I like milestones. Anytime you can celebrate a numerical event that ends in a 5 or a 0, it’s pretty cool.
So it’s with tremulous fingers that I type this, my 400th column for the Star Eagle! Yes, I keep track, mainly because I’m Type A, but also because it gives me a topic for every 100th column!
I’ve said this before, but there is no way I ever dreamed I’d come up with this many things to write about. Honestly, every time I reach one of these century marks or my yearly anniversary at the end of August, I sit down and wonder if there is any way I can make it through another year or to the next milestone number. Then things like the pandemic come up, and I get two months' worth of columns out of it! (See, you knew I’d have to mention it this week!)
As I’ve done for past century columns, I looked to my comic book collection. Even in a collection that nearly numbers 13,000 items, I could only find three comics of my own that are issue #400. There are not a tremendous amount of series that lasted anywhere near that long, though Action Comics and Detective Comics are both past issue #1000! And because some series have rebooted numerous times with a new #1 issue, there are some that perhaps are past 400 issues but never recognized that.
Each of these comics was super-sized to celebrate. I dug them off my shelves to relook at them and reminisce a bit.
Captain America #400 was disappointing. I love Cap and have probably read nearly every issue of a comic he’s ever appeared in. I was giddy when we visited Universal Studios in Florida years back and I got to see “Captain America” and get my picture taken with him. Yes, I was an adult.
This issue was a tough sell as an anniversary. It was Part 15 of a 19-part story called “Operation: Galactic Storm” where the Avengers were fighting alien races in outer space. Usually, a big issue like this would be the culmination of an epic storyline that had been building, not a crossover with other series. But at the end of the first story, you see that it’s to be continued in another series. So if you just bought it for the anniversary issue, now you’re stuck in the middle of a gigantic storyline.
The issue also has stories involving the Falcon, who was Cap’s partner for a time, U.S. Agent, who had taken the original Cap’s place for a while, and Diamondback, a former criminal who was Cap’s girlfriend at the time. Plus, this issue reprinted the first appearance of Captain America in the Silver Age of comics from Avengers #4. But overall, it was tough to celebrate a big number on this one.
There was a craze in the 90s to glitz up covers of special issues in order to make them stand out on the shelves. Incredible Hulk #400 was an example of that. Parts of the cover are foil and shine brightly as one of the characters is encased in a crystal shell in the artwork. Once you get over your blindness, you can open the issue and read it.
This was the final chapter in a four-issue storyline called “Ghost of the Past.” At the time, the Hulk was intelligent and part of a group called the Pantheon. The story was extra-long in this issue and worth every penny. Peter David was the writer and was in the midst of a run on the comic that lasted over 100 issues and is still thought of as one of the best in the Green Goliath’s history. They also had a reprint of the first appearance of the Leader, the arch-enemy of the Hulk who also happened to be in the main story. This was a good one.
The 400th issue of The Mighty Thor was also the final part of a story called “The War of the Gods” with gods from both Asgard and Egypt taking part. Like Peter David, Tom DeFalco was in the middle of an extensive, fun run on this character. His stories were big and bold and just an enjoyable read.
Like the other issues, this milestone had some extra stories about some supporting characters like Loki, the Warriors Three, and even Thor’s hammer. It also gave us a story about an arm-wrestling match between Thor and Hercules. As far as enjoyability goes, this one probably falls between the other two on any scale.
So what in the world does any of this recapping have to do with writing 400 columns in this space? Well, I figure my columns are a bit like these three issues with a number 400 on them. Whether you’ve read all 400 or any number that is smaller, it is likely that you fell somewhere on the range that I did as I originally read those comics.
You might have been disappointed and felt like it could’ve been put together better. Maybe you didn’t like the topic or you were confused.
Perhaps you thought it was really good. You might have thought that I put the ideas together well and provided some entertainment.
It’s possible you fell in-between those two standards. It might have been okay, not my best work, but not unreadable.
And you know what? I’ve felt all three of those emotions when I read my own work each week. It’s a bit like Goldilocks and the three bears: too hot, too cold, or just right.
And that’s okay. Life is all about ups and downs and sometimes ending up in the middle.
Thank you so much to Jim and the staff for supporting me and giving me space here each week. Thank you to all of you who take a little time each week to read not just this rambling, but all my fellow columnists. And thank you to those of you who sometimes reach out to tell me what you think, good or bad.
Now I’ve got to figure out how I might get to Column #500.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is quidditative, which means relating to the essential nature of something, as in, “The quidditative quality of the column was meant to entertain.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!