All Comments #6 Vincent ValentiNovember 30, 2015 9:34 PM Marvel Comics Presents #79 (Sunspot) Yes, a favor to Terry Kavanagh (also his Namor editor) if I remember correctly. He felt that this is one of his best art jobs, since he had no emotional investment whatsoever in the characters, so for him it was all about stretching his artistic muscles....I must say that this is probably his best use of Duo-Shade ever. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 30, 2015 9:28 PM Marvel Comics Presents #78 (Hulk) I think ol' Joe Fixit was the only man to survive a romp with Selene. She looks entirely too pleased with herself. BillNovember 30, 2015 9:20 PM Marvel Comics Presents #77-79 (Dracula/Nick Fury) This is one of the stories that I remember well from MCP. This is what the various stories should have been; crazy team-ups and fun concepts rather than solo character filler material. BillNovember 30, 2015 9:15 PM Marvel Comics Presents #79 (Sunspot) John Byrne was asked on his site why he drew this story and he said he did it as a favor. Mystery solved :) MichaelNovember 30, 2015 8:52 PM Marvel Comics Presents #77-79 (Dracula/Nick Fury) This story is completely inconsistent with both real world history and Marvel continuity. MichaelNovember 30, 2015 7:59 PM Marvel Comics Presents #71 (Warlock) The Fleshtones appear in another Marvel Comics Presents story, so they should be listed as Characters Appearing. TuomasNovember 30, 2015 12:35 PM Captain Marvel #37-39 Ah, now I remember that the place where I read about the colouring mistake was this very site: Meanwhile the other Avengers travel back to the Kree homeworld of Hala, where we see the Kree, as primitive barbarians (there's a mistake in the panel below, as acknowledged in the lettercol for issue #139. DarrenNovember 30, 2015 12:25 PM Amazing Spider-Man #144-146 Amazing Spider-Man 121 for example has Romita essentially redoing the entire book aside from a few frames the finished art looks nothing like Kane. BUNovember 30, 2015 10:41 AM Marvel Comics Presents #42 (Union Jack & DotD) Isn't Chapman gay himself? It seemed strongly implied in his first appearance. fnord12November 30, 2015 8:58 AM Captain Marvel #37-39 In my Celestial Madonna trade published in 2002, all the Kree are pink. fnord12November 30, 2015 8:16 AM Thor #371-372 The credits do say "Albert Blevinson". Thanks, Vin. Added Al Williamson. MichaelNovember 30, 2015 7:43 AM Marvel Comics Presents #42 (Union Jack & DotD) That's probably because most North Americans don't know what it means and assume it's similar to "wimp". TuomasNovember 30, 2015 3:45 AM Captain Marvel #37-39 I remember reading from somewhere that the Year Zero Kree being pink was indeed a colouring mistake. Maybe it was even corrected in the Celestial Madonna TPB? I don't have my copy at hand right now, so I can't check whether the Kree are still pink in that. DermieNovember 30, 2015 1:23 AM Marvel Comics Presents #42 (Union Jack & DotD) "Poof" is one of those cases where it just gets a 'pass' from North American audiences. I've noticed it get used a few times in BUFFY and the spin-off ANGEL (usually by Spike), both in the live-action tv and the current comic book continuation of the series. Walter LawsonNovember 29, 2015 11:50 PM Marvel Comics Presents #42 (Union Jack & DotD) The art is Ye Olde English Caricature-y, but Nicieza's script, while not good, isn't as outmoded, and a rough "working class hero" like Chapman might well have called a posh hero like Captain Britain a "political poof," in the way, say, Captain Teamster in the U.S. circa 1990 would probably have some politically incorrect language in his repertoire. It's not hard to imagine USAgent (in his Superpatriot days, at least) calling someone, say, a "liberal pansy," I'm not defending the gratuitous slur or the quality of the story, but it does strike me as in character, at least the way Nicieza wants to write the character. Ben HermanNovember 29, 2015 10:35 PM Iron Man #54 Huh, and all these years I thought Moondragon was created by Jim Starlin. But, yep, thinking it over, those arched eyebrows of here are definitely a signature flourish of Bill Everett. Ben HermanNovember 29, 2015 10:12 PM Captain Marvel #37-39 I've always thought it was odd that Steve Englehart was telling this story with its subplot concerning the remaining few "full-blooded blue Kree" at the exact same time he was revealing the origins of the Kree Empire in Avengers #133-134, simply because in those Avengers issues, all of the Kree we see inhabiting the Kree Year Zero onward are colored exactly the same as Mar-Vell, i.e. white or pink. I don't think there's a single blue-skinned Kree on display in those Avengers issues. Yet here we're being told that all the Kree were blue-skinned way back when. I wonder if Englehart forgot to mention all of this to the colorist on Avengers. Karel November 29, 2015 8:02 PM Iron Man #198-201 I feel kind of weird reading it now, how quickly do everyone brush of Morley's death. He was one of the main supporting characters, basically helping Rhodey being Iron Man, and now it seems nobody really cares that he is dead. His sister later says a few words but quickly forgets because Tony is just so hot. Omar KarinduNovember 29, 2015 6:40 PM Marvel Comics Presents #42 (Union Jack & DotD) It's a slur against gay people, only slightly less offensive than f****t. BillNovember 29, 2015 5:42 PM Marvel Comics Presents #42 (Union Jack & DotD) I never heard of the word "poof" before beyond the old school sound effect. What does it mean in the UK? Vin the Comics GuyNovember 29, 2015 3:58 PM Power Man & Iron Fist #73 Greg LaRocque's work looks really good here. It's a lot more fluid than later work. kvetoNovember 29, 2015 2:30 PM Marvel Team-Up #108-109 I'm actually surprise Spidey and Dazzler didn't try for a relationship after this issue and her last team-up with Spidey. There seemed to be something there. kvetoNovember 29, 2015 2:14 PM Power Man & Iron Fist #73 Impressive cleavage on Colleen Wing, there. Uh, er, I'll get me coat. kvetoNovember 29, 2015 2:09 PM Marvel Two-In-One #79 A happy ending for a timely golden age hero? that's rare. kvetoNovember 29, 2015 2:04 PM Fantastic Four #233 This is one of the stories that confirms there is capital punishment in the usa of the MU. I was always a bit unsure because some villains should have been up for it at some point (I can think of plenty of villains who would be eligible, even in the early 80s). (outside of golden age stories which discuss the electric chair a lot) I've always assumed there must be differences in the court systems of the MU (eg Superheroes don't have to reveal identities to be witnesses, etc.) The only other story of the era that deals with capital punishment is when Marc Gruenwald very foolishly thinks Germany has a death penalty. Basic research, Mark. No EU country has capital punishment. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 29, 2015 1:13 PM Thor #371-372 IIRC, Al Williamson assisted with inks along with Bret Blevins on #372 (the pair was credited as Albert Blevinson). MortificatorNovember 29, 2015 12:19 PM Thor #312-314 I'd need to recheck as well, but I seem to remember that either the original or deluxe OHotMU placed the kingdom of Hel in the world of Niffleheim. MichaelNovember 29, 2015 12:17 PM Fantastic Four #39-40 To be fair, Stan does try to explain that as the stimulator needing time to recharge. MortificatorNovember 29, 2015 12:08 PM Fantastic Four #39-40 The green suit with eyepieces that Johnny wears looks a lot like the ones used by the Human Torch's opponents in Marvel Mystery Comics #4. In the Golden Age story, the flame was also green, but I still think this might be an intentional homage. As for these issues, there are some bits I like, but the conceit that leads to them is just so dumb. The FF are desperately trying to train and mechanically approximate their lost powers to give themselves a chance at survival if an enemy attacks... when they could have just used the stimulator and bam, powers restored. It's not even some old piece of equipment that could reasonably have been forgotten, they used it to get their powers back just two issues prior. Instead they dick around with all this other equipment, nearly get killed, then suddenly remember in #40, "oh yeah, we have a raygun that does that." One more comedy note is that the blind man takes time to attach a sight to his rifle. Omar KarinduNovember 29, 2015 11:14 AM Spider-Man #18-23 Especially after reading everyone else's comments, I see this story as a harbinger of the kinds of things Geoff Johns does at DC and some Marvel writers do today: taking Silver Age concepts and "updating" them by retaining the colorful and goofy aspects, as well as "good vs. evil" monochrome morality, but adding ultraviolence to the mix. Larsen was of course doing this well before Johns ever wrote a comic, and there are hints of it int he early issues of Mackie's Ghost Rider, as fnord notes in those reviews. But it's really with Johns that it becomes a widespread technique. Dan H.November 29, 2015 10:51 AM Thor #312-314 Yeah, like Chris said, this is just a complete misuse of the Tyr character. Not only was his personality the exact opposite of what's shown in this arc, but his power level in relation to Thor is completely off. I guess Moench was just looking for a "name" character to use and decided Tyr was enough of a blank slate that he could give him this "obsessed with Sif" motivation and not overwrite anything established in Marvel continuity... even if it flew in the face of everything that Norse mythology had to say. I really think it would have been much better if Tyr were somehow under a spell of Loki's, even if that would have invalidated the "carrying a torch for Sif" aspect. Tyr should have come out of this storyline as a strong ally of Thor, not the weasel he's depicted as here. I also need to re-acquaint myself with Marvel's "Nine Worlds" cosmology and how it differs from the actual canon (though it isn't fully clear there, either). At the end of their confrontation, Odin tells Hela to return to "Niffleheim." Spelling aside, Niflheim and Hel (where Hela rules) should be completely separate places. I assume he meant "Nilfhel," which is the lowest level of Hel. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 29, 2015 8:08 AM Captain America #319 Ron Zimmerman would use the BWNN concept in his revamp of Alyosha Kraven in the books he wrote. Dare I even mention Get Kraven on this site? MichaelNovember 28, 2015 11:18 PM Spider-Man #18-23 Re: the Sinister Six and capital punishment- Larsen was careful to put the lab they destroyed in Manhattan. New York doesn't have the death penalty. Since the lab was government owned, they could have tried for a federal death penalty but at the time this story was written the federal government hadn't executed anyone in 29 years. Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2015 11:16 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 I think the hologram is Claremont covering for an art mistake, as Magneto seems to be on Fury's left and right within about two panels. Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2015 10:49 PM Alpha Flight #93-94 John Byrne answered tgat question wonderfully in his second issue as writer on Fantastic Four. He does stuff like fly up and punch them by selectively extinguishing his fists, create a cage of fire to hold them while he calls the police, and so forth. Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2015 10:45 PM Amazing Spider-Man #344 Cardiac's powers are very similar to a much earlier David Michelinie character created at DC called Pulsar. Like Cardiac, he was a cyborg empowered by an artificial heart and used a staff to shoot energy blasts. He was also African-American, for what it's worth. Here is his second and final appearance. No one one remembers him because he appeared in the utterly terrible Karate Kid series, a spinoff of the Legion of Super-Heroes that was one of DC's very, very clumsy answers to the Bruce Lee fad (and presumably Marvel books like Iron Fist and Master of Kung-Fu.) Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2015 10:19 PM Doctor Strange #25 Tobin's Manifesto on Spiritual Integrity is a Ghostbusters reference; the film cites a fictional book called Tobin's Spirit Guide. Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2015 9:57 PM Namor #10-12 Contemporary Nazi stories bored me at this point. I liked the Red Skull, but honestly how many thawed Nazis do you need in the modern day? Still, I thought it was entertaining, and I liked the idea of an Invaders reunion even though the team has no reason to exist nowadays. Given how many powerful Nazis seemingly escaped justice in comic-book universes, up to and including Hitler himself (via cloning and so forth), you have to wonder how much of a victory it really felt like. And then there's the sheer number of comic-book Neo-Nazi groups, all of them absurdly well-funded and well-connected. But then, as Tom Lehrer pointed out brilliantly, the very existence of World War II nostalgia is a rather odd thing in some respects. "Hey, remember that time there were a bunch of dictatorships and invasions and genocides and then a lot of people had to die to stop most of them? Good times!" Ben HermanNovember 28, 2015 9:39 PM Spider-Man #18-23 I am a HUGE fan of Erik Larsen... but I am not really a fan of this particular story. For me, "Revenge of the Sinister Six" is the perfect example of why Larsen's sensibilities and ideas work so much better on his creator-owned series Savage Dragon than on a book like Spider-Man, which is set firmly in the Marvel universe. The fact that the Sinister Six commit mass murder in this story really should have earned all of them the death penalty. But these are all classic Spider-Man foes dating back to the early 1960s, so of course we aren't going to see any of them get the electric chair. Larsen would later do similar stories in Savage Dragon, with massive superhero battles causing widespread death & destruction, but since he owns all the characters he was able to show lasting, long-term consequences in them. Likewise the scene at the end where crystalized Sandman shreds Doctor Octopus into a bloody mess, nearly killing him. As I recall Larsen later said he did that as a challenge to the next writer to figure out how to bring back Doc Ock. Instead, the next time we see the character is in an issue of Incredible Hulk where, aside from a few band aids on his face, Octopus is completely back to normal. Oh, yeah, and he's also back to being an incompetent loser who gets defeated by the Hulk in one page, because Peter David totally disagreed with the Hulk getting such a beating in this story. On the other hand, in Savage Dragon, Larsen could totally upend the status quo for any of his characters, leave them maimed or dead or whatever, and then would not have to worry about all of that being completely ignored two months later in the pages of Spawn or Youngblood. For me, the most fascinating aspect of these issues was the subplot of Peter and Mary Jane arguing about whether or not she should accept the acting role that required nudity. It's sort of a preview of the interesting and oddball conversations Larsen would often have in Savage Dragon as he developed all manner of weird romantic relationships between different characters. Ben HermanNovember 28, 2015 9:05 PM West Coast Avengers #42-45 "Another thing that Byrne comes into criticism for is claiming to restore everything to their creators' intentions while actually just doing his own interpretation." For me, this storyline is the most blatant example of doing everything to IGNORE a creator's original intentions. Form the very first appearances of the Vision in Avengers #57, his creator Roy Thomas emphasized the fact that he was a human being. First we are told by Hank Pym that the Vision is "every inch a human being... except that all his bodily organs are constructed of synthetic materials." Then, in #58, Pym tells the Vision "You're basically human in every way -- except that your body is made of synthetic parts!" One page later the Vision is admitted to the team, and his reaction is "You accept me -- though I'm not truly a human being?" Pym responds "Is a man any less human because he has an artificial leg... or a transplanted heart?" When Byrne made his big claims that the Vision was only a "toaster" he was completely ignoring Thomas' intentions. Fine, if Byrne wanted to take the Vision in a completely different direction, completely revamp or retcon the nature of the character, well, I suppose that was his prerogative as the new writer. But he should not do all that and then claim that he was attempting to restore the creator's (i.e. Roy Thomas) original intentions when he was instead completely ignoring them. Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2015 8:57 PM Silver Surfer #44-45 Perhaps it can be reconciled using Abomination's appearance in Incredible Hulk #271, where the Galaxy Master doubled his strength. So he starts out at 100 tons, and then gets boosted to 200 tons. fnord12November 28, 2015 6:58 PM Avengers West Coast #60-62 But the footnote says that the earthquake in issue #58 happened "a few hours back", so i prefer to keep it directly after that story. I could see letting the temporal reference slide but since there aren't any other dependencies it might as well go here. ScottNovember 28, 2015 3:35 PM Avengers West Coast #60-62 I have always pushed this back a bit in chronology. They were responding to structural damage caused by the earthquake - rather than continuing from where we left off in #58. This also gives USAgent team to heal and time for Hawkeye to show up. It's gives a little breathing room for others. ScottNovember 28, 2015 3:20 PM Avengers West Coast #60-62 Always been boggled by Oort. He was created so Pietro could have someone in the Legion BUT surely the most obvious choice for this would have been his one-time "father" Whizzer? ScottNovember 28, 2015 12:34 PM Avengers West Coast #54 USAgent claims to be the team's leader/chairperson but none of the members particularly pay attention to him. TuomasNovember 28, 2015 9:36 AM Uncanny X-Men #203 If he was all-powerful, I don't think Doom would've been able to steal his powers the way he did in the first Secret Wars. MichaelNovember 28, 2015 9:19 AM X-Factor #30-33 Omar, the reason why Jean never tries to get revenge on Nanny is because in X-Factor 40, Freedom Force tells Jean that they found the parents of some of the babies she kidnapped. So Jean concludes that Nanny was lying about her sister being dead. Omar KarinduNovember 28, 2015 8:16 AM X-Factor #30-33 Nanny is the sort of villain who doesn't rerally work for me because the writers tend to treat her actions as relatively inconsequential. You have a villain who kills parents and kidnaps children, sometimes infants, and brainwashes them into killers. Not only that, but as Erik Beck notes, she manages to do all this and consistently get away. And despite this, you never get a story where anyone gets angry enough about this to make a serious effort to permanently shut her operations down. She's just another villain of the month, not even important enough to make the "threat board" in an Avengers book or anything like that. No one even seems to consider, say, rescuing the Orphan Maker and trying to undo Nanny's brainwashing. While it gets retconned in to a Phalanx thing eventually, up til that point it wasn't as if Jean Grey had much interest in avenging her sister's death or anything. "Yeah, a cyborg egg who serially abducts children and sometimes turns them into armored monsters killed by sister and her husband. Whatevs. We've got important things to deal with, like going to Broadway shows." Nor does Storm really seem to be all that bothered when Nanny and Orphan Maker turn up again following her abduction and de-aging. Nope, she's just a villain-of-the-month or a device to retire inconsequential supporting cast or to take characters -- especially those pesky child characters -- off the board for a while blame the character design more than anything. If nothing else you'd think more would be done with the idea that the X-Men or the New Mutants are made uncomfortable about Xavier's work by Nanny's use of brainwashed child soldiers. ChrisWNovember 28, 2015 12:30 AM X-Factor #12 Grabbing the relatives made sense insofar as Claremont's intentions were headed. No, it was never explained during his run and I don't even want to know what this Phalanx-thing means, much less bring in Nanny. Sara's sudden disappearance give Jean a reason to be personally involved in the mutant wars. Leong and Nga's disappearance gave Karma a reason to be involved, and she's already been involved in a few wars herself. With very little knowledge about what happened to these characters after Claremont left, I'd say he was just making things up as he went along. Investigating the bombing of Sara's house was how Wolverine realized Jean Grey was still alive, and Sara was the least important part of that equation. Karma had been protecting her brother and sister for years, which is what led her to Xavier, and then to Farouk, and then led the New Mutants to Magus. Basically Claremont is trying to describe 'wheels within wheels' and doesn't have enough control over his own title to make it happen, so he's trying to impress upon Wheezie what he wants to happen, but she doesn't have enough control either, and they're both long-gone by the time this stuff actually becomes important. ScottNovember 27, 2015 4:27 PM Avengers Spotlight #27 Interesting the shot of the Avengers fighting U-Foes has USAgent when he is not present for that fight. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 27, 2015 12:18 PM Uncanny X-Men #203 Was the fact that Kitty was able to recall that the New Mutants ever existed the first action to establish that the Beyonder was not all-powerful? MichaelNovember 27, 2015 9:31 AM X-Factor #12 @Nathan- but that just raises the questions of why Sara and her husband weren't home, how Nanny grabbed the kids without Sara and her husband being present, why Nanny was so sure Sara and her husband were dead and why Sara never tried to contact Jean. Simonson's explanations (see also Maddie and Magneto were Evil All Along) just raise further questions. ScottNovember 27, 2015 8:11 AM Marvel Comics Presents #38-45 (Wonder Man) The awkward assortment of Avengers present could best be explained via Avengers #305's revolving door status quo. All but Iron Man were present for that. ScottNovember 27, 2015 6:44 AM West Coast Avengers #42-45 It's Karma with miscolored hair (notice, they're all in alphabetical order, which is what gives it away) Nathan AdlerNovember 27, 2015 4:40 AM X-Factor #12 While it might appear that Louise Simonson had Sara Grey appear as a spokesperson for Mutant Rights in #12 to infer The Right were responsible for blowing up her home, she indicated in an email interview I conducted with her on 16 May, 2012 that she intended Nanny and the Orphanmaker to have done it in order to grab the kids before Mister Sinister or The Right could. It was certainly Nanny’s modus operandi, and explains why Louise had the character in #35 express certainty she and her husband Paul were both dead. Walter LawsonNovember 27, 2015 3:05 AM X-Factor #12 My dim recollection of the Phalanx Covenant is that the Phalanx took over an anti-mutant group, the Friends of Humanity, that had retrieved Stephen Lang from a mental asylum (circa Uncanny 291). The Friends were saud during the Phalanx storyline to have kidnapped Sara Grey, and presumably they bombed her house. Red CometNovember 26, 2015 10:46 PM X-Factor #12 Karma's siblings and Sara Grey and her family are both unresolved plots from the mid to late 80s that got resolved some years later by other writers. I doubt how they were brought to a close much resembles what was originally planned. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Claremont and Simonson set these up with no plan at all. They probably would have been bolted onto some larger plot or villain later on if they hadn't been forgotten about. And for anyone keeping score: StevenNovember 26, 2015 9:01 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 Living Lightning is okay. I don't love him and I don't hate him. On the other hand, Spiderwoman is the best thing about this title in the post-Byrne era. I love Julia Carpenter. Having her in the Avengers must be compensation for not being allowed to use Spider-Man. BobNovember 26, 2015 8:37 PM Avengers #326-328 I guess, for about 5 minutes in the speculator age, people seriously thought the first appearance of Rage was going to have long-term investment value, as hilarious as that sounds now. Omar KarinduNovember 26, 2015 8:10 PM Marvel Fanfare #53 (Iron Man) Dan Mishkin was a DC writer for many years, bets known perhaps for his work on the comedic Blue Devil series and the "girls' fantasy" comic Amethyst, both characters he co-created. Omar KarinduNovember 26, 2015 8:03 PM Avengers #326-328 For reasons I have never worked out, the comics shop I went to as a kid had the "Surge" story as one of its "wall books" with a price tag around $20. ScottNovember 26, 2015 5:04 PM Contest of Champions #1-3 The Squadron Supreme Nighthawk "fix" may be with regards to Squadron-verse Nighthawk (and them mistaking him for their Nighthawk) in #112-114. ScottNovember 26, 2015 4:29 PM Thor #312-314 Another Chronological Placement Consideration would be the apparent ignoring of Moondragon's status as an enemy in Avengers #211 HaydnNovember 26, 2015 4:13 PM Fantastic Four #117-118 A few stories that had the dec 71/jan 72 cover date were planned as 33 page stories for the new oversized 25 cent format that had debuted the month before. When Marvel reverted to the regular sized issues, presumably a number of extra length stories had to be split up (often awkwardly, as you note) over two issues, with (in this case) a short filler story taking up the remaining pages of the second issue. Patricio CórdovaNovember 26, 2015 12:55 PM Thor #419-424 I recently bought a copy of the Black Galaxy Saga, it hasn t aged well. What I remember from reading some of the issues on real time is what a bad artist Gary Hartle is, he is just horrible. Miked November 26, 2015 12:19 PM Thor #163-167 Iwhile some of the other panels are questionable, im willing to bet that the face of Sif in the panel in which she's hugging Thor isn't Kirby at all. That's a John Romita redraw/correction if I ever saw one. fnord12November 26, 2015 11:31 AM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Shroud) Crossposted with Michael! fnord12November 26, 2015 11:30 AM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Shroud) Yeah, but per the link that Michael provided in the other Shroud entry (i'll relink it here), the Ditko Shroud series would have come out in 1980, well before Stern's WCA mini. So that's my point, that Stern and others were playing off of things that were really set up for a Shroud series that didn't happen. (The actual set-up did see print, in Marvel Preview #21 - which i don't yet have - but what i thought was interesting is how that set-up was intended to establish a status quo for an ongoing series, but instead it became a background detail because that series didn't happen.) MichaelNovember 26, 2015 11:25 AM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Shroud) The Shroud was first established to be pretending to be a crime boss in Marvel Preview 21 by Steve Grant and Steve Ditko- as noted in the link, that might have been planned to be the first part of a series with the Shroud (and this story might be another part). fnord12November 26, 2015 11:23 AM Marvel Super Heroes #6 (Sabra) Clyde, that looks mostly like someone just trying to rationalize this story. The two times she used the ability to save dying individuals would be the two in this story, Windstorm and the boy. fnord12November 26, 2015 11:19 AM Marvel Super Heroes #6 (Power Pack) She doesn't have a name so i didn't really want to tag her. Bride of the Creature of the Lost Lagoon would make for a good Universal horror movie, but it's a long tag. I've made it Bridge of the Lost Lagoon, but i don't really like that. MichaelNovember 26, 2015 8:57 AM Darkhawk #10-15 Abnett's and Lanning's retcon had all sorts of problems- if Evilhawk wasn't real, then how do you explain Saint Johnny? This entire story hinges on Saint Johnny having powers and a connection to the Darkhawk amulet. MichaelNovember 26, 2015 8:48 AM X-Factor #12 To be fair, the Marauders went after Maddie in X-Men 206- a little earlier. What's weird is that whoever set the bomb in Karma's house (which was implied to be the Marauders) apparently had nothing to do with Leong's and Nga's kidnapping. TuomasNovember 26, 2015 8:29 AM Marvel Super Heroes #8 (Iron Man) Squirrel Girl's knuckle spikes seem to have been retconned away, or at least she doesn't use them in her solo series. Can't remember whether they were shown in GLA? TuomasNovember 26, 2015 8:16 AM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Shroud) Luis is correct, Shroud's mob boss cover is mentioned in those WCA issues. entzauberungNovember 26, 2015 7:55 AM Marvel Super Heroes #6 (Speedball) Though actually I think Ellis in Thunderbolts managed to get some good mileage out of the Penance concept. Luis Olavo de Moura DantasNovember 26, 2015 4:31 AM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Shroud) Wasn't Shroud's cover that of a mob boss from the start? IIRC, that was made explicit in the original WCA mini. TuomasNovember 26, 2015 4:08 AM Darkhawk #10-15 The retcon Abnett and Lanning did years later doesn't really jibe with the idea that you need a strong spirit to wield the power of the amulet, since we learn the amulets are merely tools used to reincarnate the Darkhawks, and they don't care who their host is. (And since the Darkhawks are revealed to be amoral and not heroes, Tombstone would've actually been a better host, since Chris's strong spirit and morals are what enable him to fight the amulet's influence.) Abnett and Lanning do a very slight handwave which is supposed to explain away these discrepancies, but I think they pretty much thought most of their readers wouldn't know or care about this original Darkhawk series. Nathan AdlerNovember 26, 2015 3:26 AM X-Factor #12 Jean and Scott visited Sara Grey's home in X-Factor #12 after Sara Grey went on the news to defend mutants after Karma's apartment got bombed in New Mutants #46. When Jean and Scott got there the place blew up. I always thought it was odd timing. That is, the Marauders went after Madelyne Pryor at the same time Cameron Hodge went after Sara Grey which was the same time someone abducted Karma's siblings Leong and Nga. And none of that was connected? Really? Ataru320November 25, 2015 10:12 PM Tales Of Suspense #48 This came up in a review actually about Black Widow's appearance but I think there is something else not brought up prior: the Iron nipples. Seriously, did Tony really need to go Joel Schuelmacher in this suit? (then again this is the guy who later thought his mask needed a nose...) Morgan WickNovember 25, 2015 9:12 PM Marvel Super Heroes #6 (Speedball) "You don't get it! I'm deep now!" Ataru320November 25, 2015 8:40 PM Slapstick #1-4 Its amazing looking at '91 that we have these "grim and grittiz" characters that were huge and popular, yet the same year also introduces the future army of weirdoes that we all know and love such as Deadpool, Squirrel Girl and, heck, even Slapstick. That Ghost Rider bit in particular reminds me actually of a joke from "Superhero Squad" regarding Falcon and Dormamu: "HIS HEAD...IS ON FIRE!" Red CometNovember 25, 2015 8:34 PM Marvel Super Heroes #8 (Iron Man) I got this comic as a kid because it had the X-men on the cover and got lucky that it had this Squirrel Girl story in it...not because Squirrel Girl is a great character, but because I was eventually able to sell it for some decent cash. Thanks hipsters! Red CometNovember 25, 2015 8:17 PM Marvel Super Heroes #6-8 (X-Men) I think we can forgive (I assume) Larry Hama for not doing in-depth research into this dumping ground for unused inventory stories. I had the third issue of this as kid and remember liking the Wolverine action scenes even though the story made next to no sense. Red CometNovember 25, 2015 8:07 PM Marvel Super Heroes #6 (Speedball) No matter how batshit or how stupid these Ditko stories got, not a single one was dumber than the storyline and concept around Penance. Walter LawsonNovember 25, 2015 8:05 PM Web of Spider-Man #88-89 (Looking back, the sometimes blond, sometimes redhead discrepancies with Richard's appearance seem to be just art inconsistencies--on a quick check I didn't see any reference to the plastic surgery I'd misremembered.) Walter LawsonNovember 25, 2015 7:12 PM Web of Spider-Man #88-89 Sure, Spidey saw him put on the mask, but that doesn't mean he could make any sense of what he saw. "Hey, it's Richard Fisk putting on a Rose mask! But wait, I thought Richard Fisk was fat and bald now?!? Who's this guy?" Adding to the irony of a pretty bad story with an even worse retcon on the way, isn't Fisk's blond "Steve Rogers" look itself a result of plastic surgery? And of course, my pet theory is that Alfredo Morrelli in his first appearance during the DeFalco run was actually supposed to be Richard Fisk, until the editor nixed it. Luckily this gets cleared up when Alfredo loses weight, grows black hair back, and becomes Gauntlet, super-villain sensation of the mid-90s. MichaelNovember 25, 2015 6:56 PM Marvel Super Heroes #6 (Power Pack) Shouldn't the Monster's bride have a Character Appearing tag? MichaelNovember 25, 2015 6:36 PM Marvel Super Heroes #8 (Sub-Mariner) To be fair, fnord, Diablo's potions being temporary have been his major limitation since his first appearance. MichaelNovember 25, 2015 6:31 PM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Marvel Boy) But Vance is called Marvel Boy in this story- he wasn't called that until 1989. Besides, Barry Dutter wasn't at Marvel in 1986- he was still trying to abolish the She-Hulk. He didn't join Marvel until 1990. MichaelNovember 25, 2015 5:52 PM Marvel Super Heroes #6-8 (X-Men) Hilariously, the Sentinel's Australian base is seen again in Wolverine 72-74, and Wolverine acts like he's never been there before and everyone acts like it hasn't been disturbed since Avengers 104. At least writers are consistent in forgetting each other's stories with the Sentinel's base. Max_SpiderNovember 25, 2015 4:57 PM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Cloak & Dagger) Kids growing up in the UK might remember the UK "Spectacular Spider-Man" set mostly outside 616 (aside from the occasional reprints). The Golden Age Angel exists within that comic, a recurring character who is a timely gentleman that dates Aunt May, figures out Peter's identity and occasionally aids him in his old Angel suit (even against Butterfly, the Fiddler and Dr. Grimm, the last of which would also make a comeback. It even mentioned their seeming deaths at the hands of Captain America!) Yeah, the UK version of the Golden Age Angel sure does make the 616 versions of being a vagrant or man behind a vigilante assassin conspiracy seem somewhat surprising. Although given Aunt May's dating history... Is it? Is it really? Max_SpiderNovember 25, 2015 4:40 PM Marvel Super Heroes #6 (Speedball) I like to think that one of the few things keeping Robbie from completely succumbing to his Penance persona is that on his darkest days he can still remember this: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/scans21/MSH6_Speedball6.jpg fnord12November 25, 2015 2:58 PM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Cloak & Dagger) Ah, that explains everything. Thanks MikeCheyne. The MCP list this as an appearance of the "real" Golden Age Angel. ChrisNovember 25, 2015 2:44 PM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Marvel Boy) I wonder if this was written back in 1986 when both Gator Grant and Marvel Boy appeared in the Thing. Otherwise I can't imagine why these characters and the UCWF are brought up again. Ataru320November 25, 2015 2:40 PM Marvel Super Heroes #8 (Iron Man) Behold the epic awesomeness of Squirrel Girl...luckily her more recent appearances have made her cuter. Oh and for linking, the epicness of her defeating Doom: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/scans6/MSH8_DoomVsSquirrels.jpg Ataru320November 25, 2015 2:38 PM Marvel Super Heroes #8 (Sub-Mariner) What the heck is with Diablo's face and that inverted triangle mouth? (is it just me or is Diablo being used a lot lately at this point) MikeCheyneNovember 25, 2015 2:26 PM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Cloak & Dagger) I guess he was more like a half brother who was inspired by the original Angel to act like him: MikeCheyneNovember 25, 2015 2:25 PM Marvel Super Heroes #7 (Cloak & Dagger) If I recall, I thought the idea of the Angel (Thomas Holloway) was that he was twin brothers posing as one guy (or I should say that's the retcon)--one of the brothers is the guy here, and the other one founds Scourge. BerendNovember 25, 2015 1:49 PM Marvel Super Heroes #8 (Iron Man) I never expected Squirrel Girl, of all characters, to be based on someones ex-girlfriend. CLYDENovember 25, 2015 1:32 PM Marvel Super Heroes #6 (Sabra) FNORD - when you wrote - clydeNovember 25, 2015 12:58 PM Marvel Super Heroes #8 (Iron Man) Something must have appealed to people about this character considering the ridiculously high price it sells for. I still can't find it anywhere for under $50.00. :( MikeCheyneNovember 25, 2015 11:58 AM Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1-4 It's interesting that Rhino objects to the gang killing Spidey because he doesn't want a murder rap, but the only reason Spider-Man jumps in is to protect the guards from Hydro-Man killing them (I guess you could argue Rhino perhaps wasn't looking there). mikrolikNovember 25, 2015 10:34 AM Web of Spider-Man #88-89 Really??? Spider-Man is looking directly at the 3rd Rose as the Rose puts on the mask. How can Spidey not have seen who it is!??! RoyNovember 25, 2015 3:00 AM Amazing Spider-Man #326 I remember buying this issue on a whim when I was in junior high school, and I came away from it cold, due to Doran's art (yes, I'm a McFarlane fan, true blue and all). I didn't like Erik Larsen's work, when he took over for McFarlane (who got a break in the biz, courtesy of Ann Nocenti), so the idea of not liking an artist because they're female isn't written in stone and is quite asinine. I like Amanda Conner's work. So there. Dan H.November 25, 2015 1:46 AM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 Ah, obviously my memory of those issues has faded. Now that you mention it, I do remember that it was Kang doing the picking. fnord12November 24, 2015 11:23 PM Darkhawk #10-15 Well at least it's established it's not a typo on my part. :-) Omar KarinduNovember 24, 2015 11:13 PM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 Immortus didn't pick them, Kang did; and he says flat out that he's picking people the current Avengers will *think* are dead because he sees it as a method of psychological warfare. In fact, he gives more specific reasons for several of the summonings: Midnight, for example, is needed because Kang needs Mantis alive, Wonder Man is there to psych out the Vision, and so on. Also, given how quickly many of the legionnaires start breaking away from Kang's orders, summoning really powerful folks would have been a bad idea. Walter LawsonNovember 24, 2015 11:12 PM Darkhawk #10-15 But that means 11 issues of Darkhawk (excluding the one nearest the statement of ownership date, whose numbers are big enough to change the annual average significantly) would have heen selling about 90K apiece. Not only does a Punisher appearance doubling sales seem unlikely, but 90K would be below pretty much any newsstand-distributed Marvel title. And that average has to include issue #1, which presumably would have sold at least as well as a random Punisher appearance--further driving down the average for the "normal" issues of the series. I think the average in the SOO has to be a misprint. Not to harp on it, but the math just looks implausible to me otherwise. Erik RobbinsNovember 24, 2015 11:08 PM Marvel Super Heroes #5 (Thor) Asgard's resident prophet must be hard to understand with his only communicating by saying "Hoder Hoder Hoder" all the time. fnord12November 24, 2015 9:02 PM Darkhawk #10-15 The Statement of Ownership numbers are what's printed in issue #13 and there's no corrections in #14 or #15. I suspect the most recent issue was the Punisher guest appearance. Walter LawsonNovember 24, 2015 8:54 PM Darkhawk #10-15 Did this book really soar from 98K average readers to 185K for the issue nearest the statement of ownership deadline? I'm guessing the first number should be 198K. I never read Darkhawk--I was more of a Sleepwalker guy--and it's a revelation to me that this book was going for a grim-n-gritty tone. The ads and covers I used to see didn't get that across, and the skinny birdlike design of DH didn't seem intimidating. Everyone knows to be really grim-n-gritty your design needs a skull, either on your shirt or on fire. I didn't read DH because I was never clear on the concept: he seemed like Generic Hero #347. His dependence on other people's rogues' gallery and the lameness of Bazin as an archenemy contributed to that impression. (I did read the Marvel Age preview of the book.) Ataru320November 24, 2015 8:21 PM Marvel Super Heroes #5 (Dr. Strange) Why do I suddenly have an image here of Odin revoking these trolls phone privileges? Dan H.November 24, 2015 8:10 PM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 The problem with saying the members of the Legion of the Unliving weren't really dead, but taken from a moment "just prior to their deaths..." If that's the case, why bother with the "unliving" concept at all? This isn't exactly a powerhouse lineup. Why wouldn't Immortus just grab a lineup of truly powerful figures at the peak of their prowess? If there is supposed to be something special about being "near death" that allows Immortus to spirit someone away, these characters (aside from the two "really dead" ones) seem pretty healthy. And if Immortus somehow restored them to health, why do they still end up dying when he sends them back? MichaelNovember 24, 2015 7:57 PM Darkhawk #10-15 Chris Powell makes Hamlet look decisive. JSfanNovember 24, 2015 6:00 PM Marvel Super Heroes #5 (She-Hulk) Wow. Seems like that one was phoned-in. Terrible. Andrew FNovember 24, 2015 5:48 PM Darkhawk #10-15 Reading these in real time, this was when I started to get frustrated with the title. The story felt really stretched out at 6 issues, which was of course the style of the time for some reason, whereas issues 1-9 were fun, breezy one-offs for the most part. I feel like the quality is all downhill from here, too. JCNovember 24, 2015 5:33 PM Spider-Man #18-23 It's worth noting, dat per da candles on da cake in the last page, Spidey is celebrating his 25th birfday. Cementing da youngest age he could possibly be if you don't start counting X-mas issues. RobertNovember 24, 2015 5:31 PM Vision and the Scarlet Witch #1-4 So yeah...dumb idea. JCNovember 24, 2015 5:29 PM Web of Spider-Man #88-89 Dat retcon sounds absolutely horrible. It turns an alrdy bad confusing story and makes it badder and confusinger. JCNovember 24, 2015 5:25 PM Darkhawk #10-15 Also it's funny that they keep hinting at the mystical origins of the amulet. Then when we finally do get to dat story, it suddenly switches to bad sci-fi, with absolutely no explanation for the magic aura it seemingly emminates. Dat's also not to mention the amulet was specifically created by bad people to do bad things. So it's especially hilarious dat da mystic tells Tombstone he doesn't possess the spirit to wield da amulet but dat sum whiny high school kid with no sense of direction and a sliding moral scale does. JCNovember 24, 2015 5:18 PM Darkhawk #10-15 "Chris' younger son" Whoa so he won't tell his his secret identity, even after siring his 7 year old kid. Also you double posted the pic of Darkhawk hugging his other 'son' in the hospital. Sparky RyanNovember 24, 2015 5:10 PM Iron Man #267-268 Excellent 2-parter. I like how Byrne adds detail (apart from the Mandarin's involvement) to the origin, like who certain things are said and done. It's also clever how Byrne alters the dialogue during the recap in #288, implying that Stark can't remember the exact things that were said and done, for it being a lifetime ago. Nice realistic touch. Stark's inner thoughts were interesting and it ended nicely with a dejected Stark, proclaiming he was finished as both Stark and Iron Man. Mandarin was worked in well, but I'd rather it never happened, I'm not a fan of retcons. I'd give this issues a solid B. Nice art from Ryan too. Clear and crisp. Red CometNovember 24, 2015 4:30 PM Speedball #5 The earliest animal mask bad guys I can think of are the obscure Batman villains the Terrible Trio. They actually showed up in an episode or two of the Bruce Timm animated series. The Rico guy in this issue looks a lot like an ersatz Shade the Changing Man. Max_SpiderNovember 24, 2015 4:17 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 Wait a minute... A Black Widow is a spider too. Hawkeye's Spider-Woman obsession goes back to day one! Either he has some spider-fetish or... Maybe even subconsciously associates them with Black Widow due to some unresolved issues with their early history. Dan H.November 24, 2015 3:28 PM Vision and the Scarlet Witch #1-4 It sounds like a "dumb idea," but it's really a case of the Marvel movies impacting the comics (just like introducing "Nick Fury Jr" so they can have a Nick Fury in the comics who looks like the one in the movies. Marvel Studios doesn't own the rights to the X-Men (which includes Magneto). By some quirk, both studios have rights to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch - but Marvel Studios can't refer to them as "mutants." So Marvel Studios had to come up with a different backstory for them that doesn't include Magneto. And the comics decided to follow suit, supposedly not to "confuse" anyone. This DOES give the Marvel movies more leeway to tell stories without tapdancing, but it's arguable that the comics don't need to follow in lockstep as they've been doing. MikeCheyneNovember 24, 2015 2:30 PM Captain America #365-367 (Cobra) Ironically, the Serpent Society goes downhill and basically gets its ass kicked in most of its appearances after this one. MortificatorNovember 24, 2015 11:45 AM Vision and the Scarlet Witch #1-4 What a dumb idea. StevenNovember 24, 2015 10:19 AM Vision and the Scarlet Witch #1-4 As of Axis, Magneto is no longer the father of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. The second volume of Uncanny Avengers revealed that they are the natural children of the Maximoffs. Erik BeckNovember 24, 2015 8:31 AM Silver Surfer #46-47 Hey, who doesn't love Warlock in Liefeld pose #1? Omar KarinduNovember 24, 2015 8:30 AM Amazing Spider-Man #147-150 "No one 'real' is the Jackal!" is actually moderately consistent with the origin we get in issue #149, where the Jackal is the imaginary persona Miles Warren invents to avoid dealing with his own culpability for Serba's murder. Conway really loves implying that most supervillains are people suffering some kind of mental break. fnord12November 24, 2015 7:47 AM Wonder Man #4 I've added the additional Crazy Eighters, thanks Dermie. For some reason the MCP doesn't track them. My point about Hollywood Deadpool is less about whether or not he has a vibranium weave and more that a guy who is an assassin for hire should never be a direct challenge to Wonder Man. Speedfreek is a similar character - someone who is able to stand up against the Hulk because he has been given way more rare Marvel materials than most classic Marvel villains are able to get. But at least Speedfreek's super-speed makes him difficult for the Hulk to catch, if not punch out, and he has an interesting personality. I agree with Dermie that Splice might have made a decent villain for other characters, except that we already have Spymaster and Deadpool to play the role that he plays. Oliver_CNovember 24, 2015 6:52 AM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Reading this, I get the feeling Roy Thomas was real keen to show off his new Japanese-English pocket dictionary. Probably sitting on his bookshelf alongside the well-thumbed Spanish one... DermieNovember 24, 2015 1:08 AM Wonder Man #4 Fnord, if you are tracking the appearances and introductions of Crazy Eight members like LaHoya, then you should also note Aundray's first appearance here, as well as Argus (and Gloria, back in issue #1). As for Splice--I really liked him. Yes, he was definitely outmatched against Wondy in terms of strength, but I think his costume had some sort of exo-skeleton or something to it that enhanced his strength, speed, etc (which helps explain how he wasn't knocked out by Simon's punch--not to mention surviving that electric zap Alex gives him). But one thing I appreciated with Splice is the added variety to Simon's rogues gallery. Most of the foes that he tends to get thrown up against are in the bruiser category (like Goliath and Gamma Burn thus far). Having an opponent who relies more on speed, wits, hit-and-run tactics and a variety of trick weapons is a different challenge for Simon. So that was nice. I'd like to see someone bring Splice back. Although he started out as a Wonder Man villain, there is no reason he couldn't turn up in virtually any Marvel book. He's an assassin fore hire, so he doesn't need to be tied to any one character or location. PeterANovember 24, 2015 1:04 AM Marvel Super Heroes #377-386 (UK) Alan Davis might not think much of it himself, but his early efforts here show all the elements that make him such an amazing artist. The fluidity of the layouts and the characters, coupled with an excellent use of anatomy and facial characteristics. The combination of realism with cartoonish elements, getting the best of both worlds out of a comic book environment. His experimental nature with panels only adding to all the movement and energy he imbues the pages with. And as we will see when he continues his career, he can draw any Marvel character, hero or villain, perfectly on point while still being recognizably Davis art. I first thought that his art in these issues was helped by an inker because of all the good use of blacks, but then I saw he was the inker too. Impressive. MichaelNovember 23, 2015 11:28 PM Wonder Man #4 In fact, Simon says his suit is vibranium this issue- page 22. MichaelNovember 23, 2015 11:18 PM Marvel Team-Up #4 Red Comet, you're right- it was mentioned in Marvel Tales 234. Supposedly, Roy actually wrote the first few chapters of a never published Graphic Novel with the non-costumed X-Men. Red CometNovember 23, 2015 10:30 PM Marvel Team-Up #4 I remember reading somewhere (introduction to the first X-men Masterworks maybe?) that this issue was an experiment in showing super-heroes without costumes, hence why the X-men are in plainclothes for most of it. mikrolikNovember 23, 2015 10:17 PM Avengers #228-230 Aaaaaand, Egghead has now been revealed to be alive, as of Ant-Man Annual Vol. 2 No. 1. fnord12November 23, 2015 9:41 PM Code of Honor #4 Added clarification about when Jeff slept with his partner. They slept together during Inferno, while she is obviously (to the audience) possessed, and while he may also be under its influence ("I can feel the night burning all around me.") MichaelNovember 23, 2015 9:22 PM Code of Honor #4 Fnord, your synopsis is unclear- did Jeff sleep with his partner WHILE she was possessed? BobNovember 23, 2015 9:20 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 Ross is capable of much better art than this. I think it's a combo of the large cast, and no one gave a rat's ass about these stories Roy Thomas was writing in his sleep. MichaelNovember 23, 2015 8:32 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 Agreed that the Night Shift don't work as hungry for fame. Dansen Macabre is an agent of Shiva, not just a stripper- you'd think she would be reluctant to work with a demon. Needle was a vigilante avenging a personal wrong, not an exhibitionist. How did Tick Tock go from wanting to be a timer to working for the Locksmith? Omar KarinduNovember 23, 2015 8:29 PM Captain America #191 It really says something about the Stilt-Man that he sees stealing Paste-Pot Pete's weaponry as *trading up*. MichaelNovember 23, 2015 8:11 PM Wonder Man #4 I think the idea is that Splice's suit absorbs impacts but not electricity- I think Simon even suggests that it might be vibranium in a later issue. But it should have been explained more clearly. Luis DantasNovember 23, 2015 7:29 PM Code of Honor #3 Angel used the blue (or blueish black, perhaps) costume in Giant-Size X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #94, albeit only for a very few panels. Before that, he also used it in a couple of (recent flashback) panels in Captain America #173 or so, happening just prior to Avengers #110. There are a number of additional appearances around that time, but they are continuity implants. Of interest is that he was also briefly seem in a Marvel Team-Up #4 and #23, and was using the original black-and-yellow costume at that time. I take it to be part of an effort to keep the X-Men visually consistent with the reprints of early issues of Uncanny. GromNovember 23, 2015 6:37 PM Wonder Man #4 Well I enjoyed it for what it was. Max_SpiderNovember 23, 2015 4:46 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 So Hawkeye makes a move on both Julia Carpenter and Jessica Drew, while his Old Man Logan counterpart had a daughter with a daughter of Peter Parker. What is it with that guy can Spider-Women? kvetoNovember 23, 2015 4:10 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 Yeah, Roy the boy at his worst. Obscure references that no one remembers. new motivations to shoe-horn in characters. and a boring story. the only interesting bit was hawk-eye hitting on spider-woman. that would create some drama. for a gay gut, the living lightening sure does score with lots of chicas. Red CometNovember 23, 2015 4:09 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 This story's premise sounds ridiculous even by super-hero comic standards. Getting big in Hollywood sounds more like the motivation of a villain in a joke character book like Deadpool. I think the Bush/Quayle bit might refer to the Savings and Loan financial crisis from the late 80s/early 90s. I recall it also being mentioned in some films of that era and, strangely, several later episodes of Miami Vice. kvetoNovember 23, 2015 4:07 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 and entzauberung, read 5 modern comics as penance. :-) Oliver_CNovember 23, 2015 4:07 PM ROM annual #3 When it comes to creepy, rapey Marvel supervillains, Hybrid makes the Mandrill look like a feminist! Max_SpiderNovember 23, 2015 4:06 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 I'd imagine quite a few heroes and villains would have an interest in the arts, what with costume designs and the themes they act out. Especially the ones who make their motifs from scratch as opposed to being bestowed it. Although it does serve a practical purpose from time to time (villain branding, distancing oneself from their civilian identity, intimidation factor, attracting attention to the most armored part of the body, etc). That said, if they weren't a bunch of mainstream sellouts, they should have done an underground film! Maybe get Mysterio involved, he could perhaps even help make Ticktock's animation a reality judging by those holograms of his! kvetoNovember 23, 2015 3:54 PM Code of Honor #4 wow, thats bad. As you sat Fnord (see i read more than the scans) like a bad fumetti. it feels like the word balloons are pasted on. fnord12November 23, 2015 3:51 PM General Comments Hey all, at the risk of sounding anal, just a request regarding comments: The posts on this site are not time dependent, so while some people read them as i post them, people may also be reading them 6 months from now or more. That's why i prefer to keep some types of comments off the individual entries. Please keep questions about my progress or what i'm going to cover on this page or other places like What's Missing or in the forum. And with regard to typos and scan problems and the like, at this point, there are some readers who are willing to use the forum to let me know about them (and i appreciate that very much!). So if you see a typo or similar problem on a recent entry, most likely someone will let me know about it in the forum, and may have already done so (between the two places, i have been getting duplicate alerts lately). In addition to the fact that people coming by 6 months from now don't want to read through typo alerts, there are good conversations in the comments, and i don't want to see them cluttered up. And some people are subscribed to the comments RSS feed and probably don't want to get typo alerts that way. So while in the past i've said that i prefer typo alerts in the forum but will take them in the comments if you don't want to use the forum, i'm now asking that you let it be handled in the forum. If people disregard this request, i may not respond with a "thank you". I'll just quietly fix the error, and i might delete the notifying comment. One grey area is character appearances and creator credits, so i understand if mistakes in those areas continue to get pointed out in the entries. And let me just say that i appreciate the great comments that everyone leaves, and i appreciate it when people point out my mistakes (wherever they do it). This is just one guy's random website, and it's great to get feedback and thoughts and help from so many other people. Max_SpiderNovember 23, 2015 3:30 PM Web of Spider-Man #86 Embarrassing though it may be, I was being serious. I misinterpreted the scene and didn't think Richard knew the Demogoblin was coming in advance, so I thought he was just making use of some sort of infliction from a previous issue. Hey, c'mon, this is the Marvel Universe, so thinking that sort of mark is real is not too ridiculous an assumption to make. This is the decade Kaine shows up, for Pete's sake. Of course, I've got no excuse for somehow missing Vin's comment up there, so my bad. mikrolikNovember 23, 2015 3:25 PM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 The whole "Vulture didn't recognize Nathan" will actually be brought up in Spectacular 187. entzauberungNovember 23, 2015 3:09 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 Sorry, will do in the future! fnord12November 23, 2015 3:07 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 Only one more "real" arc (Darkhawk) and then i get to the Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel Comics Presents. (Please ask any follow ups and "What about...?" questions in the forum or on the General Comments page.) entzauberungNovember 23, 2015 2:35 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 Hey Fnord, how much do you have left to do now on '91 (save for MCP and the like)? Seems most books ar in the next year now. RobertNovember 23, 2015 2:34 PM Wonder Man #4 This was the only issue of Wonder Man I picked up in real time and I hated it. Years later when I was grabbing up every cheap back issue I could find, I got the whole series hoping it would read better with age. It did not. MikeCheyneNovember 23, 2015 2:25 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #23 I know it's just a joke, but it seems out of character for Jameson to make that homeless editorial; he seems consistently politically liberal. MikeCheyneNovember 23, 2015 2:22 PM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 Yeah, I can easily see Vulture not remembering Nathan; Vulch's mental stability in his post Nathan encounter appearances wasn't very high, and he never really gets a good look at Nathan either. I also think David's point makes sense; we remember people at their prime--if he had seen a feisty, jovial Nathan, I'm sure he would have remembered--my grandmother recently ran into an old family member and her response was "i can't believe he got so old--I barely recognized him!" ChrisNovember 23, 2015 2:22 PM Avengers West Coast #76-79 I like Night Shift as a group even without the Shroud. A horror themed villain group has good optics. However, these characters are NOT at the level of the Avengers, and shoehorning them in by giving them power boosts just does not work for these characters. This is just another example of Roy Thomas forcing things to work in order to accommodate an inspiration he's had. And the Hollywood fame angle just doesn't work. The only thing these characters actually have in common is that they are mostly old Spider-Woman characters with horror themes. Night Shift works best as an LA back story element. If anyone ever requires a brief scene with the LA criminal scene, then of these characters can do it. If Thomas wanted a powerful team of established villains, he could probably resurrect the Lethal Legion at this point. Goliath and Living Laser have gotten major power upgrades. Add in the Radioactive Man and Klaw from Thomas's Masters of Evil II, and you have a good Thomas-era Avengers reunion of very powerful foes. david banesNovember 23, 2015 2:11 PM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 Wait I know why Vulture doesn't remember Nathan! The Nathan he befriended was a cool guy. Nothing like the Nathan of the later 80s and early 90s. So he just knew this was a totally different Nathan from the one he met years ago. fnord12November 23, 2015 12:28 PM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 Thanks MikeCheyne. JCNovember 23, 2015 12:24 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 I enjoy the Magneto/Rogue relationship and wouldn't mind seein it brought up again... just not by Bendis. MikeCheyneNovember 23, 2015 12:01 PM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 Chance isn't listed as a character appearing. RobertNovember 23, 2015 11:35 AM Code of Honor #4 I really don't like the photo stuff. It's lazy and unappealing to look at. Really distracting. Mark DrummondNovember 23, 2015 11:24 AM Daredevil #299-300 In that last scan, the word balloon beginning with " Now I feel..." looks like it was relettered or somehow changed. JSfanNovember 23, 2015 11:18 AM Daredevil #299-300 Thanks, fnord. D.G. Chichester, sure like to go on about the Kingpin's weight. Poor kid. :) Red CometNovember 23, 2015 10:10 AM Web of Spider-Man #88-89 I bet they seriously thought they were re-inventing a lame old character for the 90s by turning the Rose into "Blood Rose," complete with thigh bandoliers and cool sunglasses instead of nerd glasses. And while I realize Mackie and/or Fingeroth likely intended this story's title to be a reference to the Umberto Eco novel, it's ultimately very ironic that a storyline called "The Name of the Rose" ends with so much uncertainty about...the name of the Rose. fnord12November 23, 2015 8:02 AM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 Erik, i think it will probably just get an Inbound Reference when the time comes. fnord12November 23, 2015 8:00 AM Web of Spider-Man #88-89 JC, your assumption would be correct per the intentions of the original story, but that's not the way things end up. I've been dancing around spoiling the retcon since i was alerted to it, but i guess i can mention it here. *Spoiler alert (for a 20+ year old story)!* It will turn out that the Richard Fisk that we see throughout this story is really Alfredo Morelli, thanks to the wonders of Marvel plastic surgery. And the Blood Rose will turn out to be Richard Fisk. See the Appendix for more, and of course i'll get to those issues eventually. fnord12November 23, 2015 7:53 AM Daredevil #299-300 JSFan, i've added a scan. fnord12November 23, 2015 7:28 AM Daredevil #44-46 Thanks, accordion321. fnord12November 23, 2015 7:27 AM Web of Spider-Man #86 Thanks Morgan. Fixed the Statement of Ownership numbers. Max_Spider, i assume you're kidding but just in case: it's just a prosthetic that "Fisk" used to fool Hobgoblin. fnord12November 23, 2015 7:24 AM Daredevil #298 No, i don't think the fact that the Hand were working for Hydra implies that they've always been a secret faction of Hydra. The Hand are a group of hired assassins. They worked for the Mandarin in their appearance prior to this, for example. I wouldn't like the idea that the Hand were really a subset of Hydra. And i think the idea that there is a separate subset of assassins called the Hand that has always worked for Hydra would mean that they weren't really the Hand. So maybe that's why i'm resisting your interpretation of the flashback (plus the fact that the flashback was so similar to what we already saw about the origin of Hydra from Capt. Savage). In any event, if this is all the additional evidence, i guess the interpretation of that flashback has to be based on the flashback sequence alone. Erik BeckNovember 23, 2015 6:56 AM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 Fnord - I may have already brought this up in #269. I don't know if it's worth any more points under Historical Significance Rating, but you should at least note the beginning of the Magneto / Rogue romance given what an impact it had on Age of Apocalypse. Omar KarinduNovember 23, 2015 6:43 AM Giant-Size Spider-Man #4 Magnum's survival is telegraphed here, though: the panels showing his "death" have the rounded corners of a flashback or imagination sequence rather than the square borders of regular panels, and Conway takes care to show that the Punisher didn't actually *see* Magnum's death because he was too busy getting clear of the gas-filled room. Omar KarinduNovember 23, 2015 6:27 AM Giant-Size Defenders #3 Grott is the winning concepot here, and Korvac will go on to greater thins, but I kind of liked Thakkor, the warrior on horseback who turns out to be a mannequin manipoulated by a psi-powered horse. Perhaps he's a mutant from the planet Houyhnhnm? Omar KarinduNovember 23, 2015 6:24 AM Giant-Size Fantastic Four #3 The story makes a lot more sense if you assume Reed is wrong and that the "ancient curse" is actually a curse; certainly the Horsemen's powers feel more like magic than science. Still a dog of a story, though. JCNovember 23, 2015 5:25 AM Web of Spider-Man #88-89 So Alfredo becums Blood Rose is dat it? TuomasNovember 23, 2015 4:21 AM Captain Marvel #34 Between the death of Captain Marvel and Civil War, Nitro has got to be the one minor villain with the biggest influence on the Marvel Universe. Luis DantasNovember 23, 2015 3:02 AM Daredevil #299-300 Odd how things can be subjective sometimes. I found Born Again rather unappealling a read. Yet I enjoyed Last Rites considerably. I guess Frank Miller is not a writer to my taste. JSfanNovember 23, 2015 2:14 AM Daredevil #299-300 Hi Fnord, is there a panel of the Kingpin when he was young in this book? If so, and it's not too much trouble, could you scan it, please? It would be interesting to see how the Kingpin looked at a young age. DarrenNovember 23, 2015 2:13 AM Uncanny X-Men #107-108 I believe it was said in an interview with the late great Cockrum or maybe it was Claremont, that it took 3 months to script and pencil one book so this three issue arc involving the Shi'ar Empire probably took the better part of a year to plot out. Starting in mid to late 1976 by my estimations, thanks to an interview with Claremont I remember reading a long time ago that mentioned it usually took 3 months to script and finish the art of one issue. Being that Claremont has said the reason for putting Jean in the hospital for 3 issues was due to the X-team not knowing what to do with her, and how to deal with her power set without having the other members of the team seem superfluous, I tend to believe Chris when he said that Shi'ar was in the planning stages prior to Marvel's Star Wars deal. As for Cockrum leaving, the man was a great artist but it had to be hard for him to balance not only the art duties on X-Men but a lot of the covers for Marvel at the same time. The guy must have been on the verge of a burn out. Morgan WickNovember 23, 2015 12:05 AM Ghost Rider #22-24 "The fact that Deathwatch isn't human turns out to be more important than it seemed, since Ghost Rider's compunction about taking lives only applies to humans." Except in the scan where Snowblind tells him Deathwatch isn't human, that's exactly how he brings it up: GR: "I will break my vow never to take a human life." So it seems like it's important in exactly the way it was when it was originally brought up...? Of course, Ghost Rider repeats it later when he actually does take out Deathwatch, so... Morgan WickNovember 22, 2015 11:57 PM Amazing Spider-Man #68-69 In a later entry, you give credit to Frank Miller for making the Kingpin a more behind-the-scenes type of villain. Although it was a decade before him during which Kingpin would still have been portrayed as a more physical villain, I wonder how much of the credit also has to go to the movie "The Godfather" that comes out a few years after this. It's hard to overstate how much that movie changed people's perceptions of gangsters and the mafia (even among gangsters themselves), and it seems like later portrayals of the Kingpin and his organization (I'm writing this the same weekend you're reviewing the 1991 Last Rites arc) owe a big debt to that movie. Then again, both the movie and Frank Miller were heavily inspired by noir, so... Morgan WickNovember 22, 2015 11:35 PM Web of Spider-Man #86 ...I'm having a hard time believing this comic's average circulation was really five digits. I suspect you dropped a digit there. accordion321November 22, 2015 10:54 PM Daredevil #44-46 You have "the Joker" for "the Jester" at one point on this page. AndrewNovember 22, 2015 8:33 PM Daredevil #299-300 IMO, Maltese is probably not a direct reference to the Maltese Falcon, but to Corto Maltese, the Italian comic that Frank Miller name-dropped in the Dark Knight. GromNovember 22, 2015 7:19 PM Daredevil #299-300 Agree with Michael. It was jarring to see how quickly Kingpin fell and made no sense that he went from riches to rags in one issue. While I liked seeing Daredevil smile finally after scores of miserable issues I did not like seeing Kingpin brought down so low. GromNovember 22, 2015 6:53 PM Ghost Rider #22-24 This title was fun for a while but then got really sloppy. Sad waste. Omar KarinduNovember 22, 2015 6:17 PM Captain Marvel #34 It's interesting that Starlin killed off Captain Mar-Vell by pointing back to an even from his final issue on the character's series. Even at the time of publication, I suppose this is Starlin symbolically saying that "his" Mar-Vell is dead and gone. Omar KarinduNovember 22, 2015 6:02 PM Defenders #17-19 Heck, all the Wrecking Crew guys have marginally distinctive personalities for several years, until they turn into "face int he crowd" villains sometime in the mid-1990s. The Wrecker is the standard-issue street-smart thug, Thunderball is the smart schemer, Bulldozer is a Southerner, and Piledriver is dumber than the others and has a New Joisey accent. ChrisWNovember 22, 2015 4:42 PM Daredevil #299-300 I think Matt mocking the Kingpin was a very intentional callback to "Born Again." "This reminded me of the scene in Born Again when the Kingpin blew up Murdock's apartment, which caused Murdock to realize that all the seeming coincidences that had been causing him back luck were in fact orchestrated by the Kingpin. However, i don't think that's intentional, since this is not a turning point for the Kingpin the way it was for Daredevil in Born Again. If anything, this sequence cements his downfall." Which basically what happened to Matt when he realized the Kingpin was behind everything. Not with Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli's level of ability, but a very fun story. I had stopped reading "Daredevil" years before, except for the Mutant crossovers, but grabbed this up as a sequel to "Born Again" and wasn't really disappointed. Don't look at it as a believable story in and of itself, and instead see it as a crimeboss realizing after a very long time that he lives in a superhero world, and is being outmatched by a superhero. HYDRA and SHIELD are part and parcel of living in that world, and my favorite scene was Peter Parker taking pictures in the background, yelling 'go gettim, hornhead!' Piotr WNovember 22, 2015 4:07 PM Ghost Rider #22-24 So, I wasn't the only one annoyed that Mackie didn't explain anything about Deathwatch in the end? We learn that he is a "Translord" - whatever that is. No further explanation for his background or his goals (I mean, if he's willing to abandon his big criminal operation just like that, then what his goal really is?)... *shakes fist angrily* Mackie!!! Max_SpiderNovember 22, 2015 4:01 PM Web of Spider-Man #86 Maybe you should add the issue where Richard gets a big handprint on his chest in the references? Surely there is one? BobNovember 22, 2015 3:45 PM Ghost Rider #22-24 Tex is a great inker and embellisher and the art on the issues with Saltares looked nice. BerendNovember 22, 2015 3:24 PM Web of Spider-Man #86 As a kid I had a bunch of Spidey collections from the era when Puma was in control of the Bugle and Robbie Robertson was in jail, then a big gap in my collection up to just before the Clone Saga. In that gap I really only had a Maximum Carnage collection, since that was obviously a very important story! So I'm absolutely loving the 1991 Spidey reviews you are doing. Finally I get to see the first appearances of Carnage, Demogoblin, Professor Kafka, Doppelganger etc. It doesn't feel like I missed many good comics, but it's awesome to finally know the whole story! MichaelNovember 22, 2015 3:19 PM Web of Spider-Man #86 To be fair, Mackie did show that the struggle between Macendale and Demogoblin was weakening both of them, so Demogoblin being fooled was arguably justifiable. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 22, 2015 3:13 PM Web of Spider-Man #86 I thought the fact that a demon couldn't see through the ruse Richard was portraying with a prosthetic was ridiculous. MichaelNovember 22, 2015 2:06 PM Daredevil #299-300 One other issue with this storyline- was the disgraced general on the videotape supposed to be Haywerth? Was Chichester unaware that he was appearing regularly as a member of the Commission? MichaelNovember 22, 2015 1:36 PM Web of Spider-Man #88-89 Further complicating this story with retcons is this- at the end of this story, "Richard" is badly injured. In Web of Spider-Man 97, we find out that he was put on a boat taking him to a criminal surgeon, and it crashed, where he ended up on an island with Nightwatch. But in She-Hulk,Soule retconned that Nightwatch's heroic past was never real. So if that's the case, what really happened to "Richard" at the end of this story? clydeNovember 22, 2015 1:34 PM Daredevil #299-300 I love the fact that the Kingpin is so important, that this storyline unofficially crosses over to Spider-Man and Ghost Rider books. This is exactly why I prefer Marvel over DC. The shared universe works out much better at Marvel. That's just my opinion, of course. Jon DubyaNovember 22, 2015 1:17 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #15 @Bob: Hey, Cable & Deadpool was pretty awesone One questions i have is why just these people? According the Muir Island Saga, Guido and Amanda Sefton should be there as well. (I'll give this creative team the benefit of the doubt and assume that this takes place sometime during Uncanny #274-275, to explain Rogue's abscence) And even with the Shadow King "loosening his hold" (rolleyes), why is Polaris there? Isn't she supposed to be locked up at this point as the "Nexus of focal poiint of hatred" or some such rubbish? As "recent" as Uncanny #269 she was shown to be locked up. It's all very confusing. I WOULD complain about Lorna thong-tacular costume if I wasn't aware of the existence of X-Factor #87. MichaelNovember 22, 2015 1:02 PM Daredevil #299-300 Some people might like this story but I think it was horribly contrived and helped destroy the Kingpin's sense of menace. ChrisNovember 22, 2015 12:59 PM Ghost Rider #22-24 I had dropped the title at this point real time for the reasons you mentioned. After being very excited for the first half year or so, the title just meandered. The new villains were less than inspired, and whatever merits of the artist, their design was atrocious. Obviously the title would remain popular for a long while afterwards, but I didn't care anymore. Piotr WNovember 22, 2015 12:40 PM Ghost Rider #21 Yeah, when you read a lot of GR issues, you can notice... stuff. Like Danny's relationship with Stacy going absolutely nowhere - Mackie does almost nothing with this character, aside from her (rightfully) complaining that Danny's neglecting her. Similarly, Danny's mother is a plot device, not a character - she's so poorly defined that she even changes her appearance completely in the course of the book! It's like Mackie introduced these characters, but had absolutely no idea what to do with them... Frankly speaking, this GR series is awful. Watch for Fnord's future reviews, folks - you'll see some absolutely astounding crap. MichaelNovember 22, 2015 12:35 PM Daredevil #298 Fnord, see the Hand operatives in issues 294-296 WERE working for Strucker. So does that change your opinion of the flashback scene? MichaelNovember 22, 2015 12:14 PM Web of Spider-Man #86 I don't think think "Richard" was claiming to be touched by a demon but by the Lord. ChrisWNovember 22, 2015 11:45 AM Uncanny X-Men annual #9 That said, I definitely agree with Michael that Scott is acting like a major idiot. A redhead with telekinesis and telepathy who seems really intent on being Phoenix and claims to be from the future is really something he should look at a bit more closely, regardless of what Hela said. fnord12November 22, 2015 11:33 AM Tales Of Suspense #65 (Iron Man) It wasn't shown or mentioned. But at this point Stark didn't have a hall of armor or anything. He had his current suit, and the plot of this story caused him to dust off his old suit. There's no mention of any spare parts that he might have already been wearing. While he's wearing the old armor, he gets some heart pain because "this was the reason I designed the other armor... because this one is too heavy! The strain is too great!". ChrisWNovember 22, 2015 11:33 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 I have no good or rational explanation of why I don't count the "X-Men/Alpha Flight" series. I can't even think of a bad or irrational explanation off the top of my head, except maybe that it always seemed like Marvel was trying way too hard to reunite Claremont/Byrne, and when Byrne wasn't interested, Claremont went ahead anyway. I understand there were publishing issues which put it behind schedule as well. I dunno. Makes a nice prelude to the X-Men/New Mutants Asgardian adventures, but something about it had never felt as 'real' to me as those Asgardian adventures. Maybe it was the premise. Loki's not going to do a good deed unless he gets something out of, that was blatantly obvious. [Maybe that was the point of ending the Asgardian adventures, that Amara would regain her humanity, but he wasn't so cruel as to make Shan fat again.] Or maybe it's just that I didn't read it until many years after I'd read X-Men Annual #9 and New Mutants Special Edition #1, so there's the difference in my own age which changes my affection/interest in the story. Anyway, so it's now established that Wolverine was never seen on-panel with Madelyne until the Asgardian Wars, and he never ever commented on any similarity to Jeannie? MichaelNovember 22, 2015 10:11 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 @Red Comet- no, it isn't. You're probably thinking of a scene in issue 201 where Maddie notices that it was raining as Storm fights Scott. That's explained later in issue 226- although Forge's gizmo prevented Storm from consciously using her powers, the weather sometimes reflected her unconscious moods. Oliver_CNovember 22, 2015 9:16 AM Marvel Comics Presents #25 (Ursa Major) As much as I like Ursa Major, this is one lame story. I suppose the writer, as banal as his dialog is, should get a point for never mentioning vodka -- most every other cliche when it comes to comic-book Russians is present, after all. Red CometNovember 22, 2015 9:16 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 Going by the story alone I've always assumed Claremont's original intention was that Maddie was more or less a normal woman, possibly a latent mutant, who just looked like Jean Grey. By this point Cyclops was on the way to being written out and I think Claremont wanted to give him a happy ending send-off with a wife that looked like his dead girlfriend. The resemblance to Jean grist for the story mill leading up to the Mastermind fight in #175. The reason I think she may have been intended to be a latent mutant is because surviving that plane crash unharmed was part of her backstory from the beginning, at the time mostly done to build up the is she/is she not Phoenix reborn mystery. It is also heavily implied in #201 that she used some kind of subtle pyschic influence to cause Cyclops to lose his fight against non-powered Storm. MichaelNovember 22, 2015 8:58 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 Claremont has claimed in interviews that no, Maddie wasn't supposed to be Jean. Luis DantasNovember 22, 2015 8:47 AM Ghost Rider #21 Come to think of it, this book does not really benefit from a long term reading, now does it? It seems to work best when read with an expectation of done-on-one thrills with no big effort to form a coherent whole. AndrewNovember 22, 2015 8:39 AM Captain Britain #3-39 Thanks for the info, Berend. That makes Hunter marginally more interesting, but he's still "the character they settled for because the couldn't get Hawkeye" as far as I'm concerned. Erik BeckNovember 22, 2015 8:31 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 At this point, how does Johnny not know that Peter is Spider-Man. It's just ridiculous. And Claremont has his slave fetish. Apparently Byrne is obsessed with heads? Certainly seems to be the case lately. Thanos6November 22, 2015 7:13 AM Super-Villain Team-Up #16-17 It really should be OHOTMU: Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe. AndrewNovember 22, 2015 6:29 AM Super-Villain Team-Up #16-17 What does OTMU stand for? When I google it I only get the name of one of the Watchers, which I assume is an homage to whatever this is. Luis DantasNovember 22, 2015 1:32 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 Claremont did not originally mean for Madelyne to be Jean's literal clone? Did we ever learn that? I don't particularly doubt it so much as doubt that Claremont had a specific goal in mind. The original early appearances stopped just a hair short of saying outright that Madelyne was in some unexplained way Jean's second coming. To the best of my understanding Claremont intended to leave that very ambiguous for as long as he could. Piotr WNovember 22, 2015 1:30 AM Ghost Rider #21 When I first read the issue, I initially took Badollino for the Punisher. They look so similar... Anyway - the character of Badollino is another one of the characters that get introduced only not to have anything worthwhile done with them. Here, Badollino is set up as a possible big threat for GR... but nothing will come out of it. After a few minor apperances, Badollino will suddenly develop a great hatred for GR and sell his soul to Mephisto, becoming Vengeance. But nothing big will come out of it, either, as Vengeance will suddenly turn from GR's enemy to reluctant ally... I think it all demonstrates that Mackie had no idea where he was going with most of his GR stuff. Another example: the HEART team... clydeNovember 22, 2015 12:38 AM Tales Of Suspense #65 (Iron Man) FNORD - when you wrote - "But in this issue, Weasel manages to steal the entire suit, which means Stark wasn't wearing the chestplate." Was it shown that he wasn't wearing any chestplate, even a spare from an old Iron Man costume? ChrisWNovember 22, 2015 12:38 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 It's possible to retcon the Wolverine/Maddie relationship. I'm not so much bothered by that, as I am flabbergasted by fnord's point that we never ever see Wolverine meeting Madelyne and giving the slightest thought to who she looks exactly like. Xavier, Lilandra, Storm, and Scott himself flipped out over the resemblance, but Wolverine? Nope, nothing to see here, move on. Off the top of my head, did Wolverine appear on-panel with Madelyne before #201, when Scott and Storm face off? I know they were in the "X-Men/Alpha Flight" crossover, but I don't really count that story. Other than that story, I'm hard-pressed to think of Wolverine and Madelyne interacting up through the X-Men rescuing her from the Marauders. It wouldn't surprise me if I'm forgetting something, but I'm not forgetting much, and basically Wolvie and Maddie hung out for a long time in the Australian desert without him ever connecting her to Jean Grey. Even though they're clones. cullenNovember 21, 2015 7:44 PM Daredevil #297 Weeks almost seems to be taking JR JR's drawing style as a guide for Mary. Just Mary, though. His other characters look more "traditional." fnord12November 21, 2015 7:44 PM Web of Spider-Man #84-85 Yeah, i listed Alfredo. Thanks guys. TCPNovember 21, 2015 6:28 PM Web of Spider-Man #84-85 I really enjoyed this whole arc, and it's certainly much better than the typical 90s guest star bombast that was being churned out in Amazing at the time. It's a great street-level saga. Howard Mackie brought some much-needed stability to this title, and I always enjoyed his pre-reboot work on the Spider-titles, both here and down the road in Peter Parker:Spider-Man. Terry Kavanaugh would later wreck this entire storyline by retconning the motivations and characters involved. I've always wondered how complicit Mackie was in Kavanaugh's crime. Fnord, I think it's because of that retcon that Alfredo should be listed here. Walter LawsonNovember 21, 2015 6:21 PM Web of Spider-Man #84-85 There's more Alfredo Morrelli inthese issues than you might suspect, Fnord, but I'll say no more lest I spoil your enjoyment of some of Web's other crappiest stories to come (leading up to the "unforgettable" Nightwatch, no less.) Red CometNovember 21, 2015 6:16 PM Ghost Rider #21 Good old Vengeance. You know it's the 90s when you have to make a badass Ghost Rider knock-off since the original is apparently so tame with his flaming skull, flaming motorcycle, chain whip, spiked leather jacket, and Make-People-Crazy Vision. Walter LawsonNovember 21, 2015 6:06 PM Daredevil #297 Looking again at the scans, Mary's lack of memory of her time with DD, and the fact that these memory lapses have been characteristic of her, there's a pretty good case that Mary's ability to consent really is impaired. I'm not sure that the creators or editors themselves were clear on what they were doing here, however. Red CometNovember 21, 2015 6:06 PM Web of Spider-Man #84-85 I eventually got all the Name of the Rose issues in a quarter bin during, I think, my college years. What a stinker, especially compared to the much more entertaining and guest star filled storylines in Amazing and adjectiveless Spider-man. Walter LawsonNovember 21, 2015 5:51 PM Daredevil #297 I haven't read this issue in twenty years, so I may be getting this wrong, but I don't think Mary's mental illness has been portrayed in a way to indicate she's incapable of consent. Both Typhoid and Mary do seem to act deliberately and in ways that suggest they are in control of their actions, however volatile their emotions might be. I take DD's disgust with himself not to be out of a realization that Mary can't consent but because he was manipulative and cruel in using seduction as a weapon at all. Part of the problem in all this is the way Marvel treats mental illness: I don't think we've ever seen a mentally ill character so far in this project who has non-superhero trouble functioning or seems more likely to be the victim than the perpetrator of crime. Usually mental illness in the comics just means you act emotionally extreme or act like a supervillain. Nocenti has tried to get beyond that--I don't recall the "Mad Dog Ward" arc in Spidey well enough to say if she succeeded--and Mary is presented as a very weird character, but still rather closer to Hulk/Banner comic-book mentally ill than like the real thing. That's my reading, anyway. Piotr WNovember 21, 2015 3:35 PM Spider-Man #18-23 I don't really like this story. I know it's supposed to be a "dumb summer blockbuster", but I don't like dumb summer blockbusters. Also, I really, really don't like the idea that the Sinister Six committed genocide. This is way too serious crime to pin on some of these guys. david banesNovember 21, 2015 2:55 PM Namor #15-20 Are there any alien races in the Marvel universe where the males are stunningly handsome and the females are ugly? Really that seems to be the case with most aliens in comic books and movies actually. fnord12November 21, 2015 2:26 PM Namor #15-20 Thanks Erik. Erik RobbinsNovember 21, 2015 1:57 PM Namor #15-20 Hey fnord, I happened to notice that Misty Knight isn't tagged for these issues. RyanNovember 21, 2015 1:19 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #178-183 So it seems like the big complaint is the plot coming from nowhere. I tried reading comics by run instead of chronological order. Reading by itself, this seems like a very good story. I love how Buschema uses the sequenced frames to build the plot. My wife called it lazy drawing haha. But the small differences help display emotion. DeMatteis does a good job of making Harry crazy again. Erik BeckNovember 21, 2015 12:55 PM Avengers #329-331 I knew this was the beginning of the end for me, after years of collecting Avengers. I loved the membership idea - I was okay with the teams they chose. But this was at least the fourth time in less than 25 issues that the team had disappeared into another dimension (against Nebula, in the hospital, against the Soviets and Alpha Flight, this issue) and it was just getting to be too ridiculous. It would be fine if the extra-dimensional threats were interesting, but they just weren't and they kept taking up multiple issues. ChrisWNovember 21, 2015 11:13 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 Yeah, but I don't think he's being that literal. Just bad writing is all. fnord12November 21, 2015 10:22 AM Spider-Man #18-23 Thanks Thanos6 and Michael. Made a few edits. MichaelNovember 21, 2015 9:31 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 But Scott DOES say that Maddie smelled like Jean in X-Factor 38. MichaelNovember 21, 2015 9:27 AM Spider-Man #18-23 One thing your review didn't make clear, fnord- Octopus paid Electro to get the Sinister Six back together, so he is indirectly responsible for what happened to the Casadas. MichaelNovember 21, 2015 9:20 AM Spectacular Spider-Man #178-183 Even Harry's reversion to being crazy was a little sudden- in that case, though, it was much better justified as a result of him accidentally poisoning Normie. Erik BeckNovember 21, 2015 8:59 AM Amazing Spider-Man #345 "In Avengers 201, Jarvis was described as a World War II veteran. Avengers 201 came out in 1980, so he'd probably be in his 50s. So, yeah, he's younger than May." Isn't Galactus younger than Aunt May? Omar KarinduNovember 21, 2015 8:35 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 Writers have always downplayed Wolverine's senses when they need an "impostor" plot to work, and with Maddie there's the added complication that she *wasn't* written as a clone originally, which means she must have "smelled different" in the writer's mind. And by Inferno, where the "clone" retcon is in place, there are so many psychic and supernatural influences messing with the team -- including Maddie herself -- I suppose it can be handwaved as subtle mind control or something. Luis DantasNovember 21, 2015 8:22 AM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 Marvel does not treat biology with anywhere near enough seriousness for that to matter, but... it is not really all that surprising that a "designer" clone might have a significantly different smell from that of his or her template. Madelyne's origin is to this day less than clear to me, but if she was meant to be a clone designed by Sinister in order to look like Jean's living image yet have a conceivable claim at being her own person, it is not inconceivable that he might tinker a bit with her phenotype by way of, say, adjusting her nutrients intake, the bacteria in her body, or whatever. I don't know however why a telepath would find a clone similar to its template when they have led entirely different lives. As for Wolverine noticing a similarity of body smells... well, are we to assume that Wolverine has a good grasp of the body odors of women he is not involved with as a matter of course? Personally, I find the implications more than a bit disturbing. On the other hand, it could make for some interesting interactions with Spider-Woman and her pheromone problem. I know that the two of them have interacted fairly often, but I don't think that matter was ever brought up. Thanos6November 21, 2015 6:31 AM Spider-Man #18-23 fnord, after the first can of the Cyborg/Crimson Commando, you say the "Sinister Four confront Sandman" when it should be "confront Octopus." cullenNovember 21, 2015 2:39 AM Spider-Man #18-23 :D @walter Jon DubyaNovember 21, 2015 1:29 AM X-Force #4 I keep waiting for Regina to pop up and and shout, "Rob, stop trying to make "Shatterstar" happen. He's NOT going to happen." (At least not until Peter David gets a hold on him.) But seriously, "Creators Pet" syndrome is running rampantly here. And of course for all of X-Force's supposed "kewlness", they don't really achieve a whole heck of a lot. I mean what's the point of of going to such "XTREMENESS" if you're gonna fail at half of your missions? ChrisWNovember 20, 2015 11:33 PM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 I don't recall such an acknowledgement, and I really did try to think of one. Not enough to actually look through my Essential collections, but I really can't think of anything. I think Mr. Sinister said something in the pre-Inferno issues about putting enough work into Maddie to fool a telepath, but fnord's point that we never got Wolverine's reaction is just mind-blowing. Especially with all the retcons. Is a clone's scent really so different from the original that Wolverine, of all people, never gives it a second thought? Even though Madelyne looks exactly like the woman he loves in a retconned love triangle? And at no point do we see him making the connection? "Every time I see Madelyne," Wolverine thinks in some random moment in Australia, "she reminds me of Jeannie. But Jeannie died. Yet I smelled her in the Morlock tunnels, and again at Sarah Grey's house. But her scent is totally different. How can two people be so alike yet not smell the same?" Or "Madelyne is clearly not Jeannie, yet they smell so alike. No, I can't think about that. Mariko is the woman I love." Just, you know, give us something. At the very least, realizing that Madelyne turned out to be Dark Phoenix Resurrected after all, he should have smacked himself in the face and thought "Dammit, I should have seen that coming." Or, as fnord points out, just said "Wow, you look exactly like Jean Grey," and given Maddie a character-building moment to respond. She could have been another Moira Mactaggert. "Why do people keep saying that? I'm Madelyne Pryor and I'm proud of who I am. You wanna make something of it, shorty?" And then show up in her lingerie with a machine gun to help the X-Men fight demons. Walter LawsonNovember 20, 2015 11:01 PM Spider-Man #18-23 Gah. Here's the Larsen X-Factor link again: https://afghanant.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/fabian-niciezas-and-erik-larsens-x-factor/ Walter LawsonNovember 20, 2015 10:59 PM Spider-Man #18-23 The Appendix goes into the details, http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/cyborgxs.htm Here's Larsen's X-Factor: bian-nicieza-and-erik-larsens-unused.html Walter LawsonNovember 20, 2015 10:52 PM Spider-Man #18-23 The Cyborg here kind of, sort of is Super-Patriot (Larsen version). He's also Crimson Commando, sort of: the character here is based on the cyborg design Larsen conceived for Crimson Commando when CC was going to be a member of a Larsen/Nicieza X-Factor book, which never happened because PAD-Factor happened instead. But this Cyborg's memories and his reference to "Dominic" (i.e., Avalanche) do match up with Crimson Commando's experiences getting maimed in Iraq. When we eventually do see Crimson Commando again he is indeed a cyborg, but he looks a bit different from here. It's arguable whether Crimson Commando should be tagged here: Larsen seems to have intended it to be him, and this story is compatible with CC's eventual reappearance, I believe, but there's nothing that puts this Cyborg's ID beyond dispute. After Larsen left Marvel, he repurposed the design again for Super-Patriot. JCNovember 20, 2015 10:49 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #184-185 It takes a certain kind of artist to make the White Rabbit not sexy. Sal Buscema is dat artist. Walter LawsonNovember 20, 2015 10:38 PM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 I recall a passing acknowledgment in some issue of Uncanny circa Inferno (or possibly X-Factor) that Sinister had disguised Maddie so even Wolverine couldn't tell she was a Jean clone. Walter LawsonNovember 20, 2015 10:33 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #178-183 I remember not much liking the start of DeMatteis's run but loving it by the time we got to Spectacular 200. This story I somehow don't remember at all--it must have a sequel where Spidey clashes with Zemo, be ause I do remember that. (And it seemed go have a bit of psychological mischaracterization too--Zemo being worked up about his hands for once.) Even the parts of the DeMatteis run Indon't like I still find head and shuolders above Round Robin, which seemed like the worst Spidey story I'd read in Amazing. Some sidekick of Moon Knight's that I, and most other Amazing readers, had never heard of was the villain? Generic cyborgs with generic motives, and guest stars without story logic--it was a meandering cartoony drag. DeMatteis at least tries to do something with character and theme, even if overdoes it here. I'm not arguing my taste is right, though, just noting that there may be a lot of reader disagreement about the merits of these particular stories. Round Robin might as well be Capwolf, as far as I'm concerned. DarrenNovember 20, 2015 8:49 PM Uncanny X-Men #94-95 X-Men 94 is also notable as being the very first on panel kiss between Scott and Jean. It took four years for the two to admit their feelings and another 9 (publication) for the two to kiss openly. Why were the writers unable to publicize the romantic relationship between the two prior to this? We see Peter smooch on Gwen in the Amazing Spider-Man books, Sterenko had Nick Fury kiss his woman. Why were Scott and Jean forbidden to do so during this time? DarrenNovember 20, 2015 8:12 PM Uncanny X-Men #97 one could argue that Jean Grey rejoined the team in this issue. She's there with Xavier at the airport promising to look after things while he's gone, whether that means active duty is one thing, but she did return here as an obvious set up for the Phoenix Saga. ChrisWNovember 20, 2015 7:49 PM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 That's a good point, why didn't we get Wolverine's reaction to Maddie? Ever. He sliced up a robot Jean in #100 because he knows people by scent. Whether or not Claremont had retconned the Scott/Jean/Wolvie love-triangle by this point, surely Scott, or somebody shocked by the similarities, would ask him. "So Logan, what do you think about Scott's new girlfriend? She smell right to you?" He obviously memorized Jean's scent, recognizing her several times after her 'reincarnation' without actually seeing her. Considering how much work Claremont put into the title, it's understandable that it takes us decades to recognize the flaws, and it's probable that the title wouldn't have been as good if he wasn't under the restrictions of Shooter-era Marvel and the Comics Code, but yikes. How do the X-Men not talk about this stuff, even off-panel? cullenNovember 20, 2015 7:01 PM Spider-Man #18-23 The cyborg design almost seems like a prototype for Larsen's SuperPatriot, who came along in 1992: Max_SpiderNovember 20, 2015 6:49 PM Spider-Man #18-23 Yikes at the Glassman attack! No wonder Doc Ock had to go and fetch a new body! @Ataru320 I thought thought the same about Electro's weapons. Goodness, there's just too much to say about all this. It all seems to be quite energy filled if nothing else. xD Max_SpiderNovember 20, 2015 6:25 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #178-183 Harry and Peter's interactions in this story kind of remind me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lcpyhd5LHI Statisfically, Vermin's multitude of traumas might seem unlikely, but honestly when you've got thousands of villains in your universe, it'd be just as unlikely not to get somebody with such a multitude of traumas. BerendNovember 20, 2015 5:24 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #184-185 Wow. Talk about mood whiplash! BerendNovember 20, 2015 5:22 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #178-183 Man, sexually abused AND mutated by Zemo AND giving of something that makes people hate him? Vermin might be one of the characters with the worst life in the Marvel Universe... Kraven's Last Hunt was great, but I don't like how after that dark psychological stories kept being done with Spidey. Especially not since that all culminates in that whole "I AM THE SPIDER" nonsense. Say what you want about the Clone Saga, but at least it brought Peter back to a happy life and gave us Ben Reilly as a Spider who would could still crack a smile from time to time! fnord12November 20, 2015 5:10 PM Hulk #388 Fred Sloan has a couple more appearances, but not during David's run. Mark DrummondNovember 20, 2015 4:53 PM Slapstick #1-4 The 2nd panel in "Legend of Slapstick" is a reference to Jack Kirby's cover to New Gods #1. James MNovember 20, 2015 4:52 PM Punisher: Blood on the Moors A couple of Scottish in-jokes - Big Tam, who, according to the fish and chip shop panel, called someone called Jean, is Sean Connery, or at the very least it was his teenage nickname. Also, the Hearts supporter refers to the Punisher as 'Big Yin' - this is the nickname of the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, with 'yin' meaning 'one'. Incidentally, the Hearts fans are drinking McEwan's lager; McEwan's sponsored Rangers (their opponents) at the time. Thanos6November 20, 2015 4:34 PM Spider-Man #18-23 As a kid, this was my first Doc Ock story and to me it's the baseline he should be written at. Very very dangerous, right up there with Doom or Magneto as someone who can make entire teams of heroes go "oh crap" by showing up. But yes, fnord, you're right about the doomsday satellite plothole. And I'm pretty sure Ock is also going for full-on world domination in this story, like Hydra themselves. MikeCheyneNovember 20, 2015 4:32 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #184-185 I'm a huge fan of DeMatteis' humor, as best seen in the comic that the "bwa-ha-ha" joke was referencing, Justice League America. I love this story; the best part was Spidey finally having enough of the Walrus and finger poke of dooming him. I'm slightly confused that Leap-Frog can be so good despite being not very good as a villain and also being older and gimpier. But good for Vin. MortificatorNovember 20, 2015 4:28 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #178-183 I laughed at Pete's flip-out being so completely over-the-top as to scare Harry sane. Mark DrummondNovember 20, 2015 4:09 PM Hulk #388 Was that pot-smoking hippie guy who briefly hung out with the Hulk ever brought back during David's run? Mark DrummondNovember 20, 2015 4:05 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 So Iraq's name must be changed, but Kuwait is just fine the way it is? I guess the lesson here is "worry about the invaders getting angry, but don't mind the invadees"? Red CometNovember 20, 2015 4:04 PM Spider-Man #18-23 Very fun story. I had the last issue or two as a kid and eventually got them all via trade so I never realized there even were back-ups in the early issues (the trade didn't reprint them obviously). I think the crazy cyborg in this story is supposed to be a re-built Crimson Commando, but I've always been kind of iffy on that because I seem to recall him getting blown up toward the end of this storyline...been a while since I read it so I don't remember the details. Thoughts: Mark DrummondNovember 20, 2015 3:58 PM X-Force #5 Who shrank the Blob's head? TCPNovember 20, 2015 3:45 PM Spider-Man #18-23 The Sinister Six commit genocide in this story. That is quite an escalation for some of these guys; in Electro's first appearance, for example, he showed remorse for seemingly-killing Spider-Man during their fight! Robert November 20, 2015 3:43 PM Spider-Man #18-23 First three scans here are sideways on Safari. I love these issues, as well as the Sinister Six story from ASM. My favorite work from Larsen. TCPNovember 20, 2015 3:30 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #178-183 I agree that Peter's "subconscious guilt" over his parents' deaths and his hangups about being buried alive could have been introduced better. However, I still really enjoy this arc, if for nothing else than the return of Harry as the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn and his legacy will always be a key part of the Spider-Man mythos, and bringing Harry back as a villainous Goblin (and not the pseudo-hero Goblin from a year prior) was the right move, as it brings that legacy back to the forefront and essentially resurrects Peter's greatest foe without having to actually return Norman from the dead. Harry's previous mental issues during his initial run as the Goblin were never effectively dealt with, either, so this seems to be like a logical way to continue that story. Even besides the Osborns, a lot of the issues addressed in this arc will come up again in the next few years. Spidey lamenting that all of his rogues gallery just keep coming back is a key conflict in Maximum Carnage. And, of course, bringing up Peter's feelings for his parents, however sudden, does foreshadow developments in next year's Amazing Spider-Man #365... I do have to agree that DeMatteis went to the well a little too often with the "troubled childhood" trope for his villains. He would introduce similar neuroses into Electro's backstory during his "Light the Night" arc. Ataru320November 20, 2015 3:27 PM Spider-Man #18-23 Whether or not it was intentional, "Spider-lok" really just looks hilarious, almost like a parody of the era than just another part of what was going on. Red CometNovember 20, 2015 3:18 PM Strange Tales #178-181 I really like this story, but it should be noted that it is heavily influenced by Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone saga, almost to the point where Starlin's Warlock could be classified as a re-telling in a cosmic setting. Warlock is moody and angsty like Elric, the Soul Gem is a soul drinking weapon like Elric's sword Stormbringer, both characters have a doomed destiny, and Pip the Troll is very similar to Elric's companion Moonglum. Both stories also revolve around themes of anti-religion and Law vs. Chaos. Tons of other comics writers have also borrowed from Moorcock over the years, particularly Grant Morrison. George R.R. Martin's Targaryens in Game of Thrones are also very similar to Moorcock's Melniboneans. Erik BeckNovember 20, 2015 2:43 PM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 Ben, you are nuts, but an admirable nuts. I just had my wife read Thanos vs Avengers and she turned to me at one point and said "Will this character ever stop saying 'This one'? It's really annoying." Then two days later it got out that she'll be appearing in the second Guardians film. So you can't be the only one who likes Mantis! Ben HermanNovember 20, 2015 11:07 AM Slapstick #1-4 Chris, it's likely that some of the stylization seen in this artwork is courtesy of Terry Austin's inking. He definitely works very well with Jim Fry here. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Slapstick. It's an interesting and somewhat funny examination of what would happen if someone got weird superpowers and, instead of doing the expected thing and becoming either a an outright hero or a villain, just decided to be totally self-centered. Slapstick is neither trying to save the world nor take it over; he just wants to have a fun time and work things to his advantage, utterly regardless of the consequences. Obviously that is the sort of characterization that would not work too well on a broad scale in a large shared universe such as the one published by Marvel. But it's interesting to see it from time to time, especially in a comedy title. Ben HermanNovember 20, 2015 10:31 AM Avengers #129-135, Giant-Size Avengers #2-4 I guess nobody cared for Mantis Steven Printz, I just got this done last weekend... https://benjaminherman.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/mantis-the-celestial-madonna-tattoo/ I expect that I am now in the running for World's Biggest Mantis Fan, although admittedly there probably isn't much competition for that title :) Ben HermanNovember 20, 2015 10:06 AM New Warriors #18 So Mark Bagley is moonlighting Btw Amazing and New Warriors? And wasn't Amazing just bi-weakly? Yes, JC, he was. Mark Bagley is one of the most prominent artists who started working at Marvel in the late 1980s who was really good at meeting a deadline. I think he later penciled 115 consecutive issues of Ultimate Spider-Man. Bagley is good *and* fast, a combination you would rarely see after the early 1990s. The only other artist who I can think of who was as fast as Bagley and who was also popular was Erik Larsen. Yeah, I know, some people don't like Larsen, but I'm a huge fan. I'm not as big on Bagley by any means, but he is still a good, solid artist in my estimation. All the other guys who were still in the biz in the 1990s who could hit a monthly deadline, such as Ron Frenz, Paul Ryan, Alex Saviuk, and Sal Buscema, unfortunately fell out of favor when all the hot, stylized artists came into prominence. Which I guess is why I do appreciate Bagley so much: he was pretty popular and in-demand at Marvel, but he remained a consummate professional, always meeting his deadlines. Oliver_CNovember 20, 2015 9:17 AM ROM #49 Even a jerk of a character like Steve Jackson earns a moment of pathos when he's murdered. Plus the design of the female Wraiths is impressively hideous for a Code-approved comic. Erik BeckNovember 20, 2015 7:23 AM Amazing Spider-Man #344 And to think, all I know about Carnage is that he will eventually get ripped in half and I only know that from reading TTT. Erik BeckNovember 20, 2015 7:07 AM New Warriors #7-9 Are Namorita and Emma competing to see whose bikini bottom can cover less of their body? Dan H.November 20, 2015 2:01 AM Avengers annual #10 Ironic that not terribly long after this story which dealt with Ms. Marvel losing her powers and her place as one of the premiere heroines in the Marvel Universe, the same thing happened to Spider-Woman, who really shined in this story and seemed to have been included by Claremont in hopes of advancing her standing. (Yeah, I know she didn't completely lose her powers, but even after her return from death she was really taken off the chessboard to an even greater extent than Carol, who at least went on to appear semi-regularly with the X-Men until she joined the Starjammers). Red CometNovember 19, 2015 11:11 PM New Warriors #18 In a way that cover blurb was true. This issue leads in to the resolution of Night Thrasher's storyline and backstory, all of which I recall being the reason he founded the New Warriors in the first place. By the time it's all done around issue #25, Bagley leaves the book and that's it for the "classic" (for lack of a better term) period of New Warriors. It starts going downhill from there with much more 90s extremism in the story and, frankly, progressively worse art. Ben HermanNovember 19, 2015 10:32 PM Punisher #35-40 Lucifer is really Belasco? Wait a minute, I thought Lucifer was actually Nightcrawler's father Azazel! I wonder how many people go around the Marvel universe claiming to be the Devil anyway? Walter LawsonNovember 19, 2015 10:26 PM Avengers annual #10 Although I've only heard that the Hellfire Club elements of the Dark Phoenix Saga were going to be included in Claremont's Ms. Marvel plans, I wonder if the cosmic elements would have come into play as well: Ms. Marvel had her own Shi'ar connections through Deathbird, after all, and Carol is a more obvious candudate for a space story than Phoenix Jean before Phoenix Jean went Dark. Carol's eventual evolution into the extremely powerful Binary is also suspiciously similar to Cosmic Phoenix in a general way, though not as star-consumingly powerful. JCNovember 19, 2015 10:17 PM New Warriors #18 So Mark Bagley is moonlighting Btw Amazing and New Warriors? And wasn't Amazing just bi-weakly? JCNovember 19, 2015 10:11 PM Punisher #53-59 My reaction to entering the thread and seeing Mulatto Punisher. Erik RobbinsNovember 19, 2015 9:58 PM Slapstick #1-4 I didn't have #2. That "Webs" gag is a good one. (I did have #4, and do remember enjoying the Ghost Rider bit) MichaelNovember 19, 2015 9:22 PM Hulk #388 Yeah, PAD wrote about how big the backlash to Northstar's coming out was here: Ben HermanNovember 19, 2015 9:05 PM Avengers annual #10 So who actually created Rogue? It would be Chris Claremont and... ? I've seen Michael Golden sometimes credited as the co-creator of Rogue, but that seems unlikely. The character was supposed to make her debut in Ms. Marvel, and would have if not for that title's extremely abrupt cancelation (which ultimately lead to a lot of re-shuffling by Claremont, including utilizing some dangling subplots in this annual). The penciler of Ms. Marvel when it was canceled was Mike Vosburg. A few years ago I e-mailed Vosburg asking if he was the artist who designed Rogue, but he responded that he had nothing to do with her creation. Every time I see Claremont at a convention I forget to ask him. Anyone else have an idea? Another oddity of this annual is that the cover is by Al Milgrom, and it is, um, sort of underwhelming, especially compared to the amazing artwork inside. I know a lot of people have wished that Golden could have drawn the cover. When I met him at a convention a few years ago and had my copy of the annual autographed, I asked him why he didn't draw the cover. He frowned and muttered something about "office politics." It sounded like it was a sore spot for him so I decided not to press the issue. I've often wondered how different the X-Men would be if Ms. Marvel had not been cancelled. It appears that Claremont was going to do a story involving the Hellfire Club tempting Carol Danvers over to the dark side (so to speak) and turning her into their Black Queen. But after Ms. Marvel got axed, that all got repurposed by Claremont in the now-classic "Dark Phoenix Saga" with Jean Grey going bad. A.LloydNovember 19, 2015 8:58 PM Avengers #329-331 Sandman, Spider-Man and Rage should never have been Avengers under any circumstances. This is when I stopped reading the book. Luis DantasNovember 19, 2015 8:25 PM Punisher: The Ghosts of Innocents #1-2 There is a strong Neal Adams influence in these Grindberg pencils. ChrisNovember 19, 2015 7:58 PM Slapstick #1-4 This is some of the best art from James Fry that I've seen. Stylized, but very good. The story doesn't seem too awful as long you don't consider it really in continuity. There should really be something else for books like this and Howard the Duck that invovles Marvel's characters, but isn't canonical. MichaelNovember 19, 2015 7:46 PM Namor #10-12 Eric, regarding, Spitfire's weight loss, she's usually depicted as having been thin as a teenager. That's the problem with deaging stories- if someone has the finger cut off when they're 30, and they're deaged to 25, should their finger grow back? MichaelNovember 19, 2015 7:40 PM New Warriors #18 Clyde, to be fair, Tai and Chord are Dwayne's legal guardians, so the idea that they might have authority over the Taylor Foundation is not a stretch. Now Gotham, on the other hand... Omar KarinduNovember 19, 2015 7:37 PM Slapstick #1-4 The Neutron Bum is very similar to the Atom Bum from one of the Fearless Fosdick sequences in the Li'l Abner comic strip. cullenNovember 19, 2015 7:37 PM Punisher #53-59 Nubian Nation was a real organization - an alternate name for the AnsaaruAllah Community / Nubian Islaamic Hebrews [sic]. Their adherents in the late 80s/early 90s included rappers Jay-Z, Intelligent Hoodlum, Zev Love X (later MF Doom), Tung Twista (later Twista), etc. More recently they were known as the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. Their founder/spiritual leader, who claims extraterrestrial origins, is currently doing time for multiple counts (triple-digits) of sexual misconduct. It's possible Baron was aware of the group (they had a strong presence in Brooklyn, Philly, and Atlanta). Or he might have just been riffing on 'Aryan Nations' and struck the name coincidentally. MichaelNovember 19, 2015 7:37 PM Punisher: The Ghosts of Innocents #1-2 So now we're not even pretending that the Punisher's war doesn't get innocents killed? Why don't the heroes go after him again? GromNovember 19, 2015 7:10 PM Punisher #53-59 This was a decent series when read in real time. I prefer Punisher 15 to 18 Kingpin story but "Final Days" was keeping this book's head just above the rising water. cullenNovember 19, 2015 6:30 PM Slapstick #1-4 Funny you mention the similarities between Madcap and Slapstick - they are both featured as "Deadpool substitutes" (along with Solo, Terror, and a few others) in the new, post-Secret Wars, Deadpool series. (Which I am, personally, enjoying immensely) LyronNovember 19, 2015 6:00 PM Hulk #388 That's coming up in #393, Johnathan. They do include a couple of letters in what might be called rounding the opinion, but there's no less than one poignant personal testimony, too. Thanos6November 19, 2015 5:46 PM Slapstick #1-4 I think Slapstick ended up winning "Best New Character" in Marvel's yearly poll of its fans. Red CometNovember 19, 2015 5:19 PM Slapstick #1-4 I had issues 2 and 4 as a kid. I still really like this series for the funny gags and taking the piss out of 90s comics with Overkill and making fun of crossovers in the last issue. The Ghost Rider bit is hilarious. It's also cool to see super-hero artists get to stretch their cartooning muscles when characters like Slapstick or Warlock are around. They don't get that opportunity much since super-hero books tend toward more illustrative house styles. JonathanNovember 19, 2015 5:00 PM Hulk #388 Regarding LGBT representation in comics at the time, I remember a Hulk letters page where Marvel are responding to some homophobic letters objecting to this storyline, though I can't recall whether they were in response to this issue or to the followup. There's also an upcoming X-Men letters page where someone complains about Xavier giving a fairly standard speech where he includes gay people in a list of people who should be treated equally! I dunno if they got a lot of letters like that, or they just printed the cranks. MikeCheyneNovember 19, 2015 4:44 PM Punisher #64-70 I loved this series; I think it would be a fun film too. I think Batroc is miscast and would actually have liked it better if he and Tarantula swapped places (or if other characters were used). Tarantula is portrayed more of a lovable mercenary when he's basically been always depicted as an asshole government goon, while Batroc has always been depicted as a lovable mercenary type. Also imagine Batroc and Frank Castle working together! It might have also made sense to use Batroc's Brigade as a whole if you're the Kingpin, but then they might have gotten axed I suppose (although only Snakebite dies here). Rapido is super cool. Tony LewisNovember 19, 2015 4:30 PM Slapstick #1-4 "Nightshade and Dark's Pandemonium Carnival" is a reference to Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. JonathanNovember 19, 2015 4:26 PM She-Hulk #34-35 I'm not only amazed Byrne knows who Scaleface is, but also that he didn't use Blow-Hard. (My guess is he was checking out Walt's art?) Squirrel Girl being so uncool is amusing, I didn't realise she'd appeared yet. Though Rintrah is much higher on my Coolometer. I dunno why, he just is. clydeNovember 19, 2015 4:03 PM Punisher #53-59 There are two cool covers for issue 57 - And a painted one for issue 58 - kvetoNovember 19, 2015 3:07 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 Who are you again? kvetoNovember 19, 2015 3:06 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 I read it fnord, just trying to take credit for your insight:-) fnord12November 19, 2015 2:51 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 Now we know who reads my entries and who just looks at the scans. ;-) kvetoNovember 19, 2015 2:37 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 In the last story, taking away all of the comedic buffoonery, unfortunately, the plot of the terrorists is pretty much the same as the Paris attack. clydeNovember 19, 2015 1:32 PM New Warriors #18 Night Thrasher should get together with young Bruce Wayne on "Gotham". They could compare notes on how companies are run without the knowledge of the main shareholders.;) Max_SpiderNovember 19, 2015 1:25 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 @Tuomas A voice actor apparently left the original Transformers cartoon because it featured a country called "Carbombia." Although from what I hear, the name wasn't the only problem with that depiction. In defense of the security guy, the case could be made that shooting them would be unnecessary if they'd surrender. Although in this case he wasn't convincingly showing that he could back up his position of power. Although its questionable if that would have mattered, seeing how it seems a little ambiguous as to wherever they believed the Punisher could actually go through with his threats. Erik BeckNovember 19, 2015 11:23 AM Namor #10-12 I like this, as I always liked the whole concept of the Invaders. But then again, the first comic I ever bought with my own money was an issue of All-Star Squadron, where Roy Thomas basically did the same thing at DC that he done at Marvel with the Invaders. I love how Spitfire not only gets younger, but slimmer. Shouldn't that skirt be falling off her now? fnord12November 19, 2015 8:14 AM Hulk #388 Regarding HIV vs. AIDS, you can see Jim trying to make that distinction to Rick but kind of giving up in one of the first scans above. The rest of the characters then conflate the two. I don't know if that was deliberate on PAD's part. MichaelNovember 19, 2015 8:01 AM Punisher Summer Special #1 @JC- I think this is the posting you're referring to: Walter LawsonNovember 19, 2015 4:01 AM Captain America #355-357 (Though maybe when you say they've both "played the role of Mother Night," you mean as leader of the Sisters of Sin, not that Sin actually used the name. It *is* confusing.) Walter LawsonNovember 19, 2015 3:59 AM Captain America #355-357 Fnord, I think you're still confused about Sin and Mother Night. When Sin used the name Mother Superior in her first appearance and wore a costume similar to the one Mother Night is now wearing. But I don't think Sin ever used the name "Mother Night." TuomasNovember 19, 2015 3:50 AM Punisher Summer Special #1 Even for the era, calling Baghdad "Bombadad" is amazingly bigoted. The equivalent would be a comic made in Iraq that takes place in the capital of the Unites States, Slavington. JCNovember 19, 2015 3:29 AM Punisher Summer Special #1 I recall PAD posting sumwhere on his blog dat by his own admission he simply could never get his head into the Punisher and dat dis was a mediocre story. JCNovember 19, 2015 3:22 AM Hulk #388 As for SpeedFreek, even with the adamantium it just never made much cents that he could give the Hulk, let alone the Merged Hulk problems. He simply doesn't have the strength necessary to be on the Hulk's level. But wat's rly weird is PAD going out of his way, particularly in SpeedFreek's next and last appearance, to show how much trouble the Hulk has defeating him. And yet PAD makes a big stink of the upcumming Erik Larson Sinister Sex arc where the admantium armed Doc Ock beats the crap out of the Hulk. So much so, dat he makes sure to rectify it by having the Hulk make a joke of him in wat barely resembles a fight. PAD's an incredible writer (c wat i did dere) but his temper can get the best of him. JCNovember 19, 2015 3:15 AM Hulk #388 Ugh try dat again. http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/hulk_383.shtml JCNovember 19, 2015 3:14 AM Hulk #388 re: Betty's hair Walter LawsonNovember 19, 2015 2:59 AM Hulk #388 This is actually the second time a goon who shouldn't be in the Hulk's league gets the necessary boost from adamantium: the Constrictor is the classic case of "what's this clown doing with adamantium?" PAD deserves credit for being the first Marvel writer (that I can think of, anyway) to address AIDS and homosexuality maturely, and he was right to maintain the ambiguity about Jim Wilson, but it's weird how the art clashes with that and seems over-the-top in the way it presents Jim. The art and even some of PAD's writing with Hector leans in stereotypes as well, although the Hector story is interesting for PAD's attempt to show how poirly Ulysses and Cassiopeia deal with Hec's sexuality. JCNovember 19, 2015 2:35 AM Deathlok #6-7 Imagine the kind of damage the Punisher could do in Deathcok's body. Frightful Four fanNovember 19, 2015 1:20 AM Fantastic Four #37-38 All Frightful Four fans should love this issue, as they reach the pinnacle of their success here. Though they go on to temporarily defeat the FF in later issues, this time their victory comes very close to finishing the FF off permanently! Frightful Four fanNovember 19, 2015 1:04 AM Fantastic Four #142-144 Conway should have created a real love triangle between Reed, Medusa and Sue. Such would have been a spectacular story line! Jon DubyaNovember 19, 2015 1:00 AM Hulk #388 Fnord, they probably stock adamantium at the same place they have kryptonite on "2-for-1" sales. (And chris, that was probably the reason Speedfreak was armed with adamantium everything. This was the age of "power inflation" so villians would have to protect themselves with gobs of unobtanium and sudden healing factors to be able to survive.) Finally on a more important note, is Betty suppose to be blonde? (I could have sworn she had brown hair.) Did she dye it or is this a coloring error? Jon DubyaNovember 19, 2015 12:30 AM Punisher Summer Special #1 "I don't know why Baghdad and Iraq's names have been changed. It's not like we're fooling anyone." Because "thinly-veiled" is still "veiled", Fnord12. (At least in the eyes of Marvel's legal team, who probably recommended the change as a precaution.) But wow, it's weird how "timely" a lot of these stories around this time end up being! I think I would have hated the final story even if i had read it back then, but ooh boy do I LOATHE it now. Particularly cringe-worthy is the implication that the carnage at fake Disneyland happened in part because we gave "those people" opportunities for a better life, like a college education. Actually, I'd hate that story simply for the sub-Mad Magazine calibur names. "Bombadad?" Ugh! Actually there seems to be a lot of dumb villains in this story? Didn't Frank usually go after mob bosses and corrupt policeman on the take rather than petty and stupid criminals? I don't generally read any Punisher books, so I wouldn't know. But didn't Frank want to topple criminal empires and not just criminals? Morgan WickNovember 18, 2015 11:52 PM Avengers #341-342 "Also I have to disagree about Cap's views usually being "neutral." (Hi, Civil War!) It might have been true "then", but now it's more to convey a shorthand as to which is the right "side" (since no one out-of-universe wants to make Captain America "look bad" or anything.)" Of course, in Civil War, Cap's side was meant to be the bad guys and fascist Tony Stark was on the right side! Jon DubyaNovember 18, 2015 11:49 PM Avengers #341-342 "You might as well have some character criticizing Reed Richards or Tony Stark for not creating solar-powered automobiles that cost five bucks and last forever. They don't do that because those things do not exist in our own world." Er...you know that's basically what Tony is trying to do now (or at least when Fraction was still writing Iron Man, anyway.) Also I have to disagree about Cap's views usually being "neutral." (Hi, Civil War!) It might have been true "then", but now it's more to convey a shorthand as to which is the right "side" (since no one out-of-universe wants to make Captain America "look bad" or anything.) Ironically enough Rage's concerns were expressed about 15 years later by Marvel's ORIGINAL ABM, Luke Cage in New Avengers (I forgot what issues they were, but it was about how the Avengers were going to start "protecting the streets", or something to that effect. This is a concern that continues on to be debated in modern comics. That being said, and as much as I hate Rage at this point, I don't think his initial action was wrong. I think, say Spider-Man would just stand there and let people instigate potentially dangerous conflict (while the Avengers can't do anything about racism, they CAN do something about riot control to prevent harm and preserve lives) Also, while he would have been a lot less confrontational about it, I REALLY don't see Captain America just plain tolerating someone using a slur like that. Not without a big lecture, at least. And yes I know, I wrote a post an an essay broke out. But i'll just make one more point. Reading this synopsis and the ones from other comics done around this time I never realized what a HUGE PUSH they gave the New Warriors! Was there a book they DIDN'T guest star in? And then eventually they'll end up being "linked" with the Spider-Man books. It's kinda funny looking at the hype they got here compared to around 2006, when they'd become Marvel Universe's punching bag. Morgan WickNovember 18, 2015 11:25 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 I was mostly referring to the terrorists' talking at the beginning. MichaelNovember 18, 2015 11:14 PM Hulk #388 PAD really overdid the Twin Peaks references- there was an Agent Cooper in issue 372, a reference in X-Factor 71 and now this. Frightful Four fanNovember 18, 2015 11:03 PM Fantastic Four #126-128 Your point about page 1 of issue #126 is so true. Can it get much darker for the Invisible Girl than to have her husband use an image projector to envision her demise? Red CometNovember 18, 2015 10:35 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 The terrorist story is old time political polemic, like comics and cartoons in the 1930s/1940s that portrayed Nazis both as buffoons and villains. If you're not familiar with that style of storytelling then I can see why the tone of that story would look like it's all over the place. Frightful Four fanNovember 18, 2015 10:33 PM Fantastic Four #119 Your point about the Invisible Girl being left behind is a good one. There were so many issues where she was left behind, that it was if we were being told that Sue was a hindrance to the team and not able to take care of herself in battle. AndrewNovember 18, 2015 9:42 PM Strange Tales #178-181 As revealed on Bleeding Cool, Starlin blatantly stole Gamora's design from an 1971 Esteban Maroto illustration from Eerie #38, a story called “A Stranger In Hell. ChrisNovember 18, 2015 9:11 PM Hulk #388 I hadn't been buying comics when Jim Wilson was in the Hulk so I had no idea who this guy was. There weren't captions or enough thought balloons/dialogue explaining who this guy was. I would have liked it more if I knew Jim Wilson as a character beforehand. Speedfreek is not really a Hulk level villain. One doesn't even need a supervillain to kill this guy - although I have give PAD some credit for bringing in the Falcon. Like PAD's other work, there is good craft showing in this story. And I appreciate the thought behind these "very special episodes". But this is one of his weaker efforts in this period. I don't think these elements gel together as intended. It is however of far better quality than most of what Marvel is producing in this time period. ChrisNovember 18, 2015 8:57 PM X-Force #5 Particularly weird to think Sauron is a mutant because in his former appearances it's explicitly a point he is a "non-mutant variant". I couldn't swallow Toad as a mastermind leader either. I appreciate the effort to do something with the character, especially as he dates back to X-Men #1, but nothing indicates this level of intelligence and drive. I could much easier buy Toad becoming his own man and abandoning his old persona, but this is a bit too much. I'd find it much easier to believe Mesmero was the new leader or Frenzy from the old Alliance of Evil. Ataru320November 18, 2015 8:51 PM Hulk #388 I think in a way someone did eventually have to tackle AIDS after the whole Northstar fiasco; and while Jim Wilson feels like "lets pull someone semi-important out of a hat we hadn't seen in a while" in some respects (his last appearance prior to this is the Hulk pardon), it did ultimately work out in being an important storyline regardless. Heck, I know when Jim finally does died of AIDS, it actually heard about it in the news. RobertNovember 18, 2015 8:35 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 Morgan, that was a security guard not a cop. Note his reference to "management rules." Some pretty weird rules, too, since he has to wait until they slaughter MORE innocent people before he can shoot them. Morgan WickNovember 18, 2015 8:08 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 Yeah, I'm pretty sure cops have the right to shoot people that are actively shooting civilians or stating their intent to do so, or at the very least in self-defense. Granted, sometimes cops get a little over-zealous as to what constitutes "self-defense", but the Fourth Amendment does not mean the cops have to just stand around and let terrorists kill everyone before civilly taking them in, reading them their rights, and giving them comfortable jail cells. ...I've just sparked a political debate that will completely take over these comments, haven't I? MichaelNovember 18, 2015 7:58 PM Deathlok #6-7 I don't really think Michael did anything wrong- there's a difference between using lethal force if it's the only option and always using lethal force like the Punisher. But I guess that's the point- Michael is too pacifistic to be a hero. Morgan WickNovember 18, 2015 7:57 PM Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #30-31 Fast forward another 23 or so years to Original Sin and... (unless there are other revelations coming between now and then) And clearly the other Commandos were really LMDs like Dum Dum. MichaelNovember 18, 2015 7:55 PM Hulk #388 PAD discusses his reasoning in coming up with the "it doesn't matter" ending here: MichaelNovember 18, 2015 7:46 PM X-Force #5 Weirdly, in this issue, Warpath thinks about wanting revenge on Shaw, Frost and Leland. Now, it's possible this takes place before Emma gets rendered comatose in X-Men 281, but Warpath should know about Shaw's and Leland's deaths by now- Leland died way back in X-Men 209. david banesNovember 18, 2015 7:15 PM Marvel Spotlight #31 I could have sworn there was a Stan Lee issue in some comic where Fury said he drank some kind of formula or potion. Guess I dreamed it. MortificatorNovember 18, 2015 5:25 PM She-Hulk #34-35 Taking a closer look at the meter, I have to wonder what was so cool about non-sexual harassment. Tony LewisNovember 18, 2015 3:13 PM Marvel Spotlight #31 Like Nick Fury would ever have been offered the job of head of S.H.I.E.L.D. if he was under extortion for an unlicensed drug he was addicted to. We're supposed to believe he wasn't thoroughly vetted? Ridiculous. JPNovember 18, 2015 2:57 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 real missed opportunity with Punisher not popping out of a Mickey Mouse suit. MikeCheyneNovember 18, 2015 2:15 PM Punisher Summer Special #1 How many of the Punisher's former platoon became supervillains? mikrolikNovember 18, 2015 12:42 PM Punisher War Journal #37 Cullen: Yeah, that's kinda what the Punisher does. As far as Castle is concerned, they're all party to kidnapping and conspiracy, and arguably attempted murder. Now by no means am I saying they deserved to get killed, but really you could say that about anyone the Punisher kills. The "right" thing to do is to bring them to the authorities so they can be tried for their crimes in a court of justice. Spider-Man and Daredevil are constantly making that point (when they are being well written). As for the whole "pansy ideology" thing... the Punisher is a violent, arguably insane man who has killed dozens of people out of a need for revenge. He's not exactly Captain America in the role model department. cullenNovember 18, 2015 11:30 AM Punisher War Journal #37 @mikrolik Maybe it's just from the scans, but Punisher seems to gun down/kill the entire crew on the basis of one of their members threatening someone... and takes special glee in taking them down due to their pansy ideology. He's given more quarter to Actual Murderous Supervillains. mikrolikNovember 18, 2015 10:41 AM Punisher War Journal #37 @Luis Dantas: No clue what you mean by that. FF3November 18, 2015 9:59 AM Punisher War Journal #37 Surely we're supposed to draw some contrast between the Punisher and the "commie pinkos;" they both want to enact deadly vigilante justice on evil-doers, but (by the logic of the book) Punisher is right in his moral judgments, and they're wrong. And they're wrong, presumably, because animal life is worth less than human life -- a judgment most people agree with, but could at least be argued a little. For me, that's the political content here, and Percy Baxter is almost a red herring. The real conflict is between law-and-order vigilantism (good, or at least okay), and left wing vigilantism (bad). GromNovember 18, 2015 9:53 AM Punisher War Journal #37 A movie with a similar plot was made in 1995 called Last Supper. Ataru320November 18, 2015 8:49 AM NFL Superpro #3 The ironic thing is that NFL Superpro's cameraman shares the same last name as Andy Reid, the love-him/hate-him coach that got the Eagles to the Super Bowl in '04/'05. (whether or not we could have won that game because the Pats cheated is another story) MichaelNovember 18, 2015 7:55 AM Thor #437-441 But Zarrko was lying about that part- we know that Eric lives until after the real Thor gets his hammer back- so Dargo had no reason to think he was telling the truth about Eric dying. Besides, Zarrko told Dargo Eric stole the hammer, so he had no reason to feel sorry for Eric the first time around. fnord12November 18, 2015 7:26 AM Thor #437-441 Dargo Ktor was an ordinary human in the 26th century that was invited to join a cult that worshiped the hammer of Thor, which was embedded in a rock. And Dargo was able to pick it up and gain the power of Thor, Donald Blake style (except with spiky shoulder pads, of course). In this arc, Zarrko tells Dargo that the hammer was left behind on Earth after Eric Masterson died before he was able to return the hammer to the real Thor. So based on that, what he saw on the viewscreen shouldn't have been that shocking, yeah. Luis DantasNovember 18, 2015 4:47 AM Punisher War Journal #37 @mikrolik: well, that is exactly why this story is weird and sort of offensive. TuomasNovember 18, 2015 4:06 AM NFL Superpro #3 This issue is actually about a gang of thugs that mug people for their Eagles paraphernalia. At first I thought this referred to Eagles the rock band, and I was like, jeez, I know they kinda suck, but that's harsh! TuomasNovember 18, 2015 4:00 AM Thor #437-441 I've never read DeFalco's Thor run, so I'm a bit confused about this Dargo Ktor character... Is he supposed to be a future version of Thor Odinson? If he is, shouldn't he already know what Eric's ultimate fate is? And if he isn't, why does he look exactly like "our" Thor? FF3November 18, 2015 3:45 AM Marvel Mystery Comics #23 I was hoping that Armless Tiger Man was born without arms, and therefore could be classified as a mutant. But, no, he lost them in an industrial accident. FF3November 18, 2015 3:32 AM NFL Superpro #3 Your reviews kinda make me want to go out and find copies of Superpro to read. I'm not sure that this is the intention, but whatever. Anyway, I like to believe that in the Marvel Universe, Superpro was involved in the OJ Simpson trial. LyronNovember 18, 2015 2:09 AM NFL Superpro #3 In the event of a Skateman/ Football Hero Guy/ Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night crossover special announced on Kickstarter, please e-mail me. Thanks. LyronNovember 18, 2015 2:03 AM NFL Superpro #3 Oh my...sniff...I rarely laugh so hard by myself. As if you need an Instant Replay. ChrisWNovember 17, 2015 11:26 PM Excalibur #45 Take the page with Saturnyne interrupting the big fight. She is totally not the large-breasted babe that she usually is. Ok, she is the large-breasted babe that she usually is, but she comes off like a minion passing off orders from her superior. You know, just doing her job. The Corps is suddenly distracted from their vengeance, and Hauptmann England is the first to question her in the heat of battle. Close-up on Saturnyne, "Do you dare question your liege?" And suddenly everybody looks a bit iffy. 'Um, no. Never mind.' Perfect pacing, dialogue totally in line with the characters as we know them. Gorgeous art. My head already hurts to think of the counter-examples when Scott Lobdell takes over the franchise. ChrisWNovember 17, 2015 11:15 PM Excalibur #45 By all accounts, Alan Davis contributed a huge amount of the plotting for Captain Britain, at least since the Alan Moore days, and many of Moore's artistic collaborators apparently picked up how to write a story themselves. [Dave Gibbons wrote a fantastic "World's Finest" miniseries and other things which matter to DC followers, Rick Veitch totally picked up on "Swamp Thing" when he took over as writer, Steve Bissette and Chuck Beckum have become more known as writers than artists over the last couple decades, Alan Davis here, etc.] What gets me is the dialogue. It's not really brilliant, but it's also perfectly in line with the characters Claremont created, and pacing and gorgeous art sells it completely. Kitty, Kurt, Rachel, they are all a believable result of what Claremont put them through, even back since the Cockrum/Byrne/Romita Jr. days. Even if you think they're off-track, most likely that's because of your personal affection for whatever-era you fell in love with. But as characters, they work wonderfully, they're in line with whatever came before, and adding Brian and Meggan to the mix just makes this such a wonderful story. The characters are done "right," with full recognition of their history. I disagree with Kurt having his moment of self-pity, 'Is that why they left me behind?' [No, it was because you were in a coma, dumbass] but it's still Nightcrawler as we've always known him. InstantiationNovember 17, 2015 10:24 PM Thor #272-278 You note that #272, which stands on its own, separate from this arc (except for the last-page segue) is based on an actual Norse myth. Perhaps Roy Thomas encountered it, as many others have, in Thomas Bulfinch's "Mythology," a 19th-century tome that retold various myths and legends in an accessible style. The terse ending in Bulfinch's rendition is quite wonderful. Skrymir, aka Utgard-Loki, confesses what the various illusion were. Then: "On hearing these words Thor in a rage laid hold of his mallet and would have launched it at him, but Utgard-Loki had disappeared, and when Thor would have returned to the city to destroy it, he found nothing around him but a verdant plain." The comics adaptation is pretty faithful to the original and quite enjoyable, too. Some details are changed or simplified: In the original, for instance, it's Thor's servant Thialfi who races against "Thought," not Loki. (Much later, Thialfi would be adapted as a Marvel character.) But 273-78 are, in my book, valuable mainly just for John Buscema's mighty art. Okay, his button-eyed Midgard Serpent isn't great, but his Thor, Odin, Sif, etc. sure are ... and he does quite well with the serpent that drips acid on Loki's face. Red CometNovember 17, 2015 9:21 PM She-Hulk #34-35 I miss the Cool-o-meter. But maybe it's for the best it's gone...a modern one by today's Marvel staff would descend quickly into trite hipster snark. MichaelNovember 17, 2015 8:33 PM She-Hulk #34-35 Ironic that Squirrel Girl is listed as uncool. cullenNovember 17, 2015 8:29 PM Punisher War Journal #37 This is... weird. cullenNovember 17, 2015 8:24 PM NFL Superpro #3 All that advance warning, and Instant Replay *still* let me down. MichaelNovember 17, 2015 7:53 PM Captain America #387-392 Yes, it's the same Superia- she's referred to as Dr. Wentworth and Roger Stern has confirmed that she goes directly from Captain America Corps to Bendis's Avengers issues. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 6:17 PM Marvel Spotlight #15 Baphomet will return in a few later issues and much, much later in a Doctor Strange story, where he is treated as an entity distinct from Satan. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 6:12 PM Man-Thing #5-6 The revised ending to the record is way more disturbing than a suicide. "I can laugh, and laugh...forever! You'll hear me in your nightmares, kids!" Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 6:09 PM Amazing Spider-Man #132-133 This is the story that reveals that Liz Allen is the Molten Man's stepsister, which is why he goes to Harry and Liz many years later once he's finally reformed. It's also meant to explain why Liz simply vanished from the comic after issue #28 mikrolikNovember 17, 2015 6:00 PM Punisher War Journal #37 Well, I look at it this way- the villains aren't villains because of their political ideologies; they're villains because they resort to kidnapping and are willing to murder a person just because they disagree with what that person is saying. It's like they're a left-leaning version of the Watchdogs; it's not their views which make them villains, but their actions. You don't have to like Percy Baxter (heck, I think part of the point of the story is that you shouldn't like him completely, else the villains just come off completely insane), but he doesn't warrant a killing based on his views or speech. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 5:44 PM Marvel Team-Up #19-20 I kinda like Stegron; unlike Connors, who accidentally became the Lizard, Stegron is a dude who just really, really wanted to be a dinosaur man. How many of us achieve our dreams so completely? Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 5:40 PM Strange Tales #172-173 The Black Talon's garb makes some sense, in that real Voudon tradition holds that the black rooster is sacred to Baron Kriminel, a guede (a type of deity/saint figure) associated with murder (though more int he sense of avenging the victims than anything else). But, yeah, in practice he's a dude dressed as a chicken. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 5:37 PM Marvel Spotlight #14 More Gerber commentary: Ikthalon is an ice demon, but he also claims to be a demon representing stagnation and the refusal to change; he's haunting the university because a cranky old faculty member summoned him to stop a bunch of proposed reforms. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 5:34 PM Dracula Lives #5 The Cagliostro story is also apparently the Marvel universe of the affair of the diamond necklace, a scandal that helped precipitate the French Revolution. The real-life Joseph Balsamo, aka Cagliostro, was tangentially involved. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 5:16 PM Tomb of Dracula #16-17 I always thought it was kind of interesting that Dracula ultimately decides the dead man is right to be angry at having his body disinterred and moved. He's evil, but there are still some things he believes in. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 5:13 PM Man-Thing #3-4 Like some other Gerber concepts around this time, the Foolkiller seems to have a bit more political content than he first appears. Yes, there's the religious fundamentalist angle, but the story of his biological parents is rather odd: his father is a soldier killed at war, and his mother a Red Cross nurse killed in another war. And he's specifically angry about the counterculture, including war protestors. So there's some sort of link being drawn between this and the religious revivals of the period, making the Foolkiller a kind of embittered reactionary type. Gerber is rather interesting, in that he tends to skewer extremists on the left and the right. But he also tends to differentiate *types* of extremists: the Foolkiller is a reactionary, but he still opposes F.A. Schist, for example. And later, as fnord notes when the time comes, we'll see Gerber skewer the decadence of parts of the hippie movement as well. FF3November 17, 2015 11:58 AM Amazing Adventures #11 I think that Tom Sutton's horror-comic style works really well here, as the story has an EC kinda feel to me. It's true that the writing isn't particularly inspired, but I think that the art does a very good job of telling the story emotionally. I found the flashback of Beast leaving Xaviers to be interesting, too. It's an early exploration of what life is like in X-Men land during the interregnum before Krakoa, and owing perhaps to the mood of the primary story, it's interestingly dark. The connotations of Xavier not wanting to let his students go for their own good feels really modern, and more in tune with the strangling paranoia of the late 80s X-Men rather than the freewheeling 70s that are to come. (Specifically, it reminds me of Magneto's problems with the New Mutants leading up to Inferno.) Ataru320November 17, 2015 11:49 AM Marvel Team-Up #103 Luckily Scott knows a guy... Regarding the ROM toy: well Spider-Man is a threat or menace...so if he gets toys and merch, ROM deserves the same respect. Erik BeckNovember 17, 2015 11:34 AM Hulk #377-382 I do like the art, but I also hate the new costume. I gotta admit I love the purple torn pants. You know, I never read Hulk back during this stretch and so when the Ang Lee film came out I had no idea that the whole "abusive father" part of the story came from the comics themselves. And man are those guys in the bar dumb. This is the Marvel Universe. Even if you don't think it might be the actual Hulk, just look at the size of him. I've seen Lou Ferrigno in real life at a con. I know he was only wearing green paint on the show, but the man is friggin huge! There's no way I'm starting a fight with him, no matter what color he is. MidnighterNovember 17, 2015 11:29 AM Marvel Team-Up #103 "Scott's former criminal life and his contacts is interesting, and should have been explored more." Erik BeckNovember 17, 2015 10:40 AM Captain America #387-392 Fnord clearly went to a different school from Peppermint Patty. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 8:32 AM Iron Man #56 Rasputin and his "Tavistick" is at least partly a parody of the Fawvcett/DC character Ibis, a wizard who used an "Ibistick" for various magical effects. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 8:30 AM Daredevil #104-107 I feel like there's a little more going on in this issues than just a big brawl. Almost all of the villains are tied to trends or political archetypes of the times: Ramrod is the "hardhat," which had become a sort of symbol of Nixon's "silent majority" after some confrontations between construction workers and hippies; Dark Messiah and Angar are hippie types; and Terrex, as a big green thing tied to the life force of the planet, is clearly some sort of riff on the ecology movement. It's probably supposed to mean something that they're all used by a rich lawyer who goes by "the Man" before his identity is revealed. Unfortunately, it's all rather incoherent int he end, so whatever it's supposed to be saying, I don't know. Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 8:13 AM Amazing Spider-Man #126 You know, Harrow doesn't really come off as terribly impressive in this story. Yes, he can put the Kangaroo in S[pider-Man's league, and yes, he's figured out how to keep his latest pawn from ditching him...but he still picked *the Kangaroo*, and given the way the Kangaroo dies int his story, it's not really clear how Harrow expected him to bring back the isotopes in the first place. Conway otherwise kind of recycles the Kangaroo's first appearance. There, Kanga was too stupid to realize he'd stolen a lethal bacteria sample that might open when he fought Spider-Man; here, he's too stupid to realize that walking into a room full of radioactive material might be a bit unhealthy. So really, this is a story about a guy who's too stupid to be a mad genius and a guy who's too stupid to be a henchman, who essentially defeat themselves through sheer bloody-minded incompetence. fnord12November 17, 2015 8:11 AM Captain America #387-392 Where i went to school we didn't have D minuses. We went from D to F. And yeah, an F comic would be something so bad that i couldn't stand to own it. We haven't come across anything that bad yet; i don't know if i'll ever bring myself to do that. As for this issue, there are some slightly redeeming qualities. First of all the art is serviceable enough. I wouldn't say it's great, but it's not the worst. And i do give credit to Mark Gruenwald for all the research he did in bringing together this group of female villains, even if i don't think he used that research wisely. And some of the interactions between Cap and Paladin, especially in the beginning of this arc, are kind of fun. As for Superia, as you note, i get the Superias and Mother Nights and the like confused. But it does seem to be the same Superia. The MCP hasn't fully indexed Bendis' second run of New Avengers yet, but i see that they've tentatively tagged this Superia as the same one that appears in New Avengers #9 (vol 2). Omar KarinduNovember 17, 2015 8:08 AM Iron Man #55 One of the things I quite like about Thanos here is that he comes across as a villain who knows the cliches and is determined to avoid them or make them work for him. He works through pawns, avoids direct conflict with the heroes even tough he physically outpowers them, uses misdirection, and clearly has multiple ways of getting what he wants and plans within plans. Thanos6November 17, 2015 6:20 AM Thor #437-441 Yeah, I always got the idea that the enchantment was Odin's gift to Bill; letting him shed his monstrous form and just be one of his people again. Luis DantasNovember 17, 2015 3:36 AM Thor #437-441 I don't think it comes across very clearly for the most part, but yes, in retrospect it would seem that Dargo kept silent because he was too shocked by the sight of Eric's death. This article elaborates on the matter: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/10/19/comic-book-legends-revealed-389/ Luis DantasNovember 17, 2015 3:08 AM Captain America #394-397 The dialogue between Sersi and Black Mamba is so strange that I wonder if it was meant to underscore how ill suited to crimefighting Sersi is. She does not seem to have a basic grasp of what the task would entail. On the other hand, Peggy Carter has the chance to set her straight and lets it pass, while Cap himself seems to have quite forgotten that the BAD girls have commited crimes, so who knows. Might have been interesting if Hercules were sent instead of Sersi, though. I don't think he would forgive or forget the woman who set him up for the beat up of his life (during Avengers Siege). Morgan WickNovember 17, 2015 1:29 AM Captain America #387-392 From The Rules page: "F - You will never see this rating because if it gets an F, i've thrown it out." This may be bad, but it's not The Crossing/Sins Past/Countdown to Final Crisis/Scrappy-Doo bad. The search-by-grade in the advanced tool also does not include F or D-. MikeCheyneNovember 17, 2015 1:12 AM Captain America #394-397 Yeah, I like the bro characterization of Blackwing and Jack; there's just something dumbly appealing about two low tier villains who get the drop on Captain America and decide it might be fun to take him out, dude. Jon DubyaNovember 17, 2015 12:35 AM Captain America #387-392 Quick question, fnord12? Is "D" the lowest grade you give? Let me be clear that i'm not generally one to "trip" over grades and ratings for these sorts of things. (It's more about curiosity than "How dare you?" arguments) I just asks becayse it seems like you really want to give this arc an "F" (and i totally wouldn't blame you), but the ends up recieving what a school would consider a "passing" grade. Did you see something vaguely...redeeming...kinda about this? Again i was just wondering. And speaking of "Superia" confusion, is this the same chick that Bendis used for the "Dark Reign" storylines?They don't really seem alike (or look alike for that matter), although i think both characters (versions?) were scientists. MichaelNovember 17, 2015 12:15 AM Avengers #341-342 Well, Hal is a bad choice for that kind of plot for two reasons- (a)he's usually written as tasked with protecting multiple inhabited planets, which most people would go crazy trying to do and (b) Sinestro DID try to intervene to make his home planet a "better" place and look at how that turned out. Ben HermanNovember 16, 2015 11:27 PM Avengers #341-342 Re: the Avengers not doing more to help race relations- there's not much they can do if they don't want to take over the country and rule it by force. People only listen to Cap BECAUSE he tries to keep his views neutral. Michael, that was more or less my thinking, as well. It's what comes to mind whenever any story has a character criticizing superheroes for not doing anything to fight against racism & injustice. Every single time Green Lantern / Green Arrow #76 gets reprinted and I have to read that speech about GL supposedly not helping "the black skins," my first reaction is "Okay, what EXACTLY do you want Green Lantern to do?" Most racism is institutionalized. More often than not it is encoded in law, and that means that the only way to fight against it is to mount legal challenges, to push for laws to be overturned or rewritten. Just look at what happened in 2013 when the conservative majority of the Supreme Court invalidated key parts of the Voting Rights Act. Was that a racist decision? Quite possibly. So if the same event took place on the Earth of the Marvel universe, what should the Avengers do? Throw the Supreme Court justices into prison in the Negative Zone? When Wisconsin passes so-called "voter ID" law gets and shuts down the DMV offices in minority-heavy areas with the intent of suppressing non-white votes, what are the Avengers supposed to do, beat up Governor Scott Walker and the state legislature? And of course there's the problem that if superheroes DID do something to combat racism, the Marvel universe would look very different from the real world. You might as well have some character criticizing Reed Richards or Tony Stark for not creating solar-powered automobiles that cost five bucks and last forever. They don't do that because those things do not exist in our own world. MichaelNovember 16, 2015 11:27 PM Thor #437-441 By the way, fnord, I agree about the mysteries but I don't think that what Dargo saw on the viewscreen qualifies-it was obvious that he saw that Eric would die young and didn't have the heart to tell him. Red CometNovember 16, 2015 10:41 PM Amazing Spider-Man #353-358 Loved this storyline and Revenge of the Sinister Six as a kid. Loved all the guest stars. The ability of all these heroes to meet is the real strength of a shared universe. Never read Moon Knight's comic so I had no idea Midnight was that book's Jar Jar Binks. Just thought he was an archetypal super-hero sidekick out for revenge against the mentor who let him down, which is good drama for a super-hero story. Hell, even Alan Moore used it in Miracleman/Marvelman. Interesting that this type of plot wasn't really used again for 15 years or so with Winter Soldier and Red Hood. Random thoughts: Red CometNovember 16, 2015 10:10 PM Captain America #394-397 These were the first Cap issues I ever read as a kid. They were collected in a Toys R Us comics pack back then. A lot of the continuity stuff or off-characterization didn't bother me since I didn't know any of it to begin with. For instance, I had no clue Cutthroat was a nobody with only one appearance to his name. I figured he must have been somebody since he was trying out to be Red Skull's right hand man. Looking back at these issues with that perspective makes me realize that stuff that seems off to me now about modern Marvel just doesn't matter to a new reader...and maybe it shouldn't. Since super-hero comic stories basically never end you have to have reader turnover at some point or the whole thing collapses. Glad I ditched modern super-hero comics when I realized they weren't for me anymore as I'd probably spend all my time angry at bad characterizations otherwise. As for the story here, I liked it because it was my first Cap story and had cool super-hero action, which is all a 10 year old could ask for in a comic really. Crossbones is an excellent character and villain, basically Cap's Sabretooth. I also like the Blackwing and Jack duo. There aren't enough super-villain buddy duos out there, and I don't mean alliances of convenience like Luthor/Brainiac, but duos where you can believe the characters are actually friends. ChrisNovember 16, 2015 8:38 PM Amazing Spider-Man #353-358 With all the crossovers happening now, it's a wonder they didn't bring back Marvel Team Up and basically have that be the big crossover book. Back in the day they would have told this whole story there and pick one character to be the official title hero. ChrisNovember 16, 2015 8:31 PM Captain America #394-397 I stayed with Cap until the milestone issue #400, but without that I would have ended my run with these issues. They are just awful. While it's good that Gruenwald is building up the Red Skull's organization, this is not working out well. It's just too clumsy and the romance triangle is just ridiculous. One of the strengths of Gruenwald's earlier run is that he built up a good rogues gallery for Cap outside the Red Skull. The Skull is a great villain, but too often it seems he's Cap's only real antagonist and expanding his foes was a real necessity. Now with this, it's all gone up in smoke. I have a hard time believing Gruenwald would have stayed on the title if he was not the Exec Editor. I did like the pairing of Jack O'Lantern and Blackwing. The pumpkin and bat combo makes for a cool Halloween style team. Find a few more similar themed villains, and that's a good team for Spidey or Daredevil to fight. MichaelNovember 16, 2015 8:22 PM Thor #437-441 Re: Bobby shrugging off Eric's punch- we'll find out later that Bobby is abusing steroids. Omar KarinduNovember 16, 2015 8:18 PM Captain America #165-167 The Steranko Suwan was confirmed as a robot even earlier, in Strange Tales #168. MichaelNovember 16, 2015 8:14 PM Captain America #394-397 Black Mamba now having the ability to project people's fears seems to be an attempt to explain how she did stuff like disguise Cap as Superia during the Superia Strategem. clydeNovember 16, 2015 7:45 PM Amazing Spider-Man #353-358 This was an awesome crossover. I mean the cover even says "The greatest bi-weekly saga of all" So, it must be true. ;) Omar KarinduNovember 16, 2015 7:35 PM Fantastic Four #136-137 The Wild One and the head Patriot (whose name keeps changing during the story) are supposed to be a bickering hippie son and his Archie Bunker-ish father seen very briefly at the start of #136. The whole 50s reality is Slugger's dream world; the idea is that the father and son get caught up in it, turning it into a war over who gets control of Slugger and his "superweapon," Warhead. Max_SpiderNovember 16, 2015 7:33 PM Amazing Spider-Man #353-358 This make's Moon Knight's "you're married?" comment in Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up towards Spider-Man interesting. I now like to imagine Moon Knight just pretended to be surprised as he wasn't prepared to admit exactly how much he heard of Peter and MJ. Thanos6November 16, 2015 6:42 PM Captain America #394-397 I think Gruenwald wants HEROES to have Silver Age mentalities, but he doesn't apply to villains or anti-heroes. kvetoNovember 16, 2015 6:24 PM Captain America #394-397 What is Oddball thinking? The last guy you wanna play billiards with is 8-ball. He might be useless as a villain but he's the last guy you want hustling you. The Bad Girls stories feel like an excuse to draw the Mamba, Asp and Impala in the nude. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. There was always a kind of uncomfortable sexual context behind Guenwalds stories that didnt seem to fit in with his silver age mentality. The constant sexual abuse that Diamondback suffers from crossbones, the kinky Skull/Viper relationship (both of these characters seem like the'd be above "sex") Paladin's orgy with the Asp and Mamba, etc. And yeah, sometimes Gru's love for obscure characters went too far, making the Skull look like he's scraping the bottom of the barrel. (To be fair, I hope many villains wouldn't want to work for a nazi. Particularly one who often gasses his minions, so that might shrink the potential pool of applicants) kvetoNovember 16, 2015 6:14 PM Amazing Spider-Man #353-358 I like the way the dialogue in Spidey's thought balloon covers for artwork showing a loser like Nighttwasher being able to kick spider-man. He might be "kwel" but he shouldn't be able to lay a finger on the webhead. JCNovember 16, 2015 5:50 PM Captain America #394-397 So American men = flustered wankers And they say crime doesn't pay. Morgan WickNovember 16, 2015 5:33 PM Amazing Spider-Man #353-358 *sees the "a quip meant" and "as fault protection" puns* ...did Milgrom think he was writing the 60s Batman show or something? TomL1960November 16, 2015 5:30 PM Captain America #153-156 Certainly dated now, it truly was pure Marvel then. I so appreciated Steve Englehart's use of Sharon and Sam, contrasting them with their battle with Bucky. I felt Sharon would never be written as well or even at all until Mark Waid. JCNovember 16, 2015 5:26 PM Thor #437-441 Bill: "I say thee Nay." Thor: "Well ofc you would, you're a horse bro." BobNovember 16, 2015 5:12 PM Captain America #394-397 Diamondback actually had some strength as a character initially. In the Bloodstone Hunt, and escape from Crossbones, she was quite resourceful. But Gru's attempts to soften her (all the way down to losing her signature magenta hair) and make her acceptable to Cap just turned her into a stereotypical comic book damsel. MikeCheyneNovember 16, 2015 4:41 PM Amazing Spider-Man #353-358 This story was my crack as a youth; I remember anxiously reading all the parts. I like the idea of Thunderball as a bad guy consultant; he has some interesting viewpoints. He's kind of stupid in recruiting Nova, though--Nova has been around a while and there was nothing in his track record to indicate he could be deluded so easily; I do think he's onto something about fringe heroes though. MikeCheyneNovember 16, 2015 4:32 PM Captain America #394-397 I don't know if there's some underlying vibe that the Skull has fallen low on the villain totem pole after his string of defeats. Having to settle for Cutthroat, Blackwing, and Jack O'Lantern as your top goons is pretty embarrassing (although in the Skull's defense, maaaybe he confuses Jack for Jason Macendale...even though he's a big loser too). MortificatorNovember 16, 2015 4:15 PM Captain America #394-397 Haha! The Skull going 50 Shades of Red is hilarious. I had the issue introducing Blackwing and the new Jack O'Lantern (who somehow made a more favorable impression on me than Macendale) but not that one. MortificatorNovember 16, 2015 1:49 PM Silver Surfer #44-45 Concerning the Abomination's strength, the deluxe edition of the OHotmU listed him at exactly 100 tons, and noted that wouldn't technically make him Class 100, which was defined as being able to lift over 100 tons. But I also approve of him being a bit stronger than that. fnord12November 16, 2015 12:10 PM Thor #437-441 Thanks Clyde. I think i wrote that knowing how things would turn out. I don't think the Simonson issues ever really said that it was his pre-cyborg form, but i guess that should be inferred by Bill saying, "I am myself again". I've updated this entry. clydeNovember 16, 2015 12:01 PM Thor #437-441 "I guess the enchantment is transforming him into his pre-cyborg form, but that seems beyond the intent of the enchantment and it's not what i originally understood from Walt Simonson's run (although i could have been wrong)." FNORD - you wrote this in the entry for Thor 337-340 - Erik BeckNovember 16, 2015 11:58 AM Silver Surfer #44-45 @Jonathan - It could easily be called a mitt. In Twisted Toyfare Theatre, Aunt May buys it at Dr Doom's yard sale (she won't pay more than $2 because there's only one) and she later uses it as an oven mitt to make infinite wheatcakes for Peter. fnord12November 16, 2015 11:00 AM Captain Marvel #19 Thanks, Jesse. I've added a plot credit for Gil Kane for this issue and #18. I've left Thomas with a co-plot credit for this issue just as a hedge. JesseNovember 16, 2015 10:37 AM Captain Marvel #19 The letter column in this issue mentions that Gil Kane plotted this issue. The note even speculated that Gil might go on to become the writer/artist of this book, which of course didn’t happen thanks to the hiatus. JesseNovember 16, 2015 10:36 AM Captain Marvel #18 The letter column in issue 19 mentions that Gil Kane plotted this issue along with writer, Roy Thomas. Erik BeckNovember 16, 2015 9:03 AM Avengers West Coast #65-68 Ah, this was one of the joys of reading WCA - actual things relevant to my life in LA, like the tunnel fire and the medflys that were such a serious problem. Wanda looks really cute in her costume without the headpiece. They should go back to that look. ChrisNovember 15, 2015 11:14 PM New Warriors #15-17 I like Psionex as a team. They have good visual designs and interesting powers. They also have an intriguing origin as they were experiments to create a "new race of superpowered humans". However, it is hard to see why they would continue to stick together, and even harder that all of them would become villains so the New Warriors can have ongoing antagonists. They need something that makes them viable long term as a supervillain team that still speaks true to their origins and distinguishes them from mere thugs/criminals. Perhaps if whatever gave them their powers created some kind of communal mental or emotional bond, and they needed to work together to understand what was happening them as they continued to develop/evolve - not men nor mutants, but something else. However, I ended up leaving the New Warriors not longer after this, so I never found out what happened to them. Jon DubyaNovember 15, 2015 11:13 PM Namor #15-20 "But i wonder if there's also an idea that even though she's in a teenager's body, she's still an "adult" because she's mentally mature, so that makes it "ok" for the adults in the audience as well." Apparently the writers of thought so, fnord12 (Google "Arisia" and you'll know what i mean.) The implications that Namor is also sterile as a hybrid doesn't make sense, since he DOES have children (even outside the Plodex ones.) One of them was a major plotline for his post-Civil-War comic. (Also, was Nicieza given prior knowledge of this revelation for his main character? It seems like there was a big lack of communication between the book sharing the same character.) Jonathan, i don't know about the past, but the odd thing is that Byrne DOES recycle that premise for an issue of She-Hulk. MichaelNovember 15, 2015 10:12 PM New Warriors #15-17 Jon, in this case, Angelica attributes Vance's inceased power to their encounter with the Sphinx in issue 24. Jon DubyaNovember 15, 2015 9:57 PM New Warriors #15-17 Michael, telekinetics always seem to be portrayed with inconsistent power levels Jean Grey and her pseudo-daughter had the same problem. In addution Vance will not only become more powerful, he'll demostrate an improved level of control too. Do they ever point out why Silhouette and Tai are throwing major shade at each other? Also, remember when adult children stil, living with their parents WASN'T the norm? Aw, memories. I liked this story (well #15, the one issue i read anyway) but a big "BOOO!" on the Lifeld-esque guns the F4 is carrying! (I think those are the SAME guns they keep for Fantastic Four 375!) Jon DubyaNovember 15, 2015 9:45 PM Avengers #341-342 Given that is a subject i have written about a lot I'll try to step gingerly around the potential mine field this subject entails. Fnord12, to be fair this is a problem with a LOT of media in general when it comes to "cobtroversial" issues. It's the Both Sides Do It" argumentative fallacy media outlets (and as a result, the public) defaults to in a misguided, false attempt at "balance." It's kinda unfortunate that Nicieza undercuts his own story by falling into that trap, but considering the firestorm that occurred when, say Captain America fought Tea Party analogues, i can understand the caution from a PR standpoint. Also this particular arc had an an additional purpose besides "ripped from the headlines" examination: the OTHER point is for Nicieza to promote the New Warriors by contrasting them with the Avengers. I've always said the Warriors are the Super Hero versions of "The Real World" which was becoming a "thing" right around this time) And so, we get to see the passionate rebellious "hip and in-your-face" (and yes i feel dirty just saying that) upstarts face off against the relatively "stogy" "establishment" heroes. It helps differentiate between they styles of each groups and confirms that the groups don't just contrast in terms of powers, but in attitude (and attitude ) in a way that makes the group Nicieza has a hand in shaping look "cool." Despite my seemingly cynical synopsis i actually kinda dig this issue (being a "90s" kids who watched MTV and paid increasing isue to social issues probably helped.) Yes i was dispointed in the cop-out ending, but i enjoy when books try to tackle issues like this (it WAS one of the things that drew me to X-books after all.) And i thought the almost generational conflict between the made sense. More important the transfer of Rage to a team that would better service his temperment went a long way to make my tolerate a character i hated before this. In the warriors he actually became (gasp!) FUN, even while still ABMing it up. And the revelation about his age made a lot of sense ofhis previous behavior. ChrisWNovember 15, 2015 9:37 PM Wolverine #48-50 But there wasn't a love triangle. It didn't exist until "Classic X-Men" had to retcon Wolverine into having subtlety that he just didn't have originally. "X-Men" #100, Jean just loses it and screams at Wolvie how unlikeable he is, and God knows she's tried, but she just flat-out gives up. "X-Men" #101, Jean's in the hospital, and the cheesy second-person narration shows us Wolverine buying her flowers, his thought balloons saying "Maybe we'll get ta talkin'" and "what Wolverine wants, Wolverine gets" before he sees Jean's friends hovering around her. The narration points out that Wolverine should have know that Jean's friends would do that. Or maybe not. He's never had any friends. That's the biggest problem I have with all the retcons, if the early Wolverine was anything, he was a despicable asshole, and usually a homicidal maniac. Just making him part of a triangle with Jean and Scott is bad enough. But the triangle was never set up until Claremont's retcons in "Classic X-Men." I love thinking about children's superheroes in a more adult manner, but there's nothing in Claremont's run that would set up a Wolverine/Jean attraction, not at all. At best, she might get hot for him, and not want to tell Scott, but she and Wolverine had very little time together before she became Phoenix and died, and Wolverine was still the horrible person Claremont originally wrote him as. With no friends. Not even Carol Danvers, Michael Rossi or Nick Fury. He simply is no good with people. It's not until he meets Mariko that he shows even the slightest growth. I get why he might home in on Jean as a hot chick that he wants to celebrate a big victory over Krakoa with, but she shoots him down on the spot because she loves Scott. Trying to make that a love triangle is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard of in comics. Ororo's walking around naked, why not hook up with her? DarrenNovember 15, 2015 9:14 PM Wolverine #48-50 It's probably why he was the least popular character prior to 1978. Written as nothing more than the resident hot head and the third point in the new romantic triangle between Slim and Jeannie. You don't back talk the Professor and Cyclops and try to move in on his girl and expect fan support without some kind of pathos. Omar KarinduNovember 15, 2015 9:06 PM Black Knight #1-4 In fairness, Dane would probably have been especially interested in the Dreadknight, if only because Velsing basically recreated his evil uncle's entire shtick. And that also neatly covers why Iron Man would go out of his way to tell Dane about it in the first place, considering how rarely they've interacted since...jeez, the 1960s. MortificatorNovember 15, 2015 8:30 PM Strange Tales #102 (Human Torch) Despite Strange Tales #106 showing that the Human Torch's identity wasn't really secret, the story in this issue only works if it is. The Wizard says that nobody knows the Torch's identity, which is why he stages a crisis to get the Torch to come to him. When he douses the Torch, fire still pointedly covers Johnny's face to prevent the Wizard from seeing it. And at the end, the Wizard tries to coerce the Torch into flaming off so Wizard can find out who he is and expose him. InstantiationNovember 15, 2015 7:38 PM Master of Kung Fu #19 There was a very evident Steranko influence on Gulacy's work. You see it particularly in the third example of the artwork above. Of course, Steranko's influence was understandably widespread. ChrisWNovember 15, 2015 6:51 PM Wolverine #48-50 Ok. It's just a difference of perspective as a member of the audience. I think Claremont probably came up with most-if-not-all of the ideas for Wolverine, and the next year or so is basically Bob Harras and Jim Lee picking and choosing which ideas they want to work with. Wolverine as an interesting character - who even Claremont wasn't interested in for the first twenty or thirty issues - and they're trying to get back to their own ideal "Wolverine" who has long since progressed from whatever they see him as. I would say they were forging Claremont's work. Using his ideas as much as possible because they made for good stories. Changing things when they needed to, because, well, things had changed. It's not possible to get back to a "basic Wolverine" because the "basic Wolverine" was a horrible character, even Claremont didn't like him, and he only became interesting when John Byrne brought in other people who knew him, and at this late point, trying to get back to the "basic Wolverine" is just making him a psychopathic killer, exactly what Logan has been trying to prevent all this time. Welcome to the 90s. I think we have the same ideas, we're just coming from opposite directions. ChrisWNovember 15, 2015 6:41 PM Excalibur #45 It's also character development for Kurt, who was so long overlooked as the back-up leader for the X-Men, until the day Logan slapped him on the back and said he was the guy, like it or not. And I completely agree, Alan Davis rocks as an artist. And a writer. Rick Veitch taking over "Swamp Thing" from Alan Moore as writer/artist is really the only place I can think of an artist doing such an awesome job taking over as a writer. [John Byrne and Jack Kirby were in slightly different circumstances, so I don't include them, although I'll be happy to argue if you disagree.] InstantiationNovember 15, 2015 6:40 PM Fantastic Four annual #5 For me, the coolest part of this rather busy annual (along with the pinup of Black Bolt) is the four-page initial encounter between The Black Panther and The Inhumans. Some of Kirby's finest Panther panels are here, as well as an intriguing brief match-up between the Panther and Karnak, with the former skillfully gaining the initial advantage ("BTOK!"). Then Black Bolt shows up, breaking it up, and there are some interesting thought balloons for the Panther, who is obviously in awe of his fellow monarch. This annual is cover-dated the same month (Nov. 1967) as the first Thor featuring an Inhumans backup story (#146). Ataru320November 15, 2015 6:00 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #15 Regarding Shulkie: it was 1981 and I suppose she hadn't been fully explored considering she was mostly appearing in her own Savage book at the time. (and going by placement, the only other appearance Jen had up to then aside from Savage She-Hulk was an issue of Marvel Team Up, thus this is easily pre-Stern, Byrne and the prominence and development that followed) ChrisNovember 15, 2015 5:49 PM New Warriors #11-13 I have never been a fan of these alternate reality stories whether it is other dimensions, alternate timelines, or retroactively changed our reality. I thought this one of the least interesting stories in New Warriors, although it was good to focus on Nova and acknowledge he has a much larger past than these other characters. However, I don't think this is the right storyline for this book. Bringing back the Sphinx in some kind of form didn't have to involve any of this weird timeline stuff. One thing I thought was strange was that in the revised timeline, Africa and the Middle East were the dominant powers of the world and basically replaced the Europe in its role in world history. Yet, the equivalent of WWI and WWII was still Europe. It would have been much better if the equivalent great wars of the 20th century happened in Africa and the Middle East. Piotr WNovember 15, 2015 5:30 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #15 She-Hulk and Colossus are supposed to be the same group as Spider-Man? This is just wrong. Anyway, that annual is indeed quite good. Back here, it was actually published as the very first issue for our local Spider-Man series. BillNovember 15, 2015 5:14 PM Excalibur #45 Man, I remember LOVING the panel of the long dead Avengers popping up out of the ground! It left so much up to the imagination. That Earth's Captain Britain, the Black Knight and Thor all make sense as being on a UK-based team, but what's up with Spider-Man? And those claws he has? Also, is it just me or is he kinda....spidery looking? Alan Davis rocks it in the art department, hands down! MichaelNovember 15, 2015 4:28 PM Excalibur #45 Re: Kylun's world- it's explicitly stated next issue that time passes differently there than on Earth. Omar KarinduNovember 15, 2015 3:03 PM Punisher #33-34 I suspect Elliott might be a reference to Eliot R. Brown, a Marvel assistant editor who provided technical drawings and advice for the marvel Handbooks; I think he was also advising the Punisher writers on military tech by this point, and will be in charge of the Punisher Armory comics that work as a technical handbook for Frank's arsenal. Omar KarinduNovember 15, 2015 2:55 PM Ghost Rider #1 Stacy Dolan's name might be a double reference: there's Gwen Stacy, who was a Silver Age "policeman's daughter" love interest, but there's also the Will Eisner Spirit character Ellen Dolan, who was a Golden Age "police commissioner's daughter" love interest. Omar KarinduNovember 15, 2015 1:45 PM Marvel Comics Presents #46-49 (Devil-Slayer) Michaels said: The Flying Dutchman seemed to have gone on to heaven at the end of Silver Surfer 9 but here he appears back in Mephisto's service. Perhaps his attempted murder of the Vision when he was a member of the Legion of the Unliving got him damned again? Red CometNovember 15, 2015 1:21 PM Web of Spider-Man #82 I had this issue and the previous Bloodshed fill-in when I was a kid. I got comics at the local drugstore back then, but I don't remember them stocking Web of Spider-man so I bet I got them from one of those Toys R Us comics packs. Omar KarinduNovember 15, 2015 1:17 PM Punisher annual #3 Jethro Prufrock seems to be a parody of Lyndon Larouche, given his talk of being a Presidential candidate, his conspiracy theory leanings, and his credit card fraud convictions. Omar KarinduNovember 15, 2015 1:12 PM She-Hulk #18 In fact, Gerber has used his exact gag before in connection with the "hitler's relatives" idea; Doctor Reich, from the old Howard the Duck stories, was initially implied to be Hitler now disguised as a therapist. Later, Bill Mantlo retconned him into being Hitler's delusional dentist. Erik BeckNovember 15, 2015 12:36 PM Namor #6-9 I've never actually read these issues, but I love that it seems like several pages worth of Namorita forced to hold up her costume after it was shot apart. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 15, 2015 12:27 PM X-Factor #14 No one's saying it out loud, but if X-Factor #40 is the first appearance of Cyclops' new look, we have Rob Liefeld to thank for it. Mark DrummondNovember 15, 2015 11:31 AM Daredevil #291 In an interview in Comics Journal #163, Nocenti said that she was hired at Marvel when she answered an ad for editorial staff in the Village Voice(which she claimed Marvel was embarrassed about doing). She had no knowledge about comics before that; he career then was painting and scientific technical writing, with one horror novel as her only fiction work. She said "...I tried to shove social issues into a superhero comic and it never really worked" and said she did that because it was the only way she could "stand" doing it. She left comics completely after leaving Daredevil, and didn't come back until she was asked to write DC/Vertigo's "Kid Eternity", which turned out to be Vertigo's first cancellation. Erik BeckNovember 15, 2015 8:46 AM Hulk #374-375 I looked at the art on this and thought "Byrne is having an off-day." And I thought "Well, off-day Byrne art is still a lot better than most of the art from Marvel at this time." Then I realized it was Keown and I think every time I see his art I think it's not quite as good as Byrne, but very similar. Still, not quite as good as Byrne is very good. kvetoNovember 15, 2015 8:33 AM Avengers #341-342 Feckin Irish :-) kvetoNovember 15, 2015 8:18 AM Web of Spider-Man #83 I hope he kept his computer cassettes and personal listening cassettes in different places. "Battle Mode" could be mistaken for a heavy metal awesome mix tape. Reminds me of the Avengers issue where the Red Ronin pilot who had a "DESTROY" setting on his battle helmet. cullenNovember 15, 2015 6:56 AM New Warriors #15-17 On Earth-616, there's a chapter in 'Freakonomics' about the surprisingly low salaries of henchpeople. Walter LawsonNovember 15, 2015 2:42 AM New Warriors #15-17 Bloodstrike was making $35K in 1991 dollars, which is about $60K today. I dunno, seems like a super-powered henchman should be making a bit more than that. InstantiationNovember 14, 2015 9:14 PM Fantastic Four #44-47 Just noting that the title of #44 ("The Gentleman's Name Is Gorgon!") has been adapted or alluded to by the titles of a number of later issues: Spider-Man #119, April 1973: "The Gentleman's Name is ... Hulk!" Iron Man #86, May 1976: "The Gentleman's Name Is Blizzard!" Uncanny X-Men #104, April 1977: "The Gentleman's Name Is Magneto" The Mighty Thor #411, December 1989: "The Gentleman's Name Is Juggernaut" Guardians of the Galaxy #19, December 1991: "The Gentleman's Name Is Talon" "Gentleman" is rather ironic in most of those. If you can think of any others, feel free to add 'em. Walter LawsonNovember 14, 2015 8:51 PM Wolverine #48-50 Just a difference of emphasis: these issues seem less to me like forging Claremont's work than demolishing it, doing away with the Wolverine characterization Claremont was developing, retconning away the last issue of the series written by Claremont, and taking Silver Fox and Sabertooth in directions very much unlime what Coaremont had intended. These issues seem like deliberately cutting Claremont out of Wolverine's development, as much as possible considering that Claremont was the main guy who'd written the character. But then, the purpose of this demolition was to get back to a basic Wolverine who, of course, was also Claremont's work, and even if the concepts and characters got mangled, it was still Claremont who had introduced most of them in the first place. So forgery is a reasonable metaphor. Wolverine and the X-Men generally will have this problem: they remain Claremontian and tend to return to Claremontian roots even when the line's editor wants to get beyond Claremont or outdo Claremont. On a different note, I'm grateful to Fnord for helping me understand what the x-office was trying to do with Wolverine at this time. I'm one of what must have been several hundred thousand readers who bought Lee's X-Men issues but not the Wolverine comic or Marvel Comics Presents, so Lee's revelations about Wolvie in X-Men 4-7 seemed even more confusing than Lee's awful writing had to make them. I caught up on Weapon X and this series later, but only seeing them reviewed in order makes it clear that editorial was being pretty systematic about remaking Wolverine and his back story. With those Lee issues I felt like it was all out of nowhere. (And to be fair, a lot of it was.) ChrisWNovember 14, 2015 7:00 PM Wolverine #48-50 Walter, I'm not sure what you disagree with me on. It sounds like we agree that the old costume was hideous, or at least you aren't attacking my view that the old costume was hideous. A reversion of Wolvie, directed by Bob Harras? That's probably the best way to summarize what's going on here. My point is simply that giving Wolverine a mysterious past is bad enough - but executed successfully enough that it works - but then making it all about memory implants is a horrible idea, and I think that it's Bob Harras putting together Claremont's various ideas and foisting them on whatever writers he hires. This story - and the Mojo three-parter coming up - is as good as it got, as far as that goes. MikeCheyneNovember 14, 2015 4:36 PM Web of Spider-Man #83 Wow, by pure chance I owned all of the Busiek fill-in Web stories as a kid. I liked them because I enjoyed straightforward storytelling and felt it was refreshing than Part 3 of 1000 stuff going on in other Spidey comics. TCPNovember 14, 2015 4:09 PM Web of Spider-Man #83 I had a "Make your own comic" coloring book version of this story as a kid, which reprinted several of the panels with blank speech bubbles. I remember balking the first time I saw the official colors of the Hypertron armor, as they were nothing like the colors I chose! Walter LawsonNovember 14, 2015 2:30 PM Wolverine #48-50 I'm not sure the dialogue in 49 is casting doubt on Wolverine's nationality so much as Sabertooth's—my recollection of the early '90s status quo for these characters is that Wolverine was Canadian but Sabretooth was American, which wouldn't necessarily have been the assumption when Sabertooth was meant to be Wolverine's father and had first been active, in Iron Fist's mag, in Canada. Fnord, I too never realized that the costume reversion was meant to signify a character reversion as well. I somewhat disagree with ChrisW on this point: it seems to me the point of the reversion, which is probably Harras's idea--another "back to basics" move--is to get away from the more mature and balanced direction that Claremont intended, and partially executed, for Wolverine. The retconning of #10, Silver Fox, and the Wolverine-Sabertooth relationship is also a move away from Claremont's intentions, as indeed was Windsor-Smith's Weapon X series. Harras--again, I'm assuming it's him as x-line "showrunner," not Hama as an author doing what he wants--seems to try a couple of times to revert Wolverine to a pristine, savage state, as we'll see to truly awful effect after issue 100 of this series. What we see there goes beyond reversion, visually, but I think Harras wanted a dangerous, edgy Wolverine that could ignore Claremont's late '80s development of the character. (Who was still not exactly a Quasar-style boy scout.) JCNovember 14, 2015 12:48 PM Web of Spider-Man #83 Good thing that Negative Vortex takes about 20 hours to fire, god forbid you make an ultimate weapon that actually hits it's opponents. JCNovember 14, 2015 12:46 PM Web of Spider-Man #82 That stoopid cover tricked me too when I was a kid =\. MortificatorNovember 14, 2015 12:43 PM Fantastic Four #22 Oddly, the rest of the FF can see Sue's force fields this issue. I'm not sure why Stan scripted it that way when the fields use the same dotted-line visual shorthand that tells use Sue is invisible. In any event, they're invisible to the other members starting next issues. I guess we could say the fields weren't fully invisible when Sue's power to create them first manifested. Erik BeckNovember 14, 2015 11:52 AM Spider-Man/Fantastic Four #3 Just recently read this mini-series and found it surprisingly entertaining. But Johnny's reaction to the kiss was definitely the high-point. I also love the idea that Peter would flirt with Sue just to annoy Johnny and not because he's attracted to her. MichaelNovember 14, 2015 10:28 AM Wolverine #48-50 Weird, then, that Marvel went back on what was implied in issue 49 so quickly. Erik BeckNovember 14, 2015 9:24 AM Fantastic Four #347-349 I've totally avoided this for years under the reasoning that I hated the crass commercialization of it, never realizing that Simonson did it to mock all of that. The things I learn from fnord. Erik BeckNovember 14, 2015 9:15 AM Marvel Comics Presents #67 (Spider-Man) To back up kveto's point, there was also a GI Joe character named Blowtorch, so it seems even stranger to create a character with that name when they already had one. Maybe Marvel didn't want to mess with the chance to have Len Wein write a Spider-Man story again. PeterANovember 14, 2015 5:04 AM Uncanny X-Men #186-188 I always love the way JRjr depicts snowstorms. It's a bit of a pity though that his editor couldn't tell him to draw correct clothes on Storm and Illyana. Or maybe even better, the script could make it clearer? Really excited for the Kulan Gath story coming up, one of my favorites. The Dire Wraiths were bewildering to me since I had no idea of the existence of Rom at the time I got these in the 90s. PeterANovember 14, 2015 4:24 AM Thor #345-350 I think one of my favorite elements of Simonson's art is the way he integrates his word balloons in the panel borders, instead of having them overlap the art. That truly makes his words an integral part of his pencils, as it should be in comics. Same thing with the sound effects. I doubt anyone can ever parallel his run on Thor. I would most compare him to Don Rosa channeling Carl Barks in the manner he mixes epic with funny. Truly someone who should have been treated beter by Marvel at the time. PeterANovember 14, 2015 4:02 AM Web of Spider-Man #81 Maybe once Dan Slott moves on from Spider-Man, they'll offer the solo keys to the kingdom to Busiek? I think he'd still knock it out of the park, but he probably just wants to focus on Astro City. It is pretty infuriating though that Mackie and Kavanagh were driving forces on Spidey for so long while we know Busiek would've been so much better. I wonder what a reboot with Byrne joined by Busiek would've been like rather than aimless Mackie. fnord12November 14, 2015 1:38 AM Wolverine #48-50 @Michael, re Wolverine's Canadian-ness. In issue #49 during the telepathic memory unlocking sequence, Wolverine and Sabretooth are in the bar in Cuba, watching the reports on the assassinations of JFK and Oswald. Cuban soldiers burst in and call them "Yanqui spies". Wolverine says to Sabretooth, "He called us Yanks! Doesn't he know we're Canadians?" Sabretooth responds, "Canucks? You're a real bundle o' laughs today, partner!" (If one was looking for additional circumstantial evidence, there's also 1) the fact that Wolverine's most substantial pre-Weapon X memory of being Canadian comes from the Wolverine #10 flashbacks, which are revealed to be memory implants, and 2) the fact that the Weapon X program is said to be in Windsor, Ontario, which is so close to America it's practically in Michigan (whose state university's mascot is the...) and it was funded by the CIA, not the Canadian government. But it was the Cuban scene that i was referring to.) fnord12November 14, 2015 1:28 AM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 Thanks, darren. Error was in the original, but i shouldn't have blindly followed it. ChrisWNovember 14, 2015 1:22 AM Wolverine #48-50 Just imagine what it was like at the time, and I was a relatively-late-comer to the X-titles. I started reading with the Mutant Massacre, and Wolverine had already been set up to be what he became. Back issues sealed the deal. OK, fine. But when they started making his mysterious past about memory implants, that's when I gave up. I really don't envy you who started reading here, but my sympathy is directed at those who started reading earlier. Sucks to be us. StevenNovember 14, 2015 12:59 AM Avengers #341-342 I liked these issues. I wish Fabian had become the new regular writer instead of Bon Harras. The Avengers should have adopted the New Warriors as their junior branch. JCNovember 14, 2015 12:42 AM Darkhawk #9 Not too long from this, PAD will tell an awesome Hulk/Punisher team-up that shows how the Punisher would team-up with a super that isn't directly opposing or trying to turn him in. This story isn't that. JCNovember 14, 2015 12:17 AM Web of Spider-Man #81 Shame Busiek never wrote Spider-Man proper. His sensibilities would've killed on the character. DarrenNovember 13, 2015 10:35 PM Wolverine #48-50 This was my first Wolverine story and if you were a young snot like I was you simply were not cool on the playground if you were unaware of this "monumentous" arc of issues. At the time and being so young, the mystery about who Wolverine was and exactly which portions of his past were real and false implants was fascinating. Looking back at it now, my fondness for the stories is really just childhood nostalgia masking the badness within. I still enjoy them, but the countless attempts of asking more questions instead of asking them, really became infuriating, but still kept me interested in finding out just what the deal with Wolvie was, which was probably Marvel's true intention, to keep drawing it out until interest wained. Too bad what we did get at the dawn of the new Millennium was a total let down of sorts. darrenNovember 13, 2015 10:19 PM Uncanny X-Men #104-105 Fnord12 you incorrectly state Dragonfly's previous appearance as X-Men 96 when it should be issue 95. ChrisWNovember 13, 2015 10:11 PM Wolverine #48-50 After studying Claremont's "X-Men" on my own and on this site, and as a big fan of Larry Hama and Marc Silvestri, these issues come across as later writers attempting to use Claremont's ideas. Nothing we see here contradicts what Claremont did in his original run [on any series] except insofar as Wolverine had a "mysterious past." It's like Claremont left the title long ago, but set up a template to get it through #50, and timed it to coincide with the upcoming "X-Men" #300 and his long-term plans, and after he's gone, his successors do the best they can with what's available. Larry Hama did great work on his "Wolverine" run to this point, but this reads like taking Claremont's cast-off ideas and possible stories and forging Claremont's work. Sad to say, this is as good as it gets. MichaelNovember 13, 2015 10:08 PM Avengers #341-342 Fnord, I have to disagree with your low opinion of this story. Firstly, I disagree with you regarding the "black anger" theme. (I have to wonder by the way if the "Irish" was meant to be Irish COPS can be just as bad or as good with minority suspects as black cops.) You're forgetting when this story came out. It came out a few weeks after the Crown Heights riots and the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum: ChrisWNovember 13, 2015 9:56 PM X-Factor #62 I don't think Boom Boom and Rictor ever met Doug, even once. It's like that issue (I forget which one) where the New Mutants saw X-Factor's ship returning, and Boom Boom and Rictor were the ones talking about their mentor, Xavier, and his dream. I can understand the X-characters attracting new members, the detritus of society, but don't pretend they have anything to do with Charlie. Maybe they will someday, but not now, not when they've never met the man, much less were inspired by him, and his students have been going far off the rails for as long as anyone can remember by this point. There are many horrible things about this issue, and the crossover in general, but I would put the ending as the worst. Sam should have been the one pouring out the ashes, with Roberto behind him. Wouldn't have changed the dialogue in the slightest. It would just make slightly more sense. ChrisWNovember 13, 2015 9:47 PM Hero For Hire #5 I have no interest in taking the conversation further. I already did my turn on the soapbox, and was genuinely worried about cluttering the commentary on a comic book I've never read. Fnord, do what you think is right, because you're the one in charge. Michael, have a good day. Everybody else, go about your lives, nothing to see here. [Unless you want to blame Madelyne Pryor, because she's so evil!!! ;)] Thanos6November 13, 2015 8:48 PM Avengers #341-342 @gfsdf gfbd I did, and while I appreciated the willingness to shake things up, I didn't care for the writing as a whole. MichaelNovember 13, 2015 7:44 PM Hero For Hire #5 Fnord, it was a cross-post, and I was a bit embarassed by it, so I don't mind you moving it to the forum. MichaelNovember 13, 2015 7:41 PM Wolverine #48-50 Luis,several writers have written her with a crush on Wolverine. gfsdf gfbdNovember 13, 2015 6:39 PM Avengers #341-342 @Thanos Eh... Try the early 2000s Wildstorm stuff. Or even earlier Ultimate Marvel to a lesser degree. Luis DantasNovember 13, 2015 5:31 PM Wolverine #48-50 I'm not the biggest Jubilee fan, but is she supposed to be that much of a Wolverine fangirl? BobNovember 13, 2015 5:09 PM Avengers #341-342 Maybe Fabien Nicieza is an Alan Smithee type name they put on fill-ins that were generated by the comic writing manatees and their idea balls. BobNovember 13, 2015 5:07 PM Wolverine #48-50 Why Marvel and Jim Lee took Logan out of the superior brown and tan costume baffles me. A grim and gritty street level character has no business in bright, pineapple colored duds. BerendNovember 13, 2015 4:39 PM Wolverine #48-50 The memory implants do open up the door to endless reversals, but I don't think you can hold that against Larry Hama. What we CAN hold against him (or perhaps the X-Editors of this era) is endlessly teasing bits of Wolverine's past but taking far to long to reveal something concrete, eventually ending up revealing barely any concrete stuff at all. This could've been the definitive history of Wolverine, which later writers would've been forced to work within. Instead it just further hyped up Logan's mysterious past, thus inspiring a decade or two of writes to write more stories about it. And since no one was paying attention to the continuity of those stories, eventually the memory implants HAD to be used to explain why we have 6 different versions of Logan's first meeting with Sabretooth, 12 different versions of him discovering his powers and about a gazillion dead first loves. Red CometNovember 13, 2015 4:03 PM Wolverine #48-50 The memory implant plot device can lead to some bad storytelling, but it's also its own failsafe since said bad stuff can be written out as more implants. I also didn't see Wolverine as becoming noticably more anti-social or gruff than normal, even in subsequent issues of this very title. I think the problem is that the character, like Ben Grimm, is already very well defined with a very clear voice and you can't really move away from that without totally changing them. Also, I believe Harry shows up at least once more as the pilot who flies Wolverine to fight the Phalanx during the end of the Phalanx Covenant crossover. JSfanNovember 13, 2015 3:49 PM Web of Spider-Man #81 It feels like a fill-in but it's got that old-school feel as if it was written in the early-mid 80s. Nice. Thanos6November 13, 2015 3:19 PM Avengers #341-342 I wish Marvel WOULD abandon the "world outside your window" principle and go for real change. Tony LewisNovember 13, 2015 3:13 PM Wolverine #48-50 The Lotus Seven was the car Patrick McGoohan drove around London in in The Prisoner. JonathanNovember 13, 2015 2:48 PM Quasar #28-29 Never read this, but it seems fun. Dumb plot, but good comedy. I think Gru had written women perfectly well in the past (in DP7 among other things) but he did seem to be losing it by this point. I'm not sure Gruenwald and the artist actually worked together on that panel of Her's choices. The mutants are spread over the page, and what category is Nova in? JesseNovember 13, 2015 9:39 AM Captain Marvel #8-11 Reading through the Captain Marvel books was at least enjoyable… and then I hit issue 11. It was as though the writer and artist were crafting different stories, yet Marvel combined and published them anyway. That whole Aarkon/Organization script/art mix-up was jarring, but then Mar-Vell fights Yon-Rogg and states each panel that they don’t need weapons, only fists- yet Mar-Vell is again and again shown firing his U-beam at Rogg. I couldn’t help but laugh when Una was shot because it was treated as rather an after-thought. I believe it was the letter column in Issue 9 that mentions that Una and her incessant weeping had to go, and other letter states that Mar-Vell should be banished by the Kree and forced to continuously travel the cosmos. It certainly seems as though Marvel was at least in part listening to and taking cues from its readers. But that art in issue 11 was just horrendous. It was either a rush job, or Dick Ayers was channeling Fletcher Hanks. The art recovers a great deal in issue 12, thanks perhaps to Syd Shores’ inking. Captain Marvel issue number 11 is to comics what Zardoz is to motion pictures. JonathanNovember 13, 2015 8:59 AM Namor #15-20 The thing about the being promised a good looking queen by an alien always reminded me of some Silver Age story I'd read as a kid with the same idea, hopefully someone with greater knowledge than me can tell me which one Byrne's referencing here. fnord12November 13, 2015 8:52 AM Hero For Hire #5 I think Michael cross-posted with my request to take further conversation about D.W. Griffith (the filmmaker) to the forum. I've created a new topic in the forum and moved Michael's comment there. Sorry if i'm stepping on your toes, Michael. I just don't want an endless back and forth on a political/historical topic on an entry about Luke Cage fighting Black Mariah. fnord12November 13, 2015 7:58 AM Hero For Hire #5 ChrisW, it seems like you're missing Michael's point. As cullen says, everyone acknowledges that Griffith contributed innovations to film. But the content of the film is recognized as being a major factor in the return of the KKK. As Michael says, it was racist for the time period, and that's why it's not just about judging a film with the standards of the day. It helped with the resurgence of the KKK (who used the film for recruiting and propaganda purposes) and vilified Reconstruction, and is therefore somewhat responsible for the turn from Reconstruction to Jim Crow, which resulted in a marked decline in the rights and quality of life of black people. It's in that sense that Michael says the film was damaging, not in relation to the film industry. And all of this is what makes discussions of Griffith more problematic (i.e., harder to leave his politics out of it) than an artist who may have been racist 'in their own time' but still produced works that are recognized as artistically important. I think at this point all sides of the argument have been presented in more detail that is merited for this particular comic, so i'd appreciate it if any further discussion were taken to the forum. Erik BeckNovember 13, 2015 7:26 AM X-Factor #62 Just a terrible end to a pointless crossover. After nine issues, what has changed? Alex is back in the overall fold, but will go missing for the next year while Warlock dies and Wolfsbane leaves the New Mutants, leaving us with only Sam and Berto from the old team. I don't know what I hate most about this issue - the unresolved story aspects with Hodge that fnord points out, the horrible lips on Scott's face that makes him look he's pouting at Logan or the final panel. Actually, I think it's the final panel. It's almost offensive that Boom Boom and Rictor are the ones spreading Warlock's ashes with Sam and Berto, who were teammates with him for 76 issues, just stand in the background. It's like Weezy was being forced out, so she was just like "ah, the hell with it." fnord12November 13, 2015 7:24 AM Namor #15-20 On all these issues, Glynis Oliver-Wein is the colorist except for issue #20, which is by Michael Thomas (and which doesn't feature any one in an Iron Fist costume). The quality of the scans may be part of the problem; in the actual comic, Iron Fist's costume is an olive green (i.e. a green with more brown in it) while Namorita's is a lighter green. There is heavy use of black shading on Iron Fist's costume as well. BobNovember 13, 2015 3:21 AM Ghost Rider #19-20 Tex's art keeps getting worse, too. GromNovember 13, 2015 2:51 AM Moon Knight #32-33 For me sadly Moon Knight was a yawn fest. None of this excited me or mattered. ChrisWNovember 13, 2015 2:24 AM Hero For Hire #5 How does a work like "Birth of a Nation" damage film, or anything else? It explored and expanded the possibilities of film in ways that no other film has done even to this day. The world has become more violent since Jack Kirby got creator credit in Marvel, is that his fault because he was such a violent person? Is it possible that people make their own decisions and bear the responsibility instead of being instructed by a work of fiction? Are you really judging people in 1915 by the standards of 2015? You must hate them for the slow download time for their internet porn. They didn't grow up with refrigerators, automobiles or high-speed air travel, but you want to judge them by the same standards for pioneering work in a new medium because they saw dramatic possibilities - and ignore all their other work in the same medium - because of it's supposed effect. That's like blaming Quentin Tarantino - who uses a lot of techniques D.W. Griffith invented - for popularizing the use of the word "nigger" by white people. And films a lot of niggas busting a cap up some nigga's ass because he thinks it makes for a cool movie. Which - Tarantino fans seem to agree, I haven't seen the movies myself - it does. How about just recognizing the greatness of a pioneer and leaving political ideas out of it. Greatness is Greatness. Stop thinking in a world of instant porn downloads and consider what life was like for earlier generations. And the "sassy fat black chick" is a recognizable person that you know when you meet her, whether or not you like her. Stereotypes are based in truth, and one is hard-pressed to think of a stereotype more true than the Sassy Black Fat Chick. God bless them, one and all. Ok, "Gone With The Wind" is more nuanced. Never read the book or saw the movie, but it just tells me that books are better than movies, and reinforces why I don't like movies. And comic books are best of all. Because duh. Walter LawsonNovember 13, 2015 1:21 AM Namor #15-20 Interesting comment from Luis. To me, the Iron Fist disguise looks black with green highlights, which I took to mean it's really dark green. But what's interesting is that Byrne is red-green colorblind and has said in past interviews that he originally thought Iron Fist's costume was brown. Was Byrne doing his own coloring on some of these issues? cullenNovember 12, 2015 11:56 PM Hulk Magazine #15,17-18 (Moon Knight) I appreciate your "references" links, fnord. Nice to get an opportunity to revisit the Neal Adams era of Sienkiewicz's work. fnord12November 12, 2015 9:06 PM Ghost Rider #19-20 I think the multiple eyes thing is ridiculous because obviously Zodiak can see, so he should be able to see whatever causes the penance stare to work. More importantly, the penance stare should be a mystical thing; it shouldn't be stymied by physical problems. Can ordinary people simply close their eyes to avoid it? I also don't think it's too powerful as long as it's used as a finishing move, which has generally been the case. Ghost Rider should have to subdue his opponent with his other abilities and then, since he can't send his enemies to jail, he gives them the penance stare to do the equivalent, essentially removing them as threats, either permanently or until they're cured by someone else or otherwise recover (the same as getting out of jail). ChrisNovember 12, 2015 9:03 PM Ghost Rider #19-20 I have to agree on the book's decline. Not sure when I abandoned the title, but it's not much longer than this. The new villains often had good names and nice visual designs, but weren't actually interesting either as characters, or as someone for Ghost Rider to fight against. Mackie had a hard time determining what kind of villains would lead to good battles. Ghost Rider should easily mop up ordinary criminals, but ultimately I see him as someone around the Wolverine/Spider-Man level of power. It should be possible to defeat him and have villains present real challenges, not just escape total defeat from Ghost Rider because of odd ways to defeat the Penance Stare. Mackie originally had a good feel for the combination of street crime and occult horror, but he's lost his touch after the first year. It was really coasting off the fumes of that first year of comics when it was very exciting and intriguing. MortificatorNovember 12, 2015 8:52 PM Thor #437 Harras wrote Hercules less humorously, all right, but I prefer this portrayal of Herc to the depressed my-dad-erased-my-imaginary-girlfriend Herc from his '90s Avengers run. MichaelNovember 12, 2015 8:49 PM Ghost Rider #19-20 I don't see why the Penance Stare not working because Suicide has more than two eyes is ridiculous. The real problem is that the Penance Stare is too powerful. MichaelNovember 12, 2015 8:25 PM New Warriors #15-17 Note that Marvel Boy is far more powerful this story than before the encounter with the Sphinx. MichaelNovember 12, 2015 8:07 PM Quasar #28-29 Maybe Gruenwald was referring to the virus Apocalypse infected him with. fnord12November 12, 2015 7:55 PM Quasar #28-29 It's possible that this was written while Cable was going to be the clone and Stryfe the real deal. I don't know when that was the operative plan, or if Gruenwald would have known about it. MichaelNovember 12, 2015 7:55 PM Thor #437 You're not the only that didn't like that Herc had turned into a joke. Several months after Harras took over the Avengers, he did an interview in Marvel Age saying that he didn't like that Herc had turned into "a buffoon- too cartoony" and would make sure to correct that in his run. RobertNovember 12, 2015 6:54 PM Thor #437 I don't think I've mentioned it in any Quasar-related entries yet but I really didn't care for his character at the time. So that, couple with my disappointment at how DeFalco was handling this whole "Thoric" thing, made this one of my least favorite issues. Luis DantasNovember 12, 2015 5:53 PM Quasar #28-29 Maybe it is a hint that Cable is a "mule" of sorts - his parents are both mutants, too far apart from the baseline human for their offspring to be fertile. It would make sense, but that is not how Marvel treats mutants. Piotr WNovember 12, 2015 5:34 PM Quasar #28-29 I wonder what Gruenwald meant by "chromosome damage" listed next to... Cable? Was it a sneaky comment that Cable suffered from machoism? Piotr WNovember 12, 2015 5:32 PM Ghost Rider #19-20 I'd say that Mackie jumped the shark the previous arc. Early GR issues had potential, but that stuff with Reverend Styge was idiotic. And then, the book went downhill *fast*... Seriously, I've read about 50 issues of that series (as well as the Spirits of Vengeance spinoff) and that stuff was atrocious. I can't believe this book has ever been popular... Thanos6November 12, 2015 5:31 PM Quasar #28-29 Personally I enjoy the running gag of Quasar being so hot that most of Marvel's women and several of the men want to sleep with him. Quasar accidentally putting on the wrong costume still doesn't explain his hair, though. Piotr WNovember 12, 2015 5:29 PM X-Men Spotlight on... Starjammers #1-2 Bald Phoenix looks a little like Grant Morrison. Just saying. And Cockrum could draw some cute Hepzibah. She looked interesting, not like a generic catwoman later pencillers turned her into. As for the story, this thing looks crazy. Which is... surprising, in a good. I didn't know Kavanagh was capable to do that kind of crazy... even if not intentionally. Erik BeckNovember 12, 2015 5:29 PM New Mutants #97 That they strung out Hodge to be a prominent enough foe to last all three teams through this whole crossover just got really old really quick. And without Liefeld there is still the odd coloring. Not that he was the colorist, but still. Gary ANovember 12, 2015 1:42 PM Squadron Supreme #1-6 While not on Wikipedia, I believe the members introduced into the Squadron Supreme might be analogues to the "Detroit League", which was going on at the time: Redstone - Steel - both are patriotic American heroes Luke BlanchardNovember 12, 2015 12:08 PM Namor #15-20 I've been trying to figure out the image on the CAPTAIN AMERICA cover. The logo is based on the one from CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS, but I think the image is based on the cover of TALES OF SUSPENSE #94. Cap is on the left and has just hit the figure on the right, who is recoiling from the blow. Cap's legs are positioned as on TOS #94, but I think he's holding his shield in front of his torso and his right arm is stretched up and forward with his hand forming a fist (as on CAPTAIN AMERICA #100). I think the figure on the right is a comic image of Hitler, with his body bent double and his face turned toward the camera. Cap has either hit him with the back of his fist or rammed him with his shield. Behind them there's the entrance to a tunnel. Oliver_CNovember 12, 2015 9:05 AM X-Men Spotlight on... Starjammers #1-2 No-one else but Cockrum (R.I.P.) draws Ch'od with that vaguely froggy-with-fangs face. At the hands of other artists he looks more purely reptillian, or (worse) Abomination-lite. As for Terry Kavanagh's script, the pantomime stuff with Cr'reee is the best part, if you know what I mean. fnord12November 12, 2015 7:20 AM Namor #21-25 Thanks Vincent. I've updated the credits. Vincent ValentiNovember 12, 2015 1:20 AM Namor #21-25 Whoops, my bad - I meant #s 22 and 23. You can see the change in inking style up top where Namor discovers the real Iron Fist. GCD has him listed as well. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 11, 2015 10:58 PM Fantastic Four annual #21 Edward L.Norton has to be a pseudonym for Ralf. fnord12November 11, 2015 10:42 PM Namor #21-25 Vincent, the credits, the UHBMCC, and the GCD all list Byrne as the sole artist. Vincent ValentiNovember 11, 2015 10:21 PM Namor #21-25 #24 was inked by Bob Wiacek. fnord12November 11, 2015 10:21 PM NFL Superpro #2 They were fighting around the plane and Quick Kick crashed into the wing and then insisted on trying to fly away anyway, so no Superpro didn't cause the crash directly, but he was involved in the incident. And it's not like the police were around to see that. fnord12November 11, 2015 10:20 PM Namor #21-25 Added Llyra, thanks. MichaelNovember 11, 2015 10:10 PM NFL Superpro #2 Fabian Nicieza once complained that people were too harsh on this series because it was intended for eight year olds. If he intended it for eight year olds, then he shouldn't have included the innuendo. MichaelNovember 11, 2015 9:56 PM Namor #21-25 Fnord, I'd blame Priest for any Tyrone King issues, not Stern or Byrne. Tyrone DOES mean King according to some dictionaries, we were told than Khan was absent from Kun Lun and in any case, it's Priest's fault for not revealing what King's secret was in Power Man and Iron Fist 125. fnord12November 11, 2015 9:03 PM Namor #21-25 Well obviously i didn't think it was obvious, but thanks Andrew. AndrewNovember 11, 2015 8:50 PM Namor #21-25 Umm, the second connection between Earth and K'un Lun was obviously when H'ylthri sent the "bolt of lightning" that hit Plantman's original gun, mentioned a few scans down. JSfanNovember 11, 2015 5:37 PM NFL Superpro #2 What about: "You've just made your last foul play" as an American Football pun? Anyhooo. Does Quick Kick actually kick quickly? Shouldn't he be called Quick Throw since he throws Ninja stars? Am I over thinking thing? :S Cecil DisharoonNovember 11, 2015 4:58 PM Amazing Spider-Man #139-140 Think you intended ASM Annual #15? I just seem to recall the convo, Kveto. Darren November 11, 2015 4:49 PM Tales To Astonish #44 (Ant-Man) If you want to look at ages. 1962-1965 Marvel ages in real time at least for Spider-Man comics, which I then assume correlates across the Marvel spectrum. Using Spider-Man as our constant, Peter was 15 in 1962 commonly known as the age he became Spider-Man in recent continuity and because Pete graduates high school in 1965. Since most teens graduate at their 18th year, this makes a perfect starting point in determining when Marvel Time actually begins. Which I seem to place around 1966-1967. It becomes obvious that the more readers picking up the titles are college age so Stan wanting to keep with that demographic halts the aging process. As a result Peter stays in college for 12 years finally graduating in 1979. So ignoring the holiday stories compress the years at 2 and a half years per our calendar year and things become easier. So by using this as our guide, Peter would have still been 18 or 19 in 1967. Since that was Janet's 23rd birthday and Peter was at most 19, we reverse the years back to 1963 combining 1966-1967 as one year and see Janet was 20. kvetoNovember 11, 2015 4:14 PM Amazing Spider-Man #139-140 the Grizzly gets a "Menace or Threat?" headline in the Bugle in #140. Which I think is long before its used on Spidey in ASM annual #5. Matthew BradleyNovember 11, 2015 4:05 PM Invaders #10-15 Mark, first of all, ongoing thanks for your many informative comments, which I have often quoted on our Marvel University blog. Second, if we're willing to accept Roy's word (from his "Nostalgic Note" in the annual), Burgos "was even willing to take on the assignment, he assured me over the transAtlantic phone. Unfortunately, at the last moment, he was unable to do so..." Make of that what you will. Erik BeckNovember 11, 2015 4:02 PM X-Factor #61 Do you think Scott's ridiculous muscles were also in that bag? Wanyas the Self-ProclaimedNovember 11, 2015 3:01 PM NFL Superpro #2 I think Instant Replay's title as the "killer who can cut through time" is pretty damn fantastic as well. cullenNovember 11, 2015 1:36 PM NFL Superpro #2 How're they gonna introduce a martial-arts character named Quick Kick in a Marvel licensed property comic... when there already was one? Jay DemetrickNovember 11, 2015 12:31 PM X-Factor #61 I always assumed bald caps with numbers on them and the skintight bodysuits were in Forge & Beast's bundles of supplies so they could infiltrate in disguise. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 11, 2015 12:05 PM Avengers #340 Paul Abrams also did an issue of The Strangers for Malibu Comics. Just like this, it paled in comparison to Rick Hoberg's work on the title. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 11, 2015 12:01 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 Paul Ryan is a fantastic artist, and it's unfortunate that he was saddled with being associated with one of the most hated retcons of all time. I can't help but to think that Paibok was actually a precursor to the Secret Invasion Skrull models. He was clearly the X-Men equivalent of a Super-Skrull. All he needed was claws. Sparky RyanNovember 11, 2015 11:55 AM Spider-Woman #30 Damn good issue, solid exciting story, lovely art from Leihoia and Mooney. Creepy villains and good pacing. Erik BeckNovember 11, 2015 11:45 AM Uncanny X-Men #272 I remember that Cockrum did a similar effect in GS#1, but that panel of Scott slowly regaining his powers is fantastic. DarrenNovember 11, 2015 8:41 AM Tales To Astonish #27 (Ant-Man) Another one of those really good monster/hero concepts that Stan was experimenting with when he was told to do superhero books. If this story didn't sell, well Henry would have been just another man in the ant hill. GromNovember 11, 2015 8:23 AM Uncanny X-Men #132-135 Surprised a little you disliked the backup story with Storm. I loved seeing Storm having to choose between Colossus and Wolvie because of her poor reaction. Jim Lee was new on the scene when he drew this but it sure caught my eye. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 11, 2015 8:22 AM Namor #15-20 "Then issue #10 opens with Spitfire looking over some Golden Age Namor comics." I take it that you mean #20. In agreement in regards to the decompression. These stories should have been truncated to allow for a better establishment of the erzatz Iron Fist reveal. I went back and read the various postings in regards to the alternate ways that IF could have been returned...it really is too bad that Roger Stern was given the bum's rush. Maybe we could have been spared that utterly awful Cage series. Dwayne Turner's art aside, it was just awful. Sparky RyanNovember 11, 2015 7:35 AM Avengers #340 And of course there was the panel of Cap groping the unconscious woman that was hit by the car. The art on this issue is the worst I have ever seen in a A list comicbook. Erik BeckNovember 11, 2015 6:35 AM X-Factor #61 Yeah, I can't fathom how strange Scott looks in this issue. I assume that must be a skullcap he's wearing, though I don't know where he would have gotten it, since he's back to a full head of hair in the next part. Erik BeckNovember 11, 2015 6:29 AM New Mutants #96 There's still that weird coloring for the backgrounds through all of this issue, just like last issue. And how does Cable stand with all that weight in his upper body and those tiny little legs? DarrenNovember 11, 2015 12:16 AM Amazing Spider-Man #36 No problem, Fnord! Luis DantasNovember 10, 2015 9:49 PM Namor #15-20 The Namorita revelation has consequences in New Warriors. Odd that the Iron Fist guise shown here is colored brown instead of green. Particularly when we see that Namorita wears green normally. I wonder if there was a significance to that. Maybe it is just camouflage of sorts? The Marrs siblings were too caricatural from the get go, yet oddly underdeveloped. Hints of weird arrangements with Headhunter, of a particularly unhealthy relationship between the two... they are a bit too disfunctional to be taken seriously, to the point that Byrne himself prefered to show them in a cameo and then use one of their underlings as Iron Man's enemy in the concurrent stories. Desmond is just too impulsive, too lacking in self-control to cover his own tracks, as the Caleb scene shows clearly. He is not only not a mover and shaker, he is not even henchman material. Phoebe is more mature and stable, but that is faint praise. The two of them could make for good stories, but there would need to be a lot more development and focus on their fragile psyches for that to happen. Instead, they have been increasingly treated as background characters, almost tragicomical relief. Omar KarinduNovember 10, 2015 9:06 PM Thor #419-424 If you think this iteration of the "youthful replacement gods" idea is lousy, wait'll you meet the Godpack in all their Thomas-y "glory." ChrisNovember 10, 2015 9:06 PM Namor #15-20 Very fun story with the Super Skrull, but I agree with the weaknesses FNORD12 talked about. The resolution of the Desmond Marrs story is so abrupt and out of left field. It seems like Byrne knew it wasn't working out as he originally intended and therefore decided to end it. That's too bad. I think Desmond should have stayed around much like J Jonah Jameson did. More a villain, than a foil, but he essentially could play the same role - someone too legitimate to be taken down by normal means, and therefore could do all the bizarre stuff Jameson did in his worst depictions (fund the Scorpion, Spider-Slayers, etc.). The clone revelation likewise didn't lead to anything new. I think Byrne intended the corporate intrigue and environmental themes to be more prominent, but didn't know how to pull it off right. It's too bad because done correctly, they could have added to the book. MichaelNovember 10, 2015 8:17 PM Namor #15-20 This storyline is another reason why the Illumimati plot doesn't work- the plot hinges on Tony not having told Namor that Desmond is evil, which is believable if the Illuminati doesn't exist but completely falls apart if Namor and Tony are working together in the Illuminati. BobNovember 10, 2015 7:58 PM Namor #15-20 kinda weird seeing Byrne do a gimmicky Punisher cameo. He's usally above that sort of thing. Omar KarinduNovember 10, 2015 7:45 PM Thor #418 In fairness, DeFalco and Frenz are to some extent giving the Wrecker back some of the powers he demonstrated in his very first appearances, where he did stuff like create bullet-repelling force fields and banish people back to Asgard. Omar KarinduNovember 10, 2015 7:37 PM Thor #416-417 The four-armed shadow also resembled the shadow of the being later explained as Dweller-in-Darkness from a 1970s Thor story also featuring both Thor and Hercules; I suspect DeFalco and Frenz were either trying to "finish" that arc, not remembering it had been followed up in Dr. Strange's book, or at least that they were riffing on it. Omar KarinduNovember 10, 2015 6:56 PM Avengers: Deathtrap: The Vault @AndrewF, At least Dan Slott eventually came up with a plausible rationalization for it, having Peter Parker suggest that a creature adapted for the vacuum of space would have problems with fire and sound. Omar KarinduNovember 10, 2015 3:46 PM New Mutants #90-91 Is Rictor using his powers to battle Sabretooth, or just really fighting off the effects of an especially potent breakfast burrito? Luke BlanchardNovember 10, 2015 3:23 PM Namor #15-20 On the page with Spitfire and the comics the SUB-MARINER issue is the one Johnny reads in FANTASTIC FOUR #4. The CAPTAIN AMERICA one might be a reference too, but I don't know it. The splash of "Iron Fist" holding Namorita up by her hair seems to be modelled after the cover of MS. MARVEL #15. Omar KarinduNovember 10, 2015 3:18 PM Quasar #8 I'm pretty sure this was more a spoof of Venom than an attempt to cash in on him. Based on Quasar #6, I'd say Gruenwald didn't much care for Venom. fnord12November 10, 2015 2:18 PM Captain Marvel #50-53 Thanks Matthew. I may even have picked that up from Edelman's blog without thinking. Luke BlanchardNovember 10, 2015 2:18 PM Marvel Super Heroes #377-386 (UK) The Crazy Gang was presumably named after the team of British comics of that name. Matthew BradleyNovember 10, 2015 1:53 PM Captain Marvel #50-53 “By the end of issue #50, CM and Rick will be separated from each other for the first time since issue #17.” Yet you correctly observe, in reviewing #39, that “they make a special effort and find that they can actually separate their bodies. So for the first time in a long while, both Rick and Captain Marvel are out of the Negative Zone,” and only #47 “restored the ‘take turns in the Negative Zone’ status quo.” (Interestingly, Edelman makes the same omission when claiming credit for this innovation on his blog.) Luke BlanchardNovember 10, 2015 12:39 PM Excalibur #44 Miss Witherspoon seems to be modelled after Margaret Rutherford, who played eccentric women in a number of British movies (including a version of Miss Marple not very much like Agatha Christie's). MortificatorNovember 10, 2015 11:41 AM Spider-Man #17 I lean towards the story being presented as a dream. Spidey's lying unconscious on the roof the whole time. Thanos as greeter for all heroes while in possession of the infinity gems, how would that even work? When Spider-Man gets killed during Infinity Gauntlet #4, shouldn't Thanos pop back down to greet him again? Shouldn't he be constantly calling time-out during the fight as each hero is killed? Death may be able to be in multiple places simultaneously, but one of the things the gems can't do is make more gems, so there can't be multiple gem-wielding Thanoses at once. cullenNovember 10, 2015 11:23 AM Hero For Hire #5 100% with what you said, Michael. Luke BlanchardNovember 10, 2015 11:00 AM Avengers #59 Yellowjacket is another of Roy Thomas's Golden Age homages. The Golden Age one appeared in comics from Charlton. Omar KarinduNovember 10, 2015 8:46 AM Fear #14-15 For that matter, Delvadia is the country from Daredevil #74-75, and will eventually be confirmed as the homeland of the Tarantula in Spider-Man. (A letters page in a later issue of Fear confirms that "Gerry Conway founded Delvadia on his typewriter.") Ataru320November 10, 2015 8:41 AM Iron Man #74-75,77,80-81 Eh, if MODOK wants to occasionally have a huge human body to fight with, let him. Yeah its probably something you'd more expect with Quasimodo (or the infamous "bald guy with speedo and metal glasses" that Krang used in TMNT '87), but to me it just feels like a "final, final option" thing for the likes of MODOK. fnord12November 10, 2015 7:34 AM Amazing Spider-Man #36 Thanks, Darren. I've removed the link to CBR's When We First Met feature sayings that this issue was the first appearance of "Thwip!". Erik BeckNovember 10, 2015 6:54 AM Uncanny X-Men #271 ".. and we get a fetish story each month :)" And if we're going to get a fetish story, there's no one better to draw them than Jim Lee. I didn't read this in real-time, but Lee's art is so much than the other two artists on this that it's jarring. It's not like X-Cutioner's Song, where there will be three artists who look more similar, then the X-Factor issues which look like they were drawn in a parallel universe. Luke BlanchardNovember 10, 2015 4:25 AM Marvel Feature #5-6 I've always assumed the inspiration for this phase of Ant-Man's career was THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. But I'm reminded of "Minimidget", which appeared in comics from Centaur in the early Golden Age. Minimidget and his lady Ritty were permanently small, and Minimidget often carried a sword (an actual sword, not a nail). He dressed similarly to Ant-Man here (tight shirt and leggings of different colours, boots). Luke BlanchardNovember 10, 2015 4:14 AM Marvel Feature #4 For part of his Golden Age run Doll Man was partnered by a dog called Elmo, on whose back he rode. TuomasNovember 10, 2015 1:38 AM Spider-Man #17 For what it's worth, this issue was included in the Infinity Gauntlet omnibus, so it seems Marvel considers it to be an official IG tie-in. Of course, that still doesn't necessary disprove the theory that Thanos and Death are just a dream here. MichaelNovember 10, 2015 12:21 AM Hero For Hire #5 Chris, yes, D.W. Griffith helped introduce many techniques used by today's filmmakers but that doesn't change the fact that Birth of A Nation was one of the most damaging films in American history. It let to a revival of the KKK! Yes, the play he took it from was racist but that doesn't excuse Griffith from adapting it. Yes, most educated people in Griffith's time believed the Dunning School myth of "white southerners victimized by freed blacks during Reconstruction". But the film was so racist BY THE STANDARDS OF THE TIME that some cities banned it. The "sassy fat black chick" is part of a myth about Southerners being so benevolent that their slaves/employees were loyal to them. Griffith himself was the son of a Kentucky Confederate veteran and defended it as based on true history.The Lost Cause Myth was horrible because it justified the lynchings and the convict leasing system and Birth of A Nation is the primary film exemplar of that myth- even Gone With the Wind is more nuanced. ChrisWNovember 10, 2015 12:01 AM X-Factor #60 I can't even imagine how he got the job. Such an important story in the mutant titles, and you want a third of it (including the final issue) drawn by Jon Bogdanove? This is what he draws and the editor deems it publishable? I assume Claremont and Weezie supported Bogdanove, I assume he did the best he could. This is where I would blame Bob Harras for the mess that the mutant titles would become. Lots of blame to go around, but really? Dude, what were you thinking? DarrenNovember 9, 2015 11:55 PM X-Force #4 Red Comet Liefeld would set up books with enough tension to give an exciting premise but ultimately not follow through on any of it. X-Force started as a mutant strike team that would strike first and ask questions later but instead of making that the focus, Liefeld was introducing more and more characters and each issue became a spotlight of sorts for these new characters. Giving the new characters a voice is one thing but you cannot just derail a series like this, you have to advance the plot. I can't even begin to tell you what X-Force's first arc was about because the book became focused on introducing new members. Kane, G.W. Bridge, Feral etc. They werent even good characters, they didnt have any pathos just a basic traits, Feral is Feral, Kane is the mysterious new Weapon X and everyone but the reader seems to know him and nothing is done to catch us up on him, he's an attempt to be the next Wolverine and G.W. Bridge is like Luke Cage except boring. The artwork was just horrendous, everyone became human pretzels and frankly half the stuff going on defied logic or science. Costume designs were mediocre to plain dumb. Shirtless Cable with big honking shoulder pad/vest thing, pouches and leg bandoleers on many other characters, dumb gimmicks like launching hands. It was almost as if Liefeld was desigining gimmicks for a toyline (which actually came to fruition the next year with the X-Force line.) than comic book characters to be introduced in the rich, ChrisWNovember 9, 2015 11:51 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 Who would burn the written records as soon as they had a need to keep warm, like the following January. Exactly. Does anyone else think Claremont isn't meticulous about continuity? ChrisWNovember 9, 2015 11:47 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 Interesting thoughts, Omar. Just a few quibbles/additions off the top of my head. Mostly that I agree that the Master Mold/Nimrod merge was Claremont trying to recreate his original intention in the first place, but I think that it was more to move Nimrod off the board in Claremont's on-going project to decimate the X-Men for their eventual rebirth and joining with X-Factor. Nimrod had been built up for 20 issues or so since his initial appearance, and then his subplot went exactly nowhere. Considering how much had changed for Claremont in that time, I suspect it was just using what little was left of his original ideas to get rid of an idea that just didn't pan out. And build up the Rogue/Carol Danvers subplot as a counterpoint, unwilling psychic merging, sudden death, etc. And at that point he was still in control of his story, somewhat. In the comments for #246-247, we discussed that he originally intended Dazzler to die and it was a last-minute change that Rogue went through the Siege instead. How much he planned, how much his characters made their own decisions, how much editorial or artistic influence there was, we'll never know. Second, assuming we're talking about the same thing, the "Captain Britain" collection was reprinted in America. The Davis/Delano stories, and whoever followed Delano on scripting, bringing Meggan into Brian's life, following up on the warpies, etc. Claremont's introduction was mostly about praising Alan Moore's storyline as one of the greatest things he had ever read, praising Alan Davis' art, and criticizing what a horrible thing Slaymaster did to Betsy. Not really a great introduction, but it was what it was. Third, I believe Arthur C. Clarke is the one who coined the phrase "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." If you have evidence that a quote (or similar idea) was advanced earlier, fine, I'll be happy to admit Clarke wasn't the first, but to my knowledge, he was. I like to use my cellphone to post on Facebook, asking what the hell Jack Kirby was smoking when he came up with a stupid idea like a Mother Box. No one would use those. Like I say, this is just quibbling. I like your posts, especially the point about Roma trying to get the X-Men to go through the Siege a few dozen issues before they went through it anyway. It's like she knew what needed to happen, and they refused to do it. Before too long, "Inferno" happens, the team is destroyed and Wolverine gets crucified. Storm herself admits that the Australian adventure wasn't her best idea. Shoulda listened to the Guardian of Otherworld. But other than that, I think Claremont was just reusing ideas, which he has been known to do on rare occasions. BobNovember 9, 2015 11:47 PM X-Factor #60 And Bogdanove actually took pride in his craft, improved and did a great Superman run. Portacio and Liefeld got lazy once they got money at Inage and their stuff only got worse. ChrisWNovember 9, 2015 11:22 PM X-Factor #60 Because Bogdanove had drawn pages that actually worked. "Fantastic Four vs. The X-Men" being a good example. Wasn't great, but there were plenty of scenes that worked really well. He probably had similar pages on "Power Pack." He'll never be one of my favorite artists, and yes, this artwork is horrible, but he had the actual potential that I've seen others ascribe to Liefeld. Maybe he's not right for superheroes, exceptions duly noted, but cute kids, or monsters or something. Liefeld, I don't see the potential and never have. Bogdanove's art is horrible here,that's not an argument for or against Liefeld. david banesNovember 9, 2015 11:21 PM Hulk #171-172 I don't remember really liking the Hulk vs. Juggs fight. All I can recall is being disappointed. It seems like the two haven't had a rematch yet on this website. Considering Juggernaut is powered by magic to be basically invincible unless his brain is attacked and Hulk is unstoppable unless he gets gassed or loses interest. So the two should fight and destroy a whole country in the process or Hulk actually gets beaten down. ChrisWNovember 9, 2015 10:32 PM X-Force #4 Red Comet, what about those of us who have actually read his work, and were repulsed by it on the spot ["X-Men" #247] and then kept reading his work through "New Mutants" and "X-Force" until after he left the title? The way Fnord has been reviewing these books, fine, no disagreement that Liefeld, McFarlane and Lee provided a massive amount of energy to series that were seriously treading water. If they had been good, there would be no problem. But they weren't good, and the rest of Marvel followed their example. Like the art you want to like. If it strikes a gong with you, that's all the justification you need, and if it's enough to keep Liefeld drawing comics [which it is; is it just me or does the guy have a good work ethic when he's working for Marvel or DC?] then my opinion or anyone else's should be irrelevant. I may think your preferences suck, but other than a joke here or there, I won't say you can't have them. But I really have read enough Rob Liefeld comics to think he sucks. Just my opinion. I actually buy Liefeld comics that he's written, if they're below cover price, because I find the 'so bad it's good' factor worthwhile. And I'm old enough to have nostalgia for those early days on "New Mutants" when we didn't know how bad he would get. Sometimes you just want a Sal Buscema who can properly draw a story. ChrisWNovember 9, 2015 10:10 PM Hero For Hire #5 Not so much 'saw the light' as he was that way already. He wasn't racist, he was just adapting a stage play into a movie, and pioneering [or perfecting] many of the techniques he invented into a long, coherent film, arguably the first of its kind. The stage play itself, yes, it was quite racist, but Griffith was more interested in the drama of the presentation. The KKK aren't treated as heroes, they are simply the first filmed iteration of the 'cavalry riding to the rescue' for a dramatic rescue scene. Police officers could be doing the same thing, but it wouldn't have worked for the Reconstruction-era South. Griffith, and the play ["The Klansman," if I remember correctly] were dealing with some heavy Civil War themes, for an audience that included a lot of people who were there. Griffith's father was a Confederate Soldier, which is how he learned about the play in the first place. He only saw the potential for drama, and that's why he picked it for his first movie, after making his reputation with shorts. And he was horrified at the reaction. He made "Intolerance" as an attempt to repair the damage. His next movie was war propaganda, and Griffith was a pacifist. He was just good at making movies which didn't reflect his actual beliefs. His next big movie was about an abused girl who runs away and gets adopted by a Chinese immigrant. His only talkie was a biography of Abraham Lincoln. He also helped create United Artists, the Image Comics of their day. It fell apart similar to how Image Comics fell apart, but like Image, did a lot of good things for creators rights. The play "Birth of a Nation" was taken from is racist, no denying that. But Griffith only played it up insofar as he was adapting the play, and went out of his way to include positive examples of blacks. The sassy fat black chick steals the show in the last part of the movie, a stereotype which is very true even to this day, and while you can quibble about the use of blackface, consider the level of film technology in 1915. Dark skin simply didn't show up well on camera. Genuine black people would have looked physically horrible, undermining the story and Griffith's own beliefs. What's the alternative? No black people in any movie until technology has advanced to a point where you can film real black people? Yeah, the white people inventing and improving the technology will get right on that. All this information, by the way, comes from a D.W. Griffith documentary PBS aired a decade or two ago. I'm not a big movie fan, so I'm free to appreciate his pioneering work for what it is without getting too caught up in the story or actors. I've only seen "Birth of a Nation" and "Intolerance," and I have no particular stake in Griffith's work itself, other than its innovation. It always pisses me off when an artform repudiates the people who made it possible. It would be like denying Jack Kirby any credit because he was Jewish and very violent, or Steve Ditko because he likes Ayn Rand. No. Give them all the credit they've earned, regardless of what you think of their work. Unfortuntely, with D.W. Griffith, few people have even seen his work, much less realize how innovative it was. Movies today still use techniques he invented. [/soapbox] DarrenNovember 9, 2015 9:17 PM Amazing Spider-Man #28 This issue is notable for three reasons: 1. Peter Parker graduates High School. Look at page 12 panel 1 and not only is it there, but it's used twice! DarrenNovember 9, 2015 9:14 PM Amazing Spider-Man #36 ASM 36 was not the first appearance of Thwip. Actually, Thwip debuted in ASM 28, in his first fight with Molten Man. JCNovember 9, 2015 9:10 PM Spider-Man #17 As to the Hero Domino theory it would have further extreme relevance, since we find out in Millar's Spidey run that a great deal of his villains were specifically created to keep him busy. AndrewNovember 9, 2015 9:09 PM Giant-Size Spider-Man #5 It makes me crazy that this story isn't included in the Masterworks. The non-super character interactions are so wonderful - subtle and real - and a key part of the clone saga. JCNovember 9, 2015 9:08 PM Spider-Man #17 I can follow the reasoning that continuity issues making dis hard to fit in. But I don't buy dat as any sort of evidence that is a dream. If dat was the case half the stories in the MU would be "dreams". It's just the nature of the bizness. As for why would Thanos be interested in Spidey, it's for the same reason why Mephisto would give a shit about Spidey's marriage. Becuz it's the story the writer wrote, even if it sucks, even if there are logic holes. So I do think Thanos and Death are real, the same way I accept most stories as "real" unless given specific reason to believe authorial intent means otherwise. ChrisNovember 9, 2015 9:05 PM Alpha Flight #102-103 I find it amazing that no writer after Byrne ever seemed to understand what it was about Alpha that made its fans love the title. It's just been pedestrian, generic superhero stories ever since. Alpha was great because it was different, but still so familiar. Outside a few attempts by Mantlo, there is nothing that ties this to Canada or the unique mythos Byrne developed. AndrewNovember 9, 2015 8:35 PM Iron Man #74-75,77,80-81 MODOK using a giant robot body completely defeats the purpose of MODOK. MichaelNovember 9, 2015 8:34 PM Alpha Flight #102-103 Lobdell adding Wild Child to the team is odd since he opposed Nicieza's attempts to reform Sabretooth and opposed the editors adding Marrow to the X-Men. Wild Child is as much a murderer as Sabretooth or Marrow. MichaelNovember 9, 2015 7:56 PM Spider-Man #17 Re: the Hero's Domino theory- for Peter it has SOME truth since Venom and Carnage would have never gotten their powers if Peter hadn't brought the symbiote to Earth. Omar KarinduNovember 9, 2015 7:31 PM Hero For Hire #5 In fairness to the real-world D.W. Griffith, he did see the light regarding the racism of Birth of a Nation and subsequently made a film called Intolerance that attacked racial prejudice. Piotr WNovember 9, 2015 7:18 PM Alpha Flight #102-103 The more I read the summaries for AF issues, the more I think that it's hard to be an AF fan. I mean, aside from Byrne's run, the rest of the series is mediocre at best. After Mantlo's run, the book is simply bad or worse. There's nothing to like there, IMHO... It's really amazing that the fans haven't given up on these characters. GromNovember 9, 2015 6:30 PM Spider-Man #17 For some reason Spiderman swinging among the rooftops appeared in Thanos's thoughts when he was using the Heart of The Universe in Marvel Universe: The End. Maybe a coincidence ... Luis DantasNovember 9, 2015 5:35 PM Alpha Flight #102-103 Now, this was a good use of USAgent. The second so far, since his Spectacular Spider-Man appearance a few years ago. MortificatorNovember 9, 2015 3:32 PM Spider-Man #17 The Thanos & Death greeting party idea must come from The Death of Captain Marvel, but Thanos' appearance in that story seems due to his relationship with Mar-vell, not because Mar-vell's a hero. JSfanNovember 9, 2015 2:47 PM Alpha Flight #102-103 Man, Alpha Flight was sooo good when Byrne was writing it but it just fell apart after he left. It's so bad it's brutal. Red CometNovember 9, 2015 1:28 PM Alpha Flight #102-103 How did Alpha Flight even last this long? Who was buying this dreck? Red CometNovember 9, 2015 1:23 PM Spider-Man #17 Nocenti weirdness aside, when I was a kid this was a cool issue because it had Spider-man vs. Thanos. Never even occured to me at the time that it could be a dream sequence. I wonder if this fill-in started out as an Infinity Gauntlet tie-in and then got shelved? fnord12November 9, 2015 1:11 PM Excalibur #44 Whoops, thanks. Max_SpiderNovember 9, 2015 1:07 PM Alpha Flight #102-103 Interesting seeing this encounter between USAgent and Sasquatch, seeing how they both form Omega Flight as part of the 50 states initiative. Diablo's Elematrix seems likely to be based on the elementals from Fantastic Four #232. Makes me wonder the circumstances behind its creation. Max_SpiderNovember 9, 2015 12:51 PM Excalibur #44 You called Hauptmann Englande "Captain Hauptmann" when he first showed up. Do you have the "Captain, oh, Captain" song stuck in your head? JSfanNovember 9, 2015 8:09 AM X-Force #4 Chris, I think the fact he drew like a teenager was the appeal to teenage readers. It was as if anyone of them could do it. I believe that Liefeld's problem was that he drew studied comic book characters rather than real life. Luke BlanchardNovember 9, 2015 2:57 AM Marvel Team-Up #96 Kupperberg had been the final artist on the HOWARD THE DUCK newspaper strip. Cecil DisharoonNovember 9, 2015 12:49 AM General Comments http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2015/11/1983-marvel-comics-group-last-of-best.html Just this and my tanks. Cecil ChrisNovember 8, 2015 11:51 PM X-Force #4 This is fun in the same way a precocious teenager's homemade comic in high school can be fun. Unfortunately, it lacks the same level of professionalism. I would say the quality here shows Liefeld is maybe 6 years away from turning in professional quality work once he's been too art school and gotten Shooter's storytelling lessons. Unfortunately, Liefeld seems to be even worse than 6 years after this story was published. A good editor would have taken the basic structure of the story, and helped Liefeld craft it into something professional. DermieNovember 8, 2015 11:08 PM Wonder Man #3 There was something weird with Spider that was never explained in-story...in fact, none of the characters ever seemed to notice it. But his sunglasses would change size, shape, colour, etc, from one panel to the next. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 8, 2015 9:58 PM Marvel Team-Up annual #3 Dave Humphrys may have been an understudy for Josef Rubinstein. He inked along with Joe on the second story in PPTSSM #49. Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 9:50 PM Soviet Super Soldiers #1 Curiosuly, it's hinted here that Vostok was once a human being. The People's Protectorate military liaison guiy says he remembers a time when Vostok went by a regular first name. Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 9:41 PM Hulk #369 An alternative No-Prizing: the fight we see in Punisher #29 is indeed the one from Avengers #312. Since they retcon away the Mansions till being there in other comics aorund this time as holograms, who's to say the Avengers didn't also try to drive off Freedom Force's three renegade members by projecting holo-images of their more powerful members? Of course, since no one's been on-site in awhile, the holograms are out of date, and so they still use Namor. No doubt this why the rogue Forcers probably saw through the ruse quickly, forcing the actual Avengers to come out and fight. The Punisher just happened to be driving by during the few minutes when the Avengers were using the holograms. Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 9:32 PM Alpha Flight #87-90 A really clever plot might have treated this as a double-bluff; since we last saw Delphine in the form of a sort of cyborg Hudson, maybe this was a rebuilt Delphine instead...and Windshear's sudden epiphany about Roxxon is a cover story and he's a plant, too. But no, it's just resetting the status quo for its own sake. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 8, 2015 9:32 PM Marvel Team-Up #96 This really is an all-Kupperberg issue...he even letters it! Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 9:03 PM Excalibur #18-19 Emma;'s death was never shown on panel in the Marvel UK stories, and the only word we really have for it is from the Mastermind AI created by Brian's father, which was hardly above lying to people. Ataru320November 8, 2015 8:05 PM Wonder Man #3 It really should have been Abominatrix but my guess is she doesn't look that bad; heck Abominatrix has hair. Gamma-Burn...is probably just a way to say "looks" without trying that hard. Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 7:16 PM Thor #414 Stone's battle with Ulik seems like a complete lift of Kirby's "Terrible" Turpin story from New Gods v.1 #8. Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 7:09 PM Avengers West Coast #60-62 Toro can't be the Torch from the earlier Legion in Avengers #131-132, since that story revolved around the Torch being able to repair the Vision thanks to their shared android construction. Weirdly, Roy Thomas edited and scripted Steve Engelhart's plot there; presumably this is just Immortus messing with everyone. DarrenNovember 8, 2015 7:08 PM Amazing Spider-Man #36 This is where the Spidey stories really do start to become ugly, Gwen as a cold hearted... you know what, was probably starting to sour Stan the man, who obviously was trying to set her up as Pete's next girl, but had to work around Steve's pencils to force the concept in. It made Gwen's inner thoughts of cute but absent, really clash with the ugly mug that Steve drew her with in almost every issue. When Stan and Steve parted ways and he was looking for the next artist he saw potential in Jazzy John's romantic hero he was turning Daredevil into and slowly eased him out of Hell's Kitchen and straight on into ESU, feeling that romanticism, with the studdly, looking men, and gorgeous curves on his women with the miost beautiful faces you ever saw, it was a no brainer for Stan to bring him in as Spider-Man's regular penciler. It was soon after that the book really took off and reached untold heights becoming the phenomenon he was. DarrenNovember 8, 2015 6:48 PM Marvel Team-Up #23 Did Cyke lift up his visor to fire his optic blasts? GromNovember 8, 2015 5:52 PM Avengers #313 Loved the Acts issues in this title, Spidey and Captain America. Nothing much comes of it in the end but it was still a fun ride. Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 5:41 PM Avengers #313 It's part of the premise, but somehow actually seeing the Wizard state that this is all his plan is still hilarious. Sure, Wizard...you're playing Doctor Doom, Magneto, the Red Skull, the Kingpin, and the Mandarin for saps to achieve your revenge at last. Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 4:10 PM Web of Spider-Man #61 @Robert said: "Do any of the villains come out of the crossover any better than they went in? Was anything gained?" Well, I guess Chemistro benefitted from having his gun turned into some nifty palm-mounted blasters...but then Iron Man crushed his hands, so I guess that was a wash too. Piotr WNovember 8, 2015 3:33 PM X-Men #1-3 @Erik Robbins: or, maybe, mutants just have an increased hair growth rate :) (hey, IIRC, Marvel once suggested that all mutants have increased healing rate). I mean, look at Storm after X-Tinction Agenda: she was completely bald at the end of that story - and then, after the X-teams returned home, she already had short hair... AndrewNovember 8, 2015 1:10 PM Captain Marvel #37-39 On a lighter note, Nimrod's costume is totally ripped off from Simonson's Manhunter costume. But the pink/blue racism thing always made perfect sense to me. After all, the Kree are a fascist military empire. It would be surprising if they didn't have some sort of arbitrary caste system. AndrewNovember 8, 2015 12:49 PM Champions #14-15 Two things about that costume: first he didn't used to just run around in his underwear -- he ran around in his underwear with pirate boots. Second, the thing I like about this costume is the way Byrne draws it so that it's clear that he doesn't just have his shorts outside his tights, like Superman does, instead he just has pants that have a white top. MichaelNovember 8, 2015 12:44 PM Fantastic Four #126-128 When Roy writes the Mole Man again in the 1991 Subterranean Wars Annuals, he has his sympathetic qualities again- he's shown as regretting that Wonder Man had to kill some Moloids to stop some mutates. (Of course, WONDER MAN's willingness to kill some Moloids was arguably out of character, as we discussed in fnord's entry for that issue.) Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 12:24 PM Fantastic Four #126-128 This story really jettisons the Mole Man's sympathetic qualities; he's shown gloating over the deaths of his Moloids and he and Kala both boast that they're going to outdo Hitler by wiping out the population of the surface world. (The Hitler thing is actually in the dialogue, which is really, grossly trivializing in my eyes. YMMV.) Given the (quite correct) points fnord has made in past about Thomas's use of characters like the Lady Liberators, Thomas prints a letter in issue #128 criticizing him for his constant attacks on women's lib and his use of feminists as villains; the editorial response is to point the reader towards Marvel's upcoming titles aimed at a female audience, with the boast that they're all written by women. Of course, the very next issue will land us right back in Roy's "trouble zone" in these matters. I tend to see Thundra ' introduction and Sue's gripes with Reed in these stories as Thomas's efforts to address the criticism, albeit that I don't think they're terribly successful efforts. TeemuNovember 8, 2015 12:10 PM Excalibur #21-25 Mind you, Selene did quite expertly turn von Roehm into a hound of hers in #208... Erik BeckNovember 8, 2015 12:08 PM X-Factor #60 Yeah, I don't see why Liefeld gets so derided but Bogdanove mostly gets off the hook. His work is ghastly. But, fnord, I do definitely agree with you on the government use of the team. That's part of what I liked so much about X-Men #1. TeemuNovember 8, 2015 11:59 AM Excalibur #21-25 "Why are the Hellfire Club involved in Rachel's Days of Future Past storyline? What's Mojo doing here?" In UNCANNY #189 Selene-controlled Rachel has a fever-dream where she's tortured by the worst fears from her memories, "real or imagined", and there we see Hound-Rachel burning in some very literal hellfires and then breaking off in a very Hellfire Club appropriate costume that as a Phoenix-y sash. So, either the Hellfire Club has to be understood to have had their hands in the hound process in her timeline, OR this alternative timeline can be written off as a fevery nightmare she herself induced when she seemingly jaunted the train here which collects her more tormentous pre-Excalibur experiences into a nonsensical jumble of false memories. Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 9:36 AM Excalibur #21-25 It's worth noting that a lot of the key characters int his era have been manipulated by Mojo; Psylocke over in X-Men got bionic eyes from him, and Rachel here has been mucked with as well. Claremont generally uses Mojo as a spoof of his editors and of media executives, but he's also supposed to be some kind of warped "anti-life" force that can kill the Earth just by hanging around long enough. Possibly Claremont is suggesting that Mojo and the Shadow King are similar entities, either literally or simply int he sense that both of them are forces that oppose free will and life itself. (Paging Jack Kirby!) It's worth noting that Claremont likes this theme of "sides" related to order and chaos, free will and freedom: he used it in Thor Annual #9 with Odin and Dormammu, and he uses something similar in his "Fall of the Mutants" story with order and chaos as necessary balanced opposites in a "game" that never ends. (Paging Jim Starlin!) Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 8:56 AM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 One final piece of the puzzle: In his New Excalbur series, Claremont finally did have the Shadow King create "evil" mind-controlled X-Men in a parallel world, leading to clash with Captain Britain, Professor X, and the Excalbur team of that era. The SK, now in possession of an evil Xavier counterpart, is defeated and seemingly destroyed by Psylocke and Lionheart (the female Captain Britain created by...ugh...Chuck Austen.) So maybe we do have a vague, "through a glass darkly" sort of glimpse of where he would've gone with all of it int he very long run. This doesn't seem to be entirely new stuff. Claremont had previously hinted that the Shadow King could cross diemnsions in Excalibur #22, where the team visits an Earth controlled by the SK (who is here the secret manipulator behind the Dark Phoenix saga) The SK seeks revenge on Rachel -- who has no counterpart on this alternate world -- for the events eventually published as the "True Friends" miniseries, which happened in the main Marvel Earth's timeline. So the SK seems to be a multiversal entity in at least some of Claremont's stories. No wonder Roma is involved! Luke BlanchardNovember 8, 2015 8:45 AM Hulk #363 I think when the Hulk breaks the jackhammer his arm is still partly immobile, so he breaks it by flicking his wrist. This moves his knuckles towards the camera, so one's eye misreads the arm as having a thinner wrist. On my computer the hand looks more purple than flesh-coloured. Its colouring could be just an accident - purple for grey - or it could be the colourist was trying to show the arm was coming back to life. In the following panels he's shown partly blue, partly grey to represent him de-petrifying. Omar KarinduNovember 8, 2015 8:32 AM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 @fnord12, I'm not really sure. Claremont's plans had been derailed so often by editorial interference by this point that he might have wanted to keep things flexible just in case. And as Michael notes, he was well into the phase of his career where he sometimes preferred a more elliptical style of writing, not always to the benefit of the readers. Interestingly, Marvel released the Captain Britain: Before Excalibur trade in 1988 containing a lot of the Delano/Davis stories that Claremont was now riffing on. Claremont even wrote the introduction! (I don't have it, so I don't know what Claremont writes in that introduction.) Unfortunately, it looks like it was published in London, so it might not have gotten an American release. So I think the story might have remained somewhat "sub rosa" even if it had fully played out, if only because Claremont was in t he habit of referring to Marvel UK stuff that American readers might not have access to. His worries over legal issues might also have encouraged him to keep things on the level of allusion rather than exposition. My guess is that he saw this is a phase two or three of a longer, slow burn; for one thing, he has Excalibur bouncing around other dimensions while he sets up a replacement Jaspers Warp. I wonder if he was headed for some sort of major "reunion of the teams" angle where Excalibur and the X-Men would be drawn together by Roma's use of them. Excalibur was supposed to be the lighthearted book and Uncanny the scary one, so perhaps we would have gotten hints that they were handling different sides of the same sorts of crises over time. @Jonathan, Claremont was always into "soft" sci-fi, which has considerable overlaps with fantasy as it is. (Think of the original Star Wars films. Is the Force playing a role much different or more defined than "white magic and black magic" in a fantasy story?) And the Moore/Delano/Davis Captain Britain had already done some genre-merging, with Merlyn talking about dimensional matrices and Brian's costume containing "mystical circuitry." One of the more influential sources for a lot of comics and soft sci-fi writers in the era was John W. Campbell's dictum that any sufficiently understood magic is a science, and any sufficiently advanced science would seem to be magic to people who don't understand it. It wasn't just Claremont that knew of this; the idea is brought up in the letters pages during Steve Gerber's Defenders run at least once that I know of. Ultimately, I see the difference as moot for interpretative purposes. Both fantasy and soft sci-fi work more in metaphors and allegories than in hard speculation about real-world religious or cultic practices or real-world technology. The X-Men books throw around the word "mutation," but it has little to do with real-world genetics and everything to do with being treated as "different, therefore dangerous" from adolescence or even birth. My sense is that Claremont has moved on from that theme to a very 1970s-0ish "cosmic evolution and chaos/order wars as metaphor for morality and enlightenment" thing by this point. Well, that and his standard themes that repression is unhealthy and that the confrontation with evil or subjection to some supposed "evil" power beyond yourself is really the release of deeper, unacknowledged desires. I don't happen to agree with some of those ideas, mind you, but I think Claremont is working through them using sci-fi and fantasy as metaphors. Erik BeckNovember 8, 2015 8:28 AM New Mutants #95 It's not something I normally notice, but the coloring in the Genosha scenes is just atrocious. Cecil DisharoonNovember 8, 2015 7:51 AM Amazing Spider-Man #249-251 As a kid, I just thought "Kingsley" slipped up and called one girlfriend by another's name; it's absolutely a clue! From the Kingpin using a Spider Tracer to Peter digging out the old tracker to the "I Created the Scorpion" confession by JJJ, there are so many fine little touches that make Roger Stern the best Spider-scribe since Stan Lee. At the time, JJJ's editorial and step over to Publisher seemed momentous in that Romita/Janson DD-flavored office. Obviously Jonah wanted to take the sting :-D out of the blackmail, and it DOES set up the '84 Annual, but he basically succeeded because other writers don't mention it much, right? MormelNovember 8, 2015 7:25 AM Iron Man #269-275 Fin Fang Foom is both child and navigator. He's the Wesley Crusher of Chen Hsu's dragon crew. TeemuNovember 8, 2015 4:12 AM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 Walter Lawson put forth the theory etc, that is. I messed my text there somehow. Which he already mentioned here too in shorter version. Alasdhair is the Laird of Kinross, and Moira will be the Lady in the future, so certainly a father and daughter. I totally loved how extatic Alasdhair gets upon learning Kitty's mutation and the science behind it, and hate that if he really dies during WWII then he won't be around there after all to encourage Moira's interest towards her scientific discipline that'll be bringing her a Nobel one day. ChrisW: "Also, Strucker's family has been warriors for a hundred generations? If every female ancestor gave birth by the time she was twelve, that would put his lineage going back to before the Holy Roman Empire was established by Charlemagne in 800 AD. I'm skeptical. It sounds even more unlikely if his family was from Prussia." Maybe they kept particularly good family records, on skins and birch bark and whatelse. Shame that the generation after the next one are likelier to be banjo-players... JonathanNovember 8, 2015 4:06 AM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 Great post, Omar. A lot to think about there. I feel Claremont is great at introducing interesting concepts into the mutant mythos, but not always very interested in showing his workings and explaining what he intended. despite his early sci-fi background, he seems more interested in fantasy than science. But your theory makes sense, & if Claremont actually did plan all that then he is pretty smart. TeemuNovember 8, 2015 3:57 AM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 In the comments for Uncanny #268 (Madripoor Knights), put forth this interesting and awesome theory concerning Alysande Stuart: "Claremont reveals in upcoming Excalibur issues that something is weird about Sandy: her born-minutes-later twin brother can be mesmerized by Mesmero, but she's immune. Years later, Claremont gives us an alternate-dimension Alysande who is the superhero Caledonia and the last surviving free Scot of her world. I forget whether there are more telling clues, but my guess about why she's Mesmero-proof and Alistaire isn't is that she's the spirit of Scotland, of royal Stuart blood, and having been born earlier is the first born." Mesmero's blurb there in Excalibur #34 certainly hints to it "How can one Stuart be immune to my influence when her twin brother isn't?" The happening place is Salisbury Plain in England, so the hint might perhaps be more towards her being the lawful Monarch of all Britain rather than the Spirit of Scotland; at least her being the older one suggests to how crown succession works (the male-preference angle of course wrecks it, but hey, it's Claremont here folks) and we all of course remember House of Stuart being overthrown in 1688 from the Monarchy and the ensuing Jacobitism to have them restored to the throne. Of course, such a suggestion may (?) be bordering to high treason in modern UK and is mightily inconvenient to anyone expecting to work there. I'm in understanding Claremont has stated this story particularly was one he wanted to get done, and he gets through some pains to show "Lilibet" here is the True Monarch of all UK, and has the formerly Scots-specific Stone of Scone there in the mix too. I just wonder... Anyway, did anyone happen to catch that recent tv-series Outlander, based on the novel of the same name by Diana Cabaldon, that was published in 1991 and and tells the story of English military nurse, who in 1945 on the early lights of Beltane stumbles into a mystic circle of stones near Inverness and finds herself time-transferred to Scotland of year 1743 and among other things becomes a Mrs. Fraser in the process? Apparently she sets out to prevent a ill-fated Jacobite uprising (that of 1745) on the next season, which I find ironically hilarious in the context here. fnord12November 8, 2015 1:26 AM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 @Omar, for future reference i can fix the html if there's a problem like that (but obviously you'd have to wait for me to come online and notice it). As it is, you managed to replicate your lost comment pretty much as is, so i'll leave things as they are. Thanks for leaving all these comments. What you write seems plausible and as you note matches the other things that we know about Claremont's original plans that got scrapped circa the Mutant Massacre. I wish that Claremont had made it more obvious that he was connected back to the Alan Moore stuff because it would have clarified a lot of questions that fans continue to have. Do you think he was deliberately drawing it all out for a dramatic reveal that he never got to do, or was he not allowed to make the connections clearer for the same reason he had to scrap his original plans, or did it play out exactly the way he wanted? fnord12November 8, 2015 12:57 AM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 I might not cover them all but i will definitely cover issue #6 because of the controversy. Thanos6November 7, 2015 9:55 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 It's reading comments like that that made me glad I never read most of the Claremont run. Most of what I read I disliked enough without bringing in Moore's stuff too. GromNovember 7, 2015 8:49 PM X-Men #1-3 Agree with you Bob. This was the final turning point in Marvel continuity and quality. I would collect for another year but was losing my enjoyment. Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 8:37 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 So we know that Roma sent the X-Men to Australia. Storm even says to her, "Our thanks, celestial one, for sending us to this place." But she also gives them something on her way out: the Siege Perilous crystal. Let's examine that scene more closely. In Uncanny #229, which introduces all this stuff, Roma convinces the X-Men to send the captured Reavers -- the generic ones, as opposed to the ones who escape and team with Pierce -- through the Siege Perilous to be given a "second chance." Roma also says that "What I do now balances the scales between us. My thanks for your aid against the Adversary, but once done, we must be quits." She then describes the Siege as "[a] release from the trials and trevails [sic] of this world...a gateway (!!!!!) to a paradise well earned." In other words, she shows them how it works, explains it to them in alluring terms, and even convinces them to try it out on the captured Reavers. The X-Men turn her suggestion that they go through it down because of their devotion to Xavier's dream, with Storm's "Save your Siege Perilous for another time." Roma replies, "So be it." In other words, everyone in the scene acts as if Roma has all but asked the X-Men to go through the Siege right after the nameless, never-again-seen Reavers. Roma departs; however, she's established two things. One, she seems to be implying the X-Men should go through sooner rather than later; second, she makes sure to clarify that the Siege is a sort of gateway to a second life or an afterlife. All of this leaves the X-Men with both the crystal and the Reavers' base, both of which she has very specifically directed them towards. This is very, very much like the way Merlyn seemingly abandons Captain Britain, only to really be playing chess with his existence to stop Jaspers and the Fury in the Alan Moore stories. Sure, Roma's done with them...but she leaves them with at least one Otherworld thingus. (Two, if you count the computer as I do.) And hanging around the base we have a guy named Gateway whose motive is guarding his deceased ancestors' spirits so they will not be enslaved by the "outwith spirits." many years later in X-Treme X-Men, Claremont will reveal explicitly that the Shadow King has been mucking around with Dreamtime and Australia. Even in issue #230, the X-Men wonder why the hell the Reavers would stay in a ghost town like this; if the Shadow King is already in their heads, then perhaps it sent them there to capture the computer and Gateway for their own use. (Pierce will later destroy the Siege crystal; another sign of the SK's influence, taking one of Roma's gifts off the board?) Also int hat issue, we see that the caverns beneath the Reavers' former HQ are basically empty tunnels, with a lot of loot stashed int hem. The X-Men clear all of this out, of course, part of Longshot's Christmas wish. So Roma has been planting seeds all along, but the X-Men will never quite use the Siege until Psylocke -- who is half-Otherworld and has been the subject of Merlyn's and Roma's manipulations before int he UK stories -- is mysteriously compelled to her everyone through the Siege at the end of the Australian period. And who seemed like they were goading the X-Men to go through the Siege when it was first introduced? Roma, that's who. And what finally does get them to go through? A vision of the Siege and Gateway and a sense of foreboding, both of which arrive just as the Reavers return and the Shadow King starts making explicit moves. The X-Men vanish through the Siege and the Reavers retake the Australian base; the computer then directs them to Muir Island, where the Reavers' attack and the SK takes over Legion and uses Polaris as a nexus. The Siege altered X-Men eventually regroup, and Psylocke -- a child of Otherworld -- severs the nexus with the Siege-induced power alterations. Roma's gambit works in the end, albeit that she has to modify her strategies several times because of the X-Men's intractibility and the loss of the SK's capture and recapture, via the Reavers, of the semi-sentient, organic, Otherworldly computer in Australia. Omar Karindu November 7, 2015 8:24 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 Ugh; part of my post got eaten by bad HTML on my part. To clarify, I'm connecting the mysterious, self-repairing, possibly quasi-sentient computer in the Australian base to the Mastermind AI system from the Marvel UK Captain Britain stories, not to the mutant villain Jason Wyngarde, who also calls himself Mastermind. The AI was built by Brian Braddock's father, who hails from Otherworld, home dimension of Roma and her father Merlyn. Unfortunately, the computer rebelled and killed the parents of Brian, Betsy, and Jamie Braddock. Later, striving to maintain its independence, the computer called Mastermind began creating superhuman pawns to attack Captain Britain, but he was able to destroy it. Much later, Alan Moore had the computer return, having "regrown" itself and even expanded into the caves beneath Braddock Manor over the years, creating a sprawling cave full of computer technology. Braddock apparently reprogrammed the computer to correct its madness, but in the post-Moore stories by Jamie Delano and Alan Davis the Mastermind computer became worryingly manipulative and even Machiavellian (rather like Merlyn and to a lesser extent Roma), albeit always for "the greater good" as defined by Otherworld standards. The computer was self-repairing, had vast surveillance capacities — at one point it implied that it could even see into parallel earths — and could do all sorts of other strange things owing to its Otherworld techno-organic technology. In Captain Britain v.2 #7 a story by Jamie Delano and Alan Davis, the Mastermind AI explains to Betsy and Brian that their father “came from Otherworld. he was one of Merlin’s chosen guard. He came to prepare the way. And he formed me, a node of the Omniversal knowledge, a watchpost in this young and ever more glamorous continuum.” When Brian point out that the computer killed James, Sr., Mastermind replies that “I am grown from an organic base. There was contamination in the spore. It set up a logic fault” that Brian Braddock supposedly cured when he “reprogrammed” Mastermind. The computer then announces that it will start guiding everyone more actively rather than passively maneuvering them to serve its original purpose as Otherworld’s watchdog system on Earth. And indeed it does become Machiavellian, as described in the above paragraph. Now we come to Claremont's X-Men run. First, notice that the only device that just plain ignores Roma's spell is the computer in the Reaver base to which Roma very specifically directed the X-Men in the first place. Even towards the end of this period, Nanny has to steal components from the computer for her own devices to "see" the X-Men. The X-Men assume the Reavers built the computer in issue #230, but they also note that this would mean the Reavers are technological geniuses beyond anyone on Earth. Do any of them seem even close to that smart? Indeed, in issue #251 they outright say that they can't find the X-Men with their scanners, but that "'cloak' don't seem to apply to the home sensors here. They track them muties just fine." This is so important, it's repeated almost word for word in another scene in issue #252. In that same story, we're told that the computer "monitors and controls the vast, sprawling complex hidden beneath the town." The Reavers also don't quite seem to understand the computer's readouts; it's definitely not their creation. So you have a computer that has impossible long-range scanners, can ignore Roma's spell, and that sprawls through a vast underground cavern. And then we get the kicker, as Bonebreaker says, "There's a whole new network here, Pierce, written in a language I don't speak. Basic configuration's eveolving, almost as if the blamed computer's growing. X-Men may have modified things -- there's evidence of the repair routines at work, indications of major damage to the primary CPU -- but some of these elements, I swear they look less like technology than living organisms." Int he next issue, we'll see that the Reavers are surprised repeatedly at how *big* the underground systems linked to the computer really are. Let's compare Alan Moore's script from Daredevils #2. Brian Braddock discovers that the Mastemrind AI has regenerated itself, growing to the point that it has taken over the natural caves beneath Braddock Manor: "It's like being inside a mind. These stalactites....they're not stone. They're machinery. But it's as if they've grown here. The computer. It's found some way to grow and extend itself as if it were organic. The whole cave is the computer!" So it seems to me that Claremont has defined the Australian base computer in very much the terms that Alan Moore, Jamie Delano, and Alan Davis describe Mastermind int heir earlier stories. And we also have the Otherworld connection because Roma is involved in directing the X-Men to the computer's location in the first place. Now to elaborate on the Roma/Shadow King "war" idea in the next long comment. Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 8:18 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 Master Mold did appear recently; it's the merger with Nimrod that is exactly like Claremont's original plans for Mutant Massacre, where Nimrod was instead going to merge with the Fury from the old Captain Britain stories by Alan Moore and take ont he role that the Marauders had in the published version of the story. Moore's threat of legal action against Marvel put paid to that, but lo and behold, Claremont managed to have Nimrod merge with a powerful hunter-killer construct down the line anyway. Claremont may have picked the Master Mold because of its recent prominence, but the end result is very close to what he originally planned way back around issue #200 before editorial and legal issues derailed everything. Next: Another long one, this time about the possible Roma-Shadow King conflict involved in all this. Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 8:16 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 OK, this is gonna be long, so I am splitting it into three parts. Part I will deal with he Mastermind AI and its possible connection tot he computers in the Australian complex. To clarify, I'm connecting the mysterious, self-repairing, possibly quasi-sentient computer in the Australian base to the Mastermind AI system. Erik RobbinsNovember 7, 2015 8:14 PM X-Men #1-3 Fan theory - There is a mutant hairstylist active in the MU at this time. They has the power to grow somebody's hair. Storm and Rictor have both used this person's services, as did the Punisher for some reason just prior to acquiring Max. Ben HermanNovember 7, 2015 7:13 PM Wolverine #19-23 This is one of my all time favorite Wolverine stories for the reasons that fnord mentions in his summation. I've read this several times and enjoyed it on each occasion. The ending is especially good, with Magneto showing up. Although brief, I find it is one of the better uses of the character in that it utilizes his tragic backstory and motivation as a Holocaust survivor while showing that he still possessed the capacity to be a very vengeful, sadistic individual. I also like that Wolverine has a really difficult time fighting Tiger Shark. After all, Tiger Shark was created to go toe-to-toe with Namor the Sub-Mariner, one of the most powerful beings on Earth. This was obviously before the "rule of cool" kicked in, Wolverine's power levels got amped up to ridiculous levels, and he started defeating much more powerful adversaries simply because he was a hot character. La Bandera getting killed off-panel was unfortunate. However this is superhero comic books, so hopefully one of these days someone else will bring her back. It is generally agreed among both fans and professionals that Archie Goodwin was one of the all time great writers and editors in the comic book biz. Certainly this is a good, entertaining story by him. It really shows what a loss it was to the field when he passed away at such a young age. ChrisWNovember 7, 2015 6:13 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 Omar, I don't get your reference to the Reavers' computer and Mastermind, and I'll point out that Master Mold first appeared in the very first Sentinels story and was recently reused by Louise Simonsen in "X-Factor," so that's probably where Claremont got the idea, but I very much like your theory. I personally think the descriptions of Farouk and the Adversary were serial pulp fiction [which they were] but Claremont obviously thought about this stuff on a deeper level than almost every other comic book writer, so even though it may not have been his real intention, it proves your point that the X-Men went from a Big Bad Guy of Chaos to a Big Bad Guy of Order. Basically I just really like your post, quibbling or nit-picking aside. Something to think about. Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 5:21 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 Walter Lawson said: "In X-Men: True Friends, Kitty says of SK, 'What matters to him is order and control. What he wants is a universe that runs like a clockwork mechanism, eternally precise, unambiguous, unchanging.'" This also makes the Shadow King the opposite of the previous "big" villain the team faced, the Adversary, who wants pure chaos as opposed to pure order. So perhaps this is Roma setting the X-Men up to take on the counterforce that was fully unleashed after the Adversary was "bound for an age." It's worth noting that this arc is where SK starts demonstrating powers that seem genuinely supernatural, turning his victims into something like zombies. Coupled with the "Dreamtime" stuff and my speculations that the Reavers' computer is the same sort of technology as Mastermind, this might mean that Claremont was bookending Fall of the mutants and pulling in some of the last fragments of his abandoned Jaspers Warp plot. That would explain the casual reference to the Warpies here, and it might explain the way the Shadow King's influence causes "darker" costumes and behavior rather like the ones from Inferno, which were themselves originally meant to be aftereffects of Claremont's Jaspers Warp Redux plotline. Heck, issues #246-247 even used the "Nimrod fuses with a another powerful, superhuman-bhunting construct" notion that was to be the original game plan for Mutant Massacre. Presumably the SK's original plan is to use the Reavers as pawns to warp the X-Men; however, Psylocke, probably influenced by Roma -- who plays chess with mortal lives just like her father did -- maneuvers the X-Men through the Siege Perilous to put them beyond SK's reachd. The SK then tries again at Muir Island and starts corrupting this new team of "X-Men." Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 4:54 PM Wolverine #19-23 There's also a minor continuity glitch with my earlier comment, since I somehow totally missed the second line of Michael's comment above addressing that very thing! Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 4:52 PM Wolverine #19-23 There's a minor continuity glitch when Magneto confronts Geist and claims his *wife* died in the camps, rather than his parents and sister. Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 4:34 PM Uncanny X-Men #249-250 Nathan Adler said: "And in relationship to Gateway and the computer, at almost the exact same time Claremont introduced Gateway Technologies in the factory ruin at Loch Daemon in Excalibur #2, the spot where Captain Britain had originally battled another character called the Reaver!?" For that matter, Captain Britain also had dealings with a sentient computer capable of self-repair, one that had grown into a set of caves and was willing and able to manipulate human beings to achieve its ends. His father built it with Otherworld technology. (You'd think Betsy might notice the similarities to the Mastermind AI.) Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 3:39 PM Amazing Adventures #14 And then I realized that both I and the Beast's run on the title had run out of issues pretty soon afterwards! More seriously, it was a hastily composed comment with serious typos. (You will find many in my comments; I should really be more cautious with my proofreading.). I suppose I could have thrown forwards to Engelhart's early Avengers, where we got his very weird version of the Toad right when the Beast first arrives. Toad wasn't "off-model" in visual terms, but there's certainly a distinctively "Engelhart" take on ol' Morty than virtually no one else uses. He's always tended to make characters into what he needs them to be for the story's sake. In some cases, as with his revival of Madame HYDRA as the Viper or his development of the Wizard, it works; in others, especially with more sharply defined characters like Doctor Doom or the Red Skull, it just feels weird and "off." I don't know that he *ever* wrote an X-Men villain well. Dan H.November 7, 2015 3:26 PM X-Men #1-3 Yeah, that Acolytes confusion is definitely something that should have at least been smoothed over by the editor. So much time was spent in dialog that ultimately gives no concrete answer. I suspect "Delgado" was simply the name Lee had come up with for the Acolyte and during issue #1 Claremont had mistakenly used it for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent (they are absolutely two different characters - even if you want to claim that the "Agent Delgado" in issue #1 somehow resembles the Acolyte Delgado from issue #2 enough for them to be the same guy - he doesn't - then you're still stuck with the question of who that is standing behind Agent Delgado in #1. It sure isn't Cortez or Chrome). Better option would just have been to add either a footnote or a comment on a letters page saying "oops, we mistakenly referred to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in #1 as 'Agent Delgado.' Delgado is actually the name of the Acolyte. Our bad." Then there's the question of the other female Acolyte. The official story - long after the fact - is that she's the other Agent and that she was mind-controlled by Anne-Marie to serve as an Acolyte. More likely - she was "created to die" like the others and no one bothered even putting the effort in to give her a name. Or she was given a name, but someone decided it was either too corny or too good to waste on someone who wasn't going to appear again (but I do find the suggestion that she was supposed to be the team's healer to have some merit). So what REALLY happened to the two remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents? Best answer would have been to say that Mags did return them to Earth, even behind the scenes. Or the story should have explicitly had the X-Men take them off Asteroid M at the end. Instead, we just have a complete FUBAR of an explanation for what happened to them. Or more accurately, a FUBAR of a lack of an explanation. MichaelNovember 7, 2015 2:25 PM Amazing Adventures #14 And then what, Omar? david banesNovember 7, 2015 2:10 PM X-Men #1-3 I'm 29 and I didn't get into comics, at least 90s Marvel, because the artwork looked really scary. I think the earliest Marvel comic I got was a Ghostrider issue with a giant green spider. I just remember flashes of 90s Image-team art with giant teeth, guns and everyone looking mean that I got scared. I do remember liking middle 90s Superman. Flashforward to around 2005, high school time and I started reading Spider-Man from the start and loving it along with FF, Hulk and so on. I've been moving up ever since. To me comics were way more mature during the 60s-80s, at least with Marvel, before diving into the wild Image-Team. Everyone started copying just the outside of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns not what was on the inside. Erik RobbinsNovember 7, 2015 1:53 PM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 "and i covered several of his issues, so i will do the same for Super Football Man." Are you covering anything besides this & the Spidey/Cap appearances? (I have a comment for #6, so was just curious if I should wait, or just post it here.) InstantiationNovember 7, 2015 1:35 PM X-Men #1-3 There have, of course, been a number of generations of Marvel readers at this point, each with quite different formative experiences and thus taste. I started collecting Uncanny X-Men at issue #118, at which point I'd been collecting comics for about seven years. Those 35c and 40c issues are worth a pretty penny now. I'm pretty much in the same boat with Chris. My enthusiasm for Marvel comics waned significantly, for all sorts of reasons, by the late 80s. I'll keep checking in here from time to time to get more caught up and see whether it seems like I missed anything I'd consider truly worthwhile. But my main focus for a while now has been on replacing my old issues from the 60s to the mid-80s with handy, high-quality TPBs. This isn't my favorite Jim Lee art. Some of it is the inking. For me, Williams meshed better with Lee later, as in "Hush." Ah, well, all whippersnappers become fogies in due course. Erik BeckNovember 7, 2015 11:59 AM Uncanny X-Men #270 Piotr - You only got the UXM issues? Given the art on the other issues, sounds like you get the better deal! Like so many others, I love the scene with Rahne and Ororo. It's a long-needed moment and it's handled very well. ChrisNovember 7, 2015 10:32 AM X-Men #1-3 Jon, there is certainly a generational comic reader split during this era. I knew a lot of kids were just getting into comics at this time and into the nineties the "Wizard Generation" would dominate tastes. However, it seems many of the commenters here got into comics during the Jim Shooter era when there was a much different sensibility, and this begins the era of many of us abandoning Marvel comics to various degrees. After 1992, I'll be commenting very little because I won't have read any of these comics (except Hulk) until after Heroes Return. Mark BlackNovember 7, 2015 10:30 AM X-Men #1-3 As a "fogey", I'll comment Jon. I loved the art in this issue. I looked forward to this coming out. I had two newsstand copies and the deluxe fold out version. My first regular issue of Uncanny was 235 and I was a devoted reader leading up to this. Things kept getting more confusing and complex as the franchise went on and there seemed to be more dangling plot lines. Claremont did a pretty good job of tidying things up as he went, but it took a long time for those things to get resolved. He seemed to genuinely care whether x-characters lived or died and whether they evolved or not. This issue in particular seemed to have more plot holes and confusing characters than ever before - the Delgado thing has puzzled me since this came out, I read and reread it sooo much trying to get it down who exactly the Acolytes were and what happened to the SHIELD agents. After a while I figured it out; there was no concern for ongoing story, just what looked cool. That's fine and I bought that up like crazy. But when taken to its extreme, coolness over story development is incredibly detrimental to the franchises and characters we love. I couldn't articulate any of that then and I'm not sure I can now, but I kept buying in hopes that things would get better and finally make sense. It's a fun, solid story, but it doesn't do a lot to further the X-Men in positive ways. The Magneto revelations are interesting, but don't really have a lasting effect. This just seemed to signal the end of what I enjoyed about the X-Men. I would still rank this very high on my list of X-Men comments, but it's a sad harbinger of what's to come. JonNovember 7, 2015 9:14 AM X-Men #1-3 Ever since I stumbled on this site, I've been waiting for this review! The consistent fogeyism in a lot of these comments is off-putting, but to me and many people this was the first comic we ever read and I know it certainly launched my own love of all things X. I'm surprised you love the art though - I thought the eXtreme lines and shading was a mess. Most shots of Magneto are borderline ridiculous. Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 9:05 AM Amazing Spider-Man #327 Magneto's comment about mutants makes little sense, doens't it? I mean, he's seen Nightcrawler's grab-bag of powers (teleportation, invisibility in darkness, wall-climbing, and an altered physical form with prehensile tail), is own powers are ridiculously versatile (and include psi powers as well as EM manipulation), and even his former lackey the Blob has two distinct powers (super-tough body tissues *and* a very limited gravity manipulation talent). Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 8:57 AM Doctor Strange #12 OK, I guess Amora's dialogue explains why the villains are targeting Strange. It still seems kind of weird, though, since he's not really that involved in fighting their brand of evil. No-price attempt: Maybe Amora is deliberately avoiding using Odin's name because that might invoke him or get his attention somehow? She's not *supposed* to be messing around on Earth, after all. Or maybe she's actually an Olympian goddess who moved to Asgard. "Amora" is Latinate, not Indo-European. Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 8:53 AM Fantastic Four #334 I suppose we could no-prize the lousy performances of the villains away by assuming that Doom's emotion charger is set to make them incompetent somehow. And yeah, the FF should have remembered that their son is a mutant; Franklin's picture was even used in the ads supporting the Act and tagged with a nasty slur! Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 8:46 AM Doctor Strange #11 I always thought Dr. Strange's involvement int he AoV was a bit odd, since most of the "Prime Movers" should have no serious grudges against him. He hasn't fought any of them other than Magneto, and that was a very different Magneto. For that matter, Doom at least should be wise enough to understand that killing the Sorcerer Supreme might make it harder to take over the world or whatever. But I suppose this is more of Loki's manipulations, since Strange *has* helped stop Loki several times in the past. Erik BeckNovember 7, 2015 8:39 AM Captain America #380-382 So, it makes you wonder if it's been 3 years since Cap #317, of if in the sliding time-scale you graduate from law school quicker. Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 8:34 AM Hulk #363 Doom's comment that he owns a few pieces of the Grey Gargoyle's art is horrifying if you consider what we learned about the Gargoyle's "art" in his previous appearance. Also, this story is pretty much the last time anyone uses the "artistic immortality" angle with the Gargoyle. Omar KarinduNovember 7, 2015 8:24 AM Avengers Spotlight #26 The other reason the Wizard might make sense here is that he's arguably one of the better networkers among super-villains. He's worked with a lot of people via the various Frightful Fours and he's teamed up with Mysterio, the Mad Thinker, the Puppet Master, Plantman, and others. If you need to pull in a bunch of grunt villains, he's probably your go-to person; heck, he'd be better for that role than the Mandarin or Doom. As to the Molten Man...well, he did wear a beard as a *disguise* back in Amazing Spider-Man #35. Maybe that all the Wizard found for him in the evidence lockers? Morgan WickNovember 7, 2015 3:47 AM X-Force #2 But! But having someone who might kill another member of our group makes us more EXTREEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!1!!! Luis DantasNovember 7, 2015 2:43 AM Marvel Comics Presents #85-92 (Wolverine) Not singling this story out, but hallucinations are a very common tool in comics around this time. Or ever since, really. I am no expert, but I wonder if that is not a bit weird, or at least unrealistic. A quick google research gives me the perception that hallucinations are actually a fairly rare event and tend not to occurr on people who are not suffering from serious, deep mental conditions. Comics sometimes fall just short of implying that being under stress is reason enough to expect seeing things that do not really exist. I really wish I were better informed, because I want to know how realistic (or far from) this portrayal is. ChrisWNovember 7, 2015 12:16 AM Uncanny X-Men #269 Michael, I know that you really do keep track of Marvel Continuity, but we're also talking about Chris Claremont, who regularly lost track of continuity. I don't trust a lost story published roughly a decade after Rogue joined the X-Men to tell the truth, nor do I think a teenage girl could infiltrate the Pentagon, even with Mystique covering for her. No disrespect intended, but the Rogue we met as a member of the X-Men is not the Rogue that first appeared in other Claremont books. I will admit that I haven't read Rogue's appearances prior to her appearances in "X-Men," but nothing I've seen [mostly on this site] suggests her being the teenager, sexy that she became. Claremont messed her up, but that's only fair because Rogue is messed-up herself. tl;dr, let's just agree to disagree. Except that Rogue is cool. Walter LawsonNovember 6, 2015 11:54 PM X-Men #1-3 @Piotr, I agree the Acolytes are a mess, but the art looks unambiguous to me: the bald guy with the beard who appears behind SHIELD agent Delgado in the opening pages is the same Acolyte referred to as Delgado during the Genosha attack. It seems to me that Claremont and Lee either miscommunicated their plot points to one another or were deliberately working against one another. We've seen this before: in 274-5, Claremont's script seems to be putting a different spin on things than the art alone would indicate, and Claremont's script for X-Factor 68 comes right out and says that Apocalypse isn't behaving in character. (It's a thought-caption of Cyclops's.) Whether mistakes or creative differences, these are the sorts of thing an editor is supposed to fix, but Harras and Claremont were communicating with each other only by fax at this point, as legend has it. Ataru320November 6, 2015 11:21 PM Uncanny X-Men #269 The sad thing on my end regarding Rogue is that I didn't know about her until the Fox animated series, prior to knowing of all the backstory aspects. When this is what's presented in her image, you don't get to see the evolution: seeing her as what appears to be a "middle-aged woman" in Avengers Annual 10, seeing her as her cute but still maturish circa the Smith issues in '83. Marvel (or what Marvel wanted to throw via pop culture) wanted us to see the Jim Lee version of Rogue in the same way they wanted to make us believe Psylocke was always a purple-haired ninja without knowing about her huge backstory and the fact that this wasn't her body and that she was the sister of Captain Britain. Unfortunately its just something that's always happening and why people should dig for story matters and evolution to make their own conclusion...lest they get manipulated by what the company wants you to believe or what pop culture elements outside make claims of and that ultimately become the truth when there was nothing to support it prior. Nathan AdlerNovember 6, 2015 11:21 PM New Mutants #98-100 Tolliver's name means "metalworker" so I wonder if Liefeld initially intended him to secretly be Magneto? MichaelNovember 6, 2015 11:13 PM Uncanny X-Men #269 Carol says "barely more than a child" before learning how Rogue's powers work, so yeah, it's based on her physical age. ChrisWNovember 6, 2015 10:42 PM Spider-Man #16 And is that panel of Jugs confronting Spider-Man ripped off from "X-Men" 218 before he smacks Rogue, or is it just a natural pose? ChrisWNovember 6, 2015 10:40 PM Spider-Man #16 A few days after 9/11, John Byrne wrote on the forum he used at the time a good parody of the idea that superheroes could have done something about it. It was basically the FF receiving reports of the initial attacks and, in character, Reed turns Doom's time machine on, expositing to whoever questioned him that the attack was still on-going, so there was a chance to change the results without altering the future. It was fine, and a good description of how unrealistic superhero comics are. Scary thought, Byrne had another decade of superhero comics to read after this comic was published, before 9/11. As much as I love superheroes, 9/11 was the point where I departed from the idea that they were useful or believable in any way. I love superheroes. I still aspire to write superhero comics. But they should be tempered with realism. One reason "The Boys" is one of my favorite comics ever is because it's a deliberate deconstruction of what superheroes would have accomplished on 9/11. [I won't describe it here, it must be read to be believed. NSFW.] So, yeah, I can accept all the jokes in "Damage Control" or whatever about the World Trade Center, but this is the sort of thing that really drives it home for me. You don't just build up these massive towers for The Enemy to destroy to show off how bad they are. Never mind the hostages, there's no way the WTC was emptied when the Juggernaut brings it down because that's what Rob Liefeld wanted to draw. He's a mass murderer. If we're throwing continuity out the window, Cable or Shatterstar should have killed him on the spot. Like they did with Black Tom. JC, I'm a fan of Todd, and I agree with you. At the "Spawn" panel at the last Chicagocon I was at, I got there at the last minute, so I had to stand at the back because the room was packed. Dave Sim and Neil Gaiman were also on the panel, and they made sure to use their microphones so that we could hear them. I honestly don't remember Todd using a microphone once, and even at the back of a crowded room, I wished he'd tone it down. To this day, I still have respect for Todd, but as you say, the man's ego is palpable. ChrisWNovember 6, 2015 10:39 PM Uncanny X-Men #269 Is she "barely more than a child" because of her physical age, or because she has not been able to physically touch anybody since the day she got her first kiss, and literally cannot do anything that would make her more "adult"? And you don't get access into secure areas just because you're a child of someone who has access. A teenager trying to get access to secure areas would be a huge red flag. Mystique-as-Nick-Fury could walk up and demand Rogue be allowed in, and the guards would be entirely within their rights to say "Sorry, Sir, not until she shows proof." Never mind the problems Carol would have faced infiltrating the Pentagon. Never mind the continuity problems of Wolverine asking if her rank was real [it wasn't, but Claremont didn't know that] when he's supposed to have this long history with her, and been a military/secret agent himself, so he should know. There are a lot of problems with the "X-Men invade the Pentagon" issue. The fact that Rogue looks like an ugly adult woman is actually the least of them. She's a villain, doing what a villain does. It's not until #172-173 when she's helping Wolvie that she looks like the character that she really is. I'm not a huge fan of Paul Smith, but those are some of the Best Rogue Pictures Ever. MichaelNovember 6, 2015 10:08 PM Uncanny X-Men #269 Rogue was ALWAYS supposed to be a teenager. Her first appearance was supposed to be in Ms. Marvel 25 but the story was published in Marvel Super Heroes 11- Rogue was, according to Carol, "barely more than a child". The problem is that Ms. Marvel 25 was never published and Michael Golden and Dave Cockrum thought she was supposed to be an adult. (She was supposed to be in the Pentagon because she was Raven's daughter.) ChrisWNovember 6, 2015 9:50 PM Wolverine #54 I was halfway through this review before it occurred to me how good the art looked compared to the other mutant titles. After looking back, I can kinda see Darick Robertson's talent - Rogue looks a lot like Starlight in the fifth scan - and just the fact that it's so well-told puts this fill-in issue [which I have somewhere in storage] well above the contemporary mutant titles. My guess is that, with the changes in editorial, more fill-ins were scheduled. The chronology is showing us Wolverine, Excalibur and "Marvel Comics Presents" stories that had no reason to exist, and I suspect they all came from a need to keep the flow. Comics were moving into longer books, MCP was demonstrating a need for regular material, the editors were being torn both directions, and very few artists are really capable of keeping up a monthly series. Once upon a time, yes, they could. Not any longer. So, my theory is that that this was an idea Nicieza had for Shatterstar that would never fit into an issue of "X-Force," and it wasn't enough for a separate book. Marvel probably still had a need for fill-in issues (the "Wolverine" series had several of those) so it was easy enough for Nicieza to write the issue, give Shatterstar some character development he wouldn't get in the main series, fulfill Marvel's increasing desire for crossovers, and when Marc Silvestri needs a break, the editor has a fill-in ready. ChrisWNovember 6, 2015 9:38 PM Uncanny X-Men #269 I agree. I wouldn't say Rogue looked middle-aged, but she was clearly an adult woman, and not an attractive one. When she's able to get far enough into the Pentagon and randomly run into Carol Danvers, also infiltrating the Pentagon with enough rank that it's kinda believable, that's not something a 19-year old could do. Turning her into a large-breasted sexy teenager who shows off as much skin as possible even though her skin is a potential danger to those around her is just detrimental to the character we originally met. I've long noted that, of the X-Men most opposed to Rogue joining the team, Wolverine gave her a kiss in thanks for saving Mariko, Storm lost her powers trying to give her a reason to be happy, and to save her, Kitty became a living ghost protecting her from the Marauders. And Scott had to catch up on her powers and personality profile to use her while saving the team from his fiancée. Rogue's a great character. We can just be thankful she wasn't given the Psylocke treatment, and writing that sentence maybe gives a clue to what Claremont intended with Mojo. But he could have done that without her becoming, well, the large-breasted teenager who shows off as much skin as possible. ChrisWNovember 6, 2015 9:20 PM X-Men #1-3 Not to mention how long it took Forge to rebuild the X-Mansion. It took several issues for the alien technology to rebuild it the last time it was destroyed, what exactly did he add to the process that would speed it up? ChrisWNovember 6, 2015 9:18 PM X-Force #2 So Cable's been lying about his "soldier" past (and everybody else who refers to it has lied as well.) In the military, the leadership really looks at how people might be hurt, even in training, and takes steps to ensure proper medical evacuation is available, before they even start the training. It's kinda believable that Cable wouldn't just shoot her dead on the spot - this is Cable, after all - but not that he would think Feral has any place on his team after willfully trying to kill another of his soldiers. The military itself recognizes that they have a tendency to attract 'bad apples' and developed a Uniform Code of Military Justice to get rid of them as soon as they reveal themselves. MichaelNovember 6, 2015 8:53 PM Marvel Comics Presents #85-92 (Wolverine) Larry Hama thought that Cyber shouldn't exist and killed him off. He explained that he felt that no-way should Wolvie be afraid of a third-stringer like Cyber, if he wasn't afraid of his own death and he wasn't afraid of Sabretooth. And Hama has a point. Tyger Tiger even points it out in this arc. Just like with the Foreigner, PAD is too obsessed with making his new pet character too awesome. The scene where Cyber tells Coy that he wouldn't understand psychic powers is a good example- Coy's response should have been "I understand psychic powers very well- my niece can control minds." Morgan WickNovember 6, 2015 6:03 PM Marvel Comics Presents #85-92 (Wolverine) "Aliens. That's ludicrous. So ludicrous that we couldn't possibly have made it up." "Um, we live in the Marvel universe, Earth gets invaded by aliens all the time." Andrew FNovember 6, 2015 6:00 PM Marvel Comics Presents #85-92 (Wolverine) Does adamantium skin even make sense? Does this guy have a molecular rearranger like Ultron? JCNovember 6, 2015 5:48 PM Spider-Man #16 And thus we cum to the end of two of the greatest runs in comics, Claremont's 17+ years on X-Men and Todd's... 15 issue run on Spidey. In all seriousness tho, enuff of Todd's fault have been pointed out ad nauseum, so I cum not to bury Todd but to praise him. His art redefined Spidey for a new generation. For 30 years no matter who the artist, the stylings were always in homage of Romita Sr. Then Todd art's hit us like a hurricane and changed all dat. He brought in the crazy dynamic poses, the spaghetti webbing you eat off of, reminded us why MJ was a model, and ofc the amazing pin-up shots. Perhaps nothing was moar symbiotic/symbolic of Todd's run than Venom. A character with no character, aim, or motivation other than a bigger, monstrous, version of Spidey dat lived solely to kill him. Dis would be reflective of Todd's run, poor writing and motivations and an emphasis on big giant monsters beating the shit out of Spidey. And whatever critical failings he may have had, the public ate it up like Aunt May's hotcakes. I had the good fortune of winning a meat and greet with Todd a number of years back. And the legends are true, the man's ego is palpable. But so was Stan Lee's and much like Stan, Todd has much of the showmanship in him. It wasn't dumb luck dat got Todd where he was, he knew full well the load of goods he was selling the public, and did dey ever buy it. So long Todd, your name will live in Spider-Man infamy. Mark DrummondNovember 6, 2015 5:03 PM X-Factor #71-73 Was Vic Chalker intentionally supposed to resemble Kenneth Robeson's Avenger from the pulps? I can see how the "Lockjaw as deformed Inhuman" idea works as a defining moment for Quicksilver and Luna, but if it was supposed to be less of a practical joke, then what's the reason to keep the Thing ignorant of it after all this time? Mark DrummondNovember 6, 2015 4:47 PM Tomb of Dracula #1-4 I think Katrika was supposed to be a Black Albino with a New Orleans accent. Actually, Wolfman only wrote a few b&w ToD stories before quitting Marvel in 1980. I really tried to get into this series back then, but stuff like the cover showing Dracula with an enormous tongue hanging out like a dog didn't help at all. Red CometNovember 6, 2015 1:49 PM X-Force #4 I enjoyed (and still enjoy) McFarlane's and Liefeld's art from this period because of their sheer level of energy rather than for their sometimes admittedly shaky level of craft. I reject a lot of the criticisms Liefeld's stylized anatomy because the same can be said of all comic artists who don't draw in a photo realistic style. I find a lot of the people who hate Liefeld only do so because they're "supposed" to hate him rather than having actually read his work. Piotr WNovember 6, 2015 1:32 PM Marvel Comics Presents #85-92 (Wolverine) I've never read any appearances of Cyber. So, let me ask you guys this: how come Wolverine thinks that he has a chance against this guy? Cyber has adamantium skin, so... Wolverine should have zero chance on harming him. Right? MortificatorNovember 6, 2015 12:02 PM Marvel Comics Presents #85-92 (Wolverine) Ping pong, paper airplanes, I didn't realize crime boss negotiations were such a good time. Wolverine's hunting practices come off as creepy when the writing has him trying to justify them to his target. I don't want to hurt you, I just want to touch you. Without you knowing. Naked. Though with later revelations in the story, perhaps he was just touching himself. Red CometNovember 6, 2015 11:47 AM Marvel Comics Presents #85-92 (Wolverine) Sam Keith's one of my favorite artists. Other than Claremont/Buscema Wolverine and Weapon X, his Wolverine stories are pretty much the only other legitimate entertainment to be found in MCP's sorry 125 or so issue run. Another bit of 90s kid history: Cyber was often billed on trading cards and the like as "the only man Wolverine feared." Everyone on the playground thought he was a badass because of that even though, in hindsight, he doesn't show up that much (and, well, Sabretooth exists). I can only remember one guy who actually had these issues. Ataru320November 6, 2015 9:27 AM Spider-Man #16 Michael: I thought it was assumed that "everyone knows Cable...because". (mostly joking but considering how many characters already who knew of Cable's existence even when the readers barely knew who Cable was, my question is more "so...who didn't know of Cable besides the readers?") On the other side of things: so this is where the Todd McFarlane legend "ends" at Marvel. On one hand, the founding of Image does ultimately lead to quality and important things emerging as they become a separate voice outside the mainstream (and of course Todd runs off to do his own "Spawn"). On the other: he was just such an egotistical brat that maybe his departure was probably for the better...not for the short run considering what happens with the Image exodus and Marvel's obsession to keep having that artstyle he paved the way for, but for when things eventually do get better later in the 90s. Omar KarinduNovember 6, 2015 8:16 AM Alpha Flight #48-49 Whitman Knapp is also the name of the federal judge who presided over the Knapp Commission in New York City, the one that discovered massive corruption in the NYPD. I'm not sure why Mantlo chose the name for Manikin. MichaelNovember 6, 2015 8:15 AM Spider-Man #15 @Max_Spider- the problem with Kirkman's idea is that (a) Peter was a teenager when he got his powers and (b) Peter's first public appearance was less than a week after he got his power. So the only way it works is if either Peter's peers can't do math or they think Peter was 11 when he first appeared. fnord12November 6, 2015 7:56 AM X-Force #4 I usually don't cover books from separate series in a single entry. You'll find that most crossovers that i've covered are like that, and i note in the Considerations that the issues follow directly. The exceptions are when i have all the issues collected in a trade or something like that. I definitely don't think anything else will need to go in between. fnord12November 6, 2015 7:53 AM Wolverine #54 Geez, maybe i just shouldn't list the writers! Thanks, CREPASCOLO! CREPASCOLONovember 6, 2015 4:34 AM Wolverine #54 Trans by Warren Ellis. The Boys by Garth Ennis. Nice blog. Greetings from Milan, Italy. Ciao ! JPNovember 6, 2015 1:53 AM Avengers #110 Yet another reason why the Illuminati is so stupid. Vincent ValentiNovember 6, 2015 1:15 AM X-Force #3 This issue makes Juggernaut's appearance in 2001's Amazing Spider-Man #36 particularly tasteless. PeterANovember 6, 2015 1:11 AM X-Force #2 I love that they just colored Tabitha's bathingsuit thong purple alongside all her clearly intended to be bare skin bits. Poor colorists, always having to turn titillation into jumpsuits. Also poor Sam, why did Liefeld gut him all the time? And Cable is just trying to teach his back then intended younger self to be a better man, I guess, by not killing or kicking out Feral? Vincent ValentiNovember 6, 2015 1:04 AM X-Force #2 The page with Cannonball recuperating from his injuries was inked by Erik Larsen. Tabe8November 6, 2015 1:03 AM X-Force #4 Fnord, question and comment: Question: why the separate posts for this issue and Spider-Man 15? Do you foresee a book in between these issues? Just curious. Comment: Kudos to you to talk about the "momentum" in this series. In hindsight, we can all admit this time period, and this story in particular, stunk. But, there was indeed an energy at this time regarding Liefeld's Xforce. I can't really explain it for younger people, or smart people at the time that had standards to know this all was drivel. You just had to be there to understand the buzz. Vincent ValentiNovember 6, 2015 12:55 AM X-Men #1-3 I had assumed that nearly a year or more took place between the end of the Shadow King story in this arc, given how many feet of hair Storm had to grow back in-between. Tabe8November 6, 2015 12:40 AM X-Force #2 Haha... Ok confession time. I was 16 when this came out. I was soooo excited. My first X-Force issue! Technically I had #1, but it was in the sealed bag, and I had to protect this precious investment. retirement baby! So I read it... "Who's this? Who's that? My god what did I miss?!?" Lost, I splurged, and opened up my priceless #1, just so I could follow along to all the happenings of issue 2... I'm still lost. Red CometNovember 5, 2015 10:16 PM Wolverine #54 I wouldn't get too hung up on costume use when trying to iron out continuity. That's fairly minor when compared some of the more complicated continuity harmonization I've seen when trying to put just my X-books in order. If you want to go really crazy about costume detail then this would have to go just before (or during) X-men #1 because Wolverine added the big "X" belt to his brown costume between the Muir Island Saga and X-men #1. davidbanesNovember 5, 2015 10:15 PM X-Force #4 Ugh four issues just for one battle!? It wasn't even a big climatic battle for a year long story or something! God I hate 90s Marvel. davidbanesNovember 5, 2015 10:13 PM Spider-Man #16 Speaking of out of character supervillains Juggernaut laughing so maniacally seems out of place. I mean the Jugs I know are from Claremont's and Stern's runs. Morgan WickNovember 5, 2015 10:08 PM Wolverine #54 I would side with fnord and reduce the necessary hemming and hawing by placing this before Magneto's death if this does have to be placed earlier, and it sounds like either Nicieza and company weren't aware of prior developments or this was written earlier anyway. fnord12November 5, 2015 9:54 PM Wolverine #54 Thanks Michael. I'll see how it plays out, since Wolverine has switched costumes in Spider-Man #8-12 and X-Men #273-277. Does he swear off wearing the brown costume forever in #50? I guess i'll see soon enough. mikrolikNovember 5, 2015 9:36 PM Spider-Man #16 Since 9/11 took place over 14 years ago, it's probably past the sliding timescale by now, so questions about whether the tribute issue is canon is moot. MichaelNovember 5, 2015 9:22 PM Wolverine #54 Fnord, the reason is Wolverine's costume- he switches to the yellow costume in issue 50. ChrisNovember 5, 2015 9:11 PM Hulk #386-387 I actually liked this two parter a lot. It was good to see Sabra appear in Hulk again even if her speech at the end was very odd. fnord12November 5, 2015 8:42 PM Wolverine #54 @Piotr, whoops, thanks. @Morgan, i was following the MCP when i pulled this forward in publication time. I don't actually know yet why they did it, but i noticed where they had it and figured i'd cover this first. It may become apparently when i get to the Shiva Scenario that comes next for Wolverine. But it wasn't based on Magneto since they actually have it after X-Men #3 but still between Wolverine #47-48. We'll see, and i'll adjust if it turns out there's no reason not to place it at publication date. MortificatorNovember 5, 2015 8:42 PM Spider-Man #16 Bad taste aside, the embarrassing 9/11 "tribute" just makes no sense in the Marvel universe. 1. The plot's far less likely to succeed with all the heroes around. You've got those who regularly discover and thwart even more secretive schemes, like Nick Fury, and those who can physically intervene and stop plane crashes, like Thor. 2. Like Bill said, if the attack did succeed, it wouldn't have been that big a deal in a world where such catastrophes regularly happen. Juggernaut already destroyed one of the twin towers! Namor devastated the whole city! 3. The super-villain reaction. Like Juggernaut's going to be upset about someone leveling a building he once leveled, and laughed his ass off about. Dr. Doom, there's a guy who'd shed a tear at the destruction of New York skyscrapers. And Magneto takes great affront to the deaths of hundreds of normal humans. 4. The idea that Bin Laden could piss off lots of heroes and villains and make it to the end of the day without being captured or annihilated, depending on who gets to him first. MichaelNovember 5, 2015 8:32 PM X-Force #4 Note that the ending of this issue confirms Domino is a mutant. MichaelNovember 5, 2015 8:31 PM Spider-Man #16 Re: how Peter knew Cable's name- did members of X-Force mention it earlier in the issue? If so,Peter could have overheard? MichaelNovember 5, 2015 7:58 PM X-Force #2 One thing to note- Deadpool quips that he had his jaw sewed shut for two months. Now, the context is him trying to distract Kane, so obviously there's no reason to take it seriously, but that does seem to suggest that at this point Deadpool wasn't intended to have a healing factor. MortificatorNovember 5, 2015 7:56 PM X-Force #2 I see Juggernaut is channeling his inner Foolkiller. MichaelNovember 5, 2015 7:54 PM Wolverine #54 One other note to consider regarding the chronology- in Marvel Team-Up 19, Jubilee knows that Shatterstar is a member of X-Force and makes a joke in front of Wolvie about his hair. But in this issue, Logan seems completely clueless who Shatterstar is. Now, keep in mind Jean, Scott, Warren, Bobby, Hank, Lorna and Moira have already met Shatterstar at this point, so it's possible that they told Jubilee but not Logan somehow. (And Logan might have not paid much attention to Jubilee's joke.) RobertNovember 5, 2015 7:46 PM Wolverine #54 Morgan, Magneto comes back in the Fatal Attractions storyline a couple of years from now. That's the storyline that saw Wolverine's adamantium ripped from his bones. It also set the stage for Onslaught when Professor X wipes Magneto's mind at the end. Mags stayed gone longer that time IIRC. Piotr WNovember 5, 2015 7:46 PM X-Factor #71-73 An observation: the costumes of the New X-Factor are atrocious. They are even worse than what Lee came up for some of the X-Men... Piotr WNovember 5, 2015 7:24 PM Wolverine #54 This is Darick Robertson? Wow. Rogue looks awful on that fourth scan... BTW. A correction, Fnord: Transmetropolitan was written by Warren Ellis, not Garth Ennis. Red CometNovember 5, 2015 6:43 PM Wolverine #54 Despite this being a fill-in, this issue was extremely popular when I was a kid since it was the era of cool guys like Wolverine, Shatterstar, and Gambit and featured two of them getting in a fight. Everyone went nuts over the Wolverine popping two claws scene. Needless to say, back in those days there were actually very few trade paperback collections of reprints so none of us had ever read (or even heard of) God Loves, Man Kills. Omar KarinduNovember 5, 2015 6:37 PM Hulk #155 I always liked thew little twist near the end of the story, where Kronsteig loses because he literally can't imagine having as much strength as the Hulk, which means that the Shaper can't give him that strength. Morgan WickNovember 5, 2015 6:36 PM Wolverine #54 Well, Wolverine is the one who asks "still carryin' the torch for him?" so on the one hand, maybe that lends credence to the notion that Magneto is still alive if they're both talking about him as though he is, but on the other hand, it's not that awkward for him to ask that if Magneto is thought dead, and Rogue's speaking of her feelings in the present tense makes more sense if Wolverine started it. But on the other other hand, why are they fighting a Magneto robot to begin with if Magneto's thought dead? But then, the revolving door of death has already been established to some degree by this point, and Wolverine does say "gotta be prepared for any contingency"... but like you say, you would expect them to at least mention Magneto being dead... Are there any other reasons for pushing this back in publication time? Alternately, when does Magneto come back? Piotr WNovember 5, 2015 6:31 PM X-Force #4 Well, considering that the Punisher has been treated by various MU heroes as a fellow superhero (even if a somewhat... wild one), it's not that surprising that Cable is being accepted, too... BobNovember 5, 2015 6:13 PM Hulk #386-387 At least the Hulk lost that stupid open-chested Elvis jumpsuit. Omar KarinduNovember 5, 2015 6:03 PM Amazing Adventures #14 Off-model villains will be a runner int is title when the Juggernaut shows up with a weird new status quo he's never had before or since. And then Omar KarinduNovember 5, 2015 6:00 PM Marvel Spotlight #4 The Miles and Marlene Blackgar concept seems a little bit like the French horror film Eyes without a Face, but with a few inversions: instead of a woman whose face is disfigured and wears a mask concealing everything but her eyes, we have a woman who conceals only her yes; and while the daughter int he film was unsympathetic to her father's experiments with innocent victims, Marlene is fully on board. Eyes without a Face might also have been Archie Goodwin's inspiration for turning Whitney Frost into Madame Masque. BobNovember 5, 2015 5:50 PM X-Force #4 Cable's cold-blooded murder (and that's what Liefeld intended) of a surrendering foe should have branded him a criminal to all MU heroes for good. Ditto for the rest of the team for aiding and abetting him. Instead, we get the X-Men happily working alongside him, with no problem, for years to com, when he should have been detained and turned in for trial. This could have been a chance for a writer to show what happens when a "hero" goes to far, and a good story could have been written dealing with the fall-out. Instead it's presented as "Duuuuude! Isn't Cable EXTREME? He totally means business! (air guitar)" It was at this point that I realized the mutant books and the MU I loved were in serious, serious trouble. BobNovember 5, 2015 5:43 PM Spider-Man #16 MacFarlane was clearly half-assing it here, out of spite to Marvel and, by extension, the readers. I seem to recall he more or less admitted this later on. Piotr WNovember 5, 2015 5:28 PM X-Force #4 I've read this issue (along with X-Force #3 and Spider-Man #16) when I was about 15 years old. Even back then, I thought that this was a disappointing story with some very awkward art. It was actually the first time I was exposed to the supposedly-famous Liefeld and I thought: "Huh? What's the hype about?". BTW. What's the point of Cable's armour? What was Liefeld thinking here? MegaSpiderManNovember 5, 2015 5:07 PM X-Force #4 Spidey's hanging off the floating nothing Batman's grappling gun latches on to, of course. Piotr WNovember 5, 2015 4:59 PM X-Men #1-3 See, Walter, that was what I meant: the Acolytes line-up doesn't make any sense. Who is Delgado the Acolyte - is he a different character from Delgado the SHIELD Agent? Which of the females is Anne-Marie? How many Acolytes were there aboard the shuttle? What happened to the remaining SHIELD agents? Two points of note: firstly, Delgado of SHIELD is wearing that headpiece that actually covers his chin - so, we don't know if he had a beard of not. Again, if he's not the same guy as Delgado the Acolyte, then what happened to him? And what was the point of introducing two characters with the same name? You know what Wolverine's guesses about Delgado are? Lampshading. It's Claremont acknowledging that yes, the Acolytes are a mess. And if you ask me, it's not a solution to this situation. When a plot element doesn't make sense, it's not enough to have a character comment on it in story... BTW. Another possible plot point: if Cortez's power isn't healing, then... how the heck did he bring Anne-Marie back to life? It's pretty clear that she was shot *dead*. He couldn't have fixed it by amping up her powers, whatever they were supposed to be... Come to think about it, I don't really get how amping up Mag's powers could've stopped him from bleeding out due to being cut with Wolverine's claws... BillNovember 5, 2015 4:41 PM Uncanny X-Men #269 I think Rogue became hotter as she basically became younger. In her first few appearances, she looked to be middle aged. She certainly wasn't a teenager. When she joined the X-Men, it seemed like Paul Smith intentionally de-aged her and now she was just a few years older than Kitty Pryde. In any event, at least Rogue becoming hotter was a long progression and not an overnight deal. BillNovember 5, 2015 4:30 PM Spider-Man #16 I'm definitely seeing some Liefeld influence in the artwork here. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Liefeld either assisted with the inking or he did some pencil work (perhaps on the X-Force characters) while McFarlane did the inks. It's definitely not McFarlane's "normal" looking style. This story proves why September 11th wouldn't have been no big thing in the Marvel Universe. Heck, this WAS 9-11 already! MattNovember 5, 2015 4:27 PM X-Force #3 My God, that panel of Warpath jumping down to Juggernaut is ridiculous. It's like he's wearing a fat suit. Ataru320November 5, 2015 2:12 PM X-Force #3 Ugh, the Youngblood Disease is spreading to Siryn (when her hair doesn't look like a feather duster), plus Juggernaut now looks like he's got a zillion teeth and has to have his closed eyes made white over a darkened face so we know he's got the same affliction! Since when was this art cool? Omar KarinduNovember 5, 2015 2:01 PM Tomb of Dracula #1-6 @Mark Drummond: I dunno, that Red Wolf story where the villain is some kind of evil Buddhist biker art thief is pretty memorable, if not for the right reasons. JCNovember 5, 2015 1:48 PM X-Force #3 Black Tom blowing up the World Trade Center before it became a thing. Omar KarinduNovember 5, 2015 1:27 PM Marvel Spotlight #2 I always hated the name of this series: of course he's a werewolf by night! That's when you get werewolves! Now, Werewolf by Teatime, that would be an intriguing title. (It gets even worse in a few decades when we're introduced to his impossibly old niece, who is genuinely billed as Vampire by Night.) JCNovember 5, 2015 1:12 PM Uncanny X-Men #183 I hadn't put two and two together, namely dat dis was the return of the Juggernaut since the infamous Spidey brawl. Funny how Romita drew both fights. It would've been nice to see how Juggy escaped dat cement. Unfortunately we'd have to wait over a quarter of a century for Uncle Rog to return to clear up dat story. JCNovember 5, 2015 1:00 PM Hulk #386-387 While I didn't find the story particularly great, it was mildly disappointing to see the consequences of letting Max live never play out. Part of the joy of PAD's run decade long run is seeing the little plot threads play out. And to introduce something so conclusive (this boy will cause Holocaust 2.0) and follow up feels... hollow. MattNovember 5, 2015 12:50 PM X-Factor #71-73 I agree that the character work on Alex and Lorna wasn't so hot -- but by contrast, the work on Madrox and Guido and Rahne and Pietro is amazing throughout. I really liked what David was doing here. On the other hand, I found Stroman's art baffling. Some moments I really like, but at times it was incredibly hard to follow. Similarly to the Image crowd, his visual story-telling doesn't seem so good. And at times the layouts seem jumbled and the contents border on abstraction. So I have rather mixed feelings here. I love the stories, yet I often find them difficult to get through. Ataru320November 5, 2015 12:40 PM X-Force #2 Considering your comments about Deadpool's "Weapon X" line, it does feel like the first time he breaks the fourth wall, even if it wasn't that intentional. But yeah...no one who was really associated with the New Mutants even a few issues ago is left. (maybe Sunspot due to Gideon but since there are a ton of stories going on simultaneously, he's not that often either) It really does feel like a completely different book and it doesn't help that we just keep getting more and more "mysterious characters of mystery" being added one after another. JCNovember 5, 2015 12:04 PM X-Men #1-3 R.I.P. to the greatest run on a mainstream comic. Seventeen years building up the successful franchise the comics industry has ever known and telling the life stories of a eclectic cast of characters. Erik BeckNovember 5, 2015 11:42 AM Uncanny X-Men #269 I agree with Jon Dubya that we have definitely entered the "sexy Rogue" era. Part of that is probably just Jim Lee - he draws almost every female character to be ridiculously hot. But part of it has been heading that way for a while and it actually started pretty early on. She looked a bit creepy when first drawn by Golden. In her next two appearances, Sal Buscema and Cockrum draw her to look much older than she is later portrayed as being. When she joins the X-Men in #171, Simonson isn't exactly drawing her to be cute. But, next issue, when Paul Smith takes over, she is definitely already headed in that direction. But it's really here, and not just with the lack of clothing, but also the way Lee draws her body, she's entered "one of the hotter Marvel characters" territory. JesseNovember 5, 2015 11:27 AM X-Men #1-3 In my opinion the quintessential Magneto panel from any comic is that two-page spread from #1 where he rips apart the shuttles and declares, “I am Magneto. This is my home.” An over-sized image of that from X-Men Poster Magazine #1 hung proudly on a wall in my boyhood bedroom. By the time Magneto died in #3, I felt he was neither evil nor good. He was a man whose steadfast ideals did not fit with the world on which he lived. He had lost faith in himself and his cause, resigning himself to failure and the only fate that was left to him- the death that would at least give him peace. It was the perfect ending, and a good place to simply stop reading X-Men comics if you had been doing so since Giant Size #1. Mark BlackNovember 5, 2015 11:01 AM Punisher War Journal #35 It sounds like the Iron Sheik wrote that last comment. Walter LawsonNovember 5, 2015 10:51 AM X-Men #1-3 Wolverine's first guess about Delgado--"Different guy, same name"--is evidently correct. Look at the page where Mags kills Deke. Delgado the SHIELD guy has a moustache but no beard. There's another big guy behind him in one panel who has a beard. When the Acolytes attack Genosha, it's the bearded bald guy who's referred to as Delgado. Regarding Anne-Marie, who is the dark-haired female Acolyte who's shown wielding guns throughout most of the story--which makes the script line about her not being able to use her powers against Deke on Asteroid M rather odd, since she doesn't seem to have combat powers--she may or may not be Cortez's biological sister; he may have meant "sister" in a comradely sense. So we have Cortez, Chrome, Delgado II, and Anne-Marie--but what's up with Female Acolyte #2, who appears alongside Cortez when he's "healing" Mags and hovers in the background near Mags or Cortez in a few scenes? She has Moira's hairstyle and color, wears a headband, never gets named, and has just one word of dialogue--she's the Acolyte who says "No" to the X-Men's escape offer at the end. She doesn't join the attack on Genosha and never displays powers, but her proximity to Cortez and Mags suggests she was meant to be playing some kind of role in the story. Did Lee's plot call for her to be the healer, rather than Cortez? BobNovember 5, 2015 10:25 AM X-Factor #71-73 D'oh. JCNovember 5, 2015 9:37 AM Punisher War Journal #35 The Dolph Lundgren was indeed complete shit. The Thomas Jane was pretty good if rather uneven, though I liked that it at least attempted to keep in the spirit of Ennis if not actually succeed. JCNovember 5, 2015 9:28 AM X-Factor #71-73 Peter "Davis", a writer so good if he didn't exist we'd have to make him up. And he doesn't, so we did. JCNovember 5, 2015 8:58 AM Spider-Man #15 It's funny that no matter wat iteration of the future it is; Renew Your Vows, MC2, One Moar Day, Earth-X, Old Man Logan, et al; Peter always has a daughter and not a son. fnord12November 5, 2015 8:44 AM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 Jay, you may be right. The credits just list Turner as "Artist" which might mean he did pencils and inks or it might mean that the books were shot straight from pencils. There is a separate colorist (Brad Vancata). The UHBMCC lists Turner as the penciler and inker, but i've updated the credits here to just say "artist". MichaelNovember 5, 2015 7:59 AM X-Factor #71-73 While we're on the subject of how Madrox's powers work, should a dupe die after being shot and knocked out a window? Shouldn't that just create more dupes there are still alive? For example, when Gambit hit Madrox with his card in X-Men 278, the result was several conscious Madroxes, not a conscious Madrox and an unconscious Madrox. Granted, we'll see later that the renegade dupe is working with someone that can turn a mutant's powers against themselves, so that might be part of the explanation. Erik BeckNovember 5, 2015 6:52 AM X-Men Spotlight on... Starjammers #1-2 Given that the Starjammers are about to come slamming back into X-Men, it's surprising that they would put out this story that seems to have nothing to do with the upcoming storyline. It's just like all the Wolverine appearances that could be completely ignored and not have any effect on what you're reading in X-Men. And Xavier with a sash is just, oh so bad. Morgan WickNovember 5, 2015 6:26 AM Spider-Man #15 Of course, just a few years after this, MJ will get pregnant during (or heading into) the Clone Saga. And in the MC2 universe, that pregnancy wouldn't have any complications at all and would just produce Spider-Girl. Omar KarinduNovember 5, 2015 6:05 AM Excalibur #42-43 I might argue for Peter David's X-Factor run as the Marvel "sitcom" book, which has just started going up in the timeline. And it's worth remembering that the first two or so years of JLI blended the sitcom tone and stories with more serious stakes. It took quite a while before they started writing plots about killer penguins fighting loser ex-villains in Antarctica. Jay GallardoNovember 5, 2015 4:15 AM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 Maybe i´m wrong here but, wasn´t these issues supposed to be just pencilled but not inked? I'd have to look for my copies to be certain. Or maybe this is a reprint with inks added? Luis DantasNovember 5, 2015 1:54 AM Spider-Man #15 Adoption sure _feels_ like a natural enough thought for Peter to have after his speech with Beast. I'm well aware that most people prefer to breed their own children, but then again most people don't face anything close to those odds - Beast is essentially saying that the odds for Mary Jane and/or the child to end up dying due to the conception are for certain in the double digits. Not a risk worth taking if one can help it. Come to think of it, Peter should give a very serious thought to the idea of going through vasectomy, grim as it may be to take the decision out of necessity as opposed to actual choice. For that matter, it is slightly weird that (far as we know) Reed and Susan Richards never discussed the matter after losing their second child, but I guess that is one couple whose lifestyle and goals do not involve _planning_ having children, at least once Franklyn is already born and healthy. Sure, they were looking forward for the second child, but it was very much an unplanned conception. Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that, but a spade is still a spade. Then again, we are talking about a fictional community with something of a "miracle on demand" industry and where having infants being taken away by time travellers to be raised in the future or in weird temporal anomalies has become something of a cliche (it happened with Cable and will happen somewhat soon with Franklyn), so it is not like there are not ways for Peter to work around those odds. If nothing else, he could ask Wanda if it is possible to resort to artificial insemination and use her probability alteration powers to enhance the odds of having no complication, although it is not a plot I am particularly wanting to see developed. Actual adoption or even insemination by a third party (which is sort of what DC did with Swamp Thing, although in that case it created complications instead of circunventing them) would be far more appealling if perhaps not as organically flowing plots. Now, these are subject matters that are not discussed nearly often enough in either fiction or real life: how important is it for Peter to have offspring at all? How much of it is a reaction to social expectations as opposed to actual personal longing? How willing could he be to adopt or have a sperm donor as alternatives? How well could he and Mary Jane deal with the downsides of each choice? How much of a need to keep a secret or deceive Aunt May and their friends on the specifics would they feel? Those are not only exciting, largely unexplored themes for stories, but also exciting, largely unexplored venues for good characterization for Peter and Mary Jane. I guess I am not in the camp that Spider-Man should be single. BobNovember 5, 2015 12:03 AM X-Men #1-3 Also, why does Magneto randomly age into an 80-year-old man in that panel where he says "but I have no cause?" BobNovember 5, 2015 12:02 AM X-Factor #71-73 Peter Davis, the only readable writer Marvel had in the early 90s after everyone else left. This book, along with Davis Excalibur return, were infinity preferable to the Image boys' stuff. BobNovember 4, 2015 11:58 PM X-Men #1-3 In many ways, it feels like not just an end to Claremont's X-Men, but the swansong for classic Marvel. The universe created by Lee/Kirby and built upon with tight continuity and character development is replaced with the speculator boom, gimmicks, and horrid shock value 90s writing. It never really recovers from this. In the course of a year, we've seen so many great runs fall apart, whether by firings or writers losing it: Byrne's Avnegers, Simonson's FF, Gruenwald's Cap, and now Claremont's X-Men. The MU goes into the 90s dark ages before nu-Marvel takes hold and continuity becomes nonexistent. Busiek's Avengers being the one book that feels like classic Marvel in the next 10 years, with Peter David keeping a few readable titles as well. Granted, Claremont had overstayed and the book had become unreadable, drifting from superheroics and mutant themes into some kind of weird fetish series, turning the writing chores over to Lee and Portacio was a mistake. Their brief time at the helm (before they run off to Image, even after getting the keys to the kingdom in their coup) features some of the dullest writing the X-Men had ever seen. - good point on continuity. As a kid, I was never intimidated by it. I saw books like handbook of the MU and it made me want to seek all of this stuff out and learn the history of these characters and see every corner of this world. - Note panel of shirtless, ponytailed Gambit. One quick change Lee does is to demystify the character. Under Claremont, Gambit was a shadowy, almost Edward Scissorhands-esque type figure, and we rarely got even a clear view of his face. Under Lee, Gambit becomes just another generic alpha male (the next issue even turns him into a lame basketball superstar) - Lee's costume design skills are pretty abysmal. Jean's outfit is downright ugly, and Rogue's is needlessly complicated a a bizarre choice of colors. The simple green leotard over a black bodysuit was so much better. These looks, however, will be cemented in place by the 90s X-Men cartoon, which kept the books afloat after the X-odus, replacing any lost readers with tons of kids who had no idea how subpar the titles were in the 90s ChrisWNovember 4, 2015 11:30 PM X-Men #1-3 Mark Black, that's a sticking point for me. There's a point where you can accept that these superheroes have access to technology [Batman's Utility Belt being the best example,] there's a point where you can accept how cool it all looks regardless of the flaws [Jim Lee's art] and then there's the point where you admit this doesn't make any sense. Fine, mutants keep all the cool stuff for themselves. I can get that. But the X-Men have been flying an SR-71 for years, and lived in a house rebuilt by aliens for years. Clones [Xavier or Maddie,] sidekicks [Lockheed or Jubilee] at some point they need to realize that someone or something's time has passed. And, as with Magneto, they never di. Erik RobbinsNovember 4, 2015 11:25 PM X-Men #1-3 Interesting that Claremont intended Magneto's death to be real (as real as comic book deaths get, anyway). It felt to me like a case where "there's no body, he'll be back soon." ChrisWNovember 4, 2015 11:18 PM X-Factor #71-73 Does anybody else see the need for a hashtag? ChrisWNovember 4, 2015 11:12 PM X-Men #1-3 Or worse, this is where the characters that you love so much are never going to be seen again. A Bugs Bunny drawn by UB Iwerks and voiced by Mae Questel? That would be an awesome cartoon, but it wouldn't be Bugs Bunny. This story is the only point where I would really blame Claremont as retreading his previous glories, and he had a perfectly-rational reason for doing so, it was the launch of a new series, and one that didn't really have a reason to exist in the first place. My first experience at my very first Chicagocon - back when it was called "Chicagocon" - was attending the "X-Men" panel and I literally walked in at the moment Claremont was saying he wouldn't be writing "X-Men" anymore, it would be Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee and John Byrne. And maybe it's because of my youth or inexperience, but when he started taking questions, I asked why the X-Men would split up into different teams. I was thinking on a strategic level. If the Sentinels are memorizing every move you make, then it's in your interest to have as many fighters available as possible. A Rogue "Fastball Special" is different from a Colossus "Fastball Special" as it is from a Storm or Jean Grey or Magneto "Fastball Special." And Claremont gave the perfectly-sensible response that it generally takes a page to introduce a character, so what are you going to do in a 22-page comic book with thirteen X-Men? His answer was rhetorical, got a big laugh, didn't really satisfy me, but (obviously) I still remember it. I think his ultimate purpose with this story was to protect his version of Magneto, in a world that had left Magneto (and Claremont) far behind. Mark BlackNovember 4, 2015 10:45 PM X-Men #1-3 One interesting thing to note (and it's been discussed before with Cable's teleporter), but this era of comics seems to rely heavily on advanced technology. The stolen SHIELD shuttles, the spacesuits that seem to operate as battlesuits, Professor Xavier's hoverchair - conventional real world technology is out the window (and without any sort of explanation like it's Shi'ar based etc.). It's not like it's a sticking point for me because why shouldn't the technology be advanced? But it does seem like the predilection towards keeping Marvel universe technology (at least in the hands of the majority) roughly in line with real world technology is totally out the window. MichaelNovember 4, 2015 10:30 PM Spider-Man #15 I'm not buying the idea that having a mutant baby is so dangerous and expensive. We never saw such a big fuss when Crystal and Maddie got pregnant- granted Pietro and Crystal had access to the Inhumans' resources and Scott and Maddie had access to the X-Men's resources. That being said, Peter's blood has caused adverse reactions in people before (e.g. Aunt May's blood transfusion) so the idea that it could cause side effects in MJ is reasonable. ChrisWNovember 4, 2015 10:26 PM Excalibur #42-43 No, they aren't. I'll give Claremont credit for everything he did for the mutant titles, and Alan Davis credit because he's awesome, but there is almost no point where any Marvel creators did a JLI-level sitcom. Top of my head, "What The" had the best funny stuff, with Byrne's "Superbman vs. the Fantastical Four" and Busiek/Baker's "Mutant Beach Party." Davis restored the silliness, which I think comics need a reasonable amount of, but it wasn't explicitly funny. That was just a bonus. Hard Boiled Henry was the best example. Serious threat, makes you laugh, product of a long-running storyline. And with Alan Davis in charge. MichaelNovember 4, 2015 10:19 PM X-Men #1-3 In addition to the plotholes mentioned, there are others- Magneto seems to be a hologram at the end of issue 1 but he's there in the flesh in issue 2. ChrisWNovember 4, 2015 10:17 PM X-Factor #71-73 What blork is describing this? PAD's "X-Factor" was awesome. If you don't think so, you're a blork. Ben HermanNovember 4, 2015 10:16 PM Uncanny X-Men #200 I have always thought that it was more than a bit odd that Fenris made their hugely dramatic public debut by going after Magneto, someone who fought Baron Strucker on one single occasion decades earlier, rather than targeting Nick Fury, who was their father's long-time arch-nemesis and the man actually responsible for his death. Come to think of it, did Nick Fury ever meet Fenris? MichaelNovember 4, 2015 9:59 PM X-Factor #71-73 Just to clarify, it was Kurt Busiek that suggested the explanation for Lockjaw talking. It's odd that Harras had PAD explain it away in X-Factor instead of doing it himself in Avengers, though, since he was writing Crystal. Red CometNovember 4, 2015 9:56 PM X-Men #1-3 Anyone who wasn't a certain age in 1991 can't understand how big X-men #1 was. Everyone wanted to draw like Jim Lee. Years later the low quality of 90s Marvel pushed me to buy and read X-title back issues from the 80s, and so I ultimately came to appreciate X-men #1-3 as the swansong for Claremont's run moreso than as a showcase for Jim Lee's art. It's a much better finale than most creators get when they are suddenly taken off a book. I think the X-titles stay pretty good up until X-Cutioner's Song because that crossover was the point where they finally exhausted the major plotlines from the Claremont/Simonson era and it was up to Fabian Nicieza and Scott Lobdell to come up with new stuff. Neither of them was a Chris Claremont. The X-titles will never be as good again, not even when Claremont returns around 1999/2000. He'll never be as good of a writer again. That makes this finale even sadder that way, like when you watch a great old movie and realize that's the last great film that director or actor ever made. Ben HermanNovember 4, 2015 9:54 PM Tomb of Dracula #1-4 Wow, this seems really weird. I have only read a handful of issues of the original Tomb of Dracula series, so I'm not especially familiar with it. I certainly have never seen this miniseries before. The artwork by Gene Colan is especially odd. Obviously he always had an unconventional style to his work. But here it seems cartoony and exaggerated. Perhaps he was experimenting? I can certainly understand why Marv Wolfman wanted to keep Dracula in his own little corner of continuity. Despite the fact that Dracula is a legendary monster, he really pales in comparison to most of the super-powered denizens of Earth in the Marvel universe. It's pretty obvious that on those few occasions when Wolfman did have Dracula face off against super-heroes he had to come up with rationales for how the lord of the vampire could possibly survive. This he had Dracula deceiving Doctor Strange into thinking he had been killed, thus throwing him off his trail, or having Dracula fight a significantly-depowered Silver Surfer. fnord12November 4, 2015 9:53 PM X-Men #1-3 The scans from issue #1 are from the special gatefold cover edition, which is on glossy paper that doesn't scan as well. I imagine it's similar to the paper for your trade. It looks better than the scans here. The scans from issues #2-3 are from regular newsprint. Jon DubyaNovember 4, 2015 9:11 PM X-Men #1-3 @Morgon Wick, and the less said about Psylocke apparently making the whole world her gynecologist, the better. But yeah, as a (admittedly naive and easily amused) kid at the time I thought this was "teh awesome!" and a good harbinger of how "kewl" 90s comics would be. Say what you will about Lee, but his work at the time certainly brought about a dynamism one could get enthusiastic about. Yes even with the women "posing" more often then naught. Also I have to take a moment to say GREAT review/synopsis, Fnord12! I especially loved your little digression about how continuity (and more important, consistency) don't hamper books the way "modern" audiences and critics think. One question though. Do your scans come from the original issues, or they from the trade? I was just asking because on the trade, some of the colors and inking look a bit washed out, making the artwork look like somewhat garish, even more then it probably should? Or maybe that was just in the particular book I read, I dunno. But despite how psyched I was (and still am a little bit) about this story arc, there are noticeable flaws. Outside of the ones Piotr mentions, there's the annoyance of the "Delgado" stuff. There's the weird notion to cram this all before the revised "Uncanny" when it would have been stronger (IMHO) to have the issues crossover. Like this (and with the blue team seemingly getting the "cooler" members) it made it look like X-Men was the "important" book, when (again, IMHO) Uncanny should have been the flagship, since this was, after all a spin-off. Finally, as another reviewer (The X-Axis, I think) pointed out, the story doesn't make it clear HOW this is Moira's fault. Her running off and crying in remorse certainly brings the melodramatic stinger, but it's hard to tie it to any proof of culpability of the events that started the series or how she "betrayed" the team. This is particularly weird since she continues the guilt trip through the NEXT story arc as well for no real good reason (except, of course to quickly usher her off the set, but there had to have been a less silly way to do that.) Red CometNovember 4, 2015 9:07 PM X-Factor #71-73 Peter David's X-Factor was quality. Much better than a book about X-men C-listers had a right to be. The Vic Chalker running gag is really good too. And Larry Stroman (unintentionally) draws some of the scariest faces in comics. fnord12November 4, 2015 9:01 PM Tomb of Dracula #1-4 You know, i tried to read that opening text about Asmodeus twice and my eyes glazed over both times. Thanks for pointing that out. As you say, there are still problems with that and there are other continuity problems, but that was what i thought was the biggest. MichaelNovember 4, 2015 8:43 PM Tomb of Dracula #1-4 Fnord, if you read issue 1 VERY carefully, there's a reference to a demon called Asmodeus putting Dracula's body back where Quincy killed him. It's not clear if it's the same demon from Tomb of Dracula Magazine 2, or the Ghost Rider Asmodeus. It's still odd that Wolfman chose to open the story this way (Did Asmodeus also erase Drake's memory? If not shouldn't he be wondering how Dracula is there?) but it's not explained further in Nightstalkers. This book is definitely in continuity though, since Drake is married and Blade is crazy at the start of Nightstalkers. Don't ask me about Rachel's death and Blade's mom. Luis DantasNovember 4, 2015 7:59 PM Tomb of Dracula #1-4 As I understand it, Marv Wolfman (or his editors) published this in the Epic line in part to justify playing pick and choose with past continuity. Somewhat understandable in hindsight. Going by the strange choice of editorial of this time to largely stop using footnotes, one gets the sense that continuity was perceived as something of a burden and a potential discourager of new readers. A four-issue mini-series published by Epic would hopefully be perceived as its own thing, at a time when many regular books were accessories of other books. While there are other ways to explain the inconsistencies of continuity (mostly variation of the unreliable narrator, which goes a long way with Blade nearly disfunctional and other characters under various forms of very unusual circunstances that may well affect their memories and rational capabilities), the cummulative effect strongly suggests that a conscious decision was made to make the series "continuity-optional". My impression is reinforced by the continuity impact of this series in the later Nightstalkers series. Marlene, introduced in this series, is still Frank Drake's wife, for instance, and Blade is still in that institution at the start of Nightstalkers. Speaking of Blade, I like that Marv Wolfman seems to be keeping the idea that the vampire hunters have been a bit too dedicated for their own good, which, as you sometimes indicated, was a subtle yet powerful subtext of the 1970s ToD series. There has always been a question of what they would do if they succeeded, and it is at least possible to assume that Blade, specifically, is having a hard time readjusting to a vampire-less world. Come to think of it, it is possible that Marv Wolfman and/or the Editors wanted to keep their options open, by both featuring the known quantities of Blade and Frank Drake and introducing the new characters. That way they could follow up in several different ways, depending on sales and reception, even retaining the choice of making this series part of Earth-616 continuity, an entirely divergent reality, or making it "softly" connected (as it ended up being, by my reading). Again, that makes sense. Dracula hasn't really been a regular character in Marvel books for twelve years at this point, and what few appearances he had were arguably lampshades of how little challenge he offers to a world where he draws the attention of the likes of Doctor Strange, the Avengers and the X-Men. For him to become a regular character again it is necessary to deeemphasize recent continuity and open space for the genre at which he works best - which is not that of superheroes that form numerous teams with powerful defenses against his powers and the means to annihilate him for good. You could give him the Cosmic Cube, perhaps, or make him a cyborg or a supernatural avatar of some sort - but that is really letting go of the character's differential and refusing to play to his strengths so that he can be welded to the main continuity. At first glance that is just not a good choice. Morgan WickNovember 4, 2015 7:19 PM Punisher War Journal #35 So basically, "Punisher kills people! On the set of his own movie this time!" Morgan WickNovember 4, 2015 7:13 PM X-Men #1-3 There are definitely several artistic reminders of what decade we're in. Just look at the huge chest on Cyclops in the first scan of the danger room sequence, for instance. I'm also reminded that Linkara borrowed the line "why won't my hips un-sway?!" from Shortpacked when describing the women when he reviewed issue 1. I haven't paid close enough attention to the scans in previous entries to know if Jim Lee has always been like this or if he's trying to be more like Liefeld at this point in time. Morgan WickNovember 4, 2015 6:44 PM X-Factor #71-73 Peter David has explained that he was actually asked to retcon away the Byrne scene by writers and his editor who didn't like that it made the Inhumans look like "assholes", and he didn't actually have that much of a problem with the scene itself. He specifically pulled it off in such a way that people who preferred things Byrne's way could say Quicksilver was lying to Madrox, bolstered by how absurd his explanation was and how little sense it made to anyone familiar with the original story. Piotr WNovember 4, 2015 6:23 PM X-Men #1-3 Interesting review, Fnord. I'd like to point out, though, that this story is a bit of mess: Rogue falls from the Soviet airspace to Genosha, there's some awful confusion as to the identities of the acolytes other than Fabian Cortez - and there's this absolutely nonsensical bit where Moira's treatment for mental instability becomes brainwashing (how????). It was a powerful and a great ending for Magneto, still... it has flaws. Maybe because of Jim Lee being a co-plotter... Max_SpiderNovember 4, 2015 6:06 PM Spider-Man #15 Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up played with the idea that some of Peter's peers think that he's younger than he actually is, leading to a couple of heroes saying "you're married?" After he mentions his wife. Thanos6November 4, 2015 5:46 PM X-Men #1-3 No one drew Magneto like Jim Lee. Pretty much every full shot of him is iconic. These were, I think, the first X-Men comics I ever read, when I was about 8 or 9, and though they were full of characters and complicated discussions and lots of references to things past, because they took care to explain them, I wasn't confused at all. (Contrast with some Spider-Man stories coming up not long after, where they threw a ton of stuff at the reader without trying to fill in any newbies on what they were and I was left befuddled) Max_SpiderNovember 4, 2015 5:44 PM X-Factor #71-73 Guildo can speak for himself. He might prefer "geecee", but Havok prefers "Alex." :) Thanos6November 4, 2015 5:34 PM Spider-Man #15 I assume that Spidey's normal mentions of his wife are in a jokey manner ("you ripped my costume, do you know how mad my wife will be that she has to sew it back up?"). So villains don't give it any thought. But he doesn't want any of them thinking about the idea seriously. TCPNovember 4, 2015 5:18 PM Spider-Man #15 Despite the throwaway villains and tell-tale signs of the 90s in this issue, I liked that the discussion of children is finally being seriously addressed. I think that the issues inherent in bringing a potential Spider-child into the world are handled here with the weight they deserve. Serious topics like this are not necessarily what I would expect from Erik Larsen, but, despite the other failings of this story, I'm glad to be proven wrong. Ataru320November 4, 2015 4:46 PM X-Men #1-3 Yeah I was sort of holding off on saying anything until now on Claremont due to this being the coda of the grand X-run he had, just like you. In a way, while the X-books were defined by a lot of things, from the past history of Lee, Kirby, Adams and even obscure stuff like Englehart's Secret Empire arc and the Alpha incident mentioned here to the emergence of the super-franchise it was under hot artists like Jim Lee, Alan Davis and Rob Liefeld (yes, him too), it was Claremont and everything he did that bridged and made the franchise what it became and brought forth the potential it had to the entire Marvel line. The Mutant concept was always something that either was an interesting parallel to all sorts of elements of discrimination (racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.)...or on the opposite end, an easy out to create superpowers without any true origin. Claremont used it to get some of what he wanted to across while weaving a huge saga that lasted all the way from being given the series after its "Giant-Sized" revival with the potential that this "all new, all different" team wasn't going to last...all the way to when it was basically the biggest thing at Marvel, the franchise that everyone wanted to write and draw for even with the chaos of the comic bubble and the matters coming like the Image exodus. While some could say even Claremont outstayed his welcome in how overly-complex he made everything, everything that made the X-Men and associated franchise what they are today is mainly his, even if he had help from various others from Cockrum, Byrne and Romita to the Simonseons to ...yes, Lee, Davis and Liefeld. While the franchise was about to go through its own ups and downs of hype and notability (further entreanched with all sorts of things such as the animated series, the Image crisis, and events such as the Age of Apocalypse and Onslaught), I think Claremont at least left at a point where he had done all he could do...yeah it wasn't perfect and not everything he wanted came out the way it did, but that's comic books and the whole factor of joint storytelling. Some of what he wanted probably isn't what was needed; some could have been...we'll never know but I think Chris did what he needed to and left a legacy that's still being felt in the comics and the movies and everything that is mutant-related in the franchise. (so much so that of course its' being split off thanks to the movies and the pushing of the Inhumans now...but that's another story) SharNovember 4, 2015 4:08 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 How is the name "Lyja" pronounced? Is it supposed to be a homophone (or close) of 'Licia? If so, how clever...not clydeNovember 4, 2015 2:22 PM X-Factor #71-73 This reminded me of the early issues of the rebooted JLA back in 1987. There was a lot of humor in those issues as well. Erik BeckNovember 4, 2015 11:55 AM Avengers #326-328 Ugh. I had been collecting since #263 and had collected back all the way to #167, but this was the beginning of the end for me. I'll start with what I don't like: * - People randomly knowing things they shouldn't. The doctor knows Sersi's powers. Rage knows Falcon was an "affirmative-action" member. (How would he know that - I can't imagine the Avengers, Falcon or the government ever broadcast that.) Tony is still (I think) pretending not to be Tony, so he shouldn't know about Plan D. * - Rage as a character. The subway scene is the most obnoxious. Look - she's scared of me. Well, yes, as Cap points out you're a big scary guy with a freaky looking mask and you're also clearly pissed off. Well, she's not scared of the white guy. No, she's not scared of CAPTAIN FRIGGING AMERICA! Not even remotely the same thing. Is there a bigger overall point? Of course. But Hama does the whole storyline without an ounce of subtlety. His writing on GI JOE, especially his great run from #21 to 50 was much more nuanced than this. Just a terrible, terrible character. But there are some good things as well. The art on this makes it look like Buscema's classic run and I love Reed's non-chalant dismissal of a possible threat (Ah, the Avengers have got it). BerendNovember 4, 2015 11:36 AM Fantastic Four #357-360 ...I kinda like the leather jackets look on superheroes... Red CometNovember 4, 2015 10:48 AM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 @JC Pretty much every professional sport has rampant steroid/HGH/performance enhancing drug use these days. The problem builds on itself because any team or players that stay natural will lose to the ones who don't. If gambling gets de facto legalized via websites that aren't bound by state law then I have a feeling the public won't much care about roid use once they have their own money tied into who wins and loses on Sunday. Red CometNovember 4, 2015 10:35 AM Fantastic Four #357-360 "Your wife is really a SKRULL!!!" and it's only 1992. We haven't even gotten to the leather jackets yet. We haven't even gotten to the distorted anatomy and wide open mouths with unhinged jaws connected by saliva ropes yet. When you get there we'll all long for the days of these Paul Ryan workman-like pencils. JCNovember 4, 2015 9:04 AM NFL Superpro #1 Ordinarily I'd hate seeing Nicieza's name on any work. But since SuperSellout is nothing moar than a poor attempt at pulling in children to the Corporate Whore that is the NFL, I'm glad to see Marvel send one of it's worst writers in wat I'll believe is a secret attempt to hijack this piece of shit comic. JCNovember 4, 2015 8:56 AM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 so that must mean that Superpro is a sanctioned agent of theirs. Which explains why he only fights people that threaten the sport, like steroid and gambling rings. Which is fucking hilarious when Jay GallardoNovember 4, 2015 4:33 AM Excalibur #42-43 Marvel tried for years to produce a funny book in the line of DC's Justice League (Excalibur, Damage Control..), but they never accomplished that. Claremont and Davis are in no way Keith Giffen and J.M. De Matteis.. BerendNovember 4, 2015 2:53 AM Excalibur #42-43 Gatecrasher going "flubadub" is probably a reference to the Flower Pot Men. BobNovember 4, 2015 1:42 AM Excalibur #42-43 Love Alan Davis. He actually makes a good story with the Technet, who I usually utterly loathe every time Claremont trots them out as if they're his greatest creations. This was easily the best of the mutant books after the big changes of 1991. And, naturally, it got the least attention and was lost in the sea of the Image drek. Mark DrummondNovember 3, 2015 11:11 PM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 Another Wizard Magazine Famous Worst. AndrewNovember 3, 2015 9:59 PM Hulk #183 I thought the title was a reference to the 1953 monster movie "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms", but it's more likely from the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." 50,000 volts is only as much voltage as your average Taser, so Zzzax actually shouldn't have been much of a challenge for the Hulk. I guess we really need to know how many amps he is. AndrewNovember 3, 2015 9:31 PM Hulk #180-182 As with almost every major Marvel character introduced in the seventies, Wolverine's costume was designed (whiskers and all) by John Romita. Trimpe just copied Romita's sketch directly for that last panel in issue 180. Omar KarinduNovember 3, 2015 9:00 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 At least T'Challa got to beat Baron Macabre a couple times back in the 70s. DarrenNovember 3, 2015 8:31 PM NFL Superpro #1 Spidey's appearance in Transformers was a doozy, placed in there to boost sales, but in his black costume only because Hasbro didn't wish to step on Mattel's toes who had the licensing rights for the Secret Wars toyline and at that point hadn't issued the black costume variant. By the time the issue was on stands Spidey had ditched the parasitic symbiote and a footnote had to be added to alert readers this story took place prior to Spider-Man 258. MichaelNovember 3, 2015 8:09 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 Priest said that a line in this story indicated that Ramonda was T'Challa's stepmother. That's an odd thing for McGregor to do, since there was no indication in Panther's Quest that Ramonda was his stepmother. MichaelNovember 3, 2015 7:48 PM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 Fabian has a more detailed description of why he wrote it here: RobertNovember 3, 2015 6:47 PM NFL Superpro #1 Oh man NFL Superpro. This takes me back. I gave this first issue to my brother as a gag gift back in the day. The best thing I can say about the series (which I picked up years later for a pittance) is that Ron Frenz did the art for almost all the covers. The book still sucked but Frenz did his damnedest to make it look interesting on the rack. The Cap cover was my fave. Omar KarinduNovember 3, 2015 5:14 PM Silver Surfer #29-31 While the satire may have remained dubious no matter what, I wonder if the Clumsy Foulup stuff would have been more palatable if he didn't have a name that was so stupidly on the nose. The "brain" stuff seems to be Engelhart's very 70s "cosmic evolution" stuff, the same sort of theme that, for example Roy Thomas drags in for Rick Jones at the end of the original Kree-Skrull War or that Kirby was playing with in his New Gods, 2001, and Eternals work. It's illustrative to see how Jim Starlin's themes have shifted compared to Engelhart's. While I like Engelhart's Surfer run a lot better than Starlin's, I like Starlin's 70s cosmic stuff a lot better than Engelhart's Celestial Madonna saga or the Trial of the Watcher. But I'm just not that into the version of Thanos that Starlin brought back, which definitely puts me in the minority of superhero fans. BobNovember 3, 2015 3:19 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 At least the Avengers come out of the hole when Busiek comes on board, and Cap gets Waid/Garney. FF bounces back a little from this dark ages drek with Waid's mixed bag work, but it never really gets a solid run again and has been mismanaged by Marvel ever since. BobNovember 3, 2015 3:16 PM NFL Superpro #1 I seriously wonder how many subpar books Nicieza was managing to churn out every month at this point. He was quite prolific at this sort of thing, and it feels like he's on at least half of Marvel's line in 1991. kvetoNovember 3, 2015 3:13 PM NFL Superpro #1 Spidey also appeared in Transformers which was declared not in 616. I'd like the idea of bringing back superpro just to see every villain kick him around. A great way to give some villains some wins. kvetoNovember 3, 2015 3:08 PM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 Yes! Superpro! Ive never read him but what a legend. Seriously, here's a great chance to add some diversity to Marvel heroes. A new character! In a sport that is mostly black! I know, lets make him...white! I think marvel can't call him "NFL" Superpro anymore since they lost the licence. I guess the corporate heads of "hand egg-ball" (that's what we call the sport to distinguish it from the football where you use your feet) didn't think he was a great rep of the sport. Omar KarinduNovember 3, 2015 3:06 PM Fantastic Four #117-118 The end of #117 is rather odd; it's a splash panel, but the dialogue doesn't really set up a cliffhanger, and then issue #118 continues form it more in the manner of an ongoing scene than anything else. I wonder if this was plotted as one longer story -- probably not an Annual, since those are solid reprints now -- and then cut into two at some point during the development process. Omar KarinduNovember 3, 2015 3:02 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 Part of the problem with the drugs storyline is that McGregor chooses crack, which reads really differently than most other drugs would int he context of the Black Panther's book. Wakanda is supposed to be an atypical African country in many ways, so choosing a drug that American readers -- the audience of this book -- would code as "lower-class African-American" seems questionable. Granted that this is part of *why* Prey has chosen it, and that it perhaps ties in obliquely with the CIA element of the comic, it's still an odd choice and perhaps inadvertently implies some unfortunate things about people of African descent. One of McGrgeor's other pet themes works better here: the idea that "civilized" and "violent" are not opposites and that social order is extremely fragile, requiring ongoing work to and tremendous endurance to maintain. Prey is a very unsubtle variation on the idea, with his erudition being flagged up, but there's nice bit where he explains that he learned to appreciate violence by watching the Three Stooges: a product of "the West" and his time at Harvard. But even more so than in the older storyline, Venomm's reform is the other side of the equation. There, we got the idea that empathy and love might matter more than political divisions; here, Venomm works as a refutation of Prey's ideas about the world more than anything the Panther does in the story. BillNovember 3, 2015 1:59 PM Excalibur #42-43 Alan Davis is back! Let Excalibur be fun again!! Andrew FNovember 3, 2015 1:06 PM Black Panther: Panther's Prey #1-4 Monica should get a doctor to look at the swelling in that right thigh.... Red CometNovember 3, 2015 12:42 PM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 An NFL Superpro type corporate backed super-hero can actually make for a good story. You either play it as a satire or you get drama out of the hero's personal ethics clashing with his boss' orders. I don't think this is either of those kinds of stories though :( JSfanNovember 3, 2015 12:35 PM NFL Superpro #1 Marvel seem to put Spider-Man in a guest appearance just to justify a new character (who they probably know is lame). Poor Spidey. JSfanNovember 3, 2015 11:58 AM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 Thanos6, said: "Fabian Nicieza has admitted he wrote this because he was given free football tickets." I say: I don't blame him. Ataru320November 3, 2015 11:55 AM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 Wait, this guy came about before Thanos destroyed half the known universe? Somehow I just imagine him and Deadpool having a pick-up game during that crisis; I'd throw in Sleepwalker but we know his human host was dead during the whole thing. Thanos6November 3, 2015 11:10 AM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 Fabian Nicieza has admitted he wrote this because he was given free football tickets. clydeNovember 3, 2015 10:52 AM NFL Superpro Special Edition #1 Just when I thought that Team America was the low point in my comics collection, along comes NFL Superpro. CecilNovember 3, 2015 9:11 AM Moon Knight #1 Chris, I like those ideas. CecilNovember 3, 2015 9:07 AM Moon Knight #1 Here I am headed to this entry to mention Walter B. Gibson, whom I'm reading up on this morning after seeing a brilliant Steranko pendant, and Nathan Adler was here with the last comment about, ta-da, the Shadow! Considering his work on MOKF, my favorite title acronym, Doug had read original Shadow novels where Lamont Cranston is simply a disguise for former WWI aviator Kent Allard (ah, spoiler, sorry). You'll notice Marc Spector's also a former soldier. I'd like to read an article where Moench compares his inspiration to his approach, particularly regarding this very cool character's concept. I will speculate it might have been an adherence to elements evocative of that era that you may have found jarring in the 1980's Marvel Universe? Omar KarinduNovember 3, 2015 9:06 AM Amazing Spider-Man #100-102 Part of how this issue helped shift CCA policy was that Marvel argued that some horror characters had a literary pedigree; this is why the initial horror series are Dracula and the Monster of Frankenstein. Here, Morbius's arrival on a ship of the dead is taken from the Tod Browning Dracula film and its unlicensed predecessor, Nosferatu. Omar KarinduNovember 3, 2015 9:02 AM Marvel Team-Up #2 Conway uses "calot" again in Iron Man #91. I must have spent years trying to figure that one out -- a weird dialect version of "clod?" Something to do with "helot?" But no, it's just Conway making a weird, confusing, out-of-context reference to something he read as a teenager. Erik BeckNovember 3, 2015 8:50 AM Amazing Spider-Man #340-343 How did Salicrup not go to Larsen and say "Look, your costumed characters look awesome, but please go to an art school and a have teacher show you how to draw female human lips. Please!" JSfanNovember 3, 2015 8:05 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #59-60 Just a tiny bit more info on Shooter's layouts from a Roger Stern interview for Marvel Masterworks from 2006: GK: And did Shooter really do the layouts for that issue? RS: Absolutely. In fact, Jim also did the layouts for issues #57 and 59. For some reason, Spectacular had become the bastard stepchild of the Spider-Man titles. We had a devil of a time finding a regular art team for the book. Marie Severin was supposed to be the regular penciler, but she was always in demand for special projects, like the St. Francis comic. I worked with so many different artists on that book. You’d have thought it would be easy to find someone who wanted to draw Spider-Man every month, wouldn’t you? Not in those days. I guess it became easier once royalties were introduced. But that was pre-royalties. Anyway, Jim stepped in to lay out the book while we were looking for a permanent penciler. He was a Godsend. Jim gave me nice, clear storytelling and there was always plenty of room for copy. GK: Any pressure working that close with him? RS: Hah! The pressure was all on him! He had to find the time to lay out those stories at night and on his lunch hour while he was being editor-in-chief. Here’s another funny story. On issue #59, as a goof, I credited Jim’s layouts to J. Strzltski – that being the spelling of his family’s name pre-Ellis Island. Well, we got a number of letters wondering who this J. Strzltski guy was. One fan wrote, "You can’t fool me…this is really Steve Ditko working under a pseudonym." Needless to say, Jim was very flattered. Full interview can be found here: http://www.marvelmasterworks.com/features/int_stern_1006_2.html fnord12November 3, 2015 7:30 AM Fantastic Four #357-360 @Andrew, that was indeed what i was thinking of. Thanks! Nathan AdlerNovember 3, 2015 6:58 AM Fantastic Four #357-360 People blame De Falco for the "Alicia is a Skrull" retcon but he didn’t start it. In #350 from a 6 months earlier, by Walter Simonson, is where the suggestion starts. Go back and look at the panels where Doom is catching up on what has occurred in his absence, and he says the following: "Johnny Storm married to Grimm's former woman, Alicia Masters? PREPOSTEROUS, Kristoff! And Grimm with his ferocious temper failed to kill young Storm? IMPOSSIBLE! Psychologically IMPOSSIBLE! And if it is impossible, we must SUPPOSE that the cause is elsewhere." So we have Walter Simonson to blame for starting the retcon, not Tom!!! JCNovember 3, 2015 6:03 AM Fantastic Four #357-360 If Alicia/Lyja was a skrull then wtf is up with her being punched out by fellow Skrull De'Lila less than a year ago in the New FF arc. I mean cum da fug on Defalco, at least pretend like you give a shit. DarrenNovember 3, 2015 1:06 AM Fantastic Four #357-360 My first FF story and my my, it's a doosy. Loved it then, i'm sad to say and I still have a fondness for it, being it was my first FF book. 20 odd years later I know it's crap and should be excised from canon, but my 6 year old self had no idea of such things. As for your post Michael there could be reasons that counter the arguments made against the retcon, too bad DeFalco never once thought of them. 1.Lyja could have been given information about Ben and studied him extensively to make the Alicia disguise credible, though the inner monologue would be very awkward if she's just a cover. As for the shape changing thing, yeah I got nothing. I was under the same suspicion that only S'byll could return their powers. This is not in defense of the retcon, but there were ways, better ones, to explain away the change. Tom was just too lazy or ignorant to give explanations. Omar KarinduNovember 2, 2015 10:32 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 My personal fanon is that Paibok is a more advanced development in the line of the "X-Men" Skrulls we saw back in Fantastic Four #249-250; note that those included a Colossus, Storm, and Angel imposters. ChrisNovember 2, 2015 10:16 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 This should be the example of why editors (especially editors-in-chief) should not be allowed to write books. If you are Ralph Macchio, how exactly can you tell DeFalco that this is terrible and can't be published? The Paul Ryan/Danny Bulandi art team is very serviceable. I like Ryan, but he is not the most dynamic storyteller, but Marvel could definitely do a lot worse in this time period. GromNovember 2, 2015 9:44 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 Yeah I think Johnny would consent to some slap and tickle with Lyja MichaelNovember 2, 2015 9:25 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 Johnny was essentially raped by Lyja but she's treated sympathetically and he's showing none of the trauma. MichaelNovember 2, 2015 8:25 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 The "Lyja is Alicia" retcon made no sense-it contradicted several issues: Morgan WickNovember 2, 2015 8:03 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 If it weren't written by DeFalco, I'd think the Doom story was a commentary on what was happening in the main story. "Characters in their classic status quos but produced by modern writers and artists" is what the Ultimate universe was, or at least was supposed to be. Of course, the Ultimate era produced One More Day, it was the Ultimate universe that killed Peter Parker and replaced him with Miles Morales, and now the Ultimate universe is dead. Omar KarinduNovember 2, 2015 7:04 PM Punisher annual #2 The sequence with the snake-eyed guy eating the gerbil may be a reference to a similar scene in the cult classic TV miniseries V, from 1987. Ataru320November 2, 2015 7:03 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 Heh, and I thought I was the only one who thought Lyja was at least attractive. Regarding all this: there is nothing wrong with shock value but the regression of 7 years of storytelling to do it without a logistical means and measures is just that: shock value. Marvel is at a really bizarre point at this period where we have a desire by the main editor to go back to the Silver Age and doing so with his main titles (Thor, F4), but at the same time allowing for the huge money makers to get away with anything and relying too much on the mutants and the grit (Punisher, Ghost Rider) that's selling. Its only going to get worse with the Silver Age books collapsing apart while the Image exodus happens...but this evidently is something that was really just Defalco's pure desire to screw with certain aspect of developments to try to return the team to a more naive time when, as you highlighted with Simonson, you can get away with telling stories while restoring to a sort-of status quo by the end of them. BillNovember 2, 2015 6:55 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 You know, looking at this thru fresh eyes (I did read all this in real time, but not since), I like Raul Ryan's pencils. He's got a classic comic book style. He even adds in nice touches, like Johnny's hairstyle during the Byrne era. By the way, I think the silhouette in the trophy room is of DeFalco, not Byrne. Omar KarinduNovember 2, 2015 6:50 PM Iron Man annual #10 Supposedly Atlantis Attacks was meant in part as a celebration of the Sub-Mariner's 60th anniversary, so naturally the story very quickly marginalizes Namor and he barely appears in it at all. Omar KarinduNovember 2, 2015 6:47 PM Avengers West Coast #50-52 One of the more irritating elements of all this is that Byrne sees the Vision as a "toaster," but the Golden Age Torch is treated like a regular, feeling person with inherent dignity. It's hard not to see this as Byrne treating the Vision's appearance as indicative of inhumanity. Considering that the Vision-Wanda romance was often played as an allegory for interracial relationships, it's really got some Unfortunate Implications. Honestly, almost everything here is *made* of such implications: of the four female characters in WCA at this point -- Wanda, Wasp, Mockingbord, and Tigra -- the first is being treated as a literal "hysteric," the second is going back to a mentally unstable guy who hit her, the third is a treacherous dupe, and the fourth has been regressed to soemthing inhuman, Meanwhile, the story really pushes the three white guys -- Pym, Wondy, and Tony -- to the point of ignoring their past transgressions and current attitudes. The G.A. Torch fits right in with them visually and gets a similar push. AndrewNovember 2, 2015 6:24 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 The scan of the Thing grabbing the pylon to threaten the Human Torch reminds me of the scene from FF 1, where the thing uproots a tree to threaten Mr Fantastic, except it's flipped right to left. That's probably what you're thinking of. GromNovember 2, 2015 6:21 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 I started FF a few issues before this one so I loved Lyja but I empathise with the classic readers too. I like Ryan's art both here and in Quasar and Avengers West Coast. I really dislike De Falco's kiddie writing. Piotr WNovember 2, 2015 6:19 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 Oh my, this is bad. Now I know why some FF fans hate DeFalco so much... BobNovember 2, 2015 6:16 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 DeFalco's run is just bizarre. On the one hand, he regresses the scripting to silver age style. On the other, he takes the writing into 90s shock drek, with Reed and Doom dead, Sue half naked and shacking up with Namor, Ben getting grim and gritty disfigured and wearing a bucket, pouches, jackets, etc. This run was gawdawful, and made even moreso by the fact that it followed the abrupt end of Simonson's perfection. And undoing that Doom story was just asinine. It says to the reader that you HAVE to accept every dumb use of Doom as canon. Meanwhile, DeFalco has no issue erasing development for Johnny and Alicia that he hated. david banesNovember 2, 2015 5:43 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 At least Lyja is a pretty sexy Skrull. As Max_Spider said there's at least potential to salvage a new character. I'd say the late 70s-80s is the best period of Marvel comics with just about every title kicking butt. So what's the best ending point for most comics? I say the Thor run ends with Walt Simonson's. I guess X-Men can end with Claremont's closing Shadowking story but that sounds like it was pretty weak. I even like to think Cyclops' story ends with him happily married to Maddie. MikeCheyneNovember 2, 2015 4:54 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 I didn't read much of late 80s-early 90s FF, so at the time, I liked this comic book, as it had a nice old school feel to it compared to the grim and gritty other comics. However, in retrospect, there's a lot of problems with it, especially now that I know what was being retconned. I do like the Mad Thinker here; it kind of reminds me of a non superhuman type plot that Hector Hammond would always carry out in Green Lantern, in which the hero is completely unaware that the villain is waging this scheme. Paibok and Devos would form a new Frightful Four like squad in future issues. Max_SpiderNovember 2, 2015 4:28 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 Ironically, Lyja had a lot of potential for provoking character development and being a character herself. The woman you fell deeply in love with is actually employed by one of your enemies and the woman you thought you were in love with suddenly re-enters the picture unaware of any change in status quo? If writers stopped looking at their retcon devices as just retcon devices, they could actually start telling stories with them! But no, let's just kill her. Don't they kill her twice in the 90's? Max_SpiderNovember 2, 2015 4:25 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 Sometimes it truly amazes me how some fans seem to like the idea of the past seven years or more being undone, or even ASK for it! Especially before eras where you could torrent the comic, they're effectively rendering their own spendings moot as well as the time they spent reading it. Those familar with the MC2 universe would remember Lyja as a member of the Fantastic Five (as the shapeshifting Ms. Fantastic), which along with having Mayday Parker seemed to be somewhat built on aborted 90's plotlines given form in a sense. Because of this, its somewhat amusing to see that Lyja wore a Fantastic Four uniform almost immediately after her revelation. TCPNovember 2, 2015 4:22 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 A good summary of the regressive nature of Marvel Comics in the 90s, and of the constant, ongoing struggle between core character attributes and actual character development (a struggle that Marvel itself had a hand in starting). Maybe Steve Englehart was right when he theorized that DeFalco and Marvel had a "plan to end innovation across the line." I wasn't reading FF at this time, but I was reading the various Spider-titles on and off. It's surprising to me that this retcon would be well-received by readers given what would happen a decade later with "One More Day," though I grant that OMD was worse by virtue of the retcon being even grander in scale. Thanos6November 2, 2015 4:08 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 I started getting into the FF shortly after this, so I grew up with Lyja and enjoy her a lot. To me, she's basically the love of Johnny's life and she should be an essential part of the supporting cast. That said, dear God this retcon. (Oh, and I do so enjoy the Mad Thinker's plan here.) clydeNovember 2, 2015 2:57 PM Fantastic Four #357-360 "Then of course there's the retcon, which is easily the most far reaching and destructive that we've seen so far." This is just the beginning, of course - it gets beat by the "Clone Saga". DarrenNovember 2, 2015 2:41 PM Marvel Comics Presents #72-84 (Wolverine) Apocalypse was trying to weed out the weakest of the mutant race and make ultimate warriors out of the strongest, so if you really think about it, using a mutant with a healing factor and grafting a virtually indestructible metal onto his bones with cause of making him an ultimate weapon is something Apocalypse would certainly do. Look what he did to Warren. TCPNovember 2, 2015 12:51 PM Web of Spider-Man #34 @JC -- the alien uses one of the Watcher's devices to empower a member of the opposing team, making him a physical match for Spidey JCNovember 2, 2015 12:35 PM Web of Spider-Man #34 Any1 have any context for the game? Becuz it sure seems like a team with Spidey should win... which is what happens, so I'm not sure wat the drama hear is supposed to bee. JonathanNovember 2, 2015 8:31 AM She-Hulk #2-3 Damn, I never noticed till it was said here but yeah it does look like Byrne's drawing Spidey in slightly more unrealistic, McFarlane-type poses. I like JB's version of Spidey (particularly the issues he did with Stern), just here he's tweaked it slightly to make the poses a little stranger. JonathanNovember 2, 2015 8:16 AM New Mutants annual #7 It's Sabre's own fault really. If you've already been nearly beheaded at least twice, surely you start putting some Kevlar round your neck or something. Was he there going "well I'm sure the exact same thing won't happen a third time." MichaelNovember 2, 2015 7:56 AM Wolverine #47 Luis, the X-Men were on pretty good terms with Valerie Cooper after X-Factor 70, so their wanted status was de facto eliminated after that. Omar KarinduNovember 2, 2015 6:12 AM Marvel Comics Presents #32 (Sunfire) Most mind-contrl villains shouldn't have to do this sort of thing, but the Corrupter kind of got the short end of the stick: not only does his version of mind-cntrol turn the victim into a violent asshole, the Corrupter himself also seems affected in much the same way, since we've seen that his original human identity was relatively normal person. Luis DantasNovember 2, 2015 4:31 AM Wolverine #47 The contradictions on having so many characters be at once protegees of SHIELD and also wanted criminals are quite the turn-off to me. It all began with the Punisher and the X-Men around this time. How come this stuff used to sell? Walter LawsonNovember 2, 2015 12:29 AM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 It sounds to me as if Davis gave Colby the photocopied art and the script; "by Davis" refers to the giving, not the author of the script. I'd guess that Davis had these items, neither of which he worked on, because Claremont wanted him in the loop for whenever he (Davis) returned to Excalibur. Omar KarinduNovember 1, 2015 8:12 PM Amazing Spider-Man #318-319 @david banes: Sadly, Millar was dead right on that one. "Get a new gimmicky tail" becomes the Scorpion's running storyline for the next several years, and it seriously diminishes him as a threat. Of course, if Millar wanted to make Gargan a threat again by turning him into Venom, he probably shouldn't have had Spider-Man take him out again within just a few pages at the end of the arc. @Michael: Mentioning Caesar in the same story that features Hammer brings home the similarities between the two characters. Both of them are "untouchable" rich guys who have supervillains on retainer. Michelinie really, really likes the Bond-villain archetype; we've also got Carlton Drake and the Life Foundation floating around. And Michelinie also uses Sebastian Shaw a few times in a similar capacity. Even mercenaries like Chance and killer vigilantes like Cardiac turn out to be independently wealthy in their secret identities. Omar KarinduNovember 1, 2015 7:35 PM Power Pack #47 For that matter, the perspective-flipping and the giant mushrooms are probably homages to another old comic strip, Winsor McKay's little Nemo; the doglike fellow int he uniform is probably supposed to be Offisa Pup from krazy Kat. The whole thing is an homage to early 20th century newspaper comics. Omar KarinduNovember 1, 2015 7:07 PM She-Hulk #2-3 @Jay Gallardo: "Blake Tower is bald during The Winter Soldier trial" In that case, the artist was following Dan Slott's recent She-Hulk series, where Tower is suddenly fat and bald, which he claims is due to stress over dealing with the She-Hulk's increasingly erratic personality. I always figured it was really Dan Slott covering for Juan Bobillo's extremely off-model version of Tower. ChrisWNovember 1, 2015 6:22 PM Uncanny X-Men #211 It also shows that Storm really isn't a good leader for the X-Men. If she wants to make a punitive strike against the Marauders, and is already willing to send Wolverine into the tunnels, alone, without back-up, then why not send Magneto too? The two of them will have absolutely no problem doing what needs to be done, and the X-Men will look after the New Mutants. Magneto would be fine with it. He's an evil villain, his reputation is destroyed anyway, might as well use his formidable power to its utmost. And Wolverine would appreciate the support. Just think of what the two of them could do with a Fastball Special. Morgan WickNovember 1, 2015 6:01 PM Wonder Man #2 I never found out how they treated these issues in the New 52 era because DC died to me with the New 52. The core of Wonder Woman's character is being the quintessential female (and feminist) hero; if I could find a way to boil away her origin to remove any trace of the Amazons and the Greek gods, I would. ChrisWNovember 1, 2015 5:43 PM Uncanny X-Men #203 I've been scanning mutant titles today for an unrelated reason, but going through these last half-dozen issues, I have to wonder how much Jim Shooter was writing "Secret Wars II" in hopes that Claremont would give him ideas of how to do it. The "X-Men" #196 entry points out that, of all the SWII #1 spin-offs, it was the first time the Beyonder actually did anything other than observe. Then "Secret Wars II" #2 had him quoting Rachel's instructions on how to eat. Shooter knew what he wanted to do, but didn't know how to do it. Long-running subplots that never go anywhere, like resurrecting Kurse, which I assume was handled in an issue of "Thor" but I never read "Thor" so all the promotion in "Secret Wars II" was for nothing. Unrequited love for a favorite of the higher-ups, like Dazzler. And building towards the X-Characters appearing more and more often. A year after "Secret Wars II" ended, I was a brand-new fan of the muties. But at the time, I had very little clue who any of them were, and cared even less. Yet they took up more and more space, especially in the spin-offs where Rachel becomes Phoenix, the New Mutants get killed, they revisit the M'Kraan Crystal. Rachel goes straight at the Beyonder in SWII #8, calls everybody together in #9, and even fires the killing shot. I had no idea who she, or Phoenix, was at the time. "Who are these people and why should I care?" was not the response Marvel wanted. Now I'm developing a theory that "Secret Wars II" was partially driven by letting Claremont have the ideas and Shooter get the royalties. MichaelNovember 1, 2015 5:35 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 Re: the scripting- Phil Hall posted the following message on July 17th, 1999 in racmx: ChrisWNovember 1, 2015 5:26 PM Uncanny X-Men #201 Fnord, you misspelled "proforeader." Yes, Scott could have easily beaten Storm if he cut loose, but that was the whole point. The ability to not destroy buildings and cities is actually kind of important if you're going to lead the X-Men. ChrisWNovember 1, 2015 5:14 PM Uncanny X-Men #200 Couldn't the X-Men point out that barely ten issues earlier they had helped the Avengers save the world from Kulan Gath? Captain America said he'd remember it, and he doesn't exactly strike me as a fair-weather friend. Barely ten issues before that, when they thought Madelyne was Dark Phoenix reborn, they immediately called the Avengers for help. And, correct me if I'm wrong, they're all working together fighting the Beyonder on multiple occasions during this period. They might have to rehearse what they're going to say before they call - "I know we're muties wanted by the police, BUT!" - but as was pointed out above, it's not like every other superhero hasn't been in the same situation. Really, the X-Men make most of their own troubles. And the Illuminati is really incompetent. ChrisWNovember 1, 2015 4:57 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 Being Alan Davis' ghost-writer, I knew that. I don't know why, because Alan Davis proved on "Excalibur" that he can definitely write, but I did know Claremont ghosted him. It's basically another reason I have no interest in reading any more X-Titles, written by Claremont or anyone else. Well, except Peter David. But yeah, it's my theory and I'm sticking with it until someone corners Claremont in a dark alley and subjects him to a long career-spanning interview. He did the plot, and maybe never even saw the finished art before quitting, and scripted it as he and Marvel planned his return. I have a vague theory that this series was one of the reasons he quit, where he told "The Comics Journal" that this wasn't his story and he didn't recognize the characters anymore. The scans here are light-years away from the X-Men/Excalibur characters as they were in 1990, even allowing for Claremont's royalty and mind control fetishes. I'd have to read the actual story to work out that theory, and I'd rather not. ChrisWNovember 1, 2015 4:44 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #9 I think Rachel's "you're married" line was partly a dig at Scott for marrying someone other than Jean (not entirely rational or sensible on her part, but understandable) and mostly making the point that he's no longer on the team. This is a special mission, an exception. She's an X-Man, he isn't. A much more rational and sensible point to make. Red CometNovember 1, 2015 4:11 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 @ChrisW What you say about this being plotted but not scripted around when Claremont left in 1991 is conceivable. It wouldn't surprise me if Claremont himself did the scripting in 1998 or 1999 when he returned to Marvel. He also ghost-wrote/ghost-scripted the tail end of Alan Davis' run on the X-titles before officially becoming the X-men writer again with X-men #100. Vin the Comics GuyNovember 1, 2015 4:07 PM Marvel Team-Up #141 Actually, this does beg the question of whether DD could detect the presence of the symbiote or not. Maybe that storyline hadn't yet been decided? ChrisWNovember 1, 2015 1:28 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 We know this story was started in the early-90s, but do we know how far it had actually gotten before being dropped? Even at the end of Claremont's run, his scripting still had something distinctive to it, so much so that I was able to pinpoint his final pages on #279 before it had been confirmed. Scripting "X-Factor," "X-Men" #1-3, those were noticeable. Here, this is just generic. I've never read the actual story, and now I don't see any reason. At a guess, I'd say Claremont had turn in the plot and Leonardi was drawing it when he quit. Harras had Leonardi finish it to fill out the pay voucher, and figured Nicieza or someone would handle the scripting, but never got around to it and the thing was dumped in a file and forgotten about. Or maybe Leonardi had just finished drawing it so it could be published with the ending of the Muir Island Saga, and getting ready to script it was one of the final straws that broke the camel's back. And Wolverine apparently shows up telling people his name's "Logan"? He wouldn't tell any of the X-Men that until #139! WTF? Also, Strucker's family has been warriors for a hundred generations? If every female ancestor gave birth by the time she was twelve, that would put his lineage going back to before the Holy Roman Empire was established by Charlemagne in 800 AD. I'm skeptical. It sounds even more unlikely if his family was from Prussia. JonathanNovember 1, 2015 12:34 PM Captain America #255 Aim for the pelvis, eh? Speaking as someone unlikely to ever be in a gunfight, this sounds like good advice. Unless it was against a Liefeld character. You'd never hit such a tiny target. Same for their head. You could aim for their giant torso, but who knows where the vital organs would be in all that mass? MichaelNovember 1, 2015 12:24 PM Ghost Rider #18 I thought that it was fairly obvious who the "Master" was, considering the villain was a reverend that claimed to be a sin-eater and the references to Styge's soul belonging to another. Unfortunately, this raised further questions, which Mackie resolved in a disappointing manner (and some of which were never clearly resolved), possibly due to the need to include Lilith as a villain for crossover reasons. That being said, Mackie already has made things ridiculously complicated- Ghost Rider resembles the original Ghost Rider but isn't him but apparently is somehow linked to Blaze since Blaze can wield his hellfire but isn't Mephisto's handiwork but somehow the "Master" is free. CecilNovember 1, 2015 10:13 AM Captain America #255 Sure, Cullen! It's not for me to speculate on other implications of John Byrne's ultra-tightening pelvis. But Vincent's insight was effortlessly both historical and hysterical. I like any points about the innovations and creativity. fnord12November 1, 2015 9:25 AM Captain America #255 Thanks Vincent. I wonder if the process not working is why Josef Rubinstein was brought in and given a special credit, or if the "inker of today" line is a pun indicating that only the flashback scenes were shot directly from pencils. cullenNovember 1, 2015 5:34 AM Captain America #255 Cecil, thanks for that - I thought VV was making an obscure joke. Vincent ValentiNovember 1, 2015 4:50 AM Captain America #255 Oops! Yes that's what I meant. Stupid autocorrect. CecilNovember 1, 2015 2:56 AM Captain America #255 Ciao, Vincent! Shot from pencils, right? We understand. Vincent ValentiNovember 1, 2015 12:09 AM Captain America #255 Actually, this issue wasn't inked by Byrne. They were shot from pelvis, which he made ultra-tight for this issue. He had said that the process did not turn out as well as he hoped - which would explain why he never tried to do this again. Vincent ValentiOctober 31, 2015 11:39 PM Machine Man #18 I've wondered if this trip to New York was when Sasquatch and Aurora hooked up, as referenced in Alpha Flight #4. Vincent ValentiOctober 31, 2015 11:35 PM Uncanny X-Men #139-140 A two things: Byrne completely plotted these two issues, a first for him on this title. Claremont was just scripter here. It was also Byrne that was responsible for Angel's return to the X-Men. Claremont wasn't thrilled by the idea, so just a few issues after Byrne left, Angel was gone was well. Omar KarinduOctober 31, 2015 8:29 PM Hulk #356 "Cloot" is apparently and old Scots word for a cloven hoof, and "Old Nick" is of course a traditional nickname for the devil (used, perhaps, because of superstitions that actually saying "Satan" might summon him). RobertOctober 31, 2015 7:20 PM Wonder Man #2 Morgan, New 52 Wonder Woman is the daughter of Zeus so the connection to the Greek gods is more direct than ever before. I tried the book out for awhile and, unless something has changed in the last year or so, the gods are as much a part of her story now as Odin & co. are to Thor. Red CometOctober 31, 2015 5:41 PM Fantastic Four #356 @Chris Shooter said that Marvel was like that in the 70s with editors writing books and that was something he stopped when he became EiC. That was why Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and Roy Thomas all jumped ship for DC. Morgan WickOctober 31, 2015 3:52 PM Wonder Man #2 DC, meanwhile, actually seems to take the tack of putting YHWH in some way "above" other classes of gods, without ever mentioning him by name. But then, other real-world pantheons play a much less starring role in DC, without a "Thor" figure; the closest thing they have is Wonder Woman, who has a much more tangential connection to the Greek gods than Marvel characters. She's not as inextricably linked to them as, say, the Spectre, who's literally the wrath of (the Judeo-Christian) God. DC seems to have explicitly subordinated most real-world pantheons to their in-house god-like concepts the New Gods and Endless, and even those seem to have been themselves subordinated to YHWH though the relationship has never been made perfectly clear. (Note: all this is pre-New 52, I have no idea how they've treated it in the post-New 52 era.) DarrenOctober 31, 2015 3:32 PM Journey Into Mystery #83 My theory is that the monster story origins in these early superhero books FF, Ant-Man, Hulk, Thor were intended as a back door of sorts for the company if the superhero trend failed to pick up. FF are just individuals with unbelievable powers and the Hulk is modern day Jeykll and Mr Hyde. If they failed, they werent really superheroes but newer variations of the schlock that Atlas was producing. Since they succeeded the FF and Hank Pym put on costumes, and Thor, Hulk were integrated as superheroes instead of pulp or fantasy characters. MichaelOctober 31, 2015 3:18 PM Wonder Man #2 Chris, not Quite- the OHOTMU admitted the distinction between "gods" and "demons" was blurry but argued that the difference was that demons are parasitic, preying in some way on "lesser" beings. MichaelOctober 31, 2015 2:47 PM Wonder Man #1 Chris, this is better than his last appearance in Web of Spider-Man, where Peter knocked him out by TRIPPING him. Max_SpiderOctober 31, 2015 2:41 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 "In this story, his goal is to secure the Tri-Sentinel to use as a guard for the post-apocalyptic community he's putting together. I think a guy with his resources could buy a couple of regular sentinels rather then get involved in an illegal operation to acquire a robot known only for going on an out-of-control rampage, but that's why he's the entrepreneur and not me." It does make a certain amount of sense. The Life Foundation's mission statement is kind of resigned to the idea that the world is essentially going to get destroyed anyway. While the Tri-Sentinel might not manage to cause worldwide harm, it was going to set off a nuclear disaster at the very least. It'd make a decent preview, making existing affiliates glad they have their shelter and potential affiliates wishing they did. ChrisOctober 31, 2015 2:19 PM Wonder Man #1 This is not how you do a Wonder Man solo title. The acting/stuntman angle is perhaps one of the least appealing things about Wonder Man, done basically because nobody knew what to do with him. Only Stern seemed to write him well. Wonder Man's whole thing is him being one of the most powerful people alive. In terms of power, he is almost like Superman - at least a peer to Thor. Unlike the other characters that powerful, he is a human being though - not a god nor an alien. That is what should be explored which means finding or creating villains that can be true menaces. And I hate what is done to Golaith here. Goliath had been rescued from obscurity and made a major threat. Someone who could pound Hercules to near death. Who could take on the entire West Coast Avengers on his own and be a credible threat, and if teamed with other villains could even defeat them. Becoming Wonder Man's punching bag is not how you deal with a villain of this caliber. Max_SpiderOctober 31, 2015 2:19 PM She-Hulk #31-33 Strictly speaking, Hank's passion for insects in the original story seemed to come as a result of his ant hill episode and he had invented the shrinking formula before any display of entomology. ChrisOctober 31, 2015 2:13 PM Fantastic Four #356 I never read this issue. This reminds though that late 1991 is when I re-evaluated my comics collecting. I had begun picking up a lot of the other Marvel titles in 1989 and 1990, but this year I abandend titles I just didn't like. I went from over twenty Marvel comics to less than a dozen, and in another year I'd be down to one (HULK). It just was not the same Marvel comics had loved since 1983. DeFalco is really abusing his position here by writing multiple titles (all of which are key characters) while being Editor-In-Chief. In fact, editorial misplay is an ongoing problem throughout the next few years. Other editors would hire their editorial colleagues to write their titles so they would hire them to write theirs. I can't imagine such things would ever happen under Shooter. MichaelOctober 31, 2015 2:10 PM Spider-Man: Fear Itself No, what fnord's talking about is a later Captain America story after the Spidey vs. Zemo thing- it was revealed that Baroness Zemo wasn't really Zemo's father and then he married her. ChrisOctober 31, 2015 2:06 PM Wonder Man #2 If I remember OHOTMU correctly, I think the difference between Marvel Universe "gods" and "demons" is that gods don't require human worship and demons do. I actually think it's good to not go down the "ancient gods need modern worshippers route". It creates a lot of problems for the setting. Not only does it take characters like Thor away from the heroic, it opens up why the gods allowed their worshippers to fall away in the first place (I know about the Celestials angle, but really that is just a stop gap), and creates lots of problems for history explaining the rise of the monotheistic religions (if Odin is real, why not YHWH?). Personally, I'd be much happier if the Asgardians were considered extradimensional entities and the Olympians the Eternals, and the other gods similar or mistaken Dr Strange like entities. But Marvel never had a coherent explanation - they just did whatever seemed fun at the time. Max_SpiderOctober 31, 2015 1:41 PM Wonder Man #2 Reminds me a little bit of how the first three issues of Captain America and the Mighty Avengers had the new Captain America inverted from Axis. BobOctober 31, 2015 1:32 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 The pointless, flood-the-market Excalibur specials are like an undead vampire, rising from the grave even after the book was canceled. It wouldn't be Claremont without someone getting mind controlled or possessed. And it wouldn't be Excalibur without poor Meggan being on the receiving end of the abuse. And, God, Leonardi really deteriorated as an artist by this point. His work on the Cloak and Dagger mini was gorgeous. This, along with more or less everything he's done since, is just sloppy as hell. fnord12October 31, 2015 12:20 PM New Mutants annual #7 Ah, thanks. Well, he was almost beheaded in his first appearance, too, so i don't think it was a reference to NM #89 specifically. I guess if he had said "not again!" or if someone said "it finally happened!" or something, i would have counted it. MichaelOctober 31, 2015 12:01 PM New Mutants annual #7 I think Jon means Silver Sabre was almost beheaded in New Mutants 89 and he really was beheaded in this story. MichaelOctober 31, 2015 9:20 AM Strange Tales #150-168 (Nick Fury) One thing I'm wondering about- how old is Strucker supposed to be in this story? Because the X-Men:True Friends series had Strucker as a veteran in the First World War and Gambit 10 had Strucker as a soldier in 1916, suggesting he was at least 18 at that point. Now both of these stories were written after Thunderbolts came out and Busiek revealed that Zemo invented a compound that retards aging to explain why none of the big Nazi villains aged as much as they should have. But I'm wondering, was Strucker supposed to be that old in the '60's Strucker stories? Because if Strucker was 18 in 1916, he should be 69 in 1967 but he's treated like a physical threat in these stories. Erik BeckOctober 31, 2015 8:08 AM Ghost Rider #5-6 A Ghost Rider and Punisher team-up? It feels like the cover should have said "Hope you like this, because this is going to be emblematic of the whole next decade." Walter LawsonOctober 31, 2015 2:06 AM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 Kinross is Moira Mactaggart's maiden name. I assumed Alasdhair was her father, but his death a few years after this story doesnt leave him a lot of time to have kids. I guess the timeline would work, though: Moira is Xavier's age, and he's in his 20s in the 1960s when he encounters Magneto and Gabrielle Haller (and Strucker) in Israel. Moira would be born in the '40s. Claremont's fascination with royalty, seen here with Lillibet, combined with all the Scottish royal artifacts he emphasizes in the barrow Lilibet stumbles into (Caledonian crown, a sword as well as the stone of Scone) and his later making of an alternate Alysande Stuart into a Scots national hero (Caledonia) whose 616 version proves surprisingly impervious to Mesmero, all leads me to guess that Claremont was going to reveal Alysande Stuart to be of the royal House of Stuart, putting her Dr. Who-referencing surname to a double purpose. If that was at all the plan, though, Claremont never gets to execute it. Walter LawsonOctober 31, 2015 1:52 AM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 When Claremont brings Farouk back in 1989 and has him descibe himself as "a ghost, a demon, a nightmare" in UXM 253, it seems like the author is preparing to retcon the character as more than a mutant, a supernatural force that happened to acquire a mutant host in Farouk. One of Claremont's weaknesses as a writer for X-Men (despite being the characters' definitive writer) is his preference for supernatural boss villains over mutant-relevant villains. Fall of the Mutants, Inferno, and the abortive Farouk saga all wind up getting supernatural. In these issues, the druid that the girls encounter in their flashback has glowing eyes just like Farouk, which suggests he may be an earlier, presumably non-mutant host for the same entity. The thing about SK wanting a clockwork universe of unchanging "order and control" might actually connect with Destiny's vision of a crystallized universe in Uncanny 255. even though SK's fueling of anger and lust seems like it diesn't lead to order and control, maybe the idea is similar to Roy Thomas's twist in Dr. Strange's Great Fear story: after all the passionate emotions burn themselves out the universe is left wubmissive and orderly. I might even suggest there's a link between the Sentinels' rule in Days of Future Past--which is relentlessly orderly--and the crystalline circuitry of the living statues that populate Magneto's haunted island, as we saw in that one issue of Marvel Fanfare. The statues were presumably from the earlier age of Ngarai domination of earth, and the Sentinels might kind of be what the modern version of that regime looks like. SK or his host would be bringing that order back into existence. (Crystal statues are also a feature of UXM annual 11, it's what the champions that fail the tests of the crystal of the final vision become--and that crystal and its visions are similar to the Siege Perilous, the plot device that kicks off the Australian period that ends with the Shadow King storyline, so...well, Claremont had a mix of themes and tropes going, but where they were going one can only speculate. He was making up a lot as he went along, and retconning even his own stories in the process.) Mark DrummondOctober 31, 2015 1:18 AM She-Hulk #31-33 Wasn't "First Flight" an SF novel by Chris Claremont? I'm guessing editorial thought it would be too controversial to leave the Milli Vanilli guy black. Too bad Byrne never brought back Quogg the Living Hut. Mark DrummondOctober 31, 2015 12:43 AM Punisher #52 I'd probably take the baby-selling element a bit more seriously if a similar thing hadn't happened in John Waters' "Pink Flamingos". Mark DrummondOctober 31, 2015 12:39 AM Wonder Man #1 Gerard Jones is probably best known for his "Sidney Mellon" columns in Amazing Heroes, which were ostensibly written by an extremely ignorant and short-sighted Marvel fan who worshipped Chris Claremont and Frank Miller as gods due to their "graphic literature". A surprisingly large amount of people actually thought "Sidney" was real and would write in to argue with him. Nathan AdlerOctober 30, 2015 11:34 PM Wolverine #45-46 @Berend: So if Wolvie wasn't going to say "Papa" we should have start an alternative guess going what HE WAS alternatively going to say;) Any takers? MichaelOctober 30, 2015 9:59 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #14 Erik, Scott is still Rachel's father. Claremont was planning on retconning Rachel into a kind of virgin birth via the Phoenix force, but thankfully, he never got the chance. MichaelOctober 30, 2015 9:46 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 Re: Kitty's ability to free someone possessed by a telepath by phasing through them- the point is that Kitty has developed the same ability as her Lightning Squad counterpart- the ability to knock someone out by phasing through them, and not only disrupt a machine. Claremont had apparently written this scene in the original plot that was supposed to appear in 1990. The problem is that since it was never published, no later writer followed up on it. When Claremont returned to the X-Books in Wolverine 125, and had Kitty knock out people by phasing through the, a LOT of readers complained that it came out of nowhere. Erik BeckOctober 30, 2015 5:55 PM Uncanny X-Men #268 I remember this issue didn't show up from Marvel for my brother's subscription and by the time he realized it the shops were out of it and the price had already leaped. "A little less as pure cheesecake", Harry? Even the scene where Natasha gets out of bed wearing a couple of handkerchiefs? I'm not complaining though, since I don't think anyone draws cheesecake better than Jim Lee. This seemed an odd time to establish Natasha as being this old, just as we were reaching a point where having any characters alive from WWII other than Cap was starting to be problematic. Is this the first issue where Cap is drawn with his eyebrows visible while his mask is on? Red CometOctober 30, 2015 3:01 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 Byrne claimed, on his message board I think, that he did the entire plot for Days of Future Past and Claremont only scripted those issues. I usually take it with a grain of salt whenever a writer or artist claims they did the lion's share of the work in a famous creative pairing, but I'm inclinded to believe Byrne here given his known love of time travel stories and his admission that he got some core ideas from the Doctor Who episode "Day of the Daleks." BerendOctober 30, 2015 2:44 PM X-Force #1 @Bob: Cable's teleportation ability makes sense if he's from the future. Deadpool may have gotten in from Tolliver, with the same explanation. BerendOctober 30, 2015 2:39 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 @Red Comet: I know the X-Men franchise will really go into overdrive during the 90's, but it seems that in the 89-91 period there were far more Excalibur specials compared to the other X-Teams. BerendOctober 30, 2015 2:37 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 Wait, the misordered pages are actually in the original version as well? I have the Dutch translation of this and the pages there are also scrabled up near the end! How lazy were those translators?! I never like stories that makes being royal into something holy or magical, but it turns out to be even stupider when there's an actual, still reigning monarch involved rather than King Arthur or someone like that. If you read UncannyXmen.net's write up of Wolverine's history, there's like a billion scenes of him discovering his claws, only to forget about them again after either his healing factor or Romulus erases his memory of them. Your John Byrne evidence line made me laugh out loud :P Finally, when Claremont takes over the new Excalibur series in the 2000-somethings, doesn't he reveal that the Shadow King is indeed some ancient ethereal entity rather than a mutant? Red CometOctober 30, 2015 2:35 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 @Berend You had to be there. The X-men brand was so hot in the 90s that related teams, even small fry like Excalibur, got all kinds of one-shots and specials. They were still spinning off stuff related to X-Factor even after that book had been unreadable for years. Even nobodies like the XSE were getting mini-series. As for True Friends, I wonder if it was half-finished in a drawer somewhere and then completed in '99 for more X-fodder. If it was actually finished around 1990/1991 I could see Harras shelving it since that's around when he ousted Claremont. He wouldn't want a plot heavy book from the old guy coming out when he was handing the keys to the kingdom over to the new guys. As for billing this as "X-men" instead of "Excalibur," one reason is that this came out close to a year after Excalibur had been cancelled and Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Colossus moved back over to the X-men. BerendOctober 30, 2015 2:20 PM X-Men: True Friends #1-3 Why on earth where there so many Excalibur specials around this time? The million Ghost Rider guest appearances and Punisher specials I get, those guys were selling like hot cakes, but was Excalibur really that popular around 1990? BerendOctober 30, 2015 2:15 PM Wolverine #45-46 For a moment there I thought Wolverine was going to say Sabertooth was his "Pa" or "Papa" or something. BerendOctober 30, 2015 2:06 PM She-Hulk #31-33 I have a lot of problems with the usual cheesecake in comics. It's often actually very unappealing with all the broken spines and silly poses, and it never seems to make any sense, with the woman staying in just their bathing suits even when they go to the north pole. Byrne does a lot better in those regards. There's usually some story purpose or a joke tied to it, and his women actually look attractive. The main problem I have with it is that it's always the women looking sexy, enforcing the idea that comics are purely a guy thing. Add Namor or Hercules to the cast for some regular doses of beefcake to even things out! BerendOctober 30, 2015 1:41 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 I always like it when Spidey, the original young super hero, gets to be the experienced one in a team up with someone from a new generation of heroes. StevenOctober 30, 2015 12:28 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 I like Mark Bagley's art on Spider-Man better than in any of his team books. StevenOctober 30, 2015 12:24 PM Fantastic Four #356 Now that Simonson's run has ended, I have lost interest in the FF. They have little relevance to the wider universe. They were not included in Infinity Gauntlet. From now on, the FF are no more than Marvel's C team. Erik BeckOctober 30, 2015 11:46 AM Uncanny X-Men annual #14 So, after three parts of this story with crappy art, they end with Arthur Adams. That's a bit different. Storywise and artwise this is a hell of a lot better than the first three parts. It seems to me that the Jean Grey in Ultimate X-Men is modeled physically more after the way that Adams draws Rachel than any version of Jean. So, Rachel now knows that at least Ororo and Logan are alive. Maybe she should tell Kitty and Kurt? @Walter Lawson - Is Scott not Rachel's father? Is that something I've missed? Or another idiot ret-con? Erik BeckOctober 30, 2015 10:09 AM Fantastic Four #356 Someone with more knowledge of the last 20 years of Marvel Comics than I have should do a "Top 10 Worst Ret-Cons" piece, and this needs to be on there. JonathanOctober 30, 2015 9:22 AM Spider-Man: Fear Itself I was completely unaware this existed. And I stopped reading Gruenwald Cap sometime in the 390s. But I don't know how I never knew before that Baron Zemo II married his father in a woman's body? That's just incredible, even for comics. The next Zemo II appearance I remember is the DeMatteis Spidey vs Zemo vs Vermin thing, if it got mentioned there I guess it went over my head. cullenOctober 30, 2015 1:34 AM Wolverine #45-46 Seeing this kind of reevaluative-appreciation makes me hopeful for some more actually (as opposed to ironically or masochistically) good-but-overlooked material in the coming months... (I already said i was looking forward to you "taking the bullet" on the 90s stuff i missed, months ago, on the forum :) ) Erik RobbinsOctober 30, 2015 12:48 AM Fantastic Four #356 Disrespectful of fans of the 80s Fantastic Four just about sums up my views of this entire run of issues. More on that soon. DermieOctober 30, 2015 12:13 AM Fantastic Four #356 I remember being really annoyed when this issue first came out and Shary Ventura was just disappeared off-panel by the new creative team in their very first issue. It just struck me as incredibly disrespectful, both to the work that Englehart and Simonson had done with her character over the previous few years, but also to the fans that the character had earned during her time with the team. Of course, DeFalco does eventually bring her back and show that he did have plans for her (for better or worse), but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that she was already gone before his first issue started. Red CometOctober 29, 2015 10:53 PM Wolverine #45-46 Reading that letter I'm not sure where this guy heard that Barry Windsor-Smith didn't consult with Chris Claremont before doing Weapon X. I read somewhere that he and Claremont talked briefly about the story and about Apocalypse being made the guy behind the Weapon X program. Apparently this idea made it to Walt Simonson as well since he puts some plot threads in that direction in Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure. Red CometOctober 29, 2015 10:49 PM Wolverine #45-46 @Bob If you say so. I think Sabretooth's Jim Lee costume is much more distinctive than the original. Omar KarinduOctober 29, 2015 10:47 PM New Mutants #74 Poochie, I mean Gosamyr dies on the way to her home planet, I mean planet of mystics. Omar KarinduOctober 29, 2015 10:09 PM Daredevil #265 Seems like Ann Nocenti predicted "rolling coal" about 25 years ahead of time. BobOctober 29, 2015 9:55 PM Fantastic Four #356 Lord, 1991 was a terrible year to be a classic Marvel fan. BobOctober 29, 2015 9:53 PM Wolverine #45-46 One of the last appearances of classic costume Sabretooth, before he gets saddled with Jim Lee's 90 EXTREME!!! look that he's still stuck with to this day BobOctober 29, 2015 9:51 PM Fantastic Four #356 You just feel ill, knowing that one of the biggest bungles and shark jumps in MU history is about to unfold. Not to mention dead Reed, bucket head thing and slutty costume Sue lurking just over the horizon. Waid had a few decent issues, and McDuffie did the best he could with the post Civil War train wreck, but, otherwise, the FF have more or less been in horrible hands continuously since 1991. BobOctober 29, 2015 9:42 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 If the 50th anniversary issue was the turning point in Gruenwald's Cap run, then the Tri-Sentinel rehash was the moment Michelinie's run, which I never really was a huge fan of to begin with, really went off the tracks and ran out of ideas. Darth WeevilOctober 29, 2015 9:19 PM Marvel Super Heroes #11 (Ms. Marvel) I think Walter Lawson is right on the money here—there is a pretty clear break in the issue both art-wise and story-wise. Plus, looking back at it now, that last Vosburg page actually looks a lot like it could be the cliffhanger final panel for the story—Pyro shows what he can do, and then there would be the standard "wanna know how Carol survives? Be sure to buy next month's issue to find out!" promo. That said, I'm not familiar enough with Vosburg's art to say whether this was done ~1979 or in the mid-80s for Marvel Fanfare and just not published then (that might actually explain why it was slightly longer than a typical story of the era—20 pages rather than 17). Probably a bit of a lost cause at this point, but Chris Claremont is scheduled to be at a con near me in the spring, so I'll try to talk to him then and see if he can clear anything up. I doubt it, if for no other reason than it being decades ago, but maybe he can add something... fnord12October 29, 2015 8:40 PM She-Hulk #31-33 @Morgan, no i meant #32 and #33. Issue #32 has She-Hulk confronting the Mole Man and learning about the diamond glob, and Weezie and Bob exploring Subterannea. There are some quips and things but it reads pretty well just as a straight action story. And issue #33 has the actual fight with Spragg, which is wrapped up in the first half and then there is the wedding plot which gets back to having a lot of meta references. MichaelOctober 29, 2015 8:18 PM She-Hulk #31-33 The Valley of Diamonds plot, including the Mole Man turning into a giant mole, was Byrne's original plot for FF 296. (The idea was that the glop would leave Ben the Thing, because that was his inner self.) MichaelOctober 29, 2015 8:16 PM Fantastic Four #356 Regarding Lyja not recognizing the Puppet Master, DeFalco has said that the idea was that the Puppet Master was believed dead when Lyja took over Alicia's life, so Lyja's training didn't include being exposed to his voice. Which is fine, except that Ben found out the Puppet Master was alive in Thing 34 and his next meeting with Alicia was FF 296, 60 issues ago. You'd think that in all that time Lyja would have asked to hear a tape of his voice. Morgan WickOctober 29, 2015 7:47 PM She-Hulk #31-33 "What's striking is that there's actually not a ton of humor in most of issue #32 and the fight in #33." Did you mean #31 and #32? BillOctober 29, 2015 7:30 PM She-Hulk #31-33 What a relief that John Byrne is back on the title! When he was on it, it was one of my favorites. The cheesecake stuff all eventually comes to a head in an upcoming issue. Heck, it's even called out on a few covers in the process. I never had an issue with it because it was all in fun and therefor had a point. Byrne is back, let this series be fun again! GromOctober 29, 2015 7:09 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 His women tend to look the same and are fairly unattractive. They got this hard Rene Russo look about them. His art is honest but pedestrian. I do like his fight scenes. I prefer his work on New Warriors to be honest and I definitely prefer McFarlane/Larsen on Spiderman. Red CometOctober 29, 2015 7:08 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 Bagley's an excellent super-hero action artist who keeps the action understandable while keeping it dynamic. This is why he's always been a perfect artist for Spider-man both regular and Ultimate. Since the original Tri-Sentinel issue was my first Spider-man comic I was hyped for this two-parter since Spidey didn't have the Captain Universe powers this time. It paid off when I was a kid and even in hindsight I still think it's a great story. It also does good work setting up Nova's connection to Spider-man as a younger hero being mentored by an older one. Makes the surprisingly frequent Spider-man/New Warriors team-ups of the early 90s mean more. Also, when I had these original issues it seemed like issue #352 had a considerably cheaper print job done on it than #351. The paper also seemed like a worse quality newsprint. JSfanOctober 29, 2015 6:16 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 At the time I wasn't a big fan of Bagley's art, I think I was too used to the house style of the early 80s, which I still think is brilliant but looking at those scans, Bagley's pencils are refreshing compared to McFarlane and Larsen. Ataru320October 29, 2015 4:57 PM Fantastic Four #356 Yeah...it seems a bit ridiculous that it took 7 years for the Puppet Master to realize his daughter wasn't his daughter...you'd think that being her dad, he'd realize it sooner. Then again you could say that she was stuck that way for a few years...I mean one of her compatriots was trapped for years as a chair. MikeCheyneOctober 29, 2015 4:51 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 Mark Bagley's art is GREAT. I don't have a problem with dufus Carlton Drake showing up as a recurring villain--not every bad guy in the Marvel universe has to be distinctive or impressive. mikrolikOctober 29, 2015 4:24 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 The Tri-Sentinel's "implausible amount of internal defenses" could be explained by Loki's manipulation (as the Tri-Sentinel's existence is a product of Loki's magic). Piotr WOctober 29, 2015 3:56 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 Bagley is very good indeed! Even though his MJ still looks like a Jean Grey clone... Piotr WOctober 29, 2015 3:55 PM Darkhawk #7-8 Over at the Marvel Appendix site, it was brought up that Lodestone is yet another person with magnetic powers who seems to be mentally unstable. I agree that it'd be cool if it was made canon that magnetic powers have the side effect of destabilizing the user's brain... Piotr WOctober 29, 2015 3:53 PM Wonder Man #1 Art doesn't look too bad here, but Simon looks way too young... MegaSpiderManOctober 29, 2015 1:38 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 Heck, Bagley is the only redeeming factor of ASM for the 90's in general, really. Erik BeckOctober 29, 2015 1:18 PM X-Factor annual #5 A C- is way too generous. They finally, after five friggin years, have Scott find out about Rachel and it's just completely botched. And to top it all, Bogdanove begins his incredibly bad channelling of Carmine Infantino. I can't believe it's the same guy who drew X-Men vs FF. Erik BeckOctober 29, 2015 1:06 PM New Mutants annual #6 The Doug and Rahne story almost makes up for the rest. I remember in another issue where Rahne is upset that the X-Men always seem to come back from the dead but poor Doug is still dead. TCPOctober 29, 2015 12:55 PM Amazing Spider-Man #351-352 Bagley's art is THE major redeeming factor in Michelinie's run from here on out. Erik BeckOctober 29, 2015 8:27 AM Fantastic Four annual #23 I remember reading these stories when they first came out but not buying them because they were so disappointing and because the art was just so bad. The irony is that the art in the main story seems to be a harbinger of some of the really bad art of the 90's while the art in the backups seems to be like the Ron Frenz Silver Age throw-backs in Thor. BerendOctober 29, 2015 7:31 AM New Warriors #14 How ironic that the armor you should only wear when fighting to the death is an outfit you wouldn't want to be found dead in. Red CometOctober 29, 2015 12:17 AM Wonder Man #1 As far as mainstream super-hero works goes, Gerard Jones was much more known for Green Lantern, particularly Green Lantern Mosaic. He also wrote a book called "The Comic Book Heroes," which was apparently part industry history, part Hollywood Babylon. cullenOctober 28, 2015 10:22 PM Wonder Man #1 Gerard Jones did an independent comic called "Trouble With Girls" that was really right in-line with the character of Wonder Man - or at least, compatible with the same tropes. "Trouble..." featured brawny dude beefcake, "adult" themes and a fair amount of nudity, and Hollywood settings. It seems like the pitch was "Hey can you do Trouble With Girls, but in-continuity?" fnord12October 28, 2015 10:03 PM Excalibur: The Possession Ah, thanks Michael. I tagged them thinking i would go flip through Excalibur #50 to see exactly how the retcon happened, but by the time i did that i forgot that i had tagged them. Actually i'm still not 100% about Emma, but i guess if it was all in Stuart's head... Omar KarinduOctober 28, 2015 10:01 PM Marvel Comics Presents #10-17 (Colossus) Some of this feels like a dress rehearsal for the Skip, Brandy, and Number Nine stuff in Nocenti's Daredevil stories. Omar KarinduOctober 28, 2015 9:36 PM Thor #396-400 Randall Frenz's backups do a lot of work to make Loki really, really, evil practically form birth which honestly makes him a lot less interesting. Erik BeckOctober 28, 2015 9:32 PM Quasar #17 By this time, we would have already had the new origin for the Flash, wherein rather than disintegrating in Crisis, he had gone beyond the speed of light, gone back in time and become the lightning bolt that has caused his origin in the first place. So, it begs the question (as it would, later when he was brought back at DC), how do you pull him out of a loop in which he becomes his own origin? Omar KarinduOctober 28, 2015 9:18 PM Doctor Strange #1-2 Since the Elan can warp reality, perhaps the gift of power refers to the sort of thing Rick Jones and Franklin Richards can do, which has repeatedly been stated as the "potential" of all humanity over the years. Omar KarinduOctober 28, 2015 9:08 PM Amazing Spider-Man #310 Comics have a lot of "Shrike" characters, probably because writers think the bird's eating habits are intimidating: they impale bugs on thorns and twigs to build up a "pantry." There's a reason The Minnesota Shrike is the media name for the serial killer Will Graham originally captures in the backstory for Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon, better known now as the debut of Hannibal Lecter. GromOctober 28, 2015 8:36 PM Darkhawk #7-8 A slightly darker Spiderman comic. I think the popularity of the Punisher influenced the tone of the book more than anything else. MichaelOctober 28, 2015 8:34 PM Marvel Fanfare #60 (Rogue) Fnord, arguably Rogue SHOULDN'T be likeable at this point- good girls don't throw women off bridges. MichaelOctober 28, 2015 8:26 PM Marvel Fanfare #60 Fnord, I think the point of the Black Panther story is to make fun of how stupid stereotypes are- the idea is that the alien is trying to impersonate an Asian but it only learned how to talk from Asian stereotypes so anyone that's actually had contact with a real Asian can see something's wrong. MichaelOctober 28, 2015 8:13 PM Excalibur: The Possession Fnord, why are Changeling and Emma Collins listed as characters appearing if they're just illusions created by Merlin? GromOctober 28, 2015 7:50 PM Wonder Man #1 I enjoyed this run for the first 8 or so issues. The art is pleasing to me and the humorous tone was different.A cut above many of the other books at the time. Morgan WickOctober 28, 2015 7:46 PM Excalibur: The Possession I had to double-check the credits to make sure this wasn't made in the 2000s. The coloring makes it look so modern. BobOctober 28, 2015 7:28 PM Wonder Man #1 This book couldnt have launched at a worse time. AWC was bleeding readers in 1990 after DeFalco drove off Byrne and gave the book to Thomas-on-autopilot. And the east coasters were adrift in Nicieza fill-ins. Instead of expanding the line, they should exercised some quality control and recruited some talent for the core books. Max_SpiderOctober 28, 2015 7:01 PM Punisher #52 Frank's neighbors would eventually get their portion of the reward program in the Garth Ennis run. Seems like Frank likes to spend all his money in a day. Thanos6October 28, 2015 6:45 PM New Warriors #14 The bombing of Project: Earth's ship in a French dock is probably a reference to the bombing of Greenpeace's "Rainbow Warrior" ship in New Zealand by French agents in 1985. One person was killed. BobOctober 28, 2015 6:06 PM Excalibur: The Possession Between the aimless issues in the main title (cross time snoozefest, Lobdell's drek) the stupid Looney Tunes story with the team in MCP and multiple pointless specials, Marvel was hellbent on getting everyone to perceive if this team as a waste of space. Even Davis' return couldnt undo the damage and regain momentum for the group. Pity, as it was loaded with fun characters. And poor Meggan always gets abused by the writers. BillOctober 28, 2015 4:05 PM New Warriors #14 The New Warriors was one of my favorite series out at this time. BillOctober 28, 2015 3:58 PM Excalibur: The Possession Reading this in real time, I had no idea why the story existed. Alan Davis was fairly quick to basically erase the story (and point out the various flaws in it that also bugged me). BillOctober 28, 2015 3:53 PM Wonder Man #1 Shouldn't Goliath's eyes be yellow, like Wonder Man's are red? fnord12October 28, 2015 1:13 PM New Warriors annual #1 (Speedball) Yeah, it's because the main story continues directly from other parts of Kings of Pain. The New Warriors appear in the KOP story in New Mutants annual #7 and that appearance continues directly in the New Warriors KOP story, and then the Warriors appear directly in Uncanny X-Men annual #15, etc.. So this Speedball back-up would have to take place before or after all of KOP. That's different than, say, Iron Man annual #12, where the back-ups featuring Iron Man could have taken place before the main story even though the Iron Man annual was part 4 of Subterranean Wars. Because Iron Man wasn't in the first two parts of Subterranean Wars and his story doesn't have to begin directly after the previous part ends. fnord12October 28, 2015 1:06 PM New Mutants annual #7 Give me a hint, Jon. What's the reference to NM #89? Morgan WickOctober 28, 2015 12:55 PM New Warriors annual #1 (Speedball) Was there a reason you didn't just lump most of the backups in with the main entry like you normally do? StevenOctober 28, 2015 12:03 PM X-Force #1 I enjoyed this series, but I could have done without Shatterstar or Feral. Jon DubyaOctober 28, 2015 11:27 AM New Mutants annual #7 Crimson Commando has appeared after that, Red Comet. He was one of the people hit by the decimation wave back in the 2000's and he reappeared in Uncanny #539 back when they were still trying to make Jean Grey prototype #356..,i mean Hope Summers a "thing" (this was during her "Messiah Creator's pet" phase when it was thought she could restore mutant powers. The Commando began to grow into his natural age, and with the cyberneyic implants it was NOT a pretty picture. He wanted Hope to restore him...by force if need be. Anyway Wolverine and Hope kill him, the end.) Avalanche actually stopped being a villain during the "Utopia" era of the X-books. Unfortunely he was (relatively) killed of recently in Uncanny Avengers after a brief mind-controlled return to villany. Michael, if Pyro and Crimson Commando were suppose to be on the same team, how does it make sense splitting them up like this at the end of this story? And Fnord12, no reference to New Mutants 89? fnord12October 28, 2015 11:04 AM New Warriors annual #1 (Speedball) There's nothing that says this story should go before or after the main story. The Artie/Leech/Wiz Kid back-up in the New Mutants annual makes more sense prior to Kings of Pain since they are hospitalized in KOP, and based on that i put all the back-ups prior to KOP (when there weren't other considerations). But for this one, it could easily go either way. Jon DubyaOctober 28, 2015 10:54 AM New Warriors annual #1 (Speedball) By the way, i love how Speedball not only recognizes a member of Power Pack, but even knows her current codename. Quick question though. What indicates that this takes place before the Kings of Pain crossover? It's prety obvious that the "main heroes" would survive so this story could have easily taken place after the event (which is how i always mentally placed them. Indeed, except for the Freedom Force tale, i just assumed EVERY other story in these annuals take place after the "KOP" storyline.) Jon DubyaOctober 28, 2015 10:35 AM New Mutants annual #7 This is effectively the teams last outing as "New Mutants."(Boom-Boom explicitly refers to them as the "new New Mutantsto Taki.) By the next installment of the crossover, the naration then states that the team was not using that name anymore. Boom-Boom probably uses that line to justify being published under the "New Mutants" trade dress despite that team supposedly folding at the end of NM# 100. TCPOctober 28, 2015 9:08 AM Punisher #52 During their fight, Lupe tells Punisher that she "used to wrestle in Guadalajara." This made me wish that she would whip out a luchadore mask at some point, but no such luck. The Punisher's rogues gallery could only benefit from a recurring rudo! JSfanOctober 28, 2015 8:26 AM Wonder Man #1 "Goliath is defeated by Wonder Man going in his mouth". I thought this was kid-friendly site...oh, wait, sorry, my bad. :) MichaelOctober 28, 2015 7:50 AM Wonder Man #1 Why is Wonder Man asking how Erik survived his last defeat? His last appearance was in Web of Spider-Man 64-65 and he was clearly just knocked out in that story, not seriously injured. Luis DantasOctober 28, 2015 7:49 AM Deathlok #2-5 Dwayne McDuffie was indeed a superb writer, but I fear he is trying way too hard here, in a framework that just does not play to his strengths. Misty, in particular, comes across as way out of character. As noted, her cybernetic arm was never that big an issue for her before. Even if it were, there is still a fundamental difference between someone who has to wear long sleeves all the time and someone who has neither full control of his own brain nor any normal body part. DarOctober 28, 2015 12:14 AM Silver Surfer #51 Showing Galactus' face (which I believe was also done in one of the "Infinity Guantlet" issues) seems to sort of contradict Byrne's point about Galactus looking like whatever the looker sees: cullenOctober 27, 2015 11:46 PM 2001: A Space Odyssey #1-10 I revisited your review to see if it could shed any light on the "monolith" currently being featured in Agents of SHIELD. MichaelOctober 27, 2015 11:26 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #137 It seems like Sal gets trashed any time the writers try to back away from a story that the readers didn't like- DeFalco suggested the Peter hits MJ scene was supposed to be Peter accidentally hitting her or shrugging her off or whatever and Sal drew it wrong. Ben HermanOctober 27, 2015 11:08 PM Knights of Pendragon #13-18 Ah, well, Morgan, I stand corrected (or sit, since I'm at the computer). Whatever the case, I still foresee a lot of really low ratings coming up! Morgan WickOctober 27, 2015 10:58 PM Knights of Pendragon #13-18 Fnord's rating scale doesn't go below D - it's not an option in the search-by-grade tool in the advanced search - although I don't think he's ever given an official explanation for the lack of D-'s like he has F. Ben HermanOctober 27, 2015 10:53 PM Knights of Pendragon #13-18 Looking forward to getting to it again (eventually!) after I review all the Marvel UK books. Good lord! I had forgotten about those. Man oh man, fnord, some of those are going to leave you yearning for a nice mediocre Marvel Comics Presents serial. And I can only imagine the mental gymnastics you're going to be enduring in attempting to fit all those freaking X-Men appearances in some sort of chronological order. I foresee a great many quality ratings of D- in the near future. Red CometOctober 27, 2015 10:38 PM Spectacular Spider-Man annual #8 First, we contrive to separate Peter from Mary Jane for about two years, and we eventually let Peter think that MJ is dead, while she's really hanging out with Daredevil. Peter is riddled with guilt for a while and goes crazy. Then we reveal that Mary Jane is actually an evil clone, and we kill her off and let Peter get back with Gwen guilt free! You laugh, but a chunk of this describes how the 90s Spider-man cartoon ended. Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 9:57 PM Spectacular Spider-Man annual #8 The re-retcon makes an even bigger mess of the upcoming Carrion plotline, since it means that Warren invented both cloning *and* a virus that can turn one person into another. Half the Young Gods are blatant national stereotypes. Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 9:41 PM Fantastic Four #318-319 I suppose it's rather ironic that Engelhart would write story dissing Shooter as a tyrant, since he does so at the behest of an editor who has already forced him to rewrite at least one story and under an EiC who will fire him from of all of his books because he hates one of Engelhart's pet characters. Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 9:05 PM Excalibur #1-2 Someone probably mentions it elsewhere, but just in case: Nigel Frobisher is yet another Doctor Who reference; in some of the spinoff media, the Doctor has a shapeshifting companion called Frobisher. And later, this Frobisher will of course become a (very limited) sort of shapeshifter. Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 9:01 PM Captain America #345-347 Douglas Rockwell's name might be a reference to George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party. Morgan WickOctober 27, 2015 8:57 PM Ghost Rider #16-17 Yeah, as soon as I read that Ghost Rider was out of action for "weeks", I immediately thought, "Wait, Ghost Rider makes guest appearances in other books left and right this year. Oh God, I bet fnord got a sense of impending doom when he read that, even though he doesn't try to fit appearances on a calendar." Sounds like maybe you should have... fnord12October 27, 2015 8:46 PM Excalibur: Air Apparent Yeah, i think you're not getting me. Air-Walker reconstructs himself in Machinesmith's lab, and then fights Thor. And THEN, according to this story, Cayre found parts from Air-Walker. It seems backwards. Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 8:45 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #22 I quite like the detail of the Kingpin not knowing who the High Evolutionary is, and his being worried about all this weird new (to him) stuff happening. To the street-level heroes he's an A-level threat (maybe *the* threat*), and even in the globetrotting adventures of a guy like Captain America, the Kingpin is a significant player. But when cosmic entities and people who create planets from scratch start playing games with he world, he may as well be any other normal human being. fnord12October 27, 2015 8:42 PM Ghost Rider #16-17 Well, i wouldn't mind him appearing in other books due to the mystical nature of his injury (and him), but you're right that it was a lot of appearances and a lot of space in between. So i've pushed it back. I'm still waiting to see how to handle next issue, since i see that the MCP splits it up with other things in between. Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 8:38 PM Daredevil #259 Man, Bulet is all class: not two seconds after Typhoid threatens his son with a knife, he's hitting on her and asking her to stick around. (Maybe it's supposed to be her mind-control, but I get the feeling Bullet would do that anyway.) For soem reason, i always assumed Bushwacker needed his arm reattached, like the authorities had surgically removed it after his capture. But next issue, he seems to be able to "morph" it in new ways, so perhaps Typhoid is augmenting him instead. Of all of the recent villains Typhoid recruits, Bushwacker is probably the most enduring, Ammo the least. MichaelOctober 27, 2015 8:31 PM Excalibur: Air Apparent Fnord, regarding Machinesmith, you yourself discuss the fact that Air-Walker woke up in Machinesmith's lab in your review of Thor 305-306. Erik BeckOctober 27, 2015 8:27 PM Spider-Man #1-5 Yeah, did any person at Marvel need the guiding hand of a Jim Shooter more than MacFarlane? And yes, I am not forgetting Liefeld as I write that. This is the start of, "hey, that looks cool, but as soon as you think about it, you'll bang your head against a wall." Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 8:24 PM Solo Avengers #11 @Michael: I suppose the precedent would be Constrictor's coils, which seem plenty flexible (albeit segmented) and which Iron Man once somehow "stretched" in IM #127's big fight scene. So Adamantium seems to have the mutually exclusive properties of being non-malleable, yet ductile under certain conditions. Or maybe this is a good place for the Secondary Adamantium retcon to take effect. MichaelOctober 27, 2015 8:19 PM Ghost Rider #16-17 Fnord, why do you have the Ghost Rider in several appearance between issues 15 and 16? Even if those appearances could be squeezed into "48 hours", the Rider doesn't seem to be injured in those stories. Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 8:18 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #140-142 Some issues down the road, a reader will point out in the letter column that this story seemed like it was building to a Punisher-Tombstone confrontation...which quietly never happens. And when they finally do meet (in Daredevil #292-3, of all places), it has nothing to do with the murder of the Punisher's friend Ullman seen in this story. MichaelOctober 27, 2015 8:00 PM Deathlok #2-5 Note that Bushwacker's face is unscarred in this story when it was scarred during his last fight with the Punisher. Max_SpiderOctober 27, 2015 6:23 PM Deathlok #2-5 I've always thought one shouldn't make a minority metaphor too close to the actual minority. You shouldn't act like mutants and homosexuals are the same thing any more than you should act like homosexuals and minority races are the same thing. Each groups have issues of their own and I'd think accusing a human minority of sharing the same issues as cybernets or mutants would get a "piss off, I'm not a walking wmd!" Or something among those lines. Alas there are times it seems writers try to make responses towards them far too similar ("have you ever tried not being a mutant?" As if there is ANY dispute that mutations are DNA based). The Ultron thing is pretty weird. It seems strange that McDuffie would write a story in response to Doom being stingy with cash when Earth's Mightiest Heroes watching Ultron casually walk off (and the mere act of Ultron casually walking off like he's not even expecting resistance) seems like the bigger offense. You'd think he was the sort of guy who wouldn't overlook that. Could we like just... Blame encephalo-rays? ChrisOctober 27, 2015 6:14 PM Deathlok #2-5 This is the wrong approach to make a Deathlok series work. The concept of a secret government project to create cyborg warriors of the dead brings to mind lots of stories, but this isn't one of them. This is way too cheesey. Dwayne McDuffie was a very good writer in many respects, but the stories he wants to tell aren't appropriate for this title. Certainly not a title that is just being established. JCOctober 27, 2015 5:52 PM Ghost Rider #16-17 Always nice to see Mark Texeira keeping busy while those injuries keep him from rejoining the Yankees. clydeOctober 27, 2015 4:53 PM Marvel Two-In-One #26-27 FNORD - you wrote "•Deathlok also references the events of Astonishing Tales #33, but it's a litle vague and i don't have the issue so i'm not sure what he means. He says he's "trapped in this decaying corpse for a second time". I have the "Deathlok The Demolisher" TPB. It reprints all the Astonishing Tales issues. In Issue #33 of Astonishing Tales, Deathlok finds out there is a clone of Luther Manning that was made before he died. However, he is told that there isn't enough of the first Luther Manning left to transfer. This is confirmed by his computer. I believe that's what he was referring to. Max_SpiderOctober 27, 2015 3:11 PM Spider-Man #13-14 Well, I mean... She did have her own stalker, but still. Its not like he was able to do half the things Venom could by himself. Plus, I'd imagine a creature that had similarities to both her former landlord and Peter wouldn't mesh very comfortably. Max_SpiderOctober 27, 2015 3:08 PM Spider-Man #13-14 I'd imagine the simple fact that one of her husband's enemies knew where they lived and everything about them, that this was specifically the one with psycho stalker tendencies who Spider-Man himself had a lot of trouble beating (heck, just the costume along) managed to force entry and dressed a lot like Peter could have been numerous reasons for distress. I don't think she'd had much experience with any of these things by this point. Chameleon tried something similar and was dealt with promptly. fnord12October 27, 2015 12:41 PM Fantastic Four #355 Thanks, Clyde, but let me get to it. clydeOctober 27, 2015 11:59 AM Fantastic Four #355 "I've got no clue but I don't have a copy of Round Robin in front of me- maybe Thunderball refers to it having taken place recently in that storyline?" FNORD - In ASM 354, part two of "Round Robin", Thunderball tells the Secret Emopire that the crew doesn't have their powers anymore. Erik BeckOctober 27, 2015 11:41 AM Uncanny X-Men #265-266 Fnord, I'm not with you on the art in this issue. Lian Shen is drawn so badly I couldn't recognize her as the same character as before. This series desperately needed Jim Lee to become the regular artist. Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 9:54 AM Uncanny X-Men #232-234 I'd further add that we have another example of an X-Men character with pieces of her soul missing (and unfortunately, it does seem to be "her" most of them time in these stories): Magik. And Magik is portrayed as the victim of Belasco and the demons of Limbo. Recall that it was originally Magik, not Maddy, who was supposed to be the Final Boss in Inferno, and what we have here is Claremont repurposing another plot that he's been blocked from using. Instead of Ilyana losing pieces of her soul and becoming corrupted as a result, we're getting the idea that Maddy has no soul of her own, only a stolen piece of someone else's....and becoming corrupt as a result, with the endgame being that she plays the Inferno role originally intended for Magik. This is, as noted above, a really awful iteration of Claremont's recurring theme where "the violated woman" -- which we would instead call, say, an abuse or assault survivor -- discovers that "leaning in" to the trauma and the feeling of corruption is empowering, albeit in a negative, potentially destructive way. This is unutterably creepy to me and I hope most other readers. It's a weird thing, too, since Claremont seems to be interested in BDSM themes in his work. BDSM communities are very, very big on the idea that it's consensual roleplaying, which makes the odd use of metaphorical rape in Claremont's stories seem like a case of serious misunderstanding. More charitably -- and at the risk of being an internet psychoanalyst, with all the untrustworthiness that implies -- I think it may be the old problem that the writers see all this stuff as simple fantasy, meaning that no "real" people are getting hurt and it *is* all roleplay and make-believe...but then asking us to take other characters in other situations seriously and become emotionally invested in them as if they're "real." This is especially the case in really fantastical stories where the plot elements are "impossible," such as stories where masters of disguise and shapeshifters trick people into sleeping with them through fantastical impostures. In many of these cases, writers seem to ask us readers to *ignore* or downplay the resonance with real-world sexual assault on the grounds that the plot elements are "impossible" and therefore "not like" the real thing. But you can't have it both ways, guys; you can't say the metaphor corresponds to reality and real consequences over here, and that it doesn't over here. And you certainly can't ignore the way the story allegorizes something unhealthy just because you've decided that here it's "just" a plot element or "just" an airy fantasy. (And how often is this a male writer deciding that what happens to a female supporting character doesn't count except as a complication for the main characters in the story, or that what happens to a male character can't be rape because "getting some" is what all men are supposed to want?) Omar KarinduOctober 27, 2015 9:38 AM Uncanny X-Men #232-234 Man, there's a lot to talk about with this issue, all of it interesting (if not always for the reasons Claremont may have intended). Gateway's Morality and Maddy's Corruption: My take on Gateway is that he's being played as a Magical Native/Magical Negro sort of character, one who implicitly acts under a set of restrictions. He never speaks, which suggests that he's not allowed to or that there's some restriction on him; even though the Reavers are clearly his enemies who've pressed him into service, he never, say, teleports them into an active volcano to be rid of them; and here, he seems to be very limited in what he can actually indicate or communicate to Maddy or the X-Men. There is an uncomfortable subtext here -- well, a lot of them, really -- around Maddy. Her dream seems to indicate that the whole "hollow clone who accidentally got part of Jean's soul" idea is already in place; read that way, the scenes above might well be Gateway and S'ym both acknowledging that. Maddy's dream isn't her anxiety that she's not a real person but Jean is, it's Maddy subconsciously *learning* that she's not "real" and Jean is. What Gateway summons may well be the piece of Jean that Maddy absorbed, the piece that will -- in Inferno -- be restored to Jean when Maddy self-destructs. So perhaps the idea is that Gateway is bound by "fate" or "destiny" or whatever, and that, as with the Adversary, there's some kind of necessary mystical-cosmic thing going on. Or perhaps it's just that Maddy is already, by virtue of her nature, the bad guy, the person who's taken in part of Jean Grey but doesn't want to admit that or let that stolen essence go. This is a crappy, crappy treatment of Maddy, and it only functions as a defense of Gateway insofar as the story has already decided that Maddy is a thing pretending to be a person, one who can't cope with learning that about herself and so becomes a corrupt vessel of supernatural evil. It's certainly no real defense of Claremont or the editors, though some of this is down to the fact that Jean's return -- which Claremont didn't want back when it actually happened -- was always going to make Maddy look like a cheap copy or a temporary replacement. So maybe Gateway is, in effect if not intention, a representation of the clumsy, disgusting plot mechanics needed to get everything to the eventual status quo; certainly his ill-defined powers and elective mutism make him more a plot device than a character as it is. The Sentient, Self-Repairing Computer: I looked at Nathan Adler's very extensive article on the computer and the Outback stuff, and I noticed a sequence there in which we see that the computer has "grown" into the caverns under the Outback base. Now, we know that Claremont is busily repurposing the Captain Britan stuff he can use and approximating his old plans for Mutant Massacre; and we know that he can certainly use characters and concepts that predate Moore, even if Moore used them. In Moore and Davis's run, we get a sentient computer than also grows into the caverns: the Mastermind AI, which is Otherworld technology. And here, we have the X-Men in Australia largely because of Roma's involvement, and we'll soon have other Captain Britain and vague Arthurian stuff playing a prominent role, such as the Siege Perilous crystal. Additionally, this issue seems to connect Dreamtime to Limbo, and Fall of the Mutants already connected Native American mythology and the Adversary's demon dimension to both Earth and Otherworld. And as Nathan Adler points out, there's also some sort of link between Dreamtime and the astral plane as well, since we will much later get hints that the Shadow King is the menace to the spirits that Gateway is holding off. So the Outback compute may have been intended to be something connected to all of that; even the name "Reavers" is tied to Captain Britain's very first villain. Additionally, the Mastermind computer eventually started directly manipulating people: it tried to drive Brian Braddock mad, and later it did things like mind-controlling his housekeeper Emma for the greater good, even when this contributed to Emma's death. Here, we have one character who seems to be constrained from doing things he should want to if he's the X-Men's friend -- Gateway -- and later we'll have the implication that Psylocke is being influenced from outside when she manipulates the team into going through the Siege Perilous crystal. Now, unlike Nathan Adler, I tend to think Claremont is modifying plots on the fly and noticing points of connection as he goes along, and that his use of sword-and-sorcery tropes, the Marvel UK stuff, and vague comic-book mysticism more generally is a lot less calculated and controlled. This may be because, at this point, he's aware that editorial influence might scotch any overly specific plans he has; it may also be because he's still repurposing fragments of an earlier, aborted plotline while simultaneously trying to coordinate with a bunch of other writers. cullenOctober 27, 2015 9:34 AM Punisher #64-70 I just learned about Outlaw by way of Al Ewing's new 'Contest of Champions' series. Great timing! Ataru320October 27, 2015 8:58 AM X-Force #1 My biggest problem with the Feral situation is, as I said before, since PAD claimed Wolfsbane for his X-Factor, it would have been tough for Liefeld to fight him for her. It seems he's trying to use someone with a beastial element that isn't just another Wolverine clone with her, but she just feels like a fusion of Wolfsbane and Tigra (though without Tigra's "sex obsession" elements that she was unfortunately burdened with) At least in her case, it was just sort of beyond his control and he tried to at least create a stand-in that would work for his "beast woman". (even if it just compares her to yet more characters) fnord12October 27, 2015 8:07 AM Fantastic Four #355 Ok, thanks. I'll hold it here until i get to that. MichaelOctober 27, 2015 8:04 AM Fantastic Four #355 I've got no clue but I don't have a copy of Round Robin in front of me- maybe Thunderball refers to it having taken place recently in that storyline? fnord12October 27, 2015 8:01 AM Fantastic Four #355 @Michael, re: placement. That makes sense to me, and i don't know why i didn't even try to place it directly after the issue Fingeroth kept referring to (PPTSS #126). Before i move it, any idea why the MCP placed it at publication date? DarrenOctober 27, 2015 7:41 AM X-Force #1 No problem Grom. :) As for the swipes, I agree with Chris. Liefeld had a great talent but it became wasted when his EIC accepted his work as is, every, damn, time! Had there been someone like Shooter, or Thomas, or if Stan the Man was in the seat, we wouldn't get crap like this on the stands. The problem was Marvel itself, as long as the books sold big they didnt care if the talent should have been excised from the books because of their nonsensical plots and abysmal art, they talent was a huge element for Marvel's success and they figured, why fix what aint broke! Of course in just a few years we'll see just how that strategy would bite them hard in the rear. GromOctober 27, 2015 4:13 AM X-Force #1 Thanks for link to the swipes Bob. You guys make me feel guilty for enjoying this series back in the day... :) MikeCheyneOctober 27, 2015 12:20 AM Fantastic Four #355 I enjoyed this story a lot as a kid even though it's pretty manipulative for a fill in story with the little kid dying. I was surprised to find Al Milgrom was the artist, as I associate him with boring stuff, and I think he in particular draws the Wrecker well here. david banesOctober 26, 2015 11:58 PM X-Force #1 Sometimes the line between making a nod and flat out swiping something can be blurry...but considering that Shatterstar self-stab thing is making me lean towards more swiping. Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 11:51 PM Hulk #348 There's some slight precedent for Creel's "absorb multiple people's strength" trick in Journey Into Mystery #122, where he claims he's absorbing the collective strength of a bunch of Asgardian warriors. MichaelOctober 26, 2015 11:10 PM Fantastic Four #355 Fnord, I think this was meant to take place shortly after Spectacular 126- in between Fantastic Four 296 and 308, when Ben was in his "classic" Thing form. Think about it- that would explain why Wrecker was talking about Thunderball's betrayal like it was recent and why Ben was considering leaving the team if it was around the time of Johnny's wedding to "Alicia". Fingeroth and Milgrom probably worked on this story in 1986 or 1987 and it sat in a drawer until now and then the editor slapped a "This takes place before Thor 418" footnote instead of a "This takes place before FF 308" footnote. JCOctober 26, 2015 10:27 PM Spider-Man #13-14 Well the symbiote does have tendrils... MichaelOctober 26, 2015 10:25 PM Spider-Man #13-14 Fnord, you write "But these two issues are his last". As Bob points out, his last issue was issue 16. MichaelOctober 26, 2015 10:14 PM X-Force #1 Yes, X-Force is proactive IN THIS ISSUE but only in this issue and the bad guys get away and for the rest of the series they're reacting to villains' attacks. And they do as much to look for Rusty and Skids between this issue and the Cable limited series as the X-Men did to look for the Marauders between Fall of the Mutants and Inferno. JCOctober 26, 2015 10:10 PM X-Force #1 Otoh he became a millionaire by swiping which is a lot moar than you can say for most comic talent who end up broke and destitute moar common than not. Remember kids cheaters never always prosper! ChrisOctober 26, 2015 10:01 PM X-Force #1 Liefeld had some good creative instincts, but at this point in his career he really needed someone like Jim Shooter to teach him the basic craft so that his artwork becomes professional. He also needed a much stronger writer and editor to channel his ideas and plots into an acceptable format. He needed an apprenticeship of 2-3 years to develop his talent and professionalism. Many of his new characters are of good concept an design, but too many of his "new" characters are obvious rip offs of existing characters. Feral and Shatterstar just don't work. They are not only derivative in concept, but they both serve the same "Wolverine" type role. It would have been better to retain Wolfsbane instead of creating Feral. There is not an obvious replacement for Shatterstar who seems to exist merely to kill people with his sword. However, at this point there are definitely a lot of killer characters associated with the X-Verse - maybe recruiting Crimson Commando would have been good (although we'd now have two older white haired gentlemen on the team) since he's been shown to be both a former hero, but one that doesn't mind killing the bad guys, and it would make a good dynamic when he has to fight his old teammates in the new Brotherhood. That Liefeld and others in the DeFalco era were allowed to go off the rails so badly shows how important Shooter was to Marvel's quality during his years. The careers of Todd McFarlane, Liefeld, and a few others would have been vastly improved if they went through the same tutelage Shooter took with young creators. He would have seasoned them much better before putting them on important books (granted both McFarlane and Liefeld had their start in DC before coming over to Marvel and thus were already professionals). MichaelOctober 26, 2015 9:18 PM Punisher #64-70 I've heard some people complain that it's sexist for readers to use the term "Mary Sue" to describe an extremely competent female character... fnord12October 26, 2015 8:39 PM Spider-Man: Fear Itself To the question of why this exists, i'm also sure that Marvel thought the Gerry Conway/Ross Andru pairing would have been a draw to fans of their 70s run on Spider-Man, and the fear sequence allowed Andru to draw some villains from that time period. I still agree with the general befuddlement but it does seem to have as much merit as most graphic novels. MichaelOctober 26, 2015 8:21 PM Spider-Man: Fear Itself The major reason the MCP pushed this story back was so that it took place before Harry went crazy and became the Green Goblin again in the "Child Within" arc. Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 8:14 PM Silver Surfer #11-12 So does that mean Reptyl is...Jim Shooter? Or is that the Supreme Intelligence? david banesOctober 26, 2015 8:11 PM X-Force #1 I've been so wanting to get into that Teen Titans run. fnord12October 26, 2015 7:13 PM Spider-Man: Fear Itself @Omar - i don't know if this answers the question, but it was actually a graphic novel. It would have been Marvel Graphic Novel #72 if they were still counting. I should have put that in the entry. Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 7:11 PM Thor #391 I don;'t think of Mongoose as the next Wolverine; he seems to me more like DeFalco and Frenz trying to create a version of the Cobra who can actually credibly take on Thor. Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 7:04 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #137 Marvel got letters attacking the parody of Ollie North in this story; hilariously, the response on the letters page was that South was obviously not a parody on the grounds that Sal Buscema would have drawn a better likeness if he were. Poor Sal. Max_SpiderOctober 26, 2015 6:55 PM Spider-Man #13-14 Now, the Dusk suit on the other hand... BobOctober 26, 2015 6:49 PM X-Force #1 The swipes: Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 6:48 PM Captain America #342-344 I like this story quite a bit, especially the aerial chase scene. However, it does suffer form a bit of Fridge Logic: if Viper already had Slither and the other half-dozen snake goons working for her, why does she even bother taking over the Serpent Society? It seems like her plan would have gone off perfectly if she hadn't involved them, since a bunch of them turn on her and it's the takeover that tips off the Captain and his traveling superhero roadshow. But then, I suppose that's the sort of thing that makes her a workable villain. For a nihilist who rages against capitalism, she sure is interested in having a monopoly on the whole "snaky supervillain" IP. Max_SpiderOctober 26, 2015 6:37 PM Spider-Man: Fear Itself Interesting in hindsight to find that there was a Red Skull clone created during WWII that would be activated somewhere around the Marvel Now! era. And lest we forget Strucker's twins to remind us that Nazi affilated supervillain incest does not limit itself to Zemo's family. BobOctober 26, 2015 6:31 PM Punisher #64-70 Even early Abnett/Lanning is good stuff. Nice change from and a break for Baron, whose work was starting to slip. Art's not too bad, either. BobOctober 26, 2015 6:24 PM X-Force #1 Everyone from Cable to Deadpool has their own personal teleporters in Liefeld's comics, which seems out of line with the rest of the MU's tech level. If anyone had the ability to beam in like Star Trek, it should have been Reed Richards or Tony Stark, and not some random mutants or assassins. Editors were basically asleep at the switch for the Image boys. BobOctober 26, 2015 6:18 PM Spider-Man #13-14 McFarlane half asses his art so badly in the upcoming X Force crossover, that you can more or less consider this his last real issue. DarrenOctober 26, 2015 6:17 PM X-Force #1 Ahhh the most infamous of all Liefeld swipes is right here. the opening splash was lifted directly from George Perez's opening splash page of New Teen Titans #39. I never picked up X-Force 1 when it was originally issued but I do have 5 copies of it, thank you ebay sellers liquidating their inventories. I bought one polybagged at a one dollar bin at the local LCS opened it and the story itself wasn't half bad. It's a cool setup, but that's it. The art is all over the place and many of it swiped from earlier GOOD comics. Andrew FOctober 26, 2015 6:12 PM X-Force #1 It's easy to cut off a guy's hand when he doesn't have any thumbs. BobOctober 26, 2015 6:09 PM X-Force #1 The team of heroes charging unprovoked into random base and taking out generic bad guys will be repeated by Liefeld over and over and over again. Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 5:58 PM Thor #390 It's kind of amazing how much, well, dumber DeFalco's Thor is than Simonson's. Not the the writing: the character himself. This version of Thor just isn't that bright. Morgan WickOctober 26, 2015 5:54 PM Fantastic Four #355 "It would have been nicer if Fingeroth had actually scripted things to fit that way instead of trying to stick this story back in a period where Ben Grimm wasn't the Thing, but it reads well enough this way." With this going up the same day as your review of a lengthy Punisher story from next year that has to clarify it takes place before Fall of the Kingpin every issue, I have to think Fingeroth was just ignoring or didn't know about Thor #418 and the footnote was added by an editor who didn't realize what other consequences that placement would have. Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 5:51 PM Alpha Flight #55-60 How does blowing up Tundra not do massive damage to Canada? That was the gimmick of Tundra way back in issue #1, and Mantlo just ignores it here! david banesOctober 26, 2015 5:38 PM X-Force #1 The art does seem a bit more tolerable but please tell me it was a plot point about the matching triangle heads? Also I love that Shatterstar and the spear mook have the exact same type of gloves so I thought Shatterstar cut off his own hand for a moment. david banesOctober 26, 2015 5:26 PM Punisher #64-70 This does look like fun and I think Batroc vs. Tarantuala II is a good match up though I'm rooting for Batroc. kvetoOctober 26, 2015 5:22 PM Punisher #64-70 Batroc's bald? I like him even more. Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 5:14 PM Spider-Man: Fear Itself Why does this exist? I'm not commenting on the quality, just...what was the point of releasing this story in this format? It's not a tie-in, it's not a special story; it's a filler issue with an odd choice of villain. Is it some kind of half-assed 30th anniversary celebration? kvetoOctober 26, 2015 5:03 PM Spider-Man: Fear Itself I understand all of the words used in this review. I just don't understand what they are all doing together. Original Baron Zemo? A woman? White Ninja? Spider-man fighting black costume Spider-man? (Venom?) And the original Zemo comes back in a Spider-man book because....what connection do they have? ouch, I need an ibuprofen. BerendOctober 26, 2015 3:32 PM Spider-Man #13-14 McFarlane seems to like drawing dude in long red capes living with the homeless. clydeOctober 26, 2015 3:25 PM Spider-Man #13-14 Even the original black costume wasn't a good fit for being secretive. What it had going for it was the camouflage ability of the symbiote. TCPOctober 26, 2015 3:15 PM Spider-Man #13-14 One of the sewer-dwellers (the one at the top of this entry) looks to be a prototype for The Clown in McFarlane's Spawn. The return of the black costume is incredibly arbitrary. I can kind of see the logic in-story, but you'd think this same argument would have come up at some point prior. The giant, white spider on the chest also kind of detracts from the outfit's stealthier capabilities. Ataru320October 26, 2015 2:55 PM X-Force #1 I do admit that the Feral pic in the opening splash isn't that bad; the feet are rather in a position that it doesn't look like typical "Liefeld tiny"; though the calf bulge can still be complained at. As for the trading cards, the five for the log's sake were the team (made sense), Cable (same), Shatterstar (who had...what, the end of New Mutants and Kings of Pain up to this point), the Gideon/Sunspot combo (Gideon was only in 98 and behind the scenes of Kings of Pain; while Sunspot of course was the entire run of the classic New Mutants), and Deadpool (who up to now was only in 98 but will be appearing in X-Force 2; I can say probably it was either hype on Nicieza/Liefeld's part or people actually liked the nut from his one issue at this point; I mean it isn't like he had established himself yet compared to now) clydeOctober 26, 2015 2:33 PM X-Force #1 "I am proud to say that i only own one copy of this book. I did not buy one copy to keep in its original sealed polybag and another to open and read. I did not buy multiple copies in attempt to collect all of the trading cards that came in the polybags (i wound up with Shatterstar)." Guilty as charged, your honor. I totally bought the bagged and unbagged copies of all these issues. Of course, I also bought all 5 copies of X-Men #1 and duplicates of anything from that point on that came bagged originally. Jay DemetrickOctober 26, 2015 1:33 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #15 And here Shatterstar describes his power as a concussive force blast in the panel you scanned. MortificatorOctober 26, 2015 12:03 PM Spider-Man: Fear Itself You sure read my mind with that opening paragraph, fnord. I'm getting a major (unintentional?) gang rape vibe from Spider-Man's nightmare about Mary Jane. And who could have foreseen that having your base's self-destruct triggered by a single button on the main console would be a problem? TCPOctober 26, 2015 10:34 AM Spider-Man: Fear Itself Tony Isabella had already been kind enough to bring back the Mindworm for Spectacular #35. The cover for this one-shot looks amazingly ridiculous, with the White Ninja awkwardly posed in front of the exploding castle while Sable and the Baroness brandish their big guns at point-blank range in the background. Ah, the 90s! Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 7:00 AM Daredevil #253 Aaaaaand looking at the publication dates, I see that this story predates that case. Well, there goes a perfectly good rant. Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 6:59 AM Daredevil #253 The Wildboys are somewhat more embarrassing inretrospect, since their name and initial gimmick are taken from the "wilding" neologism popularized int he wake of the Central Park jogger case, in which a bunch of minority teenagers were convicted of rape and battery. The media had a field day, proclaiming that "wilding" -- random violence sprees and stranger assaults perpetrated by groups of youthful "superpredators" -- was the latest trend in urban crime. A few years later, most of the convictions in that case were vacated, and it became fairly clear that the crime was more likely the act of one convicted rapist, who confessed and who matched the DNA evidence. The term "wilding" pretty quickly fell out of usage...and so did the Wildboys. Omar KarinduOctober 26, 2015 6:43 AM New Mutants #64 It's rather bizarre that Simonson has effectively marginalized Magneto for some time, given that he's one of the most prominent X-characters of all. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 10:26 PM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1-3,5 From my admittedly hasty research, it looks like the first Lone Sloane story was published in 1966, but then there's nothing else until 1970. But man, it does have that Steranko vibe. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 10:24 PM Daredevil #252 Thanks for finding that. I was beginning to think I'd imagined the whole thing. There seems to have been a lot of editorial and/or marketing miscommunication around Fall of the Mutants, especially where the more peripheral tie-ins are concerned. AndrewOctober 25, 2015 10:18 PM Daredevil #49-51 In Astonishing Ant-Man right now they seem to be bringing Starr Saxon back to his roots, with Machinsmith downloading gay porn to Scott Lang's hard drive instead of protecting his firewall. CecilOctober 25, 2015 10:17 PM Hulk #212-213 As a relatively new enthusiast of Japanese comics history, let me share :22 of Ken's work. You may enjoy some of the other folk on the slides, too. MichaelOctober 25, 2015 10:13 PM Daredevil #252 Yeah,it's the solicit in Bullpen Bulletins- "Apocalypse's Horseman War takes on the masked assassin Bullet in this 48-page spectacular". Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 8:51 PM Amazing Spider-Man #298-300 I think Venom is portrayed a raving loon in this story, what with the whole "mad laughter" bit. And in his first few stories, Venom is definitely supposed to be a self-deluded hypocrite; the story goes out of its way to have him kill innocents and then shed crocodile tears over it. There's a distinct shift in the way Michelinie writes Venom after Erik Larsen comes aboard, as he starts trying to give Brock a legitimate, albeit twisted code of ethics. I like this version better; it makes for a more terrifying villain. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 8:33 PM Daredevil #252 Never mind; it's not the next issue box; instead, I think it's a solicit in the Bullpen bulletins page or something. I distinctly remember a fight between Bullet and War being promoted somewhere during all of this. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 8:28 PM Captain America #339 The third-person limited omniscient narration int his issue reads very differently than anything in previous issues of this story; it's impressive how much Gruenwald shifts his narrative voice to fit the crossover's tone. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 8:25 PM Daredevil #252 The next issue box in DD #251 states that Bad Seed is a new villain and that Bullet would fight War of the Horsemen. Instead, Bullet has brief cameo sitting at home with his son, while Bad Seed is just a confused teenager swept up in Ammo's rhetoric who ends up dead by the end of the story and Ammo is the new villain. Max_SpiderOctober 25, 2015 7:46 PM Web of Spider-Man #79-80 Mhmm, looking back at Rage of Ultron, Peter didn't have as much to say about it a I remembered. Not that he made any statements that sounded explicitly like an objection. The ultimate test would have been during his "No One Dies" period, although that might not be such a time he'd risk it I guess. I remember a real life story about soldiers developing an attachment for their Big Dog robot, willing to carry it back and lay it to rest. I'd imagine their attitude wouldn't extend to enemy robots. I'm not saying that they're anywhere near the level we're discussing, but its interesting how human behavior works sometimes. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of heroes killing "anyone except for robots" is common enough that Death's Head directly asks Iron Man if he is one of those who carry such a viewpoint. Tony insists "some of my best friends are robots!" Before quickly recognizing the unfortunate implications of such a response. While we're on the subject, Sleepwalker insisted it was okay to kill the habitats of the Heroes Reborn earth due to them being empty shells. I would hope that this is a side-effect of that world being poisoned and not that Rikki Barnes shouldn't be mourned. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 7:07 PM X-Factor #21-23 Perhaps it would've worked better if Hodge weren't the sole leader and funder of the Right, but rather one of many, or maybe a very highly placed operative or something. Red CometOctober 25, 2015 6:41 PM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1-3,5 Sternako's psychedelic work here is very reminiscent of Phillipe Druillet's Lone Sloane, which started coming out in 1966. This isn't to say Steranko ripped him off, of course, since back in the 60s I'm not sure how he'd be able to see French comics not named Asterix or Tintin without actually flying to France. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 6:32 PM Daredevil #251 (Re)Reading along, I definitely think the dialogue in these two issues is more grounded. It's still heavily stylized, but not as stream-of-consciousness as it has been in past issues.. Also, there's some real subtlety amid the over-the-top stuff; it seems like the idea is that Lance's traumatic reaction to hearing about the bomb is his way of displacing the horror of who his father is and the effects of Bullet's visible neglect. (There's an implication of abuse with the whole thing about Lance fearing that his father will "explode" like the bomb.) Granted, Ammo and especially Typhoid go back to the older dialogue style, albeit with the excuse that they're both raving psychopaths, but the scripting stays comparatively lucid from here on out until the whole "Number Nine/Daredevil goes to hell" stuff. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 6:24 PM West Coast Avengers #29 Considering that Engelhart's career-best work is probably his 1970s Batman work, I suppose it's no surprise that this may be his strongest issue of West Coast Avengers. Dan H.October 25, 2015 4:34 PM Uncanny X-Men #174-175 "I've been pretty sure for years that the two people talking to Beast in the foreground were intended to be Angel and (a miscolored) Iceman." Wouldn't they both be miscolored? Iceman has never been shown as taller than Angel, which would mean Angel is the taller one. And he'd have to be mis-inked as well since he was definitely inked to be a darker-haired person and not a blonde. He was most likely pencilled that way as well since it'd be a weird thing for an inker to introduce. I guess it's possible it was a mistake but it would be a strange one. That whole panel looks strange to me, though - Storm, Wolverine and Colossus all hanging out together by the Professor. Not sure who the person they're talking to is supposed to be but it's strange that they wouldn't be mixing with the other guests instead of cliquing it up in a closed circle. Likewise, while Nightcrawler and Amanda being together makes sense, they aren't "coupled" at all. It's a very formal and artificial pose for two people who are involved to be standing in while they're at a wedding reception among friends. Then again, that's probably not even supposed to be Amanda in that scene, since her neckline is different and her hair is styled in exactly the opposite direction from when she is seated with Kurt during the ceremony. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 4:31 PM Daredevil #250 For some reason, I feel like Bullet's dialogue is surprisingly down-to-earth for a Nocenti character. MichaelOctober 25, 2015 4:25 PM Web of Spider-Man #79-80 Come to think of it, during Disassembled, when they were arguing about whether Wanda was crazy, Bendis had Peter says "She married a robot." People complained it was out of character at the time but now I'm wondering. MortificatorOctober 25, 2015 4:00 PM Web of Spider-Man #79-80 Sentient vs. non-sentient could work as a criteria, Michael, but that seems difficult for Spider-Man to determine in a case like this. I haven't read the issue, but the fembot in the scans seems upset that one of her comrades was destroyed. I'm also reminded of an upcoming Infinity War tie-in where Johnny Storm fights some doppelgangers until one mentions they're not truly alive, at which point he promptly makes like the original Human Torch and barbeques them. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 3:52 PM Thor #387-389 If you think DeFalco defangs and demystifies the Celestials here, wait until you get to the latter parts of his Fantastic Four run in a few years. Max_SpiderOctober 25, 2015 3:48 PM Web of Spider-Man #79-80 This reminds me of Rage of Ultron recently, in which it is implied that Parker may have been one of the Avengers present who was less hesitant to eliminate robotic life, despite his usually powerful reverence of it that sometimes borders on obsession. I remember that some of the Avengers arguing against the idea may have been overly defensive and taking some of Parker's words out of context but then again, I can't quite remember them saying the robots couldn't have been reactivated by Pym's device. I mention this now because I can't actually remember if Peter has ever spared a robot for its intelligence before. If he has not, it may be considered a dark aspect of his personality that he doubts they are alive. I suppose you could give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he believes the robots in this story can and will be salvaged, but that may be jumping to conclusions. Interestingly though, the Ultimate Alliance game has him discuss the topic with Mysterio, the latter of which accuses SHIELD of planning to reprogram Ultron and Parker responding that such an act would be illegal due to his sentience. This is course doesn't confirm his own opinions on the matter, but its curious as to wherever the Marvel Universe has their own legal stance on the matter. I could imagine them requesting that an android have their sentience tested for the court. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 3:44 PM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1-3,5 It's very unlikely Steranko intended Scorpio to be Jake Fury, not least because Jake had neither been named nor appeared at this point. Jake Fury doesn't turn up with a name or anything until a couple of issues of Sgt. Fury published a year or so after Steranko has left this book. Interestingly, Steranko keeps setting up Jimmy Woo as a red herring or false suspect for Scorpio; Strange Tales #168 and issue #2 of this title play up the idea that Woo is still angry at Fury because Fury was willing to let "Suwan" die, and issue #5 makes a point of showing us that Woo was supposed to be at the LMD test but didn't show up. I don't think Steranko actually intended Scorpio to be Jimmy Woo; the clues are too obvious, and issue #2 suggests that Woo has gotten over the stuff with Suwan. But as to Scorpio's true identity? Well, the Casablanca homages in issue #5 -- Pickman is pretty clearly Sydney Greenstreet, and the wartime history between himself, Fury, and Scorpio would fit with Casablanca -- might suggest some sort of analogue to Louis or Laszlo. (Strucker might work as Major Strasser, if it comes to that.) I wonder if Steranko planned to give us a brand-new character or establish someone in Fury's past who could be brought back. But I very strongly doubt that Fury's brother was part of Steranko's concept at all. (Interestingly, Scorpio seems to genuinely believe in astrology in issues #1 and #5. I don't know if that's supposed to be a clue or not.) Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 3:33 PM West Coast Avengers #26-28 Zodiac robbing a cattle auction and a mint in this story seems so at odds with their earlier portrayals, where they were out to conquer the world or kill 1/12 of the people of Manhattan or whatever. Here, they really don't seem to be an organization so much as an unusually large (and weirdly underpowered, minus the Key) team of standard-issue supervillains. It also doesn't help that Englehart has drained away the winning eccentricities of the android Zodiac in favor of more generic "dysfunctional villain team" dynamics. Or that Jake Fury, whose established motivation is that he hates his brother Nick, decides instead to run a criminal organization and fight the Avengers. Unlike fnord, I like the Zodiac (especially the Kraft/Giffen LMDS); but there's a reason this story is the last time anyone uses them for a very long time, and why no subsequent incarnation manages to last beyond a single writer and a single arc. By casually wiping out one incarnation and turning another into something very generic, Englehart single-handedly turns the Zodiac into a bunch of "disposable characters." Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 3:27 PM Thor #386 Fun game for the DeFalco/Frenz Thor run: See how many fight scenes are resolved by having Thor suddenly decide to give a speech about how he fights for justice and honor and Asgard. AndrewOctober 25, 2015 2:31 PM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 I'm pretty sure Terror was a rip off of Dark Horse's The Mask. MichaelOctober 25, 2015 2:24 PM Web of Spider-Man #79-80 Maybe Kavanagh is thinking of how WOLVERINE parted on relatively good terms with the Samurai in Wolverine 3? JCOctober 25, 2015 1:39 PM Web of Spider-Man annual #6 Regarding what happens to the thugs Spider-Man leaves webbed up for the police, there's an eggcellent Tangled Web story that covers just that. [url]http://www.spiderfan.org/comics/reviews/spiderman_tangled_web/022.html[/url] It turns out the police hate Spidey's guts as it's gotten to a point where criminals use the "Spidey defense". But little do the police suspect that it'll all come around... AlOctober 25, 2015 12:43 PM Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 I think fans and creators over emphasis the need for soap opera drama in Spider-Man, or at least in regards to his love life. Spider-Man works with or without romantic conflict and there is no obligation for it to be there, or even for it to be his own personal love life in the first place. @David Banes: I think you can equate this to someone pushing someone in front of a moving car. The killer is the person who did the pushing not the car driver. So Peter’s actions resulted in Gwen’s death but truly it was Norman’s fault. AlOctober 25, 2015 12:34 PM Amazing Spider-Man #296 I think in regards to the money thing with MJ, I think it was either Michelinie (who admits he was romantically inexperienced upon getting this gig) trying to find conflict in the marriage somewhat clumsily and 1980s machismo at work wherein the man must be the breadwinner. I think you can kind of explain this by virtue of Peter just being raised by old people and thus somewhat old fashioned Dan H.October 25, 2015 12:11 PM Captain America #253-254 Yeah, I agree with everything Chris said. This story was great and I say that as someone who never really got into the Invaders (despite reading most of the early issues as a friend was collecting them). It was a fun "double swerve" with Union Jack at the end, first having it be a young, fit Union Jack that Baron Blood is attacking (rather than the feeble Lord Falsworth he thinks it is) and then after the fight having him unmask and reveal that it's actually Joey and not Ken, the natural heir to the title. Of course, in retrospect the clues that it should be Joey were there so it's not like Stern threw that in just to be clever. And it says something for how young I was when I read these that I completely missed the subtext between "college mates" Brian and Joey, just as I'd missed it between Brian Falsworth and his "best friend" Roger Aubrey in the Invaders. fnord12October 25, 2015 12:05 PM Alpha Flight #51 Ah, i see i left out the cover date. Added it back. It was Oct 87, and the real release date was Jun 30th. Morgan WickOctober 25, 2015 11:31 AM Wolverine #38-44 Oh, those aren't even the only, or even biggest, problems Xavier would have with the Feds, as Linkara's fans know... Red CometOctober 25, 2015 11:28 AM X-Men/Spider-Man #2 @Omar Can't think of an instance, but it sounds like something Rick Remender would come up with. Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 11:17 AM X-Men/Spider-Man #2 Speaking of "sinister" used as an adjective, has anyone ever done a "Mister Sinister Six" gag? Omar KarinduOctober 25, 2015 10:39 AM Alpha Flight #51 What month was this published? Because Lee also drew the Eel for issue #17 of the OHOTMU Deluxe Edition, which came out in August of '87. (And Rob Liefeld drew the human Zodiac for issue #20!) Erik BeckOctober 25, 2015 9:26 AM Avengers Spotlight #35 I think if I had not already dropped Avengers Spotlight by this time, this would have made me drop it. Luke BlanchardOctober 25, 2015 4:38 AM Marvel Spotlight #5 Ditko had previously drawn a fair number of giant monster comics for Charlton starring the movie monsters Gorgo and Konga. Thanos6October 25, 2015 2:13 AM Thor #427-430 Didn't bearded Thor look like Simonson? JCOctober 24, 2015 11:53 PM Thor #427-430 The page of "Eric Masterson" doodling away at his drawing board, Eric is a spitting image of Ron Frenz. It's like he couldnt even bother with subtly having them both be artists. IDK whether to be amused or find it the height of arrogance to rework an A-List character into being yourself. david banesOctober 24, 2015 11:01 PM Daredevil #12-14 I guess I didn't read the list of appearances that closely. JCOctober 24, 2015 10:45 PM Amazing Spider-Man #329 In the Spidey-Tr-Sentinel fight pic above, Spidey tries to contain the Tri-Sentinel in webbing which he then converts to steel only to have the Tri-Guy rip it apart "like dental floss." But why the fuck did Spidey even bother with steel, we saw last issue he had no problem converting his webbing into adamantium. And no way in fuck would Tri-Guy be able to rip that apart. Instead we have Spidey do sumthing stoopid becuz the plot demands it. Thanks Michelinie! JCOctober 24, 2015 9:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 I took Magneto's pledging his heart to another to mean pledging his life fully and totally to the mutant cause. I.e. Like Batman he has to thrust himself 100% into what he's doing. Relationships? Ain't got no tyme for that. JCOctober 24, 2015 8:57 PM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 Nothing written by D.G. Chichester has ever or will ever be worth $5.95 or even a drop of turd. Omar KarinduOctober 24, 2015 8:29 PM Thor #381-382 One of my favorite elements of Simonson's Thor is n display int hat final sequence: the Odinson isn't some brash fool, but rather someone who's been doing this sort of thing for centuries and has more wit that Loki credits him with. Omar KarinduOctober 24, 2015 8:21 PM Thor #379-380 Simonsons has said in interviews that Thor was in bad shape, sales-wise, so Marl Gruenwald (!) told him he could ignore whatever he needed to in order to tell good stories. fnord12October 24, 2015 7:35 PM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 He doesn't actually sleep with the aide. They are interrupted by a fake attacker that she set up to gain the Punisher's trust. DermieOctober 24, 2015 6:20 PM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 So, does the Punisher end up sleeping with the Attorney General's aide or not? It's funny that Castle seems to think it would be ok to sleep with her because she is a bad person...whereas, as Fnord pointed out, he didn't seem to hesitate at all about sleeping with all the good women he's bedded since his wife died. I wonder how lopsided the casket was at that funeral, given that they have three super-strong pallbearers on one side, and two normal-strength humans on the other side. Max_SpiderOctober 24, 2015 6:18 PM Darkhawk #6 I only just realized that Charles Little Sky is the same Portal from Marvel Zombies 3! That makes a lot of sense now that I think about it, since his powers are very suited for A.R.M.O.R. I always just assumed he was an original character when first reading that, what a pleasant surprise. And whoah, I'm no expert in baby clothing, but that doesn't look like the recommended baby holding technique. Guess there's a reason there's no U-Foe equivliant of Franklin Richards. MichaelOctober 24, 2015 5:11 PM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 Close but not quite, David. Fnord posted the scene here: kvetoOctober 24, 2015 3:00 PM Darkhawk #6 I guess this is where the U-foes "Jump the Tiger Shark" so to speak, losing to foes they shouldn't lose to. It happens to every villain or villain team as they descend down the hero power totem pole. Up to this point, they were a good challenge for the Hulk and then teams of Avengers. Here, they lose to a rookie and two non-powered heroes. MichaelOctober 24, 2015 2:14 PM Darkhawk #6 Note that Vapor is unable to poison Darkhawk because he doesn't need to breathe- another clue as to what's really happening when Chris "transforms". Cringe WorthyOctober 24, 2015 1:44 PM Godzilla #18-24 The ending to issue #23 was pretty novel in that Wasp and Yellowjacket were able to topple Godzilla by fluttering their wings in his inner ear canal. Pretty creative use of those characters. Erik RobbinsOctober 24, 2015 1:13 PM New Warriors annual #1 Good - acknowledging that Cannonball and Firestar know each other. Bad - not acknowledging that Firestar and Warpath used to be teammates. (Unless they hated each other when working together, in which case "Tear into her kitty-cat!" would work.) fnord12October 24, 2015 12:14 PM X-Factor annual #6 No, that's hard to ignore. Thanks for pointing that out. I've pushed X-Factor #65-68 up. fnord12October 24, 2015 12:07 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 JC, you may be joking, but just in case: i don't actually list DC easter egg characters (the MCP does, though). fnord12October 24, 2015 12:01 PM Knights of Pendragon #13-18 Thanks for that link, Cullen. I'm not worried about the number of years mentioned since i always take temporal references with a grain of salt. But looks like there are some things regarding Killpower i'll have to watch out for. I did read and enjoy Revolutionary War even though i'd only read scattered issues of the Marvel UK books at the time. Looking forward to getting to it again (eventually!) after i review all the Marvel UK books. MichaelOctober 24, 2015 11:50 AM X-Factor annual #6 What I was thinking of was this- we see a scene where some AIM guys are watching the news and a newscaster basically says "X-Factor arrested Harness". So clearly the media was aware of X-Factor's presence in Edinburgh. Now, if this takes place after X-Factor 68, then Wolverine should be aware that X-Factor survived the destruction of Ship, although, granted, it's possible he missed a broadcast announcing X-Factor was alive. fnord12October 24, 2015 11:49 AM New Mutants annual #7 @Michael, agree on Chord and Silhouette. They must be just off panel. Thanks. @Red Comment, to be clear, this story *is* placed between New Mutants #100 and X-Force #1 (or will be, once i review X-Force #1). And as i note, they are called X-Force during this event. So, we agree. fnord12October 24, 2015 11:46 AM New Mutants annual #7 Thanks Max_Spider. fnord12October 24, 2015 11:44 AM X-Factor annual #6 @Andrew, as a tabletop RPG-er, you'd think i would have thought "polyhedron" right away. But my brain said "polygon" and i said "oh no, if i write that someone will complain that polygons are 2 dimensional". So i quickly made it "3-D polygon", but turns out i got burnt anyway. ;-) @Michael, regarding placement: i did think about this and i should have laid it out in the Considerations. In X-Factor #65, X-Factor are talking about Lila Cheney teleporting away the X-Men like it happened relatively recently, and they even consider going after them in Ship. Granted they could be rehashing an old conversation, but it reads better if it's their first appearance after X-Men #277. Now, in this story, X-Factor are piloting a plane that doesn't look like something that Ship would have generated for them, so it could have been something that was in mothballs at a hanger at Warren's place in Colorado. Their encounter with Proteus takes place in polyhedron land, so i don't know how public it is. And while Wolverine says that X-Factor are thought dead based on news reports, it seems like Val Cooper knew they were alive (even if she had trouble tracking them down) in X-Factor #65, which may be because X-Factor was in contact with the government affiliated super-hero groups at the beginning of this issue. So this placement seems to work ok, and i actually like it a little better. That said, it would be easy enough to push X-Factor #65-68 forward a bit, so if there's anything i'm missing, let me know. JCOctober 24, 2015 9:42 AM Spectacular Spider-Man #168-170 WTF is up with Kristy's weird fascination with calling everyone cousin followed by their name? JCOctober 24, 2015 9:36 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 And you'd think knowing they were bugs the Torch would just immediately burn them all to death. JCOctober 24, 2015 9:33 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 I'm pretty certain that's Stan Lee in the background of the party scene and the woman standing next to him as well as the couple nearby are far too detailed to just be randos. Also you forgot to list Clark Kent and Lois Lane. JCOctober 24, 2015 9:14 AM Web of Spider-Man #69-70 Spider-Hulk would return to get his ass handed to him by Hulk-Thor in World War Hulks. I never knew there was a Marvel Legends Spider-Hulk but nao I simply must have it. JCOctober 24, 2015 8:59 AM Web of Spider-Man #58 Wait so Kristy's parents really were in Europe? I thought that was all a lie and she ran away from home to be close to Pete and MJ. Erik BeckOctober 24, 2015 7:12 AM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 My bad, I conflated the two in my head. Still, Nathan's poor health dragged on for a long time before they finally actually killed him off. Granted, it's not as bad as Aunt May, whose poor health dragged on for over 30 years and still ended up with that horrible bargain anyway. Cecil DisharoonOctober 24, 2015 5:26 AM New Warriors #11-13 When I created an Afrocentric Avengers, these were surely in back of my mind. I did quite enjoy them at the time,mostly because of Bags and Namorita and Nova! david banesOctober 24, 2015 4:09 AM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 Wasn't Nathan's start of darkness pulling down a blind so an officer could snipe a crook? I mean not a bad deed it sounds like but wasn't Peter talking down the hostage taker? And it was so weird first reading Nathan on McFarlane's run then seeing him in the past as a cool old guy during Roger Stern's run. BobOctober 24, 2015 1:19 AM Uncanny X-Men annual #15 Ugly art, and a story every bit as dull as the 2000 drek books Nicieza was pumping out at the time. BobOctober 24, 2015 1:17 AM X-Factor annual #6 Shoemaker is trying to imitate the work ofPortacio here with all those extra lines. A dumb idea, as Shoemaker was a far superior artist. irh13October 23, 2015 11:37 PM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 Eric (Beck), Ernie Popchick shot the kids on the subway, not Nathan. I do agree that the character was on a downward trend, mostly thanks to DeFalco who had a good run on the title, but really dropped the ball on this character. Erik RobbinsOctober 23, 2015 11:23 PM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 Interesting. Doc Ock was the only Secret Wars figure I DID own. MichaelOctober 23, 2015 11:13 PM X-Factor annual #6 (Mystique) X-Factor Annual 6 came out on June 11th, 1991 while "Life Stinks" came out on July 26th 1991. Unless PAD had an advance copy of the script for Life Stinks or Brooks had an advance copy of the plot for this story, there doesn't seem to be a way that either man could have stolen the idea from the other. Luis DantasOctober 23, 2015 10:21 PM Knights of Pendragon #13-18 That is a rather sexy back shot of regenerated Grace above. MichaelOctober 23, 2015 9:31 PM X-Factor annual #6 I do remember being a little disappointed- I was looking forward to the fight because Proteus against X-Force and the New Mutants sounds like a cool fight. Instead, we got X-Factor fighting geometry. cullenOctober 23, 2015 9:18 PM Knights of Pendragon #13-18 The "ignoring TV and newspapers for the last 30 years!" crack has to be considered hyperbole due to the sliding timeline, but probably wasn't meant as such (30 years is pretty literal). I've always gotten the sense that Marvel UK writers had a different approach to in-universe time-progression than US Marvel. The Transformers future setting changed one year for every real-life year, for instance. It will be an issue for you, a long time from now, when you get to 'Revolutionary War', which takes place in the contemporary Marvel Universe, but treats many characters as having been retired or unheard-from for a (in-universe) decade and a half. http://itcamefromdarkmoor.blogspot.com/2014/01/clarifying-timeline-of-revolutionary.html MichaelOctober 23, 2015 8:48 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #15 Note that Lorna is unable to be controlled by the Shadow King in the Muir Island Saga- he's using her as his nexus but he has to physically restrain her. Here, though, she's just under his control. Red CometOctober 23, 2015 7:56 PM New Mutants annual #7 I forgot to mention it, but this is also effectively the last appearance of the Alliance of Evil, which makes sense given that they were supposed to be the Brotherhood for X-Factor and X-Factor is about to get folded into the X-men. Frenzy becomes an Acolyte of Magneto and Tower gets killed, I believe, in an annual featuring the X-Cutioner. I don't think Stinger or Timeshadow (who isn't even in this story for some reason) have appeared since. MichaelOctober 23, 2015 7:51 PM New Warriors annual #1 I also liked the fight between the two teams. Red CometOctober 23, 2015 7:43 PM New Mutants annual #7 I always placed this story between New Mutants #100 and X-Force #1, their first adventure as X-Force basically. One of the editors may have had them referred to as "New Mutants" in this annual for no other reason than that's the name on the title of the book. ChrisWOctober 23, 2015 7:42 PM Wolverine #38-44 I missed that one. "Essential X-Men" Volume 1 ends with Wolverine and Mariko having a private conversation. I didn't have access to the other "Essential" volumes until just recently, I just assumed that since their previous conversation was interrupted literally in the middle of Wolverine telling Mariko his name... How weird is that? Claremont knew Wolverine's first name back when Dave Cockrum was still drawing the title, but none of the other X-Men learned it until John Byrne's run was ending? Again, Wolverine should have been one of the first people to tell everything he knows, never mind the New York State laws requiring Xavier's School to report everything about their students. [And how does that work during tax season? "You have a Russian, a Kenyan, a German, an Irishman, and this new student from Chicago. And some Canadian whose every file is classified. Can't you at least tell us his name?" This would get worse when they add the Brazilian, the Scot, the Cheyenne, another Russian, etc. and still don't have any qualified teachers, never mind Amara or Warlock. "You have a gymnasium, but subcontract out to Stevie Hunter? You have a Cheyenne bodyguard, but every piece of information on this guy says he was white until that weird hospital incident a few months ago." No wonder Betsy just started erasing memories.] Red Comet, I agree that it was always the intention for Sabretooth to be Wolverine's father. Your mileage may vary on how much he wanted that versus how much he had to retcon his own work versus how much actually showed up on the page. I also agree that the "Classic X-Men" back-ups were there, at least partially, to show how much work put into the earliest issues, as well as to make them line up with the later issues, as with Mr. Sinister. My favorite has always been Jean preparing for her last date with Scott, with Thunderbird's funeral (and Wolverine investigating his little brother) as a close second. MichaelOctober 23, 2015 7:40 PM New Mutants annual #7 Should Chord and Silhouette be listed as characters appearing? They're present at the start of New Warriors Annual 1, so they're probably nearby off-panel in this Annual, although Silhouette COULD have teleported in (but she would have to be in contact with the other New Warriors.) Max_SpiderOctober 23, 2015 7:35 PM New Mutants annual #7 "The maiming of Crimson Dynamo that causes him to come back as a cyborg." Just like Crimson Commando in this story! :D Red CometOctober 23, 2015 7:34 PM New Warriors annual #1 First super team fight I ever read as a kid so it's got a special place in my heart for that reason alone. Wonderfully drawn by Mark Bagley and another case of a great artist elevating a story since it starts losing steam immediately with the X-men annual. I disagree about wishing Bagley drew one of the other parts instead of this one as X-Force vs. New Warriors was by far the highlight of the whole story. In hindsight I think the problem is that this was a three part story stretched to four parts. They really should have either put a different story in the X-men annual or skipped it entirely since the actual team was in space and couldn't participate. A couple of notes: As a 7-8 year old kid it made total sense to me that Chord and Cable had a history together since cord and cable are synonyms. You didn't scan it, but there's a scene where Cable and the kids break Frenzy out of jail at one point for information. I thought Cable's "I lied" line was some more awesome Cable dialogue when I was a kid and didn't realize until years later that it was basically lifted wholesale from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando (a film written by later Marvel writer and TV executive Jeph Loeb). ChrisWOctober 23, 2015 7:13 PM Uncanny X-Men #214 Because it's one of Claremont's first never-finished subplots. How did Erik the Red find out about Lorna and only learn about the X-Men through her? He was a Shi'ar agent studying Earth, and the Shi'ar already had a lot of information about Earth. Wouldn't he have learned something about the X-Men just doing his job? Wouldn't he be obligated to explain how he learned of Lorna to his boss? I'm not saying it makes sense. It doesn't. But something happened between Erik and Lorna that was not like the basic 'superhero brainwashing' between Erik and Alex. A different type of brainwashing which Claremont intended to explain in 300 issues, fine, I'll buy that. But there was *something* going on which wasn't the Claremont brainwashing we would all come to love. It just never got explained. Maybe it was the Shadow King, who knows? As for why the X-Men didn't throw her in jail, they weren't present for the actual scene, and couldn't tell the difference between her and Alex after it was all cleared up. And anyway, she's family. They didn't make Alex pay for destroying an airplane. AndrewOctober 23, 2015 6:44 PM X-Factor annual #6 I am required by geek protocol to remind you that a "3D polygon" is a polyhedron. david banesOctober 23, 2015 3:05 PM Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #2 Ah here we go, the proof of the Goblin having super strength. Still my Essential volume didn't include this one. david banesOctober 23, 2015 2:54 PM Jack of Hearts #1-4 What? Marcy Kane was an alien? Such a shame to give her a clunker like this since I liked the character. Dan H.October 23, 2015 1:03 PM Jack of Hearts #1-4 I hated this. Erik BeckOctober 23, 2015 12:19 PM Amazing Spider-Man #334-339 Wow, several things for a storyline I had never read: 1 - Fnord, this is the first time I have understood your color issues with Nova. I think the issue is the inking. I bet if you were to cut out the star and place it next to his jacket, they are the same color, but the inking on the jacket makes the red look much more brown. 2 - Larsen just should not draw lips. It's not just MJ. That large panel with Peter looks like it belongs in a romance comic. 3 - I do wish they had used Rhino or Scorpion instead of Sandman or Hobgoblin, partially because Larsen draws a kick-ass Scorpion. 4 - So glad to be read of Nathan. He started out as a good supporting character but he had quickly grown tiresome after the Death of Jean DeWolff (when he shot those kids on the subway). But, hey at least we won't have to destroy two decades of continuity just to bring him back! 5 - Not with you on the outfit, Thanos6. Maybe it's just my age - I didn't actually read a lot of Spider-Man growing up, so my main experience actually reading Doc Ock was in Secret Wars, so I'm very attached to the green jumpsuit. Plus there were the figures (although Doc Ock was the only figure in the first Series that I didn't own). Erik BeckOctober 23, 2015 11:34 AM Nomad #4 I think a D+ is way too generous. Red CometOctober 23, 2015 10:10 AM Wolverine #27-30 Iconic is right. I remember the Wolverine #27 cover being all over ads and T-shirts and stuff in the early 90s. It was also used as the box art for Wolverine's Nintendo game that came out in 1991. Erik BeckOctober 23, 2015 9:11 AM Wolverine #38-44 @ChrisW - We don't have to assume that Wolverine told Mariko his name later - we explicitly see him do it just before the X-Men leave Japan. (In other words, you're right in your views on his name). TuomasOctober 23, 2015 8:58 AM X-Factor annual #6 (Mystique) A scene where someone pours the ashes of a friend to the water, then has the wind blow them back to their face, also happens in Mel Brooks' "Life Stinks", which is from 1991 too. I'm not sure whether the movie came out before this issue was written, though. Maybe Peter David came up with the idea independently, or maybe him and Brooks both borrowed the gag from some earlier source? I've always thought the Coens lifted it from Brooks, though. MichaelOctober 23, 2015 8:03 AM New Warriors #11-13 Yeah I meant Marvel Boy. fnord12October 23, 2015 8:01 AM New Mutants annual #7 (X-Terminators) I don't think i'm going to worry about the costume here. Jean got a yellow and blue X-Men costume in X-Men #263. And she wears it in X-Factor #56 but then goes back to the red costume (including in some X-Men issues) until X-Factor #63. So she could be switching between costumes. Of course it's really just that i prefer to cluster stories from the same issue whenever possible. ;-) fnord12October 23, 2015 7:53 AM Wolverine #38-44 @Michael, added Reno and Molokai. Thanks. fnord12October 23, 2015 7:52 AM New Mutants annual #7 Regarding listing Aminedi, if he's just mentioned as having died in a future issue i wouldn't tag him in that issue, so it wouldn't be worth tagging him here either. But thanks for noting what eventually happens to him. fnord12October 23, 2015 7:51 AM New Warriors #11-13 @Michael: I've moved this back because of Nova's costume. Thanks. Regarding the Ka Stone, i didn't comment on that because it seems to fit to me. The stone was destroyed in the fight with Galactus. In the two appearances after that, which Sphinx II doesn't have to know about, the Stone is eventually restored but not at full power. And then it's destroyed again. So either there was enough energy for Sphinx II to collect from the initial destruction, or by the time she goes to absorb the energy the Stone is destroyed again and all the energy is available. I think you mean Marvel Boy in the final line about headaches but i just wanted to confirm since Nova is exhibiting unusual powers in this arc. MichaelOctober 23, 2015 7:41 AM New Mutants annual #7 Red Comet, it was explained that Toad bartered with an Iraqi general for Blob's and Toad's freedom in X-Men Annual 2. That same story addressed the rift between Avalanche and Blob and Toad. Omar KarinduOctober 23, 2015 7:35 AM Uncanny X-Men #214 While it was surely as far from Claremont's intention as possible, Nathan Adler's description of the "sirens" from the novel Chthon also explains Grant Morrison's character Cassandra Nova. Red CometOctober 23, 2015 2:19 AM Uncanny X-Men #214 @ChrisW Your theory doesn't make sense. Lorna is acting like a normal woman and having normal thoughts about settling down with her boyfriend until Erik shows up at the door and blasts her. After that when Havok gets back she's a totally different character, raving like a villain out of Batman '66. Lorna also thinks Erik the Red is Cyclops at first when he's at the door so they've clearly never met and/or colluded before. In the time it took Havok to run back to the house does it make more sense that a man she never met before talked her into a life of super-villainy or that Erik used his alien tech to do a quick mind job on her? As for only Havok fighting the brainwashing: it was because the issue was about brother vs. brother and that added some more drama to the Cyclops/Havok fight which was the issue's focus. If Iceman was still on the team then we probably would have gotten some similar dialogue between him and Lorna. And finally, why wouldn't the X-men throw Lorna in jail if she wasn't brainwashed? Red CometOctober 23, 2015 12:27 AM New Warriors annual #1 (Speedball) This annual was an early comic for me so I loved all the stuff in it. I think this back-up story is pretty good even without the effect of nostalgia. Red CometOctober 23, 2015 12:19 AM New Mutants annual #7 Freedom Force became much more interesting after Claremont's characterization work with them during Fall of the Mutants and the Muir island mission in Uncanny #255. Even little bits like Pyro being an author or Super Sabre being a WWII vet having trouble relating to his son's experiences in Vietnam go a surprisingly long way to making the characters more endearing. There's also some added interest in that their members were more expendable than the X-men. I imagine you talk to a lot fewer editors when you want to kill off Super Sabre than when you want to kill off, say, Rogue. Presumably Pyro and Blob got released back to American custody after the end of Desert Storm because I believe the next time they show up is as part of Toad's Brotherhood in X-Force. Interestingly, they kind of acknowledged Avalanche's rift with them from this story as he wasn't part of that group. Commando, rebuilt as a cyborg, and Avalanche continued as government agents with a couple of appearances in X-Factor before going into character limbo. Avalanche would eventually be folded back into being a mutant super-villain, but I don't think Commando has appeared since X-Factor. As a final bit of interesting trivia: Hardee's (Carl Jr's for all of you on the Left Coast) gave out X-men toys at one point in the 90s and the villains included Blob and Avalanche as well as the much more obscure Commando (cyborg version) and Phantasia. Here's what they looked like. CecilOctober 23, 2015 12:00 AM Hulk #212-213 Ken Ishikawa's Getter Robo creation with three different pilots came out in 1974, and I think the cartoon version, part of a package called Force Five in America, Starvengers, didn't arrive until 1980. I don't know how in tune Len was with Japanese pop culture, but Quin here was at least something you hadn't seen before, even if it's totally unclear how it works! I've never sat through the Japanese Spider-Man, but it's interesting that the show shares a main writer with Voltron (Go Lion). Red CometOctober 22, 2015 11:51 PM New Warriors #11-13 I love the Nicieza/Bagley New Warriors, but I agree that this story didn't quite live up to the promise that other altered reality stories do. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. I think if it didn't have the Bagley art it would be completely forgettable. Red CometOctober 22, 2015 11:45 PM Wolverine #38-44 As to the Wolverine/Sabretooth material: I believe Claremont and Byrne did intend for him to be Wolverine's father, maybe Byrne more so than Claremont. Father or not, Claremont's direction with Sabretooth was that he was never actually a member of the Marauders and maybe was never even a costumed super-villain. The costumed Sabretooth that was in the Marauders and fought super-heroes was always one of Sinister's clones. The real Sabretooth had never even met the X-men nor had any reason to fight them. He was just the unstoppable psycho that would torture Wolverine on his birthday every year as seen in the Silver Fox story from Wolverine #10 and that one Classic X-men back-up story. This Sabretooth clone set-up is the X-men version of the Walter Simonson Doombot out where any bad showing or story you don't like is really a Doombot. So any Sabretooth story you didn't like was a clone except for those two where Claremont explicitly stated he was the real deal. The clone plot device became defunct pretty much immediately after Claremont left the X-books. Writing this out has also reminded me of how important the Claremont written back-up stories in Classic X-men were despite them seeming to just be filler at first glance. There's a lot of info in them about plots Claremont never got to do before being ousted. They also began to spell out Claremont's intended origin for Mr. Sinister and Gambit. Red CometOctober 22, 2015 11:28 PM Wolverine #38-44 Most people think of Larry Hama as the GI Joe guy or the military adventure guy, but he's also one of the best comedy writers in the business. There's a lot of hilarity in the Elsie Dee story in between the more dramatic moments. I read his GI Joe run pretty recently and was also surprised at all the comic relief in there. Good stuff. MichaelOctober 22, 2015 11:24 PM Wolverine #38-44 Two of the thugs, Reno and Molokai, appear again in issue 74. ChrisWOctober 22, 2015 11:11 PM Wolverine #38-44 For another example, Hama wrote "G.I. Joe Special Missions" and an early issue compared the Joe pilots with their fancy planes with a Cobra pilot with his fancy planes [an SR-71 no less.] The Cobra pilot abused his flight crew, and ultimately died because they returned the favor. Meanwhile the Joes knew everybody's names and thanked people for putting in extra work. "I visited your son last night while you were busy, he took the operation like a trooper. Here's a toy for him, but it'll look better if he gets it from his Dad." When the Joe pilot is shot down over the ocean, everybody scrambles to help. When the Cobra pilot is shot down, the rescue crew will get there when they get there, no point working too hard. And there's a great punchline with the Maguffin (a break-out tool in case pilots are shot down over water.) The Joe pilot never needs it because he looks after his team and they look after him. The Cobra pilot... Not so much. MichaelOctober 22, 2015 10:52 PM New Warriors annual #1 (Speedball) This was Dan Slott's first work for Marvel. MichaelOctober 22, 2015 10:50 PM New Mutants annual #7 (X-Terminators) This story should take place before X-Factor 63 since Jean is wearing her red costume. ChrisWOctober 22, 2015 10:48 PM Wolverine #38-44 Storm's dialogue is off. You can make the argument that it's still in character for her, but there's still something wrong about it. If nothing else, why is she intervening on one of Wolverine's personal missions if she's so willing to let him go on those personal missions in the first place? If she trusts him enough to let him go off on his own, then she doesn't need to get involved. If she wants info from random thugs who want to kill Wolvie, then she should be asking Wolvie who wants to kill him and punish him if he holds anything back. This goes back to the first few years of Claremont's "X-Men," where they literally didn't know his first name. The leprechauns at Cassidy Keep knew it, Vindicator knew it, he started to tell Mariko just before the big fight began (and one assumes he told her in their private conversation the following issue) but none of the X-Men knew Wolverine's first name until he took Nightcrawler back to Canada to meet Jimmie and Heather. In #98, an issue that specifically said the New X-Men had been together for over a year, training daily, Banshee suddenly learned that Wolverine's claws were part of him and not just on his costume. This is not how a team works. Partial disclosure: I have been in US Military Special Operations teamrooms. I have seen a long list of questions posted on the wall for anybody who looks at them. "Do you know your buddy's first name? Do you know his wife/girlfriend's name? Do you know his childrens' names? Do you know their birthdays? Do you know what beer he likes to drink? Do you know his hobbies?" Etc. And the punchline to that list is "If you can't answer 'yes' to all of these questions, YOU ARE WRONG!" It builds teamwork. Given what we've learned, Wolverine should be the first person to tell what he knows, and if he has memory problems, there are telepaths available. He should be the one asking for help, because it might be useful to his teammates in the future. For all the team-building scenes, and the emphasis on the danger waiting for them, this is where Claremont was at his most ridiculous. Larry Hama, who knew a bit more about being on a team, and had his own authorial voice, was fitting himself in. As much as I love this storyline - because it's awesome - it's where Claremont lost control of his characters. They aren't being done "wrong" (I loved the way Forge, Jubilee and Cable were included) but they aren't "right" either. MichaelOctober 22, 2015 10:48 PM New Mutants annual #7 The reason why Nicieza split up the team this way was because Nicieza and Larsen had a proposal for X-Factor that involved Pyro and a cyborg Commando as members: Thanos6October 22, 2015 10:48 PM New Warriors #11-13 Ah, I see. Not having read the issues, I thought it was just Thor dressed up in Egyptian garb. MichaelOctober 22, 2015 10:28 PM New Warriors #11-13 Fnord, regarding Nova's costume, I think this should be placed before Infinity Gauntlet. Here's why- Nova is only wearing his blue-and-yellow costume this issue because of the Sphinx's reality-altering. Night Thrasher gives him the blue-and-yellow costume next issue as a way to apologize for throwing him off the roof. So all appearance of Nova in the blue-and-yellow costume have to take place after next issue. ChrisWOctober 22, 2015 10:16 PM Uncanny X-Men #214 No, it's not. Alex hears Lorna scream and runs back to the house where Lorna is already 'evil.' Then Erik says Alex will be useful. During the fight, Alex is the only one who even hesitates like he's fighting the brainwashing. Then in #107, Lilandra's exposition specifically states that Erik only learned of the X-Men through Lorna, "though he refused to say how he learned of her." Yes, you can read the issue as though Lorna is brainwashed just like Alex, but they are treated very differently throughout, and Lorna never questioned the brainwashing. A different way to read it is that Lorna didn't need brainwashing. Never gets explained, but she was totally willing to turn evil. And Nathan's explanation actually explains [I can't believe I'm writing this] how Lorna and the Scarlet Witch could legitimately be sisters. I don't get how Zaladane fits in [because I'm too lazy to look it up] but they come from the same 'father,' Magneto, and have the same 'birthplace,' Wundagore. BillOctober 22, 2015 10:05 PM New Warriors #11-13 Thanos6, Thor wouldn't have changed. That's Horus on the Avengers. fnord12October 22, 2015 8:37 PM New Warriors #11-13 @Michael, you're right, Speedball too. Thanos6October 22, 2015 8:03 PM New Warriors #11-13 How would Thor change? MichaelOctober 22, 2015 7:47 PM New Warriors #11-13 Why is Speedball listed as a character appearing? He also only appears in the alternate reality. MichaelOctober 22, 2015 7:46 PM Wolverine #38-44 Kveto, that was just one incident. It's not like Storm went along with Xavier's plan to hide Karma's capture by the Shadow King from the New Mutants and did nothing to rescue her for months- um, wait a second she did. OK, but's it not like she almost drowned her friends stopping Mastermind- ok, she did that as well. Well, it's not like she stabbed her boyfriend without letting him explain his side of the story- um, she did that too. BillOctober 22, 2015 6:36 PM New Warriors #11-13 This story was a bunch of fun! Seeing how the alternate history played out and made most of the heroes of middle eastern or African decent was really cool. Only European characters, like Captain Britain or robots/androids, like the Vision remained "normal" as we know them (outside of the mutants). You should have scanned the page that showed all the changed characters! The Avengers for this story will reappear later in "Avengers Forever". BillOctober 22, 2015 5:46 PM New Mutants annual #7 I enjoyed this story when reading it in real time. It actually felt tense and I thought Avalanche came across as a soldier who was trying to follow his orders (by evacuating the critically wounded Crimson Commando). I think it's the only story I've ever read with him in it where he came across with any kind of personality. I think it was an interesting break-up of Freedom Force; very not paint by the numbers, which it could have been, being a back-up feature in a few annuals. The one thing I think that is a real strike against the story is that three artists drew all three parts. The stories were short (page count wise)...one artist wasn't able to draw the full story?? gfsdf gfbdOctober 22, 2015 5:02 PM X-Factor annual #6 (Mystique) Possibly my favorite (self-contained) X-Men story. A really beautiful, funny, sad, short story. BerendOctober 22, 2015 4:47 PM New Mutants annual #7 I always find it amusing when Muslim super-women are drawn with a veil... and a standard, sexy skin-tight outfit. Still, it's not as ridiculous here as when Dust was being drawn with a form-fitting burqa... BobOctober 22, 2015 4:41 PM X-Factor annual #6 (Mystique) Wonder if theCoehn Brothers saw this issue before penning the Dude's farewell to Donnie? Omar KarinduOctober 22, 2015 3:50 PM Iron Man #219-221 The Charlton Comics Ghost was a villain with a phasing/teleportation gimmick, the archfoe of Captain Atom; he's a Steve Ditko creation. Interestingly,he's a lot like the Ditko-era version of the Green Goblin concept: a ruthless, rational criminal with a secret identity as a wealthy man. He was reinvented along with Captain Atom when Atom got his DC series, andhas been reduced to "face in the crowd of villains" appearances following the end of Captain Atom's 1980s series. You can see some images of him here. Ataru320October 22, 2015 3:09 PM Wolverine #38-44 You know seeing Elsa Dee's head bash right into Cable is just hilarious. I think we found our cure to over-doing the 90s. Piotr WOctober 22, 2015 2:54 PM Deathlok #1 You know, I can't help thinking how Deathlok's situation is similar to Spawn's. Could McFarlane get inspired by that book? clydeOctober 22, 2015 2:13 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #9-10 "Well, not quite like you, Spider-Man. The public actually hates you. But sure, like you." I assumed he was thinking that they love an outlaw even though that is not a good thing to be which is what he is perceived as. In other words - Why do they love him when he's an outlaw and hate Spider-Man who's also an outlaw? That's just my opinion. clydeOctober 22, 2015 2:10 PM Wolverine #38-44 "I can understand being hesitant in this situation, but Storm is also a character that reveres all life, and as an X-Men has met plenty of odd forms of life, including robotic forms like Warlock, and surely knows about characters like the Vision. " Would that be the same Storm who in Uncanny X-Men #219 had this discussion about Havok - "And he learns that the X-Men previously mind-wiped him "for your own protection". They then seemingly seriously consider killing him to keep him quiet."? I think Storm does have the same concern for a "robot" that she has for humans.;) clydeOctober 22, 2015 1:58 PM New Warriors #11-13 I absolutely loved this storyline when it originally came out. It was specifically because it was an alternate reality story. In fact, it cemented my adoration for the New Warriors so much that I tracked down the early issues and bought them at a comic store. Nowadays, of course, there are much more economical ways to get these comics. Red CometOctober 22, 2015 12:27 PM Uncanny X-Men #214 Erik the Red very explicitly brainwashed Havok, but Lorna just kinda joined him. This isn't true. In the issue, Erik the Red brainwashes Lorna first and then she knocks out Havok and Erik brainwashes him. Erik BeckOctober 22, 2015 12:01 PM Namor #4-5 Anyone else think that Namor's disguise looks just like Byrne himself, but with dark hair? Erik BeckOctober 22, 2015 11:47 AM Hulk #372-373 Totally agree with BU. Marvel discovers a guy who can draw just like Byrne but without the headache that inevitably comes to anyone trying to work with Byrne? How did he not become a star? JCOctober 22, 2015 10:36 AM Spider-Man #8-12 I was about to say that first letter was extremely constructive, thoughtful, and kind while denouncing Todd's writing and no wonder! It's by Alan Sepinwall! For those who don't know Alan is the TV critic for www.hitfix.com. I normally shy away from critics as they tend to be shrill and perverse in the glee they take from tearing things down. But Alan is eggcellent, he's quite possibly the best TV reviewer in the business. He certainly has the respect of those in the business. Never knew he was a comic geek, but in hindsight it makes total cents. fnord12October 22, 2015 10:29 AM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 JC, i'm sorry that i've insulted you. To clarify a few things, my "reading tea leaves" comment was about all of the circumstantial evidence that Aaron brings up about how DeFalco was able to pinch-write other comics even though Priest says that he had trouble meeting deadlines during his ASM run. I think there are a lot of reasons for that. I also think taking the words of Peter David and Jim Shooter, who along with Priest and DeFalco all have a vested interest in blaming someone else for the debacle around the Hobgoblin reveal, doesn't amount to much evidence, and more importantly, do not prove, or even have anything to do with, the idea that Priest was running fill-ins to screw with DeFalco and Frenz's finances. I know you'll think it's hair splitting, but i wasn't calling you slanderous. I just think the statement "deliberately screwing with DeFalco and Frenz's livelihood" unfairly assumes motives that we can't know. As Aaron suggests, let me withdraw the phrase "kind of slanderous" and replace it with unwarranted, and leave it as my opinion. I never meant the use of the word slanderous in a legalistic way, but i can see how it can be insulting and i apologize. JCOctober 22, 2015 10:26 AM Amazing Spider-Man #349-350 Erik Larsen was born to draw Spidey, the dynamic poses along with the sharp line work just fit the character purrfectly. Plus I kinda like how he does the thing with the squinting eyes even if it makes no sense on Spidey. Also, what's up with having Doom appearances in issues that end in 50? Dr. Doom is the premier villain of the Marvel Universe, it's only natural that writers are going to save him and bring him out on the anniversary issues like FF 500, etc. JCOctober 22, 2015 10:06 AM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=50723 When Priest pitched the idea to David, he asked him if he could figure out who the Hobgoblin was. David's answer: "Ned Leeds." Priest told him he couldn't be Leeds because he was killing him off in the "Spider-Man vs. Wolverine" one-shot. "Why would you do that?" David asked. "'To piss off Tom DeFalco,'" David recalled Priest telling him. And this is coming from PAD, a guy who's still friends with Priest to this day. And a guy who has every reason to owe his entire career to Priest and absolutely knows it. But yea "slanderous"... JCOctober 22, 2015 9:56 AM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 Slanderous? Seriously? DeFalco has made no secret of the animosity between him and Priest, something the blog you linked to acknowledges. Furthermoar, as Aaron brings up in Back Issue 35 DeFalco clearly mentions certain maneuvers done by Priest purely to screw with him. Nao could DeFalco be mistaken or just plain dead-wrong? Absolutely. But this is a direct first hand source openly stating, animosity and a bad relationship led to Priest repeatedly screwing with him. Sure, I could be absolutely wrong here. But there's alot moar to what I said than randomly "reading tea leaves." To then turn around and call me slanderous as if I was making this up out of nowhere is unfair. Erik BeckOctober 22, 2015 8:54 AM Namor #2-3 Interesting that at the time that Byrne and Claremont weren't getting along that Byrne would create the Marrs siblings who seem so similar to Fenris. Erik BeckOctober 22, 2015 8:41 AM Uncanny X-Men #214 Started reading the last comment without noticing who wrote it and got to "I’d therefore posit that Malice is Lorna’s twin sister" and I thought, man, Nathan Adler's ideas are fun to read. Nathan AdlerOctober 22, 2015 7:18 AM Uncanny X-Men #214 @Omar, Mark, Michael and Chris: It’s pretty obvious that Chris Claremont drew his inspiration for this character from science fiction author Piers Anthony’s first published novel, Chthon, which was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel in 1968. In this story the main protagonist commits the crime of falling in love with a strange and extremely beautiful woman in the forest named Malice and is therefore condemned to death in the subterranean prison of Chthon. The protagonist comes to discover that Malice is a legendary and dangerous siren called a minionette, which are females all identical to each other and semi-telepathic, their beauty and youth maintained eternally by negative emotions, whereas positive emotions cause them pain and sufficiently intense love kills them. I’d therefore posit that Malice is Lorna’s twin sister and she became a being of pure psionic energy while a foetus in her mother’s womb, as a result of Viper’s possession by Chthon, his evil energy making it so that she was able to merge with the negative emotional instincts of others, overriding their personalities and taking control of their bodies. Her being Lorna’s twin would finally explain why Malice’s energy matrix was so compatible with Polaris’s powers and, if we go by Moira’s theory in Uncanny X-Men #254 about Zaladane, how the two became so easily grafted together, effectively inseparable. This would further explain why, when Malice attempted to leave Lorna, Mister Sinister informed her that he was aware of the connection and that was why he had suggested their union in the first place, telling her that she is “the unchanging pole star”. We have never previously understood quite what Sinister meant by this phrase, but now it becomes so damned obvious. Polaris, the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, is a BINARY STAR, a system which consists of two stars orbiting around their common centre of mass. So when Davan Shakari (Eric the Red) gave Lorna the codename Polaris he obviously knew she was a twin and that she would come to be psionically bonded to her. Sinister obviously also knew Lorna and Malice were twins, but as to how he discovered this and what destiny his bringing them together pointed to… fnord12October 22, 2015 7:13 AM Super-Villain Team-Up #5 Yes, more than a 2. Thanks. MegaSpiderManOctober 21, 2015 11:55 PM Super-Villain Team-Up #5 Since this is Shroud's first appearance, shouldn't the Historical Significance rating be upped to a 2? ChrisWOctober 21, 2015 10:45 PM Uncanny X-Men #214 Malice was just another unfinished storyline. But she actually does make sense. In this issue alone, she's tearing the X-Men apart as a team, accomplishing psychically what the Marauders did physically. Wolverine loses confidence in his own senses [inconsistently, but that's Claremont] and it makes perfect sense that Storm triumphs over the Dark Side, which she already possesses. It won't be revealed for a few issues, but she's already planning to kill the X-Men, and fifty-some issues later, she will admit it wasn't her best idea. Look at where they are, considering where they were fifty-some issues ago. They hadn't even fought the Brood yet, officially. Considering where they're going and where they've been, I can accept that Ororo already owns her dark side. So who does Malice go to next? Polaris. This goes back to Claremont's earliest stories. Erik the Red very explicitly brainwashed Havok, but Lorna just kinda joined him. Now he joins the X-Men (and sets up a 'my brother's wife' plot) and she turn evil (and sets up an unfulfilled ending to the Shadow King story.) I don't have any answers, but I don't see Malice as pointless of a character as others might. In context, she makes no sense, but in the same context she works perfectly. Like Selene. Someone should just pay Claremont to write "Bondage Comics" for the rest of his life as long as he explains this stuff finally. fnord12October 21, 2015 7:06 PM Deathlok #1 Ah, thanks Luis. I haven't read most of the original Deathlok stories and it didn't occur to me that Warwolf would be an echo of an older character. I hope there isn't a lot like that i will miss out on. Luis DantasOctober 21, 2015 6:58 PM Captain America #153-156 One of my absolute favorites, for Englehart as well as for Cap. Luis DantasOctober 21, 2015 6:55 PM Deathlok #1 Warwolf was arguably the first named opponent of the original Deathlok, so it would be difficult to avoid introducing some version of him to fight this one as well. Solo500October 21, 2015 12:39 PM Captain America #153-156 I read this when it came out and I was 10. There's dated stuff to critique today but the beats and the feeling are pure Marvel. Proving once again that the golden age of comics isn't the 40s or the 60s but one's own childhood. I will love Englehart and Buscema always for making these comics. PeterAOctober 21, 2015 12:12 PM Amazing Spider-Man #349-350 I love Doctor Doom but he is just a guy in armor, while Spidey has superstrength, agility and his webbing. If Peter should die at the hands of Doom, logically, then what about most of the FF, Avengers and X-Men, considering Spidey can kick most of their butts (and has, too) All that said, I think Larsen kicked it out of the park. Now he has energetic art and is one of the rare Image artists to have regular output since the 90s. Uncanny MichaelOctober 21, 2015 11:14 AM Amazing Spider-Man #349-350 I remember being pretty blown away reading this as a kid because I was new to comics and Spider-Man got whupped so bad, and I thought Erik Larsen did a great job showing just how torn up he was. TeemuOctober 21, 2015 10:09 AM Infinity Gauntlet #6 Retrospectively hilarious pair of panels there where we are told to "Behold the new day dawning" in the first one and the next one has Spidey returning to Mary Jane. Ataru320October 21, 2015 8:49 AM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 As a side meta-commentary, I don't really mind the differences of approaches between Cap and the Punisher and the different experiences they both had with war, even with Vietnam. Remember: when Vietnam was first utilized as a story element in the early-mid 60s (Iron Man's origin, the afforementioned "Sumo" story), it was just another war, written by people who were more of a mind that whenever the US entered a war, it was all for the good of things. This was before the true darkness and cynicism of what happened in Vietnam occurred that lead to the creation of characters like the Punisher. (and even in a way drove Cap into a period of not trusting what this country stood for anymore) Its more or less the passage of time and changing of attitudes that lead to two different war-hardened characters with two different perspectives on elements: Cap represents the positives of standing up for your beliefs and a more idealistic time with a war where things were more clearly black and white; while the Punisher represents the monsters that can emerge due to the wear and tear of the world through things such as war, a product of a war that did wear down so many people and showed the darker side of what war can do. Erik BeckOctober 21, 2015 7:28 AM Spectacular Spider-Man #164 I think it's a combination of fnord and Michael's reasonings. I think the story itself is quite good and well told. But, for the Beetle, well, yes, I think of him in Avengers #229, where the Avengers, including She-Hulk, scatter because his armor is out of control and it is that formidable. It's only Thor who holds his ground. So, it's too bad he's not very formidable here, from a power-level standpoint, but Conway does well with making the psychological standpoint work for the story. BobOctober 21, 2015 7:03 AM Daredevil #294-296 Wow. The gratuitous Ghost Rider thing is far worse than I remember. AndrewOctober 21, 2015 6:23 AM Tales To Astonish #94-100 At the beginning of Hulk 145, there's a scene where the Hulk sinks a Russian destroyer. The ship's munitions explode on the way down, so there's no way the crew survived. That puts his body count in Magneto-in-the-eighties territory. Luke BlanchardOctober 21, 2015 3:44 AM Uncanny X-Men #118-119 SUBMERSION OF JAPAN is one of the English-language titles of the 1973 film NIPPON CHINBOTSU, "Japan Sinks". This was based on a novel of the same name by Sakyo Komatsu. In the novel Japan is destroyed by tectonic movements. The novel has appeared in English as JAPAN SINKS and THE DEATH OF THE DRAGON. A TV version appeared after the movie, and a remake appeared in 2006. There's even a parody movie called THE WORLD SINKS EXCEPT JAPAN. DermieOctober 21, 2015 12:26 AM She-Hulk #29-30 Was there a wind machine operating in that courtroom to make Shulkie's hair look like that all the time? I'm surprised she can get through doorways with hair that big... kvetoOctober 21, 2015 12:21 AM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 they very idea of Cap teaming up with the Punisher is wrong. What's the difference between Punisher and Scourge (who cap saw as a criminal pure and simple)? Other than the Punisher has his own books? that makes him a good guy somehow? this is the problem with the Punisher existing in the same MU as heroes. By straight up heroes like Cap, Punisher should be seen as a criminal, or at least a mental patient that needs help. Cap has arrested guys with much less blood on their hands than Castle. It goes against all the sense of justice and due process that Cap should believe in. MortificatorOctober 20, 2015 11:56 PM Amazing Spider-Man #349-350 Erik Larsen was one of my favorite Spider-Man artists, and he goes out with a bang! If I remember right, Michelinie noted in the TPB collecting these issues that the logical outcome of a fight between Dr. Doom and Spider-Man is that Spider-Man would die. Pete certainly gets his ass kicked here even harder than back in Amazing Spider-Man #5. As for Doom's dialogue, I don't think it's out of line if you consider he'd probably be extra-touchy on issues concerning his mother after what he just went through to get her out of hell. MortificatorOctober 20, 2015 11:39 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment One of the little details of this story I like is the appearance of Cynthia's soul as a moth. The same imagery was used for a soul in Satana's first appearance. Omar KarinduOctober 20, 2015 9:51 PM Amazing Spider-Man #287-288 Given that they're called the "blue boys," my guess is that they were intended to be either a bunch of corrupt cops or, more likely, a vigilante group secretly composed of police officers like the one from the Dirty Harry film Magnum Force. AndrewOctober 20, 2015 9:43 PM Fantastic Four annual #5 The Silver Surfer backup story featured a splash panel with Quasimodo shouting "I'm changing!" that was turned into a black light poster that blew my mind when I was twelve. Omar KarinduOctober 20, 2015 9:35 PM Hulk #331-333 As fnord implies int eh entry, we do find out later that the Leader was either lying or wrong: Hulk #368 and #375 together explain that Banner initially changed only at night out of a subconscious shame at the angry side of himself represented by the Hulk. MichaelOctober 20, 2015 9:23 PM Uncanny X-Men #214 Even as a kid, Malice never made sense to me- if she's a mutant, she should have parents, a physical body, etc. Did her physical body die? fnord12October 20, 2015 9:21 PM Daredevil #294-296 It is a title but the MCP, at least, lists it as the guy's name as well. And that's not that unusual in a universe where there was also a character named Ninja. Regarding the flashback, i'm sure you remember more from issues i haven't reviewed yet. But looking at this flashback, Strucker talks about his "newborn Hydra" and dismisses the idea of a Beast except as the animal side of man and then tells the guy he's fighting to "watch well the example of my beast -- my Hydra and learn your lessons there". There's little indication yet that he's taking over a faction of the Hand (granted after saying that the beast is his animal side, he says that the rebels are only fit to wait at its hand), and it sure fits with what we know from the Captain Savage story. If these Hand operatives are following Strucker, they're not taking his lesson about the beast properly because they are clearly still worshiping it as a supernatural entity. But more to come wih the next arc, i guess. MichaelOctober 20, 2015 8:58 PM Daredevil #294-296 Fnord, jonin is a title, not a name: ChrisWOctober 20, 2015 8:22 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment Totally gnarly. [Yes, I'm being ironic.] ChrisWOctober 20, 2015 8:21 PM Avengers: Emperor Doom (Marvel Graphic Novel #27) But it's a way of connecting with his brother/sibling/uncle/whatever relationship he has with the Original Human Torch. I'm not saying it's smart, or good for anything other than plot convenience, but it makes sense. MichaelOctober 20, 2015 8:20 PM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 Thanos6, that's different. Hitler died on April 30,1945, his death was announced on May 1st and Berlin surrendered on May 2nd. Different writers have different ideas about exactly when Cap when into suspended animation- Waid in his Man Out of Time series described it happening between April 1st and April 12th, Brubaker once described it as happening in March but claimed that was an error and he'd try to correct it in the trades, Roy Thomas described it as happening on April 30th in What If 4 and Gruenwald described it as happening on May 2nd. So if it happened on May 2nd, then yeah, Cap could have seen how the Germans reacted to Hitler's death. ChrisWOctober 20, 2015 8:19 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment Really? Way cool, dude, I'm totally there! cullenOctober 20, 2015 8:17 PM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 @berend Cap likes to alternate pallbearers for his fake funerals. What're we on at this point, number 3? There are more to come! RobertOctober 20, 2015 8:03 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment ChrisW, yeah Emperor Doom has been posted. It's in 1985. ChrisWOctober 20, 2015 7:37 PM New Mutants Summer Special #1 For me, it's all hindsight. It took Rob Liefeld to give me appreciation for anything in Blevins' work. And there are things to appreciate. I don't think he was appropriate for "New Mutants," but it was the trend at Marvel, and in hindsight, inevitably led to Liefeld. Looking at his "New Mutants" issues on this website, there are definite virtues. Marvel didn't have a title starring monsters and pretty girls - "Howard the Duck," "Swamp Thing" - but that title would have needed an artist like Blevins. Like I say, for me it's all hindsight. I despised Blevins on "New Mutants," and when this book came out, after several months of Liefeld, I honestly realized that I didn't know how good I had it. Keeping Jackson Guice and Kyle Baker would have been fine, or June Brigman, but ohmigod, I suddenly realized how much I preferred an artist I despised. I think we're basically coming to the same conclusion from two completely different directions. ChrisWOctober 20, 2015 7:22 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment And frankly, I like the notion that most the magicians summoned by Aged Genghis are unknown, even to this day. They do their work in secret, because that's what they do. The literal meaning of "occult" is "hidden." ChrisWOctober 20, 2015 7:20 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment Indeed a great story. I would never have thought to buy it, but my Dad did. [I'm literally right now proofing a book of comic book essays I've written, and go into a lot of detail about all the great comics he bought which I had no interest in at the time. Heck, I'm not the one who started buying "Dr. Strange."] The question of Dr. Doom as a dictator is not easy to work out, and it's easy to see why different writers treat it in different ways. In the scene here, it looks like Stern's trying to accommodate both sides. Strange is positive that the incident was performed for his behalf, and it almost certainly was, but he senses nothing but sincerity. In "JLA/Avengers," Aquaman sees Doom being praised by crowds who are only cheering because they're held at gunpoint, and is outraged that a monarch would do such a thing. In the real world, we have, well, look at the news. North Korea, Syria, Libya, etc. Not exactly Latveria's Eastern European culture, but enough to form parallels. "Emperor Doom" (that hasn't been posted, has it?) would take a different approach, that Doom actually is a good ruler. A Doom that has to rule a country would be a far different Doom than your standard raving lunatic leader. I'm not as big a Stern fan as other posters, but he can do some very good stories, and this was definitely one of them. fnord12October 20, 2015 6:15 PM She-Hulk #29-30 Thanks Morgan. Morgan WickOctober 20, 2015 6:04 PM She-Hulk #29-30 "And during the fight, this happens." Cue the same scan you had just put up. Morgan WickOctober 20, 2015 5:52 PM Amazing Spider-Man #349-350 Trask/Tully '92! BillOctober 20, 2015 5:30 PM She-Hulk #29-30 Why complain about what the She-Hulk is wearing? It's still more than the Hulk. BerendOctober 20, 2015 5:01 PM Daredevil #294-296 I genuinely went "Oh for #@!$ sake, really?!" when the Ghost Rider showed up. He really was everywhere in this year, wasn't he? I never realized it was this bad. Thanos6October 20, 2015 4:54 PM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 This isn't the first time Cap's talked about the end of WW2 like he saw it happen first-hand. After Thanos got turned to stone and his troops surrendered, Cap mentions how it reminds him of Berlin after Hitler's death. BerendOctober 20, 2015 4:49 PM Punisher/Captain America: Blood & Glory #1-3 I like that Jarvis gets to be one of the pallbearers at the funeral, but why is She-Hulk there instead of, say, the Falcon? clydeOctober 20, 2015 2:18 PM Uncanny X-Men #214 "The supervillain Malice was created by Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont. She is a member of Mister Sinister's Marauders. Being incorporeal, she has no physical body of her own and has to possess the body of others. Those she possesses manifest a cameo-like choker around their neck. It is unknown whether this is a physical artifact or an illusionary one." Mark BlackOctober 20, 2015 1:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #214 Is it ever made clear that Malice is a mutant? I mean I get that most of the Marauders are mutants, but some aren't (Vertigo). Is it possible that it's never been made clear what Malice is, and that she's simply a mystical entity under the control of Mr. Sinister? clydeOctober 20, 2015 1:03 PM Amazing Spider-Man #349-350 "Erik Larsen's cartoony art and some problems with the scripting make me want to dismiss this as an unworthy use of Doom," " So i can only imagine how Mary Jane's hideous tights are making Peter feel." Erik BeckOctober 20, 2015 11:59 AM Amazing Spider-Man annual #24 Glad you linked to the cover. Gil Kane might not have drawn Ant-Man before, but it's a nice reminder that he's the co-creator of the Silver Age Atom and had a lot of experience drawing smaller characters. Omar KarinduOctober 20, 2015 11:48 AM Uncanny X-Men #214 Malice is like Selene, another of these CXlaremotn concepts that seem to be sword-and-sorcery or demonic beings explained as "mutants' sot hey can fit into the X-Men universe. With Selene, it's halfway workable -- and she does use real magic to augment her mutant psychic vampire powers -- but Malice? Malice's mutant power seems to be that she can turn into an evil, mind-controlling necklace. Erik BeckOctober 20, 2015 11:32 AM Marvel Comics Presents #57-59 (Sub-Mariner) "Audiences are tired of super spies and outer space fantasies!" I so love the irony that I read this today, when, in the last 48 hours, I have bought my advance tickets for both SPECTRE and Force Awakens. MichaelOctober 20, 2015 7:55 AM Daredevil #12-14 David,that's because he had already been killed off by Mike Carlin before the Scourge plotline started- he stayed dead for 13 years until Mark Waid decided to bring him back. david banesOctober 20, 2015 2:42 AM Daredevil #12-14 Now that I think about it I'm surprised the Plunderer wasn't killed off by the Scourge. I mean I like him okay as a lower level villain but you'd think his changing color and 'only my gun' gimmick would get him offed. kvetoOctober 20, 2015 12:54 AM Punisher #49 I wouldn't blame fnord if he did just cut and paste. All of these punisher plots sound exactly the same. Amazing what people would buy. Luis DantasOctober 19, 2015 11:09 PM Namor #14 Pretty strong clue with that "hypnotic zap" line. I'm ashamed I never noticed it before. Luis DantasOctober 19, 2015 11:07 PM Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness It might as well be Venom saying those last few lines instead of Danny Ketch. And this was before 9/11. What led people to buy such bull back at the time? MichaelOctober 19, 2015 10:22 PM Namor #14 Chris,I agree that not restoring the Griffin makes sense for Namor and Phoebe but next issue CAPTAIN AMERICA makes no attempt to restore the Griffin! ChrisOctober 19, 2015 9:42 PM Namor #14 I was really liking the title Namor at this point. Byrne did well with these unsympathetic characters (or at least less sympathetic characters than we usually get). Even Namor retains his regal jerk qualities. I thought Namor not even trying to restore the Griffin was perfectly in character, and certainly not something other heroes would do. Phoebe had her faults, but she did seem regal in a way that Namor's other loves did not. The subplots were proceeding well. I already knew who "Iron Fist" was, but not how the real one might come back. I didn't understand the Dorma plot at all, but was pleased that Atlantis was being re-introduced. ChrisOctober 19, 2015 9:33 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment Great GN, and one I was only able to read by borrowing from a friend. I could have bought this when it came out, but I foolishly picked another GN on sale and intended to buy it later at another time. I was an idiot. But not as much as Marvel for letting Stern go as you said. fnord12October 19, 2015 8:41 PM Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness Added Lucy. Thanks. MichaelOctober 19, 2015 8:32 PM Namor #14 Re: Desmond's "fairy tale" remark- I think the point of that was that Desmond doesn't know about Phoebe's kid or exactly what she discussed with Namor in Connecticut, so he assumes she made up some lie to make herself sympathetic. MichaelOctober 19, 2015 8:07 PM Wolverine/Punisher: Damaging Evidence #1-3 Fnord, I think the note is supposed to mean that this story takes place before Uncanny X-Men 281-283, since Pierce is seemingly killed in that story and doesn't get revived until after Wolverine loses his adamantium. InstantiationOctober 19, 2015 7:59 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment Worth mentioning that Stern set this story up back in Doctor Strange #57 (Feb. 1983), when Doom learned that Strange was without a disciple. Doom thinks about how he will someday try to wrest secrets of sorcery from Strange on his own terms. That same scene was also presented almost word for word a few months later by Byrne (with his own art instead of Kevin Nowlan's) in FF #258. But because Doom is apparently killed in FF #260, Stern had to delay the story he had in mind. Then once he settled on Mignola as the artist he wanted, there were further delays because of his busy schedule. So the story was years in the making, and that no doubt helped in terms of the refinement and quality. The 2013 reprint of "Triumph & Torment" includes Doc Strange #57 as well as the seminal Conway/Colan Doom story from Astonishing Tales #8 (along with some Sub-Mariner stories that are related only in that Mignola drew them). Intended or not, I hear in Doom's line about the world being his for the taking an allusion to the other exceptional graphic novel about him from the late 80s, "Emperor Doom." Perhaps my favorite line, though, and certainly a revealing moment in terms of Doom's complex character, comes after he (seemingly) betrays Strange. It exemplifies that odd mixture of arrogance, nobility, and honor that made him so fascinating. Standing over Strange's unconscious form, he tells some of Mephisto's demons lurking in the background: "He is not to be touched by the likes of you!" (The panel appears above.) Vin the Comics GuyOctober 19, 2015 7:53 PM Punisher #49 Not fnord's fault. I'll bet many of the scripts have as a plot point, "Punisher shoots skel". Vin the Comics GuyOctober 19, 2015 7:50 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment Fantastic review, brother. This book is just as good as I thought it would be. Your review nails it. Roger Stern was hands down my favorite writer during my formative years in reading comics. I forgot that I have this book. This weekend, I'm going to read this multiple times. MichaelOctober 19, 2015 7:45 PM Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness The girl, Lucy Crumm, later appears in the Dark Design oneshot, so she should be listed as a character appearing. RobertOctober 19, 2015 6:06 PM Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness Well my reasoning for saying those are the main 3 is that they have multiple titles of their own (Ghost Rider will get more than the one soon enough) and they guest-star all over the place to make struggling books "cooler." But yeah you can definitely add Cable into the mix with his novelty-sized guns and faux edginess. It's all embarrassing looking back on it. david banesOctober 19, 2015 5:45 PM Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness I'd say Ghost Rider is the fourth with Cable being #3. Thanos6October 19, 2015 4:34 PM Wolverine/Punisher: Damaging Evidence #1-3 I literally laughed out loud at the first scans of Wolverine. kvetoOctober 19, 2015 4:21 PM Punisher #49 Do you just cut and paste old Punisher reviews? It all sounds the same. kvetoOctober 19, 2015 4:20 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment Stern was the best writer in my opinion. I can only imagine that ego in Marvel's management allowed him to walk. That and the poor taste of readers not knowing just how good Stern was. Mindlessly buying Punisher and Wolverine dreck written by hacks rather than the good stuff by Stern. My only complaint is that is should have featured all "name" sorcerers, Jennifer Kale, Brother Voodoo, Baron Mordo, etc. How much fun would that have been? kvetoOctober 19, 2015 3:49 PM Marvel Tales #250 Sorry, but I fricking love the idea of Norrid Radd showing up at Galactus' home with his favourite surfboard:-) "Dude, don't forget my board. Hang ten!" Red CometOctober 19, 2015 3:09 PM Darkhawk #1-3 I also had more love than perhaps was truly warranted for Darkhawk, Nova and the New Warriors, Sleepwalker, et al since I was a kid when they came out. Spider-man's constant team-ups with them and mentoring of them are also why I've always thought of him as a more experience super-hero. Because of that I've always found it strange when some writers try to treat Spidey as younger or unseasoned. And looking back on it, Darkhawk's origin and some of his powers like the chest beam are very similar to the manga character the Guyver. Red CometOctober 19, 2015 2:43 PM Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness If you threw a copy of every early 90s Marvel book into a mixing vat this book would likely come out the pipe on the side. Feels like all we're missing is Cable. JRJr's art really elevates Howard Mackie's story here, though I did enjoy all three heroes sharing a meal at the boarding house and pretending they don't know each other (although I guess they don't know Danny Ketch). As I recall, the follow-up special didn't have art anywhere near as good. It's also pretty funny and ironic that The Punisher of all people tells Blackheart to "take your edge and shove it!" InstantiationOctober 19, 2015 2:36 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment This is my personal favorite Marvel work from the late 80s. Unlike fnord and Michael, I'm no continuity expert and accept the placement, but I'll just note that from the perspective of real-time collecting, it feels quite odd for this to be coming after IG. "how the hell Marvel let Roger Stern walk away": yeah. Not many comics bring the term "Shakespearean" to mind, but this is one. Red CometOctober 19, 2015 2:27 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment I've been to a lot of conventions and comic stores across the US and have always found this book to be hard to find. Like Robert, I also remember Wizard hyping it up back in the day so I bet that's why it was so scarce. InstantiationOctober 19, 2015 2:26 PM Captain America #128 Good point about the cover date. Just for the record: As I understand the real-life incident, Hunter, who was high on meth, initially tried to get on stage with some other Stones fans and was violently driven off (punched, etc.) by the Hells Angels. Only after that did he very unadvisedly return with the drawn revolver. The guy who reportedly stabbed him five times in the back, Alan Passaro, was later acquitted on grounds of self-defense. It was complicated, and I guess one reason we dream up superheroes is because we want the world to be simpler, safer, and more just. clydeOctober 19, 2015 2:12 PM Darkhawk #4-5 When I was reading this in "real-time", I thought it was cool that we saw the character from Avengers #304 reappear here. When they finally got to his backstory, I felt it was a bit of a let-down. RobertOctober 19, 2015 2:05 PM Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness The three poster children for the '90s "grim & gritty" nonsense all in one book. It's every bit as shallow as one would imagine. At least there's the JRJR art. RobertOctober 19, 2015 2:02 PM Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment I had no idea this even existed until Wizard made mention of it back in the day. I immediately sought it out and it became one of my favorite stories involving any of the three major characters involved. Similarly to your situation with this project, at the time I was burnt out on the 90s comics I was struggling to keep reading for the sake of my cherished collection. To read something this good while most of Marvel's output was garbage was refreshing. It was going back and finding things from the past that I'd missed that kept me into comics as the gap between my tastes and what Marvel was putting out widened. Mark DrummondOctober 19, 2015 11:10 AM Punisher War Zone #37 With those elongated "teeth" in the skull symbol, how the hell does the Punisher lean forward? ChrisOctober 19, 2015 11:08 AM Marvel Tales #250 The Silver Surfer didn't have an actual "surfboard". It was some kind of energy platform that allowed interstellar flight that only appeared similar to an Earth surfboard. It wasn't like Norrin Radd showed up to Galactus's home carrying a surfboard and was magically transformed with him. Visually it's a gimmick, but the character is on an entirely different nature than Rocket Racer (or the the Black Racer). There is really only so much that can be done with the concept. However, these kind of short stories are certainly not the way to build what little source material there is. These are all pedestrian stories that could be done with any number of characters. Ataru320October 19, 2015 10:55 AM Marvel Tales #250 I think the difference between the Silver Surfer and Rocket Racer is just the means and the context and such. SS was created by Kirby and created as this majestic "relatable" (well moreso than the immense planet eater but still alien in concept) herald to bring about the arrival of the massive being that is the equivalent of a god. The surfing gimmick was weird but it worked considering he basically surfed the cosmos. Rocket Racer was just some street-level kid who uses a rocket-powered skateboard and more or less meant to appeal to the street-level and maybe add another to the growing African-American hero pool, even if it was due to his gimmick and the pedestrian nature (plus the utter goofiness in the way he's presented) that ended up making him appear "ridiculous". I guess simply put: a good writer is what defines whether a concept is merely a gimmick or something more. Lee and Kirby made the Surfer work. Rocket Racer never really left behind being a goofy concept even though other writers tried to boost him up further. (though at least he was being presented as a positive role model at a time where fnord was criticizing more WASPy heroes were emerging...but then again you could say the same thing about Night Thrasher) Mark BlackOctober 19, 2015 10:55 AM Marvel Tales #250 @Red Comet Sure, agreed, but a super-hero with no other powers or skills other than having a fast skateboard is inherently stupid (to me). Silver Surfer has more going on than just his surfboard. It's not so much the gimmick that makes me think Rocket Racer kind of sucks, but that he only has that gimmick going for him. Red CometOctober 19, 2015 9:56 AM Marvel Tales #250 I never said Rocket Racer was a particularly special character. My point was, and remains, that a super-hero with a skateboard gimmick is not inherently stupider than one with a surfboard gimmick. Mark BlackOctober 19, 2015 12:00 AM Marvel Tales #250 Before you defend Rocket Racer as not being silly and compare him to the Silver Surfer, tell me what are Rocket Racer's powers? What sets him apart from other heroes? He has a fast skateboard? Red CometOctober 18, 2015 11:33 PM Punisher War Zone #37 That art is a bigger dog than the one in the story. Gah. Good news is that if you can make it through the 90s you get into the Nu Marvel era, which I enjoyed at the time for the new art styles, the experimentation, and the move to modern storytelling. Then again that's when I noticed continuity not being taken seriously anymore at Marvel so, given the focus of this project, you might not like it so much after all... Dan H.October 18, 2015 11:29 PM Iron Man #33-35 The entire Espionage Elite team appears to be an "homage" to the IMF, although only Farley London seems like a direct analogue (although if you swapped their ethnicities, the strongman and electronics expert would be obvious counterparts to Willie and Barney). This issue would have been written between seasons four and five. There wasn't a regular female cast member in season four and the announcement of Lesley Ann Warren for season five probably wouldn't have been known before the script was turned in, so it's possible that "Marya Penskiyov" is a direct nod at one of the female guest stars from season four. I'm not enough of an MI geek to know for sure, though. "Philips" wouldn't seem to have an analogue either, but the similarity in name to "Phelps" seems a bit more than coincidental (the actual "Phelps" role would be played by Spymaster here). Philips' "all-around" role is probably inspired by the various guest stars that weren't part of the main cast. Red CometOctober 18, 2015 11:28 PM Marvel Tales #250 I never thought of Rocket Racer as a silly character partially because of the Spider-man annual where he beats Speed Demon in a back-up story being one of my earliest comics. Objectively speaking he's certainly not A-list, but his skateboard gimmick is no dumber than the Silver Surfer with his magic space surfboard and nowhere near as goofy as the Black Racer and his skis. Dan H.October 18, 2015 10:57 PM Captain America #128 "eight months before this issue appeared." That wouldn't be quite the case, given that this issue was cover-dated August 1970, meaning it would have been on the shelves in May. Still probably plenty of time, given that this wasn't part of some multi-issue epic. An aside about Altamont: I must have read or seen a dozen mentions or reports of the Meredith Hunter stabbing, but it wasn't until I actually saw Gimme Shelter that I learned for the first time that Hunter had a gun and had taken it out and pointed it toward the stage when he was swarmed by the Angels. Literally every reference I'd seen prior to that was along the lines of "bikers murder black guy." I guess the truth was too complicated. Luke BlanchardOctober 18, 2015 7:57 PM Marvel Tales #250 The robot seems to be modelled after the Living Brain from AMAZING SPIDER MAN #8. The arm waving bit at the end is a riff on its attack method. BobOctober 18, 2015 6:48 PM Damage Control #1-4 Loved the first two DC series (the elevator gag in #3 of vol. 1 is one my favorate humor bits in a Marvel comic), but this one was just stale and felt rushed out. BobOctober 18, 2015 6:45 PM Damage Control #1-4 I'm surprised McDuffie didn't do more with Night Thrasher, since he was going to be one of the stars of his proposed "Teenage Negro Ninja Thrashers" mikrolikOctober 18, 2015 5:59 PM Daredevil #63 I was kind of annoyed by the awkwardness of the dialogue this issue: "Please don't call me (Gladiator). I am just a humble man who runs a costume shop- nothing more!" He didn't want to be called "The Gladiator", but at this point, his real name had not been revealed, and I guess they couldn't be bothered to come up with one (Frank Miller first named him Melvin Potter in DD 166). Foggy should at least probably know his name based on their history. Generally, I think if you want to keep a character's real name unrevealed, you shouldn't put them in situations or dialogue where it's obvious the name is known, but the characters jump through hoops to avoid saying it. For another example, look at Leap-Frog/Vincent Patillio in court in DD 26. Piotr WOctober 18, 2015 5:32 PM Marvel Tales #250 I hate Rocket Racer... for his costume. That yellow shirt collar is so ugly... Aside from that, what's so silly about this guy? Night Trasher used a skateboard, too... Also, I think that the 90s Spider-Man cartoon (which I'm not a fan of) actually made Rocket Racer (as well as Big Wheel!) work. BobOctober 18, 2015 2:55 PM Punisher War Zone #37 The 90s art! It burns! ChrisOctober 18, 2015 2:13 PM Hulk #141 Omar, that's an interesting point. In the Marvel Universe it is possible that one aspect of "psychology" is the study of mental energy, psychic powers, telepathy, telekinesis, etc. It would not be a pseudoscience since these things actually exist. So in addition to normal psychology, Samson might also be much more of a "hard science" scientist who built his own devices and such to measure, control, and manipulate psi-power. Exactly how that enabled him to restore Betty isn't explained, but hey - SCIENCE! However, to go back to your point on Wilhelm Reich, Reich's "organic energy" was previously mentioned in Tales to Astonish 78-81 when a Dr Zaxon attempted to steal the Hulk's organic energy. So there is some continuity there, although probably not intentional. Walter LawsonOctober 18, 2015 12:56 PM Punisher War Zone #37 The dog eventually gets his own series, Punisher Max, right? In fact, there seems to be a whole line of comics named for this poor pooch. (Sorry, someone had to go there...) mikrolikOctober 18, 2015 11:58 AM Amazing Spider-Man #160 Even though it doesn't happen this issue, I like how they brought back the Tinkerer and made him a behind-the-scenes villain. I think he's weak when he tries to commit actual crimes himself; better he's always in the background building tech and selling it. At least overall, it was worth bringing him back after such a long, seemingly one-and-done appearance (which is more than I can say for, say, the Miracle Man…). Omar KarinduOctober 18, 2015 10:43 AM Hulk #141 I suppose there's a little lip service paid to the idea that Samson is a psychiatrist, since his gadget is called a cathexis-ray. Quite how Freudian theory translates into power-transferrign ray guns, I have no idea. (Perhaps Wilhelm Reich is involved?) MichaelOctober 18, 2015 10:21 AM Avengers #87 To be fair, he's not the only one- Don McGregor had T'Challa's stepmother talk like the Wakandans had only discovered the unique properties of vibranium when T'Challa was a boy. Never mind that the vibranium mound had supposedly been sacred for generations. Again, everyone since has ignored that retcon. Omar KarinduOctober 18, 2015 10:12 AM Daredevil #75-76 I get the sense that between this and the various "Black militants are dupes led by self-serving crooks" stories of this period that Roy Thomas was passing Tom Wolfe's Radical Chicand Mau-Mauing the Flak-Catchers around the office. Presumably he backed off after the response to Incredible Hulk #142, in which Wolfe actually appears and plugs the book. Omar KarinduOctober 18, 2015 10:09 AM Avengers #87 Thomas really likes stripping away the idea that Wakanda was special before T'Challa. Much later, in Fantastic Four Unlimited #1, he decides that T'Challa's grandfather was the first Black Panther, which contradicts Kirby's 1970s series establishing a long line of Panthers. Everyone since has ignored the retcon entirely, thankfully. Omar KarinduOctober 18, 2015 10:02 AM Avengers #85-86 Brain-Child is also an analogue of the old Justice Society villain Brain Wave. This was an unofficial crossover with Justice League of America #87, which features "The Justifiers of Angor," a group of Avengers knockoffs that includes the thunder god Wandina, the Silver Sorceress, the superfast Jack B. Quick, and the shrinking flying Blue Jay. They, too are revived, though much later, in the 1980s Justice League title, where they get a bunch of villains who are all knockoffs of major Marvel villains. This kicks off a short run of such "unofficial crossovers," including one that manages to drag int he Rutland Halloween Parade for added metafictional pointlessness. When the Justice League cartoon used a variation of this plot as David Banes mentions above, Bruce Timm and his co-creators named the Brain Child character after Roy Thomas and revealed that he was a mutated child who was forcing everyone on his parallel world to live in an illusory, nostalgic past. I'm not sure if it was an homage or a critique. Omar KarinduOctober 18, 2015 9:50 AM Iron Man #36-37 I get the sense that the Spymaster stuff was really Allyn Brodsky's plot, and Conway couldn't be rid of it fast enough to move to his own vision for the title. Pity about the quality of that vision.... Omar KarinduOctober 18, 2015 9:48 AM Daredevil #73 Whoops, sorry, somehow misread Dan Spector's comment saying the same thing with the correct age for Conway. Also, Conway identifies as a "he" despite my typo. Omar KarinduOctober 18, 2015 9:47 AM Daredevil #73 In limited defense of Conway, by all account she was about 19 when he wrote these issues. Granted that the works of Young Jim Shooter are miles better by comparison, Shooter also had Mort Weisinger's heavy-handed editorial guidance and the more formalized scripting and plotting methods used at DC. Their product was blander, but also more "on-model" compared to Marvel's. (Infamously, many of DC's editors in this era couldn't understand why people liked Marvel's books, which they saw as visibly rough, first-draft kinds of affairs.) Omar KarinduOctober 18, 2015 9:39 AM Iron Man #33-35 Allyn Brodsky's script in issue #34 drops a number of hints that Spymaster is an old foe of Iron Man in a new guise. On page 10, one of the Espionage Elite is surprised to see Spymaster use a ray emitted from his forehead to cut a hole in the floor, and Spymaster responds, "There is MUCH about me you do not know." Later, on page 18, Spymaster notes that he "swore to destroy" Iron Man "months ago" and, later, remarks, "I forgot myself in the dream of REVENGE ACCOMPLISHED." During his battle with Iron Man, he uses his forehead blaster ray and a belt with flying jets.. He also takes a punch from Iron Man and, at one point, says that Iron Man's damaged armor "illustrates [IM's] inferior powers." So we have someone who wants revenge on Iron Man for something that happened "months ago," shoots blast rays from his forehead, wears a flying jet-belt, has espionage skills, and perhaps has super-powers of some kind. There are two candidates this points to: the obvious one is the Unicorn, a former Russian agent whose main gimmicks at this point are his flying belt and forehead-mounted zap ray and hates Iron Man. And in his previous appearance in issue #16, he flees while noting that "My revenge must take a practical turn." and swearing to destroy Iron Man when he returns. But Spymaster also uses a gun that shoots electrified discs in issue #34, which resembles the gimmick the Black Knight used on Iron Man back in Tales of Suspense #73. So perhaps the idea is that Spymaster is using a bunch of old Iron Man villains' gimmicks. That, plus his desire to claim superiority over Iron Man, might also point to Alex Niven, the former Crimson Dynamo. In either case, it does seem that Brodsky intended Spymaster to be an old enemy of Tony Stark's. This is lost in the handover to Gerry Conway, where Spymaster's motive abruptly changes from some sort of delayed revenge scheme to just being a hireling of Zodiac. And it's further buried by the Michelinie-Layton team's revival of the forgotten villain about a decade later, where they give him a very different (and more compelling) personality. In continuity terms, I suppose that the Spymaster's appearance in The Iron Age might retroactively explain the revenge stuff from this comic. Omar KarinduOctober 18, 2015 9:20 AM Amazing Spider-Man #91-92 I find tis one interesting in light of the Comics Code Authority's proscriptions against portraying authority figures as evil or wrong; was the Code loosening up, or does the fact that Bullit is just a candidate provide a loophole? Erik BeckOctober 18, 2015 8:54 AM New Mutants Summer Special #1 ChrisW, I'm the exact opposite. For me, if there was anything good about Liefeld, it's that he got the series out of the hands of Blevins. BobOctober 17, 2015 11:24 PM Eternals: The Herod Factor #1 That cover is hilarious. It reminds me of Jhonen Vasquez's strip making fun of Liefeld InstantiationOctober 17, 2015 9:35 PM Captain America #128 Just to confirm your point, Omar: Meredith Hunter was killed by a Hells Angels member at Altamont in December 1969, eight months before this issue appeared. Although the quality of specific instances varies, I've always generally approved of attempts at "relevance" and "engagement" in comics or sequential art. InstantiationOctober 17, 2015 9:28 PM Iron Fist #8-10 That's what I figured. My ellipsis points were intended to indicate my point was basically tongue in cheek, although Byrne does do more than just make a cameo in some issues. Thanks for mentioning the listing in the MCP. I see it lists Byrne for IF #15 but not #8. InstantiationOctober 17, 2015 9:22 PM Iron Fist #15 Cockrum, btw, also appears with the other "bearded blonds" at the top of the last page, so that makes more sense knowing what you've mentioned, Vincent. (And Nightcrawler is asking the colorist Bonnie Wilford, who was married for a while to Claremont, for a dance.) I've always noticed how Phoenix's entrance, in particular, is unmistakably in Cockrum's style but wasn't sure whether Byrne was just mimicking it there or what, so thanks for the info. kveto, certainly not trying to annoy you, my friend, just trying to be accurate. As a thought experiment, substitute Shang-Chi for Fist here. He'd have done at least as well against Wolverine and Nightcrawler, but he would have had no way to send Colossus flying into the next room. So the fight probably would have ended about three pages sooner. Thickness-wise, three pages might be a hair, but width- and pleasure-wise (esp. in this case, with the potato salad), it's more. ;-) ChrisWOctober 17, 2015 9:01 PM Amazing Spider-Man #3 Green Goblin was intended to be a mystery which never got solved (during Ditko's run,) the Big Man was a clever gimmick, as was the Crime Master. The Chameleon was a commie spy. The Living Brain was a robot gone berzerk. The Circus of Crime were used in a prior issue of "Hulk," so who does that leave? The Molten Man, the Meteor and a Guy Named Joe? The magician in Annual #2? The Cat? Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 8:42 PM Daredevil #6 Strangely, the Eel doesn't seem to have his electrical gimmick in this comic. He's just a guy in...well, lubricated spandex. Who apparently hangs around in sewers. Whatever floats your boat, Leo. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 8:29 PM Avengers #11 The Spider-Man robot from this story makes a very odd return appearance decades later in Spider-Man Team-Up #4. ChrisWOctober 17, 2015 8:11 PM New Avengers: Illuminati #3 Heck, what did the X-Men do almost immediately after #191? Invade NORAD to save Banshee. If only one of them knew someone who could, you know, help them get entry to a military installation. Or just put them in a position where an Image Inducer would be useful. Heck, who on the Illuminati couldn't have benefited from an Image Inducer at one time or another? How many other superheroes could have benefited from an Image Inducer? It would sure help secret identities and costume changes, not to mention sneaking around, confusing the villains... Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 7:48 PM Fantastic Four annual #2 This issue has one of my favorite Doom scenes. He's got the FF fighting amongst themselves and everything's going wonderfully. But then, "masochistically," as Lee puts it, he takes off his mask as shown above and realizes that even if he kills all his enemies, he'll never really be happy. And then he puts his mask back on and gets back to villaining. It's a nice bit of characterization. ChrisWOctober 17, 2015 7:26 PM Amazing Spider-Man #3 Come on, I already conceded on the unique visuals and non-repetitive powers, don't go changing my mind further about non-repetitive motivations as well! ;) Seriously, that does line up with the stuff I was saying above, that they were appearing in better stories than most other villains. Heck, even the Enforcers fit in, because they *are* henchmen. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 6:57 PM Iron Man #28 Busiek didn't forget; Tony mindwiped most of the Earth to erase his identity in an Annual set before that Controller story. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 6:34 PM Captain America #130 This is a really bizarre period for the country; around this time, the film Joe, starring Peter Boyle as a psychopathic factory worker who kills hippies and causes the protagonist to murder his own daughter when they shoot up a commune, drew *cheers* from audiences in some parts of the country. There was a very real sense, arguably on both sides, that a war was being fought over the future of the country. Switching gears with all the grace and subtlety of Roy Thomas dialogue: boy, Whirlwind sure is off-model in this comic, but he's in the right outfit on the cover. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 6:16 PM Captain America #128 The whole scenario is uncomfortably close to the Altamont incident, and this story would almost certainly have been written after those sad events. I'm not sure how I feel about having Captain America turn up to stop the Marvel-Earth version of those events. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 6:13 PM Avengers #78-79 "The Lethal Legion made a good replacement for the Masters of Evil, distinguished by them being foes of the "new" Avengers instead of the original. I think it's disappointing they were not utilized more." Not only that, but they also differed in that every member debuted int he Avengers; with the first version of the MoE, all the characters except Zemo were enemies of the individual members from their various series. (Even Zemo gets "established" the same month in an issue of Sgt. Fury.) " I never liked the portrayal of the Black Panther's involvement with African-Americans. It is an attempt to be relevant, but an indigenous African king has almost no connection with the black experience in America except his skin color. It would be the same as if a character whose concept makes him the Prince of Ruritania spending his time on the plight of hillbillies. T'challa's time as a school teacher in particular makes no sense. The Black Panther is much more interesting when he is dealing with issues as a result of the politics and culture of Wakanda, not America's inner cities. This stuff would be a better fit for the Falcon or a new hero." This is why I never liked Reginald Hudlin's take on T'Challa, which had much more to do with American racial issues than the more global politics of the Priest and McGregor versions of the character. (Well, that and Hudlin's work is tremendously unsubtle in its messaging.) "I feel sorry for the Grim Reaper, he just wants his brother back but the guy is crazy." Between this issue and his first appearance, it seems as if neither the Avengers nor anyone else bothered to tell him what actually happened to his brother. In issue #52, they seem surprised to learn Simon Williams even had a sibling. Max_SpiderOctober 17, 2015 6:08 PM Avengers West Coast annual #6 @Michael Yeah, but... How many people listen to those press conferences, right? :D Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 6:07 PM Captain America #127 This may be the first time we see Fury outright manipulate a superhero; he's held back details before, but he's never staged a scenario like this entirely as a ploy. It's a foretaste of the more ignoble take on the character that will eventually bring him into line with broader changes in the spy genre. (For all that Fury was supposedly SHIELD's "public director," he tended to act more like a frontline sergeant when he had his own series.) Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 5:53 PM Hulk #125 I see what you mean: this is certainly much closer to the usual "supervillain's lair explodes/the bad guy falls into the water" kind of ending than the "and then the gods banished Crusher Creel forever because he's absurdly powerful" stuff Thor and Odin do to him in his first two arcs. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 5:48 PM X-Men/Spider-Man #1 And so it is, as the guy who looked at the actual comic correctly points out. I'm probably getting it confused with Isabella taking over the "Art Attacks" storyline. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 5:45 PM Journey Into Mystery #101-103 I keep forgetting the flashbacks rule! Erik RobbinsOctober 17, 2015 5:19 PM Iron Man annual #12 My first thought was that the Quasimodo story was ripping of Star Trek: TNG's "Ship in a Bottle" - with holodeck Moriarty being convinced he had been freed from the holodeck but was in actuality in a VR environment. But that episode turns out to be from 1993, so it was Marvel who beat ST to the punch. Red CometOctober 17, 2015 5:01 PM Eternals: The Herod Factor #1 Is it a bad sign that I knew Roy Thomas wrote this random early 90s special I never heard of before I even clicked the link? DermieOctober 17, 2015 4:30 PM Avengers annual #20 I agree Rage is being aggressive--but, as you noted before, it goes along with his name. And with the fact that he is a pre-teen kid. Impulse control isn't necessarily his strong suit. Vincent ValentiOctober 17, 2015 3:27 PM Iron Fist #15 Phoenix and Wolverine's faces (maybe a few others, too), were redrawn by Dave Cockrum throughout the issue, which is odd since this was meant to pass the baton to John Byrne for taking over X-MEN. kvetoOctober 17, 2015 1:09 PM Iron Fist #15 you know what I meant. splitting-hairs, and all that. InstantiationOctober 17, 2015 12:56 PM Iron Fist #15 This last issue is mainly a comedy of errors, and it's a great deal of fun for the reader. Although Wolverine's claws and Storm's lightning bolts pose a serious threat to Iron Fist's life, the serious stuff here -- Misty going undercover and The Steel Serpent ambushing IF for the second time -- is in the subplots. Otherwise, the tone is set by Wolverine: "Bub, I'm gonna enjoy this fracas." What else can you say when Storm gets drawn into the melee by being hit in the face with a bowl of potato salad? The end is a string of jokes: Fist's bug eyes as Wolverine's claws pierce his mask, Fist's "secret" ID getting blown yet again, Danny being the owner of the building and thus saving Jean from eviction, Jean volunteering Wolverine to clean up his mess (wonderful final panel), even the bearded blond creators poking fun at themselves. This was/is one of my fave single issues from the 70s. Makes you sad the series was canceled, but at least it went out on a high note. Like Starlin's canceled Warlock at the same time, the plot line was wrapped up elsewhere. I wouldn't call Fist "unpowered" (kveto), because his chi energy gives him the Iron Fist, along with various convenient misc. abilities such as absorbing radiation, healing himself, even mind-melding (shades of Spock). It's only the Iron Fist that allows him to temporarily impede Colossus. To me, Fist's strong showing in the short run here seems fully credible. Erik BeckOctober 17, 2015 12:53 PM Fantastic Four #343-346 Simonson's Sharon looks a lot like his Lorelei, but that's not a bad thing. Also love the next issue blurb - very reminiscent of what he did on Thor. Erik RobbinsOctober 17, 2015 12:28 PM Avengers West Coast annual #6 [Ant-Man movie minor spoiler warning] Maybe Jan should have gone with that screenplay, cause when Marvel does get to that point of being able to make their own movies, they kill her off in a flashback. Aaron MalchowOctober 17, 2015 12:23 PM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 Fnord, thank you for your clarification, especially given how unproductive you felt this interaction was. I agree that we are talking past each other and would probably continue to do so on this issue (and likely others, as well), and I certainly regret that, and I wish that we could have talked with each other, instead. MichaelOctober 17, 2015 12:21 PM Hulk annual #17 OK, I found it on the web- there was a bounty hunter called Sweeney in PAD's Star Trek series for DC. So yeah, PAD was being VERY self-indulgent. fnord12October 17, 2015 12:05 PM Hulk annual #17 Should be there now. Thanks. Mark DrummondOctober 17, 2015 11:53 AM Hulk annual #17 The scan doesn't seem to be appearing. kvetoOctober 17, 2015 11:50 AM Namor annual #1 (All Winners) Hey Michael, just to add a slight caveat to your "definitely" statement. Most experts agree that Operation Downfall (the proposed invasion of Japan) would have resulted in millions more deaths, possibly doubling the number of casualties in the war. It shouldn't be just dismissed as "it would take longer". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall Im sure you know this above info, but I think '76's statement was borne out of anti-communist sentiment, moreso than military knowledge. MichaelOctober 17, 2015 11:39 AM Eternals: The Herod Factor #1 This review does a better job than I ever could of summing up the many plot holes with this issue: fnord12October 17, 2015 11:22 AM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 Aaron, unlike you i find these long back and forths to be very unproductive, and i don't like doing point by point refutations because it just clutters up the comments section and i don't think convinces anyone. I didn't mean to be dismissive of you with my "tea leaf" comment, i just didn't want to get into a deep discussion of why each piece of circumstantial evidence doesn't work for me as "proof" of anything. And to a degree i think we're talking past each other, because i am specifically focused on the idea that Priest did something to DeFalco and Frenz out of malice, whereas you say that's not something you'd even given consideration to. So we may even be in agreement. I have no problem saying that Priest made mistakes as an editor (as i note, Priest says the same). From his perspective, he thought DeFalco and Frenz were going to be late, so he ran fill-ins. His perspective may have been wrong. But the idea of it being done out of spite or something that i took objection to. JC's phrase "almost certainly deliberately screwing with DeFalco and Frenz's livelihood" is what i was reacting to. fnord12October 17, 2015 11:12 AM Hulk #125 As i say, Omar, i'm contrasting it to when the Absorbing Man was left floating out in space with no hope of getting home of his own accord. I can imagine Absorbing Man getting out from under a mountain much more easily. But you're right that it's effectively the same thing since he remains there until his next appearance. (And it's not picking a fight to disagree!) fnord12October 17, 2015 11:09 AM Avengers annual #20 @Dermie, i've clarified my line about Rage's "attack", but i still think Rage is being very aggressive. He's not making cracks from the back of the group. It looks like he's walking towards Grotesk, hurling insults and spoiling for a fight. fnord12October 17, 2015 11:04 AM Journey Into Mystery #101-103 Just as a clarification: since Gullin (the awesome Boar God) only appears in the Tales of Asgard portion, i won't add him as a Character Appearing. But it is great that he appears again! fnord12October 17, 2015 11:02 AM Iron Fist #8-10 Just to clarify, i don't track real world people as Characters Appearing, including comics creators. The MCP does have an entry for John Byrne, if anyone does want to see all the books he's appeared in. fnord12October 17, 2015 11:00 AM Tales Of Suspense #42 (Iron Man) Added him as a Character Appearing then. Thanks. fnord12October 17, 2015 10:59 AM Tales Of Suspense #39 Thanks for being considerate, Omar, but no worries. I appreciate when people add things i've left out, since i'm bound to not cover everything, and to me the comments are very much part of the entry, so i don't feel the need to add everything that someone "notes". fnord12October 17, 2015 10:58 AM Avengers West Coast annual #6 I meant to add that Wonder Man scene. It is pretty callous. I'd say killing even Mutates is pretty unusual, but i've noted before that the Avengers' no killing rule does seem to get put on hold for warlike situations, especially with non-humans. fnord12October 17, 2015 10:53 AM Namor annual #1 (All Winners) @Michael, re: Coldsteel -- right! Thanks. fnord12October 17, 2015 10:51 AM Hulk annual #17 @Michael, yeah, i almost put in a scan of that scene but i left it out for brevity. It did feel more like an in-joke to me, and therefore self-indulgent. But maybe it's a cultural reference that i just don't know. I've added the scan now, at the bottom of the entry. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 10:12 AM Hulk #129 Curiously, the Leader's ray also gives the Glob a new power: he can mentally track the Hulk. And the next time the Glob shows up, it's int he form of the Golden Brain, which has a number of psychlc abilities. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 10:09 AM Fantastic Four #100 Rather oddly, the FF, who have recently fought perfect duplicates of themselves created by the Mad Thinker, deduce that only one person could have constructed robots with the powers and memories of their old foes...yes, it must be the Puppet Master! Also, while it's standard comics storytelling -- and will happen again in Amazing Spider-Man #150 -- I have to wonder how you build a functional Sandman robot. I guess the Thinker's theft of unstable molecule data in his first appearance might cover it. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 10:02 AM Avengers #77 I used to think Sweet William was a gay stereotype, but rereading this story I think he was a really poorly executed spoof of a hippie. He's even got a "flower cild" name and goes on about how he hates violence. Anyway, this story is basically a Scooby-Do plot avant la lettre, and the villains seem like they'd fit right in to the Adam West Batman show. This is one of Roy's weakest efforts on the title to date. Also, I note out of sheer anal retentiveness that Cap'n Skragg also appears very briefly in Defenders #64; he's in a single panel on the interior, and is oddly prominent on the cover. This was pointed out to me by Jeff Christiansen at the Marvel Appendix site when I wrote up an entry on the Split-Second Squad....well, the original Split-Second Squad, anyway. there have been at least two others for some reason.) MichaelOctober 17, 2015 9:55 AM X-Men/Spider-Man #1 Fnord posted his review of the JJJ story and he lists Conway, not Isabella, as the writer: Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 9:43 AM X-Men/Spider-Man #1 The JJJ story you're talking about was a fill-in by Tony Isabella that appeared int he middle of Conway's run on Web of Spider-Man. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 9:41 AM Fantastic Four #96 This story seems to be going for a "real-time" gimmick, but it doesn't really come off very well. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 9:36 AM Hulk #125 I hate to pick a fight, but...this issue does end by putting the A.M> on ice again. He gets crushed by a mountain, and he's not seen again (in publication order, art least) until Loki revives him in some later issues of Thor. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 9:35 AM Iron Man #23 One of the strengths of Goodwin's run was its serialized storytelling, and I think part of the problem here is that Stan's "done in one" edict forces him to compress things quite a bit. It's still telling a serial story, but the pacing is off; I don't think it's a coincidence tat Goodwin leaves the title in a few issues. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 9:27 AM Silver Surfer #13 You can tell the book is in trouble; int he last couple of issues, Stan has abandoned the "moral dilemma" and :"human interest" stuff of previous issues and started moving the book towards super-villain threats. This doesn't help, either, so next issue starts a long run of bringing in guest-stars that lasts until the title is cancelled. Omar KarinduOctober 17, 2015 9:24 AM Avengers #73-74 Dan Dunn, the white Serpents leader in this story, is pretty clearly a spoof of William F. Buckley, Jr. AirPiratePressOctober 17, 2015 9:09 AM Amazing Spider-Man #8 (second story) I have a very strong suspicion that this story was created for FF Annual 1, then rejected by Stan in favour of the revised version that appeared in the Annual. This story would then have been inventory, and we know that Marty Goodman hated carrying inventory. So Stan dusted off the story to use up in ASM 8. That would also explain why Spider-Man's acting like an idiot in this story. I can't imagine what Ditko felt as he inked this, given that it really showed "his" character in a poor light ... Erik BeckOctober 17, 2015 9:04 AM Fantastic Four #342 There doesn't seem to be much on Rex Valve. It seems to be clearly a pseudonym. One person online suggests that it's Kieron Dwyer. MichaelOctober 17, 2015 8:54 AM Namor annual #1 (All Winners) How is it naive, Luis? This takes place after the atomic bomb was tested. The United States DEFINITELY could have won the war in the Pacific at that point without the Soviets- it would have just taken longer. As for his dislike of the "Communists", keep in mind that the Communists in question were Stalin and Mao. Luis DantasOctober 17, 2015 3:27 AM Namor annual #1 (All Winners) The first line from '76 is rather unfortunate. Almost unbelievable in its naivete. Aaron MalchowOctober 17, 2015 1:59 AM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 Fnord, I'm honestly not sure how the theory that Priest was at fault for the scheduling problems or was unsupportive towards DeFalco/Frenz is tea leaf reading. At the very least, David and Shooter's comments are certainly a matter of record and are relevant. It feels like my argument is being labeled, but not refuted. I don't mind conceding or modifying my argument, if evidence can be presented that counters my inferences. I try to let evidence guide me in my conclusions, knowing that circumstantial evidence can be indirect, yet can still be reliable. And that circumstantial evidence that is relevant should be considered, not ignored. The circumstantial evidence certainly seems to support DeFalco and Frenz's claims more than Priest's. But although I politely disagree with you in doing so, I understand you dismissing the circumstantial evidence of DeFalco's meeting deadlines in regards to the time period before and after Priest's editorial run on Amazing Spider-Man. However, I don't understand disregarding evidence of Defalco making publication deadlines for three other series while also working for Priest on Amazing Spider-Man. I cannot really comment on the issue regarding DeFalco and Frenz's potential paycheck bonuses, although I think that JC brings up an interesting concern I had not thought about. My last post was intended to point out that more evidence exists beyond DeFalco, Frenz, and Priest's individual accounts, and to restate that the majority of the evidence seems to support DeFalco and Frenz instead of Priest. As for statements on this thread being potentially slanderous, either DeFalco's reputation, or DeFalco and Frenz's reputation, or Priest's reputation is most likely being defamed by the different accounts the three of them have given. And in that case, that potential defamation apparently either started on Priest's site or in Back Issue #35, and then is likely to continue wherever those two sources are referred to. But to not search for and intellectually grapple with that truth behind the situation is a dangerous thing. And that search for the truth should happen in both private thoughts and in public discussions, otherwise that truth will never be uncovered. I think simply believing in only one of the three people's claims without supporting evidence certainly hurts the reputations of the others. Also, simply repeating any of the claims without holding them to scrutiny can be equally hurtful. What I try to do -- and what I hope any of us would do -- is to evaluate accounts and evidence in order to try to best understand the truth. Often, I fortunately arrive at it, and at other times, I attempt learn from where I made a wrong conclusion. So while I appreciate you wanting to caution against slanderous claims, I think accusations of slander are best made when a person clearly makes a statement which they know disregards established facts and logical interpretations of events. Otherwise, discussions are unduly restricted by referring to such efforts as slander (or in the case with written statements, as libel) without evidence that slander has occurred. If you think the claims against Priest are unwarranted (which is probably a better term to use than claiming they are slanderous), then I am willing to agree to disagree with you regarding our opinions on the matter. I won't belabor the point. If you or anyone else has other evidence I haven't seen, I would be willing to reconsider my stance based on the strength of that evidence. Fnord, I suspect that you have a high regard for Priest, and if so, then I would imagine the last several posts might have been frustrating to read. My intent was only to add to the conversation here on the board, not to detract from it. kvetoOctober 17, 2015 12:48 AM Damage Control #1-4 You know, the only thing I ever liked about Damage Control was that little "Ï've just had an origin" joke. And this ugly series goes and ruins it. MichaelOctober 16, 2015 11:55 PM Damage Control #1-4 Fnord, one other complication with the chronology- in Thunderball's next appearances, Fantastic Four 355 and Amazing Spider-Man 353, he's still powerless as a result of Loki draining his powers in Thor 428-430. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 11:36 PM Journey Into Mystery #104-106 This story is pretty much the nail in the coffin for Hyde and Cobra as Thor villains; the end of #106 shows that Thor can take Hyde out in less than a minute without using any of his more exotic powers, and the Cobra is...well, the Cobra. The next time they turn up, they get their powers doubled...and still lose. It's little wonder they moved over to>daredevil and Captain America afterwards. DermieOctober 16, 2015 11:34 PM Avengers annual #20 Rage doesn't launch an attack on anyone--unless you're counting a verbal assault. All he did was say Grotesk is ugly (and come on, his name IS "Grotesk", after all), and then Grotesk threw the first punch. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 11:30 PM Avengers #5-6 My favorite part of this story is the Thor/Black Knight battle, where Thor gets fed up with the Knight's gimmicks and charges at him...and the next time we see them, Thor has the horse and the Knight is out. It's like Kirby and Lee decided, "Everyone knows how this one ends. It's a guy who fights Giant-Man against Thor." Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 11:11 PM Journey Into Mystery #101-103 Astonishingly, Gullin will appear a couple more times many years later. I'm not sure3 there're more than ten Silver Age characters who aren't revived or revisited somewhere down the line. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 10:50 PM Tales To Astonish #52 (Giant-Man/Wasp) I get the feeling the Black Knight's itch-ray was the product of a failed attempt at inventing a death ray. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 10:32 PM Journey Into Mystery #99-100 One of the things that really gets lost over the years is that Hyde isn't just physically powerful and ruthless; he's also a mad scientist. Whenever he appears int he Silver Age, he always has a bunch of gadgets or chemical gimmicks to supplement his physical power. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 10:29 PM Fantastic Four #21 Given that this was the era of the Birmingham Church bombings and the resurgence of the KKK, I'm a bit more charitable to this story, which basically takes an ongoing issue and calls out bigots as so many little Hitlers. There's a reason the Hate-Monger's costume design has that pointy hood. Aaron MalchowOctober 16, 2015 10:21 PM Amazing Spider-Man #238-239 Irh13, thanks for the correction. I should have caught that. BobOctober 16, 2015 10:00 PM Namor annual #1 (All Winners) What a goofy font choice for the title InstantiationOctober 16, 2015 9:49 PM Iron Fist #8-10 With the digressive Master Khan plot finally wrapped up in #7, Claremont and Byrne really hit their stride on this title, IMO, with this arc. For starters, there's the classic cover for #8, the first that Byrne contributed to the series. (Most of the previous ones, which were good but not this good, had been done by Gil Kane, the original IF artist.) Also, Chaka and his gang seem like enemies of the right level and type for Iron Fist. Too often, he had previously faced opponents who really should have been out of his league, like Warhawk, Iron Man, and Ravager/Radion. (And next up would be the whole Wrecking Crew! But Cap, Sabretooth, Wolverine, and, of course, The Steel Serpent would be excellent adversaries.) Or he had faced generic and forgettable figures such as The Ninja, Scythe, and Scimitar. Btw, Chaka actually has one thing in common with Galactus: After appearing bare-legged for two issues, he gets pants with his outfit for #10. Even though some of the plot devices are a bit creaky or cliched, the action scenes are marvelously and fluently executed here. At this point, just about every single panel looks great. And given his later appearances in, e.g., IF 15 and prominently in FF 262, wonder if Byrne should be included among Characters Appearing . . . . MikeCheyneOctober 16, 2015 9:48 PM Amazing Spider-Man #3 I would agree. Look at the major villains in the first fifteen or so issues--their personality templates are different and will eventually help to define them Vulture is sort of ill defined, but he prides himself on his wit and sneakiness--this is later expanded into giving him the "chip on his shoulder because he's old" Compared to a lot of heroes' rogues galleries, this is pretty solid if subtle and workmanlike characterization. ChrisOctober 16, 2015 9:47 PM Namor annual #1 (All Winners) Terrible. If you are going to go to the bother of a historical story using real history, you better understand the history. While many Americans did not trust the Soviets, there are also many who appreciated the sacrifice of the Red Army during the war, and there was genuine hope the Big Three would cooperate in the postwar period. The true meltdown in Soviet-American relations did not happen until 1947. Was the Spirit of '76 ever previously written as so anti-communist (granted, he has not had many appearances). Really disliked the presence of a Red Guardian here. I feel the first published appearance should be the first Red Guardian. If I remember correctly, his "origin" is just saving someone from a burning building so Stalin gave him a costume. It should take a little more to be a superhero. I do like the idea that Namor is attending the Potsdam Conference in his role as a representative of Atlantis, one of the actual Allied Powers in Marvel's history. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 9:46 PM Amazing Spider-Man #4 Peter David eventually retcons this story so that the Sandman deliberately doesn't break free; apparently he needs to get sent to a particular prison or something. It's in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Annual #1. ChrisOctober 16, 2015 9:34 PM Avengers annual #20 "By the by... my name is Brutus." Ugh, terrible, inelegant dialogue. This is very lazy writing. Passable in the sixties and seventies, but by the nineties, the expectations are little bit higher. BillOctober 16, 2015 9:24 PM Namor annual #1 I like the art here. It's good for an annual; probably helped a lot by Erik Larsen on inks. Morgan WickOctober 16, 2015 9:15 PM Namor annual #1 Yeah, annuals were pretty much a creation of the Silver Age. Marvel did, however, publish this: http://mikesamazingworld.com/features/comic.php?comicid=51290 (Don't worry, it's all reprints, as is the similar Captain America book.) Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 9:13 PM Amazing Spider-Man #3 I think Spidey's rogues are a bit better characterized early on. The Sandman's first story has him demanding a diploma from a high school principal, setting up an inferiority complex that will turn up again in later stories like Fantastic Four #148 and Nova v.1 #15. Electro is more a callous opportunist, since even before getting his powers he's unwilling to rescue a co-worker unless the boss coughs up some bonus money first. They're crooks, but they do seem to reflect different kinds of vices and flaws. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 9:08 PM Tales Of Suspense #42 (Iron Man) It took until 2011, but the Red Barbarian managed to reappear in Captain America #617-619 and Winter Soldier (2012 series) #2 and #5. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 8:57 PM Tales Of Suspense #41 (Iron Man) The relationship between Evil Doctor Strange and his daughter is very, very close to the one between the Yellow Claw and his daughter Suwan. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 8:38 PM Tales Of Suspense #39 I hate that "I think it's worth noting" phrasing; I used it without thinking about it, but it sounds like I'm asking fnord to add it to the entry. Not my intention at all. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 8:37 PM Tales Of Suspense #39 I think it's worth noting that Iron Man just straight-up kills Wong-Chu in this story, and not in self-defense. He goes to fairly elaborate lengths to blow the guy up. irh13October 16, 2015 8:34 PM Amazing Spider-Man #238-239 Just a minor correction, Aaron. Stern intended to keep the mystery of Hobgoblin going for at least one issue longer than Stan Lee kept the Green Goblin's identity hidden. While Norman Osborn was revealed as the Green Goblin in ASM #39, the villain was actually introduced in ASM #14. So, that would make it ~26 issues, not 41. MichaelOctober 16, 2015 8:21 PM Avengers West Coast annual #6 Note that the Avengers West Coast talk like the Commission is supposed to be top-secret- but Valerie Cooper was described as the head of the Commission in a PRESS CONFERENCE in Captain America 351. Mark DrummondOctober 16, 2015 8:13 PM Namor annual #1 Marvel didn't do any annuals during the Golden Age. Mark DrummondOctober 16, 2015 8:10 PM Hulk annual #17 Peter David repeated the "I got a rock" joke in a "But I Digress" column in CBG, but didn't acknowledge its use here. Unfortunately, he would start repeating jokes twice(and even three times) much more often. I can't help but think that Gort is only called that just to set up the "Klaatu" joke. MichaelOctober 16, 2015 8:04 PM Namor annual #1 (Birthday) Re:Phoebe Marrs- Namor seems to at least tolerate her after he finds out she has a retarded child in Namor 14- he tells her to help look after his company in issue 15 and agrees to help her with her financial problems in issue 21. The problem is that Caleb's appearance at the party means this has to take place before Desmond's attack on him in issue 17 and thus before Namor goes to the Savage Land in issue 15 and I'm not sure if there's a logical space in issues 14-15 where Namor would be going to meetings without urgency. (That and Ferengi Thing-I'm not sure if it's possible to fit issues 14-15 in before FF 350.) InstantiationOctober 16, 2015 7:50 PM Iron Fist #1-4 The early Iron Fist material (Marvel Premiere 15-25, Iron Fist 1-15, and Marvel Team-Up 63-64) was recently reprinted in the Epic Collection "The Fury of Iron Fist." Since it's a color reprint, it's a definite upgrade from Essential IF, Vol. 1. The character got off to a rocky start in Marvel Premiere. There were interesting ideas, but the execution was often mediocre or poor. It didn't help that there was no stable creative team on the project until Claremont and Byrne finally elevated the material to something of genuine significance. Bryne's superiority to the previous artists is immediately apparent from something like the back flip that Iron Fist executes in IF #1, p. 5, bottom row of panels. Byrne's seemingly effortless command of anatomy and perspective makes an action scene like this work so much better than his predecessors (esp. Arvell Jones) could. The grace and virtuosity of the images finally match those of IF's own moves. And overall, from here Byrne would only improve. We don't get a lot of clear views of the unmasked face of Davos (The Steel Serpent), but when he first appears in #1 p. 10, it strikes me that he looks a fair bit like how Byrne would later draw Madison Jeffries in Alpha Flight. (And there's no sign of the prominent scar on his face that would get retconned in later as the character gelled.) Claremont and Byrne did a great job of keeping him in the background from that point until he emerged as IF's greatest nemesis to date in the culminating MTU issues. MichaelOctober 16, 2015 7:36 PM Namor annual #1 (All Winners) Coldsteel should be listed as a character appearing. MichaelOctober 16, 2015 7:30 PM Hulk annual #17 There was a weird scene with a guy claiming to be some sort of extradimensional bounty hunter that I wasn't sure was supposed to be an existing Marvel character or a reference to something outside comics. Max_SpiderOctober 16, 2015 7:03 PM Avengers annual #20 (Vision/Thor) In all of fairness, the dialogue seems to indicate that Absorbing Man simply assumed that the "ordinary man attacking him with a stick" had some kind of superpowers as opposed to believing somebody would dare make such a move against him without them. As for Absorbing Man freaking out about the cancer, I'm gonna take a no-prize approach and guess that maybe he thought that this guy had the power to give cancerous effects or that he, having no certain idea how his own powers work (remember, he didn't even know he could reattach limbs until Secret Wars) didn't want to take the chance that he had contracted it. Of course, maybe he really did contract the cancer, what am I a Nightnurse? ChrisWOctober 16, 2015 6:59 PM Amazing Spider-Man #38 I dunno, but if this isn't the first use of the 'simultaneous boobs and ass' pose in comics (it probably wasn't) it's certainly striking. Ditko couldn't have pulled off the 'face it tiger, you hit the jackpot' panel, but not for lack of trying or ability. Max_SpiderOctober 16, 2015 6:56 PM Avengers West Coast annual #6 That thing about the Hulk rights being used by Universal is actually fairly spot on. Also, "Hunk" rhymes with "Krunk", just saying. Maybe U.S.Agent just lost something and is having a frustrating time finding it? ChrisWOctober 16, 2015 6:48 PM New Avengers: Illuminati #3 A military which is capable of creating gamma bombs, super-soldier serum, a helicarrier... You don't get that level of organization without some sort of competence at leadership. Michael, that's my point. The idea that Xavier and Strange have been working together secretly all along undermines one of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite X-Men stories, that Xavier cared enough about his students enough to grab a random opportunity to ask Stephen for help with her problems, even when it really didn't have anything to do with the story. Illyana's a New Mutant, why are they talking about her at the end of an "X-Men" story which stars the Avengers, Dr. Strange and Spider-Man? Because Xavier cares, dammit! But if they work together on a regular basis, if they're anything like the 'heroes' they're supposed to be, Illyana would have been a topic of conversation early on. "Her thoughts are protected by an extraordinarily powerful psionic shield, which only appeared after she was held prisoner by Belasco for seven years. Stephen, you ever heard of that guy?" Yeah, I'm pretty sure Stephen's heard of that guy. Or Doc asking "Charles, how's Illyana? Still getting that enlightenment and growth from the ones who love her?" And if they're working together regularly, they would talk about it every so often. At least "X-Men" #191 was just a chance meeting between the two, at the time. Now it just shows how incompetent the Illuminati really are. As for curing Banner, I know the usual explanation, but look at all the other spells Dr. Strange has cast (including "X-Men" #191, turning back time itself) and look at all the other forms of mind-wiping Xavier and other telepaths have committed. Ridding the world of the menace of the Hulk would be a very good thing, so why not put some effort into it? I like your point about curing everybody's 'daddy' issues, but at least that can be filed under 'why doesn't Reed Richards cure cancer?' as something that even superhero comics can't do. Banner himself, and the Hulk, are a serious problem that they could at least try to solve once and for all. Or just pen him up in a prison dimension (like Superman's Phantom Zone) that would do nothing but piss him off so that when they need a rampaging monster to send against the Skrulls or HYDRA or whoever, aim him, release him and be ready to exploit the results. If they're heroes who care about every individual life, they'd work to help Banner. If they're the Illuminati who run things, they won't care about every individual life. As an aside, that's one of the things I liked most about "Avengers 2," that not only did they do everything they could to save each individual life (unlike the first movie) but Banner himself worked with Stark to create a defense against a rampaging Hulk, which turned out to be needed. fnord12October 16, 2015 6:07 PM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 It seems like a lot of tea leaf reading to me, Aaron, especially when we know that the intensifying of the Office Wars at the end of Shooter's tenure at this time make it different than other periods where DeFalco would have been more reliable. But my main point is the old canard that you don't attribute to malice what can be explained with incompetence. Priest basically acknowledges the latter in his article, including the fact that he was inclined to run a fill-in at the first sign of trouble. I don't see why Priest would deliberately try to screw with DeFalco and Priest's pay and i think it's kind of a slanderous thing to say that. fnord12October 16, 2015 6:01 PM Avengers annual #20 No, it's not explained. BobOctober 16, 2015 5:48 PM Avengers annual #20 Was it explained how Tyrannus survived being eaten by a demon in Atlantis Attacks? BobOctober 16, 2015 5:47 PM Hulk annual #17 Decent art for a change on an annual. Wagner was always underrated. SimonOctober 16, 2015 5:37 PM Uncanny X-Men #235-238 Under the creator info, you have it saying that Rick Leonardi and Terry Austin are on #237 only. But Leonardi and P. Craig Russell were responsible for the pencils and inks respectively on #235. Andrew FOctober 16, 2015 4:42 PM Hulk annual #17 I had that figure too, and a few others, including a Punisher with lots of easily-lost guns. I liked my Secret Wars toys a lot better, even though they were arguably simpler. kvetoOctober 16, 2015 4:23 PM Hulk annual #17 i still have that hulk action figure who came with a rock. I lost the rock, tho. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 3:29 PM Hulk #124 This issue fits well with my theory about the Leader: since Sam Sterns was supposed to be pretty stupid, and gamma rays turn you into your repressed subconscious desires or self-image, the Leader reflects Sterns's idea of what a genius would be like. He's literally a stupid person's idea of a smart person. Ataru320October 16, 2015 2:38 PM Amazing Spider-Man #38 You know considering that MJ had "short hair" in this appearance, I sort of wonder if she sometimes just went through a short-hair phase considering the one she ends up having for a time during the whole "Stan Lee doesn't like MJ getting all of the attention over Gwen Stacey" period. Omar KarinduOctober 16, 2015 2:28 PM Iron Man #17-19 This whole sequence is more than a little inspired by the James Bond films. quite enjoy it, goofy as Midas is. Aaron MalchowOctober 16, 2015 1:59 PM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 Fnord, this is not simply a matter of weighing DeFalco and Frenz's words vs. Priest's words on this matter, as there is also more eyewitness support and circumstantial evidence for DeFalco and Frenz's account than for Priest's. In Back Issue #35, both Peter David and Jim Shooter contradict points made by Priest in his account of events. (And to be fair, Peter David contradicts DeFalco on one detail, but not in regards to DeFalco's overall account). Beyond those additional accounts, there is no substantial evidence of DeFalco and Frenz's inability to make deadlines. Their career both before and after working with Priest shows them more mostly making their deadlines. If during Shooter's tenure, DeFalco was so unreliable at meeting deadlines, then there should be signs of that problem elsewhere too, such as when Fingeroth was Amazing Spider-Man editor. But instead, Fingeroth uses DeFalco as a fill-in writer for Marvel Team-Up to keep that book on schedule, and DeFalco scripts the Amazing Spider-Man Annual as well as writing the regular series, uninterrupted and apparently on time, until two months before Fingeroth leaves the book. And the scheduling problems with these two issues (#269-270) of Amazing Spider-Man impacted a cross-over with Avengers #258, yet Gruenwald uses DeFalco to fill-in on X-Men vs.Avengers #4, to help get that book out on time -- a decision I don't think Gruenwald would have made if he thought that DeFalco was responsible for the delay in getting #269-279 out before the scheduled Avengers #258 crossover. And as JC points out, why would DeFalco ever plot out a crossover with Stern, and why would Greunwald or Priest approve of it, if DeFalco was not meeting deadlines at that time? It makes everyone involved look bad. Given all the accounts, however, I could see Priest -- if he deliberately held it back as DeFalco and Frenz claim -- using the delay as an excuse to try to remove DeFalco as series writer. And while working for Priest on this series, DeFalco is also writing two mini-series and Kickers, Inc., apparently meeting the monthly deadlines on those series with no obvious problem. When Priest takes over the Spider-Man titles, there are fill-ins and sudden creative team changes on all the titles at approximately the same time, which points to editorial problems, not creative team problems. and Priest even notes that he has enough time to review Frenz's art to ask for changes, which should not be possible if the art and story are being turned in so late. I am certainly highly critical of both DeFalco and Frenz in other decisions they make (such as DeFalco's editorial decisions once he became Editor-in-Chief, which certainly hurt the quality of Marvel Comics, and I really dislike the otherwise talented Frenz's occasional swiping of Kirby), but I think the majority of direct and circumstantial evidence indicates that they were the victims here. MortificatorOctober 16, 2015 1:54 PM New Avengers: Illuminati #3 In any event, it's Dr. Strange himself who's the Hulk's long-time teammate. The Illuminati concept doesn't even come into play. The paragraph about Illuminati members' military experience made me chuckle, though. Why, these guys should be great at coordination and avoiding stupid fights, they have the military of the Marvel universe as their example! BudOctober 16, 2015 1:49 PM Avengers #219-220 I wonder that since Moondragon beat Mantis and the Wasp beat Moondragon if they will note this in Moondragon's "powers?" Erik BeckOctober 16, 2015 12:13 PM Fantastic Four #337-341 Any excuse for Simonson to write and draw Thor is good for me. fnord12October 16, 2015 8:17 AM Marvel Super Heroes #3 (Hulk) It's definitely a possibility, Luke, but i think i'll stick with this placement. We have one very obvious characteristic (he's grey) vs. a less obvious one (he's active during the daytime). Either one could be blamed on Dr. Stort, but since his main power is mind control, i think it makes more sense for him to be responsible for the Hulk going out in the daytime and talking differently than he was at the time (maybe accidentally unlocking a suppressed part of the Hulk's psyche). Beyond that, we have a pair of pants, which could be chalked up to a style choice or the fact that Bruce was wearing briefs that day. I wish they had colored him green, or that Ross called him the Feldgrau Giant, but it's hard to ignore the fact that he's grey. To be clear, i think your suggested placement makes a lot of sense too, and the truth is that the story is just screwed up because of the colorist. But i think it's just a matter of preference. MichaelOctober 16, 2015 8:00 AM New Avengers: Illuminati #3 Regarding Illyana, we got a lame attempt at explanation as to why Strange couldn't help in X-Men 191- Strange claimed that what Illyana really needed was enlightenment and growth of spirit to prevent her darkside from taking over, not some quick magical cure. MichaelOctober 16, 2015 7:53 AM Captain America #372-378 Erik, everything Gruenwald did with the Kingpin can be justified by continuity. We can debate whether or not the Kingpin has "superhuman strength" but at this point the only people that have defeated him have been Spider-Man and Silvermane, both of whom possess super-strength. He would have killed Captain America in Cap 147 if Redwing hadn't intervened and in that issue Cap comments that the Kingpin is as quick as any foe he's faced. Spider-Man is also amazed at how quickly the Kingpin moves in Amazing Spider-Man 69. At the time of the Streets of Poison arc, the Kingpin was considered an unstoppable-by-anyone-without-superpowers badass- what you're thinking of is the watered down version of the Kingpin that we got after Chichester had Matt defeat him in DD 300. Erik BeckOctober 16, 2015 7:32 AM Captain America #372-378 I'm not a believer that the "wrong" side can win a fight, because given circumstances, fights can go either way. So let's just say I am ... unconvinced that the outcome of these two fights would have gone this way. I am sure there are circumstances where Natasha wouldn't just wipe the floor with Diamondback, but fnord doesn't show us much of the fight and I am hard-pressed to buy into the "draw" here. As for Kingpin - well, he's fat. I'm sorry, he's fat. He's also really strong - that's believable. But he shouldn't have that much agility or speed given his bulk. I can buy into him beating a deranged Matt Murdock senseless, but Gruenwald treats him here kind of like he's the Blob and that none of the Skulls punches or kicks do anything. I'm not really buying that. I also dislike this portrayal of the Kingpin, the "I'm not a criminal." No one buys that anymore, not after Born Again. It's not like the early days when most of the public didn't know he was the kingpin of crime. For him to constantly assert that reminds me of Quasar ("Does Quasar think he's fooling anyone with those glasses?"). It's like they want to keep him in the Silver Age. Piotr WOctober 16, 2015 7:18 AM Punisher: Blood on the Moors Wow. Just how many Punisher material was published by Marvel during this era..??? Tabe8October 15, 2015 9:28 PM Uncanny X-Men #106 Comic speculation anecdote. I've owned an original copy of this issue since the late 80s. When Onslaught came out, I waited patiently for the day I could sell this and retire early. I'm still waiting.... Vin the Comics GuyOctober 15, 2015 8:52 PM Spider-Man #8-12 Oh,man...how did Toddy Mac go from that wonderful depiction of Wolverine in Hulk #340 to the utter shite we see here?!? MichaelOctober 15, 2015 8:26 PM Infinity Gauntlet #5 I don't want to spoil anything for anyone but when we find out where Thor was really imprisoned, it makes sense that Nebula referred to Eric as an "old foe". Omar Karindu October 15, 2015 6:45 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #118 The Marvel Appendix site reports that, according to PAD, Jim Owlsey cut his final page showing that Alex was still alive. Also, Alex Woolcot might be named for the theatre critic and famous wit Alexander Woolcott, one of the founding members of the famous Algonquin Round Table. Omar KarinduOctober 15, 2015 6:34 PM X-Factor annual #1 I wonder if Senator Thompson was intended to be some sort of counterpart to Fred/Amos Duncan? Omar KarinduOctober 15, 2015 6:29 PM Iron Man annual #8 Another reason Willie Evans, Jr. might have been remembered belatedly was that Fantastic Four #203 was, for whatever reason, reprinted in a hardcover children's book in 1981, part of a series by Ideal Books. My local branch library had this entire series. david banesOctober 15, 2015 6:11 PM Punisher: Blood on the Moors I really want to try haggis believe it or not. Mmm I love fish and chips. Omar KarinduOctober 15, 2015 5:50 PM Avengers #270 Moonstone is a comapratively "realistic" sociopath: she's charismatic manipulative, and intelligent, but ultimately too impulsive and narcissistic to really make anything work in the long-term. This gets played up quite a bit in the Busiek and Nicieza Thunderbolts. Luke BlanchardOctober 15, 2015 5:20 PM Marvel Super Heroes #3 (Hulk) Arguably this story should be placed later. In INCREDIBLE HULK #2 Bruce still changes into the Hulk overnight, whereas he seems to be active during the day in the extracts. The Hulk wore pants like this from INCREDIBLE HULK #4 to AVENGERS #2. I believe AVENGERS #3 has the first sequences where he changes unpredictably. In AVENGERS #5 Bruce returns to Ross’s command after he’s been missing some time. If we go by the Hulk's shorts the story could be a lead-in to FANTASTIC FOUR #12. His grey appearance, spontaneous change, and use of Hulkspeak could be effects of Stort's distaura. Otherwise, the story best fits somewhere between AVENGERS #5 and TALES TO ASTONISH #60. (Note there's no Rick Jones or Talbot). If the story is placed shortly before #60 Dr Stort could be working for the Leader, like the robot-thief and the Chameleon. JSfanOctober 15, 2015 5:18 PM Punisher: Blood on the Moors Bloody Hearts supporters, they're nothing but trouble, them lot. :P Morgan WickOctober 15, 2015 3:28 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 "The mutants took over the company and all non-mutant properties except Spider-Man were left to neglect." And I'm not so sure about Spider-Man; if anything he got something worse than neglect... "They just wanted sales and pushed for more titles to be released and for the Image crew to be happy." And considering why you call them "the Image crew", they did not really succeed at all on the last point... though that assumes they ever really had a chance to. BerendOctober 15, 2015 12:22 PM Quasar #19-25 Ah, okay. Thanks for the explanation! MikeCheyneOctober 15, 2015 12:16 PM Marvel Team-Up #110 This is perhaps petty, but the lettering or at least the way the text/letters were rendered in the late Marvel Team Up run always bugged me. I'm not sure why--it didn't seem very dynamic and it also seemed to make already overly wordy, uninspired scripts seem that more dismal. Erik BeckOctober 15, 2015 12:05 PM Thor #426 How has "Grasp thee now my sacred scepter" not ever been taken out of context? That's awesome! That should be Odin's pick-up line! Erik BeckOctober 15, 2015 12:00 PM New Mutants #92 To me the pin-up compared to the issue itself just shows that no matter how much you dislike Liefeld, the art imitating his turned out much worse. fnord12October 15, 2015 10:32 AM Captain America #111-113 Thanks, Tabe8. I've updated the References. fnord12October 15, 2015 10:30 AM Silver Surfer #57-58 Yes, thanks. fnord12October 15, 2015 10:27 AM Quasar #19-25 Arcana began disguising herself as Moonglow in Death of a Universe. In this story, when Dr. Strange recognizes her aura, Arcana says she's going to remain disguised as Moonglow until she can be returned to her family. Dr. Strange says, "I see.", i assume while rolling his eyes. BerendOctober 15, 2015 10:13 AM Quasar #19-25 I only noticed because I had completely forgotten who she was and wanted to look up her previous appearances :P BerendOctober 15, 2015 10:12 AM Quasar #19-25 Moonglow appears to be missing from the tags Omar KarinduOctober 15, 2015 10:06 AM Web of Spider-Man #16-17 This is the second issue in a row where I feel as if Michelinie is using villains suited to Iron Man in Spider-Man. Omar KarinduOctober 15, 2015 9:39 AM X-Factor #2-3 In addition to solving the secret identity plots, this is also about superficially returning the five founding X-Men to their original status quo: civilian identities, the Beast in his original form, and running a secret mutant training facility. Vera coming back with an updated look seems to me like a 1980s update to the old stories where she and Iceman's girlfriend would drag the boys to the beatnik coffee shop in Greenwich village; since this is the 80s, perhaps it'll be CBGB or something. And Scott's withdrawal seems like it's setting up a return to the Scott-Warren-Jean triangle of the earliest X-Men issues. Heck, even Jean has been reset to her original powers. But as pointed out in this and prior reviews, Layton also seems to be interested in subverting the setup from the beginning, not only emphasizing the mutant prejudice angle in a way the original book never would have, but also playing up Scott's behavior as rather unsympathetic. MichaelOctober 15, 2015 8:13 AM Silver Surfer #57-58 There's a footnote to the Super-Skrull leaving Reptyl in space in Fantastic Four Annual 24- shouldn't that be listed in References? Tabe8October 15, 2015 12:31 AM Captain America #111-113 I looked it up online (and confirmed in my Captain America Omnibus), the Ringmaster story is from CAM #5, Legion of Beggars CAM #4, and Black Toad from CAM #7. fnord12October 14, 2015 11:36 PM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 Priest has said that DeFalco was regularly late because he was also Executive Editor, and Shooter kept him busy with responsibilities associated with that position. DeFalco being late would have a cascading affect on the rest of the production line (penciler, inker, etc.). If you've never read it, Priest describes his time as editor of the title here, and it seems like a fairly honest appraisal that includes plenty of blame for himself. It's the idea that Priest was deliberately screwing with DeFalco for some reason that i think is unfair. JCOctober 14, 2015 11:13 PM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 Was there a reason to think Frenz was falling behind? For all their faults as storytellers, DeFalco/Frenz brought the A-game when it came to their workmanlike reliability to hit their deadlines and consistently produce content. And as you note yourself the timing of this issue was off respective to it's cover date. Had it simply been a case of needing to catch up, Defalco would likely not have written a story that needed to specifically coincide in timing with another. fnord12October 14, 2015 9:58 PM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 I think it's a bit much to say Priest was deliberately doing anything to DeFalco and Frenz's livelihood. Priest has said he ran fill-ins when it seemed like a book might be late. Now maybe Frenz would have been able to deliver the pencils at the last minute, and maybe he wouldn't have. And maybe it would have required 5 inkers to get the book ready for production in time (which happens a lot after Shooter and Priest leave and DeFalco is EiC). Or maybe Priest really was pursuing some anti-DeFalco agenda, but we don't know. We only have DeFalco and Frenz's word vs. Priest on what the story was, and each side has a reason to be biased. Luke BlanchardOctober 14, 2015 9:32 PM Thor #367-369 That's a very interesting suggestion. It was Simonson who designed the second-style Dire Wraiths. His sketch was shown in MARVEL AGE #4, and there's an image of the item at http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/Rom/comic/checklist.shtml . JCOctober 14, 2015 9:23 PM Amazing Spider-Man #269-270 It's also worth noting that this should still be around the time Marvel was doing "continuity bonuses", ie. paycheck bonuses for writing/drawing 6 uninterrupted issues at a time. Which means that not only was Owlsey/Priest fucking with DeFalco's scheduling but he was almost certainly deliberately screwing with DeFalco and Frenz's livelihood. It all gets to a bit much and is certainly a dickish move, but not much of a surprise cum 80's Marvel regime. Thanos6October 14, 2015 8:26 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 I would pay good money to see Beyonder and IG Thanos sit down and have a conversation about omnipotence, love, and death. God who's trying to be a man and the man who's trying to be God. ChrisWOctober 14, 2015 8:09 PM Damage Control #1-4 Yikes! I somehow missed this series when it was released, but I loved the previous two, and this really doesn't look appealing. For all the awesomeness Kyle Baker has contributed to comics, the art for #1 obviously isn't part of it. Not an Ernie Colon fan either, but the art was perfectly serviceable for the first two series, and just looks wrong here. I wonder if McDuffie's obvious affection for Thunderball is that there are/were very few effective black villains. My knowledge of the character is only from "Damage Control" and the first "Secret Wars," but in "Secret Wars" he was the only black villain. I'm not remotely the biggest expert on the Marvel Universe, so don't bother pointing out whatever other black villains Marvel has, but my point is there aren't many, especially with the political correctness that basically mandates black characters. In "Secret Wars," Thunderball was the only black villain, and looking up his appearances on this site, he didn't have too many previously. This was a series where Marvel was really thinking about the international market, but only one villain is black, with an enormous 'fro. At least the heroes have Storm and (in one scene where part of his armor is removed) James Rhodes. ChrisWOctober 14, 2015 7:26 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 Michael, I'm not actually claiming you said that, just using your explanation as a springboard. Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 7:23 PM Thor #367-369 It seems to me that Simonson and Buscema draw the "Troll Mother" very much like a female Dire Wraith...and this is a story about sorcerous shape-shifters. ChrisWOctober 14, 2015 7:19 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 Then I guess I'm missing the point of his omnipotent control of reality. Remake Death - the Beyonder did it, why can't he? - as someone who was pining for a Titan to love long before he was born, and fell like a teenage girl as soon as he saw him. Use the Mind Gem upon himself to realize that he's not in love with Death, he's in love with the idea of being in love with Death, a "death wish" if you will. Realize that she's incapable of returning his affection. Remake her into someone who is. Get on with his life and enjoy being a lunatic with omnipotent power. I'm not saying any of these are brilliant ideas, but I only spent ten seconds on them, and I'm neither in love with Death nor graced with omnipotence. I like the point someone made on the comments for #6 that this felt like an 'end' to the classic Marvel Universe, and I'll generally agree with that, but I think this series also makes the point that even the classic Marvel Universe had become a place with very few recognizable human features. Again, I will make the unfavorable comparison to "Secret Wars II." Horrible as it was, there was at least something going on with the Beyonder. Luke Cage explaining the concept of money, Iron Fist pointing out errors in his explanation, the Beyonder's initiation into sex, love, control and the need to go to the bathroom, Boom Boom's alienation [I believe I commented on "SWII" #5's page that it was the highlight of that series] an idiosyncratic love for gadgets which, as with everything else, was done horribly, but it at least recognizable as a human trait. And as Michael points out, the Beyonder's relationship with Dazzler obviously had more depth to it than Thanos has here, and was at least slightly more original, or at least done before this series. Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 6:50 PM Thing #34 Rereading this story, it appears perhaps that the Ka stone turned the Puppet Master back into a flesh-and-blood person when it reintegrated him. Come to think of it, did we ever hear what happened to his original body way back in FF #236? ChrisWOctober 14, 2015 6:47 PM New Avengers: Illuminati #3 That, and they aren't very good at the clandestine stuff to begin with. If they just shared information with each other and passed it on to their respective teams, how many 'misunderstanding fights' would have been avoided which waste time, waste energy, put people in danger (not to mention the people doing the fighting) and usually gives the villain more time to implement his scheme? "Has Spider-Man ever actually committed a crime outside of the vigilantism, assault and property destruction all the rest of us commit? Then why do we keep assuming he's with the bad guys? I'll tell all the X-Men, Tony, you put it out to all the Avengers..." And that's just the basic concept of clandestine collaboration. Xavier, Reed, Tony and Namor have all either served in the military or have a great deal of familiarity with military commands, where multiple organizations have similar or overlapping missions with varying levels of secrecy - a 'need to know' - and multiple organizations have completely unrelated missions, again with varying levels of secrecy. All of these organizations have be coordinated by the highest leaders so that they function effectively to accomplish the mission, and isn't that what these guys are doing in the first place? Stark can start producing miniature versions of many gadgets Reed invented, they can both incorporate Atlantean technology and whatever the Inhumans have to offer, and see if they can start incorporating magic, since Dr. Strange is living proof that magic exists into any of their new inventions. These inventions could be exclusively for the Illuminati, or for certain members on their teams, given to every superhero that passes their judgment [Spider-Man, again] mass-produced for law-enforcement officers... Then there's the obvious personal connections. With all the spells he's cast over his long career, is there really any reason to think Dr. Strange couldn't cure the Hulk, or at least make Banner's transformation purely voluntary? Wouldn't somebody at least ask? The X-Men plotlines alone suggest tons of options. Stark giving Xavier the Image Inducer. Storm losing her powers. Kitty broke into the Baxter Building to steal stuff and damaged the robot guard. At the very least that deserves an apology, never mind the chance of connecting her to other geniuses. And then there's Illyana. "Stephen, I know I keep asking this, but can you please talk to her, work with her, see if anything is going on which might turn the Earth into a living hell any time in the future?" Obviously this would have all changed the Marvel Universe radically, but I could accept the concept if it had been in place all along and only after it was revealed did we look back and see 'oh yeah, they were working together in secret.' Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 6:33 PM Web of Spider-Man #14-15 Chance is also a good example of David Michelinie seeming to bring in Iron Man-type villains to fight Spider-Man, something that becomes more pronounced when he takes over Amazing Spider-Man down the line. Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 6:29 PM Thing #33 Also, despite being shown here, Mimi doesn't seem to have gotten the strength augmentation all the others received. I don't suppose her sonic scream was considered enough to put her in the UCWF? Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 6:26 PM Amazing Spider-Man #277 The Wendigo from Hulk and X-Men is a bit more like the mythological version; this one is fairly specifically influenced by an early 20th century horror story by Algernon Blackwood titled "The Wendigo," which reimagines the myths' cannibal creature as a kind of wind spirit. Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 6:09 PM Marvel Fanfare #29 At a guess, Byrne is only including characters who appeared as active characters in the Hulk's own comic. Of course, that still means a Valkyrie oughtta be in there somewhere. fnord12October 14, 2015 5:58 PM Damage Control #1-4 If you mean their first "in universe" appearances, if these count as that, then yes, i think so. But if you mean the first sign that they were Marvel employees: Dan Slott was very briefly Ralph Macchio's assistant editor (he's listed on Cap #383-384 and the first half of FF #350-354). And Tom Brevoort replaced Dwayne McDuffie as the special projects assistant editor when McDuffie went to writing full time (mentioned on the 1990 category page). I try to not let the placement affect my opinion of the story. I read the comics before i think about placement. But i can't say i remain neutral about it when i sit down to figure out where it can go, even though i do try. I think the bigger issue is that i'm a sourpuss when it comes to humor in Marvel comics. I never thought much of the SNL Marvel Team-Up issue, i think Assistant Editor's Month has more misses than hits, i loathe the Impossible Man, etc.. Luke BlanchardOctober 14, 2015 5:50 PM Micronauts: The New Voyages #17 The title might be taken from an Arthur C. Clarke novel. Wikipedia tells me it comes from an A.E. Housman poem. JonathanOctober 14, 2015 5:44 PM Damage Control #1-4 I know Damage Control isn't to Fnord's tastes (and I can see why if you have to fit all these guest stars into a workable continuity, it would make it less fun) but I loved this series (and the previous ones). I remember them watching the movie, but had completely forgot Hulk at the game, and that note on the letters page about the art just cracked me up again. I knew who Denys Cowan and Greg Wright were at the time, but I didn't know Slott or Brevoort back then, and thought they joined much later. Is this their first "appearance" at Marvel? Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 5:30 PM Secret Wars II #9 The other really good NU title, IMHO, is the Peter David run on Justice, which totally reorients the book away from generic sword-and-sorcery and turns it into a character study of an anti-hero. Thanos6October 14, 2015 4:36 PM Damage Control #1-4 The art definitely hurt this series, but as a big fan of the cosmic scene I enjoyed them being taken down a peg or two. clydeOctober 14, 2015 4:13 PM Marvel Two-In-One #96 David, I believe that's the Mole Man. Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 3:54 PM Hulk #318 Maybe the idea is that they blame Samson for setting the Hulk loose? Max_SpiderOctober 14, 2015 3:50 PM Damage Control #1-4 "Anal" as in "meticulous" right? That could be considered a parody of the all encompassing "cosmic awareness" that Mar-Vell had maybe. Especially since it is around this time that Quasar has that power and is heavily involved with the sort of cosmic entities that this story is parodying. I daresay Hulk's preference of Star Trek episode is a reference to his own experiences. What with having his own split personality which has been known to exist in separate bodies. Probably a bit obvious though. Interesting to see Galactus eat a planet without his machines. Maybe we could just consider it a very small one. Dwayne McDuffie does of course, have something else to say on Night Thrasher and Rocket Racer, sending Marvel this mock proposal to make a point: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Rq5mjDJDMNA/TWQm3S8c53I/AAAAAAAABaw/JT4koW1lxlY/s1600/mcduffie.jpg Dan H.October 14, 2015 3:20 PM ROM #24 Well, like I said I can't blame you. Even for Mantlo, this is pretty bad stuff. Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 3:00 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110 Axis: Carnage 3 suggests that not everything was what it seemed to be in this arc. Though what it suggests is pretty directly contradicted by this comic, and even int hats tory the only character who seems to think Gregg really was the original Sin-Eater killer is a hack journalist. DermieOctober 14, 2015 2:56 PM Damage Control #1-4 Ah yes, Edifice Rex...a character whose Official Handbook Profile has "anal awareness" listed as one of his powers. Oh my. The Damage Control movie--and Wonder Man's role in it--actually gets referenced again a few times in the WONDER MAN solo series, as Simon continues to get teased and harassed that he showed his bare butt in the nude scene. Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 2:49 PM Punisher #1-5 Anyway, to see a Leftist writer's sympathetic portrayal of Punisher, there's always Garth Ennis' run. Not to get too into politics themselves, but I don't see Ennis as a standard-issue leftist or liberal. He makes quite a bit of fun of identity politics and communism in stuff like Preacher, which seems to be one of his mouthpiece comics. He's anti-authoritarian and strongly individualist, and I don't know that he fits easily into any of the standard political categories beyond some kind of general libertarianism. Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 2:39 PM Web of Spider-Man #10 This issue has always seemed really weird to me with its handling of the Shocker, who is usually portrayed as a blue-collar thief. I guess Fingeroth needed a Spider-villain of some kind to make the plot work, but....the Shocker? As an assassin? With a fancy office? david banesOctober 14, 2015 2:21 PM Marvel Two-In-One #96 Wait is that Doc Ock but with a stave instead of his arms? fnord12October 14, 2015 2:01 PM Amazing Spider-Man #278 Yup, thanks. Dan H.October 14, 2015 1:51 PM Amazing Spider-Man #278 Shouldn't the Hobgoblin be tagged as a "character appearing" here? Omar KarinduOctober 14, 2015 1:47 PM Marvel Comics Presents #54-61 (Wolverine/Hulk) Huh. Never realized Mimic came back. Perhaps there should be a little side-project where someone goes through the original two Marvel Universe series issues of the Dead and figure out which ones are actually still dead. The number is shockingly high these days. For one thing, most of the Scourge morts were resurrected -- like, with demon magic and all -- in Rick Remender's run of Punisher. And before that, every vampire ever was brought back in the Marc Guggenheim/Howard Chaykin Blade series. Some of the "name" vampires "re-died" in Captain Britain and MI13, but not many. kvetoOctober 14, 2015 12:47 PM Erik BeckOctober 14, 2015 11:51 AM Marvel Comics Presents #54-61 (Wolverine/Hulk) Huh. Never realized Mimic came back. Perhaps there should be a little side-project where someone goes through the original two Marvel Universe series issues of the Dead and figure out which ones are actually still dead. Erik BeckOctober 14, 2015 11:41 AM Thor #419-424 Touched by a Celestial would be the worst ABC Family show ever. Or maybe the best. Red CometOctober 14, 2015 11:25 AM Journey Into Mystery annual #1 Hercules' design is based on bodybuilding legend Steve Reeves' portrayal of the character in several Italian films rather than the classic version that wears a dead lion and no pants. I imagine most modern readers have seen (if they have seen) these films via Mystery Science Theater 3000. Luis DantasOctober 14, 2015 9:02 AM Hulk #385 Just a guess, but Earth was supposed to be thrown out of orbit because Maelstrom messed up with its momentum in very recent issues of Quasar, in the Cosmos in Collision event, and _also_ because of something that Thanos did during Infinity Gauntlet. Maybe they realized that at the right time to decide to deemphasize the astronomical event and lessen the discrepancies? Thanos and Maelstrom even met (in Quasar only). The two events logically must have happened at the same time (or perhaps to some degree in the 24 hour window that was remade by Nebula), yet they can't really be reconciled. For one thing, Quasar is very openly wearing different costumes in each. Also, I don't know if that is a common interpretation of Infinity Gauntlet, but in Quasar there was a tendency to present it as something that Quasar witnessed and took part on, then forgot all about because of the time loop. Ataru320October 14, 2015 8:33 AM Infinity Gauntlet #6 Eh, I mostly just make jokes about the status of the comic world in general at times. I'm just commenting that with the crazy things that were about to come, this feels a bit like a last hurrah...but it was already falling apart at this point and only getting worse with the further pushing of proto-Image and things like DeFalco's FF run coming up. fnord12October 14, 2015 7:35 AM ROM #24 Thanks Dan. Yeah, looking at it now i don't know how i mixed things up. In my (slight) defense, the MCP also lists Crimebuster as a character appearing in the present day. Anyway, i've revised the summary. fnord12October 14, 2015 7:23 AM Fantastic Four #205-214 Thanks Dan. Hazards of comics being in all caps, i guess. fnord12October 14, 2015 6:44 AM Amazing Spider-Man #322-325 Guys, i can't make the Sturky button any bigger so you are forcing me to link to the Crimson Tide clip. Seriously, on my site, please keep the discussion civil. GromOctober 14, 2015 5:20 AM Infinity Gauntlet #6 Bob Harras was following directives from the owners higher up the chain. The owners were not comics people. They just wanted sales and pushed for more titles to be released and for the Image crew to be happy. JCOctober 14, 2015 1:52 AM Silver Surfer #51 Ooops, didn't realize flashbacks don't count. I was thinking of Firelord, Doc Ock's appendages that terraform the planet, and I'm pretty sure that cave with the animal etchings is the one Darkseid sent Bruce Wayne back in time to, meaning one of those cave people is Batman ;). Dan H.October 14, 2015 1:31 AM Fantastic Four #205-214 The Empress' name is actually R'klll, not R'kill. JCOctober 14, 2015 1:24 AM Infinity Gauntlet #6 Ataru that 90's era of speculator booms, artists taking the story reigns, and event comics with no real point other than to sell comics can be attributed in no small part to soon to be EIC Bob Harris. Firing writers like Claremont and Simonson, devolving characters so they're less nuanced and moar toy friendly, edicting numerous variant covers. That's all on Harris. Dan H.October 14, 2015 1:15 AM ROM #24 Hey Fnord: I think you might have read this one a little quickly (not that I blame you). It's not really true that the status quo for Nova and his allies hasn't changed. The rest of the New Champions had left Xandar months ago planning to hook up with the Nova Corps in pursuit of the Skrulls. Their betrayal by Diamondhead likewise was a past event, along with the subsequent ambush of the Nova Corps. Nova even says it's been "months" since the Nova Corps left. In fact, you have Crimebuster listed as a character appearing. He doesn't, except in flashback. Good point about the seeming idiocy of the Skrulls here, but really understandable in that their idiocy had already been matched by that of the Xandarians, who had apparently sent what little remaining military they had to escort the returning Nova Corps vessel (whereupon Powerhouse and the others were likewise ambushed). So they expected to be attacking a populace that was completely undefended except for Nova (they didn't know about Rom). JCOctober 14, 2015 1:10 AM Amazing Spider-Man #322-325 Luis I'm sorry you never read a Spider-Man comic in your life so brace yourself but Peter Parker makes a living taking photos exploiting his superhero identity. This is admittedly a very new idea only going back 50 years or so to his very first appearance. You know the one where he tries to make money on tv and ends up letting his uncle die. Or the one immediately after that where upon learning with great power cums great responsibility, the first thing he does is try to join a super team for the sole purpose of getting paid. Or god forbid this very same story where he lets Silver Sable pay him off. But you're right there Luis, you don't know much at all. So maybe try reading a comic on the boards you comment on. DermieOctober 14, 2015 12:21 AM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 Felicia picked the Stilt-Man costume to flaunt Flash's body? How exactly does body armour, that completely hides his natural physique, flaunt his body? DermieOctober 14, 2015 12:13 AM She-Hulk #28 I don't think its creepy, since I don't think he is keeping it for the opportunity to ogle Jen. He is keeping it because it is something to torment Jen with--in a playful way, like he does with Ben. Its like when your old high school friends have embarrassing photos of you tucked away in a drawer somewhere, so they can tease you about the fact that they exist. JCOctober 14, 2015 12:12 AM Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1 This entire story reads as Priest giving a big middle finger to the Spidey editorial staff. I actually don't mind the dark tone of the book and think it sets up a fairly good juxtaposition btw Spidey and Wolverine. But it's clear he's making Spidey look like a scrub for no reason other than to piss off Defalco or whoever else it was in the Spidey offices that stepped on his kicks. Then again that was the M.O. for 80's Marvel, in-house fighting, warring alliances, and creative teams being picked solely by who was kissing up to who. Luis DantasOctober 13, 2015 9:02 PM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 It is very hard to believe the Black Cat has any more of a secret identity than, say, the Shocker or the Rhino. She was interned under her true identity at the end of her first appearance, and was hospitalized (and made the news) with a very public identity when Doctor Octopus nearly killed her back in 1981 or 1982. To be fair, David Micheline seems to have failed to notice that as well. MichaelOctober 13, 2015 8:43 PM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 Tell me about it,TCP. Steven Grant would eventually explain that Felicia's real name was public knowledge and Flash was just pretending not to know that Felicia was the Black Cat. But half the Bugle is at this party. You'd think that one of them would have recognized Felicia and said something if her ID was public knowledge. Thanos6October 13, 2015 8:32 PM She-Hulk #28 Well, never mind then. Luis DantasOctober 13, 2015 8:24 PM She-Hulk #28 FF #275 made it clear that she did not want Johnny to have it. Omar KarinduOctober 13, 2015 7:46 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 I kinda like 8-Ball; you have to take him in that "kooky Steve Ditko villain" way, which seems to be what Fingeroth was going for. He definitely needed a wilder origin story; perhaps Jason Aaron will come up with a new version who can foretell the future by shaking his head. Omar KarinduOctober 13, 2015 7:42 PM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 Even worse, it takes a villainous identity that had some distinct character elements -- embittered radical, personal vendetta against Iron Man over the death of a hated father, relationship to a pacifist sister -- and replaces it with generic mercenary who flies and blasts stuff #4678. At least this Firebrand will get a tiny bit of connection to the original's political terror angle when he's used in New Warriors. BillOctober 13, 2015 6:31 PM Spider-Man #8-12 Red, Wolverine officially went back to his yellow and blue costume in Wolverine #50 I believe. Morgan WickOctober 13, 2015 6:26 PM Spider-Man #8-12 "If every writer showed a character in the same vein as he previously appeared, then there would never be any changes in comic books, Julian." Ha. Ha. Ha. Haaaaaaaa... Red CometOctober 13, 2015 6:12 PM Spider-Man #8-12 I had the first part of this storyline when I was a kid and never could find the other issues until I was in high school/college. Might even be the first comic where I ever saw Wolverine. Speaking of that: does this count as the story where Wolverine officially went back to his blue and yellow suit? Thanos6October 13, 2015 5:59 PM Punisher War Journal #34 Well, at least Baron seems to be criticizing Reagan's policy toward the mentally ill. Thanos6October 13, 2015 5:49 PM She-Hulk #28 Well, she doesn't seem to mind Johnny having it. Maybe she's fine with family or close friends? kvetoOctober 13, 2015 5:27 PM Spider-Man #8-12 thanks for printing the letter page and criticisms (and Todd's snarky answers just confirm what ive always thought about him). I just assumed they would be as gushy as the letters he used to get on ASM. I remember reading those letters and assuming I was the only one who disliked what Macfarlane was doing to the genre.. Mark BlackOctober 13, 2015 5:15 PM She-Hulk #28 Yes it's creepy as the woman photographed (She Hulk) never gave consent and Johnny knows that. Omar KarinduOctober 13, 2015 5:09 PM New Avengers: Illuminati #3 Whatever your thoughts on this issue, it seems like there's a fundamental flaw in the Illuminati concept that no story can escape: it requires both that all these characters are doing clandestine stuff, but also means that none of their clandestine work can actually make much of a difference in the end. This is a group that seems to fundamentally fail at its core goal without ever noticing that they constantly fail. Hickman pretty much devoted his New Avengers series to pointing out how self-destriuctively arrogant the Illuminati were; not only do all their "tough decisions" and the sacrifice of their personal moralities have absolutely no effect, it's made fairly clear that by keeping the crisis secret from the rest of the world "for its own good" for so long they ensured that no one else could come up with something in time to make a real difference. BillOctober 13, 2015 5:05 PM Spider-Man #8-12 The Wendigo can't be misunderstood or cuddly. Did McFarlane have NO editor overlooking his work at all?? This entire book never would have existed under Shooter's watch. BillOctober 13, 2015 4:55 PM She-Hulk #28 Is it creepy that the Torch still has the nudie mag with the She-Hulk in it? No. Would it be creepy if he had a nudie mag with the Invisible Woman in it? Yes. BobOctober 13, 2015 4:18 PM Punisher War Journal #34 Ron Wagner was great on GI joe and would be a good fit for this book, but the gawdawful coloring process Marvel used made everyone look like crap. BobOctober 13, 2015 4:16 PM Punisher War Journal #31-33 USSR didnt really break up until the end of the year, on Christmas. Though it had been declared over by the constituent republics earlier that month. This issue would have been published roughly around the time of the failed coup against Gorbachev. Possibly a little ahead of that, given the advance cover dating. Soviets were in their final throes, but not quite gone yet. BobOctober 13, 2015 4:09 PM Spider-Man #8-12 Gah - these are worse than I remembered. By this point, the awfulness of Todd's writing was pretty much universally-regarded. So much so, that it really shocked me that Spawn did as well as it did shortly after. Granted, his mood fits his own characters far better than an established character like Spidey who has always been the antithesis of this style of writing. His comments about characters being "scum" or "good" and getting their just deserts is indicative of the rightwing revenge and torture fantasies Frank Miller spawned with his Batman work, in which everyone is either black or white, with nothing in between. The Image guys seemed to read Dark Knight and nothing else, as far as influences. Unfortunately, this lack of nuance infects comics to this day. kvetoOctober 13, 2015 4:09 PM Punisher War Journal #31-33 Nice to see that the Punisher's obsessive mission of revenge against crime for murdering his wife doesnt preclude him shagging loads of women. kvetoOctober 13, 2015 4:02 PM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 I remember Mark Gruenwald in a mark's remarks column using these issues as an example of a bad editor. Allowing a new Firebrand to be created when any number of other fire villains would have sufficed. He listed all the reasons it smached of lazy editing. Mark didn't call anyone out by name but I remember being a bit surprised he'd so openly criticize a colleague. (I'agree 100 per cent with Mark's reasoning) gfsdf gfbdOctober 13, 2015 3:58 PM Spider-Man #8-12 Wait... THAT Alan Sepinwall from Pine Brook, NJ? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sepinwall) Omar KarinduOctober 13, 2015 3:45 PM Secret Wars II #2 I suppose the No-Prize fix for Scourge's actions here is that he thinks this Hate-Monger is one of the ones who appeared earlier asa costumed villain. TCPOctober 13, 2015 3:31 PM Web of Spider-Man #77-78 Oh, boy! More confusion about whether or not Felicia has a secret identity! And you're right, fnord, about this being quite the day for Aunt May. If she could survive all of this, she could probably also handle a long-overdue revelation from her nephew. Omar KarinduOctober 13, 2015 3:21 PM Fantastic Four #278-279 The monks also show up during the Tom DeFalco/Paul Ryan "Reed and doom are dead" storyline, and one of them is shown as a ;lifetime prisoner in Latyeria in Books of Doom. Omar KarinduOctober 13, 2015 2:34 PM Captain America #307 Right -- Madcap isn't the "little yellow boxes" voice, but rather the "typewritten comments" voice from Daniel Way's stories with Deadpool. It reminds me a bit of how the original iteration of Deathlok originally had a second, nonsense voice in his head that was written out fairly quickly. Omar KarinduOctober 13, 2015 2:26 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #103 Peter David stated in Amazing Heroes #175 that the college students were based on Leopold & Loeb. Their dialogue about the two students from the 1920s is a reference to Leopold and Loeb, though those two hardly got off lightly. Omar KarinduOctober 13, 2015 2:13 PM Uncanny X-Men #194 The Armageddon Ring was an early novel by none other than George R. R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame. Dave BOctober 13, 2015 1:38 PM Silver Surfer #59 This does look pretty bad. The Silver Surfer started out as a good title, but eventually fell prey to the 90's Marvel Crapfest. fnord12October 13, 2015 11:12 AM Punisher War Journal #31-33 Well, the Kamchatka Peninsula is still part of Russia today, so it still would have made sense. Ataru320October 13, 2015 10:57 AM Punisher War Journal #31-33 Wait, a breakaway Soviet Republic? In August, 1991, when the Soviet Union was breaking up? Well...OK, it was probably written without them realizing what would happen in August, '91. Cringe WorthyOctober 13, 2015 10:34 AM Doctor Strange #79-81 I remember buying a copy of issue 79 based solely on the cover, which displayed a severely impaled Dr. Strange. Typically, the art on the covers outclasses what is on the inside, but I recall being really impressed by the depictions of the various demons. No idea why I didn't continue buying the title, because the story was pretty good as well. Luke BlanchardOctober 13, 2015 10:26 AM Marvel Fanfare #59 (Hellcat) Patsy and Hedy fighting was a staple of "Patsy Walker" when it was a teen humour feature. Ataru320October 13, 2015 9:51 AM Infinity Gauntlet #6 Ignoring Starlin's favoritism of his own characters and ones he just has a shining to in the first place (the Hulk for one), this really does feel like a coda of the "classic era" of Marvel. It's placement with the rise of the "random books for any character" thanks to the speculator boom and prior to X-Men #1 and X-Force #1 (let alone the messes that the F4 and Avengers become, not to mention Spider-Man) show this as a bit of a last hurrah for this universe and many of the elemnts that will be neglected or ignored prior to the messes that occur. We've got a long, hard road from here to at least Onslaught. (I say there cause once we get to Heroes Reborn, at least that means the Thunderbolts are going to emerge...even with the things in the Franklinverse occurring) StevenOctober 13, 2015 9:39 AM Infinity Gauntlet #6 I loved this event. It represents the peak of my early comic book collecting. I think Marvel went downhill from here. The mutants took over the company and all non-mutant properties except Spider-Man were left to neglect. MichaelOctober 13, 2015 7:58 AM Amazing Spider-Man #322-325 @Luis- Peter's deal with Venom is not for another 50 issues. And as we'll see when fnord gets to 1992, Michelinie confuses the issue of whether Peter realized it was a different Red Skull who killed his parents. fnord12October 13, 2015 7:21 AM Infinity Gauntlet #5 @Steven - i had forgotten that Thor was featured in Byrne's Nebula story. Thanks, for pointing that out. As Luis says, this isn't the same "Thor", but that's much more easily explained than when i thought she was referring to Simonson's Nebula story. Luis DantasOctober 13, 2015 6:53 AM Infinity Gauntlet #5 @Steven: that wasn't Eric-Thor, though. It all comes down to whether Nebula partes Eric-Thor as the same as regular flavor Thor. @Bob: as I understand it, the point is that Thanos will not take the necessary precautions to avoid being defeated, because deep down he does not want to triumph. Luis DantasOctober 13, 2015 6:50 AM Amazing Spider-Man #322-325 What do you mean "the things he'll do for his finances"? It is not like he is an ambulance chaser or a mercenary. I really don't know what you are talking about. In any case, it was Malik (the 1950s Red Skull), not the original, who killed Peter's parents. Also, Peter's morality is less than pristine at this point, given his weird understanding with Venom. JCOctober 13, 2015 3:27 AM Hulk #328 Ironic that in PAD's very first issue of his definitive run on the Hulk, Banner's last line is, "I'll never, never crave death again. For as long as there's life, there's hope." Then ofc when we get to Hulk: The End the entire comic is dedicated to Banner attempting and ultimately succeeding in committing suicide. JCOctober 13, 2015 2:59 AM Amazing Spider-Man #322-325 It's ridiculous to even have Spidey think over the Red Skull's proposal. Not because he'd necessarily turn down the money, it's been ascertained time and time again the things he'll do for his finances. But becuz this is the same fuck who killed his parents. It'd be like having the Burglar who killed Uncle Ben offering half his take to Spidey to not turn him in and Spidey saying he'll get back to him. JCOctober 13, 2015 2:12 AM Infinity Gauntlet #6 Speaking of things cumming around on themselves, it's funny to think that had he really wanted to Doc Strange could've possessed the Gauntlet and attained godhood. And nao hear we are 24 years later and again we have a major Marvel event book out and yet again Strange surrenders godhood, to a villain no less. BobOctober 13, 2015 2:07 AM Infinity Gauntlet #5 Shouldn't the gauntlet have been rigged to strangle Nebula, as it was for Mephisto when he tried to take it from an unconscious Thanos in the Silver Surfer book? StevenOctober 13, 2015 1:16 AM Infinity Gauntlet #5 Nebula previously fought Thor in Avengers #314-318. irh13October 13, 2015 12:41 AM Amazing Spider-Man #161-162 So we come to the absolute nadir of Len Wein's awful run on Spider-Man. Not sure why he despised the main character of the book so much, but this is essentially a Marvel Team-Up issue in which Spider-Man does absolutely nothing. He can't take down the Punisher (which is preposterous), he gets beaten and chained up by a couple of run-of-the-mill thugs (and everyone thought the Hobgoblin getting taken down by 4 trained mercenaries was bad...how come Len Wein gets a free pass? These two thugs could have garroted Spidey if they so desired), and then can't even take down the main villain in the end. None of the villains in this piece have superpowers, yet Spidey has trouble with all of them. What a piece of crap. I was so happy when Wein moved off the title, little realizing it would only get worse (Wolfman) before it finally got better (Stern). GromOctober 12, 2015 8:25 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 It helps if one assumes (and keeps reminding oneself) that it takes time to adapt to the infinite ways one can utilise the gauntlet. As well as learning time, the gauntlet is limited by the intellect of the bearer. The smarter the bearer the better in terms of using each gems powers (noting the reality gem is the most challenging to use - Infinity War reference). GromOctober 12, 2015 7:26 PM Doctor Strange #36 The art makes the characters look so wooden.I find Warlock to be dull. This story feels to me like another simple "absolute power corrupts" tale written with the elegance and deftness of an average teenage English student. Andrew FOctober 12, 2015 7:01 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 I was okay with Warlock being invisible. He lived in the Soul Gem for a long time, and all these cosmic guys say he's special, plus Nebula is very new to godhood...I'm fine with an explanation that, if he wants to be imperceptible, she could only have seen him if she was looking for him. BillOctober 12, 2015 6:43 PM Sleepwalker #7 Again, where's the Ice Age?? BillOctober 12, 2015 6:36 PM Hulk #385 Earth is supposed to be in an ice age, right? No evidence of that here. BillOctober 12, 2015 6:24 PM Infinity Gauntlet #5 I always wondered about Annihilus in this issue too. It seems like such an odd thing to throw into the issue if it's not a plot point somewhere. GromOctober 12, 2015 6:04 PM Silver Surfer #60 A big improvement over the filler dreck. A nice little continuity piece. MichaelOctober 12, 2015 5:55 PM Alpha Flight #97-100 Fnord, regarding Quasar, I think Fabian's idea was that as the Protector of the Universe, Quasar is as consecrated to life as Thanos is to Death- Wendell will always oppose the large-scale destruction of sentient life even if it serves a "greater good". Luis DantasOctober 12, 2015 5:52 PM Quasar #26-27 @Michael: Starlin is going by Greek mythology. Uranus is not a personification of the planet, but of the sky. Of course, he is also the offspring of Gaia, the Earth, so there is no point in expecting it to make chronological sense. MichaelOctober 12, 2015 5:48 PM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 How does Spider-Man know who Mephisto is? Isn't this their first meeting? Luis DantasOctober 12, 2015 5:45 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 @Fnord: I'm not sure Eternity has ever shown enough volition of its own to qualify as a "tyrant", or even as a potential tyrant. Nebula's failure to perceive Warlock's presence really comes out of the left field. Warlock has a physical body (he got it in IG #1) and has been shown to interact with Wolverine, Hulk and Her, at the very least. Claims that he "is outside the realms of Chaos and Order" are no explanation at all. Thanos6October 12, 2015 5:40 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 fnord, I just realized something. Nebula makes the wish to restore things as they were 24 hours ago, but in Quasar 26-27, you say the events took place over a three day period, after the original halving the population wish was made. Hmm. Thanos6October 12, 2015 5:36 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 @Michael: In reference to Eric/Thor, they mentioned in an INFINITY WATCH lettercol they would be addressing that. Not sure if they ever did. The whole "having the Infinity Gauntlet makes you aware of all future events and traps you into going along with them" thing really annoys me. Starlin does this again many years later in THANOS ANNUAL #1 and it bugs me there too. What's the point of being God, then? Jay DemetrickOctober 12, 2015 5:14 PM Quasar #26-27 It's possible Moondragon is still obsessing over her cousin's relationship with Demeityr and how happy they were together from Solo Avengers #18 which is fueling her obsession with Quasar here too. That ripped open the Celestial Madonna wound again. MichaelOctober 12, 2015 4:59 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 One thing never made sense to me about this issue- how was Warlock able to make himself invisible to the omniscient Nebula? The only explanation we get is Surfer and Strange thinking "he stands outside the realms of Chaos and Order." Is that supposed to be a reference to the Magus mess? Starlin stands outside the realms of a comprehensible scripter. Jay DemetrickOctober 12, 2015 4:55 PM Quasar #26-27 Possibly he doesn't believe that his father had the power to create Drax...? Good question. Morgan WickOctober 12, 2015 4:43 PM Infinity Gauntlet #5 ...And I just read the Sleepwalker #7 entry, which led me to re-read the Quasar #26-27 entry, and which further suggests how intertwined the Maelstrom saga and IG must be... MichaelOctober 12, 2015 4:35 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 Am I the only person that didn't get the Hulk was shrunk when he read this issue? I thought Thanos was growing larger because the art didn't make it clear and didn't realize he was shrunk. fnord12October 12, 2015 4:27 PM Infinity Gauntlet #5 Well, there is also the fact that Thanos appears with Mephisto on his monument to Death in Quasar #24, and that monument isn't created until Infinity Gauntlet #1, so at best the series have to overlap no matter what. (And that being the case, Captain America #329 must overlap as well, for what it is worth.) MichaelOctober 12, 2015 4:23 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 @ChrisW- it was said that Thanos COULD have made Death love him but he'd always know she didn't really love him. fnord12October 12, 2015 4:23 PM Quasar #26-27 Ah, thanks Michael. That still doesn't explain why Thanos thinks that Eon created Drax, but at least now i know what that letter writer was talking about. Morgan WickOctober 12, 2015 4:20 PM Infinity Gauntlet #5 Not that this would affect your placement, but were it not for the hastily-rewritten references to Epoch instead of Eon, and the later retcon to justify Quasar's use of his old costume, would it be possible for Infinity Gauntlet to take place before, or possibly overlapping with, the Maelstrom saga, with it really being Eon that appears in IG? Obviously Quasar's "not again" reaction to losing his hands last issue limits the degree to which one could do that... MichaelOctober 12, 2015 4:11 PM Infinity Gauntlet #2 @Chris W- this was published after Wolverine 36, where the letters page makes it clear that the X-Men are no longer invisible to computers. MichaelOctober 12, 2015 4:04 PM Quasar #26-27 Fnord, the idea that Kronos created Eon was mentioned in Captain Marvel 29. Unfortunately, that scene suggested that Kronos created Eon 8 billion years ago,some time after the formation of Uranus. When several people pointed out to Starlin that Uranus isn't 8 billion years old, Starlin quietly forgot about that part. Ataru320October 12, 2015 3:59 PM Sleepwalker #7 Hammer and Anvil are killed by Scourge...only for these losers to show up? Why not just keep Hammer and Anvil around to fight Sleepwalker to not just waste the space? fnord12October 12, 2015 3:29 PM Silver Surfer #59 Thanks, Kauldi. I mixed it up with last issue. Fixed it. fnord12October 12, 2015 3:27 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 @Luis, i took the "benign, random, unfocused reign" to be a reference to Eternity, who it was shown was supplanted by Thanos when he fully ascended due to the Infinity Gauntlet. But more generally i believe that he meant the random natural order of the universe, which is what Eternity by necessity represents. If it's the word "benign" that makes you think Starlin is referring to a benevolent God, i believe that he means benign like a tumor can be. Not cancerous, but not necessarily good. Just... there. KauldiOctober 12, 2015 3:27 PM Silver Surfer #59 According to the GCD the story is drawn by Tom Raney, no Todd Smith. ChrisWOctober 12, 2015 3:13 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 I think this ending is as good as Thanos ever got, at least until the "Avengers" movies. Just look at "JLA/Avengers" where Darkseid is wearing the gauntlet, and Hawkeye practically sh*ts himself in fright. That's villainy. Thanos, not so much. Luis DantasOctober 12, 2015 3:12 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 Whatever Starlin means to say about Warlock here is far less than clear. I realize that he had to leave something to be explored in the next few years of Warlock stories, but this talk about Warlock purposefully making himself amoral comes entirely out of the left field. Is Warlock quite so immature or self-fearing as to see a point to that? Similarly, it is just not conceivable that he would expect Thor, Surfer and Strange to trust him to be worth of unlimited power. And then that talk about a "benign, random, unfocused reign of tyranny before Thanos"... that just makes no sense at all, except perhaps as an attempt at establishing that a Creator God exists in the Marvel Universe and is trustworthy just because. Maybe Infinity Gauntlet was to some degree a cathartic effort from Starlin? A testimonial of faith in God's wisdom? It is said that the Death of Captain Marvel Graphic Novel was something of a personal work for him, helping to deal with the loss of his father. Maybe this is in some sense a follow-up? I honestly don't think the series works in that sense, although I assume Starlin meant it to be the main point. Tabe8October 12, 2015 2:56 PM Infinity Gauntlet #5 Was there supposed to be more about Annihilus during the Infinity Gauntlet? I vaguely remember reading a preview of Infinity Gauntlet in real time (in a New England Comics catalog, or American Comics catalog). It said something about Thanos getting the Gauntlet and killing have the universe, with Anihilus attacking what's left of earth. As far as I can tell, those few panels of Annihilus are the only mention of him as far as infinity Gauntlet is concerned. Luis DantasOctober 12, 2015 2:53 PM Infinity Gauntlet #5 Quasar was not using the Captain Marvel look-alike costume anymore by the time he met Epoch, yet that is the one he uses in previous issues of Infinity Gauntlet. It looks Quasar and IG were not well coordinated with each other. ChrisWOctober 12, 2015 2:46 PM Silver Surfer #57-58 Yeah, this was pretty much when I gave up on "Silver Surfer" too. Two consecutive two-part stories that are both dream sequences? For good or bad, previous crossovers were much better integrated. I probably kept reading this title for a few more issues, and "Dr. Strange," the only other non-X-title I followed, but I'll bet that I won't be able to tell when you get to the stuff I didn't read. These stories are just that unmemorable. fnord12October 12, 2015 2:39 PM Hulk #385 It's not explicitly conscious in the story. The Hulk was fighting him (albeit with a pointed stick), and he dies, possibly because the Hulk uses too much force, or possibly because of the coming of dawn as opposed to the blows that the Hulk strikes. Alternatively, Gestalt may have been influencing the Hulk. On the other hand, Adam Warlock did include the merged Hulk with Wolverine as characters that would be willing to kill if necessary. JCOctober 12, 2015 2:33 PM Hulk #385 Wait... so the merged Hulk made a conscious decision to kill someone? I feel like that should be a bigger deal. ChrisWOctober 12, 2015 2:30 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 I agree with Piotr, there's absolutely no tension. "Secret Wars II" had more character development, drama, better ideas and plotting, not to mention consequences for the characters involved. The dialogue's about the same, and this series does have George Perez and Ron Lim, but it really says something that this series is unfavorably compared to "Secret Wars II." But what gets me is Thanos creating a girlfriend to make Death jealous. How many levels is that wrong? She's Death. She doesn't care about any individual. In my opinion, comics like this went so far away from the realm of human experience that it made other characters, like Neil Gaiman's Death, that much better by comparison. Death as a cute, likeable, friendly girl. Not someone you'd want to love, but someone whose very presence makes you feel better. As you, you know, die. Creating a girlfriend to make her jealous is the sort of idiotic idea Thanos should have gotten over in high school. Why didn't he just use his ultimate power to create his ideal woman? Or, I'm sure this was addressed here or in "Silver Surfer," but I don't remember how, why didn't he just *make* Death love him, like the Beyonder did with Dazzler? JCOctober 12, 2015 2:20 PM Infinity Gauntlet #6 I generally loathe cosmic stories but as is the case with most people this story was certainly an exception. I think that's in no small part to Lim and Perez's clean and ubiquitous style. It allows for the more esoteric parts of the story to still be approachable by the common fan. I also think Issue 4 is almost certainly the one most everyone thinks back to and why the series is remembered so fondly. At the end of the day people just like to see superheroes beat the shit out of each other (see Civil War being the highest selling comic of the Quesada era). That the heroes lose and presumably die evoking a sense of futility evokes the Empire Strikes Back feel. I wonder what Starlin thinks of Jason Aaron's Thanos Rising... You'd have to think he's pissed someone else wrote his pet character's origin story. Erik BeckOctober 12, 2015 1:06 PM Avengers West Coast #63 I really liked Living Lightning right from the start, for several reasons. 1 - He was hispanic, which there weren't a lot of at the time. 2 - His goal was to abolish war and he's gone a bit nuts from his transformation here, so it would be easy to have him move over into being a hero. 3 - He takes out Fullerton, which was the next city over from where I lived at the time and quite frankly, I'm okay with Fullerton being taken out. I was glad when they so quickly brought him back a few issues later. Erik BeckOctober 12, 2015 12:51 PM Avengers annual #19 Fnord, I agree that the kid's story is quite nice - reminds me of the Assistant Editors story in Iron Man with the kids who played at Avengers. I just wish they hadn't used Sersi, because the Avengers undercover in a hotel seems so Silver Age and if she wasn't there, you could say it was an old story. Though, I imagine then you would have had to cut it up and put in another box and it would have just irritated you. The construction workers story is dumb (I think I just referenced it in another earlier comment recently), but I do think of Plantman and Water Wizard as more joke villains. But yeah, unless they drop a whole flippin building on the Wrecker, it's not gonna stop him, and even that might not stop him. JCOctober 12, 2015 12:50 PM Hulk #384 One of the single best issues of Hulk, both in the writing and the art. Amazing when you realize it's a tie-in comic and PAD's notorious spite of those. Thanos6October 12, 2015 12:40 PM Infinity Gauntlet #5 Infinity and Oblivion. Damn it. Erik BeckOctober 12, 2015 12:01 PM Avengers West Coast annual #5 There's no question that your site has given me a much greater consideration for the work of inkers. I'm sure that would please Banky Edwards. Thanos6October 12, 2015 11:51 AM Infinity Gauntlet #5 I like the idea that the big four cosmic beings sort of split up the two different crises going on at the time: Eternity and Death were involved in the Thanos affair, while Infinity and Maelstrom were handling the Maelstrom side of things. Ataru320October 12, 2015 10:39 AM Silver Surfer #59 Hey, the fact that Thanos gets to show up as a horned Black Knight on a horse makes it worth admission even if the story is pointless. Mark DrummondOctober 12, 2015 10:27 AM ROM #24 There wouldn't have been a legal case anyway--Gleason went out of business in 1956, the characters hadn't been seen since, Marvel would have won due to copyright abandonment. fnord12October 12, 2015 8:40 AM Avengers West Coast annual #5 I would guess that inker Keith Williams and colorist Renee Witterstaetter should get credit for the execution of it, but i assume it was Fry's decision to have it depicted that way. I doubt Fry handed them a panel with just machinery and asked them to fill in the characters. I suspect he drew the outlines and probably even did shading to indicate they should be filled in. You're right that seeing the original pencils would clear things up. Erik BeckOctober 12, 2015 8:32 AM Avengers West Coast annual #5 Fnord - you give credit for the silhouette (which is really cool) to Fry, but isn't the effect likely the work of the inker? I'd love to see the original pencils and see who did what with that. Also, you have to love the shout-out to King Kong vs Godzilla. A classic! I clearly agree! Luis DantasOctober 12, 2015 7:58 AM Fantastic Four #205-214 #209's "Sargasso in Space" story is indeed an odd interlude, breaking the flow somewhat. However, it was a good spotlight for John Byrne's skills on drawing weird aliens (and his first FF issue if I am not mistaken). It also foreshadows the somewhat important reveal coming in #217 while giving readers time to write about where they stand on the relevant matter. And then, there is the time factor. Marv Wolfman may have wanted a breather issue in order to better figure where he was going with the plot, particularly with his Nova characters. Or perhaps, considering that they are all but forgotten after #209 until Mantlo returns to them about two years later in ROM #24, Wolfman attempted to use them more but lacked permission from editorial. http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/rom_24.shtml Luis DantasOctober 12, 2015 7:52 AM ROM #24 I'm not sure Shooter had a thing for retiring characters, but in any case Crimebuster was a difficult character to justify. Lacking market appeal and being pretty much a stolen character (Lev Gleason published the stories of Chuck Chandler, Crimebuster from 1942 to 1956), it was probably not worth the trouble of running the risk of legal action due to continued use. This way they could attempt a parody/homage defense if need be. http://www.toonopedia.com/crimebst.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimebuster_(Boy_Comics) Incidentally, Lev Gleason also published the first Daredevil, although there is not much of a case for Matt Murdock being a rip-off from him. fnord12October 12, 2015 7:52 AM Infinity Gauntlet #4 And while i can see that people that didn't read the Dr. Strange issues feel like Thor's reappearance was a mistake, i don't think it was. Considering how clunky the handoffs were between the main book and the tie-ins, the fact that the Dr. Strange issues address the return of Thor, Drax, Firelord, and others makes it clear that it was planned in advance. And the same with the Hulk's shrinking in Hulk #383. The story here takes care to put each of those characters in a status quo that the tie-in books can address, so it must have been coordinated. I can see that maybe a little more exposition (or, god forbid, a footnote!) should have been included in IG #5 so that it was clearer to readers not following the tie-ins. fnord12October 12, 2015 7:48 AM Doctor Strange #34-35 She seems to remain as part of Strange's support crew along with Dr. Druid, Clea, and Rintrah. We'll see her at the afterparty in Dr. Strange #36. Omar KarinduOctober 12, 2015 6:25 AM Avengers #319-325 Avengers Forever will either greatly simplify or greatly complicate the "Characters Appearing" tags for the Crossing. StevenOctober 11, 2015 11:51 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 Thor was restored by Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange #35. BillOctober 11, 2015 11:19 PM Doctor Strange #34-35 I never read these issues. Whatever happened to the Scarlet Witch? She's not in the Infinity Gauntlet after she (supposedly) died in issue 4. Did she just decide to chill out and hang on Earth? At least now we know how Thor was restored after his turning to glass and being shattered deal. davidbanesOctober 11, 2015 10:54 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Whoops I wasn't clear earlier. I meant it feels wrong having not even one member of the FF during the attack. Cyclops and Wolverine represent the X-Men so they got it covered pretty well but I'd have had Invisible Woman. Luis DantasOctober 11, 2015 10:32 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 When I read the issue, I assumed that the deaths and mutillations were all legit, yet reset later on. As noted by David above, Nova at the very least had a very definitive death. GromOctober 11, 2015 9:47 PM Silver Surfer #57-58 Yep, skipped these when reading to my kids. GromOctober 11, 2015 6:32 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 @Tuomas Regarding Warlock, I would argue that he was stupid because if he knew what Mephisto would be doing then as soon as Thanos "depowered" he would have ordered the big guys to go in but instead he told them rudely to hold back. MortificatorOctober 11, 2015 6:21 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 Having played the Infinity Gauntlet-inspired Marvel Super Heroes games before reading the issues, I was kind of expecting a big cool fight between the heroes and Thanos. Seeing them get slaughtered like this made me feel an intense sense of revulsion. Not that that's a criticism of the story; it's one of the elements that makes it more memorable than its sequels. Speaking of, Dr. Doom's relative impotence here has been mentioned, but I think he makes up for it in Infinity War. BobOctober 11, 2015 5:38 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 Even though there used as cannon fodder, you'd think the heroes would have at least had some kind of strategy, rather than just everyone attacking Thanos in ones or twos. After one of Hulk or Thor's hits, they could have had Strange attempt to conjure a portal behind Thanos into a universe where the gems don't work...or something. And, other than Doom, no one actually tries to snatch the Gauntlet. It just seems very un-Cap to charge blindly into slaughter. Also, Mephisto seems to be all over the map. On the one hand, he helps the heroes by persuading Thanos. On the other, he makes it a point to turn Thanos' attention to Warlock and Surfer. In any case, it's a pretty unforgettable issue, and the minor gripes don't take away from the mother of all slugfests. BobOctober 11, 2015 5:29 PM Doctor Strange #34-35 and what's the rationale for leaving the Hulk stranded there? BobOctober 11, 2015 5:28 PM Doctor Strange #34-35 Isn't this story sort of pointless, since Nebula restores everything when she gets the Gauntlet? BobOctober 11, 2015 5:24 PM Silver Surfer #57-58 Pointless story, sloppy art. BobOctober 11, 2015 5:22 PM Hulk #384 Easily the best of all the IG tie-ins. David took the Hulk getting shrunk and, rather than do the tired cliche of a tiny-hero-fighting-giant-sized-stuff story, turned it into something unique. david banesOctober 11, 2015 5:21 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 Yeah Thor coming back is hard to believe. BobOctober 11, 2015 5:17 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 Starlin sure loved to kill other people's characters. Notice his creation Drax is one of the few who doesn't get a brutal execution. TuomasOctober 11, 2015 5:13 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 Even if Thor's "death" is maybe magical, it looks pretty conclusive to me. He's turned to glass and shatters to million pieces. But when the heroes return later in the story to fight Nebula, Thor is there with no explanation. All the other heroes who "die" in this issue stay dead until the reset button is pushed, so it feels like Thor's reappearance is a mistake, and either Starlin or Lim forgot he died here. It's worth noting that without Mephisto's manipulation, Warlock's plan would've failed right from the start. So either Warlock is stupid, or he was somehow able to predict exactly what Mephisto would do, which seems unlikely. Piotr WOctober 11, 2015 5:00 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 That first scan looks quite a lot like Perez, at least when it comes to the composition. As for the fight... I still don't understand why, even with his omniscience turned off, doesn't just destroy the heroes with one mental attack of something. He should be able to do that... Luke BlanchardOctober 11, 2015 4:59 PM Fantastic Four annual #1 There was also a MILLIE THE MODEL ANNUAL #1 in 1962. The cover says "All New Stories". The series continued in subsequent years. david banesOctober 11, 2015 4:32 PM Infinity Gauntlet #4 Almost everyone gets a moment to shine but I was surprised Thunderstrike was such a powerhouse. The five that surive or get rescued are pretty interesting choices but that comes back later. I like the brief She-Hulk and Namor team up for some reason. Quasar and Nova were the two out of all these heroes that felt like supreme cannon fodder. Oh yeah and Hulk and Destroyer team up was great too. If only Ben Grimm was here too or any single one of the FF really. Piotr WOctober 11, 2015 2:08 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 You know, I look at the scene with the heroes arriving to fight Thanos and... this story stops working for me. I mean, Thanos is basically omnipotent at this stage. I remember that scene from "Thanos Quest", which showed the extent of the powers of Gauntlet-wearing Thanos and my impression was that he could do anything with just a thought. The heroes know it... and yet, they arrive to fight the guy. But what are they hoping to achieve there? Considering his powers, Thanos might already be aware of their plans anyway. Even if he wasn't, he would be able to defeat this whole army of heroes with a twitch of a finger. So, why fight him in this way? I feel like this story has defeated itself by making the states so big. The villain is so powerful there that he can't conceivably be defeated - not by ordinary superheroes, anyway. So, seeing these heroes trying to do it is just pointless and leaves me cold. The tension there hinges on the possibility of the heroes winning by some chance... but they have no chance. So, there's no tension... Dan H.October 11, 2015 1:12 PM Ghost Rider #21-22 My (maybe) final thoughts on this... There are at least two other active members of the Scourge organization during the original's rampage (speculation based on observations made by other commenters and readers). Scourge B (Bloodstain?) is male and feels the insistence on only killing those convicted of a crime is restrictive. He kills the Hate Monger and goes after Flash Thompson (neither of whom has been convicted). In his escape from the aborted Thompson hit, he releases a bunch of other prisoners (something the "real" Scourge would have never done) and also kills the Wraith, who has likewise never been convicted of a crime. The "real" Scourge later hesitates to kill Captain America in exactly this same manner, resulting in his capture. Just very unlikely that they're the same guy. Even if Cap is a much more iconic and less controversial figure than the Wraith, someone with the encyclopedic knowledge the first Scourge has on super-types would know that the Wraith was a good guy. Scourge C (Caprice?) is female and very much the opposite - to her, the letter of the law is unquestionable. The court system doesn't make mistakes in her eyes. Rather, it's overcrowded prisons and "soft on crime" politicians who are responsible for so many hardened criminals being out on the streets. This Scourge kills Titania and later finds out (or is informed) about the "real" Scourge's true identity as Carson Collier. The whole "brother" story may have been concocted to cover for the fact that this Scourge was in fact himself a convicted criminal - yes, he was framed (or so he SAYS) but he was never exonerated. And worse (in the eyes of Scourge C), he actually made his first target someone who HADN'T been convicted of a crime (although he was in fact guilty, but in the eyes of the law, Delazny was innocent and Collier was the guilty one). So Scourge C tracks down and executes the first Scourge, feeling he is a disgrace to the organization. It isn't a case of Domino or someone in the Scourge org simply wanting to cover their tracks, it's a "legitimate" targeting of a convicted criminal. I haven't read much Marvel past the eighties, so I don't know how this would actually work with later reveals (I used Bloodstain and Caprice as placeholders but "Scourge B" and "Scourge C" would probably be other people). Dan H.October 11, 2015 12:36 PM Ghost Rider #21-22 Hey Nathan: I hadn't really gotten that far into it. Personally, I hate the later "Scourge organization" reveal. I'd have preferred it if Scourge's network had consisted simply of himself, Domino, and an accomplice/apprentice who was responsible for killing him and would have later turned up with the same M.O. but without Scourge's insistence on only killing convicted criminals (thus also explaining some of the hits carried out by what we thought was the original Scourge). Since we are stuck with the later "Scourge organization" reveal though, I'd have to put his "recruitment" a lot closer to the time of his first hit on the Enforcer. Since there's no need for Collier to dream up and fund the operation, it doesn't need to happen over a period of years. The whole Enforcer ID mess is so screwy that it actually appears that Collier (having been framed by Delazny) isn't exonerated, but actually sprung from prison before that can happen. I'm not sure how much time passes between that and the Enforcer's ACTUAL ID being established (if we go by the actual comics, then we actually have to conclude that when the REAL Enforcer is later captured and sent to prison, he is able to continue for some time the charade that he's Carson Collier, who he had previously framed. Because I guess fingerprints and mugshots don't exist. I-yi-yi). Anyway - after being sprung from prison as part of Delazny's ruse to return to activity as the Enforcer, and since he apparently had had no luck getting the legal system to take him seriously about his innocence on the Enforcer matter - maybe Collier just goes into hiding for several years, during which he picks up some of the skills he'll later use as Scourge, but not all. At some point maybe just a couple of months prior to his first attack, he's targeted and recruited as an agent by the Scourge organization... whoever the Hell they are (Skull, Angel, whatever). fnord12October 11, 2015 12:02 PM Fantastic Four annual #1 In Fantastic Four #18 it's said that their fight with Dr. Doom from #17 was their "last adventure", so this annual definitely should not take place in between. Thanks for pointing it out, Sataniel. I've adjusted the placement. SatanielOctober 11, 2015 9:19 AM Fantastic Four annual #1 "This annual takes place between FF#18 and #19." Erik BeckOctober 11, 2015 8:50 AM Captain America annual #9 @Cecil - Or the lasagna. I had never read this, though I had the last two annuals in this crossover. But seriously, for their crossover event they decided to blatantly rip-off the art from Justice League Annual #1 (see the bottom example here for the red-eyes used for a microbial possession of humans in that issue) and a major plot point from Airplane? Was Marvel that creatively bankrupt already? Thanos6October 11, 2015 6:48 AM Infinity Gauntlet #3 Dammit, David, be glad I wasn't drinking when I read that or you'd owe me a new monitor. david banesOctober 11, 2015 2:35 AM Infinity Gauntlet #3 She's Thanos' OC so he can name her how he wants. Do not steal! cullenOctober 11, 2015 1:24 AM Avengers #319-325 Lol, count me among those who already jumped ship from Marvel by the time of "The Crossing," and therefore *looking forward* to its coverage here. Erik RobbinsOctober 11, 2015 1:21 AM Infinity Gauntlet #3 Shouldn't she have been named Thanosia or something? Terraxia seems like a name for somebody linked to Galactus's Herald pre-Nova. Red CometOctober 10, 2015 11:46 PM Marvel Comics Presents #24-31 (Havok) Leila's heel turn in this story never made much sense to me, but then again no one ever accused a Howard Mackie story of being high art. Thanos6October 10, 2015 11:08 PM Marvel Comics Presents #24-31 (Havok) What's NCTV? Morgan WickOctober 10, 2015 10:01 PM Silver Surfer #54 "It's the end of the world anyway! Let's go ahead and let the animals roam free in the streets!" Red CometOctober 10, 2015 8:28 PM Deathlok #1-4 Flashbacks and what not portray the Luthor Manning Deathlok as being white. And I always assumed the grayish skin on what remained on his human face was that of a deteriorated corpse, which also explains why his nose is gone too. Nathan AdlerOctober 10, 2015 7:47 PM Ghost Rider #21-22 @DanH.: I'm more intrigued who you think was running the "Scourge organisation" when Collier was recruited by them? Andrew FOctober 10, 2015 7:26 PM Silver Surfer #55-56 Granted, these issues turn out to be a daydream which is wuite lame. But they have at least a couple interesting ideas. I like the shrines to Death that Thanos makes, where he creates fully-grown intelligent creatures in one end and has them led to another end to be murdered. And, the end -- where Surfer takes a rare opportunity to kill himself, only to be revived, definitely drives home the hopelessness of the situation. Plus tons of slaughtered superheroes is always fun. So, I enjoyed them, at any rate. Thanos6October 10, 2015 7:20 PM Doctor Strange #33 Given that those are the only kind of stories he appears in, it's almost a shame, but... fnord12October 10, 2015 7:04 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 @Thanos6, i don't really consider Terraxia a character. She's just a construct created by Thanos. If she appeared outside this event i'd probably tag her but since she doesn't, it doesn't seem worth it. Red CometOctober 10, 2015 7:04 PM Silver Surfer #55-56 Ron Marz doesn't seem like the type to hack out a pointless story during a crossover so I'd like to believe these issues were editorially mandated, but who knows? This kind of thing also turned me against Bendis' Avengers books too. I hated it when he'd be writing the big company crossover and both Avengers titles would spend half the publishing year on severely decompressed flashbacks relating story information we already got in the event book. Didn't help that the other half of the publishing year was usually another story about his personal Mary Sue, the Hood. Nothing screams Avengers villain like a low rent crime boss with the power to shoot two guns at the same time. fnord12October 10, 2015 7:02 PM Doctor Strange #33 Yeah, he really shouldn't have been. I've deleted him. TuomasOctober 10, 2015 6:57 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 I think it kinda makes sense that Thanos doesn't need to be smart at this point, since he's omnipotent. He had to be smart to steal the Infinity Gems from the Elders, though, and I guess that's why Thanos' Quest is better story than the one it's a a prologue for. It's fun to see how Thanos manages to cheat each elder out of his Gem. But it makes sense that once he has all six, that cunning isn't needed anymore. What's the point of having contingency plans when no one can stand up to you? As powerful as the Cosmic Cube was, the heroes could still fight against Thanos when he had it, but with the Infinity Gems, they couldn't have done anything if Thanos hadn't deliberately limited his powers because of Mephisto's manipulation. I guess the point Starlin tries to make is that power doesn't necessarily make you wise. Even with ultimate power you can make mistakes that cause you to lose it. But it makes for a rather dull superhero story when the heros' efforts are futile to begin with, and the villain is only defated because of his subconscious self-sabotage. Like Fnord says, this is more of Thanos solo story, a character study really, than the sort of "superheroes vs. a villain" story the 70s Thanos comics still were. MikeCheyneOctober 10, 2015 6:42 PM Silver Surfer #54 This kind of reminds me of those Grant Morrison written Animal Man comics in which he would preach at the sympathetic villain. This has action and avoids the downbeat ending though. It seems really out of character for the Rhino, and there are other villains that would have worked better for it, but who knows, he might have gotten loopy thanks to Infinity madness. I remember reading the Silver Surfer at this time and getting annoyed that the comic's stories during Infinity Gauntlet were pretty minor. SatanielOctober 10, 2015 6:20 PM What's Missing Nevermind, I see that Tales of the Marvels: Inner Demons is here, just without series title and later than I expected. BillOctober 10, 2015 6:10 PM Avengers #319-325 Erik, I feel bad for fnord once he reaches "The Crossing" because it is so full of errors and even reading it issue to issue makes no sense. Characters appear at places they shouldn't be or even disappear altogether (and not because of superpowers). The general story is basically nonsensical. I feel even MORE bad for him when he reaches "Avengers Forever", which, while a fun story and well worth reading by an Avengers fan, it has to straighten out the mess of "The Crossing". Fnord may well find himself needing a stay in a nice quiet rubber room for a while. kvetoOctober 10, 2015 5:59 PM Silver Surfer #54 I bought this issue only because Rhino was on the cover. I thought the fight was pretty funny. Did zoos in NY in the 90s still use cages? SatanielOctober 10, 2015 5:56 PM What's Missing It seems that you miss Tales of the Marvels, which were Marvels-inspired comics showing various events from civilian perspective. BillOctober 10, 2015 5:50 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 The coloring error on She-Hulk throughout this issue always bothered me. I mean, as colored, her costume doesn't even make sense! david banesOctober 10, 2015 5:47 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 I don't know a lot about the Pantheon but I think so some are just in based on sheer power but I think there was also some beefing up. It kind of helps give a little more scale to have a sheer army rather than just a handful of deities. I do wonder how all the Thor's Odin and Hela operate. A lot of these are Starlin's creations and they just sort of popped out of the blue before. Eon/Epoch, Lord Chaos and Master Order, Love and Hate and Kronos of time. BobOctober 10, 2015 5:44 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 While this is a great series, I do find the first half of this story much stronger than the second half. It felt as though many characters were going to play a part, rather than what would be come the usual Starlin plot of everyone else being useless background for the Warlock and Thanos show. It works here this one time, but the constant repetition of this in the later series, and Thanos becoming such a Mary Sue, soured me on his further writing. Thanos6October 10, 2015 5:24 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 For what it's worth, since Terraxia pops up in issues 4 and 5, should she be tagged? Piotr WOctober 10, 2015 5:21 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 I admit that I've never understood why the Watcher or the Stranger are included among the "cosmic beings". They are just aliens, right? Meanwhile, even the Celestials are more akin to gods. And the Living Tribunal and Eternity are so esoteric that they well might be considered the true gods of the Marvel Universe... How can the Stranger even compare to them? Thanos6October 10, 2015 5:20 PM Doctor Strange #33 fnord, maybe I'm missing something, but why is Zota tagged? Granted, this and the Strange Tales story are his only appearances, but I thought you didn't tag the "natives" in time travel tales. BobOctober 10, 2015 5:10 PM Silver Surfer #54 Easy to mix up puffins and penguins - even Opus can't tell the difference: It was with this issue and its silliness that I realized that Surfer subscription I got for Infinity gauntlet was probably a wasted effort. david banesOctober 10, 2015 4:55 PM Silver Surfer #54 I like it when the Rhino gets to show a soft side. david banesOctober 10, 2015 4:51 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 I was surprised to learn Love and Hate were introduced here for the first time since there was zero fanfare. I really like the Wolverine and Hulk scene even if it doesn't amount to much in the end. I also did not realize Eternity has been around since the 60s. First I saw it was during the Korvac saga. SharOctober 10, 2015 4:49 PM Avengers #65 To add to Omar's comment: the name "Clint" (CLINT) was also on that forbidden list. A name that had just been revealed at the end of the previous issue #64 as Hawkeye's real name. ;) BobOctober 10, 2015 4:45 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 Always lived that Hulk and Wolverine scene. Mark DrummondOctober 10, 2015 4:20 PM Champions #1-10 Dave Kraft stated in Comics Interview #112 that he was the one who came up with the "Champions" book title. Mark DrummondOctober 10, 2015 4:11 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 In Comics Journal #152, Claremont stated that he planned to kill off Xavier and replace him with Gateway in order to broaden the X-Men's base of operations. He also confirmed that he wrote the first 11 pages of #279 and Nicieza wrote the other 11. Mark DrummondOctober 10, 2015 4:02 PM Silver Surfer #54 I think Puffins have more angular beaks with markings on them. Ataru320October 10, 2015 3:47 PM Silver Surfer #54 Sure hope that tiger came back after time was reset. Mark DrummondOctober 10, 2015 3:44 PM Quasar #26-27 The red one-eyed mourner appears to be from the "Mega-Monsters" story in Godzilla. StevenOctober 10, 2015 3:36 PM Infinity Gauntlet #3 I wish that the Hulk had stayed with the Avengers after this story. ChrisWOctober 10, 2015 3:16 PM Infinity Gauntlet #2 Good thing the X-Men are reportedly off-planet, or the computer would have had to show them on-screen. But they're invisible to computers. And yet (if I remember correctly) Wolverine is there for the climax. Yeah, this is where I gave up on the Marvel Universe. fnord12October 10, 2015 3:04 PM Fantastic Four #90-93 I guess i can add Boss Barker as a Character Appearing. Thanks Omar. Omar KarinduOctober 10, 2015 1:55 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Count me among those who dislike this story (and the Infinity series that follow it). It's a story in which the Silver Surfer is reduced to an ineffectual guest star in his own book, and Thanos turns out to be less a nihilist who embodies the death-drive and more a pathetic stalker with a crush. The 1970s Starlin material is much, much better than this in nearly every respect. There, Thanos really does come across as a deliberate attempt to avoid the cliches of other villains: he uses the Cosmic Cube more intelligently than anyone before or since, he has a subtle (by the standards of the time) plan with a number of backup contingencies in place, and he uses misdirection with tremendous effectiveness. Here, he's just really, really, physically strong, and he's "smart" mostly because everyone around him seems to lose about thirty IQ points. I feel like Starlin made the same mistake with Thanos that Thomas Harris did with Hannibal Lecter: he fell in love with his creation. And as in Harris's novels, the character's commercial popularity meant that the writer no longer needed to work to sell the character to readers; he simply becomes the monster we're meant to adore, smarterer and betterer and tougherer than an increasingly thinly drawn cast of disposable sidekicks and antagonists. Erik BeckOctober 10, 2015 1:49 PM Avengers #319-325 Am I the only one who has never read The Crossing and thus aren't dreading when fnord gets to it? Omar KarinduOctober 10, 2015 1:45 PM Fantastic Four #90-93 The "Boss Barker" Skrull turns up again with Torgo in an issue of Marvel Two-In-One down the line. Omar KarinduOctober 10, 2015 1:41 PM Daredevil #55 So begins the revolving-door identity of Mister Fear. Omar KarinduOctober 10, 2015 1:36 PM Fantastic Four #88-89 Jack is biding his time and looking for the exit, yes, but Stan's writing steps up a notch int he final part of the story. The sequence where Johnny destroys the Mole Man psychologically is fairly effective, IMHO. Dan H.October 10, 2015 1:11 PM Avengers annual #13 Byrne inking Ditko sounds like a horrible clash of styles to me, but it's really pretty enjoyable for the most part. Byrne supplies a lot more detail to the figures than we're used to seeing in a Ditko story, but he keeps the classic (and often bordering on bizarre) Ditko poses. Unless you HATE Ditko, the results are a lot of fun, especially as a one-off annual story. Erik RobbinsOctober 10, 2015 1:01 PM Infinity Gauntlet #2 Did you ever play the Marvel Super Heroes roleplaying game from TSR? The boxed sets came with sheets of paper miniatures/standees with images of the heroes on them. The screen of missing heroes behind Cap reminds me strongly of those - I think some of the artwork used was the same (such as the FF & Power Man; Others, particularly the Alphans, were probably never on the paper miniatures). TuomasOctober 10, 2015 12:27 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 I like the Lord of the Rings parallel, with one caveat: i don't think Thanos keeps Nebula alive out of pity. I think it's the opposite. Well, maybe not pity, but even though Thanos says Death is the only companion he needs, there are hints that he subconsciously graves for companionship, even family. When he first meets Nebula and learns that she's suppose to be his granddaughter, he says the whole idea that he could have produced offpsring is blasphemous, yet he keeps Nebula alive and even keeps telling everyone that she's his supposed granddaughter, even though there's no reason for him to mention that. He also casually mentions having killed his mother, so it'd sound like family means nothing to him, yet he keeps Eros alive (much like Nebula) as a witness his deeds, even after he's killed all the other heroes. And later on, in one of the Starlin-penned tie-ins to Infinity War, we learn that that the same ambiguity also applied to his relationship with Gamora when she was kid. On the surface he tried to come off as an cold taskmaster, so that Gamora would grow up to be a ruthless killer, but it seems he couldn't quite hide the fact that he had some parental feelings towards her too. So I'd say there are deeper reasons why Thanos keeps Nebula alive than those he states out loud. fnord12October 10, 2015 12:26 PM Howard the Duck #12-14 It's listed on the What's Missing page so i consider it canon and i'd like to get to it eventually. But it's not going to be a priority for a while. ChrisOctober 10, 2015 12:26 PM Infinity Gauntlet #2 As others have noted, lots of minor continuities error here. Either Starlin wrote (or Perez drew) certain scenes in advance of certain plot revelations, or the writers of crossover issues weren't informed that certain characters were determined to be gone. It's a little annoying, but nothing major. Overall though, it did a good job of setting things up. It reminded me very much of Crisis on Infinite Earths except that it was easier to follow and had less non-sequiters. Dan H.October 10, 2015 12:09 PM Howard the Duck #12-14 I'll probably regret asking this, but do you have any plans to include the Kiss comics in your project? I know Dr. Doom makes an appearance there, so it may be considered canon for your purposes. Or not. Dan H.October 10, 2015 11:46 AM Ghost Rider #21-22 Yeah, it's a mess - and since the only time there is a canon reference of the Collier-as-Scourge possibility, it comes labelled as "speculation" in an index overseen by the guy who actually created the Scourge (and thus would have been in a position to confirm it if it were actually true), it probably would be a huge leap to go ahead and accept the theory for tracking purposes. This is especially the case since just following the Deluxe Edition's correction on Collier's past from the original OHOTMU already provides us with an answer to the mystery of what Collier's secret is here. Although it's a little weird that he'd be thinking "soon everyone'll find out" but there are plenty of other explanations for that which don't involve him planning to become a costumed crimefighter. Dan H.October 10, 2015 11:37 AM Ghost Rider #21-22 Ack - I just read further down the page on the Marvel Appendix's writeup on the Scourge (there is a separate "Carson Collier" entry toward the bottom of the page). Apparently that OHOTMU Deluxe Edition entry actually speculates that the Scourge who killed the Enforcer was Collier. I'll have to read that entry to see how "speculative" it is, but I guess I can no longer claim this as *my* hypothesis, since not only did someone else come up with it first, but they did so within the pages of the offical Marvel Handbook, even if only under the umbrella of "speculation." That Collier entry on the Marvel Appendix site also incorporates data from the original OHOTMU, which incorrectly identified Collier as the Scourge. Apparently, Collier had left college about the time of this story as he'd gotten into dealing narcotics. So THAT was apparently his secret here or at least related to it, though that doesn't at all invalidate the idea that he eventually went the Scourge route after being framed by Delazny as the Enforcer. InstantiationOctober 10, 2015 11:34 AM Infinity Gauntlet #2 "Warlock has ... basically suppressed his humanity" (fnord) Yeah, this edition of Warlock bears little resemblance, personality-wise, to the soulful, angst-ridden figure of the 70s. Doom, of course, conveniently ignores that although Thanos killed Warlock (with surprising ease), Warlock ultimately emerged from the Soul Gem and turned Thanos to stone, thus -- with a big assist from Spidey -- saving everyone's tail. As for Perez, his work is technically very impressive, and he was often described as a "fan favorite." Personally, though, I've always preferred a number of artists who have less technique and commercial slickness but more stylistic distinctiveness. However, Perez is the perfect artist for things like "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and this. fnord12October 10, 2015 11:33 AM Ghost Rider #21-22 I think this is Carson Collier Junior's only appearance, yeah, so he wouldn't be someone that i track. Unless i bought into your Scourge theory, which i like but i can't accept as canon, obviously (i try to document what's officially canon, not make up my own). I say all this with the caveat that the whole Enforcer reveal mix-up made my head hurt and i may be misremembering things. fnord12October 10, 2015 11:25 AM Infinity Gauntlet #2 Yeah, a lot of the events that occur during the IG tie-ins must still have occurred ("but differently") despite the reset. Clumsy Foulup is definitely still dead, the Hulk still fought the Abomination, and presumably Dr. Strange still fought the Silver Dagger and reconciled with Clea (i wouldn't be surprised if Thomas addresses this last one in some way, but i haven't read past the IG Dr. Strange issues yet). I already didn't have Odin listed as a character for this issue, but i've added his BTS replacement, and i updated the text around Makkari's disappearance. Thanks Bob and Don. Dan H.October 10, 2015 11:09 AM Ghost Rider #21-22 Given that Carson Collier isn't the Enforcer (as pointed out in the issues where he's unmasked), is it worth tracking Carson? Or does he just totally disappear after the Enforcer reveal with no explanation as to what his real secret here is? My half-formed hypothesis: Carson Collier has just started down the road to being original Scourge. At this point, his motives are actually just to become a true-blue champion of justice. But he will subsequently have his life trashed when the Enforcer steals his identity - the Marvel Appendix gives some ideas on this to explain the incorrect identification of the Enforcer in Spider-Woman. Basically, the Enforcer escapes before the authorities arrive in the story where he is unmasked and he frames Collier, who is actually caught and imprisoned for a while. In my hypothesis, this experience turns Collier from honest do-gooder to a dark vigilante-in-training. After additional origining (during which time the "Scourge organization" recruits Collier and gives him additional training) he will later make the Enforcer his first victim and make up the story about the Enforcer being his brother as payback for the Enforcer stealing his identity. So IF you were going to buy into that - and I don't expect you to - this would actually be the Scourge's first appearance (there's some additional canon support for this, as the OHOTMU Deluxe Edition - overseen by Gruenwald, who created the Scourge - makes clear that it's Delazny who is the Enforcer and that both Collier and Delazny are only children, meaning not only is the Scourge's story about the Enforcer being Collier's son untrue, but that the Scourge couldn't have been Collier's brother because no such brother existed. However - unless I'm missing something - he COULD have been Collier himself. And the story he told Cap would have been more-or-less true except that the "brother" he mentioned was someone he knew growing up because their fathers were both in the entertainment biz. He goes with the "brother" lie both as a shot at Delazny's attempt to steal his identity and also to make it appear that he was initially motivated by a sense of honor, rather than revenge. Erik BeckOctober 10, 2015 9:54 AM Thor #418 It makes me think that DeFalco and Frenz didn't read Avengers #274 that carefully, since Hercules was unconscious and face down when the Wrecking Crew started beating on him. Thanos6October 10, 2015 5:38 AM Quasar #26-27 Maelstrom cut them off during the COSMOS IN COLLISION story in issues 19-25. david banesOctober 10, 2015 5:02 AM Quasar #26-27 Oh okay, can't say I know anything about losing hands then but mystery solved. Don CampbellOctober 10, 2015 2:57 AM Infinity Gauntlet #2 Three things. First, both Mephisto and Thanos refer to how Thanos has already halved the universe's population on page 8 of Quasar #26 so Makkari's being listed as "disappeared" in IG #2 is definitely wrong since he does appear in Quasar #27. Still, it's nothing major and can probably be written off as someone having mistakenly reported him as missing and the Avengers not having any way to disprove the report. Second, the fact that Eric Masterson is present as "Thor" means that the Odin who appears in IG #2 with the other sky-gods is definitely "not himself." The Marvel Chronology Project's listings for Odin (and for who he really is in that issue) confirm that fact. Third, is there a problem with Epoch's birth? Remember, she was born in Quasar #27 (after the mass disappearance in IG #1) and then appeared in IG #2 but Nebula later used the Infinity Gauntlet to transform the universe into (almost) exactly the way it had been twenty-four hours earlier. Most of those involved were shown to have forgotten what had happened during that period (as Quasar #37 showed when Wendell encountered a record of "something that was made to unhappen"). So, if the universe was rolled back far enough that the halving of the population only lasted for seconds, wouldn't that have also cancelled out any actions Thanos had taken later? Like, say, causing Eon's body to overflow onto Earth? If so, then how could Quasar remember having helped deliver Epoch? Or is it that, since Thanos (retroactively) did not interfere, Epoch's birth did occur but differently than shown in Quasar #27? Reality alterations can be so confusing. PeterAOctober 10, 2015 1:42 AM Infinity Gauntlet #2 Who, I wonder, took all those nicely posed pictures up behind Cap? Do the heroes have regular photoshoots exactly for these types of scenes? Perez is great but I still like Ron Lim's Thanos better, he's got more weight, or impact, I guess. Why can't mass destruction in comics ever have proper repercussions? I despise the reset button, bah. Jake AmidonOctober 10, 2015 12:21 AM She-Hulk #7-8 What was fun for me reading this issue recently was that I had just learned about "terror management theory" which basically posits that the prime driver in human actions is our fear of our own death. Jennifer convinces the people using the fountain to destroy it because they no longer do anything since they no longer fear death. Sparky RyanOctober 9, 2015 11:23 PM Daredevil #192 Alan Brennert wrote about 5 Batman stories, everyone of them is a Grade A classic and regularly features in Greatest Batman Stories collection and this is no different in quality. Thanos6October 9, 2015 11:21 PM Quasar #26-27 @davidbanes: I think he means losing his hands again. BerendOctober 9, 2015 11:12 PM Quasar #26-27 The very first protector of the universe being the same race as Neutron from the Shi'ar Imperial Guard was a nice touch. davidbanesOctober 9, 2015 10:59 PM Quasar #26-27 So in IG#4 Quasar mentions 'not again' before getting cooked by Thanos. Is he referring to here in that he could beat Thanos at all? Thanos6October 9, 2015 9:43 PM Quasar #26-27 What did you find wrong with it? (Just did some quick research; yes, Gruenwald was an agnostic/Deist, but definitely not a theist) Luis DantasOctober 9, 2015 9:29 PM Quasar #26-27 I am an atheist and I read that panel. It is utterly disconnected from reality. Thanos6October 9, 2015 9:22 PM Quasar #26-27 I'm pretty sure that his widow said he was an atheist or agnostic. What makes you say that, Luis? Luis DantasOctober 9, 2015 9:01 PM Quasar #26-27 That was a very weak moment for our boy Wendell. I guess Mark Gruenwald does not understand atheism at all. BobOctober 9, 2015 8:11 PM Hulk #383 Keown does a good job depicting Bruce in the Hulk's face. A lesser artist would have botched that. BobOctober 9, 2015 8:10 PM Hulk #383 David's Hulk was the only Marvel book I stuck with through the early 90s, and the quality was always good. But, still, I much preferred the pre-Pantheon/Elvis jumpsuit Hulk to this era. BobOctober 9, 2015 8:01 PM Silver Surfer #53 Between flashbacks, Drax and Firelord's issue, robot decoys and dream sequences, there are very little appearances of the Surfer in the actual MU during these crossover issues. The one we get is the Rhino at the zoo issue, which reads like a coloring book plot. BobOctober 9, 2015 7:55 PM Doctor Strange #32 The Silver Dagger - a guy with David Crosby's 'stache and hair, an eyepatch and a belly shirt. When they were handing out looks to MU villains, he must have been in the can. Tabe8October 9, 2015 7:51 PM Silver Surfer #52 How much of a geek am I that I knew precisely the comic and issue number you linked to Re: Frank Miller Cover before hitting the link. :( BobOctober 9, 2015 7:41 PM Infinity Gauntlet #2 Re: Makkari Those issues are a continuity headache with IG, between that, Quasar's costume, Epoch's appearance and figuring out when Quasar and Thanos first met. --- I really dont like Doom's appearance here, or as part of the cannon fodder wave. In my head, evidence be damned, I'll always make myself think this was a Doombot, and that the real Victor was waiting back, plotting something in case Warlock failed. GromOctober 9, 2015 7:10 PM Quasar #26-27 Nice pickup Bob not to mention Quasar is wearing his old costume ... BobOctober 9, 2015 6:50 PM Quasar #26-27 Odd - because when Quasar faces Thanos in IG 4, the dialogue implies it's their introductory meeting. fnord12October 9, 2015 6:07 PM Infinity Gauntlet #2 Sleepwalker and Moon Knight are part of the Eon side story. I wonder if there were plans for the others that didn't get published. Or else i guess we're supposed to assume that they are still out there helping people with disasters and stuff. BillOctober 9, 2015 5:53 PM Infinity Gauntlet #2 I thought it was odd that Wonder Man, the (original) Human Torch, Moon Knight, Namorita and Sleepwalker didn't go with the force of heroes to combat Thanos. They were specifically shown as survivors, so why leave them behind? Thanos6October 9, 2015 5:31 PM Doctor Strange #32 I think the idea is that if the Man-Thing burns to death someone who's afraid, then the Fear Lords aren't being empowered by that person's fear anymore. So that weakens them. fnordOctober 9, 2015 3:45 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 "Totally not weird." - Thanos Piotr WOctober 9, 2015 3:40 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Random observation: am I weird or is Death kind of hot in this story..? Dan H.October 9, 2015 3:19 PM Avengers #64 The Avengers not knowing Hawkeye's real name makes no sense. Hell, Yellowjacket was one of the Avengers who approved Hawkeye as a new member when he was planning to leave (along with the Wasp and Iron Man). And Captain America wasn't even expected to show up for the ceremony where they did the "changing of the guard." Nor was Thor (who turned up later). So, really? We're expected to believe they were just going to hand over Avengers Mansion to three ex-criminals (Wanda and Pietro being the others) and they didn't even bother to ascertain Hawkeye's true identity? Wow... clunky, even for Roy. Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 3:17 PM Avengers #65 Rather daringly, the story shows Hawk-Goliath taking out Egghead with his giant middle finger, with the sound effect "FLICK." (Comics fans will recall why that word was avoided in the all-caps style of lettering.) Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 3:13 PM Captain America #114-119 This script actually goes to some trouble to tell us we're not seeing the Skull's true face; we only get a clear look at after dialogue stating that Cap has deliberately disguised himself with some clay or something. Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 3:10 PM Silver Surfer #6 The Marvel Handbooks will later decide that the Overlord is a Dakkamite, like Wundarr the Aquarian and Quantum. Also, Jim Starlin uses the overlord's troops in crowd scenes in his Captain Mar-Vell stories. Perhaps they're just Dakkamite spacesuits or something. Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 3:06 PM Avengers #64 If it helps, Barney's dead again as of 2015. Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 3:03 PM Sub-Mariner #14 Byrne's retcon always had a pretty big howler in it as it was. It hinges on Phineas Horton sayignt hatt he Vision isn't his work, but that doesn't make sense if the Vision is made of spare parts from Horton's creation, the android Torch. Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 2:58 PM Iron Man #10-13 At this point the Controller only absorbed people's strength. Despite his name, he didn't actually "control" anyone until Starlin started writing him. I thought so, too, but a single panel on page 10 of issue #13 shows that the Controller ordering some of his victims to load stuff onto the train: "Faster, my mindless minions! Eight million fellow slaves are waiting to add to the might of the Controller!" One of the more interesting touches in the Controller story is that Nick Fury and SHIELD are perfectly willing to destroy the train and everyone on it if Iron Man can't stop it before it reaches NYC. Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 2:30 PM Daredevil #48 Stilt-Man's problem is the stilts; take them away and he's a guy in very resilient power armor fighting a dude with a billy club. Most of his Silver Age appearances make it a point to show that Daredevil can't really hurt him in his armor. Thanos6October 9, 2015 2:30 PM Quasar #26-27 I do enjoy the funeral scene where Quasar gradually comes to term with the deaths of both Eon and his father, and shifts from atheist to more agnostic. fnord12October 9, 2015 2:29 PM Infinity Gauntlet #2 Thanks Clyde. Changed the "he" to a "she", although i think it goes back and forth a bit in the Quasar book. clydeOctober 9, 2015 2:23 PM Infinity Gauntlet #2 and he is named as such, despite looking like he's Eon" Per the wiki entry - Epoch is the daughter of Eon. Epoch is the "daughter" of Eon and "granddaughter" of Eternity. Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 2:09 PM Hulk annual #1 My understanding of Nebulo is that he's not a shadow so much as he's an invisible man who happens to cast a shadow. The Marvel Handbooks call him a "semi-intangible malcontent" -- great band name, that -- but my suspicion is that tis is a typo of "semi-invisible malcontent" (whichis not a great band name). Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 1:47 PM Sub-Mariner #7-8 A few thoughts: Roy didn't introduce Destiny; Archie Goodwin did. So perhaps Roy was just belatedly cleaning up a plotline he didn't want to deal with. Roy and Don Glut also use that Sub-Marreener joke in the final issue of the Invaders series. The sliding timescale makes Betty Dean's appearances in the Marvel era very hard to reconcile. Once she becomes a Hydro-Person, I suppose that could be sued to keep her from aging for awhile, but it comes in rather late. Omar KarinduOctober 9, 2015 1:40 PM Fantastic Four #80 Wyatt's tribe, the Keewazi, are treated rather like the Wakandas, right down to the FF finding out they're actually very wealthy due to mineral resources and have loads of advanced technology on hand. Erik BeckOctober 9, 2015 11:45 AM Marvel Comics Presents #48-50 (Wolverine/Spider-Man) Argh, this is just like the stupid AF appearance. It's not that Wolverine can't appear in other issues. It's that, with his appearances here without Betsy and Jubilee, it seems so stupid. So, they're gathered together, but he just keeps randomly going on various missions without them? It doesn't make any damn sense. The constant Marvel need at this point to have him show up everywhere just undercut a lot of their storytelling. StevenOctober 9, 2015 11:37 AM Silver Surfer #50 I don't think that Zenn-Lavians die of old age. I think they all commit suicide eventually. Erik BeckOctober 9, 2015 11:37 AM Thor #415 I thought only Hildy could make Hogun smile. fnord12October 9, 2015 10:49 AM Silver Surfer #51 Most of this issue is a flashback. Only Nova and Galactus appear in the present day sequence. But even so, "a great many"? Who else besides the Surfer? JCOctober 9, 2015 10:35 AM Silver Surfer #51 Missing a great many "characters appearing", like the title character for instance... DamianOctober 9, 2015 8:53 AM Secret Wars II #6 I loved this issue- a real mind trip, especially with Dave rebooting into a new Death. DamianOctober 9, 2015 8:47 AM Secret Wars II #5 I felt bad when Boom Boom set him up, and loved when he showed that he's more powerful than The Celestials. A Thor Annual retconned that way before Bendis- Thor mused that it was a powerful illusions and/or that the Celestials were toying him The Beyonder. fnord12October 9, 2015 7:58 AM Infinity Gauntlet #1 I like the Lord of the Rings parallel, with one caveat: i don't think Thanos keeps Nebula alive out of pity. I think it's the opposite. This series should definitely be seen as a Thanos solo story, just like Thanos Quest, and what makes it interesting is that the protagonist is evil. More as i get into later issues. GromOctober 9, 2015 7:49 AM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Great writeup Tuomas. I failed to mention how disappointing SS was in the IG series and generally throughout all engagements with Thanos. We have to accept from issue 38 that Surfer's greatest threat to Thanos was him potentially interfering with Thanos's quest for the gems. For some reason Thanos was worried - maybe his concern derived from some prophecy in SS 34. This issue misleads the first time reader into thinking that Surfer will be able to prevail over Thanos. By the way, Warlock is the most boring character ever written (like a robotic Cyclops). Thanos is written by Starlin to be the true hero. He only gets better with each Starlin written series. Everyone else is window dressing (though Living Tribunal is still cool.) fnord12October 9, 2015 7:37 AM Silver Surfer #51 Mike Sterling understandably doesn't wants us hotlinking to his images, so i put a few scans from the Hercules issue on the main blog. fnord12October 9, 2015 7:27 AM Venus #18 Thanks, you old sea dog. TuomasOctober 9, 2015 6:11 AM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Infinity Gauntlet was one of the last Marvel comics I read in the 90s (I was 12 or 13 when it came out in Finland, and by that point I'd grown tired of the increasingly grim & gritty stuff that was going on in superhero comics); it certainly was the last Marvel comic I remember enjoying as a kid. But having recently reread it as an adult, I have to with the criticisms presented here. The obvious flaw in the comic is that all the assorted heros, besides Warlock, never achieve anything in the story. All their efforts to beat Thanos fail, often spectacularly. The contribution Silver Surfer, who in his solo series was foreshadowed to be the one who defeats Thanos, is reduced to being the guy who flies really fast as part of Warlock's plan − and he still fails at that. Now, all this wouldn't matter if Warlock, the only hero in the story who get things done, would be a likable character, but he's not. Having already gone through his character arc in the 1970s, and having reached enlightenment inside the Soul Stone, here he comes off as an arrogant know-it-all jerk. How can anyone relate to a hero like that? Since nominal heroes of the story are not interesting, the only character that could make the story work is Thanos. And Starlin writes him really well here, in the #1 issue; his mission to satisfy Death, him becoming a literal personification of Freud's thanatos is interesting stuff, and it certainly blew the mind of 12-year old me. But even that gets kinda sidelined when the story moves to the part where Thanos mostly just fights waves of increasingly powerful opponents. Sure, those fights look cool and are nicely coreographed, but it's hard to invest emotionally to them since Starlin's writing doesn't invest to the heroes. Besides Warlock, he doesn't try to flesh out any of them, they become mere cannon fodder. The "Cap alone versus Thanos" scene is pretty much the only place where I really rooted for a heroic character in the story. That said, I think the final twist of the series is pretty nicely done, and that's what makes IG better than any of its increasingly worse sequels. This is a story where the heroes fail, and without Nebula, Thanos would've won. Sure, it's ultimately revealed that Thanos is a self-defeatist, and letting Nebula live is probably part of his subconscious desire to lose, so (as Grom points out) the resolution is kinda the same as with Doom in Secret Wars... But having the heroes lose completely, and the universe being saved only because of the actions of a supporting villain character, is still an intriguing way to end the story, It's certainly a better ending than in Infinity War, where we find out Magus never really had a chance of winning because Warlock and Thanos are so Smart and Cool, so it all becomes a mere shaggy dog story. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but the conclusion of IG kinda mirrors the conclusion of Lord of the Rings. In LotR, Bilbo doesn't kill Gollum when he has the chance, and that act of pity is what ultimately leads to Sauron's defeat. In IG, Thanos' doesn't kill Nebula, and the resolution is pretty much the same: the character who was saved steals the magical all-powerful object which would've made the villain win. But the interesting difference compared to LotR is that it's the villain himself who commits the act of pity, and that leads to his own defeat. That's a psychologically fascinating way of depicting the villain, and it further emphasizes the point that Thanos himself is pretty much the only interesting thing in Infinity Gauntlet. GromOctober 9, 2015 5:22 AM Thor #434-435 Meh. Cancelled Thor around this issue. Just felt it was by the numbers and there were more interesting things going on to spend my limited cash on. GromOctober 9, 2015 5:18 AM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Yeah, I recall the massive hype at my local comic store about this one and I enjoyed it at the time though I prefer Thanos Quest. I just read it to my kids and they enjoyed it. My major disappointment was that Doom was pretty useless. He was after all the guy that stole Galactus's power to defeat the Beyonder. Thanos also ultimately suffered from the same flaw that Doom did in Secret Wars which cost them both omnipotence which was lazy of Starlin. Most of the heroes were mere punching bags but the highlight was Cap's final confrontation with Thanos. Truly heroic. I am worried about the forthcoming movie pitching Thanos as a one dimensional villain. I much prefer his good side that shone through on later Infinity series. MortificatorOctober 9, 2015 5:02 AM Venus #18 It looks like there should be a character appearance tag for Betty, honey. GromOctober 9, 2015 4:57 AM Silver Surfer #51 Agree again with Bob. This was the only good IG tie-in and one of Marz's few highlights. Ron Lim is amazing. Tabe8October 9, 2015 1:10 AM Strange Tales #119 (Dr. Strange) Strange also calls for Mormammu, the page directly before the Dormammu frame shown above. Is that just a typo? Or does Mormammu come back? Feral ProleOctober 9, 2015 12:46 AM 2001: A Space Odyssey #1-10 Seeing as you asked about the licence, the 2001 adaptation came about as a tie-in to the first tv broadcast of the film. Don't think Kirby had anything to do with that; its possible he then pushed for the assignment, but I guess he would have been the obvious choice to do it anyway. Thanos6October 9, 2015 12:17 AM Infinity Gauntlet #1 That's the best part about comics and literature in general. If something confuses you, or you don't think you've understood it quite right, you go back and re-read that part again, and flip back to earlier in the book if you need to clarify something. (And there are, unquestionably, plenty of those moments in Starlin's early Mar-Vell and Warlock stuff; and that's not a criticism! Just an observation :) ) You can only do that with a movie if you're watching it by yourself at home, and even then it's more troublesome. InstantiationOctober 9, 2015 12:14 AM Silver Surfer #51 First series, #4. Here's a scan: http://www.progressiveruin.com/images/galactuslaughherc2.jpg InstantiationOctober 9, 2015 12:02 AM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Enjoyed your answer, Thanos6, and agree that "There's nothing wrong with a well-made action tale with high stakes, good humor, and the occasional bits of deep characterization." Maybe I just wanted even more from Starlin and these particular characters since the bar had been set so high earlier (from the First Thanos War to The Death of Captain Marvel) and since, at a strictly personal level, I had identified so strongly with Warlock's struggles against both others and himself. It's somewhat doubtful that the original Warlock would ever be made into a blockbuster movie -- too quirky and layered for that, I'd guess. And if they did do it, they'd surely ruin it. Walter LawsonOctober 8, 2015 11:29 PM Silver Surfer #51 Or Tom DeFalco wasn't. Marz does bring back Reptyl. The hollow head that Lim draws on Nova has always bugged me. The unhelmeted head of Galactus is simething we've before, by the way, but not in Fnord's project: I think Bob Layton was the first artist to depict it, in the first (or second?) Hercules limited series. Thanos6October 8, 2015 10:42 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 That's one of the best parts about reading comics as a kid; you don't know that "oh, these characters are too important, they won't stay dead." You haven't learned about change and the illusion of change. Merchandising and other business concerns don't enter your head. You just enjoy this story where WOW the villain just killed half the people in the universe how are they going to stop him? I love the original Warlock stuff too, with the Magus and the Universal Church of Truth. You can enjoy that as just a fun adventure story, which is how I first enjoyed it as a kid, after reading GAUNTLET and WAR sent me scrambling for back issues. And of course, when I grew up and kept re-reading it, more and more of the allegory and layers made sense to me. But that's not what INFINITY GAUNTLET is, and I don't think that's a bad thing. There's nothing wrong with a well-made action tale with high stakes, good humor, and the occasional bits of deep characterization and that's what this is, or at least, that's what I think it is. BobOctober 8, 2015 10:25 PM Silver Surfer #51 The retcons here, along with the Clumsy Foulup murder issue coming up, seem to suggest Marz was not too fond of Englehart's work. BobOctober 8, 2015 10:21 PM Silver Surfer #51 That hollowed-out head look for Nova is just weird here. Not bad. Probably the only one of the SS tie-in to Gaunlet that worked. the others are pure filler and pointless. ChrisOctober 8, 2015 10:11 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 When this first came out, I was using one of the mail order subscription services. In the description, it said Thanos was wiping out Counter Earth the first issue. I thought that was good as it implied the half of humanity that would perish was not on our Earth. This meant the events would be real and not magically undone at the end of the story. When I go it - nope, half of Earth's population disappeared - so I knew however it ended, it would be with a huge cop out with no real permanent effects on the Marvel Universe. Major bummer. It had its faults, but the art was great while Perez was on it, and there were a lot of cool bits to it. BobOctober 8, 2015 10:08 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 I remember a lot of people getting mad when #2 came out and the list of heroes killed included major folks like the FF and X-Men who they knew wouldn't stick. In the era of speculation, a lot of young, naive collectors bought multiple copies of number one, thinking it would shoot up in value, due to the deaths of characters. (In fairness, Marvel did promote it along the lines of "things will never be the same," years before they had run that pitch into the ground) I had one friend who dropped the book altogether, because "it isn't going to be worth anything when everyone comes back at the end." He ended missing an amazing story that would be flawless, except for my gripe that Perez bolted to go work on the forgettable War of the Gods for DC. I wonder, in hindsight, if he regrets that move now. Lim's issues were good, though a little more rushed-looking than his usual artwork. InstantiationOctober 8, 2015 10:06 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 You're not alone, Walter Lawson. My feelings about this series are similar to what you've expressed. What I loved about Starlin's original Warlock stories, which I grew up with, were their multi-level thematic richness, with elements of satire, surrealism, psychological insight, parody of the Catholic Church, and so on. By contrast, this series seems quite one-dimensional (the theme of absolute power) and drawn-out. Also, it was very much like the Cosmic Cube again but far more grandiose and far less mysterious. Everything here is basically spelled out and brightly lit. The original Soul Gems were heavily retconned for the purpose, and the great cosmic characters of the 60s (Galactus, The Stranger, et al.) all seemed to be demoted. I could start going on about this, but basically it seemed to me like Starlin and Shooter before him had a kind of oedipal complex in relation to Stan Lee and expressed it by trying to trump Galactus, the biggest gun on the block. That may seem far-fetched on the face of it, but I believe there's something to it. Shooter started that when he was in his teens with the Sun-Eater (not just a planet eater, you see, over at DC) and then later gave us Korvac (who stole power from G's ship) followed by the big, bad Beyonder, who immediately trashes you-know-who. The Infinity Gauntlet essentially makes Thanos into another Beyonder (but evil, as fnord notes), and Starlin always makes "his" characters look better than the others. Anyway, this oneupmanship and cosmic inflation never sat well with an old Stan Lee and Galactus fan like me. Although far better than most of what was going on at Marvel at the time (saying much?), I really didn't like this series when it came out and didn't like it when I reread it a few years ago. Maybe in my case it's like trampling on sacred ground, since Starlin's original work on Mar-Vell/Thanos/Warlock was so important to me when I was younger. (Heck, still is.) Also, I've never liked Starlin's work that he didn't draw himself nearly as much as the best that he did -- not the same integrated whole. Even so, I can understand the excitement of a younger reader like Thanos6 who was breaking into comics around that time. Things like this are highly relative to one's age and expectations. And now it looks like we're heading toward a movie version. BobOctober 8, 2015 10:02 PM Silver Surfer #50 Lim was at the peak of his powers here. The texture on stone Thanos looks great. BobOctober 8, 2015 10:01 PM Silver Surfer #50 I have a vague memory that IG was initially promoted in Marvel Age or somewhere as taking place "in upcoming issues of Silver Surfer" with no mention of a limited series. The entire kickoff of Starlin's run hinted at a much larger and pivotal role for the Surfer, hence the dream sequence in #34 and Thanos seeking him out, as well as the line of dialogue prophecizing how he was the one being who could stop Thanos. BobOctober 8, 2015 9:34 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Not in the scans, but if you look close, you actually three sparks leave the Soul Gem when Thanos is talking to Mephisto early on. Gotta love those little Perez details. Thanos6October 8, 2015 9:29 PM Silver Surfer #50 I've heard rumors--and bear in mind, just rumors, no confirmed interviews or anything--that this was originally an idea that Gruenwald had for QUASAR, but that Starlin got wind of it and convinced th' powers that be to let him handle in in SILVER SURFER, since Thanos and the Soul/Infinty Gems were his creations, and then after that in blossomed into this whole giant event. Again, just a rumor, but it might explain why QUASAR and the various INFINITY books (including WATCH) sometimes seem to be sniping at each other. Red CometOctober 8, 2015 8:24 PM Silver Surfer #50 I could also buy that this was a Silver Surfer story jumped up to company crossover. The same thing happened to Green Lantern during Geoff Johns' run. His Sinestro Corps War storyline was so popular that it made Green Lantern one of DC's best selling titles so editorial turned Johns' next big storyline (Blackest Night) into a company-wide crossover. Red CometOctober 8, 2015 8:13 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Infinity Gauntlet was Starlin's last great Thanos story and really tied up all the work he did with the character. I've always liked the ending too and wish they'd have just left the characters there. And as for commercialization, Marvel must have made a killing on this thing not just in sales, but also in T-shirts. Every Marvel book back then always had a couple pages of T-shirt ads for McFarlane Spider-man and the famous "Come and get me" Thanos picture. Vincent ValentiOctober 8, 2015 8:06 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 I never did understand why the Hulk would assume that the Abomination would have something to do with half the world's population disappearing. Anyway, It was nice to see George Perez back at Marvel after nearly a decade, but it was sadly marred by Rubenstein's inks. He's a good inker when you need someone to punch up poor pencils and make them look average at least....but he has an unfortunate tendency to make superior artists look average as well. I remember asking myself why the covers looked 10 times better than the interior art...and that was because Perez inked the covers himself. BillOctober 8, 2015 7:46 PM Silver Surfer #51 It still strikes me as weird that they showed Galactus without his helmet. They should have gone the Green Goblin/Hobgoblin route and had his face hidden by various things until his helmet went back on. Seeing him looking like some long lost relative to Skurge the Executioner didn't really bring anything to his character. gfsdf gfbdOctober 8, 2015 7:43 PM Doctor Strange #31 ^ ╱╱┏╮ fnord12October 8, 2015 7:11 PM Silver Surfer #50 It's just speculation that sounded plausible to me. Bob laid out the theory in the comments here. As Bob notes, when Thanos was resurrected, the idea was that the Silver Surfer was the only one that could stop him, which certainly isn't how Infinity Gauntlet resolves. After that we had a number of detours (Dynamo City) and issues that seemed designed to tread water. Which suggests, but definitely doesn't prove, a change of plans. Andrew FOctober 8, 2015 7:00 PM Silver Surfer #50 I'm interested in how this story evolved from a Silver Surfer arc into a company-wide event. Is there a blog post or something I could read about that? TCPOctober 8, 2015 6:49 PM Doctor Strange #31 "You are tearing me APART, Stephen!!" fnord12October 8, 2015 6:29 PM Marvel Two-In-One #61-63 Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem, though. As you note, the flashback could have taken place at any time after Warlock's death. Sometimes the way things get place a revelation somewhere will get "spoiled" but it's not actually a contradiction. In this case you can blame the Hulk for being such a popular guy, appearing in the Defenders and elsewhere, and forcing Hulk #248 to get pushed back in publication time. Walter LawsonOctober 8, 2015 6:28 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 I must have been the only person who found this whole series bloated and boring. Forty-eight pages per issue, six months, and basically nothing happens: an omnipotent guy does onipotent things that are all meaningless and as easily undone as done. Heroes get slaughtered, the other cosmic powers get humiliated, much as they did at the Beyonder's hands in SWII, and of course only Starlin's characters--not the Surfer or Dr. Strange or anybody else--can save the day. It's like fanfic. There's no intrigue, no mystery, little developmemt, most of the characters are cardboard. Other than Thanos, who comes out of this with a character in any way different thsn when they went in? What would be the impact on anyone other than Starlin's pets if this story had never happened? I love Starlin's '70s Captain Marvel and Warlock work, and it seems to me that Avengers annual six did in one issue as much as Infinity Gauntlet does in a half-dozen. I'd like IG if it had been a Solver Surfer story, but it's been blown out of all proportion in this mini. But that's just me. I can see why other people love this--Perez and Lim are good, the scale is epic, the villain is cool (even if he doesn't do much), and it was a hot storyline at a time when comics were still fun. And Starlin is a better writer than most of Marvel's crop at this time, even if i dont like this work or the indulgence he showers on his own creations. Thanos6October 8, 2015 5:54 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Do I love this story? Look at my username, what do you think? :D I wasn't picking this up as it was coming out; I was only 7 or 8 and my interest in comics was solely focused on Spider-Man and the X-Men. But a friend of mine was, and he gushed about it, about how awesome this Thanos guy was ("He killed Wolverine!" "No way, you CAN'T kill Wolverine!"). Next year, around the same time that the sequel was coming out, my dad spotted INFINITY GAUNTLET #1 in a comic store and got it for me, saying "the cover looks interesting, this might be good." And boy, was he right. This one issue single-handedly introduced me to the rest of the Marvel universe, and birthed my lifelong interest in all things cosmic. It's possible I wouldn't have stayed with comics if I didn't have this one. It got me really interested in trying to write this stuff myself. And it instantly cemented Thanos as one of my all-time favorite villains. Years later, when I was introduced to the Internet, "Thanos" was my first choice of username, but since that was taken, I hit a random button and became Thanos6 instead. It is not an exaggeration to say that INFINITY GAUNTLET literally changed my life, and for that, I will forever be immensely grateful. RobertOctober 8, 2015 5:53 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Oh and let me add my praise for this series. It's easily top five of Marvel's best stories from the '90s I think. Not that the competition was all that stiff. Anyway, my only complaint is that Perez wasn't able to finish it. I have nothing against Lim but I was pretty bummed at the time at the change in artists. RobertOctober 8, 2015 5:49 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Wolverine and Cyclops do figure into it later. davidbanesOctober 8, 2015 5:04 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 That is a good point about having no Fantastic Four and barely any X-Men it ramps up the scare factor...but still it feels kind of wrong having not even one full member be part of this. Oh and that's really my closest thing to a complaint for this. BillOctober 8, 2015 4:09 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 The Infinity Gauntlet! This was a blast to read in real time. By killing half of all life in the universe, Thanos effectively took the Fantastic Four and all the X-teams off the board, which really helped to ramp up the scary factor. There was no Mister Fantastic to turn to with the hopes of his figuring everything out and creating a device to neutralize the Infinity gems. (Not to mention is was a relief to not have the series cluttered up with the numerous X-characters. It gave everyone else room to breathe.) The tie in issues, to me, felt like it focused on the former Defenders: Dr. Dtrage, the Hulk and Silver Surfer. Namor's title wasn't involved, but he himself was in the series in a minor role. I always wondered if those titles were chosen intentionally for some Defenders based reason. clydeOctober 8, 2015 3:13 PM Infinity Gauntlet #1 Wow - An "A" rating from FNORD. Judging by the price that these issues sell for, it only shows how popular this series was with everybody. This is one of those instances where I was collecting in "real-time" and was thoroughly impressed with the art as well as the plot. I looked forward to this series as much as the "Cosmos In Collision" mini-series in Quasar. Ataru320October 8, 2015 2:18 PM Marvel Two-In-One #61-63 OK, a bit of confusion here: you have it that the Gardener already stole the Soul Gem that was on Warlock's grave here, but you have this before Hulk 248, which came out in June, 1980 while this issue regarding that gem being taken came out in May. Obviously they show a flashback in the Hulk issue of the Gardener taking the gem but it feels a tad screwy. Piotr WOctober 8, 2015 2:10 PM Alpha Flight #97-100 Oh, and I've never understood Nicieza's decision to bring Mac back just to kill him off again so quickly. What was the point? And, of course, Mac was brought back later *again*... Piotr WOctober 8, 2015 2:08 PM Alpha Flight #97-100 Ouch. That "Avengers Assemble" panel is atrocious. Cap's legs are have bad proportions, Herc does a pose out of bodybuilding pageant and Black Widow... just fall headlong to the ground? Piotr WOctober 8, 2015 2:06 PM Alpha Flight #101 Agh! That art!!! I just realized: the perfect actress to play Diamond Lil would've been Lucy Lawless in her Xena days... Erik BeckOctober 8, 2015 11:37 AM Silver Surfer #37 I do rather love the interactions between Eros and Surfer. It's good to see that not everyone in the MU has to get along. And the humor in this issue works very well. Erik BeckOctober 8, 2015 11:21 AM Marvel Comics Presents #40 (Overmind) An odd choice for a MCP story given we had not long before seen what his final end will (possibly) be in SS: Death of a Universe. TCPOctober 8, 2015 11:03 AM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 If it is the case that Terry Kavanagh finished this book his way and not Gerber's, then it definitely wouldn't be the last time that Kavanagh rode roughshod over another writer's story. But, more on that when fnord makes it to 1992 and Howard Mackie's "Name of the Rose" saga begins... BerendOctober 8, 2015 9:58 AM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 Remaking a planet in your image Thanos? Now that's totally ripping of Darkseid from the Great Darkness Saga and you know it! Ataru320October 8, 2015 8:31 AM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 Cloak and Dagger were just characters who never found their niche in this universe, being street level but with a lot of supernatural things they were involved with. They could be worth a shot with a writer who cared enough, but with how many books and new characters that keep coming in (especially with Marvel in its "flood the marketplace mode" at this point in 1991), its impossible to say they would be able to make waves in the right sort of way. fnord12October 8, 2015 7:44 AM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 @Morgan, right now i'm less than halfway done with 1991, but i am moving at a faster pace than usual. I'm pushing to finish 1991 by the end of the year. I expect that there will be about 280 entries for 1991 before i get to Marvel Comics Presents (which will add a lot more). By comparison, 1985 has 225 entries. So it's more entries. But the biggest difference is that there are more issues per entry. In 1985, most of those entries are single or two issue entries. There are a lot more 3-6 part entries in 1991. So while there will be a not insignificant increase in the number of entries, the difference in number of issues will be A LOT higher. My system can't give me a count for individual issues, but in my collection, 1991 takes up an additional long box's worth of comics compared to 1985. I have been banking on the fact that decompression will help balance out the increased number of issues in order to keep up my pace. Right now that's not always true. It depends very much on the style of the writer and artist. Quasar's Cosmos In Collision, for example, is just as compressed as comics from earlier years would be. So those seven issues took just as long to review as seven individual entries would. But six issues of John Byrne's Iron Man have been like reviewing a single issue of, say, his Fantastic Four from 1985. And then there is stuff like these issues of Cloak and Dagger which are not decompressed but which are so awful that i don't care if i cover every in and out of the plot. BobOctober 8, 2015 7:40 AM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 The choice of books for IG tie-ins was puzzling. The X-books were tied up with Muir Island, but the other anchor books (Avengers, FF, Cap, Thor, Iron Man) were noticeably missing. Instead, the tie-ins were Cloak and Dagger (which made no sense), Quasar (which would have worked had he had any significance at all in the main story), Dr. Strange (the only one that made sense, though he was sidelined for a good chunk of the tale), Sleepwalker (?) Hulk and the MacFarlane Spider-Man title (though Todd was gone by that point). As crossover-happy as Marvel is, you'd think they would have had the tie-ins be significant. fnord12October 8, 2015 7:26 AM X-Factor #62 Thanks Thanos6. fnord12October 8, 2015 7:26 AM Power Pack #18 Thanks Thanos6. Thanos6October 8, 2015 2:01 AM Power Pack #18 fnord, you have the panel of Katie collapsing the framework posted twice. Thanos6October 8, 2015 2:00 AM X-Factor #62 fnord, you keep calling her the Genoshan Prime Minister, but in the scans they keep calling her the President. Thanos6October 8, 2015 1:56 AM X-Factor #30-33 @Piotr: Given that N'astirh likewise turns down the offer of Jason Macendale's soul, I find it possible that they have no interest in souls at all; either that or they don't have the abilities to do anything with them. (Bear in mind I know almost nothing about Inferno, so I could be wrong) In both 'bargain' scenes, he could be bluffing ("I can't take his soul, but he doesn't need to know that") and give a reason for asking for more corporeal barter. Morgan WickOctober 8, 2015 12:26 AM Alpha Flight #97-100 I feel like this is a stupid reason for Vindicator to sacrifice himself. He doesn't go down fighting Galactus or anything, he just sacrifices himself because everyone jumped into the alternate dimension without having any way back? Morgan WickOctober 8, 2015 12:16 AM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 It's funny; we talk about how much Marvel was flooding the market with books around this time, yet you've been doing 1991 only a month and you're already almost to Infinity Gauntlet. Granted, I've only discovered this site this year so I don't know what your normal pace is, and for all I know there's a bunch of titles of dubious quality that have to take place during or after Infinity Gauntlet, but it seems like the start of the trend towards decompression sort of offsets the flood of titles. Erik RobbinsOctober 7, 2015 10:08 PM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 Gerber leaving and the sudden right turn into Mephisto territory makes me wonder if an Infinity Gauntlet crossover was being dictated from higher-up, and Gerber was resisting it. Probably not, but the thought occurred. ChrisOctober 7, 2015 10:02 PM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 The initial Gerber plot showed a lot of promise. He obviously knew a lot about Nazi occultism especially as it developed postwar (by both neo-Nazis and occult conspiracists). Kavanugh is just awful though. If I remember correctly, he made a lot of titles awful in this time period. I heard there was a real problem with Editors giving writing gigs to their other Editor buddies so they'd give them writing gigs. Never would have happened under Shooter. I am sad to see Cloak & Dagger keep failing. I think they have real potential, but never had the right writers. Mantlo had the best "voice" for them as their creators, but he didn't seem to know what to do with the characters on their own. He started a good supporting cast with Fr Delgado and Dt O'Reilly, but he clearly had no idea on how to develop a good rogues gallery. C&D needed good, appropriate villains for them - a combination of ordinary human scum committing vice crimes, interesting street level supervillains, and odder foes well adapted to C&D's unique powers. Vincent ValentiOctober 7, 2015 9:01 PM Alpha Flight #101 Maybe Heather remembered that she actually watched Mac burn to death instead of teleporting to another planet :) Btw Heather needs to fix her eyeglass prescription....it's making her cross=eyed (as in the 4th scan). gfsdf gfbdOctober 7, 2015 6:24 PM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 I originally knew of these guys from their guest spot in the original BKV Runaways series. I remember good things, but it's been years. Thanos6October 7, 2015 6:04 PM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 I, likewise, love Cloak and Dagger. It's a shame their title never lived up to their potential. They're not popular enough to have their own book, nowadays, but they're too popular to simply disappear into the limbo of forgotten characters. fnord12October 7, 2015 5:05 PM Alpha Flight #62 That's certainly a philosophy for reading. But of course by definition a retcon is retroactive. And at least for the purposes of this site, i accept all retcons as being true. T NovakOctober 7, 2015 4:06 PM Alpha Flight #62 The Purple Man was dead in this story. The Purple Man's survival is a retcon. Retcon's exist going forward. They don't rewrite a past story that was written with another intent. A retcon exists to make sense of a story that a writer wants to tell now. For example, when you read the classic Amazing Spider-Man stories with Gwen Stacy, if you're imagining her having a sexual relationship with Norman Osborn, then you're misreading the stories as they were written. It's only from the retcon forward that that plot point exists. MattOctober 7, 2015 3:40 PM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 So the bottom line with Cloak & Dagger is: great concept, but poor execution from pretty much everyone who ever wrote them. Kind of a bummer! I want to like them, and I suppose I do like them, as characters, I just can't like their books. BobOctober 7, 2015 2:59 PM Cloak and Dagger #14-19 I love these characters, but they've never had a good book of their own. Gerber might have turned it around, if he'd stuck on a bit longer and developed. Leonardi (looking more rushed than usual) and Ross' art was a step up from the previous issues, but, as is the case with so much around this period, it's hurt by the horrid coloring and the printing/cheap bleach paper Marvel was pushing. Erik BeckOctober 7, 2015 12:23 PM Silver Surfer #34-35 This really is a great return. I would almost argue that it deserves a higher historical consideration, because as common as "coming back from the dead" is, this was a character who had been dead for over a decade and his return really altered a lot of what Marvel did over the next decade. It's hard to feel too bad for Englehart, given his insistence on pushing Mantis (he even wanted her as the flip side of Thanos, which is ridiculous). My wife is currently reading the original Thanos appearances and asked "Will this character ever stop saying 'This one'?" And Englehart seems to feel that their decision not to let him do his story is what lead into bankruptcy. Clearly they made the right move holding Thanos for Starlin, as he does a great job with him here. Here's a great villain for the Surfer, especially since the Surfer, stuck on Earth, never got to face off against him in the 70's. As for the environmental issue? Well, the problem there is that on Earth, say, humans might wipe themselves off the planet, but that doesn't mean there isn't life. Life will just be different and it just won't include humans. There's too much life on this planet to presume that we could ever kill off the planet - the worst we could do (and very well might do) is wipe ourselves out. As for that hint at the end? Given that fnord says our first two guesses are probably wrong, my fear is that next issue will have the Impossible Man. JCOctober 7, 2015 8:49 AM Spectacular Spider-Man #176-177 The surprisingly rare miss from Busiek, I'll just go ahead and blame Danny Fingeroth. JCOctober 7, 2015 8:42 AM Sleepwalker #5-6 Since when does the Kingpin not immediately kill those who disrespect him, let alone give a shit what the other crimelords think? And the whole heroes have to fight b4 they team-up cums off especially forced hear. Spidey is the last guy who would just provoke a fight with sumone. JonathanOctober 7, 2015 7:07 AM Sleepwalker #1-3 I think i bought 2 issues of this and 2 issues of Darkhawk, then gave up on both. As Walter says, these definitely felt at the time to be attempts to make new Peter Parkers (i.e. They were new Novas), so i doubt they thought of making them anything other than white male teens that the majority of the readership could more easily identify with. (though personally as a white male teen i enjoyed a lot of the Milestone stuff more than the vast majority of Marvel/DC stuff of its time.) There were some small attempts at diversity in the early 90s, though not enough. Other than the aforementioned Deathlok and Bishop, we also had Night Thrasher, the latino Spider-Man 2099, and Rhodey becoming War Machine. Also Northstar actually coming out, and maybe it "not mattering" how Jim Wilson caught HIV in the Hulk. Can't think of many new women heroes, though DeFalco did unsuccessfully try + push Silver Sable. And Marvel Uk had Motormouth, but she was awful. Maybe there were others I can't think of. I guess Milestone put diversity on the table for the comics industry. clydeOctober 6, 2015 10:06 PM Iron Man #269-275 "This results in an explosion felt around the world. It even gets the Man-Thing's attention." I love these scenes where we get to see other heroes sensing events like this. Anyone know if there was a site that tracked all these kinds of scenes by title? MichaelOctober 6, 2015 9:46 PM Iron Man #276-277 At the start of issue 276, Black Widow makes it clear to Tony that she's known he was Iron Man for quite some time. This clears up the confusion caused by West Coast Avengers Annual 1, where Hawkeye calls Iron Man "Tony" in front of Natasha but it's not clear if Natasha knows Tony's identity. cullenOctober 6, 2015 9:41 PM Iron Man #276-277 Funny about the nukes thing. I'm reading Matt Fraction's 2000s IM run, and he hurls a modified (and still "alive"?) MODOK "into orbit," though he questions whether he'll actually remain there. Would be nice to see some future consequences to Stark's pattern of casually creating artificial-satellites-of-WMD. TreyOctober 6, 2015 8:51 PM Magik #1-4 Just got the marvel premier GN, looking forward to connecting this with my reading of the concurrent run of X-men. BobOctober 6, 2015 8:37 PM Iron Man #276-277 What is going on with Iron Man's head in that last panel? MichaelOctober 6, 2015 8:32 PM Iron Man #269-275 That scene that Byrne intended to "reveal" Dewitt's secret shows how badly Byrne's writing abilities had degraded- when I first read it, it read like Rhodey was throwing out guesses, not that this was what were to assume was DeWitt's origin. GromOctober 6, 2015 7:42 PM Avengers West Coast #75 Only getting into comics in late 1980s I never liked many of the veteran artists such as Sal Buschema, Al Milgrom or Herb Trimpe. Outdated and boring. Analogous are the veteran writers such as Roy Thomas ... fnord12October 6, 2015 6:47 PM Avengers West Coast #75 Re: your final questions. You can of course click on the Character Appearing links for Spider-Woman or even Rachel Carpenter to find those answers. :-) But Rachel has appeared before, and she's been an important part of Spider-Woman's story for her more recent appearances. Piotr WOctober 6, 2015 6:26 PM Avengers West Coast #75 Trimpe's story is a sad one, indeed. A veteran artist who was dropped when he wasn't cool anymore... On the other hand, some of the art in this issue really is bad, regardless of Trimpe's attempts at emulating the Image guys. Some of the poses in the first scans are really weird (Simon looks like a shambling Frankenstein's monster...). And in the third scan, Living Lightning's face is actually scary. And USAgent looks like he's drunk and trying to tickle Wanda... Re: character ages - so, Spider-Woman is of Val Cooper's age. Now, how old is Val Cooper, then? :) BTW. Has there any background been established about this Spider-Woman before this point? Or is it the first time we see her daughter? MikeCheyneOctober 6, 2015 3:55 PM Iron Man #276-277 I owned Iron Man #276 as a kid; it always sort of irritated me in that most of the story was a recap and just Iron Man dodging missiles. Ataru320October 6, 2015 3:16 PM Marvel Fanfare #44 Heh, I never knew the Silver Centurion was upset that he never had a nose. Live and learn. fnord12October 6, 2015 2:00 PM Silver Surfer #8-10 This does make sense. It switches cause and effect for how the Elders wind up with the gems that they have by Thanos Quest. And instead of it just so happening that the majority of the Elders find gems that perfectly suit their esoteric interests, the idea that the Elders unconsciously shaped the gems provides an actual reason for that. And as you say, explains why for so long they were all just called Soul Gems. I bet someone will come along with a reason why it can't work, but i think it's a cool idea. Erik BeckOctober 6, 2015 1:23 PM Iron Man #253 Wait, the great Gene Colan finally came back to Iron Man for a fill-in and this is the story they give him? What the hell was wrong with those people? JonOctober 6, 2015 1:18 PM Silver Surfer #8-10 Sure, the REAL reason the Soul Gems are going to change to the Infinity Gems that each have unique attributes and behavior is because the Silver Surfer book changes writers, but I have an in-continuity explanation that I think you might enjoy: In the beginning of Thanos Quest, Warlock's Soul Gem is owned by the In-Betweener (last seen in Silver Surfer 18) and the other five are owned by various Elders of the Universe. I put forth the notion that the individual attributes of the gems have been shaped by their owners. All six gems could devolve into being parasitic like Warlock's vampire Soul Gem if left in improper hands. Warlock himself only managed to master the gem in Warlock #15. By then it was too late and the gem, like a wild, untrained dog, was dangerous -- so dangerous that even touching it could rip your soul away (as warned in Silver Surfer #15). Maybe Warlock never had a soul to begin with, being an artificial man, but that's another debate entirely... The Elders could master their individual gems, like Warlock eventually did -- and be faster about it than Warlock, being more experienced with cosmic artifacts. So here's the breakdown: The Time Gem was shaped by the Gardener. He used it to both hasten the growth of his plant-life and to preserve it at its highest state of beauty. The Power Gem was shaped by the Champion, for whom strength is what matters most. The Space Gem was shaped by the Runner, who wanted to travel across the entire cosmos and visit every place in existence. The Mind Gem was shaped by the Grandmaster, whose forte has always been manipulation and being able to out-think an opponent. As for Reality Gem, well...the covetous Collector, like Warlock, let his gem go to seed. For the Collector it was more about having the gem rather than taming it. Therefore, it wasn't actually shaped until Thanos (master of the TIME-MIND SYNC-WARP! as seen in Captain Marvel #28) got hold of it. Like in jewelry making, rough stones are cut by a master craftsman who shapes them to reflect their purest brilliance. So to have the Soul Gems been "cut" by cosmic beings. -- and if you can buy that, I have a bridge to sell you... Dan H.October 6, 2015 1:11 PM Doctor Strange #57-59 I can't look at that scene of Wong ambushing Mandarin without thinking of Clouseau and Kato. I suspect that was intentional, but who knows... Dan H.October 6, 2015 1:02 PM Secret Wars II #3 Yeah, like I said it was a nitpick and you're actually probably right that it was the Beyonder's call who went where (even though he would struggle to understand "good" and "evil" later on, the only other choice is Galactus who has repeatedly claimed to be "amoral"). Boy, that really opens a can of worms though, doesn't it? If Cyclops was considered important enough to reach out and grab, then why not scoop up the Vision and Scarlet Witch? Or the Defenders? Or Namor? Or Doctor Strange? Or Alpha Flight? Or Wonder Man? To say nothing of all the villains who didn't make the cut... I wonder if there was a miscommunication along the line somewhere in that Shooter was expecting Cyclops to enter the arena in New York and wrote that first issue (and plotted the series) thinking he would be with the X-Men? Because he's the only real problem - Magneto is easy to explain away. But Cyclops was very definitely not hanging around the X-Men by the time of #180, yet he'd only been written out of the series five issues prior and Shooter may not have realized he'd be nowhere near New York. His conversations with Claremont might have simply been about leaving Kitty back on Earth and Claremont didn't realize Shooter was planning to include Cyclops until it was too late. So they had to later come up with this bit about Galactus selecting people (instead of the villains being grabbed by reading the thoughts of the heroes and deciding who would be appropriate antagonists, which is what I'd always figured was the case, especially after the later Dr. Doom explanation, since the Beyonder specifically went looking for him and had to pull him from the future. Same deal with Kang, who wouldn't have existed in this time period either and would have had to be "recruited"). Dan H.October 6, 2015 11:42 AM Uncanny X-Men #261 I remember the first time I saw Battleaxe (even referred to as 'Axe here), I assumed he was the same character from the early issues of the New Mutants. That's definitely not the case though, or is it? He's lacking Axe's mohawk in both this appearance and Wolverine (although in Wolverine he's totally bald). And he's carrying a two-headed axe here while I think "Axe" only used a one-sided version. I don't think either character got much backstory, but what little they did have might not mesh (would SHIELD have ever had any use for a guy like Axe?) fnord12October 6, 2015 11:31 AM Secret Wars II #3 Correct that Magneto was not shown entering through the Central Park gateway. I didn't want to load up the parenthetical aside with caveats. It's possible that all the characters were collected by Galactus (who maybe thought of Magneto as a villain!) and then were sorted after the fact by the Beyonder, regardless of how they were collected. Dan H.October 6, 2015 9:54 AM Secret Wars II #3 Nitpick - you mention Cyclops as the one person on the "hero" team who didn't follow the "come as they choose" convention, but wouldn't that include Magneto also? Or did he actually go through the Central Park gateway? Dan H.October 6, 2015 9:38 AM Fantastic Four #237-238 The thing about that Osborn/Sandman retcon that killed me was in the SAME STORY, Byrne introduced a guy who was an exact duplicate of the Sandman... but they weren't related at all. To be fair, the "William Baker" vs. "Flint Marko" bits of the Sandman's past weren't Byrne's doing, but it was his idea to make them two separate guys and reveal that the Sandman (Marko) had assumed the identity of Baker. So yeah - two guys who look EXACTLY alike to the point that Marko can fool Baker's mother? No big deal. Two guys with the same HAIR? Gotta be related! Erik BeckOctober 6, 2015 9:26 AM Avengers #314-318 From the start I thought this would be like when Spider-Man was in a couple of issues early in Stern's run - a tease, but no more. TuomasOctober 6, 2015 9:21 AM Avengers West Coast #75 Okay, I guess that explanation makes more sense, since Ben is pals with the WCA folks and all. TuomasOctober 6, 2015 9:18 AM Thor #431-433 When Infinity Gauntlet came out here in Finland, no post-Simonson Thor comics had ever been translated to Finnish, so as a kid I remember being quite baffled by this guy who looks like Thor but says he isn't him. I think Starlin should've simply omitted those references from IG altogether, it's not like Thor has a big role in the series, so all it did was confuse people like me who weren't up to date on what's happening in his solo series. TuomasOctober 6, 2015 9:10 AM Uncanny X-Men #159 So that's two references in 30+ years? :) I dunno, to me it just seems contrived that Nightcrawler's Catholicism is often mentioned in the comics, Storm keeps having monologues about her Goddess, and even Wolverine's atheism gets a nod every once in a while, but Kitty's Jewish faith is only brought up when it's plot-convenient, while she's otherwise portrayed as utterly secular. Erik BeckOctober 6, 2015 9:01 AM Thor #431-433 I would agree with Don Campbell. Just recently reread IG and the most annoying thing about it was the couple of asides where Eric is trying to cover for the fact that he's not the real Thor. His aside about people being missed and thinking "Got to cover for the fact that I'm not the real Thor." is perhaps the single most distracting moment in all of IG. I had to stop and think, what the hell is that about? MichaelOctober 6, 2015 8:15 AM Uncanny X-Men #159 Yes, in Warren Ellis's run an alien that's killing all creatures that worship some sort of deity asks Kitty about her religion and she says she's Jewish. fnord12October 6, 2015 7:38 AM Thor #431-433 I'll be looking at Infinity Gauntlet in detail soon, but what you're saying makes sense (Sif's costume being a clincher) and i'll look into splitting this out. fnord12October 6, 2015 7:31 AM Avengers West Coast #75 It's said in the story that the West Coast Avengers heard that the Fantastic Four were coming to the West coast for vacation, so they invited them along for this trip. Spider-Woman should know all but the Invisible Woman from Secret Wars, but that's not something that is brought up one way or the other. TuomasOctober 6, 2015 5:02 AM Avengers West Coast #75 Does Spider-Woman know the FF somehow? Is there any reason why they appear here besides the fact that Spider-Woman's kid is roughly the same age as Franklin? Or are we supposed to assume there's a Superhero Parents' Association or something where she hangs out with Reed and Sue? TuomasOctober 6, 2015 4:14 AM Uncanny X-Men #159 Since Kitty's Star of David works on Dracula, that should mean she actually believes in (the Jewish) God, right? But I can't remember it ever being established she's religious in any way, mostly she comes off as a rationalist/materialist. True, she does wear the star, but I always saw that as more of a cultural thing. Has Kitty's supposed Jewish faith ever been addressed anywhere else. Don CampbellOctober 6, 2015 2:07 AM Thor #431-433 I've always believed that the whole Infinity Gauntlet event must have taken place between Thor #433 and 434. If that were the case, then that would mean that during the IG storyline Annihilus would be alive, Sif would be in her old costume and Eric would still be trying to fool everyone into thinking he was Thor. And "Odin" was awakened when Thor killed Loki and hadn't gone back into Odinsleeep before IG happened and he had to meet with his fellow sky-gods. Is there some reason why this placement couldn't work? david banesOctober 6, 2015 2:05 AM Fantastic Four #240 It was disappointing to learn there's an epic war going on an issue ago only for Maximus to sacrifice himself also off screen. I forgot about the Enclave subplot from years ago so I guess this was more taking care of lose ends. Still I kept expecting Maximus to pop up suddenly. david banesOctober 6, 2015 1:55 AM Fantastic Four #237-238 Jesus Christ it's been, what? Six years since Frankie appeared and we finally get some kind of reason and origin for her. I mean it's not like she appeared super often. I don't mind Bryne making a fanboyish answer for Ben's art evolution but the Sandman Norman haircut was going too far. Erik RobbinsOctober 6, 2015 12:56 AM Avengers West Coast #75 I thought it was Sharon in that first scan as well. Ben does seem to be Sharon's costume, with the white arcs on the chest (an "M", I suppose) MichaelOctober 5, 2015 11:34 PM Avengers West Coast #75 Oh, and Piotr, Julia's daughter is supposed to be 7 in this story. This is how Herb Trimpe draws a 7-year old. ChrisWOctober 5, 2015 11:23 PM Fantastic Four #1-10 It's interesting. I think Stan deliberately varied how much input he had on a given title once he got a sense of how much the artist was contributing. He freely admitted that Kirby didn't need any guidance, he freely admitted that Ditko had started making up his own plots, and Stan as editor/publisher started considering the overall Marvel Universe instead of being the guy who made each issue happen, which is what he was doing from the start, and continued after Kirby and Ditko left. Call it 'luck of the draw,' but I think the nicknames say more about their contributions than anything else. Stan was The Man. Jack was The King. Everybody else (up to and including Steve Ditko) was clearly not on their level, and Stan knew to treat them accordingly. Wally Wood was a legend, but he didn't work well with Marvel, and was on a downhill slope, but Stan knew how to work with him to pull out a couple of issues that were on the schedule and needed to be published. If Wally can contribute dialogue [just like Jack does every month] great! One less thing Stan has to do. He's already doing the plotting. And it will be thirty years before anybody really considers the role of the comic-book writer. Morgan WickOctober 5, 2015 9:42 PM Spectacular Spider-Man annual #11 Oh look, it's Newspaper Spider-Man in the "connections" scan! :) Red CometOctober 5, 2015 9:40 PM Avengers West Coast #75 In Herb Trimpe's defense: Back in like 2001 Trimpe did an interview with The New York Times (I think) where he talked about his last days in the comic industry in the 90s. He said he spent the 90s trying to emulate the popular Image style just to get work, which is why you see really bad work like that Scarlet Witch brokeback pose above. Marvel eventually stopped returning his calls regardless and he became an art teacher. I tried looking this interview up again online after he died, but unfortunately I don't think it's out there anymore. Really too bad since it was a pretty interesting read about what happens to older comic creators when their style is no longer in vogue. fnord12October 5, 2015 8:42 PM Marvel Super Heroes #10 (Sub-Mariner) Thanks for bringing it up again, mikrolik. I've moved this to after Deadly Foes based on your comments, but see my notes in the Considerations. Placing this after Deadly Foes (which i've done now) isn't great because the Rhino didn't get his (final?) costume until Amazing Spider-Man #344. But placing it before Deadly Foes doesn't work either for the reason you note. I'll note that the MCP places the story before Deadly Foes. Maybe they are going with the "you can take the bands off" idea. But i guess it's equally OK to say that he had a temporary costume before the one in ASM #344. MikeCheyneOctober 5, 2015 8:24 PM Sleepwalker #5-6 Crimewave is ahead of his time; the millennial crimelord! MichaelOctober 5, 2015 8:10 PM Avengers West Coast #75 We'll see in a later issue that she went to college with Val Cooper, so she's around Val's age. Piotr WOctober 5, 2015 8:04 PM Avengers West Coast #75 That brokeback pose of Wanda is atrocious. Ugh. Re: kids. How old is Julia Carpenter, anyway? Her daughter seems to be at least ten years old... mikrolikOctober 5, 2015 7:21 PM Marvel Super Heroes #10 (Sub-Mariner) I know it may seem trivial, but I still think this needs to be pushed ahead of Amazing 344, since Rhino's not wearing the banded, irremovable costume, especially since Deadly Foes and Spectacular Annual 11 made such a big deal of it. But if you need to keep it here because of the Namor stuff, maybe you could comment that the artist drew the wrong Rhino costume? fnord12October 5, 2015 7:01 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #25 No footnote and he refers to Roxxon only in a general way, definitely not as something that he and Spidey dealt with together. Omar KarinduOctober 5, 2015 6:56 PM Revenge of the Living Monolith (Marvel Graphic Novel #17) According to the Marvel Appendix, David Michelinie intended for the Living Monolith to eventually become the Topographical Man from the Steve Gerber Guardians of the Galaxy stories in Marvel Presents. Luis DantasOctober 5, 2015 6:55 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #25 Let me guess: no footnote for 1978's MTU #87? http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/marvel_team-up_87.shtml Spidey and Tchalla really should remember having been involved with Roxxon together before. Erik BeckOctober 5, 2015 6:35 PM New Mutants #90-91 Thanks, Ataru. That's too bad. I don't think there's ever been another run on a series where I so enjoyed the writing and so loathed the art as that run on X-Factor. Thanos6October 5, 2015 5:37 PM Sleepwalker #5-6 I get the impression that Crimewave doesn't so much want to be a crimelord as he wants to be famous for being a crimelord. TCPOctober 5, 2015 5:00 PM Sleepwalker #5-6 Man, this Crimwave guy is just SOOO much cooler than the lame old Kingpin, am I right? I guess this is as good a place as any to mention that Blevins' art has never done it for me. It actually makes me feel slightly ill just looking at it. The cover to issue #5 features a hidden message in Spider-Man's spaghetti webbing. Blevins apparently got sick of drawing so much of the stuff and wrote "I give up" in webbing around the "KER" portion of the title. BobOctober 5, 2015 4:55 PM Spectacular Spider-Man annual #11 This has to be one of Severin's last pencil jobs for Marvel, I would imagine. Seems the company was putting most of the Silver Age vets on the annuals at this point. Ditko had backups in the previous year's Spidey books. TCPOctober 5, 2015 4:52 PM Spectacular Spider-Man annual #11 The cover to this Annual boasts, “Face it heroes, it’s Ultron’s world — we just live in it!” That's amusing to me, considering how little he actually accomplishes in this story and how easily he's beaten in the Web Of annual. BobOctober 5, 2015 4:49 PM Avengers West Coast #75 You really have to wonder why Marvel bothered continuing this book after Byrne, if this is the effort they were going the churn out. It's about as inspired as a coloring book. Say what you will about Englehart/Milgrom. At least you got the sense they cared about what they were doing. TCPOctober 5, 2015 4:47 PM Web of Spider-Man annual #7 I haven't read many stories featuring Ultron, but I remember reading this and thinking that it was a poor showing for a much-hyped villain. Max_SpiderOctober 5, 2015 4:35 PM Web of Spider-Man annual #7 (Rocket Racer) Rick Remender has spoken before about working on a Rocket Racer story in which he goes up against some of Kingpin's men. He seems quite enthusiastic about it, actually... Having already had some designs done of Rocket Racer and describing himself as a bit of an old skate punk himself. Of course, in my opinion, Rick Remender seems to be fond of using C-listers. His Dark Reign Punisher series saw Scourge of the Underworld victims resurrected and revamped to deadly effect, several of whom would survive into his Venom series (which I've always found interesting, seeing that Flash Thompson was almost a Scourge victim himself). Walter LawsonOctober 5, 2015 3:49 PM Uncanny X-Men #269 This might also help explain the anomaly of Lee being the sole plotter on 274, the next installment of the Rogue/Magneto story. Lee might have pitched his idea for where this would go when he (presumably) got Harras's sign-off to use Magneto rather than Loki. Red CometOctober 5, 2015 3:18 PM Amazing Spider-Man annual #25 I've always had nostalgia for this issue as it was one of the first comics I ever read as a kid. That's probably also part of the reason why I like this version of the Black Panther costume better than the more busy designs with capes and the like. Ataru320October 5, 2015 3:18 PM New Mutants #90-91 @Eric: I think I read somewhere (was it on here?) that Rahne was actually in consideration for Liefeld's X-Force, but she was claimed by Peter David for X-Factor first, thus the need to create Feral. Nathan AdlerOctober 5, 2015 3:14 PM Uncanny X-Men #271 @Walter: Marvel Age #94 referred to the X-Men specifically facing off against "Living Sentinels" in this issue. But whether it was intended that Warlock was responsible, or his father the Magus since you'll recall the Genoshans already had their "TRANSMODation process" for mutate slaves. Interestingly, the Genoshan creches we saw in Uncanny X-Men #238 seemed similar to the creches Technarch offspring were shown to be raised in (shown in New Mutants #21). Had Magus been transported from Limbo to an earlier period in Genosha after New Mutants #50? RobertOctober 5, 2015 3:14 PM Spectacular Spider-Man annual #11 (Rhino) What happened to Ron Wilson? The guy was never flashy but had a dependable traditional style that was better than this. This looks like the kind of pencils you'd see in a coloring book. Damian HOctober 5, 2015 1:07 PM Secret Wars II #3 Oh, and thanks for being the only other person in the world who noticed that The Beyonder said Galactus gathered the super-villains before Secret Wars. It took me 1 reads before I actually slowed down and read the captions on that page (I used to think it was a repeat, but it's unique). It is not listed on any wiki, wikia, or anywhere I can tell. Most people think The Beyonder just gathered everyone. And yes, I read it as The Beyonder only drafting the villains to fight since they would slay their enemies with no moral objections. Not sure why he forgot about what "evil" is once SWII started, though..... Damian HOctober 5, 2015 12:52 PM Secret Wars II #3 One of my favorite comics ever, so I am in the minority here but don't care that much. I felt real bad for the street walker, and was glad that she had reformed. I see some people and even Marvel pitched it as being satirical, but for the time villains just didn't take over the earth in such of a short time this side of What If? so it was amazing (and yes, unbelievable- but he's GOD, right?) for its time. Vinnie was an underrated character, and I loved when The Beyonder burst in The Kingpin's office. This issue was a major step in The Beyonder's evolution- and see my comment from #1- take away the superhero/crossover stuff and this could be seen as a serious idiot God story. Damian HOctober 5, 2015 12:39 PM Secret Wars II #2 I liked this less than #1 after the 5th or so read due to the FF scenes in it. I collected FF so it seemed weird to have the issues fit in reading order with so much time passing. And, yes, it felt like Spidey was in another city. I DO like how there were two Spidey issues with the fallout from turning a building into gold. Damian HOctober 5, 2015 12:32 PM Secret Wars II #1 The Steve Gerber stand-in was meta to me as a kid, and the lame villain took up too much space. Just as bad, was the Iron Man crossover issue that month which featured him getting his powers back. I didn't like the mutants featured so much, being forced to read crossovers for the "whole story" (which wasn't really true), the sketchy artwork, or Owen Reece recognizing The Beyonder on the hurling boulder. I think if Secret Wars II was called "The Beyonder", and focused only on the infant God's journey to humanity without the cash grab crossovers, clustermuck of characters, or super-hero tropes, it may have been Jim Shooter's magnum opus. There is a lot of deep philosophy in Secret Wars II that he only touched upon, because the event had to include almost every hero, villain, and cosmic entity and cross over into so any titles. I have always been somewhat obsessed with The Beyonder, and at the core, his scenes are awesome and tragic. Erik BeckOctober 5, 2015 12:27 PM New Mutants #90-91 Yeah, this is the issue where Rictor suddenly goes from wearing a vest and no shirt to wearing a shirt and no vest. I assume that's what Jon Dubya is referring to. But this also seems to be the point where Liefeld decides that when Rahne isn't a wolf, she's an elf. I went back and checked to be certain, but this really does seem to be the first time where she has pointed ears while in human form. I can't imagine the thinking in Liefeld's head that made him drop her from the team, unless it's that she's too innocent for what he had planned for X-Force. Or maybe thought was beyond him. Damian HOctober 5, 2015 11:25 AM Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1-12 Issue 10 (DOOM vs BEYONDER) was my first SW comic and I was 7 years old. My life was never the same after that. fnord12October 5, 2015 7:27 AM Uncanny X-Men #269 In the quote i took from Sean Howe's book that i put in the entry for Uncanny X-Men #273-277, it's said that Harras wasn't happy about "Claremont's stories about aliens and magic". "Aliens" refers to the Warskrull plot. I wasn't sure if "magic" referred to anything in particular; i thought maybe Harras felt like the Shadow King was basically "magic", which i wouldn't disagree with. But the fact that there was an abandoned Loki plot makes even more sense. fnord12October 5, 2015 7:23 AM Captain America #111-113 Thanks Walter. I've added a writing credit for Steranko to this entry and #110's. But see the note i put at the top of #110, which seems to indicate that Stan Lee still deserved some degree of writing credit as well. kveto October 5, 2015 6:49 AM Captain America #393-394 If I recall, Marvel paid for Gru to visit Germany to research this story. You think somewhere in his research he'd learn that Germany, like all EU countries, doesn't have a death penalty and that Blitzkrieger and Captain Germany would be pretty unlikely good guy names. (Of course Zeitgeist is a cool name) Walter LawsonOctober 5, 2015 1:51 AM Uncanny X-Men #269 And here's a commenter who gives us Lee's own quote: http://geoffklock.blogspot.com/2008/06/jason-powell-on-uncanny-x-men-135.html?showComment=1213417980000&m=1#c4841697591443932936 Walter LawsonOctober 5, 2015 1:38 AM Uncanny X-Men #269 A commenter here says Jim Lee once gave an interview in which he claimed Claremont intended Loki to show up in this issue, not Magneto: http://www.therealgentlemenofleisure.com/2015/08/x-amining-uncanny-x-men-269.html?showComment=1440775703505&m=1#c8189184551172821066 Piotr WOctober 5, 2015 1:38 AM Captain America #393-394 ... I'd have no problem with a comic book exploring the romances and the sex lives of supervillains, actually :) Come to think about it, why don't we have romance comics anymore? They used to sell decades ago, right? Walter LawsonOctober 5, 2015 1:31 AM Uncanny X-Men #269 I recall seeing a preview blurb for 269 (or maybe 268?) somewhere--probabably the Marvel Requirer or Marvel Age rather than the Bullpen Bulletins checklist--that said Loki would appear in this issue. Anyone else remember that? Walter LawsonOctober 5, 2015 1:27 AM Uncanny X-Men #271 Marvel's free preview periodical, the Requirer, advertised this issue as featuring the Sentinels: http://www.bulletholestudios.com/chrisclaremontchecklist/uncanny-x-men-271.html I've seen others speculate that these would have been "bio-Sentinels," which seems like an idea Harras would revisit with the Phalanx and Operation Zero Tolerance. Walter LawsonOctober 5, 2015 12:54 AM Captain America #111-113 According to Steranko on Twitter, Marvel is now crediting him as scripter of Cap 110, 111, and 113: https://twitter.com/iamsteranko/status/650864561051054080 Walter LawsonOctober 5, 2015 12:26 AM Captain America #393-394 The Viper non-story that emerges from the Skull recruiting her is baffling to me, as if Gru just forgot what he was doing. When she eventually gets to fulfill her wildest nihilist fantasies, it turns out to be not very ambitious -- definitely not as ambitious as turning the president into a snake-man! -- and the Skull balks and pulls the plug. Why the setup just to go nowhere? It raises the alarming prospect the the setup, with its glimpse into the sex lives of the supervillains, is the point. On some weird level, Gru has decided to make Cap a romance comic for the grim 'n' gritty era. davidbanesOctober 4, 2015 11:11 PM Fantastic Four #232 Oh, I guess I did already read those then. I liked that run, it was pretty darn fun. I thought the break up was great and at least the Dr. Doom fight was cool. I sadly didn't get to finish the Skrull/Xandarians War yet. Not classic but at least fun. kveto October 4, 2015 10:37 PM Captain America #393-394 So the Skull got the idea to recruit Viper when he was yelling "Wipe! Wipe! Wipe!" no doubt switching his "w" for "v"s. fnord12October 4, 2015 8:39 PM Defenders #135 Listed him as a Character Appearing. Thanks. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 8:24 PM Iron Man annual #7 Avengers #164 has Wonder Man suggest that Josten is less powerful because Zemo's machine was calibrated for Simon Williams, which the Marvel Handbooks have run with. I suppose it makes sense that an Asgardian sorceress wouldn't fully know how to run a mad science device. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 8:14 PM Defenders #135 Blowtorch Brand gets one more appearance, being blown away by a Scourge of the Underworld in the second issue of the original U.S. Agent miniseries. fnord12October 4, 2015 7:42 PM Fantastic Four #232 One significant event that happens across the Wein and Wolfman's run is the break-up of the team, which lasts about a year and ends in a Dr. Doom fight. In Wolfman's run there is also the Skrull/Xandarians War that is really a wrap-up to Wolfman's Nova run. And there's also HERBIE. Any more than that and you can just read the summaries! :-) fnord12October 4, 2015 7:37 PM Punisher #1-5 Added them as Characters Appearing. Thanks Mike. fnord12October 4, 2015 7:35 PM Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular #2 @Michael, i didn't think he was saying anything we didn't already know, and i don't know how seriously any new revelations from an Impossible Man special should be taken, but after the way you framed the request, there's no way i can refuse! Added the scans under the Reference. Unfortunately a little blurry on the edge. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 7:29 PM Power Man & Iron Fist #107 His stage antics suggest Ozzy, but the name and look seem to be a reference to David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust and Thin White Duke phases. MikeCheyneOctober 4, 2015 5:52 PM Journey Into Mystery #109 Has Magneto offering Brotherhood membership to ANYONE worked out? At best, they just suck, but at worst, they beat him up. Vin the Comics GuyOctober 4, 2015 5:33 PM Avengers #332-333 Larry Hama had a good ear for voicing characters. And Herb Trimpe did a creditable job on the pencils. Doom is ALWAYS a man of his word. Piotr WOctober 4, 2015 4:47 PM Captain America #393-394 Poor Viper looks so miserable... ;) Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 3:20 PM Power Man & Iron Fist #106 I quite like the subtle bit of backstory for Whirlwind in this issue, which shows that he had a creepy infatuation with the unattainable rich girl form his high school days despite being "the king" of his neighborhood thanks to his mutant powers. Clearly he transferred his creepy infatuation over to the Wasp, also a wealthy heiress and superhero. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 3:09 PM Iron Man #183 As I recall, there's some dialogue in this or the next issue that clarifies that the local mob hired the robot Taurus to take on the human one as part of some kind of turf struggle. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 3:07 PM Defenders #132 In just a few years, Peter David's Hulk run will reveal that the government has built and tested Gamma Bombs more recently; perhaps this is one of those test sites? david banesOctober 4, 2015 3:06 PM Fantastic Four #232 So I went to my first convention yesterday. Small one right in my home city but there were still costumes. Anyway I got this issue, missed the next four issues then got Bryne issues up until 250 or so. What exactly did happen during Wein and Wolfman's run? I don't want to read the summaries just yet even if their run's aren't exactly classic. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 2:47 PM Power Man & Iron Fist #105 The second Crimebuster sort of turns up again in the recent Power Man and Iron Fist miniseries, the one starring the new, young Power Man introduced in the Daredevil crossover "Shadowlands." He never appears alive, but his death is a central plot point. Ataru320October 4, 2015 1:50 PM Captain America #393-394 "After Zola's Primus, these bioplastoids are named Secondus, Tertius, and Quartus. I would have went with Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, and Red Hot Chili Peppers." Sad to say, Red Hot Chili Pepper is the name of a Stand in Morioh Town, controlled by a rocker and everything. But hey, at least it wasn't named Killer Queen or else we'd all be disappointing. MikeCheyneOctober 4, 2015 1:42 PM Punisher #1-5 Angela and Alaric reappear muuuch later in Punisher War Journal. BobOctober 4, 2015 1:33 PM Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular #2 gah - I had no idea they made two of these things. BobOctober 4, 2015 1:32 PM Excalibur #40-41 The only thing from Lobdell I ever enjoyed was his brief stint on Fantastic Four after Heroes Reborn. I think collaborating with Davis brought out the best in him. I guess Generation X had a few fun issues here and there, too, from the bits I sampled. But his X-Men were horrible, and his current stuff is utterly abysmal, and, in the case of Red Hood at DC, downright offensive. MikeCheyneOctober 4, 2015 1:28 PM Captain America #393-394 This has to be basically a rogue Scourge, as the Gruenwald scripted (if I recall) U.S. Agent miniseries shows that it was founded for genuine vigilante purposes. How I rationalize it is that after the real Scourge debuted, the Skull either got a Scourge agent to defect or created a new one and used him to both settle old scores and continue Scourging (this is at a point in time when the real Scourge group seems in disarray). He kills Malik not because Malik is a threat, but just because he hates the dude. He also could have conceivably killed the Hate-Monger android (another old score to settle, although it wasn't the same Hate Monger he met). My guess is the Skull has the Scourge go after super-villains to both give Cap something to chase after to waste his time and confound him, as well as perhaps drive up villain paranoia and activity (perhaps gambling that desperate villains will do desperate, destructive things). He also perhaps could conceivably get villains under his thrall eventually if they seek "protection" (like he'll later bring in Blackwing, Cutthroat, and the dufus Jack O'Lantern--those are all Scourge bait guys). BobOctober 4, 2015 1:26 PM Captain America #393-394 Bringing Bernie back served no purpose whatsoever and was problem number 3,875 of things going wrong with the book at this time. I still feel bummed seeing such a great run coming apart almost overnight. Lim's departure was the real tipping point, though. The other problems could have been tolerated a little longer with a better artist on the book. ChrisOctober 4, 2015 1:11 PM Captain America #393-394 Many problems with this issue and its depiction of the Skull. It also requires a deal of stupidity among law enforcement officials for the plot where the "Avengers" pick up the Skull to work. This would be fine in an early Silver Age book, but completely fails in the time it was published. Gruenwald seems capable of only producing one good back at one time, with the other book written on automatic. I think the Executive Editor simply has too much work to do. Worse, as Exec Ed, he is likely not being properly edited - after all he is his own bosses' boss. MichaelOctober 4, 2015 1:00 PM Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular #2 Fnord, you might want to post the scenes where the Pyscho-Man reveals what Sue did to him, because these scenes reveal exactly what Sue did to the Psycho-Man for the first time. A while back, we had a discussion on the FF message board about what Sue did to Psycho-Man and someone asked what exactly Sue did to Psycho-Man and when it was revealed. That led to me trying to describe this issue from memory even though I hadn't read it in years, and emerick man scouring the internet for scans. I couldn't help but think at the time this would be much easier if fnord have reviewed the issue already. That's one of the major advantages of your project, fnord- it makes it easier for fans to discuss the issues. mikrolikOctober 4, 2015 12:30 PM Captain America #393-394 I'm not exactly sure why the Skull would be behind the Scourge program, if that's what we're to believe at this point. Marvel Universe Update 89 said purpose of the organization was to rid the Skull of possible threats to him, but with the possible exception of Albert Malik (and even that's debatable), but I can't think of a single Scourge victim who could have plausibly or coherently represented a threat to the Red Skull or his organization. I think this was just Mark Gruenwald saying "Red Skull is behind everything!" without thinking it through. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 12:24 PM Doctor Strange #63 At a stretch, I suppose the "screamer" sorceress in Stern's great Triumph & Torment Graphic Novel also uses Kiai-Jistsu. MichaelOctober 4, 2015 12:13 PM Captain America #393-394 "Cap is still under the weird impression that the "current" Red Skull is officially a non-criminal" Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 12:10 PM Moon Knight #35 This issuer shows that the Fly's unstable mutation, established in his Spider-Woman appearances, now makes him do stuff like eat garbage. I suspect that didn't help his case when the writers were looking for villains to feed to Scourge. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 9:54 AM Cloak and Dagger #1-4 Even before their recent "switch," The final issue of the (second?) ongoing C+D series in 1991 reveals that Tandy and Ty were actually destined to get different powers but had their abilities altered through the interference of the demon D'Spayre. Originally, Tyrone would have gotten light powers and Tandy would have had darkness powers; they were latent mutants or something all along. If that sounds convoluted and silly...well, it's a Terry Kavanagh story. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 9:45 AM Amazing Spider-Man #242-243 The Mad Thinker plotline started here is finally, belatedly wrapped up over a decade later in Spider-Man Team-Up #2. PeterAOctober 4, 2015 9:33 AM Marvel Fanfare #22-23 Thanks Michael, I own that one even but it must've completely gone through my mind. I remember the cover but still not the insides, time to crack it open (or go look at fnord's recap of it). The Grey Gargoyle is too underused for such a classic character. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 9:21 AM Master of Kung Fu #123-125 "Migou" is a Tibetan name for "yeti" that Lovecraft altered for his stories. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 9:13 AM Alpha Flight #2-4 Jerome Jaxon turns up as the leader of the villainous Omega Flight a few issues from now for reasons that stem directly from the backup story in AF #4. MichaelOctober 4, 2015 9:09 AM Marvel Fanfare #22-23 @PeterA- he fought the Grey Gargoyle in Amazing Spider-Man 219. Erik BeckOctober 4, 2015 9:09 AM Uncanny X-Men #264 Ah, but Jay Demetrick, Jean shows up with a costume with sleeves. Here she has no sleeves. Because, you know, it's too hard for editors to do their job and make things consistent. I liked the Genosha / South Africa allegory when Genosha first appeared. But here, going after other mutants? It's not like South Africans could just come to the US and do what they wanted with blacks (Lethal Weapon 2 not withstanding). Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 8:27 AM Avengers annual #12 I'm pretty sure that this issue is first time the Enclave are positively identified with the "Beehive" scientists who created Adam Warlock. Prior to this, the Enclave are just off-panel mysterious menaces and the Beehive guys were last seen with their original setup in Hulk Annual #6. Stern does some nice work tying off loose ends here if that's the case. Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 8:17 AM Avengers #141-144,147-149 Hilariously, when Engelhart took over the JLA's book some time after this, he actually wrote himself into the first issue as "Esteban Corazon" ("Steven Heart"), who apologizes for making fun of the characters and their adventures. kveto October 4, 2015 8:15 AM Avengers West Coast #70-74 We know how hard Roy Thomas is on female heroes. (But isn't the Wasp the one who takes out the giant bad guy?) Omar KarinduOctober 4, 2015 8:08 AM Thor #332-333 These stories also add to the whole "how do religious symbols work on vampires?" question that's come up here before (in connection with Dracula's X-Men appearances). Thor's hammer, as the literal weapon of a god, destroys lesser vampires virtually on contact. Wonder if that would've worked if Thor hadn't been cultivating human followers? kveto October 4, 2015 7:59 AM Avengers #334-339 I thought this one started out with a bit of promise, the mystery of the brethern, the sexual tension between Ector and Sersi, reducing Rage to a background character,etc. But the heel turn of the collector made no sense, instead of an old man trying to act as a cosmic Noah he was really just a generic conqueror? And the story petered out. Ataru320October 4, 2015 7:00 AM Hulk #1 I finally saw "The Amazing Colossal Man" yesterday (the MST3K version) and that felt very much a major influence on this movie (well among other atomic mutation movies; but this in particular) It was all there: a test of a new nuclear weapon, a military man running out to a nuclear blast to save someone (who may not have even been there in the movie), the man gaining a power that makes him become supremely powerful but a freak and slowly lose control of both his body and mind while having a traumatic past of sorts, the worrywart fiance (which at least here was more associated with the general making it way easier to depict)...yeah the Hulk doesn't become a rampaging simple monster until the mid-60s but somehow with the way this movie ended up, it was very much similar. I doubt having him become a random bald guy would have worked for Bruce Banner, though. PeterAOctober 4, 2015 6:54 AM Quasar #19-25 The pencils are neat in that you can see signs of his current style on Batman, which he has been working on since the beginning of the New 52. Capullo was pretty sweet on X-Force as well, mixing 90s house style with some personal touches. It is odd that he ended up really honing his art and being a very solid sales draw on Batman, whereas Ron Lim, awesome at this point in time on both Cap, Surfer and then IG, sort of has gone into relative obscurity these days. gromOctober 4, 2015 6:44 AM Quasar #18 Bob, I enjoy reading your comments because they nearly always mirror my own opinions and thoughts. RoscoOctober 4, 2015 6:36 AM Fantastic Four #1-10 Hadn’t seen this page before, but as someone with a keen interest in the history of Marvel I’ve found it fascinating and insightful. Also can’t resist throwing my own thoughts into the mix (as I’m prone to do on the Masterworks Board). First, with regard to the FF synopsis, I agree we can never be sure whether Kirby saw it. Interestingly, though, a number of Lee synopses were found in Kirby’s estate after his passing – including one for Avengers 4 (intro of Captain America) and various FF issues from the mid-1960s. They were provided to Mark Evanier by the Kirby family under strict conditions that have prevented him publishing them (I was able to confirm with Mark that he intends to use some quotes in an upcoming book) – presumably due to the legal issues that were happening at the time. Secondly, the references to “Stan Goldberg, Steve Ditko, Wally Wood, and Don Heck” all giving ‘similar accounts’ about how they plotted and created work with Stan mainly acting as editor/dialogue scripter” is unfortunately a bit misleading. In fact the accounts/records clearly show that Lee’s idea/plot input varied from artist to artist and from time to time, as the ‘Marvel Method’ was an elastic process. I’ve included a few quotes to illustrate this: “In 1961 I was working with Stan Lee (writer/editor) at Marvel Comics in producing material (stories and art)…”. “Briefly in regards to our working method, Stan provided the plot ideas. There would be a discussion to clear up anything, consider options and so forth. I would then do the panel/page breakdowns, pencil the visual story continuity and, on a separate piece of paper, provide a very rough panel dialogue, merely as a guide for Stan.” "He (Stan Lee) would say to me ‘Well it’s roughly like this…’, It’s amazing he had that kind of faith in me at the time. And he’d continue something like, a couple of guys break into a bank and they steal some money”. And then there was an ‘in-between’ of the plot – the middle. And then there’s an ending to the plot. So it was broken down in three parts, the beginning, the middle and the end.” “I wouldn’t suggest any storylines at all” Gene Colan “Stan would give me a plot, usually typed. Just a paragraph or so. “Thor does this or that’, then he’d say “Now go home and write me a script”. Larry Lieber “I said, ‘You’re crazy!’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, you can do it.’ I took Lee’s plots over the phone, tape recording them for later playback. “I would put the whole thing together with all the pictures and send it in.” “When I got it back and read it, I said, ‘Gee, it works fine. It’s great.’ “ (Don Heck, talking about working Marvel Method with Lee for the first time) “I researched it and gave my version of it, and Stan gave his version of it. Stan humanized it in a way where, for instance, I might be concerned about Thor’s relation to the other gods. I might bring up a Ulik or I might bring something out of the wild blue yonder…And Stan would come down to Earth and find Thor’s relationship with Earth.” Jack Kirby (discussing Thor in 1969) “An idea can come from me, it can come from Stan, it can come from a reader…”. Jack Kirby “We’ll build a plot around that type of story. I feel that Stan is very wise in looking over letters from readers and keeping tabs on the progress that the character is making.” Jack Kirby PS: Whereas we can see Kirby’s earlier quotes give Lee a lot of credit for input, this obviously wasn’t the case in later years as other issues emerged. It is apparent that Kirby viewed himself as a ‘writer’ despite Lee’s scripting or any ideas/plots/directions. Indeed, Kirby noted he was the one who sat down with the blank piece of paper and, in a very real sense, created a story. Whereas Romita mentioned that he often lacked confidence in his work being made into a story, Kirby had no doubts and stated that he had already ‘lived’ the events in his head as put them to paper. Kirby clearly had his own vision of what was produced even if the final version readers saw was written/scripted or even amended by Lee). I should also comment specifically in relation to the references to Stan Goldberg. Goldberg was a friend of Lee who indeed noted that he was the plotter for various humour stories (with Lee doing script). However we should be careful not to take these out of context. Iin those same interviews Goldberg also makes comments such as “…Stan was great at plotting, concepts and dialogue.” (Incidentally, Goldberg also recalled Lee’s decision to costume the FF based on letters from fans). Of course none of this means that Wally Wood wasn’t being accurate when he talked about Lee contributing little in their Daredevil story conferences. His quotes can often be found on sites such as the Kirby Museum for those interested (Iroinically Wood, a brilliant talent but notorious alcoholic, wasn’t that flattering to Kirby either, stating he was “a genius, but much less of a genius than he says he is – and he’s always claiming he created everything!”) Anyway…hope someone found this interesting. BobOctober 4, 2015 3:40 AM Marvel Fanfare #22-23 wow. This art is nice. Really ahead of its time, stylistically. PeterAOctober 4, 2015 3:06 AM Marvel Fanfare #22-23 There's some amazing use of light and shadow here, far better than in a lot of painted stories Marvel would publish in the 90s. It is sad that Ken Steacy didn't get a regular run on various series he'd be perfectly suited for. Imagine him doing Ff stories in a strange scifi setting, or Doctor Strange ones in odd dimensions, or straightforward Spidey ones, because look how well he draws Doc Ock, Electro and Sandman in their classic looks. Which reminds me, has Spidey ever gone up against the Grey Gargoyle in any of his own books? Seems like with his archfoe being a goblin, a gargoyle would fit right in. ChrisWOctober 4, 2015 2:06 AM Excalibur #40-41 You are very wise. I say this in a 'can we sit at your feet and sup from your wisdom' sort of way. Scott Lobdell will only get worse. BobOctober 4, 2015 1:25 AM Quasar #19-25 As I look over this, I can't help but think that Geoff Johns and his Green Lantern run owe Gruenwald a little bit for some concepts. I dropped this book when the art got bad with Manley back after 10, and it appears I missed out some good stuff. It's interesting to see where his plots led to. The pencils in the arc are actually pretty good (cheesecake aside), but they're hurt by the sloppy inking and weird colors (everyone has orange skin, and what's going on with Maelstrom's face in those panels leading up to Quasar's hands being cut off?) As epic as this story is, it likely got overlooked by the unfortunate timing of being up against IG. kveto October 3, 2015 11:47 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 @Michael- Well, he was attempting to revive his father's organization which tried to murder the USA, so he was "a little crazy" long before his transformation. Tabe8October 3, 2015 8:53 PM Excalibur #40-41 I saw "Writer: Scott Lobdell". And stopped reading. ChrisWOctober 3, 2015 5:46 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 I could see Magneto rejecting her because he's Magneto. But the narration interferes. In case it wasn't clear. ChrisWOctober 3, 2015 5:42 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 And who is Magneto saving his heart for? Magda and Isabelle have been dead for decades, and and he's obviously not paying attention to Lee anymore. Who else is there? A sexy teenage girl who is able to touch people for the first time in her recent memory is attracted to him, and he rejects her? Mutants are totally not like human beings. ChrisWOctober 3, 2015 5:37 PM Uncanny X-Men #261 Given the Claremont Women we've seen throughout the series, and his love of flying, I would put Cylla's decision here as the point where he really lost control. It would take some time for it to be noticeable, but it's not like he's giving Marvel new characters the way Liefeld or Lee did. What's he bringing in, the Harriers? This was supposed to be a downtime issue [which it was] but it was also supposed to bring in new characters like the artists are doing, and it was supposed to be a Danger Room sequence. Remember how awesome it was when Scott started attacking Wolvie, Nightcrawler and Storm during the Proteus storyline? Yeah, like that, but for the early 90s. And it obviously didn't work. Betsy is the only thing about this issue which stands out in a positive way, and that's only because she... um, stands out. Kudos to Marc Silvestri. MichaelOctober 3, 2015 5:32 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 @kveto- It's explained in Avengers West Coast Annual 6 that Living Lightning "went a little crazy for a while", presumably as a side effect of his transformation. ChrisWOctober 3, 2015 5:21 PM Excalibur #40-41 Oh God, the Lockheed issue! What sins are we being punished for with this comic? That said, you're right that the following issue wasn't as bad as every other non-Claremont/Davis issue of "Excalibur." The reunions ring true, Davis specifically insisted that the Warwolves be cleared up before he took the reins and this serves that purpose, and it finally clears up the last problems with the X-Men pretending to be dead, now that Kitty, Kurt and Brian can't pretend either. The plotlines are never going to go anywhere [exceptions duly noted] but this cleans out the last bit of dust from the post-"Inferno" era of Rachel confronting Maddie, setting the stage for the all-new, all-different X-titles. ChrisWOctober 3, 2015 5:10 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 Storm [#101] and Wolverine [#107] were the first X-Men to get naked on-panel in Claremont's run. Jubilee is the last. Given all the other characters who got naked - which you can remember as well as I can - can't see this as anything but a downhill slide. ChrisWOctober 3, 2015 4:17 PM Excalibur #21-25 Claremont being inconsistent about continuity? THAT'S NOT TRUE! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! ChrisWOctober 3, 2015 4:14 PM Silver Surfer #49 If you say so. I probably read whatever issues had that explanation, but the whole concept is so idiotic that I've long since forgotten the explanation. fnord12October 3, 2015 3:35 PM Excalibur #40-41 Thanks Matt. Let me get through the next few issues X-Factor and the Kings of Pain annuals and see how it goes. For me, treating this as conceptual would be a last resort but i'll do it if i have to. MichaelOctober 3, 2015 2:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #261 I don't see the problem, Eric- Wolvie goes to Canada for a cure, doesn't find it and goes back to Madripoor. MattOctober 3, 2015 2:48 PM Excalibur #40-41 Insofar as Cable himself appears in the New Mutants/X-Force image, I really think it makes more sense to treat these images as conceptual and place this arc earlier. Just my two cents. MichaelOctober 3, 2015 12:48 PM Excalibur #40-41 Note that Jean is referred to as Marvel Girl in this story. This is perhaps the last time that happens- after this, she's referred to just as Jean Grey for the next few years. Erik BeckOctober 3, 2015 12:48 PM Captain America #371 So now Rachel will get a job in a shop? Who knew that Captain America was the Henry Higgins of late 20th Century America? This issue reminds me a bit of a Batman issue from 1986 where he and Catwoman keep trying to get dinner but everywhere they go they run into someone committing a crime. It's also a little reminiscent of the Avengers Annual where the construction guys keep taking on villains so that the Avengers don't see them and destroy their work. fnord12October 3, 2015 12:23 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 @Piotr, i've added the scan of Tigra purring. It's actually a good demonstration of what i don't like about the art. It's such a strange moment that it should really get the focus. But instead it's depicted across three panels, with the key shot getting a narrow panel. And just looking at the art it never looks like a baby holding a kitten. It should be a really funny panel, but it comes across just looking blah. (This is actually why i didn't choose to post this scan originally.) GromOctober 3, 2015 12:22 PM Punisher War Journal #14-15 Maybe I was just a blind Jim Lee fan but I really disliked these issues especially coming after the gritty Bushwhacker story. Erik BeckOctober 3, 2015 12:22 PM Uncanny X-Men #261 Michael - That makes sense. I was just looking at the most recent in relation to the year. And the crossover does make sense for a bump. But aren't you the MCP guy? How do you reconcile the Wolverine appearance in AF? GromOctober 3, 2015 12:17 PM Punisher War Journal #11 I enjoyed the revelation on the last page that the tragic and flawed Scared Straight program did end up, by a twist of fate, saving Ron from the Punisher allowing both him a second chance at life. It was the one good thing it caused to happen. MichaelOctober 3, 2015 10:08 AM Uncanny X-Men #261 Erik, you have to look at the sales year to year. Last year, the sales averaged 432,745, with the most recent issue 392, 750 and this year the sales averaged 408,925 with the most recent issue 436,200. So the sales are down from year to year. There IS a small increase in the most recent issue but that's probably because the most recent issue was one of the Acts of Vengeance issues- crossovers usually result in a small bump. GromOctober 3, 2015 9:50 AM Uncanny X-Men #271 Jim Lee and Ron Lim are two of my favourite artists. Lee's art stands out so much in X-tinction agenda that it hurts to read the issues he does not draw. GromOctober 3, 2015 9:39 AM Uncanny X-Men #270 My brother and I loved this storyline. It was a step towards dealing with the mess of the past 20 + issues Erik BeckOctober 3, 2015 9:04 AM Uncanny X-Men #261 Wait, didn't you just have Wolverine in Canada in Alpha Flight? Now he's back in Madripoor? Can we just ret-con out his horrible AF appearance? I think the Harriers might last a few minutes against the Great Lakes Avengers, provided Hawkeye isn't there as leader. I also can't figure out the sales. They would seem to indicate that sales were going up at this time, and unless people were really into Wolverine or the hot scantily-clad ninja, why would sales be increasing? This book at this time makes no sense unless you were already a fan. I would think sales would be going down until Jim Lee comes along. Dan H.October 3, 2015 8:47 AM Marvel Team-Up #135 I mentioned in another comment thread what a nightmare that X-Men/Alpha mini was (Strucker appearing and having developed a drug addiction despite the fact that he was dead at the time, Snowbird leaving Canada with no ill effects, Aurora being around Northstar AS Aurora and not Jeanne-Marie, etc.). As for Wolverine here: he's obviously a mock cardboard standee that Iceman made up as a joke. He brought it by to surprise everyone and in that scene he's standing behind it doing his best impression of Logan... an impression so dead-bang accurate that Colossus goes along with it. GromOctober 3, 2015 7:55 AM Quasar #19-25 haha Thanos6 - that is lame. In real time I was so sucked into the build up to the IG that I viewed this plot as inconsequential. Reading the comments and the pages above I realise now in hindsight I downplayed a very good story in its own right. Thanos6October 3, 2015 1:55 AM Quasar #19-25 In a later issue, they explain that Quaze sometimes still wears his old costume by mistake. (Doesn't explain the hair though) GromOctober 3, 2015 1:00 AM Quasar #19-25 Quasar's costume in Infinity Gauntlet ("IG") is the older version and he says "not again" when his hands get blown off by Thanos so this story must have happened before IG. Why wasn't he wearing the new costume in IG? Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 11:09 PM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #72 I don't think this is a Miller homage; I think it's a Will Eisner homage. There's an off-kilter human interest story at the heart of it, and a villain named after an Octopus who's never quite seen fully. BillOctober 2, 2015 10:35 PM Quasar #19-25 Maybe a silly question, but when did Doctor Spectrum get his primary colors costume back? Wasn't he still in the black and white one the last time we saw him? Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:31 PM Captain America annual #6 Someone once pointe dout that we ended up with three substitute Caps because Roy Thomas insisted that publication dates of Golden Age comics were the real dates of those stories. As a result, in order to use the Patriot, Roy had to invent someone else to fill in long enough for the Patriot's last 1940s story to be published, and so we ended up with the Spirit of '76 being plugged into the role as a placeholder. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:47 PM Iron Man #156 The MCP is following the Marvel Handbook, which gave the old guy from Daredevil #167 a Book of the Dead entry as Mauler I. InstantiationOctober 2, 2015 9:35 PM Captain America #255 It was a brilliant move, I thought, to have FDR narrate this issue and present the invincible shield, as it further defines Cap's ethos as the quintessential "New Deal/Greatest Generation" American -- idealistic yet tough enough to survive the Great Depression and beat the Nazis. This issue became my "go-to" for Cap's origin, mostly supplanting even 109 (Lee/Kirby) and 176 (Englehart/S. Buscema). (Didn't have the earliest ones.) This was the only issue in the famed Stern/Byrne run that wasn't inked (except for one pg.) by the excellent Joe Rubinstein, whose work complemented Byrne's so well, as earlier it had Starlin's. Just re-read "War & Remembrance" ... and yeah, taking refuge here in the early 80s, as the early 90s, at least w. respect to Marvel, mostly just depress me. ChrisOctober 2, 2015 9:34 PM Quasar #19-25 Fun storyline for Quasar, and Capullo's artwork is very nice. He is dynamic in his action sequences, and his little bit of cartoony look works well when dealing with these cosmic concepts. Paul Ryan is a good artist, but his work isn't appropriate for a really cosmic book, and the other artists have just been bad. As others have mentioned, this does come at a bad time given the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, but that isn't Mark's fault. The title was badly in need of a change in dynamics, and the changes here are mostly in good form. Mark DrummondOctober 2, 2015 9:05 PM Captain America #387-392 Zeitgeist looks way too much like DC's Clock King. Erik BeckOctober 2, 2015 8:59 PM Captain America #369-370 Crossbones really does win Devoted Lackey of the Year. I agree with Steven - the Lim art is really good. I can't believe Cap was getting this art while AWC was making do with whoever they could grab off the street after Byrne left. Mark DrummondOctober 2, 2015 8:45 PM Sleepwalker #4 I think the Spidey Super Stories Bookworm was actually a big green worm that ate books. There was also a Bookworm in the Adam West Batman TV show, but not in the comics. Ataru320October 2, 2015 8:26 PM Quasar #19-25 @Thanos6: Yeah I was just being my own silly self. Its just funny that were we have Maelstrom's move preparing to wipe out the universe...and here's a cut to Thanos preparing to kill half of the life in the universe in an entire arc that's been building over the last year. And considering the downward spiral the entire Marvel universe was going through at this time due to all the creative problems from the Shooter-era writers leaving to the brew that would lead to Image Comics, it really feels rather appropriate that major players on a universal scale suddenly just want to destroy everything at the same time. Thanos6October 2, 2015 5:00 PM Quasar #19-25 @Ataru: I view it as less of a giant coincidence and more of a natural resonance between Death and Oblivion; we saw in SILVER SURFER that Death is in a bad mood lately, and it's not hard to believe that Oblivion would be as well, so they both initiated their big universe-shaking schemes simultaneously. Thanos6October 2, 2015 4:57 PM Quasar #19-25 This is my all-time favorite cosmic story--eclipsing even my beloved INFINITY GAUNTLET--and one of my favorites comics in general. It is nothing less than a true shame that it hasn't been collected. Fnord, I can't remember the source right now (I'll hunt for it later), but Gruenwald was indeed planning this for a very, very long time. He created Maelstrom for the sole purpose of eventually being Quasar's arch-enemy when he got his own series. That was about an 11 year gap between his creation and this story, so Gruenwald was definitely playing the long game. Also, I don't know if you want to mention it, but Maelstrom was manipulating even Oblivion; as as Infinity points out, if the entire "create an anomalous point" scheme had worked, Maelstrom-as-Anomaly would have been in charge and gained power even greater than that of Oblivion. Ataru320October 2, 2015 4:57 PM Quasar #19-25 I just find it hilarious that here we have this huge, massive battle for the fate of the universe...and meanwhile Thanos is on standby ready to kill half the universe's population. You'd think with all the stuff going on at or near this time (between this, Superia, the collapse of the X-teams, the Avengers madness and who knows what else...let alone things to come), Thanos would have just waved his arm at this point and maybe spared us...I guess he just wanted a little entertainment before pulling what he needed to. RobertOctober 2, 2015 4:27 PM Quasar #19-25 I agree this is Quasar's best costume. I can't remember their names but it looks like a combination of two of the Legion of Super-Heroes costumes. Piotr WOctober 2, 2015 3:31 PM Quasar #19-25 Finally! Quasar's only good costume makes its debut! :) clydeOctober 2, 2015 2:23 PM Quasar #19-25 Is it a coincidence that the time Eon can live without his heart is the beginning formula for PI - 3.14? Erik BeckOctober 2, 2015 11:54 AM New Mutants #89 " I apologize in advance for all the splash pages, but there's no other way to show what's going on in these issues." I was going to say, fnord, that you don't have to apologize for showing us more of an issue, but given that it's Liefeld and that there are few mild reactions to him your apology is probably necessary. The problem is that Liefeld has the MacFarlane / Larsen style of dressing his female characters, but without their abilities to draw a human leg. Also, it seems weird to see Warlock use the word "me". I could be completely wrong, but I don't recall him doing it before. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 11:16 AM Captain America #267 I get the feeling that DeMatteis agrees with your take on Every-Man's first appearanbce, because he retcons his backstory quite a bit when he takes a second run a the character in Marvel Team-Up #132-133. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 11:02 AM Ka-Zar the Savage #9-12 To clarify, Dante and Beatrice were never lovers in real life: Dante met her once when she was nine and again when she was eighteen, mostly in a "just passing through" way. She and Dante both married other people and had kids of their own as a matter of historical record. The Marvel Handbook Deluxe Edition brings all of this up and suggests that Belasco is probably lying about his origins here. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:59 AM Ka-Zar the Savage #9-12 In addition to the Niven novel this story riffs on, Belasco also seems to be reference to either David Belasco, the famous theater producer and playwright who created elaborate "special effects" sets in the early 20th century, and to the real Belasco's supernatural namesake Emeric Belasco from Richard Matheson's novel Hell House. (Doug Moench lifted Matheson's novel wholesale for his haunted house story in Werewolf by Night, as some mentioned in the comments here when that story was written up.) And there's definitely some Niven in there too, probably as the primary influence. Both references connect with the character here, and perhaps hint that the historically impossible material with Dante and Beatrice is Belasco embellishing his past. Notably, when Belasco narrates his origin he never explains why he only has one arm in his present-day appearances. I suppose that makes sense; why tell anyone how to harm you? Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:53 AM Ghost Rider #61-62 Fleisher is notorious in certain circles of fandom for the way he writes...well, pretty much anyone who's mot a white dude. It's not there in all of his work, but there are certainly enough screwed-up portrayals of nonwhite ethnic groups and women in his various stories to make a case. (His Ironjaw series at Atlas is particularly messed-up in its treatment of women.) Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:51 AM Marvel Two-In-One #81-85 The AIM robot at the beginning is the same model that turned up back in Tales of Suspense #78 as the "chemical android." Weirdly, it was portrayed there as some kind of artificial lifeform that AIM grows in weird vats. It also didn't talk. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:46 AM Uncanny X-Men annual #5 The Monster of Badoon was previously seen in Silver Surfer #2 and Marvel Two-In-One #4-5. I wonder if the Badoon (and John Buscema, in real life) deliberately made it look a bit like Galactus? Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:44 AM Death of Captain Marvel (Marvel Graphic Novel #1) It's nice to see Starlin homage the work of all the other writers who handled Mar-Vell's series; that's not the sort of thing I could see him doing these days with, say Thanos or Adam Warlock. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:41 AM Uncanny X-Men #150 I suppose the story *has* to show Magneto doing some of the worst things he's ever done so that even he can finally realize he's gone too far. Of course there's an argument that his decision to nuke a small country out of spite in his second-ever appearance probably still trumps anything here; the only reason that failed was that Quicksilver refused to let it happen and disarmed the bomb. But then, most people reject Magneto's rather one-dimensional earlier portrayals. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:34 AM Power Man & Iron Fist #74-75 This story seems to imply that Danny Rand was the first person ever to become the Iron Fist and kill the dragon, and that this was never supposed to happen. Of course, all of this will be retconned some years later so that we can have lots of past Iron Fists. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:30 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #58 The Ringer still feels a little like the sort of human-interest villain the Defenders used to fight; how many other baddies would complain about the dangers to their dental work in the middle of a fight scene? Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:29 AM Fantastic Four #234-235 Byrne does a lot here to throw out Ego's Conway appearance, with the version of "Ego's brain" Thor beats up in that story to make Ego submit showing up here as an obvious decoy that the FF see through almost immediately. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:18 AM Marvel Team-Up annual #4 It's interesting that the Purple Man has stopped scheming and getting into fights, and instead uses his powers to get whatever he wants on a whim. This becomes his default characterization, with later writers like Bill Mantlo (!) and Brian Bendis really upping the ante on how much creepier that sort of day-to-day sociopathy is that Killgrave's more supervillainish "dress up a gang in purple and try to take over the city" criminal activities. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:12 AM Marvel Two-In-One annual #6 Anyone else notice that Doug Moench usually has Klaw talk like a street thug rather than using his usual megalomaniac supervillain speech patterns? Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 10:08 AM Daredevil #168-182 And yeah, Miller (and Ed Hannigan even moreso) are both very, very indebted to Eisner at this point in their careers. The newspaper headlines in ASM Annual #15 also strike me as a very Eisner sort of graphical device, and the writing here -- especially the turns from gritty crime noir to human interest comedy like "Guts" Nelson -- are very much the sort of thing Eisner did week to week in his Spirit stories. I find it interesting how much continuity Miller uses here, which perhaps reflects editorial policy of the time more than Miller's own preferences. The Kingpin's story picks up pretty directly from his appearance in Marv Wolfman's Amazing Spider-Man run, and the Kingpin still has his "super-heavy door" from his 1960s appearances. More generally, Miller always portrays the Kingpin and both physically and intellectually "stronger" than Matt Murdock; it's only the Kingpin's emotional weaknesses that allow Matt to triumph in Miler's stories. Later writers just have Matt able to beat Fisk up whenever Fisk makes him angry and reckless enough. (This is pretty much the exact opposite of what "Born Again" will tell us about their conflict.) And I wonder how many people who have "memories" or "received ideas" about MIller's first DD run based on his later work and their reputation would be shocked to learn that the run contains a goofy Stilt-Man story and a goofy Power Man and Iron Fist appearance, along with . It's not like Mller has ever really abandoned humor; Sin City has stuff like Schlump and Klubb and even The Dark Knight Returns's satire has some elements of plain old lampooning in it. (That's arguably another Eisner influence, what with the Spirit meeting characters like the egomaniac actor "Awesome Bells.") Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:58 AM Ghost Rider #58 Fleisher seems to have really liked the Enforcer as a villain. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:50 AM Iron Man #152-153 It's interesting that two of the three Nefaria stooges from Avengers #164-6 -- Josten/Power Man and the Living Laser -- end up with power problems as a result of the story. Perhaps Whirlwind was unaffected because his power is "natural" due to his mutation? Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:44 AM Avengers #210 The Samarobryn station is retroactively identified with a whole bunch of other Marvel space stations we've seen via the Marvel Index and Marvel Handbook, as well as Thunderbolts v.1 #12. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:41 AM Captain America #264 This story is based on Ursula K. LeGuin's classic sci-fi novel The Lathe of Heaven, about a reality-warping psychic who is used to try to "fix" the world. LeGuiin's name is referenced in the names of two of the psychics. Luke BlanchardOctober 2, 2015 9:40 AM Strange Tales #128 (Dr. Strange) Thanks, Michael. I did some Google searches of Project Gutenberg and found a lot of instances of the expression (in varying forms) from the first couple of decades of the 20th century, and a few from the second half of the 19th century. But it could easily go back further. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:38 AM Hulk #263 I dunno about Claremont at LX, but Claremont really liked having big fight sequences trash airfields in his stories in the late 70s and early 80s; Claremont himself even notes this in his introduction to one of the marvel Masterworks editions of his X-Men run. Marvel Team-Up #58 and Uncanny X-Men #97 are among the examples I can think of off the top of my head. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:34 AM Avengers annual #10 And naturally I glossed right past the fact that it's pcvered above. D'oh! Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:33 AM Avengers annual #10 The story I've always heard, apparently confirmed in some interviews, is that Claremont just really likes the real-life singer Maddy Prior of the band Steeleye Span. This story's character was a little winking homage, and the later character is a much more overt one. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:29 AM She-Hulk #17 Perception counts a lot with animal men- Danny O'Neil once said that he briefly considered having Azrael be an owl-man since owls are natural enemies of bats but decided against it since owls have had great PR over the centuries. That might be why the Owl never became a major villain. Though that doesn't seem to have hurt Owlman or the Court of Owls too much. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:25 AM Dazzler #6-7 It's not as apparent here, but Dazzler's band members are all based on characters from Jack Kerouac's novels, who were in turn based on the Beat Generation writers. Marx is Allen Ginsberg, and Hunch is Herbert Huncke. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:17 AM Hulk #262 Curiously, Glazier's "mad artist" chaacterization is later paralleled (probably unintentionally) in the Grey Gargoyle's portrayal in a couple of 1989 and 1990 stories, one of which is the Acts of Vengeance crossover in the Hulk's book. I suppose it's a natural fit for villains who turn people into statues. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:12 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #56 And rather oddly, DeFalco then turns around and treats Jack O'Lantern like he can stand up to Spider-Man in a straight fight. Jack was his co-creation, of course. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:10 AM Marvel Team-Up #106 David Michelinie will later turn the idea of the Scorpion upgrading his tail into a sort of minor subplot for him, much as this era had Doctor Octopus constantly trying to upgrade his arms with Adamantium. And yeah, the Scorpion definitely got downgraded in power over the years, probably the same way Mister Hyde did: once Captain America takes you out, people write you as below Spider-Man's weight class. That, plus his lost gimmick of being the "anti-Spider-Man," seems to be what inspired his stint as Venom (the more popular "anti-Spider-Man" concept).lengthy fnord12October 2, 2015 9:08 AM Amazing Spider-Man #216-218 Thanks, Omar. I've added a tag for Sadie. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:07 AM Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #55 It's interesting to return to this story after the "Civil War" crossover, where the New Warriors battling Nitro in a populated area is a) very destructive and kills lots of people an b) treated like proof that they are unusually stupid and reckless. Here, it's just superhero business as usual, even when Spider-Man deliberately draws Nitro to a chemical warehouse in hopes of blasting him apart; I guess it shows how much superhero comics have come to rely on undermining the genre conventions for story material in the last decade or two. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 9:02 AM Amazing Spider-Man #216-218 Sadie Frickett in this story is the same woman shown in Hydro-Man's debut story in Amazing Spider-Man #212, the one who tells Hydro-Man to get lost just before he discovers his super-powers. She will return much, much later for a very minor cameo in Marvel Knights Spider-Man #6 as Hydro-Man's date to an auction where the Venom symbiote is being sold off. (There's a trademark Millar " sick joke" in that story where she finds out that her fur coat, which Hydro-Man told her was made from Tigra, is just a cheap knockoff because one of Kraven's kids is falsely claiming to have killed lots of super-heroes so he can sell this kind of stuff to other villains as a scam.) Erik BeckOctober 2, 2015 8:57 AM X-Factor #52-53 Interesting that Mole is created in almost the same role that Caliban was created (the "ugly" Morlock in love with the pretty girl) just as Caliban starts out on his vengeance tour. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 8:55 AM Uncanny X-Men #145-147 Doom and Arcade here feels weirdly like a Luthor-Joker team-up in terms of character dynamics. Also, isn't it a bit odd that the X-Men seem to have no idea who Doom is or how dangerous he is? It's not as if Doom's various exploits have been secret, and he is a publicly known head of state by this point. kveto October 2, 2015 8:54 AM Captain America #385-386 that could easily be explained away by Farrel's Watchdog recruiters "collateral damage" and all that. Plus, I imagine that the Watchdogs organizational scheme into chapters would help. "That wasn't our chapter, that was a different chapter. Completely different Watchdogs from us, etc" And the Watchdogs themselves probably know Cap 351 was a govenment conspiracy to blacken their names. No doubt that helps feed into their "persecuted by the government" narrative (completely true in this case. Conspiracy theorists unite!). He could have been told all other deaths attibuted to Watchdogs were further government propaganda. lots of explanations. Pick any of them. Omar KarinduOctober 2, 2015 8:50 AM Captain America #258 It's very clear that Claremont wrote the first half of the story, while Michelinie wrote the second half. The first half could practically be a sequel to Marvel Team-Up #75, right down to being about the blue-collar nobility of firefighters. The second half has a crook buy an armored suit from Justin Hammer. MichaelOctober 2, 2015 8:20 AM Captain America #387-392 @Morgan- that would work but the problem is that the villainesses seem to side with Superia BEFORE learning about the sterilization part. MichaelOctober 2, 2015 8:18 AM Captain America #385-386 @kveto- but we still have the problem of him not knowing the Watchdogs are murderers despite it being public knowledge. kveto October 2, 2015 8:13 AM Captain America #385-386 I also think that the Watchdogs aren't a KKK eqivalent. Although there is an undercurrent of racism (like the militant groups)I see them having more in common with conservative american christan groups, with their emphasis on enforcing their own brand of morals on people. In truth, the Watchdogs are better moral foes for John Walker, as his morals co-inside. Steve Rogers recognises them for what they are. Jerks using any means to enforce their own will on others. More annoying redemption arc for Walker. "Did you notice they way he didn't break the spine of that helpless Watchdog over his knee. What a good guy!" Farrel had no real personality before, so I have no problem with him exhibting these characteristics. We get insight to his motivations in his argument with the porn artist. To me, this is good use of a secondary character, one of guenwald's strengths. kveto October 2, 2015 7:57 AM Captain America #387-392 agree with everything you say here fnord. (Although the shots of the males in their underwear tries to balance out the cheesecake, which wasn't that much actually) Speaking of which, the feminization process was nearly complete when Cap and Pal got rescued. Shouldn't they be feeling a bit more feminie, at least? the power pagent was beyond dumb. kveto October 2, 2015 7:48 AM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Not defending this story too much, but considering all the x-book dreck out there at this time, this isn't that bad. Unfortunately, balancing that out was the Living Lightening becoming good. He was a rotten bad guy in his first appearance, threatening innocents. But I guess they wanted a hispanic dude on the California team so he becomes good (Why not Firebird?) Erik BeckOctober 2, 2015 6:35 AM Excalibur #21-25 Ah, but Nathan (and Michael), IIRC, she was just a kid in the NM flashback. Here she's in costume and at least a late teen. It makes it seem like she was pulled to this scene immediately following Xavier's death and that doesn't work at all with the previous scene. Either way you cut it, I'm thinking Claremont forgot about the previous scene in NM. Nathan AdlerOctober 2, 2015 3:13 AM Excalibur #21-25 @Erik Beck: Not necessarily. If the Shadow King was part of the Hellfire Club as Magneto said, then he could have used the Club connections to expose the school to the Army as recalled/ depicted by Rachel in New Mutants #18. As I recall, the SK was supposed to be behind the DOFP pulling the strings, so he could have bragged to Rachel at any point before she came back in time, thus she would blame the Shadow King and not his tools. So, no ret-con as far as Claremont's stories go;) BerendOctober 2, 2015 2:52 AM Captain America #387-392 How on earth does the Everyman end up on a German superteam? Did Gruenwald just create superheroes based on a random German word, then discover that name was already in use by a random character that once appeared in a dangling plotline and decide to merge them? StevenOctober 2, 2015 2:12 AM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Michael, Avengers Disassembled is all lies. An upcoming annual will show that Agatha Harkness took back that spell she cast on Wanda and let her remember her kids. There are many scenes in future issues in which Wanda recalls her children. Bendis doesn't care about any of this. ChrisOctober 2, 2015 12:53 AM Namor #10-12 I don't think it's out of order for Cap to express some concern. There was a lot of fear in Cap's generation about Germany, and from his perspective it's only 5 to 9 years Marvel time since WWII ended for him. He did not have several decades to adjust and feel comfortable that Germany's democracy was secure. The US did not have much objection to German reunification, but it was different in Europe. Both Britain and France expressed concern about letting Germany reunite since it would allow the Germans to dominate the continent. Contemporary Nazi stories bored me at this point. I liked the Red Skull, but honestly how many thawed Nazis do you need in the modern day? Still, I thought it was entertaining, and I liked the idea of an Invaders reunion even though the team has no reason to exist nowadays. Luke BlanchardOctober 1, 2015 11:41 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 It's supposed to be the headpiece and costume she first wore around X-FACTOR #63-#64. Morgan WickOctober 1, 2015 11:31 PM Captain America #387-392 Some of the villainesses might be explained by the fact that Superia, unlike a lot of superficially similar straw-feminist villainesses, isn't committing gendercide, but sterilizing all the women that aren't on her boat. Which suggests she and Gruenwald don't have a clue how genetics actually works, but it does mean any villainesses that want their genetic line to be passed on need to join her if she asks, regardless of their personal philosophy. Villainesses with boyfriends like Titania might be more likely to join her given that. DermieOctober 1, 2015 11:28 PM Captain America #387-392 I know this story is silly and has its problems...but I still enjoy it. Its not great, but its fun. The bit with Cap and Paladin in "drag" is just stupid though. There are two reasons to do such a sequence--either for comedic value, or to play it straight and have it actually be a disguise. This fails at both, since Asp and Mamba's new costumes are so generic that there is nothing about them that seems feminine--and it clearly isn't disguising their gender at all. Its interesting to note that one of the villainesses raises the idea of raping Cap and Paladin after they've captured them (I can't remember who off the top of my head, but I want to say either Titania or Knockout). That's the first time I can think of seeing the idea of woman-on-man rape being suggested in mainstream comics, outside of the context of love spells and such like the Enchantress. Erik RobbinsOctober 1, 2015 11:03 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 I think there's a misdirected word balloon in the "we've met before" panel. The balloon says "Hawkeye and I met during the Secret Wars". It's pointing towards Iron Man, but if it was from IM, it should say "Hawkeye and I met _HER_ during the Secret Wars." I think it was meant to be Spider-Woman's dialogue. Pym used a rather risky move to defeat Irezumi. Pym made as if he were going to shrink Irezumi, but directed the Pym particles at himself, so that Irezumi ended up shrinking. How does that work? How do you reflect a power that never reached you? ChrisOctober 1, 2015 10:08 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Typically bad writing from Roy Thomas. However, the concept of the Pacific Overlords - a group of villains in the Pacific Region that can be good geographic foes for the West Coast Avengers - is sound and even kind of awesome. Some of the individual members are not so good. Collectively, they are too weak against this group of Avengers. Anytime you have both Iron Man and Wonder Man, you gotta bring your A game. Plus the other Avengers aren't slouchers either. I liked the art by Steve Butler. He would have been a solid choice to stay as regular penciler. I like Dave Ross more than FNORD12 does, but he's not in his best place as a teambook like this. Luis DantasOctober 1, 2015 10:01 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Sigh. This book used to be worth reading. I wish it had been ended some 30-32 issues earlier. ChrisOctober 1, 2015 9:57 PM Captain America #387-392 Horrible. What is sad is that there are some interesting kernels of ideas here, but they are just developed terribly. A villain based on very radical feminist ideology could be interesting, but not this. It would have to be a very small outfit - it's just bizarre all these female villains are here. Far better to have a small core of like minded villains along the lines of Man-killer, plus a few hired guns (all female) who are in it only for the money and don't take the politics seriously. Since t hey fight only Cap and Paladin, Superia actually doesn't need all that many goons for a good fight. Putting the Red Skull on trial for war crimes is a much better idea, but it fails for various reasons. Gruenwald gets a lot of things wrong about German culture at the time, but like many mistakes he accepts it in the letter columns and fixes them. I believe Hauptmann Deutschland later becomes "Vormund". Given modern Germany's fear of appearing nationalistic, no sanctioned German superhero would ever take such a nationalistic sounding name (then again, Blitzkrieger is also in poor taste). MichaelOctober 1, 2015 9:49 PM New Mutants #87 Erik, as we discussed in the entry for New Mutants 98-100, Cable's background was probably decided on sometime around New Mutants 98, since that's the first time he was called Nathan. MichaelOctober 1, 2015 9:42 PM Excalibur #21-25 You're right in that it makes no sense that Kitty turns 15- from the time Scott and Maddie first have sex to the baby Nathan's birth it has to be 9 months. How old is baby Nathan supposed to be at this point? MichaelOctober 1, 2015 9:31 PM Captain America #387-392 That's a brief comment on Superia being a Straw Feminist. I'm disappointed, fnord. Red CometOctober 1, 2015 9:16 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 It almost felt like Marvel was just grabbing random people off the street to write and draw the Avengers family of books at this point. You're not far off. The 90s boom caused such a massive demand for material that the major companies were bringing in tons of randos to pump out books. Look at a lower tier book from this decade like X-men Unlimited and you'll see a host of creators who, coincidentally I'm sure, all seem to drop out of comics around the mid-90s. fnord12October 1, 2015 9:14 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Heh, you're right that Tigra should recognize Spider-Woman. I could almost forgive that considering the circumstances they met under. Tigra was imprisoned and they made a break for it. But that should be the first thing the other Avengers remind her of. Certainly better than Iron Man claiming to know her from an event he wasn't even in. MichaelOctober 1, 2015 8:43 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Simon really is a jerk these issues, treating Wanda like crap just because she won't date him. Although he does apologize at the end of the arc. GromOctober 1, 2015 8:37 PM Avengers #334-339 You don't approve of Portacio's Punisher run? I thought it was really good. GromOctober 1, 2015 8:36 PM New Mutants #87 Liefeld's art and the hype got me onto this and X-Force. I enjoyed it for the time he was on the title. Erik BeckOctober 1, 2015 8:04 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 And a reminder that Larry Hama had already done the plot of raising an island and getting it declared a nation in GI Joe a few years before this. Piotr WOctober 1, 2015 6:41 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 I see. BTW. Can we have a scan of Tigra cuddling and purring? ;) Erik BeckOctober 1, 2015 6:36 PM New Mutants #87 Of course, having hated Blevens art so much it drove me off the book, I'm with the group that thought this was a good thing. And it lead to the inevitable X-Force, which was, at this point, a better direction than the aimless meandering that Weezie had the kids on. I do wonder though, at what point Cable' background was planned out. I remember getting back into the X-books with X-Cutioner's Song and being told who he was by a friend and being flabbergasted. Having had the Valance Star Wars issues since they originally came out (still have my Star Wars issues - never getting rid of anything Star Wars), I absolutely agree that Cable is ripped straight from him. fnord12October 1, 2015 6:25 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Tigra was rescued by a tribe of Aborigines. Regarding why the Avengers are involved, it's basically because Spider-Woman spotted them. Based on that, Dr. Demonicus knew the Avengers would start investigating him, so he set up traps to keep them busy. And he did have people held prisoner. (I still agree with you, just answering the questions.) Piotr WOctober 1, 2015 6:11 PM Captain America #387-392 I must say that I absolutely hate stories where we have villains teaming up just because they are villains, with no regard to their goals and personalities. That's one of the reasons I hated Bendis' Avengers: he gave us that huge villain army led by the Hood, which consisted of absolutely random collection of villains. It included Dr. Demonicus, of all people, who really had no business being a muscle for the Hood... The same thing happens here. Arclight? What is she doing there? Is she on loan from Mr. Sinister, or something? Piotr WOctober 1, 2015 6:07 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Now I have to know: who saved Tigra??? Anyway... you know, if Demonicus whole plot was to raise an island and get it recognized as a nation, what was the point of his team fighting the Avengers? He could've simply declared what he was going to do and let them go. It's not like founding a nation is illegal or something... What I like in this story (at least based on the summary) that the Overlords are all from various countries bordering the Pacific. We seem to have a Japanese, a Polynesian, a Taiwanese... Cool idea, I think. Oh, and one last thing: that panel of Spider-Woman being knocked down by Kuroko is hilarious :) Thanos6October 1, 2015 4:49 PM Captain America #387-392 I would disagree that the stories mentioned in the beginning were "maybe not so great." They're still some of my favorite stories to this day. (Not defending this one, but...) BobOctober 1, 2015 3:47 PM Avengers #334-339 I was shocked to learn years later that the Epting who is so phenomenal today was the same guy drawing the book in the 90s dark ages. Just goes to show that sticking to your craft and constantly striving to improve your game pays off. Pity Liefeld and Portacio never tried it. BobOctober 1, 2015 3:44 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 It almost felt like Marvel was just grabbing random people off the street to write and draw the Avengers family of books at this point. I've really liked some of of Ross' work over the years a good bit (his art of the Spectacular Spidey annual in Atlantis Attacks was great), but this slop is hardly recognizable as his art. It seems anyone illustrating these Thomas plots had drawn the short straw in the Bullpen and were half-assing things as much as possible. There was little to no interest in quality control here, once the mutants took over the company. And it was especially disappointing, given how things had started to turn around for the better only a year prior when Byrne was the Avengers books. BobOctober 1, 2015 3:31 PM Captain America #387-392 This is the point where I jumped off. Not sure which particular issue it was, but it was midway through this story. I'd held out hope Gruenwald was spinning his wheels and biding time the past few issues and would get back on track, but the cliffhanger of "I'm going to turn them into women" told my he had completely lost it. I would Byrne-steal a few issues here and there over the years to check in and see if things improved, but it seemed the worst elements of this story (Paladin, the Snapdragon plot, etc) stuck around long after this arc and the plots that had worked were shoved aside. Meanwhile the book was saddled with the D-listiest of D-lister art, as pretty much anything at Marvel that wasn't X-men or Spider-Man was for the first half the early 90s. By sticking around on covers, I thought maybe Lim would return after Gauntlet, but it wasn't to be. The cheese may have been tolerable with serviceable art, or subpar art could have been bearable with a decent story, but everything falls apart here. It's really a shame Gru went out with the bad second half of this run, as his work until this point had been pretty entertaining. Everything he did after 383 was just pissing away his legacy. BillOctober 1, 2015 3:10 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 With the USAgent and Spider-Woman around, the West Coast Avengers *finally* have the mid-level range heroes I've always felt the team lacked. Also, the Living Lightning brings a new power set to the line-up, which is always nice to see. I think Dr. Demonicus was a perfect villain who could have been a regular enemy of the WCA. He had a history to him, he was from the area and I've always had a soft spot for virtually forgotten villains who are brought back and made into something. With the proper kind of care, he could have been made into something cool and unique. clydeOctober 1, 2015 3:00 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Just to clarify, I don't hate the characters, just the storyline itself. StevenOctober 1, 2015 2:00 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Unlike you, I liked this story. I am sad that Hank and Jan are leaving, but I don't care that Tigra goes. I really like this Spider-Woman, and think she is a great addition to the team. I am angry that USAgent is sticking around. clydeOctober 1, 2015 1:59 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Grom - just remember - If it was really bad enough, it could have been a story in Alpha Flight ;) GromOctober 1, 2015 1:07 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 I had stricken this travesty from memory and now the sadness and anger of any marvel title deteriorating returns ARGH. You did warn us ... GromOctober 1, 2015 1:03 PM Avengers #334-339 Hey fnord12, Marvel should hire you to write cos that reason you give flies more with me than most of the dreck that came out that month. :) fnord12October 1, 2015 12:28 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 Only twice! Thanks Ataru, fixed it. Ataru320October 1, 2015 12:18 PM Avengers West Coast #70-74 BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! (sorry, had to do it, I'm a toku/Sentai fan) You mentioned Spider-Woman as Spider-Man multiple times. Erik BeckOctober 1, 2015 12:10 PM Excalibur #21-25 I had dropped Excalibur by this point, as the Cross-Time Caper just seemed like an endless excuse to prevent Kitty, Kurt and Rachel from rejoining the X-Men, so a couple of things that seem odd here. Kitty turns 15? I guess that means everything since X-Men #166 has happened in the space of a year. That's one hell of a year. Also, Rachel says here that Xavier was killed by the Hellfire Club. I have a pretty distinct memory of Rachel remembering the death of Xavier - it must have been in New Mutants because I remember the Senkiewicz art. Does this explanation ret-con what we saw previously? StevenOctober 1, 2015 10:50 AM Avengers #334-339 I was liking the Larry Hama issues, but I hated this story. I don't think anyone ever brought the Brethren back, so this story is easy to ignore. fnord12October 1, 2015 8:13 AM Avengers #334-339 Oh and @Grom & Thanos6, clearly as soon as the camera looked away from the Collector and the Runner during Thanos Quest, the Collector transformed into his super-powerful attack form as seen in this arc and chased the Runner away. fnord12October 1, 2015 8:11 AM Sleepwalker #1-3 Jean Grey does make sense based on her placement near other X-Factor characters. I think mainly we can agree that it's pretty unclear (that headpiece?). I half expected that someone would come along and say that it's a character that Blevins drew for another company that he was sneaking in as an easter egg. fnord12October 1, 2015 8:09 AM Thor #436 @Michael, obviously i'll adjust when i get to those issues. I'm not worried about Eric hiding his identity in front of She-Hulk, though. Hercules has known Eric all along, so it's natural that Eric would confide in him. And he confided in Cap specifically (plus, it's Cap!). If Eric still thought it was a good idea to keep his identity a secret in front of anyone else, that doesn't seem like a stretch to me. Cap might have even advised him to do so so that it didn't get back to Thor's old enemies. fnord12October 1, 2015 8:06 AM Avengers #334-339 @Matt Posner, thanks for the correction and glad you enjoy the site! @Dermie: Thanks for confirming that Harras was acting as a fill-in writer at this time. I wonder if they made the decision to make him the regular writer while he was writing this arc. I note in the entry for #340 that they sort-of talk about him as the regular writer at that point. GromOctober 1, 2015 6:59 AM Thor #436 Aye Bob. This was another title I dropped in real time. I felt at the time that art was progressing forward in other titles with the Image crew, yet not in this title. Walter LawsonOctober 1, 2015 1:08 AM Sleepwalker #1-3 Jean Grey partly miscolored as Psylocke is my guess for the mystery female. Walter LawsonOctober 1, 2015 12:40 AM Thor #436 Fnord, you'd better orepare yourself for that Higgins Absorbing Man story. It's stupidity is in legendarily bad taste. BobOctober 1, 2015 12:00 AM Thor #436 We don't get readable Thor again until well after Heroes Reborn. BobSeptember 30, 2015 11:57 PM Avengers #334-339 and so begins the dawn of the ark ages on this title. It's a long, long way to Busiek/Perez. DermieSeptember 30, 2015 11:57 PM Avengers #334-339 @Fnord, Harras has said in an interview that at the time this was only a fill-in job. He had just been hired on as AVENGERS writer for this 6-part arc after Hama was off the book. But I guess they liked what he did, because after that they hired him on full time and his proper run begins after a few more fill-ins by other writers. BobSeptember 30, 2015 11:57 PM Captain America #385-386 The fast decline of this book keeps going with this completely pointless storyline. Cap should know the watchdogs. He saw the fake one killed by Scourge in 351. With Lim's stint ending, this is probably the last remotely readable issue of Gru's run. Bad art and "I'm going to turn them into women" are up next, sending the title irreversibly into the gutter. Also, Bagley's costume designs for Asp and Mamba are hideous. And Diomondback should never be out of her classic outfit and pink hair. Erik RobbinsSeptember 30, 2015 11:30 PM Avengers #334-339 "One thing to note, though, is that the world is supposedly devastated after the Brethren attack. I mean, every major city on Earth attacked, lots of soldiers killed, etc.. And yet i don't think this story is so much as mentioned outside of this book." I had a similar problem with events in the early 'aughts - all the major cities of the world as well as all major American super heroes being lifted into the air by Graviton, all the world capitals being shunted into another dimension by (a) Scorpio, and Kang gaining domination over the world - afaik, none of these events are referenced outside the books where they happened. And wow, the cartoony art from Epting's first issue (which I never owned) - I would have thought it was a completely different artist from the next couple of issues that I did have. MichaelSeptember 30, 2015 11:29 PM Avengers #334-339 One other weird thing about this arc- the Collector claims that the Watcher is just as obsessed with watching and not interfering as the Collector is with collecting but the entire point of the Watcher is that he's from a race of observers but possesses an irrepresibly altruistic nature. Luis DantasSeptember 30, 2015 10:28 PM Captain America #385-386 Uh, whisky tango foxtrot, Cap? USAgent is indeed "without his admirable traits". Also, he is a murderer (and you admit to knowing that), which was reason enough to chastise Wolverine a couple of Annuals ago (1986's Captain America #8, just a few months before you met Walker). Mark Gruenwald sometimes seems not to know how to make up his mind on how morally and mentally sound USAgent and the Watchdogs are supposed to be. I sure gave up attempting to follow his leads. I don't know that he did not. MichaelSeptember 30, 2015 10:20 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 Regarding diversity in 1991, it's worth noting that Comics Should Be Good recently did a feature about how Bishop was originally intended to be Filipino but he was made into a black man because there were lots of black fans wondering why there were no black male X-Men: ChrisSeptember 30, 2015 10:16 PM Captain America #385-386 The best analogue to the Watchdogs is not the KKK, but the militia movement which eventually spawned Timothy McVeigh. Although these groups were not well known at the time, and I think they would have been under the radar of even Mark Gruenwald. There is definitely an undercurrent of racism and anti-semitism in the militia movement, but it wasn't a defining trait - radical libertarians, strict constitutional constructionists, and survivalist groups were also factors. I don't think any of these really apply to someone like Mike Farrell. There is obviously some kind of unrevealed story of why and how he got drawn into an obviously illegal group. Likely, Gruenwald did not give this any thought - he needed a hook for Cap's involvement and involved some random member of his old supporting cast. I completely hated BAD Girls as a concept. It is a terrible and mediocore attempt at redeeming more member of the Serpent Society. Black Mamba was involved in the plot to kill Hercules by the Masters of Evil! Splitting up the Serpent Society was a bad idea. Sidewinder retiring is OK, but with Viper gone and everyone realizing she was nuts, it would have been good for all these criminals to put things aside and resume their obviously successful enterprise. MichaelSeptember 30, 2015 10:06 PM Captain America #385-386 Farrel's joining the Watchdogs makes no sense. Farrel claims that he had no idea the Watchdogs were murderers but the whole country thinks the Watchdogs killed John Walker in Cap 351. Even if Farrel didn't keep up with the news, you'd think he'd check out the Watchdogs before joining. Luis DantasSeptember 30, 2015 9:51 PM Avengers #334-339 Such daring cleavage from Sersi at that first scene of her participating in the fight against the Brethren. I don't think the character had ever been portrayed like that before. Nor does she seem to have a belly button cleavage in the later issues, either. mikrolikSeptember 30, 2015 9:39 PM Captain America #385-386 I think the Watchdogs have always been about "cleaning up society" as MikeCheyne put it. I don't remember them ever attacking anyone purely because they were non-white. For racism, you'd need to look to the Sons of the Serpent. MichaelSeptember 30, 2015 9:33 PM Avengers #340 Regarding chronology,note that Hercules is also said to be serving "in Thor's stead" during Subterranean Wars. MichaelSeptember 30, 2015 9:21 PM Thor #436 Fnord, regarding the Absorbing Man's chronology, it's not so simple. The Absorbing Man appears in a backup story in Avengers Annual 20 by your favorite writer, Michael Higgins. It seems to take place after Acts of Vengeance since Creel references Hulk 348 and Avengers Mansion is shown (i.e. not just a subbasement) but Creel has his ball-and-chain. Thanos6September 30, 2015 9:15 PM Avengers #334-339 @Grom: I assume the Runner eventually calmed down and stopped beating him to a pulp, or possibly some security system of the Collector's was able to separate them. GromSeptember 30, 2015 9:09 PM Captain America #385-386 I would stick with this title in real time for another 7 to 8 issues. The problem for me was when Ron Lim left. It really hurt Gruenwald's stories because the new artists sucked. I would have continued to enjoy Cap if Lim had stayed. I cannot say the same for Silver Surfer though. I just did not like Ron Marz's run and Lim's art could not save it for me. Matt PosnerSeptember 30, 2015 9:09 PM Avengers #334-339 I think the tree headed Inhuman is Timberius, not Tiberius like the Roman emperor. Probably your autocorrect messed it up. Thanks for all the updates! I read everything... GromSeptember 30, 2015 9:01 PM Avengers #334-339 I remember this series as the one that causing me to drop the title from my box at the comics store. Hated Epting's art. Also am I correct in recalling that the previous time we saw Collector, he was being bludgeoned to death by the Runner? I did not see how he got out of that. MikeCheyneSeptember 30, 2015 8:38 PM Captain America #385-386 There's a couple (potentially overlapping) theories about the Watchdogs: 1. This is a revamped version of the Watchdogs, as the old one was basically smashed. This new version is less about race and more about cleaning up society. 2. The Watchdogs, as Thanos6 suggested, are a very localized group. Some, particularly the Southern ones, are more focused on race (and even the group in the Walker story were portrayed as hating pornography); the Northern ones less so. 3. This is like an entry tier Watchdog group to sucker guys like Mike Farrel and others into joining; once they are shown to not really care about human lives, they are screened and filtered to the more explicitly vile/racist upper tier. Anyway, I think it makes perfect sense that local chapters of the Watchdogs would be unfamiliar with the Red Skull's backing (if he still is) and the Skull wouldn't want them to know; he wouldn't want to be traced back to funding it, and he doesn't really care what the groups do as long as they're causing trouble and bothering heroes like Captain America. Remember not even Flag Smasher was aware that ULTIMATUM was getting Skull funding. MichaelSeptember 30, 2015 8:28 PM Avengers #334-339 Fnord, a note regarding Quasar's costume- we were just discussing whether Subterranean Wars takes place before or after Infinity Gauntlet last week on the MCP: BerendSeptember 30, 2015 6:26 PM Captain America #385-386 Oh god. It's the Superia Strategem next... RobertSeptember 30, 2015 6:24 PM Thor #436 Tony, probably something to do with Al Milgrom's contribution here. Absorbing Man would appear again in DeFalco's work with Eric, both on this title and later with Thunderstrike. The issue of Thor that served as an epilogue to the Thunderstrike series featured Creel and was pretty good, as I recall. Max_SpiderSeptember 30, 2015 5:49 PM Thor #436 What is it with Titania and Absorbing Man having to fight Thor's replacements? Whoah boy though... If you thought their presence here was hamfisted, I'd think post-Original Sin Thor had a much more hamfisted encounter with them. Tony LewisSeptember 30, 2015 5:05 PM Thor #436 So Ron Frenz is imitating Sal Buscema now? Thanos6September 30, 2015 4:27 PM Avengers #334-339 I assume the storyarc is named after the Hall and Oates song "possession obsession." Thanos6September 30, 2015 4:12 PM Captain America #385-386 I figure that the Watchdogs' main mission is the whole "morality police" thing. Some local chapters go racist with this, others don't. Piotr WSeptember 30, 2015 4:02 PM Captain America #385-386 Hey, female Watchdogs! I didn't know they existed... Luke BlanchardSeptember 30, 2015 3:58 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 I think it's Jean Grey with her hair and chest miscoloured. Piotr WSeptember 30, 2015 3:55 PM Avengers #340 Yeah, this art is a disaster... Piotr WSeptember 30, 2015 3:45 PM Avengers #334-339 Oh wow, early Epting art. Some of it isn't really that good, especially when it's inked in that cartoony style. But, of course, Epting will go on to become much better, even during his Avengers run. And what he does these days is absolutely beautiful. BTW. Andy Kubert's art looks good, too - better than the stuff he'll be doing for UXM in a year or so. I wonder why? RobertSeptember 30, 2015 3:35 PM Captain America #385-386 And I just realized Bagley hadn't officially taken over on ASM yet. D'oh! RobertSeptember 30, 2015 3:33 PM Captain America #385-386 I wonder if these little back-up stories Bagley did for Cap were completed before he got the ASM gig? Seems like Marvel would want the artist on their best selling (non-X) title devoting all his attention to that, not stuff like this which is usually given to up-and-comers or has-beens. fnord12September 30, 2015 2:54 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 Mark, that seems like the best guess i've heard. If so it would be a terrible Sersi, but she would be a logical character to include. Mark BlackSeptember 30, 2015 2:29 PM Thor #436 Nice nod to Kickers Inc. with Eric's New York Smashers hat (the football team from Kickers Inc.). RobertSeptember 30, 2015 1:59 PM Avengers #340 So this "art" team -- did they win this job in a contest or something? Mark BlackSeptember 30, 2015 1:58 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 Is it possible the woman behind Iceman is Sersi? At this time she was a regular Avenger and this would make some sense given the assembled heroes. The headband makes no sense, but.... RobertSeptember 30, 2015 1:54 PM Avengers #334-339 I had been away from Avengers since Byrne left and this arc brought me back and kept me interested for a minute. As soon as it was over, I dropped the title like a hot potato again. After this I probably bought three or four issues from here until The Crossing or whatever that garbage was a few years away. Ataru320September 30, 2015 1:29 PM Avengers #334-339 The Collector doesn't work as an action villain. He's just the kooky elder who collects things. Just because you're an ancient being doesn't mean you have to be "combatative" in your nature; that's probably one of the interesting things about the Elders in that they all have their past-times but are practically ancient beings who can get away with that sort of thing. (the Runner challenging others to races, the Grandmaster's games, the Champion's tournaments, the Gardener...gardening, etc.) Yeah the Collector can be a tad screwy but its sort of his thing. (plus...Benicio Del Toro's depiction of him is perfect: supremely powerful but just with a closet filled with who knows what that you don't want to mess with him) StevenSeptember 30, 2015 12:52 PM Avengers West Coast #56-57 Wanda was not permanently damaged. Kurt Busiek did a very good job with her in his Avengers run. I think other writers should use Busiek's version of the character and avoid the Byrne one. clydeSeptember 30, 2015 11:16 AM Thor #436 Eric's situation - Thor - is similar to Wendell's - Quasar. They both have day jobs that are constantly being put on the back burner for their super-hero identity. Also, Eric is like James Rhodes - Iron Man. They both took over for the original hero and learned how to fight while on the job. I guess Marvel had to make it fresh for the 90's with the "New Thor". They also gave James a title - "War Machine". MortificatorSeptember 30, 2015 10:48 AM Daredevil #250 Not to dogpile on you, Ryan, but if you find your third point offensive, wouldn't Frank Miller's run have offended you as well? Born Again has members of the armed forces renting-out a deranged killer to organized crime. Aaaand I just noticed your comment's from almost a year ago. I guess I'll post mine anyway. droidusSeptember 30, 2015 9:07 AM Daredevil #250 Yeah, preserving the environment and denouncing nuclear genocide and the end of all life on earth! Crazy liberals and their wacky politics, Ataru320September 30, 2015 8:51 AM Sleepwalker #1-3 Well the 8-Ball images at least make him look cool. Regarding diversity, sadly its like you can't have it both ways and it just becomes difficult to satisfy anyone. They tried diversifying in the 70s and 80s and most of the comics had a hard time being sold. Meanwhile these days its all about "lets take classic characters and make them more diverse because its just about the name". In both cases, you have elements where it actually does work (the early Luke Cage and Ms. Marvel on the 70s; or Rhodey becoming Iron Man and the second Captain Marvel in the 80s; or more recently the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel) but at the same time its just going to piss people off about whether its just a publicity stunt or just a way of being diverse without doing too much work. I rather at least there be an attempt of diversity through new characters and whatnot myself since it doesn't step on the toes of riding on someone else's popularity just to create diversity but my guess with this period is that DeFalco's period does feel more like it wants to be like the 1960s...and creating "white teen heroes" was at least novel then. (not in '90-'91 but still...) It just shows the hard work of trying to improve a world that by this point has 30 years of history. MichaelSeptember 30, 2015 7:42 AM Silver Surfer #49 @Chris- we eventually get an explanation for why Thanos doesn't wipe out his enemies with just a thought. fnord12September 30, 2015 7:37 AM Sleepwalker #1-3 It's supposed to be a collection of X-Men, X-Factor, the Avengers, and the FF. So Talisman seems less likely than Firebird. But all three (including my guess of Mantis) seem pretty obscure compared to the other characters. BerendSeptember 30, 2015 5:59 AM Sleepwalker #1-3 I thought the person behind Iceman was maybe Firebird or Talisman. TuomasSeptember 30, 2015 5:41 AM Longshot #1-6 I don't think them getting the chairs and becoming rulers are necessarily related? Arize's "somehow" comment suggest he doesn't know the exact details how they became rulers, but that doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't know how they got their spider legs. If Arize's story is supposed to be roughly chronological, then by the time the Spineless Ones took over Arize's technology had already become wide-spread; in the panel before the "rulers" comment we an assembly line of exoskeletons, suggesting that Arize's technology had become a whole industry. And Arize couldn't have had the time to build all that by himself, so he must've trained other people too, which means others were able to replicate his technology. So it's not impossible the Spineless Ones appropriated that technology and modified it to resemble a spider-like animal native to that planet. During Arize's speech, we see spiders similar to one depicted in the "rulers" panel running on the ground, and the comparison between that animal and the Spineless One's chair in that panel suggests the chairs were modeled after these animals, as means of providing the Spineless Ones mobility without having to acquire a spine. Whether the Spineless Ones are biologically feasible is another thing... (The early animal depicted in Arize's speech looks like a monkey, and the spineless ones obviously look like humanoids, but I'm not sure if evolution would or even could produce animals like these without spine.) But Nocenti doesn't really care about that, to her "spine" is a metaphor for personal independence and moral integrity... Lacking those, the Spineless Ones have no problem enslaving sapient beings, and they're also depicted (especially in later stories by Claremont) as these kind of mindless masses, entranced by the TV entertainment provided by Mojo and other producers. Nocenti also makes it clear that Mojo's power isn't innate but comes from the adulation he gets from being the most succesful TV mogul on the planet... Hence his constant need to make it absolutely sure everyone worships him, building shrines on earth with his face on them, etc. So that's another example of Nocenti's "spineless" metaphor: Mojo doesn't not have the sort of personal integrity that would allow him to ignore others' opinions, he needs to be loved to be powerful. I think this is an interesting theme, but it's one future writers (including Claremont) didn't develop that much, so Mojo eventually became a regular bad guy, who simply rules the whole planet based on his inborn magical abilities. It would've been cool to see story where Mojo's shows start losing ratings (maybe the X-Men adventures he's been churning out for years eventually become passé): what would this do to his powers and stature? JSfanSeptember 30, 2015 4:44 AM Punisher: POV #1-4 Deke has been taking the situation of not having any tail for 15 years in hand. What a w#nker haha Nathan AdlerSeptember 30, 2015 3:23 AM Longshot #1-6 In this series Arize explains how the Spineless Ones refused spines as a matter of integrity, and somehow became rulers. His reference to "somehow" suggests that he wasn't responsible for building their "bath chairs"!? So if Arize didn't help them become independently mobile, does anyone have any theories as to who else enabled them with this technology? JSfanSeptember 30, 2015 2:30 AM Sleepwalker #1-3 I laughed out loud when I came to the part of the introduction of 8-Ball -- what a terrible character. I'm not sure if he is meant to be a joke character or legit; he'd definitely fit into a John Byrne She-Hulk rogues gallery, that's for sure. A bigger effort should have been made by Marvel to create more diverse characters, this was a great opportunity to do so. Walter LawsonSeptember 30, 2015 12:11 AM Sleepwalker #1-3 I'd actually argue thst Marvel's new crop of all white teen heroes is bacsliding, and in fact Marvel made notable, if unsuccessful, stabs at diversity a decade and more before this: Luke Cage, Shang-Chi, Bill Foster, several heroines who briefly got their own books. In the late '80s we got Hispanic female characters like Firebird and Poison, massively unsuccessful, but it seemed like a conscious attempt at diversity even at the time. But I think Marvel isn't being exclusiobary so much as unimaginative: Ketch, Powell, and Sheridan are not only white teens, they come from basically indistinguishable suburban families, though of course they all easily run into violent drug gangs. These are three Peter Parkers, supposedly made cool and modern just by existing in the gritty and violent early '90s. It's a bizarre mismatch of the very retro and the desperately hip. DeFalco was giving us Archie-meets-the-Punisher years before that crossover actually happened. 8-Ball is terrific, though. C'mon, if you can love a fate nearsighted middle-aged dude with robo-arms who calls himself Doc Ock, you should be able to accept a guy like 8-Ball. He's ba classic. DermieSeptember 29, 2015 11:30 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 Fnord, I believe that is supposed to be Talisman behind Iceman, judging by the colour scheme of what little we can see of her outfit. As for Alyssa, I agree that her sexualized images do make sense in their context....but hopefully it doesn't become a constant thing (I've only read a handful of issues of SLEEPWALKER). And although Rick does not get sexualized in the way that Alyssa does, he does seem to end up undressed in a lot of these issues, due to him going to bed in order for the superhero action to start. Not quite equal-opportunity exploitation, but still somewhat more balanced than you might see in other books. BobSeptember 29, 2015 11:06 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 Seems half of Marvels books were still printed on the old paper at the time, while others were printed on that cheap overly-bright stuff they started phasing in during fall of 1990. InstantiationSeptember 29, 2015 10:14 PM Captain America #251-252 There were some neat details in these stories. Just noting two from #251: Bernie flips thru Cap's LP collection, and it's all Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, the jazz of his WWII days. Later, Cap gets onto a crowded elevator, and a random guy worries in a thought balloon, "Wh-what's HE doing here? Could he have found out about those kick-backs?" Ha. InstantiationSeptember 29, 2015 10:02 PM Captain America #250 This issue has always seemed to me to be influenced by the Maggin/Adams story "What Can One Man Do?" (from Green Lantern #87, Jan. 1972), in which Green Arrow struggles with whether to accept an offer to run as mayor of Star City. The similarity is further underscored by the use of an extensive quotation at the end of both stories, from Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" in the earlier tale and from JFK's "Profiles in Courage" here. Adams: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DqX_uqa5gK0/UGXH4M10zJI/AAAAAAAAC14/8ZPcIJrP7Ac/s640/012.jpg Erik BeckSeptember 29, 2015 9:10 PM Avengers annual #19 (Acts of Vengeance) I found this really useful at the time as I was only reading the Avengers books and this pieced together the whole story for me. But, really, Cap? Worse than the Masters of Evil takeover? You said at the end that basically the island sank and Stingray was hurt. In MoE, the mansion's security was completely breached, Hercules was beaten near to death, Jarvis was beaten near to death and you and Dane were severely injured. You were actually completely and utterly defeated for a few issues. But this was worse? What are you smoking? MortificatorSeptember 29, 2015 9:07 PM Silver Surfer #49 I don't want to know in what crazy circles Thanos has a reputation as a horrible villain. I agree that the Silver Surfer issues after Thanos fakes his death feel like treading water, though. Going directly from the end of Thanos Quest to the Infinity Gauntlet miniseries makes for a stronger narrative. Erik BeckSeptember 29, 2015 9:06 PM Avengers West Coast #56-57 Michael - I would argue that that's not Byrne's fault. He made a character choice. But if her character is "damaged", it's not because of what Byrne did here, but because writers for the last 25 years have decided to follow Byrne's example and go with that. It's clearly resonated with writers because they continue to write her like that. I can understand where you (and others) are coming from though. I certainly hate the way Cyclops has been written lately, first with the affair with Emma and now with the ridiculousness of the past few years that made me throw Avengers vs X-Men against a wall for how much I hated it. ChrisWSeptember 29, 2015 8:55 PM Silver Surfer #49 I had been reading the series from the start, and knew little (if anything) about Thanos, but to me, this is where Thanos really started living up to his reputation [from my anecdotal perspective] as a horrible villain. If he can wipe out the Surfer with a thought, then why doesn't he just do that and go on about his mission? What is the point of being this ultra-cosmic being if you're constantly compelled to toy with the only ones who can destroy you for reasons beyond understanding to the point where they can defeat you? The Beyonder had this same problem in "Secret Wars II" (and "Secret Wars I," for that matter.) No, you're omnipotent, so whatever you want is the way the universe works, and it conforms to you rather than the other way around. If the Infinity Gauntlet means anything [which it clearly doesn't] then Thanos should have been removing all his adversaries with barely any conscious thought. The X-titles were constantly lowering the standards for characters who were powerful for no reason, but Thanos is where Marvel permanently crossed the line about so-called "cosmic" beings. In hindsight, it's like "Austin Powers" movies where Dr. Evil's son is saying 'just kill him.' BobSeptember 29, 2015 8:52 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 eh, to be fair, that's not unrealistic for college. Half the guys I knew in photo classes in art school wanted everyone to see their girlfriend-"models" in states of undress in their work. --- Erik BeckSeptember 29, 2015 8:47 PM Avengers West Coast #59 Yeah, I remember reading this in real-time and thinking it was a strange AoV epilogue until Immortus came in and wiped it away. I had never seen Hydro-Man as an FF villain and because he seemed kind of like Water Wizard (almost lame enough to get blown away by Forge), I always thought of him as kind of dumb like he's treated here. I had just never seen anything to show me otherwise. MichaelSeptember 29, 2015 8:21 PM Avengers West Coast #56-57 Erik, Robert- one major problem is that this run damaged Wanda's character permanently. Erik, you mentioned "no more mutants" as epic, but the fact of the matter is that half the internet regards Wanda as an unlikable crazy murderer. MichaelSeptember 29, 2015 8:10 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 Regarding Alyssa- what I think is gratuitous is having Alyssa wearing almost nothing while Rick and his friends film her. Most boyfriends would probably not want their girlfriends to be wearing almost nothing in front of their friends and there's no reason Rick and friends couldn't have made the costume more modest. MichaelSeptember 29, 2015 7:52 PM Punisher: POV #1-4 Fnord, you're right- this was intended as a Batman story. This was supposed to be a sequel to Batman: the Cult: mikrolikSeptember 29, 2015 7:04 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 "It is interesting that Marvel, while expanding, didn't consider making an effort to reach out to other audiences (non-white or female)." Diversity didn't really take off until the mid-nineties. This was probably the last time you could introduce a bunch of white guys and no one (meaning both creators and readers) would really think about it too much at the time. Red CometSeptember 29, 2015 6:46 PM Punisher: POV #1-4 Starlin and Wrightson had several collaborations during this era, including the Cult (which you mentioned), a Hulk vs Thing entry in Marvel Graphic Novel, and a mini-series for DC called "The Weird," which starred a new character of the same name. BerendSeptember 29, 2015 6:41 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 Sleepwalker has an awesome design and a unique premise, so it's too bad the stories are this terrible. With this premise, 8-Ball should've been a dream come to life with an actual ball for a head. It's a real missed opportunity to make him a generic thief with theme-henchmen straight out of 50's Batman comics. If this is supposed to be "Sandman done right", DC should've promoted Pete Milligan's Shade the Changing Man as "Sleepwalker done right". BillSeptember 29, 2015 6:32 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 Fnord, I feel like I have to address two points. First is your complaint about the sexualizing of Alyssa. I would never speak for anyone else, but when I was a college age kid (which I was when this came out in real time), I sexualized the attractive girls I knew in my mind, especially if I was dating them! The sexualizing of her in *this context* makes sense and I have no real issues with it. If it was her always being shown lying around her house while wearing lingerie, THAT I would have a problem with. That is obviously gratuitous and serves no real purpose. The second point is the complaint of the new characters being white guys. You're applying todays standards to a decades earlier era. That never really works. Of course nowadays, they go the complete opposite direction by changing white male characters into different genders or races. That's not a good answer either. Still, you do raise a good point; this would be a good time to introduce new characters of different genders and races. I think Sleepwalker here would of had an interesting dynamic if Rick Sheridan had been a woman while Sleepwalker was himself. Darkhawk could have been Latino and Ghost Rider could have been black as examples. Actually, I can see that working! Now I wonder if Marvel gave any thought to that at the time? Sleepwalker has a fun design and the beginnings of an interesting concept but it needed some refining and focus. A strong editorial hand would help with that. Unfortunately, it seemed Marvel lacked just that very thing in the early and mid 90's. Okay, I guess I didn't disagree with you as much as I initially thought! Sometimes I think things out as I type :) RobertSeptember 29, 2015 6:26 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 Issue 3 is the only issue of Sleepwalker I ever bought and I did so precisely because of the other heroes on the cover. A valuable lesson in skimming the inside of the book before buying. Omar KarinduySeptember 29, 2015 6:20 PM Hulk #254 I always liked the subtle bit where most oft he U-Foes were "synthetic," industrial equivalents of the FF's classical four elements: the Thing analogue is metallic, the Invisible Woman analogue is toxic gases, and the Human Torch equivalent is radiation. And then there's Vector, who...I dunno. kvetoSeptember 29, 2015 5:43 PM Moon Knight #26-31 Moon Knight's father was a rabbi from Czechoslovakia (with the extremely un-czech surname of Spector.) kvetoSeptember 29, 2015 5:29 PM Daredevil #292-293 sorry but DD beating Taskmaster makes me want to call shenanigans. Taskmaster can do everything DD can do plus loads of better stuff. I know, who cares? but of all the heroes to hand Taskmaster his first defeat, DD it should not be. Omar KarinduSeptember 29, 2015 5:26 PM Hulk #249 The last time Mantlo used Blizzard in Marvel Team-Up #56, there's some odd stuff about Electro accidentally fusing Blizzard's suit to him so that now he has ice powers. Daredevil's radar sense in thats tory indicates that Blizzard's heartbeat is different, too. So perhaps Mantlo was ignoring Blizzard's interim appearances in Iron Man #123-7 and going ahead with a plan he already had for the character. MikeCheyneSeptember 29, 2015 5:26 PM Sleepwalker #1-3 The dissing of Sleepwalker will not stand! This guy was my jam as a youth. Although, yes, objectively all your criticisms are right. On the other hand, I think Sleepy himself was pretty cool; I always thought Rick was a dopey head though. Sleepy's rogue gallery was also super lame although so lame they became kind of endearing I guess-how can you hate 8-Ball? Sleepwalker in my head also sounds like Keith David. There's a lot of things wrong with this comic, but I think it works--maybe if Sleepy somehow had the power of switching hosts, the hokey "Rick must sleep" conceit might have worked. On the other hand, there's something potentially very avant garde and cool about a hero who is truly limited in the amount of time he has to do anything--not that the series really explored this potential. mikrolikSeptember 29, 2015 5:06 PM Punisher: POV #1-4 Because the name"Chester Goudal" is so close to Chester Gould, was there some commentary about the creator of Dick Tracy? Gould was known to get increasingly paranoid towards crime and criminals in his newspaper strip during the 70s, so I wonder if there was some sort of implicit message? Or maybe the name is just a fantastic coincidence? Erik BeckSeptember 29, 2015 4:28 PM Avengers West Coast #56-57 Although, I do wonder how Byrne reacted to that shot in Age of Ultron of Wanda and Vision staring at each other. Was he like, No! No! No! I do realize that Byrne was clearly a pain in the ass to work with. But I want to just scream at editors "Unless you're replacing him with George Perez, the art is gonna take a big dive!" RobertSeptember 29, 2015 1:37 PM Avengers West Coast #56-57 Erik, I also love the run. Byrne's a divisive personality who's been known to toot his own horn so he's naturally going to be a lightning rod for criticism. That plus he made some big changes in this run and big changes always draw passionate opinions from comic fans (more often than not negative ones IMO). Erik BeckSeptember 29, 2015 12:03 PM Avengers West Coast #58 I remember this issue arriving in the mail and thinking "What the f%&k is this? This is f%$#*g awful!" And it's bizarre that the editors would say Jan is really chairman when Tony would technically be chairman (his long stretches of leadership I think would outlast Jan's long tenure). Yes, the other Avengers don't know that it's Tony (but, really, they do) but since they don't know Jan is "supposed" to be leader, what does it matter? It's been clear for a bit now that Hank is the chairman, acknowledged or not. Erik BeckSeptember 29, 2015 11:57 AM Avengers West Coast #56-57 I'm clearly in the minority here, but I really love Byrne's run. I think it made Wanda's powers much more fascinating, and for all the problems that Bendis causes, we never would have an epic moment like "No more mutants" if not for what Byrne does here. I also really like what he does with Wonder Man, salvaging his personality from the mess that Englehart had made it. That, and his run was, by far, the best art that AWC ever had. MortificatorSeptember 29, 2015 11:03 AM Amazing Spider-Man #290-292 Another complication in the saga of the Parker microscope: Peter pawned it all the way back in Amazing Spider-Man #32, while saying he was selling EVERYTHING of value he owned. So... it mysteriously returns to his possession for him to leave on Uncle Ben's grave in #181, then returns again for Aunt May to give to charity this issue (callous old woman, accidentally giving away something he got rid of twice). It's creepy. Did Uncle Ben make a deal with Mephisto for that microscope or something? His marriage wasn't erased, though. fnord12September 29, 2015 8:29 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 That does put all of Spider-Man's wise-cracking into perspective. Spider-Man: Mphf mmph mmph mphf MMPH! MichaelSeptember 29, 2015 8:20 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 The explanation is that Peter's mask disguises his voice-we've seen it the first Amazing Spider-Man Annual. TuomasSeptember 29, 2015 8:01 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 Whoops, I wrote "Alicia Silvers" there, when I meant "Alicia Masters". I guess I was thinking of a certain Batgirl... TuomasSeptember 29, 2015 7:57 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 Also, it strains credulity that only Alicia Silvers with her "keen senses" would recognize Spidey's voice to be the same as Peter's. Human voices tend to be quite unique and easily recognizable, so if Alicia notices Peter and Spidey have the same voice, so should anyone else who's talked with the two... Like Johnny, who (according to this issue) apparently knows Peter too. The logical question of "why doesn't anyone recognize the costumed hero's voice?" is something that comics usually get away with, because, obviously, they are mute, so the readers don't normally think about how the characters sound. (With movie/TV adaptations you can't get away with it so easily, hence we get things like Batman's bat-growl in the Nolan movies, or Green Arrow using a voice modulator in "Arrow".) I think more recent Batman comics have explained this away by saying Bruce alters his voice while in costume, just like in the movies... But I can't remember seeing a similar explanation in Spider-Man comics, so it's still a valid question. TuomasSeptember 29, 2015 7:44 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 Shouldn't Spidey recognize this "Peter Nicholas"? Presumably he saw Colossus in his human form during Secret Wars, when Zsaji was treating his injuries? BobSeptember 29, 2015 5:23 AM Silver Surfer #49 I was especially annoyed by the Marz issues, as I had just subscribed to SS at issue 48 (They didnt carry it at my newsstand, and the comic shop, 40 minutes away, was tough to get to when you're 13), and thought I would be getting vital parts of a Starlin story. I think, at the time of my subscribing, it was still believed that Infinity Gauntlet would be a crossover with its main portion in the Surfer's book, rather than a standalone series. GromSeptember 29, 2015 2:21 AM Silver Surfer #49 Spot on Michael. The Nova issue is relevant but the rest of the tie ins are treading water forcing the series to go through its first weak period. MikeCheyneSeptember 29, 2015 12:38 AM Amazing Spider-Man #12 I have to defend this issue's unmasking scene--it is early enough in the life of Spidey that it makes sense to me. There is absolutely no reason why any of the kids at school or cops would think Peter is Spidey, as they are unaware of his photographic connection. Aunt May doesn't really know and is usually depicted as somewhat clueless anyway. Jameson is a doofus who is more concerned with his own reputation. Betty perhaps should suspect as she has all of the clues and is a sane person, but is perhaps psychologically blocking her own conclusions. But most pertinently, the idea that Spider-Man could be a high schooler is implausible for everyone involved. Regarding Superman, I was always surprised with the plot point of "finding Superman's identity"--why would anyone assume he had a secret identity? He doesn't wear a mask and he's an alien. Walter LawsonSeptember 28, 2015 11:55 PM Daredevil #292-293 It stands to reason that Taskmaster might get involved in something like this: he needs to keep adding to his moves, and a mission like this could give him exposure to new fighting styles. He can learn from video, but there are chance encounters to be had from this kind of thing. MichaelSeptember 28, 2015 11:18 PM Silver Surfer #49 If you think this is treading water, wait til we get to the actual Infinity Gauntlet tie-in issues. Yes, one of them does some good character work with Nova but most are horrible. We have two issues that are nothing but a dream. ChrisSeptember 28, 2015 10:13 PM Shadowmasters #1-4 One possible reason for the characters failure to generate interest is that by 1990, ninjas weren't so hot anymore. Pop culture was moving elsewhere. I had never read these issues, but what little I knew seemed to make it derivative of the ninja clan Larry Hama developed for Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow in GI Joe. Characters need to be very distinctive and appealing if they are to succeed. These seem fairly generic and boring especially for characters in the Marvel Universe. One only needs to compare this to Master of Kung Fu to see the difference. The main character, supporting cast, and major villains were all much more interesting. These kind of origin stories are best told as flashbacks embedded in an ongoing series whose main plots are engaging enough to get people to buy the series. JPSeptember 28, 2015 10:06 PM Giant-Size Hulk #1 (Champions) CURSE YOUR SUPERIOR MATH SKILLS! ChrisSeptember 28, 2015 9:53 PM Daredevil #292-293 I enjoyed the Chichester-Weeks run too. The art is particularly good. ChrisSeptember 28, 2015 9:50 PM Moon Knight #26-31 I was hoping with this arc that Moon Knight was going to be revitalized as a title. Dixon's run had some good stories, but he failed to connect with the most interesting aspects of Moon Knight's first run - the semi-occult angle, pulp concepts, and quasi-mysticism of the connection with Khonshu. Despite DeMatteis' indulgence of certain quirks, I thought he would make a good fit. But he was soon off the title, and then it descended into 90s madness. Piotr WSeptember 28, 2015 9:32 PM Ghost Rider #76-79 I actually read these issues today and I'd like to add that GR 79 is really scary. In his write-up, Fnord mentioned that the Freakmaster wanted to turn the carnival into a freakshow - but the real creepy thing is that he planned on turning the existing carnival employees into freaks! For example, Cynthia Randolph was to be made into a creature consisting of just a head and a hand for locomotion... Seriously, with this story, DeMatteis really hit the horror bullseye. Ack. Luis DantasSeptember 28, 2015 9:12 PM Silver Surfer #49 That "Thanos holding his hand spread open" panel does remind me somewhat of a scene from Thanos' Quest. In fact, of your own first scan from that series. http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/thanos_quest_1-2.shtml Luis DantasSeptember 28, 2015 9:08 PM Moon Knight #26-31 1981's Moon Knight #14 was actually very much in stylistic harmony with Scarlet's reappearance here, particularly the direct confrontation between the two. It is almost like DeMatteis is channelling Doug Moench (or more likely, got advice from him) for that cemetery scene. And yes, #14 was over-narrated. Very much so. GromSeptember 28, 2015 8:54 PM Avengers West Coast #69 Agree with Bill about USAgent being a necessary middleweight anchor to the team. While I hate both Hawkeye and USagent as people I like their interaction in this title. I concur with fnord12 that Hawkeye is a cocky jerk and loved watching him get beat up. USAgent is also a jerk but shows slightly greater maturity and restraint in this issue which earns him some respect. GromSeptember 28, 2015 8:49 PM Daredevil #292-293 These issues with the Punisher got me into this title in real time and caused me to go back and collect the Miller and Nocenti runs. I loved this arc though I was upset with what happened in issue 300 to one of my favourite villains. Luis DantasSeptember 28, 2015 8:46 PM Avengers West Coast #69 @Steven: How do you know that Roy hates USAgent? It does not show in the stories themselves, even this early on before everyone begins to treat him as if he were a legit member. GromSeptember 28, 2015 8:45 PM Silver Surfer #49 Spot on about Ron Lim being important in keeping the consistency of the story flow. I hated the issues in the late 50s when he is not there. GromSeptember 28, 2015 8:39 PM Moon Knight #26-31 I ditched the title in real time after this crappy story. Cesar Hernandez-MerazSeptember 28, 2015 8:04 PM Spider-Woman #4-6 Except these are not the Night Shift's Brothers Grimm nor Hangman. NS's Grimms were real humans, and Jason Roland was NS's Hangman after they were independent from the Shroud. But, as I am sure you know, Jessica's rogues gallery seems to indeed be used to fill up the Shift's ranks, using substitutes when needed. MichaelSeptember 28, 2015 7:56 PM Giant-Size Hulk #1 (Champions) JP, Iceman being born during the Carter administration would make him 26-30 in 2006. MichaelSeptember 28, 2015 7:55 PM Moon Knight #26-31 Moon Knight's father was shown to be a rabbi in Moon Knight 37. (Interestingly, Chuck Dixon thought this made no sense, since the Exodus was unquestionably real in the Marvel Universe as shown in the Sphinx's origin, so Spector's devotion to an Egyptian deity was odd.) MichaelSeptember 28, 2015 7:45 PM Daredevil #292-293 Note that the previous issue made it seem like Foggy had already gotten Matt his license back and this issue makes it seem like they're still trying to figure out how to get Matt his license back. fnord12September 28, 2015 7:27 PM Moon Knight #26-31 One day i will do an M, M, & M backissue add filling in the Moon Knight, Micronauts, and Master of Kung Fu issues that are missing from this project and that will close out the biggest remaining gaps. But for now i want to focus on getting through the 90s, or at least the DeFalco era. InstantiationSeptember 28, 2015 7:06 PM Moon Knight #26-31 fnord, I believe you haven't yet covered Moon Knight, first series, #s 14-28. I wonder if you're ever going to get around to those issues. You mention above that you don't have #14, which is indeed the first appearance of the leggy Scarlet Fasinera, and she does kill her son in the climax of that issue. It's actually, IMHO, a pretty darn good and worthwhile issue (unlike this stuff), with a strong Eisner/Spirit influence and an anti-gun theme including a little homage to John Lennon. And of course it has excellent artwork by Sienkiewicz. Cesar Hernandez-MerazSeptember 28, 2015 6:59 PM Uncanny X-Men #1 Erik, as for Jean being the weakest member, she really was portrayed that way at the beginning. She could not lift a lot of weight, and she had to see where she was moving objects. She was not like more recent telekinetics, who get their powers and they are suddenly able to levitate huge things and create barriers and all that. JPSeptember 28, 2015 6:58 PM Giant-Size Hulk #1 (Champions) More cute meta-references to the sliding time scale. My, isn't this writer clever? fnord12September 28, 2015 5:40 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #176-177 Thanks Morgan. Morgan WickSeptember 28, 2015 5:31 PM Spectacular Spider-Man #176-177 I think you spell Corona's name wrong more often than right in this write-up. fnord12September 28, 2015 5:26 PM Silver Surfer annual #4 I don't see that Jay. It might be a case of a temporary internet problem or something. Let me know if it is still happening for you. fnord12September 28, 2015 5:25 PM Daredevil #292-293 Thanks Morgan. Morgan WickSeptember 28, 2015 5:20 PM Daredevil #292-293 You have the scan of Punisher falling into the subway car twice, and "Daredevil is able to defeat the Punisher by tricking him into following him in front of an oncoming taxi (that Punisher and Tombstone are fighting on top of)." I'm guessing it was Taskmaster Daredevil defeated. Jay DemetrickSeptember 28, 2015 4:52 PM Silver Surfer annual #4 There appears to be a broken picture icon between the 1st & 2nd scans. InstantiationSeptember 28, 2015 4:13 PM Avengers West Coast #69 To balance the scales a little, I agree with fnord's take on Hawkeye: that he's way over his head in The Avengers and would no doubt get killed pretty quickly at this level. First, I've never bought into archers as superheroes. The Robin Hood archetype just doesn't hold up in the modern world, in my view, and this is true even for the exasperating Oliver Queen (one of my favorite personalities in comics history). The trick arrows always struck me as pretty corny and implausible. Second, the problem, as I see it, with The Avengers (or the JLA, for that matter) is that they aren't an "organic" group like the FF or the X-Men, whose members have roughly similar power levels. Instead, you've got lineups largely based on popularity and consisting of characters with hugely varying power levels. That leads both to an even greater than usual lack of realism and also to leveling -- because in reality, any threat to Thor (or Superman) would easily massacre Hawkeye (or Batman). So writers have to fudge things to keep all these characters alive and make them all seem valuable to the cause. Thor-level characters tend to become less awesome, and Hawkeye-level characters end up doing things they really shouldn't be able to do. That's at least the way it's always seemed to me. I prefer to see characters remain in their respective niches (say, cosmic-level, world-level, mid-level, street-level). Power ranges among characters in the comics are extremely vast. It's hard to imagine how awesome it would be to be in the presence of a character such as Thor or any villain who could really fight him. Writers and artists should constantly make us feel that, and Hawkeye should feel it, too, as in get me outta here. P.S. And, personally, I think Spider-Man defeating Firelord is not within the realm of possibility, as established by early precedents. In reality, there's nothing that Spidey should be able to do that would come close to dropping a Thor/Surfer level character in open combat, whereas Firelord, done properly, could vaporize him in an instant if he really wanted to do so. Again, I'm a believer in power levels and niches, which is not to say an underdog can't win the day if it's done plausibly. Just my 2c. fnord12September 28, 2015 3:23 PM Captain America #256 Yes, thanks Mike. RobertSeptember 28, 2015 3:17 PM Moon Knight #26-31 Yay Ron Garney! MikeCheyneSeptember 28, 2015 12:19 PM Captain America #256 Should Rawlings be tagged as a recurring character, since he appears in TOS? PeterASeptember 28, 2015 12:08 PM Daredevil #292-293 Chichester and Lee Weeks leading up to the awesome #300 created some of my favorite DD issues. Weeks has terrific art, perfectly suited for grit and fluidity. It is insane that it is the Image boys that became famous rather than a superior draftsman like Weeks. I also really like the use of both Tombstone and Taskmaster, they work real well for Hell's Kitchen. Sadly few writers after Chichester use them for DD. Mark BlackSeptember 28, 2015 11:43 AM Avengers West Coast #69 It's hard to find a lot of good moments from WCA #1 to WCA/AWC #69 where Hawkeye comes off as a redeeming character and not a jerk who overreacts and views everything as a personal slight. I think Byrne did a decent job of playing off Hawkeye's bravado with Hawkeye's insecurities (losing leadership to Hank, the reunion with Mockingbird in #46), but they felt few and far between overall during this time period. I like Hawkeye a lot, but all of my favorite moments either come post this issue or prior to the start of the West Coast Avengers. I don't love the Avengers' blind support of Hawkeye here. Especially in light of the fact that US Agent has been goaded non-stop by Hawkeye. US Agent is an outsider to this group and I liked that at his core he was essentially trying to be good (there's a nice moment when Tigra is feral and he remarks that no one should have to live like that after he finds out she's been eating mice in the pantry), but the team really just doesn't want anything to do with him and resent his presence. He's an interloper, he's not a friend like Hawkeye, so his deeds and actions are viewed in a much different light. Andrew FSeptember 28, 2015 11:01 AM Avengers West Coast #69 Another Hawkeye fan here. He really started to grow on me in his solo outings, especially his whirlwind romance with Mockingbird. (I try to ignore how he reacted when she got raped by the Phantom Rider. And how he gets all EXTREME during the Crossing era. Nobody's perfect.) Anyway, there's an interesting parallel between Hawkeye and USAgent: both are introduced to the team as the rebellious, thinks-he-should-be-in-charge type, and both eventually treat the leader they had disdained with reverence. With Hawkeye, though, it kind of almost made sense. He's a brash guy, but he's basically okay, and anyone who hangs around Cap long enough will revere him eventually. In the case of USAgent, he goes from outright hatred of Hawkeye here to acting like the man is his brother not long from now, and it never feels earned. USAgent is a psycho; Hawkeye, though a great leader, is still a brash guy and not the type of personality that would ever get along with USAgent. But suddenly Agent is talking about how great Hawkeye is all the time... So, look forward to that, I guess. JonathanSeptember 28, 2015 8:25 AM Uncanny X-Men annual #9 Yeah, who knows how we fit Hela's comment in with the Classic X-Men 43 backup where Death is a workman whose tower Jean/Phoenix has helped build? (though Death does say in that issue that Jean is only perceiving it how she can understand it.) Thanos6's answer seems a good explanation for me. JonathanSeptember 28, 2015 8:11 AM Silver Surfer #48 Thanks, both. Sounds like the later Zenn-La retcon was even more unnecessary than I thought it was. Erik BeckSeptember 28, 2015 8:04 AM Avengers West Coast #55 I agree that AoV was not a great storyline. But, at the time, I appreciated it much more than say Atlantis Attacks. That's because I collected all the Avengers titles and could follow the core storyline to its conclusion while in AA, you had to buy all those other issues to find out what the hell happened. Personally, I really liked this issue, partially because it meant that the final battle with Loki was drawn by Byrne. Absolutely love his Thor smashing through the ice and his confrontation with Loki. fnord12September 28, 2015 7:54 AM Alpha Flight #96 I fixed the link (although i'm not sure why it didn't work initially). fnord12September 28, 2015 7:53 AM Avengers West Coast #69 @Morgan, thanks, fixed it. MichaelSeptember 28, 2015 7:44 AM Alpha Flight #96 Morgan, the link you posted doesn't work. Are you trying to keep us in suspense? :) Morgan WickSeptember 28, 2015 1:30 AM Alpha Flight #96 Well, I think we know one particular creator more likely to produce F's than any other... Morgan WickSeptember 28, 2015 1:09 AM Hulk annual #11 He's already on the site for doing Spectacular Spider-Man #27-28 back in '79, so clearly this story was sitting around a while. DermieSeptember 28, 2015 12:32 AM Avengers West Coast #69 I would LOVE to see the scene where Machine Man finds out that he was granted Avengers membership...at a meeting he was not invited to, and without anyone asking him if he had any interest in joining! He teams up with the team ONCE--and then weeks later gets voted in. And he gets voted in by ONE SINGLE VOTE. A new Avenger is granted membership because ONE person voted for him, in a secret ballot. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea...both in-story, and behind the scenes?? In-story, all of the Avengers present should know the by-laws that new members are supposed to get vetted for security clearance, and be approved by the chairman and/or a majority vote of the active roster. If an established Avenger like Mockingbird was not allowed to have a vote at the meeting, then non-members certainly should not have been eligible as someone to vote for. What the Roy Thomas thinking? It might have made more sense if he had some plans for Machine Man that this was a set-up for...but no, Machine Man only makes two other appearances in the series, both of them in "call in all the reserves" stories. It would have made far more sense if someone like Firebird was voted in as the other reservist. She at least was an established Avenger who had ties to the WCA (and was basically an unofficial reservist for them anyway). DermieSeptember 28, 2015 12:18 AM Alpha Flight #96 @Bill, although The Master WAS killed off in that storyline he has since returned. When you're dealing with a villain with advanced alien technology that can clone new bodies for himself, chances are any death will be fairly temporary. MichaelSeptember 27, 2015 11:45 PM X-Factor #70 It's Rahne I was thinking of- she should definitely be more wary of Val then she is. Again, let's save this discussion for next issue. ChrisWSeptember 27, 2015 11:33 PM X-Factor #70 It doesn't completely alleviate the issue, but did any of the future members of X-Factor know anything about the Inferno babies? Rhane did, but she was also going through other problems which might take priority. Otherwise, it's almost like the new members of X-Factor were chosen precisely because they were outside of the on-going plotlines. No matter how long they were around, they would be newcomers to the storyline, and Val would not be obligated to tell them things they didn't need to know. ChrisWSeptember 27, 2015 11:25 PM Uncanny X-Men #280 Just wait until we get to the scripting. I think it was Scott Lobdell by that point, but when he has someone (I think it was Iceman) summarize Callisto's life as casual exposition, it's just horrible. Ick, yuck, stop. 'That former Morlock leader who went insane after she stopped being hot.' Or something equally horrible. I'm looking forward to Fnord summarizing further issues the same way I look at a car wreck. And Bob, I totally disagree. Peter David also wrote a great "X-Factor" too, so there! :P ChrisWSeptember 27, 2015 11:13 PM Wolverine #35-37 I think Elsie Dee was great. As was Albert, that handsome rogue. Morgan WickSeptember 27, 2015 10:08 PM Avengers West Coast #69 "Machine Man is the closest thing to an unsurprising choice" did you mean "surprising"? Red CometSeptember 27, 2015 10:04 PM Iron Man #208 Did Denny O'Neil sneak a War Games reference into this story with that AIM holdup scene? TURN YOUR KEY SIR! StevenSeptember 27, 2015 10:01 PM Silver Surfer #48 I believe that the Zenn-Lavians have conquered aging and death. They live for centuries until they get tired of life and commit suicide. StevenSeptember 27, 2015 9:57 PM Avengers West Coast #69 I love this issue. Roy Thomas loves Hawkeye and hates USAgent. He brought back Hawkeye, and now he has shown the Agent the door. Unfortunately, Mark Gruenwald is probably forcing the Agent's presence, so this is not the end of his tenure. I think that the merged Hulk should rejoin the Avengers at this point. He would be a good replacement for Hank and Jan. MichaelSeptember 27, 2015 9:49 PM Silver Surfer #48 In Silver Surfer 10, the Zenn Lavians were described as long lived.In Silver Surfer 5-6, his time of service to Galactus was described as "centuries". Red CometSeptember 27, 2015 9:25 PM Hulk annual #11 I thought Frank Miller's first work for Marvel was a John Carter issue from 1978. Did he do this inventory story first and it sat in a drawer for something like 4 years until he got big thanks to Daredevil? Luis DantasSeptember 27, 2015 8:47 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #9 @Tuomas: I don't know about that - and in fact, I don't know that we can know about that. Treatment of Mephisto and the like has been fairly ambiguous, even outright contradictory. Luis DantasSeptember 27, 2015 8:28 PM Avengers West Coast #69 It is interesting that the math does not add up. There should have been 40 votes, not 41. Luis DantasSeptember 27, 2015 8:26 PM Avengers West Coast #69 Roy Thomas has a raw deal here, but I still must say that he commited a few serious mistakes, most of all keeping USAgent around. The character is really only good for one story, the cautionary tale. Having him around is a terrible distraction and cuts deep into the suspension of disbelief: why on Earth would the Avengers have anything besides the exit door to show him? Generally speaking the Thomases' writing has been sort of by-the-numbers. Very little and unconvicing characterization. Michael has a point about the lack of middle level characters, though. Come to think of it, they are becoming somewhat difficult to find at this point in time. Spider-Man is the only one that truly springs to mind. Most characters' power levels become somewhat situational by 1991. Thanos6September 27, 2015 7:27 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #9 Possibly Hela is speaking metaphorically in her role as "Death," and isn't literally meaning that SHE personally got all those souls, just that Death claimed them before they went to whatever afterlife. Piotr WSeptember 27, 2015 6:01 PM Avengers West Coast #69 Some nice art there in these scans... BillSeptember 27, 2015 5:38 PM Avengers West Coast #69 Fnord, I have to disagree with your assessment of Hawkeye. He's always been one of my favorite Avengers because he's the "out of his league" guy but that's never stopped him! It could very well be the death of him one day but the universe owes its continued existence to him since he conned the Grandmaster. That alone should entitle him to be written down in everyone's "Cool Book" ;) But, of course, we all have our opinions and while I have to disagree with yours on Hawkeye, I'll respect it. Also, I think what Wanda meant about the USAgent was "-and if he ever turned bad--it would cause Wonder Man or Iron Man a couple minutes time to stop him." I will say that one thing I liked about the Agent was that he was a good middleweight kind of character the West Coast Avengers had been lacking. You had Wonder Man and Iron Man, a couple of powerhouses...and then Tigra, Hawkeye and Mockingbird on the complete opposite side of the scale. The USAgent brought that middle level guy to the team to kind of balance things out a bit. And he was unique to the West Coast team, not a transplant from the Avengers. Red CometSeptember 27, 2015 5:27 PM Marvel Team-Up #126 (Spider-Man / Hulk) Tomoyuki Takenaka's only known credit is this story, so his name may be a pseudonym used by a Japanese manga artist that Shooter got to do a story for them. Shooter has said that he was courting Japanese talent at this time, guys like Monkey Punch (creator of Lupin III), but they generally turned him down because of the pay cut. If this is a pseudonym I have no idea why the artist would use it other than to maybe hide from an exclusivity contract back in Japan so that he could draw a Spider-man and Hulk story. fnord12September 27, 2015 5:06 PM Avengers West Coast #69 Speech has been restored and the Reference updated. MichaelSeptember 27, 2015 3:58 PM Avengers West Coast #69 Fnord, this is weird- US Agent appears during Captain America 385-386 through this arc but the next issue seems to take place a few minutes after this one. In fact, the whole thing is very weird, since US Agent is in New York in Cap 386, US Agent is in San Francisco in issue 71, but judging by Spider-Woman's timeline that issue takes place less than 24 hours after this one. Admittedly, it's possible that Agent flew to New York, went directly to Cap and flew back as soon as the Watchdogs were defeated, but still... david banesSeptember 27, 2015 2:19 PM Avengers West Coast #69 The speech is such bs that the scan has been destroyed. TuomasSeptember 27, 2015 1:03 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #9 But in the Marvel Universe it's not just a question of belief: the existence of multiple different afterlives is an observable, objective fact. So you'd expect there to be some kind of system of who gets to go where when they die, but I've never seen this subject explored in Marvel comics. MikeCheyneSeptember 27, 2015 12:47 PM Moon Knight #35 So the Fly kicks Moon Knight's ass and beats up Spider-Man at one point and pretty soon after he becomes such a loser that he's Scourge-bait? I get the fact that he has a goofy look and name, but he was being booked so well. JonathanSeptember 27, 2015 12:39 PM Silver Surfer #48 Surfer here refers to his service of Galactus as being "decades", which is vague but gives us some idea of how long he thinks it was. (more than 20 years, less than a 1000?) i know there's some later retcons about Zenn-La, presumably at this point we're just meant to assume his people are long living. Erik BeckSeptember 27, 2015 12:34 PM Thor #411-413 (Beta Ray Bill) Yeah, seeing Beta Ray Bill in Lim's pseudo-Simonson pencils is much better than seeing him in Frenz's pseudo-Kirby pencils. Erik RobbinsSeptember 27, 2015 12:30 PM Punisher #47-48 "But Punisher manages to escape, and of course his first priority is to paint a skull on his chest." He just needed the power-up. You know, "By the power of Grease-Skull.... I have the power!" Luis DantasSeptember 27, 2015 12:27 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #9 Personally, I don't think afterlife beliefs are expected to have much of a coherence with facts, either in fictional or real universes. They are just not well suited to match reality. Luis DantasSeptember 27, 2015 12:23 PM Ghost Rider #13-15 An origin for this Ghost Rider does eventually turn up, but I honestly don't know whether anyone is supposed to care about it or even to believe in its accuracy. It does not help that it is both overly pretentious, ambiguous and retconned often, even after years with no new Ketch stories. fnord12September 27, 2015 11:30 AM Defenders #110 Thanks Dan. Red CometSeptember 27, 2015 11:15 AM Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy I've got this story in the Chris Claremont Visionaries hardcover. It looks much better in black and white. Byrne with Austin inking him looks good in black and white in general. It's worth owning the Essential reprint of their X-men run just to get their work in that form. Mark DrummondSeptember 27, 2015 11:09 AM Howard the Duck #29 Alter Ego #135 stated that David Kraft and Roger Slifer were offered this book after Gerber got fired, but they both turned it down out of solidarity with Gerber. TuomasSeptember 27, 2015 9:31 AM Uncanny X-Men annual #9 This comic underlines a big problem that exists in fictional settings like the Marvel Universe, where several different mythologies are shown to be "real" at the same time. In those panels where Rachel faces Hela, Hela says Jean sent her more souls than anyone else has ever done. This has got to be a reference to the planet of asparagus people the Dark Phoenix killed. And later on Hela comes to claim Wolverine too... So the implication here is that everyone who dies in the Marvel Universe will end up in Hel (except those who get to go to Valhalla), regardless of whether they're from Asgard, Midgard, or some faraway planet that has probably never even heard of the Norse gods. But the problem is that we have seen and will continue to see other afterlives as well: there's Mephisto's Hell, Hades, the place where all the dead superheroes hang out in the Dead Girl mini, etc. So is there any explanation who gets to go to which afterlife once they die? Why did the asparagus aliens end up in Hel, but many Earth superheroes go somewhere else? In the DC Universe they've at least tried to establish that there is only one Hell and one Heaven, though some writer still ignore this... But the Marvel Universe afterlives are a mess. Erik BeckSeptember 27, 2015 9:04 AM Fantastic Four #335-336 Honestly, this whole issue just seems ridiculous, like when the villains wanted to attack Sue and Reed's wedding or when they tried to attack Ben in the hospital. Just far too corny given the issues at play here. Dan H.September 27, 2015 8:07 AM Defenders #110 Okay, I know this is getting painful, but NEITHER 616 Nighthawk or the Squadron Supreme Nighthawk appears in this issue. The "President Richmond" seen here is an artificial construct created by the psychics who eventually took the Overmind's form in order to spirit the Supreme Nighthawk away from Null. There's no doubt that it already happened before the interlude in this issue since we saw the Supreme Nighthawk (thinking he was 616 Nighthawk) back in issue #109. Dan H.September 27, 2015 7:49 AM Defenders #111 Yeah, I saw from your comments on the upcoming issues that you had been following the MCP's lead on that. My guess would just be that whoever did those issues wasn't familiar with the storyline in advance and just did the entries as they went along, thinking that the Nighthawk in these issues is who he appeared to be and they included the Supreme Nighthawk because that's who "President Richmond" was supposed to be. When they got to the swerve at the end of the storyline, for whatever reason they just didn't go back and update the entries by taking out 616 Nighthawk. Luke BlanchardSeptember 27, 2015 1:46 AM Thor #371-372 The reinterpretation of the Zaniac may have been inspired by the STAR TREK episode "Wolf in the Fold", in which Kirk and co. have to deal with an immortal entity which moves from body to body and has been responsible for murders throughout history, including the Ripper's. Red CometSeptember 27, 2015 1:35 AM Wolverine #35-37 The Hunter in Darkness single issue was pretty much the high point of the Hama/Silvestri run, but I still think this story was one of their better ones. I agree that logically it doesn't make much sense, but if you can let go of that you get an entertaining romp through the Spanish Civil War and Wolverine teams up with Ernest Hemingway. Hama is a master at pacing and writes really good dialogue even when the plot is kind of shaky. Aaron MalchowSeptember 27, 2015 1:30 AM Alpha Flight #96 Morgan, then that means we'll never see a review for The Crossing on this site. I can't see how it would get anything higher than a "F." Bob, everything you said is too true! *************************************************** To explain to my significant other why I was so disturbed by this comic, I had to summarize this issue to her: "It's essentially about a nude man who stands alone in his home, admiring his body, telling himself he is the master, and that he says he has control in his two hands while choking his hawk." See how wrong that sounds? Piotr WSeptember 27, 2015 12:46 AM Uncanny X-Men #280 Argh, the Mikhail plot. I thought it was bad even when I was 15 - both the "hole" story and Mikhail's character in general. Another relative coming back from the grave! And yet another character with ill-defined energy powers! fnord12September 27, 2015 12:46 AM Defenders #111 Thanks Dan. The MCP lists the real Nighthawk as appearing in issues from #110 to #119 even though he's dead (his funeral is in #107). I get confused by the alternate realty versions running around so i followed the MCP, but they do seem to be incorrect at this point. MichaelSeptember 26, 2015 11:05 PM Wolverine #35-37 The difference is that unlike Jar Jar, readers apparently liked Elsie at first. clydeSeptember 26, 2015 10:12 PM Ghost Rider #13-15 Jumping on the "Gimmick" bandwagon, here's an interesting discussion on the gimmick covers - BobSeptember 26, 2015 7:58 PM Alpha Flight #96 It's a good thing The Master keeps his space station window pointed directly at Canada in that next-to-last panel, or else his yelling at Alpha Flight from up there might seem a little silly. BobSeptember 26, 2015 7:55 PM Alpha Flight #96 To be fair, his work did improve later, when he was limited to 1 or 2 books at a time. BobSeptember 26, 2015 7:46 PM Alpha Flight #96 I'm beginning to wonder if there was anything Nicieza wasn't writing by the end of 1991. He wrote a million books, and none of them good. This issue is so awful that could be reprinted in a special edition with Joel, Tom Servo and Crow silhouettes in the corner of every panel adding commentary. BobSeptember 26, 2015 7:41 PM Wolverine #35-37 Elsie Dee - the Jar Jar Binks of Logan's life. BobSeptember 26, 2015 7:40 PM Uncanny X-Men #280 ugh For guys so determined wrest control of the books, Lee and Portacio had very little of an idea what they wanted to do with the characters or once they pulled off their coup. They were really just flinging poo at a wall with that one. I hope our poor webmaster can endure the next 4-5 years or so of across-the-board garbage (with the exception of David's Hulk) that he has to review from Marvel. Morgan WickSeptember 26, 2015 7:35 PM Alpha Flight #96 Fnord says on one of the pages on the sidebar that if he gives a comic an F, he throws it out and it doesn't appear on the site. I don't know if that's happened yet, though I suspect he's going to need it as the 90s progress and possibly into the 2000s, how bad a comic would have to be to hit that mark, or how it would affect the chronology if it did. Aaron MalchowSeptember 26, 2015 5:50 PM Alpha Flight #96 Piotr, I completely agree that the Master is a great concept and that he needed more love from Marvel... but this comic is not love, not in the way that most consensual adults use that word. When someone in a comic starts standing around nude, alone, yelling "I am your master!", that's when it's time to close that comic book and use stainless steel pads to scrub that image out of your mind. A Professor X mind wipe might not even do the job properly. I really think that one star is too high a rating for this issue. Is there anyway to award negative stars? When Fnord gets to "CapWolf," we'll start to need them on a regular basis. BillSeptember 26, 2015 5:08 PM Alpha Flight #96 The Master can't be shown any love from Marvel, as he was killed off during the events of the "Kang Dynasty" storyline back in 2001/02ish. Piotr WSeptember 26, 2015 4:01 PM Alpha Flight #96 Oh, come on, guys, is that issue really that bad? If anything, the Master needs some more love from Marvel. He's could be, potentially, an interesting character... Plus, I do love the name, even though Jules Verne came up with it first. Dan H.September 26, 2015 3:26 PM Defenders #111 Ah, it looks like you actually already had this discussion over on the page devoted to the wrapup of this storyline. You pulled the 616 Nighthawk tag there but I think you just forgot to get rid of this one. Dan H.September 26, 2015 3:01 PM Defenders #111 IIRC, Nighthawk shouldn't be listed as a character appearing here, should he? Doesn't he later turn out to be dead and gone as of his last appearance? Dan H.September 26, 2015 2:51 PM Hulk #197-198 That panel with the Collector thinking about collecting the original Avengers reminds me... was there ever a mention during the Korvac Saga of why the Collector didn't attempt to acquire the Hulk again when he was in the midst of picking up his entire set of Avengers? Did that somehow coincide with the Hulk being in another dimension or something? Walter "Typo" LawsonSeptember 26, 2015 1:44 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 (That should be "to be different" rather than "not to be different": soldiers rather than students, perhaps symbolizing in part how the X-Men's struggles, particularly with the Shadow King, are turning the team into a dark reflection of Xavier's dream, superficially the same, but twisted to a different purpose. (Though in last year's X-Men annual Claremont had Wolverine get quite explicit about the paramilitary component of Xavier's team-building.) Walter LawsonSeptember 26, 2015 1:39 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 Even though the uniforms are based on the oroginal team's original colors, I take their point here not to be different: these X-Men are wearing uniforms not because they're students but because they're soldiers. Aaron MalchowSeptember 26, 2015 12:48 PM Iron Fist #11-13 The Jim Shooter and Roger Stern cameo is really interesting because they appear in both Iron Fist #11 and #12, in relation to Daredevil's appearance both times. In issue 11, they are in the background behindMatt Murdock and Heather Glenn, and in issue 12, a TV news report shows Daredevil beating up Shooter while Stern watches on, terrified. I believe that Shooter had just taken over writing Daredevil when these issues were published. One of the more elaborate visual in-jokes that Byrne has done. Erik BeckSeptember 26, 2015 12:42 PM Avengers West Coast #54 Yeah, Hank basically acts as chairman for a long stretch here and it's really the most leadership he's ever shown during his long history on the team. Dan H.September 26, 2015 12:35 PM Daredevil #133 Thanks for that Michael, but... "Later" is kind of the operative word there. By the time Wolfman did that interview, Gellar had shit the bed on the Tonight Show and it was obvious to everyone that he was a fake. It's possible that Marv's engaging in a little bit of revisionist history there. Or not. Erik BeckSeptember 26, 2015 12:26 PM Uncanny X-Men #145-147 Dan H. comment made me think about the fact that this is the first time we've seen Havok and Polaris since we left them on Muir Island at the start of the Dark Phoenix Saga. I can't remember if there's an in-story explanation for them being out in the desert now or if Cockrum just put them back out where he had last grabbed them from back when Erik the Red took them over. Dan H.September 26, 2015 12:25 PM Uncanny X-Men #154-157 Was N'rill'iree supposed to be the Imperial Guard equivalent of Blok? I think he was the only new Legionnaire since their last appearance. Or maybe Warstar was, since he'd only appeared at the end of the Phoenix Sage. Either way, if it's one of those two, I think he might be the only "homage to an homage" in the Guard, since Blok was actually an homage to Colossus, just as his fellow League of Super-Assassins were copies of the other X-Men. Only Blok went on to join the Legion, though. Aaron MalchowSeptember 26, 2015 12:20 PM Alpha Flight #96 This comic was actually intended to be used by the military to replace hope and joy with despair and sorrow. But it was rejected by the Pentagon because there was no way to protect American troops from it.* Dan H.September 26, 2015 12:03 PM Uncanny X-Men #145-147 I'm going to have to read these issues again just to see if it's mentioned that even though Banshee is "powerless," he's actually better equipped to take on MurderWorld this time since he had lost his sonic scream when the X-Men were taken there the first time. At least now he's got his gun and he's going in prepared. It's funny that this was a very rare case of Banshee being called in to help out after he'd left the team and the threat happens to be one he didn't have his powers to help with the first time, either. But why no Madrox? IIRC, Sean was already en route to the U.S. so that explains why Xavier didn't try to contact Jamie, but why did Sean decide not to bring him along? I guess he was really committed to the "former X-Men get-together" concept, to the point of risking Moira's safety by leaving a powerful ally behind. MichaelSeptember 26, 2015 11:58 AM Daredevil #133 Marv later admitted that he didn't really believe in Geller in this interview: MW: Of course it was magic. Magic being some slight of hand manipulation. However, he was wonderful at it and I have no idea how he did it since I was holding the key and couldn't feel any pressure as he bent it. I also kept the drawing he made based on mine. There was no way he could see what I drew. Now, I know magicians can do this although I don't know how. I never believed he had powers. I believed he was a really good magician. However, again, since this was a contractual deal Marvel made, I couldn't come out in the letter column and say he did a great trick that I couldn't figure out. MichaelSeptember 26, 2015 11:50 AM Strange Tales #128 (Dr. Strange) The expression "no quarter shall be given" goes back at least to 1644. I'm not sure when writers started using the whole "no quarter asked or given" phrase. MortificatorSeptember 26, 2015 11:40 AM Amazing Spider-Man #41 Romita Jr drew the Rhino in the opening arc of Black Panther vol. 4. The story kind of fizzles out, but I like the scene where Rhino fights an actual rhino. Erik BeckSeptember 26, 2015 9:05 AM Captain America #367 That is a really haunting ending. Dwyer reminds me of MacFarlane, in that Dwyer's human expressions are pretty bad but his Skull is pretty awesome - the same way MacFarlane doesn't draw regular people well but his fully costumed characters or mutated characters like the Lizard fare awesome. MichaelSeptember 26, 2015 9:04 AM X-Factor #65-68 @Piotr W- in addition to clyde's point, note that Warren was tortured by the Marauders, has his wings amputated and was betrayed and nearly killed by his old friend Hodge. That would give a normal person plenty of issues even without the brainwashing. MichaelSeptember 26, 2015 9:01 AM Uncanny X-Men #280 X-Cutioner's Song suffered from the nonsensical ending, which even Lobdell recognized. Walter LawsonSeptember 26, 2015 4:49 AM X-Factor #65-68 The idea of Apocalypse going cosmic and becoming a threat across time and space seems to have been an idea of Lee's or Harras's. Note that when we see Cable's future era in the early issues of his own series, we get references to Apicalypse having "ascended" or somesuch. I think there may be X-Men cartoon uses of Apocalypse that also suggest where this was going. I think it was mostly Harras's direction for the character. (And we see a bit of it in the eventual "Twelve"/"Ages of Apocalypse story around 2000 as well.) Note that Claremont kind of mocks this inconsistent characterization explicitly in the script, where Cyclops wonders why Apocalypse has suddenly adopted this new blunderbuss approach. Possibly Harras was adapting Claremont's own ideas for the Shadow King--note that both SK and Apocalypse talk about extending their influence to the stars. They're also both ancient evils, both archenemies of the X-Men--but Apocalypse makes a much better action figure, which may have been a big part of Harras's (and Marvel's) thinking at the time. Walter LawsonSeptember 26, 2015 4:14 AM Iron Man #267-268 It's odd that Byrne gets irked whenever normal or semi-normal characters wind up with exceptional attributes--like Kitty being a genius, not just a teen who happens to have powers--yet he can't let Wong Chu just be a warlord or Igor just be a Russian spy in the Hulk's origin, we have to get extraneous super-characters like the Mandarin and the Skrulls thrown in. Walter LawsonSeptember 26, 2015 4:04 AM Uncanny X-Men #280 The Lee/Portacio "plotting" that we get for the first post-Claremont year really is a trainwreck. The Omega Red storyline makes no sense, as we'll soon see, and Portacio's story in which the X-Men fall down a hole and meet Colossus's long-lost brother might as well be a bullet-train derailment. What does work pretty well in the post-Claremont era are some of the crossover events, which are actually better than late-Claremont crossovers like "X-Tinction" and "Future Present." Well, "Executioner's Song" and "Age of Apocalypse" are better, at least, even if things like "Phalanx Covenant" are about as bad as "Future Present." Walter LawsonSeptember 26, 2015 3:50 AM X-Factor #69 Michael, maybe Reisz thinks Xavier won't recognize him from Storm's description because Portacio's art makes him completely unrecinizable. And no one will notice his head's on fire as long as those massive word balloons are blocking out the flames. Then again, even with Portacio's art as a disguise, his host body's name and status as an FBI agent was known to Storm. But I admit I didn't catch that at the time. What took me out the story and wrecked any suspension of disbelief was the idea that a shapeshifter could fool a telepath, when that's precisely the power that should trump a shapeshifter's. This is what Claremont intended, and we do get an explanation next issue, but coming after the fact it was too late: it seemed like making retroactive excuses. I'm sure Claremont would have set up the revelation more carefully. Walter LawsonSeptember 26, 2015 3:37 AM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 It's a sign of how chaotic and sudden the switch from Claremont to Nicieza is that Amanda Sefton simply vanishes from the story after her appearance in 278 and isn't seen again until she starts appearing years later in Excalibur. Commenters elsewhere have noted that it's kind of apt that one of the last scenes Claremont writes in the series, in 279, involves Xavier literally erasing a student's character development and turning Colossus back into a regular X-Man. Walter LawsonSeptember 26, 2015 3:31 AM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 It's never made explicit because Claremont doesn't get to finsh the story, but I think the idea is that the riots Shadow King is causing are being triggered by his use of the captive Polaris's new "negative emotions" powers. MegaSpiderManSeptember 26, 2015 1:00 AM Moon Knight #25 Hm. Bagley/Palmer is an art team made in heaven, but I'm really not feeling the art this issue. It just seems... Off to me. Vincent ValentiSeptember 26, 2015 12:01 AM Ghost Rider #13-15 Agreed. I didn't mind the Silver Surfer and Ghost Riders for the reasons you mentioned. Plus one other thing - the cover price was not affected by the gimmick. That didn't last long, unfortunately. Soon enough gimmick covers were nearly doubling the price of the comic itself. BobSeptember 25, 2015 10:25 PM Ghost Rider #13-15 Though you're reviewing this one first, Silver Surfer 50 kicked off the gimmick cover craze (unless you want to count the MacFarlane Spider-man variants of the prior year). At first, the ideas fit the books and were kind of neat - metallic Silver Surfer gets silver foil, faming skull Ghost Rider gets glow in the dark - but, quickly, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to them. I vaguely remember seeing one where the Hulk was done in foil (Because his skin looks like green metal?) And why go all colorless and shiny for Cap and the Black Knight? It makes no sense from a design point of view.: The later ones were all done in bad, 5th generation Liefeld amateur art. No matter how many bells and whistles they stapled to the book, they couldn't polish those turds. And things like this still make your eyes bleed, no matter how shiny: MichaelSeptember 25, 2015 8:47 PM Avengers #60 Like fnord said, it would have made sense if they had the Ringmaster hypnotize the heroes into attacking Thor or something. MichaelSeptember 25, 2015 8:45 PM Ghost Rider #13-15 Mackie just makes Ghost Rider more convoluted in this story by suggesting that there's some sort of connection between him and Johnny. MichaelSeptember 25, 2015 7:31 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 But Nicieza's stint on Avengers was always supposed to be temporary. BobSeptember 25, 2015 6:25 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 In Byrne's case, I was referring to Avengers, rather than X-Men. Vincent ValentiSeptember 25, 2015 6:04 PM Ghost Rider #13-15 Finally, a gang of thugs that wasn't ridiculously multi-ethic. I remember being surprised to see Texeira do that. Mark DrummondSeptember 25, 2015 6:01 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 The Painter being full of roaches may have been taken from the ending of "They're Creeping Up On You" in the "Creepshow" movie, a collection of Stephen King adaptations(and an excellent graphic novel adaptation too). Mark DrummondSeptember 25, 2015 5:47 PM Thor #431-433 giant flying fist=the Dreadful Flying Glove from Yellow Submarine? JonathanSeptember 25, 2015 4:51 PM Avengers #60 You know, I've read this Yellowjacket story a number of times, and I must have been distracted by all the other Freudian bugfuck going on, cos it never sunk in before that Ringmaster is trying to get revenge on Thor? What the hell? I could understand them fighting Daredevil and then thinking maybe they'd win a rematch, but THOR? How different could that possibly have gone? If you're a bunch of carnies and you fought a god, just be glad you got out alive. And they want to get revenge on Thor by aiming to fight basically the entire MU? Strength of numbers is literally the one advantage they ever have, and now they're throwing that away too! Tabe8September 25, 2015 4:49 PM Uncanny X-Men #280 The two responses above NAIL IT! Great Job Jonathan on pointing out the coolness factor, and Claremont's willingness to move things forward. (Although, I think he went a little too far post siege perilous. Maybe if he kept the "new team" from #255 going for more than just one issue. Otherwise, his last year or so on xmen felt all over the place.). And bravo for the "all coolness and no soul" line. Post Claremont, xmen was all about flash, but no substance. And Red Comet, totally agree about maduriera. That was the only bright spot post Claremont for me. Not so much because of the stories (ok AoA was good), but his art really brought a newness to the team. I guess my hate for post Claremont xmen can be summed up in one word - Onslaught. I have not purchased ONE new comic since that crossover, and that is no lie. After almost 15 years of being a comic fan, Onslaught completely wiped away my interest in comics. I just want to add, after Claremont left, the xmen went from being an art form - stories with characters you cared about - to just being a product for the masses to buy. Marvel just went too far with the brand... fnord12September 25, 2015 4:08 PM Ghost Rider #13-15 Thanks, Piotr. Should be fixed now. Red CometSeptember 25, 2015 4:05 PM Uncanny X-Men #280 @Piotr I second what jonathan said that post-Claremont X-men is mostly mediocre rather than bad, bad, BAD like the Clone Saga or the Crossing. I did really like Joe Madureira's X-men issues. One of the few artists I've seen who could elevate a story by an average talent writer like Scott Lobdell. Piotr WSeptember 25, 2015 3:54 PM Ghost Rider #13-15 Something I just noticed, Fnord: you have Roxanne Simpson tagged twice: as Roxanne Simpson and, separately, as Rocky Simpson... JonathanSeptember 25, 2015 2:45 PM X-Factor #65-68 Michael's got a point about the reference to Celestials. Simonson had already established Apocalypse had some connection to the Celestials (Ship was Celestial tech for a start) so if Claremont did mean "celestial pantheon" it's an easily misinterpreted choice of words. But yeah if they were thinking Apocalypse was a Celestial himself, that's a terrible idea. Erik BeckSeptember 25, 2015 11:51 AM Alpha Flight #79-80 Yeah, that back story of Elizabeth and Heather just makes this idiot writer look like he had never read any of the classic Byrne issues of this book. It bears no resemblance to anything that Byrne had written about their relationship. jonathanSeptember 25, 2015 11:16 AM Uncanny X-Men #280 I would agree that you couldn’t put post-Claremont X-Men as quite as bad as Clone Saga etc. But for me there’s very little good stuff for the next 10 years. (The Alan Davis X-Men run is probably my favourite of the period, and I should specify that does include the issues Davis did on his own just as much as the ones Claremont helped him with.) I do agree Claremont was probably leaving at about the right time. I think he was still doing good stuff up until about the mid 250s, and after that he got increasingly self-indulgent, though there were still good moments, including the monologues he gives Ororo and Magneto in 273-275 when he realised he was leaving. clydeSeptember 25, 2015 9:28 AM X-Factor #65-68 "but Archangel needed a lot of time to deal with being warped by Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Crystal and Medusa go back to normal immediately after Apocalypse is destroyed." Actually, given how many times the Inhumans were brainwashed by Maximus, it's not unreasonable to think they received some mental training to either prevent or recover quickly from brainwashing. Ataru320September 25, 2015 9:15 AM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 I sort of feel sorry for Nicieza as well from what I've seen on here. With his works on New Warriors and some of what he does in the near future (notably the early developments for Deadpool), he is a decent enough writer and does make a name for himself in some ways. His only problem is that he's sort of just lumped in with all the pre-Image stuff due to coming into prominence as a writer at the same time as the Image crowd emerges on art. Piotr WSeptember 25, 2015 9:04 AM X-Factor #65-68 I know! It's crazy! Seriously, Bishop may be the most superfluos X-character ever. He's a time traveller from a dystopian future, like Rachel Summers, Askani and Cable. He uses guns, again like Askani and Cable. He's tough and gritty, like Cable... And he doesn't even any interesting powers - the whole "I absorb energy" shtick is so boring and generic (during the 90s, half of new characters seemed to have ill-defined energy manipulation powers)... Bishop brought nothing of interest to the books. He was dropped there by Portacio - and all subsequent writers had to deal with his boring presence... Coming back to the story at hand - here's something else that irritates me about it now. Firstly, the Inhumans here are so grotesque, with half of them being cyborgs etc... Also, I detest the easiness Crystal and Medusa shrugged of their brainwashing. I think that, at one point, the narrations likens it to what was done to Archangel... but Archangel needed a lot of time to deal with being warped by Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Crystal and Medusa go back to normal immediately after Apocalypse is destroyed... Lame. Piotr WSeptember 25, 2015 8:56 AM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 I must say that I'll be interested in hearing your opinion on Nicieza's scripting / writing in the coming X-Men issues. I think that Nicieza won some sort of respect for himself over the years, didnt' he? He's usually liked by Thunderbolts fans... JonathanSeptember 25, 2015 8:40 AM Fantastic Four annual #24 One of my friends was very annoyed by that epilogue in the Korvac TPB. I do see the problem with it but I just read it as “this is what Cap & Herc think, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right, it’s just their opinion”. (Though I guess the original interpretation that Korvac was good is just Moondragon’s opinion, and by the 90s they’d decided Cap is always right.) (And who the hell would trust Moondragon?) It does ruin the way it ends a bit to stick an epilogue afterwards, but I can see they were trying to back away from Shooter’s concept of the heroes being fallible and maybe they mess up sometimes. I prefer the fallible heroes, but other people see the heroes as less heroic that way. Compared to that, this story seemed an absolutely pointless retcon, just using the reputation of a good story to make a crappy sequel which not only adds nothing, but also messes up the original. JonathanSeptember 25, 2015 8:38 AM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 A bit unfair to Nicieza really. Byrne had once referred to himself as a "company man" and was happy to testify against other comics professionals: http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/when-i-am-working-for-marvel-i-am-loyal.html. I think Lobdell took over Byrne's scripting, rather than Nicieza. I did like Nicieza's writing on Psi-Force, which was kind of a New Universe version of New Mutants, but I didn't particularly like him on New Warriors or actual New Mutants (maybe the latter because Liefeld was plotting). fnord12September 25, 2015 8:18 AM Daredevil #133 The response says that Marv "says he was extremely careful not to take his eyes off of Uri when he performed his 'Psychic/Magic' tricks". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ JonathanSeptember 25, 2015 8:16 AM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 These issues were a lot of fun, maybe the ending peters out a bit but there's plenty of good jokes (and nostalgia) from both Byrne and Isabella. I'd got bored of both Conway and Michelinie so these were my favourite Spidey issues in the past year or more. As Fnord points out, Johnny had a grudge with Peter after Amazing Spider-Man 21, and when they met again in FF 35 Johnny made a similar comment to the one here about Peter just following Spidey around, so it was established Johnny knew who Peter was and didn't like him. JonathanSeptember 25, 2015 8:03 AM Avengers #332-333 No problem with the Rage deduction though I did think the Cap deduction was a bit suspect… If I saw no air bubbles coming from Doom while he was underwater I would have thought “Eh, Doom’s a genius, there'll be a full air supply, he could probably fly into space in that armour”. That said I was willing to let that slide as I did find these issues fun enough, while I find the next few years drab and totally unmemorable (I literally can’t remember anything other than the Supreme Intelligence thing). For me these are the last even half-decent Avengers issues for a while. MichaelSeptember 25, 2015 7:55 AM Avengers #332-333 Wolverine previously appeared in Avengers Annual 10. fnord12September 25, 2015 7:45 AM ROM #6-9 Thanks adding the clarification, Jake. For various reasons (brevity, prioritization, sloppiness) i don't always cover every in and out of the plots, but the way you added detail here and explain why you think it's an important part of the story is great. MichaelSeptember 25, 2015 7:42 AM Captain America annual #10 @Luis- Gruenwald also had Cap say "God and Country". Luis DantasSeptember 25, 2015 4:56 AM Captain America annual #10 Both this "event" and the ongoing Nick Fury series that runs concurrently with it suffer from terminally lazy writing, relying on repeated shock value as an attempted substitute for both characterization and plot. Captain America and Fury ought to have a better understanding of each other after well over fifteen years of dealing with their conflicts, but they do not. Romulus kills Dakini for overstepping her authority only to later complain with Strucker about how unfair it is that Dakini wasn't aware of their true goals, and _then_ she just accepts Strucker's evil gloating. Even Captain America is basically portrayed as a mindless hypocrite that is shocked by a murder, cries "God and Country" (something that no one should say, and certainly not someone like Cap who has actually met and dealt with conflict) and then actually complains with Fury about his lack of concern for actual human beings. This is basic stuff that he should have learned to deal with back in the 1970s at the very latest. On the plus side, there is acknowledgement that Hydra has an interest in Daredevil (something that goes back to a very short Tony Isabella run featuring Silvermane as head of Hydra) and that even Hydra realizes that Punisher is deeply unbalanced and might easily become one of their agents if given the proper pitch. Unfortunately, that goes nowhere, exactly like everything else in this event. The Nomad story sounds utterly aimless. Luis DantasSeptember 25, 2015 4:35 AM Punisher annual #4 This is the sort of story that can't possibly work. At the moment Nick Fury says "got no beef with you today, Frank" logic demands that the story immediately become about answering the unavoidable question of "how come?" Punisher is an unlawful vigilante, a common murderer. Ignoring that in favor of a groundless "we are all soldiers" pretense of logic greatly harms both characters, to say nothing of the story flow and the suspension of disbelief. In essence, it means that the story is supposed to be in the odd genre of medieval fantasy with a veneer of modern day trappings, yet chose not to give us any warning. Attempting to address this crippling contradiction of concept by making Punisher deeply delusional to the point that he has to ask Takimoto whether he is indeed working for Hydra marks the protagonist as both a naive fool and a dangerous madman. Not at all a wise move. Dan H.September 25, 2015 2:10 AM Daredevil #133 Hey fnord: That makes sense. I just know that people like Wolfman are often the biggest suckers for guys like Gellar: there are plenty of smart people who simply lack knowledge of the techniques that have been used to fool people for hundreds/thousands of years and often their ego will prevent them from admitting even to themselves that it's possible they were fooled. It's a case of "Hey, if *I* couldn't figure it out, it MUST have been magic!" Again though, I'm talking in general. I don't know Wolfman personally at all, so I have no idea if he was being sincere or sly in his gushing appraisal of Gellar. Did he ever respond to Evanier's comments? Jake AmidonSeptember 24, 2015 11:01 PM ROM #6-9 It's a small point but Artie Packer is not killed by the thornoids but rather he is choked to the point of unconsciousness. After the fight the cops show up and Brandy and Steve need him to wake up and corroborate their story. A wraith disguised as a doctor ensures Artie doesn't get the chance to do that. I found to be a nice malevolent touch to the story. fnord12September 24, 2015 10:18 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 Peter made time with Dorrie Evans in Amazing Spider-Man #21. Thanos6September 24, 2015 10:15 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 @Chris: As of publication time of this stories, I can't think of anything, but Johnny might remember Peter's brief career as his personal photographer early in their careers that Dan Slott would establish in SPIDEY/TORCH #1. ChrisSeptember 24, 2015 10:08 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 Where have Johnny Storm and Peter Parker (not in his Spidey alter-ego) actually gotten to know each other on a personal basis? I know they have met, but nothing where Storm would have remembered him. fnord12September 24, 2015 10:05 PM Uncanny X-Men #158 Welcome, Yert! MichaelSeptember 24, 2015 9:20 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 That's not the only thing about this story that contradicts the Lyja retcon. DeFalco suggested that Ljja couldn't sculpt realistic sculptures. But in this story, Alicia presents Namor with a statue of himself. The annoying thing was that DeFalco tried to pretend Alicia had been sculpting nonrealistically since she'd been with Johnny, when she'd been sculpting realistically up until a few months ago. Yert 1981September 24, 2015 8:56 PM Uncanny X-Men #158 First post here. Stumbled across the site hoping to fine placement for reading the marvel fanfare strange tales GN I got on the clearance rack at my local comic shop. Just finished reading xmen 150-159 and noted the reference to fanfare in 158. This post helped answer if in fact those stories were connected. Doesn't seem so as nothing in the fanfare novel is connected to these characters. I might have to snag those marvel super hero issues to inform my chronological x men reading order. Thanks fnord! I'll be back as I go through the complicated 80's! fnord12September 24, 2015 8:52 PM Captain America annual #10 It is said that Dakini gave the anonymous tip to the police that draws Cap to the lab. As you say, it still might not have been Cap on monitor duty that night. And remember that Romulus is posing as a genetic experiment that escaped from a lab, so no one knew she was responsible for Hydra's recent actions. I nonetheless agree the whole story makes little sense and is pretty bad. MichaelSeptember 24, 2015 8:35 PM Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #27-29 Note that it's claimed in this issue that the Helicarrier only has a skeleton crew of 50 people. However, when we see it in Infinity Gauntlet, it definitely looks like there's more than 50 people aboard. BobSeptember 24, 2015 7:59 PM X-Factor #65-68 Don't like dystopian futures? Well, Portacio's about to give you another ine in a few months with Black Cable, or, as some call him, Bishop. MichaelSeptember 24, 2015 7:56 PM Captain America annual #10 The entire plot of the Von Strucker Gambit never made sense to me. For starters, why does Strucker need to go to such lengths to get the information for Hydra's databases? He's formed an alliance with the Skull, and the Skull had an agent in the Commission relatively recently, so the Skull probably has data from the Commission's files on Punisher, Daredevil and Captain America- certainly Captain America. So he could just ask the Skull. And we'll see in Daredevil that he's scheming to plant a virus in the Kingpin's computers, so the Kingpin's computers probably have info on Punisher and Daredevil. Instead, he comes up with this convoluted scheme, which results in several agents killed, agents that knew that he was alive barely avoiding being captured by SHIELD and his lover and lieutenant seriously considering defecting. MichaelSeptember 24, 2015 7:44 PM Punisher annual #4 One thing never made sense to me about the Microchip story- why did Micro delete the crooked deputy's file? Was he trying to protect her, and did he lie to Frank about being unable to find her? MichaelSeptember 24, 2015 7:42 PM Daredevil annual #7 Crippler claims he joined Hydra when he learned of Strucker's return.If Strucker's return is such a closely guarded secret that few people outside of Hydra and the Skull's organization know about it, then how did Crippler find out? Matt PosnerSeptember 24, 2015 7:26 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 The Alicia iMasters Storm in this storyline is the same one later retconned to be Lyja the Laserfist, who isn't blind and doesn't have especially keen hearing, so the plot element of her recognizing Peter's voice no longer makes sense. Leaving that out, this is one of my favorite story arcs from the 90s. kvetoSeptember 24, 2015 6:34 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_universe_(fan_fiction) InstantiationSeptember 24, 2015 6:32 PM Thor #128 The backup tale for this issue, which features some really astonishing artwork, depicts a vision of Ragnarok, after which a "young, new race of gods ... joyously takes domain." Maybe the germ of something there. InstantiationSeptember 24, 2015 6:25 PM Journey Into Mystery #120-125 / Thor #126-127 There's a funny disconnect between balloons and image in #126, p. 10, third panel. The image is a closeup of part of Seidring the Merciless's face. You can tell it's Seidring just based on the eyebrows. But the balloons clearly have the face speaking as Odin ("thy liege," "my son [Thor]," etc.). Another voice answers from off-panel right, which is where Seidring would be standing in relation to Odin, and it's clearly Seidring speaking. The Odin balloons should have been angled off-panel left, and the Seidring balloon should have been coming directly from the face. Or, it should have been a closeup of bushy-eyebrowed Odin. For whatever reason, Lee and Kirby were not on the same page here. These issues (and this arc really runs through #130) are quite busy with sub-plots, some more successful than others. I do very much like all the parts that concern Hercules, and Pluto (god also of money) as a Hollywood producer is delicious satire, making the most of the intersection between these mythological entities and the modern world. Piotr WSeptember 24, 2015 6:09 PM X-Factor #65-68 Oh and something I forgot: @Michael, it actually *is* the image of Colossus in the epilogue. It's taken from the UXM 279, from the scene where Colossus moves through the school's defenses. The image of Xavier is from that issue, too. As for Apocalypse being a Celestial... personally, I think he meant a "celestial pantheon", lower-case "c", meaning some sort of gods. I don't think he was meant to a Celestial, as in a Kirby alien... Piotr WSeptember 24, 2015 6:03 PM X-Factor #65-68 Uh. Another storyline I considered great in my teens... now, not so much. I really don't like this whole dystopian future from Cable's backstory - and this is the storyline which introduces it. Did we really need another dystopian future in X-Men books? Did we really need another time traveller in the form of Askani? Eh... Aside from that, the Dark Riders are totally uninteresting, I've never liked them. I also don't like what this story does with Apocalypse - maybe before there was something interesting to him, but here he gets turned into a completely bland, bombastic uber-villain. And I feel he often devolves back into that form in later stories. I've never liked the character, I admit... And aside from that, he looks like a Ninja Turtle in this story :) Art-wise, these issues are uneven. There *is* something to like about Portacio, but like the rest of Image guys, he's style over substance. The final battle with Apocalypse is very poorly choreographed and drawn. On the other hand, Portacio's still better than Liefeld... BTW. Any ideas on how Askani got from Earth to the Moon? I think there's virtually not a hint of explanation here, but maybe I'm missing something? fnord12September 24, 2015 5:44 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 @kveto, seems to be describing some kind of alternate universe. Not a fan of those. Piotr WSeptember 24, 2015 5:42 PM Uncanny X-Men #280 Oh my. I read this storyline when I was around 15... back then, I quite liked it. Now, I see how... corny it is. Especially the final issue, with badly-inked Andy Kubert art, Rogue's inexplicably-torn costume, the X-Men aiding Xavier on the Astral Plane with purely physical powers and so on... This isn't a good story by any means. The last good part is X-Men 279... the rest is a mess. BTW. I have to ask: not that I like post-Claremont X-Men stories, because I often don't. Still, was what came immediately later such a total trainwreck as some of you guys say? When I think of comic book trainwreck, I think Spider-Man's Clone Saga. Or early Image output. Post-Claremont X-Men books were mediocre, but were they truly a catastrophe? JSfanSeptember 24, 2015 5:23 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 I believe they are, Kveto. kvetoSeptember 24, 2015 5:11 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 Here you go, fnord https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Kent Ataru320September 24, 2015 4:58 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 Nooo, not the foot painting!!! And just when we had people who needed to see how its done! (looking at you, Liefeld) And...the Painter is a bag of bugs...I suddenly have a weird fusion of Oogie-Boogie and the cockroach alien from MiB in my head from that image. Thanos6September 24, 2015 4:56 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 The Painter's quote from the "macabre king" is from, well, Stephen King. fnord12September 24, 2015 4:22 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 Never heard of 'em. kvetoSeptember 24, 2015 4:19 PM Web of Spider-Man #73-76 Aren't the couple Clark Kent and Lois Lane? BobSeptember 24, 2015 4:19 PM Punisher annual #4 That guy-forced-to-drive-wears-seatbelt-kills-bad-guy scene was done in one of Tom Hanks' 80s movies. InstantiationSeptember 24, 2015 3:51 PM Uncanny X-Men #172-173 Recently, I looked these issues over for the first time since around when they were published (32 years ago, hard to believe). It surprised me that the big fight between Wolverine and The Silver Samurai occupies only a few pages. In my memory, it stood out so much that I expected it to be more like half an issue. At the time, it seemed shockingly brutal for the comics. Now, probably not so much. I quite liked Paul Smith's art. Although I enjoyed Cockrum's initial run on the New X-Men, after Byrne (and a guest appearance by the excellent Brent Anderson), Cockrum's work wasn't doing it for me, so guest artists like Sienkiewicz (#159) and Anderson again (#160) were always welcome. Smith helped get me back into the spirit of things with this mag, which had previously seemed so central. The title of the second issue ("To Have and Have Not") is borrowed from the title of a Hemingway novel, of course ... or, if you prefer, from the much superior Howard Hawks film adaptation with Bogart and Bacall. RobertSeptember 24, 2015 3:15 PM Daredevil annual #7 Bird cage liner. Red CometSeptember 24, 2015 1:18 PM Hulk #142 I like the background bit where Hulk downs that waiter's entire plate of shrimp. People don't usually think of Alan Moore as a funny writer, but he often uses that same gag (and uses it well) in his comics. Max_SpiderSeptember 24, 2015 1:06 PM X-Factor #70 Supposedly the post-Regenesis New Mutants had a theme of dealing with unfinished business and loose ends, so we may be seeing more stuff in this project that'll come up again in that era. fnord12September 24, 2015 12:35 PM Fantastic Four #129-132 Thanks Shar. MattSeptember 24, 2015 12:16 PM Thor #431-433 God, I hated DeFalco's Thor run. When Rhodey took over as Iron Man (both times), Tony Stark was still in the book. When John Walker stole the mantle of Captain America from Steve Rogers, Steve was sill in the book -- and even still superheroing as the Captain. When Eric Masterson takes on the power of Thor... Thor is simply gone. And for the next 25 issues. Basically, this seems like a way to turn Thor into just another New York superhero. Couple this to the total mischaracterization of Kitty Pryde's powers and personality in the preceding arc; to the aping of Silver Age tropes in every facet of the book; and worst, to the complete undoing of most of the interesting stuff that Walt Simonson did with book both thematically and visually -- ugh, ugh, ugh. I just hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate this. MikeCheyneSeptember 24, 2015 11:23 AM Thor #182-183 How many times does Doom take off his mask, say that even he cannot stand to look at his face, and then break a mirror? SharSeptember 24, 2015 10:38 AM Fantastic Four #129-132 This is minor, but the Medusa & Crystal-watching-over-Pietro sequence is shown twice (the first one should probably be removed as it doesn't correspond to the text about Medusa and Reed). StevenSeptember 24, 2015 9:53 AM Thor #431-433 I enjoyed reading Thor during Tom DeFalco's run up to this point. Eric Masterson as Thor causes my interest to decline. StevenSeptember 24, 2015 9:41 AM Avengers #332-333 Did Larry Hama quit or was he fired? If he quit, was it because the Spider-Man office wouldn't allow him to use Spider-Man and Sandman? Is this Wolverine's first appearance in an issue of Avengers? I like the UN affiliation and roster structure that Hama gave the team. Too bad Bob Harras would abandon both. MichaelSeptember 24, 2015 8:18 AM Thor #431-433 I don't know- I think the late '80's were in some ways even more extreme than the '90's- look at 1987. We had Strange blowing up a child, Iron Man freeing 5 super-villains, who go on to badly injure the guards, Scott hallucinating and nearly killing Jean and Storm nearly killing Alex because,um,reasons. And it continued in the late '80s- Inferno would have never seen the light of day even 5 years earlier. fnord12September 24, 2015 7:40 AM X-Factor #69 @Michael, regarding Gyrich. It might be him but since he's not named i don't think i'll tag him. The guy on the other end of the panel is practically a clone of him, so he may just be meant to represent Generic Government Agent. fnord12September 24, 2015 7:37 AM Daredevil #133 Dan, the lettercol in this issue is indeed replaced by a testimonial from Wolfman, including a story about how Wolfman saw Geller bend a key in his hand without applying force and a copy of the illustration that Geller drew that matched an original drawing that Wolfman made. I would be more than willing to accept that the whole thing was just hype, though, if Wolfman later said that he never really believed that Geller was magic. fnord12September 24, 2015 7:29 AM Ms. Marvel #20-21 Thanks Luke. fnord12September 24, 2015 7:27 AM Thor #431-433 Regarding the costume, Erik does take his design to a tailor to get made. You can see him picking it up in the panel where i mention his ponytail. Annihilus next appears in Infinity Gauntlet #5 with no reference to his fate here. fnord12September 24, 2015 7:17 AM Spider-Woman Origin #1-5 The Luna brothers had done a relatively well received series called Ultra for Image prior to this. Luke BlanchardSeptember 24, 2015 5:22 AM Ms. Marvel #20-21 If you'll pardon a minor correction, you've listed Bob Wiacek as a penciller rather than inker. BobSeptember 24, 2015 3:30 AM Thor #431-433 I think the violent attitude wasn't so much a 90s thing (despite DeFalco's constant cries "It's the 90s, dude!" in the script), but an outgrowth of the grimdark rot of the late 80s. After Frank Millar's Dark Knight, Claremont's Wolverine and Moore's Watchmen, we kept getting subjected to more and more imitations of grimdark. But, by the time the 90s rolled around around, any nuance and subtlety was lost (not that Miller had it, anyway), and it just became bloodthirsty revenge fantasies. The worst I remember comes in the form of Cable, who, a few short months later in X-Force, will gun down and seemingly murder a completely surrendered Black Tom Cassidy in cold blood. And, sadly, this vigilante lynching is not depicted as anything other than "Hey, kids! Isn't Cable cool and extreme? He totally means business, unlike those wussie Avengers and Fantastic Four!" BobSeptember 24, 2015 3:10 AM Thor #431-433 That panel of Heimdall addressing Thor is amazing. PeterASeptember 24, 2015 2:03 AM Thor #431-433 Why does Eric-Thor get a beard when he transforms? Eric doesn't have a beard and Thor never became bearded when he transformed from Don Blake, so it seems incongruous. Not that I mind because I much, much prefer bearded Thor. I also don't understand why being an architect means he can design a "new" outfit, and how he'd then make said outfit? I've never seen Thor being bothered by ripped clothes before, he just transforms back and forth and is all nice looking again. You have to love the notion that Amora doesn't want to end up killing Thor, because Odin forbade it? Odin forbids lots of things, far lesser than, you know, killing a fellow Asgardian! And Loki is seriously serious about it now? He wasn't serious all the previous times? Love the Frenz art, I know he riffs on Kirby but it often seems so much tighter/cleaner than Kirby. He takes the best elements of Kirby and polishes them into something smoother. Both here and in the Avengers #333, Trimpe is a lot less good than he used to be on Hulk. I guess he really needs the right inker to embellish him? I wonder what a Trimpe inked by Sal Buscema would look like. (Since Frenz/Sal are awesome together whenever they do Spider-Girl, and since Sal inking his own work also looked great. I like his crispness) So Annihilus is now just a tiny big in armor again, based on that last page? He seems to constantly change. I also can't remember when he shows up next after this. I get the feeling he wasn't in DeFalco/Ryan's FF at all? I wish Annihilus would be used more out of the FF, both he and Blastaar work great for other heroes since they'd be so unfamiliar with them. I also wish Kang would've involved himself with Eric-Thor instead of Zarrko, coming up soon. FF3September 24, 2015 12:35 AM X-Factor #70 @Michael - The full line is "Scott is in mourning for a son I didn't know he had, and a wife he apparently never did." When typed out, I think it's clear that the script's intent was for Xavier to say that Scott never knew Madelyn, not that he "never had her." But the words "had" and "did" are italicized, giving the impression that you (and I originally) had that it was more whitewashing of Scott. So either bad lettering or the letterer really hated Maddie? PeterASeptember 24, 2015 12:24 AM Uncanny X-Men #280 If you do not look at th words, the final page gives me the impression the idea was originally Xavier would be dead. The cover implies it too, with the wailing over their pyrrhic victory. Why can't they ever kill off Xavier? He's as bad as Aunt May at needlessly sticking around. Gambit and Wolverine's fight looks stupid, why aren't his claws connecting? Why is Remy standing so close when he has a good long distance power? It wants to look epic but now they look like they both can't hit an immediate target. InstantiationSeptember 24, 2015 12:18 AM Journey Into Mystery #112 Following up on the last comment -- Vince Colletta's inking in the backup "Tales of Asgard" possessed far more finesse than Chic Stone's in the main story. This is a great issue to refer to if anyone ever doubts the importance of an inker's contribution. The art in the main stories finally equalled that of the backup "Tales" when Colletta began inking them starting with #116. For me, the Kirby/Colletta vision of Thor and his world remains definitive. Erik RobbinsSeptember 24, 2015 12:16 AM Avengers #332-333 "I wonder who invited Wolverine (but not the other X-Men)." He's Fury's "+1", of course. BobSeptember 24, 2015 12:00 AM Uncanny X-Men #280 How convenient that Rogue's clothes are blown off to perfectly match her Savage Land costume. BobSeptember 23, 2015 11:58 PM Iron Man #267-268 This doesn't look like Ryan's typical art. BobSeptember 23, 2015 11:57 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 Fun Fact: As Byrne, Louise Simonson and Claremont will tell you, "Fabian Nicieza" is Latin for "Company man who will gladly take your job after you get screwed over by editorial." MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 11:50 PM Thor #431-433 Loki's death was always intended to be a fakeout- I don't want to spoil it for anyone that doesn't know but the clues to what REALLY happened are there if you read the above panels and fnord's synopsis carefully. MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 11:47 PM X-Factor #70 Just to clarify, Lorna's thong was first seen in the Kings of Pain Annuals. BobSeptember 23, 2015 11:46 PM Thor #431-433 432 was hyped to the high heavens as the absolute, last time, final, this-time-we-mean-it conflict between Thor and Loki, and they absolutely swore that Loki would not, in no no way, be returning never, ever, ever. Anyone know how long before they backtracked on that? I liked some of DeFalco and Frenz's run, but I gave up after I saw the ridiculous new Thor. BobSeptember 23, 2015 11:41 PM X-Factor #69 There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how Portacio draws Warren's wings. They change in every panel, whether folded or out. Apparently, the idea of keeping characters on model wasn't 90s enough for the Image boys. BobSeptember 23, 2015 11:38 PM X-Factor #70 Either Lorna's outfit has convenient detachable pants, or she keeps a thongtastic version of costume for travel purposes. Either way, an embarrassing bit of fan service by David and some borderline sexual harassment by Guido. BobSeptember 23, 2015 11:35 PM Uncanny X-Men #280 You immediately can tell Claremont's off the book, because when Forge grabs Psylocke and uses her psychic knife on Polaris, there isn't a paragraph-long speech explaining that it's the "focused totality of her mental powers." BobSeptember 23, 2015 11:32 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 Although what followed from Lee and his successors was godawful, this book needed an intervention. Claremont wanted to keep the Shadow King plot going through #300, and give us a rehash of Dark Phoenix in the form of Dark Wolverine and a fake-out S&M Jean. BobSeptember 23, 2015 11:30 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 For a being that supposedly represents all that is dark, the Shadow King accomplishes very little in the way of actual evil, and seems limited mostly to giving Claremont an excuse to make the female characters act slutty. Luis DantasSeptember 23, 2015 11:28 PM Thor #431-433 Sorry, my wording in the previous piece became overtricked, garbled. Anyway, it is weird how violence became so popular in these times. A consequence of the war propaganda of Desert Storm, perhaps? Red CometSeptember 23, 2015 11:06 PM Spider-Woman Origin #1-5 Woof. That art's a dog all right. I'd bet they were new talent and this mini-series was probably a try-out gig for them. The photoshop after-effects and computer coloring combined with the stiffness of the art are what make it look like stills from a cartoon. MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 11:03 PM X-Factor #70 Yeah, we saw what happened to the Inferno babies in the Zeb Wells New Mutants series. But my point is that PAD should have addressed it SOMEHOW, if only because the plot relied on the X-characters trusting Val. But PAD ignored a lot of what had gone before to make his X-Factor series work, although in some cases it was necessary because previous writers had left these characters a mess. More on that next issue. Red CometSeptember 23, 2015 10:48 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 I always liked these issues and this Shi'ar storyline. Gambit using the whole deck is pretty kewl. It helps that I was the right age for when Jim Lee's art was the coolest thing on the planet, though I can see why people who were at that same right age during the Byrne era might not like it as much. And for some additional info: the Magneto vs. Shadow King panel alludes to a fight for control of the Hellfire Club they had that was never shown. This is why Magneto gives up leading the Club for seemingly no reason and is found by Rogue licking his wounds at his Savage Land base. Shadow King was also supposed to have had some encounter with Rachel Summers in an (at the time) upcoming Excalibur special which never came out. I believe most of that special ended up becoming the X-men True Friends mini-series in the late 90s. Red CometSeptember 23, 2015 10:17 PM X-Factor #70 @Michael The Inferno babies were a Louise Simonson plotline so that got dropped when she left New Mutants and X-Factor. I think it was finally resolved in one of the countless New Mutants relaunches over the past 10 years. Luis DantasSeptember 23, 2015 10:14 PM Thor #431-433 What is it with the 1990s and this "I can't be bothered to avoid answering violence with anything more mature than further violence" attitude so eloquently expressed by Eric in these stories (but seen aplenty elsewhere)? Did anything happen that triggered such a noticeable wave of immaturity in readers? Tabe8September 23, 2015 10:04 PM Uncanny X-Men #280 I read these issues in real time, and looking back shortly after (and even now), it felt like an ending. Claremont and the various artists took this book to crazy, wild and fun times. Yet after Inferno (siege perilous specifically) this book became a mess. And here was the storyline that cleaned everything up. The gang was back together and the future seemed bright. There were no huge dangling plots that I can remember after this story. It felt triumphant. And knowing soon that Claremont would be off the book, it was a great way for him to leave the team for future writers. Claremont created so many details, so many relationships, so much conflict. He filled the x-men with a huge amount of history over all those years of writing. Alas, future writers (AND EDITORS) would destroy all this greatness relatively quickly. MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 9:52 PM Thor #431-433 Fitting these issues into Infinity Gauntlet is impossible. "Odin" is awake and Thor is trying to hide his identity when She-Hulk and Captain America are present. (Although, it's possible that Eric trusted Cap but not Jen for some reason.) ChrisSeptember 23, 2015 9:48 PM Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #25-26 The art is not up to Guice's usual standard, but comparison to earlier issues and future ones don't have the problems his art here has. I always assumed it was because of the inker, not Guice. Of course, that's just draftsmanship. Any issues with layout/storytelling would all be Guice. MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 9:45 PM Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #25-26 "allowing Garotte to enter the building"- I don't think Garotte is entering the building personally- the dialogue makes it sound like he's sending an LMD into the building. ChrisWSeptember 23, 2015 9:42 PM X-Factor #70 Geez, how did I forget Illyana's babbling at Xavier and Corsair about Scott's son? And, thinking about it, when they shared memories in "New Mutants" #51, he would have seen the X-Babies kicked out of the Danger Room so Scott and Ororo could fight, well after Nathan Christopher was born. "And wife that he apparently never did" I would write off as Xavier's exposition. Doesn't help the Scott-Jean-Maddie triangle, but I think it's a fair way for Xavier to describe the results when he's really not focusing on anything Madelyne ever had anything to do with. There are better ways to briefly summarize complicated subplots, but they wouldn't be discovered until Garth Ennis was writing "Preacher." Meanwhile, we're going to get worse examples in the next few issues of "X-Men." MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 9:42 PM Avengers #332-333 I never had a problem with Rage's deduction. He reasoned that Doom would never risk being killed when his mother still needed him to rescue her. Toss in Doom's love of Exact Words and the whole thing makes sense. MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 9:36 PM Iron Man #267-268 This issue was definitely a necessary retcon at the time to get rid of the Vietnam references in Tony's origin. MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 9:31 PM X-Factor #70 Also, the New Mutants told Xavier Maddie gave birth to a son. MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 9:26 PM Uncanny X-Men #280 Note that Colossus was on the ship in X-Factor 69 but he seems to have mysteriously teleported on to Muir Island in this story. ChrisWSeptember 23, 2015 9:22 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 Red Comet, I more-or-less agree. Claremont defined the X-Men (and Miller defined Daredevil) so perfectly that it's almost impossible to see what could be done with them. I gave up on "X-Men" just before #300. I did buy the first Grant Morrison issue, but could not recognize any of these people anymore. I liked one exchange of dialogue. "We have work to do in El Salvador." "That's more than the people of El Salvador have." Once in a great while I go on Wikipedia or TVtropes or whatever website I find, and read about the X-Men's adventures afterwards, and literally cannot recognize anything of the characters who once meant so much to me. MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 9:18 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 Xavier notes when Colossus breaks in that the defenses should have triggered automatically but that they've been substantially disengaged. Sam, Nova, Namorita , Boom Boom and Feral disengaged the defenses in New Warriors Annual 1. And no, there's no footnote, but that's par for the course for Marvel at this time. MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 9:10 PM X-Factor #69 Is one of the guys in the first scan supposed to be Gyrich? ChrisWSeptember 23, 2015 8:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 Michael, is there a reference in "Kings of Pain" to messing with the mansion's defenses? Cable and the New Mutants lived there and would have made modifications. Forge and Banshee were there for a while. Kitty was active there before the Cross-Time Caper. Who knows what changes Magneto made during his time as headmaster, or what changes the X-Men made after the Mutant Massacre. Or even what Mr. Sinister did around "Inferno." This is just an idle question. Maybe there was a specific reference to the New Warriors and I really don't remember "Kings of Pain" - I barely looked at the issues when Fnord placed them - but even now my first reaction is 'what about all the other people who've been in and out of the underground mansion?' and that feeling is familiar. There might well be a footnote that says something about the New Warriors, it's just... Really? How can you be so sure that they did it? Like I say, just an idle question. Red CometSeptember 23, 2015 8:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 Can't blame you there. I read until Uncanny X-men #500 and tried it again for a year when Bendis took over. Mostly dreck, all of it, with a few entertaining spots here and there. Claremont's run was the defining run on X-men and everything that came after is basically a riff on it. Even Grant Morrison's acclaimed run is mostly him trying to do away with Claremont's influence and make the X-men fresh...but at the end of the day that still makes his run all about Claremont's X-men. Daredevil post-Frank Miller has the same problem. I think they should have just ended both titles, but unfortunately that doesn't fly when it's a franchise or intellectual property the company wants to make money off of. ChrisWSeptember 23, 2015 8:49 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 Yeah, but did it include the parts about him and Jean? Don't answer that, I don't want to know. There's a legal reason to profess ignorance about this stuff. If you say you were influenced by such-and-such [like if Brad Bird said he really liked "Watchmen" and the Fantastic Four while talking about The Incredibles] then you're open for a nonsense suit which nonetheless costs money to defend against. Seriously. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were constantly fighting off nuisance lawsuits, like a guy who drew George Washington in a space suit and met either of them once, and was convinced that they stole his idea to create the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Incredibly stupid, especially given that their influences on the early Turtles were obvious, but they had to pay a lawyer and waste time giving depositions and all that. I think the Dark Wolverine Saga is a stupid idea in the first place. I can't imagined I would have liked it even if Claremont had remained in control. This is the point where I become so distant from the mutant titles that I don't even want to know what happens to these characters, much less care who stole what idea or if they came up with it on their own. [Alan Davis, Peter David and Larry Hama's runs which are currently on-going notwithstanding.] MichaelSeptember 23, 2015 8:48 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 Claremont left on the page where the Shadow King says "Why settle for the Earth when I can claim the stars?"- the Muir Island scenes follow. Red CometSeptember 23, 2015 8:16 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 @ChrisW The Dark Wolverine Saga more or less played out in Mark Millar's Enemy of the State story, complete with the Hand resurrection angle and an ally (Millar used Elektra instead of Jean Grey) going undercover to stop him. Brian Cronin claims Millar knew nothing about Claremont's story in the Comic Legends Revealed article I linked. Could be true I guess, but then I also don't completely believe the Hunger Games writer about having never heard of Battle Royale. ChrisWSeptember 23, 2015 8:14 PM X-Factor #70 Charlie knew that Scott had a son, or at least a child. Madelyne was very very pregnant when he went to Paris to assist in Magneto's trial. X-ellent issue. Immediately reminiscent of Claremont at his best, and funny. Fnord, I'm surprised that you left out the 'he's all right' scene, or at the very least, the final 'what am I going to do with thirteen X-Men.' Is there any better way to show that the series has indeed come full circle from where it was back in 1975? ChrisWSeptember 23, 2015 8:09 PM Uncanny X-Men #280 And so it ends. ChrisWSeptember 23, 2015 7:57 PM X-Factor #69 The Mystique/Val Cooper subplot had obviously been in mind the entire time. I wonder if that what the 'with lots of help' line was about. Legally for work-for-hire purposes, Claremont had probably done a lot of work on this story, and a good chunk of it was exactly what he had intended from the start. Given that Marvel was ready to hit paydirt with the new X-titles, and possibly the slightest amount of shame at the way they were treating the guy who did more than anyone else to build them into the franchise they became, there was no sense opening themselves up to any legal challenges. That said, you can feel the insularity of the Marvel mentality at this point. None of this would be understandable if you weren't already following "X-Men." Under Claremont, and even Weezie, the "New Mutants" and "X-Factor" at least existed on their own, even with the crossovers. ["Inferno" notwithstanding.] They may not have been good, and they may have started depending on each other's storylines more than they should [Illyana vs. Forge] but they complemented each other as much as possible rather than simply merged. Except for the panel where X-Factor goes in, and arguably Legion going nuts, there is not a single scan on this page that would make sense to someone who only followed the adventures of the founding X-Men. ChrisWSeptember 23, 2015 7:45 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 And so it ends. I don't recall what page specifically Claremont left on, but I believe it was during the 'Xavier rescues Peter' scene. The following scene is with Gambit, Jubilee and Wolverine on Muir Isle, and reeks of Nicieza scripting. "Girls are girls and guys are goobers"? I'm am convinced that "Bang, you dead" is exactly what was supposed to happen, as a conclusion to the plotline which had been built up since #251 and the start of the Dark Wolverine Saga. Had it actually happened, it would have been... I won't say "awesome" because the Dark Wolverine Saga actually sounds kind of stupid, but Gambit's constantly defeating Wolvie would have made sense. I don't think Claremont had written #1-3 of the new series yet. My understanding was that it was agreed with him and Harras that scripting those issues would be his 'farewell bonus' or something similar. Lee had probably just started drawing them at the time, hence all the guest-artists. Red CometSeptember 23, 2015 6:58 PM Uncanny X-Men #278-279 Claremont had basically been ousted by Bob Harras in favor of the Image crew at this point. I think he has said that page 8 of issue #279 was the end of his run on Uncanny. Since he left literally mid-way through the issue I suppose this means he had already written X-men #1-3 for Jim Lee to draw, probably right after they got done with the Shi'ar story. It wouldn't be long before he did that "Cog in the Machine" interview with Comics Journal. Comics Scene and Comics Interview also ran stories with Claremont talking about how his X-men #1 line-up was going to be somewhat different with Guido/Strong Guy on the team and Forge remaining as a main team member instead of becoming mostly a supporting character. One of those stories (Interview I think) ran so close to the drama that it included a blurb at the end talking about how Claremont had suddenly left and these plans were now up in the air. As for the Muir Island Saga: the Shadow King story was actually intended to last a bit longer, culminating in Xavier's death and the "Dark Wolverine Saga." Pretty interesting stuff and Claremont has gone over it in interviews. CBR compiled a lot of the info in a Comic Legends Revealed from a few years ago: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/05/21/comic-book-legends-revealed-208/ Fun fact: Claremont ghost wrote several issues of Alan Davis' X-men run before he came back for issue #100 and sorta kinda got to do Dark Wolverine by having him be a Horseman of Apocalypse rather than a Hand zombie. JPSeptember 23, 2015 6:36 PM Spider-Woman Origin #1-5 I've read a million bad stories, but I never get too upset about them because nine times out of ten I believe that even hacks have their hearts in the right place. Nobody TRIES to do bad work (one hopes). cullenSeptember 23, 2015 5:43 PM Spider-Woman Origin #1-5 @Jesse I agree the art is terrible crap, but since the artists are two men i don't think it's cool to resort to misogynist (+anti-goth!) tropes to describe it. Erik BeckSeptember 23, 2015 5:40 PM Uncanny X-Men #256-258 I remember the first time I saw Psylocke's new costume and I thought, "Wow, that's hot, but she must sleep in that thing, because I can't imagine how long it would take for her to put on all those individual bands on her legs." Matthew BradleySeptember 23, 2015 5:07 PM Hulk #208 It's curious that the Hulk seems to be the only one seriously upset over Jarella's death, since in many of her prior appearances, he had Banner's brain, so Bruce might have as much claim to being her "true love" as Greenskin, if not more. Did Len forget? JesseSeptember 23, 2015 4:27 PM Uncanny X-Men annual #12 Yes, that is Ann Nocenti calling Mojo an idiot. So in this issue we have the comic book version of the real–life Ann Nocenti as well as Ricochet Rita both in the Mojoverse at the same time. It has always bugged me that it was later written that Rita became Spiral. The character of Rita was based off of the physical appearance of Nocenti, so maybe it was really Mojoverse Nocenti who became Spiral, and Rita is still trouncing around trying to keep tabs on the X-Babies. Hey they look identical, so they could have switched outfits at some point. It’s no more far-fetched than the Jean Grey/Phoenix/Madelyne Pryor switch-a-roos, or that of Betsy Braddock/Psylocke/Revanche, or all of that retconned Skrull/Secret Invasion crap. Really though, Ricochet Rita has to be one of the more tragic characters in the Marvel universe. There was a sweet girl just trying to earn a living and make her mark in the world, when BAM! They kill her dog and throw her in to an alternate dimension with sights that drive her mad. She overcomes this, however, and actually begins to make do with life in that bizarre reality, and then later on she gets perverted in to Spiral. That’s just too tough for me to accept from a medium that I read to remove myself from a world in which good-hearted people really do have their souls crushed daily, so I’m making the whole Nocenti/Rita switch cannon in my mind. Thanos6September 23, 2015 3:45 PM Avengers #332-333 Different strokes. I remember this storyline fondly, and quite enjoy Rage's deduction and Doom's abuse of semantics. RobertSeptember 23, 2015 2:55 PM Thor #431-433 I've made no secret of my fondness for the DeFalco-Frenz run. I admit it's part nostalgia based but still, for the most part, they're fun uncomplicated comics I enjoy. I welcomed this status quo change at the time. I liked Eric and I thought the last few issues before this were not the greatest. I was old enough to love the real Thor while young enough to enjoy the new "cool" one. Plus I knew it was a temporary thing, like with Cap and Iron Man and Green Lantern before. I was fine with that more than I would be as I grew older and these sorts of stunts started to get on my nerves. When I started to dislike this particular storyline was when it became apparent DeFalco was really going to do nothing special with the concept of Eric as Thor. Then I started looking forward to #450, assuming that would be when real Thor came back. I'll save my thoughts and feelings on that until we get there but that marked the beginning of the end for me as a regular Thor reader. JesseSeptember 23, 2015 2:47 PM Spider-Woman Origin #1-5 The art looks like it was drawn by that moody girl in high-school who only wore black and always sat at the back of the room- the one who only came alive in art class but who had no real talent beyond penciling hollow angst. This crap (and constant retcons) is the reason I don't buy Marvel comics anymore. It doesn't matter how good the writing may be; comics are a visual medium and the artwork must be at least be beyond the quality of an amateur. If this is good enough to be published, then I and they have very different ideas about what constitutes quality. david banesSeptember 23, 2015 2:20 PM Thor #431-433 Sif is borrowing Karnilla's look from the mid-80's. david banesSeptember 23, 2015 2:03 PM Uncanny X-Men #273-277 I on the other hand loved the days when X-Men had space adventures with the Star Jammers. Sadly the middle 80s happened and I think that's where the true X-Men had to emerge. I think why I like the space age is that's where Colossus and Nightcrawler are allowed to exist a little easier. This story looks like a mess though. Dan H.September 23, 2015 11:23 AM Daredevil #133 "I'm vaguely interested in knowing if Marv Wolfman really believed in Geller's abilities" It's been a while, but isn't there a note from Marv in the letter column for this issue that makes it clear he's totally enthralled by Gellar? I believe that's what Evanier was responding to in the bit from #137 that you included here. BerendSeptember 23, 2015 10:04 AM Silver Surfer annual #4 I don't think the intention was to make Star Fox a rapist. Maybe Marz thought of his powers more as super-charisma rather than mind control? He should've thought it through though. Tony sleeping with the girlfriend the Crimson Dynamo is just horrible, but you have a similar scene in Revenge of the Nerds. For some reason people just didn't seem to realize what a terrible thing they had their heroes do. (The real creepy thing: Rape by deception wouldn't be criminalized until about 20 years after this story was released.) Erik BeckSeptember 23, 2015 7:52 AM Avengers #312 If I'm going to be a big Byrne fan, I also should call him to task. He deserves the same criticism here that he leveled at Claremont over his use of Doom - don't make out of character changes to characters being primarily used in another book. It's clear that this doesn't gel with what has been going in the X-books, including having Pyro's dialogue about Avalanche's injuries re-written (complete with spelling error). Also, yeah, the Avengers have faced Freedom Force before and should be more aware. Byrne just didn't do the proper research this time. He should have done a better job or used different characters. fnord12September 23, 2015 7:24 AM What's Missing Looking at the MCP, it seems that All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes has some modern day sequences (featuring Loki, Captain America, and Nick Fury). But yeah, the Golden Age character that that series and Robinson's Invaders brought in (some of which i think weren't even old Timely characters; they were just characters that had fallen into the public domain) could i guess be listed in the "Appearances of" section under Pre-FF books. I'm not sure if it's worth listing them yet since there won't be any references to them in my project for a while, but i'll definitely add them when i see the characters referenced in other books. (And either here or the forum is fine for stuff like that. Thanks.) fnord12September 23, 2015 7:17 AM X-Factor #65-68 Askani also says "Curse me for a novice!" at one point, so mix in some Dr. Strange with everything else. Or add it to support for Nathan's theory that Storm is related to the Faltine. Luke BlanchardSeptember 23, 2015 4:31 AM Strange Tales #128 (Dr. Strange) It's not Claremont, but there's a "with no quarter asked--or given!" during the fight. It makes me wonder how far back that goes. BerendSeptember 23, 2015 3:25 AM Fantastic Four annual #24 (Super-Skrull) Wow, Sl'gur't looks just like she does in Secret Invasion! I didn't know the Skrull religion was this old! cullenSeptember 23, 2015 2:53 AM What's Missing er, James Robinson's *Invaders*. DermieSeptember 23, 2015 12:46 AM Silver Surfer annual #4 Personally, I justify the Starfox story by pushing it ahead over a decade and tying it into the Starfox story from Dan Slott's SHE-HULK. We learn there that there was a period where Eros' mind was damaged due to tampering by Thanos, causing him to engage in out-of-character behaviour. As far as I'm concerned, this story takes place during that period, and that is why Eros was using his powers inappropriately here. As far as I can see, there is nothing in this story that requires it to take place anywhere near its publication date. BobSeptember 23, 2015 12:34 AM Daredevil #133 Footage from Gellar's disastrous Carson appearance, with commentary from Randi, can be found here: Johnny, who was a former stage magician himself and knew Uri was a fraud, handled it beautifully. I shudder to think how Leno or Fallon would have handled it. Erik BeckSeptember 22, 2015 10:34 PM Thor #411-412 @Ben Herman - You beat me to it. I don't know how they got away with that. ChrisWSeptember 22, 2015 9:49 PM X-Factor #65-68 A mixture of everything that came before. She's a redhead, so she must be related. She uses Storm's phrases, so Ororo was obviously an influence on her or the society she comes from. Using phrases like "brother" is just a way to cover up for future decisions about whether it's slang or literal. The Cross-Time Caper and various decisions about Longshot and Cable were set-ups and/or inspirations for this, not to mention Stryfe turning out to be Cable. I enjoyed this story when it came out, mostly because Portacio was closer to the Lee side of drawing than the Liefeld, but yikes, this does look messy, and it doesn't really explain anything. If anything, it's another good lesson in scripting how you can fit words into a story the scripter doesn't really have anything to do with and make it still work. Once we reach the point where Claremont is gone from the mutant titles, this place is going to explode with so many people insisting 'this character would do that, and here's why!' ChrisWSeptember 22, 2015 9:32 PM Silver Surfer #48 Did not like the direction this series was taking. Bad enough that instead of the cosmic adventures the Surfer should have been taking, he was getting caught up in soap operas and old continuity. [Mantis and Nova for the former, Englehart and Starlin's characters for the latter] I always got the sense that 'this is not what the Silver Surfer should be doing.' The second Kree-Skrull war was about as good as it got, and this, sir, was no Kree-Skrull war. Demanding that Galactus return all his memories of the people he led to slaughter as his herald? Why? What's the point? If Galactus and his heralds are truly cosmic beings, then they are truly above the life and death of mere mortals. If they aren't, then it doesn't work. As bad as this was, it doesn't compare to John Byrne's "Galactus vs. Darkseid" crossover, which used the characters in continuity and referred to this very issue as a minor plot point. At least Byrne's crossover had a good punchline [SPOILER WARNING: Galactus tries to eat Apokolips, and after finally crushing all resistance, sets up his machine and discovers that the planet has no substance whatsoever that he can use. He asks Darkseid why he futilely wasted so much time and so many lives to stop him, and Darkseid answers (roughly) 'look at me, look at this planet, what else am I going to do?' Great punchline for a lousy story, and it had the horrors of being in continuity too. Why Orion decided to save Apokolips instead of enjoying the show I cannot even fathom.] Sorry for the digression, but I am absolutely not a fan of this era of the Silver Surfer. Except for Ron Lim's art. ChrisWSeptember 22, 2015 9:18 PM Uncanny X-Men #249-250 I don't know how much harder or easier the jackets and stuff made them to draw, but I always assumed they were ripping off superior writers over at DC. By this point, Grant Morrison was getting started with "Animal Man" and his first issue had Buddy choosing to wear a jacket because (a) a skintight outfit was kind of embarrassing and (b) it gave him a place to put his wallet and his keys. I think fnord pointed out in one of his Rob Liefeld reviews that nobody ever actually uses the pockets they are so blatantly festooned with. They just wanted to make it 'look military' but in the military, those pockets are there for a reason: to store things that you have a regular or semi-regular (or just potential) need for. And they get used. ChrisWSeptember 22, 2015 9:00 PM Uncanny X-Men #268 Wolvie wasn't in the Kulan Gath two-parter. I believe he was hanging out with Kitty in their own miniseries at the time. In "Secret Wars" they were just both being really stupid. cullenSeptember 22, 2015 7:56 PM What's Missing Not sure if I should post this under "Are you gonna cover..?" in the forum or here, so pls let me know if I erred: There's a 2011 series 'All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes' that added more of Marvel/Timely/Atlas's golden-age characters to 616 continuity. I know at least some of it occurred in the past, but I don't know if the entire series has a framing sequence or not. It also looks like it got cut short before they could finish the story... (a fate to also befall James Robinson's Avengers, which was similarly attempting to rehabilitate forgotten Golden Age Marvels). I figure this might add a few "pre-FF" titles to your list, along with this series itself (potentially): http://marvel.com/comics/series/9865/all-winners_squad_band_of_heroes_2011 David SalvittiSeptember 22, 2015 6:31 PM Super-Villain Team-Up #16-17 I have to send this issue to George Clinton & Bootsy....they would love to know they are comic book heroes (although they did create their own comic book characters in Sir Nose, Rumpofsteelskin, Bootzilla, Starchild, etc, etc......) P-FUNK RULES!!!!! MichaelSeptember 22, 2015 6:15 PM Guardians of the Galaxy annual #1 Trapping Korvac in a dimension where his powers don't work always seemed like a deus ex machina to me. Maybe if the previous chapters had hinted that there was a dimension where his powers don't work it would have worked better. MichaelSeptember 22, 2015 6:08 PM Silver Surfer annual #4 Yes, Marz's turning Starfox into a rapist was horrible. I can't believe he was allowed to do that in a BACKUP STORY. But like with the Tony-Stark-sleeping-with-Crimson-Dynamo's-girlfriend-in-his-body story, I guess nobody checked the backups and fill-ins too carefully. MichaelSeptember 22, 2015 6:02 PM Fantastic Four annual #24 This isn't the only attempt to retcon the Korvac Saga. Remember Gruenwald's "epilogue" in the TPB? Erik BeckSeptember 22, 2015 5:46 PM New Mutants #86 I also love how X-Force was the springboard for the new direction. Yes, because Spider-Man #1 and MacFarlane, of course, had nothing to do with that. BillSeptember 22, 2015 5:44 PM Fantastic Four annual #24 I never realized how much of an axe to grind Ralph Macchio had towards Jim Shooter. The last year or so (on this site) seems to show that Macchio made it his mission to go around the MU and try to dismantle anything Shooter had to do with. If true, that's incredibly petty. MichaelSeptember 22, 2015 5:19 PM Fantastic Four annual #24 (Super-Skrull) Fnord, I think you're misinterpreting this Annual. They're not just saying that the Super-Skrull survived his "death" via the method shown in Hulk 374-375. They're saying that he allowed Reptyl to defeat him and think he was dead. IOW, K'lrt threw the fight in Siver Surfer 28. I think this story was probably written BEFORE Hulk 374- maybe it was supposed to appear in a previous Annual or Marvel Comics Presents- and it was intended to show how the Super-Skrull survived. I also think that either Kaminski or some editor had problems with a loser like Reptyl defeating the Super-Skrull. FF3September 22, 2015 5:15 PM Fantastic Four #318-319 In the present day, Jonathan Hickman's 2015 Secret Wars rests a lot on the events of the original Secret Wars, along with the retcons here, more so I think than it does on Secret Wars II. You can, for instance, see the conflict between the ideas of evolution and god-hood, which is a theme here, being played with by Hickman. fnord12September 22, 2015 4:10 PM Silver Surfer annual #4 That's exactly what i had, it was just hidden by some broken code. Thanks! gfsdf gfbdSeptember 22, 2015 4:06 PM Silver Surfer annual #4 Quality rating is missing. How does C- sound? Ben HermanSeptember 22, 2015 1:19 PM Fantastic Four #350-354 Ah, yes, FF #350! I know that this issue caused a great deal of consternation among readers. But the best way to look at it is that Walter Simonson deliberately left a great deal of what Doctor Doom said open to interpretation. Simonson wanted individual readers to be able to decide for themselves which past appearances by Doom were the genuine article and which were Doombots. That is a far more elegant, respectful solution than what John Byrne did several years earlier in response to Chris Claremont's use of Doom in Uncanny X-Men. One thing to keep in mind with everything that Doctor Doom tells Kristoff and Ben Grimm in this issue... Doom might very well be lying through his teeth! He is an egomaniac who is absolutely obsessed with how others perceive him. It could very well be that Doom discovered the answer to defeating Kristoff only five minutes before this issue started, at which point he dispatched his so-called "greatest of my Doombots" to attack Kristoff and fight to a draw, at which point Doom himself made his spectacular entrance and does his oh-so-convenient routine of "Oh, Kristoff has been activated? Well that's a simple enough thing to deal with. There, problem solved. Honestly, I cannot believe that anyone thought this upstart kid would give me any sort of trouble. All those attempts to regain control of Latveria the past several months were actually by those silly Doombots of mine while I was, um, elsewhere busy with some, uh, stuff. Yeah, that's it... I mean, Doom is supreme!" In any case, yes, these are great issues. It is a genuine shame that Simonson was upset at Marvel's treatment of his wife and Claremont and so decided to quit the book. I mean, I do not blame Simonson at all for doing so. But a longer run by him would have been, well, fantastic. I am one of those who actually liked the Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan era of Fantastic Four. But, yes, given a choice, more FF by Simonson would have been my preference. FF3September 22, 2015 12:26 PM Uncanny X-Men #268 Cap and Wolverine have met before on panel, but hasn't it always been while Wolverine's had his mask on? I can think of Secret Wars I (when Wolverine has a feisty exchange that foreshadows was Cyclops thinks about him years later in AvX) and the crazy UXM issue from the mid-eighties where New York was under a spell from a Hyborian lich. In both those encounters, I think it's possible to imagine that Wolverine knew that he had met Steve before, but Steve didn't recognize him in mask, or was just being weirdly honorable in respecting the secret identity. That's something in character. And, as fnord has stated elsewhere, Steve /does/ meet a lot of costumes. He could have just forgot. Dan H.September 22, 2015 12:20 PM Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1-3,5 Regarding Scorpio's ID: The Marvel Appendix makes the point that Scorpio (in issue #1) uses the phrase "parable of doom," which had also been spoken by Baron Strucker in one of Steranko's Strange Tales stories. Also, both Strucker and Scorpio were masters of disguise. It's a pretty good hypothesis, considering that Steranko was probably intending to use a character he'd already introduced and there really weren't that many to choose from. Not sure if Strucker would have been a more or less satisfying identity than Jake Fury turned out to be. clydeSeptember 22, 2015 12:12 PM Punisher War Journal #29-30 From the wiki entry on Ghost Rider - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Rider_(Danny_Ketch) Erik BeckSeptember 22, 2015 12:08 PM Avengers West Coast annual #5 (Henry Pym) @Michael - A film made in a studio reproduction of my grandparents house. Literally. I have to admit, I have a soft spot for this story. Just a nice bit of harmless fun as an annual back-up. The exact type of thing for a back-up story in an annual. But yes, it is hell on continuity. Erik BeckSeptember 22, 2015 12:00 PM Uncanny X-Men #254-255 Add me to the list of those in favor of Wolverine's brown costume. The really weird thing, as I recall, is that he was wearing it X-Men #3, then in #4, he is captured and they find his old costume. That seemed like a strange jump to me, but fnord will get there soon and we can debate it more. As for this - well, this was the end of my original X-Men collection. I thought it clear that the teams would eventually merge, but since they had passed by #250, I couldn't conceive of when that might happen. I couldn't imagine there would be a whole other X-title crossover without them merging. I liked this "team." It reminded me of the team that Sean was on the rescue their loved ones from Arcade. That must be when Sean learned more about Amanda, because they've basically had no interaction together - she was Kurt's sometime girlfriend when Sean first lost his powers and left the team (before she revealed herself) and they have only been in the same issue twice since - when he helped rescue her from Arcade and for Scott and Maddy's wedding. They seemed to know each other too well for their first interaction here. Also, I was bothered that Sunder was still whole. And they had been so inconsistent with Tom and Sharon's state of minds as well as the whereabouts of Jamie and Siryn. I liked the concept of the team more than the execution. I did totally love Blob's landing though. Nathan AdlerSeptember 22, 2015 7:59 AM Uncanny X-Men #251-253 @Walter: The only time Gateway was referred as a living index was by Larry Hama in the Age of Apocalypse Weapon X title. That wasn't something suggested by Claremont. MichaelSeptember 22, 2015 7:49 AM Punisher War Journal #29-30 But the point is that we've seen the Penance Stare work on people like the Leader, so simply regretting nothing in and of itself shouldn't be enough to protect him from the stare. Erik BeckSeptember 22, 2015 7:27 AM Uncanny X-Men #251-253 To have these three issues together really makes it glaringly obvious how dis-jarring the art in #252 was at the time. I hated it then. Still hate it. Through all of AoV, and I was seeing him a lot in WCA, I clung to this version of Magneto that Claremont presents here. It's the "Get out of Jail Free" card for his reformation, which I still in my mind, hold to until the events of X-Men #1 force his hand in a different direction. It was nice to see Amanda Sefton re-appear here. It made me think that Claremont might finally start tying things together. Nathan AdlerSeptember 22, 2015 5:32 AM X-Factor #65-68 While Askani was later revealed to be a rebellion founded in the future by Rachel Grey, Chris Claremont stated on Comixfan that it was never his intention for Rachel to evolve into "Mother Askani". So let's look at the original details he provided in these issues: While she refers to young Nathan as "little brother", her additional reference to "our father" when talking to him would seem to rule her out as connected to Rachel since Uncanny X-Men Annual #14, also penned by Claremont, ruled out Scott as Rachel's father. This might instead suggest that Askani is a future child of Scott's with Jean, given she has psionic powers (i.e. psychic knife and Phoenix symbol at the centre of her forehead). However, she also refers to "The Chosen's family" instead of her own, implying she is not related. If you check closely, you'll recall she is also not red-haired like Jean or Rachel but was more auburn. She also refers to Nathan's father being savaged by Apocalypse in her future's past, yet in our timeline Scott was savaged by Mister Sinister. She also uses phrases like "praise the light" and "merciful bright lady", terms known to be regularly used by Ororo, not Rachel. So who did he intend this character from a side-reality to be? Thanos6September 22, 2015 2:52 AM Silver Surfer #48 It's always nice to see those rare moments of kindness from Galactus. BobSeptember 22, 2015 12:33 AM X-Factor #65-68 Even Apocalypse has the annoying "taunt voice" that Claremont gave all villains around this time. BobSeptember 22, 2015 12:30 AM Silver Surfer #48 Though the hype was on the mutants, this, David's Hulk and the last bit of Simonson's FF were easily the best stuff coming out of Marvel. Luis DantasSeptember 22, 2015 12:15 AM Punisher War Journal #29-30 Of course Punisher regrets nothing. He is a psychopath. That is what psychos _do_: fail to regret things. MichaelSeptember 21, 2015 11:46 PM X-Factor #65-68 He had an Asian mother and a white father- sometimes kids that had one white parent and one Asian parent look mostly Asian. BillSeptember 21, 2015 11:30 PM X-Factor #65-68 I was under the impression that Shinobi was Asian? If that's so, how could he be Sebastian Shaw's son? MichaelSeptember 21, 2015 9:50 PM Punisher War Journal #29-30 Interesting how Frank thinks the Penance Stare might not work on him. In New Thunderbolts, Ghost Rider tried to use the Penance Stare on Frank, and Frank shrugged it off, saying "I regret nothing". A lot of people (including me) had a problem with that but I suppose you could argue there's some support for that here. MichaelSeptember 21, 2015 9:38 PM X-Factor #65-68 According to Portacio, the writers felt that baby Nate was baggage, but they couldn't just write him out since Sinister's plot implied that he would become somebody important- hence, sending him to the future to become Cable. Erik BeckSeptember 21, 2015 6:04 PM Uncanny X-Men #249-250 I must admit that I always assumed it was Jubilee who left the note, although Gateway also left his hill to point at Peter before sending him off to help Illyana. One thing that has always bothered me in this issue is the drawing of Alex sitting in the chair in his costume. It just isn't very good. It makes me wonder if many of the new artists emerging at this time started adding jackets to the all the characters because they lacked basic perspective and it helped establish it for them more than a full body suit like Havok's? Tony LewisSeptember 21, 2015 5:23 PM Punisher War Journal #17-19 I wonder if the bit in the first scan of Microchip trying to get his gun past an airport metal detector was inspired by the 1988 movie A Fish Called Wanda, in which Kevin Kline did the same stunt (successfully). BerendSeptember 21, 2015 3:57 PM X-Factor #65-68 The Dark Riders are inhumans? Wow. Never knew that. Ataru320September 21, 2015 3:20 PM X-Factor #65-68 So Apocalypse leaves the Claremont era the same way he arrived: looking weird. The first appearance had that Frieza look and the lips, here...its that huge "fat guy build" and massive chin. I can't help but laugh at that chin...that and "Youngbloods Disease" taking over the characters and robbing them of their eyes. (at least Cyclops is wearing a visor) This is probably the worst art outside a Liefeld book so far. fnord12September 21, 2015 1:55 PM X-Factor #65-68 Thanks, Max_Spider. Max_SpiderSeptember 21, 2015 1:36 PM X-Factor #65-68 You've got a triple posted page here. The one with the Avengers and Fantastic Four. BobSeptember 21, 2015 1:20 PM X-Factor #65-68 That is one headache-inducing, confusing mess of art. clydeSeptember 21, 2015 1:03 PM X-Factor #65-68 "Apocalypse refers to his former Ship as a "traitor", which is odd, since he gave it to X-Factor." In issue 27 - it says "...and the book ends with Apocalypse and his Horsemen sipping some champagne to celebrate the fact that it's armed with a bomb." He obviously expected them to defuse the bomb. But, he said in issue 28 that "in their future, it will prove more dangerous than any bomb on earth". Instead, it saved them when the Celestials took it back, and saved them again this issue when it sacrificed itself for them. I would think that's what he's referring to when he calls Ship a traitor. He would probably be even more angry if he knew what happens to Ship later on. (No spoiler here). cullenSeptember 21, 2015 12:05 PM Iron Man #120-128 On that - seems like Englehart sneaked a reference into Detective Comics #472 as well: FF3September 21, 2015 10:54 AM Excalibur #4-5 Like a lot of commentators, as an American and because Claremont was footnote-aphobic, Excalibur just seemed really, really weird. I wonder a little bit if that was intentional? Kitty and Nightcrawler -- and, to some degree Rachel, though I think Claremont's changed her personality significantly enough that she's almost a different character than in her X-Men stint -- serve as the reader's avatar into a world that's topsy-turvy, where the rules we're used to don't make sense... Like Alice down the rabbit hole? And, quickly, in this arc, we're shown that though it's more fun it's just as deadly as the very serious political situations we've seen across the pond. The creative team does a good job in these early issues setting a tone to differentiate it from the X-Books (even though we're about to get tossed right back to New York by Excalibur). |
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