Rediscovering the Nineties: Avengelyene

 

Having missed the nineties comic boom I did try out some of the comics that I missed from various creators and companies that were not familiar to me. Of course collecting old comics retrospectively doesn't actually reveal the chaos that ensued in this dark period for the industry.

Although shed loads of comics were being shifted including that infamous product the "variant cover" people were not always buying them for the right reasons. My final trip to the Forbidden Planet in 1989 before dropping out the hobby was spoilt by this bloke buying the last two issues of some comic I was quietly waiting to pick up. The speculators were upon us.

Even when I had returned there was still a lot of this going on with that damned Wizard magazine telling everyone this or that title was "hot" (and not whether it was any good or not) promoting the monetary value before any other consideration. 

Happily that shouty journal has gone the way of the speculators (or most of them) and publishers have cottoned on to making sure popular comics are available in collected form. This enabled to regular reader to get the full story without being ripped off by over-priced issues on the walls of some shops. 

I refuse to buy variant covers to this day. I overheard a kid say in the Forbidden Planet "It's the same comic inside...." Out of the mouths of babes...

Amongst the comics I chose to pick up was Avengelyne from Maximum Press which I discovered was one of Rob Liefeld's many publishing fronts. In fact I picked up quite a few issues but the first issue was missing from the boxes. Having become a regular at Avalon Comics on my return to the hobby the owner Bruce went out back and just threw in a copy of the first issue. A "chrome" cover no less something which had become popular for some reason during the nineties.

I have to say the initial three issue mini is an OK story and I was quite happy to collect Avengelne  with all it's religious themes about the main character an apparently "fallen Angel" and her continuing fight against evil. Nothing new in particular but fun even if the art work was peculiar in places, something else that happened in the nineties.

The other main problem that seemed to wreck the industry was the tardiness of the new stars of comic-dom, something which actually continued until fairly recently. I mean I became a fan of industry "bad boy" Rob Liefeld but his inability to finish anything he starts is more than a little annoying. I'm told the gaps between issues back in the decade led to disillusionment and lost sales. I'm not surprised. 

I was "lucky" as these comics were sitting around in the cheap bins waiting to be read or as some retailers found just collecting dust. I'm glad I picked up a few of these and have to say although varied there is fun to be had with some of these comics.

As for Avengelyne it's one I did actually end up collecting and even went on to buy the revived series from Avatar when they picked up the Liefeld line. Will she return? Who knows, but I had some fun reading these comics though they are not up to today's standards....