peter john rios

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.

#91 part 1:

Birds of Prey: During the height of Infinite Crisis, most DC titles cover dated Aug’06 ended with a splash page showcasing various alternate versions of different characters and teams (and even a headquarter or two!). This issue ended with alternate versions of the Huntress from DC’s multiverse. (2006) 

Cerebus (1986)

DC Comics Presents: Featuring one of my favorite DC cosmic heroes: Captain Comet! (1986)

Excalibur (1995)

Firestorm (1989)

Green Lantern (1997)

Jonah Hex: I don’t think I mentioned last time that Jonah Hex would be joining this series for awhile. I really did read as much as I could in the 80s. By the way, I referenced this cover many many posts ago. You can read the reason why here. (1985)

To be continued in part 2…

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

#127

Flash: Picked up this three issue story that brought a few Flash Rogues back from the dead (from Underworld Unleashed). Plus, the cover grabbed me - and now I see why: J.H. Williams, baby! (1997)

Hellblazer (1998)

New Titans (1995)

New X-Men: One of my favorite covers of the run by Frank Quitely. (2002)

Nightwing (2007)

Wonder Woman (1997)

X-Factor (1996)

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From the never read/never owned file:

Superman: First appearance of Titano the Super-Ape! (1959)

And:

Thor: Yet another cover depicting the fallen hero in arms, this one from the 60s. (1966)

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

#128

Flash (1997)

Green Lantern: Not entirely sure why I picked up this issue. It’s not in my collection anymore to check. Maybe for its Donna Troy appearance? (2000)

Hellblazer (1998)

Man of Steel (2002)

New Titans (1995)

New X-Men: First appearance of Fantomex! (2002)

Nightwing (2007)

Wonder Woman: Another Faces of the DCU cover month entry, this one by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. Remember how I was supposed to do an ongoing Tumblr series of posts on him? (1997)

X-Factor (1996)

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And from the read but never owned file:

Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle. Tony Stark gets the shakes. (1979)

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And from the never read/never owned file:

Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane: See? Told you this imagery didn’t begin with Uncanny X-Men 136. (1972)

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

#130

Defenders: Another good Frank Cirocco cover featuring Valkyrie. (1984)

Flash: Mark Waid and company take a year off allowing Grant Morrison with Mark Millar to play in the Flash sandbox. First order of business? Break Wally’s legs! (1997)

Green Arrow (1998)

Hellblazer (1998)

New Titans: Totally forgot this was coming up! The Perez cover is an homage to his cover on New Teen Titans vol.1 #1. For the issue itself, I think I read it only once and I have a very limited knowledge of what actually happened inside. Cyborg was all wonked out, I think Changeling could only change into imaginary beasts, Starfire and Raven were merged, Donna Troy was a Darkstar. Yeesh. Definitely ended with a whimper, an unfortunate example of editorial and the creative team not exactly mixing. (1996)

New X-Men (2002)

Nightwing (2007)

Wonder Woman (1998)

X-Factor (1997)

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From the read but never owned file:

Uncanny X-Men: First appearance of… Dazzler! (1980)

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

#136

Defenders: Always enjoy the few Frank Cirocco covers that pop up. Frank is the co-creator of Alien Legion. (1984)

Flash (1998)

Green Arrow: Hal Jordan never really vanished completely from comics when he “died” in Final Night, did he? (1998)

Marvel Team-Up: Gotta love Wonder Man’s red safari jacket and shades look. (1983)

New X-Men (2003)

Nightwing (2007)

Wonder Woman: John Byrne’s run comes to an end, muddying the waters a bit for Donna Troy, but establishing Hippolyta as the Golden Age Wonder Woman. (1998)

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In the read but never owned file:

Uncanny X-Men: The often homaged cover to the penultimate chapter of the Dark Phoenix Saga. The “crying while holding a dead body” pose is popular in comics. I know there are tons of sites that already do this, but someday I’ll have to group them all together for my own madness. (1980)

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

#215

Flash: The shockwaves of Identity Crisis filter into the DCU, especially in these issues by Geoff Johns as Barry Allen’s part in all of this is revealed to Wally. (2004)

Justice League of America (1983)

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1976)

Superman: I’ll talk more about the For Tomorrow arc when we hit the first chapter. (2005)

Uncanny X-Men: First appearances of the three characters on the cover: Stonewall, Crimson Commando and Super Sabre. But this is also the issue where Wolverine first catches a hint that Jean Grey might be alive! (1987)

Wonder Woman: Outside of the 1942 first issue cover of her original series, is this cover an homage to a painting as well? (2005)

This is what I love about doing the 365 series of posts on here. As I was going through all the possible issue 243 covers of comics (on the fabulous comicbookdb.com website), I noticed a Superman cover from 1971 with an image that seemed familiar. I never owned that issue but that image, the way he’s holding that woman, the all white background, felt very familiar. And then I remembered a Jonah Hex issue that I did once own: number 91 from 1985. I never knew the Hex cover was an homage to an older Superman cover. The Hex cover, and many before it, was by Mark Texeira and Ed Hannigan (who designed and/or penciled many a DC cover back at that time). I’ve seen Neal Adams credited for the Hex cover as well - either as inspiration or layout - which makes sense since he (along with inker Dick Giordano) was the artist behind the Superman cover. Something about the arc of the woman’s body just screams Neal to me. 

Very interesting find.

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

#248

The slightly hungover edition:

Avengers: This title is back and will be for a few issues. This was the final issue I picked up off the shelf at the time of its release. I wouldn’t return to this book for another 8 years once Operation Galactic Storm started. This early 80s run wasn’t anything special - and maybe that’s why I wasn’t keen to stick around. I’ve often thought that Marvel’s early/mid 80s output - riding high off of the creativity of the 70s - leveled a bit on average. The standouts are there: Simonson Thor, Miller on Daredevil, Byrne’s Fantastic Four, etc - but on the whole, Marvel got a little comfortable in the 80s until they needed to shake things up once DC’s 50th Anniversary hit and suddenly the spotlight was on DC. A cycle that is going on right now. (1984)

Fantastic Four: Crystal and Quicksilver name their daughter: Luna. I always liked the way Byrne drew Blackbolt. His version, since I have yet to absorb the Kirby version, is probably the definitive take in my mind’s eye. (1982)

Justice League of America (1986)

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes: A later Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes cover reminds me of this one. It’s like a loose unintentional homage (see below). (1979)

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

#249

Fantastic Four: Although he’s not often written well, I love Gladiator. He was used well in the first Annihilation event. And in Morrison’s New X-Men. As well as this and the next issue. Oftentimes the Shiar Imperial Guard are used as jokes or fodder, but when treated like more than just the Legion of Super-Heroes analogues that they are, they can be an interesting force. Also something to note about this issue’s cover: Byrne would later homage himself on a cover to Superman fighting members of the Legion that matched the powers or abilities of the FF. As seen below, Superman is in Gladiator’s position (Gladiator being a direct homage to Superman as nodded to on the F4 cover with the word “Super-Man”), Brainiac 5, the smart leader, is in Reed’s position. Sun Boy is obviously a match for the human torch. Invisible Kid a match for Invisible Girl. And being held high, Blok, the rock creature, matches up with the Thing. Very clever. (1982)

Justice League of America (1986)