Eye Bros

 

OMAC was my favorite among the Kirby Kreations at DC Comics when Jack Kirby decided to jump ship from Marvel. Too bad it only lasted a short while, and had an abrupt cliffhanger ending. I didn’t read the Jim Starlin stories that served as backup on Warlord, but I did read and liked the John Byrne miniseries that came years later.

The New 52 version was meh.

Blade, Gunner

 

Related to my Dragonboy Z post from a while back, I think this was the title that started that trend in the Philippine comics industry in the 1990s. Kick Fighter is an obvious pastiche of Street Fighter, but to the creators’ credit, they gave the characters original backstories that were totally unrelated to the originals they were based on.

The two guys above are Jolas Zuares, a secret agent whose look was obviously based on Ken. The other is the cyborg amnesiac son of a murdered cop named Biotrog, short for Bio Technological Roger, whose appearance is based on Vega (or Balrog if you’re from Japan). They both started in their own solo series, but after a while were teamed up in a new series called Blades and Bullets.

Out of Knowhere

 I must admit, I didn’t read the original Rocket Raccoon miniseries because I didn’t like Mike Mignola’s art back then. It took a while for me to appreciate his work. I think it was when he did a fill-in job on Byrne’s Superman reboot that made me realize how good his artwork was.

As for Rocket himself, I liked his storyarc the best among his fellow Guardians of the Galaxy in the movie trilogy.

The Lost Crusade

These guys were largely ignored in the 1980s Red Circle revival of Archie Comics’ superheroes, except for She-Fox who was introduced during that era. Three of them were in the second issue as villains, but those turned out to be artificial doubles and none were the real deal.

But in recent years Archie Comics has used them in short stories in their comics digests, usually interacting with Archie and the gang. So at least they’re not gone and forgotten.

Heads of State

 

This was a series that never seemed to end. I had some issues of this title that I bought as local Philippine reprints when I was a kid, and every issue I bought ended with a cliffhanger. So when the series was reprinted in the Essential line of B&W books some years back, I bought it to get the whole story. And yeah, every issue really did end with a cliffhanger that leads you to the next issue. I guess that’s why I gravitated towards DC more as a kid, because they did more done-in-ones while Marvel had a tendency to do multiple issue stories.

Cumulative Cumulus

 

Warp was my favorite First Comics title. I didn’t buy the series as it was coming out, but rather managed to buy scattered issues from various bargain book shops, bookstores, and back issue bins. I almost have the complete run, the only one missing is the final issue. Hoping that someday I’ll be able to find it somewhere out there.

Surfin’ the (Shock) Wave

 

Marvel started out the Transformers license by incorporating them into the Marvel Universe and having Spider-Man guest-star in the third issue. But they decided against it later on so that their Transformers stories existed in its own continuity. But what if they continued with their original route? We might have gotten something like this, where the Transformers might have had to worry about not just one but two planet devourers.

Cheesed Wiz

 

The Wizard was MLJ/Archie Comics’ first superhero, and was also one of the more popular ones in their stable. So it was kind of strange that with all the times Archie has revived its superhero line, he was mostly ignored. They even turned him into a villain in the 1960s (the gentleman on the right side of this cover). Although mightycrusaders.net says that this Wizard is Hans Martz, a Nazi sorcerer who defeated and killed the heroic Wizard (Blaine Whitney), then impersonated him. I can’t find the comic where that specifically happened, but this cover above is my take on what happened a bit after that took place.

Fashion Shoot

 I think Dakota North was not originally intended to be part of the Marvel Universe, but rather a standalone series in its own universe with no superhero trappings. Her series only lasted five issues, though. Maybe Marvel didn’t want the character to go to waste and later on integrated her into their superhero universe.

She was originally slated to guest star in Spectacular Spider-Man alongside Silver Sable, but that did not push through. So here’s my version of what was supposed to be Dakota North’s initial entry into the larger Marvel Universe.

Relative Unknown

 Phantom 2040 was designated as the 24th Phantom in the line, so that would make him the great-grandson of the current 21st Phantom. But since 2040 is a mere 15 years away, that isn’t accurate anymore. I think it was a missed opportunity not to age The Phantom in real time. Since he’s been established early on as a legacy character, it would have worked.

But, hey, a lot of Phans are happy that the current Phantom is still the same one from the 1930s, so what do I know.