Category: Random Retrospective

Random Retrospective #15 – Green Lantern #103

Due to some major time-travelling shenanigans in the run up to issue #100 of GREEN LANTERN, Kyle Rayner had returned to the present from both the future and then the past but had ended up bring back Hal Jordan from a point in his career where he hadn’t long started out. Helping him to adjust, Kyle breaks the news about Coast City (destroyed in the Reign of Superman storyline) and Hal’s own dark past as Parallax in ZERO HOUR and his redemption in FINAL NIGHT.

All of which leads to this issue where Kyle takes Hal up to the JLA Watchtower to meet the team. And in 1998, it’s a big team.

Kyle and Wally chat as Hal meets the rest of the team with Kyle admitting to being nervous about bringing Hal up, but still feeling (mostly) secure that the JLA still need Kyle. And then this happens:

Not only do they offer Hal a place on the team but they literally give him Kyle’s chair – it’s got his symbol on it! Understandably annoyed at feeling like he’s been relegated back to the ranks of rookie, he fights with Wally and heads back to Earth. He helps with a bomb situation in New York only to be criticised by the attending police about the mess he’s made while saving people, and then returns to his apartment where Jen aka Jade is staying with him, and she delivers news that he didn’t get an art job he’d applied for.

Jen’s a good listener and helps him realise that he’s not being replaced by Hal and that there’s probably a reason for it, all of which leads to the culmination of several issues worth of will they / won’t they speculation.

Later that night, Kyle gets a visit from the only one of the JLA not to have been at the Watchtower to meet Hal – Batman. He reveals that it was his idea to offer Hal membership to the JLA in a “keep your enemies closer” move, so that he can be aware of what’s going on. Batman also gives Kyle some much needed reassurance as well.

On the whole, I really liked Ron Marz’s run on GREEN LANTERN as he developed Kyle into his own character, quickly managing to get out from under the shadow of Hal. With this storyline, he was able to pair them up and show them working together, showing Kyle as a worthy successor.

Random Retrospective #14 – DC vs Marvel #1

Can you image something like this happening these days? I certainly can’t. With the corporate grip on both of the big two and the desperate need for both of them to milk their own intellectual properties for as much money as they can without giving the competition any help, I’m pretty certain the only way we’ll see a DC/Marvel crossover any time soon is if Disney buy DC.

This was a big deal in 1996, though, as comic fans got to see some of the biggest names from both companies facing off against each other.

Across both Earths, heroes and villains are disappearing from one and appearing on another, and it’s a safe bet it’s got something to do with a glowing box held together with tape being guarded by some random bloke in a baseball cap. I mean, this is just a sample of the characters involved:

And while some of the characters ended up landing straight into a fight, one or two had a potentially different outcome:

There’s no real indication of the timescale but I’m guessing we’re talking days at a minimum as very quickly we find that J Jonah Jameson has replaced Perry White as editor of the Daily Planet and Ben Reilly aka Peter Parker aka Spider-Man has just been employed as a new photographer there.

Clark Kent writes a piece for the Planet that namechecks a bunch of heroes and wonders what’s going on – this clearly isn’t some Secret War, but rather an even that the public of the DC world know about.

It all finishes with two enormous beings, mirrors of each other, becoming aware of one another, before it’s to be continued.

DC VS MARVEL was fun – the editors/writers decided who would win a number of bouts before the main events were voted for by the public and the results shown in issue #3. And the best thing to come out of this whole event (at least in my opinion) was the Amalgam Universe and the one-shots that appeared in the weeks between issues #3 and #4 of this title.

Ah, simpler times . . .

Random Retrospective #13 – Nailbiter #28

Joshua Williamson’s NAILBITER was one of those Image titles I took a punt on – a town called Buckaroo which had spawned whole slew of serial killers under mysterious circumstances and an investigation that just turned up more questions than answers? That absolutely called to me and I’m glad I took a chance as the 30 issue run more than proved its worth.

By #28, we were fast approaching the denouement, where we would expect to get all the answers and have everything tied up in a bow, but before that, there was a whole boatload of crap to deal with, like a new killer attacking Sheriff Crane, forcing her daughter Alice (who’s father turns out to be the titular Nailbiter) to defend herself against the scissor wielding loon:

Elsewhere, one of the Buckaroo Butchers, as the serial killers are called, has returned to the town with apparently altruistic intent, opening a chain of murder stores where the proceeds of sales will be channelled back to the town. The main villain of the piece, The Butcher, has different plans, though, and has wired the extensive tunnel network beneath Buckaroo with explosives.

And there goes the neighbourhood.

Alice and her mom are in the hospital by this point and as the explosions devastate the town, Alice wheels her mother out on her hospital bed, stopping (and very reluctantly) to rescue her previously injured father, the Nailbiter. Trouble is, The Butcher is there as well and manages to capture them all amidst the devastation.

I really enjoyed NAILBITER and if you haven’t read it, I recommend it.

Random Retrospective #12 – Green Arrow #105

Back in the days when legacy heroes were still a big thing at DC, we had Connor Hawke as Green Arrow – a young man who spent many of his formative years at a Buddhist monastery where he met his father Ollie Queen, the original Green Arrow, and ended up following in his footsteps. Here, soon after Ollie’s demise in issue #100, Connor and his travelling partner Eddie Fyers are trying to bring Milos Armitage, an arms dealer and all-round scumbag, to justice, and the trail has led to Gotham where things get complicated as Armitage also happens to have married Connor’s mother, Moonday. To say her grip on history is a little off is being charitable.

This being Gotham, of course, a team up is inevitable but despite Batman being interested in the guns Armitage is selling, it’s Robin that partners up in this issue, though not without the inevitable confusion between good guys that results in a fight.

Thankfully Robin and Green Arrow get on much better and the pair of them team up, find the guns that Armitage is selling and take him down together.

After that, it’s just down to Connor to tell his mother some hard truths while she does everything she can to avoid anything in reality that contradicts her own world view.

Man, that’s a massive case of deflection right there.

I really enjoyed Connor as Green Arrow and as nice as it was to see Ollie return several years later, it seems to have been at the expense of Connor as I don’t think he’s been seen since the New 52 launch over ten years ago.