Bizarre Adventures #28

This black and white magazine from Marvel is a must have for Elektra fans. It contains the assassin and Daredevil love interest's first ever solo story. With art and story by creator Frank Miller, it alone is worth the asking price which seems to range online from $20-50 bucks. Maybe it's because it's a magazine. Or maybe the asking price is less than I would have expected as maybe collectors don't know about it's importance. I know that I got lucky having bought it for only a buck at a thrift store a few years back.

A trio of characters make their first ever appearance debuts in this issue. Neal Adams, Doug Moench and Larry Hama present the Shadow Warrior; perhaps the world's smallest ninja and America's only hope against the infiltration of a cadre of brainwashed American soldiers trained by an Asian operative to overthrow our government. 

Archie Goodwin, Michael Golden and Steve Mitchell introduce readers to the world of the Huntsman. From what I can tell, this is the only appearance of the character and that may very well have been because of how much the world of the cracker jack Huntsman named Ballard is a lot like that of the dystopian sci-fi thriller Logan's Run. Citizens who must die at age 35, bounty hunters stalking 'defiers', those who wish to extend their lives by escaping into the wilderness and there's even a floating arena where winners who make it to the victory ring atop the domed ceiling can live longer lives in luxury. I wonder if Marvel got a cease and desist order from 20th Century Fox for copyright infringement. 

Upon further research, it turns out that I was right. Only in reverse. In 1975-76, Marvel Comics had the rights to produce a comic book based on the film starring Michael York. Only, the House of Ideas had the rights to adapt the film, which they did as a 5-parter. When Fox learned that Marvel was continuing on with new adventures, the studio made them stop. Issue #7 was the last issue, which supposedly ends with a never resolved cliffhanger. 

'Huntsman' was a story that was going to run in a future issue of Logan's Run. But due to the sudden cancellation resulted in the project getting shelved. Never one to let paid work sit unpublished, Goodwin and Golden made some adjustments to the story; enough to satisfy legal and the forgotten story finally saw print several years later in 1981.

It must of been Assistant Editor's Month at Marvel because two of Goodwin's assistants supplied a story for this issue. Mary Jo Duffy and Wendy Pini place the Inhuman Triton in an ecological heavy adventure involving a wrecked oil tanker and modern day pirates.

If you've been paying attention to this review, you'll remember I said that this book contains 3 debuts. Lastly, Steve Skeates and Steve Smallwood introduced a rather odd little fellow named Bucky Bizarre. In his premiere, this guy is a time traveler who winds up in the 1950s, where non-conformity is a thing to be mocked and berated. Bucky tries to help a living garbage heap that came alive because of pollution and nuclear water only to set up the punchline to a really awful plotline. 

I'm really torn about this issue. Having the Elektra story makes it sorta valuable. Only I don't really have room nor a bag and board for a magazine sized book. I think the materials to keep it pristine and clean are more important than having a place to keep it. If I could get it, that would be great.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Generic Comic #1

Never before has a comic book cover offered so little that it has inspired generations of fans to seek it out as a part of their collections nearly 40 years after its release.

According to the cover, this one-shot offers a self-doubting superhero with real life problems, a villain with a shtick out to rule the world, a good looking (but otherwise absent) girlfriend, family drama, conflict, twists, turns and fisticuffs. Basically the sort of stuff you would find in just about any other Marvel Comic on shelves in 1984.

Marvel's Generic Comic was the idea of then Marvel editor Larry Hama. Hama had been toying with the satirical idea of a story that checked off all the boxes of the Marvel style of comics a year or so earlier. Hama had planned to include such a story in the pages of Marvel's humor mag Crazy, when the publisher unceremoniously pulled the plug on the MAD Magazine imitator. 

Larry Hama was not a creative force known to let a good idea die, no matter how generic. Over the course of about a year, Hama kept pitching the idea until editor Tom DeFalco caught on to the concept and the project was greenlit. Steve Skeates was assigned writing duties for a project he went on to proclaim the most fun project he had in his career up to that point.

Generic Comic tells the origin story of a character commonly referred to as The Unnamed Super-Hero. With his brother Bobby in a coma and a girlfriend tired of waiting for a proposal, he's desperate for a long promised promotion. A collector of glow-in-the-dark chatchkes, the lad gains all around super powers when he smashes his Three Mile Island snow globe in frustration. Along with abilities of flight, speed and super hearing, the young man's lanky body begins to rival that of a bodybuilder. 

Seeing a chance at changing his fortune, the man decides to become a super hero. Thanks to an ad in the morning paper, he heads down to a superhero supply store for a costume. All he can afford is a generic all-white bodysuit complete with equally plain domino mask and cape. It's not much to look at. But at least it matches his hair which turned white thanks to all that radioactive day-glo.

Things begin to look up for the newest hero of the world designated Earth-84041. He performs a couple of acts of heroism. A couple of goons are defeated. However, this string of good luck comes crashing down when the Unnamed Super-Hero meets the Unnamed Super-Villain who comes complete with a special hypnotic helmet that causes the protagonist to lose his confidence and become a quivering ball of jelly!

It seems rather odd that Marvel would back such an unusual project. Especially one that openly mocks the very formula of the House of Ideas. One theory is that Marvel supported the project in order to secure the copyright to the terms 'Super-Hero' and 'Super-Villain'. If you use a magnifying glass or a dose of super-vision, readers will notice that under the copyright information on the bottom front page, it does indeed state that Marvel co-owned both terms. If it's true, this seems like a legal blunder on par with Marvel's earlier attempt to enforce their copyright on the word 'Zombie.' However, some fans dispute this theory claiming that the copyright statement was a joke put in by Hama or DeFalco.

Unfortunately to this day, we still don't know how illustrated and inked the book. Not a single by-line credit is attributed to anyone, anywhere in the book. Despite both Hama and Skeates discussing their roles in creating the Generic Comic in interviews, it's a real head scratcher that nobody has ever asked for them to identify the missing staff members who contributed to this uniquely common work.

Worth Consuming!- if only for being such an oddity!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Plastic Man 80-Page Giant (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

When a heist goes wrong, safecracker Patrick 'Eel' O'Brian is shot by a nightwatchman, doused with chemicals and left for dead by his gang. O'Brian awakens in a monastery, shielded from the authorities by the parish monks. As he recovers, O'Brian learns that the chemicals he was showered with seeped into his wounds giving him super-stretching abilities. Seeing a chance at redemption, Eel dons a red rubber suit and dark sunglasses to become Plastic Man! His first mission- to bring his double-crossing former gang members to justice!

Plastic Man debuted in the first issue of Police Comics. The creation of Jack Cole, Plastic Man was one of Quality Comics most popular characters until the publisher folded in 1956. Plas along with properties such as the Polish flying ace, Blackhawk and the war anthology series G.I. Combat was soon absorbed by National Publications (D.C. Comics). While the war books were immediately added into National's print line-up, it would be another decade before Plastic Man would return to store shelves. However, it would be the funny man who got the last laugh. 

After two brief attempts to reintroduce Plastic Man to readers, the former Eel O'Brian made the transition to TV. From 1979-1981, Plas and his son Baby Plas made Saturday mornings fun for youngsters as part of ABC's The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Hour. Produced by Ruby-Spears, an impressive 112 episodes aired over 5 seasons. By the end of the 80s, both Blackhawk and G.I. Combat would be shelved while Plastic Man would enter the 90s as a full-fledged member of the JLA. In 2003, artist Kyle Baker revamped Plastic Man for a new generation in a cartoony series that produced 20-issues. Baker would win numerous Eisner awards as well as a Harvey for his innovative look at the hero.

As a promotional tie-in for the Kyle Baker's series, DC released a super-sized special starring Plas. Based on the 80-page specials of the 60s and 70s, this volume is presented as a lost collection of Plastic Man's greatest adventures. Along with his debut appearance, fans are introduced to faithful sidekick Woozy Winks, a small time crook who thanks to a swami who life Winks saved, is blessed with amazingly good luck. A Dial H for Hero adventure from the House of Mystery, has Robby Reed turning into Plastic Man as he battles a villain that uses bombs made of bright light. Arnold Drake and Gil Kane mark Plastic Man's official return to comics in his debut DC series which replaces Woozy Winks with a nebbish teen pet store owner. Woozy then returns in caper in which the rich and powerful have their minds switched with hamsters in the finale penned by Steve Skeates and art by Ramona Fradon.

After the Kyle Baker series ended in 2006, Plastic Man would return to TV as a recurring character on Cartoon Network's Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Plas would appear in a number of comic miniseries over the next 15 years including Flashpoint and a segment in the newsprint inspired Sunday Comics. Plastic Man's most recent appearances in the DC universe saw him in a new black and white costume as part of Mister Terrific's super team, the Terrifics.

Completing this review completes Task #20 (An 80-page or larger giant) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

1st Issue Special #11 (2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

A college science experiment for extra credit results in coed Jonathan Drew unlocking his psychic potential. A million-to-one series of events results in the device attached to Drew's noggin to encounter a power surge. At first, it seems that Drew is just a little dazed. But when he asks for a glass of water and telekinetically pours the glass with his mere thoughts, Drew learns that he's one powerful psychic.

At first Drew and research scientist, Dr. Andrew Stone aren't sure what to make with these new found abilities. But when Drew's trial attorney sister, Maria, is killed in a hail of bullets from members of the mob, Drew soon realizes his destiny. He will use his newfound powers to take down the thugs who killed his sister. 

Armed with his new mental abilities and a pistol loaded with tranquilizer darts, Jonathan dons a blue and orange body suit to obscure his identity. His vigilante moniker is Assassin. However, just about everybody knows who Assassin really is thanks to media efforts by Dr. Stone to bring Drew in peacefully before he crossed the ultimate line: murder. But since our hero never kills anyone, he just knocks them out and ships baddies off to jail, I'm not sure whether or not calling yourself Assassin is such a great idea. In Drew's defense, the name Sandman was already taken.

Codename: Assassin was created in a joint effort by issue co-writers Gerry Conway and Steve Skeates, along with Frank and Nestor Redondo. Conway had previously co-created the vigilante character of the Punisher for Marvel. So I think Assassin was supposed to be like DC's version of Frank Castle. Somewhere along the way from Carmine Infantino designing the look of the character and the Redondo Studio putting the final touches on everything, the character of the Assassin went from cold blooded murderer to a much more muscular version of The Shadow. Only they kept the bad boy name. It's like when you have a pit bull named 'Killer' but you have him neutered. The intimidation factor just isn't the same.

Assassin's super-powered foes are almost polar opposites. There's the slinky former circus freak called Snake and then there's the blustering Powerhouse with the ability to siphon off electricity. Both have been hired to protect a mob boss from the Assassin. Snake is really cool looking with his lanky form and green scales. Powerhouse looks like a guy in one of those old scuba suits without the bell helmet. Snake can't be caught; making him a tough foe to nail down. But he's not very powerful. Powerhouse is a shocker but he's about as maneuverable as a bronze statue. 

Just before Assassin is about to tussle with Snake and Powerhouse, the story ends with a cliffhanger. Readers are encouraged to write in for more adventures of Codename: Assassin. Apparently the fan response was rather lacking because it wouldn't be until 2008-09 (roughly 31 years later) until Jonathan Drew would return to print in the pages of a few Superman Family titles. 

In his modern day appearances, the Assassin finally lives up to his name! Working in conjunction with Project CADMUS, Drew killed off several Guardian clones along with project overseer, Dubbilex. Afterwards, Drew would be recruited by General Sam Lane to develop a plan of defense in the light of a potential Kryptonian Invasion. That appears to be the last we've heard of the Assassin... for now.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #43 (Written by 2 Authors) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.