Friday, February 27, 2009

Weekly Dose Of Weird!

I think I saw this on a Misfit's album once... WEIRD WAR TALES #24
Weird War Tales #24 -- Death can be pretty darn fashionable when he wants to be.

I. "The Invisible Enemy" -- Lieutenant Oberst is a model Nazi -- without remose or conscience, he orders a gypsy and her child to death, and as a result is cursed to die... by tiger! Despite being haunted by tiger-filled nightmares, Oberst continues on with his brutal campaigns, cheating death time and again, until he is forced to guard a subterranean supply depot. Turning on his own men for their cowardice, Oberst guards the depot for years, until he is eventually discovered by miners ten years after the war has ended! But the madness is too far gone for Oberst, as he even sees his saviors as tigers, and runs, ending up tumbling off of a building. His fall directs him onto a statue of tiger, proving once more than irony is one of the fundamental powers of the universe.

II. "The Last Battle" --In the year 2080, the Dictator rules all of Earth with an iron fist. But, he wants to be loved by his subjects, not feared. To this end, he has his generals devise a phony war against Mars, complete with a raid against the Red Planet... one which the Martians, secreted under the surface, do not take kindly to.

Overall Weird Factor: 3.5 (out of 5).

Two fairly standard stories get a boost here by very strong art, done by Ernie Chua up front and Alex Nino in the back. Nino's work especially has a strong psychadelic factor to it which really adds a lot of flair. The cover, with it's bold colors, is very nice as well. It's issues like this which are why I have such affection for this title: even your average, run of the mill installment has surprises and a lot of entertainment value lurking within.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

New Awesomeness: DOOMED!


One of the major upshoots of getting involved in the "comic book blogosphere" has been the incredible amount of knowledge I have learned about my hobby in a relatively short time.  I have read comic books alost as long as I can remember.  I thought I was a well-informed fanboy... boy, was I wrong!  Pretty much under every blog post, every Wikipedia article, and seemingly under every corner I was learning something about a character or a publisher or a creator.  Now, there is another addition to that fine rollcall of sites which are ready to drop knowledge on me something fierce:

Doom Patrol

That's right, that team of misfits that previously I had basically said "Yeah... they're like the original X-Men, right?" have their own blog now.  It's being written by Doug Zawisza, author of the supremely awesome Hawkman Companion (available from TwoMorrows Publishing, and if you don't have a copy, you need to rectify that).  Sure, some of you out there might know more about the Doom Patrol than I do, but that's no excuse for not getting in on the ground floor!  So head over and check out the DOOM and gloom!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

What Looks Good?


Temperatures keep doing the yo-yo here in South Carolina: warm one day and chilly the next!  But there's something you can still count on -- well, when there's not a federal holiday, anyway.

Justice Society of America #24 -- The Black Marvels are back and there somewhat more pissed off than before!

Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion #4  -- Trapped in the mountains, can Rock help get the Lost Battalion out of harm's way?

Unknown Soldier #5 -- The horrors continue deep in the Ugandan bush for Dr. Lwanga.

The War That Time Forgot #10 -- The gamesmasters stand revealed... so now how do you fight an island full of robot dinosaurs controlled by future-Earth refugees?!

Nova #22 -- Richard Rider had a good run as The Man They Call Nova, but that's done now.  Aww shucks.

War Machine #3 -- The closest thing to a printed video game you can buy, except for all those comic books about video games.

So, what looks GOOD to you?

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Blogiversary: 400 Posts!


Well, amazing at it seems, I checked the total number of posts this morning, and now the Bunker is at an amazing (for me) 400 posts!  In honor of that event, here is the cover to Iron Man v.3:no.55... AKA Iron Man #400, if you combine all the series numbers!

I remember at the time this came out I was at home from college for the summer, and did not have a regular comic shop.  I ended up driving about 45 minutes up to Poughkeepsie just to buy this single issue!  And while the idea of Tony Stark revealing his identity to save the life of a dog was pretty silly, all in all I remember really liking this comic.  Maybe I'll bust it out this weekend and reread it.  

Anyway, thanks go out to to all of you who have stuck with me and with this blog.  I can't imagine why someone would do that to themself, but hey, who am I to judge?

Monday, February 23, 2009

What I Read This Week


Black Lightning: Year One #4 -- Things get progressively worse for both Jefferson Pierce and Black Lightning, as the true power and history of The 100 is revealed.  But will this new information do him any good if it puts his family in the line of fire?  The series takes a weird sort of left turn here, as the traditionally urban/"street level" Black Lightning is tossed into something a bit grander in scale.  I'm not sure how I feel about the revelations herein, but the work itself is nicely done, with Hamner's art as strong as ever, balancing nicely with Van Meter's crisp dialogue.

Outsiders #15 -- The new team has been assembled, and now they get their first briefing... and it includes going completely off the grid for the entire length of the "tour of duty!"  Combined with the Special from last week, the team is now on very firm ground, with their mission and the characters well established and ready to go.  I wish there was some action this time out, but the way Tomasi handles all of the various characters is more than enough to make this Outsiders fan happy.  (Continuity to both the previous storyline as well as the old school Outsiders helps, too.)  Artists Lee Garbett and Trevor Scott do a very good job in differentiating all the different folks, as well -- can't wait to see them put the crew into action.

Tiny Titans #13 -- It's Pet Club Day at stately Wayne Manor!  But when Alfred steps out to go to the store, it turns into a laundry emergency of epic proportions!  Doesn't reach the levels of last month's FINALS CRISIS but otherwise it's business as usual for this terrific series.

Guardians of the Galaxy #10 -- Blaastar continues his attempt to seize 42 as a portal to Earth, while the rest of the Guardians are dumped into the middle of the firefight.  Meanwhile, Adam Warlock seeks to turn the Universal Truth Church towards a different path.  Overall a pretty good issue, with some funny bits (Earth heroes and space heroes simply do not mix very well), but the subplot kinda fell flat, and overall I thought the entire thing was pretty average.  Still, average GOTG is better than the vast majority of everything else Marvel puts out, so take that criticism with a grain of salt.

X-Men: Kingbreaker #3 -- The other War of Kings book this week sees the Starjammres, both free and imprisoned, working to face the threat of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard and deal with Emperor Vulcan, while the Shi'ar themselves have problems of their own to contend with.  Definitely suffers from being the tail end of the middle act, with a lot of moving of pieces and players to the right spots for the finale, but still, I liked it.  I especially liked seeing Polaris in sort-of her classic costume as rendered by Dustin Weaver, which looked a lot better inside than on the cover.  The next issue promises a huge blowout which should be fun!

The Pick Of The Pile this week is Outsiders, mostly on the strength of how Tomasi handles the characters as well as the team's setup.  Kingbreaker made a strong play for it but the new Outsiders take the day.

So what did YOU read this week?

Everybody's Linking For The (Late) Weekend


Shag gets us started with this super cool (or is that super hot?) Firestorm pint glass.

Rick has a tribute to everyone's favorite hero, Iron Man.  Okay, well, he's MY favorite hero!

Scipio presents: The Legion Of Super-Girlfriends!

Frank summarizes Our Worlds At War for those of us too cheapr and/or lazy to read it themselves.

rob! talks with Mike Grell AND Dan Jurgens!

And finally, Chris Sim's offers an exciting new take on Watchmen.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Weekly Dose Of Weird!


Where Monsters Dwell #7 -- His very name made mankind tremble?  But he sounds like a robotic vacuum cleaner!

I. "Rommbu!" -- (2 parts) John Hunter, a geologist by trade, falls into the criminal lifestyle, and is sent to prison for robbery.  While being transported to the pokey by train, a chance encounter with a giant UFO gives him the opportunity to escape.  Lumbering out of the ship is Rommbu, a warrior from the Fourth Galaxy who demands Earth's surrender; when the gathered train riders resist, he shrinks them to a foot tall with his weapon!  Returning to his ship to wait for the surrender, Rommbu is unaware that John has chosen to hide out there until the heat is off.   Rommbu senses an Earthling aboard, thinking that John is a spy.  John denies it, telling the alien his story about being on the lam, which Rommbu confirms with his Mind-Prober.  Rombu thinks that John, a criminal, will help him because he must not care for his fellow man.  After turning back a squadron of fighters with a metal disintegration ray, Rommbu orders John to tell him of a location on the surface where he may recharge his ships electromagnetic batteries.  John tells Rommbu of the volcanic island of Watuna, but the two are attacked by a submarine firing a Polaris rocket.  Rommbu destroys the Polaris with a rocket of his own, then drags the submarine out of the water with his Magnetico ray.  Landing inside the volcano, Rommbu begins to recharge the engines when John makes his choice of island clear -- when the volcano erupts, killing both Rommbu and himself, and stopping the Fourth Galaxy's invasion plans cold.

II. "The Terrible Trap!" -- Sadistic hunter Bart Magor, who enjoys watching animals run through mazes they cannot escape, heads to Africa to trap wild game, but ends up capture by aliens and put into a maze that he, you guessed it, cannot escape.

III. "The Thing With Red Eyes" -- Vince Kane, boss of the Yellow Spider Gang, wants to get rid of Al Rocco, but he doesn't make a move for fear of how much influence Al may wield.  He thinks he has the solution when he finds a voodoo doll of Al.  Deciding to finish his rival, Kane tosses the doll out of a window... only to see that Al has changed the doll's face to be Kane's!  Down, down, down the doll falls and when it stops... ?

Overall Weird Factor: 2 (out of 5)

A pretty solid issue of Where Monsters Dwell, reprinting the entirety of Tales to Astonish #19 from 1961.  Rommbu is easily the best feature here, with the second one a little obvious (and a little short, with one of the five pages being an unremarkable splash page) and the third tale "just okay."  Of note is that Rommbu is orange on the cover, but green inside -- a not uncommon occurance on these Atlas monster mags.  One of the best aspects of this comic book is that our three features have art from three of Marvel's best from the Silver Age -- Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck, in that order.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Fair Trade -- Outsiders v.1: Looking For Trouble


As I have mentioned before, I began reading Outsiders a few years back, during the One Year Later promotion.  Once I started following their adventures, one of my goals was to collect the entire run of the third series, which had pretty much flown under my radar the entire time it was published prior to OYL.  And at HeroesCon this past year I was lucky enough to find the entire series in collected form for half off -- so one big transaction later and I'm done!

Which leads us here, the first collection of the third version of the team to bear the name "Outsiders."  Spinning out of the events of the Titans/Young Justice crossover Graduation Day, we start out with Roy Harper, Arsenal, deciding to do something other than mope about the death of Donna Troy.  He approaches several adventurers, some familiar and some new, with his concept of a team which goes on the hunt to actively shut down the bad guys of the world before their schemes threaten the innocent (hence, the title of the collection).  Among his recruits are Nightwing, the recently resurrected Metamorpho, the daughter of Black Lightning known as Thunder, meta-powered bouncer Grace Choi, and the mind-wiped "offspring" of Brainiac who murdered Donna, codenamed Indigo.  Along the way, the team also picks up Jade, the daughter of the Green Lantern Alan Scott.  They are quickly put to the test when Gorilla Grodd invades Manhattan with a battalion of armed apes, and don't get much of a break after that when they have to shut down a sleeper cell of human weapons organized by Brother Blood.

All in all, this was a good collection of superhero schtick.  Judd Winnick has a good handle on what he wants the character's voices to be, and he sticks to it nicely.  Not everyone like his smart-alecky approach to dialogue (myself included some of the time), but with this group it works well.  Clearly he is enamored with some of his own creators (Thunder and Grace), but that's alright, that's what wrtiers dom yes?  The art is split just about equally between Tom Raney (issues #1-3, 7) and ChrisCross (#4-6), and both have crisp, clean styles which mesh up nicely.  It's something of an odd look for the Outsiders, being a style I would more rapidly identify with the Teen Titans or another "young" group, but I like the way this book looks.  (There are also some pages from the Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files as well.)

The stories themselves are a lot of fun.  I mean, an ape army laying seige to Manhattan?  That's awesome!  But even beyond that we get a lot going on in these issues, and since we have not just one big saga but several smaller ones (we get the formation of the team, Grodd's ape-vasion, Brother Blood's sleeper cell, and then a done-in-one involving Metamorpho), we get to see a lot of different elements and setpieces.  The fun is hampered somewhat in the beginning, with all of the angsty fallout to the death of Donna Troy.  I guess I never cared all that much since I don't think I know who she was before she died!  (Yeah, I was more of a Marvel fan growing up...)  There's also some sillier elements dating to the fact that these were originally published in 2003, including Thunder's questionable wig, and Lex Luthor being President of the United States.

Still, all told I found this volume was a fun way to spend a plane ride from Atlanta to Minneapolis, and it made me glad I decided to pick up the entire series.  It's a snappy, fast-paced adventure, with an interesting mix of characters and settings. I very much am looking forward to the next installment, which you might very well see in this space at some point.  

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

What Looks Good?


Not sure what happened yesterday... time just got away from me, I guess.  No such problem today, what with all the new goodies coming out for us to buy!

Black Lightning: Year One #4 -- Can Black Lightning clean up the streets of Suicide Slum, or is he doomed to drowned in the rising tide of corruption and crime?

Outsiders #15 -- The new team is together!  New mysteries have to be solved!  New foes have to be fought!  The only way I would be more excited would be if this had Baxter paper!

Tiny Titans #13 -- I am not sure how anything can top the FINALS CRISIS from last issue but I am sure they are going to try!

Essential Classic X-Men V.3 -- Havok, woo!

Guardians of the Galaxy #10 -- War of Kings, woo!

X-Men: Kingbreaker #3 -- Havok AND War of Kings, WOO!

So, what looks good to YOU?

Monday, February 16, 2009

What I Read This Week


Once again, it's two -- two -- two weeks in one here at the Bunker!

The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks #0 -- Moonstone relaunches their Phantom series with this special-priced retelling of the origin of the first Phantom, wherein he was shipwrecked by the Singh Brotherhood and helped lead the Bandar from captivity.  As a preview of things to come this is neat and worth reading if you are interested in the adventures of The-Ghost-Who-Walks.

Batman And The Outsiders Special #1 -- Setting up the new status for the Outsiders team, as well as introducing us to new members the Creeper and Owlman (sort of).  Tomasi seems to have a solidly defined plan on where he wants to go, and Kubert's work is every bit as nice as it was on Last Will And Testament, so it's a shame that he is not doing the monthly book (although I understand the rationale).  Top notch all the way.

Batman #686 -- Part 1 of "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" is different from what I expected it to be, but still really enjoyable reading.  I like Gaiman when he takes on "mainstream" superheroics and once more with the Kubert.  Stinks that I have to wait so long for the conclusion over in Detective!

Batman Confidential #26 -- Featuring the comic book debut of King Tut!  As they say in showbiz, "WILD!"  With a rash of murders taking place in Gotham City by a self-styled pharoah who tells his victim riddles as he does them in, Batman immediately suspects the Riddler.  But he is locked up tight in Arkham Asylum... right?  Really fun detective romp as Bats tracks down King Tut before he kills again.  I wouldn't mind this Tut becoming a regular part of the Bat Rogues.  (Maybe I should polish up my Shame story pitch?)

Kull #4 -- Kull and Brule go on the offensive against the Snake-Men, with predictably bloody results.  A bare-chested, blood-soaked S&S comic in the best tradition of the genre, this is a tale of two men putting aside their ancenstral grudges to kick snaketail and take names.  Nelson and Conrad are really hitting their stride, and I hope we see more of the Valusian King from these two.  This is a badass comic book.

Black Lightning: Year One #3 -- The new origin of Suicide Slum's defender continues, as we learn more about Gambi's history with Jefferson's father, and the 100 make their big move against Black Lightning.  I am still enjoying this fast-paced and fresh-sounding series, although it looks like my "Fire Man" prediction may have been wrong.  May have.

House of Mystery #10 -- "Love Stories for Dead People" comes back to where it all started as the mysteries of the basement are explained and Miranda and her nightmares take center stage.  The backup tale, depicting young Fig's adventures in the world where stuffed animals move on their own, is equal parts charming and heart-breaking.  Every time this title comes out, it makes me smile.

Invincible Iron Man #10 -- Tony Stark has to go on... the... run... zzzzzzzzz.  Someone wake me up when this coma-inducingly boring story is over.  So far we have had three issues of the exact.  Same.  Thing.  This title really is becoming the Iron Man title for people who are not Iron Man fans.  Even Larocca's art is starting to turn me off.  I had to wait two and a half weeks for Marvel to send me this?

War Of Kings: Darkhawk #1 -- Chris Powell is trying to put his life back together and overcome his dangerous anger issues.  But things look like they are taking a turn for the worse when an alien -- who looks a lot like his alterego of Darkhawk -- crashes into his Long Island neighborhood.  Cebulski seems to like the character and spends a lot of time fleshing out Chris and his issues.  I am not familiar with artist Harvey Tolibao beyond his work on the Iron Man Annual from last year, but his work is very flashy and effective. Also features a full-color reprint of Darkhawk #1, which I also enjoyed.  (I think that may be a longer post at some point, by the way.)

Futurama Comics #41 -- Fry, Leela, and the Professor volunteer at Amy Wong's soririty's (that is, Kappa Kappa Wong) kids summer camp, only to find that the camp is brainwashing kids to be President Nixon's new intergalactic army!  Hilarious effort from the fine folks at Bongo.

The Pick Of The Pile is Batman And The Outsiders.  I almost gave it to either House of Mystery or Kull, but the overall package of the Outsiders Special carries the banner this week with it's great mix of story, page design, and characters.

So, what did YOU read this week?

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Discount Bin Finds: Marvel Two-In-One #81


Found this one in the discount bins of Boderlands during their Big Annual Sale last month.  Who could resist a team-up between Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Ever-Loving Blue-Eyed Thing?!

Our adventure starts with Namor doing one of the things he does best: brooding.  Our undersea scion arises from New York harbor and buys some human clothes to blend in, reminiscing about his post-war stint as a hobo living in the Bowery, which was the only time he ever felt truly accepted.  He sets out to find Sunshine Mary, the baglady who took care of him during his amnesia.  Meanwhile, Ben Grimm and Sue Storm are helping Alicia Masters move into her new apartment, after finding that being underfoot in the Baxter Building was too stressful.  Ben takes his own turn at brooding and heads down to the street just in time to see a bum being attacked by a robot!  The hero intervenes, only to end up being incapaciated by a gas.

Namor is not having much luck in finding Sunshine Mary, until he finds another bum who says he knows her location.  This turns into an ambush, as a mob jumps Namor, thinking he to be the one who has been abducting them off the streets as of late.  After the situation is explained, Namor leads the homeless in a quest to defeat whomever is preying on them, starting with the location of where the latest attack went down.

The Thing wakes up to find himself trapped in a glass tube, a prisoner of AIM and their big-brained boss MODOK!  The scientists of Advanced Idea Mechanics have created a powerful virus, creatively dubbed Virus X, and have been using the street people as test subjects.  MODOK gloats that if Virus X can take down the famed Thing, then it will be potent enough to hold the world ransom!  The virus begins to flood the tube, but Thing is able to break out... only to come face to face with even bigger robots!  He puts up a good fight, but is outmatched until Namor and the other bums arrive to even the odds.  Together, the Thing and the Sub-Mariner destroy all of AIM's machines, causing MODOK and his scientists to flee out of fear of exposure to Virus X.  Namor thanks the street folk, thinking them his compatriotes, but they turn on and reject him, saying that they are nothing like him.  The furious monarch storms off, just as Ben realizes that while AIM has been defeated, he was still exposed to the virus!

This one would definitely be up Rick's alley, with two classic Marvel characters fighting against a classic Marvel evil organization.  The fact that it directly references the infancy of the Silver Age is just gravy.  Tom DeFalco and Ron Wilson handle both with care and as a result this is a very enjoyable little romp.  Namor is one of those characters where if he shows up in your title, it's a good bet that it's going to be a pretty sweet guest spot.  His musings about alienation and acceptance sound right in character for him, as does his typical response when his makeshift army turns on him.  Ben is similarly down in the dumps, but in typical Grimm fashion he berates himself for it anyway.  The plot is classic mad scientist stuff, but MTIO was always about characters more than plots.  

I generally enjoy Marvel Two-In-One and this issue is no different, with a quick moving story starring two long time fan-favorites.  Definitely worth reading if you can find it in a back issue bin somewhere.  

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

What Looks Good?


We're rolling into Valentine's Day here, and take it from a happily married man: nothing is more romantic than some 4 Color Goodies all bundled up for your sweetie.  Except, ya know, flowers or candy or meaningful conversation and truly listening...

Uh, let's get on to the comics, shall we?


Batman And The Outsiders Special #1 -- The Outsiders start their new direction in the wake of RIP and Final Crisis!  I've been psyched for this since I first saw the cover in the solicits.  

The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks #0 -- Moonstone's relaunch of the Phantom takes the series back to basics, but as I liked the old one I will have to see how this new series works.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Outsiders House Ad


In honor of the new Outsiders Special coming out tomorrow from DC, here is a house ad from 1985, when the team was spun off into their own self-titled Deluxe feature, on that oh-so-lovely Baxter paper.  I like how it calls out the team as a "proved bestseller."  I wonder what their sales figures were like at that point, compared to tiles like New Teen Titans and LOSH, which also got the Deluxe treatment.  Might be something worth looking into.

I also like that of the six team members pictured here, only the "new" member (Looker) is apparently not a member of the team DC is running with now.  "The more things change" and all that!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

What Looks Good?


Back in South Carolina, but not done with meetings yet... ah well, at least there's diversions of the 4 Color variety waiting for me.

Kull #4 -- There's an underground army of shapeshifting snakemen invading Valusia.  Who you gonna call?

Black Lightning: Year One #3 -- I have a theory on who the "Fireman" vigilante referenced in this series is, and if it turns out to be who I thik it is, oooooh boy.

House of Mystery #10 -- I've said it before and I will say it again, going to the basement of a haunted evil house is just a bad idea.

Invincible Iron Man #10 -- Tony Stark's... (ugh) redemption continues here as Norman Osborne makes ole Shellhead's life even worse, if you can imagine it.

War Of Kings: Darkhawk #1 -- Darkhawk is back baby!  And this time he still turns into an android fight crime!  

X-Men First Class: Finals #1 -- So tempted, seeing the original X-Men in action once more.  But really daunted by that pricetag, especially since I am buying the WoK stuff at that price already!

Futurama Comics #41 -- I really should watch those DTV movies.  I have all of them but haven't seen any of them yet!


Also, I just need to say:

Adventure Comics #0
Tales To Astonish #1

GEE, I WONDER!

So, what looks good to YOU?

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Unbridled Capitalism: Super Bowl Saturday!


This past weekend was the Super Bowl, but seeing as Carolina decided not to show up for their playoff game several weeks ago (*razafrazzing Delhomme razafrazza*), to me it was more of an excuse to buy comic books!  Because not only did we have the Borderlands Big Annual Sale -- always filled with plenty of 4 Color Goodness -- but we also were treated to a Super Bowl weekend edition of Greenville Comic Con!  So, I, along with Adama from Dispatches From The Arrowcave and potential Legion of Super-Heroes recruit "Korean Kid" (AKA our non-blogger friend Joe) headed out into the flood to stock up on comics!

Iron Man -- Not much this time out.  I'm starting to hit my price ceiling on some of the earlier ones I still need, while hunting for ones here and there can get tedious if you don't have a dealer with a full run.  Still, I was able to add v.1:no.154 (featuring the Unicorn), as well as Marvel Team-Up #72, featuring Shellhead and Webhead teaming up.

Hawkman -- The Winged Wonder had a few apperances in my haul this time out, as I picked up v.2:no.10, as well as v.4:no.1, 4-6.  I also found Power Of The Atom #4, guest-starring Hawkman and Hawkgirl.  While not directly staring Hawkman, I did also pick up the collection of Countdown to Adventure, which does flesh out some more cosmis stuff which he had to deal with in Rann-Thanagar Holy War.

Flash -- The Scarlet Speedster(s) did much better than those two on this particular day.  Blame it on Flash being substantially more popular I guess!  From the first volume I found #235, 258-259, 272-273, 279-280, 288, 332-333, 38-39, 342-343, 347-348.  I also picked up #33 and #41 from the second series, as well as 100 Page Super Spectacular #22, featuring various Flashes doing things ostensibly at a rapid speed.

Power Man (& Iron Fist) -- Got a few more from this series, which is slowly but surely coming together.  I found #58, 70, 78, and 107, half of which, oddly, guest star El Aquila.  I also got Marvel Team-Up # 75 (featuring our favorite Hero for Hire) and #126 (featuring Cage teaming up with the Son Of Satan of all people!).  

Robocop -- The Marvel licensed comic which has no right to be nearly as good as it is accounted for two more comics, #11 and #19.

Wonder Man -- Coming across a large "vein" of Simon Williams comic books in one long box was enough inspiration to start to collect one of my favorite Avenger's solo title.  I had a few issues already, but these really dig a good job, adding #2-3, 5-6, 13-16, and 18-21 of the eponymous title.  I also got Wondy's first solo feature in Marvel Premiere #55, along with a one-shot Special, and a turn in Marvel Team-Up in #78.  Another Marvel to collect, woo!

Furry Underpants Crowd -- On the Marvel side, I got Kull v.3:no.5 and v.3:no.9.  And over on the DC side, I found Warlord #23, 111, and 121.  Surprisingly, no Arak, Son Of Thunder this time out!

Weird Comics -- A varied bunch, as is appropriate!  That classic Weird War Tales offered up a pair, in the form of #55 and #111 (featuring both the GI Robot AND Creature Commandos!).  Also purchased were Secrets of the Haunted House #11 and #16, Unexpected #168, Where Monsters Dwell #35, Strange Tales #174, and Crypt of Shadows #18.

Random Stuff -- There was a nice variety of random finds which I was more than happy to check out.  A pair of What If? (#15, #45), another Marvel Team-Up (#89, with Nightcrawler), a Marvel Two-In-One (#81, with the Sub-Mariner!), DC Sampler #3, Our Fighting Forces #152 (Jack Kirby's Losers!), Justice League of America Annual #2 (Detroooooooooooooit Justice League!), normalman #4, and #10-11 (bought entirely so I can someday maybe get them signed by Valentino), Fury of Firestorm #20, the DC version of The Phantom #1, and Forever People v.2:no.1.  Whew!

All in all one heck of a haul!  Surely this can keep me satiated until HeroesCon in June?  Right?  Right... ?

Monday, February 2, 2009

What I Read This Week


I got to the comic shop this weekend despite being out of town on business all week (more on this visit to the shop in a later post), and so I did in fact manage to snag my weekly comic books.

Final Crisis #7 -- The entire world is broken, as the mortally wounded Darkseid meets with the Black Racer and destroys reality as we know it.  But that's only the tip of the iceberg, since Mandrakk the Dark Monitor waits to drink up the very nature of Earth-Zero for his own insatiable thirst, and only an army of Supermen can stop him.  At least, I think that is what is going on.  I need to re-read this one to get a better understanding, as Morrison's jumping around gets to what can only be called the final degree here, making for a confusing reading experience.  This is doubly true if you have not read Superman Beyond, which I have not.  But even in it's jumbled state, I enjoyed this comic book quite a bit.  The art is odd, with Mahnke being inked and colored by various different contributors, but it still looks pretty solid.  Just what is being conveyed is not always clear, but Morrison has delivered (admittedly a little late) his epic and the Fifth World has begun.

Justice Society of America #23 -- The issue starts with a bang (literally and metaphorically) and goes up from there.  The Justice Society has to address the actions and motivations of their entirely too-numerous members in the wake of the Gog debacle, but another problem boils over when Black Adam manages to track down his love Isis, who is being held by Felix Faust.  Johns is Johns and Ordway is Ordway; as a bow for Johns's time on JSoA this story has all the earmarks of being one for the ages.  

Unknown Soldier #4 -- Dr. Moses Lwanga's odyssey in the hellish world of the Ugandan bush continues, as he finds himself and his young orphan charges caught in a crossfire between the Ugandan Army and the LRA.  This title is as brutal a war comic as I have ever read, and the fact that it's based on a ton of research done by author Joshua Dysart makes it all the more unsettling -- and Ponticelli's art doesn't alleviate any of that.  Definitely a worthy purchase.

The War That Time Forgot #9 -- Lt. Carson and Akisa get some alone time to try to sort things out, while the Ancients and Moderns begin an alliance which seems beneficial to both.  But the observers are starting to feel like this experiment is a failure and in need of being scrapped.  Kind of a draggy issue, but it picks up towards the end and gives us some answers to a few of the mysteries the series has been treading on.  Also has a fun sequence with a robotic pteradactyl being tamed as a mount.  At this point I am pretty sure I am the only person on the planet reading this title.  

Nova #21 -- The Nova Corps is reborn, but why does Richard Ryder remain suspicious of the idea?  And what does this have to do with Ego, The Living Planet showing up in orbit of Earth?  The strange saga which Richard has been on since the start of Annihilation nearly three years ago takes another bizarre twist here.  And the fact that we have a new armed force in the cosmos as we head in War Of Kings cannot be anything but bad.  Well, good for readers, bad for everyone else that is.

glamourpuss #5 -- Sadly, I did not have time to read this one yet.  Ah well.

Phantom Annual #2 -- The Ghost-Who-Walks teams up with Mandrake the Magician and his partner Lothar to investigate the murder of Lothar's cousin, a Bangallan, in Manhattan.  The story leads back to the jungle, where a rare native root may give the dark elements of the world the ultimate resource -- a potion which can turn anyone into an assassian!  Strong and fast-paced adventure, which seems to serve much more as a pilot of sorts for a Mandrake & Lothar series than a Phantom story.  Samicler Goncalves's art has texture and weight, making this a nice looking story as well.  The Phantom is being relaunched shortly from Moonstone, will Mandrake follow as well?

The Pick Of The Pile is Justice Society.  I like that while we are seeing the fallout, the new story simply will not wait.  Final Crisis was good but I need to re-read it.