Wow. Congratulations. A landmark piece from a landmark story.

It would have been better for Page 203 panel 2 to have a different angle than the panels preceding and following it. In Italian comics, the writers often play the role of cinematographer, instructing the artist how to draw the scene, when sometimes (arguably, usually) that would be better left to the artist.

Good question which is not explicitly answered. Inside the main cave of the Hidden Spring, the lighting comes from the Flesya plants, whose tendrils extend upwards through the desert floor to gather solar energy. The same might be true here, though we don't see any of the plants.

Good coda to the Great Darkness. It's the Great Pretender!

Peter means business!

Looks like Dirk is stealing the show from Color Kid.

I for one welcome our new AI overlords.

Excellent colors.

Nice low angle shot in the first panel, with each book economically suggested by a single white line.

A pose like this accomplishes two purposes. First, it allows the hero and villain to both face the reader, yet interact with each other. Second, it allows the artist to portray an extreme pose, with twisted anatomy that poses an extra challenge to render well.

I just noticed from the mouse ears on the water tower over Max's shoulder that the photo with his wife was taken at Disney World. Presumably the "TC" on his shirt stands for "Tennis Club" since there's a pair of crossed racquets on it as well.

That's what I call a "one-two punch."

Plus Europe has been heavily settled for millennia by a literate society which retained documentation of what previously happened on pretty much every acre of the continent since Roman times. (I exaggerate, but not much.) Everywhere they dig to build something new, they find protected ruins. They have much more of a cross-generational sense of being custodians of a societal heritage rather than full "owners" of anything. If you want to remodel your house in England, you have to get the changes approved not just for safety but for historical faithfulness.

It's a very different mindset from Americans, who consider homes from the 1950s "historic," while the "New College" at Oxford was founded in 1379. I was amused to learn that when William the Conqueror claimed the throne of England during the Norman Conquest of 1066, he asked to be crowned at Westminster Abbey because even then, a thousand years ago, it was a historic site.

It seems to me that Europeans are more likely to have a mindset of "cherishing the past" while Americans put a premium on "building the future." We see similar "environment first" and "history first" themes in Leg's Weaver's stories "Tsunami!" (in which corner-cutting on a new hotel's construction threatens aquatic life) and "Demons of the North" (in which Mother Nature appears as a character) as well as in Dampyr's "Dracula Park" story (in which Draka claims dominion and responsibility for preserving Romania's natural beauty).

Tinya is very limber!

A robot that has human brain waves? I call shenanigans! Cool page though. Did he even know he was a robot?

Bonazzi has an energetic but less refined style than many of the other Italians. He has illustrated 44 Nathan Never stories between issues #2 (1991) and #393 (2024).

You win the internet today. A landmark piece. As I understand it, Jones submitted the piece, and then Sekowsky figured out how to write a story around it.

This was also the cover of the first trade paperback collection.Mark Waid presented a credible conflict between Braniac 5 and Cosmic Boy in this section of the run.

Nice! That was a really fun run on Legion by Mark Waid and then Jim Shooter. Interesting characterizations of all the team members. These two were both airheads in their own way: Element Lad because he was a New Agey mystic, and Phantom Girl because her attention was divided between two dimensions.

Thanks! Glad you have enjoyed the journey as an introduction to these characters.

There is.a little more before we move on to another tale.

Legion of Super-Heroes did the "I married a shapeshifter pretending to be my colleague" story a few years before the FF did the same thing to Johnny Storm.

That awkward last panel makes the page.

Good story, good art. Sorry about the sales tax!

Interesting, so he used Gisele as the reference for a drawing that became Clara. Here's a photo of young Gisele herself.

Killer Medusa, figuratively and literally.

Bradshaw's trademark detail, plus Kirby Krackle!

Superb, moody cityscape.

They were always my favorite Legionnaires too.

It's always fun to see an artist take the time to draw vanishing points to get the perspective grid right rather than just winging it.

Great faces throughout; glad the creases could be smoothed. Diana keeps her crime-fighting fingernails immaculate.

Historic! Chic Stone did a nice job rendering Reed's face in particular. It's also a great example to remind us that Kirby considered Ben to be stocky but not tall, much like himself.

The faces are great, but also look at the time Davis spent on the furniture in the room, including the unusual round bed.

ROM wrecks a museum! Nice Kirbyesque finishes by Sinnott on the machinery. I guess ROM's neutralizer does more than just banish Dire Wraiths to Limbo.

This was a fun cartoon, and my kids enjoyed the trade paperback as well.

Sam has the height and age, but Bobby has a lot more practice at futbol. Who would win?

Also, Magneto's powers now work on paper! Duly noted.

Cool machines.

Barrows and Ferreira are one of the most consistently satisfying teams today. The pencils and inks are equally great.

I haven't seen him do painterly, nuanced skin tones like this before.

Was this inspired by the cover of the 1978 Star Wars novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye"? It has the same elements but in different poses.

I was wondering if those two guards have to stand outside the office with torches all night, or just during this brief meeting.

So Chemical King is by definition Fire Boy? This seems like an underused power.

In this mythos, vampires are particularly vulnerable to sunlight and Dampyr blood but not stopped by crosses, garlic, not being invited into your house, etc. Most of the monsters in this story appear to be regional variations on vampires. Fire also works well on lots of creatures.

One of the things I like about this series is that the constant nighttime scenes give lots of opportunity for dramatic tonal contrasts in the art.

Arm pouch! Dani loves the 90s.

Tentacles

The punchline and central image of one of the most significant issues of its era.

It's always nice to see people working together on a project, like a robot who shoots around the galaxy with bags of treasure.

An imposing image which embodies the central theme of this story, that comics hould be about heroism rather than brainless violence.

Claremont's caption acknowledges that "It's a progression they've seen before," presumably referring to Dark Phoenix.

Lev the reaction shot close ups. Wasp found her old asymmetrical costume from #195 and cut the other leg off. Better than losing an arm!