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| Name: Ryan Roe Email: prawnrr-rmv@this.com-yahoo.com Position: Movie / Television / Comic Book / Trivia Geek View Ryan's Personal Profile |
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| And now the conclusion of my follow-up thing. ·Spider-Man, Storm and Power Man (Smokescreen) I got this anti-smoking comic for free from the American Cancer Society. It seems pretty obvious that the creators were trying to reach African-American kids in particular, as Storm and Power Man are two of approximately three black superheroes Marvel had in 1982. I hadn’t read this in years, and it actually wasn’t nearly as preachy or clumsy with its message as I expected. Smoking would in fact affect a teen’s performance in the big track meet… but it’s not a sure thing that it would get him tangled up with a supervillain who runs a gambling ring. I wonder, if I hadn’t read this back in 1991, would I have become a smoker? ·The Justice Society Returns! 1: All-American Comics (Cold Heart) In this retro story, the original Green Lantern and Johnny Thunder save Winston Churchill, FDR, and Josef Stalin from an ice demon. I’m not sure whether it’s based on true events. ·Ferro City 3 (The Medusa Key) This was one of the brand-new comics I bought especially for the marathon, and it turned out to be pretty good. It’s a self-proclaimed “robot pulp noir science fiction” series, and more or less lives up to that, with a gritty future city setting inhabited both by humans and by robots who look like something from a 1950s B-movie. ·Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge: The World’s Second-Richest Duck/Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Riddle of the Red Hat This is from Free Comic Book Day a few years back. The Mickey story is pretty good… It involves Mickey getting mixed up with organized criminals because he made fun of Minnie’s new hat. But the Uncle Scrooge story is a great classic by acclaimed writer/artist Carl Barks, in which Scrooge and his rival, Flintheart Glomgold, determine which duck is the richest by measuring their respective balls of string. In Africa. It’s silly and fun, and it’s a lot easier to understand what Donald Duck is saying here than it ever was in the cartoons. “Flintheart Glomgold” is one of the best character names in all of literature. ·Amazing Spider-Man 50 (Spider-Man No More!) In this story from the mid-1960s, Peter Parker decides he’s taken enough abuse and quits his webbed adventurer gig. Oh, but then he changes his mind. ·The Flash 155 (Payback Unlimited), The Flash 156 (Convergence) If I tried to explain this time-traveling, alternate universe story to you – which involves three different Flashes, two of whom are the same person from different points in time in an alternate reality – we would be here all day, or until your head exploded. Or my head. But I dig this kind of stuff, and I’m really proud that I understand it all and I get to keep my head. ·All-Star Squadron 51 (Monster Society of Evil!) So, there’s this cute little worm from outer space named Mr. Mind who loves radio comedy. He receives a broadcast of Charlie McCarthy, so he builds a helicopter with a boom microphone and flies to Earth to meet McCarthy in person. When he arrives, he’s disappointed to find that his radio hero is only a ventriloquist’s dummy. So he does what anyone in this situation would do… He hires a bunch of monsters and sorcerers to murder America’s greatest superhero team. I was delightfully incredulous the first time I read this issue, and this time around I was delighted and increduled all over again. ·Astonishing X-Men 5, Astonishing X-Men 6 This series marked Joss Whedon’s (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity) foray into superhero comics, and though recent issues have been slow and boring, these two are pretty packed with action and character development. Colossus comes back to life, which is the kind of thing that happens a lot in the Marvel universe. The government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. is revealed to be working with another agency called S.W.O.R.D. The Beast considers taking a newly discovered “cure” for mutancy. But the coolest part of either of these issues is when Colossus and Wolverine do a “fastball special,” with the mighty metal-skinned Russian hurling the fierce little Canadian onto a moving plane. It’s pretty sweet. Character development is great, but without thrills like this, comics wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. ·Herobear and the Kid 3 (Heroes) Speaking of fun, Herobear and the Kid is good clean fun for all ages. It’s about a boy who inherits a stuffed bear from his grandfather, and finds that the toy can come to life, talk, fly, and fight robots. I wish I could create a comic like this. I also wish I could be a character in a comic like this. ·Stray Bullets 22 (Bring Home the Devil) And now for something completely different. Stray Bullets is a realistic, non-super book; a very good comic about terrible things happening to normal people. In this issue, a meek man gets more than he bargained for when he resolves to cheat on his wife. It’s in black-and-white, as many independent comics are, and with this title that adds to the stark atmosphere of the proceedings. ·The Iron Ghost 6 (Geist Reich) This was the other comic book I bought especially for the all-day experience. I didn’t realize it was part six of a six-part story, so I didn’t really understand it at all. It seemed to be about a zombie fighter pilot in World War II. Yeah, I know… I’m getting tired of World War II zombie fighter pilot comics too. ·The Sensational She-Hulk 50 (He’s Dead?! & War Zone) This is writer John Byrne's last issue on this She-Hulk series. It opens with She-Hulk’s discovery that Byrne is dead, so somebody else will have to take over her series from now on. Most the following 48 pages issue consist of “audition” material by writers and artists who are ostensibly being considered for the job, but they’re all played for laughs. By the way, John Byrne’s not really dead. He wrote this whole issue, and continues to work in comics today, though his output now is nowhere near as good as it used to be. The offbeat, fourth-wall-breaking style that Byrne brought to this series wouldn’t work for every character, but it made for some pretty entertaining She-Hulk stories. ·Hellboy: The Corpse Twenty-five cents! That’s what I paid for this one, which was reprinted right around the time the excellent Hellboy movie was released. The story from this issue was adapted and integrated into the movie. It was one of the finest talking corpse sequences ever dedicated to film. ·Batman 613 (Hush Chapter Six: The Opera) This is from a twelve-part storyline that’s one of the best Batman stories I’ve ever read, bringing in every major Batman villain. In this issue, Bruce Wayne goes to the opera with Selina Kyle (who is secretly Catwoman), but Harley Quinn, the Joker’s nutty girlfriend, interrupts the show. Chaos follows. Batman and Catwoman were all, like, in love during this story, so that makes things even more interesting. And that was my all-day comics day. Right now I’m looking at the pile of unread comics, and I want to tell you about all of them. Then I could tell you about all the other comics in my shortboxes. You might get bored quickly, but I wouldn’t. Does my affinity for comic books make me immature? Some might say it does. But good stories can be told in any medium, in any genre, and there's no shame in reading good stories. Even the comics that aren't very good literature have value as escapist entertainment, so long as the reader doesn't read escapist malarkey to the exclusion of all other potential reading material. So, yeah. A day well spent, a fanhood reconfirmed. Be sure to join me next time when I read household appliance instruction manuals for eight hours! Comments on this post are closed. |
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| That Smokescreen comic reminds me of some random comic I found at my elementary school that was similar, except about drugs (don't know what kind, just "drugs"). The coolest part that I remember was some superhero lady dressed vaguely like a hawk absorbing all the crazy madness that was making a drug-addled kid really sick and insane. She saved him, but then the drug madness started making her go insane, and she went on some destruction spree before some other superheroes could stop her. Pretty weird. You may have seen this (http://odditycollector.livejournal.com/97166.html) already, but just in case you haven't...it's funny, and smart. |
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| I wonder if that superhero was Hawkgirl. I should look that up. I had not seen that blog before, nor had I previously seen any comics-focused blog written by a woman. It looks pretty good. |
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| I commend you, sir. Perhaps someday I'll attempt a similar endeavor, and then we can talk about it. |
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