Dilton's Strange Science #5

The late 80s was a fertile time for Archie Comics. Creatively, at least. Archie was putting out books that had the Riverdale gang portrayed as adventurers, R/C enthusiasts and time travelers. Even the faculty got on on the act as a team of superheroes.

The most confusing aspect of these books were that they were all miniseries. But they were never advertised as such. Stores such as Winn Dixie and the Revco pharmacy were beginning to phase out comic books and the shops devoted to the selling of comics were bypassing kid friendly material in lieu of grittier material like The Dark Knight Returns. So to get titles that my parents would approve of, you had to turn to subscriptions. 

Being a miniseries, the limited series books were never eligible for subscription. So in those days I had to turn to my dentist of all places. As a reward for making through the ordeal of drills, fillings and the mouth-opening torture device called a raincoat, you at least got to take a comic book home with you. My dentist always had copies of Archie and copies starring Disney characters in stock. Sometimes if you were a fantastic patient, you got to take 2 books with you home! Where Doc Horowitz was able to get his hands on this much beloved periodicals is a mystery to this day...

That was a lot of back history. So let's turn to what this issue was all about. The cover story has Dilton and his gal pal Danni witness a meteor crashing to Earth. The rock burned up in the atmosphere but left a strange orange goo in it's wake. Intrigued, Dilton collects the mass and takes it to his lab. That turns out to be a giant mistake as the ooze turns out to have the ability to mimic anything it sees. Oh and it's attracted to major sources of energy and is making its way to the Riverdale power grid!

Then Dilton's near-sighted grandmother mistakes her grandson's new jet pack for her rain slicker and winds up taking the scenic way home. 

The third story has Dilton creating a special snow suit to keep himself warm. Only it works a little too well. The Genius of Riverdale ends up with sun burn!

Featuring art by Bill Golliher and stories by Mike Pellowski and Golliher, Dilton's Strange Science #5 was the last issue of the miniseries. While Dilton continued to be an important supporting player of Archie Comics, with his wacky inventions getting mainly Archie or Jughead into scrapes, this 1990 issue would be gal pal Danni Malloy's last appearance until a 2023 one-shot.  33 years in limbo! I had every intention of reading that book next. But other more recent releases popped up and I skipped it. I very well could wait until next year but I don't think I want to do that. So I'll probably get to it before I start reading Christmas stuff the week of Thanksgiving.

A great walk down memory lane. The other 4 issues are on my wish list. Especially issue #4 which I recently learned has a Christmas story! Being children's comics, it'll be a challenge to find a copies in decent condition to won't break my piggy bank. But I've always enjoyed the hunt for a new addition to my collection.

Worth Consuming!

Rating 9 out of 10 stars. 

Deadpool Team-Up, Vol. 2: Special Relationship

More hilarious hi-jinx involving Deadpool teaming with a cast of some of Marvel's lesser known characters. First Deadpool and Captain Britain switch bodies when attempting to stop a mercenary seeking a mythical cache of weaponry and gadgets. Then Wade walks down the alter, wedding Satana in an attempt to prevent her from becoming the bride of the new ruler of the underworld. Deadpool then accepts a bounty to take down an assassin known mysteriously as Mister. X. On a seemingly deserted island, Wilson runs into the Agent of ATLAS known as Gorilla-Man, while wrapping things up in a wacky caper with Machine Man, who's taken a second job as an insurance adjuster. 

I've always enjoyed team ups that involve the B-tier and lower characters. As they aren't as well known as a Green Lantern or a Cyclops, there is less predictably. Seeing normally slovenly Deadpool acting all prim and proper like the Englishman Brian Braddock was a refreshing change. Witnessing normally despotic baddies such as Dormammu and Asmodeus act like a bunch of dweebs attempting to woe Satana was weird as all get out. Yet, I loved it. 

Not everything was smooth sailing. I didn't understand the punchline to the Gorilla-Man pairing. And in the Machine Man match up, something so heinous that it's actually censored happens to a hostage that Wade is tasked with rescuing. Deadpool makes one of his awkward moments comments about the poor guy's demise. But I didn't understand what the anti-hero was talking about. 

This volume was mostly light fare. Having Satana and a quartet of arcane characters vie for her hand in marriage made it kinda like a Halloween romp. I'm down to just 1 hardback volume of this terribly short-lived series. Marvel really should return to this concept again. And yes I understand that there was another limited volume that ran from 2024-25. But I don't have it and I really want a 4th volume run. I just hope that the jokes don't keep going over my head. 

Lastly, this volume contains the lengthy Deadpool Corps: Rank and Foul. Done as an Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe offering, the print was microscopic and took me 3 weeks to finish. If it had been omitted, I probably would have finished this book in early October!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars. 

Cemetery Plots #1

Though I was searching for lighter fare to read this Halloween, I didn't stay 100% in the shallow end of the pool. I found this autographed copy of the debut issue in September and as I am friends with the editor of this series, I know for a fact that it's all done in fun. Dan Johnson is a devotee of the old horror anthologies from E.C. Comics, just as I am. So if something was gory or macabre, I know that there's no sinister intent behind it. 

In this 2015 book there are several shorts, all presented by your host D.O. Mann. Stories included a perverse husband whose wife suggests a threesome with a call girl, a werewolf seeking revenge against his wife for cheating on him, and comedic one-pager with a mad scientist and his Igor.

 I really loved the opening story. It's told from the perspective of man who gets bitten by a zombie. You witness the internal struggle of the narrator because while his been infected by whatever virus the zombie carried, the transition is far from instantaneous. There's been dozens of stories about people succumbing to the infection of a zombie attack. But I think this might be the first time that you really see that the mind and the body doesn't transform into the walking dead at the same speed. 

Another story of note involves a man who wakes up to find his severed head still alive in a laboratory. There's hints of Re-animator, Mars Attacks and Return of the Living Dead in this bizarre love triangle story. 

The art was all over the place. There's really high-quality professional looking stuff. There's art that looks like something I would do. While the artwork wasn't always polished, the storytelling was fantastic. I didn't feel like I had read any of these tales before. While I 'reviewed' the first 3 issues of this Indy title years ago, I had only read #3. I was entertained then and I was entertained now. 

But could someone explain to me the joke behind the Cemetery Plots host's name, D.O. Mann? 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Star Trek Holo-ween II #4

The Defiant returns to find DS9 under siege. A pair of Maquis war ships have blockaded the space station while most of the senior crew have been thrown into the brig under armed Maquis guard. Well, most of the crew are being held hostage. Worf, Dax and O'Brien are stuck in the Holosuites, forced to fight for their lives in the guise of a Victorian era murder mystery. 

This was a good story. But to call it a Halloween story would be a huge misnomer. Would it have been too difficult to have the events of this tale set during Halloween? Or even the Bajorian, Klingon or Ferengi version of Halloween? Surely Samhain isn't just for humans!

I think if it wasn't for the Holosuites being involved in the plot, this wouldn't have been classified as a 'Holo-ween' tale. Honestly, the parts that took place in the Holosuites were the weakest parts of this tale. There's the dead/alive nature of the random crew member who was attacked outside of the Holosuites. There's the sudden amnesia as to the identity of the murderer of said crew member. Now there's this whole game that Worf, Dax and O'Brien have to solve in order to save their lives. Everything was so choppy.  Did writer Alex Segura not really want to write about the Holosuites and just didn't give as much attention to detail? As great as this story started off and as awesome as the firefight between the Defiant and the Maquis ships was, the more and more time spent in the Holosuites was just awful.

I wouldn't mind another Star Trek Holo-ween. One set on Voyager inside the Fair Haven holodeck program DURING Halloween would actually be a cool plot. I'd buy all 4 issues of that miniseries. But you gotta have it during All Hallows Eve or else it's just a Star Trek Holo story and I didn't spend my hard saved money on that type of tale; big fan of Deep Space Nine or not. Do better IDW!

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

Star Trek Holo-ween II #3

The entity that attacked Chief O'Brien in the Holosuites has been revealed. I'm happy to say that the culprit is NOT Redjac. I'm kinda slapping myself for not figuring out who it was ahead of time as the clues were right in front of me. 

The truth about who killed the Captain on that Federation starship has also been revealed. I'm happy to say that it is NOT Jadzia Dax. There's no slapping myself in the head about this one because that culprit was first encountered in an episode of DS9 that I haven't seen. Hey, I was busy with college and being engaged during those last 3 seasons. But not having that knowledge kinda hurts my full appreciation of this aspect of the plot.

There's also a gigantic continuity error. Or 'nit' as fans call such mistakes. It involves that crew member who was attacked outside of the Holosuites. In the last issue O'Brien makes it clear that the crew member is dead. But at the beginning of this issue, he's revealed to be clinging to life. So far I am on board. O'Brien isn't a doctor and the pulse could have been way low. But then a couple of pages later, O'Brien, Worf and Dax are all shocked that this guy is dead. So was this a mistake made by the author of this story or were a couple of pages in my issue printed out of order? It kinda feels that way. But if that's the case, why isn't the correlating pages towards the back of the book out of order as well? 

You might think that this is a minor issue to be confused about and to complain about. But the killer, was revealed at the exact same time that the crewman is found clinging to life. But when the crewman is now officially deceased, it's a big surprise about the killer. Everyone's like 'Who are you?'  The same killer who introduced themselves just a few moments earlier! 

Aaaaaaaagh! I hate it when this kind of stuff happens. I never know whether to blame my developing cognitive shortcomings or find the writing and editing teams at fault. Or maybe the printers really are responsible. Regardless, I did not enjoy this book as much as I could have. It's still a good story. But the quantity really did dip.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars. 

Star Trek: Holo-ween II #2

The spooky mystery vibe continues in issue #2. With Sisko and Kira away on the USS Defiant on a secret mission and Chief O'Brien missing, Deep Space Nine is operating with a skeleton crew during a very tense situation. Already, the space station is swarming with ambassadors and diplomats who have come to DS9 for a vital peace summit. Now an unexpected Federation starship has docked claiming that the ship's captain was assassinated by Lt. Commander Dax!

With 2 mysteries now to solve, plus a peace summit to oversee and a sick bay full of injured crew from the newly arrived starship, it will take every bit of resolve Worf has to keep the powder keg that is Deep Space Nine from ignitng!

Another great chapter. It's got a Victorian murder mystery feel that reminds me a lot of the board game Clue. I like it. I've not yet figured out who kidnapped O'Brien and killed the other crew member. I have zero idea why Sisko and Kira needed to be sent away from the space station. Plus, a dignitary has been murdered! It's very complex. But for now, I'm able to follow everything. Here's hoping things stay that way.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars. 

Star Trek: Holo-ween II #1

In 2023, Star Trek debuted it's Halloween spirit with the 4-issue miniseries Star Trek: Holo-ween. Set on the holodeck of the Enterprise-D, the Next Generation tale tapped into the original series with having the murderous entity Redjac involved. While I enjoyed the sentiment, 'The Wolf in the Fold' is perhaps my least favorite original Trek episode. If a sequel was to be forthcoming, I just hoped that it would leave Redjac in the past. 

Well 2 years passed. I figured that the franchise's Halloween experiment was over. But then by absolute surprise, I learned that IDW was coming out with another Holo-ween mini. This one set aboard Deep Space Nine! I was thrilled. As much as I love The Next Generation, DS9 is my favorite Star Trek series. Just, please... PLEASE, no Redjac.

Here's the setup, which is rather complex. 1) The Federation has sent Sisko and the USS Defiant into the gamma quadrant in search of a mythical Bajorian weapon that could end the current hostilities with both the Dominion and the Klingon Empire. 2) Worf has been made acting Captain of DS9 in Sisko's absence. With a major peace summit bringing dozens of dignitaries from across the galaxy, it's up to the Klingon to maintain peace and diplomacy. 3) With one of the Holosuites on the fritz, Chief O'Brien goes to repair it and ends up being attacked by an unseen adversary. 4) Another crew member is attacked outside of the Holosuites. He appears to be killed. 5) All communication from DS9 to the outside universe has been cut off. 6) A Federation starship supposedly light years away on a mission suddenly appears at the space station with a damning accusation against one of the space station's crew

So this Holo-ween story isn't set during Halloween. But it's creepy as all get out. It's like a Victorian era murder mystery. The surprise cliffhanger ending was so shocking. I just had to read issue #2 immediately even though sequential art seems to tire me out more these days. Fingers crossed that Redjac isn't going to be revealed as the baddie.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.