I’ve been reading comics since 1961. In the late ‘70’s I
discovered fandom when some a fellow fan named Mark Earnst from New Hampshire
reached out to me and asked me to join his amateur Publishing Alliance (APA)
which I did, that APA became known as
Phoenix. In 1981, I sold my
first professional article,
The Ditko Days, to
Amazing Heroes;
marking me the first person from Phoenix to go pro. By 1996 when the market
crashed, I became the most prolific journalist in the field of comics, having
contributed to nearly ever comic fanzine (as well as several of the major and
minor comic publishers) that were being published at the time.
After the crash which took out virtually all of the
fanzines, I switched over to the web, publishing reviews and articles to a
number of websites. In the nearly 30 years since then, I’ve “outlived” half a
dozen or so sites that have gone dark (one of which just announced this week
that it is shuttering early in 2026), and yet I still continue to write about
comics, films, TV, and other things which catch my fancy (including writing and
publishing my own comics and books).
Yes, I love comics.
This past week I picked up some comics that I want to talk
about. Topping off my list is the Marvel/DC Deadpool Batman team-up. Normally I
rather enjoy cross-company team-ups, and over the years have collected quite a
number of them, and, as a rule, have enjoyed them. Unfortunately, Deadpool/Batman
isn’t one of them. While I understand why the two companied chose both
characters for a team-up, (The purpose of the book is sales, so put two of the
most popular/recognizable characters together for the biggest bang for your
buck), still, they couldn’t be two more mismatched characters if they tried. (Batman/Moon
Knight, Batman/Daredevil would be more evenly matched and/or logical pairings.)
To be sure, the story does sort of balance out as the Joker
is the villain of the piece, thus clashing Joker’s brand of crazy up against
Deadpool’s, unfortunately, Deadpool’s chaotic crazy simply doesn’t play well
against Batman’s stoicism. (At this point in this essay, I feel it necessary to
point out that while I do so enjoy Ryan Reynolds depiction of the Merc with a
Mouth, I find the comicbook version not only excessively tedious, but endlessly
overused.)
The story has Deadpool dropped into Batman’s Gotham as a
hitman for hire tagged to take out the Dark Knight by none other than the Joker
himself, who has concocted yet another scheme to kill hundreds of citizens of
the city. As can be expected, even as the plan goes predictably array all three
of the main characters seem horribly mismatched, as they are pretzeled into the
mash-up required to make the story work. So, yeah, not my favorite team-up.
Fortunately, while the Batman/Deadpool story was the lead
story, there were other team-ups in the book. Next up is a Captain America/Wonder
Woman tale (which makes more sense as a team-up), Still, while this pairing
makes more sense as both characters have strong patriotic themes running
through their histories, the story itself has them crossing paths throughout
their respective histories, as they bounce around through time periods, from
WWII to the present day and into a far-flung future. It has them confronting
Hitler in the bunker, fighting Galactus, the death of Supergirl during the
Crisis
on Infinite Earths storyline, opposing Maxwell Lord, and chilling on the
JLA Satellite.
There is also a story teaming Krypto and Jeff the Shark that
is, well, inexplicably whatever.
Following that is a teaming of Daredevil and Green Arrow (again, another
unusual pairing, Green Arrow and Hawkeye would have been much better for
obvious reasons, especially as this is not the lead talk, but four stories
back). Then comes a two-page Rocket Racoon and Green Lantern short, followed by
a three page Frank Miller Wolverine/Batman clash. The issue is rounded out by
another three-pager staring Logo (and no, I have no idea who this is, save that
it appears to be a mash-up of Lobo and Wolverine), who trashes an Iron Man
stand-in, and chats with a substitute Thanos, in a story that make less sense
than any of the others.
Finally, in a move that defies explanation, there is an ad
in the book that is for the very book itself. The only answer we can consider
as passingly rational is that the ad was placed in all comics produced that
month, and wound up in the title it was pimping, by accident (because no one
was pruning the ads).
I also picked a facsimile reprint edition of Batman #47
(1948) because I occasionally enjoy checking out Golden Age comics. As to why
I do this, is often beyond me when I actually read the Golden Age stories. Even
as a teen when I first started reading reprints of those Golden Age tales I’m
always surprised that—given the level of storytelling itself—how comics manages
to survive to even get to the Silver Age. Sorry kids, most to the stories from
that era that I’ve read are, quite honestly, barely readable (a sentiment I’ve
had confirmed by other comic aficionados (pros and fans alike).
And finally, I received two comicbook Kickstarter packages
this past week, First a grouping of 10 books from G-Man Comics as well as a
reprint collection from Heavy Metal/Metal Hurlant
(which I haven’t read as of yet but am excited to read both). I’ve previously
read and reviewed
two groups of G-Man Kickstarter comics, and while it’s been a while since I
read any Heavy Metal comic mags, I’m familiar enough with what to expect from
this and the other issues I’ve received (and yet still have yet to read).
Well, given that this is Thanksgiving weekend I’m sure that
I’ll have plenty of time to red my ay through those comics.
