Ken Aldred

Injustice is very good. Tom Taylor destroys the DC Universe.

The opposite opinion about the art. John Paul Leon was ridiculously underrated by the readership, though highly respected by his peer creators.

Two issues worth of relentless nihilism and bleak depression was quite enough.

Chase 1 to 9, and Chase 1 Million 2023 total = 60 Another bargain bin gem. Quite a good, solid read throughout, raised by some at times excellent art by JH Williams III. Still developing as a creator, with a lot of over-the-top panel designs and page layouts, but underneath that you can see early signs of absolute brilliance here. Definitely could interpret the series as a precursor to Bendis’ more successful Alias comic. The only particularly weak issue for me was the final 1 Million story.

The titles you’d see in book exchanges over here in the 25p bins, back in the day. Never a copy of Magnus Robot Fighter there.

We all have guilty pleasure comics.

Quite a common issue; creating a fresh and vital formula, and then seeing it rushed out and repeated less effectively, and with declining expectation and impact because of familiarity. Nonetheless, the original film is my favourite Marvel Studios film, I hope the final one is good, and I might even go out to watch it on the big screen, my first since Endgame.

Possibly still better than the Ross / Crestohl ads from around the same time in terms of delivery on promise.

Until I joined the boards I had no idea that Archie Comics were such an unceasing source of shocking four-colour filth and innuendo. Quite the eye-opener. Turns out that Making Mine Marvel in the 70s as a kid was actually the safer option.

They had some good stuff in those Special sections. With NM / M you’d get some really nice books, often an easy 9.4 on newer books, overall I’d say in the general 9.0 + zone. But, for the price, and the favourable £ exchange rate in the early 90s, great value. Took forever to receive them by surface mail, but very well packed.

Nothing. You expect their prices to be extortionate and shocking, along with feeble grading. Typical operating procedure. You get desensitised to it eventually.

My first system was based around a super-cheap, third-hand, original version / G3 iMac, which I got mid 2005. (The one that looks like a small portable tube TV.) You could add an Airport card for wi-fi, but it didn't seem terribly stable to me, and a bit of a resource hog on a 5-year-old model.

He”s a Kansas farm boy. Makes sense. Probably has tins of corn as well.

The Terrifics Vol 1 Meet the Terrifics The Terrifics 1 to 6 2023 total = 50 Very disappointing. I like Jeff Lemire’s indie work, and he’s done some good super-hero material such as his Thanos run, but this is very, very weak in comparison. Nice Ivan Reis artwork for the first couple of issues, but quite inessential.

As per my custom title, I approve.

Tempus fugit. Pushing 15 years for me. (2008) Seen the hobby evolve in many ways since then.

I agree. Some of the tie-ins have much more relevance than others, such as the essential lead-in Nova Corps series, others add little. But, the core storyline is great.

Coming from the opposite direction, I’ve always liked cosmic storylines and it’s a very good one.

Alpha Flight Classic Vol 1 Alpha Flight vol 1, 1 to 8 2023 total = 44 John Byrne takes us on a tour of Canada with stories set in the different cities, territories and wilderness areas that the team members originate from, with his usual rock-solid storytelling and artwork.

The Black Label version will be several years after he recovers his hand, and will feature another devastating, traumatising and painful accident in which he has another compensatory augmentation and temporarily changes his alter ego to Batpiece. The Doom Patrol could co-star.

Speedy lost his arm and went bionic at one stage. Or was he Red Arrow then? Something like that. Another non-superpowered character augmented that way, again.

Yup. A harpoon was unlikely.

Probably not. Aquaman recovered well. In the comics world it’s a minor injury. Bionic for a while, maybe.

Yup. Exactly. Without the classic earworm bass line it would’ve been complete garbage.

E-Man The Early Years E-Man 1 to 10 2023 total = 36 Never read these as a kid back in the 70s. Simple SA / BA style stories, interesting character, Joe Staton’s art shows a lot of early promise, having quite a fondness for his later 80s work on Green Lantern; the Guy Gardner / Kilowog / GLC era.