New Talent Showcase #1 (Forever Amber) "Forever Amber!" Writer - Rich Margopoulos Pencils - Stan Woch Inks - Rick Magyar Letters - Duncan Andrews Colors - Jeanine Casey Edits - Roger Slifer Being a daily blog, I kind of miss out on those opportunities to kinda just sit back and, for lack of a better term "bask". I'm writing this piece on January 31... so, the anniversary day for this site. A day I probably should just be taking a deep breath and relaxing... pleased with the fact that I made it through yet another year. But no... instead, I'm reading New Talent friggin' Showcase. Wish I knew what was wrong with me! Oh well. So yeah, New Talent Showcase... I know I've threatened it a time or two during the latter half of Action Comics Daily... and the response I would get each time was... mixed. A few people were interested in exactly what sort of stories we'd get from NTS... others, I suppose already knew what sort of stories we'd get. In all honesty, I've tried reading this... a few times, and it never held my interest all that long. I can say with confidence I never even finished this first issue! Well, starting today: we're gonna try. Now, please wait a moment before clicking the back-arrow on your browser, or swiping left or whatever the hell we do on mobile devices. New Talent Showcase is just one of the things we'll be covering for the next little while! Having learned a pretty powerful lesson in "reader retention" during our near-year of Action Comics Weekly, I'm going to try and keep things from becoming too stagnant here by rotating three different features going forward. The agenda is thus: we're going to do the first issue of New Talent Showcase... then, something else... then, something else... then, New Talent Showcase #2, and so on. Ya dig? As long as I'm able to keep things straight... this should be kind of fun. Either that, or I will literally be just left talking to myself. I guess we'll find out, eh? Ya know, it's funny... four years ago I was toiling away on a Forensic Psychology project regarding Amber Hagerman... which actually led me to the creation of this very blog. Here we are kicking off our fifth year... with Forever Amber! --
We open with a woman just having infiltrated a treasure trove of sorts. Before her, if we can sift passed the overly-flowery narration captions, we can see an idol surrounded by jewels and what-not. She swipes as much of the loot as she possibly can, when she notices that the very idol itself has some very valuable-looking jewels set insides its eye-sockets. She spies a hunk of Gold Quartz in the right-eye, and decides to go for it. When she does, the bugger starts to sizzle... and actually fuses into the palm of her hand-meat!
The resulting, ya know, searing pain prompts her to recall just how she got herself into this predicament. We jump into flashback land, where we learn that she hails from Vietnam and is of mixed race... her mother Taiwanese, and her father (presumably) an American G.I. (who our protagonist has never met). Our gal, Amber, spent her childhood being shunned by the rest of the Orie... er, Asian children, for being different. She grew up (to the ripe old age of sixteen or so) performing in sort of a traveling circus.
Amber's mama, Su Wan, holds out hope that daddy will eventually come back and save them from this life. In fact, she regularly prays before his framed photo. We learn that, while he hasn't come to "save them", he does send them money (and love?) with regularity. Amber's pretty much over it... she tells her mother to, more or less, "grow up", and slaps down daddy's shrine.
She stomps out of their tent... and passes by a Hindu Priest named Nuri. He gives her a bit of a spiel that conflates Buddhism and Hinduism... and, as I'm no religious scholar, for all I know this might make sense. He invites her into his tent to pitch a sort of baptism... in the name of Kali... wherein our gal would become a "living instrument" of the Dark Goddess. Fair enough.
Time passes, and the Vietnam War ends. The South falls to the North... and the United States suffers a humiliating loss. This sends many a South Vietnamese into hiding and/or fleeing into nearby Cambodia. Amber and Su Wan travel to a refugee camp in Thailand... and it's not a great life. Worth noting, this Vietnam War news comes to us courtesy of... The Daily Planet! So... does that mean Forever Amber is officially part of the DC Universe?! Maybe we'll find out... though, probably not.
Amber continues performing... though, not in an official "circus" capacity. She does her acrobatics to wow the crowd, all the while her partner, Ho Diem picks their pockets. We learn that she's resorted to this unsavory method in order to pay for her mother's medication... Su Wan has fallen quite ill. Oh, and ol' Ho Diem has quite the hot-pants for our Amber.
Time passes... and Su Wan dies. After Amber discovers the body, she spies the photo of her hated G.I. father on the nightstand. She blames him for Su Wan's death... and vows revenge. He too will die... but, by her hand!
Amber bids Ho Diem farewell... forever... and heads off to Cambodia. She had learned that a Dacoit Temple there housed many riches... riches, with which, she can "buy her revenge". This brings us back to the present, where Amber... now with added gem-palm... finds herself surrounded by a gaggle of Dacoit Faithful. They presume to test her, to see if she is worthy of keeping the "Sun-Stone". With Amber shattering their sword with but a swipe, I'd have to say... so far, so good.
The Dacoits continue their assault, prompting Amber (the woman) to respond to one with a palm-strike to the chest. This palm strike turns the fella from flesh and bone to... well, amber (the crystalish resin). The poor goofball shatters into a million pieces.
The attackers keep attacking... however, Amber is more than capable of holding her own. A blast of light emits from the Sun-Stone, which manages to blind a few of her would-be assailants.
She then breaks out of a full-nelson when she sorta overhead-throws this one eyepatched Dacoit. He goes flying right into the blade of yet another Dacoit. Worth noting, the dialogue around this point is... really quite bad. We all know that comics ought to be more "show" than "tell". This little bit gives us a whole lotta both. I mean, the goof with the sword actually proclaims: "My drawn dagger-! No!! He landed upon it... exactly as the blonde vixen planned!". Ay yai yai.
At this point, exhausted Amber decides to try and bluff her way out of this. Even though she can barely stand, she remains strong... and, more or less, dares these Dacoit to come at her. Rather than doing so, the attackers all bow to her. She has proven herself worthy, not only of the Sun-Stone, but to as much of the loot as she can carry. The bid her leave in peace.
We wrap up with Amber preparing to board a ship bound for America.
-- So... a little dry. Well, maybe more than a little dry. I feel like, if you're going to launch an "experimental" title like New Talent Showcase... you might wanna do it "with a bang", so to speak. While I can't necessarily hold its placement against Forever Amber... I do question why this got the lead-off spot here. Just seems a bit too, I dunno story-heavy, to really grab a new reader. Though, perhaps I'm just projecting. So, what do we got here? Well, we got a lot of story. They really crammed a whole lot of graham into this one... which, while a bit dry, did a really good job of setting the table and getting as much of the exposition out of the way. In light of that, hopefully subsequent chapters will be able to swing a bit freer... and move at a brisker pace. Now, I can't pretend to completely comprehend the Gestalt of this piece. I'm no religious scholar either, so I don't know how fast-and-loose the creative team is being with the various faiths and whatnot. That didn't pull me out of the story, so I suppose it's kind of a moot point (for me). I dig the idea of Amber trying to seek out her father for revenge... and am actually kind of looking forward to following up with her search. The fantastical elements added here with the Golden Quartz embedding itself into Amber's hand was pretty cool. Gotta wonder how that will wind up playing out over time. Overall... this wasn't bad. I was honestly kind of dreading it... but, had a decent enough time. Hopefully the rest of the stories here can keep up! Now, since some of the New Talent Showcase stories are one-and-dones, I figure we should "meet" our creative teams with their first appearances in the run. Rich Margopoulos... didn't do much at DC Comics. In fact, Forever Amber looks like it might be it. He did do some work for Harvey, Archie, and Marvel from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s however. Worth noting, he is the owner of a Bachelors Degree in Philosophy and Religion from Stockton State College (now Stockton University) in Galloway, New Jersey... so, he probably had a pretty good idea what he was talking about with the religious content of this story! Across the table sits Stan Woch. A graduate (?) of the Kubert School, and a fella we've actually covered here. He does good work, and was moderately prolific at DC Comics throughout the late 1980s. Looks like he only kept active in the industry until around the turn of the century. Still, not a bad body of work! Tomorrow: Meet the Sky Dogs!
Fantastic Four (vol.2) #13 (November, 1997) "World War 3, Part 1: Life in Wartime" Writer - James Robinson Pencils - Mike Wieringo Inks - Richard Case Colors - WildStormFX Letters - Richard Starkings & Comicraft's Dave Lamphear Editor - Ruben Diaz Editor in Chief - Bob Harras Cover Price: $1.99 Wait, what? Is there an issue of Fantastic Four in my DC Comics blog?! Wassupwitdat? Well, watch as ya boy jumps through quite a few hoops to make this work. Ya see, today marks our FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY! That's four-years of DAILY discussions and reviews at this humble and unspectacular little blog. What betta book to cover today than an issue of Fantastic Four, right? Right? ... Right? Suppose I could've done a Fourth World book, but... ehhh, I never cared much for 'em. "Milestone" blog books need to be bigger... or at the very least, more "novel" than that. But why this issue in particular? Volume Two... Number Thirteen? Might seem completely random... and you might be thinking I've completely lost my mind. You might be right about that last part, but, I promise, there is a method to the madness. Ya see, just in case you're unaware... the thirteenth (and final) issues of Marvel's Heroes Reborn titles (Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man, and Avengers) all took place on Marvel Earth-13031... which just so happens to be (at the time of this comic) a "merged" Marvel and WildStorm Universe dealie. Since we do cover WildStorm here (taking the imprint all the way back to Day One), I figured I could technically cover this bugger here without breaking (m)any of my self-imposed rules. Now, it might sound like I'm trying to justify this (very un-DC) pick to y'all... but, don't get it twisted, I'm actually trying to justify it to myself! Deep breaths... we'll get through this. Now... let's be self-indulgent and reflect a bit. I feel like the Fourth Year at Chris is on Infinite Earths (which, if I were a betting man a year ago, I'd swear wouldn't have even been "a thing")... was kind of "defined" by four different things. First, and perhaps most obvious to those who've been following along... Action Comics Weekly.
From February 1 to November 30 we took a look at every single story that filled the pages of Action Comics Weekly (even the "alternate ending"!). This might actually be the thing I'm most proud of from all my days of blogging. It wasn't always the most interesting... or most engaging... and, I tell ya what, it cost me a whole bunch of readers... but, it was a project that, to my knowledge, just hasn't been done before. I'm happy I saw it through, and it can now sorta stand on its own as a "resource"... because, lemme tell ya, there were definitely times where I wanted to throw in the towel! If you want to take a look at my coverage... my Action Comics Daily "Post-Mortem"piece is probably the best place to go! Second, Christmas Stories! Rather than do my usual "Twelve Days of Christmas on Infinite Earths" series... I decided to go whole-hog Hallmark Channel, and make December 1st through the 25th wall-to-wall Holiday stories!
Keeping with the "Anthology Format" the blog had maintained through most of 2019, I covered all of the stories from a pair of DC Holiday Specials. I actually almost stopped blogging completely when Action Comics Daily wrapped up... and, had it been any other time of year, I very well might have! I just can't resist writing about Christmas/Holiday stories! Heck, we even took a week off from ACW in July to do Christmas on Infinite Earths... in July! Third, Bonus Books! A topic I've wanted to discuss for quite a while, but wasn't sure quite how to go about it. Being a "completionist", I kind of feel weird about leaving anything out... so, I always assumed if I were ever going to cover DC's Insert Prevues or Bonus Books, I'd have to do so as a "part" of covering the actual issues in which they appear. I actually did do that once... and it made for one heckuva lot of words, and one heckuva long blogging session.
It ultimately came down to me reminding myself that... hey, the only rules to this blogging thing are the ones I impose on myself. I can get away with whatever I want... and so, I decided to just look at the Insert Prevues and Bonus Books... and we looked at all of 'em... which, is another project that, to my knowledge, hasn't been done before! Fourth, and... most recent... creating my first ever video for the blog. This probably isn't a big deal to many folks, however, for me... it was a pretty big step. I never thought I'd get the guts to actually film myself... and to do so, especially as a part of Super-Blog Team-Up, made me feel... I dunno, really good.
I was surprised to get some very kind words about my "performance". In case you haven't clicked PLAY, it's me talking about the Super-Blog Team-Up topic "Chromium", and finally, after some near three-decades, unbagging Adventures of Superman #500. Being someone with zero experience in video, or video-editing... it took forrrrrrever to get this right. Had to make sure I got it all in one-take. Ten minutes of video... in one take. Might not sound like much, but... hoo-boy, lemme tell ya... that was a toughie! Now, with all the misty water-colored memories (of the way we were) out of the way... whattaya say, we hop right into today's book? It's gonna be a weird one! --
We're actually going to open on the inside fold of the front cover. This was back when Marvel had this odd, but welcome, gimmick where they'd cram some expositional "catch-up" information inside the front cover... this way it'd be easy to drop some knowledge about what's going on without eating up any'a that valuable paginal real-estate. It also came justified the four-cent price increase ($1.95 to $1.99) across the board. Could you even begin to imagine a four-cent price hike?! We never knew how good we had it. Anyhoo, it's here that we learn that Galactus was looking to eat the Heroes Reborn pocket-Earth, and that to stop this, Dr. Doom mucked about with the time stream so much that the damn thing just frayed apart. The very fabric of reality began goes "a bit ca-ca", leaving us with a whole lot of questions... which we'll hopefully begin to make a li'l bit of sense of as we move forward.
When the dust... or whatever "the void" is made out of... finally settles, our scene is New York City. Doesn't look entirely unfamiliar... probably not a whole lot to worry about, right?
Well... ya see, there's the thing. Several alien hordes have decided to pull the ol' invasion angle. This threat is so severe that the only ones who might possibly be able to stop them are the super-heroes. And so, here's where we meet perennial Marvel mainstays... the WildC.A.T.S?!
These C.A.T.S are comprised of several familiar faces... including Grifter, Zealot, Marlowe, Void, that one dude with the claws... also, Giant Man and Karnak the Inhuman?! They are fighting off some Daemonites and Skrulls... and look to be barely able to hold their own.
Enter: Reinforcements, in the form of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Black Knights division (led, naturally by Dane Whitman). As the battle rages, thoughts go to the fallen. Groups such as the Defenders, and DV8 have perished in the onslaught (not that Onslaught).
The battle continues... but our scene shifts, to outside of what looks like an Armed Forces Recruitment office. Two young fellas greet each other... with a very odd greeting, that we'll learn a bit more about later on. It's as though they're both aiming Smartphone screens at one another. Again, we'll learn about that later. In the window of the Office is a poster depicting someone who looks a heckuva lot like Captain America doing the old Uncle Sam "I Want You!" gimmick...
We shift scenes again... this time to the Baxter Building, where a certain foursome is just about to return from a trip into the Negative Zone. Hmm...
Now, it's clear to see that two of our Fantastic Foursome aren't quite the folks we're expecting! Rather than Johnny and Ben rounding out the team, we've got Maul from WildC.A.T.S and Burnout from Gen¹³! They hustle over to the computer console in order to close the doorway into the Negative before they can be joined by a pair of pursuers. They're too late!
We get a few pages of punchy-punchy before Reed goes as far as to sacrifice himself to plunge the baddies back into the Zone. Luckily, Maul is able to nyoink Stretcho out before the deal seals.
We jump ahead to, presumably, later that day. Reed is on the video phone with S.H.I.E.L.D., more specifically Director Lynch of S.H.I.E.L.D. We learn that Nick Fury has fallen... and in fact, his actual head has been staked at Doctor Doom's Castle! Also, Dum Dum Dugan is dead... but, that is evidently old news. Lynch inquires as to whether or not Reed was able to locate Ben Grimm... and states that he misses him from their old Team 7 days.
Reed hasn't found Ben... but, he thinks he's found a way to beat back the alien invaders! He asks that Lynch assemble all of the heroes. This includes... the Avengers...
StormWatch...
Wetworks and the WildC.A.T.S! Gotta say, this is some wild stuff to be revisiting! I mean, just check out some of those mixed-up teams! Freefall on the Avengers?! I mean, exactly two years back I added her to the Justice League... but, this is just crazy! Worth noting, the Captain America above... hmm... doesn't look all that much like Steve Rogers, does he? Looks a little bit Spartan-y... no?
Back in Lynch's office, he is joined by the woman we know as Voodoo... but here, she's Priscilla Kitaen, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. He asks for her to contact Iron Man, Majestic, and Captain America... for the latter she's all "duh, we already got Cap when we called the Avengers!". He informs her that he ain't talkin' bout no android... he wants Steve Rogers... who is now fighting the good fight under his old moniker of "Nomad".
From here, we get a bit of a quick and dirty on the history of this World War III addled Amalgamation. The Daemonites invaded... the C.A.T.S and Avengers teamed up and drove them into hiding. That is, until the Skrulls showed up, and decided that the 'mites would be great pals to have. Oh, and also... Doctor Doom sold humanity out! Right now, the baddies pretty much run Europe and Asia.
This has led to some dire times in America... and a whole lot of distrust. Remember that "iPhone facial recognition" thing from before? Well, as it turns out... that's actually pretty close to what it is! Humans can shine those lights at one another to ensure they're neither Skrull nor Daemonite!
We wrap up with a pair of Epilogues... in the first, those two young fellas decide to enlist. Their names: Rick Jones... and Edmund Chang aka. Grunge.
The second has a pair of figures drifting through empty space... the smaller of the two comments to the bigger of the two that their suit feels all sorts of "rocky". Hmm...
-- Well, that right there was among the funner fever dreams I've ever had! Wow... it's so easy nowadays to look back at the Heroes Reborn (that is ReBORN, not ReTURN) era and just dismiss it as more "90's garbage"... however, to do so completely ignores what a weird and exciting time this was for comic fans... especially those who had "survived" the early 90's glut. Now, for me personally... I was not one of those survivors. This book came out during the tail-end of my first self-imposed "I'm done with comics" temper-tantrum. I kept up with the "news" by picking up a few issues of Wizard throughout the year... but, didn't see myself ever jumping back in, with both feet. Boy, what a wide-eyed innocent I once was! I remember this as being a weird "wild west" time in comics... strange alliances were made, the big companies were "playing nice", big time risks were taken... it was, for all its warts, a very exciting time to be a fan... even on the periphery, like I was. I recall seeing things like Amalgam, and Marvel vs. DC... and, while I was excited that these projects were happening, I couldn't help but to feel as though something was "missing". Like, these inter-company meetings should have been more important, ya know? Both of those projects reeked of creatively-bereft cash-ins. In having read both in the interim... well, I don't feel I was too far off the mark. In hearing about this, however... my ears perked up. We were going to have actual Image Comics characters... in Marvel Comics?! Like, as part of the Marvel Universe?! Not some hacky and funny-ha-ha "amalgamation"... not some "punchy-punchy" deal? Like, just actually existing alongside the (pocket universe) Marvel characters... and it'd be CANON?! Ya ask me... that's exciting! Not exciting enough to actually come back to the hobby... but, I was happy to hear it was happening. You know me, I am quite a sucker for the "everything matters" school of lore. Granted, I'm pretty sure I thought this was all going to "go" somewhere... and not just be a done-in-one (month) sort of thing... but, whattayagonnado? Again, I was a wide-eyed innocent. I appreciate the level of care Robinson and Company put into this... while perhaps some of the team arrangements came down to the "chuck a dart at the board" approach, the assortment has this odd feeling of curation to it. Like, everything is purposeful... and, though it's been the better part of twenty-years since the last time I even looked at these issues, I'm pretty sure this all winds up making (reasonable) sense. All of the "fill-in" characters fit where they're slotted... and, everything feels natural. Well, as "natural" as something quite this jarring could be, anyway! As far as the story itself is concerned... well, this is a Part One of Four... so, it's mostly just setting the table. I think it does a really good job, in that the threat is established, the players are introduced... and our world has more or less been "built". I'd say it was successful in what it set out to do. If I were reading this for the first time, I'd totally be down to pick up Part Two and onward. The art here is so much fun. Mike Wieringo is definitely one of my "candy" artists... just beautiful work here. While it was a ton of fun in and of itself to see the Marvel and WildStorm heroes standing side-by-side, having them depicted in Ringo! art makes it perhaps a hundred times better. For reasons that ought to be obvious, this four-parter hasn't been collected... nor is it available digitally. That's not to say they never will be... after all, stranger things have happened, right? I often see these books in the cheap-o bins... I actually happened across all four just last weekend! I almost snagged 'em as "convenience copies" to write today's post. Much to the dismay of my back, I decided to save the buck-sixty and just dig through my stacks instead. While I think the story is a lot of fun, I'd say they're worth the hunt... for the novelty alone! It's not often we get weird little treats like this... especially nowadays! So, with the solid recommendation out of the way, I can settle up this here anniversary outing. All I can say is that I really hope everyone has enjoyed this odd fourth year of content. I know, for better or worse, it's been a fair bit different than what I gave ya for the first three... I wish I had the time to keep doing what I had been doing back then... but, sometimes reality dictates just how much time one can devote to what amounts to a sorta silly little hobby for me. For all y'all who survived our ten-month excursion into Action Comics Weekly... I humbly thank you for sticking by. I know it wasn't always easy (it wasn't always easy for me!)... and while this unspectacular little site isn't likely "destination reading" for anyone, it means a heckuva lot to me that there might be some folks out there that dig what I do here. Tomorrow marks the start of Year Five (though, I guess technically today starts Year Five... this is the fifth January 31st I been at this)... and, to be perfectly honest, I'm still not sure what that means! I guess we'll all find out together, eh? Thanks, everybody! -- (Not the) Letters Page:
BONUS BOOK - Teen Titans (Pre-October, 1996) "Titans Children" Story & Pencils - Dan Jurgens Finished Art - George Perez Colors - Gregory Wright Enhancement - Digital Chameleon Letters - Richard Starkings & Comicraft Edits - Eddie Berganza Waitaminute, waitaminute... You might be thinking "I know the Titans Insert Prevue, (in fact we've looked at it twice)... and this, is not that book!" Well, you'd be right... because this one, my friends, is not that book. This is actually a Prevue that I'd forgotten all about! It wasn't until I had my memory jogged by pal, Grant Kitchen, that this little ditty was included betwixt the pages of Superman (vol.2) #116! This is a sneak-peek at the second volume of Teen Titans... ya know, that attempt to give the newly teen-aged Atom a place to hang out? That Titans book where Dan Jurgens allegedly wasn't allowed to use any Titans characters? Yeah, that one! We've already looked at a few issues of that run here... including the first issue. You might notice the... very odd cover date here. Not sure what in the world "Pre-Oct, 1996" means. Does that mean it could've been published anytime between January and September, 1996? Does it just mean that Superman (vol.2) was twice-monthly at this point, and for whatever reason they used "Pre" instead of "Early"? I'm sure whatever the explanation is, it's very boring.
Before we hop in, just wanna let everybody know that this is the final post of the Fourth Year of Chris is on Infinite Earths! Tomorrow kicks off the fifth! Tomorrow's anniversary piece is going to be a lot of fun... and maybe just a little bit weird! --
We open, two days ago, on Titan... the largest of Saturn's 22 known Moons. Nowadays, Saturn's known to have at least 62... though, Titan is still regarded as the biggest. Heck, it's larger than Mercury. Anyhoo, these Titans of the Teen variety, who we have yet to be introduced to, are... maybe being abducted and held hostage there? A hooded figure (that is, Omen) laments their failure in stopping this from occurring.
We join them in space, where the fellas have all become just a bit more buff. They fight a pair of Psion aliens, the blonde kid refers to as "Pinky and the Brain", just in case we'd forgotten when this book came out. In the skirmish, they discover the bagged body of... oh my, is that Doomsday?! That sure looks like Doomsday's Goggle-Sack outfit!
Well, no... for better or worse, it's not Doomsday. It's actually Prism, who will be another member of our team. She blames the Psions for taking her world... and postures threateningly.
We jump ahead, and the day is saved... apparently. I gotta say, this is a really strange way to give an "Insert Prevue". This is really just bits and pieces from issues of the series that are yet to come out... so, we're bouncing around a good bit. So yeah, everything's cool... and the kids have even convinced the Psion, Dorek to give them a ride home.
We wrap up back on Earth... and the Titans try on their new "Calvin Klein" duds, and pick their code names. The recently teen-aged Atom, who was a part of this whole mess decides to stick around and help out. It's not like he has an ongoing series or anything... so, what the heck, right?
-- So... heckuva way to introduce a new team, huh? I am, of course, being facetious... this wasn't really all that great. An assortment of scenes from the first few issues of the soon-to-release ongoing series... with much/all of the context removed... just doesn't seem like anything to get all "rah-rah" about. I know, had I been reading DC Comics back in 1996... I most certainly would not have been enticed to pick up the first issue of Teen Titans (vol.2) based solely off of this Prevue. It just doesn't do anything to introduce the characters... which, ya gotta figure, is sort of the selling point to a team book... no? You want to follow a team book because you care about the characters... you have some sort of interest or investment in them. This fails to provide any of that. Even the "mysteries" here feel half-baked. Who's the hooded figure? Who cares? What's the deal with the girl in the Doomsday gimp-suit? Again, who cares? Now that I think of it, if anything... this Prevue might've actually hindered me from picking up that first issue! Couldn't imagine how actual Titans fans felt seeing this back in the day! Worth noting (maybe just to ninnies like myself), if you scan any of the DC Wikis and whatnot looking for first appearances, these new Teen Titans we're introduced to are listed as first appearing in Teen Titans (vol.2) #1... and not here. According to Mike's Amazing World, this issue of Superman (vol.2) hit shelves on July 31, 1996... whereas, Teen Titans (vol.2) #1 came out almost a full-month later on August 28. So, these Titans don't quite get the New Teen Titans treatment of having their first appearance listed as the "Insert Prevue". Probably a weird sticking point for me... but, these are the sort of things that keep me up at night! Overall... nah, didn't dig this. Felt too disjointed, and didn't build much of a defined mystery to derive curiosity from someone who was just reading Superman... but, that's just one dude's opinion. Maybe you feel differently... and this Prevue got you hyped to jump into TTv2 with both feet? Anyhoo, that'll do it for today... please come back tomorrow for my FOUR-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of putting out DAILY Discussions and Reviews of DC-and-DC-Adjacent-Comics! It'll be a good time... I promise! -- Interesting (and Relevant) Ad:
