Worst Collection Ever

Secret Weapons #4 (1993) Its our first foray into the Valiant Comics universe and surprisingly, its not an issue of ARCHER & ARMSTRONG seeing how every dollar box ever in any comic book store is 50% ARCHER & ARMSTRONG. ARCHER & ARMSTRONG is like ALPHA FLIGHT but its wearing a newsie cap. No, this week we cover SECRET WEAPONS, which is supposed to be Valiant’s AVENGERS-esque title but t...

Adventure Comics #420 (1972) Its a mish-mash of stories this week with Supergirl taking the helm. First up, she ends up on a planet of, like, four dudes. There are these three evil scientists bros who keep trying to kill this puke-colored Adonis guy who gets all inappropriate with Supergirl. Everyone dies, Supergirl does nothing and leaves. Then we FINALLY work in an Animal Man story where Buddy c...

Alpha Flight #91 (1990) We’re back to Alpha Flight because we love it. Well, Shawn loves it. Jen’s not that impressed. In this issue, Dr. Doom sets a literal “thirst trap” as he tries to convince Canada to give him fresh water for his parched Latverians. Turns out though, the deal is some sort of gimmick to piss off Symkaria and Silver Sable’s king father. Alpha Flight ends up having to perform se...

Justice League Task Force #0 (1994) We are caught between Easter and Wrestlemania as we head back to the 90s and the one of the #0 issues that surfaced due to DC’s Zero Hour event. In this one, a new Justice League Task Force is formed with the lead character being Martian Manhunter’s arm hair. To that point, I think Jason Mantzoukas could make a great J’onn J’onzz based on hirsuteness alone. We a...

Iron Man #55 (1973) We take on an actual CLASSIC comic with significant events and debuts that still manages to be stupid with IRON MAN from 1973. Thanos is here for the first time as is Drax and Starfox and all the other cosmic goobers you’ve grown to love. Still though, its a ridiculous book as Tony gets a wicked migraine and gets beat up in his office by two Monchhichis on steroids. He ends up...

Detective Comics #573 (1987) The Mad Hatter returns in this issue of DETECTIVE COMICS as he gets released from prison and immediately makes a hat out of a newspaper. Batman’s response is to run for city councilman with no political affiliation which goes as about as well as you’d expect. Mad Hatter shows up to throw a few razor fedoras while Jason Todd eats chocolate cake in front of Bruce Wayne’s...

Annex: Crucible of Power #1 (1994) Annex is one of those Marvel characters that was introduced via poly-bagged card in the 1993 Annuals. He basically can use his suit of armor to think up guns and weapons and stuff as well as a new leg for himself (because his civilian identity is missing one). If he was smart, he’d think up a better color than 90’s fuchsia to make up his outfit. Also, he's t...

Infinity Inc #22 (1986) This week, we are in the midst of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS in this issue of INFINITY INC which sees the Infinity-eers transported to the Monitor’s ship for the most awkward company picnic ever. Silver Scarab and Fury are farting around asking everyone “are you my mother” while Skyman sarges on Wonder Girl only to go down in flames. At least Plastic Man and Elongated Man se...

Justice: Four Balance #1 (1994) Something’s off because we are back in New Warriors land with this Justice/Marvel Boy/Vance Astro mini-series that reads like a formulaic episode of LAW & ORDER: SVU. Its basically “let’s cram everything about Vance’s life into four issues” as he uses his psychic Green Lantern powers to shakedown the Dickensian street urchins known as the Yancy Street Gang. Ben...

L.E.G.I.O.N. ’93 #61 (1993) We have no idea what L.E.G.I.O.N. stands for (Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network - I looked it up) but it certainly doesn’t spell a cohesive comic that we would continue to read.  Well, let’s walk that back a bit. There are some good gags and Lobo is only in it for a few panels and is used quite well. But essentially, this is a stop-gap iss...

Chuck Norris - Karate Kommandos #1 (1987) This week, we take on our first-ever Star Comics book, which was a 1980s Marvel Comics line for folks that felt Power Pack was too intense. The Chuck Norris slant here is based off of his toy line and cartoon and not the scene in MISSING IN ACTION 2 where a captor hangs Chuck upside-down and puts a bag with a rat in it over his head but Chuck Norris ends u...

Night Thrasher #3 (1993) Well, we’re back in boring New Warriors land but you know, we don’t hate this. I mean, its not good but its not offensive.  Night Thrasher gets into it with a kimono-wearing Wendigo gangster hybrid while Silhouette goes through a number of hairstyles from page to page like she’s Wonder Man or something. We also take the whole Night Thrasher origin for a walk because i...

Adventure Comics #452 (1977) Guys, we had NO idea that this just happened to be “that one Aquaman story” when picked up this issue of ADVENTURE COMICS. Ah, god. This one doesn’t end on a fun note. Regardless, we find some joy here like the improbable laminating machine used to hand out Aqualad headshots as well as Black Manta’s plans for a Peter Benchley library. Continue the conversation with Sha...

Quasar #17 (1990) In this issue of Shawn’s favorite comic, QUASAR, some random-ass Elder of the Universe decides the time is right to have a bunch of super-powered speedsters race to the Moon, thus exposing the sad roster of Marvel speedsters. I mean, once you get past Quicksilver, the quality drops off dramatically. This is also the issue of QUASAR where its revealed that omnipotent space broccol...

Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #103 (1970) In this fascinating issue of SUPERMAN’S GIRLFRIEND, LOIS LANE, Lois marries Satan. Well, it’s not quite Satan but Satan-ish. Ok, its not Marvel’s Satannish BUT it is an alien posing as an Indian version of Sigfried & Roy who gets hot for Lois from deep space and decides to hypnotize tigers in hopes that she’s dumb enough to cover the story and show...

Avengers West Coast #70 (1991) We keep it local this week as we cover AVENGERS WEST COAST from 1991. Here, we have Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman farting around in Newport Beach, handling the (presumed) rampant thefts of seafood tapas. Or maybe someone’s double parked at the day spa, preventing Peter Gallagher from getting his eyebrows fluffed. A sad state of affairs in the OC. Glad Spider-Woman’s t...

Total Justice #2 (1996) Sometimes you can make a comic book out of a toy line and its awesome and then sometimes you can do one and its garbage. This is the latter. TOTAL JUSTICE was a toy line that put clunky plastic armor deals on DC characters. I had the random Despero figure (STILL HAVE IT IN 2018) in case you were wondering if I hold on to things forever. Anyway, the story is confusing and ki...

Santa the Barbarian #1 (1996) To cap off our Holiday-themed month, we foist upon you SANTA THE BARBARIAN, a Rob Liefeld-curated book about angry Santas who fight robots, sit in thrones with hot elven lasses at their feet, stalk random dudes with knives and murder Jason Momoa doppelgängers. Sometimes, you just gotta take a swing and make a comic about a chromium trading card that came packed in a W...

Batman and the Outsiders [vol 1] #19 (1985) Continuing on with our Holiday comic book adventures, we check in to see what Batman and the Outsiders are up to. Turns out Geo-Force is ready to kill a creepy, life-ruining dude so Batman puts down his Criminology book and helps Halo call Superman to kill Brion. What results is a morality-based fight between Geo-Force and Superman that ends with justice...

Marvel Two-In-One #74 (1981) Ben Grimm and the Fantastic Four go X-Mas shopping and poor, blind Alicia Masters is stuck carrying a bunch of boxes in an inexplicably cruel act. I mean, hell, Reed can carry all the boxes himself so I don’t know why he’s making a woman with a legit handicap do it. Anyway, Alicia makes Ben write a letter to step-dad, the Puppet Master, who promptly gets out of jail an...

On this week's episode of WORST COLLECTION EVER, Jen and Shawn discuss: World’s Finest Comics #286 (1982) Topics include: why didn’t they call Doctor Fate? Wonder Woman and her Prince healing ray Batman cracks the jokes Steak Night tonight Lucius Fox is the old dude from UP Continue the conversation with Shawn and Jen on Twitter / Instagram / Facebook / Threads / Bluesky or email the show at ...

Power Pack [vol 1] #53 (1990) We did some shopping over the holiday weekend and you lucky folks get to reap the rewards! For the first time, we cover POWER PACK, a book about four kids bestowed with super-powers by a dying alien horse. In this issue, Dr. Doom wants those powers so he sends Typhoid Mary to infatuate the blatantly underage Alex Power and Alex’s Doonesbury -looking dad into fighting...

The New Adventures of Superboy [vol 2] #38 (1983) Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Superboy’s celebrating Thanksgiving here as well by ignorantly starving a prison filled with malcontent boys, roasting albino turkeys with his eyes and then hiding in the basement of the Kent’s house like he’s Eddie Munster’s pet dragon Spot. Then he goes all street justice on Lex Luthor instead of staying home and eat...

Cage [vol 1] #13 (1993) This CAGE book is pretty boring but we do our best to make it work. There’s 90’s excess abound with sinewy cyber-villains and the Tinkerer being all creepy in his truck using his violence-based trickery to get Cage to help him find his son who is conveniently being held with Cage’s brother and father. Also, Cage’s dad looks like the Afro-American version of Mr. Buzzcut from...

Batman: Hollywood Knight #1 (2001) “Batman” makes it out to the west coast finally but its not “Batman” Robin’s here too but he’s actually this bad-ass stunt man who has hair like Lobot from EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Its an Elseworlds book so there’s all sorts of nuttiness that doesn’t count. Speaking of nuttiness, Jen and Shawn discuss the latest happenings on GOTHAM such as Bruce Wayne buying a night...