#168: As Time Collects It's Toll

Got a bunch of assorted items to start things off this week!

First up, I contributed an essay to the upcoming release from Becky Books, JACK OF ALL COMICS!, dedicated to the career and history of Jack Kirby. While you might expect me to have done a chapter on one or another of Jack’s Marvel works, I was instead asked to write about the black sheep of the Fourth World saga, DC’s FOREVER PEOPLE. Anyway, the book will be released before long, and I’ll let you know where you might be able to pick it up once it’s ready. For now, here’s the press release boiler plate:

JACK OF ALL COMICS! COMING SOON from Becky Books!

There are a Million Ways to Talk About Jack Kirby…

…and you’ll find twenty-eight of them in this book! Twenty-eight writers tackle twenty-eight topics, all of them about the incredible, invincible, uncanny, and mighty works of the King of Comics! There have been many books on Kirby—but never before like this one!

Jack Kirby’s comic book output during the 1960s and 1970s was truly groundbreaking, forming universes and creating concepts that have stood the test of time to this very day. Jack of All Comics covers nearly every single title the King worked on throughout those two decades to celebrate, converse, and sometimes even kvetch over the highs and lows of each series with insightful and illuminating essays.

Join a cool collection of wondrous writers as they bring the Kirby Krackle to jaw about Jack! Dive into the deep end as they deliver the details on the Kirby Influence over both the Marvel Universe and the DC Universe! Read along with their riotous raconteuring of personal tales of their first experiences with Jack’s powerful pencils and crafty concepts and characters! Kirby’s here—don’t ask! Just buy it!

On an unrelated note, this surprising video made the rounds this week, with a strange surprise ending to it. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, other than that we may have twisted up young Sirius’ whole life.

I’m also namechecked briefly in the latest episode of Marvel By The Month in which the usual crew is joined by writer Brian Michael Bendis to talk about two Jack Kirby Treasury Edition projects of the 1970s, CAPTAIN AMERICA’S BICENTENNIAL BATTLES and the adaptation of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. I found it to be a pretty great conversation, one that you can experience for yourselves at this link

And then finally, with the release of my brother’s new album BETWEEN THE LIGHTNING AND THE THUNDER, it’s a good time to look back at the video the band shot for its first single, Embers in the Ash. The video can be seen at this link, and Joe goes behind the scenes on the making of the video in the latest edition of his own Newsletter here.

And now, we can get down to cases as usual and hit a few reader questions.

Joe West

Sorry, I know it’s not your book, but will Robbie Reyes have a role in Spirits of Violence?

You’re correct, it isn’t my book, Joe. So I’m afraid that I really don’t know the answer, sorry.

David Brazier

Have you ever read the Bristol Comic 200AD? I loved Strontium Dog more than Judge Dredd - if Carlos Ezquerra had drawn a Marvel Hero who would you have liked it to be? I do think he was a genius.

Yes, David, I’ve read 2000AD one and off over the years and enjoyed any number of strips that have run in its pages. But I’m not sure what strip I might put Carlos Ezquerra on. My first thought was Killraven in AMAZING ADVENTURES, though he might have also done well on the Punisher or Conan the Barbarian as well.

Venus

Are there any editors (assistant, associate, or otherwise) who are seen as uniquely equipped for specific lines or books, or is everyone expected to be equally proficient across all kinds of books? I guess what I am asking is, are certain skills or mindsets seen as fitting for some books and not others among editors?

In general, Venus, the skills of an editor are relatively modular and can be shifted from one set of titles to another. That said, certain people may have a greater interest in certain characters or books or genres, so we try to take advantage of that enthusiasm whenever we can.

Joel Zorba

Why do you think a Cyclops solo series isn't a viable long-term proposition? Magik, Jean, Psylocke, Storm, Nightcrawler, Gambit, Bishop, Domino, Iceman, X-Man... do you really believe that all of these characters are more popular than Cyclops?

It isn’t a question of popularity, Joel. Most of the qualities that make Cyclops of interest are centered on him being in a leadership role. As a solo hero, he’d lose that context entirely. Plus, he’s got a power that’s limited in terms of its application, so there’s that as well. Doesn’t mean that you couldn’t do good solo stories with Cyclops, only that you might be doing so divorced from the contest that helps to make him an interesting character. In other words, you wouldn’t necessarily be putting your best foot forward.

JV

news is coming out that the Marvel Masterworks line is being put on hold indefinitely.

What are your thoughts (I believe you worked on an iteration of the line in the 90s)? Do you think the 1980s is a natural end point to this series of reprints? Was the cleaning up of the artwork too much of a cost issue and do you think other formats will be able to do the same?

The central issue was pretty straightforward, JV: sales on those volumes had dropped to the point where they were no longer financially viable. So while I like the format, if the audience for the books isn’t there, then they’re going to go on hiatus at least. And yes, I was responsible for restarting the program in the late 1990s and getting it running again after its first hiatus. The same thing may be possible here, but we’ll need to see what happens over time.

Mark Paglia

In overseeing the X-line (or any line of books), do you aim for a particular ratio of ongoing titles to limited series to one-shots?

I don’t have a specific percentage in mind or anything, Mark, but I do find it a lot easier to build distinctive series for individual characters than to come up with a variety of purposes for a team of mutants that are distinct enough to give them a decent shot at success. I suspect I lean in the direction of solo outings more than most prior X-Editors have done. Whether that’s a smart or foolish way of going about things we’ll learn over time.

Sean

Was there ever any thought given to having Sam Wilson become Captain America without retaining any Falcon accoutrements — just fully stepping into the role as himself?

Not really, Sean. And I think the reason for that is relatively self-evident: what possible, plausible reason could you give for a guy who routinely flies as a part of his persona giving up that power and all the advantages that it brings simply because you’ve changed his costume and identity? When we first started to talk about it, it made no sense that Sam would ditch the wings as Captain America. And letting him keep them gave him a different and unique silhouette and approach to the job, which I thought was advantageous.

Yliaster

A LOT of Marvel games are being announced recently. How close is the relationship between Marvel Games and Marvel Comics? Are you involved in any game in any capacity whatsoever?

As with the films and animation and so forth, we coordinate generally with the Marvel Games team, Yliaster. But I can’t say that I’m really involved with what they do in any real way. Years ago, I consulted on a couple of different games, but there hasn’t been a call for that in a while.

Brian

You seem to be a fan of Matt Wagner’s Grendel series. Got a few questions around that topic.

1) Are you keeping up with the “modern” releases? If so, what do you think?

2) I know Wagner has done very little work for Marvel thru the years. Surely he’s been approached thru the years for a project or two. Have you ever asked him to come aboard and join a project?

3) Given the success of the two Batman/Grendel minis (and even the Shadow/Grendel story) do you feel Grendel could be a good character for Marvel to crossover with? If so, which iteration?

I’ve been enjoying the modern GRENDEL series, Brian. They’ve been welcome whenever a new issue comes out. And I’ve spoken with Matt on a couple of occasions about doing something for Marvel, but haven’t been able to get the stars to align. My big failing here was in not being able to convince him to take on THOR when we started it back up during HEROES RETURN. And I think there are any number of Marvel characters that you could do a good crossover with. My mind tends to immediately go to Daredevil because Grendel grew out of that same Frank Miller push in the very early 1980s, so there’s some fundamental pulpy DNA in common between the two series.

Ben Morse

Protocol and the Soldiers of Misfortune were interesting antagonists with great visuals—did they ever pop up outside of New Warriors?

No, Ben, I don’t think they’ve been seen since those 1990s issues.

Ian A

Speaking of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, were they a reference point during the development of Fraction and Kitson's The Order? The two concepts seemed to share some DNA with regard to the time limits and potential lethality of the characters' artificially granted powers.

I don’t think so, Ian, but this is probably a question that you’d need to ask Matt Fraction, as I didn’t really work on THE ORDER directly back in the day, so I’m not aware of every aspect of the development process.

Steve McSheffrey

So is it five more months of this Doom thing or just five weeks?

Five more months, Steve. All the way through November.

CG

As a long-time fan of Betsy Braddock, it’s been exciting to track her trajectory; is Marvel interested in her in the role of Captain Britain? Or does the Captain Carter and Brian Braddock of it all make it a little bit tougher? I’m curious whether there’s a longer-term vision for her. I know it was stated somewhere that the X-Office didn't want writers coming in and just giving her different codenames and/or trying to change codenames which is completely understandable.

Also curious if you or Mark Basso took anything from the strong fan response to Geoffrey Thorne’s X-Force series. Fans really appreciated how Betsy herself was written—the emotional journey, her personality, her inner conflict—it really resonated. Did that reception spark any thoughts about how to approach her going forward?

The outpouring of support for Betsy Braddock has been nice to see, CG. But that said, it wasn’t enough to keep X-FORCE going at the level that it would have needed to in order to succeed, so while there are plenty of vocal fans of her treatment in that book, there weren’t enough of them to keep it going. In terms of Betsy’s role as Captain Britain, I’m not convinced that that’s the best role for her long-term, but for the moment that’s where she stands.

Jeff Ryan

With your Deathlok/New Warriors rereading, were there any plot points or art elements that you'd either misremembered or flat-out forgotten?

Oh, all sorts of little things, Jeff. That’s why I always try to flip through the issues before writing up that section. But nothing so massive that it’s worth talking about separate from that feature.

David Lowe

Were there other ideas considered for the anniversary of GSX #1 that might have given more focus to the original story and characters whose milestone we are actually celebrating, perhaps in a more "What If" style? In the new GSX #1, all those great characters are relegated to the background with scant, superficial dialogue, and the drama of the original story is glossed over, with the abducted mutants barely mentioned. I have nothing against doing a Ms. Marvel mini-series, but I'm sad that the most influential comic book I've ever read, and one of Marvel's greatest ever stories, got "used" to promote another character rather than being celebrated for itself.

No, David, there were no other approaches seriously considered for the GIANT-SIZE X-MEN books—this is what we came up with. Sorry that they’re not working for you.

Andrew Seal

Do you see any reason to hope that fan culture might change, that fans will loosen up a bit in their possessiveness over their favorite characters?

Based on my experiences, not really, Andrew. And it’s almost always been that way. What’s different today is that the Internet and social media gives everybody the opportunity to shout their opinions more loudly and be heard by more people. But comic book fans have always had strongly-held opinions about their favorite characters and creators, that was the same in my day as well. And I certainly put forward my own share of ill-informed and assholish opinions back in the day, so I can relate on some level to the fans who do that now.

Hank

In Imperial, why do Quill and Nova act as someone you know from work as opposed to close friends, something they’ve been established very heavily as (with some subtext of something a little more than just friends) in recent books such as Ewing’s GotG? Even if Hickman didn’t want to continue that particular thread, wouldn’t you as the editor encourage some reference for continuity’s sake?

Because, Hank, conflict is the engine that drives stories, and I find nothing more boring and detrimental to good, interesting interactions than everybody getting along all the time and thinking the exact same way all the time. Yes, Peter and Richard have shared some adventures and some history, but that doesn’t mean that they’re intrinsically great, unbreakable friends forever despite whatever may come.

Glen Cadigan

Lately I've been rereading the original Thunderbolts series from the beginning, and it struck me how early in the run (after the fourth issue) the T-Bolts got an Annual. Was that a response to the overnight success of the series, or was an Annual always in the works, but maybe pushed up on the schedule? The multiple artists, some only doing a few pages, seems to suggest this, but that's also the norm sometimes for Annuals, so I dunno.

if I’m remembering correctly, Glen, Kurt and I pushed to do an Annual that first year because we knew that we had only a limited time in which to work before the Heroes Reborn characters might be coming back, so we wanted to do as much as we could in the time we had. And if I’m recalling incorrectly, I’m sure Kurt will remember it exactly—he usually does.

Seastar

About that back up story, I really liked it and found it to be pretty interesting and brimming with possibilities. Is it something we can expect to be addressed beyond this story? I know you've said before that this was a trimmed down version of your theory, and you just wanted to depict the essence of it. For those of us who love a snack but also want the full steak, is this something you plan on expanding on and developing further?

We’re going to have to see what happens, Seastar. But I’d need a writer who was interested in exploring it and a story context in which exploring it would make sense. I don’t really think it’s the place of the line to simply carry out my flights of fancy. But I’m sure that we’ll come back to it at some point.

Callie

I don't know if you had any hand in it but I just wanted to say I really appreciated the Marvel Pride special this year. It felt really encouraging to see more than just LGBTQ characters existing but them taking a stand against hate, and I'm really glad that marvel let Al go as far as he did with the anti-LGBTQ/fascist comparisons (i mean they’re literally fighting Hitler).

Glad you enjoyed it, Callie, but I wasn’t involved in it. However, new X-Office arrival Lindsey Cohick worked on it, so I’ll pass along your approval to her.

Michael Simpson

Just got the chance to see the designs for the Hellfire Vigil, which I must say are quite amazing, but, I noticed that Catseye of the Hellions is set to appear in some capacity at this event along with her former teacher and adopted parent, Emma Frost.

So my question or questions in short are, can we expect to see a scene shared between the two at the Vigil? We have yet to actually see Emma meet with her former students since their resurrection and I’m wondering if we’ll get the chance to see that happen anytime.

I don’t want to get your hopes up too high, Michael, so I’ll just straight up tell you that there isn’t any moment in the HELLFIRE VIGIL in which Emma and Catseye interact, sorry. But that is an interesting threat to pull on, though maybe one that would have been better played out during the Krakoa era itself.

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Off The Wall

What you see here is an original blueline color page from the third DEATHLOK squarebound limited series, given to me by writer and colorist Gregory Wright. Not to be outdone by Paul Mounts, who had similarly given me a pair of pages from this series, Greg did the same. As you can kind of make out here, the way the color on this book was done was by shooting the artwork onto watercolor board in non-reproduction blue and then also generating a transparent acetate overlay of the black line. Then, Greg (or whomever the colorist was) would paint in full color on the watercolor paper, allowing for a much greater range of colors than was typically available back in 1989. You could also eliminate the black holding line on anything you wanted by scraping it away on the acetate with an X-Acto knife, though that could be a daunting process, and so was only done when absolutely necessary.

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I Buy Crap

I ordered a copy of this issue of SUPERMAN on a whim the other day when coming across an image of it. I’d read the story in this issue already when it was reprinted in a DC Digest in the early 1980s, but I didn’t own a copy of the book itself. And given that it features the Flash, it seemed like something that I might want to have. It’s another screwball story from right at the end of Mort Weisinger’s editorial career, a time when his approach was falling out of favor with readers and when he clearly had one eye on the door and wasn’t focusing on the work as fervently as he had been. The whole story is pretty much just an excuse to justify the cover, which was generated first in the manner of the period. So Superman and the Flash both wind up with amnesia and both think they’re the other. Of all of the Silver Age DC super heroes, the Flash was the one that Mort seemed to have the most respect for, and he used him relatively often in his issues, at least as compared to the rest of the Justice League of America. The story was written by Jim Shooter, who was just about ready to get out of the field for awhile himself, and drawn by the omnipresent Curt Swan.

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Behind the Curtain

This is a sight that’s very familiar to fans who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s. DC had been experimenting with selling plastic bagged copies of comics in alternative retailer spaces going back as far as 1962, and by 1968 Marvel followed suit, inaugurating the Marvel Multi-Mags program. These were typically copies of books that were around nine months old—old enough to no longer be available on regular newsstands—packaged in a format that made it possible to be stocked in toy and department stores and supermarkets, really anyplace that had a peg-based retailer spot. These became known as 3-Bags in the 1970s as that’s how many books you’d get in them by that point, but these earlier antecedents stocked four titles each. In later years, the exact contents would be a mystery, but here, the bag itself identifies what four series are contained within. Fans didn’t tend to love these bags because they often meant buying books that you didn’t want (or already had) in order to get the ones that you wanted, but for parents and grandparents looking for an easy way to give comics as a gift, they were ideal. Eventually, in the later 1970s, publishers grew smarter and began dedicating each bag to consecutive issues of a single title rather than the scattershot sampler approach—that at least made the purchase a bit more targeted.

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Pimp My Wednesday

Here’s what we have coming out this Wednesday!

X-MEN #18 wraps up the current storyline which has bene playing out across the last couple of issues, with a violent conflict with the 3K X-Men and an offer delivered by Wyre. It’s by Jed MacKay and, despite the credit on this mock-up, guest-artist Emilio Laiso.

Over in FANTASTIC FOUR FANFARE #2 we have another trio of stories created by top talent dedicated to the FF, with a particular focus this time out on Reed Richards. It begins with Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver exploring what the family gets up to on Halloween, then John Tyler Christopher and Andrew McIntosh delve into what happens when Reed suddenly stops receiving messages from his future self. And finally, Mark Buckingham centers a tale on two hapless minions of Doctor Doom who attempt to cope with catastrophe in their master’s absence.

And over in WEAPON X-MEN #5, it’s a blast from the past as the team follows Thunderbird back to a fateful day in his life, determined to prevent him from changing history. It was put together by Joe Casey and Chriscross.

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A Comic Book On Sale 85 Years Ago Today, June 15, 1940

DARING MYSTERY COMICS was one of the great also-ran series of the earliest days of Timely Comics. Unlike mainstay series MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS, which struck gold in its first outing with the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, who were both incredibly popular, DARING MYSTERY could never seem to come up with a star player to drive interest in the magazine—and not for lack of trying. Virtually every issues of this series had a different line-up of characters than the ones around it, none of whom lasted for more than three or four stories overall. It was a plethora of second banana superstars, but interesting precisely due to its haphazardness. The book has a feeling of people just throwing spaghetti against the wall in the hope that something will stick. In this sixth issue, the headliner is the first of three Golden Age characters from Timely to be called Marvel Boy. The character was an early Joe Simon and Jack Kirby creation that didn’t catch on at all—the duo had better ideas on the horizon. This issue also included stories featuring the Fiery Mask (Joe Simon’s knock-off of the Human Torch), the Flying Flame (Timely was big on fire characters, but this one was about an aviator in a red plane), the super hero parody Stuporman, The Falcon (a fighting District Attorney), Monako, prince of magic, Dynaman and Tigerman. Not a winner in the bunch, sadly.

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Another Comic Book On Sale 85 Years Ago Today, June 15, 1940

And speaking of MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS, this tenth issue was released on the very same day, and is noteworthy for wrapping up the running battle between the Human Torch and Namor, the Sub-Mariner, begun last issue. At the end of that story, Namor had momentarily trapped the Torch in a glass tube, but he couldn’t finish him off without letting air in and causing him to ignite, nor could he simply leave without the Torch freeing himself and pursuing. It was a stalemate, and this issue takes all of a page to resolve the cliffhanger: Betty Dean, Namor’s policewoman friend, comes in and negotiates a truce between the two combatants, and then despite the carnage he’s caused and presumably the lives he’s taken, the Torch lets Namor go peacefully after shaking his hand. After all, both he and the Sea Prince had other adventures to get up to this month—the Torch needed to take down a gasoline racket and Subbie had to deal with a sea captain who was determined to bring him to justice. There were also stories featuring the Angel, Electro the robot, Terry Vance, boy detective, the western Masked Raider, and Ka-Zar the Great. It was a boatload of pulpy adventure for a kid’s dime.

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A Comic Book On Sale 80 Years Ago Today, June 15, 1945

One of the more forgotten characters of the Golden Age was Daredevil, whose self-titled series outlasted even the famous crime-buster himself, being taken over by his kid gang buddies the Li’l Wise Guys for the latter half of its run. But DAREDEVIL was one of the best-written strips of its day thanks to editor and scripter Charlie Biro. In many ways, Biro was like the Stan Lee of his era, a born salesman who communicated with his readership through letters pages and editorial features and who was dedicated to a higher literary standard in his titles than was usual for the era. Daredevil started out as a book-filler created by the Jack Binder shop for the pages of SILVER STREAK COMICS. As created, he was mute, but that only lasted a single story. He was armed only with a boomerang, with which he was deadly, and he spent a bunch of time battling SILVER STREAK’s fiend-in-residence the Claw before graduating to his own title. But you could tell that Biro wasn’t all that interested in the sort of empty pulp heroics of the typical super hero strip—he was much more interested in character and melodrama. That’s what led him to bring in the Li’l Wise Guys, four hard luck kids who formed a posse with Daredevil and eventually wound up taking over the strip. It’s a pretty great, albeit obscure, series, one whose name was later adopted for Marvel’s sightless crusader once the rights became available. Looking at this cover, it even feels a bit like an early Marvel book, especially with its bombastic boast about being “The Greatest Name in Comics!” and “The Comic Magazine That Dared To Be Different!” You can almost imagine Stan Lee taking notes.

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A Comic Book On Sale 40 Years Ago Today, June 15, 1985

As we’ve talked about before, CEREBUS these days has a bit of a dark reputation, given where the series went for its final swath of issues and the abhorrent beliefs espoused by its creator Dave Sim. But in 1985, there wasn’t a comic book on the market that I liked more. Sim was pushing the envelope in all sorts of ways, having transformed his funny animal sword and sorcery parody strip into a very funny meditation on politics and power and the corruption of same. His writing and cartooning were top notch, to say nothing of his expressive lettering. He was telling stories that were clearly aimed at a more worldly audience than most of the field at that point, and he helped to expand the boundaries of just what comics could do. To say nothing of the fact that he was the first to really do extended storylines that would run for 25 to 50 issues at a clip or more, which he’d collect in massive “phone book”-sized paperbacks. This particular issue, #75, is a good one, the second half of a two-parter in which Cerebus once again encounters his recurring love interest Jaka, and is prepared to give up his position as the Pope (!) to run off with her, only to discover that she’s pregnant. For all of his later decrying of women, Sim wrote them pretty well at a certain point.

I just happen to have an image of the original artwork for this cover, which looks to have been produced in the same blueline style as that DEATHLOK page I showed earlier, a full painting with some black line.

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A Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date

The final issue of STORMBREAKER: THE SAGA OF BETA RAY BILL came out on June 15, 2005, and was something of an unexpected project. A couple months earlier, as part of a larger initiative built around the AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED storyline that would launch NEW AVENGERS, the ongoing THOR title was brought to a conclusion. The idea was to relaunch it in the hands of some big name talent, along the lines of what happened with CAPTAIN AMERICA and IRON MAN at this time, but that didn’t wind up happening. Anyway, Brian Bendis suggested his friend and regular collaborate Mike Avon Oeming to write the final issues of THOR, which he did with the help of co-writer Daniel Berman. And a funny thing happened: fans really responded positively to Oeming’s combination of mythology and fantasy. The sales on those final issues shot up—not enough to put Oeming in the seat to launch the new iteration, that spot was already taken (until it wasn’t, but that came later.) But enough so that there was immediately an interest in figuring out what else Mike might be able to do that was along similar lines. After a conversation, we hit upon the idea of doing a limited series devoted to Walt Simonson’s replacement Thunder God Beta Ray Bill. We wound up naming the series after Bill’s hammer, as STORMBREAKER seemed a more dramatic title for a comic book. The series had a bit more of a science fiction flavor rather than fantasy, but it carried a similar cadence, propelling Bill through a conflict with Galactus and his new herald Stardust and setting him up with a new body in Earth by the end. We never wound up doing a follow-up—STORMBREAKER wasn’t the same sort of success that Oeming’s THOR had been—but we did wind up doing at least one more THOR project together in the days to come. Artwork here was provided by Andrea DiVito, who had previously been working at CrossGen until the firm shut down. DiVito had also drawn those issues of THOR, so it was simply a matter of keeping the whole band together.

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The New Warriors Chronicles

NEW WARRIORS #66 was something of a favorite issue of ours, though it once again buries the Scarlet Spider, at least in terms of helping to sell the book—he’s not seen or even mentioned on this cover, which seems in retrospect like a mistake. This was the final issue of NEW WARRIORS in which Ben Reilly was a regular player—while he’d turn up again in a month for #67, by that point he’d taken over the role of being Spider-Man, and so his association with the team would be coming to an end. But he’d done what we needed him to do—gotten our sales back up into a healthy place and given the series a change of long-term survival.

Rather than Ben Reilly, this issue was a Speedball spotlight. It’s hard to recall how much NEW WARRIORS had done to improve on the character’s popularity, but it had. Under Fabian Nicieza, Speedy went from being seen as a bit of a joke player, a tone-deaf attempt to create a new Spider-Man without taking the passage of time into account to being a legitimate young and fun hero of his own, despite his silly name. For this issue, though, Evan wanted to go right back to the character’s original ten-issue run, bringing back a bushel of the weirdo villains that he’d encountered in his hometown of Springdale, Connecticut as well as Niels, the cat who’d gained similar powers in the same lab accident. So this was a fun issue, albeit one that was played absolutely straight.

Artist Patrick Zircher seemed to have a good time channeling the visual style of Speedball co-creator Steve Ditko in this one, as well as adding his own unique spin to ridiculous villains including the Bug-Eyed Voice, the Harlequin Hitman, the Ghost of Springdale High, Bonehead, Leaper Logan, the Basher, the Two-Legged Rat and the Sticker. To say nothing of the mastermind behind it all, Clyde, whom we give the more villainous codename Rebound. Writer Evan Skolnick had been a big fan of the more comedic JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire, and so this particular story channels some of that spirit. it isn’t completely silly, but it does incorporate a lot of silly elements and makes no bones about their silliness.

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Monofocus

Inspired by watching the anime, which has proven to be pretty good, I went ahead and ordered myself the first volume of the Deluxe Edition of the VINLAND SAGA manga, which collects the first three paperback volumes in a single oversized hardcover. Seriously, this book is a lot larger and bulkier than I was expecting—it’s a really nice package. And the strip, a Viking adventure based on genuine history, looks really sharp at this size. it’s the work of manga-ka Makoto Yukimura, who had previously done the hard science-based space clean-up series PLANETES, which I’d enjoyed years back. It’s not the sort of series that I’d naturally gravitate to, but I’m really enjoying it, and have since ordered the second hardcover—I’ll get them all eventually, but I suspect that if I had them all shipped at once, I’d kill myself getting them from my porch into my house.

And in terms of viewing, this past Friday I watched the Mexican film OUR TIMES (NUESTROS TIEMPOS) on Netflix, puled in by its time travel premise. And it was perfectly entertaining, but I discovered that it was actually much more a film about gender politics dressed up in a science fiction shell. The story involves a husband and wife team of scientists, Hector and Nora Cervantes, who build a time machine in the year 1966. An equipment problem winds up jumping them forward in time to the present, 2025, where Nora suddenly finds herself in a world where the opportunities opened up to a women of her accomplishments is much greater and Hector finds himself suddenly sidelined and ill-at-ease in today’s society. The conflict grows between their love for one another and the change in the power dynamics of their relationship; the pair work to repair their device before the wormhole through which they traveled closes again, not to reopen for another thirty years. But does Nora really want to return to a world in which she’s treated as a second class citizen? So as I said, this was a bit different than what I expected when I sat down with it, but it was enjoyable on its own merits.

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Posted at TomBrevoort.com

Yesterday, I wrote about a Predecessor of Superman by Siegel and Shuster

Five years ago, I wrote about the Best X-Men Issue ever done.

And ten years ago, I wrote about The Electric Company

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Hat’s All, Folks!

Tom B