Battleworld #1

This comic book

hit the stands today at noon in Louisville. I bought my copy at 12:01 pm. That's odd for me for two reasons: (1) I almost never buy comic books on the New Releases Day (much less the New Releases Hour) since Friday is the day that Joe and I go to the comic book store & (2) I rarely buy Marvel comic books these days. (And on those rare occasions when I do buy Marvel comic books, they aren't these stupid crossover stories. 1982's Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions was quite enough for me.)

So...what up?

Well...there's a bit of a clue on the cover. See, on the right side? Waitaminute. Mr. DeMille?

Yeah, THAT guy. It's not a very good likeness, but the insignia on the left breast is a clue: it's Star Brand, hero of the flagship title of Marvel's New Universe imprint (1986 to 1989). I missed that initial run, but when Marvel tried to bring it back in 2006 with newuniversal, I was onboard and grooving on Warren Ellis's jive. There were a few crossovers between Marvel and the newuniverse (Google "crossovers between marvel the the new universe" if you have a need to know), but not enough for me to not be interested in Star Brand appearing here. Well, on the cover, anyway...he doesn't actually appear in issue #1. But I was going to be back for issue #2 anyway, because here's the advance art for the cover of that book:

And not only do we see our friend Star Brand again for the first time, but even more thrilling, the lady in purple on the left. That's Mystic...from the CrossGen Comics Universe. Ahh, CrossGen. They only lasted from 1998 to 2004, but they put out some really good comic books. Marvel has toyed with the titles (which Disney acquired in 2006, and in 2011 Marvel released a few of the titles under their own banner)*  So far as I can discern, this will be the first time that a CrossGen character has crossed over into the Marvel Universe. 

So even though Battleworld #1 was a let-down (your average, dopey, uninspired comic book, as The Comics Journey used to put it), I'll be back for the CrossGen Crossover in #2! Which is exciting!

Well...it is if you've been a comic book nerd for almost 60 years.

And if that don't suit ya, that's a drag.

* Since then they've released a couple of omnibuses--for Sigil and Mystic. I'm still hoping for Scion, Ruse, & Sojurn to make the omnibus journey.