Cyberspace Comics market report, reviews and more

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Amalgam Comics
Cover Date: June 1997
Cover Price: $1.95
Writer: Christopher Priest
Artist: Oscar Jimenez

When the DC and Marvel Universes merged in Marvel vs DC, a new one was created: the Amalgam Universe. This one-shot combined the X-Men with the Justice League.

Mankind’s inter-species war has turned in favor of humanity and metamutantkind’s premiere team, JLX, has been imprisoned. But, now that Fin Fang Flame has been loosed upon the Earth by the Hellfire League of Injustice, Amazon has freed and joined the JLX. They, along with their new recruit, Chaos, may be the Earth’s only hope against the giant fiery dragon!

I’m always up for a super-team going up against a huge monster. And, when it’s the witty and smart Fin Fang Foom (c’mon – it’s him, for all intents and purposes), it’s even better! We get some new recruits this issue: Amazon (Storm/Wonder Woman) and Chaos (Havok), a near-death experience for one of our heros and some more limelight on Nightcreeper. Lots of fun action to be had here but, nothing serious and very little characterization.

On Ebay: Amalgam | Christopher Priest
On AtomicAvenue: Amalgam Comics

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Slave Labor Graphics
Cover Date: February 2000
Cover Price: $1.95
Writer: Eric Bowman (with help from Basilio Amaro and Dan Vado)
Artist: Eric Bowman

On the way to visit his girlfriend, Clancy the Cylinderhead crashlands on Earth. But, it’s not the Earth we know … it’s the Earth of the future – ravaged and full of strange, mutated beings. He soon finds himself under attack from Doctor Kaiseroll’s assassin, Pokey Pete. Fortunately, the cylinderhead is rescued by a female “fleshhead” (essentially a normal looking human … and this one’s better than normal-looking!).

She explains to Clancy that Kaiseroll is searching Earth for lost journals that will allow him to find out how to mate with her and create the Master Race. That’s right! Kaiseroll is following in the footsteps of the Fuhrer, himself. Now it’s up to our reluctant hero and his cute rescuer to keep the journals (and her womb!) free from the evil doctor’s clutches!

The quirky-looking cover sucked me right in. What a strange collection of characters! And there are even more to be seen inside the book. This one-shot is packed with plenty of story but moves along rather quickly. A tough balance to strike since there’s so much that has to be explained on this strange, new Earth. Lots of weird lifeforms to be met. New locales to explore. Oh! And there’s still a whole storyline that needs to be resolved, too. But, like I said, it manages to contain all of that and still be entertaining. Sure, the dialogue’s a little cheesy and b-movie-ish at times but, it works well for this tale.

On Ebay: Cylinderhead
On AtomicAvenue: Cylinderhead

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: February 2000
Cover Price: $2.50
Writer: Karl Bollers & Mike Higgins
Artist: Joe Bennett with Scott Hanna

In an attempt to further cull the strong from the weak, Apocalypse has devised a plan to set all of humanity against the Deviants. To advance his plan, he’s captured the Deviant mutate, Karkas, and mutated him further into a Godzilla-sized, mindless, rampaging monster! Meanwhile, in Olympia, an Eternal has been brought back from the dead – Virako, Ikaris’ father. We’re also introduced to several, previously unseen Eternals including Suyin King, Ceyote, Aurelle, and Psykos. In order to save the planet from being ravaged by a deadly inter-species war, the Eternals have to take down their mutated friend, Karkas! And, once the threat has been neutralized, instead of revealing the nature of their species to the humans, they announce themselves as a new group of super-heroes called the New Breed. Complete with costumes and new codenames for them all: Sovereign (Ikaris), Corona (Thena), Ceasefire (Phastos), Tomorrow Hawk (Ceyote), Psyche (Psykos), Sparx (Aurelle), Chi Demon (King), Warhead (Ransak the Reject), and Mesmer (Sersi).

Initially, I was excited about this story. A battle brewing between Apocalypse and the Eternals? Sign me up! Unfortunately, we don’t get too much of that – mostly Apocalypse’s machinations. And, while it’s cool to see a giant-sized Karkas rampaging in the city, it reminds me that the creators might not have had the best interests of the characters at heart. Why do I say that? Well, for one, the mutated Karkas is green. Now, you could easily say that Apocalypse just changed his color when he altered him. That’s all well and good but, how does it explain his earlier appearance in his regular form … but still miscolored as green? OK. Yeah, that’s just a surface flaw that we can probably blame the colorist for. But, there are other things that bothered me. Like, why are Reject and Karkas living in Lemuria, the city of the Deviants … instead of with the Eternals? And, why are the Eternals setting themselves up as a public team of super-heroes? We’ve already got enough of them in the Marvel Universe … it’s clear that the writers didn’t know how to handle the Eternals mythos, so they reverted to the easiest thing, it seems.

Now, that’s not to say it’s all bad. Bringing back Virako was a great way of displaying how much has changed with the Eternals over the years. Just the fact that they allow Karkas and Reject to live among them is a shock to this “old-school” Eternal, who is used to the days when that would never be the case. And, it seems that Ghaur‘s lifeforce has been imbued into a golden statue that now rules over the Deviants. A neat idea but … where’s the Deviants’ previous leader, Kro? This one-shot sets up a new status quo for the Eternals that was thankfully never followed up on.

On Ebay: Eternals | Karl Bollers | Joe Bennett
On AtomicAvenue: Eternals

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: March 2002
Cover Price: $2.25
Writer: Kaare Andrews
Artist: Kaare Andrews

Young Peter Parker arrives at his dojo, late for practice, to discover that Venom has killed his sensei. Before his final breath, Peter’s sensei instills within him a deep sense of responsibility. However, Venom’s employer, the Kingpin, is disappointed that the entire Spider Clan was not destroyed – so the lord of the Kuji Kuri dispatches the enforcer to kill the last remaining member of the Spider Clan: Peter Parker. Bearing the burden of his sensei’s death, Peter dons a costume and begins training heavily to avenge his loss. In the battle that ensues, Spider-Man must make a decision between avenging his sensei’s death by killing Venom, or saving innocent lives that are threatened. For Spider-Man? It’s really no decision at all…

This was the first of the Mangaverse specials to not let me down. And, actually, I was rather impressed with it. Kaare Andrews’ character designs fit very well into the Mangaverse and his art is superbly dynamic and fun to look at. His script kept it simple and to the basics of the Spider-Man character. A little Eastern sensibility was added to the Spider-story but, it all pulls together nicely and sets up a greater story to be told. Fortunately, this is the one Mangaverse one-shot that was, indeed, followed up on with a mini series, years later.

On Ebay: Mangaverse | Spider-Man | Kaare Andrews
On AtomicAvenue: Mangaverse

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Amalgam Comics
Cover Date: June 1997
Cover Price: $1.95
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Paul Smith

When the DC and Marvel Universes merged in Marvel vs DC, a new one was created: the Amalgam Universe. This one-shot combined Iron Man with Green Lantern.

Pepper Ferris has resumed her malicious role as Madame Sapphire and sent Great White to destroy everyone attending Stark’s reception for Senator Ferris. As Iron Lantern battles the giant robotic shark, his friends Happy & Rhodes have to defender his power source from Kyle O’Brien, who intends to steal it to become the new Iron Lantern again. And, just who is the mastermind behind all of these attacks on the Iron Lantern?

I truly had high hopes for this story, mainly because Kurt Busiek was attached as the writer. And, the opening page showed Oa, the Living Planet – a combination of Ego and Oa – which I thought was ingenious! But, the story got quickly bogged down by way too many developing plots before it could come to any reasonable conclusion. And, in fact, it doesn’t. This is probably the only Amalgam comic to end on a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger that, due to the very nature of the Amalgam universe, will never be followed up on. For shame!

On Ebay: Amalgam | Kurt Busiek | Paul Smith
On AtomicAvenue: Amalgam Comics

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: September 2011
Cover Price: $3.99
Writer: Stuart Moore
Artist: Shawn Crystal

A dilpadiated Shi’ar Stalker is loose on Earth, searching for Jean Grey and killing everything in its path. Luckily for the city of Albuquerque, Wolverine is there to intercept the menacing robot. But, even the ferocious X-Man can’t subdue the automaton because it keeps teleporting a few feet away before he can destroy it. So, Logan sets out to find someone strong enough to withstand the robot’s attack and crazy enough to enjoy being the decoy … Deadpool, of course! But, when even that plan doesn’t work, the boys come up with a new idea: if the Stalker wants Jean Grey … it’s Jean Grey he’ll get!

Despite starting off with Wolverine, this is certainly a goofy, Deadpool story at it’s heart. Serious Wolverine and X-Men fans probably won’t enjoy the tale too much but, if you’re one of those irreverent Deadpool fans, seeing him in the Jean Grey costume alone might just be worth the price of admission. And, on top of that, there’s a back-up feature that reprints a Deadpool team-up with the Great Lakes Avengers.

On Ebay: Wolverine | Deadpool | Stuart Moore
On AtomicAvenue: Strong Guy | Wolverine | Deadpool

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: November 1991
Cover Price: $2.50
Writer: Roy Thomas with Dann Thomas
Artist: Mark Texeira

A mutate is loose on Earth, killing eighteen-year-old sets of twins. And, while this may seem unrelated to the Eternals, it’s actually quite important to them. Especially since they just found an ancient prophecy that predicts that the twin spawn of a Deviant and Eternal coupling will rise to power over all three species (Humans, Eternals, and Deviants) on their eighteenth birthday. Initially the Eternals suspect that the Deviants, who have long desired to be Earth’s ruling species, are behind this monster on the loose – but they quickly realize that the culprit could be an Eternal, too. So, the Eternals set out for Lemuria (the Deviants’ home) to discover who is commanding the mutate. Along the way, they Eternals will discover who spawned these twins [Answer: Thena & Kro] and just who is the mastermind behind the slayings [Answer: Dr. Damian].

I’ve just recently read through the first two Eternals series so I’m very familiar with the characters and, I assume that’s why I enjoyed this story so much. Even though the writers recap what has gone before in the Eternals’ history, I feel that without the grounding in their first two series, I wouldn’t have as much attachment to these characters. That being said, Roy & Dann Thomas pace this giant-sized tale really well and work in plenty of character moments that are truly fitting. The story even advances the Eternals’ grander storyline as one of the immortal beings dies in battle with the villain. It also introduces the first known spawn of Eternals and Deviants and carries right on from the events that previously happened in the last issue of the second series. Eternals fans should not miss this one!

On Ebay: Eternals | Roy Thomas | Mark Texeira
On AtomicAvenue: Eternals

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: March 2002
Cover Price: $2.25
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Lea Hernandez

The Punisher allows her captive, Kusugutai, to be freed in order to follow him. And, when he goes running back to Ho of the Skang Kee family, the Punisher is there to force the Skang Kee Family out of her city. What she may not have planned on was an assault by Yew, the Skang Kee’s oni enforcer. But, luckily for the Punisher, her sister has come to the rescue brandishing the ancient Tachi sword!

So far I’ve been quite disappointed with the Marvel Mangaverse one-shots. But, this time, Peter David’s name jumped off the cover! Finally! I’ll get a well-written manga version of a Marvel hero. Unfortunately, I was still let down. Even one of my favorite writers couldn’t make it interesting for me. The “adventure” wasn’t all that fun or interesting and the book included some lame humor that just didn’t click with the Punisher mythos. The Punisher’s name is Sosumi …. and the antagonist is Skang Kee Ho. Yeesh!

On Ebay: Mangaverse | Punisher | Peter David
On AtomicAvenue: Mangaverse

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Amalgam Comics
Cover Date: June 1997
Cover Price: $1.95
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Adam Pollina

When the DC and Marvel Universes merged in Marvel vs DC, a new one was created: the Amalgam Universe. This one-shot combined Generation X with Jonah Hex.

Young Jono Hex was run out of the town of Humanity for being a malform (or mutant as they’re known in the Marvel Universe). As he grew up, he grew mean and gathered a band of malform outlaws including Madame Banshee (Siryn), Johnny Random (Random), Skinhunter (Skin), White Whip (Emma Frost), Retribution (Penance), and the Twins Trigger (Northstar & Aurora). Marshal “Bat” Trask has created the robotic Razormen to hunt and kill malforms – and he’s sent them after Jono and his band. But, Jono devises a plan to set his oldest enemies (the town of Humanity) against his newest one (the Razormen) in a devious revenge scheme!

Milligan’s plot has highlighted a neat bit of western revenge. And, as neat as it is to see the members of Generation X with a Hex-western twist, they’re really unecessary. This story could have been soley about Hex and it would have played out just the same. Actually, it probably would have been a little better because the very few pages spent on them could have been better used towards character development of Hex himself. Combining the tortured souls of both Hex and Chamber was a great idea and I wouldn’t mind reading more about him … as long as the other characters aren’t along for the ride.

On Ebay: Amalgam | Peter Milligan | Adam Pollina
On AtomicAvenue: Amalgam Comics

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: May 2011
Cover Price: $3.99
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Renato Arlem

Batroc accepts a job in Paris to run interference for a heist. From the hefty price offered him, he assumes that Captain America will be involved. And, it turns out that Batroc knows his business well! Captain America does show up to stop the heist and Batroc fills his role as distractor perfectly. But, when he’s got Cap on the ropes, the Leaper lets his pride get the best of him. He can’t resist the urge to defeat the star-spangled hero …. even if it is just the replacement Cap (aka Bucky). And, we all know that Captain America is near-impossible to beat … especially if you’re just Batroc the Leaper.

This was a real fun “character piece”. It’s told completely from Batroc’s side and Gillen really gets into his mind. It’s a nice treat to see a story from this angle and I really enjoyed how much Batroc “knows his role”. He knows he’s just there to run interference. He knows he’s never going to defeat Cap. Yet, something inside him makes him try … try again. And, it’s not the money!

As bonus material, this issue reprints a classic silver age Batroc story from Tales of Suspense #85 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

On Ebay: Captain America | Kieron Gillen | Batroc
On AtomicAvenue: Strong Guy | Captain America