G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO

"G.I. Joe is the codename for America's daring, highly trained special
missions force. Its purpose: to defend human freedom against Cobra,
a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world."

Thirty-five years ago this week, at least according to the sources I've found, G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO hit television airwaves in the form of a five-part miniseries event, created by Sunbow Productions in association with Marvel Productions, and serialized across a full week. Alternately known as "The Mass Device" and simply "A Real American Hero", the episodes were, I imagine, many kids' first exposure to G.I. Joe outside of the little plastic toys. Marvel had of course been publishing an ongoing JOE comic book for over a year at this point, but even with television commercials to advertise that series, a weekday syndicated cartoon would reach far more children far more easily than a comic.

I was too young for JOE at this point; being a few months shy of five years old in September of '83 -- so I would have missed the miniseries when it first aired. And, though G.I. Joe never floated my boat as a young child in the same way as the Transformers and He-Man, I did watch the subsequent year's "Revenge of Cobra" serial. But I didn't really become a fan and follower of JOE for several more years. It was actually when I was in middle school and my younger brother got into the toys that I began reading the comic book and watching the cartoon episodes wherever I could find them in syndication or at the video store. And our local store had a copy of "The MASS Device", which I rented several times.

HE-MAN MINICOMICS 1982

"HE-MAN AND THE POWER SWORD" | "KING OF CASTLE GRAYSKULL"
"BATTLE IN THE CLOUDS" | "THE VENGEANCE OF SKELETOR"

Written by: Donald F. Glut | Illustrated by: Alfredo Alcala

The first couple years of MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE minicomics are an interesting curiosity in the property's history. I touched on this a bit when I looked at a graphic novel from the eighties called THE SUNBIRD LEGACY, which was sort of a transitional state from the early comics world to the more familiar setup with He-Man as an alter ego for Prince Adam, along with a generally more light-hearted/superheroic tone. But in these four earliest MASTERS tales, none of that was even remotely established.

These stories instead paint a drastically different picture of the planet Eternia than what most fans have come to expect thanks to the Filmation TV series. Here, Eternia is a wild, untamed world. He-Man is a barbarian who leaves his tribe to defend the planet from the forces of evil. Castle Grayskull, rather than being the benign source of He-Man's power, is a mysterious fortress, neutral to good and evil alike, but which holds the power to rule the planet. References are made to a "Great War", which turned Eternia into a wasteland. As a result, high technology is an unusual artifact of the past.

Now, I'd never trade away my memories of the Filmation cartoon, which I loved as a child (and really, I still like it quite a bit today). And as that same child, I never really warmed up to the early minicomics, different as they were from the TV show -- heck, even the later minicomics, which as we'll see generally hewed pretty closely to the Filmation setup, didn't always float my boat either due to smaller inconsistencies. But nowadays, there's room in my head for different interpretations of the He-Man mythos, and I actually really like this early minicomic continuity quite a bit. It's more of a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy than the straight science-fantasy that later interpretations would present.

WONDER WOMAN #12 & #13

“ECHOES OF THE PAST” | “DEMONPLAGUE”
Plot & Layouts: George Pérez | Script: Len Wein | Finishes: Bruce D. Patterson
Letters: John Costanza | Colors: Carl Gafford | Editor: Karen Berger

The Plot: (Issue 12) As Hippolyte descends into the caverns beneath Paradise Island, her daughter comes face-to-face with the woman for whom she was named, a redheaded American called Diana. Diana begins to explain the strange, intertwined history she shares with the princess, while elsewhere, Pan plots against Hippolyte, setting multiple obstacles against her. But, led by the vulture which brought her into the caves, Hippolyte proceeds on her way.

Soon, after Diana finishes her story to her namesake and departs, Pan appears and sends Wonder Woman off to the home of the Green Lanterns to aid them against the extraterrestrial Manhunters. Still on Earth, Hippolyte continues her trek and finds herself in the company of a massive Heracles, apparently changed to stone by some unknown force.

(Issue 13) Hippolyte continues her trek and comes across the form of Heracles, trapped as a living statue. Soon after, she finds the horned skull of Pan. Zeus and the other gods, observing Hippolyte’s quest, realize the Pan who has recently counseled Zeus is an imposter. Hermes fetches Diana from the Green Lantern citadel in California, returning her beneath Paradise Island to team up with her mother. The two battle several monsters and free Heracles, but countless demons escape as well.

Diana follows and traps the creatures within the amulet of Harmonia, which is then pulled—along with Diana—to Ares, who takes the amulet and disappears. Immediately after, Hermes appears and tasks Diana with one final challenge: to return to Man’s World and avenge his son, Pan, by finding and killing the Manhunter who took the horned god’s life and impersonated him.

HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

As promised not long ago, this fall will find us looking at a new toy tie-in series to replace the Transformers stuff I've read over the past four autumns. And stepping up to take over for Optimus Prime and friends is another beloved icon of the eighties: the most powerful man in the universe himself, He-Man.

A few years ago, I "Unboxed" Dark Horse's collection of MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE minicomics, the little comic books that were packaged with the vintage action figures thirty-plus years back. Since then, I also bought a "backup copy" of the book in digital format during a Comixology Dark Horse sale at some point. Thus, armed with the book in both physical and virtual format, I'm ready to read it. Beginning this Saturday and continuing over the subsequent few weeks, we'll examine the He-Man minicomics by year, from 1982 through 1987 -- the full run of the original toyline.

But that's not all! Once the minicomic retrospective wraps up in October, we'll crack open another tome I picked up some time back (and also re-purchased in digital format later on) -- HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: THE NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS. Unlike the minicomics, which I read as a child and of which I retain some hazy memories, the newspaper strip is an iteration of MASTERS that I've never seen in my life. But my He-Man fandom and my recently developed interest in newspaper adventure strips have intersected to make this something I'm really excited to read.

The strips are broken apart into story arcs in the book, so we'll read two arcs per week, starting in October and running through November. After that, I have one more thing in mind to close out the year -- but we'll get to that when the time comes. For now, we're off to the distant planet Eternia to check out the never-ending struggle between He-Man and Skeletor.

THE "PERSONAL GOLDEN AGE"

It's weird how these things go. A month or so back, I was thinking about typing up a debriefing on this year's Comic-Con -- but as usual, while I enjoyed myself, I find that I have very little to put to screen regarding my time there. It was fine, but a lot of the experience for me is simply spending time with friends who I don't see as often as I used to. The con itself is almost secondary nowadays to the hanging around, the games, and the eating out around town.

But as I mulled over whether or not to bother with a recap essay, I mused that the first SDCC I attended was nineteen years ago, in 1999 (and if you think that means I'll find a way to commemorate twenty years of Comic-Con next summer, True Believer, you've got me figured out). I started thinking about what the convention was like back then and the sorts of panels I attended. Then, the kicker -- my iPad wallpaper as I entertained these thoughts was an Avengers image by George Pérez, and I noted the year he'd drawn it beside his signature: 1997 (that's it at right).

I thought some more. We're more than twenty years removed now from the start of the Busiek/Pérez AVENGERS run, the Busiek/Bagley THUNDERBOLTS run, Spider-Man's Clone Saga, "Onslaught", and so forth, and it's been almost twenty years since my first Comic-Con. That got me thinking about the concept of the "Personal Golden Age" of comics, which I've seen now and then on the internet: the idea that everyone has an era where comics captured their imagination more than any time before or after. For some, it was probably right when they got into comics. For others, like me, it came a bit later.

SUPERMAN #14 & ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #437

“LAST STAND!”
Story & Pencils: John Byrne | Inks: Karl Kesel
Colors: Tom Ziuko | Letters: John Costanza | Editing: Michael Carlin

The Plot: Superman and Green Lantern pursue the Manhunters’ leader, Highmaster, into another dimension. The heroes are separated and Green Lantern catches up with Highmaster, falling into a ploy to reveal to the villain the location of the Guardians of the Universe. But Superman arrives before Highmaster can kill the Guardians, who recharge Green Lantern’s power ring, allowing him and Superman to work together and defeat Highmaster.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: This issue continues directly from the main MILLENNIUM series, with Superman and Green Lantern as the last heroes standing after all Earth’s other defenders were beaten by Highmaster. The story’s final page advises readers to follow the duo back into the pages of MILLENNIUM for the event’s conclusion.

My Thoughts: Though it’s an issue of SUPERMAN, this feels more like a typical installment of ACTION COMICS, featuring a stand-alone team-up between Superman and another hero. It’s a quick, breezy read (as are many of Byrne’s issues of ACTION), and while it’s decent on its own, one can’t help feeling it’d feel more momentous after reading the prior issues of MILLENNIUM.

But! Superman and Green Lantern use some cool teamwork to beat Highmaster — the Guardians supercharge GL’s ring while Superman zaps the villain with heat vision to change him from yellow to red, thus allowing the ring to actually work on him — and Byrne gets to throw in the Green Lantern oath, which I know I’d certainly want to do if I was featuring the character in a guest spot in my comic.

THE UNBOXING - AUGUST 2018

It's a throwback Unboxing this month -- nothing digital, no "Junior" edition; just two physical books from the Big Two publishers.

From DC, it's volume 3 of BATMAN AND ROBIN ADVENTURES, finishing that series and concluding DC's tie-ins with the original iteration of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES. The subsequent series, BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES, adapted the retooled NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES era of the show. Hopefully DC has plans to continue this trade paperback series into that run as well. GOTHAM ADVENTURES was by far the longest running of all the tie-in series, but in total it came to about as many issues as BATMAN ADVENTURES and BATMAN AND ROBIN ADVENTURES combined.

And from Marvel, we have the X-MEN REVOLUTION BY CHRIS CLAREMONT OMNIBUS. Why did I buy this? Even I'm not entirely certain. I didn't like these issues when they first came out. By most accounts, they haven't aged well at all. They were filled with lame villains, random alterations to status quos and unnecessary costume changes for nearly every character. Perhaps tellingly, I have yet to remove the shrink wrap from the book. Usually I free an Omnibus as soon as I receive it, to peruse the pages within. But Marvel uploaded nearly every issue contained in this book to their Unlimited service practically right after it hit shelves, so if I really want to revisit the material, I can do it there.

I think I really only bought this one to maintain my nineties X-Men completist mentality -- I really do love the idea of having every X-MEN and UNCANNY X-MEN issue from that decade on my shelves. And while this book mostly collects material from 2000, it still "feels" like a continuation of the nineties. But at the same time, I question whether I really need this stuff. If you told me the X-Men's saga ended with Alan Davis's final issue in 1999, I'd be totally on board with that (even with my favorite X-Man, Cyclops, merged with Apocalypse).

So, yeah... while I wouldn't say I have buyer's remorse about this one, I'll admit it's a book I probably don't need and will likely only read/peruse once in my entire adult life. In fact, there's a good chance I might just sell it someday, never removed from its shrink wrap.