The Batman Adventures #25

“Super Friends” – Early November 1994

Yep it’s another issue of The Batman Adventures. Aside from the obvious, this was an easy grab: extra long story, bonus pin-ups by the likes of Mignola and Toth, and a guest appearance by Superman that predates his own Dini/Timm animated series. That was the big draw for me. I couldn’t wait to see how Parobeck chose to design the man of steel in the absence of any character models. Honestly, though, the results were a bit underwhelming. You see, instead of a purely Parobeck designed last son of Krypton, what we end up with is heavily influenced by Supes and Lex’s looks in the then current Superman books, meaning a mulleted Superman and a Lex Luthor with long red hair and a beard. This definitely feels like editorial meddling and it’s a shame because the Fliescher style face Parobeck gives Superman (possibly the only design choice the artist was able to make himself) hints at something pretty great. The story itself is alright, playing with the different ways in which Superman and Batman operate, but it’s nothing special and not nearly as good as the average Batman Adventure. Frankly, Superman and his powers just seem out of place in a world that, for 24 issues, was all about (somewhat) regular people. I can see the appeal of putting Superman in this anniversary issue, especially when he had yet to have his animated debut, but I can’t help but wish we’d just had an oversized Batman story.

Supreme #53

“19th Dimensional Nervous Breakdown!” – September 1997

Alan Moore’s Supreme is a metatextual masterpiece. Often overlooked, Supreme sees Moore adopting Rob Liefeld’s Superman analog and crafting a series of memorable mini-epics in which the aesthetics of the Silver Age and the 1990s Superman collide head on. Further, these are not simple “remember when” type stories, nor are they saying “comics used to better.” More often than not Moore is equally affectionate to both eras, providing a sort of constructive deconstruction of the genre that stands in stark opposition to his work on Watchmen and has a lot more in common with Tom Strong, arguably Supreme’s successor series in both tone and, of course, the use of Chris Sprouse’s terrific pencils. This particular issue sees Supreme fighting Omniman, the comic character he draws during his day job as a comics artist. Omniman turns out to be Szazs, the Sprite Supreme, a Mxyzptlk analog who Supreme has to defeat using a copy of the very same comic book we are reading. Meta! Amusingly, Supreme is more annoyed by Szazs than anything, but not for the regular Superman style reasons. “Earth has changed since the sixties,” Supreme shouts at a now giant Szazs. “Nobody finds this kind of stuff funny or appealing anymore.” To me, this reads like a statement of fact. There’s nothing wrong with a sixties Mxyzptlk story, but times have changed and the sort of comics that were great in the sixties just plain don’t work anymore.

Guy Gardner: Warrior #29

“It’s My Party and I’ll Fight If I Want To” – March 1995

This may just be the perfect time capsule for the mid-1990s DCU. Thanks to the plot device of Guy throwing a party for the opening of Warriors restaurant, this issue is able to provide a snapshot of nearly every DCU character as they existed during comics’ most controversial era. Just paging through the issue, you get a splash page featuring Kyle Rayner, Steel, and that weird 90s version of Ice, a mulleted Superman complaining about “imposters,” a grumpy, longhaired Aquaman who is actually complaining that no one notices his missing hand, the Blood Pack, that knife carrying version of Doctor Fate called Fate, Atom Smasher in his old Nuklon get up, the extra-grim post Zero Hour Hawkman, the Psyba Rats, and, maybe best of all, Artemis in her Wonder Woman costume arguing with Donna Troy in her Darkstar outfit. And that’s not even mentioning the pure nineties glory that is Guy Gardner: Warrior himself. Plus, you get a gimmick cover (a sort of double gatefold job that serves as “doors” for Warriors and which opens to reveal a secondary cover jam packed with all of the heroes of the DCU), a gratuitous Lobo appearance and fight, gratuitous celebrity cameos by Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone, and a story that is “to be continued” in another title (Action #709). And if that’s not enough reason to check it out, it’s all beautifully penciled by the always terrific Phil Jiminez, who isn’t necessarily a nineties style artist, but who cares?

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From Guy Gardner: Warrior #29 - March 1995

Vampirella Flip Book

“Bugs” – October 1994

Vampirella’s costume is designed with one thing in mind: sex appeal. It does its job well and has helped the character endure for 40 years and even helped thrust (no pun intended) her prominently (no pun intended) into the forefront of the nineties bad girl craze. What amuses me the most about her costume, though, is how well it acts as a barometer for the sort of story you’re about to get: the skimpier the costume, the less the creators care about story and the more they care about boobies. Take this issue’s cover by Jim Balent, featuring a dental floss version of Vampirella’s traditional red one-piece that is very much in keeping with the overly sexualized stories and art featured in Balent’s work on Tarot. This cover suggests a nineties era boobs before plot mentality, but the interiors suggest something altogether different. Arthur Adams, who drew our feature, is also well known for rendering sexy, buxom babes, although with highly appealing artistic flair and talent for character acting that rivals Kevin Maguire’s. His Vampirella costume is more modest than Balent’s, actually covering most of her chest and giving her some small dignity. Adams is also a damn fine monster artist and he gets to put all of that on display in this story, which sees Vampi trying to save a group of innocent bug monsters from confused and bloodthirsty townspeople in a Kurt Busiek penned version of the well worn “the monsters are the good guys” horror trope.

Batman: The Scottish Connection

August 1998

In a story that seems like a better fit for the world’s richest duck than for the dark knight detective, Batman travels to Scotland and is quickly embroiled in a vicious, centuries old clan feud where superstition acts as a smoke screen for revenge plot involving the plague virus. The story is honestly kind of a humdrum affair, with an uncomplicated and rather obvious mystery at its center. The villain is not up to the usual standard of Batman rogues and the verdant, rolling landscape feels out of place in a Batman story that doesn’t use that clash to say anything interesting. The best part about the issue, though, is unquestionably the art, an early Batman offering from current fan favorite Frank Quitely. No, it’s no Batman and Robin, but Quitely’s distinct rendering style and gift for action storytelling are already in place, as displayed in a couple of excellently choreographed fight scenes. This book also expertly displays Quitely’s gift for faces. Often times, artists have trouble differentiating one character from another, particularly with background characters, but Quitely always has a way of making each face stand out by employing slightly caricatured, but distinctly human features and imperfections in almost mind numbing detail that also never distracts or overwhelms. He’s almost like the Preston Sturges of the comics page in that regard. Particularly nice is Quitely’s depiction of the story’s romantic interest who, in a near impossibility on the comics page, is beautiful without being crazy comic book hot.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy #1

“Prime Directives” – December 1996

As you may recall from my review of that Riker comic, this is the series that featured the unnecessarily busty Andorian. Another refugee from Marvel’s short-lived Paramount Comics imprint, Starfleet Academy is pretty clearly an attempt to have a Gen13 series set in the Star Trek universe. Needless to say, it doesn’t really work. Now, it isn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination and given that it’s a series that co-stars Nog, the annoying Ferengi kid from DS9, that’s really saying something. Basically, it’s series about a group of ragtag cadets, including the latest in the line of Deckers, a Vulcan lady who’s really a Romulan spy, Nog, and, yes, our favorite Andorian and Caitlin Fairchild stand-in, Pava, who totally shows up naked during the issue (as if you weren’t expecting that). There really isn’t a lot else to say about the story. In a way, its surprising (and a bit disappointing) that it isn’t more spectacularly bad. The art, meanwhile, which is serviceable if more than a little in the Image knock-off vain, turns out to be by Chris Renaud, the dude who directed this summer’s Despicable Me. I know. I’m pretty surprised, too, and I find myself wishing he’d done this book in a more cartoony style that would have at least given it more of an identity of it’s own, but, again, Marvel clearly wasn’t as interested in The Star Trek Adventures as much as they were NCC 90210.

Trinity Angels #1

“Trinity Angels” – July 1997

Kevin Maguire is another one of those artists whose work is always worth picking up. Few other artists are quite so gifted in rendering facial expression and body language. Maguire is also pretty damn good at drawing sexy ladies and horrific monsters and that, it so happens, is what Trinity Angels is all about. From an art standpoint, the book is top notch. Maguire is, as always, in fine form, particularly in his designs for the aforementioned monsters and the three main characters are very sexy indeed, but, good looking as they are, their costumes place them squarely in the ‘90s bad girl ouvre that made Lady Death and Witchblade so popular and that isn’t really my thing. Still, learning some lessons from Giffen and DeMatteis, Maguire smartly makes the story tongue in cheek, keeping it from Miller levels of misogyny (the girls, all of whom start the story by awaking to find themselves in new bodies, are suitably horrified by their mewfound bustiness) and keeping the proceedings more fun than creepy, although, sometimes, only just. Most interesting, though, is the plot, which strongly reminds me of the WB’s Charmed, which debuted one year later: three sisters are empowered by a magical artifact that draws its power from the fact that there are three of them. I wonder if Maguire ever sued. The very little research I did says nothing either way, but it does show that Maguire eventually settled on much less ridiculous costumes, which is nice to know.

Mars Attacks High School #1

“Gene Genie” – May 1997

This issue is kind of a mess, but it’s really not the creators’ fault. You see, this story clearly takes place somewhere in the middle of a much larger story, despite the #1 of 2 emblazoned on the cover. As such, what one would think would be a lark about Martians attacking a high school, turns out to be mostly about the three-boobed chick on the cover and her pals, a little girl and a head, waging guerilla warfare on a Martian lab. It’s a shame, too, because, the story Dwight Jon Zimmerman and Hugh Haynes are telling, about an America that is now at least partially under Martian control and the often mutated refugees who are fighting back, seems pretty interesting and the high school portion is pretty fun, sexy, and gross, reading a lot like a comic book version of Troma’s Class of Nuke ‘Em High. I can see trying to track down a few more of these, but I wonder how many horny teens (remember: three boobies) bought this issue during the ‘90s glut, got confused as all hell, and never picked up another issue. Oh, well, I guess that’s why there isn’t a Topps Comics anymore. What’s worse is that this could be easily remedied by a “Previously in Mars Attacks” blurb or, you know, not slapping a #1 on the cover and implying that is the first issue of a self-contained, two-part story, but, again, that’s all editorial’s fault and not Zimmeran and Haynes’.

Astro City #1

“Welcome to Astro City”

Cover Price: $2.50
Bargain Price: $0.25
Cover Date: September 1996

Kurt Busiek’s Astro City is always a joy. For the uninitiated, each issue of the series tells the story of a regular person living in a world filled with super-hero analogs. This particular issue deals with a single dad and his two daughters moving to the eponymous city and their first experiences with a super-heroic disaster. It’s a pretty low key story and, at first blush, might seem unexceptional or, for your friendly neighborhood blogger, difficult to talk about, but the low key stuff really is the strength of Astro City as Busiek time and again mines the super-heroic world for little moments that, while profound, are dealt with in such a perfectly casual manner that his incredible insight into what it would be like to live in the Marvel or DCU can be momentarily missed. In this issue, it’s the quiet moment when the residents of our protagonist’s apartment building ascend to the roof, some with lawn chairs, to watch the apocalyptic battle taking place in the skies overhead. It’s real Lee/Kirby end of the world stuff, dangerous beyond human comprehension, but the people stand and watch, knowing that, should the worst happen, the brick and mortar of their home won’t protect them, but never truly fearing that such an end will occur. Of course the heroes will win, they always do and you may as well watch, even if, for many of the bystanders, it’s as common as the rain.

Batman and Robin Adventures Annual #1

“Shadow of the Phantasm”

Cover Price: $2.95
Bargain Price: $1.00
Cover Date: November 1996

I realize that this blog is in serious danger of becoming the blog that just won’t shut up about Mike Parobeck, but there is no better issue to spark discussion about the man and his art than this, his final work. The story, a sequel to the animated series feature film Mask of the Phantasm, features Bruce Wayne’s lost love cum murderous vigilante Andrea Beaumont/Phantasm returning to Gotham to tie up loose ends. It’s a nice enough story with Paul Dini providing some good character work for Beaumont and a nice moment about the Joker’s pre-acid bath identity. The story, however, is rather fittingly overshadowed by the loss of Parobeck, who is beautifully eulogized in the issue’s final page essay by Scott Peterson that describes the merits of the man and his work far better than I ever could and which is worth the price of admission alone. As Peterson says, Parobeck was, by all accounts, a hell of a nice guy with a style that was consistently solid and often amazing, displaying a storytelling craft that is often ironically missing from our favorite visual medium. As I’ve said before, Parobeck’s art was a true bright spot in the dark days of the mid-nineties and the medium as a whole is weaker for his loss. Personally, I wish I’d discovered Parobeck’s art when he was alive, but I’m always grateful that it remains preserved on the four color page to be rediscovered again and again.

Trinity #1

“Green Lantern” “Darkstars” “L.E.G.I.O.N. ‘93”

Cover Price: $2.95
Bargain Price: $0.50
Cover Date: August 1993

Not to be confused with DC’s recent weekly, 1993’s Trinity was the anchor book for a two month, eight issue long crossover for DC’s space fairing law enforcement agencies: the Green Lanterns, Vril Dox’s L.E.G.I.O.N. and the Darkstars, the extreme, take no prisoners nineties take on the Lantern Corps. Despite the flashy cover, this looked like a good chance to, if nothing else, learn more about the L.E.G.I.O.N., a concept I found intriguing, but which, so far, has failed to hook me (which is a shame because I really like Vril Dox). The Darkstars and Green Lantern stories are mediocre, despite art from Travis Charest and Gene Ha respectively. Ha and Charest may be superstars today, but, unfortunately, they’d yet to crystallize their distinctive styles in 1993. Fortunately, the L.E.G.I.O.N. story is pretty fun. Written by Mark Waid with pencils by Barry Kitson, the chapter sees both creators at the top of their game. The art is clean and distinctive and Kitson handles the large cast well, effortlessly distinguishing one character from another while handling the crowd scenes and alien city without ever skimping on detail. This issue really reminded me just how good Kitson is and it’s a shame he doesn’t get more recognition. Waid’s story is also a lot of fun and serves as an excellent showcase for the conflicting personality types of the characters, particularly the arrogant Dox. I’m looking forward to finding some issues of Waid and Kitson’s L.E.G.I.O.N. and seeing if it holds up.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Special – Riker

“The Enemy of My Enemy”

Cover Price: $3.50
Bargain Price: $0.50
Cover Date: July 1998

Let’s face it, unless they’re written by Peter David, Star Trek comics pretty much blow. DC often came the closest, but everyone else, from Malibu to IDW to Golden Key, has pretty much dropped the ball. Still, easily the most spectacular failure is the line of Star Trek comics Marvel released under their Paramount Comics imprint. Here, Marvel paired straightforward licensed properties Deep Space Nine and Voyager with “original” series like The Early Years, featuring Captain Pike, and Starfleet Academy, the Gen 13 of Star Trek, complete with a ridiculously busty Andorian, and two gloriously ludicrous Star Trek/X-Men crossovers. The stories were often of fan fiction quality with art that featured characters with lifeless, over photo referenced faces and unbelievably roided up bodies. The absurdly titled Star Trek: The Next Generation Special – Riker: The Enemy of My Enemy exemplifies all of the worst qualities of the Marvel Trek line. The story shoehorns fan favorite elements like Ro Laren, Tom Riker, the Marquis, and even the Genesis Torpedo into a subpar rehash of the already subpar TNG two-parter Gambit with a plot that never even comes close to passing the idiot test. Character faces look traced while bodies, including Riker and Data, very from fairly human to the nineties vein popping super heroic standard. Frankly, there’s a lot to hate about this comic, but the two worst features are the hideous, slapped together in Photoshop cover and the gigantic boobs given to the previously sleek Ro Laren.

The Batman Adventures #26

“Tree of Knowledge”

Cover Price: $1.50
Bargain Price: $0.50
Cover Date: Late November 1994

Here we have another great teaming of Batgirl and Robin, once again by Puckett and Parobeck. What sets this issue apart from #18 is that Puckett stages this story so that Dick and Babs spend as much time working on the mystery out of costume as in, resulting a better dichotomy of the duo’s love/hate relationship (they love each other in costume but hate each other’s guts in civvies) that evokes more of a classic screwball comedy dynamic than the somewhat straightforward flirtation of the previous issue. This extra layer, previously only hinted at in a single page, really takes the dynamic to the next level. Kelly’s story isn’t the only thing firing on all cylinders here, though, as the always amazing Mike Parobeck turns in an absolute masterpiece. Parobeck is definitely an underappreciated master and his cartoony style fits this book so well. It would be easy to assume that books like The Justice Society of American, El Diablo, and Impact’s The Fly, where he wasn’t restricted by an established look and model sheets, would be better showcases, but, as I said before, Parobeck perfectly evokes the feel of the Batman cartoon while always keeping his art his own and this issue is really top notch. His dynamic storytelling, the fluidity of motion he effortlessly brings to his figures, and the retro, minimalist sensibility he brings to his design work combine to create just as much substance as style, easily placing him on par with Cooke, Allred, and Timm.

The Batman Adventures #18

“Decision Day”

Cover Price: $1.50
Bargain Price: $0.50
Cover Date: March 1994

The Batman Adventures may be the most underrated comic of the nineties, featuring excellent Batman stories, usually written with an unparalleled cleverness and brevity by Kelley Puckett and drawn by Mike Parobeck whose style, much like Puckett’s writing, perfectly evokes the feel of the weekday afternoon cartoon show, while still being distinctly original. While the series is always an enjoyable read and an easy pick-up from the quarter bins, this issue, which shines the spotlight on Batgirl and Robin is even better than most. Batgirl, in her civilian identity of Barbara Gordon has just witnessed a would-be bombing of police headquarters. Rather than sit back under witness protection while the GCPD prosecutes the case, she dons her cowl to investigate on her own, which is when she runs into Robin, who is working the same case. The plot then quickly takes a backseat to a charming flirtation that underscores how much fun each has in their masked identities and how their crime fighting styles differ; Robin is more the more experienced, better trained fighter and crime solver, while Batgirl depends more on instinct and intuition. Best of all, though, is the one page exchange between the two when they bump into each other in their secret identities the next day. Expertly combining the tropes of a standard Batman adventure with a post modern romance comic, it’s a delightful forgotten treasure of an issue and one that makes me long for a similar dynamic in the DCU proper.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser #2

“The Circle Curse” and “The Howling Tower”

Cover Price: $4.50
Bargain Price: 3/$1.00
Cover Date: November 1990

Excepting Hellboy himself, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser may be the perfect characters for Mike Mignola. Mignola’s angular, gothic art and spare, contemplative writing are unlike anything else in comics. Likewise, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, who, before reading this issue, I had known only by reputation, are completely atypical fantasy characters, a towering barbarian and a smaller, rapier-wielding thief, respectively, who speak and act like real people. That said, it’s easy to see how Fafhrd, the Gray Mouser, and Mignola would be a match made in heaven and a combination that made picking up this particular issue very easy. Mignola and Howard Chaykin, who scripted this miniseries, portray the duo as an immensely amiable pair of adventurers, entwined in two stories that in plot and style closely resemble Mignola’s Hellboy work. The first sees our heroes leave the city of Lankhmar following the deaths of their lady loves. They seek new lands and adventures, hoping to forget, but never quite doing so, facing instead a grim, real world reality: they haven’t forgotten, but, as time has passed, their deaths mean less than they once did. The second tale is a more conventional action tale involving a sorcerer and a ghostly pack of wolves. This volume was definitely Mignola at his finest and as satisfying an introduction to these characters as I could have asked for. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for the remaining issues (I picked up #1 already) and even for the duo’s prose adventures.

Spider-Man 2099 #1

“Begin the Future History of Spider-Man 2099”

Cover Price: $1.75
Bargain Price: $0.50
Cover Date: November 1992

I’ve been meaning to pick this one up for awhile because I heard that it was the best of the 2099 titles. I also generally like Peter David and artist Rick Leonardi’s work. As a comic, there's a good deal to like here. Leonardi is in top form and his designs for the book are suitably cool and futuristic without becoming campy or seeming too extreme (for a comic book anyway) for the relatively near dateline. I also like that there is very little effort given to tying the 2099 world into Marvel’s then current continuity with even Peter Parker only getting the briefest mention. It would be so easy to make our hero Peter’s descendant or biggest fan or have him transformed by the same equipment that affected Peter all those years ago, but David wisely avoids all of that. The origin is instead entirely original, if a bit too rooted in the nineties. Ambitious scientist Miguel O’Hara is betrayed by employer Alchemax, an omnipresent, evil corporation. First they addict Miguel to a designer drug and then, when he tries to use a gene resequencer to un-addict himself, they splice him with a spider. The origin ultimately takes up the second half of the book, working as a flashback following a pretty exciting action sequence involving Spidey 2099 and some cops on hover bikes. All in all, it’s a solid first issue, but I’m not sure if it was quite engaging enough to get me to seek out the rest of the run.

Catwoman #1,000,000

“Nine Million Lives”

Cover Price: $1.99
Bargain Price: $0.25
Cover Date: November 1993

DC Comics hates the obsessive compulsive comic book reader, a fact they’ve show with both their #0 tie-ins to Zero Hour and their #1,000,000 tie-ins to Grant Morrison’s DC One Million crossover event. During the month DC One Million came out, every book in DC’s line was numbered 1,000,000, even if it had no particular reason to tie into the JLA-centric story. Enter Catwoman #1,000,000. When I saw this thing in the quarter bin, I thought I’d struck gold: Jim Balent era Catwoman in the far future, with the ridiculous breasts and (God help me) computer cable dreadlock hair? Sign me up. Sadly, the book was both more ridiculous and less ridiculous than I dreamed. The plot, such as it is, focuses on the Catwoman of the future (I was really hoping to see Selina Kyle unnecessarily thrust into the future, but c’est la vie) trying to break into the future Batcave on Pluto for non-future Batman. For 22 pages, she runs around, fighting weird monsters and thrusting various body parts, but, as campy and titillating as that sounds, it’s all just so rote. There is no fun here or any of the winking of the camera that someone like Amanda Conner pulls off effortlessly, just a strange seriousness about things that I can’t imagine ever caring about. Still, whether I like it or not, someone certainly does, as Balent’s been making a living off this very thing for years now, whether Chris Sims wants him to or not.