MADAME MIRAGE

"FADE IN" | "SNAP" | "GIRL TALK"
"THE GAUNTLET" | "MIRAGE AT BAY" | "FADE OUT"
Created and Written by: Paul Dini | Art by: Kenneth Rocafort
Colors by: Imaginary Friends Studios with Kenneth Rocafort & Blond on issue 1
Letters by: Troy Peteri | Edited by: Rob Levin

This one has been on my to-read list for about a decade. I first saw some promo art, or maybe covers, for Madame Mirage not long after she was created in 2007. She looked to be right up my alley -- a pulp-style heroine with an enormous rack, apparently wreaking vigilante justice in the thirties or forties, conceived by one of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES' best writers. I decided to pick up the trade paperback whenever it came out. I think I even ordered it at one point, but it was back-ordered or something and it wound up getting canceled.

Then, at some point, I learned that the series was not, as the promos had made me think, set in the past, but rather in the future -- that the series was basically sort of a sci-fi pulp thing. That revelation dampened my enthusiasm somewhat, and MADAME MIRAGE dropped down my shopping list, relegated to "maybe someday..."

Then, as I mentioned a couple weeks back, last year Comixology had a Top Cow sale and MADAME MIRAGE was one of the offerings. I decided someday had arrived, picked up the six issues, and here we are.

ACTION COMICS #588 & #589

“ALL WARS MUST END” | “GREEN ON GREEN”
Words & Pictures: John Byrne | Embellisher: Dick Giordano
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Michele Wolfman (issue 588) & Tom Ziuko (issue 589)
Editors: Andrew Helfer & Michael Carlin

The Plot: (Issue 588): Superman responds to a summons from Midway City, where he meets up with Hawkman and Hawkwoman, then accompanies them into space to help stop an invasion fleet from the couple’s home planet of Thanagar. Eventually Hawkman and Hawkwoman trigger an override which forces the fleet into hyperspace in random directions, dispersing it across millions of light years — but Superman is sucked into hyperspace as well.

(Issue 589): Arisia of the Green Lantern Corps finds Superman adrift in space and brings him back to the Lanterns’ citadel in space. Superman assists the Lanterns in investigating a large spaceborne creature which turns out to be the remnant of the graveyard the Man of Steel flew out of Earth’s atmosphere weeks earlier. Working together, Superman and the Green Lanterns defeat the malevolent force.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: We first encounter Hawkman and Hawkwoman, in the bloody aftermath of some great battle in Midway City, and they have two beings — a Thanagarian named Ved and a shapeshifter named Byth — in custody. Clearly all of this, plus the arrival of the Thanagarian fleet, is continued from some other comic, but there are no footnotes indicating where the prior stories took place.

Hawkwoman notes that it was pursuit of Byth which brought Hawkman and her to Earth some time back, and that Byth impersonated Superman during that encounter. Again, no footnotes, so I’m not sure if this was a pre- or post-CRISIS tale. Though I do know that, at least when he guest-starred in NEW TEEN TITANS, pre-CRISIS Hawkman was a human named Carter Hall, rather than an alien named Katar Hol.

CONAN AND THE JEWELS OF GWAHLUR

Script and Art: P. Craig Russell
Colors: Lovern Kindzierski | Letters: Galan Showman
Based on the story “The Jewels of Gwahlur” by Conan creator Robert E. Howard.

As noted when I "digitally unboxed" it a few months back, I picked up 2005's CONAN AND THE JEWELS OF GWAHLUR in a Dark Horse Conan sale simply because the cover jumped out at me and the story sounded interesting. Plus, despite his long and distinguished career in comics, I'm pretty sure I had never read any sequential work by P. Craig Russell, and I wanted to rectify that. I've seen pinups by him and I've seen him ink other pencilers here and there, but when it comes to pure, unvarnished Russell as plotter, scripter, penciler, and inker, this story marks my first exposure.

(I mean, yeah, technically he's adapting an original work by Robert E. Howard, but you know what I mean.)

The story finds Conan, working as he often does in the capacity of a mercenary, as a general in the kingdom of Keshan. But his true purpose in the backwater nation is to steal its legendary treasure, a cache of jewels called the Teeth of Gwahlur. However Conan finds himself up against a rival in this quest, the sinister Thutmekri. When Thutmekri tells Keshan's king that peace with neighboring Zimbabwei could be achieved with some of the Teeth provided as a show of good faith, Conan realizes the villain's true plan, to get the king to reveal the location of the sacred jewels, and then steal them.

Conan takes advantage of Thutmekri's plot when the king sends his priests to the isolated and long-deserted city-temple of Alkmeenon, where they are to commune with its oracle, Yelaya, and, if necessary, bring back the Teeth of Gwahlur. Now knowing where the Teeth are hidden, Conan sets out ahead of the priests and reaches Alkmeenon before them.

ACTION COMICS #587 & ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #429

“CITYSCAPE!”
Written & Penciled by: John Byrne | Embellished by: Dick Giordano
Colored by: Tom Ziuko | Lettered by: John Costanza
Edited by: Andrew Helfer & Michael Carlin

The Plot: In Gotham City, renowned occult expert Jason Blood and his entourage visit a curio shop. Jason’s friend Glenda opens a miniature glass city, and it immediately begins transforming everyone in the vicinity, and soon everyone in Gotham, into glass buildings. Blood changes into his alter ego, the demon Etrigan, and avoids the effect. Superman, passing by, has a brief scuffle with Etrigan before the demon explains the situation, then sends the Man of Steel back in time to stop the effect before it can start. Superman teams up with the Jason Blood of the Dark Ages, and together they stop the sorceress Morgaine Le Fay from enchanting the mini city in the first place. Superman returns to the present day to find that all is well.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Superman is familiar with Etrigan from past encounters, though he learns here for the first time that the demon is actually Jason Blood.

My Thoughts: Following from its installment of the LEGENDS/Darkseid storyline, ACTION COMICS returns to its established format as a throw-away team-up vehicle. Now, that doesn’t mean the story is bad; Superman’s team-up with Etrigan is fun, and Byrne’s fondness for time travel gets a quick demonstration here, but ultimately this is an entirely skippable affair.

We’ll note again that Byrne’s recent penchant for the gratuitous slaughter of bystanders is in full force, as Superman himself kills, or at least grievously injures, a few innocents when he smashes Etrigan against the crystal towers in Gotham. One of them even starts bleeding! Of course it’s all corrected via time travel, but even so, it’s a little much to see Superman himself causing such carnage — even if indirectly.

THE UNBOXING - APRIL 2018

Mighty Marvel has two books for us this month, a matching pair titled X-MEN BLUE vol. 0: REUNION and X-MEN GOLD vol. 0: HOMECOMING. Why they chose to title these as if they were entries in the ongoing X-MEN BLUE and X-MEN GOLD series, which have nothing to do with this material, is anyone's guess -- though I would assume it's just some sort of cross-promotion; i.e. more casual fans might grab these if they seem like they're supposed to go with the other books in those series. To me, though it feels more like false advertising.

But in any case, these two collections, when combined with 2015's THE HUNT FOR PROFESSOR X volume*, encompass the full and complete Steve Seagle/Joe Kelly run on UNCANNY X-MEN and X-MEN from the mid-late-nineties. It was the era that fell between Scott Lobdell's and Alan Davis's runs, and is kind of notorious these days for some serious editorial interference -- but nonetheless, in my quest to own the complete 1990s X-Men, I'm happy to have all three of these volumes in my collection.

(Plug alert: for a pretty comprehensive list of various X-Men collected editions, check out my X-MEN COLLECTIONS page! Crazy as it sounds, by the end of this year, the entirety of nineties X-material will be available in hardcover and/or trade paperback, with the exception of just a handful of issues in the immediate aftermath of the "Onslaught" event. And with all these volumes coming up fast and furious, I may need to get back to my semi-regularly scheduled photo-reviews of X-Men books...)

In the realm of the Digital Unboxing, it's been a busy month for Marvel. Comixology/Amazon have been running some pretty big sales, offering newly released collections at a mere 99¢ a pop -- plus there have been, in recent weeks, two sales offering hundreds of Marvel collections at that same bargain price! So in the past month, I picked up the following in digital format: THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA, EXCALIBUR EPIC COLLECTION: THE CROSS-TIME CAPER, MARVEL HORROR: THE MAGAZINE COLLECTION, MARVEL SUPER HEROES: CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS, MARVEL TEAM-UP BY CHRIS CLAREMONT & JOHN BYRNE, MASTER OF KUNG FU EPIC COLLECTION: WEAPON OF THE SOUL, NAMOR VISIONARIES: JOHN BYRNE vol. 1 and vol. 2, NEW MUTANTS EPIC COLLECTION: CURSE OF THE VALKYRIES, SPIDER-MAN: THE GRAPHIC NOVELS, THANOS: THE INFINITY SIBLINGS, VAMPIRE TALES vol. 1, vol. 2, and vol. 3, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION vol. 2, WOLVERINE & NICK FURY: SCORPIO, X-MEN: GRAND DESIGN, X-MEN: LEGIONQUEST, X-MEN BLUE vol. 0: REUNION, and X-MEN GOLD vol. 0: HOMECOMING. (Those last two sound familiar for some reason...)

I would've grabbed more, but I already own many of the other 99¢ offerings I want from previous sales! Still, to drive home the point: that's twenty books for less than $20.00!

But sadly, it seems like this run may have ended. From what I've read, irate retailers bullied Marvel into contacting Amazon/Comixology about the sales, and a week or so after, the 99¢ offerings vanished from Comixology's site -- so it seems probable the same will happen on Amazon eventually. Mind you, I don't think anyone ever expected this to last; it was obviously some sort of experiment on Amazon's part, but it's still a shame the plug was pulled so quickly due to a retailer hissy fit. I was grabbing lots of stuff I wouldn't ordinarily have touched through these sales, as well as backup "digital copies" of many books I already own.

Oh, well... at the very least, we can hold out hope that the big, more-or-less quarterly price drops will continue on Amazon, where digital collections, while not discounted as drastically as to 99¢, go down to something like three or four dollars a pop.

---

It's been three years since THE HUNT FOR PROFESSOR X collection came out?! I checked to verify while typing up this post, seriously thinking it must have been just last year, or winter 2016 at the latest. You can't imagine how my jaw dropped when I saw the release date. How time flies!

THE BLACK BEETLE IN: KARA BÖCEK

A Mystery Tale by Francesco Francavilla
Letters by Nate Piekos of Blambot

When I looked at Francesco Francavilla’s first “Black Beetle” adventure, NO WAY OUT, near the end of the year, I admitted that perhaps I was missing something. The story had received rave reviews from both the comics press and comics professionals, but I found it kind of an unnecessarily confusing and somehow simultaneously simplistic mystery. The artwork was gorgeous, but the story didn’t grab me, much as I wanted it to.

I now wonder if part of the problem was in the story’s length. NO WAY OUT was an adventure told in five full-length issues, and I didn’t really warm up to it. KARA BÖCEK, on the other hand, was serialized in DARK HORSE PRESENTS as a series of five six-page installments, for a total run-time of (carry the one...) thirty pages! Basically a single comic’s worth of material. And I find this story to be far more exciting, fast-paced, and all around appealing than NO WAY OUT.

(I should note again, as I did at the time, that NO WAY OUT featured a prologue chapter, unrelated to the main story, which featured the Black Beetle fighting Nazis at the Colt City museum, and that I found that prologue way more engaging than the subsequent storyline, so I really think I’m on to something with this idea that the Black Beetle works best in shorter, tighter-paced adventures.)

SUPERMAN #5 & #6

“THE MUMMY STRIKES” | “THE LAST FIVE HUNDRED”
Writer/Penciler: John Byrne | Inker: Karl Kesel
Colorist: Tom Ziuko | Letterer: John Costanza | Editors: Andrew Helfer & Michael Carlin

The Plot: (Issue 5) Clark Kent arrives at the Daily Planet to learn that Perry White has lost contact with Lois Lane in South America. Clark leaves, changes into Superman, and flies to the archaeological site where Lois is on assignment. There, he learns that the research team has uncovered evidence of a civilization which predated mankind. As they explore the subterranean site, a giant mummy comes to life and attacks. Clark separates himself from the group and fights back, eventually shutting the mummy down, then feigns injury as Lois and the archeologists find him.

(Issue 6) Clark awakens to find that Lois and all the archeologists have been possessed by representatives of an ancient race which lived on Earth prior to humanity. These beings now plan to resume their rule of the planet, and the “mummy” is actually robot built to house their five hundred minds. Clark changes to Superman and the robot attacks. He fights against it and the ancient minds possessing Lois and the others return to the robot to aid its battle.

Superman eventually realizes the covetous creatures will fight over his body if he feigns defeat, and when they do so, the robot explodes. In the aftermath, Superman flies Lois home, assuring her that he already returned Clark to Metropolis.