Ken Aldred

Volume 1 is my favourite Absolute. The Bryan Hitch artwork suits the format perfectly. That's a good counterargument for buying it.

Definitely worth thinking about. I got the Absolute Planetary, and Absolute Authority years ago.

I still have my Secret Wars books to post about. Seems to be an Avengers year for me.

196 to 210 Young Avengers 1 to 15, 3rd series 2013 For me, the best of the three series, with a very different approach by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, who also created the excellent "The Wicked and the Divine" at Image. New team members, and a new enemy; an extra-dimensional psychic parasite, not just falling back on another standard Avengers villain such as Kang or Doom, as used in the previous series. Very different artwork, a very open, clean style, some very inventive page layouts and design, clear storytelling with an indie feel, which probably won’t suit everyone. Storywise, if you like Grant Morrison’s work or Vertigo titles, this series might appeal to you. Again, like X-Force, a very interesting, atypical Marvel comic.

Planetary is a great series. The one-shots are worth reading as well.

Possibly, to protect them from the UV radiation.

What about Korg instead? Worth mentioning.

I would’ve chosen this one.

Guy Gardner prototype.

Yup. Richard Corben started out in the underground, has done very similar work in the mainstream for Dark Horse, Marvel and DC, is recognised as being one of the best graphic storytellers ever to work in comics, and a horror artist up there with Graham Ingels and Berni Wrightson. So, despite my fanboy hyperbole here, there’s genuinely some good stuff.

Howard was exceptional. I always enjoyed chatting with him on the phone. He was incredibly enthusiastic about his comics and about meeting his favourite creators at conventions. Genuine, friendly, and very smart. To say that he was ‘knowledgeable’ about his specialist field of underground comix is a big understatement; he was world expert level. Without him I would never have built up my Richard Corben collection to its current standard: I would not have had such consistent, easy access to a wide range of high grade copies over here. His raw grading was also very generous. What isn’t quite so widely known is that as well as a fantastic underground collection he also had an equally impressive high grade Marvel collection. I wish I’d met him sooner than I did, and a very sad loss to the collecting community as a whole.

Howard was great. Still miss the guy here.

Cyclops, Nightcrawler, most of The Doom Patrol, Ferro Lad of the LOSH ?

And, of course, kids always follow instructions to the letter. A ridiculous expectation.

IIRC, it's supposed to be a homage to a record cover and group. It's still pants, though.

You weren't messing around with one of these, were you? A freak accident with uranium ore?

Yup. According to the video the story was ignored, so it failed completely as an attempt to change the origin.

I just remembered the actual story, and then found this video... I didn’t quite get it right.

I could be wrong here, but I’m sure I read a story once where the coincidence was explained as being due to some magical entity manipulating the situation, exposing them both to an identical lightning and chemical mix combination that created super-speed powers in exactly the same way, but then realised the idea was rubbish and made the origin even more ridiculous, and soon retconned it out.

I don’t think it’s that bad. She’s possibly ‘double-jointed‘, though.

Yup. I included that as magic, but you’re right. There’s a degree of crossover. Juggernaut magically empowered by a supernatural being, Cyttorak.

Yup. Doctor Doom has a full-size basketball court in his Latverian castle, which he practises on regularly when he has some time off from his attempts at world domination.