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Post by tonebone on Mar 11, 2024 9:39:20 GMT -5
My question for those of you who read this run when it was originally published: did you realize Wyngarde was Mastermind through these hints before the actual reveal? My first issue of X-Men was #99, and I read it religiously most of the way up to #180 or so. But I didn’t recognize Mastermind. I’m not sure I had ever even seen Mastermind at that point. I’ll bet it took a lot of people by surprise. I don’t think Mastermind really appeared that often. He’s in all those issues at the very beginning with the Brotherhood. And I think he appeared a few times after that, but he wasn’t any kind of a major villain like Magneto or Juggernaut. It seems likely to me that he came completely out of left field for a lot of readers. But I would sure be interested to hear any different! My first issue of X-Men was 137, believe it or not. It was in 6th grade homeroom, courtesy of a friend. It blew my mind.
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Post by spoon on Mar 11, 2024 23:17:43 GMT -5
I re-read X-Men Annual #4 ("Nightcrawler's Inferno"), by Claremont, Romita Jr., and McLeod. The art team is a sort of sneak preview, because years later JRjr and McLeod would be the pencilers of Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants. It's interesting to read a story with a convincing fake of Dante's Inferno shortly after reading a similar story from Ka-Zar that was published about a year later.
This story has been slotted into the Epic Collection immediately after Uncanny X-Men #138, so it has the first in-story mention that Storm is the new team leader. She doesn't get to do much leading though. She's taken out of commission for a while, but when she is in the fight, she doesn't seem any different from the other members.
This is the story where it's revealed that Nightcrawler's girlfriend, unbeknownst to him, is actually his adoptive sister Jimaine Szardos. She also a Romani witch. It's quite amazing that Kurt didn't recognize her, since it appears she changed her clothing and hairstyle, but not her face. Ethically, I don't know how I feel about tracking down Kurt without feeling who she is. It also kind of sucks that Kurt realizes that Amanda wasn't weirded out by his appearance because she was raised alongside him. Wouldn't it have been awesome if Amanda was okay with Kurt's appearance because she was a normal person who just like him and wasn't freaked out by mutants. I do like Amanda being a witch, but Claremont could've still done that without making her Kurt's long lost adoptive sister. For some reason, these annuals often don't stick with me like the regular monthly issues. I had totally forgotten that Kurt killed his adoptive brother in a fight because the brother, Stefan, had been murdering local children. It's retconned that the villagers chasing Kurt in Giant-Size X-Men one suspected him of being the murderer. I'm not sure I like this retcon either. Isn't it better to be purely prejudice about his appearance rather than misjudging the evidence of a genuine threat. Also, Kurt kills Stefan because when they were kids Stefan made Kurt promise he would kill him if he ever turned evil. What a bizarre thing to say! What strange hole did Claremont pull that plot point out of?
There are a couple of interesting bits of trivia in this issue. Doctor Strange is a guest star. While he is examining the seemingly dead Nightcrawler, he mentioned that he assumed by his appearances that Nightcrawler was some human/demon hybrid, but examination reveals him to be fully human. That undermines the retcon I've heard Chuck Austen made in his maligned run decades later. Also, when Wolverine was first depicted unmasked, he looked older than the young hothead he's seemed to be. There have also been some references in scripts that suggest he's older than his teammates (e.g., he did this or that years ago), but nothing that requires him to be significantly beyond the age of a typical human's physical prime. I believe this issue may have the first reference that really dates Logan. At one point, he thinks to himself that he hasn't weather like a storm in the fake Hell since a winter he spent "below Monte Cassino." To me that suggest he means the World War II Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944. If he didn't seriously lie about his age, that would mean he's over 50 years old when this story takes place.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 12, 2024 20:06:36 GMT -5
None of my regular comics came out this week. I picked up Suicide Squad: Dream Team #1 and I read it already. It’s pretty good!
I got some of those 1970s Action Comics in the mail yesterday and I already read a couple of them.
Action #465 has the first part of a Lux Luthor story that doesn’t look much like a good Lex Luthor story. I’m not in a rush to get the next issue because I don’t really care what happens. The back-up feature is Steve Lombard! Man, I am so glad that Steve Lombard is not one of the supporting characters who gets dragged along every time they make another version of Superman. If somebody ever decides they should bring him back, I hope they make him a Senator from Alabama or something. But this back-up story is actually pretty good. It gives him a little depth. Just a little. Just enough.
And just now I read Action #470. It’s the concluding chapter of a three-part Terra-Man story. It’s actually a pretty good Terra-Man tale. I hated the character when I was a kid. But he’s grown on me over the years, just because he’s so wacky, and not because I think he’s the catalyst for good stories. But in this one, he has a motive, and he has a pretty good plan, and it almost works. I think maybe he was a little surprised that Superman can actually be kind of sneaky when he needs to be.
So that just leaves the following two comics that I haven’t read yet.
Action Comics #471
Action Comics #474
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 14, 2024 12:35:39 GMT -5
I recently read The Complete Wally Wood Lunar Tunes. Well...that was certainly something. These are pages that were done by Woody shortly before his death and seem to have been meant for Witzend. The artwork is great even considering the physical problems Woody was having that the time. But the story, such as it is, is...well it's just not very much. I really don't know what else to say. If you want to see some pretty decent very late era Wood artwork, give it a read. If you're looking for a coherent story...this isn't the place.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 14, 2024 15:12:04 GMT -5
I read Action Comics #471 last night. It’s the first appearance of Faora, a Kryptonian woman who hates males a lot and got a very strict sentence in the Phantom Zone for torturing and killing a bunch of men. She’s managed to escape the Phantom Zone and she exists in a ghostly form and convinces an old widower that she’s the ghost of his wife. She convinces him that he needs to move next door to Clark Kent BECAUSE REASONS!! She can manifest herself in physical form for short amounts of time, and she wreaks havoc around Metropolis. It’s the first part of a three-part story, so it’s difficult to have a firm opinion on it. But so far, it’s pretty good for 1970s Superman.
I just checked the mail and I got the package containing Action #484 to #492. I haven’t had a chance to read any of them yet.
So here’s the list of comics that I own but haven’t heard yet:
Action Comics #474, #484, #485, #486, #487, #488, #489, #490, #491, #492
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Post by Calidore on Mar 14, 2024 16:10:51 GMT -5
I read Action Comics #471 last night. It’s the first appearance of Faora, a Kryptonian woman who hates males a lot and got a very strict sentence in the Phantom Zone for torturing and killing a bunch of men. She’s managed to escape the Phantom Zone and she exists in a ghostly form and convinces an old widower that she’s the ghost of his wife. She convinces him that he needs to move next door to Clark Kent BECAUSE REASONS!! She can manifest herself in physical form for short amounts of time, and she wreaks havoc around Metropolis. It’s the first part of a three-part story, so it’s difficult to have a firm opinion on it. But so far, it’s pretty good for 1970s Superman. I just checked the mail and I got the package containing Action #484 to #492. I haven’t had a chance to read any of them yet. So here’s the list of comics that I own but haven’t heard yet: Action Comics #474, #484, #485, #486, #487, #488, #489, #490, #491, #492 The Faora three-parter was the first complete story kid me bought as it came out. The part two cliffhanger had me antsy for the whole next month.
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Post by berkley on Mar 14, 2024 16:12:36 GMT -5
I recently read The Complete Wally Wood Lunar Tunes. Well...that was certainly something. These are pages that were done by Woody shortly before his death and seem to have been meant for Witzend. The artwork is great even considering the physical problems Woody was having that the time. But the story, such as it is, is...well it's just not very much. I really don't know what else to say. If you want to see some pretty decent very late era Wood artwork, give it a read. If you're looking for a coherent story...this isn't the place.
I'm a bit of a Wally Wood completist when the prices aren't too high so I'll probably look for this even if it isn't first-rate Wood. Is this a new collection? I don't remember seeing it before.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 14, 2024 16:34:00 GMT -5
I read Action Comics #471 last night. It’s the first appearance of Faora, a Kryptonian woman who hates males a lot and got a very strict sentence in the Phantom Zone for torturing and killing a bunch of men. She’s managed to escape the Phantom Zone and she exists in a ghostly form and convinces an old widower that she’s the ghost of his wife. She convinces him that he needs to move next door to Clark Kent BECAUSE REASONS!! She can manifest herself in physical form for short amounts of time, and she wreaks havoc around Metropolis. It’s the first part of a three-part story, so it’s difficult to have a firm opinion on it. But so far, it’s pretty good for 1970s Superman. I just checked the mail and I got the package containing Action #484 to #492. I haven’t had a chance to read any of them yet. So here’s the list of comics that I own but haven’t heard yet: Action Comics #474, #484, #485, #486, #487, #488, #489, #490, #491, #492 The Faora three-parter was the first complete story kid me bought as it came out. The part two cliffhanger had me antsy for the whole next month. I ordered #472 and #473 already. I also saw #475 with the return of Karb-Brak, and I had to get that too! I’m not expecting them until next week.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 14, 2024 16:59:58 GMT -5
I recently read The Complete Wally Wood Lunar Tunes. Well...that was certainly something. These are pages that were done by Woody shortly before his death and seem to have been meant for Witzend. The artwork is great even considering the physical problems Woody was having that the time. But the story, such as it is, is...well it's just not very much. I really don't know what else to say. If you want to see some pretty decent very late era Wood artwork, give it a read. If you're looking for a coherent story...this isn't the place.
I'm a bit of a Wally Wood completist when the prices aren't too high so I'll probably look for this even if it isn't first-rate Wood. Is this a new collection? I don't remember seeing it before.
Not new at all. Put out by Vanguard Press in 2005.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2024 18:45:27 GMT -5
Just reread this old favorite, I love everything about this issue. Published in 1980 but set in WWII (an Earth-2 period piece), a Nazi scheme eventually brings Batman and the Blackhawks together to counter the threat. Written by Wolfman, pencils by Cockrum, and a lovely cover by Aparo, what more could you ask? Batman is tipped off by Gordon that the Nazis have been stealing from various scientific laboratories, and one of my favorite scenes is when he heads to Washington D.C. posing as a concerned stockholder as Bruce Wayne to see if he can get any information out of the politicians. So dapper with his classic pipe! We also get a glimpse of the Batcave including a shot of the snazzy original Batmobile and a short scene with Robin and Alfred. No shortage of action with the Blackhawks as well, always a favorite to see them, who are also chasing down the Nazis who have built a terrible weapon. Eventually they team up with Batman in the air who arrives in the classic Batplane (what an issue for classic vehicles!). Add to that a one-page ad with Hawkman saving the day with Hostess Fruit Pies, and you've got some fine reading
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Post by Batflunkie on Mar 15, 2024 20:07:38 GMT -5
Elfquest (Marvel/Epic version) #7-#22
I think I might have fallen in love with title you guys (already got The Complete Elfquest 1 and 2 on the way). I think what I've been enjoying about this the most is how well it reads, kind of reminding me of being a kid and how much I loved the Dark Crystal. Love the concept of the Wolfriders and how their lineage is almost kind of casually explained during a battle between Cutter an Winnowill. "Recognition" and "Sending" are also very neat ideas that are seamlessly interwoven into the story
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,069
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Post by Confessor on Mar 15, 2024 20:35:09 GMT -5
Elfquest (Marvel/Epic version) #7-#22 I think I might have fallen in love with title you guys (already got The Complete Elfquest 1 and 2 on the way). I think what I've been enjoying about this the most is how well it reads, kind of reminding me of being a kid and how much I loved the Dark Crystal. Love the concept of the Wolfriders and how their lineage is almost kind of casually explained during a battle between Cutter an Winnowill. "Recognition" and "Sending" are also very neat ideas that are seamlessly interwoven into the story I really like Elfquest a whole lot. I've only ever read the black & white original comics and collections, not the colour Marvel reprints, which I think had some redrawn panels (to hide occasional nudity, perhaps??). One of my New Years Classic Comics Resolutions this year was to re-read the first 10 years of the series (1978-1988) and I'm hoping to get to it soon.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 15, 2024 21:41:08 GMT -5
Elfquest (Marvel/Epic version) #7-#22 I think I might have fallen in love with title you guys (already got The Complete Elfquest 1 and 2 on the way). I think what I've been enjoying about this the most is how well it reads, kind of reminding me of being a kid and how much I loved the Dark Crystal. Love the concept of the Wolfriders and how their lineage is almost kind of casually explained during a battle between Cutter an Winnowill. "Recognition" and "Sending" are also very neat ideas that are seamlessly interwoven into the story I really like Elfquest a whole lot. I've only ever read the black & white original comics and collections, not the colour Marvel reprints, which I think had some redrawn panels (to hide occasional nudity, perhaps??). One of my New Years Classic Comics Resolutions this year was to re-read the first 10 years of the series (1978-1988) and I'm hoping to get to it soon. I have the Marvel/Epic ones as well... One of these days I'll track down the originals.
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Post by commond on Mar 16, 2024 7:23:32 GMT -5
Elfquest (Marvel/Epic version) #7-#22 I think I might have fallen in love with title you guys (already got The Complete Elfquest 1 and 2 on the way). I think what I've been enjoying about this the most is how well it reads, kind of reminding me of being a kid and how much I loved the Dark Crystal. Love the concept of the Wolfriders and how their lineage is almost kind of casually explained during a battle between Cutter an Winnowill. "Recognition" and "Sending" are also very neat ideas that are seamlessly interwoven into the story I really like Elfquest a whole lot. I've only ever read the black & white original comics and collections, not the colour Marvel reprints, which I think had some redrawn panels (to hide occasional nudity, perhaps??). One of my New Years Classic Comics Resolutions this year was to re-read the first 10 years of the series (1978-1988) and I'm hoping to get to it soon. ElfQuest has been printed in color in various different formats, but I prefer reading it in black and white. As far as my own reading goes, I'm currently at the point where the Pinis scrapped all of the spinoff titles and turned the series into an anthology book, but my interest has waned a bit.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2024 19:05:20 GMT -5
I love offbeat issues, and Action #579 was a most unexpected one. As you can probably tell from the cover, it's a direct homage to Asterix the Gaul with Jimmy and Superman pulled into that world (with little more than some name changes to separate from the original). Written by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, and a great match with Giffen art, it combines two of my favorite properties into a fun little "tribute" type tale that I just reread.
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