36108 total comments. These archives are not updated regularly, so there may eventually be a gap between the first 500 comments shown on the Recent Comments page and the comments these pages. All Comments #1 StevenMarch 10, 2017 8:45 AM Avengers #259-260 The "no killing" rule does not apply to robots or aliens. FF3March 10, 2017 8:21 AM Sub-Mariner #5-6 Diane Arliss's appearance and name might have been inspired by Diane Arbus, a famous art photographer of the 1960s. Omar KarinduMarch 10, 2017 8:15 AM Nova #12 Perhaps there's a very, very slight bit of interest in the way the story uses some standard Marvel villain groups as suspects rather than just sticking to a standard, self-contained "locked room" mystery. But this isn't even as good as a standard, mediocre issue of Nova. Flying Tiger ComicsMarch 10, 2017 7:06 AM Uncanny X-Men #30 Merlin / Warlock / Baba OJ / whoever is a helluva lot funnier when you imagine everything he says in the voice of Orpheus from Venture Bros. :) Flying Tiger ComicsMarch 10, 2017 6:47 AM Amazing Spider-Man #44-45 How I loathe retcons like Untold Tales. It just didn't need any of the regressive stuff like that, the original runs were good as they were. Flying Tiger ComicsMarch 10, 2017 6:21 AM Uncanny X-Men #27 I've always wondered what Kirby himself intended for the puppet master character. And Alicia originally if you look at the first art of her doesn't seem blind but merely blank eyed- like a robot? Was the puppet master meant to be an alien, who had created a beautiful android? Flying Tiger ComicsMarch 10, 2017 6:13 AM Amazing Spider-Man #42-43 The cleverest thing about MJ was the buildup to the reveal, where she is LITERALLY the girl next door, who we never see, and then when we see her she is the least like the figurative girl next door she can be. Omar KarinduMarch 10, 2017 5:53 AM Avengers #259-260 There's long been an implied "wartime exception" for that, which is codified and stated explicitly towards the end of Kurt Busiek's run in the late 90s. The Avengers have blown up a lot of spaceships over the years. Urban CommandoMarch 10, 2017 5:33 AM Avengers #259-260 Interesting take on the Avengers "no killing" stance as the Wasp clearly blasts an alien ship (pictured above in issue# 260) into pieces killing the entire crew. It's not mentioned or referenced again. Flying Tiger ComicsMarch 10, 2017 5:21 AM Thor #136-139 One last thing re Orikal-Dalek - the name is a partial anagram of Dalek (and yes of course a phonetic play on Oracle) but more importantly, the-way-it-speaks is the usual way the Dalek voices are transcribed in comics and some books. Another strange little side note from the Marvel Age! Flying Tiger ComicsMarch 10, 2017 5:11 AM Thor #136-139 Agree with the other commenters, Orikal has a Dalek vibe, no question. The eye stalk of course but also the doobries under the eye stalk on either side are kind of like the flashing lights on the top of the dalek's dome. Flying Tiger ComicsMarch 10, 2017 5:04 AM Thor #134-135 Having just re-read The Island of Doctor Moreau, of course one sees the influence. But this is also part of the grand Marvel series of hidden cities / lost worlds / enclaves of weird but peaceful people. It was a powerful idea then, and although like everything else at Marvel was eventually worn down to a nub and distorted beyond all tolerance it's glorious to go back and see it as it raced forward month by month. Worldbuilding like never before or since in comics! GreggMMarch 9, 2017 11:07 PM Amazing Spider-Man #127-128 If memory serves correctly, when it came time to print letters concerning the second Green Goblin story from Spidey 136-137, one letter writer complained about the Green Goblin mantle being taken up by another, even if it was Harry. In their response, Marvel explicitly stated there would not be another Green Goblin going forward. They really shouldn't have made a promise they couldn't keep. RobertMarch 9, 2017 10:42 PM Marvel Premiere #35 Dave Hunt passed away on March 5. MichaelMarch 9, 2017 7:40 PM Avengers #369 @Jon- what I mean is Proctor tried to murder the Swordsman out of jealousy over Magdalene while Dane saved Pietro's life because he knew how much pain his death would cause Crystal. Another indication that Dane and Proctor are two sides of the same coin. MichaelMarch 9, 2017 7:35 PM Amazing Spider-Man #383-385 Note that Peter flashes back to the fight with the Hulk in the last story- another reason why that story can't be a dream no matter what PAD thinks. Jon DubyaMarch 9, 2017 7:12 PM Uncanny X-Men #307 It might be my "X-bias" by I kinda disagree on the Exodus vs Sersi fight. As "lame" as he was Exodus is an extremely powerful individual capable of taking on whole teams of superbeings. I know Sersi is powerful too (with said powers as equally ill-defined as Exodus's) but I'm just saying don't underestimate Exodus. The big guy's main "flaw" is being an unbalanced fanatic, not anything power-wise. Jon DubyaMarch 9, 2017 7:03 PM Avengers #369 How do you mean, Michael? Was Quiksilver even involved with anything Proctor related? This actually won't be the end of Black Knight pinning over Crystal as I think he and Quiksilver squabble a few more times. Fnord, have you ever read Avengers vs X-Men? If you have you are going to hate it, because many of the same beats here are presented there. In fact Cyclops (and a few others) start slinging the passive-aggressive digs at the Avengers quite often post M-day. mikrolikMarch 9, 2017 7:00 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #19-20 The Enforcers whole shtick is supposed to be that they're minor thugs for a bigger villain; the Big Man, Green Goblin, Sandman, and Lightmaster here. For some reason, people seem to see the Enforcers in a vacuum; just the three members against Spider-Man. Fancy Dan, Montana and Ox don't do stuff on their own; they work for a bigger guy (at least, if they're written properly, IMHO). fnord12March 9, 2017 6:22 PM Death's Head II #13-15 At least Robot Wolverine is wearing pants. When Wolverine showed up for the ad for the X-Men handheld game, he didn't bother. Morgan, you're right, that would save me a lot of headache, but from DHII's own perspective this would still have to take place after his appearance in Dark Guard since he refers to it here. So i would have to push the Dark Guard series way back before the previous Dark Guard arc (and assume the other characters were pulled from more recently). It's doable but... seems wrong, somehow. My broken brain thinks what i have works ok, so i'll stick with it for now. Luke BlanchardMarch 9, 2017 5:36 PM Web of Spider-Man annual #6 Sorry, Mark: I see you beat me to it. Morgan WickMarch 9, 2017 5:28 PM Death's Head II #13-15 I guess the question is, does it make more sense for Death's Head II to make a bunch of appearances in other Marvel UK books when he was all set to raid the AIM base, or for him to try to "lay low" after the raid by going to the future after making a bunch of appearances in other Marvel UK books after the raid? Appearances where he could have been or explicitly was pulled out of time might be okay, but others might require more judiciousness. You have more persistence in trying to fit Dark Guard in a place where it fits in everyone's chronologies, after admitting the characters could have been pulled out of time, than I would. I think reading so many mediocre-to-bad and poorly to nonexistently coordinated Marvel UK books is starting to break your brain ;) Luke BlanchardMarch 9, 2017 5:20 PM Web of Spider-Man annual #6 Kongo and Gorga are homages to Ditko's work on Charlton's Konga and Gorgo comics. Ben HermanMarch 9, 2017 3:09 PM Avengers #369 No idea if fnord will be covering the Black Knight: Exodus special, since it's set centuries in the past. So, for those who are curious about it... Exodus is really Bennet du Paris, a French knight from the 12th Century who fought in the Crusades. He was a friend of Dane Whitman's ancestor Eobar Garrington, the Black Knight of that era. At one point Dane's time-displaced consciousness occupied Garrington's body, which is why he kinda sorta recognizes Exodus here. Some time after this both the Black Knight and Sersi are transported to the 12th Century, with Dane once more occupying Garrington's body. They encountered Bennet du Paris, who was revealed to be a latent mutant. His abilities are then activated by Apocalypse, transforming him into Exodus. clydeMarch 9, 2017 2:59 PM Death's Head II #13-15 Because "Robot Wolverine is the best at what he does". And "what he does" is sweat a lot:) Ben HermanMarch 9, 2017 2:35 PM Avengers #368 I fully expect that if Marvel ever manages to regain the movie rights to the X-Men characters, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver will once again be revealed to be Magneto's children. Erik RobbinsMarch 9, 2017 2:27 PM Death's Head II #13-15 Why is robot Wolverine in a tank-top version of his costume? mikrolikMarch 9, 2017 1:51 PM Amazing Spider-Man #383-385 I find it interesting that Orwell Taylor tried to manipulate Spider-Man the way he did by making Spidey think Taylor held him responsible for Venom. The fact that it was all a ruse to get Spider-Man's help and Taylor didn't intend to kill him at all shows that Taylor actually doesn't hold Spidey at least completely responsible for Venom. So while Taylor acts maniacal in his efforts to kill Venom, that doesn't include Spider-Man, so he's not completely insane. Michael CheyneMarch 9, 2017 12:58 PM Iron Man #244 I know he's talking about Morton, but I chuckle when the guy tells Tony Stark he can't stand that "Downey character." Mizark March 9, 2017 12:14 PM Amazing Spider-Man #383-385 Michael, Ben HermanMarch 9, 2017 10:49 AM Plasmer #1-4 The merits of this miniseries aside, I agree that it was really unfortunate that Defiant was hit with a frivolous lawsuit by Marvel. I'm certainly not Jim Shooter's biggest fan, but I think Defiant had some real potential, with a number of talented creators (David Lapham, D.G. Chichester, Alan Weiss, Dave Cockrum, Jim Fern) working on their books, and it's a shame that the already-difficult task of making an impact in the glut of mid-1990s comic books was made so much so much more difficult by a good chunk of their finances getting eaten up by legal bills. Ben HermanMarch 9, 2017 10:39 AM Spider-Woman #1-4 fnord, the inking by Fred Fredericks is pretty heavy, so it's sorta easy to miss the switch-over from John Czop to Steve Ellis on pencils. Agreed with DAMartin that those two "security guards" must be late-arriving police officers who were miscolored. clydeMarch 9, 2017 10:35 AM Gun Runner #3-6 In the first panel he appears in, Smith looks just like Judge Dredd - as played by Sylvester Stallone. StevenMarch 9, 2017 9:08 AM Avengers #368 Luna is no longer considered Magneto's granddaughter, so this story is no longer considered important. FF3March 9, 2017 8:19 AM Secret Defenders #1-3 If you take out the issue break, this is priceless: Deadlox: The name, lover, is Dreadlox (Sexy pose.) fnord12March 9, 2017 7:23 AM Spider-Woman #1-4 Oops, thanks Ben. iLegionMarch 9, 2017 2:14 AM Venom: The Madness #1-3 Most of the potential this had was ruined by the scenario of Venom killing the lady. Besides undermining the entire excuse to give him a solo series (of mini-series), Beck's reaction to it played her up as an annoying doormat. Jon DubyaMarch 9, 2017 2:08 AM Avengers #160 That being said, the Beast REALLY should be able to beat the Grim freaking Reaper. Urban CommandoMarch 9, 2017 1:49 AM West Coast Avengers #1 Crazy to see all the Englehart WCA hate here in the comments. I liked both his and Byrne's runs on it. BobMarch 9, 2017 1:00 AM Thor annual #18 Very cool art for the time period RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 8, 2017 11:50 PM Avengers #160 With a power drenched character like Eric Williams, it seems it is our Marvel birthright to see him lead an updated offering of the Lethal Legion. I can hear the melodic guitars of "Don't fear the Reaper" as I tap the keys. Jay DemetrickMarch 8, 2017 11:47 PM X-Men: Odd Men Out #1 (Agent Duncan) I wonder if Senator Thompson from X-Factor #3 & X-Factor Annual #1 was connected with Project: Wideawake too if the commission's origin took place as far back as The Uncanny X-Men #150. RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 8, 2017 11:41 PM Dracula Lives #5 Avengers Assemble TV series finally found a way to take out the Bela Lugosi and manufacture the perfect blend of Vampire and mythical God that would rival the likes of Thor... RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 8, 2017 11:36 PM Marvel Spotlight #14 For the love of God (no pun) please give Hellstrom a twisted and somewhat neurotic Exorcist persona and make him significant ASAP. RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 8, 2017 11:24 PM Uncanny X-Men #244 I''m still not certain, after all the great female characters the X-Men have provided in both ability and psyche, how a new character that sounds like a kids breakfast cereal can have any positive impact. Somehow Jubilee slipped by and became important. RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 8, 2017 11:08 PM X-Men #4-7 Gambit under Claremont was a dark hero surviving psychotic episode just long enough to do the right thing at times. Brilliant! Taking his persona to a French Bjorn Borg really did harm him. Omega Red needs more air time (especially in this Era) and Jubilee needs a makeover or an industrial accident. Jay DemetrickMarch 8, 2017 10:33 PM Avengers #369 The connection between Black Knight & Exodus won't be explored further until 1996 in the Black Knight: Exodus one shot. Time travel is involved. I think the Doctor Who phrase "...a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff" is appropriate to refer to this mess here. davidbanesMarch 8, 2017 10:27 PM Web of Spider-Man #107-108 I really like the color contrast between Cardiac and Scorpion. Ben HermanMarch 8, 2017 10:10 PM Venom: The Madness #1-3 Juggernaut is not a mutant! Considering what a crap journalist Eddie Brock was, I'm not surprised that that he got that wrong! Ben HermanMarch 8, 2017 10:03 PM Spider-Woman #1-4 Issues #3 and #4 are actually penciled by Steve Ellis. It's some of his earliest published work. Red CometMarch 8, 2017 9:45 PM Thor annual #18 Tom Grindberg was doing a very Mignola inspired style around this time, which I think looks great. He also drew a couple of early 90s Batman issues in this style from right before Knightfall. MichaelMarch 8, 2017 8:42 PM Venom: The Madness #1-3 @Mortificator- in the later two issues, Venom did much better against the Juggernaut then he should have: MichaelMarch 8, 2017 8:23 PM Amazing Spider-Man #383-385 @Mizark- but this is a pattern with Michelinie. The ending of Demon in a Bottle was also too quick and easy. Morgan WickMarch 8, 2017 8:07 PM Thor annual #18 The part about the mother dying would seem to be a problem with that theory. Are you sure the gender confusion isn't on the part of the warrior? MichaelMarch 8, 2017 7:59 PM Thor annual #18 Is the storyteller supposed to be the Flame or his mother? One of the warriors refers to the storyteller as a "woman". The MCP lists it as his mother. That's the problem with elves- the way some artists draw them, it's difficult to tell if an elf is male or female. Mizark March 8, 2017 7:18 PM Amazing Spider-Man #383-385 It seems that MJ's desire to quit finally outweighed her desire to keep smoking. When that happens it really is that easy to just quit. I think we can give Michelinie a pass for not depicting a week or so of headaches,irritability,and sleep disturbances.Sometimes the neat bow that comics ties problems off with is an advantage. Morgan WickMarch 8, 2017 6:30 PM Amazing Spider-Man #383-385 Yes, quitting smoking is as easy as simply throwing away the cigarettes, one encounter with a lung cancer patient and MJ is off the death sticks. Tempted to make a Trouble joke about the May/Ben/Richard/Mary revelation... EnchloreMarch 8, 2017 6:21 PM Amazing Spider-Man #383-385 I remember picking up these issues in my old school's library and being impressed by Mark Bagley's art. He was the artist for Ultimate Spider-Man at that time, and I thought it was odd how different he drew Spider-Man there (skinny but muscular). Years later I found the Brazilian issue printing this story in a store for old books and bought it, back when I made an effort to collect comic books. Tony LewisMarch 8, 2017 5:48 PM Thor annual #18 Looks much more like Mike Mignola than Walt Simonson to me. I guess he's moved on from imitating Neal Adams. MortificatorMarch 8, 2017 5:44 PM Venom: The Madness #1-3 I had the first issue of this series, but it wasn't Ultra Cool enough for me to pick up the rest. I'm glad to see the creators at least resisted the urge to have Venom: The Madness (is that a White Wolf RPG?) defeat Juggernaut, which would have been totally ludicrous. Luis DantasMarch 8, 2017 4:59 PM Venom: The Madness #1-3 Nocenti, ironically enough, is good at writing completely deluded villains. She is probably a good match for Venon. Or she would be, if I could be convinced that there is such a thing as protagonist potential for Venon. Adam DaleMarch 8, 2017 4:09 PM Thor annual #18 I dig the Mignola/Simonson thing the artist is doing here. Grindberg is an underappreciated journeyman. Berry TeddyMarch 8, 2017 10:16 AM Excalibur Special Edition Mark, Rachel's story was to be told in a LS by Claremont/Leonardi, and the second Longshot LS was to be by Nocenti/Adams. Both involving Mojo, both aborted. fragselMarch 8, 2017 9:52 AM Marvel Comics Presents #72 (Red Wolf) and "forsen" was meant to be "frozen" fragselMarch 8, 2017 9:45 AM Marvel Comics Presents #72 (Red Wolf) Oh, and about that liquid coming out of Lobo's body: I've seen it before somewhere. I think it was Morbius story. I Think they called it "blood" there ;) fragselMarch 8, 2017 9:33 AM Marvel Comics Presents #72 (Red Wolf) first sentence of previous post should say "anything more" not "less". fragselMarch 8, 2017 9:31 AM Marvel Comics Presents #72 (Red Wolf) Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Lobo we see playing with baby Bucky on cover of Nomad 10 is still anything less than untrained wolf cub fnord12March 8, 2017 8:20 AM Marvel Comics Presents #72 (Red Wolf) The problem is that when Black Crow encounters the new Lobo in Doctor Strange #25 he describes him as "new", "new enough to not be well trained" (i.e. he made a mess, something that Red Wolf presumably wouldn't wait too long to train him not to do). So Doctor Strange #25 should take place not long after this. It doesn't seem like moving Marvel Comics Presents #15 would be right either, since i think that should go before Bengal's appearance in New Warriors #7-9 (since Night Thrasher #1 shows that Father Janes had been trying to stop Bengal from pursuing his vendetta between the New Warriors and Night Thrasher issues). I think we can say that Red Wolf kept the original Lobo's body preserved until the time was right to perform the ritual that he does here. I don't know what forsen is, but some kind of embalming process (since liquid is shown coming out when Red Wolf cuts him here) doesn't seem unreasonable. Of course as Michael noted, the real issue is the weird publication schedule for the three Red Wolf stories. But in the face of that, something has to give. fragselMarch 8, 2017 7:00 AM Marvel Comics Presents #72 (Red Wolf) This issue should be moved immidiatelly after MCP 15 I believe he did that next day, at most... Walter LawsonMarch 8, 2017 12:53 AM Die-Cut #1-4 It's ironic that betweeen this, Plasmer, and the occasional issue of Suoer-Soldiers, Marvel UK actually got better after even people like me--who bought half of the first-wave ongoings--had stopped paying attention. MortificatorMarch 7, 2017 11:40 PM Die-Cut #1-4 If you tell Die-Cut you're pleased to meet him, he immediately knows you're lying. I'm disappointed Mr. Veneer doesn't show up again, he seems like a solid lackey. Surviving with the Red Skull as his boss (who's notoriously backstab-y with underlings, even for a master villain) probably looks good on the CV. ChrisWMarch 7, 2017 8:22 PM New Mutants #74 Oh, and just to add, Shaw has no problem exploiting non-mutants. You think Senator Kelly just ran into Sharon one day, fell in love and got married? I doubt Emma needed to be called in, just someone with a talent for manipulation, i.e. Shaw (and no doubt Sharon as well.) ChrisWMarch 7, 2017 8:19 PM New Mutants #74 Omar, but such exploitation would be perfectly keeping in line with the point of such an exclusive club of degenerate industrialists, debutantes and others of the elite, whether or not mutants or superpowers exist. The X-Men's names are on the cover, so of course they're the ones being targeted. Sure, Shaw sees "dissecting" mutants as a way to increase profit, power and pleasure, but he's also pragmatic about it. I think this is just a difference of opinion, because you don't seem to have a much higher opinion of the 'mutants as racism' metaphor than I do, and my opinion of the metaphor is pretty low at this point. As for the 'build giant robots' solution, it's been done before, it will be done again, Shaw might as well be on the ground floor where he can influence the project, 100% certain that there's no way the giant robots could ever escape his control. MichaelMarch 7, 2017 7:48 PM Darkhawk #33-34 Evilhawk's amulet goes to the Avengers- and in a later issue St. Johnny retrieves it and encounters Captain America- another reason why Abnett's and Lanning's retcon doesn't work. Jonathan, son of KevinMarch 7, 2017 6:46 PM Plasmer #1-4 Never heard of this & I had a fundamental antipathy to the 90s Marvel UK comics, but I have to admit it kind of won me over by the end of the review. Some dumb but fun jokes, & some sly ones too. I might check these issues out further. I vaguely recall Marvel may have previously had an issue with Shooter's X-O Manowar infringing on their X-Men line, which is at least understandable as one of Marvel's most successful trademarks. Plasmer, not so much. Stevie GMarch 7, 2017 6:23 PM New Mutants #74 The something "strange" Ship notices about Illyana may be related to the Stryker Institute's readings indicating that she's "neither precisely human or mutant" in God Loves, Man Kills. kveto March 7, 2017 5:46 PM Spider-Woman #1-4 I picked up a back issue of this a year ago just out of curiosity. Roy Thomas's writing of course didnt inspire me to pick up more. The only comment I'll note is that Julia Carpenter is fairly unique in the world of super hero parents in that they are both still alive. Not many heroes can claim that. DAMartinMarch 7, 2017 5:44 PM Spider-Woman #1-4 I think the whole point of Spider-Woman yelling at the guards is that they had not appeared before. "What kept you?" as in "Where have you been during the whole thing?" though I guess the idea was for them to be cops arriving to the place, not guards who would be supposed to have been there all along, but were miscolored. Mquinn1976March 7, 2017 4:46 PM Plasmer #1-4 Marvel put Defiant out of business for a complete piece of crap Marvel UK comic? I think I'm gonna throw up. clydeMarch 7, 2017 3:53 PM Darkhawk #33-34 "That's also the downside: there's nothing about it that justifies the continued existence of a Darkhawk series. And neither the writing, the art, nor the character of Darkhawk make up for that." IMO, it does get better with the next two arcs - the Venom story and the "Amulet Quest". Austin GortonMarch 7, 2017 3:43 PM X-Factor #96-100 And i mean if it only gets worse from here then the Mahapralaya can't come soon enough. Careful what you wish for; I believe another name for the Mahapralaya is "Howard Mackie". Austin GortonMarch 7, 2017 3:13 PM Avengers #369 I love that panel of the Unforgiven standing over an unconscious Revanche. Nothing reminds me of her utter superfluousness more than this story, where she appears randomly in the background of a group shot in UNCANNY #307, and then again here, where she's knocked out. Austin GortonMarch 7, 2017 3:04 PM Uncanny X-Men #307 Despite following on pretty directly from the end of the last chapter (with Sersi confronting Exodus), this is really the chapter where it feels like an issue is missing. Cortez goes from at least appearing in control, playing two sides to some fashion, to showing up disheveled in a sewer, desperate for protection against Exodus. That transition seems like something we maybe should have seen. Generic CommentMarch 7, 2017 2:10 PM X-Men #26 One of the better "Andy Kubert doesn't like feet" examples. J-RodMarch 7, 2017 1:56 PM Uncanny X-Men #307 @Midnighter I was just thinking the same thing. I'm not sure how consistently that concept has been applied over the years, and Wanda's powers in particular have been notoriously inconsistently portrayed. But in general, the idea of siblings being able to physically block each other's mutant powers harmlessly would seem to apply here. Of course, if the twins aren't REALLY mutants (thanks to that awful 2014 retcon), then that might not really apply, but that's neither here nor there. The Avengers' charter change occurring here really does seem out of place. I'd never considered that before, but that kind of development really should have occurred in one of the Avengers books. Mark DrummondMarch 7, 2017 10:47 AM Avengers West Coast #101 The title refers to "Hiroshima, mon amour". JeffMarch 7, 2017 10:01 AM X-Men #26 This crossover wasn't the best but man Andy Kubert draws a great Cap. His art has vastly improved here since the Muir Island Saga. Omar KarinduMarch 7, 2017 6:29 AM New Mutants #74 Taking on a secret identity as a normal, even anti-mutant human *is* passing if the whole "mutants are minorities" metaphor has any traction at all. This being a comic book, Shaw, Frost, and the rest are played as conquerors, but this is the same comic book where racial hatred results in building giant purple robots that embody unthinking prejudice, where "being a minority" can mean "looking like a blue demon," and "being a homeless outcast" means having a name like "Caliban." When it comes to the Hellfire Club, Claremont's not even subtle about this; in the very first Hellfire Club story, Shaw indicates that he wants to dissect the X-Men and use their genetic secrets for his own benefits, goes along with a plan to brainwash Phoenix into becoming their weapon, then tries to sell Sentinels to Senator Kelly. He's a mutant who lets the upper crust of human society think he's just another upper-crust human, sees mutants on the margins of society as tools he can use and dispose of, and literally plans to profit off of other mutants' destruction in order to cement his ties to the increasingly anti-mutant majority's elites. Literally everything he and the Club do in that first story revolves specifically around *exploiting less assimilated/"non-passing" mutants*. MidnighterMarch 7, 2017 3:36 AM Uncanny X-Men #307 About Pietro blocking the Wanda's hexes, it can be the concept that the mutant powers can not hurt the brothers (see Scott and Alex)? StevenMarch 7, 2017 12:51 AM X-Men #26 Scarlet Witch makes a rare appearance in an X-title here. RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 6, 2017 10:54 PM Avengers #46 Whirlwind looked like a speeding aerodynamic bullet upon transcending his Human Top persona in this issue. Buscema manufactured legends. RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 6, 2017 10:29 PM Avengers #45 Why did Don Heck pencil this book instead of big "john"? MichaelMarch 6, 2017 10:28 PM X-Factor #96-100 Haven seems to be partially inspired by the Jewish legend of Joseph della Reina. He sought to bring about the Messianic Age prematurely and he winds up corrupted. In some legends he winds up becoming the husband of Lilith- I'm surprised they didn't use him in Siege of Darkness, since it seems like they threw in everything else in that mess. The point, as Haven's brother points out, is that trying to bring about a utopia before the proper time is such an act of hubris that it's inherently corrupting. RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 6, 2017 10:13 PM Uncanny X-Men #35 No one could transform themselves into a teenage hero with all the insecurity and angst like Stan the Man. The Spisey persona lived inside of Stan and spoke to a generation of zit popping kids. RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 6, 2017 9:57 PM Alpha Flight #33-34 Thank you mighty disciples of the comic cloth! The interaction way back machine might have been handy for Mr. Peabody too! MortificatorMarch 6, 2017 9:51 PM Avengers West Coast #101 This issue got my attention with the War Machine vs. Exodus cover, but the fight was disappointing. If I remember right, later stories have it that Exodus gets more powerful the more people in the vicinity have faith in him. Maybe that (from the mutate side) could be said to be boosting him here. ChrisWMarch 6, 2017 9:40 PM New Mutants #74 Donald Pierce, I don't know how to explain. Did he become a cyborg because he hated mutants? Did he join the Hellfire Club and then start hating mutants? But the philosophical difference Chris mentions is what ultimately leads to wars, which Claremont had been trying to make happen for years. I don't think Shaw is trying to "pass" as human, he's basically taking on a secret identity, which is not unheard of in the superhero genre. His goal [I think, was it ever totally established?] is to rule the world, but in the meantime, he will accumulate wealth, power and influence towards that end, and for his own enjoyment. Shaw is more of the "alpha male," born with exceptional traits and making the most of them. Magneto has to be treated as somewhat crazy regardless of your opinion, just because of the difference in his characterization pre-Claremont. Somewhere on the internet, there's a list of rules for an Evil Overlord, one of which is 'if my advisors ask why I am risking everything on this mad scheme, I will not proceed until I have an answer that satisfies them.' Magneto could have used that, Shaw would already have it. MortificatorMarch 6, 2017 9:37 PM Alpha Flight #33-34 Almost, but it was a couple issues earlier, in Uncanny X-Men 205: The character intersection search on the advanced search page is great for finding that kind of thing, since Spiral and Lady Deathstrike have only had one appearance together as far as the project covers. ChrisWMarch 6, 2017 9:30 PM Alpha Flight #33-34 "X-Men" #207, or at least that's her first published appearance, already having the adamantium. We see a glimpse of it during "Wolverine" #31-33 [someone correct me if the specific issues are wrong] but she first appeared with adamantium already in her. RocknrollguitarplayerMarch 6, 2017 9:21 PM Alpha Flight #33-34 What comic issue does "Spiral" infuse Lady Deathstrike with adamantium? MichaelMarch 6, 2017 8:56 PM Avengers #369 "The bad news is that the issue was a strain on the creative team, so Jan Duursema is a credited penciler assisting regular artist Steve Epting, and the letters page belatedly adds Don Hudson as an inking assistant as well as three additional colorists." MichaelMarch 6, 2017 8:42 PM Uncanny X-Men #307 This issue came out three weeks late. MichaelMarch 6, 2017 8:31 PM Avengers West Coast #101 This issue came out three weeks late. MichaelMarch 6, 2017 8:21 PM X-Men #26 This issue came out a month late. MichaelMarch 6, 2017 7:58 PM Avengers #368 This issue came out a month late. Omar KarinduMarch 6, 2017 6:06 PM Uncanny X-Men #306 Jeff and Andrew, check the comments of Uncanny X-Men #31, Candy's first appearance. As to Hodge, I kind of like his distinctive motivation -- he's actually driven by an *inferiority* complex and some stalkerish obsessions with regard to Warren Worthington III that he compensates for by hating all mutants -- but only Louise Simonson ever made the character work as anything more than a raving maniac. And by the time of Inferno, that's all he really was. It doesn't help that this is the second time he's tried to hurt Warren by using Candy against him. Poor Candy Sothern; she was reimagined as a fairly strong character in New Defenders, but after that book was cancelled she turned into one more woman in a refrigerator. fnord12March 6, 2017 5:15 PM Alpha Flight #92 It does look like it Vin, but he's not credited and no one else (UHBMCC, GCD) seem to have noticed. Can you tell if the inker is Mike Manley (who normally inked Bair on this title)? Erik BeckMarch 6, 2017 4:43 PM X-Factor #96-100 Good lord. Between Blood Ties and this maybe I should actually thank Scott Lobdell for killing off Illyana and bringing Magneto back to life and making me quit comics and being spared this. fnord12March 6, 2017 3:53 PM Avengers #368 That and the time the Genoshan magistrates risked a political crisis by invading the US in Uncanny X-Men #259-260 were exactly what i was referring to. But you'll see a footnote in Avengers #369 that confirms that by the "first" Genoshan crisis, they are referring to X-Tinction Agenda. clydeMarch 6, 2017 3:45 PM Avengers #368 "There were arguably Genoshan crises prior to that, though." What about the original Genoshan crisis in Uncanny X-Men #235-238? JeffMarch 6, 2017 12:52 PM Uncanny X-Men #306 Another example of how "Fatal Attractions" wasn't so much a crossover (excepting X-Men 25/Wolverine 75) but a shared story-branding. As for the Candy Southern name ... probably. She was named by Roy Thomas after all. Not exactly a bastion of women's equality, that one. Omar KarinduMarch 6, 2017 7:20 AM New Mutants #74 Put another way, Magneto is a militant mutant nationalist. Shaw is a well-connected mutant who wants to "pass" for his own benefit, even if it means hurting other mutants by working with people like Donald Pierce or building Sentinels for the government. Omar KarinduMarch 6, 2017 6:32 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #2 If you want an indicator of how quickly this book dropped its supposed mission to focus more on the supporting cast, we get one page of subplot with Peter visiting Aunt May and MJ's Aunt Anna, and the next page cuts back to the villains with the caption "Enough about Peter Parker." Omar KarinduMarch 6, 2017 6:23 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #1 This storyline is also very topical: the mayor is clearly meant to be Abe Beame, and the plot revolves around New York City's fiscal crisis and Beame's extreme budget cuts. Of course, in continuity terms, this just means that at some point NYC had another fiscal crisis as seen in stories like this and Fantastic Four #177. It's kind of strange to think that the Lightmaster started out as a "relevant" character, given where he ends up. Morgan WickMarch 6, 2017 5:15 AM X-Factor #65-68 In a way, it's one little additional indignity for Claremont to script, but not plot, the last pre-Muir Island Saga issues of the book whose very existence mangled so many of his plans and earned his unending enmity, and it's hard not to see a metaphor in the fact that part of its purpose is to send off Nathan, the last remnant of Claremont's attempt to give Cyclops a happy ending with Madelyne Pryor, off to the future to become Cable, the character that made Rob Liefeld's name and thus kickstarted the emergence of the group Claremont's own "baby" was now being forcibly handed off to. In short, Claremont has been conscripted as midwife for the handoff of Cable (and with him the X-Men in general) from his own plans to the proto-Image generation, in the book responsible for throwing those plans in the trash. At least it means he's able to put his own stamp on it, just as all subsequent X-writers have essentially been giving their own takes on his work. Vin the Comics GuyMarch 6, 2017 12:38 AM Quasar #18 Too bad Manley hadn't yet developed the style of art he used in Black Panther - it would've looked great for Quasar. Vin the Comics GuyMarch 6, 2017 12:33 AM Alpha Flight #92 That epilogue page was drawn by Michael Bair, wasn't it? ChrisMarch 5, 2017 9:49 PM New Mutants #74 I think it has to do with a philosophical difference between the two mutant villains. Magneto, at least before Claremont, was like a mutant Adolf Hitler - someone who wanted to conquer the world for his master race. Shaw, though, simply wants to rule the world behind the scenes. He keeps his mutant identity a secret, and while he obviously is grasping for power, it is more of a generic kind as opposed to enslaving humanity under homo superior. He seems fine with humans - in one of the old back ups of Classic X-Men he was friends with the ordinary human Edward Buckman who was the White King (and presumably the cyborg Donald Pierce - both would end up hating mutants and trying to kill Shaw, but at least at some point they were allies). Shaw does not seem to harbor feelings of obvious superiority over humans because of his mutant status (perhaps because his own mutant power is not exceptionally powerful, and his mutant allies often have "better" powers). Omar KarinduMarch 5, 2017 6:30 PM Amazing Spider-Man #163-164 I'd assume that the Kingpin's unusually high-tech gadgetry here, like the souped-up helicopter and his men's jetpacks, are leftovers from his time with HYDRA. Omar KarinduMarch 5, 2017 5:42 PM Amazing Spider-Man #160 The letters page here has editorial nailing down the idea that the Spider-Sense warns against all dangers, contradicting the way Conway depicted it. ChrisMarch 5, 2017 3:35 PM Power Man & Iron Fist #73 Is this the only appearance of ROM not written by Bill Mantlo? ROM had very few direct crossovers with other titles. Usually it was guest stars in his own comic, or wraiths (without ROM) in other comics. And your entries for MTIO #99 and Hulk # 295-296 were written by Mantlo. PM&IF is rather an odd comic for a ROM crossover. I wonder if it was editorially mandated, if Mary Jo Duffy liked the character (or this idea of a story), or if she was doing a favor for Mantlo. Luke BlanchardMarch 5, 2017 1:53 PM ROM #65-66 It looks to me like it was possible the series wouldn't continue after #66, so Mantlo wrote the issue as a series conclusion and gave Rick, Brandy and Cindy an ending. WisMarch 5, 2017 2:51 AM Fantastic Four #379-383 I remember reading in contemporary magazines- Marvel Age or whatever replaced Marvel Age- as well as Wizard (it was a friend's copy, I swear)- DeFalco shooting down any commentary about the predictability of Reed and Doom returning with a firm "they're dead!" which, due to being so straightforward and not coy or wink wink nudge nudge, made me think (at the time- I was like 14)- that they were seriously attempting to try to make this a legit comic book death. Oh to be young and naive again! ChrisMarch 4, 2017 11:49 PM Daredevil #146-147 Shooter's portrayal of Bullseye here is very good, and makes him a solid addition to DD's rogues. The scene where he is in civilian clothes is very good and chilling. And the fight scene in the TV station is great. Kane's artwork here is very good. DD does have some very good foes from his earlier days, but most lie in the realm of "has potential, but hasn't been used properly." Mr. Fear is a good example of that. Decent name and costume, and at least some of his incarnations have good backstory. But few writers have the imagination to use "scary" villains properly - instead of we get "fear gas" that substitutes for any kind of atmosphere or chills. Death-Stalker is another, and it is a shame that we lost him just as Miller's run began. The Owl could have been a Kingpin like mastermind abetted with some superpowers, but instead becomes a schmuck. The Purple Man was lame until Bendis turned him into a real menace. Amazing what some writers can do with a character (for good or bad). ChrisMarch 4, 2017 11:37 PM Daredevil #131-132 131 issues into his run, Daredevil finally gets his arch-nemesis although it will be several more years before Bullseye really gets to claim that spot under Frank Miller. One thing I've found interesting in comics is how future writers are able to handle characters for good or bad and make them real threats or losers later. Ben HermanMarch 4, 2017 6:23 PM Dark Guard #1-4 I love that Killpower refers to Liger as "Colonel Funny-Face" :) a.lloydMarch 4, 2017 6:19 PM Marvel Two-In-One #73 This site is awesome BTW. Omar KarinduMarch 4, 2017 5:42 PM Amazing Spider-Man #156 The Marvel Handbook suggests that Mirage developed a way to jam the Spider-sense, just as Mysterio did before in ASM #13. Omar KarinduMarch 4, 2017 5:37 PM Amazing Spider-Man #155 Also, there's a letter in this issue that fits nicely with fnord12's review: "Len Wein, eh? Well, I don't know, but....no. the trouble is that I do know. That is, I'm familiar enough with Wein's style to fear he's not going to work very well on SPIDER-MAN. His famous wordy captions, overloaded dialogue, affected self-consciosuness a la Mike Friedrich, and penchant for melodrama have their place, I suppose. But a fast-paced, action-oriented strip like Spidey? I don't think so." Practically a checklist for this run, isn't it? Omar KarinduMarch 4, 2017 5:34 PM Amazing Spider-Man #155 I wonder if the doctor who replaced Tallon's hands was supposed to be Jonas Harrow? It says a lot about this issue that we're all talking about an incidental character in it. Omar KarinduMarch 4, 2017 5:08 PM Amazing Spider-Man #153 The bit near the end where Spider-Man says the mobster's not worth punching only to decide "the hell he's not!" is lifted straight from a memorable scene in the John Wayne movie McClintock. MichaelMarch 4, 2017 4:39 PM Avengers #28-29 The Elders were always immortal due to their monomaniacal obsessions but they don't get given immortality by Death until much later. MichaelMarch 4, 2017 3:06 PM ROM #29 Clay Brickford seeks revenge on the Hulk. G Something March 4, 2017 2:31 PM ROM #29 Hey, Michael What kind of problems? Matthew BradleyMarch 4, 2017 12:05 PM Doctor Strange #38-40 Am I the only one who thinks that in the panel grab above, Azrael bears an unfortunate resemblance to the Pillsbury Doughboy? fnord12March 4, 2017 11:54 AM Midnight Sons Unlimited #3 Thanks Michael. There's also the Redeemers' appearance in Morbius #13 to consider, which takes place after Lilith's return but can't take place while Hastings is in Rome. I've also realized that Darkhold #14 doesn't necessarily have to go as close to Siege of Darkness as i thought. So i've made some adjustments in placement and in the Considerations for this issue and Darkhold #13-14. Luke BlanchardMarch 4, 2017 11:36 AM Marvel Two-In-One #73 This is similar to a 1936-37 MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN story, "Mandrake in the Lost World". (Spoiler warning.) Mandrake heads to Antarctica to rescue a missing aviatrix. He finds a prehistoric country surrounded by steam walls. The villains are ruthless oilmen whose drilling is releasing steam and causing the warm area to shrink. If they continue the lost world will cease to exist. On Mandrake's instructions Lothar turns off their electric fence, and a rush of dinosaurs destroys the oilfield. MichaelMarch 4, 2017 11:07 AM Midnight Sons Unlimited #3 Fnord, you moved this after Road to Vengeance but it has to take place before Road to Vengeance since Johnny's not a cyborg yet. I realize that the problem stems from the fact that this seemingly takes place during Louise's trip to Rome in Darkhold 13-14 but at the end of that story the Darkhold Redeemers find out about Lilith's return in Road to Vengeance- maybe Louise spent a very long time in Rome? fnord12March 4, 2017 10:59 AM Marvel Two-In-One #73 Fixed it. Thanks. a.lloydMarch 4, 2017 9:01 AM Marvel Two-In-One #73 " It is said in issue #235 that the Thing and Quasar netted no solid evidence against Roxxon here." Issue 235 of what? Morgan WickMarch 4, 2017 7:02 AM Silver Surfer #22 This is nearly two years after the fact, but Engelhart may have been referring to the origin of Ego given in Thor #228 (linked in fnord's References here). Urban CommandoMarch 4, 2017 6:35 AM Avengers #236-237 Cap was kind of rough on Spidey here. How would anyone know the webbing idea would be a failure without the attempt. Urban CommandoMarch 4, 2017 5:47 AM Hawkeye #1-4 Great series! Had it when it came out as a kid and made me fall in love with the character. There is a controversial scene in #2 where Hawk kills The Silencer by dragging him down from a "200 foot perch" as it's called, on top of a smokestack. Urban CommandoMarch 4, 2017 5:18 AM Avengers #233-234 What's with She-Hulk's arms in that panel? Horrible. a.lloydMarch 4, 2017 12:51 AM Marvel Two-In-One #68 While Angel and the Thing are in the bathroom, they get gassed. Hmmmm. ChrisWMarch 4, 2017 12:21 AM New Mutants #74 Shaw has to run things, produce things, employ people, set out long-term goals. Magneto, to put it mildly, has never had to do that. Why should he? He (or his henchmen) can create anything they need on the spot to advance their goal of world conquest. Shaw has to work with budgets and taxes. He has to woo NYC bureaucrats and DOD agents to go along with him. He can't just tell Emma to brainwash them, that would give her all the power on the Inner Circle. Electricity usage, union laws, zoning laws, liquor laws, gun laws, Shaw has to keep a lot of things in mind just to keep that clubhouse running. Never mind covering up scandals, like when a sewage-covered clawed beast is roaming through the ballrooms in full view of all your elite guests, and that's before the big fight starts and the cameras start rolling. With the sole exception of running Xavier's School - and I understand he was briefly the ruler of Genosha later on - Magneto has never had to do that. ChrisWMarch 4, 2017 12:01 AM X-Terminators #2 And after "Inferno," the X-Men return to Australia, where the computers are evolving themselves and the whole town is looked over by the aborigine with access to Dreamtime. ChrisWMarch 3, 2017 11:59 PM Excalibur #6-7 That chick with orange-blonde hair? Your eyes deceive you. Don't trust them. I was going to write a "curse you, you've foiled my evil schemes yet again" joke, but Rachel was really messed up by #206. Seriously, I'm developing a theory that "Secret Wars II" (and possibly other elements in "X-Men" I'm forgetting off-hand) sent Rachel around the bend in numerous ways. She's already tried to destroy the universe just to defeat the Beyonder and wasn't even sure it would work. And she went downhill after that. After her experience in the M'kraan Crystal, her telepathic connection to Nathan would fade into the background, and [if I'm remembering correctly] that connection was a retcon. She telepathically linked Nathan and Kitty for a moment, but it wasn't until "Inferno" that we learn, oh yeah, she has a permanent link to her baby brother from another mother, and we'd never known about it before. In #206, Rachel freaks out about meeting Cyclops, whom she's already met many times. WTF? MichaelMarch 3, 2017 11:23 PM Excalibur #6-7 @ChrisW- Maddie is being shown wheeled into the hospital in X-Men 206, when Rachel is still on Earth. ChrisWMarch 3, 2017 11:04 PM Excalibur #6-7 Michael, your initial question, Rachel didn't sense Nathan being taken by the Marauders because she was still in Mojoworld at the time. She didn't escape until after Maddie and the X-Men had died, and after that it's established that her brain and memories are messed up. Further, I'm not saying this is a good answer or that I believe it myself, but that memory-scrambling effect might have led her to say "I have no idea what you're talking about" when Kitty and Kurt bring up Maddie's plea to Scott to find their baby. The X-characters are horrible at sharing information to avoid future problems, so they'd just shrug. "Should we tell Brian and Megan? Maybe they can help." "Nein, Katzcen. [sp?] Cyclops and Madelyne's baby is not our problem, and Rachel is just fine the way she is." ChrisWMarch 3, 2017 10:35 PM X-Terminators #2 Taki is one of the keys to Claremont's long-running Illyana story. I've said that I think he always intended Illyana to become a little girl again after "Inferno" (or the Five Bloodstones plotline) but looking at these summaries, a couple of things stick out at me, all having to do with the difference between magic and technology. The quote is probably attributed to different people, but Arthur C. Clarke pointed out that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Flip a switch on the wall and the room is lit up no matter what time of night it is, for instance. So we've got magic and demons infesting modern technology as "Inferno" spreads. Illyana started losing control of Limbo when Magus infected S'ym with the techno-organic virus. The fact that Magus could find and enter Limbo suggests immense ability, and his powers along with Warlock's are basically indistinguishable from magic. The X-Men were living on a magical island when Illyana fell into Limbo in the first place, then came home from the Brood Saga to a newly-built ultra-technological mansion. So Illyana's story ends (for Claremont's purposes) with a new mutant whose powers are basically that he can do anything with technology. Also, N'astir'h gets infected with the techno-organic virus and now outclasses S'ym as the first 'boss' the main X-teams fight at the climax. Then Maddie's plotline has to be resolved along with "Inferno" proper, and we meet Mr. Sinister, who clones people. D09March 3, 2017 10:22 PM Infinity Crusade #2 Just pointing out something here: it's in this issue that the gathered heroes learn that it was Pip who stole a Quintjet and the Fantasticar in the early issues of Warlock and the Infinity Watch (though Pip tries to deny it by claiming he has an evil twin brother who has the same fingerprints as himself). ChrisWMarch 3, 2017 10:04 PM Uncanny X-Men #31 Ooooh, good call on "Candy." Jon DubyaMarch 3, 2017 8:15 PM X-Men annual #2 By the way, quick trivia reference: this is the first time tbe disease is actually calked "The Legacy Virus." Omar KarinduMarch 3, 2017 8:10 PM Uncanny X-Men #31 Given the era of her first appearance and Roy Thomas's fascination with the New Journalism, I'd guess Candy Sothern is likely a reference to Terry Southern. Southern co-wrote a pornographic novel titled Candy about a young woman named Candy Christian who gets into the usual situations of a pornographic novel protagonist in Greenwich Village. It became a sort of accidental bestseller, and a very campy, psychedelia-infused version was released in 1968 and included appearances by Marlon Brando, Ringo Starr, James Coburn, Walter Matthau, and Richard Burton. MichaelMarch 3, 2017 8:08 PM Avengers #367 Cortez talking about how beautiful Luna is and how attractive her family before grabbing her is makes him sound like a pedophile. MichaelMarch 3, 2017 8:06 PM Cable #5 Note that this is cover dated November 1993 and the previous issue was dated August 1993- Marvel had to cancel issues 5 and 6 and resolicit Cable 5 two months later. And even with that the issue still came out a month after the rescheduled date. We had to wait over two months between Cable 4 and 5. MichaelMarch 3, 2017 7:52 PM Super Soldiers #8 The reason why many of the UK books dated Nov 93 and later were cancelled- often very abruptly- was because of the collapse of the comics market in 1993 due to the glut. MichaelMarch 3, 2017 7:47 PM Darkhold #13-14 @Piotr- As we'll see soon, Vicki and the Darkhold have more in common than she knows, so that might have something to do with why she used it. But yeah, I had to laugh at the Dwarf asking Sam why he hasn't used the page, since after all that Sam has seen, he'd have to be crazy to use the page. AndrewMarch 3, 2017 7:17 PM Uncanny X-Men #306 I don't "get" Cameron Hodge. He just isn't deep enough a character to justify the number of time he's come back. Anyone ever wonder if Candy Southern is a "Bond girl" name (ie, "southern candy")? Jon DubyaMarch 3, 2017 5:35 PM X-Men #25 Bringing Wolverine along has another purpose too. Bringing Wolvie along was a mistake, one that makes Xavier feel guilty...whi h then plays heavily in his succumbing to Onslaught (indeed I think this is then one of the "blunders" that cause Xavier to have doubts and frustration about the direction he's going. Piotr WMarch 3, 2017 5:13 PM Darkhold #13-14 Oh, for crying out loud. Incorruptible or not, it was plain stupidity on Vicki's part to use that page... She's seen all of the crap Darkhold leads to - and yet, she accepts a page? Come on! Jon DubyaMarch 3, 2017 4:59 PM Uncanny X-Men #306 Probably not enough to raise the HSR, but this is, in a sense, a prologue for the Phalanx Convenant. Luis DantasMarch 3, 2017 4:46 PM Avengers #367 I don't know what Deathcry means when she mentions Jocasta here. IIRC she once showed an interest in the Vision, but he did not even realize that. Mark BlackMarch 3, 2017 3:54 PM Avengers #367 Shocked that the seeds of Bloodties being planted here don't merit more than a 1 on the historical significance rating. I mean who can forget the introduction of the Unforgiven that occurs during Bloodties? The art here looks like the house style they used in giveaway comics. Ataru320March 3, 2017 3:25 PM Tales To Astonish #42 (Ant-Man) Ah yes, the Voice. Prefer the Word a bit more (due to Ultima I suppose), but considering he commanded Captain America to "wank", he does have notoriety for what was originally a one-off Ant-Man villain. Still surprised no one used his powers in some sort of "turn the media against the heroes" aspect, but I guess it would be too easy in a universe with JJ Jamison... George LochinskiMarch 3, 2017 3:03 PM Tales To Astonish #42 (Ant-Man) Seems like a fatal error to put too much thought into these old Ant-Man stories, but it almost feels like Lee/Lieber are trying to illustrate the exact nature of Pym's influence with the ants--by having them save him without his command helmet but also by using Cragg as a foil ("see, this is what mind control looks like!") Brian C. SaundersMarch 3, 2017 1:57 PM Hulk #410-411 @Steven, When the Pantheon approached the merged Hulk, it was pointed out that he was still a wanted criminal for the destruction he caused after he was pardoned and the likelihood of his getting *another* pardon was not good. How's the Hulk going to join the Avengers under those circumstances? What's keeping the Hulk from getting arrested is the fact that he been deemed cured and is acting stable and is the most powerful being on the face of the earth and literally can't be incarcerated, as he's just too formidable. As soon as that changes, he becomes a fugitive again. The Avengers would have treated him the same way as the Pantheon ends up doing. Only the Avengers wouldn't have ever made him leader, since PAD didn't write that book. This is about the Hulk trying to make it on his own stream, a story that couldn't be told in the Avengers. clydeMarch 3, 2017 11:38 AM Hulk #410-411 @ Steven - JamesMarch 3, 2017 10:22 AM Hulk #410-411 Jeff - I agree with you. In the mid-90s, I slowly stopped reading Marvel comics, for the reasons you mention (and others). PAD's Hulk was the last one I dropped, because the story-telling was so good (even then, I admit I lost interest around the time of the "angry Banner" story). PAD was brilliant in exploring Bruce Banner's personality in ways no writer had done before (or as well). fnord12March 3, 2017 8:09 AM Dark Guard #1-4 @Michael, you're right, she shouldn't be listed. fnord12March 3, 2017 8:08 AM Hulk #410-411 @Gary, i don't list characters from flashbacks, and since this is her only non-flashback appearance she doesn't merit a tag. But i've added a reference to #377. fnord12March 3, 2017 8:07 AM Punisher War Zone #20-22 @Michael, i had some scattered issues but it's been a long while. Urban CommandoMarch 3, 2017 6:38 AM Avengers #64 Not sure how Barney died in 2015, but he's alive again in 2017. TuomasMarch 3, 2017 3:52 AM Punisher War Zone #20-22 It's sad to see that even an Asian-American writer like Hama isn't beyond using the racist "dragon lady" stereotype with Tyger Tyger. clydeMarch 2, 2017 8:45 PM Jungle Action #6-8 I'm looking forward to reading this now that I picked up the Black Panther Panther's Rage TPB. MichaelMarch 2, 2017 7:53 PM Avengers Spotlight #37 @Jon- I think the point was that Druid's forgiveness of the Ancient One for using him was meant to show he had changed. Jonathan, son of KevinMarch 2, 2017 6:25 PM Daredevil #54 "Sometimes reading this comic is like watching a train wreck. It's horrible and tragic, but you just can't take your eyes off Matt Murdock as he screws up his life and the lives of those around him further and further." Later writers will intentionally make this a central character trait of Matt, but (like Hank Pym) it's kind of fantastic that it's all there in the Silver Age. What other hero faked the death of 2 different secret identities within his first 60 issues? For much of the 90's & 2000s, Murdock's life is a mess & he makes terrible decisions. The fact that here he doesn't even consider the ramifications of faking Matt Murdock's death really works as foreshadowing for his later instability. Mquinn1976March 2, 2017 4:47 PM Dark Guard #1-4 I never heard of this one. Must have come out right after Marvel UK drove me out of collecting comics for 20 years MegaSpiderManMarch 2, 2017 4:16 PM Avengers #362-366 Man, if ever there was a series of issues that could be more or less purely described as "Holy 90's!", it'd probably be these. jti88 .March 2, 2017 3:17 PM Power Man #32 A flamethrower with a sight, and a guy who aims with it. MortificatorMarch 2, 2017 2:15 PM Daredevil #58 When Stunt-Master turned up in Kurt Busiek's Avengers run, I assumed he was a character created just then to be deliberately pathetic. Jon DubyaMarch 2, 2017 12:53 PM Avengers Spotlight #37 I'm gonna be presumptuous here, but I don't think regular Stern readers liked Dr Druid much either. Even reading the Stern books, he kinda came across as a jerk...and not even in the "cool" way like Wolverine or Hawkeye or Guy Gardner or other "popular" rable-rousers. And yes looking like Super-Powered Fraiser Crane probably didn't help. I mean editorial-mandated it may be, but Simonson's reading of Druid wasn't really inaccurate. Of course, given what I said about him, Druid being "ok" with being considered a "Dr Strange point-man" seems weird. It seems like he would be somewhat offended by that. I don't see him being that "chill." JeffMarch 2, 2017 12:27 PM Hulk #410-411 Hulk might have secretly been the best Marvel title of the 1990s, with Avengers and FF in doldrums and Spider-Man and X-Men getting overly complicated. This is some fine storytelling. Mark DrummondMarch 2, 2017 10:47 AM Dark Guard #1-4 There actually was an "Asskickers of the Fantastic" in Warren's 1984 magazine. Austin GortonMarch 2, 2017 9:28 AM Namor #42-43 @Bob: Maybe because ponytails were "kewl", but regular hair was hard to draw. So they just combined the cool hair with the easiest-to-draw hair (ie none)? ClutchMarch 2, 2017 8:27 AM Hulk #410-411 It's funny how Gary Frank got Rowan Atkinson to do a guest shot here. American audiences had likely only known the guy from Blackadder before later discovering him as Mr. Bean. JSfanMarch 2, 2017 8:19 AM Gene Dogs #1-4 They're giving away Knighthoods for fun over here in the UK. You, sir, deserve one for having to review this muck. MichaelMarch 2, 2017 7:54 AM Dark Guard #1-4 Should Tyburn really be listed as a Character Appearing? The "golem" seems more like a Doombot than an astral projection. JSfanMarch 2, 2017 6:41 AM Hulk #410-411 Just a couple of comments. Some great work by Gary Frank. I've never heard of him but it's refreshing to see some clear storytelling and clear art instead of the muck I've been seeing in 99% of the other books reviewed here. Peter David is fantastic. He's been the only writer who's work I've consistently read on here since Fnord began reviewing work from the 90s. Other than that I've either skimmed through them or not read any at all. The 90s is full of drek in regards to comics and I can't imagine it'll get any better once we head into the 00s. JSfanMarch 2, 2017 6:23 AM Hulk #410-411 Robert, That's my thought exactly. Luke BlanchardMarch 2, 2017 4:44 AM Strange Tales #135 (Nick Fury) In THE SPY WHO LOVED ME the car also goes underwater and gets attacked by frogmen. There's a sequence like that in #137. It may be these comics were the inspiration. For that matter, the menace in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER - an orbiting space laser - is like the one in CAPTAIN AMERICA #100. Erik RobbinsMarch 2, 2017 3:19 AM Punisher War Zone #20-22 "So anyway, yeah, this is going to be another story about a guy from one of the Punisher's old Vietnam squads coming back as a villain." Are you s****ing me? What is that now, six? StevenMarch 2, 2017 1:16 AM Hulk #410-411 The problems that Hulk is having with the superhero community would not be happening if he had rejoined the Avengers after Infinity Gauntlet. The West Coast Avengers could really use him with Iron Man and Wonder Man not with the team. Instead, he hangs out with the worthless Pantheon. Mizark March 2, 2017 12:33 AM Hulk #410-411 This was really the only Marvel comic I was reading at the time and it has aged like fine wine. Peter David was really fortunate with his artistic partners and I think that they had as much if not more to do with the title's success than he did. RocknRollguitarplayerMarch 2, 2017 12:15 AM Hulk #180-182 Almost Forgot the most important part of the Hammer and Anvil offering. These Þwo were the poster Villains for Racism but after receiving said powers from metal eating alien, they seemed to be so completely self-concerned with their new skills that their Racist ways were no longer of interest to promote. These guys are a writing tweak away from being relevant here and now! RocknRollguitarplayerMarch 1, 2017 11:57 PM Ghost Rider #1-2 Let's call for a vote. Hellstrom aka Son of Satan has every opportunity to become John Constantine to the 10th power. All these cats need to partner with Doctor Strange in the next offering from the Marvel Studio Universe and open up the can of Whoop A$$ on the metaphysical dimension as an updated Super-Group. Great characters here in need of some serious Dark dimensional Villains to Clobber! Gary HimesMarch 1, 2017 11:49 PM Hulk #410-411 No "Characters Appearing" listing for Susan Jacobson? She was previously seen (in flashback) in the classic "Honey I Shrunk the Hulk" back in issue 377. MichaelMarch 1, 2017 11:23 PM Captain America #420 I think that Digger's hatred of demons stems from Avengers West Coast 76-79 (and the events of that story are the supernatural dealings Scully mentions). BobMarch 1, 2017 10:56 PM Hulk #410-411 Frank draws an awesome Nick Fury. BobMarch 1, 2017 10:48 PM Captain America #421 Wasn't a fan of Levins' art to begin with, but it appears he's caught the Liefeld anatomy bug with this story. MichaelMarch 1, 2017 9:54 PM Nightstalkers #12-13 I think Hannibal forgave Blade way too easily- just because Hannibal could be a threat, it's understandable that Blade made a deal with a demon and killed a dozen people? Admittedly, as we'll see, Johnny Blaze still holds a grudge. MichaelMarch 1, 2017 8:50 PM Punisher War Zone #20-22 Weirdly, Hama once said he's opposed to vigilantes that dispense justice without due process of law. ChrisWMarch 1, 2017 8:40 PM Damage Control #1 The "Creme-Filled Twinkie" model of space-time? That's a big Twinkie. MichaelMarch 1, 2017 8:29 PM New Warriors #40-42 Note that Speedball uses his expanded control over his powers to seemingly destroy Asylum, leaving only her mask behind. This is important because it sets up how Darkling becomes the new Asylum. MichaelMarch 1, 2017 8:16 PM Nomad #19 Note that Bart's dialogue makes it clear that despite what Jack thinks, his mom isn't dead. MichaelMarch 1, 2017 8:07 PM Captain America #421 Note that Cap explicitly says his father was a wife-beater in this story. When Remender portrayed Steve's father as a wife beater, there were a lot of complaints. But this issue shows there was a basis in canon for it. Ben HermanMarch 1, 2017 8:05 PM Nomad #19 I always took it that Nomad really did kill Faustus at the end of this issue. Although it was never made very clear by Brubaker, the implication was that the Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to bring him back to life. MichaelMarch 1, 2017 7:58 PM Thor #386 @KombatGod- I always assumed that when Hela restored Thor in issue 382, she healed his face- her dialogue is "ALL thy wounds made whole". MojonutsMarch 1, 2017 7:50 PM Punisher War Zone #20-22 The alias Herr Schloss could also just be a a straight up translation of his actual name. Schloss in German means mansion or castle. Mizark March 1, 2017 6:21 PM Punisher War Zone #20-22 The title to issue 20 is a reference to... uh let's just say it should have been a tip-off as to how Tyger Tyger would be portrayed. Omar KarinduMarch 1, 2017 6:19 PM Avengers #141-144,147-149 Fort that matter, the fight with Spectrum that Iron Man mentions from #64-6 of his solo title is with the Sinister Spectrum,not the Supreme one he fights here. Jonathan, son of KevinMarch 1, 2017 6:17 PM Thor #383 Very surprised to learn DeFalco & Frenz wanted to do Daredevil... Thor seems the perfect fit for their silver age revivalism. DeFalco got to do his mix of grandiosity and corn, and Frenz left behind the Ditkoisms he'd done on Spider-Man to concentrate on the Kirby grandeur that few could do as well as he did. I'd never imagined they hadn't chosen Thor. Nocenti's run had just started on Daredevil, her run wasn't yet fully warmed up yet but they would still have been following not too long after O'Neil's run and Miller's Born Again, which would have been odd acts for them to follow. Maybe they figured they had just been doing Spidey & wanted to continue doing street-level stuff, bot the post-Miller DD wouldn't have suited them the same way. Personally I loved Nocenti's Daredevil run (I realise not everyone does) and for all its corn and inconsistency, I do think that the DeFalco-Frenz team was one of the better Thor runs (though distantly behind Simonson and Lee/Kirby), so I'm glad things turned out the way they did. Ben HermanMarch 1, 2017 4:06 PM Thor #383 As revealed in Back Issue #53, this issue and the next were done as fill-in issues. Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz were actually lobbying Ralph Macchio to take over Daredevil. Macchio needed a couple of fill-ins for Thor ASAP and asked DeFalco & Frenz to do them, and they agreed, figuring that if they made Macchio happy it would lead to them getting the DD assignment. Instead they were surprised when Macchio then decided he wanted them to take over as the new regular creative team on Thor. The first Thor issue DeFalco & Frenz actually did knowing that they would be the regular creators was #386. I like this issue quite a bit. It's definitely a nice continuation of Amora the Enchantress evolving into a somewhat morally ambiguous figure, as opposed to an out-and-out villain. Furthermore, this is one of those stories that shows just how imposing a figure Doctor Doom can be. The Enchantress is a goddess, and she's repeatedly been depicted as haughty and arrogant, standing up to Odin, Thor, Loki, Karnella and pretty much any other inhabitant of Asgard who gets in her way. So it's very striking that when faced with the very mortal Doctor Doom, she folds like a cheap suit. Doom is so dangerous that he makes gods back down. RickMarch 1, 2017 3:41 PM Fantastic Four #181-184 #184 is the first issue written by only Len Wein. He gets rid of Tigra and Thundra quickly, making their exit on page 4 of that issue, never to return during his run. Found this interview with Len on an FF fan site. In one question he was asked about Tigra and Thundra's quick exits. Len responded that neither were really his favorites but he could have written the Impossible Man forever. http://www.fantasticfourheadquarters.co.uk/blog/len-wein-interview Jonathan, son of KevinMarch 1, 2017 3:05 PM Captain America #315 What with Fnord currently reviewing the 420s of Captain America (and also the later issues of Quasar), it's crazy how much his early issues seem like the work of a different person. There's certain tics still in place a hundred issues later, but it seems like the strengths have disappeared while the weaknesses stay on. Obviously not many people have done a hundred issues of the same comic without some deterioration, though with Gruenwald it seems like something else is to blame, the heart seems to have gone. I like Gruenwald's use of the Porcupine here as a depressive guy with low self esteem. Seems to be a recurring thing of Gruenwald's, best done in D.P.7 with his self-doubting character Dave Landers (who has a history of suicide & mental illness in his family), but also in Cap characters like Armadillo & D-Mam. Gruenwald is normally portrayed as a joker in his personal life but I do feel he must have related to those characters somehow. RobertMarch 1, 2017 2:17 PM Hulk #410-411 Don't squash Mr. Bean, Hulk! KombatGodMarch 1, 2017 1:13 PM Thor #386 I wonder if Thor's disfigurement healed thanks to his natural, superhuman healing abilities, thanks to his body being destroyed and restored in recent events (that's actually what I believe), or the scars really weren't that bad, yet he felt disfigured because of his eccessive ego or something. EntzauberungMarch 1, 2017 11:23 AM Hellstorm #7-11 Reading the review i expected more than C+ tbh. Mark DrummondMarch 1, 2017 11:11 AM Avengers #152 The Black Talon is missing a finger on each hand on the cover. "Zuvembie" is apparently derived from Robert E. Howard's "Pigeons From Hell". Mark DrummondMarch 1, 2017 11:08 AM Avengers #150-151 The Shotz beer that the Thing is drinking is a reference to the TV show "Laverne & Shirley". Mark DrummondMarch 1, 2017 11:04 AM Avengers #141-144,147-149 The cover to #141 misidentifies the Squadron Supreme as the Squadron Sinister. Peter Sanderson has a letter in #148, and Richard Howell has one in #149. Mark DrummondMarch 1, 2017 10:58 AM Avengers #139-140 Peter Sanderson has a letter in #139. Mark DrummondMarch 1, 2017 10:55 AM Avengers #137-138 The Beast probably dresses like Edward G. Robinson because Robinson starred in a film called "The Stranger". At one point the Beast calls the Stranger "Cesar Romero", most likely due to the similar mustaches. Jonathan, son of KevinMarch 1, 2017 10:52 AM Defenders #78-83 Interesting reference here to Hulk's "amazing recuperative abilities". PAD will later give Hulk a full-on healing factor in Hulk #340. I'd always seen that as something PAD had created outright, but this at least gives a vague precedent for it. Anyone aware of any other mentions of Hulk's recuperative abilities prior to Hulk #340? Mark DrummondMarch 1, 2017 10:46 AM Hellstorm #7-11 That actually is Mark Badger's normal art style, as evidenced by his 1988 Martian Manhunter mini-series. Austin GortonMarch 1, 2017 9:51 AM X-Factor #95 This series is going to be a hard slog now that Peter David is gone, isn't it? Pretty much, yeah. It basically gets progressively worse. DeMatteis is fine here (but no David), then John Francis Moore does some stuff that's...fine, but looks like high art next to Mackie, whose work is more or less atrocious, and then (after far too much time), it's all mercifully over. But there is some nice Steve Epting art during at least some of that! And Peter David's return to the characters/series in the 00s is entertaining! Mizark March 1, 2017 9:34 AM Fantastic Four Unlimited #5 I think the Trimpe style switch is destined to be one of comics great unsolved mysteries. Trimpe's statement on the matter is given in Brian Cronin's Comic Book Legends #195. He insists that it was his idea alone.We only have hearsay about Rockwitz's part in the matter. I am willing to believe Trimpe's own words over hearsay. Amash's account could also read as a friendly bit of advice. I do think that it sounds quite different than an editorial mandate. AndrewMarch 1, 2017 7:41 AM Captain America #315 There's a cute callout to this issue in Avengers Annual '98 by Kurt Busiek. There's a scene set in the Avengers trophy room where you can see the Casket of Ancient Winters, several Ultron heads, the Wanda and Pietro dolls from Avengers 181... and the Porcupine suit. I always wondered what the suit was doing there. Now I know. Omar KarinduMarch 1, 2017 6:38 AM Defenders annual #1 On reflection, the Headmen's brainwashing isn't "anti-Establishment," since they sort of represent the new Establishment; it's more like getting one counterculture/alternative group to turn on all the others. So, yeah, I *am* reading way too much into all of this. Omar KarinduMarch 1, 2017 6:36 AM Defenders annual #1 I sort of thought the point was that Strange's argument doesn't work the way he intends; Nebulon doesn't respond by seeing the greatness of humanity, but by declaring that humanity is too awful to be saved. More broadly, Gerber does something here: the Defenders are a counterculture, misfits who don't always get along, but are always there for each other when it counts. So he pits them against the big power institutions: Pennyworth as corporate mastermind profiting from social division in the Serpents arc, the Headmen as the emerging antidemocratic technocratic class -- they want to take over the world nonviolently -- making deals with governments around the world to use mad science to solve social problems without democratic consent. And elsewhere, their enemies are parodies of the dubious new mass movements people latch onto even as the mainstream society fragments or its rot becomes impossible to ignore. And among the Defenders themselves, there's Jackal Norris having to point out how crazy these "counterculture" people get when they become wrapped up in themselves or go full-on anti-Establishment (the Headmen's brainwashing), the Valkyrie negotiating a loss of traditional feminine identity and the power and limits of a very different one, and Luke Cage and the Red Guardian arguing the merits of capitalist individuality vs. socialist collectivism. It's very much a post-hippie, post-Nixon kind of comic. Or maybe I'm reading *way* too much into all of it :) Omar KarinduMarch 1, 2017 6:26 AM Defenders #35 The other interesting bit with Gerber's version of the Red Guardian is that she's a committed Communist, but working outside of the Soviet government and thus regarded as an enemy of the state. RickFebruary 28, 2017 11:31 PM Iron Man annual #3 Cynthia's last name is never revealed in the story. The Molecule Man entry in OHOTMU Deluxe #9 reveals it as McClellan. fnord12February 28, 2017 9:33 PM Hellstorm #7-11 @Morgan, she only appears in 3 more issues of this series and then doesn't appear again until 2004, and she's also the sort of character where "resurrections" aren't really surprising. And she was promised on the cover of issue #1, so i consider her return as part of the package of the series. So i didn't think it merited a significance point. Mquinn1976February 28, 2017 8:30 PM Damage Control #1-4 I'm with Fnord on humor in the MU. A lot of times it ruins characters credibility. Also, as bad as Kyle Bakers art was in #1, it's better than half of Marvels comics now Mquinn1976February 28, 2017 8:18 PM Alpha Flight #40 It's what happens to me after I eat too many Buffalo Wings MichaelFebruary 28, 2017 7:52 PM Fantastic Four #379-383 @Walter- I don't think that DeFalco intended to keep them permanently dead. Doom reappears in Fantastic Four 406- DeFalco's last issue was 416. And Zarrko revealed that he knew where Doom and Reed were in FF 405 and we first saw Hyperstorm in shadow in issue 404. In fact, the whole Hyperstorm plotline reads like it was supposed to be an "epic" involving Reed and Doom but got cut short due to Onslaught. Jon DubyaFebruary 28, 2017 7:26 PM Damage Control #1-4 No one else noticed the rather...ribald innuendo in the "movie" panel? Mark BlackFebruary 28, 2017 6:35 PM Captain America #420 I like that after Quasar corrects Nick Fury on the proper way to address him, Fury then calls him 'Agent'. Fury would be an HR nightmare in today's workplace. Mark BlackFebruary 28, 2017 6:32 PM Hellstorm #7-11 The introduction of the demons surrounding the returned souls is interesting. I wonder if their introduction is a quick fix designed to rid complications of whether a pedophile (who seems repentant) belongs in heaven or hell. Walter LawsonFebruary 28, 2017 6:08 PM Fantastic Four #379-383 The Byrne story where Terrax kills Dr Doom was the first FF comic I bought, so even though I liked DeFalco's run somewhat, the Reed/Doom deaths seemed ludicrous to me. There also wasn't any hype in the fan press, from what I recall: even the "death" of Loki in DeFalco's Thor book a year or two earlier got a push from Comic Shop News. That the Reed/Doom deaths didn't made them seem even less meaningful. But oddly enough, I think DeFalco really did intend to keep them dead as long as he was on the book: as it is, he only brings them back once it's clear he's leaving. And I do like the the fact Sue doesn't believe they're dead, as well as the try-out Reed replacements we get. Who doesn't like Scott Lang? And Kristoff as Doom's heir and an FF member (sort of) is a set-up with potential. We also get to have Namor court Sue again in different circumstances than we've seen before. These are good ideas all limited by DeFalco's limits as a writer, but nonetheless this feels the way the MU is supposed to feel: unashamed superhero fun in a continuity where characters and events persist. I do wish DeFalco/Ryan has been able to come up with more imaginative villains than "Dreadface" and "Hyperstorm," though. And the lameness of "The Hunger" is only highlighted by the recollection of Terrax and Byrne. MidnighterFebruary 28, 2017 5:58 PM Hellstorm #7-11 For me, that was really mind-blowing... In Italy, these was the first episodes of a brand new experiment of publishing Marvel Comics in 96 pages pocket books in black & white (previous episodes of this series was published in a magazine alongside Ghost Rider and Midnight Sons). When I read these stories, well ... I shook my head! Shortly after I started reading also Preacher, and shortly thereafter they "drove out" of the Catholic school and I went to public school. Best choice of my life, I started to make me a lot of questions about life, about the society (I think it was the first time that I really felt empathy for a homosexual), I started reading the X-Men beyond the forms of Psylocke and really understand the message of equality and coexistence that communicated ... I would say that Kaminsky (and then Ellis) has really changed my life... I am the person that I am nowaday thanks to these stories they writes... Morgan WickFebruary 28, 2017 5:33 PM Hellstorm #7-11 Does the revival of Satana merit a Historical Significance boost or does this ultimately not mean much? MortificatorFebruary 28, 2017 5:02 PM Quasar #44-48 When I read issue 46 back in the day, Blazing Skull appealed to me more than Ghost Rider. I think it was in part because the '90s Ghost Rider was so staid, and in part because a glowing skeletal body seemed cooler than just a skeletal head. After hearing about the Golden Age hero of the same name, I assumed that was who was appearing here. It wasn't until this chronology that I understood the Shock Troop Blazing Skull was a different obscure character. Ben HermanFebruary 28, 2017 4:47 PM Captain America #420 If this had been written by John Byrne, the Blazing Skull would have been revealed to be the Red Skull's cousin :) MortificatorFebruary 28, 2017 4:39 PM Captain America #420 After seeing how naive the heroes were, Red Skull should have sent in a tip that he was associated with Red Sonja. It'd get Cap bumbling around in the Hyborian age for two issues at least. Ben HermanFebruary 28, 2017 3:55 PM Avengers West Coast #60-62 Hey, now that Songbird is at long last an official member of the Avengers, maybe we will finally see the battle with Oort the Living Comet that she alluded to in Avengers Forever #3. JoshuaFebruary 28, 2017 3:24 PM Hellstorm #7-11 LOL having been a fan of your site for a long time, I was fairly certain of the error but it is funny how one little letter could so change an entire paragraph. fnord12February 28, 2017 3:20 PM Hellstorm #7-11 Whoops, typed "now" instead of "not" and totally changed the meaning! Thanks. JoshuaFebruary 28, 2017 3:16 PM Hellstorm #7-11 When you're talking about things we know to be evil, I think you missed a not. "As well as exploring the tension between what the audience knows to now be evil (e.g. homosexuality, hopefully) " Love your site BerendFebruary 28, 2017 3:04 PM Captain America #420 This Blazing Skull has such a terrible design. The glowing skeleton in the black outline is fine, but by giving him gloves and boots, all you're doing is drawing attention to the fact that he's apparently walking around naked. a.lloydFebruary 28, 2017 1:18 PM West Coast Avengers #42-45 "You're basically human in every way -- except that your body is made of synthetic parts!" So you're not human. Thus Byrne IS going by the creator's intent. Plus, Henry Pym went through a journey through the Vison's robotic body. As drawn by Neal Adams, it had wires and tubes etc. Ben HermanFebruary 28, 2017 12:29 PM Morbius #14-15 "she left her favorite head sharpener there and had to go back for it" Between fnord's review and that comment of his, I'm on the verge of laughing hysterically. I don't own these issues, but they sound like a train wreck. Morbius fight the Werewolf, Morbius kills an innocent bystander, Morbius fight D'spayre, Morbius scares the crap out of his friend Jacob, Morbius goes to work, Morbius kills a mugger, Morbius has kinky sex with his dominatrix secretary, Morbius experiences a supernatural split personality, Morbius fights Ghost Rider, Morbius makes out with his undead girlfriend... did I miss anything? :) On a more serious note, these issues do highlight how ridiculous it is to have a character like Morbius having an ongoing series set in a world with heroes who refuse to use lethal force, as well as having those same heroes regularly teaming up with him. At this point how many people has Morbius killed anyway? Letting him live pretty much guarantees that more people are going to die in the future. Working alongside him and telling him "just try not to kill anyone else going forward" is insanity. Okay, so the Midnight Sons don't want to kill Morbius, but how about at least trying to lock him up? Sure, it's the Marvel universe, and he'll probably break out of jail within six months, but at least they'd be making a token effort at stopping him from committing more murders. a.lloydFebruary 28, 2017 12:28 PM Fantastic Four #309-311 I want to die!!! ugh JTI88February 28, 2017 12:00 PM Amazing Spider-Man #157-159 In the fight Spiderman punch Hammerhead in the head. Seriously. Ben HermanFebruary 28, 2017 11:52 AM Avengers #120-124 @Mark Drummond: Yeah, it's fun to look through the letters pages of Silver Age and Bronze Age comic books to see how many future comic book creators started out as letterhacks. Ben HermanFebruary 28, 2017 11:45 AM Fantastic Four Unlimited #5 As I previously mentioned in the comments for FFU #1, editor Mike Rockwitz was apparently the person who suggested to Herb Trimpe that he adopt a style more like the Image Comics founders. I'm more open-minded about Trimpe's early 1990s work than most, but I have to agree that his art for FFU #5 was especially wonky and off-kilter. Reading this issue in real time, I definitely noticed that the continuity between it and the regular FF book was a real train wreck. This is one of those issues where I was curious how fnord was going to find a way to resolve the glaring discrepancies. Using the Wizard's "Letheo-Ray" is a good way around them. I suppose we can also say that those "pockets of non-causality" caused some slight hiccups in the space-time continuum, which is why the events of this story and FF #384 don't line up. Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:31 AM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 In Giant-Size#3, letterer L.P. Gregory is actually longtime DC letterer/logo designer Gaspar Saladino. DC Publisher Carmine Infantino frowned on DC employees moonlighting, which probably explains why a pseudonym is still being used in 1975. Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:21 AM Avengers #126 Also, Ralph Macchio has a letter here. Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:21 AM Avengers #126 Dave Cockrum apparently drew himself as one of the bystanders in the double-page spread. Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:18 AM Avengers #125 The name Yggthion mentioned by that alien is a reference to a character in the early 1970s SF stage play "Warp". Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:16 AM Avengers #120-124 Rick Hoberg has a letter in #122. Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:14 AM Avengers #115-118 / Defenders #8-11 Also: the Valkyrie's logo for her battle was spelled "Valkrie". Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:13 AM Avengers #115-118 / Defenders #8-11 A later letters column stated that Frank McLaughlin did uncredited inks on #117. Ralph Macchio has a letter in #118. Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:09 AM Avengers #115 Richard Howell also has a letter here. Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:07 AM Avengers #111 "Commissioner Alfred" in this story is a mashup of Commissioner Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth. "Dick" might be a reference to Dick Grayson. Mark DrummondFebruary 28, 2017 11:05 AM Avengers #105-108 Buscema's art in #105 was a fill-in due to Buckler's wife having a baby. Wendy Pini has a letter in #107. Mizark February 28, 2017 11:00 AM Fantastic Four Unlimited #5 Unfortunately I think that I prefer this art over the period right before this when Trimpe was doing a lot of fill-ins because that stuff was just too stiff and bland. Say what you will this is not bland:). Even classic early 70s Trimpe was never one of my favorite artists although John Severin's strong inks made his stuff look excellent.May they both RIP. J-RodFebruary 28, 2017 10:49 AM Power Pack #27 Read this last night for the second time ever. I found some of the X-Factor scenes to be out of place. Character development for Cyclops, complete with internal monologue -- in Power Pack? Huh? Ditto for the fairly important development of bringing Leech and particularly Caliban into X-Factor, and Skids suddenly out of nowhere deciding to trust X-Factor, not to mention leaving Rusty's side in the first place. I don't really care for Power Pack (I only read this issue because it's in my Mutant Massacre trade), but a non-X book interacting with an event like this one should still retain focus on its own characters and their interaction with the crossover's events and guest characters rather than serve development for those characters crossing over into the book. Thor 373-374 is a MUCH better example of how it should be. I generally like Louise Simonson, but I think she whiffed here. Got too carried away with being one of the lead writers here, I guess. Ben HermanFebruary 28, 2017 9:59 AM Fantastic Four #379-383 With the benefit of two decades of hindsight, as well as hopefully at least a little bit more maturity, my evaluation of these issues is very similar to the ones Walter Lawson and Clutch offer above. These aren't great comic books, but neither are they awful. I did enjoy them, in spite of their various flaws. And the penciling by Paul Ryan was probably among the most professional work being done at Marvel in 1993. There were a couple of aspects to Reed and Doom apparently staying dead for such an extended period of time that I liked: One, it enabled Sue to step up and become the leader of the FF, and really show her stuff. Once she gets rid of the Malice persona (and switches to a slightly less revealing but still fashionable costume) she's depicted really well by DeFalco and Ryan. Two, I enjoyed that Sue is the only member of the cast who is allowed to be genre savvy enough to recognize that of course Reed and Doom aren't really dead. Made her appear much stronger. Instead of holding her head and helplessly shrieking "Oh, no, Reed is dead, whatever will I do?" she is given an unshakable determination and tells everyone "Reed is alive, he's out there somewhere, and I *will* find him!" By the way, fnord, really I like your theory for the true identity of Doom 2099. I can't even remember what his origin turned out to be, but your idea was probably much more interesting than what we actually got. Luis DantasFebruary 28, 2017 9:20 AM Fantastic Four #379-383 It is certainly difficult to imagine a good reason why the Goddess would have failed to react to Malice's presence one way or the other shortly back in Infinity Crusade. I can almost understand why DeFalco would not want to engage in a pointless dispute with Jim Starlin about how to handle Susan, but the end result was such a deep disconnect that it harms the perception of continuity. A better editor would have negotiated something - say, having Goddess acknowledge that Susan was not quite herself and leave her behind. Of course, that would require Goddess' choices to have some logic to them, which I don't think they did. Marvel's editorial was really weak at this point in time. fnord12February 28, 2017 8:50 AM Morbius #14-15 @Michael, as you imply, due to the lack of coordination there is going to be a compromise no matter what, and i don't really want to put a week+ long break in Road to Vengeance. Lilith has a teleporter on her team, and she might have decided she liked hanging out in the Midwest or she left her favorite head sharpener there and had to go back for it. fnord12February 28, 2017 8:44 AM Fantastic Four Unlimited #5 Thanks Michael. Can't believe i never noted them before. I'll take the excuse Clyde gave me and blame the Letheo-Ray. (Added a note/scan for Avengers #235 and Avengers Spotlight #26; couldn't find it in Spotlight #29 but no big deal.) ClutchFebruary 28, 2017 7:34 AM Morbius #14-15 Every dude ought to have a co-worker like Mandy. Only in the funnybooks, people. Seriously, though: Those sex panels make this book look like an S&M porn comic. Why didn't they just bring in Howard Chaykin and call it a day? Man, the 90s keep on sucking the more time passes by. JSfanFebruary 28, 2017 7:01 AM Fantastic Four Unlimited #4 Herb, you're better than that. No need to ape McFarlane and Liefeld's style. ClutchFebruary 28, 2017 6:57 AM Fantastic Four Unlimited #4 Both Delphi and Kala are dressed just like Dream Girl from DC's Legion of Super-Heroes. Also, I don't believe that Herb Trimpe meant for Kala to be wearing boots while inside that chamber since we can clearly see her toes on what were probably supposed to be her bare feet. Herb was proud of his FF work during his time, I suppose because adapting to the Image style proved a challenge for him and he felt that he pulled it off. Me, I'll always fondly remember him for his runs on the G.I. Joe comics. ClutchFebruary 28, 2017 6:36 AM Fantastic Four #379-383 Despite my misgivings about his writing, I will always be grateful to DeFalco for his MTIO story where he began the Sandman's path towards reformation. I had also grown accustomed to the fact that he was keen on setting his books in full retro mode after reading a bit of his earlier stint on Thor, so I was okay with it even though going back to Stan's style of dialogue wasn't my kind of thing. That said, I remember browsing these issues by the comics rack at Fedco and wondering how long it would take for Reed and Doom to come back. I was surprised that it actually took a while before I finally spotted a bearded and battered Reed on the cover of #407. Also, count me in on the minority of fans who kinda dug Sue's outfit. Hey, I was 21 and it was the late Paul Ryan on the art. Had it been any of the Image founders it would have merited an eye roll from me, but only a guy like Paul could pull off that costume with artistic integrity. His artwork on this run helped keep things consistent and made the stories look less "90s" than most other books of the period. MichaelFebruary 27, 2017 10:47 PM Morbius #14-15 I think that this issue should take place during Road to Vengeance. Lilith is in the Midwest this story. She's working with Centurious in the Midwestern town of Holly during Road to Vengeance before heading to New York for the final battle. In Siege of Darkness, she manifests in New York. It makes a lot more sense for Lilith to go from the Midwest to New York instead of having her go from the Midwest to New York to the Midwest to New York for no real reason. Besides, Ghost Rider is worried about preserving the Nine, which works a lot better if he knows Lilith is alive- he thinks she's dead between the end of Road to Vengeance and the start of Siege of Darkness. The problem is that issue 13 takes place after Nakota is reborn at the start of Road to Vengeance and Jack's been looking for Morbius "over a week". Maybe you could sneak a week into Road to Vengeance? (The real answer is this wasn't coordinated very well.) Walter LawsonFebruary 27, 2017 9:26 PM Fantastic Four #379-383 I'll offer a dissenting view. These are not great comics by any means, but I think they belong in the C-range, and by the standards of Marvel at this time, they're solid B's. First, because Paul Ryan's art is on-model and exhibits good storytelling: he's not flashy, but he has the basics of the craft, in a way that fewer and fewer Marvel artists did at this time. Second, I credit DeFalco for not throwing away characters like Sharon Ventura and Lyja. There's a sense of continuity and affection for the obscure. Lyja is DeFalco's own creation, of course, but she could have been a one-story gimmick, like Peter Parker's parents. Instead, DeFalco invests in her as a recurring character. The pace of these issues may be nonstop, and it may be one crisis after another, but most other Marvel books at this time suffered from the opposite problem. If you cared at all about the characters or story (and it's fine if you didn't), you had a reason to come back everything month. DeFalco also treated FF as if it should be a line-leading book where important MU stuff happens, and although the Days of Future Past stuff with Franklin is a bit much, at least there's an attempt to give a sense this book matters. Compared to the Midnight Sons line, the Spidey books, the crap that Thor has become, Secret Defenders, and 20 other books of this era, DeFalco's seems like a minor but readable '70s or '80s title. Faint praise, but this could be so much worse that a D-range grade seems too low to me. SFebruary 27, 2017 8:33 PM Fantastic Four #384 Can't wait to see what kind of racy cut-out costume Franklin will start wearing now... MichaelFebruary 27, 2017 8:19 PM Fantastic Four Unlimited #5 The Wizard previously used the pocket of non-casuality in Avengers 235, Avengers Spotlight 26 and Avengers Spotlight 29. Admittedly, Johnny wasn't present for any of those occasions but it's possible the Wizard assumed the other heroes told Johnny about it. EnchloreFebruary 27, 2017 8:17 PM Fantastic Four #379-383 Paul Ryan's art is really good here, it's a shame that it's pretty much wasted. As a kid a lot of these issues were in my school's library (actually a lot of Spider-Man issues, but since at the time the FF stories were published in Spidey's comic I got to read them) so I got some scattered parts of this storyline and I was really curious to know how Reed and Doom returned (it never seemed to me like this was supposed to be a death readers believed was real). A few years ago I managed to get a lot of the Spider-Man issues with this FF storyline and was very disappointed at how it didn't hold up to my memories of it. Also, it's amazing how a letter from one of the issues turned out to be from a regular visitor here! Morgan WickFebruary 27, 2017 7:50 PM Fantastic Four #379-383 You'd think if DeFalco wanted the FF run so ragged he wouldn't have allowed generic appearances of the FF in other books with some but not all of the changes he was instituting, or at least had the FF directly tie in with Infinity Crusade so it could actually fit in a coherent spot in their timeline and maybe even be part of their being run so ragged, or at the very least allowed FF Unlimited to occur at coherent spots in the timeline either by weaving his plots through it or not having it include some but not all of his changes, but it's clear no one really cares about coherent continuity at this point. I'm not sure how much power DeFalco even has as EiC at this point; he seems to be mostly focused on his FF run and as mentioned elsewhere didn't put any more effort than anyone else into this year's "new character" annual initiative. Adam DaleFebruary 27, 2017 7:28 PM Wolverine/Cable: Guts and Glory I blame Sam Kieth's influence more than JRJR. Platt's stuff always looked like a horrible mash-up of all the worst qualities of the Image artists. D09February 27, 2017 5:38 PM Infinity Gauntlet #5 My No-Prize explanation on the Epoch/Eon situation: Epoch petitioned Anthropomorpho for a copy of her father's body along with the experience and wisdom it holds in order to stand a chance against Thanos. MattFebruary 27, 2017 4:44 PM Iron Man #298-300 Thanks, Fnord. I am eager to see what you'll have to say. I certainly would much rather read your synopsis and analysis than any part of that crossover ever again! Keep up the great work! This site perpetually amazes me. Ben HermanFebruary 27, 2017 4:33 PM Fantastic Four #379-383 No worries, fnord. Keep up the great work. fnord12February 27, 2017 4:28 PM Fantastic Four #379-383 As i said, Ben, i didn't want to seem like i was calling out the letter to shame you or anything like that. :-) I just think it's an interesting case of Marvel's "illusion of change" working. I'm sure what you expressed in that letter was a common sentiment. It just bugs me because in retrospect it's easy to see how DeFalco actually squashed a lot of previous development. But what is "obvious" in retrospect wasn't necessarily what readers, especially new readers, were seeing, and your letter was a great example of that. I intended to use it even before i saw that it was yours, but that made it all the more interesting. Hope you don't mind! Ben HermanFebruary 27, 2017 3:56 PM Fantastic Four #379-383 *THUMP!* Um, that's the sound that occurs when you do a facepalm, isn't it? I ask because that was *my* letter that fnord is quoting. A few months ago he mentioned he'd be referring to it when he got to these issues, so I dug out my copy of #382 to see what exactly I had written waaaay back in 1993. And, yeah, I wasn't happy with what I discovered. Okay, there were no TPBs or Essentials for me to read back then, so I obviously would have been mostly unfamiliar with pretty much any FF material from the 1970s. But I cannot believe that I was so completely stricken with amnesia that I forgot Steve Englehart's run, where a hell of a lot changed, for better or worse, as well as Walter Simonson's brief but amazing stint on the series. So please ignore what I wrote when I was 17 years old! Maybe I was swamped with senior year high school term papers and my brain momentarily went on the blink. For what it's worth, though, I never did think Reed Richards was dead, either. J-RodFebruary 27, 2017 3:55 PM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 By the by (and I didn't read all the comments so I apologize if someone has mentioned it, though it doesn't appear so from my Ctrl+F), the ending, wherein Nimrod saves Rodriguez, was retconned in an issue of New X-Men (formerly New X-Men: Academy X) from circa 2008 or so. Originally, it was assumed that Nimrod came directly from the Days of Future Past timeline, right? Well, in a story featuring William Stryker attacking the mansion and mostly dealing with the 2000s-era young students not long after Decimation (I don't have issue numbers handy atm, but I can easily check later), a Nimrod that Stryker's team seems to have found somewhere is used and then is sent back in time, popping up in the scene at the end of 191 (the scene is duplicated), indicating that Nimrod made another stop between Rachel's time and this issue. I thought it was a fun bit of continuity insertion that doesn't seem to have disrupted anything else. J-RodFebruary 27, 2017 3:51 PM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 I loved this story when I read it in X-Men Classic as a kid in the 90s; the XMC issues came out within my first year of collecting, and this left a lasting impression on me. I have reread this several times over the years (for example, after I tracked down the entire Busiek/Perez run of Avengers and happily discovered another Kulan Gath story), and I most recently reread it just a few months ago, and I was happy to find that it still holds up. Very fun story. Ataru320February 27, 2017 3:42 PM Fantastic Four Unlimited #5 Yeesh. The O-faces, the hideous artwork, the fact that Sharon basically is gone from the entire F4 book after this mess (aside from the ridiculous "rocky Toxic Avenger with boobs" look she seems to have)...I'd say the book's hit rock bottom, but another post elsewhere seems to confirm it's just going to get worse. BobFebruary 27, 2017 3:30 PM Fantastic Four Unlimited #5 Yeesh - I don't know who to feel more embarrassed for - Sharon, whose character is being used for toilet paper, or Trimpe, whose fans should have staged an intervention for him. BobFebruary 27, 2017 3:18 PM Fantastic Four #379-383 Buckethead Thing, space hooker Sue (whose gawdawful costume looks hilarious while sporting one her most June Cleaver hairstyles), Johnny married to a skull (though at least no longer wearing a bomber jacket), and now Reed and Doom killed as an afterthought, rather than the epic storyline such a move would have demanded, adult Franklin in a suit of armor that makes Portacio look subtle - while Cable...I mean Nathaniel...is lurking in the background. Ben HermanFebruary 27, 2017 3:06 PM Hulk #295-296 @Morgan Wick: I would not be terribly surprised if Marvel / Disney did try to buy the rights to Rom from Hasbro but gave them some lowball offer. I've heard that was what held up the Master of Kung Fu reprints for so long, Marvel was being stingy about loosening the purse strings. Morgan WickFebruary 27, 2017 2:30 PM Hulk #295-296 I almost wonder if the revival of Rom and Micronauts at IDW is an attempt to spite Marvel or something, or something similar to the X-Men and Fantastic Four movie situations, an attempt to get some value out of the IP rather than just let Marvel have them. With Marvel getting the rights to Fu Manchu back, I have to imagine Marvel was pushing to get Rom and Micronauts back as well. clydeFebruary 27, 2017 2:25 PM Fantastic Four Unlimited #5 "The Wizard talks about it like it's something that the Torch (and we) should remember, but there's no footnote and i can't believe that he would have used something before and i wouldn't have made a note of it. " "Interestingly, the Wizard attributes his death to "the Hunger" and not Dr. Doom." J-RodFebruary 27, 2017 12:22 PM Spider-Man/X-Factor: Shadowgames #1-3 I have never heard of this before. The art reminds me (very) vaguely of Mark Bagley (facial structures, eyes, fairly clean and detailed), but with more, I guess, shading/filling lines? Also Shadowforce (and Shadowgames) sounds like an Image launch property or a Sega Genesis title. a.lloydFebruary 27, 2017 11:03 AM Hulk #314 Byrne had Ramon appear one page in his entire run. How is he an offensive stereotype? BobFebruary 27, 2017 9:33 AM Hulk #295-296 You'd think Disney would have scooped up the rights for ROM. It's not like the toy was flying off the shelves all these years, BobFebruary 27, 2017 8:20 AM Hulk #291 They're must have been some major crushing on Nocenti in the Marvel offices back then. She's front and center in most of the Asst Editor's Month spots, more so than the other staff, and Adams completely drew Ricochet Rita as her in Longshot. Morgan WickFebruary 27, 2017 1:01 AM Uncanny X-Men #220 @Erik: Claremont himself bears some direct responsibility for that since he wrote two of those stories, FF/X-Men and Annual 11. Ben HermanFebruary 26, 2017 8:13 PM Iron Man annual #14 I always though that both the Masters of Silence and the Face Thief had some real potential, and it's unfortunate that more wasn't done with them. Definitely in agreement with both fnord's observations and Clutch's comments regarding the War Machine back-up. Ben HermanFebruary 26, 2017 8:10 PM Iron Man #296-297 @Luis Dantas: That was my understanding as well, that it was never actually established in any stories that SODAM became MODAM, and it was only stated in the Handbook of the Marvel Universe. As I've probably mentioned, I had dropped Iron Man several issues earlier, but I came back for this two part story. I was interested in seeing Iron Man fighting Omega Red, who at the time was a fairly high-profile X-Men villain. In the 1990s there was very little overlap between the Avengers and X-Men titles, which made stories such as this one more distinctive due to their rarity. I enjoyed these two issues, just not enough to start reading Iron Man regularly once again. Omar KarinduFebruary 26, 2017 6:56 PM Amazing Spider-Man #144-146 As to the possible deadline issues, maybe this is the strain of doing Giant-Size Spider-Man on top of ASM hitting Andru? The pencils in G-SSM #5, which came out around this time, look pretty loose. Omar KarinduFebruary 26, 2017 6:42 PM Amazing Spider-Man #144-146 The official Marvel Index tot he Amazing Spider-Man suggests that the reason NATO rejected the Cyclone's tornado-creating weapon was specifically that it could be defeated with something like an ordinary fan. Piotr WFebruary 26, 2017 5:46 PM Iron Man #68-71 "He is offering that globe to the world's mightiest villain - to be determined by Mortal Kombat!" Sorry, could resist :) This issue: the Yellow Claw wins! Fatality! Piotr WFebruary 26, 2017 5:32 PM Iron Man #2-4 I really liked the Unicorn in these issues. He shouts, he blasts things with glee... He's quite manic and aggressive, like a technological berserker. Iron Man's Sabretooth? ChrisWFebruary 26, 2017 5:07 PM Hulk #407-409 I basically agree. I only read a few PAD "Hulk" issues when they were coming out, but I'm missing few-if-any issues now, and as good as they are, they're mostly forgettable. I'm sure I've read these issues, but I don't recognize anything here. Although Rick proposing to Marlo tells me the wedding is coming soon, and I do remember some things from those issues. pgunnFebruary 26, 2017 3:30 PM Punisher #41 haha that last panel looks like a Mort Drucker drawing! ChrisFebruary 26, 2017 2:22 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #194-196 I never knew Dematteis used Zemo again in his Spectacular Spider-Man run. You can put me down as one of those disappointed in Zemo's depiction here. This is definitely the Zemo as Dematteis last used him and not the one we've seen in Stern's and Gruenwald's stories. Dematteis needed to do a better job incorporating the latter stories characterization in order to make it work. The Stern Zemo is just a much better villain than Dematteis's Zemo, and what we see here just weakens that. gfsdf gfbd (G Something)February 26, 2017 2:01 PM Fantastic Four #224-225 Ran across this fascinating interview with Len Wein and Marv Wolfman where they both cite this as the first Fantastic Four issue they could not read. The interview's really a gem, especially, when they're voicing their opinions on Byrne. AndrewFebruary 26, 2017 1:43 PM Fantastic Four #278-279 I guess I'm making a subtle argument. I'm reacting to fnord's comment that he's surprised to see that word in a CCA book. It's kind of like having drugs as subject manner, except in reverse. Once, you couldn't even mention drugs, then, you could as long as it was in the context of drugs being bad. For the n-word, it was once acceptable to use it in a story dealing with the evils of racism, now it's a word that can't be used at any time for any reason. Matthew BradleyFebruary 26, 2017 1:41 PM Hulk #245-248 In support of Walter, I think that if you compare the Gardener's wording here ("Brothers had I, one who loved to study, another who engaged in endless sport!") and the Collector's in AVENGERS #174 ("My brother sought sport in this continuum, and...I wished only to study the simple creatures here"), it's indisputable that the Gardener is referring to the Collector and Grandmaster. gfsdf gfbd (G Something)February 26, 2017 1:36 PM Iron Man #55 I'm years late to this, but LOL @ "Roy Thomas gave him a speech about how words are tools, not pearls." Roy Thomas of all people. ChrisFebruary 26, 2017 1:09 PM Hulk #407-409 Hulk was the only Marvel comic I was reading in the period, and I enjoyed it. But I must admit there are some major weaknesses to Peter David's work here. His villains are mostly forgettable. Whenever he creates a new villain, I really don't care if I ever see them again. And when he reuses classic villains, they seem misused or at least not threatening. Second, the Pantheon doesn't work. I don't like these retroactive continuity implants in the first place, far better to simply make them a relatively new organization becoming prominent for the first time. Then these characters are all generic - find a Greek hero's name and make it the name for a superhero. And their powers are rather generic. The concept just isn't strong enough to be a major part of the title. This story is a good example of that. Piecemeal is an uninteresting villain. Madman was initially an intriguing villain who is just ridiculous right now, there is no gravitas or coolness. Perseus is just another disposable character no one cares about. So despite the fact that I like a lot of David's work (good characterization and intelligent writing) and this is the only Marvel book I was reading for a good four to six years, I only have vague memories of this era. I never thought Gary Frank was a great artist, but he's decent and serviceable and not atrocious to look at like most of Marvel at the moment. So I remember liking the art, but that is about it. MichaelFebruary 26, 2017 11:58 AM Namor #41 But now that I look more carefully, the rejected War Machine plot was co-written by Scott Benson, so this probably wasn't it. MichaelFebruary 26, 2017 10:22 AM Namor #41 Another possibility on the origin of the plot- Kaminski mentioned that his first draft for War Machine 1 was rejected and Yomtov only agreed to give him one more chance after that. Maybe this is the rejected plot and the navy captain was supposed to be a supporting character in War Machine's series? MichaelFebruary 26, 2017 10:11 AM Amazing Spider-Man #344 In fact, Jonathan Caesar's backstory involved him being a spoiled brat who murdered a sibling over a toy as a child- just like Kathy Dare in Michelinie's Iron Man. Erik RobbinsFebruary 26, 2017 2:28 AM Avengers West Coast #98-100 And then there is the matter of his name, which makes him sound like a Hell Lord. MichaelFebruary 25, 2017 11:50 PM Fantastic Four #278-279 Andrew, I was in college when at the time of the OJ trial. Trust me, even before it, people knew not to say the n-word. In fact, there was an episode of "Gimme A Break" that aired in February 1982 that hinges on the daughter using the n-word and the father getting upset. Luis DantasFebruary 25, 2017 10:34 PM Iron Man #296-297 One of the issues of the Official Handbook has a MODAM entry that claims that SODAM became MODAM, and that it was revealed in a Quasar issue (almost certainly #9). Checking that issue's entry, I guess it was not made explicit. The main piece of evidence beyond the Handbook's entry itself is the fact that whoever we thought to have been Maria Pym appeared in Solo Avengers as SODAM just over a year before Quasar #9 and has not been mentioned since. So it is all circunstantial, apparently. fnord12February 25, 2017 8:51 PM Iron Man #298-300 The Crossing is in scope and i intend to cover it when i get there. fnord12February 25, 2017 8:49 PM Iron Man #296-297 What that bio doesn't show is when it is revealed that MODAM is SODAM. That hadn't happened by these issues (unless i've missed it). I realized that when i went to comment on Omega Red's (disputed) claim about her identity and how it contradicts the (also disputed) idea that SODAM was Maria Pym (nee Trovaya). AndrewFebruary 25, 2017 8:44 PM Iron Man #298-300 He just covered the Terrminatrix Objective. That's as bad and incomprehensible and de-canonized, but the Crossing has Deodato art. clydeFebruary 25, 2017 7:07 PM Iron Man #296-297 Here's her bio on wiki - MichaelFebruary 25, 2017 5:09 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 The problem is that the claim Satannish was "above good and evil" never really made much sense- he was clearly willing to accept Strange's soul against Strange's will and helped his followers bring Surtur and Ymir to Earth. In Giant- Size Defenders 2, by Len Wein, Satannish's servant Asmodeus is unable to hurt Daimon because "the powers of darkness cannot harm one who was spawned in the lower depths"- the clear implication is that Satannish is one of the "powers of darkness". Later on, in the Six-Fingered Hand storyline, Satannish is explicitly described as a Hell Lord. So it was Wein and DeMatteis that decided Satannish was a Hell Lord- mostly Wein. Piotr WFebruary 25, 2017 5:09 PM Iron Man #296-297 Nope. Kate Waynesboro was Ms. MODOK :) And she got de-MODOKed almost immediately. MODAM is an AIM agent and she first appeared as SODAM. MattFebruary 25, 2017 4:52 PM Iron Man #298-300 Speaking of the Crossing, I have a question for Fnord: Are you going to cover it? The reason I ask is that you've said that anything that would truly deserve a rating of "F" wouldn't be covered, and I just don't see how the crossing could be anything else. It makes the Clone Saga look like a well-planned, well-executed masterpiece, it's at least as damaging to Iron Man as a character as One More Day is to Spider-Man (and maybe more so, since it basically invalidates everything but the first couple years of the character's development), and it's so atrocious that it gets retconned almost out of existence. Perhaps slightly off-topic, but only slightly, and I am curious. BUFebruary 25, 2017 4:29 PM Iron Man #296-297 ?!? ...Wasn't MODAM Katherine Waynesboro? Piotr WFebruary 25, 2017 3:22 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Speaking of Satannish, I never understood how a being that seemed somewhat like a burning Zeus in its first appearance and was mentioned as being above good and evil ended up as another hell lord... with two faces to boot. fnord12February 25, 2017 12:56 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Sure, i've added it. Jon DubyaFebruary 25, 2017 11:12 AM Tales Of Suspense #50 (Iron Man) So Pepper is yet another Marvel woman who didn't start out with her iconic hair color? And as silly as that scene was she DID look very different from her previous "frumpy" appearances. Of course she'll get even more Gwynth Paltrow-ized later down the road. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ProgressivelyPrettier Omar KarinduFebruary 25, 2017 7:02 AM Iron Man #296-297 In response to Michael's point, I think writers can just about get away with it if they emphasize that Stark tends to run his company in absentia because he's too busy running around as Iron Man or chasing the next Big Thing. But that's probably influenced by the movie version's personality, and is anachronistic when applied to older stories. Part of the issue is that writers, especially in the older stories, tend to both misunderstand how corporate governance work -- like the whole bizarre Simon Gilbert plotline in the 1970s that makes no sense if Stark is the majority shareholder all along -- and that, prior to the 1980s or so, writers also had the view that the hero of the book should be "good" as they defined good. So Stark tended to take on the views of the writer, even if that didn't fit with much else about him. Omar KarinduFebruary 25, 2017 6:53 AM Iron Man #298-300 Kaminski's take on Tony is that he's a manipulator at heart. Rhodey's hostility flows from the was Tony jerked him around with a faked death, giving him the reins at Stark International only to yank them away again. In essence, many of the things that Denny O'Neil's Rhodey *irrationally* though Stark was doing to him, Kaminski's Stark *actually does to him*. It's worth noting that the Stark-Rhodes friendship never really recovers from all of this. Urban CommandoFebruary 25, 2017 6:04 AM Avengers #224 Very good issue, and a good example of why I've always loved the character drama in The Avengers more than the action. ClutchFebruary 25, 2017 4:51 AM Iron Man #298-300 That misplaced thought balloon really cracked me up because by this point, the level of Rhodey's hostility towards Tony was basically undoing the work that Shaman did with Rhodey to "cleanse" him of his inner demons back in #195. Rhodey became more than just Tony's copter pilot and confidante during his run in the suit. I like them better as best friends who treat each others as equals or (at worst) competitors in the superhero biz. Granted, Tony can be a self-righteous prick, but an angry Rhodey just doesn't make up for it. These were among the final issues I bought in real time since discovering the series in 1981 and becoming a regular reader in 1983. I liked seeing the supporting cast members from various eras being brought together much like they did around the previous two anniversary issues (#100 & #200) but I hated how Abe Zimmer put down the previous armors only to be proven right when Ultimo trashes most of them. It was painful to see the iconic Mark V brought down so fast when it should have endured under pressure as well as the Mark VII (Silver Centurion) and Mark VIII models. My feelings about the book at the time were mostly frustrations at how Tony was designing a new suit every other couple of issues. I quit comics cold turkey in 1994 just before The Crossing happened and when I came back, things hadn't changed at all. With the movie era cementing Tony as a solid A-lister, I would guess that he's up to his 500th armor model by now, right? Geez. ClutchFebruary 25, 2017 3:56 AM Iron Man #296-297 Nice to have Steve Mitchell back on the book. He inked most of the O'Neil/McDonnell run which finally got me hooked as a regular reader starting with issue #170. ClutchFebruary 25, 2017 3:32 AM Iron Man annual #14 The lead story does feel more like Meredith's origin as Kaze II rather than an intro for the Face Thief. What a waste of a perfectly good trading card. Also, it's a clear sign that the CCA was long asleep at the wheel by this time given that they let that whole "face off" sequence pass muster. Ugh. I do like Meredith and how she's portrayed here, though. The art is nice. I might pick up this issue if I come across it in the near future. I think the deal with Rhodey's story (and the O'Neil/Adams GL/GA run) has a lot to do with the creators' frustration at not being able to solve real world problems when they write about tackling fictional ones all the time. When you care enough about something, sooner or later your conscience will begin to influence your work. Whether or not that is good for the story itself is usually left up to the reader. MichaelFebruary 24, 2017 8:58 PM Iron Man #298-300 Not only did the Mandarin claim that he created Ultimo but the Thermal Man's creator claimed that he helped in Thor Annual 15. MichaelFebruary 24, 2017 8:37 PM Iron Man #296-297 The board members selling nukes to AIM is just a symptom of an overused plot device- a former employee and/or lover of Tony turns against him. The problem with this is that womanizers and successful businessmen usually can read people better than the average person. And Tony usually can read people pretty well. But this kind of plot has been done so many times Tony looks like the worst judge of character in the world. MichaelFebruary 24, 2017 7:53 PM Iron Man annual #14 The backup story is weird- Clint talks about how he tried leading the AWC in the past tense- he says he went back to being a foot soldier. But Clint is leading the WCA from before War Machine joined until Avengers West Coast 98, which starts the story where Bobbi died. So either Clint is talking in the past tense while he's still leading the AWC or Rhodey is being pretty mean to someone whose wife just died. Morgan WickFebruary 24, 2017 7:42 PM Iron Man annual #14 I imagine that "let's go eat" scan is what Secret Wars II would have been like if the Beyonder were unambiguously evil. You alluded to this in the review, but you gotta love how the uniform of the MALE guard nicely conforms to Meredith's boobs... MichaelFebruary 24, 2017 7:40 PM Iron Man annual #14 Meredith McCall appears after this as a Master (Mistress?) of Silence in a Ghost Rider story in Marvel Comics Presents. But when she reappears in Iron Man after the Crossing, not only is she no longer a Master of Silence but she has a different husband than the one killed in this story. MichaelFebruary 24, 2017 7:29 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Satannish makes reference to invading Mephisto's "sphere" through Mephista- isn't that a reference to Doctor Strange 30? fnord12February 24, 2017 6:30 PM Iron Man annual #14 I really thought i would find it in the Lovecraftian issues of Dr. Strange illustrated by Sam Kweskin. Elder God-ish but goofy at the same time. But it's not there. Luis DantasFebruary 24, 2017 6:22 PM Iron Man annual #14 It reminds me of the Elder Things from H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". AndrewFebruary 24, 2017 4:44 PM Iron Man #298-300 The Simpsons has ruined the name Homer for at least a generation.... Piotr WFebruary 24, 2017 4:24 PM Iron Man #298-300 Over at the Appendix site, there's a claim that Earth-mover was supposed to return. That's why he gets a big introduction here. Mark DrummondFebruary 24, 2017 4:07 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 In a recent issue of Alter Ego, Roy Thomas specifically named Nel Yomtov as the one who ordered Mockingbird killed. Omar KarinduFebruary 24, 2017 3:56 PM Iron Man annual #14 The Face Thief's second form reminds me of the big Shambler monsters from the old video game Quake. Ataru320February 24, 2017 3:25 PM Iron Man #298-300 Remembering the Iron Man cartoon, I also remembered the AI; it probably is just a natural development of Tony to have something like that assisting him about now. It's stupid they went with "Jarvis" instead of HOMER, but my guess is they didn't want to keep around the concept of 'let's give Tony Stark a butler' so they just used his name for the AI to at least use something people would accept...and later to just use him for Vision. J-RodFebruary 24, 2017 2:37 PM Uncanny X-Men #214 That Lila Cheney video was fantastic. Piotr WFebruary 24, 2017 2:28 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Regarding why Hate-Monger is acceptable while Coldsteel and Zyklon aren't... I am not quite fond of Hate-Monger, either - using Hitler in that way *does* feel tacky to me. The difference here is, I think, that Hate-Monger is conceptually tied to Hitler's real-life methods. In real life, Hitler was a hate-mongering dictator, in MU he is a hate-mongering super-villain. Like Mortificator said, this character can be seen as a statement on the dangers of hate and prejudice. Meanwhile, Coldsteel and Zyklon have no such ties to their real-life counterparts. Stalin was a dictator surrounded by a cult of personality, while Coldsteel is... a super-strong bruiser? Himmler was a shrewd politician with deadly ideas and a skilled manager who used his talents to build a machine of terror - while Zyklon is... a guy who flies around and shoots poisonous gas? There's no bigger point here - these very dark historical figures are turned into simple villains in the vein of Pyro or Blob. It just feels... wrong. I know that the comics (and other media) have a tradition of appropriating real-life evil people into colourful villains - for example, Jack the Ripper has appeared in countless books, movies, comic books, even board games. This, too, could be considered questionable - after all, in truth the guy was an actual murderer not unlike Ted Bundy. The fact that he was active over 120 years ago softens that, though... It does not feel the same with Himmler and Stalin: it's just... too soon. cullenFebruary 24, 2017 2:26 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Very surprised WWII-historical-footnotes-in-the-lettercol-fanboy Thomas would have ideological and military foes Himmler and Stalin aligned here, in death or otherwise. Luke BlanchardFebruary 24, 2017 12:57 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 The net tells he me was a speedster. Apparently "Zyklon" means "cyclone" in German. Looking him up online I see he was designed to look like Siegfried from WONDER WOMAN #240, who was the Golden Age Flash in disguise. See http://www.amazonarchives.com/ww240.htm . Erik BeckFebruary 24, 2017 12:12 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 I guess there are no other All-Star Squadron fans here. Roy Thomas already created a character named Zyklon, back in 1985 for All-Star Squadron. BobFebruary 24, 2017 11:45 AM Namor #42-43 What is it with 90s comics and everyone having either ponytails or the Gideon look of shaved heads with ponytails? Vincent ValentiFebruary 24, 2017 10:58 AM Namor #42-43 Another way they are out-Imaging Image here, Dorkus is clearly a Ripclaw/Warblade ripoff, who themselves were ripoffs in the first place. ClutchFebruary 24, 2017 10:56 AM Namor #42-43 I picked up these issues last year in order to complete my collection of Stingray appearances but cringed at the covers. Diane Arliss Newell went from being eye candy during her Avengers appearances to your stereotypical, Image-ized Hot Babe in Undress by the time the 90s had hit the industry. I do have to admit that Roy Thomas adapted to the times quite flawlessly. Vincent ValentiFebruary 24, 2017 10:53 AM Night Thrasher #5 THIS is Saltare's work?? REALLY?? He is capable of so much better than this. Urban CommandoFebruary 24, 2017 6:53 AM Avengers West Coast #98-100 I'm glad Mockingbird is back; but the Skrull retcon- especially having her replaced BEFORE her and Clint make up, is pathetic. Hawk and Mock's reconciliation was very emotional and a classic moment in WCA history. Luke BlanchardFebruary 24, 2017 4:23 AM Avengers West Coast #98-100 "Stalin" was an adopted name. The Coldsteel identity is play on its meaning, "man of steel". I think Cyana's skin is supposed to be cyan as a play on her name. Erik RobbinsFebruary 24, 2017 2:29 AM Night Thrasher #2-4 Andrew F, that's who I was thinking of as well. StevenFebruary 24, 2017 1:00 AM Avengers West Coast #98-100 US Agent should have died instead of Mockingbird. He is the worthless character. Why didn't editorial recognize that? Why did editorial hate Mockingbird? MortificatorFebruary 24, 2017 12:48 AM Avengers West Coast #98-100 The way Stalin and Himmler were used as supervillains feels embarrassing, yet Hate-Monger is an aspect of Marvel history I like. Maybe that's contradictory, but thinking about it, there are some differences to me. In his public identity, Hitler had very prominent appearances in Golden Age comics, and has figured into the stories of some major characters. He was almost the arch-antagonist of the first published era of the Marvel universe. When two Jewish World War II veterans gave him a costumed identity and pitted him against their heroes in the Silver Age, they tried to make the story thematically appropriate. FF21 was about how people anywhere can do great evil if they're ruled by hate. In contrast, Stalin and Himmler didn't have a major role in the comics, and were made into supervillains just for a brawl and some jokes. RocknRollguitarplayerFebruary 24, 2017 12:38 AM Amazing Spider-Man #132-133 Wasn't the direction of the AIM movement in Iron Man 3 a direct swipe of Mark Raxton's Molten Man Power? Austin GortonFebruary 23, 2017 10:30 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Nightcrawler) Also, FWIW, when the X-Men arrive to where Vanisher is stuck, it looks like they're using the old Larry Trask Sentinel ship, which gets destroyed by Dark Phoenix, further justification for the earlier placement (I just noticed that working on my own review of the issue). Thanos6February 23, 2017 10:01 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 While the name of Zyklon may be bad, how is using Himmler and Stalin in this story any different than Simonson's cyborg Stalin, or the Hitler-as-Hate-Monger story done by two guys named Lieber and Kurtzberg? Mquinn1976February 23, 2017 9:20 PM Gun Runner #1-2 I'm glad Fnord finally admitted U.K. series are crap. I thought almost every Marvel UK book was a steaming pile of shite MichaelFebruary 23, 2017 8:52 PM Namor #42-43 Note that Stingray and Diane have kids this story- the first time that's been mentioned. MichaelFebruary 23, 2017 8:25 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 "And don't feel too sorry for Hawkeye, a guy that couldn't even tell that his wife was replaced by a Skrull". It's explained that the Skrull had a copy of Bobbi's memories, and therefore could exactly mimic her body language, manner of speaking, etc. MichaelFebruary 23, 2017 7:54 PM Night Thrasher #2-4 At the start of this story, Night Thrasher is considering killing the family's murderer, but he decides against it upon learning that the boy's parents were criminals. Huh? I mean, that might be a reason to reconsider if the parents were the only ones that died, but the kid died as well. I mean, there's legitimate arguments against committing murder to avenge the boy's death, but "his parents were criminals" isn't one. AndrewFebruary 23, 2017 7:49 PM Namor #42-43 Aww... you ruin all my fun... fnord12February 23, 2017 7:36 PM Namor #42-43 Shit, no, i think someone was having fun with whoever scanned my digital copy. I've replaced that image with a scan from my hard copy. Whoever did that did it to all the images of Diane in issue #43, and i avoided using those shots but missed that one. She's barely wearing anything anyway, so they might have been making a point or were just taking advantage of it. AndrewFebruary 23, 2017 7:25 PM Namor #42-43 Umm... on the splash page of issue 43 Diane totally isn't wearing any pants. The CCA clearly was asleep at the job here. Not that I'm objecting... DermieFebruary 23, 2017 7:13 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Jim McCann's explanation about Bobbi's corpse with the later Skrull reveal is that just a second after the panel where we see "Bobbi" die in Clint's arms, the corpse turns to ash--that as soon as she died, the magic of the hellfire incinerated her. That's why no one discovered at the time she was a Skrull; there was no corpse left. And since the scene immediately cuts to the funeral, at the headstone with no body, there is nothing on-panel to contradict it. So that's ONE upside to the rushed way Bobbi's death was handled--it provided a clean way to slip that retcon in there and bring Bobbi back by a writer who wanted to use her right! Getting back to this story--I had to laugh at the scene when USAgent is getting out of his hospital bed and tells Bobbi to avert her eyes so she doesn't see him naked. This is the same guy who deliberately flashed her his bare butt the last time he was in the hospital! But I guess now that she and Clint were officially back together, that changed the rules for him. I just thought that was interesting, for what it says about Walker's character and his thinking on such things. DermieFebruary 23, 2017 7:08 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Mockingbird has always been one of my favourites, so I was disappointed to see her killed off--but not surprised. When they announced that an Avenger was going to die in the story, you just KNEW it was going to be Bobbi. There was no chance of it being anyone else. Roy Thomas rarely did well by her character anyway. With the likes of Gruenwald and Englehart she was a strong, smart lady with a distinct personality and sense of humour. The AVENGERS SPOTLIGHT book had her and Clint resolve their differences and repair their marriage. Then Thomas takes over WCA and suddenly she and Clint are separated again with no explanation and Bobbi is reduced to just another costumed athlete and a nearly constant pissed-off attitude. It improved a bit when he finally had Bobbi and Clint get back together--but since he only did it to make it more dramatic when he killed Bobbi off, it was too little, too late. I agree completely with Fnord that Bobbi's death and funeral were horribly handled. I appreciated that they at least showed Tigra, Miguel and Cap showing up for the funeral--but there had better have been a LOT of other people in attendance that weren't shown on-panel. Maybe some of the space that went to the back-up features could have been better spent showing the funeral in more detail, and having the characters honour Bobbi (at least ONE of the back-ups was a Clint/Bobbi story, so that's something). DermieFebruary 23, 2017 6:55 PM Night Thrasher #2-4 I did appreciate that this gave Silhouette a bit more panel time and some personal storyline. She was always one of my favourite Warriors, but she rarely got much time in the spotlight in the main NEW WARRIORS book. DermieFebruary 23, 2017 6:41 PM Gun Runner #1-2 Between his build and those red eyes, in the scan where he is naked one could easily mistake Gun Runner for Wonder Man with a bad haircut (which is pretty plausible, given some of the ones Simon has had over the years). In the next scan Gale describes him as being 'almost naked' when she found him. Unless she's counting the elastics or whatever they are holding his hair into shape as clothing, I'm not sure why she's giving him the credit of 'almost'. lol Morgan WickFebruary 23, 2017 6:34 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 (Incidentally, when I opened the page Bob's comment wasn't up and I never reloaded it, so I could surmise from Andrew's comment that "Zyklon" had some importance of its own that would make it offensive but I didn't know what it was.) Andrew FFebruary 23, 2017 6:10 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 When this series started, my favorite aspect of it was Hawkeye and Mockingbird's marriage. They met and got married in a whirlwind miniseries, which was perfectly in character for Hawkeye, and it just made Mockingbird that much more appealing that she was able to appreciate what a goofball he is. And then they went and had her get raped by a ghost cowboy or whatever, and the whole stupid falling out between the two of them when Hawkeye uncharacteristically takes the ghost cowboy's side, basically...it would have been a gross and inappropriate story even if I wasn't invested in that couple. They never came back for me, even when they finally got back together...the magic was gone. And then they go and kill her off without much fanfare. Basically this whole series started great and turned into a huge disappointment. It's a product of the era, I guess. Morgan WickFebruary 23, 2017 6:09 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Gotta love the almost-wardrobe-malfunction-causing outfits the villainesses are wearing too. Satannish knows what's hip for the 90s. "Zyklon? ZYKLON?!? You're not even trying to get it right! Say it with me: X-Y-K-O-N! Xykon!" (points to whoever gets the reference) BobFebruary 23, 2017 5:57 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Himmler appearing as a "Duuuude, EXTREME!!" 90s cheeseball super villain, and he's named Zyklon, after the actual gas that exterminated millions of Jews in real life. Wow. Roy Thomas, how do you even show yourself in public after writing this swill? Andrew FFebruary 23, 2017 5:53 PM Night Thrasher #2-4 Obviously when they called Aardwolf "more savvy than Trump" they were referring to the fan-favorite supervillian who first appeared in Daredevil #203 fnord12February 23, 2017 5:49 PM Punisher #82-84 Ah, because it's depicted poorly over some awkward splash panels. More and more i find myself not including scans of scenes because they're like stretched out over two pages in some weirdly laid out splashes. BonezFebruary 23, 2017 5:43 PM Night Thrasher #2-4 Is that Strong Guy in those scans? Lmao AndrewFebruary 23, 2017 5:24 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Yeah, it's tacky. Calling a character Zyklon is just offensive no matter how you look at it. Lizzie Borden was probably innocent, and is only remembered because of the poem. Stalin almost works -- the guy did name himself "steel Lenin" after all -- but that's the best I can say about it. MortificatorFebruary 23, 2017 5:24 PM Namor #42-43 #42 was my first issue of a Namor or Sub-Mariner series. I remember wondering if Dorcas was the same guy who piloted the Mech. Taco in the Avengers arcade game (which is an octopus, by the way, not a food item). I wrote him off as a half-assed Doc Ock regardless, though Orka made a positive impression. Piotr WFebruary 23, 2017 5:19 PM Gun Runner #1-2 What I find interesting is that Marvel UK published a book set in the US. I may be mistaken, but weren't Marvel UK characters usually based in UK? MortificatorFebruary 23, 2017 5:03 PM Gun Runner #1-2 Marvel UK's really diversifying. Their Pumping Iron imprint just gave us Die-Cut, a genetically-engineered alien cyborg, and now the wildly different Gene Pool imprint gives us Gun Runner, a genetically-engineered alien cyborg. Piotr WFebruary 23, 2017 4:47 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 I'd love to hear other people's opinions on the use of the historical villains here in this story. For me, it's tacky. I understand that real-life villains tend to appear in comics, but it's one thing if you use people like Lucretia Borgia, who lived centuries ago. But using Himmler and Stalin? These aren't just some people from a history book, these were real-world politicians whose actions' effects are still remembered (or, in some respects, even lasting) in our lifetimes. Turning them into comic book supervillains seems really disrespectful. Especially villains who are, essentially, bruisers. Seriously, Stalin - a cruel dictator - becomes an evil strong guy? Really, Thomas? That's how you use a person like that? Also, from the purely factual point of view, this selection of villains doesn't make quite sense. Really - Stalin, Himmler, Borgia (let's say that the MU version of her did kill people) and... Lizzie Borden? What's so special about her..? Ben HermanFebruary 23, 2017 4:44 PM Namor #42-43 Of course Dorcas was eventually brought back to life for real in 2012, in an issue of Thunderbolts. No one ever stays dead at Marvel. Ben HermanFebruary 23, 2017 4:39 PM Punisher #82-84 "so he goes and kills him too (by driving a fire engine into him)" fnord, how can you not show us that?!? Ataru320February 23, 2017 4:22 PM Night Thrasher #2-4 Aardwolf: he'll make Genosha great agai..er, good agai...er, less sucky? BerendFebruary 23, 2017 4:17 PM Night Thrasher #2-4 Overcomplication is Nicieza's biggest pitfall. I like that you're writing sentences like "That's Tantrum above, and he also confronts Impulse", as if I'm supposed to remember who those people are :P I applaud Nieceza for introducing new characters rather than just relying on the established stable of Marvel baddies, but the characters he introduces in New Warriors and its spin offs... I see them, I forget about them, next issue introduces new ones, and then I forget about those as well, until I stumble upon their entries on the "Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe" website years later. Even though some of them have quite neat designs, they really don't stick in my mind. chaimlFebruary 23, 2017 3:46 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 The tpb sells for under five bucks at this site: Ben HermanFebruary 23, 2017 2:56 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Roy Thomas has subsequently stated that he was ordered by editorial to kill Mockingbird, and he only reluctantly complied. Ben HermanFebruary 23, 2017 2:51 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 @Clutch: Good points about how well Spider-Man and the Beast go together. I enjoyed the times that the two co-starred in Marvel Team-Up (which I read when they were reprinted in Marvel Tales in the early 1990s) and Erik Larsen's Spidey / Beast story in Spider-Man #15 is a favorite of mine. I never read The Mutant Agenda, but if I ever come across the trade paperback for sale at a discount maybe I'll get it. fnord12February 23, 2017 2:45 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 The MCP don't have many Himmler appearances listed and i don't recall any that they may have missed. BerendFebruary 23, 2017 2:38 PM Avengers West Coast #98-100 Is this really the only appearance of Zyklon/Himmler in your project? You'd think that with the Golden Age obsession of certain writers every member of the Nazi high command would've put in at least a few cameo appearances... BobFebruary 23, 2017 11:39 AM X-Men: Odd Men Out #1 (New Mutants) Perfect example of good pencils buried under a sea of Photoshop effects. ClutchFebruary 23, 2017 7:45 AM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 I really liked the bar sequence. Steven Grant's great strength has always been sharp, witty dialogue and he handles Macendale as the badass mercenary he should have been, albeit an unlucky one at that. The banter between Spidey and the Beast is also spot on. I've always thought of them as kindred spirits. Both are super smart, tech-savvy, and have been viewed as social outcasts due to their powers and/or appearance. It makes perfect sense for them to work well together, in many ways more so than Spidey and someone like the Human Torch. I've never really understood the connection there aside from Stan pairing the two due to them being similar in age. But I digress. This looks like a nice read to pick up and one of the better Spidey tales to come out of the grittier 90s era. Urban CommandoFebruary 23, 2017 6:13 AM Avengers #219-220 Very entertaining 2-parter. I especially enjoyed Jan's KO punch on Moondragon. iLegionFebruary 23, 2017 4:14 AM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 The 90's Marvel cartoons were almost entirely based on plots lifted from the comics, albeit rewritten to be more concise and with some elements shifted around (i.e. Bishop taking the place of Kitty Pryde in DoFP). Jay DemetrickFebruary 23, 2017 2:23 AM X-Men: Odd Men Out #1 (New Mutants) I wonder if this is Apocalypse's old base from X-Factor 5-6. I'm guessing the Thinker bought a fixer-upper with secret hidden lab? Lol! Walter LawsonFebruary 23, 2017 1:07 AM X-Men #25 I think as a reader you could almost sneak in a fan-fix for the adamantium unbonding: bonding the adamantium to Wolverine in the first place was meant to be tricky, and I think we see later, maybe in Wolverine 100, that the healing factor fights against it. So you could say that Wolverine's body has been trying and failing to expel the admantium all along, and Magneto's "tug" provided the tipping point, combining with the healing factor to undo the bonding. On this reading, even though Mags intended to pull out the metal, he might not have expected it to happen the way it did. SFebruary 23, 2017 12:38 AM Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4 I'm hoping Gru meant "tramp" like "hobo", but it's still pretty weird. Walter LawsonFebruary 22, 2017 11:58 PM Darkhold #1 This book has a good premise, but I suspect it's heavily inspired by Friday the 13th: The Series, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th:_The_Series , which has a trio of occult investigators trying to "catch 'me all"--in that case, not Darkhold pages (or Pokémon), but cursed antiques. MichaelFebruary 22, 2017 11:55 PM X-Men #25 Re: Magneto sinking the sub-in X-Men 274, Claremont has Magneto reveal that when she sank the sub, he was thinking "How dare they defy me, these Russians whose countrymen let my daughter burn to death" and in X-Men 1, Magneto admits that when he sank the sub, he thought of the sailors as pawns instead of men. So Claremont clearly intended us not to like Magneto sinking the sub. Jon DubyaFebruary 22, 2017 11:51 PM X-Men #25 And to add to FF3's point about governments conspiring against Magneto, part of it is that Mags is more likely to invoke sympathy among fellow mutants (or those sympathetic to the "downtrodden") than, say a Dr Doom or a Red Skull (it was one of the factors that made his appearance in Acts of Vengeance stick out like a sore thumb) Not to mentions Max's raw power, which wou,d freak people in the Marvel U more than even the most technologically advamced gizmo-weilding so-and-so. Jon DubyaFebruary 22, 2017 11:37 PM X-Force #27-28 Also the "revelation" that Tempo doesn't actually distort tone is an error because previously any time she used her powers, her teammates would be physically affected (ie feeling "tired" if Tempo was speeding up the area around her team.) ChrisWFebruary 22, 2017 10:48 PM X-Men: God Loves Man Kills (Marvel Graphic Novel #5) Indications that the book was never intended to be in continuity from the outset, and changing Neal Adams for Brent Eric Anderson probably didn't help. This would explain why it can't really be placed. MichaelFebruary 22, 2017 9:43 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 Sort of- it was supposed to be an abortion story but the editors rewrote it into an in vitro mutant cure: GreggMFebruary 22, 2017 8:49 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 Didn't Peter David do a story about a supposed mutant cure in X-Factor prior to this? Ben HermanFebruary 22, 2017 8:17 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 Paul Ryan & Joe Sinnott were the art team on the Sunday strip. Ataru320February 22, 2017 7:30 PM Fallen Angels #1-8 The funny thing: they try to wonder if Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy were mutants...and yet DD ends up with an Inhuman post-Secret Wars. Who'd thunk? Andrew FFebruary 22, 2017 7:20 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 At best! Like fnord, when I was reading this my local paper didn't carry Spider-Man, so I just felt like I was missing out. Of course in hindsight it was all just pretty lame anyway. EnchloreFebruary 22, 2017 7:19 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 I knew nothing about this series and never imagined that the animated version wasn't an original storyline. I even thought Herbert Landon was created specifically for the show! Weird how he became a recurring character there. Luis DantasFebruary 22, 2017 6:14 PM X-Force #27-28 It is IIRC the second occasion in a short span of time when Xavier chooses to look the other way while X-Force is in effect recruited to do black ops on his or the governments' stead. Quite worrisome, as it puts his moral integrity in serious question. MortificatorFebruary 22, 2017 5:16 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 Woah, I remember the animated version of this too. It's interesting to see the stories it was adapted from and how they differ according to their format. I have to wonder if anyone on Earth bought the "groundbreaking" hype Marvel's editorial was trying to put over. Even if a person's a fan of both the comic & strip, this kind of event just means that instead of getting two stories to read, you get one story told twice. Piotr WFebruary 22, 2017 3:41 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 Hey, you're right! This was a plot of one of the 90s Spider-Man cartoon episodes. Although in the cartoon, the story involved also the rest of the X-Men and it was tied into the longer storyline of Spider-Man mutating into a monster. BTW. One of my friends watched that episode and it was his first exposure to the X-Men. He didn't like them :( Ataru320February 22, 2017 3:37 PM Spider-Man: The Mutant Agenda #1-3 I remember the Spiderman TAS arc and it started to feel familiar when you mentioned the Beast here. It's not bad as an introduction to those who don't know about the X-Men I admit; but then again we had the X-Men animated series running alongside Spiderman TAS so... A bit surprised little is mentioned of the Englehart Beast story in the comic, though. fnord12February 22, 2017 3:17 PM Ghost Rider annual #1 I neglected to include the writing credits for the third story. It's actually by Joey Cavalieri, not Mackie. That said, Mackie provides us with similar tombs under the Cypress Hill cemetary during the Road to Vengeance storyline. So your point still stands. ;-) Vin the Comics GuyFebruary 22, 2017 10:45 AM Ghost Rider annual #1 Howard Mackie If it weren't for Mark Texeira's incredible rendition of Ghost Rider, he'd still be editing the New Universe. clydeFebruary 22, 2017 10:22 AM X-Men #25 He cares about "his people" (mutants), but only those who agree with his way of thinking. It certainly makes him different than most other villains. He at least has goals beyond "world domination". FF3February 22, 2017 10:13 AM X-Men #25 I was actually thinking of 150 myself. I don't know, a couple hundred deaths is bad and all, but on the scope of global war it's nothing, really -- and he only does it after he's attacked, after he warns the USSR, and he apologizes to the crew before he kills them. And he intentionally keeps the volcanic eruptions under control until the city can be evacuated -- which seems preposterous, but these are comic books. We could argue whether he succeeds in being honorable: his emotional instability, especially his rage, are clearly his tragic flaw. But I think he's at least always trying to be measured (at least after the Silver Age). clydeFebruary 22, 2017 10:02 AM X-Men #25 "I've always thought that the heart of Magneto's code of honor involves only causing the minimum amount of harm to defeat his enemies and achieve his goals" I'm not sure that's entirely accurate - From Uncanny X-Men 150 - If he wanted to cause minimum damage, he could have easily raised the sub out of the water and opened it like a can of sardines, ejecting all the people. fnord12February 22, 2017 9:50 AM Nomad #17 Agree. Thanks. FF3February 22, 2017 9:33 AM Nomad #17 Nitpick: I think you mean bishonen rather than yaoi. Bishonen refers generally to the androgynous aesthetic often found in romance manga; yaoi is specifically gay . Though, yaoi is often also bishonen, it doesn't have to be. FF3February 22, 2017 9:24 AM X-Men #25 It also seems totally in character to me for Magneto to go to the trouble of de-bonding Wolverine's skeleton, rather than just ripping the whole thing out, for two reasons. First, I've always thought that the heart of Magneto's code of honor involves only causing the minimum amount of harm to defeat his enemies and achieve his goals, especially to mutants. Second, Magneto loves showing off. This tactic feeds into both those drives. Wolverine might (and, in fact did) survive the debonding, and it's a lot more impressive than just pulling out his bones. FF3February 22, 2017 9:00 AM X-Men #25 I don't think it's that strange to imagine that the governments of the world had worked to coordinate the Magneto Protocols but didn't have a similar level of cooperation for other villains. To my mind, among Marvel villains only Dr. Doom really represents the same kind of consistent, publicly known geopolitical threat that Magneto does, and Doom, having Latveria, is part of the international order rather than only being an enemy of it. Other villains that present a global threat tend to move in the shadows (Loki, Masters of Evil, Hydra), or are just so alien that world governments kind of just have to leave them to the Fantastic Four or the Avengers (Kang, Thanos, Galactus, Skrulls, Kree, etc). And mutants are irrationally hated and feared. And Professor X is an expert diplomat and might have exerted psychic influence to get it done. I can see a lot of different ways to justify it. fnord12February 22, 2017 7:22 AM What's Missing Thanks guys. Added The Origin to the list. And yeah, Avengers: Four falls out of the scope of my project since it was published post-Secret Wars. Urban CommandoFebruary 22, 2017 6:47 AM Avengers #221 First ever comic I bought and read! ff3February 22, 2017 6:22 AM Mortigan Goth: Immortalis #1-4 Never heard of this. It looks interesting, and, yeah, a whole lot like Vertigo. That panel of Dr. Strange beheading vampires by the dozen totally looks like something I'd expect to see in a Neil Gaiman book (and, as it happens, in 1602, Strange being beheaded himself is a major plot point). What really sticks out to me here, though, is using Spitfire of all people. With her white hair, in a book with Strange, she could easily be mistaken for Clea. When I was paging through the images, I certainly made that mistake at first. Urban CommandoFebruary 22, 2017 3:45 AM Avengers #214 "That man is playing "World War II Battle game". He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Morgan WickFebruary 22, 2017 3:34 AM What's Missing I don't know if fnord's no-post-Secret-Wars rule applies to continuity inserts published after that point, but I would guess it's off-limits, though I'm shocked that Marvel would do any revisiting of its past in 2016. Luis DantasFebruary 22, 2017 2:19 AM Spirits of Vengeance #16 Not a great payout for years of teasing, but I guess it is an attempt at an origin for the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider. Sloppy and flawed as heck, but I can't claim to have expected anything better, nor to have ever cared for Danny Ketch in the first place. Still, I can't help but notice that there seems to be a particularly glaring inconsistency, or probably just sloppiness, regarding the number of pieces of the medallion. There seem to be exactly three - Danny's, Vengeance's and Johnny's (the last one apparently working strictly behind the scenes up to this point). Yet the Blood, whose whole reason for being is to protect those pieces, does not seem to be aware of that basic piece of info until this storyline. Also, how is it that there is (as we will later learn) a whole tradition of various generations of Ghost Riders, but not of duos or trios operating at the same time? As noted above by Morgan Wick, it is not even clear whether the Blood wants to keep the fragments together or apart from each other nor from their hosts; their actions and claims, sporadic and vague as they are, still manage to be all over the place. Urban CommandoFebruary 22, 2017 2:08 AM Avengers #212 Shooter having Stark comment about how comfy the couch was is totally bizarre. No way Tony didn't have a drink or ten plus some action. Urban CommandoFebruary 22, 2017 2:03 AM Avengers #211 I love both Shooter runs on The Avengers. D09February 22, 2017 1:28 AM What's Missing Speaking of Avengers, here's one more possibility for you to look into in the future: AVENGERS: FOUR TPB Written by MARK WAID Morgan WickFebruary 22, 2017 1:03 AM What's Missing For the sake of completeness, Avengers: The Origin is apparently a 2010 prequel miniseries to the Earth's Mightiest Heroes series expanding on Avengers #1. For the sake of "whenever you start emphasizing back issues more again", since D09 and Ataru have been alerting you to the Marvel Monsters and Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu omnibuses, Volume 3 of the Master of Kung-Fu omnibus comes out in March and reprints #71-101 (and What If #16), of which you only have four issues, as opposed to the earlier volumes with only a few issues you don't have (the Giant-Sizes in volume 1 and #64-70 in volume 2). Don't know if that's as much of a focus for you as Deadly Hands is with the Sons of the Tiger, but there it is. MichaelFebruary 21, 2017 8:42 PM Spirits of Vengeance #16 Note that it's not clear here that Dan and Johnny are half-brothers- that seems to be a later retcon- Mackie seems to have intended them to be full brothers. D09February 21, 2017 8:42 PM Spirits of Vengeance #16 Well, I'll admit that I'm no Nathan Adler, but I'm willing to give it the old college try every so often. MichaelFebruary 21, 2017 8:10 PM Ghost Rider #42 Note that the implication seems to be Deathwatch was really after the medallion the night Barbara was hit by the arrow- which is completely inconsistent with his behavior that issue. MortificatorFebruary 21, 2017 7:57 PM Spirits of Vengeance #16 Johnny Blaze had a pretty strong origin, especially once Roger Stern cleaned it up in issue 68 of the first volume. I totally agree that the medallion stuff clashes terribly with the original's Faustian bargain, as well as not making much sense in and of itself. (and I'm criticizing Mackie here, not D09's admirable attempt at fitting the backstories together) Something I'm mostly fine with is giving Johnny some younger half-siblings; his birth mother's life after she left hadn't been elaborated on. But Danny Ketch is a dull character, almost indistinguishable to me from Chris Powell or Rick Sheridan, so making him part of Johnny's family isn't compelling. On the positive side, I like this redesign of Zarathos' true form much better than the versions from GR76 or 77. AndrewFebruary 21, 2017 7:36 PM Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4 I don't think Avengers Forever "rewrote" this, as much as wave a hand and mutter "Space Phantoms." Which is about as much attention as this mess deserves. Piotr WFebruary 21, 2017 7:17 PM Spirits of Vengeance #15 Cyborg Blaze is, basically, all of the early 90s badness rolled into one. A cyborg tough guy motorcyclist who fights demons... Yuck ;) Morgan WickFebruary 21, 2017 6:32 PM Ghost Rider #41 The way you describe it, it almost seems like they should have just made Ghost Rider a single biweekly book with Blaze being added to the cast, even though there are some thematic differences to Spirits of Vengeance with the focus on the circus crew. Morgan WickFebruary 21, 2017 6:31 PM Spirits of Vengeance #16 If the medallion pieces should never be brought together and even bringing two of them together is a step too far, why the hell were all the pieces divvied up among pairs of siblings?!? It would seem to be effectively cutting the number of vectors that would need to be brought together nearly in half! AND WHY ARE THEY ALL IN AMERICA?!? All in the same city even, I think! God, these Blood doofuses are complete idiots! MortificatorFebruary 21, 2017 6:13 PM Spirits of Vengeance #15 Cyber-Blaze. Damnit, Mackie. D09February 21, 2017 5:23 PM Spirits of Vengeance #16 At this point in the timeline I'd like to put forth the theory that Johnny Blaze always had the "potential" to become a Ghost Rider like Danny and Barbara Ketch and possibly hundreds of other candidates before them and that the Medallion of Power is only one such method to becoming a Spirit of Vengeance. I would also like to theorize that Mephisto hijacked both Johnny and Zarathos (the Native American Demon-God bit is probably his day job so to speak while his hunting the Medallion of Power was most likely a hobby to get more power for himself) in order to create his own pet Ghost Rider for his own dirty work. Finally I get the feeling that the reason that Zarathos got out of his crystal prison is that the Medallion pieces were in one location for the first time since they were separated and that, coupled with the fact that one of the Medallion piece holders was his former vessel, was able to transfer enough energy to him to manifest back on Earth long enough to finally try and get the Medallion for his own purposes. Ben HermanFebruary 21, 2017 3:27 PM Thor Corps #1-4 Karl Kaufman is the real name of the Phantom Eagle, so that's another cameo. I can't believe I actually remember this, but Warlord Kargul later pops up during DeFalco's run on FF. fnord12February 21, 2017 12:36 PM Thor Corps #1-4 Everything beginning with the second scan under "He's really planning to destroy the universe." is inked by Romeo Tanghal. Everything above it is inked by Olliffe. cullenFebruary 21, 2017 12:29 PM Thor Corps #1-4 Some of the inking/hatching here has a kind of Janson/Sienkiewicz/Baker style to it, which I like. Mark DrummondFebruary 21, 2017 10:53 AM Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4 Avengers Forever did indeed rewrite chunks of this. So Mike Gustovich finally learned to draw female faces. Maybe being separated from Roy Thomas finally did it... Ben HermanFebruary 21, 2017 8:53 AM Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4 This is yet another storyline from the 1990s that I own, and I know that I've read it, but, except for the ending where Ravonna stabs Kang in the back, I don't remember a single thing about this miniseries. fnord12February 21, 2017 8:23 AM Thor Corps #1-4 Added Thor, added a note about Eric's thoughts on Bobby Steele, and mentioned Conan. cullenFebruary 20, 2017 11:47 PM Thor Corps #1-4 I know you don't track Conan appearances in his own era, but I think it's worthwhile to shout out the Conan appearance in case people are using the search function. MichaelFebruary 20, 2017 10:48 PM X-Factor #1 Brian Cronin did a CBR that reveals that Jean WAS always supposed to lose her telepathy in X-Factor: Walter LawsonFebruary 20, 2017 10:37 PM X-Factor #30-33 I wonder if the Siminsons intended for Infectia to be tied into the Eternals' mythos. The Dreaming Celestial story that Walt S. does in FF is one indication' he and Louise were going to write an earlier story with Havok, Polaris, and the Dreaming Celestial around '85 or '86, before Havok joined the X-Men. Was Infectia's geneticist father studying Eternals/Deviants, or maybe one himself? Infectia destabilizes her victims' genes, turning them into monsters, which has a certain parallel to the Deviants and their monstrous instability. The Eternals/Deviants/Celestials stuff could explain Infectia's interest in Ship. All pure speculation, but I know the Simonsons like to play with the Eternals mythos. MegaSpiderManFebruary 20, 2017 10:33 PM Spider-Man/X-Factor: Shadowgames #1-3 I imagine a reason the art is better here than in AF is because the story is actually good. ;) Walter LawsonFebruary 20, 2017 10:20 PM X-Factor #95 Random's powers also shift around: he started out with Random power that he needs" abilities but turns into a kind of organic T-1000 and nothing else starting around this time. PAD liked characters with "manifest any power set" abilities: the Wild Man in Hulk a few years down the line and the Isolationist in his second X-Factor run much later are variations on the themes. (I guess you could say Piecemeal is, too.) DeMatteis does some ok issues. You'll think they're Alan Moore-quality once you get to the Mackie run after this! Ben HermanFebruary 20, 2017 10:18 PM Spider-Man/X-Factor: Shadowgames #1-3 Kurt Busiek has referred to this miniseries as "the one project I apologize for every time someone asks me to sign a copy." MichaelFebruary 20, 2017 10:16 PM X-Factor #95 In X-Factor 102-105, we learn that Malice took control of a government official and hired Random to attack Polaris. I think the most likely explanation is that Dark Beast hired Random to get close to Alex and Malice hired him to attack Polaris, so he decided to kill two birds with one stone. MichaelFebruary 20, 2017 10:00 PM Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4 I remember being completely confused about the ending. There's a scene at the end fnord didn't post where Kang and Ravonna seem to be together in the early 20th century, suggesting Kang has recovered and they've reconciled... or not? And are there two Tempuses- one created by Kang and another by Immortus? Or only one? Greg TFebruary 20, 2017 8:31 PM X-Factor #95 In 1996 (during Onslaught) Random is implied to have been working for Dark Beast here (and in all his appearances in X-Factor) but I think in between then and now we get a different explanation of his motives. I suppose he could be working for two groups. He's a complex guy. MichaelFebruary 20, 2017 8:29 PM Thor Corps #1-4 "A minor note about the cover dates. Issue #4's cover says Dec, but also says that the issues was "long awaited" and the indicia says January 1994. That makes it seem like issue #4 was late. However, Mike's Amazing World of Comics shows that the issues came out about a month apart, so i guess that wasn't the case. But i still wanted to note the cover vs. indicia dates." Morgan WickFebruary 20, 2017 7:00 PM Thor Corps #1-4 "Eternity gets a tummy ache from Demonstaff's actions" LOL! You say you want to count this as a "real" Thor appearance, but you don't actually have him as a Character Appearing. Thanos6February 20, 2017 6:46 PM Uncanny X-Men #196 @J-Rod: Oh, I won't argue that some of the tie-ins are badly done, especially most of the X-ones. But others are done much better (Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Thor, Avengers), and I'm a fan of the main series. J-RodFebruary 20, 2017 4:55 PM Uncanny X-Men #196 @Thanos6: I must admit to being intrigued by it despite what I've read, but I'd have to buy a bunch of stuff to get it. Ultimately, though, regardless of the quality of the event, the three UXM tie-ins feel very disjointed, especially this one. Thanos6February 20, 2017 4:45 PM Uncanny X-Men #196 @J-Rod: I'm going to go against consensus opinion here and say that Secret Wars II is actually quite good, *if you realize what you're getting into.* Namely, it's an examination of the possibilities and limitations of being God. George LochinskiFebruary 20, 2017 4:31 PM X-Factor Prisoner of Love Wait, what is Beast doing in that second-to-last screencap?? J-RodFebruary 20, 2017 4:02 PM X-Factor #2-3 Guice is definitely not the problem with this run (really, more of a walk, isn't it? Other than Len Wein leaving X-Men after Giant-Size, I'm having difficulty thinking of an ongoing that lost both its launch creators more quickly). Layton is the problem. I like to think that the flaws in the premise were intentional, but they took too long to deal with them. And that problem is compounded with trying way too hard to establish a retro status quo (we get Vera back from forgettable-character limbo and Beast loses his fur....why, exactly? Just because it resembled Roy Thomas' X-Men?) and just some rather boring early stories (especially, ugh, that annual). I'm glad Layton left early, but I wouldn't have minded more Guice. I think he conveys emotion quite well here. J-RodFebruary 20, 2017 3:55 PM Uncanny X-Men #206 I enjoyed this fight issue. After a string of issues of inconsistent (at best) quality, and simultaneously the very boring Layton X-Factor, this issue, the subsequent three issues, and X-Factor 6-8 seem to be both restoring some quality and good sense to the two titles while also setting up nicely for Mutant Massacre. I don't know if I read this as a kid after buying it as the final issue of XMC, but on my recent reading, it felt like a breath of fresh air after two Secret Wars II tie-ins (one of which I thought was absolutely terrible), a forgettable if almost fun Nightcrawler story, and a BWS Wolverine story I also found quite forgettable. Add to this some interesting developments for both the Hellfire Club and Nimrod in the next arc, plus the first Apocalypse, dealing with some conceptual problems, and an X-Factor/Freedom Force clash, and I feel like this was a few months of righting the ship and returning to form for both books, which now seem ready to exist in the same story in MM, even if they don't actually meet. J-RodFebruary 20, 2017 3:41 PM Uncanny X-Men #202 This is a fun fight issue, and I like putting the X-Men in San Francisco for a visit. Unfortunately, this charm is ruined when Rachel decides to try to Dark Phoenix harder than her mom ever did. J-RodFebruary 20, 2017 3:38 PM Uncanny X-Men #203 When I reread this a couple of months ago (though I don't know if I ever got around to actually reading it as a kid buying X-Men Classic), it totally destroyed Rachel's character for me. She's so out of line here that I have a hard time believing she could be seen as anything but a new Dark Phoenix. Is she treated a little unfairly, by Rogue and others and particularly Wolverine? Yeah, but I can't really blame them for doing so after this. This is to say nothing of the fact that the Shi'ar absolutely should have had a reckoning for her after this. (I mean, I guess there WAS a reckoning for Rachel decades later in End of Greys, but IIRC it doesn't reference this attempted destruction of the universe even obliquely and doesn't seem aware it even happened, despite also being written by Claremont. Or maybe I'm wrong.) After rereading this issue, I wasn't sorry to see her leave the team a few issues later. Rachel is too dangerous. J-RodFebruary 20, 2017 3:33 PM Uncanny X-Men #205 I don't remember reading this when I was buying X-Men Classic as a kid, even though I had it. Maybe it was that it was the next-to-last issue and I never really read it, maybe it was just forgettable. I read (or reread) it a couple of months ago, and I thought it was okay, but not really worthy of any further thought either way. I'm not a fan of BWS's art, but I can forgive a one-off issue with art I don't like (or the third in a sporadic string of such issues, though I'm OK with his work in Lifedeath I, which seems to work better with his style). I don't care much for Power Pack and definitely think Katie is out of place here, though others are right to comment about the charm of her pairing with Wolverine. As for the Lady Deathstrike thing, I guess it's just the benefit of years of external context, because, of course, I know who she is now, and I guess I wasn't really thinking about how I "shouldn't" if I were reading only this title without the outside knowledge. Still an unremarkable issue. I think most of 202-205 is unremarkable (I guess the battle in 202 is fun, but 203 destroys it for me). clydeFebruary 20, 2017 3:05 PM Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1-4 Thor and Thunderstrike were very busy this time of year - two time-travel adventures in a short span of "time";). J-RodFebruary 20, 2017 2:44 PM Uncanny X-Men #196 Maybe it's just the limitations of my current project (which, in part, is defined by the current state of my collection). I'm not doing Secret Wars II (it would take a lot of acquisitions, as literally the only pieces I have are the X-Men and Avengers tie-ins, plus I've always heard it was generally not worth reading). And I'm not adding New Mutants until after Inferno, largely because I would have to add a LOT to my collection (I really only have a few isolated issues and annuals). Maybe with all the context, I'd love this one. But in my current context, as an installment in the UXM series, 196 fails spectacularly, IMO. I can move past it (and I have; currently rereading Mutant Massacre after a bit of a break during Bob Layton's boring issues of X-Factor), but man, this issue left me scratching my head. No wonder Claremont didn't like being swept up in crossover events. J-RodFebruary 20, 2017 2:41 PM Uncanny X-Men #196 I must be in the minority. I reread this issue (having first read it over 20 years ago when the X-Men Classic version was newly released, as I was a kid and rather new to comics then) a couple of months ago as part of a long '80s/'90s X-Men reading project...and I really didn't enjoy this issue. I have rose-colored memories of the X-Men Classic run I read as a kid (starting at XMC 85/UXM 181 and ending with XMC's final issue, 110/UXM 206), but when I got to that run of issues again recently, I was kind of taken aback at how disjointed so many of them feel. Overall, the quality is inconsistent and there's a lot of weird stuff going on. And I think this issue might be my least-favorite of the entire run, because it really doesn't continue at all from the previous issue and I had a lot of trouble understanding it because I didn't have the issues of New Mutants and Secret Wars II that came in between 195 and 196. In short, I felt it had way too many new story elements introduced in other titles. RobertFebruary 20, 2017 2:34 PM Thor Corps #1-4 I bought the first (and only the first) issue of this and hated it. I don't even remember why I bought it, to be honest, since I was not a fan of Pat Oliffe's previous work on Thor at that time. I appreciate it more now, though. Oliffe's art, I mean, not this turd burger mini. MortificatorFebruary 20, 2017 2:15 PM Web of Spider-Man #25 "It matters not which Earthling has stolen the Cosmultigizer! I can locate the device telectropatically!" Hell yes. MortificatorFebruary 20, 2017 1:36 PM Uncanny X-Men #129-131 @Andrew - I noticed the Hellfire armor also appears in the New Mutants graphic novel. RobertFebruary 20, 2017 1:34 PM Web of Spider-Man #25 One thing I'll say about this is at least it didn't mislead people with the cover. The goofy alien is on full display, drawn by Lieber and Al Milgrom to boot. A lot of times they would have someone like John Byrne or Mike Zeck draw some pin-up action shot for the cover while the inside art is cruddy stuff drawn by some kid trying to break into the business or some old pro whose better days are behind him. clydeFebruary 20, 2017 9:47 AM Fantastic Four #242-244 Per http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/daredevil_168-182.shtml - "#176-177 - Daredevil has been having trouble with his radar sense and it's getting worse. He decides to seek out his old mentor, Stick. Elektra also has the same idea. And Turk has acquired the MAULER armor from Cord Industries. There's a comical scene where Daredevil, Elektra, Heather Glenn, and Turk all show up at a local stool pigeon's place one by one, each demanding to know where to find Stick." fnord12February 20, 2017 8:37 AM Doctor Strange #54 Yes, thanks. I guess i was ignoring the temporal reference, as is my George Olshevsky-given right, but i can make it work and i've pushed this back. RobertFebruary 19, 2017 9:47 PM Fantastic Four #242-244 S, if memory serves Miller had Daredevil's radar sense weakened or lost in his run around this time. In the 170s, I believe. SFebruary 19, 2017 9:20 PM Fantastic Four #242-244 Daredevil has a line in 243 about his radar sense being "not nearly as strong as it once was" - is that a reference to some current plot point in Daredevil's comic? I don't remember that being a thing. MortificatorFebruary 19, 2017 5:40 PM Avengers #214 The computer game Cap's wasting time with looks either fairly sophisticated for 1981, or extremely retro for "several years ago." Piotr WFebruary 19, 2017 5:21 PM Longshot #1-6 I agree with Omar that it's a shame what was done with Mojo later... My favourite Mojo story is the X-Men / New Mutants that introduces Longshot to the X-books. It's a story that starts comedic, but eventually turns into something quite scary. And that's the way I like it: Mojo should be about grotesque evil, minds and bodies being warped etc. Not about TV entertainment parodies. Oh, and I absolutely love Spiral. She's an amazing character. ChrisFebruary 19, 2017 2:32 PM Captain America #268 I think Arnold's reaction is just typical "shock reaction" and not meant to be anything else. Jonathan, son of KevinFebruary 19, 2017 1:32 PM Captain America #268 "considering we'll learn that Roth is gay, his exaggerated body language in these panels is a little suspect" Zeck's introduction of Roderick Kingsley/Hobgoblin is even worse for this. (Not necessarily totally Zeck's fault - I guess part of the issue is that Marvel didn't like to clearly state that characters were gay, so the artists tended to do caricatures to try and state what the script wasn't, as apparently occurred with Starr Saxon/Machinesmith. Though Stern hadn't intended for Kingsley to be gay or effeminate so that's a different matter.) RyanFebruary 19, 2017 9:57 AM Ka-Zar: Sibling Rivalry #-1 Hi, i have already done a marvel universe reading order on the marvel wikia. Check it out. I am sure it will help you. Omar KarinduFebruary 19, 2017 9:26 AM Longshot #1-6 To build on Andrew's comment, there's an implied feedback loop built into Mojo's need for worship as a power source: his power also warps and destroys life. So Mojo gathers worshippers, which twists reality and distorts or destroys independent life, which would make it easier for him to gain worshippers since reality itself is turning people into twisted devotees of Mojo. Nocenti has definitely borrowed form Kirby here: the "no free will = anti-life" idea from his Fourth World comics is taken up here and made very, very literal, in that Mojo literally destroys life by his very presence. It's a shame that Claremont turned Mojo into a comedy villain used mostly to take potshots at the entertainment industry and editorial. Nocenti seems to be going for a much darker commentary that links organized religion, entertainment culture and personal autonomy, which is undermined (like so much of her work) by a hypercompressed version of stream-of-consciousness. (Seriously, imagine some of Nocenti's thought and dialogue bubbles split across multiple panels rather than run all together in a single word balloon or thought bubble, and it all makes much more sense. Hence fnord12's "crammed in" comment.) Ataru320February 19, 2017 6:29 AM X-Factor #55 I feel sorry that Vera had to be written out of the X-universe with this. She was there from early on and it just is nice to get a mousy nerdy girl for a superhero for once, especially someone like Hank. What happened in early X-Factor really just felt like it did too much to make her someone else and while she isn't how she was here in this final appearance, at least she gets to leave with her dignity. Urban CommandoFebruary 19, 2017 5:28 AM Avengers annual #10 Always loved the art in this issue. It's a decade ahead of it's time. Looks to be late 80's or early 90's for sure. Jay is correct, I can see the similarities to McFarlane. Urban CommandoFebruary 19, 2017 5:22 AM Avengers #209 That Holocaust scene was very disturbing. Very intense reading though. Morgan WickFebruary 19, 2017 2:46 AM Doctor Strange #54 You seem to be treating this as though it can be any amount of time after last issue, as long as Dr. Strange has been busy enough not to think about it, but your first scan says it's been "twenty-four hours" since Clea left. Can Defenders #106-115 all be squeezed into that twenty-four hours? Jon DubyaFebruary 19, 2017 2:11 AM X-Force #27-28 Another major mystery: Locus suddenly changing her ethnicity in subsequent apperances. That being said, I really liked this arc. This configuration of the MLF was a lot more interesting than the previous version. (Imagine, the MLF with something resembling a personality!) Plus, this does go well with the previous attempt at characterization for Tempo. I mentioned this in a previous entry, but keep in mind that there's quite a bit linking this to Dani's last appearance. Not only does it kinda match Dani's claim of "being cast out from heaven" but her costume (and her...figure) is pretty similar to the MCP story as well. Vincent ValentiFebruary 18, 2017 11:50 PM X-Force #27-28 Whoops! Looks like I used brackets that got interpreted as HTML. What I meant to say was: Hah, I remember this issue: Sunspot: "Hey, I can fly!" RobertFebruary 18, 2017 11:39 PM Web of Spider-Man #27 Dave Simons must have had a nice action figure collection when he drew this. Headhunter looks like a combination of Gung-Ho, Ripper, and Torch from G.I.Joe with He-Man's battle axe. clydeFebruary 18, 2017 10:45 PM X-Force #27-28 See this site for some more information - Ataru320February 18, 2017 10:09 PM Tales To Astonish #27 (Ant-Man) Nah, the turtles were in another part of the sewers and didn't get anything until the crap that made Matt Murdock blind. Then again, Hank does have a reputation as Ant-Man early on after he finally does become a hero...then again so does Johnny Storm with his solo adventures but at least he was known to be on a superhero team...and Hank was just some crazy guy with the ability to shrink things. (and it isn't like he's the only one with "super-villain aspirations" with his super-science considering Reed Richards or Tony Stark in the early days) Ben HermanFebruary 18, 2017 7:38 PM X-Force #27-28 @Walter Lawson: I've searched about the internet, but haven't been able to locate any explanations by Nicieza concerning his intentions for Reignfire. The only thing I came across was this unverified statement on Wikipedia: "Originally, Fabian Nicieza had meant for Reignfire to be a time traveling, slightly older, more mentally disturbed version of Sunspot." Walter LawsonFebruary 18, 2017 7:22 PM X-Force #27-28 Has FabNic said what he had in mind for Reignfire? Was he Sunspot after being sent to Cable's future timeline, or Sunspot after a while in the Age of Apocalypse? I believe Locus is at some point hinted to have visited the AoA timeline. ChrisWFebruary 18, 2017 7:17 PM Fantastic Four #286 I won't say 'ending of an era,' but it does feel like 'moving onto the next chapter.' This issue was Shooter, Byrne and Claremont at their arguable worst. Byrne has an excuse because he's already been hired to write Superman, but from the editorial interference at both ends of Dark Phoenix, it feels like something important has happened. Ben HermanFebruary 18, 2017 7:13 PM Morbius #12 I agree that Sam Buchanan appears somewhat dense for being in denial about the existence of the supernatural after repeatedly seeing it, but at least he argues that they're fighting mutants or other beings with super-powers. In other words, he's acknowledging the existence of very weird stuff; he just believes that there has to be a scientific explanation for everything he sees. That's at least somewhat less moronic than the character of Doctor Thirteen from DC Comics, a guy who every single time he encountered the supernatural wrote it off as the work of con artists. He also thought that Superman and everyone else with superpowers in the DC universe was a hoax. That guy makes Sam Buchanan look reasonable by comparison. BobFebruary 18, 2017 5:44 PM X-Factor annual #7 Whatever that machine is doing to Rita's crotch, I'd rather unsee it. And Marvel sold this stuff to all ages... Morgan WickFebruary 18, 2017 5:38 PM Marvel Team-Up #137 At the very least, even if we-the-readers did all collectively dream it, since fnord needs to tag someone as appearing in this issue, it makes more sense for it to be Galactus, who's at the outermost layer of dreams-within-dreams, than Spider-Man at the innermost. ChrisWFebruary 18, 2017 5:38 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Looking up Rogue's appearances before joining the X-Men and thinking freely: I agree that Carol-as-Binary was Claremont's way of getting another Phoenix-level character, and probably restitution for what other writers put *his* character through. Overall, he didn't have too many plots that were firmly set in stone, and given all the genre-bending he'd already put the title through, adding Ms. Marvel to the X-Men, short-term or otherwise, probably made sense. And Rogue is a very fluid character in her early appearances. She becomes the character we know immediately after joining the team. The Rogue in the Wolvie's Wedding 2-parter is basically the same Rogue who went through the Seige 70-some issues later. I think Claremont probably brought her onto the team as a way of keeping Carol/Ms. Marvel and the obvious tension that would cause with Binary, and then Binary simply stopped appearing. Early on, there was some business with Michael Rossi, and then Storm lost her powers and Rogue was simply 'one of the team.' But looking at the scans of her earlier appearances, she's all over the map. In "Avengers" Annual 10, she's kept Cap and Thor's powers a lot longer than she ever would again. She thinks that she can't "lose control again" with Cap like she did with Carol, which implies that she ever had control, which immediately vanished in later appearances. Ben HermanFebruary 18, 2017 5:31 PM X-Force #27-28 Reignfire is yet another character whose origins got severely altered due to changes in creative teams. That sort of thing happened a lot in the 1990s, didn't it? Chris CohenFebruary 18, 2017 5:29 PM New Warriors #22-25 So what you're saying, Dan, is a Paralympian should never be allowed to compete with Olympians? mikrolikFebruary 18, 2017 5:22 PM Tales To Astonish #27 (Ant-Man) Morgan Wick: That was Daredevil, not Ant-Man! XD Matthew BradleyFebruary 18, 2017 4:31 PM Marvel Spotlight #8 Mark, as far as I can tell, this is Riley's only credit. As fnord notes, the unpublished SPOTLIGHT #12 story finally appeared in (aptly) MARVEL SUPER-HEROES Vol. 2 #3 (Fall 1990), but Nasser only drew the unused cover; the interior art was by Jerry Bingham. Morgan WickFebruary 18, 2017 4:00 PM Tales To Astonish #27 (Ant-Man) Or have it be exposed to four turtles and their rat mentor ;D fnord12February 18, 2017 10:49 AM X-Force #27-28 Added a note about Sunspot's departure as well as a reminder that his powers had been modified. fnord12February 18, 2017 10:42 AM Morbius #13 I made my decision about Bloodthirst while reviewing this issue and then forget to add him here. ;-) I've also pushed Fall From Grace back before Midnight Massacre. That's a great catch. Thanks. George LochinskiFebruary 18, 2017 7:34 AM X-Force #27-28 Obvious Sunspot's sudden flight capabilities were supposed to be a massive clue, hidden in plain sight Jonathan, son of KevinFebruary 18, 2017 6:57 AM Tales To Astonish #27 (Ant-Man) @Archie - Good call. I'm not usually a fan of continuity inserts but that does sound like a fun "retro Marvel monsters" comic someone should do. Pym pours shrinking & growing formulae down the sewer, hijinks ensue. Especially with what's down in Marvel sewers: could have giant insects, frogs, rats, alligators & maybe even a giant (or shrunk) Morlock or two roaming the city. Maybe the rats and frogs are battling at the time, a generation before Thor meets them, and this time the frogs win because one of their crew becomes a giant? Pym, distracted by getting back to work on other projects, doesn't hear the news for a while & then saves the day at the end, brewing a gas to return everything to their normal sizes. This little bit of heroism makes him wonder if there's mileage in this size-changing stuff after all. I don't know how Bendis hasn't made an 8-part series exploring Pym's early instability with a retelling of this issue & its "Havoc In The Sewers!" aftermath already. (He hasn't, has he?) Dan SpectorFebruary 18, 2017 5:22 AM Hulk #167-170 The Harpy/Shrew/She-Bitch Legion of Female Stereotypes team is led by Aunt May's little-known cousin, Auntie Flo. (Sorry about that one, I couldn't resist. See you next Tuesday.) Dan SpectorFebruary 18, 2017 4:35 AM Avengers #110 Pietro doesn't have to be quasi-incestuous or even creepy and controlling to have been warning Wanda away from romancing the Vision. Given that he well remembers that the first time she used her powers, she nearly got *burnt at the stake*, it doesn't take an enormous amount of foresight to imagine what's going to happen in #113, just a little bit down the road. Yes, he's being cynical and paranoid, but he's pretty much right. And I say this being 100% on Wanda's side (you can't let the bigots win, etc), but she's rather sheltered and naive here, IMO. Dan SpectorFebruary 18, 2017 4:26 AM Avengers #111 I don't know; given that #71 made such a big deal of the Black Knight becoming an *official* Avenger rather than just a hanger-on, and given that Cap had been such a stickler about inducting Natasha before (even leading Clint to briefly quit the team on her behalf), I think that her being formally inducted is a milestone of sorts, however transient it turns out to be. But for me, the best part here is "Piper" felling Magneto with the Bad-Ass Vision line about "you should learn to count, madman. You are one Avenger short." A great climax and one of my favorite moments for ol' Vizh. Dan SpectorFebruary 18, 2017 3:44 AM Avengers #60 Jonathan, the reason that Maynard and the boys think they can take Thor is because the Thor they fought in Thor #147 was a semi-depowered Odinson, ol' Longhair not getting his full Asgardian mojo back until #150, IIRC. That's why he has to hitch a ride on Spider-Man's web in FF#73, for example. So to the Circus, Thor's just another Daredevil-level foe, all puffed up with the "god" shtick, but not that different than their usual opponents. And heck, they've fought the Hulk! Compared to him, Thor's a nobody. This is a serious mistake and hardly excuses the incredibly poor tactics noted in the review. But it's why "ah, Thor ain't so tough" isn't completely bonkers from the Circus's p.o.v. They're lucky they don't get slapped in the face by reality here, obviously. Dan SpectorFebruary 18, 2017 3:26 AM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #2 To be fair, Arthur Douglas was dead long before Moondragon killed Drax. I believe it's Captain Marvel (v.1) #28 where we see the flashback of Thanos killing Mom and Pop Douglas simply because they witnessed his landing on Earth. And then Mentor/A'Lars finds little Heather stumbling out of the wreck and takes her to Titan, and later creates Drax out of the soil (no organs, so he can't be killed again) and gives him something of Arthur's soul, albeit we never really see Drax in much more than "Crush Thanos!" mode, that I recall. The brain damage is entirely on Heather's tab, it's true, though. Dan SpectorFebruary 18, 2017 3:18 AM New Warriors #22-25 Although I rather wish that Silhouette had gotten to make a "noble sacrifice" and get sucked into the vortex with Bad Granny, no matter how much fun seeing Dwayne finish things off with his Chekhov's Gun might have been. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be ableist, but seeing her fling herself around like an action hero when she's paralyzed from the waist down never really worked for me. Look at that "dramatic" shot of the Warriors and Future Warriors, with her hunched over her sticks. A once-off character or even a recurring girlfriend role would have been fine. A full member of the team just strains my credibility on this issue to the breaking point. (I would say "pardon the pun", but it was a bullet, not Bane, that got her spine, so never mind.) So I'd rather have seen her take the dramatically-suitable exit ramp here. Oh, well. Dan SpectorFebruary 18, 2017 3:12 AM New Warriors #22-25 I'd argue that the mystical plot shows impressive long-range planning, and I find it really cool that the "reason for the team" is not the cliched "We'll fight crimes the Avengers don't touch!" or even "Night Thrasher seeks the secrets of his past", but "these suckers have been played, and they're set up to be human sacrifices". I thought that was a very nice twist at the time. Where it falls down, for me, is that the rest of the cast is so damn uninteresting and the names are so stupid. Fabes may be going for some pseudo-Asian mysticism here but "Smiling Tiger" and "Bloodstrike" and "Midnight's Fire" needed to be tossed back into the Supervillain Name-Generator until something better came along. And it doesn't help that we haven't seen any of the cast before this…if Left Hand had been lurking in the background every time we saw Midnight's Fire and Silhouette, it would have added layers of mystery to the story. If some of the "lost platoon" who had sold themselves for power were characters we'd seen before (Gideon, Walter Rosen, even Father Janes), it would make the pontification about moral dilemmas more on point for what is supposed to be (I take it) an examination of US soldiers using and disposing of Vietnamese women, abandoning the Bao Dui the moment they could get out of there. But this isn't exactly "Miss Saigon" here…although imagining Chord busting into song has its pleasures, it's true. Vincent ValentiFebruary 17, 2017 9:14 PM X-Force #27-28 Hah, I remember this issue: Sunspot: "Hey, I can fly!" MichaelFebruary 17, 2017 8:35 PM X-Force #27-28 One thing your review doesn't make clear- Sunspot is missing at the end of this story. MichaelFebruary 17, 2017 8:14 PM Doctor Strange #57-59 Iskelior's dimension doesn't look so bad but when Kyllian returns as Wildpride, he acts like Strange abandoned him to some terrible fate. MichaelFebruary 17, 2017 7:51 PM Nomad #17 "at least give the woman a first name". You're just saying that because you hate tagging her as Baby Bucky's Mom. :) MichaelFebruary 17, 2017 7:49 PM Morbius #13 Shouldn't Bloodthirst be listed as a Character Appearing? Mark DrummondFebruary 17, 2017 4:23 PM Doctor Strange #57-59 Urthona looks like the Man-Thing learned to speak and wear clothes. Mark DrummondFebruary 17, 2017 4:17 PM Sleepwalker #28-29,31-33 Don Lomax's presence here is very strange. Just before this, he was known for doing Gulf War and Vietnam-related war comics for independent publishers. He's most known, however,for doing hardcore porno comics all the way from sex tabloids like San Francisco Ball in the early 1970s to giant-boob magazines like Gent and D-Cup, which he was still doing at the same time as this book. ArchieFebruary 17, 2017 3:32 PM Tales To Astonish #27 (Ant-Man) Pumped pours his formulae down a drain. I imagine that wreaked havoc with the sewage system. iLegionFebruary 17, 2017 1:31 PM Avengers #4 But it's also worth mentioning that the Zemos are mainly scientists and not really cut-out to be full-time masterminds. A story late in the first T-Bolts series makes this clear with a flashback where Heinrich is salvaging the android Human Torch for the Skull. iLegionFebruary 17, 2017 1:28 PM Avengers #4 Given that GA comics tended to be episodic and not drag out plot threads across multiple issues (Or so that's my impression; not an expert on them), it probably didn't seem like a big deal to insert a new "old" enemy into Cap's backstory. Plus it's at least being done by Kirby and not some newcomer. Helmut is an interesting character in that he's a try-hard. Instead of running a fiendish organization and doing normal, super-villain things like the Skull, he sulks around in his castle between grand schemes like invading the Mansion and then the Thunderbolts. Most of his dialogue and actions like destroying Cap's memorabilia reflect his wanna-be status. Oh, and if the internet was around in the early 60's, I'm sure Lee and Kirby would have faced a lot more complaints about their new direction at Marvel. Ataru320February 17, 2017 1:09 PM Avengers #5-6 Looking at the pics of Pete before and after this, I sort of wonder if somehow Kirby confused the Wizard with Pete and thus we get this weird composite Wizard/Pete hybrid that happens to be called "Paste Pot Pete". (it doesn't help that the next appearance he has no facial hair and is stocky again) TCPFebruary 17, 2017 1:06 PM Amazing Spider-Man #277 Spidey's spraying of webbing on Kingpin's chair actually being a show of impotence is a fun and intriguing reading, fnord. Luke BlanchardFebruary 17, 2017 11:56 AM Avengers #5-6 I used to think Kirby drew the Wizard in #5 too. But the Wizard didn't have a thin moustache in his early appearances, and usually had a goatee. The version of Pete on the cover of STRANGE TALES #104 looks just the version here: apparently thin, with a thin moustache. If Zemo was 30-40 at the time of the events of SGT. FURY #8 he must be 50-60 here. Ben HermanFebruary 17, 2017 10:41 AM Sleepwalker #28-29,31-33 @S: Where were you when Bob Budiansky, Tim Tuhoy and Don Daley were putting together this whole mess of a story 24 years ago? They could have really used your help! :) clydeFebruary 17, 2017 10:16 AM Avengers #203 This is just a cleaner translation of Denis' comment per Google translate - Perhaps the graphic result would have been a little more "nice, if there was no heavy inking of Dan Green, who will have left no good memories, at least in this series. Ataru320February 17, 2017 9:49 AM Avengers #4 I think Helmut ultimately works better than Heinrich is because he actually had time to evolve and develop as a character as opposed to suddenly appearing as a plot device to create another villain to the level of the Red Skull, particularly with how the "Bucky dies" story changes so much as much as Cap's origin But that's an advantage of hindsight: Helmut was created in the 70s and while originally bizarre himself ("The Phoenix?"), had good writers to get him to the point of well known aspects like the Avengers Mansion assault and the Thunderbolts; Heinrich...was created by Lee and Kirby as an early Avengers villain to create some sort of "old foe" that wasn't the Skull once Cap was on the team. fnord12February 17, 2017 8:58 AM Morbius #12 I've decided i'll list Bloodthirst as a character when it's clear Morbius isn't in control of himself. Thanks. Omar KarinduFebruary 17, 2017 7:20 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Sorry, that first line should read "can't draw on the 'white holes' as a power source." On a separate note, it's wort remembering that Rogue's first appearance portrays her powers and personality very differently than her later appearances in Uncanny. She's not a sympathetic character, there's no real sense that Carol's *personality* is any sort of influence on Rogue, and Rogue certainly doesn't seem to be any sort of "misled youth." She's mostly a device to write out Carol Danvers (again!) and make the Brotherhood powerful enough to fight the Avengers by taking out some of their heavy hitters. And as to Carol, there's absolutely none of the "no emotional connections to her memories" idea that comes up when Claremont brings her back to remake her as Binary. Hell, she's *angry* at the Avengers' failure in that story, so clearly she feels betrayed by people she trusted and cared about. She knows that she "hated" the Avengers after Marcus died, and still feels some of that hate. That's emotional connection! No, Carol's lasting trauma in that story is that she'll "never regain all [her] memories." Oddly, Claremont essentially reversed the situation down the road: she had pretty much all of her memories, but none of the feelings associated with those memories. And Xavier notes that when he helped Carol recover these memories, he "shared her pain, her loss, her grief, her anger." Really, the whole "PTSD" metaphor does't work if we accept the later version. Omar KarinduFebruary 17, 2017 7:06 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Ms. Marvel still has the basic Binary powers, but for whatever reason she can draw on the "white holes" as a source, so her practical power level is much lower. She still absorbs various forms of energy to gain strength, flight, and energy projection powers. The way she was written by Busiek and others in the 90s, Carol's basic personality is intact, but she doesn't have as much attachment to her old life because Rogue's powers somehow took away her "emotional connections" to those people and events. However, she has very detailed memories. There's a sequence in Avengers v.3 #6 where Carol very specifically remembers a trivial interaction with some random guard at Project: PEGASUS, and the Brian Reed Ms. Marvel series made a lot of hay out of Carol's past as an intelligence operative. To a large extent, it works more as a metaphor for extreme psychological trauma than an actual mind-body split. That, plus a general lack of interest by post-Claremont writers in playing with Rogue having a set of Carol's memories and emotions mixed up with her own, meant that by the late 90s Carol was back to a version of her original personality and Rogue was more what we think of as her base personality. Honestly, the whole Binary/Rogue-as-Carol thing feels like Claremont trying to get a) a new Phoenix-level character into the mix and b) getting to use 1970s-model Ms. Marvel one last time. Even Claremont pretty quickly puts Rogue back to her usual persona quickly enough. Urban CommandoFebruary 17, 2017 6:25 AM Avengers #203 Weird, crazy story! Did it actually even happen? Urban CommandoFebruary 17, 2017 5:53 AM Avengers #202 Just read this and part 1 (201) for the first time ever tonight- despite being an Avengers fan since 1981. Just never had these two issues in my collection for some reason. What a fantastic Avengers/Ultron story. Glad I finally found it. jti88February 17, 2017 4:09 AM Avengers #141-144,147-149 Thor and Namor had fought in Submariner 59 iLegionFebruary 17, 2017 2:48 AM Avengers #4 Funny thing, it seems like a lot of Zemo stories try to make him a significant bad guy, but something's always off about it. (On an unrelated note, there's this great Marvel comic from the late 90's called Thunderbolts. Anyone who hasn't heard of it should check out the first issue. Yeah, no idea what made me think of it.) Jay DemetrickFebruary 16, 2017 9:22 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Carol started losing her Binary level of power after Onslaught/Heroes Reborn/Heroes Return. It's explored when she decides to rejoin the Avengers in the Heroes Return era, Beast tests her power level, and Tony Stark notices she's developed a drinking problem. SFebruary 16, 2017 7:24 PM Sleepwalker #28-29,31-33 So did the coroner perform an autopsy on Rick? Was he embalmed? Or did they just decide "looks dead, let's bury him!" Ben HermanFebruary 16, 2017 7:23 PM Avengers #4 If the internet had been around in 1964: "How dare Stan Lee and Jack Kirby ignore all of the appearances that Captain America and Bucky made in the late 1940s and in the mid 1950s! What gives them the right to retcon away all of those great stories? And to reveal that Bucky was killed by some lame loser we've never heard of who has a pink hood glued to his face, instead of Cap's arch enemy the Red Skull? Lee and Kirby are destroying Captain America! I am outraged! I am never buying another Marvel comic book again!" :P mikrolikFebruary 16, 2017 4:51 PM Web of Spider-Man #66-68 I'm actually surprised it took Conway this long to give Tombstone actual superpowers. Before this arc, he was apparently in the same league as Kingpin, Ox from the Enforcers, and other "peak-human-strength" but supposedly non-super-powered villains who could somehow go fist-to-fist with Spidey who can bench 10 tons. mikrolikFebruary 16, 2017 4:40 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206 Hammerhead used Tombstone as a goon, but that was before Tombstone gained superpowers in Web 66-68, and in that arc, Tombstone turned against Hammerhead as well. But before that, Hammerhead teamed with the super-powered Chameleon, and hired Hobgoblin (Demo-possessed Macendale) as a hitman. Ben HermanFebruary 16, 2017 4:05 PM Sleepwalker #28-29,31-33 Too bad Psyko never met Lunatik :) clydeFebruary 16, 2017 1:44 PM Captain America annual #12 Holy roasted chicken, Bantam! clydeFebruary 16, 2017 1:43 PM Sleepwalker #28-29,31-33 Sleepwalker's no Ghost Rider, that's for sure :) BerendFebruary 16, 2017 1:42 PM Sleepwalker #28-29,31-33 She's drawn very badly, but I like Spectra's design. Odd that Sleepwalker wasn't used for that long! He's such a weird, interesting concept, you'd think there would be at least a few writers who'd like to take a stab at him. Lucas February 16, 2017 1:31 PM Cage #18-20 The colors are terrible, too much brown and orange. Jack ChickensonFebruary 16, 2017 11:17 AM Captain America annual #12 Ever dance the funky chicken in the pale dawn light? AndrewFebruary 16, 2017 10:55 AM Captain America annual #12 Oh my god, Luke, you're right. That's hilarious. All it needs is a line like, "It's an omen! I shall become a creature of the morning! The early morning!" Jon DubyaFebruary 16, 2017 10:55 AM Gambit #1-4 Which is kinda funny because Fantomex is basically Gambit + Weapon Plus stuff (yes, I know that Fantomex is actually based on Diabolik). And yet nevertheless Fantomex could almost be a parody of Gambit. Which makes it odd that they never really teamed up. clydeFebruary 16, 2017 10:52 AM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 "I had no idea what was going to come next." The problem was that it didn't seem like the writers knew what was coming next either. It was all over the place. Austin GortonFebruary 16, 2017 10:01 AM Gambit #1-4 I remember being mildly excited at the prospect of Gambit getting a solo mini when this was first announced, then mostly disappointed by it - my thoughts were basically along the lines of "oh, this is just going to be ALL about that Guilds nonsense? Bleck". I did rather enjoy FabNic's later Gambit solo series, which also played with that group of characters/setting, but in more of a supporting role, rather than constantly being the main focus of the narrative. Oh, and it's kind of funny that right around the same time Nicieza is trying to put Liefeld's Externals nonsense to bed over in X-FORCE, Mackie is adding to it here with Candra. I think she's pretty much the only External to appear much at all between this and when the whole business is mercifully ended once and for all later in X-FORCE. AndrewFebruary 16, 2017 8:10 AM New Mutants #35 "Hey, Erik, remember a while back how you immobilized all my students in metal chairs, reduced them to psychological infancy, and left them to die beneath an active volcano? Good times. And just recently you sank a nuclear submarine with all hands on board? And then caused a volcano to erupt in the middle of a Russian city? Anyway, I hear you're all better now, so I'm just going to hand off my youngest, most vulnerable students to you. Actually, one's an alien, one was recently possessed by a spirit of pure evil, and one spent almost her whole childhood in Hell. Honestly, pretty much any one of them could go full-blown super-villain at any moment. Anyhoo, I'm going to go spend some time with my outer-space girlfriend. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. And no more volcanos, okay?" Luis DantasFebruary 16, 2017 6:59 AM Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206 Borrowing Black Cat's mask was probably worth a try, but it is difficult to imagine that it would do much to hide Peter's secret identity. Black Cat herself is a difficult character to handle consistently in a supporting role for Peter. As a sometimes partner of Spider-Man with a public identity, she would be a natural lead to follow in order to find out Spider-Man's own secret id, so she can never be too close to Peter. Her showing may be weak in this story, but let's face it, that is often the case. Here she at least shows a measure of a spine and a refusal to accept everything that Peter throws at her, without falling into the slutty or superficial personas so often attributed to her. Urban CommandoFebruary 16, 2017 5:28 AM Avengers West Coast #75 This was the issue that made me quit comics for a few years. I couldn't believe how low WEST COAST had sunk. It used to be one of my favorite titles, and I remember even my 18 year old self knew this issue was garbage. Urban CommandoFebruary 16, 2017 4:36 AM Avengers West Coast #96-97 Ouch, I didn't remember the art being total garbage like this. Urban CommandoFebruary 16, 2017 4:33 AM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 Love the comments section here! By the way, about The Crossing I have mixed opinions. I agree it's not the best, but I will say it was totally exciting reading it. I had no idea what was going to come next. I certainly like it more than most of you. I bought the Omnibus and it still holds up twenty years later. Definitely flawed, but still enjoyable reading. ChrisWFebruary 16, 2017 1:45 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Also Walter, regarding your earlier comment, I would agree that this storyline is what really pushed Maddie over the edge in terms of becoming evil. In that sense, it's one of Claremont's better long-term plots, since he'd have to figure out something to do with her from the moment Jean Grey's return was inevitable. One can argue that there might have been better options for Maddie, but this was the superhero genre at late-1980s Marvel Comics, so turning her evil and finally bringing back Dark Phoenix really was the best option, story-wise. For good or bad, Maddie got an arc that showed her stumbling her way towards pure evil. She wakes up in a San Francisco hospital, she calls the few people she knows for help, the X-Men rescue her and get their first payback against the Marauders. Scott's brother has already joined the team after his life has fallen apart. They die and go to Australia, where Maddie does her best to be useful, including this one time where she flies planes for charity. Before she died, her last plea was that her estranged husband find their baby. She does her best to be useful to the X-Men since she has nothing else in her life. Then Sy'm finds her, she hooks up with her husband's brother, she starts heading downhill rapidly and, because this is a late-80s Marvel superhero comic, we wind up with, well, you know how it ends. GregTFebruary 16, 2017 1:36 AM Super Soldiers #6-7 Fnord, I see your comments that the story's rushed and doesn't work but man, every panel you choose to screencap there is pure gold. I want a regular series featuring these characters right now. ChrisWFebruary 16, 2017 1:33 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Also, I doubt Claremont was going anywhere with Carol and the Shadow King, except in the sense that all his subplots wound up long-term and never-finished. It's entirely possible there might have been some sort of fusion between whatever happened to Carol after Magneto chose Rogue and the hallucination in Wolvie's head, but I am convinced that Wolvie's hallucinations were just that, hallucinations, products of a fevered brain foreshadowing Logan's death. He obviously liked using Carol, which is why he rescued her from "Avengers" #200, but even that begs the question of why, with the exception of #182, Carol was so inactive in Rogue's head until this Genosha storyline. ChrisWFebruary 16, 2017 1:28 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Walter, unlike everything else he ever wrote, Claremont was kinda vague on the Rogue/Carol relationship. The problem is that Carol is the major exception to Rogue's powers in every way. She touches someone, they fall into unconsciousness resembling a coma. Normal exceptions include that they're stronger and can possess her [Mr. Sinister] that there's just no end to them and it doesn't really work [Mojo] that she touches someone who cancels powers and they both drop [Scrambler] and I'd swear there was another form of exception that I'm blanking on. In Carol's case, it was permanent, but she's still walking and talking in "Avengers" Annual 10. So in theory Xavier [or Rachel, or Betsy] could have reconstructed anyone. Storm or Cyclops would still have been in charge while Rogue is off using strength, flight, invulnerability and optic beams/weather control against whoever. That's really why I draw the line and say Carol/Binary is a distinct entity, and Carol/Ms. Marvel resides full-time in Rogue's head. Obviously Marvel's had different ideas in the last mumble-mumble years since I was reading, so I'm not saying you should take this as gospel, but to my mind, Carol/Binary is the one who needs to be retconned, Carol/Ms. Marvel was a member of the X-Men from #171 through #269. ChrisWFebruary 16, 2017 1:15 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 D09, I'm saying that the separation occurred during the issue. She starts off as Carol/Ms. Marvel, and whoever is walking and talking at the end of the issue is Carol/Binary. This would explain why she's able to walk and talk when no one else Rogue absorbs can do so. Omar, so what happened to Binary? I assume Rogue still has her absorbed powers. AF, in "X-Men" #194, Kitty voluntarily touches Rogue. Then she convinces/overwhelms Rogue to take Kurt and Peter's powers. It's not just memories and powers Rogue absorbs, her thoughts become noticeably similar to the other X-Men, and Kitty even starts taking notes on Nimrod, saying "neato" or something else that Rogue reacts negatively to. Like Carol taking control to redecorate Rogue's house, or buy a dress and doing her hair, this is more than just memories. Morgan WickFebruary 16, 2017 12:10 AM Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206 Clearly Grant thought it was idiotic for someone who'd been arrested multiple times, and presumably booked under their real name, to have a secret identity, but Peter clearly thinks Flash is an idiot here and Michael's comment makes it seem that the Cat herself and the entire Bugle staff look like idiots. Walter LawsonFebruary 15, 2017 11:36 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 The question of how real or authentic the Carol in Rogue's head is meant to be in unanswerable for certain apart from asking Claremont what he intended. Even in real-world philosophy it's a debated question whether seaparating a mind and body creates two of the individual, or one new and one original person, or two new people derived from the original. We can at, though, that there are plenty of instances where people Rogue absorbs wind up controlling her--Mr Sinister and Spiral are two examples--and it's treated like a mind/soul/psyche transference, not just a memory capture and KO zap. My read on the Ms Marvel situation has always been that Rogue absorbed Carol's mind and memories, leaving Carol's body a shell whose mind had to be rebuilt by Xavier, with memories restored but not feeling emotionally connected. Rogue-Carol and Binary-Carol are both arguably authentically Carol, yet both incomplete. I wish we'd had a chance to see Claremont's resolution: I suspect he was going someplace with Shadow King-possessed Carol, SK wanting to take over the stars, and Wolverine having a third, hallucinatory Carol. But maybe he just liked using the character one way or another. Luke BlanchardFebruary 15, 2017 11:28 PM Captain America annual #12 I think I've got it: he's a Batman joke! "Bantam" is "Batman" with the letters scrambled. The tip-off is the title of the third story: BATMAN RETURNS came out the previous year. The bit where he's thinking he needs a costume, and a chicken goes by, is a subtle parody of the bit from Batman's origin where the bat flies in through the window. Walter LawsonFebruary 15, 2017 11:16 PM Captain America annual #12 If Gru isn't mocking the whole annual create-a-character idea, my guess is he's indulging in his affection for Silver Age DC, partivularly Batman. I could see late Silver Age Bats fighting a guy like this. He's no worse than a Calendar Man. MichaelFebruary 15, 2017 9:46 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206 I think fnord is overthinking the council not having supervillains working for them. There have been stories where the Kingpin, Hammerhead, etc. have supervillains working for them and other stories when they don't. It's understandable that the council couldn't find a supervillain to protect them in the brief time between Tombstone's first and second visits. Luis DantasFebruary 15, 2017 8:56 PM Captain America annual #12 Bantam feels like a pastiche on Wolverine to me, what with the diminute height and the reliance on dangerous berserker furies. MichaelFebruary 15, 2017 8:52 PM Captain America annual #12 Back in 1988, Marvel Age 64 announced that a new black hero called Bantam would be appearing in Web of Spider-Man Annual 4. But he never appeared, and instead Posion appeared. I wonder if this is the same character reworked. It's an interesting question- which is worse- a minority boxing chicken or a Hispanic maid that dresses like a prostitute? MichaelFebruary 15, 2017 8:20 PM Cage #18-20 The Marvel Comics Presents story was published before this. The reason the Marvel Chronology Project had no qualms about placing it after was that during Cage's next appearance in Secret Defenders 15-17, he's been hired to guard a museum, which makes no sense if he's faked his death and on the run. So clearly, Cage's fake death had to be very temporary. Luke BlanchardFebruary 15, 2017 8:12 PM Captain America annual #12 A spoof superhero show called Chickenman played on the radio in the 1960s. Wikipedia has a page on it. UbersichtFebruary 15, 2017 7:32 PM Jon DubyaFebruary 15, 2017 7:01 PM Captain America annual #12 Why are the rooster-men always minorities? That's just weird. MizarkFebruary 15, 2017 6:39 PM Captain America annual #12 A very minor point but the weight limit for the bantamweight class is 118. Technically he is a super bantamweight (which may be the point) or a junior featherweight. Neither of which serves to make him any less ridiculous. Gary HimesFebruary 15, 2017 5:52 PM Captain America annual #12 All Bantam needed was the proper archenemy ... the C*ckbl*cker! fnord12February 15, 2017 5:34 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206 For what it's worth, Shroud's upcoming mini is promoted/footnoted next issue, so it's not a case of that particular issue creating a demand for the series. It was already in the works, and if anything the Shroud's appearance was to try to generate interest in it. RobertFebruary 15, 2017 5:28 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206 So did Annex. Marvel has a long history of creating mini-series no one was asking for. Morgan WickFebruary 15, 2017 3:59 PM Captain America annual #12 Something tells me Gruenwald didn't like the editorially-mandated "create a new character" gimmick any more than anyone else, so he created a character as ridiculous as possible, basically making a mockery of the whole thing. clydeFebruary 15, 2017 3:30 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206 Robert - it must have worked since The Shroud gets his own miniseries in 1994. RobertFebruary 15, 2017 3:11 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206 "Next: The Shroud" - What a way to bring in readers in 1993. Andrew FFebruary 15, 2017 3:05 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206 I would have liked a scene where J. Jonah Jameson sees Peter Parker wearing a Spider-Man costume with a Black Cat mask, and just has no idea what to make of it Ben HermanFebruary 15, 2017 2:39 PM Spectacular Spider-Man annual #13 I don't have this one, but if I had known that DeMatteis was the writer and that it tied in with his ongoing storylines from SSM then I probably would have gotten it. That was the major problem with polybagging these annuals with trading cards, it made it impossible to peak inside to see if the stories and art might actually be decent. It's really unexpected to see John Romita Sr's work in this annual. He was mostly retired at this point, and the occasional penciling jobs he did in the 1990s were usually for high-profile specials or anniversary issues. So it's odd that he worked on a throw-away back-up story featuring the Prowler. Ben HermanFebruary 15, 2017 2:33 PM Captain America annual #12 As I've mentioned on a few occasions, I was a *huge* fan of Captain America in the 1990s. I really really really wanted to like this annual, but as much as I really attempted to be open-minded, a part of me always recognized that the Bantam was a ridiculous character. A guy in a rooster costume with boxing gloves feels sort of like a throwback to the oddball animal inspired characters who popped up in the early Bronze Age. Maybe the Bantam might have kinda sorta worked in the early 1970s, but two decades later he was ridiculous. I always laugh at that one panel where Cap thinks to himself "he's in some sort of berserker rage!" Really?!? This is a boxing chicken you're dealing with, not Wolverine or Sabretooth! AFFebruary 15, 2017 2:01 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Rogue absorbed Carol's memories, not Carol's existence. You've not thought it through at all. Carol here is made from those memories. It's not Carol, it is a physical representation of her created based on those memories Rogue absorbed. Yes it is accurate and identical - because Rogue has all her memories to draw from. Best way to explain this is, look at Captain America #400, when the Supreme Intelligence uses Captain America's memories to recreate his rogues gallery. It can only build them based on Captain America's knowledge, so Batroc doesn't have a face because Captain America has supposedly never seen his face. Rogue's internal representation of Carol is identical to the real Carol Danvers because she has TOTAL knowledge of everything Carol. And, if a character gets amnesia, they don't cease being that character, do they? The same is true of Carol Danvers, just because you think Binary is rubbish (and it is), it's still her. She basically has amnesia, and just because it's done in such a personal and defined way, doesn't mean that wherever those memories wound up is now her character. Piotr WFebruary 15, 2017 12:36 PM Gambit #1-4 Well said, Ben. I really can't lament enough that Claremont's plans for Gambit didn't come to pass. If he stayed long enough to write this, this would be an *awesome* twist. But he didn't... and now we're stuck with a character that doesn't make much sense. Drat. Ben HermanFebruary 15, 2017 11:17 AM Gambit #1-4 Agreed that very little about Gambit's character makes sense removed from Claremont's original intentions. It's exactly the same problem that Mister Sinister has... which makes sense because originally they were supposed to be different aspects of the same person. Gambit, as conceived by Claremont, is a ten year old's idea of what a suave, sexy, cool-under-pressure ladies man would be like, which is why he has a cheesy accent, and he's a thief, and he had a complicated costume with a trenchcoat on top of it, and he fights with a staff, and he smokes, and he always has a five o'clock shadow. In other words, he's a Marty Sue conceived by Sinister's real ten-year-old self to seduce Rogue and infiltrate the X-Men. If you know that then suddenly the character, with all his cheesiness, makes perfect sense. However, once you remove that backstory and make him exactly what he appears to be, now he's just annoying and implausible and overly complicated, especially when you toss in all the nonsense about the Thieves Guild and Assassins Guild. Jon DubyaFebruary 15, 2017 10:13 AM Gambit #1-4 Actually Gambit was doing that in Uncanny #267. I think he also does it in a few solo guest apperances in other books. And of course this was utelized in his most recent solo series. Incidentally, not only will Gambit have many solo series, next to Wolverine (and Cable) he's the X-man that the longest one around. Most other X-men would eventually get a series (Storm, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Jubilee, etc.) and all had series that were quickly cancelled. Also, kinda ironic that Gambit goes to Paris here since Paris is the scene for another significant chapter in Gambit's history (oh it involves more thieving so he does/did do it.) Finally, as the overwrought narration hints at on the last page there are actually three big tenets to Gambit's character profile. Sure's he's a theif, but there's also his constant status a The Traitor (or at least someone who would easily betray someone) That tension is probably residue left over from whatever Claremont had planned for Gambit and is usually reserved for team dynamics. There is also Gambit's characterization as a lothario and womanizer (which is why having a wife out there isn't a bad development. It's supposed to bring up and test questions of Remy's faithfulness and whether he's stinging a bunch of women along or not.) fnord12February 15, 2017 8:08 AM Gambit #1-4 Updated the historical sig. Thanks Michael. Omar KarinduFebruary 15, 2017 6:04 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 The "Carol" personality here does not, in fact, re-merge with the physical form of Carol Danvers. A few scenes in Kurt Busiek's Iron Man and Avengers runs show that Carol has rebuilt her life the hard way and made efforts to reconnect with her parents (ands slipped into alcoholism as a result). UbersichtFebruary 14, 2017 11:48 PM Gambit #1-4 It's an understandable mistake D09February 14, 2017 10:00 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 So ChrisW, what you're saying is that Rogue absorbed all of Carol's essence before Avengers Annual 10 and that she is now stuck in Rogue's mind? Then in your opinion, who or what is operating Carol's body when she appears in Avengers Annual 10? ChrisWFebruary 14, 2017 9:53 PM Gambit #1-4 So that's 'uncanny similarity' then. There aren't too many letterers whose work immediately sticks out to me, but John Workman is one of them, and as far as I know he's been almost entirely DC for ages. Thanks. ChrisWFebruary 14, 2017 9:35 PM New Mutants #48-50 I don't know if you can call it one of Claremont's overused tropes or if it just feels that way, but I find it a repulsive notion that giving someone help will forever destroy their lives, even if everything we know and love will die if you don't give them help right now, in the next few seconds. "Fantastic Four Versus the X-Men" is the only other place I can think of it being specifically referenced, but it really feels like one of Claremont's overused tropes. I do see Sienkiewicz influence in the two page spread [which blew me away when I first read the story.] I've also seen a bit of influence in the scene where Illyana teleports one of Magus' limbs, but that's probably because the giant teeth always made me think of Frank Miller's Mutant Leader [!] in "Dark Knight." MichaelFebruary 14, 2017 9:26 PM Gambit #1-4 Richard Starkings. ChrisWFebruary 14, 2017 9:20 PM Gambit #1-4 Is that John Workman's lettering? Or just an uncanny similarity? ChrisWFebruary 14, 2017 9:13 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 I believe Carol does become herself again. My knowledge comes entirely from the "JLA/Avengers" miniseries, where Ms. Marvel is clearly Carol Danvers, and I have no idea how Binary was worked into the mix. Take this for what it is since my knowledge is almost entirely Claremont-centered, but the Carol inside Rogue's head is Ms. Marvel, Kree heritage and all. Carol-as-Binary was just another Phoenix retread, and it suddenly occurs to me that Binary was completely absent from the 'rescue Xavier' Starjammers/Deathbird story at the end of Claremont's run. I don't know how or if this was ever retconned, but Magneto had literally just chosen Rogue over Carol when the two couldn't survive with two bodies. This reinforces my point that Carol as Ms. Marvel was in Rogue's head the whole time, and Binary was something else. Like I say, I'd swear I've asked this before and fnord had a sensible answer, but if it were my decision, Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel) would be tagged in most of her appearances, including the relevant issues of "X-Men" like these, and Carol Danvers (Binary) would be tagged for her appearances, starting with "Avengers" Annual #10. Or "Avengers" #200, if you have a particularly good explanation for it. Walter Lawson's EraserFebruary 14, 2017 8:33 PM Gambit #1-4 Oops--the "less" in my post above shouldn't be there. Walter LawsonFebruary 14, 2017 8:32 PM Gambit #1-4 Nice Lee Weeks art, though. I don't recall hating this, so I'm surprised to hear fan reaction was so negative. I mean, it's not actually very good, but surely we've seen worse in the x-line over the last few years. But then, I'm weird: I don't hate the idea of the Thieves and Assassins Guilds, though I do dislike the fact we never see them steal anything or assassinate anyone. I think in the right hands the concept could work, and it gives Gambit a cast apart from the X-Men who could make a solo series viable. I do enjoy Nicieza's series a few years after this--one of the last x-titles of any kind I took an interest in, in fact, partly because it was less relatively independent of the other books. MortificatorFebruary 14, 2017 8:27 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 I should have put an @Ben before the first paragraph above. MortificatorFebruary 14, 2017 8:26 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 Those all work as explanations, though the Mandarin wouldn't be tagged in any of them. That's actually my suggestion for the big hand-wave, to leave this guy untagged and say he can't be the actual Mandarin. It's much more sensible for one of the many extant shape-shifters to be imitating him here than for the Mandarin to wake up from a coma, leave the village, obtain bionic hands, use a holographic disguise to appear as if he cleaned himself up, get in an out-of-character opium war with Hydra, turn off his image inducer, take off his bionic hands, go back to that remote village, and fall back into a coma, all without the people who are nursing him noticing. @JSfan - Thanks for the translation. ;) MichaelFebruary 14, 2017 7:59 PM Nightstalkers #11 Note that Blade refers to Victoria Montesi as "diabolically tainted"- another clue to her true nature. MichaelFebruary 14, 2017 7:58 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 @Berend- the problem is that Shinobi references the Gamesmaster in the above panels and Shinobi quits the Upstarts in New Warriors 46. Placing Mandarin's appearances starting in Iron Man 307 before New Warriors 46 is difficult- the Warriors appear in Iron Man 302-303, New Warriors 46 takes place directly after X-Men 29, which has a February cover date (and Iron Man 307 has an August cover date), etc. MichaelFebruary 14, 2017 7:52 PM Gambit #1-4 The point is that Bella Donna is amnesiac because Rogue stole her memories, as we'll see in the Rogue series. Ben HermanFebruary 14, 2017 4:10 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 Or it could be a clone, or an LMD, or a Skrull, or a Space Phantom, or his Earth-A counterpart taking a vacation on Earth-616... there are so many different possibilities! D09February 14, 2017 3:42 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 @Berend: I'd honestly leave it here and just chalk up the Mandarin's appearance as a combination of fnord12's image inducer idea and a pair of robotic prosthetic in case he needs to actually handle something, it isn't something that Mandarin will do for a long-term basis but for short periods of recovery like this arc, it'll do. fnord12February 14, 2017 3:38 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 Not sure how long he retains the lizard hands or what else might arise, but yeah that's an option when i get there. BerendFebruary 14, 2017 3:33 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 Okay, I'm wading into territory I know nothing about here, but would moving it to after Iron Man #307 be an option? BonezFebruary 14, 2017 1:10 PM Captain America #270 I'm sure its solely because I was such a huge fan of Secret Wars as a kid, but Mike Zeck's art style is always a winner in my book. fnord12February 14, 2017 12:41 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 @Ben, thanks for noting the problem with the Mandarin. I considered trying to push this back before the Mandarin's defeat in Iron Man #275 (3 years!) but doing so would just introduce other problems. I've made some notes in the considerations. fnord12February 14, 2017 11:21 AM Spider-Man #38-40 @Omar, thanks. I've added a scan and a reference and a character tag for Charlie. Mark DrummondFebruary 14, 2017 10:51 AM Amazing Spider-Man #136 A later letters column explained that he just kept making new hammocks as each one dissolved. Ataru320February 14, 2017 8:48 AM Uncanny X-Men #19 Mimic feels too much of a patsy to be on a villain team. Could see the Super-Skrull and Super-Adaptoid though; maybe Rogue and Mystique together in the early days prior to the Miss Marvel incident though. Walter LawsonFebruary 14, 2017 1:42 AM Captain America #169-175 In Cap 173, Cap does explain why he and Falcon are wearing their costumes when they raid Brand: it's so that if they're captured, there's a chance it eill be by someone who still believes in Captain America (and presumably will let them go or even help them). Not a very good reason, but the script does offer an explanation. Chris VFebruary 14, 2017 1:37 AM Spellbound #1-6 Mike Carey had a mini-series at Marvel many, many years after this titled Spellbinders. Vin the Comics GuyFebruary 14, 2017 1:17 AM Iron Man #284-286 I have this issue, and I didn't remember Kathy pulling a Bud Dwyer. UbersichtFebruary 14, 2017 12:23 AM Uncanny X-Men #19 I'd be more inclined to put the Super-Skrull in there as a counterpart to the Super-Adaptoid and Mimic since the Taskmaster doesn't copy actual powers. He also tries to keep a low profile. Still the basic idea of such a team-up is pretty awesome. RocknrollguitarplayerFebruary 13, 2017 11:46 PM Uncanny X-Men #19 Mimic, Taskmaster and Superadaptoid need to form into a super-villain team and wreak havoc RocknrollguitarplayerFebruary 13, 2017 11:38 PM Avengers #28-29 Was Tanaleer Tivan's immortality (given by Death)as an Elder of the Universe in effect yet or was he only wielding the "Power Primordial" at this point. naginalJJFebruary 13, 2017 10:48 PM Tales Of Suspense #91 (Captain America) Funniest thing about this issues was Cap putting on a sailor uniform and hat to sneak on board the Red Skull's ship but still wearing his full costume underneath. You're not fooling anyone Cap! Thanos6February 13, 2017 10:09 PM Spider-Man #38-40 Agreed with Berend. This is a great story, just not for Electro. And I do like the bits with Charlie the crook. MortificatorFebruary 13, 2017 9:23 PM Spider-Man #38-40 Parker's monologue/dialogue in these scans makes me want to take a tone. As for mother issues, we'll also see them inserted into Dr. Octopus' backstory later in the '90s... Walter LawsonFebruary 13, 2017 9:15 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 Some background on Ecky-Thump, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_Kapers Count me a fan of Dragonfly LaRoux as well. That is a fantastically good intro. The gold tooth is a bit much, but even so, I'd buy the guy's comic. MichaelFebruary 13, 2017 7:59 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 I'm not liking the way the writer dragged the X-Men into that flashback just to humiliate them. ClutchFebruary 13, 2017 7:58 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 The story and art are indeed far above the average "Image-ized" Marvel UK book. Priest would've had a field day with Andre LeRoux! His intro sequence is brilliant. AndrewFebruary 13, 2017 7:54 PM Fantastic Four annual #22 (Watcher) I like a continuity patch if it's done well, but this is just silly. A real low point for the Watcher. AndrewFebruary 13, 2017 7:50 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 One thing worth noting is the Genegineer says that Wolverine's sickness here is due to low red blood cell count, because his bone marrow is fused with metal, not due to adamantium poisoning. Vincent ValentiFebruary 13, 2017 7:38 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 Too bad Rip Van Pimp didn't sleep for another 20 years - with the gentrification taking place in NYC, he would have at least seen some changes. SFebruary 13, 2017 7:20 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 That Count Dante reference is pretty great! Anything that makes old comic ads canon is OK by me. Michael CheyneFebruary 13, 2017 6:56 PM Web of Spider-Man #82 Same as Red Comet--I think I had every Kurt Busiek Web fill-in, but not by choice. You could easily have persuaded me that Web was some weird anthology of one-shot Spidey characters. Omar KarinduFebruary 13, 2017 6:18 PM Spider-Man #38-40 Rather irritatingly, the first two flashback panels of "Charlie" the crook in issue #38 seem to be lifted from page 2 of Amazing Spider-Man #3, so apparently the guy in the cap in that story is Charlie from this story. Omar KarinduFebruary 13, 2017 6:15 PM Amazing Spider-Man #137 Though Part I has Harry fighting Peter to a standstill and only failing to kill him because his glove blasters run out of power. There seems to have been some kind of a plot change between parts, too; the end of Part I promised "Spider-Man: Renegade" and suggested that Peter was about to go berserk. It also plays Harry as "as fast as the original Goblin" and a serious physical threat. But here, Peter is only POed at Jonah, Spider-Man is his usual self-deprecating self, and after the prologue with the atomic bomb theft sequence, Harry is quickly dismissed as a guy in the middle of a mental breakdown who's in over his head playing villain. Omar KarinduFebruary 13, 2017 6:11 PM Amazing Spider-Man #136 The whole bit with Norman's lair being coated in fake dust and seemingly unused doesn't fit with Harry being a raving loon, especially since nothing is missing from the lab. How is that possible, if it's where Harry's been getting his Goblin gadgets? Interestingly, the much later retcon that Mysterio helped Norman fake his death helps clean that up; since Spidey notes that the fake dust is like the sort of thing special effects artists use. So maybe Mysterio and Norman were trying to protect Harry by cleaning up after him. There's another odd bit where Spidey spends hours in a web-hammock -- the captions tell us it's hours -- without it dissolving under him. Omar KarinduFebruary 13, 2017 6:07 PM Amazing Spider-Man #132-133 Rather oddly, Spider-Man deduces the Molten Man is the baddie in #132 after noticing the Molten Man's footprints burned into the floor....only the Molten Man's fiery powers are a new development Spider-man isn't supposed to know about. BerendFebruary 13, 2017 5:47 PM Spider-Man #38-40 This was one of the earliest Spidey comics I read, and I remember quite liking it. But that is probably because I had little to compare it with. If you've never read any other J.M. DeMatteis "villain deconstruction" story before, or any Kurt Busiek "focus on a civilian interacting with Spidey" story, this is almost mind-blowingly novel. Now that I'm more well read though... yeah, a bit of a mess, this issue. I still like this motivation of Electro though, just... not for Electro. I also see him more as someone entirely comfortable as a hired thug. If I were to do a story delving into his personality, it would be about him realizing he's actually ridiculously overpowered for the jobs he's doing, attempting to become a more high stakes super villain, only to end up realizing it's just not for him, and that he's happiest in a mercenary/henchman role. Still, there must be plenty of other fairly blank super villains lying around you could use for the sad-sack role in a story like this. BerendFebruary 13, 2017 5:28 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 Never heard of this, but it does sound like wasted potential. I love me a good martial arts tournament storyline. That said, this story sure is sweary. Ponce, nonce... you could apparently get away with a lot more stuff in Marvel UK than in regular Marvel! MattFebruary 13, 2017 5:14 PM Spider-Man #38-40 Wow. That is... That is just terrible. Thanks for reading this stuff so I don't have to. J-RodFebruary 13, 2017 2:39 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #197-200 Gotcha. Thanks. I'm still learning how to navigate this site. I'm working on an 80s/90s read/reread of X-Men (adding X-Factor from its inception, New Mutants from 86-100 and X-Force from its inception, and numerous other issues where relevant), starting from Dark Phoenix Saga (having read the previous stories many times) and, theoretically, ending at Age of Apocalypse, which I think is a nice endpoint. I'm just before Mutant Massacre now, and reading X-Factor for the first time (spotty so far, but thankfully I'm through Layton). After Mutant Massacre, I've got a huge stretch of issues I've never read except for the ones from "event" trades, up until my very first Marvel comic, Uncanny 300 (which I think still holds up as both a fantastic anniversary issue and solid advancement of storylines from both core X-books at the time). I bought Spectacular 198 and 199 in the month or so after I got Uncanny 300 for my ninth birthday, so they were probably among my first 10-20 comics ever. I lost those issues many years ago, but bought them again a couple of years ago along with 197 and 200, and currently have them placed somewhere around Uncanny 298-300 for reading when I, someday, get to them. That was a lot to say, thanks for the information that helps confirm that I have these placed approximately correctly. Ben HermanFebruary 13, 2017 1:43 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 A bigger continuity problem with the Mandarin is that the last time he was seen, at the end of Iron Man #275, his hands had been disintegrated and he was left comatose. The next time he appears in 1995, in the lead-in to the "Hands of the Mandarin" crossover, he is finally waking up from his coma and growing a new pair of reptilian hands. So that would make it really difficult for the Mandarin to show up in this story. Ben HermanFebruary 13, 2017 1:27 PM Hulk #1 There is an interview with Kenneth Johnson in Back Issue #70 in which he unfortunately reveals a very contemptuous dismissal of the Marvel Comics source material. Johnson's whole attitude towards working on the TV show can basically be summed up by him stating that he succeeded in making an intelligent, quality television series in spite of the fact that it was based on a stupid, childish comic book, or words to that effect. JSfanFebruary 13, 2017 1:23 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 Wish I could edit my post so I could add it to my previous post but I instantly despise Andy Black for being a Spurs fan (and probably leader of their firm). JSfanFebruary 13, 2017 1:15 PM Super Soldiers #6-7 Andy Black: I was a right 'Casual' (football hooligan) always taxing (stealing) Tachinni (Sergio Tachinni)and Pringle (golf sweaters). I guess only us Brits would understand what he was on about. Mark DrummondFebruary 13, 2017 10:52 AM Hulk #1 I have my doubts that Wertham's book had that much of an impact on American culture as a whole that it could have begun the "Bruce=Gay" thing all by itself. Jon DubyaFebruary 13, 2017 10:35 AM Amazing Spider-Man #234-236 Because that isn't Amy Powell. It's obviously Valerie Cooper going undercover to do some early re recruitment for Freedom Force. (I mean, look at her!) fnord12February 13, 2017 10:01 AM Venom: Funeral Pyre #1-3 Added Deathtrap as a "reference". Thanks Michael. He also killed a regular police officer while awaiting transfer back to the Vault in Amazing Spider-Man #373 but i don't think that or the Vault doctors should "count" (i mean, it's not really an explicit reference anyway). fnord12February 13, 2017 9:56 AM Hulk #277-279 Updated the credits. Thanks Brian. fnord12February 13, 2017 9:53 AM Amazing Spider-Man #234-236 Thanks Chris. Added her. TuomasFebruary 13, 2017 5:30 AM Hulk #1 I'm somewhat familiar with American gay history, and for reasons that are probably lost to time, back then the name Bruce was indeed associated with homosexuality, both in gay and straight circles. And I don't think it's because of Wertham or Batman? For example, the queer moviemaker Bruce laBruce chose his pseudonym because of that connotation. Morgan WickFebruary 13, 2017 4:21 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Does Rogue!Carol ever make her way back to Carol Danvers' body? Is anything else ever done with her other than one or two Easter egg stories where she's separated from Rogue (which wouldn't count as making her a separate character any more than the countless times Bruce Banner and the Hulk have been separated)? No? Then she's not Carol Danvers no matter what Claremont's intention is at the time. Even in the first case the tag can only follow one version of Danvers at a time, so you're going to have to start arguing why the version of Carol in Rogue's head is more real than Binary, even taking into account later developments to the characters. UbersichtFebruary 12, 2017 10:53 PM Hulk #1 Since we all know that guts who are perceived as particularly masculine can't possibly be homosexual (sarcasm... if that wasn't obvious), we should mention Bruce Willis and Bruce Campbell as (somewhat) more current. (But who's more current than Caitlyn Jenner, really?) Let's also not forget Springsteen. And recalling that, I always thought that Rick Springfield song "They Call Me 'Bruce'" was complaining about being mistaken for "The Boss" (He wishes!) Maybe it was about being perceived as gay? Anyway, https://youtu.be/F9B5HuwBYXE cullenFebruary 12, 2017 9:31 PM Midnight Sons Unlimited #3 It's true that Mort Todd isn't his birth name (Michael Delle-Femine according to Wikipedia), but he was already using that name when he was working at Cracked. Walter LawsonFebruary 12, 2017 8:53 PM Midnight Sons Unlimited #3 "Mort Todd" is a pseudonym, right? Or did someone legally change his name to "Death Death" just so he could write/draw an awful Midnight Sons comic? Walter LawsonFebruary 12, 2017 8:43 PM Daredevil #319-325 @Ben, Miller was particularly aggrieved that Macchio brought Elektra back into circulation, because Macchio had personally promised him that as long as he (Macchio) was editor, only he (Miller) would be allowed to write Elektra. Omar KarinduFebruary 12, 2017 7:26 PM Iron Man #7-8 The Plunderer had turned up in Tales to Astonish fighting the Sub-Mariner towards the end of its run, but the Gladiator is the first of Daredevil's actual villains -- as opposed to a guy created to battle Ka-zar -- ever showed up outside his title. mikrolikFebruary 12, 2017 5:49 PM Iron Man #7-8 Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the first instance of a villain created in Daredevil appearing in another hero's book. Although I do want to stress that some early Daredevil villains can be interesting and compelling if written well; besides Gladiator, Owl, Purple Man, Mr. Fear, the Ani-Men, and even Stilt Man (ASM 237 for example). ChrisWFebruary 12, 2017 5:14 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Banner and the Hulk are the same person, Legion's personalities have been part of his mind since his first appearance, and I don't know enough about Deadpool to respond to that. Body-mind-switch stories are tricky in this regard, but with Carol and Rogue, the point is that she really is Carol (Binary notwithstanding.) "If that proves an 'inconvenience,' then consider it fair punishment for a crime that was itself the next best thing to murder." AndrewFebruary 12, 2017 5:08 PM Hulk #1 I remember. That rumor was persistent enough that they made fun of it in Mad magazine, pointing to Olympic gold medal winner Bruce Jenner as an icon of masculinity. In retrospect, maybe they should have gone with Bruce Lee. Of course, the calumny against the name "Bruce" started with Frederic Wertham and his contention that Batman was a (latent?) pedophile. MortificatorFebruary 12, 2017 2:03 PM Marvel Team-Up #67 It's understandable Spider-Man doesn't recognize that Tigra was the Cat, but I'm a little disappointed she doesn't mention their earlier team-up. Shades of Kraven's Last Hunt: Spidey gets tranq-darted by Kraven and ultimately falls unconscious on a rooftop while scared he's going to die. We could even say he's remembering this story in later one when he's dismissively thinking Kraven's going to take him to a lair and talk his ear off. And in both cases, Kraven's plan involves pitting Spider-Man against an animal-person. Mark DrummondFebruary 12, 2017 1:23 PM Hulk #1 The commonly heard story back then was that Bruce became David because "Bruce" was supposedly applied to gay men. AndrewFebruary 12, 2017 10:20 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Imagine if fnord had to track all of Legion's personalities as separate characters. Or the voices in Deadpool's head (which he may actually have to do, God help us). The only place it gets tricky is body-mind-switch stories. If we had a single issue with nothing but Jack Norriss's mind in Chondu's brain in Nighthawk's body, which characters would count as having appeared? (I'm guessing all three, as if Chondu and Nighthawk were present but sleeping.) a.lloydFebruary 12, 2017 7:08 AM Fantastic Four #263-264 Was Julie Angel and Johnny ever a couple? AFFebruary 12, 2017 6:35 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 He doesn't track Bruce Banner and Hulk separately, why would he track Rogue and one of her absorbed personalities separately. Brian C. SaundersFebruary 12, 2017 3:38 AM Hulk #277-279 Credit correction note: Mark Gruenwald did the layouts for #279 that Greg LaRocque finished. Sal Buscema wasn't involved at all. iLegionFebruary 12, 2017 1:32 AM Web of Spider-Man #97-100 Oh right, Nightwatch is a rip-off (probably unintentional) of yet another concept: Monarch, the DCU bad guy who is the future self of Hawk (of Hawk and Dove). Both characters inherit their super-powered armor from their dead future selves with no explanation of how that macguffin could exist. Morgan WickFebruary 12, 2017 12:41 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 The most you could do is create a separate entry for the Danvers personality in Rogue's mind, because at best it's a separate character. The purpose of the character tags is to follow the continuity of a character relatively seamlessly from issue to issue, and having the Carol Danvers character page bouncing between her Binary and Rogue halves defeats that purpose. ChrisFebruary 11, 2017 11:25 PM Amazing Spider-Man #234-236 The character of Amy Powell appears here by search, but she isn't listed in the Characters Appearing section. ChrisWFebruary 11, 2017 10:08 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 I'd swear I've asked this before and fnord gave an answer that I may not have agreed with, but it's his site and his rules. I'll probably forget and ask again in a year or two. But she's in charge. I know there's a walking, talking Binary out there, and Ms. Marvel will be back in a few years, but come on. Silvestri and Leonardi drawing Rogue is the only thing that's not explicitly Carol Danvers. Carol isn't listed in #182, #244, #246-7 or #269, when she's clearly a major participant in each issue. AndrewFebruary 11, 2017 8:30 PM Hulk #1 It just occurred to me that when producer Kenneth Johnson created the 70's Hulk TV show, he changed "Bruce Banner" to "David Banner" because he thought the alliteration was too comic-book-y, but his star had the very alliterative real name of Bill Bixby. That's irony, or something... AndrewFebruary 11, 2017 8:10 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Because it's not really her; it's just the residue of her personality in Rogue's mind. Thanos6February 11, 2017 6:04 PM Amazing Spider-Man #234-236 I actually quite liked the 70s Shazam series. Morgan WickFebruary 11, 2017 5:28 PM Amazing Spider-Man #234-236 Interesting to see Marvel claim they had "the greatest impact on the future of comics" when they published Amazing Fantasy #15, not Fantastic Four #1. If only speculators or even anyone at Marvel itself in the 90s had read what they said about Shazam #1 here, a lot of the madness of that decade could have been avoided...DC can take some comfort that even when Marvel recognizes DC's mistakes, they don't learn from them. MichaelFebruary 11, 2017 3:14 PM Quasar #49-50 Note that the Guardians are referred to as the Congress of Realities, the same name as Thog's minions in Fear 19 and Man-Thing 1. Are they supposed to be the same organization? Their scheme was also centered on the Nexus of Reality. Ben HermanFebruary 11, 2017 1:00 PM Quasar #49-50 I think another one of the guardians is, um, a giant green wedge of Swiss cheese?!? CullenFebruary 11, 2017 12:29 PM Punisher Back To School Special #2 The Warg premise is reminiscent of H.G. Lewis's Wizard of Gore. MichaelFebruary 11, 2017 8:52 AM Venom: Funeral Pyre #1-3 I just remembered- Venom also killed at least one guard in Avengers: Deathtrap the Vault. Piotr WFebruary 11, 2017 6:00 AM Punisher Back To School Special #2 The third story apparently features Alan Moore as the villain :) The GWAR / WARG story... I can't decide whether that premise is stupid or brilliant. A monster band killing people on stage? Hmmm... Anyway, the writer has no idea what goth music is. :P ClutchFebruary 11, 2017 3:30 AM Quasar #49-50 The yellow guy with the sword strongly resembles John Blackstar from the early 80s Filmation cartoon and Galoob toy line. Erik RobbinsFebruary 11, 2017 2:16 AM Punisher Back To School Special #2 WTF? You get a ticket for parking illegally, not arrested at gunpoint! WisFebruary 11, 2017 1:45 AM Quasar #49-50 Looks like Wendell used the X-O Manowar armor during his fight with the Surfer. BobFebruary 10, 2017 11:19 PM Quasar #49-50 Wendell fell into Donald Trump's spray tan cat in those first few panels, apparently.Bob ChrisWFebruary 10, 2017 10:50 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 I am curious why Carol isn't listed as one of the characters appearing. AndrewFebruary 10, 2017 10:09 PM Thor #357-359 FYI, it's "They Might Be Giants", not "There Might Be Giants." iLegionFebruary 10, 2017 9:42 PM Venom: Funeral Pyre #1-3 At least Venom is on the receiving end of the same BS logic that justified his vendetta with Spiderman. And amazingly enough, despite blaming the Punisher for delaying him, he also accepts partial responsibility for failing to rescue Grey/Pyre. Grey somewhat indirectly acknowledges that his curiosity about the Hydra lab got him in that situation, so my bigger problem here is that Venom had an opportunity for some character growth and it was overlooked. No, Eddie, don't realize you were full of crap calling yourself "innocent" before Spiderman "ruined" you. Omar KarinduFebruary 10, 2017 9:36 PM Amazing Spider-Man #344 I'd point to Chance and the Life Foundation,the Trump parody "Trask," and Jonathan Caesar. And in the most literal sense, the use of Justin Hammer and a number of his operatives (Blacklash, for example). Chance is exactly the sort of hi-tech mercenary Iron Man might battle, and his civilian alter ego seems like a foil of sorts to TonyStark: a socialite with a gambling addiction to contrast Stark as the industrialist struggling against an alcohol addiction. And the Life Foundation, Trask, and Caesar are very much the sort of "corrupt rich guy" antagonists Michelinie used in his Iron Man run (Hamer, Edwin Cord, and so on). More broadly, Michelinie tended to emphasize the weapons tech used by Spider-Man's villains, new and old. His take on the Scorpion is all about the gadgetry Gargan keeps having added to his tail, for example, and there's a general emphasis on the kind of "James Bond plot" -- rich, untouchable villain using colorful henchmen as assassins and operatives -- that Michelinie and Layton used in Iron Man rather than the more street-level Spider-Man stuff you'd expect. I can't think of an organized crime storyline in Michelinie's run, for example, and those were the bread and butter of Spider-Man under most previous writers. It's all "villain using a new technology or augmenting their gear" stuff, or "corrupt rich dudes with a colorful pet operative who does the fighting." It's all very Iron Man to my eyes. The symbiotes are the big exception. AndrewFebruary 10, 2017 8:47 PM Quasar #49-50 I see Spawn's cape and glove coming out of one of the negus holes, and one of Sleepwalker's people in the upper left. Surprised the artist didn't have more fun with that scene. Chris CohenFebruary 10, 2017 7:41 PM Amazing Spider-Man #344 Omar, what other Michelinie Spider-Man villains are you referring to? Thanos6February 10, 2017 7:07 PM Quasar #51-53 I think the Geometer thing is a parody of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, about how the Anti-Monitor's final plan to destroy the universe before it starts wouldn't work at Marvel. Mark DrummondFebruary 10, 2017 6:45 PM Quasar #49-50 The cyclops-alien appears to be a Megan, an alien race that appeared in some of the better Godzilla issues. Michael February 10, 2017 5:45 PM Venom: Funeral Pyre #1-3 Venom also killed a couple of doctors at the Vault in Amazing Spider-Man 330-331. Red CometFebruary 10, 2017 5:19 PM Punisher War Zone annual #1 The only thing I can remember Caragonne from is as the writer on the two issue What If Phoenix Had Not Died story. Chris Claremont was given co-writer credit on that one and, since he'd probably already left Marvel by then, I assume that's because Caragonne used Claremont's outline of the alternate ending to Uncanny X-men #137. Luis DantasFebruary 10, 2017 5:17 PM Venom: Funeral Pyre #1-3 Tom Lyle used to draw Roger Stern's Starman for DC. He deserved better than this. MortificatorFebruary 10, 2017 4:57 PM Quasar #49-50 I had absolutely no idea who H.D. Mk II was going to turn out to be while reading these reviews. The seemingly-incongruous tag for Erishkigal the last twenty (!) issues probably should have clued me in, or at least been more of a clue than Gru gave. I wonder if someone told him Maelstrom was too easy to guess, so he made the next mystery villain virtually un-guessable. Michael February 10, 2017 4:54 PM Punisher Back To School Special #2 Stories like this make me question how we're supposed to take Franks claim not to endanger innocents. He's opening fire in the middle of a police lineup. There's no way to guarantee the innocent people in the lineup won't get hurt in the crossfire if a cop panics. Ben HermanFebruary 10, 2017 4:26 PM Quasar #49-50 The reason that Quasar doesn't initially recognize Jennifer Kale is that this time she's actually wearing clothing :P Ren & Stimpy are guardians of the Nexus of Realities? Happy happy joy joy! Luis DantasFebruary 10, 2017 4:23 PM Quasar #51-53 The Starbrand used to be a big deal. I expected it to have more of a spotlight in Quasar, but I find myself underwhelmed by Gru's handling of the concept. One of the five aspects of Quasar in the astral plane is "avatar of Infinity", a title that he used to claim some 30 or 40 issues before. That has never been elaborated to my satisfaction (and is not very likely to make much sense), although it seems to connect to the resolution of Cosmos In Collision, also reflected in the third dilemma presented. Ben HermanFebruary 10, 2017 4:15 PM Venom: Funeral Pyre #1-3 I bought this in real time because Tom Lyle was penciling it. I also thought that there was a certain potential in having Venom and the Punisher being forced to work together because it meant that for once Frank Castle would actually be the more sane half of a team-up. But in the end I just found the story really underwhelming, and I later sold it off along with many of my other Spider-Man related comics. Mark DrummondFebruary 10, 2017 2:02 PM Punisher War Zone annual #1 I did read Evanier's column about that when first published, but his statements seemed a tad hyperbolic to me. How did he know that some people required years of therapy? And if people commit suicide that way, how do you deal with if they're successful? Smack the corpse around? JeffFebruary 10, 2017 12:02 PM Punisher annual #6 That pose in the first panel literally had me choke and ask "what the sh** is this?" That art looks painful. Matthew BradleyFebruary 10, 2017 11:44 AM Hulk Magazine #20 It's interesting, in light of the sometimes bizarre treatment you mention, to note that Marlene's last name, Alraune, is that of an oft-filmed 1911 German novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers. Its eponymous protagonist, per Wikipedia, "suffers from obsessive sexuality and perverse relationships throughout her life." Does shacking up with a guy who has four identities count as a perverse relationship? Thanos6February 10, 2017 10:19 AM Punisher War Zone annual #1 And the work he did for Valiant's Nintendo-licensed comics was actually quite good. fnord12February 10, 2017 8:16 AM Thor #318 Good call, a.lloyd. The credits say Gil Kane, but the GCD has a note from someone saying that "it clearly looks like Pablo Marcos was the uncredited, actual inker here". Oliver_CFebruary 10, 2017 7:23 AM Punisher War Zone annual #1 Caragonne's sad, short life -- eager-beaver office boy for Marvel ending up a drug-assisted porno publisher -- would be rejected as contrived and hyperbolic if you wrote it as fiction. Luke BlanchardFebruary 10, 2017 3:35 AM Daredevil #120-123 "The way Natasha’s looking at us--it’s as if she were asking a question--" How can he tell that? a.lloydFebruary 10, 2017 3:15 AM Thor #318 Did Gil Kane ink this too? It looks like somebody else. a.lloydFebruary 10, 2017 2:48 AM Daredevil #319-325 I bought all of these issues and don't remember ANY of them. Jon DubyaFebruary 10, 2017 1:49 AM X-Men #4-7 Erik, my all-time favorite panel is the grand debut of Jim Lee's Europop redesign of Fenris. The hilarious post-basketball flirting scene between Anna-Marie and Remy being a close second. But the sheer WTF moment of seeing trashy Neo-Nazi fashion made me realize that Ol' Jim must be a fellow camp aficionado, because seriously! Thanos6February 10, 2017 12:46 AM Punisher War Zone annual #1 @Mark Drummond: Not just "a high building," but the INSIDE of the lobby of the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York. Caragonne weighed over 400 pounds at the time. To quote his friend Mark Evanier, "Miraculously, no one else was killed but many people, including some children, suffered severe emotional traumas and required years of treatment, all because of what they witnessed. I believe human beings have a right to do away with themselves, but not when they're insane and certainly not the way George did it." Steve zFebruary 9, 2017 11:31 PM Strange Tales #126-127 (Dr. Strange) A super key ( and entertaining) entry into marveldom. In my opinion this is a top 10 maybe top 5 key. Ben HermanFebruary 9, 2017 9:32 PM Punisher War Zone annual #1 @Bob: You're right, the art by John Buscema here is glaring for the lack of backgrounds. I wonder if this was the equivalent of Big John phoning it in. The artwork here is still more impressive than half the stuff Marvel was publishing at the time, but by Buscema's own standards it's quite underwhelming. I'm really surprised that he inked his own work on this story. Even on Conan, which was one of his favorite assignments, Buscema only did full artwork on a handful of occasions. Ben HermanFebruary 9, 2017 5:59 PM Midnight Sons Unlimited #3 That panel with the Darkhold Dwarf doing his Stan Lee impression always cracks me up :) A year ago on his Facebook page, Mort Todd revealed that he wanted to use Electro as the villain, but the Spider-Man office wouldn't let him because the character was being used in another storyline. So instead Todd ended up using the Paralyzer. As I replied on FB, Electro is way overused. Better that he had Spider-Man encounter a semi-obscure and rather goofy bad guy created by Jack Kirby. That made for a much more offbeat fight. It was also fun to see Zzzax, another villain who you would never expect to see pop up to fight the Midnight Sons. Yeah, I liked this story because it was so damn weird and offbeat. Mark DrummondFebruary 9, 2017 10:42 AM Punisher War Zone annual #1 George Caragonne was primarily known as the editor of Penthouse Comix magazine. Before it got cancelled, he developed a serious drug habit and committed suicide by jumping out of a high building. BobFebruary 9, 2017 9:55 AM Namor #41 Herb Trimpe said often that the decision to go Liefeld with his art was all his, but I have my dopubt. It was likely the only way Marvel would give him work. Nate WolfFebruary 9, 2017 5:17 AM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Oh, yeah. Man, #219 was a weird issue. Probably one of the most convoluted ways for someone to (re)join a team in all of Marvel's history. jti88 .February 9, 2017 4:10 AM Super-Villain Team-Up #5 I'd say that Namor intead rhat pleading allegiance to Doom he tries to commit suicide: at the end of the story he accepts to head toward Doom just because he knows that, dehydrated as he is, he'll plunge to his death. TuomasFebruary 9, 2017 3:55 AM Namor #41 Wow, it's hard to believe the same Shawn McManus who was doing great work with The Sandman at this time was also drawing these grotesque musclemen for Marvel. It's like a whole different artist. I guess there really was some pressure for Marvel artists to imitate the Liefeld style. Vin the Comics GuyFebruary 9, 2017 1:56 AM Marvel Comics Presents #98 (Gladiator) Must be the spikes. MattFebruary 8, 2017 7:21 PM Namor #41 @Bob Seriously, I motion to drop most of the 90's from continuity and pretend they never happened. Fnord is made of sterner stuff than I. What a slog. BobFebruary 8, 2017 6:33 PM Punisher War Zone annual #1 The great John Buscema, exiled to the annual of an also-ran Spin-off when the Punisher craze was well past its sell-by date. Scarce backgrounds - was he required to Image-ize his art, too? BobFebruary 8, 2017 6:27 PM Battletide II #1-4 What the hell is going on with Hulk's left arm on that splash page? It connects to half the length of his torso. BobFebruary 8, 2017 6:22 PM Namor #41 That chest piece has to be a bitch for Namor when trying to get through a door. I wondered if 90s Marvel, during the years I dropped the books, was really as bad as I remember it being when I would, on occasion, glance at the stuff at Waldenbooks. MortificatorFebruary 8, 2017 5:10 PM Namor #41 I kind of like the armor design, but it seems very ill-suited for a guy who's going to be moving at high speed underwater. fnord12February 8, 2017 5:06 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #197-200 You can check where it landed on the 1993 category page or see how it falls for specific character listings. But basically it was context free for the X-Men so it's just placed in a gap in X-Men stories circa publication date. J-RodFebruary 8, 2017 4:57 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #197-200 Late to the party, but when/where does this take place WRT 1993 Uncanny/adjectiveless X-Men issues? fnord12February 8, 2017 1:53 PM Battletide II #1-4 Thanks guys. It got a little hairy because Tuck can't appear in Battletide (I) until after Death's Head II #6-9 and Battletide II also takes place between Death's Head II #9-10. And i didn't want any other Death's Head II appearances between the issues. So it turns out the Battletides take place in relatively quick succession. 1976mrkFebruary 8, 2017 1:42 PM Amazing Spider-Man #344 Hello all, awesome site! Building on Ben's comment about Cardiac not encountering Iron Man, I am also amazed Marvel has yet to put out a story of Cardiac going up against Daredevil. Michael February 8, 2017 1:24 PM Battletide II #1-4 You have Battletide II placed before the first Battletide series. clydeFebruary 8, 2017 1:21 PM Battletide II #1-4 FNORD - if it's a sequel, how come it takes place chronologically earlier than the original Battletide series on the 1992 page? GreggMFebruary 8, 2017 12:14 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 It looks like PAD retconned the Hulk and Doc Samson appearances, not those of Mary Jane or Aunt May. As long as the Hulk and Doc didn't appear in those panels and had no interaction with those characters, those segments can still be in "real" time while only those with the Hulk and the good doctor would be the dream sequence. Jon DubyaFebruary 8, 2017 8:44 AM Dazzler: The Movie (Marvel Graphic Novel #12) To be fair, AF, this also has "important developments" for the entire X-Men line as well, as Fnord mentioned above (Again it cracks me up that the rest of the Marvel Universe just shrugged at these developments, even though the Avengers sometimes has mutant members and the F4 has a mutant son. And they might worry that a discriminatory public might eventually then turn on them...which DID end up happening. And of course, as "do-godders" they might cringe at innocent people being threatened and hurt.) Ironically enough the art looks like the style that would be used in early issues of Harbinger. Jon DubyaFebruary 8, 2017 8:10 AM Uncanny X-Men #183 Also it appears that the other X-men did not share Shooter's discomfort about the relationship. Jon DubyaFebruary 8, 2017 7:47 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 The weird thing though is the the initial "revelation" of the Maximoff Twins paternal heritage happened around (roughly) the same time that Claremont's "Magento:Reformed" plotline started in ernest. So despite happening separately, both stories end up working rather well for strengthening the narrative of the other (the same way it was implied that a relationship with Lee Forester helped contributed to his eventual turn toward heroism.) Piotr WFebruary 8, 2017 5:44 AM Nightstalkers #11 Blade really comes off as dense here. He's supposed to be hunting the supernatural, but only recently he accepted the Darkhold page. Nothing good came out of it. So, this issue, a dagger with supernatural powers shows up... and what does Blade do? He immediately uses it... *facepalm* D09February 8, 2017 12:58 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Wanda and Pietro under Claremont's penmanship, would that be a wonderful thing or a terrible thing? GonzaloFebruary 8, 2017 12:34 AM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 wouldn't be the last time Peter David wrote off someone else's work as a dream, although i think we can all agree Hulk is better off with Bruce Jones' run out of canon MichaelFebruary 7, 2017 8:18 PM Darkhold #11 One thing your review didn't note- Blade is able to kill and absorb Vicki- another clue to her true nature. Morgan WickFebruary 7, 2017 8:06 PM Uncanny X-Men #194 Yeah, normally whenever Rogue absorbs the powers of someone with different skin colors or other deviations from the human norm, she absorbs those deviations too. See also Marvel Super Heroes #2, for example. Morgan WickFebruary 7, 2017 7:39 PM Midnight Sons Unlimited #3 Well, if Aunt May were on the brink of death... iLegionFebruary 7, 2017 7:22 PM Midnight Sons Unlimited #3 Uhhhgh, did anyone involved in this actually expect that fakeout with Spidey about to receive a Darkhold page to work? AndrewFebruary 7, 2017 7:14 PM Fantastic Four #278-279 JP, that was a genuine LOL. In respect to the n-word, it may be hard to remember, but it wasn't always considered profanity. It wasn't a word used by polite people, at least in the north, but by itself it wasn't unutterable. The OJ trial that changed that. MortificatorFebruary 7, 2017 5:59 PM Nomad #16 Technically there are dungeons and dragons in this world, they're just sometimes hidden behind discos and giant orange underwear. I haven't been paying attention to the guilds, though, since I had no idea their members were quasi-immortal or whatever Nomad's talking about. Ataru320February 7, 2017 4:48 PM Amazing Spider-Man #124-125 So first super-strength spores, and then the Man-Wolf. If this didn't stick, I'd all be for John Jameson being the Jimmy Olsen of Marvel for how many superpowers he can develop. (then again we already have Rick Jones...) Jonathan, son of KevinFebruary 7, 2017 4:30 PM X-Men #25 Captain America's shield was created through a mix of an experimental iron alloy & vibranium. Adamantium was created through an unsuccessful attempt to duplicate the accidental creation of the shield. Seems logical that if he was trying to duplicate the shield, iron would still be one of the ingredients, so seems likely adamantium would be ferromagnetic. Erik BeckFebruary 7, 2017 4:27 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 @ Nate Wolf - She kissed him in #219. It was one of the things that Havok remembered. iLegionFebruary 7, 2017 3:39 PM Daredevil #319-325 Bob - Did Wizard hype up the story itself or just the fact they were "hot" back issues (Daredevil 319 and 320 went up in price)? I recall from over the years of reading Wizard they barely mentioned "Fall From Grace" and basically didn't start paying attention to DD again until Karl Kesel's run. Luke BlanchardFebruary 7, 2017 3:14 PM Marvel Comics Presents #57-59 (Sub-Mariner) Movie-wise the writer may have had in mind THE ABYSS and/or DEEPSTAR SIX. They both came out in 1989. fnord12February 7, 2017 3:04 PM Marvel Comics Presents #57-59 (Sub-Mariner) Nice catch, Hans. I tend to gloss over mystical globbity glook and i read the M/CPs especially quickly, so i would have never caught it. I've added a note. HansFebruary 7, 2017 2:58 PM Marvel Comics Presents #57-59 (Sub-Mariner) Am I really the first person to have noticed the secret message in the incantation? I find that hard to believe, and yet I can't find it commented on anywhere. If you can't see it, think about reversing it and flipping around a couple of letters. MattFebruary 7, 2017 2:42 PM Daredevil #319-325 This arc lost me not so much on the shredding of the old costume but on the making of the new one. How exactly did Matt Murdock know about all these materials? And how did he know how to make them into a new suit if body armor? And why was he okay with stealing it all?!? Nate WolfFebruary 7, 2017 2:28 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 In one of the panels taking place inside Rogue's mind, there's someone in the crowd that looks like Havok. When did she absorb his personality? Must have been a trivial moment, just to get his power or something, since I forgot it. fnord12February 7, 2017 1:09 PM Ka-Zar the Savage #1 You may consider this semantics, but it seems you dislike the direction of the series more than the dialogue per se (which is still your prerogative, ofc). The series will show how Ka-Zar keeps up with the outside world. fnord12February 7, 2017 1:06 PM X-Men #25 For what it's worth (as noted in the review), adamantium was shown to be magnetic at least as of Uncanny X-Men #104. fnord12February 7, 2017 1:00 PM Marvel Two-In-One #70 Fixed the Reference. Thanks Mortificator. Ben HermanFebruary 7, 2017 12:58 PM Daredevil #319-325 @Tuomos: Here is my interpretation of Miller's intentions for the ending to DD #190. Elektra has been resurrected, but she is now purified of the darkness in her soul, she is at peace, and outside of flashbacks this is her very last story, she will never ever be seen again. Of course, as I've pointed out before, the inevitable problem with writing a "very last story" at Marvel (or DC, for that matter) is that you do not own the characters. Six months or a year or ten years after you leave the book, there's a really good chance that another creator is going to decide to bring back your character, your intentions be damned. I wonder why Frank Miller believed that Marvel was somehow going to treat him differently than they did Kirby and Ditko and every single other creator who ever signed a work-for-hire agreement. TuomasFebruary 7, 2017 12:04 PM Daredevil #319-325 It's also worth noting that Miller did bring Elektra back in the Elektra Lives Again graphic novel. In response to letters published during this storyline, it's confirmed that Elektra Lives Again is not in continuity. A fan suggests that this is because it killed off Bullseye (it also re-killed Elektra) Miller didn't bring Elektra "back" in Elektra Lives Again, he already resurrected her in Daredevil #191, at the end of the Chaste/Hand storyline. Elektra Lives Again simply follows from that story, with Elektra having been alive the whole time. That's why I've always been puzzled by the idea that other writers bringing her back is somehow sacrilegious, since Miller had already done that her towards the end of his DD run. He must've know that he wouldn't be working on DD forever, and that after he was gone Marvel had the right to do whatever they want with the character. So if he truly didn't want anyone else to use the character, why bring her back from the dead to begin with? clydeFebruary 7, 2017 11:40 AM X-Men #25 From the wiki entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamantium RickFebruary 7, 2017 8:14 AM Uncanny X-Men #194 Rogue became big and green when she absorbed the She-Hulk's powers in X-Men annual 7. EdFebruary 7, 2017 7:53 AM Ka-Zar the Savage #1 I find the dialogue pretty terrible. Ka-Zar keeps using American colloquialisms and refers to the "Cardinals" at one time. When exactly did he spend enough time ine the States to pick that up?!? a.lloydFebruary 7, 2017 3:05 AM X-Men #25 Something I never thought about until it was brought up in another forum but is adamantium magnetic? D09February 7, 2017 2:07 AM Daredevil #319-325 "The funny thing is how fast it happens. Daredevil is put through the grinder more than any other hero this side of Black Panther under Don McGregor, and his costume mostly remains intact. But put him up against the Crippler and his costume is in tatters by page 2." Perhaps it was one battle too many for that particular costume? MortificatorFebruary 7, 2017 2:07 AM Marvel Two-In-One #70 I believe you're one issue off with the second reference. #67 was the one where Ben saw Alicia with the art dealer. Some faces this issue are drawn well, while others have bizarrely inappropriate expressions. There's a panel of Reed welcoming Alicia to the FF where he looks like he should be making a supervillain proclamation. I'm not sure what to make of this run bringing back (two of) Psycho-Man's uninteresting trio ten issues after bringing back Dr. Doom's uninteresting trio. Luke BlanchardFebruary 7, 2017 1:36 AM Captain America #111-113 The end of Steranko's story would make sense if Cap didn't mean to go back to being Steve Rogers. Perhaps he meant to have Cap adopt a new identity, or get by without a permanent one. In Gleason's DAREDEVIL COMICS #42 the Golden Age Daredevil's true identity was uncovered by a reporter. He gave it up, and became a crusading newspaper publisher. I assume the change was meant to be permanent, but it was quickly reversed. In #43-#45 he became Daredevil again, and adopted a new secret ID. Here's the amazing thing. In #44 some crooks with grudges against Daredevil attempt to kill in when he's out of costume. At one point they try to machine-gun him. DD escapes by playing dead, and has his newspaper publish a false report that he's been killed. This lures the crooks the funeral home, where DD's assistants capture them. He continues to fake being dead afterwards. (I suppose this is to take the pressure off while he establishes his new identity.) Steranko's story isn't a rerun of the Daredevil one: but the points of similarity - the hero fakes his death as part of a scheme to establish a new secret ID, the funeral home climax - may indicate the earlier issues were his inspiration. We can be sure Steranko was interested in Golden Age comics: he wrote THE STERANKO HISTORY OF COMICS! I could also believe the storyline inspired TALES OF SUSPENSE #95-#96. RocknrollguitarplayerFebruary 6, 2017 11:04 PM Captain America #106-107 Ah the possibilities for Doctor Faustus in the Internet age to trap minds in the social media fishbowl could set a frightening scenario for us to enjoy if written. ChrisFebruary 6, 2017 9:47 PM New Mutants: Renewal (Marvel Graphic Novel #4) Well, Paladin is likely named for the character on Have Gun - Will Travel, rather than the knights of Charlemagne (of course the TV Paladin named himself after the knights). The TV Paladin was a gentleman gunfighter who was a mercenary to solve problems for people who needed a heavy. And that is pretty much what Marvel Paladin does. Wolfsbane as a name for a character who turns into a wolf is pretty boneheaded though. BobFebruary 6, 2017 8:22 PM Daredevil #319-325 As with much of the 90s worst, Wizard Magazine hyped and praised this dreck like it was on par with Eisner MichaelFebruary 6, 2017 8:00 PM Daredevil #319-325 Regarding Foggy, this story makes it seems like he knows Matt's identity but when he next meets Matt during deMatteis's run, he learns that Matt is Daredevil and is completely shocked by the revelation. I guess deMatteis didn't read this story. AndrewFebruary 6, 2017 7:46 PM New Mutants: Renewal (Marvel Graphic Novel #4) Wolfsbane (Latin for "I kill wolves") joins Gorgon, Paladin, and the Living Tribunal in the league of inappropriately named Marvel characters... Red CometFebruary 6, 2017 6:26 PM Daredevil #319-325 Whoops (though I stick by what I meant to say for Scott McCloud) AndrewFebruary 6, 2017 6:11 PM Daredevil #319-325 Jinx! AndrewFebruary 6, 2017 6:10 PM Daredevil #319-325 Zot! is Scott McCloud. This is Scott McDaniel. Omar KarinduFebruary 6, 2017 6:10 PM Daredevil #319-325 Erm...,that's Scott McCloud who created Zot, not Scott McDaniel. Red CometFebruary 6, 2017 5:32 PM Daredevil #319-325 McDaniel's work on Zot was interesting and he literally wrote the book on comic art, but his big company super-hero work has always been dull, dull, dull. RobertFebruary 6, 2017 3:15 PM Daredevil #319-325 Oh yeah. This. I remember a guy at the comic shop I was buying from at the time giving me the hard sell on this arc, trying in vain to convince me Daredevil was "cool again." I flipped through a few pages and politely declined. Years later, when I was enjoying McDaniel's work on Nightwing, I finally read the whole thing and wasn't impressed. Jon DubyaFebruary 6, 2017 1:13 PM Nightcrawler #1-4 So there are now TWO different races of Bamfs? RobertFebruary 6, 2017 9:53 AM Thor #320-322 Jolena, I'm begging of you please don't take my man... AndrewFebruary 6, 2017 7:51 AM Uncanny X-Men #194 Usually when Rogue absorbs someone's powers, her eyes turn white or she glows maybe, but that's it. This "nightcolossus" look she has in this story is the only time I can think of where she starts to look like the person whose powers she's absorbed, like the Super-Adaptoid. AndrewFebruary 5, 2017 9:57 PM Avengers #255 If Nebula is the daughter of Zorr, from Nova 1, wouldn't she be a Luphomoid? BobFebruary 5, 2017 8:03 PM Avengers West Coast annual #4 Maybe Sue knocked Byrne out for that hideous mullet he gave her in the second half of his FF run. clydeFebruary 5, 2017 7:11 PM Werewolf By Night #21 "Actually, i take issue with that cure." To be fair, all it says is "that the cure for lycanthropy is to kill another werewolf during a full moon." Theoretically, if one werewolf pushes another werewolf in front of a car and the car kills him, it would still be "credited" to the original werewolf, IMO. I.E., his action ultimately caused the other werewolf to die. If it's good enough to get you thrown in jail for murder, it should count. Ben HermanFebruary 5, 2017 6:54 PM Namor #14 @Chris: Good point. I had no damn clue that the entire story Phoebe Marrs told Namor was supposed to be a big fat lie. I don't know why Byrne thought it was supposed to be obvious to readers. He seems to be confusing "subtle" with "not giving the readers anywhere enough information to arrive at a reasonable conclusion." This is very much along the lines of what happened with Kearson DeWitt in "Armor Wars II." Byrne seemed to regard that bit where Jim Rhodes casually suggesting to Tony Stark "Hey, maybe he was some guy that you inadvertently screwed over in some business deal years ago" as a concrete declaration of who DeWitt was supposed to be. Or later on, when Phoebe starts seeing her dead brother, Byrne expected it to be obvious that she was going crazy, but for a lot of readers, myself included, it certainly wasn't. ChrisFebruary 5, 2017 3:18 PM Namor #14 Byrne had a tendency to not reveal crucial background or plot points in his stories. Sometimes that is OK. They could be open secrets the readers are supposed to figure out on their own, or are intended to be revealed later on. However, sometimes they are clearly things that need to be revealed at some point to figure out things, and Byrne never does (sometimes because he leaves the book before he gets there). For me, it wasn't that Phoebe had a mentally disabled kid. It was the ridiculous story of her marrying a middle class nobody and Desmond ruining it for her. Jon DubyaFebruary 5, 2017 2:55 PM Marvel 1985 #1-6 Would this series be considered "in continuity". After all Millar's FF run could have a tenuous link with current continuity itself. I guess that deite reusing a character or two, this seems like one of those "one-off projects" that wpuldn't be considered to have actually happened. A Marvel version of an "Elseworlds" tale in other words. Jonathan, son of KevinFebruary 5, 2017 2:43 PM Namor #14 Regarding Phoebe's story, Byrne says "Phoebe's story was entirely a lie. The kid was not her son. It was all part of a scheme to ensnare Namor." Can't recall if that was ever clarified in the stories though, so Fnord's incestuous relationship theory still has legs :) Jon DubyaFebruary 5, 2017 11:14 AM Strange Tales #8-11 Of course Dr Strange is part of the "Illuminati" which us all about doing morally dubious (at best) actions for "the good of soceity." AndrewFebruary 5, 2017 7:19 AM Marvel 1985 #1-6 Well, that would still be a more reasonable error than putting Pym in his original outfit with his old powers. But at the end of http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/marvel_two-in-one_81-82.shtml the Thing "thinks" Foster's body can't take the strain, and when he does become Giant Man again in http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/west_coast_avengers_annual_3.shtml he says "There's no pain!", not "I'm not dead!", so it could be argued that he still had his powers, but it was dangerous to use them. AndrewFebruary 5, 2017 6:42 AM Alpha Flight #20-21 Lily's hairstyle is very 20's, but her overall look, with the impassive face and abstractly flowing robe, is more reminiscent of Victorian illustrators like Aubrey Beardsley and Erte. MortificatorFebruary 4, 2017 11:27 PM Marvel Two-In-One #8 Haha, I'm glad those panels were posted! I think I just found Ghost Rider's best costume. MichaelFebruary 4, 2017 8:19 PM Marvel 1985 #1-6 @Andrew- but Bill's powers weren't working at this point either. Ataru320February 4, 2017 8:17 PM Avengers #83 I've noticed that sometimes villains tend to be rather underpowered when in certain groups or just not used to the best of their potential until a good smart writer gets hold of them. Heck, it takes until "Egghead's MoE" in the Stern era before Radioactive Man is proven to take on a gamma being, when he briefly de-powers She-Hulk. (and let's not forget: his first appearance had him fighting Thor!) Morgan WickFebruary 4, 2017 7:45 PM Iron Man #193-194 I knew there was some discussion of other Essentials for licensed comics on the Giant-Size Spider-Man #2 entry, but I forgot that Andrew mentioned both Godzilla and Conan Essentials there. Dark Horse has published collections of the Savage Sword of Conan black-and-white magazine series, so I don't know if it's that simple. And other Essentials have had to write around ROM appearances...maybe the nature of licencing a toy as opposed to something that already originated in narrative form is different? Morgan WickFebruary 4, 2017 7:35 PM Ghost Rider #54-56 You could argue that Jack losing control of the Werewolf merits at least a note in the Historical Significance, if not actually increasing the rating any. AndrewFebruary 4, 2017 6:52 PM Iron Man #193-194 There was also an equally inexplicable Conan Essentials around the same time. I can only assume because of their paper stock the Essentials were still covered under the original agreement. Red CometFebruary 4, 2017 6:30 PM Dark Angel #13-16 Yeah that's a very British writing tick. Can always spot a British writer when they do that (or when they call a "line" a "queue"). Some of the guys in Marvel's last frat pack engaged in that as well, mostly Jonathan Hickman. SharFebruary 4, 2017 6:11 PM Avengers #145-146 Jim Lee paid tribute to Kane's cover in mid-2015 Jonathan, son of KevinFebruary 4, 2017 4:46 PM Black Panther #14-15 Had this comic as a kid (bought for cheap in a back issue store, think I assumed it had already been established that Cap's shield was part vibranium and T'Challa was just deducing something the readers were already aware of. Interesting to learn this is apparently the first reference to Cap's shield being part vibranium, and it's not confirmed in story until Captain America 302. Wonder if the Marvel writers at the time were already thinking about the Marvel Handbook to explain this sort of thing. Seems to me that the introduction of vibranium into the mix helps explain how the shield isn't just indestructible but also apparently "absorbs" force/energy to stop it having an effect on the guy wielding the shield. (I think there are some times he's depicted as being knocked flying by a force on the shield, but it's very much an exception.) Though can't recall whether that "absorbing" property of the shield had already been established at this point, or whether it only became a trope after "part vibranium" is introduced? WisFebruary 4, 2017 1:58 AM Sleepwalker #25-27 I posted a couple of weeks back, the artist is currently a tattoo artist in NYC. The bio I found alluded to working for Marvel but didn't list specifics. BobFebruary 4, 2017 1:13 AM Sleepwalker #25-27 There is next to no info on this "artist" on Google, providing more confirmation to my theory that Marvel was just grabbing random people passing by on the street to draw their books in the early 90s. MichaelFebruary 4, 2017 12:02 AM Morbius #12 Fnord, I think there's a point to the scene with Morbius feeding on the homeless guy that you're missing. Morbius says "we must feed". As we'll see in a couple of issues, the Lilin blood in Morbius, which eventually calls itself Bloodthirst, has been taking over Morbius. Hence, the "we". Arguably, it was Bloodthirst, and not Vic Slaughter, which killed those two guys in issue 10. I don't know if you want to list Bloodthirst as a Character Appearing or not. Morgan WickFebruary 3, 2017 11:24 PM Iron Man #193-194 Not sure where to put this, but interestingly, Marvel produced an Essential Godzilla in 2006, and judging by the Mike's Amazing World site didn't produce any other Godzilla material at the time, so I guess for whatever reason Marvel felt it was worth it to pay the licencing fee to reprint that forgettable series. Morgan WickFebruary 3, 2017 10:20 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 He may be referring to the fact that both sites have MCP #60 before Streets of Poison, which ended the same cover month that story was published, and at least in fnord's case also before a story in MCP #47. Of course it's hard to read much into fnord's placement of MCP stories since his main priority is just to get through them as fast as possible if they don't affect placement of other stories in too major a way, as evidenced by his tendency to lump unrelated MCP stories together. mikrolikFebruary 3, 2017 9:07 PM Avengers #83 I can see how if they are written correctly, Klaw and the Radioactive Man could be threats to the Avengers by themselves. I think a good Masters of Evil team should have villains who probably couldn't handle a whole team of Avengers by themselves, but as a team they could be more formidable. One example of a good silver-age team I'd have would be the Melter, the Black Knight (Garrett), and Whirlwind, plus maybe someone like Swordsman and Power Man (Josten). Good mix of powers/skills, and no one completely overshadows their teammates. mikrolikFebruary 3, 2017 9:00 PM Avengers #54-55 MikeCheyene: You're probably right. Radioactive Man probably never saw BK out of costume back in Avengers 6, and Avengers 15 actually showed BK and the Melter were locked up together, but while still wearing their costumes, which seems really weird for the prison officials to allow. And of course, by issue 54, BK has a different costume, but so does the Melter, so he probably didn't realize it was a different guy (or as you said, he didn't care). And of course, no one noticed the cowled dude was a robot until he unmasked himself, so I guess in the Marvel Universe, costumed criminals tend to mind their own business. AndrewFebruary 3, 2017 8:45 PM Power Pack #6-8 I was too old to be interested in Power Pack when it first came out, and honestly I still don't see the appeal, but I guess this is where Hickman was inspired to bring in Dragon Man along with Alex Powers in his FF run. BerendFebruary 3, 2017 8:16 PM Dark Angel #13-16 I feel it is a British thing to have all those weird concepts mentioned off handedly. You see it in the works of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison as well, but also in Doctor Who. Heck, early Who's influence might be why it ended up in so many British comic book writer's styles. UbersichtFebruary 3, 2017 8:03 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 I need to edit better. I'm not sure what "history comes quite often" would even mean but I was thinking, "Christmas comes quite often". UbersichtFebruary 3, 2017 7:54 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 "Nor" should be "and". And again, I still found your coment helpful and I'm sure others do too. UbersichtFebruary 3, 2017 7:52 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 Except... both this site nor MCP place that Cap story alongside other 1990 stories. I don't say this to argue. The info you shared is useful to have here whether or not it's used for placement because I'm sure many people are interested in the "topical references" and how "topical" they actually are - or were at the time of publication. But its not just the sliding time scale but also the compressed time scale (history comes quite often in the Marvel Universe) that make topical references a poor guide to placement. For both reasons most references to world events have to be transformed and will have to be again in the future. MichaelFebruary 3, 2017 7:48 PM Dark Angel #13-16 John Freeman's idea was that the Mys-Tech Board had expected to become young again as a result of their deal with Mephisto and felt cheated, so they'd spent centuries trying to find a way to become young... so naturally none of this made it into Jaye's script. fragselFebruary 3, 2017 3:11 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 I'm aware of sliding timescale fnord12February 3, 2017 1:52 PM Spirits of Vengeance #13 Once i accepted that it was standard superhero fare and not an attempt at anything Vertigo-ish or the like, i enjoyed it at a basic level. Blade absorbing the powers of some of the Midnight Sons and using them against the others was Big Dumb Fun. Nightstalkers #11 will explore the repercussions for Blade (sort of) but the big effect of this story is how his actions have severed the bond of the nine, emboldening Lilith and Centurious (as we'll sort of see in Road To Vengeance: The Missing Link). Luke BlanchardFebruary 3, 2017 1:41 PM Hulk #302 Gerry Talaoc is my favourite Sal Buscema inker. He added to the art without overriding his style. MortificatorFebruary 3, 2017 1:18 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 That's good info, but Marvel's come to use a perspective we call a sliding timescale. Consequently, topical references to events that were contemporary at the time an issue was written usually can't be used as basis for placement. You can read more about this in the Q&A section linked to on the sidebar. Piotr WFebruary 3, 2017 12:24 PM Spirits of Vengeance #13 So, was this really a fun crossover? The summaries make me think this was story was kind of abysmal... And how does Blade bounce off to being a protagonist again? This story shows that he's a murderer. Yes, he was warped by Chthon... but he chose to allow it! fragselFebruary 3, 2017 12:15 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 I don't know If You use real life info as a base for placement, but in case You do I just wanted to point out that based on Monica's assessment of South African policy (Book 3) this should take place prior to february 1990 (Nelson Mandela released from prison) AndrewFebruary 3, 2017 11:05 AM Hulk #302 To be fair, writers don't always go to medieval worlds. Sometimes they go to ancient Roman gladatorial worlds. TCPFebruary 3, 2017 9:33 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #97 The symbiote tried to take full control of Peter's body against his will after he discovered its secret. The symbiote will also forcibly bond with an innocent tourist in order to get back to Peter after escaping from the FF. fnord12February 3, 2017 9:11 AM Nightstalkers #10 I actually think it's fine for Blade to appear with the Nightstalkers in between. We don't know how long it took Blade to track down Samantha and he might have gone back with the Nightstalkers to keep up appearances during the search. We also don't know when the other Nightstalkers first thought to review the security footage. But i've pushed Midnight Sons Unlimited #1 back to before Nightstalkers #8-9. AndrewFebruary 3, 2017 8:04 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #97 I confess I didn't read these comics, but has the symbiote really done anything at this point that would indicate it is malevolent? Yes it has taken control of Spider-Man while he sleeping, but couldn't that be considered a misunderstanding on its part? The way Reed is keeping it in a tube could be considered cruel. Shouldn't he be looking for a way to set it free somewhere it wouldn't hurt anybody? WisFebruary 3, 2017 3:21 AM Daredevil #133 Well, Uri Gellar was all over the news last week because recently unveiled CIA papers "proved" his immense psychic ability so obviously this back issue is about to SKYROCKET. Get them while they last, o frantic ones! cullenFebruary 3, 2017 12:23 AM Morbius #12 The convo among the card-players seems to be a reference to a controversy a few years old by that point (though granted, in pre-Web times, these kinds of fringe debates tended to have a longer simmer-time). Some comments welcoming AIDS and famine(/saying these were Earth's defense mechanisms) were attributed to "Deep Ecologists" in general, and Earth First! in particular: http://www.processedworld.com/Issues/issue22/primitive_thought.htm (I should mention it's one of those things I almost exclusively see cited by people mocking/critiquing Deep Ecology, rather than from genuine advocates) I guess there's some relevance to otherworldly plagues, Hell being overpopulated, global warming due to Hellfire, etc? MichaelFebruary 2, 2017 11:27 PM Darkhold #11 "I should also note that Modred loses the fight in part because the other Midnights Sons don't trust him and wind up attacking him after Modred had seemingly defeated Blade." MichaelFebruary 2, 2017 11:22 PM Nightstalkers #10 Fnord, you have Midnight Sons Unilimited 1 in between Nightstalkers 9 and this issue. That doesn't work, unless Blade rejoined the Nightstalkers in between searching for the Darkhold page. william harrisonFebruary 2, 2017 10:38 PM Logan's Run #6 (Thanos) Love the bit about staring at the Mile High ad. Same! Same problem too: no money. Once in a while I'd get some birthday money and send off and wait for what seemed like forever. Luis DantasFebruary 2, 2017 7:20 PM Ghost Rider #40 @Ben Herman, you will want to read of of his next apperances in the Spider-Man books (adjectiveless, IIRC). Jonathan, son of KevinFebruary 2, 2017 5:02 PM Fantastic Four #286 Above link didn't copy correct so here it is again: http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=20852&PN=0&TPN=2 One last thing: I always liked this issue and think it sold the return of Jean about as well as it could have. And it was only in the past year or so that I saw Byrne's intended flashback sequence. I've already said some objections to Byrne's intended portrayal of Phoenix here, so maybe I'm not unbiased, and maybe I'm just used to the comic as I've known it for 30 years, but looking at Byrne's original flashback pages they just don't seem to work, and I do think they would have been a blemish on the rest of the issue. Ironic that like Jean's death in X-Men 137, Jean's return in FF 286 also met with some editorial interference, & both times for the better. Ben HermanFebruary 2, 2017 3:51 PM Darkhold #11 That actually gets to the heart of the matter: you've got the dark faux-leather covers making this seem like it's going to be some Goth Vertigo thing, but this is really a very by the numbers super-hero crossover. fnord does a very good job summing up the main problem with the Midnight Sons line. It was trying to be all things to all people. In hindsight, it was obvious that Marvel wanted these books to appeal to mainstream superhero fans, and to fans of gritty & violent vigilantes like the Punisher, and to fans of the old Tomb of Dracula series by Wolfman & Colan, and to fans of the bizarre, esoteric, surreal supernatural titles DC was publishing via their Vertigo imprint. In attempting to include elements that would attract all of those groups of readers, the Midnight Sons books probably ended up instead driving off most of them, because all these disparate elements were clashing with one another. People who liked Vertigo were probably turned off by the superhero elements. Fans of ToD probably didn't want to see Blade, Drake and King re-made into characters who were like the Punisher. Fans of traditional superheroes might have been turned off by the odd, esoteric trappings. And so on. I guess you could say that the Midnight Sons line was a Frankenstein's Monster made up of pieces stitched together from various genres, and in the end it was nowhere near cohesive enough to last. Ben HermanFebruary 2, 2017 3:30 PM Ghost Rider #40 I kind of feel bad for poor old Demogoblin; he just seems lonely and confused and in need of a friend. I sorta wonder if that was part of the point of the character; even though he was an insane, violent demon, he was *still* nicer than Jason Macendale / Hobgoblin. fnord12February 2, 2017 2:32 PM Ghost Rider #40 Thanks Don. Don CampbellFebruary 2, 2017 2:10 PM Ghost Rider #40 Actually, the Blade version of Demogorge is NOT the same entity at the Demogorge from Thor Annual #10. Demogorge the God-Eater is the alternate form of Atum, the offspring of Gaea and the Demiurge, who used his power of the sun to destroy gods (like the Elder Gods) once their time was up. The Darkhold Demogorge was something that the evil Elder God Chthon created in imitation of that other Demogorge. Although both absorb the mystical/godly powers of the beings they kill, their purposes are very different. Darkhold #11 had Modred mention "the first Demogorge" and how Chthon "create(d) its own Demogorge." fnord12February 2, 2017 2:08 PM Punisher Summer Special #3 It's fine D09 :-) D09February 2, 2017 1:48 PM Punisher Summer Special #3 Sorry, I was just curious about what happened in that second story, didn't mean any harm. CLYDEFebruary 2, 2017 1:36 PM Spirits of Vengeance #13 It's interesting that FNORD is reviewing these issues relating to the DARKHOLD while it's currently being featured on "AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.". AndrewFebruary 2, 2017 1:04 PM Death's Head & Die-Cut #1-2 Unless you know something about Die-Cut that we don't, the name would contain the masculine "Der". Actually, it would be "Der Schnitt." I know you were making a joke. I just can't control my OCD sometimes.... AndrewFebruary 2, 2017 12:59 PM Punisher Summer Special #3 D09, don't make poor fnord do extra work on a Punisher Summer Special, for God's sake. Show some humanity. UbersichtFebruary 2, 2017 12:57 PM Avengers #145-146 I know it's fashionable here to mock Gil Kane's quirks (especially the up nose shots) but he was one of the all time great cover designers, up there with The King. On the other hand, I'd hasten to point out that many of these examples are Liefeld swiping HIMSELF! Picasso said, "To imitate others is necessary but to imitate oneself is pathetic!" Mark BlackFebruary 2, 2017 11:54 AM Avengers #145-146 I didn't realize the cover to Avengers 145 had been paid homage to (ripped off?) so often: http://ilovecomiccovers.blogspot.ca/2011/08/new-mutants-87-homages.html fnord12February 2, 2017 10:35 AM Punisher Summer Special #3 Sorry D09, i thought the review made it clear that the stories were inconsequential and not worth reviewing. In the second story, the Punisher kills some carjackers. The hooks are: 1) He was on his way to bust a kiddie porn ring, and he was actually working with a kiddie porn "customer" to give him intel on the dealers. But he couldn't stand the customer and wound up shooting him, figuring he'll crack the ring some other way. Then he sees the carjacking, and winds up chasing them all over town with the dead kiddie porn customer in his car. 2) The Punisher thinks that the carjakers have a kid in the car with them, but it turns out to just be a talking doll. clydeFebruary 2, 2017 10:11 AM Punisher Summer Special #3 You would think so. But, he actually goes out for some ice cream with his closest friends, just to blow off some steam. ;) mikrolikFebruary 2, 2017 10:02 AM Punisher Summer Special #3 D09: I don't know the answer, but I'm guessing the Punisher kills some bad dudes. jti88 .February 2, 2017 8:06 AM Avengers #145-146 Tha cover of #145 looks more modern to me and I liked it very much. However the story was a little weak: for a top class assassin the gal seems to make some bad mistakes. cullenFebruary 1, 2017 9:35 PM Death's Head & Die-Cut #1-2 His name is German for "The Cut" Luis DantasFebruary 1, 2017 7:51 PM Punisher War Journal #57-58 ... what the ... if you say so. ChrisWFebruary 1, 2017 7:38 PM Yellow Claw #1 Very interesting. I would have discounted Kirby's reference to Stan crying as well, but if his return to Marvel coincided with Maneely's death, then it makes a great deal of sense. Obviously we'll never know the truth, but I think Stan had said that if Maneely had lived, the two of the would have gone on to done something other than comic books, which Stan was already trying to get out of anyway. [There's the infamous legend that "Fantastic Four" #1 was the first time he wrote a comic book he himself would want to read, just because his wife told him to get it out of his system before quitting.] Then Joe dies and Jack is back, Stan needs a lifeline at the moment. Kirby had seen men die and then argued the survivors back into battle because otherwise they were all dead. Stan must have seen him as a godsend at the time. And then that stuff happened later. Morgan WickFebruary 1, 2017 6:14 PM Death's Head & Die-Cut #1-2 All it took was seeing the "Pscythe" spelling for my eyes to roll, and the rest of that description just confirmed the sense of being something 90s Kid would come up with. AndrewFebruary 1, 2017 5:37 PM Punisher War Journal #57-58 Putting aside the question of possible innocent bystanders, why is the Punisher blowing up drug dealers anyway? I always figured he had a more Libertarian attitude. If they were drug dealers who also happened to be murderers, sure. But I just don't see "meth wincher" as a capital offense. MarkFebruary 1, 2017 3:29 PM Punisher War Journal #59-60 Hey your last sentence should read - has you rooting for the sociopath and his killer dog:) .. To get back together Wanyas the Self-ProclaimedFebruary 1, 2017 2:49 PM Sleepwalker #25-27 The drawings (I refuse to say art) of the Avengers is probably some of the worst ever published by Marvel. And I'm including Liefeld! How'd this garbage get through? Oh, wait, it was Sleepwalker. Noone was paying attention. Jonathan, son of KevinFebruary 1, 2017 2:49 PM Fantastic Four #286 Per Byrne's quote, he was basically trying to return the Phoenix to the creators' original intentions (an almost parodically "John Byrne" thing to do), well aware that one of the creators was still on the book & had been trying to take the Phoenix in a different direction. It's worth noting that Byrne has also said that his conception of all of the characters was different to Claremont's, and also that Claremont's actual original conception of Phoenix (before Byrne joined the book) was simply that she was Jean with a power boost, not a separate entity at all. Anyway, so Byrne is by his own admission fully aware that his depiction of the Phoenix as an evil, uncaring entity taking Jean's body by force (rather than a benevolent entity who Jean accepts by choice) is totally at odds with how Claremont would have wanted Phoenix portrayed, but still manages to believe that Shooter had the book changed just to get at him. Wanyas the Self-ProclaimedFebruary 1, 2017 2:47 PM Punisher War Journal #59-60 Little person. And he totally is in my reading of this story. Jonathan, son of KevinFebruary 1, 2017 2:39 PM Fantastic Four #286 Byrne: "Chris was never able to let go of the changes that were forced upon us in X-MEN 137. Luckily, I was able to take a step back, look at the finished product, and realize it was actually better than what we had planned. But Chris has spent all the years since trying to "undo" 137 -- most pointedly by changing Phoenix into a benevolent force that was corrupted by Jean's humanity (not even close to the original point!). Byrne does have a point that making Phoenix a benevolent entity is not how it was portrayed at the time, but then this issue making the Phoenix who died only a copy of Jean is not how it was portrayed at the time either. As for corrupt humanity, the whole (confused) point of the Black Queen/Dark Phoenix plot is that Jean has some darker urges she is trying to repress, just as Claremont & Mantlo have Xavier's dark side raping & murdering in the Micronauts crossover. Jonathan, son of KevinFebruary 1, 2017 2:13 PM Fantastic Four #286 Howe's source for the version of events detailed in his book is Byrne's version of events from his website, where Byrne claims "Of course, Shooter got Claremont to do it, as he knew that would be twisting the knife." I find this a hilarious lack of awareness that the resurrection of Jean ruins Claremont's plans for Cyclops' happy ending with Madelyne, ruins Claremont's plans for Rachel Summers, and nearly causes Claremont to quit X-Men entirely, but Byrne only sees Shooter persecuting him. From Claremont's perspective it probably seemed more like Byrne was twisting the knife into him. Once Shooter told Claremont that X-Factor was happening whether he liked it or not, Claremont suggested a number of ideas which Shooter shot down. As ChrisW says, it's only logical Shooter would try and keep Claremont from leaving too by letting him retain his "mother of stars" version of the Phoenix's cosmology. Byrne should have no reason to think this was an attack on him, it's well established that in Shooter's reign, the character of Phoenix would belong to X-Men editorial. MortificatorFebruary 1, 2017 1:42 PM Death's Head & Die-Cut #1-2 If you're going to cut something, cut it with a die, I say. But imagine the disappointment of the die-loving kids of the '90s who bought this issue and found out the titular character uses a lousy scythe. This isn't agriculture, granddad. Ben HermanFebruary 1, 2017 1:40 PM Punisher War Journal #59-60 What a load of crap! Chuck Dixon is very clearly showing his conservative political leanings here. This is worse than an episode of Law & Order, where you have evidence and convictions getting tossed out for the most ridiculous reasons. ("My client was arrested on a day of the week ending with the letter Y, which is a clear violation of his Constitutional rights!") Admittedly back in 1993 the internet was a lot less expansive. But even so, if Dixon had bothered to do just a little bit of research, like maybe talking to an actual lawyer, he'd have learned that when the police are executing a valid search warrant, if they happen to come across evidence of a completely different crime, it is absolutely admissible. For instance, if the cops have a valid warrant to search someone's apartment for drugs, and when they enter said apartment they happen to find a dismembered body lying on the floor, of course it's admissible! Ben HermanFebruary 1, 2017 1:15 PM Punisher Summer Special #3 @Jon Dubya: You would need to look in the Marvel Swimsuit Specials to find something like that :P https://rebotica.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/punisher-swimsuit-edition.jpg Vincent ValentiFebruary 1, 2017 12:24 PM Wolverine #75 @Michael - But at this point Wolverine is not invulerable - though granted future retcons ridiculously demonstrate him having that ability. @Walter - Good point about Sabretooth's claws, though unlike Wolverine, he has demonstrated super strength (e.g. bending a dumbell that Psylocke tossed at him in UXM#213) - so it's safe to assume that his claws are stronger than normal as well. I guess I just need to let it go about the bone claws. I just feel like it was a wasted opportunity to tell some interesting stories - Wolverine having effectively useless claws. But like Austin notes, it was quickly forgotten that these bone claws were not as strong as the Adamantium ones, once we get past the Cyber incident that Fnord will be covering soon. Vincent ValentiFebruary 1, 2017 12:05 PM Death's Head & Die-Cut #1-2 This Tusk character has the flossiest thong I've ever seen. fnord12February 1, 2017 11:57 AM Uncanny X-Men #38-43 (origins) Thanks Bibs. If i recall correctly, the Uncanny Origins are Saga-style retellings. If you look at the way the MCP handles them, they slip in scenes in between panels of these origin stories. So it seems like they are mostly retellings with some new material. I may have one or two of them buried in my box with the handbooks and such, but i've got the series listed on my What's Missing page and i don't intend to add them. BibsFebruary 1, 2017 11:07 AM Uncanny X-Men #38-43 (origins) Hey fnord12, have you read Uncanny Origins? Do they replace or complement the origin stories in these UXM back ups? Keep up the awesome work Austin GortonFebruary 1, 2017 9:57 AM Wolverine #75 The bone claw revelation was another one of those things that absolutely blew my teenage mind. It made perfect sense (in that "don't think about it too hard" comic logic kind of way) and seemed like a bold new direction for the character (as did having him leave the team - something that hadn't ever really happened since he joined it, aside from the brief post-Outback period where the team kind of fell apart around him). I'd just started reading WOLVERINE in the run-up to "Fatal Attractions", and this ensured I would keep reading, to see how Wolverine handled himself post-adamantium. Of course, while Hama did get some interesting stories out of the idea, the bone claws also led to one of my first legitimate feelings of disappointment, as it quickly became clear, once Cyber performed the obligatory "break them off" moment, that the claws were, functionally, not all that different from the metal ones. And it's become difficult to separate the "bone claws" era Wolverine from the later "Feral Wolverine" which was just absolutely terrible; Hama should have had Wolverine get the metal back in #100, instead of faking us out (and giving us Noseless Wolverine); 25 issues would have been the perfect length to let the story run its course before restoring the usual status quo (it's about the same amount of time as Tony Stark wasn't Iron Man or Captain America was the Captain; Storm was powerless a bit longer, but she was also sharing time with other characters in a team book). Jon DubyaFebruary 1, 2017 2:31 AM Punisher Summer Special #3 And we don't even get the Punisher in a bikini... Vincent ValentiJanuary 31, 2017 11:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #125-128 #125 also features Lorna reacting to the X-Men being alive in the most unemotional way possible. DermieJanuary 31, 2017 11:40 PM Sleepwalker #25-27 In the panel where the Avengers first arrive on the scene, it looks like Hercules is preparing to attack the invaders with his mighty crotch! It apparently disturbed the art team so much that Hercules is suddenly wearing pants in all the other panels. :P Ben HermanJanuary 31, 2017 8:58 PM Sleepwalker #25-27 @D09: I believe that Many Hands is the brother of Diverse Hands, the second cousin of Justin Thyme, and the nephew of Alan Smithee :) Walter LawsonJanuary 31, 2017 8:07 PM Sleepwalker #25-27 I'm astonished to see there are six more issues to go after this. I read these books in real time, but like Ben, I have virtually no recollection of them. In fact, my memories ran out even earlier, around the time of the Chain Gang's second appearance. It's the same story with the Marvel UK titles: I could have sworn some of them ended much sooner than they did, even though I'm pretty sure I never actually stopped getting Warheads or Knights of Pendragon until they were cancelled. MichaelJanuary 31, 2017 7:51 PM Sleepwalker #25-27 "Was it ever specified *why* the Mindspawn want to invade Earth?"- Ben, I don't want to spoil the ending, but suffice it to say not everything is as it seems. MquinnJanuary 31, 2017 6:10 PM Punisher Summer Special #3 Don't know why, but that comment really cracked me up. :) Matthew BradleyJanuary 31, 2017 5:50 PM Uncanny X-Men #125-128 The title of #128 is from Shakespeare’s immortal “Once more unto the breach, dear friends” speech (HENRY V, Act III, scene 1). D09January 31, 2017 5:15 PM Punisher Summer Special #3 What happened in the second story? D09January 31, 2017 5:14 PM Sleepwalker #25-27 "Many Hands"? Any relation to the "Many Hands" who worked on Archie Sonic? MortificatorJanuary 31, 2017 5:09 PM Sleepwalker #25-27 If only there was a Krantz / Trimpe jam issue so the Ugly Avengers could fight the Ugly Fantastic Four. Ben HermanJanuary 31, 2017 4:14 PM Sleepwalker #25-27 But then the Ugly Avengers are called in by Detective Cecilia Perez to stop the Mindspawn invasion. Just you wait, fnord! Sooner or later, Ugly Avengers will be an official title published by Marvel! In all seriousness, I actually own these issues, and I can't remember a damn thing about them, other than Sleepwalker's people try to invade Earth, the Avengers show up, and Sleepwalker switches sides. Anything more detailed than that has completely slipped my mind. So, yeah, not a very memorable storyline. Was it ever specified *why* the Mindspawn want to invade Earth? MizarkJanuary 31, 2017 10:39 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 JC, AndrewJanuary 31, 2017 8:55 AM Hulk #407-409 Hey, fnord. I was looking at the synopsis of the latest Supergirl episode while channel surfing, and I notice the word "seemingly" next to a verb ("died", "dismantled", something like that), and I was reminded that I had noticed the word is used twice in this review. So I searched your site for the word "seemingly", and got 588 hits. I don't know how many reviews are on this site, but that's got to be a statistically significant percentage. "Apparently" is even more prevalent, with 664 hits. I just thought it was funny how many qualifiers are needed when talking about superheroes... Omar KarinduJanuary 31, 2017 7:01 AM Avengers #366 (Bloodwraith) Well, not after this story, Luis.... :( Omar KarinduJanuary 31, 2017 7:00 AM Avengers annual #22 By people who never heard of Michael Moorcock, Elric, or Stormbringer? In theory, Bloodwraith is a good opposite number for Dane, and potentially a conflicted villain. You'd think Doctor Strange would've eventually gotten involved, given his connections to both the Black Knight's tangled past and to Victoria Bentley. The "Convocation of Wizards" seems like it was a setup for Strange to turn up somewhere as well. In practice, though, Bloodwraith seems like another throwaway to fill out the required "new character" Annual that no one really wanted to use afterwards, and, as noted in the comments for Avengers #366, a way to write out the stuff Bob Harras didn't want to deal with from the Black Knight's previous appearances. Omar KarinduJanuary 31, 2017 6:52 AM Hulk #407-409 Madman really comes across as a missed opportunity. The original concept from the "Countdown" storyline was that Phil Sterns was so desperate to *be* Bruce Banner that he turned himself into a kind of ersatz Hulk, right down to an assumed set of personalities. (That's how I read the "I love you" line; it's more about how obsessed Madman is with Banner than it is literally romantic.) But for the most part, after Countdown, he shows up this one last time with much more generic dialogue -- in "Countdown" his style of speaking shifted when he changed shape, and here he's just a standard ranting loon -- and does very little of interest or consequence. The story surprisingly doesn't play up his similarities to Piecemeal, either: both are basically imitative, but not much is made of how Piecemeal's gradual growth in intelligence and independence through absorbing and imitating others plays off of the way Madman has turned himself into not only a monster, but a wholly derivative monster, a kind of crummy knockoff Hulk crossed with a crummy knockoff Leader. It all seems like a pointless detour. But then, this is a period when it feels like PAD's plots are being derailed a bit by editorial. As noted above, the NWO never really goes anywhere, either. Was it intended as a kind of anti-Pantheon for the Hulk to oppose now that he has his own organization? Instead, once we get Agamemnon's hidden agenda and origins, the Pantheon is written out quickly. jti88 January 31, 2017 4:54 AM Hulk #195 The bomb in the Abomination's head was a bogus. I guess it's important, otherwise Shield and the army would seem Machiavellian. MichaelJanuary 30, 2017 11:48 PM Hulk #407-409 PAD suggests at one point that Madman's motivation was a gay crush on Bruce. AndrewJanuary 30, 2017 8:41 PM Avengers annual #22 By people who never heard of Michael Moorcock, Elric, or Stormbringer? Luis DantasJanuary 30, 2017 8:26 PM Avengers #366 (Bloodwraith) Victoria Bentley just keeps suffering tragedies, doesn't she? MichaelJanuary 30, 2017 8:10 PM Avengers #366 (Bloodwraith) Another reason this has to take place after Deadpool 1 is that Deadpool knows that Tolliver's prize is a "weapon", which he doesn't seem to find out until Deadpool 2. MichaelJanuary 30, 2017 7:57 PM Avengers annual #22 The revelation that the Ebony Blade steals the souls of its victims was criticized for making it too similar to Katana's Soultaker. Morgan WickJanuary 30, 2017 7:16 PM Avengers #350-351 Is this the first appearance of the Black Knight's leather jacket, the most infamous of Harras' jackets? Omar KarinduJanuary 30, 2017 6:16 PM Avengers annual #22 The Iron-Bound Book of Skelos is a Conan-related artifact that turned up, among other places, in a Marvel Conan story featuring both Kulan Gath and Shuma-Gorath. (The story helps explain how Gath went from the version Barry Windsor-Smith originally drew to the version John Byrne drew in Marvel Team-Up. And therefore it is of course by Roy Thomas.) Omar KarinduJanuary 30, 2017 6:08 PM Hulk #407-409 Madman eventually returns in one of the many Thunderbolts reboots; this was the one with Ross as th Red Hulk and characters like Elektra and the Punisher on the team. Morgan WickJanuary 30, 2017 6:05 PM Avengers annual #22 The stuff censoring Crystal's naughty bits in the first scan looks less like steam and more like someone bleached out the colors. AndrewJanuary 30, 2017 5:33 PM Hulk #407-409 Someone's been studying Arkon's pelvis a little more than is necesssary... So... the purple tail would be from Dragon Man? MortificatorJanuary 30, 2017 4:50 PM Hulk #407-409 With Piecemeal's furry undies and metal band belt, I can only conclude his pelvis comes from Arkon. haydnJanuary 30, 2017 4:28 PM Yellow Claw #1 Zeilstern, here's an interesting quote I saw on The Kirby Effect, from Michael (Doc) Vassallo, an Atlas era specialist: "Jack’s recollection of seeing Stan crying shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. When I constructed a timeline of job numbers, I was shocked to find that Joe Maneely’s last story and Jack’s first story in Strange Worlds #1 (“I Discovered the Secret of the Flying Saucers!”) were only a few digits apart. I immediately asked Dick Ayers to check his work records on an equally close western he did and his work records corroborated that all these stories were commissioned within one or two days of Joe Maneely’s death on June 8th 1958! Immediately it made possible sense to me that if Jack had in fact arrived looking for work on the following Monday, June 10th he would have found Stan Lee in his office inconsolable, and predicting the soon demise of Goodman’s already tenuous line of 8 titles a month." Ben HermanJanuary 30, 2017 3:35 PM Hulk #407-409 I have always loved that page where the Hulk out-curses Motormouth :) Ben HermanJanuary 30, 2017 3:20 PM Avengers annual #22 Interestingly enough, in the actual Doctor Who television series, it is implied that the Doctor *is* Merlin... or at least he might become Merlin at some indeterminate point in his personal future. See the 1989 serial "Battlefield" for the full details. Morgan WickJanuary 30, 2017 2:21 PM Hulk #295-296 I generally tend to use the Mike's Amazing World site for these sorts of things, which tends to be inconsistently updated, especially for non-DC stuff, for recent years (I should probably just use the GCD, especially with Mike retiring from active updating, but MAW is easier to understand and search, especially with the Newsstand feature, and requires less loading and scrolling). OptimusFanJanuary 30, 2017 1:26 PM Captain America #111-113 The first Captain America fight in Cap#111 is another example of poor Steranko sequencing that I was saying in #110. All this was hard to follow. The positions of Cap and the numerous hoodlums was impossible to decipher as one panel flows to the next. At one panel, the hoodlums had their weapons pointed at Cap in point-blank range. The next panel had Cap already positioned behind a telephone booth enabling him to duck some bullets. What happened in between? The next panel had a mechanical cowboy appearing out of nowhere. Cap makes short work of it in only the next two panels. Then the numerous hoodlums vanish off-panel. Steranko would have been a great artist for moody and introspective stories. But for superhero stories, which require action, he was a poor choice. I will be reading Steranko SHIELD next. Maybe I will like him then and understand why he is so highly praised. OptimusFanJanuary 30, 2017 1:10 PM Captain America #110 I just read about this issue and it is my first exposure to Sterenko. I have to say I disagree about the high praise Steranko gets. His "excellent sequencing" really is inconsistent and uneven. There is a lot of what-the-heck-just-happened moments to his sequencing. For every good sequence, there is two bad sequences. A good sequence like the first page has bad sequences like Cap and Ricky being surrounded by Hydra or by the Madame Hydra-Ricky fight. In the first bad sequence, Cap and Ricky are in a narrow tunnel with Cap saying that something ahead is heading in their direction. In the next panel, they are no longer in a narrow tunnel and the "something ahead" suddenly has surrounded them and they are already fighting each other. What happened in between? If we have to fill in the blanks, then that is a bad sequence. The second bad sequence I mentioned is even worse. In one panel, Ricky was in a narrow tunnel, the next we see of Ricky, he is being tied up by Madame Hydra, and then the next panel shows them next to a whirlpool in which Madame Hydra pushes Ricky. The reader is left to fill in the blanks on this crucial scene: did Madame Hydra surprise Ricky from behind as Ricky emerged from the tunnel and tie him up? Or did Ricky see Madame Hydra after emerging from the tunnel and they fight with Madame Hydra winning the fight? Like I said, if the reader has to fill in the blanks, it is a bad sequence. So, Steranko does not do "excellent sequencing" consistently. Ben HermanJanuary 30, 2017 12:45 PM Punisher: No Escape USAgent's former role as the Commission's substitute Captain America does seem to be one of the worst-kept secrets in the Marvel universe, right up there with Daredevil's secret identity. clydeJanuary 30, 2017 12:33 PM Punisher: No Escape There's no secret that the Punisher can't find out about. He has a very good informant. Ben HermanJanuary 30, 2017 10:40 AM New Warriors annual #3 Thanks, fnord. I never read New Warriors annual #3 or the Night Thrasher miniseries, so I was always a bit confused when Kimeiko Ashu showed up in the monthly NW book seeking revenge. MizarkJanuary 30, 2017 10:06 AM Web of Spider-Man #64-65 Granted I don't know much about journalistic ethics but it seems like taking credit for the picture that the kid took and selling it would seem to be a more serious breach than the staged advertising shoot. Also JJJ and Robbie didn't seem to really care that Nick's photos were taken while spying on a private residence. During the scene where Peter roughed up Nick the other characters in the elevator appear to be Marvel creators.The one with curly hair and glasses is clearly Jim Salicrup. Not sure who the other two gentlemen are but I suspect that the one with glasses is either Alex Saviuk or Tom DeFalco. RickJanuary 30, 2017 9:56 AM Hulk #295-296 This block of Hulk stories was reprinted in the color TPB Incredible Hulk: Regression, released in 2012. It covered Hulk 286-300 and annual 12. I remember seeing it in a bookstore and flipped through it. There was a partial reprint of #296, omitting the ROM pages and there was a text page or two explaining what happened in the missing pages. If I remember right, ROM was never called by name in the text, he was referred to as a cyborg warrior or something like that. fnord12January 30, 2017 9:10 AM New Warriors annual #3 Added. fnord12January 30, 2017 8:54 AM Uncanny X-Men #120-121 Thanks guys. Removed Bonnie. Heather, Moira, and Phoenix appear in added scenes from Classic X-Men #26 (inserted pages, not the back-up story). Heather working as a secretary having a quick phone conversation with Guardian. Jean talking with Moira on Muir Island, still under the impression that the X-Men are dead. Classic X-Men #27 has a page with Jeryn complaining to the Canadian government regarding the destruction of the X-Men's plane. fragselJanuary 30, 2017 12:44 AM New Warriors #5-6 Those images on Watcher's screen are from What If 19 "What If the Vision Had Conquered the World" (images of Captain America & Iron Man) and What If 20 "What If... The Amazing Spider-Man Had Not Married Mary Jane?" (image of black costumed Spider-Man holding woman's body) Jon DubyaJanuary 29, 2017 11:18 PM Punisher: No Escape I thought the fact that USAgent was the former Cap replacement was suppose to be a secret? (Hence the "covet identity") Thanos6January 29, 2017 11:10 PM Hulk #295-296 IDW did the same thing when reprinting the Marvel Transformers comics; if an issue had a character that Marvel owned, that issue was removed from the TPB and replaced with a summary. The only characters this applied to were Spider-Man and Circuit Breaker, a villain created for Transformers but who had an early cameo in SECRET WARS II #3, specifically so Marvel could own her. Unfortunately for IDW, Circuit Breaker showed up in the last few issues of the climactic Unicron storyarc. If they didn't reprint those, the readers would have missed the ending of a year-and-a-half long plot. So IDW had to bite the bullet and pay Marvel their requested fee. Jon DubyaJanuary 29, 2017 11:08 PM X-Factor #9 One weird thing is that the above chart doesn't contain the Daredevil issue or Uncanny #214 (these were also left off of the Mutant Massacre trade I bought.) Were these last minute additions to the crossover? MortificatorJanuary 29, 2017 10:39 PM Uncanny X-Men #120-121 That's what a search of "Bonnie Wilford" suggested to me as well, in addition to being a Marvel colorist, in which case fnord may want to remove her tag here and in 98-101. He doesn't usually track inserts of creators or their friends & family. But maybe there's some significance to this one that I'm not aware of. KombatGodJanuary 29, 2017 10:28 PM X-Factor #9 That Mutant Massacre Map is pretty cool, but I think it's missing a dependency between Power Pack #27 and X-Men #212, regarding the Wolverine vs Sabretooth fight. MortificatorJanuary 29, 2017 10:18 PM Avengers #54-55 I wonder if Karl Lykos would appreciate them? Morgan WickJanuary 29, 2017 9:33 PM Fantastic Four #286 ChrisW's comment suggests that John Byrne's impending departure from Marvel was a contributing factor to Shooter deciding to let Claremont rewrite two pages. But fnord's quote from Howe's book suggests the rewrite was a contributing factor to Byrne's decision to leave. Byrne himself has indicated that he felt the rewrite was Shooter getting back at him for his decision to leave, lending more credence to Chris's sequence. Luke BlanchardJanuary 29, 2017 8:54 PM Avengers #54-55 Was #54 where Aragorn was first named? I looked up "Aragorn" and "Valinor" at Wikipedia. Apparently both names come from Tolkien's works. ChrisWJanuary 29, 2017 8:48 PM Uncanny X-Men #120-121 Pretty sure Bonnie Wilford was the name of Claremont's first wife. Her name was definitely Bonnie, but I can't say for 100% that "Wilford" was her last name. How have I spent so much time on this site and never noticed Fnord's Frank Zappa reference? RIP Jimmy Carl Black. AndrewJanuary 29, 2017 1:50 PM Marvel 1985 #1-6 I loved this book, and love pretty much all of Millar's early Marvel work. The editorial direction at the time was fewer convoluted backstories and endless subplots, better art, and a little more bad-ass attitude for the heroes. There were missteps, to be sure, but overall I thought it worked really well. It occurs to me that the biggest continuity error here, the inclusion of Hank Pym in his old Giant Man outfit, may have been a miscommunication between Millar and Edwards, since the rest of the characters are for the most part correct for the time. Millar probably said "Giant Man", meaning Bill Foster, and Edwards thought he meant Pym. EnchloreJanuary 29, 2017 12:01 PM Fantastic Four #249-250 Spider-Man mentions how he gave rights to Electric Company to make a comic about him - this was first mentioned in Amazing Spider-Man #186. Nice little nod from Byrne. Omar KarinduJanuary 29, 2017 9:19 AM Hulk #295-296 The precedent in the Essentials trades has been to replace the issue with a text summary explaining the plot and the licensing issues preventing the reprinting. Erik BeckJanuary 29, 2017 6:54 AM Hero For Hire #1 It's really surprising to go back to this after watching Luke Cage and realize how well they incorporated so much of this issue into the show. Morgan WickJanuary 29, 2017 2:26 AM Hulk #295-296 It occurs to me that it's interesting to see what Marvel might do with issue 296 if they ever reprint this period of Hulk stories. The appearance of Rom might seem to preclude any reprint, but his appearance is important in the ongoing plotline of Bruce's loss of control and resolves the gamma-cure plotline, so it's not like it can just be skipped over and still make sense (unlike his appearances in Power Man/Iron Fist and Marvel Two-In-One, which their respective Essentials seem to have skipped). Since Rom apparently appeared in Contest of Champions, was his appearance stripped out of the 1999 trade? WisJanuary 29, 2017 1:42 AM Black Knight #1-4 This could have been a lot cooler if Black Knight I had been delivered or presented with any kind of gravitas; Roy Thomas just assumed everyone gets the significance as he does, at times. The Timely Black Knight series still holds up with great Joe Manleey art and Stan seemed really into it, considering the era- Sir Percy is kind of like Zorro, pretending to be foppish when not as the Black Knight. I thought Dane was a great character in the Stern/Buscema/Palmer run and his inclusion in the Under Siege epic makes him permanently an Avenger to remember. But this series was, and is, a disappointment. I always thought bringing the Black Knight I into the present and serve with the Avengers might be interesting. I'm also genuinely and pleasantly surprised that Roy Thomas was still getting indulged by Marvel in the 1990s; his projects are almost always passion projects. WisJanuary 29, 2017 1:32 AM Fantastic Four Unlimited #3 Thanks Ben. I, er, suppose I could have done that. :/ But I'm grateful you did. clydeJanuary 28, 2017 11:46 PM Black Knight #1-4 From the wiki entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Knight_(Dane_Whitman) clydeJanuary 28, 2017 11:15 PM New Warriors #37 You do make valid points. I can't argue with that logic. Vincent ValentiJanuary 28, 2017 9:56 PM Black Knight #1-4 Silly question that I've pondered: Is Dane Whitman British? Does he talk with a British Accent? MichaelJanuary 28, 2017 7:32 PM New Warriors #37 "Normal people" don't have the names and addresses of superheroes in their houses. As for point b, I've heard it argued that withholding from someone that you mean to harm them is rape by deception. clydeJanuary 28, 2017 6:32 PM New Warriors #37 "And if she had checked to make sure that her address book was still there" What "normal" person has a one-night stand and checks for valuables that might have been taken the next morning? In "real-life", you might be more concerned about possible diseases you would get than whether anything was stolen. Jon DubyaJanuary 28, 2017 1:43 PM Avengers #362-366 Um...why were the Avengers wearing Liefield-ian head-wraps again? ChrisJanuary 28, 2017 1:04 PM Avengers #362-366 There is a lot of stuff I want to like about these issues. The art is nice, the Avengers are being put in brand new situations instead of repeating old stories, and I even like the team members and how they interact. But this just doesn't seem like the Avengers. If Harras was more respectful of the team and its members and not trying to go grim n' dark, this would be a lot more palatable. And get rid of those helmets and jackets! However, my big problem is that Sersi should not be a member of the Avengers. As originally written, she is just way too powerful, and they need to ignore that and power her down so that she doesn't solve every problem by making their foes into pigs. If they had some other character in her role, it would make more sense. ChrisJanuary 28, 2017 12:54 PM Avengers #252-254 Outside of Vision, these issues are significant in that it leads to the Black Knight becoming a significant member of the Avengers for the first time. Prior to this run, the Black Knight would show up unannounced and help the Avengers from time to time, and when he became an official member was never on the team's roster. Now he would be on the team for the next three years under Stern and others, and then return under Bob Harras. Luke BlanchardJanuary 28, 2017 12:05 PM Black Knight #1-4 The helmet possession element looks like an imitation of DC's Doctor Fate. Ben HermanJanuary 28, 2017 5:48 AM Fantastic Four Unlimited #3 @Wis: I looked up Annihilus;s entry on Wikipedia. According to that, the events you describe were from the Blink miniseries, which was set in the Age of Apocalypse alternate reality. WisJanuary 28, 2017 2:51 AM Hulk #402-404 a minor point, but I would think the Vision might have more of a patience/sympathy for the Hulk since he was extraordinarily crucial (and in long-term ways, too) in the merging of the character in #323 which set off some very significant developments in the next couple of years. WisJanuary 28, 2017 2:45 AM Sleepwalker #19-24 This artwork was so batshit insane I actually googled Kelly Krantz and he's now a tattoo artist in Nyack, NY. I will give any member of this little fan community $36.80 in cash if you call Kelly Krantz and request a Sleepwalker tattoo. I mean it. WisJanuary 28, 2017 2:26 AM Fantastic Four Unlimited #3 I seem to vaguely recall reading a terrible X-related mini-series in the early 2000s' while at Border's with my then-girlfriend in which one of the female X-characters was in love with Annihilus, who was, inexplicably, a normal white guy who someone evolved into Annihilius. I wonder how that contrasts with the origin given here. WisJanuary 28, 2017 12:29 AM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #12-13 A- for this! fnord, you continue to fascinate. WisJanuary 28, 2017 12:27 AM Thor #457-459 Really, DeFalco's script have their corny charm but I never noticed before how seriously they emulate post-1980s Stan Lee scripts on the rare occasion he would write a comic. "Still, it's better than Fido!" DeFalco could ghostwrite for Stan and one would never know the difference. MichaelJanuary 27, 2017 11:33 PM Night Thrasher #1 "The boy asks Night Thrasher to avenge his death by killing the people responsible, but Thrash can't make that promise." MichaelJanuary 27, 2017 8:44 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 He didn't really have much time- he left Amazing with issue 388. MichaelJanuary 27, 2017 8:30 PM New Warriors #37 So is Namorita a victim of Kimeiko Ashu or a reckless woman who got her friend's grandmother killed or both? I've heard fans argue that Namorita was essentially raped this arc since (a) she was drunk and Kimeiko wasn't and (b) Kimeiko withheld from her that he was a villain after the New Warriors. Those points have merit but OTOH no one forced Namorita to get drunk. It's impossible not to get into the real world issues here. Nicieza was reminding his readers that getting drunk and taking a strange man home can be dangerous. And that IS a lesson many young women do need to hear. OTOH, that message often results in victim blaming. One thing to note is that everyone would have been safe if Namorita had gone to a hotel instead of taking Ashu to a place where the Warriors' names and addresses were written down. And Namorita's carelessness goes beyond one drunken night. If she had memorized the Warriors' phone numbers and addresses, this would have never happened. And if she had checked to make sure that her address book was still there after Ashu left, then the Warriors would have had plenty of time to protect their families. Ben HermanJanuary 27, 2017 8:30 PM New Warriors annual #3 fnord, any possibility of posting a scan of the scene that introduces Kimeiko Ashu? JSfanJanuary 27, 2017 7:50 PM Iceman #1-4 @Jonathon, son of Kevin. Thank you for confirming my suspicion. I wish I still have those magazines but, alas, I threw them away. Regrets. Jon DubyaJanuary 27, 2017 7:46 PM X-Men #25 Ben, wouldn't that be more of Comics Code problem? (It's not like they could show the Mortal-Kombat-esque viscera of such an act, even in the "edgy" 90s. Erik I think the destruction of Genosha was the worse offender of that sort of thing. Mostly because it WAS starting to be refered to after the Bill Jemas era and used to further strain the relations between the X-Men and other heroes. AndrewJanuary 27, 2017 7:30 PM Infinity War #4 Good point. That's out of print now, though. A better bet would be CAPTAIN MARVEL BY JIM STARLIN COMPLETE COLLECTION. Luke BlanchardJanuary 27, 2017 7:16 PM Thor #184-194 Wikipedia tells me "The Well of the World's End" was earlier the title of one of the stories in Joseph Jacobs's collection ENGLISH FAIRY TALES. Luke BlanchardJanuary 27, 2017 7:07 PM Thor #184-194 The bit about the necessity of death was recycled from "The Man Who Captured Death!" in AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #9, which fnord covered in his review of ASTONISHING TALES #21-24 (or from that and other stories, as Lee may already have used the idea more than once). The title in that final next issue blurb echoes that of THE WELL AT THE WORLD'S END, a novel by William Morris. RocknRollguitarplayerJanuary 27, 2017 6:17 PM Captain Marvel #34 Good Point above NITRO is directly responsible for altering the Marvel Universe but yet he is mainly a ghost and definitely not present in the cinema side of things. He's way too cool to sit on the bench. RocknrollguitarplayerJanuary 27, 2017 6:05 PM Thor #184-194 What may not be the obvious Elephant in the room was Stan Lee was not only responsible for creative on far too many projects but also beared the cross of keeping Marvel bottom line in tact. At this point in the Marvel life-cycle a few bad months were nearly fatal financially and he scrambled on many occasion to avoid insolvency. TuomasJanuary 27, 2017 5:56 PM Infinity War #4 Or if you don't want to reprise the Warlock stuff, you could try to find a copy of the "Life of Captain Marvel" trade, which collects all of Starlin's first Thanos story. Jonathan, son of KevinJanuary 27, 2017 5:04 PM Captain America #275-279 Good commentary from Fnord on issue 275. It's true that this issue does back up Spencer's interpretation, but obviously DeMatteis' interpretation of Cap is not the only interpretation (most obviously, I'm sure Simon & Kirby would have seen it differently). I could vaguely understand Cap's position here if he had turned out to be right about dumb kids just pretending to be Nazis for shock (as some UK punks had a few years prior), but when they're actually in full Nazi regalia and denying the holocaust as they are here, you'd think Cap would have had a more averse reaction to it himself. DeMatteis later wanted Cap to renounce violence entirely but wasn't allowed to continue that storyline. (He also wrote a Star Wars comic about someone rejecting violence against the Empire, though his script was then tampered with to remove his championing of pacifism.) So J.M.'s pacifism is strong enough for him to have written stories advising pacifism against both neo-Nazis and space Nazis. As both a soldier and a superhero, I think Cap sees violence as the last resort, but 70 years after the fact, most of his most famous enemies are still Nazis. It seems silly to find probably one of the only issues where Cap doesn't punch someone, and use it as an argument. Seems an exception to me, not a rule. Thanos6January 27, 2017 4:19 PM Iceman #1-4 @Andrew: I've heard that Eternity and Death are related to time, while Infinity and Oblivion are related to space; Eternity represents the time that living things have, and Death awaits at the end of it, while Infinity represents the space that things exist in, and Oblivion awaits outside of that. I can't remember where I heard that, though. Mark DrummondJanuary 27, 2017 4:12 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 Did Michelinie ever give a response to Peter David's retcon? Jonathan, son of KevinJanuary 27, 2017 3:58 PM Iceman #1-4 @JSfan - Yes, the early issues of the UK reprints of Secret Wars comic also featured reprints of this Iceman mini-series (as well as some of the first few issues of Alpha Flight). I can understand them choosing to reprint Byrne (then probably at the peak of his popularity) but not sure why they chose to reprint this series, maybe because they thought people would recognise Iceman from the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon. As this was one of the first comics I ever read, at about age 7, I have a certain fondness for it and can't really judge it objectively. I can see it's not for everyone, and as Fnord says it would have been too thoughtful for most fans of the cartoon, but I'm glad it exists and when I read it now I see certain panels I'd forgotten but that were part of my childhood. At the time I had no idea who the Defenders were, and for the next few years the only thing I knew about the Champions was their appearance in the dream sequence here. I think I was disappointed when I eventually picked up a Champions comic and it wasn't as weird as I'd imagined it was going to be. Nate WolfJanuary 27, 2017 2:54 PM Alpha Flight #66 Well, that was a weird issue, but I actually liked it, unlike the rest of Mantlo's Alpha Flight. Metafictional plots are always welcome for me, and I like when people try something different and write a story about this. The resulting story may be good or bad, but it's always interesting. MortificatorJanuary 27, 2017 2:09 PM Uncanny X-Men #120-121 Is Bonnie Wilford an actual character, or a creator insert? I didn't see Phoenix, Heather, or Moira in the issue, but I guess they were added in the Classic version. Same with Jeryn Hogarth, though his tag could be a behind-the-scenes because he provided the plane. AndrewJanuary 27, 2017 11:50 AM Thor #344 In the "Ring" section of the Thor/Eternals saga, Thor's essence was reincarnated in Siegmund, then in Seigmund's son Siegfried. But I think Sigurd may be a variation of Siegfried, like Hermes/Mercury, etc. Ben HermanJanuary 27, 2017 11:38 AM Knights of Pendragon #13-15 @Michael: Was a contest winner ever actually announced, or was this just Wizard being their usual snarky selves? Wanyas the Self-ProclaimedJanuary 27, 2017 10:49 AM Iceman #1-4 I got this mini around 1994 or so. I think I fell asleep reading it. Cosmic was the wrong way to go with Iceman especially for 4 issues, but that's DeMatteis, I guess. The new character designs are bizarre. Kupperberg does some interesting layouts, but overall the art is as boring as the writing. JSfanJanuary 27, 2017 10:24 AM Iceman #1-4 Can anyone confirm whether this mini series was reprinted in the UK either in Marvel UK or a Secret Wars back up story. I vaguely recall reading this but it's been such a long time I can't remember. AndrewJanuary 27, 2017 8:16 AM Iceman #1-4 I had no idea Oblivion first appeared in this book. I always assumed he was a Gruenwald creation. I've always had a problem with Oblivion. First, there's his design, with the ratty cloak reminiscent of Nightmare but the gigantic muscles of Thanos. Like, are you a gaunt ghost or a hulking predator? Pick a theme! Second, how is he really different from Death? At this point the Marvel universe is starting to suffer from cosmic bloat. AndrewJanuary 27, 2017 6:51 AM Infinity War #4 Nova, my take has always been that a cosmic cube is equivalent to the Reality Gem. Incredibly powerful, but not supremely so, especially in matters of the mind and spirit. Warlock first appeared in Fantastic Four #66-67. He got the Soul Gem in Marvel Premiere #1-2, had a bunch of forgettable adventures on Counter Earth, and died and was resurrected in Hulk #176-178. But that's all prelude. For the stories that really put Warlock on the map, pick up Warlock by Jim Starlin, The Complete Collection, preferably at your local comics shop. It's worth the money. To get Thanos' complete story, pick up Avengers vs. Thanos, if you don't mind that the second half of that book reprises the second half of the Warlock one. Erik BeckJanuary 27, 2017 4:58 AM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 @Jon Dubya - The issue is cover-dated Sep-Oct and The X-Files only started airing in the second week of September that year. Seems like this would have been to press well before the show actually began. NovaJanuary 27, 2017 2:14 AM Infinity War #6 Up until this point I thought Infinity War was destined to edge out Infinity Gauntlet as the best story involving said artifact; sadly this was not meant to be as this concluding chapter is probably the one with the worst writing among all issues I've read of both sagas. I just can't buy the plan Warlock and Thanos had nor I can make any sense of the whole Infinity/Eternity twist that came out of nowhere. I still enjoyed it for what it was but I'm not looking forward to Crusade now considering the dip in quality. I'm not saying that Infinity Gauntlet was a masterpiece but it had a more coherent arc to tell regarding Thanos and it didn't resort to an ending that makes little sense. Thanos6January 27, 2017 1:49 AM Infinity War #4 @Nova: Do you want his actual first appearance, or the Jim Starlin stories where he became the Warlock we're more familiar with now? NovaJanuary 27, 2017 1:29 AM Infinity War #4 I'm currently reading this series and, while I'm enjoying it, I'm having a hard time trying to understand or just plain accept: 1. The lack of a detailed backstory as to how in hell did the Magus got those cosmic cubes. Everything else is fine...btw to anyone knowledgeable enough: what are the numbers I should read to get Adam Warlock's origin ? Jon DubyaJanuary 27, 2017 12:26 AM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 So we ARE supposed to notice that the investigator's name is a portmanteau of X-Files characters, yes? Also, the on who should actually be "cut" is the crap soap opera director. I mean shouldn't this brain trust have told MJ to put out her magically levitating cigerette BEFORE the cameras started rolling? Ben HermanJanuary 26, 2017 10:42 PM Fantastic Four #147 As we know from the cover to the now-classic Marvel Two-In-One #86, the Thing has a fondness for Miller draft beer. He probably has a glass or two of Manischewitz wine during the Jewish holidays :) Ben HermanJanuary 26, 2017 10:21 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 @Michael: Thanks for the info. Considering that both the Hulk and Doc Samson were written rather somewhat out-of-character, and the plot of these two issues was rather underwhelming, it's odd that PAD was seemingly most bothered by the fact that the Hulk was on a commercial airline flight. Then again, maybe PAD actually didn't like the story as a whole, and he only focused on the airplane detail because it provided him with a rationale for being able to explain the entire thing away as a dream. MichaelJanuary 26, 2017 9:33 PM Knights of Pendragon #13-15 "Hit them hard and fast" was ridiculously overused during the '90s- Wizard actually had a contest to see which writer used it the most. Red CometJanuary 26, 2017 8:41 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 I don't think the guy whose biggest crime was having the Hulk fly on a commercial airliner was the "jerk" in that story. I always liked this story a lot when I was a kid. Fun fights. MichaelJanuary 26, 2017 8:20 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 PAD had Doc Samson write off this story as a dream in a Hulk story. He discusses it here: MortificatorJanuary 26, 2017 8:00 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 Is Mary Jane holding a lit cigarette in her pocket? Where is the smoke even coming from? MichaelJanuary 26, 2017 7:55 PM Knights of Pendragon #13-15 I'm not liking that Spider-Man was revealed to have caused the deaths of a large part of a planet's population in the last issues of a Marvel UK book of all places. If something like this happened, then it would drive Peter crazy, with him seriously considering giving up being Spider-Man for the 500th time. Of course, this is never mentioned again and that's definitely for the best. UbersichtJanuary 26, 2017 6:39 PM Fantastic Four #249-250 "Man and Superman" was actually the title of a play by George Bernard Shaw, although it was in part a response to the concept introduced by Friedrich Nietzsche in the book, "Thus Spoke Zarathrustra" TCPJanuary 26, 2017 5:31 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 @Ben Herman -- I was at a panel during which Peter David complained about the Hulk being on a plane in this story, as he was supposedly wanted by SHIELD at this time, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's true. UbersichtJanuary 26, 2017 5:07 PM Fantastic Four #147 Off topic for this issue but I like to imagine Rogue gets a little crazy drinking Old Grand-Dad 100 proof Bourbon straight from the bottle. Otherwise she mixes it with Coca-Cola. And a lime when she's being fancy. Ben HermanJanuary 26, 2017 5:00 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 I think Peter David later attempted to argue that this story never happened and it was just a bad dream, or something like that. Anyone else hear about that? Morgan WickJanuary 26, 2017 4:35 PM Amazing Spider-Man #381-382 You could argue that this deserves a bump in historical significance for hinting at the later revelation that the Merged Hulk is just another split personality, if you reeeeeeeally wanted to stretch it. AndrewJanuary 26, 2017 3:41 PM Marvel Team-Up #41-44 41: Scarlet Witch Jon DubyaJanuary 26, 2017 3:35 PM Marvel Team-Up #41-44 Just out of curiousity, who were the "official" team-ups supposed to be in each issue? Ben HermanJanuary 26, 2017 2:38 PM Fantastic Four #147 @Ubersicht: Yes, that is true about James Bond, and as a long-time fan I am quite embarrassed that I forgot :( As for Reed Richards, considering his background as a scientist and his fondness for pipe-smoking (at least in the Silver Age) Scotch just seemed like a natural fit to me. Although in cases like this, when his wife has left him for Namor, I half-expect Reed skipped the "on the rocks" part and was having it neat. Having said that, even under the worst of circumstances I cannot picture Reed ever drinking directly from the bottle. Yeah, this is what comic book fans think about in their spare time :) Jin-HoJanuary 26, 2017 2:08 PM Amazing Spider-Man #191-192 I remember these issues, because I was flabbergasted that JJ Jameson didn't unmask Spidey. Why on Earth wouldn't he have done it? Spidey was unconscious from breaking their fall after they were attacked by the Fly, and JJJ says he actually dragged Spidey to the hospital, if memory serves. And he doesn't unmask his nemesis??? It was beyond belief. AndrewJanuary 26, 2017 12:02 PM Fantastic Four #147 Nothing like mixing alcohol and emotionally-triggered self-combustion. Austin GortonJanuary 26, 2017 12:01 PM X-Men #25 This issue blew my mind as a kid - after months of build-up, this felt epic, and a worthy pay-off. Between the changes wrought on Wolverine, Magneto, and Xavier, this seemed like a genuine "nothing will ever be the same!" event. I pored over it, re-reading it countless times. As an adult, the warts are more apparent - chiefly Kubert's cramped panels that fail to depict much in the way of the battle - but I still remember fondly the charge I got out of it back in the day. UbersichtJanuary 26, 2017 11:54 AM Fantastic Four #147 The James Bond (no Commie he) films popularized vodka in the 60s and certainly people in the US were widely drinking it in the 70s. But yeah, I'd figure Reed to drink Rob Roys or Rusty Nails. Maybe Scotch on the rocks when he's morose. Johnny would have drunk Harvey Wallbangers around this time, ignoring the sliding time scale fnord12January 26, 2017 11:46 AM X-Men #25 Yes, the MCP has it there (Wolverine's appearance requires it). I've laid out Fatal Attractions as a marker for me, and books will go in between. Ben HermanJanuary 26, 2017 10:29 AM Fantastic Four #147 I always pictured Reed as more of a Scotch drinker. After all, back in the day only dirty Commies drank Vodka. StephenJanuary 26, 2017 9:54 AM X-Men #25 I am pretty sure that the Gambit Limited series from 1993 should come between X-Men 24 and here. Ataru320January 26, 2017 8:10 AM Captain America #130 Considering current events, I think Cap really is getting at the heart of the matter. People unfortunately will always claim otherwise though but that's why they fight. Luke BlanchardJanuary 26, 2017 5:03 AM Werewolf By Night #34-37 The different look of the epilogue is apparently due to the colourist. The GCD says #34-#36 were coloured by George Roussos (so the purple fog effect in panel 5 of the first extract might be his), and #37 by Diane Buscema. Luke BlanchardJanuary 26, 2017 4:57 AM Werewolf By Night #34-37 Don Perlin began in comics in the late 1940s. When I was young I thought his work stiff, but I've learned to appreciate it: I like the fog effects in fnord's first extract, and that gargoyle over the doorway. RocknRollguitarplayerJanuary 26, 2017 12:41 AM Captain Marvel #2-3 Brilliant SMM-GURU "Ordinary People with Spaceships" This is an incredible piece of insight that gives us an existential view as to how the Pyramids, Naxca Lines, Machu Pichu, The Heliopolis and many other unexplainables came to pass on Planet Earth! It was Ordinary people with Spaceships that did it! You may think I'm attempting sardonic humor but I am serious. RocknrollguitarplayerJanuary 26, 2017 12:20 AM Fantastic Four #147 You can almost smell the faint scent of Vodka on Reeds overgrown stubble and feel him twisting in hopeless agony in this issue. A megalomaniac like Namor has just usurped his wife a Reed knows Namor is satisfying her at high pitched frequency that he can only imagine in a quantum physics notation. All I can think of when I read this book was ouch like when you accidentally brush into a Cactus. RocknrollguitarplayerJanuary 25, 2017 11:34 PM Iron Fist #11-13 I'd Love to show up with a case o beer and a bottle of Anejo Tequila just to watch some of you mentally joust chronological nuance! As far as Jean Grey, I.believe she learned to cook in order to keep the Phoenix force satiated and may soon be seen on an episode of Chopped :) MichaelJanuary 25, 2017 11:31 PM New Warriors #7-9 Firestar's age was given as 13 in the first issue of her series and the 4th issue says it's been "3 years" since then. AndrewJanuary 25, 2017 8:37 PM Marvel Fanfare #15 I'm surprised you left out the "twist" in the Thing story: Johnny was playing a series of April Fools Day pranks on Ben, but dumb Johhny forgot how many days are in March, so he was a day early, adding insult to injury. I thought that was pretty funny AndrewJanuary 25, 2017 7:40 PM Defenders #127 This is at least the second time two Defenders have had exactly the same thought about Moondragon, pretty definitively establishing that she's messing with their heads. This also happened in http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/defenders_126.shtml, and will happen again in http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/defenders_128-130.shtml. RobertJanuary 25, 2017 6:54 PM Defenders #89-91 Don Perlin apparently slipped the word shit into a panel from #89. www.cbr.com/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-70 jti88 .January 25, 2017 4:34 PM Werewolf By Night #34-37 The story is drawn, ballons and their texts included, like the horror comics from the 50s. Was that intentional, or just ugly? Jon DubyaJanuary 25, 2017 2:01 PM Captain America #284 "Even an adroud can cry". Hee. Jon DubyaJanuary 25, 2017 12:16 PM New Warriors #7-9 By the way, about the "ages", it was stated in the Firestar mini that Angelica was starting high school for the first time, so she was probably about 14 when that series appeared (especially since that was also the first time her mutant powers first emerged.) Ben HermanJanuary 25, 2017 11:50 AM Captain America #130 I have a genuine fondness for this issue. I don't want to be controversial, but the message of Cap's speech is *still* very relevant in America today. More than ever, protestors and dissenters expressing their grievances against the government and corporations are being labeled as "unpatriotic" or "anarchists" or "traitors" by both politicians and pundits, or condescendingly being told to "get over it." A few years ago I wrote about this issue on my blog... https://benjaminherman.wordpress.com/2014/07/04/captain-america-130-a-message-for-july-4th/ Jon DubyaJanuary 25, 2017 10:18 AM Uncanny X-Men #301-303 That Selene panel is probably the only time I felt sorry for the character. Yikes! (It's also one of the few times I'm grateful for the blocky stylings of John Romita Jr, because that imagine would probably be a lot more squeamish-inducing under a more visceral artist. Shudder.) fnord12January 25, 2017 8:34 AM Uncanny X-Men #129-131 Thanks Stephen. I've added a scan. fnord12January 25, 2017 8:28 AM Uncanny X-Men #132-135 Thanks for the correction, Stephen. AndrewJanuary 25, 2017 7:22 AM Marvel Two-In-One #100 I never heard of this story, fnord, so I was excited when I came across it here to see what had happened in the alternate timeline from MTiO 50. It's a disappointment to see it's just another alternate reality story. I agree with Reed that it would seem unreasonable that a time machine, no matter how powerful, could create an entire new universe (a clear violation of the law of conservation of mass/energy), but if you accept the many-worlds theory (as Marvel does) then there's no reason not to suppose that the time machine simply sends the user to an alternate universe that was already coming into being at that point in space-time. This seems like another case of Byrne using a story to argue with a colleague, in this case Gruenwald instead of Claremont. The one good thing here is it explains why Byrne had Reed's father get shunted into an alternate timeline in Fantastic Four 272 when he used his own time machine. Otherwise, that detail didn't make a lot of sense. As you note, fnord, no other writer has followed Byrne's lead, since it pretty much sucks all the head-scratching joy out of time travel. rocknrollguitarplayerJanuary 25, 2017 12:38 AM Captain America #130 Excellent Analysis Supermegamonkey guru. I don't know your name so I will call you SMM-GURU. Ok so this was a cool book and I wish the comic critics and genuises would bow their respective heads in honor of"Batroc's Brigade" which was the name of this cool Super-Villain team. I live for the likes of these cool alliances and I wish we'd see more of them. That includes The Lethal Legion, Wrecking Crew and all incarnations of the Masters of Evil! All right off to bed! Walter LawsonJanuary 25, 2017 12:27 AM X-Men annual #2 Yeah, all the Simonson X-Factor power enhancements are being forgotten about. Beast isn't additionally strong, Iceman has had to get another power enhancement because the one that required him to use the inhibitor belt has been forgotten about, and even Archangel rarely uses his wing blades or darts in this era. MichaelJanuary 24, 2017 10:34 PM X-Men annual #2 One interesting thing about the backup story- during the second half of Simonson's run, Beast was said to be considerably stronger than ever before. But when the mutated patient and corrupt doctor are in danger of falling to their deaths, Trish isn't sure whether Hank can save them both, and Beast says don't worry, I can lift 3,000 pounds max and they weigh less then that combined. There's been no mention of Hank's "extra" strength lately and 3,000 pounds is roughly Hank's pre-Simonson strength limit, so it looks like the backup is saying Hank's back to his pre-Simonson strength. AJJanuary 24, 2017 10:16 PM Excalibur #32-34 St. Searle's is a reference to the British 'St Trinian's' film series, based on cartoons by Ronald Searle, about a girl's school full of hellcats whom the police, hardened male criminals and even the army all go in fear of. The ending of this seems less left-field to those familiar with them as similar things happen frequently there. ChrisWJanuary 24, 2017 10:14 PM Uncanny X-Men #132-135 That actually makes sense. I assume he was the Senator from New York, but regardless, he's someone Shaw would cultivate personally as well as professionally, even setting him up to marry one of the maids. ChrisWJanuary 24, 2017 10:12 PM Uncanny X-Men #251-253 Just nit-picking, but Magneto unilaterally declared himself to be Grey King, and I don't recall it being specifically stated that he and Storm were officially 'sharing' the White King title. It makes sense that the White King's seat was essentially given to Xavier's school as personified by Magneto (with Storm) I just don't ever recall it being explicit. Also, idle thought, but the Reavers have presumably linked their circuitry with the underground computer since their return. They're certainly aware of it's ability to see the X-Men and they recognize that it's evolving its own systems. Yet it won't help them find Wolverine, and I'd bet that it's because Jubilee is protecting him. By the way, wouldn't Wolvie have noticed that there were no fresh X-Men scents when he got back into town, but there were a lot of new ones, familiar ones, including gunpowder and grease? Walter LawsonJanuary 24, 2017 9:23 PM X-Men annual #2 I never realized the one-off Iraqi villain Amenedi was reported dead in this issue. Another low-profile Legacy victim. As aimless as the Legacy story quickly becomes, it seems like a model of long-term plotting compared to the Mutant Underground, which gets a flurry of mentions out of nowhere in '93 and I'm pretty sure is never heard of again after its fourth of fifth reference. Stephen FrugJanuary 24, 2017 8:22 PM Uncanny X-Men #129-131 "No mention of absorbing sound as a power source yet." It's mentioned in a caption box in #131, as Dazzler dazzles the guards during their attack on Frost Industries. (This is the sort of thing you notice when you reread the issues & then go check out the reviews right after...) Stephen FrugJanuary 24, 2017 8:20 PM Uncanny X-Men #132-135 Trivia: "Senator Kelly, a member of the Hellfire Club" He's not even that. In dialogue in #133, just before Wolverine climbs out of the dumbwaiter, two of the staff say something like "I didn't know he was a member of the club"/"He's not. He's Shaw's invited guest." D09January 24, 2017 7:57 PM What's Missing Quick update here: that second Marvel Monsters Omnibus comes out April of this year, got the wrong release info by mistake, the contents of said omnibus are still the same though. MichaelJanuary 24, 2017 7:57 PM X-Men annual #2 This issue came out a month late. MichaelJanuary 24, 2017 7:55 PM Captain America #275-279 The Jewish Protection Organization was probably supposed to be a parody of the Jewish Defense League. By 1982, the JDL was responsible for stuff like a smoke bomb attack that killed an innocent woman. The problem is that Bernie's ex never Jumps Off the Slippery Slope like the real life JDL did. It would be like a writer creating a Muslim organization called ASIS and expecting the reader to see them as clearly evil because of the name, when all they do is get into fist fights with white supremacists. AJJanuary 24, 2017 7:41 PM Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #233-247 Re rhyming slang - the 'berk' insult that characters keep using in this run is rhyming slang too - 'berk' is short for 'Berkeley Hunt' which means, well, the extremely crude anatomical four-letter word it rhymes with. (Which, I should probably add, when used as an insult in Britain, is actually used more of men than of women.) 'Berk' is slightly less offensive than the unrhymed version but it's still pretty startling to see it thrown around in a comic so casually. This is such a great site. Thanks for all your work on it. Walter LawsonJanuary 24, 2017 7:34 PM Hulk annual #19 True, which suggests to me DeFalco wasn't behind the gimmick, the marketing department was. They'd probably seen Valiant generate huge numbers by creating a hit back-issue market for the first appearances of characters who later got their own series. Marvel, and Valiant, don't make money off back-issue sales, but the buzz around Valiant seemed to boost the whole company: people bought comics upfront because they thought the new characters would make them valuable someday. so it might have seemed obvious to Marvel marketing that a new character in every annual—plus a trading card!—would be a goldmine. Of course, good new characters are usually the products of good storylines, so forcing writers to introduce new characters on the spot was almost sure to fail. Especially since few of Marvel's writers at this time were producing good storylines to begin with. PAD's an exception, but he's never been a "hot new character" generator, he's too idiosyncratic. Morgan WickJanuary 24, 2017 5:43 PM Hulk annual #19 It's worth noting that even the freaking Editor-in-Chief didn't put much effort into his Annual character. Ben HermanJanuary 24, 2017 5:24 PM Captain America #275-279 Keeping in mind that Cap *is* a fictional character, I think that most writers would have him believe that freedom of speech in the United States is vitally important, and however much he despised what a neo-Nazi or alt-Right or other fascist bigot was saying, he would defend their right to say it... as long as they were expressing themselves in a peaceful manner. However, Cap would probably also believe that if a neo-Nazi threw the first punch, then you would have every right to defend yourself and fight back. I don't have these issues in front of me at the moment, but as I recall in the opening pages of #276 Bernie's ex-husband reluctantly admits that he was wrong to provoke a fight with the neo-Nazis, and he goes off with the police without arguing. The leader of the neo-Nazis, however, is pissed off that Cap has made him look bad, and tries to shoot him, which earns him a beating. I still don't agree with DeMatteis' "two of a kind" line, but at least he does later show that Bernie's ex-husband is more reasonable than the neo-Nazis. OliverJanuary 24, 2017 4:32 PM Fantastic Four #249-250 "...unless he's suddenly able to change size at will!" Captain America? More like Captain Exposition amirite AndrewJanuary 24, 2017 4:30 PM Fantastic Four annual #17 "King's Crossing" is probably a reference to a writer who was moderately popular at the time. BillJanuary 24, 2017 4:19 PM Hulk annual #19 I was a big fan (still am, actually) of Paul Pelletiers art since I had followed him on the Ex-Mutants title back in the day. Somehow I missed his first Marvel work in this annual. clydeJanuary 24, 2017 3:28 PM X-Men annual #2 "but Revanche and Psylocke strongly support Empyrean". Of course they would, given Revanche's current status. Luke BlanchardJanuary 24, 2017 3:18 PM Avengers West Coast annual #8 Raptor looks like a homage to DC's Man-Bat. Ben HermanJanuary 24, 2017 1:55 PM Avengers Spotlight #30-34,36 @Thanos6: Yes, actually, I agree with you. It could be interesting. It would probably have to be in a series that was creator-owned, though. clydeJanuary 24, 2017 1:34 PM Hulk annual #19 "Or does forcing a writer to create a new character for an annual not instantly guarantee that they'll want to use them again?" I would think that the very fact that they were forced to create a new character for an annual made them not want to use that character again as a way to spite the higher-ups. Plus, most of these new characters were really bad. IMO, the only reason Genis-vell made it was because he was a "Legacy" character. fnord12January 24, 2017 8:11 AM Warheads: Black Dawn #1-2 @Walter, the Overkill anthology was still being published. It ended in Aug 94. It's hard to get good information on exactly what was getting reprinted (UHBMCC has no info, GCD has covers only and is actually missing a lot). But yeah, could be that these were just published as more Warheads stories in the anthology. fnord12January 24, 2017 8:04 AM Captain America #275-279 Thanks, Michael. I've added some additional scans and commentary. Based on DeMatteis' writing here, Spencer is right. AndrewJanuary 24, 2017 7:31 AM Wolverine #1-4 I'd like to put in my two cents to respond to Erik's comment, not disagreeing, but adding my perspective. I've used the "you don't understand how new it was at the time" argument myself (most often in reference to folks who argue Alan Moore is/was overrated). I was sixteen when this came out, I had been a hardcore Marvel junkie for about five years, and I picked it up automatically. Claremont at the height of his popularity writing, Miller at the height of his popularity drawing, on Wolverine's first solo book: how could it be bad? The problem I had with it was exactly that it wasn't "new" to me. It was Claremont writing Wolverine again, Miller drawing ninjas again. Yukio was yet another Claremont "spunky" female, too confident for any conflict of character. Mariko was a cypher to me (tender? tough? what does she see in Logan anyway?) And of course, I don't think Claremont or Miller knew anything more about Japan than what they read in Shogun and Lone Wolf and Cub. I can see why people love this series, but it just seems intellectually and emotionally hollow to me. Walter LawsonJanuary 24, 2017 12:40 AM Wolverine #75 Sabretooth's presumbly keratin claws are meant to be capable of tearing through steel, so I guess the same allowances can be made for Logan's bone claws. The bone claws are ok as a short-term gimmick: it creates a bit of tension as to how and when he'll get the admantium back, and in the meantime all his fights with old archenemies should have some fresh difficulty now. When the Hulk lost some strength when he went from green to gray, he had to fight dirtier to compensate, and it made for great stories. Unfortunately, we get little or none of that with the bone claws, and beating Sabretooth as easily as ever only makes Sabes seem really pathetic. The storyline also drags on far too long: it might have been cool for a year or so, but this lasts, what, five or six years? It's also sad that an unused Claremont idea is the biggest Wolvie story of the '90s. Claremont was going to take away the adamantium as part of his "Dark Wolverine" plan. And it's Apocalypse who restores the adamantium, another rehash of an '80s Claremont (or Simonson) idea. The X-titles have turned into retreads-though Hama does his best to make this title weird and interesting. MichaelJanuary 23, 2017 11:21 PM Uncanny X-Men #97 @jt88- it's explained in issue 101 that Storm can change from her costume to civilian clothes by striking her costume's unstable molecules with lightning. We discussed this in the comment for this entry and the consensus was it didn't make much sense: MichaelJanuary 23, 2017 11:11 PM Wolverine #75 @Vincent- but mutants with the power of invulnerability must have "invulnerable" bones, so obviously mutants can have bones that are more resilient than in real life. Jon DubyaJanuary 23, 2017 10:47 PM Wolverine #75 But again, at this point "Logan" isn't the only one with bone claws. And none of his "counterparts" have an issue with them. Also maybe we should be saying "organic" instead of bone, because do we REALLY know if that's actually what they are made out of? In real life there are plenty of animal parts people assume are made of "bone " but aren't. (And of course in various "creature features" clawed animals can seemingly cut through anything. How's THAT for studied scientic research!) Davidbanes, the "Bone-verine" stiryline did last until the beginning of the 2000s, so naybe that's why you thought that. Finally there actually IS someone who LIKES the bone claws. If you ever read a website called "The X-axis", the proprietor there was a big fan of how the organic claws made Wolvie seemed to go with the raw feral nature of his inner character,and was disapointed that they reversed it. (One thing I would count as a "benefit" is that the "bones" made Wolverine seem less invulnerable (when your bones don't break and you can cut through anything, creators start thinking you're Superman.) Vincent ValentiJanuary 23, 2017 9:39 PM Wolverine #75 "By the way I assume that it it DID happen (Wolvie trying to slice something harder than his claws) they would just grow back." --- But that's the thing....they continued to have Wolverine continue to slice things much harder than a sharp piece of bone should be able to handle without splintering or outright breaking, which would cause a great deal of pain - like walls, car doors, etc. IMO bone claws should not be able to cut much more than flesh. And even then a piercing action should result in a debilitating amount of pain, since anything harder than tissue paper would at least exert some force back against the exposed bone. AndrewJanuary 23, 2017 8:23 PM Daredevil #192 I'm sorry, but Kingpin looks exactly like Charlie Brown in that last scan. MichaelJanuary 23, 2017 7:57 PM Captain America #275-279 Issue 275 has been discussed a lot recently in the wake of the Nazi punching incident and Nick Spencer insisting Cap would never condone such behavior. Stephen FrugJanuary 23, 2017 7:40 PM Uncanny X-Men #161 Ah, sorry, I didn't know about the flashbacks-don't-count rule. Thanks for explaining. Thanos6January 23, 2017 7:22 PM Avengers Spotlight #30-34,36 @Ben Herman: "This is one of the major perils of having super-heroes confront real-world crime or social problems." No, this is a peril of doing so in an ongoing, serial medium and not wanting to shake-up the "real life" status quo too much. I would love to see an ongoing superhero-verse where the heroes undertook a Squadron Supreme-type of "fix the world" agenda and SUCCEEDED, even if it meant their world was no longer one outside my window. ChrisWJanuary 23, 2017 7:21 PM Uncanny X-Men #168 I don't have the book handy to check, but wasn't Scott's first appearance in this issue when he surprises Lee, so he could have left at any point after the final panel of #167. Fnord obviously had to work out the placement of other appearances based on things like this, but for all intents and purposes, he probably left soon after Kitty was fired from the X-Men. Mquinn1976January 23, 2017 6:15 PM Warheads: Black Dawn #1-2 I found the best Marvel UK titles to be worse than the worst Marvel US comic. They had no bearing on the MU at all. I used to buy every marvel comic, but it would take me a while to read these ones. I also used to read letters by Ben Herman all the time :) Walter LawsonJanuary 23, 2017 5:57 PM Warheads: Black Dawn #1-2 We're the Marvel UK stories still appearing in the U.K. itself in an anthology title? That might explain why this story isn't much different from the regular series: thy would have run in the same mag at home, and the splitting them into two titles for the US was just a cash grab. Might as well: as poor;y as minis might sell, they couldn't sell much worse than the ongoing MUK titles. But then, maybe they did. mquinn1976January 23, 2017 5:54 PM Punisher #80 Fnord, I'm very disappointed in this review as I found this comic to have a lot more depth than you give it credit for... haha just kidding. This Punisher stuff was crap SpikeyJanuary 23, 2017 5:18 PM Uncanny X-Men #291-293 Yeah. No. What a horrible story, in combination with the most horrible dialogues in X-men probably ever up until this point. It seems that while the X-franchise is being overrun by Wolverine overkills, Deadpools, Cybers, Cables, Mavericks and Bishops, the main book itself is really crushed by the weight of it. It is a real struggle to read this. Nobody cares for the hordes of mutated Morlocks, as the ones we cared for are long gone. Nobody cares about Mikhail, because he is new. Please, die already. Odd attempts to spice it up with contrived and messy "character development" (read: rehashes); Iceman learns something about his power, Storm doubts her leadership, Bishop does nothing much, Angel cries over his wings, Jean tells him to get over it just like that. What is this, a 90s chatroom or a bad fanfic story? Only Prof X crawling through tons of sewage know for certain. Ben HermanJanuary 23, 2017 4:40 PM Avengers Spotlight #30-34,36 I am really NOT a fan of the suggestion given here that a street gang is more dangerous than, say, the Masters of Evil. Whatever Gerber's intentions were, this story completely tosses the readers' crucial suspension of disbelief out the window. This is one of the major perils of having super-heroes confront real-world crime or social problems. Luke BlanchardJanuary 23, 2017 3:48 PM Power Pack #46 Was the villain based on Joe DeRita? Ben HermanJanuary 23, 2017 3:31 PM Warheads: Black Dawn #1-2 In that sense, they're closer to zombies, which makes the bad guys kind of similar to the ones from the final issue of their regular series. Sounds like this miniseries was a preview of things to come for future Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard :) JeffJanuary 23, 2017 3:28 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 For those who pay attention to this sort of thing, the artistic blue highlights of the black in the standard X-outfits start to become more prominent with these issues, leading them to become officially blue-and-gold in a few issues. It's worth noting that Kitty-as-Sprite and the New Mutants wore yellow/black, but the original team had both versions in the silver age -- Yellow/black with yellow belts starting with X-Men #1 and then blue/black with red belts around issue 20 or 21 of the original series. JeffJanuary 23, 2017 2:52 PM Uncanny X-Men #251-253 RE: The Hellfire Club titles... Magneto and Storm were permitted to "share" the title of White King, and at some point later Magneto was actually appointed "Grey" King. Luke BlanchardJanuary 23, 2017 1:31 PM Incredible Hulk Weekly #1,3-30,42-55,57-63 (Black Knight) On reflection I shouldn't have said "thin face". I was thinking of the effect created by the high cheekbones. davidbanesJanuary 23, 2017 1:25 PM Amazing Spider-Man #380 It is amazing that the guy in an American flag costume is the most genuinely dignified thing in this issue. I love that Cap's disapproval is enough to break the spell, not being sarcastic here at all. Though it probably helps with some of the other ways the heroes are snapping the others back to their senses. davidbanesJanuary 23, 2017 1:08 PM Wolverine #75 Huh for some reason I got the impression the bone claws were something more recent, well like 2000ish recent. Bigger fan of the metal blades even if there's no way they could fit with those forearms. TorkJanuary 23, 2017 12:53 PM Fantastic Four #171-175 Reed's dialog in 175 where he ponders what it's like to be a god is interesting. 40 year foreshadowing. jti88January 23, 2017 12:17 PM Uncanny X-Men #97 This is also the issue where we learn that Ororo is a Sailor Warrior. Or maybe she used to borrow the Image Inducer to look like a civilian. fnord12January 23, 2017 11:42 AM Punisher: G-Force http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/QA.shtml#How%20much%20is%20my%20comic%20worth? TCPJanuary 23, 2017 10:39 AM Fantastic Four #222-223 I liked the way this story brought together two different aspects of Franklin's origin/upbringing -- his ties to the Negative Zone (which Scratch uses to get to him) and his exposure to magic from an early age through Agatha. I've often wondered how much of Franklin's power could be tied to Agatha' magic rather than his parent's genes, and it's interesting to speculate how the Negative Zone might be connected to these mystical aspects of the Marvel U. JeffJanuary 23, 2017 10:25 AM Wolverine #75 Before this story it was mentioned the healing factor closed the claw holes at least in one other instance: The "Green and Pleasant Land" story line in Uncanny, when Wolverine's powers are neutralized in Genosha. Luke BlanchardJanuary 23, 2017 10:18 AM Incredible Hulk Weekly #1,3-30,42-55,57-63 (Black Knight) Perhaps Hal Foster's version from PRINCE VALIANT? It could certainly be the model for the version here. (Long hair; heavy beard and moustache; thin face with high cheekbones.) AndrewJanuary 23, 2017 9:29 AM Incredible Hulk Weekly #1,3-30,42-55,57-63 (Black Knight) The rendition of King Arthur here looks almost exactly like the King Arthur that Brian Bolland would draw in Camelot 3000 a few years later. I wonder if Bolland was influenced by the artist here, or if they were drawing from a common source, like some English children's book. MichaelJanuary 23, 2017 8:03 AM Uncanny X-Men #168 Well, Scott leaves in the middle of Uncanny 168 to meet Lee, and then at the end of the issue we see him on the visit to his grandparents where he meets Maddie, so in theory this could take place DURING Uncanny 168. The problem, as you mentioned, is Wolvie leaving, but that's also a problem with Marvel Team-Up 135. ChrisWJanuary 23, 2017 1:21 AM Uncanny X-Men #168 Ubersicht, that makes sense. Neal Adams was supposed to be the artist for GLMK, and had produced a number of pages. By the time he finally left the project (for whatever reason) and Marvel still wanted to go through with it, enough time had passed that the X-Men had moved on with their lives. The main problems are with Illyana and Maddie, or at least can be reduced to that. If Illyana has been aged to be a teenager, then the X-Men are on Magneto's Island and not at the mansion. Then there's the Brood Saga, and Scott immediately leaves to meet Maddie. There's lesser problems as well, didn't Charlie take drugs to inhibit his telepathy so that his cloned body could relearn to walk? Wolverine leaves for a solo adventure. The mansion was still being rebuilt when the X-Men were kidnapped for the Brood Saga, so where are the New Mutants when Xavier is possessed by Stryker and killing Scott and Ororo? In theory, it's possible to explain this away, but that's a lot of unnecessary effort. It doesn't fit. Live with it. Gary HimesJanuary 23, 2017 12:27 AM Hulk #272-273 I recall some discussion that went on in the letters page about these issues as to why the Wendigo's natural claws could cut the Hulk when previously Wolverine's adamantium claws had been unable to do so. It was eventually decided that the Wendigo's mystical nature made the Hulk more vulnerable. (Later Peter David would propose that the Hulk's invulnerability was due to his advanced healing factor and not a Superman-like power) AndrewJanuary 22, 2017 9:07 PM Hulk #271 I think this book deserves its full title: Now Somewhere in the Black Holes of Sirius Major There Lived A Young Boy Name of... Rocket Racoon! Ben HermanJanuary 22, 2017 1:07 PM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 Quotes from that Joe Staton interview in Comic Book Creator #9... "I was working for Gil while I was still doing E-Man. I worked for Gil, I guess, for about a year." Asked if he remembers which specific Spider-Man story he laid out for Kane, Joe replies... "Amazing Spider-Man #150, an anniversary issue where all of Spider-Man's villains fought him. I remember it being like the best Marvel style script I had ever seen. Each paragraph was a page, each sentence a panel. I wish I'd copied it. It was just a fill-in but it was absolutely perfect! I have no idea what the Conan was and Ghost Rider... and odds and ends of other things." ChrisJanuary 22, 2017 1:00 PM Excalibur #71 I always considered Captain Britain and the Marvel British comics material to be the core of Excalibur, and not the mutants. In fact, I would have preferred a British title with no mutants than a mutant title at all. I understand why Claremont would still want to write about Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Rachel, but I felt they were extraneous. The much later title Captain Britain and MI13 was more along to my liking in the sense that a character like the Black Knight has much more connections to Britain since his legacy is tied into Marvel Arthuriana. Scrape together some other characters with ties to the British Isles, and it would have been a stronger title thematically (it doesn't have to ignore mutants completely, Banshee might be appropriate even though he is Irish and not a citizen of the UK). Alan Davis' involvement in Excalibur was the creative peak of the run. His run with Claremont and solo run are the two best runs of the title (Claremont by himself was not as good). Ignoring that and going solely with the mutants because of the current hot streak was not the right decision. But Marvel would be making a lot of very bad decisions in the next two years. During their period, one has to remember the financial skulduggery behind the scenes. MichaelJanuary 22, 2017 9:02 AM Excalibur #71 @Walter- yeah, you're right- it was planned to take place after several months. MichaelJanuary 22, 2017 9:01 AM Wolverine #75 @Greg T- it was Cyber. Greg TJanuary 22, 2017 5:31 AM Wolverine #75 Someone in the next couple of years DOES break Wolverine's claws off - Sabretooth, maybe? I wish I'd taken a note of it as I was reading. And it leaves him temporarily short-handed (pun intended) but his healing factor does indeed grow them back. Walter LawsonJanuary 22, 2017 1:36 AM Excalibur #71 @Jon, maybe Michael knows better, but my recollection is that even aside from the delays, Fatal Attractions was always designed to be staggered over several months. Presumably that was partly to take advantage of the X-Force/X-Men/Wolverine 25-increment anniversaries, and maybe in the hope that the staggered pattern would boost the whole line. MichaelJanuary 21, 2017 11:56 PM Excalibur #71 @Jon- this wasn't the only time in 1993 when all the books of a crossover were late. It also happened with Bloodties, the crossover which followed this. As to why it happened- it was 1993. The quality of Marvel's editorship declined in 1993 (Ben Herman has suggested it was because DeFalco allowed Marvel to expand its line too much too fast) and as a result numerous books shipped late. They finally managed to get the books mostly back on schedule towards the end of 1993. MichaelJanuary 21, 2017 11:47 PM Uncanny X-Men #240-241 @Jon-that scene was from X-Factor 13. Jon DubyaJanuary 21, 2017 10:22 PM Excalibur #71 Michael, you've mentioned several times that these books were late. I wonder if that accounts for the weird structure of the "crossover" (where there are, say, several "regular" issues of Uncanny in-between the event)? Also it seems very unprecedented to have an entire event full of late book (as oppose to just one or two issues). Now these days that would just be a result of the writers putting their other projects above a "mere" comic story, but what was their excuse back then? Jon DubyaJanuary 21, 2017 9:54 PM Wolverine #75 Vincemt, that doesn't happen to any of his "children" (which obviously brings up the question of if this is only a "bad idea" for Wolverine or is this equally unworkable for his various counterparts?) By the way I assume that it it DID happen (Wolvie trying to slice something harder than his claws) they would just grow back. Speaking if which, here's my latest fan-wank: Basically, take Archangel's orgin and apply it here, except here the adamantium bondong process interfered with the claws healing properly and so were unabke yo do so until the adamantium was removed. So in short "Logan" DID have claw implants...but he also had naturally organic claws before that (some evidence for thst theory is the the metal claws are in a different shape than the bone ones.) Yeah, at this point I'm racking up more "no-prizes" than the 2016 election (Boo-yah! Ok I'm sorry.) seanJanuary 21, 2017 9:54 PM Captain Britain #3-39 The 70s were the worst time in Britain since the war? Hardly. Or at least it depends very much on who you were - most working people were experiencing their highest standard of living ever. Jon DubyaJanuary 21, 2017 8:46 PM Uncanny X-Men #240-241 By the way, I always assumed the plane crash DID happen. It just dodn"t happen with Madelyne (wasn't thete an isdue of X-factor where Scott combed the news archives about this incident, and found astory, but no mention of Madelyne.) I assumed that Mr Sinister simply searched for accidents that happened that day, stumbled across this unrelated crash happening, and thought it'd be a good enough explanation for the memory if any. Good thing Scott and his grandparents did such thorough background checks, eh? Ok I expect my no-prize in 6-8 weeks. :-) MortificatorJanuary 21, 2017 7:45 PM Uncanny X-Men #49-52 I love that Beast questions how the X-Men can throw a fight to the demi-men and make it convincing, then we cut to Angel authentically getting his ass kicked. AndrewJanuary 21, 2017 5:24 PM Iron Man annual #5 Herman Wouk. Matthew January 21, 2017 3:08 PM Avengers #4 Going back to Mark's comment about Thor call Namor a witless mutant (that's racist, by the way), it would appear that Stan was hinting that Namor was a mutant, which would be the most logical explanation why he had greater strength and the ability to fly, since it's not related to his mixed heritage. Even Namor referred to himself as a mutant this very issue. This would make Avengers #4 more significant, since it predates Uncanny X-Men #6. Ben HermanJanuary 21, 2017 1:35 PM Fantastic Four #313-317 I wonder if that line "Hey! You didn't bring a tape of Robocop with you by any chance, did you?" is a nod to Comet Man co-creator Miguel Ferrer, who appeared in that movie. kveto January 21, 2017 8:58 AM Wolverine #75 I think there is an important point here. the ONLY thing that makes Wolbverine cool is his claws. Take those away and he's just a d#ckish runt with no claws. AndrewJanuary 21, 2017 8:44 AM Uncanny X-Men #159 fnord, you say this is the third time a villain his been smitten with Storm, but it's at least the fourth. There was also Minos in X-Men Annual 4. Granted, Minos is a one-shot character, but Storm thinks "something in me find this obscenity attractive." It's not odd that villains would be attracted to Storm -- she's awesome -- but it is odd that Storm is in return attracted to each and every one of them. As soon as Byrne left the book, this strong regal woman became a flailing mess. In my opinion. DitaJanuary 21, 2017 4:20 AM Punisher: G-Force Well I stumbled over my old comicbook collection and found this issue of the Punisher G-Force. I got the autographs from Mike Baron and Jimmy Palmiotti on the cover. Andddd I was wondering if anyone could make up for a value of it? Because I have absolutely no clue whatsoever. MattJanuary 21, 2017 1:11 AM Wolverine #75 Piotr, I agree entirely. And I'd just add that even if the claws are iconic, he could still go without them for a time. The FF can break up, Tony Stark can quit being Iron Man, Spidey can get a black costume, and the Hulk can go gray -- all temporary changes to iconic aspects of the characters. So Wolverine could be declawed for a year or two. Could've been cool. Bone claws are not cool. Piotr WJanuary 21, 2017 12:51 AM Wolverine #75 The thing is, if Marvel felt that the claws are too iconic element of Logan's character to get rid of (which might be a valid point), they could've easily have Forge construct mechanical claw gloves for him, or something. That wouldn't be that big a cheat as having him suddenly reveal previously-unnoticed bone claws... MattJanuary 21, 2017 12:26 AM Wolverine #75 I don't buy it. Either (a) the bone claws were already there, in which case years of X-Men medical examinations and power analyses couldn't tell the difference between adamantium bonded to bone and pure adamantium; or (b) the bone claws weren't already there, in which case two weeks of X-Men medical examinations and power analyses in the wake of massive trauma couldn't reveal three extra bones in each forearm. Whichever way you go, the X-Men look scientifically and medically stupid. Which means that the idea itself is stupid. Now, Wolvie with no claws at all? I wouldn't have wanted it to last for too long, but that seems interesting. MichaelJanuary 20, 2017 10:51 PM Excalibur #71 @Walter- what happened was this- Marvel UK was planning on doing a Captain Britain series with a Captain Britain other than Brian. So Lobdell was told to write out Brian and bring him back with a different identity. Then the market collapsed, the Captain Britain series never saw the light of day, and Brian went back to being Captain Britain by the end of 1994. Ben HermanJanuary 20, 2017 9:57 PM Excalibur #71 @Piotr W: Agreed completely. I was really disappointed when all of those characters were abruptly written out of the book. Vincent ValentiJanuary 20, 2017 9:00 PM Wolverine #75 I thought that this was a great idea at the time, ironically giving him claws that he couldn't actually use since the bones would break off the moment he tried. That's what happened, right? Right?!?!? MichaelJanuary 20, 2017 8:09 PM Excalibur #71 This issue DID come out a month late, but Wolverine 75 also came out a month late, so there wasn't much of a gap between them. MichaelJanuary 20, 2017 7:54 PM Wolverine #75 There was a scene this issue that become infamous online. Rogue is being sucked out through a hole in the plane and she shouts out to Gambit "Help me Remy!" Aside from the question of why Rogue should care if she's sucked out the plane (they're low enough for lightning to strike the Blackbird and if they're that low Rogue should be able to fly back on her own), it makes no sense for Rogue to scream to Remy for help- if her strength and flying ability can't get her back in the plane, Gambit shouldn't be able to do anything. It make Rogue look like a damsel in distress. Hama previously depowered Rogue in issue 69-71, as fnord noted in his review of that issue, and he seems to be doing the same thing here. In any case, this sequence was mocked online. Walter LawsonJanuary 20, 2017 6:47 PM Excalibur #71 Yet bizarrely, CaptainnBritain's return is already being set up, after he was arbitrarily written out with the other non-mutants. I forget just when he comes back and how long his ludicrous Britanic phase lasts, but the all-mutant Excalibur turns out not to be a stable concept for this book either. Part of Claremont's reason for leaving Colossus out of Excalibur originally was that the team didn't need two strong guys, and it already had one in Captain Britain (while the X-Men had none, although Rogue should count). I wonder if the X-editors at some point planned to have Colossus join Excalibur around this time, but decided by the time this issue was conceived to have him remain with the Acolytes and to bring Brian back. Colossus does eventually join around 1995. Walter LawsonJanuary 20, 2017 6:31 PM Wolverine #75 In the X-Men: True Friends mini we see a 1930s Wolverine using his claws. The art is ambiguous: they're presumably bone claws, but they're rounded like the adamantly Jones rather than jagged the way the bone claws are usually drawn. That can be chalked up to artistic license, but that mini is still tricky for continuity purposes. Wolverine doesn't use the claws in Uncanny 268, also a pre-WWII flashback. (And Baron Strucker, who gets cut by Logan's claws in the mini, doesn't even recognize him in 268.) AndrewJanuary 20, 2017 5:12 PM Amazing Spider-Man #229-230 Supposedly, for drawing the scenes of Spidey uselessly wrestling with the Juggernaut, Stern told JR to think of Bugs Bunny trying to take down Toro the Bull in the classic cartoon "Bully for Bugs." Piotr WJanuary 20, 2017 4:30 PM Excalibur #71 And so, every non-mutant character departs Excalibur. An original book with interesting cast is turned into another unnecessary iteration of the X-franchise. Bleh. Piotr WJanuary 20, 2017 4:29 PM Wolverine #75 I really don't like the idea of the bone claws. Yes, they did explain how the adamantium claws came to be (because one weak point of the "Weapon X" story was the suggestions that these things just... happened to come into being), but their introduction also lessened the impact of the adamantium loss. Here was one big change to Logan: he lost his claws! Only, he didn't... It was as if Claremont, after depowering Storm, supplied her with a Shi'Ar Weather Control Belt or something. AndrewJanuary 20, 2017 3:46 PM Doctor Strange #50-53 Heinrich Krowler is probably a play on early 20th century "mystic" Aleister Crowley. Ben HermanJanuary 20, 2017 3:39 PM Excalibur #71 Granted i'm not a brain surgeon; i don't know the exact science behind how head injuries turn you evil. That's comic book science for you; a head injury will either just knock you out for a few hours with no lasting effects, or it will cause you to undergo a total personality change. fnord, you should check out the Hal Jordan Head Injury Project. Considering all the knocks Green Lantern took to his noggin over the years, it's no wonder that Hal eventually went crazy and turned evil. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dlanod/sets/72157594208628528/ Ben HermanJanuary 20, 2017 3:17 PM Wolverine #75 @Wanyas: Yes, I've also heard it suggested that the intention in the "Weapon X" serial by Barry Windsor-Smith was that the secret mastermind (who at the time was supposed to be Apocalypse) had altered the adamantium-bonding procedure to create the claws, but he didn't notify the Professor and his staff about this, which is why they were shocked & horrified when Logan "popped" them out for the first time. clydeJanuary 20, 2017 3:10 PM Excalibur #71 "but you'd think that going back now - also to capture the rest of the Acolytes - would be a priority". Wanyas the Self-ProclaimedJanuary 20, 2017 2:34 PM Wolverine #75 There's a third interpretation to the MCP scene about the claws which seemed more likely to me until this issue, someone had changed the procedure unbeknownst to most of the scientists there. Hence, there shocked reaction. MattJanuary 20, 2017 1:55 PM X-Factor #94 This was Quicksilver's last appearance in X-Factor, and from there he stayed with the X-Men to help them in their battle with Magneto. You'd think he'd come back to X-Factor, but ended up rejoining the Avengers afterwards. I'm thinking Bob Harras arranged all of this, considering he was both the editor of the X-Men books AND the writer of the Avengers book. Ben HermanJanuary 20, 2017 12:57 PM X-Men #25 That scene where Wolverine attacks Magneto is confusing. The dialogue from Jean Grey in reaction to this is "Look at him! He's bleeding... badly!" But if you look at the artwork, it only seems like the front of Magneto's uniform was sliced open. There's almost no blood visible. If it wasn't for Jean's line about bleeding, you would think that Magneto is yanking the adamantium out of Wolverine because he's mad about his shirt getting shredded. I don't know if it's the fault of the art or the coloring, but it's a huge disconnect between what's supposed to be taking place and what we actually see. Berend January 20, 2017 11:49 AM X-Men #25 Oh, Fatal Attractions... I still think there were a lot of cool concepts that came out of this storyline. Magneto being braindead but used as a symbol by the likes of Exodus and Cortez, Wolverine being brought down a few pegs on the power scale, even Xavier's dark side slowly emerging after his actions here was a pretty good idea. Just too bad the original story itself was so dreadful. (And that very little good came of some of those concepts... Onslaught certainly didn't live up to his potential) Omar KarinduJanuary 20, 2017 10:33 AM Amazing Spider-Man annual #4 I suppose the idea to team up the Wizard and Mysterio came from the fact that they both got their start doing the "impersonate the hero to frame him" bit. Ben HermanJanuary 20, 2017 10:28 AM Comet Man #1-6 @Wis: Very sad news. As soon as I heard about Ferrer's passing, this miniseries was one of the first things that popped into my head. Unfortunately I don't think Ferrer ever discussed his comic book work in interviews. Even though he only worked on a few comic book projects, he did continue to have other connections to the genre. In addition to his role in Iron Man 3, he did voiceover work for various comic book related animated projects. Among the characters he voiced were Martian Manhunter, Vandal Savage, Deathstroke, Aquaman, and Silvermane. JeffJanuary 20, 2017 9:47 AM Uncanny X-Men #223 The fact that San Francisco is more accepting of the X-Men more than the East Coast comes up again years later. Most of Matt Fraction's Uncanny run has the team move just off the coast of San Francisco and even become friendly with the mayor. Martijn ohlenrothJanuary 20, 2017 8:26 AM Tales To Astonish #63 (Hulk) I loved this story in the seventies in the netherlands. I was always fascinated by the fact that the Leader did not speak, but only thinks ...😊 WisJanuary 20, 2017 5:19 AM Alpha Flight #106 I have to admit that I completely unexpected the comment thread for this issue. I especially like Oliver's "What color is the sky on a world where "Liefeld created Youngblood!" is a compliment?" statement. Brimstone Wrestler almost seemed like a troll at first, but his ongoing argument and bizarre logic almost makes *sense*, albeit in some weird rationalization way. I was posting and heavily reading this site a year and a half ago (under George Gordon, which is too long to type now) and do not recall seeing this Liefeld/Kirby thing. Wow. Luke BlanchardJanuary 20, 2017 3:54 AM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 Charlton's E-MAN issues were cover-dated for Oct. 73 to Sep. 75, so it could be he started working for Kane in 1975. I looked up what Conan work Kane was doing at the GCD. The only new stories I can see from 1975-76 are instalments of an adaptation of Howard's novel THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON/CONAN THE CONQUEROR. The adaptation appeared in GIANT-SIZE CONAN #1-#4 (Sep. and Dec. 74, Apr. and Jun. 75) and THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #8 (Oct. 75). Erik RobbinsJanuary 20, 2017 1:25 AM X-Men #25 I was already long past my drop-off point, but I heard about Magneto ripping out Wolverine's metal, and thinking that was stupid. Why wouldn't he have done so a long time previous? Was the world-wide EMP ever referenced in any other books? It annoyed me in the '00s when Graviton would lift every major city in the world or Kang would actually take over the Earth for a period of months, and but none of that was ever noticed in the other books. WisJanuary 19, 2017 11:26 PM Comet Man #1-6 Miguel Ferrer died tonight; I was wondering if he was ever interviewed or discussed his (albeit brief) comics work on this title. Jesse BakerJanuary 19, 2017 9:24 PM Excalibur: The Possession The retconning of the story (as a dream) actually happened in Excalibur #47, not Excalibur #50. It was in Excalibur #47 that Brian has a lengthy conversation with an elderly member of the Captain Britain Corps (really Merlin in disguise) about Alistaire's dream and makes explicit callbacks to the special with regards to Brian pointing out the plot holes and continuity errors clydeJanuary 19, 2017 8:19 PM X-Men #25 I'm specifically talking about the "Xavier Protocols". clydeJanuary 19, 2017 8:18 PM X-Men #25 From his wiki entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magneto_(comics)#Powers_and_abilities "Later stories make it sound like Xavier's decision to wipe Magneto's mind was a spur-of-the-moment decision on seeing what happened to Logan, not the premeditated decision it's portrayed as here." MichaelJanuary 19, 2017 7:52 PM X-Men #25 Later stories make it sound like Xavier's decision to wipe Magneto's mind was a spur-of-the-moment decision on seeing what happened to Logan, not the premeditated decision it's portrayed as here. MortificatorJanuary 19, 2017 6:53 PM X-Men #25 Regarding this review's opening paragraphs, it seems that the UN's protocols were only for the activation of the satellite network, which they hoped would make Magneto unable to operate on Earth. Magneto responded with an EM pulse that disabled power for everyone except the X-Men, due to their Shi'ar technology. So it's not that the UN chose to call in the X-Men over the Avengers, it's that the X-Men ended up being the only ones able to take action, and Professor X decided to on his own. Of course, it's somewhat contrived for the X-Men to be only heroes with technology to weather the storm. Tony Stark's personally fought Magneto, hasn't he bothered hardening any other gear? Good thing he's not still on life support. Piotr's comment on the genre shift is perceptive, and I think this issue does a good job in feeling tense and of-the-moment. Unfortunately, as the review says, the fight with Magneto is anticlimactic. I'm reminded of how tough he was in the fighting game based on this story: Regarding Wolverine, ripping his entire skeleton out is one thing, but deforming and liquefying adamantium? Even Hulk can't exert that much force. It seems like it should be beyond Magneto... beyond anyone who doesn't have vast cosmic power. Erik BeckJanuary 19, 2017 6:30 PM X-Men #25 Well, fnord it may have been been a dropping off point for you, but it was the drop-off for me. I remember peeking at Wolverine #75 in a comic shop to see how he survived, but didn't buy it. Didn't buy another new comic off the rack until Whedon's run on Astonishing. Greg TJanuary 19, 2017 5:54 PM X-Men #25 I thought this issue and the Wolverine issue that immediately follows were two of the best event issues in X-Men history up to this point. Not to say they're perfect, but they've got a sense of momentum and thrill to them that normally gets lost in the need to juggle a million things. It's a pity no one can really work out what to do with the adamantium-less Logan in the years that follow. Of course, on my X-Men readthrough I came into the 90s generally with epically low expectations so it didn't take much to be comparitively impressive... kveto January 19, 2017 5:03 PM Invaders #22-23, 25-34 The Teutonic Knight is quite cool and its nice that he wasnt a Nazi but I seriously doubt he would have had any support at that time. Hitler had outlawed the Teutonic order in 1938. It was only re-established in 1945 after the war. Very doubtful Adolf would have let the avatar of an illegal organization run around prominently. Piotr WJanuary 19, 2017 4:47 PM X-Men #25 Logan aside, what the heck is *Gambit* doing on that team? Is he there only because he had a lot of fans? Re: Magneto Protocols. This idea only serves to illustrate that the X-books have been gradually drifting away from the rest of MU since late 1980s genre-wise. In other books, even big villains are treated as something for the heroes to stop, with governments not getting involved etc. It's the classic superhero genre. In the X-books, the governments do react - the books have been shirting toward more the realistic sci-fi genre. fnord12January 19, 2017 4:29 PM X-Factor #93 Thanks Bonez. Added them. Ben HermanJanuary 19, 2017 4:04 PM X-Men #25 I'd swap out Wolverine for Psylocke, who has stealth capabilities and can bolster Xavier's telepathy. But, fnord, if *that* happened, Wolverine would not be around for the enormous change in his status quo, when Magneto rips his adamantium skeleton out of his body! Therefore logic *must* take a back seat to enabling a majorly cool event to take place! :) BonezJanuary 19, 2017 1:16 PM X-Factor #93 You're missing Stong Guy, Polaris, and Quicksilver as characters appearing. Great review, as usual. In my opinion the comic is still pretty good post-Peter David and doesn't become unreadable until around issue #111. Mark DrummondJanuary 19, 2017 10:49 AM Amazing Spider-Man #184-185 Gym teachers? Seriously, for Peter not to know that he was missing a gym credit--or ANY sort of credit for that matter--is so pantscrappingly dumb that I have to wonder what sort of college Marv Wolfman went to. Mark DrummondJanuary 19, 2017 10:46 AM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 That's what I suspected, but ASM#150 would have been in the middle of 1975. Did Staton specifically cite #150, or could he have meant Annual #10? Mark DrummondJanuary 19, 2017 10:43 AM Uncanny X-Men #168 Apparently I forgot that cover, but that statement about GLMK doesn't ring a bell at all, so it may indeed be in that Comics Scene(I never bought that fanzine as it came off a bit cheesy to me). Gary HimesJanuary 19, 2017 10:40 AM Fantastic Four #168-170 I'm not sure if it's worthy of an Historical Significance Rating, but this is the first story in which Franklin Richards speaks. jti88 .January 19, 2017 10:08 AM Daredevil #130 True enough JeffJanuary 19, 2017 9:31 AM X-Force #26 Not only are they not written as kids but yet again Rictor, Sunspot and Boom Boom are drawn as if they are in their late 20s while Kitty and Rahne, who are the same age, are still handled as 16-year-olds in Excalibur and X-Factor ... I'm still not sure what Niceiza's disconnect was with understanding the former New Mutants' ages. MichaelJanuary 19, 2017 8:20 AM Amazing Spider-Man #184-185 I once was considering transferring and I was told that I would have to a gym class. fnord12January 19, 2017 7:25 AM Uncanny X-Men #305 @Jon, according to Marvel's wiki, Monet's father Cartier is the son of Louis here. Cartier was Monacoan but his wife was Algerian. George LochinskiJanuary 19, 2017 5:59 AM X-Force annual #2 This might be Tony Daniel's first issue; he takes over for a short run while Capullo, I believe, jumps over to Spawn (then iirc after Age of Apocalypse, Tony Daniel ends up jumping over to Spawn. Lol.) TuomasJanuary 19, 2017 4:11 AM Uncanny X-Men #221-222 Why does the guy reading the Wild Cards book think it has a "crazy premise"? He lives in a world where superheroes are real, they save lives every day, and there are even government-sanctioned superhero teams. No way could anyone be ignorant of their existence. Erik RobbinsJanuary 19, 2017 1:47 AM Amazing Spider-Man #184-185 I had to take 2 class of physical education electives when I went to college. I took bowling and badminton. What's weird to be is that he didn't find out until after the ceremony. Luke BlanchardJanuary 19, 2017 12:13 AM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 Thanks, Ben. Kane seems to have done the pencils for only one issue of GHOST RIDER, #21. That was Dec. 76's. Jon DubyaJanuary 18, 2017 10:52 PM Uncanny X-Men #143 I've also heard that this was suppose to be a "take" (of sorts) on Alien (which makes some sense, since Byrne acknowledged he drew Kitty as a young Sigourney Weaver.) Also, I think the "rite of passage" is supposed to be unofficial. It shows Kitty the importance of all those "boring" study/training sessions and that being an X-Man is "serious business". This also serves as a preemptive justification for why a pubescent girl is allowed on an adult team (something that Uncanny #168) will reinforce.) There's a tendancy to suspect that "the kid" off the group will be "the load" or dead-weight and I think they wanted to establish quickly that she was not just some "tag-along." Jon DubyaJanuary 18, 2017 10:17 PM Uncanny X-Men #305 I thought it was explicitly mentioned somewhere that this ambassador was NOT related to Monet (I think this story stated that he never had another love after the dead wife here. Also the St Croix's are Muslims from Algeria.) I think "open to interpretation" is the best approach to Xavier. It allows him to have more shading and "depth" without totally ruining his character (looking your way, "Deadly Genesis"!) MichaelJanuary 18, 2017 9:51 PM X-Force annual #2 I actually liked this one. It did a good job of acknowledging that while some mutants might hate Strong's cure, others might welcome it. And the point that Strong was an outcast from all sides of society was a good one. I don't think that Xtreme was that bad a character- it's just that the name and the look were too "90s". He could have worked with a different name and new costume. MichaelJanuary 18, 2017 8:29 PM X-Factor #94 This issue came out a month late. MichaelJanuary 18, 2017 8:20 PM X-Force #26 "It is worth observing that Reignfire (seemingly correctly) assumes that the MLF's motivations are legitimate mutant rights issues". It was confirmed in Stryfe's Stryke File that the MLF legitimately believed in mutant rights. Told you you should have reviewed that issue. :) MichaelJanuary 18, 2017 7:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #305 This issue was criticized online at the time for suggesting that Storm felt ashamed of her thieving heritage- some readers felt that was out of character. Ben HermanJanuary 18, 2017 6:38 PM X-Force annual #2 I've never been able to figure out what the deal was supposed to be with Adam X's speech bubbles. Why were they always done with that weird shape? JeffJanuary 18, 2017 5:29 PM Uncanny X-Men #201 That scan above just made me realize that there is a lot of the Binary costume in Carol's current Captain Marvel look. I think it's the shoulder design. Jon DubyaJanuary 18, 2017 5:24 PM The Aladdin Effect (Marvel Graphic Novel #16) I think a big problem is that these type of books fall victim to the "Grand Theft Komabat" disease: The creators are so excited about being "freed" from the constructs of the comics code that they confuse being more "adult" with being more mature. Like forget about decently constructed characters and plot! We can call people "tight-assed little sluts!" How edgy and prestigious! Also despite being released in "85, all of the characters seemed to be in their circa 1982 costumes which makes me wonder if this was a story that was written about 3-4 years earlier (also, would a girl really "admire" Tigra from around that time? At the time she wasn't that distinguished or prominent and I get the vaguest feeling she was seen as "a joke" around the time.) Jon DubyaJanuary 18, 2017 4:30 PM Amazing Spider-Man #374-375 Fnord, this is also an issue divisible by 25. Those tend to get the "anniversary" treatment (especially around this time), regardless of anything else going on. Jon DubyaJanuary 18, 2017 4:25 PM Amazing Spider-Man #184-185 Er...who the hell takes "Gym" in college? kveto January 18, 2017 4:19 PM New Warriors #26 Joke. JeffJanuary 18, 2017 2:09 PM Uncanny X-Men #195 Romita was never good at drawing kids, it's one of the few things he's not great at. The Power Pack looks ok here but there are some kids in ASM in the late 400s/early 500s that look really weird. JeffJanuary 18, 2017 1:40 PM Uncanny X-Men #193 Always found it interesting that in the Spider-Man cartoon Anjelica is a college student but Claremont and DeFalco aged her down to 15ish in-continuity. Ben HermanJanuary 18, 2017 12:51 PM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 Found an earlier interview with Joe Staton online... CBA: You worked as an assistant to Gil Kane? The complete interview can be read at http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/12staton.html Ben HermanJanuary 18, 2017 12:45 PM Alpha Flight #125-126 That sums up American sensibilities pretty well, I think. Violence and gore are acceptable, but sex and nudity are forbidden. Matthew BradleyJanuary 18, 2017 12:41 PM Fantastic Four annual #14 Regarding those "yearly sojourns to New Salem," I thought there was a real "scene missing" flavor in general about what transpired therein between #185-6 and this annual, which seemed sloppy on Marv's part. UbersichtJanuary 18, 2017 12:22 PM Uncanny X-Men #168 Mark, thanks for the response. I did some searching and I recognized this as the cover of the issue with the interview I'm describing. But it since occurred to me that he may have said it in an earlier interview in Comics Scene. I tracked down that by the cover on Google too. http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/Issue.aspx?id=fee58560-c39b-4c28-84e1-b0e75954b9d4 clydeJanuary 18, 2017 11:39 AM Ka-Zar the Savage #9-12 It's available for sale on MyComicshop at $5.60.! clydeJanuary 18, 2017 11:34 AM Ka-Zar the Savage #9-12 Here's some more information on that issue - Ben HermanJanuary 18, 2017 11:10 AM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 Yep, early in his career Staton worked as Kane's assistant for a time. Staton also says he did layouts for a Ghost Rider issue that Kane penciled, but he couldn't recall which specific one it was. Mark DrummondJanuary 18, 2017 11:05 AM Alpha Flight #125-126 The scene with Diamond Lil puking her guts out caused some criticism in fanzines along the lines of "If this scene gets past the Comics Code, then what the hell is the CCA for anyway?" Mark DrummondJanuary 18, 2017 11:00 AM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 That sounds really strange. I don't think Staton ever did layouts for anybody else, let alone at Marvel. Was he working as Kane's assistant or something? Mark DrummondJanuary 18, 2017 10:58 AM Uncanny X-Men #168 I have the entire run of Amazing Heroes, but I don't recall any issue with Claremont saying that or any cover with that description. Are you sure it isn't Wizard or Hero Illustrated? fnord12January 18, 2017 10:06 AM Uncanny X-Men #181 Uncanny X-Men #222. The Inbound References can usually help find things like that. JeffJanuary 18, 2017 10:01 AM Uncanny X-Men #181 The Japanese kids show up again in a later issue. I might be mistaken but I think circa 210-220 they are on vacation in America? And I believe they remember Rogue or Wolverine. It's a bit hazy in my brain. JeffJanuary 18, 2017 9:47 AM Uncanny X-Men #169-171 Is the entity Destiny is detecting supposed to be an early hint toward the Beyonder? The "fundamental levels of time and space" line make me think that. fnord12January 18, 2017 9:09 AM Ka-Zar the Savage #9-12 I've added a scan at the bottom of this entry. UbersichtJanuary 18, 2017 9:02 AM Uncanny X-Men #168 For what it's worth, I recall an interview in Amazing Heroes - it was a thick issue with a painting of Claremont with the X-men on the cover, which perhaps Mark Drummond can find - in which Claremony expresses the view that GLMK simply CANNOT take place in normal continuity and was not INTENDED to. That doesn't reflect the subsequent treatment of the story but it goes a long way to explain the reason it poses so many difficulties. Most of the other issues reflect problems of coordination between writers and editors of different titles but GLMK doesn't gave that as an excuse. Here Claremont's own stories sit together uneasily at best. My recollection is dim - it was 32 years ago that I read that interview - but ge spelled out points about Storm's hair, Kutty's uniform, et al, that he thought required it take place in an alternate universe. AndrewJanuary 18, 2017 8:55 AM Ka-Zar the Savage #9-12 There's a semi-notorious blank panel on page 10 of issue 12, at least in my copy. (There are about 1600 "correct" versions out of 80000 issues printed, according to Mile High Comics.) Jim Shooter says it was a red ink drawing of Dante, a color-hold that got dropped out. But the very next panel is already a drawing of Dante, and the caption of the blank panel says "...Beatrice began to give birth -- and my lovely 'children' burst from her rent womb..." so censorship at the printing stage seems more likely. I've never seen the censored panel, but there's a comparably grotesque panel on page 12 of issue 11 (the first issue without a CCA seal), with a demon clawing its way past a bloody leg. RocknRollguitarplayerJanuary 18, 2017 12:15 AM Uncanny X-Men #9 Was Lucifers location of Alien roots ever determined? It seemed ambigous? MichaelJanuary 17, 2017 11:59 PM Fantastic Four #236 @Andrew- it's not rational but Ben is never as "rational" as Reed. AndrewJanuary 17, 2017 10:33 PM Fantastic Four #236 This story owes more than a little to Frederic Pohl's classic short story, The Tunnel Under the World. BTW, the whole bit about Ben wondering if Alicia would still love him if she wasn't blind never made sense to me. He doesn't look that bad, but he must feel awful. Cringe WorthyJanuary 17, 2017 9:48 PM Alpha Flight #125-126 "Khaos?" Somebody narrowly avoided trespassing on Get Smart property. MichaelJanuary 17, 2017 9:45 PM Captain America #398 As in, "Don't Be That Guy". ChrisJanuary 17, 2017 8:55 PM Alpha Flight #125-126 What is surprising is that it's fairly obvious what worked in the Byrne era and what wasn't working in the post-Byrne era. Yet writers kept using all these superfluous characters other than the original team and even kept adding to them. To the fans of the first Byrne issues, it was very obvious what we liked, but not only did the writers not know, but obviously Marvel editorial couldn't figure it out either even after eight years or so. Jon DubyaJanuary 17, 2017 8:17 PM Captain America #398 "That Guy"? MortificatorJanuary 17, 2017 7:57 PM Punisher War Zone #17-19 Wolverine kills, but it feels off for him to just stab this guy in the back. MattJanuary 17, 2017 6:39 PM New Warriors #26 But no one on the team had any idea what ethnicity Darkhawk was, only that he was a teenager. JeffJanuary 17, 2017 5:02 PM Uncanny X-Men #168 My understanding was GLMK took place during the "Kitty being nice to Xavier" montage. Since that seems to take place of a long period of time. Ben HermanJanuary 17, 2017 4:01 PM Alpha Flight #125-126 I cannot believe that this series actually managed to last 130 issues. And, yeah, that lettering is ghastly. No wonder Diamond Lil literally puked up her guts. Ataru320January 17, 2017 2:17 PM Alpha Flight #127 Wildwhatever...now that's a good nickname. JeffJanuary 17, 2017 2:08 PM Uncanny X-Men #158 The whole "erase the X-Men" thing really comes back to bite them in the X-Tinction Agenda story. JeffJanuary 17, 2017 2:04 PM Uncanny X-Men #154-157 This is I think the only time pre-Secret Wars the New X-Men come to the Avengers for help and none of the leaders of the team are around. No wonder there was a lot of mistrust between the X-Men and Avengers through the late '80s. Ben HermanJanuary 17, 2017 1:30 PM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 In an interview published in Comic Book Creator #9 (Summer 2015) Joe Staton stated that he did uncredited layouts for Gil Kane on ASM #150. JeffJanuary 17, 2017 12:35 PM Uncanny X-Men #144 If Alex is 4 years younger than Scott, he must have graduated REALLY young from college in his first appearance. I always assumed he was Iceman's age (18 at that time) and was just a regular genius). Otherwise Scott was way older than 17 in X-Men number 1. Speaking of Neal Adams X-Men, the panels aren't reproduced here but there is a segment of Scott's "fear" nightmare that shows Beast, Angel, Iceman, Havok and Lorna killed by Sentinels circa X-Men 59 ... except that the Sentinels are the new team. It's one of my favorite segments of the issue. Mark DrummondJanuary 17, 2017 10:40 AM Captain Marvel #36 According to an article in Back Issue #93, the art here is by Starlin & Weiss; Milgrom didn't come on board until the next issue. DamianoJanuary 17, 2017 2:23 AM Daredevil #130 Well the logo was designed by a blind man.... VancelotJanuary 17, 2017 12:19 AM Fantastic Four #239 I like the idea behind this, but despised it's execution. The ending just kind of happens, with no actual resolution. Worse, Reed is mad that Frankie would want to punish a man for beating his daughter. "We shouldn't judge a child abuser" is a very non-heroic stance. This one left a really bad taste in my mouth. ChrisJanuary 16, 2017 9:19 PM Iron Man #149-150 This is a classic story. It is totally unexpected and yet makes complete sense. It is also one of the few Doctor Doom stories outside the FF title that does the character justice. What is really good is that while the story presents Iron Man well, it doesn't portray Doom any less of a threat he should be. It does justice to both Doom and Iron Man. AndrewJanuary 16, 2017 8:17 PM Iron Man #148 Not to mention the awesome that is Doom next issue... errand boy. clydeJanuary 16, 2017 7:28 PM Amazing Spider-Man #256-258 "Mostly it was that the "Secret Wars" changes came out of nowhere, usually at the end". But, I always thought the best part of Secret Wars was that it changed the status quo for a lot of these characters in a major way. clydeJanuary 16, 2017 7:23 PM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 "Magneto is eventually restored to adulthood, but to his physical prime rather than his older, chronological age, by the alien Shi'ar agent Erik the Red." This made him as powerful as he was back then. AndrewJanuary 16, 2017 7:23 PM Captain America #261-263 I think this is the first time the Red Skull appeared in anything other than the green jumpsuit he's worn since the Golden Age. (Stan Lee has said the jumpsuit is good because its featurelessness makes the mask stand out.) The Nazi uniform is striking, but maybe too topical. I like the black battle suit he gets in the next decade. DermieJanuary 16, 2017 6:11 PM Marvel Premiere #35 Yeah, he didn't have a big role to play in the main SECRET INVASION miniseries, but he was a lead role in the tie-in arc for AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE (which was a better series anyway, imo). AndrewJanuary 16, 2017 5:37 PM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 For some reason, over the years Magneto lost his ability to fly. In fact, it was a key plot point in Avengers 53. Claremont is just making Magneto awesome again. Maybe it can be chalked up to his rejuvenation by Erik the Red. Ataru320January 16, 2017 5:04 PM Amazing Spider-Man #256-258 Venom was just a bunch of things aligning perfectly considering the situation, from backlash when people got word that "Spidey was changing his costume" to people liking it after the whole "it was an alien symbiote" reveal, to Micheline wanting to use it to create a legit threat and Todd McFarlane just wanting to put the black costume to bed once and for all with that first showdown in ASM #300. The only reason people consider it a success now probably has more to do with Venom than it does with what it was when Spidey emerged from Secret Wars with it. jti88 .January 16, 2017 4:39 PM Daredevil #130 The "Storefront" logo doesn't exactly looks professional. Well, it would for a nursery school. ChrisWJanuary 16, 2017 4:16 PM Uncanny X-Men #139-140 LIES AND BLASPHEMY!!! CLAREMONT HAD THIS PLANNED OUT IN INTRICATE DETAIL BEFORE HE EVER HEARD OF WOLVERINE! I HAVE PROOF! PROOF THAT'S NSFW, BUT STILL, IT'S PRETTY HOT AND IT'S JUST A CLICK AWAY!!! www.gulliblefools.com ChrisWJanuary 16, 2017 4:10 PM Amazing Spider-Man #256-258 Michael, I understand your point and basically agree with it, but that's part of the point Dan's making. That's it? The initial snowball-rolling-downhill that becomes Venom is the biggest change, and even then, didn't Spidey stop wearing the black costume by the time "Secret Wars" #8 came out? I like Titania, but she's not really a major villain, she just aspires to be one. Spider-Woman? Uh, no. Yeah, Peter and Kitty's break-up was a major change in their long-standing relationship, but "Teenagers break up with each other" isn't world-shattering news and, as I understand it, they get back together. They sure seemed happy at the end of "Days of Futures Past." ;) Mostly it was that the "Secret Wars" changes came out of nowhere, usually at the end. Lockheed finds a chick who's "deployment hot" (which explains "X-Men" #181) Shulkie joins the FF, Doc Ock goes nuts. These were the interesting changes. It's one reason "Secret Wars II" came across as 'more of the same,' especially compared to what DC had done with "Crisis." fnord12January 16, 2017 3:07 PM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 Not a big deal, Matthew. I just try to keep the comments on entries free of clutter. There's a thread of shame in the forum where typos and other obvious mistakes can be reported. fnord12January 16, 2017 2:51 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #4 Thanks Morgan. Pushed it back before #53. Matthew BradleyJanuary 16, 2017 2:51 PM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 fnord, if your response to Jimmy Impossible above means (by extension) that I've been using the wrong methodology for my minor corrections to individual pages, I sincerely apologize, and plead genuine ignorance. fnord12January 16, 2017 2:46 PM Amazing Spider-Man #298-300 It was Secret Wars #8. The footnote in issue #300 was wrong. Noted it, thanks. P.S., Michael wasn't "parroting" anything, he was expressing his opinion, just as you are entitled to yours. Please be civil here. fnord12January 16, 2017 2:43 PM Fantastic Four #228 Thanks Andrew. I'll see how/if i want to tag it when i get to those issues. fnord12January 16, 2017 2:39 PM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 Yeah, Magneto says to Banshee, "You see, Banshee, I, too, can fly" and the footnote says "As Polaris did in X-Men #97". fnord12January 16, 2017 2:35 PM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 Added him. Thanks. (But please use the forum for pointing out obvious mistakes in the future.) fnord12January 16, 2017 2:34 PM Captain Marvel #37-39 @Andrew, thanks. I've added them, but i didn't do an extensive review of the Captain Marvel appearances, so i only have them appearing here and in issue #41. If anyone knows of appearances in other issues, let me know. Mark DrummondJanuary 16, 2017 2:16 PM Captain Marvel #15-17 Roy Thomas stated in Back Issue #93 that he wanted to take the title over(before Gil Kane got involved),and that after clearing things with Goodwin, he designed Captain Mar-Vell's new costume, basing it mostly on an obscure Golden Age superhero called Atoman. Mark DrummondJanuary 16, 2017 2:10 PM Marvel Super Heroes #12-13 Back Issue #93 revealed that Stan Lee didn't want to write this character at all and only did so because Goodman ordered it; and that Roy Thomas suggested the green & white costume(which he immediately regretted). DamianJanuary 16, 2017 8:40 AM What If? #35-39 I was really into What If (all volumes) at the time, but I knew in real time that Timequake would have no historical significance, like most early 1990s junk. Due to the artwork and no marketing of What If, no one paid attention to it. I'm pretty sure if Kurt Busiek did a mini-series years after this, it would have registered a blip on fandom's radar. DamianJanuary 16, 2017 8:26 AM Amazing Spider-Man #298-300 Didn't Peter get the little black ball costume in Secret Wars #8, not #9? Anyway, I remember ASM300 being "big anniversary" in Marvel history and it paid off, more than FF300, Avengers 300, or Uncanny X-Men 300 (although I did love Hulk 300). In many ways it is the zenith of Spider-Man and in around two years the beginning of the nadir of Spider-Man and Marvel Comics in general for me as an old fan. By the way, I do not care if Venom was "originally supposed to be a villain and Marvel is sexist" as the 1st poster parroted from Dave Michelinie. Eddie Brock had the backstory and personality to be a great rival. Venom, in his original form and character, is superior to how he evolved. The code of ethics? Garbage. The anti-hero? Garbage. Brains? Garbage. Carnage and a whole planet of these things? Garbage. Deadpool retcons? Garbage. The one million mini-series and appearances? Garbage. Regarding Mary Jane- although the supermodel bit did not end well for the marriage, it was at least a natural evolution of the character, and in many ways kinda predated the whole reality show Instagram stars of today's age. Hot chicks get a lot of press. MichaelJanuary 15, 2017 11:44 PM Amazing Spider-Man #256-258 @Dan- Secret Wars did introduce Titania, Spider-Woman and the Venom Symbiote and Peter and Kitty's breakup which resulted from it lasted decades. MichaelJanuary 15, 2017 7:29 PM Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 They were both called Cho Lin, so unless Fu Manchu had more than one guy by that name training Shang, it would seem they're the same guy. AndrewJanuary 15, 2017 5:25 PM Fantastic Four #228 Ego-Spawn, who really should be called Id-Spawn, will reappear in Fantastic Force. Sort of. It may be worth tagging him as a character. I assume you'll be tracking the Void and Onslaught as characters separate from their, um, progenitors. AndrewJanuary 15, 2017 4:51 PM Uncanny X-Men #143 It just occurred to me to Google "Aleytys", because what the hell kind of a name is that? I discovered two things which I'd like to share with the group. First it's the name of a protagonist in the "Diadem" novels of one Jo Clayton that had been published around this time. They're of the science fantasy genre Claremont loves so much, and the plot of "Irsud" sounds a whole lot like the upcoming Brood saga. Second, according to kabalarians.com, having this name "causes tension and allied problems in the female organs." AndrewJanuary 15, 2017 3:38 PM Marvel Team-Up #102 Samson was helped by Modok's splinter of AIM, the ones who used to dress in baby blue; Delia is working for the main branch of AIM, and they are unaware, or only partially aware, of what Modok's group is doing. Easy-peasey. MortificatorJanuary 15, 2017 3:28 PM Avengers: Emperor Doom (Marvel Graphic Novel #27) In Avengers 164, the team's various scientists determined that Wonder Man was no longer a biological life form: Basically, procedure that gave Wonder Man his powers also caused him to gradually transition into an "ionic" being. JeffJanuary 15, 2017 2:31 PM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 Fnord not to nitpick because I love ya, but the references here make it seems like this is the first time Magneto flew, yet he was shown flying in Uncanny No. 1. I haven't read this actual issue in a while though, was the comparison to Polaris in the editor's notes? Chris CohenJanuary 15, 2017 2:28 PM Avengers: Emperor Doom (Marvel Graphic Novel #27) How is Wonder Man synthetic? Where was this first mentioned? mikrolikJanuary 15, 2017 1:06 PM Daredevil #15 Also regarding Ox's strength level: at one point early in this issue, Matt thinks that the Ox was the most dangerous member of the Fellowship of Fear, which, if Ox supposedly has not quite superhuman strength, I think is kind of an insult to both Mr. Fear and the Eel, both of whom have actual super-abilities. Maybe in the Marvel Universe, for whatever reason, it is possible to attain a level of strength that wouldn't be achievable in the real world. BillJanuary 15, 2017 1:00 PM Avengers: Emperor Doom (Marvel Graphic Novel #27) Is it possible that the Hulk we see in this story isn't the real deal? Doesn't Doom have possession of the robot Hulk that he eventually turns over to the Jester during the Acts of Vengeance? JeffJanuary 15, 2017 12:59 PM Uncanny X-Men #102-103 I think I've read it described as "organic matter" not just wood but perhaps I'm mistaken. At any rate, the last I saw him was during I thin Chuck Austen's run where he was literally a tree monster. That was the story where Juggernaut --who had already been slowly trying to reform for years -- finally joins the X-Men. Basically with no Tom he had no reason to remain a criminal. Thanos6January 15, 2017 6:20 AM Marvel Premiere #35 @Wis: Believe it or not, he did have a small role to play, yes, and yes his Skrull-vision did let him see the Skrulls. Unfortunately, he killed Crusader, who happened to be a HEROIC Skrull who was assisting Earth... Dan H.January 15, 2017 1:27 AM Amazing Spider-Man #256-258 Your comment about the black costume reminds me of just how short-lived all of these "life-altering" changed brought on by the Secret Wars were: 1) Spidey's costume, as you mentioned, was really hyped and barely made it half a year Even worse, while all of these changes were known going in since the ongoing books had to incorporate these changes within a month of Secret Wars #1 coming out, their actual introduction in Secret Wars was pushed until the very end. We didn't have any real buildup of Jen becoming friends with Reed and Johnny (or even Ben), so the switch there just came out of the blue AND it was in the last couple of pages of Secret Wars #12. The Colossus romance was rushed and clumsy. Rogue and Professor X also got their new duds at the end of #12 and Lockheed (who'd been gone since #2) just showed up right at the end with his new "girlfriend" who became the focal point of their return issue... and then got sent away. Even the Spidey costume was supposed to show up in #6 and was held up for two issues. WisJanuary 15, 2017 12:35 AM Amazing Spider-Man #259 One thing about DeFalco's stories that always entertain the hell out of me are when he continues Stan's classic bystander on the street seeing either an interdimensional alien or citizen of Asgard manifesting in a crowded urban area via portal and having that bystander loudly proclaim or scream out "WHAT THE..?! MUST BE SOME KINDA NUTTY ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN!!!" Because, you know, Ad Execs are pretty big-budget. fnord, any chance you might ever consider a 'must be an ad campaign' tracker the same way we have a 'so big so fast' radar? :D WisJanuary 15, 2017 12:32 AM Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 AF, I completely agree. I also thought a mini-series he did around the time of the first Cap MCU film was really trite and forced. Some scene where Cap burns all of his own 1940s things to listen to Radiohead on headphones by a fire seemed less organic and more an abrupt attempt to make Cap seem more "accessible" to imaginary-young-readers-that-aren't-ever-gonna-read-this... I mean, I think one of the aspects of Cap this is interesting is his man out of time factor. I know guys my father's age who still play Frampton Comes Alive because they liked it in the seventies, I don't see why Captain America needs to be "modern" in cultural ways. WisJanuary 15, 2017 12:27 AM Marvel Premiere #35 Serious question because I won't ever read that s**t but was Triathalon a factor in the 'Secret Invasion' storyline a few years back? As I understood it, he had 3-D Man's powers so therefore if he could see Skrulls... AndrewJanuary 14, 2017 10:21 PM Marvel Two-In-One #64-66 This arc is known as the Serpent Crown Affair, after the 1968 heist movie, the Thomas Crown Affair. G somethingJanuary 14, 2017 7:57 PM Amazing Spider-Man #259 I mean I'm gonna say that NONE of the top 100 comic book stories are in the super hero genre, but even stilll, DeFalco's never been 100 ft near a great comic book story. Suck a hacky scriptor. BigfootJanuary 14, 2017 6:17 PM Amazing Spider-Man #259 This is easily one of the finest written comic stories out there. Maybe the grader doesn't like classically written stories with a bit of melodrama. With that being said, even a not so avid reader would notice great literature such as this. But alas, all of literature is subjective to the individual readers. kveto January 14, 2017 5:24 PM New Warriors #26 Racism? Omar KarinduJanuary 14, 2017 5:03 PM Amazing Spider-Man #126 This may have been mentioned by someone in a later entry, but Carter and Lombardo are drawn to resemble Stan Lee and Roy Thomas. AndrewJanuary 14, 2017 4:54 PM Uncanny X-Men #139-140 The brown and orange of the new costume are good, more animalistic, but losing the "claw marks" on his shoulders and chest makes this costume too generic, IMO. Note in the flashback Wolverine says he's now an indestructible killing machine because of the claws and metal skeleton. Clearly this was written before they came up with the idea that he had bone claws first, and that his natural healing factor has always been so powerful that he could survive pretty much anything. RocknRollguitarplayerJanuary 14, 2017 11:07 AM Amazing Spider-Man #130-131 The Spider-Mobile needs to have the ability to fly, go under water and needs an electromagnetic invisibility cloak. In addition, the Spider-Mobile must now have an ability to traverse timelines as the Philadelphia experiment findings have allowed Peter Parker to upgrade his vehicle. MattJanuary 14, 2017 9:57 AM New Warriors #26 I'm a little curious on why Rage was approached with the offer to join the Warriors, but Darkhawk wasn't even considered a spot on the team? kvetoJanuary 14, 2017 9:38 AM Amazing Spider-Man #130-131 I prefer the idea that, after years, MJ figured out Pete's dual identity, as any one of his close friends with half a brain should have done. Omar KarinduJanuary 14, 2017 8:34 AM Amazing Spider-Man #130-131 It's not a particularly silly retcon; Conway actually spent quite a bit of time and energy showing exactly how it worked in Parallel Lives. But silliness is in the eye of the beholder; continuity is something else again. SpikeyJanuary 14, 2017 7:57 AM Alpha Flight #106 What is the most interesting dynamic in this story btw; the struggle between closeting and outing yourself that is highlighted. I've never made a secret of my own sexuality, but I can't say I always feel an automatic connection to everyone else who identifies as gay/lesbian. It is just such a private thing, in many cases it is more comfortable to be closeted, and no moral obligation should force someone out of the closet; thus reinforcing some sort of vicious circle for which you can take no personal responsibility. SpikeyJanuary 14, 2017 7:40 AM Alpha Flight #106 Looking back on this now, I understand the HIV link to the gay thing seems contrived and patronizing, but remember, it was only 1992! You'll have to place it in that timeframe to fully understand (like we understand where this type of art comes from very well lol). It was less than ten years after male gays in the west were suddenly plagued with a mysterious disease that seemed to out oppertune diseases and kill at random. "Gay cancer" they called it in the early '80s until they identified the source as a virus. The year in the real world leading up to this issue had a lot going on; the Red Ribbon project launched in 1991; Magic Johnson made public he has HIV; and also late that year, Freddy Mercury's death unfortunately coincided with the outing of his sexuality AND HIV infection. That was four months before this issue. It is clear to me that a lot of people felt that they should do something with an aids/gay theme, and Northstar seemed perfectly suited. It wasn't well executed, but you've got to have respect for what they were trying to do. How could they have done this somewhat better? A month before this issue, people with HIV were officially permitted to take part in Olympic games; which could somehow have been the PERFECT link to Northstar. They should have temporarily depowered him, allowing him to go back to professional sports and meeting up with old friends. Oh well. kvetoJanuary 14, 2017 4:34 AM Amazing Spider-Man #130-131 Or.....you could just ignore the silly retcon that MJ has always known. mikrolikJanuary 13, 2017 7:37 PM Fantastic Four #36 Apparently Sandman has the ability to change his shirt's color from green to pink? Although I think in some earlier appearances, he sometimes had brown pants and sometimes had blue pants, but in either event, they're purple now. I wonder how far his ability to alter the appearance of his clothing goes? MichaelJanuary 13, 2017 7:32 PM Marvel Two-In-One #8 Fnord, in the first scan you posted, Annie's referred to by name, so it's definitely her. MichaelJanuary 13, 2017 7:30 PM General Comments Welcome back fnord. KombatGodJanuary 13, 2017 5:39 PM Fantastic Four #293-295 She-Hulk: "It's grabbed me!" cullenJanuary 13, 2017 5:31 PM Marvel Two-In-One #53-58 More than a coincidence that DC's NukloN would later become Atom-Smasher? Omar KarinduJanuary 13, 2017 5:23 PM Amazing Spider-Man #130-131 There's a scene at the end of #131 which works really well for the later retcon that Mary Jane has known Peter is Spider-Man from the beginning. Betty Brant asks her if she loves Peter, and MJ response is that she "doesn't want to" because that would be getting into something "too heavy." At the time, it was probably about showing that MJ doesn't want to be tied down or give up her party-girl persona. But in retrospect, it makes perfect sense as a reaction given recent events in both Peter's life and Spider-Man's.. AndrewJanuary 13, 2017 5:16 PM Marvel Two-In-One #53-58 Mark is right. In issue 58, Foster says that he developed cancer months earlier, while fighting Atom Smasher. It's because he's already dying that he's willing to grapple directly with Nuklo. DermieJanuary 13, 2017 5:08 PM Avengers #240-242 Jon Dubya, you are correct. The Avengers didn't find out about the marriage until after the fact, so this is a party to celebrate it after the fact. Jon DubyaJanuary 13, 2017 4:30 PM Avengers #240-242 "Engagement party"? I thought Hawk & Mock eloped and were already married by this time. They seemed to get martied on quick succession. Ben HermanJanuary 13, 2017 2:49 PM Captain America #243-245 20th Century Danny Boy has scans of the penciled art for an earlier version of part one of "The Lazarus conspiracy" story, which was originally going to appear in issue #240. For reasons lost to time, it was scrapped, and a completely different issue was created. It's interesting to compare the unpublished art by Alan Kupperberg to how Rich Buckler drew #243, and see the different layout & storytelling choices utilized by the two pencilers in drawing the same plot. http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2011/11/original-art-stories-captain-america.html Ataru320January 13, 2017 1:54 PM Deadpool #3-4 They literally call a villain in this "Commcast"? Having dealt with that company since they came to Philly in the late 80s, I think Deadpool said the right thing about that name. Morgan WickJanuary 13, 2017 1:38 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #4 You actually have this between #56 and #57, when Spidey has amnesia. Ben HermanJanuary 13, 2017 12:43 PM Captain America #240 @Andrew - I agree that Shooter could often be *very* heavy-handed. I've read commentary from a number of pencilers who found Shooter's art direction to be stifling. I think there are a couple of things at play here. First off, Shooter got his start as a teenager at DC not just writing but doing layouts for the Legion of Super-Heroes feature in the mid-1960s. In later years at Marvel he would occasionally do layouts when deadlines were tight. When he gave various pencilers excruciatingly-detailed instructions as to how their storytelling & panel compositions should appear, I feel that he sometimes was unable to tell the difference between what worked as comic book art and how he specifically would have done it. In other words, Shooter unfortunately seemed to want all of the pencilers at Marvel to do exactly the type of layouts he did. Second, as has been noted on various occasions, in his early years Shooter was under the wing of editor Mort Weisinger, who was infamous for his brutal rudeness towards freelancers, frequently heaping verbal abuse on them. When freelancers complained about Shooter's editorial style, he would respond with something along the lines of how he was a saint compared to Weisinger. I think he might have missed the point, though, in that his training under Weisinger left him perhaps lacking in the necessary interpersonal skills needed to communicate diplomatically to creators, something that is important in being an effective editor. Jimmy ImpossibleJanuary 13, 2017 12:40 PM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 Looks like you might have forgotten a minor character in your Characters Appearing list: Spider-Man. :) Jon DubyaJanuary 13, 2017 12:02 PM X-Force #25 Actually the worse of the lot, Piotr, is "generic reality warping powers" (aka the "whatever-power-the-plot-demands" power.) Jon DubyaJanuary 13, 2017 11:34 AM X-Factor #92 I suspect that Exodus is here because Quesada (co?)created him (or at least the design) and wanted to have that established here. Ben HermanJanuary 13, 2017 10:54 AM Marvel Team-Up #28 fnord has returned from his vacation to find all sorts of crazy comments on his website. Anyway, welcome back, fnord. Looking forward to your new entries coming soon. I've never had the opportunity to read MTU #28, but its notoriety proceeds it. This seems like a ridiculous story, but at the same time the whole "screw logic and physics, let's have some fun" approach does have its appeals. That's probably why Deadpool and Squirrel Girl are so popular nowadays; they're something of a reaction to years of ultra-serious super-hero stories. fnord12January 13, 2017 10:18 AM Wonder Man #25 I've deleted some off topic squabbling about the recent news about Gerard Jones. If anyone really wants to talk about it, Michael created a topic in the forum, probably in an attempt to help keep this sort of stuff off of random entries. AndrewJanuary 13, 2017 10:17 AM Marvel Team-Up #28 Thanks, fnord. And welcome back! fnord12January 13, 2017 10:12 AM Iron Fist #11-13 Ok, you said "As far as placement goes" so i was worried i had something out of order. Agree it's nutty! ;-) AndrewJanuary 13, 2017 10:11 AM Iron Fist #11-13 Sorry, I wasn't really asking anything. I was just summarizing it all in one spot and expressing incredulity at the complexity of it. fnord12January 13, 2017 9:57 AM New Mutants annual #1 Thanks 4Dmike. I agree. Instead of pushing it back, i've just flipped the order with issue #22, since by issue #23 Dani is out of her wheelchair. I know that #23 continues the Cloak & Dagger story started in #22, but i already have space and other New Mutants appearances between #22 and #23, so this annual should be able to fit there as well. fnord12January 13, 2017 9:32 AM Uncanny X-Men #161 I've added a note in the Historical Significance section, but yes, she doesn't get a tag because she only appears in flashback. fnord12January 13, 2017 9:29 AM Avengers #164-166 The Marvel Index trumps the Wiki, so i've removed Alice. Thanks AF. fnord12January 13, 2017 9:26 AM Marvels Project #1-8 Marvel Comics #1 is the lower bound for my project. fnord12January 13, 2017 9:24 AM Marvel Two-In-One #8 I guess you mean the blond woman with glasses at the bottom of page 7? I guess that's her with miscolored hair. I've added her. fnord12January 13, 2017 9:19 AM Marvel Team-Up #106 He's identified as Dr. Noseblum. fnord12January 13, 2017 9:17 AM Ghost Rider #23-24 Water Wizard actually has a fair number of appearances and even briefly becomes a Thunderbolt. But i've knocked him down to a 3. Star-Lord isn't a good comparison point because his early appearances are of questionable canonocity, are are judged more on a meta level ("first appearance of the concept of Star-Lord"). fnord12January 13, 2017 9:12 AM Iron Fist #11-13 All of that is said in the appropriate entries. Not sure what you're asking here, Andrew? fnord12January 13, 2017 8:55 AM Marvel Team-Up #86 I've removed them. Thanks. fnord12January 13, 2017 8:47 AM Marvel Chillers #1 Yes, thanks Andrew. At the time i wasn't aware that the Darkhold first appeared in WWBN. fnord12January 13, 2017 8:45 AM Web of Spider-Man #38 Fairly certain it's Mr. Muggin's only appearance. fnord12January 13, 2017 8:40 AM Marvel Team-Up #28 (Fixed it, thanks Andrew.) fnord12January 13, 2017 8:25 AM Captain America #368 Because it shows Saxon/Machinesmith being reborn in his robot body and then creating the Magneto robot. The Magneto robot first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #49-52, comics cover-dated Oct 68 - Jan 69. Saxon's human body died in Daredevil #55, Aug 69. fnord12January 13, 2017 8:21 AM Avengers #228-230 Added it to the references, thanks Omar. 4DmikeJanuary 13, 2017 6:43 AM New Mutants annual #1 The chronology placement for this annual is the exact same order that marvel chose. However I believe it should be moved back a few issues. Dani is not able to walk in issue 21. yet seems to do so with no problem in this annual. but then in issue 22 she is back in a wheelchair. PS Thx for all your hard work. Erik BeckJanuary 13, 2017 5:20 AM Doctor Strange #71-73 If we're going to track Gil Kane's up-nostril shots, can we also track Paul Smith's a curl of hair across the face of a female shots? Granted, it always looks great. But it's an interesting thing that Smith seems to enjoy drawing. MatthewJanuary 12, 2017 7:57 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 Regarding Collosus joining Magneto: keep in mind that on top of his whole family dying, Peter did receive a severe head injury while battling the X-Cutioner. It's possible he wasn't in his right mind when he decided to join the Acolytes. mikrolikJanuary 12, 2017 1:31 PM Amazing Spider-Man #289 Actually, now that I've been thinking about this issue and reading the comments, I got a weird idea; I don't know if it's a good idea or not. What if after killing Leeds... the Foreigner became the new Hobgoblin? Since he is a master assassin, I'd be interested to see how he'd handle the costumed identity, and how he'd fare. That, and we could keep Macendale a Jack O Lantern, who I liked better in that identity anyway. mikrolikJanuary 12, 2017 11:40 AM Amazing Spider-Man #289 In the DeFalco issues featuring the Hobgoblin, I always felt Lance Bannon was an obvious red herring. There were scenes when people were asking "Hey, has anyone seen Lance?" while Hobgoblin stuff was going on, and even one scene where Robbie wonders where Parker and Bannon are, then we immediately cut to a Spidey/Hobby fight scene. Really blatant stuff. I think DeFalco set up Ned as a secondary red herring with more subtlety, but then of course he became the "actual" Hobgoblin... until Hobgoblin Lives, anyway. AndrewJanuary 12, 2017 11:03 AM Doctor Strange #42-44 "I am dreaming this. But who cares? So far, I'm having a wonderful time." Ugh. As soon as I read that leaden, unnatural, expository dialogue, I knew this was Chris Claremont without even looking at the credits... Mark DrummondJanuary 12, 2017 10:32 AM Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1 According to Tony Isabella on his blog, Shang-Chi's trainer was actually subtly working against Fu Manchu, explaining the smile at the end. But knowing that, I now have to wonder if he really was the same guy in that Midnight flashback. ChrisWJanuary 12, 2017 3:27 AM Uncanny X-Men #161 My understanding is that fnord doesn't count flashbacks as appearances. This is absolutely Gabby's first appearance, but it doesn't count in the overall chronology because it's a flashback. I do think she should be tagged, and her first appearance should be noted, but it's fnord's site, and he's the one with the wisdom/insanity to bring it to life. ChrisWJanuary 12, 2017 3:20 AM Wolverine #51-53 Wolvie would never be on a team with a guy more handsome than he is. Why do you think he had such a problem with Scott? AndrewJanuary 11, 2017 10:23 PM Uncanny X-Men #125-128 The two-headed alien in the background of Lilandra's party is one of the Puppeteers from Larry Niven's Ringworld / Known Space books. Luke BlanchardJanuary 11, 2017 8:04 PM Amazing Spider-Man #211-212 I made an error. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #211, with the Namor/Spider-Man fight, came out the previous month. The similarities I see are Spidey's webbing Namor and the fight ending with the two talking. It could be Denny O'Neil was the editor assigned to the SUB-MARINER project, which would explain how the elements turned up here. Luke BlanchardJanuary 11, 2017 7:27 PM Amazing Spider-Man #211-212 Thanks, Clyde. clydeJanuary 11, 2017 6:34 PM Amazing Spider-Man #211-212 This is quoted directly from the page you're talking about: AndrewJanuary 11, 2017 4:58 PM Defenders #76-77 The Lady Liberators were a bunch of women's libbers, so clearly they were villainous. And they were lead by the Enchantress besides. AFJanuary 11, 2017 4:26 PM Defenders #76-77 Avengers #83? AndrewJanuary 11, 2017 1:00 PM Defenders #76-77 Small milestone: this is the first time Marvel had an all-female super-hero team. AndrewJanuary 11, 2017 8:36 AM Captain America #240 The link to Shooter's comments is indeed "instructive" in the sense that it shows why Shooter was hated by so many people. It is not "instructive" in the sense of instructing the artist how to make better art. Many of the comments may be accurate, but are not helpful, like "doesn't work", "wrong head shape", and "not an arm." And, as the article notes, Kupperberg had to draw twice, but only get paid once. That may be fair, but it's demoralizing, and demoralized artists do not turn in their best work. Also, and this is key, the "improved" art isn't really any better than the original; it's just closer to what Shooter wants. He could have just said, next issue come to me with very rough pencils and we'll improve them together. It's also a sharp contrast to the Lee/Romita method, where they just fixed things as they felt necessary. The original artist may have felt slighted, but not belittled. AndrewJanuary 11, 2017 8:36 AM Amazing Spider-Man #123 When Gil Kane handed in the pencils for Spider-Man 123, the characters were good, but too dynamic. Stan had Romita redraw key scenes so the characters look sedate, almost stunned, the way people at funerals really are, as well as fix Mary Jane's attire. Kane's idea that even a girl as "flighty" as Mary Jane would wear a fringed buckskin jacket to a funeral is ridiculous. SpikeyJanuary 11, 2017 8:32 AM Wolverine #51-53 Can't help but loving this, but maybe the stories were just really bad before this. Jubilee spying on Wolverine & "Jean Grey" in some motel, a physical place "at the end of time" and Spiral going insane. It is all hilarious. It is about the end of the universe, but it is all so deliciously lighthearted because of the characters. Too bad this didn't result in Wolverine forming the W-Men, with Wolverine himself in the lead, and his team; MichaelJanuary 11, 2017 8:19 AM Captain America #319 @Clyde- I think Matt's point is that not all of the people Firebrand invited showed up-granted, it's possible that if someone bulletproof HAD showed up, he would have changed his plans. Luke BlanchardJanuary 11, 2017 6:50 AM Amazing Spider-Man #211-212 Marvel reprinted the stories from the early issues of SUB-MARINER (1968 series) in TALES TO ASTONISH (1979 series) in 1979-80. The last issue, #14, has a gallery at the end which includes a page showing Namor and Spider-Man by Alan Weiss. Spider-Man has webbed Namor. They might be talking. My recollection is they're on a roof. I think the page said the image was from an upcoming new Sub-Mariner series. That issue and this one came out the same month. The panels above make me wonder if the plan was dropped quickly and the intended Namor/Spider-Man fight appeared here instead. My recollection is the page said Jim Shooter was going to write the series, but my memory might be playing tricks on that point. Omar KarinduJanuary 11, 2017 6:22 AM Marvel Two-In-One #86 That's #96, ten issues from now. davidbanesJanuary 11, 2017 2:41 AM Marvel Two-In-One #86 Which issue was it where every super villain tries to attack Ben in the hospital but only Sandman gets through only to give him beer or something? Can't find it. davidbanesJanuary 11, 2017 2:37 AM Amazing Spider-Man #211-212 Y'know Hydroman appearing before a naked vulnerable woman out of the blue is suddenly a lot scarier now that Im older. AndrewJanuary 10, 2017 7:43 PM Micronauts #1-12 In the background of several of the early issues you can see Microversian lettering, which looks exactly like Hindi. After a few issues, they printed a guide to which symbols corresponded to which characters in English, so you could go back and decode the messages in previous issues. Some were logical ("TO SURFACE"), others were nonsense ("BANANAS.") clydeJanuary 10, 2017 4:37 PM New Mutants #40 Did your copy of this issue not show a giant mirror behind Magneto? That's what lets him see the New Mutants. ;) KombatGodJanuary 10, 2017 4:29 PM New Mutants #40 Funny the way Cap's positioned in the second to last scan, when he's supposed to be looking at the New Mutants. Antônio JorgeJanuary 10, 2017 4:05 PM Avengers #125 The same that Mark Drummond spoke at 2014 almost 2 and a half years later for me. Antônio JorgeJanuary 10, 2017 4:03 PM Avengers #125 Iam Reading Avengers Versus Thanos softcover André also notice that reference of The pornô movie Deep Throat. That was genial. Omar KarinduJanuary 10, 2017 1:39 PM Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 For me, one of the most overlooked scenes in this story is Peter coldly walking out on Harry as Harry begs him not to. It's played very clearly as Peter choosing revenge on the Goblin over compassion for a friend. Indeed, that's something of a theme in this and the last couple of issues: Peter isn't there for Harry because he's doing his Spider-Man bit in Canada, he's not able to save Gwen because he's still sick from that adventure, and he doesn't save Gwen because he's treating it all like superhero games instead of something deadly serious. Peter Parker really fails as a friend, a romantic partner, and a person because of his escapist sense of the Spider-Man persona here. StevenJanuary 10, 2017 12:43 PM Avengers #206 This is the only issue in Colan's short tenure that I like the art of. RocknRollguitarplayerJanuary 10, 2017 12:51 AM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 Thunderbird was a great X-man that never happened. His character and background held deep pools of internal struggle that could have been extrapolated over a period of time if he hadn't been snuffed so suddenly. A small tweak to his costume and removal of the bunny ear feathers and this cat is damn interesting and cool to look at as well. They could have gone along way with his trauma and his connections to the Indian Spiritual world and given him some metaphysical interest that help balance his struggles in this realm and evolve his psychological profile. I enjoyed that he was a bit of a loose cannon and he held great sympathetic storyline potential away from Logan. Obviously the tragic hero card worked for Wolverine and they could have doubled down with Thunderbird. RocknRockrollguitarplayerJanuary 10, 2017 12:23 AM Giant-Size Invaders #1 Yes Mark thanks that is the cover I'm referring to. Is this Schombergs last cover or last published comic artwork? Is it his last work on a Marvel comic? RocknRollguitarplayerJanuary 10, 2017 12:16 AM Avengers #43-44 I keep coming back to thoughts of biblical prophesy and a conflict between Global power brokers facing economic and moral collapse. The Red Guardian rises out of Putins Russia to lead a final movement that results in an Armageddon like conflict between nations to resolve the planets economic, ethical and religious uncertainty. The plot isn't as much nation verse nation as it is a belief system and moral code reset of the highest magnitude. This certainly brings a Wild Card like atmosphere to the global arena that now breeds conflict at the soul level for those that still cling to one. The gateways of spiritual evolvement or enslavement wait in the shadows. Mark BlackJanuary 10, 2017 12:08 AM Giant-Size Invaders #1 @rocknrollguitarplayer - you're thinking of Invaders Annual 1. Dave Robbins did the cover art for the Giant Size Invaders. RocknRollguitarplayerJanuary 9, 2017 11:47 PM Marvel Premiere #35 3-D Man is a character that was built for the upcoming world of fiber optics and could become a holographic superhero capable of riding the global neural net of the Internet at light speed making for not only an interesting modern day tech scenario but to give the reader a voyage to many diverse locations on planet Earth, thus expanding our cultural interests. Put me in coach I can write this one right outta the 50's drive in to a contemporary storyline that even the Silicon Valley would enjoy LOL But seriously, this dude is one photon away from being cool IMO... RocknRollguitarplayerJanuary 9, 2017 11:34 PM Giant-Size Invaders #1 One item that has left blisters on my frontal lobe is the Alex Schomberg Giant Size cover art. Is this or isn't this his last cover in the world of comics? The attempt to establish this as fact or fiction is always a bit slapdash and is always answered rhetorically at best when it is brought into a conversation with a seemingly fervent yes while the head is shaking no. Can anybody represent on this topic? Ben HermanJanuary 9, 2017 11:15 PM Hulk #339 Interesting to see the Hulk's reaction to learning that Alex accidentally killed his abusive father. In hindsight, this could be a early hint that Bruce accidentally killed *his* own father and then repressed the memory of it, something that PAD would reveal years later. AndrewJanuary 9, 2017 7:51 PM Spider-Woman #4-6 You have to love Morgan LeFay's costume, joining Gamora and Mystique in Marvel's "ladies who wear skulls over their hoo-ha's" club. AndrewJanuary 9, 2017 4:27 PM Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 We can discuss in greater depth when we get there, but I really enjoyed the Waid/Garney/Kubert run on Captain America. kvetoJanuary 9, 2017 4:12 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110 because I've always known it. It felt interesting, at least. But I can't judge. It felt to me a bit like when I first saw Pulp Fiction. I'd heard so much about it that when I saw it I was "That was good but is that it? It feels like style over substance." But I recognise the fact that I went into this story knowing too much about it, so its kinda my fault for not being objective. My mileage clearly varies. kvetoJanuary 9, 2017 4:08 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110 I'm kinda surprised I hadn't commented on this famous story before. I read pieces of this one as a kid and eventually read the whole thing in an essential. While it could never live up to the hype, I find this story less impressive than most and I'm sure im in a tiny minority here. Peter David is a great writer, I've just never felt he's a "Spider-man" writer. So many of his stories feel like they happen to have been written for Spidey because that was the book he was writing. While the tone of the story is really good and dark and Sin-eater manages to feel more "real world" than other villains, I just feel like some of the characters act wildly out of character here for the sake of the story. Peter Parker, the ultimate in guilt trip heroes, is forced to compromise almost all of principles throughout the story. I understand he was pushed over the "ëdge" but for him to lose his sense of responsibility like that and have DD have to show him the moral high ground like that. Explaining Catrer's powers after he was captured felt very golden age (they always explained the villains after they were caught) but also anti-climatic. So many of the fight results feel like they happen more because of story considerations than because thats what should happen. DD beating up a crazed Spidey (WTF? I'd think craziness would make spdey more dangerous) but then losing to an average mob because the story demands it. I can't explore if the Sin-eaters identity mystery would have compleled me Ben HermanJanuary 9, 2017 3:40 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110 Daredevil later takes Peter to task for this action; "roughing up" a criminal is one thing, but actually putting someone at risk is out of bounds for DD. Hey, DD, don't be so critical of Spider-Man. I mean, it's not like he manipulated Hydra into blowing up all of the Kingpin's properties, or anything like that :) Ben HermanJanuary 9, 2017 2:04 PM Captain America #400 Um, what? This sounds like something John Byrne would have come up with... "Diamondback's nickname is the same as Warrior Woman's last name; they *must* be related!" As I've mentioned before, I'm just glad the Byrne never wrote any Ant-Man stories, otherwise we would have probably found out that Scott Lang was the half brother of X-Sentinel creator Steven Lang, or something. Luke BlanchardJanuary 9, 2017 10:33 AM Thor #136-139 Come to think of it, Kirby may have seen the Amicus movie DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEKS (1965), or advertising for it: the IMDB says it was released in the US in 1966. A Dell adaptation appeared a few months before these Thor issues. AFJanuary 9, 2017 8:44 AM Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 I have big problems with Mark Waid but ESPECIALLY his run on Captain America. He did not get the character at all but people are adamant that he did and that he "saved" the title. What Waid did was push Cap into being a caricature, a full-on flag-waving unfeeling, detatched, moody dark template that would have been criticized if anyone else had done it. But Waid did it and so people think it's brilliant or refuse to see how wrong the character is being represented. I remember two scenes in particular: a scene where he throws his shield and cuts Red Skull's arm off and then Red Skull is blown up and Captain America's response is to pose for a splash page, look brooding and proclaim "So what?" when Sharon Carter says "Steve, the Skull is dead, you killed him!!". And another where he goes to Japan and basically beats his patriotic beliefs into Japanese people for burning the American flag while accusing them of being evil for burning the American flag. Also he brought Sharon Carter back to have her be utterly unlikeable, not remotely match the character who she was prior and then not even do anything worthwhile with her. I remember I wrote reviews for those early Cap Waid issues and I had to stop at the Heroes Reborn because I couldn't stomach tackling how much I was opposed to almost everything Waid was doing to the character and I was so close to giving them 0/10 grades which destroys a whole grading system. Lot of people hated Jurgens run but I felt afer Waid it was gold. AFJanuary 9, 2017 7:58 AM Captain America #400 Her name is Rachel. He calls her Ratsel. Can you not see a more obvious reason? And if you really really really want a pointless familial connection with no supporting evidence for your brain, surely Master Man and Warrior Woman having a child and that child being Crossbones makes 100% more sense. AndrewJanuary 9, 2017 7:55 AM Avengers #72 I agree, RRGP. The idea of a bunch of un-powered international organized crime bosses dressing up in ugly costumes to fight superheroes never made sense to me. Engelhart's take on the characters gave them more depth, but not much more sense. Kraft/Giffen's LMD Zodiac looked cool, but never went anywhere. Geoff Johns did a nice cosmic take on Scorpio during his run on the book, but didn't stick around long enough to conclude the storyline. Dan Slott has done a nice job with Scorpio in his current run on Spider-Man's book. I'm hoping he can do a nice job wrapping it up, but I'm not holding my breath... AFJanuary 9, 2017 7:52 AM Captain America #400 1) Warrior Woman's real name is Julia Koenig (Freida Ratsel was an alias she used). RocknrollguitarplayerJanuary 9, 2017 5:20 AM Avengers #72 The Zodiac needs a Quantum physics update along with the costume change of most of the members. Though Thomas truly had too many writing obligations on his plate, he still managed to leave crumbs to expand upon. The Zodiac perhaps recalibrated to exist as beings that could traverse parallel dimensions and multiple time-lines could give them more functional depth. Development of each characters psychopathic needs to exist for such individual Ego fulfillment along with the groups appetite for multiple layers of chaos has never been brought to fruition. Sadly the Zodiac only exists at face value at the moment but with the potential to be a much more worthy offering. rocknrollguitarplayerJanuary 9, 2017 4:38 AM Thor #136-139 Does time have linear function like Midgard in the other realms? MichaelJanuary 8, 2017 11:21 PM Iron Man #145 Kveto, I don't know if you're aware of this but in America there's a racist stereotype of blacks as excessively sexual and particularly interested in white women. Stephen FrugJanuary 8, 2017 8:55 PM Uncanny X-Men #161 Shouldn't this entry (UXM #161) be tagged with "Gabrielle Haller", and, indeed, listed as her first appearance? MichaelJanuary 8, 2017 8:36 PM Hulk #193 @Andrew- according to Brian Cronin, the first time that exact phrase appeared was in Marvel Team-Up 18: AndrewJanuary 8, 2017 7:21 PM Uncanny X-Men #120-121 Gotta figure Wolverine must have been pretty distracted thinking about Mariko to have not smelled Sasquatch from a block away. With all that fur that dude must be pretty funky. Jon DubyaJanuary 8, 2017 1:18 PM Captain America #349 Yeah, Flag-smasger's "original" idea wasn't that original (and even Alan Moore had to change the structure of the world to make the idea "work"). Luis, the man travels by ski-jet. He was never going to be seen as anything but. (Although he's still seen as a lot less "foolish" than other "radicals" like Quentin Quire.) WisJanuary 8, 2017 11:49 AM Hulk #2 Marvel Saga was fantastic, also my very first exposure to the Silver Age. I remember being 7 years old, maybe younger, and getting whatever issue (#4?) has the Angel on the cover as the Avenging Angel. I remember how powerful and ominous the Hulk looked with that thick Dick Ayers ink line, and the back inside cover showing old stories from the sixties. My mind was blown, I was endlessly fascinated with comic history after that. MichaelJanuary 8, 2017 11:46 AM Avengers #164-166 @AF- Busiek has said that Alice's strange behavior was supposed to be a hint that she was the Crimson Cowl. The idea was that she was working with Ultron, hence her using one of his old aliases. (Read Avengers 15 VERY carefully and it's obvious that someone at the company Hank is working for is helping Ultron.) Understandably, none of the readers got it and Nicieza went in a different direction. AFJanuary 8, 2017 11:13 AM Avengers #164-166 I like that idea but, sadly, it's not. The Official Index to Avengers lists this character as "Alice (Stark biochemist)" and Nugent never worked for Stark Industries, she was Hank Pym's assistant and in Iron Man #194. And furthermore, she was surprised to see a superhero when Iron Man showed up in that issue. Doctor Spectrum/Alice Nugent profile from the Defenders handbook listed her first appearance as Iron Man #194 and no history as working for Stark Industries. But Busiek did some absolutely pointless retconning just coz he can to indulge his insistence he loves continuity by pointlessly bringing her back as Hank's boss and revealing some nonsense that she likes to lie and pretend she's less qualified than she is, so I suppose you can do just what he did and say "Oh, she was pretending to have never met a superhero before". Busiek did the same crap with Sunset Bain meeting Iron Man. Wow, this comment quickly turned into moaning about Busiek's fake love for continuity. Matthew BradleyJanuary 8, 2017 8:25 AM Hulk #238-243 I always thought it was a nice touch that upon meeting "Aged Des" in #240, Greenskin--who has fought Tyrannus before--says in puzzlement, "Hulk knows you." Jon DubyaJanuary 8, 2017 2:28 AM Savage Hulk #1-4 But I think the point is that we don't need, like, 12 of each version. Jon DubyaJanuary 8, 2017 12:29 AM Vision and the Scarlet Witch #3 One other piece of "historical significance." This is suppose to be the LAST time we actually see an alive Agatha Harkness. MichaelJanuary 7, 2017 12:53 PM X-Factor annual #2 Harras does seem to enjoy Pietro as a character. Remember, Crystal ends up with Pietro in the end. He was the first writer since Roy Thomas to use Pietro as a regular character in the Avengers. During Onslaught, he spoke specifically of wanting to explore how Pietro would react to losing Crystal and Wanda. WisJanuary 7, 2017 12:16 PM Young Men Comics #25 (Human Torch) I believe Dick Ayers says in his Alter Ego interview that while he drew the stories, Burgos pasted over his Torch figures. WisJanuary 7, 2017 12:15 PM Young Men Comics #25 (Sub-Mariner) Jesus, this is so fantastic on every level. Marvel needs to collect Everett's Sub-Mariner stories in a complete Omnibus or something if only so modern reviewers can see how ahead of the pack and imaginative Everett was. Jon DubyaJanuary 7, 2017 11:11 AM X-Factor annual #2 Michael, how can Harras have a "great love for Quicksilver" when he spent the majority of his Avengers run trying to hook up his wife with the Black Knight (who seems to be Harras's true "pet" character)? And of course X-Factor was looking for the Mauraders a much as the X-Men were 😆 WisJanuary 7, 2017 8:44 AM What If? #4 A minor criticism but Roy just overdoes every single thing EVER. ""We met before when I was called the Spirit of '76." Torch: "Great, yeah." "I even wore my old mask and my wig to jog your memories." Yes, yes, we GOT IT. Possibly Robbins just added that and Roy wanted to cover for it. WisJanuary 7, 2017 8:31 AM Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 I've always felt Mark Waid was a terrible writer and it's only the backdrop of the Image era that made him stand out in comparison. Often things are forced just to nudge the story to a line he feels is dramatic or charming. This thing on the missle- "Hey man. I love my country." and the "Nope." and "Didn't I teach you anything?" are just terrible. So Bucky is purposely waiting to sacrifice himself? For what reason- what does that accomplish if, as it implies, he can't feasibly defuse that? Can you speak at normal levels when riding a rocket? I don't know, this just seems an easy book to fake and Waid irks me the way Roy Thomas irks fnord. AndrewJanuary 7, 2017 5:49 AM Machine Man #2-6 Ten-For is terrorizing Central City? Quick, somebody call the Flash! whsaxonJanuary 7, 2017 5:33 AM Amazing Spider-Man annual #24 I'm surprised you haven't focused more on the artists here, apart from the 'pensioners' comment. I think it is the weakest link - in the 'Quark' story the heavy black lines make it hard to see details, and much of it just looks so two-dimensional. Then stylistically, I mean, look at the late-70s-looking outfit on Peter Parker at the expo, and the ant's head on the spider! Drawn and inked by old men when you had the likes of McFarlane reinventing styles at the time. The contrast is awkward. Luke BlanchardJanuary 7, 2017 3:32 AM Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #27 The implication of this story is modern-day Fury still has the eye, it just doesn't work. But if that's the case, I don't know why he wears an eyepatch. ChrisWJanuary 6, 2017 11:47 PM X-Factor #17 Jonathan, I don't disagree about the increase in powers. My comment was meant to point out that all five original X-Men got power boosts, and that this was the overall trend for superhero comics. I loved the point in Alan Moore's "Supreme" where someone describes Supreme as an early-90s character whose powers are so generically-defined that they're effectively limitless. Jack Kirby did the same thing with Reed Richards inventing/discovering a gadget that would save the day by the end of the story, or with Orion or Mr. Miracle using their powers to do... whatever, but their stories had a sense of wonder and excitement. Claremont wasn't the worst of the lot, but he and Weezie did their part in escalating the characters' powers. And I haven't read the comics, but the Beast was the Avengers' weak link? On a team with Hawkeye and the Wasp? Wow, how times have changed. ChrisWJanuary 6, 2017 11:40 PM X-Factor #17 I actually had a much longer stream of obvious questions Jean would ask if anybody tried to tell her the truth about Scott's life since the shuttle flight, but fnord has reduced the number of characters we can post. ChrisWJanuary 6, 2017 11:37 PM X-Factor #17 Jon, the problem is that (with the possible exception of guest-appearances) the X-Men didn't go into space when Jean knew them. Her personal experience is that they don't go into space all the time, beyond attacking Asteroid M and her kidnapping to the space platform. Why didn't she suggest that they traveled back in time to make two people fall in love and have kids? ["Jean, you mean like in 'Back to the Future'?" "I have no idea what you just said. In the world I live in, people's lives aren't ripped off of popular movies!"] As for anybody telling her about these things, that's where the problem with "X-Factor" really starts. Never mind Scott leaving Maddie, Jean is [stupidly] expecting to pick up where she and Scott left off. And nobody is willing to tell her the truth, that it's been years and Scott moved on with his life, the whole point of Claremont's post-"Death of Phoenix" Cyclops. It's just not possible that they could fill Jean in on some of the details and she wouldn't ask very obvious questions. "So Scott left the X-Men? What did he do? You don't know, you just met him again on Magneto's Island? What was he doing there? Was Magneto's Island weird like Asteroid M, or Muir Island? Wait, none of you know anything about Muir Island, so forget I said anything. Was anybody with him? Ok, what happened next? They were kidnapped by the Brood? Wow, that sounds horrible. So what did Scott do afterwards? Drop off the face of the earth?" "Yeah." WisJanuary 6, 2017 8:56 PM Invaders #10-15 That footnote with Roy Thomas saying "you didn't expect me to resist the temptation, did you?" sums up every single thing that prohibits me from ever, ever, ever enjoying his stories or being able to get lost in them. There might be something to Jim Shooter's belief that a writer shouldn't edit himself and this is a great example of it. That's a really bizarre thing to do that really ruined the flow of an already forced story. Also, Cap adding "what a LINE, that! I must have read it in a COMIC BOOK!" also seems really forced and ruins what could have been a simple, enjoyable scene. I cringe when I suspect that line probably WAS in a Golden Age story at some other time, and Thomas just couldn't resist... Ugh. WisJanuary 6, 2017 8:37 PM Giant-Size Invaders #1 This series is an example of the covers being really entertaining and engaging in a way the interior stories are not. One of my main issues with the Invaders is that as much as it's hit over our heads this is set in the forties, all of the characters have the latest 70s' hairdos. WisJanuary 6, 2017 7:55 PM Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #8 Regarding the sexuality of Pinkerton, it's worth bringing up this anecdote: In an interview with Dick Ayers (in Alter Ego, I believe), Ayers says he sees the interview on CNN and e-mails Stan to ask him what's that about. Stan replies, and this is a quote (according to Ayers): "Dick, I never hedge my bets!" What I took from that is that Stan, canny with PR as ever, sort of retroactively made Pinky Gay to both seem ahead of the curve and to defuse this being any sort of controversial blow. Pinky was just an over the top British stereotype. Stan had a British wife and was hip to the influx of British cinema in the 60s' surely; this was really just him doing a retroactive character change- right on national television. :) KombatGodJanuary 6, 2017 7:42 PM Power Pack #21 Well, to be fair, even if we actually found a comic where Spidey shops for Brussels sprouts, that would confirm that he does eat them all the time, therefore still making the scene context free. AFJanuary 6, 2017 6:59 PM Thanos Quest #1-2 Actually, in Infinity Gauntlet #6, he has Adam Warlock described exactly the same way. WisJanuary 6, 2017 6:33 PM Marvels Project #1-8 fnord, reading the entry for this makes me wonder if you'll ever include other stories which take place in the pre-Golden Age, such as the Phantom Eagle story from WWI or the Atlas Black Knight stories, or even the Silver Age Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid stuff. While *publishing* wise it might follow the Golden Age stuff, chronologically it comes earlier, so... WisJanuary 6, 2017 5:52 PM Marvel Mystery Comics #23 It's possible the armless Tiger Man was based on Lon Chaney in 'The Unknown', a Silent Film in which Lon is dangerous as a knife thrower who uses his feet. Sounds absurb but was pulled off quite well. WisJanuary 6, 2017 5:43 PM Marvel Mystery Comics #14 (Terry Vance) What sorcery is this that I cannot find Mr. Squirrel or Mr. Donkey whatsoever?? I like Terry Vance; several of his many Golden Age stories are uploaded online and eventually they take on a slight sci-fi tone; I think there's a lot they could still do with this character in a 'Leave It To Chance' sort of way. Luke BlanchardJanuary 6, 2017 5:14 PM Iron Man #218 According to the GCD John Romita Sr "redrew Carter Hastings' head/face in many panels", if I follow correctly to make him bald. Venom_MaxJanuary 6, 2017 5:10 PM Web of Spider-Man #79-80 Silvermane died at least 10 times...amazing! Luis DantasJanuary 6, 2017 4:01 PM Thanos Quest #1-2 Somewhere in this series there is a series of panels that shows Thanos as being, somehow, able to stand several wild transformations. IIRC he also almost-casually mentions to the In-Betweener that he (Thanos) is one of the few beings "outside the scope of Order and Chaos". Just like that. It is all the more intriguing because nothing comes ostensibly out of it. I have found myself wondering if this is not a core concept of Thanos as written by Starlin. We see in much of his 1990s work that his heroes tend to find themselves in futile, joyless situations even when they technically win the end result are hollow victories with the weight of the world on their shoulders (that is perhaps best illustrated by the 1993 Silver Surfer/Warlock series, "Ressurrection", but also in much of his non-Marvel work such as 'Breed III, Darklon and Wyrd the Reluctant Warrior). Thanos is both all too similar to those heroes and an interesting contrast, in no small measure because he has embraced his nihilism to an even greater extent than 1990s' Warlock. Often it feels like Thanos' goal is in truth to mentor Warlock and in so doing validate himself. If this sounds like I think Starlin has big dad issues at this point in time, then you got the correct impression. kvetoJanuary 6, 2017 3:43 PM Iron Man #218 I'm surprise Tony didn't have more KGB female operatives, like the Black Widow or Irina here, sent after him. Talk about a guy vulnerable to entrapment by a pretty Russian face. Jonathan, son of KevinJanuary 6, 2017 3:04 PM X-Factor #17 A late response to ChrisW's earlier complaint about the increasing power levels: I totally agree with your complaint, though I don't blame Louise Simonson for increasing the power levels of the X-Factor characters as she said she was doing so specifically to keep up with the "inflated power level of other characters". Ever-increasing power is a very common issue in mutant teams, most of which can be traced back to Claremont liking a character so much that he keeps on increasing their power (though it becomes even worse after Claremont leaves & everything becomes 90s "kewl"). X-Factor's team "strongman" Beast could only lift about 2 or 3 tons, a lot less than other team's strongest characters. When Beast had been in the Avengers he was often portrayed as the comedic weak link of the team. (Not complaining about this, I thought he was actually written more entertainingly in the Avengers than he usually was in the X-Men.) And Angel's only real power was flight. Compare to X-Men where Rogue could lift about 60+ tons, was invulnerable, could probably fly faster than Angel (she certainly was drawn with more speed lines than Angel usually was), and could also absorb people's powers. Who needs an Angel or Beast when Rogue can do everything they do better, & other stuff as well? Under the circumstances I think Simonson was right to increase the team's powers to keep up. Otherwise that X-Factor vs X-Men fight in Inferno would have been very onesided, for a start. Ben HermanJanuary 6, 2017 11:33 AM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 The Beast is one of the Avengers off in the Squadron Supreme's reality in those issues, so he wouldn't be around to call the X-Men about the NORAD crisis... well, okay, maybe Hank McCoy has a *really* good long-distance plan :) Jon DubyaJanuary 6, 2017 11:21 AM X-Factor #17 ChrisW, they were "in space" just before Jean turned into/was replaced by the Phoenix. Maybe she assumed they do stuff like that all the time. And of course Scott could have told her about his space exploits off-panel (lots of important stuff happened in space. Like Scott finding his father. And it's where Professor X is now.) I definitely agree that Angel's "funeral" would have been good time for the teams to reach out to each other...even of their still suspicious about each other. AFJanuary 6, 2017 10:35 AM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 Well, what also works is if you look at the next issues of Avengers after that as happening concurrently? Maybe it's a bit better - half the team are in another reality and the other half are in the 1800s and the only 2 still around are in hospital. Ben HermanJanuary 6, 2017 8:52 AM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 @kveto: I looked, and the Avengers issues that fnord has placed closest to these are #139-140. In those issues the Wasp and Yellowjacket are both in the hospital with serious medical problems, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch have only just returned from their honeymoon, Hawkeye is missing somewhere in time, and Captain America is still on a leave of absence. So, yeah, you could argue that it wasn't an ideal time for the team to be responding to an emergency on the other side of the country. kvetoJanuary 6, 2017 8:31 AM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 just out of curiousity, does it say what the Avengers are doing that they couldn't respond? I mean NORAD is a big deal. AndrewJanuary 6, 2017 8:00 AM Fantastic Four #191 RE that last panel: "Thank you for your interest in renting the Baxter Building penthouse suite, accessible via a private elevator that will only admit persons wearing proprietary belt buckle technology. Please contact Reed Richards about leasing one of these buckles for each and every person who will live or work in the penthouse. Don't lose them. You will also need super-villain insurance, in case news of the FF's disbandment hasn't reached Latveria or, you know, outer space. The penthouse suite comes equipped with a portal to the Negative Zone. If you open that portal... well... just don't open it." JTI88January 6, 2017 6:50 AM Hulk #193 There is a panel where you can spot a rubbish bin with a copy of the Daily Bugle whose main title is "Talking duck in Cleveland?". Vin the Comics GuyJanuary 6, 2017 2:52 AM Hulk #340 Love this issue...but how does McFarlane go from this rendition of Wolverine to the dog boy we see in his solo Spider-Man book? Ugh. ChrisWJanuary 5, 2017 11:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 So does this make Forge the ideas Claremont had for Thunderbird, with a side-romance with Storm? ChrisWJanuary 5, 2017 10:41 PM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 Whether Thunderbird was drafted or not doesn't really change my point. I remember a specific point in Basic Training that was really stupid and pointless, and it occurred to me that, instead of complaining like I would have normally done, I should realize that "I volunteered for this" and accept the consequences. That's a direct quote, by the way. I don't remember any specific mention of trauma from Vietnam [I know it was mentioned, and I do remember Wolverine's response, along the lines of 'you wear a man's boots, you carry a man's responsibilities' and treating James' funeral for his brother the same way] The military is the first to realize that they can attract the "wrong" type of people, and develops methods of weeding them out so that they can keep the "best" people. It contradicts what I said above, but it wouldn't surprise me if John Proudstar was the "wrong" person, and the X-Men are very bad at weeding those people out. Maybe it wasn't Vietnam, maybe he just couldn't handle the pressure. Maybe John had a death wish. Trust me, when a PV2 rigger tells a Command Sergeant Major to turn around so the PV2 can fix the parachute, the Command Sergeant Major is required to obey. Not intrinsically different from Banshee telling Thunderbird to "get off the plane, laddie!" Basically I can see Thunderbird's story as going in many different directions, depending on what story is being told. Not saying these stories would top Wein/Claremont/Cockrum for quality... ChrisWJanuary 5, 2017 10:20 PM Uncanny X-Men #224 I don't think it's disdain for the character, I think it's being caught between the rock of what Dazzler is supposed to be as the superhero she doesn't want to be at all and the hard place of where Wolverine, Storm and Rogue (as the most senior X-Men at this point) are in their lives. All of this has to be done within the established superhero genre, and the established X-titles. [And editorial supervision, obviously.] Sure, there's a lot to criticize, but there's so many moving pieces that it would have been impossible for anyone else to make sense of it all. MichaelJanuary 5, 2017 10:20 PM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 @ChrisW- in the classic backup, Logan says that Thunderbird lied about his age to join the military, so no he wasn't drafted. He also implies that the reason Thunderbird was acting out was because of the trauma from something that happened in Vietnam that John wasn't old enough to handle. Berry TeddyJanuary 5, 2017 10:18 PM Hulk annual #7 I forgot to add that Todd's comments are spot on. Often those seeking diversity of character ironically end up marginalizing the minority of the minority because they find it distasteful or stereotypical. And for the record I could give two ships about gay Iceman because unfortunately it was retconned in an age where there is practically zero character development in Marvel books. As far as I'm concerned it was just check-boxing, virtue-signaling. In two years time every Marvel book will probably be rebooted or revamped every 6 issues. I can't remember the last time I saw Iceman out of uniform and not superheroing for a minute. Oh, and I hate that he wears capris. He's been closeted forever but the minute he's outed he buys a pair of capris? (Reminds me of the time my best friend was getting used to me being gay he kept asking me advice about skin care and fashion. He was really trying.) Sorry, I'm rambling but speaking of gay Iceman, does anyone know anything that might explain why the X-Factor guys were always nearly naked? Seiously. Was it a female gaze problem? I mean, (furless) Beast in #12 makes pancakes in just an apron as far as I can tell and Warren is always shirtless. Incidentally Part 2, it is the same Maggie. Awesome. Marvel really dropped the ball. Batwoman and Midnighter are way better handled. ChrisWJanuary 5, 2017 10:05 PM X-Men #24 Jon, I'm not sure if you're disagreeing with me or not. I could see Rogue clinging to a code name as something that's uniquely hers and refusing to divulge anything about herself. She's a vulnerable teenage girl [the joke being that she's also invulnerable] and once Carol is in her head, she doubts everything that she once thought was a natural part of her self. The X-Men should keep her as a junior member not to be trusted, but I think it's believable, at least on Rogue's part. [Though why Xavier didn't assign her to the New Mutants is a mystery.] Maybe she chose the name herself, maybe Mystique gave it to her and she clings to it as a lifeline to a happier time in her life. With Wolverine, it's just idiotic. He may be a loner, but he was retconned to have enormous military experience, and should know damned well that his teammates need to know everything they possibly can about him. "X-Men" #97 was the first time they learned his claws were part of him, and that same issue's first few pages said the team had been training together daily for a year. If they didn't know what Logan's bones were made of after a year, they really need a better training plan. And if he's got memory problems, there are two telepaths who are readily available to help, plus Moira. Berry TeddyJanuary 5, 2017 9:57 PM Hulk annual #7 I love this issue. I think pretty much the only Hulk issues I've ever read were all x-related (even though I have always wanted and meant to check out PAD's run.) Except for the AIDS issue. Because I'm gay and that was a big deal to my 13 yo self. How times have changed. Gay storylines aren't just about AIDS anymore. (Go figure, gay people do all sorts of things besides AIDS!) And they haven't been for a long time. Sadly, some fail to notice progress when it happens slowly. I favor giving Byrne the benefit of the doubt. He seems more than prickly but the current trend of scorching the earth (or a comic book creator) over a few throwaway comments is downright bizarre and cringe-inducing. I ask self-righteous commenters to sincerely consider how times change, and often how fast. You are actually the narrow-minded one if you think someone is a bad person because of something said thirty years ago that you heard second hand, out of context, and completely isolated from the zeitgeist from which it came. You are the one lacking empathy. Have you never said anything untoward? What commonplace opinion might you hold today that in twenty years time someone may interpret in the least charitable, most sensational way? Strange times, these. Incidentally, is Byrne's Maggie the same Maggie that dated/dates Batwoman? (Also, very long time lurker here, first time caller, just want to thank you for this website. Such a great resource. Happy New Year!) WisJanuary 5, 2017 9:36 PM Hulk #231 that looks like a Trimpe cover, to boot Jon DubyaJanuary 5, 2017 9:25 PM Uncanny X-Men #224 But I thought she already went public with her powers...which is the reason she's stuck with the X-Men in the first place. It's weird, but given the "minority metaphor" the X-Men are suppose to represent, this seems (roughly) equivalent to a gay person coming out and then going right back in the closet again. Honestly more should have been made of that outside of an increased presence of superheroics, especially in light of the MRA. I guess Claremont's disdain for the character couldn't bring her in that direction. UbersichtJanuary 5, 2017 7:16 PM Daredevil #150-151 And no... Wikipedia actually says Heinlein's "Have Space Suit - Will Travel" predates it. I'll shut up now! UbersichtJanuary 5, 2017 7:11 PM Daredevil #150-151 Sorry: "snowclone". Phrasal template. Like turning it into "have rocket, will travel" or "have wok, will travel". UbersichtJanuary 5, 2017 7:02 PM Daredevil #150-151 The show "Have Gun, Will Travel", starring Richard Boone as a mercenary in the Old West was no doubt the inspiration, rather than Charlemagne or D&D. But why Richard Boone's character chose to go by the name "Paladin" I leave to someone who's actually watched it. Wikipedia says he was inspired in story by stories of Charlemagne. It also says that the show is the source of the "have X, will travel" snowcone. davidbanesJanuary 5, 2017 7:01 PM Hero For Hire #5 Oh I forgot this villain's name was Mariah. Her version in the Luke Cage show is a lot slimmer. Piotr WJanuary 5, 2017 6:31 PM Daredevil #150-151 I could never understood why Paladin is named, well, Paladin, either... In any case, I tend to like Infantino's art! The early Spider-Woman issues by him look pretty good. AndrewJanuary 5, 2017 5:47 PM Daredevil #150-151 In my mind, Paladin vies with Gorgon for the title of Most Inappropriately Named Marvel Hero. Jon DubyaJanuary 5, 2017 5:11 PM Uncanny X-Men #291-293 Keep in mind that the typical subplot for Iceman is "Bobby is underperforming again (and needs someone else to point put what he's capable of). The implication is that Iceman is kinda a slacker. Generalky the gist is that these were thing he could always do, but he just didn't think to do them. Ben HermanJanuary 5, 2017 4:14 PM Fantastic Four #309-311 I think I bought FF #311 as a back issue in 1990. I was still pretty new to following most of the Marvel titles on a monthly basis. I must have had only a passing knowledge of the Black Panther at this point. I remember being *very* shocked to see the T'Challa offering sanctuary to Doctor Doom, with his explanation "monarchs do share a special bond." That was probably the first time I realized that the Panther was not just another super-hero, that first and foremost he was the head of state of Wakanda. That, in turn, meant that sometimes he might end up doing stuff the FF or Avengers wouldn't approve of if it was to the benefit of his country. Several years later, when Priest was doing his now-classic run on Black Panther, I found it rather less jarring than some other readers, because I still recalled that T'Challa was the sort of pragmatic politician who considered offering political asylum to Doctor Doom in exchange for technological assistance for Wakanda. AndrewJanuary 5, 2017 3:55 PM Howard the Duck #19-21 It's definitely Anita Bryant. That line about "A day without imposing my morality on someone else..." is a riff on her ad slogan "A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine." I'm not sure how much Gerber is harping on her for being anti-gay as generally sanctimonious. My memory of her from the time on the news the big deal was that she was against the Equal Rights Amendment. I don't know if the national news didn't play up her anti-gay stance, or if I just didn't get it because I was just a kid at the time. Jon DubyaJanuary 5, 2017 12:29 PM Fallen Angels #1-8 Almost 20 years layer an issue of one of the "main" X-books confirmed that Ariel was a mutant. Michael, the funny thing is that Boom-Boom DOES acknowledge knowing Sunspot from Fallen Angels when she joins rhe New Mutants. Jay GallardoJanuary 5, 2017 12:11 PM Marvel Two-In-One #8 Shouldn´t Annie Christopher be tagged in this issue? She´s at the Christmas party... Andrew BurkeJanuary 5, 2017 9:08 AM Spider-Woman #44 I'd have to back to read the series again, but I think it was the real her. She just ended up being resurrected, and when she appeared again after this series she was back to normal with no mention of how it happened. Jon DubyaJanuary 4, 2017 11:47 PM Spider-Woman #44 Andrew Burke, I thought that was a different character (as part of if the whole...confusing "Madame Hydra vs Viper" deal)? Jon DubyaJanuary 4, 2017 11:27 PM Wolverine #72-74 Does Whedon know that someone wrote his plotline twenty years too early? Jon DubyaJanuary 4, 2017 11:19 PM X-Men #24 Tbe irony, Andrew, is that "Logan" isn't his real name either. ChrisW it would be one thing if Rogue just prefered being refered to by her code-name. But this issue states that no one even knows it. That's just silly and sems out of character. I mean Wolverine is a loner (and has memory issues), Gambit is...sketchy. But Rogue has no reason to hide her true name (especially since, as mentioned before, there's no "mystery" behind it once we find it out) Even more bizarre, once it IS revealed (to the reader) everyone just starts calling her "Anna" like it's nothing. It's so weird. Another odd thing. A few people referencing this issue in future leter pages noticed how the the "theme" of this issue seemed to be men comforting "their girls." clydeJanuary 4, 2017 12:35 PM Super-Villain Team-Up #14 "What if the Marvel super-heroes all had some sort of online database where they kept each other abreast of the current status of the various super-threats around the world (maybe created by the Illuminati)?" Thankfully, we do have that site. We're on it right now.:) Ben HermanJanuary 4, 2017 12:30 PM Super-Villain Team-Up #14 @Andrew: Ha ha ha ha ha!!! I can only imagine that happening. The X-Men don't even bother telling each other important information! How many months was it before the rest of the team found out that Wolverine's real name was Logan, his adamantium claws were a part of him, and that he was fluent in Japanese? I think on each occasion, when they wanted to know why he hadn't told them any of this, he replied with "You didn't ask." When the original X-Men formed X-Factor and posed as "mutant hunters" they couldn't be bothered to tell the current team what was actually going on! The examples are endless! I never really thought about it, but probably the only reason why Cap and the rest of the Avengers know about Magneto's increased power levels is that the Beast is also a member of the X-Men. If he wasn't, I can only imagine that they would never have found out... Captain America: Huh? Magneto's no longer a baby, and he's more powerful than ever? Why didn't you X-Men warn us about this? Wolverine: Hey, bub, you never asked! AndrewJanuary 4, 2017 10:40 AM Super-Villain Team-Up #14 Actually, that's a kind of a cool idea. What if the Marvel super-heroes all had some sort of online database where they kept each other abreast of the current status of the various super-threats around the world (maybe created by the Illuminati)? I could see Cyclops taking the time, while in flight, to pull up the entry for "Magneto" and type in "No longer baby. Stronger than ever." kvetoJanuary 4, 2017 7:24 AM Hulk #264-265 I kinda like the Rangers because they at least own some of their local themes. While the texas twister is silly, Shooting Star, Firebird and red wolf all occupy aspects of the locale. Maybe we didnt need another Phantom Rider. kvetoJanuary 4, 2017 7:08 AM Captain America #260 At least the story addresses the silliness of having such a common password, having the former warden resign in disgrace. But it is a silly story with a great cover. kvetoJanuary 4, 2017 7:01 AM Marvel Team-Up #106 Is the doctor here Karl Malus? He looks a bit like Karl and the scorpion is something he'd be involved in. Vin the Comics GuyJanuary 4, 2017 6:42 AM Fantastic Four #309-311 "Ulp! It's two dings!" Does Sharon ever tell Reed of Doom's infiltration? Jon DubyaJanuary 4, 2017 1:03 AM Uncanny X-Men #54-56 What's odd is that no one yet has ever depicted the first meeting of Alex and Scott. Also did Alex, like his eventual lover, also dye his hsir at first? Ben HermanJanuary 3, 2017 8:56 PM Avengers #240-242 I think there should be an increase in historical significance for the debut of one of the all-time worst costumes that the Wasp has worn in her entire career. Always thought it was unfortunate that she had to change into that green & purple monstrosity immediately before the original Secret Wars miniseries started. Not even Mike Zeck could make that outfit look good. kvetoJanuary 3, 2017 6:04 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #54 Spider-man in samurai armour is much cooler than I'd have imagined. kvetoJanuary 3, 2017 6:02 PM Captain America #259 For a spider-man villain, Doc Ock sure got around. Cap, DD, Iron man, Dazzler, Angel. Anyway, nice little fight here. kvetoJanuary 3, 2017 5:50 PM Captain America #258 A good little tale with some nice attention to real world dangers (like fire). TuomasJanuary 3, 2017 5:48 PM Fantastic Four #318-319 Though Secret Wars' ending lifts more from Morrison's Final Crisis than CoIE. TuomasJanuary 3, 2017 5:45 PM Fantastic Four #318-319 Well in some ways they're like the Monitors, in that they observe the Multiverse from the outside. But Hickman gives them a motivation that's very different from the Monitors, who are closer to Watchers in that regard. Though I guess the Beyonders resemble the Anti-Monitor from Crisis on Infinite Earths when it comes to their plan. Hickman's Secret Wars actually has a lot of similarities with CoiE; besides the Beyonders/Anti-Monitor comparison, the premise of both series is pretty much identical, both feature an Earth that's made of different bits of the Multiverse, both restart their respective universes from scratch, etc. AndrewJanuary 3, 2017 4:59 PM Ghost Rider #23-24 Hi, fnord. I'm learning to not argue about Quality or Historical Signifance ratings, but I have to call you out on this one. A Historical Significance of 4 for "first Water Wizard"? For comparison "first Star-Lord" only rates a 3. AndrewJanuary 3, 2017 4:37 PM Ms. Marvel #8 In retrospect, Claremont really overdid the "he grabbed my scarf!" thing. After all, once she changes her costume, we never get a "he grabbed my sash!" scene, do we? mikrolikJanuary 3, 2017 4:27 PM Captain America #341 I really liked how Gru handled Lemar changing his costume and name to Battlestar this issue. I think he acknowledged that while he (Gru) didn't intend to be offensive, that is unfortunately what happened, and bringing the real world concerns into the Marvel Universe was a great way to resolve and correct the issue. It actually felt like a real "the Marvel Universe is the world outside your window" to me. mikrolikJanuary 3, 2017 3:51 PM Captain America #335 "If i had more faith in Gruenwald, i could imagine his unwillingness to see the racism of his townspeople as a blind spot on Walker's part, but it gets ridiculous when he sees the all white group show up with Lemar and a rope and his first thought is still that he agrees with their basic moral stand." The Watchdogs aren't killing Lemar because he's black, but because Lemar's posing as a pornographer (though obviously that doesn't give the Watchdogs anymore right to kill him). Granted, I'm sure a group like the Watchdogs would attract its fair share of racists, and I guess the fact that they're lynching Lemar instead of just shooting him like the white bookstore owner should raise a few eyebrows, but when Walker says he believes with their basic beliefs, I'm pretty sure he meant the stance on pornography. Still, I can see your point that Gru's writing could be a little clearer, and Walker's characterization better defined at this point; it seems like Gru is shifting Walker's personality as he goes. clydeJanuary 3, 2017 2:18 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #121 Keith Williams. betty renehanJanuary 3, 2017 10:11 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #121 We have a signed issue but can't read it. It looks like the last name begins with a W. Any help? AndrewJanuary 3, 2017 8:56 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #7-8 The Empathoid could have been a cool villain. He reminds me a bit of the aliens in the Harlan Ellison short story "Passengers." But the writer would have to be able/willing to go to some pretty dark places that comics just couldn't go in the seventies, or at least be used in a more complex, nuanced way. Maybe he'll be brought to his full potential some day, the way Bendis did with Killgrave. Piotr WJanuary 3, 2017 8:24 AM Captain America #261-263 I can't imagine anyone working for the Joker... the guy is obviously insane. I can imagine *some* people choosing to work for the Skull... still, I'm curiously what are the reasons of this particular blonde? ;) She looks nice... kvetoJanuary 3, 2017 8:12 AM Captain America #261-263 I always wondered why anybody would work for the Skull (or the joker or any villains known for killing their minions) because you know you'll get "dusted" at some point. Jon DubyaJanuary 3, 2017 2:03 AM Fantastic Four #318-319 By the way given the summary of both this and Secret Wars (2015), does the mean the the Beyonder(s) are Marvel's answers to DC's "Moniters" (and does the means we must be weary of sone lame-ass "Countdown to Secret Wars" miniseries on the horizon?) ChrisWJanuary 2, 2017 8:54 PM Uncanny X-Men #169-171 Michael and Johnathan are both right. Callisto's powers were never really defined in any significant way, but the narration did specify that she had physical abilities like Wolverine's. This was never shown except for one Danger Room session after the Mutant Massacre where Callisto and Logan fought each other and someone [Betsy?] screamed 'they'll kill each other.' Closest we ever got to seeing Callisto as a mutant with physical powers. Johnathan is right in that this wasn't really a demonstration of superpowers. Claremont wasn't good at showing why some characters were awesome, just telling us that they were. Surviving a Danger Room session with Wolverine is one thing, but this was 40+ issues after she'd been introduced. Moira Mactaggert ran into the room firing a machine gun and wearing a negligee in her first issue, and literally first appeared asking "wanna make something of it?" To put it mildly, we never saw that side of Callisto. Except when she became a hot model. ChrisWJanuary 2, 2017 8:47 PM X-Men #24 Claremont's X-characters were horrible at revealing any information that might be useful. I literally have a long list of issues where a character hid something that would have helped avoid future problems, and it's only a part of Claremont's run. As far as calling each other by their first names, the "Avengers" movie was really where I understood the concept. I spent the last decade in the military, and for me, it was last name, nickname or rank. I genuinely didn't like being addressed by my first name, even though I was in a unit where I would be allowed to address far higher-ranking people than myself by their first names. The civilians in the movie are calling each other by their first names right away, because that's the natural thing to do. Captain America, however, is very reserved. "Mr. Stark." "Director Fury." "Agent Romanov." "Dr. Banner." Claremont put so much effort into explaining how the X-Characters were in a military-type situation where they always had to be at their best, but that same military situation would require them to share information. "I'm going to initiate a demon invasion of Earth." "I've been psychically possessed by an illusionist on several occasions and he's unlocking my evil side." "My name is Logan." You tell people these things so they'll be prepared. Shouldn't be surprising that "Avengers" is one of my favorite movies ever, and I had very little interest in the characters before seeing it. AndrewJanuary 2, 2017 7:39 PM Iron Fist #11-13 As far as placement goes, this is actually the second time Jean gets out of the hospital since becoming Phoenix, right? To make everything work, she has to get out of the hospital in X-Men 101, travel to the American southwest for Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, get injured in the Marvel Tales reprint of Marvel Team-Up 53, and go back into the hospital, still in X-Men 101, to come out here. Thanos6January 2, 2017 7:33 PM Doctor Strange #38-40 I think they mentioned that in a later letter column; DD "saw" the painting in his mind thanks to magic. mikrolikJanuary 2, 2017 5:56 PM Hulk #406 Bob: I think it was a bit of a 90s trend to make heads smaller in order to make muscular bodies seem larger. MichaelJanuary 2, 2017 1:42 PM Doctor Strange #38-40 To be fair, it IS a magical painting- it's possible that everyone present, even a blind man, somehow knows it's a scarecrow. UbersichtJanuary 2, 2017 1:28 PM Doctor Strange #38-40 The painter's brushwork used a heavy impasto so there was a heavy relief to the surface that DD could discern allowing him to make out much of the image. Plus the different pigments absorbed different amounts of light and heat so he could perceive patterns of light and dark, at least "seeing" black and white. But no... "Oops!" is right, I think. matthew baughJanuary 2, 2017 12:16 PM Doctor Strange #38-40 One thing that puzzled me about this was Daredevil "seeing" the painting of the Scarecrow. I don't think it was ever explained how a bind man could know what the subject of the painting was. Oops, I guess. AndrewJanuary 2, 2017 8:48 AM X-Men #24 The issue of the various super-heroes in a team not knowing each other's real names seems really weird, but it goes way back. Hawkeye joined the Avengers in issue 16 (May 1965), but the other Avengers (and the readers) didn't find out his real name until issue 64 (May 1969). In that case, there was a good excuse: the Avengers believe in protecting each other's identities, and Hawkeye had a good reason to hide it, because his brother was a notorious gangster. (Still hard to believe they don't do even the most basic vetting, though.) In the X-Men, however, it's harder to explain, as they are a much less formal group, and because of their outsider status they should have much greater reason to trust each other. We readers find out Wolverine's name is Logan in issue 102, but the other X-Men don't find out until issue 139, when Heather Hudson calls him "Logan" and Nightcrawler says Wolverine never told them his name. He just says they never asked. Really? In all that time, no one even asked that most basic question? I think it's just part of Claremont's habit of withholding as much information as possible for as long as possible. kvetoJanuary 2, 2017 12:36 AM Avengers #332-333 Ugh, it's sad the lengths Hama went to to try to promote Rage. Jon DubyaJanuary 2, 2017 12:21 AM X-Men #24 Also, is it ever explained WHY people don't know Rogue's real name? Given that she was trying to gain the team's trust when she first joined (in desperation, remember) it's a bit surprising that she wasn't forthcominf with that info immediately. And since she has that rather ordinary name of "Anna Marie" there doesn't seem to be any reason she would feel the need to hide her true name. Also, I feel that her date with Gambit is a lot more significant than this synopsis lets on. It's the first indication that Gambit wants a real relationship with her, whereas previously he seemed to be feeding her "lines" just to get inside her pants. It's basically progresses their relationship to...well a relationship (as opposed to BST flirting.) MichaelJanuary 1, 2017 11:52 PM Fantastic Four #61-63 Omar, regarding MJ and Gwen, this story and Daredevil 77 are the only instances where MJ appears outside of Amazing before ASM 122 and it's not clear who the woman in DD 77 was supposed to be, since she looks like neither MJ nor Gwen, although she's named as MJ in the script. D09January 1, 2017 11:51 PM What's Missing Just found the second Marvel Monsters Omnibus, its coming out August 2017: Comicdom's famous monsters are on the loose! Marvel presents the concluding volume in our complete collection of Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby's Marvel Monsters. Marvel's late-1950s/early-1960s period was famous for its twist-ending tales, alien invaders and especially its towering monster menaces - and no one drew giant monsters like Jack "The King" Kirby! It's page after page of Grogg, Ogg, the Creature from Krogarr, Fin Fang Foom, and more! These stories aren't just a fun atomic romp-they're the training ground where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby honed their creative partnership, learning each other's strengths and building an unmatched rapport. In these pages, you'll find out that the mother of the Marvel A ge of Comics was - a monster! COLLECTING: MATERIAL FROM STRANGE TALES (1951) 87-100; STRANGE TALES ANNUAL (1962) 1; JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1952) 71-82; TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) 20-34; TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) 20-38; AMAZING ADVENTURES (1961) 1-6; CHAMBER OF DARKNESS (1969) 4-5 Series: Monsters Jon DubyaJanuary 1, 2017 11:45 PM Moon Knight #41-43 Why would Banshee be there? He hadn't rejoined the x-books (even as a supporting character) at this point. kvetoJanuary 1, 2017 6:22 PM Captain America #275-279 good issues. They do a good job of making Sammy appropriately scuzzy, he part of the problem rather than the solution. And Bernie realizing Steve is cap just shows she not dumb, I mean half the folks who meet Steve should guess that. Issue 278 was one of my first cap issues. It was weird to see a hero get trounced like that, Primus was really brutal. then the villain crying and leaving. good stuff. kvetoJanuary 1, 2017 5:46 PM Captain America #271 Oy, its bad. Between the trial by combat and king Aurthur giving cap trouble. im shocked Steve didnt run for the hills when he found Bernie crying about wrestling. Piotr WJanuary 1, 2017 4:50 PM Captain America #261-263 Wait, who's the blonde guard who's working for the Skull? The Skull employed female minions? Now I want to know the story of this poor woman! kvetoJanuary 1, 2017 1:36 PM Captain America #206-214, Captain America annual #3-4 Thinking about it, I wonder if they took the name "Primus" from one of the characters in Czech writer Karel Capek's play "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), an early Sci-fi work which among other things, introduced the word "robot" to English and other languages. Capek's robot were not metal beings but artificial humans designed to to the work of humans (Robot comes from an old czech word meaning slave labour) and they were made from a synthetic skin, much like Primus here and revolted against their programming (ideas swiped by Phillip K Dick for "Do andriods dream?/Blade runner.) MattJanuary 1, 2017 12:28 PM Hulk #383 I found Betty too be too judgemental and narrow-minded this issue. She assumes that Bruce "doesn't need her or anybody else" because of the way he abruptly left the apartment. Doesn't she realize the reason he left was because his feelings were hurt, after she recoiled at the sight of him? MichaelJanuary 1, 2017 11:29 AM Uncanny X-Men #169-171 @Jonathan- in issue 170, the narrator says "Callisto is a born huntress, her mutant genes giving her enhanced physical abilities that rival Wolverine's". To me, "enhanced physical abilities" meant strength and speed, not just senses. Jonathan, son of KevinJanuary 1, 2017 9:18 AM Uncanny X-Men #169-171 @Chris - Agreed there was zero chance of "Mystique being the father" being allowed to see print in 1983, and from the evidence of Mystique's age in this story, I am suggesting that Claremont hadn't thought of that yet in any case. Lobdell commented that in the 90s, he was aware of Claremont's later plans but found them unrealistic & decided to make Mystique the mother: "It was always Chris’ plan that Mystique and Irene Adler (Destiny) were lovers, and that Mystique at one point had transformed into a man and impregnated Destiny and she gave birth to Nightcrawler. So Mystique and Destiny were actually Nightcrawler’s father and mother. The likelihood of either A, Mystique growing genitals with sperm that had a DNA-code, or B, Mystique being a guy who was perpetually in the body of a woman, I thought was pretty slim.” As for your point about Callisto's powers seemingly being physical & the "no powers" rule, I was similarly confused about this at the time, though as Russell points out above, it turns out Callisto's mutant power was enhanced senses. I don't remember Callisto's powers ever being clearly established in Claremont's original run, though maybe I've forgotten something. Jonathan, son of KevinJanuary 1, 2017 9:01 AM Uncanny X-Men #169-171 Ended up finding some extra clues on the secretsbehindthexmen.blogspot site, which is full of useful information for stuff like this. On his forum, Claremont said: "Regarding Mystique, I always considered her default form to be blue-skinned and female. However, being a full-spectrum metamorph, gender for her is a matter of choice, convenience and necessity. Her assumption of the male gender during this particular period of her life relates more to the prejudices of the time. A male consulting detective is likely to be taken a tad more seriously in official circles than a woman.” But he also says: “Mystique abandoned him because she was totally freaked by this indigo-furred creature with “deformed” appendages and a forked tail! At that point, Mystique had no idea (s)he was a mutant, or a metamorph; (s)he simply reacted as many normal folks would in similar circumstances." Which makes no sense to me. If at the time Nightcrawler is born, Mystique is not aware that she is a mutant or a shapechanger or blue skinned, then she cannot have changed herself to a man to be Nightcrawler's father. It also seems to ignore however Destiny (or whoever the proposed birthmother is) reacts to it. Also, Nightcrawler is relatively young, so if Mystique has lived an extended lifespan but only found out about herself after Nightcrawler was born, then she must have spent most of her life unaware that she was a mutant or shapechanger. So yeah I think Claremont changed his ideas over time. Jonathan, son of KevinJanuary 1, 2017 8:38 AM Marvel Super Heroes #11 (Ms. Marvel) Claremont had Rogue, Carol & Shaw etc referring to previous events as if he'd already written the stories & they were just waiting to see print somewhere, but this bears little or no resemblance to the hints Claremont was dropping, and suggests the storyline wasn't even close to being finished, necessitating a quick wrap-up job by Furman. Jesse outlines a number of the differences above. Another is that in Uncanny #182, Rogue mentions her attack on Carol is revenge for Carol nearly killing her in a previous fight "months" before, whereas here it's their first meeting. If the stories had not in fact been completed, I wonder if Claremont thought he'd drop hints to drum up interest for a mini-series he intended to write in the future? During the period he was dropping hints about it, Claremont dropped a few other references to intended stories/mini-series (Cyclops in Paris, Rachel & Mojo etc) that never saw print, perhaps the whole Carol/Mastermind/Rogue stuff had never actualy been scripted & he intended to actually write the storyline in the future, but never did. Ataru320January 1, 2017 7:17 AM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 Somehow whenever someone becomes a super-villain, they immediately get the best gym membership and supplements available if they don't have a superpower already. Heck, the image of Eddie Brock's "before" even before he became Venom had him as some nerdy-looking reporter. TuomasJanuary 1, 2017 6:56 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Wanda's kids eventually came back (in a way that doesn't make much sense timeline-wise, but hey, it's superhero comics) as Wiccan and Speed, two teenage superheroes in the Young Avengers. It was too late to repair the damage Byrne had done, but they are interesting characters and have appeared in some cool comics. And Young Avengers writer Allan Heinberg did a great mini with them and Wanda called "Children's Crusade", in which he was able to fix the damage Bendis did to Wanda in Disassembled and House of M, an impressive feat given how thoroughly Bendis had mishandled her. WisJanuary 1, 2017 5:16 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Yeah, I've never been into Claremont or Magneto or any of that but always liked the intricate tapestry of the MU where Magneto is related to the Vision who is related to Wonder Man, etc. etc... Nathan Adler has a lot of good ideas, and an unbeatable screen name. ChrisWJanuary 1, 2017 12:43 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Shit, I didn't realize this was the Kulan Gath page. Never mind. ChrisWJanuary 1, 2017 12:42 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 The twins who suddenly didn't exist or something? [I don't know much about the Scarlet Witch.] That could be the greatest Magneto story ever. His grandchildren are gone, and he's got his duties to the X-Men, the New Mutants, the Hellfire Club, Xavier's School, and his children who hate him, but he's seen generations wiped out, and he's not going to let it happen to his bloodline. He has to fight with Pietro [for the sake of argument, he's still married to Crystal, so the Inhumans get involved] and Wanda [ditto the Avengers] He has to go to Mount Wundagore where the High Evolutionary ruled and Chthon captured his daughter, the place where his wife died. The place where Spider-Woman and Man-Wolf were born. [And the Puppet Master, and a number of other characters.] I have no idea what happened to Wanda and the Vision's twins, but I love Nathan Adler's idea that they came back as Cable and Stryfe. And I can see Kang, Dormammu and Mephisto as players in this story. Throw in Dr. Doom, the Beyonder and whatever version of the Sentinels are the new hotness, we've got a story going on. Yoo-hoo! Marvel! Over here! Send me the reference, I'll give you a story! Yoo-hoo! WisJanuary 1, 2017 12:27 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Thomas and William being The Scarlet Witch's children. Oh, and... Happy New Year Gang. Thanks for all your efforts and bringing us together, fnord. ChrisWJanuary 1, 2017 12:27 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 As for the "Magda" appearance, my understanding is that the Marvel creators wanted to come up with secrets that were really obvious for close readers but invisible to general readers. I don't remember how Byrne said it happened, but Magda's appearance was planned with a similar scene in another comic to let people know that Magneto was Wanda and Pietro's father. I also don't think Claremont had any thoughts about Magneto's reformation until Byrne threw him in a wheelchair for "Days of Futures Past." When he sees those pages, he sees the parallel with Charlie and starts thinking about long-term subplots. Johnathan, totally agree about the stupidity of making Polaris Magneto's actual daughter. Worst. Retcon. Ever. ChrisWJanuary 1, 2017 12:21 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Thomas and William? Are they people introduced post-Claremont because they aren't ringing a bell? In hindsight, it's hard to believe that Claremont never got his hooks on Wanda and Pietro the way he got the Blob or Mastermind. But that's probably what saved them as characters. I was telling my Dad [who's also a long-time comics fan] about Pietro and especially Wanda in "Avengers 2," and he said "I didn't know you were a fan." I'm not, but she is a classic Avenger and deserves to be included in the movies. [Although George Perez himself says Wanda doesn't wear underwear, but the screen Wanda definitely did ;) ] They aren't evil mutants, they are Avengers. Why Claremont didn't find a use for Wanda and Pietro probably has to do with how involved they were with the Marvel Universe [Wundagore, Chthon, the High Evolutionary] and the respect he had for the overall continuity. Yes, I just wrote that sentence. ChrisWJanuary 1, 2017 12:13 AM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 Someone beat me to it. I was going to suggest how the X-Men and X-Factor beat Nastirh in "Inferno." It is awesome to talk about X-books with people who remember them better than I do. :) clydeDecember 31, 2016 11:03 PM Captain America #319 I'm pretty sure Scourge did his homework on the people he intended to kill - he would know who was able to be killed with a gun. AndrewDecember 31, 2016 10:08 PM Nova #4 I had this book as a kid, and also loved the banana split bit. It's not totally made up though. I remember seeing a Howard Johnson menu around that time of a banana split that had no banana. Jay GallardoDecember 31, 2016 6:54 PM Terror Inc. #11 @Ben, that's something i don't really understand about american cómic sales; I mean, U.S.A. is a huge country, lots of people there. How come that cómic books sell so poorly? AndrewDecember 31, 2016 6:09 PM Marvel Spotlight #32 Hey, I just realized that Count Otto Vermis is who Nick Fury was fighting when Dum Dum Dugan got killed, according to the Original Sins retcon. I never made the connection before, because that fight was supposed to take place in 1966 and the recap art is Steranko-ish, but this is the guy who SHIELD had to stop from destroying Fort Knox eleven years before. Guess he's come down in the world. MattDecember 31, 2016 4:57 PM Captain America #319 Good thing none of these villains had any invulnerability to bullets, or Scourge would've been screwed. ChrisDecember 31, 2016 3:24 PM Uncanny X-Men #169-171 As a kid at the time, I always assumed Mystique was Nightcrawler's sister. The idea of her being the mother would have made her too old, and making her the father would never have occurred to me. I doubt in 1983 that ever would have been approved. Since Callisto's powers are all physical, it never made sense to me how she and Storm could fight without using powers. That's not something that I normally associate being turned on or off. So if you have super strength or super-reflexes, how do you go about being purposefully weaker or slower to compensate? Or was Leech involved? That at least would make sense, but I don't see his name in Character's Appearing. Jonathan, son of KevinDecember 31, 2016 2:20 PM Uncanny X-Men #169-171 Random speculation time: Mystique is here shown to be 30 years old. Previously in DoFP there had been a hint dropped that she either was a parent of Nightcrawler or that she knew Nightcrawler's parents somehow, but this seems to make her too young for that. (One good example of Claremont's never ending subplots was that he could improve an idea over time. I have nothing to base this on but I kind of suspect that Claremont intended her to be Nightcrawler's mother but over time he decided father was a better idea. Of course, thanks to Austen the less interesting idea eventually saw print, throwing in an even worse idea about Kurt's father.) Anyway, above Nathan Adler has fixed Claremont's mistake here using time travel. But in the context of what Claremont was actually thinking at the time, I ask the audience: Option a) Had Claremont forgot the Nightcrawler subplot at this point and didn't realise this seemed to conflict it, or Option b) Had he some other idea in mind at the time, like she was Nightcrawler's sister? I lean towards Option a) but would be interested if anyone has any alternative evidence as to intentions for Mystique and Nightcrawler's relationship. KombatGodDecember 31, 2016 12:59 PM Daredevil #236 According to Marvel Wiki (http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Tommy_(Earth-616)), Hazzard's nephew is the same character as a boy that was saved by Beast back in X-Men #8. MichaelDecember 31, 2016 12:55 PM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Magneto briefly says "My children hate me" in Uncanny X-Men 196. And I think that there's a picture of Thomas and William in one of the New Mutants issues but I'm not sure if the artist threw it in on his own initiative. But yeah, that's it until after Disassembled. Jonathan, son of KevinDecember 31, 2016 12:46 PM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Agreed, though I don't believe that Claremont would have had any firm plans for the reformed Magneto when X-Men 125 came out. (At that point I think the next planned appearance for Magneto was that he'd try & give Jean her Phoenix powers back in X-Men 150, hoping he'd be able to control her.) I agree Claremont would probably have been okay with it at the time and regretted it later. I can't remember a time Magneto ever mentions Wanda or Pietro in a Claremont comic? (Or if there is a time, then I don't believe it happened more than once.) That's why I think Claremont disliked the retcon, because he seems to do his best to ignore it. MichaelDecember 31, 2016 12:37 PM Thor #374 Probably there's a "defense of others" exception, just like with our laws against murder. JTI88December 31, 2016 12:03 PM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 In MU it would have been plausible that a biologist professor, albeit over middle-age, could improve himself enough to outfight Spider-Man by some experiment. But by working out? Luckily he didn't divulge the name of his gym to the underworld. MichaelDecember 31, 2016 11:56 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Just to clarify, though, Byrne has said in interviews that the scene in X-Men 125 with Magda was supposed to indicate that Magneto was their father- Magda had already been revealed in Avengers 185-187 to be Wanda's and Pietro's mother and to have had a husband that developed superhuman powers, so anyone that read both stories would have to be pretty slow not to make the connection. Maybe Claremont didn't mind it while X-Men 125 was being written and changed his mind later. (Or maybe Byrne convinced Claremont to do that scene without letting him know what was going on in Avengers, so Claremont didn't realize what that scene was implying.) Jonathan, son of KevinDecember 31, 2016 11:15 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Not sure of Claremont's exact thinking, but maybe he felt that since Wanda belonged to the Avengers/WCA editors, he couldn't have done anything much with her without their say-so. Since Claremont's Magneto always mentions his dead daughter Anya & never mentions his living children Wanda & Pietro, I always believed Claremont basically ignored that retcon as he felt it disrupted his conception of the noble suffering Magneto character (who had few connections to his Silver Age self). I think if it were up to Claremont, he would prefer to have stopped other creators from any further stories about Wanda & Pietro being Magneto's children. As far as I am aware, these days Wanda & Pietro have since stupidly been retconned to be Inhumans who are neither mutants nor related to Magneto (while Polaris now is stupidly Magneto's daughter again), so I guess any 1980s Claremont tale of Wanda & Magneto's relationship would now be irrelevant anyway. AndrewDecember 31, 2016 9:44 AM Doctor Strange #17-19 Wait, wait, wait. I don't have these issues, so I'm maybe missing some of the subtlety here, but wait. Clea having consensual sex with Benjamin Franklin is one thing. She and Strange aren't married, and she's from an alien culture, and he's one of the Founding Fathers, and it's the seventies, so whatever. But it turns out she actually had sex with evil-wizard-in-a-bad-hat Spyro Gyra under false pretenses as part of some weird exam for Doctor Strange from the Ancient One? How is this not a big deal? AndrewDecember 31, 2016 8:20 AM Defenders #36-38 There's a great exchange between Doctor Strange and Power Man after the fight with the white gorilla in the other dimension: "Praise the Vishanti! I would've thought only the Hulk capable of such a feat! That you accomplished it without killing the beast is all the more remarkable!" "Hate t'disillusion ya, doc... but I wanted to. I surely did!" Thanos6December 31, 2016 7:52 AM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 Ah, gotcha. I always merge those two fights in my mind. Thanks Omar. AFDecember 31, 2016 7:04 AM Marvel Team-Up #86 There might be a mention that Charlie and Vance are off doing something, so fnord has tagged them to accomodate what they're meant to be doing ("they're monitoring us from space", etc.) Omar KarinduDecember 31, 2016 7:02 AM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 You're thinking of the fight in Uncanny #112, where Storm does just that and Magneto boasts that she's simply made him a superconductor.. AFDecember 31, 2016 7:02 AM Marvel Team-Up #86 Yeah, they're not in this. I imagine Claremont probably imagined that Vance is off in Ms. Marvel #23 while this is happening. AFDecember 31, 2016 7:00 AM Avengers #299-300 Arnie doesn't appear in any Avengers issues - nor does he ever appear as a member of the Avengers Crew. He does however become a member of Captain America's little personal support crew in the last 20 or so issues of Gruenwald's run. Donna Maria does appear as a receptionist in Captain America - in one of the back-ups when Crossbones forces Diamondback to go to Avengers Mansion and steal some of Cap's blood samples and again later in the issue when Cap and Falcon go to rescue Diamondback from Crossbones and Red Skull. And Dermie is right - again in Quasar in the issue with the evil Marvel Boy trying to join the Avengers. Inger Sullivan (Cap's legal representation when the Commission were going to fire him) doesn't have a single appearance after her appearance in Cap #332. Diane Newell doesn't have any appearances as an actual Crew member, but she did appear in #262 where she was clearly primed to be a sort of proto-Crew member alongside Stingray. WisDecember 31, 2016 3:34 AM Avengers #299-300 I feel as if they could have relaxed on getting across how impressive Cap is to the other characters once Monica was off the team. But here I notice Gilgamesh making an (to me, anyway) oddly placed observation about "probably the tone of voice" when Cap yells Avengers Assemble. But that's a minor quibble- while I miss Stern, the art team really makes this so utterly wonderful. Just seeing body language stuff Buscema/Palmer do in passing makes me love comics all over again. Thanos6December 31, 2016 12:05 AM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 Thanks. I seem to remember him saying that Storm could beat him by freezing him to death, but until it got THAT cold, the low temperatures would actually help him by raising conductivity or something like that. Or am I thinking of a different fight? StevenDecember 30, 2016 9:47 PM X-Factor annual #2 This is the first appearance of Quicksilver in an X-title since 1969. AndrewDecember 30, 2016 6:24 PM Hulk #195 Hulkbuster base has been shaped like a peace symbol since its first appearance in 145. AndrewDecember 30, 2016 6:21 PM Hulk #145-147 Two significant things happen in 145. First, it's the first appearance of Hulkbuster base. Second, the Hulk sinks a Russian submarine, causing tidal waves in the process, meaning the Hulk is responsible for at least a hundred off-panel deaths. DermieDecember 30, 2016 4:17 PM Avengers #299-300 Donna Maria also appeared as receptionist in some issues of QUASAR. I think Arnie Roth might have made a single appearance as a support staff member in AVENGERS #311, during the assault on Avengers Island--but it is hard to tell, since it is a very tiny view in the background of a single panel. But I think its him--there weren't many other options in the staff for people of his height and hairline. MattDecember 30, 2016 3:35 PM Thor #374 Isn't there some law in Asgard that forbids Thor and other asgardians from killing mortals on Earth? Wouldn't killing Blockbuster get Thor in a lot of trouble? Jay GallardoDecember 30, 2016 10:35 AM Iron Man #63 " Tuska's style is stiff and old fashioned" AndrewDecember 30, 2016 8:05 AM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 Actually, Thanos6, at one point he tells Banshee that of all the "new" X-men he is "the only one worth fighting." And it's true, the new X-Men are remarkably poorly designed to go up against Magneto: since Colossus and Wolverine have metal in their bodies, he can toss them around effortlessly; Nightcrawler's teleportation disrupts electromagnetic lines of force, so he can sense where he is going to teleport before he arrives; and since electricity and magnetism are two aspects of the same force, he can hurl Storm's lightning bolts back at her. In the end it's only Cyclops who can hold him back long enough for the X-Men to escape. AFDecember 30, 2016 7:53 AM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 No need to ask Steve, Ben, he's already explained it in the letter column of #136: https://68.media.tumblr.com/bc14cee9f8f28dce22919320d214cd04/tumblr_oj013iNJnB1tms107o1_500.jpg Matthew BradleyDecember 30, 2016 6:32 AM Marvel Team-Up #86 I don't see Charlie or Vance depicted, or even mentioned, anywhere in this issue; am I missing something? ChrisWDecember 30, 2016 12:41 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Possibly the biggest mystery of the Claremont Age, how he missed Wanda and Pietro as viable characters, or how the rest of the Marvel Universe kept Wanda and Pietro safe from Claremont's X-Titles. Your mileage may vary on which was the worse fate. ChrisWDecember 30, 2016 12:39 AM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Oh Wanda, what could Claremont have done with you? Wait, on second thought, let's not go there. ChrisWDecember 30, 2016 12:37 AM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 I'm not a Magneto scholar, but isn't that part of his shtick? In "Secret Wars" #1, he made sure to announce that all of the heroes were beneath him, except possibly Thor. AndrewDecember 29, 2016 10:13 PM Amazing Spider-Man #154 Don't ask me to choose between Ditko and Kirby. Personally, I think Kirby's costume is "too much", while Ditko's is "not enough." And I'm still trying to figure out why that freeze ray would have any effect on Sandman. Sand's already a solid, right? So when you freeze it you just end up with... cold sand. AndrewDecember 29, 2016 9:48 PM Amazing Spider-Man #153 The goalpost comment makes sense to me. If Bolton played college football in the fifties, the goalposts would have been wooden and shaped like capital "H"s. KombatGodDecember 29, 2016 9:42 PM West Coast Avengers #8-9 I like that "I Understand him! How can it be?" (I hope I'm not misinterpreting the scene, I don't have the actual comic) clydeDecember 29, 2016 9:11 PM Marvel Team-Up #45 Robert - "One other note: i don't list the "locals" in time travel stories." AndrewDecember 29, 2016 8:36 PM Fantastic Four #166-167 Maybe Mr Fantastic only has penultimate elasticity because the ultimate elasticity belongs to Plastic Man? AndrewDecember 29, 2016 7:26 PM Marvel Team-Up #41-44 I think fnord is hard on this story. Sure, there's a lot wrong with it, but you have to admire the scope of it, if nothing else. In my mind this is the start of a long stretch where Marvel Team-Up gets really good, making the most of the format, taking Spider-Man out of his comfort zone by teaming him up with oddballs like Deathlok and Woodgod, and somehow maintaining continuity while constantly rotating the guest stars. With Claremont coming up, this book will stay good for many years. kvetoDecember 29, 2016 6:28 PM Jungle Action #19 Believe it or not, I discussed the pronunciation of the "T" in T'Challa with a linguist on west african dialects many years ago. From what I recall, theres a lot more to it but the /t/ phoneme should be very light with a glottal stop after it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop So Macgregor was basically trying to simplify it as the /t/ would be so feint an English speaker would have to strain to notice it.(which is a good amount of attention to being correct). kvetoDecember 29, 2016 5:53 PM Marvel Two-In-One #18 In the horror essential #2, they have an article with the guys who made the Scarecrow. They basically admit that they have no fricken plan in mind and offer ten different silly origins for him. Amazing you could get away with that nonsense in those days. kvetoDecember 29, 2016 5:47 PM Marvel Spotlight #26 it feels like in the early to mid 70's marvel threw any, ahm, stuff at the wall to see what stuck. So little of it did. kvetoDecember 29, 2016 5:41 PM Marvel Team-Up #41-44 New maths: Spider-man + time travel = bad idea always kvetoDecember 29, 2016 3:22 PM Avengers #299-300 Donna Maria appears during the Capwolf issues as a receptionist. She does nothing but provide a girl for Moonhunter to hit on unsuccessfully. You'd think Cap could find a receptionist from closer to home. It smacks of favouritism, Cap taking care of his friends. AndrewDecember 29, 2016 1:40 PM Marvel Spotlight #27 Marvel pushing Namor in the seventies, when clearly neither the writers nor the readers could work up much enthusiasm, reminds me of their current attempt to interest people in the Inhumans. Give it up, guys. It's not going to happen. Mark BlackDecember 29, 2016 12:25 PM Avengers #299-300 I'm curious about the Avengers staff list - how many of these characters did we see in a definitive Avengers staff role? O'Brien, Fabian, Jarvis, Peggy, M'Daka, Sikorsky, Walter Newell/Stingray, Kincaid, Nuklo/Robert Frank, John Jameson all made appearances as Avengers staff. Gilbert Vaughn and Arnold Roth did not. I'm not sure about Puentes, Diane Newell, Genji, Talia, or Inger Sullivan. Anyone know about those folks? StevenDecember 29, 2016 12:20 PM Uncanny X-Men #189-191 Scarlet Witch's tiny appearance here is the first one she has made in this book since issue 60 sixteen years ago. StevenDecember 29, 2016 11:28 AM Avengers #299-300 Captain America restores the team here, and becomes the dominant character in the book. He hasn't been this much in charge since the Kooky Quartet issues until his departure in Avengers #47. He will remain the dominant character until he steps down as chairman at the end of Operation Galactic Storm. Jon DubyaDecember 29, 2016 11:24 AM Captain Marvel #37-39 I alaways heard that the "white" Kree were rhe minority and that the majority of Kree's were blue-skinned (Hey, just like the Atlanteans!) JTI88December 29, 2016 8:46 AM Power Man #27 Wow, there's even a list! Indeed, it's a distinctive trait of Luke Cage, so I guess it's appropriate. Omar KarinduDecember 28, 2016 9:04 PM Avengers #21-22 Even so, the whole "framing the Avengers alongside a former Master of Evil and tearing up subway tracks" thing should still get him in trouble as Power Man. But I suppose it's broadly consistent with the idea that the police can't unmask superpeople without a writ as established in some 1960s issues of Amazing Spider-Man. Omar KarinduDecember 28, 2016 9:00 PM Defenders #30 I think this is what happens when someone tries to imitate Steve Gerber's particular blend of absurdity and superheroics without understanding Gerber's underlying themes or purpose. AndrewDecember 28, 2016 8:45 PM Defenders #30 But wait, there's more! This was at the time when Valkyrie couldn't fight women, and she can't defend herself against the robots in this story because they're female robots. AndrewDecember 28, 2016 8:33 PM Captain Marvel #37-39 fnord, I totally wouldn't blame you if you decided not to track them, but the individual members of the Lunatic Legion, Arjai-Ush, Fer-Porr, Kay-Sade, Sro-Himm, and Tohn-Bil, recur in several entries. I only really notice them because Sri-Himm, with his monocle, reminds me of Vermin Vundabar. MichaelDecember 28, 2016 8:12 PM Avengers #21-22 @Omar- the Marvel Index claims that the Avengers had to let Power Man go because a few hours after they caught him the police said that there were no charges against him, and that the police only looked for charges against Power Man and not against Erik Josten. That requires incredibly incompetent police but it's probably as good an explanation as we'll get. MichaelDecember 28, 2016 8:09 PM Fantastic Four #309-311 @Nate- to be fair, that's foreshadowing for the reveal in issue 312 that Doom has been monitoring everything in Four Freedoms Plaza. (Hank and Bonita went to the FF to get a time machine after Hank decided not to kill himself.) AndrewDecember 28, 2016 7:58 PM Fantastic Four #164-165 The splash page for 165 has a wall poster for "She-Devils - The Deadly Sparklers!!", a one-shot fanzine by George Perez. Ataru320December 28, 2016 7:56 PM Power Man #27 According to this (fusing "Sweet Sister" and "Christmas"), it may just be. JTI88December 28, 2016 5:41 PM Power Man #27 Isn't that the first "Sweet Christmas"? JTI88December 28, 2016 5:36 PM Fantastic Four #160-163 Rockfeller is also blamed by one of the Sons of the Tiger in one of yhe issues of thus oeriof. Thanos6December 28, 2016 4:19 PM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 It's been years since I've read this story, so I could easily be wrong, but doesn't Magneto say at one point that of the current X-Men, the only ones he think pose a legitimate threat to him at all are Storm and Banshee? Nate WolfDecember 28, 2016 2:43 PM Fantastic Four #309-311 I like continuity guys like Englehart, but sometimes the way is does it is ridiculously convoluted. There's no way the Pym reference wasn't a cheap way to remind people of his WCA stuff and/or attract new readers. And it doesn't have anything to do with Sharon, as Fnord said. (I also agree that "Doom knows everything!" is a perfect handwave) UbersichtDecember 28, 2016 12:49 PM Avengers #52 Second time I've hit "i" instead of "o" for "losing" and "lost". I need to watch that. UbersichtDecember 28, 2016 12:47 PM Avengers #52 Oops. I think we're both a bit off. Hercules keaves at the end of 50 and in the closing, Hank has list his ability to grow, though he could shrink. It's 51 where his growing ability is restored, in battle with the Collector where the big three also appear. Omar KarinduDecember 28, 2016 12:20 PM Avengers #52 I didn't count #49 on the grounds that Hercules is still considered a member here, even if he's not on the same mission as the rest of the roster. Since he officially leaves in #50, when Hank regains his growth powers, perhaps that issue is the true nadir? Though one could (cheekily) argue that this issue still wins, since we get all three(!) active members in comas and the Panther not yet added to the roster for a few pages here. UbersichtDecember 28, 2016 11:54 AM Avengers #52 49's end is the absolute low point with Hank lising his growth powers. They're restored in 50 and T'Challa in 52 may not be a powerhouse but adds skills and tech knowhow. Note that fnord rightly criticizes the neglect of Wakanda as high tech in later Panther stories but he at least is shown to provide the quinjets. Also, in 61, he can summon one by remote control. So it's not completely neglected. Omar KarinduDecember 28, 2016 11:50 AM Deathlok #27-29 Maybe it's the same General Ryker who later bedevils the Hulk in Paul Jenkins's early 2000s stories. This doesn't preclude his being related to Simon and Harlan Ryker, of course. Omar KarinduDecember 28, 2016 11:46 AM Avengers #52 This lineup may be the nadir of the Avengers' power: the Wasp is still being written as only nominally useful in a battle, and Goliath/Giant-Man is the closest thing to a powerhouse the team has. The Grim Reaper's scythe displays a strange power here: by waving it around the room, he's somehow able to restore all the damage done to the Avengers' HQ when he battled them. Omar KarinduDecember 28, 2016 11:40 AM Avengers #21-22 The end of this story always struck me as rather odd, in that the Avengers decide not to have Josten imprisoned, instead letting him wander off on his own. Leaving aside the questionable choice to release a super-powered thug who's already demonstrated a tendency to work for supervillains on his own recognizance, you'd think Cap might be more upset about letting one of Zemo's old mercenaries go free. (Or perhaps he doesn't know that bit about Josten's background?) Of course, this story also revolves around the idea that nobody -- not the Avengers, not SHIELD, nobody -- cleaned hp Zemo's mercenary army or his base full of mad science gadgets. It;'s interesting that the Enchantress to hate the Avengers so much that she's willing to go after them even when Thor and most of the other Avengers she battled before are gone from the roster. Stan seems to be drafting villains like Amora and the Mandarin to show that villains the "old" Avengers handled as solo heroes are a real threat to the lower-powered "Kooky Quartet," which makes Hank and Jan rejoining in a few issues feel like a significant power boost for the team. Omar KarinduDecember 28, 2016 11:27 AM Iron Man #55 The Controller mentions that Thanos rescued him from an asylum; presumably this is Pinehurst Sanitarium from his previous appearance in Iron Man v.1 #28. Omar KarinduDecember 28, 2016 11:21 AM Iron Man #14 I think issues #12-14 show Goodwin trying out a character concept: Both the Controller and the Night Phantom are designed as foils to Tony Stark. Where Stark's injuries led him to develop a life-support system and become (relatively) altruistic, the Controller and the Night Phantom both respond by becoming egomaniacal exploiters addicted to the methods by which they regain their mobility and gain powers. And both end up fighting Iron Man because Stark bucks his old instincts to do right by Janice and Haiti. Of the two, the Controller has a more interesting powers and makes a better foil to Tony Stark, as both started out as egotistical inventors and, as Len Kaminski points out much later, his literal mind control reflects Tony's own habit of using people and tech to get what he wants. But Hoyt is a foil to Stark in three ways that the Controller isn't. First, he's a bit of an eco-conscious Luddite, even after he discovers the source of his super-powers and becomes addicted to it. This "spoiled social conscience" idea will be revisited more successfully with Goodwin's creation of Firebrand. Second, Hoyt is jealous of Stark's youth and charm, which could have been an interesting dynamic but is used only for the old-fashioned horror-movie trope of the monster carrying off the female lead. Third, Hoyt's power is innate, the product of what may be industrial waste or the result of A-tests, so he's perhaps a walking consequence of the industries Stark represents. AFDecember 28, 2016 8:29 AM Guardians of the Galaxy #30-34 Since you wanted to know Rita's reasons for joining and some will no doubt be disappointed we're not charting her appearances in GOTG, don't worry, you're missing nothing but what little character she has being butchered. In fact, there's some absolutely terrible continuity later in the series with Yellowjacket relating both her origin and Evolutionary War. https://68.media.tumblr.com/d940e29f638d11896b7b79765b5a6be4/tumblr_oiwd7o5uBo1tms107o1_540.jpg It's so bad and wrong that it makes me wonder if it was meant to be exaggerated to establish her as a compulsive liar. But that's it for her, her sole character trait seems to be apparently being in love with Hank Pym (despite having never even met him or it ever being mentioned before). It is awful and everything about her all just comes across as outrageously bad continuity out of laziness. And it's the same editor (Craig Anderson) whose knowledge and ability I've called into question on other entries (Silver Surfer #36 comes to mind). AFDecember 28, 2016 5:46 AM Avengers annual #17 Bright does do commissions, but he was taking a short break last I checked, as I indeed had considered getting him to do a nice shot of the team from this annual. I'd also like to get Walt to draw this team - that'd be cool. I saw a commission where someone had gotten him to draw the line-up from #300 and I thought that was a nice thing to get him to draw instead of getting him to draw a Thor or Beta Ray Bill for the 1,000,000th time. WisDecember 28, 2016 1:53 AM Avengers annual #17 Yep, this is one of the all time great Avengers tales and feels like it has the pacing of a film. Love the camaraderie and how Erik points out it's nice we're left with those three (plus Yellowjacket) at the end. Would love to see some kind of Kang/time warp storyline with this exact line-up brought together again though that likely and understandably won't happen. Wonder if one can get Doc Bright to do a commission? Just a great memory of childhood and a great Avengers story, even if you hadn't been following the murky Evolutionary War. Cesar Hernandez-MerazDecember 28, 2016 12:37 AM Tales To Astonish #51 (Giant-Man/Wasp) ...he does mention both of them have that determination and fire he thought was needed. Hank is also the first to acknowledge the heroic qualities Jan has. He does try to portect her sometimes, but on others he actually asks her to place herself in danger and do some perilous task. I ended up enjoying these early Hank and Janet stories very much, even after seeing how many people thought they were not good at all. I became a Dave Cannon fan, too. Cesar Hernandez-MerazDecember 28, 2016 12:34 AM Tales To Astonish #51 (Giant-Man/Wasp) I was disappointed by how quickly Janet forgot her dad and her decision to battle crime. She did not cry for him at all, and in one issue he was dropped completely. (Perhaps we could now say there was some denial as reason for her behavior.) But I do like Jan as an airhead, especially when it is mentioned (by Hank, at times) that it is just an act, and they acknowledge her intelligence. And he does it before acknowledging her beauty. Her courage is never questioned and she saves the day more than once, sometimes on her own. I think she is smart and courageous at the same time that she also likes attention and romance. These things should not necessarily be mutually exclusive. I also like to think that when the Avengers magazine compares her and Rick Jones it is not because he is a powerless sidekick and she is a female, hence inferior, hero. I think it is because both of them are still teenagers, with Rick being even younger, and so they should not be exposed to the same danger the older adults faced. All in all, I think Sue had it worse when it came to her written depictions. Yes, she was brave and compassionate, and she managed to save the day, too, but we all remember how her own family "defended" her when the readers complained in the letters. Hank, in the other hand, saw something in Janet that made him ask her to be his partner (not sidekick). Okay, perhaps part of it was that she looks like a younger version of his dead wife, but he does mention both of them... MichaelDecember 27, 2016 11:30 PM Infinity Crusade #1 @ChrisW- she DID go after Daredevil, Wolfsbane, Sersi, Hercules and Thor- I get why they didn't want to have more than one Eternal, etc. Nobody could find Excalibur for whatever reason. AndrewDecember 27, 2016 10:35 PM Tomb of Dracula #31-35 Dr Scott is an odd duck. His name reminds me of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which came out around this time, but would only slowly acquire cult status. With his glasses he reminds me a bit of Clark Kent ("Great Scott!"). But the way Colan draws him, he looks more like Rod Serling than anyone else. ChrisWDecember 27, 2016 9:54 PM Infinity Crusade #1 It could make an interesting story about what the experience of being treated as a goddess did to her once she learned she was only a mutant. If the Goddess is tracking people by religious belief, wouldn't Nightcrawler and Wolfsbane be much more obvious targets? The Thing and Kitty Pryde? [I don't know when Ben was retconned into being Jewish, and Kitty has - in my experience only - never been shown as particularly devout, but at the very least Dracula was wounded by her Star of David.] The Black Panther? Daredevil? All the Eternals, Norse Gods and Greek Gods? AndrewDecember 27, 2016 7:48 PM Marvel Chillers #1 fnord, you say first Book of Darkhold, but didn't you already say the Darkhold first appeared in http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/marvel_spotlight_3.shtml ? kvetoDecember 27, 2016 7:27 PM Iron Man #145 I don't get why Rhodey being a ladykiller is any more un-PC that Tony being a ladykiller. StevenDecember 27, 2016 12:39 PM Avengers #88 Is this the first time Iron Man teamed up with Mister Fantastic and Professor X? This is a prelude to the Illuminati that form after the Kree-Skrull War. kvetoDecember 27, 2016 12:34 PM Alpha Flight #23-24 #23 was my only issue ever of Alpha flight and I had no idea what the hell was going on. I did like that the villain got taken out early in a few panels and the rest of the issue was the team fighting each other. I found it a bit odd that Snowbird could outfight Sasquash in that form considering he was much more used to it. Between this and my only other exposure to the team in MTU annual, I felt that AF spent more time fighting each other than the baddies. kvetoDecember 27, 2016 12:19 PM Thing #20-22 there was a really excellent adventure gamebook in the 80s called öne thing leads to another" in which Ben Grimm has to travel to other multi-verses to find different versions of himself. I'd recommend it highly: http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=1717 kvetoDecember 27, 2016 12:11 PM Web of Spider-Man #38 PS is this Mr Muggin's first appearance? kvetoDecember 27, 2016 12:09 PM Web of Spider-Man #38 I don't think this issue did much for establishing the MacGoblin as a threat. Beaten by a drunk spidey and sailing off into the sunset on an out of control glider wile e coyote style. kvetoDecember 27, 2016 12:04 PM Solo Avengers #3 (Moon Knight) A nice pure fight issue although I can see why readers would call foul with an MK story so early in the series when longer time Avengers hadn't got their shot yet. UbersichtDecember 27, 2016 12:03 PM Avengers #288-290 I commented on the forum thread but specific to this story, I wanted to point out the absurdity of Monica's self-doubt vis-a-vis leading the team in clean-up operations. Whatever weaknesses we might suppose her to have as a tactical leader compared to Cap, as an experienced cargo ship captain she should be more than capable and fully confident in leading and organizing a clean-up operation. Similar considerations apply to guiding the helicopters relocating the Avengers mansion to hydrobase in Avengers 288. And as a woman of color who managed to not just function but lead in her previous work, she should not be so easy to psych out. No doubt she made it as a Harbor Patrol officer and a cargo ship captain in the face of others doubting and challenging her leadership. That wouldn't be new to her either. kvetoDecember 27, 2016 11:52 AM Captain America #409-410 these were some good fight issues even if the premise was strained (why not have Dr Druid pinpoint the locale exactly?) Diamondback's escape was pretty awesome even if it had to come about by making her "stronger by repeated rapes" by her enemy. I liked her take out of mother night. I've never been able to place exactly what accent gru was giving Crossbones but I guess its working class Brooklyn. kvetoDecember 27, 2016 11:44 AM Captain America #402-408 (Back-ups) Hey, working for the skull is stressful. I like seeing a receding hairline on a character. It always seems like every male character has either a full head of hair or is cue ball bald, with nothing in between. UbersichtDecember 27, 2016 11:16 AM Avengers #288-290 Black Knight joined in issue #71. So one member at this team clearly predates not only #200 but #100 as well. That is easy to forget though, since Dane was away for so long. Jon DubyaDecember 27, 2016 10:52 AM Captain America #402-408 (Back-ups) Did Cutthroat's hair just recided between issues? It's like he aged 10 years from one scan to the next. Luke BlanchardDecember 27, 2016 9:39 AM Thor #390 The hammer must magically adjust its effective weight, or it would sink into the ground or break through the floor when at rest. Arguably it should float if dropped on a body of water. WisDecember 27, 2016 8:43 AM Daredevil #254 Amazingly, I just learned that Nocenti is teaching a comics writing class in NYC these days at a university. I'd be curious what the course consisted of or what she recommended for study. AFDecember 27, 2016 8:11 AM Thor #390 Please take it to the thread: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=96 Luke BlanchardDecember 27, 2016 5:00 AM Iron Man #14 The bit where the villain is unmasked resembles the climax reveal from MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and HOUSE OF WAX. Nate WolfDecember 27, 2016 4:26 AM Iron Man #14 That's the Night Phantom's only appearance, right? (the robot duplicate doesn't count) He comes back during Avengers Standoff, but that was so many years later than even Iron Man almost forgot about him. Not to mention, out of scope. WisDecember 27, 2016 1:27 AM Thor #390 I've got to say, for grown men, it's the logic of a little kid that somehow making Cap the leader of the Avengers again (and then having the other Avengers in awe of his every move) would somehow translate into bigger sales for Captain America. I mean it- it's how small children think, if they thought about things. Kids often argue about who is in charge of their social groups. How would this translate to sales? People who only bought The Avengers probably were already content with already seeing Cap there. kvetoDecember 26, 2016 8:00 PM Iron Man #14 Archie Goodwin's IM is usually good. Here's a case when it's not. kvetoDecember 26, 2016 7:58 PM Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #32-33 Pretty crap doctor to not realize he was injecting heroin into a bionic metal arm. kvetoDecember 26, 2016 7:55 PM Iron Man annual #11 (Mrs. Arbogast) Tuomas, I told you it was a joke. No need to keep trying to refute it. If you feel like it, go hurl your head really fast against a metal wall. Then come back and tell me how you broke through it. I'll be waiting:-) TuomasDecember 26, 2016 7:45 PM Iron Man annual #11 (Mrs. Arbogast) If you'd hurl it at a high enough speed, it most certainly would. Even a water stream would, if it has enough kinetic energy. There's absolutely no question that with the speed Marvel Universe speedsters have, their hits should be powerful enough to dent metal. But we all agree that without super-durability, they shouldn't be able to do that more than once. kvetoDecember 26, 2016 7:06 PM Iron Man annual #11 (Mrs. Arbogast) Well, pencils and tree trunk are both made of wood, so again a poor example. When you find a pencil pushed through metal then we can talk.:-) I agree that the damage to Whirlwind is the issue. Speedsters bodies would need to be super durable anyway. I was mostly making an offhand joke anyway. Don't need you guys to keep (poorly) trying to refute it. Fnord my get bothered and we all agreed, no arguments. Since you guys like the apples to oranges types of examples, I'm gonna go hurl some jello at superhuman speed and see if it'll go through concrete.:-) DermieDecember 26, 2016 6:42 PM Iron Man annual #11 (Mrs. Arbogast) If tornados can push pencils through tree trunks, I don't think it is impossible that you could propel human flesh fast enough to dent or damage metal. As Tuomas said, the bigger problem is the damage that would/should be done to Whirlwind's body by hitting metal at the required speed. But I think most speedsters are understood to possess some degree of invulnerability, to protect them against that sort of consequence of their powers. I'm pretty I've heard some reference to that with Northstar or Quicksilver or both. JPDecember 26, 2016 5:06 PM Marvel Team-Up #78 Huh. Well, this is a big one from my childhood. I'll have to go back and read it again, but eight-year-old me thought it was pretty intense. And Wonder-Man's fear issues were such a new concept in superhero comics for me that I was pretty intrigued. kvetoDecember 26, 2016 2:06 PM Werewolf By Night #27-30 He's hiding at his hideout, the mythical g-spot. kvetoDecember 26, 2016 2:04 PM Iron Man annual #11 (Mrs. Arbogast) That's why I said punching metal not glass, Toumas. Duh.:-) Normal fists won't hurt metal no matter how fast he spins. KombatGodDecember 26, 2016 12:06 PM Secret Wars II #6 Wait, isn't there another entity behind One Above All and Kronos? It looks like a tentacular silhouette, it kinda looks like Supreme Intelligence... AndrewDecember 26, 2016 10:12 AM Amazing Spider-Man #143 Maybe it doesn't look so impressive in retrospect, but the airport scene (not just the kiss, but the pages preceding and following it) is one of the great iconic moments in Spider-Man's history. It's not just a change in Peter and Mary Jane's relationship; it's also Peter finally emerging from the miasma of grief over Gwen's death. Which will make it all the more cruel when Gwen comes back. TuomasDecember 26, 2016 6:52 AM Infinity Crusade #1 I guess Starlin chose it because it's the only religious symbol from Africa he knew of, and/or it's the only one he thought the readers would recognise? As Fnord points out, even though Ororo did grow up in Cairo, it still makes little sense to use the ankh, as the ancient Egyptian religion doesn't really have any followers in modern times, and Storm certainly has never been portrayed as one. TuomasDecember 26, 2016 6:40 AM Nova #22-25 True, but the Barry Allen Flash is a distinct character from the Jay Garrick Flash both in personality and appearance, and he was undeniably co-created by Infantino... And the Comet is clearly a homage to Barry, not Jay. TuomasDecember 26, 2016 6:35 AM Iron Man annual #11 (Mrs. Arbogast) You're wrong, speed does make a difference: if there's more kinetic energy in the collision between Whirlwind's fists and Iron Man's armor, they would definitely have a bigger impact. If you hit a window very slowly, it won't break, but if you hit it really fast, it might. Kinetic energy is also why even fairly small asteroid can do massive damage to Earth's surface, because they hit it with a huge speed. Though of course the real question is, why aren't the bones in Whirlwind's fists shattered when he hits IM, since they would be affected by the increased kinetic energy too? I guess he must have limited invulnerability as a secondary superpower? Don CampbellDecember 25, 2016 11:06 PM Iron Man annual #11 According to the Marvel Chronology Project, Peter Spaulding appeared in the X-51 series. It's been a while since I read those issues and as I recall his death was mentioned but there was no reference as to how he was now alive. As far as I know, Spaulding's return from the dead has never been explained. AndrewDecember 25, 2016 10:52 PM Hulk #193 I wonder if this is the Hulk's first use of his awkward catchphrase "strongest one there is"? AndrewDecember 25, 2016 10:12 PM Captain America annual #9 In order for the chronology to track correctly, fnord doesn't list characters appearing in flashbacks, prophecies, or via time travel. See the Rules: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/rules.shtml AndrewDecember 25, 2016 10:06 PM Werewolf By Night #27-30 Dr. Clitterhouse? I spent a lot of time in my late teens trying to locate him... ChrisWDecember 25, 2016 10:00 PM Daredevil #225 Isn't "I can seldom follow the workings of diseased minds" a rough quote from what Christopher Reeve said to Gene Hackman in the first "Superman" movie? ChrisWDecember 25, 2016 9:57 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Ok, I'm torn. That's actually a good retcon, it's just the story shown in those scans is uninteresting, and Storm and Forge are so far away from the characters I used to know that I'd be willing to throw the retcon out the window if there was a better retcon coming along. And what does an ankh have to do with Ororo's religious beliefs? Johan MattheeuwsDecember 25, 2016 6:33 PM Captain America #393-394 Hauptmann Deutschland can be translated as captain Germany. Greetings from Belgium. Matthew KiddDecember 25, 2016 5:39 PM Captain America annual #9 Why didn't you list Fury and the rest of the Howlers in character appearances? WisDecember 25, 2016 3:58 PM Marvel Fanfare #56-57 (Captain Marvel) a minor point for a minor story (involving action figures which, I presume, have only a basic aspect of the hero's personality) but I notice Wolverine says "never mind my patch"- a reference to the script which Don Heck didn't get, maybe? Since Wolverine is not in his 'patch' persona. Anyway it's a throwaway line in a throwaway story but I noticed that. Johan MattheeuwsDecember 25, 2016 12:36 PM Hulk #363 This was the last issue with a Dutch translation that was published in Belgium and the Netherlands by Juniorpress. MichaelDecember 25, 2016 12:14 PM Infinity Crusade #1 @ChrisW- Grek Pak retconned it that the locals were just humoring Storm because they needed help with the crops: WisDecember 25, 2016 2:09 AM Thor #386 I'm the William Byron who wrote that over two years ago and I've been re-reading 86-87 over the past week and yeah, it's been hitting me again- it just doesn't feel like a "these characters should be updated for the 90s" thing, really. In some ways, it almost seems unheralded and just happens organically (which, to me, would support an Editor subtly instructing people to change the visuals of said character). I've got to say it makes a lot of logical sense, even if I'm very fond (in the sentimental sense) of this era of the Marvel Universe and revisiting these posts over the past couple weeks (when I'm out of town on business and killing a lot of time at a hotel) have been really enjoyable, the second time around. Jon DubyaDecember 25, 2016 1:53 AM Avengers #347 Also, Dan, I think Cap has been retroactively granted "founder" status (confirmed in Busiek's run) so Iron Man's "pulling rank" speech is basically a bunch of bull (unfortunately not out of character for Iron Man, though. In fact I think at least half of the Avengers crossovers go something like this.) WisDecember 24, 2016 4:51 PM Thor #379-380 I sort of dig how Fin Fang Foom initially is such a dapper, well-spoken dragon. Although I do wonder how a dragon sleeping under the ocean knows such phrases as 'doubting thomas' and references to the Alamo. Luis DantasDecember 24, 2016 1:09 PM Fantastic Four #181-184 What makes a book the flagship of Marvel? It seems to me that by this point in time Fantastic Four had no claim at that title, which would go instead to either Avengers or Amazing Spider-Man. EntzauberungDecember 24, 2016 11:35 AM Daredevil #243-244 Nocenti probably had something darker in mind that was edited at the last minute.. WisDecember 24, 2016 8:19 AM Daredevil #243-244 Is it just me or does Karen's "I know you only use your fists to save lives" re-lettered? Luis DantasDecember 24, 2016 8:17 AM Uncanny X-Men #125-128 This was clearly the high point of Wolverine as a character. He was never better written or more interesting than when he learns from Scott in this storyline. WisDecember 24, 2016 5:36 AM Hulk #329 Regarding fnord's mention of the Jim Shooter killing the Marvel Universe rumor, it got me thinking to something someone else once said in passing, which was that around the time all these cosmetic changes occurred in the Marvel U- from Captain America becoming "The Captain", Thor getting beard and an armor, etc.- this was around the time that Jack Kirby (apparently) was claiming his ownership and creation of the characters. Is it possible that these changes were a response to that as well as a proactive measure to show how different the Marvel characters looked in (at that time) 'current' time? Even the FF would soon change with a spiked Thing, etc. It really doesn't seem like gimmicks- it was a lot of visual changes in long-standing characters, all within the same 3-4 year period... WisDecember 24, 2016 5:24 AM Silver Surfer #1 It's not fnord's intent but this site is really making me rethink both Englehart and Roy Thomas. As for Galactus, one would think he was beyond "like a man feels for a woman" emotions- Galactus has truly been diluted from the cosmic, above human comprehension God-like force he was intended as, and is more just like a cosmic giant, albeit with great power, but easily manipulated and prone to his emotions. This makes him less special, in my opinion. MichaelDecember 23, 2016 7:40 PM Uncanny X-Men #154-157 @Karel- K'rk was also in issue 105. KarelDecember 23, 2016 6:48 PM Uncanny X-Men #154-157 #157 has an unseen (I think) Shi'ar character, called "Captain K'rk". It sounds pretty cheesy. AndrewDecember 23, 2016 12:42 PM Uncanny X-Men #138 I doubt fnord will change the site at this point, but I have to agree. Putting the original, super-high-quality stories in the same entry as the filler that followed a decade later just makes my teeth hurt. Karel BílekDecember 23, 2016 10:25 AM Avengers annual #10 I am not fan of the art, personally. Starting to look too "90s", as Jay Patrick noticed in the first comment. The writing is great though. Jon DubyaDecember 23, 2016 10:06 AM Fantastic Four #356 I dunno. Did it? Outside of a an interest in Johnny in the first place there was nothing in my mind to indicate that Alicia had an abrupt change in personality. AndrewDecember 23, 2016 8:55 AM Marvel Team-Up #28 Meh. It's Prince Rey who's ranting, not Tyrannus. (fnord, FYI, you have him mislabelled.) Anyway, how crazy was that storyline? How does giving the Orb his goofy helmet cause "violent geophysical activity"? AndrewDecember 23, 2016 8:48 AM Marvel Team-Up #28 For the sake of completeness, I should mention that in Hulk 241 Tyrannus says of this issue, quote, "One of our pawns would have split New York city asunder with earthquakes had not the man-god Hercules braced himself against the city's foundations and absorbed the generated shock-waves with his own immortal body. Of course, the son of Zeus has since boasted of his feat in more grandiose terms, but no matter!" As if substituting one completely impossible scenario with another that is only slightly less completely impossible makes a difference. Google this story and you can find several flame wars over whether it's true or exaggerated by Hercules. Even at the end of this story, the editors are doubting its veracity. Personally, I like the idea that Hercules is so charismatic he can even get his stories told his way in the "official" record. Also, since I think there are no outside stories confirming the horrific damage and loss of life, and the massive repairs that would have followed, that this story has in fact been embellished by Hercules. WisDecember 23, 2016 2:30 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #121 the "so firm.. so fully packed" was the actual tagline of Lucky Strike Cigarettes in the 1940s'. WisDecember 23, 2016 2:27 AM Amazing Spider-Man annual #20 275.36!!!! My goodness, three decades later and you can barely find a studio in Manhattan for 2750.36! WisDecember 23, 2016 1:55 AM X-Factor #9 for such a grim storyline that's a decidedly positive and festive flow chart! KarelDecember 22, 2016 9:33 PM Uncanny X-Men #138 Should there be tags for characters, even when they appear only in the later classic X-men stories? For some reason it feels "wrong" to me. But it's your website :) and it's up to you. AndrewDecember 22, 2016 12:41 PM Amazing Spider-Man #136 Agreed. That first appearance of Harry as the Goblin was one of the few times the editorially mandated double page splashes of the period was deserved. Surprised fnord didn't include it. Luke BlanchardDecember 22, 2016 12:19 PM Marvel Premiere #4-10 There's a bit in #3 where Strange in his spirit form contacts the Ancient One using a large, red crystal ball. He finds himself trapped in the room, and throws the crystal ball, causing an explosion. Despite the issue's twist end, the references to the Orb's destruction might be to that. AndrewDecember 22, 2016 11:58 AM Doctor Strange #1-2,4-5 I loved these issues. Inventive, weird, and full of pretentious nonsense, as a good Dr Strange story should be. Does this count as an "evil rabbit meme" appearance? KarelDecember 22, 2016 11:05 AM Uncanny X-Men #151-152 Seeing Storm turned evil and in Emma Frost clothes is kind of hot. KarelDecember 22, 2016 8:17 AM Uncanny X-Men annual #4 You are exactly right. Jay GallardoDecember 22, 2016 6:46 AM Hellstorm #1-3 First Spanish Spider-Man edition. Jay GallardoDecember 22, 2016 6:43 AM Hellstorm #1-3 Regarding what Avram Siegel says about religion and super powers, Superhero comics were banned in Spain during Franco´s Dictatorship. The Censor´s Office reasoned that those powers put the characters "Too close to God" and therefore bordering blasphemy. Luke BlanchardDecember 22, 2016 4:44 AM Marvel Premiere #3 The plot of this instalment is similar to STRANGE TALES #122's. BenwayDecember 22, 2016 1:00 AM Amazing Spider-Man #289 I thought it was Bannon too. JeffDecember 21, 2016 10:49 PM Marvel Premiere #4-10 I just got done reading this in the Doctor Strange Epic Collection Vol. 3 "A Separate Reality." The color reconstruction makes the art on nearly all the issues look gorgeous, even the really bad art in the second chapter to take place in Starkesboro. One thing that kept bothering me in the Gardner Fox-penned issues was his insistence on over using the word "necromancy" when referring to Strange's power. I thought hhe was misusing it --doesn't that refer more to talking to the dead than to white magic? And Fox uses it over and over in his portions of the story. That aside, this was a good batch of issues. Ataru320December 21, 2016 10:36 PM Marvel Two-In-One #46 Eh, something tells me Howard was just trying to fool around...that or he was on some high that lead to him signing his rights over to George Lucas...and we know how that turned out. As for Karen Page: when in doubt, blame Frank Miller. (yeah, this appearance is obviously just as Miller's run that basically turned the life of Matt and everyone around him into living hell for the rest of their lives were about to begin...) Ataru320December 21, 2016 10:25 PM Uncanny X-Men #98-101 Looking it over, the Christmas issue here was April, '76, and GSXM was May, '75; so somehow Claremont was probably thinking as if it was real time as opposed to Marvel Time. Then again it's also a bit weird it would take a year before the team took on a traditional X-threat such as the Sentinels. (its strange: they took on a living island, a demon, aliens and Count Nefaria...and yet nothing typical of the X-Men up to that point prior to the Sentinels here; at least the next set have the return of Juggernaut and Magneto) Morgan WickDecember 21, 2016 8:54 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #4 You're not going to find more than offhand mentions and cameo appearances; her most substantial appearance to this point was in Marvel Team-Up #89, and near as I can tell from fnord's recaps her most substantial mention in the Uncanny series to this point was actually in #109, where she didn't actually appear (though #123-4, where she's kidnapped as part of Arcade's plot, might also count). I think this is the earliest in fnord's project that he actually has a scan that mentions her last name. kvetoDecember 21, 2016 5:29 PM Iron Man annual #11 (Mrs. Arbogast) I have no idea how Whirlwind's punches could hurt IM ithout his blades. Its not like punch metal really fast would be any different from just punching metal. Ben HermanDecember 21, 2016 1:21 PM Moon Knight #26-31 Interesting information, Kveto. Maybe the father or grandfather of the real-life Marc Spector had the last name Szpector and it became Anglicized when he emigrated to America. Ataru320December 21, 2016 11:52 AM Nova #22-25 The Carmine Infantino Flash was the "Silver Age" version; since the original Flash was around since the 1940s. kvetoDecember 21, 2016 8:40 AM Moon Knight #26-31 Thanks Ben. I'd always assumed "Marc Spector" was a completely made up name as it ranks up there with Otto Octavius in terms of credulity. But Szpector is Yiddish for a rabbi's assistant or "inspector" (who had a favoured status collecting taxes for a government and were resented by other jews) . (Although it is clearly Russian and not Czech. The "sz" consonant cluster does not exist in Czech) learn something new every day. Luke BlanchardDecember 21, 2016 3:05 AM Doctor Strange #32-37 Or it might be smart to use one as releasing magic to levitate can disrupt one's other spells. Luke BlanchardDecember 21, 2016 2:17 AM Doctor Strange #32-37 Thanks, Michael. Perhaps levitating is like walking, and using the cloak is like driving a car. MichaelDecember 20, 2016 11:30 PM Doctor Strange #32-37 We've seen Strange levitate without his cloak on several occasions- for example, Doctor Strange 49 (1981). The "cloak helps him conserve energy" theory is the usual explanation. ChrisWDecember 20, 2016 9:55 PM Marvel Team-Up #82-85 Agreed, he could do it well, especially when he wasn't trapped by the X-titles. When I was reading "Marvel Tales," it reprinted the first fifty issues of "Spider-Man," then the 'drug issues,' then the 'Death of Gwen Stacy,' and then started on Claremont/Byrne's "Marvel Team-Up" run. At the time, I didn't care much for them, thinking they used a lot of characters I had no interest in and didn't do anything interesting anyway, but in hindsight, it's very well done how each story focused on the team-up characters (Hank Pym and the Wasp, Iron Fist, the Human Torch, Ms. Marvel) and each story naturally led to the next one. I bought the collection fairly recently, and was impressed at how Spidey had almost no time to rest. It's like Marty McFly in the "Back to the Future" movies, if you watch all three in a row, you basically get the sense that Marty has had almost no real sleep for the week or so, just periods where he was knocked unconscious. Yeah, you can quibble with that interpretation, but this isn't a "Back to the Future" fansite, so let's move on. The Claremont/Byrne arc was very good at pushing story after story without halt. I haven't read the issues without Byrne such as this one, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's much the same. Also, I like the art here. At first glance, I thought Gene Colan had found the time to draw a Spider-Man comic. And it turns out to be Sal Buscema and Steve Leialoha? "Forget it, it's 2016." Ben HermanDecember 20, 2016 9:05 PM Moon Knight #26-31 As explained in an interview between Doug Moench and Charlie Huston, here is how Moon Knight accidentally turned out to be Jewish... MOENCH: Getting back to how much was accidental and incremental, the other thing is, I had a habit of naming characters in stories after friends, and it started spreading. And soon I had people coming to me saying, “When are you going to name a character after me?” So I used to go to Ed Summer’s comic shop, I think it was called Comic Snipe? Something Snipe. It was the best comic shop in Manhattan at the time. And one of the guys that worked there was Marc Spector. HUSTON: Great name. MOENCH: And he was saying, “When are you going to name a character after me?” So then I was trying to figure out this villain for “Werewolf by Night.” What am I going to call him? I’ll name him after Marc Spector. Then it turned out Marc Spector was Jewish. Ah, I guess this is a Jewish name. Well, I guess I just made up the first Jewish costumed hero. So maybe I should research some Judaism and stuff about the Mideast and Mossad and all this other stuff, and that’s where all that stuff came from. HUSTON: Oh, wow. MOENCH: It was all an accident. I didn’t say, “I’m going to sit down and create a Jewish character.” The entire interview is online at http://comicfoundry.com/?p=1461 AndrewDecember 20, 2016 7:30 PM Amazing Spider-Man #132-133 Mike and Jack, you think this is darker than the Sixties cartoon? Perhaps you never saw the Dementia Five episode. That freaked the hell out of me. Don CampbellDecember 20, 2016 7:02 PM Captain America #368 It was the first edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe that established that Starr Saxon was the person who created both the Magneto robot and the Demi-Men androids that worked with Mesmero. How does this story contradict that idea? KarelDecember 20, 2016 6:25 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #4 ...I just read Uncanny X-men 100-150 (circa), and have zero recollection of this Amanda Sefton. I will have to go back using your character tracking and make sure she is actually there. I can't remember her at all. kvetoDecember 20, 2016 5:44 PM Sub-Mariner #70-71 Piranha is just so darn cute. kvetoDecember 20, 2016 5:24 PM Captain America #368 A very Grunwaldian issue with all the different elements brought together, particularly spelling of Machinsmith's origin. Ron Lim drew a pretty Diamondback. kvetoDecember 20, 2016 5:20 PM Astonishing Tales #9 Buscema and Ka-zar feel like such a natural fit, but thats probably because I'm so used to him on SS of Conan. kvetoDecember 20, 2016 5:12 PM Daredevil #119 It doesnt seem like DD's billy club would hurt much when it hits you if it was hollow. kvetoDecember 20, 2016 5:09 PM Marvel Team-Up #65-66 Arcade feels like a villain created for Spidey Super Stories or Hostess fruit pies ads. kvetoDecember 20, 2016 5:07 PM Captain America #241 Obviously Ben HermanDecember 20, 2016 4:59 PM Captain America #241 @kveto: Yeah, agreed on that, although I think you meant to type laissez-faire. Lassie was the dog who was always rescuing Timmy after he fell down the well :) kvetoDecember 20, 2016 4:25 PM Captain America #241 This is probably one of the only early appearances (the other is a spider-man annual*) of the Punisher I like (I dont like any of his later ones). (*My favourite punisher appearance is actually in an RPG called "Lone Wolves") kvetoDecember 20, 2016 3:42 PM Marvel Team-Up #82-85 Both Claremont on this and the Grunwald/Macchio runs in the team up titles show what the titles should have been. Personally, I felt Claremont should have done more if he can write other aspects of the MU so well (but thats me hating on the x-men mostly.) Ataru320December 20, 2016 2:37 PM Marvel Team-Up #82-85 I do find it interesting that the "redundant" titles in Marvel were probably at their creative peak at the same time, both with this and Gru's "Project Pegasus" arc in Two-in-One; the former due to Claremont's care when he works on characters (even when they weren't mutants); the latter due to Gru's playing around with the universe, both of which highlight their specialties in earlier works. Ben HermanDecember 20, 2016 1:33 PM Fantastic Four #55 That first panel in fnord's write-up perfectly encapsulates the wonderful playfulness of the mid-1960s FF issues by Lee & Kirby... Invisible Woman: Benjamin J. Grimm! You're just being obdurate! The Thing: My religion's got nothing to do with it! kvetoDecember 20, 2016 1:15 PM Marvel Team-Up #82-85 This is probably the best run in marvel team up. It uses the format right. A slow burn and mystery from the first issue, each issue bringing in a logical new guest (but not dumping the previous ones due to the plot) with good villains and an over the top plot. But it also shows why guest stars and the shared universe make this type of team-up format redundant. It easily could have been a run in ASM with guest stars. Spidey and the Widow wouldn't make a bad couple (as far as I know, Pete's not been involved with and older woman and obviously likes redheads). If nothing else they are both spiders. But I guess this makes Spider-man one of the few heroes the Widow didnt have a tumble with. Jon DubyaDecember 20, 2016 12:49 PM End of Line Hee. I love the symbolism of the "end" if the Marvel Universe being represented by a Greg Land cover. How appropriate! SerenaDecember 20, 2016 11:01 AM End of Line RIP Omar KarinduDecember 20, 2016 7:18 AM Avengers #228-230 Trish Starr also flashes back to Egghead's scheme to drain her mind from her first appearance in Marvel Feature #5. Luke BlanchardDecember 20, 2016 5:05 AM Doctor Strange #32-37 Fnord's review of DOCTOR STRANGE #175-178 (1968-69) has panels from a sequence where she starts flying in public and Strange stops her. But how she does it is a good question: Strange uses a Cloak of Levitation to fly, and Clea doesn't have one. Jimaine Szardos does some hovering in DOCTOR STRANGE #57 (1983), so apparently it's something Marvel U magicians can do. Maybe Strange uses a cloak so he won't have to devote mental or magical resources to it. Jon DubyaDecember 19, 2016 11:08 PM Amazing Spider-Man #380 But Cecil. He's "an accountant", which as we all know means he can't possibly be a sexual predator...for some reason. Also I know comic books like to utilize "Light=Purification" tropes, but Firestar's "light" is from microwave energy. Unless you want a dose of concetrated radiation, I don't think it's going to "calm" anyone's psyche. AndrewDecember 19, 2016 5:14 PM Hulk #334 Oh. My. God. Look at that butte. MichaelDecember 19, 2016 5:06 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #202 @Keaton- DeMatteis is a pacifist. keatonDecember 19, 2016 4:36 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #202 This is certainly the most interesting issue of this interminable story. Unfortunately, the moral position it advances is completely insane: you should never, ever kill someone, even if that's the only way to prevent that person from going on to kill hundreds of others. It's a moral code that's only really ever existed in comic books, and I find it hard to believe that DeMatteis or anyone else involved sincerely believes it. Andrew BurkeDecember 19, 2016 4:26 PM Amazing Spider-Man #289 I thought he was Lance Bannon for a while. Stern never got the chance to explain how a photographer like him always drove around in a super nice car. He seemed like he may have had more money than it appeared, like an inheritance or something. Then, at the end, when we saw Lance in his apartment with all those photos of the Hobgoblin, I knew he was just working on a major expose on the Hobgoblin, but this was after Stern left. kvetoDecember 19, 2016 2:03 PM Hulk #334 That's a really weird looking butte. Ben HermanDecember 19, 2016 1:50 PM Amazing Spider-Man #289 I think the lesson we can learn from this whole debacle is that waaaaaay back in 1982 when Roger Stern first proposed the whole Hobgoblin secret ID mystery, right then & there Tom DeFalco should have looked him right in the eye and told him "I am not going to give you the okay to do this unless you first tell me who the Hobgoblin is supposed to be." If DeFalco had done that, then later he could have stopped Stern from introducing Kingsley's near-identical brother to throw readers off the trail, something that DeFalco felt was a cheat, and which is what started the whole "let's make Hobgoblin someone else" debacle that led to this issue. Ben HermanDecember 19, 2016 12:11 PM Marvel Team-Up #15 Agreed that the Orb has an awesome visual. That's probably why years after the original Orb was killed a new one was introduced who looked almost exactly the same but who was written as a more competent villain. SpikeyDecember 19, 2016 4:18 AM X-Factor #56-58 I always assumed they had learned something about the Meltdown story from the X-men mansion computers, that would somehow suggest Wolverine and Havok are still alive, but dismiss the credibility of the evidence until tells them that they are. Kind of farfetched, I know. SpikeyDecember 19, 2016 4:12 AM Uncanny X-Men #264 Hm, I wasn't a fan of the spasmodic way of keeping X-factor and X-men seperate either, but this is a such a sudden change of course headlong into the opposite direction that it is hard to digest. The strangest thing is that the New Mutants are being kept seperate for a while? It kind of starts with ignorance of Rusty and Skids being in trouble and the New Mutants needing to fight Freedom Force on their own, while Archangel is being mauled by Sabretooth and Iceman goes out shopping for a Kate Bush CD. Jean, Cyke & Beast go out to dinner (talk about priorities). They don't seem to care that much about Moira or Cable meddling with their wards, though an offpanel conversation between Cable and Cyclops is mentioned (I think). ChrisWDecember 18, 2016 11:50 PM Marvel Team-Up #15 I like the Orb too. I only read this story in whatever Marvel Treasury it was reprinted in, but he's got a solid red leather suit, an eyeball for a head, and he's riding a motorcycle. Is it even possible to visually design a better villain if your name isn't "Jack Kirby" or "Steve Ditko"? He may be a crappy villain, but the design is a lot cooler than, say, Ghost Rider. AndrewDecember 18, 2016 12:06 PM Marvel Team-Up #15 Roy Thomas notes the similarity between the two characters in his introduction to the Marvel Masterworks volume that reprints this issue. He calls it "probably coincidental." Luke BlanchardDecember 18, 2016 11:51 AM Marvel Team-Up #15 I think the Orb was probably a homage to Biljo White's fanzine character the Eye. AndrewDecember 18, 2016 10:05 AM Marvel Team-Up #15 Personally, I've always loved the Orb, goofy as he is. However, my understanding is that this Orb, Drake Shannon, is a different Orb from the one Jason Aaron uses. That one isn't wearing a mask; he really has a giant eyeball for a head. How he breathes, speaks, and hears is a mystery. Speaking of masks, I think the whole trope around this time of people thinking Ghost Rider is wearing a mask might be better understood in terms of the mystical Seventies belief that most people are blind to the mystery and wonder around them. kvetoDecember 18, 2016 9:48 AM Amazing Spider-Man #289 I guess I was the only person who thought Hobgoblin was Lance Bannon. Jon DubyaDecember 18, 2016 8:56 AM Amazing Spider-Man #289 Incidentally, here's PAD's side of this issue's orgins right here: http://www.peterdavid.net/2004/11/18/foolish-consistencies-and/ Luke BlanchardDecember 18, 2016 4:36 AM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1-3,5 I've been wondering recently if Steranko meant Scorpio to be Hans Rooten from SGT. FURY. I've no basis for suggesting this other than he's a character from Fury's past that could've been used in that role. JTI88December 18, 2016 2:42 AM Frankenstein #13-18 "Caccone" may sound good, but it means "big poop" in Italian. BenwayDecember 18, 2016 2:29 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #59-60 The Beetle should have been really tough to beat with that computer, but sadly as this was the 80s, every time he wanted to use his computer he had to find the correct tape, put it in the external tape player, type in LOAD;'cass:R' (or something) and then stall for fifteen minutes while it made loud screeching noises. ChrisWDecember 18, 2016 12:20 AM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) Walter, I know you're right about the "Wolverine" series. It's just that the audience was told there would be a Rachel Summers miniseries, or other spin-offs. I'm sure you're right about "Excalibur" too. I have no proof, but I assume Claremont wanted to keep tabs on Kitty, Kurt and Rachel, and play with Alan Moore's toys, and have Alan Davis drawing them. My theory is that Claremont, in his prime, was coming up with tons of stories for the various X-characters. Very few came to fruition, but he was doing his job. You're right that there was going to be an "X-Men" spin-off whether or not Claremont liked it, but he'd been working on the concept with Byrne and Wheezie anyway, so when push came to shove, they had a "New Mutants" title ready to go, and Claremont had a track record that Jim Shooter (and others) were willing to support. Stories like this, like the Ms. Marvel story fighting Rogue that wasn't published until after he'd left, the "Old Friends" miniseries, 'what happened to Illyana on the night Warlock arrived,' "Amara meets Hercules," the miniseries that never happened, and yeah, filling in 8 or 10-page stories in books like this or "Marvel Comics Presents," I think Claremont was doing very well for himself selling ideas for comics. Not unheard of. I understand DC has based most of its crossovers on Alan Moore "Green Lantern" short stories and unpublished plots for a couple decades now. ChrisWDecember 18, 2016 12:07 AM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) Morgan, no, I've heard that Sara was suggested as a possible replacement for Jean, by Claremont, to keep his storylines intact. Since this story was done long before "X-Factor" was created, I think Claremont had one of his (never-resolved) plot ideas in mind. It's just another stupid idea that resulted in the original "X-Factor," that all of the original X-Men would get together again, and Scott would leave his new wife and baby son for the sister of his ex-girlfriend, right after he quit the X-Men permanently. Yet I have heard that Sara Grey is who Claremont suggested for the female member of "X-Factor" and this story demonstrates why he would have considered her a relevant character in any way, shape or form. My point is that this story was done after Phoenix died, but long before Maddie was ever created (by Claremont, not Sinister ;) ) so I think Claremont was trying to think of something to do with Sara, but never got around to it. mikrolikDecember 17, 2016 8:53 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #59-60 kveto: Not as far as I know, but in addition to the marvel rpgs, the battle computer has been referenced in the Beetle's entry in the Deluxe Handbooks in the 80s, where it said the fighting styles it had been programmed with included Spider-Man, Iron Man, Daredevil and Captain America. kvetoDecember 17, 2016 8:16 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #59-60 Has the Beetle's battle computer been referenced after this issue? I don't recall other references outside of marvel rpgs. (I mean in comics from here to fnord's current year?) Toby FathomDecember 16, 2016 10:51 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #13 The back-up story on this is delightful. It's the first big Jubilee solo adventure! AndrewDecember 16, 2016 10:09 PM Marvel Team-Up #12 Moondark is very loosely based on Mandrake the Magician. Luis DantasDecember 16, 2016 9:22 PM Silver Surfer/Warlock: Resurrection #1-4 Starlin's writing has become a lot more personal since his 1970s Warlock run. 1990s Starlin by way of Warlock or Thanos is, in its own way, as preachy as J.M. DeMatteis at his most enthusiastic, albeit with a far more depressing, almost cynical, message that somewhat resembles his 1970s character, Darklon, who he revisits in a way a little later in Warlock Chronicles. He is pretty much preaching to (presumably) himself that life offers little choice but to accept loss and decide to do what must be done regardless. I keep wondering if he is still digesting the loss of his father at this point. Much of his work since Darklon basically screams "unresolved father issues", particularly the interestingly named 'Breed which seems to be his main work since 1994. ChrisDecember 16, 2016 8:40 PM Fantastic Four #33 As an archetype, Attila and Genghis are the same - the nomadic barbarian who conquers and rules an empire. So yes, Attuma is the same. Don CampbellDecember 16, 2016 7:21 PM New Avengers: Illuminati #1 @DO9: I believe that the only pre-Bendis reference to any Skrull religion occurred in the 1991 Fantastic Four Annual #24 when a troubled Super-Skrull visited the temple of the Skrull war-god, Sl'gur't. The giant statue of Sl'gur't, with its seven arms and three heads, was impressively non-humanoid. Luke BlanchardDecember 16, 2016 4:54 PM Iron Man #39-40 The next issue blurb from #39 promises a story titled "Death, Thy name is Brother!" Marvel used the title a few years later in THOR #268. It might be a play on the title "Man, Thy Name Is--Brother!" from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #57. D09December 16, 2016 4:32 PM New Avengers: Illuminati #1 Were the Skrulls ever this religious before Bendis came along? AndrewDecember 16, 2016 4:05 PM Hulk #164-165 You mean "The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues." Honestly, it's like a game of Mad Libs trying to remember these old titles. "The (noun) from (large number) (unit of measurement)s!", or sometimes "(Emotion) at (large number) (unit of measurement)s!" matthew baughDecember 16, 2016 11:49 AM Cat #1 I've always been a little ticked off about Greer. The first issue really impressed me. I liked the art and the concept. I was not happy when the Cat became Tigra but gave it a shot and was really starting to like that version too. Once Tigra got involved in the Avengers (and especially the West Coast Avengers) she took a horrible turn. It was almost as if some writers (Engelhart was probably the worst) wanted to spit on the idea of a feminist hero so they turned her into an emotionally stunted sex kitten. Blah! SpikeyDecember 16, 2016 7:05 AM X-Factor annual #4 (Atlantis Attacks) ^ Thank you, Jay. I usually go with the "less disruptive" reading order, and your Inferno order has been extremely helpful in constructing the books around that time. If you read those Inferno X-books seperately, you will constantly feel like "wait-a-minute-am-I-still-reading-this-right?" and worse "will-it-read-better-to-read-this-or-that-first?" However, it suspect it is less so with the dull Atlantis Attacks stories and Acts of Vengeance imho, I think it would be kind of disruptive to cut those books down to pages a lot, both cross-overs are best read half-ignored. The only thing I was happy about was the book here, X-Factor Annual #04, and actually only because of the Defenders link (a book I never even read until recently); the return of Andromeda. Morgan WickDecember 16, 2016 3:29 AM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) "...even suggesting her as a replacement for Jean in "X-Factor." Maddie hadn't yet been created, so Claremont may have considered her a "replacement" for Jean in Scott's life (her husband would presumably have been dealt with one way or the other.)" I think you're a bit confused about the chronology here. X-Factor #1 already has Scott leaving Maddie to join X-Factor when he learns Jean is back, leading to the complaint that X-Factor ruined the happy ending Claremont already had set up for Scott that involved Maddie as, semi-speculatively, a replacement for Jean. Did you mean something else when you said X-Factor, or was something else going on here? Vin the Comics GuyDecember 16, 2016 12:55 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #99 Romita, Sr. or one of his Raiders redrew Spidey laughing at the Spot. Walter LawsonDecember 16, 2016 12:45 AM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) @ChrisW, regardingbthe X-minis and spinoffs, most of the stories I've heard say that Marvel's editorial and business bosses drove the expansion of the line, and Claremont was usually told that if he didn't write the latest product, someone else would. New Mutants launched as an alternative to Mark Grunwald's suggestion of a second X-Men book with the unused adult characters. That other idea went ahead anyway in a modified form as X-Factor, over Claremont's objection and without his participation. I've wondered if he didn't launch Excalibur in part to head off somebody else taking up the unused characters (I think he's attested to this). Claremont has definitely said he was told that if he didn't write the Wolverine ongoing in '88, someone else would. But Claremont might have been the driving force with this story: he has been a regular contributor to Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu, and a Dauhgters of the Dragon story intended for that mag ran in Bizarre Adventures when DHOKF was canceled. Marvel was clearing out most of its magazine line at this point, and putting Marvel superheroes in a mag was, I believe, a last-ditch experiment with a new(ish) format. Claremont and the X-Men were a logical talent and property to try out. You're right that Claremont had plans for Sara Gray and her family. At one point, she was going to have Caliban-like mutant-detection powers. And I think at one time her children were considered as possible New Mutants characters. ChrisDecember 16, 2016 12:44 AM Doctor Strange #68 This is the start of a great run of Stern using the Black Knight. He really becomes a mainstay of the team in this year and not only has a long run under Stern and Simonson, but also Harras. Stern is at his best taking these lesser known or used heroes and villains and really doing something with them. ChrisDecember 16, 2016 12:41 AM Iron Man #171-175 Rhodey's dialogue with Obadiah is probably his best scene as Iron Man. Very much in charge and competent. O'Neil handled it very well. Vin the Comics GuyDecember 16, 2016 12:28 AM Iron Man #191-192 Akin and Garvey really improve the art. Vin the Comics GuyDecember 16, 2016 12:18 AM Doctor Strange #69 Beautiful in story and art. Jon DubyaDecember 15, 2016 11:40 PM Defenders #120-125 Actually Creel, I think it was Incredible Hulk #370. And..er...yeah this issue really doesn't advance any "Moondragon isn't a manipulative A-hole. No really" characterizations. Again, you'd think every super-hero would lose her number quick with the amount of times she abuses her mental abilities on her "friends." And wow, I never knew there was so much "ho-yay" among Angel, Beast and Iceman (ok, maybe I did with Iceman, but...) Vin the Comics GuyDecember 15, 2016 11:25 PM ROM annual #3 Bill's Hybrid would have given readers nightmares! ChrisWDecember 15, 2016 8:47 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) And one more thing, looking at the scans, I really like the way Klaus Janson looks over John Buscema, which is far different from how their later collaboration on "Wolverine" turned out. ChrisWDecember 15, 2016 8:46 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) Forgot to make my original point, that this might have been an idea Claremont had worked out that was waiting for a home, and when this opportunity came along, it's what he had to offer, similar to the Rachel "Phoenix" miniseries, the "Amara and Hercules" issue of "New Mutants" or the plot for the 'what did Illyana do when she disappeared on the night Warlock arrived at the mansion' issue. ChrisWDecember 15, 2016 8:30 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) You may be right. I don't know enough about the differences between drawing for black-and-white versus drawing for color. I've speculated before that the addition of royalties made Claremont one of the highest-paid writers in any medium through the 1980s, and this is one reason he started adding (or trying to) mini-series, extra stories, and control the spin-offs. He does seem to have had a fondness for Sara Grey, even though she hardly ever appeared, even suggesting her as a replacement for Jean in "X-Factor." Maddie hadn't yet been created, so Claremont may have considered her a "replacement" for Jean in Scott's life (her husband would presumably have been dealt with one way or the other.) Or bringing her kids in as mutants, although in that case at least one of them would have presumably joined the New Mutants. I don't think he ever specified how many kids Sara had (and where were they when she was spending the night at her parents' house in #136?) but maybe he couldn't decide which would be the mutant, and making both/all of them mutants would have overwhelmed the "New Mutants" title. Thanos6December 15, 2016 6:22 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #15 I actually ran into "Threat or Menace" while watching an old episode of Garfield And Friends, "All About Odie." Garfield shows an 'educational' film from the government, "Doggie Tongue: Threat Or Menace?" Oliver_CDecember 15, 2016 10:31 AM Marvel Feature #4 Thomas' plots and characters are fine, but his dialog has always been vapid and voluble even by comic-book standards. And this from a guy who makes a big deal about his love of literature and old movies too! AFDecember 15, 2016 9:25 AM Avengers #137-138 "I like Super Heroes and so my teams... unless it was one that wasn't supposed to work... my Defenders, they were prickly but they sort of hung together; the Avengers were always very team-oriented and very supportive of each other, long before I got there that had been established. So having someone in the group who was the complete antithesis to that, again, had never been done. She'd be raised to be a goddess and she was just above everybody. It was like: 'I'm extremely powerful, I'm extremely wonderful and you're not! And we don't even have to argue about it... I know that to be true and I know how cool I am and so now... let's be a team!' except she wouldn't actually say that. She's like 'If you're not doing it my way, you're not doing it right!' The great thing about her, really, was that she was the normal American girl who was yanked off the Earth and turned into this alien. She did not share the common humanity of most people. And yet she was human to start with and - had I stayed on that book and explored her for a while - I don't really know how much I would have opened up her humanity. I don't think I would ever have had her really come down off her high horse. She might have been able to understand the frailties and foibles of other people a little better after a while. But, again, I didn't get to stick with her." Those magazines are great for the b-list and c-list characters as they often have creators talking in-depth about ones they don't usually. AFDecember 15, 2016 9:19 AM Avengers #137-138 Actually, let me dig out my Classic Marvel Figurine Collection magazine for Moondragon, there's an interview with Englehart about Moondragon on the Avengers... "I'd gotten rid of Mantis... I forget all the changes I was making but basically I'd brought in two lightweight characters. I mean the Beast was not particularly strong - at least not when compared to the Hulk, say - but he's sort of funny, loose guy (at least the way I wrote him), Patsy Walker was also obviously a lightweight - the Hellcat costume wasn't gonna give her big-time powers. I thought that in order to balance that out, in order to have some sort of range and dynamic tension and all that sort of thing... Moondragon because she's supercilious would be a good person to throw into the mix now that I'd thrown in these two happy-go-lucky lighter characters. Her whole thing - because she was so supercilious, I mean - her thing was basically sort of anti-Avengers. She joined the group because it was a sign of status. But at the same time she always felt she was sort of above all these people and the only person she really thought was sort of on her level was Thor because he was a god. The rest of them, the bottom of the totem pole would be the Beast and Patsy Walker but even Captain America and Iron Man and people like that she figured were below her. So I thought: 'That's an interesting dynamic. Nobody's done that!' Again, that was the watchword all the way through: Nobody's done that so let's do it!" AFDecember 15, 2016 9:12 AM Iron Man #54 Hey, just thought I'd dump this here, Englehart on the creation of Moondragon (from Marvel Classic Figurine Collection #157): "I'm pretty sure Moondragon was Starlin's character. She may have been introduced by Mike Friedrich but I believe that was Friedrich working with Starlin [they worked together on the following issue]. I'm pretty sure that anytime Moondragon showed up Starlin was kind of a driving force, I always think of Moondragon as being Starlin's character. I know that her name was Jim's idea; he was dating a girl called Heather at the time." AFDecember 15, 2016 9:02 AM Avengers #137-138 That hasn't been confirmed but I'll agree from the character's history is more than likely the case. Although at that point it's worth noting Moondragon wasn't abusing her powers. She did manage to "manipulate" Thor purely through debate rather than just outright using her powers (though there is a casual reference from Iron Man in #151 about "putting an idea" in Thor's head that could be, and no doubt will be, inferred as "evidence" of mind control). I don't think it was until Korvac Saga/Jim Shooter that she began being unrepentant, selfish and evil with her powers with that scene with Quicksilver (it's a shame that it didn't start happening until AFTER Korvac, because then there'd at least be a sort of reason for it) As for Hellcat, there doesn't seem to be any enmity between them until Moondragon reclaims the mental powers from her in Defenders #77 (and even that enmity doesn't last beyond that issue). I think it could just as equally be argued that Moondragon's offer appealed to the Hellcat because Patsy wanted to be a hero and Moondragon's insistence and demanding tone made it hard for Patsy to say no to the offer of journey into space for training. (Spoken like someone who only very recently analysed and wrote up a whole essay about Hellcat/Moondragon). As Moonie fangirl, I like to read into Heather as genuinely caring for Patsy and am happy that no-one has came along and retconned it into more "evil Moondragon" stuff. Ataru320December 15, 2016 9:00 AM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 That actually is an interesting what-if I doubt Marvel will ever tough: what if Thunderbird survived and became a respectable Mutant conservative? (if such a thing can exist) MichaelDecember 15, 2016 8:02 AM Avengers #137-138 She wasn't supposed to be manipulating the team in issue 138, On the other hand, AF, she DID seem to be manipulating Hellcat in issue 151 ("I...I must".) AFDecember 15, 2016 7:35 AM Avengers #137-138 Absolutely not. That's the standard go to excuse for people who hate Moondragon. There's a very good reason a lot of characters have fallen for Moondragon almost immediately. This is not necessarily because they fancy her but because they find her so alien and enticing. Someone like Daredevil had only romanced Karen Page and Black Widow, both two fairly down-to-earth women, so when he is faced with the otherworldly beautiful and confident “Goddess” she represents something so entirely interesting and so very different to him, it becomes an intense obsessive attraction. It’s an irresistible lust for the unknown and new. Plus, why WOULDN'T you immediately be attracted to someone who is attractive? There's no reason not to be attracted to Moondragon until you discover her personality. Moondragon was about as reserved as Moondragon can be in these issues. Why WOULDN'T famous ladies man Iron Man be drawn to her? Why WOULDN'T Thor the God see a potential kindred spirit in a proclaimed “Goddess”? I don't want to get into the idea that people are of the same mindset of someone like Jim Shooter who was scared of Moondragon as she inadvertently represents an actual strong female character (rather than a man's idea of one), but other than her confidence and her lack of hair, how is what's seen in these issues ANY different from a few issues ago when everyone was thought bubbling about how amazing Mantis was? fnord12December 15, 2016 7:24 AM Strange Tales #114 (Dr. Strange) Thanks Andrew. Regarding Roussos, the GCD has an indexer note saying this: "Inker is obviously George Roussos, though not credited on artwork. Stan Lee notes he was waiting for reader feedback after Strange's first appearances; this suggests Roussos may have inked this episode because of a very last-minute decision to begin running the series regularly." MortificatorDecember 15, 2016 6:06 AM Fantastic Four #1-10 Ben was brimming with hate in the beginning. I feel like the only thing that stopped him from becoming a villain in those dark early days might have been that he understood wealth and domination wouldn't make him any less miserable. Jay DemetrickDecember 15, 2016 3:20 AM X-Factor annual #4 (Atlantis Attacks) I did an analysis of how the X-Characters could appear in Atlantis Attacks after Judgment War & the Asgard adventure but it involved moving about the separate storylines that were only connected with "Meanwhile" type text boxes. It's complicated and involved but you can see it on my timeline of Inferno to Acts of Vengeance here: http://jade-dragon.wikidot.com/marvel-s-inferno-crossover WisDecember 15, 2016 2:28 AM Comet Man #1-6 I never realized how distinctive Gary Taloc was/is as an inker because this looks exactly like the issues of The Incredible Hulk he inked, right down to Comet Man himself looking like Bruce Banner at times. Speaking of which, I do think the writing is a little stiff at times- the soldier thinking "If only this alter-ego, Bruce Banner was in control- the sane, rational side of the Hulk-" etc. Miguel Ferrer is (in my opinion) somewhat more recognizable than Bill Mumy actually, as one of those "hey, it's that guy"s in movies, I especially remember him in THE STAND mini-series when I was a kid. Morgan WickDecember 15, 2016 1:37 AM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) I don't know. I'm just going off the scans, but if you look at most of the black and white stories fnord has they make much more creative use of shading. This one I can see the shading only being added once it was clear it was going to be in a black-and-white book, with the outlines otherwise being drawn with color in mind. As fnord notes, this certainly doesn't seem to have been plotted, maybe even scripted, with black and white in mind. Jon DubyaDecember 15, 2016 12:45 AM Avengers #137-138 Jumping on what Erik said, is it supposed to be insinuated that Moondragon was mentally manipulating the team? If that's the case, you'd wonder why they'd even let her through the door. ChrisWDecember 15, 2016 12:14 AM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 John Proudstar served in Vietnam. He made it through Basic Training and AIT. At no point would his "You've been ridin' me since the day I got here" monologue work in those situations, much less before he reaches Vietnam. If you can handle Basic Training, you can handle Scott Summers, and [assuming John was drafted] at least you volunteered for Xaviers' School. Now I'm seeing an alternate universe "X-Men" where Thunderbird survives to be the hot-headed asshole who understands how the system works - i.e. when Banshee tells you to get off the plane now, you obey - and Wolverine is the hot-headed asshole that must be tamed because his first instinct is to kill large numbers of people on the spot. Thunderbird would have been the guy to say "I think we need to convince Magneto to join the team." He'd also say "Genosha is a problem? Send Magneto and Wolverine to fix it. Moving on, how do we accommodate Shan, Illyana and Dani as students in the budget for the next fiscal year? We're not leaving this room until we have an answer. And what have we heard about Senator Kelly's latest support for the Sentinel program?" ChrisWDecember 14, 2016 11:48 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) Well of course, I was thinking of Thunderbird's funeral as I typed up the list, but I knew I was missing something when I pushed "post." When I saw Storm and Jean becoming friends, I assumed they were just expositing to each other about discovering their mutant powers. ChrisWDecember 14, 2016 11:46 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) I would also suggest this story was intended to be in black-and-white. I don't remember what Marvel was doing with its black-and-white magazines at the time, but I do know they were trying to do more upscale books, and using "X-Men" characters written by Claremont would be one of their first choices. The use of tone, the shading, the way narration boxes switch to black with white lettering, this was definitely made to be black-and-white. MichaelDecember 14, 2016 11:32 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) It was Thunderbird's funeral- Jean tells Xavier that she knows what it feels like to have someone die when you're in their head. ChrisWDecember 14, 2016 11:30 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) I had to look up what story was in "Classic X-Men" #3. You know, weren't those stories about the New X-Men joining the team, and Nightcrawler walking down the street without an image inducer, and Shaw, Emma and Tessa taking over the Hellfire Club, and Jean getting ready for her last date with Scott? That story really fell through the cracks. ChrisWDecember 14, 2016 11:26 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) Was that in the Storm/Jean back-up story? I recall Claremont referring to Annie's death on a semi-regular basis, but only after Jean had come back from the dead, which "Classic X-Men" #3 falls under. I like the Annie Richardson story. It's not really about Annie, but it's a very good establishing point for Jean, only comparable with Rogue's mutant powers manifesting the first time she made out with her boyfriend (Cody something? I forget his name.) That's how you establish backstory and make retcons work. And Jean's backstory makes a lot more sense for one of the original X-Men, while Rogue just came along later. MichaelDecember 14, 2016 11:11 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) Yes, and she's not mentioned again until Classic X-Men 3. AndrewDecember 14, 2016 10:14 PM Strange Tales #114 (Dr. Strange) The Dr Strange Omnibus lists George Roussos as inker on this story. Also, on the 2nd page the Ancient One is referred to by "name" for the first time, instead of simply "the Master." ChrisWDecember 14, 2016 9:41 PM Uncanny X-Men #246-247 Also notice for the first time ever that Storm is standing in front of a picture of Mariko when she's wearing Wolvie's jacket and sunglasses. Hey, I was 13 when these comics came out and never thought about the subtext until recently, gimme a break! Just another interesting juxtaposition in a story that's full of them. This is the end of the Rogue/Carol dynamic, so both of them get plenty of time on-screen, and Rogue goes out wearing a Ms. Marvel costume. Dazzler is instrumental in taking Rogue out in almost the same way that she saved Rogue and got over their long feud in #222. The first sentinel, Master Mold, merges with the last sentinel, Nimrod, and the result is that Senator Kelly fully supports the implementation of a new Sentinel program which will lead to Nimrod, all because Nimrod/Master Mold just killed his wife. He met his wife when she worked for the Hellfire Club, which the X-Men/Magneto have recently joined. You can criticize the execution or the failure to execute, but I think one of the main things that made Claremont's "X-Men" so popular was how well he could describe or imply 'wheels within wheels' as a natural part of life. ChrisWDecember 14, 2016 8:51 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) Was this the first mention of Annie Richardson? Vin the Comics GuyDecember 14, 2016 5:51 PM Avengers annual #18 (Atlantis Attacks) Mark Bright should have been drafted to pencil this story. The man can do crowd scenes like no other artist. Check out the preceding Avengers annual. Just beautiful stuff. George LochinskiDecember 14, 2016 4:48 PM Darkhawk #16-18 If I'm notistaken, Scattershot doesn't actually show up in Hulk: Winter Guard, but she's part of a bunch of character sketches along with the rest of Remont Six included in the Darkstar & the Winter Guard TBP, so she might actually count as behind-the-scenes appearance...? Not saying you should tag her based on that, though. SpikeyDecember 14, 2016 3:45 PM X-Factor annual #4 (Atlantis Attacks) Thanks for your helpful info, Michael, accurate as always! All the events are in such close succession that I never experienced problems while reading Acts of Vengeance issues standalone, but I've never read that as a one whole before. As long as I stay away from AoV and Avengers it seems my order works, though I still might run into trouble in the future trying to squeeze in Wolverine solo series and perhaps Alpha Flight. Oh lol what can you do, it only confirms comics were written in a certain moment, and that the entertainment value perceived by the writers hinges quite heavily upon that very moment, more than on maintaining correct continuity. Omar KarinduDecember 14, 2016 1:55 PM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1-3,5 Woo seems like he's being set up as a red herring. For one thing, why would a guy Steranko wrote as somewhat stereotypically Chinese be thinking about the Western Zodiac and his horoscope in #5? In any case, Scorpio in #5 has thought balloons as well as dialogue indicating he's the same guy seen in #1. However, "parable of doom" shows up a lot in Steranko's SHIELD. It's also part of the narration in the Centurius story. I suspect we'd have learned that Centurius was backed by Scorpio...whoever he was. Andrew BurkeDecember 14, 2016 9:18 AM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1-3,5 I finally got the "Who Is Scorpio?" trade paperback in the mail yesterday, so I'm looking forward to reading it. I mostly bought it for Scorpio, but I'm interested in the rest of it, too. Something occurred to me regarding Steranko's intentions for Scorpio's true identity: What if Scorpio was not one person, but an entire organization? I think Scorpio in #1 might have been Baron Strucker, with his "Parable of Doom" mention. After his last defeat, he may have parted ways with Hydra and formed his own group, calling it Scorpio. After tangling with Nick personally in #1, he could have sent a recruit after Nick in #5 as the second Scorpio. And this could have been Jimmy Woo. Strucker could have recruited him and Woo was more than willing because he blamed Fury for the death of Suwan. Then, Woo rejoined SHIELD as a part of an infiltration. If Woo was indeed the second Scorpio, it would explain why he was absent during the LMD test, and it would also be more of a shock to Fury to see Woo's face when he unmasked Scorpio at the end. Just a thought. Andrew BurkeDecember 14, 2016 9:09 AM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #8 Okay, so, the issue I was referring to ended up being #391. Not counting the ad pages, I was referring to page 7, panel 3, and right in the center is a woman who I believe I thought was Fatima but likely isn't. I remember seeing her and wondering who she was, and I later came across Fatima and thought maybe it was her, just in a different outfit. But now that I've taken a look, I think it's not her, but I'm wondering just who she actually is. Must be some random look/character since there were other new characters like Mysteria and Ice Princess. MichaelDecember 14, 2016 8:03 AM X-Factor annual #4 (Atlantis Attacks) The other problem, Spikey, is that Acts of Vengeance clearly takes place after Atlantis Attacks. Hydrobase, for example, is sunk in Avengers 311 but it's around during Atlantis Attacks. In Avengers West Coast 53, Wanda's been comatose since Atlantis Attacks. And Wolverine 19 takes place before Uncanny X-Men 251 but during Acts of Vengeance. And the New Mutants and X-Factor don't return to Earth until Acts Of Vengeance. SpikeyDecember 14, 2016 4:11 AM X-Factor annual #4 (Atlantis Attacks) Sorry, forgot to address that detail. My biggest problem is, that it is not only ignoring references in New Mutants Annual #4, it also ignores the New Mutants actually being witness to Ship/X-Factor leaving for the Judgement War as far back as New Mutants #78, making the only other viable option that X-Factor has also already returned. As Storm is not much more than a cameo appearance in those last three Atlantis Attacks issues (which I would really hate to build around), and child-Storm is on the run in Uncanny X-men at that very moment (escapes in UXM255, but does not reappear on panel until UXM257),it just seems easier to assume that child-Storm is temporarily restored to adulthood by some offpanel Atlantis kidapping magic, but reduced again after she is returned. ChrisWDecember 14, 2016 12:04 AM Secret Wars II #4 There is a way to read "Secret Wars I" as Titania meeting the Absorbing Man [who knew what he wanted and went straight for it] versus the Molecule Man and Volcana [who had a really unhealthy relationship, and resolved it in a way that makes you shake your head in disbelief, in a way that levitating mountains and destroying galaxies is just something you accept as par for the course.] And then "Secret Wars II" made things even worse. And then the Beyonder hooked up with Dazzler. By this point, we are so far beyond the limits of human interaction that all I can do is support Dazzler because she's awesome. Just look at that opening scene with Sharon. There is no point where an alpha male (or just a guy who gets laid a lot) can look at and say "That's me." And Sharon comes off even worse. I don't use words like "objectification" very often, but Sharon is possibly the worst example of females in comics that I've ever read, and I'm a Claremont fan! At least Titania had her own perspective. So did Volcana. So did Owen and Crusher. The Beyonder meeting Dazzler deserved to be EPIC, but not in a good way. Mission accomplished. Jon DubyaDecember 13, 2016 10:54 PM Bizarre Adventures #27 (Jean Grey) Why is "Jean" mind-wiping people so hard to believe? The Phoenix entity was doing that rather nonchalantly in the X-books, even before she became fully corrupted. Sara's anti-mutant stance seems weird too. Before she was assimilated and her house was fire-bombed, Sara was presented as a staunch defender of mutant rights. AndrewDecember 13, 2016 9:53 PM Defenders #2-4 Erik, Namorita gives Namor one of her earrings in Sub-Mariner 55. MichaelDecember 13, 2016 8:16 PM X-Factor annual #4 (Atlantis Attacks) @Spikey- the problem is that the last 3 parts of Atlantis Attacks- Avengers West Coast Annual 4, Thor Annual 14 and Fantastic Four Annual 22- feature Jean and an adult Storm. So there's no really good way to make it work. If, for example, Atlantis Attacks takes place after X-Men 255, then Storm should be a kid. As fnord notes in the Considerations on New Mutants Annual 5, he decided to ignore the references to Ship being gone in the Annual- he didn't like doing it but there's no simple solution. AndrewDecember 13, 2016 5:47 PM Shanna the She-Devil #2 This story was reprinted in The Super-Hero Women. Nice art by Andru, and a good, solid story by Seuling. Very international woman of adventure, with a sense of humor. "Are you sure that cat will not attack?" "95% certain." SpikeyDecember 13, 2016 4:17 PM X-Factor annual #4 (Atlantis Attacks) Reading only X-men-related stories, this is how I usually read this era (note; I don't read much Wolverine solo series; "All that Glitters"; X-Factor #41-#42 SpikeyDecember 13, 2016 4:11 PM X-Factor annual #4 (Atlantis Attacks) Hm, what am I missing. I always assumed this is really impossible to place AFTER the New Mutants "Atlantis Attacks" tie-in (and thereby AFTER their Asgardian escapade), but BEFORE the Judgment War? For the simple reason that the New Mutants see Ship leaving before they are warped to Asgard by Strange, and their Atlantis Attacks adventure takes place while Ship is still gone. Matthew BradleyDecember 13, 2016 1:48 PM Marvel Two-In-One #53-58 Worth noting that as Radion, the Atomic Man, Sorel first encountered Wundarr way back in #9? Given the overt Sorel : Nuklo :: Unca Benjy : Wundarr analogy, that brings things full circle rather nicely. Ben HermanDecember 13, 2016 1:47 PM Deathlok #27-29 Maybe it was Simon and Harlan Ryker's previously-unrevealed third brother? Seriously, I'm sure there's a story in there if someone writing for Marvel really wanted to dredge up Simon Ryker. Certainly quite a few equally-obscure dead characters have been brought back over the last few years. Barney Barton? Yon-Rogg? Darren Cross? Yeah, Simon Ryker would be right at home with those guys. Andrew BurkeDecember 13, 2016 9:27 AM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #8 I'll have to check tonight when I get home. The only place I saw her was during the mall sequence as a background character, and it was only one panel. And she wasn't named, but I recall she was pointed out to possibly be Fatima by someone else on the Internet who was trying to figure out who she was, and I had updated the profile I made of her in my personal files. In any case, I'll check on this later on. Definitely has my interest! fnord12December 13, 2016 8:41 AM General Comments Thanks Andrew and those in the Infinity Crusade #6 comments, and everyone, really. I'll still be around for a bit (although no new posts until mid-Jan) but i hope everyone has a happy holiday season. fnord12December 13, 2016 8:31 AM Iron Man #47 Andrew, it might be considered part of the build up, but i don't know if it's the definitive point. Next issue Stark dissolves his board but makes no mention of moving away from munitions, and in fact he goes to inspect a munitions plant. That issue is his encounter with Firebrand, and that experience is probably also part of his decision. It's also worth noting that he doesn't really stop making munitions entirely at this time. In issues #49-50 he talks about diversifying into other things, but he does still make some weapons. Heck, even when he's supposed to be completely out of making weapons in the late 80s, writers for other books didn't always acknowledge that. AFDecember 13, 2016 8:30 AM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #8 Just had a look, there's a few characters right in the background of the double splash page (past the threshold of detail) that appear to have head-wear with similar shapes that you could go assume "That's Fatima" but I definitely don't see her anywhere. Luke BlanchardDecember 13, 2016 8:30 AM Spider-Man: Fear Itself The plot may be a homage to an early Superman story in which his foe Ultra-Humanite was revealed to have had his brain transplanted into a young woman's body. AndrewDecember 13, 2016 8:25 AM Hulk #157-158 Thanks, Omar. Obviously I was only aware of ENIAC. Ataru320December 13, 2016 8:13 AM Amazing Spider-Man #100-102 I think Morbius just emerged at more or less the right time for him to begin to thrive in this universe. May of 1971 was both the beginning of the "Spider-Man Drug Issues" and, at the same time, the first appearance of Man-Thing. Once that happens and then Morbius, it isn't too long before we get the real push of the horror content in '72 (Werewolf by Night, early mutated furry Beast, Tomb of Dracula, etc.) You can't say Morbius was made to specifically go along with the new freedom, but he was just there as it was starting to loosen up. fnord12December 13, 2016 8:05 AM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #8 Andrew, can you point to issue/page/panel? Fatima is neither super nor villain, so it's odd for her to be included in that story. The mall is most prominent in #390, but i don't see anyone that looks like Fatima in that or any other issue. But of course there are a lot of background characters. AFDecember 13, 2016 8:00 AM Captain America #315 Cap #424 also suggests that Cap would sponsor Sidewinder's rehabilitation if not offer supportive testimony since he willing turns himself in to face justice. fnord12December 13, 2016 7:53 AM Alpha Flight #9-10 George, there's arguably a hint in issue #2. Puck laughs at Sasquatch, who gets angry and chases him, and Guardian sends Aurora to calm him down. It mostly happens off panel and is played more as team banter, but in retrospect it may have meant something more. On the other hand, in issue #20 Sasquatch says that he's been having rages "of late" which may mean they didn't start until more recently. fnord12December 13, 2016 7:41 AM Deathlok #27-29 @Ben, i don't know. How often do people get promoted to General after getting their experimental subs destroyed by squids? Simon Ryker seemingly died in that story. And he was pretty unhinged and i'm not even sure if he was meant to be with the military. I think maybe the creators here are just doing another homage to Ryker not realizing that the previous one existed. ChrisWDecember 12, 2016 8:31 PM Uncanny X-Men #246-247 Or giving them 'one last night of fun' together after the respective 'girls night out' and 'boys night out' issues, right before the team falls apart? ChrisWDecember 12, 2016 8:28 PM Secret Wars II #4 Oh yes, it's been suggested. I would say that it's not "issues with women" so much as "issues in general." A comics forum I used to post at, someone made a brief but hilarious and insightful point about the nature of the Molecule Man's relationship with Volcana, particularly their reconciliation in #9. I'm not really a Jim Shooter scholar, but I would say the Absorbing Man and Titania were about as good as he got, relationship-wise. Omar KarinduDecember 12, 2016 7:06 PM Hulk #157-158 It's named in homage to UNIVAC, one of the most famous of the early mainframe computers. Walter LawsonDecember 12, 2016 6:37 PM Amazing Spider-Man #100-102 I'm pretty sure I've seen Roy Thomas deny in interviews that Morbius was intended to skirt the Comics Code restrictions, which apparently were getting loosened up anyway. Thomas, of course, also created a pseudo-vampire in X-Men, Sauron, and he's said that wasn't about the Comics Code either. Maybe he thought these pseudo-scientific twists on vampirism just worked better in Marvel's universe, which is much more grounded in science fiction than gothic horror? JTI88December 12, 2016 5:48 PM Marvel Preview #2 Grundy is shot in the story. AndrewDecember 12, 2016 3:25 PM Hulk #157-158 "Omniac" would have been a good name for a computer. "Omnivac" sounds like a home cleaning system. AndrewDecember 12, 2016 2:59 PM Marvel Feature #4 ANOTHER Roy Thomas Golden Age "homage"? You know, I used to like Roy Thomas, but this site has ruined him for me. Ben HermanDecember 12, 2016 2:29 PM Captain America #315 A really good defense attorney could argue that A) MODOK wasn't human, B) MODOK was the leader of a worldwide terrorist group who was personally responsible for numerous deaths, and C) MODOK subsequently came back from the dead so obviously he's no longer a murder victim. It's been some time since I read the New Thunderbolts issue where Sidewinder appeared, but I believe it was stated that he had either served his full sentence or was granted parole for good behavior. Perhaps the authorities decided Sidewinder was a very low risk for recidivism. As far as I know, Seth Voelker never did return to crime, and the current Sidewinder is a completely different guy who gained the same abilities courtesy of Roxxon. AndrewDecember 12, 2016 12:56 PM Thor #258-259 What a silly question. As fnord notes, he was dragged into space in Marvel Team-Up 13 and then he floated around until he was picked up by animal men space pirates, of course, and did the next natural thing, which was to challenge the pirate captain to a duel, which obviously, the captain accepted (rather than, say, shooting him on the spot as a lesser alien might do) and when the Grey Gargoyle killed him, well, the crew had no choice but to accept him as the new captain, and he just started working as a space pirate captain, rather than simply telling them to take him back to Earth, as a lesser villain might do. Obviously. Ataru320December 12, 2016 10:26 AM Daredevil #75-76 Eh, considering the Matador was one of his early villains, somehow terrible Hispanic/Spanish stereotypes are just something Matt keeps coming across back when no one knew what to do with him. Oliver_CDecember 12, 2016 10:08 AM Avengers #263 "PHOTONIC light"? Mr. Stern, I wasn't aware there was any other kind! AndrewDecember 12, 2016 9:36 AM Iron Man #47 I picked up this comic when I was young, mostly just because I liked the cover. Reading it in isolation, I got the impression that this was the definitive issue where Stark decided to stop making munitions. Is that right? And if so, should it have an effect on significance? BenwayDecember 12, 2016 7:31 AM Defenders #136-139 Oh, I also aprove of the entire 'my brother the eagle' sequence including Duran Duran quote as I have no sisters! BenwayDecember 12, 2016 7:30 AM Defenders #136-139 I love these issues. Am I the only one to read the Moondragon bits in 'Three Women' and wonder if Peter Gillis had seen the Doctor Who serials Kinda and Snakedance? Similar ideas and imagery and they were recent at the time. Jay GallardoDecember 12, 2016 6:35 AM Motormouth & Killpower #12 Carlos Pacheco started drawing covers for spanish editions of Marvel Comics. It was nice, but nobody thought at the time that he could become a true Marvel artist, because, from our point of view Marvel was like a hundred galaxies away. But he made it. And many others spanish artists came after him. I felt something special the first time i went to midtown Comics and found myself in front of a huge Marvel characters mural drawn by him. Pacheco is andalusian just like me. It was a great moment. Somehow, Pacheco is the Jack Kirby of the spanish fandom... BenwayDecember 12, 2016 5:50 AM Daredevil #75-76 Up to this point Daredevil has been bad in an amusingly silly way, but this two parter is just bad. Apart from Matt's outfit at the end. I want a leopard print tie and matching 'kerchief. BenwayDecember 12, 2016 5:16 AM Hulk #138 I like 'the Wishy Washy Wizard'. It goes well with Paste Pot Pete. Perhaps they could've thought of a cool name for the Sandman and gotten Fin-Fang-Foom to replace Medusa. The Fairly Frightful Four. Fernando MartinezDecember 12, 2016 3:43 AM Marvel Comics Presents #68-77 (Shanna) I think your wrong, this story rates an A. Top Notch. Heller, Mchele, Dubose and Shanna all were amazing. MichaelDecember 11, 2016 10:29 PM X-Men Unlimited #2 Which, if I click on the link associated with your name, I see you already found out. :) MichaelDecember 11, 2016 10:11 PM X-Men Unlimited #2 @Austin- she seemed to have a body in X-Factor 82. Ben HermanDecember 11, 2016 9:39 PM Infinity Crusade #6 Agreed with Douglas. Great work, fnord. Enjoy your vacation. DouglasDecember 11, 2016 8:25 PM Infinity Crusade #6 fnord, thank you so much for doing this project, even when you end up having to go up against less-than-wonderful material. I appreciate your work immensely, and I hope your vacation is a great one. Ben HermanDecember 11, 2016 8:11 PM Fantastic Four #1-10 What I find to be one of the most interesting aspects of the early Fantastic Four stories is that in the first few issues the Thing is definitely *not* the loveable, grumbling, cartoony strong guy made out of orange bricks that we all know & love. He actually starts out looking like a horribly disfigured burn victim. He's also dangerously short-tempered, ready to savagely lash out at the world at the drop of a hat. Ben Grimm definitely started out as a violent anti-hero. As fnord observes, the Thing finally began to mellow out when Alicia was introduced. GromDecember 11, 2016 7:18 PM Infinity Crusade #6 I agree with you fnord after seeing your coverage of the tie-ins that the whole series was a sloppy rushed waste of time. Move on, very little to see here. Mark DrummondDecember 11, 2016 6:17 PM Spider-Man Unlimited #2 I'm guessing that it was about this time that comic companies decided that Sociopathic Junior High School Kids Who Hate Everyone And Want To Kill Everybody were a highly desirable demographic. kvetoDecember 11, 2016 3:30 PM Power Man & Iron Fist #102 It feels like every PM/IF issue ends with them walking away with girl(s) on their arms. Jon DubyaDecember 11, 2016 2:18 PM Spider-Man Unlimited #2 The other problem, of course, is that in comic books (especially these days) even killing mass-murdering criminals doesn't actually get rid of them once and for all. Even if this ended with...say Carnage being ripped apart in space, he would have been whole and hearty again with sadistic glee right in time for the next "event." In addition killing these people always seem to be gateway to a dystopia (we HAVE seen plenty of stories where Batman or Spider-man or someone DOES kill off the unreedemable psychopath. It always ends with some Aesop about "slippery slopes" with the heroes being one step above "super-facist" or something. Or at least an obligatory "you're no better than them" speech.) kvetoDecember 11, 2016 1:25 PM West Coast Avengers #11 They must have put Razorfist in charge of holding the note. kvetoDecember 11, 2016 1:14 PM Vision and the Scarlet Witch #11 Vision as "dedbeat jobless dad" is great. I mean what skills could he possibly have? (I guess the trade unions would be against him on priciple). There's a Web of Spider-man issue where Wanda refered to the "Terrible Toad King". I'd always wondered about that reference. Now I know. AndrewDecember 11, 2016 11:57 AM Thor #154-157 Mangog's assertion that he has the power of a "billion billion" beings has always bugged me. A billion times a billion is a quintillion, which is a functionally impossible number of people for a single race. You'd need something like a galaxy's worth of habitable planets just to house them all. I have to figure math isn't Mangog's top priority, so he really means "two billion". Either way, Odin killing them all is genocide on an unprecedented scale. OptimusFanDecember 11, 2016 11:43 AM Spider-Man Unlimited #2 Was the Maximum Carnage storyline the turning point where there began a blasé attitude in the comic industry toward murdering villians that then get let off lightly with no consequences to their actions? I know the Joker started murdering people back in 1971 with the "Joker's Five-War Revenge", and Sabretooth but this storyline seems unique because of the higher-than normal body count with death and destruction being gleefully shown and celebrated and yet Carnage and his gang did not get the justice they deserve at the end of this storyline apart from Doppelganger who was murdered by Carnage. Carnage is right up there with Lobo and Thanos as pure mass murdering villains that get a free pass. It seems after this storyline, it became fashionable to show villains being more evil in their actions. The Joker himself became the ultimate evil after this storyline. WisDecember 11, 2016 10:11 AM Thing #35-36 I was curious to see what The Thing mutated into. And isn't it a shame that 'Grand Poohbah' and 'Mister Cheese' haven't been adopted as screennames by members of this board? WisDecember 11, 2016 9:49 AM Captain America #315 In each consecutive appearance of fnord's recaps- I'm right now to where Scourge I is killed- Sidewinder continues to just appear to be civil and competent and sincere in his efforts to create a supportive, productive, and profitable group, albeit made up of a bunch of snake-themed supervillains. It doesn't surprise me he'd appear in such a manner later on. Though I have to wonder if he could avoid being imprisoned for things like sanctioning a hit on Modok. AFDecember 11, 2016 8:41 AM Captain America #315 Sidewinder was reformed and retired (c.f. Cap #424). He appeared on a talk show in New Thunderbolts talking about reformation and being an ex-con. I'm sure they've undone that by now though. WisDecember 11, 2016 8:20 AM Captain America #315 Same here my friend. kvetoDecember 11, 2016 8:05 AM Captain America #315 For me, the MU ended in about 1992. Everything that comes after that don't count none. AndrewDecember 11, 2016 7:57 AM General Comments Fnord, we'll miss you, but enjoy some time off. And when you come back, don't be afraid to give some of these nineties stories the short, dismissive reviews they deserve... AndrewDecember 11, 2016 7:41 AM Invaders #10-15 In light of the fact that almost every other villain in the Invaders is based on some Golden Age hero, I think it's safe to assume the Blue Bullet was inspired by the old Fawcett hero, Bulletman. Luke BlanchardDecember 11, 2016 6:54 AM Power Man & Iron Fist #90 Unus's use of a baseball bat goes back to UNCANNY X-MEN #20. kvetoDecember 11, 2016 6:30 AM Power Man & Iron Fist #90 Agreed, this issue is a big improvement from the O'neil stuff. It has Luke and Danny dealing with a small time menace on their turf. And it has Unus actually using his powers in a realistic way. I have some fanboy problems with Luke picking Unus up by the forcefield (doesnt feel like that should work), but some nice teamwork on their part. But, ugh, Denys Cowyan's art kills the story. Can't say anything good about it. WisDecember 11, 2016 6:17 AM Captain America #315 Appreciate it Kveto. I shudder to think what Sidewinder and the Society are up to in the *current* Marvel U... kvetoDecember 11, 2016 6:14 AM Captain America #315 Well, the serpent society epic kind of starts with Sidewinder in MTIO when he works for the serpent squad and gets the idea (and funds) for the organization which is why I'd start with those issues (plus they are good issues). I recall seeing a serpent society trade on amazon at some point. Happy holiday shopping. WisDecember 11, 2016 6:05 AM Captain America #315 kveto- I didn't mean Sidewinder per se but the entire Serpent Society epic. Update: it looks like there is! I'll order it unless fnord insists on buying us both a copy for the upcoming holidays! But yeah, this was an era of Cap I didn't get to in real-time- I was 7 or 8, and started getting Cap around the "Captain" era- this is stuff I'd like to delve more into. Quick random fact/question: I was exposed to a lot of Marvels I wouldn't generally have found by something my Grandmother used to get me every Christmas and I'm curious if any other readers of fnord's work know what I'm talking about: the JC Penny Christmas Catalog had some kind of 25 random Marvels gift box into the 1990s'- this was a decent exposure to a lot of titles and a fond memory. Not sure when that started or ended, but it was a regular part of my Christmas for a few years as a kid. kvetoDecember 11, 2016 5:09 AM Captain America #315 Wis, thats not a bad idea. A trade of Sidewinder's tenure would be fun, starting with MTIO with him getting the funds and ideas to start the society. In general, the Society was fun because it was trying to be different. For a change villains could be loyal to each other. Gru was always better writing villains than heroes. I feel Porcupine got a good send off here. A story that acknowledged his past and gave him a memorable send off. And its fun to see that there are cliques and a caste system among villains as I presume there is in the real world. WisDecember 11, 2016 2:33 AM Captain America #315 Don't know if it's testament to Gru's writing but all along this storyarc, everything you've displayed fnord makes me actually find Sidewinder to be quite likeable. He's a reasonable boss, displays clear vision, isn't uncivil, apparently pays on time, and honors his promise to break out his teammates (who he refers to as "his friends")- this is intriguing stuff I never read in real time so am curious if it's collected in an Epic Collection. WisDecember 11, 2016 1:53 AM Avengers #263 This is the best Avengers run of modern times, hand down. I'm also in love with the Buscema/Palmer pairing. I cannot believe they'd get Stern off of this title- this was pure magic. The only (minor) squibble is Black Knight wearing that cape underwater. But it's fantasy, so whatever. I'm just always amused at how comic writers don't "get" underwater and how it would function. WisDecember 10, 2016 10:05 PM Vision and the Scarlet Witch #6 Magneto looks like Vinnie Colleta in that introductory panel BenwayDecember 10, 2016 8:50 PM Avengers #84 At the end of the first scan my brain launched into the chorus of 'Stonehenge' by Spinal Tap. WisDecember 10, 2016 8:13 PM Secret Wars II #4 Has it been previously suggested that Jim Shooter might have weird issues with women? First, his treatment of Dazzler in the graphic novel and then the despondent lover of The Beyonder. Walter LawsonDecember 10, 2016 7:22 PM Uncanny X-Men #246-247 @ChrisW, you're right about the Storm-Wolverine hookup, I think. The previous issue ended with a drunk Wolverine kissing Storm--maybe returning her kiss from Annual 11? In any event, she seemed amused/impressed last issue, and maybe that cued up the sexual relationship implied here. Walter LawsonDecember 10, 2016 7:06 PM New Mutants #15-17 You could say Roulette is slightly analogous to Magik, in that luck powers are almost indistinguishable from magic, and indeed, the closest other character to Rouelette in terms of powers is the Scarlet Witch. And, uhh... Rouelette has throwing discs that express her power and Magic has stepping discs. It's a loose parallel, but maybe something. davidbanesDecember 10, 2016 7:03 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #4-5 Wow the Vulture was out for almost a decade after he just quickly escaped Spider-Man in #64. AFDecember 10, 2016 10:52 AM Thor #467 The art in the following run is from MC Wyman who is actually pretty decent but his work at Marvel was hit-and-miss mostly due to it being limited to either their low tier books that no-one was reading, last minute fill-ins or some of the worst stuff they put out. If the U.S.Agent miniseries was the best scripts he got to draw, that's saying something. Andrew BurkeDecember 10, 2016 10:23 AM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #8 Fatima actually appears again during the Superia Stratagem in CAPTAIN AMERICA. #389, I believe. She shows up in a panel or two during one of the scenes at the mall on the ship. She's not named, and she's just walking along, but it's her. WisDecember 10, 2016 9:37 AM Infinity Crusade #6 This entire series is simply horrible in every sense of the word. I strongly suspect Starlin just wanted to write long, drawn-out boring sagas about the cosmic and new-age philosophy which appealed to him, but had to shoehorn in the Marvel Universe to justify getting paid and published to do it. These really are meaningless, pointless, maddening wastes of time and paper and again, I've just never gotten the high view of Starlin that other people have. WisDecember 10, 2016 9:33 AM Thor #467 Matt & the rest of the Gang: I may be alone here but I think this art really stands out with what the rest of Marvel looked like at this time- it has a weird, quasi-quirky-Kirby vibe in some instances, a bit outsider, but sort of dynamic. I've never seen these issues outside of fnord's summaries so this is the first time I'm seeing it and it isn't terrible. Not ideal, but not terrible. Wasn't the art that follows this run- I vaguely remember Roy Thomas writing and a new (terrible) costume for Thor much worse than this? This still retains some classic elements in it's presentation. Luke BlnachardDecember 10, 2016 8:05 AM Captain America #305-306 The British Egg Marketing Board used to stamp lion symbols on eggs. I think the practice ended a few years before Captain Britain debuted, but it sounds like the association was still in people's minds. For a little information see http://www.britisheggindustrycouncil.co.uk/about-us/history/ . Omar KarinduDecember 10, 2016 7:43 AM Uncanny X-Men #132-135 Since the Inner Circle -- once it finally showed up -- was very heavily based on the Hellfire Club as portrayed in the "Touch of Brimstone" episode of the old British spy show The Avengers, it makes sense that the queen characters are the only ones with chess nomenclature and that Shaw is played more as "first among equals." Int he TV show, Emma Peel's persona as "the queen of sin" was that of a subordinate fetish object for the leadership, and the leadership of the Club was an "Assembly of Superiors" led by a "Chief Justice." And they, too,w ere basically a bunch of rich folks trying to take over the world. It's really only later that the Marvel Universe' Hellfire Club and its Inner Circle start to be played less as people trying to take over the world and more as closeted mutants who benefit from the status quo and insinuate themselves within it, "passing" while exploiting other mutants. The extension of the chess motif and the internal politics of the Inner Circle are signs that the characters are being developed away from the original influence. In this story, they're really more a of an in-joke, a device to set up the Dark Phoenix plot, with the exception of Shaw. He's the only member not portrayed as a disposable villain-- it's not even clear that Leland will survive Wolverine's attack on him, for example -- and he's the one who starts working with Senator Kelly at the end. Luke BlanchardDecember 10, 2016 7:20 AM Defenders #149-150 The watch's zee zee zee sound is a reference to Jimmy Olsen's signal-watch. Luke BlanchardDecember 10, 2016 6:53 AM Uncanny X-Men #132-135 I could be wrong, but I think when Nightcrawler teleports after the ship is destroyed he appears at an angle that directs his momentum horizontally. AndrewDecember 10, 2016 6:45 AM Uncanny X-Men #132-135 I'm pretty sure that Shaw's "rank" was first revealed not in continuity but in Marvel Universe 5 (May 1983), where Shaw is titled Black King and Pierce is White Bishop. The way the power structure works is VERY unclear. It's implied that the Blacks and the Whites are like political parties, but also said that when a new king takes over, he chooses the opposite color from the deposed king. "The previous white king threw the inner circles financial and technological support behind Dr. Stephen Lang's attempt to capture superpowered mutants with sentinel robots. Langs' sentinels proved to be highly flawed and his endeavor ended in disaster, which the inner circle blamed on the white king. The white king had also alienated the membership by casting tradition aside, renaming the inner circle the council of the chosen and imposing new costumes on the circle members. As a result Shaw and frost had no difficulty in turning the white king out of office and reinstating the inner circles traditional names and costumes." Luke BlanchardDecember 10, 2016 4:06 AM Defenders #131 The Zeta Beams line is a joke reference to DC's Adam Strange, who used Zeta Beams to teleport to Rann. George LochinskiDecember 10, 2016 3:53 AM Alpha Flight #9-10 Is this the first time that Walt loses (and assumedly, Tanaraq gains?) control of the Sasquatch form? Erik RobbinsDecember 10, 2016 1:53 AM Infinity Crusade #6 Boy, the Prince of Lies sure comes across as a sucker here. (Speaking about Mephisto, not what the Goddess calls the Magus.) PeterADecember 10, 2016 1:34 AM Infinity Crusade #6 Much of Marvel's line was failing in quality at this point in time, is how I read that, not necessarily financially. Although the bankruptcy isn't that far in the future. I love Lim's art but I did not even remember the universe fake-blowing up and I scanned the dang issues! So Crusade was definitely a failure for me 😊 PeterADecember 10, 2016 1:27 AM Thor #467 I can usually find good things in a poorly considered artist (eg Tom Grindberg), but indeed, this is like the low point for Thor when it comes to art, I believe. So of course they do not immediately jettison the artist... Walter LawsonDecember 10, 2016 1:08 AM Uncanny X-Men #132-135 One reason for the later confusion about Donald Pierce's Hellfire Club rank -- is he White Bishop or White King -- is that none of the male Inner Circle members is referred to by chess piece nomenclature in this story. Or in their next few appearances, from what I can tell. They're just called the Inner Circle and Shaw is referred to as the "chairman." And in their first appearances in shadow, the men of the Inner Circle are seated behind symbols from a deck of cards, which doesn't make much sense if they're supposed to be using chess titles. It looks to me as if Claremont only intended the two queens to use color/chess titles at first. I'm not sure when that changes: when is Shaw first referred to in one of the books by the title "Black King"? Shaw seems like primus inter pares in this story -- Leland and Pierce, and prospectively Wyngarde, are Shawn's peers, but Shaw has more personal authority, which he fears losing to Wyngarde. The White Queen seems to be treated as somewhat subordinate to the men, and she's defeated earlier. I wonder if it's not until Selene joins that the chess terminology and two-men, two-women setup for the Inner Circle is canonized? Luke BlanchardDecember 10, 2016 12:36 AM Marvel Team-Up #1 It's my guess the Sandman's sympathetic portrayal this issue helped inspire his 1980s reformation. WORLD'S FINEST COMICS was Superman's team-up title for two years from Nov. 1970 (cover date), so DC had two team-up books at this point. MichaelDecember 9, 2016 10:43 PM Deathlok #27-29 Note the criticism of Deathlok letting Ultron and Bushwacker go. I wonder if the readers complained or Wright just thought McDuffie wrote that scene poorly but didn't want to complain until he was gone. Ben HermanDecember 9, 2016 10:09 PM Deathlok #27-29 fnord, do you think the General Ryker who is seen chewing out Luther Manning is supposed to be the Earth 616 version of Simon Ryker who previously appeared in Super-Villain Team-Up #4 and Marvel Spotlight #27? BenwayDecember 9, 2016 8:57 PM Infinity Crusade #6 I reckon the panels of "Deathlock" there are actually at a comic convention and that's a cosplayer. BenwayDecember 9, 2016 8:53 PM Warlock Chronicles #5 Yes, with all the talk of cycles and making the same mistakes every time, I took it as being about reincarnation. S/he seems to always have a traumatic time after childhood whenever she's born as a woman. Perhaps that's subconsciously why he's shunned his feminine side. "But I never expected this!" was an instance of Warlock's thoughts spookily mirroring my own. RobertDecember 9, 2016 8:50 PM Thor #467 The art sucks, yes. I dropped this title around this time and the horrendous art was a big part of why. It's just gross to look at. AndrewDecember 9, 2016 8:50 PM Marvel Team-Up #1 One thing you didn't note, fnord, is that the Sandman's mother is "Mrs. Baker." I think this is the first implication of Sandman's real name, William Baker. Previously there was no indication that "Flint Marko" was an alias. Walter LawsonDecember 9, 2016 8:42 PM Warlock Chronicles #5 It sounds like Starlin might be suggesting Warlock has lived through a few cycles of reincarnation--perhaps his soul didn't originally inhabit the body developed by the Enclave. Warlock does specifically say he thought his "life experiences" began with the Enclave. Warlock's present body is actually a post-Enclave body he possessed and reshaped in Infinity Gauntlet #1. Warlock may have used the Soul Gem to do that, but it's easy to imagine other mechanisms for metempsychosis in the MU. And Starlin did give us a reincarnated character as early as the original Drax. MichaelDecember 9, 2016 7:58 PM Infinity Crusade #6 @ Walter- I think that it's an overstatement to say that much of Marvel's line was failing at this point- Infinity Crusade 1 came out just before the market started to collapse- but it's amazing how many of the books Infinity Crusade crossed over with were cancelled within 6 months (Deathlok, Alpha Flight, Moon Knight, Cage- heck, Terror was cancelled the very ISSUE it crossed over!) MichaelDecember 9, 2016 7:54 PM Thor #467 "Zeus gives Sif three days to settle it before he tells Odin"- except that he must have given her an extension at some point, since Warlock's and Pip's appearance in Quasar 54 takes place at the beginning of Blood and Thunder, before Odin finds out about Thor, and it's part of Starblast. No way is it only three days from Infinity Crusade to Starblast. MichaelDecember 9, 2016 7:48 PM Warlock Chronicles #5 Like Thanos6 said, Warlock not being created by the Enclave makes no sense. First, in Avengers 262, the Enclave talk to each other about how Warlock is their creation when nobody else is around. Secondly, what about Her/ Kismet? She's appearing in Quasar and she's basically a female Warlock created by the Enclave. Thirdly, in Warlock and the Infinity Watch 1, Eternity tells the Living Tribunal that Warlock is unfit to wield the Infinity Gauntlet because the Enclave only created him a few years ago. The entire point of the Living Tribunal is that it's an omniscient cosmic judge- you can't lie to it! It's no wonder this idea has been ignored ever since. ChrisWDecember 9, 2016 7:38 PM Infinity Crusade #5 Did Storm's refusal to kill actually survive the 1990s? That sounds like the sort of thing Marvel would have changed just to be "hip." And what about Captain America? "Die, infidel!" Really? Matt PosnerDecember 9, 2016 7:02 PM Thor #467 Is this THE WORST art team ever to have a sustained run on Thor? I refer to the bizarre facial expressions, mannish faces for female characters, extraneous lines, and over-large panels reducing space for storytelling, Opinions encouraged. AndrewDecember 9, 2016 6:01 PM Infinity Crusade #6 Poor Jim Starlin. This will be the second time he's left Marvel for greener pastures. The last time was for Ralph Bakshi's studio. That didn't work out either. Walter LawsonDecember 9, 2016 5:11 PM Infinity Crusade #6 It's a shockingly bad crossover: Secret Wars 2 was lousy, but at least had some ambition. At this point, marketing was driving editorial decisions, and I assume the rational was that a.) Infinity War was profitable, and b.) even a lousy crossover boosts sales on failing titles like Deathlok, and at this point much of Marvel's line is failing. But it's terrible to think of the damage this did to viable books like Silver Surfer, which was a hot title when Starlin joined, and which still had the somewhat hot Ron Lim, but has been turned by the crossovers into a complete waste of paper for months on end. Walter LawsonDecember 9, 2016 4:41 PM Warlock Chronicles #5 An idea that could and should have been explored here is that the Magus, Warlock's evil side, actually represents life, going back to the original Magus saga, where death-enamored Thanos opposed him for that reason; while Warlock's good side, Goddess, is scheming, much like the Thanos of old, to destroy the universe--she represents death. But no, this is another logical theme that never arises. Thanos6December 9, 2016 3:47 PM Warlock Chronicles #5 Even as a kid I couldn't stand this, and I still don't. Way too much symbolism, the whole "Warlock has been around for centuries" doesn't make sense...egh. MortificatorDecember 9, 2016 3:35 PM Warlock Chronicles #5 It's said at some point (in the main series?) that the Magus represents the animus and the Goddess represents the anima, which at least implicitly has a little more complexity than simply masculine and feminine. Starlin's going with the Jungian school here, and I wonder if the idea came from seeing Peter David go Freudian with the Hulk. Of course, the Hulk's psyche division is done with much more pathos, and Savage Hulk / Joe Fixit / Bruce Banner got to show more faucets than "Grape or Orange-flavored zealot." Matthew BradleyDecember 9, 2016 3:23 PM Tales Of Suspense #77 (Captain America) Ah! Fair enough. My apologies. JTI88December 9, 2016 2:15 PM Power Man #24-25 Indeed, the Italian for mister is "singore", with the "e" dropped before a name or a surname. Also, there's no "senorita", but "signorina". SDecember 9, 2016 1:40 PM Thor #258-259 How the heck did The Grey Gargoyle become the captain of a spaceship of aliens pirates? fnord12December 9, 2016 11:49 AM Tales Of Suspense #77 (Captain America) She only appears in the flashback. I only tag characters that appear in the present day portions of a story. Matthew BradleyDecember 9, 2016 11:31 AM Tales Of Suspense #77 (Captain America) Even if she's unnamed, wouldn't this merit inclusion in your list of Peggy's appearances, or do you consider that too much of a retcon? JeffDecember 9, 2016 11:24 AM Web of Spider-Man #106 Kavanaugh's writing is garbage but the colors are good. Is this the beginning of computer coloring on this title or is this one of the last hand-colored issues? matthew baughDecember 9, 2016 10:59 AM Defenders #1 I thought this was a cool start for the Defenders, good mystery, offbeat foes, and a real sense of a non-team. I remember getting great satisfaction out of the Hulk taking out the Demon of the Dark with one punch. And, Necrodamus was an excellent villain, IMO. Creepy and powerful enough to give our heros a very credible fight. I wish the series had kept this tone. The later, sillier stories didn't interest me nearly as much. Necrodamus is an odd name. I think it's a blending of Necromancy and Nostrodamus. It works as a good ominous villan's name, but doesn't work linguistically. Necromancy is Greek and means roughly "magic/divination by means of the dead" while Nostrodamus is a Latin name which means "our lady" and refers to the Virgin Mary. Necrodamus is a combination of Latin and Greek and means something like "dead lady." MojonutsDecember 9, 2016 10:51 AM Daredevil #196-200 Not sure if it was O'Neil's or Hama's intention but, as alluded to by Walter Lawson above, 'dark wind' in Japanese would be 'yamikaze'. Phonetically similar enough for the kamikaze connection to work, and perhaps not coincidental given Hama's background. Ben HermanDecember 9, 2016 10:36 AM Moon Knight #57 She then walks "Less than a mile away" and interrupts Seth getting a blowjob from Hook. Sometimes this site feels like Mystery Science Theater 3000 for bad Marvel comic books. If that's the case, with much of early 1990s Moon Knight we are in serious Manos: Hands of Fate territory. Or maybe Red Zone Cuba. It's sort of a toss-up as to which one was worse. Ben HermanDecember 9, 2016 10:15 AM Web of Spider-Man #106 Alex Saviuk's pencils looks really good paired with Stephen Baskerville's inks. I just wish the writing was better. Thanos6December 9, 2016 9:47 AM Web of Spider-Man #106 @AF: I liked his X-Man run as well. EntzauberungDecember 9, 2016 6:21 AM Web of Spider-Man #106 For writers who actually had runs on things i can't think of anyone else... AFDecember 9, 2016 6:13 AM Web of Spider-Man #106 I own all of his X-Man run which probably makes me his biggest fan (but only by default) and I would still be quick to nominate him for the worst comic book writer of all time... EntzauberungDecember 9, 2016 6:07 AM Web of Spider-Man #106 Do Terry Kavanagh fans exist in real life? I've seen people defend the likes of Mackie and Austen, but I've NEVER heard of anyone being nostalgic for his stuff. Don CampbellDecember 8, 2016 11:26 PM Thor #256-257 Two points. First, Sporr snatched Sif because, due to her injury, he considered her to be "infirm" and in need of care like his other "victims." And Sif wasn't actually a hostage during this storyline, she was a patient receiving "the greatest care" from Sporr. Also, Thor and friends thought that she'd been eaten so nobody was even thinking of her being a hostage. Second, the Official Handbook retroactively decided that Sporr wasn't the last of his race. Instead, he was actually the last of his race of mutant Fomalhauti, thereby linking him with the more amorphous Dumog (first seen in Giant-Size Defenders #3) who later fought Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy as one of Korvac's minions. Personally, I find it odd that various alien races who all look identical to (Caucasian) humans from Earth are allowed to remain as separate species but two non-humanoid aliens who share a similar but not identical appearance are quickly redefined as being members of the same species. Luke BlanchardDecember 8, 2016 11:10 PM Thor #256-257 Sorry: #247. #256 is Mark and Andrew's one. ChrisWDecember 8, 2016 10:41 PM New Mutants #51 Give Nathan my best wishes. I wish I could have helped him more than I did. Nate, like I say, I actually do see merits in this art now. I am strongly in favor of drawing characters "on-model" and this issue didn't remotely do that, but just in the scans fnord gave, Hepzibah looks good, Shan and Xavier look good, Magneto looks good, Storm looks great. The pacing seems good - I'd have to see the actual pages to judge - that last panel of Shaw backed by Selene and Tessa looks great. I'm not trying to convince you. Believe me, I had the same reaction. This is Marvel in 1987, what the hell were they thinking? But feel free to Google (or better yet, purchase) "Jack B. Quick" and you'll see exactly why someone thought he had potential. Why he wound up drawing this issue of "New Mutants," no man can say. fnord12December 8, 2016 10:16 PM Moon Knight #57 Thanks Michael and Benway. You'll hopefully remember that i did say that it took place after Infinity Crusade #5 when i wrote up the Spider-Man review. But the way he Fzzts out at the end of the Spider-Man portion and is then next seen in that weird limbo where he's shouting at the Goddess made it feel like it was a direct continuation and so took place entirely during the Spider-Man issue. But yeah, i forgot about that final panel which clearly places the end during the hero vs. hero fights in Infinity Crusade #5. Luke BlanchardDecember 8, 2016 10:05 PM Thor #256-257 The title of #256 is from John Donne's poem "Death be not proud". BenwayDecember 8, 2016 8:52 PM Moon Knight #57 This is an incoherent wreck of an issue, but it goes in three main tie in stages: (I think) Moon Knight is recruited and Marleen is saved. Gratuitous crossover with Web of Spider-man which addsnothing Big battle from Infinity Crusade #5, in which someone has beaten Moonknight senseless in a last ditch attempt to prevent the Moonknight crossover issue which is foiled as Moonknight randomly has his soul stand trial in the cathedral and swipes the last line from the same scene in the Deathlock tie-in issue but without it (or anything else) making sense here) providing enough material for this nonsense to go on sale. So, it takes place during Infinity Crusade #5 after Moon knight gets knocked out (I think). But hey, Spider-man's gigantic bottom is funny! AndrewDecember 8, 2016 8:18 PM Thor #256-257 "Lurker in the Dark" sounds like half Lovecraft's "The Haunter in the Dark", half Derleth's "The Lurker at the Threshold", with perhaps a soupçon of Star Trek's "The Devil in the Dark"... BenwayDecember 8, 2016 8:14 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #21 ..cont. (Sun goes nova) End BenwayDecember 8, 2016 7:58 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #21 I think this exchange makes the issue worthwhile: Thor: Hold! What be yonder brilliance? Drax: Is it Just Drax, or... did it just get hotter around here? Thor: Midgard's star! Drax: It look bigger. Thor: 'Tis. Thor: It doth Double in size and in illumination! Drax: Pretty. Thor: The sun doth go NOVA! Drax Real pretty. Morgan WickDecember 8, 2016 7:51 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #21 I don't know, I find "You can't beat Drax and neither can your pal Son o' Open! Whoever he is." funny. MichaelDecember 8, 2016 7:48 PM Moon Knight #57 Fnord, note that in the final scan you posted, Wonder Man and Storm are talking like Spider-Woman and Havok are on Paradise Omega. That means that the end of this issue has to take place either at the end of Infinity Crusade 4 or during Infinity Crusade 5. Sorry, fnord- I don't want to force you to look at an issue of Terry Kavanagh's Moon Knight again. Morgan WickDecember 8, 2016 7:45 PM Moon Knight #57 Maybe people look at the art and think it's by MacFarlane or Liefeld? Because it might as well be. BenwayDecember 8, 2016 7:08 PM Web of Spider-Man #106 I don't mean that Betty needs help if she was sleeping with Robbie; I mean that she is acting like a mad fantasist and has been for some time. Then again, everyone has been acting like that in the Terry Kavanagh issues. Greg TDecember 8, 2016 7:06 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #22 Stories where the Mole Man is actually effective are always a heap of fun. If I ever come back to read the early cosmic stories I'll have to make sure I don't skip this particular issue. BenwayDecember 8, 2016 7:05 PM Web of Spider-Man #106 I think the idea with Puck is that they have doubts about Spider-man being ruthless enough and think that Puck will keep him in line. That's two comments defending this rubbish and I hate this issue! It's the first thing I've rated one star. (Though I don't have a lot of the recently covered early 90s comics.) The writing's disjointed and unnatural, everyone talks in the same oh so annoying voice (but in a world of tainted heroes.... What place is there for oh so perfect bananas? [kavanagh dialogue]), everyone acts out of character and random things just happen. Part of the issue is the stupid back-up strip (which is still better than the main part) and most of the actual Spider-man bit is just recapping bits from Infinity Crusade with stupid badly written comments. That this isn't the worst Infinity Crusade tie in only means that there is an issue of Moon Knight left. No, I take that back. The Moon Knight one is at least new rubbish rather than just recaps made stupider. I can't even mentally process what happens with Betty and Robbie in the only actual event in this issue. Robbie is Jonah's friend and happily married. Why doesn't he say something? Why doesn't Jonah? He just seems to think that Robbie cheating on his wife is business as usual! Jonah Jameson! The most opinionated loudmouth in the world! Why aren't they trying to get Betty psychiatric help? SharDecember 8, 2016 7:05 PM Avengers #12 @Zansmo, it's likely it was him. Here's a link to a column where he says he was an Avengers reader for a while, back when the comic began. BenwayDecember 8, 2016 6:46 PM Web of Spider-Man #106 "Friends fighting friends... and everyone's so edgy that Jean Grey's telekenetic shove might just be enough to...." "PUSH STORM OVER THE EDGE!!!!!!!!" It's crappy, but it makes sense to me! MortificatorDecember 8, 2016 6:28 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #22 I was expecting a monster, but that's still a hell of a monster. MortificatorDecember 8, 2016 6:24 PM Web of Spider-Man #106 Weird that there's a double outline word balloon coming from Spider-Man at the end of the first page posted. Maybe it was supposed to be another thought balloon? As is, Spider-Man hangs there silently for a while, then screams "PUSH STORM OVER THE EDGE!" fnord12December 8, 2016 6:23 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 Misformatted my closing bold tag, but it looks like you guessed what i was saying, Benway! Fixed it. BenwayDecember 8, 2016 6:09 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 @Fnord. I just take it that it uses plural to refer to itself after being split as it is in bits, but that only one bit is the soul. My interpretation. And it's less work to just track the one confirmed sentient gem! ;) I can't help on your question, as I have big gaps, though I'd be interested if anyone else can help. ZansmoDecember 8, 2016 5:00 PM Avengers #12 A few letters after GRRM's there's one from Steve Erickson - address Granada Hills CA. Does anyone know if that's the novelist? (Not malazan Erikson - rather tours of a black clock avantpop novelist) TCPDecember 8, 2016 4:50 PM Moon Knight #57 I've never followed Moon Knight, but I read this issue to see how it tied in to the Web of Spider-Man issues. It's legitimately one of the worst comics I've ever read. fnord12December 8, 2016 4:47 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 I was going to question Benway's comment that the other gems aren't sentient by pointing to the "forced us to adopt host bodies through which to act" which seems to imply that maybe they all are. But since Thanos6 is right that i should be tracking the Soul Gem if it is sentient, i've suddenly found myself vigorously agreeing with Benway so that i don't have to track all the other gems. ;-) I've tagged what i think are all the Soul Gem appearances where Warlock or Thanos was holding it. But i could use some help with the period where Warlock was dead. The point of confusion is that the Gardener is said to have stolen the gem from Warlock's grave in Hulk #248, but the Gardner has the Time Gem in Thanos Quest (In-Betweener has the Soul Gem). The Supreme Intelligence seems to have the actual Soul Gem during the early part of Englehart's Silver Surfer run (beginning with issue #7?). So did Gardener never have the actual Soul Gem? Did he swap with Supremor at some point? And then the In-Between wound up with it after Silver Surfer #15-18? SDecember 8, 2016 4:37 PM Moon Knight #57 Wow, that's a pretty blatant swipe of McFarlane's splash page from Spider-Man 1! fnord12December 8, 2016 4:19 PM Moon Knight #57 Stephen Platt's art again. Hot! clydeDecember 8, 2016 4:14 PM Moon Knight #57 Anyone know why this particular issue is so hard to get? It sells for $67.00 on mycomicshop. BenwayDecember 8, 2016 2:41 PM Infinity Crusade #2 Thanks for setting me straight. The Magus, what a lightweight! D09December 8, 2016 2:20 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #19 @Vincent: My guess is that Thing and Wolverine are transferring their mutual hatred towards each other towards a more "deserving" target, with Rage and Hulk helping them out due to past issues that Pip and Drax caused them (Pip stealing the Quintjet and Fantastic-Car and Hulk getting the worst of it during his brawl with Drax some issues ago). D09December 8, 2016 2:16 PM Infinity Crusade #2 @Benway: The Magus had only 5 cosmic containment units before the Goddess stole them near the end of Infinity War. Thanos6December 8, 2016 1:58 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 fnord, my apologies if you've addressed this before, but given that the Soul Gem can talk, has a personality, etc., should it get its own tag? Red CometDecember 8, 2016 1:56 PM Infinity Crusade #5 @Benway Yeah, I feel like during the Shooter era there would have at least been a throwaway line from the Thing about how he hates Wolverine's guts but will work with him for the greater good or something like that. It really is the little details and character interactions that keep people coming back to the concept of shared continuity across stories. BenwayDecember 8, 2016 1:53 PM Infinity Crusade #2 The Goddess says "I did gather 30 cosmic containment units from a dozen different realities!" Now, she, Warlock and the Magus are all aspects of the same being, so this is sort of true in a misleading way, but let's face it, she's lying here and she stole them from the Magus. So the Goddess isn't absolute good as it's generally understood and perhaps more what Warlock considers good, which could be very different. You can throw in giant battle stations and eroding free will on top of that, but I just thought I'd highlight her dishonesty. In any case Warlock has issues. BenwayDecember 8, 2016 1:04 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 Interesting to see the Soul Gem talking again for the first time since the 70s! As for the possession angle, I guess it takes time for the gem to take somebody over, but even so I think it may have influenced Thanos and Nebula without them realising in order to get Warlock back out there and wearing it again. When the Silver Surfer and Drax confronted Thanos when he had the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos could have destroyed them easily and in any number of ways, but instead zapped them into the Soul Gem, allowing them to tell Warlock what was going on. The Soul Gem benefitted more than Thanos did. I don't think the other gems are sentient. It seems to me that if the gems are one being split into six parts, then the Soul Gem is where it's soul is housed and is the only sentient part. The Mind Gem might have the capacity to think, but no animation or self-interest; more like a computer. I haven't read later revisions by other writers, but do enjoy thinking about what Starlin was intending with this issue. Ben HermanDecember 8, 2016 12:46 PM Doctor Strange: From the Marvel Vault #1 It's a real crime that Neil Vokes & Jay Geldhof haven't been asked by Marvel to illustrate more Doctor Strange stories. Their work on both this issue and Untold Tales of Spider-Man: Strange Encounters was amazing. Vokes has recently posted some Doctor Strange commission pieces on his Facebook page, and those also look stunning. BenwayDecember 8, 2016 12:29 PM Doctor Strange #54 I can only guess that the original script was far more specific and actually had Strange and Eternity discussing interesting things about the Goddess and coming events, but that somebody noticed it was giving out spoilers at the last minute and hastily replaced everything specific with generic phrases, rendering the whole issue pointless. I'd love to know what was edited out. Vin the Comics GuyDecember 8, 2016 12:16 PM Doctor Strange: From the Marvel Vault #1 These stories should have been released in a Monster version. MortificatorDecember 8, 2016 12:12 PM New Mutants Special Edition #1 The armor Warlock turns into reminds me of the VF-1A Valkyrie from Macross & Robotech. BenwayDecember 8, 2016 12:11 PM Infinity Crusade #5 I really like Infinity Crusade, but bad continuity does annoy me. One of things like those I can skim over, but the big one in this cross-over is the number of times throughout the whole event that the Thing appears right next to Wolverine like they were buddies, despite Wolverine ripping his face off recently. It's like the artists were all told that the Thing were's a helmet now, but at no point did an editor point out to a writer or artist why he is wearing a helmet. Red CometDecember 8, 2016 11:27 AM Infinity Crusade #5 Infinity Crusade didn't have a particularly memorable plot, but it was the little things that took me out of it, stuff like Darkhawk not knowing Sleepwalker despite the prior meeting or Sasquatch not being stronger than the Thing. SpikeyDecember 8, 2016 11:26 AM New Mutants #77-80,82-85 New Mutants 79 really makes me cringe because Boom Boom acts so out if character. I mean, she befriended the Beyonder, went dimension hopping with the Fallen Angels and fought N'Astirh and hordes of demons firsthand... and suddenly Asgard is what gets to her? Ben HermanDecember 8, 2016 11:14 AM Infinity Crusade #5 So the Goddess is basically just cribbing Judge Death's shtick: all crime is committed by the living, therefore life itself is a crime. Thanos6December 8, 2016 10:25 AM Infinity Crusade #5 I assume because you can't have sin without sinners. Ben HermanDecember 8, 2016 10:03 AM Silver Surfer #84 Ugh! Glad I never bought this issue. Silver Surfer is one of those series that suffered every time the latest installment of Starlin's Infinity trilogy rolled around. The Surfer was a semi-central character in all three miniseries, but was nevertheless still less-important than Adam Warlock and Thanos. That meant each time he was relegated to doing stuff that at first glance *appeared* important, but in the end was actually relatively inconsequential to the final resolution of each story. One result of this was that many of the Infinity Gauntlet / War / Crusade crossovers that appeared in his series were these odd tangents and side-trips that ended up having no significance. It's so weird that the rebirth of Thanos, which is what started all of these massive crossovers going in the first place, occurred in the Surfer's book, but he very quickly was reduced to a supporting player who was given these throw-away tie-in stories to occupy his time. Ben HermanDecember 8, 2016 9:53 AM Infinity Crusade #5 This shows how little of an impression Infinity Crusade made on me, that I completely forgot that the Goddess' end goal was to destroy the universe. Is any specific reason given for *why* she wants to do that? Is there any sort of rationalization that she tries to offer for how "good" is being served by total armageddon? AndrewDecember 8, 2016 8:50 AM Captain America #305-306 According to the definitely British Alan Davis, in the introduction to the Captain Britain Omnibus, he was asked to redesign the costume because "the heraldic Lion rampant that was the inspiration for CB's chest logo had been hijacked by the British egg marketing board," of all things. Redesigning the costume was "generally accepted as a priority by everyone at Marvel UK, if not all of British fandom." Omar KarinduDecember 8, 2016 6:51 AM Fantastic Four #61-63 The thing about Blastaar is that e never comes across as much more than a villain-of-the-month until much later, when someone finally gets the idea to play him off against Annihilus, which increases Blastaar's stature immensely. Prior to that, he just kinda shows up periodically to try to kill superheroes. Also, one minor thing you don't notice unless you look at a site like this one: when Peter Parker cameos outside of ASM, Mary Jane is the love interest that sometimes gets to show up alongside him. In contrast, Gwen Stacy never appeared outside of ASM, despite Stan's professed preference for Gwen as Peter's partner. Omar KarinduDecember 8, 2016 6:44 AM Amazing Spider-Man #94 Stan Lee really, really liked the Beetle. He gets a surprising number of appearances across multiple titles as long as Stan is writing, then pretty much vanishes as soon as Stan leaves. AFDecember 8, 2016 6:14 AM New Mutants #51 Not to derail any further than fnord wants, but just to add a bit to not worry folk too much about his health, as of 5 days ago; "I have been undergoing treatment again and have had little energy as a result." He will be updating his site soon with my Hellcat/Moondragon fan fiction nonsense... I'm sending him the images later tonight, so I will let him know you're all thinking of him (and I'll let him know everyone was looking forward to hear from him when fnord gets to The Crossing). WisDecember 8, 2016 12:09 AM Captain America #305-306 I realize it was designed by an American (and maybe that's why it was changed in the UK's Marvel Super-Heroes), but I've just never understood why Captain Britain's second costume is better. cullenDecember 7, 2016 8:52 PM Warlock Chronicles #3 I love this art! Like Grom, I will pick this up if I see it. That infinite-loop panel manages to emulate classic "cosmic" style without being straight-up pastiche. MichaelDecember 7, 2016 8:46 PM Infinity Crusade #5 To back up Luis's point, ever since X-Men 175, Storm has been portrayed as willing to sacrifice her friends for the greater good. In X-Men 175, she nearly drowned Maddie (who was good at the time), in New Mutants 34, she was willing to kill Doug while the Shadow King was occupying his body without first seeing if there was a way to separate them, and in X-Men 219 she was seriously considering killing Alex for no real reason. It would have worked better if Storm had resisted the Goddess out of stubbornness, instead of suggesting that she's unable to kill her friends for the greater good, because, really, she's perfectly capable. D09December 7, 2016 7:40 PM New Mutants #51 Hope Nathan Adler comes back for The Crossing and Avengers Forever, I'd love to see what he thinks of them when the time comes. D09December 7, 2016 7:38 PM Fantastic Four #271-273 @Andrew: I don't know, that explanation still seems a little "off" to me, but I'm willing to let it go until we get to Hickman's run. fnord12December 7, 2016 6:34 PM New Mutants #51 Nathan Adler has opted to not come here anymore. You might consider reaching out to him at his own site. (P.S. Don't really want to turn this entry into a thread about Nathan.) fnord12December 7, 2016 6:24 PM Silver Surfer #84 Not a typo. Thanos6 wins the "Can Identify Internet Slang" award. Chris CohenDecember 7, 2016 6:15 PM New Mutants #51 Maybe fnord knows where Nate's at then. Know he has some health issues, so wondering if there's any news? clydeDecember 7, 2016 6:10 PM Silver Surfer #84 I already brought up that typo in the forum. I like Thanos6's version much better. clydeDecember 7, 2016 6:09 PM Infinity Crusade #5 Luis, not such a big mystery about Warlock Chronicles. Even the writers thought Infinity Crusade went on so long that Warlock Chronicles was up to #51 already. ;) Luis DantasDecember 7, 2016 4:53 PM Infinity Crusade #5 And yet she shows a trait that she has let go off for well over 100 months at this point. The panel with Cap and Beast shows that Goddess is inspiring bloodthirst even in likely targets, for what it is worth. Funny that the tie-ins panel mentions Warlock Chronicles #51 as opposed to #5. AFDecember 7, 2016 4:35 PM Infinity Crusade #5 Or the appointed Protector of the Universe. Luis DantasDecember 7, 2016 4:27 PM Silver Surfer #85 The ending seems to rise this story above most of the crossover. Thanos6December 7, 2016 4:25 PM Infinity Crusade #5 As I wondered before, exactly how is the Goddess blowing up countless stars to kill everyone in the universe something that Infinity and Eternity shouldn't be worried about? Thanos6December 7, 2016 4:21 PM Silver Surfer #84 Oh For Fuck's Sakes. (Fnord, feel free to censor me if you wish.) Max_SpiderDecember 7, 2016 4:16 PM Infinity Crusade #5 Chris Claremont himself played up Storm's willpower against psychic control quite a bit. She was the one X-Man who managed to tear off Malice's necklace in that one issue, not to mention there was that annual with Horde where she was one of only two X-Men to resist the fantasy worlds the citadel was conjuring (at least the first time around). Its not terribly unexpected to see some part of her leak through against the Goddess. Piotr WDecember 7, 2016 4:02 PM Silver Surfer #84 "OFFS"? clydeDecember 7, 2016 3:46 PM Infinity Crusade #3 " I could have just missed it. For years I didn't realize that Psylocke's new appearance wasn't simply because that's how the Image people wanted to draw her." I have the same problem with this reasoning as I do for the way Jarvis suddenly looked in the 80's Avengers issues as opposed to the earlier issues. It was a totally different look. IMO, A person can't look different based on "artistic interpretation". You look like you look. Clearly, Mephisto is changing his physical form based on his mood or who he sees. He can do that. Psylocke shouldn't be able to. Nor should Jarvis. At least with the Thing, they were nice enough to some up with an in-universe reason why he kept changing the way he looked. mikrolikDecember 7, 2016 3:39 PM Amazing Spider-Man #22 Not sure if it would push the historical significance higher than a 7, but in addition to introducing Princess Python, I'd say it's worth noting that this issue (particularly the opening splash page) seems to be where the core membership of the Circus of Crime is very firmly established (characters who looked like the Clown, Great Gambonnos and Cannonball appeared in Hulk 3 and AMS 16, but didn't have the proper names yet and weren't as defined as they were this issue). Nate WolfDecember 7, 2016 2:27 PM New Mutants #51 I don't know who Nathan Adler is, but I can confirm I'm a totally different person. (ironically, I'm answering comments written by two different Chrises) I agree genre is a factor in art. Some art just isn't fitting for a particular story, but may look great in another kind of story. fnord12December 7, 2016 12:47 PM BillDecember 7, 2016 12:45 PM Darkhawk #31 When did Northstar's hair turn white? fnord12December 7, 2016 9:58 AM Infinity Crusade #3 @Cullen, i took a look at Daredevil #281-282 where the Silver Surfer encounters Mephisto in his JRJR form, and the Surfer doesn't comment on the change, which supports your theory. Of course that story is kind of weird for a number of reasons (for one thing it's said that the Surfer has a bond with Mephisto and can tell whenever he is up trouble), so it may not be a great example. But i can't think of anyone else who has seen Mephisto in both forms yet. fnord12December 7, 2016 9:45 AM Uncanny X-Men #25-26 I didn't track it, but i did a quick review now and i've found it used in issue #14, in the anti-mutant hysteria whipped up by Bolivar Trask. I've added a scan there. I also checked issue #8, where the Beast is attacked by a mob, but they just call him a "mutant" there. fnord12December 7, 2016 9:36 AM Warlock Chronicles #3 Agree, Benway. I should have placed that issue based on where it ended, but i got tempted by the fact that the majority of it expands on a scene from Infinity Crusade #3. Thanks for reminding me of the previous appearance of that form, Tuomas. For what it's worth, we also saw it in Ghost Rider #19. fnord12December 7, 2016 9:23 AM Hulk #302 The reactions to this issue would have been in #306, but neither that issue nor #307 has a lettercol, and #308's is truncated by a statement of ownership. fnord12December 7, 2016 9:13 AM Silver Sable & the Wild Pack #16-17 It's a scene explaining Infinity Crusade. The first three panels are definitely flashbacks, and as i say in the Considerations i'm treating the last panel as conceptual. fnord12December 7, 2016 9:07 AM Amazing Spider-Man annual #3 See the second bullet in the References, guys. ;-) BenwayDecember 7, 2016 5:51 AM Warlock Chronicles #3 On the last page of Silver Surfer #83 Thanos is wearing the soul gem (and has a weird squashed head, but that's beside the point) and he gets the soul gem in this issue, so perhaps this one should go before that one? WisDecember 7, 2016 5:47 AM Marvel Fanfare #18 Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal were created by Al Jaffe and Stan and some of their stories are ahead of their time, clever humor stories so I can see why they'd appeal to Austin. Some of the better stories (before they became straightforward kid's tales- nothing wrong with that, though) can be found online. WisDecember 7, 2016 5:09 AM Hulk #302 fnord, not to be a pest but do you know if anyone wrote in to the letter pages in the issues following this one, confused about the appearance of the grey Hulk..? up until that time, all reprints of the Hulk's first appearance had him re-colored to the familiar green. TuomasDecember 7, 2016 4:05 AM Warlock Chronicles #3 Mephisto's Tim Curry form seems to be the same as the "boss form" you mentioned in your review of "Silver Surfer/Warlock: Resurrection". JPDecember 7, 2016 3:44 AM Uncanny X-Men #25-26 Is the above panel with Cyclops losing his glasses the first use of the term "mutie" as a Marvel Universe slur? If so, that's pretty significant. I'm surprised to see it show up that early. Luis DantasDecember 7, 2016 2:14 AM Amazing Spider-Man annual #3 I am fairly certain that they first met in Amazing Spider-Man #14, not #10, so you are correct, @Datspiderman. The footnote is mistaken. Jon DubyaDecember 7, 2016 1:50 AM Silver Sable & the Wild Pack #16-17 None of the heroes shown on the last screenshot count as "characters appearing"? datspidermanDecember 6, 2016 10:01 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #3 I'm confused by the footnote on that hulk vs spidey panel; it says they first met in spidey #10, yet amazing spider-man #10 seems to have no reference to the hulk ever appearing in that book on the marvel wikia. Thanos6December 6, 2016 9:54 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #20 Ah yes. I do think this was a cute little story with that unexpected bit of pathos at the end. Honestly, I would have loved to have seen that party if Pip had made his wish in time. Omar KarinduDecember 6, 2016 9:31 PM Iron Man #149-150 Cagliostro, in this form, appeared in some old Dracula stories from the 1970s and was also seen (by proxy) in one fo Steve Engelhart's 1970s Dr. Strange stories. He's distinct from the Aged Genghis, who is both older and in much, much worse shape. Ben HermanDecember 6, 2016 9:13 PM Infinity Crusade #4 I have to agree with fnord that the combination of Jim Starlin's scripting and Ron Lim's pencils gives us a Thanos who is so unabashedly conniving and smugly devious that it's actually quite amusing and entertaining. I just wish that it was in service of a better story. MichaelDecember 6, 2016 7:41 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #20 There was one touching bit that fnord didn't note- Pip realizes that what will really make him happy is not sex or power or revenge but a birthday party with his friends. AndrewDecember 6, 2016 7:39 PM Infinity Crusade #4 I kept wondering and finally decided to look it up, and now I am sharing it with all of you: The name Autolycus is pronounced aw-TOL-ih-kus, and it means "the wolf itself." GromDecember 6, 2016 7:03 PM Warlock Chronicles #3 I missed this issue in real time and will try to get it. I was avoiding all tie-ins because they usually sucked. Thanks fnord. Andrew BurkeDecember 6, 2016 5:17 PM Thor #465 I got the book up to this issue and then dropped it. Never recovered until THOR started with Jane Foster. Seems I like the replacements better, as I enjoyed THUNDERSTRIKE as well. The story and art in this issue was not my cup of tea. WisDecember 6, 2016 5:16 PM Power Man & Iron Fist #107 I've got to say, Zeno Saturn looks absolutely nothing like Bowie in either his Ziggy or Thin White Duke personas whatsoever (and those two characters themselves don't resemble each other in the slightest), so while 'Zeno Saturn' might have the same initials as 'Ziggy Stardust', that's where the comparison ends- it's very clear due to facial structure and hair style that Zeno is, like John Constantine, based on Sting. I don't see any Bowie influence at all. Thanos6December 6, 2016 4:56 PM Warlock Chronicles #3 Given what the Goddess's plan is eventually revealed to be, I've never understood how Eternity and Infinity could dismiss it as no concern of theirs. Ben HermanDecember 6, 2016 4:17 PM Infinity Crusade #3 @AF: Oops! I'm getting my beef and pork mixed up. I should have said Moo Knight... https://theslimjames.com/2015/06/30/marvel-animal-characters-profiled/ kvetoDecember 6, 2016 3:33 PM Avengers #210 These guys should have teamed up with cobra commander and used hi weather dominator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F93ssIqlrAU Ben HermanDecember 6, 2016 1:14 PM Infinity Crusade #3 @AF: What do you mean that you're a cow? You mean like a Skrull Cow? Or maybe Spider-Ham? Starlin was really good in the 1970s on his original Thanos and Warlock stories, and in the 1980s onward on creator-owned series such a Dreadstar. But I've found the majority of his work from Marvel from the early 1990s to the present to be very underwhelming. BenwayDecember 6, 2016 1:12 PM Marvel Team-Up #142-143 Can she have all the hundreds of perfectly recreated light hairs needed to form that afro? Can she smile? Crying is no stranger. If you think about it, she has a very strange power set. WisDecember 6, 2016 11:25 AM Marvel Team-Up #142-143 can Captain Marvel "tear up" if she's stuck in pure energy form...? I'm overthinking comics again. WisDecember 6, 2016 10:45 AM Infinity Crusade #3 @AF- you're not a cow but I'm glad you can relate! One more instance of giving fnord credit for sifting through these issues... Luke BlanchardDecember 6, 2016 9:24 AM Iron Man #149-150 I took "Cagliostro" to be Aged Genghis from "Dr Strange". Hence Doom's warning that immortality can be a curse. I doubt the intention was to identify Genghis with the historical Cagliostro, as he was Italian, and Genghis is apparently Asian. Perhaps Cagliostro's name was substituted for Genghis's because he was too obscure. AFDecember 6, 2016 5:43 AM Infinity Crusade #3 @wis I'm not posting opinion on here anymore coz I'm a cow but just know you're definitely not alone! Chris CohenDecember 6, 2016 5:41 AM New Mutants #51 Speaking of Nate, where has Nathan Adler gone? Haven't seen him post here for ages! cullenDecember 6, 2016 1:37 AM Infinity Crusade #3 I had more or less considered Mephisto's various "forms" to be differences in artistic interpretation, not a reflection of anything "in-universe." Had it previously been stated that Mephisto had been altering his appearance to the post-JRJR look? I could have just missed it. For years I didn't realize that Psylocke's new appearance wasn't simply because that's how the Image people wanted to draw her. cullenDecember 6, 2016 1:27 AM Warlock Chronicles #2 Don't think I'm familiar with Tom Raney, but I like the art. Solid cosmic weirdness. WisDecember 6, 2016 12:18 AM Infinity Crusade #3 I think I'm in the minority when it comes to feelings about Starlin. I have never, ever gotten it and am still mystified how he was indulged so long when all of his stories are bland, indulgent affairs where other characters suffer because of his devotion to his own bland favorites. It's seriously just bad, terrible writing where the same themes are endlessly and woefully explored. WisDecember 5, 2016 11:51 PM Moon Knight #55-56 This is just horrible art. That one panel of Moon Knight saying "Sordid files told me..." etc.- Wow. Morgan WickDecember 5, 2016 11:36 PM Darkhawk #30 And here we have the one book that recognizes the implications of taking away all the evil in the world for writing a tie-in comic where the characters actually have something to do. ChrisWDecember 5, 2016 11:17 PM New Mutants #51 In hindsight, I see merits to the art that I didn't see when the issue came out. Nate, I had the same reaction at the time and for a long while afterwards. At this point, Kevin Nowlan is probably best known for "Jack B. Quick" with Alan Moore and believe me, it works a lot better for comics about a boy genius' life in smalltown Kansas than for space opera characters designed by Dave Cockrum or Bob McLeod. ChrisWDecember 5, 2016 11:08 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Given that we're well into the 90s at this point, I'd add that Ron Lim could do great sexy females that weren't remotely on the same level as the Image artists. Nova was basically a nude female and I never found Mantis sexy no matter who drew her, but they both looked like real women [superwomen] with normal facial expressions and body language. His fill-in issue of "Excalibur," Megan, Rachel and Kitty were hot (along with Jean Grey and the X-Babies and various other characters like the female cop who pats down Brian) but what they were saying and doing was far more important than 'large-breasted babe in tights.' The look on Jean's face when baby Nathan soils himself is priceless, as is Rachel's while watching outside. Kitty lecturing the New Mutants like she's so much better, then sees Li'l Illyana and has a brief hug with Dani about what they've been through. Most comics artists are men, and I always cite Terry Moore's example of 'if I'm going to sit at a drawing board for ten hours to make someone's butt look good, it has to be a butt I want to look at.' Ok, they're mostly overdeveloped sex bombs, but they look and act like believable overdeveloped sex bombs, as in real people who behave like individuals. And Lim could do action scenes, people sitting and talking, pacing, layouts, backgrounds, the characters were immediately recognizable... He was awesome. Andrew FDecember 5, 2016 10:42 PM Infinity Crusade #3 This series really illustrates the steep decline in comics writing quality that happened in just a few years. By issue three of Infinity Gauntlet, the stakes were clear -- Thanos had planned to wipe out half the life in the universe, and he had succeeded, plus now he was omnipotent. The assorted heroes had no hope to defeat him, but they still proactively tried, instead of sitting around talking about it. Now it's mid-93, and instead of coming up with cool plans that make sense for our bad guys, or origins or backstories for our new characters, we just tease mysteries for months on end. You could have cut this whole crossover down to a one-shot and lost nothing of consequence. Vincent ValentiDecember 5, 2016 8:27 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #19 Um, I don't think that the Thing would be so calm in the presence of Wolverine at this point in time.... Thanos6December 5, 2016 8:10 PM Secret Wars II #6 Random thought; OK, so the Beyonder realizes that flat-out destroying Death is a bad idea, but why not remake Death, put Death on a chain? It'd be a way for him to do something heroic that only someone of his power can do without breaking things too badly. MichaelDecember 5, 2016 7:52 PM Warlock Chronicles #2 @Thanos6- also, the Goddess had Warlock's memories of being killed by Thanos, so she might have been taking her revenge. Thanos6December 5, 2016 7:50 PM Warlock Chronicles #2 Probably, and I swear that I used to have figured out who it was, but I can't remember. SDecember 5, 2016 6:28 PM Warlock Chronicles #2 Is the guy in the black suit in the Life and Death panel supposed to be somebody? BerendDecember 5, 2016 5:36 PM Warlock Chronicles #2 I've always found it a bit iffy that Warlock seemingly equates "good" and "feminine". But hey, the whole "good equals nihilistic religion"-thing of Infinity Crusade was pretty iffy to begin with. BerendDecember 5, 2016 5:30 PM Darkhawk #30 Maybe the Goddess, in her infinite wisdom, realized that all humanity's evil given corporeal form would be such a crappy character, that she allowed it to be created, figuring a random C-list superhero would defeat it :P Thanos6December 5, 2016 5:13 PM Warlock Chronicles #2 I always just assumed the Goddess's purpose was to keep Thanos out of her way while she started her plan. D09December 5, 2016 4:50 PM Infinity Crusade #3 My theory on some of the "wackier" things shown in this crossover is that since Earth and its moon are too close to Paradise Omega, it's not getting the full effect of the Goddess' emanations, or rather the effects are being distorted in ways that wouldn't be occurring on other planets like how only the (sane) villains are getting pacified, the insane and mentally disturbed being unaffected, the creation of Pureheart from all those negative emotions and feelings the Goddess is suppressing, the accidental remerger of Rick and Sleepwalker (which, like Aquarian's reversion to Wundarr, wears off after the Goddess is defeated), etc. Ben HermanDecember 5, 2016 4:47 PM Infinity Crusade #3 Okay I now remember bits of this issue. When it came out, I was annoyed that Starlin basically had Adam Warlock and Thanos giving a big theatrical yawn in response to Mephisto showing up in his demonic form from the John Romita Jr issues of Daredevil. Starlin really seemed to have an active dislike for Mephisto, reducing him to Thanos' lackey in Infinity Gauntlet, and depicting him as a second-rate bumbler afterwards. It's obvious that Starlin was trying much too hard to make Thanos look like the most awesome character ever, to the point where he's always outwitting the Devil himself. I think there are better ways to show how amazing a character is than to have him contemptuously swat aside other powerful characters. Since we're talking about Mephisto, just look at how he was handled in relation to Doctor Doom. What made Doom impressive was not that he beat Mephisto, because he never did. Instead we saw Mephisto soundly defeating Doom each & every time he attempted to rescue his mother's soul. But no matter how often that happened Doom would pick himself up, dust himself off, and one year later he'd be back again to try once more, because he had an absolutely indomitable will. That really demonstrated how badass Doom was without in any way reducing the menace of Mephisto. AFDecember 5, 2016 4:21 PM Alpha Flight #28 I just realized Byrne draws (most) the Alpha Flight characters' artwork for the 1985 version of the Official Handbooks... by the tail-end of the series, the Alpha Flight characters have Mantlo's alterations applied so it's interesting to see Byrne draw stuff like Heather as Vindicator, Shaman's bondage costume, female Sasquatch, etc. George LochinskiDecember 5, 2016 3:33 PM Fantastic Four #308 Sorry, Dermie, but you're way off imo. Certainly, being averse to men after becoming a victim of sexual violence is something that definitely can happen, but that's some serious PTSD happening. For Englehart to frame it as a betrayal of her teammates, and to make that 'betrayal' the hook of that particular issue...it would have been less misogynistic if he had just had made an all-male FF lineup. Englehart here and in WCA seems like he's trying to do some 'men's rights' deconstruction of post-Claremont 80s Marvel gender dynamics. Inexcusable. Nate WolfDecember 5, 2016 3:24 PM Thor #344 Wasn't it Siegfried, instead of Sigurd? AndrewDecember 5, 2016 2:11 PM Captain America #149-152 I always assume Conway wrote his story for the Stranger, and when he handed the script to Sal Buscema he was told John had drawn a completely different origin for the Stranger the previous year in the Fantastic Four, and Conway just decided to make minimal changes to the visuals and keep everything else the same. It seems unlikely to me that Kane, who drew the cover, would miscolor the Stranger's hair, since he'd already drawn him a few years back in the Hulk. Ataru320December 5, 2016 12:57 PM Darkhawk #30 Somehow seeing how the Beetle having second thoughts thanks to the Goddess makes me wonder if any of that stuck around post-Infinity Crusade considering how close we are to the Thunderbolts... BenwayDecember 5, 2016 9:44 AM Hulk #129 This was one of my earliest Marvel comics in a UK Hulk annual from the early 80s which had this issue along with Mogol from a couple of issues earlier, the much later awesome story with the Hulk's shadow being possessed and some text stories inspired by the TV show. The transformation of Sam Sterns into the Leader is really creepy. I like the Leader's aircraft based on the War of the Worlds movie and as a little kid I loved the unstoppable nature of the Glob. It can just home in on him, won't ever stop and even if you blow it to bits it'll just reform and come back. It's very Terminatorish. Five year old me was also impressed that Roxie Music had a song called Love is the Glob. fnord12December 5, 2016 9:04 AM General Comments Thanks, turtletrekker! As Benway says, the problem is that Marvel Team-Up annual #7 has to take place after New Mutants #21 but before the start of the Casket of Ancient Winters storyline, while Magneto resurfaces in an arc where Casket of Ancient Winters is beginning. It might be possible to compress things a little, but there are a number of dependencies. Once i've settled on placement for a year i don't move things around unless it's proven that it can't work (don't want to disturb the house of cards). In this case i don't think Magneto floating on some wreckage for a couple of days is too terrible (as you say, there are always things that are a little problematical). And the good news is that Lee Forester finds him in the Bermuda Triangle, so if we really wanted to we could make up a little Untold Tale where he spent some time in Skull the Slayer's pocket dimension. ;-) I definitely appreciate the thoughts and hope it doesn't sound like i'm blowing you off. Omar KarinduDecember 5, 2016 7:10 AM Daredevil #141-143 A couple issues later, there's a letter from Peter Sanderson complaining that Bullseye has traded in his "aura of psychotic menace" from his first appearances for what Sanderson terms "imitation Jester hysterical humor" in these issues. Issue #146 seems like a deliberate response to that complaint in some ways. Omar KarinduDecember 5, 2016 7:09 AM Captain America #149-152 -- There's a weird thing in the 1970s at Marvel with "fake Stranger" stories. Here, it's really some new guy named Jakar, and in Steve Engelhart's Avengers we'll get the Toad impersonating the Stranger as well. -- The Contessa's actions here take on an interesting subtext given the retcon in Secret Warriors that she was a mole for the Soviet-era organization Leviathan all along....who nonetheless is in love with Fury. BenwayDecember 5, 2016 6:10 AM General Comments that should be 'culprit'. I have no idea what a culptit is. BenwayDecember 5, 2016 6:08 AM General Comments @turtletrekker Hi! I'm not fnord, but while your timeline makes sense if only reading X-comics, it bumps into problems if you factor in other things. The main culptit is Marvel Team Up annual 7, in which Warlock is already on Earth. It takes place in a long run of Spider-man stories which take place in a short span of time soon after the return from Secret Wars and there are a bundle of Spider-man appearances which happen between there and the snow starting to fall. If not for that I'd place it where you said in my own chronology. As it is, I look on Magneto's rescue from the sea as a 'whatever happened to...?' style flashback rather than in real time. something has to give somewhere. GromDecember 4, 2016 7:43 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Ron Lim was the anchor for Marvel throughout the early 90s for me. Love his art. I guess the high powered cosmic beings could be explained as highly advanced aliens rather than a God. Their existence may not destroy one's faith but would certainly challenge the uniqueness we currently experience. GromDecember 4, 2016 7:33 PM Infinity Crusade #2 @Omar I admit that I restricted my view to just Infinity Crusade rather than all of Starlin's work up to that point. I think we are both right :) Starlin has the overarching themes through his entire work you say as well as focusing on specific themes in a set series such as Infinity Crusade. I tend to disagree that Thanos is nihilistic in Infinity wars, Crusade, Abyss and Epiphany. He works with the heroes for the sake of the universe. GromDecember 4, 2016 7:23 PM Infinity Crusade #2 @fnord12 But doesn't Cap "red pill"? turtletrekkerDecember 4, 2016 6:33 PM General Comments Wow. This site is amazing. I recently re-read the entirety of Chris Claremont's X-Men run, including his work on New Mutants, Excalibur, Wolverine, significant portions of Louise Simonson's X-Factor and New Mutants,various minis, events and relevant crossovers, and developed a chronology that I was pretty proud of, but this puts what I did to shame. Of course, placing everything into an exact continuity is problematic at best as it isn't an exact science. That said, I hope you'll indulge a theory of mine that would argue that your placement of New Mutants 21, Annual 1 and 22 comes too early in the timeline. In my view, you place too much time in between New Mutants 21, where Warlock smashes into Asteroid M, and his rescue by Lee Forester in Uncanny X-Men 188, while the X-Men are in Dallas. I question that Magneto just bobbed in the ocean for days during the time before Storm lost her powers and the point that the X-Men arrived to fight the Wraiths(UXM 185-188 by your placement). I feel the events of New Mutants 21 and Uncanny X-Men 188 need to be a little more concurrent. So, I postulate that the events UXM 186 (Lifedeath)and NM 21 (Slumber Party) take place largely concurrently. This explains why there were no X-Men on campus when an alien crash-landed in their yard. They were on their way to Eagle Plaza to retrieve Storm. The snow started falling soon after the last page of NM 21, and Illyana's appearance in UXM 188 came soon after. Thoughts? All in fun, of course. MichaelDecember 4, 2016 5:44 PM Thor #146-150 Note that Crystal is said to be 11 years younger than Black Bolt. But later writers would have Triton encounter an old man that he rescued when Triton was an adult but the old man was a child. So either Triton is a lot older than Black Bolt or the relative ages given in this story are incorrect or Crystal is far older than Sue and Johnny. MattDecember 4, 2016 5:23 PM Thor #447-456 Still, Spidey was a reserved member of the Avengers at the time, and has aided them on a few missions. Given that clearance, Stone should have cut him a bit of slack. ChrisDecember 4, 2016 4:46 PM Thor #447-456 Marvel has always been unclear on what exactly distinguishes Spider-Man from respectable heroes like Cap, Thor and Iron Man. I've had to assume that the Avengers, and therefore all its members, have to be some kind of deputized heroes who therefore are working within the law. They probably also have to abide many of the same restrictions that police officers do in terms of admissibility of evidence, adhering to legal rights of criminals, etc. (I have no idea if the comics themselves support such an interpretation, but I'm going with it). Spider-Man however operates outside of that. He doesn't have the same connections with the legal system so he is more of an ordinary citizen legalwise than an officer of the law. On the other hand, should he come across evidence of crimes, he can share them with the police with less risk of the evidence being suppressed. It seems to me that usually the readers see Spidey doing a lot more legally questionable activities like trespassing and breaking & entering than we see other heroes do. People like Daredevil have to be fit inbetween. Daredevil doesn't have Avengers status, but presumably his interactions with the police demonstrate his knowledge of the law, and therefore from most cops' perspective he operates within the Avengers framework. Characters like Punisher or Ghost Rider, of course, clearly operate outside the law and therefore are handled as criminals. AndrewDecember 4, 2016 4:30 PM Power Man #24-25 Other examples of costumes for males caucasians that show off their chests around this time are Prince Namor's new black costume and the God-awful S&M outfit Killraven first appeared in. AndrewDecember 4, 2016 4:09 PM Ghost Rider #1-2 I do not find that comforting at all... MattDecember 4, 2016 2:53 PM Thor #447-456 Lieutenant Stone's attitude towards Spider-Man came off as a bit hypocritical, in my opinion. He has no problem working with Thor or Thunderstrike, but when Spidey comes along he's all "I don't work with vigilantes", like he's J Jonah Jameson's long-lost brother. What was the logic behind giving Spidey the cold shoulder??? BerendDecember 4, 2016 1:11 PM Tales To Astonish #36 (Ant-Man) My inner Roy Thomas likes to explain the shifts in Hank Pym's attitude towards superheroics in his first appearances by linking them to the rise of the Fantastic Four. I imagine TtA #27 happens shortly after FF #1, when the Four are still something of an urban legend (or even before FF #1, since it feels so much more in tune with, for example, the origin of the Headsmen than with the age of superheroes.) All the scientists think Pym's ideas are weird, and he vows to stick to practical projects after his misadventure. But then the FF rise to fame (they are already said to be famous in FF #2), Reed Richards probably writes a number of interesting thesis's on all the amazing tech he invents and discovers on the Four's adventures, and the scientific community becomes more accepting of super-science. The ever-impressionable Pym then changes his mind, recreates his serum and starts working on his helmet, as seen in TtA #35. But he's still a scientist, ambivalent about being "forced" to act as a hero. Then the Four get really famous (They get an award from the government in FF #7), and Pym, either inspired by the good work they are doing as superheroes, or jealous of their fame, depending on your view of the man, decides to become a full time superhero as well. He then has a few more "Untold Tales of Ant-Man" adventures in which he also becomes "a living legend", as is stated by the opening narration of TtA #36. Ben HermanDecember 4, 2016 1:09 PM Marvel Fanfare #16-17 (Sky-Wolves) Wow! I'm a huge fan of Dave Cockrum's work, but I've never had an opportunity pick up these issues. This seems like a seriously weird story. Agreed with everyone that it seems difficult to fit into the rest of Marvel's continuity for Word War II because of the insanely high-tech weapons & vehicles. Maybe it took place on Earth WTF. Matthew BradleyDecember 4, 2016 1:04 PM Uncanny X-Men #123-124 Ah, forgot about that--thanks so much. Nate WolfDecember 4, 2016 10:43 AM New Mutants #51 Oh my god, the art in this issue was such a mess. It's the first time I genuinely and explicitly do NOT like an issue's art, and considering the fact that I'm very tolerant about artists in general, this says a lot. I don't know about Nowlan's other works, he could have done a great job for what I know, but this particular issue is quite simply awful. The New Mutants all look like kids, with Dani and Illyana especially looking like brats to me. And they're SO off-model. Magneto has always been rather muscular, as we recently saw while he was taking a shower. Hepzibah actually looks good, but even she is off-model. The story was okay. It did quite a good job at showing Xavier's manipulative tendencies, even though it's done in an awkward way at times. I guess Claremont had other priorities at the time, since at the end of the day, Xavier is still is space. Which isn't a bad thing; there's still a lot to explore about the Magneto/New Mutants relationship. MikeDecember 4, 2016 10:20 AM Thor #374 Thor should also remember Angel from the time Ghost Rider went nuts and they teamed up to fight him. UbersichtDecember 4, 2016 10:11 AM Journey Into Mystery #93 Some more specimens of Matt Fox's distinctive style RickDecember 4, 2016 9:47 AM Marvel Spotlight #32 http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/the_saga_of_the_high_evolution.shtml The Saga of Spider-Woman's Hair Color: Young Jessica Drew is depicted as having black hair all along during the Saga of the High Evolutionary story. Erik BeckDecember 4, 2016 9:43 AM Ghost Rider #1-2 @ Andrew - He started going by Hellstorm starting in West Coast Avengers #14. AndrewDecember 4, 2016 9:29 AM Ghost Rider #1-2 Maybe no one else cares, maybe it's an age thing, but I find it really weird that you refer to Daimon Hellstrom as "Hellstorm." In the seventies and eighties, when I was young, he was just "Son of Satan" if he was anything, and in modern comics he's too cool to have a code name at all, so I've personally never read any comic in which he was called Hellstorm. It's very, very nineties... AndrewDecember 4, 2016 7:27 AM Uncanny X-Men #159 Kitty is wearing a Star of David in her very first appearance in X-Men 129. Byrne has said he based Kitty on a girl he knew, and that girl was Jewish, so Kitty is Jewish. How deeply she believes is a separate question. Personally, I'm not comfortable with the idea that faith can be measured quantifiably, like cholesterol. Maybe it works as described in the Bible: all you need is "faith as small as a mustard seed"; i.e., a very, very small amount is the same as a lot. In Tomb of Dracula, it's said that it's Dracula's own beliefs that determine how much he's repelled. A crucifix is better than a simple cross, and a Star of David is better than nothing. More importantly, if you read that scene carefully, it's not necessarily Kitty's belief in the Star of David that gives it power against Dracula; it could simply be the fact that the Star is made of silver. AFDecember 4, 2016 6:16 AM Avengers #204-205 I'm not sure but I think this one was handwaved into being a LMD/Robot/something like that of Yellow Claw in Agents of Atlas. Or maybe I'm thinking of the Frog-Man story. Or the Nova story. I know something wasn't him. a.lloydDecember 4, 2016 6:14 AM Journey Into Mystery #93 Is Thor shooting lighting out of his hands? JTI88December 4, 2016 5:28 AM Captain America #177-186 Actually, after having read more issues drawn by Robbins, I'm eating my words: Robbins'art works. This story is strong: a very milestone character like the Falcon, an African-American who becomes the sidekick of America's living symbol, which turns out being only a puppet in the psycho game of the Red Skull. I guess that reading it back in the days was a shock. I still agree that since "blacks are crooks" is the quintessential racist stereotype, this retconned origin cramp the character. Maybe this war a price to pay to renew the character. Back to Robbins'art: precisely because of the drama oh the story, drawing it with childish (because they're childish) tones enriches it. It's like having a children choir sing a song about hate. The content it's highlighted by the seemly inadequate channel. UbersichtDecember 4, 2016 4:11 AM Super Soldiers #1-5 There's a clear resemblance in places (albeit a pale and inconsistent imitation) to Barry Windsor-Smith that I suspect may have been a deliberate choice to recall Weapon X and Nuke stories drawn by BWS. Since USAgent is surely not one to casually drop British slang and surely wasn't calling the guy a cigarette, we can assume he was employing the American usage and making an anti-homosexual slur. But I suspect the British meaning of "fag" may have made that remark easier to get past the editors. If it would have been an issue at all. (Amusing to compare the censorship of British shows airing on BBC America and on PBS. BBC has on occasion assumed the "sod" and "bugger" needed to be censored for American audiences where PBS let them through even while censoring "crap"! Don't even get me started on "fanny"...) BonezDecember 3, 2016 11:00 PM Uncanny X-Men #159 In Uncanny X-Men #210 Shadowcat mentions her Jewish background when she confronts the angry mob confronting Nightcrawler. D09December 3, 2016 2:25 PM Avengers West Coast #96-97 @Michael: According to Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update #1, it was the Goddess' influence that allowed Quantum to revert Aquarian back to his Wundarr identity and power-set. After the Goddess was defeated, the reversion wore off and Aquarian returned to normal. MichaelDecember 3, 2016 12:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #123-124 In issue 116, Wolverine says "The beast ain't been born that can break my bones". Matthew BradleyDecember 3, 2016 12:51 PM Uncanny X-Men #123-124 We've known Logan's claws are adamantium, but is page 6, panel 4 of #124 the first reference to “Wolverine’s unbreakable bones”? Jay GallardoDecember 3, 2016 8:43 AM Super Soldiers #1-5 Man, that shield is huge... Omar KarinduDecember 3, 2016 8:35 AM Infinity Crusade #2 In contrast, it's Thanos who, in the final pages of the miniseries, will repeatedly insist that he will win because he "will never depend on any but himself." His self-serviving individualism is explicitly contrasted with Warlock's self-imposed sense of honor, the negative image of Warlock's "cool intellect" (to use the Goddess's phrase from issue #6). But it's still more about existentialism vs. something else: Warlock desires to create a sense of purpose and values for himself and live by them. Thanos worships death, tranquility, and non-purpose. Basically, it's the choice between making meaning and morality in the face of a meaningless, amoral universe, or succumbing either to the need to dominate in the name of something artificial (Magus, Goddess) or to nihilistic despair and the desire to extinguish the very fiction of meaning (Thanos). So Starlin ends up rejecting traditional belief structures, but he also isn't a big fan of self-interestedness. Frankly, he seems to treat pure self-interest as something that invariably *becomes* the drive to dominate -- or eliminate -- others. Omar KarinduDecember 3, 2016 8:29 AM Infinity Crusade #2 Starlin's thing here seems less like "individualism vs. collectivism" and more like "existentialism vs. received, institutional values." After all, the whole plot point of this and Infinity War is that Adam Warlock only truly becomes "free" and capable of wielding great power by casting out both his "good" and "evil" sides and then *defeat them entirely*, leaving behind a being who can create meaning through his choices. The Magus started out as a version of Warlock who was devoted to "championing life" by imposing a purpose on it -- the worship of himself and his Universal Church -- and Warlock defeated him by literally picking a different path in life, even if it meant his own death. In the 90s stories, the Magus is more like the desire to dominate others by sheer force of will. The Goddess, in turn, represents the idea that one's sense of virtue should be the rule for all living things. Her big rant in the final issue is about how the need to take everything into the "heavenly embrace" means that "all vile life [must] cease." She is a creature of supposedly "divine purpose" much as the Magus, int he older 1970s stories, was. It's worth remembering his description, in Avengers Annual #7, of the paradisical world inside the soul gem: "We're all here, together...truly together. For our hearts are open books, and this atmosphere breeds understanding rather than ego. Here, we are all one and in this oneness there can only be...love." Omar KarinduDecember 3, 2016 8:16 AM West Coast Avengers #12-13 His treatment of Patsy Walker is interesting in this respect: in the 70s, she comes across as a story of female liberation of a sort, with her fantasy of suburban married life collapsing and her taking up that costume to finally confront her ex. But when he revistis her here, she's just a frisky housewife who traded up with her remarriage; there's a whole theme about California culture and the transformation of the radical 60s and 70s into a more conventional, upwardly mobile kind of "Liberated traditional household" idea. And y'know, that's also the happy ending for the Scarlet Witch, come to think of it. Ultimately, Engelhart tends to reinforce the reductive fantasy of the whole old "lady in the street, but a w***e between the sheets" fantasy: the woman who's sexually liberated in terms of having a high sex drive, but ultimately devoted to the joys of monogamy. Hell, there's a scene with Pasty and Daimon in issue #16 that's just about as literal a representation of that fantasy as one could imagine. And the men, in turn, tend to be formerly tortured types who've tamed or exorcised their inner demons and insecurities and become "ready" to be with such women. Omar KarinduDecember 3, 2016 8:10 AM West Coast Avengers #12-13 I really enjoyed this story as a kid because of the new villains and the textbook physics stuff, but as an adult I've come to be repulsed, much as fnord is, by its sexism. It was twigging to the problems with this storyline that got me to reexamine Engelhart's earlier work with Mantis and notice the major problems there, too. Both Tigra's and Mantis's storyline have some very odd ideas about the "nature" of women and women's experiences. Both arcs, in different ways, treat female sexuality as a kind of threat, something that messes up men's friendships if it isn't properly "contained" and over which women themselves have little control. This arguably comes up again in the Phantom Rider-Miockingbird stuff, and perhaps even with the whole "demon poising as Shooting Star" thing. It's hard not to notice that the long-suffering "good girl" in Engelhart's run is Firebird/La Espirita, a character who comes across as something other than sexually liberated (depending on how you read her short relationship with Hank Pym.) Luke BlanchardDecember 3, 2016 7:51 AM Web of Spider-Man #104-105 He's currently pencilling the AMAZING SPIDER-MAN newspaper strip Sundays. Apparently he also inks the dailies. MichaelDecember 2, 2016 11:21 PM Avengers West Coast #96-97 One note regarding Wundarr- he appears as Aquarian in Quasar 50 at about the time of this story and in Spider-Man Team-Up 6 in 1996. In neither story is it explained how he became Aquarian again, so Quasar 50 can take place either before or after this story. Ben HermanDecember 2, 2016 11:20 PM Web of Spider-Man #104-105 Checking on The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators, it shows that Alex Saviuk penciled near every issue of Web of Spider-Man from issue #35 to issue #116. Saviuk is definitely another of those good, solid, underrated artists who you can always rely on to meet a deadline. I just wish that during his time on Web he hadn't ended up having to pencil so many underwhelming stories. If Saviuk had been given the opportunity to work with better writers he might be more highly-ranked among the various Spider-Man artists. Walter LawsonDecember 2, 2016 6:41 PM Web of Spider-Man #104-105 Alex Saviuk has had quite a run on this title. It's been about 70 issues since he began. RocknrollguitarplayerDecember 2, 2016 5:58 PM Sub-Mariner #52-54 Love that you mentioned the Arc connecting 1st Defender's issues here..I believe these issues (though ambigous at times) to be some key's in the time capsule and if Everett had been full power we might be discussing these in an entirely different light. Thanos6December 2, 2016 5:34 PM Doctor Strange #55 Reminds me of What If, Vol. 1 #18, "What If... Dr. Strange Were A Disciple Of Dormammu?" George LochinskiDecember 2, 2016 5:32 PM Alpha Flight #123-124 I kinda liked Alpha's secondary cast, so these issues, while incredibly slight, were still ok with me. But I still remember the next couple issues as some of the worst comics I've ever read in my life DouglasDecember 2, 2016 11:53 AM Fantastic Four #176-178 I just checked this gap against chronologyproject's various lists. On top of all the Thing appearances, a bunch of issues of Thor have to happen between issues of MTIO... and Captain America 204-216... and some Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker, and consequently the Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure mini... and five issues of Daredevil, and a Marvel Spotlight with the Warriors Three... it works out to, I believe, 100 comics between those two panels. fnord12December 2, 2016 11:41 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 Just feel free to continue it there. The conversation starts off more or less relevant until it was getting into an extended back and forth on the post reboot stuff, so i just didn't want it to keep going and drown out discussion that's actually about this issue. clydeDecember 2, 2016 11:34 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 Fnord - Would you be able to move the comments to the forum & we can continue the discussion there? I'm interested in all aspects of the Infinity Gems - past, present, & future. AndrewDecember 2, 2016 11:17 AM Avengers West Coast #96-97 Oh for the love of God... Roy Thomas is basing the Power Platoon off the Legion of Superheroes. So you've got Mon-El, Colossal Boy, Chameleon Boy, Gates, Triplicate Girl, and who knows who else... fnord12December 2, 2016 11:08 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 Wandering pretty far off topic regarding the present day fate of the Infinity Gems, guys. fnord12December 2, 2016 11:04 AM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #18 Agree, thanks Benway. fnord12December 2, 2016 10:59 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 @Benway, Warlock is found by the purple hand in the middle of Infinity Crusade #1, before the Goddess brings all of her recruits together. That scene is repeated at the beginning of this issue. So seems like this takes place during Infinity Crusade #1 same as the others. I generally try to not drive myself crazy trying to fine tune the placement of the tie-ins, because they are all happening roughly at the same time. Unless there's a direct dependency or reference the placement of the tie-ins is kind of random. TuomasDecember 2, 2016 10:55 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 But Franklin also brought back all the people who had died before the final incursion, like Nightmask and Starbrand. So even if people remember the incursions, it seems that materially the 616 universe was rebooted as it was before the incursions began. So there's no reason why the Gems wouldn't have been brought back too. fnord12December 2, 2016 10:46 AM What's Missing Thanks Jay. I've updated the list to just include all the X-Men: Origins issues (except Iceman). fnord12December 2, 2016 10:41 AM Infinity Crusade #2 Thanks Dermie & AF regarding the Avengers crew. Made me realize that in Avengers West Coast #96 Spider-Woman is sent to "Four Freedoms Plaza" to be a representative, but the heroes are really gathering at Avengers Mansion. @Grom, i may be misunderstanding you but Captain America is with the Goddess. Omar KarinduDecember 2, 2016 10:17 AM Daredevil #29 This run of stories works much better if you assume it's like that Mad Men episode where everyone in the office is taking speed. MichaelDecember 2, 2016 8:16 AM Infinity Crusade #2 @david- but Magus considered himself beyond good and evil and had a cynical view of religions even while leading a religion. And the version in Infinity War didn't even have Thanos as an excuse for his crimes. MichaelDecember 2, 2016 7:38 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 @Don Campbell- Maria Hill justified the Kobik mess by pointing to the incursions and Scott Lang remembered sleeping with Tombstone's daughter when he thought the world would end, so presumably the Earth was recreated at a point after the gems were destroyed. Vin the Comics GuyDecember 2, 2016 7:18 AM Avengers West Coast #96-97 Rhodey does NOT make "Cracker ass cracker" jokes. Don CampbellDecember 2, 2016 5:33 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 @Thanos6: I suppose that would depend on what point in Reality-616's history Franklin and the Molecule Man chose as to where they would recreate that reality. As I recall, the Infinity Gems shattered quite some time before the Final Incursion and I don't know if it has ever been revealed how much the people of the Prime Earth remember of the last eight months on Earth-616 before the end. So, if nobody remembers any of the incursions, then maybe the Infinity Gems were never destroyed but if more than a few incursions are remembered then the gems would have been destroyed by then and probably would not have been recreated. AFDecember 2, 2016 4:13 AM Infinity Crusade #2 Nomad's "two buddies" are Avengers Crew... presumably just guiding him to where the heroes are meeting... I don't know if they're meant to be anyone in particular. Their hair colours don't match the obvious candidates (o'Brien, etc.) but then again their jumpsuits are the wrong colours too. davidbanesDecember 2, 2016 4:12 AM Infinity Crusade #2 Been meaning to post my thoughts on the Magnus. I never thought he was supposed to be a hypocrite exactly, well I mean I tried to look at him in the big picture. Thanos was death and we saw him eventually actually kill half the life in the universe. The Magnus was supposed to be life and wasn't he uniting galaxies to try to fight against Thanos? His method was brutal and cruel. Sure Warlock teamed up with Thanos but basically knowing you were going to be a dictator in the future kind of makes it understandable he'd team up with the then-lesser of two evils. I always took it on just two extremes/you can become corrupt yourself trying to stop something. Anyway I don't really see that nuance here. Thanos6December 2, 2016 3:28 AM Infinity Crusade #2 Funny you mention that. I write original superhero prose, and one of the big storyarcs I have planned involves a guy who basically ends up with Beyonder-level power and takes over the world. He's a benevolent dictator, but naturally there are still massive, massive changes under his rule, and I plan to devote quite a few "issues" to exploring what it's like. And even when he does eventually leave, things don't just revert to how they used to be; the status quo is permanently and irrevocably changed. ChrisWDecember 2, 2016 1:03 AM Infinity Crusade #2 Am I the only one seeing parallels with "Secret Wars II" #3? Or even "Emperor Doom"? All this potential about a world where (for all intents and purposes) bad guys stop doing bad things. You could get a 500-page graphic novel out of the Absorbing Man or Magneto or Namor, the Kingpin or Captain America living under the Beyonder or Emperor Doom. This just sucks out all the potential of these characters for the sake of spectacle. ChrisWDecember 2, 2016 12:18 AM Infinity Crusade #1 Ben Herman, totally agree about Ron Lim. The characters look right, the action scenes are good, the downtime scenes look good, the cosmic scenes look good, the pacing and layouts are of high quality. And I believe he was doing a ton of work around this point, regular series, mini-series, fill-ins. High praise for Ron Lim. ChrisWDecember 2, 2016 12:13 AM Infinity Crusade #1 Continued: Where I don't disagree is that there's no way to know how this would affect real-world religions. I used the example of Clark Kent growing up in small-town Kansas, as well as Storm proclaiming herself a weather goddess in Muslim/Catholic Kenya, where they'd like help with crops sure, but that doesn't mean goddess worship. Most likely Len Wein and Chris Claremont didn't know anything about Kenya and couldn't be bothered to check Wikipedia, but it is what it is. I think it would lead to more religious belief among the heroes, to be honest. To make up an example, meeting the Watcher, then Dormammu, then Galactus, then the Beyonder, then Eternity, it would make them wonder how much higher-up the scale goes. Or drive them insane. I admit, I like Chris Evans self-strapping a parachute for his first HALO jump in decades and telling Scarlett Johansen "There's only one God, Ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." This doesn't mean that real-world religions wouldn't be radically-altered though. And sorry about misspelling your name. I thought I had it, but then checked and saw I was totally wrong. ChrisWDecember 2, 2016 12:05 AM Infinity Crusade #1 Tuamos: "most Marvel superheroes have met or at least are aware of various cosmic and supernatural powers that are equivalent to the gods of most religions, yet they are not gods. If the heroes know Infinity, Beyonder, Galactus, etc exist, it makes sense that far fewer of them would still believe in the gods of the major religions than in our world." I disagree, but not entirely. First of all, they have first-hand experience with the supernatural, existence of beings far beyond the realm of human experience, to say nothing of first-hand proof of reincarnation and the existence of a soul. Is Mephisto not proof that that Devil exists, a living incarnation of all that is evil? If Mephisto isn't actually the Devil, doesn't that beggar the mind of how much worse Hell might be? You may not believe in Hell, but you didn't believe in Mephisto until ten minutes ago when he kidnapped your girlfriend for his latest evil scheme. Second of all, I think in a superhero world, basically every superhuman would believe in higher powers. If nothing else, they have first-hand experience. Unless I'm misremembering, even the Punisher was sent to Heaven and then reincarnated on Earth. That would send any sane human being towards looking up previous examples. [Insane people with superpowers would leap to "I'm God" and commit the appropriate atrocities.] Thanos6December 1, 2016 10:32 PM Infinity Crusade #2 I think Starlin realized the problem with the Goddess's concept of "eliminate evil by killing everyone," hence his explanation in Chronicles #5 that her mind has been warped. GromDecember 1, 2016 10:30 PM Infinity Crusade #2 Starlin was probably playing on what he thinks some readers might think "good" is. Humans have always been struggling with what is good. "Good" concepts of equality for everyone as opposed to individualism have been debated forever. Comparing this series to Civil War can produce some interesting insights to character ideologies. Compare Iron Man, Mr Fantastic and Beast here to their positions in Civil War. They are happy to support the government or Superhuman Registration Act as their "Goddess" in Civil War. Their faith resides in government and are happy to be subordinate to it and sacrifice individual rights. One can argue that they would be more open to the Goddess's brainwashing. Cap remained consistent and is an agent of free will and individualism. Daredevil and Sue Richards too are interesting as they are brainwashed by the Goddess to believe what they are doing is for the "greater good" but not so in Civil War. I would have thought they would have been in the pro-registration camp in line with their submission to the Goddess. Jay DemetrickDecember 1, 2016 10:25 PM What's Missing I listed those because I'm a fan of the early X-Men. They don't have framing stories. I'm missing the Beast one but looking it up, it doesn't have any modern framing either according to uncannyxmen.net. BenwayDecember 1, 2016 9:43 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #18 Pip says that Maxam punched Drax into the ocean "yesterday", so should Infinity Watch #16-17 be moved to a later point? Those issues have no continuity considerations. BenwayDecember 1, 2016 9:39 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 Would this work better just prior to Infinity Crusade #2? Infinity Watch and Thunderstrike take place at the same time as IC#1, while this starts a few hours after Warlock was zapped and has no direct point of crossover. MichaelDecember 1, 2016 9:11 PM Web of Spider-Man #104-105 This issue made it into Comics Should Be Good's the Wrong Side feature because Peter defeats all the heroes despite them being far more powerful than him. BenwayDecember 1, 2016 9:07 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #18 Count me in as liking the art too. Pip's new costume is one of the few good new costumes of the 90s! I mean, the codpiece alone... MichaelDecember 1, 2016 9:02 PM Infinity Crusade #2 It never made sense to me that the Goddess was Warlock's "good" side. The Magus is a genocidal religious fanatic... and so is the Goddess. The only difference is that the Magus is a hypocrite and the Goddess is sincere. Starlin's rationalization was that the Goddess wanted to destroy life since it was the source of all evil. But that's not how humans comprehend good. We wouldn't consider it "good" to eliminate poverty by killing all poor people. If Warlock's "good" and evil sides were equally cruel, then why wasn't Warlock a sociopath? Thanos6December 1, 2016 8:34 PM Infinity Crusade #2 I think the Goddess wants to purge the universe of sin by purging it of sinners, i.e., everyone. Warlock Chronicles #5 tries to give insight into her mindset, showing that like pretty much all aspects/incarnations of Adam Warlock, she has severe mental issues that led her to that conclusion. Mind you, that issue has a severe retcon about Warlock that as far as I know has never been explained and just quietly ignored. Thanos6December 1, 2016 8:29 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 Couldn't they have been recreated along with everything else when Franklin and the Molecule Man were making universes? GromDecember 1, 2016 8:10 PM Infinity Crusade #2 I agree with Andrew that the Goddess (Warlock's collectivist/equality side) simply wants what ideologues crave: Control of the masses (us). Yes, her motivation is no different from the Magus. Magus tries to use force. Goddess uses brainwashing. Both are dictators. Magus as an evil is easier to see and fight. Goddess is a lot tougher because she appeals to "equality" and the "greater good" by sacrificing an individual's free will. This fight is happening in the Western World today. Equality vs Free Will. Unfortunately I have to agree that Starlin was unable to do this story much justice and the best part of the whole series is the last interaction between Thanos and Mephisto. MichaelDecember 1, 2016 7:56 PM Thunderstrike #2-3 The names of 4 of the members of the kiddie porn ring are given as Lee, Larsen, McFarlane and Liefeld. I felt what DeFalco did with Priest (Aloysius Jamesley) was understandable but this- this is totally beyond the pale. Don CampbellDecember 1, 2016 7:48 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 The Infinity Gems that were in the Ultraverse were mostly brought there by Rune from Marvel Reality-616. The seventh gem, the Ego Gem, was found in the Ultraverse where it had been for millennia (of more) and it was implied (but never explicitly stated) that it had been brought to the Ultraverse in order to keep it separate from the other six Infinity Gems. And all of the Infinity Gems did function in the Ultraverse. Maybe the reason why the Infinity Gems don't work in alternate Marvel realities is if those realities already have their own sets of Infinity Gems? If so, then the fact that the Ultraverse was (retroactively) a Marvel reality without its own set would be why the 616 set worked there. As for the Infinity Gems reappearing in the reborn Marvel (Comics) Multiverse, I don't know how likely that is. Jonathan Hickman had six of them destroyed, presumably to demonstrate how momentous his end-of-the-multiverse storyline was and I'm not sure how any writer could explain that away. GromDecember 1, 2016 7:39 PM Infinity Crusade #1 If Starlin is just targeting church based religion as a form of brainwashing and control then I would be disappointed with his lack of originality. But I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt by assuming he is warning about the perils of other "Religions" such as environmentalism, faith in science,determinism, faith in government and collectivism. Goddess could very well represent a world government. Ironically in the Marvel universe the "rational scientific" good guys here would be proponents of determinism and the spiritual bad heroes are ones that through faith believe that they can exercise free will. They have the capacity to choose either to believe or not to believe. Captain is the main hero here in that he opts out of the faulty belief. The "good guys" who lack faith are like machines. BenwayDecember 1, 2016 6:11 PM Web of Spider-Man #104-106 (Nightwatch) This is supposed to be funny, right? Anyway, I now know that the best way to deal with a ruptured gas main is with guns. I also have learnt that the ancient Macedonians were buried in novelty hockey masks which only didn't turn their corpses into super powered zombies because they had a different diet in those days. This is the most educational thing I've read in ages! DermieDecember 1, 2016 5:58 PM Infinity Crusade #2 @Fnord, those two guys behind Nomad aren't his buddies--I think they are part of the Avengers Mansion security staff (this is back during the days that the Mansion had a staff besides just Jarvis). I don't know if they were intended to actually be established characters or not (one of them *could* be Security Chief Michael O'Brien with miscoloured hair...) or just nameless security guards. Omar KarinduDecember 1, 2016 5:15 PM Daredevil #26 At one point, Matt remarks that his twin-bropther gimmick means they'll have to get Alec Guinness to play him in the movies. This is probably a reference to Guinness playing eight members of the D'Ascoyne family in the classic British comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. Omar KarinduDecember 1, 2016 5:11 PM Web of Spider-Man #104-106 (Nightwatch) Given Nightwatch's Spawn-like qualities, Deathgrin seems like a counterpart of Spawn's enemy the Violator, a demon who masdquerades as a homicidal clown. Greg TDecember 1, 2016 5:04 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Re: Magneto, X-Men Unlimited #2 had recently retconned him to being Romani, not Jewish. (Well, I'm not an expert on the cultures but I think there's no reason he couldn't have been a Romani Jew, either in terms of ancestry or religion, but I don't think that was the intention at the time.) Also depending on where you put Fatal Attractions with regard to Infinity Crusade, he's either thought dead (pre FA) or in a vegetative coma (post FA), and in either case isn't really in a position to take part in Infinity Crusade. AndrewDecember 1, 2016 5:02 PM Thunderstrike #2-3 You're right on in your appreciation of Ron Frenz's mastery of timing. Look at that first scan again. It's a Doonesbury strip. And I mean that in the best way. AndrewDecember 1, 2016 4:46 PM Infinity Crusade #2 I don't think it's ever explicitly stated, but it's repeatedly implied that the Supreme One, the One Above All, the Living Tribunal's boss, is God. The Goddess thinks she's doing the Supreme One's will, but it's never confirmed, and I think the point of that Martin Luther quote is that those who claim to be serving God are often actually serving the Devil, or perhaps just themselves. Piotr WDecember 1, 2016 3:45 PM Infinity Crusade #2 So... who will the Supreme One turn out to be? BerendDecember 1, 2016 3:42 PM Hulk #1 This issue has some great art, though it´s a bit lacking in backgrounds. Love the panels of the Hulk crushing that gun, or the panels of shadow passing over Banner's face. I also really like the thuggish nature of the Hulk here. The story though... Stan should've done what he did with the introduction of Spider-Man: focus on the characters, the emotions and the moral. Keep the Commies out of it! clydeDecember 1, 2016 3:29 PM Avengers West Coast #96-97 "WTF this sunblock comment!" There's a spelling mistake in that panel - "Metallic Awnining" - which might explain the sunblock comment. fnord12December 1, 2016 3:14 PM Journey Into Mystery #109 I've added him. Thanks. fnord12December 1, 2016 3:10 PM What's Missing No plans to cover them any time soon. But i've listed them on the What's Missing page. I'm assuming that you've singled out these three because you've checked and they don't have any present day framing sequences, and the ones that you didn't mention (Beast, Colossus, Gambit, Sabretooth, Wolverine, Deadpool, Emma Frost, Nightcrawler) do? If that's not the case, let me know. Ben HermanDecember 1, 2016 1:48 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Even though this is a really underwhelming story, I have to say that Ron Lim did a great job penciling it. I've always though Lim was an underrated artist. Ben HermanDecember 1, 2016 1:41 PM Moon Knight #55-56 @Red Comet: You know that someone must have some *really* serious problems meeting deadlines when they're getting called out by Rob Liefeld! Admittedly I am not an artist, but if I was hired to do a job, any job, that paid out $40 thousand, I'd sure as heck be busting my rear end to try to meet the deadline. cullenDecember 1, 2016 1:29 PM Terror Inc. #13 Wow Lucian, yeah. And now I see that's acknowledged at the bottom of the piece. Lucian BlanchardDecember 1, 2016 11:56 AM Terror Inc. #13 The image of Terror and Alexis dancing is a close imitation of a painted shirt ad by the artist J.C. Leyendecker. Another one was homaged by Howard Chaykin on the cover of BLACKHAWK #3 (1988) and Alex Ross on the cover of BATMAN: HARLEY QUINN (1999). BerendDecember 1, 2016 11:48 AM Infinity Crusade #1 Storm's religion was never explored all that much. I figured all the "Goddess" and "Bright Lady" stuff was meant to indicate she worshiped some fictional nature religion. Perhaps the Ankh was chosen because she grew up in Caïro, or because of her Egyptian ancestor Ashake? BerendDecember 1, 2016 11:43 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 Annoyingly, Warlock Chronicles was never translated in Dutch. So I always figured the purple hand that grabbed Warlock in Infinity Crusade #1 was Thanos. Red CometDecember 1, 2016 11:23 AM Moon Knight #55-56 Platt and Liefeld evidently parted on pretty bad terms: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/01/20/fanboy-rampage-rob-liefeld-vs-stephen-platt/ Red CometDecember 1, 2016 10:58 AM Iron Man #294-295 I agree that this panel is pretty obviously where the design for Iron Man's Proton Cannon super came from. It also makes sense because these issues would have been coming out around when Capcom was developing the Marvel Super Heroes game (it would come to arcades a couple years later in 1995). Red CometDecember 1, 2016 10:53 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 The Infinity Gems only working in the 616 universe was a Kurt Busiek idea from JLA/Avengers, from a great scene where Darkseid gets the Infinity Gauntlet only to realize that the gems don't work in the DC Universe. JLA/Avengers ended up being canon to DC because of a JLA story that came out after it (or at least it was canon until the New 52 reboot), but I'm not sure what the consensus is regarding whether or not it's canon to Marvel. TuomasDecember 1, 2016 4:39 AM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #18 I like this art. Compared to all the cross-hatching and brokepack poses and grimaces with dozens of teeth that set upon superhero comics by the 1990s, it's great to watch an artist with clean lines and actual cartooning skills. TuomasDecember 1, 2016 4:33 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 I haven't read any of the Ultraverse comics, but that origin story for the Gems seems to have been retconned away by Jonathan Hickman. An important plot point in his New Avengers and Secret Wars is that each parallel universe has its own set of Infinity Gems (though in some of them they take a different form than gems), and they only work in their own parent universe, outside of it they're useless. So Gems that originate in the Ultraverse wouldn't work in the 616 universe, and vice versa. And I'm sure the Gems will reappear in the comics soon enough. Their increasing prominence in the Marvel movies will probably tempt the comic writers to use them, so by the time Avengers 3 (aka Infinity Gauntlet: The Movie) hits the screens, I'd be suprised if the Gems weren't back in business. Erik RobbinsDecember 1, 2016 3:10 AM Infinity Crusade #1 The Young God Bright Sword was Israeli when he was mortal. (I think he may have broken with his faith when he chose to become empowered and called a "Young God".) Jay DemetrickDecember 1, 2016 2:59 AM Journey Into Mystery #109 The Marvel Chronology Project gives Cyclops an Off Panel appearance here because of his optic blast (same as Iceman for his ice?). He isn't tagged in your Characters Appearing list. Erik RobbinsDecember 1, 2016 2:48 AM Moon Knight #55-56 I first became familiar with SPlatt on Prophet, and I didn't notice then how much his style looked like MacFarlane's. Maybe by then he was coming into his own, but in these scans, fnord's right, it is really aping MacFarlane. Jay DemetrickDecember 1, 2016 2:48 AM Cyberspace 3000 #6-8 ...And that would be the obvious I'm missing... lol! Cheers! Jay DemetrickDecember 1, 2016 2:41 AM What's Missing Were you planning on doing X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1, X-Men Origins: Jean Grey #1, and Angel: Revelations #1-5? You have the X-Men Origins: Iceman one done already... the Cyclops one takes place before/during The Uncanny X-Men #1, Jean Grey during Journey Into Mystery #109 and the Angel issues weave through his origin story pre-The Uncanny X-Men #1. Don CampbellDecember 1, 2016 2:24 AM Warlock Chronicles #1 Something about the seven Infinity Gems that many people overlook is that Nemesis, the being formed when all seven are together, is not and never was the GOD who committed suicide out of loneliness. Instead, Ultraforce/Avengers #1 specifically describes Nemesis as being an "operating system" that was never meant to function without another entity controlling it. So, the seven Infinity Gems combined don't form GOD, only Nemesis. This is an important distinction but I suppose it really doesn't matter since neither Nemesis nor any of the Infinity Gems are likely to ever appear again. fnord12December 1, 2016 1:45 AM Cyberspace 3000 #6-8 I did consider it, Jay, but it's hard to work around the text in the scan in the Considerations: "My corporeal existence lies on a sickbed on Earth... In a coma - a result of my battles against my evil doppelganger, the Magus". fnord12December 1, 2016 1:43 AM Moon Knight #55-56 Thanks for the clarification, Michael. As noted, i was definitely reduced to skimming these issues. fnord12December 1, 2016 1:41 AM Terror Inc. #13 Thanks for pointing out that scene, Michael. Not sure if i just totally missed it or if i saw it and didn't flag it thinking more would come of it (which wasn't the case). I've added a scan and a few notes. As you imply, i could probably pretend that there were some worshipers of the Goddess prior to the start of Infinity Crusade, but i think i ought to honor it, so i've moved this and Hellstorm #1-3 forward. Jay DemetrickNovember 30, 2016 11:37 PM Cyberspace 3000 #6-8 Alternately, could this take place during Warlock Chronicles #1 while Warlock is unconscious and his Soul Gem is getting chatty with the wizard guy or am I missing something obvious...? Jon DubyaNovember 30, 2016 11:30 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Hey depending on which week of the year it is, ol Mags can be a "hero." (Noawadays he's more heroic than Cyclops.) The biggest problem is that half of the characters involved would be too cynical for the type of "religiousity" that would have to be invoked. (Archangel? Quiksilver? Not people strongly religious OR with good moral charach Well the second biggest problem is the we have too many "Infinity Whatever" series. I know I have a hard time dustiguishing between them (If Fnord didn't menntion it, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't recall if this was the third series or not.) Jay DemetrickNovember 30, 2016 10:47 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Some of the heroes seem to be chosen because of death/near-death experiences and having had a glimpse of an afterlife. Others maybe, for their belief in a "greater good" expressed in a spiritual way rather than a rational way. Others for their "divine" connection or having been perceived as divinity (as in the case of Thor.) ChrisNovember 30, 2016 10:07 PM Alpha Flight #122 Most likely background for a blond man named Langkowski is that his family is Polish Catholic. This title should have been cancelled five years earlier. It has nothing in common anywhere with the Byrne issues. BenwayNovember 30, 2016 9:52 PM Alpha Flight #122 I appreciate that Furman has tried to explain and set up Sasquatch's Jewish faith here. That he had a Jewish upbringing, lost his faith and was thinking about it again at least works better than nothing. Reading these issues I've realised that I must have gotten hold of a load of Infinity Crusade crossover issues and not actually read them. New comics! Thanks Fnord. :) I haven't read much of post Byrne Alpha Flight and the previous Infinity crossover just left me baffled and annoyed. I actually followed this one and picked up roughly who everyone is, so this is already better. I'm also actually curious about what happens next. I just wish the main story was full length instead of slotting in that crappy back-up story. Ben HermanNovember 30, 2016 9:51 PM Moon Knight #55-56 I was never a big Moon Knight fan. I would read it every now & then. I liked James Fry's pencils, so I picked up a few of the issues he worked on, including #52-54. So then I got #55 to see what happened next... and the book went splatt! As others have commented, Stephen Platt got very popular very quickly. Until I read fnord's entry above, I had no clue what happened in #56, because that issue sold out everywhere. After this series was cancelled, Marvel wanted Platt to draw Cable, and he almost took it, but instead went to Image when Rob Liefeld offered him a ridiculous amount of money to draw Prophet. Seriously, Liefeld was paying Platt $40,000 an issue! I actually liked Platt's work on that series, especially the final issue of volume one, where Prophet fought his arch-enemy / evil future self Crypt in Hell itself. Platt's insanely detailed, hyper-exaggerated artwork was perfect for that story, which sort of felt like Dante's Inferno on crack. Unfortunately, as with a number of other super-hot artists from that decade, Platt was *really* bad at keeping deadlines. iLegionNovember 30, 2016 9:01 PM Moon Knight #55-56 Ooops, made a redundant comment. iLegionNovember 30, 2016 9:00 PM Moon Knight #55-56 *snicker* And these issues went up in price when Stephen Platt became a... hu-hu-ha-ha-ha HOT artist. Luis DantasNovember 30, 2016 8:27 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #18 Angel Medina's art is definitely in the cartoony side. It is not as bad here as it used to be in Dreadstar. MortificatorNovember 30, 2016 8:23 PM Iron Man #294-295 @Francisco Wow, that panel's definitely the basis for the proton cannon in Capcom's fighting games. Looking at the issue, I see the weapon fires acid instead of energy. I've noticed a weapon called a proton gun in Iron Man stories starting with Tales of Suspense 60, so maybe the devs combined that concept with the visual design from Iron Man 294. Of course, it's also possible the name's just a coincidence. Luis DantasNovember 30, 2016 8:20 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 Darklon is a Warren character, actually. He had about a half dozen Starlin stories and a single non-Starlin story, all published in Eerie Magazine in the 1970s and early 1980s. Pacific Comics republished the Starlin stories by themselves later on. Starlin later revisited the character in 'Breed III. Interestingly, "Darklore" is established by Starlin himself as the name of one of Darklon's ancestors. This Darklore is a _very_ obvious expy of Warren's Darklon. MichaelNovember 30, 2016 8:19 PM Moon Knight #55-56 Fnord, Seth didn't turn into a demon and escape- one of his demon minions, Hook, rescued him. MichaelNovember 30, 2016 7:54 PM Terror Inc. #13 Fnord, there is a scene in this story where a group of monks are worshipping the Goddess. I don't know if you want to change your placement of the issue based on that scene. I agree, though, that the Goddess only appearing in one scene is odd if this book was originally intended to be a tie-in. It does read like the book was rewritten at the last minute once they found out it was going to be cancelled. Luis DantasNovember 30, 2016 7:38 PM Iron Man #294-295 One would expect the personification of Warlock's good side to have better insight than the Goddess displays here. She acts as if she had no clue of what belief and atheism are like - particularly surprising given her self-appointed role. Thanos6November 30, 2016 6:23 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #18 Well, this IS a comedy issue. I do love Pip's antics here, and everyone else's reactions. Morgan WickNovember 30, 2016 6:21 PM Warlock and the Infinity Watch #18 What the hell is up with this art? It looks like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon, especially Drax. Reed's bug-eyed stare in the first scan looks hilarious. Greg TNovember 30, 2016 5:10 PM Alpha Flight #122 I read these recently as part of my X-Men readthrough, without reading Infinity Crusade, and basically from here until the start of No Future was complete gibberish. Absolutely no idea what was happening. Your recap doesn't really improve things. Omar KarinduNovember 30, 2016 5:00 PM Daredevil #20-23 Also, the original printing of DD #22 does have a footnote to ASM #43. It seems to have been removed in later reprints. Thanos6November 30, 2016 4:45 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 Also, for what it's worth, Darklore is apparently based on a character Starlin created in the 80's for Pacific Comics called Darklon the Mystic; Darklore looks like an older version of Darklon, and the Mystic Arcana handbook even gives Darklore the same backstory as Darklon, albeit without mentioning character or place names from the Pacific series. clydeNovember 30, 2016 4:34 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 In regards to the status of the Infinity Gems - The Ultraverse stories attempt to explain the origin of the gems. I know Fnord won't be covering them. However, I loved all the stories involving the Avengers & Loki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_Gems#Publication_history "Following the cancellation of the Infinity Watch series, the one-shot title Rune/Silver Surfer depicts the Gems being stolen by the extradimensional vampire Rune and dispersed throughout the Ultraverse.[10][11][12] The Asgardian god Loki enters the Ultraverse and collects the Gems,[13] also discovering the existence of a seventh Gem, "Ego". Loki learns that the lonely omnipotent suicide whose essence became the Gems was the gestalt being known as Nemesis. The Ego Gem, possessing the Avenger Sersi, merges with the other Gems to reform Nemesis and battles the Avengers and Ultraforce before being dissipated once again.[14][15]" Ben HermanNovember 30, 2016 4:22 PM Terror Inc. #13 "For what it's worth, when Terror is meeting with Frank Drake, Drake says that his gun identifies Terror as "unnatural -- but not supernatural". " Um, what?!? I haven't read this issue, but I really gotta laugh at this! Terror is a ruthless, amoral mercenary who has no compunctions about killing and who ghoulishly harvests the body parts of dead people for his own use... but he's not *actually* supernatural, and so the Nightstalkers have to give him a pass? "Well, okay, Terror, we've vowed to oppose *anybody* using magic, and so we *were* going to kill you, but since your powers are actually rooted in some sort of previously-unknown other-dimensional science as opposed to the supernatural, you get off on a technicality, and you're free to go!" clydeNovember 30, 2016 4:17 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Piotr definitely asked about superheroes. Magneto does not fall into that category, IMO. fnord12November 30, 2016 4:07 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 Eh, whichever! Thanks Thanos6. Thanos6November 30, 2016 4:02 PM Warlock Chronicles #1 fnord, I'm afraid you have it backwards. Darklore is the mage, Meer'lyn is the fairy. Ben HermanNovember 30, 2016 3:57 PM Infinity Crusade #1 @Jon Dubya: Yes, several years ago it was finally established that is definitely Jewish, but I hesitate to refer to him as a hero. In addition to those already mentioned, Songbird, Wiccan, Doc Samson, and Dominic Fortune are Jewish. Iceman is Jewish on his mother's side but was raised Catholic. Any incarnations of the Golem are very likely to be Jewish. Jon DubyaNovember 30, 2016 3:24 PM Infinity Crusade #1 From what I recall, Andrew, that was something that Bendis threw in when he started writing the Spider-man books because he (Bendis) is Jewish and started invoking certain "mannerism" in Peter to him more "Author Avatar-ish" And wow, did everyone forget about Magneto, whose Jewish heritage is a BIG part of his backstory? Also you'd think in a story about heroes grappling with faith and religion, Firebird would be in this book somewhere. Or Wolfsbane (the go-to girl for stories about religious repression.) kvetoNovember 30, 2016 2:57 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Moon Knight's father was a Czech rabbi. FRANCISCO ARBOLEDANovember 30, 2016 2:49 PM Iron Man #294-295 now I see where capcom got the inspiration for Iron-man super move the Proton Canon for their fighting games AndrewNovember 30, 2016 2:43 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Justice is the only major character I can think of off hand. Though Peter Parker does say "Oy" a lot lately. (Note that in the next issue, Ben Grimm will be seen in flashback in a Christian graveyard when his aunt dies, and there was a reference to Sunday School back in Marvel Two-in-One 55, so I figure the Thing was still presumed to be Christian when this was written.) Piotr WNovember 30, 2016 1:56 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Out of curiosity, which Marvel superheroes are Jewish? The Thing, Kitty Pryde, Sasquatch, Sabra (presumably)... anyone else? Ben HermanNovember 30, 2016 1:53 PM Thor #463 So this "Valkyrie" is really just, what, Thor experiencing some kind of split personality? I've never read these issues, but it seems like an odd decision to bring back Thor after a two year absence, only to have him immediately go crazy. fnord12November 30, 2016 1:40 PM Moon Knight #54 Correct about the footnote. Thanks Michael. Ben HermanNovember 30, 2016 1:24 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Several years ago there was a story in a Marvel Holiday Special that showed the various Jewish heroes celebrating Hanukkah together. Sasquatch was in that splash, and I distinctly remember thinking "When was it revealed that Walter Langkowski was Jewish?" I had completely forgotten that it was revealed in Infinity Crusade #1. In fact, I have completely forgotten pretty much *everything* that took place in this miniseries. All I can recall offhand is that for six issues half of Marvel's heroes fight the other half, then Thanos & Warlock do something terribly clever while everyone else stands around looking like morons, and the Goddess ends up as a disembodied spirit in the Soul Gem, just like the Magus before her. I get that Jim Starlin has a major axe to grind against organized religion. A lot of people do, myself included. But this was already well-tread territory for Starlin, who previously gave us the Universal Church of Truth in his original Warlock stories and the Church of the Instrumentality in Dreadstar. This miniseries adds nothing to the discussion. It's basically saying that organized religion is sooooo awful that the Goddess has to literally use mind control to get anyone to follow her. So much for subtlety! I think I still have my copies of Infinity Gauntlet buried somewhere, but I sold off both Infinity War and Infinity Crusade on Ebay in the late 1990s. I haven't ever had any cause to regret getting rid of them. TuomasNovember 30, 2016 9:33 AM Infinity Crusade #1 Even Nightcrawler had a huge crisis of faith after meeting the Beyonder, and he was more religious than most other heroes to begin with. So after the two Secret Wars and all the Infinity business, it makes sense that many of the heroes would become atheist/agnostic if they weren't so already. TuomasNovember 30, 2016 9:25 AM Infinity Crusade #1 Why would it be unlikely? As Fnord points out in the review, most Marvel superheroes have met or at least are aware of various cosmic and supernatural powers that are equivalent to the gods of most religions, yet they are not gods. If the heroes know Infinity, Beyonder, Galactus, etc exist, it makes sense that far fewer of them would still believe in the gods of the major religions than in our world. RickNovember 30, 2016 9:10 AM Spider-Woman #4-6 What about Hangman's abrupt departure from the story? If I remember correctly, his Marvel Universe handbook entry stated he had a bad habit of forgetting about the women he captured and they later starved to death. MichaelNovember 30, 2016 8:04 AM Infinity Crusade #1 But the Goddess only kidnapped a minority of the heroes- it's highly unlikely that the majority of heroes are atheist. SerenaNovember 30, 2016 6:48 AM Infinity Crusade #1 I retrospect of Beast's reveal as atheist, it's possible that people converted by Goddess are simple believers and the rest are just (open or in denial) atheists. AFNovember 30, 2016 5:24 AM Infinity Crusade #1 I get a really horrible smug "atheism wins" undercurrent throughout the whole series. Absolutely hate it. And Quasar's absence, as noted, is terrible. Not that he'd do anything were he there. ChrisWNovember 30, 2016 2:34 AM Infinity Crusade #1 WTF is this? I'd heard of this series, but I'd given up on Marvel by this point. How the hell did Starlin get the license to do all three of these idiotic crossovers? You can make a valid character point about the importance of religion [Nightcrawler praying during the "Brood Saga," or defeating Dracula by forming a cross, Dani "Valkyrie" Moonstar being helped by the Frog of Thunder] or you can make an interesting superhero story/"What If" about, say, Kal-El landing on Earth in smalltown Kansas and being raised to believe that God sent His only son to Earth and coming to the natural conclusion. Dragging in real-world religions, and doing it so badly, just makes me throw up my hands and be grateful that I stopped reading these books. Kenya is mostly Muslim and Catholic. Storm as a weather goddess doesn't make much sense even in context, but it's light-years away from thinking she'd care about an ankh. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 30, 2016 2:26 AM Infinity Crusade #1 I'm going wirh Sersi seeing a representation of the Uni-Mind. I wish that Mike DeCarlo inked this, instead of Al Milgrom. Mike did a great job on FF #336, the last issue of Acts Of Vengeance. As just about everyone says, I was pretty well done with the Infinity crossovers at this point. Fnord, i think you hit it on the head with your analysis...let's see how the next issues pan out. ChrisWNovember 30, 2016 1:41 AM New Mutants #40 Credit should also be given to the fact that the X-Men never really beat Magneto in any Claremont story, and granted he was holding back here, but one gets the impression that the Avengers would have had no problem pounding Magneto's face into the dust, even if he wasn't holding back. He was only saved because the New Mutants were the last-moment cavalry arriving, because Illyana could teleport. That's the only thing that saved Magneto. Not sure how to describe it, but that's an example of what I think is "good writing," where the protagonist is defeated, in totally believable ways, by people that you completely understand why they would oppose the protagonist. The Avengers are obviously ready for Magneto. The X-Men (so far as we know) never held a single Danger Room session to prepare themselves in case he was just faking. Red CometNovember 29, 2016 11:30 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Bendis will later contradict this story by having Beast say he's an atheist. Although it's easily explained away as Beast losing faith in between stories, really it's another example of a modern Marvel writer (and their editors) not doing the research. MichaelNovember 29, 2016 8:20 PM Infinity Crusade #1 @Luis- I think we're supposed to assume that Jean lost Maddie's essence in the Judgement War mess. I'd argue that she's been the "good girl" since then- for example, in Fatal Attractions, she argued against Xavier tampering with Magneto's mind. BenwayNovember 29, 2016 8:17 PM Infinity Crusade #1 We're back on comics I've read! For some reason this issue is littered with nearly identical close-ups of the Goddess's mouth. What is that about? I see that in the panel where the heroes are gathered at Four Freedoms Plaza Iceman is up to mischief, looking innocent while tripping Speedball so that he lands face first in She-Hulk's boobs. That scamp. The Vision's definition of 'religious' is very broad and somewhat inconsistant. Spider-man gets through by 'deeply held moral stand' and having had a near-death experience (in that weird issue when his heart stopped and he met Death and Thanos). So it doesn't make him Christian or anything else. I think the ankh symbolises Storm worshipping life. The Black Knight should talk to Tony Stark. When you start hallucinating giant booze floating in the sky it's time to admit you have a problem! I like how the recruitment speech is tailored to suit each character. She tells Spider-man that they can make everyone happy, stokes an us against them paranoia in USAgent and tells Moondragon that she's really cosmically special and can be in charge of everyone else. Luis DantasNovember 29, 2016 8:07 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Jean is supposedly carrying Maddie's essence at this point in time. An essence that literally sold her soul, IIRC. And her behavior has not been noticeably moral one way or the other since, IMO. USAgent... I should probably avoid talking about him altogether, I suppose. I have certainly had enough of him back in 1990 or so. There are certainly unfortunate implications, but this is all so aimless that I suspect it is a waste to feel bothered by it (although I certainly did). MichaelNovember 29, 2016 8:00 PM Infinity Crusade #1 @Luis- Jean has been portrayed as the "good girl" since Inferno- Inferno had Jean as the good girl and Maddie as the "bad girl", which was a disappointment since previously they'd both had their flaws and virtues. MichaelNovember 29, 2016 7:52 PM Moon Knight #54 "It's later decided that Moon Knight must have picked up the gremlin while visiting Dr. Strange in the last arc, but we know that Moon Knight's computer equipment has been plagued by a gremlin since prior to that." Fnord, I think that the footnote to issue 47 is a mistake and the demon is supposed to be the one from issue 46- the one that crawled out of Marc's cloak. Luis DantasNovember 29, 2016 6:56 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Sersi seems to seeing a Mobius strip - as good a representation of eternity as any, I suppose. I don't think the Goddess' criteria can be interpreted in a coherent way here, unless she is lying shamelessly at least half the time and she is in fact choosing those who are more susceptible to her control (as hinted later on with Silver Surfer). She is not choosing the characters for their moral qualities, or else Moondragon, USAGent, Namorita, Wonder Man, Archangel, Sasquatch, Susan Richards and Storm would not make it while Reed Richards, Charles Xavier, Scott Summers and Hank McCoy did not. Nor is she choosing them for their beliefs proper, as evidenced by Beast's speech and by the sheer variety of beliefs among those she chose. There are also some glaring omissions. Quasar chief among them. He is an extremely moral character _and_ his role makes him a natural, almost a requisite, for this series. That is probably why he was glossed over - it would be difficult to write him in without making him shadow Warlock. AndrewNovember 29, 2016 6:24 PM Infinity Crusade #1 So is the Goddess supposed to look like Joan of Arc, or is that just a coincidence? Greg TNovember 29, 2016 5:55 PM Infinity Crusade #1 Ugh, I hate this story so much. Seeing characters like Spider-Man and Sue Storm portrayed as meaningfully religious is like finding out a beloved uncle is super-racist. There are good stories about religion to be done in comics (that one about Magma meeting Hercules comes to mind) but it really needs more thought than this in a world in which characters have met literal Norse or Greek gods, fought and defeated cosmic space gods, and are aware that there are multiple hells controlled by different deities. Luis DantasNovember 29, 2016 5:55 PM Moon Knight #54 A terribly decompressed arc. How can a book survive when it takes the best part of a year to answer even basic questions of its own plot? Andrew FNovember 29, 2016 4:41 PM Infinity Crusade #1 I was definitely suffering from Infinity Fatigue, or maybe more Warlock Fatigue at this point...I think when I read there would be a new Warlock Chronicles title it actually inspired me to dump Infinity Watch and get out of Warlock-related comics entirely. But I still bought Infinity Crusade, of course, because how can you not...and it had a gold foil cover, so valuable collectors item. What really vexed me was, what does religion even mean in the Marvel Universe? A lot of these people have fought alongside or against a variety of gods, none of whom really merit worship. Most of them were involved in Infinity Gauntlet and must be aware that, in their universe, anyone can aspire to be a god above all others with the right accessories. Dr. Strange, who apparently is religious enough to be recruited here, has personally had direct communication with the living embodiment of the universe, a lot of times. Spider-Man once taught the Beyonder how to poop in a toilet. Do these superheroes pray, and if so, to whom, and why? Does Captain America go to church, and then does he feel really uncomfortable palling around with Thor in Asgard, which basically breaks the first two commandments just by existing? ...none of which gets explored in this book of course. Ben HermanNovember 29, 2016 4:27 PM Moon Knight #54 Nowadays this issue reminds me of Monty Python's Flying Circus animated sequence with the Killer Cars :) kvetoNovember 29, 2016 3:56 PM Captain America #105 Batroc is also nearly an anagram of Acrobat (not as funny as Batrachia I'll admit...) JSfanNovember 29, 2016 3:55 PM Moon Knight #54 Moon Knight looks a lot like Hobgoblin while he was fighting the car. Ben HermanNovember 29, 2016 1:07 PM X-Force #6-10 One of the things that all these years later stands out for me about these issues is Phantazia... and not in a good way. Reading these comics in 1992, I had no clue who Phantazia was supposed to be. I didn't know if she had appeared before or was a new character. She just showed up along with Toad and Blob and Pyro with zero explanation. We weren't given any clue about where she came from, what her real name was supposed to be, how she met the rest of the Brotherhood, or why she decided to join them. Years later, once I found out that she was indeed a brand new character, I realized that she epitomized Rob Liefeld's weaknesses as a creator. He designs these "kewl" looking characters and just tosses them into his stories, often giving little to no consideration towards developing their personalities or backstories. This became especially apparent to me a couple of years after, when he was doing Youngblood. There were literally armies of brand new characters getting thrown at the reader at the drop of a hat, and they were nearly all cyphers. On the rare occasion when Liefeld *did* give a character an origin, it was usually something hopelessly convoluted, typically involving time travel or alternate realities, at which point you found yourself wishing that he hadn't have bothered. So, did anyone else at Marvel ever get around to giving Phantazia a backstory or personality? fnord12November 29, 2016 11:58 AM Deadpool #1-2 Thanks Michael. I swore that i remembered a scene from somewhere else referencing the ongoing search for Tolliver's Will, and i re-read a bunch of X-Force and Cable issues trying to find it. I forgot that it was in the Avengers back-up, which i stuck back in the pile behind the Avengers annual. I agree with your suggestion of splitting this series up. The one place i'll differ is in saying that the first two issues should take place "shortly before" Thunderstrike #2, since i want to honor the "a few months ago" line without inventing multiple waves of treatment (especially since Juggernaut is so agitated at the beginning of this issue, like he hasn't seen Tom in a long time). Austin GortonNovember 29, 2016 10:01 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 I think this is the issue where it's established that Phantazia has a physical body - in her (two?) previous experiences, she was essentially a head and a cape (remember that Cannonball was able to fly into her cape). Of course, this being the 90s (and comics), we learn she has a body when she shows up wearing a skimpy bikini... Ataru320November 29, 2016 9:06 AM Captain America #105 I think this info about Batroc makes him all the more clever as a literal "French frog"...compared to the likes of...um, Leap-Frog. MichaelNovember 29, 2016 8:18 AM Deadpool #1-2 The reason for the Executive Elite thread was that Nicieza planned on using them in Cable as rivals to the Six Pack- the "red guy in Australia" that they captured was supposed to be Grizzly. This never happened, so that thread seems pointless. Jay GallardoNovember 29, 2016 4:29 AM Captain America #105 Really? Very clever then, isn´t it? ChrisWNovember 29, 2016 1:37 AM Excalibur #1-2 I would guess Otherworld, as a side-effect of Mad James Jaspers. Magneto is just creating robotic servants on his way to "Days of Futures Past" and gives it no further thought. NM #48 was their only appearance ever, but obviously an idea Claremont reused. I think the worst thing to say about "Excalibur" is that Claremont was reusing so many ideas, his own or others. ChrisWNovember 29, 2016 12:40 AM Excalibur #4-5 I probably come down on the side that says Claremont didn't need a strong editor, and all the problems were with Claremont himself. That said, I don't think it was until I found this site that the Sat-Yr-9 switch with Courtney was made so explicitly clear. Alan Davis did a great job of making it clear, but for anybody who doesn't already know these characters, Davis' efforts are unrewarded. The reader doesn't know what's going on, and there's nothing specific to let us know what's going on. Courtney's dead and Sat-Yr-9 has taken her place. Easy to ignore because if we have any interest in the characters, Brian is cheating on Meggan with Courtney. That's a lot more interesting than the former Omniversal Majestrix whom we've never heard of. And then "Courtney" entraps Nigel and sends him to bring back Jamie and the Crazy Gang. At least we know who the Crazy Gang are, but this is far off the rails as far as coherent storytelling goes. At least we have Alan Davis art to show for it. Morgan WickNovember 28, 2016 11:35 PM Doctor Strange #54-56 (Kyllian) Well, when I read this I thought the "goddess of war" would be Athena, who the Romans called Minerva, so I figured "Bellona" was simply made up. Turns out we're both wrong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellona_(goddess) MichaelNovember 28, 2016 11:21 PM Doctor Strange #54-56 (Kyllian) Eris appears in the Incredible Hercules series. Aren't Eris and Bellona the same goddess? BenwayNovember 28, 2016 9:37 PM Strange Tales #97 "Aunt May must never find out that I'm Spider-man! She's too fragile to handle it!" "Peter must never find out that his long lost cousin is a mermaid! He's too fragile to handle it!" "Aunt May and Peter must never find out that my fiance is Prince Namor! Peter would try to fight him as Spider-man and Aunt May would keep him prisoner!" BenwayNovember 28, 2016 9:33 PM Strange Tales #97 Imagine the fun if Linda had ever come back to visit! BenwayNovember 28, 2016 9:29 PM US 1 #8-12 There's a Where's Wally / Waldo style background Cameo by US1 in the Transformers limited series. Can you find it? I think this proves beyond doubt that that series is canon even more than the Godzilla reference from Dumdum Dugan. And I'm a little sad that US1 didn't get to race Optimus Prime. MichaelNovember 28, 2016 8:10 PM Deadpool #1-2 Fnord, I think the Deadpool series needs to be split up. Deadpool's appearance in the second story in Avengers 366 takes place while he's searching for Tolliver's will, so it has to take place sometime before this story. Moreover, at least part of this story needs to take place after Infinity Crusade. In Infinity Crusade 1, the Black Knight is shown riding Valinor. But he loses Valinor to the Bloodwraith in Avengers Annual 22 and Bloodwraith still has Valinor in Avengers 366. So the second story in Avengers 366 has to take place after Infinity Crusade. In Thunderstrike 2, the Juggernaut says that Genetech did the modifications a few months ago but it's possible that Genetech only did part of the work on Tom, and completed their part several months before Deadpool 1. OTOH, Thunderstrike 2 has to take place after Deadpool 1, since Cain knows about the experiments on Tom. I think the most likely sequence of events is this- issues 1-2 take place shortly before Thunderstrike 2, then Infinity Crusade concludes, then Avengers Annual 22 and the second story in Avengers 366 takes place, then issues 3-4 take place. Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2016 7:28 PM Fantastic Four #271-273 Not to mention The Metatemporal Physics of Morlaity and the classic Universal Natural History and Theory of Limbo. Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2016 7:24 PM Captain America #105 Sorry, not a genus, but rather a clade. Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2016 7:24 PM Captain America #105 It's a pun on Batrachia, a genus of frogs. Jay GallardoNovember 28, 2016 6:53 PM Captain America #105 Does Anybody know the "origin" of the name "Batroc"? I always found it pretty weird... AndrewNovember 28, 2016 5:43 PM Fantastic Four #271-273 Sure. Didn't you read the "Conquest of Pure Reason" in college? BerendNovember 28, 2016 4:18 PM Deadpool #1-2 A whole host of clones of Makeshift and Rive will appear in Cable & Deadpool. That series will also get more millage out of Commcast in his guise of Black Box. And Nicieza will use Courier much more extensively in his Gambit run. Heck, between all the minor characters, Deadpool's turn to the (somewhat) good and the general "confusing chase with a whole host of characters"-plot this whole mini feels like a test run for Nieceza's later work! MortificatorNovember 28, 2016 4:04 PM Deadpool #1-2 So this is where Slayback and Commcast came from! I think I used their action figures as Reaver substitutes back in the day. Ben HermanNovember 28, 2016 1:46 PM Excalibur #12-13 "The Cross-Time Caper" did actually start off pretty well with this issue, and the next couple were also good, but after that it went seriously off the rails (uh, no pun intended, since Excalibur was on a train and all that). Even if it had been only nine parts it probably would still have been too long. When at long last it did wrap up, um, Alan Davis was gone, and Chris Claremont had one foot out the door. As I have said before, I am definitely a fan of Claremont. Nevertheless, I think "The Cross-Time Caper" is very clear evidence for why he needs a strong editor to keep him focused on his primary cast of characters and on a manageable number of subplots. fnord12November 28, 2016 8:21 AM Fantastic Four #271-273 Immanuel Kant is a descendant of Mr. Fantastic's half-brother? Time travel is so weird! Thanks Walter. fnord12November 28, 2016 8:17 AM Marvel Team-Up #5-6 Added the Thing. Thanks Tor. MichaelNovember 28, 2016 7:44 AM Strange Tales #150-168 (Nick Fury) Sorry, my bad- should have noticed that. Time Traveling BunnyNovember 28, 2016 12:42 AM Strange Tales #150-168 (Nick Fury) Because they also appear in that sequence with all the other Marvel characters? Luke BlanchardNovember 27, 2016 11:04 PM Excalibur #4-5 Both titles are from popular songs. Luke BlanchardNovember 27, 2016 11:02 PM Uncanny X-Men #32-33 The title of #32's part is a play on a line from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". MichaelNovember 27, 2016 10:49 PM Uncanny X-Men #32-33 @Bobby- the Official Handbook claims that they were called Factor Three because the first two factors were the US and the USSR. MichaelNovember 27, 2016 10:04 PM Strange Tales #150-168 (Nick Fury) Fnord, why are Mr. Fantastic and the Thing listed as Characters Appearing? They appear in a flashback in issues 160-161 that took place "two years ago". Ben HermanNovember 27, 2016 7:04 PM Excalibur #4-5 Chris Claremont let the Courtney / Sat-Yr-9 mystery dangle for so damn long, it's not surprising that most readers, myself included, got confused about what was actually going on. BerendNovember 27, 2016 5:26 PM Fantastic Four #1-10 I've recently been reading the earliest Marvel comics on Marvel Unlimited. I think there is plenty of great character material in here, but the plots are often terrible. I love how in issue 2 there is real tension between the Torch and the Thing, and Kirby really gets across the pain in Ben when he turns into a monster again. But the power showcase in issue 1 is just ridiculous, and I laughed out loud when Miracle Man stopped Reed by chucking a brick at him! In issue 1 Reed says the Mole Man will not be a problem anymore since he left him behind on the island. Pretty weird, considering that just means he's surrounded by the monsters he can control. Only... then the whole island explodes! The FF say Mole Man did it himself, but it sure sounds to me like Reed quickly whipped up a bomb himself! When Namor proposes to Sue, he says she could become "princess Namora"... hoo boy, does this man have issues! Walter LawsonNovember 27, 2016 5:12 PM Excalibur #4-5 We're certainly meant to think she's dead, my point is just that we've seen comic-book fakeouts like this before -- when the Hulk gets nuked in the Ground Zero storyline, for example, leaving nothing but ash -- and we'll see another when DeFalco kills off Doom and Reed Richards in the FF. And the Excalibur letters page has been unreliable before, telling us that there's no leadership conflict between Kurt and Brian, for example. None of this means that Claremont didn't intend for Courtney to be well and truly dead, but if he had other intentions, it's easy to see at least one way an alternative might have played out. MichaelNovember 27, 2016 4:36 PM Excalibur #4-5 Walter, when the letters page was asked about Brian and Courtney's relationship, they said "it's hard to have a relationship with a pile of ashes". Now granted, they could have been lying, but still... Walter LawsonNovember 27, 2016 4:35 PM Excalibur #21-25 Justicer Bull appears to be named after Emma Bull, lead singer of Cat's Laughing, a band Claremont liked that appears in Mojo Mayhem and the Arcade issues of Excalibur. Walter LawsonNovember 27, 2016 4:17 PM Excalibur #4-5 Sat-Yr9 is not only carrying Rupert Holloway's colander helmet, she's wearing his clothes. Note that when she encounters Rupert, she might actually be in prison (there are bars on the window), and before turning up in Excalibur, Sat-Yr9 was last seen being taken down by Captain UK. I do t think Claremont intended Courtney to be dead: disappearing in a flash of light, even with some ashen remnants behind, is consistent with comic-book teleportation. My guess is that Sat-Yr9 sent Courtney to take her place in jail on Captain UK's world. Walter LawsonNovember 27, 2016 4:00 PM Excalibur #1-2 In New Mutants 48, we see that Magneto has a number of small floating robots he calls "widgets," which bear a faint resemblance to this Widget. These robots are animated by a beamed transmission of Mags's power. I don't think Claremont means to tie Magneto to Excalibur's Widget, but I wonder if he's reusing the name and idea, much as there's no obvious connection, but a huge amount of overlap, between the "Jubilee" we see in NM Annual 2 and the later Jubilee we meet in UXM, both of whom are young girls with fireworks powers. So if Widget is animated by a beamed transmission of someone's power, whose power might that be? My guess is Gateway. After all, Widget first turns up at a disused "Gateway Technologies" facility, Widget's trans dimensional teleportation power seems conceivably related to Gateway's timespace teleportation powers, and although the silent Aboriginal doesn't seem like a high-tech guy, perhaps he does have a direct connection with the living computer in the Australian base. Even the elliptical ways in which Gateway and Widget communicate, both remaining mostly silent, might be related. MortificatorNovember 27, 2016 3:28 PM Iron Man #120-128 Beetle's prior appearances were none too impressive either. His plans were generally stupid, and his only combat successes were against opponents with far less power than Iron Man. kvetoNovember 27, 2016 2:31 PM Ghost Rider #36 Johny Blaze sure did score a lot more than most heroes back in the day. MichaelNovember 27, 2016 1:09 PM Iron Man #120-128 And in Beetle's case, it might have contributed to the perception of him as a loser villain that arose in the late '80s and early '90s that dogged the character until Thunderbolts. kvetoNovember 27, 2016 1:04 PM Iron Man #120-128 Iron man probably wins the award for having his origin recapped in full comics the most. It feels like its every 12 issues or so. I dislike these issues where a powrrful hero beats up a whole bunch of somebody else's bad guys. It basically neuturs those villains for future use. While villains like Discus, Stilletto, Leap-frog and Man-killer should be easily beaten by IM, others like Beetle, Constrictor (who fought the hulk) and Spymaster (who has nearly defeated IM on his own) should not be beaten easily. AndrewNovember 27, 2016 12:16 PM Avengers annual #8 Hey fnord, I notice your review doesn't mention how Thor is separated from his hammer. It happens because under the gem's evil influence, Thor is no longer "worthy" of the power of Thor. So he can no longer hold the hammer, and after being separated from it for 60 seconds he transforms back into Donald Blake, as a sort of safety valve against a god gone mad. I thought that was a nice explanation of the details of Odin's enchantment that otherwise had seemed pretty arbitrary. MichaelNovember 27, 2016 11:51 AM Daredevil annual #1 @Bobby- he's next seen again in Defenders 62-64. Still, you're right- a pretty long time. Luke BlanchardNovember 27, 2016 11:26 AM Dazzler #39 The Captain Marvel villain was preceded by yet another Deathgrip, who appeared in Atlas/Seaboard's THE DESTRUCTOR #2. The story was written by Goodwin. MichaelNovember 27, 2016 10:01 AM Amazing Spider-Man #59-61 @Ataru- the brainwashing device is later used by the Hobgoblin, if that's what you're thinking of. Omar KarinduNovember 27, 2016 8:13 AM Amazing Spider-Man annual #20 It's implied that Iron Man 2020's pursuit of Saunders in the past is what turned him into a terrorist in the future, since he child Saunders's injuries correspond to the adult versions cyborg parts. TorNovember 27, 2016 4:29 AM Marvel Team-Up #5-6 The Thing is missing from the list of characters appearing. BTW this is an amazing site! Walter LawsonNovember 27, 2016 4:19 AM New Mutants #95 Warlock's death may only incidentally have been a way to add cheap pathos to the crossover. The main reason for getting rid of him may have been Marvel's apparent policy against having two identically named characters active at the same time. Adam Warlock was making his return in Silver Surfer at this point (and may have already been tipped to get a title of his own before long). Nova the herald of Galactus also conveniently dies in time for "Kid Nova" to drop the "kid" part (and he too will get his own series not long after his competitor for the name is gone). ZansmoNovember 27, 2016 2:50 AM Strange Tales #128 (Dr. Strange) I really like this Doctor Strange comic. It's the first time DS actually feels really powerful. The fight scene where he schools The Demon was so much fun. Omar KarinduNovember 26, 2016 4:29 PM Daredevil #20-23 There's a continuity glitch here: at the end of his prior appearance, the Owl had only just been exposed, was frantically trying to stay out of jail, and got away at the end. Here, he's trying to get revenge on a judge. The only way this works is that he was captured and convicted in between issues somewhere. TCPNovember 26, 2016 12:41 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #160 It occurs to me now that the random appearances here of Hydro-Man, Shocker, and Rhino foreshadows the arbitrary use of many villains throughout the 90s. I suppose the same could be said for Acts of Vengeance in general, though. Richard FaheyNovember 26, 2016 12:14 PM Silver Surfer #5 Defnitely a classic and of it's time,but it's very difficult to think of such a story being done today.The mixture of fantasy and realistc elements are extremely well integrated,without one hurting the other.The themes were handled excellently,without self-conscious involvement.The Stranger,up until then,an obscure character,is neither a hero or a villain,and provides ambiguous content. John Buscema,with his realistic style,was I think,perfect for the magazine,and it's difficult to imagine anybody else handling the art on this sensitive piece.His brother Sal's inking was also very well done,and suited John's style,while Lee's scripting skills and characterisation,were superb. Walter LawsonNovember 26, 2016 12:14 PM Fantastic Four #271-273 Dammit: "Kang" not "Kant." Sorry for the autocorrect problem, Fnord. Walter LawsonNovember 26, 2016 12:12 PM Fantastic Four #271-273 A slight correction to the end of the entry, Fnord: the implication in this issue seems to be that Kant is descended from Nathaniel's young son in this timeline, which means Kant is not descended from Reed. Kang's future, per Byrne anyway, is actually the future of this "cowboys and tripods" world. I have mixed feelings about Byrne's making Reed's father a super-scientist who invents a time machine before Dr. Doom. This is the same Byrne, after all, who hated the fact that Claremont added superhuman or near-superhuman backstory elements to X-Men characters who should otherwise be "ordinary." Maybe it stands to reason that Nathaniel would be a conventional genius, but making him a super-genius diminishes Reed and needlessly complicates the backstory. Nevertheless, I like Nathaniel's armor design and the story possibilities he opens up. MichaelNovember 26, 2016 11:34 AM Amazing Spider-Man #275-276 @Benway- according to DeFalco, he DID include scenes with Richard Fisk but Priest kept cutting them. If that's true, Priest got his own karmic payback years later when he wrote a Black Panther story where Killmonger collapses after consuming an herb T'Challa had earlier consumed without ill effects- Priest complained online that the editor cut the line where it was explained the herb was poisonous to most people but T'Challa's bloodline was immune. AndrewNovember 26, 2016 8:31 AM Fantastic Four #271-273 @D09: I'm a little late responding to your comment, but... Am I sure that Hickman intended there to be two different Nathanials? Yes. In SHIELD 2, page 18, we see Hickman's Nathanial next to Byrne's, among others. This scene is shown again in Fantastic Four 581, when it is explained that all alternate version of Nathanial Richards have been pulled into the 616 universe. And in Fantastic Four 582, on the first page we see the "Beast" Nathanial murder Byrne's Nathanial (it's clearly him, right down to the prosthetic eye he had when DeFalco was writing him), leaving only Hickman's Nathanial and the "Beast", who is killed by Doom in that same issue. The idea isn't that it's a different Nathanial each time the FF sees him; it's that the quantum event in SHIELD 2 brought Hickman's Nathanial into the 616 universe. Now, am I sure that Marvel writers and editors (or fandom) in general recognize there were two different Nathanials? Not at all. Hickman was fairly subtle about it, and in interviews he didn't distinguish between his Nathanial and the preexisting one. But I'm sure that's his intent, and it gives added poignancy to Franklin's words at the end of that issue: "Every boy deserves a father." TuomasNovember 26, 2016 1:23 AM Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 "Ship of fools" is a concept/metaphor that's been around for centuries, do the title doesn't necessarily come from the Doors song. iLegionNovember 25, 2016 6:20 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 The X-Men Animated Series did a much better job of balancing Xavier and Magneto's viewpoints, with the first season probably being written between X-Men 1-3 and Fatal Attractions. Magneto was more of a wildcard that alternately aided and fought the X-Men instead of, well, this. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 25, 2016 12:48 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 All excellent discussion of this issue...the second scan is also JRjr. Paul Smith was going through a weird period, only to regain his touch on Leave It To Chance. MichaelNovember 25, 2016 10:18 AM Fantastic Four #54 Contrary to what Stan thought, by King Richard's time, Europeans knew the Earth was round. Jon DubyaNovember 25, 2016 1:21 AM Daredevil #291 Nocenti has (had?) been rather prolific in the "New 52". Not bad at all for someone who couldn't "stand" comics. Also the criticism for Nocenti having "never really worked" is usually based more on being insufferably surreal and uncomphrensible than on the "shoving of sicial issues." Mark DrummondNovember 24, 2016 9:17 PM Captain America #177-186 In #181, one of Krang's word balloons ends in an asterisk, which normally signals a footnote. There isn't one to be seen, so I guess it fell off at some point before printing. Mark DrummondNovember 24, 2016 6:55 PM Captain America #177-186 There seems to be a weird production error in #178. We see a silent panel of Steve Rogers working out in the gym, and the next panel's word balloon starts out with "...so Steve Rogers..." It appears that another word balloon fell off in the silent panel. Walter LawsonNovember 24, 2016 3:42 PM X-Men vs. the Avengers #1-4 "Res rioted" should be "rescripted." The Master Mold that runs my iPad's spellcheck obviously had its own ideas. Interesting to note that in Stern's original plots, the Bullski Titanium Man would have returned as a lackey of the Mandarin, and rage Gremlin would have remained just the Gremlin. I like the idea that the Mandarin's rings, particularly the matter rearranger, could have restored Bullski after he was "carded" and torn up in his last appearance. Mark DrummondNovember 24, 2016 3:16 PM Giant-Size Defenders #1 The Mighty Marvel Checklist for this month listed this as "Giant-Size Super-Teams", and a house ad for it described it as a new full-length story. Mark DrummondNovember 24, 2016 3:14 PM Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 The Mighty Marvel Checklist for this month listed this as "Super-Giant Spider-Man". Walter LawsonNovember 24, 2016 2:57 PM X-Men vs. the Avengers #1-4 Jason Powell relates an email from Roger Stern here that offers the best explanation I've seen of Stern's thinking about Magneto: http://www.therealgentlemenofleisure.com/2012/04/x-amining-uncanny-x-men-150.html?showComment=1334252765041#c6823218693053528505 Stern didn't buy Magneto's sudden reformation and thought someone in-universe (the Avengers) should be similarly skeptical--that's what I come up with, anyway, between Stern's comments to Powell and his original plots for this X-Men vs. Avengers series, which is summarized here, http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/search/label/X-Men%20vs%20Avengers . I can see why Stern might have been frustrated enough to quit: his plots for all four issues were changed, but he rewrote or at least res rioted the first three himself. By the fourth issue, he was going to lose his artist and he was being asked for another rewrite, so he dropped out. He's said elsewhere that the order to rewrite #4 (evidently a second time?) didn't come from DeFalco, for what it's worth. Omar KarinduNovember 24, 2016 1:31 PM Daredevil #10-11 It looks as if the cover to #11 is a stat of the splash panel from page 15 of that issue;. Did Wally Wood quit before creating a cover, or did Stan reject an existing cover? Also, Wood sneaks in something very tame by today's standards, but very risque by the standards of the time, especially with the CCA. During a party, the following exchange occurs: Jonas: Deborah tells me you've made great progress as a campaigner. Add in the reveal later that Deborah has been romantically involved with Jonas, and there's a lot of innuendo here for a Silver Age comic. Walter LawsonNovember 24, 2016 1:25 PM Uncanny X-Men #215-216 "Super Sabre" is another of Claremont's aeronautical references. It refers to a USAF jet introduced in the 1950s. Which makes it a bit strange that a guy would be calling himself by that name during WWII. Maybe in the MU the jet took its name from the guy. The political dimension to these WWII heroes is notable. The X-Men were somewhat in the spirit of '60s and '70s idealistic liberalism. It was a shock in the '80s when Reagan seemed to show there was life in the old hardline anti-communism and hardboiled outlook associated with the '50 and (some) WWII vets. Basically, this trio of WWII mutants reflects a facet of the Reagan zeitgeist, just as John Walker does in Captain America. MichaelNovember 24, 2016 11:51 AM Tales To Astonish #84-87 @Bobby- the hand's owner says "Soon it will be time for Hydra to live again". WisNovember 24, 2016 11:45 AM Sub-Mariner #55 Admittedly, that splash page that fnord says is over-dialogued does read like a Roy Thomas script. It's possible Roy was doing "additional" uncredited dialogue to make it read more like a modern Marvel mag, such as Stan used to do with his own (Roy's) early efforts. Luke BlanchardNovember 24, 2016 10:31 AM Secret Wars II #8 Perhaps the Hulk is really growling, but the Beyonder can understand the growls? George LochinskiNovember 24, 2016 9:42 AM Marvel Fanfare #38 fnord, you're the best. Happy Thanksguving! George LochinskiNovember 24, 2016 6:27 AM X-Factor #12 Haha I love the idea that Lorelei was an early member of Fallen Angels ChrisWNovember 24, 2016 3:04 AM Uncanny X-Men #141-142 Well shit, why didn't you just say that in the first place? StagewalkerNovember 23, 2016 8:57 PM Alpha Flight #106 I splurged on the Marvel Unlimited digital subscription and have been enjoying checking out a lot of old comics. After reading the first dozen or so issues, it jumps pretty much straight to issue 160. And yeah, it's severe whiplash to go from the Byrne stuff to this. One thing I'm surprised no one has commented on is the utterly bizarre villain logic in this story. Former hero is upset that AIDS baby is getting all the sympathy that his son didn't... so in his rage he decides that the best thing to do is wreck the hospital and KILL THE BABY? And when the baby dies, he is allowed to just walk around and hug the weirdly steroidal Northstar? I mean, this issue was bad for all the reasons discussed above, but it's also bad because the plot makes no damn sense. Luke BlanchardNovember 23, 2016 8:37 PM Uncanny X-Men #151-152 Regarding Erik's question, the line might be an intended art correction. UbersichtNovember 23, 2016 8:03 PM Uncanny X-Men #129-131 Wolverine's reading habits while seated in a diner actually reflect a pattern for Byrne. Hawkeye (at work) in Avengers #189 was mentioned - also drawn by Byrne. Another that springs to mind is "Junior" Collins, the son of "The Man With the Power" in Fantastic Four #234, viewing a centerfold at the breakfast table. Any others? Omar KarinduNovember 23, 2016 7:41 PM Quasar #6 The Avengers arcade game seems to be very loosely based on Acts of Vengeance, since some of the villains in it had only fought members of the Avengers as part of the Acts. ubersichtNovember 23, 2016 6:44 PM Uncanny X-Men #129-131 The Hellfire Club's "armored goons" have a strangely familiar design/mechanism on their backs. Jay GallardoNovember 23, 2016 6:28 PM Iron Man #290-291 It´s ironic that a guy who stopped manufacturing weapons is okay with a code-name like "War Machine". UbersichtNovember 23, 2016 6:14 PM Uncanny X-Men #141-142 Search your feelings; you know it to be true! ChrisWNovember 23, 2016 4:59 PM X-Factor #92 Andrew, both the Death of Phoenix and the Death of Elektra ran without Comics Code Approval symbols. Jim Shooter has said that both issues were Code-approved, but the symbols happened to fall off the covers at some point between approval and printing. No way to know if this is the truth, but my source is an issue of "The Comics Journal" circa 1981, asking Shooter specifically about #137 and the lack of a CCA symbol. This doesn't mean you aren't right and the Code hadn't become irrelevant after this issue, I just wanted to make this point. Also, YMMV, but my understanding was that Marvel dropped the Code because they were still going through bankruptcy at the time, and they were desperate to save money, so why pay dues to something as outdated as the CCA? ChrisWNovember 23, 2016 4:37 PM Uncanny X-Men #141-142 You're saying Chris Claremont wasn't consistent with his continuity? No! That's not true! That's impossible!!! Ataru320November 23, 2016 11:52 AM Captain America #351 "Fury is actually serious about selling this headquarters to Donald Trump" That would have been funny to see what happened there given current events. Tony LewisNovember 23, 2016 10:52 AM Captain America #351 According to Avengers #267-268, they lie on the ground unconscious. Except for the Hulk, who is standing up but apparently in a daze. Hercules walks up and punches Hulk in the face, knocking him down. Hulk doesn't get up again, much to the Wasp's surprise. So they don't seem to be aware of being in Limbo. Ben HermanNovember 23, 2016 10:41 AM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 I have also always been curious about the Human Torch going missing between GSA #3 and Avengers #133. Perhaps it was a miscommunication between Englehart and one of the artists? It's possible Cockrum might have included the Torch on the final page by accident. Or maybe during the time between writing the plots for these two issues Englehart simply forgot that the Torch was still there at the end of GSA #3 and so didn't include him in the plot for #134 he gave to Sal Buscema? Englehart was definitely juggling a heck of a lot of balls with this sprawling storyline, so it's not inconceivable that he lost track of one of the characters along the way. If I have an opportunity I will ask him about it, but who knows if he remembers the answer over 40 years later? By the way, fnord, I agree with Andrew that "neat continuity is what this site is all about." As always, keep up the good work. Mark DrummondNovember 23, 2016 10:39 AM Sub-Mariner #28 The Namor/Spock resemblance was also remarked on in an early issue of Not Brand Ecch. AndrewNovember 23, 2016 9:48 AM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 That's a good point, VCR. The Torch is on the last page of one book and gone in the first scene of the next with no explanation. Clearly Immortus took him for his own purposes and wiped the Avengers' minds, or something. Immortus fixes all continuity problems. I have to say, I like this storyline, and Avengers Forever as well. Yes, the Vision being the Torch is stupid, but once Thomas put that ball in play, subsequent writers had no choice to play the hand they were dealt, to mangle a metaphor. The Celestial Madonna saga and Avengers Forever are stories that both entertain and clean up continuity. And neat continuity is what this site is all about. Ben HermanNovember 23, 2016 9:40 AM Captain America #135-138 @Wis: Yep! Gene Colan was a great artist, but he definitely had trouble pacing his stories when he was only given a very brief plot from which to work. At this point in time Stan Lee would either call Colan on the phone to describe the plot to him or give him a written plot that was a few paragraphs long. The so-called "Marvel Method" worked really well when Lee was collaborating with Kirby and Ditko, but it just wasn't a good fit for Colan. I think he really needed writers to give him plots with a page-by-page breakdown of what was supposed to take place. Luke BlanchardNovember 23, 2016 5:43 AM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #9 Laura Brown's wig might be modelled after the hairstyle of a character called Lhassa from George Wundar's version of TERRY AND THE PIRATES. WisNovember 23, 2016 5:15 AM Marvel Spotlight #2 'Werewolf By Night' is a Stan Lee title. Roy wanted to call it "I, Werewolf" but Stan recycled a title he had used for a cover story on one of the 1950s' ATLAS mystery stories. WisNovember 23, 2016 4:56 AM Sub-Mariner #44-46 That ending seems rushed and when isn't storyline development cruel to Namor? Whether it's this issue or when Dorma is killed, or when Byrne puts him through the ringer, writers always give Namor a reason to be sullen. WisNovember 23, 2016 1:07 AM Captain America #135-138 That Mole Man ending *is* abrupt and feels rushed/forced but this was a common issue with Gene Colon stories- he used so many big panels and splash pages, he often had to hurry up to tie up the ending. This one suffers, in my opinion. WisNovember 23, 2016 12:51 AM Hulk #135 I remember being amazed that the Hulk is depicted as wearing BLUE pants throughout this entire story. DouglasNovember 23, 2016 12:50 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #72 (More than a year later:) Omar, that's an excellent point--but check out the "crazy artist drawing water towers" on pg. 2--his briefcase says "F.M." on it! There's definitely some Eisner-via-Miller going on here, though. WisNovember 22, 2016 11:54 PM Daredevil #67 I don't know, I kind of appreciate Groovy Gary's last panel there with the "oh, shut up!"- it's good to see Karen, even fleetingly, live for herself after all she's been through. WisNovember 22, 2016 11:39 PM Sub-Mariner #29 The more I read this site (great work btw fnord), the more conflicted I become about Roy Thomas as a scripter *gulp* UbersichtNovember 22, 2016 10:31 PM Avengers #352-354 A clarification: the team that was disbanded by Skrull imposters in #92 was already without T'Challa, who'd recently returned to Wakanda. Avengers #92 also featured the Thing knocking them - "The Avengers? What Avengers?" - as not being the Avengers HE knew. UbersichtNovember 22, 2016 10:17 PM Avengers #352-354 Erik Beck wrote: "This is the first time in Avengers history that the team doesn't either have Cap or one of the founders." That actually dates much further back. All the way to 1970. In issue #75, the Pyms leave for Alaska and while the big three pop in and out, the official team was Black Panther, Goliath (Clint Barton), Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and the Vision. A classic team by my lights. Their first outing without any of the big three was Hulk #128 and the first Avengers issue with only them was #77. UbersichtNovember 22, 2016 10:04 PM Hulk #128 Gen. Ross complains about the team of Avengers that arrive and it should be noted that - with Pym leaving in Avengers #75 but the big three hanging around for the fight with Arkon - this is the first published appearance of an Avengers team with none of the founders (counting Cap as a retroactive "founder", of course - and for that matter, not counting the Hulk). The General's complaint wasn't framed in those terms but I do wonder whether he knew Clint wasn't the Goliath (Giant-man actually) he'd met previously - and whether that would have made a difference. UbersichtNovember 22, 2016 9:56 PM Hulk #128 One rare exception to Clint's Goliath frequently being giant size for no sensible reason is found in the Hercules story in Ka-Zar Quarterly #1, also another rare appearance of this classic team without any of the big three joining in.http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/ka-zar_quarterly_1_hercules.shtml UbersichtNovember 22, 2016 9:47 PM Sub-Mariner #28 I strongly suspect the resenblance to Mr. Spock noted above was quite deliberate. Compare Namor's appearance and outfit in those street scenes to Mr. Spock's 20th century disguise in the classic Terri Garr episode, "Assignment:Earth!" http://www.letswatchstartrek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Picture-61.png D09November 22, 2016 9:42 PM Captain America #351 @Nathan Adler: False personality transplants on his minions to keep up the illusion at all costs? I know that an explanation similar to what I suggested popped up down the line, but I can't remember which comic it was... ...now that I think about it, when a Space Phantom makes a successful switch (unlike what happened with Thor back in Avengers #2), is there any report on what the switched person does when he or she gets shunted into Limbo? D09November 22, 2016 9:24 PM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 Yeesh, I shudder to think what the comments section of all the issues for both The Crossing and Avengers Forever storylines will look like the instant they get put up. I pray for your sanity fnord12 when that time comes, I truly do. VCRNovember 22, 2016 7:06 PM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 Anyone have any explanations for when the Human Torch randomly disappeared between the end of GSA 3 and Avengers 133? I agree with all statements about Avengers Forever being stupid. D09November 22, 2016 2:08 PM What's Missing Just a heads-up, the second Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu Omnibus collecting DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU (1974) #19-33 and material from BIZARRE ADVENTURES #25 is coming out in February. Ataru320November 22, 2016 10:52 AM Savage Hulk #1-4 I think that at least the earlier gamma beings do make them unique enough to at least make it matter. With Bruce it was his psychological trauma; with Samuel Sterns it was his desire to be taken seriously; with Jen it was a means of coming out of her shell, and so forth. It gets trivialized with the more there are but at least when there are a few significant ones. I do agree that it should be limited though and not just "anyone can be a Hulk"...but not just "let's reboot everything and only have Bruce Banner as the only gamma being" as they tend to do with Superman on occasion. If they are distinct enough I think there should be enough room for the likes of Hulk, Leader, Abomination, She-Hulk...heck even Doc Samson. Ben HermanNovember 22, 2016 10:10 AM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Shroud) Agreed with fnord that Steve Leialoha's inking is very effective over Steve Ditko's pencils. Leialoha also inked Ditko on the first two chapters of a back-up story that appeared in the Coyote series written by Steve Englehart that Epic Comics published, and it looked amazing. Ditko's work after he returned to Marvel in the 1980s and early 90s was often odd, at times appeared in the most unexpected places. But looking back, one of the great things about all these unusual fill-ins and back-up stories was getting to see a diverse selection of artists doing inks / finishes over his pencils. AFNovember 22, 2016 8:07 AM Thor #283-301 That may have been the intention and worked, but the 2011 Herc series said no. AndrewNovember 22, 2016 7:25 AM Hulk #128 Actually, flipping through my back issues, when Clint Barton was Goliath he stayed giant-sized pretty much all the time. Colan, Windsor-Smith, the Buscemas; they all drew him that way. And it was continued in cross-overs like this one (you're not the only reader to make this observation). My memory was that Hank Pym only stayed giant during that short period where he was stuck at 10 feet tall, but it was pretty much the same for him. The difference was that Pym was always in the lab, where you could say he was tall so he could reach things on high shelves or move heavy machinery, while Clint was always lounging around in giant size for no reason. Arm-chair psychologists may make of this what they wish... Jay DemetrickNovember 22, 2016 6:10 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 For some reason I thought Magneto's wife Magda was Jewish and he was Romani and converted her religion when they married...? Or was I just trying to make sense of the backstory flip flops going on...? WisNovember 22, 2016 5:08 AM Hulk #128 Why oh why would Goliath/Giant-Man/every size-changing character ever constantly be in giant mode, whether it's entering a room or lounging around Avenger's mansion? WisNovember 22, 2016 4:45 AM Savage Hulk #1-4 Ugh. The empty, soulless computer coloring of modern Marvel even makes Alan Davis's art look bland and lifeless. Everything just looks... sea-green. Nate WolfNovember 22, 2016 4:34 AM Avengers #271 Fun fact, the French edition of this issue kept the coloring mistakes despite being published 3 years later. MortificatorNovember 22, 2016 3:56 AM Captain America #114-119 No biggie, I've made some embarrassing comments myself. :) As for the Falcon, it's too bad he didn't debut in a better story. I definitely prefer the first Cosmic Cube storyline in Tales of Suspense over this one. WisNovember 22, 2016 3:32 AM Captain America #114-119 Arrghhh you are correct my friend! I stand ashamed for not considering that relatively crucial aspect. this is what I get for visiting the chronological corner after work at 3AM MortificatorNovember 22, 2016 3:07 AM Captain America #114-119 African. T'Challa's not from America. WisNovember 22, 2016 2:36 AM Captain America #114-119 If The Falcon is considered the first African-American superhero, then what does that make The Black Panther, who is already well established at this point..?? AndrewNovember 21, 2016 9:58 PM Thor #283-301 The deviant version of Ereshkigal, who reappears in Quasar, says she is also known as Hecate. I wonder if she's the same Hecate who appeared in Ms Marvel 11-13? AndrewNovember 21, 2016 5:42 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #21 I remember being struck by the scene in Ms Marvel 1 where the Scorpion says "This isn't a costume! It doesn't come off!" Very dramatic, but I was pretty sure it was not literally true. I think this entire issue was written just to refute that one word balloon. Ben HermanNovember 21, 2016 4:18 PM West Coast Avengers #30 I've never read this issue, but I've seen the cover here and there, and until now I've always thought the "Composite Avenger" was actually the Super-Adaptoid. AndrewNovember 21, 2016 1:27 PM Thor #144 Very interesting in retrospect: during his battle with Thor, the Enchanter Magnir is able to lift and hurl Mjolnir. So these guys really are up in Odin's league. Too bad they just fizzled out. Also interesting: Magnir is only one letter removed from "Magni", meaning "strong" in Old Norse, and the name of one of Thor's children in myth. If I was given to that sort of thing, I might speculate that Kirby intended Magnir to be related to Thor, maybe even to be his son, time-traveling from the future. Wouldn't that be something? PS, you have "Bron" rather "Brona" as the character name for one of the other Enchanters. BonezNovember 21, 2016 12:50 PM X-Factor #92 I really wish they did a better job of introducing the Acolytes in this issue because the team vs team fight is actually kind of cool (Random blasting Senyaka might be the best), and X-Factor beats them pretty soundly. However if I don't know who these bums are and what their powers are then the fight doesn't carry much tension. You got two generic feral animal hybrids in Spoor and Mellencamp, and two generic bruisers in Frenzy and Javitz. Unuscione and Senyaka are interesting but what the hell does Kleinstock do and who is the old guy with the beard in the background? George LochinskiNovember 21, 2016 12:15 PM West Coast Avengers annual #1 Cap always runs the Avengers on the honor system LOL! clydeNovember 21, 2016 10:40 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 "Pyro having the Legacy Virus was a real waste and lead to several "Pyro can't control his powers anymore" stories until they realized they had no ideas beyond that and finally killed him off." Matthew BradleyNovember 21, 2016 8:52 AM Marvel Team-Up #82-85 Originating with a Richard Rodgers/George Balanchine ballet from the 1936 show ON YOUR TOES, the title of #83 had also been repurposed for a 1957 film noir. Thanos6November 21, 2016 7:57 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 @Tuomas: Actually, many Inuit have no problem with being called Eskimos, and indeed, there are also several Native, but not Inuit, groups who prefer the term Eskimos. TuomasNovember 21, 2016 7:37 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 I guess the problem is that American superhero comics are obviously mostly written by Americans, and to them Jewish culture and history are probably much more familiar than those of the Romani, even if the writers are not Jews themselves. So it would take way more background work for them to write about the Romani in a non-stereotypical matter, and most of them probably couldn't be bothered to do that much extra work for a superhero comic. TuomasNovember 21, 2016 7:23 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 I think retconning Magneto to be Romani (you really shouldn't use the word "Gypsy", it's about as insulting as calling Inuits "Eskimos") could've theoretically been interesting if it was used to emphasize the fact that the Jews weren't the only group massacred in the Holocaust, and that Romani still faced a lot of prejudices when this story was published. (And they still do in 2016, the anti-Romani discrimination is [i]very[/i] blatant in many of the European countries they live in.) But AFAIK not much was ever done to explore the Roma roots of Magneto, Wanda, and Pietro, beyond such stereotypes as Wanda's liking of florid dresses and "exotic" dances. AndrewNovember 21, 2016 6:31 AM Uncanny X-Men #304 Guys, I know it's tempting, but fnord prefers that comments be about the comic that is being reviewed, or at least mostly. He will get to Morrison eventually. BerendNovember 21, 2016 3:51 AM Uncanny X-Men #304 Well, the response to this story was pretty damning, and between it and the Morrison run there have been plenty of positive portrayals of Magneto. He was the Professor X figure in Age of Apocalypse and Joseph was supposed to be a good, de-aged Magneto at first. Even in the Magneto War/The Twelve/Genosha peroid he was more of a conflicted, sort-off noble villain, who teamed up with the X-Men on several occasions, and not the complete loon Morrison portrayed him as. Also, the fact that Magneto was influenced by Sublime was never clearly stated: you had to infer it from what happened to Beast in the future timeline, but the revelation that the Kick drug was actually Sublime came more than half a year since the revelation that Xorn was Magneto. I guess people find it hard to backpaddle after spending so many months lambasting something. And yeah, maybe people just missed it. Both Chuck Austin and Josh Whedon completely missed the Ernst-Cassandra Nova connection as well. Grant's writing may have been too subtle for its own good (although personally I really like a story like that, which rewards paying close attention to details) TuomasNovember 21, 2016 3:16 AM Uncanny X-Men #304 I'd already stopped reading X-Men comics a couple of years ago, so I'm not familiar with this story... I find it curious that Grant Morrison was criticised for "regressing" Magneto into a megalomaniac loon during his X-Men run (even though there was an actual in-story explanation for his behaviour, a lot of people just seemed to have missed it), if the same thing had already been done to him 10 year before. Maybe some of those critics were people like me, who hadn't read X-Men beyond Claremont's run and only returned to it in the '00s, so their last memory of Magneto was the reformed anti-hero, not the crazy villain? AndrewNovember 20, 2016 9:50 PM Tales Of Suspense #92-94 (Iron Man) It was Iron Man Annual 4, of all things. I assume it was a try-out story they just threw somewhere, like the Thanos story in Logan's Run 6. Jon DubyaNovember 20, 2016 9:33 PM Avengers #295-297 I guess the "disassembly" was so thourough that Jarvis even quit tbe "appearing" links. That wasn't nice of him. Ben HermanNovember 20, 2016 9:18 PM Web of Spider-Man #33 A few years ago I wrote an in-depth piece about this storyline on my blog... I thought it was a good, interesting, unusual story, and it led to me becoming a fan of Ann Nocenti's work. Of course your mileage may vary. JeffNovember 20, 2016 9:13 PM Thor #334-335 I just read this issue but it was still a little unclear to me if Jane knows/remembers that Thor is Don Blake from this point on. But I believe this is it, it stays out in the open between them from now on. WisNovember 20, 2016 9:03 PM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #11 Shouldn't "Flowers Barton" be, you know, the guy with flowers in his hair?? Groovy Gary tricks us again! Ben HermanNovember 20, 2016 7:44 PM Marvel Comics Presents #48-50 (Wolverine/Spider-Man) For several years after this story came out I kept waiting for someone to get around to finally revealing just who the "Captain" and his daughter were supposed to be. Then in the late 1990s I re-read this, and I *finally* realized that Erik Larsen was doing an homage to the original Captain Marvel, meaning that "Mr. Beck" was a now-adult Billy Batson. "Holy moley" is right! His daughter even looks like Billy's sister Mary on the final page. I wrote into the Savage Dragon lettercol for confirmation, and Larsen verified that he did this story as a bit of an homage to C.C. Beck, who had passed away only a few months before. All these years later I still laugh at that panel from #52 page 4: "That - that face! It's... oh no -- it can't be! It's my dentist!" :) WisNovember 20, 2016 7:43 PM Daredevil #48 Wow, Matt really looks like, well, Conan O'Brien in that sequence. So I guess it's not too far a stretch to suggest that Foggy looks like Andy Richter. JeffNovember 20, 2016 7:10 PM Thor annual #11 For the record the Thor Epic Collection volume 12 places this story (which is written by Alan Zelenetz) after the last monthly Zelenetz story but before the first Simonson story, so where you have it in your project synchs up with Marvel. Walter LawsonNovember 20, 2016 6:40 PM Uncanny X-Men #141-142 Note that Kate, in Kitty's body, tells the X-Men in 141 that on Halloween 1980 the Brotherhoid kills Senator Kelly *and also* Xavier and Moira MacTaggart. This is irreconcilable with later Rachel Summers/DoFP "future flashbacks," where Xavier is killed in a military and/or Hellfire Club attack on the mansion. I guess a No-Prize explanation might be that Kate is embellishing her tale with peril to Xavier and Moira to make absolutely certain the X-Men get involved. Or you could say the original DoFP timeline here is different from the later variations on DoFP, which are nearly identical but distinct parallel universes. But either way, I find it interesting that Claremont himself didn't stick consistently to the future history he established. Jon DubyaNovember 20, 2016 3:35 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 The funny thing is that "Eric Lensherr" isn't Magneto's real name either. And yet even years after it was revealed that it was an alias, people (and certainly most media adaptations) continue to call him "Eric" (hasn't it also been "Erik" though? I could have sworn I've seen some comics where it was spelled that way.) Ben HermanNovember 20, 2016 12:49 PM Marvel Comics Presents #50-53 (Comet Man) @Robert: Of course it was none other than Bill Mumy himself who played the child with God-like powers in "It's a Good Life." Ben HermanNovember 20, 2016 12:36 PM Comet Man #1-6 George Lochinski: I thought it was Vice President Rodriguez who co-wrote this miniseries! AndrewNovember 20, 2016 11:18 AM Quasar #44-48 In retrospect it's funny to look at all the new Elders and conceptual beings that were introduced in Silver Surfer and especially in Quasar around this time, and consider how few of them have "stuck". Post-2000, pretty much the only cosmic beings used are those introduced by Kirby or Starlin. (The biggest exception I can think of was DnA used Oblivion for a few issues of Guardians of the Galaxy.) James HoltNovember 20, 2016 8:19 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 Thanks Andrew. AndrewNovember 20, 2016 7:02 AM X-Factor #92 Sean Howe, in Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, says that Marvel (ie, president Bill Jemas) finally dropped the Comics Code (and stopped paying dues) when they launched their MAX line, in particular the Jessica Jones Alias series, which is cover dated November 2001. But, as Red Comet notes, they published X-Force 116 in May 2001 with no seal, due to CCA objections over content. They quietly dropped the seal from all the "mainstream" books in September 2001. And they had been running the Marvel Knights line without seals since 1998. Of course, the Spider-Man drug issues, 96-98, were the first shot across the bow, but in my mind the CCA had been proved irrelevant in X-Men 137, which ran without the seal because the original storyline called for Jean Gray to not be punished for incinerating a star, killing billions of people. AndrewNovember 20, 2016 6:28 AM Quasar #19-25 Yes, I would say that scene is the best in the entire series. fnord, if you get a chance, I think your readers would benefit from seeing it in its entirety. James HoltNovember 20, 2016 5:38 AM Thor #184-194 I agree largely with Zeilstern here, that this run provides strong evidence that writing and plotting skills which have been claimed by Stan Lee might well be better attributed to Kirby (and Ditko, and other early bullpen artists/ plotters). The character and continuity inconsistencies fnord12 mentions are huge, particularly the weepy Sif and the stereotypical feminization of characters overall. Sif was an atypically strong and independent character from the Lee/Kirby mythos, and this Sif character here bears little resemblance to her. Big Barda in Kirby's DC Forever People series is much closer to the Kirby/Lee Sif than this character is. Not to disparage Lee's considerable skills at writing dialog too much, but even the dialog here seems lackluster and lacks a lot of the grit of the earlier Lee & Kirby Thor stories. Partly this might be attributable to Lee's growing lack of interest in writing comic books, but maybe not entirely. Thanos6November 20, 2016 3:52 AM Quasar #19-25 @Luis: When Quasar is being whipped to death but refuses to grant Phobius the satisfaction of counting the lashes. He just keeps repeating "one" to piss him off, even though it's implied it earned him a lot more lashes. George LochinskiNovember 20, 2016 3:35 AM Comet Man #1-6 I'm just totally agog from finding out that Special Agent Albert Rosenfield has some Marvel co-writing credits! Luis DantasNovember 20, 2016 1:36 AM Quasar #19-25 @Mortificator, might you remind me at which point that saying of "one" happened? Bobby SisemoreNovember 20, 2016 1:21 AM Avengers #13-14 You may be right but there had to be some reason that Stan did not say Mafia outright while DC did come right out and say Mafia in several storues Bobby SisemoreNovember 20, 2016 1:11 AM Strange Tales #120 Agreed not don't forget Red Lucy Keogh Bobby SisemoreNovember 20, 2016 1:09 AM Avengers #51 Lol Bobby SisemoreNovember 20, 2016 1:07 AM Thor #142 Cool. I love Tarzan Bobby SisemoreNovember 20, 2016 1:06 AM Tales Of Suspense #72-74 (Captain America) I think Jack and Stan were probably H G Wells fans Walter LawsonNovember 19, 2016 9:36 PM New Mutants #98-100 Probably not worth adding to references, but in New Mutants 48, Sunspot notes that Dys of Future Past Canbonball has learned to fly silently. So there is precedent for Sam gaining that skill. Walter LawsonNovember 19, 2016 8:57 PM X-Factor #92 One sign that the Comics Code is still being given lip service, though, is that the blood in this issue is black rather than red. At least, at one point that was something that mattered to the Comics Code. GreggMNovember 19, 2016 8:21 PM X-Men Unlimited #2 Thanks for the info, Andrew and James! MortificatorNovember 19, 2016 8:20 PM Quasar #19-25 I had several Quasar issues before Cosmos in Collision back in the day, and a couple after, but missed the big storyline itself. Reading through it earlier this year, I was impressed. It's a powerful moment when Quasar says "one" for the second time. If I have a criticism, it's what fnord brings up, that cosmic entities like Oblivion aren't always treated with the gravitas appropriate to The Utter Death Beyond The Universe. Thanos6November 19, 2016 5:16 PM Quasar #12 Dammit, Andrew, now you have a bunch of songs stuck in my head, too. If your name was Andrea, I'd say you were an evil woman. Thanos6November 19, 2016 5:14 PM Quasar #19-25 I believe he "ate" her to fill her in on what was going on when she was getting too nosy. AndrewNovember 19, 2016 4:41 PM Quasar #26-27 In Quasar #27, page 14, Quasar muses "Infinity, why have you forsaken me?" After the 39 lashes and the crucifixion in the previous story arc, it really seems like Gruenwald is portraying Quasar as a whiney whitebread Christ figure. I don't know if he's trying to make some sort of point, or if he just isn't good enough as a writer to give Quasar a distinct personality. Piotr WNovember 19, 2016 3:57 PM X-Force #25 @John Dubya: yeah, the 90s really like the "generic mental powers", too. Both them and "energy manipulating powers" were a common power set used by lazy writers... @Mortificator - you know, I actually quite dislike Exodus' look. It's just so... implausible, I can't imagine anyone choosing to dress like that out of sudden. Of course, almost all superhero costumes are implausible - nevertheless, Exodus' costume has always struck me as a particularly strong example... MichaelNovember 19, 2016 2:49 PM Avengers #13-14 @Bobby- according to Wikipedia the Italian American Anti-Defamation League wasn't founded until 1970- this story is dated 1965. Red CometNovember 19, 2016 1:00 PM X-Factor #92 Marvel dumped the Comics Code officially around 2001/2002 after the ultra-gory X-Force revamp by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred, but I'd heard that it had been ignored for a years before that and was only still around due to inertia. The gore and violence in this issue leads me to believe that was probably the case. Red CometNovember 19, 2016 12:48 PM X-Men Unlimited #2 Pyro having the Legacy Virus was a real waste and lead to several "Pyro can't control his powers anymore" stories until they realized they had no ideas beyond that and finally killed him off. Ben HermanNovember 19, 2016 12:25 PM Cable #4 @Jon Dubya: It was Art Thibert who gave Cable that mullet back in issue #1, so he is to blame for everyone else having to draw it :) AndrewNovember 19, 2016 8:12 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 I posted a comment with the whole crazy history of the twins' last name. Because of the number of links it's being held for approval, but soon all will be made clear. As noted above, Magneto's legal name is Erik Lehnsherr, but he was born Max Eisenhardt. James HoltNovember 19, 2016 8:02 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 My admittedly partial understanding and recollection is that the name Maximoff was first published as the surname of Wanda and Pietro, i.e., the Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver. Somewhere along the line it was more or less suggested by... I don't remember which writer(s)... that Magneto was their father, and so it was more or less deduced by other writers and fans that that Maximoff might also be Magneto's last name. I don't know what the current retconned or canonical status of these characters is now. Pick a year, and the answer would probably be different than it was in some other year. Ataru320November 19, 2016 7:50 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 They probably tried to make it something vaguely "Romani" I suppose. Then again how they connect to someone like Magneto is tough now considering how they're now Inhumans and not mutant children of his...(dang that retcon sucks) AndrewNovember 19, 2016 7:01 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 From Django and Marya Maximoff, the couple who raised Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. See Avengers 181-182 and 183-187. First, they were orphans with no last name. Then, for a while they thought Bob Frank, the Whizzer, was their father. Then, it was revealed that Magneto was their biological father. That's where things stood for about thirty years: Magneto was their biological father, but they kept the last name of the couple who raised them. Recently (but still just within the scope of this project), it's been retconned again so that the Maximoffs are their biological parents and their birth names are Ana and Mateo. GreggMNovember 19, 2016 3:27 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 Um, where'd the last name Maximoff come from? Mark BlackNovember 18, 2016 11:45 PM X-Factor #92 @Walter - you hit the nail on the head. It seemed to go from a good steady clip with Claremont's plots driving the books to a disjointed imitation of what had come before really quickly. The Shadow King showdown seemed abortive and unfulfilling, especially since it had been a showdown that had been brewing for years. At least Inferno felt like something happened (Maddie's death, confronting Sinister, reuniting X-Men and X-Factor), the Shadow King saga brought back Colossus so he could be a background character and reunited the Muir Islanders with the X-Men. I bought into the hype with X-Men #1, but found it to be confusing. It looked cool, but I didn't understand why I should bother. Magneto's death and Claremont's finale left me wanting. The books just felt like a pale imitation of what they once were. I am happy to see that Excalibur wasn't as awful as I had assumed it was after issue 25 or so and I do remember really enjoying the breath of fresh air that X-Factor was with Peter David. This site is great for having conceptions challenged and being able to enjoy these stories free of the commercial hype that accompanied many of them with their their initial release. I only had a few friends in Cape Breton who were into comics. There was no comics shop, so I really had no one to talk about this stuff when it was happening. It's nice to realize there were others around the globe that had similar feelings. Walter LawsonNovember 18, 2016 10:15 PM X-Factor #92 One of the things i like about this site is seeing how different perceptions of the same comics can be. In my case, like Erik and Mark, I always thought Magneto's death would soon be reversed. I didn't take it any more seriously than Reed Richards's and Dr. Doom's upcoming "deaths" in FF. But even at the time, I didn't look at X-Men 1-3 as Claremont's last hurrah. They seemed like halfhearted parodies of real Claremont and didn't make a lot of sense. I absolutely hated getting another X-Men vs X-Men story right after the abortive Shadow King saga (and the Warskrulls before that). I thought Lee was driving things and Claremont had no choice but to phone it in. Yet others find these issues poignant, and I do see why. AndrewNovember 18, 2016 10:08 PM Quasar #19-25 I just read this storyline in its entirety for the first time. The scene with Quasar and Phoebius was especially good, though the 39 lashes for the guy being crucified was a bit on the nose. One thing I'm still not clear on: was it ever explained why Eon ate Moondragon? Jonathan, son of KevinNovember 18, 2016 7:50 PM Quasar #11 Also, nothing says "Claremont character" better than "wears a red spiked leather bondage suit with built-in four inch heels". AndrewNovember 18, 2016 7:12 PM Quasar #12 Master Elo doesn't rate a "characters appearing" since he never shows up again, but he has a strange magic, and I can't get it out of my head... Jon DubyaNovember 18, 2016 7:09 PM X-Force #25 Piotr, it's not as bad as "generic mental powers" which are also in vogue around this time (and yes, Exodus DOES have those too.) Also, just to point out that Rictor and Sunspot are even more angry and distrustful with Cable. Which also results in Cable confirming for them (and us) what their problems were REALLY about and how he wasn't responsible for them. (Not that this stopped Rictor from being resentful toward Cable though) I continue to be impressed by what they are doing with Cannonball here. If only they didn't have him regress during his upcoming X-Men tenure... MortificatorNovember 18, 2016 6:24 PM X-Factor #93 I looked up Mellencamp and had to laugh when I saw he inexplicably turns up alive later. AndrewNovember 18, 2016 5:36 PM Quasar #11 Gotta love that picture of Rachel Summers. Nothing says mind-controlled-feral-mutant-hunter-from-an-apocalyptic-alternate-future better than four-inch heels. MortificatorNovember 18, 2016 5:24 PM Daredevil #2 Ben is clearly high this issue. He shows up in a manic state with pupils dilated, smashes a door and crazily thinks he can fix it, goes a mile a minute about how he needs a lawyer for insane reasons, then climbs out the window. Looking at his list of appearances, I see this can be explained by those pills he was popping in FF 27. In fact, that also explains why Reed is insistent that Johnny shouldn't be driving! AndrewNovember 18, 2016 5:23 PM X-Factor #93 Is that really Al Milgrom doing the inks? Because that is some really tight work for someone who was so sloppy in the 70's and 80's. Jon DubyaNovember 18, 2016 5:22 PM X-Factor #93 Wasn't this the point where Jamie Maddrox (or his dupes, at least, which is something to consider here, Fnord) was supposed to be experiencing rather extreme emotional outbursts (one dupe would be severely depressed. One dupe would be irrationally enraged, etc.)? And when you consider that Jamie's dupes can represent different spects of him, and that the way the Legacy Virus is SUPPOSED to work is that it amplifies mutant powers beyond their tolerance and control (granted like many aspects related to the Legacy Virus, this is inconsistently portrayed), this can account for Jamie's sudden about face about killing Mellencamp. Jon DubyaNovember 18, 2016 4:50 PM Cable #4 Which one of tbe dozen or so artist was responsible for giving Cable that mullet? George LochinskiNovember 18, 2016 4:13 PM West Coast Avengers #10 The Shootor era of He-Man was probably my favorite Darren HoodNovember 18, 2016 3:49 PM X-Factor #92 Not saying they don't exist, but I for one have never seen X-Men 25 polybagged. I don't know where this info is coming from or why UHBMCC is saying so, but I don't think it's true. I remember Magneto #0 simply being available on the front counter for like a couple of bucks for non subscribers and free for those who committed to the entire thing. Nate WolfNovember 18, 2016 2:40 PM New Mutants #43 That shows his growth as a character, I guess. In UXM #193, Warpath was obsessed with revenge. After being calmed down by the X-Men and spending some time in a team, he eventually becomes less of a hothead and more of a leader figure. MortificatorNovember 18, 2016 1:38 PM Ghost Rider #63 I'm generally not interested in circuses and carnivals, but I think this era of Ghost Rider is when the series finally starts living up to its potential. Luke BlanchardNovember 18, 2016 11:47 AM Marvel Two-In-One annual #6 The Ka-Zar panel at the start of ch. II is probably a homage to the cover of DAREDEVIL #12 or KA-ZAR (1970 series) #2. Ben HermanNovember 18, 2016 11:45 AM Cable #4 Okay, I located my previous comment about Marvel's epidemic of incredibly late books in 1993. I made it on fnord's entry for Thunderstrike #1, which was yet another issue that had ridiculous delays. I remember very well that back in 1993, whenever I went to my the local comic shop on Wednesdays for New Comic Day, often I would have literally no idea what was coming out that week until I actually go to the store and saw what shipped. And then it could be a crap-shoot if the creative teams & contents of those issues bore any resemblance to what had been solicited months before. Mark BlackNovember 18, 2016 11:11 AM X-Factor #92 @Erik - I was the very very same! Ben HermanNovember 18, 2016 9:06 AM Uncanny X-Men #304 @Michael: Thanks for the behind-the-scenes info. I really have to disagree with how Bob Harras ordered Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza to handle the character of Magneto. Fortunately after years of misuse the character has been much better used in recent times. In particular, Cullen Bunn has done some good work with Magneto. Ben HermanNovember 18, 2016 8:44 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 From what I've heard, supposedly Bob Harras wanted to make Magneto a gypsy because he thought Jews would be offended that one of Marvel's biggest villains was Jewish. Doctor Doom was already long-established as a gypsy, and now Magneto too? Obviously Harras didn't care about offending the Romani. I'm glad this retcon was later undone, and it was eventually revealed that Magneto is a Jew named Max Eisenhardt. Speaking as a Jew, it makes sense to me that Magneto is Jewish. Magneto epitomizes how yesterday's victim can become today's oppressor. As I wrote on my blog, one can certainly see Magneto as the personification of Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous warning “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” Likewise the character appears to embody the old saying “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” He is a man who experienced horrific losses in his childhood & early adulthood, and who is unable or unwilling to let go of the past. All of this has led him to fanatical extremes. fnord12November 18, 2016 8:44 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 Thanks Michael. Another example was in X-Men #199, when Lee Forrester (actually Mystique) says "Man's inhumanity to man - how easily the race kills." Magneto responds, "Then, Lee, it was the Jews. My nightmare has ever been that tomorrow, it will be mutants". fnord12November 18, 2016 8:31 AM X-Factor #92 Thanks Mortificator. fnord12November 18, 2016 8:28 AM X-Force #25 @Michael, i've added a reference and a scan for Professor, but the line still seems ambiguous enough that they weren't committing to it yet. (I've noticed the narration also confirms that we should think of Professor as a "he". I've hesitated since for some reason i've always thought of Ship as a "she".) fnord12November 18, 2016 8:17 AM Master of Kung Fu #47 Thanks, matthew. You're right. The MCP and the Appendix both list the character as Chaka Khan, but i just went through his appearances and can only find him called just Chaka. (Just to avoid confusion for everyone, this issue doesn't feature Chaka; matthew is just responding to the comments above.) Omar KarinduNovember 18, 2016 6:14 AM Master of Kung Fu #33-35 Mordillo is quite a bit like the film version of Scaramanga; they both write on their bullets and have a secret base int he South China Sea, as a well as a diminutive sidekick. Omar KarinduNovember 18, 2016 6:10 AM Master of Kung Fu #44-45 The name Ducharme seems to be borrowed from the primary female character of the 1928 French pulp novel La Cité de l'Or et de la Lèpre, which features the Fu Manchu-esque Dr. Natas. MortificatorNovember 18, 2016 3:13 AM X-Force #25 I really like Exodus's visual design. He pulls off the angelic herald look better than someone like Air-Walker. MortificatorNovember 18, 2016 2:52 AM X-Factor #92 It looks like this entry needs tags for a few more nondescript Acolytes: Senyaka, Isaac Javitz, and Sven & Harlan Kleinstock. @Ben Erik RobbinsNovember 18, 2016 2:04 AM X-Factor #92 I had a completely different take on Magneto's "death" at the beginning of adjective-less X-Men than fnord. I figured that there was no body and that he'd be back. I was unaware of the meta-concerns of the story being Claremont's swan-song. I was a little surprised they took as long as they did, but by this time, I was no longer buying Marvel. Instead I was picking up every piece of drek that Image was putting out. matthew baughNovember 18, 2016 12:28 AM Master of Kung Fu #44-45 I did a little research. Ducharme was created by Steve Englehart, Alan Weiss. She first appeared in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #2. Marvel.com lists her appearances as... Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu Vol 1 1 MichaelNovember 18, 2016 12:18 AM X-Men Unlimited #2 Also, fnord, I think the soldier was Adrian's brother, not his friend. MichaelNovember 17, 2016 11:51 PM X-Men Unlimited #2 He injures Bova in Vision and Scarlet Witch 4, and she's bedridden as a result until Avengers 246. This takes place at about the same time as New Mutants 21, where his satellite is destroyed by Warlock. After that, he meets Lee and switches to the purple costume. So Bova must have recovered very quickly and Magneto must have flown back up to his satellite just in time to meet Warlock. MichaelNovember 17, 2016 11:32 PM X-Men Unlimited #2 This issue was highly controversial when it first came out. Magneto is revealed to be a Romani and not a Jew. Many readers felt this made no sense. Fabian admitted that Harras ordered him to write this scene. (Harras's Avengers seems to suggest that he liked the idea of Pietro as Romani born and bred.) Fabian defended depicting Magneto as a Romani since it was never explicitly stated Magneto is Jewish. In X-Men 211, Magneto says "The horrors of my childhood are happening again, only this time mutants are the victims, instead of the Jews." Fabian pointed out that if you analyze the semantics of that sentence, it doesn't mean Magneto is Jewish. Most readers felt that was idiotic- it's just not the way real people talk. It's impossible to imagine a Romani saying that. MichaelNovember 17, 2016 11:11 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 The rewriting of this issue also screwed up X-Men Unlimited 2, which, thanks to the delays, came out BEFORE X-Men 304- Valerie Cooper and Gyrich talk like Magneto hasn't tried to kill any humans yet. matthew baughNovember 17, 2016 11:09 PM Master of Kung Fu #43 Ducharme had appeared in several earlier Shang Chi stories, but I think those had all been in the B&W title Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. MichaelNovember 17, 2016 11:09 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 "It's possible that we have a number of artists because it's a "jam" issue to celebrate the X-Men's 30th anniversary, but the inclusion of Chris Sprouse suggests otherwise."- It's because the issue was 8 weeks late. Morgan WickNovember 17, 2016 11:07 PM X-Men Unlimited #2 I wonder if Magneto choosing Phantazia over the others has anything to do with her being in a sexy bikini... matthew baughNovember 17, 2016 10:52 PM Master of Kung Fu #47 Actually, the Iron Fist villain was just "Chaka" with no Kahn or Khan or Kharn. I think the similarity to Shaka Kharn's name, plus the similarity to Chaka Khan's stage name, plus the fact that Iron Fist had another villain called Master Khan has created a lot of confusion. I just checked the old Iron Fist issues, though, and it's Chaka. Ben HermanNovember 17, 2016 10:16 PM X-Men Unlimited #2 Magneto comes across as a real hypocritical @$$hole here. Over in Uncanny X-Men #304 he was making the ridiculous claim that the only reason mutants were fighting amongst themselves was because they were divided over how to deal with the dangers posed by humanity. But when Magneto has the opportunity to put his money where his mouth is, he gets all elitist in his recruiting. He presents himself as the savior of mutant-kind, and promises them sanctuary from persecution... but only if he deems them "worthy" and regards them as possessing "vision and potential." Rather than uniting mutants, he's just creating more rifts and factions. MichaelNovember 17, 2016 9:58 PM X-Force #25 "This issue is double-sized, which might justify two, maybe even three, inkers, but there are seven."- it was also 6 weeks late. MichaelNovember 17, 2016 9:50 PM X-Factor #93 This issue was 6 weeks late. Ben HermanNovember 17, 2016 9:45 PM X-Force #25 It's almost amusing how this issue spends so much time trying to disguise the true identity of the "overlord." To anyone who had been reading the X-books for the past six months with their numerous hints that the character was returning, as well as anyone who had seen the various promotions for the "Fatal Attractions" crossover, it was blatantly obvious that it was Magneto. This feels like the comic book equivalent of the various Doctor Who television serials from the 1970s and 80s that would have "Daleks" in the story titles, but which would then spend the first episode stubbornly refusing to offer even a hint of the Doctor's arch-enemies, just so they could burst in for a "surprise" arrival at the cliffhanger ending. MichaelNovember 17, 2016 9:03 PM X-Factor #92 This issue came out 4 weeks late. KNovember 17, 2016 7:50 PM General Comments I love you, fnord!! gfsdf gfbdNovember 17, 2016 6:44 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 Geez... If you want to take a little break from 93 and jump straight to Heroes Reborn era, none of us will hold it against you. Buseik, Waid,PAD still on Hulk, even The X-books had some interesting stuff going on with Joe Kelly, Steve Seagle, and Joe Casey. fnord12November 17, 2016 6:22 PM X-Force #25 @Walter, yeah, Warpath says, "Shame to be knocking your head off, since you look Indian to me". The other thing we learn about Exodus aside from his arch highspeak is that he doesn't know what musak is (after a quip from Boom Boom). Piotr WNovember 17, 2016 6:09 PM X-Force #25 Argh. I hate these "generic energy powers"... they became so ubiquotous in the 90s... Walter LawsonNovember 17, 2016 6:03 PM X-Force #25 Is there a scene this issue where Warpath confronts Exodus and refers to him as if Exodus is Native American as well? I've always wondered if some other origin for Exodus was intended before we got his Crusader origin in 1996. In any event, Warpath's observation winds up being as irrelevant as Ahab's supposed resemblance to Cable. Walter LawsonNovember 17, 2016 5:46 PM X-Force #25 Yeah, Threnody: she's also a FabNic character (like Adam X), and she's already appeared in Stryfe's Strike File, where she and Holocaust were new characters who had yet to appear in the regular comics. WisNovember 17, 2016 5:39 PM X-Factor #93 If I remember correctly, was it Jack Abel (?) who collapsed at Marvel and Kelly Corvese attempted to give him CPR fnord12November 17, 2016 5:26 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 Thanks Andrew. Erik, i don't think it's worth a point, but i've added a note about that. Thanks. Also see the comment about his middle name. fnord12November 17, 2016 5:19 PM X-Factor #93 You're right. Thanks PeterA. AndrewNovember 17, 2016 5:10 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 It was not a hoax! It was not a dream! Thunderbird died in X-Men #95. James HoltNovember 17, 2016 4:37 PM Avengers #98-100 Besides the poor color choice for the Chinese characters' skin, their regulation PRC era clothing should be colored green, not brown. At least, that's my understanding from reading John Fraser's 1980 book, The Chinese, Portrait of a People, the whole idea being that all citizens should wear the exact same clothes, even Chairman Mao. Another coloring oddity is that this must be the first time I've ever seen the Enchantress wear any color other than green. MattNovember 17, 2016 4:34 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 I'm with Erik. The nonchalant introduction of "Eric Lensherr" was jarring. As if the Prof knew it all along? Come on! I had always collected the X-books over all else. Loved 'em. But then things spiraled out of control after Inferno, and I quit collecting sometime after Acts of Vengeance. I missed it, and I came back with X-Cutioner's Song. But this was the issue that did me in, too. As fnord says, the connection to the characters was gone. Colossus joining up with a ridiculous parody of Magneto was the absolute last straw. When I found out a few months later what happened with Wolverine over the rest of the crossover, I was really glad I'd quit. That said, with greater emotional distance now, I am finding it interesting to look at all this again from a "historical" perspective. PeterANovember 17, 2016 4:24 PM X-Factor #93 I think Kelly Corvese was a guy? PeterANovember 17, 2016 4:21 PM X-Factor #92 I like to believe that Trial of Gambit Magneto was actually Sinister. Glowing red eyes plus the "Magneto is no longer the man he once was" end quote. After Magneto War they use him worse and worser still... clydeNovember 17, 2016 4:18 PM X-Force #25 It could be Cecilia Reyes. MidnighterNovember 17, 2016 4:05 PM X-Force #25 "Not sure who is to the left of Adam X" I think she is Threonody Erik BeckNovember 17, 2016 3:16 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 A point for HSR for the first appearance of the name Eric Lensherr? That name suddenly sprung out of nowhere in the flashback and then Xavier actually calls him Eric, after, you know, never calling him that in the previous 30 years. Yet, it has definitely stuck, as the films have made clear. It was weird to suddenly have Magneto have my first name. I'm not supposed to be Magneto! My parents are Thomas and Martha. I'm supposed to be Batman! Aside from that, I knew this crossover was the end for me. They had just killed one of my favorite characters the issue before and they had brought back Magneto, something I swore that if they did, it would make me quit. I got the final issue of the crossover and didn't buy a new comic again until Kitty fell through the floor having fun with Peter in Astonishing over a decade later. berendNovember 17, 2016 3:04 PM Uncanny X-Men #304 I'll echo Paul O'Brien and say Lobdell should've played to his strengths: do another subdued little story, no figthing, lots of dialogue, with Magneto turning up in a suit to pay his respects at the funeral of one of his former students. Ben HermanNovember 17, 2016 2:53 PM X-Factor #93 @berend: LOL! But you forgot to mention that both books also feature a temperamental speedster who possesses a terrorist past and issues with a mentally unstable twin sister :) berendNovember 17, 2016 2:50 PM X-Factor #93 While never sinking quite as low, this new era of X-Factor reminds me of what happened to Alpha Flight after Byrne left. Another peripheral X-book that doesn't really seem to have a point after its original creator left, that overall isn't very good, and that features Wild Child. berendNovember 17, 2016 2:40 PM X-Factor #92 Funny that after all the backlash over bringing Magneto back as a villain, this crossover will lead to him being out of commision or in a weird status quo for a good long while. two years down the line we'll get Joseph, who was supposed to be Magneto at first, but the next proper Magneto appearance is... Trail of Gambit in 1997? And even after that he doesn't do anything too major until Magneto War in 1999. Ben HermanNovember 17, 2016 2:14 PM Cable #4 @Michael: Oh, I definitely remember how ridiculously later many of Marvels' books were around this time. I think I mentioned it in a comment on another issue from 1993. Marvel was attempting to absolutely flood the market. At one point I heard a rumor that the had this insane plan to have over 100 ongoing monthly series. I think they actually made it up to around 70 or 80 before the comic book bubble burst. In trying to crank out so much stuff and bury their competitors, Marvel really fell behind on getting their books out, and the quality of their product plummeted. This issue is a perfect example of this phenomenon, coming out two months late, with work by five different pencilers. clydeNovember 17, 2016 1:42 PM X-Factor #93 I believe the "flatscan" comment was meant to show Val that her behavior regarding "Project: Wideawake" makes her appear to be unsympathetic to mutants. IMO, He is showing her that he can be as cruel to "bigots". That doesn't mean that he agrees with the Acolytes' philosophy of treating all humans as enemies. In addition, he may not have wanted to let Cortez know that he is against him. Why would you let someone know you're not on their side if all it would do is cause a possible battle? It's easier to let him think that he was influencing Quicksilver. It's not like he demanded an answer. Ben HermanNovember 17, 2016 1:12 PM X-Factor #92 Continuing... Obviously the government's decision to build more Sentinels is ridiculous, because something is *always* going wrong with them! Turn them on and there's a rather good possibility that they will try to take over the world. A very good argument *could* have been made in this issue that if the United States wants to protect itself against mutant menaces then they should be developing much more reliable plans & technology, instead of once again building an army of dangerous giant killer robots that might turn renegade at the drop of a hat. But the story does *not* go there. Instead it has Kelly and Cooper rather reasonably arguing that humanity needs to be able to defend itself against super-human threats. The members of X-Factor, rather than presenting some sort of intelligent rebuttal to this, instead respond by shouting "You're a bunch of racist Nazis who hate mutants!" I was disappointed by how poorly thought out this all was. Ben HermanNovember 17, 2016 1:05 PM X-Factor #92 I stopped reading X-Factor after this issue. I was disappointed that Peter David had left, and the drop in quality was readily apparent. I was also annoyed at the ending of this issue which, as fnord observes, utilizes "every possible cliché." I found it really unfair for X-Factor to literally accusing Val Cooper of being a Nazi. There is an earlier scene with Senator Kelly and, I think, Wolfsbane, which also stuck in my mind. Kelly was arguing that he was NOT a bigot, and that humanity had every right to defend itself from mutant criminals & terrorists. Considering that in this very issue we saw the Acolytes, a group of mutant supremacists, ruthlessly murdering a bunch of innocent humans who had no way of defending themselves, I would say that Kelly had a valid argument. I guess this was the point that I first began to see the problems that the whole "mutants as an allegory for real-life persecuted minorities" presented. If were a human being who you actually lived in the Marvel universe, no doubt there is a decent chance you would find Kelly's argument to be quite reasonable. fnord12November 17, 2016 1:01 PM X-Factor #93 Then what was the point of last issue? It's "unusual" to set something up ("no matter how fast you run -- your heritage will overtake you" / "perhaps our main goal today was to plant a seed" / ending with Quicksilver calling Val a "flatscan") and then do nothing with it. clydeNovember 17, 2016 12:56 PM X-Factor #92 When you have three out of five parts of a "branding" continuing directly into each other, it might be justified to consider it a crossover. Either way, I was impressed by the hologram covers. Especially after reading the "Marvel Age" article on the making of the X-Men anniversary holograms in Marvel Age #127. Of course, I'm one of those people who loved all the "gimmick" covers that Marvel came out with in the 90's. clydeNovember 17, 2016 12:44 PM X-Factor #93 "This is cute, but it's unusual after the opportunity presented to Quicksilver by Cortez last issue. The fact that Quicksilver is considered wearing a uniform conforming to the team colors suggests to me that he wasn't at all tempted to accept Cortez's offer to lead the Acolytes." Luke BlanchardNovember 17, 2016 12:10 PM Fantastic Four #234-235 The shot of the Thing carrying the bomb into Ego's core must be a homage to the Thing/bomb sequence from FANTASTIC FOUR #4. JeffNovember 17, 2016 11:50 AM X-Factor #92 To be fair, Fatal Attractions was more of a branding than a crossover, except for Uncanny 304-X-Men 25-Wolverine 75, which all continued directly into each other. The rest of it was mostly the books own storylines briefly intersecting with Magneto's return. clydeNovember 17, 2016 11:34 AM X-Factor #92 "I'm remembering it as you had to commit to your retailer that you'd buy the whole thing, but UHBMCC says that it came bagged with X-Men #25. Maybe i'm just misremembering, or maybe my retailer opened up all those bags to give us the books separately (he was kind of shady)." "Same is true of the finale (really more of an epilogue that, if i remember correctly, came out what felt like YEARS later than the rest of it) in Excalibur." James HoltNovember 17, 2016 11:10 AM Daredevil #85 Funny but it looked to me like DD was protecting two passengers by pushing them out of the path of Gladiator's slashing wrist saw blades. AndrewNovember 17, 2016 10:38 AM Doctor Strange #180-182 According to Brian Cronin, issue 182 is where 177A Bleeker Street is established as the address of Strange's mansion. It's not a Sherlock Holmes reference. 177A Bleeker Street is a real address in Greenwich Village. It's the apartment building where Roy Thomas (and Bill Everett) lived at the time. MortificatorNovember 17, 2016 10:18 AM Hulk #5 I hadn't thought much of Tyrannus, but he's head and shoulders above the other antagonists in the Hulk's original series. CREPASCOLONovember 17, 2016 9:07 AM Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth: Designer Genes Scott McD in his Frank Robbins moment is my guilty pleasure. I'm sure I'll burn in hell someday, but I like these comics more than Fall of the Grace and the oher Frank- Miller- oriented works. Ciao from Milan, Italy. Luke BlanchardNovember 17, 2016 8:49 AM Tales Of Suspense #58 (Iron Man) Kirby redid the Chameleon-Cap figure bottom p.4. See http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/effect/2012/08/24/the-best-laid-out-plans/ . WisNovember 17, 2016 1:34 AM Fantastic Four #72 That bottom panel of General Fredericks looks like a Romita face correction. WisNovember 17, 2016 1:21 AM Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth: Designer Genes "he's a killer who needs being dead"- what kind of dialogue and grammar is this?? Jon DubyaNovember 17, 2016 12:26 AM Wonder Man #8 By the way, despite being "treated like an energy being", Busiek did imply that the Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man were having sexual relations. Indeed one of tbe big impetus or Simon's "summons" from the dead was to "comfort" Wanda...including physically and intimately. And of course lots of heroes and villians who don't NEED to eat do so anyway (for instance, Mercury of New X-Men fame says she eats just to feel like a "normal person.") Jon DubyaNovember 16, 2016 9:36 PM Iron Man #214 The ironic thing, about Spider-Woman saying goodbye to Rachel is that Julia DOES fell like she "has a right to take her" about ten years after this story. She'll also have a completely different opinion about surrendering to the government. One thing I don't get is why DIDN'T Val simply send Freedom Force against Spider-Woman? I thought missions like this was the whole point of having super-powered goverment operatives: so the Coopers and Gyrichs of the world wouldn't have to beg the Avengers for help. MichaelNovember 16, 2016 8:26 PM Cable #4 This issue came out EIGHT WEEKS late. No wonder they were doing whatever they could to get it out. Deadpool 1 came out first and readers were wondering how Kane and Vanessa got there. Vincent ValentiNovember 16, 2016 5:21 PM Cable #4 What exactly did Liefeld contribute? I recall the anatomy being more or less correct throughout the issue, so I couldn't figure it out. Proto ManNovember 16, 2016 4:59 PM Thor #418 Omar, are you the same Omar Karindu who used to write for the Marvel Appendix website? We're trying to get all of the old writers to come back & write a new profile as part of an event to celebrate the 10,000th profile on the site. The editors are handling formatting and such. Any chance you'd be willing to come back to write a small profile for the event? If you're interested, shoot me an email over at protoman20xx@gmail.com Jon DubyaNovember 16, 2016 4:54 PM Nomad #8 Actually the Avengers story WAS what I was refering too. When I read it in real time I saw it as "commentary" on the Rodney King situation. Since that was a while ago, I probably conflated the Rodney King VIDEO with the Rodney King VERDICT. Nevertheless, even with that mistake, I think my comments above are still applicable. Luis DantasNovember 16, 2016 4:21 PM X-Force #24 @Jon Dubya: Yeah, the idea of a "black ops" superhero group is inherently problematic. The ethical issues are rather serious. To think I would come to see groups that claim to be Avengers filling that role... Ben HermanNovember 16, 2016 3:34 PM Iron Man #290-291 @Michael: Thanks for providing this behind-the-scenes info. Ben HermanNovember 16, 2016 3:08 PM Cable #4 When you have to go crawling back to Rob Liefeld for help with deadlines, you are in big trouble. I read this at work during my lunch break, and I really had to struggle to stop myself from laughing hysterically :) Ataru320November 16, 2016 2:41 PM Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth: Designer Genes I think the sad thing is it really was this whole aspect of anyone associated with a hot character was suddenly hot themselves and getting minis or series due to the "glutting the market" mentality Marvel had. Spider-Man begat Punisher and Venom, Venom begat Carnage, Wolverine begat Sabretooth, Ghost Rider begat Vengeance, Cable begat Deadpool...well OK, the last one ultimately worked out but seriously, it really just shows what we've come to now considering the 80s had minor heroes like Jack of Hearts or Gargoyle or Balder getting the minis and such. Ben HermanNovember 16, 2016 12:05 PM General Comments fnord, just wanted to let you know that I find this to be a really interesting and informative website. Keep up the great work. fnord12November 16, 2016 9:23 AM X-Force #24 iLegion, this doesn't take away from your point at all, but i just want it noted that Rusty and Skids being brainwashed was previously brought up in X-Men #15 (also by Nicieza). Greg T, as you can probably see from my comments on the General Comments page, i'm struggling with it too. I'm placing my break after #24 instead of #23 because of the Domino/Copycat subplot but i think we'll wind up looking pretty similar otherwise (and of course everything is still subject to change until i finish the year). Let me know if you think i'm missing something major about where to put that gap (understanding that neither option is perfect). fnord12November 16, 2016 9:17 AM General Comments I do want to say that for stuff like this i don't blame the Gruenwald-DeFalco era per se. I think the big problem is writers who make every issue continue directly from the previous one while referencing ongoing changes in other books (the very temporary period where James Rhodes was in charge of Stark Enterprises being the most problematic in this case). Of course as a writer Tom DeFalco is very guilty of this himself on his FF run, but i don't necessarily blame this on editorial oversight, except maybe in a broad sense of not suggesting that the characters need to take a break from running from one thing to the next all the way from X-Cutioner's Song to Fatal Attractions. The implications of having War Machine appear in X-Force and how that affects whether Darkhawk can fly or Henry Pym is Giant-Man or what 'costume' the Vision is wearing seems way too subtle and complex for editors to have worked it out in advance in realtime, and it's not something most readers would notice. I also want to say that even though it causes hair pulling, i don't mind when these types of problems come up. Because it means that there are a lot of interactions between characters and books, and that's exactly what i like about the Marvel universe. fnord12November 16, 2016 9:15 AM General Comments Thanks Michael. After my reshuffling yesterday, i had a suspicion that i'd have to put everything back, so i made sure i kept track of where everything was, and based on what you point out i have reverted that shuffle. I wanted to make a good faith effort to honor the passage of time (or lack thereof) that Nicieza intended in X-Force, but each one of the additional stories you mention would add more complications, and it just doesn't seem worth it. So i'll assume a gap in time between X-Force issues. fnord12November 16, 2016 7:42 AM Thor #131-133 Moved a bunch of off topic comments about movie rights to the forum. fnord12November 16, 2016 7:39 AM What's Missing Basically the same as what i say about "Deadpool's various jokey retcon appearances" for his regular series. But Back In Black was published post Secret Wars, so it's out of scope for my project. Greg TNovember 16, 2016 4:53 AM X-Force #24 I've been waiting to see how you untangle X-Force, Cable, and the Deadpool mini from this era. I just read through it myself (my read-through having finally and unhappily overtaken your project, Fnord) and I'm not at all satisfied with my sequence, which took a break after X-Force #23 to go read other titles (including UXM #300, UXM Annual #17, X-Men Unlimited #1, X-Men #20 to 23, and Wolverine #69 to 71) before returning for Cable #1 to 3, X-Force #24, Cable #4, and then Deadpool Circle Chase #1 to 4. That Deadpool placement in particular didn't feel right re: where recent events with Vanessa were up to, but any other order I tried caused problems for Garrison Kane. Jon DubyaNovember 16, 2016 1:18 AM X-Force #24 Not necessarily, Luis. This is pretty much the direction X-Force heads toward here on out, including in other volumes. In addition the current Marvel Universe has pretty much EVERY team having it's own "Black-Ops" division (I thonk the Avengers have, like three.) And of course of you have a deeper degree of cynicism, you could argue that the real-life government has ALWAYS had this arrangement with "someone" (which probably inspires "Modern" Marvel to continue to mine stories in that vein) MortificatorNovember 16, 2016 1:00 AM Ghost Rider #52 This Ghost Rider has won me over in a way the '90s version didn't, even though the '90s Ghost Rider was the one active when I started reading comics. Danny's spirit of vengeance is humorless. "Innocent blood has been spilled. Feel my penance stare." Zarathos is a laughing demon who loves searing souls and sick motorcycle tricks. Jon DubyaNovember 16, 2016 12:58 AM Moon Knight #1 But I thought ot was established that Moon Knight DID have "identity or psychological issues". At keast he does whenever I tried to pick up his book, Luis DantasNovember 15, 2016 11:08 PM X-Force #24 It is really problematic to have Xavier _and_ the US Government both asking X-Force for favors in order to preserve their own images. Reminds me of Spider-Man choosing to look the other way when Punisher is around. BobNovember 15, 2016 10:57 PM Hulk #406 Frank's art is otherwise great, but why the bizarre decision to give the Hulk such a teeny tiny head? MichaelNovember 15, 2016 8:49 PM General Comments Also, if War Machine is a West Coast Avenger in Wonder Man 22-24 and USAgent 1-4, then those issues, plus Wonder Man Annual 2 and Wonder Man 25, all have to be moved after Avengers West Coast 93-95. iLegionNovember 15, 2016 8:33 PM X-Force #24 I used to assume Rusty and Skids were persuaded to join the MLF by the media coverage of their fight against the Vulture and Nitro; instead of taking the low-hanging fruit and having them defend their own decision, Nicieza just says they were brainwashed and leaves them on the curb. Kind of a cop-out. Ataru320November 15, 2016 8:15 PM Strange Tales #120 Between Captain Barracuda and Parneval Plunder, you have to wonder who the greatest Marvel pirate is. (the answer: The Thing...he was Blackbeard) MichaelNovember 15, 2016 7:57 PM X-Force #24 "Copycat shoots Deadpool and Sluggo while they're already unconscious (from last issue). She knows that it won't kill them, but it will give her time to lead the Six Pack members Domino, Grizzly, and Hammer to X-Force."- This is the first clear indication of Deadpool's healing factor. MichaelNovember 15, 2016 7:52 PM General Comments Fnord, since Vision is green in Spider-Man Unlimited 2 and Fantastic Four 377-378, you have to move those issues past Avengers 366. That means you also have to move all of Maximum Carnage, FF 376 and FF Annual 26. Don't you just love Gruenwald- DeFalco continuity?:) BenwayNovember 15, 2016 5:57 PM Sub-Mariner #9-11 I love how Cap'n Barracuda has now moved on to talking like a pirate. Wisely he doesn't have two hook hands and peg legs, so there is something to look forward to in his future appearances. D09November 15, 2016 5:42 PM What's Missing Any thoughts on either Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars or Deadpool: Back in Black? Matthew BradleyNovember 15, 2016 4:45 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #32-34 You'll notice Peter's friends have done some restorative surgery on dog-bear. Nate WolfNovember 15, 2016 4:08 PM Thor #379-380 Well, that's weird, because I'm pretty sure Fin Fang Foom wasn't a popular character like now, so I doubt it was really needed to ignore his previous stories to make this work. My personal explanation is that Jormungand once met him, or at least heard of him, and took this disguise for whatever reason. (most likely serpent trickery and schemes) It just can't be the real FFF in this issue, even if it's what Simonson intended when he wrote it. At any rate, that was a fantastic issue, and I love the splash pages. Ben HermanNovember 15, 2016 11:21 AM Ghost Rider #39 I know that I have this issue, but I cannot remember a single thing about it. Agreed with Chris. I think that for the most part the first two years of Ghost Rider were really good. In hindsight, you can see that by issue #24 Howard Mackie had wrapped up pretty much all of the plotlines that he had set up at the beginning of his run. It was at this point that the title really began to meander. I doubt it's any coincidence that this was also the point where Marvel decided to use Ghost Rider to spin off the whole line of Midnight Sons books, which seriously diluted the concept. Perhaps Mackie should have left GR with issue #24, since it feels like he really didn't know what he wanted to do with the character after that. Then again, I don't know if any other writer would have been all that more successful on the series, since Marvel would still have gone ahead with the Midnight Sons line, forcing whoever was writing to book to deal with crossovers and unwieldy subplots. Luke BlanchardNovember 15, 2016 8:45 AM West Coast Avengers #16 In his debut story Tiger Shark did have a weakness Namor lacked: he couldn't breath out of water! It's possible his suit solves this, but in that case he should have a breathing problem when it's punctured, which isn't what happens here. fnord12November 15, 2016 7:29 AM Thor #146-150 Or could it be Dr. Jim North from Thor #172 before he grew in his mustache? ;-) Luke BlanchardNovember 15, 2016 5:29 AM Thor #146-150 The man with Jane might be Keith Kincaid with his hair miscoloured. Luke BlanchardNovember 15, 2016 5:22 AM Thor #172 Perhaps Kirby didn't mean the kidnapped woman to be Jane, and Lee added that element when he dialogued. But it's hard to reconcile this suggestion with her appearance in an inset (in Kirby's style) on the cover. (I believe by this point Kirby had moved to California. I assume he did the covers when he did the issues and mailed them together, but perhaps that's wrong.) ChrisWNovember 15, 2016 12:03 AM Uncanny X-Men #141-142 That moment when you realize Rachel Summers was probably the first comic book character to be conceived on-panel, and then you think of the problems she's caused for her friend and family and timeline, and then you realize her brother is Nathan Christopher Charles Summers. I would not want to be Claremont and Byrne confronting their ultimate fate on Judgement Day. Good story though. BillNovember 14, 2016 11:44 PM Tomb of Dracula #50-51 I can't believe a herald of Galactus isn't powerful enough to instantly incinerate Dracula where he stands. No amount of being underpowered can make that believable in my eyes. The Surfer is too misused as a foe to Dracula. ChrisNovember 14, 2016 10:28 PM Ghost Rider #39 It's unbelievable how badly this title has stumbled. The first year or so, it seemed it was going to be a great title. But Mackie had no idea where to take it, and by now it's just mediocre. A beloved title that's been around for hundreds of issues can survive a period like this, but Ghost Rider just does not have the staying power to keep lasting like this. Piotr WNovember 14, 2016 8:54 PM Ghost Rider #39 Note how Mrs. Ketch looks *completely* different now than when the series started... Also: doesn't Vengeance mention how his family suffered at Zarathos' hands suggest that he *wasn't* supposed to be Badillino? ChrisWNovember 14, 2016 8:43 PM Uncanny X-Men #141-142 Michael, I'm not ignoring your point about what Kitty said in #194, I just couldn't work it into the joke about Mojo. Come on, major drag on the ratings. ;) ChrisWNovember 14, 2016 8:37 PM Uncanny X-Men #141-142 She was probably conceived on a butte in New Mexico. That would mean "Days of Futures Past" was a world where Jean/Phoenix didn't die until the Sentinels got her, and the Rachel Summers we know is not the Rachel who appears in this story. For the purposes of this line of thinking, let's just agree that the Shi'ar restored Jean to her Marvel Girl status. Otherwise that means the Sentinels have to fight Phoenix as well as the Hulk, the FF, Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Thor, etc. I forget what, if anything, Rachel said about her age or relationship with Illyana when the mansion was attacked. It's possible they were both members of the latest class of New Mutants while Sam, Dani and the others had graduated to the X-Men or otherwise gone on with their adult lives. ["It was a spring morning and I was on my way to Professor Ramsey's class. He was a nice guy, but distracted by trying to arrange the upcoming baseball game against the Massachusetts Academy and his wife Rhane suddenly dressing like a punk rocker. Then the attack started..."] Anyway, the Rachel Summers who landed on 616 isn't the one we see here, who probably is at least pushing 30. We can assume that the Franklin Richards who appeared in that horrible series of annuals was likewise younger than the Franklin we see here as well. Marvel time probably also had an effect. And Mojo would probably have de-aged Rachel and amplified her "assets" so she didn't look like a skinny concentration camp survivor. davidbanesNovember 14, 2016 8:06 PM Spirits of Vengeance #11 I'm pretty sure this was my very first comic book or maybe my first purchase from the local shop. It's not EC comics but it sure creeped me out. MichaelNovember 14, 2016 7:55 PM Ghost Rider #39 This is the first mention of the Medallion and annoyingly everyone acts like they've been after it all along. Ben HermanNovember 14, 2016 4:54 PM Avengers #51 @Bobby Sizemore: Hmmm, never noticed a resemblance to William Hartnell, but I guess there is something too that. Of course nowadays the Collector looks an awful lot like Benicio del Toro :) Luke BlanchardNovember 14, 2016 3:02 PM Thor #402-405 I don't mind homages, so I don't mean this note as a knock, but here are the ones I noticed above: Jonathan, son of KevinNovember 14, 2016 1:24 PM Fantastic Four #72 @Andrew - good link, thanks for sharing. Seems likely then that this issue is not Kirby being inspired by the Outer Limits, but rather recycling parts of the plot of Tales Of Suspense #2, earlier work of his from 1959. (Which itself might be inspired by some earlier sci-fi comic or novel.) Also interesting that Anthony Eden said something similar long before Reagan. Off-topic, but that Len Wein Ozymandias looks awful, Wein really seems to have a bee in his bonnet about the Outer Limits plot point. SharNovember 14, 2016 1:14 PM Fantastic Four #72 Yeah, those two FF covers, #72 and #74 heralded ;) the Surfer's own comic a few months later in 1968. Jay GallardoNovember 14, 2016 11:31 AM Nightstalkers #3-4 You know, i really wanted to give this book a try, because i loved the characters (Drake, Blade, Hannibal King...) but then i saw that guy using his intestines like a dog collar and that was it for me. Ataru320November 14, 2016 10:39 AM Strange Tales #136-145 (Nick Fury) While obviously S.H.I.E.L.D. will get it's definitive nature and look under Steranko, the Kirby stuff really sort of just of has fun with the concept in it's own element, particularly with these gruff old war veterans taking on Bond-like elements that were popular at this point. Admittedly it would have been interesting to see this stick around but of course this industry is always about fresh blood and new stuff to keep it relevant. Ataru320November 14, 2016 8:14 AM Amazing Spider-Man #59-61 Didn't some other criminal do just what the Kingpin did here later on? Oh and the Captain Stacy pic just feels rather weird even if just OOC with the Peter/Gwen part. SpikeyNovember 14, 2016 5:10 AM Uncanny X-Men #168 Thanks Micahel, this is basically how I feel when trying to read the GLMK era; SpikeyNovember 14, 2016 4:53 AM Uncanny X-Men #210 Tommy is such a cool character. Special power; Render herself to a 2D state AND appear randomly in any mutant crowd imaginable in '90s X-men TAS. I actually started reading X-men because of TAS as a kid (my uncle gave me many of his old 80s comics). Imagine how heartbroken I felt when I first read this issue. Luke BlanchardNovember 14, 2016 4:11 AM Thor #142 The first HELLBOY movie has a scene with a Hellboy comic with a cover based on the cover of this issue. It's a joke cover done for the movie, not a real one. The text reads "Cry-- Kriegaffe! "The Scourge of the Super-Ape!"" Luke BlanchardNovember 14, 2016 3:14 AM Tales Of Suspense #72-74 (Captain America) The title of the first part was presumably drawn from H.G. Wells's novel WHEN THE SLEEPER WAKES/THE SLEEPER AWAKES. It involves a Victorian man who awakens after two hundred years, which recalls Captain America's revival. Luke BlanchardNovember 14, 2016 12:54 AM Fantastic Four #72 This issue's cover and #74's both featured the Silver Surfer and didn't show the FF (except in the corner box). cullenNovember 14, 2016 12:14 AM Fantastic Four #72 Alan Moore had to have been aware of Reagan's 1985 speech suggesting an alien threat would unify us. Maybe Reagan was an FF reader. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 10:52 PM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1-3,5 I loved these issues and yes the Scorpio stuff got confusing. Steranko's artwork was astounding and I just loved it when it came out. I wish he had continued in the comics. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 10:47 PM Avengers #53 Again I like Roy's writing and always have. Buscema's art was awesome of course. I really liked the Toad's worm turns bit because it was long overdue. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 10:45 PM Uncanny X-Men #43-45 I liked this storyline because I like Magneto and liked the idea of bringing back Red Raven but this was poorly handled. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 10:34 PM Sub-Mariner #2-3 I liked this one a lot too for the team-up of Marvel's two aquatic characters. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 10:28 PM Fantastic Four #78 I liked this one although what was up with Ben was kind of obvious. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 10:25 PM Captain Marvel #2-3 I liked the appearance of Super Skrull and the revelation of the enmity between the Kree and the Skrull as it progresses the development of the Marvel Universe. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 10:22 PM Marvel Super Heroes #12-13 The whole back story of the name Captain Marvel is as convoluted as any comic storyline ever was. The beginning of this series was weak but still strong enough to get the series going. The best thing is the introduction of Carol Danvers (whom I've wondered if she was modeled on Linda Danvers). I agree that Colan wasn't as suited to this series as he was Daredevil. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 9:59 PM Avengers #52 I liked this one too as it drew from the original Classic Wonderman story in #9. I agree that the costume was ridiculous and was glad when the black one with the skull and crossbones on it appeared. MortificatorNovember 13, 2016 9:50 PM Marvel Spotlight #6-11 Ghost Rider had a good origin, if a little overcomplicated by Johnny losing four parents in four different events, but his stories immediately became bad trash with this craziness. It's almost never a good idea to immediately resurrect your protagonist's Uncle Ben equivalent, yet alone to do it like this. Anyway, the title of issue 7 might be an homage to the '60s film Die! Die! My Darling! Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 9:41 PM Captain America #101-102 Good stuff. I still think the Exiles are the allies of the evil Dr. Strange from TOS#41. The CCA got absurd at times. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 9:28 PM Fantastic Four #74-77 I liked this story myself and the scenes you are missing are mostly Sue being fearful of losing her family in the microverse after she finally gets Crystal to tell her what is going on. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 9:15 PM Sub-Mariner #1 I liked this storyline and the much improved art now that John Buscema was on it. MichaelNovember 13, 2016 9:11 PM Tales of the Zombie #7 That's par for the course in Marvel: Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 9:03 PM Hulk #103 The Space Parasite was also shown to be the dictator of his people who detonate his ship by remote control when he flees to it after being beaten by the Hulk. AndrewNovember 13, 2016 8:44 PM Marvel Team-Up #131 Dan Slott has reinvented the White Rabbit as a drug dealer who seems to be getting high on her own supply. I think it works really well, and she'd be a great first-ten-minutes character in a Spider-Man movie. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 8:37 PM Daredevil #39-41 You mean the Exterminator. I liked him too and when he returned as the Death-Stalker he seemed to be making a bid to be DD's arch-foe but no that finally fell to the Kingpin. I was also glad to see the Mike Murdock plotline die as it had gone on too long. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 8:20 PM Avengers #51 I liked how Roy tied this story in to all the former members solo books. The Collector, in his original form, reminds me of William Hartnell, the first doctor. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 7:48 PM Tales Of Suspense #96-99 / Captain America #100 (Captain America) I liked all this especially when Cap unmasks the phony Zemo. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 7:36 PM Amazing Spider-Man #59-61 Over all this was a good storyline and proof that the Kingpin was more than just some big guy who fought Spider-Man until Miller got ahold of him. BillNovember 13, 2016 7:09 PM Tales of the Zombie #7 Man, poor Layla should be checked for outright brain damage is she was unconscious for a whole day! That's not remotely healthy. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 7:07 PM Uncanny X-Men #41-42 I liked Grotesk as a villain but I agree that Subterranea was becoming overpopulated. I can see Grotesk as being inspired by King Kull but I think he in turn inspired Atalon the underground villain in Malibu's Ultraforce. I was stunned by the Professor's death at the time but later realized that it was a set up. BillNovember 13, 2016 7:05 PM Tales of the Zombie #5 I like the views from the zombies eyes. It looks very haunting, as if Simon Garth is just a passive viewer to what his zombified body is doing. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 6:43 PM Thor #151-153 I liked all this convoluted stuff with all sorts of plotlines going and all the different characters. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 6:18 PM Fantastic Four #73 I thought this one was a blast and Stan and Jack were having a ball with it. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 6:10 PM Uncanny X-Men #40 Thanks, Andrew. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 6:09 PM Daredevil #35-38 I liked these issues myself. Red China was allied with Albania in Eastern Europe. I liked Daredevil's solution as well. AndrewNovember 13, 2016 5:51 PM Uncanny X-Men #40 @Bobby, refer to the What's Missing thread for stuff like that. fnord is leaving First Class out of the project for now, since it may not be canon. And he is not concentrating on continuity inserts for now because his "priority for the foreseeable future is adding new years to the project instead of filling in these gaps." And also check the Out of Scope page. AndrewNovember 13, 2016 5:46 PM Fantastic Four #72 Not that this thread really belongs on this site, but Alan Moore was NOT inspired by Architects of Fear, and he'll cast a spell on you if you suggest he was. It was just an unfortunate coincidence, that Len Wein took way too seriously, as the notes on that Wikipedia link make clear. Plus, as this other web page points out, the Outer Limits was far from the first to use this particular idea: http://www.comicsbeat.com/did-watchmen-steal-from-the-outer-limits-or-from-jack-kirby/ The really crazy thing, is this is not the first time this happened to Moore. One of his first stories, called Skizz, is about an alien who crash lands in London and is befriended by the locals, who try to protect him from evil government agents. As he was writing it, E.T. came out, and Moore had to have his characters say stuff like "This is kind of like that American movie!" Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 5:32 PM Amazing Spider-Man #57-58 Interesting. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 5:32 PM Fantastic Four #72 Cool. I didn't know that. You know, I've never thought that the plan would work for any length of time. Once the threatened aliens did not appear, people would just go back to hating one another. You want proof? The various African tribes united against European colonists and eventually set up their own independent nations. After this, many of the old tribal wars broke out again with attempted genocide is several instances. AndrewNovember 13, 2016 5:28 PM Amazing Spider-Man #57-58 Fun factoid: Americans who work on submarines call themselves sub-mah-REE-ners. To call them sub-MAR-ih-ners would imply that they are subordinate to mariners, which would be insulting. At least that's what I'm told. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 5:27 PM Iron Man & Sub-Mariner #1 (Sub-Mariner) Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang was a joke book and was Fawcett's first publication. Ben Parker and C.C. Beck drew from it using Captain for Captain Marvel, Billy for Bill Batson, Whiz for Whiz Comics and Bang was the sound effect given for the thunderbolt. MichaelNovember 13, 2016 5:25 PM Fantastic Four #72 Watchmen (and probably this story) were inspired by an Outer Limits episode: Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 5:13 PM Hulk #102 Again I liked the Hulk in Asgard bit. I was glad to see him get his own title as he was a favorite of mine then and still is. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 4:48 PM Tales To Astonish #101 The Warriors Three had also appeared in Thor Annual#2 so I think that there was their first present day appearance. I liked the Hulk in Asgard story. (I have a theory that the Hulk is the most widely traveled Marvel character). I also liked the Sub-Mariner story from here, Iron Man and Sub-Mariner#1 and Sub-Mariner#1 which finally explained Namor's amnesia. Ataru320November 13, 2016 4:39 PM Thor #146-150 Regarding the Wrecker: I think his best appeal is that he seems very much like someone Spider-Man would face, but his "Asgardian power" makes him a Thor-level threat. Heck, I think the main reason behind the Wrecking Crew is to at least reduce that "Asgardian power" to make them easier to deal with by heroes less powerful than the God of Thunder himself. That and seriously: a brute with a crowbar with Asgardian strength is just an awesome idea. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 4:25 PM Thor #146-150 I liked that you referenced all the crossovers to this story sequence. I liked the Wrecker but the Absorbing Man was better. The Kree were inspired to do their experiments on humans by what the Celestials had already done. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 3:55 PM Fantastic Four #72 I did, too. I've always wondered if this story influenced Alan Moore's Watchmen, you know, with the whole lets give them a common enemy to unite mankind theme. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 3:47 PM Amazing Spider-Man #57-58 The name I had to change after saying it wrong for years was Sub-Mariner, not knowing it was pronounced like the Ancient Mariner, I pronounced it Sub-Mareener. Oh well. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 3:30 PM Uncanny X-Men #40 I keep forgetting to mention this. I haven't noticed anything on the X-Men: First Class mini-series. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 3:29 PM Uncanny X-Men #40 I had to laugh at the cover for this one as the depiction of the Monster there resembles Dick Briefer's humorous version of the monster from comics in the 50's where it had a flattened nose. Bobby SisemoreNovember 13, 2016 3:07 PM Avengers #47-50 Okay first off I disagree with you on the quality of Thomas' writing as he is one of my favorite comic book writers. I like the Black Knight (Dane Whitman) right out of the gate but he did get better. I wished that they had not killed of his uncle however as he was one of Marvel's best early villains. I agree that Tuska was not as good as Big John Buscema and the unshaven Hercules did look odd. The picture that you scanned looks like something from Tuska's days at Fawcett when he was drawing Captain Marvel and company. Luke BlanchardNovember 13, 2016 2:18 PM Fantastic Four #142-144 The "On another occassion" panel might be based on the "Come no closer, you over-zealous oaf!" one from THOR #182-183 (which fnord included in his review). Jonathan, son of KevinNovember 13, 2016 12:32 PM Captain America #419 Thanks Ben, I had a vague memory of Haywerth being a crooked general but cheers for confirming it. :) I guess the other option (if it's never specified in the comic) would be that Machinesmith obtained it somehow. But we already know of a link between Red Skull and members of the Commission, so your theory is likely what Gruenwald was thinking. BerendNovember 13, 2016 11:58 AM Tales Of Suspense #95 (Captain America) I agree. Secret identity stuff works for a character like Spidey, but it is very overused in the superhero genre. That final scene of Iron Man 1, where Tony just flat out states "I am Iron Man" really was a growing up moment for Marvel as a whole. Mark DrummondNovember 13, 2016 11:57 AM Dracula Lives #2 (1944) There is also a text story in #2 which is in the form of a letter from Dracula to Bram Stoker. Don't know if it's considered in-continuity, but it is another early fiction piece by Chris Claremont. Ben HermanNovember 13, 2016 11:52 AM Captain America #419 @Jonathan: I've always suspected that General Haywerth had some sort of ties, either direct or indirect, to the Red Skull. Haywerth first appeared in "Born Again" when he loaned out Nuke to the Kingpin, so clearly he has no problems colluding with criminals. Haywerth is also closely associated with the Power Broker, who at the time was being financed by the Red Skull. Whether or not Haywerth was aware of the connection between the Power Broker and the Red Skull is unknown. Whatever the case, when this issue came out I hypothesized that the Red Skull had obtained the Iron Monger armor from Hayworth, either directly or through an intermediary such as the Power Broker. Jonathan, son of KevinNovember 13, 2016 11:43 AM Captain America #419 Out of interest, is this the same Iron Monger suit that USAgent fought in Captain America 354? Does this issue say how Red Skull obtained it? Also, at the end of Armor Wars, Tony sets up his satellite to detect any future use of his technology. If that's still active, Tony should be getting a notification of the Iron Monger's use. Unless that's why the Iron Monger is less effective here (and in Cap 354, to an extent), because the Starktech has been removed to avoid detection? Ben HermanNovember 13, 2016 11:42 AM Tales Of Suspense #95 (Captain America) I never really thought that Cap having a secret ID made much sense, simply because he spent practically all his time as Cap. Over the decades first Stan Lee and then various subsequent writers attempted to give Steve Rogers different civilian lives & professions, but none of them ever panned out in the long run. In hindsight it's obvious that the only reason Cap had a secret identity for so many decades was because that was an accepted trope of the genre, and *every* superhero had a secret ID, whether it actually made any sense or not. In 2002 when Cap finally publicly unmasked once again during the Marvel Knights issues it had literally ZERO impact on the character, because it's not like anyone in the Marvel universe knew who Steve Rogers was in the first place. He hadn't had any civilian friends for years. I remember that when I saw The Winter Soldier movie, and it was established in the very first scene that the general public knew that Steve Rogers was Cap, I literally thought to myself "Thank god they aren't trying to do any kind of secret identity nonsense." Ben HermanNovember 13, 2016 11:27 AM Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #31-32 There's some really exciting, dynamic work on this story by Joe Staton. He didn't do all that much for Marvel because they were pretty much only giving him assignments to do inks / finishes, so he chose to go over to DC Comics where he was able to get lots of work as a penciler. I think this was Staton's only penciling work for Marvel in the 1970s. George LochinskiNovember 13, 2016 11:16 AM Alpha Flight #121 The last ten issues of Alpha Flight were absolutely the bottom of the barrel that DeFalco and co. were scraping up against. This issue especially feels like 90s Marvel flipping John Byrne--and by extension, the whole Shooter era--the bird |
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