Looking Back at 2015

Here are the comic books that I read in 2015. Some links provided although they might link to more than just the stories listed below. Use the search box on the righthand side of the screen to search this blog.

• All-Star Squadron 27-30
• Alpha Flight (1983) 13-16
• Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld Preview
• in Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) 298
• Amiculus: Roma Aeterna
• Bandthology II
• Battlefields: Happy Valley 1-3
• Breath of Bones: A Tale of the Golem
• Cinnamon: El Ciclo 1-3
• Copra 1-6
• Crogan's Loyalty
• Daredevil: The Man without Fear (1993) 1-5
• Demon (1987) 1-4
• Dober-Man 1
• Empire (2000) 1-2
• Empire (2003) 1-6
• Exterminators (2006) 11-16
• G.I. Combat 257
• Hard Time: Season Two 1-7
• Heart-Shaped Hole
• Hello Cruel World
• Hip-Hop Family Tree 2-in-1
• Hourman (1999) 18-25
• Jack Hammer: Political Science
• Jonah Hex (2006) 13-15, 27, 32,  33, 37, 54, 59, 61, 63
• Knight of Sidonia Vol. 1
• Kurt Busiek's Astro City (1995) 1
• Legion of Super-Heroes 284-290, Annual 1
• Little Guardians: The Zucchini Festival
• Love and Rockets: Maggie the Mechanic
• Low Concept: 11 O'clock Comics Forum Anthology
• Marvel Two-in-One 50, 100
• Namor, the Sub-Mariner (1991) 13-18
• New Teen Titans (1980) 37
• Ōoku Vol. 7, 8
• Pigs (2011) 1
• The Private Eye 1
• Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter
• Robotman from Star Spangled Comics 47
• Samurai Jack (2014) 1-10
• Scalped 35-42
• Sgt. Fury 1, 2
• She Died in Terrebonne: A Sam Kimimura Mystery
• Speculative Relationships
• Star Spangled Comics 47 (Robotman)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Modala Imperative 2-4
• Superman Adventures 1, 3, 7-9, 11, 12
• Superman Annual 11
• Tarzan 207-214
• Terra 1-4
• Unknown Soldier 266
• Varmints 3
• Yotsuba&! Vol. 7

Batman

• Batman Adventures 12
• Batman Adventures: Mad Love
• Batman and the Outsiders 5
• Legends of the Dark Knight 32-34: Blades
• Legends of the Dark Knight 55-57: Watchtower
• Legends of the Dark Knight Annual 7
• Shadow of the Batman 1-2
• which reprints Batman stories from Detective Comics 469-472
• also reprints 
• Hell Park from House of Mystery 274
• A Canterbury Tail from Weird War Tales 51

Captain America

• Tales of Suspense 78
• Tales of Suspense 92-94
• Tales of Suspense 97-99

Fantastic Four

• Fantastic Four 489
• Books of Doom 1-6
  

Iron Man

• Tales of Suspense (1959) 97-99
• Iron Man and Sub-Mariner 1
• Iron Man (1968) 1
• Iron Man (1968) 95-99
• Iron Man: The Iron Age 1-2
  

The Lou Fine Comics Treasury

• Wilton of the West
• The Flame (7/15) from Wonderworld Comics 11
• The Doll Man from Feature Comics 32
• The Black Condor from Crack Comics 6
• The Ray from Smash Comics 20
• Uncle Sam: The Hollywood Invasion Plot from National Comics 16
• The Black Condor from Crack Comics 18
• Hack O'Hara from Smash Comics 23
• Stormy Foster from Hit Comics 22

Power Girl

• Showcase 98-99
• Secret Origins (1986) 11: Ancient Histories
• JSA Classified (2005) 1-4: Power Trip
• Power Girl (2009) 1-12

X-Men

• Uncanny X-Men 148-150
• Avengers Annual 10

Detective Comics 472

Detective Comics 472
Sep 1977

I Am the Batman!
by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, Terry Austin

- Hugo Strange take over the identity of Bruce/Batman
- Alfred captured, thrown in with a drugged Bruce Wayne
- Silver visits "Bruce"; unsatisfied she goes to Grey Towers, and then calls Dick Grayson
- Robin investigates the weird behavior of Bruce Wayne
- Strange tries to sell the secret identity of Batman to the highest bidder
- Rupert Thorne sidesteps the bidding; kills Strange
- Robin finds Alfred and Bruce at Grey Towers and breaks them out

Detective Comics 471

Detective Comics 471

Aug 1977

The Dead Yet Live

by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, Terry Austin

- Batman still suffering from the effects of Dr. Phosphorus

- Bruce Wayne checks into Gray Towers (exclusive clinic)

- - Dr. Tophunter, Magda, monster men

- - Prof. Hugo Strange

- - secret identity revealed

- not so much the story as the way it is told

- - visually

- - - splash pages (1,8)

- - - waking up (17)

- planting seeds of things to come

- akin to Claremont's early work on Uncanny X-Men

- - similar look, same inker 

- Silver St. Cloud

- Rupert Thorne

Hugo Strange
- 4th overall appearance; 1st since 1940 (37 years)
- - Detective 36 (Feb 1940)
- - Batman 1 (Spr 1940)
- - Detective 46 (Dec 1940)
- not a ton of appearances over the years

Detective Comics 469, 470

- Detective Comics 469: By Death's Eerie Light
- Detective Comics 470: The Master Plan of Dr. Dr. Phosphorus
- by Steve Englehart and Walt Simonson and Al Milgrom
- lackluster, villain not very interesting; monster who used to be human and wants revenge
- Chief O'Hara - rare appearance
- Silver St. Cloud - 1st appearance
- see Batman detectiving, see his new digs (in downtown Gotham)

Legion of Super-Heroes 290

Legion of Super-Heroes 290

Aug 1982

And the Servant Shall Be a Sign…

by Paul Levitz (writer), Keith Giffen and Larry Mahlstedt (artists)

- Chapter One of The Great Darkness Saga

- Welcome to the Most Chilling Legion Epic in Years

- Big bad gut sends his servants to steal items of power, the Legion does their best to thwart these attempts

⁃ Cosmic Boy, Superboy, Wildfire, Phantom Girl, Invisible Kid

- - Museum of the Mystic Arts (once known as “The Magic Castle”) in Mega California
- - Antonio Stefanacci, curator, looks a little like Dr. Strange
- - Wand of Mentachen - power over elements in their natural state
- - Servant of Darkness - cape, triangle, Superman like powers; Phantom Girl phases through him,

passes out; escapes with the wand

⁃ London, Tower of; Excalibur

- - Eggheaded servant of Darkness; escapes with the sword (no stone 😕)

⁃ Talok VIII (homeworld of Shadow Lass)

- - Institute of Parapsychological Phenomena
- - Orb of Orthanax
- - Two Servants of Darkness, one female, one male
- - - male - on a space glider; escapes with the orb
- - - female - captured by the Legion

⁃ Legion HQ

- - tourists; Oli-3 Queen tours
- - Timber Wolf, Chameleon Boy arguing over the past
- - Timber Wolf, Saturn Girl
- - Timber Wolf, Element Lad

⁃ Legion HQ

- - Element Lad, Dream Girl, Ultra Boy announce they are all running for team leader
- - Marte Allon (President of the United Planets, mother of Colossal Boy) announces that Chameleon Boy’s trial, treason, will begin tomorrow
- - Superboy and friends return with the female servant

⁃ Scenes of the Lord of Darkness (my name for him)

⁃ Grychnik’s Earth on Five Mega Credits a Cycle (no idea?)

⁃ Orb of Orthanax - ?

⁃ Artwork as always spectacular - love the look of the servants

- - aliens - was that a Thanagarian?
- - page 8, flying over London
- - page 13, alien doctor - look and facial expressions
- - panel layouts, near and far shots

⁃ Who are the servants? Dark versions of heroes? Superman? Orion? I can’t recall

⁃ Fatal Five - 2nd story started in Adventure Comics 365 also first appearance of Shadow Lass

12/12/15

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual 1

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual 1

1982

Monster in a Little Girl's Mind

by Paul Levitz (writer), Keith Giffen (penciler/co-plotter), Bruce Patterson (ink artist)

- 41 pages: 39 pages of story, 2 page diagram of LSH HQ which is ruined in the Kindle version

- in a nutshell: Computo takes over Legion HQ and almost kills the Legionnaires trapped inside

- how it all begins: Jacques Fouccart has brought his little sister, Danielle, to the legion. She has a rare disease. While trying to cure Danielle, Brainiac 5 inadvertently releases Computo, who takes over Danielle's body and Legion HQ.

- the story is made up of lots of little stories of the Legionnaires fighting back against the machines that run their HQ

- the annual opens with the arrival of Science Police Officer Shvaughn Erin at Legion HQ; she's the new liason officer; meets Element Lad; he gives her the tour which ends abruptly on page 5 when Computo arrives on the scene

- SE's updates as a framing device pp 6-38

- p 6 - Cosmic Boy

⁃ p 7 - Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad

⁃ p 8 - Star Boy and Sun Boy; D+D

⁃ p 9 - Computo Lives (Medical Center)

⁃ p 10 - Science Police Central

⁃ p 11 - Bouncing Boy & Duo Damsel

⁃ p 12 - Element Lad, Shvaughn Erin, Shadow Lass - Life Support Malfunctioning 

⁃ p 13 - Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet

⁃ p 14 - Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Colossal Boy

⁃ p 15 - Medical Center: Brainiac 5, Jacques F, Computo

⁃ p 16 - Timber Wolf, Blok in gym

⁃ p 17 - Science Police central: President Marte Allon (CB’s mother); Green Lantern offer to help; “No Green Lanterns on Earth ever again!”

⁃ p 18 - Medical Center: Brainiac 5, Jacques F, Computo

⁃ p 19 - Ultra Boy, Phantom Gitl, Light Lass

⁃ p 20 - Metropolis: Chameleon Boy; Headline (Daily Planet) Khunds Threaten War, Unidentified Durlan Cause

⁃ pp 21-22 - Legion HQ blueprint 

⁃ p 23 - Medical Center: Brainiac 5, Jacques F, Computo, Telepathic Device

⁃ p 24 - Wildfire, Dawnstar, Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet

⁃ p 25 - Element Lad, Shvaughn Erin, Shadow Lass

⁃ p 26 - Star Boy, Lightning Lad, Sun Boy

⁃ p 27 - Medical Center - Brainiac 5, Jacques F, Computo, invisibility serum

⁃ p 28 - Timber Wolf, Blok, gym

⁃ p 29 - Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Star Boy, Sun Boy, Colossal Boy

⁃ pp 30-31 - Medical Center; Jacques F, Brainiac 5, Computo; JF takes the serum and turns invisible 

⁃ p 32 - Light Lass

⁃ p 33 - vault; Element Lad, Shvaughn Erin, Shadow Lass

⁃ pp 34-37 - Medical Center; Jacques F, Brainiac 5, Mon-El, Computo; finally manage to subdue Computo by sedating the body he inhabits, that of Danielle Foccart

⁃ p 38 - 9 panels, reactions from all over Legion HQ to Computo’s end

⁃ p 39-40 - meeting; Brainiac 5 offers to resign (for allowing Computo to return to life) and nominates Jacques Foccart for membership; his resignation is voted down but JF is voted in

⁃ p 41 - Brainiac 5 and Jacques Foccart (Invisible Kid)

⁃ Bottom right panel - usually different from the rest of the page; sometimes a lead in to the next page; sometimes a view of what is happening else where

⁃ p 12 - Superboy (1969 AD)

⁃ p 14 - Legion of Substitute Heroes outside Legion HQ

⁃ pp 18, 19, 20, 24, 26 - big bad guy

⁃ 1st time reading this issue

⁃ Initial reaction - not great, tenuous connection to the rest of the of the Great Darkness Saga

⁃ Much more impressed with it after analyzing it and making notes

⁃ Computo - invented by Brainiac 5, first appeared in Adventure Comics 340 (Jan 1966); killed one of Triplicate Girl’s bodies

⁃ Triplicate Girl/Duo Damsel - originally Triplicate Girl; first appeared in Action Comics 276 (May 1961); first non-founding member to join the Legion (according to ComicBookDB and Wikipedia); Luornu Durga (real name); native of the planet Cargg (all people of Cargg have ability to split themselves into 3 bodies, due to their planet having 3 suns; married to Bouncing Boy; reserve member of the Legion at the time of the Great Darkness Saga

⁃ Shvaughn Erin - 1st appearance in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes 241 (Jul 1978); Annual 1 is first appearance since Superboy 241-243; regular recurring character in Legion of Super-Heroes throughout the 1980s after which ?; eventual romantically tied to Element Lad

⁃ Green Lantern Corps in the 30th Century - see Legion of Super-Heroes 295

Fantastic Four 489

Inside Out
by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo
Oct 2002

- start of the Waid/Wieringo run on Fantastic Four
- a consultant is brought in to help the FF with their image; the first thing he does is spend a week with them; going with them on trips of the supernatural and mundane varieties
- one of the takeaways from this issue is that the FF are people with superpowers, more so than superheroes; in other words, they should be presented to the public as such; this also reads as a hint as to how Waid plans to write the book
- another takeaway is that Mr. Fantastic works as hard as he does because he still feels guilty for taking his three friends on that trip that transformed them, because the ship wasn't adequately shielded from cosmic rays
- I'm not sure what is up with the bug that returns with them from the "datavore" adventure but I've got a feeling it will show up again
- other stuff: rapping about the Thing; blowing square bubbles; comic book redesign; brief appearance by the Skrulls; Shertzer's e-mail; Shertzer figures them out but he doesn't understand everything

Iron Man (1968) 1

Iron Man (1968) 1

May 1968

Alone Against AIM!

by Archie Goodwin, Gene Colan, Johnny Craig

- Iron Man, trapped in the AIM sub; gassed into unconsciousness (pp 1-3)

- Sitwell runs into the gal in the fedora; surprised to see her there; she promises to explain; they jump overboard and are rescued by Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, and Gabe Jones by helicopter; she identifies herself as Whitney Frost, says she was on board hoping to meet Tony Stark; but after they drop her off it is revealed that she is also Big M, leader of the Maggie (pp 4-8)

- AIM sub arrives at a small island off the New England coast; Iron Man is put in the X-Ray Photochamber; after analyzing Iron Man the Vario Mold Matrix creates three sets of armor identical to Iron Man in every way, or so they think, as 3 AIM scientists don the armor (pp 9-11)

- Iron Man breaks free from the X-Ray Photochamber and gets into a brawl with the three iron clad scientists; their armor malfunctions; Iron Man destroys the Vario Mold Matrix; the 3 are killed by their boss as he tries to get Iron Man

- Iron Man's thought balloons reveal the reason why the other suits of armor malfunctioned: the refractory coating on his armor

- before fleeing the island Iron Man overloads the generators so the building explodes (pp 12-18)

The Origin of Iron Man

by Archie Goodwin, Gene Colan, Johnny Craig

- originally told in Tales of Suspense 39 (Mar 1963)

- Tony Stark, genius with transistor technology, visits Viet Nam; caught in a booby trap, land mine, anti-personnel; captured by Weng Chu; with professor Yinsen; together they build a suit of armor; Yinsen sacrifices himself creating a distraction; Tony Stark powers up the armor and escapes

- Gene Colan, great artist; some of his panels are gorgeous, but maybe not the best choice for Iron Man

- Whitney Frost - Big M, later Madame Masque

- silly explanations

10/30/15

Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner 1

Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner 1

Apr 1968

The Torrent Without -- The Tumult Within!

by Archie Goodwin, Gene Colan, Johnny Craig

- one and only issue in this series, similar to Tales of Suspense, 1/2 Iron Man, 1/2 Sub-Mariner; Sub-Mariner had previously been in Tales to Astonish 101, after this gets his own series

- breaks free of the magnetic table, recharges using the power from the laser

- AIM boards the gambling ship; skirmish between Whiplash and the agents of AIM; Whiplash and Big M run off, escape

- Sitwell gets pinned down

- Iron Man gets trapped under water briefly but manages to escape back into a compartment that isn't flooded

- Iron Man, Sitwell, Whiplash all meetup; Iron Man attacks Whiplash but then gets sucked out of the ship and into the AIM submarine

Tales of Suspense 99

Tales of Suspense 99

Mar 1968

At the Mercy of the Maggia

by Stan Lee, Archie Goodwin, Gene Colan, Johnny Craig

- Iron Man has one last trick up his sleeve, he turns to his emergency booster supply (for his heart) but uses it to power up his repulsor rays; knocks Whiplash out; but then collapses himself unconscious

- Sitwell gets a message from Nick Fury that Morgan Stark has been spotted at at JFK airport; rushes to JFK; apprehends Morgan Stark; interrogates him; finds out Iron Man is aboard the Maggia's gambling ship, so JS heads there; gets on board hoping to find Iron Man

- Iron Man is about to be killed by Whiplash when Big M interrupts, wants the Iron Man suit intact; Iron Man gets laid out on a magnetic table, holds him in place, as a laser is used to try and break open his armor; but that is soon interrupted

- Maggia's ship is attacked by AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics); ship begins to flood, laser stops functioning

- AIM: Scientists who want to take over the world, dress in yellow "beekeeper" outfits

- last issue of Tales of Suspense

10/25/15

Tales of Suspense 98

Tales of Suspense 98

Feb 1968

The Warrior and the Whip!

by Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Frank Giacoia

- Iron Man vs. Whiplash aboard the Maggia's gambling ship

- Iron Man nowhere near full strength, ducking and dodging Whiplash's whip, image reproducer

- Jasper Sitwell discovers Iron Man has been taken away, calls the SHIELD Helicarrier, confirm that TS has a cousin, then Sitwell is confronted by a large group of women who identify themselves as Tony Stark's girlfriends; one of the women stands out, she is wearing a fedora and claims to be far more than a friend of Tony Stark

- Iron Man keeps Whiplash distracted with multiple images of himself until the power for the image reproducer runs dry

Tales of Suspense 97

Tales of Suspense 97

Jan 1968

The Coming of Whiplash

by Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Frank Giacoia

- Iron Man immobilized, power drained, Grey Gargoyle

- Jasper Sitwell (agent of SHIELD) - blond hair, crew cut, glasses; first appearance in Strange Tales 144 (May 1966); first appearance in ToS 93 (Sep 1967); sent by Nick Fury to protect Stark Industries

- Sitwell tries to revive Iron Man unsuccessfully, goes to look for Tony Stark

- Morgan Stark, gambling ship, Maggia, gambling debts, offers to hand over Iron Man to the Maggia; talks his way through the gate at Stark Industries and gets some of the guards to help him load Iron Man in his car

- Iron Man waits, gets a partial charge from the cigarette lighter in Morgan Stark's car; waits until they are aboard the gambling ship before making his move

- All leads up to a confrontation with Whiplash (next ish) this is his first appearance

- Morgan Stark first appeared in ToS 68 (Aug 1965) where he was also trying to trade Iron Man for gambling debts