Elementals: How the War Was Won (1996) #1-2 by Jack Herman, Tony Daniel and others
Heh. “Art by ‘SPAWN’ artist Tony Daniel” on the cover. The story here is (if I understand things correctly) that during the years Comico went on a hiatus, publisher Andrew Rev continued getting Elementals comics produced. In an interview, Daniel explained what the setup — he got scripts, drew the pages, sent them in and got paid — but since nothing was actually published, it apparently felt a bit like working in a void.
So when he got the opportunity to jump ship to Image, he took it immediately, so his Spawn comics (drawn in a more Image-like style) were published before his Elementals comics.
And… this comic, man. OK, before Comico’s hiatus, Bill Willingham had been gearing up for years for “The Oblivion War”. Then when Comico returned, all the Elementals books took place after the war had been finished, and I started to assume that I had just completely blanked on everything (not unlikely when it comes to these comic books) and that the Oblivion War had already been completed. I’d just forgotten.
But instead the explanation appears to be something completely different: After returning from the hiatus, apparently Comico thought it would be better to publish comics that took place after the end of the war, so that new readers could get some good jumping on #1s (instead of having the new #1 being the end of a long storyline).
So it appears (I use that word a lot here because I can’t actually find anybody from Comico saying this directly) that they just shelved publishing the issues that were going to be the end of the original Elementals v2 series… but they had indeed been made. And now they’re being published as a four issue mini-series.
I guess this approach makes sense? But also: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING
So this would appear to have originally have been planned as Elementals v2 #27:
As indeed this 1990 ad says.
So if you haven’t been engrossed in the Elementals storyline, this issue probably wouldn’t make that much sense to you. We’re not really told (in story) who these people are, or who they’re fighting — I’d forgotten that the woman in purple is the villain, for instance…
Heh, there was going to be an Oblivion II mini-series? This never happened.
The evil Oblivion evil guys explain their dastardly plot to entrap Monolith…
… but forget that he has ears and can easily kill them and stuff. Oops! Those evil hench guys sure are stupid, eh? Eh? EH!?
Such drama! But… how did he manage to cut off his lower half in that doorway without cutting off his own arm? His hand is clearly on his ass…
HEY! I FOUND A LOGICAL INCONSISTENCY IN THIS ELEMENTALS ISSUE DO I GET A PRIZE WHOOO
War is hell! But involves a lot of people lounging around in porn poses, though.
Eeek! Well, he survived that portal incident…
Lady Bathory’s series never happened…
The Elementals vs. The Charnal Priests (!) series never happened… But I wonder whether that, too, had been made, and is still in Rev’s archives, unpublished?
So this issue first sorta ends with a lead-in to the aforementioned mini-series…
… and then ends for real in this kinda mysterious way. But there were going to be four more issues — both presumably already made, but they remain unpublished.
But! If you call Andrew Rev, he might license you the rights! Elementals™, Cold Blooded™ (never heard of) and many more. “Proven Wide-Audience Market Appeal”! Wow! Call him now!
These two issues aren’t all that bad, really. If they had been published as #27 and #28, as originally planned, there wouldn’t have been much to say about them… and I still don’t, I guess? As super hero war issues go, they’re… there.
But as a mini-series, they’re pretty weird.
This series got no publicity at the time, apparently, and nobody has written about it afterwards either, according to Google.