Ghostopolis pp. 122-151

- confusion and fighting in the marketplace as most of the characters (good and bad) converge
- Lockjaw (Vaughner's enforcer) tries (unsuccessfully) to abduct Ethan
- Claire's uncle is a werewolf and her last name is Voyant
- the segment ends with Cecil and Lockjaw in Claire's copter getting transported to the land of the living, thus stranding Claire, Frank, and Ethan in the afterlife

- a little too jokey
- love the panel layouts especially on the pages with lots of panels

7/28

Avengers (1963) 97

Godhood's End!
By Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Tom Palmer
Mar 1972

- final chapter of the Kree-Skrull War
- Neal Adams is credited as consultant; not sure what that means

- Rick Jones vs Annihilus
- RJ discovers he has an ambiguous superpower; he brings forth the Invaders to help fight a legion of Kree; with some guidance from the Kree Supreme Intelligence he saves the day but is almost killed in the process
- Captain Marvel seems to give up his life to save RJ
- one loose end is what happened to Goliath (Clint Barton)? When the other Avengers are mystically returned to Earth he is not with them

- things got wrapped up a little too neatly and a little too quickly to suit my tastes; I'm not sure where I wanted the story to go but I'm not satisfied with the ending it got
- the art was the strength of the KSW

7/27

The Punisher (2000) 2

Badaboom, Badabing!
By Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, Jimmy Palmiotti
May 2000

- Ma Gnucci puts a contract on Frank's life for what he did last ish but Frank deals with the would be assassins with comical ease
- the police Commissioner puts his worst detective (Martin Soap) on the job, intentionally, to catch the Punisher
- a new baddie a priest with an ace is introduced

- heavy on humor, love some of the facial expressions (Soap, Frank)
- love Frank's interactions with his neighbors who call him Mr. Smith
- Joan, Spacker Dave, Mr Bumpo
- Doing the town comment
- Tasty Frank's truck

7/25

Ghostopolis pp. 96-121

- Master Vaughner is introduced the real (?) big baddie; the other baddie is his lackey; it looks like there is some connection between TAJ and Ethan
- Frank and Claire continue their search for Ethan
- Cecil continues to grow and Ethan discovers he can fly; they steal some clothes from a skeleton in an alley in Ghostopolis for Cecil who is quickly outgrowing the ones he is wearing
- Frank and Claire also arrive in Ghostopolis
- Vaughner's role in Ghostopolis is revealed, how he runs things by uniting and dividing the various factions that live there

Avengers (1963) 96

The Andromeda Swarm!
By Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, and Tom Palmer
Feb 1972

Part 1
- Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Vision vs the Skrull fleet or the Vanguard of the fleet

Part 2
- Captain Marvel, Skrull Emperor

Part 3
- Rick Jones, Ronan the Accuser, Kree Supreme Intelligence

7/20

Ghostopolis pp. 69-95

- Frank turns to Claire, an ex-girlfriend, for help in recovering Ethan; at first she says no but then changes her mind; she has a transport which takes them there
- in the afterlife Ethan meets Cecil, his grandfather who looks acts like he's the same age as Ethan; they narrowly escape an encounter with biker bugs; Cecil tells him about the legend of the Tuskegee Airman Joe who built Ghostopolis
- Cecil changes starts maturing getting older
- in a wordless scene, what might be the villain of the story is introduced
- a map of the afterlife shows three areas Mummyville, Ghostopolis, and the Bone King

- the story Cecil tells Ethan about TAJ has a Christian undertone to it; TAJ sounds like God or a supernatural being; it looks like he bears the stigmata

Legion of Super-Heroes 296

What Do You Do on the Day After Doomsday?
by Paul Levitz, Kieth Giffen, Larry Mahlstedt
Feb 1983

- editors' credits eliminated from 294 (Laurie Sutton, Karen Berger), 295 & 296 (Karen Berger); where editors notes where preserved the editor's name or intials were eliminated

- cover title: Night of Mourning
- floating heads on cover: Dream Girl, Star Boy, Phantom Girl, Element Lad; Sun Boy holding the body of Cosmic Boy's brother

- structure reminiscent of Annual 1; Levitz and Giffen credited as co-plotters as on Annual 1
- title is repeated 15 times, usually at the top of the page, with a different response each time

- pp 1-2: Mon-El and Shadow Lass arrive on the Science Asteroid in the Asteroid Archipelago

- p 3: Blok and White Witch touring the tesseract (TARDIS?) in the basement

- p 4: Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl throw a party; SG's hair looks shorter; Sun Boy and Phantom Girl clash;  which quickly ends when...

- pp 5-7: low level nuclear explosion in an urban area on Earth (where exactly?); Legion rushes in to help; Sun Boy and Phantom Girl clash again; Cosmic Boy's brother

- pp 8-9:Light Lass, Saturn Girl, Timber Wolf (missing footnote); Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet; Evolvo Lad,  Duplicate Boy

- p 10: SPO Shvaughn Erin, Doctor Gym'll, Legion response team

- pp 11-12: SP track down some criminals and with some help from he Legion response team try to capture them

- p 13: Queen Projectra, Karate Kid in her embassy (?); KK wants to get married

- pp 14-15: Invisible Kid; Brainiac 5, Matter Eater Lad in the Medical Lab; IK leaves to join Wildfire, Dawnstar, Blok, and White Witch on a mission to the Asteroid Archipelago

- pp 16-17: Response Team captures criminals who tell them about a scam going on at Metropolis Space Port

- p 18: Chameleon Boy gets rewarded for his actions in LoSH 294; what's that writing?; CB's powers don't work after he is released? Why?

- pp 19-22: Response team captures criminals at the MSP who confess to being behind the fireball but only after being threatened with torture by Sun Boy

- p 22: Night Girl and Cosmic Boy returning from Daxam (??) after helping people from Braal (CB's home world) help Daxamites build a new place to live

- p 23: Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet, dancing, making out

Next issue: Mettle - a special spotlight on Cosmic Boy
Definitely Not The End...

Letters Column
- Annual 1 the first "real" annual for DC Comics; all previous were reprints
- Annual had too many subplots - exactly what I liked
- long detailed letter about why the Master of Darkness has to be Darkseid
- much shorter proclaiming the the MoD must be former Legion writer and (at the time) current Editor in Chief of Marvel Jim Shooter
- call for new nominees for the next leader of the Legion
- legion hairstyles; Star Boy; mohawk, pony tail

Ghostopolis pp. 38-68

 by Doug TenNapel

- Frank tries to reassure Garth's mother that he will go after Garth and bring him back, but then he gets fired by his boss before he can begin his quest
- in the afterlife Garth at first rejects and then accepts the friendship of the skeleton horse

- good visual storytelling; the plot thickens; this is fairly quick read even if I am taking my time about it
- love the look of the squirrels in the afterlife, wrapped in bandages like mummies

Avengers (1963) 95

Something Inhuman This Way Comes..!
By Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, and Tom Palmer
Jan 1972

- Triton shows up in the middle of the Avengers battle with the Mandroids, begging for their help
- after Iron Man has taken down the Mandroids, Triton explains the situation
- the Avengers split up, Cap, Goliath, and Rick Jones go with Triton to San Francisco to find Black Bolt; after locating Black Bolt they head to the great refuge to deal with BB's cousin Maximus the Mad
- Iron Man, Thor, and Vision stay to finish off the Mandroids who come back to life even though the humans inside them are out cold; once the Mandroids have been polished off for a second time, the Avengers head to the Great Refuge with a little help from Mjolnir
- all the Avengers rendezvous at the Great Refuge and after BB has destroyed the impenetrable dome erected around it they deal deal with Maximus and his Kree allies
- the only casualty of the Avengers is Rick Jones who gets abducted by one of the Kree as they are fleeing imminent defeat at the hands of the Avengers

- pages I love
- p 1 - triton splash page
- p 2 - 12 panels all about Triton, some sound effects and cations but no dialogue
- pp 12-14 Black Bolt flashback - lots of blue

- overall the Neal Adams artwork is phenomenal, I especially like some of the facial expressions

- no more chapter titles

7/12

Star Spangled Comics 48

Robotman: Crooks on Ice
By Joe Samachson, Jimmy Thompson

Robotman and Robbie the robot dog visit a frozen food plant to investigate why the plant seems to be consuming so much energy. What they find is a scheme to substitute blocks of ice for frozen foods. Robbie gets frozen in a block of ice. Robotman gets knocked out by a frozen steer and then almost steamed to death.

P3 panel 1 - crooks in two tone silhouette
- Robotman gets knocked out by a frozen steer

Ghostopolis pp. 1-37

by Doug TenNapel

- no real chapter structure to the book which is about 275 pages in length
- two story lines which seem to merge around the end of this segment
- Garth is a boy who has been diagnosed with a fatal disease although he is not in a hospital or undergoing any sort of treatment regimen
- Frank Gallows is s ghost hunter who s first seen apprehending the ghost of Benedict Arnold who he then sends back to Ghostopolis
- in the process of apprehending the ghost of a horse, which looks like a skeleton, Frank inadvertently sends Ethan to Ghostopolis along with the horse ghost

- I wonder what this would look like without color; it looks like it may have been drawn without consideration to the fact that it was going to be colored
- this is the second Doug TenNapel book I have read, the other being Creature Tech, which I enjoyed
- the story didn't really grab me until I found out that Ethan was going to die young

Legion of Super-Heroes 295

The Origin of the Universe File --
By Paul Levitz, Kieth Giffen, Dave Hunt, Howard Bender, and John Costanza
Jan 1983

- story within a story
- aftermath of the Great Darkness Saga
- Timber Wolf is trying to decide whether to go with Light Lass or not; Blok encourages him to have a seat so he can show him something that might help him decide: an archive tape of early Legion adventure

- Cosmic Boy, SG, LL, Colossal Boy, Triplicate Girl rush to the Time Institute
- Guardians of the Universe, Green Lanterns
- Vidar, rogue GL; two other unnamed GLs one of whom is Durlan
- Time Institute; Circadia Senius (Chronarch); looks a little like one of the Spy vs. Spy characters (minus the coat and hat) from Mad Magazine
- the Hand at the beginning of time, Krona, forbidden by the Guardians;
- After returning to the Institute Colossal Boy and Triplicate Girl (without explanation) drop out of the story; when did they first appear; is this the first time it has been hinted that they were on the team prior to its first appearance?
- After a weird attempt to travel back in time (to meet Superboy and Supergirl for the first time?) the OTL return to the TI and find Vidar trying to unlock the Origin of the Universe, capture him and return him to the Guardians on Oa

- TW decides to stay with the team and not go with Ayla (Light Lass)

- Blok epilogue; speculates about the strong resemblance between Vidar and Universo (pre DNA evidence)
- but then shrugs it off because if there was anything to it then Brainiac 5 would have noticed it

- Art
- Howard Bender draws the flashback, and while the way characters and in things represented in the panels looks Silver Age the panel layout doesn't always look old school
- p21 Timber Wolf does a cartwheel

- missing footnotes
- p1 - Did you think Blok was the only one who needed a rest after last issue?
- p15 - as originally revealed in Green Lantern 40
- p20 - since Sinestro of Kouragar, no doubt

Krona - Oan scientist who sought to discover the secrets behind the origins of the universe

Green Lantern (1960) 40 (1st appearance)
Tales of the Green Lantern Corps (1981) 1-3
see also Crisis on Infinite Earths

Letters Page - The Legion Outpost
- reads as if it was originally intended to be published in 294 but they forgot to change some of the references
- notes from Paul Levitz
- 1. introduces Karen Berger (later editor of Swamp Thing, and Sandman; started the Vertigo imprint)
- 2. references build up to issue 300
- 3. more legionnaire profiles (Shadow Lass, Shrinking Violet, Star Boy, Sun Boy, Superboy, Supergirl, Timber Wolf, Tyroc, Ultra Boy, Wildfire); honorable members (Pete Ross, Eleastic Lad, Kid Psycho, Insect Queen, Ron Vidar); Legion of Substitute Heroes

Marvel Double Shot 3

Who Let the Dad Out?
By Sean McKeever, Darwyn Cooke, Mike Manley, Lee Loughridge
Mar 2003

- read this after hearing Murd talk about it on the Time Bubble
- my interest in it was the same as his, Darwyn Cooke

- Scott Lang, the Astonishing Ant-Man
- 2nd of 2 stories in this issue, just 11 pages long
- Scott's daughter Cassie is 11, getting ready to to a party with a boy her age and Scott is going a little nuts
- he has all sorts of visions of what the boy will look and be like
- he doesn't want to let her go but he does but then he follows her in his Ant-Man suit, shrunk down, with some help from Mara, one if his ants
- everything turns out fine in the end

- lots of great panels
- p 3/15 he has visions of what the boy is like before meeting him
- p 4/16 he imagines Cassie going dressed in a snowmobile suit
- p 5/17 he tries to scare the boy but only embarrasses Cassie
- p 6/18 the close up of his eyeball as it occurs to him that they might play "5 minutes in the closet"
- not a great story but it has some nice touches as noted above
- the facial expressions are the best part of this story

The Fade Out 4

The Word on the Street
By Ed Brubaker, Sean Philips, Elizabeth Breitweiser, and David Brothers
Jan 2015

- the focus is squarely back on Charlie as he starts to remember bits and pieces of things from the night VS died
- he sees a picture of a man with Ronald Reagan who he thinks he also saw on the night in question, later he learns from Rath that Reagan has been informing to the FBI on some of his fellow actors, ones whom he knows or suspects to have sympathy or more for the Communists
- Dottie has setup a PR stunt to make her more visible to the public now that she has taken over the role previously occupied by Valeria Sommers; the stunt works
- Charlie is supposed to be Dottie's date but he isn't convinced that it is anything more than window dressing; he winds up dancing with Maya; Dottie winds up in tears in the ladies room
- Clark Gable is at the party; Charlie worked with him during the war; I always figured that Rath (who looks a little like Gable) was a stand in for Gable so it was an interesting twist to see Gable himself show up
- Charlie's work with Gil seems to be going strong but he also notices that Gil has been reading the articles about Val and expects the good times to end before too long
- the chapter ends more or less where it began back at the photographer (Stevie Turner) apartment except now it is on fire; it is now on fire; a body is pulled from the fire, presumably Stevie's; then Charlie sees he is being watched by the man (FBI man?) who was in the picture with Ronald Reagan

- it occurs to me that part of the reason why I enjoy noir stories is because of how they stand up in comparison to fairy tales: noir takes the seemingly perfect scenario and twists and shakes it until the picture can be seen for what it truly is, until you can see the inherent flaws and the duplicitous in the world and the relationships that are part of the story
- I'm now 1/3 of the way into this story and it is a solid read; I should probably take a break for a month or two maybe finish off the Great Darkness saga, but I want to continue; I'm undecided as to what u should do next

7/1