new additions to the back-issue bins

Posted on January 23rd, 2015

Back-issue sorting continues! More wonderful comic
book goodness going into the back-issue bins at
the sidekick store in Dartmouth!

Batmans! He skis, he fights assassins with hockey
sticks, Batman shows his versatility as a crime-fighter
through the eighties!

Spider-man comics from the eighties during the
Hobgoblin storyline!

I always liked Annuals as they were usually self-contained
stories so you didn’t have to worry about finding the
next issue – which was a problem for those of us who
bought comics in the ancient times before comic book
stores spread across the world! In these Annuals,
Mary Jane wears the webs, She-hulk teams up with Spidey
in a tale illustrated by John Byrne, Peter Parker and
MJ finally get married (though this may have been un-
imagined by Mephisto, I’ll have to check!) and the
totally wicked Spidey annual by Denny O’Neill and
Frank Miller where Doctor Doom tries to get powers
from Doctor Strange (medical competitiveness?)
but Spidey intervenes. A real classic.

These annuals were okay, too, but some were tied
into summer-long events like Evolutionary War and
Atlantis Attacks, which kind of put me off them.

When Todd McFarlane took over Spider-man, the book
kicked into high gear with some terrific stories by
David Michelinie featuring the Taskmaster, Sandman,
the Prowler and an “Action”-packed cover swipe that
could be called “Super.”

Amalgam Comics were kind of like a Marvel and DC
cross-over where characters from both universes
were re-imagined and combined. With the rivalry
(bordering on animosity!) between their parent
companies, Disney & Warner, it’s very unlikely
that the Amalgam (or any of the DC/Marvel crossovers)
will be reprinted anytime soon.

these two issues of All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison
and Frank Quitely would make a great Valentine gift.
It’s the story of Superman coming to terms with his
own mortality, trying to show Lois how he feels, having
to battle two super powered time-travelling jerks bent
on wooing Lois and so much more! Truly a gem of a comic
book series.