Category Archives: Retro Review

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RETRO REVIEW: The Freedom Fighters/Invaders Crossover! (1977)

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Or – “Before Marvel & DC Editorial Got All Passive-Agressive…”

Long before the actual Marvel DC crossovers of the 90′s (most of which were pretty banal affairs, with the exception of the awesome Batman/Captain America), there were a number of unofficial blink-and-you-missed-it crossovers from the creative teams that made the comics.  Steve Skeates used the Sub-Mariner’s book to wrap up a plot leftover from an issue of Aquaman he wrote a couple years earlier, while the story of Roy Thomas’ trip to Rutland Vermont crosses multiple universes (a long story I’ll probably get to sooner or later.)  But this, my young friends, is the story of the crossover that sorta wasn’t a crossover at all, while allowing Uncle Sam to fistfight Captain America or a reasonable fascimile thereof, thus making comic fans happy.

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RETRO REVIEW: Tales Of The Beanworld #4 (1986)

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Or – “The Viewers Are Those Who Make The Painting…”

I had a completely different Retro Review on tap for today, which (due to a series of circumstances filled with annoyance and vitriol probably best left undiscussed) will have to be postponed to a later date.  I scanned my wall of comics looking for a suitable replacement, and my eyes immediately locked on the box marked “Howard The Duck/Tales Of The Beanworld/Zot!” and remembered something that my grandfather probably never actually said:

“When life gives you lemons, sometimes you have to go read about beans…”

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RETRO REVIEW: Psi-Force #32 (June 1989)

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Or – “A Strange Relic Of A Bygone Era…”

Often times, the conventional wisdom is taken as pure fact and repeated as though it were the only possible truth…  This is doubly true in comics fandom, where conventional wisdom takes on a whole new meaning and common knowledge is the coin of the realm.  Thus, many of you are going to scoff when I say this:

The New Universe?  It was actually pretty cool.

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RETRO REVIEW: Green Lantern #81 (December 1996)

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Or – “Here’s Why I Prefer Some Characters Dead….”

I have a real problem with the fact that comics death is never final.  It’s a problem that I have had to learn to live with, much like my day job requires me to get over my aversion to stupidity, drama and what is almost certainly serious meth addiction…  When a batch of 90′s comics showed up for processing on my desk, I flipped through the pages of this one, and was reminded of one of the few times after 1984 that Hal Jordan was in any way interesting.

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RETRO REVIEW: Super Green Beret #1 (April 1967)

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Or – “More Things In Heav’n And Earth, Horatio…”

There is a lot more to the history of comic books than Amazing Fantasy, Detective Comics and Hulk #181.  Those big dogs may get all the press, but there are other heroes, lesser heroes (but heroes nonetheless), who work where they cannot.  Men and woman and cyborgs and the occasional canine, alien, robot or what-have-you who are proud to stand up and say, “Hey!  I’m a caped crusader , too!”

And then… There’s Tod.

Tod HOLTON.

TOD HOLTON: MOTHA$&$@IN’ SUPER GREEN BERET!!   WITH SILLLVER WINGS UPON HIS CHEST!  MAKE HIM ONE OF AMERICA’S BEST!  (For some values of best, anyway.)

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RETRO REVIEW: Young Men #24 (December 1953)

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Or – “Believe It Or Not, Relaunches Are Nothing New…”

With the beginnings of the New 52 in stores, internet wags have already sounded the death knell for DC and for comics in general, and there are some who cite restarts/relaunches/reboots and such as the work of Mephisto.  The truth, Faithful Spoilerites, is that relaunches have always been the way of the comic book world, dating back to the earliest days of cheap newsprint.  Case in point: Captain America – Commie Smasher!

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RETRO REVIEW: Hellblazer #12 (December 1988)

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Or – “The Storyarc That Started It All…”

People sometimes like to ask me what my favorite comic book is, and it’s a difficult choice to make.  There are hundreds of books that I love, even those that I have complete runs of, but none quite like Hellblazer.  In the spring of 1988, I drove to Hays, Kansas and picked up Hellblazer #1 from the stands at Gulliver’s Tattered Covers, and have purchased every single issue of the book (and many crossovers and miniseries and such) ever since.  Though the first issue is a good one, this is the book that firmly cemented my love of the character of John Constantine and the Hellblazer title.

(Though tame by today’s standards, this issue was marketed to adult readers and deals with adult language and themes. Proceed with caution if you’re squeamish or easily offended.)
 

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RETRO REVIEW: Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (December 1942)

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Or – “Her SHAZAM Was Different…”

One of the great shames of the last decade of comics is the seeming compulsion to break all the traditional taboos.  Resurrecting Bucky, getting Aunt May some action, even the fate of poor Sue Dibny are unpleasant examples of this phenomenon, but no one has been quite as a big a target as young Mary Marvel.  The need to somehow corrupt Mary with evil and/or sexuality has led to no fewer than three instances of Dark Mary Marvel, each of which utterly failed to feel like much more than schoolyard bullying, picking on the sweetest girl just to make her cry.  Of course, to know why I feel so strongly about what’s happened to Mary, you probably need to know what she used to be like…

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RETRO REVIEW: Power Man & Iron Fist #79 (March 1982)

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Or – “Do Ya S’pose This Would Be The Twelfth Or Thirteenth?”

Before the fez, before the brainy specs, before the leather jacket and jumper, there was a time when the general public (i.e., the non-nerds in the world) knew nothing of a certain Gallifreyan and his adventure in time, space and dimension.  Luckily for us, the ladies and gentlemen who worked at Marvel Comics were among the nerds, and delivered unto us the most unlikely crossover moment of all…

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RETRO REVIEW: Flash #79 (August 1993)

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Or – “Some Stories Just Do Not Need To Be Told…”

I’ve made some hash lately (presuming that turn of phrase means anything, which in retrospect it may not) of comics publishing companies’ tendencies to tell stories that ‘have never been told before!!!!11!eleven!!’ regardless of whether or not there was a REASON those stories have stayed unspoken.  It’s hardly a new thing (John Byrne famously wrote a story wherein Superman executed three Kryptonian criminals to explain his ‘No Killing’ dogma, as if you really need to have a big backstory to a dearth of murder), but few of these instances manage to get told without some serious fallout.  Though Wally West may or may not even exist anymore, there was a time where he was the active Flash, trying to take on the mantle of his mentor and be successful as a man and a hero.

Then, Barry Allen came back.

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RETRO REVIEW: Hell-Rider #1 & #2 (Jul./Aug. 1971 – Sept./Oct. 1971)

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Or – “Right On With The NOW Superhero!  Only Now Has Become THEN…”

The 1970′s were a truly odd time for comics.  After the revolutionary sixties, many comic books reverted to old Silver Age tricks while others tried to push the envelope with nudity, violence and casual drug use.  Not content to leave any road less traveled, Skywald Publications chose to take both approaches…

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RETRO REVIEW: Defenders #100 (October 1981)

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Or – “Satan, Satan, Satan and Satan, Attorneys At Law!”

Recent announcements from Marvel have reminded me that there are few Marvel Universe concepts that I miss more than The Defenders.  And by Defenders, I mean good Defenders, as the last three miniseries have been pretty lackluster.  Even when the stories were completely inexplicable, there was something interesting in seeing the adventures of ‘the other guys,’ characters who didn’t really make a good team so much as they needed one another.  For nearly a year before this issue, the team was spread thin with the menace of a group called ‘The Six-Fingered Hand,’ leading to the largest assembly of Defenders in history.  Their foes? 

Only the Devil Himself! 

All FOUR of them…

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