I’ve been numbering my entries, picking up where I left off with the I LOVE COMICS 3000 CHALLENGE as one of the participants on the Captain Blue Hen Facebook page. This started as a challenge from friendly comic shops in Ohio and Texas, originally as the 1,000 Comics Challenge, then the 2021 Comic Book Quarantine Odyssey, and then I Love Comics 3000 - - all goals met by the group of Captain Blue Hen customer participants. I’m curious to see how long it takes me to read that many comics. My journey began with the 1,000 Comics Challenge on approximately March 15, 2020.
A deep dive into my comic boxes, with random selections . . . . .
#712 SWAMP THING GIANT #3 (DC, 2019) For a short time, DC put together these $4.99 100-page comics for Wal-Mart which eventually found their way into comic shops. Each issue would feature one original story and three reprints, and fill up the rest of the pages with ads for graphic novels.
In this particular issue, the reprints were more interesting to me than the main story. The Swamp Thing in “Bog of Blood,Part Two” has interesting art by Joelle Jones, but I couldn’t get into Tim Seeley’s story at all.
I had read Animal Man in “The Hunt Part Three: Totems” when it originally came out. It’s part of a great run by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman that takes the title into some new and horrific ground.
The reprint of Swamp Thing in “Come Hither, Child” by Scott Snyder with art by Victor Ibanez & Yanick Paquette is the best story in the issue. It’s a creepy tale of a boy in a bubble with some dangerous powers. This serves as another example of why I think Scott Snyder’s work is at its’ best when he’s writing horror.
The Shadowpact story “The (Short) Year Of Living Dangerously” by Bill Willingham and Cory Walker was a nice bonus as I’d never read any stories of this odd group before. (Blue Devil, Nightmaster, Ragman, Enchantress, and Nightshade). If you enjoy Justice League Dark, you’d like this title.
If you’re a new reader to DC, these Giant size editions are a nice introduction. Other titles included Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and The Titans. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
#713 ALIEN WORLDS #6 (Pacific Comics, February 1984) One of the flagship titles of the late, lamented Pacific Comics line. With Bruce Jones at the helm, he scripts all three stories embellished with art by Jim Sullivan, Roy G. Krenkel, and Frank Brunner (inks by Mike Mignola).
This contains three science fiction tales with twist endings, like the best that EC Comics used to produce, with a little social commentary/morality lessons worked in. It’s also one of the wordiest books I’ve ever read. There is no way you are going to breeze through this issue in 20 minutes.
The longest story here, “Pride Of The Fleet” is my favorite. A voluptuous female mercenary with serious sword skills is given a contract to track down a military defector. Sheffield designed her uniform in tribute to Princess Dejah Thoris (John Carter of Mars fame) in order to show off her curves and distract her opponents. She has a history with her target, who once tried to woo her and failed. But the alien technology he employs on a jungle-like planet may just even the odds and get him what he wants. FOUR STARS.
#714 SHERLOCK FRANKENSTEIN AND THE LEGION OF EVIL #1 (Dark Horse, October 2017) This is a spin-off from Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer superhero universe, which I have read a smattering of. The original issues were fresh and unique, the spin-offs have been less interesting.
Lucy Weber is a reporter determined to find out what happened to her father: The Black Hammer. She visits an asylum and interviews the super-villains, as the trail seems to point to Sherlock Frankenstein for the answer.
That’s it. The entire first issue is Lucy doing her interviews. While the art is interesting this is a bit slow and plodding. It did not hold my interest. I’m not interested in continuing. THREE STARS.
More random picks from my deep dive . . . . .
#715 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MACRO-SERIES #1: DONATELLO (IDW, September 2018) IDW put out these extra-sized, glossy hardstock cover $7.99 issues, each focusing on a single TMNT.
Donatello is troubled by a vision from his future (shades of Last Ronin?), so he tries to re-assemble leftover parts from old metalhead technology left behind when the killer robot escaped. He plans to repurpose the tech to create an interface that will allow him to predict the future.
Unbeknowst to him, his tinkering sends a tracking signal to Metalhead, leading him to his lab and a fight with Donatello and his lab buddy Harold.
A decent story with okay art, but the coloring choices didn’t seem appropriate - mainly the background shading. THREE STARS.
#716 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MACRO-SERIES #4: RAPHAEL (IDW, December 2018) With better art and story plus layouts by TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman, I thought I’d enjoy this issue more.
While I liked the art, the story is not so interesting Raphael is in trouble, near death from capture by just another nefarious criminal trying to dissect what makes the TMNT tick. He gets an assist from friends Casey Jones, Alopex, and Angel. Ho Hum. THREE STARS.
The last of my random picks from the boxes. You might conclude that these choices were made based on the gaudy cover art. While at one point in my reading (like fifth grade, maybe) that would have attracted me to these books - that wasn’t the reason I read ERB’s John Carter of Mars series in my adolescence (although I did imagine what Deja Thoris might look like).
Upon revisiting, the books no longer hold up and I’m sort of indifferent about the John Carter comics. (If you’re a fan, better to seek out the
old John Carter of Mars series from Marvel, written by Chris Claremont and others).
#718 WARLORD OF MARS #8 (Dynamite, 2011) The unscrupulous Jeddak of Zodanga has captured Dejah Thoris. John Carter infiltrates the Zodangan navy and finds her, only to learn that she has promised to marry the prince.
She thought he was dead, so John figures this is an easy fix: just kill Sab Than, prince of Zodanga. Not that easy: Barsoom custom says a woman may not marry the man who slays her husband, even in self-defense.
So Carter has to escape the Navy, band up with his green four-armed Martian friends and then lay siege to Zodanga. Sigh. THREE STARS.
#719 WARLORD OF MARS: DEJAH THORIS #3 (Dynamite, 2011) “Collosus of Mars, Part Three”. These stories take place before John Carter’s arrival on Mars. Apparently, Dejah Thoris is just a pawn to be moved around the chessboard. She’s captured again, and again forced to marry - this time to the son of yet another unscrupulous Jeddak of Yorn.
Yorn unburies an anthropoid war machine, then gets sucked inside the mysterious Collosus and wreaks havoc as a green giant. Yorn’s son is not privy to this plan, and frees Dejah, who then rescues her father, grandfather and some warriors of Helium. There’s plenty of fights, blood and semi-clothed male (bare-chested with capes and skimpy bathing suits) and female (especially Dejah Thoris, very distracting) that make it difficult to focus on a somewhat convoluted story. THREE STARS.
#720 WARLORD OF MARS: DEJAH THORIS #4 (Dynamite, 2011)
“Collosus of Mars, Part Four of Five”. Yorn’s bonding with the Colossus causes him occasional seizures, and his son creates a device interfere with Yorn’s mental connection to the war machine, weakening him enough for Dejah’s forces to finally win a battle against him. He also devises wings for her.
Sad to say, I just don’t care. It’s not that these stories are poorly written. Arvid Nelson does a good job with the source material. This type of space opera just doesn’t hold up for me anymore. THREE STARS.
