The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1977: Cyberforce/Hunter Killer First Look, May 2009

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This is one of those comics that I had very little context for, and thus was not entirely sure what the heck was going on. I know Cyberforce vaguely, mostly from a two-issue Steve Gerber series, but the Top Cow/Ballistic Studios output is really not something with which I'm very familiar. That said, Mark Waid is a pretty savvy guy, so his name attached to a project is usually a good sign. But the art by today's featured artist, Kenneth Rocafort, is a real treat. It's lovely when you get a good artist and a good writer paired - one can often assuage one with the other if there's a lack, but every now and again you get a nice match. Like this one.

 Not much else to say, I'm afraid. Like I say, I don't know the characters or shared universe very well, so the events that take place are contextless, mostly. Can contextless events be considered a story?

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1976: Crimson #1, May 1998

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 When the three Cliffhanger titles debuted, I picked up the first issues of each of them. Danger Girl was okay, but really was just showcasing J. Scott Campbell's ability to draw beautiful women. Battle Chasers was okay, but I really just couldn't see past Red Monika's boobs. I don't think anyone else could either.

Crimson, by today's featured creator Humberto Ramos, was the most low-key of the three titles, and the one that I was most interested in. And it's the longest-running of the three original titles, ending at issue #24 in 2001. That said, I only have the first few issues. I find that I have moments of buying comics where I'm after far too many at once, and sometimes I have to make hard decisions. On the other side of things, I haven't bought a new comic in almost 6 months. Once Squirrel Girl ended, I just couldn't see the point.

Anyway, this comic is absolutely loaded with diversity. Taking place, as it does, in the grimier parts of New York City, we see a vast array of characters from numerous different backgrounds. I'm wrestling with whether the depiction of Joe in the comic is okay or not - he's given some Native American trappings, but it's hard to tell if the character is actually Indigenous or not. Guess I'll have to read more. But, yeah, for a comic from the 90s, this is a remarkably diverse book. I guess this is what happens when we have comics that aren't just written and drawn by white guys for white guys. A comic like Crimson, like many of the queer comics I've reviewed, looks much more like the world I see outside my doors than a lot of mainstream comics. How any of the insane Comicsgaters could possibly think that this weakens the medium somehow is just beyond me.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1975: The New Mutants #98, February 1991

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(A brief note: according to The Atlantic, the term "latinx" is not exactly a popular one. It is used primarily in academic circles, and since that's where I come from, I'm going to use it. I hope it doesn't offend anyone. I use it exactly to avoid such offense.)

Let's start off my week of Latinx creators with a big one, and currently one of the most valuable comics in my collection. This issue, from featured creator Fabian Nicieza, is the first appearance of the inimitable Merc with a Mouth, Ryan Reynolds' alter ego, Deadpool. Though the credits list Nicieza as a "Scripter," and Rob Liefeld as the story writer, Deadpool's trademark, aside from his violent ways, is his unceasing patter while battling, eating, fucking, whatever. And that comes from a scripter, I would imagine. Rob Liefeld often talks about himself as Deadpool's creator, but comics are words and pictures.

Aside from this, we also have Domino's first appearance, a character played with utter perfection by Zazie Beetz. These introductions, of course, are groundwork for the end of The New Mutants with issue #100, and the beginning of the Liefeld/Nicieza title X-Force. With Liefeld's departure with the other image founders, Mr. Nicieza took over the creative direction of the series until the universe shattering events of The Age of Apocalypse. Mr. Nicieza was a foundational writer for the X-books throughout the 90s and early 2000s, and laid the groundwork for a lot of what has since become canonical in the Marvel Universe.

As with my look at Black creators, I'm interested to see what kind of Latinx representation there is in these comics that feature creators of that ethnic background. I didn't see too much representation in this issue, with the exception, perhaps, of Rictor, who leaves the team in this issue. I couldn't actually find too much info on Rictor's background, but it's telling that after Liefeld leaves the series, Mr. Nicieza returns Rictor to the X-Force fold.

More to follow.