Back Issues From Your Local Comics Shop No. 1

Welcome to "Back Issues No. 1." I scrounged up five back issues in my rack to tell you guys about. Most of these I found at my local comics shop just down the road. And most of these were bought with just change I pulled out of the couch cushions.

I have always been a huge Marvel fan. I grew up watching the Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons on Fox Kids. And when I went to the grocery store with my mom, I'd usually find a good Fantastic Four story. But as I grew older, I reached out for other imprints. Of course, DC was always there. As well as those Marvel 'toons, I would also watch the very classic Batman: the Animated Series. Yet, there were these Image comics I'd keep seeing. In the last few years, I dug into these guys I faintly remembered. It was the art that always caught my eyes. But now that I'm actually reading them, I found that the art was really the only appeal to them.

This installment of "Back Issues," I bring you a couple Marvels, a DC adaptation of another geeky franchise, an adaptation of another franchise from yet another imprint, and an Image comic.

'The New Warriors' No. 8 by Marvel

There was talk of a New Warriors TV show. A full cast was announced and everything. However, that front's been silent for a while now. Since reading their old adventures lately, I'm growing even more anxious for the show.

Some comics will tease a character on the cover. Sometimes, a tease is all it is. But in this book, Punisher plays a good-sized role. We open with his "War Journal." He's been following Silhouette and a man in a tiger suit. Through tracking them, he butts into Night Thrasher of the New Warriors. They rough each other up pretty good. So good, that it bothers the Punisher. He becomes obsessed with Night Thrasher's armor. So in his van, he does his research.

Meanwhile, the other Warriors are deep in the Amazonian jungle. Speedball's mother is missing. As all fantasy stories in the rain forest go, enchanted vines capture the helpless superheroes. The Project: Earth they thought were peaceful environmental protesters reveal their ulterior motives. And as all mastermind super villains go, the leader of the group spouts a monologue describing all his employees. Everyone down to Miss Baldwin herself, Speedball's mother. Omar Barrenos has reformed powered people to do his bidding. So of course, he wants to add the Warriors to his collection. With Momma Speedball on his roster, her son foolishly offers his teammates up to Barrenos.

'Team Youngblood' No. 1 by Image

I had to pull this one out of the "three for a dollar" box due to the great pinup of Shaft. With Rob Liefeld, you know it's going to be really great, or the complete opposite. Though I noticed, as his Image Comics continued on, he pushed the work onto other creators. However, he did seem to produce a great cover.

Team Youngblood (separate from Youngblood) botched a rescue mission. A media mogul was murdered, and the blame was put on Dutch. Director Battlestone yells at Shaft and Sentinel about it, while Knightsabre, Vogue, and Cougar actually go looking for their teammate. But they're not going to find Dutch in the woods.

Then aliens get involved. Where half the book was spent talking about the last issue, the other half is used setting up the next. I love a good space story, so perhaps I'll search for Team Youngblood No. 20. Hopefully they won't spend that whole issue prepping for those before and after it. Now I know how my wife felt with Captain America: Civil War.

'X-Force' Vol. 1 No. 5 by Marvel

Deadpool drags in Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy to a shadowy employer. I love all three of these characters. So I was just as geeked as "Red" was when Juggernaut showed up in his movie. Hoping there would be more to this, but as I read on, the story never circled back to them.

However, in the next scene, we do get a couple folks from the cover. Dr. Lykos opens his door to find that Blob and Toad have his girlfriend. But they really don't want her, and they really don't want Lykos. They want his alter-ego. With Lykos and Tanya, they get two for the price of one. So when the story does circle back to them, Blob and Toad add to their Brotherhood (er, Brother-and-Sister 'hood). The love-birds are transformed into their prehistoric bird forms. I loved the X-Men 'toons whenever they visited the Savage Land. Partly because of the pterodactyl villain, Sauron. But I never knew there was a She-Sauron.

'Star Trek' No. 28 by DC

At my age, what I knew of Star Trek was mostly from Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. Most of my knowledge from the OG series comes from the Chris Pine movies. So I'm not a true Trekkie (shrugs shoulders). That doesn't mean I can't enjoy a Trek comic. Who knew DC published some back in the day?

But did I enjoy it? At first, I thought this was going to be boring procedural stuff. Dr. "Bones" McCoy just flows through the motions of his everyday work in sickbay. Technical this, technical that. Evidently, this issue was written by an actual nurse.

Thank the God from The Final Frontier there was an animal attack. Oh, it looks like I knew something from the Shatner run after all. Yet, those involved in the landing party only talked about the attack. A lieutenant to Bones says she tried saving him, but ultimately couldn't. Then the deceased's best friend shuts down. When all scans say there's nothing wrong with him medically, Bones finally does something interesting. He uses a psychic trick he learned from Spock. His astral form has Reynolds relive Thometz's death. Finally, we see this six-legged bear!

So the book went from boring to eventually interesting. But the true heart of the story came at the end. Thometz wanted to retire from Starfleet and tell his grandkids about going to space. Bones places his hand on Reynolds' shoulder. He tells Reynolds that now he can tell his grandkids about Thometz.

'Samurai Jack: Quantum Jack' No. 3 by IDW

I remember watching Samurai Jack back in the day. What's great about it was that he seemed to grow with me. When I checked back in from time to time, Jack's tone seemed to grow darker and darker. Hewent from showing along Dexter's Laboratory and Ed, Ed, and Eddie, to eventually on Adult Swim.

The story of this comic was good, but I wasn't a fan of the art. It looked very sloppy and too simplistic. Genndy Tartakovsky's style was what hooked me on the original cartoon. I was hook, line, and sinker since Dexter's Lab, onto Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and even the original Star Wars: Clone Wars. I actually prefer his show compared to the later 3-D series. It's too bad they couldn't get him to draw this.

In this issue, he wakes up inside a giant robot. Think Gundam or Pacific Rim. Jack is clueless. Outside is a Kaiju monster. But these other people in the robot with him are just looking at Jack. They tell him he's the commander, and they're waiting for his orders. How did he get in this predicament? Jack has no recollection of this reality.

But somehow, with a couple flashbacks from his time in another reality, our Samurai-turned-robot-commander is caught up to speed. He calls out "Mifune Maneuver Seven," and the Kaiju is destroyed. The citizens thank him. Now they can go back to slaving for Aku. What?!