Superman Adventures #1(2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Superman: The Animated Adventures ran on the WB from 1996-2000. It was a spin-off of the now classic Batman: The Animated Adventures. 

Featuring the voice talents of Tim Daly as Superman/Clark Kent, Dana Delaney as Lois Lane and Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor, the series was lauded for it's sleek futuristic design and cerebral script writing. Utilizing a majority of the production staff from Batman: TAS, names such as Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and Jean MacCurdy appeared regularly in the closing credits.

This cartoon version of the Man of Steel wasn't a god among men as he was originally designed by creators Siegel and Shuster. Instead, Superman: TAS structured their Last Son of Krypton with the same limitations as developed by John Byrne in the 1987 post-Crisis reboot of Superman. Though severely hampered with the restrictions put on the character, making for more dramatic storylines, Superman rose to every challenge he faced because there was one superpower to which the hero had no weakness against: Superman's unwavering moral code!

Unlike the pre-Crisis Superman, this version of the Man of Tomorrow still had access to his adopted parents, Ma and Pa Kent. Whenever faces with a crisis of conscience, Superman could always make a quick trip to Kansas and work out his problems as Clark Kent with words of wisdom and encouragement from the Kents. Unaware that Superman has a secret identity, Clark's morality was the one thing Lex Luthor's advanced technological schemes against Superman that he could never defeat!

Just as the animated series was debuting on television, DC Comics released a monthly all ages comic book. The first issue was written by Paul Dini with art by Rick Burchett and inks by Terry Austin. The opening story titled 'Men of Steel', sees Superman on scene in Metropolis for just a few weeks. Clark Kent is also still pretty wet behind the ears in his reporter job as the Daily Planet. Luthor sees Superman as a threat to his stranglehold as the de facto ruler of Metropolis as well as a potential alien invader, operating under the guide as a heroic savior. 

The corrupt business leader has been testing out Superman's powers and weaknesses through a series of tests designed as super villains randomly attacking Metropolis. After Superman's latest encounter with terrorist John Corben, inside a suit of 'stolen' LexCorp armor, Luthor has enough data to fully active a life-sized robotic replica of the Man of Steel!

The plot of this issue's story is a partial retelling of part three of the debut episode 'The Last Son of Krypton.' Corben's theft of the LexCorp rebo-suit and Luthor's determination to make a fool of Superman are almost verbatim scenes taken from show. Only Kent's attempts at love and the revelation that Brainiac survived the destruction of Krypton are not included in this premiere issue.

DC's Superman Adventures ran for 66 issues, outpacing the TV show by a dozen stories. A year after the cancellation of the series, Superman, Batman and others would return, this time as a team. Justice League and it's spin-off series Justice League Unlimited would run for 5 seasons; ultimately pitting the Superman led Justice League against the Injustice League, headed by Lex Luthor.

The wrap-around cover is by Bruce Timm.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #16 (Book from the Year You Graduated High School) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Donald Duck Adventures #38

Living legend William Van Horn crafts the cover feature in this 1996 issue of Donald Duck Adventures.

The story has Donald attending an auction. Most of the stuff is out of his price range, except for a tiny chest that sells for all of 50 cents. When Donald opens the chest back home, he discovers a medallion that bears a treasure map. Donald's nephews are able to determine that the map is of an area in Florida and the medallion was crafted by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. Spanish explorers might mean buried treasure of Spanish doubloons and precious stones.

So Donald and his nephews head down South where they learn that the medallion points to a fabled area of swamp called 'The Hauntland'. According to Native legend, a terrible horror haunts the swamp and locals swear to steer clear of it. Determined to find riches and glory, Donald presses on. Only he won't find buried treasure. What Donald will find is the discovery of the century and it was only several million years in the making. 

The next story again has Donald seeking riches. His new dog, a massive Saint Bernard, is eating him and the nephews out of house and home. When Donald learns of a money making opportunity back on Bear Mountain, he takes his dog up for a try out. As the last Saint Bernard was injured making a delivery run, Donald has his work cut out for him including an encounter with one of Bear Mountain's namesake grizzlies!

Both stories were great duck tales starring Donald Duck along with Huey, Dewey and Louie. However, this comic book does show a decline in quality. 1996 is just a few short months away from publisher Gladstone Comics' ultimate demise in 1998. One cost cutting measure taken by Gladstone was to replace the glossy paper of the cover with the same dingy newsprint used to make the interiors. The whole thing looks like those flimsy free comics you'd get as a kid at Shoney's or Red Lobster. Nostalgic, sure. But the stories in this issue deserved more respect.

The cover promises chills. Not very much a scary story as it's a fanciful story set in a spooky place. It's rather magical, honestly. And the back-up story was a hoot.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

New Gods #7 (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

The 1995-97 run of New Gods was the fourth volume to bear the name of Jack Kirby's cosmic creation. Tom Peyer (The Wrong Earth) and Rachel Pollack (Doom Patrol) were assigned duties to bring the residents of New Genesis and Apokolips into the 21st century. However, this gritty approach to the Fourth World wasn't met with very much fanfare. As a result, John Byrne (Fantastic Four) took over scripting duties with issue #12. At the 16th issue, the title was renamed Jack Kirby's Fourth World. Numbering was reset to #1. 

The artwork to this New Gods run was penciled by Luke Ross. Having worked on Image's Gen13, Ross must have been a student of the Rob Liefeld school of art as these New Gods have barrel chests, tiny legs and lots of extra frown lines. When John Bryne took over the series, the characters returned to more familiar Kirby-isque looking physiques.

In this issue, the New God Lightray has gone berserk and raged war against a tribe of New Genesis aboriginal peoples. This resulting plague of mania has led Highfather, the leader of New Genesis, to create a sort of sanitarium for the followers of Lightray. Only it is revealed that Highfather actually plans to maroon himself within the confines of this new structure in order to prevent an unknown prophecy from coming to fruition. 

On Apokolips, the evil Darkseid and his son Orion are locked in mortal combat. It appears that the ruler of Apokolips has finally killed the heir foretold to be his killer, thus ensuring his mortality. Yet in a bizarre change of heart, Darkseid uses his Omega powers to restore Orion to life!

This issue was definitely a product of the times. The 1990s were full of edgy storylines, overly muscled characters and something I don't ever remember seeing in any of Kirby's Fourth World books: gore and dismemberment. Darkseid at his conniving best. But the rest of the New Gods seem neutered in an age of superheroes oozing with too much testosterone.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #37 (A Book You Didn't Know Existed) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Detention Comics #1

I'm heading into my third week of the new school year. In celebration or maybe a moment of blessed relief, I dug through my long boxes to give this back to school special a read.

Detention Comics is comprised of 3 stories starring the Tim Drake Robin, the Connor Kent Superboy and Guy Gardner during his stint as Warrior. For a 1996 one-shot, it's not quite your typical DC stuff. All three stories are more morality plays than gritty action adventures that have been dosed with too much testosterone. In fact, in the Superboy story, not a single punch, kick or threat is heaved in the entire thing! But let's start with Robin, since his was the opening story.

A schoolmate of Tim Drake's is being bullied- by his overbearing mother! Constantly cut from team after team, the teen finally snaps and decides to get payback against the family of the high school's head coach.

With Superboy, he's on the beaches of Hawaii trying to impress some coeds when truant officer Mack Harlin arrives to spoil the fun. It appears to be a battle of brains versus brawn. But then all bets are off when Harlin wins over the babes with his recitation of Shakespeare's sonnets.

Lastly, former teacher, Guy Gardner has been called into his former high school stomping grounds to evaluate whether the troubled institute should remain open or be turned into a mini mall. In a remake of The Substitute, which was also from '96, Guy plays the role of Tom Berenger when a trio of metahuman teens seeks revenge on a brilliant student while setting the school ablaze!

Okay, that last story sounds a little like a typical 1990s DC Comics story. But it was so full of cliches and really preachy. It read like some of the Teen Titans stuff from the 1960s and 70s in terms that whomever wrote it (Ruben Diaz, Martian Manhunter: American Secrets) didn't know how to relate to teenagers. Plus, as a teacher myself, I don't appreciate stories that paint schools as dead end hell holes. True, there's a couple of schools in the area that I don't think you could pay me enough money to teach at. But I don't think of them as helpless cases either.

The Robin story was the best of the bunch. It's interesting, and maybe even a little odd, to read a tale from Drake's early days in which he's so unprepared. I've always thought of Tim Drake as the ultimate Robin. Yet, here, he's a floundering duckling without Batman or Alfred to back him up. 

As for the Superboy story... Geez, was he really that corny back then? I'm used to a less assured Connor Kent who seems to feel out of place being a clone and also a half-Luthor clone at that. 

Oh, and having Guy Gardner turned into some sort of mutating alien arsenal. That's pretty odd. I'm glad that plot idea was retconned. Please, somebody tell that was retconned?!

For a themed one-shot, I was entertained. However, the book wasn't written for youths. And if it was, the writers, with the exception of Denny O'Neill (Detective Comics) don't seem able to write for younger audiences. I loved the logo of this one-shot. The homage to the classic Detective Comics logo done as a chalkboard was eye-catching. It obviously did it's job as it was a big part of what enticed me to buy this book.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Pinky and the Brain Christmas Special

Pinky and the Brain, the lab mice superstars of the 90s cartoons that bared their name, as well as Animaniacs, star in this Christmas special from 1996. Loosely based on a Christmas special that aired the year before, I think the paper version is far superior.

    Every night from his lab cage domicile, Brain plans on global conquest. For tonight's mission, it just happens to be Christmas Eve and the Brain has his sights on placing mind control devices into the toys that Santa will gift to good little boys and girls. But in order to do that, Pinky and the Brain must pose as happy elves at the North Pole.

     This holiday comic was what I needed after several crummy days being sick. It reminded me of happier times with my kid sister. Plus it was very funny. The art was excellent as well and it made me miss the old Fox Kids cartoons that dominated the 90s.

    Festive fun that is worth Consuming!

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.       

Uncanny Origins #1

Now that I have seen Batman V Superman, my anticipation for Captain America: Civil War is beginning to grow. So I decided to spend some time getting to know the members of the Marvel Universe a little better. My choice of reading is Uncanny Origins, a secret Origins type title from the mid-90s.

  Uncanny Origins started in 1996 and lasted about a dozen issues or so. Though not a very common series to find, I was able to get most of my full run in bargain books. I spent no more than a dollar a book, except for issue #7, starring Venom. For some reason, it lists for upwards of $10 and I had to take to eBay to finally securing one and completing my collection.

    This series was written as an all ages primer for mostly young readers though adults could enjoy this title as well. Uncanny Origins was part of Marvel's .99¢ line of books that included a Spider-Man series, at least two X-Men titles, and a reboot of Marvel Fanfare. With the exception of the last title, one of this book's most appealing quality was that the issues were drawn in the art deco style of DC’s Batman: The Animated Series.

   The first subject for the debut issue of Uncanny Origins is the story of Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, the first X-Man. When aliens attack his family’s plane, Scott and little brother Alex are forced to bail out using only one parachute. This results in severe head injuries for the boys that will eventually impact their latent mutant abilities.

   Separation results in Alex getting a new forever home and lots of additional tragedy for Scott. One day on a trip to visit an eye specialist, Scott's mutant abilities manifest in him uncontrollably shooting laser beams from his eyes. With the FBI aware of a rogue mutant’s existence, Scott goes on the run but runs afoul of other mutants who seek to use the lad for their nefarious schemes. Thankfully there's a very powerful mutant on the side of good whose taken an interest in Scott's case. But can this mystery man get to the young mutant before it's too late?

  I liked this story very much. I had always had trouble with Cyclops' origin because I thought it strange that he would just happen to know that ruby quartz could help him control his laser blasts. But this story does an admirable job explaining how Scott came to be wearing the red sunglasses prior to his latent abilities which would literally explode onto the scene.

  I thought the art was quite good. Artist Dave Hoover does a masterful job though I thought his Professor X looked a little weird. Still, it was the artwork that first sold me on this series but if the stories are as good as this first one, I will be a fan for life.

  Worth Consuming

  Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Snowman 1944 #1

    When a waist gunner for an Allied bomber is forced to bail during the Battle of the Bulge, he inadvertently unleashes a Native America demon upon Axis and Allies alike. Thus begins a new series on a character that I am unfamiliar with. But this book from 1996 isn't the Snowman's first ever appearance. I learned from reading in on the letters page that the ice monster starred in another series in 1995-96.

   The brainchild of two cousins, Matt Martin and Cameron Enders,  the idea behind Snowman is that when Native American warrior was brutally murdered during a supposed peace treaty with the white man, the man's sister conjurors a demon out of an arrowhead talisman. When the projectiles touch snow, it summons the creature which kills white indiscriminately with looks of blood and gore. (It's the very same talisman that the doomed gunner is wearing around his neck as a good luck charm.)

    How do I know all this? Well, if you flip this comic over, you get the first chapter of Snowman #0. That's is the never before told origin story of Snowman and it's quite good as well.

    I enjoyed both sides of this comic from the now defunct Entity Comics. It was an original premise that mixed Old West folklore with the terrors of World War II. And it was full of action!

   However, this is not a book for kids. Though drawn in black and white, this book was bloody and violent. Oddly enough, for such a book there's no cussing. Let me rephrase that- there's adult language but it's either blocked out or '#$%#!' are used instead of spelling things out. A little weird but still an enjoyable gritty read! And not a bad find for only a quarter at a comics show!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The 18 Days of a Star Wars Christmas Miracle +7: Day 5

 

 As a kid, I had Star Wars toys, books, videos, sheets, clothes, even cereal. But one thing I never had were Star Wars ornaments!

   That was until 1996 AND I WAS 19!

   After 19 years, Hallmark finally answered my and scores of other Star Wars fans requests with the release of the first ever Star Wars ornament of the Millenium Falcon! It was one of those 'magic' keepsake ornaments where you plugged it into one of the sockets of a strand of lights and the ship lit up!

     I remember standing in line at the Crabtree Valley for over 2 hours to be one of the first people to buy it. Out of about 100 moms and grandmoms waiting to get their ornaments, I was the only guy there. I was so out of my element. But it was worth it.

    For my advent present to you today, I have included a link to an extensive history of all of the Star Wars ornaments from 1996-2005. Also, if you find yourself to be crafty, you might enjoy Pinterest link for some idea in creating your own Star Wars ornaments.

   Enjoy!