Impulse #44 (January, 1999)
"All Hallows Gettin' Even"
Writer - William Messner-Loebs
Penciller - Craig Rousseau
Inker - Barbara Kaalberg
Letterer - Janice Chiang
Colorist - Tom McCraw
Assistant Editor - L.A. Williams
Editor - Paul Kupperberg
Cover Price: $2.25
Heyyy, it's Halloween in Manchester, what could possibly... well, ya know...
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Trick-or-Treat... it's Halloween night, and this being the DC Universe, we see that several of the neighborhood tots have taken to dressing up like their favorite superheroes... even the Golden-Age Sandman. I mean, I love the character, but I dunno if a six-year old would share that opinion. You gotta figure he was disappointed when he saw his friends in their bright colorful outfits... and his mom gave him a gas mask and gloves. Anyhoo, the kids get their booty, and turn to leave... only to get heisted by some... and I say this as unironically as I can... street toughs... *snicker* okay okay...
Meet the Tigers... and Evil Eye. The Tigers are the *ahem* toughest gang-bangers in town. There names are Raffles and Steelboy... Oh Lord, I'm not gonna be able to get through this... Evil Eye is sort of like a pledge to the gang... and is the son of the former supervillain Invisible Weapon. As we opened our titanic tale, we learned that Evil Eye left home that evening wishing his father was dead. Raffles tells Evil Eye he needs an "edge" if he ever wants to be a Tiger. Well, our cyclopian friend's got "edge" for days. He runs to his house, and digs out one of his dear ol' dad's pistols.
We return to the Junior League of Trickortreaters as they head to their next house... the home of Max Mercury. Well, rather than hand out candy... he *plops* unwrapped popcorn balls in their bags. It's pretty gross... they're sticky, they stink... and might just be filled with poison and/or razor blades... probably even hypodermic needles. The kids are not pleased... even going as far as to suggest Max Mercury is a "perv". Luckily... well, kinda luckily... Max's daughter Helen is there to hand out "fun" coupons... $5 off their next dental cleaning.
After the kids split, Max turns his attention to his young ward Bart Allen. He calls to him, but he's busy playing with what looks like a Tiger Electronic game... hey, Tiger... Tigers... hmm... Anyhoo, Max and Helen try to get Bart into the Halloween spirit... after all, this is his first Halloween. There is apparently a Halloween party at Bart's school... and the growed-ups are able to get him to go by telling him he can wear a "costume" and tell "secrets". It doesn't dawn on them what this could mean until Bart's out the door.
And so... Bart bolts to school, decked out in his Impulse duds. When he arrives, the first thing he does is announce that he is Impulse! Luckily... at this Halloween party, there are about 45 Impulses already present.
We shift scenes to the local Save*Mart where there ain't a whole lot going on. The proprietors lament the fact that the shop is empty, and celebrate that Halloween will soon be behind them. Just as they wish something interesting would happen (famous last words, right?) a bunch of t-shirts appear to levitate and walk out of the store... b-b-but how? Why, it was those lovable scamps, the Tigers. I guess the gun Evil Eye stole was some sort of invisibility ray. The geeks celebrate their thievery until they realize they left the store with t-shirts instead of cold hard cash. I'm tellin' ya, they're hopeless. Oh well, next stop the only other 24-hour joint in Manchester... Zimm-Zamm's. Evil Eye seems a bit trepidatious.
Speaking of Zimm-Zamm's... let's go there. Here we meet a pair of... I dunno, soda jerks? Anyhoo... one of them is called Butler, and he is bragging about his son... straight A's, star athlete... you know the deal. Max Mercury zips in and gets in Butler's face... nearly outing him as the former supervillain Invisible Weapon. He tells him about the goings-on at the Save*Mart, and wants to make sure he's not involved. Max is really kind of a jerk to this poor guy. I mean, dude's wearing a paper hat... and Max is waggin' his finger in his face.
Well, Max is somewhat satisfied that Butler is innocent... and so he leaves. As he leaves, Impulse enters... looking for something to eat... because he's Impulse. Just then, the mighty Tigers approach their next heist. After zapping Impulse with a slow-down ray they go invisible, and proceed to empty the cash register. This is a rather stupid thing to do, as the man who designed the invisibility-thingie is standing right there... and he has a diddlybop on his keyring to negate the powers. All the while here, Evil Eye is pleading with his gang-bangin' heroes not to hurt the burly soda jerk.
Boy is he surprised to see his son, Eddie "Evil Eye" Whatshisface dancing with Steelboy... while Raffles drops a stack'a dough.
The mighty Tigers don't pay any heed to their one-eyed pledge, and a sad little skirmish ensues. Butler soundly beats down the punks, and soon finds himself staring into the business end of Steelboy's pistol. He pulls the trigger... but a blue blur catches the bullet before it hits its target.
Max Mercury arrived just in the nick of time. The effects of slow-down ray wear off, and Impulse quickly ties the Tigers down. Just then, Superboy calls to remind him that he and Robin are waiting for him at the Hallow-Teen Party they are hosting at the community center. Hmm, a Hallow-Teen Party... that takes place in Young Justice #3? I think I just found our invite...
We wrap up with Impulse jamming Superboy-bound... and Max Mercury slumping to the ground in a puddle of blood. He caught the bullet alright... but he appears to have done so with his chest! Obviously we are... [to be continued...]
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Now this one could'a went one of two ways... and I was afraid it was heading down a direction I didn't wanna go. For a moment, I really thought we were gonna do the "kid steals his parent's gun" route... which, we kinda did... with a supervillainy twist. I was hoping the gun that ol' Evil Eye swiped was of the super-powered variety, though I couldn't quite tell with the stylized art.
Helluva twist ending here, right? I remember the first time I read this one, I'd missed the last page. Like I got to Impulse taking off to join up with Superboy and Robin, and for whatever reason just shut the book... it was a total shocker when I opened the next issue. So, we still do get a shooting... but not from the gun I'd expected.
Now for the way to evade an awkward conversation in Detroit... howsabout dem Tigers, eh? I mean, have you ever seen a geekier "gang"? It would be adorable if it weren't so sad. I mean... Raffles and Steelboy??? Come now... are these gang-bangers or pound-puppies? And we open with them literally stealing candy from little kids... dudes be hardcore!
We get some Impulse naivete that could've outed his secret identity. Luckily, Walmart Save*Mart had some wicked hot deals on Impulse costumes this year. I really dug how pre-kneecapped-and-read-the-entirety-of-the-San-Francisco-Library Bart would take things literally. Wear your costume... share secrets... sure!
A scene I particularly liked was with Invisible Weapon. Here we have a... retired? supervillain, who from the looks of it is trying to start over. Best he can do is working overnights at a sorta-grocery store, sorta-malt shoppe... and still if something goes down, he gets his chops busted. You gotta feel for the poor guy... probably barely making minimum wage... I mean the man's wearing a damned paper hat here... just trying to keep on that straight and narrow, only to have Max Mercury up in your business. That's gotta be rough.
Overall, fun issue of Impulse... most of them are. I'll always say if you come across any odd issues of Impulse in the cheap-o bins, you could do far worse. They're often a lot of fun, in that late-90's kinda way. Anyhoo... I hear there's a Hallow-Teen Party going down, maybe we ought to crash it tomorrow!
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Green Lantern (vol.3) #93 (December, 1997)
"All Hallow's Eve"
Writer - Ron Marz
Pencils - Tom Grindberg & Darryl Banks
Inks - Carlos Garzon & Terry Austin
Color and Seps - Rob Schwager
Letters - Chris Eliopoulos
Associate - Dana Kurtin
Editor - Kevin Dooley
Cover Price: $1.95
It's Halloween in the Village... what could possibly go wrong? In all seriousness... this is kind of a disturbing story involving sensitive subject matter.
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We open with a woman in a Green Lantern costume laying in a puddle of blood among the garbage in an alley. Before her stands a man holding a blood-covered blade. I thought Kyle was the last and only Green Lantern... what could this be? Why it's Halloween of course! We pop in on Kyle and Jade as the former gets spooked by a skeleton... that is, his friend Li in a skeleton costume.
This is Kyle's first time taking in the sights at the Village Halloween Parade. He laments the fact that he grew up in an Irish-Catholic household that forbade trick or treating... which is odd, because my Irish-Catholic household thought it was a great time... anyhoo Li reports that her girlfriend... Lee (Li and Lee... that means I'm gonna have to proofread) and their friend Tracy are missing among the costumed masses. Lee is dressed as a pirate, while Tracy is dressed as... uh oh, Green Lantern.
Kyle's on the case. He gets outta sight into an alley and pops into his Green Lantern duds. As luck would have it, this is the same alley from the open. He now stands before the body of Li's friend Tracy.
As he investigates a man wearing a red devil mask jumps him from behind. He must have really caught Kyle by surprise, because he just wipes the floor with him. Before the devil-man can plunge his blade into Kyle he feels a sudden coldness... but there's nothing around. Turns out our old friend Boston Brand just happens to be floating by. Deadman sees Kyle's unconscious body as an opportunity to take care of the devilman... and so he does.
Deadman-as-Kyle socks the devilman real good, however... and this is pretty gross... slips in Tracy's blood, which allows the baddie to get away. Brand takes a closer look at Tracy's body and mourns the loss of someone so young. He also takes a closer look at the ring on his finger... and realizes that he didn't take over the body of a trick-or-treater, but the real-deal Green Lantern.
He wracks his brain and realizes that he does recognize Kyle... he's the Green Lantern he saw during Hal Jordan's funeral. He decides to test the limits of his power while wielding the ring... and is able to create a construct of an elephant from his old circus days. He realizes he's gonna dig being Green Lantern for a little while, and flies off in search of the Devilman.
He flies through the crowd, and sees the Devilman bump into Jade... who, is dressed as... er, maybe a Raggedy Ann doll? Really can't tell... whatever it is, she looks kinda goofy. He zooms in her direction passing by some folks from Watchmen... they've been here all along!
He lands before Jennie and they share a cute scene. She's talking like she knows him... because, ya know... she does. Brand however hasn't the foggiest clue. It's really funny watching him try to keep up with the conversation... and seeing Jade's raised-eyebrow reaction. Anyhoo, she points him in the direction the Devilman scurried off in, and he's back in hot pursuit.
Deadman-as-Kyle heads into the building and up the stairs. He follows the voices of the Devilman and his would-be next victim. She is pleading with him... asking why he's doing this. He replies simply... saying she deserves it. Deadman bursts into the room wielding ring constructs and a short-fuze... the man responds by holding a knife up to the throat of the pirate-clad woman.
At this point Deadman realizes he will need to employ strategy. This isn't his body after all, he's unclear as to how he may best utilize Kyle's abilities. I love the way he describes it, "I'm just drivin' a rental." He appeals to the Devilman's ranting... he can tell the man has a story he's just aching to share... and it isn't long before he opens up. We learn that his wife, Emily had recently left him... for another woman. Rather than realize they'd both be happier following their hearts, he's decided that any "women who lie with women" need to be eliminated. This is something that Deadman can't really wrap his head around... seems a bit extreme.
At this point, it appears as though letting the Devilman talk may have been a bad idea, as it's just riled him up all the more. Luckily, Jade followed "Kyle" into the building and is able to disarm the Devilman before he can carve Lee up. With the gig up, the man dives out the window to the ground below.
Deadman gives chase... almost steering the Devilman into the alley where Tracy's body lay. The baddie lunges with his blade... and Deadman picks this precise moment to evacuate Kyle's body. Dude, can ya give a guy a moment to catch his breath?
Well, ya see... Deadman had to leave Kyle's body... so that he could inhabit Tracy's. He mentions how gross it is to take over a dead body... which, I gotta admit, I hadn't thought about. I figured to Deadman, a body is a body is a body... ya know? Anyhoo, the Devilman freaks out... "Tracy" pulls off his mask, which reveals his Nicolas Cagey face. He panics and flees up a fire escape.
Deadman shakes the ladder, causing him to fall... right into his own blade... killing him. I like this, Deadman actually feels remorse. He hadn't intended for the baddie to die here... he just wanted to give him a good scare. He now evacs Tracy's body, leaving Kyle completely confused.
Our tale wraps up at an all-night diner. Kyle and Jennie and Lee and Li try to process what they'd just experienced, and mourn the loss of their friend. Kyle tells them that as long as they have each other, there will always be someone watching over them... and the camera pans out to show Deadman sitting all by his lonesome in a booth... oddly, with a cup of hot tea sat before him.
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This one surprised me. I really wasn't expecting this to be about a lunatic killing lesbians. I wasn't reading Green Lantern "off the shelf" at this point, however I was during Judd Winick's run where he had a prominent cast member who happened to be gay get horribly beaten. I would have figured there would have been a call back to this story then... at least in the comics press... who if I'm remembering right covered that story quite heavily. Memory is what it is, I suppose... for all I know it was mentioned and I'd forgotten. Either way... this was a much more powerful issue than I'd been anticipating. Figured it would be a light Halloween romp... and really it was anything but.
Not sure where to start with this one insofar as discussion is concerned. There is a lunatic among the partiers at the Halloween Parade being held in the Village. His wife left him, presumably for another woman... leaving him unhinged and out for his own version of "revenge". He blames all lesbians for his current lot in life, and winds up paying the ultimate price for it. I suppose it could be argued that our villain is a bit one-dimensional, however, if we consider that we're looking at a wildly unbalanced and deranged individual here... it really works. He has tunnel-vision... so focused on his sick goal that he can't see what's going on around him. During a psychotic episode it is very easy for context to get fuzzy. He didn't see his victims and potential victims as anything other than targets. Pretty scary guy... acting in a broken-human way. One thing though... if he believed his was a mission of purity, I don't think he'd wear a devil mask, right?
Kyle... if we're being technical... was hardly a factor in the book. This was a Deadman story, guest-starring Green Lantern. Nothing at all wrong with that, in fact, I thought it was quite cool. I'm a sucker for the way Deadman talks... almost a constant flow of exposition and self-depreciation, he's very fun to read. I also did enjoy his interaction with Jade, I thought that was quite funny. The art was very good, only hampered by some production things I'll talk about in a bit. Overall, I really have no complaints over the creative aspects of this issue.
What I do have some complaints about is on the production side. I'm not sure if it's just my copy or what... but about half of the pages here are so blurry that it's difficult to read. It almost looks as though this was primed to use glossy paper, but wound up using the sorta-kinda newsprint instead. The inks "feel" like they're too heavy for the page, leaving it looking like it should have come with 3-D glasses for some of the pages. The fact that Deadman's captions are all done with a purple tone and a scraggly font makes this even harder to read.
Overall, a heavier story than I'd anticipated, but one I enjoyed nonetheless. A grim reminder that not all monsters are make-believe.
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Letters Page:
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Phantom Stranger #2 (November, 1987)
"The Soul of the Man!"
Writer - Paul Kupperberg
Breakdowns - Mike Mignola
Finishes - P. Craig Russell
Letterer - John Workman
Colorist - Petra Scotese
Editor - Michael Carlin
Cover Price: $0.75
Revisiting one I'd kind of left sitting... having covered the first issue back in... damn, March (?). Hard to believe I've been at it that long. I gotta admit, I let it lay because I found it a bit hard to read. Not bad or anything, and I really enjoyed it for what it was... just wasn't sure I wanted to read another three issues of it right away.
Anyhoo, figure Boo, Haunted Blog would be as good a time as any to pick it back up... plus (and perhaps more importantly), it was in one of the handful of longboxes I can actually access at this point in my library-overhaul.
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Sorta kinda picking up where we left off, we are inside Bruce Gordon's headspace where he's chatting it up with his darker alter-ego, Eclipso. Eclipso is taunting him... almost toying with him, until the Phantom Stranger finally intervenes... momentarily relieving poor Gordon from his waking nightmare.
In Bruce's apartment, the Stranger brings our man up to speed. He reminds him that they'd met earlier... and he'd promised him salvation from his evil eclipsed other. He makes it clear to Bruce that Eclipso is not a dream, but an actual entity in his mind... and as such, he upped his psychic defenses to protect against him for the time being.
He also... changes his mind about actually fighting Eclipso, claiming that it is futile. He reveals that Eclipso is an agent of the Lords of Chaos... or Darkness... and while they can certainly enter into battle, they cannot win. This causes the Lords of Order to appear...
They offer the Stranger relief from his obligation to mankind, and applaud his ability to recognize the futility of fighting Chaos. The Lords of Order believe the world is about to enter an Age of Darkness... and will in turn, emerge into a new Age of Order. The Stranger takes offense to this, and refuses their offer. He will not turn his back on mankind in their hour of need. And so, the Lords of Order strip him of his powers.
We get a bit of a news report that discusses the Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union before checking in on our favorite reporter, James Olsen as he waits for his informant from the Russian Consulate. He doesn't get any specific information, but what he does learn is that he is on the right trail. There's definitely something going on here...
We move into a montage illustrating crazy amounts of seismic activity going on... causing all sorts of worldwide damage. We cut to a televised interview with a geological expert who attempts to assuage the viewers' fears by saying that this is all normal... after all, Mother Earth is a fickle one. Dr. Jenet Klyburn at S.T.A.R. Labs watches on, and has different thoughts on the matter...
Klyburn believes there are some powerful forces, outside of "Mother Earth" in play here. Her internal monologue is interrupted by the arrival of Bruce Gordon, and the Phantom Stranger. The Stranger states his case to Kyburn and gets her to agree to participate in what's to come next.
We shift scenes to The Temple of Divine Light where our old pal Lycaon is preaching the good word. He is seeing his congregation grow as fear and chaos spreads throughout the world. They look to him for salvation... hell, they'd probably look toward anybody at this point. He's as charismatic as ever, and implicitly states that he is not after his followers' money... just their belief... and love.
We know better, however... our preacher man is in the pocket of Eclipso... who is watching the sermon on his mystical video monitor.
We rejoin our threesome as they approach Mount St. Helens via Jeep. It's actually quite funny seeing the shadowy Stranger sitting in the back of a Jeep.
They eventually wind up at their destination. The Stranger, even without his more mystical powers can still "feel" where they need to be. Klyburn exits the Jeep as well, and has some sort of S.T.A.R. Labs tech. I'm guessing that's why she's been drafted into this endeavor. Anyhoo, the Stranger attempts to untangle some weeds... and actually winds up cutting himself on a thorn. This is a great scene... as this is not something you'd expect to happen to the Stranger (it's something that even surprises him), and for the fact that neither Klyburn nor Gordon really understand the significance of this.
Bruce Gordon has designed a sort of solar cannon-laser thing, with which they intend to release pressure from Hell... or the Earth's core... or maybe they're the same thing. Anyhoo, before the two humans get into position, the Stranger himself teleports to Hell... leaving behind him the stench of brimstone... perhaps he and Nightcrawler share some distant parentage.
The Stranger arrives in Hell, and finds himself standing alone before... well, a bunch of demons who are just itching to invade the Earth. From the onset, this doesn't seem like a battle he intends to win... yet he fights on anyway.
As this battle rages, Klyburn enters the volcano, laser in hand to alleviate some of this crazy seismic whoziwhatsit. She perforates the volcano real good, however... perhaps due to the battle in Hell, there is another violent seismic shift... which knocks her into Hell!
Well, not completely into Hell... she's kind of hanging from a cliff. Believing the Stranger dead, she decides to aim that solar laser and blast the head demon in charge with it. As one might expect, he doesn't take to kindly to this offense... and so, he chucks a giant flaming rock in her direction.
She plummets deeper into Hell, where she is caught by the Phantom Stranger. He says that her heroic act of bravery is what spurred him back to his feet. He takes the solar laser and unloads it into the demon. Then, in a final desperate attack... the Stranger plunges the laser cannon into the demon's chest. It's great, the demon's last words are "helppppp... meeeeeeee..." I mean, how cute is that?
Job well done, the pair return to Bruce Gordon on the surface. They know that one of Eclipso's "Three Dooms" has been avoided.
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Well, I'm of two minds on this one...
On one hand, I feel like the story kind of dragged. It might sound like a silly complaint, but after reading for what felt like forever, I was shocked to find I wasn't even to the staples yet. I'd try and attribute this to just being used to contemporary books... but, hell... I read classic stuff on a daily basis, so it ain't that. This just felt, I dunno... plodding?
The dialog bounced between really good and... kinda precious. That may fit the Stranger, but it was also (at times) kind of rough. There was also this thing Kupperberg did, where he'd start the next scene with a narrative caption in the last panel of the previous scene... it's hard to explain, but you'll know it if you see it. This story-advancement method was kind of hit and miss here. A few times it felt natural, while others it just felt like the letterer plopped a caption in the wrong panel. Now, the art on the other hand... a real treat all the way through. Mignola was a perfect fit for this character and this story. The big blobby demons and monsters he draws are excellent. Russell's finishes gave this a wonderful dark feel, really lending itself to the atmosphere.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed seeing the Phantom Stranger having to adapt to his new (relatively) powerless state. His reactions to things such as bleeding and exhaustion were neat to behold. Imagine going toe to toe with a hellspawn demon, come out more or less unscathed... but beforehand cut yourself on an errant thorn. I really liked this scene... especially as his current traveling companions don't quite get the significance of it. His curiosity over what it would be like to actually rest was something I would not have considered... again, glad to see that here.
The ongoing Jimmy Olsen/Russian consulate bit has me fearing this might wind up being some sort of Cold War allegory. Not that it would be the worst thing... but, I don't read comics for political statements... regardless of whether or not I agree with them. It won't change my mind as to whether or not I feel the story is a good one, I'd just prefer politics be left out if at all possible.
Overall... while it didn't rock my socks, I cannot deny that there is a fine story (and fantastic art) to be found in this series. I was a bit more optimistic after reading the first issue than I am after reading the second... but I'm attributing that more to my own defects than any between the covers here.
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Letters Page:
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