Back in the ’90s Wizard: The Guide to Comics was pretty much the bible for most comic fans and comic shop owners. Today it’s somewhat tredy to look back and poke fun at the magazine and to be fair a lot of that poking of fun is well deserved. The thing is that as much as I look at Wizard as one of the prime examples of what made comics in the ’90s…well, comics in the ’90s I must confess that I look back fondly at my time buying the magazine on a monthly basis from 1994 to about 2002. It was fun…something that fit nicely into my life back then but that I wouldn’t do now.
One of the many accusations hurled at Wizard was that they focused mainly on Marvel and later on Marvel and Image and gave DC short shrift. They were kind of up front about this and it would be twenty-four issues until a DC character graced the cover and even then it was a heavily shadowed Azrael as Batman but there’s a story behind that cover which I won’t go into here. I am not usually one to hurl around the word “bias” especially when it comes to comic books but there was a definite bias against DC to the point that while Superman received his own special around the time Reign of the Supermen began (which I talked about here) Superman wouldn’t get the cover treatment of the main book even during the death and return saga. Even when Superman was discussed it was had to find on the cover if at all.
Which brings me to Wizard #27.
The cover to this issue went to Jim Lee’s Wild C.A.T.S. which, to be fair, was insanely popular when this came out. The thing is Superman and Doomsday’s rematch was kind of a big deal but apparently not a big enough deal to actually have them have Jurgens or anybody to draw a Superman related cover. While this is annoying the article itself is rather good. Pay close attention to a fan theory about Doomsday’s origin and Dan’s reaction to it. Also note the creator owned project that was mentioned and how Zero Hour gets teased.
Because success tends to breed imitators there were a few other magazines that popped up after Wizard proved there’s gold in them thar price guides. One of them was called Hero Illustrated which I am assuming was a play on Sports Illustrated. I never really cared for Hero. It was a very ugly magazine that was filled with busy pages that looked like crap. The article weren’t as good as what Wizard had to offer as well but they were nice enough to give the Man of Steel and his killer some love on the cover of issue 12.
This is a neat cover. I like Jurgens and Ordway as a pair and you can’t beat Doomsday and Superman throwing down while the Cyborg watches from a distance and Darkseid has himself a little nap. The article that went with this cover was less than stellar. While it has some neat preview art the opening paragraph kills it for me and it never recovered. I mean your mileage may vary so check the article out below.
Even the layout of that article bothers me. Again, it’s neat to see the preview art but between how it looks and the fact that it led off with a reference to Tom Arnold and Rosanne Barr just kills it for me.
And that wraps up this unofficial four part series of posts dedicated to the return of Doomsday. Be on the lookout in the weeks and months to come for other posts designed to tie-in to what’s happening on From Crisis to Crisis.