August 1992. Six years after DC forced Roy Thomas to send his childhood favorite characters to Valhalla, the JSA returned in this delightful series by Len Strazewski and Mike Parobeck. Far less fussy and continuity-obsessed than Thomas's earlier ALL-STAR SQUADRON, INFINITY INC., and YOUNG ALL-STARS, this book nonetheless provided some amusing twists for those familiar with the characters' long history, like the revelation that Johnny Thunder's foster daughter Peachy Pet had made a mint in frozen yogurt. The series is probably most notable for the debut of Jesse Quick, the daughter of Golden Age heroes (and All-Star Squadron headliners) Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle, but Strazewski also introduces a presumptive successor to Johnny Thunder in the form of Kiku, a plucky Bahdnesian girl who can also control the Thunderbolt. She's a fun character, but her depiction is marred by an extremely ill-advised coloring choice that makes the people of Bahdnesia look like literal redskins. (Recent digital editions dial this back a little, but not enough — the Bahdnesians look like cousins of Sinestro!)
This book sadly produced an internal editorial backlash to the effect that publishing a comic about septuagenarian superheroes was making DC look bad, so the series was cancelled after 10 issues, and the order came down to kill most of the JSA in ZERO HOUR. (Most of them survived anyway, but that's another story.) Kiku, meanwhile, has been completely ignored by subsequent writers, outside of a brief and confusing cameo in the obscure and terrible PRIMAL FORCE series in 1995.
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Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers
My episode 1 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 2 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 3 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 4 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 5 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 6 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 7 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here and here
My episode 8 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 10 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
(SPOILERS if you haven't seen the show yet):
After what happened to Clark in the last episode we see that Lois, Jimmy, and the Newskid Legion are searching all over Metropolis for him and they name drop some location found in Metropolis.
As you can see from the map of Metropolis in the DC Heroes role playing manual, Park Ridge and Bakerline are one of the six boroughs of Metropolis. Park Ridge makes its first appearance in the Adventures of Superman #447 (1988) while Bakerline first appeared in Action Comics #599 (1988)
As the General is interrogating Clark we het a hologram flashback to his time with Waller in the army and Waller name drops the General's first name Sam. So we can conclude that the General is General Sam Lane (this is double confirmed in the next episode).
Sam Lane makes his first appearance in the silver age in Superman Girl Friend, Lois Lane #13 (1959). He's the typical farmer dad that Superman saves and meets. Nothing too special about it.
Now, GENERAL Sam Lane makes his first appearance in the Adventures of Superman #424 (1986)
Like her MAwS counterpart, Lois' relationship with her dad is VERY strained as you can tell by the panels here from the comic (W: Marv Wolfman, P: Jerry Ordway, I: Mike Machlan, C: Tony Ziuko, L: John Costanza). In the comics he wanted a son and Lois became that stand-in whenever he was around and that ruined their familial relationship. And much like his MAwS counterpart he deeply cares about his wife who we can assume he lost some time ago in the past. Also will we see a Lucy Lane in MAwS? Who knows.
Man of Steel, typical moniker for Superman, you're guaranteed to have that in any Superman media.
Slade actually loses his eye to match his comic book counterpart.
Later in the ep we see him with the eyepatch. Matches with his comic book counterpart as seen in this fantastic piece by Deathstroke co-creator, George Perez.
After the Superman Revenge Squad Task Force X escape thanks to Ivo absorbing more and more electrical energy he comes this giant kaiju sized monster rampaging across Metropolis with an axe to grind at Superman. The glowy bits on him remind me so much of Shin Godzilla. Oh and btw if you want to see the Justice League fight 2 very well known kaiju, preorder Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong. Heres the trailer for it:
The first issue goes on sale in October 17th.
With the way Lois is worried about Clark here it gives off very Death of Superman vibes kinda like this page from Superman #75 (1992) by Dan Jurgens, Brett Breeding, Glenn Whitmore, and John Costanza.
Jimmy is usually labeled as Superman's best friend/pal so that's a given when a reference like that shows up
As the names scrolled up on Jimmy's IG-esque live stream we see some familiar names. The first is a reference Josie Campbell, the producer for the cartoon and the latter two are references to Superman support characters.
Pete Ross is Clark's childhood friend who first appeared in Superboy #86 (1960) by Robert Bernstein and George Papp.
In the comic Pete keeps scrutinizing Clark and he suspect that Pete might be on to his Superboy identity, but it turns out he just wanted Clark to play Superboy in the high school play. In like most Superman origins and media, Pete Ross is always Clark's best friend, but here in MAwS Jimmy takes up that role as friend of Clark but in this case its since they were in freshmen year of college.
Like Pete Ross, Lana Lang was also a childhood friend of Clark's ad also his love interest when they were teenagers.
Lana makes her first appearance in Superboy #10 (1950) by Bill Finger, John Sikela, and Ed Debrotka. In the comic Lana becomes a house guest for the Kents while her parents are away and she begins to suspect Clark and Superboy are the same person. Most Superman origins and other media usually have Lana and Clark be childhood sweethearts back in Kansas and she will occasionally show up in Clark's life again when they are adults.
After Clark punches through the Parasite body to get to Ivo we see the body just freeze there kinda like Shin Godzilla at the end of the movie. Btw go watch Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, Shin Kamen Rider, fantastic trio of movies! Shin Ultraman is a better Superman movie than Man of Steel.
At the end of the ep Amanda Waller takes over Task Force X and name drops Checkmate. The organization first appeared in Action Comics #598 (1988) (cover by John Byrne) where Checkmate is a branch of Task Force X that was founded by Amanda Waller as a government intelligence agency. Like with most spy organization in the DC universe, they are shady AF. In their debut they legit kill a high ranking official from a different country in the name of "American safety".
Thank you for getting this far down in the post. Be sure to check out the other posts to see what other easter eggs and references were in the previous episodes:
My episode 1 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 2 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 3 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 4 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 5 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 6 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 7 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here and here
My episode 8 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 10 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
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AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #332-333
MAY - JUNE 1990
BY DAVID MICHELINIE, ERIK LARSEN, MIKE MACHLAN, JACK ABEL, KEITH WILSON, BRAD VANCATA, JOE ROSAS, MICKEY RITTER, BOB SHAREN AND RICK PARKER
As Styx and Stone try to kill Spider-man, Venom returns to get some revenge at Peter Parker.
SCORE: 7
This should have been an 8... but you know how every issue could be somebody’s first issue? Well, there is a lot of plot here that gets barely explained, around the kidnapping of Mary Jane in previous issues. It’s not super-important to the Venom plot, but it kind of gives you some context for Styx and Stone’s actions.
I think that one of the main characteristics of the Spider-man comics of the 90s... was all those lines. And you know, I think that could explain why this comic needed to have 6 inkers... but maybe that wasn’t the reason.
Erik Larsen is an “OK” penciller (for my taste), and I wasn’t looking forward for these issues, but his Spider-man is actually very dynamic and three-dimensional. Sure, the thing is full of 90s iconic poses but I think it all works well together.
I think that the look of the book was the main attraction, and Larsen was at the time, a fan favorite. So the book may occasionally look ridiculous... but that was the intention.
What wasn’t intentional is Michelinie’s writing. Now, I have fond memories of Michelinie during his Superman years, but I have to admit that his stories weren’t the best of the triangle era. I would have to revisit them soon... maybe I’ll find something new by re-reading them.
But here, the story feels a little bit... I don’t know... tired? But overall, it wasn’t terrible, there are a few surprises here and there.
Also... the venom symbiote is dead! (or so they think).
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