Crisis on Captive Earth: DC editors and creators respond

As DC's editorial hierarchy began to develop its ideas for a sequel to the monstrously popular CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, they ran into a number of false starts and blind alleys. One of those never-was attempts was called CRISIS ON CAPTIVE EARTH, and while some minor aspects of it eventually made their way into LEGENDS, … Continue reading Crisis on Captive Earth: DC editors and creators respond

Crisis II – Roy Thomas’ Ideas

As we saw last week, even as CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS was getting under way in 1985, DC Comics' leadership realized that they had an enormous hit on their hands. And so, even though only the first issue or two had reached the stands, Executive Editor Dick Giordano solicited ideas from both his editorial staff … Continue reading Crisis II – Roy Thomas’ Ideas

THE CLAWS OF THE CAT #5: The Lost Issue

In 1972, Marvel Comics entered its second phase. Editor Stan Lee had been promoted to Publisher and, momentarily, President, and Roy Thomas had been made his successor. What's more, former owner Martin Goodman was gone, as was the limitation on how many releases the company could put out which had been imposed upon them by … Continue reading THE CLAWS OF THE CAT #5: The Lost Issue

Crisis on a Brave New Earth

It's no secret that DC found itself with an enormous hit on its hands in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, the anniversary limited series produced by Marv Wolfman and George Perez designed to restructure and streamline the DC continuity. It was that rare Event series that both left a lasting change upon the line in its … Continue reading Crisis on a Brave New Earth

The First Marvel Resurrection

As I spoke about last week, the early Marvel Comics was relatively consistent with the manner in which it dealt with death. As a general rule, when a character was genuinely killed (as opposed to suffering a "super villain death" at the climax of a story where they fell into the river or some such) … Continue reading The First Marvel Resurrection

WC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #19

Now this is one of my favorite Justice League stories of all time. The fact that I read it as a reprint at a very young and impressionable age probably has something to do with that. But also, it played upon one of my personal fears as a child. Having watched an especially terrifying episode … Continue reading WC: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #19

BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #76

The few other comic book collectors and readers in my area tended to scoff at the Marvel reprint titles, because as they were not originals, they weren't going to accrue in value like the new books would. But as i had no real desire to ever sell my collection, that wasn't a big deal to … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #76