A veritable 'Fart of the Dragon'?

The Iron Fist story in MTIO #25 was written by Marv Wolfman not Steve Gerber. Is there any evidence that is wasn't a new story?

I read a couple of DC Compact Comics collections over the past week, finished up early this afternoon. These collections are brand new, but the stuff they collect is at least 10 years old, so I guess they qualify as "Classic"!

All-Star Superman.

This is one I've read a few times before. I was picking up the individual issues as they were coming out with the intent of reading them all when the series was finished, but I then had to drop a bunch of stuff from my pull-list. I eventually just read a collected edition which I checked out from the library on several occasions, and I've also got the animated movie adaptation in Blu-ray or DVD. I like the comic series well enough, but never interested enough to buy a full priced TPB, even though it was always regularly available. The intent was always to pick up the issues I missed, or get a collected edition if the price was right, so the Compact comic was an obvious easy choice!


Batman: The Court of Owls Saga

This is one series I had never read, but I was familiar with the premise since it had been adapted for TV and cartoons a few times in recent years. I probably also have the first issue of this series since I sampled a bunch of the New52 first issues that month they were first coming out, but only picked up subsequent issues for Justice League and the Superman series. The first issue doesn't really do much to set up the storyline which is probably why I never continued with it the first time around, though I did enjoy reading. This collection includes Batman (2011) #1-11, but there are also two extra related stories, which I assume are from somewhere other than these issues, though the original sources don't seem to be listed on the back cover, or on the content pages.


I generally don't mind the smaller size, and the cheap prices were definitely a good incentive. The main drawback is that some of the words are hard to read, especially when a lot of the captions are dark coloured with small white text.

From the advertisements on the back pages of upcoming Compact editions there's a bunch of stuff which I already have either originals, or TPBs, like Watchmen, Hush, some Catwoman stuff, so I don't have any interest in getting those. A couple of these did catch my eye and they're either already out or coming really soon. There's a Green Lantern one called Far Sector. I don't actually know what it's about but I've heard positive things about it and like Green Lantern stuff, even though I've never really followed the titles, so I'll probably get that one. There's also a Wonder Woman Earth One collection, which I guess includes all three of these GNs, so that's another one to add to my list.

I read Defenders Epic Collection vol. 8: The New Defenders, reprinting New Defenders #126-137, Iceman #1-4, and Beauty and the Beast #1-4.


These issues are a mixed bag to me. We start out fairly strong, continuing plotlines from Defenders as Beast’s planned transitions from non-team to the New Defenders team takes shape. The first few issues concern Professor Power running a new Secret Empire. It turns out that Power, who I know has been a villain in some of DeMatteis’s MTU issues, has been the brains behind some recent threads in Defenders. The Mutant Force are cheesy minions (just like in past runs) and it’s a little odd for Mad Dog to continue as a villain when his ex-wife Patsy has just been written out of the book. But Power has an interesting backstory, and Leviathan is dangerous minion. Power has an interesting backstory. He also has a grudge against Professor X that translates into a grudge against X’s former students in the New Defenders. We also get an earlier New Mutants guest appearance, although it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be.


These issues benefit from a series of guest penciller including Mike Zeck, Alan Kupperberg, and Sal Buscema. I wish for what might have been if Zeck or Kupperberg got a run on the title, but I feel guilty for it because DeMatteis speaks so highly of Don Perlin.


There are some interesting subplots. Cloud, who had been tricked into working for Power, joins the Defenders. I don’t recall her age being specified, but Cloud seems like a fairly innocent teenager or twentysomething, maybe a couple years younger than Iceman. There’s also a lot of internal tension with Moondragon. She has a headband which restricts her mental powers and Valkyrie as her minder ever since she went a little megalomaniacal in the pages of Avengers. There are various panels in which Angel and Iceman have identical complimentary thought balloons about Moondragon. It seems like DeMatteis was hinting that Moondragon was mentally manipulating them.


Peter B. Gillis takes over the writing chores from J.M. DeMatteis after initially scripting one issue over a DeMatteis plot. The team has also relocated to Angel’s home in New Mexico late in DeMatteis’s run, and this is a big part of Gillis’s stories. Some of his issues are weird in a good way in the Defenders tradition. But a couple of issues make the protagonists look like idiots. Portraying your series as dumb undermines it. There’s a story about a wanderer in the desert that I really enjoy. There’s a story about a wizard who captures Gargoyle that I feel conflicted about. It’s creepy and gives Gargoyle some spotlight back after fading a bit in the background. But the story is set in part in Afghanistan amid the Soviet invasion and I’m not sure what it was trying to say about that event.


Gillis introduces Manslaughter, who fees like an echo of Lunatik and Foolkiller. He’s sort of interesting with a good intro, but also pretty annoying and miraculously punching way above his weight. Toward the end of the TPB, Cloud transforms from female to male. I’m not sure where this plotline is going yet, so I haven’t made up my mind about it. It has a disturbing angle involving Moondragon, but I don’t know whether Gillis intended it to be disturbing or great.


The two miniseries have publication dates starting after the last New Defenders issue in this volume, but are shifted earlier in the chronology. The Iceman mini by DeMatteis (guess he wanted to dip into more Defenders) and Kupperberg, starts out promisingly. We learn more about his family and get a plot reminiscent of Back to the Future, except it was published a few months before that movie was released. However, it takes a turn into the abstract and amorphous with a villain who reminds of the Time Trapper, and the story gets less relatable.


The Beauty and the Beast miniseries by Ann Nocenti and Don Perlin features Dazzler and the Beast. In a way, it’s an odd inclusion in the TPB, because the Beast in this series seems like a very different personality than the Beast in New Defenders (and most other places he’s appeared). I like some of Nocenti’s Daredevil writing, but she can really churn out some stinkers. I wish Nocenti had interacted with other human beings prior to writing this series, because the dialogue feels so off. Characters make declarations that seemingly are supposed to feel weighty but instead feel contrived. Also, the characters and concepts in this miniseries are more interesting when they show up later in issues of New Mutants.


There are some really covers among the issues reprinted here, especially by Kevin Nowlan and Bill Sienkiewicz. One more Epic Collection to read before I’ve finished off Defenders/New Defenders!

I read the Wolverine story from Marvel Comics Presents #51-53. It's penciled by Rob Liefeld, inked by Rob Liefeld . . . and written by Rob Liefeld! I think I read the first part around when it was published, but this might be my first part reading the other two parts.

It's a Wolverine vs. Wild Child story, which may be the consolation prize if you're not permitted to do a Wolverine vs. Sabretooth story. I was pleasantly surprised by the scripting; it's the plot that's a disaster. Wolverine is walking around drunk in Ottawa, when he gets attacked by Wild Child, who flees. A newspaper gets blown in Wolverine's face or something, which is how he realizes Wild Child has become a serial killer. At her home, Heather Hudson realized the same. She has a guest appearance just for purposes of almost getting killed, I guess to raise the stakes. Wolverine tracks Wild Child to the woods. Maybe it's by scent, because the script keeps telling us Wild Child stinks. Wild Child escapes. Wolvie is calmly philosophical about it, because he realizes he might've killed Wild Child. Did he forget all the serial killing! This is not the right story for a "he got away, no biggie" ending.

The art is best in the first part; it deteriorates after that. In nitpicking news, the script states that Wild Child was on Beta Flight. According to my copy of Alpha Flight #1, he was actually on Gamma Flight.

I also read a Nicieza/Liefeld Black Widow/Silver Sable story from MCP #53 that I had previously read in a Black Widow Epic Collection. The story is structured better than the Wolverine story. However, there's a cavalier attitude about a criminal's unnecessary death that feels icky. It's basically the reverse of the situation in the Wolverine story in the same issue, which is weird based on the threats in the respective stories.

Yes, it was Al Wiacek, an experienced inker. I think Wiacek might've been the inker in an issue where Liefeld did guest art, which I think turned out solidly. Karl Kesel was also a good inker for Liefeld on the Hawk & Dove mini.

Sorry, I think my brain was combining Bob Wiacek and Al Williamson with the Ws.