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Marvel Universe Series IV Revisited, Part 3

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Walt

I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually read any of the original New Warriors comics, though I at least own some of the issues thanks to bargain-bin purchases. I believe there was a 7 or 8 issue series in 1997/98 that I’d read, though…but that was at least four years after being exposed to these cards!

The ones that stand out the most to me are Nova, Speedball, and Night Thrasher. Night Thrasher had a mini-series that I recall–whether it was from a friend having it or coming across it myself in bargain bins, I don’t recall offhand. Speedball of course would go on to much infamy during Civil War in 2006 or so. I also got to know Firestar a bit during Busiek‘s run on Avengers starting in 1998 with the Heroes Return stuff.

But back in 1993? These characters were virtual unknowns to me, outside of their appearance on these cards. It somewhat helps for me to realize that these characters were–in some cases–quite new at the time, and interesting to see who has lasted or otherwise gone on to notoriety since, and which ones (Cardinal, Turbo, Rage) I don’t recall ever even hearing of.

Continue reading →

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Marvel Universe Series IV Revisited, Part 2

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Walt

While these would not have been my favorite characters back in ’93 when these cards came out, looking back on them now 20 years later, these are indeed some of my favorite Marvel characters, especially this version of them!

Warlock caught my attention in ’95 or so with the Ultraverse Black September event where he wound up in the Ultraverse, in the Rune series. It was around that time that I “discovered” Thanos and a lot of the other “cosmic” Marvel characters.

It’s harder to “see” the actual full image on the individual cards in binder pages…but this one looks really good digitally, which makes me collectively like this page all the more. It’s also not nearly as “busy” as the first in this set, and works so much better for me.

Of all the characters here, I’m probably least familiar with Morg and Starhawk. The others are quite familiar for me.

Continue reading →

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Marvel Universe Series IV Revisited, Part 1

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Walt

I’m not a huge fan of this page…it seems overly busy and cluttered. The Hulk card is fairly “iconic” for me as card #1 in the entire set; first card that shows in the binder page, and so on. While I’ve become more familiar with these characters in intervening years, I ton’t think I really knew anyone BUT the Hulk in 1993.

I think I first learned of Moon Knight when a mini series premiered in 1998 or so, and probably learned of Doc Sampson and Deathlok from the Overpower card game. I know I discovered Silver Sable at some point…might have been this card…I don’t actually recall.

Outside of these cards, I don’t think I’m even familiar with Siege or Deadzone.

Continue reading →

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Marvel Universe Series IV Revisited, Part 0

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Walt

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It’s kind of hard to believe it’s been 20 years, but 20 years it’s been! Back in 1993, Skybox released their FOURTH annual trading card set based on Marvel Comics properties–Marvel Universe Series IV.

Of course, having been out of comics for a couple years, not really getting back in til mid/late 1992 with the then-pending Death of Superman, I was a stranger to trading cards, outside of baseball cards.

A friend and I spent much of the summer of 1993 collecting these, trading back and forth to see both of us get as close as possible to a complete set. I still have my original binder and cards from that summer, that original nearly-complete set (missing just a handful of cards).

I was able to buy a complete set awhile back off a bargain table at my local comic shop, finally having a definite full set. And partially through that, partially recognizing the 20th anniversary, I’ve decided to present a look through the entire set, with my present-day thoughts on these artifacts of the past.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting my thoughts on the entire set, based around the 9-card clusters that most of the set was grouped into–with 9 cards fitting together in a 3×3 grid to form a larger image (tailored to the 9-pocket binder pages many such cards get stored in).

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Even the original box the cards’ packs came in references the 9-card groupings.

20 years later, I still have an (empty) original box that I think I got from my then-local comic shop. I also have several of the original wrappers, from making a “cover” for the binder I kept my set in:

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So, over the coming weeks, I’ll be posting my thoughts on the cards, as well as low-res images of the cards themselves. Just in scanning all of these, I’ve gained a new appreciation for the cards that wasn’t there 20 years ago, and noticed things in the art that I never really noticed in all the years since!

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Filed under: Marvel Series IV Revisited, The '90s Revisited | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

DC & Marvel Animation – My Collection

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Walt

I have an entire shelf dedicated to DC and Marvel animated features and series:

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DC Animated Universe stuff. I’m missing one volume of Batman, all of Batman Beyond, and a couple of the Justice League seasons.

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I’ve kept up (so far) with the Warner Premiere animated films; I started out with the DVDs but eventually switched to blu-ray…sadly, I made the switch when they pretty much QUIT putting tons of extra stuff on the blu-ray that wasn’t on the DVDs.

So far, I think my favorites are probably Batman: Under the Hood, Wonder Woman, The New Frontier, and The Flashpoint Paradox.

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My Marvel collection is significantly smaller…though I’ve contemplated getting some of the Marvel Knights things–Iron Man: Extremis, Astonishing X-Men, etc; can’t really justify that with those on Netflix. I do, however, want to get the other 3 X-Men volumes so that I don’t have to rely on Netflix and just have ’em.

My favorite of these is the Wolverine and the X-Men Complete Series set. I was extremely glad I waited and passed on the $15ish mini-sets. Got the full thing for only about $25! You may notice Planet Hulk‘s there TWICE…I got the blu-ray for 1/4 the price I paid for the DVD, but I like the “slipcase” on the DVD.

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Supermen, Batman, and Thanos

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Walt

Several weeks ago, I came across the Injustice Superman figure at a local Walmart. The thing looked pretty darned cool, and with the sheer LACK of quality 3.75″ DC figures, splurged and bought it.

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Later, looking for the Injustice Batman figure, I came across this Dark Knight Returns Batman. I opted to go ahead and buy it, figuring it’s way cheaper than trying to track down the older DC Direct figure.

And last week I found the much-less-cooler-looking-than-I-thought-I-remembered Superman in New 52 mode. Still, not wanting to have to HUNT for the thing later or pay a premium online, went ahead and bought it. I mainly hate how small the “S” on the chest is for this figure….pretty much everything else looks fine to me.

While on the figure-hunt, I decided to also get another one I’ve had my eye on for YEARS: the Marvel Select Thanos!

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I’ve been interested in this figure for a number of years now, and happened to see it at a couple different comic shops, for what I believe is “retail price” for the Marvel Select line.

And with the character’s mounting popularity of late, I did not want to get “shut out” of being able to acquire this figure at retail price, so went ahead and finally pulled the trigger on buying him.

I think Thanos is now competing with Galactus to have the most “versions” in my collection–in addition to this, I have the 3.75″ Marvel Universe figure from a couple years ago, and the Thanos from the line based on the ’90s Silver Surfer animated series.

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The Value of Infinity?

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Walt

Infinity #1 has a $4.99 cover price, and includes 45 story pages–10 of those previously available (to customers, at least) “free” in the 2013 Free Comic Book Day Infinity issue.

The day that I paid cover price for the issue, I also snagged a number of 25-cent bin issues.

Which means that Infinity #1 was an especially poor value to issue quantity and page count!

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For less than the price of Infinity #1, I was able to purchase:

  • single issues of Batman: Year One (Batman #404-407)
  • the 1989 Catwoman mini-series (I believe this was later collected/reissued as Catwoman: Her Sister’s Keeper)
  • Invisibles #1
  • Spider-Man #1
  • an extra-sized, foil-enhanced Incredible Hulk issue
  • the original first printing of the first Gen13 mini
  • both prestige-format History of the DC Universe issues
  • the foil-enhanced anniversary issues Spectacular Spider-Man #200 and Web of Spider-Man #100
  • the chromium Valiant #0 issues for both Shadowman and Bloodshot

Yet another reason my enjoyment of older/’90s (and even ’80s!) comics is increasing while my enjoyment and interest in current comics continues to wane.

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Infinity #1 [Review]

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Walt

infinity001Infinity

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Penciler: Jim Cheung
Inkers: Mark Morales with John Livesay, David Meikis and Jim Cheung
Colorist: Justin Ponsor
Letterers: Chris Eliopoulos with Joe Caramagna
Cover: Adam Kubert & Laura Martin
Assistant Editor: Jake Thomas
Editors: Tom Brevoort with Lauren Sankovitch
Published by: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99

I wasn’t going to buy this issue. I physically picked it up from the shelf last Wednesday, and then put it back. It’s a $4.99 issue, which is $1 more than “usual” for most Marvel fare these days (though to its credit it’s a thicker than usual issue, even factoring out full-page “chapter headings”). But Thanos’ face is featured prominently on the cover (it IS the cover image, really!), and darned if I’m not a fan of classic Marvel Cosmic Thanos stuff! So despite other online chatter, I decided to go ahead and buy this Friday after all, in the interest of giving it a fair chance.

On the whole, I’d have to say that it was a passively neutral read for me. I did not particularly enjoy it…but I did not actively dislike it the way I’d somewhat expected to.

We see a world apparently destroyed by Avengers…then move to Titan, to a creature whose existence seems to be solely its mission–Thanos’ bidding. With the success of one mission, it is now sent to Earth after other secrets. Various events unfold–Space Knights face an unwinnable situation, SWORD and Captain America and Hawkeye bust a group of Skrulls hiding out, and we see the current status quo of the Inhumans and their King, Blackbolt. The spy creature delivers a message, and we get a hint of Thanos’ plan.

After not enjoying SHIELD #1 a few years ago, not being able to “get into” his early Fantastic Four issues, and being completely turned off to his Marvel Now Avengers and New Avengers launches, I’ve pretty much decided Hickman‘s work in general just is not for me. As such, his name attached to Infinity was a big red flag…one that somewhat holds true even now, having read this issue.

Despite Thanos’ face on the cover, he may as well not even actually appear in the issue for the near-zero on-panel time he gets. For that alone I’m disappointed with the issue. Additionally, there are plenty of characters that I’m not familiar with that I get the feeling I “should” be to truly “appreciate” this issue/story.

Visually I definitely enjoyed the art overall…I’m not a huge fan of some of the costumes (specifically Captain America and Hawkeye) but they look about as good as I can expect here, leaving me only to dislike the costumes themselves rather than the depiction. As for the many characters I’m not familiar with, I suppose the visuals don’t do them any disservice…they look how they do, and I’m cool with that.

The title Infinity–and featuring Thanos’ face on the first issue and other marketing as well as the Free Comic Book Day issue–seem clearly chosen to draw association with past Thanos-centric stories like The Infinity Gauntlet or Infinity Abyss. As such, the comparison is there, and as a first issue, this does not do for me here what those did in their respective stories. Plus, about 10 pages of this issue are what we were given in that FCBD issue, so that wasn’t even a prologue so much as “just” some random scene over 3 months before the arrival of #1.

While I imagine things will pull together and make sense by the end of the six individual issues of this “main story”/mini…as a single issue, Infinity #1 leaves me let-down. If I come across positive enough reviews of the later issues and/or tie-ins, I’ll likely be interest in a collected volume of the entire story; but as it stands, I don’t plan on picking up any of the subsequent single issues for this event/story.

Filed under: Infinity, Infinity (Event), MARVEL, Marvel Now! | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

A Look At the Bookshelves

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Walt

The last several years I’ve been keeping “recent” books separate from the main collection–they’re more convenient this way for me. Until this week, they were in any which order, and I kept finding myself wondering where, exactly, I had stuck something…so I finally got around to organizing three shelves’ worth of graphic novels.

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Above: the full “DC Shelf,” which includes the handful of non-big-name stuff.

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Vertigo and Batman stuff…

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Superman…

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The rest of the DC stuff, primarily Flashpoint and Green Lantern stuff.

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These are recent non-DC/non-Marvel (and non-TMNT/non-Valiant) books…

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The “Marvel shelves,” primarily Marvel but also my IDW-TMNT and Valiant stuff. The GI Joe, Dark Horse Heroes, and Aliens book got moved to join the Transformers and Highlander books so I wouldn’t need to use bookends.

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I love the TMNT Ultimate Collection volumes…just waiting for the fifth/final in that series to come out. I have yet to snag the Valiant Classics Shadowman volume, and may “upgrade” the current Valiant when the hardcovers for those start coming out later this year (if I recall correctly).

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I continue to be amazed at how much Marvel I get in bookshelf format, and how much of it is “older.” A lot of Marvel volumes I’ve bought for anywhere from 50/60% off cover price to a mere $1-$3 apiece.

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And I think part of why I have so many Marvel books compared to DC is the seeming constant “liquidation” of Marvel stuff, and the sheer plentiful-ness of cheaper volumes pretty much anywhere I go. Good and bad, but that’s a topic for another post.

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Though not all that much a fan of the Ultimate line these days, I don’t mind checking ’em out when I can get a $25 hardcover for $3 or so. However, I’m actively looking to fill in my Ultimate Spider-Man run…just need vols 6-9 and I don’t know if there’s a 13 yet.

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I’m definitely interested in tracking down other “major” X-event volumes…most specifically the Age of Apocalypse Omnibus and the Fatal Attractions volume…along with X-Force vol. 2.

Lately I seem to be back on the single-issue bargains train, working on filling out a number of “sub-collections” like DC ’90s Events (Armageddon 2001, Zero Hour, One Million) as well as Classic Valiant and Ultraverse, ongoing Bat-family books from ’86-2011, and ongoing X-titles 1990ish to 2003, with Uncanny X-Men to 2011 or so. But again…that’s for another post.

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The ’90s Revisited: The Incredible Hulk #444

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Walt

incrediblehulk444Cable Vision

Writer: Peter David
Penciler: Angel Medina
Inker: Robin Riggs
Lettering: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Colors: Glynis Oliver
Enhancement: Malibu
Assistant Editor: Polly Watson
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Published by: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $1.50
Cover Date: August, 1996

It’s amazing how much “context” can play a role in a random issue working or not. This issue is labeled as Onslaught: Impact 1, meaning it was an “impact” issue of the first month of Onslaught. From what I recall, there were two types of issues associated with Onslaught: the Phase 1/2/3 issues, and the Impact 1/2/3 issues. Phase were main parts of the “core” story, while the Impact issues were much looser tie-ins…literally “impacted” by Onslaught, but not having much to do with the main story.

I pulled this issue from the quarter bin for that Onslaught tag. Reading it reminded me just how “loose” the tie-in could be. The basic premise of this issue is that Onslaught has basically wiped the Hulk’s mind, setting him on killing Cable. Banner’s been blocked out, so there’s just the mindless, mission-centered beast. The issue opens with Cable already beaten and barely conscious…the only other ally trying to save him is X-man Storm. The issue is basically one long fight-scene, as Storm turns the elements on the Hulk, and a death-ready Cable rallies and does what he can in his state. Eventually the two manage to develop a risky plan to break Onslaught’s control, and restore the Hulk.

Story-wise, there’s not exactly a lot to this issue. And yet, it shows that David “gets” the X-characters, writing a decent Cable and an impressive (at least power-wise) Storm. But, being a big fight sequence, there’s not exactly much character development…moreso we seem to have had a plot point (Onslaught possesses Hulk) that had to be dealt with to get the Hulk from there to the next plot point (back to being himself again, but Really Very Ticked-Off At Onslaught).

Visually, the art’s not bad, though nothing wonderful. The coloring seemed somehow kinda dull, and the Hulk’s shade of green especially a bit different, more subdued, than what I’m used to for the character. I’m also not all that familiar with this particular interpretation of the Hulk…but knowing this was the “Banner’s consciousness/Hulk’s body” era…and the mid-’90s (and this being a single, isolated issue I’m reading) that mostly gets a pass.

Overall, not a bad issue, but nothing spectacular. I don’t believe I’d ever read this back in the ’90s when originally published, so it was interesting to read a loose tie-in to Onslaught, and getting a single-issue “feel” for the “impact” of that story on this title prior to the bigger shakeup of losing Banner but keeping the Hulk that was the status quo once Onslaught ended.

As a 25-cent issue in an age of $3.99 comics, this was a decently enjoyable issue…but I’m not sure I would care for it without already having a working knowledge of the “main” Onslaught story. Taken by itself as a random issue and being a big fight scene, it’s not really something to specifically seek out unless you’re looking for all the Onslaught issues, or a complete PAD run on this title.

Filed under: The '90s Revisited | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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