boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (08/03/85)
Reviewed this time around: BLUE DEVIL SUMMER FUN [ANNUAL #1] FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #19 THE AVENGERS ANNUAL #14 LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ANNUAL #1 Ratings for the comics reviewed are as according to the Mad Armenian Scale, a shameless rip-off of the Moriarty Scale, stolen out from under the very nose of the Napoleon of Crime. Nyah-ah-ah!! "For a critic, it's better to have wrong standards than none at all." -- Elmer Allyn Craft ******************************************************************************** |=>A+< A veritable Classic. One of the best of All Time. Example: THE SPIRIT | |==>A< One of the best of the year. Ex: TEEN TITANS #38: "Who Is Donna Troy?" | |==>B< A very good issue, one of the best of the month. Example: CEREBUS | |==>C< A well done, entertaining issue. Satisfying. Example: JON SABLE | |==>D< Rather boring, or a few good spots mixed with more bad ones. Ex: ROM | |==>F< Boring AND stupid or childish. Example: MARVEL SUPERHEROES SECRET WARS | |==>Z< Actually offensive. Example: DAZZLER --- THE MOVIE GRAPHIC NOVEL #12 | ******************************************************************************** BLUE DEVIL SUMMER FUN [ANNUAL #1] [DC, $1.25] C+ A lesser Blue Devil story, but where else can you find BD (with a "Team Banzai" headband), Black Orchid (with two rather familiar origins!), Man-Bat, The Demon, The Creeper, The Phantom Stranger, Madame Xanadu, Baxter's Bending Bolts of Bafflement, a Blue Devil Weirdness Magnet Board Game, and a Brian Bolland-imitation in-up all in one comic? I only wish they hadn't "chickened out" and called this BLUE DEVIL ANNUAL #1 on the inside, rather than BLUE DEVIL SUMMER FUN being the official title. THE AVENGERS ANNUAL #14 [Marvel, $1.25] D+ FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #19 [Marvel, $1.25] D+ These need to be reviewed together since they are tied together quite tightly. THE AVENGERS ANNUAL takes place witin the current Avengers continuity as the group is fighting alongside one group of Skrulls in the civil war that rocks their empire. Unfortunately, it's a rather silly story, featuring a silly group of Skrulls who seem to like appearing as 1930's-style Earthlings (Bogey and all). Along the line, they run into the FF, who have appeared in Skrull-land for reasons of their own (which are revealed in the FF ANNUAL). The only significance to this story is that a matter of great import affects the Skrulls for all time. In the FF ANNUAL, the FF travels to the Andromeda Galaxy in response to a call for help from an old "friend". Along the way, they run into some treacherous Skrulls, as well as the Avengers. There really isn't much to this story other than an excuse to get the FF to the Skrull Empire to cross-over with the Avengers. The gimmick of the crossover is one of those things that's likely to upset a few people --- generally those folks who were upset by the five page blank-white fight in ALPHA FLIGHT during "Assistant Editors Month" last year. You see, John Byrne pencilled both of these Annuals, and eight pages are duplicated in both books, word for word and panel for panel. The only difference is that Byrne only does the layouts in AVENGERS, with finishes by Kyle Baker, whereas he does the finishes himself in FF. And the coloring of the two books is slightly different, too. As a chance to see the same art finished by two different people, this is a rather neat gimmick, but as I say, it'll probably upset those folks who don't have a sense of humor. LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ANNUAL #1 [DC, $2.00] C- Most of my gripes with this comic have been discussed in net.comics already, such as the fact that the solution of *who* was behind the murders or attempted murders was never revealed. And there also seems to be some inconsistency about who will be in the JLA in "1986 or so" when they fight the person responsible for these crimes. Still, all in all, there are enough little things in this comic that I liked to give it a reasonably good grade. An average Levitz-written Legion story. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA