Thursday, June 29, 2023

Xenorama #56

Kamen Rider V3 is fifty years old in 2023!  Rider V3 Punch!

This issue should be available for order in the next day or so!  It is all about Kamen Rider V3, the most popular Kamen Rider series of all time!  Well, that's what I heard, anyway.  It features his series, a few movies he appeared in and the remake, Kamen Rider The Next.  This edition is only in black and white, though I promise you there will be more color versions in the near future.

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

HOtW- The Spider Queen

 

Shannon Kane was the wife and assistant to Dr. Harry Kane.  He gets killed by enemies of his country (one would think the US).. Shannon goes into his records and finds the web fluid her husband invented.  She cleverly invents bracelets that can shoot webs out from them.  She goes to war with criminals and spies.  She does all this in a rather interesting costume, and catches the eye of Detective Mike O'Bell.  He likes both of her identities, Shannon and The Spider Queen.

Monday, June 26, 2023

Mysteries of Unexplained Worlds #36

 

I got this on a whim, since the cover had dinosaurs and one other prehistoric animal on it.  It was published in June of 1963, so I can forgive the cover artist for the animals.  What I really can't forgive are the rather pedestrian stories inside.  The art is serviceable.  I mean, it is a Charlton book, so one has to expect that.  The stories are all by Joe Gill (more than likely) and the artists were Dick Giordano, Charles Nicholas, Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio and possibly someone else.  Not all the stories were signed.  Charlton was obviously trying to emulate DC and Marvel's genre mags, but failing to get either the twists of a Marvel story, or the fun of the DC books.  These things just happen.

Sunday, June 25, 2023

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

 

Former Chief Inspector Dreyfus is finally sane again after spending three years in a sanitarium.  Chief Inspector Clouseau goes to visit Dreyfus, and in about five minutes drives Dreyfus insane again.  This leads to Dreyfus escaping, forming a villainous network, kidnapping a scientist, having said scientist create a death ray and blackmailing the world all in order to kill Clouseau.  Several nations send assassins to eliminate Clouseau, but through dumb luck and accidents, he manages to wipe out all of them.  Finally, Clouseau sneaks into the castle, confronts Dreyfus and defeats the insane villain.  At least until the next sequel.

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 13- Devil on Her Shoulder

 

IN WHICH Devil, upset at being too big to help Moon Girl out properly sulks.  Lunella invents a Tincture of Tininess and gives him a drop to become human sized for a day.  Devil enjoys his new size so much that he wants to stay that way for a longer amount of time.  To do this, he takes more of the Tincture.  This causes him to start shrinking even more.  Just in time for Torg shows up to wreck havoc on the town, since he was unhappy with his portrayal in the new movie.  Lu contacts Dr. Bill (Giant-Man 2) Foster about reversing the effect.  Devil returns to his regular size, and battles Torg until they become friends.

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Secret Invasion 01- Resurection

 

IN WHICH we find out that there are renegade Skrulls living on Earth that want to claim our fair planet for themselves.  This brings Nick Fury back to Earth from S.A.B.R.E (yes, a satellite in space) to investigate.  Where are the other Avengers or superheroes that could help him?  The President of the US doesn't like Nick going rogue in Russia, and tells Colonel Rhodes to stop Fury.  The renegade Skrulls are terrorists, and want the humans to kill themselves off.  This means bombs.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

HOTW- Batman

 

Sometime in the mid to late 1920s, young Bruce Wayne sees his parents get murdered in front of him.  They had just been to see The Mark of Zorro, and decided to take a short cut.  That sure was a bad idea.  Joe Chill (named years later) was waiting for them.  This traumatized young Bruce, who dedicated his life to the idea of eradicating crime.  Like that can happen.  Ten years later Batman shows up and fights crime.  Later, he starts encountering stranger criminals, some of whom only want to defeat Batman.  This has continued for almost 85 years.

Monday, June 19, 2023

Cyborg 009 (1966)

 

Joe Shimamura has an awful race car accident... but it was engineered by Black Ghost.  They turn him into a cyborg, and introduce him to the eight other cyborgs they have created.  The cyborgs rebel and escape, along with Professor Gilmore and vow to battle Black Ghost to the end.  They actually do defeat Black Ghost, but also promise to reunite if any form of the evil group shows up again.

Sunday, June 18, 2023

Sven- Curse of the Demon

 

"Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes, and passing them used lots of skills..."

Dr. Julian Karswell runs some kind of church or something, and wants to stop an investigation of a different death.  This ends up killing Dr. Harrington right before his friend Dr. Holden shows up.  The charming Karswell passes Holden a parchment giving him three days to live.  The challenge is now on to figure out how to stop the Curse of the Demon in the night!

Saturday, June 17, 2023

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 12- Today I Am A Woman

 

IN WHICH Casey worries far too much about having the Bat Mitzvah of the century or some time frame.  She is competing with her triplet cousins, who had theirs retweeted by some influencer.  In order to boost Casey's party, Lu says Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur will make an appearance.  This leads Odessa Drake to show up, and while she is a major influencer, her goal is to steal MG's tech and sell it.  Casey is star struck and loses focus.  She makes Lu cry, but figures it all out.  MG and Devil defeat Bad Influence, and Lu gets to attend the Bat Mitzvah.

Thursday, June 15, 2023

RIP John Romita, Sr

 

John Romita, Sr. passed away June 12th.  He was 93 years old.  He was the second Spider-Man artist, taking over for Steve Ditko.  Those were some mighty big shoes to fill, and Romita did an admirable job.  He did tend to make his characters a bit more glamorous than Ditko ever could, but that was good, since had he tried to copy Steve's unique stile no one would have given him a chance.  Romita was a great artist, and worked on all of Marvel's major characters and books.  I had the pleasure of meeting him at a San Diego Comic Con in the 90s, and attended a few panels he was on.  He also did the model sheets for many of the Marvel cartoons in the 60s.

Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Miles is missing his amazing spider friends, especially Spider-Gwen (as I am not exactly sure what her spider name is).  Actually, the movie starts with Gwen and her father, who blames Spider-Woman for the death of Peter Parker.  I think this is Earth 65.  Like the number matters in THIS movie.  She ends up at the Supremacy- I mean, Spider Society, where the Spider-People of all the multiverse meet and chat, I guess.  Miles makes a silly enemy- the Spot- into a truly powerful nemesis.  Gotta give the guys some respect, dontcha know.  He meets several more Spiders, including the Spider-Man he met last movie.  Peter has a daughter now, who has at least some of his powers.  Naturally, things get messed up, Miles gets blamed.  He leaves to go back to his universe, but things again go awry.

Spoilers ahead!

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

HOTW- Spider-Man

 

Poor Peter Parker was pitiful... until he got killed by the Kingpin.  Then Miles Morales took over  Oh, this is on Earth 1610.  See, there are thousands of Spider-people all across the multiverse.  Possibly millions.  They meet on occasion in the Supremacy, I mean, I don't even know what they called it now.  The TVA really has gotten screwed up.  Thanks Kang, Loki and Sofie.  BE THAT AS IT MAY, Spidey is one of the most iconic superheroes ever.  We all know his story, well, at least Peter's story.  I would be willing to be people know who Uncle Ben is and his famous quote.

Monday, June 12, 2023

Words of Wisdom from Wonder Woman

 

Wonder Woman's perennial foe, the Cheetah, debuted in Wonder Woman #6, dated Fall of 1943.  She was the evil identity of Priscilla Rich, who was jealous of the attention Wonder Woman and other women got from various people, usually men.  She was devious and deadly, and also worked with the fascists of the time, the ratzis.  The whole issue was dedicated to the Cheetah and her escapades.

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Sven- Night Monster 1942

 

An old man brings three doctors to his mansion, and plans to kill them.  He blames them for his current crippled condition.  Curt Ingston has been having his mind trained by an Eastern mystic, Agar Singh.  Singh has mastered the art of materializing items.  Naturally, Ingston uses this mystic art for evil purposes.  Good thing there are people around to help stop him eventually.

Saturday, June 10, 2023

Moon Girl 11- Like Mother, Like Moon Girl

IN which Moon Girl becomes the face of a new company.  Said company is going to "revitalize" the LES, which means... gentrification.  This was done sneakily, and both Casey and Lu were taken by surprise by this development, and Mayor Pena goes along with it, due to the money.  However, when the Muzzlers cancel the block party, Lu's mom, Adria confronts Moon Girl about her part in it.  After some soul searching, MG comes up with a plan- Block Protest Party.  The villains get sent to SHIELD after the obligatory battle, and all is back to normal.

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Suzi Quatro- Rock Hard

I saw this album a lot in the local record store, I think it was Budget Tapes and Records.  It stayed there for years, for some reason.  The LP was released in 1980, but I probably saw it after that.  I didn't know that Suzi had been on TV a few years prior as Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days, since I had quit watching that show.  This cover also makes Suzi look like she is 5'4", though if she is 5' I would be amazed.  Knowing how large bass guitars are though, it is now apparent how not tall she is.  The record was not a hit in this country, or much of any other one.  Which is sad, as it is pretty solid.

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

HOTW- Captain America

 

Steven Rogers, 4F from the US Army, volunteers to be a test subject for a mysterious experiment.  He is given potions, rays and injections and attains perfect condition almost immediately.  He is given all kinds of training, and then assigned to the Army Corp as a bumbling private.  For some reason he has to have a secret ID, but camp mascot Bucky Barnes almost immediately finds out Steve and Cap are the same person.  Cap trains Bucky as his sidekick, but neglects to give him a different name.  Good thing Cap had enhanced security clearance, or something.  The pair then battles nazis and the like, until...

Monday, June 5, 2023

Rex shirt

My sister-in-law Tina sent me this shirt a few weeks ago, and it is pretty awesome.  Red is not my usual color, but for some reason Tyrannosaurus rex looks pretty great with red.  It fits well, but will need to be worn a bit more.  The rexes look really familiar to me, so I will have to search my bok collection to see why.  That may take a bit of time, as there are a few books about prehistoric animals in my collection these days.  That makes four shirts that I have featuring dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.  I have worn out a few other shirts with dinosaurs on them, but if I get three more I can wear a dinosaur shirt every day of the week.

Sunday, June 4, 2023

Sven- Man-Made Monster (1941)

 

From Wiki- A tragic accident occurs when a bus hits a high power line. The incident has claimed the lives of all on board, except for one Dan McCormick, who survives because he is, surprisingly, immune to the deadly electricity. McCormick does a sideshow exhibit as Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man and is taken in by Dr. John Lawrence, who wants to study him. However, Dr. Lawrence's colleague, mad scientist Dr. Paul Rigas, desires to create an army of electrobiologically-driven zombies. He gives McCormick progressively higher doses of electricity until his mind is ruined and left dependent on the addicting electrical charges. This temporarily gives McCormick the touch of death, making him capable of killing anyone he touches by electrocution. After accidentally killing Lawrence, Rigas ensures McCormick's conviction to see what will happen if he is sent to the electric chair. McCormick survives, and with a super charge in his glowing body encased in a protective rubber suit he kills several people, including Rigas, before becoming entangled on a barbed wire fence which tears his rubber suit, causing the electricity to drain out into the wire and McCormick to die.

Saturday, June 3, 2023

Moon Girl ep 10- Moon Girl's Day Off

IN which Lunella is exhausted and fakes an injury to take some time off.  Casey plays Moon Girl for a photo shoot, but then has to tangle with Abyss, a 5th gen supervillain.  According to the Beyonder, Abyss is not happy about the family line of work.  Be that as it may, Mimi discovers that Lu is faking her injury, just as Devil calls (@?) Lu to tell her Casey is in trouble.  A learning moment happens for all parties.  Except Devil and Mimi, who are smarter than everyone else in this show.

Thursday, June 1, 2023

The Golden Age Wonder Woman v. 1 (2017)

 

Much like yesterday's Batman book, this is the first year or so of Wonder Woman's appearances.  It took eight months for National Comics to realize they had a huge hit with Wonder Woman after her debut in Sensation Comics #1. In fact- From the Amazon description- "The very first stories of the Amazon Warrior are collected here in WONDER WOMAN: THE GOLDEN AGE VOLUME 1, featuring the adventures of Wonder Woman as she tackles corruption, oppression and cruelty in ALL STAR COMICS #8, COMIC CAVALCADE #1, SENSATION COMICS #1-14 and WONDER WOMAN #1-3."  Since I got the second volume first, I read about half of that already, but now I am going back to see how it all started.