Want It Got It TPB: Classic Star-lord

UPDATE: Coming Soon as a TPB at Amazon - 07/22/14 - Star-Lord

Writer: Various

Artist: Various

Publisher: Marvel Comics (1975-1981)

Includes: Marvel Preview #4,11,15, and 18, Marvel Super Special #10, Marvel Spotlight #6 and #7, and Marvel Premier #61. Dork Note: I would also include the additional pages by Michael Golden which were created when Marvel reprinted John Byrne's Marvel Preview #11 as Star-Lord Special Edition #1.

UPDATE: Coming Soon as a TPB at Amazon - 03/8/14 - Avengers: Falcon

Fun Facts Clipped from Wikipedia: Creator Steve Englehart had plans for the character that went unrealized, however, later reflecting on his website:

I conceived something very large. My hero would go from being an unpleasant, introverted jerk to the most cosmic being in the universe, and I would tie it into my then-new interest in astrology. After his earthbound beginning, his mind would be opened step by step, with a fast-action story on Mercury, a love story on Venus, a war story on Mars, and so on out to the edge of the solar system, and then beyond. But — after his earthbound beginning, where I established him as an unpleasant, introverted jerk, I left Marvel, so no one ever saw what he was to become.

 Fun Facts Clipped from Wikipedia: Star-Lord reappeared in Marvel Preview, with writer Chris Claremont revamping the character and using science fiction adventure stories like the Heinlein juveniles for inspiration.Heinlein's lawyers threatened legal action over the cover, which featured a blurb that described the content as "a novel-length science fiction spectacular in the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein," leading to the issue being pulled and reprinted.

Want It Got It TPB : The Falcon Mini-Series

UPDATE: Coming Soon as a TPB at Amazon - 03/8/14 - Avengers: FalconWriter: Jim Owsley Artist: Paul Smith and Mark D. Bright 
Publisher: Marvel Comics (1983)  
Includes: The Falcon #1-4

The Falcon stars in this first and only solo series along side his feathery sidekick, Redwing. During the story he discovers he is not just uncannily (wink wink) good at training birds he is psychically connected to them. Yep, he is a mutant! Hot Damn! A point slammed home when a Sentinel tries to kill him. My only regret in this series is that Paul Smith didn't draw the whole thing. I loved Paul Smith's artwork at this time.

Sidenote: At a later date, outside this mini, Marvel said the Falcon wasn't a mutant! Oh well.

Want It Got It TPB: The Demon

UPDATE: Coming Soon as a TPB at Amazon - 07/08/14
Writer and Artist: Matt Wagner
Publisher: DC Comics (1987)
Includes: The Demon #1-4

This mini-series comes out just as Matt Wagner is finishing up his successful indie creator owned book Mage, the Hero Discovered and while he is working on his Grendel series. It is some, if not the first, work he did for a main stream publisher like DC. Considering Matt went on to be an industry player...this series deserves at shot at being reprinted.

Also it might be cool if they flesh this TPB out with reprints of the backstory of The Demon that ran in Detective Comics #482-485 (1979) and Action Comics Weekly #636-641(1989).

Want It Got It TPB: Crisis on Earth Prime Crossover

UPDATE: Released on 06/11/13 - Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 6Writer: Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas
Artist: Don Heck, Adrian Gonzales, and Jerry Ordway
Publisher: DC Comics (1982)
Includes: Justice League of America #207-209 and All-Star Squadron #15,16

This was an one of the best comic crossovers ever! It was the very first time I was introduced to the Crime Syndicate and Per Degaton. This crossover followed on the heels of George Perez's sweet run on the Justice League of America and it doesn't disappoint.

I love this particular crossover because it ignores the whole time difference between the two Earths and just makes it a time travel multi-verse crossover...hell ya!

Plus the covers for this crossover rock. I have always had a fondness for this particular cover layout with a central picture being framed with floating heads on the side and bottom of each team, perfect.

Want It Got It TPB : Deadman mini-series

UPDATE: Coming Soon as a TPB at Amazon - 07/08/14Writer:Len Wein (DC Comics Presents) and Andrew Helfer (Deadman mini-series)
Artist: José Luis García-López
Publisher: DC Comics (1980 and 1986)
Includes: DC Comics Presents #24 and Deadman #1-4

This mini-series picks up, storywise, where Neal Adams left off from his original run in Strange Adventures; which was published in a Deadman Collection in 2001. There is a 17 year gap of stories ignored between the Collection and this mini-series.

This would be a nice edition to sit next to the Neal Adams collection...plus both the DC Comics Presents and mini-series were drawn by José Luis García-López and you can't go wrong with his art. I'd buy it just for that fact alone.

Dork Note: This TPB does not include DC Comics Presents #24, but that issue is in a previous collected volume - Deadman Book Four due out 01/14/14.

Want It Got It TPB : Complete Days of Future Past

 UPDATE: Coming Soon as a TPB/Omnibus at Amazon - 03/18/14Days of Future Past remains one of the COOLEST stories ever told in comics. Since then there have been slivers of that world revealed here and there, but never collected into one TPB. Marvel should grab all those little tid bits and tie them all together.

The problem is how do you go about it? By publication date? By the actual time line? I do not know. It would take a clever editor, but I am sure they can do it.
Comics for Earth 811 in "chronological order":
New Mutants #18
Uncanny X-Men #188
Wolverine #1 #2 #3
Excalibur #22 #75 #35
Uncanny X-Men #141 #142
Excalibur #50 #52
Fantastic Four Annual #23
X-Factor Annual #5
New Mutants Annual #6
X-Men Annual #16
Uncanny X-Men #189 #202
Excalibur #66 #67
Update: and Hulk: Broken Worlds #2

Clipped from Marvel Database:
According to Rachel Summers, the earliest known point of divergence between Earth-811 and Earth-616 took place after Jean Grey had been possessed by the Dark Phoenix. She returned to the home of her parents, and driven by Dark Phoenix's rage she demonstrated her powers in front of them. In Earth-616, this led her father to disown her and cast her out.

However, in Earth-811 her father realized that, as a telepath, Jean could feel the subconscious fear that her parents and sister felt in her presence. Realizing that this was causing her pain that she could not block out, he chose not to cast her out. As a result, Jean Grey did not die in the Shi'ar duel of honor (as she had in Earth-616). She married Scott Summers and had a single child, whom they named Rachel and who inherited Jean's psychic powers.

A second point of divergence occurred on Halloween 1980. In Earth-811, on this date, Senator Robert Kelly, Charles Xavier and Moira MacTaggert were attacked and killed by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in Washington, D.C. (In Earth-616, this attack was prevented by a time-traveling Kate Pryde from the Earth-811 timeline, see Days of Future Past below.)

The death of Senator Kelly made mutants the objects of fear and hatred among baseline humans. At around this time, there were violent anti-mutant riots. In one such riot, John and Elaine Grey, Jean Grey's parents, were killed. In 1984, a "rabid anti-mutant candidate" was elected President of the United States. Within a year, the first Mutant Registration Act Mutant Control Act was passed, although the Supreme Court had it struck down as unconstitutional. Nevertheless, a second Mutant Control Act was passed in 1988 and upheld.

The US administration reactivated the Sentinels, programming them to eliminate the mutant threat once and for all. The robots concluded that the best way to accomplish this would be to take over the whole country. During the takeover, they killed not only mutants, but other beings with super powers, including the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Survivors were sent to concentration camps.

By the year 2000, Sentinels ruled the entire North American continent. The rest of the world became more frightened of the Sentinels than of mutants, and threatened war if the Sentinels ever moved outside of North America. The Sentinels operated out of their main headquarters in the Baxter Building, New York City.

By the year 2013, people were in one of three classes and marked with a certain letter: Baseline humans (H) have no mutant genes, and are permitted to breed; Anomalous humans (A) are not mutants themselves, but possess mutant genetic potential, and are forbidden to breed; and Mutants (M) who are forced to live in concentration camps and serve the Sentinels, and are shunned and hated by other humans.

At this time, the only surviving X-Men were Kate Pryde, Storm, Colossus, and Wolverine. Wolverine had managed to escape Sentinel capture and became a Colonel in the Canadian Resistance Army, although the other three had been captured and lived at the South Bronx Mutant Internment Center, where they formed another Anti-Sentinel resistance along with Franklin Richards, Rachel Summers and a paraplegic Magneto.

In 2013, the Anti-Sentinel Resistance discovered that the Sentinels, driven by their prime directive, were planning to move out of North America and invade other countries. Knowing that this would automatically trigger a full-scale nuclear strike from the other great powers, and thus destroy the world in a nuclear holocaust, they made a plan to change history and prevent the Sentinels from taking power. In particular, it was Rachel Summers who worked out the plan to use her telepathic powers to send the consciousness of one member of the resistance back to Halloween 1980, to swap bodies with their younger self and prevent the assassination of Senator Kelly. Kate Pryde was chosen, since in 1980 her younger self (Kitty Pryde, aka Sprite) had only recently joined the X-Men and had not yet been trained to defend herself from psychic attack.

With Logan's help, they constructed a "jammer" to disrupt the effectiveness of their control collars, allowing Rachel to send Kate's consciousness back in time to 1980 in Earth-616 (although it was later revealed by Rachel Summers and, independently, by Nimrod that Earth-616 was not in fact the past of Earth-811 and that Kate had "moved cross-time as well as down", and allowing the resistance members to remove the collars permanently and regain the use of their powers.

Logan then helped them escape from the internment center, leaving Magneto behind to cover their escape. They were tracked down by Sentinels, and though they managed to defeat the Sentinels with their powers, Franklin Richards was slain. Leaving Rachel alone to protect Kate's body (and the consciousness of the younger Kitty Pryde), Logan, Ororo and Peter attempted to launch an attack on the Sentinels' headquarters in the Baxter Building, only to be swiftly and mercilessly killed

Back in 1980, Kate Pryde warned the X-Men of Senator Kelly's assassination and the bleak future it would cause. They traveled to Washington, where Kate successfully prevented the assassination before switching places again with the young Kitty Pryde, returning to her own reality.

Later stories, preventing Kelly's assassination did not erase this possible future; it only created a new future. Pryde and Summers tried again. Summers traveled back in time. Nimrod, an advanced Sentinel, killed Pryde and followed. Summers visited Professor Xavier's school but quickly left (it had been destroyed by the army in her future, leaving her the only survivor). She joined the X-Men for a time and then became a founder of Excalibur.

A related event, Days of Future Present, took place in the present but involved the Franklin Richards who apparently died in the first story. It also involved a new character, Ahab, who was Master of the Hounds in the future and had made Rachel one of his Hounds.

Another story, actually a prequel, appeared in a limited series, Wolverine: Days of Future Past. This story explained, among other things, how Magneto wound up a paraplegic in the first story.

Unbeknown to the present-day Excalibur, Kate Pryde had become lost in time and merged with Widget, their robot. When a team from Camelot found her in their time, she brought Excalibur (including Shadowcat, her younger self) forward in time. The Sentinels overran Camelot, leaving few survivors. After removing the machinery inside a defeated Sentinel, Excalibur and the others used it to infiltrate the Hive and reprogram the Hierarchy, the master controller of all Sentinels.

Instead of protecting only "pure" humans, they would now protect all life. One last story has a similar title but definitely takes place in another reality (Earth-2992). In this story, "Days of Future Tense"[10], the survivors of Excalibur were wiped out by Black Air, a British intelligence agency collaborating with the Sentinels.

Want It Got It TPB : Amethyst, Max-Series #1-12

UPDATE: Showcase Presents: Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld Vol. 1 
Writer: Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin
Artist: Ernie Colón and others
Publisher: DC Comics (1983)
Includes: Legion of Super-Heroes #298 (insert), Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld #1-12 and Annual 1

I know this original series was aimed at a young girl audience, but I enjoyed reading it too, even though I have a penis.

I think it is funny companies feel the need to aim a property at a particular gender when they should aim at making good stories period.

By the way DC, this is also a series my Mom actually enjoyed reading. So if you made it a TPB, I'd have to buy two copies one for her and one for myself. Come on, Christmas is just around the corner.

Want It Got It TPB: Cinder and Ashe

UPDATE: Coming Soon as a TPB at Amazon - 07/08/14

Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: José Luis García-López
Publisher: DC Comics (1988)
Includes: Cinder and Ashe #1-4

Clipped from Thrilling Detective:

In their only known appearance, Cinder and Ashe, a 1988 mini-series written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Jose luis Garcia-Lopez, the mismatched pair is hired by an Iowa farmer whose daughter has been kidnapped and whose life is being systematically destroyed, by who and for what reason he doesn't know. The case opens the door for a flood of flashbacks and time jumps as we learn the history of Cinder and Ashe and their relationship, the case striking a personal chord since a man associated with the case is Lacey -- a man Cinder and Ashe thought was dead, and who raped Cinder when she was thirteen, back in Vietnam.

A crime-thriller with psychological and sociological aspirations, Cinder and Ashe is a mix of detective story, action-thriller, character exploration, and yet another pop cultural visit to the Vietnam war (though focusing on the slightly more original milieu of city life in Saigon). It doesn't entirely succeed in hitting all the targets it sets up for itself, but it nonetheless is a sufficiently engrossing read.

A lot of that has to do with Conway and Garcia-Lopez, two comics pros who were working very near the top of their game here. Here Conway's ear for dialogue and sense of pacing puts a lot of the current crop of "sophisticated" comic writers to shame. He scripts dialogue naturally and crafts scenes with economy, so that even when the characters are just sitting around talking, the energy never lags. And Garcia-Lopez has a beautiful style, at once kinetic and eerily realistic, ideally suited to this non-superhero story. Here in particular, his style is married with a near flawless eye for composition.