Miller – Frank

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Men Without Fear – Frank Miller

Posted by John Klein III on August 31, 2014
Posted in: Fun With YouTube. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Thanks to DareDevilDocumentary for hosting the video!

One of the two great things to come out of the 2003 Daredevil film (well, three if you want to count Ben Affleck eventually marrying Jennifer Garner) was the Daredevil Director’s Cut DVD (which is amazing) and the superb documentary.

They interview – Stan Lee, John Romita, Gene Colan, Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., Joe Quesada, David Mack, Brain Michael Bendis (amazed he doesn’t have a longer segment), and Kevin Smith.

I wish all superhero films eventful DVDs came with a documentary or at least a comic book featurette.  If I had my way, there would be an entire industry of Comic Book Documentaries.  Sort of like E!’s True Hollywood Story but with comics.

I’ve seen these interviews more than I’ve seen the film itself.  I’ve also seen the Director’s Cut more than the film.  I sort of feel bad because instead of the six Jennifer Garner / Elektra scenes, we are given extended other scenes or Murdock in court with Coolio.

This was my first time seeing Frank Miller and hearing him speak.  I really like how everyone after Miller holds him to such height of respect.  He may not have created Daredevil but Frank Miller defnintely put his stamp on the character and it is a shadow that neither will pass.

Thus, we end Frank Miller Month here at S&FwM!  One more Event Month (it is barely that) in November and we don’t have another one until February’s annual Lockheed month.

Get Excited!

Wolverine Mini 4

Posted by John Klein III on August 22, 2014
Posted in: Reality Television, Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Wolverine mini 4

Writer Chris Clarmeont

Penciler Frank Miller

Finisher Josef Rubinstein

Letterer Tom Orzechowski

Colorist Lynn Varley

Cover Dated December 1982

We finally end Frank Miller Month with the only comic I own that actually has Frank Miller sequential artwork!  Heroes for Hope was nice, but three pages isn’t enough.

I always refer to this as the Wolverine mini and not as Wolverine Volume One, so that’s why my volume numbers are not the same as other websites.  A volume is an ongoing in my book.

This is the first Wolverine miniseries, that started an endless amount of miniseries not just for the X-Men but Wolverine as well.

I only own this for the very last page :

Wolverine Mini 4 X-Men

This is such an amazing comic!  There is a reason why this is so beloved and revered.  Also the basis of an anime series (that I couldn’t get pass the first episode of) and the inspiration of The Wolverine.

This issue takes place over the span of Uncanny X-Men 169, 170 and 171 – which is why he isn’t in those issues.

The issue opens with Wolverine breaking up a drug deal.  He spends hours taking apart Shingen’s criminal organization.  Shingen being Mariko’s father.

Mariko feels conflicted with where she stands in this conflict.  She loves Logan, but her father forced her to marry another man to pay for one of his debts – but still feels obligated to stay honorable with her father.

Yukio gets to Shingen’s headquarters, which may be his ancestral home.  She kills a few Hand ninjas on her way to Shingen.  She finally get captured in a net as Shingen wants her alive.

Mariko goes to where her father is, and is surprised to see Yukio as his prisoner.  He then begins to beat her to death but Mariko stops him.  He is about to rage attack his daughter when it becomes obvious that Wolverine is in the building.  We get a full page of so many dead Hand ninjas.  Wolverine has been busy.

Asano, Mariko’s husband, wants to escape before Wolverine can turn his attention toward him.  Wolverine comes across Asano.  Asano puts a gun to his wife’s head.  He fires a shot at Wolverine and Yukio takes the opportunity to stab Asano to death.  The ladies then leave.

We get the book end scene from the very first issue where Shingen fought Wolverine with wooden swords.

What we get is three amazing pages of steel sword fight.  Paul Smith was clearly inspired by these pages when he did the Wolverine v Silver Samurai fight in Uncanny X-Men 173.

Mariko shows up, as Wolverine is standing over her dead father.  She gives Wolverine the honor sword.  It doesn’t go to the head of the family but to the samurai who best exemplifies those qualities – which he does.  They kiss.

Issue ends with the page above, the X-Men being invited to Logan and Mariko’s wedding.  It doesn’t end well, thanks to Mastermind.

There is an ad for the Uncanny X-Men and Teen Titans crossover.  3 villains v 14 heroes.  I’m hoping to review it whenever that Batman v Superman Pre-Justice League movie eventually comes out.

. . .

This is it for the comics portion of Frank Miller Month, I knew it wasn’t going to be a big event but I wanted to do something for Sin City 2 and I sort of like doing these concentrated Event Months.  The next one won’t be until November’s Big Hero Six Month – so get excited!  But at that time.  Or whenever you want to get excited.

 . . .

 Big Brother 16 : Thursday – August 21, 2014

Who went home?  Who is the first proper HoH?  Will we see Jury?  Let’s go!

Julie looked nice in her red dress, but is she always that flat chested?

Who gets evicted tonight may come right back in as they along with Nicole, Hayden and Jocasta – as they will compete tonight to get back in.

Took me a solid minute to remember Jocasta’s name.  I haven’t missed Hayden either.

I wonder if the returning houseguest will be able to compete in the HoH?

Victoria’s voice, right?  I’m one to talk.

If Zach leaves, I want him right back in.  He will go nuts!

Neighborhood Watch is still ongoing.

Cody is a Batman?  At least do the Christian Bale voice.

Has the dinner table shrunk yet?

Team America earn their five thousand dollars each.

I did not know Zach’s pink hat was really Victoria’s hat?

No!  Victoria is cutting up her hat!  Look at Victoria claiming some television time.

First Zach loses Frankie and now the pink hat.  There is no more Zankie.

What was the bell sound, while Donny was talking?

Donny has Christine and Victoria backwards.

They are wasting time with all of this when they have Voting / Returning Houseguests / HoH competition.

Now that they don’t have pink, Zankie are wearing Blue now.

There is a chance whoever gets back in, gets voted right back out.

Chenbot just had an awkward conversation with Caleb.

Why the hell did Chenbot just ask Christine, why she had a difficult time in the BotB competition!?!  We all know she was throwing it!!! Was Christine really going to fess up to that?  No.  So stupid.

Once the returning houseguest comes back, there will be no more twists.

Speeches –

Cody’s was just shout outs and pleasant comments

Zach, had a few nice jabs and promoting his social media sites.  Also, he knows he is going out.

Votes :

Derrick – Zach

Christine – Zach

Donny – Zach

It is official, Zach is out (for now)

Caleb – Zach

Victoria – Zach

Does Zach know about the shredded hat?

Zach has been the most entertaining houseguest.

The returning competition is up next!

Zach is tossing fruit loops at everyone!  They should give him a year’s worth of Fruit Loops.  If only Kellogg knew about it.

Zach is owning the interview with Chenbot.  She should just get out of his way.

Zach hates Victoria.

Zach knows that his mouth was the problem.

Julie called Zankie a showmance.  So nice

Donny had a nice exit video for Zach.  Victoria’s exit video showed Zach the ribbed hat.

Up next, the returning competition.  Brendan won one and Judd won one, both stayed at least one extra week.

Jury house, so nice!  More like, jury mansion

Hayden knows Derrick and Cody are running the house.

Nicole looks nice in that black dress.  She tells Hayden and Jocasta that Frankie is Ariana’s brother.  Her Big Brother

Hayden trying to make some babies in the jury house.  Eric / Jessica style.  Also, Rachel and Brendan style.

They are dressed to compete in a physical challenge.

Chenbot should stop saying, most twisted summer ever, there were only five twists.

The returning houseguests should be throwing punches!  At , blowing up games.

Nicole is cute in her black workout outfit.

This seems like a time waster challenge.  HoH won’t be seen on tonight’s episode.

Chenbot is also killing time.

Round Four, Jocasta leading.  Would be pretty disappointing.  At least Donny would have an ally.  But that would be true for anyone.

Round Six – three way tie : Nicole / Hayden / Jocasta

After the final round, the houseguests figured out who won minutes before Chenbot announced it.

Nicole is back!  Move over Victo, the Queen is back!

ALSA challenge, Chenbot’s husband challenged her to do the ice bucket challenge.  President Bush did it too!

But First!

Wil Arnet must not want to keep his job.  Glad he made the joke!

Where was the ice!?!

. . .

Here is Victoria’s Comic Book Cover –

BB16 Victoria Fashionista

Cover by Andy Smith and Brad Vancata

 I know Andy Smith as the artist from X-Men Forever 2 Issue 15

BB16 Nicole Black Workout Outfit

What If Volume One Issue 27

Posted by John Klein III on August 19, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

What If Vol 1 27

Writer Mary Jo Duffy

Penciler Jerry Bingham

Inker John Stuart

Colorist Carol Gafford

Letterers Simek & Chaing

Cover by Frank Miller

Cover Dated July 1981

Splintered from Uncanny X-Men 137

What If the Phoenix had not Died?

I always say, you can tell something with how many pages an issue of What If commits to the original timeline.  For this issue, they commit five pages.  Sometimes all Utau the Watcher needs is a simple sentence explaining the concept of the issue, and other times, he needs five pages to tell you what happened originally.

So in this timeline, the X-Men still fight the Imperial Guard on the Blue Area of the Moon.  Instead of Phoenix taking her own life, this time the Imperial Guard defeats both Scott and Phoenix.

Phoenix is given a lobotomy to take away her telepathic powers.  Once home, Jean makes the X-Men tea as her contribution to the team.

Days later, she is the Danger Room operator.  Kitty Pryde has now joined the team.  She won’t live long enough to regret it.

Xavier telepathically summons the X-Men to his office.  Phoenix likes having a voice in her head again.

Lilandra, Xavier has the nerve to stay in contact with her!  Also, she has the nerve to ask a favor!  Galactus and his herald, Terrax, are about to devour a planet.  Well, Galactus will do the consuming.  Terrax just does the scouting.

The planet is in Shi’ar space, but the X-Men are closer to it than Lilandra’s forces.  Phoenix believes they should go, so they go.

While there, the X-Men don’t stand a chance against Terrax and the power cosmic.  Terrax is about to kill Cyclops when Phoenix gets so mad that it regains its powers.

This gets Galactus’ attention and the two entities fight.  Phoenix destroys his stuff and he agrees to leave.

Once home, things don’t go back to normal.  First, Days of Future Past happens sort of.  The assassination attempt happens but Phoenix squashes it quickly.

At the mansion, Kitty is all by herself.  Storm hangs out with her adult sister, Phoenix.  Colossus is too modest to make a move on the younger Kitty.  Kurt and Wolverine are best friends.  Wolverine wonders why Phoenix is still with Scott, she should be with a killer like him.  Which is odd, as don’t killers like being the only killer in the family?

Kitty stays being a good student.  She works closely with Xavier.  He keeps getting painful migraines.

Phoenix begins controlling her powers, even on a microscopic level.  She hopes this will ward off any dark urges.  Though nightly, she is destroying small asteroids.

Wolverine notices these night exists as does Kitty.  Scott isn’t as they are having sex often.

Sentinels are unleashed on the world.  Phoenix lets the fight go on long enough until she gets bored, then she straight destroys the robots.

Later, she consumes a star – uh oh!

When she comes home, Kitty confronts her and this happens :

What If V1 27 Kitty Alive

What If V1 27 Kitty Dead

That is right, Phoenix cremates Kitty on the spot!  The X-Men don’t think that is cool, at all.

In true What If fashion, she kills the entire team.  Colossus tries a fastball special but Phoenix turns Wolverine right round and he stabs Colossus dead.  She then drags Wolverine’s body into what is left of Kurt’s burning corpse – Wolverine doesn’t fight this.

Once Phoenix kills Cyclops, for daring to stop her, she destroys the planet we call, Earth.

So, good thing Phoenix took her own life back in the proper timeline.

ROM Spaceknight 18

Posted by John Klein III on August 16, 2014
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Review, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

ROM 18

Writer Bill Mantlo

Storytellers

Artist Sal Buscema

Inker and Editor Al Milgrom

Inker Frank Giacoia

Letterer Michael Higgins

Colorist Ben Sean

Inspiration and Assistance Chris Claremont & Jo Duffy

Cover Artist Frank Miller

Cover Dated May 1981

We conclude our two part visit to ROM Spaceknight and the mutant that is Hybrid’s origin!

For anyone who wants to follow along, here is the website to do so :

http://www.statuemarvels.com/f566/rom-spaceknight-18-vs-x-men-entire-issue-27694.html

Last issue ended with the X-Men showing up to protect who they think is an innocent 15 year old boy from a killer robot.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 1

Wolverine acts way crazier in this issue than I think he ought to be written as.  He is constantly working his own hero name into the conversation and it seems odd for him to be referring to himself in the third person.

There are two whole pages dedicated for recapping the previous issue.  The 80s!

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 2

A blizzard starts coming down.  Kurt thinks Storm should have a better control over her powers, she tells him that it isn’t her doing.

Wolverine slashes ROM and ROM feels utter pain.  Wolverine is out to kill the poor guy, and all over a misunderstanding!

Kitty is surprised, as I am, that Wolverine seems to be so berserk.  We learn that Hybrid can read minds as well.

Wolverine calls Colossus, Man of Steel – which I’m surprised isn’t a nickname that is used more for the Russian.

Wolverine also starts the first of three instances where he detects a greater evil but can’t quite place it but he knows it isn’t ROM but for some reason, he will keep fighting ROM as if that is where the source of the evil is.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 3

Poor ROM wonders if he has to keep fighting Earth’s superheroes as he met Jack of Hearts in issue 12 of his own series.  I wouldn’t recommend seeking that issue out as Jack of Hearts is horrible.  Or at least, when he was part of the Avengers during Goeff Johns’ run and died in Bendis’ Avengers Disassembled, I didn’t miss him.  I probably just never ‘got’ the character but is that really on me?

Turns out that Hybrid has been manipulating Storm’s weather powers to make the blizzard worst but she is able to at least make it bearable.

ROM sees that Jimmy has reverted to his Hybrid true form and tries to warn Kitty as she has been holding Jimmy this entire time – trying to protect him.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 4

Kitty can’t hear ROM’s warning, with the wind gale.  ROM comes charging at her, to safe her, but she freaks out and phases through him.  The panel of him quickly on his knees and the caption of how intense the nausea he is feeling, is palpable.  Which I guess I don’t quite know ROM’s deal.  They keep calling him a cyborg but how much of him is made up of robot parts and how much is humanoid?  Or is he like a Dalek, and is a little dude in a metal can?

That’s another thing, so the X-Men are here to locate a new mutant.  They see ROM and just assume he is an evil mutant in a robot body.  How often has that happened to them before or since?  I can’t think of any examples.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 5

Thus begins some great confusion, made worst by the weather.  Essentially, everyone has to figure things out on their own and fight their own battles.

Hybrid starts choking ROM with his mind powers.  ROM tries to fire his Neutralizer but Colossus thinks ROM is aiming at Kitty and does the dumbest thing.  He tackles Hybrid, and as thanks, gets force reverted back to his human form and Hybrid starts choking him!

Kurt starts giving Colossus CPR to try to save him.

Wolverine, again, senses true evil but sees ROM, wonders why he keeps holding back and yet again, starts trying to fight the greatest spaceknight of them all.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 6

Then comes probably my three favorite panels of the comic.  Kitty realizes that ROM is the good guy and that must mean that Jimmy is the bad guy.  She still hasn’t seen Hybrid yet.  The three panels of her going from – curious to suspicious to utter shock, are amazing and Buscema really knows what he is doing with pacing.

I know people seem to think John Buscema is the bigger name of the two brothers but I’ve always been a much bigger fan of Sal’s work.  I’m sure I only own or have an read John’s work on a rare occasion.

Probably doesn’t have to be mention, but I felt the need to defend Sal’s legacy and my preference.  Sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do.

Hybrid also has commented that he will use Kitty has the first of his many breeding opportunities.  Which is way gross!  He will later have the same plan for Mystique, Destiny and Rogue.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 7

Kitty, or Sprite as her teammates insist on calling her, scolds herself for being scared.  She’s an X-Man now and has to go on the offense.  So she turns a snowmobile toward Hybrid and he counters by breaking it into its base components and throwing it back at her.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 8

She luckily phases through the pieces but the blizzard is hurting her concentration, so she needs to change tactics.

Just then, she bumps into Wolverine, who is still out for blood. She finally tells him that he is after the wrong guy.  The two X-Men see Hybrid knock ROM’s gun out of his hand.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 9

Wolverine gets the bright idea that the gun must be an effective weapon and tries to fire it at Hybrid.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 10

Instead of firing, the force backfires onto Wolverine as a type of security measure.  We’ll see why ROM needs a security measure later in the issue.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 11

Kitty figures the gun has to be used and that she might be able to do what the reckless Wolverine couldn’t.  Due to the way her powers work, she is able to manipulate the weapon and fires it at Hybrid.

ROM tells her to change the setting of the gun so that it is on full force.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 12

This tears Hybrid to pieces, which are also even grosser than his whole.  There is one bad side effect to this, doing so leaves a portal open to the limbo dimension that ROM sends all Dire Wraiths to.

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 13

Who goes through the portal?  ROM does!  He has tasted his own medicine, and has found it to be … bitter!

ROM 18 Kitty Pryde 14

The gun overwhelms Kitty and she drops it.  The X-Men gather around her, as far as they are concern, they have done everything they can do.

There is a Hostess Fruit Pie ad starring Thing in Earthly Delights.

As they walk away, we see that the Neutralizer is just laying there on the snow.  Without it, ROM is stuck in limbo!

Which I don’t own the next issue.  The next issue of ROM that I own is 31, and by then, he has escaped limbo.  I’ve already reviewed ROM 32, which is when Hybrid returns, so even he escapes his fate from this issue.

Of my eight issues that I own of ROM Spaceknight – we now have reviewed three of them.  The other issues are 45, 65, 66 and Annual 3.  Not sure when we’ll get to those but one of these days.  Annual 3 could be as soon as two years from now!  Exciting!

. . .

Also, for any Batman : Arkham City fans out there – Today is St. Roch’s Day!  The only holiday in August!

Thanks to YouTuber PenMaster3000 for hosting the video!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Roch

ROM Spaceknight 17

Posted by John Klein III on August 12, 2014
Posted in: Review, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

ROM 17

Writer Bill Mantlo

Storytellers

Artist Sal Buscema

Letterer Michael Higgins

Colorist Ben Sean

Consultant Chris Claremont

Cover Artist Frank Miller

Cover Dated April 1981

You can read along thanks to this website :

http://www.statuemarvels.com/f566/rom-spaceknight-17-featuring-uncanny-x-men-entire-issue-27685.html

ROM 17 Kitty Pryde 1

Issue opens at the X-Mansion.  Cerebro’s siren is going off.  The X-Men come in, Kitty – proving her use as the introductory character that she is – asks what is a Cerebro.

The issue of Uncanny X-Men that came out in April 1981 is issue 144 so this issue probably takes place before that as well as before Days of Future Past.  Kitty appears at the X-Mansion at the end of Uncanny X-Men 138, so it may take place between that and 139.  For anyone who is interested.

The captions and later Xavier makes a big point of stating that there is five X-Men, which harkens me back to the Original Five X-Men.

Cyclops – Jean Grey – Angel – Beast – Iceman

Storm – Kitty Pryde – Nightcrawler – Wolverine – Colossus

Five really is a decent number for a squad.  Whedon / Cassaday’s Astonhishing started with just five – Cyclops – Emma – Kitty – Wolverine – Beast Though five hurts when you are trying to create a team on Ultimate Alliance but Kitty wasn’t playable in that game so you could make this team toward the end of the first X-Men Legends game.  Not the best team going forward as the game didn’t make Emma as strong as she is, so she is mostly a fighter and coupled with Wolverine and Beast, that is a lot of close range fighters.  But I do love playing as the Astonishing team, so I always leave a permanet saved file right there so that I can just play with that team as the game doesn’t have a New Game Plus mode so we can’t play with all the characters and their proper levels from the beginning of a second play through.

ROM 17 Kitty Pryde 2

Wolverine is very sassy in these first two pages.

Cerebro has detected a new mutant but their origins seem to be odd, so Xavier sends his team to go and investigate.  Once they are gone, Xavier gets a panel to himself where he prays that they travel safely as he has lost too many X-Men already.  Which is a clear reference to the Phoenix dying at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga that would have ended just recently.

Cut to Clayton, West Virgina.  Dr. John Stennis shows up to the Marks farm and first notices all of the dead livestock.  Deadstock?

Turns out that Jacob Marks has a secret.  He’s a Dire Wraith, the sworn enemy of ROM and his Spaceknights of Galador!  15 years ago, his human wife, Marjorie, gave birth to their son, Jimmy.  That’s right, ya’ll, this is the origin story of the grossest looking fool in the Marvel Universe – Hybrid!

Dr. Stennis is disgusted to see Marjorie aged to what appears to be a hundred years ago, which she was barely 38 so that is quite the shock.

Jacob has to reveal his true form to the doctor, and then the doctor sees Jimmy in his current state.  Buscema does a great job of just casting Jimmy’s shadow on the wall and that image doesn’t make any sense.  It does once Jimmy is revealed but before that, it just looks like a mess.

The doctor runs away.  Jacob wishes that Jimmy would have let him at least take his mother to the hospital.  Jimmy wants to hurt his father for taking the ‘smooth-skinned sow’ as a wife.  Which is pretty harsh words for one’s own mother.

Then we get to the ROM portion of the story as some of these characters are his supporting cast.  Others are just members of the town.  Silas Lane arrives at the Clark home.  He is shocked to see ROM sitting in a chair.  At this point, ROM has gotten a reputation for showing up, shooting dudes with a gun and leaving behind ash – it looks like he straight up kills people.  In reality, he is only shooting Dire Wraiths who have shape shifted to human form and sending them to limbo (but not Magik’s fun Limbo).

Jonathan Clark tells the truth to Silas, and Silas thinks this is the plot to a B-Film.  Jonathan is the father of Brandy, who I know is for sure a supporting cast member of the title.  Brandy’s finance, Steve Jackson, was going to marry her on their wedding day (as people do) when another Steve Jackson showed up at the wedding and shot the one standing near her at the alter and the fellow died.  I guess he did object.

Turns out that the man about to marry his daughter, was a Dire Wraith and Steve has been held hostage for a while until he escaped and saved his future bride.

Apparently in this town of Clairton, ROM has been slaying waste to a slew of Dire Wraiths.  Silas takes out a sleeve of index cards and asks if the names on the cards are the ones who have vanished.  Turns out that all but Jacob Marks are now gone.

Back in November 9, 1945, the Dire Wraiths took advantage of the fact that American soldiers were coming back from World War II and many were just showing up in various cities.  So they took human disguises and did the same thing.  They also gave themselves the same birthday.  Then with ROM going around banishing fools, they realized people will start writing obituaries and will notice that they all have the same birthday – which would be suspicious.

ROM believes that there is a Dire Wraith who is a high level officer in the government, who has started changing their birthdays but Jacob Marks’ was left unchanged.

So they know that Jacob Marks is a Dire Wraith but also that Marjorie isn’t as Sarah and others grew up with her since she was a child.  This disgusts ROM has that means their son, Jimmy, is a half-breed.  This has never been done before, so who knows what Jimmy’s deal is now.

ROM, Brandy and Steve race off to the Marks farm.  ROM tells them to stay back as Jacob and Marjorie come out of their home.  Jacob confesses to being a Dire Wraith.  ROM tells Brandy and Steve to quickly get Marjorie to a hospital.

Brandy is horrified to realize that if Steve hadn’t escaped, she would have married a Dire Wraith and could be in the same situation that Marjorie is in now.

Jacob then tells his origins (which I feel like we have already gotten for the most part but now done in chronological order – plus some extra information).  Jacob showed up in this sleepy town.  He married Marjorie, at first to just blend in and then later, grew to love her.  He resisted the idea of children at first but eventually was convinced that if he can love, so can his child.  Which is odd, I wonder how that actually worked.  On their wedding night, he just made up an excuse to not consummate their marriage and then kept making up excuses?  That doesn’t seem like something that could last years on end.

Eventually some elder Dire Wraiths learn of the birth of two races and came to see Jimmy.  They started teaching Jimmy the ways of the Dire Wraith.  Jimmy learns to hate the human race and starts being cruel to his mother.

One week ago, the elders quit coming and Jimmy started punishing his parents.  Also one week ago?  ROM sent the elders to limbo.

So that brings us to the present.

Jacob already knows that Jimmy is stronger than any previous Dire Wraith.

ROM goes inside the house to confront Jimmy.  The room is covered in ice.  What he sees is this :

Hybrid

A face that even a mother couldn’t love.  Before he looked like this (which he chose to discard his original form) he looked like a 15 year old blonde boy.

ROM and Hybrid start fighting.  ROM realizes that he doesn’t need to hold back as the normal banishing setting on his gun isn’t going to do much hard to Hybrid.  Hybrid has telepathic and telekinesis powers so he is a force to be reckon with.  ROM calls his gun, his Neutralizer.

Jacob tries to distract his son (and also to plead with him).  In thanks, he takes a pitchfork to the chest and dies.

ROM is about to set his gun onto the highest setting, right when Hybrid reverts to his human form.

There is a Hostess Twinkee ad with Spider-Man starring in The Rescue.

ROM 17 Kitty Pryde 3

The final page is the X-Men showing up to stop a mad robot from killing a little boy.  Kitty, who is going by Sprite, at this time, tells Jimmy that he is in safe hands.  He thinks to himself that this is working out perfectly.

I am reviewing issue 18 as Frank Miller does the cover for that so we will have to wait two days and see what happens next issue!

I do wonder, if Marjorie survives this, how does the town respond to her afterwards?  If she still looks like she is a hundred years old, they probably won’t give her much grief but if she reverts back to looking like she is 38, then that might change some things.  Like if she gives a different opinion, how quickly the town folk will throw in her face that she once had a freak family.  People can be so cruel sometimes!

There were moments here with the way Sal Buscema draws faces in 1981 that remind me how much his great and wonderful style hasn’t changed that much when he was the artist on Spectacular Spider-Man, from issues 134 to 238!  Which is from January 1988 to September 1996, a whopping eight years as the continuous artist on one comic.  That has to be a record, at the very least at Marvel.  So many storylines and moments Sal was part of and responsible for during that era.

He also was the first artist on Spectacular Spider-Man from issue 1 to 20, then he came back for 38 and was gone until 134.  At one time or another, I owned all of these issues before selling them.

Heroes For Hope Starring the X-Men 1

Posted by John Klein III on August 5, 2014
Posted in: Review, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Heroes for Hope

Story by Chris Claremont, Ann Nocenti, Michelle Wrightson, Jim Starlin & Jim Shooter

Creative Teams :

X-Men Heroes for Hope Credit Page

Pages / Writer / Penciler / Inker / Letterer / Colorist

1 – 2 Stan Lee / John Romita Jr. / Al Gordon / Tom Orzechowski / Daina Graziunas

3 – 4 Stan Lee / John Buscema / Klaus Janson / Tom Orzechowski / Marie Severin

5 Ed Bryant / Brent Anderson / Joe Sinnott / Phil Felix / Bob Sharen

6 – 8 Louise Simonson / John Byrne / Terry Austin / Mike Higgins / Petra Scotese

9 Ed Bryant / Brent Anderson / Dan Green / Phil Felix / Bob Sharen

10 – 12 Stephen King / Berni Wrightson / Jeff Jones / Tom Orzechowski / Christie Scheele

13 – 14 Bill Mantlo / Charlie Vess / Jay Muth / Janice Chang / Christie Scheele

15 Ed Bryant / Brent Anderson / Tom Palmer / Phil Felix / Bob Sharen

16 – 18 Alan Moore / Richard Corben / Richard Corben / Jim Novak / Michelle Wrightson

19 – 21 Ann Nocenti / Mike Kaluta / Al Milgrom / Lois Buhalis / Glynis Oliver

22 – 24 Harlan Ellison / Frank Miller / Bill Sienkiewicz / John Workman / Christie Scheele

25 – 26 Chris Claremont / Brian Bolland / Craig Russell / Lois Buhalis / Glynis Oliver

27 – 28 Jo Duffy / John Bolton / John Bolton / Ron Zalme / John Bolton

29 – 30 Mike Baron / Steve Rude / Carl Potts / Diana Alberis / Marie Severin

31 – 32 Denny O’Neil / Bret Blevins / Al Williamson / Janice Chang / Daina Graziunas

33 – 35 George RR Martin / Herb Trimpe / Sal Buscema / John Costanza / Glynis Oliver

36 – 37 Bruce Jones / Gray Morrow / Gray Morrow / Joe Rosen / Ann Nocenti

38 – 39 Steve Englehart / Paul Gulacy / Bob Layton / Ron Zalme / George Roussos

40 – 41 Jim Shooter / Alan Weiss / Joe Rubinstein / John Morelli / Christie Scheele

42 – 44 Mike Grell / Jackson Guice / Steve Leialoha / Rick Parker / George Roussos

45 – 48 Archie Goodwin / Howard Chaykin / Walt Simonson / Ken Bruzenak / Leslie Zahler

Cover by Art Adams

Cover Dated 1985

This comic could clearly be part of any number of event months, but Frank Miller got us here first.

All proceeds from this comic book are being donated to famine relief and recovery in Africa.  I bought this as a back issue, so I am not sure if when I bought it, that was still the case.

The X-Men fight Hunger, both the concept and embodiment.

The best way to get 21 different creative teams to do a comic is to break it up into segments and that is exactly what they do here.

Stan Lee opens the comic with Rachel screaming.

X-Men Heroes for Hope Stan Lee JRJR Kitty 1

The X-Men come running towards her.  The team at this moment is – Rachel, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Storm, Rogue, Colossus and Kitty.  The X-Men, minus Kitty, rush outside to see that they are now in the desert.  Off in the distance, is Kitty trying to save the post carrier.

Kurt tries to teleport to Kitty but is in extreme pain and has to go back.  Wolverine runs over to Kitty but by the time he gets there, he is starving and withering away.  So is Kitty.  Then strangely, Wolverine decides to kill the post carrier and once he does, the yard reverts back to normal.

I just like that Stan Lee got his one chance to write Kitty Pryde and made her a hero.

The team breaks out, Rogue and Rachel are looking for who could be behind this attack.  The others are inside, taking care of Kitty.

After no one having any success, we get our first of many segments.  Colossus is swimming and there is nothing else he can do, as he is the worst.  Kurt and he have a very awkward conversation regarding the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz, that I don’t quite get.  Then Colossus is put into a dream sequence where the rest of the X-Men have his power, but slicker.  They don’t feel anything and they want him to be the same.  He revels in it, then is shame face when the illusion stops.

Storm sees from the mansion, Colossus crying.  She judges him to be weak as Kurt hugs him.

Kitty asks if anyone wants to join her for lunch.  When she enters the kitchen, we begin the Stephen King written scene.  Oh man, the horror legend sure does put Kitty through her paces, having her wither to the bone and beyond.  She feels intense hunger as she deteriorates more and more.  She is feeling all of this as each panel is like a second in time as she crumbles to the ground.  The cloak figure taunts her.

X-Men Heroes for Hope Kitty Stephen King 1

X-Men Heroes for Hope Kitty Stephen King 2

X-Men Heroes for Hope Kitty Stephen King 3

This is the scene that we learn who the villain is, Hunger.

Kurt walks in and we are now down, two X-Men.  Then this transitions to Kurt’s nightmare which relates to his religious belief and JC is mentioned.

Kitty is able to get it together enough to hug Kurt, taking him out of his illusion.

The rest of the X-Men are keeping busy, looking for any additional signs of threats.

The Alan Moore written section is all about Magneto.  In his illusion, he finally has won the war – mutants are now the dominate species on the planet.  The downside is that the planet is barren now.  People are starving all across the planet.

The Rachel segment is about her reaching out telepathically for any trace of Hunger.  The result is that she is overloaded with the sensation and in her dreamscape, becomes a Hound again.  This is still early in her history, so her reference to being a hound is the easy to go reference.  There is a moment when the Dark Phoenix shows up and she is proud of Rachel’s Hound days – which is pretty messed up.

Next, are these three pages Harlan Ellison wrote, Frank Miller drew, Bill Sienkiewicz inked, John Workman lettered and Christie Scheele colored.  Of course, Frank Miller got the Wolverine section.

Heroes for Hope X-Men Frank Miller 1

Heroes for Hope X-Men Frank Miller 2

Heroes for Hope X-Men Frank Miller 3

Pretty awesome sequence with Logan, the man having to fight with Wolverine, the animal.  He comes out the better for it.

The Storm sequence is pretty interesting.  It seems to be an excuse to show Storm in various states.  The first one is being an overweight with kids.  Which is cool to see but the other images are of her in sexy outfits.  This is during the time when she doesn’t have her powers.  The other outfits are cheerleader, a fairy and a seductress.  There is also a grandmother type version too.

Storm snaps out of her illusion and is ready for a fight.  She gathers the X-Men and they get on a plane to Africa.  There is this sad moment, on the plane, when Rogue realizes that she hasn’t had an encounter yet and wonders why.

Once they get to Africa, they are shocked by how many of them are starving.  Just then, a plane comes in and we start the George RR Martin segment.

X-Men Heroes for Hope George RR Martin Kitty 1

This new plane is fully loaded with food.  The Africans start walking towards it, but there are too many and some are being forced into the direction of the propellers.  Good thing the X-Men are there to start saving people.  Once they save everyone who is in danger, they assist in dealing out all of the food.

This is the first of the references to how grave the famine situation is in Ethiopia, Africa and how the X-Men feel powerless to do anything.  But they are not powerless, they can volunteer their time (and money) toward the relief efforts.

Surprised Storm never makes a reference to being back home or how this isn’t how she left her great continent.

Rogue gets her second sad moment when a young boy walks up to her.  She offers him some food and he touches her face.  Instead of her absorbing his lifeforce, he dies from the effort of just walking over to her.

This launches Rogue into her segment of the title.  She goes to her fellow X-Men, and either kisses or touches them, absorbing her powers (they don’t go into why she kisses some and touches others) and once she has all of their powers, she heads out to where she feels Hunger is at his strongest.  She doesn’t power with Storm, as she doesn’t have any powers.  Thus, Storm is the only person who can later assist Rogue.

Rogue finds the temple that Hunger has been using as a base.  Hunger grabs her and she tries to absorb his abilities and instead, the process is reversed and Hunger now as a human host.

Storm comes in, demanding that Hunger let go of Rogue.  It refuses.  We learn that it feds off of despair, which being hungry and deaths from starvation are a pretty good source of despair.

Storm decides to delay Hunger until Rogue’s absorbed powers fade away.  Pretty cool how the story reveals which powers are gone as if you see the X-Man, then that means that power is gone now.  The first is Kurt, as he teleports Storm away from Hunger.

Wolverine is next to fight Hunger Rogue.  Next is Colossus, followed by Kitty.  Hunger knows that they won’t really hurt him as if they do, they will be hurting their friend.

Rachel is able to free Rogue’s mind of Hunger, so now they saved her but have the disembodied Hunger to deal with again.

Kurt is the first to realize that their victory is barely that.  Magneto tells him that they have to take the safety of the team to be the true victory.

Storm reveals Hunger’s origins, that it may have been the first primal mutant.  Rachel states that it will live forever as there will always be despair.  Which now that I’ve typed despair so much, I’m reminded of the Marvel villain – D’Spayre, who has the same power absorption.

The X-men are left with nothing to do but to keep volunteering in Africa, as long as they are there and to keep the plight of those starving in their minds and hearts.

Rogue is able to fed a young boy, and he is able to take the food, so the issue ends on an up beat.

The inside back over is a letter from Jim Shooter, explaining how the project came together – in large part due to the efforts of Berni Wrightson.

Jim Shooter Letter

This link from Jim Shooter’s website goes into even more background of the comic :

http://www.jimshooter.com/search?updated-max=2011-09-15T16%3A15%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=7

Some great insights there!  Funny story about Stephen King and how he gave them 3,000 words for three pages.  They did cram as much as they could.

If you want to know more about the 1983 – 1985 famine in Ethiopia, here is the Wikipedia page –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984%E2%80%931985_famine_in_Ethiopia

All New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A – Z 4

Posted by John Klein III on August 3, 2014
Posted in: Review. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

All New Handbook 4

Head Writer / Coordinator Jeff Christensen

Writers Sean McQuaid, Michael Hoskin, Eric J. Moreels, Mark O’English, Stuart Vandal, Ronald Byrd, Madison Carter, Mike Fichers, Anthony Flamini, Chris Biggs, Berry Reese and Henrique Ferreira

Cover Artist Keu Cha

Cover Dated 2008

Damon Dran to Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway

I own this due to the profile for Feron.  Plenty of Excalibur references but no Kitty shout outs.

I’m spotlighting it here for the Frank Miller drawn, Eternity.

 Frank Miller Eternity

Batman The Animated Series : Legends of the Dark Knight

Posted by John Klein III on August 2, 2014
Posted in: Cartoon, Fun With YouTube. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Post 400!

What better way to kick off Frank Miller Month than the very first instance of his work being animated!

I know there is Parts One and Two of Dark Knight Returns, but I haven’t seen those yet.  I believe they are on Netflix now but I barely have time to watch the shows I want to watch but one of these days.

Thanks to YouTuber pavsthewarrior for hosting the video!

Also – Happy 75th Birthday, Batman!

As a gift of Batman, you should totally read Batman : Year One and Dark Knight Returns.  Sort of the be-all end-all of Batman.  I sort of wish Frank Miller was able to do a story that took place somewhere in between those two.