Odds and sods and Superman again!

I hope everyone out there (or at least all of my American readers) is enjoying the holiday today. The international readers among you can feel free to enjoy the day too, you'll just have to do it in a non-governmentally sanctioned way.

It's time once again to raid the longboxes and see what completely random book I get to review is, but first let's do a little odds and sods for the last couple of weeks.

• Does this mean that I can stop having people getting all evangelical on me when I tell them that I have never read any Scott Pilgrim?



• Here's a quick tip for the aspiring bloggers among you. Mention All-Star Wonder Woman somewhere in your posts on a regular basis. In the last month since I blogged about the Adam Hughes pin-up of the Jim Lee redesigned Wonder Woman from ten years ago, the phrase All-Star Wonder Woman has been the leading search term that brought people to my website. I would've thought this title fell completely off the radar, but I'm guessing if Adam Hughes ever gets around to finishing it, it'll be a top ten book.



• So I was reading some old Defenders issues I bought after having such a good time with this one, and I came across this ad.
  
  
  It's from 1977, and if I'm not mistaken that's Alan Moore trying to subvert the youth with his "magic". I guess that didn't pan out, and he decided to take a more circuitous route into the mind's of the readers by controlling the actual content of the books the next year.

So now that I've brought all of those pertinent observations to you, it's time to hit you with a little random goodness with a new book to review. Take it away Randomizer...

...and that book is Superman #65 from March 1992, published by DC Comics!

It took a while, but we finally hit managed to snag a Dan Jurgen's Superman book to review. Why is that such a big deal?

There were two books in the early 90's that made a huge impact on me and I'm pretty sure are the main reason that I'm still reading comics, instead of burning out during the speculator boom and crash. The first one was Neil Gaiman's Sandman, while the other was Dan Jurgen's Superman. Both of them re-invigorated my interest in comic books, but for wildly different reasons.

Neil Gaiman showed me how much more comics could actually do, by going outside the super-hero boundaries. Dan Jurgen's on the other hand, took an approach one hundred and eighty degrees opposite, but no less entertaining.

This particular issue lands us smack dab in the Panic In The Sky! storyline that ran through the Superman books at the time, with Brainiac wreaking havoc with Warworld at his command. We've been kind of lucky lately, with the Randomizer picking either the first or last issue of a story to read, but not this time. Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy it nonetheless.

See you in a day or two for the review!

Fantastic Four #347

TITLE: Fantastic Four #347

PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics

COVER DATE: December 1990

COVER PRICE: $1.00

23 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

There's two things that I remember about this issue. One of them, it turns out, I've remembered incorrectly.

I'd always assumed that this issue was the start of Walter Simonson's run on Fantastic Four. I'd read a little bit of the Fantastic Four here and there, but never followed it with any sort of regularity. This issue was the start of me buying this title on a monthly basis, and I guess I always attributed that fact to jumping on at the beginning of Simonson's run, but it turns out that he started his tenure on this title back on issue #334!

As much as I hate to admit it, I guess I jumped on with this issue because it had Wolverine and Ghost Rider in it. Don't judge me...it was the early 90's and I was a naive comic book reader.

Luckily for me this was an awesome issue in the middle of an awesome run. Which leads me to the second thing I remember about this issue, which was that it turned me into a Fantastic Four fan. To put it more correctly, I guess I should say it turned me into a frustrated fan as Simonson would be off the title only eight months later.

To me, Simonson set the bar incredibly high with his run. Yes, It was wacky, goofy, and tongue in cheek; but most of all it was intelligent and incredibly entertaining at the same time. Not many other creators have managed to achieve that balance, which is why my collecting history with the title is full of holes.

The closest we probably got was with Waid and Wieringo's tenure earlier in the decade, which unfortunately had it's consistency marred by some overactive editorialial influence. John Byrne had a highly entertaining run, but I don't know how intelligent it actually was, while Hickman's run currently is striving for intelligent, but leaving the fun behind. I've never read any of Stan and Jack's original run (I know, I know...I'll get around to it someday), but I can only assume that it hit the mark seeing as how they were the ones that defined the target.

To me, Walter Simonson's short run is the apex of greatness, and the fact that there are twelve more issues that I never knew existed before today have me chomping at the bit to go do some longbox shopping tomorrow. In the meantime, however, we'll tide ourselves over rereading this issue.

Big Trouble On Little Earth!

• Writing: Walter Simonson
• Penciling: Arthur Adams
• Inking: Art Thibert
• Lettering: Bill Oakley
• Coloring: Steve Buccellato
• Editing: Ralph Macchio
• Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

This issue begins in space, as the silence between the Earth and the Moon is broken by the arrival of a damaged ship that emerges from lightspeed, only to crash land on Earth.

The attractive female pilot (hey, she's drawn by Art Adams...she's gonna be pretty) escapes with her life, swearing vengeance on those that betrayed her and marooned her on Earth.

We'll find out exactly who (and what) she is in a bit, but first let's check in with the Fantastic Four at Four Freedoms Plaza who are enjoying some down time after being away for the last couple of weeks. Like any typical family, however, there's some dysfunction hiding in the background.

Johnny seems to be infatuated with an alien woman that they met a few issues back, even though he's married to Alicia Masters. Johnny Storm married...I had forgotten all about that.

A human Ben Grimm seeks to console his girlfriend, Sharon Ventura, who is currently She-Thing and trapped in her rocky form. She-Thing...I had forgotten all about that.

That right there is the sign of a good writer. You got two things that by all rights should hamper your ability to tell a good Fantastic Four story, and he makes 'em work. So much so, that I had completely forgotten that they were even an issue.

Seeking to take advantage of everyone's distracted attentionzs, our mysterious crash survivor arrives at Four Freedoms Plaza. Using her ability to change shape and her telepathy, she easily slips inside and begins to take the FF down one by one.

Changing her from into Nebula, Johnny's blue-skinned alien infatuation from earlier, she appears before him and gets close enough to shock him into unconsciousness with a hand held taser device.

Similarly, she does the same thing to Ben. Only this time appearing as Johnny's wife, Alicia Masters, his old flame who fell in love with Johnny when Ben was off-world. He obviously still has feelings for her, as the shapechanger is able to take advantage of that to get close enough to use the same device on Ben.

...and we all know the conflicted feelings that Sue has always had for Namor.

Second verse, same as the first...and down goes Sue to the shapechanger.

After drugging She-Thing with a knock-out brew of tea, the mysterious alien sets her sights on Reed. It turns out that the alien actually has a little crush on Reed, and takes the form of his wife to seduce him into unconsciousness.

Unfortunately for her, Reed is too quick and notices her deception and manages to bend his body away from her taser at the last second. As perceptive as he is, however, he's never been that good of a hand-to-hand fighter and he soon finds himself unconscious with the rest of the Fantastic Four before he can alert the Avengers.

Meanwhile, we find out exactly who the mysterious alien attacker was running from as a Skrull warship enters Earth orbit, hot on her trail.

Scanning the planet for De'Lila, they soon find a plethora of Skrull-like lifeforms centered on a small island in the pacific. Cloaking their ship, they head to the island to investigate. Unfortunately for them, that small island is none other than Monster Island, which they find out the hard way.

It turns out that the monsters of Monster Island all have a primitive Skrull like brain, which was the source of the Skrull life readings. The Skrull in charge seems less concerned about why that is, than with using that fact to his advantage to smoke out De'Lila from hiding. Using neural disruptor darts, they tag each monster and teleport it to various cities around the globe. Using the disruptors to increase the ferocity of the monsters, they hope to drive up the mental stress planet-wide and flush her out.

Little do they know, there's a monarch of Monster Isle...and he's none to happy about the current turn of events.

Still in the form of Sue, De'Lila uses the FF's computers to familiarize herself with Earth's superheroes. Reed's files are complete enough that they allow her to pick and choose among them a group of recruits with which she hopes to achieve her destiny. Using her telepathy she sends a mental summoning out to the four heroes who soon arrive at the door of Four Freedoms Plaza.

The Grey Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider are soon brought in to see "Sue", who tells them the tragic (and altogether false) tale of how she returned home to find her home in ruins and the rest of the Fantasic Four dead or dying. Using one of her husband's inventions, she called to each of them to come to her aid to help avenge the recently deceased members of the Fantastic Four.

By now, the "new" members of the Fantastic Four have fallen for De'Lila's story and agree to help her find the monsters that did this. Playing right into her hand, she arms them with another of Reed's gadgets that will allow them to track down the energy signature of the attackers. Little do they know, the attackers they're being sent to hunt down are the Skrulls that are hunting De'Lila.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

This comic was as fun, if not more, than I remember. Maybe it's the fact that there is so little new Marvel that I find readable for three bucks anymore, that I'm starting to get nostalgic for the characters that I grew up with.

Or maybe it's the fact that it's been so long since I enjoyed a good Fantastic Four book, that this issue seems to shine a little brighter. Hell, it's been even longer since I've enjoyed a Wolverine book, that his brief appearance here actually made me miss the old canuck.

Whether it was any of those reasons, or an amalgam of others, this book just pleased me to no end. Even though the Fantastic Four get punked out relatively early in the book, it's got alot of the earmarks that make a great story...Skrulls, Monster Isle, crazy inventions, family drama, space travel, etc...

And speaking of the Skrulls...they're an antagonist I like best when they are played for laughs. They've never been the most dangerous of foes in the FF rogue's gallery, but they are entertaining none the less. The over-the-top inclusion of some of the 90's most overused guest stars let you know right away that this is going to be a fun issue. So with the Skrulls and Mole Man as the villains, we have the perfect blend of absurdity and comedy with which to have a little fun at their own expense.

This is the first part of a three parter, so unfortunately we have to spend most of our time setting things up. Luckily for us, we have Art Adams supplying the pencils for this issue, so even the dialogue heavy pages are fun to look at.

One thing that is distracting about the art, is that the combination of the paper quality and the coloring tended to give this book an over-saturated look on the page. I'd love to see this book recolored using today's technology, as I'm sure it would give Art Adams' beautiful pencils even more attention.

Now we just have to wait for the Randomizer to pick another book from this run, so that we can continue on with one of the best runs from the 90's. In the meantime, I'll be happily looking through some back-issue bins for the issues that I missed.

Holy crap! Simonson had Kang show up during his run?! How the heck did I miss that? Now I'm definitely hitting the comic book store tomorrow.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) Marvel Comics

Sea serpents, bullets, and gimmicks!

It's the first of the month, which means a a clean slate of fresh challenges that await us. It's also a Wednesday, which means a clean slate of new books to read. Before we get lost in the ongoing adventures of comic book day, let's take a trip back into the past to see exactly what the kids were reading in Comic Book Days of Wednesdays Past!

We've reset the Randomizer to pick a year from 1938 to 2009, so where's our first stop?

1954!

If you were growing up in the early 50's and took your dime to the general store, there's a chance you may have walked out with Out Of The Night #17.

At first, I was worried for Peter Parker on that cover. To begin with, I think he's been slacking on his mythological studies as I don't ever recall Minotaurs ever being drawn as sea serpents.

Secondly, it's a freaking sea serpent! Run!

Third, it's breathing fire! Oops, my bad...that minotaur serpent isn't breathing fire, but being hit by some sort of exploding projectile thrown by our hero.

In that case, I think he gets what he deserves. Anyone walking around an underground labyrinth with flaming projectiles is just itching for a fight, in my opinion.

Let's leave him to his fate and see what year we're off to next.

1942!

Yes, when political correctness was just a gleam in society's eye, we had Bulletman #9 on the stands. And really, who better to take on a pack of wild dogs than two heroes modeling themselves after bullets. As outraged as PETA is right about now, I'm sure you could take any cover of Bulletman from this time and make it seem vaguely inappropriate.

It's not as bad as it first looks however, as what I originally mistook for a hail of gunfire surrounding the canine bank robbing gang is just jewels falling from their ill-gotten gain.

Nothing to worry about here after all. Although it does remind me that it's been far too long since I've caught The Doberman Gang on cable t.v. Do they even replay that anymore?

So let's use the power of the Randomizer for good, and pick the next random book from my collection to review. Take it away Randomizer...

...and that book is Fantastic Four #347 from December 1990, published by Marvel Comics!

Hey, it's our old friends the Fantastic Four! Remember them? They were the star of our very first review here at the Random Longbox, and they've been surprisingly absent in the intervening fifteen months.

Come to think of it, it wasn't even the "real" Fantastic Four as the book that we reviewed fell smack dab into the Heroes Reborn Jim Lee reboot. It's a good thing we get another crack at the FF, with the 616 version of them--

Wait a minute...is that Ghost Rider on the cover? And Gray Hulk?

Yes, it's the goofiest line up of the FF ever with Ghost Rider, Hulk, Spider-Man and Wolverine taking over for a couple of issues.

I could feign outrage at Spider-Man and Wolverine being part of the team too, but that argument's getting a little stale. Besides, if I remember correctly this storyline was a parody of sorts of cash-grabbing guest stars that were all the rage at this time, so their inclusion here actually makes sense.

See you in a day or two for the review.

I didn't need another excuse to read a comic book, but I'll take it.

So if you believe everything the internet tells you, today is apparently the first annual Read Comics In Public Day. It's the brainchild of Brian Heater and Sarah Morean, and it's nothing more complicated than taking to the streets and reading your comic books loud and proud.

I've never been shy about reading my funny books in public, so this was a no-brainer for me. I'm actually working for the wife this weekend at the People's Art Festival in Detroit, but I did manage to sneak away for a moment or two to help the cause.

Even Mrs. Random Longbox found the time to enjoy one of her favorite books.

So now that you know what today is, what are you still doing reading this blog? Get up and head out into public with a stack of comics in tow!

As for me, it's back to work. I don't want the boss to see me slacking any more than I have already. I will, however, be back soon to announce the next random book to review (but the eagle-eyed readers out there among you probably already know what that book is).

DC Comics Presents #8

TITLE: DC Comics Presents #8

PUBLISHER: DC Comics

COVER DATE: April 1979

COVER PRICE: $0.40

17 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

I made a comment not too long ago about how there're very few characters or titles left where I'm actively trying to complete a collection, of which Superman is one of them. I also recently reached a point in my collecting with Action Comics and Superman where the majority of the holes that I have left now lie knee deep in the silver age or earlier. Needless to say, the higher price points have slowed down my collecting just a bit.

To help combat the Superman back-issue withdrawls, I set my sights on a lot of the secondary titles, with DC Comics Presents being the cream of the crop. About two years ago I found a complete collection of all 101 issues on ebay for a hundred bucks.

I've since read some here and there, but haven't gotten around to this one yet. So not only are we going in cold on this one, but this will also be the very first pre-"Alan Moore" Swamp Thing story I've ever read too!

Before we get into it, let's just take a moment to admire yet another awesome cover by one of my favorite Superman artists from this era...Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez! His Superman compliments what Curt Swan was doing at the time, but really amps up the athleticism and power of Superman without overdoing it. It's a very "Marvel" looking Superman.

So let's crack this thing open and see what we have in store for us.

"The Sixty Deaths of Solomon Grundy!"

• Writer: Steve Englehart
• Artist: Murphy Anderson
• Letterer: Ben Oda
• Colorist: Jerry Serpe
• Editor: Juluis Schwartz

The story opens up in the sewers of Metropolis, as the Swamp Thing shambles through the underbelly of the city with a singular purpose. A recent newspaper article from the Daily Planet has led him here to search the sewers for Solomon Grundy. He's hoping that this "Marshland Monster" can provide some clue to his condition, and hopefully a way to reverse it.

It's worth noting at this point, that this issue is still relatively early in Swamp Thing's career. He debuted seven years earlier, but his series only lasted for twenty-four issues. This was also long before Alan Moore turned him into an elemental spirit of sorts, so what we have here reminds me a lot of The Incredible Hulk t.v. show...trapped in this savage form, he wanders the country using his scientific intellect to try to reverse the accident that made him a monster.

So now his travels have brought him to Metropolis, his hopes resting on finding Solomon Grundy, who recently gave Superman some trouble. Unfortunately for him, Superman has found him first.

Superman aims to capture Grundy once and for all, but Swamp Thing realizes that if he succeeds, then there goes his chance of finding a potential cure. He doesn't want to do it, but he must stop Superman from apprehending Grundy.

Superman could more than likely take each of these monsters out quite easily on their own, but together they manage to get the upper hand.

"Blum?" Here, let Grundy show you how you defeat Superman with a proper sound effect.

Leaving Superman alive but unconscious, the two brothers of the bog depart with Grundy following Swamp Thing like a lost puppy. Luckily for the Swamp Thing, they soon stumble upon an abandoned laboratory in the sewers. It's rudimentary, but should be adequate enough to analyze a skin sample of Grundy's. Metropolis was such a wonderful place in the 60's and 70's, as there was always an abandoned warehouse or laboratory around when you needed one.

Here, the two monsters practice for their way-off-Broadway revival of "The Odd Couple" musical.

Meanwhile, after regaining his consciousness, Superman heads to S.T.A.R. Labs with a sample of the sewer water from his recent battle for them to analyze. He needs to find out what is causing Solomon Grundy's recent reappearances.

While the scientists dash off to do the grunt work, it's time for Superman to lay the Kryptonian charm on Lois.

Wait a minute...did I miss an issue or sixty somewhere between the beginning of the Bronze Age and the Modern Age?

Apparently I did.

Alas, the life of a superhero can never be this uncomplicated, as Solomon Grundy reappears right outside of S.T.A.R. Labs.

But isn't he down in the sewers with the Swamp Thing?

No time to worry about that just now...go get 'em, Superman!

Speaking of Swamp Thing, he's finally done with his makeshift genetic experiments with negative results. Since Grundy isn't truly alive, there's no connection between the two of them, and thus no hope for a cure just yet. Just as Swamp Thing is about to break the bad news to Grundy, they overhear a news broadcast about Superman's recent defeat of Solomon Grundy, which filters down through the sewer pipes.

Grrr! Sewer pipe only get one channel...Grundy kill!

Grundy heads to the surface to confront Superman as the one true Solomon Grundy, when Superman finally realizes that he has a bigger problem on his hands. And wouldn't you know it, Grundy has cock-blocked him once again!

Superman rushes back to S.T.A.R. Labs, where they have managed to synthesize a chemical from the sewer water that Superman can use to destroy the army of Grundy's that are ravaging Metropolis. Swamp Thing emerges from the sewer just as Superman flies off to destroy the marauding marsh monsters.

During their short time together, the Swamp Thing realized that even though the Grundy beasts are not truly "alive", they don't deserve to die either. But as we've already seen, it's too late. Besides, Superman's only a man...with manly desires...and he's going to do what it takes so that Grundy will not interrupt him and Lois again.

He's not completely heartless, however, as he does manage to give a parting thought for the Swamp Thing, musing that one day maybe he'll be able to help him too. Hopefully, it'll be help of a more compassionate kind than he gave Grundy.

Cue "The Lonely Man" by Joe Harnell

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

Apparantly Superman spent a lot of time in the sewers of Metropolis in the 70's, as the last time we reviewed one of his books from this era he was down there too. That one featured S.T.A.R. Labs also, which was also it's first appearance.

And here's another coincidence that just occured to me. That previous Superman/Swamp Monster/Sewer battle was written by none other than Len Wein, the creator of Swamp Thing, a full year before Swamp Thing's first appearance. Could that story have been an idea that stuck with Len Wein, eventually germinating into the Swamp Thing? Who knows, but the timing sure is freaky.

Anyway, we're here to talk about what we learned from this book, right?

Overall, there's not too much here that's really consequential to either Swamp Thing or Superman. It's a nice little done-in-one that pushes along both character's narratives, without really either deviating from what came before, or veering off into a new direction.

If you read this issue as an homage or a tribute to the work of Wein and Wrightson, then it's decent enough, if not a little on the light side. The artwork from Murphy Anderson is serviceable, but really doesn't aspire to give us anything other than the standard DC house style of the time. That's a bit of a shame, as the Swamp Thing is a character that definitely invites a little artistic experimentation.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) DC Comics

Oh DC...you shouldn't have!

So I'm drinking my coffee yesterday, plugging away at the New York Times crossword puzzle, while trying to come up with something new and exciting to talk about for today's preamble before we pick another random book to review. Nothing really moved me or was compelling enough this week that deserved a little spotlight, so I'm just about to give up and let the post ride for another day or two when I get to the clue for 56 Across...

"The lowest form of humor" per Samuel Johnson

SPOILER ALERT...the answer is PUN, as any lover of trivia, crossword puzzles, quotes, or paronomasia knows.

I happen to enjoy a little bit of wordplay, with the pun being a particular favorite, but I've never really been that adept at crafting them. I can, however, appreciate the effort that other people have.

So what the heck does this have to do with comics?

Well let me tell you.

Today is my birthday (number forty to be exact), and what book did the Randomizer happen to pick for me to review? Take it away Randomizer...

...and that book is DC Comics Presents #8 from April 1979, published by DC Comics!

You see it, right?

It's my birthday, and the Randomizer got me a present in the form of DC Comics Presents!

All right everybody, you can stop your groaning now, but when was the last time DC ever gave you a present for your birthday? I'll see you in a day or two for the review, and we'll find out exactly what Swamp Thing was up to in Metropolis.