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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: July 1997
Cover Price: $1.95
Writer: Roger Stern & Karl Kesel
Artist: Jose Ladronn

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

During a battle with the Scavulture, Spider-Boy is at the mercy of the villain’s Evil Eye. And, just as the eye’s energy blast is about to hit him, Spider-Boy is trapped within a Time Square and transported to the future – the year 2099, to be exact – by the Legion of Galactic Guardians 2099. They reveal that his memory inspired the formation of their team. He’s been plucked from the past, moments before his death, so they can meet him face to face. But, it’s got to be a short meeting since he can only stay for ten minutes or so before it starts to place stress on the time-stream.

Things get bad when the Frightful Five break into the Legion’s headquarters and smash the Time Square Generator. So, our heroes have to stop the Frightful Five and figure out a way to send Spider-Boy back to his own time before a chronal collapse is triggered. And, even then, Spider-Boy is still at the mercy of Scavulture’s deadly energy blast. Sheesh! All this … and the first appearance of Spider-Boy 2099, as well!

There’s certainly a lot of time-travel going on in this book but, fortunately, it’s not super-confusing. Ladronn’s art is really channelling Jack Kirby – which seems to work well for this story. Stern & Kesel’s tale is quite in-depth – there’s a lot going on but it’s not so overwhelming that it gets beyond your grasp of understanding. Plus, it was neat to see the way they worked in the origin of Spider-Boy 2099. All in all, it was a fun read but nothing strong enough to make me wish for another one.

On Ebay: Amalgam | Karl Kesel | Jose Ladronn
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: $2.99
Writer: Brian Clevinger
Artist: Juan Doe

Bobby and Warren are on spring break … in New York City … when Goom (the Thing From Planet X! Remember? from Tales of Suspense #15!) rises from the harbor and begins tearing through the Big Apple. Since there’s only two of them going up against a Godzilla-sized monster, their only hope is to delay it long enough for the Fantastic Four or the Avengers to show up. After all, Iceman (a guy that shoots ice) and the Angel (a guy with wings and no other powers) can’t stop the rampaging beast all by themselves … can they?

One of the fun parts of this “First Class” story is that Clevinger allows the characters to use dialogue that pokes fun at stories that will happen in their future. For example, there’s this delightful bit of exchange:

Bobby: You’re not really built for this kind of thing. Y’know what you need? Like, wings made outta knives!
Warren: That’s the single stupidest thing I ever heard. What about my normal wings? Where do they go?
Bobby: They’re still there too.
Warren: Bobby, I can’t have both. Wings don’t work like that.

A clear allusion to Warren’s transformation into Archangel at the hands of Apocalypse. Aside from that, there’s plenty of fun dialogue and the inclusion of a classic Marvel Monster makes for an enjoyable read. I’m really enjoying these “silver age” type stories told with the advantages of today’s storytelling and art. Fans of the original X-books won’t go wrong with this one.

On Ebay: Iceman
On AtomicAvenue: Iceman