There have been nearly a dozen Robins at various times and time lines in Batman’s history. Jason Todd, however, feels like the forgotten Robin. He was the second Robin, after Dick Grayson left to become Nightwing and during a time where the Batman known in the public consciousness was the Tim Burton film version, which did not feature a sidekick. Jason Todd was doomed for failure and this issue, Batman 424, was the beginning of his demise. Todd started out as a ‘bad boy’ Batman found him trying to steal the hubcaps off the Batmobile. Do cars even have hubcaps anymore? Anyway, Todd never bought into all of Batman’s teachings and methodologies, as evident by this key scene from this issue: It would be two issues later where the ‘Death in the Family’ storyline would start where, along with a 900 number call in vote, the fans decided if Robin would live or die. With less than 100 votes separating the final result, Jason Todd became a cautionary tale, almost like Bucky was to Captain America for oh so many years. DC would cast Tim Drake as Robin less than a year later and Todd would stay dead for seven years our time before taking the mantle as sometime ally/sometime adversary, the Red Hood Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

So, part of my comic book secret origin ties back to GI Joe. The first comic I ever read was Spider-Man, who I am a fan of for life, probably tied into the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon. But the second comic I ever read was a GI Joe comic, because of the cartoon. There was a bit of a disconnect as between the show, a 30 minute commercial to sell toys, and the comic, a somewhat realistic war book. But of all the 80’s cartoons, Thundercats, Transformers, He-Man, etc., GI Joe is the one I will always have a soft spot for, probably because the comic is really, really good. That brings us to this week’s Have Issue, the famous silent issue of GI Joe, written and drawn by Larry Hama, the definitive GI Joe writer, he even did the file cards for the action figures about secret mission by Snake Eyes to infiltrate a COBRA castle. And there is zero dialouge in the book. None. Now, this was innovative in 1984, but had such lasting impact, Marvel did a whole event based around it 20 years later. Am I the only one who remember this? Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned here before, but Swamp Thing is awesome. Specifically Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing is top notch. Back when free time was at more of a premium, a run I would read and re-read on a regular basis. This time, we’re talking about a one off story called Ghost Dance. A haunted house story centered around the Cambridge Repeater Rifle. Legend has it that the house is haunted by the ghosts of all who were slain by the rifle. So, as you would do in the early 80’s, you’d take your best gal and another couple and head there to spend the night. Because nothing bad will every happen, right? Also, if this book was published today, it’d be splashed all over the cover ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths prelude!’ Read it and find out why! Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

Chuck Dixon gets a bad rap. And by “bad rap” I don’t mean people actively hate him or anything but people don’t talk about how in the 90’s, he was one of the most proflic and best writers of that time. Some are prolific, some are great, few are both. And one of those examples were the Bat-Family of books, everything from Robin to Nightwing and everything in between, Dixon had his fingerprints on in. Another of those books was Birds of Prey, which will be talking about this week. One of my favorite things of the Bat Books is the will they/won’t they, Sam and Diane relationship between Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon that (retroactively) dates back to their very origins. I’m a sucker for everytime Dick & Babs cross paths and no matter the writer or situation, it’s always bittersweet. There have been a few times and timelines where they get they’re ‘Happily Ever After’ ending, but for now, we’ll take what we get from this relationship. Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

Did you know the Incredible Hulk has not had just one ‘sidekick’ but many sidekicks? In addition to Rick Jones, the most famous of Hulk partners and a hero in his own rights, there was also Fred Sloan and Crackjack Jackson. But that’s not who this issue is about. This is about Jim Wilson. Jim, nephew of Sam Wilson, former Falcon and current Captain America (aka Flaptain) was featured as sidekick in mid to late 70’s Hulk stories until disappearing some 14 years before making his return in issue 420.  He probably should have stayed away. This was a time in the early 90’s where AIDS awareness was at an all time high and many forms of media were tackling the subject. Many don’t hold up under scrutiny. Will this take? Let’s find out together! Lastly, I wanted to include this panel from the issue because of 1) Hulk’s smug look after being shot and B) the ridiculous sound effect. Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

Ah, the X-Men, a bit of blind spot for us over at Longbox Heroes central. Sure, we all have a cursory knowledge thanks to the animated series from the 90’s But the X-Men have had a turmultuous history. Back in the early 70’s, they were on the verge of being cancelled. The book was still being published, but was a reprint book, probably to keep the IP alive, before that was a concious thing. Then, in 1975, things changed: Outside of Cyclops and Professor X (aka: Melon Head), new blood was infused into the team, adding a younger and more varied cast, helmed by Chris Claremont, raising the stakes on the stories riding a wave of popularity over the next 15 plus years that changed the comics industry. And there’s that blind spot. The Claremont run. I’m AWARE of alot of that run, just not an intimate relationship. There in leads us to this week’s Have Issues the battle for leadership of the X-Men between new father Cyclops and a powerless Storm. Who will win? What will happen to the loser? Let’s all find out together! Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

We’ve been here before. The series so nice we’ve covered it twice! The classic Keith Giffen, JM DeMatties and Kevin Maguire run on Justice League makes it’s second appearance in ‘Have Issues’ and it’s moving day! The League, now officially international, are moving from their curret digs to THREE new locations, New York, Russia and France. And in usual JLI fashion, hilarity ensues! Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

Daredevil is one of my favorite characters and has been consistantly one of the best written characters over the last 20 years (for sure) and last 35 years (arguably) and there are TONS of great stories I could have picked for this week’s selection (which gives me an idea for next year…) but instead I chose this one… A one off from the recent Mark Waid run where Matt Murdock (Daredevil’s civilian guise) is on a field trip with troubled youths during a snow storm. What’s the worst that could happen? In closing, just look how fun this variant cover is! As beautiful as the regular cover was, I would have picked this one instead! Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

So, Jonah Hex #26. I should have made Todd write this. I was very late to the reading Jonah Hex, not having picked it up until the new 52 began. Mr. Rowker, in my opinion is Mister Jonah Hex. I do know he is big enough to make into other DC media. He’s appeared on many instances of animated serieses, from Batman to Justice League   I wonder if the 2010 Jonah Hex movie is part of the expanded DC cinematic universe. Sadly, Jonah’s appearance on Legends of Tomorrow was one of the weaker episodes.’ Is this an indictment of Jonah Hex? No, I just think many don’t “get” him. Jimmy Palmiotti, the writer of what we are reading this week does. So I’m very much looking forward to it. Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

I love Deadpool. Back when he was a fringe character introduced as a villain in New Mutants and X-Force. Then, a few years later, Marvel decided to give some of the baddies mini series. Some stuck better than others, Venom being one, Wade Wilson here being the second. So he got a second mini series and an ongoing series that ran for almost 80 issues the first time around and was on the verge of cancellation many times. Read that last sentence again. A Deadpool book was selling poorly. This was before the time we live in now. A much more fun time. A lighter time. And that bring us to this week’s book, Deadpool #11 by Joe Kelly and Pete Woods. After taking Blind Al (Deadpool’s confidont and prisoner) to an aquarium, he runs afowl of the Great Lakes Avengers (at the time attempting to co-opt the Thunderbolts as the ‘Lightning Rods‘) Wade and Al gets whisked off to ‘the past’…and by past I mean issue 47 of Amazing Spider-Man. Literally. Using his image inducer, Deadpool must find the younger version of his sidekick Weasel and convince him to fix his teleporter. He poses as Peter Parker, goes to college parties, fights Kraven the Hunter, but mostly makes fun of Norman Osborn’s hair. This is one of my favorite issues of one of my favorite comic book runs of all time and is currently on sale, so if you’ve got a buck burning a hole in your pocket, go add this great comic to your digital collection. Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

So, here’s a change of pace. This week’s book was suggested by a listener, Jeremy T Dennis and is a book that neither Todd or I have read, Superman (2016) #7 Nothing against this run, along side Spider-Man and Batman, Superman is one of the first books I read with any regularity over the last 25 years or so, but with Rebirth, it was one of the this books that just fell through the cracks. Written by Peter Tomasi with art by Jorge Jimenez and uhm…I don’t know what this issue is about. Let’s go to the official synopsis: Superman considers the toll his battles with the Eradicator and Doomsday have taken on his family and the need for a normal life. But can the Man of Steel ever take a day off? Now many of Superman’s best stories are him dealing with things he can’t just punch so Clark, Lois and Clark Jr heading off to the Metropolis equivalent of the Bloomsburg Fair is a situation ripe for high shenanigans. Who knows, this might be the book that gets one of us reading the Rebirth Superman books? Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

As we have discussed in prior installments of “Have Issues” we talked about new characters created in the last 20 years and Brian Michael Bendis, now they are smashed together this week with Jessica Jones, specifically Alias #10. A character created from whole cloth, debuted in 2001 in the MAX line featuring characters not much was doing with at the time like Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, Speedball among others to tell some seedier tales of drug use, abuse and so forth. But this ones about Spider-Man: Off the success of the prior story arc where Jessica did not stooge off Captain America secret identity (remember when superheroes had secret identies?), J Jonah Jameson attempts to hire the former Jewel (pronouns, PAL!) to find out who is under Spider-Man’s mask. He opens up the coffers at the Daily Bugle, writes a blank check for this information. Does Jessica take him up off on the offer? Does she already know who it is? Not to spoil TOO much of the issue, but this leads to Jessica Jones getting two more ongoing serieses in the next several years, becomes a prominent member of the Avengers, is the star of the Defenders comic (out next week!) and is the star of TWO Netflix original serieses! Not bad for a wash out superhero! Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

The late 80’s were a different time in comics, especially at DC. Outside of Batman, not much else was getting much traction. So, when at the end of your rope, that’s when chances are taken. Sometime they don’t pay off, very rarely, they change the face of comics as we know it. Sandman was one of those comics. Notice in the upper left corner, this was still being published as  DC proper comic. Vertigo as we know would not be seen for another four years. Sandman told the tale of Dream, aka Morpheus, one of the Endless, as he escaped a prison he had been in for hundreds of years and went on a quest to reclaim his tools, a cloak, a helm and a bag of sand. And it had the Justice League in it. Doesn’t sound like a ‘Sandman comic’? Issue eight is where things changed. We are introduced to Death, Dream’s older sister, who takes a down in his dumps Moprheus out for an afternoon. Now, this sounds more like it. This was the first we would see of the extended Endless family that would drive the Sandman franchise for the next 60 plus issues and beyond. The above image is a poster that is framed and hangs in my house to this day. As Todd mentioned, this is a issue we both feel very strongly about, but there are some good vibes in there, right: Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

Remember when Todd and I single handedly brought back annuals? Well, they all weren’t a bushel of oranges, because back in the 90’s, it would bring us stuff like Bloodlines. You remember Bloodlines, aliens invaded DCU Earth, bit a bunch of regular folks triggering their ‘metagene’ who became some of the biggest names in comics. You all remember Geist, Jamm and Sparx? No? How about Tommy Monaghan? Just a regular hitman who was given x-ray vision and limited telepathy and then became a capital H Hitman and was given a bunch of wacky adventures by Garth Ennis and John McCrea. This book was way more wild than most of what was going on in the DCU at the time, almost like it was separate, but that would come to a front with issue 34. I mistakenly thought this took place during the DC event Final Night but no, Superman comes to Gotham, looking for a sympathetic ear from Batman, but instead, gets more than he bargained for from Tommy. Also, as a side note, this same year, 1993, Marvel also did a similar gimmick with introducing over 20 new characters in their annuals, but instead of an event tying them together, they came polybagged with a collectors card! All of those great Hitmaker, Face Thief and Wildstreak stories we would get for years to come! Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

Back in 1991, Marvel relauched the entire mutant side of things, giving us two X-Men teams (Blue and Gold), X-Force, a more militant version of the previous New Mutants and X-Factor, a branch of the government replacing the previous villianous Freedom Force, written by Peter David. For some reason, I thought David’s inital run was longer, but it did give us gems like this week’s ‘Have Issues, where the team has one on one conversations with a mystery person. I do like the misdirect on the cover of who that person is. Peter David would later return to these characters in late 2004 where he would pen their tales under various titles for the next ten years. Still, not as gigantic as his 19 year run on Incredible Hulk. Peter David sure likes to stick around. Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

The early to mid 90’s was a dark time for comics. Not in a ‘grim and gritty’ sort of way, but in a quality sort of way. Let’s not kid ourselves. Comics were sold more on the outside (fancy covers and whatnot) than the content inside. To get good comic stories, many had to turn to the TV with Batman the Animated Series. From there, we were introduced to someone who would become one of the biggest and most recognizable characters in recent memory, Harley Quinn. When the Batman the Animated Series started an actual comic series, the Harley issues became the most sought after, so she got her own one shot/origin story, which was a bit more racy that I remember for an all ages book: From there, she transitioned into the main DCU and was one of the real success stories of the new 52, where her redesign came under much scrutiny, but it was featured in the Suicide Squad feature film, so it’s here to stay! Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

Sam Burke and Maximilian “Twitch” Williams were two beat cops that got deep into the investigation surrounding Spawn in the Todd McFarlane Image series of the same name. They became such beloved character they were included in the marketing, appearing in the movie, HBO cartoon, video games, even getting their own action figures: Then again, around that time, anyone who appeared in Spawn got a toy. Due to delays and other such things, characters would sometime debut in the toy line before appearing in the comic. Along with Angela, the only supporting characters to support not one but TWO spinoff serieses: Many would call this book a precursor to books like Gotham Central, but to many, myself included, their first exposure to Brian Michael Bendis. Now, what is this issue about? Sadly, not having read it in 17 years, I don’t remember, but I trust Todd’s judgement on this one! Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

As much as I love the Flash, even being a johnny come lately, I love his Rogues as much as I do him. And no Flash villain tops that list like Leonard Snart himself, Captain Cold, the leader of the upper case Rogues of Central City. When this issue came up for sale, it jumped the list of ‘Have Issues.’ When Geoff Johns was writing the Flash, in between every big story arc, his ‘cool down’ issue, would be a solo Rogues story and this Captain Cold story wasn’t a game changer, but at least for me, a life changer. I don’t want to over sell the issue, but honestly one of my favorite stories of all time. And I’m delighted with Wentworth Miller’s portrayal of Mr. Snart on the CW’s Flash television show, so much so, I’m almost gonna watch Prison Break. Almost… Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

Hawkeye is the best. Absolutely my favorite Avenger and possibly a top ten character of all time for me. Clint Barton (aka Cliff) like many Avengers of the day, he started out a villain and saw the error of his way, leading not only the Avengers, but also West Coast Avengers, Force Works and the Thunderbolts. This week, we’ll be discussing an issue from the late 70’s that is a transition issue. People leaving the team, people joining the team, but most importantly, Clint looking for work as a security job. Huh? I always get a kick out of super heroes having secondary jobs, whether be Donald Blake being a doctor, Peter Parker being a photographer or Steve Rogers being a artist for Marvel Comics. For reals on that last one. Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...

Back in the salad days of 2008, whenever there was five Wednesdays in a month, the big two publishers would schedule an event, sometimes self contained, other times not so they weren’t shipping little to no books on the last week of a month. Joker’s Asylum is one of those such events. The Joker narrates tales of the origins of other Bat villains, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Two-Face, Penguin and himself. The event did well enough to see a sequel, but not featuring many ‘big name’ creators, except for one guy, Jason Aaron. At the time, Aaron was writing the successful Vertigo book, Scalped (currently being turned into a television series) and was being courted by Marvel as well. He made the decision to leave DC, ending his run on Scapled a few years later, this would end up being his only DCU penned story. And it’s really good. Any discussion, thoughts, feelings, criticisms of this week’s selection can be placed below in the comments section. As well as suggestions about future choices for one shot issues to add to our...