Longbox Junk - Black Canary (1993) Part 1

Welcome back to Longbox Junk, the place to find all the comic reviews you never asked for!

This time out, we're going to take a little trip in the paper time machine to a dark and strange place in the history of comics.  Yep. . .you guessed it.  We're sliding on back to the 90s!

HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. . .

Black Canary is an interesting character.  She's never really been able to headline her own series for long, and is best known as a supporting character in various Justice League, Birds of Prey, and Green Arrow titles.  I'd even go so far as to say that her connection to Green Arrow is about the ONLY reason Black Canary is even still around today.

I MIGHT be wrong about that, and Black Canary fans might take a bit of offense, but I think that looking at her most successful series (with the Black Canary name in the title) and it being DC's 2007 GREEN ARROW/ Black Canary (lasting 32 issues) sort of tells the story here.

So as a supporting character in comics, television, and movies, Black Canary is a pretty big success.

But as a solo comic character. . .not quite as successful.  Not that DC hasn't tried. 

And so we come to the series at hand.  Except for a small handful of solo mini-series efforts, the twelve-issue series we'll be taking a look at was Black Canary's longest-running solo title until a strange (but interesting) 2015 New 52 re-imagining with Black Canary being a member of a rock band fighting ninjas and vampires that also only lasted 12 issues (Possibly coming someday to a Longbox Junk blog near you).

From what I've been able to see, not much is remembered about THIS series at all, except for ONE thing.  Toward the back half of the run, Black Canary had to endure a 90s grim-n-gritty full makeover that is remembered to this very day on many "Worst 90s Costume Changes" and other internet "Top 10 Worst" lists to that effect.  

Here's a sneak preview!

Spiky hair: Check

Straps, buckles, and pouches: Check

Clenched teeth: Check

Overly-elaborate guns: Check

Improbable musculature: Check

Gratuitous crotch shot: Check

WELCOME TO THE 90s!

So there's that.  But there's twelve issues here.  An unfortunate 90s makeover can't be the ONLY thing this series has, right? That's what we're here to find out! So strap in and head back to 1993 with me as I take a look at this series.  Ready?  Let's do it!

BLACK CANARY

DC (1993)

ISSUE ONE

COVER: Trevor Von Eeden

HERO WORSHIP Part 1

SCRIPT: Sarah E. Byam

PENCILS: Trevor Von Eeden

INKS: Bob Smith

THE COVER:

Not bad.  A pretty nice action portrait here.  Giant shoulder pads set it firmly in the 90's and that's a LOT of hair.  Not a great cover, but I've seen worse.  This one could take a turn on the rotating cover display on my office wall at work.

THE STORY:

As Dinah Lance (AKA Black Canary) follows clues surrounding a rash of mysterious deaths of homeless people in Seattle, the past and future come together as similarities between her current case and her very first (failed) outing as Black Canary when she was fifteen years old become apparent.  

The life of a teen prostitute named Sally involved in the organized crime election fraud scheme Black Canary is investigating hangs in the balance as the vigilante tries to save the witness from both the thugs she's working for and the police.

To be continued. . .

THE REVIEW:

Honestly, it's a bit of a weak start.  The reader just gets dumped right into the story in progress.  There's some flashback scenes of Canary's teenage origins, but it's assumed that the reader is already familiar with the character.  It's not a very new reader-friendly first issue.  To make things worse, the election fraud storyline tying the past and present together just isn't really that interesting.

The art serves to tell the story, but is barely on the "Pretty Good" side of the scale.  It's a little above average in places, but generally a bit sketchy with sparse backgrounds and some pretty garish colors.

 There's barely any art difference between teen Canary and adult Canary, which is a problem in a storyline that switches back and forth between the two.  It's a bit confusing which parts of the story are in the past and which are in the present.

Overall, I can see that some effort was put into this.  The internal monologue style of telling the story is one I enjoy (even if it does seem like it was swiped from Batman), and there are some good moments here and there, but those moments are balanced out by bland art serving to confuse a "past is present" storyline switching between teen and adult Black Canary, as well as an election fraud story that frankly isn't that exciting.

I can sort of see right out of the gate why this series only lasted 12 issues.

NEXT!

ISSUE TWO

COVER: Trevor Von Eeden

HERO WORSHIP Part 2

SCRIPT: Sarah E. Byam

PENCILS: Trevor Von Eeden

INKS: Bob Smith

THE COVER:

Not so great.  The red is sort of a strange choice of color and Canary's face is hidden by her hair.  The giant shoulder pads keep screaming "90's!" at me.  Sorry, not going up on the wall.

THE STORY:

As Black Canary tries to save a teenage prostitute on the run, she realizes the similarities between this case and her first case as Black Canary are more than coincidence as clues point toward the same low-ranking underworld thug she let escape in the past being behind the rash of deaths in the present.

In the meantime, crooked politician Jacob Whorrsman, the figure behind the election fraud deaths, hires an assassin known as Klik to eliminate both the fleeing witness and Black Canary.  

Canary finally catches up to the witness at the same time Klik does, setting things up for a confrontation between the assassin and the vigilante.

To be continued. . .

THE REVIEW:

The story here isn't bad.  It's actually improved over the first issue and moves forward with a bit more momentum as Canary makes more connections and pursues her prey, trying to get to her before it's too late.  Unlike the first issue, I actually want to see what happens next with this one.

BUT. . .

While the story has improved, the art is still a problem.  I actually read quite a bit of one section before I realized that the part I was in was taking place in the past (The story continues switching back and forth between teen Canary and adult Canary) because there's very little artistic difference between past and present.

Here, let me show you what I mean.  One of these pictures is 15 year old Dinah Lance on her first outing as Black Canary.  The other one is of adult Dinah Lance as a seasoned vigilante.  Can you tell which is which?

The clue is in the stockings.  Adult Canary has skin-revealing fishnets while Teen Canary has darker tights. These splash pages are pretty easy.  It's a bit harder to tell when the scenes between the two time periods are switching back and forth on the same page.  It's really confusing at some points.

Overall, the artist's failure to separate flashback and present aside, this issue was an improvement on the first.  This story arc is only 3 issues long, so hopefully once the intertwining time periods are done with, the art won't be a problem.

NEXT!

ISSUE THREE

COVER: Trevor Von Eeden

HERO WORSHIP Part 3

SCRIPT: Sarah E. Byam

PENCILS: Trevor Von Eeden

INKS: Pam Eklund

THE COVER:

A decent action shot, but WAY too much negative black space that doesn't leave much room for the main character to shine.  A good idea, but poorly-executed.

THE STORY:

Continuing directly from the previous issue, Black Canary confronts assassin Tyson Klik as he is in the process of strangling teenage prostitute and fleeing witness of deadly election fraud, Sally. 

During the brutal fight, Sally escapes and both Black Canary and Klik pursue her while engaging in a running battle over the rooftops of Seattle.  Finally, Klik corners Sally and Canary is unable to stop him from breaking her neck and killing her.

In the end, Canary's witness is dead and the assassin is in the hospital, badly wounded by Black Canary and in police custody.  He refuses to name his employer, and Black Canary is determined that this is far from over.

The End.

THE REVIEW:

And here we are at the end of the first story arc for this series.  This whole issue is pretty much a running battle between Black Canary and the assassin sent to eliminate her and the witness.  So for what it is, it's a good finish with some dangling threads to be picked up in later issues.

Being mostly action, this issue abandons the dual timeline story structure, and (as I hoped in the review of issue 2) the art wasn't the problem it has been once there was only one storyline to follow.  It's still a bit sketchy, with a lack of backgrounds and some garish colors, but at least you know where you are in time.

Overall, this was a decent finish to the first story arc.  I like that Black Canary didn't really win at all, with the death of her witness and a lot of unanswered questions remaining.

  It's not the greatest comic story I've ever read, but it's nowhere near the worst.   It just sort of rides right down the middle line of "Pretty Good".  Unfortunately, "Pretty Good" isn't what sustains a comic series for the long haul. 

Let's see what happens next. . .

ISSUE FOUR

COVER: Trevor Von Eeden?

THE ART OF WHORR

SCRIPT: Sarah E. Byam

PENCILS: Trevor Von Eeden

INKS: Bob Smith

THE COVER:

A strange one.  All the information I can find on this issue lists Von Eeden as the cover artist, but this doesn't remotely resemble any of the other covers or any of his interior work.  So it's either another (uncredited) artist or an interesting painting experiment by the regular artist.  

In any case, it's pretty good.  It has a cheap pulp novel look I'm a fan of, and I like the bold colors a lot.  

THE STORY:

When thugs begin to shake down Black Canary's old friend, Tony Cinchelli, she begins to uncover a real estate scheme to force long-time residents out of Seattle's immigrant neighborhoods and buy the land for redevelopment at low cost.

What Canary doesn't know is that Jacob Whorrsman, the same crooked politician behind the election fraud scheme she recently uncovered, is also behind the real estate scheme.  

The shakedowns turn deadly when Tony's shop is firebombed and his niece, Sophia, is almost killed.  Black Canary stops Tony from taking his revenge when she reveals that Sophia had taken out an insurance policy on the shop and was working with the thugs.

In the end, it is also through Sophia that Whorrsman learns that Black Canary is still interfering in his schemes.  He becomes determined to take down the vigilante once and for all.

To be continued. . .

THE REVIEW:

Okay.  First off. . .What the HELL is going on with the title of this story?

Going by the pronunciation of Jacob Whorrsman's name (Horse-man, according to DC's Wiki), the title reads as "The Art of Whore". There's no way that wasn't intentional.  Not a good look for a comic featuring a scantily-clad female vigilante.  BUT I DIGRESS!

The story itself is actually pretty good, even though it follows a very heavily-traveled path.  The old "organized crime tries to run people out of their homes so they can buy the property cheap, and only one person can stop them!" story has been told MANY times in MANY places.  That said, it's pretty well-written and avoids the art problems that the dual time period storyline of the first three issues caused.

The art also shows a bit of improvement.  It's still looks sketchy and often has a lack of backgrounds, as well as being garishly-colored, but I can see additional effort shown as the story focuses in on more characters and conversations in this issue.

Overall, this issue shows an improvement in both writing and art.  It's not great. . .the story is VERY well-worn and the art is barely on the good side of average,  but when the bar in this series is set at "Pretty Good" anything that can be called an improvement counts.

NEXT!

ISSUE FIVE

COVER: Trevor Von Eeden

BLYNDE WOMAN'S BLUFF Part 1

SCRIPT: Sarah E. Byam

PENCILS: Trevor Von Eeden

INKS: Bob Smith

THE COVER:

Hello, gratuitous crotch shot!  No way I can put this one up on the office wall.  

Other than that, this is actually a pretty good cover.  

THE STORY:

Black Canary is hired as a "Security Consultant" to guard an extremely rare black tulip on exhibit in Holland.  Unknown to her, a mysterious figure has hired the infamous thief known as Blynde to steal the tulip.  

Blynde is the sister of Tyson Klick, the assassin Canary took down while investigating a deadly election fraud scheme (in issues #2 & #3), so she has a personal score to settle with Black Canary.

In Holland, Blynde uses her powers of disguise, as well as a cloak that makes her invisible, to infiltrate the museum the black tulip is being exhibited at.  Black Canary arrives too late to prevent Blynde from killing the guards and stealing the priceless flower.  

After a short fight, the tulip's owner arrives and Blynde kills him in order to make her escape from Black Canary.  The police arrive on the scene and find Black Canary holding his bloody body.

To be continued. . .

THE REVIEW:

I'm gonna be blunt here and just say that there's very little in this issue that made me interested in it at all.  Honestly, if I were buying this series off the rack on a month to month basis, this issue would probably be my last one.

It's not BAD, but like the rest of this series so far, it's just not really that GOOD, either.  It's just so average that there would be no way for me to justify dropping $1.75 on another issue when there's nothing here that makes me want to see what happens next.

The setup is weak.  The villain is just a throwaway "opponent of the month".  The art remains barely on the good side of average, with the lack of backgrounds and garish colors trying to move the needle to the bad side.  It's all just so. . .plain, I guess?  It just seems like there wasn't really much effort put into this.

Overall, this issue doesn't have much going for it at all.  To me, it's the very definition of "Minimum Effort".  It's the sort of comic that you read and forget about five minutes later.  It's not memorable in any way.  I'm starting to see more and more why this series isn't remembered for anything other than Black Canary's 90s makeover.

MOVING ALONG!

ISSUE SIX

COVER: Trevor Von Eeden

BLYNDE WOMAN'S BLUFF Part 2

SCRIPT: Sarah E. Byam

PENCILS: Trevor Von Eeden

INKS: Bob Smith

THE COVER:

This one is just sort of. . .Meh.  It's pretty generic.  SIDE NOTE: I don't think the artist could decide what color Canary's jacket is supposed to be.  It's purple on three covers, blue on two, and you can't really tell on one.  In any case, this isn't the sort of cover that makes me want to buy the comic.

THE STORY:

Continuing from the previous issue, Black Canary finds herself in Dutch custody awaiting trial for three murders she didn't commit.  After her companion, Green Arrow, pulls some strings, an American Agent named Eddie Fyres arrives to take Canary into custody.

With Fyres' assistance, Black Canary investigates the murders and theft of the black tulip she failed to guard.  In the meantime, the thief Blynde discovers that her employer, the mysterious "Severance", has also hired her brother, Klick, to take down Black Canary before she interferes with his plans.

After a failed assassination attempt by Klick, Canary and Fyres pursue him and are led to Blynde's location.  A brutal battle ensues, but Canary and Fyres manage to defeat the brother/sister villains and regain possession of the black tulip.  All's well that ends well.

The End.

THE REVIEW:

And so we come to the last issue in this first part of the series review.  

Like the previous issue that it continues, it's so utterly average and unmemorable that I'm actually wondering how this series managed to hit twelve issues.  Hopefully, there's some improvement to come.

I can see how the writer is trying to build Black Canary her own little "Rogues Gallery", but Klick and Blynde are just not great characters at all.  They're barely sketched and feel disposable.  Not the sort of villains that make for great storytelling.  It's a pretty weak effort.

The story here seems rushed and unimaginative.  The art remains JUST the good side of average.  There seems to be an overall lack of effort that was noticeable in earlier issues, but is starting to become more obvious as the series goes on.

Overall, this is another completely forgettable issue.  It has a story that I can't bring myself to care about, art that is okay but doesn't try very hard to be more than okay, and villains that seem more disposable than dangerous.  It's not BAD, but it's also plain to see not much effort was put into making it good.

CONCLUSION

These first six issues of Black Canary are average at best.  

I can see what they were WANTING to do. . .turn a popular supporting character into a solo title.  Unfortunately, the execution is pretty weak.  It's not that the series is BAD. . .it's just that it seems that not much effort was put into it.  This COULD have been a lot better. 

 I'm thinking the main failure here is in DC simply assuming that readers would buy these comics based on already knowing Black Canary as a supporting character and that they could just jump right into making her a lead.  That sort of makes these stories float around without much background or context at all.  I think maybe DC overestimated Black Canary's ability to carry an ongoing comic series.

It MIGHT have worked with a stronger writer on board. . .from that time, I'd say a Mike Grell Black Canary series would have been something special.  Unfortunately, Black Canary (at least these first six issues) didn't have a strong enough writer OR artist to lift it any higher than "Pretty Good" in places.  It's a shame, because in MY extremely humble opinion, Black Canary is just the sort of background character a better writer could have done some great things with.

I found the sub-par art a bit strange because generally, Trevor Von Eeden is an artist I've liked.  Even his work on the previous four-issue Black Canary miniseries is better than what's to be found here (I'd do a review on it, but only have 3 issues).  

Maybe it's the inker?  On the last series (and a Green Arrow miniseries he did before that), he had Dick Giordano on the inks and it looks 100% better.  Eedon's work on Black Lightning, Green Arrow, Batman, etc. . . is better than what I'm seeing here.  He's not my FAVORITE artist, but he's always been a reliably solid one.

But then again, I read up a bit on Von Eeden because there's a bit of controversy regarding Black Canary's 90s makeover (That I'll go into in Part 2) and I found an interesting quote from him. 

In a 2009 interview, Von Eeden stated that: 

"Black Canary, on the other hand, was done in one state of mind, from beginning to end, one of semi-interest, to tell you the truth.  I didn't, and still don't, find her to be a particularly interesting character."

I'm definitely picking up on that disinterest here.  It's a bit of a drag on the whole series. 

Up Next. . .

The back half of Black Canary.  Issues 6 - 12.

A full reboot lasting one issue!  An unfortunate 90s makeover! 

Nightwing and Huntress driving a goddamn TANK!

Female Empowerment AND Misogyny at the same time!

Artist Controversy! 

Oh, my.

Be there or be square.

Longbox Junk Christmas Special - Legends of the Dark Knight #79

This review was originally done a while back for another website where I had a strict word count and image limit, so it's pretty "short but sweet" compared to many of my other reviews. 

I've been going through some of the older stuff I haven't published on this blog yet and I think some of it is okay to meet new eyes.  So you'll be seeing a few more reviews now and then that aren't exactly in the same form as the more recent stuff.  ENJOY!

My name is Atom and I write comic reviews that nobody ever asked for!  I find the "value" of comics in the enjoyment of them, rather than how much they are "worth" to collectors.

If you like what you see here, then join me on a journey through the forgotten depths of those boxes full of dollar back issues in your local comic shop and visit my blog,  LONGBOX JUNK ,where you'll discover HUNDREDS of reviews you never even knew you wanted to read!

It's December, so let's get into a little bit of Christmas fun, shall we?  WE SHALL! 

BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #79

DC (1996)

FAVORITE THINGS

SCRIPT: Mark Millar

PENCILS: Steve Yeowell

INKS: Dick Giordano

COVER: Steve Yeowell

THE COVER:  Very nicely-done!  It's a great Christmas-themed cover with a dramatic twist.  The stark black background perfectly draws the eye to the colorful art in the middle.  It's definitely an eye-catcher.

THE STORY:

With Christmas approaching, Batman's investigation of organized break-ins of wealthy residences turns personal when Wayne Manor is robbed and something of great value to Bruce Wayne is stolen.

As the exhausted Batman relentlessly pursues the scant handful of clues, with the assistance of Commissioner Gordon and the G.C.P.D., he finally discovers that a gang called "The Chessmen" are the culprits.  

When Batman arrives at the gang's hideout, he discovers that the showboating Chief of Gotham's S.W.A.T. team has managed to turn what should have been a simple raid into a hostage situation.  Batman takes things into his own hands and defeats the gang without harm to their captives.

He interrogates the leader of The Chessmen gang and discovers where they've hidden the stolen loot.  Batman arrives to discover a broken man regretting his part in the crimes, he explains to Batman that he just needed money for his kids.  Batman agrees to let the man go free in exchange for the stolen goods.

At the end of the tale, we discover that the precious item stolen from Wayne Manor was an antique toy train set. . .the final Christmas present given to Bruce Wayne by his parents.

The End.

THE REVIEW:

It's a simple tale of Batman tracking down a gang of thieves, with an emotional punch at the end that makes it memorable.  It has all the ingredients of a good, classic Batman story. . .things that I honestly miss in Batman comics today. 

There's Batman and Commissioner Gordon on a snowy rooftop discussing the case.  Batman having to deal with the corrupt police force.  Batman relentlessly following clues while the ever-faithful Alfred chides him for not getting any rest.  This is my favorite kind of Batman tale!

I realize that characters need to evolve, but reading this story just reminds me of the things I miss being in Batman comics on the stands now.  This story has a classic feel to it that makes a Batman fan like me smile.

On the art side of things. . .it's okay.  Not bad.  Not great.  The art tells the story but doesn't try to go above or beyond that.  I feel that if this story had someone like Jim Aparo or Neal Adams on the art, it would be a holiday classic that every comic fan would know about.  

CONCLUSION

This is a great little superhero Christmas story, but more than that, it's a great throwback Batman story!  If you're a fan of old-school Batman before New 52 or Rebirth. . .with the classic team of Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, and Batman on the case. . .then this is a story for you!

 The art isn't anything special, but that doesn't stop this from being a great little nugget of Longbox Junk that isn't hard to find in the bargain bin.

Until Next time, Merry Christmas and remember that comics are worth more than money!

Longbox Junk - Combo Man

 Welcome to Longbox Junk, the blog absolutely STUFFED with cheesy goodness and surrounded by a crunchy shell of delicious criticism!

And speaking of cheesy goodness, this time out we're taking a look at the single issue of a comic starring a hero that is canonically one of the most powerful individuals in the Marvel Universe!  It's nacho average hero, it's COMBO MAN!

Wait.  What's that? Who the hell is Combo Man, you ask? 

Well, then. Let's take a moment to bite into some background, shall we?

 WE SHALL!

Combo Man was the result of a tasty advertising deal between Marvel Comics and Eagle Snacks, the producers of Combos™ Baked Snacks.  For those of you who haven't tried them, Combos™ are basically soft filling surrounded by crunch.

The filling in a wide variety from nacho and cheddar cheese to pepperoni pizza and buffalo ranch.  The crunch is either cracker, tortilla, or pretzel.  My personal favorite is nacho cheese and pretzel. . .BUT I DIGRESS!

The promotion lasted about a year, between 1995 - 1996.  It involved a massive blast of advertising in pretty much every Marvel title.  There was also plenty of Combo Man merchandise to be had including:

Trading Cards

Pre-Paid Phone Cards (Remember them? No? God, I'm old)

Hats

Shirts (This one from Ebay for ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLAS!!)

And what I consider the BEST Combo Man swag. . .this awesome leather jacket!

And then there's the Combos™ themselves.  Because Combos™ are awesome.

Seriously.  I LOVE these things.

And then, of course, there's the comic at hand.  A free giveaway that they must have made a LOT of because I regularly spot them in bargain bins when I go Longbox Junkin' and dollar box spelunkin'.

One of the major components of the promotion was a contest that went along with the comic ads where the comic readers could guess what 14 Marvel characters made up Combo Man.  They sent in the attached form and had a chance to win some of that SWEET swag above!

I got into the spirit of writing this review and decided to try and take the Combo Man challenge myself.  I guessed 12 of the 14 heroes before I got salty and headed to the internet.  In case you're wondering (and I'm getting ahead of myself a bit here), the 14 Marvel characters Combo Man is made up of ARE:

Hulk, Cyclops, Iron Man, Magneto, Punisher, Captain America, Sabretooth, Carnage, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Century, Human Torch, Silver Surfer, and Gambit. 

I missed Daredevil (because it was his new at the time 90s armored costume) and Century (Because, who?).  ANYWAY. . .

Combo Man.   An advertising gimmick that got his own comic book. 

Let's check it out!

COMBO MAN

(Marvel - 1996)

COVER: John Statema

THE COVER:

This cover is actually pretty great!  It's colorful and eye-catching.  It's nicely-drawn, with the hero front and center.  It's not the greatest comic cover I've ever seen, but if I were taking a class on comic book illustration, I'd think that something like this would be presented as one of the "baseline" type of superhero comic covers.  Very nice!  

Let's check out the story!

THE STORY:

The Incredible Origin of. . .Combo Man

SCRIPT:  Mark Gruenwald

PENCILS:  Hector Collazo

INKS:  Greg Adams

Jumping right into the action, we're introduced to a brightly-colored superhero being shot at by A.I.M.  His inner monologue gives us a bit of the old, classic  "You might be wondering who I am and how I got into this mess."  And also tells us his name is Rick Wilder.

We rewind back in time about ten minutes.  It's night time outside of Danmark Laboratories.  Rick is being pressured by a group of boys to break into the lab (where their High School Chemistry teacher works nights) and steal a copy of the midterm exam from their teacher's desk.

Rick reluctantly agrees, hoping that if he does what they want, the other boys will stop bullying him at school.  After climbing in through an open window, Rick tries to calm his nerves by enjoying some delicious Combos™!

When Rick hears voices and sees lights on in Professor Boyd's office, he takes a peek.  The Professor is being interrogated by some creeps in yellow costumes.  They're demanding to know where his device for expanding human potential is at.  He insists it's experimental and not ready to be used.  

Rick makes some noise and gives away his hiding place!  He's pursued through the halls of the lab by the costumed men until he's cornered at a door CLEARLY marked with warning signs to keep out.   He goes in and is immediately hit with some sort of mysterious energy!

When the smoke clears, we see that Rick has been transformed!  Where once stood weak and bullied teenager Rick Wilder, now stands a strange and powerful figure called. . .COMBO MAN!

DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUN!!!

We now pause the exciting origin of Combo Man to bring you a message from our sponsors, Combos™ Baked Snacks!  The OFFICIAL cheese-filled snack of NASCAR! (No, really.  According to the Combos™ information page and Wikipedia, they're the official cheese-filled snack of NASCAR.  Accept no substitutes)

And NOW, back to our program!

Returning to the present, Rick/Combo Man finds himself under fire from the A.I.M. thugs.

He discovers to his astonishment that he can now fly, shoot webbing from his hand, and "sense" the gunmen behind him.

He ALSO realizes he can use the powers of magnetism, and yoinks their guns from their hands, crushing the weapons with his newfound amazing strength!  The A.I.M. thugs are no match for his new powers!  He tells the professor to call the police while he cleans things up.

But a strange, metallic voice interrupts!

It's the SUPER-ADAPTOID!  An evil android that duplicates super powers!  Combo Man suddenly realizes that it would NOT be a good thing if Super-Adaptoid were able to absorb all the powers of the heroes he's become a composite of.  He needs to take the android down before it's too late!

But it's at THAT very desperate moment Combo Man suddenly reverts back to Rick Wilder!  Professor Boyd is astounded to see that the strange superhero is actually one of his students.  

Rick quickly explains that he was hit by some sort of energy in the experiment chamber.  The professor doubts that his process could have made such drastic changes.  But then Rick remembers the Combos™ he had eaten!

THAT must be the key!  As the Super-Adaptoid moves in to attack, Rick desperately eats some Combos™ and transforms back into COMBO MAN! 

Back at full strength, Combo Man blasts Super-Adaptoid with all of his new powers!  After the evil android vanishes and his henchmen are webbed for the police, Professor Boyd asks what Rick was doing there in the first place.

Rick says that he was there learning a lesson.  As he transforms back into Combo Man and blasts into the night sky, he lets the reader know what that lesson was:

If you've got to pretend to be something you're not to fit in, maybe you're trying to fit in with the wrong crowd.   And with those words of wisdom, Combo Man flies into the night.  A new hero has been born!

The End.  Oh, wait. Hold on.  Before you go, here's some awesome Combo Man merchandise you can send in for!  

NOW it's The End.

THE REVIEW:

Okay then.  Combo Man.  Let's break it on down!

Being a promotional giveaway, this was a pretty short comic, just twelve pages.  Three of them full page ads for Combos™.  The images I scanned and posted above are literally the entire comic book.  So it's a short comic.  But is it a good one?

Well. . .it's okay.  

Mark Gruenwald must have lost some sort of bet, or maybe they drew straws to see who would be the writer on this and he pulled the short one.  In any case, he gives this little comic story some serious Bronze Age Mighty Marvel Bombast, and that's a good thing for what it is.  

This is from the middle of the grim-n-gritty 90s, but it reads like something written in 1978.  I kind of like that.  Don't get me wrong.  This isn't a great story by any means.  I'd say ANY competent comic book writer could script this out in about 30 minutes. It's a tried and true "Accidental Superhero" origin story.  But its simplicity and throwback nature give it some charm.

On the other hand, it's a little TOO simple.  It's rushed, with an abrupt start and finish.  There's almost no filling in this pretzel.  I guess Gruenwald did the best he could with only 9 pages to work with, but it just feels like a bit of a waste of time.  Beyond the character design, there's just not anything memorable about this story.  It's just another "Mysterious Rays Give A Dude Some Powers" comic story.

On the art side of things, it's solid.  Like the story, not great. . .not bad.  It does the job, but doesn't try to do anything special.  The character design is interesting, but the interiors don't manage to capture the same kind of attention as the cover.  The art here is just okay.  The colors don't help much.  They're a little brighter and more garish than they need to be.

So that's the story and the art.  Before we wrap this up, let's talk a bit about Combo Man himself.  The design of a combined character is actually a pretty cool idea, but when you take a closer look, it's sort of sketchy.  The main thing that lifts MY eyebrow of questioning is where The Punisher comes into all of this.  Is Organized Crime about to have a REAL problem?

I understand that Punisher was one of Marvel's hottest characters in 1995, but when you have the powers of Silver Surfer and Hulk (not to mention Spider-Man, Magneto, etc. . .) what are Punisher and Captain America bringing to the table?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the character choices for Combo Man are a little weird.  I mean, putting Punisher aside for a moment, who even knows Century?  I'm not even sure there were that many comic fans at the time that knew who Century was.    And then there's Carnage, who you would THINK would just take over the whole thing. When Combo Man is calm, does the Hulk hair go away? So on and so forth. There's a lot of questionable stuff going on with Combo Man.

But let's wrap this up before the review becomes longer than the comic itself (although I think it might be way too late for that).

CONCLUSION

When I threw out Combo Man as a suggestion for my small Reddit contest, I got comments from people who remembered the ads without being aware there WAS a comic along with them.  If you were buying Marvel  comics in 1995 - 1996 or have picked up any Marvel back issues during a bargain bin dive from that time, you have 100% seen a Combo Man ad.

The character is memorable.  While writing this review and doing a bit of research (which is one of my favorite parts of doing Longbox Junk reviews), I discovered that not only is Combo Man canon to Marvel's main comic "Universe" (Or Universe 616 for the REAL comic nerds out there), but based on the characters he's made up of, Combo Man is actually one of the MOST powerful individuals in Marvel History.

And, despite just having this one issue, Combo Man is still out there!  He still makes occasional appearances in Marvel comics through background cameos and easter eggs.  Not bad for a character made to help sell delicious baked snacks while Marvel was going through a rough time financially.

The prices for Combo Man merch are surprisingly stout. If you scroll up, you'll see a shirt I found online for over a hundred bucks.  And that's not even the highest-priced Combo Man item to be found. People REMEMBER Combo Man is what I'm saying.  

The comic itself is a bit of fluff.  Not bad for what it is, but not really that good, either.  It has heavy Mighty Marvel Bronze Age Bombast going on, which is sort of cool, but other than that there's really not much more to it.  There's not really a reason for me to recommend reading it.  

BUT. . .

If you (like me) are the kind of comic collector that likes having weird little artifacts in their collection, then Combo Man is something you should definitely hunt down.  

It's basically has no collector "value" to those who just place a dollar sign on comics, but if Longbox Junk is what you love, then you'll love this comic!  Personally, I think it's cool that I have one in my collection.  THIS comic is what Longbox Junkin' and bargain bin spelunkin' is all about.

Until next time, thanks for reading and remember. . .comics are worth more than money!

Longbox Junk - Ghost Rider, Wolverine & Punisher: Hearts of Darkness

 Welcome to Longbox Junk, the place to find all the comic reviews you never asked for!

If you've been a reader of this blog, then you know that of all the different kinds of comics out there, I have a special love for the One Shot.  A story in ONE issue.  Nowhere to hide.  The creative team has just one. . .well. . .shot to tell their story.  That it.  In MY humble opinion, it's the perfect kind of comic to not only read but also to review.  

And if you're a new reader, then welcome! Glad to have you! Did I mention I love One Shots?

So I decided to do a few one shot reviews because. . .why not?  

A special shout out to the fine and friendly folk on Reddit at 80s90s Comics They gave me a warm welcome, so I ran a little contest to let THEM decide what the next few Longbox Junk reviews would be.

And here's our first winner!

We're heading back to the 90s, when popular Marvel characters Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and Punisher were EVERYWHERE.  They were guest-starring or teaming up in almost every Marvel title.  People couldn't get enough of them!  I think the only other Marvel character that had as many guest appearances and team-ups was Spider-Man.  

So somebody at Marvel came up with a brilliant idea.  Since they were already separately appearing just about everywhere, why not make a comic starring Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and Punisher TOGETHER?

But no Spider-Man.  I guess he had better things to do.  BUT I DIGRESS!

Three. . .Count 'em. . .THREE of 1990s Marvel's most insanely popular characters in ONE story!  This just HAS to be good, right?  How can it NOT be?  Well, we're about to find out.  Ready? Let's do this!

Ghost Rider, Wolverine & Punisher:

 Hearts of Darkness

Marvel (1991)

COVER: John Romita Jr. & Klaus Janson

And here's the cover in all its DOUBLE Gatefold four panel 90s gimmick glory!

Click on the pic for FULL 90s-Tastic effect!

THE COVER:

There's a LOT going on here!  It's a four. . .count 'em. . .FOUR panel gatefold. This cover is about two feet wide when you unfold it to fully behold the whole thing!  It's full of action, the colors are great, and it's 90s-Tastic in all the right ways!

Well. . .except that Punisher sort of got the short straw.  If you were to see this cover folded on the rack (or bagged and boarded in the bargain bin, which is more likely now) like in the first image above, then all you're going to see of Punisher is a bit of his gun on the right edge.  To be fair, he DID get the entire inner right panel pretty much to himself, so there's that.

ANYWAY. . .Cool cover.  Let's get inside!

THE STORY:

SCRIPT: Howard Mackie

PENCILS: John Romita Jr.

INKS: Klaus Janson

We begin our tale atop a hill outside of the town of Christ's Crown.  We witness a robed group engaged in a ceremony.  They are making an offering of a human life.  As her blood spills, it summons forth a dark creature, it is Blackheart, son of Mephisto!

Blackheart rages at his summoning, killing the entire group.  His anger at his father seethes.  Mephisto has placed him in a position that he can be summoned by even the weakest humans.  He sees it as below his station to be a mere tempter of mankind instead of being in his rightful place beside his father.

Blackheart decides that he will take his inheritance by force, enlisting the aid of powerful humans that he can tempt into darkness to help destroy Mephisto.  Blackheart sets his dark plan into motion!

We shift scene to a few days later and the town of Christ's Crown itself, where Dan Ketch (AKA the 90s version of Ghost Rider) arrives after receiving a mysterious invitation to meet someone claiming to have information on the true nature of the Ghost Rider and something called "The Soul Crystal".

Shortly after arriving in town, Dan finds lodging at a boarding house.  We are introduced to the innkeeper, Flo Crumm and her daughter, Lucy.  Both of them take an immediate liking to Dan.  While talking to Flo, Dan discovers that she's also boarding two other travelers recently in town who arrived separately and are named Logan and Frank (You see where this is going, right?  RIGHT?).

A short while later, Dan meets Logan (Wolverine) and Frank (Punisher) over an awkward dinner.  At this point, Dan hasn't been Ghost Rider for long, so neither Logan or Frank recognize Ketch as Ghost Rider and likewise, Dan doesn't recognize either of them, although he does find something familiar about both of them.

After dinner, Wolverine pays a visit to Punisher's room, where the two of them exchange notes on how they ended up in the same place at the same time.  They each received a mysterious letter asking them to meet a contact in Christ's Crown. 

Wolverine's offered information on his adamantium skeleton.  This was before Weapon X or Origin, at a time when Marvel was keeping Wolverine's origin in the shadows and readers hungry for every little scrap of information on their most popular mutant's origin story.  Wolverine claims to not care about the information.  He's just there to find out who thinks he does care.

Punisher's offered information claiming to be able to lead him to someone involved with the killing of his family.  Punisher knows the offer is bogus.  He already knew who was behind the murders and had already put them all in the ground.  But what he WAS concerned with is that someone knew how to find him to deliver the message in the first place.  He wanted to know who and how.

They both wonder what Dan Ketch has to do with it.

Later that night, Blackheart finally makes his move.  He appears before the three heroes and makes them an offer. . .join him in taking down Mephisto.  They're already on the edge, skirting the grey area between light and dark.  He can help them tap into the darkness and become unstoppable!

All three heroes immediately reject Blackheart's offer.  He is NOT happy.

Our three heroes hear the panicked cries of little Lucy and rush to investigate.  Her mother is in some sort of trance and the little girl begs Frank, Logan, and Dan to help her.  It seems the entire town except for Lucy and the three heroes has fallen into the same trance and are walking in a zombie-like way  toward the center of town.

Lucy vanishes and Wolverine and Punisher run toward her cries for help.  Dan decides it's time for Ghost Rider to appear, but discovers that his bike has been stolen.  Unable to transform into Ghost Rider, Dan joins the crowd in the town center, where he sees Blackheart has both his bike and Lucy. 

 Blackheart taunts Dan and once again demands the heroes join him.  

The crowd of entranced townfolk are blocking the way to Blackheart.  Wolverine, Punisher, and Dan try to push their way through while Blackheart taunts the three of them, telling them to cut, shoot, and kill their way to him through the innocents.   

When they refuse to harm the townfolk to get to Blackheart, he threatens to kill Lucy, which brings out the rage in Punisher and Wolverine.  Punisher attacks, but his bullets do nothing to Blackheart, who gets on Ghost Rider's bike and heads out of town toward Thorn Hill, mocking the heroes and daring them to follow.

Wolverine and Punisher jump into Punisher's Battle Van nearby and pursue Blackheart while Dan desperately tries to find a way to transform into Ghost Rider. 

 He spots a motorcycle shop and steals a bike. Finally, he's able to bring forth the Ghost Rider!  The demonic spirit within Dan swears vengeance on Blackheart and rides toward Thorn Hill to join the others.

Punisher and Wolverine arrive at Thorn Hill first.  After confirming with each other that they're doing this for the girl and not for anything Blackheart may offer, they head in, but are stopped by a wall of razor-sharp thorns surrounding the hill.  They are unable to cut their way through, but then, to their surprise, Ghost Rider appears and burns a path through for them.

Their path to the top of Thorn Hill now cleared, our heroes confront Blackheart there.  The evil creature once again tries tempting the heroes.  He promises to restore Punisher's family to him.  He promises Wolverine to reveal the secrets of his past.  He promises to restore Zarathos (The name of the Ghost Rider spirit) to his former power and demonic glory through the Spirit Stone in Mephisto's possession.

Once again, all three heroes decline Blackheart's offer, and together they attack!

Blackheart opens a dark portal and tormented souls pull Lucy into it, with Blackheart following her.  Ghost Rider holds the portal so that the three heroes can pursue Blackheart into his hellish realm and try to rescue the innocent girl.

In Blackheart's evil domain, the heroes resume their attack on the vile creature.  The three of them together finally manage to take Blackheart down!  

Ghost Rider tells Wolverine and Punisher to return through the rapidly-closing portal with Lucy.  He will stay behind to make sure Blackheart doesn't follow.  

Even though it means leaving Ghost Rider behind with no escape from Blackheart's realm, the other two heroes do what he says and make their escape with Lucy before it's too late for them as well.

Once Lucy, Wolverine, and Punisher are gone and the portal closes behind them, Mephisto himself appears!  He mocks Blackheart's failure to tempt the heroes and tells his son that his punishment has only just begun.  As for Ghost Rider, Mephisto shows admiration and curiosity toward the demonic hero.  

He tells Ghost Rider that their day to meet will come again, but for his part in helping teach Blackheart a needed lesson in humility, he will allow Ghost Rider to return.

Back on Earth, Lucy is reunited with her mother, the townfolk are back to normal, and the three heroes reflect on what happened.  Ghost Rider says that even if they ARE on the edge, or even occasionally cross over it, no matter what happens, as long as the innocent are protected their cause is just.

The End.

THE REVIEW:

And there we go.  Hearts of Darkness.  Let's break it on down!

Overall, this was a pretty good story.  Not a masterpiece by any means, but just a good read.  As far as One Shots go, it does a good job of telling a satisfying story in one complete issue.  

The reader needs to know who the characters are and what they're about coming into the story.  Otherwise the whole narrative about the heroes being on the edge of darkness won't make sense, but (as I said in the introduction) Wolverine, Punisher, and Ghost Rider were pretty much three of the four hottest individual characters Marvel had going at the time.  If a comic reader didn't know what was going on with these guys already, they probably wouldn't be buying this book in the first place.

So this one shot DOES lean on the reader knowing the characters enough to make sense of the story, but that doesn't really hold it back from being a good read. . .unlike other one shots I've read where you need to have detailed knowledge of ongoing continuity.  For this one, some general Wolverine, Punisher, and Ghost Rider knowledge is all that's needed.

The story itself is quick and simple:  Three heroes on the edge are summoned together by an evil being who makes them an offer to join him.  All three refuse and fighting commences.  At the end of it all, the heroes prevail and understand that being on the edge doesn't make them the bad guys everyone thinks they are. 

That's it.  That's the story. Temptation. . .Refusal. . .Redemption.  Howard Mackie does a great job in boiling a fairly heavy concept down to a nice tasty broth.

To be fair, this isn't a PERFECT story.  I'm not sure a perfect comic story exists.  The story basically exists as a flimsy framework to hang an unlikely triple team up on.  It sort of HAS to be simple to accommodate its ONE job. . .having Punisher, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider in the same story.  

The team up itself is questionable.  The narrative is actually more of a Ghost Rider story because Ghost Rider is really the only character of the three heroes that fits well into the framework.  Wolverine and Punisher aren't exactly known for fighting supernatural enemies.

Wolverine. . .maybe.  I'm not sure if it's been established that his claws can affect supernatural beings or not, but I guess in comic book world, adamantium can do whatever needs to be done for the story, so I'll give you Wolverine.

But Punisher?  He's just shooting guns.  If a creature like Blackheart can be injured by plain old bullets (fired with 90s manly RAGE of course) then was he really that much of a threat in the first place?  Punisher in this story is cool,  but it doesn't make a bit of sense.

Doctor Strange and maybe Moon Knight would have fit the story better.  But then again, Doctor Strange and Moon Knight weren't Wolverine and Punisher.  They were both a little more low key in the early 90s.  A team up of Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange, and Moon Knight would have been cool, but not NEARLY as "hot" as Ghost Rider, Punisher, and Wolverine.

So the story is pretty good, but not perfect.  Let's talk about the art.

John Romita Jr.  He's one of those artists with a unique and immediately recognizable style.  He's ALSO one of those artists that many comic fans either love or hate, and there's usually not much in between.  

To ME, my love/hate relationship with JRJ's art depends entirely on the project.  There are some JRJ comics that I really like. There are also some that I absolutely do NOT like.  Like I said, not really much in between.  To be fair, the only piece of original comic art I own is a Romita Jr. Daredevil splash page, so there's THAT.

So where does this story fall on the love/hate spectrum?  I'd say on the good side.  Romita Jr. can put out some absolutely horrendous art, but this isn't one of those times.  There are some VERY nice full page and double page spreads in here, and overall this is a pretty good-looking comic.

Probably not his BEST work, but this is a good example of Romita Jr. at his 90s peak.   I have a lot more tolerance for JRJ's style during this era of his career than some of his later work (Kick-Ass, All Star Batman, Avengers, etc. . .), but that's just MY humble opinion.

CONCLUSION

A decent, self-contained story backed up by some good 90s art.  What more could you ask for in a one shot?  Not much.  It's not perfect.  The whole setup is somewhat questionable, and if you don't know what these characters are about coming into it, then you're going to have trouble caring what happens.

Those couple of small things aside, I enjoyed this comic.  It's like a time capsule of the 90s.  For those of us who were there, it's a nice little trip back.  For those readers who weren't, this is a decent example of what was good about 90s comics.  Over the top and with a lot of style, even if the stories were sometimes a bit of a flimsy framework to hang that style on.

This one shot is easily found in the bargain bin.  I see it often.  It seems like they printed a LOT of these because of how often I see them.  If you haven't read this yet, then I would definitely suggest you pick one up and check it out. . .especially if you're one of those readers who weren't around in the 90s and want to go beyond the memes about how bad it was to actually see something good from that era.  

Up Next. . .

How about the second place winnah of my little Reddit contest?

He's Nacho average superhero! He's COMBO MAN!

Be there or be square.