It’s time for an 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 November 26th, 2003. The number one film in the box office is The Cat in the Hat and these are some of the comics at your local comic book shop.
JLA #90
By Joe Kelly, Chris Cross, Tom Nguyen
The Amazing Spider-Man #501
By J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna
Batman #621
By Brian Azzrello, Eduardo Risso
Silver Surfer #3
By Dan Charlton, Stacy Weiss, Lan Medina
Hellblazer #190
By Mike Carey, Marcelo Frusin
Empire #4
By Mark Waid, Barry Kitson, Jim Pascoe
X-Statix #16
By Peter Milligan, Mike Allred, J. Bone
Trouble #5
By Mark Millar, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson
JLA/Avengers #3
By Kurt Busiek, George Perez
That was the week that was in comics. Look at that JLA/Avengers cover! Look again! Look again, you couldn’t have possibly seen the whole thing in just two looks. So, did you read any of the books that came out this week? If so let us know what you thought of them.
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I remember a few of these but the only one I read was JLA/Avengers……Damn thats pretty
I’ve looked at that cover image a ton of times and I just now noticed the half-visible Sue Storm.
That’s amazing.
@Avengers/JLA: What a cover. Nobody does it better than George Perez.
@JLA: Loved that coupling of Batman and Diana. Too bad it was left behind by DC… Although Brubaker tried to bring it back a little in Blackest Night.
Agreed on both counts. I wish Johns were bringing that romance back in JL instead of Clark and Diana. It’s much more compelling.
@WheelHands, spoken like a true Batman fan, Sups and WW just got together, give it time…
Avengers/JLA was the only book I got from the bunch, I was buying JLA at the time, didn’t get that issue tho…
Still waiting on a sequel to Empire.
Not enough credit is given to George Perez! The man redefined the Avengers for me. And that cover….if he got paid by character then he should have retired right after the series was over!
I looked three times at that cover – I see 2 Iron Mans and 0 Deadpools. WTF?!
Well to be fair deadpool at this stage hadn’t been a part of the avengers. This is pre his involvement in Great Lakes avengers.
Also Thunderstrike made the cut!
Batmans hand looks like it could be Batgirls. Seems thin to me…
Empire is one of Waid’s best works. A super book.
Empire was a fantastic book. One of my favorite “dark” super books ever. I think it’s truly overlooked.
And X-Statix was a wonderful book as well. I remember being heartbroken when U-Go Girl died. It’s not often a book affects me that much – I really cared about the characters, as screwed up as they were.
Trouble was an overhyped meh, even though I am a big Millar fan.
LOVE that Silver Surfer cover!
I read Amazing Spider-Man, really enjoyed the majority of JMS’ run on that book and Romita, Jr did some of his best ever covers on that run. I enjoyed X0Force/X-Statix also, thought that title was a lot of fun. And of course, JLA/Avengers was exactly what i wanted it to be!
Peréz is truly a master of his craft! Such an amazing cover!
I loved Empire as well!
I read somewhere where Perez states that his favorite thing to draw are the team books where there are just countless heroes, characters to draw!
It shows that it’s as much fun for him as it is for the fans!!
Damn. Perez.
Highlights from that cover:
The badassness of Hawkeye and GA back to back
Vibe and Blue Beetle riding Machine Man.
Kyle gets stuck carting Jocasta, Rage and the Great Lakes Avengers around. No respect.
Wow! That Amazing Spider-Man cover is awesome and so clever! The use of perspective and the reflexion, spot on! 😀
Tony Harris did that cover. It’s pretty awesome!
I hate looking at the cover prices. Just reminds me that prices have almost doubled in 10 years.
Holy Shit George Perez. Fantastic
Nobody draws a better Beast. I like how he’s front and center.
I know I’m reading a Perez drawn book when EVERY single curl is detailed on the character(Scarlet Witch,Wonder Woman, Starfire, etc). Just great attention to detail
Just read Empire for the first time a month or so ago. Loved it!
Trouble. Ugh. Could’ve gone the rest of my life without seeing one of those covers again.
Ya just had to throw Hellblazer in there, didn’t ya, Timmy?! Salt on the wound.
I just pulled the Avengers vs. JLA out this weekend and started reading it again. I don’t think it gets enough credit, it’s tons of fun and Perez (as always) is amazing.
and now I’m going through my closet to excavate my copies as well!!
Wow. That guys face on the Spider-Man cover is TERRIBLE! In general, a lot of the covers in this feature are often not too great (latent 90’s Liefeld energy had yet to burn off). Makes me happy to live when I do.
It’s funny how Batgirl/Babs is in the cover… Has she ever been associated with the JLA?
Has Killowog?
Yeah, Killowog was a member in the JLI era, Maxwell Lord and all that…
Trying to figure out if there are more Green Lanterns or Hank Pym identities on that JLA/Avengers cover…
Love that issue of JLA and always thought Bruce and Diana made more sense than Clark and Diana or Bruce and Selina. Oh well.
Oh, and Trouble? Bleugh. I don’t want to know about Aunt May’s previous sexual dalliances thank you very much.
When I used to work at Borders we had a copy of TROUBLE sitting on the shelf. Even though I know it was a pretty bad book from word of mouth, I always wanted to read it. Still kinda scared though…
Here are some other big events to occur on November 26:
-1789: George Washington establishes a national Thanksgiving Day.
-1842: University of Notre Dame is founded.
-1917: The National Hockey League is founded.
I loved that Hellblazer issue. I remember thinking that he was getting a new Trenchcaot Brigade together…then they all died.
Despite “Trouble” being the the initial launch book, I was excited about Jemas bring back Epic… I think it ended up being just this, a couple issues of Way & Proctor’s “Gun Theory”, and that weirdly-branded “Crimson Dynamo” book…
That was a strange story with that Milx guy who drew the first couple issues of this “Silver Surfer” series and abruptly disappeared from his family, friends, and Marvel? I looked up the incident after seeing this cover and I guess he came back with a cryptic public apology letter but that’s about it since then… I think this ended up a mini, any good?
Great, now I have to dig out my JLA/Avengers issues and give ’em another read. It’s one of those books where every time I look at it I recognize more of the characters. I’m pretty sure the Arkon cameo at the beginning went over my head the first time I read it.
I hated this time period for Marvel because all their covers were so vague. Most of the time it was a poster cover and you couldn’t tell what storyline was happening based just off the cover image. Thank god they stopped that practice. I remember dropping that Silver Surfer series after two issues because he did not even appear in the first two issues except in a little girl’s dream/premonition/whatever. I have that Perez cover as my wallpaper on my computer. Wish I could find it on a poster though.