House to Astonish Episode 214
A small but perfectly formed episode for you this time round, with news about Die: Loaded, the new Infernal Hulk and Doctor Strange, DC’s upcoming Batman/Static: Beyond and the announcements of the murderers’ row of creators working on Batman/Deadpool. We’ve also got reviews of Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum and Uncle Scrooge: Earth’s Mightiest Duck and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is a bit of both. All this plus the Thing’s ’92 Subaru, Green Lantern’s trick or treating habits and the Wuzzels revival.
The episode is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Bluesky, via email, and if you want something from our Redbubble store I would get in there quick because it’s going away soon, to be replaced by something hopefully better.
I don’t mind David’s decision to kill Betty, as it set up David’s final issue of Hulk to be one of his best and most poignant. David went out on a high note.
I recall PAD furiously denying that he killed Betty as a response to his divorce. Perhaps he later admitted to it, I don’t know.
@mark coale: Finally, someone else who fondly remembers Waid & Kubert’s short-lived KA-ZAR run! Hurray!
Regarding Don Rosa: He does in fact still have the sign up at conventions declaring that his stories are not “Duck Tales.”
@Michael, Chris V, Adam – It wasn’t David’s idea to kill Betty. He and his editor Bobbie Chase were kicking around potential plot ideas and it was Chase who suggested killing Betty. Up until then, Betty had been protected by the fact that she was David’s wife’s favorite character. With her out of the picture, Betty’s safety net was gone, so David said, “Sure, let’s do it.”
And he regretted it, because it ultimately led to his departure from Hulk. The higher ups at Marvel (higher than Chase) were excited about Betty’s death and felt the Hulk should react to it by going off on an extended silent rampage, smashing everything in sight. David strongly objected to going in that direction and refused to write it, but the higher-ups were insistent they go that route, and basically told David to not let the door hit him on the way out.
@ MNark Coale: Whoops! I missed your mention of Primal Force in that list of 90s DC gems. But it’s good to know that some folks remember that book and its distinctive tone and style. (Well, besides the wonky lettering you mention.)
@Chris V: The final issue worked because PAD was consistent in showing that the Hulk’s story is ultimately a tragic arc. Every time he wrote a “distant future” including the Hulk — Future Imperfect, The Last Avengers Story, Hulk: The End (in both prose and comics) — the Hulk always ends up as the monster the world has made of him, driven to destructive rage by rejection, abuse, and self-loathing.
@Adam: I liked the first twelve issues of that run a lot. A lot of folks go after it for its use of Thanos, but that seems to be because he’s there to be an oversized threat in a Ka-Zar story rather than to star in A Thanos Story.
I wasn’t quite as fond of the High Evolutionary story arc that followed, partly because I thought that the characterization of Shanna was reductive and the underlying character conflict was spelled out in a very on-the-nose manner.
But, like Bruce Jones’s 1980s series, Waid made Ka-Zar, Shanna, and the Savage Land work as more than entertaining oddities or “lost world/Tarzan” genre pastiche. In fact, I’d argue that Jones and Waid are the only two Ka-Zar writers that managed it.
Andy Kubert’s art has never looked better or more kinetic than it did when Jesse Delperdand inked him on Ka-Zar.
I might be wrong, but wasn’t Thanos a substitute for some other villain that Waid couldn’t use.? Maybe Nightmare or Mephisto?
Hilariously, Brian Cronin learned that the “Thanos” in Ka-Zar was originally meant to be a disguise for Korvac!
Yes, really.
I am in agreement that Bruce Jones and Mark Waid are the only two Ka-Zar iterations that you need to read, but even then I didn’t love Waid’s run as much as Jones. I’d say Jones was the sole indispensable Ka-Zar writer, but if you wanted more Waid would be a good second choice. After that? Yeah, there’s not much. Even Paul Jenkins failed to turn in a compelling Ka-Zar story.
I remember the Priest run after Waid being not that bad.
@Mark Coale: It was pretty good, though the art let it down a bit. Still, we got Everett K. Ross out of it!
Your mention of Priest reminds me of another 1990s DC gem: The Ray, for both the initial miniseries by Jack C. Harris and Joe Quesada and then the follow-up ongoing series by Priest. (I was less fond of its sibling title, Justice League Task Force.)
Priest also did another short lived DC from around that time called Xero with Chris Cross art (IIRC).
“I don’t mind David’s decision to kill Betty, as it set up David’s final issue of Hulk to be one of his best and most poignant. David went out on a high note.”
*** Yeah, PAD’s Hulk ended strong. I’m glad he got his groove back on the series circa 1997-1998 so that he was able to end on a high note. It’s one of the greatest comics runs ever, for my money. It’ll always be my pick for best Marvel run of the ’90s.