Silver Surfer #44

(MARVEL)
December 1990



Good Guy: Silver Surfer
Bad Guy: Thanos

Cameos: Drax the Destroyer, Eros, Mentor, Galactus, Loki, Mephisto, Thor, Firelord, Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom, Hulk, Captain America, Nova, Super Skrull, Impossible-Man, Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Shalla-Bal … there are few more, that I couldn't recognise (see below)

Synopsis

“Epiphany”

Writer: Jim Starlin
Artist: Ron Lim

The Silver Surfer discovers that Thanos lives. Thanos faked his own death so that the Silver Surfer and others would be thrown off his trail. Thanos now possesses the Infinity Gems and wields infinite power.

Thanos brings Drax and the Surfer before him. He explains to them that he has become master of time, space, soul, mind, reality and power.

Thanos renders the Surfer and Drax helpless meanwhile Mephisto sits patiently watching waiting for Thanos to slip up so that he can grasp the power of the Infinity gems.

Rating: 6/10

This story just explains the power that Thanos now wields with the Infinity gems in his possession.


Favorite Panel:



The panel where all the cameos came from…

Hercules Prince of Power, Volume 2, #4

(MARVEL)
June 1984



Good Guy: Hercules
Bad Guy: Zeus

Cameos: Recorder, Apollo, Red Wolf, Skyppi the Skrull, Mentor, Eros

Synopsis

“A Pearl of Great Price!”

Writer/Artist: Bob Layton

Hercules arrives in Olympus to find it deserted and in ruins. He is shocked to find that his father, Zeus, has destroyed all the Gods of Olympus and intends to battle Hercules to the death.

Zeus and Hercules battle and as Herc has the advantage he cannot kill his father. His father says that Hercules has passed the test. He states that the time of the Gods has long since passed and that the fates decreed that one, born of the Gods and of man, will survive. Zeus feared that Hercules was so headstrong that he would fail to prove worthy but he did not.

Zeus says all the other Gods he had slain are safe in a different reality and he must join them. He gives Hercules the choice to decide to stay or join his brethren beyond the stars.

He decides to stay and forge his own beginning amongst the stars.

Rating: 7/10

Not a bad story reminiscent of the recent 2004 Thor series where he is ruler of Asgard. Looking forward to Thor’s return next month, I bet Hercules is too!!

Favorite Panel:

The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Man #14

(DC)
July 1983



Good Guy: Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein)
Bad Guys: Multiplex & Enforcer

Cameos: Jefferson, Cliff Carmichael, Doreen Day, Clarissa Clemens, Lorraine Reilly, Senator Walter Reilly, Ed Raymond

Synopsis

“Enforcer”

Writer/Editor: Gerry Conway
Artist/Storyteller: Pat Broderick
Artist/Embellisher: Rodin Rodriguez

The Professor has just lost his job at Concordance Research and Ronnie gets him a job flipping burgers at the Bun n’ Bun.

Outside, the Professor’s ex-wife Clarissa Clemens is enjoying watching her ex-husband flounder at his new job. She signals to her employer, Enforcer, that he is about to be fired and make his exit out of the restaurant.

Martin and Ronnie (who gets fired aswell) walk out and encounter Enforcer. He kidnaps the Professor and throws Ronnie through a window. When he comes to, Ronnie attempts to transform into Firestorm but the torture that Martin is under prevents him from doing so.

Meanwhile Lorraine Reilly has been kidnapped and her father Senator Reilly is being blackmailed.

The Enforcer places disrupter pods on Martin’s temples and says he knows about Martin and Ronnie being Firestorm from a tape the Professor made admitting it (stupid!!).

Martin uses a soldering iron that he finds in the lab where he has been kept for safe keeping and burns the pods off his head. The Firestorm transformation is enabled and they go to battle enforcer. The enforcer blasts them in his Sentry Mark XX Combat Tank and he is captured.

The brains behind the whole kidnapping, turns out to be Multiplex.

Rating: 8/10

Great read. The Enforcer is a great mercenary villain.


Favorite Panel:

Hercules Prince of Power, Volume 2, #2

(MARVEL)
April 1984



Good Guy: Hercules
Bad Guy: Zeus

Cameos: Dionysus, Hephaestus, Apollo, Athena, Red Wolf, Recorder

Synopsis

“Red Wolf stalks the Stars!”

Creator of Nifty Words and Pictures: Bob Layton

Hercules, Recorder and Skyppi the Skrull are pursued by Stratos Patrol as they attempt to escape the planet Deniciere in Hercules’s chariot. Hercules leaps off the chariot to confront them and Recorder, Skyppi and chariot go flying into a building.

Eventually they escape and travel to Starstation Philord. Here they find that a Skrull has been disguising himself as Parnal Banak a candidate for President. The Red Wolf appears and kills Banak. He himself is shot and reverts to a more frail human form.

Upon arrival at the Starstation Hercules is arrested and put in the same cell as the man who converted into the Red Wolf. Hercules notes that he is aging and at that same moment Zeus has begun killing all the Gods of Olympus and retrieving his power from those he gave.

The man in the cell with Herc is Rojohn Smythe an archeologist who came upon the power of the Red Wolf while visiting a planet called Talbosia whose inhabitants had been wiped out by the Skrulls. He became an unwilling spirit of vengeance against the Skrulls.

Skyppi comes to rescue Hercules and this triggers the Red Wolf transformation in Rojohn. A fight ensues and Hercules saves Red Wolf from being sucked out into space.

Rating: 7/10

Red Wolf is very similar to Orion of the new gods from DC comics. Good issue. Zeus killing the gods is the highlight/lowlight whatever you want to call it.


Favorite Panel:

I couldn’t split these three panels of Zeus really losing it… reminiscent of Lord Vader wiping out the Jedi in Revenge of the Sith...

Amazing Spider-Man #283

(MARVEL)
December 1986



Good Guy: Spider-Man
Bad Guys: Titania & the Absorbing Man

Cameos: Flash Thompson, Captain Keating, Kate Cushing, Betty Brant, Ned Leeds, Joe Robertson, Lance Bannon, Wasp, Mary Jane Watson, Hobgoblin, Daniel Kingsley (posing as his identical twin brother Roderick)

Synopsis

“With foes like these…”

Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Ron Frenz

Peter Parker's old high school classmate/bully Flash Thompson has been wrongly accused of being the infamous Hobgoblin.

While searching for Flash Spidey runs into Titania robbing a jewelry store. She flees when she sees Spider-Man because in their last encounter (in the “Secret Wars”) Spidey trounced her.

Spider-Man tracks her down to a fancy hotel where her and Crusher Creel, aka the Absorbing Man, are hiding out. They let slip that they are going to make a huge haul at the Airport later that night so Spidey informs the Avengers.

Peter sells some photo’s to the Bugle and has a run in with Ned Leeds who continues to set off his Spider-sense. He meets MJ for lunch and his Spider-sense is again set off when the Hobgoblin is in the next room meeting with Daniel Kingsley (at the time we believe it to be Roderick his identical twin brother, however Daniel is running the modeling agency by day so that his brother, the Hobgoblin, can go about terrorizing the city - confusing ---yes!!)

Peter tells MJ that he will quit being Spider-Man after he finds Flash. Over the radio Spider-Man hears there has been a major disturbance at Avengers HQ. Just to make sure the Avengers apprehended Titania and the Absorbing Man he web-swings over to the airport where Titania throws a car at him.

A battle ensues and ends with Crusher holding up a plane and telling the wall crawler to go away or he’ll destroy the plane with all the passengers inside. Spider-Man has no option other than to leave.

Rating: 9/10

Great comic full of cameo's and lots of action!!


Favorite Panel:

Simple.. Spidey hitching a ride on top of a police car..