Nothing but links

In lieu of the scans and jokes about Captain Marvel I had planned for today (stupid lady using the library scanner all afternoon when I grumble grumble), please enjoy some links, all numbered for your convenience...


1.) I know how crushed you guys were on Wednesday night when you clicked on over to Every Day Is Like Wednesday for the comics blogsophere’s most hastily written reviews to see what I thought of the new Omega The Unknown series, only to find my Weekly Haul Omega The Unknown-less. Diamond shorted my store, and as of Saturday had yet to get them all of the books they were supposed to have shipped them by Tuesday.

But now your wait is finally over! As I was eventually able to find a copy and review it, and you can click on over to Newsarama.com to read my review of it in today’s Best Shots column.

Just make sure you stop reading before you get to the comments section, because shit gets stupid in there, as it all too often does.

(For the record, Booster Gold is one of my favorite DC super-comics at the moment, and is among one of DC’s better written and drawn books, while my interest in Iron and the Maiden stops at the fairly amusing title, which makes me think of a funny band).

And if you need a refresher course in the original Omega The Unknown series, might I suggest this excellent post from a very handsome comics blogger: Fifteen Random Thoughst about Omega The Unknown Classic.

For more bonus Caleb content, I also reviewed the first issue of DC’s new Simon Dark series by Steve Niles and Scott Hampton.




2.) See that picture above? That is a terrible digital photograph, taken by the tiny little camera embedded in my lap top screen (which flips everything, so you’d follow the panels right to left, not left to right), of the last page of the original Omega The Unknown on the right, and the last page of the new Omega The Unknown on the left.

You can see how similar they are, with the last panel being the exact same.

Well, with one difference.

In the new version, the doctor’s dialogue is “…take the form of the Greek letter Omega?”

In the original, the doctor’s dialogue was “…take the form of the Greek letter Omega!” with the dialogue bubble growing spikey like a scream/shout bubble, rather than a plain old dialogue bubble.

Based on how these two panels alone stack up, one must conclude that the original was more exciting.

Need more evidence? In the lower right hand corner of the last panel of the new version, the word “Continued…” is lettered, and that’s the last word the comic has to offer.

In the original, beneath the last panel ran these words: “Next… Mystery, menace, and madness… James-Michael in Hell’s Kitchen--A super-being on the skids--And the chaos called--The Incredible Hulk!”

Mystery, menace, madness, chaos, and The Hulk, plus some other stuff too? Holy shit, that’s going to be awesome!



3.) Speaking of Newsarama, I’m sure you’ve already heard, but, if not…

I have no idea what it means yet, but I’m hoping it means Lou Dobbs will be joining the Best Shots review team…



4.) Go read Dick Hyacinth’s thoughts on the change. They’re smart.



5.) Tom Spurgeon has a fantastic review of JLoA #13 up. It doesn’t reach quite the heights of brilliant hilarity that his Flash #13 review did (Hey, what’s with Spurgeon and the #13 issues of DC super-comics?), but it’s good stuff. I particularly liked it because his opinion mirrored my own (and that of many others), but he conveyed it with the sort of remove I can never muster, being so close to the characters and their world. Since I tend to think of the DCU as a real place (because I’m mentally ill, I guess), when I see the Injustice League, I immediately start thinking, “Huh, that’s weird these guys just did this last year, and are going to do it again next week at the wedding we already saw…” whereas Spurgeon notices things like the fact that they’re name betrays an inherent ridiculous and the fact that seeing them after a 30 year absence from seeing all of DC’s big villains aligned isn’t the least bit exciting to him.

I wonder why DC sends Spurgeon things like Countdown, Flash #13 and this issue of JLoA. I’m sure there are books at DC that are much, much, much, much (much, much, much) more likely to get a positive review from Spurgeon (the just-concluded Batman arc, All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder, maybe the Eric Powell issues of Action, et cetera).



6.) I don’t know why I continue to be so fascinated by a comic book I quit reading months ago, but I am. CBR rumormonger Rich Johnston kinda sorta reports on something related to Countdown that is potentially interesting. His column is here, but the here’s the relevant portion:



I understand that there are a number of DC creators who have worked on the "Countdown" series who are expressing deep misgivings about their future workload.

LITG previously reported that Mike Carlin was intending to "heavyweight up" the series, bringing in big name creators in light of sliding sales, and now certain existing talent on the series has found themselves not knowing what their next job will be, if it's there at all.

Except they don't know that that's what's going on.

They do now.



I understand why Johnston constructed that the way he did, to give maximum punch to his big reveal. (I think it’s a big reveal; but the stop light picture next to it is blinking “caution” not “go,” so that means it’s something that’s probably true but not definitely true, right?)

But I really wish he would have constructed it more clearly, because I’m not quite sure what he’s saying. Is it that creators working on Countdown are going to get booted from the title? Or that they won’t be getting any future work?

Because if DC’s going to punish anyone for creating such a shitty comic book, it’s probably going to be the writers. And since Paul Dini’s plotting, he seems to be the one in need of the ass-kicking, but I can’t see why he’d get one, as his name remains big and profitable, no matter how bad Countdown is.

Sean McKeever has two ongoing titles, Birds of Prey and Teen Titans. The former sells poorly enough that I could see it being cancelled at some point (particularly since the title’s become lost without its co-star in it), but Titans? I can’t see DC yanking McKeever off it so soon after putting him on it. It’s not like his first issues were as godawful as Adam Beechen’s.

“Graymiotti” also have an ongoing, Jonah Hex, which constantly hovers around cancellation, plus they should have at least seven more months of work on Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters.

Tony Bedard’s only ongoing is Batman and the Outsiders, but since it’s Batman, that’s gotta be a pretty safe gig, right? I always feel a little bad for Bedard, since he’s the guy DC seems to call to write bridge stories between other people’s stories. I can’t decide if that’s a great compliment to his skills (“Let’s call Bedard! He can do anything! If anyone can straighten out these disparate stories by Judd Winick, Brad Meltzer and Gail Simone it’s him!”) or an insult (“Oh man, we need to kill three months in Supergirl why we get the contracts signed, who do we call?”).

Adam Beechen’s only got a limited going right now, Countdown To Adventures. And he’s also an awful, awful, awful writer (At least from what I’ve read of his—Titans, five issues of Robin, two of his Countdown issues and much of his JLU stuff.)

But then, he’s only one creator, and Johnston’s piece said “a number of DC creators” (yeah, yeah, smart ass, one is “a number”).

Whatever the case, it seems awfully unfair to blame Beechen or any of the others for how bad Countdown is. I’ve seen good stories from all six of the writers who get credit for the series elsewhere, and the biggest problems in Countdown come from the plot points the writers who aren’t Dini have to deal with. I mean, there’s no way you can make a Mary Marvel Gets Black Adam’s Suddenly All Different Superpowers and Becomes a Totally Evil Slut story make sense.

As someone who had his brain assaulted by a half-dozen issues of the series, I sure would like to see someone get punished for how bad it is, but it seems to me that the greatest problems with the series like with editors Mike Marts, Mike Carlin, and whoever it was who sat down with Dini and concocted this dumb-ass plot in the first place.

Of course, Johnston could have been talking about the artists, whom, yeah, are doing a terrible, terrible job. Thing is, they are all pretty great artists, who have done good work elsewhere. Have they been given enough lead time? Have they been given model sheets so they know what the characters look like? Is anyone editing the art? While the art on Countdown has been universally bad—event the covers have been, on the whole, rather terrible—I hope DC doesn't think that's why people don't like Countdown as much as DC wants them to. The very same readers put up with often times subpar art work on 52, but because everything else worked so well, we just forgave it as a symptom of too little lead time (Having revisited some triangle era Superman comics though, I'm less inclined to forgive 52's sub-par art then I was at the time.

You can get the Kuberts (who don't seem to be doing much of anything) or Jim Lee to pencil a few issues, you can get Alex Ross to paint the covers, but that's not going to solve the inherent problems in the series, it's just going to help sales a little. Oh, wait...

Marvel's October previews reviewed

And now, it's Marvel's turn. You can see their October solicits here, and you can find my reactions here.





The advent of HeroClix has pretty much ruined the villain-playing-chess-with-other-characters comic book cover forever, huh?




ESSENTIAL WEREWOLF BY NIGHT VOL. 2 TPB Written by DOUG MOENCH, DON PERLIN & BILL MANTLO. Penciled by DON PERLIN, VIRGIL REDONDO, YONG MONTANO & FRANK ROBBINS. Cover by GIL KANE. Jack Russell's struggles against his long-time curse pale before his determination to save his beloved sister from a similar doom! Vicious vigilantism, muscled madmen and intergalactic intrigue highlight the second volume of one of the seventies' strangest sagas! Fear, fate and family – Werewolf style! Guest-starring the Frankenstein Monster, Morbius and others from Marvel's Legion of Monsters! Collecting WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #21-43, GIANT-SIZE WEREWOLF #2-5, MARVEL PREMIERE #28.

Yes!

Um, that’s all I have to say about this. Just “Yes!” Which I’ve now said. So we can move on.




Seeing this shitty cover for Fantastic Four #551 reminded me that I didn't see a single Michael Turner cover in yesterday's DC solicits. Turner if finally off JLoA covers! That means I'm only reading one book which will continue to be marred by his bad and getting worse covers every month! And this one, well, it's another Michael Turner cover, isn't it? I guess it's nice to see that the FF have finally gotten out of that burning building they've been posing in for most of Turner's run on covers. Now they seem to be hanging out in...a time warp? A dance club? A screensaver?




HOWARD THE DUCK #1 (of 4) Written by TY TEMPLETON. Pencils & Cover by JUAN BOBILLO. Grab your guns and camcorders and start shooting, it's DUCK SEASON! Marvel's favorite furious fowl, Howard, and his faithful friend with benefits, Beverly, begin their journey to destroy the internet, radio and television, in this all new mini-series by Ty (She-Hulk) Templeton and Juan (She-Hulk) Bobillo. SEE Howard face mighty hunters with mighty guns on MeTube! SEE Beverly in nothing but fig leaves! SEE grown men dressed as bunnies! And who is that giant headed guy taking A.I.M. at our heroes? HINT: It starts with "MODO—" Just when you thought it was safe to read comics again…and Marvel has to do THIS?!?

I kinda wish Templeton was drawing this as well as writing it, as I really like his art but rarely get to see it, but this sure looks like a lot of fun.




IMMORTAL IRON FIST VOL. 1: THE LAST IRON FIST STORY TPB Written by ED BRUBAKER & MATT FRACTION. Penciled by DAVID AJA & TRAVEL FOREMAN. Cover by DAVID AJA_Many years ago, in the mystical city of Kun’ Lun, young Danny Rand stared at a suit behind glass -- the garb of the "Immortal Iron Fist” -- and knew that he was destined to wear it. But where did this costume come from? Why did it wait for Danny all those years like a shadow of his future? The answer to those questions will stun both him and his readers, as Danny Rand leaps from the pages of his breakout hit in DAREDEVIL to his own history-spanning kung-fu epic that will shatter every perception of what it means to be the Immortal Iron Fist! Brought to you by top-ten writer Ed Brubaker and breakout talent Matt Fraction (PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL), with action-packed art by David Aja (DAREDEVIL, GIANT-SIZE WOLVERINE). Collectng IMMORTAL IRON FIST #1-6.

Man, I cannot wait for this book. I dropped the monthly three issues in because, ironically, the art was just too good (It launched during the last quarter of last year, back when Marvel was putting ads opposite almost every single art page). I loved what I saw though, and have been literally counting the weeks until this thing came out.





MARVEL ADVENTURES THE AVENGERS #17 Written by TY TEMPLETON. Penciled by RONAN CLIQUET. Cover by TOM GRUMMETT. Ok, you’re a super hero. And you’ve got to fight a robot. But while the robot can punch and blast you with lasers, YOU can’t touch him. That’s a problem, right? That’s what the Avengers are up against when they encounter THE VISION!

If you’re older than ten, the main reason to read this title is writer Jeff Parker…who doesn’t seem to be writing this issue. Damn. Still, Templeton’s no slouch himself.



Man, Namor is pissed at those fish!



NEW AVENGERS #35 Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS. Pencils & Cover by LEINIL FRANCIS YU. The Hood makes his play for the big time by gathering the most ruthless rogues gallery of evil the Marvel Universe has ever seen. What does a guy who wants to be the “Kingpin of all super-villains” do to make his point? You have to see it to believe it. Guest-Starring Tigra. Poor Tigra. Poor, poor Tigra.

Hey, have an army of Venom-like symbiotes ever taken over all of the Marvel heroes, at least the more popular ones, like Wolverine? Because that seems like something they would have done in the early ‘90s. And if not, they should have.





This is the last issue of the less-than-impressive New Avengers/Transformers crossover series, and it's the first one with a nice cover. The other three are pretty uninspired and, in at least one case, featured a one of the worst drawings of Wolverine I'd ever seen.




OMEGA: THE UNKNOWN #1 (of 10) Written by JONATHAN LETHEM with KARL RUSNAK. Art by FAREL DALRYMPLE & PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER. The story of a mute, reluctant superhero from another planet, and the earthly teenager with whom he shares a strange destiny -- and the legion of robots and nanoviruses that have been sent from afar to hunt the two of them down. Created in 1975 by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes, the original Omega The Unknown lasted only ten issues but was a legend to those who recall it -- an ahead-of-its-time tale of an anti-hero, inflected with brilliant ambiguity. One of Omega's teenage fans was award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem, who has used the original as a springboard for a superbly strange, funny, and moving graphic novel in ten chapters.

I fairly recently read the original series, and was pretty blown away by it. It was a book far, far, far ahead of it’s time, and I would heartily recommend anyone check it out—even though the current trade collection of it is kinda overpriced (Or maybe I’m just used to reading Marvel Comics from the ‘70s in cheap Essential editions).

That said, I’m really looking forward to this version, particularly because of the art team, which consists of two artists one wouldn’t imagine working for Marvel, particularly on a superhero book.

As for the writing credits, I’ve never read one of Lethem’s novels (I did read a prose essay of his in Give Our Regards to the Atomsmashers! ), but then, writing good prose and writing good comics are two entirely different things. Having suffered through eight issues of Brad Meltzer’s JLoA and one issue of Jodi Picoult’s Wonder Woman, I’m pretty confident I’ve read the absolute worst work novelists can do in comics, and that even if Lethem proves totally awful, this book should still prove more readable than JLoA and WW.

I find the last bit of the solicit particularly interesting, the "graphic novel in ten chapters" part. Obviously, the Big Two have been creating their monthlies for the trade for years now, but it's generally something nobody ever admits (or, to use a less charged term, talks about). But here they're openly advertising the fact that this thing is being written for the trade, it will be a trade, so you might as well wait ten more months—you've waited this long, haven't you?—and you can read it all in one sitting, sans dumb-ass ads for Spider-Man fishing rods and Old Spice fellatio.






PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #12 Written by MATT FRACTION. Pencils & Cover by ARIEL OLIVETTI. With WORLD WAR HULK in full swing and New York shut off from the outside world, who's left to protect those left behind? Frank @#$%!@!* Castle, that's who -- and he's none too thrilled. As the insatiable MUNG THE INCONCEIVABLE rampages through lower Manhattan, Frank and Clarke help a small band of refugees hold back his relentless onslaught. The Punisher? World War Hulk? Alien Invasion, Manhattan in ruins? This is the book Ariel Olivetti was born to draw.

I became disenchanted with this title pretty quickly. Olivetti’s art is nice, but lacked much in the way of detail or imagination, and Marvel and/or Fraction did a pretty piss-poor job of making those first few issues match up with Civil War, which is kind of important when the stories they were telling were Civil War tie-ins. Even still, Punisher vs. the Hulk? That sounds so stupid I don’t think I’ll be able to not buy this issue.



SPIDER-MAN AND THE FANTASTIC FOUR: SILVER RAGE TPB Written by JEFF PARKER. Penciled by MIKE WIERINGO. Cover by MIKE WIERINGO. Two great tastes that taste great together! The world's greatest super hero and the world's greatest super team collide for an adventure set nowhere near a Civil War (and upon which we will not put a CIVIL WAR tie-in label)! After a visit by the Impossible Man, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is faced with a dangerous new alien threat for which he has only one recourse...call in the Fantastic Four. Separately, Spidey and the FF are the foundation of the Marvel Universe. Together...they just may save it! Collecting SPIDER-MAN/FANTASTIC FOUR #1-4.

This miniseries has been a ton of fun, and if you missed out, this trade looks great—it’s only $10.99! Man, I kinda wish I would have missed out now, just so I could get the affordably priced trade.






If this cover had Red Sonja reclining on the hood of a sports car and Wolverine playing electric guitar in the background, it would be absolutely perfect. Still, Venom with a sword is certainly a good start.





SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #41 Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI. Pencils & 50/50. Cover by JOE QUESADA. 50/50 Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC. “ONE MORE DAY” Part 3. The most-talked about – and controversial – comic event of the year continues, brought to you by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada! Brace yourself, Spidey fans, after this, nothing will be the same for Peter Parker! The stakes have never been higher. At his darkest hours – and he's had plenty – Peter has always had one shoulder to lean on, one person who'd remind him who he is, who he was, and who he can be. Now he's about to lose that person. What would he do...what would you do, if you only had "One More Day?"

I think a comic book has to actually be released before it can be considered the “most-talked about” and/or “most…controversial.” It’s true I’ve heard some talk about the “One More Day,” storyline, but certainly not as much as, say Countdown or World War Hulk. And most controversial? It’s got a looooong way to go if it wants to take that crown from Heroes For Hire #13, the one with the tentacle rape cover, which I don’t think has come out yet either.

And speaking of covers, I don’t think Quesada’s really the best guy to be handling these covers. His artwork just doesn’t really match up to the old school, classic Marvel aesthetic that the layout and the text evoke. Wouldn’t John Romita Sr., who recently did a Daredevil cover, or John Romita Jr., or maybe Mike Allred been a better choice for covers?




You know what would be awesome? If the Thing fought a bear. You know what would be even more awesome? If it could maybe be some kind of monster, Frankenstein-looking bear. I've been resisting my curiosity about Mike Carey's UFF for a while now, thinking I'll maybe check it out in trade some day, but I don't know—Ben Grimm vs. a Monster Frankenstein Bear sure looks like it will be worth $2.99, doesn't it?




ULTIMATE POWER #9 (of 9)
Written by JEPH LOEB
Pencils & Cover by GREG LAND
The final chapter in this lauded limited series finds the two teams—the Ultimates and the Squadron Supreme poised for the cataclysmic climax that will decide the fate of two worlds! And the ending is more than mortal minds can imagine!

Three things. One, is this series seriously “lauded?” Because I can’t recall ever seeing anyone anywhere saying anything remotely nice about it, and I do kinda make a habit of searching the Internets for people talking about comics. Two, Ultimate Wasp is fucking Asian! This is, like, the third time I’ve seen her looking all Caucasian in a Land drawing of her. Three, am I the only one who doesn’t like to see the word “climax” right below a Land image?




WORLD WAR HULK #5 (of 5) Written by GREG PAK. Pencils by JOHN ROMITA JR. Cover by DAVID FINCH. ariant Cover by JOHN ROMITA JR. The millennium's most massive Marvel smashfest careens towards its cataclysmic conclusion! Four so-called Marvel "heroes" shot the Hulk into space. Their exploding shuttle destroyed his people and pregnant queen. And the Hulk has taught them what their arrogance has wrought. But now the Hulk faces the puny humans' greatest champion. And as the terrible battle rages, who will stand revealed as the hero – and who will be proved the monster? Who knows the difference between vengeance and justice? And who will pay the terrible price of anger?

Man, the only person I’d like to see get beaten to paste by the Hulk more than Tony Stark at this point is probably the Sentry because, well, I’ve always hated that guy, but he’s so powerful that there just aren’t that many opportunities to see someone beat him to paste. But if anyone can, it’s the Hulk. Go get him big guy! Give him one for me!





WHAT IF? PLANET HULKWritten by GREG PAK. Penciled by RAFA SANDOVARL & CAFU. Cover by CARLO PAGULAYAN. Last year, a group of Marvel heroes decided the Hulk was too dangerous for Earth, tricked him into a shuttle, and shot him into space. After the Hulk rose from slave to gladiator to conquering emperor on the savage planet of Sakaar, the shuttle exploded – destroying the Hulk's people and his pregnant queen. And the entire Marvel Universe knows what happened next as the Hulk returned to wreak his terrible vengeance in the pages of "World War Hulk." But what if the Hulk had landed on the peaceful planet the Marvel heroes originally intended? What if Banner had landed on Sakaar instead of the Hulk? And what if the Hulk's warrior bride Caiera the Oldstrong had come to Earth seeking vengeance instead of her husband? Get ready for three shocking tales of what could have been from the writer of the "Planet Hulk" and "World War Hulk" epics.

Wow, that was fast.

Fifteen Random Thoughts on Omega The Unknown Classic

1.) Is this the best single Marvel superhero comic book ever produced? I think it may be. Sure, we can all think of scores of better written ones and better drawn ones, but consider the fact that this is a complete story, including a true, real, proper and final ending. How many Marvel supehero stories have actually had one of those?

2.) I don't understand why this trade is entitled Omega the Unknown Classic. There's only one Omega the Unknown series, and this is it. True, Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple are working on an Omega series, but thus far only a press release and a few images have been released, so it's not like they needed the word "Classic" in there to distinguish this Omega trade from some theortetical future Omega trade.

3.) Why the fuck does the trade cost $29.99? It contains just 12 comic books worth of material from 1976-1979. That's over $2.50 an issue.

4.) Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes were really ahead of their time with this story; it anticipates the '80s deconsturciton of the genre and '90s and '00s metafictional storytelling in some pretty suprising ways. I've been catching up with the Marvel comics of the 1970s via Essentials as quickly as my wallet will allow, and this is one of the few stories from that era that doesn't seem horribly dated (beyond the fashion and slang, naturally).

5.) The first panel of the series shows Omega the Unknown running through an alien landscape, laser blasts shooting past him. The first words are, "Some unforseen factor interrupts the orderly flow of events, and without warning, a finely-tuned organism erupts in dischord, violence." Now that's how you start a fucking comic book story!

6.) It's cool that Marvel made Omega such an unrepentant Superman knock-off. Black hair, blue eyes, red and blue cape and tights. From a doomed alien planet. Today's Marvel Superman knock-offs like the Sentry, the newest Hyperion and that guy in Reginald Hudlin's Marvel Knights Spider-Man story arc go to somewhat ridiculous lengths to fudge their similarities to Superman. Yeah, okay Sentry, you're blonde and your costume has a different primary color than red. You're totally not Superman at all. Whatever you say, man.

7.) Each issue after the first starts with this text above the title on the first page: "ENIGMA THE FIRST: the lone survivor of an alien world, a nameless man of somber, impassive visage, garbed utterly inappropriately in garish blue-and-red. ENIGMA THE SECOND: James-Michael Starling, age twelve raised in near-isolation by parents who (he discovered on the day they "died") were robots. ENIGMA THE THIRD: the link between the man and the boy, penetrating to the depths of the mind and body, causing each to question his very reality of self."

Contrast that with the text that appears on the title page of each issue of Green Lantern: "Pilot Hal Jordan was chosen to represent an intergalactic police force created by the oldest beings in existence--the guardians of the universe. Protecting earth and all of space sector 2814 from every extraterrstrial threat imaginable, Hal Jordan shines his light proudly as the Green Lantern!"

8.) Jim Mooney is awesome, even with his pencils colored so horribly. I wish this were black and white, like an Essential collection.

9.) There seems to be some issue over who created Omega. The credit boxes of the individual issues sometimes read "Conceived and written by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes," which seem to make it pretty clear who created the character, but I don't understand the existence of this site, which links to Gerber's homepage, and apparently exists solely to remind people that he and Skrenes created OtU.

10.) I can't decide which I like better; Omega's costume as seen throughout the series, or the prototype for it designed by John Romita (a sketch of which is included in the trade). I don't care for those boots Omega rocks; he looks like he's about to go fishing.

11.) I love the fact that even though we know Omega and creepy little know-it-all James-Michael Starling are somehow connected to eachother, for much of the series their stories are completely parallel. They each have their own supporting casts and their own storylines, and it's only fairly rarely that they interesect.

12.) I was under the impression that Dan Slott totally made up Ruby Thursday as a stupid one-off supervillain to use in She-Hulk. Shows what I know.

13.) As much as Omega and James-Michael seem to exist in their own corner of the Marvel Universe, there are actually guest-stars aplenty. He fights the Hulk ("Why won't Curly-Hair leave Hulk alone?! Does Curly-Hair want to get smashed?"), Nitro, Electro and someone called Blockbuster (I think I prefer DC's to Marvel's). One of James-Michael's roommates is a freelance photog for J. Jonah Jameson (she's kinda like Mary Jane and Peter Parker combined into a single character). Foolkiller shows up, as does Richard Rory, and, in the two-part conclusion (which occured in The Defenders, not Omega the Unknown), a random assemblage of Defenders and Avengers.

14.) Have I mentioned how cool El Gato is? Oh that's right, I did.

15.) I feel a little leary of Marvel redoing such a perfect comic book in any capacity, but man, Dalrymple is awesome, and I am looking forward to him tackling a big Marvel project. Take a look at this, from his livejournal sketch-blog thingy:



Maybe they'll call it Ultimate Omega the Unknown.

My New Favorite Villain: El Gato!

El Gato was a brujo in Spanish Harlem who took his name from his particular magical powers, most notable of which were his ability to control cats.

Yeah, that’s right—he controls cats. Now, that may not be all that useful in and of itself—certainly not as useful as Tarzan’s ability to control jungle animals or Aquaman’s ability to command the creatures of the sea—but it is difficult to do. Seriously, try to get a single cat to do anything it doesn’t want to. It’s not easy. That’s why the expression “like herding cats” has come to refer to any difficult task.

El Gato can herd cats. And not just herd them, but command them to kill superheroes for him! Or do anything else he desires!

Now, El Gato could have used these powers to become a lame-ass superhero fighting to make his neighborhood safe from crime and/or mice. But he’d rather make bank, so he’s like a freelance doctor of some sort.

And he is all about making that bank. Hell, he’ll show up at the funeral for a woman whose life he was hired to save, wearing a canary yellow jumpsuit with a purple cape, just to ask for money from his former patient’s mourning daughter.





Now he has awesome and frightening powers, above and beyond controlling house cats, but he’s also a merciful man, so when he goes about shaking Teresa Mendez down for the money he’s owed, he’s reluctant to have her devoured alive by cats, or pushed in front of a speeding truck by a cat.


He starts off simply and gently, by giving her bad dreams of cats…





...but since that wasn’t enough to wise her up, he has to get violent. But rather than harming her or her human loved ones, he goes after her goldfish.




See, that’s how powerful El Gato is! He can kill animals with lifespans that are measured in days, using only his magical powers! Since Teresa is so obstinate, he eventually has her fiancée killed, destroys her house and then tries to kidnap her. Okay, yeah, he’s evil, but he tried playing nice. All he wanted was the money he had earned!

When he’s threatened, say by the likes of Omega the Unknown (the man of mstery from beyond the stars!), he has to break out his more offensive powers. Like summoning an army of cats.







But it’s not just cats that El Gato can control. He can also control ghost cats!





And old ladies!






And he can turn into a powerful man-cat, with the strength and agility of a jaguar, but the cunning mind of a man!







Now despite all of this coolness, we must remember that El Gato is a villain and is, therefore, an evil, evil man. To collect payment from Teresa, he hypnotizes her and forces to her to marry him. El Gato’s the possessive sort, however, and instead of having his bride simply wear a wedding ring, he wants to brand her forehead with a red-hot iron bearing his mark.




Omega won’t have any of that.




So given all of his awesomeness, why haven’t we heard more from El Gato over the years? Well, it would seem that Teresa believes turnabout is fair play, and after Omega downs the brujo, she brands him--




--sealing his cat-powers within his body forever.



"Aaa" indeed.

(All of the above art is taken from Omega the Unkonwn #4 and #5 and is penciled by Jim Mooney, with inks by Mooney and Pablo Marcus. The words are all from Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes)