November 1991

Cerebus #152. At last, something happens!!! Melmoth hadn't been uninteresting (if one is interested in Oscar Wilde's final days), but I missed the main plot involving Cirin, Astoria, Suentus Po and the Ascension.

Conan #252. The Cimmerian undergoes a journey back home, having dreamed of some catastrophe having occurred over there. The following issues will have him revisit places he'd seen in the early days of the mag. (Roy overdid things in the continuity department in the colour book after his return, I must admit.)

Daredevil #300. I bought that one because it was an anniversary issue, and because it seems to close the chapter begun years before in the story arc Born Again.

Hellblazer #49. Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. They can do no wrong on this mag! (I was still a Will Simpson fan, but Dillon would grow on me).

Legion of Superheroes #25. I loved the concept of the cloned, teenage Legionnaires. On the one hand, the idea that one could interact with one's younger self was intriguing, and on the other the idea that we might change something in our life if we could see how our adult self turned out was rife with possibilities. The same concept would be recycled in Brian Bendis's X-Men run (with a time-travel twist instead of a cloning explanation). Here, alas, the potential was never realized; it feels as if the Bierbaums just wanted an excuse to write the Legionnaires as youngsters once again. Even the cloning aspect (which had been so carefully introduced at first, what with allowing 16 years or so to grow the cloned bodies and the fact that the cloned Lightining Lad had a real arm and not a metal prosthetic, and a different temper due to his not being Proty*) was flushed in favour of some Time Trapper shenanigan.

*Yes, I realize that the sentence is pretty obscure. That's what happens in the land of constant retcons.

Legion of Super-Heroes archives, vol. 1. I had loved the Blue Ribbon Digests reprinting early legion stories on cheap paper for a ridiculously low price. Here I got many of the same stories, on high-grade paper and impeccable colouring, for a small fortune. Call me a curmudgeon if you will, but I always felt that notwithstanding their historical aspect, these stories were better suited to cheap pulp paper.

Sandman #34, and A Game of You continues.

Savage Sword of Conan #193. The long hoped-for return of Roy Thomas to SSoC continues. I was one happy reader.

Uncanny X-Men #284. I liked Portacio's art.

Wolverine #50. Anniversary issue, in which we board the retcon express once again. Ooooh, look, all we had been told about Logan's past, or that he thought he knew, is the result of someone messing with his mind! So his statement that he knew his father's name (in Wolverine vol. 1, #1) might no longer be true! The Weapon X storyline did not happen as we thought! Logan might not even be Canadian! To say that I thought this issue was a fair competitor to a Hoover vacuum cleaner would be putting things mildly.

X-Men #4. I liked Jim Lee's art too. Heck, back then I even liked Gambit!!!

Bought later:
Action Comics #672
Adventures of Superman #486
Animal Man #43
Armageddon: the Alien Agenda #2
Badlands #5
Brave and the Bold #2
Captain America #396
Captain Confederacy #3
Clash #2
Daredevil #300
Dark Horse Presents #56
Doom Patrol #50
Everyman #1
Incredible Hulk #389
Marvel Holiday Special #1
Marvel Super-Heroes #8
OMAC #3
Quasar #30
Ragman #4
Shade, the Changing Man #19
Spider-Man #18
Suburban She-Devils #1
Suicide Squad #60
Superman #63
Tomb of Dracula #3
Within Our Reach #1
X-Factor #74
X-Men #4

Apologies if this has already been mentioned (I didn’t see it), but I believe this went on sale thirty years ago today:






I haven’t read it. Has anyone? I did see some episodes of the cartoon, can’t say they impressed me that much.

December 1991!

Cerebus #153 : It looks as if Most Holy won't be able to topple the Cirinist order at the head of a popular revolution after all! Dave Sim is firing on all cylinders.

Conan the barbarian #253 : I really didn't need the return of the modern version of Kulan Gath. The man had been seen during the Conan/Elric crossover, and blasted to ashes by the goddess Terhali. Brought back in Marvel Team-Up and X-Men, he started wearing a tall pointy hat that may just have been a reference to Elric's own couvre-chef, but I would have preferred him to stay dead; he would turn out to be one of those annoying second-rate villains that keep being resurrected.

Hellblazer #50 : an anniversary issue during one of the mag's best runs? I am so there.

Legion of super-heroes #26. The Legion in those days read like a sci-fi novel, and I was really into it. Changing Supergirl to a Daxamite named Laurel Gand also worked for me, since we couldn't have the original post-Crisis. I liked the way Laurel was pictured as very tall and strong, even if in this issue she faces an android able to imitate the powers of several heroes.

Sandman #35. As A Game of You continues, I remain amazed by how late in my comics-reading days Sandman showed up. It was one of the very few titles I still followed.

Uncanny X-Men #285 : I wasn't sure where the title was going, but the Portacio art kept me happy!

Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1. Oh, the ambiguous reception... I had been a huge Warlock fan during the '70s, had been disappointed by his return, and now here he was in his own title again. No longer as a Hippie Jesus, no longer as a tormented Moorcockian hero, but as a guy with absolute power and a haughty attitude. Angel Medina was an artist whose work I had enjoyed in Dreadstar, which is a plus, but I didn't care for Warlock's new costume and wasn't sure this title would hold my interest. Which it didn't, as I didn't buy issue #2.

Warlord #1, in which we go the usually disappointing road of "oh, everything you've been told in the original series was just a made-up story based on Travis Morgan's actual adventures, which you have never seen for real. Here we'll tell you about the real thing, and it's going to be WAY less interesting that what you've read before".

X-Men #5, with nice Jim Lee art and some generic '90s superhero plot. Is that the issue in which a flashback casts Logan's Canadian nationality in doubt? (It felt at the time, after Wolverine #50, that Marvel was considering making Logan a true-blue American instead of a Canuck. Oh, well, glad that didn't pan out, eh?)

December 1991

Aliens:Genocide #2
Batman #474
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #26, 27
Batman Versus Predator #1 [Variant A]
Batman:Master of the Future #1
Deathlok #8
Ghost Rider #22
Incredible Hulk #390
Sensational She-Hulk #36
Spider-Man #19
Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1
Wolverine #51
Wonder Man #6
X-Men #5

Bought later:
Action Comics #674
Adventures of Superman #488
Animal Man #45
Armageddon: Alien Agenda #4
Avengers #345
Batman #475
Batman Versus Predator #2
Brave and the Bold #4
Daredevil #302
Doctor Fate #37
Flash #60
Gotham Nights #1
Incredible Hulk #391
Next Men #1
Justice League America #60
My Name Is Chaos #1
Olympians #2
Punisher War Zone #1
Quasar #32
Ragman #6
Ray #2
shade the Changing Man #21
Skull and Bones #1
Spider-Man #20
Suicide Squad #62
Superman #65
Swamp Thing #117
Transmutation of Ike Garuda #2
Warlock and the Infinity Watch #2
X-Factor #76
X-Force #8

It's okay; but not a patch on the original series.  Grell only writes, though the writing is very good.  Daemon Willich and Tim Burgard are a pretty decent art team, for this style of thing.  It's a darker, more cynical take, to match the whole "grim & gritty" era.  The story is structured rather like Citizen Kane, with a balladeer meeting various friends of Travis Morgan, including Machiste, Mariah, Tara, Jennifer, Shakira and, finally, Morgan, himself.  The balladeer sings of the legend, while the others poke holes in it, pointing out Morgan's faults (seeking adventure instead of helping pick up the pieces for the freed people).  However, they also point to what was true, in the legend.  The kid finally meets the legend and discovers that a good legend is always better than the reality.  There is also a darker problem, lurking along, till it all comes to a head.

So, good writing, decent art; but, kind of lacking in the feel of the original series, especially the 50 issues Grell wrote and drew.  His writing is better; but, his writing is at its best when he draws his own stories.

If you read the series, you know one of the twists from the start.