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Heroes For Hire #5
posted January 4, 2019
 

Creators: John Ostrander, Pascual Ferry, Jaime Mendoza
Publishing Information: Marvel, comic-book format, 32 pages, November 1997, $1.99.
Ordering:

This comic book ended up in my possession when Laughing Ogre donated some giveaway comic books to Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. It looked like an aggressively 1997 mainstream comic so I've read it a few times wile the pile of like books marches by. It's fairly bonkers. I know there's a re-appreciation of terrible 1990s superhero comic books, I think in part because of ragged awfulness and excess of their storytelling and the thoroughness to which many of them give themselves over to the propulsive aspects of the story. Everything in this comic is designed to make my head hurt, including any appearance by supporting cast members.

I don't remember a lick of plot, but I do remember a White Tiger that's an actual tiger. That seems like something that led nowhere interesting. As if summoned forth by that notion we see an appearance by Jim Hammond, the Robert Alda of mainstream superhero characters. He's in some sort of organization leadership position or another that has little to no effect on me even when I try to let it have one. Also everyone is screaming at one another and a horse flies underwater. This all sounds much better than it actually is, and one feels the urge to hire the lead characters away from their current predicament even if you really don't have anything to do.

Comics like these pretend that they exist on an important continuity with older issues where the events from right now and from 25 years ago have equal weight and volume. It's never been a guarantee from those comics.