coming on strong

drive-by readings

Tom Strong & The Robots of Doom #1 (America's Best Comics) "Part One: Black Sun Rising" Peter Hogan Chris Sprouse Karl Story Todd Klein Carrie Strachan JH Williams III (variant cover)

without much of a backgrounder or having had the pleasure of reading the Alan Moore-penned back issues, i just jumped into this with an uncluttered mind, and i doubt if my experience would have been any less fulfilling than if i did have the prior knowledge. all i had going for me was "scientist/explorer" (i had this thought in my head that my one of my childhood heroes, Tom Swift, grew up and became Tom Strong). anyway, this new book has Tom's timeline being hijacked by his Aryan supremacist son Albrecht (heh), with the latter getting to wipe out the other races (oooooooohhh!! Limbaugh and Beck and the other right-wing zealots are gonna love you, Albrecht). with the whole world under his control, all time machines destroyed, and Albrecht's mom Ingrid waiting in the wings to have Tom for herself forever, what's a man gonna do? (hey, is this related to the events over in JSA?) and with that note, i resolve to go to the back issue bin, and dig up all the Tom Strong/Chris Sprouse goodness.

aaaaaaaaaaand ... he's back.

drive-by readings

The Return of Bruce Wayne #1 (DC) "Shadow on Stone" Grant Morrison Chris Sprouse Karl Story Jared Fletcher Guy Major Andy Kubert (cover)

now this is more like it. regardless of how shabby Bruce Wayne's exit was, circa Batman R.I.P./Final Crisis, Grant Morrison's follow-up, Batman & Robin, and now, The Return of Bruce Wayne, is kind of an atonement and are definitely must-reads. it must've looked silly when we all heard about Bats inhabiting different personas as he travels back in time. Cap'n Bat Sparrow? am down with that.

then again, without the preceding storylines, we wouldn't get this.

i like the way Morrison weaves in threads of the Batman mythos into the overall story, and am sure it will be a constant theme all throughout this six-issue series.

and now we know why he's in a cave.

"hey, where you at" may not be exactly what prehistoric tribes used to say in greeting, but it works somehow. Bruce finds a new family of sorts with the deer tribe, not realizing the impact they would play eventually on his destiny.

whatever era a Batman may find himself in, there will always be a Robin of some sort.


and since this is back in the day, who else would the resident bad guy be except Vandal Savage? Morrison's cheats a bit in that Bruce has his utility belt and has some gadgets to use. but is he changing time with all of these encounters?


am not too high on Chris Sprouse's art, because he reserves his best work for Tom Strong LOL. i mean, they had to plug his new series with this book. but hey, its a thrill ride. get onboard!

tripping the force magnetic pt. 2

continuing our look back at a '90s classic (if we can call it that).

Fatal Attractions
Uncanny X-Men #304 "For What I Have Done"
Scott Lobdell/John Romita Jr/Jae Lee/Chris Sprouse/Brandon Peterson/Paul Smith
and another 198 inkers including the great Dan Green

it must be a big boost to Magneto's ego, that all through the years fighting the X-Men, they always draw him alone against everyone. despite having a bunch of lackeys at some point or another, the most powerful images are the ones that depict Magneto standing tall and firm against Xavier's children. if you root for the underdog without having any background information, you'd side with the Magster. how many X-Men does it take to defeat Magneto? all of them, apparently. and they still never conclusively do so.

the Fatal Attractions crossover began with X-Factor and X-Force, where those teams ran afoul of the reborn Mags and his Acolytes led by his new lapdog, Exodus. the Acolytes, under lameduck leader Fabian Cortez, were unsuccessful in recruiting Quicksilver to the cause, and Cable got dismantled but not discombobulated in rescuing his charges from the influence of the magnetic field. Magneto now turns his attention to the real X-Men.

but before that, we have to check how Magneto's return from the dead affects said lameduck.

facing a mutiny, Cortez is helpless as his former charges almost beat him up and as they leave. he tries to take out his anger at the newcomer Exodus but he is hopelessly outclassed. i never really understood Cortez' mutant power (extending another's?). so he's a booster. that's really lame. and only Jean Grey gets the honor of not needing a code name, Fabian. you suck.

Wikipedia reports that Cortez has , after years of painful repetitive resurrections and betrayals (his modus operanda), finally bitten the dust. but i guess they took that from the official Marvel site. though i won't be surprised he's just really laying low and assumed this identity.

Magneto, meanwhile, does another one of his patented long-winded monologues. it doesn't matter what size the audience, be it hundreds or just himself. the audience believes him.

god, he must work out a lot. yeah, that's what supervillains do when they're sidelined as the world thinks they're "dead".

speaking of dead, something is dying inside Colossus as he mourns his sister Illyana (a.k.a. Magik) who recently died of the Legacy Virus (the Marvel equivalent of AIDS, cured a decade later through the efforts of Hank McCoy, the late Moira McTaggert, and ironically - pun intended - Colossus himself). he pushes away everything that matters to him, including his then ex- Kitty Pryde.

Illyana's funeral was a big thing to me then, but actually the real tear-jerker was Uncanny #303. yes, i am in touch with my feminine side. now get off my case before i slice and dice you.

speaking also of slicing and dicing, Warren Worthington III - a.k.a Angel - was still blue and metal-winged back then, capable of slicing and dicing just like Wolverine. here even his looks could cut someone to pieces.

the way he sounded, its as if the X-teams usually coordinated with each other. hyeahright. and he seems shocked and indignant that X-Force didn't call for help. hello, we can barely make sense of the rigmarole of who's on which team (did they put him on the Blue Team just because its easier that way?).

so be careful of what you wish for, Wings ...

over at the other end, Xavier's attempt to console Peter backfires badly.

i half-expected Peter to push Xavier out of his wheelchair. now that would've been a scene! Colossus has always been the good sheep of the X-Men; imagine him now as angry loose cannon.

which is just about the exact time Magneto drops by for an appearance. two things to note here:

1. the jerk doesn't even pay his respects to Illyana, once upon a time a favorite student
2. in the 5 minutes he was delivering this speech, the gathered X-teams could have kicked his ass back to outer space

first order of business: show 'em who's Boss. even if it means pulping one of your own soldiers (R.I.P. Senyaka. not.). Boss!!

Magneto drops the Big Reveal - he has a badass space station. Xavier counters: "I have a 1 TB Sh'iar iPod!". Magneto cries and stomps his feet.

anyway, the Acolytes now ascend to their new home (this religious theme is going too far). Magneto asks Xavier to join him. but really - cupping his chin? that's so ... Zac Efron.

'make love, not war', they said. so Rogue tries that tack, but kisses mean nothing to the Boss! he's the BOSS!!!

Magneto holds down everyone by sheer force of magnetic will (Fe in blood, so goes the popular explanation then) and preventing everyone from accessing his or her mutant power. but Bishop's power is a reactive one - he absorbs that same energy and uses it to free his pals, then everyone piles on Magneto. like we said earlier, it always takes everyone ...

then Scott Lobdell springs the not-so Big Reveal ... Colossus turns traitor. Bishop would go into traction for a month at least. this would all have been avoided had they taken down Magneto during his speech (that could be a YouTube parody).

Colossus gets beamed up to HMM Avalon, and Xavier is forced to remote control Magneto, and fling himself out into spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace. i'm not sure how the Bald One managed to be in one piece without burning up on re-entry into our atmosphere before being rescued by Warren. that being said, the events here already hint as to what's coming.

next: bring on more X-Men!