The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1808: Invasion Book Three, 1988

The final issue of Invasion isn't so much about the invasion itself, but about the aftermath of a rogue Dominator trying to destroy Earth's superheroes. One of the ways in which this crossover, though not a great crossover, succeeds where the Arrowverse version doesn't quite is the scope. There are very few large-scale crossovers in comics that follow only a small group of heroes. There are, rarely, any "main characters" in such crossovers. Instead they tend to give glimpses of the events from throughout the shared universe, with the more specific adventures happening generally in the team or character's own title. Even when there is focus on a particular group, that group does their job and then the focus shifts to another character or team of characters. As such, and even with the recent Crisis adaptation, it doesn't quite communicate the scope of the event when we are focussed on a single group of heroes throughout the crossover. It might almost have made more sense for there to be individual episodes of each series between the crossover episodes, in order that we might see the more personal stories, but not have them intrude upon the larger-scale storytelling that the event precipitates.

Aside from that, this issue is significant for the death of yet another Doom Patrol character. Poor Scott Fisher, whom I have numerous times said deserves better, passes away as a result of complications from the Gene Bomb and his recurring leukemia. I'm fairly certain, like Garguax yesterday, that Fisher hasn't shown up in the DCU since. One thing that is a bit odious about his death, and something that speaks to the tangential nature of these kinds of crossovers, is that he is the only casualty of the Gene Bomb, a device that puts the majority of Earth's heroes in mortal jeopardy. Had a couple of others dies, Scott's death would be more affecting, I think. But instead we see it as a token effort to show the seriousness of a device that, in the end, doesn't turn out to be that serious.

Done with the Patrol for the time being. More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1806: Invasion Book Two, 1988

To be honest, this was a pretty decent superhero war comic. It really read like the old war comics from DC's past, and actually kind of combined the B-Movie alien invasion aesthetic that was popular in film at the same time that war comics flourished. Not sure if that's a calculated move on Mr. Giffen's part, but it works quite nicely.

On the other hand, it's fairly propagandistic, really. Somehow North America is the only continent to avoid catastrophic damage, forcing the rest of the world to rely on America. Again, this echoes the war comics of old, but it rings pretty hollow in the Reagan-era Cold War. I think by this point in time, people were becoming a lot more suspect about the glories of war. This one doesn't really address the horrors that, in the background, appear to have been perpetuated.

In terms of comparison with the Arrowverse crossover, this is the big superhero throw-down that the CW just couldn't afford to do. First, they don't have nearly enough heroes, and second I don't imagine they have the budget for large-scale space warfare effects. Though the Dominators' reason for attacking Earth remains the same, the emergence of high-power metahumans, their methods are decidedly different on screen. A pity, but an understandable one.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1804: Invasion Book One, 1988

80 pages is a lot to get through in one sitting. But when the 80 pages are a Keith Giffen/Bill Mantlo/Todd McFarlane production, it's not such a bad thing.

I originally picked up Invasion because it crossed over with Animal Man. The eventual outcome of the alien plan really messes with Animal Man's powers, and spurs a very cool story line in which everything we thought we knew about Animal Man turns out to be wrong. That sort of thing happens to him frequently.

In a lot of ways, and much more so than when I first read the series, I can see the aliens' point of view. Here's Earth, this insignificant little world that keeps churning out individuals of incalculable power, sometimes presenting a cosmos-wide danger. And, by and large, they're a pretty violent bunch. Imagine a creature like that became capable of intergalactic travel. They're right to be scared.

But there's also something deeply disturbing about the fact that all of the aliens (an important word) look exactly the same, and have no genetic variance. Further, they are identified by a single trait that characterized their race. And it's only humanity (and, let's be honest, North American humanity) that presents this strange diversity of genetics and potential.

Which is all to say that, as a part of my Doom Patrol read-through, the Doom Patrol don't appear in this issue. Only Adam Strange makes an appearance, and an ill-fated one at that. Instead, as the title of this volume attests, we witness the formation of the Alien Alliance. It's actually a remarkable bit of storytelling, in that it's basically a prologue to the crossover. It seems to me that this is a crossover that might have used its tie-in issues very well, in that the actual first strike on American soil takes place in the pages of the individual titles, as discrete events. When we come back next issue, those events have happened, and we're on to the next phase. I'm not explaining this right. The crossover series is designed to provide context to the events of the individual tie-ins. As such it is useful regardless of which series you are following it through, nor do you need to read all of the tie-ins.

At least, that's what it looks like at the moment.

In terms of comparison to the Arrowverse crossover, this similarly functions nicely as a prologue, but, honestly, the only similarity is the Dominator head design. I understand, of course, that it would have been too expensive to have all of the alien races present, but we've seen enough humanoid ones that there could have been at least a small alliance. What the comic crossover does that the television one doesn't is give us the reason for the Dominators' invasion. In the Arrowverse, they're just aliens there to experiment on human beings - it's more of a secret invasion than an invasion. Watching the television crossover from the perspective of the Dominators fear of metahumans is going to be interesting, though if I'm to be completely honest, I don't remember how the TV one all turns out, so things might change by next issue.

I am feeling a bit spacey today. Can you tell?

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1609: Amazing High Adventure #4, November 1986

There is a bittersweetness to reading a comic by Bill Mantlo these days. After a heartbreaking plea from his brother, many became aware of Mr. Mantlo's tragic car accident 1992 and the difficulty he has endured ever since. His work is peppered throughout my collection, of course. He was one of Marvel's most prolific writers in the 70s and 80s, and scripted some well beloved comics. Today's offering is well outside of what I'm used to from a few of the creators on the cover, Mantlo included. I'm not sure if the mandate of the comic was to tell stories set in a specific historical period, but the three stories today all took place across the 19th century, and told interesting, and adventurous, historical tales.

Mr. Mantlo's tale in this issue involves a man who decides he's had enough of office life and packs up and heads West...with the front door of his former business in tow. And while this sounds faintly ridiculous, it's got the feel of a really well-crafted post-modern Western about it, in that the door, and so much of what happens in the story, is, really, much more metaphoric than comics usually tend to be. There's perhaps a bit too much of the colonial drive West about this story, but it's also doing a nice job of highlighting what is at once America's greatest and worst trait: its constant drive forward. The thing that concerns those of us outside is the direction the country decides to go.

Anyway, a cool little slice of obscure Marvel. All really great, and if this line-up is any indication, the rest of the series (1-3, 5) are probably just as impressive.

"Is there a golden eagle out there in the courtyard?"

Other Things You Might Like Reading

John Bolton gets creepy: The 40 Years of Comics Project - The Weekly Graphic Novel: Week 38 - Shame: Conception, 2011

More obscure Marvel from the 80s: The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 146: Yuppies From Hell, 1989 (Two Weeks From The Dollar Bin - Day 10)

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1101: Micronauts v.1 #16, April 1980

This comic brought back a very interesting memory. It relates to the toys that this series was ostensibly tied to. Much like the later G.I. Joe series (which I have just learned was actually a pitch for a covert strike force commanded by Nick Fury!), the writers had to walk a fine line between storytelling and advertising. By and large, I think, the Marvel scribes of the early 80s who did this did it very well. The early Transfomers, the afore-mentioned G.I. Joe, Starriors, Sectaurs, Star's Masters of the Universe, all were well-executed stories that just happened, occasionally to feature a character or vehicle that, lo and behold, was on toy store shelves around the same time.

The thing with Micronauts is that I never really had any of them. I remember seeing them as a young kid, and being vaguely aware of them, and of actually having a few, I think, but they were a very North America toy, I think, and I was arriving on these shores just as they were in decline. Or maybe I was just too preoccupied with Star Wars toys that I just ignored everything else.

Though I did like the He-Man figures. They were pretty cool.

Anyway, the memory was of a particular figure that I did have from the toy line, the Repto, a creature that appears as the greatest fear of Bug and his friend Jasmine. I had completely forgotten this toy until reading this comics, and then it leapt back into my mind. I have absolutely no idea what happened to it, or actually where it came from. But then there it was, bright as four-coloured day on page 7. Neat.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project Friday Magazine 20: Epic Illustrated #5, April 1981

There's really a lot going on in each of these issues. I'm of two minds about this. Sometimes it's nice to have so much variety - granted that it's restricted in this case by its genre(s), though you can really get away with a lot in Science Fiction and Fantasy - enough that you can read a 100-page magazine and not get bored at all. On the other hand, keeping track of all of these narratives, from the continuing to the tiny, can be a bit much every now and again.

That said, I'm absolutely loving Jim Starlin's "Metamorphosis Odyssey," which I did not know was the first place that his famed character Dreadstar appeared. Now I'm intrigued to read that as well (though I have no issues of the series in the collection, unfortunately). There's also some more stuff from Mirko Ilic, which I linked to in the review of the first issue of the magazine. His comics are, as I noted in that earlier piece, genius. I wish there were more. So there's a lovely example of what this magazine is doing right. An ongoing series that's definitely engrossing, and small snapshot pieces that are pushing at boundaries. Today's story "Satri," written and drawn by Margaret Gallagher (who's got a shockingly low online presence) is another wonderful and innovative piece.

I think I could do with less text-piece content. There's an interview with the Hildebrandt Brothers, very important artists in fantasy art, but it takes up soooo much space, and I can only read so much about people holding forth on their artistic processes. I think the shorter text pieces are pretty great, especially the ones commentating on the medium in this pre-Maus world (as I noted last week), but the long ones are just a bit much.

My opinion, I guess, for what it's worth. Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 829: Incredible Hulk #259, May 1981

Read this today. Will offer some final thoughts on the Hulk (for now!) tomorrow.

Alright, let's finish off this week of The Incredible Hulk.

Only a partial story in today's offering, though it involves some of the more interesting characters in the Marvel U of the 1980s: The Soviet Super-Soldiers. This is an odd crew of mutants and misfits, some of whom serve the state willingly, and some of whom question the totalitarian tactics of the USSR (for those who are very young, that's what Russia used to be). Though seemingly not as numerous as the super-people of the US, there are Russian superhumans, and they fight to support the Communist state. At best, they're portrayed as conflicted heroes whose orders are often at odds with their personal feelings, and at worst they're simply mouthpieces for anti-Communist propaganda (in that they say the things that Americans thought the Russians would say). I find the conflicted portrayal of them almost as problematic as the propagandistic. I teach the creation of the self through communication from what we call "the generalized other," the voice of our respective cultures. This voice imbues in us the cultural attitudes and mores that we consider "natural." So to have these people who have been raised into Soviet culture outright questioning the rightness of their orders rings, to me, a bit false. Perhaps if one of them did, I could see it as an outlier, but when all of them do, we begin to see the notion that the "good" way of thinking, which in this case is very often the American way, is "natural," only overlaid somehow by the corrupted lessons of the Soviet state.

Which, really, is not how these things work. Ever.

Anyway, I think I'm done with the Hulk for a little while, though I'll get back to his series some time in the near future. Not sure where we're heading tomorrow, but it'll be neat.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 823: Incredible Hulk Annual #13, 1984

(As I said, starting up Hulk week here at the 40 Years project. I'll blog more about this tomorrow, but this was actually a really, really cool story.)

One of the writers from the Seventies that I haven't paid nearly enough attention to is Bill Mantlo. If I'm to draw an analogy that puts his position in this era of comics in perspective, I'd say that if Steve Gerber is like 90s Morrison, Mantlo is like Mark Waid during the same time. Gerber pushed at boundaries with little compunction about the sense his stories might be making. Mantlo stays a little more on the side traditional superhero tales, but there's something just outside of the norm about them, and that makes them stand out. I don't know much about his run on Incredible Hulk, but today's story is just excellent, and a little touching.

At some point, Banner's personality has been destroyed, sacrificed for some reason, leaving only the Hulk. Rather than kill him, Dr. Strange places him at a dimensional nexus and randomly places the Hulk into worlds in which he might find some kind of satisfaction. If the Hulk sinks into despair or despondence, he is returned to this nexus to try to find another world. Not a bad life for a giant green rage monster with no humanity. And as I say, I don't have a lot of context for this storyline, but in a lot of ways I think we see the closest the Hulk's likely to get to this kind of satisfaction in today's story.

Finding himself on a planet that looks idyllic, but is in fact highly toxic, the Hulk falls prey to what, initially, looks like a nasty parasitic creature. But here's the first lovely aspect of the tale. This creature, and its species, may look like skeletal spinal cords, may have fanged mouths that hearken back to our vampiric fears, but it is in fact an intelligent and compassionate creature, and the species engages in symbiotic relationships with the animals on this world in order that they might survive the toxicity of the environment. The creature attaches itself to the Hulk so he can eat and survive, and, in a very interesting twist, the two become friends.

The rest of the story becomes a cautionary tale about the attachments we make, the loves we feel, and the danger that unconsidered ambition can have. I've never been a fan of the Hulk, but the last couple of stories of his I've read have really opened my eyes to the ways that the character can be handled by a good writer. I always wondered how it was that a character like this can possibly fit into a superhero universe, but the perspective of the Hulk as commentary on the dangers of unrestrained emotionality, and also on the dangers of repressing our emotions, is a really interesting one to take. I'll try to bear that in mind as I progress through the week.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 816: Iron Man Annual #4, 1977

Today's comic (actually, like a couple of the BnV ones from last week) is part of a subset of the collection that belongs to my lovely wife. For a long while these comics were kept separately in a cute little comic box that her parents must have made for her, but they've since found their way into the larger Giant Box of Comics collection. Though, they're still under her name in my database.

Iron Man has never been one of my favourite Marvel characters. The recent films have been pretty good, and whenever Stark is on the Avengers, I've enjoyed his presence, but for me he's a bit like Batman. I like Bruce when he's in JLA adventures, but his solo stuff, Morrison's run aside, leaves me a bit cold. There are definitely characters in both the Marvel and DC universes that function better when they're held in juxtaposition to other heroes, or that blossom when part of a team. Iron Man, in my opinion, is one of these characters.

Though the comic doesn't explicitly state it, I think this story comes in part way through a longer tale. Iron Man is tracking M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M., and recruits new superhero team The Champions to help him. We don't actually see Tony Stark's face in this issue, as he spends the entire story encased in his armour. And The Champions are a weird mixed bag of a super-team. I don't really know all that much about them, but I don't think they lasted much past the end of the Seventies.

I don't really know what to say about this story. It was a strange amalgamation of little stories, with the team splitting up to investigate three possible M.O.D.O.K. locations, only to be called back to Iron Man's original point of investigation, where the invisible enemy had been hiding all along. There is one sequence that struck me. It was amusing, but not in a way that the creators were intending, I think. Part of the action takes place in the giant Redwood forests along the Californian coast. Hercules and the Black Widow are struck by the beauty of the place, Herc even claiming that the forest is blessed by the gods. They're then attacked, and what's the first thing Hercules does? He tears an entire, probably 500-year old Redwood out of the ground and starts pounding on the bad guys with it.

*sigh*

It is, I suppose, in keeping with the character, but the immediate switch from reverence to destruction was kind of darkly funny.

I'll get into some of the regular series over the next week. Iron Man Week. Sounds good.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 772: Alpha Flight v.1 #30, January 1986

One of the things I'm finding interesting about the last couple of issues is that it's early work by Mike Mignola, predating Hellboy, I think. You can see the stark difference between Mignola's personal style and his inked style here as the cover seems to be his own work, whereas he's inked in the interior pages. And, if I'm to be very honest, it just doesn't look like his work inside. It looks kind of...you know, usual. Which, of course, an artist starting out at Marvel would want to be. Gotta make sure you can cop to the house style. I'm supremely grateful, though, that he decided to pursue his own style and stories, and that we have the brilliance that is Hellboy as a result.

Scramble, the Mixed Up Man, is a villain of Lovecraftian proportions, bringing a heaping dose of body horror to the Great White North. The creatures we see within remind me of the Famileech from the New Universe titles, and you can see in their depiction on the cover there Mignola's interest in things Lovecraftian, an interest that gets taken up in much of his later work. For a great example, see the wonderful The Doom That Came To Gotham Elseworlds series. So good.

One more Alpha Flight tomorrow, then on to something a bit different. To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 771: Alpha Flight v.1 #29, December 1985

We're going to spend a couple of days with Bill Mantlo's Alpha Flight, and then, on Sunday, I'll be starting a project within the Project that I hope is interesting and thought-provoking. But until then, let's see what the Alphans are up to under new management.

As with most passings of the reins between creative teams, there's a fair bit of tidying to be done from the previous team's tales. Today is one such bit of tidying, as the team faces off against the Hulk in the streets of downtown Vancouver. To put this slightly more into context, the creative team that has taken over the book was actually previously working on the Hulk's book - the back matter of the previous issue notes that the two books, The Incredible Hulk and Alpha Flight, literally switched creative teams. Completely. Even the editors switched roles. So it's no surprise that, as Mantlo and company take over the Canadians, they do so with a little epilogue to their work with the Hulk. By issue's end, he's back across the American border, and the Flight decides not to pursue him. They may technically have won the battle, and ousted the Hulk from the city, but at the cost of being quite badly wounded.

What the battle accomplishes for the team, though, is to solidify it as a team. One of the running themes, especially since Guardian's death, has been the coherency of the team. I mentioned earlier in my look at Alpha Flight that I kind of liked the way that the team wasn't really a team, a "non-team" almost in the mold of the old Defenders title from the 70s. Much of Marvel America is centralized around New York, though we see more and more teams being located in various cities around the country. But the dearth of heroes in the Great White North means that the team has to traverse vast distances to assemble. I liked that about them. Canada is fricking huge. For those who've never been here, we are the second-largest country in the world. And lots of it is pretty empty. The closest major city to Calgary, where I'm currently residing, is Edmonton, a 3-hour drive away. And that's actually pretty close.

I know that the team is likely to relocate to the old Langkowski manor that was the site of Gilded Lily's plans earlier this week, but I don't know when. And what does that mean for Northstar, who obviously has a life in Quebec, literally on the other side of the country? We may find out in the next couple of days, but perhaps not. Something to look forward to when we get back to the Flight, I guess. Oh, and I was mistaken when I said that I didn't have a coherent run after Byrne's departure. It actually looks like I have much of Mantlo's run as well. Groovy.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 741: Marvel Team-Up #135, November 1983

As I searched through my boxes for a comic to read this morning, I realized that Marvel Comics has named a lot of their comics after themselves. You'd think that the box up in the corner would tip people off to the fact that a comic features Spider-Man (he pulled a lot of guest appearances in the 80s. Transformers #3 is one of my favourites), but I guess branding is a thing in advertising, so there you have it.

I liked today's comic. Kitty Pryde was one of my first crushes as a young boy - I loved her in Uncanny X-Men, in her occasional appearances in The New Mutants, and in her transformation into ninja badass in the Wolverine & Kitty Pryde miniseries. For me, more than any of the other characters, Kitty was always the heart of the X-Men, that rebellious teenager who emblematized the rebelliousness inherent in the X-Men. It broke my heart when Joss Whedon did what he did (which I won't mention in the service of SPOILERS), though, as with all comics characters, she recovered. So putting her in the situation of having to babysit a couple of obnoxious kids, and then end up teaming up with Spider-Man to fend off some strangely technologically-advanced Morlocks fed so much of my inner adolescent. Not that he's hungry very often.

The art is standard 80s Marvel art, which means, again, the nostalgia factor kicks in for me. Though this comic was perhaps a year or so old by the time I started collecting comics, Ron Frenz's art is just how I remember those first comics I picked up from the House of Ideas: West Coast Avengers, Secret Wars, Avengers. These were my introduction to the world(s) of superheroes, so whenever I read something that resembles those titles, the thrill of discovering, or its memory, hits me again.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 365: The Transformers #1, September 1984

Okay, before I get into today's comic, can we just bask in that cover a bit? This, coupled with Sienkiewicz's Starriors covers from the same year, grace what could have simply been a silly toy comic with a real elegance.

Welcome to the completion of my first year of The 40 Years of Comics Project! Before beginning this project, I was notoriously bad at maintaining my various blogs, but having set myself the manageable goal of a single comic a day, I've felt re-invigorated toward my public writing. Thanks to anyone who's read even only one or two posts. I am humbled by any attention my writing might command. To celebrate the first year, I'm going to post a bit of a retrospective, musing on the good and the bad, but to cap the completion of Year One, I'm going to talk a bit about a comic that has been in my collection almost longer than any other.

If we're to stick to the notion that a comic is released three months before the date on the cover, this particular issue came out in June or July of 1984. I was ten years old. This jibes with my memories of buying the comic, as it would have been while living in Mississauga, and was probably amongst my first solo forays to the variety store (a Hasty Market, I think) about half a kilometer from our house. This store became my first source of comics, only supplanted when my Mum recognized my love for the medium, and started taking me to specialty stores. What this all boils down to is that this comic has been a part of my collection for over 30 years, never having been sold, traded, lost, or replaced. This is the same comic that, in many ways, kick-started my passion for the medium.

Of course, when I bought it, it was because it was based on an awesome series of toys, most of which were far too expensive for my meager allowance. But if I could experience the adventures of these titanic robots, even without playing with them myself, that was fine. In all, I collected The Transformers for about 5 years, only ceasing in the late 80s when I discovered sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and left comics behind for a little while.

Nostalgia and memory aside, however, is it a good comic? Yes and no. One of the things that pushed me away from this series was the trend it stumbled into, fairly early in the run, of introducing new characters almost every issue, in order to keep up with the toy line. This first issue does have moments that read much like advertisements. There are two particular spreads in which both the Decepticons and the Autobots perform a roll call of sorts. Ostensibly, within the story, this is to make sure that all members of each team have survived the crash of the Ark, but really the dialogue and captions read like they've come straight from the backs of the toy boxes, outlining personalities and weapons in a decidedly awkward manner. Much like the G.I. Joe series that preceded it, the impetus to sell toys is not far from the surface of the series. That said, we're still reading a comic by three relatively experienced and expert creators, and though one of the uses of the series was to sell toys, another was to tell an interesting, and engaging, story. Which this comic does. The history of the Cybertronian war is excellent, and reading it now, I would be far more interested in a series depicting that conflict than the one on Earth. The notion of "naturally occurring gears, levers and pulleys" is also pretty fantastic, and speaks to the idea of infinite variation in an infinite cosmos. There is an entire culture built on Cybertron in the first few issues that teases a myriad of fascinating stories.

We don't, however, get much of that. The real delight of this first issue is the Autobots' assumption that mechanical devices are the dominant life form on the planet, and their subsequent discovery otherwise. As Prowl notes on the second last page of the issue, what they "are seeing is non-machine life, as hard as that may be to accept." That caveat to the statement, the difficulty of accepting life that is so unlike their own conception of it, provides a profound depth to the characterization of what are ostensibly representations of plastic toys. This isn't just a comic used as advertisement, but a tale of first contact between life forms that are in some ways completely foreign to one another, and in others remarkably similar. The surface action story aside, this subtext is really rather remarkably hopeful.

Sadly, as I note above, this subtext is lost in the rush to advertise. Only later in the series, when the toy line was waning, and writer Simon Furman takes over, do the characters once again attain, on a regular basis rather than only occasionally, the depth that is teased in this first issue. I'll get there eventually.

I can't promise I'll read the next issue tomorrow. I might have to find something equally as important in my collection to kick of Year Two. Tune in, and find out. Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 334: Marvel Two-In-One #47, January 1979

This was pretty much a comic about The Thing and the Yancy Street Gang, which is a rivalry I'm too young to understand - and too disinterested to care about understanding. I never really did get the whole fascination with gangs, in or out of comics.

There is, however, in this issue some brilliant facial hair.

Brilliant:

What more can I say?