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Australia has Halo 'Grading'. They're just a few minutes drive from me. They... umm... hmmm... I've literally got nothing nice to say about them...

'Bullwinkle And Rocky'? How odd. First time I've ever seen Bullwinkle's name first. For the duo in general, I mean, not as a comic variant.

I know this looks like a joke, but is anyone else following this series? It's actually pretty dang good, with great art and a surprisingly decent story. If I'm honest, it's actually the book on my pull list I most look forward to. Never would have thought I'd ever say that about bloody Youngblood of all things, but there you go. It's just a ton of fun. Anyone else reading this series? Enjoying it?

It's the Retailer Incentive cover to Transformers 2009 series, issue 3 (obviously). So it was the 'rarest' cover for normal retail. I can't recall what the ratio was though, sorry. It's issue 3 of the ongoing series, IDW's first true G1-verse ongoing. The series ultimately ran for 31 issues, iirc.

This is a tough one, but I've got to go with Thing. I've loved the FF since I was literally a child, and I fell in love with both the brusque Lee/Kirby Thing, and the kinder and gentler, 'uncle you'd love to have' Thing in the 'current' DeFalco and Ryan series of the time. My second choice would be Colossus. His character was one I only really knew (when I was a kid getting into comics) as a conflicted traitor who'd tragically lost his sister, but over time I got to know the 'full' character thanks to reprints and his return to the X-Men. While it was a horrible storyline, I still have a soft spot for Uncanny #390 (I think that's the issue) where he sacrifices himself to end the Legacy Virus. I can appreciate the plethora of story holes and conveniences, but the issue still hits me in the feels. He's a great character, undoubtedly one of Marvel's most fleshed-out and developed, thanks to Claremont and co.

Will this product work on the massive stain that is Photobucket's reputation?

I don't think it quite counts for your premise, but New 52 Earth 2 includes a similar set of circumstances, which ends up giving us an outcome along the lines of what you're looking for. Spoilers ahead, obviously: Bruce becomes Batman, and dies saving the world in Darkseid's invasion. Then a new Batman emerges sometime later (coincidentally around the point when the series jumped the shark, after James Robinson left). We find out that (obviously a big SPOILER, so y'know) it's Thomas Wayne, having taken up the cowl to honour his son. That night in the alley only Martha was killed, but I think there may have been some other element at play that made Bruce think his dad was dead too? I can't quite remember that.

Here's a two-fer. Both are Moderns, and they're both hideous in their own special way. This one just looks so amateurish, and I'm not a fan of Storm's new look and codename: Horseface. Then there's this masterpiece...

I'm assuming we're talking strictly in his Ant-Man duds, otherwise it complicates things (right off the bat he has a full-size Giant-Man in the same set I mention below). For the classic Ant-Man I know there was one included as a pack-in with the Toy Biz Silver Age Avengers Boxed Set around the mid 90's. Apart from that, I can't recall any aside from more even more miniature pack-ins (besides the cartoon toys for the Avengers: United They Stand tie-in lines), like with ML7 Hawkeye's arrow, until he finally got a full-size figure with the Wal-Mart exclusive wave in Marvel Legends wave 12, which would have been around 2005-2006ish,

Absolutely love his work, IMO it's a shame he didn't do more comic work before leaving for animation. I can easily understand someone not liking his style, though. It's definitely a love or leave it.

Greg Land. No way, no how.

But the jury understands a clear series of rising numbers. Why not just list it as it was; 6.5, 8.0, 9.0? That's easier for them to follow then 'numbers, conjecture, numbers'. Reading the complaint as written, I think there's a reasonable chance you'd expect that middle number to be the lowest of the 3. The way it reads in the complaint, at least to me, makes one think that CGC must have graded the book lower than CCS' original submission, or at the very best, equal to the original (although that seems highly unlikely given the use of 'absurd', and the text that follows). Had they listed the actual grade CGC assigned, they could still have given commentary calling it absurd. The complaint implies it wasn't until the book reached the other grading company that the 'additional value' of the work the Meyers put in was 'noticed and duly rewarded', when that apparently wasn't the case at all (thank you Mr Zaid). Ultimately, it's that, given the style and formatting of the rest of the document, the exclusion of the grade of the book at that stage of the process is inconsistent with the surrounding text, and it seems to me that there must be a reason for that. It seems, to me, to be a deliberate omission. My opinion is that it's because it severely undercuts their own case, as it shows that CGC was NOT above grading IGB's work above that of their own sister company CCS, and thus disproves some key components of IGB's case, mainly that CGC overgraded their own work and degraded the work of IGB. This book is a specific example of that being false, as we see here IGB receiving a higher grade than CCS. Another point as to the jury not understanding the grading is that the ENTIRE case is about the increase available in graded comics after getting them restored, so I can't believe the judge or jury would be confused by it in this particular instance. Should this go to trial, I imagine they're going to have a pretty darn good understanding of the basics involved, and again, it's pretty straight-forward in this example. Sorry for the long post, and IANAL. I'm also interested in the AF15.

By pure coincidence I happened to have found the original thread in Gold just yesterday morning. Imagine my surprise to see it shunted to the front page by the time I'd finished reading it (yes, I read it all in 1 sitting). Having read the complaint, a few things stand out to me. They're very specific, as they should be, but there's a few times where they're suddenly oddly vague, at times where they certainly have the data in question. Here's the example that stood out the most to me: they mention that they resubmitted a book originally restored by CCS. They list the prior grade of the book, 6.5. However, when it comes time to list the result of IGB's submission, no numerical grade is given, and in its place the objectively useless term 'absurd grade' is used. They obviously know what the grade was. Including that information is much more useful than a meaningless hyperbolic term like 'absurd'. My assumption is that the grade on the resubmission was higher than CCS', although not to the extent they believe their work is worth. I assume that means it could have graded anywhere from a 7.0 to an 8.0, maybe even an 8.5 as an outside stretch, and still be considered 'absurd' by the Meyers. Why would they not include that number, whatever it may be? Simple. If it's higher than CCS' submission, even a little, they're going to struggle to convince a jury that there's a conspiracy at play here. They were, after all, being rewarded for their work. They acknowledge CCS as one of the top dogs in the biz, and CGC's own company, yet this would show that CGC was not above giving IGB a higher rating than the work of their own company. That kind of hurts their case. A lot. Whatever the truth, I find the lack of the mention of the grade of the CCS resubmission to be an odd omission.

The big conundrum will be how you plan to tackle the crossovers. Are you going to read the events in their entirety, or just the Uncanny issues devoid of their larger context? Don't forget there's also the -1 issue, and the 4 issues it became Astonishing X-Men during AOA. Omniboo are a great way to get large chunks at once, and some volumes have been reprinted, reducing their secondary market prices. Unfortunately the SA volume 1 has not been reprinted, and is one of the pricier editions. Volume 2 should still be available at cover, though. Some of the content of volume 1 is available as a single Epic collection, and it is available over a few Masterworks volumes. Unfortunately certain numbers are also a bit pricey, not counting volume 1, which is cheap and plentiful. The classic omniboo also include the letter pages, a nice touch that isn't featured in any of the MW printings to date. There's also a Masterworks volume collecting their appearances between the end of the original run and Giant-Size 1, if that matters to you. There are 3 omnis collecting the run from GS1 up to about #175. There's an Epic collection called 'The Gift' that contains (iirc) 188ish-198. That almost covers all your gaps. A few years ago there were some UK reprints that (again, IIRC) collected the issues that are missing from the late hundreds. They're digest-sized, but cheap and in colour, so would be an inexpensive way to just get the stories, I'd imagine, if you're not concerned about format. Add it all together with what you already have, and you'd probably have a full run at a reasonable price, assuming we're not bothering with most crossovers.

So this is our first SW one that's completely made up and never existed.* Surprised they're going that route already, especially with an episode 1 Anakin. * Technically second if you count Lando, as he never existed on a plain Star Wars backer. That's a pretty minor detail though.

Ouch. That's a bit discouraging. I've just decided to jump in on these, and ordered Chewie, R2, 3PO, and Stormtrooper to start me off. I figured Boba would be my most expensive due to the Fett tax, wasn't expecting Han to go for so much.

But not a short response, nor a response of a person of integrity or honesty. So thanks, but I'm okay with never knowing for sure (and really, we know he doesn't know the answer, or we'd all know what it said for sure).

I've always wondered if the first name on the Reilly stamp was 'Alfie'.

Worst Wolverine?

Drift is completely creator-driven, nothing fan-related about his creation or use. Windblade was the first ever fan-tinkered bot, followed by the recent Victorion. Dreamwave had put itself out there as taking place in a timeline that starts after season 2 of the cartoon, and before the movie, but it clearly became a completely alternate take on that, as events throughout meant the movie couldn't take place as it was. It's interesting that the first mini was retconned with the second, removing all season 2 characters from it (this most prominently affects Red Alert, ironically a character also most affected by the various Marvel continuities).

Quick corrections: Drift wasn't a fanbot. He was created by McCarthy and Guidi, with input from Ryall. Marvel US is in-continuity with Marvel UK, but NOT the other way around. The UK run isn't in-continuity with the US material. RG1 is a continuation of US, but does consist of more than a few nods to M-UK. It's a bit complicated.