First up, it's
X-Men First Class #8, in this issue the Team meets up with The Man-Thing. Since you can't have Man-Thing without the Nexus of Realities far behind. The team travels to what might be possible futures for the team. The series is written by Jeff Parker.
He also wrote the next book, it's the last book in this year's What If series. It stars Spider-Man & Wolverine. It's based off of a story from the 1980's. Spidey gets a new costume over the issue:
And it reminded me of the design Alex Ross did for the first Spider-Man movie.
Speaking of Ross designed costumes (hows that for a transistion?), we get the first issue of the *new* Captain America in, yep you guessed it Captain America #34:
And I'll spoil who's under the mask, It's James Buchanan Barnes/Bucky/The Winter Soldier. I don't think anyone who had been reading the book didn't see that coming. As for he first outing in the Red, White, Blue & Black: he did ok. As for the suit: I don't have a firm opinion either way. It makes since he didn't want to wear the original. The twist at the end should be an interesting read to see how they resolve this one.
Mighty Avenger #8, the Symboite fight seemed at little pointless & never truly got going. The issue seemed like a setup for the "Secret Invasion" event that upcoming. Next issue the team facing off against good ol' Doctor Doom.
I picked up the latest issue of The Fantastic Four, something I hadn't done in awhile. My readership of the book fades in & out. Issue #554 is the first issue of Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch. I thought the redesign for the cover was interesting:
The opening scene was a great way to open the book & look forward to seeing where Mr. Millar takes the book.
Spider-Man Family #7, the cover story was tribute to the late Mike Wieringo. It was a fun story & that's what 'Ringo's stories were: Fun. For more on my feeling about Wieringo: see Entry # 3. One small problem about the SMF book, it's a 104 (not sure if that includes ad's) but most of the book is reprints & a manga version of Spider-Man. I don't mind the manga but the reprints I do mind. I wouldn't mind seeing all new content for the book. I pick up more if it did.
Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special This 1991 "80 Page Block-Buster" as the cover proclaims is the first appearance of a character. She not on the cover & was used again for at least a decade but this book marks the first appearance of Squirrel Girl! Yes. She teams up with ol' Shellhead (Iron Man, in case you didn't know that nickname) & fight Doctor Doom. The story's plot, pencils & inks are by Steve Ditko! yeah, the same guy who was there for the start of Marvel!
My last Marvel book was for the geek in me, it's Marvel Teals #276, which reprints Amazing Spider-Man #263 & is the first (maybe only) appearance of spectacular Spider-Kid!
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Next are...
I'm going to quick hit most books so I can get to what makes up the bulk of my DC pile.
- Booster Gold is still one of the most fun books on the stand. Go pick it up!
- The Justice Society of America is getting some new members!
- Legends of The DC Universe #1 is a "lost story" from the story that redid the the enfire DCU, Crisis on Infinite Earths & features the only story appearance of Earth D.
- Superboy #8 has 2 for the price of one. Pre-Crisis Superboy & Kon-El meet up due to the effects of Zero Hour. They of course fight.
- Adventures of Superman #646: in this issue Mr. Mxyzptlk Dies! Now I didn't know this before I picked up this back issue but it had cool cover:
In the $.50 bins I mentioned earlier, most of the books I picked up related to one team: The Legion of Super- Heroes. But before I talk about the older books featuring them, I'll talk about their current appearance in Action Comics. We are in to the fourth part of the story & It kicks butt! I'll be sad to when it's over.
We now go back to the Legion's first appearance: Adventure #247, which was reprinted in the book I picked up, it was DC Archive sampler of Silver Age stories.
One thing that has always been a bit weird to me: why does Cosmic Boy wear Pink? it just doesn't seem like a very super heroey color.
After reading this story I found something intresting, the only team the group is only refered to as "The Legion of Super-Heroes" is in the title of the story, every where else they are a "Super Hero Club", they even have patches that say that:
Also for some reason Cosmic Boy is the only one to wear the patch, Lightning Lad & Saturn Girl don't wear it. This might be the only time he does wear it because I had never seen it before this. I also found it odd that they had their names spelt out on their shirts, I found it a bit distracting (I'm glad they dropped that).
I picked a DC Special featuring the Legion of Substitute-Heroes, it's from '85. I know that because of this ad:
I also picked up issues 5 & 8 of "Legion of Super-Hero" from 1990 (5 is the cool one & 8 retells the team's origin). I also picked up Issue 100 from '98. I picked up Issue 1,000,000 of Legionaires (it was part of the DC 1 Million event). Picked up Legionaires #66 for the cover:
The other 3 issues dealt with Time Travel. Where Legionaires #66 & Legion of Super-Heroes #105 dealt with the Legion's past. Legionaires #54 dealt with the Golden Age of Comics:
It was really well done how the merged the era with the legion. They found ways to use Proty, the Legion's classic Headquarters & R.J. Brande. But the best way was how the flight rings were used:
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Ok, we are almost done. I also picked up the latest issues of Oni Press' Maintenance, IDW's Doctor Who Classics & Platinum Studios Comics' Hero by Night.
That's it for now.
Stay Jazzy!
-Brian.
