Visit to March 1995 Concluded

Justice League America #99



Seriously, who thought that Gerry Jones and Chuck Wojtkiewicz were the right team for this title?

Furthermore, who approved Gerry Jones' idea for Justice League America?

It was almost like the book was DESIGNED to fail.

Gerry Jones has had success at DC, and Chuck Wojtkiewicz is a good enough artist, but together, on Justice League America, the match just did not make sense.

In any event, this issue was one of the better issues during the Jones/Wojtkiewicz run, mainly because there was little to no characterization, which is where I think Jones really failed in his run. His characterizations for the team were almost laughable. Worst of all was the "is ____ a homosexual?" sub-plot that he had going on with not one, not two, but THREE characters in the book!!

Luckily, this issue did not deal with the characterization at all.

Unluckily, it instead dealt with a whole group of new characters created by Jones and Wotjkiewicz named "the Strangebrood." This basically was a backdoor pilot for a Strangebrood comic, as the Justice League were barely featured in the comic.

And the Strangebrood were just awful characters, which is strange, considering that Jones had just recently created the Freex for the Ultraverse, who were extremely similar to Strangebrood (teen freaks). In fact, that may explain it...he used up all the teen freaks he could think of on Freex, and the rest went into Strangebrood.

Ugh.

The one saving grace for the book was that Blue Devil joined the team this issue. Blue Devil was kinda funny.

Another amusing aspect of the comic was that this was one issue before the return of Maxwell Lord...as a villain (where have we heard THAT one before recently?)!

Not a good issue!

Stormwatch #20 - It is really amusing to look at this book pre-Ellis. I was actually sort of a fan of Stormwatch at the time. It was light superhero fare, but to be honest, there were not a lot of good superhero team books being published at the time, so Stormwatch sorta stood out as, well, not being as bad as Justice League America...hehe.

This issue, written by Ron Marz and drawn mostly by Mel Rubi (although Mat Broome got to draw the opening page of a Stormwatch member in a skimpy bikini, so I guess he did his share) tells a story of three renegade Stormwatch members taking on a Russian villain who desires to turn Russia back to a Communist nation.

Hokey, but at least the issue was action-packed.

Rubi's art was decent.

Marz also introduces us to two new members (both fired right away by Ellis, with one of them being killed off in one of Ellis' first issues) and, well, they were not exactly thrilling new additons.

Steven T. Seagle and Michael Lopez contribute a short story about one of the new characters, Undertow, giving Undertow's origin. For a short little piece, it was actually pretty neat.

The issue was hokey enough (and so many things were not adequately explained), that I am giving this

Not a good issue.

But it was only BARELY not good. Not a terrible issue at ALL.

Captain America #439



"Wearing out his welcome" Part 2.

By the end of his run (there were only four issues left before Gruenwald completed his 126 issue run on Captain America), Gruenwald was not as spent as Marv Wolfman was, but he was pretty darn close.

This issue was essentially devoted to Gruenwald's love for continuity. Even BOTH villains are STEEPED in continuity.

The first, Super Patriot, turned out to be a long-time friend of Steve Rogers, Mike Farrell, who had not been seen in the book for about 90 issues before Gruenwald himself brought the character back about 50 issues prior to #439. And we still were given no reason why BJ Hunnicut became a villain!

The second, Dead Ringer, is almost over the top in its appropriateness for Gruenwald. The Dead Ringer, you see, can mimic the appearance and powers of dead people. So he is a walking "Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: Book of the Dead"!

In addition, though, just look at the cover (by the artist of the issue, Dave Hoover, who is a decent artist)! Cap is wearing an armored costume! Bleh!

And inside, we see the other new additions to the title, Jack Flag and Free Spirit.

And if you're saying to yourself, "No, Brian, you can't mean THESE characters, can you?"



Well, I am afraid I do.

This book was such a mess.

I am so pleased that Mark Waid's run came when it did, and this is coming from someone who enjoyed a good deal of Gruenwald's Captain America run. It was just time to go.

Not a good issue!

R.E.B.E.L.S. #7 - This was a really fun book, and this issue was in keeping with the overall tone. I was really irked that this book did not do better, sales-wise, because the characters that Giffen and Grant created, and that this title developed, were just so rich and good. Damn shame that they are all pretty much gone for good.

I mean, Vril Dox, obviously, we all know is awesome (and he was good in this issue, although not a lot of scenes), but what about Stealth, Phase, Telepath (who was really good in this series, as he was brainwashed into hating the rebels, but ended up being forced to work for them), Borb (whose straightforward approach to heroism made him look so naive compared to the rest of the team) and Srata?!?

They were all great characters as well, and while we will obviously see Vril again (too great of a character NOT to use), I do not know about the rest of the crew.

In any event, Tom Peyer wrote another detailed engaging plot while continuing with the whole "team of rebels on the run against an evil organization" storyline that the book was formed on.

Scot Eaton did a good job as guest artist.

This was a good issue!

Green Lantern #62



Someone who does not get enough credit, in my book, is Darryl Banks. I was never a huge Banks fan, but he was one of the better artists working at DC at the time, and he managed to stay on Green Lantern for over 75 issues, never bolting for a "hotter" title (although, to be fair, Green Lantern for awhile WAS one of DC's hottest titles).

Quick "weird" thing. This is one of the only times I have ever seen something like this happen in a comic before, but the scene on the cover of the book (as seen above) matches a panel on page 12 almost EXACTLY. It is really trippy. You almost never see that in a comic. Can anyone think of an example where the cover image appears almost exactly the same in the comic itself?

This issue dealt more with Kyle's growing relationship with Donna Troy (which was a good idea by Marz, too bad he had to give it up when Byrne wanted to use her in Wonder Woman), and then a lot of brainless action, which turned out to be a prelude to Ganthet asking for the ring back.

Just in time for Hal Jordan to return!!!

So yeah, this was basically just a 22 page prelude to the main event, which was the showdown with Hal Jordan in the next two issues.

So I really cannot give this a good issue rating.

So not a good issue (just barely)!

Flash #101 - I have often said that I really think #100 was when Mark Waid's Flash hit a bit of a roadblock. #100 was basically the end of his run, the grand finale....only he stayed on for another 50 or so issues.

Still, the real malaise did not set in until after the time travel storyline in the #110s.

This issue, dealing with the events of #100, as well as Flash's new powers, was introspective, but well told.

The art by Oscar Jiminez was quite good.

Best of all, though, was, as usual, Wally and Linda. Some GREAT moments between the two, especially the ending (Question for the audience, who is your favorite Linda Park writer? Waid or Bill Loebs? I presume no one will say Johns, as he really has not done anything with Linda, at least not like Loebs or Waid did, but if you want to say Johns, I'll certainly listen to your reasoning).

This was a good issue!

Justice League Task Force #23



This was a real critic's darling at the time, and I also really liked it at the time.

However, one of the criticisms of Christopher Priest's writing on the book was that it was a bit confusing.

Well, reading this ONE issue ten years later?

You have NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON!

The book makes almost no sense until about ten pages into it, and even then, it really does not help you much.

Not new reader friendly was Justice League Task Force.

Still, there were enough good character moments and funny jokes (The Ray not knowing that the annoying noise was his Justice League transmitter) that it was entertaining.

And Sal Velluto's art was quite good (I think I prefer Bob Almond to Mark McKenna, though, on inking Velluto).

I am still going to recommend the book, but it was close.

Good issue!


Avengers #386 - This was towards the tail-end of Bob Harras' run (he was already co-plotting the book with Terry Kavanagh, soon he would be doing just plots), and it really showed.

Guess who the Avengers team was in this issue?

FOUR PEOPLE!

Black Widow

Hercules

Quicksilver

Crystal

That's right, and yes, the cover still said "Earth's Mightiest Heroes."

This issue consisted of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" getting their butts collectively handed to them by the Red Skull.

Yes, the Red Skull fights the AVENGERS single-handedly, and mops the floor with them.

And the end of the issue we learn that this is all a prologue for a crossover with Captain America (he appears at the end in his armored form).

The art by Angel Medina was interesting enough (certainly dynamic, but a little too over the top), but not enough to make up for the fact that this was a comic starring Hercules, Black Widow, Quicksilver and Crystal getting beat up by the Red Skull.

NOT a good issue!

Before I wrap up, a funny extra while reading these comics, for Marvel at least, is to see the ads for their OTHER books they were coming out with at the time.

And if you thought the Marvel comics I described were bad (and they were, save for the Age of Apocalypse), listen to some of these books I could have subjected you to...

Hulk/Prime

Fantastic Four: Atlantis Rising

SILVER SURFER/ RUNE!!!!!

Good golly, Miss Molly.

And with that, I am done!

Read More