|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 2, 2022 17:17:51 GMT -5
Avengers #218, a fill-in with art by Don Perlin, replacing usual artist Bob Hall. I had subsccibed thinking I would get Perez’s Avengers… Didn't Perez stop at #202? How long was your subscription? I subscribed just after reading issue #200, and the first issue that came in was #206. My subscription lasted until She-Hulk joined or thereabout, because I did enjoy Shooter and later Stern's writing.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Jan 2, 2022 20:22:46 GMT -5
Later acquired these....
I read the other Paradox issue but don't think I ever saw this one. In fact, I'm not sure I even knew there was a follow-up with the character. How was it?
I reviewed it in my Land of the Misfit Stories thread, here.....Short version: I never really cared for Paradox and didn't like Mantlo's writing on it or the other sci-fi stories he did for Marvel Preview/Bizarre Adventures. His Micronauts stuff was way better, though swiping from Star Wars helped. The ending is supposed to be a twist, but Mantlo telegraphs it. Peter Gillis & Gene Day have a story, called "Silhouette," which I found more interesting, but over-written, but Day's artwork helps it, a lot. It's got a Catholic Church-in-Space element to it, but isn't nearly at the level of Starlin's allegories or Dean Motter and Ken Steacy's The Sacred & the Profane, from Star*Reach, or Chaykin's Cody Starbuck, as noted in my review. It is probably the strongest story in the issue, to my mind. I collected all of the Marvel Preview issues, after I got a bunch at a Heroes Aren't Hard to Find warehouse sale, in Charlotte, when I was stationed in Charleston, SC, in the Navy. I had looked for the issue with the Gulacy Black Widow feature and they had a bunch of them for low prices and I swept them up. Also got about half to 2/3 of the run of Warrior Magazine, with Alan Moore's stuff; and, the Comics Journal issue with the extremely rare Bill Watterson interview.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Jan 2, 2022 23:44:17 GMT -5
I read the other Paradox issue but don't think I ever saw this one. In fact, I'm not sure I even knew there was a follow-up with the character. How was it?
I reviewed it in my Land of the Misfit Stories thread, here.....Short version: I never really cared for Paradox and didn't like Mantlo's writing on it or the other sci-fi stories he did for Marvel Preview/Bizarre Adventures. His Micronauts stuff was way better, though swiping from Star Wars helped. The ending is supposed to be a twist, but Mantlo telegraphs it. Peter Gillis & Gene Day have a story, called "Silhouette," which I found more interesting, but over-written, but Day's artwork helps it, a lot. It's got a Catholic Church-in-Space element to it, but isn't nearly at the level of Starlin's allegories or Dean Motter and Ken Steacy's The Sacred & the Profane, from Star*Reach, or Chaykin's Cody Starbuck, as noted in my review. It is probably the strongest story in the issue, to my mind. I collected all of the Marvel Preview issues, after I got a bunch at a Heroes Aren't Hard to Find warehouse sale, in Charlotte, when I was stationed in Charleston, SC, in the Navy. I had looked for the issue with the Gulacy Black Widow feature and they had a bunch of them for low prices and I swept them up. Also got about half to 2/3 of the run of Warrior Magazine, with Alan Moore's stuff; and, the Comics Journal issue with the extremely rare Bill Watterson interview. I read Marvel Preview pretty regularly until near the end, when I was starting to lose interest in Marvel's product in general. I probably would have bought this issue for the Gene Day art, though, if I had seen it. Great pick up at that warehouse sale, especially the Warrior stuff, which I imagine wasn't often to be found on this side of the Atlantic.
|
|
|
Post by tonebone on Jan 4, 2022 15:26:22 GMT -5
Had about a dozen titles this month; most of the usual suspects like FF, X-men, Ka-zar, Daredevil, New Teen Titans, LoSH and so forth, but also this: Team America #1. I got this, and then dutifully bought all twelve issues until it was cancelled. To this day, I'm still puzzled as to why. I wasn't really into motorcycles, or any motor sports in general, the characters were all pretty generic and uninteresting, and the writing and the art were unremarkable. Even the ongoing, underlying mystery, i.e., "who is the Marauder?" (the black-clad guy in the background raising his fist), was not very compelling - and the revelation in the last issue kind of made me roll my eyes and think, 'Seriously?' It was just a sort of bland series all the way through. I had a subscription to Marvel's Star Trek comic... but when Star Trek was cancelled, Marvel (without asking if I wanted it) started sending me this. I think my subscription only had 4 issues left, and so I got the first 4 issues of this turkey. Thanks, Marvel.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Feb 8, 2022 0:45:00 GMT -5
All-Star Squadron had Steel (aka Commander Steel in the bunch and finished up his unpublished last story, from his own series. Titans is building towards the appearance of Blackfire and Starfire's past, plus the battle with the Gordanians. The digest was a nice collection of Legion stories, plus a look at new costume revamps. Captain America met up with Team America, which was fine and Mike Zeck made it work well enough. Just a month shy of regularly picking up X-Men, again and Avengers. Didn't have this month's issue; but got the next, with Drax the Destroyer's death. The big find this month was Legion, with the prologue to the Great Darkness Saga and the ill-fated covert mission to the Khund homeworld, where Timber Wolf got to show off what a badass he was. Also, Giffen was on fire with his new style, though he swiped a lot of design elements from Druillet, while picking up some of his figure stuff from Jose Munoz (not as prominent, yet, thanks to Bruce Patterson). This got me back into Legion, after a bit of an absence (and a two issue tease with Reflecto/return of Superboy). This was when DC's changes were starting to really pay off and they were picking up speed as they moved towards their 50th Anniversary and Crisis.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Feb 8, 2022 1:23:46 GMT -5
February 1982: Epic Illustrated #11 - as with most anthology magazines, I didn't buy Epic every month but if I saw something I especially liked, such as John Bolton's Marada in this issue, I would usually pick it up Legion of Super-Heroes #287 - bought this mainly for the Giffen artwork, since I already liked his work from Marvel. New Teen Titans #19 - the artwork was the main draw here as well, though I didn't find Perez quite as good as in his 70s Marvel work. I liked Wolfman too, but the writing on NTT was never up to the level of his Tomb of Dracula. Master of Kung Fu #112 - I think this was the only Marvel series I was still following faithfully at this point. What a sad falling-off from their glory days just a few short years earlier. Saga of Swamp Thing #1 - I quite liked this Pasko/Yeates ST series at the time, though I have never re-read it to see how it holds up. It was nice to see the character get a new series, and with a creative team I thought was pretty good.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 8, 2022 5:55:29 GMT -5
Near as I can tell, I had about a dozen titles this month. Some of the highlights for me include a few codystarbuck highlighted above in his images, to wit: Best of DC #24, featuring the Legion of Super-heroes. As stated many times before, I absolutely *loved* DC's digest line. Captain America #269, the actual debut appearance of Team America - as noted upthread, I think the on-sale month for their first solo issue is mistakenly listed as January 1982 at Mike's Newsstand. Anyway, this story intrigued me enough to pick up that first issue, and then pick up every other mediocre issue of that series... Legion of Super-Heroes #287 - I was already following LoSH pretty regularly at this point, although I ran hot and cold on it (the issues with Ditko's art almost led me to drop the title altogether). But something gelled with this one and I was hooked for the next two or so years. Also, X-men #157: This cover just sticks in my brain because it was such an obvious, pretty cynical tease - something I was aware of even before I opened up the book to read it. At this point, I was following X-men out of force of habit. I didn't start to get really interested again until the Brood saga kicked into gear sometime after #160 (162 I think), a few issues before Paul Smith took over the art chores. And probably my favorite book this month, Fantastic Four #242: After laying the groundwork for about a year, Byrne's run jumped to the next level with this Terrax/Galactus epic.
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 9, 2022 9:23:56 GMT -5
February 1982. I wasn't even 18, for crying out loud... where did the time go?
Avengers #219, in which Drax the destroyer dies (and in those days, such things tended to stick). A sad and anticlimactic ending to a good character, here murdered by his own daughter Moondragon. And what is this about Odin punishing the parricidal telepath? Since when does he care what we mortals do?
Conan #134. A difficult time to be a fan.
Daredevil #183, in which Frank Miller still doesn't disappoint! As I recall, this story was co-scripted by George Roger McKenzie, another great DD writer. I hadn't heard of PCP before reading that comic, showing comics ARE educational!
Dazzler #16, of which I have no recollection. I'd buy anything I came across, if truth be told, so rare were comics on our local newsstands!
Fantastic Four #242, and John Byrne's classic FF run continues. The Baxter Building is decapitated? Say it ain't so!!!
Marvel Team-up #117, with a really, really bad forced perspective on the cover. But it had Wolverine.
Master of kunf fu #112, one of the worst-drawn issues of the mag ever. The artist would grow into a fine professional, but this particular comic was... not a good start. (Since he was a fill-in artist, I suppose a certain dreaded deadline doom might have played a role in the final look of the book... For all I know, he might have had a weekend to draw the whole thing).
Micronauts #41. In those days, Bill Mantlo often resorted to this strategy: since our heroes operate in a shared universe, let me just use whatever setup a colleague created in another title, and use it as my playbox. Here the Micronauts end up in the tiny world created by Doctor Doom for a recent Fantastic Four anniversary issue. As was the case for Conan, these were hard years for fans of the characters; the title seemed to go nowhere, and had Kane/Bulanadi art (a team I often said I find hopelessly mismatched).
Silver Surfer #1, in which Norrin Radd finally resolve the mystery surrounding the fate of Shalla-Bal (a mystery going back more than a decade). The artwork by Byrne and Palmer is all right, but while one is a favourite penciller and the other a favourite inker, I don't much care for their combined work.
Uncanny X-Men #157: another chapter in the X-Men's latest space adventure, and I was a blissfully happy reader!
Savage sword of Conan #75: a decent, fun, although often nonsensical adventure. Introducing that dastardly villain, Captain Bor'aq Shar'haq. (Might have misplaced a lot of apostrophes in there. Fleisher's names were HARD!)
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on Feb 9, 2022 9:42:07 GMT -5
Had about a dozen titles this month; most of the usual suspects like FF, X-men, Ka-zar, Daredevil, New Teen Titans, LoSH and so forth, but also this: Team America #1. I got this, and then dutifully bought all twelve issues until it was cancelled. To this day, I'm still puzzled as to why. I wasn't really into motorcycles, or any motor sports in general, the characters were all pretty generic and uninteresting, and the writing and the art were unremarkable. Even the ongoing, underlying mystery, i.e., "who is the Marauder?" (the black-clad guy in the background raising his fist), was not very compelling - and the revelation in the last issue kind of made me roll my eyes and think, 'Seriously?' It was just a sort of bland series all the way through. I was under the impression that Team America was some sort of tie-in to a Harlem Globetrotters level stunt show?
Thought the guest appearance in Captain Ameria #269 was an interesting read
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 9, 2022 11:00:38 GMT -5
(...) Daredevil #183, in which Frank Miller still doesn't disappoint! As I recall, this story was co-scripted by George McKenzie, another great DD writer. I hadn't heard of PCP before reading that comic, showing comics ARE educational! (...) * ahem* It's Roger McKenzie. Geez, the poor guy gets no respect, esp. given the fact that he actually wrote the first dozen or so issues of what's now usually called "Frank Miller's first run on Daredevil."
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Feb 9, 2022 12:37:00 GMT -5
Had about a dozen titles this month; most of the usual suspects like FF, X-men, Ka-zar, Daredevil, New Teen Titans, LoSH and so forth, but also this: Team America #1. I got this, and then dutifully bought all twelve issues until it was cancelled. To this day, I'm still puzzled as to why. I wasn't really into motorcycles, or any motor sports in general, the characters were all pretty generic and uninteresting, and the writing and the art were unremarkable. Even the ongoing, underlying mystery, i.e., "who is the Marauder?" (the black-clad guy in the background raising his fist), was not very compelling - and the revelation in the last issue kind of made me roll my eyes and think, 'Seriously?' It was just a sort of bland series all the way through. I was under the impression that Team America was some sort of tie-in to a Harlem Globetrotters level stunt show?
Thought the guest appearance in Captain Ameria #269 was an interesting read
It was a toy line, from Ideal, featuring motorcycle stunt toys.... I'm not 100% sure about this; but, I believe they were developed to replace the Evel Knievel toys, after he got into trouble with the law and spent some time in jail.
|
|
|
Post by badwolf on Feb 9, 2022 14:49:20 GMT -5
I was reading Avengers, FF, UXM, Micronauts... a bunch of others I'm sure. I never know where to go to see a list...
|
|
|
Post by badwolf on Feb 9, 2022 17:54:51 GMT -5
Avengers #219, in which Drax the destroyer dies (and in those days, such things tended to stick). A sad and anticlimactic ending to a good character, here murdered by his own daughter Moondragon. And what is this about Odin punishing the parricidal telepath? Since when does he care what we mortals do? I guess he cares when they do it to his son.
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 9, 2022 17:56:44 GMT -5
Avengers #219, in which Drax the destroyer dies (and in those days, such things tended to stick). A sad and anticlimactic ending to a good character, here murdered by his own daughter Moondragon. And what is this about Odin punishing the parricidal telepath? Since when does he care what we mortals do? I guess he cares when they do it to his son. She didn't hurt him... quite the opposite, in fact!
|
|
|
Post by tonebone on Feb 11, 2022 9:41:04 GMT -5
I was reading Avengers, FF, UXM, Micronauts... a bunch of others I'm sure. I never know where to go to see a list... Mike's Amazing World - NewsstandJust enter the date, and you'll see every comic from that month.
|
|