2016 Comic Challenge 129 The Crusaders #01

TITLE-The Crusaders #01
PUBLISHER-DC comics/!mpact comics

Back in the early 90s when DC licensed out the Archie heroes for the !mpact line I had no interest in it. In 2005 when I got into collecting so called Dead Universes I did grab a few issues from !mpact. And since then thru various random lots of comics I have ended up with a few more issues from this failed subimprint.

Now with Archie doing so well with their Dark Circle stuff I have been wanting to go back and read the previous versions of these heroes. So while digging thru a longbox of comics I grabbed this issue out. No clue when I got it or where.

The issue starts off back in the early 60s. We see the aftermath of the first group of Archie heroes and some big battle at a bunker. The surviving heroes get the government to lock down this bunker. Skip ahead 30 years and The Fly,The Comet and Fireball are investigating this bunker.And over the course of the issue the rest of the main !mpact heroes show up. Then on the final page the menace the original group of heroes locked up in the bunker is loose.

Before reading this comic I had read maybe 4 issues of the Black Hood,1 of the Comet and a few of the Jaguar. So I really knew almost nothing about these heroes. Which is why it is a good thing this issue did a good job introducing me to all the heroes.

What kind of surprised me is this came out during the peak of the Gimmick age. Where any #1 or anniversary comic had some kind of special cover. Which also meant a big price increase. Not The Crusaders #01. Cover price is a buck. Which is what most comics cost back in 92. And the closest thing it comes to a gimmick is some bound in trading cards. And these aren't even perforated for easy removal. Nope ya gotta cut them out yourself.

Looking at the backs of the cards looks like they use the Garbage Pail Kids gimmick of having a puzzle on the backs of the cards.

Honestly this was good enough that now I need to make a list of what !mpact comics I have. So I can track down what I am missing. From what I have seen none of the !mpact stuff is worth more than cover price. So shouldn't be hard to track down a full set.

The Crusaders #01 gets a buy.