Sunday Splash Page #431

"Full Speed Ahead," in All-New X-Factor #1, by Peter David (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)

In 2014, Peter David returned to the "X-Factor" concept for a third time. Having previously written a government super-team of dysfunctional personalities, then a detective agency of dysfunctional personalities, this time he took the approach of a team sponsored by a corporation, Serval Industries. Staffed by dysfunctional personalities, of course.

Polaris is team leader, but swings between trying to mediate amongst the others and getting extremely aggressive at the drop of a hat. (Or a scratch from a cat.) David doesn't ever explain what's going on there, just treats it as something everyone knows about. Even Warlock's dad the Magus knows about her mental instability. I don't know if David intended to delve into it later and the book got canceled first (20 issues, not a bad run for Marvel in the last 20 years), or simply considered it sufficient to establish the fact.

Similarly, he references Polaris attacking Quicksilver at some point prior to the book starting without ever explaining that. Despite this, Pietro joins, because if he didn't join teams of people who tried to kill him he'd have to be a hermit. He's there as a mole for Havok (currently leading the Uncanny Avengers), something Gambit, who decides this is a better gig than teaching at Wolverine's school, immediately picks up on.

Gambit's also apparently King of de T'ieves Guild, and one of his guys rips off Serval, which he pulled off by shackling Danger, Xavier's old sentient Danger Room. Once freed, but with her memories in disarray, Danger sticks around. Serval tries to buy out an up-and-coming company that turns out to be run by Magus, posing as a human, and working with Warlock. So the team visits Doug Ramsey, who is planning to commit suicide to avert dreams he has of becoming an awful villain in the future.

Why does Carmine Di Giandomenico (who draws all but two issues of the series) have Doug waking from these dreams with his eyes and mouth glowing? Why is Doug having these dreams in the first place? Why does he have a goatee in the dreams, wearing some mechanical suit with Doc Ock tentacles a bubble helmet that makes him look more like Trevor Fitzroy? Who knows, it's never explained! But he decides to join, with no indication he thinks this will avert the future, seemingly just because. Warlock decides he'd rather hang with his old buddy (and pine after Danger) than work with his dad, so he joins. Eventually the team emancipates a young girl with mutant powers from her wealthy, mutant-hating father. Without really asking her before doing it, but since her dad wants nothing to do with her (being a mutant) and her biological parents appear to die, she sticks around.

It's a haphazard roster of people who weren't happy where they were, and figured they might as well try this. Quicksilver seems to be there out of some desire to be a good brother to Polaris - David devotes a fair amount of pages to Pietro's moral conundrums and past messes - while Danger doesn't even seem to have a reason. She questions why they're a team, why they're doing the things they do. Then why are you there?! Watsonian, because being around people seemed to help her pull herself back together. Doylist, because David needed a character to be inappropriately blunt and it couldn't always be Pietro.

The antagonists are one-offs, dealt with over 1-2 issue stories. An AIM scientist drawing mutant power into himself to become (briefly) a mutant. A guy calling himself Memento Mori, who has a whole evil organization with loads of shell businesses and lots of power, who actually turns out to be sort of an offshoot of a spell gone wrong. An Egyptian death-goddess reborn in a child's body. Those all basically vanish at the end of their respective stories (the scientist ends up locked in Serval's basement, where the CEO makes a job offer, but we don't see him again.) Even Magus, or the technomancer thief that captured Danger, don't show up again.

If there's a unifying theme, it's each is drawing on someone else's life or strength for their goals. The technomancer couldn't get into Serval's systems alone, so he imprisoned Danger, to I guess draw on her computing power and adaptability. Hoffman is stealing power from mutants to make himself a (big, glowy, shouty) god. Memento Mori's a fringe case, because he doesn't know the truth about how he got the powers he has. His wife had, at the time, feared her own powers and pushed them off on him.

Granted, the Magus doesn't really fit. He willingly changed his approach, to keep the Technarch from extinction. He even employs humans at his company, embracing Warlock's ideas. When Warlock decides to leave, Magus lets him go. (It is really annoying Marvel has two different pairs of characters named Magus and Warlock.)

My guess is, the antagonists were to give the team something to deal with in standard superheroic style, while things were moving in the background with the CEO. Except the book ran out of time. Maybe if they hadn't wasted 3 issues on AXIS tie-ins. Shouldn't have taken half that. Longshot's powers shouldn't even work if he's now constantly using them for selfish ends because he got "inverted" or whatever it was called. Anyway, David reveals at the very end the CEO is connected to Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (also running around in the present at the time, also in a book written by David.)

As mentioned, Carmine Di Giandomenico is artist for all but two of the issues. I appreciate the level of detail in the surroundings, the depictions of Danger and Warlock's malleable forms. Individual cables or external plates are visible, and they shift in different ways as well. Danger largely sticks to turning limbs into cannons, while Warlock opts for more variety, turning into high-tech motorcycles or armor for Doug. One all-business and individualistic, the other whimsical and more cooperative.

I don't feel like there's great flow from panel-to-panel during fights, but the action within each panel is usually well-rendered. Di Giandomenico shows off Gambit's agility with a variety of flips and dodges, while Quicksilver's speed is sometimes depicted by having the movement handled off-panel (he beats Havok in a game of pool in the span of two panels, and we don't see a single shot) or with the light from the uniforms leaving trails in his wake. Quite why the costumes have glow-up parts on the ribs and back of the hands, I don't know.

Not a huge fan of the costumes, really. The color scheme is OK - yellow and grey is an unusual choice, at least - but I don't like the odd lenses Polaris, Gambit and later Cypher wear over their eyes. I guess the right angle lines are meant to simulate a business suit or something, or maybe a vest with the flap you can leave open like some British admiral, but it's kind of an odd choice for a team uniform.

I don't know if David ever played out the things he hinted at after this book ended. I'm guessing not, since it was about some amorphous future for Marvel, and I doubt Peter David had the clout at the time to set the tone for something like that at Marvel. That gets saved for someone's Big Summer Event Comic. Future Tensed. Forced Future. Something short and punchy like that. Plus, Hickman's Secret Wars was lurking in the wings to (briefly) upend the apple cart. 

A Rough Launch Cycle

I wonder how many times someone in the Marvel Universe has said that?

"Change of Decay" is the second tpb for All-New X-Factor. We looked at the first just before Christmas. The cast roster of Polaris, Gambit, Quicksilver, Danger, Cypher, and Warlock now in the same place - if not all on the same page - Peter David (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Lee Loughridge (color artist), and Cory Petit (letterer) can get down to the brass tacks of what a corporation's superhero team actually does.

As far as these 6 issues, the answer would appear to be, "create messes for their CEO boss to clean up." David introduces a new character, Georgia Dakei, whose father owns several newspapers and a conservative news network, and is extremely anti-mutant. Georgia is essentially confined to their (very large, very well-defended) house, and got in trouble for live-streaming against Dad's wishes. Cypher watched the video and, because the girl talked wistfully about being able to get out of her house and see the world, convinces the rest of the team (not that Pietro or Gambit require much convincing) they should kidnap, I mean rescue, Georgia.

Except by the time they get there, Georgia's over it. Dad was just being dramatic having his goon shoot her computer, and he already replaced it. Doug steamrolls right over that, and it turns out Georgia has some power over water, in that she desiccates Doug's body in seconds. Harrison Snow has to sort a situation that devolves to the point of Polaris threatening to kill a lot of cops with their own weapons, and convinces Dakei - somehow - to send Georgia off with X-Factor.

At which point it turns out Dakei wasn't her biological parent. And while her mother was a frightened young woman who gave her up for adoption as a baby, her father is a supervillain. A new one, Memento Mori, who has a costume (and, with the way either Di Goandomenico or Loughridge shades things, sometimes muttonchop sideburns) but also legitimate businesses. Like a mall, because it means lots of civilians around to act as potential human shields against superheroes. Except it turns out, that isn't as it seems, either, and there's a possibility Georgia loses both parents as fast as she finds them.

It's a weird choice, bring in Georgia and all these elements around her, then wipe most of said elements off the board immediately. Maybe David felt he had to have some big punch up fight, though I'm not sure fights are Di Giandomenico's strong suit. They often boil down to, "panel of one character posing dramatically, followed by panel of different character gesturing." 

Action? Di Giandomenico can do that. There's a nice sequence of Mori's goons first chasing Georgia on Segways, then chasing Georgia and Doug using Warlock as a motorcycle on hover sleds (the sleds remind me a bit of the Public Eye flying cycles in Spider-Man 2099, but that may just be convergent design between Leonardi and Di Giandomenico.) The panels of Quicksilver running convey a sense of speed and fluidity. But fights often lack flow or connection between what's happening in given panels.

The focus remains on interpersonal relationships and everybody's problems. Lorna's moods still seem to swing wildly, which may be the stress of trying to listen to her team's viewpoints, while still being a strong leader who follows her own instincts, but also is a good employee. Gambit can't keep it in his pants. Warlock's trying to flirt, badly, with Danger. Pietro decides to stick around even after Havok says he doesn't need to act as mole for the Avengers. He gets the most personal growth, since he cops to the crap he pulled with the Terrigen Mists, and admits he lied when he blamed it on a Skrull. All during the team's introductory press conference which caps this tpb.

It's still hard to see why most of these characters are here. Lorna probably believes she can do some good, and Pietro seems to want to support his sister. Warlock seems to be hanging around for Doug and Danger, not necessarily in that order. But Doug is pissed off most of the volume - especially because Georgia is friendly towards Gambit and Quicksilver, but cold towards Doug, who pushed for them to rescue her in the first place - so I'm not sure why he doesn't just return to his plan to chuck himself off a cliff to avoid the villain turn he was worried about in volume 1.

Gambit doesn't think the team cares about him, and expects it'll end up like most teams, worried about mandates and punching villains instead of helping people. He's still going to bars to get soused and flirt with women like he was when the series began, so clearly the job is not personally fulfilling. I have no idea what Danger is getting out of all this, other than maybe she finds everyone else's behavior interesting to observe.

Re-Branding X-Ercise

Danger's stint on the Jean Grey Academy's debate team was brief and disastrous. 

"Not Brand X" covers the first 6 issues of All-New X-Factor, the 2014 series by Peter David (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer), with Rachelle Rosenberg replacing Loughridge as colorist for issue 4.

X-Factor has, at various times, referred to a covert (in the sense they pretended to be mutant-hunters), corporate-funded attempt to find and train young mutants, a government-sponsored super-team, and a detective agency. This version is a bit of the first two, as the team (assembled haphazardly over the course of this tpb) works for Serval Industries, as their corporate spokepeople/mascot/troubleshooters.

So, the team comes together over the course of a few different missions. In one case, Serval has intel a noted researcher is experimenting on mutants for AIM, and so the team goes to make a rescue (and Serval's CEO gets to offer the scientist a job.) In another, someone manage to hack Serval's systems and swipe several million dollars. This leads them to a technomancer who's using Danger. As in, the sentient Danger Room that was yet another retconned piece of assholery added to Xavier's ever-growing list. One wonders when Chuck found the time to train any mutants.

David keeps each mission to 1 or 2 issues, while still allowing time to hint at other things going on where the heroes aren't looking. The CEO had some nanobot camera installed in Polaris' eye when she wasn't looking. He's also sleeping with his top assistant, but his wife knows about it. And there's the question of what he wants with the researcher the team captured.

The team is a peculiar mix of unstable personalities and loyalties. Polaris had apparently been acting unstable again recently, and seems to alternate between responsible adult and really aggressive and violent. Gambit decides this is more productive than pretending to be a teacher at Logan's school, and less restrictive on his thieving. He's still kind of a shitbag, but perceptive enough to realize Quicksilver's here to spy on them for the (Uncanny) Avengers, specifically, for Havok.

Alex Summers continuing to manage the impressive feat of being the worst Summers brother. How?! He's related to Cyclops! The bar to clear is so subterranean the Mole Man couldn't find it! And yet, still manages to be worse!

Danger's blunt, with limited respect for personal boundaries or discretion. In her defense, everyone keeps lying to her for various reasons. When it turns out a company Serval planned to acquire is actually run by Warlock's dad the Magus, and Warlock appears to be helping, the team goes to visit a suicidal Doug Ramsey, and that eventually brings Warlock (instantly smitten with Danger) into the fold.

Di Giandomenico's art is highly detailed. The individual wires, cables or metal plates that make up Danger or Warlock lovingly rendered. Or the creases in Gambit's leather jacket, or his stubble. Unfortunately, between there typically being a lot of panels on a given page, those details can get a bit muddled. It's not always easy to tell what's going on in panels with multiple characters or a lot of action. When there's more room, a broader shot, or a close-up focused on just one character, it's less of an issue, but there are times it's muddled. I don't really like the colored lenses Polaris and Gambit wear over their eyes, like sunglasses with no stem or connective pieces. At certain times, they almost seem like they are the characters' eyes, and it always feels wrong in a way that draws me up short.

Most of the time, Loughridge's colors run towards yellows and oranges - which seem to be Serval's company colors - which seems to work all right. But he seems to favor deeper or darker tones on his colors, to the point those yellows almost feel like a weight. And when he goes to darker colors, the purple he uses for Doug's nightmare, for example, it obscures the art to the point I can hardly tell what I'm looking at. (It doesn't help that Di Giandomenico's Evil Future Doug looks so little like his present day self, I would have never known who it was if Karma didn't say his name. He looks more like Trevor Fitzroy.)

David doesn't really explain whatever is going on in the characters recent history - I don't know why Doug's having dreams of an older version of himself turning evil and torturing his old New Mutants pals, or when Polaris got drunk and tried to kill Quicksilver - but those are apparently things that happened, and David uses them to create a roster that seems to be there either for lack of better options, or some misplaced sense of loyalty. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of unity among the cast, which is at least a way for potential future discord, or simply for them not to catch up to whatever Serval's really doing.

Random Back Issues #148 - Supergirl #62

Wow, I'd have never recognized him. What a master of disguise.

Supergirl's in Gotham to find Buzz, the demon she's been uneasily working with to find the "earth angel" aspect of herself that disappeared roughly a year's worth of issues ago. Buzz had tried to help a girl being menaced by a gang, got accused of being her attacker, then got the shit kicked out of him by the gang, topped off by Supergirl not believing his claim of innocence. Because he'd been a lying shitheel since the moment he showed up.

Linda wants to apologize, but she's gotta find him first. To that end, she's. . .dressing up like a cheerleader and visiting dive bars? Did Lois teach her this? A little judicious throwing of jerks through windows gets the patrons in a helpful mood, but in the meantime, Buzz has hooked up with Two-Face.

Two-Face abducted Dr. Max Tuefeld, who's been advocating making cloning available to everyone. Buzz lifted a blood sample taken from Supergirl at a hospital after she got badly injured during some crossover event when she fought a big alien robot. Two-Face is on board with the idea of having a super-strong henchwoman, especially since Buzz swears he's got some 'mystic mumbo-jumbo' to speed up the aging process. And it avoids the whole "changing diapers" phase.

Supergirl's still trashing bars (somehow Batman hasn't gotten wind of a metahuman cheerleader carving a path of ass-kickings through "his" town), when "Big-Mouthed Murray" tells her Buzz was looking for Two-Face and got sent to another bar to speak with Janus. Setting aside how a guy with that nickname hasn't been killed yet, Janus is a rather ordinary - if vaguely froggy-looking - guy to have that name. He coughs up the location of Two-Face's current hideout, Mark Twain Books, which Linda eventually realizes is Two-Face making a play on words - "the place of two."

Maybe she's dizzy from all the thinking, but her attempt to sneak in fails when she falls through a weak spot in the roof. Or maybe it's the massive lifts in her boots. Buzz is waiting for her, with a spiel all ready about how the beating he took helped him remember who he was, and that he'd strayed from that by being in love with her, since before she was born.

(It'll turn out Linda's been reincarnated and she and Buzz were married back in Roman times. It ended badly, and the next time they met, he'd been encouraging Jack the Ripper and the guy killed her.) 

Thank goodness Bizarro Supergirl is here to put a stop to all this whinging by beating the crap out of Supergirl. Or, as Buzz puts it, being gentle with her, as Two-Face apparently ordered Tuefeld to genetically program(?) the clone to only obey Two-Face and Buzz, by doing the opposite of what they say. I assume that's some play on "two-faced" by saying one thing but meaning the other?

Buzz leaves the girls to their fight (which is just Linda getting pummeled), and joins Two-Face on a trip to Arkham, where they'll collect blood samples of all the inmates, so Two-Face can have clones of them that are loyal to him. Which sounds stupid as hell. Why do you want a clone of the Riddler or Calendar Man, whether it's loyal to you or not?

It's a moot point, as they'll get Jokerized between now and the next issue, which we looked at 3 years ago.

{11th longbox, 15th comic. Supergirl (vol. 3) #62, by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk (penciler), Robin Riggs (inker), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Digital Chameleon (separations), Bill Oakley (letterer)}

Saturday Splash Page #143

 

"The Threat and/or Menace of Tomorrow," in Spider-Man 2099 #1, by Peter David (writer), Rick Leonardi (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Steve Buccellato (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)

Summer (and Fall) of Spiders is taking us on a trip to the future! Where corporations control an increasingly ecologically damaged world of dwindling resources and the rights of the average citizen are almost nil.

We should fit right in.

Even in the early '90s the Marvel Universe had no shortage of visions of shitty futures. Days of Future Past, obviously, but the Guardians of the Galaxy hailed from a 30th Century where the entire solar system was under the thumb of the Badoon. Killraven's Earth was conquered by Martians. The original Deathlok was from a lousy future. But those were usually confined to a single book or sometimes a single storyline. In 1992, Marvel started up an entire line of comics set in the far off - but not too far off - year of 2099.

I never got heavily into the line as a whole. I think I've read one issue of Ravage 2099, and less than a half-dozen of X-Men 2099. I heard good things about Warren Ellis' Doom 2099, but, eh, maybe if I could buy it used, for cheap. From the parts I've seen online of it, Punisher 2099 was either meant to be a parody - the character, asked where he lives, says in total seriousness, "Over the edge," - or really ought to have been.

I had a bit of Spider-Man 2099 when it first came out, but tracked the entire series down in back issues in the early 2010s. For Peter David and Rick Leonardi's book, we get Miguel O'Hara, a brilliant gene engineer for Alchemax, one of a handful of "mega-corps" that basically run things, at least in the U.S. I was never all that clear on how things worked in the rest of the world.

Miguel is smart, but also arrogant, condescending, sarcastic (so David can give him plenty of clever insults) and a bit of a coward. He's got a comfortable life, and he's reluctant to rock the boat. But David's careful to show Miguel has some sense of responsibility, even if it comes from an overconfidence in his own skill and importance. When he finds out how far his boss will go to keep him there, he makes a risky move to slip the leash and ends up the victim of sabotage by a supervisor that hates his guts. Because Miguel always talks down to him. Couldn't be Spider-Man without ego coming back to bite him!

The costume Leonardi designs is unlike most Spider-Man outfits, other than the marks on the mask form a space roughly similar to Spidey's big eyes. The skull covering the chest is closer to the Punisher, or maybe the symbiote costume's torso-covering emblem. While Spider-Man was the inspiration for the genetic enhancement Miguel got, Miguel mentions this costume is just something he got for a Day of the Dead celebration he once attended. He only wears it initially because he needs a disguise he won't accidentally tear up with his new talons (unstable molecules for the win.) The "web" on the back is some lightweight cloth from a hang-glider that saved his life. It adds a bit of a cape, although sometimes it's drawn as barely more than a fringe.

Overall, it works. Distinctive, but just enough touches to hint towards the inspiration. Leonardi has Miguel move differently as well. Given the ubiquitous "Public Eye Security", Miguel doesn't webswing from place to place more than necessary. (The fact that his webbing is produced by his body might also make him unwilling to rely on a supply of unknown quantity and strength.)

We also don't see a lot of elaborate leaps and flips across rooftops. In part because the rooftops are so high up, and in part because Miguel doesn't seem to retreat into Spider-Man as a way to blow off steam or improve his mood. Also because he can't stick to a surface with any part of his body, only the fingers and toes. So his movements are more controlled, more regular. He'll almost lope along the side of a building in a four-limbed stance, keeping one hand and one foot in contact with the wall at all times.

For most of the two years Leonardi's the series artist, he and David stick to mostly original enemies. Miguel does encounter a Vulture, but it's a guy with big metal wings who set himself up as a boss in the literal underbelly of the city. Otherwise, it mostly hired guns for the corporations, concerned with this new element they can't control, or stuff related to the "Thorites" and their belief the Gods of Asgard will be returning soon and that the return of Thor's ally Spider-Man is a portent. Where Peter Parker started his career fighting people who gained great power and continued to use it selfishly, Miguel O'Hara fights people who accepted (unwittingly or otherwise) being used as weapons by the forces controlling the world.

The last 20 or so issues of the book aren't as strong. It kicks off with a big reveal about Miguel's father, which felt unnecessary, and then more 2099 versions of characters start popping up. Strange, Venom (ugh), a Goblin. Apparently Peter David had one character planned for that and someone else rewrote the story to have a different character be responsible. The whole storyline felt kind of half-baked, as stuff was just getting thrown into and out of the book like crazy. Miguel's in charge of Alchemax! Doom became President, and he wants Spider-Man on his cabinet! The people of New Atlantis are gonna teach those surface dwellers what for!

Maybe it made sense for Miguel, who had been tangled up in the mega-corps stuff since he was a promising young mind, to be involved in all this world-spanning stuff, but it squeezed out the interpersonal drama with his supporting cast.

Arcing to a Conclusion

I don't know. A solid portion of the U.S. sure loves the Confederate Army, who definitely lost. Or, for another example, Trump. Multiple times bankrupt, convicted of several crimes, lost an election. Complete loser, but beloved by a disturbingly large portion of the dumbasses in this country.

Tangent Comics Volume 3 collects the last 8 one-shots from the original Tangent Comics run. *Deep breath* In order, Superman (Mark Millar, Jackson Guice, Lovern Kindzierski, Comicraft); Wonder Woman (Peter David, Angel Unzueta, Jamie Mendoza, Pam Rambo, Comicraft); Nightwing: Night Force (John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, Gloria Vazquez, Comicraft); The Joker's Wild (Karl Kesel and Tom Simmons, Joe Phillips, Jasen Rodriguez, Moose Baumann, Comicraft); The Trials of the Flash (Todd DeZago, Paul Pelletier, Andy Lanning, Joe Rosas, Comicraft), Tales of the Green Lantern (James Robinson, J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray, Lee Loughridge, Comicraft, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Mike Mayhew, Wade von Grawbadger, Georges Jeanty, Drew Gerard, Ostrander, Ryan Sook), Powergirl (Ron Marz, Dusty Abell, Dexter Vines, James Sinclair, Chris Eliopoulos); and JLA (Dan Jurgens, Darryl Banks, Norm Rapmund, Rob Schwager, Comicraft)

I'm not sure why they distributed the comics so unevenly between the volumes (6 for the first volume, 5 for volume 2, but 8 here.) Especially given the differences in goals of some of these stories. Superman, Wonder Woman and Powergirl fit in theme with the comics from volume 2. Each provides an origin and introduction for this universe's version of these characters, albeit with wildly different approaches.

Millar's Superman (real name Harvey Dent) is the sole survivor of a covert government experiment performed on a largely African-American town in an attempt to perfect a way to give people super-powers. It worked on one baby, in the sense that his mind is evolved far beyond a normal human's. A Man of Tomorrow. Wonder Woman's the result of an attempt to broker peace between two alien races by combining their genetics into one perfect warrior. Except both races consider her an abomination. And Powergirl is China's second attempt to create a superhuman warrior. She's a real success, but she's not sure she wants to be.

Millar's is fairly cynical, as Dent grows increasingly detached from humanity, dealing with crises because he just wants problems to solve rather than actually caring much about the people he helps. I mean, I doubt those people care, but his girlfriend does care that he's distanced himself from her. The bit where she confesses cheating on him and Harvey responds that he's a telepath, so he knew she was going to cheat before she did made me roll my eyes. I feel like this character heavily informs how Millar writes Reed Richards, but maybe it's just Millar in general.

Peter David turns his story into a running gag, as the title character spends an entire fight having an existential crisis. She's can't help but "wonder" whether she has any right to exist, or if she even does. It gets obnoxious after about three pages, but the payoff is apparently that she can reorder reality by thinking (or wondering) hard enough. She erases the aliens attacking her from existence by simply insisting they don't exist, to the extent all the damage from the battle vanishes, because the two who started the fight never existed to cause the damage in the first place.

Marz only actually brings Powergirl out at the very end of his issue, fitting into the idea of her as a designed weapon who wishes to make her own decisions. None of the people the story follows up to then - the U.S. President, formerly part of a black ops group, the guys from Nightwing, the Chinese government - see her as any thing but a tool to gain advantage. They're all just fighting over who has their finger on the trigger. When she finally arrives, in a design that makes me think of an elaborate doll crossed with NASCAR, they're left standing there gawking as she casually revives the dead and then leaves.

Trials of the Flash, The Joker's Wild, and Tales of the Green Lantern follow-up on the earlier appearances of each character. Green Lantern's is "multiple origins", as she relates three different possible ways (each by a different creative team) she came to exist. Sook seems to channel a lot of Mignola in his story, the characters very angular and sharply defined, while Jeanty's work is very similar to the Dodsons.

Dezago and Pelletier make Trials of the Flash into an extended cartoon, as the Flash's dad spends the entire issue trying increasingly elaborate super-science weapons to capture or kill her, only to have each backfire on him.

So that leaves Night Force and JLA, the former of which heavily leads into the latter, albeit with a lot of stuff about different covert organizations at war with each other. There's Nightwing, but also Meridian, which is like Nightwing but in Europe. Night Force, who think they're fighting Nightwing, but are actually being used by it. And there's a "Dark Circle" which may stand above both, or not. Really feels like something that needed more time to play out. But hey, we find out the USSR is still run by Vampire Josef Stalin. I still think "cryo-frozen, uses a giant mech suit" Stalin from Simonson's FF run is better, but that's pretty cool.

The big ending though is that Stalin's attempts to harvest the souls of three-quarters of the Doom Patrol goes haywire once Night Force shows up and end up combined into some missing puzzle piece monster calling itself the "Ultra-Humanite". Or maybe like a mech whose joints are connected by electric arcs. That rolls into JLA, where the Humanite somehow has armed soldiers surrounding the U.S. capitol building, while he's still busy crushing the Secret Six in two pages somewhere else. And yet another secretive cabal decides they need to kill every superpowered being they can find (except the Ultra-Humanite), and their fuck-ups bring together Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and the resurrected original Atom.

It doesn't really work, since it's hard to believe they could actually work together. Jurgens dials back Superman's detachment a bit (though he ignores that Millar's story ended with Dent offering his girlfriend the same powers), but this group just doesn't seem likely to mesh. Wonder Woman's off in her own world half the time and Batman's got his big redemption quest. And Atom's only around for as long as Green Lantern's power let him stay that way. And how did Batman get from London to Missouri so quickly? And why the hell not wait to try and kill the other superpowered types after the Ultra-Humanite's dealt with? See if they solve your problems for you, or failing that, at least wear each other out.

Maybe I just liked the Secret Six group more and wanted to see more of them in action.

Sunday Splash Page #322

 

"Schizophrenic Conversations," in Madrox #3, by Peter David (writer), Pablo Raimondi (penciler), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Brian Reber (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)

A precursor to David's second X-Factor run, which places Jamie Madrox front and center as a private detective, in this case, investigating his own murder.

David had already started the idea of Madrox's "dupes" as beings of their own, with thoughts and desires that might not match the "prime" Madrox in that first X-Factor run. Here he expands on that theme. On the one hand, Madrox has been sending duplicates out to learn different things, or even just to go out and have a fun night at the bar if Jamie can't decide whether he wants to or not.

(Which also ties into an issue being decisive David really hammered on in the first couple years of X-Factor, that Jamie's ability to pursue any option via his duplicates left him unable to actually make a decision when he needed to.)

But Madrox ends up in Chicago after a duplicate he sent there to have fun, ended up stabbed to death. So Jamie has to investigate his own murder. It involves a beautiful woman, of course, and her husband, who is a major crime boss. And there's a hired gun with powers like Jamie's, who Jamie still manages to generally outflank in the best noir tradition of tough-talking, soft-chinned goons.

Pablo Raimondi's work is stronger on the facial expressions and body language than the action sequences, though he has a tendency to use photo-references for characters. A reporter friend of Madrox's, for example, is very obviously Steve Buscemi. Raimondi also has this tic of drawing characters with their heads tilted down, but looking up at you. Usually with a raised eyebrow, which just makes it feel like someone trying too hard for an effect. What effect, I'm not sure. To look cool?

I could see it with Madrox, who is trying really hard to give off the "private eye" aura, but it's usually characters like Bishop (who was in his District X, cop of Mutant Town, era). No man that wore a mullet is concerned about looking cool. Point is, it makes Raimondi's art seem like a stiffer Kevin Maguire at times. He does a nice job, when Madrox absorbs a homicidal dupe from a distance, of making the act look freaky. The dupe being stretched out into noodles colored like a person or their clothes, a brief panel of a big, frightened eye.

Saturday Splash Page #108

 

"Judgement's Due," in Supergirl (vol. 3) #48, by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk (penciler), Robin Riggs (inker), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Bill Oakley (letterer)

As mentioned last week, one effect of Crisis on the Infinite Earths was to make Superman the only Kryptonian again. But DC couldn't put the Supergirl idea away entirely, so we got the. . .unusual "Matrix" Supergirl. I'm only vaguely up on her backstory. Something about an alternate reality, a Luthor with a full head and beard of red hair? Made of pink, protoplasmic goo, has telekinetic powers.

I don't know where he got the notion, and I'm a little surprised DC let him do it, but Peter David combined Supergirl with a young woman named Linda Danvers, to create a composite person. Linda's memories, but filtered more through Matrix's perceptions and attitudes.

The first year is largely Supergirl figuring out what's happened to her, how it happened, and what things are going to be like for her going forward. This involves a lot of Linda's friends and acquaintances trying to figure out the 180 she's pulled in personality, and "Mae" realizing the girl she's merged with wasn't quite what she figured at first glance. It also involves a demon called Buzz, who is a persistent source of both advice and irritation for almost the entire series.

Around the end of the first year, Leonard Kirk takes over as regular penciler from Gary Frank. Kirk and Riggs' art tends to soften Supergirl's appearance relative to Frank's, who had more of a thin, sharp edge to faces and expressions (though he hadn't drifted into the overly busy and stiff work he would by the time he's working with Geoff Johns a lot.) While Kirk's fully capable of drawing a furious Supergirl, he rounds jawlines and cheeks, which allows for a wider range of expression.

I think David ramps up the humor and puns more once Kirk takes over the art duties as well, but that might just be the shift in the direction of the series. Once Supergirl has some handle on the basics of her new life in Leesburg, David starts to unravel the nature of what she is (or has become, maybe.) She'd already begun to manifest new powers - flame wings, literal flame (not heat) vision -and seems to be attracting a particular kind of weirdo. Oddly dressed little boys who claim to be God, demons, fallen angels, a lady who changes into a superfast cyborg-horse person (that is also physically male, and no I'm not talking about Beta Ray Bill. Different cyborg horse-person.)

Supergirl also has to deal with people looking up to her, worshiping her, and the expectations that come with that, on top of the usual subplot stuff of parental issues, relationship issues, work troubles. That all culminates in a huge battle in issue 50 against a being out to claim Earth for his own, by forcing God to renounce his hold on it.

At which point David and Kirk pivot again. Now it's just Linda, with Golden Age Superman power levels, and the white t-shirt look Supergirl was sporting in the Timmverse Superman cartoon, with no idea where her other, angelic half, is. The story becomes a quest of sorts, with Linda having to team up with Buzz, and neither seeming to bring out the best in each other. That leaves Linda wondering if all the good she did, all the good that was in her, was really that other being. And if so, can she really change? Can Buzz, and does he even want to? 

That builds to another big showdown in issue 74, this time in the Garden of Eden. David pulls together threads he introduced over 40 issues earlier, and even uses elements from his Joker: Last Laugh tie-ins (in general, I find the event tie-ins and crossovers to be the weakest issues, but those two issues were pretty enjoyable.)

It feels like the book should end there. All the major threads tied up as they're going to get. But the book hung on another half-dozen issues, now with Ed Benes as artist. David brings in the Silver Age Kara Zor-El, somehow diverted to this world, and has her and Linda interact, until Linda tries to take Kara's place in the Silver Age (Earth-1?) timeline, including the showdown against the Anti-Monitor. Doesn't work, natch, no thanks to the always useless Hal Jordan Spectre. Plus, there's some idiot in a Skyrim mask out to kill Linda, but he can't find her.

It feels less like a Supergirl story than David lining up his future plans for Linda's character, which would play out over the Fallen Angel series at DC and then IDW.

As for Supergirl the concept, DC would bring back "Superman's cousin" in a Superman/Batman arc by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner, then prove to have absolute fuck-all clue what to actually do with the character. So she bounced from one concept to the next - Outsiders this week, hanging out in Kandor with Power Girl the next week - probably getting the most traction when Waid and Kitson used her in their Legion of Super-Heroes book.

Random Back Issues #113 - Spider-Man 2099 #22

As long as he can still make the smug, in joke innuendos. Otherwise, that's 30% of Peter David's dialogue off-limits.

Miguel O'Hara starts the issue in cyberspace with his brother, Gabriel. He had to go in after Gabriel's mind got stuck due to an attack by some other cyberhead called Discord who intended to destroy the 2099 equivalent of the Internet to prepare the world for the apocalyptic end his models predicted would occur in 2112. 

That's all been dealt with. What hasn't is the fact Gabri knows Miguel's Spider-Man. And apparently he's known almost from the start. He assures his older brother he won't tell anyone, because that would ruin the fun. The fun of knowing how much shit gets dumped in his big brother's life for being Spider-Man.

They return to their bodies in Gabri's apartment, where their mother and Miggy's girlfriend Dana are waiting. Miguel assures his mother that Gabri won't get addicted like before. In exchange, Miguel wants his little brother's help repairing Lyla, the holographic agent in his own apartment. She went into a jealous, murderous rage when Discord started his attack, but Miguel may have caused the real problem when he told Lyla to try and think or understand feelings several issues earlier. Because Miguel's a self-centered prick who runs his yap a lot. Given his ego and intellect, Miguel might be more Iron Man of 2099 than Spider-Man.

Anyway, Gabri's pretty sure he can't fix Lyla, and he doesn't understand why Miguel's so intent on it, but suggests contacting an expert in AI. And Miguel happens to know one. His ex-girlfriend, Xina. Good luck with that.

In subplot developments, Kasey Nash is captured by agents of Stark-Fujikawa, because their boss feels he owes Spider-Man a debt for saving his life two issues earlier. Which is awkward considering they've sent assassins to kill Spider-Man more than once so far. But Kasey seems to have a connection with him, so they're hoping she'll help them out. Or she can disappear forever. When you put it that way. . .

And in the back-up story of Miguel's time in a private school, Xina saves him after someone tried to drown him in the school pool. Miguel lies to the teachers about having a cramp, but admits to Xina someone held his head under. It's probably Kron Stone, son of Tyler Stone, CEO of Alchemax and Miguel's future dickweed boss (among other things), but Miguel's got no proof and declines to press the issue against the big psychopath on campus.

{10th longbox, 109th comic, Spider-Man 2099 #22, "Did You Just Say", by Peter David (writer), Rick Leonardi (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Steve Buccellato (colorist), Ken Lopez (letterer); "Dead Boy's Float", by Peter David (writer), Chris Batista (penciler), Don Hudson (inker), Steve Buccellato (colorist), Ken Lopez (letterer)}

Lockjaw Makes Talking Tough

I've been re-reading the John Byrne/Ron Wilson 1980s Thing series, as a bit of a precursor to its Saturday Splash Page entry in a couple of months. In issue 3, Crystal and Lockjaw come looking for Ben, because Quicksilver is determined to expose he and Crystal's daughter to the Terrigen Mists, even though there's no telling what that'll do to a half-mutant/half-Inhuman child.

Crystal's opposed, but Inhuman society, among its other fucked-up policies, puts full control of that decision in the hands of the father. Even when the mother's a member of the royal family, and the dad's just some jackass that married into the society.

Ben and Lockjaw both step in, but what ultimately convinces Pietro to stop is when Lockjaw speaks, revealing that he's not just some mutated dog, but that his form is what the Mists did to him.

What I remembered recently was, in his first issue on X-Factor, Peter David had a scene where Jamie Madrox tries to talk with Lockjaw, because he heard from Ben Grimm about Lockjaw being able to talk. Pietro laughs and explains that was just Karnak and Gorgon using a microphone to have fun with Grimm, by making him think he found a kindred soul.

That's a weird way to reverse that. I get Byrne retconned Lockjaw in the first place, and Marvel certainly seems to prefer Lockjaw just be a mutated dog. But in-story, that's not the time where you play that sort of practical joke. A child's life is potentially on the line, and given Crystal's power, if Luna dies because of this, there's a decent chance a volcano erupts right under Attilian and kills everyone.

Doylist explanation #1: Peter David decided the Inhumans had enough dodgy shit in their society, with the Alpha Primitives and all, so dog-man was a step too far.

Doylist explanation #2: Peter David was just being kind of a petty dick. Not a stretch for the guy who put Rocket Raccoon in his Captain Marvel run as a throw rug, or who dismissed an appearance by Hulk and Doc Samson in Amazing Spider-Man (first part reviewed here) that did not appear to contradict his run in any way as a "dream".

Watsonian approach #1, Pietro's lying his ass off because that whole circumstance was him being wildly wrong and he doesn't want to cop to it. Karnak and Gorgon did it to trick Pietro, not Ben, as a last-ditch move to make him stop. Obviously Pietro isn't going to admit he endangered his only daughter's life because he couldn't bear the thought of her being "merely" human. Even if he likes to pretend he doesn't care what others think of him, it would probably help if his new teammates aren't all looking at him like something they'd scrape off their shoes.

Watsonian approach #2: Lockjaw can talk, but as Thing surmised in the first story, it hurts. He's sure as hell not going to spare any words for a dick like Pietro (who he's likely only too happy to get far away from everyone he cares about). Or simply to prove that he can to a slack-jawed gawker like Madrox.

Of course, as the kicker, Pietro would forcibly expose Luna to the Terrigen Mists years later. She survived, so I guess he had that going for her, but he lied baldly to cover his ass and wound up with his daughter hating his guts and his now ex-wife married to Ronan the Accuser and seemingly fairly happy. Ha, ha.

Sunday Splash Page #260

 

"Vegged Out," in Incredible Hulk #367, by Peter David (writer), Dale Keown (penciler), Marie Severin (inker), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)

I've never bought Incredible Hulk regularly. When I was kid, I came by them as part of the 5-pack bags I would buy at the grocery store, alongside far too many copies of Brigade, or else in the 20-packs of comics I always requested from the Christmas catalog. Those issues were usually from the, I guess, middle third of Peter David's extensive run on the book, when either Dale Keown or Gary Frank were artist. The point at which Banner and all the Hulks combined into the biggest, greenest, smartest version, the "Professor" Hulk. The Hulk joining the Pantheon and getting involved in larger geo-political events, although those events often still required a healthy dose of smashing.

I've owned a few from Paul Jenkins or John Byrne's stints at different times, and I still have a couple from Bill Mantlo's lengthy run as writer (although one of those is because it was included in the Rocket Raccoon and Groot collection I bought.) The Hulk seems to work better for me as part of an ensemble, or even a guest-star. Maybe because it feels like he always just wins by being stronger than his opponent in his own book. If he isn't stronger at the start of the issue, he will be by the end.

An oversimplification, but it's telling the one multiple-issue story I own is "Countdown", which includes the issue above. Where Hulk's poisoned, growing weaker and more emaciated all the time. Of course, this is also Joe Fixit Hulk, so watching that jerk get smacked around because he's too weak is pretty enjoyable.

Random Back Issues #87 - Supergirl #63

Each version of the World's Finest has to find their own equilibrium.

Been a couple of years since we looked at an issue of Supergirl. That was the conclusion of what Peter David had been building towards since the beginning of his run, but here we're still a year away from that, with Linda Danvers trying to find the "earth angel" she used to be bonded with. Unfortunately for her, she has to deal with a Joker: Last Laugh tie-in first.

Also a Bizarro version of herself, who kicked Linda's ass last issue. Good news, Batgirl's here to help! And because she doesn't talk much, Peter David can't write as much dialogue or as many puns. That must have been killing him (although he used Cass in an issue of Young Justice, too, so maybe he likes a silent character to react to all the gibbering idiots.)

Cass is able to avoid Bizarro Supergirl's attack easily and flip her into a piece of damaged equipment sitting in a pool of water. Seems like an oddly lethal response from Cass (who is still in her "death wish" phase.) Maybe she could somehow tell B-S-Girl could take it?

Elsewhere, Linda's partner in her search, the human-turned-demon Buzz, is hanging out with Two-Face, and both are Jokerized, crashing an armored car and throwing the money to the passerbys. They return to the warehouse, where Bizarro Supergirl is now happily electrocuting herself, and visit their hostage, Dr. Tuefeld, who created her. They've scrapped their plans to bring him DNA samples or Arkham residents to make clones of, and Two-Face is just gonna shoot him, if the coin says so. 

Buzz, meanwhile, can't figure out why he wants to cry while he's laughing. He's still sporting the injuries he got from trying to help a girl a few issues ago, and in the aftermath of that beating, Linda accused him of probably doing something skeevy to deserve it. Gee, it's almost like repeatedly proving yourself to be an untrustworthy and duplicitous demon makes people question your motives! Weird how that works out.

Batgirl wakes Supergirl up and the two head back to the warehouse. Two-Face has decided to just shoot the doc anyway, so Cass takes away the gun. Of course Harvey's got two but decides to shoot at her instead. That doesn't work and it takes him a couple of tries to remember how to get Bizarro Supergirl to help. Fortunately, Linda steps in to punch her opposite through the wall onto a dock.

Unfortunately, Bizarro Supergirl suddenly demonstrates the flame vision Linda had when she was bonded with the earth angel. Someone has no doubt violated safety regulations and a host of environmental regulations by storing a bunch of fuel canisters on the dock. Cue big explosion and Linda diving into the ocean. By the time she surfaces, there's no sign of Bizarro, but there is a trail she's been told she left behind when she used her "shunt" ability. Something for her to worry about.

{11th longbox, 4th comic. Supergirl (vol. 3) #63, by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk (penciler), Robin Riggs (inker), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Digital Chameleon (separations), Bill Oakley (letterer)}

Saturday Splash Page #18

 

"Terrigen's a Helluva Drug," in X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead, by Peter David (writer), Pablo Raimondi (artist), Jeromy Cox (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer)

Near the tail end of my time buying X-Factor, Marvel released a couple of one-shots focused on specific characters. There was Layla Miller, charting her life in the dystopian future she was stranded in as a result of Messiah CompleX, and this one, where Peter David started to drag Quicksilver out of the toxic waste dump writers had shoved him into since House of M.

Quicksilver spends most of the issue in a jail cell, hallucinating. It is the after effect of having the Terrigen crystals (he somehow internalized after stealing them from the Inhumans) pulled out of him? Or is he just concussed after he took a shot to the skull chasing Layla Miller through a merry-go-round? Probably a little from Column A, and a little from Column B.

I did a whole long-winded post about all the conversations Pietro has with Crystal, Magneto, Wanda and Layla in his head, which you can read here. The point seems to be that Pietro needs to stop trying to excuse or justify the shit he's done, but that he also needs to stop beating himself up or it and wallowing. That if he wants to be better, be the person the people who care about him think he can be, he needs to get off his ass and actually be better. Which does not include using the Terrigen mists to jumpstart depowered mutants and cast it off as God's will it they die horribly from it.

Endgame is, Pietro has somehow gotten his mutant powers back. He leaves jail, saving a woman from an abusive boyfriend in the process, then takes a nice little run around the world. Not long after this, he joins the roster of Dan Slott's Mighty Avengers run and within a couple of years of that, was one of the instructors in Christos Gage's Avengers Academy. Unlike Wanda, I think Pietro's mostly avoided backsliding into Crazy Town, or being forced to constantly re-litigate his past fuck-ups. Must be nice!

Saturday Splash Page #17

 

"Rictor's Dropping Out," in X-Factor (vol. 3) #1, by Peter David (writer), Ryan Sook (penciler), Wade von Grawbadger (inker), Jose Villarrubia (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer)

Apparently there was a 4-issue X-Factor mini-series in the early 2000s, written by some Entertainment Weekly writer, mostly just involving regular X-Men characters. That's why this post-House of M run is volume 3.

During Grant Morrison's stint writing New X-Men, it was established there was an entire mutant neighborhood, borough, something in New York. Bishop acted as sort of a cop there in District X, I think that was where X-23 got introduced in NYX. In 2004, Peter David and Pablo Raimondi established Jamie Madrox set up a detective agency there with Strong Guy and Wolfsbane. In late 2005, David got an ongoing series to play with the premise, complete with a ready made mystery for them to investigate: What happened to all the mutants?

He expanded the cast, adding Siryn and Monet, the latter in particular serving as team asshole to spark conflict, plus Rictor as a mutant who lost his abilities and struggled with that. Then David brought in Layla Miller, who actually knows what happened to all the mutants, but is trying to keep X-Factor from finding out, while giving the appearance of helping by 'knowing stuff.' David did his level best to run that bit into the ground, but it at least felt appropriate for a kid to annoy the hell out of adults.

Ryan Sook was the initial artist, but a monthly schedule is not something he can keep. He was already sharing artist credit by issue 2, and before long the book was being drawn mostly by Dennis Calero and Renato Arlem. Those two had a photorealist style that matched certain aspects, like the emphasis on people talking and doing detective work. They weren't so great at fight scenes or drawing more unusual stuff like the cast member who is a werewolf.

The first issue of X-Factor came out the month prior to this blog's creation, and I reviewed it and the second issue the first week of the blog's existence. It was the one X-book that held on through the first two years of the blog. The first year was the strongest, with X-Factor trying to learn what we already knew, but dealing with the company Singularity not only trying to stop X-Factor from learning the truth, but keep them from undoing the Scarlet Witch's actions. They should have been more concerned with stopping Cable from protecting Hope, obviously. Madrox struggled to actually pick a course of action, Rictor struggled with his change in circumstances, Siryn struggled to accept her father actually died in Brubaker's X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Quicksilver showed up acting messianic/insane.

The second year started out well. Pablo Raimondi came on as the mostly-regular artist. David had established that Madrox sent duplicates around the world to learn and experience new things, and decided Jamie decided if he brought them back, it would make him whole and maybe make things a little clearer. That got waylaid by a story involving some guy called the Isolationist, who Raimondi sometimes drew to resemble John Cena. It at least led to a change in Rictor's status, and David played with the notion that with so few mutants left in the entire world, the mutant neighborhood was falling apart.

Then Messiah CompleX happened. While David had been able to integrate the two-issue Civil War tie-in into what he was already doing, it was a little harder with 4 issues of "everyone hunts the mutant baby." The fallout didn't do the book any favors, either. Layla was lost in the future, Wolfsbane left to join Cyclops' Stabbity Kill Team (the Clayton Crain-drawn X-Force book), Jamie became grim and angry. David tried to roll with it, integrate the feeling of disintegration and uncertainty into the book, but it didn't work so great. He did a storyline with Arcade and I hardly cared. Never a good sign.

The final straw was when I picked up an issue with the triple whammy of being a Secret Invasion tie-in, a She-Hulk (which David was also writing) crossover, and Larry Stroman as the new artist and in dire need of a stronger inker. That was enough and I pulled the ripcord. Same time I finally gave up on Ultimate Spider-Man, actually.

Volume 3 ran 113 issues all told (not counting annuals and special one-shots, one of the latter we'll look at next week), David writing it the whole way, albeit with a long string of different artists. By the end the team was getting involved in wars over control of Hell of all things, and Pip the Troll was part of the cast. Yeah, I don't know if that means I should have given it another chance, or that I did the right thing staying clear.

Saturday Splash Page #1

 

"She Means Goodfellas, Right?" in Young Justice (vol. 1) #27, by Peter David (writer), Todd Nauck (penciler), Larry Strucker (inker), Jason Wright (colorist), Ken Lopez (letterer)

One problem for DC and Marvel is, since they never retire characters but just keep adding more, you end up with things jammed up. You get a new generation of teen heroes who would, in theory, go perfectly on the Teen Titans. Except, oops, the previous generation of teen heroes are still on the Teen Titans, because the Justice Leaguers haven't retired and stepped aside.

Maybe that's not why Young Justice came into being, that there were a bunch of '90s teen heroes with no group of their own, but it sort of feels that way. So Robin (Tim Drake), Superboy and Impulse started hanging out together. By issue 4 the Cassandra Sandsmark Wonder Girl and Arrowette (who was an Impulse supporting cast member, I think) joined in. Peter David added Secret, a brand-new character who escaped being treated as a lab rat by the government, to the mix, and that was the core group for the first couple of years.

Part of the problem team books have is, there's only so much they can do with the characters who have their own titles, and sometimes they have to adapt to the curveballs those books throw. Superboy lost his powers for a while, and David and Nauck adapted to that. Superboy has an evil clone? OK, let's use that at a time when the team is already struggling. Robin and Spoiler's relationship is rocky due to trust issues? Use that for Secret's progression. The whole "Tower of Babel" JLA story got factored in because if Batman's been planning to take down the JLA, is Robin doing the same to his teammates?

The title ran for 55 issues, and in some ways, I think you can follow it in terms of Secret's arc. Secret's so happy at first just to have friends, a place to stay. She tries to do anything for them, to always be there for them. If Red Tornado's wife is in a coma, Secret will do all she can to wake her up. But some of those friends leave or get pulled away by their lives outside the team, while Secret has no life outside Young Justice. That desire to do anything turns into attacking Spoiler when she tries to trail Robin and learn his secret identity. Which is a problem (Secret's crush/fixation) Robin really has no clue how to address. The more they learn, the more they lose, the more things hurt, the more frustrated Secret gets. The more inclined to do what she wishes and take what she wishes.

I'm making the book sound heavier than it is, though there are definitely downer issues, or those trying to deal with things like gun violence, racially-motivated crimes, child murder, parental custody issues. Admittedly that last was about whether an android could have custody rights for his adopted daughter. 

But there's also a lot of lighter issues. The guys meeting a Mxy from earlier in his life and turning him into the prankster he's known as, or Impulse trying to use hypnosis on Little Lobo before his date with Empress. Because it's Peter David, there's also a lot of bad puns and recurring gags. There are two government agents whose last names are Maad and Fite, so they're referred to as "Fite n' Maad". Or anytime Robin points out the obvious someone will remark you can tell he was trained by the world's greatest detective. I didn't know Tim spent time with Detective Chimp. That stuff can get old, but some of it at least has the feel of in-jokes between the characters. The sort of things close friends would bust each other about.

Nauck's art is exaggerated enough to carry the jokes it needs to. The pictures Impulse sometimes has in his thought balloons, or making a sheik look like Ben Stein, because David named the characters Ali Ben Styn. His teenagers are more muscular than probably a lot of teens, but other than Superboy (who is kind of a special case, being a half-clone of Superman), not excessively so. Impulse isn't as gawky and oddly-proportions as Humberto Ramos drew him in his own title, but it's in the same ballpark. Robin is somewhere between Pete Woods' stringbean Robin and Tom Grummett's more cut version. You can tell they're still growing at this point.

Sunday Splash Page #197

 

"Masked Menace Abducts Insane Newsgirl," in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (vol. 1) #4, by Peter David (writer), Mike Wieringo (penciler), Karl Kesel (inker), Paul Mounts (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man wasn't the first book I dropped after I started this blog (Sensational Spider-Man gets that distinction), but it was one of the ones that didn't survive the first year. I don't think there was really any specific need for this book, outside of Marvel's urge to put more Spider-Man comics on the stands, because idiots like me would buy things that said "Spider-Man" on the cover. And it worked, at least for a while. Until about the middle of 2006, really. After that I showed at least a little discretion.

In theory, Peter David was probably planning to focus on more ground-level stuff. JMS was still writing Amazing Spider-Man, which seemed most likely to deal with Avengers-related stuff, so that left a niche for stories where Spider-Man deals with smaller threats, things more closely related to his teaching gig. What it left for Marvel Knights/Sensational Spider-Man I'm less clear about.

In practice, not so much. The fact the book opened with tie-ins to The Other should have been the first hint. I kept this one issue, because I enjoy the sequence where Peter, having returned from the dead just prior, takes Mary Jane on a ride around the city. They swing past the Bugle, Jonah leans out the window to yell, MJ flips him off (with the offending digit tastefully obscured by a pigeon. Because, "flip him the bird", get it?) Not a great reason to hold onto a comic for 15 years, but 2006 was not a great year for Spider-Man comics, I took what I could get.

It's too bad. I think this was the second time Marvel got Mike Wieringo as artist on a Spider-Man book. The first was, unfortunately, the original Sensational Spider-Man, back when Ben Reilly was being Spider-Man, something Wieringo apparently didn't love. He wanted to draw the real Spider-Man. At least he got his wish this time, even if the stories he got to draw were kind of a waste. Again, The Other. Plus the story where David makes fun of bloggers portraying them as self-important losers with no life of their own. Truly an epic for the times.

I dropped the book about the time it looked as though an Uncle Ben from another universe had shown up and was a killer. I recall being outraged they would dare to do something like that, which is really embarrassing. Nowadays I'd just shrug, maybe roll my eyes. I think it turned out to be the Chameleon of some other universe, possibly from the distant future (the same year as that other Spider-Man David created when he did the original Spider-Man/Spider-Man 2099 crossover), but I was long gone by then.

Random Back Issues #37 - Supergirl #74

Would reverse psychology for Bizarros just be honesty?

We looked at one of the issues of this volume of Supergirl for Random Back Issues #4. That was in the brief epilogue of the series, after Ed Benes took over as artist and the Silver Age Supergirl showed up. Today, we're at the culmination of what Peter David had been doing since the book started. Which means there's a lot of stuff to explain about this issue that's taking place in the Garden of Eden.

The Earth Angel aspect of Supergirl vanished after a big fight with The Carnivore in issue #50, leaving Linda Danvers with Golden Age Superman-level powers as she traveled the world trying to locate Supergirl, with the help of Buzz, a pest of a demon. Buzz acts and talks like he wandered over from one of Warren Ellis' more phoned-in works. All British sarcasm, cynicism, smoking and drinking.

Mary Marvel joined them about 8 issues earlier, leaving Linda increasingly frustrated with how much better and more competent of a person and hero Mary. To the point she ignored Mary and charged into the fight immediately, and Mary got stabbed in the heart with a Hell Lord's dagger. Buzz spends the first three pages of the issue yelling at Linda about what a fuckup she is. Then the Earth Angel Supergirl (being controlled by a Bizarro version of Linda-Supergirl, created by a scientist at the best of a Joker-gas infected Two-Face during a Last Laugh tie-in) pulls from the Man-Thing playbook and starts burning Linda for her hatred and doubt and whatever.

Bizarro S-Girl is herself being manipulated by Lilith, God's first attempt to create a woman (who was not down with hanging out with Adam or serving him as God told her to), and the Carnivore's mother. She's gonna use Angel Supergirl's powers to open a portal to rescue her son. Linda, looking more like Deadpool trying to cosplay as Supergirl after falling in a fire pit, tries to take her down, but is outclassed. She manages to convince the Bizarro to help, but as Bizarro is more plant than flesh(?), the Hell Lord Hurmizah unleashes a plague of locusts that devour her.

As if there aren't enough balls in the air already, a lady named Twilight steps in to help. She has shadow powers, and the ability to bring people back from the dead, but lost faith in God after her power couldn't save her sister back in the Middle Ages. Lilith's forced her compliance by keeping the reincarnated sister as a hostage, but the Queen of the Fairies frees her, and little sis convinced her to throw in with Linda. That wouldn't be enough, but with Bizarro dead, Angel Supergirl is free and able to step in as the Carnivore begins to emerge.

I thought trying to explain all the shit in that issue of Amazing Spider-Man last month was making my head hurt, but we have a new champion. I can actually feel my headache growing in intensity as I type.

Things aren't looking great, but Buzz hits Lilith in the heart with Hurmizah's knife, which throws the villains off enough they can be forced back through the portal to, wherever. Buzz crows about how this was what he wanted all along, because Lilith's husband is Baalzebub, who tricked Buzz centuries ago and cost him his wife (who was eventually reincarnated as Linda, yeesh), and this is Buzz getting payback. The money quote is, "And all that business about vengeance being a hollow pursuit? Pure bull. Vengeance is great. I highly recommend it."

Day is saved, minus the part where Mary, Linda, and Twilight are all dying or dead. Angel Supergirl prepares to fuse with Linda again, who tells her to fuse with Twilight instead, since she's a better, more deserving person. A better, more deserving person with the ability to revive the dead, so Linda and Mary are alive again, and Linda's powers are a little closer to what they were before. She can fly again, which is nice.

Buzz vanished, Twilight and Angel Supergirl are the combined being now, Twilight has her sister back, Linda and Mary leave the Garden and out in space, there's a rocketship with a blonde girl with an "S" on her chest. This was the last issue for the Leonard Kirk and Robin Riggs art duo, after Kirk had been artist on the book since about issue 13, and Riggs had been on the team since #24.

{11th longbox, 50th comic. Supergirl (vol. 3) #74, by Peter David (writer), Leonard Kirk and Robin Riggs (artists), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Digital Chameleon (letterer)}