Wednesday, August 28, 2013

365 Comics...237: Showcase Presents... #94 (1977)

I found this ratty, tattered issue of Showcase presents #94 in a dollar bin at this year's Fan Expo, along with the two issues that close out its arc reintroducing the Doom Patrol (or introducing the all-new Doom Patrol, if you will...or, rather, almost all-new).  Interesting that this continues the numbering of the original Silver Age Showcase Presents (the very same that Barry Allen and Martian Manhunter debuted in some 20 years earlier).  Every now and then one of the big two will adjust a title's numbering so as to capitalize on a momentus publishing milestones, but you'd never see them relaunch a title many years later without starting at number 1.  Well, Showcase Presents... only lasted 10 more issues, a three-issue Power Girl arc, a 100th issue spectacular, and a three-issue Adam Strange/Hawkman/Hawkgirl team up (sounds awesome) and closing out with a single issue featuring four OSS stories.  

I love the Doom Patrol, pretty much all iterations of it except the original formation.  I've read most of the series, (except much of the original run and John Byrne's mid-'00's reboot), so I was super excited to find these books.  I'll talk more DP after I read the next issue though, because first, I want to highlight this...:


The back cover really caught my attention... in part because of the buzz around the revealing documentary Black Water,  but also because of this awesome image I found randomly on tumblr:


I was wondering about its origins but I guess that short-lived mystery is solved.

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