Blue Beetle Graduation Day TPB

 

TITLE-Blue Beetle Graduation Day

FORMAT-Trade Paperback

Back earlier in 2023 I heard a Blue Beetle movie was coming out. Then heard it wasn't gonna be Ted Kord as Beetle and I figured ok I will just wait till the film hits streaming to watch it. Cause while I have been told the current Blue Beetle(Jaime Reyes) is a unique take on this generational hero I rather not pay 12 bucks for a ticket to a movie with a version of a hero I am not use to.

Then not long before the film came out I was in Walmart,one of the major drawbacks of living outside a small town is there isn't many places to shop. And in the book section I saw the TPB pictured up above. A TPB that reprints the 6 issue long Blue Beetle Graduation Day mini series. And included a HUGE pull out poster. With it only being 15 bucks for the TPB I took a chance. IE I bought it tossed it onto the "To Read one day" pile and forgot about it.

Not many months into 2023 my mother let me know she didn't feel like she should drive anymore. Which means when she has to go see her doctors I now drive her. No biggie. Back in September she had an appointment to see one of her many doctors,nothing major just a check up to make sure her meds were working. Knowing that usually waiting rooms have nothing worth reading and if there is a TV it is tuned into a News channel when I have to drive Mom to an appointment I will load a few podcasts up onto my tablet and bring a comic book hardcover/TPB/OGN with me to read.

This day I over slept. Got up and instead of having an hour or so to get ready I had 20 minutes. Instead of my normal going through my unread pile and narrowing it down to 2 or 3 books I just grabbed the first TPB that caught my eye.

Get her to her appointment 10 minutes early. Sit down put on the newest episode of The Movie Graveyard podcast and started reading my first Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle comic.

In what felt like 10 minutes,turned out to be closer to an hour,Mom was done and I still had 2 issues to read. And as soon as I got home I made lunch and sat down and finished this TPB.

Now sure I knew the basics of Jaime becoming the new BB. And I have always enjoyed how DC has different generations of a hero. Like how there has been what 4 or 5 official Robins so far. As a kid and teen I had read the second Blue Beetle,TeD Kord,in his own series then his time in the Justice League. This 6 issue collection does a good job  of not only explaining Jaime and his family but also showing what makes Jaime different from the two previous Blue Beetles.

Jaime is suppose to be at his high school graduation,nope he is off fighting a super villain. And in this battle which only lasts a few pages the writer,Josh Trujillo, gives a good glimpse into Jaime's personality. For me he reminds me of how Stan Lee wrote Peter Parker for those first 50 issues.

After defeating the villain Reyes heads off to his graduation. Here is a minor complaint I have about this mini series. Jaime Reyes and his family speak Spanish  in this comic. Cool. But we are not given a translation. Yea I took 2 years of Spanish in high school. Like with any skill if you don't use it often you lose your ability in it. And after halfway learning Spanish I didn't use that skill for so long the only Spanish I remember is all lucha libre terms. 

And this is why in an hour I only got 4 issues read. I was having to stop get my phone and use Google Translate to find out what was being said. Normally the average comic from DC or Marvel I can read an issue in 4 to 7 minutes tops. This one was taking me much longer cause of having to pause to translate.

Reyes family hates him being in danger cause of his powers. Which are supplied by a Scarab. And Jamie is sent off to live with family in another town for the summer. Plus Superman meets up with Jaime and after a talk we are given the impression that Jaime is more powerful than he knows.

These 6 issues do what they are suppose to do. Introduce us to this new Blue Beetle. Give us various future story ideas. And if what I have read about the Blue Beetle movie is true these 6 issues were changed a bit and that is what the film is based on.

Adrian Gutierrez hands the pencils and now he is a name I will look out for. The art is a neat mixture of manga style with modern Capeshit style. 

This collection also did what I am assuming they wanted it to do. Give the people that see the Blue Beetle a easy entry into the Blue Beetle comics.  Cause that is an issue with Comic Book Movies. Think about it this way,say you see a few of the X-men films and now want to read the comics. Where do you start with X-men? And having read the X-titles for over a decade straight I can't think of a great starting point. Blue Beetle Graduation Day TPB is that great starting point. 

After finishing this TPB I went and added the next one to my wishlist. Planning on one day ordering it.

Blue Beetle Graduation Day TPB gets a C+. 

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 28 BrightBurn

 

TITLE-Brightburn

SOURCE-Tubi Streaming 

Wanted something that was horror and another genre mixed to watch today. So went to Tubi,the best of the free services for horror and just oddball shit. Saw they had added Brightburn and what the hell it is horror/capeshit. 

For those that have no clue what Tubi is and are old enough to remember the video store days. Netflix,Hulu and Disney+ are like Blockbuster/Hollywood Video and Family Video. But Tubi and Amazon Prime? They are that grubby mom and pop local video store. It opened in 1980 and has just one copy of any tape. But has stuff you don't find other places like The Cars that Eat People or both Evil Dead movies. Tubi has ad breaks but they are short and you get like 5 or so per movie. So free and not plagued with ads.

Started up the movie and looked it up to see which poster art I wanted to put up top. Most of them looked like that or were a tiny variant of it. Wait this came out in 2019???  Was thinking it was 2015 or so. But it makes sense it was 2019 I had posted a video about Rick Veitch's Maximortal vol 1 tpb and someone asked me if I knew about the movie ripping off the comic.

Elizabeth Banks and her husband can't have kids,and live in Brightburn Kansas on an old farm. A rocket crashes and in it is a baby. They adopt the baby and hide the rocket  in the barn. 

Yea this sounds like the Superman story,which it is. But when this kid hits 12 and puberty hits he starts gaining his powers. He gets mad the pushmower isn't working right and slings it across the yard. Then has this wanting to shove his hand into the still rotating blade. 

When on a camping trip withh his dad,after getting the Sex  talk,this creepy kid floats to the house of some classmate he is crushing on. Is floating outside her second story window and the girl sees him.

The only thing that appears to harm this kid is the ship. Which gets destroyed near the end of the film,in a great scene. And it ends with us seeing news reports of Brightburn rampaging all over the world. Leaving me to think we might get more films. 

The film cost close to 12 million and made a bit over 32 million at the box office. So I am sure after home video and all that it made 3 times what it costs. But no sequel in sight sadly.

Does Brightburn rip off Maximortal vol 1? No not really. They both use the age old "What if Superman was evil and a moody teen" idea.  This idea was done before Maximortal and part of the story when Veitch told it was parodying the already well mined trope of evil Superman.

I enjoy Brightburn. Sure I rather have a Maximortal movie. But that ain't happening. Sure I wish we got another film in this series. But yea looks like that ain't happening  either.

Brightburn is worth watching and appears to making  the rounds  on the various streaming sites. Brightburn gets a B.

WEHT Super Goof

 

Super Goof,not sure when I first saw a Super Goof comic. Betting it was mid to late 70s. But after I read one I was hooked. Already loved Goofy as a kid and making him a comedic super hero made this one of my favorite comics.

But what is Super Goof? It is a comic in which all your favorite Disney characters live in the same city. Goofy eats these super powered peanuts,that he calls GOOBERS,and he gains pretty much all the powers of Superman. These powers don't last that long. And Super Goof's costume is just a pair of red pajamas and a towel around his neck. So it looks like a superhero outfit some kid would come up with.

In the issue pictured above, which is Super Goof's only Dynabrite issue ,there is two stories. First is the one on the cover. Where Super Thief starts stealing various landmarks and buildings. Super Goof manages to bring back Big Ben and other things. But when the city bridge disappears he has no idea what to do. 

Thankfully Hewey Dewey and Louie appear and help Super Goof figure out what to do. Always loved the Junior Woodchucks. And can't forget how in this series Clarabell Cow is Goofy's girlfriend.

The second story has Super Goof and Mickey Mouse facing off against the Beagle Boys. Yep Disney most major character is a side kick to Goofy in this story.

When I got this comics I was wondering why now with superheroes being so big why hasn't Disney did anything with Super Goof since the comic ended in the early 80s?

Well turns out I was partially wrong. Sometime in the 2000s on the House of Mouse cartoon in one episode Super Goof appears. But outside of that since the comic ended it is like Disney forgot about Super Goof or is embarassed by it.

Imagine if in the next Avengers movie if Super Goof flies in to save the day. Or how about in the next Guardians of the Galaxy,we have Super Goof hopped up on Goobers,rushing in to rescue Gamorra.

From what I can find the Whitman Super Goof comics never got reprinted or put out in a trade paperback. And even back when they were coming out non of my friends read Super Goof.

Now look at that cover closely. This comic is from 1973. But see that cover price of 69 cents. Back in 73 average color comic was 25 cents IIRC. So why is this one almost 3 times more? That is cause of Dynabrite.

Ok smartass what is Dynabrite? It was a short lived attempt by Whitman to put out comics on much better paper. The paper looks feels and smells like Baxter paper. Which if you don't know is a really white paper that makes the colors pop. By the  mid 80s DC and Marvel put out a pile of comics on Baxter paper. And they would cost $1.25 when your normal comic on newsprint was 55 to 65 cents. From what I can find only 9 Dynabrite comics came out.Most of them being Uncle Scrooge or Donald Duck stuff. This is the only Dynabrite Super Goof comic.

Hey Disney superheroes are hotter now than they have been in the almost 50 years I have been alive. Why not make a Super Goof cartoon tv show or movie? If yall can bring back the Three Cabarellos,which was a great cartoon go watch it,why not at least give Super Goof a DTV movie.

2016 Comic Challenge 231 Mortar Man #01

TITLE-Mortar Man #01
PUBLISHER-Marshall Comics

Found this one recently in the cheap bins. It was a buck and I had never heard of the title,the artist,writer or even the publisher.

The cover,and that it came out in 1993,makes me think this is another tiny indy trying to start their own superhero universe. On the back cover we got the lead villain of this issue,the Rotten Apple. Of course that is our titular hero on the front cover.

So I start reading the issue expecting something like I would get from Dagger comics,who besides me remembers them?,or maybe Lightning Comics. A badly drawn and written cash grab at the comic boom. Nope instead I get a fairly well written and very very well drawn satire of superhero comics. Mortar Man relies on various grenades. Some cause him to fly others just explode. The drawback is they all look the same so he never knows what he is using. The Rotten Apple is a great arch-villain. Think a slightly silly Dr Doom.

I am kind of wondering if maybe this was written and drawn years before it got published. One of the reasons is this came out at the height of the Image craze,where comics were lucky to have 3 panels on a page.But in Mortar Man #01 most of the pages have 6 to 9 panels. It really reads and looks like one of the many superhero satire books on the 80s B/W indy comic boom.

Since I found this in the dollar bins,I am gonna guess it shouldn't be hard to find it cheap. And really if you find it for cover price or less and enjoy satire it is worth grabbing.

Mortar Man #01 gets a buy!

2016 Comic Challenge 220 Captain America #319

The issue starts off with Cap fighting Backlash. Backlash keeps running his mouth and that causes his downfall.While Backlash is being led away by the cops he mentions that someone has been going around killing lots of lower level super villains. I had noticed that in various Marvel comics I was reading at the time that someone,who's appearance changed each time,was killing off villains. Shooting them with explosive bullets and shouting "Justice is served!"

Cap thinks about this super villain killer and remembers that someone a few months back tried to kill the Constrictor. "Scourge,He called himself.I never was able to get any leads on him."

Then we see Sidewinder of the Serpent Society,if a title has Gruenwald writing it odds are good the Serpent Society will appear,holding the corpse of Death Adder. So that is another villain that Scourge has taken out.

Next scene is set in the so called Bar with no name. A bar for costumed super villains. Seems a bunch of the villains are forming a group to not only protect themselves from the killer but also capture/kill Scourge.

There is a nice interlude that mostly seems to be in the story to remind the readers that at this time Steve Rogers was doing the artwork for the 616 universe's Captain America comic. Yep Cap was drawing Cap for at least a few years in his own title.

We cut to the former Firebrand at the Bar with No Name. He is bragging to the bar tender about how he has been going  to all the Bars with No Names,I guess it is a very exclusive franchise,and has talked to over 100 villains. 50 of which are suppose to show up to the bar soon.

Now I normally do not do this ,but this is a comic that you should really not know the ending when reading it. So

SPOILER SPACE






































Most of the rest of the issue is a build up to the final  few pages. We see the former Firebrand getting all kinds of  high tech scanning equipment brought into the bar. To make sure Scourge can't sneak in.

Let us see who all showed up. There is 18 in total,including Gary Gilbert the former Firebrand.

Steeplejack,Shellshock,Cyclone,Mind-Wave,Ringer,Hell-Razor,The Grappler,Rapier,Mirage,Jaguar,Turner D. Century,The Vamp,The Cheetah,Bird-Man,Commander Kraken,The Hijacker and Letha. As you can see this is a group of  jobber super villains. Before this issue I had heard of  maybe 7 of them.

They start to talk about how to deal with the problem of  Scourge and this happens......

Yeah! That is how you end an issue of a comic and make me haunt the K&B Drugs to get the next issue.

Captain America #319 gets a BUY!

2016 Comic Challenge 210 The Black Hood #11

TITLE-The Black Hood #011
PUBLISHER-Dark Circle/Archie

The issue starts off with our lead giving up the Black Hood identity. And after that we are given a flashback. To the man that wore the hood before our Phillie cop.

Seems the previous Black Hood was also a cop. Who was using the Hood to track down someone known as Nobody.

Tracking down Nobody lead this version of the Hood to Phillie. And we get to see what actually happened the day our main lead became the Black Hood.

While this was good,it wasn't nearly as good as the previous 10 issues. According to an ad in the back this is the end of volume 1 and a new series will start soon. Looks like it will have the same creative team.

The Black Hood #011 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 172 Moon Knight #01

TITLE-Moon Knight #01
PUBLISHER-Marvel

So once again we get a revamping of Marc Spector,and another Moon Knight #01. This time with Jeff Lemire handing the writing.

What I gathered from this issue Marc is in the nut house.And from what we are told all the previous Moon Knight adventures were just doodlings in Marc's journal.

Then one day in the rec room Marc sees a news report on Moon Knight. Who the night before,while Marc was getting electroshock treatment,was out fighting Stained Glass Scarlett.

That night Khonshu speaks to Marc. And he makes an escape attempt. But the last page just leads us the reader into thinking Marc is just flat out insane.

Yeah this has caught my attention enough I will read at least 2 or 3 more issues. Kind of wanting to see where Lemire takes this Marc is insane angle.

Moon Knight #01 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 142 The Ray #01

TITLE-The Ray #01
PUBLISHER-DC Comics

I haven't read this comic since it came out in the early 90s. But back then the Ray was one of the few DC heroes I gave a shit about.

And like all good first issues this one spends some time setting up the who,what and where of the series. Ray gets his first apartment,hates his job at a fried chicken shack and is pretty sure his Fonzie like cousin is using him.

One evening the cousin talks Ray into flying the two of them down to Hawaii. To party,but turns out a giant hand has just shown up in a volcano. This being a superhero comic you know that it has to be a villain. Turns out it is Brimstone. One of the seeds Darkseid planted back in the Legends mini series.YAY continuity!

Ray is doing ok against this giant Apokaliptian monster of fire. When Superboy shows up,this is the early 90s clone Superboy not the various others. They managed to subdue Brimstone and haul him to a less populated part of the island.

The teen heroes end up in a fight. With the end results being Superboy is knocked out. The Ray is out of power and on the last page Brimstone wakes up.

The Ray #01 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 088 The Shield #02

TITLE-The Shield #02
PUBLISHER-Dark Circle Comics/Archie Comics

After a long delay,which sadly seems to plague various Archie titles,the next chapter in Daughter of the Revolution is out.

Written by Adam Christopher and Chuck Wendig,haven't heard of either of them before,and has Drew Johnson,Ray Snyder and Al Barrionuevo listed as artists.When I saw the comic had 3 artists I was expecting a jump is style and look somewhere in the book. But besides  a slight change in the flashback ,which oddly seems to have been done by the same artists as the first few pages,the art looks the same thru out the entire issue.

Our heroine is escaping with some woman. With what I am assuming is some black ops team after them they go underground in a tunnel. Taking a river for 150 miles.

Once they arrive at the end we see what looks like The Shield's version of a Batcave. With lots of versions of the uniform. Shield grabs one and dashes out when an alarm goes off. Which lets the duo know that the quasi-military group is there.

And we end up getting a neat twist,that I should have seen coming.

I am enjoying the little bit of the story we have gotten so far. I love how Shield is a legacy hero. Like say the Phantom or the Flash.I do hope that this is also the last of the long delays between issues.

The Shield #02 gets a buy.

3 Toys from the Junkbox 6/12/2015 edition

Doing a theme this time. It is all Superhero teams. And everything is from the same toyline. Back in the mid 2000s the Marvel Superhero Squad line of mini figures started. About the size of the Smurf PVCs every kid in the 80s owned,these have a bit of articulation. And were normally sold in packs of two. My local Walmart started putting them all on clearance back in 2008.I bought piles of them.

Fantastic Four (Mr Fantastic,Invisible Woman,Human Torch and The Thing) vs Doctor Doom

It is hard to tell in the photo,but Sue Storm's feet and lower legs are see thru. And Torch is floating on a ball of fire.The sculpting on the four heroes is great. I do wish the Thing figure was a bit taller.Dr Doom ,besides the almost smile,is impressive. The details on his armor are well done. I must own 30 Superhero Squad figures.With only two of them being villains. Dr Doom and Super Skrull,I wish I had put Super Skrull in this pic.

 The Avengers (Ant Man/Hank Pym,Wasp,Captain America/Steve Rogers,Hawkeye and Vision)

This team I didn't start off buying figures to make it. Ant Man came with another figure I needed. Pretty sure Cap and Hawkeye came in the same pack. Grabbed a Avengers boxed set that had Vision in it. That boxed set came with another Captain America. Where his shield is on his back.That version is on the dash of the Newt-mobile.I like how every figure I got in this team are all long time Avengers.

Defenders (Silver Surfer,Dr Strange,Namor and The Hulk)

Yep the original Defenders line up. The Defenders are my favorite Marvel team. And to not only be able to get all the original members,but to get a Namor in the outfit he wore in the early Defenders tales is amazing.Dr Strange was the first Superhero Squad figure I got. Huge fan of him,and he was packed with Ant Man.I am kind of pleasantly surprised and pleased that they used Namor's short lived 70s outfit.Sadly Surfer has no articulation at all. It doesn't matter I got the original Defenders. All I need now is a Valkyrie,Nighthawk and Son of Satan Superhero Squad figures to boost the membership of this team.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 026 After the Golden Age

BOOK TITLE-After the Golden Age
AUTHOR-Carrie Vaughn
FORMAT-Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-Yes
COST-$2

We have 4 or 5 Dollar General stores in my town. At least 3 times a week I stop at one for a drink or a snack. And I always check their spinner rack of paperback books. Most of the time it is packed with lots of romance novels. But earlier this month I was at one of the DGs I am rarely in. I saw a copy of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter,grabbed it and this book was behind it.

I had never heard of this book or the author before. But the cover looked interesting. And the synopsis on the back caught my attention.

Our main character is the daughter of the two most well known superheroes in the world. Her father is a Superman analogue. And her Mom comes off as a mixture of Wonder Woman and Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four. The daughter has no powers. And over her childhood and early teens she keeps getting kidnapped by her parent's super villains.

The novel starts and she is in her mid 20s. Hasn't talked to her parents in a long time. We find out that in her late teens she rebelled by joining up with her parents most hated villain. Since she was under 18 and it got ruled she was temporarily insane,her doing this betrayal is covered up. Now she is working for an accounting firm and is helping build a case against the same villain she teamed up with years ago.

But during the court case the public finds out about her turning evil years ago and this causes her life to goto shit.

I really enjoyed how the focus of the book was on how it would be to grow up with both your parents being world famous heroes. You get the feeling that our lead sometimes feels like a caveman surrounded by Gods who walk the Earth.

Doing a bit of research,IE looking up the author on Amazon,I have found out she has written another novel set in the same world. And it also seems to deal with ordinary humans dealing with living in a world with superheroes.

After the Golden Age gets a 3.45 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 001 The Kryptonite Kid by Joseph Torchia

BOOK TITLE-The Kryptonite Kid a novel

AUTHOR-Joseph Torchia

FORMAT-Over-sized paperback

FIRST TIME READING-No

COST-Free,X-mas Gift

Back sometime in the mid 80s one of my Aunts got me this novel as a birthday gift. She knew I loved to read and loved comic books,so thought this would be a great gift for me.I read that copy many times. But it was lost in the mid 90s when a now ex took lots of my comics and books and made a bonfire using them in my front yard. Back last year in August one of my Aunts asked me to make an Amazon wishlist with stuff I wanted for X-mas.One of the items I was looking at had a link to this book below it. I clicked the link and saw that a used copy was a bit over $2 with shipping. My original copy was a hardcover and had a white dustjacket.A weird thing about that copy. After having owned it for 2 years I took the dustjacket off. And inside it I found a letter some girl named Alisha wrote to a boy she was breaking up with.

The book is a series of letters that two young boys in what I think is the early 60s write to Superman. They both goto the local Catholic School,love all the various Superman comics and of course the Superman tv show. Jerry,the lead,has a not so great homelife. His father can be abusive. His mother barely pays him any attention. And his older brother is a clone of Wayne from Wonder Years.

Jerry and his best friend Robert believe Superman is a real person. That adds what starts off as an interesting touch to the letters that morphs into a very sad element. At first the letters are nice and happy. With the two boys doing reviews of stories from the comics they read. But as things get worse at home for Jerry,and after being caught reading a copy of Superman's Best Friend Jimmy Olsen when he was suppose to be praying at school,the letters become what feels like Jerry's cry out for help.

Since Jerry believes Superman is real,he also believes he could maybe develop super powers. This starts off fairly innocently. With Jerry trying an old towel around his neck and jumping out of the local cranky old lady on the block's tree. He believes that by doing this he will be able to fly. Another time Jerry and Robert are off walking to their clubhouse. Jerry sees a rock on the ground and tells Robert he is sure it has Kryptonite in it. They break the rock open and something green oozes out. This causes Jerry to believe he has the super power to find Kryptonite and he dubs himself the Kryptonite Kid. 

It is also around this time that Jerry starts to notice that Superman and God seem to have alot in common. Which causes Jerry to believe that Superman might be God. He asks a series of questions about this to his teacher. Who with the school being a Catholic causes the nun who teaches him to freak out. Then Jerry writes a poem about how he loves Superman more than anyone,including Jesus. His teacher of course freaks out again and uses this to deny Jerry the chance to make his first Communion. Which sets off a chain reaction. Jerry's father starts to drink more often and beat Jerry and his 5 month old pregnant mother. The owner of the newstand Jerry buys his comics at,who is also the only adult that treats Jerry with respect,is caught having an affair with a married man.So Jerry is forbidden to buy comics anymore. 

Jerry gets fed up,and comes up with a plan. Since he already has the super power of being able to find Kryptonite hidden in rocks,he figures he should be able to fly any day now. The evening all his other classmates are going to make their first Communion,which Jerry's parents are forcing him to attend,right before the family loads up into the car Jerry says he has to pee. He runs into the apartment building,grabs his towel,which he has written KK on the back of. Gets on the roof of the building. Then jumps off.

The last chapter is all about the aftermath of Jerry's attempt to fly. 

For a book that I assume is written for pre-teens,The Kryptonite kid deals with some heavy issues. From physical and mental child and spouse abuse. To the way Jerry's teacher,who is a very old school nun,instead of trying to answer Jerry's various questions about God,Jesus and Superman decides to berate him in front of the class.And also physically abuses him.

The Kryptonite Kid gets a 3.5 outta 5.

Wild Cards III jokers wild Edited by George RR martin

Wild Cards was a series of Mosaic novels that first started coming out in the 80s. They usually were a collection of interconnected short stories. And were edited by George RR Martin. The basic plot is back right after WWII. This alien ship comes to Earth and sets off a genetic bomb. The bomb releases a virus,and the people that catch it have 1 of 3 things happen to them. 75% of the people died also known as drawing the Black Queen. 20% of the people end up mutated into various non-human forms,AKA drawing a joker. And the remaining 5% gain some kind of super power AKA drawing an Ace. This volume is mostly about an evil ace known as the Astronomer. Who wants revenge against a group of Aces who defeated him a few years ago. The Astronomer recruits some other aces and goes around killing the people who opposed him. I have loved this series of novels for years. But sadly most of them are now out of print and kinda costly. A few years ago Mr Martin revived the line and has been publishing one or two new novels a year.If you like super hero comics,sci fi,or just well written short stories this is a series you should try. Wild Cards III jokers wild gets a perfect A+.

Supreme:Story of the year

Supreme:Story of the Year

written by Alan Moore
art by various artists


This is a trade reprinting the first 13 issues of Alan Moore's revamp of Rob Liefield's bad ripoff of Superman. Alan starts it off with a clean slate,and we find out that Supreme has been away in space for almost 30 years,and has huge chunks of his memory missing. Over the course of 13 issues we are introduced to the various people that are part of Supreme's world. In his secret identity Supreme works as a comic artist on the Omniman title for dazzler comics. Omniman seems to be a thinly veiled ripoff of Superman. We also meet the current writer on Omniman who is a British man. And who I think is heavily based on Grant Morrison. Moore leaves various little clues through out the first 5 or so issues in the collection on how this storyline will end. Things like mentions of various superheroes that Supreme teamed with back in the 40's,50's,and 60s that has disappeared without a trace. Or when Supreme meets his old high school sweethart that lives in his hometown,and runs a Supreme Museum. Throw away mentions of stuff like how Supreme's mortal enemy Daris Dox has died,turn out to be major clues to what will happen later. Moore also tries his best to work in all the corny stuff that was in the fore front of the silver age Superman stories. And unlike those corny ass Superman stories Moore makes them work. Like how Moore takes the concept of Superman/Supreme having a dog that has the same superpowers. Superman had Krypto and Supreme has Radar. But thanks to Alan Moore's writing talent Radar turns out to be a vital part of the story,were as Krypto seemed more like a gimmick. Moore has also through out this storyline had flashbacks to various adventures of Supreme from before he left for his journey through space. And all these flashbacks take on the form of comics,which are done in the style of comics of the eras the stories are set in. Moore also takes two other Liefield creations,Diehard and Glory,and turns them from one note hero/heroines and fleshes them out. Then in the last two issues we get the last parts of the puzzle,and can now see how Moore has been leading up to the final big conflict with one of Supreme's biggest enemies. Another aspect of the trade that I liked was how Alan Moore has thrown in subtle references to various comics artist of the silver age. The art is good to great,I still wonder why it seems no artist managed to stay on the book for more than a few issues. But even with the artist changing every few issues it is still well drawn,and the flashbacks look exactly like the eras they are supposed to have happened in. I give Supreme:story of the year a A.

Daredevil-The Cutting edge

Daredevil The Cutting Edge came out a few years back. And was part of a line of novels based on the various Marvel heroes. I found it in a local used bookstore over 2 years ago. And finally dug it out to read a few days back when my insomnia had flared up and I was averaging about 1 or 2 hours sleep each night. First off the novel is very short,249 pages to be exact. It has two main stories going on at once. The first one is all about a pro-bono case Matt Murdock takes that involves a bio tech company that seems to be buying up huge amounts of land in and around Hell's Kitchen NYC. The second story is about a new villain that has been nicknamed The Cutter by the local press,At first it looks like the Cutter is attacking random people in the Hell's Kitchen area,and cutting them up with a huge knife. Daredevil runs into the Cutter during one of his nightly patrols,and is weirded out cause he can't seem to get a lock on the Cutter's heartbeat. Sadly by the second chapter I had figured out not only who the Cutter was,but that the bio tech company,and the Cutter were connected. And had made a pretty accurate guess on how the novel would end. If I had paid more than a buck for this book I would be pissed. But for a buck it was an OK way to pass 3 hours. Daredevil The Cutting Edge earns a C-.

Wolverine and the X-men Volume 2 Deadly Enemies

Prior to watching this DVD I had seen a few random episodes of this ,the newest cartoon based on the X-men franchise. This DVD contains 5 episodes. The stand outs are the first one on the disc,which has Storm now back in Africa. Back in her role as weather Goddess. She ends up getting possessed by the Shadow King. And starts using her weather control powers to devastate Africa. The X-men team comes in and thanks to Emma Frost manages to get the Shadow King outta Storm's mind. And Storm stops the massive deadly weather she has started. This is also the episode were Storm rejoins the X-men. The next episode is all about how now that mutants are public knowledge and being hunted down by the government, a lot of them are booking passage on various cargo ships to Genosha. Genosha is an island that is ruled by Magneto that is a safe place for all of mutant kind. Nightcrawler stows away on a ship and before they make it to Genosha,the ship is attacked by pirates. Who seem to be lead by Spiral,who has the Reavers as her muscle. It seems they are attacking these ships bound to Genosha,and taking captive the more powerful of the mutants aboard to be used in a kinda of "Gladiator" challenge to the death. After they have attacked and disabled the ship that Nightcrawler is on,and taken the mutants they wanted. Nightcrawler uses the young mutant kids that are left to pursue Spiral's band of pirates.And they manage to take down Spiral and the Reavers and sink their pirate ship. The X-men arrive after the fact and Nightcrawler rejoins the team. Then we get a coda to the story were it is revealed that Spiral is working for Mojo. And I get a strong feeling that this will lead to more story lines either later this season or in the next season. Then you have what I consider one of the best animated things to ever come outta Marvel comics. The episode starts out with Wolverine in the city being chased by the government's special anti-mutant team AKA MRD. Wolvie is heavily out numbered but then a huge helicopter lands and Nick Fury of Shield sends the MRD out,and ask to speak with Wolverine. It seems the Hulk is up in the Canadian Rockies,He is very mad and has already destroyed 3 cities and will soon cross the border over into the USA. Wolverine at first doesn't want to go on this mission,but Fury blackmails him,by telling him the Shield has info on all the X-men that he is more than happy to turn over to the MRD. So Wolvie agrees to go try to stop the Hulk. He is dropped off in the wilderness of Canada. And soon realizes that Fury hasn't given him all the facts. It seems that a hiker up in this area has gotten the curse of the Wendigo. Which turns a normal human into a huge white version of a Sasquatch. Wolvie manages to track down Hulk and by a knockout gas grenade to the mouth,gets the Hulk to turn back into Bruce Banner. While they are regrouping in a cave,Banner reveals that he was working with Shield ,and was gonna use one of the various chemicals that he has used unsuccessfully to cure him from being the Hulk,and Shield thinks this formula will cure the man who has the curse of the wendigo. Banner and Wolverine are on their way to the crashed helicopter that has the cure in it,when they are attacked by about 5 or 6 wendigos. It seems when the first wendigo bites someone he transfers the curse to the victim. After a long battle Wolverine and Banner manage to get some darts that have the cure inside them and turn all the Wendigos back to their human forms. But Wolverine finds a Shield emblem on one of the former Wendigos. So when Fury shows back up to take Wolvie and Banner back to America,Wolverine reveals that he has found out that Nick Fury and Shield are behind the first Shield agent becoming a wendigo. This pisses Wolverine off,so he goes and hits Banner with a massive sucker punch. and leaves. Of course the sucker punch gets Banner angry and Fury and his agents are left with a massively pissed off Hulk to deal with. After watching all the episodes on this DVD I have found that the show is well written and has very good animation. I plan on getting all the other episodes that have gotten a DVD release. And watching the second season when Nicktoons Network finally airs it. Wolverine and the X-men Volume 2 earns a A-.

TPB winners 05

JLA Year One
Story by Mark Waid
Art by Barry Kitson
In the tradition of Batman,Metamorpho,and Nightwing. The JLA gets a 12 issue series updating their origin to the modern age.This trade tells the story of how Martian Manhunter,Hal Jordan the Green Lantern,Aquaman,Barry Allen the Flash,and the second Black Canery form the first lineup of the Justice League of America.The JLA is the premiere superhero team of the DC universe.Inspired by the World War II superheroic team ,the Justice Society of American,these 5 heroes team up to fight off an alien invasion. This is the first public appearances of Martian Manhunter and Aquaman,who previously had kept their heroic deeds hidden to the general public. After seeing how well they work together the heroes decide to permanently team up anytime there is a threat too big for them to take care of on their own. Through out their first year in existence they are joined by Oliver Queen the Green Arrow,Ray Palmer the Atom,Batman and Superman.I got this trade in a lot,and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Now I ain't a big fan of Superman or Aquaman,I find both of them to be pretty boring no matter who is writing them. But in this mini series it is the first time I actually enjoyed the adventures of both heroes.Another thing that I enjoyed in this trade is the appearance of the Doom Patrol. Who are my favorite team from the silver age. The story by Mark Waid is great,and I loved how he peppered the story with references to alot of the old silver age JLA stories. The art by Barry Kitson,who I hadn't seen much of his artwork before,is very nice. I has a cleanness to it's line work that I liked. And Kitson has a energy to his art that makes the pages just pop.About the only negative,and really it isn't a negative to me. Is that now thanks to Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis this story is most likely not in continuity anymore. In the end this is a good trade to give to anyone that is a JLA fan,or who's only exposure to the JLA is the Superfriends or JLA/JLU cartoons. JLA year one gets a B.

TPB winners 03

X-O Manowar Retribution

Art by Barry Windsor-smith,Sal Velluto,and Mike Manley

Story by Bob Layton,Jim Shooter,and Steve Englehart

X-O Manowar is the title that got me into the Valiant Universe. X-O is a barbarian who aquires a alien suit of armor,kinda a Conan in Iron Man's suit type of hero. This trade reprints the first 4 issues of the original X-O run. It also included a X-O Database comic that had various diagrams of X-O's armor. Kidnapped many years ago by a race of spider aliens,Aric lives for a few years as a slave on the alien mothership. But thanks to the help of another slave he gets a map to the spider aliens ultimate weapon. This is the X-O Manowar class armor. Aric manages to get the armor and escapes the ship and heads back to Earth,but it turns out he is now in the year 1993. Somehow even though only 2 or 3 years have passed while he was on the mothership,in realtime many decades have passed. So he is a man out of his time.Using his armor he fights back against the spider aliens and various other threats. Aric finds out that the spider aliens have been hiding on Earth for many years and have started up a multi-national company, Orb Industries. Aric with the help of a kinda sleazy weasel of a man manages to take over Orb and through this he slowly becomes used to the modern world.When I started reading X-O it was with issue 4,but thanks to not having a comic shop near me,I didn't manage to get issues with any regularity until around issue 15. And back in the early to mid 90's most Valiant back issues cost way more than I wanted to pay. The previously mentioned issue 4,which was the first appearnce of the Shadowman,I ended up selling for around $40.So when I finally got this trade sometime last year,it was the first time I got to read the first 3 issues of this series. And I was very impressed at how well written these issues are. One complaint about the various Valiant series back in the 90's was that the stories were great but the artwork wasn't that good. Well these 4 issues are proof of how wrong that was. Issue 1 has layouts by Barry Windsor-smith,finishes by Bob Layton and John Holdredge. The story in this issue is by Jim Shooter and Steve Englehart. And has a amazing Barry Windsor-smith cover that I would love a poster sized version of. The second issue has another very nice Barry Windsor-smith cover,and is penciled by Sal Velluto,inks by Bob Layton,Tom Ryder,and Kathryn Bolinger. Now this issue the art isn't as good as the first,but really there is few artist out there that can come close to BWS. Issue 3 has a cover by David Lapham,and is gotta be one of his earliest published pieces of comic art. The interior has again Shooter and Englehart doing the writing chores,and Sal on the pencils. The inks are by Tom Ryder and Ted Halsted. And the final issue reprinted in this trade,issue 4.Though there is no credit to who did the cover to my eyes it looks like another good Barry Windsor-smith cover.The writers are Bob Layton and Steve Englehart,with Mike Manley doing the pencils,and Ralph Reese and Tom Ryder slinging the ink. Issue 4 I have already mentioned has the cameo first appearance of Shadowman,but it also has a very early appearance of the Harbinger kids. Overall the art work while not as flashy as alot of the art coming out from Image and Marvel at the time is still very solid and to me at least more appealing. One nice thing is now you can find this trade on various auction sites for less than cover price,I think I paid about $3 with shipping for my copy. X-O Manowar Retribution trade paperback gets a B+.

TPB winner 04

Animal Man volume 1

Story by Grant Morrison

Art by Chas Truog and Tom Grummett

This is a trade paperback reprinting the first 9 issues of the best series coming out from DC comics in the late 80's. Before this series Buddy Baker AKA Animal Man was a mostly forgetten hero. He has the power to gain the ability of any near by animal. So he can have the strength of a gorilla, or the abiltity to regrown body parts like a lizard.What I love about Buddy is how he is a blue collar hero, since being a superhero doesn't pay that well He does stuntwork to earn money. The comic focuses on Buddy and his family,his wife Ellen,his son Cliff and his daughter Maxine.The first few issues find Buddy coming outta a semi retirement to help out a lab that does tests with animals. He soon finds out that this lab is doing horrible things to their test animals,and with the help of Bwanna Beast,another long forgotten hero,Buddy does his best to correct this wrong doing.These issues also have a funny scene were Buddy comes down stairs in his hero uniform ,but he has a black jacket on top of it. When asked by Ellen why he is wearing the jacket Buddy replies Well I need a place to keep my keys and money,and I feel kinda silly running around in spandex. This small touch is one of many that makes Buddy and his family seem more like real people and not just some charecters in a comic book. After the first animal testing storyline we get a handfull of done in one storys,but there is a underlying story that runs through these issues and many more to come. We see how since Buddy has a connection with animals he becomes a vegaterian,and how he becomes PETA's number 1 hero. We also get to see how Ellen and the kids deal with being the family of a superhero. Issue 5 is the acclaimed "Coyote Gospel" which is a Christ story with a Wile Coyote stand in. This issue is one that divides many people,some people think of it as the best issue of the series,and others hate it with a passion. I will admit that I like it but find it kinda preachy.The trade wraps up with an issue in which Buddy joins Justice League Europe,and since he is now a member of one of the biggest superhero teams,he gets all the perks. Which include a salary,and various home defense devices installed in his home,incase some supervillain wants to get back at buddy by attacking his family. This issue is full of humor and is a nice way to end this trade. One complaint I have heard about this trade is how you can tell it is part 1 of a longer storyline,which it is. But in my eyes it works good as a standalone. The story by Morrison is IMHO some of his best work. I am of the mind that when Morrison is working on a creator owned,or a b-list hero he is one of the best writers out there. But when you put him on an A-list title,he is pure shit. The artwork by Chas Truog for the first 8 issues is nothing to write home about,but isn't bad. It is just average. Issue 9 has very good artwork by Tom Grummett,and this is major step up from the previous 8 issues. The covers are all by Brian Bolland and each one is amazing. I would love to have a book that is just Bolland's various covers for this series,or end a series of posters of these covers. Animal Man Volume 1 gets an A.

Showcasing the Essentials 05

Savage Dragon Archives Volume 1

Story and art by Erik Larsen

This is Larsen's version of Marvel's Essential line or DC's Showcase line. It reprints in black and white the original 3 issue Savage Dragon mini and the first 21 issues of the ongoing series. Savage Dragon was and still is the only one of the orignal titles that came outta the beginings of Image that I read consitantly. Dragon is a tall man with green skin and a fin on top of his head. He is found naked in a abandoned lot in Chicago. He has amnesia and can't remember anything about his past,but he seems to have vast knowledge about most things that have happened in the past 20ish years. He is recruited by Frank Darling of the Chicago Police department. The police want him to help combat all the villianous super powered "freaks" that are running rampart in the city.Dragon ends up becoming the city of Chicago's first line of defense against these "freaks".In the 3 issues of the mini and the first 10 or so issues of the ongoing we are introduced to the many heroes and villians that populate Larsen's ficticious version of Chicago.One thing that stands out to me is most of these charecters were all created by Larsen when he was a youngster. Through out this trade Dragon manages to get a group of heroic "freaks" to also join the police force to help his fight against crime. But the restrictive rules and various other things ends up making these various heroes time as cops very short. One very interesting "freak" is Jimbo Da Mighty Lobster, he was created for a "Create your own freak"contest. Jimbo is a Lobster/human hybrid and has a very "colorful" was of speaking. I find it neat that unlike similar contest ran at either Marvel or DC,the creator of Jimbo is the copyright owner. Through out the 24 issues reprinted in this trade we get to meet a buttload of heroes/villians. Some standouts are Powerhouse,who has the head of a chicken and seems to be Larsen's villianous take on Superman. Overlord,who is the leader of the main gang of "freaks" and is Dragon's arch enemy. Rapture,and electrical powered former hooker who becomes Dragon's girlfriend.She Dragon,who started out as a parody of John Bryne's version of She Hulk,but ends up becoming a well written female hero that hears voices in her head. Super Patriot,a hero from the world war II era ,who after almost dying is now more machine than man. And finally Mighty Man,who shares alot with the Billy Batson version of Captain Marvel. But in this case is a young adult female nurse that turns into a adult male with amazing powers. Some issues that I really enjoyed are issue 3 of the mini series. In this issue Badrock,a member of the government super team Youngblood,attacks Dragon to see if he is tough enough to be a member of Youngblood. After Dragon defeats him,Dragon arrest Badrock and refuses to join Youngblood. Issue 2 of the ongoing series is a crossover with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And this is the Mirage version of the turtles,not the pizza eating version that most people are use too. Issue 10 is the first appearance of Jimbo Da Mighty Lobster,and has a Pier 6 brawl between Jimbo and Dragon.Issues 15 and 16 has Dragon possessed by a leech that turns him into a mindless force of nature,and he ends up destroying some building and injuring his partner in the police force. The only real negative to this trade is that since it is in black and white sometimes the artwork is hard to follow. This isn't a huge detriment,but since I had read most of these issues when they first came out it stood out to me. Savage Dragon Archives Volume 1 is a great way to get into the world of the Dragon at a cheap price,and earns a respectable B.