Category: Back-Issue Gold
Comic Book Cover of the Week: Superman vs He-Man!! Who’s More MAN?!
Check out this awesome cover way back from 1982, us kids had our wildest fantasies come true with Superman and The Masters of the Universe! As a kid we’d always be pondering important things like “Who’d win in a fight He-Man or Superman?!” Well our wish came true in the form of this comic book! Of course the only reason the two fight is because of Skeletor taking control of Superman’s mind-DUH! It was a damn good fight too! Now if only we could see He-man Fight the Hulk!!
Comic Book Small Haul: The Savage Hulk #1 Goes Old School!!
Savage Hulk is a series I have been waiting for a long time and finally yesterday it graced the shelves of comic book shops everywhere. I have been seriously missing me some Hulk by way of new comic books lately. The last few Hulk titles have been pretty forgettable. I usually start off buying the first few issues and then well just don’t really end up giving a shit what happens next. That’s a problem I seem to be running into more and more with Marvel titles these days.
So here we have Savage Hulk #1 which is a pretty decent first issue and pretty cool as it ties in directly with an old X-men / Hulk storyline from 1970. So what we have here is a full on old school Hulk story, which is a breath of fresh air. We’ve got some great artwork as well by veteran artist Alan Davis, a favorite of mine in the 1980’s, which make this book even more legit. We’ve also got the X-Men in their old school 70’s costumes and The Leader in his old purple suit and my favorite look for him, his big long ass head! We also have a great alternate cover by Alex Ross which is downright amazing…
I think this series is headed for some fun, I’m not sure if they’re going to follow the old school story types but I’m kinda hoping they do. There’s a ton of fun in an old school Hulk story that’s been missing from a lot of the current stuff. So I’ll be back for issue #2 as it looks like we’re going to get some Abomination action as well. Savage Hulk is a solid start, but it by no means is gonna blow your mind as the story is very simple as we basically have the Hulk on the run from the Hulkbusters, Professor X determined to help free Banner of The Hulk and The Leader determined to screw up everyone’s plan. It’s also nice because we haven’t over the years really seen the X-men and the Hulk cross paths as much as they should. It also made me realize that The Leader and Professor X are perfect arch rivals, I hope we get to see them square off in a battle of the minds! So Hulk fans go check this one out!
This Week’s Comic Book Reviews! ‘Manifest Destiny’ Stomps ‘The Walking Dead’!
Yesterday was Wednesday and as usual I bought a few new funny books! Here’s what I though of ’em!
Manifest Destiny #7, Image/Skybound
What else can I say here about this comic book? It’s could be my fave title at the moment-the first story arc was a great and it’s now in trade paperback form so I suggest checking it out ASAP! This title gives me similar feelings of when I first got hooked on The Walking Dead! Issue #7 continues the adventures of Lewis & Clark as they continue up river on boat with cast of crew members who’re truly creepy in their own right. We’ve got Lewis trying to keep his monstrous discoveries a secret and a new female crew member who’s discovered his private journal entries. It doesn’t take long though for things to get crazy again as their boat become stuck on on something strange which signifies that these guys are in for more monster mayhem in the woods! The book is fresh as hell and the artwork is awesome-this books popularity is rising quickly and the first six issues are going for a pretty penny already on Ebay-now’s the time to jump on board as you can read seven straight issues without having to wait months between!
Abe Sapien #13, Dark Horse
Abe Sapien’s ongoing solo series has been pretty interesting so far. It’s always bizarre and keeps getting darker in tone with every issue. Abe’s recently went through some transformations recently becoming more monster in appearance than man. This issue encourages new readers to jump on board as a good starting point. We see Abe still traveling across an apocalyptic wasteland with an odd woman whom he found chained up inside a weirdly ravaged house. They run into some strangers who’s son has half transformed into frog man monster, seeking the powers of a healer who supposedly lives close by. Abe’s still trying to prove to himself and world that he himself is in no way connected to the most recent events of monster outbreaks that have occurred in major cities. This series continues to intrigue me as does almost everything in the Hellboy universe. I’m still trying to catch up on all the thick rich back stories that all seem to connect in some way. This issue also features some pretty spectacular artwork and an additional Abe Sapien back up story-so you most definitely get your money’s worth! Anyone looking for a good creepy comic book with heavy Lovecraft influence should check this title out!
Walking Dead #128, Image
Ok, first let me clarify that I’m really not a huge fan of this book anymore, it used to be my favorite title. I wasn’t a fan of “All Out War” and this continues the story a couple years after those events. The whole gang has been hanging out with Rick in their picture perfect community but of course we still have the annoying Negan involved as he’s being held captive trying to make friends with Carl secretly. We have a new group of people who enter the community and of course no one truly trusts each other. Carl wants to move out of Rick’s place. It’s really more of the same shit we have been reading for the past couple years or so. Man, this book needs a serious kick in the ass. But it just keeps going and it really doesn’t cover too much new ground. There’s not a lot of adventure to be had in The Walking Dead anymore, they kinda just like staying in the same place, no matter what and pretending that they’re rebuilding the world single handedly. However they still have zero clue what is going on in the rest of the world, nor does anyone seem to care. They have no idea what caused the outbreak, and they don’t seem to care. They really haven’t traveled all that far, they just blindly accept that the whole world is fucked and continue with their repetitive daily operation. Maybe Rick just wants be the leader of the world? Maybe he fears finding others and losing his say in how everything always goes down? I think a lot about how this title could be a top notch adventure still and all the different scenarios they could face, yet it just keeps doing more of the same old shit. I’m really at this point keeping up with the story because I’ve made it this far. I really do miss the old days of this book when the group was on the move and constantly entering into the unknown…..
Comic Book Cover of the Week: Man-Thing Consumes Spider-man!
Man do I miss those old Marvel Team Ups!! That’s why this weeks Cover of the Week comes straight from that series awesome Man-Thing and Spider-man team up! Issue #122 was always one of my favorites as a kid, I mean what’s not to love about this bizarre comic book cover?! Spider-man is literally trapped inside the Man-Things squishy gross ass body! Loving monsters as much as I do this cover is still one of my faves by Hannigan & Al Milgrom!
Comic Book Cover of the Week: Jarvis Leads The Avengers?!
Avengers #201 from 1980 has a truly memorable cover by George Perez & Terry Austin! It’s not often you see Jarvis showcased as the lead in any comic book much less and Avengers issue. This however features the legendary butler ready to action telling the Avengers to “stand back”! So just what is it that Jarvis feels is a job only he can handle? Well it turns out that he takes on an adult bully named “Bruiser” while he visits his mother! Bruiser is terrorizing her neighborhood when Jarvis decides to take matters into his own hands. Yep Jarvis finally gets his own arch nemesis which he makes short work of! I always liked the Jarvis character and it’s too bad they decided to make him an “operating system” to Tony Stark in the movies. Perhaps they were afraid he’d just come off as a cheap version of Batman’s Alfred? Also, Captain America kinda pisses me off as on the cover of issue #201 he’s clearly laughing at Jarvis-what a dick!! Show some respect Rogers!
Modok Exposed! Sexy Comic Book Cover of the Week!!
Modok is easily one of my fave Marvel villains of all time and that’s why I had to add this awesome cover for Captain America #313 from 1986 by probably my fave comic book artist of all time Mr. John Byrne! This one always kinda gave me the creeps because it showed Modok who’s easily one of the strangest Marvel villains with his pants down! By that I mean we see the guy without his armor chair which normally covers most of his body. This story was titled “Mission: Murder Modok!” and it featured one of my personal fave super villain teams the “Serpent Society” as they attempted to assasinate him! Seeing Modok on the cover laying on his back like a big cryin’ baby with his little body(he can’t walk because his head is too big) was kinda like when as a kid I’d see my pet hermit crab walking around at night without his shell searching for a larger one. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a hermit crab without it’s shell, but it’s pretty weird, It freaked me the fuck out! This is a cool cover and a rare glimpse of Modok “undressed”!!!
I really hope that Modok makes it into the Marvel cinematic universe-he’d be such a fun villain to see on the big screen! Hopefully they would go with animatronics and puppetry rather than CG, it’d be quite a site! If hadn’t already noticed someone did indeed put a Modok inspired character into a movie already – the 1996 flick “Head of the Family” !
Total Modok rip-off!!! But you can see how cool of a villain he would be on the big screen!!
Oh yeah and then there’s THIS!
Comic Book Cover of the Week! The Strangest Team-Up of All Time??
Yep I had to share this weird ass little team up way back from January 1984-yeah it’s NOT a hoax! This is a team up of Franklin Richards and Aunt May!! As far as covers go you don’t get much more epic than THIS! Right? Yeah well Peter Parker and The Fantastic Four thought it was a good idea to leave Franklin alone at the circus with Aunt May and fortunately it resulted in a bizarre team-up against Galactus! Yep Galactus accidentally transforms good ol’ Aunt May into a Herald! Better yet she names herself “The Golden Oldie”!! This was part of the “Assistant Editors” month at Marvel, back in the day when reading Marvel comics was a helluva lot more fun (and cheaper) than it is today! Basically the normal editor went on vacation for a month and it brought on a slew of ridiculous stories…ahhh…the good ol’ days are tuly missed…
Nightwatch: Marvel’s Biggest Unsuccessful “Spawn” Rip-Off! Or is He?
I actually only recently discovered the obscure Marvel character called “Nightwatch”, who’s most comedically undeniably a rip off of Spawn! His first appearance was Web Of Spider-man #99 from 1993 and to be honest back in 1993 I wasn’t all that taken with most Marvel titles except maybe Claremont and Jim Lee’s X-men reboot. So it’s no wonder I missed out on this guy. The stories & artwork during this period of comic book history is less than flattering, I’m no big fan of Erik Larsen, Wilce Portacio and the gang to be honest. Well the artwork in “Web” during that times was done by Alex Saviuk and it’s pretty god damn awful. So let’s move on…who the Hell was Nightwatch? Was he really a rip off? First check out his picture…
Ok so we can agree that perhaps he looks an awful LOT like Spawn! But who came first officially? Well it was indeed Spawn who came first in May of 1992. There has been rumors that Mcfarlane actually created “Nightwatch” before he left Marvel and that Spawn is actually a rip-off of his own character. After searching around the web I honestly couldn’t find the info anywhere on who officially created the character. Could it be true? Could Nightwatch be the legit orginal bad-ass that was created first before the success of Spawn? Well it got me thinking aside from his appearance what other similarities do they share?
Number one they were both African American. Two they both died, Doctor Kevin Trench (Nightwatch) witnessed his own murder, a future version of himself killed by terrorists, where he discovered the living suit which he acquired off of his own dead body. Spawn was also murdered by a mercenary. Three, they both had living shape shifting capes. So yeah pretty much the same thing. The interesting thing is that Trench is supposedly in a time loop unable to stop himself from discovering his older self. So it’s entirely possible we could see Nightwatch return someday. Perhaps then we can ask him who his creator was? Oh Marvel in the early 1990’s how I love to hate you…
Comic Book Cover of the Week! Mignola & The Hulk!
This awesome cover for The Incredible Hulk # 302 which debuted in December of 1984 and is beautifully illustrated by Mike Mignola. It’s from a great Hulk story arc where he is banished to “The Crossroads”, a strange dream-like world in another dimension, which Doctor Strange exiles him to for quite a few issues. You see right around this time The Hulk was causing the world a lot of trouble. Shortly before this however The Hulk inherited Banners brain and was “free” of the monster. Hell he was even asked to join The Avengers again! However it didn’t take long before the monster took full control again and The Hulk became a near mindless monster entirely.
During his time in The Crossroads The Hulk traveled to many strange places, this particular issue he arrived in a bizarre midieval kingdom where there was race of brutal red skinned knights rule the land and as The Hulk learns early on he is no match for their strength. This is a great story as The savage Hulk learns what it feels like to no longer be the strongest one there is. The Hulk gets his ass kicked bad multiple times here like never before.
It also features a green skinned maiden who’s tears turn to flowers who I think may remind Hulk of his old flame Jarella.Oh yeah and no one speaks english so it’s pretty neat as it’s based on the art and some minor narration. Check out these great Crossroad Hulk adventures they’re actually pretty awesome and heartfelt. Also you get some amazing covers by Hellboy’s own Mike Mignola-which is quite special if you’re a Hulk fanatic!
Comic Book Cover of the Week! Byrne & The Man of Steel!
Back in 1986 it was a real treat when John Byrne took over Superman starting with the mini series The Man of Steel. He rebooted the series with that limited series and then took over Superman and Action Comics entirely doing the writing and artwork. He gave the people of the 80’s a more adult version of Superman and drastically changed his arch nemesis Lex Luthor into simply an evil billionare instead of an adversary that would often times tangle physically with The Man of Steel.
Byrne was on top of his game artistically as well and here is one of my favorite covers from that era where Superman takes down my personal faves The Teen Titans in Action Comics #584. Damn may have to pull out my Superman back issues later tonight, I have every issue of the Byrne era and it still withstands the test of time…
Check out this rad article that gives you the full story on the John Byrne era Superman stuff, a fun read to say the least!
Universal Dork 