This particular issue would be my candidate for most underwhelming oversized anniversary issue of the era. It was heavily promoted throughout the DC titles of the era--and who could resist that story hook? It's the day the Batman retires! But honestly, it's a pretty bleh read, tedious, and with the central thesis really being fitted … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #300
This was the fourth chapter in Superman's clash with the super-powered android Amazo, a conflict designed as the backdrop through which to introduce a new and marketable new piece of Kryptonian lore to the mythos: the Supermobile. Having accomplished that over the past two issues, it was time to get this story wrapped up this … Continue reading BHOC: ACTION COMICS #483
I picked up this issue of GREEN LANTERN on one of my weekly comic book runs to the 7-11. It has to be said that, after issue #100, I really wasn't enjoying GREEN LANTERN all that much. I really liked the character, having first been exposed to him in his back-up series in the pages … Continue reading BHOC: GREEN LANTERN #104
If there's one thing that DC has loved to do over the years, it's to explore strange story avenues and then abandon them. In some ways, that's become their history ever since CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS--it feels that you can't go but a few years anymore until everything you've read is thrown out and they … Continue reading 5BC: Would You Believe Five More Forgotten DC Retcons
I had seen ads for it in the pages of my DC Comics for weeks and lusted after it, but this issue of DC SPECIAL SERIES featuring the Flash in an all-new adventure that took up the whole of this Dollar Comic sized issue never made it to my local 7-11. By this point, distribution … Continue reading BHOC: DC SPECIAL SERIES #11
We've been talking a lot about the unofficial crossovers between characters and the homages that were done. But beyond that, there's a whole other category of instances in which one company either appropriated or parodied or referenced the characters of another. These instances tended to take many different forms--there was one memorable instance, for example, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times DC Referenced Marvel Characters in Interesting Ways
Pretty sure that this was another book that my brother picked up that I eventually ended up with. All comics came to me eventually. Despite the fact that it was still being edited by Julie Schwartz, whose editorial style helped to define what I liked in my comic books, I still wasn't following Batman with … Continue reading BHOC: BATMAN #299
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
As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, two things were going on in the world of comics. Upstart publisher Marvel was gaining ground on its rival, the massive DC Comics, then known as National Periodical Publications. And a new generation of creators was coming into the field, one that had grown up reading comics as … Continue reading 5BC: Five Best Unofficial Marvel and DC Crossovers
Right on cue, the mailman delivered to me this month's copy of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, a title for which I still maintained a subscription. That's a really nice cover my Michael Kaluta, though I don't think the coloring entirely works--the orange hold on Doctor Destiny does make the three heroes pop well, but it … Continue reading BHOC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #154
