Category Archives: Retro Review

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RETRO REVIEW: Batman & The Outsiders #5 (December 1983)

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Or – “Two Teams With Much In Common…”

In the early 80s, DC Comics was pretty much on the skids.  It was the Teen Titans that put a stop to their sales fall, and as always with comics, a successful move causes editorial to go back to the well again.  Luckily, the well brought up the Outsiders, a team fronted by Batman instead of Robin, who consisted of two existing characters and three new kids, just like the Titans themselves.  It was inevitable that Barr & Aparo’s Outsiders would meet Wolfman & Perez’s Titans, especially given the presence of Geo-Force and Terra on the respective teams.  But their first meeting was tumultuous, with the former Dynamic Duo clashing, and both teams left for dead.  I’d say it ought to be a short review, but since it’s a nearly 30 year old book, they probably got better…

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RETRO REVIEW: Fatman, The Human Flying Saucer #1 (April 1967)

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Or – “This Means We Have All Demographics Covered!”

I’m always entertained when people assert that, to draw readers into comics, we need to make comics that represent their particular segment of the population.  This thought process has led to a lot of TERRIBLE comics, that end up being pretty much unapproachable by anyone. So, given that many of us who read comics, myself included, are gravitationally exceptional, why not attack that demographic where they live?  The results actually surprised me…

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RETRO REVIEW: What If? (Vol. 1) #4 (August 1977)

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Or – “Before The ‘What If?’  Concept Really Solidified…”

These days, it seems people only use the term ‘House of Ideas’ to mock what they believe to be a loss of originality from Marvel editorial, but there was a time when wild notions flew freely and writers  were free to come up with bizarre (but believable) stories that turned the Marvel U into the brilliant madhouse that we know it as today.  Witness this tale, one of at least three written to answer the question:  If Steve Rogers fell in the ice in 1945, how in the hell was Captain America active well into the 1950s?

The answer is complicated and more than a little bit heartbreaking…

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RETRO REVIEW: The Adventures Of Holo-Man – Birth Of A Hero #1 (1978)

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Or – “I Seriously Looked For This One FOREVER!”

I’ve mentioned it before, but comic collecting is a very hit-and-miss kind of hobby.  For every time someone walks in with a Budweiser box full of Claremont/Cockrum X-Men, there are half a dozen people who want 1,000,000 bucks for the 1994 reprint copy of Action Comics #1.  (These are, by the way, true stories.)  For me, my most difficult finds include a complete run of Howard The Duck Magazine, all the 70′s Atlas Comics, the Defenders issue of Marvel Treasury Edition, and a complete run of Jack Q. Frost.  (The Q stands for Quick.  It’s best not to ask…)  But even those peculiar gems were easier to find than today’s book, a strange and esoteric gem, featuring a guest-appearance by President Jimmy Carter!  I’m about to have some 1970′s-era fun, Faithful Spoilerites, and y’all get to come along for the ride.

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RETRO REVIEW: The Brave And The Bold #181 (December 1981)

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Or – “Comic Time, See What’s Become Of Me…”

My recent ruminations on Franklin Richards and Marvel Time have led me to think about some comics stories that have suffered from the passage of “comics time.”  Many characters are somewhat tied to certain time-frames (Superman’s 30s carnival strongman uniform is one example, while Iron Man was forged in the fires of the Vietnam War) but continuity can be a harsh mistress.  When Bruce Wayne (first appearance: 1939) and the Hall Brothers (first appearance: 1967) meet up in the Reagan-era, the timescales require a sliderule and an abacus to keep track of…

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RETRO REVIEW: Captain America #320 (August 1986)

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Or - “SPAK! PUM!!“

Journey back with me, Faithful Spoilerites, to a time when the editorial staff decided that the Marvel Universe was so flush with talent that they could just kill off characters at the drop of a hat.

(No, it’s not last week.)

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RETRO REVIEW: HULK! Magazine #23 (October 1980)

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Or – “Bruce Banner’s Very Own After-School Special…”

Relevance came hard for comics, and even the efforts of Denny O’Neil, Jim Starlin and their their ilk didn’t immediately translate into more adult storytelling.  The argument could be made that we still haven’t completed that transition, but no can argue one fact:  The missteps made along the way are completely ridiculous and faintly hilarious.  Faithful Spoilerites, I give you HULK! #23,

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RETRO REVIEW: Aquaman #56 (Mar. 1971) & Sub-Mariner #72 (Sep. 1974)

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Or – “Marvel Vs. DC, 25 Years Or So Early…”


There was a time in comics when the creator pool was a much smaller, and much tighter knit group, and when editorial control was pretty much limited to “Hey, Marv wants to use your guy next month.”  Creators might travel back and forth between the various publishers (though there was a Big Two, even then) and carry concepts and characters with them, as Steve Englehart did with Mantis and her various counterparts throughout his work.  Eventually, this would lead to unofficial crossover stories (one of which birthed the concept known as the Squadron Supreme.)  And then, there was the case of writer Steve Skeates, who single-handedly created what may be the first inter-company crossover with issues that came out nearly two YEARS apart!  You KNOW you wanna read ‘dis…

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RETRO REVIEW: Youngblood #1 (April 1992)

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Or – “An Inauspicious Beginning…”

These days, Image Comics is well-regarded as a clearinghouse for independent creators who want to do something that might not fly in the corporate shared-universes, but there was a time when fans like me thought of Image, rightfully or not, as the place to go for cutting edge X-Men and Teen Titans rip-offs with mediocre art and nothing much to say.  Still, every stupid prejudice has to come from SOMEWHERE, and I am lucky in that I can easily trace the source of my youthful anti Image bias to a single comic by a single creator from my twenty-second year on the planet.  I would say this is that story, but “story” isn’t exactly the precise term for what we’re about to witness…

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RETRO REVIEW: Batman #253 & #259 (November 1973/Nov.-Dec. 1974)

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Or – “Paging Mr. Gibson, Mr. Walter Gibson…  We’ve Found Your Intellectual Property!”

Years ago, there were very few licensed titles around that weren’t cartoon properties (the respective Adventures of Bob Hope & Jerry Lewis were exceptions) and Dynamite, Boom! & IDW didn’t yet exist to vie for the licenses for everything that ever existed in the known universe.  The days where Optimus Prime might meet up with Spider-Man or Pete Venkman and Jim Kirk might take down the same undead freak were still decades in the future.  Still, in the late 70′s, the vagaries of fate and publishing contracts brought The Shadow to the National Periodical fold, the same shared universe where a character whom Mr. Cranston strongly influenced was already ruling the roost…

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RETRO REVIEW: Americomics Special #1 (August 1983)

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Or – “I’ll Never Long For What Might Have Been…”

Starting in the 1950s, Charlton Comics began experimenting with superhero tales, debuting Captain Atom late in the decade, transitioning into the mid-60′s with the full slate of Action Heroes (Blue Beetle, The Question, Peacemaker and friends) before sliding off into eventual oblivion.  These days, the Charlton Action Heroes are probably best known for inspiring the story that became Watchmen, but DC’s updated version of Captain Atom and Blue Beetle ended up factoring heavily in the JLI, while the Question went on to a long run under the pen of Denny O’Neil.  But in between 1966 and 1985, Charlton’s properties didn’t get a lot of play, save for the time they banded together as the Sentinels of Justice!  Ya don’t remember the Sentinels, you say?  That’s okay, turns out they never really happened…

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RETRO REVIEW: Marvel Team-Up #44 (April 1976)

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Or – “From The Major Spoilers Request Line!”

Of all the writers at 70′s era Marvel, Bill Mantlo’s work has more meaning for me than any save the late Steve Gerber.  Mantlo’s greatest triumphs were in turning some of Marvel’s earliest toy tie-in books (Rom: Spaceknight and The Micronauts) into three-dimensional heroes in their own right, and it’s a downright shame that those series likely won’t see reprints because of their licensed nature.  Bill had a hand in Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu, Howard the Duck, The Defenders and more of my favorite vintage books, and brought in the unlikeliest antagonist of all for Spider-Man in the arc leading up to this issue:  16th Century Puritan Minister Cotton Mather, key figure in the Salem Witch Trials!

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