iFlashback! July 30th, 2003

It’s time for iFlashback! A weekly feature in which we take a look at some comics that were on sale nine years ago. Why nine years and not ten? Well because our Mondays in 2012 sync up with the Wednesdays of 2003.

So jog down memory lane with me. The date is July 30th, 2003. The number one film at the box office is Spy Kids 3 and these are some of the comics at your local comic book shop.

 

Batman #617

By Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, Scott Williams

 

The Ultimates #11

By Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary

 

The Flash #200

By Geoff Johns, Scott Kollins, Doug Hazelwood, Alberto Dose

 

 Thor: Vikings #1

By Garth Ennis, Glenn Fabry

Catwoman #21

By Ed Brubaker, Cameron Stewart

Crimson Dynamo #1

By John Jackson Miller, Steve Ellis, Thomas Mason

Red #1

By Warren Ellis, Cully Hammer

Silver Surfer #1

By Dan Chariton, Stacy Weiss, Milx

 

Ultimate Adventures #6

By Ron Zimmerman, Duncan Fegredo

 

That was the week that was in comics! Big week for books. HUGE. Batman continues to be the highest selling book of the month. Now, I know you guys read some of these. Post your thoughts down below!

Comments

  1. Jeez. I think I was a freshman in college when these comics were out…

  2. I wasn’t even into comics then!

    • Me neither, but there is quite a lot of stuff that’s awesome and i still need to read that came out in this period…

  3. Theese are the books that remind me of my childhood the most cause mid 2003 I was 11 and going to the comic store eack week with my Dad and he bought me some books instead of giving money for chores and got extra money shoveling snow and mowing grass to fund my habit lol. I bought alot of terrible books back then lol but I was getting Flash,Catwomen,Batman,Detective and alot of the Ultimate books cause of the lack of backstory campared to the main inverse titles I dont think I started getting those till I was about 13.

  4. Avatar photo filippod (@filippodee) says:

    Hawk-Owl and Woody! It was a ludicrous concept but I enjoyed it.

  5. Wow… Flash 200 was awesome! I remember I hated the aftermath. Red was a nice little comic too.

  6. I forgot about Ultimate Adventures. On purpose, of course.

  7. Hush was a huge deal. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn’t into Flash at the time and only now am I sorry I missed out on Geoff Johns’ run on the title. I think they just released an Omnibus of his run, so I might pick that up.

    I remember dropping Ultimates because I didn’t care for the tone and the fact Cap was a jerk.

    Nothing else on this list particularly interested me.

  8. Thor: Vikings was some gruesome stuff. Undead Vikings slaughtering New York City’s populace and I believe Thor’s wrists or fore-arms were broken pretty graphically too if I remember correctly. Weird stuff, and very dark.

  9. Crimson Dynamo #1?? Man…Marvel was just trying to throw EVERYTHING to the wall to see if it stuck.

  10. Still miss that Catwoman title . . .

  11. How good was the Thor: Vikings title? Looking to get some Thor related runs…is it a good start?

    • I enjoyed it. I don’t don’t know that it’s a good “start of a run”, but it’s an interesting sef-contained story (5-issue mini).

      I don’t know if any of those events are touched on in any other comics, but it’s probably worth checking out if you like the Norse side of Thor, and not just the super-hero aspects.

    • Sorry I didn’t make the question clear…looking to do minis since I’m not doing any Thor ongoings…Enjoyed Trials of loki mini and would like to get into Journey into Mystery but i hear thats ending…but yea i think I’ll check this one out for sure, thanks!

    • It’s a MAX title that has nothing to do with normal “616” Thor. Personally I think THOR: VIKINGS is the best story out there. It has art of what would actually happen if Thor hit someone with Mjolner.

    • It’s awesome! Thor teams up with a female barbarian, a Teutonic knight and a Luftwaffe pilot to fight a horde of zombie vikings. If you’re squeamish, then stay away, but if you’re looking for some good, splattery fun, definitely check it out.

      The other great thing about Thor: Vikings? Nothing like it will ever, ever happen again.

  12. Got that Batman.

  13. I want that Thor run!. So expensive on amazon

    • If you are interested in individual issues of Thor: Vikings, comiccollectorlive.com has a NM lot for $11.99

  14. Hush was nine years ago.

    Jesus.

  15. I remember that Thor mini. I wish they would put it back in print. Not sure if it holds up but at the time I loved it.

  16. Crimson Dyanamo wasn’t great, but I wish that Epic line would have stuck around. Sleepwalker is one of my favorite characters and I haven’t seen him since then. That Silver Surfer title up there was pretty good as I recall and the art was insanely good.

    Thos Vikings is a great little read as is Red. I have pretty much this whole list now that I think about it except the Batman and Flash. I wholly regret it so no need to let me know that I was foolish to grab Dynamo and not Hush.

  17. Man I still remember how excited I’d get for every issue of Hush. While the story really didn’t end as amazingly as I hoped, that Jim Lee art was still some of the best Batman – way better than his work now IMO. And Ultimates…back when Ultimates was good!

  18. It’s funny how RED went from a fun, no nonsense mini to a major film starring Bruce Willis and a slew of other actors. RED and OCEAN are two, great Warren Ellis stories that aren’t his usual type of stories. It’s his attempt to do Michael Bay-like stories and they work pretty well.

    Here are some other big events to occur on July 30th:

    762: Baghdad is founded
    1729: Baltimore, Maryland is founded
    1975: Jimmy Hoffa disappears

  19. Silver Surfer “Bah! I don’t wanna play Spaceketball anymore!”

    • Lol, thats what it looks like too, I like the art but that is too funny. Always wanted the Silver Surfer runs to last or stay strong but love some of his short stories and he’s a great guest star in FF, anything cosmic or Avengers really. Just bought the Stan Lee/Moebius Parable book, good stuff and still want to read his early stuff via omnibus. Stan Lee always said the Silver Surfer is his favorite character he created if he had to pick one, cause he was the one he could voice his views of the world through for one reason. I love the cosmic, rant.

  20. Good week in a period that pushed some of the better stuff to follow that week.

  21. Man, I *hated* that Thor book. Maybe I should take another look at it, but at the time I thought it was horrible.

  22. Good stuff I enjoyed most of these comics.