The Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular

Way back in issue #175 of the Fantastic Four (October, 1976, to be exact), Galactus devoured Poppup, the home planet of that interplanetary pest, the Impossible Man. As a result, after a really bad case of indigestion, the life essence of Galactus was transferred to the Impossible Man who cloned himself a wife and a whole slew of kids. They then choose to wander the stars as refugees about the world devourer's ship.

In this summer special from 1990, the Impossible Man and the fam are rather bored. So they take leave of Galactus' spacecraft to have a fun-filled vacation on planet Earth! That means none of the superheroes OR super-villains of the Marvel Universe are safe from inter-dimensional hijinks, pranks and overall tomfoolery. Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Quasar and even Doctor Doom will rue the day they meet the first (and only) family of Poppup. 

This overall Summer special was a fun read crafted by a number of talents such as Roy Thomas, Jackson 'Bruce' Guice and Ron Marz. The Doctor Strange segment, which co-starring one of my favorite characters from that part of the Marvel Universe, Rintrah, was probably my favorite section of the book. Though the extremely unexpected pairing of the Impossible Man with the Punisher, complete with an entry from his war journal was a hoot. It was written and illustrated by Jim Valentino, who is such a master at skewering the superhero dynamic. I would pay good money if Marvel ever came up with an Impossible Man/Punisher special. Especially would love it in Valentino crafted that one-shot as well.

The Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular might be almost 35-years old. But it's not something that will break the bank either. I got it a couple of years ago out of a bargain bin and I'm seeing it for less than $12 bucks online at several online retailers. Lots of laughs and a very fun way to beat the summer heat.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

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.

Marvel Comics Presents #101

After an epic centennial issue, a quartet of new stories and segments appear in between the Sam Kieth illustrated flip covers.

The X-Man Nightcrawler is summoned back to the circus he called home in Old World Germany. Seems that some strange things have been happening. As a back-up, Kurt Wagner calls upon Wolverine to assist in the investigation. 

Ghost Rider begins a team-up with the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, to take on a demon called Gorn. And we're not talking about the reptilian alien race from Star Trek!

In the lone single issue segment, The Punisher takes on a gang of gun runners. This story had a very powerful message that involves a youth torn between following the straight and narrow or the luxurious life of a thug. Fantastic Ron Marz (DC Vs. Marvel Comics) scripted tale!

Then we've got a multi-parter starring characters called the Young Gods. This diverse team of heroes is kinda like a third rate version of the Eternals. Since the Celestials are involved, I think I'm kinda right about my summation. Maybe they're second rate. Dunno.  

Otherwise, an ancient evil has awakened on Earth and the Young Gods have asked the Celestials for the chance to save their former home planet. The ancient ones allow them to intervene. But should they fail, they will die and die really brutally. 

I normally am a fan of Gerry Conway (Superman). But I felt like the story was a little contrived. Really riding on the coat tails of the great Jack Kirby here. But the artwork of Tom Sutton (Amazing Adventures) was fantastic. The men each looked like an Adonis. The women are drawn like super models. Definite early 90s eye candy.

An uneven mix of stories. A pair are really good. One, pretty forgettable. And another only superior in terms of art appeal.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

DC/Marvel: All Access #4

The JLA and X-Men realize who is behind the dimensional crisis between the DC and Marvel Universes. It's not as epic of a team-up as when the JLA and the Avengers worked together. But it was quite thrilling. 

An overall great job by Ron Marz and Jackson 'Butch' Guice. Very good and interesting story and great artwork, especially for mid-90s comics!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

DC/Marvel All Access #1

After the events of DC Versus Marvel, the two universes had combined into an Amalgam of the two planes of reality. Thankfully the two worlds were able to be unmixed but that doesn't mean that the danger to the fabric of reality is over.

If ever the DC and Marvel Universes ever touch again for too long, the Amalgam Universe will again dominate the two. Thus a new hero called Access was formed. He is able to cross over from side to side to eliminate any such crossovers. For the most part, Access has been able to reverse the occasional crossing. However the frequency of such events is becoming way too often and it's causing this new hero to cut things way too close.

Penned but DC Versus Marvel’s Ron Marz, this is a pretty clever way to recapture the magic of that amazing crossover that started everything. The artwork by Jackson 'Butch' Guice is quite good too. A really enjoyable and plausible opening chapter.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars!

DC Versus Marvel

In the mid 1990s, comic books were on the verge of collapse. Speculators had seen the insane prices that the first appearances of Superman and Spider-Man were selling for and they wanted a piece of the pie. However these speculators were new to comics and didn't realize that every first issue wasn't going to become the next Action Comics #1.

While these newbies were snatching up dozens of first issues at a time, two disastrous things were happening in the industry. 1) Comic book stores were raising the prices of new comics to levels that devoted fans could not afford on a regular basis. 2) Meanwhile publishers were thrilled at how well the first issues of their new titles we're selling; so they began publishing large volumes of the second and third issues. But since the speculators weren't interested in anything but first issues and collectors weren't buying second issues because they couldn't afford issue #1 an economic bubble was forming.

By 1994-95, many independent publishers went out of business. Local comic book shops did too! Marvel had to restructure several times, even going so far as to outsource some of their most popular heroes to other companies. It was deeply feared that Marvel was going to go out of business.

If not for having Warner Bros as their parent company, DC would have folded as well. But successful animated TV shows and the Batman franchise of films kept DC afloat. The powers that be at DC knew that it was vital to the industry to keep Marvel from folding even if they were a direct competitor. So they threw out a life preserver to the House of Ideas- they proposed a crossover!  

It had been nearly two decades that the two publishers had last had characters of their two universes meet. A new generation of fans had long begged DC and Marvel for such a pairing. And established fans really only got to see a small handful of characters meet in the three crossovers published from 1976-1981.

Once the contracts were signed, it was decided that Ron Marz and Peter David would script a epic battle between the heroes of the two universes with art by Dan Jurgens and Claudio Castellini. But it would be the fans who would get to decide the outcomes!

After the first issue, fans were given a number of match-ups and encouraged to vote for the winner. Could Superman defeat the Hulk? Whose mightier: The Silver Surfer or Green Lantern? Could Namor out-swim Aquaman? You might not agree with all of the outcomes but it was the people who had spoken!

For the most part, the events of this 4-issue mini series have been retconned and erased. But the most lasting impact of this story was the creation of the Amalgam Universe. There we got awesome miss-mashes of our favorite characters like Bruce Wayne: Agent of SHIELD and Doctor Strangefate.

A great story that helped saved Marvel if not the comic book industry as a whole. Marvel would continue to flounder for a couple of years afterwards, eventually filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1996. But the sales were positive enough to help Marvel in it's restructuring until Toy Biz could make a deal to buy the company.

This book is maybe not a required reading but it's definitely something of historical importance!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars