Deathmate Prologue

From the Box of Random Unread Comics.

Title: Deathmate Prologue
Date: June, 1993
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment / Image Comics
Writer: Bob Layton
Penciler: Barry Windsor-Smith, Rob Liefeld
Inker: Jim Lee, Bob Layton, Danny Miki, Dan Panosian
Colorist: Joe Chiodo
Letterer: Mike Heisler
Editor: Mark Moretti

This was the opening scene to the large-scale Valiant/Image crossover event. It opens with a death, and Solar consumed by grief and retreating into the Unreality where he meets up with Void. Fascinated by each other, they kiss and become one. That's the first story.

The second story starts in a dream sequence that is essentially a Rob Liefeld rollcall of Image and Valiant characters. It's the Geomancer who's dreaming, and he wakes up in a panic and runs right into a fight with the Berzerkers, which leads to Prophet getting involved. Turns out Prophet is in on the whole dream thing and we're off and (literally) running.

I don't really know either set of characters, so this felt a little disjointed, but it was sufficient to get the idea across that there is some kind of Crisis-On-Infinite-Earths-level event heading in the heroes' direction. So while a bit more backstory would have been nice to make me feel a bit more invested, this was still a reasonable opening to the coming saga.

Rating: 5.5/10

Solar Man of the Atom #26

From the Random Box of Unread Comics.

Title: Solar Man of the Atom
Issue: 26
Date: October, 1993
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Writer: Tony Bedard, Kevin Vanhook
Penciler: David Wong
Inker: Fred Fredricks
Colorist: Carol Vanhook
Letterer: Jade
Editor: Don Perlman, Bob Layton

Phil (Solar) and Gayle find themselves traveling through rural Georgia when Solar recognizes a photo of a small-town mayor as an alien foe who had escaped from a previous battle.

Now, Rusk the spider-alien, Mayor Russel to his friends, runs the little town of Terminus, GA, as well as its textile plant. And he's got the corrupt sheriff right out of central casting on his side.

Gayle proceeds to break into a public library at night to find... well, information she could have just found with no problems if she'd waited until normal business hours. Instead, she gets caught and damseled by the aforementioned sheriff.

Solar proceeds to do his thing, while Gayle actually talks a bit of sense into the locals. As it turns out, blood-drinking spider aliens fall into the category of "Try that in a small town".

I'm being a bit harsh here, because the flow of the plot was pretty good, and the decision to make Rusk more pathetic than menacing was an interesting choice that contributed to the tone of the story. I also liked the fact that the townsfolk were not completely blindly obedient to the bad guys.

The interactions between Gayle and Phil were good, and the dialogue all made sense. This was my first time reading this series, and for a random issue, I found it pretty accessible as a new reader.

Rating: 6/10

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1 (New York Comiccon 2008 Edition)

Another leftover promo book that I picked up at Free Comic Book Day 2011. This one is a NYCC promo from 2008.

Title: Iron Man: Legacy of Doom
Issue: #1 (New York Comiccon 2008 Edition)
Date: 2008
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: David Michelinie, Bob Layton
Penciler: Ron Lim
Inker: Bob Layton
Colorist: Moose Baumann
Letterer: Artmonkeys Studios
Editor: Molly Lazer

This is a "lost" adventure of Iron Man, a series of events that Tony Stark discovers was wiped from his memory. The first third of the story is a pretty tedious setup along with a recap of a very silly-sounding previous story that had Stark and Viktor Von Doom doing their take on A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court. I suppose that story needs to be dredged up every so often if only to prove the point that you can't improve on Mark Twain.

Apparently this is a sequel to that story. Stark gets summoned to Latveria with the threat that "millions of lives hang in the balance", which I suppose is a threat that Doom could make pretty much any time he wants. Stark takes the bait, and then has to fight some soldiers who are attacking Doom's castle. This sequence serves no purpose other than as a kind of random encounter of the type you see in poorly plotted D&D adventures.

Once the soldiers are dispatched with no actual casualties, we get down to business. Doom is on to a sinister plot by Mephisto. And Iron Man has "proven adequate against mystic dangers in the past" (Wait. What? That makes no sense at all; Iron Man is like the least mystical hero in the Marvel Universe).

Anyway, there's an amusing bit of counter-trickery involving a device to return Doom and Stark from Mephisto's dimension, which is actually the only good moment in this book.

Then it's off to Hell, which resembles the mine cart roller coaster at Jordan Furniture's "Motion Odyssey Movie (MOM)" ride. With some rather unthreatening-looking blob creatures in what is basically another random encounter. Then the big plot twist is revealed, which is surprising in the sense that I wasn't expecting it because it was way TOO obvious and I figured there had to be something more clever going on.

Nope.

Rating: 3/10