Date: November 1986 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: 75¢ 2015 NM Price: $3 Stats: 23 color pages plus Universe News and ads. Creators: Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema, Phil Felix and George Roussos
The summer of 1986 was one of those times when I was really into comics. I was 15 years old and reading everything I could get my hands on. Marvel was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and started several new comic series set in an all new universe. This universe was supposed to be less magical, less fantastic and more realistic. I never really got into the titles, but the longest one only ended up running for 3 years. I guess people didn’t really want books that were more realistic. The fun part was getting to be there at the beginning, and seeing all the new origin stories!
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Date: September 1984 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2015 NM Price: $4.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads, Bullpen Bulletins and “The Hammer Strikes” letters page Story & Art: Walter Simonson Other Artists: John Workman, Jr., Christie Scheele
It has been several months since my last comic book review. Not that I stopped reading comics – oh no – I was just a little bit swamped with other things in life. In that intervening time, however, I was finally able to watch Thor: The Dark World. I thought it was OK, but not superb. How do I know this? Because even now, just months after watching it, I had to look up a plot summary to remember exactly what happened! That’s definitely not the sign of a great movie. Anyway, I did like the parts about the evil dark elf Malekith. Just the other day I got to thinking that I have the comics where he makes his first appearance, so I thought I’d continue my pseudo-streak of reviewing older Thor comics. Lucky you!
Date: February 1999 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $1.99 Stats: 20 gray and color pages plus ads Storytellers: Mark Waid, Andy Kubert, Jesse Delperdang, Chris Sotomayoor, Todd Klein
This issue of Captain America has some similarities to the movie Schindler’s List . Most noticeable are the black and white (or gray tone) images, with splashes of red here and there. The red, in this case, being the Red Skull’s big, ugly head! Also, this is a story about WWII – in a round-about sort of way. Here we get to see an alternate life of one of Cap’s biggest foes – and it isn’t pretty!
Date: October 2014 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $3.99 Stats: 21 color pages plus ads Storytellers: Dan Slott, Michael Allred, Laura Allred, Clayton Cowles
Do you ever have bad dreams? I do, and sometimes they are the really scary ones where I start awake and my heart is beating 100 miles per hour! I often find that I have the same dreams / nightmares over and over too – whatever that means. You know – the one where you can’t run, or you can’t help somebody or something like that. Sheesh – maybe I need to see somebody about that huh? Anyway, this issue of Silver Surfer involves the king of bad dreams – Nightmare himself. And a sinister plot is afoot that may allow him to rule over the Earth forever! Gasp!
Date: August 1984 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2014 NM Price: $4.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads, Bullpen Bulletins and “The Hammer Strikes” letters page. Story & Art: Walter Simonson Other Artists: John Workman, Jr., Christie Scheele Notable Notes: Everyone is racing to find the Casket of Ancient Winters!
I love me a good cookie – especially if it has chocolate chips in it! I’ll readily admit that I have a weakness for cookies, but do you think any of the Marvel superheroes do too? Well, apparently Thor does! The hands-down lamest part of this issue is when the Son of Odin is duped by a police-officer who offers him laced cookies! C’mon! Oh well, I guess it’s good to know that our heroes have some weaknesses just like us… right?
Date: September 2013 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $2.99 Stats: 21 color pages plus ads Writer: Mark Waid Artists: Javier Rodriguez, Joe Caramagna and Chris Samnee Notable Notes: A bully from Matt’s past shows up!
Have you ever had someone from your childhood show up in your adult life? I have a few times, but it has never been someone that I really disliked or hated. I think that would be kind of hard to handle. In this issue we get to see Matt deal with that very thing as a bully from his childhood comes looking for his help. How would you react? Well, there is a reason Matt is a superhero – and it doesn’t always have to do with his physical abilities either!
Date: October 1972 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 20¢ 2014 Price Range: $3.00 – $42.00 Stats: 20 color pages plus ads, Marvel Bullpen Bulletins and “Meet Doc Savage” page Writers Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart Artists: Ross Andru, Jim Mooney and John Costanza Notable Notes: 1st issue – based on the pulp fiction story “The Man of Bronze”
OK, I’ll admit it – this was the first Doc Savage story I have ever read! Of course I’d heard of him, and being the big SF fan that I am you’d think I would have read one of the many novels about him – but no. So after reading this cool comic book that was given to me by my sister several years ago, I looked up some information about this classic character. It turns out he started in story form back in the 1930s, and has been featured in a variety of media since: magazines, novels, comics and even movies. He has quite the interesting history and a cool gang of side-kicks. I think I’ll have to delve more into some of the Doc Savage stories . See – comics are still a great medium for introducing people to new characters and properties! Read the rest of this entry »
Date: January 1984 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2014 Price Range: $2.00 – $18.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads, “Postbox: The Pit!” letters page and Bullpen Bulletins Writer: Larry Hama Artists: Mike Vosburg, Jon D’Agostino, Rick Parker, George Roussos Notable Notes: The Joes trick Cobra into attacking a fake base! Read the rest of this entry »
Date: August 2013 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $2.99 Stats: 21 color pages plus ads and “Letters Without Fear”. Writer: Mark Waid Artists: Chris Samnee, Javier Rodriguez, Joe Caramagna Notable Notes: Bullseye explains it all!
Have you ever created a good plan – you know, a really great strategy – and had it work flawlessly? I have a few times – although not as often as I would have liked! It feels good though, knowing that you put your intellect to work and it paid off. In this issue we get to see the fruit of Daredevil’s labors – and they turn out pretty good, which is really cool!
Date: January 1999 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $1.99 2014 NM Price: $3.00 Stats: 21 color pages plus “American Graffiti” letters page, Bullpen Bulletins, fold-out gate cover and ads Writer: Mark Waid Artists: Dougie Braithwaite, Robin Riggs, Shannon Blanchard, Kevin Tinsley and Todd Klein Notable Notes: Cap investigates a congressman.
Wait a minute – Steve Rogers and Captain America are two different people?! Who would’ve thunk it! I was pleasantly surprised to see Steve Rogers follow a different path than Cap in this issue. Yeah, you know, Captain America is a national symbol and an Avenger and all that, so its not too surprising that he has to be very careful with the people and things he publicly endorses. However, as we find out in this issue, Steve Rogers is free to do whatever he likes! A very simple, yet cool, idea – and one that I totally didn’t see coming!
Date: October 1984 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2014 Price Range: $1.00 – $10.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads, Bullpen Bulletins and “The Spider’s Web” letters page Writer: Tom DeFalco Artists: Ron Frenz, Josef Rubinstein, Joe Rosen and Christie Scheele Notable Notes: Puma, Black Cat, MJ and The Rose all make amazing discoveries!
Most villains are real scum-bags and jerks – but not Puma. No, he is a real class act! In this issue we see him take it easy on the Lady Heroes, give Spider-man time to recuperate, shower between fights, dry clean his costume and have second thoughts about killing Spidey. Wow – if only all such villains were so thoughtful and considerate. Remember kids – you too can be a classy villain!
Date: July 1984 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2014 NM Price: $4.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads, Bullpen Bulletins and “The Hammer Strikes” letters page. Story & Art: Walter Simonson Other Artists: John Workman, Jr., Christie Scheele Notable Notes: A search for the Casket of Ancient Winters!
If there is one subtle take-away from this issue it is this: that characters in Thor should *always* be wary of beautiful or helpful women. Why is that? Well, because in this comic those kinds of women are nothing but trouble, that’s why! The doctor’s secretary, Melodi, the jail guard and especially the hot woman in the car – they all have really mean ulterior motives. For the most part they get what’s coming to them… but the car woman – she turns out to be something very different (and very bad) indeed!
Date: July 2013 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $3.99 Stats: 21 color pages plus ads, 2 pages of behind-the-scenes and an 8 page back-up story. Writer: Mark Waid Artists: Chris Samnee, Javier Rodriguez, Joe Caramagna Notable Notes: Daredevil finds out who has been behind his recent attacks!
I am a big fan of science fiction novels, and one of my favorite series is Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space books. There are some rich people who seal themselves inside motorized boxes so that they can avoid contact with the nano-technology destroying Melding Plague. Anyway, there is a character in this issue of Daredevil that reminded me of those Palanquins, but this one can’t move and the brain behind it is still very deadly!
Date: December 1983 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2014 Price Range: $2.00 – $18.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads, “Postbox: The Pit!” letters page and Bullpen Bulletins Writer: Larry Hama Artists: Mike Vosburg, Jon D’Agostino, Edward Norton, George Roussos Notable Notes: Joes and Cobra invade Coney Island!
Have you ever encountered an old, abandoned amusement park? I have, once, in Guam! I remember seeing it from the highway – all the rides overgrown with tropical vegetation. It was downright spooky! I did think it would be fun to play hide-n-seek or some sort of war game in though. Can you imagine how fun that’d be – running around and hiding amongst all the old rides and game booths! I’ve haven’t thought of that old amusement park in a long, long time – but this issue reminded me of it because both the G.I. Joes and Cobra head to a famous amusement park to carry out their plans.
Date: September 1984 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2014 Price Range: $1.00 – $10.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads, Bullpen Bulletins and “The Spider’s Web” letters page Writer: Tom DeFalco Artists: Ron Frenz, Josef Rubinstein, Joe Rosen and Christie Scheele Notable Notes: 1st appearance of Puma!
I always have a bit of a chuckle when I read Spider-man or Superman comics – you know, the part where our hero swoops in and catches somebody. It seems like the energy from a collision like that would seriously injure someone! Doesn’t it sometimes feel like the writers of these books never learned any real world physics? Yeah. Anyway, here is an issue where Spider-man learns about inertia the hard way: when he grabs onto a wall while falling! Yoink!
