Lightmaster Should Probably Just Change His Name to "Mysterious Mastermind" at This Point. I Mean, It's Been Twice.

Hey!  It's time for a mystery villain!

Spoiler: It's Lightmaster again.  Yeah, the same "mysterious mastermind" we met at the start of the series.  I guess any time someone seems to be working behind the scenes, Spidey should see if Lightmaster has an alibi.  It would probably save a lot of time.

Here's the title:

Read it with a Brooklyn accent: "AGAIN with the Enforcers!  Oy!"

Well, we thought he was at the time, having died more than once (it's complicated) here:

MUCH later, we would learn that the Ox survived because death is rarely fatal in comics except for Ted Kord which still annoys me.

This is the Ox's brother, although we aren't told that this issue.  I guess the powers that be decided readers were only paying thirty-five cents here, so they didn't have to cover all their bases.

Sooooo... Lightmaster is recruiting the enforcers to do his dirty work and he plans on betraying them once they've served their purpose?  Like he did with Kraven and Vanilla Chicken?

Now, in defense of the story, the Enforcers aren't a particularly bright group of people.  This was also before cell phones, much less an internet or a Yelp, so the Enforcers would be clueless of this unless they called Kraven or Vanilla Chicken to check out Lightmaster's references.

Oh, man... look who's back:

Still stewing over the Frisbee incident?  You know, it's not like she threw a buzz saw blade at them.

Okay, we now see that Holly's "this is one art major" is her thing.  A) It's a way of speaking of herself in the third person and B) it's a way of letting you know she's better than the rest of us because she's an artist and don't you forget it.

Wow.  Who came up with her?  She's more annoying than Ambush Bug.

So, anyway, they're at the Coffee Bean and the Enforcers take everyone hostage to lure Spidey there, giving us an excuse for a great full-page panel:

And then Holly starts her stuff again:

YAY!  She's gone!  Yes!  I hope she caught some friendly fire from the police surrounding the building.

And then this happens:

I think Spidey is at his best when his dialogue sounds like it came out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon like that, don't you?

PLOT TWIST!:

Um... Holly was also in the diner during the battle.  Clearly.  You could ask her about it instead of casually murdering the wrong guy.  I'm just thinking out loud here.

Spider-Man! Angel! Iceman! Assault with a Frisbee!

Howdy, my people!  Let's get back to PPTSSM:

You know, I was originally opposed to having the Angel retooled later as Archangel, but I'm starting to see that his role has been primarily to get his clock cleaned so someone with a more aggressive powerset can get the job done.  I've always like the character, but he ain't exactly Hawkman.

Anyway, here's some exposition:

Do you think the Angel hit his head on that ceiling a bunch of times like a bird would?  I'll be he did and it was just too hard to draw.

Okay, let's take note of what Angel said there: No sudden smacks because it might "totally unbalance" Iceman, whatever that means.  I don't think Angel picked up his M.D. in psychiatry at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, so I'm not sure why Spider-Man acquiesces that point.

Moving right along:

Oh, so Angel is also there to shout "look out!"  That's fair.  In addition to getting his clock cleaned, he shouted a lot from his vantage points, so I guess that's something.

But let's see if he can fight:

Nope.  No, he cannot fight for diddly.  To be fair, I think that hitting a guy covered in ice would be pretty difficult if you weren't at a higher power level.

Meanwhile:

Well, that was a pretty good sequence.  I mean, Spider-Man is all about saving folks.  But I'm thinking that was just to get him out of the way to pad the story.

I give you Exhibit "A":

See?  Boom.  Spider-Man shows up and the whole thing is over in less than 10 panels and that included rescuing the Angel.

And for no real reason, Iceman is totally fine now.  It's the"She falls down a well, her eyes go cross. She gets kicked by a mule. They go back. I don't know," method.

Because SCIENCE! (tm!)

And Angel deals with some middle-aged lawyers because that's really about his level:

  

Um... wait... they conspired to destroy the Champions building?  Why is this?  Who was behind it?

Eh, no one cares.  We never found out.

And then this happened: 

Okay, first: Doesn't it sound weird that Holly describes herself as an art major to her friends?  She must be really insecure about her talent.

And are people seriously over-reacting about the damage that getting hit by a frisbee is going to actually do?

Seriously... it's a plastic disc.  I'm not saying it would feel like a scalp massage or anything, but they're acting like they were almost hit with something out of God of War.

Comics... I do love ye.

See you soon!

In Which Mysterious Vapor Solves Everything

Hey, folks!

Getting back in the saddle for now.  Beloved is having another surgery at the end of the month, so posts for the 6 weeks or so after that will most likely be few and far between as Nurse Adam reports for duty.

Much as I hate to leave Spider-Man and the Angel hanging, contributor Robert Gillis has found yet more weirdness from Jimmy Olsen.  I think the secret to dealing with Jimmy's solo title wasn't finding the weirdness, it was selecting which weirdness to focus upon among the sea of bizarre instances.

That being said, here's Jimmy in drag wearing handcuffs beating up a fake cop:

I'm not sure what led up to this, but it's probably best we don't know.  And did you notice that Jimmy hit the guy so hard his hair color changed?  Maybe I'm not giving Jimmy enough credit.

Next, Robert gives us the first entry into a new CMNS meme we're going to use whenever there is a half-assed deus ex machina that the writer tries to pass off as provable by the scientific method.

Ladies and gents, I give you.... Because SCIENCE! (tm!)

Because SCIENCE! (tm!)

For further examples, check out the origins of any of the Flashes.

Thanks again, Robert!

See you soon!

Notice I Don't Say a Thing About the Device Called a "Power-Rod" Because I'm Mature and Stuff

Okay, so after all that history in the last post, we're back to PPTSSM #17 to finish up with the Champions.  Frankly, considering the patterns seems to be: "Cancel book, continue story in next book, cancel that book," I'd be reluctant in the same way that I'd be reluctant to share a comb passed among folks that we now know have head lice.  But here we go:

I have a question about the building and it's the same question I have about the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building: Does the team occupy the entire building?  Do they really need the entire building?  I mean, the Avengers get by with a mansion and heck, the Justice League operated out of a cave more than once.  What's with all that real estate?

And we see the dissolution of the team:

Even though Ghost Rider was going through his "Johnny Blaze retains his personality as the Ghost Rider" phase (not exactly a high point), he was still a big draw for me.  I hadn't heard of him before the Champions, but I thought he looked awesome.  Keep in mind I was a child and hadn't seen a lot of biker tattoos.

Then this happened:

Oh, eeesh.  That's Darkstar.  She was a serious snooze, but they just Vanilla Chickened her throughout the series.  Kind of like Dawnstar in the Legion of Super-Heroes.  Coincidence?  Someone research that and get back to me.

Cripes, Bobby.  Grow a pair.

Why would the Widow go with Hercules?  I mean, if it's a "man-god" thing, is she even invited?  Women just can't stand to see a dude enjoying life by himself.

Yeah!  Besides.... you know... every hero in the Marvel Universe.

Well, that was some self-realization.  I can respect that.

Anyway, remember I said Rampage from The Champions was relevant?  Here's why:

And then this happened:

You see, the original Rampage is the guy in the wheelchair and he somehow got Iceman brainwashed into wearing his armor and doing his bidding.  I guess he just wheeled up to Iceman and said, "Here, put this on."

And then this happens:

Which is bad news, because:

But if he's no longer the original Rampage's pawn and is commanding his own powers, why would Iceman do anything Rampage wanted?  I mean, is this a selective brain shut-off kind of thing?  It seems like you are either going to still be brainwashed and go after someone thinking you're Rampage, or you realize you're Iceman and go boo-hoo over Darkstar some more.

But when I read this as a kid, I thought it was awesome.  We'll check out part two in the next post, which may be awhile because Adam is taking staycation next week.  Stay frost, hepcats!

In Which We Get a History Lesson to Prep for the Next Post.

I had started to work on my next PPTSSM post, but I realized that there was so much backstory from other titles that I had to give you the non-comic nerdlingers a training level like they do in video games.

Once upon a time, there was a comic called Super-Villain Team-Up.  Thusly:

It wasn't the most accurate title, because pretty much every issue was villains fighting each other.  Maybe that's how villains team up.  Because, you know... villains don't follow anyone's rules, including how they're going to team up.

Anyway, it's basically a maxi-series about how Dr. Doom can't get along with any other super-villain in the Marvel Universe.  It's collected in The Essential Super-Villain Team-Up tpb, and it's certainly worth a read.

But anyway, back in the day, the book ended it's original stories here:

Yeah, see?  It's all about Doom and Magneto not getting along.  But more importantly, this began a story that wouldn't end in this title.  There would be a few more issues of Super-Villain Team-Up, but they would be reprints of Doom not getting along with the Red Skull.  Fun fact: This title existed to keep rival DC Comics from trademarking the term "super-villain."  With all these intellectual property disputes, I'm amazed both DC and Marvel have a character called "Scarecrow."

Meanwhile, there was another comic on the racks called The Champions:

We covered The Champions years ago.  While I liked the line-up, it just never came together.  But any team with the Ghost Rider on it is automatically awesome.  And, of course, we have the Angel's worst costume ever.

And they fought this guy.  You'll want to forget it, but it's relevant later:

And they fought this Nazi creature made out of bees:

That will not be relevant later, but I never pass up a chance to mention the Swarm.

So, remember that Dr. Doom / Magneto storyline that began in Super-Villain Team-Up?  Well, they had to end it somewhere, so why not The Champions?

And then, because the comics industry is a silly one, The Champions would then get cancelled itself after the next issue of that series.

Wow.  Got all that?  It's a lot of history to learn.  I guarantee you the next post won't be worth it, but it had to be this way.  You trust me, don't you?  Of course you do.

See you soon!