Wednesday, August 27, 2025

The Avengers in the Veracity Trap


The Avengers in the Veracity Trap
is the latest graphic novel in Abrams Books' MarvelArts line. It's by Chip Kidd and Michael Cho. Like the previous MarvelArts release, Ross' Fantastic Four: Full Circle, it's a visual treat: the color and design is fantastic, and Cho's art perfectly captures the Marvel Age vibe, down to sort of meta touches like every character being introduced in a Mighty Marvel Pin-Up.

Storywise, it starts with an Avengers brawl with a host of Kirby-style Marvel monsters, courtesy of Loki, but soon develops in an even more metatextual direction as Thor pursues Loki outside the realm of the comic. The Avengers soon must come to terms with the sense-shattering reality of their existence and the fictional counterparts of Kidd and Cho finding the story becoming all too real!

What could easily have been either an extended joke or a saccharine nostalgia piece, manages to do a little of both, and avoid going too far in either direction. The affection the creators feel for these characters come through, but they keep it all moving.

In the end, Kidd and Cho get to do what they do best, as do the Avengers, and the team-up put an end to Loki's schemes.

Veracity Trap is available digitally, but something that's something looks this good and that is fundamentally about the love and impact of those Silver Age stories deserves to be read in physical form.

Thursday, August 21, 2025

A Map of the Vega System

 This map by Todd Klein of the Vega System in the DC Universe appeared in a color version in Omega Men (vol 1) #33. This black and white version I believe appeared in the DC Heroes Roleplaying Game supplement Atlas of the DC Universe (1990).



Thursday, August 14, 2025

Paperback Flashback: Thief of Llarn


Having recently revisited Gardner Fox's Sword & Planet novel Warrior of Llarn, 1966's Thief of Llarn. Poor Alan Morgan can't relax into married life with the beautiful princess Tuarra of Karthol because the thieves' guild of Llarn is stealing all the ultra-rare, precious stones called verdals. One of which happens to be in Tuarra's wedding ring.

On their way to consult with some scientists in another city-state, Morgan and his wife are waylaided by an immortal, psychic entity, who also is very much concerned about the verdal thefts. He forces Morgan to go undercover for him under threat of death rather than, you know, just teaming up. As the legendary thief, Uthian the Unmatched, Alan Morgan must steal a verdal from a remote, ancient city, then infiltrate the thieves' guild to find out who has commissioned these crimes and why. As is typical with this sort of thing, it is a leader with designs on conquest and a super-weapon.

This sequel is, I think, better than the first. Where Warrior of Llarn, while colorful, followed the predictable points in the Sword & Planet Hero's Journey, this one is freed from those restrictions. There are couple of interesting perils and new cultures and the character of super-thief Uthian the Unmatched brings a bit of Sword & Sorcery verve to things, even if he's only Alan Morgan playing a role. The Tower of Ten Thousand Deaths was neat as was the variegated force field that protected the verdal Morgan had to steal. He seemed like something that might have appeared in Fox's Adam Strange.

Friday, August 8, 2025

Will the Pre-Crisis Legion Ever All Get Collected?


The collection strategies of the Big Two for hardcovers/trades annoys me at times. Let's use for an example the Legion of Super-Heroes, Pre-Crisis since that's the only Legion era I really care about. 

You've got multiple ways to read the Silver Age/early Bronze Age Legion stuff, though several are out of print. The Showcase Presents volumes carry you up to Superboy #220 (1976), the archives to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #233 (1977), but the omnibuses (the most recent format) only carry you to Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #106 (1967).

If you had the archives, you could then pick up with Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1 and 2, which would carry you through DC Comics Presents #14 (1979). If you only have the omnibuses, you've got a gap of 12 years.

Either way, you would next go the Legion of Super-Heroes: Before the Darkness Vol. 1-2. This carries you through stories in 1982 and Legion of Super-Heroes #283. If you followed that up with Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga trade you'd have a gap of 3 issues. If you sprang for the Deluxe Edition hardcover, it has those issues, and you're covered to issue 296 (1983).

Next, you would pick out Legion of Super-Heroes: The Curse, and if you got the Deluxe Edition, that will carry you up to issue 313 (1984), and the launch of a new Legion title. That's Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 3 and there were two slim trades of that volume in 2007 and 2008. That would get you up to issue 13 of that series and 1985. Pre-Crisis, this series continues until about issue 27 (or maybe Annual 2) both of which are in 1986. So, 14 issues of the main title plus some limits and annuals uncollected.

And then there's the old Legion title (what was volume 2) that became Tales of the Legion during this period. None of the material from 314-325 (after which it becomes a reprint book) has been collected!

Why so many formats? And why the gaps?