JLA/Avengers #1 (September, 2003)
"A Journey into Mystery"
Writer - Kurt Busiek
Artist - George Perez
Colorist/Separations - Tom Smith
Letterers - Comicraft
Assistant Editors - Marc Sumerak, Andy Schmidt
Associate Editor - Stephen Wacker
Editors - Dan Raspler, Mike Carlin & Tom Brevoort
Cover Price: $5.95
Here's a biggie... with nary a milestone blog post in sight. I was just in a Marvel kinda mood... it's a shame they stopped putting out comics. What's that, they still-- nah, you can't fool me!
All kidding aside, folks who have read this blog or listened to the podcasts know I came into the fandom game under the Marvel banner. Even to this day, my collection still skews heavily in Marvel's favor. There are still a handful of, if you'll excuse the low-hanging fruit reference, "I can't quit you" books that are still on my pull list from Marvel... which I am hopeful one day to read, and I dunno, maybe enjoy? Who knows.
I am pessimistic about the upcoming Legacy/Generations thing they've got coming down the pike. I just feel like I've been burned a few times to many by the ol' House of Ideas. I'll be there though, mostly because I'm an idiot.
Now let's chat some JLA and some Avengers, from a time where not every single comic book character (except maybe the Silver Surfer... please tell me he hasn't become an Avenger in the past few years) created was a member of each team!
*by the by, the picture here might not be up to my usual level of, ahem, "quality". Snapping clean pics from a Prestige Format book is never an easy task.
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We open on the planet Polemachus and it is the Day of the Imperion. Arkon is rising from the bed he shares with Thundra when they are alerted by the Vizier that something big is going down. They rush to the windows and look to the skies... hovering above is a pair of eyes which take up nearly the entirety of the sky. It fills the people's minds with questions about a secret and a truth before destroying the planet... and the universe along with it.
We shift scenes... and universes, to Qward where we meet the Crime Syndicate... they're causing some havoc, like the do, when suddenly those same eyes fill the sky... secrets, truths, boffo-boom... Qward and the Crime Syndicate vanish.
We next see Eternity, one of Marvel's cosmic heavy-hitters holding an entire universe in his hands.
In it, is the Grandmaster... no, not the giant yellow Manhunter from Millennium, this is an Elder of the Universe... one of the baddies behind the original Contest of Champions. He's quite keen on his games, as we're about to find out. He, like Arkon and the Syndicate before him, is being haunted by the eyes and their booming voice. The Grandmaster demands an audience... and from the milky cosmos steps Krona, who at this point is a being of Entropy... kinda like a walking-talking Zero Hour.
We jump ahead one month, and arrive on DC's Earth where the Justice League are in the middle of a heated battle with... Terminus? Now, Terminus is a little-used Marvel baddie, whose "big push" occurred during a series of Avengers "family" Annuals in 1990 for the Terminus Factor storyline.
The League is going all-out on the giant villain... well, not Batman though... he hangs back to observe and ponder, like he does. He deduces that Terminus might be powered by the staff he wields, and demands J'onn mind-link the group to run some maneuvers. Superman keeps it occupied by taking a blast to the chest, Plastic Man expands to cover the baddie's face, and Wonder Woman lassos it up. Terminus attempts to blast them with his staff, however, Green Lantern has attached a ring-construct "U" pipe at the end of it, making it so Terminus actually blasts himself in the face!
The League is victorious, however, before they can get a closer look at their fallen-foe, they hear the booming voice of... no, not the eyes again... this time it's the Spectre! And not just any Spectre, the Hal Jordan flavored Spectre! He instructs the League that this monster doesn't belong in this world... and pretty much tells them to back off, cuz he's got dis.
Next stop, the Marvel Universe where... damn, I love this page... and my photos are going to do it no justice... the Avengers are doing battle with Starro the Conqueror! I mean, we've got Avengers with Starros attached to their faces... ho-lee cow. At this time, I believe Kurt Busiek had just wrapped up his, I dunno, five-year run on the Avengers (handing the reins off to, of all people, Geoff Johns), George Perez had left the title a bit earlier. This was a couple of years pre-Bendis, so don't expect to see Wolverine, Spider-Man or Luke Cage in starring roles here... also, don't expect 15 pages of the Avengers attempting to "assemble" an order from the Chinese take-out menu.
The Avengers continue battling Starro, however, are unable to gain any ground. The Starro-controlled Avengers are making it rather difficult to get any advantage. Vision considers the situation and concocts a plan. They allow Scarlet Witch to become "Starroed" so that her chaos magic can do its hoo-doo... which is just the ticket to driving the "star conqueror" away.
Now, the Avengers are victorious, however, before they can celebrate, Vision advises the team that they have received an important communication from ol' Wendell Vaughn... Quasar! He tells the team that there be some strange interdimensional stuff goin' on... including the Shi'ar Imperial Guard getting thrashed by Lobo?!
We return to the DC Universe, where we learn that the League has chosen against heeding the words of the Spectre. With a chunk of Terminus's armor, Flash (this is Wally West, by the way) is attempting to go for an interdimensional run.
Upon arrival, he seems pleasantly surprised to be in a sorta sleepy town... rather than some war world. That is, until he witnesses a young mutant being chased down the street by an angry mob! Wally hops between the mutant and the meanies, and tells them to back off. In a cute bit, Wally is taken aback when the mutant asks "Why are you?". That's gotta be an odd sensation! Speaking of odd sensations, Wally soon learns that there is no Speed Force in the Marvel Universe... uh-oh.
We shift to the Justice League Watchtower, and get some neat bits from their monitors. We can see Thanagar being invaded by Skrulls and Mongul being overrun by the Brood! Wally calls in, to let them know that he was just barely able to get back to their home universe... and reveals that he wasn't the biggest fan of the folks "over there".
Suddenly, the Watchtowers alarms start going nuts... which brings us to one of the more surreal (and that's saying something) panels of this entire issue... the Watcher hovering outside the Justice League Watchtower!
Moments later, the Grandmaster appears inside! Kyle immediately locks him up in an emerald prison, until he explains that he is here on a mission of dire importance. J'onn is unable to read his mind, so they must turn to Wonder Woman's golden perfect for confirmation. He tells them that the barriers between worlds have weakened... and that, without a certain twelve items (six from each world) a universe will die. He places the locations into the minds of the League members, and warns them that there will be "others" seeking them as well, before bidding the gang adieu.
Looks like their first stop will be back in the Marvel Universe... a place that Wally ain't too keen on returning to. So, he says he'll hang back to Watch the Watcher, but the Atom will go in his place. At that same time, in Avengers Mansion, Hawkeye arrives... if I'm not mistaken, he was rolling with the Thunderbolts at this point. Iron Man and Captain America are checking out the monitors and trying to wrap their heads around the idea of multiple dimensions. An alarm sounds, and they know that whatever it is they're dealing with... has arrived!
We hop back to the League as they arrive in the 616. They decide to split up to get a better look at this Earth. Kyle and Aquaman head toward Latveria, where they watch Dr. Doom do Doctor Doomy things. Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman arrive on the recently decimated Genosha (Cassandra Nova had more or less nuked the Magneto-led place very early on during Grant Morrison's New X-Men). Superman watches the Hulk raid a refrigerator in a nearly as destroyed as Genosha, Detroit. Batman and Plastic Man head to New York where they see the Punisher take down some drug dealers. Batman totally beats up the Punisher too... but that occurs off-panel.
They reconvene at an island in the Sea of Okhotsk, which I just learned is a real place a bit northeast of Japan. Turns out this island might not be a real place... or maybe it is, I'm not terribly well traveled. Either way, this be Monster Isle... and it's full'a some Kirby-beasts! Kyle mentions that they look really cool though!
While the League battles the beasties, Batman breaks away to locate their booty. He ventures into a cave, which is appropriate, and procures one of the twelve items... the Ultimate freaking Nullifier! Before they can pocket the thing, it is struck by a... purple arrow! Business might be about to pick up!
Or not, Wonder Woman plucks the arrow and the Nullifier it rode in on, right out of the sky. Before the League can get a good look at their aggressors... they vanish!
The League are surprised to learn that they have been sent back home. Back on Marvel Earth, the Avengers consider what they'd just witnessed. Before they can get too far, Vision notices that they are being watched. Further inspection reveals... our old friend, Metron! He gives the Avengers a speech similar to the one the Grandmaster gave at the Watchtower. He continues to advise them that the "other" group must be opposed... we also see here that the Atom has been left behind in the 616.
To facilitate the pending events, Metron hands the Avengers a Mother Box... so that they might boom-tube onto the other Earth. And, so they do... arriving in Metropolis, just in time to take down a crew of geeks led by the most-lethal (or laughable) Loophole!
After thrashing the sad little group, the Avengers find themselves mobbed by... fans? Well, that's not something they're used to. It's soon made abundantly clear that on this Earth, the heroes are beloved. A cynical Captain America suggests that they must force the public for their adoration, and rule this world like "Little Tin Gods".
Which is probably the perfect time for us to finally get out big stand-off... and wow, what a two-page spread it is!
After exchanging pleasantries, Captain America accuses them of "fascism"... which is such a Captain America thing to do. Thor decides the time for talking has passed, and he hurls Mjolnir right at Superman! Well, that's not something you see everyday!
The chapter ends when we shift back to the Grandmaster and Metron, as they watch these events unfold. They discuss the stakes in this little "game", suggesting that when the dust settles, neither universe might survive... which is a nugget they'd hidden from Krona. The sneaky little Atom is present, serving as our eyes and ears to this dangerous diversion!
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It's been, well... about 15 years since I've read this. I recall not having been terribly impressed with it the first time around, however, I gotta say... there were some scenes in here that gave me chills. It wasn't even the big face-off either... I'm talking bits like seeing the Watcher outside the JLA Watchtower, Wonder Woman holding the Ultimate Nullifier, the Avengers covered in Starros! How amazing was all of that?!
It's a testament to the fantastic amount of lore and just how "living and breathing" the Marvel and DC Universes were/are that these nods, these bits of fan-service, can be so powerful and leave such an impact on even a cynical old goat like me. I mean, Lobo slaughtering the Shi'ar and Thanagar being invaded by the Skrull? Aye yai yai. Gimme some more'a that!
My initial underwhelming back in 2003 was likely due to the main baddies we were given. I think I was holding out hope for, I dunno, maybe Lex Luthor or Darkseid on the DC side and Dr. Doom or Kang... or, hell Galactus on the Marvel side. That's not to say none of these folks won't pop up here... I say that because, honestly, it has been almost half of my life since I read this, and I don't remember! This being something of an inter-company scavenger-hunt version of Contest of Champions to start wasn't something I was interested in seeing. Somehow, that has changed in the decade and a half that followed... and I enjoyed the concept a whole lot more this time around. Hell, I enjoy the villains too... maybe I just have a deeper appreciation for these folks at this point.
I love that we can actually "place" this story. We have very specific JLA and Avengers rosters (and things like Genosha having been destroyed) which tell us almost exactly when, in both teams'/universes' histories, this story would have occurred. I actually discussed this a bit with Kurt Busiek at the 2016 Phoenix Comicon, where he shared with me some of the editorial headaches he had putting this together. You can check out my interview with him at DC in the 80's, but just as an example... he was told to limit any use of Hal Jordan and Barry Allen because, they're gone... and ain't never coming back! Oh boy.
Considering why this might resonate with me more in 2017 than it did in 2003... it could be that this brings me back to the tail end of what I consider "my" Marvel Universe. This was before Marvel became "That movie studio that used to put out comic books", this is back when Iron Man didn't have to always be the coolest guy in the room because we all know he's really Robert Downey, Jr. under that mask.
This takes me back to this weird time in my life where I had stupid amounts of disposable income... stupid in that, I didn't have much... but every cent I had went to comic books, and I was buying literally everything both Marvel and DC were putting out. My standing order at the comic shop was actually "One of everything."... which means I've got a lotta turn of the century garbage lurking in my library. I don't know how my girlfriend-now-wife stuck around!
That having been said, JLA/Avengers was like a culmination of my fandom "career". It was something I was looking forward to from the first time I saw those scans of the aborted 1982 (Conway/Perez) version of the story. This was as close to a comic book "dream come true" as we were gonna get. And sadly, one we'll more than likely, never see again.
I don't suppose we need to mention that George Perez is a national international universal treasure again, do we? I think that's just common knowledge at this point. Such amazing work here... and, if we put ourselves in his shoes for just a moment... imagine him getting the opportunity to draw this landmark event twenty-years after the first attempt! That's gotta be such an amazing feeling... to return to this dream project, and actually be able to see it through to completion.
Overall... yeah, read this. It's not terribly difficult to come across... I've even seen it in various cheap-o bins during my time. I would doubt you'd have to pay more than cover price for the individual prestige format editions. Now, if you want the collected edition... or heaven forbid the Collector's Edition... that sucker might setcha back a buck or two... hundred. Any way you can get your hands on it though, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it!
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Wrap-Around Cover:
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Supergirl (vol.4) #1 (September, 1996)
"Body & Soul"
Writer - Peter David
Penciller - Gary Frank
Inker - Cam Smith
Letterer - Pat Prentice
Colorist - Gene D'Angelo
Separations - Digital Chameleon
Editor - Chris Duffy
Cover Price: $1.95
Here's one that I've wanted to discuss for a long while now. One that I purposely avoided simply because I wasn't sure which "volume" to mark this as. Yeah, these are the things I worry about. Like, do we count miniseries' as volumes? Are they something else altogether?
I went with volume 4 here... and to help assuage my own self-doubt, lemme 'splain my process. There was a volume during the 1970's, which we'll say is "Volume 1"... then the second half of the Daring Adventures of... series, which we'll call "Volume 2"... then, it gets sticky... the Reign of Tomorrow era miniseries... I guess we'll call that "Volume 3", but I'm a bit wary. Either way, I've droned on about this far too long, and it's likely your eyes have already glazed over... so, let's just get into the issue.
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We open with a swirl of blood circling the drain. The girl we will meet as Linda Danvers is knelt under the shower washing the blood off her body as she ponders who might have done this to her... and, just as importantly... who she is! Moments later, a woman named Mattie enters the apartment... and she is gobsmacked to see Linda there and, well, alive! I ought to mention that Linda knows Mattie's name, so her's is more swiss-cheese brain than amnesia at this point. Also, despite the bleeding out... Linda's body has nary a scratch.
While the ladies catch up... more like, while Mattie speaks and Linda gets her bearings, Mattie notices a puddle of pink protoplasmic goop in the bathtub. What's more, ready your gag reflexes, she scoops it up with a towel... blech... to ask Linda what it might be. Linda's too busy noticing that her formerly brown eyes are now blue... and her only reply is "I was empty".
While Linda dresses, she happens across a pair of jeans with a hole burnt in them. She has a memory flash to meeting a man called Buzz in a bar. The hole was a result of his cigarette... which he put out on her leg. Seems like a nice fella. Linda leaves the bar, refers to Buzz the way I do the flu "creeping crud", and is almost immediately nyoinked into a dark alley. She is held by a pair of cultists with triangle-inside-circle markings on their heads, one of whom scratches her left arm... breaking the skin. She is able to escape... or perhaps they let her go already having "marked" her. Either way, as she runs, she catches a glimpse of Buzz.
Mattie shakes her out of her "zoned" state, and tells her they should call Linda's parents to let them know that, ya know, their daughter isn't dead. This stirs up another flashback... in it, a markedly younger Linda is arguing with her father. Just as it's about to get physical, she storms out. When we return to the present, we see that she's also stormed out of the apartment.
We rejoin Linda as she is trudging down the streets of Leesburg, USA with a purpose. She notices that she is continually moving faster... to the point where she is no more than a blur. Nearby we find ourselves a jumper. The police try and talk him down, but no dice... I dunno, maybe he's got Superman up there telling him to "jump if ya want", because the fella does just that. Before he can go splat, he is saved by... well, that blur that Linda became! Onlookers ask if it was the Flash... but he claims that it was an angel!
We catch up with Linda again as she skreeeeeeches to a halt. She is, rightfully, confused. She's not fatigued, hell... she's not even short of breath. It's at this point where she tries to put everything together... but the answers aren't coming. She recounts what she knows up to this point... but knows she's going to need more information.
Her next stop is the Leesburg Tribune, where some old receptionist tells her she can't read the paper for free. Just then, the latest edition arrives... which Linda snags a bundle of (yes, a whole bundle). The old woman yells that the news ain't free... thankfully, all Linda needs is the cover. I'm pretty sure you're allowed to read the headline without paying... otherwise, I owe some back charges to a lot of newspapers. Anyhoo, the front page reads "Supergirl Feared Dead".
She can't think on it too long because, um... ace reporter (?) Cutter Sharp saunters in to see what's up. He immediately recognizes Linda as "Linda Danvers" the girl everyone thinks is dead. He begs her, literally... on his knees, for a news story.
We shift scenes to a burnt out building surrounded by police. Off to the side is our new friend, Buzz. Behind him in the darkness of the alley is... well, a pair of demonic eyes who claim "she" disrupted their "entrance to this sphere". We're gonna assume this is important.
Back at the Trib, Linda is answering some questions for Cutter. Just as she's about to mention that she feels like she's really somebody else... Clark Kent's face appears before her. He calls her "Mae" (short for Matrix) and tells her not to say a word about anything. Hmm...
She changes course, and asks Cutter if there's anyway he can help her fill in the holes of her Swiss Cheese memory. He mentions that the only thing Linda found meaning in was... Supergirl. This flashes us back to Supergirl at the Danvers home. Linda's mother made a televised appeal for her to help find their daughter. The meeting is... uncomfortable, contentious even... Supergirl ultimately agrees. Her search leads her to the cultists. The triangle-inside-circle logo is everywhere.
Back in the present, Cutter goes to light a cigarette... which appears to be a trigger for Linda. She shoves him away, and boy howdy, does he go flying! By the time Cutter pulls himself together, and proclaims that he's gonna "marry that girl", Linda's already gone. He runs outside, but neglects to "look up"... Linda's totally on the roof, by the way.
While up there, she indulges in another flashback. We see Supergirl fighting off cultists... a fire-breathing demon... and Linda, on fire?
We next see Buzz slashing Linda in the gut with a blade... well, we don't actually see him stick a blade in her belly, but she recalls that he had. With the blood on the blade, Buzz hurls it toward the gate the demon is emerging from... however, a psychokinetic blast from Supergirl causes it to shatter before it pierces the portal. As the demon dissipates, Supergirl heads over to Linda's bleedin' and burnin' bod.
They join hands... Linda is able to eek out a few lines about not being ready to die... and the unfairness of the whole thing. Supergirl thinks about everyone who has helped her over the years. The ladies lock eyes... and something begins to happen.
Back in the present, the Leesburg Police Department is delivering a press conference... during which, they have no new information on Supergirl's disappearance... just as they hold up Supergirl's empty costume... it is snatched away! We wrap up by learning that Supergirl and Linda Danvers have become joined in one body!
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Now, I suppose I ought to get this out of the way. This was one of my very favorite series from DC Comics during the 90's. It's one that I've revisited time and again, especially the first 50 or so issues. Not sure if that has more to do with Supergirl, or the fact that Peter David is writing it... though, if I were forced to choose I'd more than likely go with the latter.
Supergirl, the character, never really captured my imagination... heresy to say during these CW days to some, but true. This radically different take on the character and concept was just what I needed to become invested.
With that said, let's talk about the issue itself... and with my sole complaint. It bugged me that the story didn't start here... in issue #1. It started in Showcase '96 #8... and, while there's nothing wrong with that... when you crack open Supergirl #1, it's made abundantly clear that you've missed something... you're not coming in on the "ground floor". Not that Peter David didn't fill us in, because he did... but, I'm a completionist nutjob, so I like feeling like I've got everything.
I really like the way the story was told. I thought the "triggering" events were very well done throughout. Having things that helped job Linda's memory made the story progress organically. I also appreciate how we didn't receive all the answers right away. We didn't even get to see Linda check in with her parents yet. It's been a little while since I've read this one, and I was could'a sworn she visited her parents during this one... because that's the way things usually happen.
We meet our cast, and they're all perfectly likable. Mattie seems like she'll be a good side character, and Cutter is charmingly annoying. Buzz, outside of the silly name, will prove to be a pretty interesting fella himself.
Looking back now, it's still a bit astonishing to me that this series lasted as long as it did. It was just so different... so unexpected. A fun evolution for the concept of Supergirl.
The art... wow, the art. This is Gary Frank before all of his characters started crash-dieting. There's actually some meat on these bones, and it looks amazing. I loved the David/Frank pairing on Incredible Hulk, and I love it here. I really miss this Gary Frank... beautiful healthily-plumped faces instead of the sunken cheeks we get nowadays. Awesome work.
Overall, I'd most definitely recommend this issue (and volume) of Supergirl. In all my time reading comics it's been the only one to hold my attention. For your convenience, this issue (and volume) is available digitally and has recently been reissued in trade paperback.
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Letters Page:
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LoboCop #1 (February, 1994)
"LoboCop"
WriterCop - Alan Grant
Artist/ColoristCop - Martin Emond
SeparationCop - Digital Chameleon
LettererCop - Todd Klein
RoboAssistant Editor - Peter Tomasi
RoboEditor - Dan Raspler
Cover Price: $1.95
Well, here's something weird...
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After a page where we are read our (copy)rights, we jump into an expositional news segment to set the table for us. President of OllyConsumerStuff, Olly, is upset at the high crime rate of "Old Detrout", and has called off his urban renewal project. To further set the mood, the newscast is interrupted by a commercial for the (toll-free?) celebrity sex line 1-800-STAR-F... um, ya know what... never mind that... let's get to Lobo.
Who is lurking in a the seedy Metal Bar in the midst of a five day bender. Now we know Lobo to be a violent fellow... turns out, he's a violent drunk as well. In his stupor he has taken out the entire Detrout Police Department. He decides to guzzle down a... giant steaming barrel of booze, let's out a thunderous belch... then, dies?
Olly, from earlier arrives on the the scene with a woman. Turns out he's not only the President of OllyConsumerStuff, he's also the chief of police... and probably, at this point, the only boy-in-blue left! Lobo is declared dead... due to, get this, having partied himself to death.
The pair get it in their head to use Lobo's pickled brain for a top-secret police project... which has thus far been wildly unsuccessful. Ya see, they're trying to create the, ahem, Future of Law Enforcement by placing a human brain in a great big robot body... all earlier subjects turned out to be hippies. Not sure what or if that's supposed to be a commentary on anything... so, we'll just leave it there.
Now, they get Lobo into the office... and saw open his head. Inside, his brain is wearing headphones and listening to some "atavistic rock". The nurse removes the headphones, and gets mauled by the tiny brain for their troubles. LoboBrain then leaps into the RoboBody... and demands its headphones back. That's an easy enough bit'a business to follow, ain't it? Olly decides that he can control LoboCop better through the headphones, so it's a win-win.
Time passes, and we shift scenes to a morbidly-obese crew of bikers holding up a tiny grocery store for their unpaid "street tax"... and so, they blow it up with a missile. It's... that kinda story, don'tcha know. During their attempted escape, they wind up before... LoboCop! They're all declared "guilty", and dealt with in some gruesome ways. The folks inside the smoldering Mario's Groceries call out for help... to which LoboCop finds them in violation of the local noise ordinance... and kills them too. Yeah, it's that kinda story.
Later, LoboCop is called to a crime in progress... a spindly, and possibly nude, man is fleeing through the alleys from a group of angry transients. Lobo vaporizes the "baddies", then kills the running man for excessive use of alliteration... man, I hope LoboCop never reads this blog.
Over the next little while, LoboCop rules Old Detrout with a pair of iron fists... for which, the people at large are less than grateful. A quarter-million Detrouters have signed a petition to shut the Main ManCop down. Now, Lobo don't dig paperwork, so he shoves the entire list down a demonstrator's throat!
Then, he... ya know, kills everybody.
Turns out this is exactly what Olly had planned... ya see, he wanted to clear Old Detrout, so he could buy it for a song and turn it into a gigundous parking lot. Fifty-Seven Million spots charging $12.95 an hour to park there. He then offers his female companion two thousand spots for a roll in the hay. Okey doke...
With LoboCop's mission accomplished, the concrete trucks are brought in to pave the city over... with the no-longer-needed LoboCop as part of the pavement! Olly arrives to inform him that this was all part of the plan... and so, Lobo flips him off... while he sinks in the cement. Now, remember how Lobo's pea brain really dug listening to its tunes? Well, turns out that concrete ain't the best conductor of radio waves...
and, well...
Olly and Whatsherface realize they need to turn to their fail-safe measures... namely, blowing up Lobo's brain. Well, knowing Lobo like we do, we know it's gonna take a lot more than an exploded brain to put him down. LoboCop carries Olly and the lady back to the, er... top secret police hospital (?) to have his brain put back into his normal handsome skin... after which, he uses a rusty butter knife to decapitate them... and attaches the heads to the old LoboCop body.
The story ends with Lobo appearing on the news... and killing the newscasters. He rides away into the sunset as the LoboCop body (with its two human heads) explodes.
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You remember that episode of Saved by the Bell where the gang forgets it's Screech's birthday? And so, to make it up to him they concoct a way in which he becomes Hall Monitor? They wrangle the position from a sophomore who had to be at least forty years old. Anyhoo, after a rocky start, he rules the halls of Bayside High with an iron fist... and actually references RoboCop... remember that? Remember how horrible that was? Well, this wasn't quite that bad.
It's really not "bad" by any stretch... what it is though, is a joke that becomes played out about a quarter of the way through the issue. By the time this story ended, I had long since stopped caring. Early on, I can't say that I actually chuckled or laughed or anything, but I enjoyed it for what it was... an overly-violent, and wildly crude Lobo comic. But, that only gets ya so far... at some point, I feel like we need a bit more than that.
Now, if this was a 6-8 page backup strip... I think it'd been fantastic. As a 24-page feature though... it's a bit of a slog. At least for me... and I actually dig Lobo! I know there are folks with an aversion to the character, but I really don't mind him in small doses... or in his "small" form during Young Justice... which was revealed to not really be him, but we don't need to discuss that right now.
The art here was... suitable. I can't say that I was a fan of it... and I can't say it was overly-pleasant to look at, but I can't argue that it fit the tone of the story. It felt grimy and urban-decayed... characters were ugly, sound effects were bombastic. Perfectly fitting for a story of this kind.
Now, even with my misgivings... and reservations, I can't rightly say you should avoid this. It's great as a novelty... and it's a fun parody to RoboCop... or at least I assume it is, I never saw it. If you come across it for a buck-or-below, I'd say it's worth grabbing. Wouldn't pay cover price though.
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