comic books – In My Not So Humble Opinion

It Came from the 1990s: Superman “Time and Time Again”

It has been said that everyone’s definitive version of a character is from when they first began following them. That is certainly true for me with Superman, whose comic books I first began reading regularly in 1990 and followed throughout most of the decade. In this installment of “It Came from the 1990s” I’m going to be looking at one of the great Superman storylines from that period, “Time and Time Again” published by DC Comics in early 1991.

Beginning in 1991, the Superman titles, under the auspices of editor Mike Carlin and assistant editor Dan Thorsland, officially became an ongoing serial that ran through all of the books. This is known as “The Triangle Era” as each cover had a little triangle on it which contained the year and the order number in which to read the books.

I’m actually first going to look at the two issues that precede “Time and Time Again” because they are among my all-time favorite Superman stories.

Action Comics #662 was written by Roger Stern and drawn by Bob McLeod. Previously, Clark Kent and Lois Lane had actually gotten engaged. Now, Clark is feeling that he really needs to be honest with Lois and tell her that he’s also Superman. The couple is canoodling in Lois’ apartment on a dark & stormy night. Clark is about to spill the beans when his old foe Silver Banshee comes crashing in, looking for Superman. Not realizing Clark and Superman are one in the same, the Banshee leaves, and Clark makes his excuses to Lois so he can change into his costumed identity and track down the mystical menace. After finally defeating her, Clark returns to Lois’s apartment. There, he reveals to his fiancée that he’s Superman.

The cover to Action #662 by Kerry Gammill & Brett Breeding announces “At Long Last… The Secret Revealed!” And, yes, this is the big one, where Lois Lane finally learns that Clark Kent is Superman. The post-Crisis Superman era was only about four and a half years old at this point, but I’m sure in the minds of most readers there was the awareness of all those crazy old Silver Age tales where Lois futilely tried to prove that Clark was Superman, and the Bronze Age stories where Lois and Superman are actively dating, but he still refuses to tell her he’s Clark. So, Action #662 was a breath of fresh air, at least as far as I was concerned. It really moved the Lois and Clark relationship forward. Stern wrote a great story around the reveal, and McLeod, a very underrated artist, really delivered on the storytelling & mood for this monumental revelation.

Events lead directly into Superman volume 2 #53, “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” written & penciled by Jerry Ordway and inked by Dennis Janke. Lois tells Clark that she needs time to process the big reveal. Understanding, he leaves her apartment, and the next day, Superman finds himself at the Pentagon. The hero is tasked by the military with extraditing the Middle Eastern nation of Quarac’s deposed dictator Marlo to the United States for trial. Ordway does an exemplary job on this issue, showing Superman attempting to navigate the murky world of international politics.

Years later in an interview, Ordway revealed that part of the inspiration for this story was the depiction of Superman by Frank Miller in The Dark Knight Returns as a pawn of the US government. Ordway wanted to show that Superman believes in the American Dream, but he sees himself as “a citizen of the world,” he does not want to be beholden to any particular government, and he possesses a healthy skepticism about politics (which makes perfect sense to me, since as Clark Kent he’s an investigative reporter). I felt Ordway did a fine job with Superman’s characterization in this story.

That at last brings us to “Time and Time Again,” which kicks off in Adventures of Superman #476 written & penciled by Dan Jurgens and inked by Brett Breeding, with cover inks by Art Thibert. The mysterious time traveling Linear Man journeys to the 20th Century in an attempt to capture Jurgens’ creation Booster Gold and send him back to his proper time in the future. The Linear Man lures Booster to Metropolis, where Lois and Clark are again discussing their complicated feelings for each other. Clark is forced to leave when he sees the fight between Booster and the Linear Man. Interceding, Superman is accidentally sucked into a time portal. He ends up in the 30th Century, where he encounters Lighting Lad, Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl, the original line-up of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

It’s important to remember that this is the post-Crisis version of Superman. In this continuity, Clark never was Superboy, and he never met any of these characters before. So, this is Jurgens having Superman discover the original Legion for the first time.

Continued in Action Comics #663, Superman attempts to aid the Legion with handling a huge disaster, only for an explosion to once again hurl him into the timestream. This time, Superman finds himself back in 1943, where he joins a traveling circus. The circus eventually arrives in Metropolis, where Superman saves President Roosevelt from a Nazi assassin. Roosevelt suggests to Superman that he go to Washington to join the Justice Society of America. Realizing the JSA might be able to help him return to his own time, Superman goes to Washington DC. However, before he can ask the JSA for help, the supernatural Spectre intercedes, and transports Superman to Warsaw, Poland.

That leads to Superman #54, where Clark discovers that the Nazis have their own atomic research program. Here, writer & penciler Ordway does something clever. A few months earlier, in issue #51, our hero encountered the villainous Mister Z, who claimed that he had fought Superman fifty years earlier in Eastern Europe. Superman, of course had no idea what Z was talking about, but here we are, three issues later, and our time traveling hero encounters Z for the “first” time. Z is working with the Nazis to develop an atomic bomb. Superman is able to destroy the weapon, but the atomic explosion once again sends him into the timestream.

Adventures of Superman #477 returns Superman to the 30th Century, several years after he was previously there, and Jurgens now has Clark meet the 1970s line-up of the Legion. A new Sun Eater is menacing the galaxy. The Legion’s plan to destroy it with an Absorbatron Bomb fails, and it falls to Superman to lead the team and come up with a new strategy to defeat the apocalyptic menace. Superman’s plan works, but yet again a massive explosion hurls him out of time.

Moving over to Action Comics #664, Superman finds himself waaaay back in the Jurassic era, among the dinosaurs. (And artist Bob McLeod draws the heck out of those prehistoric creatures!) Realizing that he’s being moved through time by explosions, Superman ponders how he can possibly find one big enough millions of years in the past to send him back to the present. After weeks stranded in this era, an encounter with the time-displaced supervillain Chronos finally enables Superman to locate another explosion and escape forward into time.

Unfortunately, as we see in Superman #55, Clark ends up in England, during the mythical days of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. He gets caught in the middle of the long-running feud between the wizard Merlin and the evil sorceress Morgaine Le Fey, and encounters Jack Kirby’s Demon Etrigan. Once more an explosion propels Superman into time.

That, finally, brings us to the finale of “Time and Time Again” in Adventures of Superman #478. Jurgens has Superman meet the Legion a third time, and on this occasion it’s the dystopian “Five Years Later” version of the team. Superman learns that the Superboy of the “pocket universe” created by the Time Trapper fell in battle, and he mourns the loss of his other self. He then aids the Legion against the insane renegade Daxamite Dev-Em, who is terrorizing the Moon colonies of the 30th century. Then the Linear Man intercedes, at last sending Superman back to the present day, in a truly shocking act that had reverberations in the Legion’s own title.

I’m going to take a moment here to briefly touch upon the next issue, Action Comics #665. Back in 1991, Superman returns to Lois, for whom only a couple of hours have passed. Clark unburdens himself to her about his time traveling experiences, which from his perspective took place over a five month period. I feel this scene really demonstrated the importance of Clark revealing his secret identity to Lois. It made her a friend & confidant that he could share all of his experiences with. This issue is also the first Superman story penciled by Tom Grummett, who went on to have a long association with the character. He’s inked here by Jose Marzan Jr., another regular artistic presence during the Triangle Era.

I have to give credit to letterers John Costanza, Albert DeGuzman & Bill Oakley and colorist Glenn Whitmore, who worked on these issues. They each did a solid job.

So, yeah, this was definitely my era of Superman, and when I think of the character, it is usually the versions drawn by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway that come to mind. I really enjoyed revisiting these stories.

All of these issues, and a whole bunch of others, were recently collected together in the massive DC Finest: Superman: Time and Time Again trade paperback. It’s a really great collection, clocking in at almost 600 pages long. If you’re a fan of this period of the character, I definitely encourage you to pick it up. And I definitely hope that DC Comics continues to collect the Triangle Era in the DC Finest format.

Remembering comic book artist Charles Barnett III

I was very sorry to hear that artist Charles Barnett III had passed away on April 1st at the too young age of 65. Barnett worked in the comic book industry throughout the 1990s as an inker, and I was a fan of his work. He had a very Bronze Age (i.e. 1970s and early 1980s) sort of style to his inking that gave a very nice finish to the various pencilers he worked over. I guess I would sort of liken Barnett’s style to that of the legendary Joe Sinnott, who gave a very smooth polish to the various pencilers he was paired with.

I previously mentioned Captain America #423 on this blog, but I’m going to share the splash page from it again here. Roy Thomas penned a story that revealed the first encounter between Cap and Namor the Sub-Mariner during World War II, and it was very effectively illustrated by M.C. Wyman & Barnett. I enjoyed Barnett’s inking over Wyman, and their collaboration sort of resulted in a John Buscema-type of style. Over on Facebook, commenting on this issue, editor Mike Rockwitz said “I had fun working on this.”

Another occasion on which Wyman and Barnett were paired was Captain America Annual #12 in 1993, the cover of which is posed below. And, yes, Cap IS fighting against a man dressed as a rooster. This was the Summer in which both Marvel and DC, desperate to prove that they could create hot new characters without the recently-departed Image founders, pumped out a whole bunch of new creations in their Annuals. Of course, the majority of these characters soon vanished into obscurity. Among the more oddball concepts was the Battling Bantam. I feel like Wyman & Barnett did their best to bring to life such a crazy concept, and it’s a nice cover.

Barnett worked with classic Marvel artist Herb Trimpe on a few occasions. As I’ve explored before, in the 1990s Trimpe, in order to continue working, began drawing in a style that attempted to emulate the work of some of the then red-hot Image artists. The results were, unfortunately, sometimes exaggerated & confusing pages. However, I feel like when Barnett was paired with Trimpe, it helped to dampen down some of the rough edges of this new style. Barnett inked Trimpe on the first half of Avengers Annual #21 in 1992, and as seen below, it’s quite nice work.

Barnett also inked penciler Larry Alexander at Marvel. Now, truthfully, I always found Alexander’s work to be just too quiet for superhero comics. However, I really did like how he looked when inked by Barnett, who again gave it a very nice polish. The two were paired on a four part story featuring Code Blue, the NYPD special force designed to combat superpower menaces who were introduced by Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz in the pages of Thor. I don’t know if the Code Blue story was originally intended to run as its own miniseries, but it was published as a flip book in Thunderstrike #13-16 in 1994. It was written by Roy Thomas & Jean-Marc Lofficier. This scene from Thunderstrike #14 sees Thor fighting the Wrecker, and it’s very nicely illustrated.

In addition to his work at Marvel, Barnett also did inking for DC Comics. In 1994 he worked on a Star Trek: The Next Generation miniseries, and on Viper, a four issue miniseries based on the sci-fi action adventure TV series created by Danny Bilson & Paul De Meo. Looking at the Grand Comics Database, I see that Barnett also inked a number of issues of Elfquest for Warp Graphics.

I really wish Barnett’s career in comics had lasted longer, because I definitely enjoyed the work he did over various pencilers, giving them all a nicely polished, traditional look. Unfortunately, I imagine that as mainstream comics became more & more slick & stylized, the type of inking he specialized in probably fell out of favor with editors & publishers.

I was fortunate enough to meet Barnett on several occasions at comic cons. He always came across as a good, friendly person. I obtained a few con sketches from him. The best of these was a really nice Batman he drew for me, which you can see above.

My condolences to Charles Barnett III’s family and friends for their loss. Speaking of a fan of his work, I can say that he will definitely be missed.

My upcoming article on Love and Rockets in Back Issue #166

I’m really happy to announce that another article I wrote is going to be published. “Maggie and Hopey: Anatomy of a Friendship” examines the long, complicated relationship between the two main characters in Jaime Hernandez’s acclaimed Locas stories from the pages of Love and Rockets from Fantagraphics. The article will be appearing in Back Issue #166 from TwoMorrows Publishing.

Here are the details about Back Issue #166:

In Back Issue #166, it’s time to Partner Up! Whether it’s teammates, friends, employer/employee, sidekicks, or significant others, we look at the partnerships between Superman and Lois Lane, Love and Rockets’ Maggie and Hopey, Batman and Alfred, Milk and Cheese, and others. Plus, behind-the-scenes with Rick Veitch’s Brat Pack. Featuring the work of Jerry Ordway, Dan Jurgens, Marv Wolfman, Jaime Hernandez, Rick Veitch, Bill Mantlo, Doug Moench, Evan Dorkin, Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom, and others. Clark Kent and Lois Lane cover by John Byrne and Terry Austin. Edited by Roger Ash.

This is going to be my third piece published in Back Issue. I previously had articles appear in BI #104 and #141.

Back Issue #166 will be shipping to stores on March 18th. If you cannot locate a copy at your local comic shop, it is available for purchase directly from TwoMorrows Publishing via the following link:

https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1887

Thanks, everyone, for your support.

Ninety Years of The Phantom

The newspaper adventure strip The Phantom is 90 years old this month. Created by Lee Falk, who had also created Mandrake the Magician two years earlier, The Phantom made its debut on February 17, 1936.

What is The Phantom about? Well, in the words of Falk himself, for those who came in late…

In the year 1536, the English ship Matilda was traveling through the Indian Ocean when it was beset by pirates from the notorious Singh Brotherhood. Captain Christopher Walker and his crew fought valiantly, but they were overwhelmed by the marauders. The entire crew was slain, save for the Captain’s teenage son Kit, who was cast out to sea. Young Kit Walker washed up on the shores of the African nation of Bangalla. He was discovered by a tribe of pygmies known as the Bandar, who nursed him back to health.

Later, returning to the beach where he was found by the Bandar, Kit discovers the corpse of the Singh pirate captain who attacked Matilda. Grasping the skull of the dead pirate, Kit swore an oath upon it:

“I swear to devote my life to the destruction of all forms of piracy, greed, cruelty and injustice. My sons, and my sons’ sons, shall follow me.”

Donning a skintight costume & mask, Kit became the first Phantom. When he eventually died fighting against crime & injustice, his son took his place as the second Phantom, and so on down through the ages. In the present day the current Kit Walker is the 21st Phantom, continuing his family’s crusade against evil. Because the Phantom seemingly never ages throughout the decades, he becomes known as “The Ghost Who Walks” and “The Man Who Cannot Die.”

The origin of the Phantom, retold by DePaul & Manley on February 7, 2025

The 21st Phantom is aided in his quest for justice by a number of individuals: the Bandar tribe, who to the present day have served to train & guide the Walker family, his girlfriend, and later wife, Diana Palmer, a world class athlete, their two children, Kit and Heloise, who are preparing for the day when they will follow in their father’s footsteps, Bangalla’s law enforcement agency the Jungle Patrol, and last but not least, Devil and Hero, a wolf and a white stallion, respectively, who often accompany the Phantom on his missions.

I think that Falk conceived an absolutely brilliant setup for The Phantom. Not only could he tell the adventures of the current Phantom in the present day, but the fact that the character was a legacy hero meant that there were 20 previous versions of the hero whose stories could also be explored in a variety of historical settings. There have even been a few stories that have flashed forward to the future, looking at the exploits of the current Phantom’s descendents.

I first discovered The Phantom courtesy of the 1996 movie adaptation, which starred Billy Zane, Patrick McGoohan, Kirsty Swanson, Treat Williams and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I didn’t see The Phantom movie in the theater, but I bought it on VHS tape in 1999, and I found it to be really fun & enjoyable. I subsequently picked up several of The Phantom graphic novels published by Moonstone Books in the early 2000s, which I also enjoyed. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the movie had been extremely faithful to the source material.

The Phantom newspaper strip continues to be published in the United States to this day. However, it is outside of America that The Phantom’s real following lies. It is extremely popular in countries such as Sweden and Australia.

Here in the States, the current writer of The Phantom is Tony DePaul, who took over the strip in 1999 following the death of Falk. The daily strips are drawn by comic book veteran Mike Manley, and the Sunday strip is drawn by Jeff Weigel. The Phantom strip can be read on the Comics Kingdom website, which is where I have been following it for a number of years now.

If you have not read The Phantom before, I encourage you to give it a try. It’s a really exciting, action-packed series, one of the few remaining newspaper adventure strips in the 21st Century. Here’s hoping for many more years of The Ghost Who Walks.

Sal Buscema: 1936 to 2026

I was very sorry to hear that longtime comic book artist Sal Buscema had passed away on January 24th, just two days short of his 90th birthday. As I have written on several occasions on this blog, “Our Pal Sal,” as he was affectionately referred to by his fans, was one of my all-time favorite comic book creators.

Sal Buscema was born on January 26, 1936 in New York City. Sal was the younger brother of acclaimed comic book artist John Buscema. Enduring some harsh yet undoubtedly effective critiques from big brother John, Sal entered the comic book field in 1968, working for Marvel Comics, where he would remain for the majority of his career.

Buscema initially intended to focus on inking as his speciality, and among his earliest jobs was embellishing the pencils of his brother on the Silver Surfer series for several issues. However, Buscema soon transitioned into penciling, replacing his brother as the artist on Avengers in 1969. Avengers was undoubtedly a baptism of fire for Buscema, as it was a team book with multiple characters, requiring clear storytelling so that the action was not confused or cluttered. Buscema immediately rose to the occasion, turning in dynamic pages that were easy to read, a quality that would remain a hallmark of his for the entirety of his career.

Throughout the next three decades Buscema had lengthy runs on a number of Marvel titles, among them Captain America, Defenders, Incredible Hulk, Rom Spaceknight and Spectacular Spider-Man. Buscema was also called upon to provide fill-ins for numerous late books during the 1970s. Described as a workhorse, he never missed a deadline.

As I’ve previously recounted, it was via his work on Incredible Hulk that my seven-year-old self first discovered Buscema’s work in 1983, and I immediately became a fan. His pencils on Incredible Hulk #285 were powerful and dynamic, making a huge impression on my young mind.

I did not really get into comic books regularly until 1989, when I was 13 years old. By that point in time Buscema was doing full artwork, pencils & inks, on Spectacular Spider-Man. Paired up first with writer Gerry Conway and then with J.M. DeMatteis, Buscema did some of the very best work of his career on Spectacular, and it was a title that I followed regularly.

DeMatteis’ writing on Spectacular Spider-Man culminated in the epic issue #200 (May 1993) which saw the tragic death of Peter Parker’s longtime friend Harry Osborn at the end of the issue. DeMatteis was so impressed by the power of Buscema’s artwork & storytelling that he chose to have the two pages appear completely dialogue-free, allowing Buscema’s pictures to carry the emotional scene all on their own. I cannot think of a greater testament to Buscema’s work than that.

As the 1990s rolled around, I frequently attended comic cons, and I was able to pick up a lot of Buscema’s earlier work on Captain America and Rom Spaceknight, two other titles on which he had excelled.

After the comic book market crashed in the mid-1990s and Marvel filed for bankruptcy, Buscema went to work for DC Comics for a few years, working on a variety of titles there. On some he was providing layouts for up-and-coming artists, on others he was doing inking, and on a few stories he did full artwork. The jobs where Buscema got to illustrate Batman were, in my opinion, especially good. One of my favorites was “The Prison” in The Batman Chronicles #8 (Spring 1997) which was penciled by Buscema and written & inked by John Stanisci.

Entering the 21st Century, Buscema mostly retired from penciling, concentrating mostly on inking. He was paired with penciler Ron Frenz on a lengthy run of Spider-Girl at Marvel, among other projects.

Buscema also worked frequently with artist Guy Dorian Sr. on a variety of books. These included a short return to Rom Spaceknight, which was now being published by IDW. The work of Dorian & Buscema on Rom for IDW was definitely of a high quality, and they made an effective art team. The two continued to work together right up until Buscema’s passing.

I was fortunate enough to meet Buscema on a couple of occasions. I used to have a few pages of artwork that he did, but I regrettably had to sell them years ago to pay the bills. But I am happy that I still have the two convention sketches that I obtained from him. One was of the Green Goblin, and it can be viewed in my Spider-Man sketches blog post. The other sketch is of Captain America, and it can be seen below.

As I’ve written before, for an extremely in-depth look at Sal Buscema’s career, I highly recommend picking up the excellent book Sal Buscema: Comics’ Fast & Furious Artist, written by Jim Amash & Eric Nolen-Weathington, from TwoMorrows Publishing. The print edition is unfortunately sold out, but it is still available digitally.

In a career that lasted nearly six decades, Sal Buscema produced a huge and, more important, highly impressive body of work. I regard him as one of the finest craftsmen in mainstream comic books. In certain respects he was underrated, as he was one of those good, solid, reliable artists who the industry was heavily dependent upon for many decades. I’ll always be a fan of his work.

Comic book reviews: Absolute Batman Annual #1

I have not previously been following the new Absolute Batman series from DC Comics, set in an alternate reality in which Bruce Wayne / Batman is a working-class vigilante. However, the series has been wildly popular, and I may have to rectify that oversight soon.

My attention was first drawn to Absolute Batman with the publication of the Absolute Batman Annual #1, which came out in October of last year. Artwork from it circulated on social media, which showed Batman fighting against a gang of white supremacists. This predictably triggered some right-wing trolls, but the majority of the opinions I saw online were cheering this on. I wanted to pick up the Annual, but it seems that it immediately sold out everywhere.

I had to wait until this week to finally read the Annual, when DC released a second printing. The reissue is topped with a brand-new cover by writer / artist Daniel Warren Johnson, which depicts Batman wielding a flamethrower.

Now, it really shows how out of the loop I am that I was previously unfamiliar with Johnson’s work. It seems he worked on a well-regarded Transformers comic book series recently, and has received a fair amount of acclaim.

Johnson’s untitled story for the Annual features coloring by Mikes Spicer and letters by Clayton Cowl.

The story opens with Bruce Wayne outside of Gotham City, on the outskirts of Slaughter Swamp. Near the Swamp is a camp of day laborers who have been living there with their families ever since a massive construction project unexpectedly shut down. Bruce is in the process of buying weapons for his Batman identity when he witnesses a gang of masked men beating up a Hispanic mother & son. Bruce leaps in to try to save him, but is ambushed from behind by the man from whom he was purchasing his equipment. He is only saved by the intervention of Father Peters, a priest who has been working to help the laborers.

Peters mends Bruce’s wounds, and the priest informs him how the hate movement sprung up…

“Six months ago, we had an outsider come, recruiting. I don’t know much about him, except that he’s been filling the holes in the hearts of our boys. Of all the men here, really. He’s given them a dark place to go.”

Peters tells Bruce that the hate group plans to attack the encampment that night. Bruce prepares to leave so he can suit up as Batman. As he tells Peters…

“Sometimes peace isn’t an option. Sometimes words don’t work.”

The hate group, aided by the local police, mask up and attack the camp. Batman then arrives and engages in a brutal fight with the white supremacists. Peters tries to stop Batman, telling him his actions won’t make anything better, but the vigilante angrily rebuffs the priest. Batman pursues the hate group to their headquarters, which he burns down with a flamethrower.

In the aftermath, Peters treats the wounded hatemongers, and when Batman asks him why, the priest responds “You have your way. And I have mine.”

The battle over, Batman begins to think back to his father, who was a peaceful, compassionate man. Feeling that he has failed to live up to the example set by his father, Batman is overcome by grief.

Johnson’s story is definitely a very timely, topical one. The United States is currently in a very dark place. The Trump Administration is absolutely a fascist, white supremacist movement that has trampled upon the Constitution. ICE is abducting & brutalizing people, and now is even outright committing murder. With these horrors in mind, there is definitely a cathartic value to seeing Batman beating up a gang of racist thugs.

At the same time, though, Johnson’s story also poses the question, does violence accomplish anything? Can white supremacy really be defeated by punching it out? It’s certainly tempting to want to fight back against racists, because all of the non-violent protests of the last year have sometimes felt like exercises in futility. But will fists or guns really solve any of these problems, either? It’s a very frustrating time, because there are no quick, easy answers to this grave crisis that threatens to erode the country from within.

I have to give credit to Johnson here. Most superhero stories are predicated on the notion that violence DOES solve everything. It’s rare to see a high-profile story like this Annual that argues that dressing up in a costume & beating up the bad guys is a simplistic attempt at solving complex, pervasive societal issues.

Absolute Batman Annual #1 also contains back-up stories by James Harren and Meredith McClaren. I guess I liked both of their efforts well enough. I just get the feeling that I would have enjoyed “Sanctuary” and “Let’s Learn About Bats!” more if I was familiar with the ongoing Absolute Batman series. Having enjoyed this Annual, I’ll probably pick up the trade paperback collection of the first six issues in the near future.

Atomic Action from Christopher Mills

As I previously mentioned on this blog, back in October comic book writer & editor Christopher Mills passed away aged 60. I was definitely a fan of his work, and I wanted to take a look at his recent self-published projects that he released under the Atomic Pulp banner.

Beginning in 2018 Mills worked with a number of talented artists on the “Atomic Action” line of adventure comic books starring a number of Golden Age characters who had fallen into the public domain comics characters. Mills and his artistic collaborators updated these characters for a series of adventures that were inspired by the Bronze Age comics of the 1970s that Mills grew up reading.

In 2019 Mills released Sleuth Comics #1 and Space Crusaders #1 and 2, followed by Savage Sagas #1 in 2020. These issues featured the characters Black Owl, Rex Dexter of Mars, Lance Lewis: Space Detective, Spacehawk, the Mighty Crom and Cave Girl, and they contained stunning artwork by Don Secrease, Rick Burchett, Peter Grau, Nik Poliwko and Neil Vokes, with coloring by Matt Webb.

Mills had extensive plans for additional books to be released under the Atomic Pulp imprint. Regrettably, his health then seriously declined over the next few years, and he was unable to work on them. Finally, in September, just a month before his passing, Mills was able to complete Sleuth Comics #2, which quickly came available on the Indy Planet website. Although he still died with several uncompleted books on his hands, prior to his passing Mills expressed deep satisfaction that he was at least able to get one more book out of the gate while he was still among the living.

Sleuth Comics #2 features the Black Owl teaming up with a new incarnation of Ms. Fury against the menaces of Moonshot and the Green Mummy, in a story penciled by Shane White and drawn by Mark Stegbauer. Sleuth Comics also contains a short back-up tale of Green Giant and Zip-Jet drawn by JW Erwin.

All five of the Atomic Action books are available through Indy Planet, with each issue having three variant covers. Indy Planet also carries several other of Mills’ projects. I highly recommend ordering these books. Christopher Mills is sadly no longer with us, but he left behind some really enjoyable, entertaining comic books.

Comic book reviews: Batman / Deadpool

Having previously taken a look at the Marvel half of the first intercompany crossover between the Big Two in over two decades, I wanted to take a brief look at DC’s contribution. Marvel’s encounter between Deadpool and Batman was relatively straightforward superhero action… well, as straightforward as any story involving Deadpool can be. In contrast, DC / Marvel: Batman / Deadpool is a decidedly unconventional tale.

“The Cosmic Kiss Caper!” is written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Dan Mora, colored by Alejandro Sanchez, lettered by Todd Klein and edited by Marie Javins with Andrew Marino. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I first discovered Morrison’s work on Doom Patrol in the early 1990s, where they collaborated with penciler Richard Case. Morrison & Case crafted some remarkably bizarre stories on Doom Patrol, and Morrison returns to that sort of surreal cosmic weirdness in the Batman / Deadpool special.

Prior to Doom Patrol, Morrison wrote an acclaimed run on Animal Man. I have not read those stories, but I am aware of how the run ended, with Morrison breaking the fourth wall and having Buddy Baker meeting an author insert for Morrison himself. As Deadpool is notorious for his own fourth wall breaking shenanigans, it makes sense for Morrison to bring back the Writer in “The Cosmic Kiss Caper!”

For the story’s antagonist, Morrison utilizes Cassandra Nova from their New X-Men run. I will admit, I did find Nova’s appearance a bit abrupt & confusing, and I got the impression that Morrison is acting under the assumption that readers are going to know who she is. It might have been a good idea for Morrison to have provided at least a little bit of backstory for the character. But other than that, I did find this crossover tale to be an interesting & intriguing read.

There are several back-up stories in Batman / Deadpool, and I have the same criticism that I had for the Marvel half of this event, namely that most of these stories are just too short, and in a few cases I wished they had been their own separate publications.

That is definitely exemplified in the meeting between John Constantine and Doctor Strange. “A Magician Walks Into A Universe” could have been its own separate book, but instead we get a mere 10 pages pairing up these two drastically different sorcerers. It’s a bit surprising that it took three different writers, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV & Joshua Williamson, to pen such a short tale. At least the artwork by Hayden Sherman and colors by Mike Spicer are really well done. Lettering is by Frank Cvetkovic.

Probably the most satisfying of the supporting features was “Sticks & Snikts,” a team-up between Nightwing and Laura Kinney / Wolverine. It’s a nice little tale of two characters who have found themselves having very big shoes to fill finding common ground with each other. It’s written by Tom Taylor, drawn by Bruno Redondo, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Wes Abbott. I am not familiar with Redondo’s work, but I definitely liked his art here.

There’s a very short, comical Harley Quinn and Hulk tale by writer Mariko Tamaki, artist Amanda Conner, colorist Tamara Bonvillain and letterer Dave Sharpe. It’s a slight bit of humor, mostly silly. At a mere five pages, it’s probably just the right length. Conner’s artwork is always cute & fun, so it was nice to see it here.

Finally, we have a Static and Ms. Marvel story rounding out the issue. Also five pages long, this one was waaaaay too short. I really wanted to see these two characters interact more. It’s written by G. Willow Wilson, penciled by Denys Cowan, inked by Klaus Janson, colored by Francesco Segala and lettered by Steve Wands. At least Cowan & Janson do their usual stellar work on this segment, but I really was left wanting more.

So, I would not call Batman / Deadpool an unqualified success, due to the slight, underwhelming feel that some of the supporting features had. Nevertheless, it was a fun issue, and it was cool to see these various characters from the DC and Marvel universes meet. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 20 years for the next crossover between the Big Two.

It Came from the 1990s: Vampirella / Wetworks

Halloween is right around the corner, so in this edition of It Came from the 1990s we’re going to be taking a look at a spooky intercompany crossover that was published in the Summer of 1997. Harris Comics and the WildStorm imprint of Image Comics joined forces to produce two specials that saw Vampirella team up with Wetworks.

Vampirella is, of course, the sexy female vampire who protects humanity from her fellow bloodsucking fiends. She made her debut in 1969 in the first issue of her self-titled black & white comic book magazine from Warren Publishing. By the 1990s, Vampirella was being published by Harris Comics, who had acquired the character following Warren’s bankruptcy in 1983. Harris published numerous Vampirella titles between 1991 and 2007.

Wetworks is the creation of artist Whilce Portacio and writer Brandon Choi. A covert operations squad sent out on a suicide mission in Eastern Europe, the members of Wetworks found themselves fighting against vampires. In the midst of a fierce battle they came across a set of mysterious golden liquid metal-like symbiotes stored in class cylinders. The members of Wetworks donned the symbiotes to protect themselves. Remaining together after this mission, the team continued to fight against vampires and other supernatural menaces.

So, you have Vampirella and Wetworks, both of whom in the mid-1990s were hot comic book properties, regularly battling against the undead. It’s actually a fairly clever idea to team these two up in a pair of stories.

The cover to Vampirella / Wetworks from Harris, as seen up top, features artwork by Michael Bair, an illustrator who definitely specializes in rendering sexy women. That’s certainly on display here, as he renders Vampi in an even skimpier than usual outfit. I’m actually rather fond of Bair’s work. I don’t think I’ve seen anything new from him in the past couple of decades. I wonder what happened to him.

“Soul of Blood” is written by Steven Grant, penciled by Sean Shaw, inked by Gary Martin, lettered by Hugh Monhan, and colored by Haberlin Studios, Dan Kemp & Pat Duke.

Grant is best known for his work on the groundbreaking Punisher: Circle of Blood miniseries in the mid-1980s, and has also written such series as Challengers of the Unknown, Manhunter, X-Man and I-BOTS. I would definitely say that I’m a fan of his work.

On the other hand, I am totally unfamiliar with Shaw. I don’t think I’ve ever seen his work before. That said, I feel he did a good job on the Vampirella / Wetworks book, turning in some exciting pencils with clear storytelling.

In the small Caribbean nation of Isla De Lloron, the poor populace are being preyed upon by a vampire cult. Vampirella and the Wetworks team arrive separately to combat the plague. Unfortunately, Wetworks does not know who Vampirella is, and they take her for another evil vampire, resulting in a misunderstanding fight.

Vampirella discovers the location of the vampire cult’s lair, and Wetworks tracks her there. Fighting the vampires, they learn that the cult worships the Blood Red Queen of Hearts, an evil sorceress who originally appeared in the Warren issues of the Vampirella series. This is her first appearance in the Harris Comics era.

The Queen’s soul is, appropriately enough, trapped in a playing card, but it gets free and possesses the body of Wetworks cyborg Mother One. The Queen seeks to use Mother One’s technology to endlessly replicate the playing card that contains her soul, so that she can go on to possess the bodies of every woman on Earth. To free Mother One, Vampirella offers to let the Queen take possession of her body, which causes Wetworks to realize that Vampi is not evil. Fortunately, Mother One is finally able to use her technology to drive the Queen out of her body, and the rest of Wetworks destroy all of the playing cards, seemingly ending the threat of the Queen.

I was curious if Grant had any memories of working on this crossover, so I asked him on Facebook, but he admitted that he didn’t remember much. As he told me:

“I seem to recall it was kind of a rush job, which happened a lot back then, as marketing departments were often calling the shots on these projects without consulting editorial offices on the niceties of things like, oh, scheduling…”

A month later, the Wetworks / Vampirella special came out from WildStorm & Image Comics. The most notable aspect of this book for me was that legendary comic book artist Gil Kane (Green Lantern, Warlock, Blackmark) penciled the cover. I was really curious as to how Kane came to illustrate it, and I asked editor Mike Rockwitz if he knew, but Rockwitz’s memories of this project, like Grant’s, were extremely fuzzy, and he couldn’t recall the specifics, suggesting that perhaps Mike Heisler or Jim Lee reached out to Kane. Whatever the case, it’s definitely distinctive. I believe it’s the only time Kane ever drew Vampirella.

Wetworks / Vampirella is written by Jeff Mariotte, penciled by Anthony Winn, inked by Richard Bennett, lettered by Amie Grenier and colored by Nathan Lumm & WildStorm FX.

Marriott was a regular fixture of the WildStorm universe, writing several of their titles, among them Backlash, Gen 13 and WildC.A.T.s Adventures. Winn also worked on several books for Image in the 1990s, including Brigade and Ripclaw, and he later penciled Star Wars for Dark Horse. His work was definitely inspired by guys such as Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, very big & hyper-detailed, but he was still a solid artist, with good storytelling abilities.

Wetworks / Vampirella opens with Vampi tracking down yet another vampire cult (there’s always another one, isn’t there?) this time in California. Unfortunately for Vampirella, she hasn’t had any blood to drink in several days, and the weakened femme fatale is captured by the undead minions of Baron Chase.

Meanwhile, LAPD Detective Ted Randall is attempting to locate his missing niece Kristin, who has run away from home. Randall discovers that Kristin has joined Baron Chase’s cult, but he is captured and bitten by one of Chase’s vampire minions. Escaping, Randall meets up with Wetworks, who are in the middle of fighting some robots. Randall was formerly involved with Wetworks member Maritza Blackbird aka Pilgrim, and he tells her team about the vampire cult.

Randall leads Wetworks to Chase, but the vampire forces the team to surrender by holding a group of teenagers, including Kristen, hostage. Chase reveals his plan to become leader of the Vampire Nation by infecting Los Angeles with a virus that will turn the entire population of the city into vampires.

Fortunately, Vampirella gets free and provides a distraction, enabling Wetworks to retrieve their weapons. Vampi flies after the airplane that is going to drop the vampire virus on LA and manages to crash in before it can be released. Wetworks kills Chase. Sadly, Randall, who does not want to go on existing as a vampire, asks Pilgrim to stake him through the heart.

The two books in this crossover were pretty fun. Looking at these now, I really feel like they epitomize some of the trends that were prevalent in mainstream American comic books during the 1990s. This is definitely a case of Bad Girls meeting Big Guns.

I do think that perhaps a concession should have been made to newer readers. I mean, pretty much everyone knows who Vampirella is, and Grant’s script for the first book makes it clear that she is on a mission to redeem her mother by wiping out vampires. But both books pretty much assume that the reader will be familiar with Wetworks. I’ve only read a handful of issues of their series, so I feel that Grant and Mariotte could both have included at least a little backstory about who these characters are supposed to be.

This is one of those crossovers that is probably not going to be reprinted anytime soon. Dynamite Entertainment now has the rights to Vampirella. As for Wetworks, they were part of the sale of WildStorm to DC Comics in 1998, so if Dynamite wanted to reissue these books they’d need to get DC’s permission to do so. Fortunately, both comics in this crossover can still be found at close to the original cover price, so if you feel like getting these books they’re fairly affordable.

Comic book reviews: Femme Noir

I was very sorry to hear that comic book writer & editor Christopher Mills had passed away on October 13th at the age of 60 after a lengthy illness. Mills worked on a number of independent titles over the past 35 years. I have always been a fan of his work.

Probably my favorite project by Mills was Femme Noir, which he created with legendary artist Joe Staton (E-Man, Green Lantern, The Huntress, Scooby Doo). An enjoyably atmospheric mystery & adventure series, Femme Noir featured the mysterious trenchcoat & fedora-clad, pistol-packing female sleuth known only as “The Blonde” who fought crime & solved mysteries in the dark city of Port Nocturne.

Femme Noir was inked by Horacio Ottolini & Mark Stegbauer and colored by Melissa Kaercher, Matt Webb & Michael Watkins.

There was a four issue Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries miniseries published in 2008 and a couple of short stories, “Night in the Life” and “The Dingus” and, unfortunately, I believe that was it. I really wish Mills & Staton could have done many more Femme Noir comic books, it was such a great series.

Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries and the two short stories were collected together in 2009 in a trade paperback published by Ape Entertainment. Re-reading it following Mills’ passing, I once again enjoyed the fine work he and Staton had done on it.

Staton, in a lengthy career that has lasted more than half a century, has drawn thousands of comic books. It is worth noting that Staton is especially fond of “Killer in Steel” from Femme Noir #3, describing the story on Facebook in December 2022 as “one of the best things I ever did.”

In the first issue of Femme Noir, it is told to the readers that The Blonde might be one of three women: mob princess Vanessa DeMilo, sexy nightclub singer Dahlia Blue, or intrepid reporter Laurel Lye. Mills never did reveal the true identity of The Blonde. I was friends with him on Facebook, and a few years ago I told him about my own crazy theory for her secret ID, namely that I thought all three women were The Blonde, and that they took turns donning the blonde “pastry curl” wig & going out to fight crime. Mills merely replied to my supposition with a smiley face emoji. I suppose now we’ll never know one way or another.

One of the occasions that I met Staton was when he was doing a store signing for Free Comic Book Day in 2011. He was drawing quick head sketches for fans, and I asked him for a drawing of The Blonde from Femme Noir, a request he was happy to fulfill. Here’s the piece he did for me:

All four of the Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries issues are still available for purchase online at the Indy Planet website, along with a number of Mills’ other creator-owned books. Here is the link. I encourage everyone to order some of the great comic books he worked on.