BABE Of The DAY - JANE RUSSELL...

Hats off to all you Criv-ites - it's the ravishing

JANE RUSSELL.  Isn't she a picture?  (And I've

got the negatives.  No - they're not for sale.)

The UNTOLD LEGEND Of CAPTAIN MARVEL - COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

It seems like only a few scant years ago when I bought The UNTOLD LEGEND Of CAPTAIN MARVEL, but in truth, it was a staggering 20 years back when I acquired numbers 1 & 3 of this 3 ish mini-series.  For some unknown or forgotten reason, #2 was never put aside for me, and it was always my firm intention to obtain it whenever the first opportunity to do so presented itself.

However, it was a case of 'out of sight, out of mind', and it was only when I was occasionally looking through the comics collection in my cupboard that I was reminded of my task.  "Must get that missing issue!" I'd think, only to promptly forget my resolution the second I closed the cupboard door.  However, last time, I kept the two mags out to remind me, and, recently, I saw the missing ish on eBay for a reasonable price and bought it.

It arrived about an hour ago, and I instantly put it in sequential order between its companion issues and then sat back and congratulated myself on finally fulfilling this long-held intention to complete the set.  However, as I said, it only seemed a few years 'long', not the 20 it actually was.  My very next act will be to read the latter two numbers, having read the first ish a couple of nights back.

What attracted me to the first issue in 1990 was seeing Captain Mar-Vell in the original green and white costume he wore in his inaugural appearance in MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #12 way back in 1967.  The odd colour combo shouldn't work on a superhero outfit, but somehow it does - for me at least.  Having now re-browsed through all three issues to get a taste of them, I'm not expecting a classic, but it'll be good to finally lay yet another 'ghost' to rest after all this time.

So, tell you what.  Why not join me in a look at the covers and some interior pages to celebrate me finally completing my quest?  That way, perhaps I won't feel so guilty about putting these comics in a cupboard and forgetting about them for a while - until the next time I'm in there looking for something that is.

You ready?  Okay, then let's go, go, GO!

I don't care what it looks like - he's not doing that, okay?

LOOK BACK And WONDER...

There's a paradoxical element to collecting old comics, or, indeed, just about anything that reminds us of our past.  On the one hand, re-acquiring something we had as children or teenagers brings that period in our lives alive again, making it seem not so long ago as is actually the case; on the other (on rare moments), the realisation that we first owned something over, say, 40 years ago, brings home to us just how much water has passed under the bridge since then.

It's strange, therefore, to think that the very things that bring us joy, or comfort, are the same things that can sometimes cause painful awareness of how fast our lives are racing towards their inevitable conclusion.  At times I'll look at a comic that I first bought in, say, 1968, and, in my mind, I'm back in the house I lived in at the time, and long-deceased friends and family are still alive, and favourite-but-long-gone shops are still open.  When one is 'in' that moment, it's exhilarating, but once the moment passes (as it must), it can leave us all-too aware that a huge gulf separates us from earlier times.

Most of the time I derive great satisfaction from owning various items from my youth, whether they be replacements or the originals, but I occasionally wonder if it might've been better to leave the past in the past and instead focus on the here and now.  When we spend our lives living in the past, it can distract us from enjoying the present as it unfolds, and though the future will yet creep up on us all like a thief in the night, we can keep half-an-eye out for its sly approach, and are, hopefully, less likely to be surprised - at least to the same extent - by its eventual and irrevocable arrival.

(I wonder if I'd be so entranced by the past if I didn't have so many material objects around to remind me of it?  Perhaps they're like a magnet that attracts my attention, and if I didn't have them, I'd never think back to the times when I first got them.  Maybe the simple act of owning them focusses my mind on those earlier eras.)

So what do you think, Criv-ites?  Do you believe that life is for living, rather than 'reliving', and that we should anticipate moments-to-come, instead of reminiscing about times that are gone - or can there be room in our lives for both?  Let's hear what you think on the matter.