Marvel's 1994 X-Men/Captain Universe personalized comic

The above advertisement and mail-in form appeared in a lot of Marvel Comics in 1994; I remember seeing it all the time, but I never went ahead and placed an order. The ad was for an X-Men/Captain Universe crossover comic (officially titled "X-Men/Captain Universe: Sleeping Giants") that would be personalized for each and every order. If that weren't cool enough, the book had a cover by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt.

I probably never got this because of a combination of things: I was never a big X-Men fan, I didn't want to rip anything out of my comics, and at 13, $14.95 plus shipping seemed like a lot of money. Still, probably because of that dang cover, it was one of the various promotional comics that has managed to stick in my mind ever since I saw it.

Twenty-five years later, the book is relatively hard to find and usually not cheap, either, but after searching for a number of years, I managed to get a copy. It was a little beat up and didn't have the accompanying trading card, but at least I was able to get one for a price that wasn't too steep.

And then, of course, two weeks later, I found another, nicer copy for even cheaper. What can I say? The (Captain) universe is funny like that. So now I have two copies of this mail-in book, ones that once belonged to Josh Meinhausen and Allen Bechy. Josh's copy was more well-read, to be sure. I also get the feeling that the post office didn't take great care of these in transit back in '94. Nice copies are tough to come by.

Captain Universe is a relatively obscure cosmic Marvel character, which combines the "Enigma Force" (sometimes called the "Uni-Power") with a nearby host; the idea here is that Captain Universe is "the hero who could be you!" So in times of crisis, the power is granted to someone in need. That seems built in for a story like this, where folks could write in and get their name in an actual Marvel Comic.

From what I can gather, the trading card (also personalized) came stuck, face down, to the front cover when it arrived. Maybe the white strip had sticky stuff (official term) on it or something. Anyway, mine is detached, but it doesn't take anything away from the presentation. And the card is harder to find than the book, for obvious reasons. This also features Hildebrandt Bros. artwork!

Let's take a look inside the book. One thing that became obvious really quickly was that the book takes absolutely every opportunity to put the buyer's name in. It probably shows up, almost shamelessly, 30 times throughout the book. You're welcomed on the inside front cover with a letter from Stan Lee himself.

Allen Bechy's copy had text that didn't line up super well in the printing process, which I'm sure what a disappointment at the time. And the personalized text has a different weight and feel to it than the other, standard stuff, but it's still kind of impressive that this worked out at all on such a large scale.

The story is by Bob Budiansky and Jim Craig, both industry veterans if not stars. The plot is fairly generic: a kid (ostensibly you) travels to New York City where bad stuff happens. You're transformed into Captain Universe, team up with the X-Men (after a brief confrontation), and save the day. Everything about it is very 1990s, but it's about what you might expect from a comic like this from '94.

"Suddenly, I'm not plain old Allen Bechy anymore!"

The X-Men show up at the shopping mall where this all goes down. Wolverine is unnecessarily aggressive the whole way through.

See? Wolverine threatens to rip your lungs out. For no reason! Why did this make it into the book?

The mail-in form asked for your home town, for the purpose of tossing it out there a few times. So now we're closer to showing up at Allen Bechy's house in Utica, NY.

It also asked for a friend's name, as your character stops to make a phone call. Josh's friend was "Dad".

Well, it looks like Captain Universe saves the day! Here's some more poorly aligned text! Oh well.

On the inside back cover, you can get a personalized letter from Charles Xavier.

The back cover also folds out into a double-sided poster, complete with your name on both. These are also by the Hildebrandts, and are more satisfying to look at than the entire interior comic.

A lot of kids tore their posters out, as well, so I'm lucky that I was able to get a copy that was in good shape.

The very back cover - also personalized, as no space could go to waste - tells you a little bit about Captain Universe.

There are two versions of this book: one with a male Captain Universe and one with a female version. As you might expect, the female version of the book is much more rare and thus expensive. I don't know if I'll ever shell out $300 for that version, but I'm at least happy to have finally found a copy for myself. It was an ambitious and fun concept and I'm sure it made a lot of kids happy for Christmas of '94.

Pictures from the 2015 Comic-Con International, part 4: Friday (Rick and Morty, Rotten Tomatoes, Seth Meyers and more!)

I just got back from the New York Comic Con, so...I guess it's time to share pictures...from a different Comic-Con! Why not. Here's Friday at Comic-Con in lovely San Diego!

This banner always seems to tucked away. Unless you enter from one side, you won't see it. But here it is.

It's always fun to make new friends at the show.

This picture doesn't really do the thing justice. It's the Devastator combiner from the Transformers line.

This was a pretty popular display for obvious reasons. LEGO always seems to show up big for these events. I wonder if these get pulled apart after conventions are end, or if they're stored whole in a big LEGO warehouse.

While walking the floor, I ran into and probably embarrassed comic creators Mark Waid and Christy Blanch!

I'm not much of a panel goer at these shows, with a few exceptions, but I did take in a few.

This one was particularly interesting because a guy with stuffed dogs strapped to him came up and asked a question. I saw him a few other times over the weekend, and each time he had more dogs on him, including one time where the dogs surrounded his head. It was interesting.

It's the obligatory "going down the escalator at Comic-Con" shot! Yeah!!

I had took a few minutes on Friday afternoon to pick up my pre-orders from Mattel. I'm always a little stunned at the volume that big companies sell at this show. This is just one room full of items that were also on sale elsewhere at the show. There's even plastic wrap covering the floors to protect the carpet. Here's to consumerism, I guess!

While walking back to the convention, though the hotel, I found this gentleman with the Super Mario Bros. backdrop. This is the voice actor who plays Mario in the video games. Yes, he was doing the voice for those who dropped by, too.

Back to the convention hall - what a great Hawkgirl!

Here's Thanos and Loki.

I tried to make it to a Rick and Morty panel, but apparently I didn't get there in time. I was no where near making it in. It's a shame, but I got lucky later in the evening and it made up for this disappointment. On the way over, though, I saw some good costumes, including this one of two-ton 21!

X-23 and Wolverine.

Adult Swim had a big presence at the show, as in years past. This time they were set up behind the convention hall.

Rick and Morty seemed to be the biggest focus of all the [AS] displays and events. It's my favorite new show on the network (is Adult Swim a network?), so it was nice to see that other people apparently enjoy it as well.

There are always impressive costumes at this show, but this one might have been my favorite because of how dang accurate it was and how much this lady looked the part. I half expected to see her start stretching. Fantastic job.

CHECK OUT THIS AMALGAM COSTUME! That's the Storm/Wonder Woman hybrid from DC and Marvel's joint venture in the '90s. The Storm costume is really impressive as well, but I can't get over the great mashup.

Entertainment Earth had a number of celebrity signings at their booth over the weekend, and they were surprisingly easy to get into. I won the opportunity to meet late night host and SNL alumni Seth Meyers, who, by the way, is a big fan of Pittsburgh sports. We talked about the Pirates and Steelers briefly, and I got a few signed items from him. It was an incredibly smooth process, so hats off to Entertainment Earth for setting this up.

It's weird to say that I met Jamie Hyneman from "Mythbusters" in the bathroom at Comic-Con, but that's what happened. He was washing his hands and I didn't know how to approach him. The correct answer was to wait until we were both out of the bathroom, so I'm glad that I remembered some common human etiquette before getting this picture.

Matthew and John Yuan played on season four of Arrested Development. I saw them walking around in 2013 but managed to get a picture this year in which we semi-recreate one of my favorite scenes from the show. Both of the guys were very friendly and let me ask them the questions that they probably always get.

I was excited to once again make it to the Rotten Tomatoes "Your Opinion Sucks!" panel in the evening. This is one of the only panels that I feel I have to make it to every year, and it did not disappoint once again. It's lively and fun and everyone should try to see one at some point. This one was pretty crowded, so I guess people are getting the memo.

Emcee Grae Drake was in a Muppet costume.

And I got a picture with Rotten Tomatoes EIC Matt Atchity after the panel as well.

The show closed for the night after the panel, at which time I rushed out of the building in an attempt to make it to the Rick and Morty screening that was happening immediately after. We barely made it in, but it was a successful attempt.

There was a Star Wars event happening nearby...and soon after we sat down, fireworks started to go off. This drowned out everything else that was happening nearby, so we all just sat and watched the fireworks for ten minutes or so.

The screening consisted of Rick and Morty creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland acting out a scenario while animators drew the character. It quickly devolved into madness. Seth Green was in the audience, and he was invited up to perform as well. Most if not all had a few drinks beforehand, so it went how you might expect.

At the end of the night, we all got to see an early screening of a season two episode! This ended up being the second episode from the new season.

As we were leaving, I got to see my good Comic-Con friend, Russian Guyovich! There was apparently a Venture Bros. screening the night before, and an upcoming episode of that show was played for the unsuspecting audience. I guess I'll have to catch that when the new season (finally, mercifully) starts next year.

Two more days to go! We'll get there. And then maybe some NYCC pictures, too.

Pictures from the 2014 Comic-Con International, part 6: We'll Never Stop (Matt Groening, Godzilla, Venture Bros. and more!)

You thought that I was done showing pictures from Comic-Con?  NEVER!  Who knows...maybe these will wrap right around until Comic-Con 2015 shows up.  It'd be like a party that never ends.  Let's see some pictures!

This was the result of the furious last-minute work that I witnessed on the day before the convention started.  Why Godzilla came back to Comic-Con, as the movie was already released months in advance of the show, is beyond me.  But it provided something for the back lawn of the convention center, which had in previous years been mostly...lawn.  I look to see more and more take up space in this area in years to come.

I spotted this at the Alex Ross booth while walking the floor in the morning.  It was tempting to buy some Fantastic Four art at the show, and though this is most likely the only original Ross art that I'll ever be able to afford, $500 seemed a bit much for these sketches.  I might regret not ponying up for this one day.

I didn't go to too many panels at Comic-Con this year, but I was glad that I was able to sit in on the Venture Bros. panel at an adjacent hotel.  I waited in line in the hot sun (it was warmer than usual this year) and got a nice burn on the top of my head (...), but it was a fun panel, as always.  On the double screen is co-creator and Tick alumni Jackson Public!

Friday was a big costume day.  I mean, they're all big costume days, but I saw more on Friday than on previous days.  Here's an in-character Judge Dredd!

I assume this fellow is wearing stilts.  A very impressive costume on a very hot day.  Also, hi, Sailor Moon.

After the convention, it was time to stop at the should-be-world-famous Taco Truck.  I was thrilled to see it back this year, and it did not disappoint.  Delicious.

After eating my chicken burrito, I made my way over to the New England Comics booth.  On the way there, I passed by Simpsons and Futurama creator Matt Groening (!), who was just browsing, probably happy that no one was bothering him at the moment.  I, of course, ruined that peace and solitude, but Groening was very friendly and gracious.  I gave him a copy of The Naked Man at the Edge of Time, which I luckily happened to be carrying with me, and got this nice picture.  I made sure that I blabbed a bit about Futurama, which I'm convinced will return with new episodes before long.

This gentleman was trying his hardest to make it to the bathroom, but he kept being stopped by passers by for pictures.  It's hard to blame them when a Ninja Turtle walks by.  This picture was taken, no lie, right after he knocked a little kid over.  It was something.

This guy obviously made a good Silver Surfer.  Here he is with the Invisible Woman - don't see enough good Fantastic Four costumes at these shows - and the Sandman.

We had a small (but enthusiastic!) FUBAR signing at Jenny Wood's "Flutter" booth on Friday afternoon.  We had posters made up for it and everything!  It was very exciting.  Here's Jennie signing a poster as fellow FUBAR contributor (and "Punky Brewster" artist) Lesley Vamos looks on!

Group shot!

James Urbaniak, voice of Dr. Venture on The Venture Bros. cartoon, walked by the booth and I immediately chased him down.

I was having a string of luck as soon after I saw Bruce Timm, a fantastic artist and one of the driving forces behind the 1990s Batman: The Animated Series.

Then it was back to the Tick booth, where Ben Edlund signed books and sketched for fans.  It's pretty awesome that Ben still hangs out at this booth (and recognizes my existence) after all he's accomplished as a writer and producer.

I'm pretty sure that this guy dressed up as the Sub Mariner in 2013.  Here he is as the Weapon X Wolverine.  The pouches on his waist were apparently functional, as he answered a phone call soon after.

I'll never get tired of seeing Chairface Chippendale costumes.  This was a very good one.  The lycra headpiece really sells it.  Top notch.

I'll leave you with this nightmare imagery as this closed down Friday at the convention for me.  I'll save some pictures from the evening for next time.  There'll always be a next time, folks.