Detective Comics #490

Bought at the September Brimfield Antique Fair, 2026.

Title: Detective Comics
Issue: 490
Date: May,1980
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Denny O'Neil, Mike W. Barr, Bob Rozakis, Jack C. Harris, Martin Pasko
Artist: Don Newton, Dan Adkins, John Calnan, Joe Giella, George Tuska, Bob Smith, Alex Saviuk, Pat Broderick, Frank McLaughlin
Colorist: Adrienne Roy, Gene D'Angelo, Tatjana Wood, Bob LeRose
Letterer: Ben Oda, Todd Klein, Milt Snapinn
Editor: Paul Levitz

The main story here has the Batman caught in the middle of a battle between Ras Al Ghul and the Sensei for the control and the purpose of the League of Assassins. The Batman races to stop a manmade natural disaster set up by the Sensei from taking out a gathering of world religious leaders, and he has more problems dealing with Commissioner Gordon's security forces than he does with the actual assassins. The Batman is having a pretty bad day by the time this one is over, although he does get a bit of reprieve by the end in the arms of Talia Al Ghul.

There are also four backup stories. A ballet-themed Batgirl story is a pretty straightforward mystery as Barbara tries to unravel the grudges in a family dance troupe that have led to attempted murder.

Robin, in college-student mode, takes on a crime that feels significantly below his paygrade as he tracks down the (obvious) suspect in a scheme to sell exam answers to cheating students. The fun part of this is his interactions with current girlfriend (and honest nursing student) Jennifer.

There's a short "Tale of Gotham City" piece that turns out to be rather cozy after opening with a voiceover that feels a bit victim-blamey. It redeemed itself reasonably well in the end.

And finally, a Black Lightning story with the hero saving a teenaged boy from some Voodoo practitioners, complete with the expected stereotypes for that sort of thing, and a cliffhanger ending that teases a possible new beginning for Black Lightning.

The opening story did a good job of keeping the tension high, while the Robin and Batgirl stories were both decent short-form adventures. Black Lightning seemed to be going for a reboot, and did a reasonable job of setting that up.

Rating: 5.5/10

2099 Limited

Title: 2099 Limited
Date: 1993
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Pat Mills, Tony Skinner, John Francis Moore, Peter David, Gerard Jones
Penciler: Tom Morgan, Pat Broderick, Grant Miehm, Rick Leonardi, Ron Lim, Dwayne Turner
Inker: James Palmiotti, Tom Florimonte, Bud La Rosa, Al Williamson, Adam Kubert, Dwayne Turner, Kyle Baker

Ah, the bright and shiny days of the early '90s, when comics were, well, shiny. This is a preview ashcan giveaway that was packaged with issue #7 of Hero magazine. It previews the full line of 2099 titles from Marvel, which feature one of the many zillions of possible alternate futures of the Marvel Universe. The world is a fairly generic dystopia that is played for laughs half the time (a thirty-mile long mall in California, and so on). The X-Men 2099 story looks like it has the most potential here, with a young mutant named Fitzgerald making his way across the desert to a refugee city that exists outside of the corporate totalitarian power structure.

Punisher 2099 had a generic fight scene featuring what had to be the dumbest "smart" weapon ever. It's a guided needle-bullet that never misses, but always lodges in the target's arm and then burrows to the heart, which of course gives Punisher time to remove it. Um... Why not just program it to always shoot the target in the head? Oh, right. Because that would make sense.

Spider-Man 2099 concentrated on character interactions. The spider-man character doesn't appear in costume. Much like the Doom 2099, Ravage 2099, and 2099 Unlimited (featuring Hulk 2099) bits, there really wasn't enough story to get a sense of what it was all about.

None of these titles rose above the level of generic in these previews, and the editors might have been better off devoting the space to show a bit more from one or two titles rather than trying to preview the whole line.

But the cover is shiny.

Rating: 4/10