Beyond just inspiring mischievous creators to come up with ways to have characters at rival companies Marvel and DC meet, the anarchic and rebellious spirit of the Bronze Age extended beyond the bounds of the immediate industry, prompting writers and artists to come up with ways to appropriate other characters outside of what was permissible … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Unofficial DC Crossovers
In any long-running series, there's going to be a magnetic pull among a certain type of writer to want to change things, to make adjustments to details, to eliminate contradictions in the stories that have been told and to introduce new information about foundational events. These ideas can sometimes be additive and sometime be destructive, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Forgotten DC Retcons
Over the course of eighty years, DC Comics has introduced any number of great super heroic characters, many of whom have gone on to have long and lasting careers in comics. But alas, some others were struck down before their prime, managing only a few, or even a single solitary appearance before retreating back to … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Forgotten DC Super Heroes
A month had gone by, and so the mailman brought me my latest subscription copy of THE FLASH. This was getting towards the end of my subscription period. Now that I could, and was, visiting the 7-11 every Thursday when new comics dropped like clockwork, there wasn't as much of a need to make sure … Continue reading BHOC: FLASH #259
Still working through my first visit to a comic book shop, that being the Heroes World in Levittown. I also made it a point to pick up a number of more recent books--they were more affordable, so I could walk out with more. Among what I purchased were these two issues of SUPERMAN, the first … Continue reading BHOC: SUPERMAN #296 & 297
This issue of ACTION COMICS would have been another book that I got from my grade school buddy Donald Sims. It's not a bit of a weird cover on it--Superman is so over-muscled here that he practically looks inflated. And I don't know that the lime green background is helping matters any either. All of … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #464
I was still maintaining my subscriptions to FLASH and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA throughout this time, although now that I could regularly get to outlets that sold comics, this was beginning to become an aggravation. because the latest issues inevitably showed up on the spinner racks before they reached my mailbox, meaning I'd have to … Continue reading BHOC: THE FLASH #257
1981 was a year of many anniversaries, and many anniversary issues as a result. This 25th anniversary issue of FLASH was built around a premise that was even then a bit old: Barry Allen wakes up in a hospital room, his body paralyzed and horribly scarred from the accident when lightning struck his police laboratory. … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1981
Fifth grade had just begun when the mailman delivered my subscription copy of FLASH #256. It was in fifth grade that I met my first friend who was enthusiastic about comic books as opposed to simply occasionally reading them like most kids of that era. Don Sims was his name, and we became good friends … Continue reading BHOC THE FLASH #256
It was like a little miracle, a book that couldn't and possibly shouldn't ever happen. But happen it did--and SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was an excellent mixing of the then-contemporary styles of Marvel and DC, very different flavors in that period. The creative team was spot on, anchored by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Comics of 1976
