Flash Annual #6 (1993) Bloodlines Outbreak Part 4

[pyrotwilight]

Last issue story we saw Batman and Joe Public drive away one of the Parasites from Gotham.

Now the Blood reaches Keystone as we introduce Argus. One of the better handled New Bloods since the event, still alive and occasionally he's popped up in Flash's series later on.

18 of 54 pages.



We start the story with two members of one of Keystone's mafia groups. One of the members is instructing the other about a weasel in the family he wants done away with.



Yep, Nick Kelly's an undercover cop, or formerly undercover, trying to bust the family, getting evidence to take them down but his cover's been blown by this guy.

But Venev and Glonth are here and decide to have some snacks.



The morning after, Nick is found by some of his fellow cops bruised up and covered in blood but having survived, though they couldn't find him at first until they shined lights on him.

Linda, trying to get a story after one of the alleged mafia members survived the mysterious attack (Nick himself) is a bit inattentive and almost crashes into a hole workers are digging in but Flash superspeeds a bridge for the car to pass over.




This story essentially takes place between the pages between the "Return of Barry Allen" story running at the time.





After he walks off Nick starts realizing some of the powers he's been endowed with due to the attack.



His powers include: Invisibility in the shadows, roughly triple the strength, endurance and agility of a regular human and some super sight based powers.



And so with new found abilities Nick decides to go after the combine and find out about the monsters that attacked him and Lou. 





After listening in on a few of the higherups of the Combine he finds out the attack wasn't related to the Combine and the monsters weren't theirs. Cue Venev nearby attacking and killing the Combine folks and Argus trying to beat Venev up.




Similarly Linda has also noticed sawdust from other victims around Keystone.

She and Nick both made the logical conclusion about the monsters being at the nearby former slaughterhouse. While there Linda gets captured by Glonth who captures her and leaves her alive as he likes having his food in bulk.





Inside the slaughterhouse Argus is doing his best against Glonth, trying to attack him going in and out of the shadows.







Blinded Venev accidentally hits a gas tank inside and sets the slaughterhouse on fire. With Linda still inside Argus makes a brave run in to gran her out.



Yeah, Linda realizes who Argus must be since Nick told her the same thing earlier.

The monsters having vanished from the slaughterhouse Flash turns to question Argus whose vanished in the shadows.

Wally: He's gone. Wow...that was fast. 





And so a new protector of Keystone emerges.                                                                                                                   

Comments

[silverzeo]

Where in the f did Argus manage to find that costume!?!? And what made him thing shoulder belts and a thigh belt would be a good idea to be a crime-fighter?And do we really need to see every sinew of Wally's body? It like the Power Rangers in their comics, they're not bodybuilders, they athletically slim!

[icon_uk]

He mentions he'd taken body armour from the Fed home office some time previously. (The vice squad evidence locker perhaps)

[freezer]

And that same office wouldn't have any plastic guns for him to "borrow?"

[pyrotwilight]

Plastic guns from the office might make him traceable to the police I suppose and he's trying to avoid having people connect him and Argus.

[halloweenjack]

Form-fitting armor that fits him perfectly. Mmm-hmm.

[aaron_bourque]

Final Fantasy cosplay?

[stolisomancer]

It's a really damn '90s look, but the writing's pretty smart and I'll give Argus credit for actually putting on body armor.

[aaron_bourque]

The 90s get a terribly overblown reputation. Yes, there was a lot of ugly and stupid, but you could rather easily find little gems during the decade.

[stolisomancer]

That's true of any decade in any art form.

[aaron_bourque]

Yeah, but 90s comics really do tend to get the worst.

[wizardru]

I agree, but that's in large part because the 90s is when the speculation fever took things to a new level. Even the best of comics got saddled with crap like Chromium covers (that were NOT alternates) and the sheer number of titles increased so dramatically that the ratio shifted. Marvel and DC and the indies threw out so much stuff that the 90s is remembered as much for that as anything.

On the other hand, I once put together a list of some of the most epic stuff to come from the 1990s and it was impressive. Anyone who thinks the 90s had no quality to offer wasn't there or hasn't had much exposure...because some of the best comics in the history of the genre coexisted with some of the biggest crap.

[aaron_bourque]

I once put together a list of some of the most epic stuff to come from the 1990s and it was impressive.

. . . . Well? We're waiting . . .

[wizardru]

If you insist! I had to google it to find my posting. It was to insanejournal, I think I S_D 1.5.

These are all comics that came out in the 1990s:
Here's a sample of comics from the 1990s:

Kurt Busiek's Astro City
America's Best Comics (including Tom Strong,
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Mark Waid's initial run on The Flash
Kingdom Come
Marvels
Warren Ellis' run on Excalibur
Transmetropolitan
Planetary
The Authority
Preacher
Bone
Sin City
Death: the High Cost of Living
The Invisibles
MOST of Gaiman's Sandman
100 Bullets
Hellboy
Sandman Mystery Theater
Death of Superman/Funeral for a Friend/Reign of the Supermen
He-Who_Shall-Not-Be-Named's runs on Hulk, Supergirl, Young Justice
Busiek's Thunderbolts
The ENTIRE Milestone comics line

There are, of course, more. But you get the idea.

[icon_uk]

I like his powerset. The "disappearing in shadow" thing reminds me a power that Nightcrawler had from time to time, depending on writer.

[thelazyreader]

Unfortunately it's been inconsistent from writer to writer. The Flash issues I'd read with him had me thinking he was just an ordinary human in costume.

[joasakura]

now this guy, I like. MUCH better than Joe Public. Plus, I really dig that costume!!

[jcbaggee]

Argus is one of the few Bloodlines characters that is still around, isn't he?

[pyrotwilight]

Well, many are still around, just unused. I know only 8 are dead so far and one is Hitman who died in his own run.

[marsdejahthoris]

Amazingly enough, I actually OWN this issue. Somewhere. I liked it, though I never followed up on what happened to Nick.

[thatnickguy]

Damn you. DAMN YOU.

Because of your damn Bloodlines posts, I actually went to my favourite used book store (BMV, in Toronto) and went through some of their boxes for Bloodlines annuals.

And just tonight, this one here was the only one I could find that I didn't already own.

And the hunt will continue.

DAMN YOU.

[pyrotwilight]

Wait, am I getting damned because I posted it after you just got it, or cause I'm making you look for them all? Either way...haha!

[mistersandman]

I've never read a Flash book cover to cover, but it seems weird to me that Keystone/Central City has problems with regular mobsters. Haven't the Rogues in Keystone organized and control all the crime there?

[thelazyreader]

The Rogues mostly stick to bank robberies and other petty crimes. The mafia operates largely independent to them.

[halloweenjack]

This was not so bad, really.

[thelazyreader]

What's with Wally saying that not being human gave him the licence to blind him? Sentient creatures should count the same as humans, shouldn't they?

[pyrotwilight]

Well, it comes off a bit weird but these are superhumanly strong aliens. I guess Flash is betting any extreme thing he does to them they'd recover or take without real harm I suppose.

[big_daddy_d]

Argus looks like Nightwing if he became a biker.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I don't really get just WHY he calls himself 'Argus'. I mean, yeah, vision powers, but I don't recall the classical Argus having anything to do with invisibility.
I like the guy - especially the cool costume he got later, with the big eye logo on his chest - but I think the 'Bloodlines' writers weren't bothering to check with each other to see what had already been used. Case in point - this guy's powers are almost exactly the same as Geist's. Argus is invisible in shadow and can see in the dark. Geist is invisible in LIGHT and can see in the dark.

[pyrotwilight]

I don't think Geist can see in the dark, well more than anyone else at least. Though in truth I can't remember, he was pretty forgettable to me.

Argus' invisibility thing was more of a nice addition to a mostly super strength powerset. Geist was like old school Invisible Woman.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm pretty sure he can. I DO remember he has trouble seeing properly in bright light.

[blackruzsa]

.... That
was spectacularly bad dialogue. In some parts. It's like it was good for a bit, then they decide that the characters think in unusually complicated formal language.
Also,
MY EYES. YOU TOUCHED MY EYES. THEY BURN.

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice this?

[wizardru]

Not with you on this one. I actually have this issue. It's by Waid during his classic Flash run...and while it's a little uneven, it's the cream of the Bloodlines crop.

[blackruzsa]

I like it. I like the story, the new hero, everything. Everything but the dialogue.
The dialogue just bugs me.
Then again, if this is a really old comic, the odd way of speaking/thinking would be forgivable.

[wizardru]

It was 1993. As I recall, the dialogue was snappy, though YMMV. Think of this in a Seinfeld/Friends sort of context.

Now, that IS almost 20 years old, which I guess highlights that I AM OLD, in that a comic would need to be a lot older for me to consider it old. Which may speak more about me than the comic.

OY.

[blackruzsa]

*cough cough*
I wouldn't know; I wasn't even born then XD

[wizardru]

WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT THIS ANY LONGER.

[hides in closet, cries]

[blackruzsa]

Awwww it's okay D: *pats*

[jogadoresesquecidos.blogspot.com]

Well, and when you consider "Golden Age" to be old?

That's truly terrifying!

[wizardru]

Ah, that's no big deal. Golden Age was old 40 years ago. Hell, I started reading during the Bronze Age and occasionally I'd get my hands on a Silver Age a friend might have had access to.

But realizing that there are people posting here who weren't born when Bloodlines was written?

It's a bitter pill, man. A BITTER PILL.

[jogadoresesquecidos.blogspot.com]

Ah, I didn't phrase it right. I meant what you said, actually: when something HAS to be Golden Age to be considered old for you...

[wizardru]

Okay, since I actually OWN this bloodlines annual and since you've been posting them, I felt the need to see the status of the Bloodlines characters. In JLA/Hitman, they have Kyle Rayner describe all of them as 'really lame' and many were killed off in the interim since then. Let's see:

Anima: DEAD (killed by Prometheus in his one-shot)
Argus: ALIVE (last seen leading Bloodpack vs. Prometheus)
Ballistic: DEAD (killed by Superboy-Prime in IC)
Cardinal Sin: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Chimera: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Edge: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Geist: DEAD (killed by Superboy-Prime in IC)
Jade: RESSURECTED (died in IC vs. Alex Luthor)
Gunfire: ALIVE (but hands cut off by Prometheus)
Hitman: DEAD (died in last issue of own series)
Hook: DEAD (killed by fake-Prometheus)
Jamm: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Joe Public: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Krag: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Layla: UNKNOWN
Loria: DEAD (died in Bloodpack #4)
Loose Cannon: ALIVE (had heart stolen, presumably better)
Lionheart: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Mongrel: DEAD (killed by Superboy-Prime in IC)
Myriad: ALIVE (body-switcher, not seen in a while)
Nightblade:DEAD (killed by Superboy-Prime in IC)
Pax: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Prism: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Razorsharp: DEAD (killed by Superboy-Prime in IC)
Shadowstryke: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Slingshot: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Sparx: ALIVE (last seen as Teen Titan candidate, post-FC)
Terrorsmith: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)
Freight Train: UNKNOWN (only seen once, afaik)

So, overall score:
Not used after Event: 16
Killed as part of 'event': 7
Killed as part of their own title: 2
Still Alive but de-powered: 1
Alive: 5
Alive and actually liked: 1 (Jade)

Not really impressive states for the 'New Bloods', I guess.

[aaron_bourque]

I . . . I had no idea there were so many. I thought there were like 6 or 7. Jeez. Another reason most people didn't care about Bloodlines? Too. Many. Of. Them.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; and JADE was a member of the thing? Not Alan Scott's daughter, surely?

[wizardru]

Ah, my bad. Jade was a member of the Blood Pack for a while, but was apparently the only non-'New Blood' member. I assumed she got 'repowered' during Bloodlines, but not the case.

[pyrotwilight]

Well, it is at least consistent with the fact that this is a far reaching attack by the aliens. Hell their could be thousands of New Bloods if anyone wanted to pick up on that.

Same with how during Invasion a gene bomb I think it was? Was released and killed many but activated their dormant powers, like when Kurt Busiek made Josiah Power and had his origin be based about it.

[ogrebear]

I only just read your list.

When you say 'only seen once' do you mean during the Bloodlines event or just in their own Annual?

I ask cos a few of those characters turned up in the big Crossover book at the end as well as their own annual e.g. Krag.

[pyrotwilight]

Yeah, during the event including the concluding Bloodbath. A few made one or two appearances outside of Bloodlines aside from the stories like Infinite Crisis in which a bunch were killed en masse and so on.