Random Comics Vid review: X-Men #186,1984

This was an earlier attempt at a You tube review...

Random Comics Review:Excalibur #1,1988

Excalibur was an X-Men spin-off comics from the late 80's originally written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Alan Davis.Set mostly in England the team consisted of Captain Britain, Meggan, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and the Rachel Summers Phoenix.The team believed the main X-men team to be dead and decided to fight evil in their own way.Their adventures featured many weird creatures and parallel dimensions.The original tone of the series was a lot more lighthearted than Uncanny X-Men.

This was the debut issue of the first ongoing which followed a mini-series.The Excalibur team is pretty much set up and living in Captain Britain's lighthouse.The reader gets to see the friendships between the characters and their relationships with other people that would become the supporting cast.The antagonists are the Warwovles, snarky otherworldly beings who disintegrate people and wear their skins.

Claremont's writing is clear and humorous.The script is wordy but not cumbersome.The plot moves along at a brisk pace.And the reader understand's the character's personalities and motivations without much confusion.Alan Davis's art is superb.The compositions and layout tell the story in a clear and concise manner.The reader is never confused about where the characters are or what they are doing.Davis is a master of figure drawings as well as facial expressions.His ability to draw detailed environments and objects without seeming cluttered puts other artists to shame.

This is the sort of storytelling I wish we had more these days.The main characters are established,threats are introduced,future subplots are set up and the issue ends on a cliffhanger,but read in isolation,the issue is still a satisfying read.This issue of Excalibur is a classic example of bronze age comics storytelling.

Random Comics review:Marvel Tales #194,1986

Alright,so this is Marvel Tales which is basically Spiderman reprint material.It doesn't say anywhere obvious on the issue but these stories go back to the 70's and 60's respectively.The first story is a reprint of Marvel Team up #60 from 1977 starring Spidey and the Wasp in the second part of a two part story.The villain here is a man named Equinox who has fluctuating fire and ice powers. In the previous issue,Equinox has apparently killed Yellowjacket,the Wasp's husband and she and Spidey have to bring him to justice with the help of Equinox's scientist mother.The story is by Chris Claremont and the art is by John Bryne,I believe this right around the time they began working together on the X-Men.As a story, this a pleasant enough romp but nothing earth shattering.Fight,chase,origin recap,big fight at the end..pretty typical for Team up comics of the time.John Bryne's art is good but not great.It's professional with clear storytelling.Flashy and dynamic enough to be interesting.The inks by Dave Hunt give it an extra layer of slickness.The most notable thing is probably the power increase given to the Wasp in this tale.If you know the modern history of Yellowjacket,an unintentional creepy moment comes at the end when YJ explains the power boost because he "secretly" gave her a modified serum.Who "secretly" gives their wife anything that's going to change her body unless he's up to no good?Think about it,Hank and Jan never had kids...was he "secretly" sterilizing her too?I'm just saying.

The back up story is a fight between Spiderman and the Human Torch by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with inks by Steve Ditko.I 'm not sure what comic it's originally from but it's obvoiusly from the very early 60's based on the art style and the character's relationships with each other.It's a juvenile story no matter how old you are.Basically,in an effort to show off,Spidey crashes a party the Torch is at and picks a fight with Torch.That's it.Fight breaks up when the rest of the Fantastic Four show up.One fun aspect is seeing some of the campy ways Spiderman uses his webs that's rarely shown today.He creates a fake bat,parachutes,water baskets,and wings.Yes,the 60's were fun weren't they?

All in all,a solid two and a half stars out of five stars.More interesting as an artifact than as entertainment.The issue is full of ad's for candy and saturday morning cartoons,but it's from the days before comics "grew up".

Random Comics review:Marvel Fanfare #2 1982

Marvel Fanfare was a comic published by Marvel Comics(natch) back in the 80's to experiment with distribution in the then burgeoning direct sales market.The comics were printed on thicker and glossier paper than what was common at the time and utilized more sophisticated color processing.It was also used to clean out some of their back log of fill in issues.

Ok ,there are two stories in this issue.The main feature is the second part of a story written by Chris Claremont with art by Michael Golden starring Ka-zar the jungle lord and featuring Spiderman and the Angel.I'm guessing this was originally intended to be an issue of Marvel Team-Up,but it's easy to see why it was put on the back burner.The plot in the Ka-Zar story has something to do with the evil Brainchild and his partners capturing people and changing them into inhuman creatures.Or something.Spidey and Angel have already been transformed and Ka-Zar is trying to save them as well as a female scientist who has come to the Savage Land to search for another scientist who's incidentally a creature named Sauron.Or something.

Even though there's a recap and lots of captions,this story is very confusing.It's not that there's too much going on,it's that it's not told in a clear fashion.I feel most of the blame has to go to Michael Golden.Golden is a wonderful artist,but he dropped the ball on the storytelling on this.Too many close ups with no clear delineation of where characters are in relation to each other or their immediate environment.People just all of a sudden appear in panels when it hasn't been established that they were even in the room.Marvelous figures,great coloring,but the reader is left feeling, "What?Where'd that guy come from?"If I hadn't been already familiar with most of the characters.I'd still be scratching my head.

The back up story is a Reed Richards tale by Roger McKenzie and Trevor Von Eeden.Reed has forgotten he and Sue's anniversary because he's locked in the lab trying to find a cure for the Thing's condition.We get a two page recap of the Fantastic Four's origin,then somehow Annihilus shows up and has a particularly pointless fight with Reed.Reed of course tricks him back into the negative zone.The end.The art and the script are the definition of serviceable.No zip,no flourish,just the facts ma'am.It's obvious this was produced to have a a story ready to go in case the Dreaded Deadline Doom struck.On the other hand,I least I can tell what was going on in this tale.

There are no ads in this comic,but the Bullpen Bulletin editorial page provides an interesting look down memory lane.There's an item announcing that the X-Men has won the Eagle Awards for favorite comic for the 5th year in a row.There's item hyping how great Marvel's graphic novel line is doing.There's also an announcement of the death of comics artist Wally Wood.Looking at the checklist of comics on sale that month,it's amusing to see some of things Marvel was willing to publish back then.Crazy (a Mad Magazine clone),Epic Illustrated (fantasy/science-fiction),Team America and Rom (based on toy lines) and Dennis the Menace.Dennis the Menace!

All in all Marvel Fanfare #2 was nothing groundbreaking in terms of story or art.Nothing significant as far as the histories of the characters,but a interesting look back at a time when comics production and distribution were in transition.