Deathstroke From 1995's SkyBox DC Power Chrome Legends '95

In the midst of the nonsense that was the 1990s "extreme," in 1995 DC Comics and Skybox released the 1995 SkyBox DC Power Chrome Legends '95 trading card set. Utilizing the same technology that brought us the super-rad Chromium comic book covers, Skybox incorporated chrome into steroid-inspired artwork that was ubiquitous prior to the soon-to-implode comic book market. Images of a sealed box and unopened packages of this set are posted below.

Of particular interest to this blog was card #47, which featured everyone's favorite assassin: Deathstroke the Terminator. In addition to the unnaturally massive physique and the mandatory 90s open-mouth snarly face was, what is either visible breath from being in the cold or smoke billowing from his mouth, which no doubt came from the red-hot 90s rage, which apparently literally burned within him. Card #47 front and back images are posted below.

Art by Sergio Cariello

Art by Sergio Cariello

But wait, that's not all the 90s extreme Deathstroke-related goodness offered by the SkyBox DC Power Chrome Legends '95 trading card set. Card #78 blessed us with the special gift of the DC New Blood, Gunfire, who naturally was also sporting mandatory the open-mouth snarl face. Card #78 front and back images are posted below.

Art by Ed Benes

Art by Ed Benes

Just looking at the radical, kick-ass goodness that was the SkyBox DC Power Chrome Legends '95 cards, one can almost hear the faint creaking of the comic book market about to collapse under the weight of its own die-cut, chromium covered awesomeness. EXTREME!!!

Deathstroke In 1996s SkyBox DC Outburst: Firepower Trading Card Set

In 1996, SkyBox released the DC Outburst: Firepower trading cards. As evident from the packaging image below, these cards were the first trading cards starring the heroes and villains from DC Comics that was fully embossed. Deathstroke was featured on card #36 decked out in his "second blue period" costume. Images of a factory-sealed box, two unopened packs, and card #36 front and back are posted below.

A factory-sealed SkyBox DC Outburst: Firepower box of trading cards

Superman version of the unopened
DC Outburst: Firepower card packs

Batman version of the unopened
DC Outburst: Firepower card packs

DC Outburst: Firepower Trading Card #36 front

DC Outburst: Firepower Trading Card #36 back

Dare the Terminator Related Cards from 1996's SkyBox Amalgam Card Set

The year 1996 brought us a unique time in American comic book history. DC Comics and Marvel Comics, the two largest comic book companies in the entire world, not only came together for an inter-company publishing event but for a short time, they actually merged their fictional universes to form the Amalgam Comics Universe. In conjunction with a series of co-published comic books, DC, Marvel, and partner SkyBox produced a set of trading cards based upon the Amalgam Universe. Posted below are images of all of the cards related to Dare the Terminator, Amalgam Comics' merging of Daredevil and Deathstroke the Terminator.

Card #34 Catsai front
Art by Scott McDaniel

Card #34 Catsai back

Card #35 Dare front 
Art by Scott McDaniel

Card #35 Dare back

Card #57 Femmes Fatale front
Art by Scott McDaniel

Card #57 Femmes Fatale back

Card #62 The Big Question front
Art by Scott McDaniel

Card #62 The Big Question back

Card #86 Lethal, Deadeye, Wired front
Art by Scott McDaniel

Card #86 Lethal, Deadeye, Wired back

Amalgam Classics Power Blast Card #5 of 9 front
Art by Barry Kitson

Amalgam Classics Power Blast Card #5 of 9 back

The Ravager in 1995's Skybox DC Villains: Dark Judgment Card Set

After the success of 1994's DC Master Series Trading Card Set, the following year, Skybox released another set of fully painted trading cards with the DC Villains: Dark Judgment card set. The set consisted of a cover card, 88 villain cards, and one checklist card in addition to a 3 chase card sets. Card #17 featured Wade DeFarge, Slade Wilson's hate-filled half-brother as well as the third version the Ravager. Front and back images of the Ravager card, painted by D. Alexander Gregory, appear below.

Gunfire in 1994's Skybox DC Master Series Trading Card Set

Skybox released the DC Master Series in 1994, which featured fully painted artwork with gold foil embossed lettering. Gunfire was the spotlight for card #80; the front and back of which are featured below.

Deathstroke in 1994's Skybox DC Master Series Trading Card Set

Luckily for trading card collectors in 1994, the Walmart ripoff set wasn't the only DC card set released that year. Skybox also put out the DC Master Series, which featured fully painted artwork with gold foil embossed lettering. Deathstroke was the spotlight for card #63; the front and back of which are featured below.

Artwork for Deathstroke's card was painted by Dave Devries. Pictured below is Devries' original pencils for the card's design.

Deathstroke in 1994's SkyBox DC Stars Card Set

To paraphrase a classic line from Star Wars, "Walmart. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." Ok, Walmart may not be that bad, but then again many employees past and present beg to differ. Walmart sucks and 1994's SkyBox DC Stars Card Set is just one more reason why. It seems that Walmart wanted in on the comic book properties' highway to hell that was the comic book boom and crash of the 90s. But, they weren't just on the highway, they were in the Walmart exclusive merchandise lane of the highway.

Walmart wanted a DC Comics card set that would only be sold in their fine stores so they had SkyBox "create" the DC Stars Cards set. This Walmart exclusive set featured a whopping, count them, 45 cards. But the best part was that there was absolutely no original art commissioned for the cards. Skybox simply recycled artwork from the then only two-year-old DC Comics Cosmic Cards set as well as artwork from the three-ring binder formated Who's Who series from the early 90s. The results were just as worthless as one would imagine they would be. Deathstroke was unfortunately featured on card #30, which was made from recycled his Cosmic Cards artwork. All of Slade Wilson's Walmart exclusive trading card "glory" is pictured below.

The two Deathstroke cards juxtaposed here shows the retreaded artwork. The 1992 DC Cosmic Card on the left and the 1994 DC Stars Card on the right.

Deathstroke's DC Stars Cards card #30 front and back.

 

Deathstroke and Gunfire in 1993's SkyBox DC Comics Bloodlines Trading Card Set

Ok, just to drive yesterday's Gunfire feature even farther down everyone's throats, here is some Bloodlines 90s extreme merchandise (I had to use the word "extreme" when talking about the 90s, it's the law). To promote the 1993 storyline, Skybox released a set of DC Comics Bloodlines trading cards. This set featured not only the heroes who debuted in the storyline, but the heroes in whose titles they debuted, the Bloodlines parasites, and different happenings within the storyline. The set featured 79 regular cards and two checklists with a normal art side on the front, but the back was a single piece of a larger image.

Card #40, called "Lock and Load!" features Deathstroke fighting the alien parasite Venev.

Card #41 spotlights Gunfire in the aptly named card, "The Heat of Gunfire!"

Card #42 spotlights our "heroes" together in, you guessed it, "Deathstroke & Gunfire!"

Card #68 features Gunfire in a character profile care.

Jericho in 1992's DC Comics Cosmic Cards Trading Card Set

Pictured below is card #98 from the 1992 Impel DC Cosmic Cards trading card set, which is Jericho's "World's Mightiest Villains" card.

Deathstroke on a POG, I Mean a Milkcap, I Mean a Skycap...eh, Whatever.

As I discussed in the earlier trading card posts, during the 1990s, (before the speculator-driven comic book crash of course) comic book properties were showing up in all manner of unusual places. One of those places was in the 90s trend known as "POGS" (named for a juice brand that popularized the caps) or "milkcaps."

POGS/milkcaps was an old Hawaiian children's' game, which utilized small cardboard disks that used to come with glass milk and juice bottles. Each player would chip in an equal number of decorated milkcaps to be stacked art-side down form a small tower-like structure. Each player would take turns tossing a thicker disc, made of plastic or rubber, known as a "slammer," which would topple the stack. Any milkcap that landed art-side-up could then be claimed by that player, while all milkcaps that landed art-side-down were re-stacked for the next player's turn. This procedure continued until there were no more milkcaps left in the stack, at which point the player who had accumulated the most milkcaps was declared the winner. Games could be played "for keeps" in which everyone kept all of the caps that they won and give up the ones won by other players, or "not for keeps" in which everyone's original milkcaps were returned to them when the game was over.

The POGS/Milkcaps craze hit the U.S. in the early 1990s with all manner of licensed properties being featured on the tiny cardboard discs. Not to be left behind, in 1993 Skybox, the manufacturer of DC Comics trading cards at the time, capitalized on the fad by releasing a set of 54 "Skycaps" featuring characters from DC Comics. Skycap #37 showcased everyone's favorite mercenary/assassin, Deathstroke. The art side and back side of Deathstroke's Skycap are pictured below.

A prototype Skycaps Slammer and a normal DC Slammer are pictured below.

In an effort differentiate themselves from the rest of the Milkcaps crowd, Skycaps changed the game's rules a bit so that instead of the player claiming the art-side-up caps, the Skycaps player would claim the art-side-down caps as explained in the official rules/checklist card pictured below.