Secret Agents, Man! Untold Tales of Spider-Man Flashback Month Minus 1 Review

Richard and Mary Parker: The Amazing Parkers!

Marvel Flashback Month brings Untold Tales of Spider-Man Minus 1! A golden opportunity to see Peter Parker's parents performing in perilous predicaments! They are not quite Agents of SHIELD. Rather, they are CIA agents. Richard Parker was recruited out of Special Forces by Col. Nick Fury. Mary Parker used her education and late father's connections to land a job as a translator. Together, they become an Americanized version of John Steed and Emma Peel. They're a cute contemporary version of Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence and Hammett's Nick and Nora.

On vacation along the French Riviera, they stumble upon The Baroness! A neo-Nazi sympathizer who may have deeper espionage connections - possibly to Hydra! She works for a Supreme Leader and is aware of the capture of an Agent Ten. Which leads Richard and Mary to Bombay, and a rescue mission.

There are a few "surprises". Agent Ten's identity. The Supreme Leader's identity and the inevitable surprise that will force Mary Parker out of action - forever!

Fred Hembeck provides an outrageously hilarious back-up story featuring adventures of Petey - way before he became Spider-Man. It's Hembeck at his finest and funniest.

"Danger", featuring The Amazing Parkers in Untold Tales of Spider-Man Minus 1 earns four stars!   

Happiness is a Warmed Batman... Batman: Gotham Adventures 37

Batman has gone missing!

Dick Grayson and Tim Drake are searching Gotham's underworld to find The Dark Knight! The trail leads from one informant to another.

Meanwhile, it is a Bright Knight that fends off The Joker and The Penguin through oversized props to rescue a nameless damsel in distress! And The Batman seems to be enjoying himself!

It turns out to be a not so sinister plot by Jervis Tetch, The Mad Hatter! Now that his fair Alice is married and enjoying a "happily ever after", Tetch has noticed that The Batman never seems satisfied, or happy, after capturing a super-criminal. So, he's provided The Caped Crusader with a reality in which he can be... happy.

And that's where The Mad Hatter fumbles his plan.

Peterson's story is somewhat sentimental. Levins and Beatty capture a simpler time, when the villains and props were wacky and somewhat campy. Loughridge and Harkins are enjoyable as always. Kudos to Levins, Beatty and Loughridge for the shift in Batman's appearance as well as a Classic look for The Joker and Penguin. Tetch gets a slight makeover - in brown - here as well.

"Images", Batman: Gotham Adventures 37 earns three stars.  

Ever Since The World Began, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds "Valles Marineris" Review

 

            Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season Four, "Valles Marineris" opens with Pike, M'Benga and La'An on horseback on an alien world. They've apparently covertly delivered needed medication to the planet's populace. Before returning to Enterprise, they enjoy a good horseback ride. Number One notes that the number of missions has served to distract Pike from the loss of Batel.

Admiral April arrives with word that Captain Pike is up for promotion. He has until after the next mission to decide. The next mission is observing a phenomenon. The interstellar storm that Enterprise is observing has a distress buoy inside it. They investigate. In a burst of energy, they find themselves damaged and adrift on impulse alone and in need or iridium.

Number One, La'An and Ortegas take a shuttle to a nearby Class M planet to recover some available iridium. Spock discovers that they have been (65) Sixty-Five Million Years into the past. The planet that the away team is recovering the iridium from is Earth. They also encounter a Martian ship. The ship's captain comes aboard Enterprise. The Martians have been at war with an insect race from another nearby planet in the Earth solar system.

The visuals and graphics are simply eye-candy. The story is well thought out. The distress signal Enterprise investigates is its own. SPOILER ALERT! The Martian ship captain sacrifices herself and her crew to destroy the insect race and home world. A meteor from the planet ends the dinosaur age on Earth. Another result of the destruction is the change in Mars. It no longer supports life. However, M'Benga's DNA scans reveal that Martians managed to survive and live on in other races and cultures.

As a fan of science fiction and comic books, the Martian angle is... "fascinating". Marvin the Martian; J'onn J'onzz, The Martian Manhunter; and My Favorite Martian. Let's not forget The Martian Chronicles. To this day, we are fascinated by Mars.

Valles Marineris, translated Mariner Valleys, is an excellent launch of Season Four!           

Launching The Silver Age with Barry Allen! The Showcase 4 Facsimile Reprint Review!

Welcome to The Silver Age!

Barry Allen as the re-imagined The Flash - The Fastest Man Alive! Literally bursting onto the scene. Classic cover and classic story. Okay, so Turtle Man and Mazdan aren't exactly Classic villains. Not quite as Classic as Captain Cold and Abra Kadabra. What is Classic is Barry Allen's origin. Somewhat similar to Jay Garrick's - without the "hard water". (If you're familiar with Barry, you will know that years later, during the seminal Crisis on Infinite Earths, Barry became the lightning bolt that transformed him into The Flash, creating a loop.) What's cool here is that it takes some convincing for Barry to believe he has become "the fastest man alive"! And then, boom, he's got a costume miniaturized inside a ring! He's rescuing Iris from a murder attempt and facing Turtle Man! Even though he may be slow, Turtle Man is methodical and smart. And then, there's Mazdan. A Criminal sentenced to a dark and dismal future that's gone a little "ca-ca" by sending him into the past! His weapon - a gun that fires heat rings! Oh... if only the gun fired onion rings... One can dream. Barry figures out that simply by using super-speed he can break the time barrier travel through time into the future! This is brilliant science fiction!

What's enjoyable about Barry Allen is that he is THE most Peter Parker character of DC Comics. He's the Everyman. Not an orphaned millionaire-philanthropist; an adoptee from a dead planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men; or, even made of clay. Just a regular guy, with regular problems and issues, who just happens to be endowed with super-powers.

This is such a cool... "jumping on point".

The facsimile reprint of Showcase 4 earns five stars.   

What Evil Lurks? The Punisher Knows! The Amazing Spider-Man 129 Facsimile Reprint Review!

Definitely a Classic!

You may be cool, but you will never be running around in just your boxers cool. The Jackal is just one of those characters. Namor, Hank McCoy as The Beast. Apparently, The Jackal is a green-furred, pointy-eared creature. He definitely hates Spider-Man. He's found a kindred spirit in The Punisher. Making his first appearance in comics, The Punisher has been hired by The Jackal to hunt and kill Spider-Man as a murderer. The Punisher is looking for justice. The Jackal just wants Spider-Man dead. J. Jonah Jameson just wants pictures of the newest sensation!

Spider-Man and The Punisher tangle. It looks pretty dire for web-head, until he summons the intestinal fortitude and strength to fight back. Although The Jackal wants to remain in the shadows, he comes right out and clobbers Spider-Man, announcing his intent. Which is just bonkers crazy. 

Later, Spider-Man helps The Punisher do some deductive reasoning, and he comes to the conclusion that The Jackal was just using him to kill Spider-Man. 

This is definitely a Classic, in the traditional bonkers style.

The facsimile reprint of Amazing Spider-Man 129, featuring the debut of The Punisher earns four stars! 

Behold! Lo, Cometh The Green Goblin! The Amazing Spider-Man Facsimile 14 Reprint Review

This one has it all! Everything BUT the kitchen sink!

Stand Lee and Steve Ditko present the debut of the mysterious The Green Goblin! Who is he? His plan is just bonkers crazy and wacky. He wants to lure Spider-Man out to Hollywood, by way of the desert, with hopes and dreams of the big time of fame and fortune. The real scheme is that The Goblin and his gang, The Enforcers, will put the fatal smack-down on him! It's an incredibly contrived and complicated plot to maneuver Spider-Man into fighting The Hulk. That's the whole point of "The Grotesque Adventure of The Green Goblin"! Everything else is just minor details.

The story also seems to be a send-up and parody of Hollywood and the film industry. B. J. Kosmojian is such a simplified caricature of a movie producer. Followed around by three toady "Yes"-men. It's just hilarious. 

Even funnier... one would think that since Peter Parker couldn't cash a check made out to "Spider-Man" why is he signing a big-deal movie contract as Spider-Man?! The whole story just lacks any and all common sense.

Still, it's wacky, off-beat and FUN. It's a brainless slugfest.

The selling point comes from the splash-page blurb of giving a full twelve cents worth of story and action. The Amazing Spider-Man 14, featuring the debut of The Green Goblin, leading The Enforcers toward a bombastic battle that includes The Incredible Hulk earns three stars!   

"It's What I Would Do." Batman: Gotham Adventures 36 Review

For those keeping score, this is the third pairing of Batman and Superman. They first teamed-up in The Batman Adventures 25. At the time, it was mullet-Superman and Batman versus mullet and beard Luthor with Maxie Zeus. Next, The Joker hired himself out to Luthor to kill Superman for a million bucks. Batman followed the trail to Metropolis for the DCAU's "first" World's Finest meeting. Here, Superman is in Gotham City to "help" Batman track down an underworld hitman who has seemingly disappeared after turning mob informant.

Scott Peterson's story hinges on the phrase, "It's what I would do". Batman leads Superman around the city on the trail, telling The Man of Steel what he believes the hitman would do. Once again, Tim Levins' art is spectacular for The World's Finest. There's even a light-hearted aside with Tim Drake wondering aloud why Superman is in town. Terry Beatty is no slouch. His art is enjoyable. He compliments Levins on inking. Loughridge and Harkins are superb as usual.

It's a joy to see these two together. It also begs the question why characters such as Green Arrow and Black Canary, along with The Creeper, Plastic Man and Black Lightning don't make similar guest appearances. Not that Gotham Adventures is a team-up book. So far, Batman has teamed up with The Demon, The Flash and The Phantom Stranger.

Batman: Gotham Adventures 36, guest-starring Superman soars to five stars.