Somethings Missing (Addendum): Spider-Man Medallion

Did anybody out there actually order this item? I've always been curious about whether the things tarnished over time or not. I remember these advertisements running back in the 70's, but I never took the bait and sent off for one.

There were at least two other "Marvel Medallions" featuring the Incredible Hulk and Conan the Barbarian. Now after all these years, I finally have a hankering for something like this, nostalgia cravings I suppose, but I imagine they would be hard to come by.

If any lurkers in the Catacombs have a line on these coins, or bought one for themselves and want to drop a comment, please feel free .... and thanks for stopping by!

1970's Flashback: Satana

Satana is the sister of Daimon Hellstrom aka the Son of Satan in Marvel Comics. Created by Roy Thomas & John Romita, she made her first appearance in Vampire Tales #2 (October 1973).

Satana is a half-demon/half-human hybrid, and a succubus; she has several innate mystical abilities. She can feed on the souls of men to empower herself, allowing her to fly, fire blasts of eldritch force or hellfire, and hypnotize her victims. If she touches any object which has been used to kill someone (like a knife or sword) she can absorb its "blood energy" to become stronger. Satana was also trained in the mystic arts and learned how to cast spells and perform witchcraft.

From 1975 through 1976 the character made several marquee appearances, apparently in an effort to establish her as a headliner, none of which really led anywhere, but Satana has still popped up from time to time in the Marvel Universe.

[Illustration, above, is by Esteban Maroto.]

"Figuring" things out

Mattel's DC Universe action figures have been hitting the stores for some time now and these 6-inch action figure assortments are quite a bit better than their older DC Direct peers.

Don't get me wrong, DC Direct issued some lovely toy versions of many classic DC Comics stars, but despite the really awesome sculpts on most of them, they failed in one major respect. The damn things just wouldn't stand up!

I had purchased about twenty of them over the years ranging from the fairly crude golden age Wesley Dodds/Sandman to the twin pack of Hawkman & Hawkgirl, but the last straw came for me with the Alec Ross Justice line of figures. Those figures certainly managed to capture the signature Ross art-style, but after buying three figures from the inaugural wave (Superman, Sinestro & Barry Allen/Flash) I threw in the towel on any further DC Direct figures. The Flash figure's knee gave out less than a day after purchase. This was primarily due to an obvious design flaw. All of the figures weight was placed on the same leg that attached to the base stand peg and the stress caused the knee peg to quickly fail.

Unless you're one of those really peculiar little people that prefers to leave their toys in the original packaging, this is a problem that repeated itself over-and-again with various DC Direct characters. They may not all have broken in the same manner, but the often bulky PVC on the upper portions of the figures just didn't lend itself to being supported by the legs of the figures. I couldn't tell you how many of them just kept falling over on the shelves, but it was beyond irritating.

I just saw a couple of the DCU Classics characters for the first time, at a local Target store and thought that Penguin and Orion not only looked very cool, but they seemed to be better realized - - - even with the enhanced articulation on the figures. Penguin included the upper torso & head of Rex "Metamorpho" Mason, the chase figure of that wave, and seeing them really made me want to head out and collect the whole batch in order put him together. It looks like upcoming waves have other ultra-cool assembly characters - for those who buy the entire lot. Gorilla Grodd in Series 2 and Solomon Grundy in Series 3; may have me playing with toys - - - all over again.

In Memorium: Charlton Heston

Legendary actor Charlton Heston, who starred in some of Hollywood's greatest epics, passed away on Saturday at the age of 84. Although the cause of death has not been cited, Heston had withdrawn from public life after announcing that he was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease in 2002.

The Greatest Show On Earth, The Ten Commandments, Touch Of Evil, Ben Hur, El Cid, 55 Days At Peking, The Agony And The Ecstasy, Khartoum, Planet Of The Apes, Soylent Green, The Three Musketeers, well, the list just goes on and on. Despite criticisms of his politics, both as a Democratic supporter of the civil rights movement & as a Republican supporter of gun advocacy, Heston was an important cinematic figure in American history with undeniable box office success and appeal for many generations of film goers.

Heston said that Planet Of The Apes (1968) was the most physically demanding film he had ever done, because he was sick with the flu during filming. The producers decided to have him act through his illness, even though it was physically grueling, because they felt the hoarse sound of his voice added something to the role of Col. George Taylor. Heston recounted in a diary he kept during filming that he "felt like Hell" during the filming of the scene where his character was forcefully separated from Nova (Linda Harrison), made worse by the impact of the fire hose that was used on him.

Many condolences go out to his family, friends, peers and worldwide fans.

1970's Flashback: Giant-Size X-Men # 1

As a result of a sudden leap in evolution, mutants are born with latent superhuman abilities, which generally manifest themselves at puberty. Ordinary humans fear and/or distrust of mutants (often referred to as Homo superior), who are regarded by a number of scientists as the next step in human evolution and are thus widely viewed as a threat to human civilizations; mutants who use their powers for criminal ends often exacerbate these tensions.

Welcome to the world of the X-Men, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, they originally debuted in September 1963. Formed by the benevolent Professor Charles Xavier, (a.k.a. Professor X), a telepathic mutant who founded an academy to train young mutants to protect themselves and the world from Magneto and other mutant threats. The original X-Men consisted of Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman and Marvel Girl.

However, a phenomenon was launched in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), when writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum introduced an "all-new, all-different” team of X-Men who were led by Cyclops (from the original team). This group consisted of adults who hailed from a variety of nations and cultures, including Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Thunderbird, Banshee, Sunfire, and Wolverine (who became the most popular new X-men character). Former member Jean Grey soon rejoined the X-Men as the Phoenix; and previous members Angel, Beast, Havok and Polaris also made significant guest appearances in the newly revamped series, simply called X-Men starting with issue # 94.

The revived series was illustrated by Dave Cockrum, and later John Byrne, but writer Chris Claremont became the series' longest-running contributor. The rejuvenated book earned great critical acclaim with stories like the "Proteus Saga", the "Dark Phoenix Saga", and later the grim "Days of Future Past"; these are arguably some of the greatest story arcs in Marvel Comics history.
Whether the fictional X-Men are fighting mutant criminals or galactic threats, the series draws its strength from portraying conflicts between mutants and normal humans and for many of the books readers these reflect those “real-life” experiences of many minority groups in America.

"Gal" Friday! Blythe Metz

Blythe Metz is a Chicago-based actress whose resume consists of roles in a few mostly forgettable films and a couple of horror genre releases like The Nightmare Man & Jacqueline Hyde (loosely based on the Robert Louis Stevenson literary classic, of course).

She is also one of several pro-active young starlets that jockeyed for the role of DC Comics Wonder Woman, but in her case she managed to make a cute little film of herself "performing" some action scenes as the Amazon Princess Diana in the costume pictured at right.

It's available on You Tube if you search under her name, and you really outta go check it out when you get the chance.

I don't see Blythe as WW for any big screen version, but if they had intended to do a simple TV remake of the old Lynda Carter series; maybe on the CW network - - - then I think she would have been ideal.

Now, if only she would consider doing a private command performance here in the Catacombs .....

Review: Project Superpowers # 2 (Dynamite)

The credits for this series are as follows; Alex Ross: Plot, Covers and Art Direction, Jim Krueger: Plot and Script, Carlos Paul: Interior Art, Simon Bowland: Lettering, and Debora Carita: Colors.

Then there are the usual management designations for Dynamite's President, Chief Operating Officer, Director of Marketing, Creative Director, and Graphic Designer.

What is glaringly absent here is an effective editor.

Three issues (counting the "0" issue) into this reimagined series and the most painfully apparent thing to me is that, despite the participation of Ross & Krueger, this series needed to be polished a hell of alot more than it actually received. Despite any other more lenient reviews which you may read, Carlos Paul does NOT possess the talent necessary to sustain this book beyond its overall glossy sheen. The lovely Alex Ross covers and few interior character designs in each issue, do not justify the utter mess of the overall artwork of Mr. Paul. In fact, his pencilling is so amateurish that Ms. Carita's color palette attempts to compensate for his serious shortcomings as an illustrator.

Shoddy artwork aside, the storyline also fails to measure up and this falls squarely onto the shoulders of Mr. Krueger. There are at least three moments when the action of the issue simply - leaps elsewhere - with no preamble whatsoever. I do get that the captured heroes seem to have been released back into the world with the shattering of Pandora's Box last issue, and that they are scattered throughout the entire globe, but they are jumbled together with other heroes who were not imprisoned by Bruce Carter and perhaps even one new hero using the name of another old Nedor hero.

I believe that the creators actually had their "series" bible in mind when producing this issue, but that doesn't help the readers who may be in the dark about what's going on. Significantly missing back story does not make for a successful series!

I WANTED to like this book and I'm a huge fan of many of the golden ager's who are present here (particularly the Better/Standard/Nedor gang), but damn fellas - - - they all deserve a better effort than this. Spray-painting a nice coating of Alex Ross art over the top of this steaming cowpie just wasn't fair.

I am very ambivalent about investing more time, energy and money on this book.

Review: The Twelve # 4 (Marvel Comics)

[Art by Chris Weston at left is not #4's cover.]

Marvel's solicitation copy for this issue reads, "As the savage murders continue, and members of the Twelve come under a cloud of suspicion, tensions flare, and hero faces off against hero! Plus, the unbelievable origin of underground secret agent Rockman!"

Maybe, but after reading this latest Joe Straczynski offering, I'm still really waiting for something of substance to happen. Chris Weston's art holds up very well as the series progresses, but it would be nice to see him get a chance to do a bit more with this disparate group of time-displaced WWII heroes than simply have them standing (or sitting) around talking.

We finally do get the lowdown on Rockman's origin and there's a page and a half of the Laughing Mask's first modern day attempt at heroics, but other than that, the issue primarily shows the entire group having a going away party for Mastermind Excello whose financial foresight allows him to peel away from the community house that the government has temporarily set up for them. This issue closes out with the Phantom Reporter's initial Daily Bugle article on the nature of old-school heroism versus the modern equivalent of gritty, dysfunctional heroism.

Or so it seems.

A 25th Anniversary Salute to Alpha Flight # 1 (April 1983)

Alpha Flight originally appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979) where the team was meant to simply be a part of the back history of the X-Men’s Wolverine, but they became noteworthy for being one of the few Canadian superhero groups. Throughout most of its existence the team has worked for Department H, a branch of Canada’s Department of National Defense that deals with super-powered threats.

In 1983, creator John Byrne reluctantly launched the team in their own self-titled series that was patterned somewhat after the old TV spy show, “Mission: Impossible”, with story lines that dealt with one or two characters at a time, seldom bringing all the members together. Although this unusual approach contrasted with other popular Marvel team series during that time, Alpha Flight attracted many fans and the series continued past Byrne’s involvement (he exited with issue # 28) for 130 issues until 1994; although three short-lived revivals have been subsequently attempted.

The initial makeup of Alpha Flight included Guardian: (Originally Weapon Alpha, then Vindicator), James MacDonald Hudson was a scientist from Ottawa who wore a suit of battle-armor which allowed him to fly and manipulate Earth's magnetic field, Heather MacNeil was the wife of James Hudson. After Guardian's apparent death in Alpha Flight #12, she took his costume and became field leader of the team, Marrina was an amphibious woman from Newfoundland, who was actually part of an extraterrestrial invading force known as the Plodex, Northstar: Jean-Paul Beaubier was a mutant with powers of super-speed and light generation. He was the first openly homosexual superhero in the Marvel Universe, Aurora: Jeanne-Marie Beaubier was Northstar's schizophrenic twin sister. Like her brother, she was also a mutant with powers of super-speed, flight, light generation, and molecular acceleration, Puck: Eugene Milton Judd was a dwarf bouncer from Saskatoon with enhanced strength and extraordinary acrobatic abilities, Sasquatch: Walter Langowski was a scientist from British Columbia who could transform into a giant fur-covered beast. This character originally developed his powers from a gamma radiation experiment that was affected by a solar-flare, but eventually it was explained that Sasquatch was actually a mystical monster, Shaman: Michael Twoyoungmen was a First Nations medicine man from Calgary, who was both a skilled doctor and sorcerer, Snowbird: (Also known as Narya) was an Inuit demi-goddess from Yellowknife who could fly and transform into animals of the north.

From the Dust Bin: John Wayne Adventure Comics

"The Greatest Cowboy Star Of Them All!"

As one of the most popular motion picture icons in the history of cinema, John Wayne was the leading box office star for many years receiving the 1969 Academy Award for his role as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. Wayne's status also brought him the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Duke also was featured in his own comic book published by Toby Press entitled John Wayne Adventure Comics.

It ran for 31 issues from 1949 thru 1955. The stories were not all western, but also represented the war and adventure genres that he was known for as well. Most issues had photo covers of Wayne. Later, Dell Comics also published a few comic book adaptations of some of John Wayne's popular movies, including Rio Bravo, The Sons of Katie Elder, The Wings of Eagles & The Searchers.

Live from the Oval Office in the Catacombs

My Fellow Americans: As you all know, the defeat of the former Iraqi regime has long been completed.

Since congress does not want to spend any more money on this war, our mission in Iraq is completed.

This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq and this action will be completed within 30 days. It is now time to begin the reckoning!

I have before me two lists. One list contains the names of countries which have stood by our side during the Iraq conflict. The list is short. The United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria, Australia, and Poland are some of the countries listed there.

The other list contains every nation that is not included on the first list. Most of the world's nations are on that list. My press secretary will be distributing copies of both lists later this evening.

Let me start by saying that effective immediately, foreign aid to those nations on List 2 ceases immediately and indefinitely. The money saved during the first year alone will pretty much pay for the costs of the Iraqi war. Then every year there after it will go to our social security system so it won’t go broke in 20 years.

The American people are no longer going to pour money into third world hellholes and watch those government leaders grow fat on corruption.

Need help with a famine? Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France.

In the future, together with Congress, I will work to redirect this money toward solving the vexing social problems we still have at home. On that note, a word to terrorist organizations, screw with us and we will hunt you down and eliminate you and all your friends from the face of the earth.

Thirsting for a gutsy country to terrorize? Try France or maybe China.

I am ordering the immediate severing of diplomatic relations with France, Germany, and Russia . Thanks for all your help, comrades. We are retiring from NATO as well. Bon chance, mes amis.

I have instructed the Mayor of New York City to begin towing the many UN diplomatic vehicles located in Manhattan with more than two unpaid parking tickets to sites where those vehicles will be stripped, shredded and crushed. I don't care about whatever treaty pertains to this. You creeps have tens of thousands of unpaid tickets. Pay those tickets tomorrow or watch your precious Benzes, Beamers, and limos be turned over to some of the finest chop shops in the world. I love New York!

A special note to our neighbors: Canada is on List 2. Since we are likely to be seeing a lot more of each other, you folks might want to try not pissing us off for a change.

Mexico is also on List 2, its president and his entire corrupt government, really need an attitude adjustment. I will have a couple extra thousand tanks and infantry divisions sitting around. Guess where I am going to put them? Yep, border security.

Oh, by the way, the United States is abrogating the NAFTA treaty - starting now.

We are tired of the one-way highway. Immediately, we'll be drilling for oil in Alaska - which will take care of this country's oil needs for decades to come. If you're an environmentalist who opposes this decision, I refer you to List 2 above: Pick a country and move there.

It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and it s own citizens. Some will accuse us of isolationism. I answer them by saying, 'darn tootin.'

Nearly a century of trying to help folks live a decent life around the world has only earned us the undying enmity of just about everyone on the planet. It is time to eliminate hunger in America It is time to eliminate homelessness in America. To the nations on List 1, a final thought. Thank you, guys. We owe you and we won't forget.

To the nations on List 2, a final thought: You might want to learn to speak Arabic.

God bless America . Thank you and good night.

* [Happy April Fool's Day, but I can't say that I'm really joking in reusing this statement from an unknown genius)

In Memorium: Jim Mooney

One of the most prolific artists to ever draw comic books, Jim Mooney, passed away in Florida on Sunday. He was born in 1919 and had been in failing health for some time, especially since the passing of his wife Anne in 2005.

Mooney began his career in the golden age working for Fox Publications, Fiction House and Timely Comics. His twenty-two year association with DC Comics led to his working on Batman, Superboy, Tommy Tomorrow, Dial "H" For Hero, the Legion of Super-Heroes and Supergirl. He later jumped over to Marvel where his pencils & inks were featured on such titles as Spider-Man, Thor, Marvel Team-Up, Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown.

Jim Mooney was a class act and his comics work was topnotch. Many condolences go out to his family, friends and fans.