I’ve been working my way through a pile of back issues that I’ve bought over the last couple of years, mostly from my LCS’ quarter bin sale. In a number of cases, they’re beat-up copies of Eighties Marvel books that are so damaged and mildewed, recycling them is really the only option. In other cases, they’re worth keeping or actually plug a hole or two in my back issue want list.

Then there’s stuff I grab out of sheer curiosity or because it’s Nineties kitsch.

The Nineties were a wild decade for comics, and I know that all of us who were there can agree on that. For every landmark book or first appearance of a character now in a movie, there was a lot of garbage or weirdness. So here are some books that kind of cover all of that.

Penguin Triumphant (DC): This was one of two prestige format one-shots released to coincide with Batman Returns hitting theaters (the other was Catwoman Defiant). It has a gorgeous Brian Stelfreeze cover with the character’s name in foil. Written by Jon Ostrander and drawn by Joe Staton and Bob Smith, it’s a story of about how Oswald Cobblepot is released from jail and then decides to “go legit” by making a ton of money off of the stock market (even though he’s playing it illegally) all so that he can set up his former bully for a fall. he enlists the help of a former woman on whom he had a crush in high school and once paid $300 to attend the prom with him (right out of Can’t Buy Me Love). Apparently, this messed her up to the point where she’s been married several times and will really do anything for money. Penguin is even able to buy Wayne Manor at one point, which is all Batman’s plan to ensnare him in a trap. Of course, it works. Ostrander writes a decent caper story. Staton and Smith, whose work I normally love, are hit and miss with the artwork. Still, this is a keep.

What The …? #20 (Marvel): I’ve picked up issues of What The …? here and there over the years and have enjoyed their juvenile comics parody humor, but they’ve never done anything to make me want to put a real collection together. This is the same. It’s an “Infinity Wart” crossover featuring Forbush Man getting a big reality-shaping wart and eventually going up against Negative Forbush. To take down his evil twin, he teams up with Wolverina; Milk and Cookies; and Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham. The inclusion of Spider-Ham made the issue a fun read and I did enjoy it, but you can tell that it hit a lot better when it came out in 1992 when the Infinity War was a big deal. Trash.

More Than Mortal Saga #1-2 (Liar Comics): Coming from later in the decade (about 1998), these are two that I found in the bins that I was curious about more than anything. It seems to be a spin-off of series called More Than Mortal that ran for only six issues, the last two of which were published by Image in 1999. With a sexy sword-wielding protagonist on the cover of issue #1 and partial nudity on the cover of issue #2, I was expecting typical ’90s male gaze junk; surprisingly, it wasn’t that. It’s more or less a Celtic Red Sonja that doesn’t really go for the T&A that a lot of books of the time did. The story was pretty decent, although hard to follow at times and very wordy. It’s not the type of thing I’m going to keep looking for. Trash.

Poizon #1/2 and Lethal Strike #1/2: Now we’re talking Nineties and definitely talking about the stuff you’d see way back in the depths of Previews after you’d flipped through DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, and five other small publishers. The company London Night, published a number of comics from 1992-1999 and was a launching point for comics creators such as Billy Tucci, David Mack, and Ed McGuinness. The company build a “universe” of books on the back of Razor, which was a badass heroine in a skimpy leather outfit. These two books are related to that in some capacity (at least Poizon is as far as I could tell) and have everything you expect from around that time: lots of big panels, poses, “bad-ass” dialogue, and art that wants to be of the early Image style. The back of Poizon #1/2 promises that the series was going to be HOT! It’s not to crap on the creative efforts of people, but I always find it interesting when you can tell that they are trying really hard to be something beyond a second-rate version of what had already run its course. Trash.