Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jun 21, 2024 | 2 comments

It’s two mags in one and makes for a satisfying reading experience…

I’m gonna address the elephant in the room right off: I do not believe that Roy Thomas co-created Wolverine any more than Julius Schwartz co-created Ra’s al Ghul. I think the whole thing is pretty lousy. Like any great editors they had ideas, concepts and suggestions but it was the writers and artists (Len Wein, John Romita, Herb Trimpe for the former; Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams for the latter) who deserve the credit. That said, in general terms, the creative process is often complicated and “who did what” can frequently be difficult to parse.

(If you haven’t been following the controversy, click here.)

I mention this not to knock Thomas but because you cannot take away from him his own foundational work as an editor, writer, creator and historian. (And no, I’m not inviting a big debate about this in the comments. I’m just confronting it so we can move on to the matter at hand — a terrific magazine.) Credit where credit is due and Thomas’ Alter Ego has been, in various versions, part of the fabric of comics going back to the 1960s. This week, TwoMorrows released Alter Ego #188, an oversize issue celebrating the 25th anniversary of the mag’s latest incarnation and it is most certainly worth your time.

Actually, calling it a magazine is a bit of an undersell. It’s two magazines in one, set up flip-style: one side’s cover is Marvel, the other DC, each playing off their companies’ multiversal concepts. At 160 pages, a $24.95 price tag and heavier card stock cover, it’s more like a book than a mag. It’s jammed with interviews by historian David Armstrong, and art from some of the biggest names of the Silver Age: John Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Marie Severin, Joe Kubert and more. (Armstrong’s interviews are a new recurring feature of the title.)

To give you a SNEAK PEEK taste, here are the covers, the tables of contents and 13 PAGES highlighting much of the mag’s art — six pages DC, six pages Marvel, and a one-page tribute to the late artist Tim Sale.

Right on.

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MORE

— The Odd, Short Shady Life of 1969-71’s MARVELMANIA INTERNATIONAL. Click here.

— NEAL ADAMS, the Men of SUPERMAN Get ALTER EGO Spotlights in 2025. Click here.