Saturday Splash Page #226

"People's Committee of Exposition," in Yellow Claw #1, by Al Feldstein (writer), Joe Maneely (artist), Stan Goldberg? (colorist), Irv Watanabe? (letterer)

When I started the splash page series in 2017, I tended to keep the entries short, before deciding I had a lot to say in some cases, and it was my blog, so I should go ahead and say it. But by then, I was already past Agents of Atlas. However, the hardcover of the original mini-series had the first appearances of each member of the team, and those are the only issues I have of those titles, so that's how we're spending the next 3.5 weekends.

I'm less enthused that the first entry gives us Yellow Peril and Red Peril nonsense, but that's '50s comics for ya, at least here in the States. Hopefully it was better elsewhere in the world.

Set sometime after Mao's Communist forces pushed Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist forces out of China, they're looking to invade Formosa and finish the job. But they can't possibly defeat the mighty American Navy directly, unless the legends of this ancient mystic the Yellow Claw, and his strange powers, are true. So a general goes looking, finds Claw, gets a demonstration of his mind control and crystal ball, and goes away thinking this is going to work out great. Except the Claw intends to use them to aid his own conquest of the entire world, starting by bringing down the U.S. from within.

Maybe the funniest part to me is the Claw enters the U.S. via a rubber raft from a submarine. Why not just enter the country in full splendor and mind control your way through any issues? Just to cinch the Claw's criminal bonafides, he tracks down the former commandant of Auschwitz and threatens to expose him if he doesn't help. Jimmy Woo only appears in the last few panels of the last page of the introductory story, far less than the Claw's grand-niece Suwan, who seems unsure of his plans, but unable to resist his powers.

This was just the first of two or three stories in the first issue, but unfortunately, it's all that's in the hardcover. Yellow Claw's the Fu Manchu, inscrutable Oriental stereotype with his insidious, underhanded schemes and whatnot. Woo doesn't have enough page time to establish much beyond being an FBI agent whose parents used to tell him stories about Yellow Claw. Presumably it was difficult for them to finish these stories, as every peasant we see runs screaming into the hills at the mere mention of the name. Suwan would, I guess, carry on a star-crossed lovers thing with Woo, trying to buck her grand-uncle's will.

Agents of Atlas ditches the obnoxious coloring and de-ages Claw a bit. Which, if he supposedly learns from some lama how to prolong his life, why let himself look 2 trillion years old? "Yellow Claw" becomes an Americanized bastardization of his true title "Golden Claw", and that's separate from his name, which ends up being "Master Plan." Which year, is cheesy, but fits into the notion Parker's playing with, that everything that's going on has been part of an extremely long-range scheme the Claw's been up to and had to adjust on the fly to various complications, mostly related to Woo's career path.

Because Woo did end up getting some use in Marvel in the '70s and '80s, but basically as just another SHIELD agent. You know how it goes, a writer creates a new agent they think is really keen, but every other writer has their own preference, so it's nice for creating a bench of actual SHIELD agents with faces and personalities, but none of them ever really rise to prominence. At least, not for anything good (looking at Maria Hill and her Gyrich-level obnoxiousness and incompetence.)

And that gets folded in. Golden Claw was supposed to be a villain Woo would defeat that create a legend for himself, but government bureaucracy - and racism, and the myth of meritocracy - being what it is, he got shunted into some dead-end desk job and that was it. So Woo aged, and stagnated, and grew frustrated and probably resentful of how his life turned out and seized an opportunity to be the big hero, expose a conspiracy, and got his team incinerated. Bob restores him, but to his last mental impression of Jimmy, recorded by his headband in 1959.

So you get young Jimmy Woo, hotshot secret agent type, in his prime, who also gets to be the "man out of time," having lost decades of his life. It's an opportunity to do things right the second time, minus the desperation and regret. (It also puts him behind in regard to how much things have changed for other people he once knew, which comes back to bite him in the ass when he goes looking for Suwan, who had a very interesting 50 years of her own.) Jimmy's operating outside the law, his team pulled together by trust and respect rather than an order from Eisenhower. Which also means they can't be disbanded on a whim by the shifting political climate. The work can continue for as long as they want to work together.

What I Bought 4/22/2026

I may be just about recovered from the Chicago trip. Of course, I have to go out for 2+ days next week for work. The annual spring inspection trip where my boss comes along. At least his presence saves me from having to talk to the operators, since he loves to do that.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #3, by Jed MacKay (writer), Devmalya Pramanik (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Stegman kind of Kelly Jones'ed Moon Knight's outfit there.

It's Moon Knight versus Bushman in a fear gas addled bout, with Zodiac being the most annoying pro wrestling announcer you can imagine. Yes, worse than Jerry the King Lawler screaming about "puppies," or Michael Cole existing on a plane of reality where he can interact with the rest of us. Honestly, Zodiac's glee at the violence just makes me wish Arcade was in the book. There's a guy that knows how to put on a show.

Moon Knight's losing, Bushman hacking him up while doing a whole spiel about how he created Moon Knight, and that'll always be true. Bleeding badly, Marc gets a visit from Steven and Jake, looking more ghostly than normal (Rosenberg colors them a sort of Ghostbusters ectoplasm green), who tell Marc Bushman's handling the fear gas' effects by causing fear so he doesn't feel it.

So Marc turns it around. That, actually, he haunts Bushman. The guy Bushman killed, who came back and kept kicking his ass. Who cut his face off, all that jazz. Moonie starts carving into Bushman, while Zodiac sounds about ready to achieve orgasm, and then, stops. Because he won't kill for anyone, not Bushman, Khonshu, or Zodiac. He will, however, kill Zodiac. Don't get my hopes up, man. Also, turns out something's going on in the city, and that's why none of the supporting cast found Marc.

Moon Knight's explanation for why he'd kill Zodiac but not Bushman is clever enough, but I think it's simpler, or maybe more selfish, than Marc makes it seem. He just doesn't want to give Zodiac what he wants, and Zodiac wants him to kill Bushman. So he won't do it. Which I guess means Zodiac better hire someone to cheer on Moon Knight killing him when (if) we get to that point.

Gullible's Travels - Cash Peters

This is the story of Cash Peters' last six months as the guy a radio station sends to check out weird or quirky roadside attractions and theme parks. Like the Sound of Music theme park, in Salzburg, which Peters has been sent to on at least 5 occasions.

OK, actually it's his last 18 months as the guy a radio station sends to check out weird or quirky roadside attractions and theme parks. It was supposed to be six months, but he was either really bad about shifting to another career path, or not working at it very hard.

This doesn't really include the Sound of Music theme park, outside a brief description of it as one of his periodic dissertations on how his job is not nearly so fun and keen as you imagine. Well shit man, I knew that as soon as I saw there was part of a chapter spent on the Precious memories park in Carthage, Missouri. I have driven past that place more than once for work, I can guess what hell exists within its confines and there is no realistic amount of money you could pay me to visit.

Though if there was a realistic amount of money, and I went, the end result would probably be much like Peters, in terms of people sending me e-mails telling me what an evil, horrible person I was. The difference is, Peters actually seemed fairly charmed by the set-up, whereas I would be on the verge of running out screaming, clawing at my face and speaking in tongues.

For the most part, Peters is taking a humorous, exaggerated approach. He's pretty evenly split between places he's excited to visit (the Museum of Dirt) and places he's basically going under protest (the barbed wire museum.) And in those categories, he's fairly evenly split between places he ends up enjoying (the National Bird Dog Museum,) and those he ends up hating or being swiftly bored by (the Museum of Dirt, Graceland.)

Either way, there are certain recurring gags. His tendency to seize on any opportunity that's free; he calls almost every PR person he encounters "Lisa," because apparently all PR people are named that; his 10 rules of life, of which there are 32; his phobia of confrontation because he's British. I was not aware that was an issue. I thought the British did confrontation, but in a very faux-polite, backhand insult manner. Like, you aren't sure if they're actually pissed, but you know they're looking down their nose at you? Well, learn something new everyday.

I think the parts I enjoyed the most were often the effort he expended trying to reach some of these places. When no one could confirm a place existed, and he starts calling around or accosting random people on the street or harassing his producer for help finding the place. Or when he thought he was getting a tour of a particular farm in Minneapolis, only to learn he was getting a formal tour of Minneapolis. So disappointed. Whether he actually finds the place, or whether he actually enjoys it once he gets there, is beside the point. I'm not sure there was one place he visited in this book that I would want to visit myself. But getting a front-row seat to his Sisyphean task of finding this place or that place is entertaining.

'I snapped shut my notebook and swore by the seven golden fleeces of Sinbad to track down this Museum of Dirt that nobody would let me see. It might take me a few days, but I would find it, oh yes, and when I did I would fix up an appointment with the curator personally, and insist that he give me a guided tour. And Lisa - well, Lisa could go screw herself-f-f.'

Dream Scenario (2023)

Paul (Nic Cage) is a biology professor at a small college, who learns one day that he has started showing up in other people's dreams. His daughter's, old acquaintances, his students, complete strangers.

At first this brings him fame, and he thinks it will help him to publish a book about ant shared intelligence or something that he's been talking about for decades. But as things don't work out the way he wants - he doesn't want to use his celebrity to hawk products, especially not Sprite - the nature of the dreams shift. Instead of Paul just standing around, watching what's happening to these people in their dreams, he starts killing them. Turns out people take being murdered in a dream by someone personally, and Paul becomes a pariah. Which he exacerbates by being defensive and playing the victim.

I think you have to enjoy cringe comedy to watch this movie. The first half in particular is just an endless stream of Paul humiliating or embarrassing himself by being awkward, passive-aggressive, milquetoast, and so on. The thing is, I don't enjoy that stuff. It's painful to watch, to the point I almost gave up on the movie 50 minutes in.

The second half, once things start the downhill slide, is actually better. Things are actually happening, instead of people just talking about how Paul never does anything. Students flee from him and vandalize his car. Waiters ask him to leave restaurants. And at least it feels like Paul's reacting genuinely, even if it's him being aggrieved and focusing on how much he's suffering. He's an ugly, selfish man with a victim complex, but at least he stops hiding it. When he gets kicked out of the house because he makes his daughter's school play all about him by insisting on attending when he was asked not to, at least he actually did something, even if it was just about the worst possible thing.

What I Bought 4/18/2026

The Chicago trip. . .went pretty well. We didn't see much - though I always suspected the plans to visit an art museum or Chinatown were far-fetched - but we got some excellent Italian food Saturday, same a few cool stores, and the weather wasn't bad, outside some heavy rain during the first night. And we were safely inside during that. The crowds at his gigs were good, outside of a lot of people lying about it being their birthday during the second night. He'll play your request even without it being your birthday (unless the song sucks!)

Although I told him he played a song the first night that I had never heard before, but now that I had it was trash ("HYFR".) When he (naturally) started playing it the second night, I decided it was a good time to go walk through the rest of the club. Except right as I entered the front half of the place, the live band's lead guitarist asked if there were any fans of Creed in the audience.

That turned me right back around, so I think I detoured to the bathroom to give him time to finish that song. But now I'm home, and the storms didn't cause any damage, and I am seriously running a sleep defecit after I got up an hour earlier than I needed to on Friday (because when Alex says he'll get somewhere and when he actually does are 2 different things), and only got 4 hours Saturday (because my brain doesn't care I fell asleep at 4, it still isn't letting me sleep in), and two hours, if that, Sunday morning (because I handled a big chunk of the drive home.)

It's going to be a long week. 

Babs: The Black Road South #3, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy (colorist), Rob Steen (letterer) - Put a leash on that flying sperm, Babs.

We get the introduction to how this fictional world's version of Sauron gained his power and immaterial form and, as you would expect, it involved the guy being a complete fool. But most of the issue is an exercise in thinning out the herd, and flogging a dead horse. Not literally on the second one, as Babs spends a lot of panels mocking Lilith Lazuli, the enormous, blue-haired barbarian woman rocking the Red Sonja look, and sporting what Babs assures Izzy are two fossilized stegoballs in her chest.

Of course, Babs is careful to say these things out of earshot, or what she thinks is out of earshot, proving she's not as stupid as her poor track record with money and choice of employers might suggests. And maybe the insults are fair, as Lilith appears to freeze to death because she refuses to find a cave to shelter in during a blizzard. Though her eyes are still open when Babs figures out a way for Lilith to be of use in an escape, so I expect she'll turn out to have fallen off the horse because that's how LILITH LAZULI goes to sleep. Abruptly, and with her eyes open.

The first part, however, about thinning the herd? That was literal, as most of the party except Babs, Izzy, Lilith and Culpepper die when the bridge they're crossing suddenly collapses. The work of the angry little hobbit.

We're at the halfway point, and I'm trying to figure out what the joke is going to be. I feel pretty confident Babs and Izzy will not recoup their money. I expect Ennis may go the route of having the hobbit die in an embarrassing fashion - possibly involved the punchdrunk dragon - without Babs ever knowing her was gunning for her. There's got to be something about why Lilith acts the way she does, but all the answers I think of are the type that make me groan and mutter, "Ennis. . ." So hopefully he catches me completely off-guard there.

Sunday Splash Page #423

"Monsters," in Punisher: The Tyger, by Garth Ennis (writer), John Severin (artist), Paul Mounts (colorist), Randy Gentile (letterer)

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that in Garth Ennis' telling, the Punisher is the culmination of everything in Frank Castle's life. Not strictly the loss of his family. Not strictly Castle's 3 tours in Vietnam. Not even the final tour specifically, which Ennis and Darick Robertson depicted in the Punisher: Born mini-series.

(A digression. I occasionally see people say the end of Punisher: Born implies Frank made a deal with the Devil to survive the climactic battle at Firebase Valley Forge, because, as he's leaving the airport with his family, something is speaking to him about (paraphrasing) how, some day, it'll collect what it owes for keeping him alive.

I think it being the Devil is a bit too supernatural for Ennis' MAX imprint take on the character, and believe the implication is Frank unlocked something dangerous inside himself to survive. Similar to in the Avengers movie, when Stark suggests the Hulk was a manifestation of Banner's will to live, because the gamma radiation would have killed him otherwise. The monster saved Banner's life, but now that monster is loose on the world.

Frank Castle found something inside not only terrifyingly good at killing, but able to do so without remorse or hesitation. Something that would never relent. But having let it out once, it was never going to go back in its cage and stay there. Essentially, if Frank's family hadn't been killed, it would have been something else. Digression over.)

To that end, we have this one-shot from 2006. It begins and ends with Frank sniping some mob guys from a snowy rooftop, presented as his first as act the Punisher. The captions on Page 1 are, 'They'll blame it all on Vietnam. And they'll be right. And they'll be wrong.'

The meat of the story, however, is set during a summer sixteen years earlier, when Frank was a kid. It revolves around Lauren Buvoli, a girl Frank knows in the neighborhood, and Vincent Rosa, son of the local mob boss, though Frank doesn't understand that at the time. That's the needle Ennis tries to thread, showing us glimpses of Frank's personality or mannerisms that persist into his adulthood of extra-judicial mass murder, while also acknowledging there are lots of things a kid his age wouldn't understand.

So we see young Frank has a tendency to linger in the shadows outside the living room window and listen to his parents' conversations, which is how he hears that Rosa was also involved in something that got the Donegan girl into trouble. But when he asks the girl's little brother (after saving him from a bully), the kid can only say Rosa "made" his sister get a baby. He doesn't understand what that means, and neither does Frank. Frank sees a man on fire come tearing out of the factory where his father works, but doesn't understand it wasn't an accident, or what Lauren's older brother means when he asks how you hate someone that much.

Severin uses a heavy line, but with indistinct edges. Things are a little blurred or fuzzy, being pulled from Frank's memories. His father's eyes may be nothing but a thin line in one panel, Frank's attention seized by the burning man. Lauren's features are rounded and without blemish, shifted to something almost angelic in his remembering, while Vincent Rosa is definitely trying to imitate Dean Martin with his cigarette hanging loose and the curly hair done up. Mounts uses mostly soft tones, except for the violence, the fire, where the oranges and reds jump off the page in contrast to the more muted blues and blacks of men's work clothes and jackets.

The title of the story is reference to William Blake's poem, as Frank and Lauren are in an after-school poetry class taught by one of the priests. They read "The Tyger", and Frank interprets Blake's question of who created the "tyger" as suggesting there are things in the world not created by God. The priest naturally objects to the notion anything could exist God didn't make, but the notion lingers with Frank through that summer and apparently into adulthood. I'd say it depends on how merciful you envision your God to be. Old Testament God creating something like Frank Castle? Yeah, absolutely.

The one-shot isn't essential, except as part of the overall tapestry of Ennis' take on the Punisher, but it's a stronger story than The Cell, leaning less heavily on the brutality and shock value, and more on the idea there are those who prey on others. They may disguise it behind a winning smile or nice clothes, but they still regard you as food, and knowing that can be terrifying.

Well, it took over 7 years and 648 posts, but we finally made it through the alphabet. But as time - and the comics industry - wait for no one, now I've got to go back to the start and pick up all the stuff I bought since then. First, a special splash page project for the next 3.5 weekends.

Saturday Splash Page #225

"Cruise Liner Security," in Quasar #7, by Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Manley (penciler), Danny Bulanadi (inker), Paul Becton (colorist), Janice Chang (letterer)

Wendell Vaughn got hold of some alien bracelets that at one point belonged to Golden Age hero (and future Agent of Atlas) Marvel Boy. (Sort of. It's complicated.) At some point, he got tagged by an alien named Eon (that looks like a floating root wad with a face) to be the new "Protector of the Universe." And Quasar did protect the universe over the course of his 60-issue ongoing series, although he also died in the process. Maybe more than once.

(Dying fighting some big threat and then being resurrected later has kind of become Quasar's thing.)

I know the book has some folks who vouch for it. That writer Mark Gruenwald delved into a lot of strange corners of the Marvel Universe for locations and threats for Quasar to confront. The Stranger has an entire planet for the menagerie of unique beings he's collected. Maelstrom ends up being some great threat. There's a cosmic race with most of Earth's speedsters, that ends up being won by an amnesiac guy in ragged red clothes who appears in a lightning bolt and is supposed to Barry Allen after his big heroic death in Crisis on the Infinite Earths. I think Wendell ends up pregnant at one point?

That said, the only issues I own are the Acts of Vengeance tie-ins. They do act as a pretty decent intro to the set-up Gruenwald's established. Wendell Vaughn has his own security consulting firm, which needs clients, but the hero thing keeps interrupting. Eon's got him investigating sources of alien energy on Earth, because of some portent about an alien menace. (This actually leads him to Spider-Man, unknowingly rocking the Enigma Force, in issue 7.)

Wendell's a polite guy, as he spends much of his fight with the Absorbing Man trying to convince him these fights are a waste of time and getting the man nothing. (This does not work.) When he chases the Living Laser to the Moon, he knocks on Uatu's door (with a giant glowing hand) before entering. When the Laser jumps through a portal to escape and possibly kills that timeline's Thunderbird in the process, Quasar apologizes to Uatu for intruding. Uatu teleports him out without saying a word. Dick.

Overall, it paints a picture of Wendell as curious, conscientious and clever. He takes his time to try and figure out ways to quickly handle his opponents, rather than overwhelm them with sheer power. Which might work well on your standard Earth super-villain type, but maybe wasn't a great approach for the sorts of cosmic menaces a Protector of the Universe has to confront?