And I didn’t mention my “and he kills the Joker at the end” theory once.

§ April 10th, 2026 § Filed under batman § 10 Comments

So it all kinda started with this post on the Blooskees:


…which was just me doing a little light afternoon internet trolling, managing to appall at least one professional comic book artist who hadn’t heard about what the film adaptation did to the Alan Moore and Brian Bolland classic one-shot from 1988.

For those not familiar, the flick in question was this 2016 direct-to-disc release:


…which had the not-inconsiderable virtues of that Bolland cover, and Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their long-held roles as the Batman and Joker respectively, and the not-inconsiderable vice of adding an extra half-hour, 40 minutes, whatever, to the beginning of the film.

Why was that extra stuff added? To establish a sexual relationship between Barbara “Batgirl” Gordon and ol’ Bats. Is this unnecessarily creepy? Oh yes indeedy. But apparently it was needed to give Batman added incentive to go after the Joker in the second half which attempts to adapt the actual comic book. Because “you shot my crime-fighting partner” wasn’t enough a motivation for Batman to seek out the Joker, I guess.

Anyway, I didn’t really come here to bury, or praise, that movie. But what did happen as a result of that first post is that I started looking into some of the back history of Batman: The Killing Joke. Which I started to do when I was supposed to be working, so I put the kibosh on that after a bit and decided to save it for You, the Blog Reader.

I should note here the invaluable resource that is this ‘zine search engine. While I do have, for example, every Amazing Heroes and every Comics Journal, forcing my withering eyeballs to peer at every page via candlelight within my cavernous library is perhaps too much to ask.

One of the topics I was trying to determine early one was the idea that The Killing Joke was originally intended as an out-of-continuity story, like the “Elseworlds” imprint that would being shortly after this comics release. I have a vague memory of that being so, many people online have a similar memory, and I suspect that may have been said at one point or another by someone associated with DC. However, in my extensive searching via that database, I can find no reference to such a thing.

Now, that doesn’t mean such evidence doesn’t exist…I could be missing references to early news stories about “UNTITLED BATMAN PROJECT” or passing references by Moore or Bolland to “this ‘What If’ story I’m doing.” But if anyone’s got an official reference from DC, or the creators, to the story being out-of-continuity, or even a news story along those lines, please send it my way.

I did find what may very well be the earliest reference to Killing Joke, from this Alan Moore interview in Amazing Heroes #71 (1985). Apparently, this all started as a proposed Batman/Judge Dredd crossover. Moore says:


Moore describes this deal not working out, then adds:


Okay, clearly Moore references an earlier Comics Interview article with Bolland, which was in #19 and doesn’t mention the “alternative Batman” project. (He does end the interview saying he’d like to do a Batman story.) Anyway, Moore’s comments are obviously light on details but I think it’s pretty clear this is the embryonic state of Killing Joke.

One thing I noticed in my searches were a couple of blurbs noting that the forthcoming Killing Joke was going to be colored by Bolland himself. For example, here’s one from Amazing Heroes #133 (1988):


Now, obviously the final product was not colored by Bolland, but by John Higgins. More recent editions have been recolored by Bolland (to a minor level of chagrin by some folks), so that’s been a long time coming, it seems.

Back to the continuity issue, it was pretty clearly in official DC continuity by the time it was released, given that DC preceded its release with a Batgirl Special:


As you can see in the above blurb from Amazing Heroes #137, and as I saw here in there in other things that came up in my searches, it was promoted as a Killing Joke tie-in. I mean, I read that special at the time, then Killing Joke, and frankly there was barely a thematic or artistic connection between the two (though the Mike Mignola/Karl Kesel cover is nice). It was pointed out to me that it was there to give some kind of happy ended to Batgirl’s story, given what happens to her, which, you know, fair enough.

And as we all know, the events of Killing Joke, specifically what happened to Batgirl, plays into later DC Universe shenanigans (specifically her stint as Oracle). We also had the story in…Legends of the Dark Knight which incorporates elements from Killing Joke. Plus, there’s that Three Jokers story from a couple of years back that ties into it as well, despite Three Joker‘s own questionable status of whether or not it’s in official continuity (despite the story’s impetus being in-universe and technically still unresolved).

There are probably other references I’m missing here, but the question of what is or is not in “continuity” can be bit of a chump’s game given DC’s history of rebootery. But however it may have began, Killing Joke remains in DC’s official history mix.

A couple other things i turned up: this bit from a Brian Bolland article in Comics Scene Spectacular #3 (1990):


Well, that would have been interesting. Never happened, but we got some swell Joker covers out of him, though.

Here, in Comics Interview #77 (1990), Yvonne Craig, 1960s Batman‘s Batgirl, talks about Killing Joke:


Oh c’mon, why would you do that to this poor woman.

Another thing because you guys are gonna bring it up: this new wild edition of Killing Joke, presented on the manufacturer’s site, but you might have an easier time looking at it here.

And finally, if you’re a Killing Joke completist, friend, you need a copy of Web of Spider-Man #50 (1989) by Gerry Conway, Alex Saviuk, and Keith Williams:

And now, links.

§ April 8th, 2026 § Filed under sir-links-a-lot § 5 Comments

Hoo boy, Mark Evanier really lost a lot of original art to a robbery that was more awful than I expected. I thought he lost a handful of pages, but it was much, much more than that. I normally don’t hotlink files on other servers, but Mark wants the link spread around: here’s a PDF file listing all the stolen art that he’s been able to determine so far.

Spread that link around, let’s recover those pieces.

• • •

Now, an ElfQuest movie, based on the classic indie comics by Richard and Wendy Pini, has seemed like a possibility we were always hearing about in the fan press for the last few decades. And I am honestly shocked that some deal was never struck and an animated-something-or-‘nother never was released.

Richard Pini writes on the topic, explaining the history of the offers from various studios to translate their books to other media, and what the ultimate decision was that he and Wendy settled on.

I’ve noted this before, but the Pinis dropped by my previous place of employment a couple of times. They were very nice, and happily signed lots of books for the shop. I’m glad they’re doing well and that they came to a decision about the whole movie thing they can live with.

• • •

Just learned the Belgian comics creator Hermann passed away last month. I was not a big follower of his work, but his long-running post-apocalyptic series Jeremiah is certainly familiar to me. He lived a long life doing what I presume he loved, and that’s a good way to spend your time on Earth.

• • •

So the new Fury of Firestorm #1 is released today, which comes with this variant cover by Chris Burnham:


And if you see those little yellow bits on the edges? Why, those are Firestorm’s fingertips from the original 1978 first issue:


And if you were to go to Burnham’s Bluesky account, you can see this variant cover innovation in action!

Of course, I sold off my personal copies of the first Firestorm series through my shop long ago. But I do have the trade paperback (as discussed here):


…and it looks like the layout is the same, so maybe I can take advantage of this gimmick after all!

My Fantastic Four-ay: Part Five.

§ April 6th, 2026 § Filed under fantastic four § 13 Comments

So in our last installment, I wrote about some of the new villains John Byrne created during his Fantastic Four run that never really seemed to go much of anywhere. Someone responded in the comments that Malice, AKA “Dark Invisible Woman,” was one that Byrne came up with and popped up again and again over the decades. Granted, I probably should have mentioned her in that particular post, but I did discuss Malice, and mention her current usage, in Part Three of “My Fantastic Four-ay,” so I didn’t forget her completely!

And to really get right down to it, strictly speaking it’s more a remixing of a character created by someone else, in this case Stan Lee and Jack Kirby their own selves, rather than a whole new person. But that’s splitting hairs a bit…I mean, who created Nightwing? Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, who in the 1980s put Dick Grayson into that outfit and gave him that name, or whoever it was Bob Kane took the credit from when Dick Grayson was introduced way back in Detective Comics #38?

Regardless, it’s a new take on a preexisting character, and I suppose that’s close enough for horseshoes, as nobody younger than me says.

But anyway, in that same vein, let’s talk about Frankie Raye.

Frankie Raye was a supporting character in the Fantastic Four title starting with issue #164, by Roy Thomas and George Pérez, published in 1975 and several years before I started reading the book on a regular basis. Frankie becomes Johnny “Human Torch” Storm’s girlfriend, despite her apparent fear of fire. Natch, they broke up, but she was reintroduced into the book early in Byrne’s run, making her one of the few non-Lee/Kirby FF elements to return in his “Back to Basics” run (along with Terrax, discussed in Part One).

Like those early Terrax stories, I never read any of Frankie’s appearances in the title prior to this Byrne run. She was just another story element that emphasized to me that the Marvel Universe was an ever-growing, ever-self-referential thing, and that while I was tempted to go back and pick up those prior appearances so that these stories I was reading were “complete,” I think even then I realized the futility of doing so. The soap opera and subplot-ridden storylines would make it impossible to ever pick out a completely clean “starting point,” unless I was willing to buy all the way back to Fantastic Four #1, which maybe I would have been but my pocketbook would likely have argued against that course of action.

So that was likely an early lesson taught to me by Byrne’s run on this book…just let his first issue (#232) suffice as close to a clean break as may be possible from what has gone before, and let any previous elements worked back in be explained as they need explaining.

And that’s what we got here. Frankie Raye shows back up, reconnects with Johnny, we’re told enough about the two’s backstory, but then Mr. Byrne pulls one of these on us in issue #237:


What’s this? Frankie Raye — completely in the altogether? Look, we’ve all read Byrne comics, we know that could totally have happened, but instead we have to wait a month and in issue #238, we see what’s really going on:


She goes on to explain that this costume only appears when she’s otherwise naked, for you “this is a fetish for someone” fans, and she reveals some suddenly awakened memories of her past. Like, for example, helping her stepdad move some barrels of dangerous chemicals:


…and after the accident, she finds herself alive, but burning:


…and in response steppop hypnotizes her into forgetting the whole incident and the fact that she apparently has superpowers, out of guilt or whatever:


Hence that previously mentioned fear-of-flame, you know.

Now as it turns out, her stepdad was Professor Phineas Horton, creator of the original android Human Torch during World War II, and the chemicals he and Frankie were moving around were like those that gave the android its flame powers. Strikes me as a plot contrivance they couldn’t get away with now, given WWII is 40+ more years in the past than when this comic was originally published. Horton being a teen girl’s 100-year-old stepfather now seems unlikely…or even an 85-year-old one, if you want to work it into a flashback timeframe. Just sayin’ Frankie Raye’s backstory is probably one they’d have to adjust if they ever referred to it again.

So anyway, Horton mailed her this costume some years later to help her contain her powers, though via post-hypnotic suggestion or something via a cassette tape included with the costume, she was made to immediately forget that she put it on and to destroy the tape and forget that too. Okay, that cassette would be an MP3 file now, but let’s not quibble.

Regardless of all this backstory, the upshot is Frankie Raye is also a Human Torch-type character now, and she goes on adventures and such with the Fantastic Four and everything is hunky-dory.

Except…a couple of times she used excessive force in her superheroing, showing little to no consideration for what she’s done. And that’s foreshadowing for what happens in issue #244, the conclusion of Byrne’s first major Galactus storyline.


As you can see by that cover there, something drastic is about to go down, and given the subject of today’s post, it’s probably not a shock to discover that’s Frankie depicted on the cover there.

Near the conclusion of this storyline, for assorted reasons Frankie makes the offer to Galactus to be his new herald, à la his former servant the Silver Surfer.


Reed of course tries to talk her out of it, telling her what she’d have to do in this role, and her response is surprising:


…though maybe not so surprising, given her attitude on display during those foreshadowing events I mentioned earlier.

Galactus, for his part, has a pragmatic reaction:


And the deed is done: she’s transformed by Galactus (see the cover above), and leaps into the new role, forsaking everything earthly for her new job:


Johnny clearly has no impact on her anymore, even after being a couple again for a bit, and his reaction is genuinely affecting in the face of Frankie’s (or rather, Nova’s, to use her new name) faded humanity.

And that’s that. Frankie turns up once or twice more during Byrne’s run, notably leading Galactus to the Skrull Homeworld. But also notably, we get the beginnings of a long-running subplot in future Marvel comics that Nova may be developing feelings for Galactus.

By “future comics” I mean mostly Silver Surfer, where that aspect of her relationship with Galactus is touched upon, and she also has some romance with the Surfer himself. We do get a follow-up to Nova’s disregard to the lives of “bug-eyed monsters,” and we also learn that Galactus himself may have had…something approaching stronger feelings for Nova than he let on, especially in the wake of her death.

Yes, I said “death,” the character dies in Silver Surfer, though she came back in some form, in the Mighty Marvel Manner, in the Heralds mini, but I hadn’t read it so I don’t know what she was up to there, or lately.

I didn’t even get into her appearance in the alternaute future “The Last Galactus Story” that was serialized, but never completed, in Epic Illustrated. But I think it’s safe to say, like Malice, Frankie “Nova” Raye was one of his reworkings of an established character that did have legs, did continue to have an impact, not just on the Fantastic Four title, but on the Marvel Universe at large.

And farther still, as the “Frankie becomes Nova” story make it, in condensed form, into an episode of a 1990s Fantastic Four cartoon. The character makes other animated and live action appearances as well.

What really struck me most about Frankie Raye is her amoral stance in regards to non-terrestrial life, as presented in #244. That surprised me as a reader still relatively new to the Marvel Universe, presenting a complexity in a character that we identify as “hero,” did heroic things, and had the readers’ sympathy. But she had that one flaw, one that would basically put her in the “villain” category, that made us question any specific attachment we may have had to her. And on top of that, throwing away her humanity, discarding her relationships in exchange for power…that would also be marked as villain behavior in a more black-and-white milieu, but reads as hopelessly tragic in Marvel’s longstanding “characters with problems” foundation. It’s a move that impressed me then, and still, all these years later, even after everything that’s been done with the character since, impresses me now.

Three things will fill you, three things will thrill you.

§ April 3rd, 2026 § Filed under sir-links-a-lot § 9 Comments

First thing: all the comics (or at least as many as can be identified) that appeared on the rack in that one scene in RoboCop (1987).

Second thing: someone stole stuff from Mark Evanier, including a couple classic pieces of original Dave Stevens art, which Mark talks about here, including where to report it should you happen to see them out for sale somewhere.

Third thing: the video trailer for this week’s Mad About DC comic book, starring Chip Zdarsky as the Flash.

Progressive Ruin Presents…the Beginning of Civilization!

§ April 1st, 2026 § Filed under Beginning of Civilization, here comes the april fool § 17 Comments

Hello, pals! It’s once again time for the comicsweblogosphere’s favorite recurring feature, the Beginning of Civilization, where I go through the monthly Diamond Previews catalog and pick out the best items that we’re all looking forward to! So, grab your copy of the April 1991 Previews and follow along!

p. 29 – The Sandman Trade Paperback:


This one and only collection of the instant classic Sandman series is a must-have, and if you’ve got your copy yet, take advantage of DC’s making it available again! Mark my words, this is an eternal work of genius and nothing can ever possibly knock it from its lofty perch!
 
 
p. 47 – Knuckles the Malevolent Nun #1:


The Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise is about to release its second installment in 1992, and we can get a sneak peek at his new sidekick Knuckles in this exciting comic book adaptation!
 
 
p. 69- Infinity Gauntlet #2:


This is going to be the ultimate Marvel adventure, and absolutely won’t be overshadowed by any future reworkings in other media!
 
 
p. 72 – X-Force #1:


This is gearing up to be the most influential comic book of the 1990s, and we’re only a year in! The art style is the wave of the future, and be sure to grab your copy before it sells out, because there’s no way you’ll be able to walk into a comic shop 35 years from now and find just stacks of them sitting around!
 
 
p. 127 -Lucasfilm Fan Club #16:


The fan base for Star Wars and other Lucasfilm properties are some of the most open-minded and imaginative people around, accepting of any changes or challenges to their expectations, and this magazine celebrates them and their love for these worlds!
 
 
p. 128 – Star Trek The Official Fan Club #80:


The fan base for Star Trek and other Paramount properties are some of the most open-minded and imaginative people around, accepting of any changes or challenges to their expectations, and this magazine celebrates them and their love for these worlds!
 
 
p. 133 – Watchmen Sourcebook:


What an amazing role playing game resource for your favorite DC Comics superteam! Can Rorschach beat Batman? Could Dr. Manhattan stand up to Superman? Use the information inside to answer the questions even Alan Moore dared not to ask!
 
 
p. 143 – Marvel Super Heroes Tri-Fold Wallet:


Perfect for slipping a twenty dollar bill inside so that you can buy up to 13 new Marvel comics during your next trip to the comic book store!
 
 
p. 154 – Dart Desert Storm Gulf War Fact Cards Set:


One of only seven different Desert Storm sets available in this month’s catalog! Be sure to load up, because what are the chances of this opportunity ever rising again?
 
 
p. 158 – Star Trek Episode Pin #17 Shore Leave:


Identify yourself to your fellow Trekkies and/or Trekkers with what will surely become the universal symbol representing Gene Roddenberry’s greatest creation!
 
 

Special thanks to the Longbox Heroes podcast (whatever a “podcast” is) for access to their scans of the April 1991 Previews catalog.

My Fantastic Four-ay: Part Four.

§ March 30th, 2026 § Filed under fantastic four § 30 Comments

So the topic of John Byrne’s mid-’80s reboot of the Superman line came up on Bluesky, where, among other topics, the new villains Byrne introduced was discussed. By and large Byrne took the probably-editorially-mandated approach of retooling some of the old Superman adversaries into something a little more modern-feeling, but between making Mr. Mxyzptlk unpleasant and making Metallo unpleasant, some new creations entered the mix.

…Aaaaand…dropped out of the mix, as for the most part, the new opponents had little to no staying power, or were used only sporadically until mostly just fading away. Like, say, Skyhook, or Dreadnought and Psi-Phon, whatever that one robot mummy thing was called, or even, God help us, Sleez (who apparently appeared about three or so times, which is four more than I expected). Even Bloodsport, who got a little play when a version of the character was used in a Suicide Squad movie, is mostly underutilized.

The one villain Byrne introduced who actually kinda/sorta got over, is Silver Banshee, probably more because of her striking appearance than anything else. Other creators took a liking to her and started developing her presence, and she also made the jump to other media (remember when she was on Smallville? She certainly was!). She was even showing up in the Superman comics relatively recently,

Which is a long way of saying that Byrne seemed to have more luck doing memorable stories with the established characters here than he did creating brand new villains for Superman to fight. But, really, that’s okay…superhero comics are littered with one-shot wonders who show up to fight the hero for an issue, gets sent down the river to do a nickel in the gray bar hotel, and are never heard from again. Byrne cooking up one villain (maaaaaybe two, if you want to count Bloodsport) that manage to make the grade out of however many he attempted isn’t a bad ratio.. I mean, it’s no Lee/Kirby cranking out legendary character after legendary character, but who could ever match those guys.

And that brings me to >Fantastic Four, as I’m sure you were expecting, given the title of this post an’ all. Byrne’s overall goal to his run on the Fantastic Four was that all-too-familiar phrase of “back to basics.” Byrne stripped the title back down to the Stan ‘n’ Jack days, focusing mainly on their creations as adversaries for the early issues, building on their foundation rather than much of what gone on in issues prior to Byrne’s takeover. (One exception was bringing back Terrax the Tamer, a cocreation with Marv Wolfman from Byrne’s previous run on the title, and who had his own measure of staying power).

Which isn’t to say that Byrne didn’t make some attempts at introducing new antagonists to the title. In #237, be brought in Spinerette:


…an interesting-looking lady with the power to induce vertigo-like effects:


…I mean, she got a “super-villain” name, she had an interesting look, but far as I can tell, only appeared this one time. Misunderstandings were resolved, she left the planet with her people, and that was that.

In #239, we get some critters that have been pestering a smal Arizona town:


…only it turns out they’re pals with a young girl that had been helping the FF throughout the issue:


There’s a lot goin’ on in this issue that I’m glossing over, but, even though Reed Richards his own self implies that these beings could appear again, far as I can tell, they never do.

In #266, one of the few issues during Byrne’s tenure that wasn’t mostly drawn by him (Kerry Gammill doing the honors, with Byrne pencilling a couple pages at the beginning and end of the issue, but inking throughout), we got Karisma:


…a villian with mesmerizing powers, shown here putting the whammy on the Thing:


…and she apparently turns up again fighting Captain America at some point, but she’s only had a couple of appearances altogether.

And then there’s the big one (literally). Terminus! I seem to recall Byrne stating somewhere that the intention was to create a Fantastic Four villain that would stand with the other classic FF bad guys, and, well, what we got was a riff on Galactus:


In Amazing Heroes #39, Byrne is quoted as saying

“The whole thrust behind Terminus […] is to introduce a cosmic bad guy who is a cosmic bad guy. Terminus is an extremely powerful menace, but he is not as powerful as Galactus, nor does he have Galactus’s nobility or important role to play in the workings of the universe. […] He’s not beyond good and evil [as Galactus is said to be]. He’s evil and he likes it. I don’t want a character with even a hint of nobility this time. He’s scuzzy. Every time he comes back, he’s going to be nastier. He’s basically out to have a good time, which he defines looting, pillaging, raping, murdering. He’s a kind of cosmic Attila the Hun.”

So, a giant bad guy who destroys planets but, unlike Galactus, is kind of an asshole about it. He’s sort of the answer to “oh, you think Galactus is a ‘bad guy,’ here’s what an actual Bad Guy Galactus would be like.” Terminus even has his own little companion who helps him track down worlds:


…and in contrast to whenever Galactus was defeated and driven away from the Earth, Terminus’s defeat results in him becoming trapped inside the Earth:


Interestingly, in an Amazing Heroes interview some years later, Byrne says

“…I had created Terminus for Marvel, and he was originally created to be a Darkseid-type character, although he evolved into something different.”

Of the FF villains Byrne created, Terminus seems to be the one closest to having the goods, though I believe Byrne only used him the once. He later turned up in an Avengers story by Roger Stern, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer, then was the focus of a crossover among a handful of 1990 annuals. He (or his armor) have made a handful of appearances over the years, making him at the very least a minor villanous player in the Marvel universe, if not the major recurring threat that Byrne had planned.

When I started reading Fantastic Four comics, I think even then I could feel the difference between an established villain and a new creation, why one had staying power and why the other did not. I enjoying reading the Spinnerette story, but I wasn’t left with a feeling of “I can’t wait to see her again,” or “this is the beginning of a long history with this character.” She was a short-term puzzle to be solved for this one story, with no real reason to return to her.

Terminus at least has some apparent depth to him, despite his one note purpose as “cosmic thug.” He’d clearly been around a bit, he had taken a helper from a previous world, his defeat left the promise of a return. This felt like a character with some legs, even if it would be under other creators, at least for a time.

Whereas, for example, Diablo, or the Puppet Master, two villains that turned up very eary in Byrne’s run, felt like guys who were absolutely part of the Marvel universe (because, well, they were) with understandable motivations and histories, and possibilities for further stories. These guys weren’t created as one-offs, they could be plot machines for many stories to come.

Not to say that Byrne’s new villains, aside from Terminus, couldn’t have been. Who knows what those little demon critters from #239 could have evolved into. Or what allegorical purpose Karisma could have served? But they were ultimately minor villains who existed to serve that one story and nobody felt inspired to dig them up again (or at leaset to dig them up too often). Again, that’s fine…not every character can be the Joker or Doctor Doom. And Byrne was hardly the only creator to contibute a new villain to the FF cause that made his or her one stand and was never seen again. Lee and Kirby are hard acts to follow, after all.

The “reprinted at last” is me being funny.

§ March 27th, 2026 § Filed under swamp thing § 9 Comments


Okay, due to popular demand, given the number of emails, DMs, and “@s” on Bluesky I’ve received, I should mention this forthcoming Swamp Thing Dark Genesis” Omnibus set, shipping in…egads, November? Well, that’ll give everyone time to save their pennies for it, since it retails for a mighty $150.

Oh, what does it include, you may ask. I may answer, by telling you that it includes

  • House of Secrets #92, reprinted at last
  • all 24 issues of the original 1970s Swamp Thing run
  • the first 15 issues of the early 1980s Saga of the Swamp Thing
  • the annual for that series — that’s the adaptation of the first movie, son, with an early Mark Texeira art job!
  • the two Brave and the Bold team-ups with Batman (#122 and #176)
  • DC Comics Presents #8 with Superman
  • Challengers of the Unknown #81-#87 (Swampy himself doesn’t pop up ’til #82, but #81 kicks off the story, and includes an old adversary of his)
  • House of Secrets #140, with the beginning of the aborted “Patchwork Man” serial, featuring the character from early in the Swamp Thing run
  • Phantom Stranger #14, another swamp monster (or…is it?) story by Swampy’s co-creator Len Wein, which came out around the same time as House of Secrets #92 — not actually Swamp Thing, but does have a cool Neal Adams cover

And that’s not all, friends! Included is the restored unpublished issue #25 from the original series, most of the pages of which were unearthed a while back. It’ll be nice to see this issue properly finished (and with the missing page replaced with new art). Finally, the Swamp Thing vs. Hawkman battle we’ve been waiting for! (I mean, aside from the one we got later during Alan Moore’s run.)

We’re also getting a translated version of the Patchwork Man story that would have been in House of Secrets #141, but for some reason was bumped, and only appeared in a foreign edition. Boy, it’s going to be nice to have all this stuff in one place.

I do notice they don’t include Super Friends #28, which technically is a Swamp Thing cameo, but really it’s just a guy in a Swamp Thing costume magically turned into the muck-encrusted mockery, so I guess it doesn’t count.

Oh, and there’s “extensive essays and never-before-seen scripts, art, and more!” so all right already, stop twisting my arm.

This is going to be one of the “new-style” omnibuses, like we saw with the Mike Grell’s Warlord volume we saw recently. Printed on what DC is calling “period-appropriate paper,” so it won’t be the slick fancy stuff. It’ll likely be the nice, white paper from the Warlord book, which means these new omnibuses will be shockingly light, since this paper isn’t nearly as heavy. We’re supposed to be getting the “original coloring,” too, which will likely look better, or more “authentic,” on this paper than the glossy stuff.

We’ll know for sure in about eight months once we have these in our hands. But it’s my understanding that the folks in charge of this, and the future Alan Moore Swamp Thing omnibuses are taking great care in producing these, and I’m hoping these will look as nice as realistically possible. I’ve also had some…assurances that some of the printing problems with previous reprints of the Moore run (like the missing caption, or the missing art) will be addressed.

Am I getting it? Yes, of course I am, at the very least I need what has got to be reprint #25 of House of Secrets #92.

I’m wondering if the forthcoming facsimile edition of Saga of the Swamp Thing #21 (an issue with problems in the reprinting, as linked above), will function as a preview of what the omnibuses will look like? Or is it just a rushed out reprint to take adavtage of the current facsimile trend?

My Fantastic Four-ay: Part Three.

§ March 25th, 2026 § Filed under fantastic four § 9 Comments

So as you might imagine, even this far out from (some version of) the character’s appearance on the silver screen, I’ve had an upswell of demand for comics featuring Doctor Doom. And not too long ago, a young man, probably 12 or 13, fished a couple appearances out of the Fantastic Four boxes and purchased them, one of which being issue #278 from 1985:


Technically, this isn’t Doom in this issue, but rather his young ward Kristoff, whose mind was reprogrammed with Doom’s memories upon the Doctor’s apparent “death.” Comics, everyone! But it’s a fun adventure (continued into the next issue, with a cover blurb referencing artist/writer John Byrne’s early work for Charlton).

Anyway, an hour or three after that kid bought his comic and left, it occurred to me that a particular subplot appeared in that #278, setting up a story a couple of issues later. Johnny “Human Torch” Storm, with his girlfriend Alicia Masters (which will take some explaining, which I plan to do later in this series of posts) are out for a walk, when Johnny notices someone’s been applying offensive stickers to posters advertising an equality rally:


And just so we’re clear, that panel above is the version you’ll see on Marvel’s digital comic platform, with That Word obscured. It was not obscured in the original publication, in the issues I bought off the stands myself 41 years ago. I can only wonder what that young customer of mine thought when he hit that page in the comic after taking it home that day, and frankly I’m still expecting the phone call at the shop from a parent.

I’m trying to recall my own reaction to the usage in the comic. I was a 15/16-year old white kid reading this, and I think I was…maybe a little surprised to see it, but I could see it was there to Make A Point About Racism and therefore this was leading up to some Important Comics.

Looking at it now, I can see it as an attempt at making (spoiler, this is the villain behind it all) the Psycho-Man and his emotion-manipulating powers having a more “real world” relevant impact. And using That Word was absolutely there for the shock value, which was apparently a big year for it because it pops up in Uncanny X-Men just a couple of months after this. As that 15/16-year-old kid back then, and as the 57-year-old white guy I am now, I’m not in a position to say “sure, this was okay to do.” I mean, I think hearts were in the right place, judging by this please-don’t-write-us-letters editorial box on the letters page for #278:


(And just so you all know…I looked to see what reactions this issue generated in later Fantastic Four letter columns, and I found one with letters for #277, and another with a page for letters about #279, but none for #278. Not sure what to make of that.)

In a postscript in #279, That Word gets dropped again as a set-up for the next issue. And, once we get to issue #280, with this admittedly striking cover:


…where this storyline starts in earnest, things get scaled back a little bit, with a policeman under Psycho-Man’s influence harasses an elderly Jewish man, and assaults Wyatt Wingfoot, the FF’s Native American friend. Plus, we get a panel showing an anti-mutant protest:


…which has been, and still is, Marvel’s mainstay allegory for real world racism, feeling a little odd contrasted with the real world racism the comic has been presenting for a couple of issues now.

When all is said and done, the entire point of the slurs and the racism and the violence is to show what a character like the Psycho-Man, and his control over people’s hate and fear, would do in a “realistic” setting. Yes, racism is real, and someone like Psycho-Man would take advantage of it, stirring it up for his own ends, even if his own ends are just causing more hatred and violence for its own sake. But the contrast between a very real-world slur and, well, the inherent comic book ridiculousness of Psycho-Man makes for, at best, a rough fit, resulting in a presentation that feels more like “look what we can do!” than “We Have Something Important to Say.”

The real goal of this storyline is two-fold, and has nothing to do with the racism in the set-up. It’s all about Susan Richards, the Invisible Woman, and redefining her character. In short, under Psycho-Man’s control, and SPOILERS once more for a four-decade-old story, she emerges in the new costumed identity of Malice:


…where she quickly demolishes the other members of the FF with innovative usage of her force field powers. And while the Malice identity, at least during Byrne’s run on the book, departs after the conclusion of this storyline, the character has quite the long tail, appearing and reappearing in one form or another in later creators’ runs, up to Fantastic Four comics being released even as I type this.

The demonstration of Sue’s powers unleashed, combined with her eventual torture at the hands of Psycho-Man and her off-panel presumably-gruesome revenge on the villain, are all part of Byrne’s attempts at “strengthening” her, resulting in this concluding panel in #284:


Despite being a little harder to say out loud than “Invisible Girl,” the “Invisible Woman” moniker has survived to this day. And, largely because of this story, she is still often referred to as the most powerful member of the team.

Which of course is a wild way to wrap up a tale that began with That Word being printed in the comic, in front of God an’ everybody. It’s one of the very few examples of Byrne setting up a story element that doesn’t really come to anything…something similar (though with fewer bad words) occurs in that story with Reed’s father from about a year prior to this, which I’ll probably get to later. It’s just there to show just bad the villain can be, and, well, yes, that’s pretty bad indeed, thanks John.

Again, going back to what I, reading this new in 1985, thought of it…well, I’m sure I didn’t think much about the conclusions I’m drawing here today. I probably thought of it as “comics have really matured if they can make storytelling choices like this!” Or maybe I wasn’t thinking anything of it at all, since I was also reading old undergrounds an’ such at the time, which tended to be a little freer with the language than their four-color counterparts.

I mean, ultimately it’s good to show Our Heroes Hate Racism (a point that now seems sadly lost on some of those who purport to be comic fans), but casually throwing That Word out there in a regular ol’ superhero comic, an edgy move then, is certainly off-putting to modern eyes, regardless of intent.

Sam Kieth (1963-2026).

§ March 23rd, 2026 § Filed under obituary § 20 Comments


My favorite Sam Kieth work, aside of course from his magnum opus, The Maxx, was this odd two-issue series released by Fantagraphics in 1991. It collected together short strips, art pieces, and other stuff by Kieth, all in glorious black and white, and affixed with a title that, to this day, helps me remember how to spell his name properly.

Speaking of The Maxx…just the other day, I was writing here about Spawn, and how people who haven’t been around comics in a while always bring it up. The Maxx is brought up nearly as often, and it’s not just people remembering the short-run cartoon that aired on MTV in the ’90s. They’re specifically asking about the comic book, which casts quite the long shadow.

The Maxx nominally had the trappings of a superhero comic, but in Kieth’s hands (with scripting from William Messner-Loebs on most issues, and a guest-script by Alan Moore) it was a tale about trauma, abuse, mental health, and the very nature of imagination and reality. It was weird, it was funny, it was emotional, and it was unique. And to this very day, when I get issues of this series in the shop, they sell out almost immediately. Maybe someday we can get a collection of this work that’ll stay in print longer than a few minutes…the demand is there.


He had a pretty good run of covers for Marvel Comics Presents, sometimes illustrating work inside as well. He drew an issue of Peter David’s Incredible Hulk, he did the occasional stand-alone mini (Four Women and Zero Girl come immediately to mind), a series of projects for Oni Press, multiple Lobo comics, and he eventually returned to the Maxx with, of all things, a strange Batman team-up. Oh, and let’s not forget the wonderful Epicurus the Sage (written by Messner-Loebs).

Pretty much every time Kieth touched pen to paper, no matter how mainstream-seeming the project appears, you were guaranteed a solidly-drawn weird time. “One of a kind” is kinda of an empty description in most cases, since we’re all unique in our own ways, but I think if it could be said about anyone, it can be said about the artistic talent of Sam Kieth.

So long, Sam.

The Final ’90s Countdown, Part Nineteen.

§ March 20th, 2026 § Filed under final '90s countdown § 12 Comments

And now, for another one-vote getter for my Final ’90s Countdown survey, and pack a lunch, it’s a long one!

Spawn (Image Comics, 1992-present)

Man oh man, where do I even start.

Arising from the mass exodus of Marvel’s top artists and Rob Liefeld, Image Comics provided these creators free reign to generate whatever new concepts their wild imaginations could conceive, and (most importantly) still have complete ownership of them. And it remains today as a powerful publisher of creator-owned work.

Now, when this whole wingding was announced, I remember thinking, “wow, this is a great opportunity to expand comics into new genres with these artists’ large audiences! Imagine a Jim Lee-drawn crime drama, or a Todd McFarlane-drawn Old West story!” Yes, I was perhaps a little…well, a lot naïve, and frankly I still think McFarlane could draw one hell of a cactus. But what we got was more superheroes.

I mean, at first, they were admittedly very popular superheroes. First out of the gate was Liefeld’s Youngblood, and despite the joshing I gave that fresh-faced youngster earlier in this piece, we had a line waiting outside the door of our shop the day of release (thanks largely to the Rob making a talk show appearance the night before). And the comic continued to sell well, and its style and storytelling had a tremendous impact on the superhero artform.

Which is a long way of introducing the subject of today’s entry, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. Another popular debut series from Image, we didn’t have a line outside the door for this comic when it first came out, but we ordered high numbers and purt’near sold through them all. Coming off several years of illustrating Spider-Man comics, McFarlane was perhaps neck-and-neck with Jim Lee (who’d drawn X-Men books) for Most Popular Guy Who Quit Marvel, 1990s Edition. This comic just sold and sold and kept selling for a number of years, while the market was there, and even continued on through the mid-1990s market crash at slightly less-outstanding sales levels.

As you can see by the header, the comic is still being published to this very day, along with a myriad of recent-ish spin-offs (including Gunslinger Spawn, so we finally did get that western-themed McFarlane comic I was hoping for, kinda-sorta). Sales have been up and down over the decades, but have been a little strong of late, at least on the main title, which has never relaunched or rebooted or renumbered or any darn thing, issue #373 having come out just a couple of weeks back. Plus, its creator, Todd McFarlane his own self, has been involved in its production more often than not over its long life.

In general, as a writer, McFarlane make a good artist, as we all discovered during that solo Spider-Man title he did just prior to departing Marvel, and we all had our fun with his skills in that department. But, honestly, he wasn’t much worse than, say, Bill Mantlo during his more florid moments, or Chris Claremont-isms like “I…hurt,” and even John Byrne’s scripts had some real clunkers. No one is without sin, is what I’m saying, and eventually, I think, McFarlane turned into the kind of writer that the Spawn storytelling required. Nothing particularly clever or polished, but utilitarian enough to move things along at the necessary pace.

As I mentioned, McFarlane kept his hand in one way or another throughout the series, even as other hands took over the story and art, and the comic remained…artistically consistent for its still continuing lifespan. Imagine 373 issues of X-Men or Wonder Woman, all more or less under the same editorial guidance, all looking reasonably similar stylewise, the story remaining consistent and building upon itself all this time. The only comparisons in American comics would be Dave Sim’s Cerebus, and the also still-continuing Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen, both of whom did write and drawn every issue). I’ve often lamented that Liefeld didn’t keep doing Youngblood every month since that long-ago first issue. Just imagine 373 issues of Youngblood and what that would look like now. It would be bonkers beyond our wildest dreams. It would be everyone‘s favorite comic.

So, what’s the comic all about, anyway? Soldier Al Simmons, upon his murder, goes to Hell, where the demon in charge, Malebolgia, gives him a costume and powers and sends him back to Earth to serve his new master’s ends. Once there, Spawn decides to use his powers for good instead, and, well, hijinks ensue for the next 30+ years. (It’s reminiscent of the 1970s Atlas/Seaboard comic The Grim Ghost, except for the running for 30+ years part.) One gimmick is that Spawn is told he only has a limited amount of “energy” for the superpowers he now has, and once he used all those up, he gets sent back to Hell. As such, we, the readers, are given a little on-panel doodad that occasionally pops up and shows us where Spawn’s power levels are at, even though it’s never explained what each number represents and what exactly depletes what stat.

I mean, at least at first, I only read a handful of issues so I have no idea if that counter was ever explained, or refilled, or whathaveyou. In fact, I only read the first dozen issues myself, because, sure, why not, which meant I was there for the four guest-writer issues (8-11, written by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Dave Sim, and Frank Miller, respectively). I don’t know if that was McFarlane reacting to criticisms of the writing by saying “okay, fine, here are some real writers” or what, but they were pretty good, and at least a couple of them (Moore and Gaiman) added some important pieces to the ongoing Spawn saga (even if one of those pieces, the hunter angel Angela, was eventually lost to Marvel in a whole legal/creator ownership thing that I’ll let this article explain).

As to what Spawn has been up to all this time, since I last read the character, I couldn’t tell you beyond what I know of the character’s publishing history. There were a number of spin-offs early on, including Curse of Spawn and Spawn: The DUndead, crossover adventures like Spawn/WildC.A.T.s (written by Alan Moore), multiple minis with Spawn’s nemesis Violator (also written by Moore!), and a couple of intercompany crossovers with Batman (which would happen again recently). Then, a few years ago, there was another big push to launch more Spawn series, like King Spawn and the aforementioned Gunslinger Spawn, and there’s usually three or four different Spawn series on the rack at any given time.

There are reprints a’plenty, including a series of Spawn: Origins (volume 31, coming in August, collects up to #190), and the giant Spawn Compendiums, volume 7 of which gets you up to #350). And there have been several paperbacks and hardcovers reprinting the many spin-offs and tie-ins, all in varying states of in-printness. And of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the live-action movie from 1997, and the three seasons of the HBO animated series (also starting in 1997). I feel like I keep hearing about a new Spawn movie every couple of years. Oh, and the toys. So many toys.

Spawn remains a touchstone for many former comic book readers, as I don’t know how many times someone has come in, told me “I haven’t been in a comic shop since the ’90s!” and then asked “is Spawn still coming out?” or “how much is Spawn #1 worth?” And speaking of Spawn #1, I continue to do strong trade in those, selling them almost as fast as I can get my hands on them.

Now is it all any good? Well, at least one of you voting in my poll liked it, so who am I to gainsay that? But it’s lasted all this time, through likely multiple cycles of readership. I often wonder what percentage of folks buying the comic have been reading it since buying its very first issue off the stands in 1992? Regardless, it’s had real staying power and a solid fanbase and I suspect, if we check back in thirty years from now, we’ll continue to find it on the stands. Probably at $17.99 an issue, but I don’t think it’s going anywhere.

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