This Week on Goodreads

Well, since I can't seem to get the doohickey that automatically posts my Goodreads reviews here to work, I'm taking a post to list all the ones I've done so far this week, for the books I managed to finish reading.


Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 4 by Dennis O'Neil
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This volume of Showcase Presents Green Lantern while featuring some great artwork from Gil Kane (including one story inked by the late, great Wally Wood), Dick Dillin and Mike Sekowsky, has some of the lamest sixties' stories. This was the low period in DC Comics (well, one of them, anyway) between the Go-Go checked covers and the relevant period that started when Neal Adams took over the art on Green Lantern/Green Arrow (and Denny O'Neil was given more of a free rein with the story content) with what would have been the next issue after the last reprinted in this book.

The book's description is a bit off as well. The only real member of GL's rogue's gallery that appears is Hector Hammond, who at the time was both big-headed and paralyzed. The Lamplighter makes one of his only appearances, and there's a guy who can control Hal Jordan's Power Ring by the force of his own will whenever Hal's actually using it. There's a couple tales that follow the stale-even-then storyline of an alien who comes to Earth/inept guy with powers, is able to beat up GL almost by accident, and then is used by a group of criminals. The Fantastic Four did this kind of tale best with the original Impossible Man and "Infant Terrible" stories, and it doesn't work all that well here.

At least this book wasn't labelled "Essential" or anything like that, so no advertising laws were broken.


The Amazing Spider-Man: Mayhem in Manhattan by Len Wein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first Spider-Man novel isn't too bad. It captures the flavor of the seventies Spider-Man comics to a tee. You can see this story in your head, played out over two or three issues.

Unlike a lot of these sorts of initial adaptations, it doesn't spend a lot of time going over Spidey's origin; Wein and Wolfman seem to understand that if you're buying a Spider-Man novel, you already know a bit about the character.

The story is fast-paced, and even though an astute reader will know who the Master Planner is by the middle of Chapter One, you don't really care; it's not that kind of book.

It isn't the first Marvel Comics' novel, though. Just an FYI, the first one was The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker, back in 1967. It was the first book in the short-lived (eleven official entries) Marvel Novel Series.


Essential Fantastic Four, Vol. 2 by Stan Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good volume of Marvel Essentials, with Jack Kirby just starting to hit his stride on the book. This one covers Fantastic Four #21-40, along with a couple of stories from annuals. The only downside is that the Spidey-Torch tale from the Strange Tales Annual is reprinted from the actual comic and not the original black-and-white artwork. Highlights include Dragon Man, Diablo, the Frightful Four, Daredevil, and Dr. Strange.


How to Survive an Amazon Forum Troll Attack: a Writer's Guide by Michele Foal
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

At the risk of joining the subject matter, this is a one-joke, five-minute read. And it doesn't help that the first instance of said joke is misspelled. I can see what the author is trying to do, buy for maybe two chuckles, it falls on it's face.



Doctor Who: The Bodysnatchers by Mark Morris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good story featuring the Eighth Doctor and his companion Sam. This one is set in the same Victorian London as The Talons of Weng-Chiang, and features a character from that story. A good afternoon read for any Whovian.



Essential Iron Man, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee Don Heck, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first volume in the Essential Iron Man series naturally features Shellhead's first appearances in Marvel Comics' Tales of Suspense.

These are some fun stories, even if a lot of them are somewhat forgettable. Iron Man battles a villain called Doctor Strange, a giant caveman robot and a mess o' Commies before getting into with his soon-to-be Rogues' Gallery: Crimson Dynamo, the Melter, the Mandarin, Mr. Doll ... okay, so even then, not all of them were classics. Captain America, the Angel (and the original X-Men) and Hawkeye the Archer (when he was a bad guy) also show up in these pages.

The artwork is a sixties' dream: Don Heck, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko all take turns at the helm, with Ditko re-designing Iron Man's golden armor into the red-and-yellow suit he was most associated with for the next 25 years.

While there are, as I mentioned, a lot of stories that read like filler, is actually is an "Essential" volume for once, for both fans of the Golden Avenger and Marvel Comics in general.


She-Hulk, Vol. 1: Single Green Female by Dan Slott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first trade paperback reprinting Dan Slott's She-Hulk is a good intro to both the character and the Marvel Universe, or at least the back side of it. She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) moves out of Avengers Mansion and joins a law firm specializing in super-hero law. There are plenty of cameos by Marvel Universe denizens, including the Thing and Dr. Strange, and of course, everybody's favorite neighborhood web-slinger. This is one of the few comic book series of the past twenty years that actually seems to remember that Marvel had a history and rich background characters before the nineties.


She-Hulk, Vol. 2: Superhuman Law by Dan Slott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The second trade of Dan Slott's She-Hulk is just as good as the first, featuring Jennifer Walter's first court case with her new law firm, along with having to watch over young miscreant Southpaw and work as a magistrate for the Living Tribunal (who needs to get some pants). She manages to beat the Champion of the Universe, but old enemy Titania shows up to deal her some bad cards. A great series worth a read by any comic fan!



She-Hulk, Vol. 3: Time Trials by Dan Slott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This volume of the She-Hulk trade paperbacks features the first five issues of the 2005 series, again written by Dan Slott. Titania's rampage has left emotional scars on Jennifer, and she now has to use a device to transform into her alter-ego. Timely Plaza is being rebuilt, but a mysterious new CEO has plans that don't necessarily coincide with everyone else's, as the first starts handling cases for super-villains as well as heroes. Another fun storyline worth reading.


Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents: Superman Team-Ups by Len Wein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

DC Comics Presents was a team-up comic that ran for nearly 100 issues starting in the late eighties. This Showcase Presents volume reprints the first 26 issues.

There are some fun stories here! First of all, you've got at least six stories each featuring artwork by comic legends Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Joe Staton, and Dick Dillin. Curt Swan, Jim Starlin and Rich Buckler also provide artwork. The stories have some continuity, with considerably more continued (if somewhat tenuously) stories than your usual team-up book. Three stories are linked by Superman's battle with best friend Pete Ross, over Ross's son, fated to become a warlord for a distant planet. Superman time-travels to with the Flash and Sgt. Rock, doesn't quite help Swamp Thing against Solomon Grundy, and literally moves the planet in an adventure with Adam Strange.

This is nearly 500-pages of good, bronze age stories. Highly recommended!


The Ultimates: Against All Enemies by Alex Irvine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book reads a lot more like an issue of the Ultimates than the previous book by Michael Jan Friedman did. For the most part, the Ultimates just don't get along very well. Even Captain America is lacking in trust in this one. The Chitauri are back, working several angles to get their revenge and destroy the "virus" that is humanity.

This one was fairly well-written by Irvine, who appears to do mostly genre books and novelizations. If you are a Marvel or Ultimate Comics fan, you'll probably want to give this one a try. It more accessible for the average reader as well.


The Ultimates: Against All Enemies by Alex Irvine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book reads a lot more like an issue of the Ultimates than the previous book by Michael Jan Friedman did. For the most part, the Ultimates just don't get along very well. Even Captain America is lacking in trust in this one. The Chitauri are back, working several angles to get their revenge and destroy the "virus" that is humanity.

This one was fairly well-written by Irvine, who appears to do mostly genre books and novelizations. If you are a Marvel or Ultimate Comics fan, you'll probably want to give this one a try. It more accessible for the average reader as well.


God Speaks by His Spirit to the Coming Storm by Anthony Alan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If you're big into theology, you might enjoy this book. There's a discussion (with "divine commentary") on the Book of Ezekiel, and a third of the book is devoted to a series of adages that are supported by scripture and bible teachings.

The book is more Sunday school than anything else - trying to drive home points through repetition. There are also instances of misogynism and blatant isolationism (where the interpretation of the "good book" is told as people should stay away from other cultures).

I only picked this one up as part of a review project on a website. It is interesting from some points of view, but it is also poorly formatted in a sort of an outline/Top Ten list style that while separating the points, doesn't lend well to casual reading.


Essential Marvel Two-in-One, Vol. 3 by Mark Gruenwald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good volume in the Essentials series, featuring some excellent stories from MTIO. The Project Pegasus saga is reprinted here, as is the Serpent Crown and Maelstrom storylines. Great artwork by Ron Wilson, Gene Day, John Byrne. and George Perez abounds.


THE AVENGERS Battle the Earth-Wrecker by Otto Binder
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While this was the first Marvel Comics novel adaptation and was written by a sci-fi legend (and comic book) writer like Otto Binder, it certainly doesn't read like one. This tale would've been dated the day it was published. So much effort seems to have been spent making the Avengers' banter try to be natural and unforced, the rest of the novel suffers (and the banter comes off hackneyed anyway).

Instead of using Kang, the obvious choice, we get Karzz, a similarly high tech tyrant from the future with no real Elam and a predilection for being a polyglot. The mediocre painted cover also shows characters not in the story. This is definitely not worth paying an exorbitant ebay price to obtain; Otto's dead, so find the pdf file that is making the rounds of the net.

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THE TV SHOW QUIZ BOOK: VOLUME 1
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THE single worst super-hero cartoon in history.

They always say you can't go home again, and that's usually fairly wise advice. There are times when the yen for nostalgia takes over and you have to give in and take a look at the past. I have done this tonight. And I have paid the same price I did way back in 1978 when I first saw this particular cultural train wreck. 

Somehow Hollywood almost always manages to screw up when they adapt comic books, and particularly super-heroes, to the screen. Even the very best don't quite ring true to the source material. Billy Batson got his powers from an Egyptian wizard in The Adventures of Captain Marvel and packs heat for most of the serial. Superman II added some strange powers to the Man of Steel. The Rogues' Gallery of TV's The Flash was just the Trickster and a bunch of people who couldn't be bothered to wear costumes. But the worst super-hero cartoon series in history can only be one show: The New Fantastic Four. 

The year was 1978, and super-heroes were a somewhat hot property, though not nearly as popular as today in the movies. Superman the Movie had hit the theatres, and Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk had respectable runs on CBS. The Fantastic Four had been adapted in the sixties by Hanna-Barbera, and is fondly remembered as the good Marvel cartoon of the sixties, as the Spider-Man series was fairly forgettable beyond the theme song, and the Grantray Lawrence nearly-animated cartoons were well-remembered and ridiculed both for being fairly consistent with the original stories and for being some of the cheapest animation in TV history. They were still a hundred times better than the New Fantastic Four. 

I'm sure most kids from the seventies remember the show, mainly for one thing: 



Yeah, you might've noticed it, too. It's the Fantastic Three and a little robot. The rights to the Human Torch had been optioned for a live-action development deal that eventually fell through, but not soon enough to stop them from making this travesty with H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot. I'd love to say Stan Lee was twirling in his grave some place because of that, but 1) the art-stealing bozo is still alive and 2) he just wants the cash to keep coming in, so he even did some voice-overs for this show. 

The second episode of the New Fantastic Four represents the nadir of an entire medium. "The Menace of Magneto" was so poorly written and characterized that even back then I remember staring at my TV and going "What the fuck?"

First off, Magneto makes his powerful and decisive entrance thusly:



Yeah, he asks for directions to the Baxter Building at a gas station. I realize that, yes, these were the days before Google Maps, Tom-Toms, and the like. But fuck. The Mutant Master of Magnetism, traveling in something that even Buckminster Fuller would've rejected, asking a service station attendant for directions to one of what has to be the four most famous buildings in New York City. There are things called maps. Oh, but magnetism doesn't affect paper. Guess that's why he needed the directions. And is the basis for the whole crappy show.

Magneto got to the Baxter Building, and right away challenged Reed Richards for the leadership of the Fantastic Four. After a short battle in their workout room, Magneto was triumphant. Soon after, Magneto's first assignment for the team was to protect a bank from being robbed by going there first and removing the money themselves. Naturally, they put the money in that thing that passes for Magneto's car and he took it to hide it from the robbers. 

Yeah, I know. Magneto. In alternate comic book realities, this mutant has nearly destroyed the planet on several occasions. In this animated world, he robs a bank. Well, now Reed is certain that Magneto is up to something (duh) and sets a plan into action to stop him from getting away with the money, which he was loading into his helicopter to fly across the border. I am not making that up, by the way.

After another short fight in which somehow magnetic powers are just as ineffective as having a stretchy body, Reed pulls out a gun on Magneto. The mutant bank robber finds he can't affect the gun in any way, and figures that Reed has found a way to neutralize his powers. And the cops come and take the distraught super-villain away to the hoosegow. Oh, and before he goes, Reed tells him that the gun was made out of wood and, essentially, he still has his powers.

Thirty seconds after that revelation, the iron-rich marrow of that cop's bones was pulled out of his nipples. 

Yes, Reed Richards' plan was revealed and Magneto still went along full of self-doubt. This was a retread of a Stan Lee plot point from an old issue of Incredible Hulk, in which ol' Greenskin managed to defeat an alien known as the Metal Master with a similar, though Hulk-sized weapon. The thing is, no one told the Metal Master what the kicker was, so he still thought he better move his ass back out into space. These cops are taking Magneto, who knows his powers still work, to a jail full of metal bars, steel-reinforced concrete, guns, handcuffs ... you know, like taking a kid with a sweet tooth to a candy store. I would've like to seen the episode that was broadcast in about a month. You know, after all the police funerals.

There is not a single redeeming feature to this episode. The animators had a unique approach to anatomy and proportion throughout this series, as in they didn't have one. Most of this shows' look like a kiddie coloring book that was colored in wrongly about 20% of the time. Even the episodes that should've been fun, like the one with the Impossible Man, are bland and boring. And like most cartoons of the sixties and seventies, actual humor was conspicuously absent. A vaudeville routine would've been more entertaining than some of the "good-natured ribbing" that takes place between the Thing and H.E.R.B.I.E.

Sigh. It would be nice, just once, to have a memory of a TV show or movie from when I was a kid that actually was up to snuff when I finally got around finding it again. I recently unearthed some episodes of The Man from Atlantis. I'm not holding out much hope, but I at least have some. Not like for the remaining twelve episodes of the New Fantastic Four. 

Book review: Thing/Liberty Legion Hardcover

Nothing like a good review after a rambling rant, is there? And here we go with one of the most unlikely reprint volumes I've ever seen. The Thing: Liberty Legion is part of the new Marvel Premiere hardcover series, in which Marvel Comics' been trying to squeeze more moolah out of readers by reprinting stories they've already reprinted several times. And they got me to do it with this particular book.

While the stories contained in this book are some of the most unlikely that I thought I'd ever see reprinted, they're also some of my favorites. One of my Top Five comic book characters of all time (and for the record, the top five, in order are the original Vigilante, the Thing, the Flash, Cliff Steele and the Shade) along with some of Marvel's golden age greats. Nope, no way I'd want to buy that. Not.

I believe I've mentioned before that Marvel Comics' golden age stable of characters was not the best, and rarely rose to the level of DC Comics' oeuvre of the time. And both were outshone by most of Quality Comics' and Lev Gleason Publications' books of the time. But as usual, Roy Thomas used his encyclopedia knowledge of the golden age and his yen for reviving old characters to great effect in the tales in this book.

The book begins with the very first adventure of the Liberty Legion, which encompassed The Invaders #5-6 and Marvel Premiere #29-30. The Red Skull captures the Invaders (Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch and Toro) and brainwashes the heroes into fighting for the Axis Powers. The Skull doesn't think enough of Cap's sidekick Bucky to even bring him along. Tired of being marginalized as the helpless kid sidekick, Bucky breaks into a radio broadcast and brings together several other heroes: The Patriot, Red Raven, Miss America, the unfortunately-named Whizzer, the Thin Man, the Blue Diamond and the recalcitrant Jack Frost. With this group of second-stringers, Bucky frees the Invaders from the mind control and the Liberty Legion is formed to fight threats on the wartime homefront.

The next tale is a three-parter that ran in Fantastic Four Annual #11, Marvel Two-in-One Annual #1 and Marvel Two-in-One #20. The story was reprinted in a couple of Marvel Essentials volumes, but this is the first time (to my knowledge) that it was reprinted in full-color. The Fantastic Four go back in time to repair the damage caused when a vibranium cylinder accidentally is sent back to World War II, which helped the Nazis win the war. They meet up with the Invaders and recover half the cylinder. The enigmatic Watcher's appearance tells Ben Grimm that all is still not well, so he takes a trip back himself, meeting up with the Liberty Legion and various Nazi-themed super-villains.

This particular tale takes place during that brief story cycle in 1976-1977 when Ben Grimm had lost his super-powers and was forced to wear an exo-skeleton that looked exactly like his old form as the Thing.

There's some excellent artwork in this volume, provided by Frank Robbins, John and Sal Buscema and the incredibly underrated Don Heck. Roy Thomas scripted the entire shebang with a lot of great characterization and attention to detail that he's been known for throughout Marvel's silver age.

It is definitely not for everyone, but I think most folks would find The Thing: Liberty Legion to be a fun read. The excellent full-color reproduction is a definite plus as well. I find it to be a great addition to my graphic novel library.

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1,001 COMIC BOOK TRIVIA QUESTIONS
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by Rich Meyer

If you name a comic book character from the last 70 years, you'll probably find a question about them - from Thor and the X-Men, to Superman and Batman, to Little Lulu and the Pink Panther. There are questions about almost every genre of comic book - superhero, funny animal, teen, horror, war, humor. 

This quiz e-book has 1,001 questions (and answers) for the most neophyte of fans and questions that will probably stump a few of the experts!

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