Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 8/31

Deadpool V Gambit #4
Story: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Art: Danilo Beyruth & Cris Peter

There have been a lot of groups of mutant villain henchmen over the years (if you want to learn more about them, check out Dan Grote's posts here and here). And when there are that many members of a team whose main purpose is to hench for some big bad, there's a good chance that those characters are one note characters. So it's interesting when writers Ben Acker and Ben Blacker pull back from the comedic caper that has been the first three issues of Deadpool V Gambit to spend pretty much the entire fourth issue not focusing on either of their leads, but instead telling the story of Scrambler. Scrambler is a member of the Marauders, the group that works for Mr. Sinister, but that isn't even important to know for this issue. Acker & Blacker start the story off by establishing the basics, that Scramber was a bad guy who fought the X-Men and who has tried to go straight. Acker and Blacker make us care about Kim Il Sung, a villain who has had very little development before this. Not only do they logically update his power set, which is trickier than you'd think, but they also give him a love interest, a family, and a logical desire to be a better person for them. I encountered Acker & Blacker through The Thrilling Adventure Hour, which is one of the funniest things, well, ever, and the earlier issues of this series have been lighter in tone. Even their Thunderbolts work, which had something of a darker tone, had a large portion of humor to it. And while this issue isn't grim (the reason Scrambler has it in for Gambit and Deadpool spins out of a scene that is actually pretty darn funny), this issue is much more a character study. We see Scrambler at his lowest, then his best, ans then dragged down back to the lowest by situations beyond his control. It's a really solid single issue in the middle of a mini-series, and while the series' two leads are pretty much incidental, it doesn't feel like something completely outside the scope of the series. There's a big reveal at the end of the issue, actually, that casts the events of the series in a completely different light. If you've been suffering from Gambit withdrawal since he hasn't been a regular in a series in a while, you just need some more Deadpool, or you like to see the other side of villains, you should really check out Deadpool V Gambit.

Gotham Academy Annual #1
Story: Brenden Fletcher & Becky Cloonan
Art: Adam Archer, Msassyk, Michael Dialynas, Chris Wildgoose, Sandra Hope, Serge Lapointe, & Rob Haynes

We've been away from Gotham Academy for a few months now (unless you've been checking out the very fun Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy, which you all should be), so the choice to do a one off annual to refresh current readers and introduce new ones before the new Gotham Academy: Second Semester starts was a good one, and this issue is a great jumping on point for new readers. A mysterious ailment is sweeping Gotham Academy, and our leads, the members of Detective Club, are split down the middle on what they think is responsible: Pomeline, always looking for a magical explanation, thinks it's a vampire, while Colton believes visiting professor Derek Powers is behind this. So Colton takes Kyle, and Pomeline takes Tristan, and Maps is left trapped in the middle. We get to see Olive, who is usually in the center of everything, on the sidelines in this issue, which allows the other characters to really stand out. What this issue does, which is a great example of what Gotham Academy does best, is balance the character work with the mystery and the macabre, while also tying into the deep mythology of Batman as a character. Note I didn't say the history of Batman, as what this issue ties into is actually the future of Batman. If you're at all familiar with Batman Beyond, either the animated series or the comics that have been released to tie into it, you know the name Derek Powers and know that no good will come of it. Also returning this issue is Warren McGinnis, introduced back in issue four of the series, who also has ties to the Batman Beyond universe. There's ealso an appearance from a supernatural one-off Bat villain, a character I never thought would pop up again, which is something that just fills me with joy; no other series from either of the Big Two embraces the crazy history of comics like Gotham Academy does. But what's even better is that if you're unfamiliar with any and all of that, nothing of the issue is lost on you. Instead you get two interlocking mysteries featuring two sets of likable protagonists. Pomeline is at her most demanding, and Colton at his most slick, but we get hints that there's more to Colton than we've seen before; of all the regular cast, he's the one who's gotten the least development so far, more or less being the campus ne'er-do-well, so it's nice that we're beginning to see more of his personality and his backstory come out. There are multiples artists across this issue, but fortunately Rob Haynes did breakdowns across the whole issue so the art has a consistent feel, but each plotline has a distinct look. Gotham Academy Annual #1 is an exciting romp across the grounds of the titular Academy and a treat for Batman fans of all ages and knowledge.

Suicide Squad: War Crimes Special
Story John Ostrander
Art: Gus Vazquez, Carlos Rodriguez, & Gabe Eltaeb

Now THIS is the Suicide Squad. I haven't written as much about the Suicide Squad as I feel like is deserved for how much I love the concept and the characters on this blog, mostly because the series as it's been running since I started writing here has rarely been a book I really loved. But this one-shot, written by the man who redefined the Squad in the '80s and a writer I have written a lot about, John Ostrander, hits every note that makes a good Suicide Squad story. Let's count them down, shall we?

1) It has great characters and character moments: The Squad in this issue is mostly made up of staples of the Squad: Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Rick Flag from the original series; Harley Quinn and El Diable from the New 52 era; and a new member, Mad Dog, who you know is not long for the team right out front. Flag and Deadshot have a great rapport in the issue, working together, and Ostrander writes one truly funny Harley moment. But it's Boomerang who Ostrander really captures. The arrogant, smarmy, easy to anger, quick to seek revenge Boomerang of those classic books is on display here, to the point that he is responsible for Mag Dog's death just because the bounty hunter rubbed him the wrong way. Boomerang is often played as comic relief or the team punching bag, but Ostrander remembers that he is a nasty piece of work at heart.

2) Interesting foes: Ostrander gave the Suicide Squad some really interesting enemies in his original run. The international mercenaries known as the Jihad (changed to Onslaught after their first appearance) were a great collection of characters with interesting powers and looks. The Loa was another fascinating nemesis. This story introduces Strikeforce Europa, a team of European mercenaries. And while they don't exactly walk out of this unscathed, they don't feel like characters who were created simply to be disposed of; they have a backstory and work as characters who have potential.

3) Real world events effect comic book stories: There was an interview I read somewhere once that I wasn't able to find to get the exact quote where Ostrander said he stopped writing stories for Suicide Squad set in real places because it seemed like every time he did it seemed that place popped up on the news. And while recent Suicide Squad stories have taken place in real countries, they are often just using those places as a setting and not discussing the political realities. This issue takes something very real and while changing the names to protect the innocent (or to protect the publisher from libel suits), there is a reality to this story. The Secretary of Defense from the "previous administration" has been kidnapped by Strikeforce Europa to stand trial for war crimes, for starting the last "Gulf action" to benefit "Black Mountain" the private military security contractor he has worked for an with. If you have any notion of modern American politics, none of this is particularly veiled commentary on politics, and it creates an interesting mission, as the Squad must rescue him.

4) Action action and more action: Much of this issue is an elaborate heist type story, only with what the team is trying to take is a human being. We get the Squad in battle with Strikeforce Europa, with the assassin Shado, who was sent by Black Mountain to silence the Secretary of Defense before he spilled their secrets at the World Court, not to mention your standard issue security forces. You get car chases, super powered fights, and a really cool scene with Deadshot on a motorcycle. It has an excellent balance of action and character, which was the hallmark of the best Suicide Squad stories.

5) The Wall: John Ostrander created Amanda Waller, and there are very few, if any, writers who get her better than Ostrander. Whether it's giving the team a briefing with her patented hardass attitude and biting humor, or debriefing when the team gets back, and all her contact in between, this is the Waller I hear in my head when I think of best Waller moments.And I've seen people of two minds on how coldly homicidal Waller was in the recent Suicide Squad movie, but anyone with any familiarity with the character would see that her actions at the end of this issue, and the reasoning behind them, are so perfectly logical that it's one of my favorite Waller moments of all time.

Seriously folks, whether you miss the old Squad stories or are a fan of the new ones, this is a perfect gem of a Suicide Squad story that everyone should check out.

And look! Dan Grote is back, with a review featuring two of his great fan passions: the X-Men and '90s music...

X-Men ’92 #6

Story by Chris Sims & Chad Bowers

Art by Alti Firmansyah & Matt Milla

Matt often writes about how sometimes a book is so consistently good, he sometimes passes on reviewing it because there are only so many ways to say “This book is consistently good” month after month.

The same can be said for Marvel’s X-Men ’92, which is if nothing else a love letter to the 1990s animated series and the comics of the time period.

Except this issue ups the ante considerably by working in the music of the Extreme Era as well. Coming of age in the ’90s as I did, I spent my teen years a) devouring X-Men comics and b) listening to alternative radio. So to read a comic in which the X-Men work as bodyguards for Lila Cheney at a music festival that includes the Flaming Lips and the Toadies is to relive those years in their purest, most crystalized form. The only thing missing is all those Sunday afternoons I killed playing The Sims and Final Fantasy VI on the Super Nintendo.

After a prologue that brings Joss Whedon creation SWORD into the ’92-niverse, the comic opens with intergalactic rockstar Cheney joining the Lips on stage for “Race for the Prize,” complete with lettered lyrics that sent me combing through my CDs to see if I still had a copy of “The Soft Bulletin.” Even Beast is singing along, and let’s face it, he would like an up-tempo song about two scientists competing to save a dying sun.

And seriously, the Toadies? The Toadies?! Raise your hand if you’ve thought about the Toadies at any point after 1996. They’re about as ’90s as Adam X the X-Treme.

Anyway, it turns out Lila’s on Earth because there’s a bounty on her head, and she’s being hunted down by British-import robot space bounty hunter Death’s Head. Hence her asking the X-Men to act as security.

Also lurking around disguised as a be-ponytailed roadie is none other than Acolyte-slash-Upstart Fabian Cortez, whom a narration box accurately describes as having “the power to make mutants mutant harder.” Cortez amps up Cheney’s already-considerable teleportation powers amid the fight with Death’s Head, transporting herself, the X-Men, Death’s Head and SWORD’s Abigail Brand to an alienated planet populated by [spoilers].

I can’t say enough how much of this book is sold on the strength of Alti Firmansyah’s art. Chris Sims and Chad Bowers get the cheesiness of the era and what characters will make fans wistful, but Firmansyah nails the fashion, the facial expressions and the fun of what, at its worst, was a melodramatically angsty time. It doesn’t mimic the animation style of the cartoon – if anything, she seems to take her cues from “Voltron” and the Joe Madureira style of manga-light art that took hold mid-decade – but you can see that she’s having fun, and I’d love to read more of her work.

Five Comic Book Members of the Suicide Squad for the Inevitable Sequel

DC's next major motion picture opens today: Suicide Squad. One of my favorite properties from the 80s, the Suicide Squad is a team of villains forced to do covert ops for the US government. I haven't seen the movie yet, so I'm not here to comment on it, but instead to talk about the comics, and casting. You see, the reason why the team is called the Suicide Squad is because there's a good chance that team members aren't going to make it back from these missions, which means high team turnover. So that means there are plenty of other options for team members, and I'm hear to talk about five possible characters who could join the Squad ion the sequel that will probably be coming.

It's important to note that, while the Suicide Squad has had many incarnations, both before and after, I'm drawing all of my choices from what I view as THE Suicide Squad comic, the 1980s series written by John Ostrander and Kim Yale. It is easily one of the best series DC published at a point of high creativity, filled with topical politics, all out action, and tremendous character depth.

Before I start, I just want to call out three squad members who didn't make it on this list not because they're not awesome and I would love to see them on the big screen, but because of some of the weird silos that DC has on many of its character, these three feature prominently as heroes or villains on the CW DC TV series, and so will be featured there: Vixen, who has been added to the cast of Legends of Tomorrow for next season, Count Vertigo, who is one of Green Arrow's principal foes and has appeared in various iterations on Arrow,  and the one non-Ostrander/Yale character I considered, King Shark, who first joined the team in the pages of Superboy and became a regular in the New 52, who has been a featured villain on Flash. I'd be thrilled to see any of those characters make the movies though, DC, so keep them in mind!

Now without further ado, five members of the Suicide Squad I'd like to see in the sequel, in mostly alphabetical order:

Bronze Tiger
Ben Turner was a skilled martial artist who was taken and brain washed to serve as a member of the League of Assassins. After the conditioning was broken, he willingly joined the Suicide Squad to atone for all the deaths he caused as a member of the League. He did appear on Arrow as a member of the Squad, but disappeared around the same time the fiat came from on high from Warners to remove the team, so I don't see any problem in him being used here. I'm picking Bronze Tiger for a couple reasons. He was one of the staples of the original '80s Squad, along with Deadshot, Boomerang, and Amanda Waller. He's got a great backstory, and his nobility makes him stand apart from the more sociopathic members of the team, while he still struggles with rage and doubt caused by years of mind control. Also, while I have to give the movie credit for having more diversity than a lot of superhero teams, it never hurts to add another actor of color to your roster. I also like the connection to the League of Assassins. Again, while used on Arrow, the League is primarily a Batman related property, and I think it would be interesting to do a Suicide Squad vs. ninjas movie, with a more comic book traditional Ra's al Ghul as the big bad, and adding in Bronze Tiger gives a connection to the League.

Duchess
We already known that Darkseid and his minions are the big bad in this first phase of DC Universe movies, and it would make sense to have someone tied to that become a member of the Suicide Squad. Duchess was in reality Lashina, a member of Granny Goodness's Female Furies, who was betrayed by another Fury, Bernadeth, and left behind on a mission. She joined the Suicide Squad, claiming amnesia, but secretly spent her time on the Squad looking for a way back to Apokolips, and when it arrived she took it, bringing most of the Squad along with her and costing the lives of more than one member. I like the idea of adding to the cohesive nature of the shared universe in a less forced way then it seems DC has been doing, by naturally working a survivor from what I assume is the Apokoliptian invasion coming in the Justice League films into the roster. It would also be cool to get another physically imposing female figure in movies in general, and her particularly, since it would give the Squad a character who could go toe-to-toe with the Justice League's heavy hitters.

Nemesis
I have a soft spot for Tom Tresser, the spy code named Nemesis, first from his tme on the Suicide Squad, then his appearances in Gail Simone's run on Wonder Woman, and the two really trppy mini-series he starred in that spun out of Final Crisis. Nemesis worked with the Squad not as a convict but because he owed Amanda Waller and Rick Flag for saving his life. Since the Squad is theoretically a covert ops team, having a master of disguise on the roster always made sense to me. It's also interesting to have him on the team because, even though Rick Flag and Bronze Tiger are mostly good guys, they both are men who know how to make hard choices. Nemesis was a softer touch, and had more problems with the ruthless way the Squad was run; he provided a different angle on the Squad missions.

Poison Ivy
While Harley Quinn has become a staple of the Suicide Squad in recent years, her BFF/girlfriend Poison Ivy was a long standing member in the original series. Back when the series was written, Ivy had not been remade into the eco-terrorist/sympathetic villain she is now, but was instead mostly a master manipulator of men; she spent a good part of the run with Count Vertigo held in her thrall. I would expect a Suicide Squad movie to use the current, more well regarded version of Ivy. It would be fun to see the Harley and Ivy dynamic played out in live action and on screen, helping to bring some levity to things.

Oracle
I went back and forth on this as a choice. One of John Ostrander and Kim Yale's principal achievements on Suicide Squad was taking the mess that was The Killing Joke and crafting Oracle, the Barbara Gordon who I grew up reading. I know that, now that Barbara is back being Batgirl again, many readers sort of want to move completely beyond Oracle since it brings up the somewhat ugly spectre that Killing Joke casts on the character, but I love Oracle. I love the concept that even when the use of her legs are taken away, Barbara Gordon is such a hero that she finds a way to still do good. I love the perseverance and strength of character that this demonstrates for Barbara. And I think it gives an opportunity for all sorts of stories and a different sort of representation, once we see even less of in movies. And there are ways to create Oracle that aren't as ugly as Joker's sadistic attack on her; there are enough differences between the DCEU and the DCU that the filmmakers could come up with a new story that still has the same effect. And after all the teasing of a possible Barbara Gordon in the BvS extended cut, wouldn't it be nice to get a real appearance in the DCEU?


The Supporting Cast
OK, so this takes me beyond the five I said I'd pick, but this is something that was really important in the original Suicide Squad series that has been missing in pretty much all the versions since. Ostrander and Yale built a sizable network of character who operated around the main Squad as support staff, and spent time making them all fully realized characters. I know this would be hard to do in a movie, or even a series of movies, but it would be great to try, or at least to give some nods to them. Characters like Flow Crawley, the daughter of Amanda Waller's cousin who worked in the administration of Belle Reve, and who gave Waller of less cold, more human side. Or Father Craemer, the prison chaplain, who Ostrander would go on to do amazing things with in The Spectre. Doctors Simon LaGrieve and Marnie Herrs could be put to excellent use, who would often try to convince Waller that members of the team weren't ready for these missions to no effect, giving a voice of compassion in a series filled with characters who are not compassionate at all. And finally there was Mitch Sekofsky, the mechanic for the Squad's transports, who was one of the first openly gay characters in DC history. The Marvel franchises have proven that you can build these kind of networks of supporting characters so we can hope that DC can move forward with a wide array of background characters.

Kickstarter Spotlight On: Hexer Dusk

As I get ready for what looks to be a busy Memorial Day weekend, I just wanted to write a quick post about a Kickstarter I'm really excited about. I've written about the work from John Ostrander and Jan Duursema a bunch over the years, especially their work together on Star Wars: Republic,  Star Wars: Legacy and Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi. But now, the two of them are back together, working on a new original graphic novel Kickstarter, a sci-fi/fantasy mash up called Hexer Dusk.

I'm not going to talk too much, because Jan and John do that better than I could on the Kickstarter page and in this new interview on Comic Book Resources, but just check that out. It sounds amazing! It's got falling sky cities, demons, and is headlined by one of the last of the solider/magic users called Hexers, Xane Dusk. Looking at the sample art, it's got a touch of Legacy, with it's broken down, hardscrabble world, some of John Ostrander's classic Grimjack, and whole lot of Jan Duursema's amazing design work.

So, go read that interview, then visit the Kickstarter and pledge! It's just about 97% funded, so your pledge might be the one that puts it over the top. Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend, and see you Monday!

The Matt Signal Advent Calendar 2015 Day 18: Star Wars: The Clone Wars "The Hunt for Ziro"

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Season 3, Episode 9, "The Hunt for Ziro," 2010

Matt Says:

Today, there was nothing else I planned on posting about other than Star Wars, so for the advent calendar, I felt it was time to write about a Star Wars cartoon, and one featuring the introduction into the Star Wars official canon one of the best characters to come out of the Star Wars comics: Quinlan Vos. The Quinlan of the cartoon is very different form his comic counterpart; in the comics, he is dark and haunted, but here he's a brash and jovial character. Still, he's got the same psychometric powers, still doesn't follow council orders well, and he's still Quinlan Vos, and this is a great buddy cop comedy episode.

The story send Obi-Wan and Quinlan on a mission together, to find Ziro the Hutt, a mobster who escaped Republic jail. Obi-Wan and Quin are diametrically opposed in personality; Obi-wan is calm and reserved, while Quin is always charging forward, and has no problem with who gets in the way or gets offended. This leads to some great banter between the two.

As the two hunt for Ziro, they fight swamp monsters, see Ziro's mother, who might be the biggest Hutt anywhere in Star Wars history, and wind up in a hand-to hand, semi-aerial fight with bounty hunter Cad Bane, jumping from rock spire to rock spire on the planet Teth. That final battle with Cad Bane is one of the highlights of this series for me, taking full advantage of animation. It's gorgeous to look at and allows Jedi to do things even more outrageous than what they can do in a live action film.

The episode is littered with Easter eggs. A musical number at the palace of the Hutt clans is inspired by the opening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The ruling council of Hutts include Hutts set to resemble Don Vito Corleone, Marlon Brando's character from The Godfather, and Edward G Robinson, legendary Hollywood gangster actor. There's even a droid that looks like one from the '80s cult film *batteries not included.

Step Into a Wider World: Favorite Star Wars Tales Stories

Dark Horse presented a lot of different comics over the many years it had the Star Wars license. Some are seminal and important works to the EU (Dark Empire, Tales of the Jedi), and some are always going to be on my list of favorite Star Wars stories (Rogue Squadron, Tag & Bink, pretty much anything John Ostrander wrote). But there's a special place for the Star Wars Tales anthology. It was a quarterly anthology series that ran for twenty four issues, featured some stories that were intended to be in continuity and some that were clearly outside it, and allowed a lot of Dark Horse's regular Star Wars creators to do shorts featuring side characters, while other stories had top tier creators doing their first or only Star Wars stories.

I had wanted to do a feature on my favorite stories from this series, and I originally was going to do ten, but found there were just too many, so instead I'm going to talk about twenty stories. Each entry will be short, so don't worry it won't take you all day to read this. I'm also focusing on issues one to twenty, since the editor changed after issue twenty and the series started to be more in continuity Star Wars stories, more tied into the bigger publishing plan.

Mara Jade: A Night on the Town (Star Wars Tales #1)- What better way could you imagine kicking off your brand new Star Wars anthology than with a story from the man who jumpstarted Star Wars publishing? Set early in her known continuity, "A Night on the Town" is a tale of Emperor's Hand and future wife of Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade, one of the best female characters in or out of Star Wars continuity. Created by Timothy Zahn for his novel Heir to the Empire, Mara is a tough, smart, and powerful character, and she shows it here, dealing with crooked Imperials, Rebels, specifically tactical genius Crix Madine (for those of you not big Star Wars people, he's the bearded guy leading the briefing with Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi). Zahn wrote a lot of Mara shorts for various Star Wars publications, and this one is one of my favorites, full of action and espionage, the hallmarks of a great Mara story.

Skippy the Jedi Droid (Star Wars Tales #1)- One of the clearly non-canon stories, "Skippy the Jedi Droid" tells the tale of a force sensitive droid on Tatooine, as he makes it through various trials and travails to be on the Lars farm and chooses to blow his own motivator, knowing through the Force that it is important Luke Skywalker takes R2-D2 instead. It's a silly story, full of quirky humor and lots of visual gags (like Bender, Crow, and Tome Servo in he Jawa sandcrwaler) and inside jokes, along with a comment about how the gravity of dual suns would theoretically make any planet near it uninhabitable. If you're a reader of this blog, and have read some of my recommendations, that type of humor might sound familiar, as this is the only Star Wars story ever written by one of my favorite writers, Incredible Hulk and X-Factor legend Peter David.

Extinction (Star Wars Tales #1-2)- One of the few multi part stories in Star Wars Tales, "Exctinction" is the tale of Darth Vader hunting down one of the last Jedi, the Dark Woman, a character introduced in the monthly Star Wars title that would one day be renamed Republic. Featuring appearances by Palpatine and Mara Jade, the battle between Vader and the Dark Woman is gorgeously drawn by Claudio Castellini, and Ron Marz writes a great story, one that ends with a Force Ghist Dark Woman confronting Vader for a memorable exchange.

Deal with a Demon (Star Wars Tales #3) & Bad Business (Star Wars Tales #8)- Before their was Hondo Ohnaka, there was Vilmarh Grahrk. If you're more familiar with Star Wars in other media, TV specifically, you might know Hondo as the roguish pirate with a soft spot for Jedi. A similar character was created by John Ostrander, Vilmarh Grahrk, Villie for short, who was one of the major supporting characters in the adventures of Quinlan Vos, a character you'll be heroing about a few more times before the month is out. Ostrander, along with his regular collaborator Jan Duursema on the first, wrote two Villie shorts for Tales, both involving Villie at his most scoundrely, helping princesses for the money. But as opposed to another famous scoundrel who fell for the princess, Villie is really just in it for the money. These stories do show how much Villie will eventually change thanks to his interactions with Vos, but they're mostly great comedy, with Villie finding his way in and out of all sorts of problems in the most selfish way he can, always maintaining that Villie ego.

A Death Star is Born (Star Wars Tales #5) and Force Fiction (Star Wars Tales #7)- Kevin Rubio is probably best known in Star Wars fandom as the man who wrote and directed the pioneering fan film Troops, but he also wrote some great Star Wars comics, all drawn by Lucas Marangon. Two of those are the tales "A Death Star is Born" and "Force Fiction." Two more out of continuity comedies, as pretty much all of Rubio's works are, these two do a great job of mixing established character and conuity with comedy. "A Death Star is Born" show Grand Moff Tarkin and some of his design team bringing the Death Star plans to the Emperor, where all of the somewhat odd quirks of its construction that allow for an easy escape in A New Hope are called out, and the rivalry between Vader and Tarkin is on display for a great choking joke. "Force Fiction" places Yoda and Mace Windu in a diner discussing whether or not to train Anakin Skywalker. It's obviously a parody of the diner scene in Pulp Fiction, which of course also starred Samuel L. Jackson, and features some very funny dialogue along with all sorts of cameos in the diner patrons, but also features some very incisive dialogue about the nature of the prophecy about the Chosen One bringing balance to the force.

Jedi Chef (Star Wars Tales #7)- One more straight up comedy, and then some more serious fare, I swear! Starring Jedi Council members Plo Koon and Micah Giett (Giett is a comics creation, who was on the cou ncil until shortly before Episode I), it sees the two Jedi trying to save a famous chef from a Hutt, and it turns into a cook off! Parodying the then very hot TV show Iron Chef, the story sees Giett in a competition to beat Corpo the Hutt's cook droid in a battle of the chefs. I loved Iron Chef, so the story stuck in my head, and features some great gags as the not too great chef Giett tries to prepare his dish while Koon sabotages the droid's meal at every turn. Just plain fun.

Outbid But Never Outgunned (Star Wars Tales #7)- For some, what I'm about to say is blasphemy: I've never been a big fan of Boba Fett. He's not a bad character, but I feel he gets overused, when there are any number of other interesting bounty hunters in Star Wars. "Outbid But Never Outgunned" however is a great story and might be my favorite Fett story. In it, Fett finds himself being blackmailed by a businessman who says he has something that Feet wants, and if Fett doesn't pay up, it goes to the highest bidder. Fett goes on his usual ruthless path to take out the man blackmailing him, and is joined by another bounty hunter, a woman named Sintas Vel, with whom Fett clearly has history. Drawn by Mike Deodata, his first Star Wars work years before his current work on Vader Down, it's a stunningly beautiful action story, and ends with a revelation about Fett that would become hugely important in the later novel series Legacy of the Force.

The Secret Tales of Luke's Hand! (Star Wars Tales #8)- Ok, maybe one more straight up comedy. When young Anakin Solo, Han and Leia's youngest son, is having a hard time sleeping, Han goes in to ask him what's wrong, and he asks why Uncle Luke always wears a glove. When Han explains that Luke lost his hand in a fight with Darth Vader, he begins to conjure a story of the hand wandering the galaxy, fighting Vader's hand and the Emperor's foot. I've written before that I'm an uncle to two young nieces, and though they're growing now, when they were little they loved to hear me tell them stories made up on the fly, usually starring Felix, my cat at the time, who in the stories was a secret agent (in real life he was a lump of fur), so this one touches a chord for me. It's also charming to see Han Solo in such a domestic scene, not being chased through the galaxy but just being a dad.

Resurrection (Star Wars Tales #9)- The only story that takes up nearly an entire issue and it deserves every page. Long before The Clone Wars cartoon, when the idea of a resurrected Darth Maul was just fan talk, this story came out and pitted Maul against Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel for the ages. Resurrected by Prophets of the Dark Side, agents of the Emperor, Maul has been set to replace Vader, as the Prophets feel Vader is not worthy of being Palpatine's apprentice. Maul taunts Vader, saying he is unworthy, that a former Jedi could never understand the purity of hate it means to be a Sith. And when Vader falls before Maul (SPOILERS if you don't want to know exactly how this ends), Vader stabs himself with his lightsaber to reach his opponent, and as Maul dies, asks Vader what he could hate enough to give him the power to defeat Maul. Vader's reply is only one word: "Myself." Released before Episodes II and III, Ron Marz's statement of Vader's feelings are prescient, and the art from Rick Leonardi, who would go on to draw the General Grievous miniseries and one of the Vader solo miniseries, is some of the best of his long career.

The Princess Leia Diaries (Star Wars Tales #11)- Riffing on The Princess Diaries, this story tells of a young Princess Leia on trips with her adoptive father, Bail Organa, and her time in the Imperial Court as a young girl. It's narrated diary style by Leia, naturally, and shows that she was always the rebellious, stubborn kid with the tough streak we know from the movies. It's a good story, but why does it make this list? Because in it, Leia drops a water balloon on the head of Grand Moff Tarkin. It's a silly moment, but one that, for some reason, completely stuck in my memory. It's also the first of two Leia stories by Jason Hall on this list, but I didn't group them like some of the others because the two are tonally very different. The second will appear later on the list, so keep reading.

Ghost (Star Wars Tales #11)- "Ghost" is pretty much everything I would want from a Star Wars Tales story. It is written and drawn by Jan Duursema, who worked with John Ostrander as artist for most of his work and co-plotter for Dawn of the Jedi. It features a young Han Solo on a treasure hunt. There aren't a lot of comics that feature Han in his pre-Chewbacca days, and while this one's canonicity is ambiguous, even in the new Legends concept, it's a great story. Its full of action as young Han is on a treasure hunt, and he runs across a being very familiar to fans of Star Wars comics: Ostrander and Duursema's greatest Jedi creation, Quinlan Vos. The meeting between two favorite characters is a treat, and add in some of my favorite Duursema art, how well she captures both a slightly older Quin and a much younger Han, and you have a real highlight of a story.

Sandstorm (Star Wars Tales #15)- I'm following up the previous story, featuring a young Han Solo, with a story about a young Luke Skywalker. After a fight with Uncle Owen about not knowing anything about his father, young Luke runs away and gets caught in a sandstorm, where he meets another young Tatooine orphan, a boy called Annie. As the two travel through the storm, they encounter all the horrors of Tatooine: womp rats, sand people, and even a Krayt Dragon. Readers knowing who Annie is, whether a manifestation of the Force trying to teach Luke something, or something Luke summoned from the Force himself, get to see exactly how similar young Luke was to his father, how hungry for a greater universe. And seeing Owen's reaction when he hears of what happened, I felt a little more sympathetic to the gruff old moisture farmer who was trying to keep his nephew on the farm for one more season.

The Other (Star Wars Tales #16)- If someone asked me for a story that was a great intersection between the Star Wars novels and the comics, I would choose "The Other." The time between Return of the Jedi and the Legacy comics is a period with comparatively few comic stories; yes Dark Empire and Crimson Empire are in there, as are the Rogue Squadron comics, but other than those and a few mini-series, most comics take place in the distant past, the prequel era, or during the classic trilogy, and because of this, there aren't a lot that directly address continuity. "The Other" is the second Princess Leia tale by Jason Hall, and tells a story of an older Leia, who saves her children from an Imperial assassination team using her then burgeoning Force abilities with ruthless precision. But when she sees her own refelction, and sees a vision of herself as another Darth Vader, she stops. Maybe it's because Luke had training from full Jedi, or maybe because of his own brushes with the Dark Side, Luke rarely seemed to consider his own fall. But Leia, in this story and in the later novel, Tatooine Ghost, really considers what it might mean for her, or her children, to bow to the Skywalker legacy. It explains why Leia stopped training to be a Jedi, why she sent her children away, in a far more satisfactory way than any novel ever did, and unwraps another facet of one of Star Wars most loved characters.

Heart of Darkness (Star Wars Tales #16)- "Heart of Darkness" is an interesting story in that its a continuity band-aid that proves to be a great story in its own right. Written and painted by Paul Lee, with art assists by Brian Horton, it tells the story of Minch, a member of Yoda's species, chasing a dark Jedi onto a swamp planet and defeating him in a cave. This story is actually drawn from Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire, and featured Yoda slaying the Dark Jedi and inadvertently creating the cave that Luke would one day make his vision quest in on Dagobah, but the script for Revenge of the Sith established that Yoda had never been to Dagobah before, so Lee crated a new member of his species (who shares a name with one of Yoda's names in early drafts of Empire Strikes Back), and puts him through the ringer, having him fight the Dark Jedi and have his own brush with the Dark Side. Beautifully drawn, it's a striking story that moves beyond what felt like a story simply there to fix a hole in continuity to an exciting piece of the history of the Star Wars universe.

Revenents (Star Wars Tales #18)- Star Wars doesn't tend to do thrillers or horror stories. There are a few here and there, but generally, the Star Wars galaxy sticks to mash-ups of fantasy, sci-fi, and Westerns. One of the better exceptions to this rule is the thriller "Revenants," where a shuttle Han Solo is flying is shot down over the junk world of Raxus Prime by Slave 1, and Solo spends weeks hunted across the world by a seemingly unkillable Boba Fett. Han fights his way across the moon using is wits and making jury rigged weapons to help him survive. Han Solo might be down, but he's never out, even against the character who might just be considered his archenemy The story ends with a nice twist, and while at the time it seemed at odds with the current events in the New Jedi Order series of novels, it was eventually referenced in a cool way in a novella by Karen Traviss.

The Lost Lightsaber (Star Wars Tales #19)- While I often like to maintain my personal picture of what characters from novels look like, it's always nice to see one make their first appearance in a comic. This story, which features a young Jedi attempting to recover the lightsaber of Darth Vader, which has been stolen by Dark Side adepts to make a powerful weapon of the Dark Side is the only comic appearance by Ben Skywalker, son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. It's a fun story, but it always sticks in my head for that reason, as Ben was a character who didn't have a lot of personality at the time (he was developed in later novels in the Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi series)

Into the Great Unknown (Star Wars Tales #19)- "Into the Great Unknown" is another story like "Resurrection" that could really only happen in comics or animation, one of those fan wish fulfillment stories, outside of continuity, although this one has a darker ending than most fans would expect. Han and Chewie are piloting the Falcon and forced to make a blind hyperspace jump, crashing on a planet where Han is sadly killed by natives. Over a century later, an archaeologist arrives, looking into tales of a great beast, clearly referring to Chewbacca. The archaeologist finds Han's corpse and finds it oddly familiar. The archaeologist is referred to as Dr. Jones, and its clear that this is Indiana Jones, making this the only sanctioned Star War/Indiana Jones crossover, although boy that's a downer of an ending. Still, it does stick in the memory.

Melvin Fett (Star Wars Tales #20)- If I could recommend any one issue of a Star Wars comic to a comic fan who doesn't do licensed comics, or mainstream comics in general, it would be Star Wars Tales #20. The issue features stories by various important independent creators, including Gilbert Hernandez, Jason, Peter Bagge, Tony Millionaire, and a couple favorties of mine, Rick Geary, of the Treasury of Victorian Murder series, and creator of Monkey Vs. Robot, James Kolchaka. While any of these odd and eclectic stories could make this list, and I waffled between Geary and Kolchaka for my pic, I went with Kolchaka's "Melvin Fett" about Boba's incompetent cousin, who accepts a bounty to kill Jar-Jar Binks, and winds up instead shooting a Jar-Jar sippy cup. None of these stories are what you'd expect from Star Wars, but all of them have the flair of their creators, and show that the world of Star Wars is wide enough for all sort of interpretations from "A certain point of view."

So, I'm curious, my fellow Star Wars fans: What are your favorite stories from Star Wars Tales? Do they crossover with mine? Do you think I'm out of my mind for picking one of these stories? You can reply here, on Twitter @mattlaz1013, or on The Matt Signal Facebook page. I'd love to hear your opinions.

Thursdays With Wade Interlude: Revisiting John Ostrander's Deadpool

Today's reading: Heroes for Hire #10-11, Apr.-May 1998
Story: John Ostrander
Art: Pascual Ferry, Jaime Mendoza, & Joe Rosas (#10), Scott Kolins, Dan Pansonian, & Joe Rosas (#11)
Guest writer for this column: Matt Lazowitz

So, it might be surprising to those who have come to comics in the past ten years or so, but there was a time when Deadpool wasn't as ubiquitous as Batman or Wolverine, with dozens of guest shots a month. Early on, during the time that Joe Kelly's run was taking place, a Deadpool guest appearance was a fairly rare thing, outside of his recurring role in X-Force. So, I'm giving Dan the week off so I can discuss one of those early guest appearances, one that's important for a couple of reasons that tie into recent Deadpool history.

First a little history: as Dan has talked about, Deadpool's own series debuted during the time of Heroes Reborn, when many of Marvel's seminal heroes were shunted off to a pocket dimension inside a blue rubber ball being carried around by Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman's son (Hey, he's Franklin Richards. You tell him he can't use his god-like powers how he wants). So with the Avengers and Fantastic Four off the playing field, and the X-Men more hated and feared than ever before, some other heroes needed to step up. And so Danny Rand (Iron Fist) and Jim Hammond (the original Human Torch) took their considerable holdings in the Oracle Corporation and established a new Heroes for Hire, superheroes who were being paid to superhero, with Danny's old pal Luke Cage front and center. A Defenders-like non-team, the cast rotated, but included such characters as She-Hulk, Hercules, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), and the first female White Tiger, although she's not the same one from Ultimate Spider-Man.

Heroes for Hire was written by John Ostrander, hence my interest in the series. For those of you who haven't read any of my numerous pieces spotlighting his work, Ostrander became a household name in the 80s and 90s with both creator owned work, like his creator owned bounty hunter series Grimjack, and work for DC, including Suicide Squad, Firestorm, Manhunter, and Spectre, to name just a few. By this point in his career, he was doing a lot of work for Marvel, not just Heroes for Hire, but X-Man, Punisher, and a series of mini-series about Bishop of the X-Men. The art for most of the Heroes for Hire series was provided by Pascual Ferry, whose other works include a couple issues of Mr. Miracle with Grant Morrison, Adam Strange with Andy Diggle, Ultimate Fantastic Four with Mike Carey, and Action Comics with a guy you might be familiar with if you've been reading "Thursdays with Wade," Joe Kelly. One of these issues is a Ferry, while the other has art from Scott Kolins, probably best known for his partnership with Geoff Johns on The Flash.

One of the reasons to call out these issues now actually ties in to last week's new Deadpool #1. There, Deadpool comments that the Heroes for Hire were the first team he ever joined. While that is actually a reference to one of the excellent flashback issues from the previous Dedapool series, it is actually true! Yes, Deadpool appeared in a couple issues of Secret Defenders (along with Luke Cage, who never brings it up again) prior to this, but that isn't a team, just a random group of character Dr. Strange would summon to solve a particular problem, and Deadpool wasn't trying to be a hero back then. Here he's in full superhero mode (or as much as Wade ever can be).

By this point in the series, the other heroes have just returned from the pocket universe, but the Heroes for Hire are still up and running. There are a lot of subplots running, as Ostrander is a slow burn kind of plotter, with stuff like Iron Fist summoning K'un Lun to return to the mortal plane and Scott Lang having issues with his daughter, Cassie, long before she would become a superhero herself, but I'm going to stick to the main, and Deadpool relevant, plot.

The current assembled team at the beginning of this issue is made up of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and their often partners Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. Colleen is a martial artist and her partner in private investigation is Misty Knight, a trained P.I. with a cybernetic arm who is Iron Fists's on-again/off-again girlfriend. Jim Hammond calls the team together to tell them that they have been hired to stop a rogue biochemist, Professor Wolfgang Hessler, from selling his new bioweapon to the highest bidder. The thing that makes this a matter for super people is that Hessler has fled to his native country, Symkaria, home of international mercenaries Silver Sable and the Wild Pack, and Sable is keeping him protected, using a special Wild Pack composed of then-reformed Spider-Man villain Sandman, mercenary for hire Paladin, the former Bucky called Nomad (in whose comic Deadpool made his very first non-X universe appearance), and the martial artist known as the Cat. Cage is concerned that, with most of their regular team members away, they'll be underpowered for the mission, but Hammond assures them that another agent will meet them at the private jet to Symkaria. Oh, and all of this is being observed secretly by the series's main villain, the Master of the World, former Alpha Flight nemesis and a weird combination of Dr. Doom and Vandal Savage, who isn't as cool as either of them and has the least imaginative villain name of all time. More with him later.

When the Heroes arrive at their private airstrip, they find waiting for them... Indiana Jones! But no, hat's not Indy, it's Deadpool using his handy image inducer. You see, Hammond contacted Landau, Luckman, & Lake, and they sent their newest employee, Deadpool (wait, Deadpool wasn't working for LL&L last column. When did that happen? Keep reading this column to find out). Deadpool immediately starts to introduce himself to the Heroes, starting with a joke that would never fly today, addressing Colleen and Misty as Soy-N-Peppa, then tries to be a bro with Luke Cage. And when he gets to Iron Fist, he literally falls over laughing, commenting about Fist's footwear, calling them ballet slippers. When the Heroes get on the plane and start to take off without him, Deadpool quickly joins them and says he's trying to be a hero now, and keeping up with the George Lucas theme, starts making Star Wars jokes, asking to be taught by Obi-Wan Rand and all sorts of, "Use the Force, Luke," jokes. So Ostrander definitely has the Deadpool patter down.

Arriving at Symkaria, the team finds they must scale a treacherous mountain to arrive at the Monastery of St. Eobar's, where Sable has set Hessler up with a lab. Deadpool complains, makes some meta-commentary about how the team has no fliers and they need a better balance of super powers, and then simply teleports away, pretty much ruining the element of surprise. In the monastery, Paladin and Nomad are talking. Well Paladin is talking, and Nomad is replying with grunts and whistles. After Paladin makes a then-topical joke about Millennium, Chris Carter's nearly forgotten follow-up to The X-Files, Deadpool teleports in and he fighting commences.

The Heroes for Hire arrive during this initial fight, as do the rest of the Wild Pack, and issue ten ends with the two teams facing off. But that's after one final revelation. It turns out Nomad wasn't speaking because he isn't Nomad; he is, instead, a disguised Madcap! This is the first meeting between Deadpool and Madcap! While they haven't been together a lot on page, Madcap is one of the team of Deadpools in the current series, and was also, thanks to a retcon by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, the second voice in Deadpool's head throughout Daniel Way's entire run on the series, so it's become a pretty important first meeting.

Issue eleven starts out with the classic superhero vs. superhero fight. The splash page is Deadpool and Madcap face to face, Deadpool talking about his healing factor and how that means he'll win and Madcap saying he doesn't feel any pain so that's why he'll win. The fight seems pretty evenly matched, but the Wild Pack slowly takes out the Heroes for Hire, leaving only Deadpool up, and then Wade heroically teleports away, Mighty Brave Sir Robin style (yes, that was a Python joke, but it's relevant, trust me).

When Iron Fist comes to after the Cat took him out, he's imprisoned with a still unconscious Cage shackled to a wall and Misty and Colleen nowhere in sight., Silver Sable arrives to take him to meet Prof. Hessler and talk, laving Cage alone, who promptly breaks free and reveals that he has been working for the Master of the World. It's been years since I read any of the issues of this series other than the reread of these two, so I don't remember if this is where we learned Cage was a mole for the bad guy, but he breaks out of his cell to go and take Hessler off the board, as it turns out Hessler was working for the Master through a series of blinds before he ran away.

We cut to Colleen and Misty, who are being guarded by Madcap, who is basically doing the entire Spanish Inquisition bit from Monty Python's Flying Circus for them (see, I told you the Python reference was relevant) whether they like it or not. There's a knock on the door, and when Madcap opens it, it's Madcap! No, it's actually Deadpool using his image inducer again, and he coldcocks Madcap, frees Colleen and Misty, and they escape, bumping into Cage, and together they head off to find Iron Fist.

But when they find Iron Fist, he has been talking to Silver Sable and Hessler, and it turns out Hessler didn't know he was making a weapon for his previous employer, who Danny is surprised to find was a subsidiary of his own Oracle Corporation; seems Sable had a good reason to attack when the Heroes for Hire showed up. He was doing research, and when he found out it was being weaponized, he ran off to where he knew he was safe and where he could design an antidote to his research. At that point, usually the two super tams would join forces, but the Master pops up in hologram form and tells Cage to put a mind control device on Hessler, blowing Luke's cover. Deadpool starts shooting Cage (showing he's not exactly the most heroic of dudes yet), and the fight commences again. When Madcap and Paladin arrive, they see a fight going on, and immediately start attacking whichever Hero is closest, not knowing that Luke is the only real threat. Finally, the Master teleports in, takes Luke and the now mind-controlled Hessler, and leaves the Heroes for Hire high and dry. It's not exactly an auspicious ending for Deadpool's first outing with a real superhero team.

So, what exactly have we learned in these two issues about Deadpool? Not much, but hey, that's cool. It's still a fun two-parter, Wade gets to joke around, and we get some stuff that will later become important to Deadpool. So, it's well worth reading if you have the chance.

And if you want to read it, as well as the other early Deadpool appearances I mentioned here (Nomad, Secret Defenders), as well as some early appearances in X-Force, Wolverine, and some other random issues, they are all available in the Deadpool Classics Companion trade.

Next week, Dan's back with issue fourteen of Deadpool, where the fallout from "The Drowning Man" hits the proverbial fan. See you then.

Recommended Reading for 7/24: Star Wars: Dark Disciple

I've written a lot about Star Wars on here since the blog's inception, and I've mostly stuck to the comics, with the occasional diversion into animation. But today is the first time I'm writing up a novel for a recommended reading. This is partially because it's now in my favorite of all time (and as I've read every Star Wars novel written for adults, there's a lot of competition for those top spots), and partially because one of the two main characters is Quinlan Vos, Vos is a character I've mentioned on here before, a creation of the inimitable John Ostrander, and is my favorite Star Wars character created for the comics. And so, with those high expectations in mind, I picked up Star Wars: Dark Disciple, and I was absolutely floored.

For those of you who might be familiar with Quin, let me start out by saying this isn't the same Quin from the comics. The new continuity that is being crafted by Lucasfilm has replaced the Ostrander stories, for good and ill. Ill because they are some of the best Star Wars comics ever written, a story of a man struggling with both the Light and Dark Sides of the Force, and his choice to be and remain a Jedi. The good is that we are offered this novel, with a Quin who lines up more with his one appearance on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the animated series, where instead of a haunted and introspective man he's a brash and foolhardy Jedi. leaping before he looks.

Our other main character is Asajj Ventress, the Sith assassin turned Nightsister turned bounty hunter, one of the central figures to all versions of The Clone Wars. This novel, written by Christie Golden, is based on unproduced scripts of the animated series written by Katie Lucas, and so the book picks up some time after the events of the final episodes produced. We see Ventress as the capable bounty hunter, having moved beyond her time as Count Dooku's assassin. But Quin appears, sent by the Jedi Council to recruit her in an attempt to assassinate the count, and the sparks start to fly immediately.

I've seen some complaints about building a romance between these two characters, but I don't see the problem. While this might be a different Quin, one with a different background, he's still enough of the same character to violate the Council's rules of attachment. The original Quin planned to abandon the Order for Khaleen, his lover, and their child, Korto. As for Ventress, well, if you look at her history, Ventress is a character who was always looking to fit somewhere. For her, given into slavery as a child, her Jedi Master lost, she was easy pickings for Count Dooku, and when she left him, she immediately sought out Mother Talzin and the Nightsisters. Ventress wanted to be somewhere where she was part of something bigger, and when she meets someone who treats her as an equal, and she feels the same way about, it makes sense to me that they would fall for each other.

The romance is built subtly and mostly off panel, and it never interferes with the action of the story. The first half of the book follows Ventress and Vos as they meet and prepare to defeat Dooku. We get some exciting bounty hunting adventures, and the Dark Side training sequence on Dathomir is excellent. I'm a sucker for different Force disciplines, and so seeing Ventress train Quin not as a Sith, but with the different style and abilities of a Nightsister made for an interesting scene. We also watch Quin's descent into the Dark Side slowly. It's not just one decision that leads him down the dark path, and I can think of few other examples as good as this for how the road to the Dark Side is paved with good intentions.

After their initial confrontation with Dooku, we get a series of events that might be familiar to those of you familiar with Quin's arc in the comic. Captured by Dooku, it's unclear whether or not Quin has fallen to the Dark Side. Is he working for Dooku? Is he infiltrating Dooku's organization for the Jedi? Is he infiltrating the Jedi for Dooku? Is it some combination of all of them. It's not the same arc as in the comic, and the circumstances are different, but it's clear that Lucas and/or Golden knew those original stories and put their own spin on Vos's dance with the Dark Side.

One of the things that weighs heavily for me when reading a Star Wars story is also the use of the existing universe and what it adds to it. The settings of this book include established worlds like Pantora and Christophsis, and the latter crystal world for the Clone Wars animated series is used to good effect. The book also introduced a new race, the Mahran, a canine race with a particularly interesting coup de grace they could use in a battle to the death. Finding a way to introduce something new and interesting to a universe so packed with alien species is something I can applaud. I also really enjoyed how Obi-Wan and Yoda were written; as the two greatest Jedi in the current canon, it's nice to see them both written with wisdom and humor.

I don't know if Dark Disciple is for everyone. I know some people won't be able to get past the changes to Quinlan Vos. And I know some people will be bothered by the ending; I don't want to spoil the end here, but if you want to talk about it, please shoot me an e-mail as mattsignalblog@gmail.com, as I'd love to hear your thoughts. But if you haven't read the Star Wars comics, or can think of this as a different version of a beloved character, you'll get a whirlwind of action and romance that does it's Star Wars roots proud.



Oh, and on a somewhat unrelated note if you are a fan of John Ostrander's Quinlan Vos, you should head over to Kickstarter and back his new graphic novel, Kros: Hallowed Ground. There's less than a week left, and it looks like it's going to be right down to the wire on whether or not it will be backed. I think if you like Ostrander's work, it will be worth your time and money.

Kickstarter Spotlight On: Kros: Hallowed Ground by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake

Good morning, Matt Signal readers. You'll be getting your normal Monday reviews later today, but I wanted to take a minute this morning to call attention to a specific Kickstarter that I backed this morning. While it's been featured on Bleeding Cool and Comics Alliance already, and I figure if you're reading my blog you probably read those sites as well, I am so excited I wanted to post this.

I've written plenty about John Ostrander on here. His Star Wars run with Jan Duursema introduced my two favorite Star Wars EU characters from the comics, Quinlan Vos and Darth Krayt, and his 80s and 90s work at DC, including Suicide Squad, The Spectre, Manhunter, and Martian Manhunter are some of the best DC Comics in that era, if not ever. And of course there's Grimjack, his bounty hunter sci-fi/magic comic that is one of the great indies of that era. And his collaborator on more than a few of those projects, including Spectre and Martian Manhunter (as well as a four issue arc on Batman), as well as part of Grimjack, was artist Tom Mandrake, whose heavy blacks and dynamic lines make him one of my favorite artists in comics.

Well these two legends of the medium have a new Kickstarter that just went live a few days ago, Kros: Hallowed Ground.  It's a horror comic set against the real world horror that was the Battle of Gettysburg. It's the story of Kros, a vampire hunter, fighting in two wars, the American Civil War by day, and his war against the undead by night. Ostrander has shown a deft hand at writing stories set in the American past, with his multi-generation story of Superman's adopted family, The Kents (part of which was drawn by Mandrake), and two stories set in Marvel's old west, Blaze of Glory and Apache Skies. And Mandrake has drawn some great horror comics over the years, including the awkwardly named but highly amusing Superman and Batman Vs. Vampires and Werewolves, and you have to have horror chops to draw the Spectre, believe me. Check out some art from Kros below to see how great it looks.

I've backed a lot of comics Kickstarters, talked about a few here, and plan to write some up as they arrive. But this book, with this caliber of creators? I had to get the word out so more of you can enjoy. Check out the link here if you didn't click it above for more details, and let's see this book get made.

The Skies are Red: A History of the Crossover Event in DC Comics Part 1

Convergence is coming. DC Comics new event starts in two weeks, a story that blends worlds from all across DC history into one massive story. And the beginning of that story has me thinking about all the crossovers that have come before. So today begins a multi-part article tracing the history of event comics at DC Comics. I'll be touching on the tent-pole events in parts one and two, and the events and themes of Annuals in the third. This is meant as an overview, but going back for a quick look at these made me want to do a deeper dive into some of them again, so there might be an upcoming longer piece or two spinning out of this.

In 1985, continuity for DC Comics had become muddled, with an infinite number of Earths and multiple versions of each hero interacting with each other through different stories. And so it was decided a stream-lining needed to occur. And Marv Wolfman and George Perez, creators of DC's biggest hit of the time, New Teen Titans, were the guys to do it. And so the stage was set for DC's first mega-crossover: Crisis on Infinite Earths. This is the crossover that all DC crossovers have been measured against since. Worlds lived, worlds died, and the DCU was quite literally never the same.

The Anti-Monitor, a godlike being from the anti-matter universe, decided that it was time to bring the curtain down on the positive matter universe, and the only thing standing between him and his goal was his opposite number, The Monitor, and the collective heroes of the DC Universe, gathered by the Monitor's herald, Harbinger. Groups of mismatched heroes were sent to stop different realities from collapsing... and they failed.

Yeah, the good guys basically lose in Crisis. Sure, they save the one remaining Earth, but their goal to save the Multiverse was a miserable failure. Along the way, countless heroes and villains die, most notably the Flash (Barry Allen) and the Silver Age Supergirl. The heroes do eventually stop the Anti-Monitor, and no one except D-lister Psycho-Pirate winds up remembering the history of the Multiverse, as the final heroes, Superman of Earth-2, Superboy-Prime, and Alexander Luthor of Earth-3, go off to their eternal reward. But more on them later.

Crisis works on a lot of the levels a crossover should. It's exciting, and brings in characters from across DC history. It presents unusual matches, and spotlights various heroes. It has a threat that logically would be something that would require all these heroes to team up. It even has legions of villains teaming up to stop Anti-Monitor. It's sweeping and epic. It also served the important purpose of unifying the continuity of DC Comics history into one Earth. There might be multiple Flashes, but they are three different guys from three different walks of life. There's only one Batman, one Superman, one Wonder Woman. There's one Hawkman. Or maybe two. No more than three! OK, so not everything was perfect. But the birth pains spawned a new universe with new potential. And the different generations of heroes set up the concept of legacy that was a key aspect of the DC Universe from Crisis up through Flashpoint.

The one real problem that Crisis has rests in its crossovers into other titles. I feel like a good crossover allows the universe to feel cohesive, to allow other books to tie into it without impeding their progress, but adding an important story element to their progress that shows a wider world. With Crisis, the element that tied most books into it were the Red Skies. As the Anti-Monitor's antimatter waves approached a world, the skies would turn red. Many Crisis crossovers were simply a mention of the Red Skies, and then business as usual. While it didn't impede the progress of the books, it certainly didn't do anything to explore the event as it effected a series lead. And since then, a "Red Skies Crossover" has been a book that ties into something in only the most tangential way.

Legends, written by Len Wein and John Ostrander with art by John Byrne, released in 1986, was the first crossover and test of the new DC Universe. It seemed to have two purposes. Purpose one was to set up various new and revised concepts that would springboard out of it and define this new DC Universe. The second purpose was to set-up Darkseid as the preeminent villain of not just a corner of the DC Universe, but of the Universe as a whole. And it succeeded on both fronts.

The main plot of the series had Glorious Godfrey, one of Darkseid's Elite, posing as a news pundit on Earth, to stir up anti-hero sentiment, allowing Earth to be an easy target for Darkseid's eventual conquest. But Dr. Fate gathers a new Justice League (including Captain Marvel, now a part of the main DCU), Amanda Waller secretly debuts the Suicide Squad to destroy Darkseid's monster, Brimstone, and a new heroine (new to this universe anyway) Wonder Woman, appears, all allowing the heroes to prevail.

Legends succeeds not only as a good story, but as the crossover springboard for three of the most successful DC titles of the late 80s/early 90s: Wally West's series as The Flash, the "Bwah-ha-ha" Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League, and John Ostrander's Suicide Squad, all have their seeds planted right in the midst of this event. If for not any other reason than that, Legends is a winner.

1988 saw Millennium debut, written by Steve Englehart and with art by Joe Staton. The Guardians of the Universe, the alien race that created the Green Lantern Corps, have decided to leave this plain of existence, and before leaving arrive on Earth, saying a new generation of Guardians will be come this world, and asking its heroes to gather these new Guardians. What should be an easy task is complicated by the Manhunters, the robots who served as the Guardians' first intergalactic police force, who have learned of this and wish to stop the creation. As part of this plan, the Manhunters revealed they knew the identities of Earth's heroes and had spent years planting sleeper agents, some robots, some mind-controlled humans, and some willing collaborators, in the personal lives of all the heroes. Even with this, the heroes bested the Manhunters and saved the New Guardians.

Millennium's structure was much more strict than previous crossovers. The series ran eight weekly issues, and each book was flagged with Week 1, Week 2, etc. The accompanying week's crossovers were flagged with the similar weeks, and the story depended on the reader buying many of the accompanying crossover. The main mini-series was littered with footnotes to that week's crossover, making reading just the event mini-series frustrating.

And while this couldn't be known at the time, it had no discernible long term effects on the DC Universe. The New Guardians series folded after twelve issues, and most of the characters faded into obscurity, and those who had established pasts returned to them. Many of the Manhunters puppets who were important characters (Lana Lang, Jim Gordon) never really mentioned it again, and while Wally West was broken up by his father being one of their willing agents, it was eventually ignored as well.

Invasion!, written by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen and with art from Todd McFarlane and Bart Sears, was a different form than any of DC's previous crossovers. Instead of longer monthly stories, six to twelve issues, or weekly stories, 1989's Invasion! was three months in three massive, 80-page issues with no ads. The plot of the series is pretty self-explanatory from the title. A coalition of alien races invades Earth. The reasoning is that humans have the metagene, allowing them to develop powers and possibly become a dominant species in the galaxy. One of the cool aspects of the story is that it takes many of the alien races that were prominent in the Legion of Super-Heroes lore of the 30th century, like the Khunds and the Dominators (who instigated the invasion as a pretense to examine metahumans so they could breed them as soldiers for galactic domination), and introduces them into the modern DCU.

While the well known heroes of the DC Universe do figure into this event, a lot of time is spent with minor characters and with establishing the new cosmic status quo of the DCU. We meet the characters who will form L.E.G.I.O.N., the cosmic police force for hire fronted by Vril Dox II, Brainiac's son, we get some time with Adam Strange, and we meet the Blasters, a team of metahumans captured by the Dominators, including Snapper Carr, former sidekick to the Justice League, DC's answer to Rick Jones.

One of the most important aspects of the series was the dropping of a Gene Bomb, a bomb meant to effect anyone with the metagene and eventually kill them. Alien and non-methuman heroes were able to find the Dominators cure, but not before the bomb effected many heroes. Animal Man and Fire both had their powers effected, and many new metahumans had their powers awakened, including Maxwell Lord, then the Justice League International's manager/leader/manipulator. This allowed for ramifications that spilled out of the series, and while many were the longest of term, did play a part in the canvas of the DC Universe.

Now, I have done my best to always keep to my creed about only writing about comics I like, and not bashing comics. But this is a historical piece, and I'm trying to not leave anything out. I already made it clear that I thought Millennium was lackluster, but it has nothing on War of the Gods. Published in 1991 as part of a celebration of Wonder Woman's 50th anniversary that never really materialized like Superman or Batman's, War of the Gods had a decent core concept: Circe instigates a war between the Greek and Roman gods, and encourages other pantheons to attack, so she can claim the powers of the gods and do something nebulous with it, partially kill the Earth goddess, Gaea, partially become the greatest goddess ever. It's not really clear. This is partially because of  arguments between editorial and series creator George Perez, and partially because of the format of the series.

War of the Gods actually was a more intense reading experience than Millennium because it wasn't just crossovers week by week, but all 20+ crossovers and the core mini were individually numbered, so you were supposed to read the whole crossover in specific order. Unfortunately, due to delays, the parts were often released out of order, and the mini-series stands poorly on its own, with no lasting ramifications at all, and remains only one of two of these events never collected in trade. Of course, it had one great crossover, Suicide Squad #58, where a Black Adam led Squad attacks Circe's fortress. Having recruited everyone who would join, the team includes The Writer, Grant Morrison's in comic avatar who became trapped in the comic world after writing himself in at the end of his Animal Man run, and who has a typewriter strapped to him that allows him to affect reality as he writes. Unfortunately, he suffers writers block during the invasion and is torn apart by Circe's beast men. It's pretty great.

DC took the first of its multi-year breaks in between crossovers after War of the Gods, and it wasn't for three years in 1994 until another happened. Zero Hour saw time collapsing, with nothingness moving from the beginning and end of time towards today. Dan Jurgens held the reigns as writer and artist, and put out some of the best art of his career in a sprawling tale that was designed to clean up some of the messes that were created by Crisis, problems like the Justice Society's age or the weird inconsistencies with Hawkman's background. It also established the new big bad of the DC Universe: Parallax, the corrupted and maddened version of Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, who had taken the powers of the Guardians after killing them and was trying to rewrite time to suit his will. He did wind up destroying everything (another big win for the heroes), but a new Big Bang was caused by the hero Damage and time restarted. This allowed streamlining of backstories again, and setting up a firm timeline that lasted for about as long as firm timelines in comics ever do.

Zero Hour was the first of these DC event minis I read as it came out, and I have some find recollections of it. It was a bit awkward at times, like any story involving time travel and similar things are, but it did flow. The crossovers featured heroes running into alternate timeline versions of themselves and versions from the past, and some of these crossovers were excellent. The issue of Batman had him meet a Batgirl never shot by the Joker, Kon-El Superboy met the pre-Crisis Clark Kent Superboy, and Tim Drake Robin met a young Dick Grayson Robin, for instance. The rewritten timeline did make some serious changes, including the first complete reboot of the Legion of Super-Heroes, which alienated some older Legion fans but streamlined some very very messy continuity involving multiple version of the Legion.

Spinning out of the end of Zero Hour was DC's first Zero Month, where all titles were numbered zero. Some of the books (Batman, Superman, Flash) retold origins with minor changes. Others (Hawkman, Green Lantern) established new status quos. Six new series launched with these zero issues, and while five didn't amount to much, the sixth, one with some of the most direct fallout from Zero Hour, was Starman, which I have written about at length, and was a resounding success. This also marks the first of three crossovers that form the spine of Hal Jordan's corruption and resurrection arc, and arc that would eventually lead to Geoff Johns's hit Green Lantern franchise.

Underworld Unleashed, from 1995 with writer Mark Waid and artist Howard Porter, was another story that was a great idea in theory. A new demonic character, Neron, appeared offering supervillains augmented and improved powers at the cost of their souls. Many took it, thus creating new versions of many B- and C-list villains. The heroes eventually travel to Hell to stop Neron, and it's only through the innocence and nobility of Captain Marvel, and the cleverness of the Trickster, James Jesse, who Neron had taken on as his adviser and who betrayed him, that Neron did not win,

Waid has said in interviews and the afterward to the trade of the series that he doesn't like Underworld. He thinks it was a hamfisted attempt to gussy up villains from an earlier time. Right or wrong, next to none of the augmented villains stayed augmented. With the exception of Blockbuster and Charaxes (who was once Killer Moth), all the Batman villains reverted shortly to classic forms. Neron, who seemed poised to become a major villain across the DCU, would pop up only occasionally, and never as more than a demonic footnote, never earning the cred of his Marvel counterpart, Mephisto. James Robinson did use the fallout of Underworld in Starman, not just the villain he revitalized in his crossover, Dr. Phosphorus,  but revealing a couple of deals undisclosed at the time that played a major part in the series' climax. But with that notable exception, Underworld remains one of the forgotten crossovers.

Final Night, from writer Karl Kesel and with art by Stuart Immonen in 1996, was the second of the crossovers featuring Hal Jordan.  The Sun Eater, this big traveling cloud of gas (picture any evil entity from the original Star Trek series and you’ll get the picture) comes along and, well, eats the sun.  With Earth dying, the heroes do their best to destroy the Sun Eater and reignite the sun.  In the end, it is Hal Jordan, in what was to be his last redemptive gesture, who sacrificed himself and brought the sun back.

The series would be worth it alone for Immonen's gorgeous art, and seeing him draw the entire DC Universe, along with the amazing climax, where Jordan ignites the sun while reciting the Green Lantern oath. The crossovers were mostly small, showing the heroes dealing with the effects of the missing sun. Some writers were able to even easily fit that aspect into their existing story, weaving the tapestry of the event into the series. An especially good one was Hitman #8, where hitman Tommy Monaghan and his fellow hitters gather at their local bar, Nonnan's, and reflect on their brushes with death. It's a very small story, and shows Garth Ennis's strength with those little character beats after a series of issues that were just tons of mindless, and fun, violence.

With the exception of Hal Jordan's death, the ramifications to the DCU were small on this one. A squad of Legionnaires, displaced in time, met the post-Zero Hour version of Ferro Lad, a longtime pre-Crisis member, who survived where his pre-Crisis counterpart died fighting a Sun Eater. The loss of the sun also caused the solar powered Superman to lose his powers, which led to a reconciliation with the currently estranged Lois Lane and their marriage, and the eventual debut of the electric blue Superman. So from that we see that not all crossover effects are good.

Back into confession mode: If War of the Gods was bad, it was at least not as bad as Genesis, the next year's (1997) crossover from writer John Byrne and artist Ron Wagner. In all truth, I have no idea what exactly was going on in Genesis.  I’ve read it twice now, and I still don’t quite get it.  The energy wave that created everything is collapsing back on itself and all the energy in the universe is stopping and everything is going to end.  And the New Gods are involved.  Maybe some of the issues it tied into made the totality of the story make more sense, but I guess I don’t have those, so it all seemed more than a bit of a muddle, and the less said about it, the better. By the end, Highfather died and was replaced by Takion as ruler of New Genesis, but he got better. Beside that, it had no ramifications and its crossovers effected no book aside from the New Gods related ones. genesis is the other of the event never released as a trade.

One Million, written by Grant Morrison and with art by Val Semeiks (1998),  is one of my favorites of all the crossovers. Heroes from the 853^rd century (when, if they still are being published, DC comics will hit issue one million) arrive to celebrate the return of  the original Superman and the heroes old and new get caught up in the machinations of Vandal Savage and the sentient artificial sun, Solaris. 

It’s one of those crazy ideas that only Grant Morrison could come up with and execute, and as he was involved in plotting nearly every issue the series tied into (with the exception of the particularly funny issue of Hitman), it created a great cohesion of you read every issue.  Beautifully, though, you don’t feel like you have to read everything either, as seems to be a concern when EVERYTHING is written by the same guy.  There are some excellent moments in both the core mini and the tie-ins, these wild, high concept ideas that Grant Morrison is the master of. It ties in with a lot of the concepts he was exploring in Justice League at the time.

The Justice Legion A of the 853rd Century are characters that have popped up occasionally since then, including in Morrison's seminal All Star Superman, along with Solaris, who is a purely Morrison character. There's a great amount of design work, creating all these new versions of classic heroes and concepts. But it's really a story about heroism and inspiration, themes that Morrison loves, and are at the heart of superhero comics. It's also nice that, while the ramifications aren't major, it's such a good story that it doesn't matter. That love letter to the self-contained tales of the Silver Age stands on its own, and works best that way.

And that's it for this first part. Next Friday starts with a mostly forgotten crossover written by a guy who would later become the man who defined the DCU of the 00s, and the crossovers of the 21st century. See you then.