peter john rios

Covers of comics that are (or have been) in my collection at one point or another.

#82 part 1

Avengers West Coast: One of my favorite Marvel crossovers! Operation: Galactic Storm. Cosmic, a large ensemble, locations and situations that could only happen in Marvel, etc. Good stuff. (1992)

BIrds of Prey (2005)

Comics Journal (1983)

Daredevil: Jumped on to the series with the new team of Brubaker and Lark. A good opening story even if I stayed on for only one storyline. (2006)

Excalibur: Even prior to Age of Apocalypse, I was a sucker for these crossover X stories: X-Tinction Agenda, X-Cutioner’s Song, Fatal Attractions - and Phalanx Covenant that introduced Generation X! (1994)

Firestorm (1989)

Flash (1993)

To be continued in part 2…

Covers of comics that are (or have been) in my collection at one point or another.

#87:

Birds of Prey: The revamp and reworking of Calculator is still one of the best things to come out of Identity Crisis. (2005)

Cerebus: This issue’s cover is an homage to Frank Miller’s cover to Dark Knight Returns 1. (1986)

Daredevil (2006)

DC Comics Presents: The issue that gave us Superboy-Prime. During the chaotic events of the Crisis, our Superman travels to Earth-Prime (where, outside of a few powered characters, the DC heroes live on in comic books) and meets Clark Kent of Earth-Prime. Eventually Kent-Prime would go on to fight in the Crisis, helping to save the Multiverse, and then would go bonkers and become a menace during the Infinite Crisis days. This is the same Superboy-Prime that showed up in the Sinestro Corps War, Countdown and Blackest Nightoftentimes acting as a metaphor for the most extreme members of comic book fandom. (1985)

Excalibur: The team is back from the Age of Apocalypse - and I start collecting this title just as I would all the X-related titles post AoA. Not that I remember much about this run outside of Pete Wisdom, the UK Hellfire Club, Carlos Pacheco, etc. (1995)

Firestorm (1989)

Green Lantern (1997)

Legion of Super-Heroes (1996)

New Titans (1992)

Peter Parker, Spectacular Spider-Man: The first PP issue I ever picked up off the shelf. Peter wants to reveal his identity to the Black Cat but when he does, she recoils. She wants to love Spider-Man, not Peter Parker. (1984)

Image limit reached, the rest are as follows:

Warlord: That’s a skimpy ass costume! (1984)

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X-Men: Magneto gains control of Genosha in this issue. (1999)

And from the “Oops, missed one” file:

JSA: This issue marks the end of the great JSA title that started under James Robinson and David Goyer, continued with Geoff Johns and ended with Paul Levitz. A brilliant run, for the most part, full of many tributes to previous JSA titles and Earth-2 concepts. A lot of wrongs enacted on the JSA were righted in this series. Good stuff. And a Perez cover to boot. (2006)

Covers of comics that are (or have been) in my collection at one point or another.

#164

Cerebus: The Roach turns into Swoon - a parody of Vertigo’s Sandman. (1992)

Conan: Sideboob and asscheeks cover by Armando Gil. Heads would asplode today. (1984)

Fantastic Four: George Perez does his first F4 interiors. This issue is the first appearance of Frankie Raye who, years later during the Byrne run, would turn into the Galactus Herald known as Nova. This, and the next issue, also features the return of 50s Atlas hero Marvel Boy and his Quantum Bands. Called Crusader in this two-part story, he seemingly perishes and his Bands would eventually wind up in the hands of the hero known as Quasar. Agents of Atlas would later retcon that Crusader wasn’t the original Marvel Boy and that he was still alive and well. And, to make it all confusing, this has nothing to do with Grant Morrison and JG Jones’ amazing version of Marvel Boy. And to think Marvel says its continuity is not confusing. Sheesssssh. (1975)

Marvel Tales (1984)

Superman: Lex Luthor is about to become the President of the United States! (2001)

Wonder Woman: It’s the start of the Phil Jimenez run. The first four issues cleverly mix and match the cast of WW counterpointed against the cast of Batman. For example: Wonder Woman/Batman, Donna Troy/Nightwing, Tim Drake/Cassie Sandsmark, Artemis/Huntress - even the villains: Phobos the God of Fear/Scarecrow, Deimos the God of Terror/Joker, etc etc etc. It was an interesting play on identities at the start of what would be an interesting run on the title, all with a loving tribute to George Perez in art and story. One of Jimenez’ strongest works. (2001)

Covers of comics that are (or have been) in my collection at one point or another.

#186

Cerebus: From what I can research, it appears this is the issue that would forever mar Dave Sim’s reputation. (1994)

Daredevil: Stilts. (1982)

Fantastic Four: As kooky as they may seem, I have such a crush on the Salem’s Seven. They are so bizarre and practically cookie cutter villains and yet I dig every moment of them in this issue. (1977)

Flash (2002)

Green Lantern: The final issue of the short Len Wein/Dave Gibbons run that I dug back at this time. (1985)

Iron Man (1984)

Justice League of America (1981)

Uncanny X-Men: Lifedeath. This is one of those issues that has become more than simply a classic X-Men event or story. It was a benchmark issue for all mainstream comics at the time. The art, the idea behind it. Great great stuff. It’s also one of those issues that proves that Chris Claremont alone really was a major part of why the X-Men became popular. He could write the X-Men as the soap opera super-heroes that they are far better than anyone else after him. And the Barry Windsor-Smith art is amazing. Find it. Read it. Absorb it. Like Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants, this issue went a long way to opening my mind to different ways to present comics. (1984)

Wonder Woman (2002)

Covers of comics that are (or have been) in my collection at one point or another.

#190

Brave and the Bold: Most likely I picked this up for Adam Strange. And then, as a bonus, there’s a Nemesis back-up tale featuring artwork by Dan Spiegle. (1982)

Cerebus: I just got my hands on a bunch of issues around this time (Thanks Chris Beckett!) - so I’ll add them from here on out even though there are few that I could add to previous posts. (1995)

Daredevil: Elektra… Resurrected! And all in white. Interesting to see some of the Klaus Janson art and how it helped to shape the look of the book for Mazzucchelli, Weeks, etc. (1983)

Green Lantern (1985)

Justice League of America: A well designed cover by Brian Bolland which was recreated by artist/animator Big Jim Miller for the CGS homepage, which you can see here. (1981)

Uncanny X-Men: The chilling yet awesome Kulan Gath two parter begins - a character that hadn’t been used since Claremont resurrected him for a Marvel Team-Up story in 1979! I was always a fan of these two issues - and just like every good alternate history tale, it’s dark with many deaths. Eventually it all gets reverted back to the norm and it’ll be another 15 years before the sorcerer is resurrected during the Busiek/Perez Avengers run. (1985)

Wonder Woman (2003)

Covers of comics that are (or have been) in my collection at one point or another.

#200 part 1!

Hot Damn, It’s An Anniversary Issue! Edition:

Avengers: Interesting cover by Perez on this. Iron Man by Perez is right up there with the crisp clean version often seen by Bob Layton. Also, he’s a master of Kirby Dots! While his anatomy is still being developed - look at how soft some of his characters are, especially the women - there are elements of what will make him great. (1980)

Brave and the Bold: Final issue of this series leading into the upcoming Batman and the Outsiders series. I was a big BATO fan when it was coming out, but I only purchased this issue, featuring their first appearance as a group in a 16-page preview, about a year ago. Unlike DC Comics Presents, I’m not in a rush to collect the Batman Team-ups of B&B. I’ll pick up random issues here and there - ones that feature the Teen Titans or Adam Strange or other favorites - but the mostly non-canonical nature of the series keeps me away a bit. But as far as anniversary issues go, this is a must-buy. (1983)

Cerebus: Apparently this issue marks the end of the “main” Cerebus narrative with the remaining 100 issues acting as the denouement (according to many sources). I’m still holding off on a great marathon read of the series until I get every (or almost every) single issue. The earliest issues will be the hardest to obtain, but I am getting closer. (1995)

Fantastic Four: A coverless leftover from my uncle’s collection that I no longer have. Of the entire story, all I really remember is the scene where Doom sees his face reflected over and over again on a sphere causing him to go mad. (1978)

Flash: The conclusion of Blitz pitting Wally West against the latest incarnation of Zoom. By the end, as a way to protect his wife, Wally’s life is changed - for a brief time at least - in that no one remembers that Wally is Flash. It doesn’t last too long. While Geoff Johns continues as writer for another two years, this is the final Scott Kolins issue at the time. (2003)

Green Lantern: Under a fantastic Walt Simonson cover, the Green Lantern Corps goes through major changes as the end of the Crisis… nears. The Guardians of the Universe go into hiding for awhile leaving the Corps to fend more or less for themselves. It’s the culmination of over a year’s worth of story that brings John Stewart to the forefront, makes big changes in Hal Jordan’s life, introduces new characters and concepts to the GL mythos and brings even more GLs to Earth with the next issue. I really enjoyed GL back at this time and it’s because of that fondness that I’ve often though of collecting from issue 100 to 200 just to read and see how that corner of the universe develops. (1986)

Justice League of America: Perhaps the greatest issue 200 of them all. A full roster of JLAers drawn by many fantastic artists under a fairly fun story. Perez, Aparo, Kubert, Kane, Infantino, Broderick, Giordano, even Bolland drawing Batman! This is one of those issues I own multiple copies of - I find it in cheap back issue bins quite often. A time capsule of what made the satellite-era JLA so great. (1982)

To be continued…

Covers of comics that are (or have been) in my collection at one point or another.

#288

Cerebus: First time on this series! Along with Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes, Dave Sim’s Cerebus is another long running series that I want to complete. Not only for the story but for the history that unfolds in the letter columns and in the ads, etc. Using the phonebooks, I’ve only read up to Melmoth. I have a long way to go. (2003)

Fantastic Four (1986)

Legion of Super-Heroes (1982)

Uncanny X-Men (1992)