TEX'S BACK-ISSUE QUEST 2.0 EPISODE 13

Greeting Earthlings!!!

    How is your year weekend going so far? We made it through another week.

    To quote Dora the Explorer: We did it! We did it! We did it! YEAH! ¡Lo hicimos! :D

    To be honest, TEX has been sifting through a few ideas, and options. In the realm of education, if you're a teacher that's worth his or her salt, you just wanna do your job: teaching kids, and helping to form better citizens who can think for themselves, and keep this country going long after you've started your dirt nap. Heck, there is more to the job than teaching anyway: you feed kids who are hungry, intellectually, and sometimes physically. You teach good manners, fair play, a good work ethic, honor, and sometimes you have to protect them from themselves, or others. I love my job, probably more than anything that I've ever done - but politics always has to rear its ugly head. And wherever money is involved, there will be be greedy people willing to put a dollar over the general welfare of the people.

   I am a hopeful guy, I've trained myself to be, and I've trained myself to work towards my hopes - with belief, and elbow grease, anything is possible.

   So, in light of the education I've gotten about the inner workings of...er...education in the last few months, I've been dwelling more on the constant battles that humans have to fight to basically do the right thing. This is a battle that has probably been fought since the dawn of man - do we stand and fight for what's right, or lay down and roll over for personal gain?

   No one embodies the struggle between the light and the dark better than this character:

    It's my copy of House of Secrets #61, published in 1963. This comic features the 1st appearance of Mona Bennett, the Black Diamond (The Heart of Darkness), Dr. Bruce Gordon and his villainous alter-ego...ECLIPSO!!!

    Bruce Gordon was on Diablo Island to photograph a solar eclipse when he was attacked by an evil witch doctor who wounded him his tribe's sacred black stone, a stone which tuned out to be the Black Diamond/Heart of Darkness. After being wounded by the stone, Dr. Gordon found himself in possession of it just in time for the solar eclipse, and so became possessed by Eclipso, an evil entity who used Dr. Gordon to perform his wickedness upon the face of the Earth. Yep. This is a real Jekyll and Hyde story.

    Many changes came to be made to Eclipso over the years. The Black Diamond was revealed to have originated on the cursed planet, Apaokolips; it was used to destroy Darkseid's enemies. Thousands of years later, it was somehow mystically linked to the Eclipso, and soon found it's way to Earth. Eclipso himself became God's Spirit of Wrath, Galid, who was defeated and put aside by The Spirit of Vengeance, The Spectre, and sealed in the Heart of Darkness which was buried on Apokolips. Now, in the New 52, Eclipso is the murderous Lord Kaala of Gemworld, scion of Houses Onyx and Diamond.


FUN FACT #1: Eclipso has possessed several heroes and others to do his dirty work, including Jean Loring, Ray Palmer's (Silver Age Atom) insane, homicidal ex-wife.

FUN FACT #2: Dr. Bruce Gordon's name is a mash-up of Bruce Wayne's and Commissioner Gordon's names. Apparently Bob Haney thought it was a rib-tickler.

FUN FACT #3: These have slowly crept up in value and scarcity. Check the asking prices.

Thanks for letting me vent.

You guys rock. So, rock on. :)

Daredevil #1 (Vol 5)

Daredevil #1 (Vol 5) from Marvel Comics -

    Daredevil has returned after the Marvel 616 has rebooted, and only Foggy Nelson remembers Matt Murdock's secret identity - which is just how Matt likes it. Back in Hell's Kitchen, Murdoch is the newest District Attorney, and he's getting his feet wet taking down a deadly new threat: The Church of the Sheltering Hands, headed up by the lethal new crime boss, Tenfingers. At Daredevil's side is his new apprentice, Blindspot, AKA Samuel Chung, a genius kid with an amazing invisibility suit. Their mission: protect Billy Li, former member of the Church of the Sheltering Hands, who now wishes to turn state's evidence. Can Daredevil and Blindspot can keep Billy alive long enough to testify? Not if Tenfingers has anything to say about it - and he just may have an ace in the hole that Daredevil wouldn't suspect in million years.

   Charles Soule brings back the guardian devil with a gritty vengeance. Matt Murdoch is absolutely not mucking about in this iteration of Daredevil. He's all about destroying the foundations of crime in Hell's Kitchen, both as DD and Matt Murdoch. Blindspot is a welcome addition to the DD lore; it's nice to see DD investing in someone else, and taking such a personal risk. However, it remains to be seen if this risk might just turn out to be the worst gamble of DD's life. This story is pretty mesmerizing from beginning to end, full of fresh, new characters. Ron Garney's pencils make the action pop in this book, while Matt Milla's lifeless colors create a bleak, bleary, hopeless world - the world of the Daredevil. If you love Daredevil, you will not want to miss this book. If you are a collector, you won't want to miss it either - this book is chock-full of first appearances of great new characters that are likely to show up in Marvel's cinematic universe. 

RATING: 8.5 out of 10. 

Squadron Supreme #1 Review

Squadron Supreme #1 from Marvel Comics -


    Although the players come from different universes - dead universes - the Squadron Supreme is back together again, for the first time. There is the deadly, brilliant Nighthawk of Earth 31916; the vengeful Doctor Spectrum of Earth 4290001; the powerful, godlike Hyperion of Earth 30134; Blur, DP 7's ebony speedster from Earth 148611 (The New Universe); and the Power Princess of Earth 712 (original Squadron Supreme), the most elite and deadly of super-powered warriors on her planet. These men and women have been revived in this universe and united by one cause: to never lose this planet as they lost their own planets. To this end, they have vowed to do whatever it takes to protect the  Earth from threats, foreign and domestic...And they are beginning with a powerful, pointy-eared, wing-footed king whose underwater army has attacked the surface-dwellers of Earth on more than one occasion.

   The Squadron Supreme takes NO prisoners.

    James Robinson writes this action-packed, merciless and brutal iteration of the Squadron Supreme. These guys are no holds barred, no holding back, and never say die. Each of them is reeling from the loss of their own worlds, and each of them wants vengeance on the man they hold responsible: King Namor, and with him, all of Atlantis. Penciller, Leonard Kirk pulls out all the stops - this book is gorgeous. Panels are packed with blazing battle. I'm interested to see how this Justice League with the Punisher's mentality will fit into a world populated by heroes of a less lethal nature, like the Avengers (there are several teams that call themselves that right now). Are they heroes? Are they a threat? Is there anyone powerful enough to take them down? Although, I won't add this to my monthly pull list, I will buy the TPBs.

RATING: 8 out of 10.  The ending of issue #1 is a heart-stopper. This is gong to be interesting to watch.

Adventure Time: Ice King (Kaboom!)

The crazy, Mental Downright looney Ice King loses his penguin friend Gunter. Goes everywhere looking for him, Finn & Jake say's "what the lump man" & PB say's "your bird is not in my sock draw you sicko". 

After he give's up he finds a ransom note on his fridge that tell's Ice King that a dude named "Dark Magistar Tampli Marble" has him. He goes Wizard city to get a lead. 

I found it funny, But i'm a fan of AT, This is only part 1 of 6. What madness is imminent.

Rating: 7.5/10

Devolution #1(Dynamite)

If your offended by Religion, Apes, Dead beats, Dinosaurs or an awesome female protagonist...Then turn back.
This was a great read, Oh man! it was brilliant, I had no idea what to expect.

Not to give to much away, Think I Am Legend & make it cool Lol.
After many wars over religions views throughout the world it was decided to do something about it. They came up with a serum that will devolve the part of the brain that believes in A God.

Oh! boy, It did that & much much more, After it became air born & mutated to devolve everything (yes insects & animals as well) but a small percentage of humans...Who coincidentally are more savage then most prehistorical bad arse creatures.

Great artwork & story, Loved it, Want more please.

Rating: 10/10

PS: sorry not for kids, Has F's & C's floating everywhere & nudity. Oh! did i say that it starts like a Conan book & ends in Outer-Space Hmm.

TEX'S BACK-ISSUE QUEST 2.0 EPISODE 12

Hey, fam!!

    2016 was the year that the Punisher made his small screen debut! And it was pretty great!

    And this brings us to the focus of TEX'S Back-Issue Quest for today.

    Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal is the latest actor to take on the role of the Punisher. He took on Daredevil in the much-awaited season 2 of Netflix's series of the same name.

   Bernthal reportedly used "Born" and "Punisher MAX" as inspiration for his portrayal on the Punisher. This is good news for fans of the Punisher, as Garth Ennis headed up both series, a writer who, arguably, penned the best Punisher stories ever.

    To mark this exciting occasion, I thought I'd roll out some of The Punisher keys from my collection, for your eyes to see. Sound good? Sweet. Let's boogie:

It's Captain America #241, published in 1980. This features the first meeting between Captain America and the Punisher...And boy do they get the fisticuffs done! Frank Miller is on the cover and Frank Springer is on the interiors. 

FUN FACT: Mike Barr screwed the pooch when he wrote this one. While trying to convince the Punisher of the error of his ways, Cap waxes a bit holier-than-thou, telling Castle that he's "never willingly taken a life." Cap's a WWII war-hero. That was the bloodiest war the world has ever seen - you don't get that title without spilling some. Just sayin'.  

This is Marvel Preview Presents #2, published in 1975. In this B&W, non-Comics-Code compliant magazine, The Punisher tries to stop the murder of a politician that will be giving a speech on Wall Street; also, we get the very first telling of the Punisher's origin story showing the horrific murder of his family. While out for a day in the park, the Castle Family stumbles across a mob hit, and are mercilessly gunned down. Only Frank Castle survives.

Here are a couple of pages for you:

Gerry Conway writes and Tony DeZuniga rocks those pencils!

FUN FACT 1: The Punisher didn't exactly catch fire when he was created. He appeared in only 2 solo B&W stories and was basically a guest character in other books until he got his own series in 1986.

FUN FACT 2: This magazine also features the 1st app of Dominic Fortune!

Next up:

Here we have The Amazing Spider-Man #135 - the second full appearance of the Punisher (he had a cameo in #134), and the origin of the Tarantula! Isn't that cover just all kinds of swell?


And of course, I have the most important of them all:

It's Amazing Spider-Man #129, published in 1974, featuring the very 1st appearance of the Punisher and the first appearance of Miles Warren as the Jackal!! This swell cover was done by the hands of greats John Romita and Gil Kane!!

Hey, Gil. My copy is nowhere near as pretty as yours, but I sure love having it all the same. :)

And finally:

Here is The Punisher #1, published in 1986. Written by Steven Grant, and drawn wonderfully by Mike Zeck, this series was in limbo since the early 80s when Grant and Zeck first asked to do it. Marvel wasn't sure about giving a hero that killed in cold blood his own title. What would the kids think? Eventually, Marvel published the title but didn't put much effort into promoting it, and it is no small wonder. This series is hard-boiled. You will see things in this series that Marvel hadn't even dreamed of in that era: suicide, the death of a child, and even a sex scene. Yikes!

FUN FACT 3: Issues 1, 3, and 4 had banners above the title stating that this was a four-issue limited series; however, issues 2, and 5 clearly state that this is actually a five-issue limited series. Which was correct? 

FUN FACT 4: It was actually a five-issue limited series. Hurray for production errors. 

That's all for today. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I do posting!

Starbrand and Nightmask #1 Review

Starbrand and Nightmask #1 from Marvel Comics -

    Kevin Connor was a college student when the power of the Star Brand exploded inside him, giving him near god-like powers at the cost of the lives of everyone in the college that day. Nightmask (Adam; Adam Blackveil) was built by Ex Nihlo to be the perfect man, but the White Event made him something far more than human: he is a being gifted with the power to navigate the dreamscape of human potential. Both resurrected by the birth (rebirth?) of the "All-New, All-Different" Marvel Universe, Nightmask seeks to reignite Starbrand's connection with humanity by enrolling them both in Empire State University. Given pause by his last experience at university, Kevin is totally against it...Until some gentle persuasion from Adam (and his hottie R.A.), help him see the light. However, when two of the Avengers' most wanted show up to throw down, Kevin and Adam are caught with their pants down, putting everyone at Empire U in terrible danger. It looks like it's cram-time for our teenage heroes - this is one killer exam that these dudes can't afford to flunk.

   Greg Weisman writes this super-fun, kooky adventure full of chuckles, good vibes, teen-angst and Marvel-style snark. The relationship between Starbrand and Nightmask is baked to teen-buddy perfection; these dudes were made to be a team. Kevin is probably in his late teens, and outside of his identity as Starbrand, he is totally lost, while Adam, at just about three years old has got it all together, discovering his own identity, all while looking out for Kevin. These guys shine on the page - Weisman has made a buddy comic that is the best I've read of its type in a very long time. Domo Stanton's art is kinetic and cartoony - it is absolutely perfect for the tone of this book and totally ramps up the fun to the red line. As a fan of the New Universe, I can't say that I don't miss the old versions of these guys, but I sure as heck don't hate the new versions...Now, can we get some D.P. 7 please, Marvel? Huh?!

   RATING: 9 out 10. I just have to hang out with these dudes.

Thanks for reading.