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Remembrance of things past!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time

does your character transform into another being as part of their powers?

FOOD


H _ R _
_ O _ L E _
E _ _ S

stile (R) - 1 - may solve, guess a vowel, or guess a consonant

Wrong guesses: A, N, P, T

Cosmic Boy
Saturn Girl
Live Wire
Brainiac 5
Gates
Kinetix
Shrinking Violet

Amen to that, EDE, amen to that.

AVENGERS 350-354 (Cover dates Early August 1992-Early October 1992)

In the late 80s and early 90s, Marvel would often ship several of their monthly titles on a bi-weekly schedule during the summers. 1992 was the last year they did this, and all I can say is that it's a shame they didn't stop one year sooner. In a word, this bunch of issues is a mess. But I would be remiss if I were to deny that they get off to a very promising start.

Issue 350 was treated as an anniversary special purely because of its last two numerals (another thing Marvel did a lot in the early 90s.) As such, it is double-sized and it features not only guest spots from characters associated with the X-Men (Marvel's biggest franchise at that time) but also a reprint of Avengers 53, an early Avengers vs X-Men battle written by Roy Thomas and penciled by John Buscema. Since JB is my favorite comic book artist of all time, I wish I could report that the artwork herein represents JB at this best (especially since this story originally came out in 1968, a year which I have often singled out as the pinnacle of JB's entire career.) Sadly, such is not the case, and the blame falls squarely on inker George Tuska, who appears to have simply traced the bare outlines of Buscema's pencil art in a rushed, or perhaps lazy, fashion.

The all-new lead story by Epting/Harras/Palmer...now that's something else altogether! The art time delivers what is arguably their finest showing to date, starting with the front cover, a homage to Dave Cockrum's iconic cover for Uncanny X-Men issue 100. Epting & Palmer more than do justice to the original, with a typically elegant composition by Epting, who unlike most artists of his generation (he was born sometime in the 1960s,) did smooth curvilinear compositions and lean figures, rather than jagged explosions of lines and blocky bodies.

Epting & Palmer's inside art (Palmer also sharing coloring duties with Sara Mossoff) is superlative! The first three pages, set on a sleazy exoplanet, galaxies away from Earth, are so good I almost want to weep (not only in joy, but also in sadness that, despite his talent for space opera, Epting has never illustrated a Star Wars or Star Trek comic; nor, for that matter, a Legion comic.) In this prologue, the reader is witness to dirty scheming on the part of Raza Longknife and Mam'selle Hepzibah, the two most morally ambiguous members of the band space pirates known as the Starjammers (semi-regulars in the X-Men franchise, who interacted with the Avengers for the first time during a sequence from Operation Galactic Storm.) Raza, with his long topknot hair, beefy build, cyborg eye, and steely demeanor, is clearly not a sentient to be messed with, while Hepzibah -- whom the Starjammers' captain, Earth-born Christopher "Corsair" Summers, named after a character from the classic comic strip Pogo) -- is a sexy femme fatale who also resembles an anthropomorphic skunk; not being a furries fan, it takes a special kind of talent to make Hepzibah look attractive to me, and Epting has it in spades!)

The two rogue Starjammers conspire with an equally roguish Kree soldier to kill the Earth-born Avenger known as the Black Knight (recall that, during Galactic Storm, it was the Knight who dealt the killing (?) blow to the Kree's genocidal leader, the Superme Intelligence, allowing the Shi'ar to annex the Kree empire to their own.) The Kree presents Raza with his missing son's medal, asserting that if Raza does this deed, he will lead Raza to the location of the boy.

Turn the page, and we have a beautiful double-spread of a rather motley assemblage at Avengers headquarters: Black Widow, Thor Substitute, Hercules, Vision, and Crystal representing the official team members (but where are Black Knight and Sersi? Just wait and see!) playing hosts to Carol Danvers (a sometime Starjammer who was separated from them during OGS and rescued by the Avengers,) Quicksilver (Crystal's estranged husband and the father of her daughter, Luna,) US gov't stooge Valerie Cooper, and, finally, Cyclops and Professor X. But this is no party -- the Avengers' guests bear grim tidings of mutant radicals possibly conspiring to make an example of Luna, who, despite being the child of an Inhuman and a mutant, is herself an ordinary human being.) That Quicksilver's late (?) father was the mutant messiah Magneto doesn't help matters at all.

Unknown to all present at the mansion, the Starjammers are about to pay them a surprise visit, under pretenses of reconnecting with their estranged teammate Carol. In fact, it is the most expedient way to get close enough to Raza & Hepzibah's intended victim, the Black Knight. Despite having taken lives in the past (presumably always in self-defense) Raza proves to not be entirely cold-hearted, questioning his impossible situation: a life (Black Knight) for a life (Raza's son.)

And speaking of the Black Knight, he's deliberately been avoiding the assemblage on the mansion's ground level by clobbering drones in the training room down below. Hercules (now without his signature beard -- me likey) and Thor Substitute/Eric Masterson gently approach the Knight to fill him in on the doings up above, only to be rudely rebuffed by a huffy Knight. After he exits the training room, who should the Knight run into but Crystal (the object of his unrequited affection) and Quicksilver! It's the very definition of an awkward encounter, giving the Knight all the more to brood about as he makes his way to the mansion's roof, where there awaits none other that a levitating Sersi! This, at first, seems a blessing in disguise, giving the Knight someone to confide in about his guilt over killing the Supreme Intelligence, but it soon gets awkward, REALLY awkward, when Sersi just up and kisses him -- passionately. Cue the arrival of the Starjammers!

While the space-pirates mingle with the crowd, Crystal hands Luna to the Inhuman nanny, Marilla, so that the baby girl can return to her crib. Meanwhile, a morosely determined Raza gets the drop on the Knight, who had been alone, tinkering with the Quinjets in the mansion's docking bay. They fight ferociously, making enough noise to alert everyone else in the mansion. Marilla and Luna, closest in proximity to the fray, investigate, unwilling giving Raza an advantage when he snatches Luna from Marilla's arms and threatens to kill her! Despite his rough edges, the Knight is still humane enough to put Luna's safety above his own, giving Raza an opening to disembowel him! Just as Luna is returned to the safety of her nanny, Hercules grabs Raza from behind and begins throttling the space-pirate. As the rest of the heroes rush into the bay, Hercules vows to kill Raza!

This is all very good stuff, good enough to make up for the unfunny filler backup story which immediately follows it. Here, presumably taking place several hours before the events of the lead story, we are witness to the continuing feud between Jarvis and Marilla, ending with Jarvis acting entirely out of character by committing a puerile prank (and I must stress that this waste of paper was NOT written by Harras.)

I wish I could say it gets better again, but, unfortunately, issue 351, a regular-sized installment which wraps things up (sort of,) has few redeeming qualities other than another fine Epting/Palmer cover. In brief, the fighting escalates out of control and spills out into the streets, while Black Knight is comatose in the infirmary. Carol Danvers confronts Raza and, in an unsettling show of we-take-care-of-our-own loyalty, concocts an alibi for Raza. Later, after the Knight pulls through and everyone goes to bed, Hepzibah sneaks into the infirmary, in order to do the dirty deed herself. Just as it seems like Black Widow has caught Hepzibah red-handed, there is an extremely awkward (and unconvincing) interrupton from a celebratory group led by Hercules, which apparently leads the Widow to decide that, whatever Hepzibah's true intentions, nothing bad happened, so let's all forget about it and get happy (this would seem further proof of the personal fanwank I mentioned in my review of issue 343, that this isn't the real Widow but an imposter.) In the end, Carol heads off to her folks' cottage for some rest & relaxation, and the Starjammers leave Earth, with Raza bitter and remorseful despite Black Knight surviving, and a smiling Hepzibah proving herself to have ice for blood.

Even if Epting & Palmer had been able to draw issue 351, I don't think they'd have been able to redeem Harras's script, which, as I described in the paragraph above, cops out clumsily. I'm not going to shame the guest artists by naming them, instead I'll settle for a mild chiding for an obvious rush-job poorly done.

And it all gets even worse in the next three issues, a piss-poor homage to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, with which neither Harras nor Epting have anything to do with. Again, I won't shame the guest creators, and again chalk it up to unfavorable working conditions and a tight schedule.

There is nowhere to go from here than up, and, happily, Avengers soars back to glorious heights in issue 355, which begins an unbroken run of seven issues by Epting/Harras/Palmer which I consider the pinnacle of their entire Avengers run. Stay tuned.

I agree 100 percent about "On an Island."

Avenue

My commission of Element Lad sketch card by Cal Slayton

Well, I found a copy in my library system -- it has minor water damage and it's missing one page from the first issue, but it's readable.

To be blunt, I was underwhelmed and unsatisfied. Oh, the first two (of four) issues were decent enough, and the second one had an effective plot twist which led to a strong cliffhanger. But Busiek's writing aesthetic is just too clean and neat for my taste -- I prefer superhero stories with more of an edge, even when that edge makes them somewhat problematic. And, I'm sorry, I met Perez in person three times, and he seemed like a nice enough person, but his visual aesthetic was just not my thing; that said, it took me years to figure out WHY that is; in a nutshell, I believe (and people are free to disagree) that he never quite mastered perspective or anatomy, and that his faces, while attractive in his first decade as a pro (mid-70s to mid-80s,) were limited in nuanced expression and got uglier and uglier over the final 25 years of his life.

Moreover, both creators just didn't know when to leave well enough alone -- everything and the kitchen sink is one thing, but those guys threw in the chimney, the basement, and the attic! It's just too crowded, both in story and visuals, to resonate for anyone except fans of Busiek-Perez who go in expecting as much. The second half of the story falls apart under the weight of too many characters, too few of which have any kind of meaningful arc (at least in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Barry Allen and Kimiyo Hoshi and Kara Zor-El had something approaching this, even if the execution was clumsy.)

I also find it hypocritical of Busiek that he would assert that the one single reality of two separate universes is sacrosanct, when he has played fast and loose with continuity himself over the course of his career.

So, if you like that creative team, dive right in. If you don't, give this story a wide berth.

thanks Rick, awesome of you to say

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