I'm actually in the middle of rereading this run right now. Just finished the X-Force section and am a couple issues into X-Statix. I love this series until the point where they do the 'vs. Avengers' storyline that went off the rails and killed the series. I had no idea Milligan and Allred were doing a new book. Is it a one-shot or whole new ongoing?

 

I have the two X-Force tpbs and 4 X-Statix tpbs, but they're in another country. Comixology was having a sale earlier this week, so I just rebought them all (and the Dead Girl mini tpb) on digital. Got all 7 TPBs for about the price of two of them physically. Money well spent.

 

Last comic I read was Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins II #1. If you like the show or just like fantasy or D&D in general, I definitely suggest both this issue and the previous series. 9/10

I also just finished the last issue of War of the Realms and honestly this whole event has been just one giant disappointment which is a shame because I really liked Jason Aaron's Thor run for the most part leading up to it. 2/10

As far as graphic novels go, I've been rereading The Sandman. Do I really need to review a masterpiece? I really need to catch up on the Sandman Universe titles. Maybe I'll marathon through them on my day off tomorrow. 10/10

 

The Golden Age Batman omnibus volume 7 - 8/10

Batman exits the 1940s after the first three stories in this volume, which reprints all the stories from Batman, Detective Comics and World's Finest Comics from December 1949 through September 1951. One of the biggest things I noticed, and this started in the last volume but it really kicks into high gear here, is how often the same basic story ideas are explored from different angles in different stories. A good example would be Bruce Wayne's turn as a policeman from the end of volume 6. This time around we get Bruce Wayne as a private detective, and as a riveter, both in the service of solving a crime of course. There are two stories in a row where someone that Bruce, not Batman, helped send to jail, comes back for revenge on Bruce. There are a couple of stories involving relics of the past being used for modern crimes. This is not to say that the plot mechanics of these stories are the same, not at all, but the concept behind them can often be the same. We also get a few more stories where Bruce is revealed to be Batman (even to the Penguin once!), but Bruce contrives some way to make it appear that he's not actually Bruce, just someone else in disguise, so the secret ID is preserved. It's no surprise to me that some repetition has set in after 11-12 years of publication and nearly 400 Batman stories by the time this volume ends. Coming up with new ideas month after month had to be a real challenge.

Joker and Penguin both make multiple appearances, as usual. Joker finally gets some background and an origin with the original Red Hood story reprinted in this volume. Catwoman is also finally first named Selina Kyle in a story from this volume, and she retires from crime, helping the police out on several occasions. It's interesting to me that both characters had to wait a decade to get an origin story of any sort. We still have not seen Penguin's origin or name in the comics, though his name was given in one of the Batman newspaper strips in the early 40s. Alfred gets a few brief appearances, but the trend of barely mentioning him continues. At least we don't have to suffer through his interminable attempts to be a detective any more. Killer Moth gets his first appearance and a trilogy of stories as an "anti-Batman" who helps other criminals before apparently being written out of the series. Whatever his effectiveness as a villain, it's good to see the writers continuing to introduce new costumed enemies for Batman.

Art restoration in this volume is some of the best I've seen, and I think we may finally have hit the point where nearly everything is modern digital restoration, as opposed to the older material from some of the earlier volumes that dates back to the first Archives in the late 80s and early 90s. Some of the linework in this book is as crisp and clean as any I've seen from DC's Golden Age books. This book seemed to go by much faster than previous volumes for some reason. I can't explain why that is. It's a good collection, but it'll be a long wait for volume 8, solicited for May of 2020. We have to be close to the end of the Golden Age here, and I suspect somewhere around the beginning of the Comics Code is where DC will choose to start branding these books as Silver Age.

 

The Fantastic Four omnibus vol. 1 - 7/10

I struggled a bit with what to rate this one. This is my first time reading any of these stories, and I picked up the omnibus based on a copy of FF Marvel Masterworks vol. 6 which was very good, leading me to want to go back to the beginning. And to be honest, it's a rough beginning. The concept is strong right from the start, but the characters take a while to find their voices. And the stories seriously take a while to start to achieve the level of quality that they clearly hit and were able to maintain in the Masterworks volume, which contained #51-60 and Annual #4. So I know this series is going somewhere good, but it hasn't quite hit its stride in the majority of issues #1-30 and the first Annual, which the omnibus collects. The Annual is good, but the stories range from decent to silly (Namor making a movie to trap and kill the FF, for example), but there is a great uptick in quality around issue 26 and the second fight with the Hulk, which is a great two part story. So maybe that's where things started to get good.

I like Jack Kirby's art a lot over in Thor vol. 3, which I'm also currently reading, but it's often just "okay" or "sketchy" here. I guess based on the guy's reputation I was expecting more, and maybe the oversized pages do him no favors, because again the art seems much better in the later issues. And the villains in this volume are very hit and miss. Dr. Doom is a classic of course, and the Puppet Master is decent. The Thinker is not bad. Namor is probably the best of all antagonists in the book, and his pursuit of Sue Storm as a love interest makes for some interesting storylines. The Red Ghost and his three apes are not very impressive, the Impossible Man feels like a Mxylplk rip-off, and the Skrulls are just hilarious. ("We hate being Skrulls. Really!" "Okay, stay here in this field and you can be cows." "Cool.")

It's the characters that shine in this series when the stories don't, and even there it takes some time. The Thing is a jerk for way too long, and he and the Torch's non-stop fighting gets old fast. Sue Storm is somewhat passive and gets to play damsel in distress too often, and I presume that's at least partly due to the era these were written (though Wonder Woman and Black Canary over at DC were strong, assertive female characters in the 40s, so Sue ought to do at least as well as they did). Once a balance is found and the characters start bickering more affectionately than with hostility, it's easier to like them.

Fantastic Four may have been revolutionary in its day, but it clearly took some time to find its voice and find a high level of quality. I liked the book enough to want to read the next omnibus (which probably contains the Masterwork issues I've already read), and I ultimately like the idea behind these characters and the characters themselves. This first volume is not an example of the series at its best, I suspect, but I'm glad to have read it, and will definitely read more.

 

Nice, glad I inspired you. I looked back at my review, and I sound a bit more ambivalent than I really feel. I did enjoy the book a lot, despite the issues I had with it, and I plan to read volume 2 at some point. I've never been a big Marvel fan in the past, but lately I've been reading not just FF vol. 1, but also Captain America vol. 1 and Thor vol. 3, and I'm really enjoying all of this early Lee/Kirby storytelling. I think the two of them just had to find their footing whenever they began a series (or in the case of the FF, a whole new comic book universe, as it turns out), work through some rough spots as they went along, and then they would start producing high quality material.

I love the omnibus format books. I enjoy a book with 30-40 issues of a series collected in it so I can just sit down and read a long run on a character and watch as the series grows and develops.

 

You have to take into account his inkers. Kirby always has strong sequential storytelling, but the different inkers have a HUGE impact on what the final art looks like. Once Sinott takes over inking on FF, it gets a LOT better.

But yeah, they find their voice and footing as the series goes on. From the 40s until the end of the run, it is an incredible book. You still have to take into account the time it was made, but it's still way ahead of most anything that was being produced in the 1960s at either Marvel or DC.

While this is true, look what happened to Wonder Woman as soon as the original creators were gone. The wartime feminism is replaced by a much wimpier Wonder Woman who spends most issues pining over Steve Trevor instead of being her own person. No one after Marston really had any idea or any interest in how to write her until Perez all the way in the 1980s.

 

The Mighty Thor omnibus volume 3 - 9/10

Collects "The Mighty Thor" 153-194, 41 issues of mainly Stan Lee/Jack Kirby collaboration, with some later art by Neal Adams (!) and John Buscema once Kirby leaves the book. This book was my first exposure to this character on the printed page after being introduced to him in the MCU movies, and I have to say that the movies do not capture the sheer dynamic scope of the adventures in this book. This series is far more fantasy/sword and sorcery than super-hero, though there's plenty of super-hero influence present. I imagine that reading this monthly would be a different experience than reading 41 issues over a month, because it feels like there is hardly a pause to catch my breath before one story ends and the next begins. It's almost one long continuous narrative where one story feeds directly into the next, and subplots are resolved while others begin. It feels like Thor is always on the go, with little to no downtime, and while one problem is overcome or one enemy defeated, something else is always going on behind the scenes that will draw Thor back into action. It's non-stop. The poor guy barely has time to get a kiss from Lady Sif before Odin's sending him back out to face some new threat.

So at this point Thor becomes a human doctor, Donald Blake, if he's not holding Mjolnir for more than sixty seconds, which creates problems on several occasions. But Blake is not always a liability, as his medical skill saves lives on several occasions, including that of Thor's fellow Asgardian, Baldur. The Warriors Three are a constant presence in the book as stalwart supporters of Thor. Odin can be helpful, but he's a stern, forbidding figure more often than not, and the cause of several of the problems that Thor has to tackle, such as Mangog. Jane Foster, who is prominent as a love interest in the first two movies, is only in one issue of this book, and makes no real impression. Loki is always scheming, and takes over Asgard on more than one occasion using legal trickery and taking advantage of Odin sleeping. There's a memorable storyline where Galactus tries to devour Ego the living planet (who seems to have a mustache! A planet with facial hair is ... creative) and Thor is sent to find him after Odin spends several issues worrying about Galactus. Hela tries to kill Thor twice, and gets talked out of it on both occasions. Thor faces off against Doctor Doom in a storyline. There are all sorts of enemies in these 41 issues, and it's notable how infrequently Thor spends time on Earth acting as a conventional super-hero as opposed to fighting threats against Asgard, or out in space.

Jack Kirby's art here is quite a contrast with his earlier work on the Fantastic Four, and is much more detailed and polished, in my view, though I'm no expert. I noticed that there are a ton of four panel pages, so he's not drawing tiny, detailed images, but rather lots of big, bold action panels that move quickly through the plot, with the occasional more complicated page and the rare full page splash. It's very strong work, and the coated paper that these omnibuses are printed on really makes it pop. I love the faux-Shakespearean Asgardian dialogue as well. It instantly sets the Asgard characters apart from everyone else, and from Donald Blake for that matter. Thor's catchphrase seems to be "I say thee nay!", or possibly "for Asgard!". I really enjoyed this collection. The inclusion of extra art, introductions from other collected editions and letters pages from the original comics is a nice bonus.

 

Or sometimes, the triple:
For Midgard!
For Asgard!
For Odiiiiiiiin!

But yeah, I read Thor saying, "I say thee nay" so many times back in junior high, that it crept into my everyday speech.

 

The Captain America Omnibus vol. 1 - 6/10

Collects Tales of Suspense 59-99, Captain America 100-113, and for some reason, Not Brand Echh 3 (I'm not a fan of the Mad Magazine style humor that Not Brand Echh emulates). It seems like Avengers 4 should have been included since that's the character's introduction into modern Marvel continuity, but the story is retold in one of the issues collected in this volume, so maybe it was considered redundant to include the Avengers issue.

I went back and bumped FF omni vol. 1 up to 7, because after reading this volume, I think I'd place it below that one, but it's not a bad collection of comics at alll so I can't rate it too low. It's mostly Jack Kirby art, which is really strong all the way through the book. There are a few Gil Kane issues and the book ends with a few Jim Steranko issues. No, the big flaw with this entire book is that it's clear that Lee had no idea what to do with this World War 2 propaganda character in the present day, and you can clearly see all through this volume that he's looking for a direction that will work.

The stories go through phases. The book opens with a few issues of Captain America versus crooks, or fighting a prison breakout. It's stuff that any street level superhero might take on. The book then shifts to a run of flashback stories set during World War 2, and it's here that the character thrives, in his original setting fighting a larger than life menace. But at the same time, I wanted to see him adjusting to life in the present day, so that was always in the back of my mind. The book then shifts back to the present day and starts to introduce enemies, including Batroc the leaper and the Super Adaptoid (think DC's Amazo, because both are artificial lifeforms that absorb the powers of the superheroes they encounter). We get the first group of substitute Nazis in the form of AIM, faceless fascists in hoods who are trying to take over the world. We also get introduced to Nick Fury and Agent 13 of SHIELD. Agent 13 is Captain America's love interest, but we don't learn her name for a long time, oddly. We never learn the name of his girlfriend from WW2 who disappeared during the liberation of Paris in 1944. The Red Skull makes a number of return appearances and looses "the three Sleepers", Nazi war machines that have lain dormant since the war. Somewhere along the line Steve Rogers gives up the Captain America identity briefly and his secret ID becomes public, causing all sorts of problems before Steranko both restores the secret ID and introduces the next group of substitute Nazis for Captain America to fight, Hydra.

I guess that's my main problem with the issues in this volume and the treatment of Steve Rogers: there is no escape from his past. He's almost always fighting either threats that are still around from WW2, just as he is, or he's fighting Nazi analogues in the form of AIM or Hydra. And every other issue he has to be depressed because Bucky died in a plane explosion, so we can't ever move past that and let it go. The issues with Batroc are refreshing because at least it's a new modern day villain, unconnected to World War 2. It seems to me that it's both a strength and a weakness that the character of Captain America is so strongly tied to World War 2, but in the issues collected in this book, it's more of a weakness because the past overshadows almost every single issue. Rather than informing the character's life and attitude, it dominates him.

I enjoyed the book, but at the same time, it's very obvious that getting this character to work in the present day clearly took a long time, and still had not happened by the end of the issues collected here. That aside, the art is very strong and the omnibus itself is as well constructed as the other two Marvel ominbuses that I've read recently. The flaws are in the original material, not the collected edition of that material. And I can never quite figure out what the super soldier serum actually did to Steve Rogers, other than change him from frail and skinny to tall and muscular. Is he super strong and super agile, or is he just a well trained fighter and athlete? I can't recall his actual abilities being detailed at any point in these issues.

Not a bad book, but it's not the best of the three Marvel collections that I've read recently. I found a copy in a local used bookstore for $62 at the same time I found the Thor volume, and it was worth it at that price. But while I want to read more Fantastic Four and more Thor, I'm not sure this volume made me want to read more Captain America. The character and material just don't appeal as much as the other characters and their books did.

 

If it has a few Steranko issues, that's probably all of them. They're great issues, but Steranko really came and went quickly.

I was a big fan of McCarthy growing up, particularly the short-lived Paradax. And I'd also enjoy whenever he'd show up to draw something in 2000ad. But yeah, I'm kind of scared to reread this stuff now in case it doesn't hold up for me the same way it did. I'd kind of rather just let it live in my memory. I did actually get to meet McCarthy once, at a UCLA book fair of all places. Nice guy.

On a side note, I want to track down that A New World comic. That looks fantastic.

If you like Ron Wilson, you should check out Marvel Two-In-One annual #7.



It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest pure superhero comics ever published. Any time I ever have some problem with Tom DeFalco, I have to remind myself that he is also capable of comics at this level. Ron Wilson is great. And this issue is in the running for being the greatest Thing story ever told.

 

You're right, apparently those three issues are all he drew. It's too bad... some of those page layouts are amazing.

JIM STERANKO: Three Issues of CAPTAIN AMERICA and the Truth

 

That one is a pure self-contained classic. The "Dial M for Monkey" portion of the "Dexter's Laboratory" show even had a whole episode homage that issue, with the Monkey hero taking the place of Thing, and a very obvious homage of The Champion in the form the giant blue pro-wrestler "Rasslor", voiced by The Macho Man Randy Savage. It's my favorite episode from that entire show.

 

Groo VS. Conan -written by Sergio Aragonés, art by Sergio Aragonés, and Thomas Yeates for the Conan side of things

-9/10



Very fun and silly, but respectful. I also enjoyed the modern world segments with the self inserts of Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier that intertwined with the main story, and the self-referencing humor about why have a crossover in the first place. My only personal issues is that Conan doesn't seem to exactly talk/think like how I'm used to, but close enough so I still accept him as Conan. At four issues, it doesn't wear out it's novelty before it ends. As a Sword and Sorcery fan, it also encourages me to seek out more Groo books. I've been researching Aragonés, and developed a lot of mad respect for him and his endeavors for more creator-owned content in the American comic industry.

Also, if I were to try fitting this into the Conan timeline, does the way the other character try to take over and rule when Conan's away suggest that this would be very early into his kingship of Aquilonia, or did he rule some town before that era? I guess being part of a Groo story, it doesn't really matter and I'll just enjoy the ride.

 

The Golden Age Superman Omnibus vol. 6 - 8/10



Collects the Superman stories from Action Comics #106-125, Superman #44-54, and World's Finest Comics #26-36.

It feels like I flew through this book more quickly than some of the other volumes, though I'm sure that's just perception. The stories run from January 1947 to October 1948, and the book ends not too long after Superman's 10th anniversary issue. This is the time where Siegel and Shuster had a falling out with DC, and while I don't think there is any Joe Shuster art in this book, there are maybe 8 to 10 stories written by Jerry Siegel before he disappears from the book. The circle with both their names disappears from the credits partway through the book as well. So this is the end of an era as the character's creators leave the series.

It's hard to even look at the stories collected here as "Golden Age" even though we're still in the late 1940s. I haven't read a lot of Silver Age Superman, but what I have read feels very similar to the material in this book. The increasing presence of Wayne Boring's art, both on covers and increasingly on interior art, helps with that impression. Curt Swan's first story is also in this volume, though I wouldn't have recognized his work. It looks nothing like what I'm familiar with from later decades. I say the stories in this book feel almost like the Silver Age, but in thinking about it we're not quite there yet. The 60s feel like a sitcom to me, with an obsessed Lois always trying to find out Superman's secret identity, Jimmy Olsen always getting into trouble, and an almost sociopathic Superman toying with everyone's feelings. We're not there yet in this book, but I can sort of see the tone developing.

It's more to do with the light-hearted nature of the enemies and challenges that Superman faces than anything else. Lois barely mentions Superman's secret identity, and Jimmy Olsen turns up once, I think. But the villains are rarely much of a challenge. Toyman, Prankster and J. Wilbur Wolfingham turn up multiple times, we get one more story with Hocus and Pocus, magicians by accident, and a few encounters with Luthor (still with no first name), one of which is the last story in the volume by Jerry Siegel. And it feels like a throwback. Mxyzptlk turns up a few times, once to go to college (?!?), once because he's decided to marry Lois Lane so he doesn't have to marry the ugly daughter of the king of his dimension. We get hints of the old social justice attitude from Superman, but just hints. Truth to tell, the guy who leveled slums and cleaned out crooked prison systems is long gone. Superman uses his powers to do things like let Lois believe she's got his powers, or collect impossible substances for book covers (like dwarf star alloy or something... incidentally I think this is the first time we see Superman fly to another planet and to the surface (!) of a star). There are a few "Superman vs. ordinary human" plots, and even one where he hypnotizes himself into losing his powers for 24 hours. Once someone leaves their twins on Clark Kent's doorstep and he has to play foster parent until the real parents can be found. The first Superboy story in the main series is in this book, as Clark looks up some old high school classmates.

The 10th anniversary story has been reprinted before, but I've seen comparisons and it's been authentically recolored this time, with missing background elements restored. This feels like we've crossed the line into the Silver Age, with full Wayne Boring art and Krypton character designs that will last for decades. It also reminds me just how infrequently we've seen Superman's foster parents in the preceding decade. They simply were not a part of anything except his past in this era, though with this anniversary story we finally see his adoptive father as the one who motivated him to become Superman.

Superman changed a lot in his first decade, and I hope the next two are not static. I prefer the social justice crime fighter of the late 30s and early 40s, but I appreciate the need to lighten up after the horrors of World War 2, and the difficulty the writers faced in coming up with new challenges for an unbeatable character, leading to wilder and wilder scenarios. There's still no kryptonite as of October 1948, and I haven't missed that all purpose plot device, but I suspect we'll see it somewhere in the next volume, which hopefully will not be 18 months away, since that's how long we had to wait between volumes 5 and 6.

 

Those are the issues where I first began reading the title, and I became a lifelong fan. Started with that middle issue, which intrigued me as a kid, and then issue #300 completely sealed the deal. And yeah, Giffen's style goes through a major metamorphosis not more than a year after #300. It was very jarring considering I had only discovered Giffen with these issues. He then went through another major change maybe 5 years after that. I don't think at that point I'd ever seen an artist who was already years established and popular (Legion of Super-Heroes was DC's second-top selling book during those years) reinvent himself from the ground up like that. It was a lot of fun to watch happen.

 

The Flash: 80 Years of the Fastest Man Alive - 9/10

I was seriously tempted to give this book 10 out of 10. It's a great collection of Flash stories from over the years, better in some ways than the 75 years book, though it skips Bart's Flash run entirely (which the previous collection did not), so it's not quite as complete as it perhaps should be. And the selection of Barry Allen stories is not as good as the previous volume. The origin stories for Jay, Barry and Wally are almost perfunctory at this point, but who expected DC to choose all three Golden Age Rose/Thorn stories for the Flash, particularly since the third one was never published in its entirety? What a great surprise, even if the previously unpublished story is in black and white. What a great little trilogy from the late 40s for Jay.

Barry's stories are not as impressive, with the standards: origin of Kid Flash, Grodd, Flash vs. all the Rogues, a sample from the 70s, and "A Flash Odyssey" from 1981 that has some poor art. Barry definitely fared better in the previous volume. The selection of stories for Wally is 3 for 4, with an out and out classic issue where Wally jumps out of an airplane to save a falling stewardess, and a great issue where he uses Johnny Quick's speed formula and is so fast that most of the issue takes place in one second of time. The 3rd story vs Mirror Master is okay, and the 4th selection is about Captain Cold, not the Flash. Then it's back to Barry with the New 52 zero issue, and a few random stories, one also featuring Wally post-Rebirth. The book is oversized like the omnibus format, which is very much appreciated.

So points off for less than inspired Barry stories and skipping Bart, but points added back on for some mostly strong Wally stories and a great selection for Jay. Highly recommended for Flash fans.

 

Monster Wrestling: Interspecies Combat Girl Vol# 01 -6/10


The action gets a little hard to follow at times, simple plot, not that much Pro Wrestling touches besides having a ring, a ref, and Wrestling leagues, but it was fun for what it is. Despite the Explicit Warning label on the cover, there's nothing R-rated here aside from a couple brief topless panels. For any Monster Musume manga fans, MM creator Okayado threw in a pin-up page featuring his own characters in a Pro-Wrestling match. Overall, nothing special, but no one else seems to be doing Monster girls X Pro Wrestling, just don't go in expecting the Manga version of "GLOW".

 

Carmine Infantino is the quintessential Flash artist of all-time, and I like his second run (which closed out the series) more than his first (which kicked off the series). The problem isn't his art; it's Bob Smith's inking. Neither he nor Frank Laughlin, the two of whom did too many issues, were right for the book or Infantino in general. In the case of Laughlin, I'm not sure he was ever right for any book over any penciller.

 

I prefer Infantino's earlier work to his later, but that's based on Silver Age Flash omnibus 1 and 3 (the only two I own), so I've seen very little past the end of the 60s and can't fairly judge his later work. I like his drawing at the tail end of the 40s too, but he's almost a totally different artist when he's drawing those late Jay Garrick stories and when he's drawing early Barry Allen. That Flash 1981 looks... well, it looks terrible, to be blunt. If it's the inker, I'm happy to place blame there, but someone drew some ugly, ungainly people in that story.