Saturday, 29 November 2025
Mister Midnite (No, not Christopher Lee from that film) in As Time Stops
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I've had these scans a good while now and though I tend not to post any American Golden Age comic strips I really liked the innocence and fun of this from publisher Lev Gleason's Silver Streak Comics 1, December 1939.
Last time I checked there were conflicting details as to who wrote and drew this so iof anyone knows 100% let me know. Now.... look at the ball....the glowing ball......
How About DC Comics in 2026?
Well I gave Marvel 2026 projects a mention so I guess DC Comics needs to be mentioned even though I only buy JSA and this all sounds so yawnable to me. Thank goodness for Indie and European comics!
- DC/Marvel Crossover A major publishing initiative continues with Marvel, featuring brand new original stories. This includes two new one-shot comics:
- Superman/Spider-Man #1 published by DC in March 2026.
- Spider-Man/Superman #1 published by Marvel in April 2026.
- Facsimile editions of the original Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man and Superman and Spider-Man treasury editions will also be released in early 2026.
- DC K.O. Boss Battle This crossover event wraps up in early 2026, featuring surprise fights with characters from other franchises like The Boys and Mortal Kombat.
- DC Vertigo Imprint Relaunch The mature-readers, creator-owned line returns with ten new titles, starting in February 2026. Key titles include The Nice House by the Sea #7 (continuing the series), Bleeding Hearts, End of Life, and Tom Taylor's Necretaceous (dinosaurs vs. zombies).
- Legion of Super-Heroes A new ongoing series by writer Joshua Williamson is set to launch in March 2026, bringing the classic team back after their recent storyline appearances.
- Sirens: Love Hurts #1 A new series by Tini Howard and Babs Tarr focusing on Gotham's female villains, likely Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy.
- The New History Of The DC Universe: The Dakota Incident A Milestone Comics one-shot sequel that promises a "shocking" setup for future Milestone relaunches, potentially a new Static Shock series.
- Nightwing and Titans by Tom Taylor.
- Batman by Chip Zdarsky and James Tynion IV.
- John Constantine, Hellblazer by Paul Jenkins.
- Various "Bronze Age" and "Elseworlds" collections.
- Comics related to the new DC Studios slate's film releases, such as the Supergirl movie (June 2026) and the Clayface movie (September 2026), and the "Lanterns" HBO series are anticipated.
- Batman: Knightfall! Part 1, a new DC animated film, is scheduled for release in 2026.
Marvel Armageddon
Not sure about anyone else but in (oh ffs) 6 decades of reading comics the Marvel news for 2026 just left me bored.
- Armageddon: This is the flagship event for June 2026, described as a landscape-shifting crossover for the entire Marvel Universe on a scale not seen since Avengers: Disassembled. The event, spearheaded by writer Chip Zdarsky, will involve the Avengers and the fallout from the new Ultimate Universe, especially the "Origin Boxes" brought back by Miles Morales.
- Ultimate Universe Conclusion: The current slate of Ultimate comics (including Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimates, Ultimate Wolverine, and Ultimate Black Panther) will all wrap up their storylines between December 2025 and April 2026, culminating in a definitive ending to the current arc involving the Maker in Ultimate Endgame.
- Spider-Man/Superman Crossover: A highly anticipated intercompany crossover with DC Comics, featuring a new Superman/Spider-Man #1 in March 2026 (by DC) and Spider-Man/Superman #1 in April 2026 (by Marvel).
- Death Spiral: A major crossover event between the ongoing Amazing Spider-Man and Venom series, featuring a new superpowered serial killer.
- Godzilla: Infinity Roar: A new miniseries that sees the King of the Monsters rampaging across the cosmos after being exiled from Earth, potentially alongside Knull, the god of symbiotes.
- Iron Man: A new ongoing series by writer Joshua Williamson and artist Carmen Carnero, exploring what happens when "death comes calling" for Tony Stark again.
- Daredevil: A new #1 issue in February 2026.
- New X-Men Titles: In January and February 2026, new solo series for X-Men characters are launching, including Cyclops #1, Rogue #1, Psylocke: Ninja #1, and Generation X-23 #1.
- Wade Wilson: Deadpool: A new ongoing Deadpool series described as "dangerous, unhinged, deadly" from writer Benjamin Percy.
- Marc Spector: Moon Knight: A new ongoing series starting in February 2026 from writer Jed MacKay.
My guess is that by the time this comes around the movie Avengers Doomsday will have influenced it all.
Cinebook Ltd Newsletter 215 - November 2025
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A huge thank you to everyone who came to visit our booth at the Thought Bubble comic festival on the 15 and 16 of November. It was a pleasure meeting you, exchanging with you, and making sure you went home with some new reading material! See you next year!
Friday, 28 November 2025
The Case of the Vanishing Mighty Marvel Masterworks
I started getting the Mighty Marvel Masterworks series -Fantastic Four, Dr Strange and X-Men. I wasn't too keen on the format size but....
Got volumes 1-3 of each and paid for advance copies of volume 4 of each. Eventually, I got my money back on Dr Strange because Amazon would not check what was going on. Then I got my money back on the X-Men and FF volumes otherwise Amazon would still have my money and they don't give a crap about checking on things.
If you have ordered the books forget it. I did wonder....
As with Essentials and Marvel Masterworks -"The "Mighty Marvel Masterworks" series has been cancelled, not merely delayed, due to declining sales and a reassessment of the 6x9 "graphic novel" (GN) format post-pandemic. "
They are using that same tired old excuse -with Essentials they never had the pandemic to blame. You can say what you like about Jim Shooter at Marvel but if he said a book was appearing on a certain date...it APPEARED!!!
Just very stupid people running a company and ruining monthly comics and collections -why start collecting these books when you have no guarantee they will get beyond volume 3?
Thursday, 27 November 2025
Helen Gahagan Douglas as She (1935)
Helen Gahagan and Randolph Scott (take off yer stetson, kid). It is a fun watch with Nigel (Dr Watson) Bruce as co-star
Some Old D-Gruppe Pages of Art
Here are a few pages from issues 2-4 and Zeitgeist to show that it isn't all super heroes in costumes. At this point David Holmes (Die Eule/The Owl) had moved from England as a lawyer for von Happe but once again got involved in adventures.
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Schwarzerlachtern, Zick-Zack, Schwarzerpunkt and Tarot -Not Tongue Twisters!
There was Kopfmann's counterpart, Kleine Klaus whose D-Gruppe had been wiped out; then we have Herr Baron Münchhausen (not Hans Alber but the character from Baron Munchausen's Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia (1785) and his crew. General Blitzen, the Pied Piper, Barbarossa and along the way others including Lady Quiir and The Elfenkind as well as Hildegard Caterina Kouise, Baroness of Silesia and Kommandant in the Great Imp[erial Prussian Army or more simply "The Kommandant"!
There were also two Rotkappchen, Deutsch Michael and many in cameo, etc. plus the main gatherer of the heroes -Gauntlet.
There is also the groundwork leading up to The Trial as well as hints at The Days of Darkness/Terror. Heroes from Earths destroyed, now in refuge on this parallel included Amulett, Zick-Zack, Sonnenscheinen, Schwarzerpunkt and, of course, Schwarzerlachtern.
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Schwarzerlachtern was seen with some of the other heroes in The Trial and was off world when his family and his Earth were obliterated. He came from Earth Parallel 56765 and was instrumental in taking down the Zeitgeist in the final battle. His powers are magical in nature and he commands, amongst other things, black light and can create solid light.
Ever present is the Gipsy Sorcerer, Tarot -he first appeared back in the 1980s (1984) in the Kotar and Sabuta story Werewolf -magnificently redrawn and made into a three part story by Ben Dilworth for Black Tower Super Heroes.
Although there are science friction elements at times the idea is to keep D-Gruppe and its characters on the edges of the magical and fairy tale world. Wavell is the team "super man" and was a primitive man caught up in a time experiment and brought into the 1980s -his IQ actually increasing but due to a flux in the time stream he also acquired super powers. Wavell, as I have declared before, is firmly based on the character Wastl -he is mentioned in this post on Comic Bits Online:
https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2015/12/dalborn-germany-and-bastei-verlag.html
Although I am a big fan of Mykros (and thanks to Subzero I now have the full Bastei series) Insekten Konig/Insect King is not based on him but was created long before I saw Mykros.
There are many other characters, let's face it the group was created in the 1960s so the team was bound to be added to over that time! Some 1990s work has been used to be part of the upcoming Parallel Motions issue of Black Tower Super Heroes so the team is living rent free in my brain... for now!
