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Too bad the Pasko/Simonson Dr. Fate never got a go as a series. That one issue is flat-out awesome! No one has ever done Fate better, although the Pasko/Giffen run in Flash was close.
Chris
Chris
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^ Definitely a landmark for the character of Dr. Fate as well as 1st Issue Special itself.....Probably the best of the series.
The other issues that are passable are Metamorpho (#3), The Creeper (#7), Warlord (#8) and New Gods (#13).
James Robinson seems to be trying to bolster the contents of other issues to superstar status...he took Starman (#12) and successfully incorporated him into his Jack Knight mythos. But I think he's stretching it a bit by trying to make Atlas (#1) and Codename:Assassin (#11) part of the Superman continuity.Think OUTSIDE the Box! For the BEST in Repro & Custom Packaging!Comment
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I love how DC felt the need to rename him as The Grim Ghost....
Bates was better on The Flash back then IMO......but it was pretty much Bates and Elliot S! Maggin on Supes back then so six of one,half a dozen of the other.....As for Vartox, the Carey Bates era really bothered me as a kid, stories where he's a superhero and obvious swipes like this felt like hackery.Think OUTSIDE the Box! For the BEST in Repro & Custom Packaging!Comment
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Morrison really has quite the fondness for those oddball characters, not to mention creating quite a few himself. Particularly his Doom Patrol villains with a combination of absurd and creepy.
Loved seeing Sunshine Superman again recently despite his own insistence that it was very likely he wouldn't ever get to see the light of day again.
Didn't Merry Man get some play in that Animal Man issue? With Morrison having him show up recently in Superman Beyond.
Also thought having the original incarnation of Mr Freeze in Limbo was really quite a great moment, particularly in light of how quickly the pendulum tends to swing for characters these days and his subsequent revamp since then courtesy of Paul Dini.Comment
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I'm firmly in the Elliot S! Maggin camp, given the fact that going back to check out many of my favourite stories as a kid, it turns out Maggin wrote them.
Plus he did such a great job on the movie tie in novels, not to mention the Kingdom Come novel.
I don't think anyone has a better handle on the classic Lex Luthor.
Although even Maggin isn't free from charges of ripping off others... Jeph Loebs insists that Maggin stole the idea for one of my favourite Superman stories, "Must There Be a Superman?" from his suggestion to Maggin when he met him as a kid.
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I'm sure most people hate the first mini because it was the beginning of the end for the Classic version of Doctor Fate, but I really enjoyed the JM Dematties and Keith Giffen version that they presented.
A really creepy story that set up a very interesting conflict and premise for Fate. A wonderfully heartbreaking tragedy when Kent Nelson realized what a ******* Nabu was and how he kept him and Inza from realizing their true potential as Fate.
Plus you have Giffen fully embracing (some say too much) the European influence and taking advantage of the higher quality, direct market format to really push the bounderies of his art and experiment with what the "New Format" was capable of reproducing.
It's too bad the follow through ongoing series failed to capture the danger and tone of the miniseries, opting instead to try and cash in on the JLI sitcom antics. Dematteis and Giffen might have had better luck if they took the ongoing closer to the direction of the other Pre-Vertigo titles in the "New Format". Although Dematteis generally seems to come on certain projects with a huge bang and then taper off... I felt that way about his Spiderman.
I love the design of the covers as well. I think they really jumped out of the stands for me as a kid walking into the local hobby shop that luckily carried the direct market comics.
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Skimming through The Comic Book Makers to find info on the Jack Kirby case, I had forgotten how many of these oddball characters were Joe Simon's! Green Team, Prez, Brother Power, the seventies Sandman.Comment
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I think Merryman explained how Limbo works to Animal Man if I remember correctly....
Aren't all comic book characters assigned to Limbo at some point (according to Morrison) until either their stories are re-read or new ones are created?Also thought having the original incarnation of Mr Freeze in Limbo was really quite a great moment, particularly in light of how quickly the pendulum tends to swing for characters these days and his subsequent revamp since then courtesy of Paul Dini.Think OUTSIDE the Box! For the BEST in Repro & Custom Packaging!Comment
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>Probably the only issue of 1st Issue Special that NEVER gets mentioned....even Lady Cop gets more play in the press.
I wonder why that is. It's not a great comic, but I've seen stupider. I've seen stupider become BIG HITS, too! Kinda reminded me of a psychedelic X-Men. Well.... MORE than kinda....
>It's been said that then DC publisher Carmine Infantino had no intention of giving any of the 1st Issue Special try-outs their own series....it was probably just a quick way to burn off sub-par inventory and turn a quick buck by plastering 1st ISSUE SPECIAL on the cover.
Maybe. I've always seen stuff like that as a way to test the market. I can't see anyone publishing something they don't think anyone would read; but if they've already paid for something I could see them putting it out there to see what happens. The Showcase/1st Issue Special stuff came out during a weird time for DC, when they seemed to be looking for their new style.
Don C.Comment
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Not a big fan, simply because they threw away the classic Fate just as he was really coming into a solid B character. With the Flash backups, appearances in All-Star Squadron, Infinity Inc, Crisis, JL/JLI, ol' Kent Nelson was firmly back on the map. He even had a Super Powers figure, which shows he was on the radar pretty good. Then Giffen and DeMaittes threw it all away, and he's never been right since.I'm sure most people hate the first mini because it was the beginning of the end for the Classic version of Doctor Fate, but I really enjoyed the JM Dematties and Keith Giffen version that they presented.
Giffen seems to like getting on a property and totally changing it to his liking, and it usually doesn't stick, and folks scramble for the next decade to fix it. See his "5 Years Later" Legion.
ChrisComment
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Part of the problem with the 5 Years Later Legion was the continuity reboot in the fourth issue....not a good way to start out a series.
I actually enjoyed the 5YL storyline for a while, but I think it jumped the shark when they introduced the SW6 clones...and then came Zero Hour.
Think OUTSIDE the Box! For the BEST in Repro & Custom Packaging!Comment
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Yeah, they just couldn't stop effing with the Legion. How do you justify taking one of your top-selling books (at the time) and just totally screwing it up?
I was only a casual Legion reader but I knew who they all were (at least the pre-1980 ones) and how they fit in with Superboy/Superman.
Crisis really mangled a lot of characters up, especially Legion and Hawkman.
I still miss the real Katar Hol and Shayera.
Funny you mention the SW6 Legion in a derogatory tone as that was what got me interested in the Legion again although it was quite confusing.
RichLast edited by kryptosmaster; Sep 23, '09, 4:05 PM.Comment
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The problem with the SW6 clones is they were going to reveal that THEY were the originals and the 5YL gang were the clones.....but it never played out that way before Zero Hour took hold. But even so, as the SW6 stands I thought it wasn't too bright to introduce a set of throwback characters when the 5YL Legion had forged ahead, well, 5 Years since we left them last. It was like the writers or editorial didn't know which direction they should go in....Think OUTSIDE the Box! For the BEST in Repro & Custom Packaging!Comment
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