REVIEW: What If…? Vol. 1, #14

"What if Sgt. Fury had fought World War2 in outer space?"

Plot: Gary Friedrich
Script: Don Glut
Art: Herb Trimpe
Inks: Pablo Marcos
Colors: D.R. Martin
Review: Madman

My LCS got in a few issues of What If…? the other day with a collection they purchased, and I managed to snag a few, including this gem. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the nifty cover with Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos battling it out with some aliens in outer space. Then I noticed the title… who in their right mind would be wondering what if Fury had fought WW2 in outer space? How does that even pop into someone’s brain-box?
...but now that you mention it I definitely need this hypothetical question answered. I need to know so I can go about the rest of my existence without feeling deprived of knowing how Fury smokes his cigar in space.

I had pretty high hopes for this book as far as entertainment value goes, but honestly I found reading this book more of a chore than a score. The writing was pretty meh, and I really had to focus to stay moderately interested in Don Glut’s contribution with the writing. That being said I was a wee bit more into the artwork, but not by much, as both the artwork and colors came off as pretty flat and muddled.
Now granted this book is from 1979, but people were doing some pretty nifty artwork in the 70’s, and it just didn’t come together here.              

REVIEW: Strange Sports Stories #5

Review: Will Dubbeld

So, everyone enjoys some variety of sports. Baseball is the correct answer, but all manner of folks follow football, racing (car, horse, dog...), jai alai, and the like.
Hell, keeping tabs on a Magic: the Gathering tournament could be, in the loosest terms, considered sports.
Very loose...

DC Comics realized this and thus was born Strange Sports Stories.
That's actually pure speculation on my part. It's just as likely this comic was born of the same logic that brought us Space Cabbie. Throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.
Evidently Strange Sports Stories stuck, for awhile anyway.

Come along, dear reader, and see how strange we can get.

"Hockey-Mask of Death!"

Story by: Frank Robbins
Art by: John Rosenberger

So, this story could very well have appeared in Haunt of Vault of Ghostly Fear in the Castle of Horror, but it landed in Strange Sports Stories.
Thank. God.

This is essentially a mystery/revenge story centered around a French-Canadian lumberjack named Jacques Le Duc and a phantom hockey goalie. Not even kidding.
Jacques is known as "Beeg Jacques", mostly because this comic was written when it was still acceptable practice to take full advantage of accents and pidgin English attributed to foreigners.

Chris Claremont would beam with pride at the flagrant, "oui!", "sacre bleu!", and (of course) "mon dieu!", that runs rampant through the story.            

REVIEW: Awesome Holiday Special vol. 1 #1

Fighting American
Writer: Alan Moore
Pencils: Steve Skroce
Inks: Larry Stucker
Colors: Awesome Color

The Coven
Writer: Joph Loeb
Pencils: Jeff Matsuda
Inks: Jonathan Sibal
Colors: Donald Skinner
Review: Art Bee

Last year I wrote a review on the series, The Coven, which was produced by Awesome Comics. Awesome Holiday Special double issue was an intriguing buy at the time. I bought it for The Coven portion which turned out to be lame. This entire comic book is a much like a Hostess Snowball. Some people like the coconut marshmallow outside, others savor the cake inside, but very few seem to like the whole thing. I guess that is why it’s made to come apart so easily.

The Fighting American portion of the comic book looks like a rip-off of Marvel, but it is a slap in the face to Marvel. Fighting American was first published in 1954 by the writer-artist team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Prize Comics and has resurfaced on and off since. Rob Liefeld restarted the series shortly after leaving Image Comics and starting Awesome Comics. Marvel brought a lawsuit against him for infringement of their Captain America property, which failed. This “Merry Christmas” story was just that from Liefeld to Marvel. This can be seen at the end of the story where Fighting American and “The Thunder God” are shown and deliberately drawn and dialoged to impersonate Captain America and Thor. In my opinion, this was an asshole move on Liefeld’s part, and I have no love for the man.            

REVIEW: The Amazing Spider-Man #35

Script & Editing: Stan Lee
Plot & Artwork: Steve Ditko
Letting & Loitering: Art Simek
Review: Madman

I’m going to let you in on one of the solid facts of life I have discovered to be truth. During my journey around The Sun it doesn’t matter how crappy my day has been or just how deep my case of the “blahs”…I can’t read a Lee/Ditko team-up and not smile.
There’s just something about that golden era of comics that melts your cares away and takes you to that happy place. It’s akin to chugging whiskey backstage at a Guns & Roses show surrounded by chicks with 6 ft bangs, but all ages...like Grandma’s house.
You just can’t go wrong with a Lee and Ditko book in my opinion; it just can’t happen in real life. It’s up there with gravity as far as shit that keeps the world turning. That being said, here comes Molten Man!

The issue is dressed up with a pretty rad action scene featuring Spidey and Molten Man. Molten Man is charging forward through Spidey’s classic “fear inspiring” Spider-Light. As far as Spider-villains go Molten Man is definitely near the bottom of the list when it comes to my favorite. He just couldn’t compete with Venom, Kraven, or Doc Ock in my humble beginnings, and I never really fell in love with the character. After a few more trips around The Sun, however, I realized there was much more to the character and the significance he played in the early days of Spider-Man.