Yes, that’s meant as a dirty joke.
Okay, I’m going to wrap up the much-delayed “1990s Sins” posts with today’s entry, and go on to a new, and yet still 1990s-ish, thing on Wednesday.
M.A. “Bats” Masterson pops in with the following:
“DOOM FORCE and the Ambush Bug Nothing Special. Accept no substitutes.
“I don’t care if that’s two comics.”
YOU SCOFFLAW! Anyway, I already discussed Doom Force here, so phooey, I’m just discussing one of your suggestions anyway!
The Ambush Bug Nothing Special is of course similar to the Doom Force comic in that it’s primarily a parody book, poking fun at DC’s various characters and imprints, inlcuding Swamp Thing and Sandman. Plus there are more general spoofs, such as going after the ’90s style of comics:
As such, the “sin” category for this title would be “Parody,” though like for Doom Force, this is more accurately a virtue than a vice. These two titles provided some nice perspective on a genre that, perhaps, was taking itself too seriously while simultaneously reaching the occasional height of ridiculousness.
And just to wrap things up on our interrupted journey through 1990s comics sins (for now), here’s Mike Loughlin with
“Bloodstrike 1 had a Liefeld cover, with layouts by Liefeld. It features characters with EXTREME! names jumping out of a vehicle and attacking a base, the Liefeldest way to open a series. Most ’90s of all, it had a gimmick cover: if you rubbed the cover, blood would appear. The ad even said, ‘Rub the Blood!’ or something to that effect. It is, to me, the ’90s-est comic to ever ’90s.”
Ah, Rob Liefeld, the gift that keeps on giving. When this comic came out:
…much amusement was had at the gimmick, in which some blood printed in thermal…ink, I guess, would appear or disappear as one would rub hopefully just fingers over those spots. And “Rub the Blood!” wasn’t just in the ads, it’s right there on the darned cover!
Now, this thing originally ran for 20+ issues and I couldn’t tell you a darn thing about it except it got revived a couple of times after the ’90s were over: once in 2012 for a brief run picking up the numbering and written by Tim Seeley and illustrated by Francesco Gaston. Then it came back again in 2018 by Michael Fiffe, starting up again with issue #23 (and the subtitle “Brutalists” and continuing on with a few more issues, with a #0 mixed in there somewhere. No idea if these were straight-up continuations of the original 22 issue run, or sly and knowing “takes” on the property or what was going on. I have a vague memory of the Fiffe run getting some interest.
But neighter of those revivals had any blood you could rub, so fie upon them and let’s get back to that #1. “Rub the Blood,” indeed. That, my friends, is a gimmick for the ages, and thus that is the category under which it shall be placed: the 1990s Comics Sin of “gimmick.” And well deserved it is.
I’m going to give regular commenter Snark Shark the final word here, because…well, it made me laugh.
“Man, that gimmick rubbed me the wrong way!”
Has DC ever done a time and space spanning insect-costumed/themed/powered special one shot, as they’ve done with gorilla characters or whatnot?
They could call it “The Bug Brigade,” or “Insects Inc.” It could feature Ambush Bug, New Gods’ Bug (Forager), Bumblebee, Red Bee, Insect Queen, Alias the Spider, Silver Scarab, the original Golden Age Yellow Jacket (from Charlton Comics), and all of the Blue Beetles (and other colored Beetles) vs Mr. Mind, Killer Moth, Queen Bee, The Black Spider, Firefly, The Bug-Eyed Bandit, The Ant, The Gold Bug, The Golden Wasp (or was it Yellow Wasp?), and H.I.V.E.? It could be a fun read! I’m sure there must be other insect-themed DC heroes and villains I haven’t thought about–especially from all of the iterations of Dial “H” For Hero over the decades.
We talk about “the 90’s” as one thing, but I feel there’s really two. There’s the early 90’s we generally think of, where everything was artist focused. Over publishing and Liefeld/Lee clones ruined it for everyone.
But then the late 90’s came and the writer-focused trend led to some remarkable books:
Transmet
Starman
Resurrection Man
Chase
Chronos
Avengers
The return of the JSA
And those books are very much of their time but very different than what came before.
The Fiffe Bloodstrike was four issues of pure continuity – plugging gaps, tying up dangling plotlines, making sense of contradictions. With appendices explaining what, otherwise I wouldn’t know. I sort of liked it, but you’d need to be a Bloodstrike fan and a Fiffe fan to really dig it and I imagine that’s a contact-lens sized middle of a Venn diagram.
I knew nothing of Image when it launched, I was in my own little Vertigo bubble. Doom Force as a straight-faced parody worked far less well than Ambush Bug because the latter came with context. But oh, that Nothing Special was great. Especially Flem’s Great American Novel.
Even with the “early-‘90s style” predominating at Marvel, Image, and a large percentage of DC, there were still quality comics being published that were a precursor to what was coming as the 1990s progressed, after the boom. There was Vertigo Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Caliber Comics, and the pre-Vertigo “mature readers” books being published by DC in the early-‘90s. Even Starman launched in 1994, before the comic market collapsed, which stood out from the typical superhero fare being published by the “Big Two” at that point.
As Tom above says, I was losing interest in most of Marvel and “mainstream” DC in the early-‘90s, and I turned to Vertigo Comics. I paid no attention to anything at Image, except Spawn. Yes, Spawn got me.
Advantageous!
You can sort of trace that ’90s shift by following the trajectory of Grant Morrison’s career. Their work for the Big Two started in the late ’80s with pre-Vertigo critical darlings Animal Man and Doom Patrol, which led to their big mainstream hits JLA and New X-Men, lasting through the early ’00s.
Good writing had to hide in the shadows a bit during the rise of Image, but who better to dig DC and Marvel out of the ’90s implosion than writers? I use Morrison as an example because I’m most familiar with their work, but I’m sure you could substitute other writers from the British Invasion: Milligan, Millar, maybe Gaiman, probably not Moore.
Sean: a col website is SUPER-TEAM FAMILY. Every now and then, the guy comes up with groups, he mostly does Marvel & DC, with some Fawcett. Again Quality heroes missing. Leave a not in the comments. He might follow through. Either way, fun team-ups.
Jesse: I do agree on that. I loved Resurrection Man. Chase and Chronos, as well. Maybe Xero by Priest, once I figured it out.
@Jesse: totally agree. In fact, ‘90s comics had a range of trends:
– “‘90s comics:” hyper-stylized, heavily-posed art and a barely-there story, exemplified by most of the Image founders’ output.
– Writer-driven super-hero comics like the ones you describe above.
– Vertigo: alternative comics that fit the zeitgeist of some teenage subcultures perfectly. They didn’t care who Cable was but were into both Sandman and Type O Negative.
– a new breed of indie super-heroes better-written and weirder than the 1st wave Image characters: Hellboy, The Maxx, Astro City, Madman, etc.
– a new wave of non-super-hero indies: Acme Novelty Library, Eightball, Strangers in Paradise, Bone, Stray Bullets, etc.
– everyone puts out a new super-hero universe: Valiant, Ultraverse, Milestone, etc.
– Big Events: Death of Superman, Knightfall, Deathmate, etc.
– Bad Girls: Lady Death, Avengalyne, etc.
– pseudo-manga art: Joe Mad, early Ed McGuiness, etc.
– a resurgence in painted super-hero/ genre comics: Alex Ross, Dan Brereton, etc.
– trade paperbacks slowly becoming the norm
– gimmick covers
I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. Honestly, I think the ‘90s are unfairly maligned. I miss the days when Preacher and Starman shared the rack with the Busiek/ Perez Avengers and Milk & Cheese. I’m glad American comics grew so much in that decade, even if the growing pains were embarrassingly evident (RUB THE BLOOD!!!).
Happy Harriet Tubman Day!
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“Most ’90s of all, it had a gimmick cover: if you rubbed the cover, blood would appear. The ad even said, ‘Rub the Blood!’”
Man, I had that thing, and the blood was always visible! Or had all of the copies I’ve seen already been rubbed?
“Now, this thing originally ran for 20+ issues and I couldn’t tell you a darn thing about it except it got revived”
It was VERY cheesy, but I do actually enjoy some of them. Somewhere around #6-10, I think.
“Resurrection Man”
I always meant to read more of those!
” I miss the days when Preacher and Starman shared the rack with the Busiek/ Perez Avengers and Milk & Cheese.”
That WAS a good combo. I didn’t read any Busiek Avengers `til years later, though.
@ Wayne Allen Sallee
Thanks! I passed along the suggestion to the Super-Team Family website. Who knows, maybe a “Bug Brigade” VS “Insects of Doom” cover will happen.
Sean: Worth a shot. I love the site and the guy is up to almost 4800 daily issues. He may not do more than one or two bad guys, it is actual cover artwork from older books. But you might see Bug Brigade vs. Mre. Mind. Sometimes he does a two parter, so it would be like Mr. Mind one day “but who is helping him?” and the next day we find out Ambush Bug is undercover or something.
You can get lost. The site goes back to 2011. I give the guy credit.
@ Wayne Allen Sallee
Cool! I just made a list of hero and villain names from various companies–as I usually do–and he could pick and choose from it if he wants to.
But in all seriousness–or hilarity–I think DC should do a “Bug Brigade vs Insects of Doom” one-shot.