NML Crossing, Episode 073 - Batman Chronicles #17 (1999)

NML Crossing, Episode Seventy-Three

Batman Chronicles #17 (Summer, 1999)
"Little Bat Lost"
"Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out"
"Identity Crisis"
Writers - Scott Beatty, Dafydd Wyn, Chris Renaud
Pencils - Pascal Alixe, Eduardo Barreto, Graham Nolan
Inks - Wayne Faucher, Bill Sienkiewicz
Colors - Rob Schwager, Ian Laughlin (or) Pam Rambo, Noelle Giddings
Letters - Willie Schubert, John Costanza
Edits - Vincenzo, Gorfinkel, Illidge, Carlin, O'Neil
Cover Price: $2.95

A trio of tales to continue fleshing out No Man's Land. Today we're going to invade an unaligned neighborhood to make some Bat-tots, broadcast some Public Access Television, and finally figure out Batman's secret identity! It's a good time as always on this Mark of Cain-Eve!

The Bada-Bin!

NML Crossing on Youtube

https://gothamquake.com

https://chrisisoninfiniteearths.com

weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com

NML Crossing, Episode 015 - Detective Comics #721 (1998)

NML Crossing, Episode Fifteen

Detective Comics #721 (May, 1998)
“Cataclysm, Part Fourteen: Shifting Ground”
Writer - Chuck Dixon
Pencils - Graham Nolan
Inks - Klaus Janson
Colors - Gloria Vasquez & Android Images
Letters - John Costanza
Edits - Vincenzo & Peterson
Cover Price: $1.95

More interesting clashes in vigilante-styles between Batman and the Huntress, and a look at some highly "inconvenient" post-Quake Gotham clean-up.  Also, we get a sorta-kinda out-of-nowhere zeroing in on the Quakemaster's lair!

https://chrisisoninfiniteearths.com

weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com

NML Crossing, Episode 006 - Detective Comics #720 (1998)

NML Crossing, Episode Six

Detective Comics #720 (April, 1998)
Cataclysm, Part Five: The First and the Last”
Writer - Chuck Dixon
Art - Graham Nolan & Klaus Janson
Colors - Gloria Vasquez & Android Images
Letters - John Costanza
Edits - Vincenzo & Peterson
Special Thanks - John Stanisci
Cover Price: $1.95

Where was high school teacher and recovering vigilante, Helena Bertinelli at 7:03PM when the verybadthing happened?  Today we're going to find out!  We also discuss Chuck Dixon deftly flipping the script on the Bat vs. Man-ness of Bruce Wayne!

Plus: Our first dip into the N-MaiLbag... which, uh, don't say that out loud.

https://chrisisoninfiniteearths.com

weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com

DCU Holiday Bash! #1 (Superman)

DCU Holiday Bash! #1 (Superman)
"The Benefaction of Peace"
Writer - Barry Jameson
Pencils - Graham Nolan
Inks - Josef Rubinstein
Colors - Jason Wright
Letters - Albert T. DeGuzman
Editors - Mike Carlin & Darren Vincenzo

Welcome to December, friends!

Yesterday we tied that final bow (and took that final bow) on Action Comics Daily... and, before we get into today's piece I wanted to thank everyone for all of their kind words and support!  It really blew me away how many folks appreciated the effort and the nearly year-long ride we were on!  I can't even put it into words... it just meant a whole lot to me.  I'm still actually a bit shaken (or, do kids these days say "shook"?) from the reception.

I mean, even the fella who once played the Flash... and now plays another Flash liked yesterday's social media share!  Not sure if he read the post, but if he did... I hope he enjoyed it!

Now, with all that said... you might be about to ask, "Chris, what the heck are you doing here?  I thought you were done."  Well, yes... while the conclusion of Action Comics Daily would have been the most opportune and advantageous time to bow out, I'm not quite ready to be done just yet.  There are a couple of reasons for this:

1) I'm an idiot
2) It's Christmas-time... my favorite blogging-time of the year!

So, for the next little while, we're shifting focus to Christmas stories!  Hey, where are you all going?  This is going to be fun... well, for me, anyway.

Same format as Action Comics Daily... one chapter a day, with a compilation wrap-up at the end.  With this next compilation, we can go over the final results of the great Action Comics Weekly Poll... which, will hopefully gain a few more votes between now and then!

Til' then, let's share and enjoy some stories of Christmases Past!

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We open atop the Daily Planet Building... and, guess what?  It's Christmas Eve!  Lois greets a man named George who has had himself one heckuva bad year.  Ya see, his wife left him, and... well, that's it.  He's planning on leaping from the building to his death so he doesn't have to spend Christmas alone.  Lois reads the situation, and decides the thing that'll get ol' George off the ledge is: telling him the story of Superman's first Christmas in Metropolis!  Thank Goodness this is from before Grounded... would-be jumpers didn't get this kind of service there!

And so, Lois spins her story... and, to be honest, it's rather dull.  It's Christmas, Superman has just recently arrived in Metropolis, and he's feeling rather lonely.  Rather than, ya know, take the five-seconds and fly back to Smallville to be with family, he's decided to continue with his normal patrolling.  Naturally, he saves a bunch of folks from near-doom, would-be robbers, low-lives and what-not.  Just another day in the life, for the Man of Steel.

Later that evening, there is an event for Feed the Homeless... during which, a former "residence-challenged" fellow named Milton Varney is going to donate a great big sack of cash to the charity.  Like, literally... it's a sack of cash, complete with a dollar sign on it.  Didn't Gene Simmons trademark that?  I dunno... whatever the case, some bad-guy, who kinda looks like Bill Cosby bursts in and tries to steal the bag.  He even takes the Feed the Homeless "spokesmodel" hostage!  I didn't realize charities such as this even had "spokesmodels", but what do I know?

Thankfully (and predictably), Superman just happened to be in the neighborhood... and so, he swoops in, heats up Cosby's pistol... and stares the baddie down.

Well, looks like our villain planned ahead for just such an event.  Ya see, he's strapped to the gills with explosives!  Got himself a dead-man's switch to boot... so, like... if any harm were to come to him, the whole joint's gonna be blown sky-high.  This appears to have Superman somewhat bamboozled... maybe this was his first time in such a conundrum?

As luck would have it, it turns out that our kick-ass philanthropist, Mr. Milton Varney is a quicker-thinker than even the Man of Steel.  He bum-rushes The Cos, and manages to gain possession of the dead-man's switch!  Superman flicks the baddie on the head for good measure.

The dust shortly settles, and the event picks up where it left off.  Superman suggests that he wait around and escort Mr. Varney back to the Mission after things wrap up... and Varney agrees, on one condition: Superman joins him for Christmas dinner.  Bada-bing, bada-boom, Superman is no longer lonely.

This story, it turns out, was exactly what ol' George needed to hear on this night.  It works like a charm!  He hops down from the ledge, and is even invited out for a cuppa coffee with Lois Lane.  What luck!  Truly a Christmas Miracle!

--

So...

Yeah, probably not my favorite Superman Christmas story... but, there was a certain amount of, I dunno... charm, to it?  Like, I get what they were going for... but, the story Lois told didn't really hit me as being all that "life-changing", ya know?  Like, there's no reason why ol' George shouldn't have cocked an eyebrow at her, and just jump anyway.  This wasn't so much the story of "hope", it was just... Hey, Superman (kinda) saved this dude, and was invited to have dinner with him.  I dunno, maybe I'm missing a deeper meaning here... I can be a bit dense at times.  It just doesn't feel like a story with all that much "oomph".

There were a few things I appreciated here, however.  Superman still being kinda new-to-the-gig, not being completely sure how to deal with the baddie's dead-man's switch.  Also, as nonsensical as it was, Superman dealing with loneliness was rather touching.  It's one of those things where it's difficult to suspend our disbelief, when we know he could be back at the Kent farm in seconds/minutes if he wanted to... or, brought his folks up (or anywhere, really) to spend the Holiday with him just as quick.  I mean, It's not like Metropolis is the only place where crimes were taking place on Christmas Day, right?  I dunno.

The whole scenario feels like a reach in order to facilitate the underlying loneliness... so, it's really hard for me to look at these story beats as anything else.

The art here was very good... I really enjoyed it.  Probably the highlight of the piece for me.

If you're still in a Super-Christmas mood, you can check out the time I looked at the Superman short in Christmas With the Super-Heroes #2 (1989), with words and art from Paul "Concrete" Chadwick.  It's a good one, I gahr-own-tee it!

Tomorrow: God Rest Ye Merry, Highfather!

Elvira's House of Mystery #9 (1986)

Elvira's House of Mystery #9 (November, 1986)

"Lost Souls"

"Drink Like a Fish!"

Writers - Darren Auck & Dennis Yee

Pencillers - Darren Auck & Graham Nolan

Inkers - Victor Laszlo & Reuben Pharms

Letterers - Kurt Hathaway & Duncan Andrews

Colorist - Liz Berube

Editor - Ed Hannigan

Cover Price: $0.75

Let's keep the October special rollin' with another spooooooooky book.  Of course, your mileage may vary on the spookiness therein.

--

We open up with our framing sequence.  Elvira doing her best Svengoolie impression introducing us to our tales of terror.  There seems to be a subplot running through this series where Elvira has taken over the literal House of Mysteries in the DC Universe from its previous caretaker Cain.  Our Mistress of the Dark comes upon a portrait gallery featuring our former host... then settles in for tonight's double-feature.

Our first spine-tingling story is Lost Souls.  A Mister Jonathan Gray comes upon a secluded manor where he plans to write his soon-to-be best selling chiller novel.  As he approaches the structure, a beautiful young woman meets him.  She is Miss Underwood, and she is runs the joint.

She invites Gray inside and shows him to his room.  From the captions, this somehow takes an hour.  Once he's comfortably situated, she takes her leave.  She opens the door to the basement and greets the floating disembodied red head of her grandfather, who instructs her that Mr. Gray belongs to him.

That night, Mr. Gray retires to bed and falls asleep.  He dreams of a woman reading a book.  She calls for her daughter, who is playing with her creepy-looking doll in the basement.  The mother hears a scratching at the window, and when she goes to check on what it is... she finds the floating disembodied red head of whatsherface's grandfather.

Our man wakes up with the sweats... and begins hearing the same scratching that was in his dream.  He throws on his clothes and heads out to investigate.  What he finds is a room full of creepy dolls... including the one from his dream!

A voice booms out that it's coming to get him.  He rushes out of the room, and collapses in Miss Underwoods (cold) arms.  She returns him to his bed, and imagines what it would be like to drain him of his lifeforce.  Looks like we got us a succubus.

The red head of doom makes another appearance, and reminds Underwood that Mr. Gray is to be his meal.  He return to the dream world, where the young girl drops her creepy doll and runs upstairs.  Once there, she finds her mother kissing on her dad... and presumably sucking the lifeforce from him.  We then see the creepy doll come to life and climb up the stairs.  Our Mr. Gray, again wakes up with the sweats.

Well, this is all too much for our man, and he decides it's time to take his leave.  Miss Underwood appears before him, and uses her succubus powers to try and hypnotize him into staying with her... forever.  Well, evil red grandpa don't dig that scene... so he shows himself... as the creepy doll!  He causes his granddaughter to fall to the floor below, and approaches Mr. Gray... who, get this... punches the doll... then throws himself through the window.

Back inside, Miss Underwood... now being called Pamela, decides the burden of succubusing is just too much to bear... so she burns the house down... with her in it!

Mr. Gray gets back to his car and puts the pedal to the metal.  He thinks he's gotten away... however... there's a certain creepy doll in his backseat!  Dun dun dunnnn...

Our second feature is Drink Like A Fish! and we open on a young blonde man water skiing.  The folks in the speedboat are dazzled by his prowess, and one even says it's like Davey was "born in the water"... hope I didn't tip my hand a bit early there... ahem.

He continues to water ski as his pals all down some suds.  Later, they dock on the shore of an island and get down to... well, more drinking.  All of them are partaking... except buzzkill Davey.  He doesn't wanna drink because alcohol is a depressant and dehydrates the body.  His friends are kinda jerks... they keep tempting him.  I mean, wouldn't most people be relieved... like, woo-hoo, more for me?  Well, not these folks.

Well, our man sits and stews... and contemplates what harm a li'l drinky-drink would do him.  He also mentions that the doctors say he shouldn't have alcohol.  Well... he ultimately decides, screw the docs, it's time to drink.

Davey loosens up, starts dancing, singing... all that cliche "loosening up" schtick.  He suddenly and violently throws his empty can and rushes to the water.  Carol, who I think he's been digging on runs off after him, only to find... dun dun dunnnnn... he's... what the... he's a fish man?  Really?  That's what we're going with?  Okay.

Carol is frozen with fear... and Davey the fish man grabs her by the wrist.  He pulls her close and they gaze into each other's eyes.  Davey begins to cry... for he knows that his time among the land-people is over... and he will never know the love of a bemulleted woman named Carol.

We wrap up back in the House of Mysteries where our Hostess gets one more filmstrip... one featuring Cain... but that's for another time...

--

Well, this was lackluster.  Two fairly boilerplate "horror" stories with fairly entertaining Elvira framing bits.  I find myself hoping for more Elvira pages... even as campy as they may be, they often get a chuckle... even if it's via a "wow, that was corny" reaction.

The stories themselves... well, they're just kind of "there".  Nothing to write home about, however, the art was nice all throughout... and how about that punk-rock cover... that one would definitely pop off the shelf at you.  

So, yeah... not a whole lot to say about this one... sadly.  It's a horror anthology, that doesn't bring the scary.  I will say that the first story with the succubus and killer doll was a ton better than the dumb fish-man-thing one... but, that's not really praise.  I mean, our fish-friend mentions that the doctors say he shouldn't drink... who are these doctors that are seeing fish-people?  Is that an insensitive question?

Again... I'll say the art for both features and the framing sequence is really nice.  There's some sketchiness in our fish story... but overall, not bad to look at.

As of this writing, my only exposure to Elvira's House of Mystery was the Christmas Special... wherein Elvira herself was much more prominent, and it had more of a humor feel to it.  This really didn't do anything for me.  During this October special, we just might have another visit or two to Elvira's House... hopefully those'll be more fun.

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Letters Page:

 

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