Adam Hughes, Mermaids, and Girls in Bathing Suits

LEGIONNAIRES #7

October 1993

I'm stuck on the current phase of my project so I decided to talk about a good comic book.

Legionnaires #7 is a done in one story that takes place right after a six-issue storyline that was very heavy. At this point in time, when you needed a lighter story with a fill-in artist, DC went to Adam Hughes, most famous at the time for his work on Justice League America. This was before Adam Hughes worked with Wildstorm FX on Gen13 and learned Photoshop which revolutionized his artwork.

As an aside, my copy is signed by Adma Hughes, probably at a time prior to his adoption of Photoshop as a primary tool, taking his talent to a different level entirely. If you check out Adam Hughes' origins for Wonder Woman and Power Girl in 52, you know how even his panel to panel work has been transformed by his evolution.

SUMMARY

Inferno, Triad, Matter-Eater Lad, Brainiac 5, Andromeda, Apparition, Ultra Boy, and Shrinking Violet are taking a vacation to the Atlantis dome of New Earth. They check into an inn run by an Atlean family complete with a cute mermaid daughter with a crush on Inferno. Operating under the assumption that everything is being comped, Inferno and Matter-Eater Lad indulge in play, and Matter-Eater Lad tries to put the moves on Shrinking Violet, who's interested in just being friends.The Legionnaires get caught in the crossfire of Atlanteans and alien Devil-Fish, and discover that the Devil Fish secretly settled on Earth, and thought the Atlanteans were responsible for the deaths caused when the domed cities of New Earth fled the destruction of Earth.

The Legionnaires leave, much to the disappointment of the hotel owner, and among them all, Shrinking Violet realizes that they were supposed to pay. Inferno returns and learns that the hotel owner was ashamed to embarrass the Legionnaires by correcting them. Despite their pleading, the other Legionnaires refuse to pony up more credits to Inferno and Matter-Eater Lad who ran up the highest bills while on vacation. Meanwhile Violet does admit that Matter-Eater Lad is cute.  

REVIEW:

Tom & Mary Bierbaum were known for scripting some of the darkest stories in Legion history. It's nice to see it contrasted with this story. It's light and fun, and it would have been great to see this tone continued for years and years. However, DC Editorial felt the need to reboot the Legion so that it could attract new readers. This is now being tried for the third time. Enough about current DC Editorial policy, this is one very well written story. It's simple, cute, and concise. There's nothing here that doesn't need to be there.

The artwork by Adam Hughes is excellent and could only be better if it were done by the Adam Hughes of today. The Adam Hughes of fifteen years ago was an exceptional artist. The Adam Hughes of today is a phenominal artist. The best example of this in this story is when the hotel owner says good bye and violet looks back, realizing their mistake. The empty space on the page shows more skill than any line put on the page. Sometimes being a good artists is all about what you don't draw.

NOTES:

Again, this issue has never been collected. I'm sick of saying that about really good stories when crap like that issue of Spider-Woman gets collection treatment so people can be reminded of how crappy comics can be. Look for this issue. You might pay a little more because it's an Adam Hughes comic, but you shouldn't pay too much.

FINAL RATING: 9 (out of 10)

The highest rating I've given so far for a comic. It'd get an extra half point if it were a life-changing story or the inker and colorist blended better with Adam Hughes. I'm really looking forward to All-Star Wonder Woman.

Okay back to trying to figure out this page.

The Ratings So Far

Because things are now starting to archive, here's a rundown of the rankings for the comics reviewed, from highest to lowest, and in the event of ties, most recently reviewed.

• 8.5 Legion of Super-Heroes #92, Twilight #1, New Mutants #18
• 8.0 Legion of Super-Heroes #305
• 7.5 Minimum Wage #2
• 7.0 Legion of Super-Heroes #26, Starstream #3
• 6.0 Namor the Sub-Mariner #8
• 3.5 Spider-Woman #5
  

I'm really surprised that I haven't done a 9 rating yet, and I've given thought as to what a 10 would be. I'm really trying to steer away from anything published within the last couple of years, because sometimes some distance does take away the initial emotional impact of the experience, and makes for a more academic review. There are some series that I don't have copies of individual issues of, such as Watchmen, and so, I can't review those. I am limiting myself to those comics that I actually own, so I do have a restriction on myself.

It'll go on your permanent record!

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #92

May 1997

I'm killing a little time waiting on the wife, so here's another review to take up some time on a blustery November day.

Legion Of Super-Heroes #92 was a nice little pause middle of a period where my interest in the Legion was beginning to wane. The creators of the time split the team up into two, stranding one in the 20th century where they participated in the "final Night" crossover and got to interact with just about every hero in the DC Universe. That team got the Legion of Super-Heroes title, while the others left back home in the 30th century carried on in Legionnaires.

During this period, Curt Swan who pencilled a good many of the Silver Age Legion stories died and this issue was a tribute to him. The striking cover harkens back to the "alien space monster" theme popular in sci-fi during the late 1950s, where the story is set. That seem like as good a place as any to launch into the story recap, so get ready for some fifties themed monster fun.

SUMMARY

Mr. Swan, an art teacher in a sterotypical high school, is teaching a group of teens that look suspiciously like our familiar Legionnaires. The names are plays on their alter egos: Rick Crane (Cosmic Boy), Irma Arden (Saturn Girl), Earl Docks (Brainiac 5), Ella Rand (Spark), Joe Knotts (Ultra Boy), Laura, Lorna, and Lauren Dugan (Triplicate Girl), and Sandy Anderson (Inferno, but we never learned her real name). The teens are also members of the school design club who are preparing for a visit by President Eisenhower. On the way home, Joe Knotts true to his young hood nature, hits on the cheerleader Sandy, whose rescued by teen lovebirds Irma and Rick. Joe instead follows the Dugan triplets. Ella thwarts some mushiness between Irma and Rick as Joe observes the Digans merge in their bedroom using X-Ray Vision, revealing to us that there's something odd about both, uh all four(?) of them.

G-Men are monitoring the work on the stage by the Design club when missing Legion member Gates materializes above them. When Gates refers to Rick as "boss," since he is the only one that remembers them as the Legion with Cosmic Boy as the team leader, the G-Men detain the lot of them. Joe is recruited by one of the G-Men that secretly observed Joe break the steering wheel of his car. Joe uses his Ultra Boy powers to spot Gates hiding under the podium, and thinking that he's an alien out to kill the president captures him.

When confronted with the G-Men's intentions to vivisect Gates, Earl leaps to his defense and a blow from the G-Men reveals Earl to be wearing make-up to conceal green skin, which restores the memories of the Legionnaires. They subdue the G-Men and escape, wondering who stranded them in 1958 without their memories and they fly off to the astonishment of the crowd, including Mr. Swan who reminds the crowd, and us, that nothing is impossible.

REVIEW:

This is a great tribute to Swan with a complete story within one issue of a comic, with justa little nod to the running storyline near the end. The hole being how the Legionnaires return to the 20th century at the end. Eventually, the Time Trapper was revealled to be the one behind theis little detour, but that wasn't made clear here. Tom Peyer and Tom McCraw crafted an excellent story, and the feel of a cliche 1950s story is there. It's very refreshiong and breaking the story up into chapters retains the feel of the 1950s. The art is what breaks that feeling, with computer color gradients and modernvisual storytelling techniques.

I'm not totally dismissing the artwork. Lee Moder was a really good artist for the Legion, and was sucessful in believable anatomy, perspective and reference that was dynamic, yet not overly exaggerated. His shots are cinematic, and his characters are unique, and similar where they need to be, such as with Triplicate Girl, which proves to be a challenge for any artist, as they have to draw the same character multiple times within the same shot. I imagine that Jamie Madrox is a similar challenge for artists. I would have liked to have seen the artwork with a 1958 feel and color separations to resemble to four color printing of the time, evolving as the characters remember their identities. 

NOTES:

Like most Legion stories of the modern age, this issue has never been collected. Given that this was the tail period of the great glut of the 1990s, there should be plenty of copies out there and be easy to find. Don't pay too much for it, as you should be able to find a decent copy in bargain boxes, provided that you look hard enough.

Curt Swan was one of the artists that lured me into comics, and the week he died he was scheduled to be at a convention near me. I wanted so much to meet him and tell him how much he meant to my development as a fan. he would draw fantastic things with the same care that he drew mundane ones. His characters existed in their world and he never cheated on his work. The comics industry is richer that he was a big part of it, and poorer that he's no longer around to pass on his perspective and knowledge to a younger generation.

FINAL RATING: 8.5 (out of 10)

Again, this could have been done much better if the artwork had reflected the period. This is a good comic for a casual Legion fan, even one that abandoned the Legion after the first reboot of Legion history.

Never Be Your Own Editor

SPIDER-WOMAN #5

August 1979

Last week seemed to work so good by digging through a box full of books that I was trying to get rid of, that I decided to try it again. I've got a few books that I want to throw around and see if I get a review out of them or not. 

Looking back at the few reviews I've done so far, I really haven't had one that was a bad comic. I set out to have one this time and I looked for something that would be that fodder. Enter, a 1970s Spider-Woman comic.

Before we go on, notice that I finally got around to doing the header graphic which lets you know that SPOILERS ABOUND! 

SYNOPSIS:

Spider-Woman wakes up bound and gagged in a dusty, decrepit, abonded house. Freeing herself, she recalls that she was captured by a masked vigilante calling himself the Hangman, who has a warped sense of chauvanism that leeds him the hold women captive in order to "protect" them. Almost immediately she's assailed by hallucinations and flying furniture, briefly knocking her into unconsciousness. She wakes up trapped in a giant spider web to be attacked by more hallucinations.

Meanwhile, Spider-Woman's ally the magician Magnus is getting familiar with his landlady, who seems like a lonely old widow.

Back at the old, abandoned house, Spider-Woman is confronted by hallucinations of her father and Magnus before blacking out again. When she wakes, she's attacked by empty suits of armor and then nearly drowns when the chamber she's fighting in is flooded. Upon escaping, she discovers Magnus unconscious and held captive before being confronted by the materializing form of the villain behind her ordeal, Morgan Le Fay.

REVIEW:

Okay, what the hell was that? How did Magnus get from his afternoon tea with the old widow to being held captive in the same house as Spider-Woman? How does Morgan Le Fay, who has never appeared before now, and we can only assume is supposed to be the same character from Arthurian legend, despite the mispelling of her name, know about Spider-Woman and her origin? What about that Hangman guy that put her into the house? This story is just one big confusing mess. Marv Wolfman would go on to write some really good comic stories, but on this is one he really dropped the ball. Would it surprise you to learn he was his own editor on this? Lesson number five for good writing, folks, have a good editor!

Artwise, Carmine Infantino has a style that's just plain goofy. Check out his run on Star Wars that was published around this time, as well as his run on Flash in the early 1980s if you don't believe me. Infantino's work was always best when when he had an inker and a colorist that worked for him. On Star Wars, he had Bob Wiacek and Gene Day, as well as George Roussos on colors, and that worked. Here, he has Wolfman's wife coloring for him, not a good match, and the worst match I've ever seen as an inker for Infantino, Tony Dezuniga. Infantino artwork can be very intriguing to follow. There are a few panels, especially towards the beginning of the comic, that have that potential, but the poor match of the inker completely loses that.

NOTES:

With Spider-Woman's reintroduction in the Avengers comics of recent years, and her pivotal role in Secret Invasion, there's a level of real interest in her older stories. This comic has been collected in Essential Spider-Woman Vol. 1. I'd recommend picking up the Essential volumes, since they're cheap. It's also been collected in the early 1980s as part of a pocket digest collection, which could possibly be found at a flea market, antique mall, or a comic shop that has some really cool stuff instead of overstock from the glut of the 1990s. 

FINAL RATING: 3.5 (out of a possible 10)

With better art collaborators, this would be higher. The story is hard to follow, and really just leaves me with a headache.

I need more zip-a-tone!

NAMOR, THE SUB-MARINER #8

February 1990

I've got a few minutes this afternoon, so how about another review? You down with that?

Right after High School, I was big into John Byrne. It was a good time to be into John Byrne, too. He had produced Omac for the DC, West Coast Avengers, She-Hulk, Next Men and of course, Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Of course he didn't do them in that order, but those are the comics that he worked on in the late 1980s and early 1990s that just seemed to be Byrne flexing his artistic muscles. I got rid of a lot of my mainstream comics a long time ago, but just cruising bargain bozes has gotten me replacement copies of a few that I really remember fondly.

This particular comics was stashed away in an office paper box, since it's not really among my prized possessions, comic-wise. I have to admit that nostalgia is the main reason that I own this, so a lot of this review will hinge on that perspective.

As always, Spoilers abound from here. That means I'll tell you exactly what happened.

SUMMARY

In 1961, German agents, including a scientist stash away a project before the Russians seal them into the city of East Berlin. While escaping the scientist is shot, and the two agents violently get him past the US checkpoint in an effort to get him help.

Namor wakes up in a puddle of sludge on top of a skyscraper, after flying a viral agent into the heart of a Sewage based creature inadvertantly created by scientists that was threatening New York. In attempting to fly down, he finds that his ankle wings have vanished and only his strength and skill save him. Namorita escapes from a pod she'd been placed in inside the creature, and she proceeds to rescue other captives as Namor walks up. One of the scientists to survive tells that the creature was an attempt to escape funding cuts, and Namor and the authorities were misled by the creator, now killed by her creation. Phoebe Marrs then runs up and begs Namor to help her brother, who struck a horrible deal with the corporate raider known as Headhunter. he rides off with her, and seems to be falling prey to her charms.

Meanwhile, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing are shocked to see the return of Banny Rand, aka Iron Fist, who they believe to be dead. Namorita is being brought uiup to speed by Namor's allies, Caleb and Carrie Alexander, as Carrie confesses her love for Namor, which does not appear to be returned, as Namor looks to be enthralled by Phoebe Marrs.

Namor and Marrs arrive at Headhunter's offices and we learn that her agreements with businessmen come at a high price as she reveals her collection of their mounted heads on her wall!

REVIEW:

The story flows by a series of coincidences, someone walks up, someone runs up, and everything happens in the course of an afternoon. There's not really a reason for this, as time could have passed before Marrs approached Namor, with no ill effect to the story. Namor's personality is very stoic and pompous, which is the biggest trouble in centering a book on him. Byrne did seem to make it work, but Namor's though balloons should reveal more of the trouble in dealing with his loss of flight.

The largest attribute to the art that's noticeable is the zip-a-tone. Byrne used this on Omac and after leaving Namor, on She-Hulk. He uses it for shading and the colorist Glynis Oliver adds subtle colors to accentuate them so it doesn't get terribly distracting. It's an added effect that Byrne didn't need, but took the time to add, which gives some sense at how much pride he took in his work on this book. No one can fault Byrne's anatomy or basic artistic skill. If I find fault with anything in this comic, it's in the writing.

Byrne took, in this issue, a character seen at the time as one of the more powerfuul characters in the Marvel Pantheon and gave him more limitations. At the same tiem, there seemed to be no pondering of the circumstances that brought. The dialogue seems to render the characters two-dimensional in the context of this issue. Byrne was better at writing long-term, and in an era of sub-plots, he was able to excel at that. In smaller stories, he seemed hindered.

NOTES:

Like many comics that I've reviewed, this issue has never been collected. Also like most of the comics that I've reviewed, it should be cheap, provided that you can find it. Don't pay more that two bucks for an issue, and if you do, pick one up, try to pick up a run of several issues. Byrne makes Namorita interesting.

FINAL RATING: 6 (out of 10)

The story weakness really hurts this comic. If it was on par with the art, then we'd be looking at at least an 8. John Byrne comics of this era probably need to be read in a series rather than individually.

These Ain't Your Granddaddy's Star-Rovers!

TWILIGHT #1

1990

Another weekend, and the wife is sleeping in, so here's another review of a comic from the old collection at casa de Stanford. Hmmm, that really doesn't work work with an English name. Oh, well, until we come up with another name for the homestead, let's just get started with the review.

Twilight #1 was a prestige format book, the first in a series of three books by author Howard Chaykin, famous for the 80s independent comic American Flagg, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, who'd done a lot of work for DC over the course of the 1980s, even having the mass-marketed Superman image for the late 1980s.

My friend Joel first exposed me to this book and for the better part of eight years, I sought to complete my own collection of all three books. Being square-bound, they usually sit on my bookshelf, which probably isn't good for their longevity, but who cares, they're just comics. 

As always, Spoilers abound from here. Don't say that I didn't warn you. A word of warning, the set-up is so huge for the story, that my Summary may have some factual errors.

SUMMARY

It's the future, an elderly Homer Glint, while chasing after his seeing-eye cat, comes across momentos of his past. The story begins during a hostage crisis in the jungle, where bio-engineered animal men are holed up with the journalistic adventurer team known as the Star-Rovers while military hero John Starker prepares a commando team to storm in and rescue the hostages. Tempers flare in the hut, when Rick Purvis goes nuts after learning that teammate Karel Sorenson has had a sexual relationship with one of the ape men, and he proceeds to behead their leader, which makes him a hero across known space, even as far as the fleet of ships commanded by the Nazi-esque Tommy Tomorrow, on a search for immortality, long promised. Purvis's perceived heroism gets the Star Rovers an assignment off world that looks promising in the legend of a "new messiah."

Private detective Star Hawkins rescues his brother John Starker from drunken self-imposed exile in a Mexican robot brothel, because he's needed to rescue a robot companion, Ilda, whose been captured in a mad quest for immortality involving Starker's old military partner, Tommy Tomorrow. Ilda's being held by Tomorrow's ex-wife Brenda, believed killed in the final battle with an alien race called Mesthusaloids years before. In meeting with Tomorrow, Brenda reveals the secret to immortality is in the flesh of the Mesuthaloids.

The Star Rovers meet with the Mesuthaloids on a distant planet, only to be attacked by Tommy Tomorrow, whose careless sniper fire ignites the Star Rovers' wooden ship (yes, they bought a wooden space ship) which causes a huge explosion that kills Purvis, blinds Homer, and merges Karel with many of the Mesuthaloids making her the new messiah, a living Goddess that gives immortality to the enitre human race.

REVIEW:

This story is really good, even if you don't know the original characters that the cast is based on. Supposedly, Space Ranger shows up, but I'll be damned if I know where. The book is written very well, and the world of the future, circa 2070 we can guess by the inclusion of John Starker, Manhunter 2070, is very real and this should be considered a very good sci-fi story. The language is very harsh at times and the predilictions of Starker for robots meets the definition of "adult situations." Like I said in the spoiler warning, the first issue is a little hard to follow givwen that the cast is broad, and getting them to meet near the conclusion does take some doing that could have done with a little more exposition. There are no vast leaps in technology that ask for such suspension of disbelief that would make the story unreadable, unlike in the stories that this is based upon.

The artwork is by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, who I cannot remember a time when he has not delivered excellent storytelling and expert anatomy. My favorite parts of this story are his renderings of robots, especially Ilda. The original Ilda had a football-shaped head, but this Ilda is very desirable, and heck, who can fault John Starker for wanting to visit the robot brothels in old Mexico?

NOTES:

This issue, this series has never been collected. That's a shame, as it's really good. Finding it in back issue bins is really hard as you'll inevitably come up one issue short. You shouldn't pay much over cover price for them, and may even luck out in the bargain bins.

FINAL RATING: 8.5 (out of 10)

The issue is a little harder to follow and really requires devotion to read and study. Chaykin is a writer for intelligent readers. It can be a little inaccessible for a casual comics reader. Garcia-Lopez is a very detailed artist here, and at times his layouts seem to break the rules that are taught to aspiring comic artists, but that's where he excells and proves his mastery. A great comic artist knows when and how to break the rules. Overall, the series is really good and merits a 9, but this issue, while pivotal and necessary, is a little weaker than the whole.

How to beat the crap out of Supergirl without beating up Supergirl.

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #26

February 1992

It's the weekend, so I decided to do another review for those of you taking the time to read these things.

Legion Of Super-Heroes #26 was the middle of a period where I was really into the Legion. A lot of people speak bad about the Giffen/Bierbaum period, but I really enjoyed it, as well as the friends I had at the time. At this point, Giffen was working on a ton of stuff at DC, so the art chores had been taken over by Jason Pearson, a newcomer at the time, who'd done some work at Innovation. Later, Pearson would go on to create Body Bags and work on a few other comics as well.

As always, Spoilers abound from here. That means I'll tell you exactly what happened.

SUMMARY

The Dominator controlled Android B.I.O.N. has attacked Laurel Gand, who's been covertly monitoring the situation on Dominator controlled Earth as Celeste Rockfish, another Legionnaire. Their battle is distructive and seemingly futile for Laurel, , and when it starrts to endanger civillians, she takes it outside the city.

The Dominators maintain the illusion of an independant Earth government, but the Earth President is beginning to break down. B.I.O.N. reveals to Laurel that he possesses all the powers of the Legionnaires combined, which is taking its toll on Laurel, who manages to distract B.I.O.N. long enough to run away.

The Underground Resistance, led by the Subs, are taking Dominator chambers, while their organizer, Universo, is holding the SW6 Legion, a teenage version that recently escaped the chambers in reserve.

Laurel makes her way back to Legion headquarters on the asteroid of Talus, with B.I.O.N. unknowingly in pursuit. Since B.I.O.N. has left Earth, things look bad for the Dominator occupation, and it looks like their only option is to blow up the chambers rather than lose them to the Resistance.

REVIEW:

It's been said that if you love your characters, you'll put them through hell. During the Terra Mosaic storyline, Giffen and the Bierbaums really put the Legion through the wringer, so they must've had a lot of love for them. A battle as destructive and large in scale as Laurel Gand, the equivalent of Supergirl with an android three times as powerful, was very well handled, even with the nine panel grid that was the hallmark of this period in Legion history. The story is enthralling, but a little hard to follow unless you have read some of the issues that preceeded this one. There are little jokes hidden within the story, and the diagram of the Legion headquarters is the humor highlight as we learn the details of its past as a brothel.

Pearson has panels, like the ones I've shown here, that are so well done, that they scream out for you to ignore the panels that don't work as well. Of all the artists that drew this Laurel Gand, I love his rendition of her second best. Stuart Immonen is first. 

NOTES:

This issue has never been collected. That's not unusual for the Legion, since only recently has there been interest in its past, and likely, we will not see this storyline collected, since it has fallen out of favor within the comics community. You should be able to find it very affordably in back issue bins, maybe even as cheap as fractions of a dollar. While you're at it pick up other issues of the Terra Mosaic storyline which ran, pretty much uninterrupted for about 40 issues or so.

For insight into this period, I recommend picking up the Legion Companion from Two Morrows publishing. I'd put it in the Amazon sidebar, but it's only available from outside sellers, who feel that it's worth $50.00, so just go to Two Morrows' web site to get it.

FINAL RATING: 7 (out of 10)

Pearson's artwork at this stage is not terribly detailed and the panels that he excels at are undermined by the ones that just weren't pulled off. If this were Pearson of 1997, then we'd be talking about a better book. It's so dependent on the other issues in the storyline it really shows the flaws of the monthly format that mainstream ciomics are locked into.