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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 10, 2024 5:42:26 GMT -5
Inside, it's a bit of a rinse and repeat -- a new Warlord miniseries (...) As I recall, that was a sorry retconning exercise... "Oh, yeah, see, the stories you read in the original run were just that, stories. Events tend to be distorted and magnified when told in taverns by bards or shared among the common folk. Here are the actual Travis Morgan, Shakira and Deimos, and they're all way more boring than you thought".
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Post by DubipR on Jul 10, 2024 8:19:10 GMT -5
commondIs there a place online to read all of these as well? I'd love to read these as well
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 10, 2024 12:16:28 GMT -5
Inside, it's a bit of a rinse and repeat -- a new Warlord miniseries (...) As I recall, that was a sorry retconning exercise... "Oh, yeah, see, the stories you read in the original run were just that, stories. Events tend to be distorted and magnified when told in taverns by bards or shared among the common folk. Here are the actual Travis Morgan, Shakira and Deimos, and they're all way more boring than you thought". It starts that way, with the bard telling tales of Morgan, until he is challenged about their authenticity, by an old warrior who fought with the Warlord. They go off to find Morgan and meet his friends along the way, learning of Morgan, from their perspectives. Eventually, Morgan is found and he has to lead an army against a revived Deimos (well, animated corpse, really). It's definitely a more cynical take on it, but Grell wrote it and it kind of reflects an aged warrior looking back on it and demystifying the glory and adventure and showing more rounded versions of the characters. It still pays tribute to them and the past stories. In some ways, you could liken it to the latter part of The Once and Future King, which is dark and cynical and reflected TH White's disgust with humanity and its nature for destroying itself. Grell also wrote it nearly 20 years after the end of the Vietnam War, in which he served and it also reflects someone gazing back upon his past and events that others cast in different lights, depending on their agenda, and gives his side, that war is only death and not some grand crusade against evil, regardless of how it started. At the time, when I was still in my 20s, I wanted more of the old adventure; but, later, I came to view it as a more mature work, by a writer who had grown in his craft. It is about half to two thirds of the way through the story before you learn that the bard is Tinder, Morgan's lost son, who he believed he killed, when Deimos aged him into adulthood and set him against the Warlord. At the end of that story, we see that the son he killed was cloned from the actual child, and his son is alive and is placed with a humble couple, in a village, his only possession is Morgan's wristwatch. He later re-entered the story, with the name of Tinder, but Morgan is oblivious to his identity, as is Tinder. Here, that adds a layer upon the disappointment and resentment that Tinder feels, when he meets Morgan and finds that he isn't the hero of the legends; or, at least, has lost that fire. It is Tinder who guilts him into taking up his arms and rekindles the flame that drove the Warlord to lead the rebellion against Deimos and the slavers who oppressed Skataris. Like I say, somewhat in the vein of The Once and Future King.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 10, 2024 12:41:54 GMT -5
As I recall, that was a sorry retconning exercise... "Oh, yeah, see, the stories you read in the original run were just that, stories. Events tend to be distorted and magnified when told in taverns by bards or shared among the common folk. Here are the actual Travis Morgan, Shakira and Deimos, and they're all way more boring than you thought". It starts that way, with the bard telling tales of Morgan, until he is challenged about their authenticity, by an old warrior who fought with the Warlord. They go off to find Morgan and meet his friends along the way, learning of Morgan, from their perspectives. Eventually, Morgan is found and he has to lead an army against a revived Deimos (well, animated corpse, really). It's definitely a more cynical take on it, but Grell wrote it and it kind of reflects an aged warrior looking back on it and demystifying the glory and adventure and showing more rounded versions of the characters. It still pays tribute to them and the past stories. In some ways, you could liken it to the latter part of The Once and Future King, which is dark and cynical and reflected TH White's disgust with humanity and its nature for destroying itself. Grell also wrote it nearly 20 years after the end of the Vietnam War, in which he served and it also reflects someone gazing back upon his past and events that others cast in different lights, depending on their agenda, and gives his side, that war is only death and not some grand crusade against evil, regardless of how it started. At the time, when I was still in my 20s, I wanted more of the old adventure; but, later, I came to view it as a more mature work, by a writer who had grown in his craft. It is about half to two thirds of the way through the story before you learn that the bard is Tinder, Morgan's lost son, who he believed he killed, when Deimos aged him into adulthood and set him against the Warlord. At the end of that story, we see that the son he killed was cloned from the actual child, and his son is alive and is placed with a humble couple, in a village, his only possession is Morgan's wristwatch. He later re-entered the story, with the name of Tinder, but Morgan is oblivious to his identity, as is Tinder. Here, that adds a layer upon the disappointment and resentment that Tinder feels, when he meets Morgan and finds that he isn't the hero of the legends; or, at least, has lost that fire. It is Tinder who guilts him into taking up his arms and rekindles the flame that drove the Warlord to lead the rebellion against Deimos and the slavers who oppressed Skataris. Like I say, somewhat in the vein of The Once and Future King. I bought that mini when it first came out because I'm a huge Grell fan, but I only vaguely remember it. I should revisit Warlord at some point.
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Post by commond on Jul 10, 2024 15:12:26 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #48 (Books shipping in January, 1992)More Batman, both on the front cover and the back cover, the latter featuring more Batman vs. Predator variants. Gotham Nights seems like an interesting concept. Not sure about the execution. This was another issue I owned, which confirms my hunch that I was visiting the comic book shop regularly at this point. I guess I had gained a measure of independence by this stage and a stack of disposable income. I did a morning paper run for a while and blew most of my wages on crap. Inside, Ed Hannigan has his own baby called Skull & Bones, which he writes, pencils and inks. Tom Veitch, who did far more work for DC than I realized, has another miniseries called My Name is Chaos. There's a preview for The Panic in the Sky storyline in the Superman books, and a look at the Shado: Song of the Dragon miniseries. In the solicitations, Matt Wagner begins his Faces storyline in Legends of the Dark Knight. Justice League #60 has the conclusion of the Breakdowns storyline with Kevin Maguire and Terry Austin returning for GIffen & DeMatteis' final issue (sob.) The Question gets a trade paperback I never knew existed, collecting the first five issues of his ongoing series. Every month they'd show the cover for New Titans and every month I'd want to read it, but at a buck seventy-five it was all a dream. Lobo is in Starman this month along with 15 other comics. I swear these newsletters should have included Lobo checklists. Cool Mignola cover, mind you. The cover of the month is a striking Supergirl cover.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 10, 2024 16:32:57 GMT -5
I've sung the praises of Skull & Bones here. Ed Hannigan does a fantastic job, with a tale of a former Soviet SPETSNAZ soldier, who switched sides in the Afghan War, then returned home and falls in with dissidents, helping to protect them and the growing liberalization movement from the hardline coup. It was timely, with the coup attempt as very recent memory and has enough superhero trappings to pull in that crowd, without sacrificing too mch realism.
Panic in the Sky was a favorite and kind of my swan song, with the Superman books, before Doomsday got me to come back long enough to see the return of Superman, then drop the books again. It had a nice epic feel that I found to be far better than the Death of Superman and the Return of Superman. The only portion I found interesting was the middle section, World Without Superman, as everyone grapples with how to move on with their lives and their duties, following his inspiration.
Faces was a nice piece and part of a really good string of stories, in LOTDK.
I didn't pick it up but Gotham Nights got good reviews and Ostrander is the perfect writer for character-driven tales.
I just looked at My Name is Chaos. I couldn't remember if I bought this then, or not; but, looking at the art, I think I did, just as I did The Nazz. It features a near future of the Earth in an ecological breakdown and the use of bio-genetic surgery to try to adapt and survive. Not quite as mystical and Eastern as The Nazz, but similar in being an alternate look at the concepts of super-beings. I picked up all kinds of stuff along those lines, from Rick Veitch's King Hell Heroica stories, to brother Tom's stuff, to The New Statesmen, Zenith and some other deconstructionist and alternative superhero pieces.
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Post by commond on Jul 11, 2024 15:40:32 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #49 (Books shipping in February, 1992)This issue is mainly about the new-look Justice League titles. They're moving a whole bunch of merch to capitalize on the relaunch. I found the entire thing depressing. The best news this month is that Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson's Swamp Thing is being collected. Unbelievably, there's another Armageddon miniseries. I didn't really make the connection with The Infinity Gauntlet until now, but they're both outstaying their welcome. It's interesting that the cover of the month is The Demon. Direct Currents was a big supporter of The Demon and routinely used its cover art in the solicitations. This month they include bold text which says: "This special issue, written and drawn by Matt Wagner, is an excellent entry point for new readers." They also have a picture of the books logo below the solicitation. It makes me wonder how big of a part the book's editor played in getting a plug or if it came from the sales team. The Kevin Maguire Aquaman covers are interesting, but I'm not sure if Aquaman's face works. The back cover has more Batman vs. Predator variants.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 11, 2024 16:53:55 GMT -5
I'd agree about the Justice League titles and I bailed after reading the first issue or two of the new team. I liked Gerard Jones' work, in general (not gonna go there); but, not on these books. Same for on Randall, who was better in non-superhero settings, like Jon Sable or his own Trekker.
I bought that Swamp Thing collection, even though I had the Roots of the Swamp Thing Baxter reprints. Bernie Wrightson's interpretation of Batman, at the time, was something else.
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Post by commond on Jul 12, 2024 16:13:20 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #50 (May cover date, 1992)Lobo's back? I'm sorry, did he go somewhere? There's no special mention made of this being the 50th issue. If the original editor had been on the book, I'm sure she would have acknowledged it. Ever since they took away the editor's column, the newsletter has been completely impersonal. This issue does mark a change, however, as the books are now solicited by cover date instead of the month that they're shipping. They've also returned to listing books by shipping date instead of alphabetically. Inside, we have a Cool World miniseries that is a prequel to a film by Ralph Bakshi, which I never saw but has a rating of 4.8 on IMDB. It appears to have been an attempt to cash in on the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The next page is very cool. It says that for 37 years, DC comics have been printed at World Color Press in Sparta, Illinois, but with the switch to new printing processes, they will no longer be using these presses. To commemorate the end of this era in comic book publishing, the last books to be printed off these presses are reprints of Silver Age classics that are available for a buck a pop. They even include a chart showing you the near-mint valuations for these books in the Overstreet Pride Guide. They're also printing a previously unpublished issue of Sugar & Spike, which is neat. This wouldn't have meant anything to me as a kid as I had no interest in Silver Age books at the time, but I think it's a wonderful idea. The Impact heroes are teaming up to form their own super group called The Crusaders. It had to happen, I suppose. The new Wonder Woman creative team gets put in the spotlight, which I wouldn't have expected. I actually began reading this run some time ago but dropped it for other things. It begins with a special that guest stars Deathstroke, The Terminator (because Lobo was unavailable.) Superheroes aren't really Jill Thompson's forte, but her work is okay. There are a TON of comics solicited in this issue as they're trying to sort the new format out. Waid begins his Flash run now that Messner-Loebs is doing Wonder Woman. The Shadow Strikes! reaches its final issue. Starman is also gone, but they didn't tell us that last month's issue was the final issue. The back cover is a collection of classic Silver Age covers from the reprints. The front cover is a plug for the Legion, I suppose.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 12, 2024 21:05:04 GMT -5
Sparta lost a lot of business, as more and more publishers started to outsource their printing to overseas printing houses, I believe, at the time, they were using a Canadian printer (or Marvel was, or both).
Cool World featured Kim Basinger voicing a cartoon character, who steps out of her world, into ours, with Basinger then performing her as a live being. It was a pretty mediocre story, with a few moments. I've always found Bakshi's features to consistently have story and pacing problems and start well and then run into problems in the second or third act, often due to a budget problem. Gabriel Byrne was her co-star, a cartoonist, and Brad Pitt voices a cartoon detective, in Basinger's world. The production was a mess, the studio head's son was made a producer, the script was rewritten to get a PG-13 rating, animators didn't have a script to work from and the whole thing became a battle between Bakshi and the studio. The other writers took Bakshi to arbitration, over credit. This was supposed to be part of Bakshi's career resurgence, after the critical and commercial success of the Mighty Mouse revival (before the network axed the show, over a scene that they felt implied drug use).
I don't think the prequel comic fared too well, either.
The Crusaders kind of came in a bit late in the Impact launch to really have much of an....excuse the pun....."impact." It did reference some earlier heroes, including Doc Strong, the Firefly, Captain Commando and the Black Witch, as well as the original Shield, who was introduced within the pages of The Legend of the Shield *the newer guy was testing a new battlesuit, an upgrade from the original hero's suit). They came up with a nice team logo (a flag shield, with a stylized eagle, set against the blue field). Rags Morales did layouts, but he was still a bit of a rookie, at the time. Mark Waid and Bryan Augustin handled the script and would do The Crucible, the attempt to kind of revamp the line. I only got the first issue and wasn't overly impressed. The Legend of the Shield was the only book I saw to the end, dropping The Comet when Tom Lyle left (issue 6 was his last full issue, with The Hangman) and The Fly around the same time.
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Post by commond on Jul 13, 2024 18:52:08 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #51 (June cover date, 1992)Green Lantern seems to be getting a push. Posters, paperbacks, power rings, and more! Dear Marty would go on to co-write a G'Nort story in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #3. Inside, the Black Condor is a new character from Bryan Augustyn and RA Morales. It would last 12 issues. There's also a preview for Batman: Run, Riddler, Run with some confusing artwork from Mark Badger. The Question Quarterly comes to an end after only 5 issues. There's a crossover running through the Impact Comics annuals with exclusive trading cards bound into each issue. I can see the appeal. Trading cards where a thing I bought every time I visited the comic book store. Nightwing gets a new costume and a new look in New Titans. Doctor Fate reaches its final issue, tapping out at issue #41. Suicide Squad also bows out with issue #66. Not a great month if you liked those comics. For some reason, Green Arrow is no longer suggested for mature readers. I had forgotten that this happened. The back cover is the cover to Mosiac #1. The cover of the month is a memorable Brian Bolland cover.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jul 14, 2024 7:38:32 GMT -5
Inside, the Black Condor is a new character from Bryan Augustyn and RA Morales. The Black Condor was a new incarnation of Will Eisner and Lou Fine's 1940s Quality Comics character. The cover of the month is a memorable Brian Bolland cover. I thought the cover was pretty bland and forgettable by Bolland's standards.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 14, 2024 10:36:58 GMT -5
I don't recall talk of why they no longer used the "Suggested for Mature Readers" alert. The content, under Grell, didn't take a major turn. Possibly a backroom decision to keep superheroes in a PG-13 environment.
I think I had given up on most of the Impact books, before the Annual event. I don't remember it at all.
DC was about to launch the next crossover, Eclipso, the Darkness Within. I mostly remember that stupid gem pasted to the cover of the first bookend issue. Just when you thought gimmicks couldn't get any more ridiculous. Of course, I believe this was before Malibu put out the issue of The Protectors, with a hole punched in the middle, to show the bullet hole, from the cover. Went right through story panels and everything.
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Post by jtrw2024 on Jul 14, 2024 12:13:05 GMT -5
The Impact line was something which always looked cool to me even though I knew nothing about the originals, and there were a lot of articles everywhere promoting it when it was coming out. I never managed to divert any of my measly comic buying budget towards any of these comics when they were new, but once it was over I managed to get everything from discount bins in the late 90s. I still enjoy them, especially the earlier issues, and have read through the whole run two or three times in the last twenty years. Not sure if there are rights issues keeping these from being collected, or if it's just lack of interest. The issues are still selling cheap on line
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Post by commond on Jul 14, 2024 15:38:21 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #52 (July cover date, 1992)I totally forgot that they added another ongoing Batman title. It actually lasted for 96 issues, which is a hefty run. I'm wondering if this was a marketing decision to give Grant and Breyfogle their own book. Grant stayed on the book for 82 issues. Wikipedia says that 50 of the 96 issues were crossovers with other titles. That's crazy if it's true. As with the launch of the Green Lantern books, there is a ton of additional merch for sale. That Guy Gardner miniseries is just abhorrent. I was a fan of Guy in Giffen and DeMatteis' Justice League, both obnoxious Guy and gee whiz Guy, but to turn him into a gun-toting Punisher and have Lobo guest star for the hell of it is crass, 90s commercialism. Yuck. Sorry to anyone who's a fan. Paul Kupperberg, the guy who writes these things, gets to plug his own work, Arion the Immortal, which I believe brings the character he created in the 80s into the present day. We also get a preview for Eclipso: The Darkness Within. Somehow amongst all this, decent comics like Sandman, Doom Patrol and Hellblazer keep chugging along. Vertigo can't come soon enough for this fanboy. The back cover is a Catwoman prestige one shot. There was also a Penguin one shot the same month. I assume this was due to Batman Returns.
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