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Post by chaykinstevens on Feb 11, 2024 11:39:42 GMT -5
Alien Worlds #7 American Flagg #9 Batman #371 Defenders #131 Detective Comics #538 Dreadstar #9 E-Man #15 Eclipse Monthly #6 Hercules #3 Iron Man #182 Jon Sable, Freelance #13 Legion of Super-Heroes #311 Manhunter #1 Nathaniel Dusk #4 New Talent Showcase #5 Star Wars #83 Starslayer #17 Pacific Presents #3 Tales of the Teen Titans #42 Thriller #6 Uncanny X-Men #181 Vanguard Illustrated #4 Warp Special #3
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 11, 2024 15:41:12 GMT -5
I don’t usually do this, but I decided to do it this month just to see how many comics I was buying as a sophomore in college.
Here’s what I’m pretty sure I bought at the time …
All-Star Squadron #33 Alpha Flight #10 Amazing Spider-Man #252 Avengers #243 Batman #371 Batman and the Outsiders #10 Captain America #293 Daredevil #206 Detective Comics #538 Fantastic Four #266 Fantastic Four Special Edition #1 Green Lantern #176 Hercules #3 Incredible Hulk #295 Infinity Inc. #2 Iron Man #182 Legion of Super-Heroes #311 Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #1 Marvel Tales #163 Thor #343
And I see one that I bought much later, just a few years ago …
Wonder Woman #315
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 1, 2024 13:13:04 GMT -5
Purchased in March 1984, back when there was still snow all through the winter. I was still buying my comics from Heroes' World, as I recall, and needed to get a monthly money order in U.S. dollars from the post office! I don't miss everything from the past.
Arak #34 : Making his way to Damascus, Arak meets a djinn in the desert. I reviewed that a bit earlier in another thread.
Batman #372 : another very good issue of the Moench-Newton-Alcala team. It's about boxing, and it was funny to see how both Bruce and Alfred enjoy the sport and defended it.
Conan #159 : Generic S&S story. Buscema cover (pencils and ink).
Conan the King #23 : Conan acts like a tyrant following the apparent death of his firstborn. Convinced that a certain hostile baron is in cahoots with the murderers he has him tried by ordeal (thrown in a river, all tied up, to see if he will float). Regaining a moment of decency, Conan dives after the baron sinks (which should prove he was guilty). I loved the way that even our hero can be depicted as unfair, irrational and even cruel when angered.
Legion of super-heroes #312 : after plenty of cosmic-shattering menaces, we deal with a straightforward police operation! It was quite welcome.
Secret Wars #3 : I don't think Jim Shooter liked the X-Men very much. In this issue Spider-Man trashes the team, and the Wasp would do it as well a while later. Surprisingly (to me), Shooter didn't get the "voice" of the X-characters... He was very good when it came to writing just about every other Marvel character, but with the mutants it always felt wrong. Cyclops was too much of a whiner, Wolverine showed no evolution from his first appearance... I never understood why that was. Perhaps only Chris Claremont knew how those characters actually clicked by that time.
New Mutants #17 : The pink-dressed Hellions are still here. The idea of a competing school for mutants with its own super-team was good, but it wasn't used as successfully as it could have been. Plus, their powers were boring for the most part.
Savage Sword of Conan #100 : remarkable in that it's not an anniversary issue. Under Roy Thomas, this mag reaching its hundredth issue would have been a big deal, as happened with issue #200. But this time? Nah. There was a minimal investment in SSoC; it sold, and that was that.
Tales of the Teen Titans #43 : The Judas contract continues, and it is an excellent super-hero adventure. The backstory of Deathstroke made him an interesting villain. (I don't care for him as an "anti-hero". He's a bad guy).
Thor #344 : Focus on Balder the Brave, whose return from the dead wasn't an easy experience. But he would come out of his funk eventually!
X-Men #182 : Rogue must deal with the part of her that is Carol Danvers. John Romita Jr's art was growing on me more and more!
A pretty small month. Considering the exchange rate, perhaps that was for the best!
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 1, 2024 16:12:02 GMT -5
In March 1984, I had... X-men #182 Wasn't really a fan of Rogue joining the X-men, although I'll admit the story about her slipping into Carol Danvers' personality was pretty interesting. New Mutants #17 The follow-up Hellions story. Nothing here excited me too much, and I was still annoyed about Thunderbird Jr. working for the bad guys. However, at this point, White Queen was still absolutely and unequivocally a villain, which is how things should have stayed.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Mar 1, 2024 17:18:09 GMT -5
Alien Legion #1 Amazing Spider-Man #253 American Flagg #10 Aztec Ace #2 Batman #372 Blue Devil #1 Captain America #294 Coyote #5 Defenders #132 Demon Dreams #2 Detective Comics #539 Doctor Strange #65 Dreadstar #10 Fantastic Four #267 Fury of Firestorm #24 Hercules #4 Jon Sable, Freelance #14 Legion of Super-Heroes #312 Marvel Graphic Novel #10 New Gods #1 Saga of Swamp Thing #25 Starslayer #18 Tales of the Teen Titans #43 Thor #344 Thriller #7 Vanguard Illustrated #5 Zot #1
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 2, 2024 21:03:41 GMT -5
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 1, 2024 22:26:15 GMT -5
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 2, 2024 3:13:52 GMT -5
April 1984: X-men #183Another story that dealt with some of the fallout from the then still ongoing Secret Wars; in this case it was Colossus apparently having a fling with a woman over there and here breaking the news to Kitty. Then Wolverine and Nightcrawler take him to a bar for a talkin' to and Peter ends up getting into a brawl with Juggernaut. I recall this one a little better than some of the surrounding issues because even then I recall being a bit annoyed at Wolverine for being so self-righteous with Peter, and also just standing by while Colossus and Juggernaut completely demolish a bar and endanger the lives of its other patrons. New Mutants #18Ah, yes. Sienkiewicz comes on as the new artist. I know for most fans at the time and later, this is when the New Mutants "got good." For me it was just the opposite. I didn't like this new direction and didn't think Sienkiewicz's art was a good fit for the series.
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Post by tonebone on Apr 2, 2024 10:41:39 GMT -5
April 1984: X-men #183Another story that dealt with some of the fallout from the then still ongoing Secret Wars; in this case it was Colossus apparently having a fling with a woman over there and here breaking the news to Kitty. Then Wolverine and Nightcrawler take him to a bar for a talkin' to and Peter ends up getting into a brawl with Juggernaut. I recall this one a little better than some of the surrounding issues because even then I recall being a bit annoyed at Wolverine for being so self-righteous with Peter, and also just standing by while Colossus and Juggernaut completely demolish a bar and endanger the lives of its other patrons. New Mutants #18Ah, yes. Sienkiewicz comes on as the new artist. I know for most fans at the time and later, this is when the New Mutants "got good." For me it was just the opposite. I didn't like this new direction and didn't think Sienkiewicz's art was a good fit for the series. I loved Sienkiewicz' art, but also felt the departure of tone was not good for the series.... I saw the bear storyline through to the end, but dropped New Mutants after that. I recently bought the TPB of the Demon Bear storyline, and felt the whole thing was sort of mediocre.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 4, 2024 8:55:38 GMT -5
In April 1984, I spent hard-earned shekels on... Arak #35. We visit the late 8th century Damascus. The Lord of the serpents, enemy of Arak's people, was originally presented as if he was an avatar of Satan; here he will quickly be turned into just some silly sorcerer or minor demon. What a waste of an excellent concept. Conan #160, which would have the feel of a fill-in (being drawn by Bob Camp a instead of John Buscema) if this whole period didn't feel like a series of fil-ins to begin with. Here Conan goes blind and naturally becomes an extraordinary blind swordsman before getting better. Fantastic Four #268, with what appears to be a photo of a Dr Doom Halloween mask on the cover. It looks pretty good, I must say, if a bit more plasticky than I would expect. The story is very Baxter Building-centric, and I love the way Byrne depicts it. Marvel Age #16, announcing Bill Sienkiewicz' arrival as the New Mutants' new artist. I thought it would give the mag a really different look, but I didn't know how remarkable it would be. Marvel Fanfare #16. Barry Smith drawing comic-books again was a dream come true for me. I remember being so excited that I foisted the book onto a friend of mine who wasn't into comics, saying "LOOK HOW GOOD THIS LOOKS!!!" Secret Wars #4, in which the Hulk infamously holds a whole mountain range over his head. Which of course, make as little sense as being able to see a galaxy ripped apart in issue #1. That the Hulk would be so strong that even a mountain couldn't crush him is fine; but if that was the case, the rock around him would have fractured and collapsed into smaller pieces of rock. It's the same thing when Superman lifts a building; no brick wall could endure such a strain and the whole thing would fall apart. (Yeah, yeah, I heard about his psionic abilities or "touch telekinesis" powers holding the thing together...) New Mutants #18. Under a magnificent Sienkiewicz cover, an excellent renewal of a title that was, up till then, mostly "just there". (Apparently I disagree with Edo and Tonebone when it comes to that! ) New Mutants would quickly surpass Uncanny X-Men as my favourite title in those days. Savage sword of Conan #110. Nice Michael Golden cover. An entertaining but light story. Tales of the Teen Titans #44. Oh, my, were those were exciting days for the Titans! (In fact, they were never better than during The Judas Contract). Jericho is introduced as a new hero, but I think he was later retconned into being a vilain. Or he was possessed by vilains and turned bad. Or some other crap that we're supposed to take seriously when a writer says "a--HA! I fooled you! The evil vilain posed as one of the good guys all along!" At least with Terra, it was hinted at from day one. Also, I loved the original Nightwing costume. It was very George Perez-y, and its colour scheme evoked Batman's costume. Tales of the Teen Titans annual #3, concluding the aforementioned storyline. I remember thinking at the time that George Perez must not need to sleep at all, to produce so many good pages in so little time. Thor #345. I loved the Simonson era of Thor, but I have to admit that I always loathed Malekith (and still do). There's one bad guy who should have stayed dead! Uncanny X-Men #183. Bar fight between Juggernaut and Colossus. I like it when heroes and vilains sometimes just talk, even after a brawl. It was amusing to see Juggernaut (an otherwise quite unpleasant sociopath) just want to be left alone to have a drink and flirt in peace. I agree with EdoBosnar that Logan came across as pretty judgemental when it came to Peter dumping Kitty; but then, when hasn't Logan been that way? For all his talk of "live and let live", he would later try to murder Rachel because she planned to kill the Black Queen. (And as you'll recall, it's not that he changed his mind; he stabbed her through the art. Only the intervention of Spiral saved her life).
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