Tag: Ruminations

I’ve finished my 1990 comics reviews, but I’ve decided to take a break from DC. I’ve been reviewing DC stuff from 1977 right through 1990 and I’ve seen some great stories (and a few not so great), but I’m feeling a little burnt out on DC stuff. I may come back to it in the future, but for right now I’d like to try something a bit different. I thought about doing some classic Marvel superhero stuff, but I’ve already read a lot of Silver/Bronze Age Marvels, so there wouldn’t be too many surprises for me. So I think I’ll go with Marvel but switch genres a bit by reviewing two series that I’m somewhat familiar with: Conan and G.I. Joe. I’ve read a fair number of issues in both series, but it’s been a long time so I think I’ll have fun delving into these two classics. I’ll be doing two Conans and two G.I. Joes per week, which means I can get through the first run of G.I. Joe in about a year and a half. Of course, I might get burnt out on these after a while too and switch to something else, but I am a fan of both franchises, so I think the genre change will keep me interested. I hope you’ll all join me as I check out these two cool titles and don’t be shy about leaving comments.

That’s another year gone by in my DC Comics reviews. 1989 had some cool (and iconic) stories, so I’m looking forward to seeing what 1990 will bring. There probably aren’t quite as many iconic storylines this year, but the Batman juggernaut will continue, fed by the popularity of the movie that came out in 1989. The Firestorm series comes to an end this year, otherwise there aren’t really any big changes, though I will shuffle my review groupings a bit just for balance. As usual, I’m using Mike’s Amazing World as a reference for the cover dates. The only discrepancy will be in New Titans, whose issues 67 and 68 both came out in July (with no issues in either June or August); I’ve moved #67 forward to June just to balance things out a bit. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: 1990 Preview”

Welcome to my preview of the 1989 DC comics I’ll be reviewing. I’m pretty much sticking with the same titles as 1988, although there are a few changes. Young All-Stars and Legion both end this year, but a new Legion series starts (the so-called “Five Years Later” Legion) which I will be adding. Justice League Europe also started in 1989, so I’ll add that to my list. As in 1988, some of the titles (notably the Batman ones, Green Arrow, and Suicide Squad) published extra issues in 1989 and I’ll be reviewing all of them. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: 1989 Preview”

Well, that’s another year down; 1987 was a year of changes for DC as they showed us the new post-Crisis status quo. 1988 continues in that vein, but things start taking a darker turn with several character deaths during the year. Crisis also seems to have kicked off a slew of crossovers; Legends took place in 1987 and 1988 both starts (Millennium) and ends (Invasion) with a mega-crossover event. This year is also notable because almost every title has two extra issues at the end of the year (called Winter and Holiday issues). Four titles end this year, but I’m adding one (Green Arrow) and I’ll be sticking to the usual format for my reviews. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: 1988 Preview”

Welcome to the preview of my comics reviews for 1987. The Crisis made a huge impact at DC and shook up the entire continuity. We already saw some of the effects in 1986, but 1987 will bring some major changes, including new titles and new histories for existing characters. As always, I’ll break this preview into blocks to reflect how I’ll be presenting the titles over the next six months. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: 1987 Preview”

Well, that’s another year gone by in my comics reviews and it’s time for my 1986 preview. 1985 was a big year at DC, with the Crisis turning everything upside-down. 1986 will finish that process and give us the first steps into the new, amalgamated universe that came about as a result of Crisis. The real changes don’t start until 1987, but the die was cast and the differences could be felt in 1986. As always, I’ll break my preview into blocks corresponding to the way I’ll be doing the reviews. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: 1986 Preview”

Well, my 1984 reviews are done, so now it’s on to 1985, which was a pretty big year for DC. Several long-running series ended (Flash, Titans, Legion, Jonah Hex) to make way for new stuff in the next two years. All this transition was prompted by Crisis on infinite Earths, where DC basically rebooted their entire Universe, retroactively wiping out all the parallel Earths and saying that all their stories take place (and always did) on one single Earth. I know a lot of people hated that idea, but I kinda liked having all the heroes on one Earth so the writers didn’t have to come up with some reason for them to cross dimensions every time they did a team-up (or even a cameo). That being said, I didn’t actually read Crisis when it first came out, as I was moving toward reading Marvel exclusively around that time. So, many of these stories will be brand new to me and I’m looking forward to finally checking them out. As usual, I’ll be dividing my reviews into groups to make things easier. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: 1985 Preview”

Well, that’s 1983 finished, so now it’s on to 1984. They say your own personal Golden Age for comics is when you’re twelve, and I was twelve in 1984, so a lot of these comics resonate for me (although I was reading a lot of Marvel stuff then too, especially Spider-Man). As usual, I’ll divide the comics into groups to keep things manageable; since I’ll be adding several comics to the 1984 reviews, my usual groupings will be shuffled a bit, as you’ll see. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: 1984 Preview”

Well, that’s another year’s worth of reviews gone by. I actually had some of the 1982 comics, so reviewing them brought back some great memories, and the same will be true of the upcoming 1983 reviews. As usual, I’ll divide this preview into sections corresponding to my groupings for the reviews. The titles I’m doing for 1983 are almost exactly the same as 1982, so I figure I may as well leave the groupings the same. That’ll change in my 1984 reviews, when I add several new titles, but for now everything is staying the way it’s been for the past six months or so. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: 1983 Preview”