peter john rios

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

#188

Cerebus (1994)

Daredevil. Widow’s Bite. (1982)

Flash (2002)

Green Lantern: A fairly important issue for a number of reasons: First off, this issue kicks off the Steve Englehart/Joe Staton era that will steer GL through the Crisis…, through John Stewart and Guy Gardner becoming major players, through the change into Green Lantern Corps and all the way into Millennium. I was already reading GL at the time - especially the Len Wein/Dave Gibbons run which I adored - so the change didn’t kick me off the book. Steve Englehart has stated that during their run the title doubled in sales. Some of that I have to believe was spillover from the success of the Wein/Gibbons run not to mention the title’s super-close ties to the Crisis… - practically every issue after this had to do with that event or was branded a crossover. It was definitely and exciting time to be reading GL so I won’t take anything away from their contribution but I did feel at the time that the quality dipped. I’ve come to appreciate Joe Staton over the years though - and he certainly has every right to be on GL since he had a previous run on the book from 1979 to 1982 as artist for an unbroken 34 issues. Secondly, this issue features the fantastic Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons story “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize” which you can read here. It’s the first appearance of Mogo the Green Lantern planet, Bolphunga the Unrelenting as well as the Book of Oa. Alan Moore helped to drop nuggets of gold into the DCU during the 80s - even in something as a some-what minor backup tale - for future writers to play with (because that’s what you do in a shared corporate universe, Alan!). Many of the backup Tales of the Green Lantern Corps stories by different creators were short-story magic and this one is high up on the list. (1985)

Justice League of America: I bought this backissue as a kid because I thought it was the origin of the JLA Satellite. Instead, the cover references a back-up holiday story that features the Satellite but not in any first appearance way. Good issue though. (1981)

Uncanny X-Men: One of my favorite X-Men scenes is in this issue: a “quiet” scene where the team is just sitting around talking about the very concept of the X-Men and what they represent. Claremont was a master at scenes like these and it’s really what made me a fan of the title a the time - the quiet moments, the baseball games, the interaction between the characters. Add to that the sequence where Rachel discovers Jean Grey is dead in this timeline and this issue ranks high on my favorites. (1984)

Wonder Woman: The cover doesn’t do the interiors justice as this issue marks the end of the Phil Jimenez run. It’s a farewell issue with tons of Wonder Woman appreciation and love for her history both in and out of comics. Looking forward to talking more about this run. (2003)