It's a 12 issue series.

My friend and I didn't realized that this was a 12 issue series and he had an extra copy of the 12 issue run and I'll be getting it next Friday for me to read. He said to me that I can keep it for myself. So, I'll reading that real soon.

Loved this issue; there was some really fun stuff in it, especially some of the graffitti. It grabbed me the moment Lokk spoke in colloquial English, rather than Stan Lee pseudo-Shakespeare. This was why I read and loved this series: there was plenty of mystery, action, rounded characters and a lot of fun. That stood out in the period.

Hector's costume threw me at first. I recognized the lucha libre stylings; but didn't quite get the designs, until I got a better shot of it and realized it is a weather map.

#8 “The Overview” (June 2000)



The Libra Case: M’rrgla Qualtz’s former teammate in the Seven Sentinels, Captain Boomerang, is also a lawyer who argues that Qualtz “was simply obeying her biological imperatives” when she decapitated ten people to eat their pineal glands. Qualtz telepathically goads Phantom Jack with a vision of the two of them in the throes of passion. An enraged Jack threatens Qualtz’s life and stalks off. Qualtz has this “playing the victim” act down pat; look at her leer on the left side of the panel below!



The Boots and Saddle Case: Commissioner Ultima informs Captain Traynor that she will be visiting Top Ten in the near future. He tells her about King Peacock’s imminent fact-finding trip to Nova Roma, looking for Professor Gromolko’s off-world contact.

The Traffic Wreck: A collision between two spaceships trying to use the teleport facilities simultaneously means grisly work for Lieutenenant Peregrine and Officer McCambridge, who apparently can transform into duplicates of herself which have different powers. One of the drivers, a skyscraper-sized horse-man, is mainly disturbed that his accident is disrupting his participation in the Game between the Great White and the Great Black. That is, he’s the knight in a giant chess game. The two people in the other vehicle find their bodies partly embedded in that of the knight, and they die (one slowly, one quickly) before the issue is over.

My Two Cents: It’s Lieutenant Peregrine’s focus issue. We open on her domestic life, as she leaves her sleeping, balding husband in bed, takes her shower, dons her costume and a cross necklace (not a crucifix, so Protestant rather than Catholic) into her shirt. She later tells the dying man that she is a Christian, and she stays longer than necessary at the crash site to provide solace to him as he “goes on a journey” into the afterlife. At the end of the issue, she kneels in prayer near the corpses. It’s a far more respectful treatment of Christianity than most comic books give. And yet, when given an opportunity to giving a dying man the comfort of her faith, she chokes, stammering evasively. Maybe she’s not accustomed to evangelism? In the end it’s the dying horse-man who provides an inspirational message about light conquering darkness.



This issue specifically credits “Gene Ha: Pencils and Inks; Zander Cannon: Layouts.”

“A.E.” is Neopolis slang for “alter ego,” as in “Bruce Wayne is the A.E. of Batman.” (spoilers?)

Easter Eggs:

Cover: A fun homage to portable video games, with Girl 1 playing as herself, assisted by Irma Geddon, and the other characters depicted as headshots reminiscent of an old JLA Crisis cover. On page 11, we see Girl 1 actually playing this video game, which is tablet-sized. She’s enraged by how much she dies in the game (p. 16).



p.1: Peregrine’s husband wears a watch shaped like Superman’s chest symbol. Apparently this is a reference to Battle of the Planets, whose heroes wore bird-motif costumes, so it makes sense that Peregrine would marry one of them. There’s a portrait of the Fantastic Four on the bathroom wall of their spacious home. Her radio plays two songs, one titled “Ugliness Am Beauty” by The Imperfect Duplicates (i.e. Bizarros). Also an advertisement for a feminine hygiene product called “Paradise Pads” whose selling point is that it is “untouched by the hands of man” when you are “fighting crime, even at that special time.”



p.3: This issue is loaded with scenes of many flying characters and vehicles, and all of them are sight gags. This one panel has the Tantive IV “Blockade Runner” from Star Wars, a “Joust” knight mounted on a flying buzzard, as well as flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz, and more. The top half of the Baxter Building appears to have been ripped free and is floating in the sky. The next panel has a car with Plastic Man, Elongated Man, and Jimmy Olsen’s Elastic Lad literally rubbernecking the accident. Two panels later, Thomas the Tank Engine flies by.



p.12: Astro Boy sails through the sky.

p.14: Falcon sails in from the left side of the page; Man-Bat is flying right. Dawnstar is in the middle. Warren Worthington from X-Men is far right. It’s a crowded sky due the traffic jam!



p.20: A man in a fez appears to be carrying the bottle city of Kandor upside down, despite a “this side up” arrow on the side. Come on, dude!



p.22: Grand Central has an advertisement for “Vacation on Infinite Earths!” Awesome. Pariah leads Firestorm and other heroes in a conga line. It’s a crowded scene full of characters. Directional signs for dimension travelers show them how to get to “Earths 1-10,” “Earths A-G,” etc. I can’t even begin to name all the characters in this scene, but Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” and “Death” are at the lower right, and just to their left are the versions of Spock, Uhura, and Captain Kirk who inhabit the Mirror Dimension. (They’re wearing sashes, Spock has a goatee, etc.) OK, one more: Members of the Crime Syndicate (Ultraman, etc.) are flying top left. I can’t imagine how much fun Cannon and Ha had populating this panel, and this issue in general.



P23: Robbie the Robot is far left of the first panel. Too many other characters on this page, and I don’t know them all but am 100% each of them is somebody particular, if you know what I mean.

Captain England, one of the ones created by Moore.

In the first panel, Alan Moore is one of the slaves, in the lower left. The two Minotaur surround a fallen Xena. The Little Caesars mascot is on the middle right, waving. The MWA letters on the Minotaur's hoodie is probably a reference to rappers NWA, rather than a nod to the National Wrestling Alliance.

My favorite of the Ultra-Mice is the one with the eyepatch, which is a nod to the British cartoon hero, Dangermouse. Too bad there wasn't a little hamster next to him, for Penfold.

The Forever People are on their super bike, in front of the police cruiser, in the red light district. The actual flying pink elephant is a nice touch, given what usually goes in in neighborhoods like that.

In the arrival panel, that's not just the Marvel Hercules. the crowd consists of him, the DC Hercules Unbound, the cartoon Mighty Hercules and standing behind them is Steve Reeves, as Hercules.  The blue guy is one of the Hercules statues, though I can't quite pin down the exact one, as it shares elements of several.

The trio of giants, to the right of Hawkwoman, are Clint Barton, as Goliath; Elasti-Girl, from the Doom Patrol, and Stumbo, from Harvey Comics.

At the arena, in the lower left, are Madeline Khan, Gregory Hines and Mel Brooks, from History of the World, Part I. Marvin and his dog, K-9, are behind them. On the right side, you can see Asterix and Obelix, the Golden Age Hyppolyta, the winged creature (with the woman's head) from the Sadko aka The Magic Voyage of Sinbad; Elsie, the Borden's cow mascot, the skeleton warriors from Jason and the Argonauts, and George Perez's Ares. The popcorn vendor would be Ceres (or Demeter, in Greek myth); can't quite figure out who the two people are, just behind her right shoulder (panel left).

The bottom panel: if those are the Mysties, it's not very accurate. I wouldn't bet much on Speed Racer, in the lower right window. The silhouette third from the left looks a bit like a dog, so it could be the Scooby gang, Wonder og, or just my imagination. Just outside the club, to the right and in back of the crowd are the Hair Bear Bunch. I think those are characters from Elfquest, in front. The head that makes up the club is a mix of Eson the Searcher and Arishem the Judge, of the Celestials (with tweaking and other Celestial elements).

The threatening to out Capt. Traynor is not without precedent, even in the time period. Don't Ask, Don't Tell was still a fairly recent policy, in the military and being a gay man in a position of authority was still something that was rarely made public, especially with something like the police force.

I'm not 100% certain about the timeline; but, I think the delay in issues was partially related to work on the 49ers graphic novel. It seems to me that it had been announced and the work was ongoing, coincidental to the regular series.

I enjoyed the fact that this was more of an ensemble, than just everything through Robyn's eyes. She will get plenty of attention ahead, as well as in the Smax mini-series. This has a nice mix of the cast and lets us in more on King Peacock, while also making a bit of commentary about the "greatness" of ancient Rome.