It came from the 50 cent bin: Who will wield him?

[salad_barbarian]

Yes my friends I have returned to you with more cheep goodness.

Since I've decided to make this a somewhat regular feature I picked up a few supplies:

(click to get a better view of the madness)

Now you may have noticed a lot of "Legend of The Shield" books in there. I figured with DC bringing him back I might as well show you all the !mpact version. Yes that's !mpact with a capital !. Weren't the 90's fun?



Not only is this the fist issue of Legend of The Shield but it's the first of an entire line of comics!

It all starts out with our hero Sergent Joseph Michael Higgins taking part in a test of the suits capabilities against two helicopters. He smacks their crews around like they owe him money.


Back at base everyone is celebrating and congratulating each other the successful test except for one man:

MINE! ...ahem anyway I'm sure he's a good guy. I mean he's a military man in charge of a secret project.


It's interesting to me that they didn't try to start completely fresh and instead made The Shield a legacy character. But I guess this way they might be able to draw in more fans.

Also with him being friends with the original that farther reinforces his status as a good guy.

...


WTH? This is a completely implausible twist! Who'd a thunk it?

Fortunately somebody was on to his shenanigans:

and mysterious people were meeting for mysterious reasons.

Or maybe not so mysterious reasons, shadow dude sends Mann-x to get the Shield suit. Mann-x seems reluctant until Hauser (the shadowy guy) mentions Jenny "getting her goodnight kisses" at which point Mann-x does what he's told. Of course instead of trying to take it when Sergent Higgins is off base or asleep he tries to take it in during another exercise.


Now that is a good twist.

The Shield gets the better of him eventually and seems to knock him out. But as the rest of the soldiers close in to take him into custody he gets up and runs away.

Our hero then runs off after him...

...or maybe not? That makes no sense to me. But I'm just a lowly civilian. What do I know about military strategy concerning letting an enemy go to fight again another day?

Afterward mysterious figures show up:

Want to know who they are? Well you'll have to wait since I've only read up to issue three of L.O.T.S. so I have no clue either.

In the meantime enjoy these extras:

Sadly I didn't find any of her books. Of course that probably means she sold well.


Anyone here want to print this out and see if it's still good?

Being the first issue they didn't have any letters to print yet:


Here is the !mpact pledge to you and me:

As nice as a logical fix is I kind of lean toward blowing %@#$ up. Also it's interesting to think that "Fanboy" was once an insult.

Overall I thought it was a pretty good book. What do you all think?
Any tips on improving my posts?

I don't know if I'm allowed to create tags so I'll just list some of the ones that don't currently exist. title: legend of the shield, creator: mike gold, creator: jeff albrecht, creator: a. de guzman, creator: t. ziuko

Comments

[lonewolf23k]

I actually have one of the Jaguar's books. Somewhere in my collection.

[salad_barbarian]

Mind posting some scans from it? I'd like to see if it lives up to the ad.

[shanejayell]

It was okay. Shy, sweet girl puts on magic costume and fights evil.

Almost Peter Parker with boobs.

[kamino_neko]

Very, very large boobs.

... Yes, that IS the only part that really stuck with me.

[jlbarnett]

is there a cliche this book didn't hit?

[salad_barbarian]

Well the one black guy who knows too much didn't die heroically. But they have a few more issues to fill.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

it's interesting to think that "Fanboy" was once an insult

When did that stop? And what can I use in its place?

[salad_barbarian]

I'm not sure when it stopped but it seems like many people (including myself) see it as a label to be proud of.

A few years ago "Otaku" would have been an insult to a lot of geeks but even that's changed.

[thandrak]

That's the WEB. Not entirely unlike the DC modern one, only a bit more SHIELD.

[salad_barbarian]

Unless any of the current WEB members has an epic beard then they are inferior to this version.

[thandrak]

And an epic hog.

[glprime]

Do I also see some Mantra there? If I hadn't stupidly sold/given away all my Ultraverse stuff several years ago, I'd be posting that gloriously bad (though decently original in concept) '90s work.

[salad_barbarian]

Mantra #2 in fact! Plus it has a Phoenix Resurrection flip book!

I saw plenty of Ultraverse stuff in the bin but none of it really stood out to me like Mantra did.

[bradhanon]

Oh god, I own SO many Impact comics. And they have held up SO poorly. Waid really bit off more than he could chew with those, bless him. If he'd had fewer scripts to write that week, he might've had time to check on whether second lieutenant is, as he refers to it here, a noncommissioned rank.

[salad_barbarian]

He also might have thought to put in a reference to the suit in the first exercise being a prototype before that last page. But considering all he had to write it's no wonder somethings just slipped a bit.

[crinos]

I had an issue of Batman which had previews of all the impact books from that ad in it.

I thought they looked neat. Especially the Fly and The jaguar.

The Web preview confused me though: In the image its a clean cut young guy, but the Web from the preview was a balding old Gandalf looking guy. I didn't realize till much later the Web was supposed to be an entire organization of dudes.

[salad_barbarian]

After I get through with L.O.T.S. I'll probably post what I have of The Fly. I only have issue #2 but he seemed like a nifty and fun-loving character.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I think the idea is that Higgins is obsessed with maintaining control, both over his son and the project in general. He wants the Shield dancing to his command, and ONLY to his command, even if that means weighing him down with completely pointless orders and reprimands.

[ormardu.blogspot.com]

Gods I brought most of these books back in the day!

I liked Comet and Fly best out of the bunch- guess teenage me realted to them better.

And while it's the 90's its not actually bad art compared to some of the books coming out at the time!

[salad_barbarian]

The fact that the characters have eyes and feet puts it ahead of several other books from that time.

[chrysicat]

Hard to believe GSC is in the bins...less hard to believe The Path is, but I still have a sentimental side for CrossGen that's hurt seeing it there...