By the time Avengers #160 arrived on the stands, it had gotten around that Wonder Man was back, so it was a great time for The Grim Reaper to make a return appearance. In the hands of Shooter, penciler George Pérez, and inker Pablo Marcos, the story is vintage Marvel magic. With flashbacks to the origin and development of The Vision (there are great story reasons the android is closely tied to Simon Williams), previous Grim Reaper appearances, and Wonder Man’s death and return.

Following the Liberty Legion four-part crossover in Invaders #5, Marvel Premiere #29, Invaders #6, and Marvel Premiere #30, which reintroduced a number of Timely Comics characters, writer-editor Roy Thomas and pencil artist Frank Robbins got back to creating new original characters the following issue.

It was neither the most likely of pairings nor would it last long, but the original outings of Secret Agent X-9, which premiered in January 1934, teamed one of the great practitioners of mystery fiction, Dashiell Hammett, with one of the most significant comic strip artists to ever ply his craft, Alex Raymond.

The Rocketeer first appeared on an ad on the back of Pacific Comics’ Starslayer #1. The feature itself ran in Starslayer #2 and #3, and Pacific Presents #1 and #2 before Pacific went under. The Rocketeer Special Edition #1, which had been intended to be Pacific Presents #5, was published by Eclipse, as was an album-format collected edition of those installments.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading of and research on Milestone Media’s revolutionary 1990s comics line. That, in turn, led me to remember one of my favorite almost-unknowns from that time, Nemesis Comics’ Frank. In terms of tone and approach, this modern take on Frankenstein actually would have fit in nicely with most of Milestone’s output.

Writer Mark Evanier and Steve Rude bookended 1987 by teaming up twice. The first, cover-dated January of that year, was a Mister Miracle one-shot for DC Comics. Evanier, a longtime Jack Kirby associate, and Rude, channeled the King and produced a fantastic, Kirbyesque thrill ride. In December, they once again teamed up, this time for a Space Ghost one-shot at Comico.

hen the comics collected in this omnibus were running as individual issues, I wrote “Writer Daryl Gregory and artist Carlos Magno could put us on their payroll and we still couldn’t like this comic any more than we already do. Tightly plotted, relentlessly paced, brilliantly illustrated, accessible to new readers, and a balm for longtime POTA fans to the extent that while reading it one forgets there was ever a Tim Burton movie.

In Battlestar Galactica #16, Captain Apollo faces off against an independent, high-functioning, different kind of Cylon, pretty much alone on a dangerous alien world. The story and art had a World War I, Red Barron kind of feel to it, and it stands out as one of the best of the 23-issue run.

No, the contrast came between the highly detailed figure of Aric in the X-O armor and the completely monochromatic background. Aric’s muscles and the armor’s metal were in parts indistinguishable, but there were also parts in which we saw distinct elements of man and machine. We saw defiance in his facial expression and power in his arms. This was a character not to be messed with.

Easily some of the best science fiction to ever appear in a superhero comic book, Solar, Man of the Atom: Alpha and Omega collects the origin story for Solar. Originally serialized as inserts in Solar, Man of the Atom #1-10, it is an epic, morally complex tale born of casual neglect, a catastrophic accident, and a man coming into incalculable powers.