Up next...All-American Comics #1

It's Black Friday, so I'm sure everyone is too busy waiting in lines trying to buy a flat screen t.v. for ten bucks or trying to track down whatever hunk of plastic the kids today have decided that they just can't live without.

With smart phones being what they are, however, I suppose you could still be checking in with your favorite random comic book blogs while you're standing in line. Taking that into consideration, here's a quick post to keep you entertained...and challenged.

That's right, it's time for another installment of What Did I See While I Was Out On The Road The Other Day! As long time readers are aware, my day job takes me in-and-around four different states in the Midwest on a semi-regular basis. On occasion, I've been known to spy something comic book related in my travels.

Normally, I'd give you a multiple choice selection and pop up with the photo a couple of days later, like we did over here, here and here. This time, however, we're going to switch it up.

For this round, you'll get the picture first and you have to tell me what the comic book connection is. Everyone got it? Good, then on with the picture.

Now I expect this one is going to be a bit challenging, so I'm going to give you a little clue.

You better hope you can summon all of your willpower from the last couple of months in order to guess this one.

I'll give you a couple of days to ponder it, and I'll be back before the weekend's out to give you the answer. If you know the significance of this building, or are just feeling lucky, drop your answer in the comments.

Until then, let's roll the Randomizer out of the storage unit and dust off the mothballs so that we can fire it up and get a new random book to review. Take it away randomizer...

...and that book is All-American Comics #1 from May 1999, published by DC Comics!

Ahhh...the Justice Society. Up until recently, there were always two things that you could count on without fail during the aughts. The first was that Ultimate Spider-Man was one of the most consistently perfect comic book runs going. The second, and perhaps more unlikely, was that JSA was just as good, if not better (like when Bendis insisted on bringing Ultimate Daredevil into storylines).

And it all started here, with the nine part The Justice Society Returns! storyline that ran through a number of one-shot titles that resurrected long cancelled golden age titles. The issue we'll be reviewing this time around features the golden age Green Lantern and Johnny Thunder, both of whom will be making their debut appearance here at the Random Longbox.

Along for the ride is Eduardo Barreto doing the art. We've had the pleasure of ogling a cover or two, but this will be the first time he's done interiors for one of our reviews.

And speaking of covers, I've always liked the design on this mini-series with the oversized logos and Dave Johnson character work.

See you in a day or two for the review.

SuperPatriot #4...or bullet holes are the new black

TITLE: SuperPatriot #4

PUBLISHER: Image

COVER DATE: November 1993

COVER PRICE: $1.95

24 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

I actually don't remember a whole lot about this title, other than it had some killer artwork by Dave Johnson (which I touched upon here already), and that it was more fun than I thought it would be going into it.

Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon was a fun book, and was definitely the most put together of the initial Image titles. Because of the quality of that title, I tended to give his other series at least an initial read. Of those, I remember enjoying two...SuperPatriot and Vanguard.

SuperPatriot

• Creator/Scripter: Erik Larsen
• Plotter/Storyteller: Keith Giffen
• Penciller/Inker: Dave Johnson
• Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
• Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
• Color Separation: Digital Chameleon
• Editor: Jannie Wong

The first page is a nice splash page that reminds me instantly why I like Dave Johnson's artwork.

In the foreground is one of the Youngblood guys, whose name I can't remember. I'm sure it's Death-something or Blood-something...We'll just call him DeathBlood for now.

The visuals on DeathBlood are all right, as Johnson does the best he can with the design he's been given. The real highlights are the U.S. Soldiers in the background. I like the way he draws tech, as it's pretty unique and looks usable and used at the same time.

It seems that DeathBlood has been called in to put a stop to SuperPatriot's rampage. He's apparently an old friend, and it's up to him to talk him down. The first thing DeathBlood does is give us his name. It's Diehard. I was close.

SuperPatriot doesn't seem to remember or care about his name either, as he proceeds to blast Diehard in half. This causes one of Diehard's other android bodies to activate, this one being a prototype model, to try again.

Two pages later and the battle still rages, with neither android getting the upper hand. Diehard is not the only member of Youngblood present, as Shaft is on scene too. We find out that the reason that SuperPatriot is out of control is that he's been reprogrammed by the Covenant of the Sword. Shaft tells the suits on scene that this is Diehard's play, and no one moves until he either succeeds or fails.

Diehard succeeds in momentary getting the upper hand, and presses the advantage by ripping off SuperPatriot's weaponized arm.

It's a good thing he has two of them however, as he uses the other one to plaster Diehard with a flurry of gunfire. He leaves him for dead and begins to walk away. Diehard was playing possum, and strikes SuperPatriot from behind with his severed arm.

After Shaft gets the government suits to back down, he has to work on the other members of his own team as Badrock is also itching to get in there and do some damage.

Back to the fighting, and it looks like Diehard is beginning to realize that he can't stop him by force alone. He starts to play on their history together as WWII teammates in The Allies. He rips off his mask and forces him to confront his human side, which is still buried beneath all of his circuitry.

That's eventually enough, as SuperPatriot is finally able to overcome the reprogramming and come to his senses. His link to the Covenant of the Sword is broken.

Back at their secret base, the member in charge of controlling SuperPatriot is demoted in a rather permanent way.

Later, at a government hospital, SuperPatriot is getting fixed up with a new arm and a shiny new, bullet hole free body. He's approached by one of the government agents from earlier, who seems to think that SuperPatriot should be grateful to the U.S. Government for the fact that he is back in one piece. SuperPatriot doesn't see it that way and leaves without saying a word.

SuperPatriot heads to a diner to figure out where to go next, over coffee and pie, when he is approached by an old teammate. It seems Mighty Man is getting the old band back together from the 60's and is looking to do it right this time.

Intrigued by the idea of being able to do some good, outside of government intervention, he agrees.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

...that not all of the early Image stuff isn't worth the million-plus pages of paper it's printed on.

This series was a lot of fun, and even reading just the last issue some 15 years later, it hasn't missed a beat. It doesn't pretend to take itself desperately serious, so if you're looking for a good rip-roaring yarn, you should check out this mini-series.

You'll be more than aptly rewarded with just the artwork alone, as Dave Johnson is truly an original talent.

Up next...SuperPatriot!

So the Randomizer has finally gotten around to seeing the youtube footage of the Iron Man 2 preview from Comic-Con, and it's definitely worth tracking down.

We've gone on record as saying that Mickey Rourke as comic book villain is a brilliant bit of casting, but they've got another one that was even better. Garry Shandling as a pompous, asshole of a U.S. Senator. What a perfect foil for Downey's Tony Stark.

Anyway, back to work. Let's get the next pick out of the longboxes.

...and that pick is SuperPatriot #4 from December 1993, published by Image Comics.

Well it's about time! Today's pick has ended the recent dominance of the big two, as the last twelve books were from either Marvel or DC. I got spoiled with the first month worth of issues, where we had six different publishers in our first seven picks.

No offense meant towards Marvel and DC, but it's fun to shake things up with some of the other publishers out there. Here's hoping that the Randomizer can keep things a little more varied in the coming months.

Back to SuperPatriot, and there's really only one thing to say...Dave Johnson!

I really had no interest in SuperPatriot as a character, but I had just been wowed by the work he did in one of my favorite 90's book that no one remembers...Chain Gang War! I'm glad that I gave it a shot, as I remember this series ended up being a lot of fun.

Since then, I have had to rely on his cover art to tide me over between his all too infrequent interior artwork, with Superman: Red Son being an obvious highlight.

So come on back in a day or two for the review as we relive the heady days of Images first years on the scene.