof in price.

 

4. If you sell or have sold comics, where have you sold, how do you sell, what advice would you give to a seller starting out?

Buy low, sell high? Caveat Emptor? A penny saved is a penny earned? Sorry, I’ve always been a buyer, not a seller.

 

5. What's your biggest regret in either buying or selling comics or both?

 

That’s easy: Not buying early Silver Age comics back in the 1960s, before they escalated astronomically in price.

 

Which is not to say I really had much opportunity to do so. As noted above, the books I really wanted were hard to find in podunk Memphis, Tenn. (Especially Golden Age books, which were non-existent.) But occasionally I did find some, and managed to complete a number of Marvel series – Avengers, X-Men, Daredevil – and flesh out some long-running DC titles back to 1960 or so (Superman, Action, Flash).

 

However, the books that draw headline prices today were pretty pricey back then, too. To put it another way, a $100 book I couldn’t afford in the 1960s is today a $1,000 book – which is still too much for a middle-class kid to justify spending on a comic book. As always, those kinds of books remain juuuuust out of my reach.

 

I’m a level-headed kind of guy, and vaguely proud that I’ve never been a spendthrift. But sometimes I kinda wish that once, just once, I’d splurged on a Fantastic Four #1 or something back then. Just for bragging rights, you know?

 

Andrew “Captain Comics” Smith has been writing professionally about comics since 1992, and for Comics Buyer’s Guide since 2000.

 

 

 

 

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What's Your Favorite Spider-Man Era?

From the "Coffee Bean Years" to "Spider-Island"

 

By Andrew "Captain Comics" Smith

Contributing Editor

 

February 2012: In the words of Maggie Thompson, “the Golden Age of Comics is age 10.” That being the case, a character that’s been around for 50 years like Spider-Man has had a lot of Golden Ages – each one unique and specific to each unique, specific reader.

 

When I web-swing down Memory Lane, my Golden Age is what I call “the Coffee Bean years,” which roughly correspond to when John Romita, Sr., was drawing the character (Amazing Spider-Man #39-119, Aug 66-Apr 73). There are a lot of reasons for that, which I’ll get to later.

 

Because, as I sat down to write about my own Golden Age, I began to wonder what eras other fans loved most about the wall-crawler. I set the proposition before the Legion of Superfluous Heroes on my website, fully expecting to be chastised for not swooning over the Lee-Ditko period, which everyone knows is the greatest, wonderfullest, awesomest, and amazingest. Right?

 

Well, no. To my delight, fans offered love for virtually every Spider-era. Sure, as often as not, Legionnaires favored their own Golden Age. But not always.

 

First, they gave Ditko his due. “As a fan of the Silver Age,” wrote Rich Steeves of Bridgeport, Conn., “I heard so much about the ‘Master Planner’ arc, and especially [Amazing Spider-Man] issue #33. I finally tracked it down (well, in Masterworks form) and read it. Quite often, these ‘epic’ stories which are over-hyped don’t live up to the legend. But that sequence with Peter under the machinery might be the best spread of pages I’ve ever read.”

 

George Poague of Clarksville, Tenn., agreed. “Douglas Wolk described that as the comics equivalent of the Odessa steps sequence in the movie Potemkin. It seems to have had an impact on everyone who’s read it, and to have influenced everyone who’s drawn comics since. Who knew a mere comic book could provoke such emotions? Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.”

 

Thanks indeed! Here at CBG we usually note the importance of the Master Planner Saga by simply referencing Peter David’s column where he opined that after Amazing Spider-Man #33, no more Spider-stories need ever have been written. It was that issue, David says, in which the adolescent Peter Parker completed his “hero’s journey” and became a Spider-Man.

 

Following Ditko and Romita Sr., the next major Spider-era was largely defined by artist Ross Andru, never one of my favorites. Nevertheless, Legionnaire Philip Portelli of College Point, N.Y., rose mightily in defense.

 

“While I fully appreciate the Ditko and Romita eras as truly ‘amazing,’ I started reading Spidey after his Bronze Age began,” he wrote. “Funny, it began with Harry [Osborn ] as the second Green Goblin and ended with the third Green Goblin (#136-180, Sep 74-May 78), with mostly Gerry Conway and Len Wein stories and Ross Andru artwork. Still, in my mind, Andru was THE Spider-artist. The villains were there, the controversies were there, and the silliness was there. Spider-Mobile? Doc Ock marrying Aunt May? JJJ falling in love? Clones, weddings, deaths, returns, soap opera, crime drama. It was all there and I loved every issue.”

 

Once he got rolling on his Andru-Mobile, Portelli was hard to stop.

 

“Spidey’s supporting cast truly supported the book and was just as important as Peter. There were guest stars (Nova, Nightcrawler, The Punisher), old villains, new villains, and twists at every turn. Also I would add Marvel Team-Up [which began in 1972] as a wonderful addition to the Spidey saga, especially #38-51, and the first 20 issues of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man [which began in 1976]. Not to mention I was reading Marvel Tales, too!

 

“When you look back, Spidey didn’t have that many ‘down’ times. I’m sure I’ll be gently mocked for my pick, but I stand by it, and those great Spidey tales!”

 

I agree with everything you say until the last, Philip – I won’t mock you, and anyone who tries will have to deal with me! As noted, I was no fan of the work Ross Andru and inker Mike Esposito did on Spidey, probably because I had grown so accustomed to them over at DC, where they had been mainstays on Wonder Woman, Metal Men, and the war books, and they just looked “wrong” to me at Marvel in 1973. But Andru had actually drawn the web-spinner as early as Marvel Super-Heroes #14 (May 68), which ranks him among the very few that drew Spider-Man in the swingin’ ‘60s. How he looked to the adolescent Captain shouldn’t keep him off the Spidey Mt. Rushmore, if anyone ever builds such a thing.

 

Meanwhile, Legionnaire Jason Marconnet of Tallahassee, Fla., brought us closer to the present with an artist who went on to “Ultimate” fame:

 

“My favorite era would be the mid-‘90s, right up to the clone era,” Marconnet posted. “I’m a big Mark Bagley fan, and he was the main artist during this time.”

 

And speaking of the present, Chris Fluit of Penfield, N.Y., came way out of his own Golden Age to praise what we might call the “Dan Slott era,” for today’s most prominent Spider-writer.

 

“I’m enjoying Spider-Man now more than ever,” he wrote. “Although I grew up with the David/DeFalco/Stern Spider-Man, and it will always have a warm place in my heart, I love what’s happening with the title right now. I love the playfulness and wit. I love the fast-paced action. I love the way in which Peter uses his scientific mind to further his work as Spider-Man. I love the frequently changing status quo. I love the supporting characters. I love the mix of new villains and old ones. For my money, Amazing Spider-Man has been as consistently entertaining as it has ever been.”

 

Speaking of writer Roger Stern (which Fluit did in passing), his era was the biggest winner, even in comparison to the Romita Senior years.

 

The long-running Legionnaire Kelvin Childers said, “I can only say the ‘best’ era of Spider-Man was … in the ‘80s. I hold the warmest regard for the Roger Stern/John Romita Jr./Jim Mooney stint, as well as Peter David’s run, which included “The Death of Jean DeWolff.”

 

Steeves chimed in again with “my favorite period had to be the Roger Stern Hobgoblin period. The twists and turns of that saga blew my pre-adolescent mind. I thought the storytelling was fantastic and I couldn’t wait month to month to see what each new development brought me.

 

“I have been lukewarm on the character for most of the last 20-25 years or so,” he continued, “but I bring out those back issues from time to time. The way the storyline ended did not live up to my expectations, but I loved it as it happened.”

 

Mark Stanislawsky of West Haven, Conn., kept it short and sweet: “Roger Stern’s run on Amazing and Spectacular is a classic … which, of course, includes the two-part Juggernaut story. I’ll never tire of reading those!”

 

I remember the Juggernaut story as a gem, too, Mark – especially the clever way Spidey stopped the unstoppable villain. (Spoiler: It involved lots of cement!) Meanwhile, Legionnaire Lee Houston, Jr., also has a couple of specific favorites from that era:

 

“I didn’t start reading Spider-Man comics until Amazing #180, so I have to lean towards Marv Wolfman, Roger Stern, and Peter David as writers, as well as Keith Pollard as artist. I was even there for the starts of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man and Web of Spider-Man [1985]. The Spidey Marvel Team-Ups with Red Sonja and the Not Ready for Prime Time Players are forever etched in my memory.”

 

Speaking of fondly remembered stories, two Legionnaires brought up one of the most famous: “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man” (Amazing Spider-Man #248, Jan 84). Doc Beechler of Indianapolis, Ind., fondly remembers thanking Stern in person for “Kid.” And Kirk G. of Athens, Ohio, had a heart-warming anecdote:

 

“I read this story onto audio cassette for a blind comic fan when it came out, and I admit I started to cry when I got to the last panel,” he wrote. “My voice cracked as the cassette ran out, and he heard the emotion. His comment on the return tape was that it was the most moving thing he had heard … but I wasn’t sure if he meant my reaction, or the plot and the big reveal.”

 

I won’t spoil the story here, but no one who ever read “Kid” will ever forget it.

 

Meanwhile, others joined the Captain in his applause for the Romita Senior era. One of which will be mighty familiar to readers of this magazine:

 

“It’s hard to vote against Ditko and how his vision helped set the foundation in place, but for sustained excellence, it’s hard to pick against Romita’s run,” wrote Craig "Mr. Silver Age" Shutt, who took time from his own column to chime in here. “The fact that his Spidey is the one that’s usually merchandised indicates that lots of people agree.

 

“I have to say that Romita took over on the best issue possible, with a lot of dramatic turns to work with,” he continued, referring to the shocking “How Green Was My Goblin!” in Amazing Spider-Man #39, where hero and villain learned each other’s identities. “And I seriously doubt that MJ would’ve been quite the jackpot she turned out to be on the final page [of Amazing Spider-Man #42, Nov 66] without Romita.”

 

As I recall, my reaction to earlier Ditko cameos of Mary Jane was “What a huge caboose!” Maybe her derriere just seemed large because of those 1950s-style flower-print or polka-dot sundresses Ditko put her in. Regardless, I must agree, MSA: Former romance-book artist Romita was a much better choice to depict MJ’s face and full figure for the first time, as I never, ever found a single Ditko woman attractive.

 

Meanwhile, Doc Photo of Rochester, Mich., added: “As time has passed, I have come to appreciate Ditko’s run, but as a young comic reader it was Romita’s arrival on the scene that made me a regular reader of Amazing Spider-Man. Romita brought a bright, more open look to the character and his world which was quite different from Ditko’s more brooding approach. It might seem like sacrilege, but as someone who was reading DC Comics almost exclusively at the time, Romita brought a DC-like look to Spider-Man that made him much more appealing to me than the previous rendition.”

 

Legionnaire Poague was of like mind: “The Romita Senior era, which included some terrific fill-ins by Gil Kane, was my favorite,” he wrote. “I missed the Ditko era and had to catch up with it through reprints. It’s great, great stuff, but I don’t have the emotional connection to it that I have with the Romita issues, which I read as they were coming out. Romita’s art was prettier and more accessible than Ditko’s (and Romita could draw beautiful women, which Ditko couldn’t). Under Romita, Amazing Spider-Man became Marvel’s best-selling title. I doubt that would have happened if Ditko had remained.”

 

Once again, I have to nod in unison. As noted above, the boy Captain found Ditko’s work to be genuinely unattractive. Not just the women, but everything in New York seemed a bit old-fashioned, a little dated, somewhat shabby and shopworn.

 

To some degree this adds verisimilitude to the early Spider-Man stories, where Peter and his aunt lived from one Social Security check to the next. Everything they owned should have looked a decade old and on its last legs.

 

But why would the offices of Now Magazine look like they were from 1952? Why would all military equipment look like Korean War surplus? Why would cars still have fins in the 1960s, and why would women’s clothing look more appropriate for Rosalind Russell than Twiggy?

 

Ditko fans will no doubt argue with me vehemently, but to the Li'l Captain it appeared that Ditko’s style wasn’t keeping up with the world. When Romita arrived, it seemed like Spidey’s New York burst into the 1960s – and that pretty women were allowed out in public for the first time (and quickly did a lot of shopping for hipper clothes)!

 

But having said all that, I don’t think those are the main reasons I look back on the Romita years with such nostalgia. I think primarily it’s because, like my own college years, those days are gone and can’t come back.

 

Of course, Peter Parker doesn’t age like we do. But his status quo has shifted profoundly since Romita Senior was on the book, in ways that can’t be revisited today.

 

One of the hallmarks of Spidey’s college years was the best supporting cast in comics (and I even include Riverdale when I say that). Not only was each character interesting in his or her own right, but they were all interconnected in a (cough) web of social links. Even the Green Goblin was part of the gang, in a way.

 

Peter was dating Gwen, whose father was retired police Captain Stacy, who was hanging out with Robbie Robertson, the pair coming close to figuring out Spider-Man’s secret ID in a nerve-wracking subplot, while Robbie worked for J. Jonah Jameson, for whom Peter worked as well, as did Peter’s ex, Betty Brant, who was dating Ned Leeds, who also worked for Jameson and had an uncomfortable relationship with Peter, who, despite dating Gwen, whom Flash Thompson once tried to date and was trying to date again, was in an evolving romantic triangle with Gwen and  Mary Jane Watson, who was dating Peter’s roommate Harry Osborn, who was very much noticing this, and whose behavior was becoming more erratic, reminiscent of his father Norman, who had been the Green Goblin until he lost his memory, but that memory was clearly coming back, leaving a cloud of foreboding over every Coffee Bean get-together, pleasant social exercises with delicious pools of lust, resentment, and jealousy seething just beneath the surface.

 

Also, Spider-Man fought crime.

 

This was an enormous amount of fun at the time, because the readers (and from later interviews, Stan Lee) really had no idea how any of this was going to play out.  But in the end, nothing played out. Instead, the writers – which included beloved scribes like Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Roger Stern – went on a murder binge. Most of this stellar cast was simply killed off – often, it seemed, to achieve nothing more lasting than a shocking cover (Captain Stacy) or a lame twist ending (Leeds). Gwen’s fate is famous, but reflects to me a failure of authorial imagination as to what to do with her (and the romantic triangle). And while both Osborns managed to escape their graves, they were gone long enough for their positions in the Parker social hierarchy to be filled by other characters or made moot.

 

Heck, even Professor Warren – who taught Pete and Gwen at Empire State University – went crazy, became a super-villain, cloned everybody, and got killed off. He wasn’t even a very important character in the Coffee Bean years, but he was the only ESU professor whose name we knew!

 

The result for me is warm nostalgia for a thrilling theme-park ride I remember but can never take again, and also a poignant sense of “what if” for the plot twists, dramatic confrontations, and resolutions that never happened. Also, just like in real life, I feel a sense of loss for the “friends” – the life stories – cut short by the Reaper.

 

Which is probably also connected to the fact that my Golden Age (of 10) occurred sometime during the Romita years. And that’s something all Spidey fans can understand!

 

Andrew “Captain Comics” Smith has been writing professionally about comics since 1992, and for Comics Buyer’s Guide since 2000.

 

 

 

 

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CBG #1687: The Growth of Reprints

I thought it was about time I started posting my Comics Buyer's Guide stories and columns here. Here's the first one published this calendar year, from CBG #1687 (May 12)

 

More Depth and Breadth

The Growth of Reprints

 

By Andrew "Captain Comics" Smith

Contributing Editor

 

January 2012: I’ve written before about the Golden Age of Reprints, and I’m about to again – because it’s grown deeper and wider.

 

And wouldn’t you know it, a recent arrival squares neatly with our cover feature: Michael Barston’s Agonizing Love: The Golden Era of Romance Comics (Harper Design, $29.99).

 

Let’s be clear right off the bat: Agonizing Love presents no threat to Michelle Nolan’s Love on the Racks: A History of American Romance Comics (2008, McFarland & Co.). Nolan, a CBG contributor, has set the bar insurmountably high for comprehensive lists and analysis. Racks is the gold standard for historical works on romance comics, and is in no danger of losing the crown any time soon.

 

In fact, Barston admits early in his book, “it would seem there are about 5,500 issues I still need to make any claim to thorough knowledge of this delightful genre.” Which is not to say the book doesn’t have its charms. Barston has a light writing style that occasionally elicits a smile, and his organization is clever. He arranges his reprints in five sections by content: “Bliss,” “Jealousy and Revenge,” “Despair,” “Marriage Hell,” and “Class Struggles.” This arrangement is not only amusing, but it also demonstrates the repetitive nature of these stories, which followed predictable patterns.

 

That brings me to my own “love confession”: I confess that I remain curious about romance comics, because I still don’t understand them. What was the appeal? Perhaps if I had been female in the 1950s it would be obvious, but lacking that advantage I can only try to absorb as many of these books as I can in the hopes that I will develop a gestalt of the era, the social mores and whatever forbidden thrill these books conveyed.

 

Which doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy reading old romance comics. I do. But not for the reasons they were created; I find the outdated gender roles and overwrought dialogue hilarious (which this book emphasizes). And, of course, I’m interested from a purely historical perspective.  

 

So that’s three reasons for me to read the stories reprinted in this book. If you share them, Agonizing Love might be for you.

 

Coincidentally, Agonizing Love has a Jack Kirby romance-comic illustration on its cover, which will soon have competition. Fantagraphics is shipping Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics ($29.99) this month, which reprints 21 such stories as selected by animation artist Michael Gagné.

 

Meanwhile, I’m merrily plowing my way through all the Marvel Masterworks, Marvel Essentials, DC Archives, DC Chronicles, and DC Showcase collections. And I don’t mean Silver Age and Bronze Age stuff.

 

Oh, I love that material. But, frankly, I already own it in various formats. And if I didn’t, it can be had cheap, even as back issues of regular-sized comic books (See: Marvel Tales). No, that stuff is dime-a-dozen.

 

What excites me is the material from the 1940s and 1950s. When I started collecting comics in the 1960s, back issues from those mysterious decades were already out of my price range and, of course, are even more pricey today. So it’s been a decades-long dream of mine to read that material someday, and lo, the Big Two have answered my prayers.

 

DC has already finished reprinting all of the Dr. Fate and Justice Society stories from the 1940s, although I haven’t seen many other Golden Age collections lately. I won’t mind too much as long as they continue archiving Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, which they are (slowly). Meanwhile, Marvel just finished the All-Winners run (with volume 4), and is plugging away on other Golden Age titles, from the major (Marvel Mystery Comics, Captain America) to the minor (Young Allies, U.S.A. Comics).

 

DC is hit and miss when it comes to 1950s comics, and I’ve snatched up what they’ve offered: Mad Archives, Atomic Knights, Viking Prince, some Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen here and there.

 

But Marvel is going big guns. As you’d expect, they’re archiving titles that lasted into the Silver Age as fast as they can, with Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish all nearing the end of their pre-superhero runs. To my delight, Marvel has also reprinted the entire 1950s runs of Captain America, Black Knight, Human Torch, Marvel Boy, Sub-Mariner, and Yellow Claw, plus the complete Amazing Adult Fantasy and Menace. They’ve already begun experimenting with war books, Westerns, jungle titles, and the impossible-to-pigeonhole Venus, which they can’t reprint fast enough to suit me.

 

Meanwhile, publishers without 70-year histories are finding ways to cash in on the reprint boom.

 

One of the biggest players is Dark Horse, which has cut deals with companies who were around decades ago and is aggressively reprinting their best stuff. DH has already collected complete runs of Gold Key’s Dr. Solar, Magnus, and Mighty Samson; Sparks’ Green Lama; Dell’s “Brain Boy,” and ACG’s Herbie, Magicman (from Forbidden Worlds), and Nemesis (Adventures into the Unknown).

 

And they’re banging way on Gold Key’s Brothers of the Spear, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Dagar the Invincible, Doctor Spektor, and Space Family Robinson, plus Dell’s Tarzan and Turok, Son of Stone. They’re also grinding away on Warren’s Creepy and Eerie (Dynamite is doing Vampirella), everybody’s Flash Gordon, plus the amazing Archie Archives, reprinting all of the Riverdale gang’s adventures chronologically. And if that’s not enough, the Crime Does Not Pay Archives begins in April!

 

IDW and comics historian Craig Yoe have combined to collect the work of early horror artists; so far they’ve done Dick Briefer and Bob Powell, with Basil Wolverton in the works. Dynamite has collected the first six issues of the Golden Age Green Hornet. Hermes Press seems to have snagged most of Gold Key’s licensed work, reprinting that publisher’s runs of Dark Shadows, Land of the Giants, My Favorite Martian, Time Tunnel, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

 

Fantagraphics deserves their own paragraph, just to highlight the favor they’re doing us all: The Carl Barks Library, which began a few months ago with Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: “Lost in the Andes.” They’re also reprinting Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse work. And they’re doing collections of artists rather than titles, with Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-54, and Blake Bell’s Steve Ditko and Bill Everett archives.

 

You’ll note that only occasionally have I cluttered this list with an opinion. You can tell I’m thrilled with the Archive Archives, for example, and grateful for the Carl Barks Library.  But a lot of this material I don’t have much to say about because … well, it’s awful.

 

That may seem like an odd thing to say when I’m devoting an entire column to the subject. Especially when I’ve admitted I’m buying all these things.

 

But a lot of 1940s material is just plain old drek (I’m looking at you, Daring Mystery). A lot of post-Code 1950s material is just now being reprinted because it wasn’t any good the first time around, and time has done it no favors. Even some 1960s material, like the first volumes of Dark Shadows and Space Family Robinson, are almost unreadable.

 

However, I accept that as the price for gaining a comprehensive understanding of our little hobby. It’s fascinating to understand, for example, that at the same time Mac Raboy was setting new standards with Green Lama, U.S.A. Comics was setting new lows. It’s eye-opening to see all the places Jack Kirby showed up (and how much better he was than his contemporaries). It’s engrossing to see how an artist like Syd Shores goes from Captain America in the 1940s to … well, Captain America in the 1960s.

 

Seriously, even the worst material is educational to some degree. It’s all part of our heritage, and I accept that the bad comes with the good, and is instructive in its own way. So I spend a lot of money embracing good and bad both.

 

I also spend a lot of money on the flood of comic strip collections, which – for the most part – need no apologies. I don’t have room to list them all, but here are my favorites:

 

  • “Forever Nuts”: This series from NBM Publishing has produced three hardbacks reprinting the earliest “Mutt & Jeff,” “Happy Hooligan,” and “Bringing Up Father.” I enjoyed them all, for historical reasons if nothing else, but “Bringing Up Father” was a revelation. For a strip with one central joke – Maggie beaning Jiggs with a rolling pin – George McManus kept the strip fresh and exciting day after day. And the art! While Jiggs remained a cartoon, McManus’s women were drawn in photo-realism style, and beautifully modeled the elaborate fashions of the time. All of this took place in a meticulously rendered Art Deco milieu that is a joy to behold.
  • “Blondie”: I’ve never taken a survey, but I imagine not many people are aware that the long-running “Blondie” strip had unique Roaring ‘20s origins. In the beginning, Dagwood was from a filthy rich family, with a robber baron for a father, while Blondie was from a poor family and dressed in flapper fashions. The crux of the strip was the efforts by Dagwood’s snooty parents to prevent him marrying Blondie, whom they regarded as blue-collar trash. This is all covered in the first volume of IDW’s collection of the strip, Blondie: The Courtship and Wedding: 1930 to 1933, which ends (as the title indicates) with the nuptials. This also results in Mr. Bumstead –who’s a dead ringer for J.C. Dithers, who would come along years later – cutting his son off from the family fortune, forcing Dagwood to seek employment for the first time in his lazy life. I’m looking forward to more surprises in volume two this month, which promises (in the subtitle) From Honeymoon to Diapers & Dogs.
  • “The Phantom”: Like “Captain Easy” (which Fantagraphics is reprinting in beautiful, oversize collections) the early “Phantom” strips are really charming – they’re sort of a cross between a screwball comedy and movie serials. In fact, the tone is that of gleeful, barely controlled chaos, a feeling the Indiana Jones movies captured so well. “Captain Easy” is only up to volume two – I suspect sales haven’t been good – and I fervently hope it will continue. Meanwhile. collected editions of “The Phantom” dailies are up to volume four as of this month, with the first collection of Sundays coming in February. And if, like me, your introduction to the Ghost Who Walks was comic books, fear not: Hermes has scheduled hardcover collections of Phantom comic books originally published by Gold Key, King, and Charlton, all in the 2012 pipeline.
  • “Peanuts”: Fantagraphics has been doing a beautiful job reprinting Charles Schulz’s masterpiece in chronological order, and will be for some time to come. They publish two books a year, which you can buy singly or wait a bit and get them both in a slipcase. Currently the series is up to the early 1980s, so the strip is at its peak, with popular but latecomer characters like Woodstock and Peppermint Patty already regulars. Do I really need to tell you how good this is?
  • “Flash Gordon”: This series has never been neglected; currently the Alex Raymond daily strips are available from both Checker and Kitchen Sink. But the Sundays haven’t been reprinted as often, and never in their original size – until now. IDW has begun a four-book series reprinting both “Flash Gordon” and its companion strip “Jungle Jim” in full newspaper broadsheet size. I’ve received the first, and it’s spectacular. Titan Books is also beginning a reprint series of Sunday “Gordon” strips in 2012, but it’s hard to imagine how they could top IDW.
  • “Prince Valiant”: When Fantagraphics began publishing the famous Hal Foster strip in a series of trade paperbacks in the 1980s, I bought them all. It’s a testament to how good Fantagraphics’ new collection of that material is – it’s oversize and hardback – that I’m buying it again.
  • “Mandrake the Magician”: I don’t think anybody’s ever collected Lee Falk’s second-most-famous strip before. Points to Titan Books for doing just that, starting in July.

 

After all the above, is there any wonder why I call this the Golden Age of Reprints?

 

Believe me, it wasn’t always like this. Decent collections were hard to come by until the Archives and Masterworks series kicked off the current glut, and were virtually non-existent in the Silver Age.

 

So what changed? I don’t have a definitive answer, but I’d guess a confluence of events, including the availability of cheap Chinese printing, Baby Boomers recapturing their youth, and publishers looking for new revenue streams.

 

Regardless, we live in a time when there’s a market for a Brain Boy Archives. And how can that be a bad thing?

 

Andrew “Captain Comics” Smith has been writing professionally about comics since 1992, and for Comics Buyer’s Guide since 2000.

 

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The Adaptation Game

12134177261?profile=originalI’ve been fascinated by adaptations for a long time.


Long ago, I composed the philosophy that the primary duty of the adaptor is to make a great film (or depending on the outlet, a great television series or comic book). That philosophy is at odds with many fans who would hold up faithfulness to the text as the primary virtue. Yet a good director recognizes that each medium is a unique platform with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Most of the time, an adaptor has to decide what to leave out. A novel is typically longer than a movie script so the adaptor has to trim it down. For The Hunger Games movie, that meant compressing the early chapters before Katniss is taken to the games. That decision disappointed some fans who were sad to see a supporting character, Madge Undersee, eliminated from the story. For the Game of Thrones television series that meant curtailing the presence of many tertiary characters. Old Nan, for example, is only given two scenes and Jon’s friends in the Watch, like Pyp and Grenn, are mostly relegated to the background.

12134177099?profile=originalYet those two recent adaptations also made the interesting and intentional decision to add scenes. I think they did so for the same reason. In each case, the book is the beginning of a longer series: The Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy and A Game of Thrones launches a series that is five novels long and counting. The additional scenes set up characters, situations and themes that will grow in importance in the later volumes. The adaptors were subtly laying the groundwork for their future stories. In addition, they were able to do this because of the differences in medium. 

The Hunger Games novel follows Katniss Everdeen as its primary character. Author Suzanne Collins doesn’t use a first person perspective yet her third person narrator follows Katniss exclusively. Everything we see as a reader, we see through her eyes. The movie also follows Katniss as the primary character. In most cases, supporting characters are reduced in order to keep the focus on Katniss. We see less of Haymitch, Peeta and Cinna in the movie than we do in the book. And, tertiary characters, like Cinna’s team of stylists, are practically eliminated.

However, The Hunger Games movie takes advantage of its art form to occasionally depart from Katniss. Unlike the book, we actually witness a few scenes in which Katniss doesn’t appear. First of all, we’re shown a number of scenes behind the scenes of the Hunger Games. We watch Seneca Crane and his crew direct the games. Plus, we witness confrontations between Seneca Crane and President Snow concerning 12134177474?profile=originalthe direction of the games. These scenes build up Seneca and Snow as villains. I think we gain a greater understanding that the real threat is not the other tributes fighting in the games, but the people like Seneca and Snow who run the games. Furthermore, these scenes establish Snow as a villain, giving the audience a reason to come back for the second and third movies. In a way, the movie does a better job of this than the book itself, as the last shot in the movie is of Snow coldly watching Katniss on TV.

The other additional scenes in The Hunger Games are comprised of the reactions of people watching the games. The novel follows Katniss exclusively, and we don’t really know how she’s being regarded until later. The movie is able to break away from Katniss’ story for quick reactions in a way that would have been cumbersome in a book. In this way, we are able to keep better tabs on Gale, Katniss’ hunting partner and love interest back home. We also see the start of the uprisings that will become the focus of the later books. By jumping back and forth, the movie builds up the romantic triangle and the rebellion against tyranny. 12134178255?profile=original

That isn’t to say that the movie does everything better than the book. They are different media, with different strengths and weaknesses. This is no slight to the quality of the performances, but a movie will never be able to get into the mind of a character as well as a book. As one reviewer remarked about The Hunger Games movie: “The movie can show you how it happened; the book can tell you why.”


The Game of Thrones television series similarly invents a number of new scenes. In this case, I attribute the additions to the natural progression of the novels themselves, collectively known as A Song of Ice and Fire. Author George R.R. Martin rotates his point of view character from chapter to chapter. The first novel, A Game of Thrones, predominantly follows one family, the 12134177892?profile=originalStarks of Winterfell, and they account for 6 of the 8 viewpoint characters. However, as the series progresses, Martin slowly adds other viewpoint characters and the Starks are outnumbered by the fourth novel. In this way, A Song of Ice and Fire evolves from the story of one family to the story of a nation whose intrigues encompass the entire globe.

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The producers of the television know about this progression and I think they wanted to prepare their audience for it. The Lannisters, the Starks’ main rivals, are given equal billing from the beginning. We watch a scene featuring the twins, Cersei and Jamie, before they travel north to meet with the Starks. They are more than foils for the family Stark; they are compelling characters in their own right.


12134178689?profile=originalThe producers also prepare us by giving additional scenes to characters who will increase in importance in later books. Theon Greyjoy doesn’t become a point of view character until the second novel yet he’s given a number of independent scenes in the first season of the television show. Varys and Littlefinger, members of the king’s council and masters of intrigue, are given
additional scenes including a few short stand-offs between them. Finally, the king’s brother Renly, who rises to prominence in the second novel, is given several scenes of his own including one with his lover. In this way, the television series creates interest in these characters before they step into the spotlight.


I think it’s a good choice for the television series, smoothing the transition in the novels from the story of one family to the story of a nation. That choice will help sustain audience interest despite changing focus, the loss of some characters and the introduction of others.


It’s not a question of right or wrong. It’s a question of what works for each medium. For me at least, it’s interesting to contemplate the differences and why they were made. John Howe, an artist who worked on The Lord of the Rings movies, shared a wonderful insight: “We now have two ways to enter this world, the book and the movie.”

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Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

 

April 10, 2012: Perhaps it’s all the talk of women’s right on the news, but I just read two comics collections that provide a history lesson on the subject.

 

The first is Blondie: From Honeymoon to Diapers & Dogs: Complete Daily Comics 1933-1935 (IDW Publishing, $49.99). This is the second and last of IDW’s collections of the earliest Blondie strips. The first volume told the story of Blondie and Dagwood’s courtship and subsequent marriage, while this one collects their days as young marrieds. Many of the elements we associate with Blondie debut, including Mr. Dithers, Dagwood’s boss; Herb & Tootsie Woodley, the next-door neighbors; and the “Dagwood sandwich.”

 

12134175876?profile=originalWhat struck me about this book was that, despite its age and the era it comes from, Blondie herself comes off very well. Originally presented as a blue-collar bubblehead, she evolves into the brains of the family in this volume (while still retaining her showgirl looks and goofy personality; it’s the upending of expectation that’s funny). Dagwood, who had in the first volume the unearned confidence (and incompetency) of someone who grew up in a cocoon of wealth, remains incompetent in this volume, but without the riches and confidence – and therefore becomes the butt of most jokes. This is essentially the model for the strip for the rest of its run, not to mention virtually every dad in every sitcom on every TV show ever produced. Blondie may not be anyone’s idea of a feminist, but feminists should approve: She is clearly the smart one – and the boss.

 

Keep in mind that this takes place only a few decades after the Victorian age, when the “angel of the house” model for women prevailed. Sure enough, all the women in Blondie are housewives. But Blondie also takes the position a woman continues to be the head of household even after her husband comes home. This “hand the rocks the cradle” concept is still popular today, and it makes me wonder if it was popular in the 1930s, when these strips ran, or if Blondie more or less invented it.

 

Whatever the sociology, these strips remain very funny, 80 years later. And that’s what’s important.

 

12134176469?profile=originalMeanwhile, I had the opposite reaction to Showcase Presents: Young Love (DC Comics, $19.99). This collection reprints Young Love #39-56, more than 500 black-and-white pages of material originally published in color from 1963 to 1966.

 

Frankly, you don’t have to be a feminist to be absolutely appalled by these stories. Aimed at pre-adolescent girls, Young Love featured helpless, emotional basket cases whose only purpose in life was to please – and eventually marry – a man. Notwithstanding that all their men are insufferable jerks, without any responsibilities in the relationship whatsoever. No, these pathetic, self-loathing women set their cap on a fellow, then tearfully abase and humiliate themselves in scene after scene until these selfish men, for some reason, decide to marry them.

 

Even the girls of yesteryear eventually rejected this philosophy, with romance comics dying out in the 1970s. For my part, I could only digest Young Romance in small chunks. And the only way I got through it was that every time kissing was involved, I pretended the writer meant “sex.” The stories actually make a lot more sense if you do that, because these girls are absolutely fixated on the act of kissing, going wobbly in the knees at the thought of it.


There is one highlight: “The Private Diary of Mary Robin, R.N.,” described in every issue as an “exciting new feature of the life and loves of a beautiful young nurse in a great metropolitan hospital.” It’s just as stupid as the other stories – this supposedly professional nurse swoons over every male in sight – but the art is terrific. “Diary” was drawn by John Romita Sr., the guy who took over Amazing Spider-Man in 1966. He was the first to draw Mary Jane Watson’s face and full figure, and it was this training in romance books that made you believe MJ’s signature line, “Congratulations, tiger, you’ve just hit the jackpot!”

 

Most of the art – and virtually all of the stories – are unsigned (I’d guess for career preservation). But there are a couple of bright spots, including art by Don Heck, Gene Colan and Bernard Sachs. Mike Sekowsky, not usually one of my favorites, does the best work of his career here.

 

As for our history lesson, remember this: Blondie continues to last after 80 years, while Young Love got canceled in 1977. Which model do you think women prefer?

 

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

 

ART

1. "Blondie" Volume 2 reprints the strips from the first two years after the couple's marriage. Courtesy IDW Publishing

2. "Showcase Presents: Young Love" reprints romance comics DC published from 1963 to 1966. Courtesy DC Entertainment

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Comics for 18 April 2012

3 STORY SECRET FILES O/T GIANT MAN ONE SHOT

ABE SAPIEN TP VOL 02 DEVIL DOES NOT JEST
ALIEN BIG CHAP SILICONE TRAY
ALIEN EGG POD SILICONE TRAY
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #684 DELLOTTO VAR ENDS
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #684 ENDS
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN OMNIBUS HC VOL 02 ROMITA DM VAR ED
ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #228
ARMY OF DARKNESS OMNIBUS TP VOL 02
ASTERIX OMNIBUS SC VOL 03
AVENGERS #25 AA APPRECIATION DELLOTTO VAR AVX
AVENGERS #25 AVX
AVENGERS DK READERS SC AVENGERS ASSEMBLE
AVENGERS DK READERS SC WORLDS MIGHTIEST SUPER HERO TEAM
AVENGERS KIT
AVENGERS SERPENT CROWN PREM HC
AVENGERS SERPENT CROWN PREM HC DM VAR ED 87
AVENGERS ULT GUIDE TO EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES HC
AVENGERS VS X-MEN #2 (OF 12) BRADSHAW VAR AVX
AVENGERS VS X-MEN #2 (OF 12) PAGULAYAN VAR AVX
AVENGERS VS X-MEN #2 (OF 12) WITH DIG CDE AVX

BACK ISSUE #55
BATMAN #6 2ND PTG
BATMAN #8
BATMAN #8 COMBO PACK
BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #3
BATMAN ODYSSEY VOL 2 #7 (OF 7)
BATMAN ODYSSEY VOL 2 #7 (OF 7) VAR ED
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #5 2ND PTG
BATMAN VENOM TP NEW EDITION
BETTY & VERONICA #259
BIRDS OF PREY #8
BLACKEST NIGHT SPECIAL EDITION #1
BLOOD FEAST #1
BLOODSTRIKE #26 VAR CVR 2ND PTG
BLUE BEETLE #8
BOMB QUEEN VII QUEENS WORLD #3 (OF 4) (MR)
BPRD HELL ON EARTH LONG DEATH #3

CAPTAIN ATOM #8
CASTLE WAITING VOL II #16 (RES)
CATWOMAN #8
CINDERELLA FABLES ARE FOREVER TP (MR)

DANGER GIRL ARMY OF DARKNESS #5
DANGER GIRL ARMY OF DARKNESS #5 10 COPY BRADSHAW B&W INCV
DARK HORSE PRESENTS #11 FRANCAVILLA VAR CVR
DARK HORSE PRESENTS #11 ZONJIC CVR
DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #8
DCD SUMMIT 2012 AVENGERS VS X-MEN #2 (OF 12) INKED VAR
DCD SUMMIT 2012 HULK #50 INKED VAR
DEFENDERS #5
DOCTOR WHO ONGOING VOL 2 #16
DOCTOR WHO ONGOING VOL 2 #16 10 COPY INCV
DOMINIQUE LAVEAU VOODOO CHILD #2 (MR)
DUNCAN THE WONDER DOG TP VOL 01 (OF 9) SHOW ONE (O/A) (MR)
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS EBERRON ANNUAL 2012 #1

EMMA GN TP
ETERNAL DESCENT VOL 2 #4 (OF 6)

FABLES #116 (MR)
FANGORIA #313
FATHOM KIANI VOL 2 #1 CVR A NOME
FATHOM KIANI VOL 2 #1 CVR B OUM
FEAR AGENT TP VOL 06
FOLLY CONSEQUENCES OF INDISCRETION GN (MR)

GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #177
GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #177 10 COPY INCV
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #8
GUILDED AGE TP VOL 01

HARVEY PEKAR CLEVELAND HC
HELLBLAZER #290 (MR)
HELLCYON TP
HELLRAISER MASTERPIECES #12 (MR)
HP LOVECRAFT THE DUNWICH HORROR TP
HUSH HUSH HC

ICE AGE PLAYING FAVORITES ONE SHOT
INCREDIBLE HULK #7
INCREDIBLE HULK #7 AA APPRECIATION WILSON VAR
INFLUENCING MACHINE SC
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #515
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #515 AA APPRECIATION HORN VAR
IRREDEEMABLE #36

JOHN CARTER GODS OF MARS #2 (OF 5)
JUSTICE LEAGUE #8
JUSTICE LEAGUE #8 COMBO PACK
JUSTICE LEAGUE #8 VAR ED

LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #8

MANHATTAN PROJECTS #1 VAR CVR 3RD PTG
MANHATTAN PROJECTS #2
MARVEL MAGNETO FINE ART STATUE
MARVEL X-23 BISHOUJO STATUE
MARVELS AVENGERS PRELUDE FURYS BIG WEEK #4 (OF 4)

NEAR DEATH #7
NEW MUTANTS #41
NEW TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS HC VOL 02
NEXT MEN AFTERMATH #42
NEXT MEN AFTERMATH #42 10 COPY INCV
NIGHTWING #8
NO PLACE LIKE HOME #3 (MR)

PEANUTS #4 (OF 4)
PLANET OF THE APES #13
POCKET GOD GN VOL 02 TALE OF TWO PYGMIES (RES)
POCKET GOD GN VOL 03 QUEST CALLED TRIBE
POP HEROES WONDER WOMAN VINYL FIGURE
PROPHET #23 VAR CVR 2ND PTG
PROPHET #24
PUNISHER #10 GRANOV VAR OMEGA
PUNISHER #10 OMEGA

RACHEL RISING #7
RAGEMOOR #2
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #8
RED HULK HULK OF ARABIA TP
RED SONJA #65
RESET #1 (OF 4) BAGGE CVR
RESET #1 (OF 4) KINDT VAR CVR
RESIDENT ALIEN #0
ROBERT WELLS TRILOGY GN VOL 01 SACRIFICE
ROCKETEER ADVENTURES 2 #2 (OF 4)
ROCKETEER ADVENTURES 2 #2 (OF 4) 10 COPY INCV

SAGA #1 VAR CVR 3RD PTG (MR)
SECRET HISTORY OF DB COOPER #2
SHADOW #1
SHADOW #1 100 COPY CASSADAY B&W INCV
SHADOW #1 25 COPY ROSS VIRGIN INCV
SHADOW #1 50 COPY CHAYKIN BLOODY VIOLENT INCV
SHOOTERS HC (MR)
SHOWCASE PRESENTS ALL STAR SQUADRON TP VOL 01
SIMPSONS COMICS #189
SIX GUNS TP
SIXTH GUN #21
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG SELECT TP VOL 05
SONIC UNIVERSE #39
SPAWN ORIGINS HC VOL 06
STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI FORCE STORM #0 (3RD PTG)
STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI FORCE STORM #1 (3RD PTG)
STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI FORCE STORM #3
STEED AND MRS PEEL #4 (OF 6)
STITCHED #4 (MR)
STITCHED #4 GORE CVR (MR)
STITCHED #4 WRAP CVR (MR)
SUICIDE SQUAD #7 2ND PTG
SUPER DINOSAUR #10
SUPERGIRL #8
SW DARTH VADER SILICONE TRAY
SW MILLENNIUM FALCON SILICONE TRAY
SW OBI-WAN KENOBI ARTFX STATUE FINAL BATTLE VER
SW STORMTROOPER SILICONE TRAY
SW X-WING FIGHTER SILICONE TRAY

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MICRO SERIES #4 LEONARDO
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MICRO SERIES #4 LEONARDO 10 COP
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MICRO SERIES #4 LEONARDO 25 COP
THUNDER AGENTS VOL 2 #6 (OF 6) (NOTE PRICE)
THUNDERBOLTS #173
TRANSFORMERS CLASSICS TP VOL 03
TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS EYE ONGOING #4

ULT COMICS SPIDER-MAN TP VOL 04 DOSM
ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS BY MARK MILLAR OMNIBUS HC
UNCANNY X-FORCE #24
UNCANNY X-FORCE #24 AA APPRECIATION PAREL VAR
UNDYING MONSTERS MAGAZINE #4

VAMPI OMNIBUS TP VOL 01
VAMPIRELLA #16
VENOM #16

WALKING DEAD #96 (MR)
WITCHBLADE #155 CVR A CHRISTOPER
WITCHBLADE #155 CVR B BERNARD & BENES
WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #9 AA APPRECIATION MALEEV VAR AVX

WOLVERINE AND X-MEN BY JASON AARON PREM HC VOL 01
WONDER WOMAN #8
WONDER WOMAN #8 VAR ED

X-FACTOR #234
X-FACTOR TP VOL 13 HARD LABOR
X-MEN #27
X-MEN FATAL ATTRACTIONS HC
X-MEN HIDDEN YEARS TP VOL 01

YOUNG JUSTICE #15
YOUNG LOVECRAFT GN VOL 02

ZOMBIES A-Z SC
ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS THIS MEANS WAR PROSE SC

This list is a copy of the list at pittsburghcomics.com. Arrivals at your LCS may vary.

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By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

April 3, 2012: Sometimes a graphic novel arrives that is more important for what it teaches than how it entertains. Such is the case with Best of Enemies: A History of U.S. and Middle East Relations Part One: 1783-1953 (SelfMadeHero, $24.95), coming in May.

 

The title sounds a little like a college textbook, and sure enough, I read several books with similar titles when I was in graduate school. And, boy, I sure wish Best of Enemies had existed before my midterm in History of the Modern Middle East – it sure would have made studying easier!

 

12134174889?profile=originalThat’s because Best of Enemies breaks down a complex and morally messy history into a clean and easily absorbed narrative. It begins with the fledgling U.S. military dealing with Barbary pirates in the early days of the country (the conflict that put “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine anthem) and ends with the CIA orchestrating a coup that put the shah on the throne of Iran in 1953. Every U.S.-Middle East connection in between is recounted, from American naval officer Alfred Mahan coining the term “Middle East” in 1902, to FDR’s meeting with King Ibn Saud during World War II to cement the oil-for-security relationship we have with Saudi Arabia to this day.

 

The press release accompanying the book says the authors “draw striking parallels between ancient and contemporary political history,” but I don’t think they do (except for a whimsical prologue comparing current events to the Epic of Gilgamesh). Jean-Pierre Filiu, a world-renowned expert on the region, takes a strictly “just the facts” approach, which is rendered by graphic novelist David B. in the same clear, cartoony style he used for his award-winning Epileptic. Whatever political or historical lessons the reader derives is entirely up to him or her.

 

Which is not to say there isn’t plenty of meat here to chew on, even if you’re not a history buff or political junkie. In fact, our history with the Middle East is one wildly at odds with our self-image, which alone is food for thought. (We like to think of ourselves as Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine in Casablanca when it comes to places like Morocco, when we’re really a lot more like Sidney Greenstreet’s Signor Ferrari.) And, yes, it’s pretty clear why Iran considers us the “great Satan” – after you see what we did in 1953, it’s a wonder they don’t hate us even more.

 

The only flaw, if you can call it that, is that the book focuses on U.S.-Middle East relations to the exclusion of broader history as a whole. We get a glimpse of great historical events when they directly impact on the Middle East’s relations with the U.S., but that omits huge chunks of the area’s history. For example, there’s very little mention of the Crusades; the Shiite-Sunni schism; the Ottoman Empire implosion; the formation of Israel; or England, France and Russia carving up the region for two hundred years or so. Those things inform the Middle East’s current societies, religions, governments, relationships – and especially its borders.  It makes one hope that Best of Enemies sells well enough for this team to conspire on a History of the Middle East graphic novel.

 

12134175097?profile=originalIn the meantime, Best of Enemies is invaluable for the U.S., because as a country we are broadly ignorant of what our political and corporate leaders have been doing for the last 200 years in the most volatile region on Earth. It has me hoping that “Part One” in the title isn’t just wishful thinking, and that a post-1953 history is in the works.

 

Elsewhere:

 

Speaking of history, EC Comics made history in the early 1950s when writer/artist Harvey Kurtzman essentially created an entirely new genre with Mad, the satire-slash-parody in comics form. As soon as Mad made money (with the fifth issue), a host of other publishers jumped on the bandwagon, copying not only Kurtzman but his top artists, Jack Davis, Will Elder and Wally Wood. They all were canceled quickly.

 

Comics historian John Benson (Romance Without Tears) has collected the best stories from Mad wannabes like Crazy, Eh!, Flip, Get Lost, Madhouse, Nuts, Riot, Whack and EC’s own spinoff, Panic. But I can’t recommend this collection, The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s Mad Inspired Satirical Comics” (Fantagraphics, $24.99), to anyone except historians, because all it demonstrates is why all these copycats were canceled quickly. In short, they were terrible.

 

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

 

ART

1. Best of Enemies: A History of U.S. and Middle East Relations is invaluable to historians, students and comics fans. Courtesy SelfMadeHero.

2. The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best of 1950s Mad Inspired Satirical Comics may be the best of 1950s Mad imitators, but it's not very good. Courtesy Fantagraphics Books.

 

 

 

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12134027688?profile=originalContinuing the countdown of the most insipid Silver-Age bad guys to tackle the Justice League of America . . . .

 

 

By 1963, the ranks of the JLA had expanded to nine super-heroes.  It’s quite a task, coming up with villains formidable enough to threaten that many heroes at once, especially when a plot wasn’t padded over a multi-issue arc, as is common to-day.  JLA writer Gardner Fox had to come up with a new menace every issue.  Sooner or later, the well had to run dry.

 

To offset the problem, Fox employed a new plotting formula, beginning with JLA # 23 (Nov., 1963).  It was a format in which half the team membership would be sidelined from the main action.  Contrivances were found to get four or five of the JLAers out of the way early on, or else, bring them in at the end, cavalry-style.  For most of the adventure, the other half of the group dealt with the big bad on their own.

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After several months, Fox honed the formula further by simply omitting many of the Justice League members from the story completely, under the excuse of “being tied up on urgent cases of their own.”  From 1965 on, it was a rare thing for the entire JLA membership to be involved in a case.

 

This approach had two benefits for Fox’s scripting.  If it was a truly Earth-shaking threat, then the sense of drama was heightened by the fact that only five or six super-heroes were on hand to confront it.  The other plus was that, now, every villain didn’t have to be a world-beater.  Fox could drop down to the minor leagues and throw a second-tier baddie at the JLA and still get a decent yarn out of it.

 

Unfortunately, for him---and fortunately, for this Deck Log entry---on a few of those, Fox scraped barrel-bottom.  This usually happened when, instead of going with an established super-villain, he opted for putting a super-weapon in the hands of a small-time operator.

 

 

That’s how the next three losers made the list.

 

 

 

4. and 3.  “Nameless Nutt” and Johnny Marbles  (JLA # 53 [May, 1967])

 

 

12134163085?profile=originalNumbers Four and Three on the list both appeared in the adventure, “Secret Behind the Stolen Super-Weapons”, taking on the Justice League separately, but stumbling over each other to do it.

 

The tale’s opener presents us with two mysteries.  At the Midway City Museum, while curator Carter (Hawkman) Hall is preparing to attend this month’s regular meeting of the Justice League, his wife, Shierra, shows him an imperfect counterfeit of a rare ancient coin.  Somehow, the phoney had been substituted for the genuine article, without opening its display case or setting off the special Thanagarian alarm-system installed to protect the exhibits.

 

Carter notes that several other art galleries and museums across the country have suffered similar thefts.

 

Later, at the secret sanctuary, for once, it’s an uneventful JLA meeting.  There’s no old business, no new business, nor even any requests for help in the mail.   Snapper Carr reports that the absent Green Lantern and J’onn J’onzz have sent word that they’re---say it with me, gang---tied up on urgent cases of their own.

 

With nothing official to discuss, the heroes talk shop.  The Green Arrow mentions that, earlier in the day, he was confronting some armed bandits and discovered that his famed trick arrows had, somehow, been mysteriously replaced by non-working duplicates.

 

An astonished Wonder Woman reports that she recently experienced something similar, when she rounded up a band of foreign spies and found out that her magic lasso had been unaccountably exchanged for an ordinary golden rope that resembles the real thing.

 

Ever the worrier, the Batman checks out his utility belt and finds that, while it looks like his belt, the gadgets it holds are worthless.  Hawkman draws a connexion between the stolen super-weapons and the puzzling coin-swap at the Midway City Museum.

 

 

12134163496?profile=originalWhile the Leaguers put their heads together to address the situation, the scene shifts to a cave stuffed with antiquities and rare treasures.  In a gloating soliloquy to no-one in particular, the mastermind responsible for the looting brags about being “the greatest thief in the criminal history of the world!”

 

You see, he has invented a matter transporter.  The device can instantly transport any object to his cavern hide-out and leave in its place, a reasonable, but inexact copy---“an operation made necessary by the law of the conservation of matter and energy . . . .”

 

Actually, that’s not too bad, as villains go.  Certainly, he might give the Atom or the Batman or Hawkman a hard time in their own magazines.  But a couple of things put him on the list.  First, his over-inflated ego, which eventually leads to his undoing from an unexpected quarter.

 

Second, it’s just hard to take him seriously as a bad guy---or anything else.  Appearance-wise, he looks like he just stepped off the set after playing the lead in an episode of Dr. Who.  And he conducts himself with all the high-camp exaggeration of a Special Guest Villain on Batman---which explains the two full pages spent talking to himself about his master plan and how great he is.

 

Incidentally, writer Gardner Fox never bothers to give this dandified do-badder a name.  In a letter of comment about this story that appears in a subsequent JLA Mail Room, fan Leonard Rosenberg, of the Bronx, New York, makes note of this.  The evil collector, says Mr. Rosenberg, “for all I know, was called Nameless Nutt . . . .” 

 

 

Meanwhile, back at JLA HQ, Hawkman has made use of a Thanagarian detector.  The Winged Wonder aims the gizmo at the counterfeited art objects from the victimised museums and picks up a radiation signature that he can trace.  The three JLAers who had their weapons substituted ask the other members to sit this one out, while they and Hawkman get first crack at the hidden mastermind.

 

12134164299?profile=originalIn short order, the Justice League quartet tracks down the secret cave.  Startled by Our Heroes’ appearance, Nameless Nutt (if it’s good enough for Leonard Rosenburg of the Bronx, it’s good enough for me) pulls out another gadget.  With it, he animates some of the stolen statuary and sends it on the attack.  The stunt gives each of the four JLAers a page to strut his stuff---and an opportunity for polymath Fox to show off his knowledge of obscure folklore in four lengthy editorial footnotes.

 

It doesn’t take long for the Leaguers to reduce the giant bric-a-brac to so much rubble, but it delays them enough for ol’ Nameless to make a run for it.  The heroes give chase, but when they catch up to him, they find the crooked inventor lying unconscious. 

 

“He must have tripped and fallen---knocking himself out!” concludes Green Arrow.

 

The JLAers confiscate the gadget in N.N.’s hand, then turn him and his stolen booty over to the authorities.

 

That’s the last we’ll ever see of Mr. Nutt, but the story is far from over.

 

 

12134164700?profile=originalWhen JLA foursome rejoins the others in the secret sanctuary, they realise that there are still a couple of pieces missing from the puzzle.  For one thing, there was no sign of Batman’s real utility belt in Nameless Nutt’s cave.  Nor Green Arrow’s shafts or Wonder Woman’s lasso.

 

Next, the device they took from N.N. is simply an ornate metal shell, with no inner workings whatsoever.  There’s no way it could have been used to commit the thefts.

 

Before Our Heroes can look into it further, Batman, Hawkman, and the others who tackled Nutt in his cave suddenly keel over in their council chairs and turn invisible.  By feel, the others can tell that the sticken members are still alive, but their pulses and breathing are growing weaker by the minute.

 

The unaffected JLAers deduce that this is an after-effect resulting from the four heroes receiving too much exposure to the radiation emanating from the real tele-transporter.  And there's going to be fatal consequences---unless they can find the genuine device and, somehow, reverse its effects. 

 

Then it’s Good News/Bad News time.

 

12134165475?profile=originalThe Good News:  They can track down the real transporter using Hawkman’s radiation detector.

 

The Bad News:  Hawkman’s radiation detector turned invisible when he did and they can’t operate it.

 

The Good News:  If Hawkman has a radiation detector, then so will Hawkgirl.

 

The Bad News:  Hawkgirl isn’t a Justice League member; they don’t know how to reach her.

 

The Good News:  Yes, they do---the Atom knows Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s secret identities.  (An editor’s note helpfully reminds the readers that the Tiny Titan and the Winged Wonders exchanged knowledge of their true identities in Hawkman # 9 [Aug.-Sep., 1965].)

 

 

Leaving Aquaman behind “in case our stricken members recover consciousness,” (and because Fox couldn’t think of anything else to do with him), the Atom, Superman and the Flash super-speed to Midway City and Shierra Hall.  Strapping on her wings and grabbing the spare radiation detector and a handy mace, Hawkgirl leads the Justice Leaguers straight to . . . .

 

Mobster Johnny Marbles and his gang!

 

12134165295?profile=originalGardner Fox often wrote convoluted plots, but this one was so byzantine that, when I first read this issue forty-five years ago, I had to go over it twice before it finally made sense.  It didn’t help that the explanation came from Johnny Marbles himself, who talks like a gangster from a 1930’s B-movie.

 

In regular English, here’s what happened:  Marbles suspected that the art thefts were being committed by someone with an unbeatable gimmick.  Figuring that the best way to put the finger on this somebody was to sic the JLA on him, the gangster ordered his underlings to secretly steal the weapons used by Batman and Green Arrow and Wonder Woman and substitute them with imitations.  It’s never explained how the thugs accomplish this; all we find out is that the effort resulted in most of Marbles’ men winding up in the jug.

 

Since Marbles doesn’t seem bright enough to know which end of a pencil to use, the notion that his henchmen could succeed in relieving three super-heroes of their personal gear is a huge honkin’ pill to choke down.  For that matter, the whole scheme seems beyond him. Maybe one of his captured men was the real brains behind the operation. That would explain a lot.

 

12134166489?profile=originalAs Marbles hoped, the heroes assumed that the same mastermind robbing the museums was also behind the thefts of their weapons, and when they tracked him down, Johnny and his boys were following close behind.

 

They lied in wait until Nameless Nutt made his run for freedom.  Before the pursuing heroes could round the corner, the hoods waylaid the flamboyant robber and took his tele-transporter, leaving a fake in its place.

 

Now in possession of the transporter, Marbles tests it out on the front door to his apartment.  He just happens to activate the device just as the Justice League members and Hawkgirl come bursting in.  Instantly, the four super-heroes are frozen shock still.  (“There must have been an element of kryptonite in that thing to have it affect me,” says Superman later, trying to save face.)

 

Instead of doing something smart like, oh say, running for the hills, Johnny Marbles ignores the petrified super-heroes.  He’s more interested in teleporting the entire gold reserve of Fort Knox right there into his living room.  He orders his men to move the furniture out of the way, not stopping to think that materializing over five thousand tons of gold on a simple hardwood floor is going to give the people in the apartments directly below quite a surprise.

 12134166890?profile=original

Before the gangboss can flip the switch, the tele-transporter is slammed out of his hands---by Hawkgirl’s mace!

 

Her radiation detector absorbed the energy holding her paralysed, and now free to move, she tackles the hoodlums with gusto.  Marbles and his remaining two lackeys grab for the Justice Leaguers’ weaponry that they stole earlier, to make a last stand of it, but all they manage to do is foul each other up.  The Female Fury takes them out, neat as you please.  Aquaman could’ve done it.

 

Once Superman and the Flash and the Atom are unfrozen, they zip back to the secret sanctuary and, reversing the polarity of the transporter, restore the dying JLAers to health and visibility.  Then it’s smiles all around, as Hawkman gives his wife a big hug and promises to do the dinner dishes every night for a week.  (O.K., I made that last part up, but I bet he did.)

 

 

 

2.  Joe Parry  (JLA # 31 [Nov., 1964])

 

 

12134169264?profile=original“Riddle of the Runaway Room” is remembered principally for being the story in which Hawkman joined the Justice League of America.  The Winged Wonder’s induction into the League is the best part of the tale, and it’s over by page 6.

 

While that happy event was taking place in the secret sanctuary, the issue’s villain, Joe Parry, was carrying out his “master scheme”---robbing a bank.

 

Not that Joe himself was doing the dirty deed, mind you.  He sent some gun-toting friends to do it.

 

But, to be fair, there was a little more to it than that.

 

Joe Parry, like Pete Ricketts, was a penny-ante crook who lucked upon a weapon of tremendous power.  In Joe’s case, it was a pancomputer from the planet Pthisthin, a monochromatic world in which everything was coloured yellow.

 

Resembling a Chinese lantern with a handle, the Pthisthinian device was capable of drawing material from another dimension and creating anything which its operator wished.  It had lied buried after a Pthisthinan spaceship had crashed on Earth, thousands of years earlier.  Until an earth tremour delivered it to the surface and into Joe Parry’s hands.

 

12134169463?profile=originalAfter accidentally discovering how the machine worked, the first thing Joe asked for was money.  Lots of it.  The pancomputer complied, showering him with cash.  Cold, hard, yellow Pthisthin cash.

 

Realising that the alien machine could only create things in terms of its home planet, Parry sought a way to capitalise on the immense power in his grasp.  When it came to plotting, however, Joe made Pete Ricketts look like Lex Luthor.   Joe’s grand scheme was to rob a bank.

 

He recruited three of his lowlife buddies.  Then he asked the pancomputer for something which would protect them from all harm.  It responded by producing a set of “time-field hoops”, worn by Pthisthian space-explorers to protect them from harm.  The hoops hovered around the wearer’s waist and surrounded him with a “time-field”.  Anything that entered the field was projected ten minutes into the future.

 

Parry sent his three knuckle-dragging pals, thus armed, off to near-by Shore City to rob a bank.

 

 

Meanwhile, back at JLA headquarters, after the cake and punch, half the Leaguers duck out early, to get back to important cases they’re working on.   This leaves Batman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and rookie member Hawkman to answer a police-band announcement of the Shore City bank robbery.

 

12134170296?profile=original“If crooks have a weapon that unusual,” says Batman, in response to reports of the mysterious time-hoops worn by the bandits, “we’d better look into it.”

 

The super-heroes arrive in Shore City just as the crooks are leaving the bank.  Swooping in, Green Lantern finds his power beam useless against the crooks.  When the beam enters the time-field, it gets sent ten minutes into the future, and the hoops themselves are yellow.

 

But nothing else the JLAers try works, either.  Super-speed whirlwind, magic lasso, or plain old fists, they all disappear as soon as they enter the time-field around the crooks.  The Justice Leaguers can only watch helplessly as the hoods get into their car, also protected by the time-field, and drive off.  Ten minutes later, when the effects of their efforts materialise, Our Heroes figure out what’s going on.

 

Now that they know the secret of the hoops, the group overtakes the getaway car and use the time-shunting gimmick against the crooks.  Green Lantern’s power ring discovers that the robbers’ minds have been wiped clean of any knowledge of the hoops or how they got them.  And the time-hoops themselves have been rendered inert.

 

The Justice Leaguers head back to the secret sanctuary to dope out the mystery.

 

 

12134171282?profile=originalBack in his beachhouse, Joe Parry panics.  He’s seen the whole thing on a pancomputer-provided monitor.  He orders the device to kill the Justice League members before they can track him down.  Unfamiliar with the physiology of Terrans, the machine asks Joe to tell him how Earth people die.

 

“Die?  Why—er---“ Parry replies.  “We die when we stop breathing!”

 

Gotcha, says the alien gadget.  The next thing the JLAers know, the mountaintop of their secret sanctuary explodes and the section of flooring containing Our Heroes around the council table blasts upward into space.

 

Naturally, this is only a moment’s pause for the super-heroes.  Once they catch their breath, the Emerald Crusader power-rings a protective air canopy over them, while Hawkman reverses the controls of his anti-gravity belt to drop the broken sanctuary flooring back to Earth.  As a bonus, the Winged Wonder tells his new teammates that the special contact lenses built into his headgear have detected an “invisible yellow force beam”.

 

Once back on Earth, Hawkman, with the other members in tow, follows the invisible yellow beam to Joe Parry’s shack.  In desperation, Joe orders the pancomputer to create an amalgamated being consisting of Wonder Woman’s head and magic lasso, Batman’s torso, Green Lantern’s arms and power ring, the Flash’s super-fast legs, and Hawkman’s wings.  Joe dubs his creation “the Super-Duper” and sends it out to destroy the oncoming JLA heroes.

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Incredibly, the hodge-podge creature gives the Justice Leaguers a thorough drubbing, until only Hawkman is left standing.  The Super-Duper trains its power ring on the Pinioned Paladin at point-blank range.

 

Let’s review here for a moment.  The Super-Duper was created by a yellow pancomputer from the planet Pthisthin, where the only colour in existence is yellow.  Everything created by the pancomputer is yellow and it even gives off invisible yellow energy.

 

And what do we know about the colour yellow and Green Lantern’s power ring, hmmm?

 

Despite the other members’ long association with the Emerald Crusader, only Hawkman tumbles to the fact that a power ring created by a yellow force will not work.  (Gardner Fox was clearly giving Hawkman centre stage in his JLA debut.)

 

The Winged Wonder takes advantage of his deduction and plays possum to lure Joe Parry out of hiding.  One clever stunt later, and Joe is decked by the Justice League’s newest member.  When they get their hands on the Pthisthinian machine, the JLAers discover that it has run out of power and the Super-Duper fades from existence.

 

12134174253?profile=original 

Like Pete Ricketts, Joe Parry was done in, more than anything else, by his own ineptness.  Parry had at his control a device of almost unlimited capability and the best plan he could come with was a simple larceny.  His thinking on the fly was even worse, as shown by his half-baked doom-traps for the League.  In the end, even Joe himself knew it.

 

“The trouble with me was I wasn’t smart enough to use that machine to my best advantage!”

 

“Cheer up, Joe!” replies the Flash.  “You don’t have to be smart---in jail!”

 

 

 

Next time out, the countdown ends with the all-time lamest Justice League foe of the Silver Age . . . .

 

Any guesses?

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The True Horror of the Apocalypse


The True Horror of the Apocalypse

Or: Don't worry about the zombies, it's the insects that will eat you

 

An exchange on a thread about AMC's The Walking Dead about what was or wasn't an implausible coincidence in the season finale reminded me of one of my favorite hobby horses: the errors one finds in most post-apocalypse stories.

 

To put it simply, in a world where electricity, manufacturing, water treatment plants and plain old gas stations were a memory, life would be hugely different -- mainly in the "dangerous" and "difficult" departments, but also including "unhygienic," "diseased" and "really unpleasant." And that's not even counting whatever dangers result from whatever caused the apocalypse, from atomic radiation to zombies.

 

But those changes are often ignored or glossed over in post-apocalypse stories, and The Walking Dead is as guilty as any. Here's a few of them:

 

When there's no electricity, life stops at sundown. Seriously, even with candles, there's just not much you can do when it gets dark in a world without artificial light. In the modern world, we don't realize it but we see pretty well on overcast nights because lights from the city are reflecting off clouds. But after the apocalypse, there won't be any city lights, or street lights, or anything -- all we'd have is what our ancestors had, the moon and stars, which ain't much most of the time. Maybe during a full moon there'd be sufficient light to move with some confidence, but that's only a few nights a month ...


... And not in the woods. When Shane, Rick, Glen and Daryl were wandering around in the woods looking for Randall in "Better Angels," I had to put my suspension of disbelief in a quiet room to protect it. Because, folks, I was a Boy Scout. And I've been in the woods in the dark. AND YOU CAN'T SEE ANYTHING. The moon can't get through the canopy, the stars can't be seen. It's absolutely pitch black. Even with flashlights, you're constantly tripping or getting caught in vines and you have to move really slowly. Mostly, you try not to move any more than you have to. Plus, there are nocturnal things in the woods you'd really not like to run into, especially when they can see and you can't.

 

So, let's review: Wandering around in the woods after dark is a BAD IDEA. It's also impossible without flashlights, and only Glen was shown to have one. Plus, it's suicidal when there are zombies in the woods, who can track you through sound and smell (or your flashlight), and don't care about injuring themselves, or you injuring them, and will blindly attack in utter darkness. Blundering around in the dark is going to get you hurt in our world, and in Zombieworld it's going to get you dead.

 

The roaches will inherit the earth: A world with millions of unburied corpses -- albeit quite a few still moving around -- is going to be a huge buffet for insects. Not to mention millions of abandoned households with rotting food just sitting around to be eaten, or to lay eggs in, or whatever. The air would be swarming with flies, the ground a carpet of roaches and other offal-eating insects. Daytime would be a misery and night would be worse. Serfs in the middle ages were crawling with lice, bedbugs and other creepy crawlies, and that's with corpses buried and food kept safe. So multiply that by a factor of 100 after the apocalypse.

 

... and the rest: Digest what I said above, and then think about rats, who don't multiply as fast as roaches but still do pretty well. And everything else that man keeps in check would multiply quickly as well. Not only would kudzu take over the South in a season, but all animals would increase exponentially. Granted, in a zombie apocalypse, large animals (like cattle and horses) would be eaten by zombie herds. But anything too small and fast to catch, like rats and squirrels*, would multiply in awesome numbers. And with Man so diminished, would large swarms of rats even fear him ... or just eat him? The air would be full of birds, who also would no longer fear us, and the sea full of ... well, everything that lives in the sea. The biggest -- and just about only -- large predator on the planet would suddenly be gone. Who's going to occupy that niche at the top of the food chain? And how low will we fall?

 

* My wife and I are still debating whether dogs would survive in The Walking Dead scenario. I think the larger ones would be dinner, but the smaller ones might survive, if they escaped into the woods and didn't get trapped in the dead ends of city streets and fenced-in yards. But competition for food would be scarce, and they'd have to somehow overcome their instinct to bark at things to scare them away. That would just be a dinner bell to a walker.

 

Injury or sickness is a death sentence: Just like in caveman times, there would be nothing to retard infection if you cut yourself. Anything beyond a minor scrape would likely result in gangrene or sepsis. A broken leg or any other injury that precludes traveling means the tribe has to leave you, or everybody dies when the herd catches up. Foraged antibiotics would only last so long and then, like the insects, microscopic life would thrive.

 

Ka-BOOM: For the first year or so, the night would be punctuated by things exploding somewhere. If nothing else, every refrigerator that still had some kind of seal would eventually explode as the gases from decomposing food expanded in an enclosed space. There would be inexplicable fires for the first few months also, as unattended chemicals, coolants, cleaning fluids and so forth spontaneously combusted.

 

Impassable streets: Everywhere a car stopped during civilization's final days, MANY cars behind it would perforce stop as well. Then after everybody's dead, there would be cars clogging the streets everywhere, and even if you had a working tow truck, it would take you several lifetimes just to clear a mid-size city like Memphis.

 

I groaned aloud when Will Smith was charging around in his sports car in Manhattan in I Am Legend. I can't imagine anyplace on earth that would be MORE clogged with abandoned vehicles than Manhattan. Even if a few streets were somehow clear, or he somehow cleared them, why would he risk injury or death turning blind corners at 40 mph where there could be fallen masonry, broken-up streets, fallen street lights or signals or, yes, an abandoned car or two blocking the way? And besides, how do you shoot a deer and drive at the same time? Idiocy.

 

It made for a nice poster in The Walking Dead showing all those abandoned cars clogging the exits from Atlanta, with all the roads leading into the city ominously empty. But in reality, everybody would use every road possible to get the hell out of Dodge, and all roads everywhere would be clogged with abandoned cars. Somehow Rick & Co. have only found one such "roadblock" -- and even that didn't make sense, with people having somehow died quietly at the wheel.

 

Also, I know Rick's crew is siphoning gas, but that won't last forever, and has anyone in a post-apocalypse story ever dealt with the problem of getting gas from gas stations? Without electricity to get gas up to the pumps, it might as well be on the moon. I suppose you could rig a generator to do that somehow, but I haven't the slightest idea how, and I doubt many other people do, either. Which brings me to:

 

We're all idiots: Let's face it, most of us don't know how to hunt. Or tan skins. Or make candles. Or do the hundred-and-one other things our ancestors knew how to do before the industrial revolution removed all that labor from our lives. Rick's TV crew is lucky enough to have Daryl, but in the comics they somehow survived for many issues by foraging. I think that would work for a while, but you're only one bad week -- foraging in an area where others beat you to it -- before starving to death. And where are you going to get fresh water when the taps don't work? You'd have to stick by running water -- stagnant water is death -- which means you couldn't stay on the move. And if you don't stay on the move  the zombies eventually find you and you either move away from the water or stay and die. It's quite the pickle, and I can't remember too many post-apocalypse stories dealing plausibly with simple survival when you can't turn on the tap or drive to the grocery store. Let's hope that Rick's world still has some libraries with actual books in them to show them how to do things, and they get to those books before mildew and the insects do.

 

There's more, but y'all can think of them as easy as me (and I encourage you to do so, and append your ideas below).

 

Also, I'm not actually complaining about these things -- well, maybe a bit -- because many of them would be boring or unpleasant to film. Do we really want to see Rick and crew as dirty, unshaven and chewed up by bugs as they'd really be? Do we want to see them fighting rats, or see millions of roaches pour out when one of them opens a barn door? Do we want to see feral, rabid dogs and cats? Do we want to see everyone slowly die because they don't know the simple hunting skills of a Cro-Magnon? Well, maybe we do, but I can see how filmmaker would want to skip over most of that.

 

Still, next time, Walking Dead: No more wandering in the woods after sundown, OK? And maybe Rick's crew could try to be a little quieter? Geez, they're practically hog-calling the walkers with all the clamor they make.

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12134160076?profile=originalCaptain Canuck: The Complete Edition

by Richard Comely and George Freeman
(collecting Captain Canuck #1-15 and Summer Special, 1975-1981)

Captain Canuck isn’t a superhero. I know he looks like one, with the red and white costume and the symbol of Canada on his forehead. I know he sounds like one, with his codename and secret identity. But those are only external trappings. Captain Canuck is a different kind of hero. He’s a government agent and adventurer, more like James Bond than Superman.

Captain Canuck’s adventures are set in the near future- or 1993, which was the near future for a book that debuted in 1975. That allows the stories to add a small dose of science fiction, such as jet packs and cybernetic eyes. Again, these advances are similar to the ones presented in spy films. Other than that, Captain Canuck doesn’t do much with the futuristic setting. On the one hand, it’s refreshing to read about a hero who is a blend of James Bond, Buck Rogers and Captain America. On the other hand, it seems like there was a lot of unexplored potential in the near future setting.

The volume has a rough start. Richard Comely is the co-creator of the character and the original series artist. Unfortunately, his art is amateurish. That’s not entirely surprising considering the series’ humble origin but I didn’t expect it to be quite so crude.

12134159885?profile=originalThe art gets a lot better about 50 pages in. That’s when George Freeman takes over with issue 4. Freeman has a much cleaner approach. He doesn’t overcrowd his panels. His characters are distinctive and polished. Although he’s not in the same class, I even see a little of Barry Windsor-Smith’s influence in Freeman, especially in his women.
The story gets better too. The pace is top-notch as Captain Canuck runs from one adventure to the next. There’s also a better use of supporting characters. Other agents like Kebec and Stardance accomplish important tasks on the side. We meet the Captain’s twin brother and a potential love interest. Plus, Comely and Freeman develop a more complex political scene, as the interests of national and worldwide agencies don’t always align. There are still a few hiccups. The nurse who helps Captain Canuck escape from a hospital remarkably happens to have espionage experience. But those are minor flaws in an otherwise enjoyable stretch of comics.

The story really picks up near the end of the volume with the epic “Chariots of Fire.” The futuristic setting comes to the fore with an alien menace that brings the series’ tension to new heights. The resolution of that story results in a very different direction as Captain Canuck is hurtled into the past, in time to witness the Viking discovery of the New World in an intentional homage to Prince Valiant. Then, the Captain is brought forward to the present (1981) instead of his near-future home. The sudden shifts in status quo were exhilarating. You didn’t know what to expect next and that created excitement and anticipation.

It should be noted that, despite the title, this is not the complete Captain Canuck. The volume does collect the entire first series yet later mini-series such as Reborn, Unholy War and Legacy are not included.

12134160486?profile=originalStrange Worlds of Science Fiction
by Wally Wood
(collecting various stories from 1950-51)

There are two things to review about this trade paperback: the stories that are collected and the package that contains them.

The stories are a mixed affair. Wally Wood is a brilliant artist who would go on to fame at EC, Marvel and Tower Comics. These are the stories that got him noticed and led to his opportunity at EC. This volume collects his science-fiction work from 1950 and ’51, mostly for Avon but also a couple for M.E. or Lev Gleason.

You can certainly see Wood’s talent. His women are beautiful. His men are muscular. His aliens are interesting. Yet due to the standard format of the time- multiple square panels on every page- the art is sometimes cramped. Characters seem like they’re bending down in order to fit onto the page. In other places, huge dialogue boxes practically squeeze the art out of the panel.

Characterization and plots are inconsistent as well. Wood does a good job with recognizable characters like Captain Science, Space Ace or Space Detective. They have well-established traits and relationships. However, when he takes on an anthology story, the new character is usually poorly defined. Some of the stories are interesting, multi-faceted affairs with unexpected twists and changes of the direction, especially those with multiple chapters. Others are straightforward and unsurprising. One story, a supposed cautionary tale set in the past, failed to follow through on its stated purpose.

Strange Worlds is an interesting read for all of that. As noted above, you can see Wally Wood’s talent, though it’s unrefined at this point. You get a sense of an artist figuring out his craft, even if the quality of the actual stories varies widely.

I can’t be as kind to the package. I suspect that Vanguard knew they weren’t giving us Wally Wood at his best. They include a cover gallery with his later work for EC and the Spirit as well as the stories printed in this volume. The insets between stories all feature art from his later EC days rather than from the stories actually printed. It’s almost as if Vanguard is saying, “We’d much rather reprint Wood’s EC work but we don’t have the license for that so we’re giving you this instead.” The back cover even features the EC and Spirit work that isn’t included in this volume. Quotes about the quality of those stories are misleading considering that they don’t appear in this book.

The volume claims that this is the most extensive collection of Wood’s work to date. It isn’t. It’s an interesting collection of his early work and I would have appreciated it a lot more if it was presented as such.

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Comics for 11 April 2012

100 BULLETS HC BOOK 02 (MR)
68 SCARS #1 (OF 4) (MR)

ADVENTURE TIME #3
ALABASTER WOLVES #1 (OF 5)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN HOOKY #1
AMERICAS GOT POWERS #1 (OF 6)
ARTIFACTS #16
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #2
AVENGERS COMING OF AVENGERS #1
AVENGERS HAWKEYE SOLO TP
AVENGERS VS X-MEN BY JIM CHEUNG B POSTER
AVENGERS VS X-MEN BY RYAN STEGMAN POSTER
AVENGERS VS X-MEN ITS COMING TP
AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #6

BATGIRL #8
BATMAN AND ROBIN #8
BATMAN ARKHAM UNHINGED #1
BATMAN INCORPORATED DELUXE HC VOL 01
BATMAN NO MANS LAND TP VOL 02 NEW EDITION
BATWOMAN #8
BIONIC WOMAN #1
BLACK PANTHER MDMA KINGPIN OF WAKANDA TP
BODYSNATCHERS #4 (OF 6)
BRODYS GHOST BOOK 03
BTVS SEASON 9 FREEFALL #8

CARNAGE USA #5 (OF 5)
CAVEWOMAN FEEDING GROUNDS #2 (MR)
CAVEWOMAN MUTATION #1
CHARMED TP VOL 03
COBRA ONGOING #12
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #3
COURTNEY CRUMRIN ONGOING #1

DANGER GIRL REVOLVER #3 (OF 4)
DAREDEVIL SEASON ONE PREM HC
DARK MATTER #4 (OF 4)
DEADPOOL #53
DEATHSTROKE #8
DEMON KNIGHTS #8
DOLLHOUSE EPITAPHS TP VOL 01
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS FORGOTTEN REALMS 100 PG

EPOCH #5 (OF 5)
ESSENTIAL AVENGERS TP VOL 08
EXTINCTION SEED #2 (OF 6)

FANTASTIC FOUR #605
FORMIC WARS SILENT STRIKE #5 (OF 5)
FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF SHADE #8

GFT ALICE IN WONDERLAND #4
GLORY #25
GORE #5 (OF 12) (MR)
GREEN LANTERN #8
GREEN LANTERN THE ANIMATED SERIES #1
GRIFTER #8
GUILDED AGE TP VOL 01

HALO FALL OF REACH INVASION #3 (OF 4)
HAUNT #23
HELLRAISER ANNUAL #1 (MR)
HITMAN TP VOL 06 FOR TOMORROW

I VAMPIRE TP
INFESTATION 2 #2 (OF 2)
INFINITE HORIZON TP

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #636

KEVIN SMITH BIONIC MAN #8

LEGION LOST #8
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES WHEN EVIL CALLS TP
LOBSTER JOHNSON THE BURNING HAND #4 (OF 5)
LORD OF THE JUNGLE #3 (MR)

MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES #
MEGA MAN #12
MIGHTY THOR #12.1
MISTER TERRIFIC #8
MMW CAPTAIN AMERICA HC VOL 06

NEW AVENGERS #24 AVX
NEW MUTANTS TP UNFINISHED BUSINESS VOL 04
NORTHLANDERS #50 (MR)

OMEGA EFFECT BY ADI GRANOV POSTER
ONE #7 (OF 10)
ORCHID #6 (MR)
OZ TREASURY ED
OZ WONDERLAND CHRONICLES JACK & CAT TALES #3 (OF 3)

PETE AND MIRIAM GN (MR)
PETER PANZERFAUST #3 (MR)
PUNISHERMAX FRANK TP

RESURRECTION MAN #8
RICH JOHNSTONS IRON MUSLIM #1
RICHIE RICH GEMS #46
ROUTE DES MAISONS ROUGES #7 (OF 7) (MR)

SAGA #2 (MR)
SAUCER COUNTRY #2 (MR)
SCARLET SPIDER #4
SECRET #1
SECRET AVENGERS #25
SECRET SERVICE #1 (OF 7) (MR)
SEVERED HC (MR)
SHADE #7 (OF 12)
SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE LOSERS TP VOL 01
SMOKE AND MIRRORS #2 (OF 5)
SPONGEBOB COMICS #8
STAN LEE TRAVELER TP VOL 03
STAR WARS AGENT O/T EMPIRE IRON ECLIPSE #5 (OF 5)
STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC WAR #4 (OF 5
STEAMPUNK SKETCHBOOK ONE SHOT
STRANGE TALENT OF LUTHER STRODE TP VOL 01 (MR)
SUBCULTURE WEBSTRIPS VOL 02 DIE HARDER
SUICIDE SQUAD #8
SUPERBOY #8

TALES FROM NEVERLAND TP (MR)
TEEN TITANS PRIME OF LIFE TP
THIEF OF THIEVES #3

ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #10
UNCANNY X-MEN #10
UNWRITTEN #36 (MR)

VAMPIRELLA MASTERS SERIES TP VOL 07
VAMPIRELLA VS DRACULA #3

WINTER SOLDIER #4
WOLVERINE #304

X-MEN LEGACY LOST LEGIONS TP

This list is a copy of the list at memphiscomics.com. Arrivals at your LCS may vary.

Read more…

Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

 

Marvel Entertainment announced a new Captain Marvel at WonderCon March 17, a character with a lot of strikes against her. But most fans are cheering.

 

The major problem is that the character can be confusing. To most folks, “Captain Marvel” means an entirely different character from a different company: Billy Batson, the boy who shouts “SHAZAM!” to become a light-hearted adult superhero in a red costume. He was really big in the 1940s, rivaling Superman in sales.

 

12134157653?profile=originalWhich was his doom. National (now DC) Comics, publishers of Superman, sued Fawcett Publications, publisher of Captain Marvel, for copyright infringement in 1940. It appeared to be a weak case to us non-lawyers, based on both  characters having similar powers (although Captain Marvel’s were magical, and based on ancient gods and heroes) and similar civilian identities (Clark Kent was an adult reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper; Batson was a boy reporter for radio station WHIZ-AM). Neverthless, the case dragged on until 1953, when Fawcett settled out of court and got out of the comics business.

 

With the original Captain Marvel kaput, the name was up for grabs. MF Enterprises used the name for an android superhero in 1966, whose power was to split his head, legs, arms and fingers off his body, to fly off independently and fight bad guys. That’s a really stupid super-power – how do disembodied limbs fly, anyway? – but also really creepy, and that Cap only lasted four issues.

 

Also in 1966, Marvel Comics decided to appropriate the name for a new superhero from outer space – a captain in the alien Kree military, whose real name was Mar-Vell. That character died in 1981 (and, amazingly, remains dead), but the name was used again at Marvel for his son Genis-Vell (now dead), his daughter Phyla-Vell (also now dead), an unrelated light-based superheroine named Monica Rambeau (now code-named Pulsar), another Kree named Noh-Varr (now code-named Protector) and a Kree historian named Medi-E-Vell. OK, I’m kidding about that last one, but you can see the name gets around.

 

12134158452?profile=originalBefore most of that, DC had obtained the rights to the original Captain “Shazam” Marvel, and began publishing his adventures in 1971. Ironically, they were unable to name their Captain Marvel comic book “Captain Marvel,” because Marvel held the trademark. So, while DC could still use the name “Captain Marvel” for the character, they had to use something else for the title of his books – usually “Shazam!” or a variant thereof. Recently, mirroring the actions of Fawcett almost 60 years ago, DC has simply given up on the Captain Marvel name and just renamed the character “Shazam.”

 

Meanwhile, a supporting character in the original Marvel Captain Marvel series (I told you it’s confusing), got super-powers and her own book in 1977, Ms. Marvel. This character, named Carol Danvers, had previously been an Air Force captain, an espionage agent and Mar-Vell’s girlfriend. When Ms. Marvel got canceled, she got new powers and called herself Binary, then lost those powers and became Warbird, then shifted back to Ms. Marvel for a recently canceled series. And it is THAT character that will once again be Marvel’s Captain Marvel in July.

 

12134158497?profile=originalAnother strike against Captain Marvel is that titles starring females traditionally have a hard time in the male-dominated comics landscape. Currently Marvel has no solo titles – zero – starring women.

 

There aren’t a lot of female writers in comics, either, but the new Captain Marvel has one: Kelly Sue DeConnick, best known for manga translations. On Marvel.com, she described the character this way:

 

“My pitch [to Marvel] was called ‘Pilot’ and the take can pretty much be summed up with ‘Carol Danvers as Chuck Yeager. Carol's the virtual definition of a Type A personality. She's a competitor and a control freak. … She'll have to figure out how to be both Captain Marvel [ital] and [end ital]  Chuck Yeager – to marry the responsibility of that legacy with the sheer joy being nearly invulnerable and flying really [expletive] fast.”

 

12134159073?profile=originalAnd the pluses for Captain Marvel? First, the more non-whiny, unapologetically strong women in comics, the better -- as a role model for girls, and an education for boys. Also, Marvel needs an iconic female standard bearer like DC’s Wonder Woman, and what could be better than one with “Marvel” right in the name? Also, the old “Ms. Marvel” handle always seemed a little archaic to me – a throwback to the ‘70s that makes her sound like a spinoff.

 

Finally, Carol Danvers is just a great character. Like other fans, my reaction to her solo book is “It’s about time!”

 

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

 

Art:

1. Cover for July's "Captain Marvel" #1, by Ed McGuinness. Courtesy Marvel Entertainment.

2. Cover for July's "Captain Marvel" #2, by Ed McGuinness. Courtesy Marvel Entertainment. 

3. Cover to 1940's "Whiz Comics" #2, the first appearance of the original Captain Marvel. Courtesy DC Entertainment.

4. Interior art for "Captain Marvel" #1. Courtesy Marvel Entertainment.

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12134154486?profile=originalThe Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Volume One
by Don Rosa
(collecting Uncle Scrooge #285-290, 1994-95)

In the mid ‘90s, Don Rosa took up the monumental task of illustrating The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. He wrote a 12-issue epic that covered the pivotal moments from Scrooge’s younger days before he became the richest duck in the world. This volume collects the first 6 issues. Even better, it also includes notes from Don Rosa in which he reveals the thought process behind story choices and reflects upon the clues to Scrooge’s past that were planted by Carl Barks.


12134155274?profile=originalThe stories are excellent. Rosa gives each installment a unique flavor, whether it’s Scrooge’s boyhood in Scotland or his adventures as a young man on a Mississippi steamboat. For the most part, they’re well paced with sufficient obstacles to keep the reader interested and a few side gags to keep the reader entertained. However, I’ll admit that a couple of tales got bogged down in secondary details or dragged out a scene until it became repetitious.

My favorite story was from the fourth issue in which Scrooge joins a cattle drive. There’s a famous image in which several parties chase each other around circular buttes in the South Dakota badlands. It was a treat to see how Rosa set up all of the conflicting characters and then brought them together as part of one wonderful farce.

The panels are visually interesting as well. Rosa provides numerous memorable scenes such as a fiery ghost on horseback and an underground cavern that doubles as a steamboat stateroom. Of course, there’s also the aforementioned circle chase in the South Dakota badlands.

12134155499?profile=originalI was particularly fond of Rosa’s reflections. It was interesting to have him describe how he formed a complete story around a small tidbit mentioned in an old duck story by Barks. And I was impressed by the way in which Rosa would seamlessly work other small details into a larger narrative. Best of all, his love for the character clearly shines through in his reflections.

However, I was also amused to compare my reactions as a reader to Rosa’s reaction as a writer. Rosa’s least favorite story was the cattle drive. He noted that he prefers stories that take place in a single setting and a single day. He cited the fifth issue when Scrooge returns to Scotland to fight for Castle McDuck as a good example. My reaction is pretty much the opposite. “The Life and Times” suggests an epic and that’s what I was expecting- not only in the volume as a whole but also in the individual installments. I was especially fond of the cattle drive story that spanned several months and several states. My least favorite story was the castle story from the fifth issue. In my opinion, it contained a lot of filler that stretched it to a full issue, particularly an extended dream sequence that occurred while Scrooge was drowning.

Even so, that’s a difference of opinion about the relative merits of individual stories. My opinion of the epic as a whole remains quite favorable.

12134156460?profile=originalWolverine by Greg Rucka: Ultimate Collection
by Greg Rucka, Darick Robertson and Leandro Fernandez
(collecting Wolverine #1-19, 2003)


Greg Rucka was given the task of re-launching Wolverine in a new solo series in 2003. This ultimate collection contains the complete Greg Rucka run, 19 issues in all.

Rucka’s approach to Wolverine is stripped down. Wolverine doesn’t wear a costume. He’s more like a rural vigilante, running around in jeans and a ripped shirt. His adventures are also more down to earth. He investigates a Montana cult that’s been kidnapping women, a smuggling operation that uses illegal immigrants to bring drugs across the border, and rumors that a wild, almost feral, escapee from the Weapon X program is living in the mountains.
There aren’t a lot of other superheroes either. Nightcrawler makes a couple of guest appearances, but he doesn’t actually help in the adventures. Instead, he shows up as a confidant and drinking buddy. Sabretooth is the only supervillain to pop by and he doesn’t appear until the final story arc. Plus, he’s similarly stripped down, wearing civilian clothes instead of a costume.

This approach often works well with Wolverine. Chris Claremont and John Buscema took a similar tack when they launched Wolverine’s first solo series. And other writers have followed similar routes. Wolverine is just as effective without costumes and the flashy baubles of superheroes. Rucka’s vision of Wolverine as a rural vigilante is consistent with the character.

12134156863?profile=originalUnfortunately, Rucka’s approach to storytelling is similarly stripped them. This re-launch occurred at the height of the decompression fad and the three previously mentioned tales make up the whole of the volume. That’s right. This 19-issue volume contains only three stories. That isn’t automatically a problem. It’s theoretically possible to tell a compelling story over 6 or 7 issues. But that doesn’t happen here.

There aren’t enough twists or obstacles to keep a reader’s attention over that length. There are a few twists. The villain of the drug operation is a bit of a surprise. And there’s a nice moment in the third story when Wolverine preemptively betrays Sabretooth. But those major moments are too spread out. The stories drag and I frequently wondered when we would move on to something else.

The art doesn’t exactly help either. I’ve enjoyed Darick Robertson’s work in other places yet I wasn’t impressed with it here. It was often unimaginative. It’s like he was a cinematographer who forgot that his camera could move. Leandro Fernandez was much better on the middle arc, though I think he inked himself a little too heavily at times and obscured his otherwise fine pencil work.

Overall, this was a very disappointing volume. On the bright side, I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for the individual issues. I could at least console myself that I waited to buy the trade at a much more friendly price point.

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Comics for 4 April 2012

30 DAYS OF NIGHT ONGOING #6
30 DAYS OF NIGHT ONGOING TP VOL 01

ACTION COMICS #8
ADVENTURE TIME #2 2ND PTG
AGE OF APOCALYPSE #2
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #683 ENDS
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #25 (MR)
ANIMAL MAN #8
ARCHIE MEETS KISS TP
AVENGERS ACADEMY #28
AVENGERS LEGION OF UNLIVING TP

BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #1 2ND PTG
BATMAN GOTHAM SHALL BE JUDGED TP
BATWING #8
BOYS #65 (MR)
BRILLIANT #3 (MR)

CARBON GREY ORIGINS #2 (OF 2)
CASANOVA AVARITIA #3 (OF 4) (MR)
CHEW #25 (MR)
COLD WAR TP VOL 01
CREEPY COMICS #8
CRIMINAL MACABRE DIE DIE MY DARLING

DANGER CLUB #1
DAREDEVIL #10.1
DARK SHADOWS RETURN TO COLLINWOOD SC
DEJAH THORIS & WHITE APES OF MARS #1 (MR)
DETECTIVE COMICS #8
DICKS COLOR ED #3 (MR)

FAIREST #2 (MR)
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #261
FANBOYS VS ZOMBIES #1
FARSCAPE TP VOL 07
FEAR ITSELF FEARLESS #12 (OF 12)
FERALS #4 (MR)
FLASH OMNIBUS BY GEOFF JOHNS HC VOL 02
FLEX MENTALLO MAN OF MUSCLE MYSTERY HC (MR)
FREEDOM #1

GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #11 (MR)
GFT APRIL FOOLS SPECIAL 2012 (MR)
GI JOE COBRA ONGOING TP VOL 02 COBRA CIVIL WAR
GI JOE VOL 2 ONGOING #12
GIRL WHO OWNED A CITY GN
GLAMOURPUSS #24
GREEN ARROW #8
GRIMM FAIRY TALES #71 (MR)
GRIMM FAIRY TALES THE LIBRARY #5

HAWK AND DOVE #8
HELL YEAH #2
HONEY WEST #5
HOW TO DRAW TRANSFORMERS SC
HULK #50

INCORRUPTIBLE #28
INFESTATION 2 30 DAYS OF NIGHT ONE SHOT
INVINCIBLE #90
IZOMBIE #24 (MR)

JACK KIRBYS FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS TP VOL 02
JEREMIAH OMNIBUS HC VOL 01
JOE GOLEM & DROWNING CITY ILL NOVEL HC
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #8

KINKY NYLONS SC (MR)
KIRBY GENESIS #6
KOLCHAK NIGHT STALKER FILES #3

LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #16 (MR)
LADY DEATH ORIGINS CURSED #1 (OF 3) (MR)
LEGEND OF OZ THE WICKED WEST #3
LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT JIM APARO HC
LEGION OF MONSTERS TP
LENORE VOLUME II #5
LOONEY TUNES #206

MARVELS AVENGERS PRELUDE FURYS BIG WEEK #3
MEN OF WAR #8
MU AVENGERS EARTHS HEROES COMIC READER TP #1
MU AVENGERS EARTHS HEROES COMIC READER TP #2
MUDMAN #3
MY BOYFRIEND IS MONSTER GN VOL 05

NEW MUTANTS #40
NIGHT FORCE #2 (OF 6)

OMAC #8

QUEEN SONJA #28

RED LANTERNS #8
RED SONJA WITCHBLADE #2
RICHIE RICH GEMS #45
ROBERT JORDAN WHEEL TIME EYE O/T WORLD #23

SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING TP BOOK 01 (MR)
SAVAGE DRAGON #179
SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #20
SECRET AVENGERS #24
SKULLKICKERS #13
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #235
SPAWN #218
SPIDER-MAN RETURN OF ANTI-VENOM TP
STAN LEE SOLDIER ZERO TP VOL 03
STATIC SHOCK #8
STORMWATCH #8
SUPREME #63
SUPURBIA #2 (OF 4)
SWAMP THING #8
SWEET TOOTH #32 (MR)

TERRY MOORE HOW TO DRAW #3 BEAUTIFUL
THE LONE RANGER #4
THUNDERBOLTS #172
TOY STORY #2 (OF 4)

ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #9

VENOM #15
VOLTRON YEAR ONE #1

WAKING DREAM END #1 (MR)
WAREHOUSE 13 #5
WHISPERS #2
WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #8
WOLVERINE AND X-MEN ALPHA AND OMEGA #4 (OF 5)

X-CLUB #5 (OF 5)

This list is a copy of the list posted at memphiscomics.com. Arrivals at your LCS may vary.

Read more…

Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

Call it self-fulfilling prophecy, but I’ve read the first issues of two of DC’s four new Vertigo books, and I feel about them exactly as I expected to.

 

Fairest #1 ($2.99), which arrived March 7, was just as much fun as I’d hoped. For those who missed my previous column on this topic (and for shame!), Fairest is a spinoff from Vertigo’s popular and award-winning Fables series, which posits that all fairy tale characters exist, with each as proportionally powerful as the number of mortals who remember and/or believe in them. This new title focuses on the histories and solo adventures of the ladies in our fairy tales, from Cinderella (who has already had two solo miniseries) to Snow White.

 

It starts with a wraparound cover featuring 12 gals and one guy by the fantastic Adam Hughes; it’s not only gorgeous but a fun challenge to identify all the characters. I was only able to ID them all  because I’ve read more than 100 issues of Fables, and it wasn’t easy – there sure are a lot of blondes! I’ll provide a hint in that those depicted are Ali Baba, Beauty (of “and the Beast”), Bo Peep, Briar Rose (“Sleeping Beauty), Cinderella, Ozma, Princess Alder, Rapunzel, Rose Red, Snow Queen, Snow White, Mrs. Jack Spratt and Thumbelina. Good luck!

12134150655?profile=original

 

The insides are by writer Bill Willingham, the creator and writer of “Fables,” and fan favorite artist Phil Jimenez (“Wonder Woman”), and are a delight. Jimenez pours a ton of detail on the page, mirroring the monthly effort of Mark Buckingham over in “Fables.” And Willingham’s efforts here are as entertaining as they are in “Fables;” with witty dialogue, specific characterization, pell-mell adventure and little details that tickle your childhood fairy-tale memories.

 

12134151455?profile=originalOne oddity must be mentioned: In a book devoted to women, none show up until page 13 (actually two, Snow Queen and Briar Rose), and no Fairest has any dialogue until the last page. The focus of this first issue is on Ali “Prince of Thieves” Baba, a sarcastic effrit and an angry wooden soldier carved by Gepetto. They are all males, which indicates that the book won’t be entirely free of Y chromosomes – it’s just that men won’t be the focus. I’m sure Briar Rose (and possibly the Snow Queen) will have their fair share of adventure soon enough.

 

12134152093?profile=originalAnd I’ll be there to read it, because Fairest #1 was enormous fun. I wholeheartedly recommend it, and caution that remote viewing of the series through a magic mirror or crystal ball is considered piracy.

 

A little lower on my enthusiasm scale is Saucer Country #1 ($2.99), which arrived March 14. The series, unlike most comics, won’t shy away from actual politics. It stars a divorced, female, Hispanic governor of a southwestern state who is considering a run for the presidency on what is the (unnamed) Democratic ticket. Her opponents, whose affiliation is equally unnamed, are clearly Republicans.

 

12134152481?profile=originalThis is the part that interests me, primarily for the novelty. I don’t want many or even most of my funnybooks to provide political commentary, as I prefer my fantasy to be an escape from all that. But once in a blue moon some real-world issues and controversies can add a little reaffirming verisimilitude – as long it doesn’t devolve into the writer standing on a soapbox. Screeds aren’t fun to read even when you agree with the politics, and are flat-out intolerable when you don’t.

 

12134153284?profile=originalThe name of the book refers to what will surely become the main plot before long, in that our heroine comes to the realization on the last page that she had been abducted by aliens. This will certainly complicate her campaign, as if an alcoholic ex-husband and brutal politics aren’t problem enough. But the press material indicates she now believes we’re being invaded – and she needs to be president to stop it. It’s not clear in the first issue if it’s true or if there’s some other reason for the governor’s recovered memories, but it does add a whole new meaning to the term “illegal aliens.”

 

Saucer Country is by British writer Paul Cornell, known primarily for television drama like Doctor Who, and his current runs on DC’s Demon Knights and Stormwatch. The art is by Ryan Kelly, who put in years of solid work on Vertigo’s “Lucifer.” That’s a pretty good line-up, so I’m looking forward to a political potboiler with a side order of aliens – or maybe it’ll be the other way around.

 

12134153700?profile=originalContact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

 

1. The first issue of Fairest sports a wraparound cover depicting 13 characters expected to appear in the series. Courtesy DC Entertainment.

2. The second issue of Fairest, due in April, show Ali Baba and Briar Rose with an interfering effrit. Courtesy DC Entertainment.

3. The third issue of Fairest features Snow Queen on the cover. Courtesy DC Entertainment.

4. The cover of the first issue of Saucer Country shows the lead character haunted by gray aliens. Courtesy DC Entertainment.

5. The second issue of Saucer Country is due in April. Courtesy DC Entertainment.

6. The third issue of Saucer Country is due in May.  Courtesy DC Entertainment. 

 

 

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12134149068?profile=originalWonder Woman Chronicles Volume Two
by William Moulton-Marston and Harry G. Peter

(collecting Wonder Woman #2-3, Sensation Comics #10-14 and Comic Cavalcade #1, 1942-43)

I have a confession to make: this was my first extended exploration of the Golden Age Wonder Woman. I’d read her first appearance and origin story in a couple of places. But I had never read a 1940s collection of stories before now.
Over the years, I’d heard a lot of other comic book fans describe these adventures so I was curious to experience them for myself. I will agree with those fans who claim that no one else has written the character of Wonder Woman quite like her creator, William Moulton-Marston. Marston’s approach is certainly distinct. It’s also idiosyncratic. For that reason, I would say that no one else has written the character “the same as” Marston, but I wouldn’t say that no one has written the character “as well as” him. Modern writers like George Perez, Greg Rucka and Gail Simone have surpassed Marston’s peculiar take on his character.


The first thing I’ll say is that Marston’s Wonder Woman is fun. She rushes from place to place with the reader caught up in her tailwind. She rarely sits still and that makes for often exhilarating adventures. This is especially apparent in the stories from Sensation Comics where the shorter format forces the action to happen quickly. The character is also fun. She laughs with her friends and at her enemies. She revels in her powers and enjoys surprising people with them.
However, despite the brevity of the stories, Marston still manages to get sidetracked. In one story, Wonder Woman has to play in the World Series as part of a plot to defeat Ares. In another, she becomes a bowling shark, faking ineptness before becoming a champion. The rationale behind these odd excursions is weak and forced (think of the pod race sequence in A Phantom Menace). The stories may be fast-paced but they aren’t always well constructed. This is especially true of the Ares epic from Wonder Woman #2 which opens this volume.

Marston’s personal predilections towards sado-masochism are also readily apparent. I’d always heard that was the case but never quite believed it. It’s not uncommon for heroes to be caught and bound by their enemies, whether it’s Captain Marvel or James Bond. But it’s almost impossible to miss with the prevalence of spankings and the repeated talk of submissive behavior.

Despite my exasperations and misgivings, I still enjoyed this volume. I read it quickly and had a lot of fun with it. It wasn’t held back by the repetitiousness that weighs upon Robert Kanigher’s Silver Age stories. There was a lot of variety in both setting and story. I also enjoyed the character. Wonder Woman’s compassion is admirable and her joy is infectious. I won’t suggest that everyone would enjoy these tales. They’re definitely a product of their time and of their unique creator. Yet with historical allowances and the right frame of mind, they can be amusing.

12134149292?profile=originalCaptain Britain
by Alan Davis and Jamie Delano

(collecting The Mighty World of Marvel #14-16, Captain Britain #1-14, 1984-86)

It’s hard to know where to start for, in many ways, this is the middle of an adventure. The first page is a recap in which Captain Britain recalls all of the events that occurred during the Alan Moore/Alan Davis run. The last page is both a wrap-up and a set-up, establishing the status quo that Captain Britain will bring with him to Chris Claremont and Alan Davis’ Excalibur. Yet in between, there is a phenomenal collection of short stories by Alan Davis and Jamie Delano.
These are short stories. They generally run from 8 to 12 pages. Yet it’s amazing how much Davis and Delano accomplish in such a short format. Davis and Delano manage to tell complete story- with a beginning, middle and end- in each chapter. That’s particularly impressive and refreshing considering that most current comics require 6 issues to finish a story. However, the transitions from one story to another are sometimes abrupt, especially in a collected volume like this.

There’s a lot more to admire about Captain Britain than story structure or pace. The stories themselves are highly imaginative and expansive. They’re also ongoing and evolving.


I really appreciated the way in which Delano and Davis expanded upon the world of Captain Britain. Many of the pieces were already in place, thanks to the previous run by Alan Moore. But Delano added new toys to the box- new villains, alternate Captain Britains and different government agencies. The biggest innovation is arguably the Warpies- children born with deviations that were the result of residual energy from a breakdown in the continuum of time and space. Delano added a new breed of mutants that alluded to the fall-out from Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

Another great strength of this series was its use of supporting characters. They would change from one appearance to the next. They wouldn’t become unrecognizable but there would be subtle shifts that told us their lives continued even when they were off-panel. A team of villains would have new members or a new leader. A hero would have a new costume or position. Two characters would become a romantic couple from one appearance to the next. These changes gave a sense of reality to the series. The other characters weren’t simply waiting around until the next time Captain Britain noticed them. They had interests and stories of their own.

Of course, all of those secondary considerations mean little if the title character doesn’t hold up his end. Thankfully, Captain Britain is a delight to read about. At times, he’s the straight-laced star as the weirdness of the world circles around him. There are some wonderfully funny moments when Brian Braddock feels put out by the odd guests who have invaded his ancestral home. At other times, he’s the bull-headed strongman. He’s not a dummy. He has a background in science and multiple degrees. But he sometimes forgets to think about a situation before rushing in with his fists. He’s a good guy with a strong moral center but those imperfections make him more interesting.
Altogether, that makes Captain Britain one of the most enjoyable trades I’ve read in some time.

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Comics for 28 March 2012

2000 AD #1768
2000 AD #1769

ACTION COMICS #1 5TH PTG
ALL STAR WESTERN #7
ALPHA GIRL #2 (MR)
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #25 (MR)
ANGEL & FAITH #8 REBEKAH ISAACS VAR CVR
ANGEL & FAITH #8 STEVE MORRIS CVR
ANITA BLAKE VH CIRCUS DAMNED SCOUNDREL PREM HC BOOK 03 (MR)
ANITA BLAKE VH TP BOOK 02 CIRCUS OF DAMNED INGENUE (MR)
AQUAMAN #7
AQUAMAN #7 VAR ED
ARCHIE #631
ASTONISHING X-MEN #48
ATOMIC ROBO REAL SCIENCE ADV #1
AVENGERS #24.1
AVENGERS VS X-MEN #0 (OF 12) AVX
AVENGERS VS X-MEN #0 (OF 12) CHEUNG WRAPAROUND VAR AVX
AVENGERS VS X-MEN #0 (OF 12) PHOENIX HANS VAR AVX
AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #5 WITH DIG CDE

BETTY & VERONICA FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #223
BATMAN #1 4TH PTG
BATMAN #4 3RD PTG
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #1 3RD PTG
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #6 2ND PTG
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #7
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #7 VAR ED
BLACK CHARITY HC (MR)
BLACKHAWKS #7
BLOODSTRIKE #26 CVR A BADILLA & SEELEY
BLOODSTRIKE #26 CVR B LIEFELD
BPRD HELL ON EARTH PICKENS COUNTY HORROR #1 (OF 2) CLOONAN C
BPRD HELL ON EARTH PICKENS COUNTY HORROR #1 (OF 2) MIGNOLA V
BULLETPROOF COFFIN DISINTERRED #3 (OF 6) (MR)

CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BUCKY #628
CAPTAIN AMERICA DEATH OF RED SKULL TP
CARBON GREY ORIGINS #2 (OF 2) CVR A NGUYEN (MR)
CARBON GREY ORIGINS #2 (OF 2) CVR B EVANS & LOH (MR)
CHARMED #20 (MR)
CHOKER #6 (OF 6) (MR)
COBRA ONGOING #11
COBRA ONGOING #11 10 COPY INCV
COVER GIRLS HC (MR)
CROSSED BADLANDS #2 (MR)
CROSSED BADLANDS #2 RED CROSSED CVR (MR)
CROSSED BADLANDS #2 RETAILER BONUS INCV CVR (MR)
CROSSED BADLANDS #2 TORTURE CVR (MR)
CROSSED BADLANDS #2 WRAP CVR (MR)

DAKEN DARK WOLVERINE #23
DAMAGED GOODS GN (MR)
DAREDEVIL #10
DARK SHADOWS TP VOL 01
DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER WAY STATION #4 (OF 5)
DARKNESS ACCURSED TP VOL 07
DEADPOOL MAX 2 #6 (MR)
DEADPOOL PREM HC VOL 10 EVIL DEADPOOL
DEADPOOL TP VOL 08 OPERATION ANNIHILATION
DEADPOOL TP VOL 08 OPERATION ANNIHILATION
DETECTIVE COMICS #1 6TH PTG
DMZ TP VOL 11 FREE STATES RISING (MR)
DOROTHY OF OZ PREQUEL #1 (OF 4)
DOROTHY OF OZ PREQUEL #1 (OF 4) 10 COPY INCV

ELEPHANTMEN #38 (MR)

FATALE #1 VAR CVR 4TH PTG (MR)
FF #16
FILM NOIR TASCHEN HC
FLASH #7
FLASH #7 VAR ED
FLASH GORDON ZEITGEIST #4
FLASH GORDON ZEITGEIST #4 10 COPY VIRGIN ROSS INCV
FLASH GORDON ZEITGEIST #4 15 COPY VIRGIN FRANCAVILLA INCV
FURY OF FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MEN #7
FUTURAMA COMICS #60

GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS #14 A CVR GARZA (MR)
GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS #14 B CVR QUALANO (MR)
GHOST RIDER #9
GI JOE 2 RETALIATION MOVIE PREQUEL #3
GI JOE 2 RETALIATION MOVIE PREQUEL #3 10 COPY INCV
GI JOE SEXY BARONESS RED T/S XL
GONE TO AMERIKAY HC (MR)
GREEN HORNET #23
GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #7
GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #7 VAR ED
GRIMM FAIRY TALES #70 A CVR YANG (MR)
GRIMM FAIRY TALES #70 B CVR GARZA (MR)

HAWKEN #3 (OF 6)
HAWKEN #3 (OF 6) 10 COPY INCV
HAWKEYE MUSEUM POSE STATUE
HELLRAISER #12 (MR)
HELLRAISER #12 10 COPY INCV CVR BRADSTREET (MR)
HORROR CINEMA TASCHEN HC
HOUSE OF ODD GN

I VAMPIRE #7
INFESTATION 2 GI JOE #2 (OF 2)
INVINCIBLE #89 VAR CVR 2ND PTG

JINX SC (RES)
JURASSIC STRIKE FORCE 5 #3 A CVR CACAU
JURASSIC STRIKE FORCE 5 #3 B CVR QUALANO
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #7
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA DARK THINGS TP
JUXTAPOZ #135 APR 2012

KING CONAN PHOENIX ON THE SWORD #3 (OF 4)

LADY MECHANIKA #0 CVR H 4TH PTG (PP #1009)
LAST ZOMBIE NEVERLAND #2 (OF 5)
LEGION OF MONSTERS TP
LEGION SECRET ORIGIN #6 (OF 6)
LIFE WITH ARCHIE #18

MAGIC THE GATHERING #3
MAGIC THE GATHERING #3 10 COPY INCV
MARVEL MINIMATES DEADPOOL CORPS SET
MARVEL PREVIEWS APRIL 2012 EXTRAS
MIGHTY THOR #12
MMW AVENGERS TP VOL 04
MOON KNIGHT #11
MORNING GLORIES #17 (MR)

NEW AVENGERS #23
NEW DEADWARDIANS #1 (OF 8) (MR)
NEW DEADWARDIANS #1 (OF 8) VAR ED (MR)

OFF HANDBOOK OF MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z TP VOL 04

PATRICIA BRIGGS ALPHA & OMEGA CRY WOLF VOL 01 #6
POKEMON BLACK & WHITE GN VOL 06
POWERS PREM HC VOL 05 ANARCHY (MR)
PREVIEWS #283 APRIL 2012
PUNISHER PUNISH FIRES NAVY PX T/S XL
PUNISHER PUNISH FIRES NAVY PX T/S XXL

RACHEL RISING #1 3RD PTG
RACHEL RISING #2 3RD PTG
RACHEL RISING TP VOL 01 SHADOW OF DEATH
ROGER LANGRIDGES SNARKED #6
ROHAN AT THE LOUVRE HC

SAVAGE HAWKMAN #7
SCALPED #57 (MR)
SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU TP
SECRET AVENGERS #24
SECRET AVENGERS RUN MISSION DONT GET SEEN SAVE WORLD
SECRET WARRIORS TP VOL 06 WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS
SHARKNIFE GN VOL 01 STAGE FIRST
SHARKNIFE GN VOL 02 SHARKNIFE ZZ
SPACEMAN #5 (OF 9) (MR)
SPIDER-MAN #24
STAR TREK ONGOING #7
STAR TREK ONGOING #7 10 COPY INCV
STAR TREK ONGOING #7 20 COPY INCV
STEPHEN KING JOE HILL ROAD RAGE #1 (OF 4) TATTOO INCV
SUPERMAN #7
SUPERMAN #7 VAR ED
SW ANAKIN STATIC LIGHTSABER UMBRELLA
SW DARTH VADER STATIC LIGHTSABER UMBRELLA
SW OBI-WAN STATIC LIGHTSABER UMBRELLA

TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #73 (MR)
TEEN TITANS #7
TEEN TITANS #7 VAR ED
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ONGOING #8
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ONGOING #8 10 COPY INCV
THUNDERBOLTS GREAT ESCAPE TP
TORPEDO HC VOL 05
TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ONGOING #3
TWELVE #11 (OF 12)

ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #8 WITH DIG CDE
UNCANNY X-FORCE #23
UNCHARTED #5 (OF 6)
UNDERTOW GN
UNWRITTEN #35.5 (MR)

VOLTRON #4
VOODOO #7

WALKING DEAD #95 (MR)
WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS #11 (MR)
WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS #11 10 COPY RENAUD RED INCV
WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS #11 20 COPY GARZA RISQUE INCV
WARRIORS OF MARS #2 (MR)
WARRIORS OF MARS #2 10 COPY JUSKO B&W INCV (MR)
WARRIORS OF MARS #2 15 COPY JUSKO NEGATIVE INCV (MR)
WARRIORS OF MARS #2 25 COPY JUSKO VIRGIN INCV (MR)
WOLVERINE PUNISHER GHOST RIDER OFF INDEX MU #8 (OF 8)

X-MEN LEGACY #264

Arrivals at your LCS may vary. Copied from the list posted at pittsburghcomics.com.

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12134027688?profile=originalKanjar Ro!  The Demons Three!  Despero!  Starro the Conqueror!  These were only some of the awesome threats to mankind that the Justice League of America vanquished during its illustrious Silver-Age career.  Terrible forces of evil so powerful that it required the mighty champions to band together to defeat them.

 

But, let’s face it.  Even fabled Silver-Age JLA scribe Gardner Fox had his off months.  After all, it’s difficult to come up with a world-shattering menace sufficient to challenge a gaggle of super-heroes eight times a year, every year, for eight years.  So, every once in a while, one of Fox’s villains might miss the mark, be not quite up to the fearsome standard of a Felix Faust or a Doctor Destiny.  For these wanna-bes, the Justice League could have taken the day off and let the Jimmy Olsen Fan Club handle it.

 

After pouring over my run of JLA stories from 1960 to 1968, I found seven bad guys for whom, if there were Golden Turkey Awards for JLA villains, they’d each have one decorating their prison cells.  I’ve listed them in descending order of competence, starting with the “sort of lame” and going all the way down to “wouldn’t give the Inferior Five a hard time.”

 

 

 

 7.  The Lord of Time   (JLA # 10 [Mar., 1962], et al.)

 

 

12134177292?profile=originalFor those of you with fond memories of the first JLA continued story, you might be surprised to find that the Lord of Time made the list.  After all, he’s a “name” Justice League villain.  But, like Zsa Zsa Gabor, it’s more of a case of being famous for being famous---or in the Time Lord’s case, being infamous.

 

He started out impressively enough, I’ll give him that.  As we learn in his debut, “The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust”, he’s a twentieth-century scientist who’s unlocked the key to travelling through time.  Instead of doing what most of us would do if we could time-travel---jump ahead a week or so, jot down all the winning horses at Hialeah, then make a fortune at the track---the scientist decides to conquer the world.

 

Such ambition, and the power to back it up, should have put the Lord of Time into the same class as the Time Trapper, or Kang the Conqueror.  Instead, when we meet him, he’s already on the run from the Justice League.

 

The L. of T.’s plan for world domination, you see, was to bring hordes of rampaging armies from both the past and the future, through “time-gates” situated on opposite sides of the world.  Then he could just sit back and let them do the dirty work.  Unfortunately, the JLA was on to his scheme from the get-go, and when the conquering hordes come bursting through the gates, the World’s Greatest Heroes are standing right there to shove them back in.

 

The villain hasn’t got time to worry about that, though.  The Batman and the Flash have already tracked down his secret laboratory and have dropped by to pay him an unannounced visit.  The Time Lord throws a couple of death traps their way, but Our Heroes barely have to breathe hard avoiding them.

 

The only reason the L. of T. wasn’t cuffed and stuffed by the end of the page was due to the inadvertent interference by another villain, Felix Faust, who had his own designs on the Justice League.  Faust’s magical machinations dematerialise the Flash and Batman, along with the rest of the Leaguers, before they can get their hands on the Time Lord.

 

12134177889?profile=originalThe rest of the issue is devoted to Faust’s plot, in which he is ably sponsored by the Demons Three---Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast---who are tired of having been stuck in mystical prisons for the last billion years.  For that, the Justice League has been placed in Faust’s thrall, and frankly, that’s a bigger problem for them right now, than the Lord of Time.

 

By page twenty-six, though, the JLA has thwarted Faust---thanks mainly to Aquaman mentally ordering a school of flying fish to smack him down.  (Hmmmm . . . maybe Felix Faust should be on this list, too.)  And the issue concludes with the League getting ready to go back after the Time Lord. 

 

What Our Heroes don’t know is that Abnegazar and Rath and Ghast are waiting in the wings, and they’re going to have to deal with the three evil fiends next issue.  That’s not good news for the Lord of Time, though.

 

 

JLA # 11 (May, 1962), “One Hour to Doomsday”, kicks off with the JLA descending on the Time Lord’s citadel, which was easy enough to do since the villain hadn’t bothered to find a new hide-out while the good guys were busy with Felix Faust.  Unfortunately, the Leaguers discover that their foe is no longer at home.  A gloating image of the L. of T. tells them that he is already travelling to the far future, where he’ll recruit a new army and collect a grunch of super-scientific weapons.  Then, the plan is, he’ll come back to the present day and finish conquering the world.  And the Justice League will be helpless to stop him. Heh heh heh.

 

While I’m thinking about it, this illustrates a fundamental problem with comic-book villains who can travel through time.  They never seem to use their time-spanning powers to their best advantage.   If the Lord of Time wanted to conquer the world, no muss, no fuss, why come back to 1962, where a Justice League is waiting to fight him?  Why not take his futuristic armies and weapons back to 1952---eight years before there was a Justice League at all?  Or 1930, or 1900?  Any era before there would be any super-heroes around to give him trouble.

 

12134180852?profile=originalThe big downcheck for the Time Lord, though, is leaving that image behind to brag to the Justice League.  It inadvertently informs the heroes of precisely the year to which the villain has fled, from a detail caught by Superman's power of total recall.  One manufactured time-bubble later, the JLA is speeding through the time barrier after their quarry.  They nail him in the year A.D. 3786.  He’s caught completely flatfooted, and Wonder Woman has him snared in her golden lariat by the top of page 6.

 

12134182463?profile=originalSo much for the big, bad Lord of Time.

 

No back-up plan, no clever escape, nothing.  The rest of the issue depicts the JLA’s fight against the Demons Three, and the L. of T. spends the whole time locked in the time bubble.  Once Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast are disposed of, the Leaguers return to 1962 and take the Time Lord to the hoosegow.

 

The problem was, of course, a scripting one.  The big baddies in this two-parter were Felix Faust and the Demons Three.  The Lord of Time was sandwiched between their threats and he had to be gotten out of the way so the main villains could take centre stage.  Even so, it leaves the Time Lord looking pretty impotent.  Particularly because, unlike the rest of the lame-o’s on this list, his ability to bring things back and forth across time was formidable enough to legitimately challenge the Justice League.  And he should have; instead, the JLA takes him out almost as an after-thought.

 

Superman transported a whole bubble-full of JLA members to the future, yet only two of them needed to get out of the thing to nab him.

 

On this entire list of losers, the Lord of Time is the only one to make a second appearance in the JLA title during the Silver Age.  That came four years later, in issue # 50 (Dec., 1966).  He didn’t do any better that time.  Only half the League bothered to show up to deal with him, and they took him out in one panel!

 

 

 

6.  Headmaster Mind  (JLA # 28 [Jun., 1964])

 

 

12134183481?profile=originalThe only other costumed villain to make the list (if you can call a mortarboard and graduation robe a costume), Headmaster Mind had a more modest goal than many of the JLA’s foes.  He only wanted to steal money and valuables.  He wasn’t looking to rule the world or destroy the Justice League.  In fact, he needed the heroes alive for his scheme to pay off.  But he did need them out of the way, too, so they couldn’t stop him.  He found a way to accomplish both.

 

Mind was yet another rogue scientist.  (Why is it that scientists who go bad are the only ones characterised as “rogue”?  You never hear of “rogue architects” or “rogue insurance salesmen”.)  He had made a discovery---when the members of the Justice League utilised their super-powers, their hearts, which were especially adapted to the physical strain of doing so, generated a unique rhythmic force which Mind termed cardial vibrations.

 

12134184253?profile=originalSecretly observing the super-heroes in action, Mind absorbs this cardial energy into specially designed batteries.  Then he was uses the stored force to create disasters whenever the JLAers exert their super-powers.  Whatever actions the heroes take, Headmaster Mind ensures they just make things worse.  The public perception is that the heroes’ powers were out of control.

 

In response, the United Nations, in an emergency session, issues an injunction prohibiting the members of the Justice League from using their super-powers.

 

This is what Headmaster Mind has been waiting for.  Putting together a small gang of super-villains---the Top and the Tattooed Man and the Matter Master---he launches a campaign of robberies and hijackings.  And as we all know, comic-book police are helpless to do anything about that.

 

It all works quite well.  Mind has taken pains to avoid any connexion with the Justice League’s troubles.  He sends his three henchmen out to commit the crimes, while he sits back, safely hidden in his home in Edgewater City---and JLAers, resigned to spending the rest of their days in their civilian identities, read the papers and gnash their teeth in frustration.

 

Sounds like a pretty good plan, right?  So, why’s he on the list? 

 

Oh, just one little thing . . . .

 

12134185063?profile=original 

 

He forgot that there were two members of the Justice League who did not possess super-powers---the Batman and the Green Arrow.  Well, he didn’t actually forget; rather, he dismissed them as useless.  

 

Trust the Masked Manhunter to come up with a plan.  The next time the Top and the Matter Master and the Tattooed Man go on a crime foray, the other Justice Leaguers will keep them busy, catch them if they can, without using their super-powers.  Meanwhile, he and Green Arrow will do the necessary detective work to track down the mysterious mastermind back of the whole thing.

 

Their sleuthing takes them right to a certain address in Edgewater City, and one blunt-tipped arrow and judo throw later, “The Case of the Forbidden Super-Powers” is closed.

 

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I’m sorry, but you just aren’t much of a threat to the Justice League if its two weakest heroes can take you out before you even lift a finger.  At least the Top and the Matter Master and the Tattooed Man made a fight of it.

 

 

 

5.  Pete Ricketts  (JLA # 8 [Dec., 1961-Jan., 1962])

 

 

12134186674?profile=originalThey may have been light in the strategic-planning department, but at least the Lord of Time and Headmaster Mind had enough brains to invent their own weapons.  Penny-ante crook Pete Ricketts couldn’t have invented a hat rack.  The gizmo which gave him the notion of taking on the Justice League of America dropped out of the sky---literally.

 

At the start of “For Sale---the Justice League”, Pete’s minding his own business---strong-arm robbery---when a couple of police officers spot him and chase him into a alley.  Running isn’t Pete’s strong suit and he trips, just in time to see what looks like a peculiar flashlight fall from above and clatter to the pavement.  The “flashlight” emits an orange beam which happens to bathe the approaching cops.

 

Instinctively, Ricketts yells for them to stop---and to his amazement, they do.  In fact, they freeze in mid-stance.

 

Cunningly, Pete figures out the weird device has something to do with it.  He picks it up, keeping the orange light trained on the officers, and tells them to scram.  The lawmen turn tail and run off.

 

Convinced he’s on to something, the crook walks a few blocks down and flashes the orange light on a passer-by.  Pete orders his victim to turn over his wallet and his wristwatch.  The man does so without hesitation.

 

 

The source of Pete Ricketts’ good fortune was scientist Caleb West, whose laboratory occupied a upper storey of one of the buildings which flanked the alley into which Pete had run.  West had developed a device which he called the cyberniray.  West intended the cyberniray to be an educational aid, by increasing a subject’s ability to learn and remember information.

 

12134186473?profile=originalWhile West was making the final adjustments to his invention, an accident hurled it out the window, to land at Pete Ricketts’ feet.  Dazed in the accident, West was able to crawl to the window and peer down, just in time to see Ricketts use the cyberniray on the police officers.  He shouted at the fleeing Ricketts to stop, but, yeah, like there was any chance of that.

 

The next day, West reads a newspaper account of Pete’s escape from the policemen by shining a queer orange light on them, and he realises that the cyberniray must somehow compel a person to do whatever he is told.  Realising the danger he has inadvertently created, West puts it all down in a letter to the Justice League of America and mails it to its Washington, D.C. post office box.

 

All Pete Ricketts knows is that it’s his lucky day.

 

 

After Pete pulls a few more hold-ups with the gadget, it finally dawns on him that there must be a way to use the cyberniray to pay off with big bucks, but damned if he can figure out how.

 

Meanwhile, over in the world of organised crime, the Mob is having troubles of its own.  The Justice League is putting their rackets out of business and their illicit profits are drying up.  The Syndicate’s ten top chieftains decide to put up a hundred thousand dollars apiece---a cool million---and offer it to anyone who can come up with a way to put the JLA on ice.

 

A few days later, when Ricketts gets word of this through the underworld grapevine, he figures that his orange flashlight is just the ticket to get that million dollars. 

 

12134187073?profile=originalNow, anyone who’s ever seen a season of The Sopranos knows what a bad idea it is to get involved with the Mob.  You or I, if we were of a less honest bent, could undoubtedly think of a dozen different---and safer---ways to make a million dollars with the cyberniray.  But like so many mouth-breathers, Pete thinks he’s smarter than he really is.

 

Ricketts waylays the Green Lantern at a charity event, then forces him to activate his JLA emergency signal, luring the rest of the League into falling under the power of the cyberniray.  Well, all of them except for Superman and Batman, whom Gardner Fox wrote out of this story by having them away on a mission in “Dimension X”.

 

Ricketts turns the six entranced super-heroes over to the Syndicate chiefs and collects his million-dollar payoff.  Now he does the smart thing, right?  He changes his identity and moves to a poor, obscure foreign country and lives like a king on his million.  Oh, no, not our boy Pete.

 

Instead, he decides to auction off the JLA members to the gangbosses for even more money.  When the winners start bragging over which one of them made the best deal, they decide to settle it in a contest.  To settle the issue, the enthralled heroes are set against each other in competition. Ricketts orders the Flash and the Green Lantern to both attempt to steal the Napoleonic Tiara, to see which one brings it in. Similarly, Aquaman and the Green Arrow are dispatched to rob the gambling ship, Deuces Wild; and J’onn J’onzz and Wonder Woman are sent after a million-dollar cache of radium.       

 

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After a quick scene showing honorary JLA member Snapper Carr at the secret sanctuary, reading Caleb West’s letter, the action shifts to the three JLA pairs undertaking their larcenous missions.  In a trio of vignettes, we see each of the criminally compelled Justice League duos do battle with each other over their intended booty.  All three contests result in a draw.  Not that it matters, because each time, the prize intended for stealing is mysteriously taken out of their hands.

 

The Justice Leaguers return to the Syndicate bosses to report their failures. Clearly, they’re better crook-catchers than crooks.  Disgusted, the gangsters fall back on “Plan B”---killing the super-heroes in pre-arranged death traps. Still under Ricketts’ control, the Leaguers compliantly submit to the murder devices, a separate trap for each member. Helplessly, they await the end as the traps are activated.



12134189688?profile=originalSeconds away from death, each JLAer suddenly finds himself inexplicably free of Ricketts’ control. Able to think for themselves again, the Justice League members resort to their legendary teamwork. One hero frees another from his doom-trap, who then goes on to free the next, until all are safe. It doesn’t take much longer for the super-heroes to corral the gang-chiefs.



Desperately, Ricketts digs into his pocket for the cyberniray device---and finds that he no longer has it! And that’s when the answer to the League’s rescue becomes known. Snapper Carr!



It was the Snapster who secretly absconded with the loot from each of the three robberies attempted by the JLA teams. By using the captured anti-gravity discs of Doctor Destiny, their foe from JLA # 5, “When Gravity Went Wild”, Snapper had been able to zoom to each location and prevent the heroes from committing their crimes by taking the valuables first.



12134190874?profile=originalAnd how did Snapper know where each of the crimes was taking place? From emergency signals transmitted by the JLAers themselves! As a precaution, Ricketts had ordered the Leaguers not to use their own signalers, but he had neglected to command them not to activate each other’s.

 

 

Still, the credit for the game-save goes to Snapper.  Just how boneheaded does a crook have to be to have his master plot foiled by a finger-popping, English-mangling teenager?  

 

Speaking of planning, it would have been obvious to anyone with more than a grammar-school education that Pete’s scheme was ‘way overcomplicated.  Why bother to sell off the enslaved JLA for a simple million dollars when he could order them to do whatever he wished?  J’onn J’onzz or Green Lantern alone could have put a small fortune in Ricketts’ pocket.  Pete was a walking testimonial for that old cautionary adage---K.I.S.S. 

 

Keep It Simple, Stupid!”  The accent, of course, on stupid.

 

 

 

In conceiving menaces to threaten the JLA, Gardner Fox created a whole sub-set of villains who were nothing more than cheap hoodlums who lucked into a powerful gimmick.  And, believe it or not, Pete Ricketts was the least incompetent of the lot.

 

We’ll take a look at who was worse next time out, when the countdown continues.                                     

Read more…

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

The comic-book series American Vampire started small, with just one bloodsucker in the Old West. But now, as is evidenced by the recently released third hardback collection, it has expanded to include a burgeoning cast, a vast back story and genuine historical sweep.

 

American Vampire is the brainchild of Scott Snyder, a writer whose credits include Batman and Swamp Thing. In a phone interview, he described the series premise, of a world where vampires have always existed but vary in powers, weaknesses, intelligence and appearance.

 

12134173256?profile=original“Part of the fun of the series for us is really developing new species, both ancient ones and brand new ones, as bloodlines evolve,” he said, “that really sort of take each other by surprise and are game-changers in and of themselves.”

 

One such game-changer launches the series. American Vampire begins in the Old West, where a new breed develops in the form of outlaw Skinner Sweet. Sweet is faster and stronger than other vampires, most of whom are of the Carpathian bloodline (the familiar Dracula type). In the 1920s he infects an actress named Pearl Jones, who – unlike the deviant and destructive Sweet – tries to settle down with her human husband Henry and live a decent life. These two very different American vampires are the twin pillars of the first two volumes of the series.

 

“The two of them really, to me, represent different sides of what I consider important facets of the American character,” Snyder said. “Skinner has this sort of rebellious attitude – never confined, never civilized, a love of mayhem … the wild frontier, all of those things that I think are really part of a certain kind of iconography of the American imagination. Pearl, on the other hand, is that pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps, be a good person – that sort of determined, tough, modern girl, which is also very iconic.”

 

12134173484?profile=originalThe first two volumes also introduce the mysterious Vassals of the Morning Star, an organization that is dedicated to wiping out all vampires. And we’ve followed the Books and McCogans, two Western families that have been forever scarred by encounters with Skinner Sweet.

 

Most of these stories come together in a satisfying one-two punch in America Vampire Vol. 3 ($24.99), which takes place during World War II. It reprints American Vampire #12-16, where Skinner and Henry find themselves on a Pacific Island dealing with a new kind of vampire bred by the Japanese. It also reprints the miniseries American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest, where Vassals agents Felicia Book and Cash McCogan search for a rumored vampirism cure in Europe – and find not only vampire Nazis, but older breeds which suggest a much bigger picture.

 

Speaking of Snyder, he is not a vampire, but his enthusiasm is just as infectious. Despite two stories coming to a close in Volume Three, he promises plenty more American Vampire to come.

 

12134174299?profile=originalFor example, he plans “a lot” of stories about Felicia Book, the reluctant Vassals agent whose father was infected when she was conceived. “I love characters that are flawed and conflicted and sort of exceptionally human in that way,” he said. “And for me she’s someone who is sort of terrorized by this notion that she’s been born with this vampire blood running through her veins. And it’s not only that, but it’s the blood of the man who killed her father, and whom her mother hates. So she has this conflict raging inside her forever, where she despises the part of herself that’s vampiric, and yet, at the same time, it’s part of who she is.”

 

He says a two-parter coming up will focus on Calvin Poole, the African-American vampire introduced in “Survival,” an introspective former science teacher who is now what he hates most. 

He plans to explore the pull Pearl feels toward Skinner “by the dark undertone of blood,” despite her love for her husband, who is growing old without her. There’s also Gus McCogan, a child who was infected in utero. And there are the strange, ancient vampires seen in Survival, which looked suspiciously like other kinds of monsters.

 

12134174863?profile=originalThat latter is “definitely something we’re going to play with,” he laughed. “Vampires are a species [whose] root classification is Homo Abominus. There’s no ‘Vampire’ in there. It doesn’t say ‘Vampirus.’ … We wanted to leave room also for a bit of mystery for readers.”

 

It’s a big, bad world out there. And with American Vampire Volume Three, the American Century is just beginning.

 

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.


Photos

1. American Vampire Volume Three reprints two separate stories featuring different factions of the sprawling cast. Courtesy DC Entertainment Inc.

2. American Vampire #25 comes out this month, and features vampire hunter Travis Kidd. Courtesy DC Entertainment Inc. 

3. American Vampire #26 comes out in April, and features African-American vampire Calvin Poole. DC Entertainment Inc.

4. American Vampire #27 comes out in May, and features the second half of story starring African-American vampire Calvin Poole. DC Entertainment Inc.


Full Scott Snyder interview

Feb. 24, 2012


Captain Comics: Why break out Survival of the Fittest into a miniseries?Why not just run it as a story in the American Vampire title?

 

Scott Snyder: We thought it would be a lot of fun to be able to do something that happened simultaneously with the main series, so when I came up with the idea and I submitted it to my editor, Mark [Doyle], and to [artist] Rafael [Albuquerque], then we all discussed it, we thought it would be fun to be able to do something that showed two sides of the same story. So in “Ghost War” [American Vampire #13-16] you’re really dealing with the characters you’ve been following from issue one, with Skinner and Pearl and Henry, with these sort of big, epic consequences in the Pacific theater during World War II. Then in Survival of the Fittest we wanted to do something that really showed the sort of underbelly, the kind of secret missions, sort of black ops, you know, a story that also dealt with World War II, and happened almost the same time but would be in Europe, as opposed to the Pacific theater. So we thought it would be really fun for an era that had such -- you know, appropriate, I guess -- for an era that had such global consequences, in terms of what was happening at the time, to be able to expand the scope of our world and our story and do something that wasn’t just one linear narrative.

 

CC: Sounds great, and “fun” alone would have been sufficient answer.

 

SS: [Laughs] yeah, and it will be fun!

 

CC: Felicia Book is an exceptionally well-developed character …

 

SS: She’s one of my favorites. I’m very excited – she’s someone we have a lot of stories for. So I’m really excited for her.

 

CC: How would you describe her? How do you see her in your head?

 

SS: What’s fun about writing her for me, is she’s so conflicted. I really gravitate towards characters – obviously my favorite DC character in the superhero world is Batman. I love characters that are flawed and conflicted and sort of exceptionally human in that way. And for me she’s someone who is sort of terrorized by this notion that she’s been born with this vampire blood running through her veins. And it’s not only that, but it’s the blood of the man who killed her father, and whom her mother hates. So she’s sorta has this conflict raging inside her forever, where she despises the part of herself that’s vampiric, and yet at the same time it’s part of who she is. And that was the fun of the arc in Survival of the Fittest, you take two characters, her and Cash, who both are plagued by the vampire virus in a way that is essentially – they see it as a virus – they’re both plagued by it because Cashel has a son, who's infected, a baby boy, who was infected by Skinner Sweet, so he’s a little baby vampire, and [Cash] is looking for a cure. And [Felicia] is looking for a cure for herself. And so she’s a character who I adore and I love writing, because I think it makes her all the more heroic to have these kinds of inner demons and conflicts to overcome, like all of us do.

 

CC: With the ending of Survival, with the "cure" angle, you seem to be bringing the story of the McCogans and Books to a close.  But I assume we’re going to see more stories with some of these characters?

 

SS: With her? Oh, absolutely. I can’t say exactly what yet, but they’re already in the works. She’s going to play a very big part in the mythology of American vampires, as is Cashel’s son.

 

CC: Moving right along, in "Ghost War" the vampires of Taipan seem able to hurt Skinner worse than other breeds of vampire. I’m not sure what was going on there. Did they just cut him worse, or was he unable to heal, or what?

 

SS: We wanted to create a world where different species of vampire are vulnerable to each other in different ways. Skinner is one of the most powerful vampires on earth. He’s faster and stronger, and he injects this venom from his fangs that paralyzes you. He’s not particularly vulnerable unless it’s a moonless night, when there’s sort of such little solar light on the planet, that he’s sort of much more tender, his skin and everything, and he’s much more capable of being hurt. But at the same time, we wanted to say, ‘Look, here’s a type of vampire he’s never encountered’ and their claws just ripped through him. We don’t know why – is it because they’re made of a certain type of material, like a certain kind of bone? Is it just that he has sensitivity to them because they have some sort of gold dust inside of them? We don’t know at that point. I mean, we know internally [laughs], but we wanted to see that vampires are surprised by each other. And here you might be very, very good at tearing down all the classic European vampires, the Carpathian species, the Dracula type. But part of the fun of the series for us is really developing new species, both ancient ones and brand new ones, as bloodlines evolve, that really sort of take each other by surprise and are game changers in and of themselves.

 

CC: I’ve really enjoyed how you’ve shown how the Carpathian vampires – who are used to being cock of the walk and masters of all they survey – are surprised by American vampires.

 

SS: Their whole history, too – that whole story of why they became the dominant species is something we’ve hinted at, as part of one of the mysteries of the series, is something we’re going to explore in these upcoming issues, very prominently, in the upcoming arcs. The idea of how and why they’ve gotten all these that came before them on the run.

 

CC: Speaking of different vampire species, the older breeds of vampires that were brought back to unlife in Survival of the Fittest – the giant, the werewolf-looking thing, the bat-looking thing – that kinda suggests that some of our other myths and legends that we don’t normally associate with vampires were in fact inspired by vampires. Like the Cyclops, werewolves, etc. Is that something you’re going to explore?

 

SS: It’s definitely something we’re going to play with. In fact, in issue 26 and issue 27, we’re going to do a story with Calvin, the African-American soldier who becomes an American vampire at the end of "Ghost War," and in that two-parter we’re going to explore that idea quite a bit. I don’t want to give away what the connection is, but it’s something we’ve had built into the outline and the mythology from the very start.

 

CC: My brain went into overdrive seeing that giant, thinking of all the previous myths and legends involving giants that could easily have been vampires.

 

SS: Right. We’re excited about that. The idea is that the vampires are a species [whose] root classification is Homo Abominus. There’s no ‘Vampire’ in there. It doesn’t say ‘Vampirus.’ So, as seen in the root, then it kinda splits into Homo Abominus Americana this, and so on. We wanted to leave room also for a bit of mystery for readers, to see that it doesn’t just say vampire. It says a bloodline has bigger implications. It is something that dates back in a way that you know goes to ancient times in ways that would be surprising for people to discover that it’s not necessarily limited to what we consider vampires nowadays to be.

 

CC: Speaking of Calvin, he’s the first African-American vampire. Was his race a deliberate choice, or is that just a natural consequence of our melting pot?

 

SS: Well, it was more a consequence of the story, but then I started thinking about it, and to be honest, there were a lot of issues and a lot of stories we wanted to tell that had to do with civil rights. And he seemed like a great figure based on the fact that I love writing him as a character to give the most breathing room. We also intended on bringing him back. We brought him back pretty fact, actually, in issue 27, because I really loved writing him and I also loved his point of view. He’s someone whose history we don’t know. But he’s very dedicated to the cause essentially of wiping out vampires. He’s also extremely sensitive. He’s very, he’s the kind of guy who, he’s sort of a … he’s introspective, he’s not sort of this big, brawling, tough type of vampire killer. And he used to be science teacher, a high school science teacher in a black neighborhood before whatever terrible thing happened to him to turn him into who he is in terms of being a member of the Vassals and having this dedicated mission, happened to him.

 

CC: Now he’s got a big conflict, given that you like writing conflicted characters, in that he’s a vampire killer and a vampire.

 

SS: Yeah! Believe me, all of those things … there’s stuff coming up that’s gonna be a lot of fun with that in terms of people of conflicted nature that I think Pearl has been representative of since the beginning, where she’s someone who wants to be a good person, and is a good person, yet feels this dark undertone of blood. One of the things we wanted to introduce is that different species have bloodlines that change people in different ways once you’re infected with them. Some of them turn you into a mindless monster like on Taipan, other ones turn you into a version of yourself where you don’t have much pull toward the dark. Other ones, like the Carpathian line, do pull you very close to the dark. So we really wanted it to have the bloodline itself create the conflict. And that conflict in Pearl I think from the very beginning, about being a good person and trying to live a good life, and yet feeling these sort of desires that the American bloodline sort of brings up. I find that endlessly interesting and also … she’s probably my favorite character in the whole series.  

 

CC: Do you see American Vampire as Pearl’s book? In the beginning I assumed it would be the story of Skinner Sweet, but she seems to have taken over and become the star. Is that how you see it?

 

SS: It’s hard to say! I think they’re twins in that way. I think they’re definitely very tied together in my mind, more than any other two characters in the series, except for maybe one other, who I don’t want to name. … He’s gonna be another pillar in the series in the future. But the two of them really to me also represent, in the very beginning they represent different sides of what I consider important facets of the American character even though they were really individuals and flesh-and-blood people to me. They sort of also were hallmarks of different things. Like Skinner has this sort of rebellious attitude, never confined, never civilized, love of mayhem, that sort of sense of rebirth through destruction and violence, and the wild frontier, all of those things that I think are really part of a certain kind of iconography of the American imagination. Pearl, on the other hand, is to me that tend to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, be a good person, that sort of determined, tough, modern girl which is also very iconic. They represent two different things to me. They are also very drawn towards each other, both because of the link they have through the blood, but also because as much as they hate each other, I think they also kind of love each other. And she’s always pulled between him and Henry. I think in some ways things are going to be really rotten there in stories coming up.

 

CC: With "Ghost War," Henry has aged maybe 15-20 years beyond Pearl. Obviously, this disparity will only grow. Is that a plot element, or we should just accept that their love can overcome it?

 

SS: No, it’s a big plot element. In fact, I just handed in issue 29 – issues 28, 29, 30 and 31, not to get too far ahead – those are stories that feature these characters too, and it’s a major element. Because one of the things I love about the two of them is that they’ve made a pact that maybe she will turn him into a vampire, but they’ll never do it out of fear. They’ll never do it out of fear that suddenly that they’re going to lose one another. They’ll make a decision together that they want to have this second life. But that also puts them in a lot of danger, because if something terrible happens to Henry before they do that, then Pearl will be left alone. Those are big story elements coming up, and we wanted to treat that pact they made very respectfully, because I find that, to me, one of the most heroic and interesting things in the series between characters. I love the idea that he’s growing old and when we get to the ‘50s you’ll see people think that he’s her father, and that she’s taking care for her father, and it becomes more of an element that she’s moving through time unchanged, and he isn’t.

 

CC: Do you have an ending in mind for American Vampire, or will it keep going indefinitely?

 

Pamela Mullins (DC Public Relations): Never! It’s like vampires, never-ending!

 

SS: I do have a really big ending in mind actually that’s been written in from the very beginning when I pitched it to Vertigo, and Rafael knows it, and Mark and even [Survival of the Fittest artist] Sean [Murphy]. Who I love, by the way, and I want to say nice things about. … I want to also say how grateful I am that I’ve gotten to work with both of them artistically, they’re just terrific and Dave McKean on colors, and Dave Stewart. I have such a great team. But that ending, yeah, it’s known to all of us and it’s something that’s lets me know why certain things happen now, not just in plot but in character stuff I’m building towards. It’s a big finale. The funny thing is as we’re going forward though we keep finding these stories we want to tell on the way there. It’s kind of like a road trip from one side of the country to the other, then you keep discovering strange attractions along the side of the road you want to explore.

 

CC: When will we find out why the Vassals of the Morning Star are named that?

 

SS: Oh, well the Vassals of the Morning Star are a major part of the series. All of the miniseries we do will be from their files. We wanted to create a place with them where you would learn the history, the deepest stuff about the mythology of our series, the history of vampires, the sort of evolution of vampires, that’s in their files. So in their stories that’s where you’ll learn those things. And you’ll also learn about them and where they came from. So you could look for it in the miniseries as we do more. And also you’ll see more of it, it creeps out, little by little, but they have their own history that I think will be a lot of fun once we get to some of the milestone books, to give some of the big shocks and reveals about where they come from, who founded them, and why they were founded and how they’ve changed over the years. Because you’re also going to come and clash with a lot of things in the twentieth century as we move into the second half of that century and the American government and the idea that America is very emboldened at that time in the postwar world. And, even though they’re trying to adapt and set up American bureaus, they are sort of a very Old World, old European institution. And they find themselves very at odds with this young and brash government.

CC: I always knew “Morning Star” could refer to Lucifer, but I looked it up and found references to Jesus, Mary, ancient Babylonian kings, even phosphorus.

 

SS: I don’t want to give anything away, but they’re founded in a certain way around certain ideals, but those ideals I think will be surprising to people when they see the history of the series, and to really bring it back to the idea of original evil and ancient evil. What is evil, when you’re talking about science, when you’re talking about evolution?

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