I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, was a late adopter of Twitter and left when it turned fascist, and always declined to adopt Facebook. He was a fairly early adventurer into the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

One of the things which I'm find interesting during the Great Read Through is not which comics I remember, but which comics I have little or no memory of at all. This group falls mostly into that category. What makes that interesting is trying to remember, or deduce, why I picked them up at the time. I touched on this last time with respect to 'Real Girl.' Number Ones are easy - I got them all, more or less. But if I have multiple issues, or a later issue, what was the appeal? Or what was my motivation?

In any case, this selection is some comics from DC (or Vertigo which I file with DC). It's a box of titles beginning with 'S'.

Scarab

There's a reason. In an interview with the creator, John Smith explained how it was conceived as a reboot of the character Doctor Fate, but that morphed into a new character when the initial proposal was felt to be 'too extreme.' It was intended to be a continuing series, which was cut to eight issues, and ended abruptly with a deus ex machina. Smith calls it 'a fiasco from beinning to end.' 'Fiasco' might be too strong, but it certainly isn't great. Certainly not something I need to keep.

So why did I stick around? At a guess, two reasons. One is that I didn't know going in that it was going to be so incoherent. A second is that that I did know going in it would only be eight issues, so why not complete the set.

Scarlet

That said, there are some cute bits. There are some references to Mike Nesmith's song Cruisin' from 'Elephant Parts.' I think I'd seen Elephant Parts by then, but maybe not ... anyway, one of the lead bad guys is a vampire called Sunset Sam, and a couple of recently converted recruits are called Lucy and Ramona. So that was fun. But that was the high point for me.

Sebastian O

The series was written by Grant Morrison, a quite respected Scottish writer, a lot of whose work is a bit eccentric, making it a good fit for Vertigo, as well as some of the more mainstream (ie not creator-owned) DC titles that tended to skew ... odd, such as Batman and Doom Patrol. I quite enjoyed it. I probably enjoyed it more this time around than I did on the original reading, since I'm more familiar with a lot of the influences than I was thirty five years ago when I was but a callow youth.

The comic is set in a steampunky Victorian England, and Sebastian O might be Oscar Wilde re-envisioned as a Bondesque supervillain. Each issue has cover quotes which are clearly (to my mind) riffing on Wildean bon mots and witticisms. ('One must commit acts of the highest treason only when dressed in the most resplendent finery.' 'We may be in the sewer but there's absolutely no need for that kind of gutter profanity.' 'Talking t oneself, I have often thought, is the best way to be sure of intelligent and witty conversation.')

Supervillain might be unfair. He is certainly a murderer, and a dissolute dandy, but he might be more correctly classed as an antihero. Betrayed and imprisoned, he escapes and seeks revenge on his betrayer. A classic tale. A tale well told, it must be said. And beautifully illustrated.

According to an interview in Comics Beat from 2025, Morrison and Yeowell may be creating another 'Sebastian O' story for Vertigo, which could be good fun. I'm halfway tempted to keep this series. Perhaps I'll stick it in a 'maybe' pile.

Secret Origins

Overall, it was OK. Some interesting ideas in the various stories, but nothing overwhelming. Not a keeper.

The idea that maybe I was following writers or artists gains a little traction with the next comic, issue #14. I skip issues 11-13, and pick up with 'Suicide Squad,' which is written by John Ostrander, about whom I have written before concerning his work on Starslayer and Grimjack. There is another possibility, though. At the time, DC was doing a large cross-over series, 'DC Legends,' which had its own mini-series, along with a bunch of related stories in other books. Both of these issues of 'Secret Origins' are part of the Legends plot-line, so it is entirely possible that a) we at the comic store had a tick box for 'all Legends crossovers' and b) I ticked that box. I'd have to check the other titles in the narrative to be sure, though.

In any case, even though I usually like Ostrander's work, this is pretty pedestrian (although I do appreciate that he got a couple of sharp digs in at Reagan). It's little more than a summary of all the Suicide Squad appearances over the years. Almost more of a book report than anything else. Again, not a keeper.

Militating against the 'Legends' theory, and in favour of the 'talent I like' theory is the next one. (Although, of course, both could be true.) This is #48 from 1990, and it features Ambush Bug. I do like Ambush Bug, although I don't know if this was the comic that turned me on to him or not. I don't think it was, though, because it post-dates the Ambush Bug mini-series, which I have (or should have) and I also should have 'DC Presents #59# from 1983 with Ambush Bug in it. (Facing the Legion of Substitute Heroes, and being hilarious, if I recall correctly.)

I might have bought this one because one of the other origins is 'Stanley and His Monster,' drawn by Phil Foglio. I quite like Foglio's work, both in the early days of 'What's New with Phil and Dixie' in 'The Dragon' magazine, and all the way up to the current day, and his excellent Girl Genius. But given the timing, it may be that Foglio was just value added. And value is added, the story is pretty thin, but there are some nice Foglio jokes in there.

There's also a cute short about Rex, the Wonder Dog. The story is a winking nod to Captain America, with the scientist bemoaning the lack of animal test subjects, and, of course, human experimentation is out of the question. And then when he's shot (the scientist) saying something like, 'oh, I never wrote down the formula. Oopsie.'

It's rounded out with The Trigger Twins, a pretty straight-forward tale of twins in the Old (American) West who confuse bad guys sometimes by dressing up the same. And then shooting them.

This is more of a maybe. I do like Ambush Bug.

The last secret origins is from 1989, 'Special #1,' doing some Batman villains: The Penguin, the Riddler, and Two-Face. Again, this is probably me following some talent that I like. One story has Matt Wagner art, and Neil Gaiman wrote one story. Gaiman has shown himself to be a problem, but at the time he was one of the best known comic writers. Interestingly enough, I wasn't really a fan of Gaiman's comic work; I prefer his books. Gaiman was responsible for the framing device of this issue which is a reporter trying to do a story on Batman villains. They want the Joker, but can't get him and settle for these three.

The Penguin story is alright. There is a bit of an origin in there, with childhood bullying leading to his anti-social character. Not much else to say, really.

Gaiman wrote the Riddler story. It's pretty good, actually. The 'origin' part is a bit iffy; it's more of a nostalgic look back at the really goofy days of wacky fun loving villains. Think the Adam West tv show. The Riddler says at one point, 'It's all different. It's all changed. The Joker's killing people, for God's sake!' It reads as a commentary on the taste from grim and gritty which had been coming into vogue for a while. Miller's Dark Knight mini-series had run in 1986 in the vanguard of the movement, after he had done a dark take on Daredevil in the early '80s - including the killing of Elektra. Wolverine had been getting more stabby as the decade wore on, as well. Alan Moore had contributed to the zeitgeist with his run on Swamp Thing, as well as 'V for Vendetta' and 'Watchmen,' both from earlier in the decade.

The last story is Two-Face, and it doesn't add much to the well-established origin story, but it's a decent enough story on its own. Leaning a bit into flashback tropes, which is fine.

In the closing bit of the framing device, there are some person-on-the-street panels, including a nod to John Constantine, another Moore character from the mid-80s, who was involved in quite a few pretty grim storylines.

An interesting book in some ways, but probably not interesting enough to keep.

And now a word from our sponsor

Scarab is early 80's and Vertigo, so aiming for a more mature audience. As a 'prestige' imprint, there are also very few (other than ones for other DC titles). The ads reflect the time. Gone are the cardboard submarines and gag gifts, instead we see Aerosmith CD remasters, Wayne's World 2, sports trading cards, video/computer games (with 'staggering 16 bit sound'), Bab 5 gets back cover, an NIN release, and so on. The Vertigo style continues with Sebastian O in the early '90s, with back cover ads for the George Romero/Stephen King movie 'The Dark Half,' the hand-held Atari LYNX, and Six Flags.

Scarlett, a regular DC title from the early '90s has only a single non-house ad; the back cover is pushing the Digital Compact Cassette, with a laundry list of hot artists: Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Boys II Men[sic], Cathy Dennis, Bob Marley, Lionel Richie, Shakespeare's Sister, U2, Suzanne Vega, and Vanessa Williams. The format did not age well, and neither did a couple of the artists.

The Secret Origins from the late '80s are more old school. They aren't Vertigo, they aren't 'mature themes', they're old style stories. They have old-style ads. There are more of them, for one thing, and they are targeted for a younger audience. At least I assume M&M candy and Captain Crunch cereal are aimed at a different demographic than Aerosmith CDs. There is even the occasional page of ads that wouldn't have looked out of place a decade before with gag gifts, Charles Atlas, and so on. Although there are more electronic gimmicks.

A fun chunk of reading this time. Some fond memories, as well as some confusion about my original motivation ...

• Comic Read Through Part Nine