Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, episode 3 "Final Stand"

Two units of Biodreads have tracked the location of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future to an abandoned warehouse, surrounding it and pouring in. But it's a trap! as Power and his troops catch them in crossfires and mow them down. Their target is a transmitter unit, which they hope to rewire so they can receive data about Dread's next target.

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, episode 2 "The Abyss"

At night, a soldier named Price climbs out of a sewer grate, dodges surveillance drones, and plants a transmitter before suddenly finding himself surrounded by other soldiers. Leading them is General Briggs, who executes Price on the spot as a traitor.

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, episode 1 "Shattered"

It's the year 2147, and the Metal Wars ended with machines conquering mankind. Lord Dread, leader of the cybernetic Bio-Dread Empire, sits on his throne of Volcania as his mechanical underlings seek out the last remaining dregs of human resistance, Digitizing their captives into the growing memory banks of their central computer.

The Further Adventures of U.S. 1, Part 4

Noel

THIS IS THE LAST ONE, I SWEAR.

Unless a few more appearances accumulate in the future, in which case, I'll be back.


Ghost Rider #34 "Trials and Tribulations, Part 2: On the Road Again"

According to the "previously on" page at the start of the issue (which I'm so glad Marvel started using instead of Jim Shooter's annoying insistence on cramming recaps into each story itself, as chronicled in previous posts) the angel Zadkiel, the one truly responsible for turning Johnny Blaze into Ghost Rider, tricked Blaze's brother, Danny Ketch, into gathering the power of Ghost Riders from around the world, which the Angel used to conquer Heaven. Wow, I've missed some big happenings in Marvel.

The Further Adventures of U.S. 1, Part 3

Noel


The Sensational She-Hulk #44 "Cognito"

Our last issue brought up mention of the Asparagus People, and when I vaguely recalled them being a thing from Byrne and Chris Claremont's time on X-Men, Al Lobama commented that they were the inhabitants of the world Dark Phoenix destroyed. Byrne goes a few steps further, not only recounting Dark Phoenix and what she did, but going all the way back to Avengers #4, where Captain America first woke up, found the Avengers turned into stone statues, and encountered an Asparagus Person (actual name, the D'Bari) who'd been stranded on Earth for thousands of years, and whose green sprout head and petrification ray gun formed the basis for the Medusa myth.

The Further Adventures of U.S. 1, Part 2

Noel


The Sensational She-Hulk #39 "Date Worse Than Death"

Almost three years have passed in the publishing world since where we left off. Again, having not read this series before, I don't know what all has gone on in Jennifer "She-Hulk" Walters' life between then and here, but she's now in a relationship with Wyatt Wingfoot, the old college roomie of Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm. Having reached mid-1980 (where Byrne's infamous run is about to begin) in my read-thru of the Fantastic Four, I'm thrilled to see Wyatt here as he's always been a favorite.

The Further Adventures of U.S. 1, Part 1

Noel

And you thought we were done with U.S. 1, didn't you! DIDN'T YOU! BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-oh lord what have we unleashed this day....


The Sensational She-Hulk #4 "Tall Dis-Order"

Let me state up front that, while it's a book I've always been curious to check out, I've never read any of John Byrne's She-Hulk before, so I'm diving into this without any knowledge of prior established threads or characters. But these aren't going to be full reviews anyways, focusing more solely on the aspects that somehow feature the leads from U.S. 1. Which will only be referred to as U.S. Archer in titles from this point, as the numeric is part of the deal they had with TYCO, which had since expired.

U.S. 1 - Final Thoughts

Tony

My first draft for this post simply read "It sucked." But this is a final thoughts piece, so I grabbed my trusty thesaurus and set about finding how many different ways I could express this particular sentiment without being too redundant. Let's see how I did.

U.S. 1 - The Toyline

For additional information on this line, as well as photos, please visit the TYCO U.S. 1 Trucking fansite.

Tony

The late 70s and early 80s saw a resurgence in the popularity of semis and large trucks, and naturally, toy companies tried to cash in. Companies like Tonka, Nylint, and Buddy L filled toy shelves with large, well made metal trucks of all types, and kids snatched them up just as fast as they could make them. TYCO clearly wanted in on the big rig fad, and thus U.S. 1 was born. But if you were hoping to pick up your very own Wide-Load Annie action figure on eBay (Noel), I've got bad news for you. While, in true 80s fashion, Marvel's U.S. 1 was based on a toy line, that line didn't really have a "concept". There was no U.S. Archer, no Highywayman, no alien invaders, or old greedy white bankers. There were electric truck sets and
their various accessories. That's it.

U.S. 1, issues 11 & 12

Issue 11 "Transmissions from Space"

Ulysses stares, stunned at his revealed, raging brother, who turns violent when he sees the aliens arriving. They pull Jeff off Ulysses with a tractor beam and haul both drivers and bigrigs into the air with promises to explain once they're back at the Short Stop.

At the diner, our supporting cast is still reeling from events, surrounded by the statues of the hypno-frozen truckers and Nazis in mid-grapple. When the hero and villain arrive, everyone is equally stunned at the revelation of Jeff as the primary alien joins everyone on the ground. He lifts the hypno freeze off of the others, zapping Baron von Blimp and his Nazis away as the truckers leave, blaming the ill effects on bad food, which is quickly pounced on by LeGreed and his fellow bankers as they get the truckers to start spreading word against the Short Stop.