19 thoughts on “And now, a full-page drawing of Captain Marvel on fire and screaming.”

  2. Eclipso: The Darkness Within was one of the best crossovers to have horrifyingly bad art in the 90s. Although, confession, before I read Wozniak’s name, I was convinced this was Bart Sears’ work.

  3. I never knew the secret to making Captain Marvel catch fire was making his fingernails and irises invisible.

    “The humiliating Venom intervention from Booster Gold of all people worked – Superman was so ashamed, he never juiced again.”

  5. In all fairness, and I’m speaking as a fellow basher of 90s art, there is plenty of contemporary mainstream comics art that is just as bad. It’s less noticeable because of all the digital slickness and a modern acceptance of more stylistic art, but there’s some crap out there on the shelves now too.

  6. I’m less worried about Superman than I am about poor Booster, what with his ribcage nearly reaching his pelvic bone and his knees locked so hard they’re bent backwards. I am impressed by his 18 inch schlong, however.

  7. Joe, that’s exactly what I thought when I saw this. This is probably the worst title page I’ve ever seen in a comic book. Wow.

  8. Even on fire, not a single hair on Captain Marvel’s head is out of place. Now that’s quality hair product.

    Also, his mouth is full of sticky saliva strands, as the nineties required. Good show.

  9. @Harvey – Did Captain Marvel ever actually display his alleged “Wisdom of Solomon”?

    The “S” in SHAZAM! actually stands for “The Mane of Sasoon”!

    — MrJM

  10. Chris Wozniak was a young hot shot penciled who had a bright future but, by accounts I heard, squandered it completely. Shame. He tried a comeback some years later, but I don’t think that lasted past a “What If?” issue with a new style, and then he was gone again.

    Speaking of which, whatever happened to Steve Platt?

  12. Maybe Superman needs to take a trip to the Super Men’s Room …

    And maybe Captain Marvel is amassing enough saliva to spit the fire out?

  15. In the Silver Age, the entire story would have been about how and why Superman turned into Walleyed Gorilla-Hunchback Superman.

  16. There’s just so many lovely things wrong with this, it’s overwhelming. Why does Superman’s thigh look like a blue pickle?

  17. As fairly misguided Superman completist back in the day, I may own this annual. I say “may” because I really do not recall this horrendous splash page. Perhaps my younger self had a moment of clarity and said, “You know what? I really do not need EVERY Superman title there is.” Or perhaps I did buy this and successfully blocked it from memory.

    So what the hell is going on here? Superman’s arm is turning into Swamp Thing’s and the other arm is…is that a fist or is there a finger sticking out at me? Don’t shake your finger at me, Mr. Half Your Face Is Forehead! Given the strained expression and the wierdly crossed legs, I think Kal-El needs to hit the ol’ Toilet of Solitude really bad. At least there is one moment of truth on this page: “This is NOT good!” Too true, Booster, oh too true! Even if I don’t remember this, I can’t help but believe this was, in fact, not good.

  18. Augie – Last time I saw something about Stephen Platt was a “How to Draw Comics” DVD he did, and I discussed here.

    Michael May – Yeah, that’s the same Dan Vado. He wrote a bunch of DC books around this time, even as he was running his own publishing company.

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