It's time for a change of pace as I hit ya'll with autographed comics, variants, and other oddities right from TEX'S very own long boxes! I've been meaning to start this up for quite a spell, but I've just never stirred up the gumption to see to it! But, consider my gumption stirred amigos - so let's skin this here smoke-wagon and see what happens!!
It's "The Plaid Avenger" #1 from NX Comics!
You're thinking, "TEX...For reals?" Right? But heck yeah, I'm for reals! For years, Professor John Boyer, Department Chair of Geography at Virginia Tech, has been kicking butt in the classroom and finding new ways to get American students to be more aware of and active in all things global. From politics to pollution, John uses his teaching super-powers to get his students in the global game. Already using his alter-ego, The Plaid Avenger, in a series of nuanced textbooks that he and his "Plaid Team" publish, it was only logical that he make the leap to comics, so we could all benefit from his highly researched take on important international issues in our rapidly changing, very complex world.
"The Plaid Avenger" #1 was published by NX Comics back in 2008. It is a fun, cartoony, "edutainment" comic. In this issue, our hero, The Plaid Avenger, a well-mannered college professor by day, and globe-trotting superhero all the rest of the time, heads WAY up north to investigate the retreating permanent ice-cap, and what it means for the planet. Along the way, he tangles with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as our hero highlights a simmering territory dispute.
Fun and educational? That is TEX-TASTIC!!
See ya later, Plaid Avenger! And HAPPY TRAILS TO MY FELLOW QUESTERS!!
PS: I just realized that I kinda started this series quite a while ago when I published an article on one of the RAREST ARTICLES in my collection. Click the link for a refresher! Adios!
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Arcadia Alvarado is the ex-Governor of New Mexico and the newly-elected President of the United States. But President Alvarado's got no time for celebration, she's got a divided country to run...And she's got a terrible, mysterious secret that she's spent years trying to quietly unravel. You see, a few years ago, President Alvarado and her ex-husband, Michael, were abducted and abused by aliens. President Alvarado has assembled a small group of friends to help her solve her mystery, including her Chief of Staff, and one Professor Joshua Kidd - an academic and investigator of UFO phenomenon. Battling the horrifying remnants left in her memories of what the aliens did to her, navigating the constant political jockeying by friend and foe, guarding a secret that could destroy her political career, and trying to covertly get to the bottom of an otherworldly conspiracy that just might involve human agents, President Alvarado is fighting tirelessly and not backing down...But, it seems that neither are the aliens. President Alvarado's just gotten the report...NASA's seemingly just made first contact with an approaching extra-terrestrial craft!
Finally! Writer, Paul Cornell and artist, Ryan Kelly, are back with the sequel to the Hugo Award-nominated sci-fi thriller, "Saucer Country." "Saucer State" doesn't miss a beat, giving us a succinct, one-page prose summary of the events that took place in "Saucer Country" and then Cornell tosses us right into the story of the hard-charging President Alvarado her curious cabal of alien investigators. "Saucer State" is what you would get if two much-beloved TV shows, "The X-Files" and "The West Wing," were to pair up and have a baby. It's the perfect mix of political intrigue, weird science-fiction, and mystery, all populated by three-dimensional characters with distinct personalities and motivations that made this issue a real page-turner. Kelly's pencils are great - he's got an eye for creating distinctive characters whose physical appearances really match perfectly with their personalities (at least in my mind). I got no one confused, quickly learned (or remembered) the names of all characters, and began the process of deciding who I liked, didn't like, or didn't trust. In other words, Cornell's and Kelly's "Saucer State" removed all barriers to the readers being able to immerse themselves in the story which, for me, made for the beginnings of an engrossing sci-fi mystery and a journey with these characters that I'd love to see through to the end. I'm so on board for "Saucer State!"
RATING: 10 out of 10.
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As of a few hours ago, Jack Normal considered himself a very lucky guy. Although he was no great shakes, he'd managed to nail down a great job, score himself a gorgeous wife, and father two wonderful, well-adjusted kids. Jack's only worry was that his son, Aiden, wasn't growing like Jack felt he should - other than that, life was pretty sweet. But that was earlier. Now, Jack is scrambling to understand why his son had an electrical wire hanging out of the back of his head after a fall, and why no one in the small eastern town he and his wife grew up in remembers them. Their parents, gone. Their childhood homes, owned by strangers. Their friends and neighbors, either long gone or without any memory of Jack and Mary Normal. Jack took his family home seeking sanctuary and solace, but what he finds is a mystery so frightening that it threatens to unravel the very threads of his family's existence. The Normal family is about to discover that they are everything but...Normal.
Adam Glass pens this weird sci-fi mystery, "The Normals" #1. Glass starts is out very right: great characterizations, lots of exposition in the captions while the story moves forward in the panels, a great set-up with the Normals' yuppified, sunshine-filled life, and then an unexpected gut-punch as everything enters an uneasy world steeped in the fantastic. This book is a bit like a "Brady Bunch" / "Blade Runner" mash-up and has the potential to develop into a very interesting sci-fi / mystery / suspense thriller. The story is an intriguing concept; however, I couldn't help but notice that in some ways the story felt very pedestrian and generic - that is NOT to say that it was not enjoyable - it has some pretty tense and gripping moments, but it is light on action, and the characters are just quite bland. Then again, maybe that is the whole idea of "The Normals" - they don't stand out, they look like us, talk like us, seem like us, but just below the surface is something wholly unimaginable. A very cool concept. Dennis Calero's pencils are expressive (if a bit stiff at times), yet, often they are overpowered by Adriano Augusto's super-rich colors. With that said, all in all, "The Normals" #1 is a solid first issue to a possibly great series that seems made to be translated to a T.V. show. I'll stick around for issue #2 to see if Glass picks up the pace.
RATING: 7.5 out of 10.
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Roberto Da Costa, AKA Sunspot, is many things - mutant, hero, philanthropist - but most of all, he is a patriot. He used his wealth to turn A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) into a mighty science-based force for good, and now he is about to go even further: as the shadow of the threat of The Secret Empire soars toward the Californian coast, Da Costa calls up his newest team of fellow patriots to stand against the looming threat. Squirrel Girl, Cannonball, Enigma, and the all-new Iron Patriot and Red Hulk are joining forces under Da Costa (Codename: Citizen V) to meet the Secret Empire's helicarrier head-on before it reaches American shores. Will Roberto's rag-tag bunch of true believers be enough to stop the impending doom barreling down on California at breakneck speed, or will the American Dream become a nightmare? And who is the new Captain America getting all up in Da Costa's Kool-Aid? The U.S. Avengers are...ASSEMBLED!
Al Ewing pens this IMMENSELY fun, action-packed first issue of "U.S. Avengers!" Ewing's writing is on-point. His dialogue is fun, and often times quite inspiringly patriotic without seeming cheesy, nor jingoistic. With Ewing, Roberto Da Costa takes a Captain-America-like turn of character, and it is awesome. If this weren't enough, Ewing managed to masterfully squeeze in several characters' backstories while moving the actual main story forward at a perfect pace. And these U.S. Avengers are diverse - different backgrounds, different nations of origin - all coming together to fight for America. Diverse people working together is part of what makes America great, and it definitely is part of what makes the U.S. Avengers magnificent.
And don't let ANYONE sell you snake-oil, and tell you differently.
"U.S. Avengers" #1 is fast-paced, slick and populated by likable characters with whom I really want to journey - I mean, I even kinda liked Squirrel Girl (bleargh - I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit). These Avengers talk like superheroes used to, and I love it. Add in Paco Medina's superb pencils and slick paneling choices with Jesus Aburtov's well-done colors, and you've got a comic that looks and reads wonderfully. "U.S. Avengers" #1 is just hella fun.
RATING: 10 out of 10. Marvel. You REALLY got this one right.
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Astronaut, David Powell, is dead. The world watched him, and his team of heroic space cowboys, die, burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, over a year ago. His adoring wife, his young son, everyone beheld in horror as David and his brave astronauts made the ultimate sacrifice to save the world from destruction by a killer asteroid hurtling through space on a collision course with our little blue marble. The tears have fallen, goodbyes said, and then a year later...David returned. No one knows why and no one knows how. Not even David; his memory is gone. He wants to be left alone, but he cannot be. He has returned with powers that make him a living weapon. He is being hunted by a covert group that has at its disposal soldiers who have powers as well. David must run, he must fight, he must live to find out who wants him so badly and why. The past is coming for the man believed to be the resurrected hero, David Powell. It will not be denied, and it will have him once more...By ANY means necessary.
Freshman comics company, Catalyst Prime, is off to an amazing start with the science-fiction/fantasy actioner, "Noble" #1! Brandon Thomas begins building an impressive universe for Catalyst Prime in this first issue from the company. "Noble" #1 contains a captivating story that moves at a near-breakneck pace for nearly the entirety of the comic. The protagonist, David Powell, is a gentle, amnesiac that just wants to be left alone, but the past keeps coming for him. That makes him a very attractive character fighting to remain free in an impossible vertical struggle. Even though "Noble" is pretty great, there are very few characters to latch onto emotionally, so far. However, right now, David, and his wife, Astrid, more than make up for the lack of other memorable characters. Roger Robinson's artwork is simply awesome - expressive, cinematic and dynamic - this book is an eye-popper. If "Noble" #1 is an indicator of the quality of this new Catalyst Prime Universe, sign me up. This is going to be a fun thrill-ride.
RATING: 9 out of 10.
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Miss America, AKA, America Chavez, is a super-strong super-chica that can punch star-shaped holes in dimensions. She's been a member of several super-teams, including the mightiest team in the M.U., The Ultimates. However, with so many changes taking place in her life, America decides that the time has come to move on, to get back to her life, to pay more attention to her girlfriend, and to get herself a proper education. America's going to college...But not just ANY college! She's going to Sotomayor University, a forward-thinking, intergalactically-oriented, school for people who want to change the world. She meets up with her buddy, the ex-mutant genius formally known as Prodigy, in her first class - so despite a rough start, America's feeling pretty good about the situation. That is until her demanding teacher, Professor Douglas, gives out the insane first assignment that makes America feel way out of her depth. Prodigy and America decide to tag-team the problem using one of Prodigy's prototype inventions, but everything spins out of control and America ends up hurtling through time and the multiverse all cattywampus! Bienvenida a la universidad, America. School's in!
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Tomorrow, June 2, 2017 will be even more WONDER-OUS...It is the day that DC's newest offering, Wonder Woman, starring the lovely Gal Gadot as our favorite Amazon warrior, will open in theaters all across the good ol' US of A!! So, to celebrate, I thought I'd break out some Silver Age goodness and dole out some comic book knowledge that you can't get in any college!
It's my copy of "Wonder Woman" #159, published by DC Comics in 1966! This comic features the first re-telling of Wonder Woman's origin in the Silver Age, BUT...It's done in a snazzy Golden Age style! And...It just might eventually be a VERY important comic in DC canon...maybe.
Written by the great Robert Kanigher, and penciled by Ross Andru with inks by Mike Esposito, this issue comes from something akin to a Silver Age comics Dream Team. In this story, which starts in ancient times, Aphrodite and Mars are at odds on whom should rule humanity and how. Mars, god of war, wants to rule with strength and the sword, while Aphrodite wants to rule with the power of love. Aphrodite creates a race of women gifted with the power of love, and a might that makes them stronger than any man. Aphrodite gives their queen, Hippolyte, her magic girdle which makes her, and her Amazon sisters, invincible...As long as she never takes it off. When Mars learns of the magic girdle, he sends Hercules against Hippolyte...who defeats the him in combat. But Herc, the sly dog, gets all lovey-dovey with Hippolyte, tricks her into taking off the girdle, and then he and his men conquer her and her Amazons. Hippolyte prays to Aphrodite for help, which she receives, leading to Hercules' defeat. Afterward, Aphrodite leads the Amazons to a magical island which they name Paradise Island and tells them that if a man ever touches the island, their strength and immortality would be lost forever. Innumerable years later (during WWII), moved by Hippolyte's sadness, the goddess, Athena, causes Hippolyte to create a beautiful clay sculpture of a child, and them the goddess brings it to life giving the queen what she cannot have without a man...A child, which she names...DIANA!
As a youth, it is obvious that Diana is a gift from the gods - she has speed to rival that of the fleet-footed Mercury, and strength to rival that of the mighty Hercules! Diana grows mighty until the age of nineteen when, on one fateful day, Diana and her friend Mala, find downed pilot, Steve Trevor. Diana heals him (never letting him touch the island's ground). Hippolyte wants Trevor gone, but Diana, feeling her first pangs of love, desires to leave with him which her mother forbids in fear of Diana losing her Amazon powers and immortality. Soon after, Aphrodite comes to Hippolyte and tells her that she must send her greatest Amazon back to the world of men to fight evil and injustice. Hippolyte holds a grand contest, which Diana enters covertly and wins. With her victory, she gains the freedom to follow Steve back to the world of men, a costume designed by Aphrodite herself, and a magic lasso (Lasso of Truth), made of links of Aphrodite's magic girdle, which compels anyone ensnared in it to speak the truth. And thus the birth of WONDER WOMAN!! On to the Fun Facts!!!
FUN FACT 1 - Wonder Woman was created by psychologist and author William Moulton Marsten and artist H.G. Peter. She first appeared in "All Star Comics" #8 in 1941.
FUN FACT 2 - Hippolyte's name was changed to Hippolyta in the 1960s.
FUN FACT 3 - Mars first appeared in "Wonder Woman" #2 in 1942 (Golden Age AKA Earth Two). It is eventually revealed that he was just a manifestation of the Diana's more well known antagonist, Ares.
FUN FACT 4 - The Silver Age brought the advent of comics collecting as a hobby. Kanigher tried to cash in on that burgeoning trend with "Wonder Woman" #159 by creating, as it says on the cover, "Another GREAT COLLECTOR'S ITEM." He took Wonder Woman back to her Golden Age roots by doing his take on William Moulton Marsten's stories, and he even asked Ross Andru to imitate H.G. Peter's art style. Kanigher ditched his own additions to the Wonder Woman mythos, in favor of bringing back villains from the Golden Age. He threw away Wonder Tot, the husbands and sons he'd given to the Amazons, and he even brought back more use of the Lasso of Truth, which had been largely ditched in attempts to stay well within the Comics Code and off the radar of the deranged Fredric Wertham. No bondage allowed.
FUN FACT 5 - It's no surprise that William Moulton Marsten would conceive of something like a Lasso of Truth. He was also the father of the polygraph, also known as the "Lie Detector Test" (which he also published a book about).
FUN FACT 6 - It's also no surprise that Marsten would conceive of a super-powered heroine, made without any man's help. Marsten was a hardcore feminist, and believed that, due to women's less developed thirst for violence and more charitable nature, women were superior to men. In 1937, he also predicted that the world would convert to a matriarchy within the next 100 years. We have twenty years to see how that turns out. Maybe.
FUN FACT 7 - While Batman and Superman were dramatized several times in film, TV and radio in the 1940s, 50s and into the 60s, Wonder Woman was dramatized for the first time in 1966, on a story recorded on a 45rpm record.
FUN FACT 8 - Wonder Woman's alter-ego, Diana Prince is actually another person. The real Diana Prince was an Army Nurse during WWII, whom Wonder Woman helped out financially. The nurse left America to be with her fiance in South America, and Wonder Woman took her identity because their appearances were so similar.
FUN FACT 9 - "Wonder Woman" #159 caused a bigger stir than Kanigher could have ever imagined. Collectors have argued for years about whether or not it is the first CHRONOLOGICAL appearance of Wonder Woman of Earth One (Silver Age). This would make "Wonder Woman" #159 fall into the same category as the other Silver Age reboots (Earth One stories) of heroes like The Flash (Showcase #4, 1956) and Green Lantern (Showcase #22, 1959).
FUN FACT 10 - Concerning live-action appearances, Wonder Woman has been portrayed by six actresses: Ellie Wood Walker in a failed "Batman '66 - style" 1967 TV pilot, Cathy Lee Crosby in the 1974 TV pilot film, the ever-gorgeous Lynda Carter in the famous TV show (1975-1979), Dawn Zuleta in the Filipino production, "Alias Batman & Robin," by Adrianne Palicki in the 2011 failed TV pilot, and finally by Israeli bombshell, Gal Gadot, in the DCEU.
Here is Ellie Wood Walker as Wonder Woman (warning - this is REALLY stupid):
Here is a clip of Cathy Lee Crosby as Wonder Woman:
Here is a clip of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman:
Here is a Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman:
Here is a clip of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman:
Well, that's it for today folks! Be like me...AND GO SEE GAL GADOT LIGHT UP THE SCREEN AS WONDER WOMAN!!
Happy trails!
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