Category Archives: Retro Review

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RETRO REVIEW: Battle Of The Planets – Jason #1 (July 2003)

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Or – “Not Everyone Gets To Be The Red Ranger…”

When it comes to your Japanese five-person super-teams, there are a few rules of thumb.  You get a leader, usually the upstanding hero and/or rookie.  You get a comic-relief character.  You get a girl.  You get yourself big guy.  And, to round out the group, there’s often a mysterious loner, the brooding bad boy outcast, the guy who has an axe to grind, but still quietly respects the other members of his group.  This is a story about the first of those loners…  Your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: The Amazing Spider-Man King-Sized Special #5 (November 1968)

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Or – “Yeah, This Is Totally An Annual.”

Everyone knows the story of young Peter Parker; a young nerd empowered by an uncanny accident with the proportional speed and strength of a spider, who learned a lesson about power and responsibility through a tragic loss.  Indeed, the death of his Uncle Ben and the status of his frail Aunt May is the cornerstone of Pete’s story, even fifty years later, but one question often goes unasked:  How did he get orphaned and left in his Aunt & Uncle’s care in the first place?  Your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: Justice League Of America #87 (February 1971)

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Or – “There Was Another Side To The Story…”

Many comics fans in the 80s were amazed when Marvel published the Squadron Supreme limited series, a story which basically featured the Justice League attempting to rebuild their world after society’s collapse.  Of course, back in February of ’71, when Roy Thomas created the original Squadron, his good friend Mike Freidrich was writing the ACTUAL JLA title, which leads us to the reason why they resembled the League and…

…the REST of the story.  Your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: Atoman #1 (February 1946)

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Or – “Does Whatever An Atom Can!”

There are a lot of reasons why a book might make it into my Retro Review pile.  Some books are fan-favorites, others are culturally significant.  Some are wonderful, while others are awful in the most charming of ways.  Some are suggested by Faithful Spoilerites, others commanded by the Powers That Be…

And sometimes, just sometimes, a book is only special enough to become a Retro Review because of the fact that, at some point, it utterly fascinated me.  This is one of those cases.  Your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: Bizarre Adventures #27 (July 1981)

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Or – “Days Of Future Black-And-White…”

After the big alternative comix boom of the 1970s, even Marvel Comics fell into periods of experimental and unusual storytelling.  Their black-and-white magazine line featured the likes of Conan, Dracula, and occasionally, more adult tales featuring their regular four-color cast of characters.  By the early 80s, only a few of the b&w’s remained, but Marvel still used them to tell stories that might not have worked in the pages of their regular books, but were they worthy of their more expensive format?  Your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: Superman Annual #11

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Or – “Remember That Time When Jason Todd Was The Most Useful Superhero Of All?”

During one of my recent online conversations, the subject of Superman came up, and how he is perceived as boring is never vengeful.  Now, when it comes to comic book history, I don’t ever want to be the “Ummm… ACTUALLLEEE...” guy, but I name-checked a few moments where the Man Of Steel wasn’t a big blue boy scout, including this ish.  The response was that not everyone has ready cash and easy access to the full scope of comics history, which is perfectly reasonable.  Of course, given that *I* already own the issue, and we have this recurring thingy that we do here at Major Spoilers where awesome issues of years past get another moment in the spotlight, I realized that we were staring down the barrel of the rare win/win situation.

Once upon a time, The Man Of Steel had the worst birthday ever, and your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: Wham-O Giant Comics #1 (April 1967)

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Or – “Oh, The Sixties.  I Love You More Every Year…”

I’ve talked before, at length and in passing, about the affect that the 1966 Batman TV series had on the comic-book industry as a whole.  By the time the Summer Of Love rolled around, comic publishers were experiencing a boom the likes of which they hadn’t seen since WWII, and wouldn’t see again until the debut of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Some of the spawn of this time period was brilliant, some inexplicable, some just awful, but all of it was designed to get the comics done and out the door and entertain the kiddies while making a few bucks in the process.  Comics were, however, starting to grow up and experiment, but some experiments are more successful that others.  Your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: Strange Adventures #180 (September 1965)

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Or – “Buddy Baker Overdrive!”

Younger comics readers are always a hoot.  Recently, I was privy to a conversation between two 20-ish readers about how stupid it is that they put Animal Man back in a costume in his New 52 incarnation, because “Vertigo guys don’t have costumes.”  Laying aside that Animal Man’s original duds are both iconic and goofy, it’s a good example of how you can’t get used to the status quo of comics, because it will change.

Ironically, there was also a grain of wisdom in the conversation, as well, because, in his first appearance, Animal Man DIDN’T have a costume!  Your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: Team X 2000 #1 (February 1999)

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Or – “Blame Mela.”

One of the great joys of reading comics is finding a book that you’ve never considered that someone recommends highly.  That, after all, is the reason why these Retro Reviews exist in the first place, but I especially enjoy it when the Faithful Spoilerites flip the script and tell ME about a book from their past, doubly so when the book in question was one I had never heard of.  I might not have every delved into late 90s X-Men continuity without the heads-up, so your guess is as good as mine what happens next, but your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: Rai #0 (November 1992)

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Or – “A Blueprint For What Once Was…”

With my recent review of the new Valiant’s take on Shadowman, I started remembering the fun that was the old Valiant universe, a time when future and past tied together, when Solar was (slightly) less of a jerk, back when the speculators were around but hadn’t quite destroyed the entire comics industry yet.  It was a time of world-building, and from that instinct came this issue…  Your Major Spoilers retro review awaits!

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RETRO REVIEW: Whiz Comics #25 (December 1941)

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Or – “One Of The Most Brutal Origin Stories Of The Golden Age…”

Fawcett Comics had a number of super-hero first-stringers who weren’t Captain Marvel, but none had the star power of the Big Red Cheese, to the point where the creators clearly wondered if it was possible to once again catch lightning in a bottle.  This time, however, the bottle was blue…  Your Major Spoilers (retro) review awaits!

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