Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,401
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 28, 2019 2:09:15 GMT -5
I am guessing you got that Alan Moore DC trade. What a great collection.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 28, 2019 2:25:30 GMT -5
I am guessing you got that Alan Moore DC trade. What a great collection. Yup....picked it for for $10 at a Half Price Books in Columbus a few weeks ago. It is a great collection.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,401
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 28, 2019 2:31:46 GMT -5
I am guessing you got that Alan Moore DC trade. What a great collection. Yup....picked it for for $10 at a Half Price Books in Columbus a few weeks ago. It is a great collection. 10 is a great deal on it. I grabbed it awhile back for cover price. Mostly got it for the Green Arrow and Mogo stories since I didn't have copies anymore.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 29, 2019 1:34:52 GMT -5
Vigilante #17"Father's Day"Cover Date: May, 1985 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Jim Baikie Featured Character(s): Vigilante Villain/s: Carl Linnaker (1st Appearance of) Guest Stars: Joanne Linnaker, Louise, Jodie Linnaker, Fever, & Laverne (1st appearance of all; the first characters die) Official Plot:No Synopsis Brodie's View:We finally get to this two part story that takes place in the short lived VIGILANTE ongoing. The character, who is pretty much what his code name implies, started off as a reoccurring character in the NEW TEEN TITANS series. Of course, I think Alan Moore pretty much took this job because the character was kind of a blank slate, which allowed Moore to tell a darker story in the grimier world this character works in. In this case, it's of an abusive/murderous father, who slaughters his wife, and spends the rest of the issue chasing after his daughter. The daughter ends up running into a couple of prostitutes (one of whom is also sitting on a large amount of weed), who take her in, while also trying to alert someone who can help them. This brings our titular character into play, although, he seems to always arrive after horrible shit has happened. See, the main prostitute's friend ends up going to the store to buy food for the daughter, but the psycho dad just happens to witness this, and follows her back to the apartment, where he ends up basically killing her as well. He also takes his daughter back, which sets up the big confrontation that will happen in the next issue. We will also get the wrap up of this two part story, and then move on to more cosmic based stories once again. This was a decent issue that allowed Moore to go pretty dark with the material. Unfortunately, it really doesn't make one want to continue reading the book past Moore's involvement, as the titular character is pretty bland. Perhaps I'll feel differently after the second part, but I kind of doubt it. Moore's writing is aces, though. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 30, 2019 2:32:10 GMT -5
Vigilante #18"Father's Day Part Two"Cover Date: June, 1985 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Jim Baikie Featured Character(s): Vigilante Villain/s: Carl Linnaker (dies) Guest Stars: Louise, Jodie Linnaker, Fever, & Byron Official Plot:No Synopsis Brodie's View:We get the wrap up in this two part VIGILANTE story, where the lead character kind of takes the back seat to the overall story. This is Alan Moore's doing, as one can tell that he doesn't really take the character seriously. In fact, he kind of goofs on the character/makes him kind of ineffective a few times over the course of the story. Coming off of the events of last issue, Vigilante and the prostitute, Fever, try to find Jodie Linnaker, who has been kidnapped by her psycho father, Carl. We get Carl's "narration" throughout the issue, as Moore uses a letter written from Carl to his daughter that kind of shows the mental instability that hides within the seemingly normal man turned murderer. After some character stuff between Vigilante and Fever (Vigilante is forced to rely on Fever for a ride after the wheels of his bike get stolen...lol) we get to our big confrontation between our "hero" and the psychotic Carl. They fight, and both are wounded (with the daughter actually coming to the defense of her abusive (and we reveal more than physically abusive) father. Nethertheless, Carl ends up meeting his end under Fever's tire, as she basically runs his head over. The rest of the story is wrap up, as Vigilante and Fever argue over the rightness of her actions, but at the end of the day, justice was served, and there's really not much Vigilante can really say, as he is...a Vigilante. A good story existing within the book of kind of a one note character. That's kind of what this was, and although Moore tries, there's not much he can do to keep this from being a good story, rather than a GREAT one. Next up, we get a couple of short stories from the OMEGA MEN book, and then we get the next set of Gems from this trade. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 1, 2019 2:27:56 GMT -5
Omega Men #26"Brief Lives"Cover Date: May, 1985 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Kevin O'Neill Featured Character(s): Ogyptuans Villain/s: The Spider Guild Guest Stars: None Official Plot:The Spider Guild find that they are powerless to conduct an invasion of a planet whose inhabitants are too long-lived to notice them. Brodie's View:Man! Alan Moore was on fire as a writer in 1985. In addition to writing SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING, he seemed to be auditioning to do more on DC's regular books during this period, as he wrote a ton of back up stories/fill in issues throughout 85. The next two short stories, which appeared as back ups in DC's cosmic book, OMEGA MEN, deal with peripheral things going on in that part of the universe. This issue deals with a planet that are only populated by two large giants who have much, MUCH longer life spans than most of us, so, centuries passing would seem like seconds to them. OMEGA MEN (I assume, as I've never read OMEGA MEN) regular baddies, The Spider Guild, find this out, as they try to conquer the planet. This story is somewhat reminiscent of "Mogo Doesn't Socialize," in the sense that we're really building (over 6 pages) to a punchline of sorts. Whereas in the last story, the pay off was Mogo actually being a planet Green Lantern, in this story it's just that the two giants are too powerful, and too long lived to even notice the invasion of the Spider Guild. Years and years pass, as one of the Guild's scientists tries EVERYTHING to kill the two giants, who don't even notice them until that scientist basically commits suicide by detonating what appears to be a nuclear bomb. However, to the giants, it just shows up as a tiny poof of air, which slightly shocks one of the two. However, the other giant tells him not to worry about it....life's too short. ( ) Once again, nothing too substantial here. Just a neat little short story to take up 6 pages of comic that wasn't being used by the main story. We get one more of these in the next review, and then we'll start moving into more substantial stories, including some real gems. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 2, 2019 2:05:53 GMT -5
Omega Men #27"A Man's World"Cover Date: June, 1985 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Paris Cullins Featured Character(s): Leelyo Villain/s: None Guest Stars: Culacaons (Mopi & Rudo) Official Plot:An alien biologist studying the Culacon race seeks to learn, without females, how the males manage to make babies. Brodie's View:We get another 6 page back up story for the OMEGA MEN book here, but this one is just kind of mildly interesting, rather than even being good for the sake of a punch line-esque pay off like the last back up story was. This basically follows a female alien biologist, who is studying a planet populated by only males, and who are, somehow, able to asexually reproduce. This leads to the female kind of seducing one of the male aliens, and sleeping with him. The pay off, I guess, comes the next morning, when the male alien goes to one of his brethren and engages in that timeless male tendency to need to brag about the previous night's conquest. Other than that, this story was pretty skipable. That's not saying it was terrible, per say. Alan Moore's writing is too good to say that it sucked, and perhaps I would have enjoyed it more as a die hard OMEGA MEN fan. However, this, and the last story, were my first experiences even reading anything from the OMEGA MEN series, so, it just kind of left me shrugging my shoulders at the end. The next review won't leave me like that, though. No, this will be quite a good story, as Moore does a one shot story in one of DC's main Team Up books. This team up, however, won't be your typical "two good guys team up to fight a mutual enemy" type of story, as the conflict is more of an internal one, but it ends up drawing two characters together that would rarely meet under normal circumstances. GRADE: B-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 3, 2019 2:34:49 GMT -5
DC Comics Presents #85"The Jungle Line"Cover Date: Sept, 1985 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Rick Veitch Featured Character(s): Superman & Swamp Thing Villain/s: The Bloodmorel Guest Stars: Lana Lang & Dr. Everett Official Plot:Clark Kent and Lana Lang attend a seminar by a Dr. Everett, who has discovered a meteorite bearing a patch of living fungus which managed to survive for years in a frigid vacuum without being destroyed. Clark wonders if perhaps the fungus originates from Krypton. Thinking back, he recalls an entry in Rem-Ul's Almanac of Old Krypton which is dedicated to a fungus known as Bloodmorel, native to the Scarlet Jungle. The Bloodmorel grows and thrives within the Kryptonian bloodstream causing fever, bouts of incapacitation, hallucinations, chronic overexertion, and eventually, in 92% of cases, death. Soon after the seminar, Clark notices that his powers are acting up. That night, he has hallucinations. Realizing that he has few options left, he returns to the Institute for Extra-terrestrial Studies as Superman, and borrows the meteorite from Dr. Everett. He uses his X-Ray vision to try to find an antidote, but that power fails him after a short time. Knowing that he has been infected, Kal-El understands that he will soon die. He chooses to go south, to a place without indigenous super humans. He takes the meteor with him, just in case. He rents a car, and drives to Louisiana, but he falls asleep at the wheel, and the car crashes in flames. Delirious, he grabs the meteorite and wanders through the flames and swamp, hallucinating that he is in the Scarlet Jungle. Swamp Thing comes across Clark's collapsed form. He notices the meteorite and the fungus on it, and uses his connection to The Green to try to establish contact with it. He quickly realizes that the fungus has an alien origin. He feels that the man before him has a familiar face, and after some investigation, he realizes that he has stumbled across Superman. Superman wakes in a frenzy, and instinctively burns a hole through Swamp Thing's chest with his heat vision. Swamp Thing comes to understand that the most powerful creature on the planet has gone mad. Superman's insanity causes destruction to the swamp lands, and it becomes clear that all of the exertion will eventually kill him. Desperately, Swamp Thing tries to make contact by linking himself to Superman via the fungus and The Green. He appears within Superman's hallucination, and at first, the man of steel is distrustful. Swamp Thing explains that Superman's fighting and overexertion are pushing his body beyond its limits. Finally, Superman realizes that he is succumbing to his illness. In order to help calm him, Swamp Thing submerges Superman within the calm of The Green, and he falls asleep. Superman's fever breaks, and Swamp Thing leaves him. When Superman wakes, he shaves, and then takes the meteorite back to Metropolis, knowing that the fungus can no longer harm him. Superman is proud that he overcame it on his own, blissfully unaware of Swamp Thing's participation in his recovery. Brodie's View:Unlike the standard "Superheroes Fight, then Team Up" type of story, we get a different sort of team up story which almost seems like it should be a SWAMP THING story, as it features the writer, artist, and tone of that book. However, the Swamp Thing doesn't show up until the second half of the story, so, our main focus is on Superman, who becomes infected by a Kryptonian fungus that slowly causes him to lose his powers, hallucinate, and completely lose track of where he is and what he is doing at a certain time. If this sounds like a incredibly scary thing to be happening to someone on the power level of The Man of Steel, it most certainly is, and as Supes realizes the danger he poses as the sickness increases, he decides to travel south with the fungus carrying meteorite. It's there that he encounters The Swamp Thing, who quickly figures out that Superman is sick/dying, and that he has gone insane from the tremendous fever he has gotten. Being that the Swamp Thing has a connection with all plants (being revealed as an Earth elemental during Moore's run), he is able to connect into Superman's hallucination, which is all centered in the alien world of the fungus. Eventually, Swamp Thing is able to convince Superman to relax and envelop himself in The Green, which is the pure plant world that the Swamp Thing can tap into. This eventually allows Superman to beat the fungus' sickness, and fly off now immune to its effects, not even realizing that he was helped by Swampie. This was a great story that, like I stated earlier, very much feels like more of an issue of the SWAMP THING book, both in look and tone, than it does a regular Superman story. Of course, this is what really worked about it, as Superman's hallucinations definitely were well depicted by Rick Veitch's aptitude for drawing horror/horrific images. And let's not forget Moore's writing, as he is very tuned in when it comes to writing both of these characters, so, it came off pretty effortlessly. We have one more two part Superman story to get to in this trade, and it is fantastic, but first, we'll be dealing with another back up story from the Green Lantern side of things. GRADE: A
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,401
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 3, 2019 18:05:15 GMT -5
I love that issue. Anytime I find it for a buck or less I grab it. Rescue it from the cheap bins and end up giving it to someone.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 4, 2019 1:10:23 GMT -5
Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2"Tygers"Cover Date: Dec, 1986 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Kevin O'Neill Featured Character(s): Abin Sur Villain/s: Empire of Tears (Qull of the Five Inversions & Roxeaume of the Five Inversions) Guest Stars: Korugaran girl & The Green Lantern Corps (Hal Jordan & Sodam Yat---both in visions) Official Plot:Abin Sur arrives high above the planet Ysmault, inquiring his ring information regarding it. The ring informs him that the corpseworld before him was the throneworld of the Empire of Tears, the minds of which had been entombed by the Guardians of the Universe. Sur descends upon the planet, knowing he is doing so without the Guardians' permission -- he had detected a crashed ship on the planet's surface. On Ysmault, Sur explores the landscape, amazed by the unsettling atmosphere. The various demons he encounters ask to fulfill any desires he has. Sur denies they have anything he desires, and ignores their offers. He eventually meets Qull of the Five Inversions, who offers "any three answers to any three condrums". Sur decides to ask where the ship had crashed. Qull answers that the vessel is nearby and that a child is the only survivor. Sur holds off asking any more questions and heads westward. He indeed finds the ship and rescues the infant within -- she had only suffered a broken ankle. Convinced of the veracity of Qull's answers, Sur ignores his suspicions of malicious intent and asks about his own future. Qull reveals that Sur will die when his ring fails him at a critical moment, and that his successor will be the greatest amongst his contemporaries. This revelation doesn't bother Sur, who asks his final question: Qull fortells the uprising of the enemies of the Green Lantern Corps, resulting in the complete oblivion of the Corps. Amongst the army are the Weaponers of Qward, Ranx the Sentient City, and the Children of the White Lobe. The Empire of Tears also participate after being freed from entombment. Qull goes on to detail the fall of Sodam Yat (the ultimate Green Lantern) and the destruction of Mogo (the planet-form Green Lantern). Having finished answering Sur's interrogatives, Qull permits him to leave the planet and forget all that he said. Sur bids him and Ysmault farewell and ascends the skies, child in tow. Qull reports to fellow Inversion Roixeaume that he had destroyed Sur... though he won't know it for a decade. The demons begin laughing for nineteen weeks. Meanwhile, somewhere in the universe, Sur ponders over the prophecies he had been told. He proposes to his ring that he travels by starship on longer missions as a precaution to conserve energy. The ring doesn't object, and Sur decides to put the Empire of Tears and their predictions behind him. He then begins to fear that his ring is low on energy, forgetting that he recharged it just an hour ago... Brodie's View:We're back to back up stories for this one, as this was one of a few Green Lantern Corps stories to take place in an Annual. This particular story concerns Abin Sur, who was the GL that would end up giving his ring up (as he was dying) to Hal Jordan. However, this story takes place way before that (although, that particular event is foretold, but in a very deceptive way), as Sur comes across what appears to be a dead world. However, it is discovered that this world used to be the ruling planet of a group of nightmarish demons known as the Empire of Tears. Sur investigates, and ends up coming across a freaky looking creature known as Qull of the Five Inversions, who offers him answers to three questions, free of charge. Of course, as one would expect, there is no "Free" with these answers, as being they are demons, they are able to wrap a lie up in the truth. The first question involves a nearby wrecked ship, which Qull reveals there is a wounded child left inside. Once Sur comes back with the child, satisfied with the fact that Qull's information was useful, he asks questions about his own fate and that of the Green Lantern Corps. It's here where the truth gets stretched, as Qull reveals that Sur will meet his fate when his power ring poops out on him during a crucial moment. This is the lie that will end up leading to Sur's death later, but we'll get back to that in a second. The final question Qull answers involves the fate of the Green Lantern Corps, which Qull states will be destroyed when all of the GL Corps enemies, including the Empire of Tears, will gang up on them and destroy them all. Disbelieving that, Sur leaves, but as we learn, Qull planted a seed of doubt within him about his ring, as Sur would now be obsessed with keeping it charged. He would also take to flying star ships on long journeys, rather than using his ring. This proves to be his undoing, as his ship would be the one to fail him, sending him crashing to Earth, and leading to Hal getting his ring, thereby giving the demons of the Empire of Tears a nice little shot of revenge that they helped set up in the first place. This was a cool little story that had time to tell itself properly (as being in an Annual, it got 12 pages to unfold instead of 6 in a normal sized issue), and kind of closed a small plot point of why a GL would need to be a ship in the first place. Plus, the artist, Kevin O'Neill can certainly draw the demons of the Empire of Tears looking about as horribly disturbing as one could. Like with the last story, the journey into pure horror, at least with these creatures, just added to the overall feel of the story. In the next review, we will cover probably two of the best stories in the entire trade, as we ask the question, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 5, 2019 1:48:44 GMT -5
Superman #423"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"Cover Date: Sept, 1986 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Curt Swan Featured Character(s): Superman (of Earth 423) Villain/s: Bizarro #1 (dies), Brainiac, Kryptonite Man, Lex Luthor, Metallo/Metallo Army, The Prankster, & Toyman (All from Earth 423) Guest Stars: Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang, Josh Coyle, Pete Ross (dies), Alice White, Krypto, Legion of Super-Heroes (Brainiac 5, Supergirl, Cosmic Boy, Lighting Lad, Invisible Kid, & Saturn Girl), Jonathan Elliot, Tim Crane, & the Metropolis Fire Department Official Plot:One day in 1987, Superman returned from space to find Metropolis had suffered major damage, which Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen said came from Bizarro. Superman enters a wrecked department store and confronts Bizarro, demanding an explanation for all the death and destruction. Bizarro explains his reasons to Superman: he had recently realized that all these years, he has not been a "perfect imperfect duplicate", and so he took the necessary steps to fix that. Realizing that Superman came from an alien world that was destroyed by a natural accident, Bizarro destroyed Bizarro World then attempted to destroy his own birth world starting with Metropolis. Then, realizing that Superman never kills anyone (even bad people), Bizarro went on a killing spree through the city, murdering several innocent men, women, and children. Finally, Bizarro states that since Superman must live, then he himself must die. He holds up a chunk of Blue Kryptonite and presses it against his chest, fatally exposing himself to its poisonous radiation. Bizarro bids a final cryptic farewell to his longtime rival, then quietly passes away from Kryptonite poisoning, leaving Superman, shocked, confused, and saddened over what has just happened. Following this bizarre incident, Clark Kent gets ready to join his co-anchor Lana Lang in the WGBS news room when he receives two packages. The first smaller package is a group of Superman action figures that come to life, firing deadly heat-vision beams. The production crew watch as Clark Kent is attacked by the action figures' heat vision, figuring that he would never survive, when they saw that they exposed his Superman identity to them. The action figures now also speak in the voices of the Toyman and the Prankster, the two villains behind this attack. They have Superman open up the second package, which contains the dead body of Pete Ross, whom the two criminals have extracted information about Superman from. Superman finds out where the two criminals are hiding and bring them to justice, but as his civilian identity is now compromised, he fears that as the villains who were nuisances to him were becoming killers, he can only wonder what will become of those who are killers. Speaking of which, Lex Luthor was up around the North Pole area where he finds the inert head of Brainiac in his robotic skeletal form when parts of his head started attaching themselves to Luthor's head, taking control of him. Brainiac now reveals that he is taking control of Luthor's body as part of a new form of partnership between the two, and that now he is seeking revenge against Superman for what he had done to him. Brainiac now guides Luthor's body back to civilization where he is to build a new ship for the robot. Back in Metropolis, a group of men gather around outside the Daily Planet building on a hot day when they start shooting harpoons from their chest, revealing themselves to be humans converted into Metallos. They assault the staff of the Daily Planet and cause Lois Lane to fall from a window when Superman appears to rescue her and to magnetize the Daily Planet globe to capture all the Metallos inside the building. When that was done, Superman transported Lois, Jimmy, Lana, Perry White, and his wife to his Fortress of Solitude where they would be safe. As they were escaping the city, the merged Brainiac/Luthor shows up in a smaller version of Brainiac's Skull Ship to pick up Kryptonite Man as he appears calling out for Superman to challenge him. That night, as Perry and his wife sleep in separate rooms, and Lana and Lois hold each other while crying themselves to sleep, Superman is joined by his dog Krypto as the Legion of Super-Heroes' time bubble appears, bringing with the group a young version of Supergirl who has yet to know that she has died. Brainiac 5 presents Superman with a special memorial trophy, seemingly as if they were never going to see him alive again after this. Following their departure, Superman buried his face in his hand and cries. Brodie's View:As far as Superman stories goes, this is probably one of the finest. A bit of backstory here: in 1986, DC snapped up John Byrne to reboot Superman as part of DC's soft rebooting the entire universe in the wake of the CRISIS OF INFINITE EARTHS event. This would all come to pass as 1986 led into 1987, but before all that, the DC editors wanted to give some sort of closure to the Pre Crisis Superman (and through that, the Pre Crisis DC Universe). Enter Alan Moore, who, as we've seen a couple times already in this trade, has a special kind of love for the classic, Golden/Silver Age Man of Steel, so, he came up with a two part story that would give an ending to Superman's story, if things continued on, continuity wise, from the point it was at when Moore came up with the idea. He also touched base with the classic era by enlisting long time Superman artist, Curt Swan, to do the art work for this two parter, and Swan's classic style artwork works very well with Moore's reverent writing. In short, the story of Superman's Final battle is told in flashback form by an older Lois Lane (who is now married and has a child) to a reporter, and it begins with the Man of Steel returning from space to find that Bizarro has suddenly undertaken a murderous rampage in order to truly be the opposite of what Superman is. The creature finally decides that to truly be the opposite of Superman, who is alive, he has to be dead, so, he commits suicide via blue Kryptonite. Kal El barely has time to process all of this when a package is delivered that contains a bunch of Superman dolls (along with the body of Pete Ross ) that attack Clark Kent, shredding his clothes to reveal that he is Superman to his closest friends at the Daily Planet. Superman quickly realizes that The Toyman and The Prankster are behind this, and apprehends them. However, all are confused as to why these previously goofy villains have suddenly turned murderous. Meanwhile, in the arctic, Lex Luthor finds the remains of Brainiac, who then repays being found by taking over Luthor's body, planning to use it to enact his own plan to take down Superman. Back in Metropolis, the Daily Planet building is suddenly attacked by an army of Metallos, which, Superman is able to quickly stop. However, it's become clear that with his secret identity revealed, none of his friends/loved ones are safe, so, he takes them all to The Fortress of Solitude. Perhaps that's not such a great idea, as Braniac Luthor deduces that the Fortress is where Superman would head in that sort of situation, so, he and the Kryptonite Man plan a frontal assault on the fortress. Meanwhile, Superman is visited by the Legion of Super Heroes, a team of teenage heroes from the future, who present Kal El with a statute depicting his final fight. The significance of that will be seen in the next part, but an important thing to note in this one is that one of the Legionaries that come to visit Superman in his time of need is a version of his cousin, Kara El (AKA Supergirl) from the past, which causes the Man of Steel to break down crying as soon as they leave, both for the fact that Supergirl had recently died in the present during the CRISIS, and the fact that he knows his time is almost up as Earth's main protector. Wow! What a powerful story, and we're only half way through. In the next part, we get the wrap up to this fantastic story, where we will see the fate of Superman, his friends, and his foes. If you thought the death toll in this issue was bad, this next issue.... GRADE: A+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 6, 2019 1:00:06 GMT -5
Action Comics #583"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? Part Two" Cover Date: Sept, 1986 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Curt Swan Featured Character(s): Superman & Lois Lane (of Earth 423) Villain/s: Brainiac, Kryptonite Man, Lex Luthor, Mister Mxyzptlk (the previous four die), Legion of Super-Villains (Cosmic King, Lighting Lord, & Saturn Queen), & General Zod (All from Earth 423) Guest Stars: Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang, Krypto (the previous three all die), Josh Coyle, Alice White, Perry White, Jonathan Elliot, Tim Crane, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Superwoman, & Vartox (All of Earth 423) Official Plot:In 1997, Lois Lane Elliot introduces her husband Jordan to the Daily Planet reporter doing an interview of her. In 1987, Superman melts down the giant key that opens up the Fortress of Solitude, Brainiac/Luthor shows up somewhere near the Fortress when they are joined by the Legion of Super-Villains, offering their help to defeat and destroy Superman. To that end, Brainiac/Luthor erects a force field that prevents any other superheroes from the outside to help Superman. Also, the Kryptonite Man's deadly radiation keeps Superman and his dog Krypto at bay from attacking them. Seeing that Superman needs help, Jimmy Olsen and Lana Lang equip themselves with the powers they had when they adopted superhero identities, transforming themselves into Elastic Lad[1] and Super-Lana[2] as they take on the group of villains outside the Fortress. Luthor has Lana kill him so that Brainiac would no longer have any control of him, but the Legion of Super-Villains quickly destroy Lana afterward. Jimmy comes to avenge her death, but Brainiac resumes control of Luthor's body long enough to kill Jimmy and to launch a missile that rips a gaping hole into the Fortress. With the Fortress breached, Kryptonite Man enters, seeking to kill Superman, but Krypto attacks and gives his life to kill the radiating villain. Superman carries Lois Lane and the trophy with him when he sees the Legion of Super-Villains inside his Fortress, gloating about the deaths of Lana and Jimmy. This makes Superman angry enough to attack them with his heat vision, causing them to retreat and return back to the future. Outside the fortress, Superman sees that Brainiac's head is losing control of Luthor's body as it succumbs to rigor mortis and detaches himself from it, vainly trying to crawl its way toward Superman before it goes completely dead. It is at this point that Superman begins to consider that somebody must be behind all the villains turning against him, and so calls out Mxyzptlk's name. He appears unto Superman, revealing that he has grown tired of becoming a mere nuisance and is now deciding to become fully evil. Mxyzptlk also starts to change from his harmless impish self to a hideous dark creature intent on overpowering Superman enough to kill him. Superman then looks at the trophy, realizing that its Superman figure is holding a Phantom Zone projector, and so goes to get the Phantom Zone projector to use it on Mxyzptlk. As he activates it, Mxyzptlk speaks his name backwards in order to return to his home dimension, but finds himself being pulled into two different dimensions and screams as he is being ripped apart. Realizing that he has just broken his own moral code to not kill, Superman goes into the Gold Kryptonite chamber to strip himself of all his powers as Lois Lane sadly watches on. With the force field Mxyzptlk kept active now powered down, the heroes outside the barrier enter the Fortress to find dead bodies of all of Superman's friends except for Lois, Perry White, and his wife, still alive. They see that Superman has departed from the chamber through a secret passageway and is now wandering outside in subzero temperatures where presumably he will die. In 1997, Lois Lane Elliot tells the reporter that any possible rumors of Superman still being alive after that are not likely to be true. As the Daily Planet reporter departs, Lois's husband Jordan Elliot brings their son Jonathan into the living room, where he plays with a piece of coal that he turns into a diamond. He and Lois both decide to relax with a pizza and a bottle of wine. Brodie's View:Superman ends in this issue, or at least what had been known, up to that point, as Superman. As I stated in the last review, this would be the last hurrah for the Classic Man of Steel before John Byrne would begin his reboot on the character in the next month. However, this story is the continuation of what what set up in SUPERMAN #423, where many of Superman's classic enemies begin to strike out at him and his loved ones. This resulted in Supes taking his loved ones up to the Fortress of Solitude, which is now about to be attacked by Brainiac (who has taken over the body of his former ally, Lex Luthor) and the poisonous (at least to Kryptonians) The Kryptonite Man. They are joined by the villainous version of the Legion of Super Heroes, the Legion of Super Villains, who know from being from the future that this would be the day that Superman would fall, and they want to pitch in on what they feel will be the Man of Steel's certain death. In the process, they create a shield around the area of battle to prevent any of Superman's fellow superheros from interfering. Meanwhile, two of Superman's long time friends, Jimmy Olsen and Lana Lang expose themselves to a special bath that transforms them into superhumans, and they try to take on the forces united against them. However, even though they are able to take out Braniac by killing Luthor, the two are overwhelmed by the Legion of Supervillains and killed. The Kryptonite Man manages to make it in the fortress, where he is attacked and killed by Krypto, who then dies from Kryptonite poisoning. The Legion of Supervillains try to attack Superman, but he easily chases them off, as he is enraged at finding out they killed Jimmy and Lana. Seeing Braniac and Luthor dead, he and Lois figure things must be over, but yet the shield Braniac created still stands. Finally, Kal El puts it together that there is one villain left unaccounted for, and it's the former comedic villain/nuisance, Mr. Mxyzptlk, who has been behind this whole deal. See, after centuries of being a nuisance, Mxyzptlk has decided to be evil for a while, and decided to start by destroying, and then killing, Superman. He transforms into a giant being of energy, but Superman tricks him into saying his name backward by blasting him with the Phantom Zone ray, which basically tears Mxyzptlk in two, killing him. Disgusted with himself with breaking his only rule, Superman walks into a room filled with Kryptonite, seemingly killing himself. However, the end of the story leaves this in doubt, as we're left with the sneaking suspicion that the normal Joe Lois married after all of this is in fact a depowered Superman. We're also led to believe that while the Superman we know may be gone, this Earth (as since a lot of what was retconned for Byrne's revamp has itself been retconned, this whole story has been determined to be taking place on Earth #423, making this more of a "What If?" story than actual continuity) may one day have a new Man of Steel, as Lois and "Jordan Elliot's" son, Jonathan, displays Superman like powers, crushing a piece of coal into a diamond. So, even throughout all of the death and destruction that happens in this story, we get a very classic Happy Ending, complete with a wink at the audience. And what a story it was. Moore, Curt Swan, and all involved deserve many kudos for this story, as like I said in the first part, this might be one of the best Superman stories written, or at least out of the ones I've read. In the next review, we leave the Man of Steel behind to deal with another super powerful, yet quite mysterious DC character, The Phantom Stranger. GRADE: A+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 7, 2019 2:08:15 GMT -5
Secret Origins #10"Footsteps"Cover Date: Jan, 1987 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Joe Orlando Featured Character(s): Phantom Stranger Villain/s: Etrigan, Asmodeus, Leviathan, & Satan Guest Stars: Various Guardian Angels Official Plot:During the time of the rebellion against Heaven by a third of the angels, one angel chose neither side, and, as a result, had his wings torn away and was accepted by neither side in turn. Thus, he became the Phantom Stranger. In the present, he comes upon a man beaten and rejected by both Guardian Angels and Subway Survivalists, and offers the man his hand, as a brother who can walk with him for a little while. Brodie's View:In this issue, we got four possible origin stories for the mysterious being only known as The Phantom Stranger. For this particular story, we get a split story paralleling each other; one of which is supposedly giving the story of The Stranger as an angel caught between sides during the rebellion against Heaven by the angels that would eventually populate Hell. The angel that becomes The Stranger refused to pick a side during the conflict, so, he ended up being ostracized by both sides, and ended up having his wings torn from him. In the modern day, we see a Guardian Angel end up caught up in a conflict between the Angels and an underground group known as the Subway Survivalists. He too gets rejected by both sides, and nearly beaten to death. At the end of the story, the two stories converge, as The Phantom Stranger offers his hand to the beaten former Guardian Angel, and offers the man the chance to walk with The Stranger for a while. This was an OK story, which I would probably look at better if it hadn't been coming off of the two FANTASTIC stories we got over the last two days. Still, this was decent for what it was. I'm not a huge Phantom Stranger fan, so, once again, this story might have meant more had I been, but I will say I'm more familiar with The Stranger than I am some of the other characters/books I reviewed from this trade....but then again, that's not saying very much. Still, this was decent for what it was. In the next review, we get another Green Lantern back up story, and then we end this trade off with two Batman stories. One not so well known, and one very known....and now infamous. GRADE: B
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,401
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 7, 2019 3:05:40 GMT -5
Secret Origins #10"Footsteps"Cover Date: Jan, 1987 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Joe Orlando Featured Character(s): Phantom Stranger Villain/s: Etrigan, Asmodeus, Leviathan, & Satan Guest Stars: Various Guardian Angels Official Plot:During the time of the rebellion against Heaven by a third of the angels, one angel chose neither side, and, as a result, had his wings torn away and was accepted by neither side in turn. Thus, he became the Phantom Stranger. In the present, he comes upon a man beaten and rejected by both Guardian Angels and Subway Survivalists, and offers the man his hand, as a brother who can walk with him for a little while. Brodie's View:In this issue, we got four possible origin stories for the mysterious being only known as The Phantom Stranger. For this particular story, we get a split story paralleling each other; one of which is supposedly giving the story of The Stranger as an angel caught between sides during the rebellion against Heaven by the angels that would eventually populate Hell. The angel that becomes The Stranger refused to pick a side during the conflict, so, he ended up being ostracized by both sides, and ended up having his wings torn from him. In the modern day, we see a Guardian Angel end up caught up in a conflict between the Angels and an underground group known as the Subway Survivalists. He too gets rejected by both sides, and nearly beaten to death. At the end of the story, the two stories converge, as The Phantom Stranger offers his hand to the beaten former Guardian Angel, and offers the man the chance to walk with The Stranger for a while. This was an OK story, which I would probably look at better if it hadn't been coming off of the two FANTASTIC stories we got over the last two days. Still, this was decent for what it was. I'm not a huge Phantom Stranger fan, so, once again, this story might have meant more had I been, but I will say I'm more familiar with The Stranger than I am some of the other characters/books I reviewed from this trade....but then again, that's not saying very much. Still, this was decent for what it was. In the next review, we get another Green Lantern back up story, and then we end this trade off with two Batman stories. One not so well known, and one very known....and now infamous. GRADE: B That second volume of Secret Origins is a great cheap bin series. None of the issues should run ya over 3 bucks tops. ANd all of them are at least worth reading. The Phantom Stranger,Doom Patrol,JLA post crisis origin are all amazing. Then some of the lesser known heroes get well thought out origins that work post Crisis. Jonah Hex has a great origin. Found my well read Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man #27..I am sure you know why this issue is not only well read but at one time was a fairly hot comic. Been thinking about re-reading it and trying out an almost panel by panel breakdown on the origins of certain art tropes.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 8, 2019 2:38:09 GMT -5
Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #3"In Blackest Night"Cover Date: 1987 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Bill Willingham Featured Character(s): The Green Lantern Corps (Katma Tui & Rot Lop Fan---1st appearance of the second) Villain/s: None Guest Stars: Guardians of the Universe Official Plot:Katma Tui is send to recently found obsidian deeps to appoint a protector for this space sector, and Guardians are listening her report after the mission. This space sector is lightless, meaning their are no stars, sun or light. Katma Tui found a planet and a possible protector and approach him. His name was Rot Lop Fan and he was blind. She told him about her intentions and believe her but He couldn't understand her because in world with no light "green lantern" means nothing. So eventually, she find a solution by change the name and the oath by making the first f-sharp bell. in the end the guardians where satisfied and even made a joke about the mission making her uneasy. Brodie's View:We get one more 6 page back up story from the "pages" of the Green Lantern Corps for this story, which is definitely more of a "Mogo" type of story than the other GL short we dealt with in this trade. In this story, Green Lantern Katma Tui is sent into a section of space where there is no light, and is tasked with presenting one of the creatures in this section with a GL ring. However, when she finds the ring's intended future owner, she find that he is blind, and being that he had lived on a planet with no light, had no concept of either light or color, making the whole presentation of the GL's ring very difficult. Finally, she realizes that while the creature cannot recognize light or color, he does know sound. So she helps him use the ring into making a bell, and changing his particular Green Lantern oath to reflect sound terms, rather than light/color terms. Once she explains all this, the Guardians accept her explanation as to why she changed her methods for recruiting this GL, and even crack a joke, which makes her uneasy. This was a decent story for what it was. Not as entertaining as the other GL short stories, but I'd say a little more than some of the other back up stories we've seen. Alan Moore, as we've seen so far, was very good at thinking outside the box for certain stories, and the Green Lantern Corps concept gave him a lot of room to come up with some outside the box concepts, such as trying to present a ring based on color and light to a creature that knew nothing of either. Okay, so, we have two more stories to go for this trade. The one we will deal with tomorrow will tackle a less popular Batman villain, Clayface, while the one after that will feature the most popular Batman villain there is. GRADE: B
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,401
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 8, 2019 3:56:21 GMT -5
Bill WIllingham ,nasty ass comments excluded,is a talented as f*** guy. He is lucky his bad choice of words was back in the 80s,if it happened now Fables would have been canceled.
Do you happen to have 1963? THat is another Moore written series that is ignored. ANd is easy as hell to find for cheap. It came out when Image was massively overprinting every comic.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 9, 2019 2:30:56 GMT -5
Bill WIllingham ,nasty ass comments excluded,is a talented as f*** guy. He is lucky his bad choice of words was back in the 80s,if it happened now Fables would have been canceled. Do you happen to have 1963? THat is another Moore written series that is ignored. ANd is easy as hell to find for cheap. It came out when Image was massively overprinting every comic. I've read an issue of 1963 here and there, but I've never read the whole run. I really did dig the stuff he did on Supreme, though.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 9, 2019 3:03:26 GMT -5
Batman Annual #11"Mortal Clay"Cover Date: 1987 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: George Freeman Featured Character(s): Batman Villain/s: Clayface III Guest Stars: Commissioner Gordon Official Plot:Preston Payne, "Clayface III," recalls the events following his last encounter with Batman and how he risked everything for the love of his life, the store mannequin named "Helena". Following Helena's trace, Clayface III takes up residence in the department store that houses her, hiding all day and coming out only at night to be alone with her. Although they begin very much in love, their relationship takes a turn for the worse when Clayface begins to suspect she is committing infidelities. He finds her missing one night from her usual spot, and after wandering through the store finds her in her underwear in the lingerie section, unaware that she was purposefully moved by the staff members of the department store. The next night, she is been moved back and they continue their relationship. Later, Clayface finds a security guard taking a necklace off of her neck (stealing it to give to his wife), which he can only assume is a token of an affair they've had. After they leave her sight, he brutally murders the man. The next day, when the body is found, the Gotham City Police Department summon Batman, who deduces Clayface's presence in the store. He tries to confront the villain that night, and finds Clayface waiting in ambush for him, believing Batman too is having an affair with Helena. Clayface almost kills Batman, but at the last moment, he looks into Helena's eyes, and sees that she's taking joy in men fighting over her. Batman is able to talk Clayface down, and offers to help him. As Clayface ends his recollection, he finds himself locked in Arkham Asylum, sharing his cell/room with Helena, although Clayface is beginning to contemplate a divorce. He declines however, choosing to wait instead thinking to himself happily, "After all, she can't live forever." Brodie's View:It's funny that in both of the last two stories of this particular trade, which are both technically Batman stories, the main protagonists for both stories are villains. I'll get to tomorrow's story, or at least the hint of it at the end of this review, but this story's protagonist is the third incarnation of long time Batman villain, Clayface. This Clayface, who somehow has the power to dissolve skin with his clay, is quite deranged, and that's the main thrust of this story, as he is narrating it. In it, Clayface III falls in love with a department store mannequin, and hides out in the department store that the mannequin is being used to model clothes in. He creates a scenario of wedded bliss that lasts until the mannequin is moved to the lingerie department, which ends up freaking Clayface out. To make it worse, he spots a security guard putting a scarf on the mannequin, causing Clayface to snap and kill the guard. This is what officially brings Batman in to the story. They fight, and eventually Clayface gets the upper hand. However, he is stopped from delivering the killing blow when he locks eyes with the mannequin, who he believes is judging him for what he is about to do. This causes Clayface to give up, but Batman, being the hero he is, talks the Arkham Asylum staff into letting him keep the mannequin (and some of the other things he and the mannequin had for their "honeymoon suite") in his cell. However, at the end of the story, we find that Clayface has fallen out of love with the mannequin, and like many a unhappily married person who doesn't want to have to get a divorce, waits for her "eventual" death. This was a great little story that showed the deranged mind of this version of Clayface better than many other writers could have even contemplated depicting. There was a fine line between being comedic, tragic, and disturbing, and Moore walked that line like a tightrope walker with this, delivering quite the effective story. The same can be said for tomorrow's story, which was notorious when it came out in the late 80's, and has gotten even more so when re-looked at through 2010's eyes. Yes, folks, tomorrow's issue I'll be reviewing is none other than THE KILLING JOKE. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 9, 2019 23:46:04 GMT -5
Batman: The Killing Joke"The Killing Joke"Cover Date: March, 1988 Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Brian Bolland Featured Character(s): Batman Villain/s: The Joker/The Red Hood Guest Stars: Commissioner Gordon, Barbara Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Danny Weaver, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Det. Harvey Bullock, Mitchum, Lester, & Jeanie Official Plot:A concerned Batman visits Arkham Asylum and goes to Joker's cell. The Joker is sitting alone in his cell, playing with a deck of cards and Batman sits in the opposite end of the table. The Dark Knight tells Joker that the constant madness of their lives must end, or otherwise one of them will surely die at the hands of the other. Joker doesn't move and keeps playing with the cards, and Batman grabs the clown's arm, infuriated. Batman notices that he has white stains on his hands and grabs the man in front of him, who is just a man dressed and wearing make-up to look like the Joker. Batman questions the man about the location of the Joker, who has escaped Arkham and is on the loose. Joker is looking to buy an abandoned amusement park and after he checks the whole place, he kills the owner and claims the park as his own. However, Joker is lost in thoughts and he starts remembering memories from a past life. The man who would become the Joker is an unnamed engineer who quits his job at a chemical company to become a stand-up comedian, only to fail miserably. Desperate to support his pregnant wife, he agrees to guide two criminals into the plant for a robbery. During the planning, the police come and inform him that his wife has died in a household accident involving an electric baby bottle heater. Grief-stricken, the engineer tries to withdraw from the plan, but the criminals strong-arm him into keeping his commitment to them. At the plant, the criminals make him don a special mask to become the infamous Red Hood. Unknown to the engineer, this disguise is simply the criminals' scheme to implicate any accomplice as the mastermind to divert attention from themselves. Once inside, they almost immediately blunder into security personnel, and a violent shootout and chase ensues. The criminals are gunned down, and the engineer finds himself confronted by Batman, who is investigating the disturbance. Panicked, the engineer deliberately jumps into the chemical plant's toxic waste catch-basin vat to escape Batman, and is swept through a pipe leading to the outside. Once outside, he discovers to his horror that the chemicals have permanently bleached his skin chalk white, stained his lips ruby red, and dyed his hair bright green. This turn of events, compounding the man's misfortunes of that one day, drives him completely insane and results in the birth of the Joker. Joker makes his move and he knocks on the door of Commissioner Gordon. Barbara opens the door and is shocked at the sight of the Joker, dressed in a tourist outfit and pointing a gun at her. Joker shoots Barbara in the spine and his henchmen enter the house and knock Commissioner Gordon out, while Joker starts undressing the wounded Barbara and takes out a camera. Barbara is taken to a hospital and the doctors tell Bullock that the damage caused by the bullet would make her unable to use her legs ever again. Batman visits Barbara and when she recovers, she begs Batman to save her father from whatever the Joker has planned. Joker takes Gordon and imprisons him in a run-down amusement park. His deformed henchmen then strip Gordon naked and cage him in the park's freak show. He chains Gordon to one of the park's rides and cruelly forces him to view giant pictures of his wounded daughter in various states of undress. Once Gordon completes the maddening gauntlet, the Joker ridicules him as an example of "the average man," a naive weakling doomed to insanity. Batman searches all over the city for Joker with no good results. Suddenly, the Bat-Signal beacons in the night and Harvey Bullock gives Batman two tickets to the abandoned amusement park. As Batman arrives to save Gordon, the Joker retreats into the funhouse. Gordon's sanity is intact despite the ordeal, and he insists that Batman capture the Joker "by the book" in order to "show him that our way works". Batman enters the funhouse and faces the Joker's traps, while the Joker tries to persuade his old foe that the world is inherently insane and thus not worth fighting for. Eventually, Batman tracks down the Joker and subdues him. Batman then attempts to reach out to him to give up crime and put a stop to their years-long war. The Joker declines, however, ruefully saying "It's too late for that... far too late". He then tells Batman a joke, which reflects their current situation and is funny enough to make the normally stone-faced Batman laugh. While they are laughing, Batman reaches across to Joker. The picture moves away from the two foes, and they stop laughing abruptly while the sirens of the police cars keep getting louder as they approach the two men. In the end all noise cease and only the rain keeps pouring down. Brodie's View:I won't go into too much detail on the synopsis on this story, as whoever did the synopsis above did a pretty thorough job summing up everything that happens. I'm also not going to spend this review shaming Alan Moore or Brian Bolland for what happens to Barbara Gordon in the course of this story. It was horrible, and I've read that both Moore and Bolland have kind of expressed their respective regret for what they did to that character, but it kind of made sense for the story, at least in that whole Late 80's/early 2000's "Grim & Gritty" sense. I mean, let's not forget that this was also the era where Green Lantern Kyle Rayner came back from a mission to find his girlfriend murdered and stuffed in a freezer. Was it extreme? Yes, but that was kind of the era we were living in at the time, so, while we can judge it harshly (and many do), we also have to look at the time/state of mind that produced this type of thing. Plus, from what I understand, Moore kind of meant this story as more of a Stand Alone/What If type of tale than one that was meant to permanently change continuity. Regardless, this was meant to be a possible origin story for (arguably) the greatest Batman villain of them all, The Joker...or is it? After all, we've only the recollections of someone who is admittingly out of his mind for confirmation, and I'm not even sure the Joker himself would rely purely on his own memories for confirmation. Anyways, the whole point of this story, as why the Joker does some of the horrible shit he does in it, is to prove that he is more a victim of horrible circumstances that finally just snapped and became as horrible as the world around him, rather than....you know, just being a horrible (or sick) person. He torments Jim Gordon through his daughter to try and get him to snap, and then torments Batman with all he's done to try and do the same, but the reason I would defend this story, even with it's rawness/horribleness, is because in the end the Joker fails in his mission. Neither Gordon or Batman snap and give the Joker what he wants (death?), even with the Clown Prince of Crime doing anything and everything to get that response. In the end, all the Joker can do is laugh, as he knows that he and Batman are doomed to continue this dance for the rest of their lives, and Batman joins him, as he knows the same....or is that how it really ends? Some people have speculated that Batman does indeed kill the Joker at the end of the story, but I would argue that if this story was indeed meant, at least by the DC editors, to be part of regular continuity, then my estimation of how the story ends is a more apt one. Regardless, I really did dig this one shot, as it has, as always, great writing by Moore, and Beautiful art work by Brian Bolland. Hell, one could just look at the art work and get most of the story without having to read a word; always the mark of a great comic artist. Anyways, that's the last story in the Alan Moore trade, so, we head back to X-Ville in the next few reviews, as we'll be looking at some more new issues from the recently relaunched X-Line. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 11, 2019 1:35:26 GMT -5
X-Men #3"Hordeculture"Cover Date: Feb, 2020 Writer: Jonathan Hickman Artist: Leinil Francis Yu Featured Character(s): Cyclops Villain/s: Hordeculture (Augusta Bromes, Lily Leymus, Edith Scutch, & Opal Vetiver)---1st Appearance of all Guest Stars: The Quiet Council of Krakoa (Krakoa, Emma Frost, Storm, Sebastian Shaw, Magneto, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Apocalypse, Nightcrawler, Mister Sinister, Exodus, & Mystique), Pixie, Anole, & Gateway Official Plot:EARTH’S MOST POWERFUL! CYCLOPS STORMS THE SAVAGE LAND! The most powerful heroes of the dominant species on the planet, the X-Men rise to protect the world against any threat. From a new foe in the Savage Land to an old nemesis’ surprising return… Brodie's View:First off, I'm not sure who the "old nemesis" is that supposedly shows up in this issue, and I read it twice to make sure I didn't miss anything. I mean, we get the return of Gateway, but he's pretty far from being a nemesis, but then again, I haven't read much of the X-Men from Joss Whedon's run ending to the beginning of Hickman's stuff, so, there might have been a heel turn I missed. Plus, there's the various villains who have been chilling in Krakoa since HOUSE OF X #5, but I have a feeling whoever wrote this blurb wasn't referring to any of them....unless they were talking about Sebastian Shaw, who has been trying to pull off some shiesty stuff in the pages of MARAUDERS (of course, I don't see how much any of that would be a surprise; hell, Apocalypse, Sinister, and some of the other villains bucking up on the X-Men wouldn't be a shock either....we all can kind of see that coming), but I doubt that as well. Anyways, the new foe in the Savage Land is the main story of this issue, as a group of four old women collectively named Hordeculture tap into, and enter the Savage Land through one of the Krakoan portals. They end up encountering a few young mutants, who they spray with a gas that negates their powers and freeze them in place. We cut to Krakoa, as the Quiet Council meet to discuss these events, and they decide to send Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Sebastian Shaw to the Savage Land to investigate. Of course, with the Savage Land portal compromised, the three mutants rely on long time X-ally, Gateway, to get there inconspicuously. The three arrive and encounter the old women, who take the three mutants aback once they unmask. In a great scene, Sebastian Shaw tries to use his considerable charm to defuse the situation, only to get hit in the face with gas, taking him out. Cyclops ends up using his optic blast on the group, and appears to injure one of them, which causes Cyclops, ever the hero, to run over to check on her, only to get blasted with gas as well. Emma is the only mutant remaining at this point, and being that her telepathy is useless on the women, who have some sort of psychic shielding, Emma turns to diamond as her only defense. It's here that Hordeculture explain their purpose; they were scientists whose work was not taken seriously due to their gender and age, so, they began taking out the male scientists that kept them from being able to do the research they wanted to do. Once this was done, they began to come up with the idea that the Earth needed to be expunged of most of its human population in order for the plants to survive and thrive. They realized that Krakoa could be a big help with that, but the mutants staying there is a major obstacle to their plan. So, they basically deliver an ultimatum that mutant kind needs to leave Krakoa....or else. ( ) This was a decent issue that kind of set up new threats (and I will say that this was a cool side effect of Hickman bringing a lot of the usual suspects, as far as X-Villains go, into the main cast, as it's forcing him to have to come up with new and interesting threats), and quite interesting ones, as we wonder what exactly will happen when these four women show up in the book again. In the next review, we will review the second issue of the X-Book I've enjoyed the most from this new line, THE NEW MUTANTS. GRADE: B+
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