Celebrate Thor's Day

Celebrating Thor, as he helps out Benjamin Franklin (!!!) for the month of May, in the Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar of 1976 (with art by John Buscema).

Celebrating Artist Scott Koblish

Celebrating the birthday of artist Scott Koblish (May, 28, 1970) with 3 of his 4 upcoming connecting covers to the New History of the DC Universe....

...and, here they are split by cover!

Now, just to identify everyone....

New History Of The DC Universe #1

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New History Of The DC Universe #2

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New History Of The DC Universe #3

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For Memorial Day

Remembering those who gave their lives for our country this Memorial Day, with Our Army At War #236 (September, 1971) with a cover by Joe Kubert, with Sgt. Rock showing Easy what may happen to them in war. 

Surprise Murder

Here's a few murders in progress, that seem to be a surprise to those involved, from Crime And Punishment #30 and #31 (September and October, 1950) both by Charles Biro, from publisher Lev Gleason.

Remembering Artist Carmine Infantino

Remembering artist Carmine Infantino on his birthday (May 24, 1925-April 24, 2013) with a little danger...

...Danger Trail, that is, and the first four covers of the original series featuring the super spy, King Faraday!

Danger Trail #1 and #2 (July-August and September-October, 1950)

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Danger Trail #3 and #4 (November-December, 1950 and January-February, 1951)

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Remembering Artist Lee Elias

Remembering artist Lee Elias on his birthday (May 21, 1920 - April 8, 1998) with his mostly forgotten Mystery In Space covers featuring Adam Strange!

Not exactly prime time for the Earthman transplanted to Rann, but some oddities worth taking a look at!

Mystery In Space #95 and #97 (November, 1964 and February, 1965)

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Mystery In Space #98 and #10 (March and September, 1965)

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Murderous Gangsters

Here's a few dangerous dolls, on the covers to Murderous Gangsters #2 and #3 (December, 1951 and March, 1952) both drawn by Ann Cantor, and published by Avon.

Remembering Artist Dave Hoover

Remembering artist Dave Hoover on his birthday (May 14, 1955 - September 4, 2011) with his covers to the Invaders mini-series, where Captain America, the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, Whizzer and Miss America fought the Battle-Axis (Dr. Death, the Human Meteor, the Spider-Queen, Strongman and Volton), with the help of some other World War II heroes, like the Vision, the Thin Man, the Blazing Skull and more!

Invaders #1 and #2 (May and June, 1993)

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Invaders #3 and #4 (July and August, 1993)

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Murder Tales

A bit of an oddity, where no artist info was available, and, even stranger, the run seems to start with 10 and 11, but here are Murder Tales #10 and #11 (November, 1970 and January, 1971) from World Famous Periodicals.

Happy Mother's Day To Scarlet Witch

A throwback to a happier time in comics, when Vision and Scarlet Witch took a (12 issue mini-series) break from being Avengers and concentrated on their family....here, covers to Vision And Scarlet Witch #4 and #12 (January and September, 1986) with art by Richard Howell...

...all to wish you a Happy Mother's Day. 

Oh, and Wanda had twins here (but later, things got SO much more complicated...)

Celebrating Artist Rick Veitch

Celebrating artist Rick Veitch on his birthday (May 7, 1951) with a pair of his covers (DC Comics Presents #85, September, 1985 and Swamp Thing #79, December 1988)...

..featuring the unlikely team ups of Superman and Swamp Thing.

Murder On An Elevator

Sometimes waiting for an elevator is murder...

...but not as bad as it is for these two covers to Crime Does Not Pay by Charles Biro (#34 and #35, from July and September, 1944) from Lev Gleason (such classic crime comics!).

Celebrating Artist Bill Sienkiewicz

Celebrating artist Bill Sienkiewicz on his birthday (May 3, 1958) with some of his earliest covers...

...featuring Spider-Woman, as Jessica Drew navigated her days as one of the west coast's earliest super heroes, fighting with the Shroud and Dazzler!

Spider-Woman #14 and #15 (May and June, 1979)

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Spider-Woman #16 and #27 (July 1979 and June, 1980)

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Spider-Woman #28 and Dazzler #15 (July 1980 and May, 1982)

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Thunderbolts

Fair warning, while this is about Marvel's original Thunderbolts team...

...there are some spoilers below for those who might not have read the comics.

After Onslaught, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers had disappeared off the Earth.  

Luckily, these new heroes, the Thunderbolts arrived...but why did Citizen V, Mach-1, Songbird, Techno, Atlas and Meteorite seem vaguely familiar?

Because...

...as revealed in Thunderbolts #1 (April, 1997) by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley...

...extra spoiler space...

...they were really the Masters of Evil!  

Baron Helmut Zemo (son of the original Baron Zemo) hatched the plan to pretend to be heroes and took the identity of Citizen V, with the Beetle (Abner Jenkins) as Mach-1, Screaming Mimi (Mimi Schwartz)  as Songbird, the Fixer (Norbert Ebersol) as Techno, Goliath (Erik Josten) as Atlas and Moonstone (Karla Sofen) as Meteorite!

As the series by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley went on, some of the villains stayed villains, as others came to enjoy their heroic identities.

Below, are the debut issues of the original members of the team....

Baron Zemo (as Phoenix, then Baron Zemo) Captain America #168 and #275

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Moonstone (as Karla Sofen, then Moonstone) Captain America #192 and Incredible Hulk #228 

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Goliath (too many identities) and Screaming Mimi (Iron Man Annual #7 and Marvel Two-In-One #54)

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Beetle and the Fixer (Strange Tales #123 and #141)

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Thunderbolts for a while, but also Masters of Evil!

Batman War On Crime

Batman:War On Crime (November, 1999) was the second in a series of treasury comics DC did with art by Alex Ross and written by Paul Dini (after Superman: Peace On Earth) that distill a character down to his essence, and showcase what makes that character special.

Here, it was focused on a short time in the life of Batman, dealing with corporate dealings as Bruce Wayne, and muggers as Batman, and he sees how these slowly relate.

The mugger he caught killed a man and woman at his robbery, with their boy, Marcus, as a witness.  Batman relates to this (having watched his parents die), and it weighs on his conscious.  Next night, stopping a gang, Batman sees Marcus there...but let's the boy run off.  Night after that, Batman confronts the gang again, but this time with Marcus there, and threatening to shoot Batman.  Batman talks him down, saving the boy, but knows there is much more to do.

The next day, as Bruce Wayne, he decides instead of raising the neighborhood Marcus was in to make way for a new project, instead that Wayne Foundation will invest in the neighborhood as is, to improve it for those who live there, showing the basic strength of Batman...not the bat motif, the gadgets or even the billionaire, but that he is just a man, fighting to make the world a better place, one day at a time.