Cartoonist's Man-Cave

I read every Ghost Rider book so you don’t have to. Part One: 1970’s-1990s

Bringing back my Blog, with a Vengeance!

Okay I’m exaggerating I read every main universe-616-something-whatever ect book about Ghost Rider just so YOU don’t have too. there’s some alternate universe stuff I haven’t read because I’m saving those for other planned reads like 2099 or simply because I don’t find Cosmic Ghost Rider all that interesting.

Why did I do this? I’m into the supernatural and I really thought it was badass as a kid, so I’d latch on to stories about magick and the Paranormal. I was also into Comic Book Super-Heroes so when you mix the two I’m prone to investigate. Plus Ghost Rider’s design is so metal, he should be a tattoo caricature not an established character with 50+ years of lore.

Old Comics especially MARVEL have that neat kind of impact, genius lightning in the bottle ideas that seemed a little ahead of the curve sometimes even to today’s standards. The character was originally created as a villain for Daredevil before they thought his design was too good to stay for a villain. It was pretty genius, a flaming skeleton boogeyman on a motorbike! and he fights Satan! Now that’s cool and totally pro christian.

As a kid Ghost Rider ended up basically being my favorite MARVEL Hero thanks to the few comics I read and his movie (I never really read like crazy till High School) but as an adult I realized I hardly read his many books. He was one of MARVEL’s most prolific Supernatural heroes maybe only second to Doctor Strange and even Thor if you saw him as such. So I spent a good chunk of the year reading and researching the chronological order of Ghost Rider’s appearances and did the same for my favorite DC hero Captain Atom (Who was a bit more complicated) then made EASIER plans to do this with other books, like 2099 and Doctor Fate. (I had already done Blade and Prez Teen President by this point!)

So what did I think of the whole history of Ghost Rider? He’s certainly really “cool”. I learned an intrestig listen in being a big fan if a certain super-heto. When you read a characters history you are observing this character sort of figuring out what it want’s to be. Different writers do different things some good and some horrible but it’s good to trek on, eventually as you get to modern times you see how the character turned into what we all know him to be. I think it’s important for most writers to know their characters well when they are given a chance to write them. I’m not saying I’ll write Ghost Rider but you never know. And I’ll be ready If do!

What better way to start then with the original, Carter Slade was created in 1966 by Dick Ayers, Gary Freidrich, and Roy Thomas. This Cowboy vigilante took on the original name of Ghost Rider and much like Ghost Rider his design was a little ahead of it’s time. He had a bunch of interesting horror western stories, and when Johnny Blaze took his place his name changed to Night Rider and eventually The Phantom Rider, He becomes as integral to Ghost Rider’s history as the themes of the Old West. Carter Slade is sometimes being shown as a Rider himself, and in the first film starring Nick Cage Sam Elliot plays him as the immortal Caretaker, the Ghost Rider of the old west.

Now we get to the Ghost Rider everyone knows, the original stunt daredevil Johnny Blaze. One of the coolest ideas the 70’s ever gave us. Another weird blip in the up and coming goth/rock/punk culture that was creeping into the collected conscious of America’s youth. So what can I say about one of the most famous creation of late writer Gary Friedrich, Artist Mike Ploog, and again Roy Thomas who pretty much wrote every MARVEL character at the time.

Johnny Blaze sold his soul to SATAN in an attempt to save his adopted daredevil Father Crash Simpson and also father of his love interest Roxxane from Cancer, and it worked (It was a different time). However because the devils such a funny guy his father still died in a freak stunt accident. Payment had to be made regardless and much like the early grey Hulk- Ghost Rider transformed into the Spirit of Vengeance. Fused with the demon Zarathos he hunts down evil Nazi Bikers, Burglars, and Demons of Hell as a righteous fist of God and Vengeance!

Every issue followed a formula unless plot picked up, Johnny faces off against some villain or demon sent by Satan, sometimes usually on a bike too. They fight and they race sometimes one after the other. Roxxane is kidnapped or threatened, Johnny wins and then angst about his life then runs off. Satan plays the role of Johnny’s Arch-Nemesis, coming in and out with nefarious schemes, failing then trying again, like a supernatural Joker. I’m assuming the writers had difficulties trying to make Satan work in these stories while also trying to keep this tied to the established Marvel Universe, much like the characters things are being built by shared writers. The big conclusion to the original arc was that the now dad Crash the very man Johnny sold his soul for was now a soldier to Satan so he could torture Johnny more!

On a added side note, early Ghost Rider art is pretty basic MARVEL flair. Ghost Rider isn’t drawn as a full body flaming skeleton for awhile, you see hints of skin around his neck so he’s more like a human with a flaming skull for a head. He also has pupils that stay around for a long time, it looks a little awkward when you are used too the badass biker with pitch black charring eyes.

Fun story about the original Ghost Rider comics, Tony Isabella wanted to have literal Jesus Christ as a major character, here he is in his first appearance. Tony Isabella wanted Jesus Christ refereed to simply as “The Friend” to save Johnny from Satan and have him submit to Christ to eventually defeat Satan. According to Tony, ” (Jim Shooter) took offense at my story. The issue was ready to go to the printer when he pulled it back and ripped it to pieces. He had some of the art redrawn and a lot of the copy rewritten to change the ending of a story two years in the making. ‘The Friend’ was revealed to be, not Jesus, but a demon in disguise”

I would have loved this story to be honest, it’s so weird? I’m actually surprised it got as far as it did, It’s classic Shooter though. I would have loved this explored more and I’m surprised no modern writer digs back to the original run. I wish some writer did to Ghost Rider what was done with Hulk by Ewing and incorporated a lot of these Religious Ideas into his stories.

My favorite of Original Johnny’s story wasn’t even part of his original run, it was an issue of Marvel Two-In-One. Issue 8 where he teamed up with the Thing. Just a good example of what I think Comics do best, make really fun and weird stories! In this fun romp Ghost Rider and the Thing are supposedly sent back in time to Israel from California and take the place of the three Wise Men. It all sounds fun until it turns out the villain Miracle Man has brainwashed a village into believing they lived in biblical times. He was recreating the entire Nativity Scene and only our Judaeo Christian Hellspawn and his Jewish compadre could stop him. Other stories I liked included facing an alien child with godlike powers, teaming up with Doctor Strange (Whose very present in his history) and facing Dormmamu. To going on adventures with the original Ghost Rider Carter Slade. The one stories he always seems to do is the one thing that makes sense… Racing!

Like I said, the bulk of these stories consisted of Johnny racing a villain/demon then fighting. However only two of these races had any important impact to the character, Issue #35 written by Jim Starlin has Ghost Rider racing with Death “herself”. It’s funny how little presence Death has on Ghost Rider’s history, and it’s interesting that her one and only presence in all of Ghost Rider is this single issue by Starlin who would go on to eventually make Death a central character in the Infinity Saga. As of this comic she isn’t even a she yet, and it’s interesting to see Starlin use Death way before she’d became the Cosmic Deity Thanos pines after. This had the best art of the original run, I wish it stuck around. His second big story race was in Issue #76 when his Arch nemesis Satan turns into Mephisto.

At some point maybe around Issue #76 Satan is changed into Mephisto who is Marvel’s Satan analog- err kind of. Marvel made a bunch of Magick guys and all have faced Satan once or twice, and they’re all very different. The eventual explanation is that there are different realms of hell and they’re all ruled by different demonic beings. Sometimes they meet and fight over who gets to be THE one Satan, It’s just a neat little piece of Lore I found interesting, (we did eventually get to figure out who MARVEL’s Anti-Creator is). It’s fun trying to make sense and learn fictional worlds isn’t it?

In Issue #76 Mephisto grants Johnny’s wish and splits him away from Zarathos. There is very little stories where we get to meet the actual demon spirit of the Rider. Ghost Rider being two dueling identities is not as explored as much as I think it should with this being one of the few instances Johnny looks at this Demon with his own eyes. There are other instanced my favorite being the end of the 90’s run which we will get to soon! But It’s cool how kind hearted the Demonic Spirit of Vengeance can be so I hope he’s explored more down the line.

My favorite line from the first Ghost Rider movie was Caretaker praising Johnny. “Any man that’s got the guts to sell his soul for love has got the power to change the world. You didn’t do it for greed, you did it for the right reason. And that puts God on your side“. It’s a great quote that really defines the character. Johnny went through some fun mystic adventures, some fun villains, hilarious cameos We had some team ups, like The ill fated Champions. In the final Issue the villain Centurious has taken Johnny’s soul, this villain first appeared in Issue #77 as a man who sold his soul to save his loved one from Zarathos only for it to be a ploy so Mephisto can capture Zarathos, it didn’t work out for anyone in the end. At the very end of this original Ghost Rider run, Centurious splits Johnny and Zarathos and steals Johnny’s soul inside his crystal ball. Zarathos manages to save him but is trapped in the ball alongside a now defeated Centurios who we don’t see for some time.

Ghost Rider in the 70’s was figuring out what it wanted to be, and we didn’t have much of the intense Occult, and Metal scene to help set the aesthetics in for what he would become stylistically. There were interesting stories, and fun villains I wish would stay around in future adventures.

And so we come at a decent close for a MARVEL Classic but this is not the end of their tale. Johnny will go on to play a role in a variety of MARVEL’s Supernatural tales. Budding ways with Blade, Morbius, Daredevil, Punisher and even other innocent citizens who would take on the mantle themselves turning Ghost Rider to a long lineage of Demonic Angels of justice.

So long! I will see you when we talk 90’s! as we meet face to face Danny Ketch, the SECOND Ghost Rider!

And Remember to, Prepare to know the true meaning of hell!

The Hurdles of writing my First ever Comic The Death of Super-Star

“The Dreams of a Super-Hero” Test Panel for my Comc

When I was 5years old I began to draw, I drew almost everyday and people noticed that I was into it. When I was 5 I saw an episode of Fairly Odd Parents that involved Super-Heroes and Comic Books I was really into it. In 1st Grade I was making my own Picture Books. In 3rd grade I read Captain Underpants obsessively and started making my own comics because of it I really was a big fan of it and I resonated with the writer. In 4th Grade I read my first REAL comic the Avengers by Lee and Kirby in a Dollar Store reprint and it was fantastic. In 5th Grade I read my first Manga BoBoBo-bo-bo-bo. I then made even more comics, some teachers liked it and some didn’t. in 5th Grade I made what I considered my greatest idea and it still around in my head and notebooks. in 6th Grade I read Kingdom Come and had access to more cool mature comics and other forms or writing from books to movies thanks to my local library. In 10th Grade I realized I wanted to work in Cartoons and animation and at 18 when I left High School it’s been hurdles and tip toes because I made the stupid decision to work as a cartoonist and now at 24 I don’t regret any of those hurdles and experiences.

That’s a one paragraph introduction to my life with comics, cartoons, and drawing. I’m 24 and still love them and I still draw. And at 24 I began work on my first ever Comic Book (which I plan to publish) The Death of Super-Star. I was inspired with the admiration and praise of peers and friends and the cool group of indie comic artists on Instagram and the Cartoonist Kayfabe fandom who all went through this same boat and came out with actual works, and you know what a lot of those beat out Marvel and DC in quality of writing and art.

The journey to being a cartoonist and writer has and still is long and scary, I wanted to give up and sometimes it seemed like the only option. I tend to be a bit more stubborn then i tell myself because I never was one to throw the towel so easily. It is hard to do when it takes awhile for you to have all these ideas but constant writers block and personal hurdles. Sometimes you don’t like what you do and have no choice and well I actually wrote thirteen pages of Issue 1 then hilariously decided to start over the other week and while it’ just two pages I think it’s one hundred times better but now things are even slower but I think it’ll end up making a better story it’s all very exciting. Am I worried- maybe but I don’t think i made a mistake.

right now I’m just venting (thanks if you are still reading).

Death of Super-Star is a story about me, I had spent a long time trying to find the one comic idea to jumpstart my dream career and I finally did after reading two comics- Satan’s Soldier by Tom Scioli and Flex Mentallo by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Satan Soldier made me realize you can publish small independent books no matter the plot and Flex made me realize my first published comic should be a observation of myself.

Morrison was looking at himself when writing Flex Mentallo and through it I too saw myself. I realized that my first comic should be as personal as I can make it. Flex was (or at least I thought so) an autobiography of Morrison with a creation of his childhood(or Adulthood) so I too decided to make a story about a childhood super hero of my creation going through what I think I or even most of us went/am going through and he’s a super-hero too because that’s what i’m into.

Hope you dig that.

I felt 2020 would be a big year of change and I think it is, not just for the world but for me. I finally think i’m good enough to try to make a REAL comic and so I began work on it, a story about a super-heroes final week of super heroeing. There’s more to it then that but I’m not going to spoil my own story. You might have to wait awhile though.

With all that said and done I’m finding this to be quite an intense but educational journey. I’ve started reading novels again plus plenty of how to guides and books on Writing and Comics/Manga making to really understand what to do while still making it my own. I’m putting a lot of my soul into it so I hope it comes out beautiful no matter how long it might take or how bad it could be haha.

My plan is a 4-6 maybe even 12 issue or uh chapter- story in graphic novel form ready to read online for free but can be purchased in book form through, whatever way you do these things. Either way I’m hard at work with the comic now and drawing each page and idea, I hope you enjoy reading it when it’s out.

Thanks for reading! Please follow my Instagram for wacky artworks of mine at: https://www.instagram.com/alavazxela/?hl=en

Who’d win in a fight, John Hickman’s Avengers or Geoff Johns Justice League

And I don’t mean a fight of fists but of narrative, whose was better written, better handled. Truth be told there is little to nothing comparable about these two aside from being the main super-hero team of their respected worlds publishers. They both went on about the same time so it’s good enough for me.

This post was inspired by this article which helped me to read Morrisons JL and Busieks Avengers, (I liked JL more) so I could read JLA/Avengers thematically. Both these runs I think have more similarity between them then these two.

Now what’s my history, I read Hickman’s Avengers when I came back to comics and it’s to this day my favorite run on the team, Secret Wars feels like the perfect finale for the entirety of MARVEL as a whole and it was beautifully set up in this Sci-Fi epic. I just finished Justice League a week ago, my first exposure kind of was the animated movie based off the first arc which if you ask me was better done in the comic. While Avengers felt like an sci-fi epic, New 52 Justice League felt super safe for a good majority of it’s run. The art for both were very varied, but Justice League remained the most consistent.

But enough banter, let’s began!

The Roster

If there’s one shared problem Justice League has for me it’s that it’s team almost always played safe. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and boy Diana being the only girl for a long while is daunting. Honestly you should give Avengers a medal for having variety in every one of it’s runs, Bendis had one that was lead by Luke Cage. I’m not ragging on Geoff’s roster I mean I get it, this is the REBOOTED Justice League you really don’t need to tamper it, aside from Cyborg. Cyborg had joined the League and is now considered big enough to count as one of the big 7 effectively having taken the place of Martian Manhunter in most of the other media. I always thought this was the biggest wasted opportunity DC has done, because Cyborg is pretty lame. His biggest roles was always a meh Titans character, it’s obvious the popularity of the original cartoon pushed for him to be the token black member of the league. Which is a bummer since it was a good chance to push someone much more seasoned. It’s not all bad though, after the Forever Evil event we get introduced to Jessica Cruz for the first time, she becomes the Power Ring who was Earth-3’s evil counterpart for Green Lantern now that’s a pretty cool choice. Shazam joins which is eh but Lex Luthor becomes a member as does Captain Cold kind of, it’s great. JL’s group was slightly plain but it was also more concentrated which made them easier to explore which was different then Avengers.

Avenger’s get’s BIGGER, they mention that as the plan in the book. Create a machine that helps them decide the team who stays and who must go. The book starts off with the team based off the movie going to face Ex Nihilo who would later actually join and be one of my favorite characters. You get the usual Caps and Spideys and Thors, but you also get first timers Hyperion, CanonBall, Sunspot, Shang-Chi. Avenger’s always experimented even with their lamest stories. You don’t get neat things like villains playing heroes but you do get an evil Hulk who sticks around as well as everyone whose in the Illuminati. Unlike JL’s more concentrated line up Avengers focused on the team as some mystical force of good mostly in the pov of Cap and Tony who are at odds with one another narrative wise. Hickmans good at writing FORCES, main characters feel more then what they present us.

The Story

I have to be honest, Justice League was some of Geoff’s worse writing at LEAST until Forever evil came around then it became one of his best books. Before Forever Evil you get generic Darkseid invasion, then generic boring Atlantis story, some nonsense called Trinity War nothing excited things feel editor heavy it’s not interesting. Then Forever Evil happened, Johns is getting comfortable and he’s stretching. That fun and experimental-ness he had in Teen Titans becomes present during the story, Power Ring’s ring posses a random woman and they fight the Doom Patrol, Lex Luthor decides to be a hero and hires Captain Cold to do the same. After the Crime Syndicate are defeated Lex insists they let him join the League so they can defeat whatever threat destroyed the Earth-3 world. Batman agrees and Lex joins the team where he sort of plays the main character we get to see a side of him we rarely see and will eventually lose due to status quo. We get a well done story with the Amazo virus spreading among metropolis giving citizens powers as well as a serious case of the flu which had nicely done action in it’s panels. And then the finale the best part (of both really.)

Avenger was a series of stories that intertwined into let’s say two major plots, The story of Tony and Cap and Secret Wars. You get two or three issue stories that expand into the inner drama of the characters and their special moments as well as the moral struggle of the Illuminati who go on to destroy alternate universe to save their own. In this run they fight evil versions of the Avengers, an every species space war against the alien Makers, Thanos, a Justice League pastiche, and evil sexy woman in black. In the beginning of the story after (or before?) Ex Nihilo terraforms Mars but is stopped by Captain America and his new team. the Illuminati learn that the universes are dying and the only way they learned how to save it is too destroy the universes coming their way. Cap insists there has to be another way, but because they are short on time erase Steve’s memories of the Illuminati and put him in charge of the Avengers as a distraction. In due time he learns the truth and the Illuminati become wanted men, the Avengers comic passes a few months which catches up with the current lore at the time making it feel kind of like a well done time skip. This all ends with Secret Wars which to me was the best Marvel event in recent years.

The Grand Finale

While Avenger’s leads to Secret Wars, JL leads to Rebirth but before that it ended with Darkseid War. Darkseid War was great for the most part, the Justice League all become New Gods and use their newfound Godhood to stop crime. While this is going on The Anti-Monitor seeking to go back to his original form faces off in a war with Darkseid to do it. The JL along with Lex and the Crime Syndicate work together to stop the Monitor. It’s interesting to see Batman go around in the Mobius chair and be a literal deity in the slums of Gotham. It was a great story with great ideas. Grail kind of sucked but you know every writer wants a major OC to play big rolls in their stories. The story ends with Owlman in the Mobius char being killed by who we now know was Doctor Manhattan. This comic teased things that will be relevant in DC’s Rebirth later and finally followed up in Doomsday Clock.

From the start all of Hickman’s run from Fantastic Four to Avengers lead to Secret Wars, a event so big it’s still brought up today. In essence it was Marvel’s first Multiverse crisis, years in the making, so big it affected other books going on. Secret Wars deserves a post on it’s own, but Avenger’s ended with the threat of the Ultimate Universe crashing onto them, Ultimate Earth and Earth-616 were reaching their ends and no one knows what will happen next. Reed and most of the Illuminati create an arc to save a selected few which backfires saving only most. The Imperial Guard comes in with other alien races to wipe out Earth in order to prevent Armageddon. My favorite part of course being the very end, Old Man Captain America and Superior Tony having a final face off as the world ends around them, alluding to The Dark Knight by Frank Miller. Overall this is a 10/10 finale and Secret Wars was a great, i hope to one day talk about the run and Secret Wars itself.

The Verdict

It’s obvious that out of the two I prefer Hickman’s Avengers, John’s Justice League is fine too. The reason being Hickman’s great at doing grandiose sci-fi concepts. He made the entire Avenger’s as a whole feel like the main character as well as a grand force of good even with it following the struggles of Cap and Tony. Justice League having been cursed to be a reboot was tied down by introductions to a world we already knew that it sadly took a few years in for them to finally get interesting. The team was smaller so it was easier to write stories that had each member stand out and get a time to shine while Avengers had to limit that.

So yeah that’s my two cents, like I said these are vastly different books and could hardly be compared. I just wanted too as they went on at the same time seemed fitting. Currently I think Justice League has been killing it with Snyder and Aaron’s Avengers have been a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading, and remember Assembled we are strong forever fight as one.

Comics of the Week- 01/08/20

First new post of the year, didn’t make any last week but I didn’t really have much to say. I want to commit to comics of the week and was looking forward to Ross’s Earth X prequel. So here we go COMIC OF THE WEEK BABY.

Marvels X (2020) #1

Earth X is my favorite Marvel story, a sci-fi epic about a world where everyone has powers. In Earth X the world was used to everybody having super powers and dealing with the world changing but in Marvels X we get to see the disaster that went down from the eyes of Super-Hero fanatic David. David is hurt he got no super-powers while everyone else did and well it’s not so easy for his family. The first issue ends with David and truck driver John making their way to New York to ask remaining super-heroes if any exist for protection from a world where even street thugs can be a threat. I’m excited for more of this, to see how the world reacts to a world where everyone gets powers and it’s not as glamorous as it might seem.

Immortal Hulk(2019) #29

Hulk fights crazy looking kaijus that will eventually lead to a brawl with the original hulk beast Xemnu. I already mentioned my love of Ewing and this book so you know how i already feel. Roxxon are being dicks, hulks a symbol, giant monsters, XEMNU. It’s good but if you haven’t bothered to read it yet- WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR.

Ghost Rider(2019) #4

Ghost Rider is my favorite hero. but you’d think a comic about Danny fighting Johnny whose now King of Hell would be 100x more great. IT’s been fine, I wish more happened but the arts great and so is seeing Limbo. I just hope it picks up some steam soon

And that’s that for this week, pretty slow but eh. Shortest blog post so far I think I might talk about Earth X, I feel likes it’s never been explored in the level I want.

Thanks for reading

Comic of the Decade: The Multiversity by Grant Morrison

After how much of a gruel Marvel’s Civil War was I took a long break from comics, from 8th grade to 11th I dedicated time to Ps3, PC Gaming, and Anime and Manga. At the end of High School I’ve been a regular lurker on /co/ and I began wanting to follow comics again. There was one on-going I read about in articles back in 2010 from Dc that’s been in production for a long time, a comic about DC’s Multiverses suffering an attack by abstract horrors and the many heroes of the multiverse uniting to stop them.

And it has such a fun title, Multiversity. Multiverse a universe pool of universes one so similar or so different from the other, Versity a collection of varieties. Expanding Morrisons ideas from Final Crisis and others and referencing Crisis on Infinite Earths and even Infinite Crisis comes one of the most creative and well written comics of all time, a testament to meta and a love letter to the idea of Hypercrisis(the /co/ originated fan theory). If you love Morrisons Super-Hero stuff you will love this!

The Multiversity issue is basically two issues, with 7 one shots set in-between. Each one shot a story set in one of DC’s 52 Earths with small connections to the bigger picture of the Hall of Heroes and the Gentry. People have their favorites, for me Pax Americana and Mastermen became some of my favorite single issues of the time, for my friends it was Society of Super-Heroes and The Just.

Each issue handled by fantastic artist each putting their all in their issues, Mastermen a good example. Jim Lee really stood out in that issue, while he is to me the main DC artist he can often times appear a little bland. It might’ve been the great inking of Scott Williams, but it really stood out from Jim Lee’s usual work. As did everyone elses, no two books were the same minus Issue 1 and 2 of The Multiveristy.

The Multiversity Issue 1

Multiversity Issue 1 feels like the sequel to Final Crisis, It follows Nix Uotan the Super-Judge who was the quasi main character of Final Crisis and if you ask me one of Morrison’s most important OC’s. It starts off exploring Lice and how life thrives anywhere. Nix is a average shlow late on his rent, he’s vivisecting the Ultra-Comix issue of Multiversity for his comic discussing forum as many believed the comic to be cursed. Once things start to crack, Nix becomes his true form and his stuffed monkey becomes his partner in crime Stubbs.

They respond to an SOS in Earth 7 a universe that parodies DC’s rival Marvel, it had been desolated by the Gentry. Horrific exaggerations of villain archetypes who are out to turn everywhere and everyone into horrors like them. Earth 7’s Last survivor Thunderer(like Thor he is a thunder god but based Australian myths called Wandjina) tries to fend off the monsters only for Nix to sacrifice himself in Thunderer’s place sending him off to call other heroes to help defeat the invaders. There’s more to the story after that mostly in the point of view of Superman of Earth 23 a world where the majority of the league are of black decent(Krypton has a whole other deal about them it’s cool). You also get introduced to Dino-Cop a reference to Savage Dragon, Aquawoman, and Captain Carrot. The comic ends at Earth 8 another Marvel-esque world where their Doctor Doom pastiche Lord Havok brings forth Nix Uotans return, who had been warped by the Gentry and threatens to destroy all.

Each following comic are one-shot stories, all meant to stand alone and maybe be continued by other writers. While the Multiversity have appeared in other books, the only Earth to really get a ongoing was Earth 10 (Which I really wanted). I hope more get made, and I’m still waiting on Multiversity Too.

Issue 2: The Society of Super-Heroes

Issue 2 explores Earth 20 and 40, a world where the main team of Society of Super-Heroes pays homage to adventures of science and pulp comics (note the first allusion to Doctor Manhattan appears here). Every 100,000 years this earth tunes itself with it’s binary cousin Earth 40, where the Society of Super-Villains live. Both are counters to each other and it all ends with a face off among Immortal Man and Vandal Savage. The art of it’s story comes in the genres it’s parading Pulp Science Fiction vs classic Comic Book Horror.

Issue 3: The Just

What a great issue, theorized as a sequel to Morrisons All-Star Superman what a great assessment huh! In this dystopia all the Super-Heroes have passed and their children have taken on their mantles. However Supermans robots consistently protect the Earth from any threat big or small, because of this their is almost no danger for them to face, leaving the young heroes to do nothing but live the life of partying celebrities. Things go for the worse when Metamorpho‘s daughter kills herself thanks to a cursed comic book (the very one Nix was dissecting). While everyone grieves by throwing a memorial pool bikini party, Batman and Superman try searching for the mystery of the suicide and learn a dark secret ending with the Superman robots attacking the heroes.

Issue 4: Pax Americana

I have to wonder why Doctor Manhattans needs to be stuffed in the DC universe when Captain Atom of Earth 4 is around but whatever I’m not Editor! Pax Americana was one of my favorites of this whole event, it’s Watchmen set in modern times. But instead of THE Watchmen it’s the characters they’re based off of. Frank Quitely is Morrisons go to artist so there’s an extra sense of care in this book, Captain Atom is speaking to us and the characters on a total other plane. The best part of the comic is that it’s being told FUCKING BACKWARDS, Your sense of time is off the frits in the comic and It’s the only one I know where you can get different emotional reactions from reading it front to back, middle to front, back to front it’s amazing. Also it has one of my favorite panels ever where Atom fucking TALKS to you!

Issue 5: Thunderworld

This comic was spectacular, a fun welcome back to the forgotten world of Earth 5 where Fawcett comics and the classic adventures of Captain Marvel never stopped. Doctor Silvana and his children have United with his many alternate universe counterparts to finally destroy his rival, and he does it in the most hilarious way which involved him creating his very own day of the week. I missed this kind of Billy adventures I wish Morrison did more Captain Marvel stuff like this, one can only hope for the returning adventures of Captain Marvel, boy do I love this art.

Issue 6: The Guidebook

The next issue was one I was hyped for, the thickest of the batch a guidebook to the DC Multiverse. Chibi Batman of Earth 42 where stories like Lil Gotham and other chibi-esque stories go on teams up with Batman of Earth 17 where the world suffered nuclear disaster and everyone faces cosmic threats as atom knights. They both fight against Sivana’s robots while Little Batman explains the many universes in DC’s pantheon. We also get some insight on Earth 51, where Kamandi does some Fourth World digging. We get some insight on the Empty Hand whose been responsible for much of this, and learn a dark terrible secret of our cute little comic counterparts. But most of all we get to see the map of the Multiverse in it’s full glory(That is if you read digital as the paperback made it hard to study). It’s no shocker this was $7 when it came out while the others were $5, it had to pack in so much information.

Issue 7: Mastermen

My other favorite issue explored Earth 10 or Earth X, a world where Hitler and the Nazi’s won the war and took over the world. Overman(This worlds Superman) is the leader of the Justice League Axis and fights against Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters who are portrayed as terrorists. Because of how this world is the Freedom Fighters aren’t necessarily portrayed as good guys, they play the rolls of terrorists and destroyed a Oprah house full of people. As intriguing as it all is, the struggle Overman goes through with the guilt he feels about the atrocities that the Nazis did is one of the most well done character arcs I’ve ever seen. If you read Final Crisis you already know that Overman isn’t a very bad guy. There’s so much information to take in, I’m so glad this comic exists and is still referenced in other Earth X stories. Especially in the recent Freedom Fighters comic, which is great go read it- I talked about it on my best comics I read in 2019 post.

Issue 9: Ultra Comics

The cursed comic itself, a meta look into comics and super-heroes and one of the most important yet weirdest, mind boggling comics to come out this decade. Earth 33 is essentially the real world, our world and Ultra Comics who is also us and everyone, he speaks in everyone’s voice and he hears everyone’s thoughts and comments on the comic being read, every forum post, every discussion and youtube analysis. He finds himself in a Post-Apocalyptic New York that has been warped by a time war which constantly warps from present to future… maybe? Ultra finds himself among the Neighborhood guard after saving their leader from monstrous bug forms of the Justice League. Things get fucking insane and the kids don’t turn out as they seem, he fights other DC characters who used the name Ultra and goes back to the start of the book to get strong enough to face the bad guy the Gentry Intellectron who he defeats using the power of Online Criticism, thought, imagination, eventually trapping it in the LAST page, it’s BONKERS and it’s amazing. The book belongs in a museum and if you ask me deserves a blog post on it’s own.

Ultra Comics is about as meta as a comic could get, maybe even more then that. The art is stupendous and the character designs are awesome. Ultra Comics is one of the most unique characters ever and I hope we can see him some more in due time (despite the ending.)

I wouldn’t blame you for thinking this comic was up it’s own ass and sniffing it’s farts, or even for not making a lot of sense(They make comments on that). It can deffinitly seem that way, but this comes from the writer of Flex Mentallo and that comic is a drug fueled trip. There’s so much that can be discussed about this comic and how Morrison thinks, it’s all Hypercrisis man it’s nuts.

Issue 9: The Multiversity Issue 2

This is how it ends, after almost a year of amazing one shot stories we finally reach the finale the SECOND issue of Mutliversity. After finding the warped Nix on Earth 8 the heroes back at the hall call upon more from the many earths to stop this threat. Many of the horrible events that we’ve been observing have all been crisis happening at the same time.

The Multiversity is formed as Hellmachine of the Gentry attacks the hall and sends his Lice Pilots to attack. Eventually thwarted by Captain Marvel spearing him with the mechanic rock of eternity created by Sivana back at Issue 5. The heroes get summoned to fight the warped Nix back on Earth 8 while he tries to unleash the Gentry onto the world. It happens anyway but they are easily defeated by the coming waves of Multiverse Super-Heroes and eventually punched by every Flash ever it’s great.

Nix changes back to his normal form after being blinded by Aquawoman and helps the heroes as the Multiverse Monitor and Super-Judge. Afterwards all go back to Earth 7 where Thunderer was originally from. The Gentry have made it their home and we meet the dreaded Empty Hand who has been responsible for all this from the start. There’s a lot to take in here if you ask me(Like how his silhouette kind of fits Ultra Comics himself, something I didn’t notice until re-reading for this blog). He is far too powerful for them and dismisses them back to the hall of heroes. As it is currently, the Gentry are still around causing nonsense and Earth 7 has been turned into a world of disaster and horror.

The comic ends with the Heroes deciding to stay together as a Multiverse threat response unit. They all are grateful for Monitor as his sacrifice brought them together and ultimately stopped the Gentry from destroying more and more worlds. Offering Nix a gift of thanks, he only asks for $800 to pay off this months rent.

Thunderer remains with them on the ship, and all is well from then on. The Multiversity would come back for many Multiverse related stories in the DC Universe and The Gentry’s last sighting was in the DC Metal event and from what I gathered the Multiversity appeared in Snyder’s Justice League story.

It’s 2019 and I’m wondering what I think was the best comic run of the decade. It wasn’t a long thinking process mind you, Multiversity touched on themes and topics I was interested in. It had my all time favorite writer on board and had about 20 artists working to the best of their abilities, we got to see worlds not normally explored by DC and explanations for many old Elseworld stories. We got great insight for many great characters and we got an amazing one shot with Ultra Comics.

As of 2019 the sequel Mutliversity Too and the Flash spin off story have yet to be made. According to Morrison he’ll get to it eventually, so maybe in a decade or two. Mutiversity has been worked on for a long time as well- It’s a lot of work when you have multiple artist on a project especially when you try to work on their time as well as with yours. I’m also not sure how grueling Morrisons writing system is, for now it’s best to enjoy Multiversity as it is and appreciate their cameos in other crisis level stories. Hopefully more of these Earths get explored and explained. The Guidebook had about 6 earths yet to be logged, and before the crisises the universes of the Young Justice cartoon and Frank Millers Dark Knight were in that field- not anymore…. as of yet.

Hilariously enough we did get a new Earth in the pantheon during DC Metal. It’s revealed that Earth 53 is one where Apes rule the earth and everyone’s a Monkey. Funny right. Well that’s all that can be said about one of my favorite comics by one of my favorite writers.

Enjoy your New Years, and remember DON’T READ THAT COMIC.

Comics of the Week- 12/18/19

First post about the comics of the week, which i was looking forward to doing. I do still want to make a VGA’s post maybe this coming friday. Current Justice League and Superman/Batman are ones I wish to start reading so they are’t here but please enjoy the rest.

I like the Invaders team but they never really have any fun or deep interactions outside of the special Invaders MAXI’s and MINI’s we get every few years. Chip like Ewing really just gets fun and if you get fun you can do great dark stories(in my opinion). This is the last issue where Namor finally teams up with Captain America and his gang to take down Machan before he floods the whole world. Exploring Namor is always fun, and it’s great seeing every Invader together being drawn with great art. Wish we got an on-going to be honest.

I’ve been enjoying Cates Guardians and it ends here, after this Ewing takes over. It’s was a nice issue, Rocket saves everyone near death and all face off against Drax whose gone off the deep end. It was fun and Peter and Gamora have a cute moment before seeing Rocket in the Hospital.

I learned to really like Jason Aaron and his Thor, he’s a good writer with good ideas and he’s really going in a good direction with Avengers. Here’s something I ask for in my Justice League/Avengers stories just fun ideas and characters and if you ask me Jason delivers. After being stuck in an alien prison with Starbrands running amok Thor get infected by the Brood and Ghost Rider, Black-Widow, and Blade are driving Robbie’s car away from whatever is going on with Silver Surfer which I should get around to reading really.

I’m glad after a long while we finally got a Shazam ongoing. I wasn’t too into the short New 52 mini by Johns but he redeemed it to me with this. While I wish Shazam villains were more explored then Sivana, Mister Mind, and Adam so villains like Ibac and Captain Nazi can get some time to shine. I’m also not too into the 7 magiclands to be honest, it’s weird forced Geoff world building if that makes sense and with it being referenced in the movie well- It feels like some reverse MCU inserting which could also be a good thing. I don’t know I’m crazy, but hey I’m glad we got some cool stories with Billy’s dad.

It’s hard to trust Bendis to be honest, most times when I do they end up being pretty mediocre(bad!). I like each Legionnaire getting cool and interesting designs and stories that involve the past DC universe like Aquamans trident and Robin. I still miss child Jon it was far too short.

Metal-Men has been pretty fun lately, last issue involved a Metal-Man made out of Nth Metal and he’s been a very interesting character so far. Anyway they fight a giant Manta Ray from the Dark Dimension and Magus’s whole building turns into a giant fighting robot, it’s so wacky it’s good. Also Platinum is one of my DC-Waifus.

The history at this point was my return to comics with Secret Wars and Secret Empire. I’ve really enjoyed this comic, there’s not much to say, it’s the history of Marvel in small bursts and ends with future Marvel events. Like WOW Tony and Emma Frost marry!?

What a great finale for a great mini, Greg Capullo and Snyder were in their element, I only wish Metal was more like it. I loved the core cast who helped lead Batman to defeating Omega who was so powerful he had Darkseid‘s head on a pike. Batman questions himself a lot and you get a exploration of what makes Batman- BATMAN negatively and positively. and Joker was Robin who helped in the final battle was great.

Doomsday Clock is just okay, this last issue was just okay. I feel like it’s being over-hyped up the ass but the only noteworthy moment to me was the set up of future stories like another FUCKING MARVEL/DC CROSSOVER. I did like the big fight with obscure characters, but yeah it’s just egh. It’s so superficial and it ends with a set up of future DC stories and I hate that kind of stuff. None of this is stuff that should be done with Watchmen, I mean it’s Watchmen. It’s like having some summer blockbuster shlob director direct a sequel to Citizen Kane. it’s unnecessary and dumb, Manhattan says there can only be a he kills-he kills outcome with Superman and Clark says “There’s a third option” and then Manhattan just changes and “fixes” all the changes he did in New 52. Egh this is the last I wan’t to talk about it really.

Hope you enjoyed my Comic of the week segment, I plan on doing one every Wednesday/Thursday. Going to make my VGA post next

Remember, Comics are good for you!

DC Universe Rebirth 5 years later a RETROSPECTIVE

I without a doubt believe DC rebirth sparked and brought in a whole new wave of readers and brought waves of old ones back and I think thats thanks to marketing and word of mouth. After a long comic break, I finally jumped back in thanks to Secret Wars and Multiversity and some time after Multiversity, Rebirth came in. New 52 was thrown out the window, old continuity is back and will mesh with the popular ideas from New 52. There was a big super controversial set up for a comic at the end, which I will get too. Rebirth was a relaunch done right, and 5 years later as 2019 comes to an end I might as well see if anything held up.

From Page 1 you have an idea what’s coming, the innards of a clock and the text boxes. You know whose talking but cannot be sure. And unless you skip to the end or read the news you were- conflicted. I gotta say I love this mystery character’s dialogue in the opening of this, it’s personal and relatable. But that’s all I can say for now to be honest, more to come.

First off can I appreciate how good Gary Frank’s art is, it’s like all of DC’s most notable artist rolled into one man. To me Jim Lee was the definitive DC artist but If I’m talking depth and details it’s definently Gary. But yeah Three Jokers, it’s been 4-5 years and it hasn’t been brought up in Batman at all. Tom King’s Batman was great at first but got more meh as it went on. It feels like DC keeps pushing him to do these things in line with what they want and he doesn’t let them, almost like he demanded Three Jokers be done on his time not theirs. Good habit, but still awkward.

Note: Apparantly it was brought up in some other book, weird that it’s not the main Bat Book but hey.

Wowie Zowie the narrator was Wally West! Whose been absent since the New 52 began. This is the first sign that the old Pre-Flashpoint things were coming back. He calls to Bruce who doesn’t recognize him and mistakes him for Barry, no one remembers him no one remembers a lot of the Pre-Flashpoint stuff. For those not up to date, New 52 rebooted everything! Poor ginger Wally was gone and replaced by Black Wally, Black Wally hasn’t gotten a lot of traction lately and now he had lost the limelight(or has he?). Wally’s kind of the ghost main character of this comic, he jumps around different events in the heroes lives to find a connection strong enough to bring him back to the world after A STRANGE ENTITY fiddles with reality, mostly to set up upcoming comics. I’m not into setting up other books during big events, none do them good and that includes this.

After Batman failed to return him Wally has flashbacks about his Post-Crisis adventures. Old readers will be giddy with hype, hey they remembered! they spouted. Wally explains the history of DC up to Barry coming back and eventually causing Flashpoint which is what caused all of New 52. Wally saw a mysterious being tinker with the DC universe, this being caused the New 52 and he didn’t do it to be nice, he did it just cause! Wally continues to be lost in uhh Speed-Force? until someone with a good connection frees him.

Next chapter starts off with Wally’s fist victi-I mean connection. Johnny Thunder returns and he’s a crazy old man who lost the Genie that gave him his powers. This doesn’t get brought up as much in the DC comics of the following years,this is just one of those things that are set up to play a role in Geoff’s epic crossover story. I honestly think it’s a little to cruel to such a Golden age classic and I have to ask, where’s Jakeem?

Saturn-Girl appear and she’s a bit of a loon. For some reason everyone think her and Johnny are crazy despite living in the DC Universe, but it’s all just Geoff Jones set up. Saturn-Girl wants to see Superman but aside from the police thinking she’s a madwoman Superman has fucked off to who knows where. Oh yeah he died right in some New 52 stuff, or did he? Yeah the Pre-Flashpoint Superman is actually around and has been playing Batman for some time in the Lois and Clark books, they even have a Son!

Did anything come from Ryan Choi‘s hunt for Ray Palmer, or was it only in JLA. JLA was “okay”- It was a unique selection from DC’s B-C Lister’s in a team and go on crazy adventures. That includes following up on this story. Did DC not have enough faith for them to let this be some short mini that it had to be some side plot for JLA. Whatever though, Atom’s cool and I liked things like Sword of the Atom.

I don’t really like Jamie, he’s everything I hate in a Latino protagonist. I do like Blue Beetle and Doctor Fate teaming up to study the science of the magic of Jamie’s scarab. Not enough to actually read Blue Beetle, I don’t know if it’s good I think it might’ve be short lived, Fates hanging around being evil in Justice League Dark and as far as I’ve seen Ted’s still dead.

Wow nothing, just 6 panels setting up 3 different stories. I think Aquaman had the best of these three going for him. Aqualad from the Young Justice show was a great character and having him in the main canon is cool. But wait whats that last panel?

Pandora, from!- something I’m not sure, Flashpoint I think. She dies as soon as she comes back by uh SmurfMan. I think she does play some role In the major DC plot afterwards I don’t know, I don’t care.

Wally’s still jumping around, we see Darkseid being reborn and Jason (of the Argonauts) being mentioned. This is all stuff that shows up in Greg Rucka‘s Rebirth Wonder Woman run. I loved that book a lot, it felt like everything good from the movie plus the best parts of Morrison’s Earth-1. After a whole 3 part arc that leads to Diana, Cheetah, and Ares making amends. She faces off against Grail whose raising a teenage Darkseid with the help of Jason from the Argonauts. I stopped reading at that point to be honest.

Next pages, New 52 Superman died in a thing, again-everyone’s sad, again. I heard New 52 Superman got really good eventually but it started off very boring so I didn’t bother or want too. But you know what wasn’t boring, Peter Tomasi‘s Superman. These 2 pages also talked about Green Arrow and Black Canary‘s relationship but blah blah I don’t care.

New Superman may be dead, but old Post-Flashpoint Superman is very well alive and has been doing his Superman business at night Batman style, it was interesting. With rebirth Tomasi used this Superman as his lead. Something I thought was idiotic, even more so when Tomasi decided to do some weirdo multiverse shit and fuse the worlds of both into one so it’s all canon now. I would hate it more if Tomasi didn’t do everything else so well, Superman has adventures in Kansas then Metropolis with his Super-Powered son, Damian tags along and has fun. It’s genuine and heartfelt and I’m sad he got kicked off for Bendis.

New 52 Aquaman was great, and Rebirth Aquaman feels like a follow up to it. Aquaman want’s Atlantis to be recognized as nation which leads to some war stuff you know how it is. Mera want’s to marry Arthur but tradition gets in the way. I had one major complaint about Rebirth and that was killing off the Captain Nemo villain for Black Manta wanking. I love Manta, but Aquaman need’s more interesting villains.

Wally’s next attempt to return is with Linda Park, his love interest. I like this part, it feels like he truly believes the power of love can save him from his dilemma. Then is heartbroken when like Batman she has no memory of him. Wally screams in rage and goes to the next target.

Wally jumps and we see the characters Gotham and Gotham-Girl. I liked the idea of the characters a lot and I like Gotham-Girls role in King’s Batman (till I stopped reading). I wish more got done with both of them, I really liked their look. The idea of some Goth architect aesthetic Superman trying to take Batman’s place who even had a similar origin. They go off and fight giant monsters too, and the Bane arc is amazing, Gotham Civil War was okay. It’s a shame it goes downhill after the wedding issue, I still really like King though. The next panel tease is JLD but I don’t care for Justice League Dark that much, I didn’t read it.

After jumping around with some more characters, Wally finally meets Black Wally. I hate shallow conveniences and CONVENIENTLY Wally and Wally are related. Black Wally goes on to become Kid Flash, and Wally goes on to become THE Flash after this single issue. Also Barry Allen Flash is still the Flash! I used to hate legacy characters because they always go back to status quo so it never makes an impact, but I’ve grown to get over it. But if you have 5 characters with the same name in one world I think you are out of your mind.

After a long 80-ish paged issue, Wally finally gets through to someone. Barry his mentor, who didn’t remember at first but after Wally gives an emotional farewell- It was sappy enough for Barry to remember and save his friend from the grasps of the mysterious god being and into the rebirth world. After an emotional one on one, Wally explains that Flash’s adventures in Flashpoint didn’t cause the New 52 that some strange force had tampered with the laws of the world and for unknown reasons.

And the mastermind isssssssssssss-

The Watchmen!

But more specifically, Doctor Manhattan. You see at the end of Watchmen Manhattan says he wishes to create a world and leaves everyone to deal with their own problems. We learn that it’s New 52, he basically created it and this all gets explained in Doomsday Clock a sequel crossover comic by Geoff Jones and Gary Frank. It’s- okay, I have to ponder why DC and WB keep wanting to mess with Watchmen, and I dread it each time. I can forgive Before Watchmen for at least keeping it very respectful, but this is just a whole new level. Should they do a crossover with Maus? how about Y the Last Man? Blacksad? It’s disrespectful to the source material and it isn’t even anything fantastic to warrant it really!

Im certain it will end with an advertisement for DC’s next big plan

I like Geoff, he defined DC for a majority of it’s modern life. I don’t think he’s a bad writer at all but he’s the last guy I’d want to mess around with the Akira of American Comics. But like Alan Moore, we must move on. And so have I, by not buying them or watching the T.V show.

Rebirth finally ended around the time Doomsday Clock started, as Clock was the finale of it all. Some Books came and died quick, others are still going on in 2019. Overall I commend Rebirth for sparking an interest in comics again. So much so I was in threads where people created MARVEL rebirth mock covers. If it wasnt for the perfect timing, I might not be reading comics like at all anymore.

Thanks for reading, and remember “Nothing ever ends.”

My Favorite Comics I’ve read in the 2019’s in no order

I love Comics, often I worry a little too much. I like visual storytelling, I prefer plots shown with unique art. Since this is my first time blogging and this is the end of the decade I think it’s best to show the best comics I’ve read this year 2019 or not.

I feel kind of bad that I read mostly Marvel/DC comics this year. I take it upon myself to not read so many Cape comics and I encourage others to do the same as they are an oversatured genre. Cape can be really good and Watchmen-tier though even if it doesn’t look it, you be the judge.

Marvel Comics #1000-1001

A celebration for Marvel’s 80th birthday it ended up being one of their best books of the decade. Marvel keeps making many misses for me ever since the MCU became the defacto overlord of -well everything, so finding something good is a nice find. The book was a collection of one or two page short stories by various writers from Priest to Gaiman while also hinting at possible future events involving the Eternity Mask and a bunch of classic pulp marvel heroes. I really enjoyed the retelling of old Marvel events with modern art, it was very interesting to read. I also enjoyed the cameos with Darth Vader and MarvelMan though I doubt it will go anywhere, but it was cool to see MarvelMan being all meta.

Dial H for Hero

I talked about how I thought this was DC’s best comic in 2019, a real comic art love letter. Sam Humphries really went out of his way to make a fun unique story about escaping ones self and Joe Quinones really did his best work to give this comic its own art style that mixed everything. With every character and background character turning into a random super-hero tribute, there’s something for everyone here.

Freedom Fighters

After stopping comics for a time the only thing I read before DC’s Rebirth was Multiversity. My favorite issues was Mastermen and Pax Americana and I wanted them to expand them. I did get that for Earth-X kind of, there was this Convergence side story which was fun, but then came this. It’s a cliche concept, A world where Nazi’s won but THERE’s Super-Heroes. The Nazi’s won thanks to having raised Superman into their best soldier. The world created is dark and desolate and the Freedom Fighters are the only true heroes left as most of DC’s A-listers turn into Nazi scum. I think this book was good because of how good the core players and villains were written which is funny since Uncle Sam to me was the weakest of them, but it kind of suits him being he’s a symbol brought to life. The comics about to end and I hope it leaves an impact on the current DC mythos.

History of the Marvel Universe

Waid is a good writer even if I think he’s a but of a nut, I loved his short Captain America run and Kingdom Come is still my favorite Comic ever as well as one of the first I read. History of the MU is a text book in which Franklin Richards and Galactus explain the timeline and history of the Marvel universe while they wait for the universe to end, connecting it all and even sourcing the materiel. I always thought that the face value history of the Marvel world was very interesting, more then DC who constantly rebooted it all. This Comic explains each moment in quick and easy text boxes and at the end get into details about what comics had this information for dumb nerds like me.

Paper Girls

Brian K. Vaughn is one of the best modern writers, I love his original works but don’t care much for Runaways. Paper Girls is great, it’s the girliest comic I ever read, and that’s a compliment as the main characters personalities feel like legitimate real suburban Girls. Something I don’t think many writers really grasp when writing children and tweens. This comics really weird, they deal with time travel and it’s handled with lots of strange sci-fi ideas including Time Travelers riding Quetzalcoatlus and giant Water Bears. To be honest despite it all, I thought the final issue was a little weak in the middle but everything at the end was comforting.

also remember kids smoking is bad for you!

The Immortal Hulk

This is the best Marvel comic going on. Hulk always had an interesting mythos and Ewing is really digging deep to change the Marvel universe for the worse(or better). This is a horror comic where Bruce turns into a more sinister hulk and deals with constant body horrors and other gamma monsters all while fighting his inner demons. This is Hulk at his most though provoking, it’s fantastic.

Batman Last Knight on Earth

The final chapter of Snyder and Capullos long Batman trilogy, starting from New 52 Batman and continuing from METAL. The world had ended and everything is warped and fucked. Batman has to travel this world to learn whats going on and his only companion is the talking head of the Joker who cracks jokes at every opportunity. He fights giant monster Green Lantern babies and evil Superman robots, it’s still only at Issue 2 but there’s so much left for Snyder to do I hope it doesn’t let me down at the end(like METAL kind of did).

Ice Cream Man

Manga does horror way better then American comics. Something from Junji Ito would legit be hard to look at and picture but I could read any horror comic like anything else. Ice Cream man doesn’t do that but it certainly has some nasty concepts, an Ice Cream man goes around telling stories of sorrow, wonder, and redemption while delivering ice cream to kids. They are unique stories told with very nice art, I enjoy it a lot- I wonder if it even could be considered horror, it gives me the vibes, maybe the idea is meant to be grounded.

House of X/Powers of X

I haven’t followed an X-Men story in a long while, but put Hickman on anything and I’d read it. This is a prequel to what is his X-Men run and its been real fun so far. Hickman does good on insane Sci-Fi concepts and has a whole living island that Prof X and Magneto turned into a Mutant nation with their own language that Xavier projected into everyone’s mind. A lot of this ties to events in the future which I feel like Marvel has been emphasizing a lot lately.

Guardians of the Galaxy(2019)

Donny Cates really made my most watched writer list with how much I loved Redneck and Thanos. With how insane Thanos was a Guardians of the Galaxy book was up his alley. It took me a bit to get into but once I bit I got hooked. It starts off with Thanos trying to resurrect himself then to Peter stopping his Dad from forming a insane Adam Warlock cult, I also dig the lineup- honestly Beta Ray Bill should be in every team. Cates is great at having fun with his books, so things always go insane and hammy which under most writers end up being messy but under Cates it almost always hits.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch(2019)

Sabrina dealing with more folkloric and sinister magic isn’t anything new with Chilling Adventures still lingering in my head. But I think the brighter art, design and fun characters give this a bit more ground to stand on. I think I just really like Sabrina as a character and concept and I want more moments that feel like her time meeting Hellboy.

Black Hammer

The most original idea I’ve seen so far, these super-heroes that represent different genres in that field are stuck on a farm in a small town and will die if they leave within a certain distance. I can tell Lemire is writing a comic about old creations of his with how detailed this world and its lore is in its side stories and tie ins. but the original comic is good on its own, these characters have to deal with living in a small world that has never heard of their super-hero exploits and have to succumb to simpler farm life. Some take it better then others, and others are on their breaking point.

The Boys

Garth Ennis is what people think Alan Moore is, and like Moore he’s a passionate writer. I read this to watch the show which I still have yet to see. But the comic is fantastic, Garth is mad about capeshit and is finally letting out that rage but with lenience and understanding. The Boys is about Hughie working in a CIA group that deals with rowdy Super-Heroes who cause trouble as almost all are corrupt celebrities. It’s a story that constantly pushes boundaries as you should expect from Ennis. It has a lot of tense moments and everything in the comic ends on a bittersweet note it’s compelling.

Milk Wars

Milk Wars was weird, it’s combining DC’s alternative imprint Young Animal that’s been metaphsyical, and spiritual, and arthouse-y with the strict corporate established canon rules of the regular DC World. A strange Metaphysical Megacorportation is tampering with the DC Universe turning the JLA, Batman and Wonder Woman into strange parodies of themselves. The Doom Patrol are the heroes for the most part and team up with the other Young Animal characters and the JLA who at the time despite being a Batman lead generic (to an extent) super team have been dealing with the weirder side of DC like Ahl the God of Super-Heroes and Promethea. It’s a fun read with great art, you might need to re-read it a few times to figure it out a bit.

The Green Lantern

Honestly I want Grant Morrison to write every super-hero ever, at the very least every major DC hero. Green Lantern by Morrison is a DC comics Judge Dredd. He’s going around Space fighting stranger then strange alien creatures, disguising himself as a villain slave, and has an adventure inside his own ring. This comics feels very 2000’s both the year and the A.D.comics and the art reflects that. Green Lantern is a personal favorite and I hope Morrison can deliver more with even crazier ideas, for Christ sake he pulled God over for a vehicle violation.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

I’m dumb and never read this before, but it was fantastic. In essence the first ever comic event and they did their best to make it feel gigantic and giving the feeling of what may leave an impact. The Monitor is collecting Heroes from other worlds to help stop the Anti-Monitor who seeks to destroy the Multiverse. It’s big without feeling cluttered and small time characters all have a moment to shine. This is honestly George Perez at his best, only he could draw so many characters together and mesh it all without error. It could be a lot to take in per page but it’s still gorgeous. COIE is a classic and is genetically engineered to not be bad, I only hope the CW special is as good.

I’m ending it here, I’ve said so much. There was lots I’ve read this decade that I might talk about later. Like I said, too much cape is never good but good is good doesn’t matter where. It feels like Marvel under Cebulski keeps working towards new and new events and events are ehhhhhhhhhhhh, It could be cool but I have trouble trusting Marvel’s comics when the Movies keep shadowing over it possibly making plans to change them to be MCU like. DC has Didio fever, Didio is a cool guy er sometimes or never. That said who am I to make judgments on them. I actually did enjoy a lot of Secret Empire and METAL was cool except when it ended like every other event does, becoming an ad for upcoming titles that may or may not live on. I love comics and I love DC/Marvel but sometimes corporate scares me but I think most writers wouldn’t take shit if it really bothered them.

I love comics, I hope they love me back.

You know what comics good?- Dial H for Hero(spoilers)

This book is great, it’s a testament to comic history not necessarily by it’s writing but by It’s art!(writing is still good). I was a big fan of China Mievelle‘s New 52 Dial H way back when, It introduced me to the concept which started its slow creep back into the masses(Issue 13 of that is one of the greatest single issues I’ve ever read). The story written by Sam Humphries is an exploration into such a neat idea, of a phone dial that randomly turns you into a super-hero and has it exploring that symbol with Meta commentary up the ass.

Each hero Miguel the main hero and Summer Picken turn into is done in a variety of art styles some being total references and parodies. You’d think they wouldn’t mesh well together but the base art style makes it very charming, it all just works out great and it’s fun to think “Hey I got that” but in a non-superficial way.

It’s not just the heroes either, often times they put a lot of creativity in how they portray normal pages and panels. I don’t think I’ve seen it be done in a long while maybe ever. It’s not just doing panels and pages and art in new way it’s using established styles and meshing them together.

Miguel tired of his boring life serving mayo based food in his uncle’s mayo truck meets a girl named Summer who too wants to escape the life she burdens, Miguel wasn’t too interested at first. But after a stunt puts his life in danger, the mysterious H-Dial appears before him transforming him and saving his life.

Miguel agrees and drives off with Summer to Metropolis in order to give the Dial to Superman for safe keeping, on the way they face the Thunderbolt Club a group of past Dial users who wish to regain that thrill of being something better then themselves. Note how many of these club members are just normal people, cops and homeless men. It’s a solid start and explores a lot of left behind concepts from the original Dial H as well as escapism and identity, who wouldn’t want to be someone new and better.

Issue 7 was a good example of the best of this comic series. The leading villain Mister Thunderbolt turns everyone in the multiverse into a super-hero(Starting with Metropolis), believing it to be some evolutionary next step and everyone can be the best thing they are. Everyone becomes some reference to comics as Miguel get’s lost in the Hero-Verse and deals with meta nonsense while Summer tries to take care of the situation in Metropolis.

In Issue 7 we explore how the Dial’s transformation changed the lives of many Metropolis civilians and how it bettered their miserable lives much like many of the club members which while good for them was a disaster to the public. Each of the characters we followed were saved by some Sailor Moon hero named Guardian Angel and Summer was trying to figure out why and who she was, after seeing the cute anime girl eat a squirrel we learn that the Magical Girl Hero’s true form was a Service Dog who was simply doing it’s duty.

Dial H for Hero is very interesting and almost all have dealt with escapism and being someone you aren’t, from short stories to short lived runs, to comic art tribute. I first read a series of short stories one of which had a redneck turn into a rather attractive super-heroine, then lost the dial and had to strip for a living while his closest friend tries to sleep with him- that’s the only one i remember from that. But my favorite still even with how much I enjoyed this run was New 52’s which I guess I can discuss one day. My favorite artist doing the covers and with great Morrison-esque writing It’s one I can’t recommend enough even with the shlobby art later.

I’ve never read a Sam Humphries book, nothing I’m really into to be honest. I read Dial H because I liked Dial H, and with Art like this I’m glad I kept going. Honestly this is probably DC’s best book right now(Immortal Hulk is Marvels) and you should definitely read it, especially if you have a hard on for good interior art.

Remember, love yourself!

You know what comics good?- Immortal Hulk (Spoilers)

Holy crap after a whole year of build ups, extremely tense conclusions, and fantastic covers only now did Immortal Hulk have an “ok” issue. I don’t mean that in a bad way at all, It was still a pretty good issue with great art by Joe Bennet, what I mean is more that things are slowing down a bit in an arc where Hulk becomes an activists and it’s just still so interesting.

In this weeks issue Bruce goes on a rampage to Roxxon an infamous Marvel corporation known for their suspicious and sinister activities and are lead by their CEO the villain Minotaur. This was foreshadowed in last months issue when Hulk declared he would perform rampages in order to send a message. This of course happened after his battle with General Fortean a U.S General with General Ross like aspirations whom had fused with the corpse of the villain Abomination. That all happened only after he had gone to hell and faces off with the devil himself!

That’s just face value, there’s way more going on when you read context and such. And when you’re a long time marvel fan who knows a lot about the inner workings and how their universe rolls you can see what Ewing’s trying to do. It started off as a horror comic like take on the monster hero and turned into something else entirely.

You ever look back at a new hot shot writers history, It’s very interesting how much growth you can see from a comic artist or writers work(this goes for all artist and writers really). Dave Sim of Cerberus the Ardvark being the best example, but Ewing is another good one. Ewing wrote things like Contest of Champions and U.S.Avengers which screamed fun moments and great characters, Immortal Hulk has these with added suspense and horror, even branching into cosmic horrors. I have high hopes for future titles that Ewing has planned and I’m very interested in what could be what I think is a future marvel event story involving it’s creation and eventual fate.

Hulk was always one of Marvel’s most interesting characters, and if you ask me a great example of what made Stan Lee‘s writing so new. Over time the character would go through many interesting changes, Stan Lee wanted to change his skin to green so it was made to be an alternate personality both of whom fought for control in Banner’s mind. The Grey hulk would often times take helm and become “Joe Fix-It” a mobster muscle man who partook in the many sins of man for Mobs in Las Vegas and even absorbed their personality.

Other Hulk incarnations took form, Doc Green, Kluh, Savage, with the most interesting being Devil hulk some super embodiment of his dark side who as I know so far has never really been unleashed to the world, just in Bruce’s mental episodes.

Hulk’s villains are some of my favorites, gamma mutated monsters just as strong as hulk if not stronger both mentally and physically. Abomination was always my favorite Marvel villain and he was brought back in a very interesting way by Ewing by having him as this grotesque fusion of Blonsky and Rick Jones. Other villains appear in interesting ways, Leader appeared too but we don’t know much yet.

Honestly everything I’ve talked about so far is pretty basic compared to the bigger pictures. This wasn’t just an exploration of Hulk’s mythos but a darker look into the Marvel universe. If there’s one thing I love about DC and Marvel’s world it’s their exploration into cosmic and lovecraftian themes on how their universes works ranging from basic space exploration, to a meta look at our world and one of those that i’m a fan of is the grand creator of them all, Marvel’s being The-One-Above-All or as i like to call him TOAA(tow-ah).

Creator and Destroyer is never really explored in Marvel and it’s hard to tell if something like Satan in a Ghost Rider book is THE Satan(They even made a joke about how all of the satanic deities debate on who can hold the title) but I think Ewing answered that by introducing The-One-Below-All. He didn’t just introduce him he made Gamma Radiation a major part of Hell’s inner working with the lowest level being a Gamma Wasteland, Green and Red is littered in the color pallet and The Green Door is revealed to be some entrance to an(the?) Afterlife.

That’s right Hulk and the other cast of characters take on Hell and the Devil himself, the ultimate Marvel villain. It doesn’t even start there it’s revealed later he’ll destroy the entire universe I wont say how, I think it’s revealing too much even for a spoiler heavy blog post. But damn, it was really unexpected the kind you want in your stories.

Books like Vision or Mister Miracle that are more of an exploration into deep themes feel- held back by trying to have it be part of the main world continuity (to me at least). A lot of the trauma and disasters that Vision had to deal with feel artificial when he and his surviving child still out doing basic super-heroing in other books. Immortal Hulk has this going on too, and it does bother me because it takes me out of it all. I would honestly prefer that if Hulk was going to fight The Thing in Fantastic 4 that it not be brought up in Immortal unless it serviced the story, all books should do this to be honest. Though I’m glad he at least appeared in Dan Slott‘s Fantastic 4 revival when they summoned all past F4 members and close friends to help fight some alien bitch, I probably would’ve been annoyed if he didn’t because I’m an idiot fanboy.

My favorite of the covers, for Issue 26, showing the major players in the run

Immortal Hulk’s intriguing themes and fantastic art really makes it stand out, we only get so few comics like it every few years and I try to be sure not to fall behind on them. Ewing has a great range when it comes to his writing, he understands Marvel well and I’m glad he has the chance to explore these themes, hope to see more great things by him. Marvel is really killing it lately I remember like 2 years ago they had nothing I cared about and what I did really enjoy got cancelled within 5 issues (RIP Howling Commandos and GLA). Remember to support good writers friends have a fine day!