Harriman wasn't the medium's first genuine genius--that would be Winsor McKay--but he was the first to elevate comics to the level of great literature.

Cei-U!
I summon the titanic talent!

It's been a while since my last New Mutants bing read update, so since then I've read New Mutants #41-66, the story the New Mutants guest star in from Web of Spider-Man Annual #2, New Mutants Annual #2-4, X-Men Annual #10, Uncanny X-Men #211, 225, 230-231, Fallen Angels #1-8, Power Pack #33, and Spellbound #4. It's a lot to go in-depth on, so I'll just give some general thoughts. Maybe I'll circle back in detail later.

This bit starts with the aftermath of the New Mutants returning from their stint at the Massachusetts Academy. NM #42 has a Lila Cheney appearance where she's going to meet Sam's family; she comes across as more likeable that usual. NM #45 is a very special issue about bullying and prejudica and it's actually pretty well done. The Mutants are barely involved in the Mutant Massacre storyline (though they do see Karma's apartment explode with her younger siblings nowhere to be found), before they get shunted into a story where Warlock's father Magus finally tries to kill him. In the escape, Magik teleports half of the team each to two very different alternate futures. It's a very intriguing disposition. The climax of the Magus story and its aftermath give the team a short-lived reunion with Professor X and the Starjammers. Because Magus entered Limbo, Sym and various demons have been infected with the transmode virus. The resolution is confusing (it's seems like there's some backtracking), but the upshot is Sym is in rebellion and gained more control over Limbo. Whenever Magik takes her Soulsword from Limbo it allows Sym to make more progress. It's another step in the foreshadowing of Inferno that's been going on for a long time.

Another long-standing theme in New Mutants is the involvement of the Hellfire Club and the Hellions with the New Mutants. Claremont's swan song is a two-parter (#53-54) where Magneto (in his capacity as White King or White Bishop, his title seems to vary) brings the Kids to a party at the Hellfire Club. It results in a competition to solve a case, which the kids lose to the Hellions. Claremont also writes Karma out of the book to search for her missing siblings, and she doesn't show up in another comic until Claremont's Wolverine ongoing a year and a half later. The mystery of Karma is that Claremont brought her back to the book only to underuse her for 20 issues. In events that involve the whole team, she usually plays the smallest part. Maybe Claremont thought her power could too easily dominate battles, because he goes in the opposite direction of having so many people able to resist it. Even Tessa (a Hellfire supporting character Claremont is obsessed with) is able to resist! Karma should wipe the floor with her. It's seems like he had no plan of what to do with Karma when he brought her back.

The ranks of the New Mutants are also thinned by Sunspot and Warlock leaving temporarily for the 8 issue Fallen Angels mini. It's quirky, but doesn't seem to go anywhere. Too much is bulit on a twist that's telegraph early and isn't interesting. Before returning to the New Mutants, 'Lock and Berto guest-star in an issue of Power Pack that isn't memorable, other than the cover of Sunspot bunching Julie Power in the face. Child abuse!

Per the letter pages, Claremont was only supposed to leave the book temporarily to write his first novel, but after Louise Simsonson takes over, Claremont never comes back (except a couple guest issues). As much as I recall enjoying Simonson's work on the X-Books, on this re-reading the dropoff in writing quality is marked. The reading level seems lower. The kids become more similarly bratty and short-sighted, in contrast to the differing levels of maturity and diversity of personality under Claremont. It's remarkable how chastened the kids are when they're criticized by Magneto in these early Simonson issues (& also the later Claremont ones) for disobeying him. So many of them were more willful in the face of the more reasonable & responsible Xavier. Magneto has made an alliance with the Hellfire Club with a muddled rationale. Selene is a serial killer! They should push back easily.

Simonson starts out with an arc about the anthropomorphic Bird Boy, whom the team insultingly christens Bird Brain. Weezie draws out the arc, by having Doug uncharacteristically refuse to translate, claiming Bird Brain has no real language. As I read, I wish for a time machine to offer the co-plot. The best thing would be to avoid writing Doug as the polar opposite of his humane, intelligent established nature. The second best option would be to explain Doug's behavior as lashing out because he's bothered his best friend Warlock left with Sunspot. But there's no explanation.

Simonson is joined by penciler Brett Blevins with his Bratz doll style of drawing characters. It's very different; I like or dislike it depending on the situation. The non-crossover crossover of the Fall of the Mutants brings us the end of the Bird Brain arc, appearances by Cameron Hodge and the Right, the eleventh hour of the Warlock and Sunspot, and the tragic death of Doug. I feel like the full potential of the event was wasted. The separation of Doug and Warlock is key to this event, but it's not explored. There's a bit about how Wolfsbane feels. Simonson only seems to remember she could've worked Danielle's Valkyrie precognition a few issues later.

On the other hand, Simson does a better job with #64, where Warlock's failure to understand Doug's death has the team run the emotional gamut. Illyana's grief at her brother Colossus seemingly dying in the pages of Uncanny X-Men takes center stage in NM #65-66 and Uncanny #231. Her grief is magnified because she teleported Colossus to the battle in Uncanny #225. It's much better handled in X-Men than in New Mutants. The NM has Illyana seeking out Forge, the kids battling Freedom Force, and Destiny foreseeing catastrophe in yet more Inferno foreshadowing. In Uncanny, Claremont gets around the plot issue of the X-Men faking their deaths, by having Illyana believe she's conjured a magical replica of her brother. There's nice Rick Leonardi art, great sibling moments, and more ominous signs about the situation in Limbo.

More roster shrinkage occurs when Magma decides to transfer to Frost's Massachusetts Academy. With all the angst about members of the New Mutants joining this training school for a criminal organization in two previous arcs, Magma's departure is met with a surprising shrug. She then travels back to her home of Nova Roma with that scumbag Empath (who she has a surprising crush on - what a development!). That happens in an issue of the regular title before it's picked up on in New Mutants Annual #4. The annual is pretty well written and drawn (by Brigman & McLeod) with the kids finally taken the right level of umbrage and solid reasoning in pushing back at Magneto's alliance with Hellfire Club. They also verbalize how his lack of proper supervision has screwed them over. It's welcome, because so far Simonson has tended to just repeat the same dialogue rather than developing emotional/character arcs through progressions of reasoning/understanding. The underpowered Mirage gains the power to create solid objects, which was briefly shown as a capability during the Asgard story and a Power Pack guest appearance, but then treated like it never existed.

In other annuals, NM Annual #2 and X-Men Annual #10 follow the pattern of the Asgardian Wars with two loosely contacted issues by the same artist. This time the story centers on Mojo with Alan Davis on art. Betsy Braddock (Psylocke) enters the fold in the first part and Longshot in the second. For a short bit, it actually seems unclear whether despite her age, Betsy will end up on the New Mutants or the X-Men. Davis returns for Annual #3 with a madcap Impossible Man story.

Unpopular opinion, here....

I have bought, and subsequently given away, many Krazy Kat books, in my lifetime.  I have tried so hard to love this, but I just don't get it.  I love the art and color, and agree with Herriman's genius.  But I find the strips themselves to be so repetitive, weird, and erudite that I can't really "read" them and enjoy them.  Sure is pretty, tho.

On the other hand, I find myself really enjoying READING Popeye from the same era.  

Go ahead... pile it on me, I can take it.

I finished up my re-read of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen "Nemo trilogy" by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill with the third volume, River of Ghosts...




The final part of this trilogy takes place in 1975 and finds our heroine Janni aged 80 and surrounded by phantoms of former comrades and crew mates that only she can see. She is troubled by persistent rumours that her old enemy Ayesha survived their encounter in Berlin back in the early 1940s and is now residing in South America (a clever reference to the "rat lines" that saw a number of Nazi war criminals escape the fall of the Third Reich by escaping to Argentina, Brazil and other neighbouring countries).

Despite protests from her daughter, Janni resolves to take the Nautilus up the Amazon River and investigate the rumours, with help from hired muscle Hugo Hercules, who Wikipedia informs me originates from an obscure American comic strip from the 1900s. In the comic strip, Hugo would wander around the city, helping those in need with casual feats of tremendous strength, such as stopping runaway locomotives, catching falling safes, or lifting up elephants with one hand. Something I really liked regarding Hugo, was Moore sticking in allusions to and mentions of the somewhat similar cowboy strongman Desperate Dan from the British comic The Dandy. In fact, I initially thought Hugo was meant to be Desperate Dan!

Anyway, Janni journeys up the Amazon, encountering a colony of spawning creatures from the Black Lagoon along the way (from the classic 1954 film, of course). As she navigates the ruins of the Inca city of Yu-Atlanchi (from A. Merritt's 1931 fantasy novel The Face in the Abyss), Janni learns that Ayesha is now in the company of real-life Nazi war criminal Martin Bormann and mad scientist Heinz Goldfoot (a character played by Vincent Price in the 1965 comedy film Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine), who have re-purposed some of Dr. Rotwang's old androids (Rotwag is a character from Fritz Lang's classic film Metropolis).

Janni and her crew eventually track their quarry to a factory in an ancient Inca temple, where they discover multiple android copies of Ayesha, Hynkel, and an army of buxom female "Bikinitrons" (the latter of which are being crated up in boxes marked "Kitchen Appliances: Stepford Conn. USA", which is an obvious reference to Ira Levin's horror novel The Stepford Wives). Janni leads a raid on the factory complex and succeeds in killing Bormann and Goldfoot and destroying the manufacturing facility and all of the androids therein.

This was another very enjoyable instalment of the trilogy and one that I again enjoyed much more on this re-read than I did when I first came to it back in 2017. It makes for a really satisfying conclusion to the bloody saga of Janni Dakkar, with our heroine finally letting go of the past and making her father's legacy her own. Despite my having been critical of Moore giving her a "rape as origin story" start in the earlier Century – 1910, Janni has developed into a tremendously well rounded character over the course of this mini-series. She's shown as a fearsome pirate, a responsible leader, a kindly grandmother, but most importantly, she has become a ruthless, yet captivating heroine who is not defined by her origin.