2016 Comic Challenge 141 X-O Manowar #00 GOLD

TITLE-X-O Manowar #00 Gold variant
PUBLISHER-Valiant

Anyone that was into comics in the early to mid 90s remembers Valiant. And almost all of us wanted one of their Gold variants. Back then the above issue was going for between 50 and 100 bucks. I never had a Gold variant back then.

Back in 2008 I was talking to one of my older cousins. And he mentioned he had 3 longboxes back at his house. And he didn't want them. So before I headed back home I stopped by and got them from him. In those boxes was piles of early 90s Image and Valiant stuff. And it was in these boxes that I got my first Valiant Gold variants. Of course now that once 100 buck X-O zero gold is now at the most a 30 buck book.

But under that shiny gold and chromium there is a damn good story. Aric is a visagoth. Who gets kidnapped by a group of spideraliens. While on their ship he meets an old man. Who looks a lot like Elvis. Elvis gives Aric a map to the Spider Alien's biggest weapon. Which is the X-O Manowar armor. Aric dons it and escapes back to Earth. But cause of various time space things it is now the modern day.

I had the normal version of this comic back when it came out. Mostly cause X-O was the only Valiant title I bothered reading every month back then. Jorge Gonzalaz and Bob Layton scripted this issue. And Joe Quesada handles the pencils.

X-O Manowar #00 Gold variant gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 133 Original Turok Son of Stone #01

TITLE-Original Turok Son of Stone #01
PUBLISHER-Valiant

Back in the early to mid 90s Valiant was huge. They went from being a tiny company that was trying to create a new universe while using a handful of superheroes from the old Gold Key company.To being the number 3 company in the States.

After starting up the Turok Dinosaur Hunter series the demand for the old Gold Key series started going up.So in the spring of 1995 Valiant put out the first of 2 issues reprinting some of those old stories. But with redone coloring.

Under a nice looking Rags Morales cover we get 5 reprinted stories. 5 stories that show how very different Gold Key's version of Turok was from Valiant's version.

In these old Gold Key stories Turok and his buddy are trapped in the Lost Valley. Were they have to fight off dinosaurs. In the Valiant Turok series he is in modern day. Fighting off bionic dinosaurs. And not to long into that series run the premise was expanded.

Original Turok Son of Stone #01 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 121 Armorines Volume 2 #04

TITLE-Armorines Volume 2 #04
PUBLISHER-Acclaim Comics

Now while I was a fan of the early Valiant stuff,I had never read any of the stuff after Acclaim took over. Then I discovered the Valiant Fans website. And found out that this issue of Armorines Volume 2 had a tiny print run. And it is the rarest of the non-limited releases from Valiant/Acclaim. Well I had started trying to get a complete run of everything Valiant/Acclaim put out.

Skip ahead until 2010. I am at Coast Con and there is a dealer with cheap back issues. They were a buck each and the more you bought the cheaper it got. I am digging and get into a box that seems to be mostly Acclaim stuff. And what do I find but a almost perfect mint copy of Armorines volume 2 issue #04. Of course I bought it.

So why is this issue so rare? By the time I was solicited Acclaim was almost dead. With so few people reading their stuff the comic shops were either not ordering copies or only ordering 2 or 3 copies. Then factor in this issue shipped months late and you end up with a comic that the estimated print run is a bit over 3000 copies. Plus this issue has never been reprinted in a trade or hardcover.

Honestly the issue kind of sucks. I have only read this one issue of the second volume of Armorines. I did enjoy the first volume. The only reason I still have this issue,and this is after having a big amount of people offering to buy it off me,is because I am still trying to piece together a full run of Valiant/Acclaim. And I doubt I will ever see another copy for sale. And if I do it won't be for the extremely low price I paid for my copy.

Armorines Volume 2 #04 gets a Pass.

Milltown Antique Mall finds part 1

A couple of weeks back I found out about an Antique Mall in Wesson. Which is a small college town about 20 minutes away from where I live.One of my neighbors had went recently and told me they had seen lots of comics. So early one morning I head up there.

Got to Wesson found the store and walked in. The booth to my right had a box of comics. And the sign on it said "10 for a buck"! I dove into the box.

To prevent this post from being way too long I am gonna divide it up into multiple parts.

Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters #1 second printing.

After the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic was a hit,lots of companies put out black and white marital art animal comics. And the Black Belt Hamsters was the best of the bunch. Originally produced by Eclipse comics,this series is still around. With various companies bringing them back for short runs. I love how the wraparound cover parodies the covers on the then new Frank Miller's Ronin series from DC.I haven't read this issue yet. But have read later issues in the series and it wasn't bad. I like the theme to the 4 hamsters names. With the Turtles being named after famous painters,the Hamsters are named after action movie stars. So we got Clint,Chuck,Bruce and Jackie.

Toyboy #1

When they were coming out I rarely bought anything from Continuity comics. Mostly cause their cover prices were always so much higher than DC and Marvel. I am currently trying to get a complete run of Continuity. And Toyboy was one of the series I had no issues of. I haven't read this yet. Looked thru it and it seems Neal Adams does most of the art. So even if the story is shit at least it has good art. The plot seems to be about a kid with a robosuit. Which he uses to fight crime. Yeah I know it sounds kind of stupid.

Bone Chillers VHS

From the mid 90s this Goosebumps inspired live action kids show aired on ABC Saturday mornings.I never saw it. But heard it was good. Plus it has Linda Cardellini. And I will watch anything she does. Doing some research this show is based on a series of kids books. But unlike the similar Goosebumps books,these books are all connected. With the same characters appearing in each book. Our leads in the show are Freshmen at Edgar Allen Poe High School. Each tape contains 2 episodes. And there was only 3 tapes released. So far this series isn't out on DVD. So these VHS are the only legal way to watch this show.

Harbinger #14

Back in the early 90s for about 2 years Valiant comics was the hottest comic company around. And Harbinger was their most popular series.I never read the series back then. But in 2008 I decided I wanted to own 1 copy of every comic Valiant put out. Thankfully most of them have very little value. So in 7 years I have gotten close to 80% of the way to a complete run of Valiant. Harbingers was a team of teens and young adults. Most of whom had super powers. It was Valiant's version of the X-men or the Teen Titans. I really like the cover of this issue. No clue who the lady is. But the guy in the red tunic is Magnus Robot Fighter. 

Little Monsters #4

Yep that is Fred Savage on the cover. From NOW comics,this was a 6 issue limited series. That adapted the kid's movie. NOW did lots of licensed comics. Stuff like Married with Children,Speed Racer and their most famous title Terminator. I don't remember Little Monsters being a huge hit. And really wonder who thought it was a good idea to turn it into a 6 issue series. Hell I had forgotten about the movie until The Hub network started showing it 10 times a week for what seemed like 2 years.This is a comic I grabbed just for the cover.I love comics with photo covers. Looking on ComicbookDB I see that every issue of the series had a photo cover. It is doubtful that I will get the rest of this series. But it is neat to have a comic with a giant picture of Fred Savage on the cover.

And the last item of this installment. Kickers INC #3,from Marvel's New Universe line.Kickers INC was a team of super powered football players. Who aren't allowed to play pro ball anymore since they got super powers. So now they are a team of bounty hunters. And it is just as stupid as it sounds. Back when the New Universe started I was reading all 8 titles they published. I stopped reading Kickers after the second issue. And this comic didn't improve with age. Hell it got worse.

Well that is all for now. Check back in a few days for the next installment.

Deathmate Black

Deathmate Black

This was the other Deathmate book done by the Image crew. And it seems that Jim Lee and Mark Silvestri's studios did most of the work. Set in what seems to be a few years in the future. This shows a world that reminds me of the world from Battle Angel Alita. You get a team made up of members of Cyberforce,Wildcats,X-O Manowar and Turok. And what made this book stand out for years,you get the first apperence of most of the Gen 13 teens. While this has great artwork and a pretty interesting story,it has almost no ties to the other 7 Deathmate books. But this is still my favorite of all teh Deathmate books and the only one I have read more than 4 times. I liked how they updated Turok and the various changes done to the other Valiant heroes appearing. I know for some time after this came out it was the only of the Deathmate books that you had to pay over cover price to get. Mainly based on how hot Gen 13 was for a time. But now it is found in the cheap bins along with the rest of this series. If you feel the need to read Deathmate and don't know where to start pick this up. There is really no need to read the rest of the series to understand what is going on. Deathmate Black gets a B+.

Harbinger Files 1 and 2

Harbinger Files #1 and 2
Valiant comics

This was a 2 issue limited series that Valiant published in 1994 and 1995. It was a way to give more background information on two characters from the Harbinger series.

Issue #1 starts off right after issue #3 of Solar. Harada and Solar are in a jumbo jet. The jet ends up crashing out in a heavily wooded snowy area. And Harada is the only survivor. He is found by a man that lives in the woods. And this guy brings Harada back to his cabin and starts nursing him back to health. While this is happening Harada tells the guy his life story. We find out how Harada became the president of the Harbinger Foundation. Well near the end of the comic Harada sees that a helicopter is coming to get him. So he kills the man that has been taking care of him. This issue is written by Fred Pierce and Bob Layton. And Dave Cockrum does the pencils with Gonzalo Mayo doing the inking work. The art work doesn't look much like the work Cockrum did on the X-men. And if I hadn't read his name on the first page I would have never been able to tell he was the penciler. Over all this was a fun and informative comic. Harbinger Files #1 gets a B+.

Issue #2 is all about a new character who is named The Harbinger. We get to see him being trained by Harada and the Harbinger Foundation. But you can sense that The Harbinger wants to rebel against Harada. All through the issue we are given small clues to the identity of The Harbinger. Now I read this issue way after I had read the entire run of The Visitor. And in that series The Harbinger's true identity is revealed. And I bet if you read this issue after reading the first 25 issues of the Harbinger comic,you should have no trouble guessing who The Harbinger is. The story is written by Jesse Berdinka and Fred Pierce. The pencils are by John Ross and the inks are by  Mike DeCarlo. Now compared to the first issue ,this one is severely lacking. I have never really cared for The Harbinger character. And this issue didn't make me care for him. Harbinger Files #2 gets a C-.

Iron Man/X-O Manowar Heavy Metal Marvel Edition

Iron Man/X-O Manowar Heavy Metal Marvel edition

This is the second part of the Iron Man and X-O crossover. We start with a group of Iron Man villains being led by one of the members of HARD Corps. But  the Avengers show up. And the team has long time members like Crystal,Quicksilver and Captain America. Plus  Rai,Solar and some lady called Windstorm. I have no idea who Windstorm is. Maybe she was in the Harbinger series. And I haven't read much from that series. Well all of the sudden during the battle reality starts shifting and then we see all the heroes and villains fading out.

We cut to a ship way out in the ocean and Armin Zola and some wizard guy are trying to find all the scattered pieces of the cosmic cube. It seems that this merged reality is going to implode unless someone can put the cosmic cube back together.

We next jump back to the dark ages and Aric is being chased by Romans. He hides in a cave. And finds a briefcase. This case contains the Iron Man armor and Aric puts it on. We go back to modern time and Tony Stark is a young kid and his dad is showing him an alien egg that SHIELD has lent to him. The elder Stark is suppose to find out how to make the egg hatch. Well Tony gets near it,and the X-O Manowar armor jumps out and attaches itself to Tony.

We jump ahead a few years I think and X-O and Iron Man are working together to get the last piece of the cosmic cube. They find it ,but have to fight off the Masters of Evil and some Spider-Aliens. But they triumph over the villains and head off to the ship when Zola is.

They arrive on the ship and through a very complicated way manage to get the entire Cosmic Cube. And then use it to change reality back to the way it is suppose to be.

This issue was written by Fabian Nicieza. With Tom Grindberg doing the pencils and the team of Bill Anderson,Al Milgrom and Larry Mahlstedt doing the inking. Now first off I haven't read the first part of this 2 part crossover. But besides the fun of seeing Valiant heroes teaming up with Marvel heroes,this comic is very lame. Iron Man/X-O Manowar Heavy Metal Marvel edition gets a D-.

Comics I have read this year so far

Over at the Comic Geek Speak forum a bunch of people are keeping a list of all the comics,trades,hardcovers and OGNs they read each month.

January 2011

TPBs/Hardcovers/Graphic Novels Read-6

Bone all in one edition
Crossgen Forge vol 1
Crossgen Edge vol 2
Crisis on infinite earths
Infinite crisis
Showcase presents Dial H for hero

Singles Read-38

Yeah 1-8
Squadron Supreme 1-12 Gruenwald mini-only the kinda plain art keeps it from being perfect comic.
Uncanny X-men 140-150
Avengers Annual 10- worst thing I have read this year
Sigil 21,22I am really really enjoying this space opera comic.
Impluse plus 1 First time I have ever read a comic with Impluse and it wasn't bad
Justice League of America Vol 1 issue 228 fun comic that has John Jozz beating up Aquaman.
Fantastic Four 2575
Sectaurs 1 was expecting this to be bad and it was better than I expected.

February

Trades/hardcovers Read-4


Essential Marvel two in one volume 1 Reread this today to kill time till the mail passed. While not the best of the series 2 in 1 never had a truly bad issue.

Blackest Night hardcover This was the first Green Lantern I have read since the mid 90s. And I had no trouble following along with the story.

Project Superpowers TPB volume 1 Read this in floppie,but I found the trade for cheap.

Savage Sword of Conan Archives volume 3

Singles Read-4

Next Issue Project Fantastic Comics 24  The last story keeps it from a perfect comic.

World's Unknown 6-Killdozer adaptation
Sleepwalker 1-horrible horrible comic

Darkhawk 22

March

Trades/Hardcovers Read-3

JLA Crisis of Conscience

Old Man Logan- Heard all the hype about this series for almost 2 years now. So I finally sat down and read the entire thing today. What a great and fun comic. I was hooked as soon as the spider-mobile showed up. And now I really hope someday we get a sequel to it.

Walking Dead volume 9 -  As always this was great,but I hate how quick Walking dead reads. I opened the trade and about 20 minutes later I was finished.


Singles Read-101

The Boys 19-29 - I have fallen way behind on this series and now trying to catch up.
Wolverine the origin 1-6 - Not that impressed with the story but the art was good.
1602 1-8
Skull Kill Krew 1 and 2
Doom 2099 2,3
Excalibur -This was the prestige format book that came out before the series.
Excalibur Mojo Mayhem- Art Adams artwork=Amazing. Plus I got it for a quarter.
Black Hole 1
Chaos Effect Epilogue 2
The Ferret Vol 2 3,6
Man of war Vol 2 3,7,8
Married with chldren Bud Bundy,Fanboy in paradise
Married with Children Buck's Tale 1
MWC Kelly goes to Kollege 1,2
MWC Lotto Fever 1
MWC Quantum Quartet The big wrap up -  Been looking for this issue for years.
The Ray vol 2 1-4
The Good Guys 1-4 -  The first couple of issues have crappy art,but the story is fun.
Prudence & Caution 2
Bloodfire 6-9 -  The artwork is horrible,but the story ideas are interesting.
Geomancer 7,8
Magnus Robot Fighter 41,48,49,50,52,54
The Outcast 1  Worst thing I have read so far from Valiant.
Psi Lords 2,3,8,10
Punx 1 - so bad I couldn't even finish it.
Rai 17,21,23,28.
Secret Weapons 7,13,15,16,21
X-O manowar 36,39,41,50-x,61
Starslayer the director's cut 1-3
Magnus robot fighter Acclaim comics 2,3,4,5,8-15,17,18
Ninjak Vol 2 2-4

April


Trades/hardcovers Read-1

Shadowman -  This reprints the first few issues of the the first volume of Shadowman.Plus you get some always amazing Steve Ditko artwork.



Singles Read-8

Asylum 7 -  This was an anthology series put out by Liefelds Maximum Press.
Avengers 51  This is the series after the whole Heroes Return debacle.
Battlestar Galactica Journey's End 3
Scavengers 0,6,7 - Published by Triumphant comics. This is actually a good series. Only drawback is the art.
Shadowman Vol 1 32,42

MAY

Trades/hardbacksRead-11

Witchblade 10,11
Bat Manga
Essential X-men 3,4
Walking Dead volume 10
Witch
Heavy Water
Endangered
Headache
Black Smith

SinglesRead-41
Rescue Rangers/Darkwing Duck FCBD flip book
Captain America/Thor
2000 AD FCBD
Atomic Robo FCBD
The Tick FCBD
Bloodshot volume 1 0-7
Bongo Free for all 2011 edition
Curse of the Weird 2-4 - Great series that reprints pre-code atlas/Marvel stuff.Lots of Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby artwork. Worth tracking down.
Dark Horse Presents 14
Deathmate Blue
Deathmate Red
Deathmate epilogue
Good Girl Comics 17
The Groo Chronicles 2
Groo the Wander 4,8,9,10,20,44,46,50,56,110
Gumby 3d 4
Monster Menace 1-4 - Reprints a bunch of the Marvel Giant monsters stories. Lots of Kirby and Ditko artwork. Another one worth tracking down.
Mr Monster Attacks 1
Mr Monsters's 3D Horror 1
Mr Monster's Hi Shock Schlock 1
Mr Monster's Horror 1
Vengeance of Vampirella 3,12,16,17,18,23
Vengeance of Vampirella Mystery Walk 0

June

SinglesRead-19

Crazyman vol 1 1-3
Crazyman Vol 2 1-4
Bombast
Nightglider
Captain Glory
Satan's Six 1-4
Secret City Saga 0-4

August

Trades,Hardcovers,and Graphic NovelsRead-1

Heartburst and other Pleasures-Reprints the Heartburst graphic novel and some shorts

SinglesRead-51

Bloodshot 11-32
Vistor vs the Valiant universe 1,2
The Vistor 1-13
Hard Corps 1-7
Young Zen Intergalactic Ninja 1,2
Zen Intergalactic Ninja 0-B/W issue
Zen Intergalactic Ninja 0-Color issue
Zen Intergalactic Ninja The Alternity Saga 1,2,3
Zen Intergalactic Ninja The Hunted 1,2

September

Issues Read-65

1984 #5
1994 #16
The Rook #14
Best of 2000 AD monthly #10
Spider-Man Magazine #1
Spider-Man Magazine #2
Spider-Man Magazine #3
Spider-Man Magazine #4
Wolverine and the X-men Magazine #1
Wolverine and the X-men Magazine #2
The Tick Big Halloween Special 2000
Armorines Volume 1 #1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,12
Chaos Effect Epilogue 1
DC presents Batman #1
Super Maximun Excitement #3-Great mini comic from Robin Bougie and another artist
Dear Mr Bougie #2-Fun collection of Robin Bougie artwork
Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20-this is the Valiant series
Ninjak Volume 1 #0,00,1,2,8,10,18
Psi-Lords 2,3,8,10
The Second Life of Dr Mirage 1,16
Secret Weapons 1,2,3,4,7,11

Trades/Hardcovers Read-6

Batman Hush volume 1-Heard the hype on this for a few years. And got both Volumes as X-mas presents.
Batman Hush volume 2-Great artwork from Jim lee but the Jeph Loeb story reads like bad fan fiction or something a ADD 13 year old came up with in study hall.
Mad for Decades-amazing collection of the best Mad stuff from the 50's,60's,70's,80's and 90's.
Essential Marvel Horror volume 2
Yeah-Great series that most people never read. Great collection with two flaws. It is reprinted in black and white. And they didn't reprint the letter pages which were connected the the stories.
The Tick the complete Edlund- I have read issues 1-12 before. But never issue 13 and was surprised with how good it was.

Valiant comics

Valiant comics

Back in the early 90s a new company was created. This was Valiant comics. At first they started off small. Publishing a free give away comics. Then they got a deal,so they were publishing comics based on various Nintendo properties. And they also published a handful of comics based on the World Wrestling Federation. Well neither the video game based or wrestling based comics sold that well. But they did a deal with Gold Key. In this deal they got the rights to a handful of the Gold Key heroes. These heroes are Solar man of the atom,Magnus Robot Fighter,and Turok Son of Stone. The first of these properties to get published was Magnus. This is considered the start of the Valiant universe. Now Magnus didn't sell that well,but cause it was a property that some comic fans were familiar with it sold better than the previous stuff. Next they put out Solar. And this title again wasn't a huge seller but it sold well. Not long after this Valiant added the titles Rai,Harbinger,X-O manowar and Shadowman. About 8 months into the start of the Valiant universe,people started noticing how all the issues were well written and had good art. And the speculators found out that the print runs on these early Valiant comics were super low. And it seemed over night prices tripled for back issues of Valiant. Then the comic magazine Wizard started talking about Valiant. This just added fuel to the fire. Pretty soon back issues of Valiant were the hottest things in comic shops. At the time the first Valiant comic I bought was X-O manowar issue 4. I got it a few months after it came out for cover price. But in a few months people discovered this issue had the first appearance of Shadowman. So the issue quickly went from cover price to $30. Now I enjoyed what I had read. But cause of the escalating prices couldn't afford to buy the back issues. So I gave up on reading Valiant comics.

Now fast forward to summer of 2008. I was in Biloxi and talking to one of my cousins. I was telling him about my new job. And since I had huge amount of downtime at work,I had started bringing some comics with me to read. He mentioned that he still had a bunch of his old comics. It seems back in the early 90's he was speculating on comics. He told me to come by his house before I headed back home. I could have all his old comics for free. Well I will never turn down free comics so I went by. I get there and he has 2 short boxes and a small stack of comics. Well he had been one of the people in the early 90's speculating on Valiant comics. Once I got home I went through the comics. And saw he had about 200 various issues of Valiant. And over the next few weeks at work I read them. This reignited my love of Valiant.

Now I had heard back in 2005 about a website dedicated to collectors of Valiant comics. So now owning about 200 issues I went to the website. Looking around I found out that there was about 700 or so total comics in the Valiant universe. And about 80% of them are now super cheap. So I have been slowly buying the issues I need to get a complete run. Usually I have managed to get these issues for a buck an issue or less.

One of the things that I love about Valiant is so far everything from them I have read has been very well written. Plus they seemed to have a book for everyone. If you love action and the Punisher,they have Bloodshot. If you like the X-men or the 80's era Teen Titians ,Valiant has Harbingers.If you like more sci fi based stuff ,there is Magnus or Solar.

So far outta the Valiant stuff I have read the stand outs are. Turok, this is the story of a American Indian who for years lived in a land outside time. But thanks to the first big crossover event in the Valiant universe,Turok gets sent to the present day. And so does his main enemy. This is a series of bionic dinosaurs. Yeah I know an American Indian fighting bionic dinosaurs sounds incredibly stupid. But the various writers of the Turok title make it work. Then you have Bloodshot. Bloodshot is a former mafia hitman. Who is infused with nanites. These are tiny robots that live in his blood and can repair almost any damage. And also keep him at peak shape. The title started off as a super powered version of the Punisher. But quickly morphed into something entirely different. I must assume my cousin also really liked this title cause it was the one he owned the most issues of. Shadowman is a book set in New Orleans. Jack is a jazz saxophone player. But one night he is bit by what we later find out is a Spider-Alien. And after this every night he loses all fear and his strength,agility and stamina become the best a human can have. This title has a very dark feel to it. Magnus robot fighter is set in the future. In this future mankind has come to depend on robots for most normal things. And some robots have gained what is called "freewill". This means these robots aren't happy being man's servants. And at first Magnus is happy going out and destroying the freewill robots. Well early on in the title he realized that not all the freewill robots are evil. And the title becomes about how Magnus becomes a hero to the lower class and a champion of the freewill robots. There are more Valiant titles I love but I feel I have ranted way too long now. So in closing if you are tired of the comics that DC and Marvel are putting out. And you want something different that doesn't cost much,go digging through your local comic shops cheap bins and try out some Valiant.

Armorines issues 1-7

Armorines Volume 1 issues 1 through 7

Armorines was a Valiant title that started in April 1994. Now there is a zero issue that came out before issue 1. But so far I haven't got a copy. Armorines is a group of 4 marines,that have been equipped with suits of very high tech armor. I am not sure but I believe these suits are somewhat based on the X-O manowar armor.

The first 3 issues are about introducing us to the team and their first real mission. They are sent under the sea near Australia. They must go down to deactivate the nuclear power source on a sunken submarine. And also to remove some valuable data. Well once they get down there they first have to deal with a group of mutated sharks. And then run into a group of Spider-aliens. One of the Armorines is captured by the Spider-Aliens and the rest go to rescue him. This is a great way to introduce people to the team. And also helps establish to the reader the personalities of each of the members.

Armorines issue 4 starts off with the leader,Gunny and Sirot testing out some new force fields. Gunny and Sirot don't get along. And beat the holy shit outta each other. We find out that a Senator doesn't want Gunny on the team. Cause of Gunny's age and some stuff that happened in his past. The rest of the issue is filling in more back story of the Armorines team. Plus setting up the next storyline.

The next 3 issues are a story set in outer space. It seems that the Spider-Aliens are gathering all their ships right outside Earth's orbit. And the Armorines along with Hard Corps are set up to see what they are up too,and to stop them. Both groups barely make it out of the Earth's atmosphere,when something happens that takes out all electrical power on the planet. So both teams are in space and have no way to communicate with mission control. Once they get up in space,the Armorines and Hard Corps go out to investigate. And the Spider-Aliens attack. At first it looks like the good guys are doomed but a surprise appearance from X-O Manowar saves the day. Now issue 5 is continued into issue 33 of X-O Manowar. But since I don't currently own it I have no idea what happens in that issue. But in issue 6 we start off with the Armorines inside the Spider-Alien mother ship. The alien ship has pulled the space shuttle in with a tractor beam. So it is up to the Armorines and X-O to free the ship. While on the alien ship,they discover that the aliens have a huge amount of humans on their ship. Some of these humans have been kept in suspended animation for over 100 years. And with the Armorines suits running low on power,they free the humans and lead them in a huge battle with the aliens.

So far I have enjoyed the issues of Armorines I have read. I got all these issues 2 years ago at Coast Con. One of the few dealers there that had comics had an almost complete run of the title in his bins. After talking to him for awhile I managed to talk him down from $1 a issue to 10 cents an issue. This is because I was buying a huge amount of comics from him. I have learned that at cons it never hurts to try to haggle with the dealers. Most dealers,if you are spending a decent amount of money,are more than willing to give you a discount. Armorines issues 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 get a B+.

Deathmate Red

Deathmate Red

Considered to be the worst part of the worst big event crossover of the 90s. This came out like 3 months after it was suppose to. And by the time it did ship most people had given up on Deathmate. So this one has the lowest print run of any of the issues. This was the issue that was handled by Rob Liefeld and his crew of talent from Extreme studios. This is mainly various Extreme Studio heroes,IE Youngblood,Brigade,Bloodstrike and Prophet with Bloodshot from Valiant thrown in. Now I am a fan of Bloodshot and looking back the Extreme Studio stuff wasn't as bad as people make it out to be.Sure most of it was generic superhero stuff with not so good art. The storyline in this comic makes no sense and really is barely even connected to the overall Deathmate storyline. Now Rob Liefeld draws a great Bloodshot. And some of the art in this issue would have made great posters,but as a actual comic it fails on so many levels. Deathmate Red gets a F+.

Deathmate Blue

Deathmate Blue

Before this came out it was one of the most hyped and anticipated comic company cross overs in years. You have Image comics ,who were smoking hot at the time. And Valiant comics,who were at their peak artistically and storywise. And the basic idea wasn't bad. The two different universes merge and a small group of people are trying their best to correct this huge mistake. Well lets start off with the obvious mistakes,this was published in mid 1993 and had a cover price of $4.95. IIRC at this times most comics were at most $1.95. Sure the issue is over sized and the cover has a small amount of blue foil on it. But there is no way this should have been almost $5 an issue. Each of the four "color" issues of Deathmate were collections of some short stories. We start this one off with a story that has Magnus Robot Fighter and Brigade. Written by John Ostrander and art by Jim Calafiore,this is decent. But really this story,and most of the other ones in this entire crossover,feel like you have been dropped into part 20 of a 40 part storyline.The fight between Magnus and Battlestone is decent,and has the usual Valiant style of good art. Next story is one that pairs up Secret Weapons and Cyber Force. Secret Weapons as a title never really worked for me. And Cyber force always felt like a X-men spin off team that would have lasted 2 years at the most. Written by Joe St. Pierre and art by Sean Chen,this one is more interesting than the first story. There is an attempt on the President's life and the combined team of Secret Weapons and Cyber Force must stop it. The next one has people from Harbinger,Brigade and Cyber Force. The team from the last story has invaded the Harada HQ and it ends up with a big fight. The story by Maurice Fontenot and art by Howard Simpson are both flat and really drags the pace of the book down.Geoff the geomancer finally gets to meet up with Harada and the both of them get in touch with Solar. This sets up the storyline that will be continued in Deathmate Epilogue.Last story has Solar man of the Atom and Supreme. Written by Kevin Vanhook and art by Peter Grau. This has Solar and Supreme teaming up with Master Darque and Dr Eclipse to go find out what has caused the two universes to combined and what is causing they to be destroied.This is one of the better issues in the whole Deathmare shitfest. But even then it is barely worth 2 bucks much less the $5 it sold for. I do like how it took the storyline and continued it forward.Which is something other issues in this series didn't manage to do. Deathmate Blue gets a C.

Bloodshot volume 1 issues 0-6

Bloodshot volume 1 issues 0-6

This series came out when Valiant was at their peak of popularity. And IIRC issue 1 of Bloodshot came out the same day as the infamous Superman Volume 2 issue 75 AKA the Death of Superman issue. Bloodshot is the story of a former mafia hitman who is sold out and given to a Asian tech firm as a guinna pig. They fill his blood of nanites,little robots that can fix almost anything and allow him to control any electronic device. Well Bloodshot is rescued early on and goes on a quest to find out his past. Seems he remembers almost nothing of his previous life. You can tell that at first this was Valiant's attempt for a Punisher style hero. But quickly it changes into something else. Issue 0 came out way after these 6 issues and it does a good job giving you some of Bloodshot's story from before he became a one man killing machine.Issue 4 has him teaming up with Gilard aka the Enternal Warrior. They team up take on one of the many mafia families. An uneasy truce is reached and Gilad gets Bloodshot a job working for a British group that kinda reminds me of the group Micheal Knight worked for on Knight Rider.Issue 6 has a great cover of Bloodshot falling outta a place through the air. And at one time this issue was super hot. Cause it was the first appearance of Colin King who was Ninjak. And for a very short while Ninjak was a super hot hero. Thankfully all these issues should be easy to find for a buck an issue if no cheaper. This group of Bloodshot issues 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+.