X-MEN, No. 34 (Nicieza / Kubert, Ryan; Marvel, 1994)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-)read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review / memory / whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box20): While my complicated relationship with The X-Men remains so, this bit of '90s 90s-ness wasn't as bad as I feared when I opened my eyes and found it in my hands: Nicieza is nothing if not a reliable teller of quality pulp with a soap opera-y mutant twist (Gambit and Rogue were having problems again) and Andy Kubert art (though Kubert was on breakdowns in this issue, with finishes by Matt Ryan) is always welcome.

Nonetheless, there's something, some mental block that has, even in the '90s heyday of mutantmania and my resultant and impressionable mini-collection thereof, rendered me unable to embrace the X-Men corner of the comics world as I have, say, the Bat-village or the Daredevil-burg. Not sure what it is – a general aversion to team books and preference for solo characters, perhaps (though I have found myself, as I stumble through life, enjoying The Fantastic Four – Alex Ross's FULL CIRCLE being a useful gateway drug to Kirby bombast), but my lack of... anything, really, WRT the X-corner remains, with the exception of the cartoon and LOGAN, resolute. Worth noting that I hold a similar indifference to most team books: all of the Avengers series, the various Justice Leagues (I do, however, find the Justice Society intriguing and Super Friends are Super Friends even though they’re the Justice League and yadda yadda yadda)...

Reminder to self: still want to check out the Jonathan Hickman run. Tried it in digital form and couldn’t get into it, but perhaps a physical visitation will do some good.

An enjoyable enough revisit that's made me question my unwillingness to open up to the X-world but, as has been uttered in more than one congressional hearing, There's no there there.

DAREDEVIL Vol. 2, No. 99 (Brubaker / Lark; Marvel, 2007)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box07): Finally, a trip off the DC track and on to the Marvel one for a spell, relief that it's a good one – not that I'm partial to DD or anything, this particular issue being part of a set I repurchased (DD Vol. 2 1-106) after my entire Bendis / Brubaker DD set, the last runs that I picked up in single issues, vanished at some point in the last ten years (though I swear I've seen them around) but anyhow the comic itself.

Another reminder of why DD is one of my holy trinity, Stan’s best (co)-creation, the truest blank slate in the Marvel Universe, in some hands a swashbuckling do-gooder, in others, like the team here, a crime book / legal drama with a blind ninja martyr in red tights trying to do the best he can and, thanks to his own not-inconsiderable issues, screwing it all up (and getting the shit kicked out of him) before turning the same somewhat around, leaving broken people (especially Milla, good god, Milla – Bendis and Brubaker were just brutal with her), physically and emotionally, in his wake – and feeling crap about it but still doing the same thing night after night after night.

VERY cool to see Mr. Fear and The Enforcers (the latter having debuted way back in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 10) as the main antagonists: nothing like a little turning of comics lore into something new and exciting and terrifying through a stark noir palette. Speaking of: can't get enough of Michael Lark's work here – much as I love the Brubaker/Phillips team, there's something about the Brubaker/Lark pairing that grabs me in ways the former doesn't (or, rather, hasn't in awhile). Maybe it's the fondness I hold for their work (along with Rucka) on GOTHAM CENTRAL (which I want to complete in single issues) that clouds my judgement here, but jesusfuck look at the panel quartet pictured above, the tiny changes from panel to panel, especially Chico's expressions – that's just perfection.

Such an excellent issue of such an excellent series which makes me want to revisit all of Bendis and Brubaker's work on the title (Bendis, especially, has never again reached the heights he reached during his time on DAREDEVIL) – but I've got a few of the issues in the shortboxes, so I'm sure they'll turn up in this space...

DETECTIVE COMICS, Vol. 1, No. 579 (Barr / Breyfogle; DC, 1987)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box08): Simple and solid bit of done-in-one entertainment heavy on the "chum"s – "chum" and Jason Todd just don't mix – and foreshadowing of a larger Two-Face plot rendered in early Breyfogle which is always a delight: there's something about a good done-in-one that triggers – in a good way – a sort of nostalgia for the narrative craftsmanship of a tight, well-done adventure that makes one crave the next issue without resorting to "to be continued" (a la the best episodes of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES – though it had its share of "TBC," but NEVER out of anything other than the needs of the story being told) or interminable crossovers and year-long "this changes everything / biggest thing ever" cataclysms.

FWIW, the "simple bit of done-in-one" was and remains, to me, the biggest missed opportunity in digital comics: entertaining toss-asides that, in their physical manifestation at least – and in the right hands, become treasures passed through time but that's a rant for another time. For now, I'll keep this one short and as entertaining as I can make it, in homage to.

DOCTOR FATE, No. 28 (Messner-Loebs / Giarrano; DC, 1991)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box09): Finally, something from the latest wave of comics procurement, the hybrid "grab fascinating things at random antique malls / make highly calculated offers on ebay for specific issues and complete series" wave, this issue being part of the former.

While the Doctor Fate mythology was, is, and remains somewhat murky (to my fantasy-incompetent brain), I've held a nigh-lifelong fascination with the character – a fascination no doubt initiated via the wave-two Super Powers figure (which should, at some point, become part of the latter hybrid procurment wave) and I do love what little I gleamed here: that the 1991 incarnation was Inza Nelson (I think I've had the issue where she assumes the mantle since it came out, one of those 10-year-old Rite-Aid grabs in the first phase of the great procurement), while Kent Nelson, the usual Doctor, has remained young "through becoming Dr Fate and now possessing a new body through The Lords of Order... and that (his) old body is now possessed by a particularly right-wing Lord of Order named Shat-Ru" (love his old body's opening line, "Humankind is a filthy mass of grubs, battening on lust and deceit"); it doesn't hurt that Messner-Loeb's writing makes me want to read the next issue which I don't have and, further, makes me want to collect the entire run (written by one of my favorite writers, J.M. DeMatteis) – which seems to be the way as I've been making my way through these late-eighties DC series which I was too young to appreciate or read when they first came 'round, the O'Neil / Cowan THE QUESTION series being at the peak of that list.

Short version: very cool stuff that makes me wish that Doctor Fate – and Pierce Brosnan – had gotten a better big-budget film debut than a Doctor-Strange-meets-Professor-X knockoff (at least DC and Marvel were honest about it in the 1996 Amalgam Comics combo when the characters merged during DC VS MARVEL into Doctor Strangefate) in a shitty vanity project. Such a great character yet to be used to their full potential – though this series is a solid start.

DETECTIVE COMICS, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Daniel; DC, 2011)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box08): For all of my consternation about the New 52, there were some solid exceptions, the Bat-family being among them – probably because, other than everyone being de-aged and Gordon's hair being red again, not much changed; this selective rebooting, while beneficial (bone=thrown?) in many ways was also a large part of the problem: if you're going to go for it, go for it all and don't waste time with half-measures. By the time the sun set on the New 52, we were left with little more than the sweat of an exercise in editoral bloodsucking, missed opportunities, and tarnished faith; IIRC, I checked out of comics for the second (or maybe third) time around here (though that had as much to do with relocation (read: lost first house) and burnout from writing ComicStoryworld - 300 pages in five months as anything), not to return in earnest until earlier this year.

But, the comic itself: Daniel is nothing if not a gifted visual storyteller and one of the rare artists (these days) to make the leap to writer-artist feeling as though they've always been writing. Doll-Maker is a fascinating villain and I dig the pulpier urban James Bond (New52 Bats got laid a lot, it seems) feel that Daniel brings to Bats – a far different vibe from Snyder's "grand stakes" storyweaving of The Court of Owls (excellent, too – though "Black Mirror" remains my favorite Snyder Bat-tale); not better, but different – complimentary in the best way possible.

One thing I want to add here about Daniel's art: I love how he constantly is evolving his style and changing it up: at some points, it's difficult to see that this was the same artist of Morrison's RIP storyline, just a couple of years earlier. Dark, kinetic movement on glorious display; might have to pick up all 12 issues of his run at some point.

WONDER WOMAN, Vol. 2, No. 223 (Rucka / Rags, Richards, Bair; DC, 2006)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box19): 2005-06 seems to be the years of years in these Weds Randoms thus far – with few diversions into the 90s – for better or for worse. I swear I have more than a few years of DC Comics in these 18 boxes, though now that I've added the spinner rack fully into the mix, I suppose I should add 19 to my randomizer...

Anyhow: INFINITE CRISIS / Maxwell Lord neck-snapping / Brother Eye-OMAC / Rucka era of Wonder Woman, post-IDENTITY CRISIS (want to revisit sometime) Rags Morales art. Something about this run that grabbed me more than any other effort – Azzarello's New52 series being a close second, though; I suppose that I have an affinity for odd pairings of creator to character that, on the surface, seem unlikely to work but that end up being among the best iterations of both – at Diana: love the collision here of warrior, international intrigue, and the perception of "superhero" that Rucka (unsurprisingly) exploits here – Diana on the world stage, superheroics and doing the right thing up against the perils of international diplomacy and bureaucracy.

And snapping Max Lord's neck.

Also: why am I thinking that Artemis is killed at some point soon after this issue? Didn't she replace Diana as Wonder Woman around the Doomsday / Knightfall / Emerald Twilight era? Vague memories, FTW.

SUPERMAN, No. 214 (Azzarello / Lee; DC, 2005)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box17): While my (re-)entry here into the Azzarello/Lee "For Tomorrow" run was the penultimate "Superman gets his ass handed to him until he does something the bad guy (Zod, right?) never conceived of stay tuned for the conclusion" issue and my memory of the storyline – which I recall rather enjoying, contrary to (IIRC) the general reception of the time – was foggy at best, my revisit was nonetheless quite enjoyable.

I've long appreciated DC's – back then, at least; I don't know if it holds true today – anti-"Previously" page edict: I love the feeling of being hurled headfirst into the deep end of the minds of two masters of the medium working their magic on the archetype of the medium itself. Azzarello is a strange fit for Superman, but that strange fit is, I think, why it works: one of those instances of a writer being outside their normal wheelhouse and making it work rather well; that Lee and Williams were along for the ride no doubt made that dance into the unknown far more fluid.

Lee was born to draw Superman, full stop: this was the artistic follow-up / spiritual successor to "Hush," yes? I prefer his Superman to his Batman, by far. Though I've had the trade for awhile, his team-up with Scott Snyder (whose writing, with some exceptions – OWLS, BLACK MIRROR, and LAST KNIGHT ON EARTH – I’ve yet to fully embrace), SUPERMAN UNCHAINED, remains unread. Might have to dig into that one if only to see more Lee Superman.

Questions with no answer, yet: The OMAC here - harnessing cancer to create super-soldiers was an intriguing solution to the super-soldier quandry – was different than the one in INFINITE CRISIS, right? Did Orr ever show up again? Was FOR TOMORROW re-collected recently? Might need to pick it up – revisiting just this one issue, headfirst into the deep end, intrigued enough to re-read the whole thing.

52, Week 21 (Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid / Giffen, Bennet; DC, 2006)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box09): Probably not the best narrative to channel switch into 21 issues in but fond memories of DC's post-INFINITE CRISIS continuity experiments (One Year Later was mostly a success, IMO – mostly) and scrapped ideas nonethless manifest: in addition to Ralph Dibney and Dr. Fate's helmet looking for an entrance to hell and some mechanic in the middle of nowhere rebuilding Red Tornado, I'd forgotten that Lex Luthor had his The Seven in Infinity Inc ("The Everyman Project": in addition to Natasha Irons's "Starlight" codename, we get Lex in full LexCorp/Vought mode – Giancarlo Esposito's already playing him in THE BOYS, might as well make him Lex in SUPERMAN LEGACY because he'd be perfect); we even wade into anti-nepo-baby ("blood brat," excellent term) superheroics – before Lex kills one of them for ratings.

As for the 52 series as a whole (its sequel, COUNTDOWN, left much to be desired; think I made it a few issues in before giving up), my fondest memory is it being both the debut of Batwoman and Renee Montoya's The Question, two of my favorite characters of that era. In Rucka I trust, always; the GOTHAM CENTRAL omnibus beckons.

Always thought that weekly comics would make a great digital comics exclusive: how would 52 worked in today's iPad / DC Universe Infinite world? Given how piss-poorly mainstream comics are adjusting to and making use of digital possibilities, probably not as swimmingly as it should.

BATMAN, Vol. 1, No. 518 (Moench / Jones; DC, 1995)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box03): About time I landed on something good: a fast-paced, Moench / Jones Black Mask jam from what's held firm to the title of my favorite Batman run (Vol. 1, 515-552) for the last 28 years. There's something about the brazen creepiness of this run that's been unmatched in the years since – in the main Bat-book, no less: that gothic, macabre vision of Gotham ripped straight from Moench and Jones's Elseworlds collaborations; the post-KnightsEnd / Troika / Bruce Wayne's return all-black suit with yellow oval (my favorite Bat-suit; so underrated – wish it had caught on AND that there had been a settled way to draw it; even Jones gave up a couple of issues in; the B:TAS–meets–Hammer-meets-Pre-Code-Warner-gangster-films villainy (Black Mask, in particular is at his most deliciously unhinged)… I've little doubt that a good chunk of my affection for this run is how great it felt having Bruce back behind the cowl after the exhaustion of the Jean Paul period (and the brief PRODIGAL, Dick Grayson period) – that such a risk-taking and surreal creative team was picked to spearhead the post-return era is a testament to O'Neil's Bat-genius – but that affection source doesn’t change the truth that each panel is a distillation of everything I love about the character. Thank you Tyche; applause, applause, applause.

BLOODBATH, No. 1 (Raspler / Wojtkiewicz, Willingham; DC, 1993)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box05): oh god you did it again (inauspicious box-selecting debut, Siri) but what an opening line: "WE DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY'RE FROM OR WHAT THEY WANT -- OTHER THAN OUR SPINAL FLUID."

How very, very 1993: Super-mullet! AzBats! (for whom I still have an odd affection – perhaps because he was so exemplary (by design) of the 90s aesthetic, as if it vomited all over an institution) Bloodwynd! (Martian Manhunter, IIRC – even though he's behind Pres. Clinton one page and Bloodwynd is on the next as part of a group getting chewed out by Amanda Waller nevermind that later he and MM are fighting the same creature on the same page; J’onn was a busy bee in the ‘90s) heavily-armored male characters interspersed with barely-clothed female characters spouting cheesy expository dialogue!

IIRC, this was the bookend to a series of annuals, back when each of DC's annuals had an overarching theme: one year was Elseworlds, another Year One, another ECLIPSO: THE DARKNESS WITHIN. Didn't this one, BLOODLINES, spawn a whole bunch of new, EXTREME, takes on DC characters (the ones who survived their spinal fluid being consumed)? Fate, Manhunter... there were a few others that escape me. Was this the one that Robinson's STARMAN series spun out of? If so, not all bad. (Note: need to pick up that omnibus...)

As for the content: mostly a bunch of fighting and hitting things with aforementioned cheesy, expository dialogue. See photo excerpt above and you get the picture.

What I've come to recognize about the 90s in comics was that it wasn’t entirely devoid of good ideas but rather that most of them were ruined by the EXTREME stylistic excesses of the day: look to the Graham / Roy 2012-16 redux of Liefeld's PROPHET or several of the WILDC.A.T.S. revivals to see this stuff work in the hands of less baroque hands. All that being said, I'm not sure there's much to salvage with BLOODLINES / BLOODBATH – though I suppose it could be argued that the CW's FLASH merged this (minus the spinal-fluid-sucking creatures) with FLASHPOINT to create that whole "new metahuman" storyline in season three.

Someday, randomness, you'll remind me of the good in my early comics collecting days. Someday – but not today.