Ken Aldred

Best Captain America costume… Ultimate version Most entertaining Captain America costume…

Silver Centurion for me.

The period wasn’t all bad, but a lot of this kind of grim-and-gritty remodelling went on.

Pouches.

That was terrible. Dr Fate should never have been turned into a Cable clone. Typical 90s rubbish.

Spider-Man 1 Blue Lizard misprint

With steel toe caps.

Produces a nice overall effect, though. Not unpleasing.

Yup. That's a trend which started for me decades ago with The Crime Syndicate.

Doctor Bedlam is my favourite of the evil Elite gods introduced in the title. Very interesting character concept. And, very sinister. One of my first Kirby comics.

Multiverse events tend to be quite patchy, anyway. I accept that. And, not all changes in characterisation will work. That said, one of the best was Hickman’s Secret Wars.

It was inevitable that the classic Thanos Copter issue would take off.

I like that the publisher for the French Canadian editions is called EH Comics.

Nice selection. The First Issue Special volume is an interesting mix of stories and genres. Some better than others, but you can’t argue with the variety. Fun book.

I never discussed how much my American ND import cent copies or vintage back issues cost, as I knew it’d cause a meltdown, and dad could be quite ferocious and intimidating in a disagreement. Better not to cause a scene. That said, I really didn’t have that much to spend, anyway. I struggled. But, even if a comic had cost £2, cover price at the time being 12p, I suspect a berserker response would have been provoked.

Yup. The temptation is too great. Although many of us now have wooden flooring, a home product that used to amuse me back in the day was the Shagg Pile Carpet.

I was working from memory. Googled it just now and you’re right.

It was the 90s and a lot of stuff in comics didn’t make much sense or hold up to even vague critical thought. The rocky plates on his face had come off, and it looked more fleshy underneath. That’s all.

His face was scarred for a time. That was the reason.

I know it can’t compete with Shagg, but it’s the best I can find.

Great series, beginning to end.

Yup. It followed the same, obvious basic template.

There was The Sphinx, though, the super-villain that Apocalypse could only dream of being.