Comic Books: June 2005 Archives

I loved DC’s characters from the 70s that blended horror and heroes together in a new genre. These characters included Swamp Thing, Phantom Stranger, Deadman, and the Spectre. DC has recently released Wrath of the Spectre, which reprints a notorious run in Adventure Comics from 1974 to 1975. It’s notorious because of the gruesome ways that the Spectre dispatched ordinary criminals; the most famous scene has the Spectre turning a guy into wood and then chopping him into sections using a buzz saw. Harlan Ellison even remarked upon this series in a 1979 interview with The Comics Journal, where he said that the writer, Michael Fleisher, was crazy (“bugfuck”) and that DC Comics had cancelled the series because "they realized they had turned loose a lunatic on the world." (Fleisher later sued Ellison for libel over these remarks; you can read the details here.)

As the foreword states, the editor, Joe Orlando, may have been inspired to create a vengeful Spectre series due to a recent mugging. Michael Fleisher had been Orlando’s assistant and was given the assignment to bring the Spectre back in a regular series. While the Spectre had been created in the 1940s, had joined the early Justice Society, in later years he had languished as a character. There was a 60s series that featured some good issues by Neal Adams and Murphy Anderson, but writers had difficulty with the character, making him more of a superhero one moment, and a supernatural character the next. Fleisher and Orlando decided to make each Spectre story a self-contained vignette (like the Phantom Stranger stories) about punishing criminals in various ways. Lt. Jim Corrigan is the Spectre’s human host, but he’s dead and exists for no other purpose than to help the Spectre seek out criminals. (They don’t recap the Spectre’s origin in any of these tales, which is amazing, as they definitely would today.) Corrigan usually traces the criminals down to their lair and unleashes the fury of the Spectre upon them. This is the fun part, where you see the Spectre turn criminals into glass, dummies, skeletons, etc. In one scene he uses a pair of giant scissors to chop a guy in half. It’s all bloodless and PG-rated but it’s a riot. The writing is pretty hokey. There is an ongoing subplot about a woman named Gwendolyn, who is attracted to Corrigan even though she knows his secret: “Jim! I don’t care that you’re a ghost! I want you to marry me!” Corrigan replies: “Oh, that’s a great idea! Nothing I’d rather hear than the pitter patter of little zombies running around the house!”

If you’ve only read the Spectre during the past two decades, you’ll find these stories a bit unsettling. The Spectre doesn’t exercise god-like powers (like he did in Crisis or Swamp Thing) other than transforming people into inanimate objects. There’s one exceptionally good story here about Jim Corrigan’s role as the Spectre and his relationship with “The Voice”—God, why couldn’t they say that? Corrigan asks the Voice to let him become human so he can marry Gwendolyn in a special two part tale.

What makes this collection worth buying to me is the great artwork by Jim Aparo. In the 1970s his artwork was at its peak when he illustrated the Spectre, Phantom Stranger, and the Brave and the Bold. Aparo artwork was consistently at high quality because he did the penciling, inking, and even the lettering. He seemed to use some of the same techniques as Neal Adams (using zip-a-tone), and he was equally as great at drawing romance, horror, and mystery stories. I’d love to see the Phantom Stranger stuff collected in a similar format, especially the ones done by Aparo and Len Wein. Nuff said.

DC Comics has been producing some trade paperbacks appealing to those who are interested in the Silver\Bronze Age—or maybe those who just want to buy back their childhood. Superman vs. The Flash fits either case very well. It’s doubtful that a teenager would appreciate these hokey stories, but an aging boomer or a kid under 10 years old might. In re-reading these tales, where Superman and the Flash race each other in various contests, I took notes of the various changes that happened to both Superman and Flash over the years.

The first race occurred in Superman #199 back in August 1967, and it was written by a teenager: Jim Shooter. In the foreword we find out that Mr. Shooter had always dreamed of such a race. The United Nations asks Superman and The Flash to race against each other (three times around the Earth), with proceeds going to charity; mafia organizations in France and the U.S. are determined to fix the race by sabotaging one of the heroes. The story is full of good, wholesome morals that were dictated by the editor, Mort Weisinger. Superman and Flash treat each other with kid gloves. Superman helps the Flash recover from a spill on an icy lake, in his Clark Kent identity, to spare Barry Allen from a bruised ego (“I could hurt his pride!”). Neither hero actually wins the race; they tie each other at the finish line (“Since neither of us won, none of the gamblers can collect!”). It also happens this way in Flash #175, their second race, written by E. Nelson Bridwell, a few months later in December 1967. Here the dialogue shows the heroes to be a bit snappier; when Superman unexpectedly lends the Flash a hand, Barry Allen says “Why the grandstand play? I was doing okay on my own!” The story is forgettable, about aliens who force the heroes to race across the galaxy.

The best race happened in World’s Finest #198-199, written by Denny O’Neil in 1970. I remembered this story vividly, because it marked a departure for World’s Finest, turning it into a series of team-ups with Superman and another hero. The Carmine Infantino cover was very enticing (on the right, click to expand), with Batman giving the go-signal and the caption “…And This Time There MUST be a Winner!” As the story opens, Jimmy Olsen is fending off a hangover and on his way to the restroom when he falls thru a time portal into a roman chariot. Superman discovers from the Guardians that “anachronids” are invading our universe at a rapid rate and threatening the time stream. To thwart this menace, Superman and Flash must race across the universe, and their speed will somehow destroy these creatures. Doesn’t make sense now, but it did when I was 9 years old! Flash gets a medallion from the Guardians to pave a green-energy “track” which also uses the entire power battery on OA—all Green Lanterns are powerless for the duration. By the time the story is over, Superman/Flash race thru the center of a red sun, and encounter some formidable Phantom Zone criminals. The end of the race was unique: both heroes injure their legs and must crawl to their last destination.

The last race between Barry Allen and the Silver Age Superman kicked off DC Comics Presents #1-2 in 1978. A decent script by Martin Pasko, but it’s the fine art job by Jose-Luiz Garcia Lopez that makes this still worth reading. Again, aliens force the heroes to race each other—but now it’s a race through the timestream. Both Superman and the Flash are pretty experienced at running through time; Flash is trying to save Earth while Superman is trying to save his own birth. It’s totally silly in the end because they easily incapacitate the aliens, but before that happens you will see Lopez draw the Reverse-Flash (Professor Zoom) and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Adventures of Superman #463 (in 1990) was the first post-Crisis race. This was the hardest story to read, because both Flash and Superman are significantly de-powered following the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Wally West needs a ton of burgers and fries to keep his metabolism stoked and he’s a bit shallow. When Mr.Mxyzptlk forces them to race each other, Wally is certain he will be beaten by Superman. At least the heroes only race around the world (one rotation) and they are really sweating at the end. The last race took place in DC 1ST: Superman\Flash in 2002. Written by Geoff Johns, it’s a novel twist as Superman doesn’t race Wally West, but Jay Garrick, the original Golden Age Flash. It’s tied into many different continuity events in the Flash’s own series, but it has the best ending of all of them. The “magician” Abra Kadabra (really a criminal from the 64th century) breaks out of jail and zaps Wally with an aging “spell”. Wally will die in five minutes, unless Superman or Jay Garrick can outrun him; Abra sets it up so that whoever touches Wally saves him, but at the cost of their own life. At this point in DC history, Wally is so fast that there’s no question he’s faster than Superman, as Garrick says that only Wally’s illness makes him slow enough for them to catch up. I love the cover by Kevin Nowlan so much that I have included it here (upper left, click to expand).

If you’re a Flash fan, or you’re trying to get a Silver Age DC library, you’ll want to get Superman vs. The Flash. It’s particularly sweet that DC printed this with an Alex Ross painting, which Ross did for a Warner Bros. Store special edition plate. You’ll find this collection discounted at Amazon and other online stores, and I think it’s a bargain at less than $20. Nuff said, now let's get out and go for a run!

I just saw Batman Begins today. It’s a good movie, and it washes away the stink of the Schumacher films. The best thing about the movie is that it concentrates on Bruce Wayne rather than the caped superhero or crazy villains. (This is something that the current comics need to fix as well; Batman is so busy running around the world, he’s pretty much abandoned his Wayne identity.) Batman Begins attempts to show that Wayne is flesh and blood, and how he develops his skills and tools to fight crime. The script takes patches of continuity from various Batman mini-series and weaves them together to come up with an explanation. David Goyer, the screenwriter, has done this sort of thing before on Blade, where he pretty much took the names and powers of the characters and put his own spin on them. There are bits of Miller's Year One and Loeb's Long Halloween, but it's not as satisfying as either of these graphic novels.

Goyer and Nolan make a number of mistakes in Batman Begins. Ra’s Al Ghul should have been a terrific super-villain who has lived for centuries thanks to the Lazarus pits; here he’s portrayed as Batman’s opposite number, someone who suffered from crime and chose to take an even more extreme path than Wayne. I don’t really care for the notion that Ra’s is Wayne’s mentor in the martial arts. It was much better in the comics that Wayne had learned the skills on his own and had won the respect of Ra’s as a worthy adversary. It also that bugs me is that Ra’s isn’t Middle Eastern (political correctness due to our current situation in Iraq) and that he isn’t bent on cleansing the world in a holocaust. He wants to wipe out crime by making Gothamites kill each other? I thought the holocaust plan much more sense in a twisted kind of way.

One of the other problems that Batman has always had is the lack of a steady romantic interest. Goyer came up with Rachel Dawes, an assistant district attorney, who was Wayne’s childhood friend before his parents were killed. Rachel doesn’t seem that interesting to me. Maybe it’s because Katie Holmes plays her and the recent Tom Cruise thing has soured me on this chick, but I think her acting is weak and she’s just not as cute as she used to be in Dawson’s Creek.

I had some minor quibbles with the police in the film. While it’s good that they portrayed Gotham’s cops as corrupt and on the take, they made Flass a much weaker character than in Frank Miller’s story. Miller’s Flass is a strong bully, a tremendous adversary that Gordon needs to overcome; here he is more like fat, disgusting Bullock. There’s a scene where Batman is surrounded by the police, but instead of fighting them as in Year One, they merely summon the bats and he gets away all too quickly.

No film is perfect; all superhero films seem to have some weaknesses. Batman Begins does an awful lot more right than wrong. Part of the magic is the perfect casting of Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Gordon and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. Showing the origins of Batman, the Batcave, and the Batmobile is a really cool deal. There is a chase scene involving the Batmobile which is very exciting. I always wondered how Batman would deal with helicopters following him out of town! Although wouldn’t they comb the area for tire tracks afterwards? The Scarecrow is the only “costumed” villain in the movie and he’s wonderfully played by Cillian Murphy. He’s a good psychological foil for Batman and he leaves you wishing we had seen more. It’s a good movie, not quite the crowd pleaser the first Batman movie made by Tim Burton had been, but good enough to reinvigorate Warner’s superhero franchise (the ending leaves you a teaser as to what's coming if there is a sequel). Next year: Superman Returns! Nuff said.

CBR posted a preview of the new Defenders series by Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire. Surprisingly, I liked it, even though this series is played for laughs, I think they’ve somehow captured the spirit of these unique characters working together. And that led me to wondering, why do I think the Defenders are so damn cool?

The Defenders premiered in Marvel Feature #1 back in 1971. The cover was beautifully drawn by Neal Adams, and it featured the three title characters rocketing towards the viewer: Sub-Mariner, Hulk, and Dr. Strange. Click on this image to expand it; notice the flames in the background, the lamp-post about to fall, and the car turned over on its side. People are fleeing in a panic. When I saw this in the Marvel house ads, it was quite a mystery, you see, because you would think that at least two of these people (Namor and Hulk) would just as soon destroy the world as save it. In Namor’s case he had attacked the surface world a number of times in the Fantastic Four; the Hulk had made several rampages throughout cities in the Marvel Universe. While Dr. Strange was a pretty good guy, we never saw him interact with a lot of super-heroes other Spider-Man. And so when I saw this cover, I had to buy this comic. Only I wouldn’t be to find it until thirty years later at a Wondercon. In truth, the first three Defenders stories in Marvel Feature 1-3 are probably only magical if you’re a kid. In each of them, Dr. Strange is the catalyst for bringing Subby and the Hulk together to aid him on a quest. My favorite one here is Marvel Feature #2: it takes place during Halloween in Rutgers, Vermont, the scene of a parade where Roy Thomas (the creator of the Defenders) actually attended. Dr. Strange’s old foe, Dormammu, attempts to cross-over from his dimension via Dr. Strange’s body. Doc, in turn, uses his astral image to bring Namor and the Hulk to his aid.

In the stories themselves, the trio acted like heroes. Yet to the world around them, they seemed threatening. And despite the occasional guest appearance, mostly to fight the other heroes, these three were quite isolated in the Marvel Universe. This, to me, is what made the Defenders unique: they were all loners. They were outcasts. If Iron Man or Captain America saw the Defenders taking action, they would assume the worst. And unlike the Avengers, the Defenders had no headquarters (although Doc’s mansion was a meeting place), no jet planes, no communication devices, no charter, and no government connection. Almost at the end of every story, the Defenders seemed ready to break up at any given moment. The Hulk and Namor would storm off and tell Strange never to summon them again, but events would dictate otherwise.

I picked up two DC Specials that I really loved as a kid: Strangest Sports Stories Ever Told. One of DC's best qualities in the 60s and 70s were there anthology titles covering humor, horror, romance, westerns, and war. I never forgot these two collections, DC Special #7 from June 1970 and DC Special #9 from Dec. 1970. The stories are crazy, combining sports with crazy SF themes. One of them features a team of baseball players from another planet that challenge the New York team after they win the World Series. The trick: the aliens are invisible but still wear baseball uniforms! The catch: the aliens want to win the NY team’s championship flag which holds a “proto-globe” device vital to their survival. They can’t touch it or take it by force (thru a hokey plot device) so they play baseball. It’s wacky fun, and if you like baseball and gorillas there’s a story here for you. Gorillas evolve and play baseball but it’s only the first step to conquering humanity. There are stories covering many types of sports, including golf (on Mars), boxing (fighting an alien), football (berries transform a weakling into a quarterback), and racing (a 1890s horseless carriage travels thru time and wins the Indy 500).

While the stories may be outrageous, what carries the reader thru them is the artwork by Carmine Infantino. Infantino was great at drawing comics in a variety of genres; here he combines his best science-fiction style (from Adam Strange) with the modern era of the 1960s. There are no capes, no super heroes here. Sports stories were pretty difficult to convey in comics until Carmine Infantino came up with some creative ways to solve the problem. His technique was to use silhouettes inside the captions, explaining something about a particular sports move. He also used it to show crowd reactions or explain a pseudo-scientific concept. While Infantino used similar techniques in other comics, I think its greatest impact was in the sports genre. He was the master at clear storytelling; using hands on captions in the Flash to point out specific plot points and making it look exciting. Today’s artists would do well to study this man’s work.

If you are a Strange Sports Stories expert, click on the Comment link below this post and tell me: Where did these stories originally appear? And were these the only two DC Special collections?

WANTED, written by Mark Millar, is an interesting mismash of comic book references that long time readers will enjoy picking through. While I can't confirm this rumor, WANTED may have started out as a Secret Society of Super-Villains mini-series for DC Comics (at least this is how the book reads to me). If so, DC probably rejected Millar’s proposal and he reworked the material into this non-code approved, mature, and very dark story. So you have a whole host of DC subtext, in addition to movies such as Fight Club, Trainspotting and the Matrix, and even video games like Grand Theft Auto.

The story centers on Wesley Gibson, a sad sack of a man in a dead-end job with a best friend who constantly shags his girl every time he turns his back. Just like the Matrix, however, Wesley finds that he’s been living in a false reality. This was a world in which there used to be super-heroes, but that all ended in 1986 when a “Crisis” like event wiped them all away. Long time DC readers will remember the issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths when the super-villains teamed up to strike at the heroes in the middle of the war with the Monitor. In the world of WANTED, you can think of it like the villains won and the Monitor just went away. A crippled Superman-like hero is in an old folks home and he’s not in play at all for this story (let’s see what happens if there is a sequel). They’ve duped the entire world into forgetting the truth, and Wesley finds that he’s the son of a super-villain called the Killer (think Deadshot from Batman and Suicide Squad). This super-villain mafia (made men and women who can plunder, kill and rape to their hearts content) induct Wesley into their ranks and he gets personal attention from the sexy Fox (think Catwoman). Wesley pals around with other thinly disguised villains such as Professor Solomon Seltzer (Lex Luthor), Doll-Master (Toyman), Imp (Mr. Mxy), Sucker (Parasite), Fuckwit (Bizzaro), Shithead (Clayface) and Deadly Nightshade (Poison Ivy). But in every story, there must be a conflict. In a world without heroes, the conflict comes from the villains fighting each other. There is a “Council of Five” of criminal leaders who divided up the continents among themselves. One of them, Mr. Rictus (the Joker), isn’t too happy with getting Australia to run and wants more, more, more.

WANTED has a terrific premise and it really takes off like a rocket—despite a stumble on the launch pad when Millar mentions Wesley’s “African American boss”. It’s when it comes back to Earth that I have a few problems. When Wesley becomes the new Killer, he seems to become the most unstoppable force in the world; he fires guns that never run out of ammo and he never misses. I never felt that there was any moment he was really in danger. Deadshot, by contrast, is a far more interesting character, because he does fail at certain times (John Ostrander posited that it’s for an emotional reason). Likewise, Wesley’s father (the original Killer) is a much more complicated figure, and he makes Wesley seem like Melba toast. The ending of the story causes the most problems; there’s a sum of ten million dollars involved, and it doesn’t quite seem like enough money for a man who will run an entire continent. There’s a final resolution to Wesley’s relationship with a loved one that doesn’t seem right. And the last two pages are an insult to the reader, which again is a nod to Trainspotting, which made fun of sleepy, materialistic suburbanites. I don’t know if I find the page upsetting or if I just think Millar made a blatant theft from his favorite film.

Despite this, I can give WANTED a nod to certain readers. If you always enjoyed DC’s villains and wanted to see a mature “Elseworlds” take on them, then you’ll love this as well. Or, if you always thought the standard super-villains in most comics were just too dumb to ever go for the jugular vein, and don’t mind graphic language, sex, and violence, you might go for this as well. For me, I’m in the former camp, I’m just glad I waited for the trade. But this definitely isn’t as good as Millar’s other work: The Ultimates Vol. 2: Homeland Security, Superman: Red Son or Wolverine: Enemy Of The State Volume 1 HC (Wolverine).

Holy Moley! Captain Marvel returned to television last Saturday in one of the best Justice League Unlimited episodes ever. This particular episode was written by Dwayne McDuffie and J.M. DeMatteis (who writes the funny Justice League stuff with Keith Giffen). They found the perfect actor to record Captain Marvel’s dialogue: Jerry O'Connell, from Sliders and Crossing Jordan. His young voice coupled with the script really brought the Big Red Cheese to life (“Golly! Gosh! Nice to meet you, Mr. Superman, sir”). There were many comedic moments in the episode, the best one being Captain Marvel’s naïve ability to trust his fellow man, which unfortunately extends to Lex Luthor. Lex is not only running for President, he’s re-building a whole city area to help the under-employed. Superman isn’t buying any of it, but he fails to see the subtleties of Luthor’s plot, and this puts him on a headlong course against the good Captain. Of course, this leads to a battle between the two superpowers, but it’s comical as they destroy building after building in a mad rampage to stop each other. They’ve never had Superman uses his powers in such an unrestricted manner! I liked some of the other touches that respected Captain Marvel’s past: his eyes were dots and his school name was “C.C. Binder Elementary” after his creator. DC and Warner Brothers are sitting on top of a gold mine and they don’t even know it; Captain Marvel is the ultimate young person’s wish fulfillment fantasy. If Harry Potter can be a successful book and movie franchise, there’s no reason why Billy Batson can’t be as well.

Another cool recent episode of JLU was “Double Date” written by Gail Simone, and if Oracle had made an appearance, this would have been a Birds of Prey episode. Green Arrow and Black Canary had to protect a super-criminal called Mandragora, who is in the Witness Protection Program and waiting to testify against the Mafia. Huntress, who saw Mandragora murder her parents as a child, wants to find Mandragora and kill him. She gets an assist from The Question, voiced by the excellent Jeffrey Combs from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Re-animator. I love this version of the Question, as the writers took him back to his Steve Ditko roots, examining conspiracy theories and digging into the truth, rather than being another kung fu dude like the Denny O’Neil version. Great fun watching Canary and Arrow together and we get to see that famous “Canary Cry” animated at last! I love Canary’s comment (“Ewwww”) at the Huntress’ randy behavior in the last scene. It would be great to have a boxed DVD set of all JL and JLU episodes. Nuff said.

We don’t always see eye to eye on everything here at Photon Torpedoes, but one thing the big three kahunas do agree on: we never would have picked Jessica Alba to be Sue Storm in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. Not because of her ancestry, but because of her age; IMDB states that Ms. Alba was born in 1981 and is currently 24 years old. I’ve never thought of Sue Storm as being so young and nubile. In my mind, she was a woman in the 28-35 age range, perhaps because I’ve read the FF for so long. In the comics, Sue has two kids (Franklin and Valeria) and is clearly much older than her brother, Johnny Storm.

The actress we always pictured as playing the heroic and MILFable Sue Storm? None other than Gail O’Grady! She’s the star of the just cancelled American Dreams, check out this picture of Gail as a 60s Mom and compare this to Kirby’s drawing of Sue Storm in the same time period…

The hairstyle and resemblance seems uncanny to me! It does not stop there, as Gail is capable of portraying a woman from an older time period as well as a modern hot mama. Take a look at this picture from an awards show and compare it Wieringo’s depiction of the Invisible Woman…

Cowabunga! Again the hairstyle matches the drawing and her figure is full enough to round out that blue costume. I love it. As Mark Waid once said, Sue should be a hot soccer mom. I could pull out many more pictures of Ms. Grady that bears resemblance to John Buscema and Jim Lee drawings, but I’ll stop here.

Now I don’t want to discount that Jessica Alba doesn’t bear any similarities to Ms. Storm. Going through my archives I did find a modern depiction that she matches…

Ms. Alba is much more like the Invisible Woman that Steve McNiven draws in the “4” series. McNiven’s Sue is wiry, athletic, and younger skewed version—and Alba is more of a match for it. Despite the fact that I always pictured Gail O’Grady, it is unreasonable to think any big studio would prefer her over Alba because of demographics. I will still be eager to see what Alba brings to the role and how her powers are portrayed. For more Sue Storm choices, check out Cousin Dick's poll and vote! Nuff said.

I been getting’ a lot of comments from you whipper snappers that I ain’t real. Ain’t no way you’re a real hick and readin’ comics, Cousin Dick. Ain’t no way anyone could prefer Jim Shooter and Al Milgrom to Mr. Brian Michael Bendis. Well, you’d be surprised, pardners—Cousin’s been readin’ Mighty Marvel since you were a wet dream in ol’ Daddy’s pink eye! My chief advisor, Joe Bob, dug into our archives and pulled out a copy of Peter Parker Spider-Man #101. Now this was way back when, just after the Secret Wars I, when Spidey wore the black alien costume. Look at how purty that looks on that cover—that John Byrne was a clever feller to figure out how to draw that in pure black and white. Click on that image to expand it if you like—if you’re like me ya might not know! Inside the cover we got a great story by my pal Al Milgrom, the greatest editor/writer/artist who ever came down the pike.

Turn the pages to the letters column and you’ll see one of my favorite letters ever published in a Marvel comic. I put this here thumbnail picture of it on the left, click on it to zoom 100% and read it in all it’s glory. Al Milgrom was so choked up after readin’ this, he sent me six giant poster boards of U.S.1 concept art at his own expense! Now if that doesn’t prove that Al is a heck of a feller, what will? Now, a couple of other tidbits on this here letter page: is that Mr. “Busted Knuckles” Beau Smith from Silver Bullet? The editor was Jim Owsley, the feller who became later know as Christopher Priest. Don’t know why he changed his name, maybe he’s runnin’ from the law! And check out that paid circulation, 180,000 copies an issue, I figure Mr. Quesada would kill a moose with his bare hands for those sales.

Cousin Dick’s been here for four decades pardners, he’s real and he ain’t goin’ nowhere! Nuff said.

I usually get my comics a few weeks behind everyone else, since I order mine from M&M Comics. This service saves me quite a few bucks--and in this case, I was looking forward to receiving the hardcover collection Wolverine: Enemy Of The State Volume 1 HC (Wolverine). I knew the minute this series appeared that it would be collected and I prefer to read things this way. This is the second best Wolverine story ever created (the first being the classic Chris Claremont and Frank Miller original mini-series Wolverine TPB). Wolverine is captured by the combined forces of Hydra (the old anti-S.H.I.E.L.D. organization) and the Hand (from Daredevil and Elektra). Wolvy gets brainwashed and turned into a living weapon, pointed at all the big guns in the Marvel Universe. Millar's plot is raw and brutal. You see Wolverine killing innocent people, which made me remember Jim Shooter's old policy "Marvel Heroes do not kill" when Byrne/Claremont wanted him to dispatch a guard in the Savage Land. That policy is no longer in effect--Wolverine's on a rampage and he's going to have a lot of guilt when this is over. There's a Wolverine vs Elektra fight which is savage, as the red ninja nearly slices his head off in an effort to incapacitate him. A fight with the Fantastic Four shows their various powers in ways you've never seen. I particularly like how effective Sue Storm is here--I've always thought she's the most powerful member. Lots of good old Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. here as well. I think this story is perfectly suited to John Romita Jr's talents as an artist--it's some of the best work that he has done since Daredevil Legends Vol. 3: The Man Without Fear where his storytelling techniques expanded working will Frank Miller. This is big, bold Marvel comics auction that combines a Kirby and Miller feel within Romita's pencils. I don't want to spoil anything, but this is a great, fast read and you'll be glad to have it collected in one place. The only thing bad about the hardcover version is that one page is missing dialog and captions (Marvel's proofreading department must be non-comics readers)--I've included it here, click on it to view it at a larger size. You may want to wait for the softcover edition which we presume will have this fixed: Wolverine: Enemy of the State, Vol. 1.

OK, cowpokes, the big news from Philly is that DC is gonna do a "One Year Later" thing during Crisis 2. Between Feb and Mar 2006 you'll see a mysterious "one year later" gap where all kinds of thangs happened. Shades of Secret Wars! Remember when Spidey got that black costume and the FF got She-Hulk? Lord have mercy on us all! Well, if you gotta steal from somone, that Didio dude knows he's gotta steal from the best: Jim Shooter. Well, me and Joe Bob got some spies over there in Philly, here's the lowdown on some of the things that may be comin' One Year Later:

* Seven Soldier’s universe becomes the “primary” DC Universe (aka Earth-P).

* The JSA will go back to Earth-2, Capt. Marvel goes back to Earth-S, and you can pick up a “Road Map to the new DC Universe” at the AAA store.

* Adam Strange, Secret Six, and Secret Society of Super-Villains get ongoing series after Crisis 2. So do Binky, Jerry Lewis, and Bob Hope.

* Hawkman, Aquaman, and Firestorm get cancelled, ‘cause Mr. Geoff Johns just can’t write every DC book.

* Wally West will merge with the Speed Force to save everyone. Guess who’s comin’ back: Barry Allen! Now everyone’s back from the dead, just to make Alex Ross happy.

* A new Starman will emerge from Crisis 2, ‘cause we ain’t had a new Starman in ages.

* We’re gonna see those Kingdom Come heroes during Crisis 2. I like the female Kid Flash, she’s spunky!

* Zatanna will ditch those thigh-high boots and go back to stiletto heels.

* The original Vigilante will return and instead of a scooter, he’ll be drivin’ a Vespa.

* Superman will wake up and figure out that Lynda Carter is much better lookin’ than Margot Kidder.

As usual, I'm of two minds concerning the various Countdown mini-series and tie-ins. It's great to see DC using the shared universe and connecting the dots again. It's also fun to pick up Superman, Batman, Outsiders, etc., and connect all the dots about what's going on. On the other hand, there's one key event that triggers all of this: Batman bursting in on the League's lobotomy of Dr. Light in Infinity Crisis. Why should Batman get so enraged about what the League is doing? We know he doesn't condone the death penalty; otherwise the Joker would be dead meat. Dr. Light's a rapist and he's vowed to hurt the League again, so this is the next best thing. I can't see Batman wanting to rush and attack the League without some kind of discussion about what they were doing: was Zatanna extracting info out of his brain, putting him to sleep, etc.? Batman can't realize it's a lobotomy just after getting out of the tube. That part of the story happens too fast and it's done in an expedient manner to get the plot going in a certain direction.

Despite this, I'm so hyped on all this stuff that I went out and bought OMAC 1-2, Rann Thanagar War 1, Batman 639-640, and Day of Vengence 1-2. OMAC 1-2 (which should be called Batman: OMAC) are key pieces of the Countdown story, although the story seems a bit thin so far. Batman discovers that Blue Beetle is dead and Booster gets so mad that he tries to blast Bats (something that also seems mis-conceived). Batman's reaction, after figuring out that Zatanna wiped his memory, is to build a super-computer orbiting the Earth to watch the entire Justice League 24x7 in case they ever try that mind-altering trick again. Then he loses control of OMAC to Maxwell Lord and Checkmate. Lord does some pretty cool stuff in #2 and is turning out to be an effective villain. Superman and Wonder Woman seem to shrug this off pretty lightly, like "oh Batman's anti-League plans were hi-jacked again" as he did before in JLA Vol. 7: Tower of Babel. Given how that debacle turned out, you'd think they would mobilize the entire League to find and destroy OMAC, but Batman goes it alone. He meets Sasha, declares his love for her, and then they get attacked by multiple OMAC androids. Love is a bitch. I think Sasha's dead meat by the end of this series or Crisis 2.