I guess “GLUB” counts as a sound effect.

§ May 28th, 2014 § Filed under this week's comics § 8 Comments


Jim Starlin, the creator of Thanos, returns with artist Ron Lim to fill in a gap or two in the character’s past while setting up yet another Infinity Something-or-other series, which is fine with me, actually, so long as Starlin will be involved. The annual comes with three variant covers, and of course there’s only one choice as to which I’d get.


Collecting Jason Yungbluth’s longform post-apocalyptic Peanuts (and other comic strips!) parody, both from previous print appearances and the online strips, plus other goodies new to this collection. I’ve been a fan of Weapon Brown since first encountering it in Yungbluth’s Deep Fried comics, though I sort of fell behind keeping up with the webcomic and am glad to have it all here in one giant lump.


This is supposed to be the “Batman ’66” variant, though that mostly has translated to “‘characters drawn by Mike Allred in the usual Mike Allred style’ variant,” which is perfectly fine, don’t get me wrong. But everyone’s costumes need to be, I don’t know, a little baggier, maybe? At least one giant “KA-POW!” sound effect, somewhere? Swamp Thing (looking more like the Dick Durock portrayal from the first film) dancing the Swamptusi with an Abby Arcane who looks suspiciously like Eartha Kitt in a white wig with black stripes?


Been digging Matt Kindt’s covers on this series. The story’s interesting as well, giving us outsiders’ views of the Original Trilogy’s core characters. I suspect this and the other ongoing Star Wars monthly may be the last hurrahs for these characters in this form for a while, as the franchise switches over to Marvel and the ramp-up to Episode VII begins.


This issue goes a long way to establishing that the Fantastic Four are dangerous and possibly crazy people, which is something that probably should have been obvious from the get-go but James Robinson has a lawyer really go after the team on this and it’s hard to argue that the lawyer is wrong. It’ll all wrap up with our heroes coming out of it just fine, surely, or at the very least forgotten when the next writer comes along or the new first issue comes out, or both, but it makes for a compelling story in the meantime.


Was actually sort of surprised this wrapped up as quickly as it did, in only six issues, but there probably isn’t much more to say on the topic, really. A lot got squeezed into these comics, and the tone of the last issue swings from touching to appalling and back again, in true Garth Ennis fashion.


REMINDER: Swamp Thing appearance in Aquaman this week, about seventeen years since the last time that’s happened, so, you know, we were about due. Also, I have just dropped dead from old age, in case you were wondering.

8 Responses to “I guess “GLUB” counts as a sound effect.”

  • Philip says:

    That Fantastic Four cover looks like the FF are being subjected to a horrible game of “I’m not touching you… I’m no touching you…”

  • Alex says:

    I dunno, Mike, that Ron Lim cover for the Thanos Annual is pretty sweet… in fact, that’s the one I chose! Talk about 90’s nostalgia, in a very good way.

    In general, and this is a super broad topic, what are your thoughts on the wide gulf between fantastic cover art and what can be considered “incredibly, crazily different” interior art on a series? All the awesome variants you featured today are great (and preferable to the regular covers, I think), but there’s certainly some mild disappointment flipping through books like this and not having that art style continued. Even if you knew for months ahead of time that it wouldn’t be, it’s still jarring to me at least.

  • Alex says:

    I guess my thoughts are are leading up to “Boy, wouldn’t it be awesome if these artists could/would spend the time on this given comic to make it incredible beyond the cover?” Like seeing a million Paolo Rivera variant covers and no interior art on anything since, what, the first few issues of Daredevil.

  • Ben Herman says:

    I skimmed through the Thanos annual in the comic shop and was not too impressed. I would much rather see Jim Starlin return to Dreadstar or Cosmic Guard or Wyrd the Reluctant Warrior. Unfortunately, I guess doing yet another Thanos story for Marvel pays the bills, whereas revisiting his creator-owned properties is a financially uncertain proposition.

  • Michael Grabowski says:

    I think “Annual Thanos” would be a great title for a comic reserved solely for Starlin to return to that character.

  • Mikester says:

    “THANUAL”

  • CG says:

    Those FF costumes are…uh…

  • Snark Shark says:

    “I think “Annual Thanos” would be a great title for a comic reserved solely for Starlin to return to that character.”

    AGREED!!

    “Those FF costumes are…uh”

    GAWDAFUL. The word you want is GAWDAWFUL.