In try to run down various hardcover comics-related series, it always seems like there's one volume that's unusually rare and doesn't show up very often--and when it does people want more for it. You can get the others fairly easy, but that one elusive volume makes it hard to complete the set without really paying for it.

Lately, it seems like that volume is number 2. 

Over the holidays, I was trying to complete the sets of Star Hawks, the newspaper strip by Goulart and Kane, collected in three volumes by IDW in 2017. I got volumes 1 and 3 fairly easily, but 2 doesn't seem to show up in a price range I'm willing to pay for it. It doesn't show up as often and some places goes for 4-5 times as much!

Then there's the Star Wars newspaper strip collections also from IDW. Here, there's supposedly a Marvel Omnibus coming, but I assume it will be based on the Dark Horse reprints that were arranged in portrait, comic book format and colored, and I don't think they are planning on reprinting the earliest, Russ Manning strips. Here again, the second volume with the great Al Williamson material is the tricky one to find. Not quite as bad as Star Hawks, but the available ones tend be in pretty heavily used condition. I finally relented and got one, though.

So what's the deal? Do these middle volumes just happen to get lower print runs? 

The Flash Gordon comic strip by Alex Raymond and Don Moore debuted on this day in 1934. The current creator on the strip Dan Schkade is doing an homage to that first story, "On the Planet Mongo" this week. 

Flash started out as a Sword & Planet character, perhaps the most famous of those that followed in John Carter's footsteps, before going in a more Buck Rogers direction (though Rogers started out less spacefaring than he became) in the 50s and later decades. Much of the Flash Gordon media post the 1980 has moved the character in a Star Wars direction, at least visually, which is ironic given the influence Flash Gordon film serials had on the Star Wars films.

I enjoy Schkade's and other modern takes than all a blend of elements from multiple eras, but keep as the core Raymond's adventure story on another world.

I hope Flash Gordon continues his adventures for decades to come.

Over the holiday, I was looking back over the past year here at the Flashback Universe Blog, I'm pleased to see the top posts were old ones by Jim, the founder of the blog. His various posts of Public Domain characters seem just as relevant as ever to the reading public. "Is Dracula in the Public Doman?" from 2015 got the most views this year. That was followed by "The Top 10 Public Doman Heroes?" from 2010.

 Most of my comics reading in 2025 was of DC in the early 80s for my ongoing series on my other blog. I did manage to continue to follow I number of series I have enjoyed beyond this year: Batman/Superman: World's Finest (DC), Batman & Robin: Year One (DC), G.I. Joe (Energon Universe, Skybound), W0rldtr33 (Image), and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (VIZ). I also checked out a number of other series, limited series, and graphic novels.

Listed here are my favorites. Some will be whole limited series; some will be individual issues. They are in no particular order other than when they occurred to me.

Batman/Superman: World's Finest (2022-) #44: This is another Robin/Supergirl team-up, a rare but recurring feature in the title, but always welcome. The interaction of the two junior heroes is always humorous in Waid's rendition of the characters.

Absolute Martian Manhunter #1: While this whole series has been good so far, the first issue was such a pleasant surprise it deserves special mention.

Hobtown Mystery Stories Vol. 3: The Secret of the Saucer: This might be my least favorite installment of this series, but it's such a good series that it makes this list. This one is told in reverse essentially, so that the main characters memory mental dislocation caused by exposure to an alien "spacecraft" can be to a degree experienced by the reader. It makes catching the flow of events and picking up the plot threads related to the deeper mysteries of Hobtown that much harder, though, so I'm not sure it was the best choice. Still a great read.

Drome: I've talked about this graphic novel by Jesse Lonergan before, so I won't repeat that all here, but it's great.

Bug Wars: I really enjoy "small hero" stories and genre works with good worldbuilding. This has both!

Last week, I took in Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair at the theater. This is combined version of Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 (from 2003 and 2004, respectively). This version, which supposedly fits better with Tarantino's original conception of the film screened at Cannes in 2006, but this is the first time it got a wide release.

This version removes some material made extraneous by it being one film and adds an additional anime sequence, further detailing the background of O-Ren Ishi. Beyond that, it feels like there are some scenes that are cut differently in minor ways and perhaps some use some slightly different takes, though since I haven't seen the original films in a decade probably, I may misremember.

If you really liked Kill Bill, you should see this one, particularly if you haven't seen it in some time. The runtime is long, but there is an intermission, and honestly sitting through this one felt less of a chore than sitting through several of the merely over 2 hours Marvel installments or the theatrical cuts of the Lord of the Rings films. The scenes tend to be short enough not to overstay their welcome and what is going on is interesting. Actually, I feel like the pacing is better here even compared to other Tarantino works like Django Unchained or The Hateful Eight.

Seeing this move on the big screen again in 2025 made me nostalgic for another era in cinema that wasn't really all that long ago. Before the financial pressures of streaming left the studios chasing increasingly formulaic and assembled by committee franchise blockbusters.

 Looking for a gift for a comic book fan you know (even if that fan is yourself)? Here are my recommendations for you to consider.

Absolute Martian Manhunter vol 1: Martian Vision

In the only one of the Absolute books that really caught me interest, Martian Manhunter is re-envisioned as a sort of memetic lifeform that invades the mind of FBI agent John Jones in a psychedelic story about alien invasion and family, among other things, by Camp and Rodriquez. This is, unfortunately, only the first 6 issues of the series, so not a complete story, but worth it, if only for Rodriquez's artwork.

Avengers: The Veracity Trap

I reviewed this gorgeous volume by Kidd and Cho here. The Avengers brawl with a host of Kirby-style Marvel monsters, courtesy of Loki, but soon develops in an even more metatextual direction as Thor pursues Loki outside the realm of the comic. The Avengers soon must come to terms with the sense-shattering reality of their existence and the fictional counterparts of Kidd and Cho finding the story becoming all too real!

Bug Wars Book One: Lost in the Yard

Teenager Slade Slaymaker, son of an entomologist who died under mysterious circumstances, finds himself shrunk and thrown in among warring tribes of diminutive insect-riding humanoids having epic battles in his unkept backyard!

Ad copy calls this "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids meets Conan," but I feel like Aaron and Asrar are fulfilling the promise of Sword of Atom or the Hulk stories set in Jarella's world in a gritter, modern way. The thought but into the various cultures of the yard is one of my favorite parts.

Drome

This one has got a fair amount of buzz online, and I think with good reason. Check out my review here. Lonergan weaves a creation myth in a world part Kirby's New Gods and part Metal Hurlant in a unique style.

Hobtown Mystery Stories

The release of volume three "The Secret of the Saucer" just this week has given me the only excuse I need to put this series on the list again this year. Bertin and Forbes created a series that is sort of "Twin Peaks meets the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew" as teens in a small, coastal Canadian town uncover weirdness.

Marvel Age of Comics

I wrote about the Mighty Avengers volume in this series here. It's the only one I've read so far of these 33 1⁄3 explorations of Marvel history, but it got me interested in reading more.

The Seasons Vol. 1

Young Spring Seasons is the last hope to save her sisters and parents from the grip of sinister carnival that invades their home town. This series by Remender, Alzaceta and Lopez has been called a "dark fairytale" and "whimsical horror," which seem apt descriptors. Remender has said The Adventures of Tintin and the works of Miyazaki were inspirations, which I can also see, particularly the former as it seems a very "European style" comic to me

When I saw the announcement for the Marvel Age of Comics series, I said to some friends of mine that they seemed like the comics-related version of the 33 1⁄3 series, and apparently, I was more right than I new. They are published the same publisher (Bloomsbury), and I came across a press release that that says they were "inspired in part by Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 books."

Where the 33 1⁄3 books gave an author's idiosyncratic take on an album, the Marvel Age of Comics seem to cover a notable storyline or era in Marvel history. I decided to sample the series with The Mighty Avengers Vs. the 1970s by Paul Cornell. I suspect that, like the series that inspired them, these books will vary in how they are written and the insight provided, but on the basis of this one, I plan to check out more.

Cornell gives a compelling overview of the decade, breaking it up into the runs of the various writers (Thomas, Englehart, Shooter, and the fill-in writers), and examining how their approaches and concerns influenced the title. In centering the narrative on the writers, the artists are perhaps given short shrift, though George Perez is singled out for a good deal of praise. Cornell his talent for scene composition and character expression likely influenced writers both working with him and thereafter on the title.

Cornell's description of the series and its virtues is personal, reminding me at time of Morrison's Supergods, but is more concrete and informative rather than speculative. The complete Marvel neophyte will be confused, probably, but and the Avengers scholar might find it shallow. It appears to be gauged for the familiar, but not the expert, which is probably the right approach.