When you start reading comic books decades into a character or even an entire publisher’s existence, how do you go back and find out all of the stories that got them to that point, especially when it’s 1991, you’re fourteen, and you don’t have money, a car, or the Internet at your disposal? Well, join me as I talk about how I learned about Marvel and DC’s histories through their “official” history accounts: The History of the DC Universe, Marvel Saga, The History of the Marvel Universe, and The Other History of the DC Universe. Plus: listener feedback!
In 2004, DC Comics released ‘Countdown to Infinite Crisis,” and set in motion a six-month buildup to what would be the most monumental crossover in recent DC history, Infinite Crisis. This May, that ‘countdown” and buildup to Infinite Crisis is the topic for the annual JLMay crossover. It is “The Event Before The Event.”
It’s the first of a two-part look at police story comics of the late 1980s and early 1990s! This time around, I look at the DC Comics four-issue miniseries Underworld by Robert Loren Fleming and Ernie Colon from 1987.
Different distributors in the 1980s means different release dates for comics means that I’m putting this episode out two days before the last one. This time around, I take a look at The Adventures of Superman #429 by Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway, which puts the spotlight on Cat Grant in a sense, or at least gives us more insight into her relationship with her son Adam and his father. Plus, I walk down WWF memory lane by talking about Wrestlemania III and the legendary match between Randy “Macho Man” Savage and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat.
For the past 75 years, she’s been a hero and role model, and this summer she is getting her own feature film. I’m talking, of course, about Wonder Woman. To honor the mighty Amazon, I’m taking a look at two series entitled The Legend of Wonder Woman. The first, from 1986, is by Kurt Busiek and Trina Robbins and takes place right after Crisis on Infinite Earths, closing the door on the pre-Crisis incarnation of Diana while opening the door for the landmark George Perez run. The second, from 2016, is by Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon, and is an all-ages, out-of-continuity retelling of WW’s origin story.
Thirty years ago, I begn collecting comics for the first time. Now, I’m taking you back to those days with “Origin Story,” a comics podcasting miniseries where I will look at all of the comics I bought in 1986-1987 in “real time.”
Pop Culture Affidavit 