Look, sometimes you just have to get trapped in a cave, build a suit of armor, and solve the Vietnam war to feel better about yourself

Iron Man #47 is a re-telling of the titular character's origin by the all-star creative team of Roy Thomas, Barry (Pre-Windsor) Smith and Jim Mooney. Following a brief run by Gary Friedrich and George Tuska that would resume in the coming months, we pick up with Tony Stark at the lowest point in his pre-Demon in a Bottle, pre-Armor Wars career. The last issue saw a battle with his former ally the Guardsman go horribly awary, resulting in the death of a friend who had grown bitter with his employer over, you guessed it, a woman.

Iron Man sulks and is briefly spat upon at the Guardsman's funeral, leading him down memory lane as he sad-flies across the Manhattan skyline. This is where Roy Thomas and Barry Smith get to swoop in and do a pretty bang-up job of reestablishing the character's origin and updating (as of 1972) the means by which Tony Stark becomes a P.O.W. and is forced to build his new identity from scratch. The main idea here is that Tony needs to reflect on his past bouts with reinvention and redemption and use those old lessons now. It's a thoughtful way to excuse an origin issue.

It also doesn't hurt that Iron Man has one of the more dynamic origin stories of any of the Marvel characters. Nearly as iconic as Spidey's origin in Amazing Fantasy #15 thanks to the 2008 film, Tony Stark's metamorphosis, while under duress, from arms dealer to futurist is a story that functions as it's own little Die Hard-style action movie. I'd go so far as to say it's more exciting than most of Iron Man's outings once he becomes an established hero. Thomas's minor retcon that Flashback Tony is working on "crazy gadgets to help end the bloodshed in Vietnam" doesn't change the fact that he's kind of a monster before his capture.

The Tyrannical Wong-Chu is set up as the warlord that will capture Tony and force him to build the Iron Man armor as a means of escape. Wong-Chu is a pretty flamboyant general who is also eager to best his detractors in one on one combat, if he is bigger than them. Otherwise, a coward's bullet is good enough for him. He's a charicature, and a pretty dated one at that, from a time when the satirical methods of old were clashing with the progressive virtues of the new. It's not really a big deal, though. Wong-Chu is just here to be a bad guy and get hoisted by his own petard.

"Why Must There Be An Iron Man?" builds to its most artistically potent sequence when Tony is powering up his Mark 1 armor for the first time, resulting in a splash page of the jangling armor prototype emerging from a slab like Frankenstein's monster. Smith's art makes Tony's first armor look like a shambling, jerky, unsafe, ghost in a suit of armor. The terrified Wong-Chu flees as long as he can, then orders the other prisoners executed just to spite the opponent he cannot defeat. Of course, Iron Man isn't about to let that happen and our hero smotes 'em all good.

Professor Yinsen plays a minor role in the story, and that's the only thing I feel is really lacking here and the only thing that keeps this version of the origin from feeling complete. Yinsen is the Elder that Tony encounters while prisoner, checking one of my favorite boxes on the Campbell Hero's Journey List. The Yinsen stuff is almost non-existent here, and when Tony tells the deceased mentor to "rest easy" at the flashback's end, it rings hollow.

The end of the flashback doesn't mark the end of the story however, as Iron Man still gets to spend another four or five pages debating with himself before the issue's closing. Once Tony gets himself all boned up to be Iron Man again and face a new day, we end with a splash page meant to call back to the earlier shot of the Mark 1 armor. This time, Tony is riding high and it's all fluid and dynamic and stuff. Cool.

The status quo that Iron Man returns to at that time from here doesn't really stand out to me as some of Marvel's best bronze age stuff. We're still in the middle of the Marianne Rogers saga, where Iron Man learns his girlfriend has E.S.P. and she starts wigging out on him and kinda leaves him for dead at one point. Yeah, it's pretty wild stuff in terms of throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks, but it doesn't sing like Gerry Conway's Spider-Man or Steve Englehart's Captain America.

Why must there be an Iron Man? Because magnets.

Lana Lang's thirst and the Saga of the Parakat

Today, we put the "back" in Back Issue Diving. As in waaay back. We're actually breaking the barrier of the late 80's and journeying to DC's silver age for a look at Adventure Comics #282. More specifically the cover story, "Lana Lang and the Legion of Super-Heroes!"

March, 1961. The allies are on the move and those clowns in Washington just might be able to put there heads together and get a bead on . . . the Reds? I actually don't know what was going on in the world in 1961, but if the contents of this comic reflected the world at that time, I'm kind of bummed they started purifying our drinking water.

I kid, I kid. DC's silver age comics weren't really known across the board for being socially relevant. That was Marvel's bag at the time. Particularly in the Superman line, silver age stories were about a rigid square butting heads with psychedelia and self reflection at every turn. The youth-focused stories of Adventure Comics, namely those starring Superboy and/or the Legion of Super-Heroes, would break away from this tradition at times, but not in any way that would seem out of place in
Archie's hometown of Riverdale.

(Hmm . . . actually, that current Riverdale show is pretty racy, so that comparison is broken now.)

"Lana Lang and the Legion of Super-Heroes!" could be an Archie story, if not for the fact is features more than a few superpowered characters. The Curt Swan cover tells the entire story: Lana is trying use Star Boy's affection to make Superboy jealous, but he isn't taking the bait, instead intending to pipe some other 30th century hussie. Not only is Lana a one-dimensional character who is motivated solely to win the attention of a man, but her fucking plan doesn't work and Superboy is like, way smarter and better than her. It's a Silver Age classic!

The real shame is that Superboy's future love interest as Superman, Lois Lane, didn't fare much better in her portrayals.

The Legion itself was pretty new at the time; this story marks only their fifth appearance in comics and the roster was pretty small at the time. You had the core members Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl, plus Star Boy, Chameleon Boy, and maybe a few others? At least, that's all who appear in this story. Really, we're just focusing on Star Boy in this issue anyway.

The plot follows the usual formula of building up to the cover image in about six pages and then racing headlong to a denumot from there. Superboy overhears Lana's aloud scheming after interacting with Star Boy and allows the silly girl to tire herself out, battling a random Parakat along the way after it escapes from a zoo or somesuch. The parakat is probably the strongest part of this issue. The panel of the year is Superboy swinging the Parakat above his head by the tail. I'd post it here, but then I feel like I would need to charge you admission or something. It's next week's meme. It's that good.

30th century gal Zynthia plays the Jezebel in this story, bringing Lana to tears. If the family of the Parakat from earlier attacked the city after Superboy returned to his time, and the last three pages of this story were a series of nine panel grids where Zynthia is ripped limb from limb by angry Parakats, that would be neat. But alas, this one wraps up with Lana getting the cold shoulder from Clark, who claims to have "lots of super-jobs to catch up on!" Ho, ho.

It's for the best really. Lana Lang couldn't birth Superman's Super-Babies. They'd tear through her like a pack of Parakats.

A retroactive generation

In 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #1 hit newsstands and set a new standard for superhero comics in terms of storytelling and characterization. It also marked the beginning of the Marvel universe, although writers and artists since then have incorperated more and more of Marvel's golden and atomic age roots. Marvel, as a shared universe, would continue to grow and prosper up until today, but with Stan Lee's dogmatic "illusion of change" hanging over the line, drastic steps would have to be taken to explain why these characters in the sixties were still quite young and vibrant decades later.

From this, the concept of "Marvel Time" was born. We're expected to believe that, no matter where we are reading from, the Marvel Universe and the interconnected stories within began about nine or ten years ago. This, of course, created another dilemma. Now there were several decades worth of actual human history that had been rendered blank and Marvel-less by the slow creep of Marvel Time. Captain America and most of the other Timely-era characters would stay entrenched in WWII, but there was still the matter of filling out the 50's, 60's and 70's.

In the year 2000, veteran Marvel creators John Byrne and Roger Stern believed they had a solution. Not lacking for ambition, their series Marvel: The Lost Generation featured an era's worth of new creations that had been retrofitted to fill in the blank space that had become the mid-20th century. The series revolved mainly around the superhero team known as The First Line and a futuristic anthropologist named Dr. Cassandra Locke who is tumbling through time, uncovering these "previously unmentioned" heroes and villains, revealing them to herself and the reluctant reader.

The heroes of the First Line are somewhat . . . shall we say cookie cutter? John Byrne's designs are strong, but one can't help but look at them as pastiches of older heroes. Byrne does a pretty good job of imagining what heroes created by the likes of Bob Brown and John Buscema would look like, and writer Roger Stern gives the script an old-school flavor. (Which shouldn't be difficult for the guy who weaved all of those incredible Avengers yarns in the 80's.)

The issue at hand (#7) takes place during the height of the Red Scare, with Skrulls in place of Commies and the potentially offensive Yellow Claw standing revealed as the true menace to both the Invaders and the First Line by issue's end. The cover is a classic "two teams clash while a nuetral party cries out in anguish in the middle" piece. The story here reminds me of the JSA: 1950 arc from Geoff John's storied run on the title, with the H.U.A.C. coming down on masked heroes while another menace takes advantage of the rampant confusion and paranoia cropping up in the American people.

The superhero melodrama is confined to two-thirds of the issue--quite literally, as the bottom of each page fills us in on the simultaneous adventures of Dr. Locke as she unearths the other half of the plot and, in this issue, runs afoul of the Human Torch. (Not that one, the other one.) This is a neat gimmick and a fun way to mess with the format, but I can also see it wearing thin over the course of a twelve issue maxi-series.

Another gimmick that made this series stand out at the time was the numbering. As Dr. Locke is falling further back in time, so do the issues count down from 12 to 1. It's cute, and ultimately non-intrusive, but I have a feeling the edgier fan of the approaching new millenium may have rolled their eyes at the concept. After all, prjects like this and Starlin's Infinity books would become rarer and rarer as the decade would unfurl and the Ultimate line is literally on the way before thise series could even finish its run.

Recent history (the last 20 years or so) has shown us that Marvel would find more success taking their present stock of heroes and de-aging them than they would in trying to retcon in new characters to account for Marvel Time. Unfortunately the real trick to appreciating Marvel Time is all-too-simple: Just don't think about it too much!

New releases for the week of January 31st, 2018

Lo and behold, it's that time again. Time for money spendin' and comics readin'. Welcome back to your favorite segment on the blog (according to analytics) Da New Releases! Here's what you can look for on store shelves, both physical and virtual, the week of January 31st.

Hungry Ghosts #1 (of 4) Dark Horse
One of DC's most unfortunate decisions was letting go of editor extraordinaire Karen Berger a few years back. When Dark Horse's new imprint, Berger Books, was announced last year, fans of early Vertigo were clamoring to see what (and who) the famous editor would bring to the table at her new employer. This anthology of culinary-adjacent ghost stories by a hit list of creators including Paul Pope and TV's Anthony Bourdain seems like a great anthology and a strong start for the line.

Astro City #50 DC Comics
The Eisner-nominated single issue "The Nearness of You" was originally a Wizard magazine mail-away issue, but it ultimately ended up being one of the best stories in Kurt Busiek's epic Astro City saga. A deconstruction of Crisis on Infinite Earth-type stories from the common man's perspective, this special anniversary issue plans to revisit the character of Michael Tenicek and follow up on his tragic dilemma.

Deathstroke Annual #1 DC Comics
A surprise hit for me as of late has been DC's Deathstroke series. It shouldn't come as that big of a surprise however, as its being written by Christopher Priest. This annual teams up The Guy That Made Black Panther Cool with one of my favorite artists who doesn't get enough work, Denys Cowan. Shades of DC's Question and Priest filling in the word bubbles? It'll be a barn-burner!

Motherlands #1 (of 6) DC Comics
The solicitation copy promises "a sci-fi action comedy blacker than dragon s***!" Personally, I just want to see what Si Spurrier has been up to, since Six Gun Gorilla and X-Men: Legacy were two titles that really captured my imagination in recent years. This one's about a pack of celebrity bounty hunters and their hi-fi HDMI adventures in a post-bad things happening world. It looks and sounds as frenetic and kooky as Spurrier's previous projects.

JLA/Doom Patrol Special #1 DC Comics
The "Milk Wars" begin here! Gerard Way and current Justice League of America scribe use this special one-shot to set up a crossover between two of DC's hottest team books. Way's Doom Patrol has been a worthy successor to the legendary Grant Morrison run while Orlando is making waves all over fandom by using some of Alan Moore's old characters in JLA. There's no reason this won't be awesome and sublime. Although, if you don't like out-and-out weird stuff, this might be more like surviving an alien abduction than reading a comic book.

Elephantmen #80 Image Comics
I honestly haven't followed Elephantmen in several years, but I figured Richard Starkings epic comic saga coming to an end deserves a mention. Funny, trippy, and often poingant, Elephantmen was one of thos indy books that got me into indy books back in the heyday of Wizard Magazine.

Star Wars DJ: Most Wanted Marvel Comics
Ben Blacker (Thrilling Adventure Hour) and Kev Walker (lots of stuff) fill us in on the origins and whatnot of the best thing to come out of The Last Jedi next to Porgs: Benicio Del Toro's character, DJ. The amoral scumbag who nearly left Finn and co. out to dry in the film gets his own miniseries. Charles Soule and Phil Noto set the bar pretty high with their Lando mini a couple years ago, but I don't doubt that Black can tap into a little of that classic Star Wars "scum and villainy" and deliver a neat little yarn here.



Dang, that JLA/Doom Patrol Special looks pretty "gear", doesn't it? That's all for this week, but don't be afraid to hit me up on Twitter (@ChrisBComics) and let me know what you'll be checking out this week!

Whatever the opposite of "badass" is

Today's dive doesn't reach as far back as usual. This "back issue" was actually a current issue I'd missed and until today had eluded me. For my money, the best run in recent capes comics was the Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey/Jordie Bellaire reboot of Moon Knight from 2014. Six issues, in and out, with the creative team leaving behind a smoldering hot set-up for any follow-up creative team to take the reins on. The six issues here remind me of what Grant Morrison did with each mini in Seven Soldiers of Victory: a "pilot episode" for a longer run, streamlining a B-tier character and propping them up to stand side by side with the "heavy hitters".

In six short and quickly read issues, this run positioned Moon Knight as a paranormal investigator in the Marvel U with changeable "modes". Patterned after the phases of the moon, Marc Spector can assume different versions of his Moon Knight persona, from a Batman-like super-ninja to a Ragman-inspired dark arts master. The soldier, the priest, and the prisoner are all represented by Ellis's paradigm. Spector can assume a different version of himself, depending on what kind of story he's in. The comic tells it more simply than I have here; it's not a "high concept" as it might sound.

Here's a quick breakdown of the run. Issue one sees Moon Knight track a serial killer into the sewers, discovering the dark side of SHIELD super-soldier project gone awry in the process. Issue two is a visual spectacle as Moon Knight battles a sniper and the art team gets to experiment with page construction in cool ways as the sniper takes out his victims across a series of pages using a nine panel grid that follows his targets. Once a target is hit, that respective panel goes blank. One by one the panels go blank and dammit I don't think I'm doing this issue justice by trying to explain something so dang visual. Issue three is a classic ghost story with an urban twist. Issue four is a dreamscape trip involving mold spores and lucid dreaming. Issue five is like a level out of Double Dragon or Final Fight translated to the comic page with Moon Knight battling his way up a tenement building.

But yeah, that's the whole "story" so far. Some wicked stuff happens, Moon Knight bombs in and kicks ass, rinse, repeat. Ellis might as well be writing the Morrison Batman-Batgod here, as the protagonist is so completely capable that the interest lies not in if he will succeed, but how.

Issue Six makes the first attempt to create a true nemesis for Ellis's new Moon Knight, and ironically, it's the last issue of the run before he would hand the title off to Brian Wood next ish. A rogue cop looking to make an impression on his mundane reality decides to so his homework and take up the mantle of Marc Spector's old nemesis, Black Spectre.

Not to be confused with the Marvel Universe criminal organization of the same name, Black Spectre was a vietnam vet who used to plague Moon Knight during his earlier series in the 80's and 90's, often tied to the Egyptian god Khonshu that empowers our hero. The new Black Spectre, Ryan Trent, doesn't have all of that to back him up, just a grudge and an inferiority complex. In terms of viciousness however, Trent is right up there with the former Spectre(s).

Trent really does his homework too, using his police contacts to get in touch with Moon Knight's old allies and acquaintances. This culminates in a great scene where Trent tries to pry some useful information out of Jean-Paul Duchamp, an old ally of our hero who has since retreated into a humble life of waiting tables. It's worth noting here that Duchamp is kind of a low-key revolutionary character from the time. He was written as gay, but without the lame Northstar shout-it-from-the-rooftops approach of Scott Lobdell's Alpha Flight. Savvy readers of the time would pick up on Duchamp's sexuality, but it was never used as a gimmick, nor was he ever cast as a social pariah. Anyhoo, Duchamp warns Trent that Spector "can never die", but our fledgling Dark Spectre doesn't heed the warning.

Trent does eventually battle Moon Knight by the end of the issue, but his trap blows up in his face (literally) and he's left a broken mess of a man before the Fist of Khonshu. Moon Knight physically and verbally dissects Trent, then leaves him for dead. We learn that Trent's only error is his need to be loved and accepted, whereas the vaccuum that is Marc Spector doesn't. He's become "all Batman and no Bruce", a focused laser of ass-kicking that can't be defeated because bit by bit . . . he's shedding the aspects that made him "a character" and embracing the ones that make him an almost literal force of nature.

This issue's plot and Trent's origin story tie back to the first issue of Ellis's run and the circle is complete. This could cap off what would have been an excellent miniseries, but instead Marvel tried to keep it afloat with subsequent runs by Brian Wood and Jeff Lemire. While the character has become a place for cool creators to experiment, I don't think either writer has managed to capture what made this run so special. These six issues are a perfect synthesis of art and story. They say so much about the format and where these violent power fantasies ultimately lead.

The cover is an inverse of the cover to issue one, a subtle hint at the creators' thesis. The new Black Spectre couldn't defeat Marc because the old one couldn't. Moon Knight is just a better idea than Black Spectre, and Trent never stood a chance. An opposite can't be stronger than its partner, it can just be the opposite..

The King and Queen of Strong Style and an appearance by the Rowdy One: a WWE Royal Rumble review

I warned you and here it is--my Royal Rumble write-up. The road to Wrestlemania begins here. All (most) of the titles are on the line as well as two tickets to the main event of April's supershow in the form of two rumble matches. Do 30 women even work for WWE? Let's find out . . .

AJ Styles defended his title in a handicap match against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, which could've allegedly resulted in the first ever case of "co-champions". The WWE seems pretty high on Owens, so there was a point in the build up to this match that I actually thought they might so something like that. It's really not all that different from what Owens and Jericho did on Raw previously. It's a forgone conclusion that this match was going to be good, just considering the talent level of the three men and the hot Philly crowd. The story of the match, built around AJ's wearing down Kevin's leg and countering Sami's bigger offense, made the scenario of AJ defeating both of them a little easier to swallow, and I don't think this loss harms them too much as singles competitors. The superkick to Blue Thunder Bomb combo that almost cost AJ the match was the high spot to look for. Great execution of moves and facial expressions by everybody involved. This might be my favorite handicap match since CM Punk vs. The Shield from 2013.

The Usos faced Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable in a two out of three falls match for the Smackdown tag titles. Benjamin and Gable came out to a very small reaction, but the Usos firey promo on the ramp as they sauntered to the ring got the crowd invested enough for the solid in-ring work of all four men to bring the building back to life. Gable was especially crisp and on-point with everything he did. As Jim Ross would say, "the kid has a huge upside." The build up to the first fall would've been a decent match in itself, and after the Doomsday Device to the floor by the challengers, I thought things were going to shift gears and we were going to get a real barn burner, but alas, the Usos got a sneaky and way-too-quick second fall with a basic roll-up. I felt as robbed as the challengers. This wasn't a bad match, but it felt like half of a larger epic that we'll probably get to see in full on Smackdown at some point.

The men's rumble match followed the unfortunately short tag title match, beginning with an amazing reaction for Aiden English and Rusev. Finn Balor was the second entrant in the thirty man contest and the crowd stayed hype well into the hour long affair. Rumble matches are difficult to write about, and sometimes a little tedious to watch, but this year the order of the entrants and the general pacing of the eliminations were much better than usual. There were still some typical "Rumble moments", like Kofi Kingston being saved by a plate of pancakes, but for the most part, the little bursts of wrestling when guys would pair off was pretty good. Andrade Almas and Adam Cole from NXT got to strut their stuff for a bit, and The Hurricane even showed up. The reaction for Rey Mysterio was very strong as well, and he looked to be in much better physical shape since the last time I saw him in a WWE ring. The face off between the "establishment" (Roman and Cena) and the "internet darlings" (Shinsuke and Balor) told the whole story for the last leg of the match. Shinsuke's hard fought triumph over Reigns and Cena was very rewarding to watch, and his post match announcement that he'd be facing AJ Styles at Wrestlemania gave me Wrestle Kingdom flashbacks. We now know at least one amazing main event match for 'Mania is confirmed. This throws the fans a bone, and clears the universal title for either Finn or Roman to chase.

After an extended ad for KFC in which non other than Ric Flair won the title of "Colonel" and strutted all over his legacy, we get a Raw brand tag title match between challengers The Bar and the duo of Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan. First off, I'd like to note that the commentary, with all the slup-ups and bickering was so bad during this match I wanted to hit mute. It really took away from the match for anyone watching at home. The story told in the ring saw Jordan incapacitated after taking a ring post to the face and Rollins wrestling what was essentially a handicap match against Sheamus & Cesaro. This was an alright match that was more about setting up a future storyline than anything else, and could have been on Raw. Cesaro and Sheamus reclaim their titles, hopefully freeing Seth Rollins from the yoke that is putting over Jason Jordan in the near future.

"Triple Threat Rules" meant that the Universal title match between Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman and Kane was basically a hardcore match, with plenty of tables, chairs, and steel steps involved. The three behemoths of the Raw roster put each other through a series of devastating but uninspired spots. This wasn't a technical classic, but it was an effective "hoss fight" and an important part of the tapestry of any good wrestling card is a good hoss fight. Lesnar pinned Kane, leaving Strowman with a grievance and a possible rematch at either Elimination Chamber or Fastlane. They *could* hold off until 'Mania, but I really feel like the WWE wants to conclude their Roman Reigns fantasy novel with a win over The Beast on their promotion's grandest stage. A brief, been-there-done-that kind of match, but entertaining nonetheless.

By the time the women's rumble match rolled around, I was beginning to get restless and braced myself for a looming disappointment. After all, the women's roster is sparse with credible contenders, mostly thanks to some questionable booking over the last year. With the twin champions Charlotte and Alexa Bliss at ringside, Sasha banks entered at #1 and gradually the match lured me back into the program, as seeing some of the nostalgia acts that WWE wheeled out got me feeling a little sentimental about the "importance" of the whole thing. Sometimes hearing Stephanie McMahon harp on about the women's revolution bugs me and seems tacky, but as Lita, Trish Stratus, Molly Holly, and others got in the ring and mixed it up with current women, the fact that these female legends never had a platform like this in their time really hit me. For instance, Stratus had fantastic matches and rivalries with the likes of Victoria and Mickie James in her days on Raw, but there were also stupid skits where she had to bark like a dog and debase herself. The bad outweighed the good when you look back on portrayals of females up until a few years ago, I guess is what I'm trying to say. The classic who got to come out also acted as a detriment to the match overall, I felt like, as it exposed some gaps in the current roster and how underdeveloped some of the women like Mandy Rose and Sarah Logan are in terms of having an established character.

Asuka's victory over the returning Bella twins and a Wonder Woman-clad Sasha Banks was a relief to me, as I like seeing her winning streak intact and her development as a fan favorite has translated to the WWE deciding to pull the trigger with her, as they apparently have with Nakamura. (Man, Japan don't play. They took two rumbles in one night!) Ronda Rousey showed up at the end, to make sure WWE stays in the broader sports-entertainment conversation and carry the momentum to Wrestlemania. The ending was nice and ambiguous, leaving us to wonder how the celebrity guest and rumble winner will be paired off. What's the better match? Asuka vs. Charlotte or Rousey vs. Charlotte? Not to dump on Alex Bliss or anything, but Charlotte is kind of the "iconic" one here. On the other hand, I;d like to see Asuka get a big win over Charlotte or maybe even suffer her first loss to her at Wrestlemania.

While the show ran a bit long for my weary eyes and brain, it delivered in almost every match. The matter of how important the tag title stuff will be in the long run is always up for debate, and if anything, I might have left the Rollins/Jordan stuff for Raw and given that time to the Universal title triple threat and the 2/3 falls match. Minor quibbles aside, this sets up an exciting course for Wrestlemania; at least more exciting than I remember at this time last year. The countdown to Nakamura/Styles is on!

Alright, that's seven hours of rasslin' watched and wrote about. Back to the comics, a more serious medium for a more sofisticated audience. Harumph!

The night Johnny Wrestling died and other tales from Takeover Philly

Back Issue Diving isn't just a comic-based experience. It's also a dumping ground for the undead remnants of my other blogs! That means I'll be taking a detour through Slam City for a little wrestling review every now and again. Besides, wrestlers aren't all that different from comic book heroes. Just imagine that like, Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. wrote and drew all the stuff I'm about to tell you about. Today, I'm reviewing (as currently as possible) NXT Takeover: Philadelphia. I hear the bell, so let's get it on.

The Authors of Pain and the Undisputed Era's Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish kicked off the show with a tag title match that didn't skimp on the ring psychology. The "story" of the match saw Fish and O'Reilly work on the left leg of AoP member Akam after he botched a stomp early on. O'Reilly had ample opportunities to use his Daniel Bryan-esque grppling skills and Fish got to play the loud, vocal, cowardly heel. The match was won for Adam Cole's boys after an attempted Super-Collider dual powerbomb blew up in Akam's face thanks to his bum leg. The bad guys retain, and the Authors are left steaming with their manager, Paul Ellering. This was a great opening match and got the crowd really hyped up with dueling chants and big pops. I was also impressed with the huge reactions all four men were getting from pretty basic moves--that shows me that the audience was really invested. With this match, I also began to noticed a marked improvement by the Authors of Pain in terms of in-ring work. They've always been convinging "big man" types, but Akam and Razar got to show a little range and be vulnerable for a little bit here.

Velveteen Dream and Kassius Ohno had a tough act to follow, but they kept the momentum of the show up, for the most part. Dream is being allowed to look strong and a few more matches like this will catapult to him to the top of NXT as a surprise babyface. His character feels more complete now than it did in his firt few outings and the offense he's settled into is devastatingly effective. He and Ohno were sort of thrown together at the last minute here, and booking wise it's a good way to keep Dream strong after his absence and last Wednesday's loss to Gargano. The match had a few potential Botchamania moments, including a very sloppy looking burning hammer type move near the end. It wasn't enough to derail things, although I'd say the crowd wasn't as into this encounter as much as the opener. Dream almost made good on his pre-match promise to knock out the Knockout Artist in 30 seconds or less, which seemed to pop the crowd in favor of Dream. Ohno did a good job here making Dream's offense look effective. Good character work here, but not the strongest match.

The NXT Women's title match between MMA specialist Shayna Baszler and reigning champ Ember Moon attempted some of the same basic ring psychology stuff that the opening bout did. This time, it was Moon's left arm witht he glaring target placed upon it, and the ruthless Baszler stayed on top of her opponent for most of the match until Ember was able to reverse an armbar and roll Baszler up for a sneaky pin. Baszler flipped out post match and attacked the already-possibly injured Moon, choking her out on the ramp. The visuals that will be taken from this match and used in later video packages with be very effective, but the match itself seemed very limited. Moon still got to hit her main high spot, injured arm and all, and Baszler got to use her armbar 47 times, but this match was played pretty simple. Baszler has great presence though, and a big upside as long as she is allowed to bounce back and get some decisive victories after this. I'm still lukewarm on Ember as champ. She doesn't quite seem to have reached that next level that Charlotte and Asuka did in their time as NXT champs.

At some point on commentary, Mauro described the next bout as a "spectacle of chaos" and I'd call that a fitting descriptor for Aleister Black vs. Adam Cole. This match moved from high spot to high spot fairly quickly and after the initial "mind games" phase of the match by Cole, it was brisk and brutal. The crescendo saw both the Undisputed Era and Sanity get involved, reminding everyone that Eric Young and co. are still waiting in the wings. Cole got a little bloodied at one point, and I have to commend either the WWE's ring crew or my fourth beer of the evening for keeping all of the unsavory "ref cleans you up because you must look like an action figure at all times" stuff out of focus. The pay off to the twin tables at ringside got a huge pop and Cole taking two propped-up chairs to the spine made me wince. The Black Mass kick that won Black the match was sudden and impactful as well. The Philly crowd got a nice homage to the glory-gory days of ECW and responded with a chant that Vince McMahon himself used to revile. Good match overall, and not as sloppy as these affairs tend to be. Both men could be NXT champion right this second and it wouldn't feel out of place and Cole's indy cred will keep him aloft, even if he has to take a few L's on his way to mainstream stardom.

The main event between Johnny Gargano and Andrade Cien Almas seemed like part of a WWE/NXT tradition. Following NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom, the 'E likes to use their Takeover shows to manufacture a 5-star macth of their own and get the conversation back on them heading into Wrestlemania (and the next Takeover). Eh, it's just a running theory I have. Anyway, Andrade and Johnny Wrestling put on the "clinic" that had thus far been missing from the show. Zelina Vega and Johnny's family being at ringside helped amp up the drama and it doesn't hurt that these are two of the best workers WWE has on contract. The match shifted into phase two when Gargano missed a senton on the outside, allowing Almas to gain the upper hand and work on Johnny's back. The match then proceeds from nearfall to nearfall with plenty of pauses for coveted "Fight Forever!" chants and even some old-school, classy applause. Vega gets involved when her man gradually loses his edge over the challenger, causing NXT's newest female wrestler to make an impromptu debut and chase the meddlesome manager out of the arena. The last act of the match sees Andrade secure a victory with a hammerlock DDT following a knee bash to the ring post on the apron. This was a long match, but it never became boring and some of the nearfalls really worked on me and the live audience. Andrade is victorious and Johnny is left to be consoled by his wife and the fans. And in classic NXT fashion, with only a minute or so left on the broadcast, we get the NXT equivalent of a Marvel post credits stinger: Tamaso Ciampa is back! He blasts Johnny with the crutches he no longer needs to nurse his leg and leaves our hero lying low.

This was yet another fine Takeover. I wouldn't put it up there with the Sami/Neville/Owens era yet, but it didn't disappoint in the slightest. My only rub is that the NXT roster is so stacked right now, some names from past Takeovers have already fallen to the wayside. Add to that the additions of Ricochet, War Machine, and EC3, and I can see a few names moving up to Raw and Smackdown real quick. Where should they go from here? Aleister Black vs. Almas? He already has a previous victory over the current champ. What about Adam Cole and Eric Young? Should we expect a one on one encounter, or are the fearsome Canadian anarchists main roster bound?

Well, that was a hoot. Next is the Royal Rumble, which I'll be doing a write-up for as soon as I can. Oh, and comics. I'll get back to comics, I promise.