WOLVERINE Vs. SPIDER-MAN - March 1995

Life’s End

Credits:  Erik Larsen (writer & penciler), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Gregory Wright (colors), Jade Moede (letters)

Part One - Fist Fight

Summary:  Spider-Man spots Wolverine on a rooftop and impulsively attacks him, believing him to be an impostor.  Eventually, Spider-Man realizes that he was wrong.  Wolverine explains to Spider-Man that he’s staking out a warehouse where a young mutant and her father are being held captive.  Spider-Man’s shocked to discover the warehouse is where he caught his uncle’s killer years earlier.  Spider-Man and Wolverine enter the warehouse and trigger a trap.

Part Two - Child’s Play

Summary:  The heroes dodge the automated defenses, then face armed criminals and the supervillains Whiplash, Bloodlust, and Critical Mass.  Spider-Man’s stunned when he realizes that Critical Mass is his fourth grade classmate Arnie Gunderson.  The villains order the captive mutant to use her powers against Spider-Man and Wolverine.  They’re knocked unconscious by her blast of light.

Part Three - Breaking Point

Summary:  Spider-Man and Wolverine recover from the blast and retaliate.  Spider-Man’s in for another shock when he discovers that one of Critical Mass’ armed goons is his dentist.  To force the heroes to surrender, one of the villains puts a gun to the young mutant’s head.  Her powers erupt and destroy the warehouse.  Later, Spider-Man questions if the entire ordeal was a dream when talking to MJ.  Elsewhere, Wolverine sees the girl and her father off at the airport, as they leave to start a new life.

Continuity Notes:  

• The story is set pre-X-Men #1, when the X-Men are still believed dead.  That’s why Spider-Man thinks Wolverine is an impostor at the beginning.
• Based on Wolverine’s dialogue on the final page, no one was hurt in the explosion because the girl teleported everyone away.
• The mutant girl and her father are intended to be the original Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel, although they’re obviously not identified by name.  When writing the monthly Wolverine series, Larsen planned on reviving the girl as the new Marvel Girl, but Chris Claremont used the name for a character in Fantastic Four before Larsen had a chance to reintroduce her.
• Whiplash, Bloodlust, and Critical Mass all debut in this serial.  Whiplash and Bloodlust soon reappear in Amazing Spider-Man as members of the Femme Fatales.  Another one of Critical Mass’ henchmen is a thinly veiled version of Erik Larsen’s Dragon character. Looking online, he's been dubbed "The Savage Fin."
• Spider-Man’s dentist is dressed as Uncle Ben’s killer, as seen in Amazing Fantasy #15.  He claims that he owes Spider-Man for “what he did to my brother,” but no further information is given.

Creative Differences:  Erik Larsen complained in a Savage Dragon letter column about this serial being reprinted without his original credits, implying that it was an intentional slight on Marvel’s part.  The truth is, Marvel was bad about including credits in a few of the Marvel Comics Presents reprints, presumably because the credits were on the inside front cover in MCP and not written on the actual artwork.  Also, Larsen has said that Marvel’s lawyers claimed that Marvel owned the Dragon based on his cameo appearance here, overlooking that Dragon debuted years earlier in small-press B&W comics.

Production Notes:  This is a thirty-two page reprint of Marvel Comics Presents #48-50.  The reprint includes ads, but does have a cardstock cover and glossy paper at a $2.50 cover price.  Amazingly, nothing in the comic tells the reader it’s a reprint; however, the indicia is clearly recycled from the original Marvel Comics Presents issues.  A note at the bottom tells readers to write to Weapon X (the name of one of MCP’s longest-running serials) for subscription information.

Review:  It’s not hard to guess why this material was recycled by Marvel a few years after its initial release.  Not only does it feature work by an Image founder, but it’s also Spider-Man and Wolverine together in the same story.  They also fight for a few pages, which gives Marvel an excuse to name it Spider-Man VS. Wolverine, even though it’s hard to imagine that their three-page fight scene pleased any fan of hero vs. hero brawls.  Oddly enough, some of the more obvious MCP candidates for reprints remained untouched by Marvel in the ‘90s.  I’m specifically thinking of the Wolverine/Venom serial, featuring art by Sam Kieth, which didn’t earn a reprint special during the ‘90s.

This is one of Erik Larsen’s earliest writing jobs, which helps to explain why it’s so nuts.  For starters, this is Larsen from his “Name Withheld” era, which means he seems to have a chip on his shoulder regarding most professional comic writers.  Larsen starts the story with Spider-Man delivering an extensive monologue cataloging every coincidence that’s occurring in his life, a thinly-veiled jab at what Larsen perceived as lazy writing.  (Although all of the more recent examples cited by Spidey aren’t coincidences; Black Cat was dating Flash specifically to agitate Spider-Man, the Puma purchased the Bugle explicitly to repay a debt to Spider-Man, and Glory Grant was wooed by Eduardo Lobo in order to gain access to Daily Bugle files.)  Larsen then goes out of his way to write the most ridiculous coincidences he possibly can, making them increasingly absurd until it’s obvious he’s doing this as a joke.  In case anyone thinks this is too dumb, Larsen throws in a half-hearted “maybe this was all a dream…” conversation towards the end, although it’s unlikely to appease anyone who hates parody stories.  The overall tone of the story isn’t particularly jokey, and Larsen seemed serious about returning to these characters one day, so I’m not clear on what he thought he was doing.  Surely Larsen doesn’t want to establish that Peter’s dentist is his uncle’s murderer’s brother, but if the story is canon, that means all of the dumb coincidences “count” too.  

So, it’s not really a comedy story, but does it work as a simple superhero team-up story?  Yes and no.  On a very basic level, it’s entertaining.  Larsen was upfront at the time about not doing “boring” stories and giving the readers what he thought they wanted, which is relentless action.  Larsen crams a lot of action into the three brief chapters, and given that the eight-page format of MCP doesn’t lend itself to deep material, I can’t blame him for the choice.  Larsen’s art from this era can be polarizing, but I like his quirky Spider-Man and think his Wolverine doesn’t look so bad when Larsen is channeling Walt Simonson’s interpretation.  (On other pages, Wolverine looks very Liefeldian, and that ain't pretty.) Larsen’s art is certainly packed with energy, and I’ve always enjoyed Larsen’s panel layouts.  Every page grabs your attention, at the very least.  Not surprisingly, the weakest element of the serial is the story.  The parody elements make it impossible to take the plot seriously, and other elements, such as the girl developing vaguely defined powers whenever the story needs her to, are annoying.  Spider-Man also has a few lines of dialogue that are so random, such as spontaneously mentioning that his “friend” is a photographer to Wolverine during the fight, I have to wonder if some of the word balloons disappeared somewhere along the way.  Overall, it’s not nearly on the level of early Savage Dragon, and it’s certainly not much of an argument that Larsen can write anything better than the “hackwork” he was forced to pencil back in the day.  If you like simple team-up stories and have a high tolerance for shenanigans, though, you could do worse.

SPIDER-MAN, PUNISHER, SABRETOOTH: DESIGNER GENES - June 1993

Credits:  Terry Kavanagh (writer), Scott McDaniel (penciler), Keith Williams (inks), Joe Rosen (letters), Tom Smith (colors)

Summary:  Peter Parker discovers that numerous lab animals at ESU have been slaughtered by a mystery creature.  Nearby, the Punisher faces a group of arsonists called the Scorchers.  After the Scorchers are neutralized, a homeless woman shows Punisher the mutilated bodies of several of her friends.  Spider-Man and the Punisher’s investigations lead to an underground lab, where they discover Sabretooth.  They mistake Sabretooth for the killer until he reveals that he’s hunting a former Weapon X scientist named Phil Chambers.  Sabretooth leaves Spider-Man and the Punisher to fight amongst themselves and heads to Roxxon’s headquarters.  Spider-Man and the Punisher eventually follow and meet Roxxon executive Brandon Chambers, who has hired his brother Phil to conduct genetic research.  Phil, from his lab, unleashes his genetically modified creature to kill the heroes.  Brandon is shocked to discover the monster is their brother Mitchell, who Phil was allegedly treating for cancer.  With Brandon’s help, Mitchell is restrained.  Sabretooth kills Phil and escapes.  Later, Brandon tries to make amends by using his brother’s altered DNA to advance cancer research.

Continuity Notes:  Sabretooth remarks that “my claws only kill for money...and revenge.”  At this point, Marvel tends to portray Sabretooth as a mercenary rather than a serial killer.

I Love the ‘90s:  Phil Chambers tries to escape with his floppy disc archive of scientific research.  Also, the very concept of “designer jeans” seems unique to the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

“Huh?” Moment:  The Punisher escapes the Roxxon building when Microchip arrives in a helicopter.  The Punisher has his own helicopter…and chubby computer hacker Microchip knows how to pilot one?

Creative Differences:  An added line of dialogue has Spider-Man confirm that one of Roxxon’s guards is still alive after the Punisher forced another guard to shoot him with a laser rifle.

Production Note:  I hesitate to call this a bookshelf format one-shot, because an argument can be made that it’s a full-fledged graphic novel.  It’s not oversized like Marvel’s earlier graphic novels, but it is sixty-four pages of original material at the whopping price of $8.95.  (And that’s in 1993 dollars!)  The cover also has foil effects and raised lettering.

Review:  Do you think Peter David was kicking himself when Terry Kavanagh got to the pun “Designer Genes” first?  If only Peter David had written this one; the silly title probably would’ve remained, but I’m sure he could’ve done something with a Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth team-up story.  Terry Kavanagh does pretty much what you expect Terry Kavanagh to do, which is fill pages with words but never really say anything.  To be fair, there is an effort to give one of the Chambers brothers a character arc, but at no point does Kavanagh actually make him sympathetic or believable.  Instead, Brandon’s redemption is just tossed in during the final pages to create the impression that this comic has more to it than mindless violence.  The story mainly consists of the three lead characters, most likely chosen for marketing reasons, having brief fight scenes with one another that are interrupted by quickie plot points, which lead to more running and fighting until the sixty-four pages are mercifully over.  While the dialogue isn’t as bad as some of Kavanagh’s later work, there are quite a few groaners in here.  The Punisher specifically is saddled with some hideous one-liners, like “He's a killer who needs being dead” and this egregious one: “Just get me to the hurt on time.”  Get me to the hurt on time.  Yeesh.

The back cover plays up the idea that the one-shot contrasts the idea of the hero, the anti-hero, and the villain, but that’s kind of a joke.  Sabretooth and the Punisher are essentially the same character in this story, with Spider-Man playing the part of the overwhelmed hero who accomplishes nothing by the end of the comic.  I will say that Kavanagh writes Spidey pretty well for most of the story, and I was relieved to see Spider-Man make some effort to apprehend the Punisher.  Stories where Spider-Man just accepts what the Punisher does aren’t true to the character, so I have to give Kavanagh some credit for trying to stay loyal to Spider-Man’s values.  However, not only does Spidey fail to apprehend the Punisher, he fails to do anything in this one-shot.  The Punisher escapes.  Sabretooth escapes and kills the main villain.  And the secondary villain gets a redemption arc that Spider-Man has zero participation in.  It’s almost as if Spider-Man’s only here to sell comics or something…

I’m not sure why someone thought that Scott McDaniel at this stage could handle a nine-dollar prestige format book, but he’s clearly out of his depth here.  While his interpretation of Spider-Man is remarkably consistent (and not a bad variation on Ron Lim’s portrayal at the time in Spider-Man Unlimited), the rest of this art looks like any other subpar Jim Lee impersonation from the era.  I’m assuming this was penciled before McDaniel began experimenting with his style on Daredevil; I wasn’t a huge fan of that run, but there was something stylized and cool about it.  Designer Genes just looks like any random Wildstorm comic from 1993, without the fancy computer colors.  This is pretty bad stuff all around.  In Marvel’s quest to reprint everything, I wonder if this is something they’re just going to overlook.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: The Comic Strip - August 29, 1991 to November 15, 1991

Credits: Dean Clarrain (writer), Jim Lawson & Dan Berger (art), Mary Kelleher (letters)

Summary:  Splinter has the Turtles confiscate the laser rifles from Space-Time-Wana’s employees.  After the men exit through the cave, the Turtles use their laser rifles to cause a cave-in that will prevent anyone from returning.  The skeleton emerges, offering the Turtles another raft.  They travel across the ocean and eventually rest on a beach.  A fish-woman arises from the water, near death.  Splinter tries to save her, but his CPR efforts are misinterpreted by her fellow fish-men as an attack.  The Turtles fend off the fish-men while Splinter is drawn into the female’s consciousness.  He witnesses the destruction of her species as the fish-woman takes her final breath.  The fish-men take her body and leave peacefully, overwhelmed with the knowledge that their last female has died.  The Turtles sail away and finally reach Manhattan.  They swim back to their sewer lair and discover April is waiting for them, eager to hear their story.

Pizza References:  Michelangelo won’t tell April the story of their adventure until he’s ordered a few pizzas.

What the Shell?:  The Turtles have amazingly never heard of CPR.  Splinter remarks that it’s a lesson he should’ve taught them.

We're Killing the Earth! :  Splinter refuses to allow “men nor their corporations to exploit this world as they have their own.”  When he orders the Turtles to dissemble the laser rifles and scatter the parts, Michelangelo questions if they’ve inadvertently become the lost world’s first litterers.  Finally, Splinter's mind-meld with the fish-woman provides a treatise on the devastation of the environment, which has ultimately killed her race.

I Love the '90s:  The Turtles refer to the skeleton ferryman as “Bone Loc,” which is a joke Clarrain/Murphy once used for a different skeleton character in the Adventures series.

Review in a Half-Shell:  The comic strip’s initial storyline finally draws to a close, almost a year after it began.  The closing chapters choose not to explain everything away, which means the mechanics of how exactly the Turtles traveled to these various locations and the story behind “Bone Loc” remain unrevealed.  Clarrain/Murphy was clearly going for surrealism for much of this storyline, so it’s not a huge shock that we’re not getting a logical explanation for everything that’s happened, but it does seem like an odd choice for a mainstream audience newspaper strip.  While this kind of thing normally bothers me, the overall mood of the story helps to sell the idea that this is an adventure that didn’t need the typical comic book rationalizations for every crazy idea.

The final section of story is burdened by even more heavy-handed environmental sermons, to the point that a new race of anthropomorphs is introduced solely to tell the audience that we’ve already killed them with our horrible modern lifestyle.  It’s hard not roll your eyes at this stuff, but I have to say that the fish-people story features some of Murphy and Lawson’s finest work in the strip so far.  While Lawson’s “friendly” Turtles still look off, his fish-people are appropriately freaky and weird.  The way he plays with the normally restrictive form of a newspaper strip during Splinter’s journey inside the fish-lady’s mind is fantastic, and Murphy deserves some credit for the trippy narrative sequence.  Yes, it’s preachy, but it’s preachy in a creative way, which makes it more forgivable.  

The discovery that the fish-people are doomed to a quick extinction hits the Turtles hard; as Splinter points out, only four of their race remains, “just like my sons.”  Raphael begins to question his own mortality, reflecting on the ultimate futility of a race that can’t reproduce.  The newspaper strip is the last place I would’ve expected to find an examination of the loneliness of the Turtles’ lives…they can’t mate, can’t carry on a legacy, and have no family outside their own tiny circle.  And there’s no pat resolution to this, either.  Raphael lives with the pain and has no real answer on why he should carry on.  Now, all of this is explored in very tiny panels that are doled out on a daily basis, and the strip doesn’t dwell on the melancholy for long before it’s back to its next “Cowabunga!” and pizza reference, but it’s still a brave choice for the creators to make.  The bizarre, sudden shifts the all-ages Turtles could make are always fascinating to me, and are a major reason why I think this era of TMNT shouldn’t be so quickly dismissed.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: The Comic Strip - May 23, 1991 to August 28, 1991

Credits: Dean Clarrain (writer), Jim Lawson & Dan Berger (art), Mary Kelleher (letters)

Summary:  When King Gorrrge asks the Turtles if they have any final requests, Donatello asks to wear his crown.  He complies, then leaves with the rest of the Grrrufs to find a new land.  Pumarro releases a call to his fellow Qats, who arrive and save the Turtles.  Donatello reveals that King Gorrrge’s crown contains seeds that could be used to grow more Gaea trees.  The Turtles depart Tresmundo on the skeleton’s boat, which has suddenly returned.  They arrive in another strange land, this one populated by dinosaurs.  The dinosaurs are under attack by armored men with laser rifles.  Michelangelo is injured by a laser blast and taken away by a Parasaurolophus.  While he recovers, the Turtles take one of the armored men captive.  He reveals that he’s a “conceptual product scout” for Space-Time-Wana, Inc.  According to him, they discovered an entrance to this world through a cave in Africa.  Raphael wants to find the cave and return to modern Earth, but Splinter is adamant that they can’t leave the dinosaurs to be exploited by man.

Continuity Notes:  

• The Parasaurolophus communicates to Michelangelo in his dreams, telling him that this group of dinosaurs escaped extinction by hiding inside this “world within a world.”  
• Space-Time-Wana, Inc. is described as a “multi-media, multi-national” corporation.  So, you know, of course they’re evil.

Pizza References:  While being burned at the stake, Michelangelo’s last request is for pizza.

We're Killing the Earth! :  The Parasaurolophus’s story about meteorites killing the dinosaurs reminds Michelangelo about the holes in the ozone layer.

Review in a Half-Shell:  Picking up from the last strip’s cliffhanger, the Turtles banter with King Gorrrge for a few days before Clarrain/Murphy gets around to their inevitable escape.  Having Pumarro call for help might seem anticlimactic, but I actually think these strips do a credible job of wrapping up this segment of the storyline.  It makes sense that Pumarro would wait until the Grrrufs have left before calling for reinforcements (since they appeared pretty outmatched during their last fight), and that bit about a last request is quite clever.  It leads to a few decent jokes, fleshes King Gorrrge out a tad, and provides an indirect resolution to the Qats’ problem.  I initially thought the request to receive the crown was about Donatello finding some way to become “king for a day” and cancel their own execution, but Clarrain/Murphy was actually smarter than that.  It’s a nice demonstration of Donatello’s intelligence, and his faith in his brothers that they’ll find a way to escape and help the Qats.  The resolution’s also less depressing than Murphy’s typical environmental messages, which are usually so bleak they defeat whatever point he’s trying to make.

Moving on to the dinosaur arc…well, it has dinosaurs in it.  I guess kids liked that.  I get the basic concept of having the Turtles face a prehistoric and futuristic threat simultaneously, but Jim Lawson’s art suits only the dinosaurs.  Those armored corporate warriors just look like kids cosplaying as something out of bad ‘70s sci-fi.  I can’t even tell if the “conceptual product scouts” are wearing pants or not; it looks as if they have Marge Simpson’s dress on, complimented by an old Battlestar Galactica Cylon helmet.  (I assume Lawson draws them so short in order to have them fit into the same panel with the four-foot tall Turtles, but it does no favors for the already shaky design.)  The story so far consists of Clarrain/Murphy’s typical anti-corporation, pro-environment soapboxing and at this point there isn’t a lot to redeem it.  I will say that the potential conflict between Raphael and Splinter is intriguing, since both characters have reasons within the story for their respective stance.  Splinter understandably wants to save the dinosaurs, but ultimately, I can’t blame Raphael for pursuing what could be their only way home.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: The Comic Strip - March 14, 1991 to May 22, 1991

Credits: Dean Clarrain (writer), Jim Lawson & Dan Berger (art), Mary Kelleher (letters)

Summary:  The Turtles discover that the glowing tree Gaea is Tresmundo’s last remaining tree, and the Qats and Grrrufs both claim ownership.  The Turtles befriend a Qat named Pumarro and protect him from the Grrrufs, who have devastated the forest and now demand the remaining tree.  The light inside the glowing tree suddenly gives out, angering the Grrrufs.  Qat is kidnapped, along with Splinter and the Turtles, by the Grrrufs’ reinforcements.  King Gorrrge of the Grrrufs declares that the six of them must pay for extinguishing the tree by becoming fuel.  They’re tied to stakes and surrounded by fire.

Continuity Notes:  The location of this story is revealed as the land of Tresmundo   Not surprisingly, the Qats are anthropomorphic cat-people and the Grrrufs are anthropomorphic dog-people.  It seems that the newspaper strip is their only appearance.  What a shame that the children of the world never had an opportunity to bug their parents for Pumarro and King Gorrrge action figures for Christmas.  

I Love the '90s:  King Gorrrge says that without the light from the tree, there is only “now a thousand points of blight.”  This is a reference to a phrase used in more than one speech by President George H. W. Bush.  

Review in a Half-Shell:  A pretty weak batch of strips, to be honest.  Clarrain/Murphy is doing his predictable spiel about disrespecting our precious mother Gaea, and the evil Grrrufs have no motivation outside of pure greed.  Even if you’re not exhausted with the writer’s pet themes, it’s hard not to notice that the daily continuity becomes extremely awkward during these weeks.  The sequence that has Pumarro approaching the tree seems to drag on forever, with the Turtles repeating the same dialogue day after day as Pumarro moves like a snail towards this stupid glowing tree.  The fight scene with the Grrrufs is also remarkably tepid, even by the standards of a daily “action” strip.  Jim Lawson’s still around for this entire run, which means that the Qat and Grrruf designs look like something out of an early ‘80s B&W indie, but by no means resemble the cartooning I associate with the mass-merchandised TMNT franchise.  If Ken Mitchroney could’ve drawn any of these strips, it should’ve been this run.  I will say that Lawson occasionally seems to be enjoying himself.  I like the way he plays around with the standard three-panel newspaper format, incorporating the panel designs into the lettering during the Grrruf’s debut, and transforming the panel borders into prison bars when the heroes are incarcerated.  Any break from this tedium is appreciated.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: The Comic Strip - January 23, 1991 to March 13, 1991

Credits: Dean Clarrain (writer), Jim Lawson & Dan Berger (art), Mary Kelleher (letters)

Summary:  While evading the alligators in the dark, Donatello pulls a mysterious plug, which flushes the Turtles down a massive drain.  They land in a body of water and discover their only option to escape is a skeleton ferryman.  They reluctantly take a ride in his boat, but are incensed when he demands the Turtles hand over a baby alligator that Michelangelo’s befriended.  They fight the unusually agile skeleton until Splinter suddenly appears.  He explains that the skeleton only wants to take the alligator home and chastises the Turtles for turning to violence so quickly.  The Turtles realize that the skeleton brought them to a desert, and to their surprise, Splinter has no answers.  They march through the mysterious desert until they come across a glowing tree.

Pizza References:  The Turtles wonder if they’ve eaten bad pizza after meeting the skeleton ferryman.  Later in the desert, Splinter reveals that he’s brought along freeze-dried pizza.

I Was Not Aware of That:  Alligators have only recently been taken off the endangered species list, as of the publication of these strips.

I Love the '90s:  The skeleton ferryman is wearing a sash that reads “1991.”

Review in a Half-Shell:  The dreamlike quality of Stephen Murphy’s TMNT Adventures issues makes its way into the strip.  The basic plot does seem a bit unambitious, essentially the Turtles are wandering from one vaguely defined location to another, but Clarrain/Murphy works in some respectable character work and the overall surrealism is entertaining.  The strip seems to alternate between adventure and gag-a-day material, which I suppose is appropriate for the target audience.  Throwing in the occasional corny joke probably helps to alleviate a bit of the weirdness, making the strip more palatable to newspaper editors.  Some of the jokes are utterly flat, however, and I can’t imagine how anyone was entertained with the strip that consists entirely of Splinter and the Turtles discussing their favorite pizza toppings.  Still, the material is usually engaging enough to keep me reading until the next day, and I appreciate the fact that Clarrain/Murphy isn’t doing cartoon retreads. The Turtles on a mystical journey that takes them from the sewers to Charon’s boat to a mystery desert is inherently more interesting than the stock formula of a random animal becoming mutated and the Turtles arriving to stop it.

This is a lengthy run of strips featuring uninterrupted Jim Lawson pencils, although it seems as if Lawson is getting a bit of the ‘70s Jack Kirby Superman treatment here.  Some of these Turtle faces look way too cute to be Lawson’s work, even though the anatomy and backgrounds are clearly his.   Either Lawson made a conscious effort to conform to the mass-merchandised look, or else someone looked at his art and decided it had to be made on-model.  Either way, the final result is just awkward.  I have to give Lawson credit for his New Year’s skeleton character, though.  The Turtles’ battle with “Bonehead” is appropriately weird, and I admire Lawson’s willingness to render a skeleton that has a bit more grit than something you’d see in a Garfield Halloween special.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: The Comic Strip - December 10, 1990 to January 22, 1991

Credits:  Dean Clarrain (writer), Dan Berger, Jim Lawson, Michael Dooney, &  Ryan Brown (art), Mary Kelleher (letters)

Summary:  While patrolling the sewers, Raphael comes across a woman with a small child.  Raphael rescues her doll after she drops it.  The rest of the Turtles arrive and share a pizza.  They discuss Splinter, who’s been missing for two weeks.  They follow the trail of the mystery woman and discover she’s a part of a homeless community.  Raphael returns the girl’s doll and the Turtles learn that Splinter regularly visits the group to provide holistic medical treatments.  The group says Splinter left days ago for a deeper level of the sewers, “The Falls.”  The Turtles follow his trail, but are forced to flee an infestation of rats.  After escaping the rodents, they run into a dark area of the sewers populated by alligators.

Continuity Notes:  The opening week of the strip has Splinter recounting the Turtles’ origin.  It’s the cartoon’s origin, the same one used in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures series.

Pizza References:  The Turtles seem obligated to mention pizza at least twice a week.  Michelangelo wonders how large a pizza the turtle in the Hindus’ creation story could “scarf down.”  Later, Michelangelo brings a pizza he got for free (“free with eight or more items”).  The pizza is Raphael’s favorite:  whole wheat, double cheese with onions, mushrooms, peppers, pepperoni, rhubarb, kiwi fruit, fried clams, and peanut butter cups.  Later still, while searching for Splinter, Michelangelo begins fantasizing about pizza, which makes the other Turtles hungry/angry.

Review in a Half-Shell:  I promise I wasn’t cutting Ninja Turtle comic strips out of the newspaper and saving them in a scrapbook.  Had I known the newspaper strip existed, I’m sure I would’ve read it as a kid, but I wasn’t quite that obsessive.  Scans of the strip do float around the internet, however, and I thought it might be entertaining to look back on them for a few days.

The newspaper strip, distributed by Creators Syndicate during the height of Turtlemania, features many of the creators you might remember from Archie’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures.  Stephen Murphy, writing under his pen name Dean Clarrain, is here, along with artists like Dan Berger and Jim Lawson.  The tone is noticeably kid-friendly in the opening weeks, although some of Murphy’s pet themes have already appeared.  Not the environmental activism, although Murphy’s revelation that the Turtles share the sewers with New York’s homeless does read like one of his attempts to present a real life issue to a kid audience.  Instead, it’s the recurring theme of creation stories, as Splinter finds a way to incorporate both North American Indian and Hindu beliefs into the Turtles’ origin story, on the basis that both believed a giant turtle held the world aloft.  Some of Murphy’s quirks grow old quickly, but I kind of like these little touches.  I’m not quite sure why Murphy is so interested in various creation beliefs, but it does add some personality to his stories, and I can’t think of any instances of it truly distracting from the real stars of the story.

I’m not going to pretend that I have a deep affection for daily action strips.  I’ve never come across one I wanted to follow on a regular basis, and only read the Spider-Man strip because it’s reprinted in chunks in Comic News Weekly.  The pacing of most action strips seems outrageously slow, presumably because the creators don’t know how many chapters a week the average reader is exposed to, so information is constantly repeated and the action is always stalled.  (Also, how much continuity can be advanced in three panels anyway?)  I have to say that Murphy’s pacing is pretty ambitious by the standards of the format, and so far, he rarely seems to be killing time.  The opening week is arguably filler, but I think opening with an origin story is a defensible decision.  Murphy actually moves too fast once he begins the initial story arc, or at the very least gives the reader a clumsy introduction to the story.  Over pizza, the Turtles casually mention that Splinter’s been gone for two weeks, and hey, maybe it’s time to go looking for him.  Having the Turtles search for Splinter is a standard TMNT storytelling trope, but…where is this coming from?  Splinter was last seen, literally, two weeks ago recounting the Turtles’ origin, but it’s not as if the strip itself reads as if any time has passed between the opening recap and the start of Raphael’s patrol in the sewers.  And why exactly are the Turtles waiting so long to go look for their sensei?

Much like the Adventures comic, the art in the strip is all over the place.  Most of these artists do the standard “friendly” Turtles of the era quite well, but that flow’s broken anytime a Jim Lawson strip pops up.  To be fair, Lawson’s real talent lies in drawing the original Turtle designs, not the kiddie ones, so it’s not as if he’s a random nobody who ended up doing TMNT work.  His style doesn’t seem compatible with the curvy, cute merchandised Turtles, however, and it’s glaringly obvious every time one of his Turtles appears.  I believe Lawson did draw one of the best strips in this batch, and it’s one that doesn’t feature the Turtles.  Instead, it’s a creepy image of a sewer rat escaping the approaching shadow of Raphael, and while it lacks much continuity significance, I bet it stood out that day on the funny pages.  (My favorite Adventures penciler, Ken Mitchroney, doesn’t seem to be one of the artists listed online for the strip, but some of these panels look very much like his work.)  

So far, Murphy and the artists seem to be having fun with the format. The humor, for the most part, isn’t too goofy and the stakes seem to be suitable for an action strip that has to please kids. Amazingly, the strips involving sewer rats don't lead to an appearance by the Rat King, but I guess the strip wasn't under any obligation to help sell Playmates toys.  

The creators break up the monotony every few days with some experimentation with the form, whether it be an “all darkness” strip (with only cartoon eyes visible), or a one-panel strip that forces the reader to dwell on a specific image.  New Year's Day 1991 is acknowledged with one of the one-panel strips. And the cartoony Turtles accidentally stumbling across a solemn gathering of the local homeless, with only an awkward “Umm…Happy New Year..?” for dialogue really is one memorable New Year's strip.  I doubt that’s how the Family Circus rang in 1991.

SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #23 - July 1993

Ambush!

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Jon Bogdanove (penciler), Dennis Janke (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), Glenn Whitmore (colorist)

Summary:  Steel defeats a gang of Sharks while searching for the White Rabbit.  More gang violence soon erupts, drawing the attention of Superboy and the Daily Planet.  The Planet’s chopper is destroyed by one of the Toastmaster guns; Steel saves Lois, but the pilot, Frank, is killed.  Steel berates Superboy for dodging out of the way of the Toastmaster’s blast, which resulted in Frank’s death.  After speaking to Steel, Lois wonders if he actually does have Superman’s spirit.  Later, Lex Luthor arranges a meeting with Steel.  He reveals White Rabbit’s location to Steel, while also placing a bug on his armor.  Steel discovers White Rabbit is Angora Lapin, his former co-worker and lover.  She’s stolen the weapons technology Steel created and is selling it on the black market.  When he refuses to join her, White Rabbit shoots him out of the window and escapes.

I Love the ‘90s:  The camcorder footage of Steel’s battle with the Sharks is dated 5-23-93.  Also, Jimmy Olsen wears a Spin Doctors t-shirt to work.

Review:  I’ve noticed that Louise Simonson’s plots tend to be much denser than the other Superman writers; a technique she absorbed while working for Jim Shooter, perhaps?  This issue continues the gang war/White Rabbit storyline, provides Steel’s origin, features his first meeting with Lois Lane, has Lex Luthor discovering Steel’s secret ID, and throws in the new Superboy as a guest star.  There’s a lot going on, but it’s never confusing and the pages don’t feel as if they’re crammed with too much information.  We discover that Steel’s motivation is similar to one that’s been grafted on to Iron Man (and now just an accepted part of the canon, thanks to the movies):  he made some weapons, the wrong people got a hold of them, and now he has to make amends.  Attaching this to inner-city street violence is slightly absurd, but I guess it’s somewhat defensible within the context of a superhero comic.  Steel continues to be presented as a likable, easy to root for hero, although I think Simonson goes too far during the Lois scenes.  Yes, John Henry Irons has the “spirit” of Superman, but why would Lois think that he literally has the spirit of Superman?  Has Lois ever been established as someone who would believe in reincarnation?  

The real problem with the issue doesn’t relate to Steel at all, however.  Superboy, in only his second real appearance, is directly responsible for someone’s death.  That’s supposed to be a pretty heavy burden for a hero, especially in this era, so it’s strange to see it attached to the cool, carefree Superboy so soon after his introduction.  That kind of angst point doesn’t suit his character, and the event isn’t even occurring in his own title.  Steel’s lecture to Superboy is well-written and a nice way to dramatize how Steel is a different hero from the other Supermen, but the scene still feels terribly misguided.

ACTION COMICS #688 - July 1993

An Eye for an Eye

Credits:  Roger Stern (writer), Jackson Guice & Denis Rodier (artists), Bill Oakley (letterer), Glenn Whitmore (colorist)

Summary:  Annoyed by the emergence of four new Supermen, Guy Gardner decides to prove them as frauds.  He first targets the Eradicator, who’s recently broken all of the bones in a thief’s hand.  Guy and the Eradicator fight, and Guy is stunned at Eradicator’s strength.  When Guy witnesses the Eradicator’s ruthless treatment of the Dragon street gang, he decides he supports this Superman.  Guy publicly gives his endorsement of Eradicator, which unnerves him.  Meanwhile, Maggie Sawyer is promoted to Inspector.  At a press conference, she promises to apprehend the new, lethal Superman.

Review:  I assumed the Eradicator stories would focus on him acting like the Punisher in an updated version of Superman’s costume, but Stern is instead going in a more traditional direction.  This issue is largely a slugfest between Guy Gardner and Eradicator with a few brief acknowledgments of the ongoing subplots thrown in.  There’s little here to differentiate this from any other brawl that might occur between Guy and Superman, just a different justification for why they’re fighting for eighteen pages.  It is amusing that Guy Gardner gives his public endorsement to one of the Supermen that turns out to be a villain, but of course the story’s going out of its way to make Guy Gardner look bad.  I’m not familiar enough with DC continuity to know how Guy should be written, if he’s supposed to be a likable grouch like Jonah Jameson or just a caricature of what the creators think a “Joe Six-Pack” hero would be, but I accept that he’s supposed to be the jerk of the DC Universe.  He’s not particularly entertaining in this issue, however, leading me to believe that he either works best within the context of a Justice League story or that Stern doesn’t have the best grasp on the character.  Guy serves his purpose as a punching bag, yes, but I don’t see any real reason for him to be the focus for so much of the issue.