One of my goals for 2020 that I achieved was to increase the type of content on Pop Culture Podium - - not just comics, but books, film, music - and in 2021 I hope to add craft beer reviews.
The other goal was to post more comics reviews on the site, also achieved. I contributed over 900 comics reviews in 2020, plus several from guest contributors. For those new to this blog, pghhead is a.k.a. Mike Clarke, editor, writer, and curator of Pop Culture Podium.
In 2021 I’d like to cross over the 1,000 comics review barrier. That’s what this odyssey is about, beginning now. Wish me luck . . . . .
BLOODSHOT #10, 11, 13 (April - July 2013) Following the events of Issue #9, Bloodshot is crossing the Nevada desert on the way to a safer refuge for the recently freed psiot children. What he doesn’t know is that through a pawn the founder of the Harbinger Foundation, Toyo Harada, manipulated Bloodshot into releasing the children from the grips of Project Rising Spirit. Harada wants them, and is on his way with back-up super-powered psiots to intercept them.
However, Bloodshot has been prepared for something like this, and the ensuing battle in Issue #11is graphically detailed and suspenseful. He manages to escape with the children, but not before his pre-planned desert stronghold explodes during battle. So they head for Las Vegas, where a separate group of psiots is under siege from various forces. Here, the members of Harbinger Renegade mistakenly see Bloodshot as a threat, he loses the children, and is captured by Harada. There is a happy ending in spite of this, for at least one important character.
This was part of the twelve-issue HARBINGER WARS crossover event, one of the best crossover sagas that I have read from any company. It is constructed in such a way that the off-shoot titles (Bloodshot and Harbinger) tie back into the main HARBINGER WARS mini-series without confusion. You can read the Bloodshot issues separately and still get a great feel for what happens. Credit some careful cohesion on the part of the writing team, a great story, and the ever-so-helpful plot summaries on the credits pages. FOUR STARS.
HEAVY HITTERS: FEUD #1 (Marvel/Epic July 1993) Beginning with this wacky little gem, I’ll be writing about some books I rescued from bargain bins or picked up at generous discounts while visiting comic shops. Stored away and neglected for too long, it’s time to welcome them back into my reading life.
Do you like talking dinosaurs and reptiles? Then you’ll like FEUD. In the alternate world imagined by writer Mike Baron, four distinct races co-exist but plot against each other in a medieval-like society - - except they utilize cars, guns, wrenches, air balloons, and motorized surfboards.
The heir to the Skids (erect frogs) throne, the royal tadpole, is abducted and falsely blamed on the Stokers (erect salamanders) - and this creates the conflict/battles. Blame it on the devious Kites (walking and flying pterodactyls). It won’t be long before the precious metal-mining Grunts (various dinosaurs) get into the melee. Wild and colorful detailed art by Mark Nelson. THREE STARS.
HEAVY HITTERS: OFFCASTES #1 (Marvel/Epic July 1993) This one by writer/artist Mike Vosberg (with art influenced by Howard Chaykin) is “heavy” on exposition. It’s a complex world (part of a thirteen planetary system) created by Vosberg, a mix of Hindu religion, caste systems, and a fascist government.
The young protagonist (an offcaste, mixed race) gets in front of things at the exact wrong time, witnesses two murders, and becomes a suspect. Fortunately for him, his uncle in charge (parents were murdered years back) is a secret MI agent, focused on following an up and coming prophet of the main religion on this planet. They both get mixed up with an exotic dancer, who’s also not what she appears to be.
Whew! All this in 28 pages, part of a 3-issue limited series. There was a time when readers had more patience for this kind of unpopular choice of stories. It’s a bit off the beaten path, but I actually think today’s readers would be a more receptive audience than back in 1993. Love those heavier card-stock covers. Both these books have held up really well. THREE STARS.
SCOUT #3-6 (Eclipse, January-April 1986) I wanted to re-read the first story arc of Emmanuel Santana (a.k.a. Scout), an Apache commando in a dystopian future western United States. However, since my last reading I sold the first two issues so I began my reading with Issue #3.
Local (Lancaster, PA area) artist/writer Tim Truman has a distinct pencil and ink style that no matter what type of story he is illustrating it will evoke rugged images of the Wild West.
In this first story arc, the United States is now a third world country with a corrupt government riddled with monsters in human guise. Scout wipes them out, one by one, but not without suffering some wounds and hardship on the journey. Turns out The President of The United States wasn’t the biggest threat. It was the media manager pulling the strings, who now that Scout has eliminated his puppet he’ll just put a new one in place. FOUR STARS.
SCOUT #7-11 (Eclipse, May-September 1986) Tim Truman is a music buff, and often titles his stories with song references as well as planting
musical items within the story. Issue #7 is a flashback that reveals the
origins of Scout, how the country turned as he and other native Americans were taken to military testing and training grounds, his meeting and relationship with Rosa Winter, and eventual escape. Rosa ends up being a Ranger with the government, charged with protecting the new POTUS, Laura Carver. The despotic media manager Bill Loper, who thinks Carver is his drugged puppet, doesn’t know that she’s dumping the drugs and working with Rosa for a better government.
By Issue #8, Scout is a lone wanderer, confronting more
monsters/demons from Apache lore. His companion squirrel, a mystical “gahn” lets him know “that monster is next to die, Scout . . . the monster within yourself.” Scout meets up with Doody, his mentally challenged friend who after being brutally tortured, blinded, and mutilated in the first story arc has become a robed prophet of sorts. His bible is The Lord Of The RIngs trilogy, and he’s gathered quite a following. The backup feature, FASHION IN ACTION wraps up this issue and moves on to its’ own one-shot issue.
It’s noteworthy for being one of the first works by artist/writer John K. Snyder, and an early look at how his style and skills would evolve in later years. This isn’t that good, somewhat cliched and rambling, best described as a cross between Charlie’s Angels and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In Issues #9 & #10, Scout meets Beauregard La Duke, a cow rancher whose land and cattle are soon to be conscripted by the federal government’s forces, the S.A. (Salvation Army). They really want the land to mine it for the uranium underground, and Scout helps La Duke fight back. By Issue #11, Doody’s flock keeps growing and he’s identified as a threat by an Israeli informer to President Carver. She dispatches Rosa in a huge armored walker to round up Scout, seen as the only solution to getting Doody under control.
Issue #11 begins the back-up story, MONDAY: THE ELIMINATOR written by Truman with art by Flint Henry. He’s a Punisher-type vigilante investigating who is murdering former members of his Vietnam squad.
I’ve been enjoying these stories. FOUR STARS.
President Carver is dependent on Rosa in more ways than one. Now that Bill Loper has become vice president he’s trying to influence things, especially the situation at the missile site. Doody discovers some divine power, and dispatches a group of soldiers in explosive fashion. Scout gets shot and falls, as he takes two deadly arrows in his back.
In a side story, the blues guitar band from the first story arc is playing gigs in Las Vegas, being hustled by a promoter, which is seen as threatening to a competing crime boss who has a finger in the music business. I love the title for Issue #14’s story: “Nobody Loves Me But My Mother (And She Could Be Jiving Me, Too)”. Doody uses his magical abilities to heal Scout, and then makes the ultimate sacrifice. Scout gets transported to a government hospital as the story wraps up.
In MONDAY: THE ELIMINATOR back-up story it is revealed that one of the former Vietnam squad members witnessed an incident during the war and has been keeping it secret. An organization wants that secret buried, and they have been eliminating the former soldiers. Only three squad members left (including Monday) and the secret is known by Shorty, who screams every night from the nightmares induced by chemicals sent to him by a veterans hospital. Monday manages to extricate him from his apartment just before the hitmen arrive, and he shows how quick he is with a gun. Monday heads back to Vietnam, and finds a hidden Buddhist temple concealed by the jungle. He arrives just in time to stop a crooked general (funded by the “organization, now referred to as The Legion Of Man) from removing the gold stored there. End of story. FOUR STARS.
SCOUT #15-19 (Eclipse, January-May 1987) There is some damn fine story-telling going on in this series. You can sense that Truman is building up to something truly epic. I’ve always admired his artistic abilities, but his writing is equally good. Makes me want to seek out those Conan books he scripted for Dark Horse some years back.
Truman gets an art assist on some of the issues during this story arc, with Rick Veitch on part of Issue #15, Flint Henry on parts of Issue #16 & #18, and John K. Snyder on part of Issue #17.
Seriously wounded in the concluding pages of Issue #14, as Issue #15 opens Scout is now a patient at a decrepit veterans’ hospital in Maine, now healed but pumped full of daily doses of Xanax, Benzedrine, etc. to keep him under control and in a zombified state. Back in the desert the Swords of Texas, a vigilante group once allied with Scout manage to hijack the remaining atomic missile from the government fortress.
Scout manages to shrug off the drugs, subdues the guards, takes their rifle and attempts a break-out. He’s stopped by a mysterious stranger under heavy confinement who reaches through the bars of his cell and gets a strangle-hold on Scout. He’s demanding to be freed from his cell to leave with Scout or suffer a broken neck.
Issue #16 is the special 3-D issue (glasses included) and it’s wild! The mysterious prisoner turns out to be Monday the Elimanator, and half of the issue is a knock-down drag-out fight between the two. The fight takes them down a hallway, bursting through a window and out of the hospital, where they flee together into the woods in a raging snowstorm. There’s an uneasy alliance for survival purposes until they meet up with the Red Paint People, native American who are linked to Monday and provide the two with a getaway car. Monday reveals that he was not a prisoner, but hiding within the hospital where the Legion of Man wouldn’t look for him, until the day when he would be called forth for an important and crucial task.
In the side story of Issue #17 the New Disciples Of Soul, the blues band featuring some of the guitar outlaws from the very first story arc with Missy as vocalist, are playing sell-out shows and taking business away from Savage Henry, the promoter/crime lord who decides to sic his band of muscular musical thugs, Lex Lucifer and the Blue Scream, to break things up.
Scout and Monday travel west to Scout’s Uncle Begay’s junkyard, where Scout endures a mystical ceremony to rid his body of the drug poisons and confront his inner monster. Uncle Begay gets them a new car and they keep heading back towards Texas.
Scout and Monday get to Las Vegas in Issue #18, where Scout reunites with Missy and the band while Monday goes off solo on a mission. In the Monday side story, he’s being pursued by gunmen from The Legion Of Man. We learn that Monday is semi-immortal, lived through the French Revolution, and is part of an ancient organization (the Samothracians) who warn him of a “new war” that will go global. Back at the music hall, Savage Henry wields a contractural agreement that Missy signed years ago, and insists she has to leave the Disciples and join up with the Blue Scream.
I’ve suspected that the sole purpose of creating characters that end up in rock bands was to indulge Truman’s love of music and create more opportunities to slide in music references, etc. into the story. Issue #19 comes with a special flexidisc with two blues songs by Tim Truman (guitar) and The Dixie Pistols that is meant to be a soundtrack to accompany pages 19-21.
The Samothracians modify Monday to be a living weapon with infra-red eyepiece for targeting, a receptor-jack implanted behind his ear, and a huge “wire gun” that becomes an extension of his right arm.
With the aid of Scout, Missy gets out of her contract. Monday returns to the group as Senator Craig Creek and the Swords of Texas show up to recruit Scout and Monday to fight for the southwestern U.S. against an invading Communist Mexican army. Whew. Bring on the final story arc. FOUR STARS.
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