Comics Make Me Happy!

Two Face by Jegang

2012-01-26T23:02:00.000-08:00

I love the graphic design elements in this work of art:

Two Face by ~Jegang on deviantART

Make sure to check out the rest of Jegang's "Arkham" gallery, too.

Just a random list of things I miss...

2011-11-19T22:32:00.001-08:00

Adam Strange in his classic costume.
Booster Gold in a solo title, in his classic costume.
J'onn J'onzz eating Oreos.
Gotham Central and Detective Renee Montoya.
Stephanie Brown
Vic Sage
Ted Kord
Two-Face and/or Harvey Dent
Single issue stories
A story arc that doesn't hinge on the world ending
Small, thoughtful stories where characters use their wits to beat a foe
Characters I can feel invested in
Harley Quinn
Actual detective comics
Denny Colt
Comics drawn by Darwyn Cooke or Bruce Timm
Secret identities

Adam Strange by Ardian Syaf

2011-11-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

Here is Adam Strange by Ardian Syaf, thankfully rendered in his classic uniform:

He's maybe just a little scowly for my taste (Adam was always a light-hearted guy in my mind), but seeing that classic uniform is enough to give me hope.

Martian Manhunter by Dave Perillo

2011-10-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

Why can't comics be like this now? I miss that retro Silver Age style.

Martian Manhunter by Dave Perillo on DeviantArt.

For those of you who just can't understand Adam Strange, this won't help

2011-10-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

I give you Adam Strange in Greek:

Unfortunately the site I found this one doesn't provide any more info. (What I'm wondering is if it's a new translation and they've reissued Showcase Presents in Greece, or if a fan made this.)

But there's always something fascinating to me about comics in foreign languages.

Laura Hudson says it better than I can

2011-09-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't felt much like reading comics lately. Part of the reason is my confusion over the DC reboot. The other reason is expressed so well by Laura Hudson over at Comics Alliance.

*sigh*

And what about some wisdom from the mouth of babes? There's a reason cartoons based on comics are so popular, and part of that reason is because TV producers have to appeal to a wider audience than comics.

Honestly, DC, I don't know what's going on over there. You're making reading comics a chore, and I don't want to work to be entertained. Escapism is why I read comics in the first place. I've dropped all my books except Stormwatch, which I am hanging onto out of sheer loyalty to my favorite hero, Martian Manhunter.

Give me some good stories, some heroes to look up to, a couple of cool fight scenes, a little bit of humor, and that's all I want out of my comics.

Come here, old JLI trades...I need you...

Superheroes art print by Danny Haas

2011-08-06T18:41:00.001-07:00

Superheroes and their secret identities:

Man Up by Liam Brazier

2011-07-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

Why does all the awesome art involve Superman?

"Man Up" by Liam Brazier

There's a real trend towards abstraction in pop art, it would seem.

J'onn J'onzz is wearing purple now...

2011-07-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

When Frank, alias "FLD," ("Fun-Loving Doofus," "Furiously Livid Dog," or "Frank Lee Delano," he's left the door open and there's no turning back now) over at the Idol-Head of Diabolu, mentioned in a post that J'onn was wearing purple, I kind of thought it was just a lighting issue. Turns out I was wrong.

He IS wearing purple. As both a purple lover and a comics purist, my emotions are torn. Do I go with the color I love so dearly, my favorite color, the color that comprises 80% of my wardrobe?! Or do I go with a pulishing history that reaches back from sixty years, and a costume that, even though it's seen its share of re-designs, still comes back to its basic form published fify-five, nay, fifty-six years ago?

Oh the drama!

You got Adam West in my Dark Knight/You got Dark Knight in my Adam West

2011-07-09T22:01:00.001-07:00

In other news, I still haven't figured out the new Blogger. Apparently some people still have the old Blogger? Maybe this is because I have a Gmail account?

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy

2011-07-09T01:48:00.000-07:00

WHOA. When did Blogger change their whole posting format? And now I have to click a button to attach tags. ARGH.

Now that I got that out of my system...

Here's some classic Bruce Timm art of good old screwball villain Harley and sarcastic villain Poison Ivy. This is an attempt to purge that redesigned Suicide Squad!Harley Quinn and Birds of Prey!Poison Ivy out of your systems.

Take two of these and call me in the morning. If you're old enough to remember that joke, bonus points for you.

Think Batman will ever be like this again?

2011-07-06T01:10:00.000-07:00

I gotta say, "HOLY STRETCH MARKS!" has now entered my vocabularly.

Look out, world. I just hope I don't run into any pregnant women between now and the time I'll forget about that phrase.

Come on, admit it. Some small part of you wants Dick back as Robin and randomly shouting things like, "HOLY HIGHER RENT DISTRICT!"

And how fares J'onn J'onzz?

2011-06-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

When I heard they were first revising the JLA to include basically the "Magnificent Seven" I thought, "Ahhh. Finally. Some JLA stories that involve my favorite Martian."

Wait, what? He's not on the team? They put all Silver Age heroes on the team, but decided that the seventh slot should go to....Cyborg? He wasn't even around in the Silver Age. He has no history whatsoever with this team. He's a Titan.

Ahhh, okay. I guess they're saving J'onn for the new Justice League International title.

What? He's not on that, either?!

Then where is he?

He's on some Wildstorm title, with characters I never knew existed. My only (heavily-biased, bitter) guess is that the conversation went something like this:

Comic Editor #1: Okay, so we've got to integrate Wildstorm into the DCU somehow. We need some C-list DC hero to bridge the gap. Hey, Dan? Who's a pathetic, loser character that no one cares about with copius amounts of untapped story potential that we keep throwing under the bus?

Dan: Martian Manhunter.

Comic Editor #1: Thanks, buddy! You're the greatest!

Then they all go out for coffee and burn down an orphanage on Christmas Eve.

And now let's talk about Barbara Gordon

2011-06-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't see this one coming.

I remember a few years ago when Gail Simone mentioned in passing on her Twitter account about how she was fighting to keep Barbara Gordon as Oracle. I had assumed it was that whole "Death of Oracle" event that was in question, but maybe it was this.

Letting Barbara Gordon go back to being Batgirl opens up a huge, gigantic can of worms, the least of which is getting rid of Stephanie Brown, the current Batgirl. Stephanie's book was kind of a sleeper that wasn't ultra-popular, perhaps becuase it was in the shadow of all the other Bat-books. (In fact, I don't think Batman ever showed up in her book.) I came to like Stephanie Brown. I really hate replacement characters, so coming from me this means a LOT. Like Miss Martian, she grew on me very slowly, and I came to really enjoy her ditzy antics, sarcastic commentary, and enthusiasm for crime-fighting. She almost reminds me of Miss Martian in a way, perhaps because they are both naive, un-ironic female characters. Her book was light-hearted, easy-to-follow, and most importantly, fun.

Barbara Gordon, as Oracle, played a supporting role in Stephanie's book, until she stopped showing up and was replaced by Firewall, whose real name I forget. Babs had to be there to pass the torch to Stephanie and give her her blessing, which is what the first arc was basically about.

Now I guess time is going to be rewound or erased or whatever, and Babs is going to be able to walk again. Sigh. It was nice seeing a character deal with a major, life-altering disability as gracefully and honestly as Babs did. It was nice seeing a disabled character be a superhero. I agree with pretty much everything Jill Pantozzi said on the subject, much more eloquently than I ever could.

While it was fun to read Batgirl: Year One (which is pretty awesome by the way) and see a Batgirl who was the daughter of the police commissioner fighting crime alongside Batman, I can't help but wonder if the trade-off is worth it.

And while we're at it, how exactly is this reboot going to work? I mean, if we're going to erase time and have the JLA only have been around for five years, then Damian-Robin wouldn't even be born. Jaime Reyes would probably be like thirteen, so how can he have his own book while Barbara Gordon is back being Batgirl? I'm confused, and DC is supposed to be using this non-reboot to make things less-confusing. And shouldn't Ted Kord not be dead, but back to being alive?

Yeah, I'm never letting that one go, DC. Ever.

You can't pick and choose your time-rewinding without it seeming obvious that you're just picking the books that sell well as opposed to the ones that don't. That's just marketing driving story, and I don't like that kind of "story-telling."

Wither Harley

2011-06-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

Oh, Harley!

What have they done to you?

Besides the fact that this outfit is ridiculous just from the sake of physics. (I mean, we're talking about a character who does a lot of cartwheels as part of her schtick. Flipping upside-down + half a bustier held together with dental floss = well, you might as well just get it overwith and run around topless, why don't you?)

Skimpy outfit aside (I'm starting to get numb to them by now...or at least not so surprised anymore) this outfit throws away one major part of the character: her association with the Joker. Harley Quinn was a character who was indirectly created by the mind of the Joker. She dressed as, well, a harlequin to go along with the clown theme. Added to the mix was that she had a background in gymnastics, and basically her suit was a unitard. Makes sense, right? I've always been a stickler for a character's outfit being a representation of his or her motive or identity.

Now what does the above costume represent? I really have no idea. It just looks like a cosplay outfit to me, reminiscent of the Arkham Asylum video game. So what kind of statement does that make?

I got nothing. A lot of fans complained about the skimpy outfit, but no one has really said anything about her lack of association with the Joker. (I'm basing this on pure assumption, taking the next logical step from Gotham City Sirens.)

Somewhere along the line, it was decided that Harley Quinn should break free of the Joker, and I never quite understood why. Do fans want to see her on her own instead of playing second giant mallet to the Joker? (If that is the case, then Gotham City Sirens shouldn't be ending.) Do fans want to see her as an anti-hero? (Having Poison Ivy in the Birds of Prey aligns with this.)

Her relationship to the Joker was such a complex and deliciously twisted one that I was sad to see it go. The Joker was her main source of motivation: she did anything to please him, much to hilarious or tragic results. Cutting her off from the Joker completely leaves her drifting in thin air as a nothing but an motive-less psycho in a skimpy outfit. Though she had broken ties from the Joker in Gotham City Sirens, he was still a looming shadow of her past that still held some sway over her psychologically. She was still motivated in some way by him, however tenuous.

So what is it you're trying to say now, DC?

Young Justice to continue

2011-06-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'm way behind on my cartoon-watching, and I take my cartoon seriously. I finally caught up with the last episode of Young Justice which aired in March.

Though Cartoon Network has a screwy kind of schedule (shows just seem to come and go at random times of the year), it looks like Young Justice has been picked up for a second season. Who-hoo! It took me a little while to warm up to the show, but I've since started to enjoy it.

The last installment didn't feel like an end to the series, and a check on Wikipedia shows that one episode still has yet to air. (Though when, it does not say.) Which is unfortunate.

But the latest episode, "Bereft," was cute and fun like most of the other episodes this season. Due to the magical plot wonders of amnesia, we finally got to hear Artemis make fun of her own outfit. (Which I personally find rather ugly.) All of the action took place in Bialya, and I love it when obscure fictional places are used. On top of all that there was a "Seinfeld" reference. (Which is really all I need to make me happy.)

Also refreshing (and maybe becuase it's for the younger set,) the show does a good job of explaining potential plotholes by having the characters ask questions of each other or narrate explanations. (Though they did not explain why they would take Aqualad, a character dependent on water, into the middle of the desert, where of course he got dehydrated.)

Each of these characters has come into their own quite well. Artemis is the cool, sarcastic foil to M'gann's bubbly air-headed cuteness. Robin is the waifish, precocious imp. Wally the hormonal, wise-cracking wannabe-lady's man, Aqualad the distant and noble leader, and Superboy is the angst-ridden awkward outsider. It's not an easy job to create that many personalities in a group and have them work together and off of each other and still leave the audience with the ability to get to know each one. So I applaud the writers for that. (Plus the voice acting is pretty darn good.) A lot of the dynamics come from who has a crush on each other and who can't stand so-and-so, but with a show aimed at tweens and teens, it's to be expected.

All in all, I like the show, which is saying a lot, because I really don't like sidekicks.

(Which of course means it's going to get cancelled sometime soon.)

But they are running re-runs every Friday night at 6 p.m., so if you haven't had a chance to watch the show or need some catching up, summer is a great time for it!

Oh, and this episode's best line:

"Artemis, to Wally: Stop touching yourself!"

Happy Flag Day!

2011-06-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

Flag Day is one of those holidays you just kinda don't think about. Well, I like me some obscure holidays.

Plus I wanted an excuse to post this Adam Hughes cover from Krypton to Earth. Becuase I like Adam Hughes.

Green Lantern by "lerms"

2011-06-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

From lerms, on DeviantArt:

An entry in the SD CCI Souvenir Book. It's unknown whether or not it made it into the book.

But I think it's pretty cool! I love how easily Hal Jordan lends himself to cartoonification.

Hitler Reacts to Flashpoint

2011-06-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a busy week.

And I've been cranky comics-wise.

So in lieu of an actual post, I gve you this. You may have seen this oft-used scene to rail against everything from stolen cars to XBox to vuvuzelas. Now Hitler's mad at DC.

Apparently Hitler is also a Grant Morrison fan.

No comment.

Batman or Shakespeare?

2011-05-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

Quick, who said the following:

Smoldering, I burn you—burning you, I flare, hot and bright and fierce and beautiful.

Or this?

Welcome destruction, blood, and massacre. I see, as in a map, the end of all.

Were those two lines from a Shakespeare play, or from a Batman comic?

You can put yourself to the test at Sporcle's "Shakespeare or Batman" quiz. You might be surprised at the answers. (I scored a measly 67%.)

After that, you can go on to quiz yourself in how many U.S. Presidents you can name in ten minutes. I somewhat redeemed my self-esteem for the paltry showing in the Shakespeare/Batman quiz by naming 36 out of 44 presidents. I'm not sure if knowing who James K. Polk is is a better thing than being able to name a Batman quote, but I take my comics quizzes seriously.

There are quite a few other comics-related quizzes at Sporcle, even quizzes relating only to DC Comics, if you want to take a look.

(Also sad: I didn't know what Captain America's real name was. Have I mentioned I want to go in to every Marvel movie completely fresh? Doesn't get fresher than that.)

Have fun!

Oh, and Frank, this one's for you:

Color me surprised!

Fisher-Price Oa Playset

2011-05-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

And how adorable is this, folks?

A Fisher-Price Oa playset, complete with Hal Jordan, Kilowog, and, nope it's not Ch'p, it's B'dg. (But I can pretend it's Ch'p all I want.) I love how GL characters (Hal Jordan included) translate so well into cartoony-ness. It's too bad they're going all sturm und drang for the movie. And guess what? The little lantern lights up, and the gun shoots stuff (yay violence!) and the tether thingy that Kilowog is on spins around and stuff.

This is why I'm not allowed in Target, becuase I would buy this for myself.

And then actually play with it. By myself.

The comics doldrums

2011-05-16T22:20:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting my poor blog lately. I didn't get any comics last week, and only two this week, including the last issue of R.E.B.E.L.S. My pull list has really dwindled and there seems less and less to be excited about in the comics world. I wasn't that thrilled with how Brightest Day panned out, so color me less than excited for Flashpoint. (Even though the promise of seeing DC's superheroes through time and especially, the past is somewhat tempting.) But the idea of trying to get a handle on a massive storyline spanning dozens (?) of books seems daunting and stressful, not fun, to me.

Even more fitting is that Smallville wrapped up with a rather lukewarm finale. I tried really hard to like that show, and there were a handful of episodes that did truly send me into a comic-induced giddy-fest, but the finale (and its preceding two episodes) just didn't do it for me. It was written more as a love letter to long-time fans, so most of the sentiment sailed farther over my head than Clark Kent finally figuring out how to fly higher than a 747. Lame simile, I know.

Also, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which was I show I initially disliked but now have come around to, has been cancelled. I do not know the fate of Young Justice (is it coming back for a second season?) and the Wonder Woman pilot has been passed over.

So it seems as though I am about to embark on a journal into a comics desert for the foreseeable future.

Does anyone have any giddy-fyingly good comics prospects that you're excited to hear about?

Happy Belated Mother's Day?

2011-05-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

Totally stealing this from mathematicsore ("m.c.") who posted this in a comment on The Idol-Head of Diabolu: (sorry!)

Oh, the good folks at Let's Be Friends Again. You make my day. Because J'onn has a juice box.

At first I thought it was Barry and I was like, "Did they just kill off his mother?" and then I realized it was Wally.

Adam and Alanna Strange by Chirs Samnee

2011-05-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

Why isn't Chris Samnee doing work for DC?

Becuase he draws a lot of great DC characters.

Adam Strange and Alanna by ~ChrisSamnee on deviant ART

Says the artist:

I took suggestions on Twitter today, and although the suggestion was just for Adam Strange, I couldn't help but include Alanna. I have a soft spot for married characters.

I miss the old Adam Strange. And Alanna. *sigh*

Wonder Woman: not a class act?

2011-04-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

Of course I can't find the link that I was going to comment on. There was another item about the Wonder Woman pilot in the news recently regarding the costume. There were some words from David E. Kelley about a scene in the pilot where Diana is driving and gets cut off by some guy, then gets pissed off and chases him down and yells at him. And I remember thinking, "That just doesn't seem like something Wonder Woman should do."

I have yet to read an actual solo Wonder Woman comic, so maybe I'm off the mark, but I always thought she was something of a dignified class act.

Or maybe she really is a little uncouth and I never noticed?

Click to en-biggen.

Wonder Woman shows up every now and then on "Hark, a Vagrant," a web comic of delightful randomness.

Booster Gold on Smallville: A Review!

2011-04-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

I don't post reviews here often enough. But over the weekend was the event that was "Booster Gold Shows Up On Smallville." There was much rejoicing. My non-comics best friend came over. I wore my Booster Gold t-shirt. We made a night of it. Becuase how else are we ever going to see B-list (okay, C-list) superheroes in live action, if not for Smallville?

I've always taken Smallville for what it is: a coming-of-age soap opera with all its trappings. I never really was a fan of it until I got roped into it by my friend, who faithfully watched the show from its beginning. I just couldn't reconcile the differences with continuity (the first example being how young Clark's parents are, the second being all these random superheroes originating in Smallville.) Anyway, when Smallville became the C-List Cameo Show a few seasons ago, and I heard the name "Maxwell Lord" uttered by my friend, I got drafted in. After giving her a DC Universe education, that is.

Geoff Johns wrote last week's Booster Gold episode, which instilled a little bit of confidence in me that one of my all-time favorite characters would be handled well. He did, after all, write a great run on Booster's solo book, which I rank as some of my favorite comic stories.

Well, I can't say I was overwhelmed by this episode, but I was just happy to see Booster Gold in live action.

The Visuals: I'm a nitpicker, and though the costume was shiny in the right places, it was lacking in others. This being Smallville, it was of course, leather, so I can forgive that, becuase every superhero costume on Smallville is leather. But I don't like fake abs. And no shiny gold pants = sadness. But it was a design I could live with.

Except for the awkward hanging crotch protector thingy. I honestly can't live with that.

I'm a big nitpicker for hair, I will admit to that. And Booster's hair was all wrong: it was just frosted blonde on the top, not all blonde, so the back of his head was brown. And his hair was just too short. For one of the DCU's most amazingest hair-dos, you've got to try harder to do it justice.

The Acting: Eric Martsolf played Booster more like his "52" incarnation: cocky, brash, self-promoting, and kind of a jerk. But a jerk with a heart of gold! I kind of prefer the screws-up-all-the-time-despite-hist-best-efforts Booster, but Martsolf played the ham quite well, and both my friend and I were entertained. And thanks to Geoff Johns, in the end of the episode we got to hear Booster talk about his insecurities, which I think is a big part of the character.

The Writing: Okay, I'm not a big Jaime Reyes fan. Not only did he start out as the replacement to Ted Kord, but I don't like the whole prisoner-of-the-scarab schtick. That's just too angsty for me, and it always seems like Jaime would fit better in the Marvel universe than the DC one. I prefer the plucky, industrious, corporate inventor Ted Kord Blue Beetle. Sorry, I just ain't letting go of Ted.

That being said, I actually liked Jaime Reyes here, which is saying a lot. He worked in the context of the Smallville universe: Geoff Johns, proving he is a master of things that make you go "awww, poor kid," (or known by the high-falutin' term, "character identification") shows Jaime being picked on by his peers involving a can of shaken soda, and just when you think things are looking up, a lovely girl comes over and hands him her can. Which then explodes in his face, proving the girl was in on it. Ouch.

Then the scarab escapes from Kord Industries and bonds with him, and things go downhill from there. Jaime comes to Booster for help, and in typical Booster fashion he brushes him off. Jaime (this time fully enclosed within the scarab armor and unable to control it) comes back to assassinate Booster. The resulting climax highlights both Jaime's need to control the scarab, and Booster's realization that he's a failure of a superhero. All of this plays out under the watchful eye of Clark Kent, who previously gave Booster his pearls of wisdom about a suit not making you a superhero, and Booster tells this to Jaime, and Jaime regains control of the suit. He then decides he'll keep the scarab and go on to fight evil with it. (Leading right into the Blue Beetle solo TV series...perhaps...) They seemed to depower Booster a bit, and though I kept yelling at the TV to "Use your force field, Booster! Use your force field!" he never did, so all he had on hand were his wrist blasters and Legion flight ring.

Right before the climax, my mother wandered into the room and after the usual questions, "Who's that guy?" which of course prompted the most cogent explanation of Booster Gold to date from myself: "It's Booster Gold, Ma. I like him because he's shiny! Look, I have his shirt!" And then we had to field all the Smallville-related questions about why there's the S-symbol but no one calls Clark Kent "Superman" and how come he's wearing a red leather jacket instead of a cape, and is that blonde girl supposed to be Lois Lane? Momma Liss = John Q. Public's view of superheroes. And kind of a vocal one. Anyway, she liked Jaime. "Oh, that poor kid!" was the verdict on Jaime.

There's also the typical intrigue of "is Booster good or isn't he?! Is he trying to take Clark's place?!" that is another staple of Smallville cameo episodes. The same was true of Ted Kord: "who is this guy working for?"

By the way.

I forgot to mention Ted Kord was in this episode.

EXCITEMENT!

I think I was more excited to see Ted Kord than I was Booster Gold. For one, the casting was dead on. Tell me this guy doesn't look like Ted:

Go ahead: tell me this guy doesn't look like Ted Kord and I will HIT you.

Not only that, but he seemed EXACTLY like the Ted Kord from Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Which made me insanely happy for some reason, to see that B:TB&TB is having an influence on someone as mighty as Geoff Johns. Hopes that it might be renewed anyone? Maybe? Please? For those not familiar with Blue Beetle's appearances on B:TB&TB, he's quite a bit more serious than the Ted of the Bwa-ha-ha JLI days, and he's intelligent, dedicated, competent, and shown as the genius industrialist that he is. Which is one aspect of his character that often falls by the wayside: people forget he invented a whole ton of gadgets. Just like Batman. Only better. Like a gravity-defying airship that'll beat out a pansy Bat-Plane anyday.

There were no silly bwa-ha-ha moments here at all, becuase not only is Smallville is a pretty dark universe, but in this incarnation, Ted and Booster don't know each other.

I know, right?! It's like...sacrilege! But if they had known each other, then Ted would've vouched for Booster's reputation, and the plot would've flown right out the window. But Ted was here, he had a sizable role, and that made me happy, and he was onscreen enough for me to annoy my friend by shouting, "OMG IT'S TED KORD!" about every thirty seconds or so. And the best part is: Ted didn't die. No one did. See? Good stories can be written where all the characters live!

Everything tied up rather nicely, with Booster taking on a mentorship role to Jaime (much like in the comics) and Ted and Booster had a chance to meet each other. Diehard Smallville fans (like my friend) were excited becuase it was the first episode where Clark used a telephone booth to change into his "costume," such as it is. I can't say I was that excited about that, only becuase I can't believe that there are phone booths in big cities anymore, but I like the nostalgia it evinces.

The verdict: It made me happy. It made my friend happy. We ended the night watching the Booster Gold episode from Justice League Unlimited to make up for the lack of Skeets in the episode. Skeet's voice could be heard on Booster's little earpiece, but we didn't see him, and he wasn't sarcastic enough. No problem, though: JLU cartoon to the rescue!

Momma Liss's verdict: "This isn't Superman!" Truer words were never said.

Booster Gold by "enolianslave" on DeviantArt

2011-04-23T02:02:00.000-07:00

Because I just saw the Booster Gold episode of Smallville, and it's been a while since he's shown up here. And becuase I love Skeets:

booster by *enolianslave on deviant ART

It's takes a little guts....

2011-04-20T01:27:00.000-07:00

...to go meta. Not "meta" like "meta gene." "Meta" like "meta-textual." Especially when you say something like this:

And so Giffen and DeMatteis's run on Booster Gold comes to a close. There's some odd banter on the Scans Daily page for this issue which bears reading.

The Crocheted Manhunter

2011-04-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, beat this for cuteness:

Oh yeah, and Batman.

A crocheted plush Martian Manhunter, made by an acquaintance of Mikeyb79 on DeviantArt. So adorable!!! I love his face. You can find pictures of other crocheted Justice Leaguers on Mikeyb79's profle on DeviantArt.

Martian Manhunter redesign by Joel Ojeda

2011-04-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

I found this somewhat randomly online. Some think the Martian Manhunter's costume is begging to be redesigned. And yet I never seem to find a redesign I fully like. This is an interesting take, especially noteworthy becuase it jettisons the red chest straps in a pretty unique way. I could actually get used to parts of this design. It's hard to tell because it's rather dark, but it looks like his cape is blue on the outside, and lined with red, which I find rather interesting as well. I could do without J'onn's tribal tattoos and claw-like fingernails, but on the whole, it's one of the few redesigns that I almost like.

What do you all think?

Never pass up an opportunity to poke fun at Batman...

2011-04-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

He has a little megaphone! :D

Three costumes for Wonder Woman

2011-04-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

Or so the president of NBC says. So she'll have the ugly light blue pleather thing, the rodeo queen star-bedazzled redesign, and the Lynda Carter original.

Also, he says that the redesigned costume wasn't becuase of fan feedback.

“There was an initial outcry about the long pants – you know, skintight pants as opposed to those little shorts [worn by Lynda Carter in the original TV series],” Greenblatt concedes to TVLine.com. “But the shorts were always planned. They are actually used in the final confrontation when she beats Veronica Cale (played by Elizabeth Hurley).”

Why are TV executives (or movie executives, for that matter) so cocksure about the changes you've made to an idea you don't own, and which has been around for seventy-plus years?

“We haven’t made any changes from what was planned,” the NBC boss reiterates. “But it’s always good to hear the feedback. I’d rather have people really passionately engaged in conversation, even if they hate something, than be kind of bored.”

Sure...I welcome your feedback, John Q. Public, but I'm not going to listen to you! Get angry about what we're doing! That means you'll TUNE IN! Muahahahahaha!

No, I'm not jaded at all. Not in the least.

You can read a more professional run-down of the latest Wonder Woman news here.

Unknown Star Wars comic art

2011-04-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been nearly a week since I posted. Time is getting away from me!

I love me some painted comics art with a Golden Age flair. It's not DC, but it's so pretty I couldn't pass it up. I'm a big Star Wars fan, but I never got into reading the comics (mostly becuase I'm one of those purists who just likes the original series.) Unfortunately, the blog where I found this doesn't tell me who painted it or where it's from.

But, hey, enjoy some pretty art. I'm a sucker for sarcastic loner space captains. Hmm...maybe I should find some Vril Dox comics to read...

Green Lantern movie Wonder-con footage...

2011-04-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

Did anyone get a gander at the exclusive scenes shown to Wonder-Con viewers?

I can't embed it, but if you go here, and click on "Wonder-con Footage," you'll see a four-minute clip from the upcoming Green Lantern movie.

I can't help feeling more and more that the approach to this movie is completely wrong. It's just too steeped in Chris Nolan Batman-esque tones, complete with Hal Jordan imitating RAWRI'MBATMANVOICE in the last lines of the clip.

I could live with that, though, if Hal Jordan still had white gloves.

But there's one line that I find ridiculous:

Tomar Re is sent to greet Hal Jordan as he arrives on Oa, and suddenly Hal's (ugly, misshapen) mask disappears. (Apparently Hal has no input into the appearance of his uniform, either.)

Hal looks puzzled, to which Tomar Re explains, "Your mask will appear when protection of your identity is required."

Hollywood-ese translation:

Ryan Reynolds wanted more face time.

*sigh*

The NEW new Wonder Woman Costume?

2011-03-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I got my computer up and running...just in time for me to get the flu! I swear, someone doesn't want me blogging. Maybe it's a conspiracy on the part of DC for all my complaining?

Well, anyway, here's a short post about the new new Wonder Woman costume. Yes, they revamped it after all of our complaining. But is it really good enough?

I don't know...it looks too similiar to the JMS revamp for my taste, and they kept the ugly plastic belt. And c'mon, jeans? That's a little too casual for a superheroine who happens to be an Amazon Princess. I know, I know, I'm just one of those people who complains no matter what. But there's so many other designs out there that I'd take over this one, including the original, several fan designs that I've featured here before (thanks for bringing that to my attention 1TrueGL), and one of my favorite, the Darwyn Cooke design.

(Which of course I can't find...but here's a Darwyn Cooke rendering of the traditional Wonder Woman outfit.)

Wow...looking at the Darwyn Cooke drawing makes me think Adrienne Palicki looks too thin for the role. She doesn't have to be a body-builder, but I like to think of Wonder Woman as a bit heftier and womanly: Marilyn Monroe instead of Kate Moss.

Oh, and here's some footage shot during filming, in case you want to see the costume in action:

Computerless!!

2011-03-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

Oh noes!

My MacBook Pro's hard drive finally couldn't take it and just decided to stop working. So I needed to wipe everything clean and start over, and unfortunately, backing up all my data from my wireless hard drive is taking upwards of three days(!)

So I probably won't be doing any substantial blogging for a little while. Hopefully things will be working once all my data is transferred (crosses fingers.)

First glimpse at the new Wonder Woman...

2011-03-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

I really have no faith in the entertainment industry at all anymore, which is why I take solace in watching old movies on TCM. Here's a picture of the new Wonder Woman costume:

I can't stand the costume at ALL, but I'm guessing maybe it's a promo picture, and/or this show is going to rely heavily on CGI. Or it's going to be constantly be nighttime on the show, a lá Smallville, so we can't tell that her tiara is plastic. I can forgive the fabric and plastic (somewhat) if they do something in CGI to fix it. Then again, I'm getting sick of CGI.

That being said, the blue boots are CRAP. Why would you want to get rid of Wonder Woman's red boots? They're iconic! The costume's fabric is cheap-looking, especially the red fabric, which looks like it came from a 1950's bar stool. And how does this girl move, let alone breathe? I feel sorry for her if she loses a contact lens and has to bend over with that pointy plastic thing sitting right on her abdomen. Goddesses don't need underwires, either, and that's the icing on this crappy Halloween costume's cake for me.

And the pipe cleaner lasso? Sigh.

For some reason Adrienne Palicki just doesn't look at fierce as she has in other pictures I've seen of her. There's a softness in her face that doesn't work for Wonder Woman. Hopefully they can play up those cheekbones somehow.

What do you guys think? Any fans of this new ensemble? (Don't be afraid to speak up!)

The unwitting victim of Batman, Inc.

2011-03-16T21:44:00.001-07:00

Wonder if he gets benefits?

The best superhero in a skirt...

2011-03-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

...is Magnus, Robot Fighter, without a doubt. Oh, you were thinking Miss Martian, maybe? Or Supergirl? Nope. It's this guy. Yep, that's right, I said "guy."

Eat your heart out, Hal Jordan.

Well, I didn't say "guy," I typed it. But enough of that.

Don't let the skirt fool you. If you're an evil robot overlord, you better watch yourself, or you'll get torn in two.

It's called a tunic, dammit!!! How many times do I have to tell you people that?! I will take out my agression on this helpless Pol-Rob. RAWRRGGH!!!

Or cleaved down the middle like warm butter...

DeviantArt by Cinar.

Or you'll get your robot head karate-chopped off.

Bringing sexy back, one lethal backhand at a time.

DeviantArt by DocShaner.

So, lesson learned: never get on the wrong side of a man who wears a skirt.

The superhero attraction

2011-03-10T21:05:00.000-08:00

Why do characters endure? It's something I've thought about. Can anyone really explain it? (I bet Joseph Campbell could.)

Sometimes it's hard to believe that Superman is over 70 years old, and yet he's become a part of American pop culture. Then again, Romeo and Juliet are hundreds of years older, and the heroes of mythology are thousands of years older, and they're still going strong.

I wonder if somewhere deep in our brains there's a little cell that lights up when we hear stories about beings more powerful than us. Or smarter than us. Or braver, or stronger. Why is that? Do we want to know that it's possible to be better than we currently are? Or do we want to know that there are other people out there who are grander than us and can take care of our problems for us? Are heroes reflections of who we are or visions or who we want to become? Are they idols to worship, or saviors to deliver us?

Some have considered superheroes (or aliens, or supernatural events) a proxy for the human genetic need to believe in something greater than ourselves. Dean Hamer called it the "god gene." Except we don't need to believe that superheroes in order to be attracted to them. I don't think a Kryptonian is going to fall down to Earth and save us anytime soon, and yet I respond to the idea of "Superman" on a very visceral level. Maybe heroes tap into a genetic desire for self-preservation and safety.

Or maybe it's one level higher. Maybe the superhero attraction taps into our hard-wired moral predilictions. Maybe we don't think there's enough justice in the world, so we like reading stories about justice-seekers who right the wrongs of their fictional universe. Maybe if these fictional heroes can do good in their world, we can apply the same methods to bring justice to ours.

Maybe it's more vague, more "human." Maybe we just need to look in a mirror from time to time. Maybe the attraction just comes from seeing a character who reminds us of ourselves, whose heart is in the right place, whose suffered a few losses, who tries and fails and decides to try again, or who's lost something and moves beyond it, and maybe we need someone like that to look up to as a template of human behavior.

All these thoughts are swirling around in my head. I see comics as a very primal force that meets some deep-seated needs in my brain. I think that is why I like some books and not others: the books I don't like fail to meet some hard-wired need in my brain. That little Greater Than Me cell isn't lighting up in my brain, and I'm not happy. The story isn't connecting with me on an emotional level, or an idealogical one, or a moral one, or a human one. When a character doesn't act better than I do, then it's not a story worthy of myth. Then it's just real life.

And real life kinda sucks.

This post is really long and dreary, so I included a picture of two squirrels kissing to make you all happy again.

Happy March! or, a Poison Ivy sketch by Adam Hughes

2011-03-08T22:35:00.000-08:00

Oh, Adam Hughes. You have one heck of a sense of humor.

I know, it's a little bit NSFW, but it's just too darn funny not to post. Plus it's actually March, so that's two reasons!

More thoughts on Young Justice

2011-03-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

After a week off, Young Justice returned to the air with a new episode. Last night's episode, "Downtime," focused mainly on Aqualad while he spent some time in...am I getting this right: Poseidinus? I guess that's the Atlantean capital city, from the looks of it.

While I'm not much of an Aqua-fan, I have to say that first off I was pretty disappointed by Mera's character design.

The cool thing about Mera is her scaled bodysuit, no? The halter bikini top/pareo and random bits of chiffonn thingy just isn't regal enough for me. Besides, she has such pretty hair! Why pull that back into a ponytail? Oh, and her crown was ugly, too. Sorry, Mera, don't take it personally.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I says.

Aqualad noodles around with Tula, Garth (the original Aqualad, I think), and some Atlantean sorcery. Retcons abound, but I'm getting so immune to retcons I barely notice them anymore. The retconning bothered me a lot less than the animator's choice of underwater mechanics: when Aquaman looks awkward swimming, you know you've got a problem.

Highlight of the episode: Superboy can't figure out how to use a satellite TV. Even someone with superpowers has trouble with that. Now I don't feel so bad.

Oh, and Miss Martian is quite the cook. An awkward, ditzy cook, but cute nonetheless.

Denny Colt is watching you...

2011-03-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

...via Google.

Actually, this has nothing to do with Denny Colt's cockeyed voyeurism of you, but actually is to celebrate what could be Will Eisner's 94th birthday.

Will Eisner was a pretty cool guy, and the folks at Bleeding Cool do a lot better job than singing his praises than I do.

I'm just happy that an icon of comics history got his own Google doodle, and I'd be even happier if people got to know who Will Eisner was because of it.

Guy Gardner sketch by Marcio Takara

2011-02-27T00:11:00.000-08:00

I think this will make Sally happy.

How about a sketch evoking the good ol' JLI days?

Here you go!

Here's what the artist says about this piece:

Guy is awesome! JLI was what got me into reading comics! Maguire is one of my gods!

I couldn't agree more. Check out Marcio Takara's DeviantArt account for more comics goodness!

So Brightest Day is almost over...

2011-02-24T21:49:00.000-08:00

...that went kinda fast, didn't it?

Here's the description of the final issue:

A long shadow is cast across the world in a a finale that will have everyone talking! Twelve heroes and villains were resurrected, but that doesn't mean it will remain that way as the new champion of Earth is chosen!

Hmm. So who is this New Champion of Earth going to be? The obvious choice seems Deadman. It would make sense to kill him off and make him be...well, Deadman again. But then I thought: that's just way too obvious.

I don't think it's going to be any of the villains, so I'm ruling them out. Fans seem to have taken to Aquaman too much for him to be in any role other than King of the Seas, plus he's got that new Aqualad to contend with. There's a lot of story material there to cover a solo series.

Jade kind of went missing--I lost track of her, so I don't think she's high-profile enough in the writers' eyes. The Hawks are a couple, so I don't think they'll be split up. That leaves ones of the Firestorms and Martian Manhunter. Hmm. It's quite possible that either Ronnie or Jason might be sacrificed to become Earth's protector. Then I started thinking about that one issue where J'onn sees an alternate future and he's a Green Lantern. Add to that the fact that Martian Manhunter is low-profile enough that changing his role in the DCU won't ruffle too many fan feathers and he hasn't had anything significant done with his character since the Morrison JLA days in the 90's. He could easily be transitioned into a new role.

Sooooo....J'onn J'onzz, White Lantern?

What do you all think?

Young Justice: First Impressions

2011-02-22T23:25:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to watching the episodes of Young Justice I had saved on my DVR. Has anyone had a chance to watch this show?

While it's a shame Batman: The Brave and the Bold had to go away to make room for Young Justice, I find myself enjoying it nonetheless. And that's even in spite of tweaks to character and continuity, too. So, here's some random impressions:

Overall: It's a quality show, and the voice acting is quite good. I'm liking the realistic style of the charcters, too. Seeing some normally-proportioned bodies makes me realize how tiring the giant shoulder/tiny legs Bruce Timm JLU character designs were getting.

Care was taken to make sure each of the characters is unique, which is always refreshing. Superboy is the brooding, tempermental outsider. Robin is a plucky technie nerd. Aqualad is very different from his Brightest Day incarnation: he's regal, exotic, and calm under pressure. I guess he's like a future version of the Brightest Day Aqualad? Kid Flash (Wally West) steals the show and is pretty much like non-kid Flash Wally West from the JLU days: impulsive, funny, and a tad arrogant. Why Wally is Kid Flash and Bart isn't I don't know...becuase Barry is Wally's uncle?

I've got mixed feelings about Miss Martian. She's cute and sweet but kind of clueless and talks to herself in the third person. Judging by the number of Miss Martian-hating anti-tribute videos on YouTube ranting that J'onn should disown her, a lot of people don't like her, which makes me want to root for her a little more even though I'm not a big fan of the character in the comics. I like how she's a more innocent female superheroine, albeit a bit ditzy, which I guess rubs some people the wrong way. God forbid a female character isn't bad ass, I guess. Apparently her dress is a point of contention, but I don't think these anti-fans realize it's pretty similar to a Japanese school uniform you would see on an anime series.

It's too bad that the writers had to take liberties with Miss Martian's continuity. She's J'onn's niece and apparently she has ten brothers and sisters. So that means she's a.) a Green Martian and b.) Mars isn't dead. Which is going to be confusing to fans of the show who decide to pick up a few comics about her. The other huge change? She has telekinesis and she can move things with her mind. So between reading minds and moving objects she's ridiculously powerful. Oh, they kept the "fire" weakness but they changed it to "extreme heat." And she can't ghost through solid objects like J'onn can.

What I do really like about Miss Martian is (I can't believe I'm saying this) is her clothing. Like her ship, it's intuitive, so it changes shape with her. Meaning that she doesn't have to manifest part of her body into a cape, which makes a lot of sense to me. Wouldn't rendering part of your anatomy into cloth take a lot of concentration? It was always something that bothered me a little. Why I hate to admit it: the idea came from the Ostrander Martian Manhunter series, which I dislike greatly. Except that Miss Martian's clothing isn't alive, nor is it called "Zo'ok" (or was it "Z'ook?") so I'm allowing myself to like that idea.

Oh, and Martian bonus points: I like the way they pronounce "J'onn" on the show. It's not "Jean" like he's from Paris, nor is it "Juh-onn." I can't really describe it.

Lastly: Artemis. I can't stand this girl. From her poofy early 90's pony tail to her impractical belly-exposing outfit with ugly mask with hair window* that makes her forehead look huge and a chest symbol that she stole from Jade, to her snotty I'm-better-than-you attitude. Is this character in the comics? Is she always this mean? I'm a little rusty when it comes to the Arrow family.

A lot of the show is "teenagery" with who's got a crush on whom and all that, a lot of which is played for laughs. Kid Flash is head-over-heels for Miss Martian, who's completely oblivious to Wally and who only has eyes for Superboy. And Artemis likes Superboy, too. Everybody likes Superboy, except Superman. Yes, really. He's quite mean to him.

So far the funniest bits have been Kid Flash freaking out over seeing Miss Martian grow extra arms to swat away robotic monkeys, and when Miss Martian telepathically links everyone up and Kid Flash forgets that everyone can hear him think. Which is probably something I would do. Thank God other drivers at least can't hear me when someone cuts me off, is all I have to say about that.

All in all, a good show. I'm sad Brave and the Bold had to go away, but I'm enjoying Young Justice for now.

*Only Booster Gold is cool enough for a hair window. Oh, and Animal Man.

Happy President's Day!

2011-02-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Celebrate like only Superman can!

Oh, Mr. J'onzz....

2011-02-19T20:53:00.000-08:00

John Carter called.

He wants his red cabochon Mars-symbol-thingy back.

Seriously, though, isn't that cover art up there for Warlord of Mars #7 by Joe Jusko pretty awesome?

Wonder Woman's identity revealed

2011-02-17T22:21:00.000-08:00

Did anyone hear?

They cast Wonder Woman for the new TV show.

Adrianne Palicki is a 5'11" actress who has appeared regularly on Friday Night Lights, Smallville, and the never-aired Aquaman pilot.

Well, she looks the part, at least in this picture. I haven't seen anything she's in, so I can't really comment.

Here's the official description of the Wonder Woman show, which has its share of red flags as far as I'm concerned:

The series pilot is a reinvention of the iconic DC Comics title in which Wonder Woman – a.k.a. Diana Prince – is a vigilante crime fighter in Los Angeles but also a successful corporate executive and a modern woman trying to balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life. Kelley and Bill D’Elia (“Boston Legal,” “The Practice”) are the executive producers. The pilot was written by Kelley and will be directed by Jeffrey Reiner (NBC’s “The Event”). “Wonder Woman” is from David E. Kelley Productions and Warner Bros. Television.

I'm a little wary of the words "corporate executive" and "modern woman trying to balance all the elements..." All I can picture is a soccer mom in a power suit on her way to a board meeting with a latte in one hand and a cell phone in the other. Meh. Then again, I am a cynic and this could all turn out fine.

What do you all think?

Look at the prety pictures

2011-02-14T20:55:00.000-08:00

I'm too tired and fighting off a cold to come up with the blog post I was intending to write.

So in the meantime, enjoy the view of Amy Reeder Hadley's art from Madame Xanadu #21 and some dialogue by Matt Wagner. Madame Xanadu is having some apartment problems, it would seem, and J'onn still has that trademark dry sense of humor. Good stuff!

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 4

2011-02-10T22:54:00.000-08:00

Becuase in my universe, a week is ten days, and we're somehow on Day 4. And it's countdown item #3. Anywho...

3. Silver Age J'onn J'onzz had a purpose.

This is something that seems to have fallen by the wayside in recent years. (Or perhaps just in the wake of the Crisis.) In some 90's stories you'll hear J'onn refer to himself as a "manhunter," which is some sort of Martian peacekeeper kind of role. But back in the day, "manhunter" was just slang for a cop, and J'onn J'onzz chose to become Slueth from Outer Space.

The gimmick of J'onn's character was that he was a detective who used his powers to solve the crimes that regular humans couldn't. He's now gotten away from his detective work altogether and many a DC writer doesn't know what to do with him besides make him confront the ghosts of Martian past when flying solo, or acting as the fall guy for Superman in ensemble stories.

Capture the criminal...or go back home?

If you bring J'onn J'onzz back to his detective roots, he'll have some purpose again. (Another way to give his character some meaning: shepherding a group of immature heroes. Hey, it worked once before.) Either way, J'onn needs to DO something to participate in society. Right now, J'onn isn't serving man or any higher purpose other than the vaguest of superhero motivations. The more he goes off and is forced to confront rebuilding Mars, the less relevant his is to Earth and the less identifiable he becomes.

Give him a personal mission that forces him to make a few tough decisions, a mission that we can relate to, and it will only improve the quality of his character.

Making the difficult choice: what a hero is supposed to do.

Only Madame Xanadu....

2011-02-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

...can smack the Phantom Stranger around.

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 3

2011-02-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

2. The John Jones noir dynamic.

I recently had the pleasure of reading all three of the available trades of Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder Hadley's Madame Xanadu. What a treat. More on that series later, but for now, let's just say I was overwhelmingly surprised to see a Silver Age John Johns running around solving mysteries.

Now, I'll take a John Jones cameo. He showed up for a panel or two in DC Universe Legacies and that made me happy. Well, to see the character actually understood and used as he should be by Matt Wager was downright mind-blowing. "Mr. Jones" shows up during the 1950's to help Madame Xanadu to solve a case they are both working on. He came off so mysterious and full of intrigue that Madame Xanadu at first mistook him for the Phantom Stranger. Though never revealed his true identity, several hints were laid down in just the right spots. The end effect was that of an implacable character closely guarding his own secrets and though rent down to his core by his vulnerabilities, still saw to the needs of others over his own safety.

And if it were Popeye helping her? "I yam as I yam!" Geez, that was bad. Even for me.

What I just described up there could easily be a noir protagonist. While the mystery is generated here becuase Jones is seen from an outside perspective, in the right hands, the same dynamic could be translated to a story seen from J'onn's point-of-view. It's the setting, really, that makes this all work.

All that needs to be done to achieve this dynamic is bring J'onn back to the 50's and surround him with humans. Having a secret = instant tension. Tension = suspense = a good story. While death is treated as a joke in the comics world, having one's secret identity revealed is a real game changer. And when a character has to act despite the risk of losing something, well, that makes the story even better. It's just one more vulnerability for a character defined by his weaknesses. If everyone around you could potentially blow your cover and cause you to lose your job or your good standing in society, everyday life would be like venturing out into a mine field. It makes J'onn's current "plight" in Brightest Day about as exciting as reading about someone walking through the park.

See? That tension showed actually up in the Silver Age, too.

Me, I'll take a mine field over the park any day when it comes to fiction.

Hey! I resemble that remark!!

2011-02-05T20:02:00.000-08:00

I was so happy to see the letters column come back to DC. I didn't care about losing the few pages to keep DC's price to 2.99, and the letters column was an added bonus. "Wow!" thought I, "the return of the letters column is a symbolic gesture that DC wants to get in touch with their fans!!"

But did anyone take note of this particular letter?

So I guess becuase I'm a typical message board, twitter, or chat people-type person (Carl failed to mention blogs, but I'm assuming guilt by association here) that a.) I don't work b.) I don't enjoy reading comics. Ooookay. I don't know about you, but I definitely sit around the house all day eating a bag of Oreos whilst recklessly downloading illegal comics by the gigabyte. And then I don't read them NOR do I enjoy them. Then, for good measure, I kick a puppy. No wonder DC can't trust my opinions. They're the opinions of a puppy-kicking, lazy, unhappy, unproductive, misguided miscreant. Gee, I never realized that about myself but now it all makes sense. No wonder I'm a failure at life!

Thanks, DC for keeping my hopes up about your perception of me!

What next, is my dream of a flying car going to be dashed, too??

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 2

2011-02-02T22:38:00.000-08:00

1. Why John Jones is here.

We all know how J'onn J'onzz came to be: he was accidentally brought to Earth by a teleportation machine created by Dr. Erdel, and after Erdel's subsequent death, was unable to return home. A few details were tweaked a bit post-Crisis, but the main idea is the same.

So, stranded on Earth, what options did J'onn J'onzz have? What was he to do with himself? Well, he took in a few of the local Earth sights and noticed that our planet is a little bit behind his:

It was then that J'onn J'onzz decided to dedicate himself to his main task. This is his "bat through the window"* moment:

And he decided to wear a hat. There was much rejoicing.

So now we know J'onn's reason for being: J'onn chose to fight crime on Earth in the hopes that one day it will be obsolete. Pretty much like Batman, he used an active decision to turn a setback into a raison d'être, and for both characters the choice easily could've been to indulge in more self-serving activities.

To look at his origin from behind the curtain, the character of John Jones, the Manhunter from Mars was created as a detective who used his Martian powers to solve crime. He was a detective who happens to be an alien, not the other way around.

*Just in case anyone doesn't know to what I'm referring: a bat flew through Bruce Wayne's window, thus inspiring him to use a bat for his symbol.

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 1

2011-02-01T23:07:00.000-08:00

I'm on a John Jones kick again. So I figured, why don't I make an event out of it? Hopefully the week will culminate with something special, when it arrives in the mail. (Squee!)

So, what do most of us know about Silver Age Martian Manhunter? Well, it's not all ocean gold-mining and ice cream conjuring. Yes, there definitely is a hefty dose of goofiness, but like to think of J'onn's original source material in the same way as I think of Richard Donner's original cut of Superman II before Richard Lester came along and added in the cheese: somewhere in there is a serious story waiting to come out.

I think it's only fair to take things at face value (with maybe a few side trips into out-of-context jokes), and I feel that J'onn's early days haven't seen their serious side represented enough on the internet. (I'm guessing this is probably the case for most Silver Age characters.) Hopefully I can straighten out some misconceptions, find a clearer focus of who the Silver Age J'onn J'onzz was and why he was created, and dig out some stories that a "modern" audience might appreciate. If taken seriously, Silver Age John Jones has the potential to be a rich and meaningful character. It's just that very few writers see him this way.

Maybe I'll need to expand this to two weeks.

For the sake of brevity, here's one panel to get things started. If you thought my post from the other day about John Jones being a jerk was an anomaly, it's not. Silver Age J'onn really liked to scare the crap out of people:

Tough love for criminals or just getting his kicks scaring the living daylights out of people? You be the judge.

If Ted Kord comes back to life and gets a solo series, I want this guy drawing him

2011-01-30T17:03:00.000-08:00

It's pretty rare when I find art so good that I'd actually print it out and hang it on my wall. But this. is. gorgeous.

Everything works in this piece: the composition, the inking, the coloring, the perspective. It all dovetails so nicely together, and I love to see this much skill applied so effortlessly to a piece of art. It's the kind of piece that's done so well that the techniques become invisible and I can't even analyze it. If I could understand a quarter of what's going on in this piece technique-wise, I'd be happy.

The icing on the cake? It's a drawing of Ted Kord.

The artist is Miketron2000, the DeviantArt alias of Mike Norton. The colors were provided by Keiran Oats. Mr. Norton is currently doing the art for the new Young Justice series for DC, and his website is here.

The Question multi artist jam!

2011-01-29T18:58:00.000-08:00

I found this at Comic Art Fans. I'm trying to figure out if the owner went around to different artists and have them do a sketch, or if this was all Photoshopped in later. (I'm pretty sure it's the former.) If so, what a great idea! Any of you going to any Cons should try this out.

Click to enlarge. Your mind might be blown. You've been warned!

The artists represented are: Norm Breyfogle, Dan Fraga, Doug Mahnke, Tom Lyle, Roderick Thorton, and Georges Jeanty.

When John Jones was younger...

2011-01-27T22:46:00.000-08:00

Back in his Silver Age heyday, the stoic, gentle Martian of integrity we know and love today was a bit more snarky. What's our Martian hero to do when he's wrongly imprisoned in jail? Meditate and wait out the situation? Reason with the guards? Pfft. Why do that when you can cause all sorts of trouble and make outrageous demands of your jailors?

I'm going to go steal a toilet made out of gold while I'm at it, too. Be back in a jiffy!

And what about his servitude to the public? His stoic, noble goal of protecting his adopted homeworld, of making sure its citizens can live a life free of worry?

When you got it, flaunt it, Jonesey.

Well, there goes that. Don't worry, that lady will be fine when she gets wiped from history in the next Crisis.

Booster Gold sketch by Mike Wieringo

2011-01-26T21:10:00.000-08:00

I was searching through Google Images for a picture of Booster Gold to show my non-comics-reading-but-Smallville-watching best friend what he really looks like and I came across this.

It's fun to look back at past spectulation. This sketch if from 2006, right in the middle of the year-long series 52. Well, Booster met an untimely fate in the middle of that series, and here's what Mike Wieringo had to say about it:

The carnage continues, it seems, over at DC, with the death of BOOSTER GOLD in the latest issue of 52. I’m beginning to think that ‘DC’ should start standing for ‘DEATH COMICS’. That’s a little harsh, I know. Both DC and Marvel make a regular habit of killing characters these days– and for all I know, there will be a new person stepping in to become a new BOOSTER and launch a new series, like they’ve done with BLUE BEETLE. Hmmm…. there’s someone high up at DC who’s got something against the color blue, maybe…?

The fact that an industry professional was convinced that a character was dead and gone makes me feel a lot better for taking things like J'onn J'onzz's "death" so seriously. I guess I'm not the only one to take things too seriously.

Booster Gold cast for Smallville

2011-01-25T23:13:00.000-08:00

For those of you who enjoy seeing live-action superheroes, or for you Smallville fans, or just you shameless Booster Gold fans (I know Frank is jumping up and down with glee) here's a tidbit of news you will enjoy.

It looks like they've cast Booster Gold for the upcoming Smallville episode. He's a soap star. In some strange way, I think that works.

Here's the Boosterific.com article, which was picked up from soaps.com. I don't watch soap operas, but do all the male actors hang around with their shirts half-off like that?

What I'll be REALLY excited for is if Skeets will show up on Smallville. In all his sarcastic, shiny glory.

Goodbye Comics Code Authority, Hello DC Ratings

2011-01-23T15:26:00.000-08:00

As I was reading the April solicitations over at The Idol-Head of Diabolu, I noticed that each comic had a rating after it. Whoa. When did this happen?

Well, just recently, it turns out.

Here's DC's new self-rating system:

E – EVERYONE
Appropriate for readers of all ages. May contain cartoon violence and/or some comic mischief.
T – TEEN
Appropriate for readers age 12 and older. May contain mild violence, language and/or suggestive themes.
T+ - TEEN PLUS
Appropriate for readers age 16 and older. May contain moderate violence, mild profanity, graphic imagery and/or suggestive themes.
M – MATURE
Appropriate for readers age 18 and older. May contain intense violence, extensive profanity, nudity, sexual themes and other content suitable only for older readers.

Overall, I think this is a good move. As one who's always looking to ~~seduce another innocent~~ get children reading more comics, I think the kid-friendly "E" rating will put parents at ease that their kids can read comics without warping their little brains. Current kids' titles, like Super Friends and Batman: The Brave and the Bold have trended into Sesame Street territory. Compared to the Batman: Animated Series tie-in book from fifteen years ago, which was not only steeped in a bleak tone but featured gambling, drinking, smoking, and scantily-clad women, the current Johnny DC titles make kids' comics of yesteryear look like Watchmen.

But that could be a potential problem. The so-called "kid's" books of yesteryear featured deep themes beneath their cartoony exterior, and could be enjoyed by readers of all ages, 7 to 70. Today's children's comics are decidedly aimed towards kids. I can't see too many adults plunking down the $2.50 to read them. (Okay, I do occationally, but granted I have the mentality of a five-year-old.) It's too bad there isn't a "T-minus" rating for pre-teens who might enjoy a darker story, albeit without any swearing or graphic violence.

Which leads me to the current mainstream DC superhero books. Most of them at rated T, such as Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors. I know I'm a little conservative when it comes to things like this, but just based on the covers alone, 12 years old seems a little young to be reading that book. And that's not even considering the language. I wish they could retroactively apply these ratings just so I could see how Blackest Night would rate. Licking a corpse should get you an automatic "T+".

Automatic T+ granted for bleeding out of your eyes?

So where does this leave DC? Are they going to tone down the language and violence in their mainstream superhero books so they'll meet the "T" rating? Or will they use the "T+" rating more often? (Green Arrow receives the T+ rating for April, for example.) Or will they just use the "T" rating on most books and assume that twelve-year-olds can handle this kind of material? Should comics be toned down to appeal to a wider audience? Should they be fractured into separate categories to appeal to different demographics?

Only time will tell how or if this will have any effect on how comics are created.

As a final note, the nostalgic part of me misses that litte CCA seal as it was a direct tie to the past. It was entertaining to see it shrink in size as time went on. I was hoping that one day it would get so small that only Ray Palmer could see it.

Harley Quinn art by John Smith

2011-01-16T21:58:00.000-08:00

Another great find courtesy of Comics Alliance:

Here's some...retro? art of Harley Quinn. I don't really know how to describe the style (tissue paper decopougé? Marble fabric quilted?) but Harley's design takes very well to abstraction, I think. I could do without the triangle shoes, but the texture in the reds really makes it.

Hangin' around and falling behind

2011-01-14T23:12:00.000-08:00

I keep falling behind with all this comics news going on about Flashpoint, and now I have no idea what's going on! Anyone else think that keeping up with the constancy of the comics world can be a little tiring? Apparently there's red herrings and hidden messages galore on DC's Source blog, but I've missed out on all of it. I guess I have some catching up to do. But why does being a comics fan have to be so much work?

I'd rather just kick back and relax. Of course, this is the way to kick back:

Want to know how many pictures of the Scarlet Skier there are on the internet?

2011-01-11T23:22:00.000-08:00

Answer: not enough.

In honor of Tuesday's Snowpocalypse, which is affecting a good portion of the United States, here is the Scarlet Skier.

Bonus points for the dialogue in Spanish!

Dude really needs some nice fan art.

A statue of "Ajax"

2011-01-07T23:54:00.000-08:00

I found this via yesterday's Cubee art. A portrait of an "Ajax" statue by JokerZombie:

I don't care how expensive this is, I don't care if it's only available in Brazil, I'm finding this.

At first glance I thought it was digitally painted, but no, that is actually a photograph of a statue, albeit with some really sweet lighting. Which raises several questions: which statue is this and where can I buy it? (I don't recognize it) and why the heck is he called Ajax? Before I fired up the comic nerd smarty-pants powers and commented on the guy's picture with something like, "That's the Martian Manhunter, duh!" the artist mentioned he was from Brazil and "first met" J'onn J'onzz as "Ajax." Then I remembered the list on the Idol-Head of Diabolu of the Martian Manhunter's (suprisingly many) international names. Austin Powers has no right to claim ownership as the original International Man of Mystery, let me tell you.

I knew that Ajax was a Greek god, but I'm wondering how exactly the Manhunter from Mars became known by that name? If you're going to pick a Greek god, why not something more apropros like Atlas? I'm intrigued.

Booster Gold (and friends) "Cubee"

2011-01-06T23:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I have my weekend planned out.

I'm making this:

Do not poke fun at the awesomeness of Cubee. You know you want to print this out and make one, too. My printer may be low on ink, it might cost me $15 per ink tank, but dammit, I'm going to squeeze out every drop so I can print out my Booster Gold cubee.

Then I'm going to print out a Blue Beetle cubee. And sit them next to each other on my desk at work.

And then I'll make a Fire one. And an Ice one. And then Guy Gardner. And then a Hal Jordan one so I can drop things on its head. Oh the fun I will have!

Oh noes, Hal! I dropped my stapler on you! Oh noes, it happened again!

You can view the hundreds (thousands?) of Cubees that this guy, The Flying Dachshund, made on his DeviantArt account.

This post was all Frank's fault, by the way.

Vril and Lryl Dox...

2011-01-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

Are the cutest father and son ever.

I'm not sure who drew this, but I found it quite randomly via a Google search a little while ago. I think it's kinda cute!

Happy New Year! Comics New Year's Resolutions, anyone?

2011-01-01T01:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I just watched the ball drop on Times Square. I don't know how those people can stand outside in the cold for six hours, let alone be standing shoulder-to-shoulder amongst thousands. Ah, well, I enjoy watching them on TV while sipping sparkling cider. My real New Year's tradition is watching the Twilight Zone Marathon, which unfortunately gets shorter every year. (And got interrupted by wrestling...I don't know what's up with that.)

I'm wondering what 2011 will bring in the comics world. DC of course teases big changes and all that, but I'm wondering what the big crossoever event of 2011 will be, if any. The Source mentioned something about getting back to characters, and part of that are the covers that feature a certain character's (or group's) symbol. Kind of cool, I guess.

But here's what I really want to be on DC's New Year's Resolution List:

--A true return to character. Characters who remain true to their origional intent. Characters who act logically and are well-rounded. Stories that revolve around characters' decisions, stories that mean something to the characters. Characters who are written in-character and are just generally well-written.

--Re-establishing the Justice League to its Silver Age roots. I think it's time to cycle back around to the original seven. With Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, and now Aquaman getting the Silver Age reboot, why can't the League get the same treatment? And let's fix whatever's going on with Wonder Woman, too.

--Better editing at DC. If fans can keep a charater's origins straight, so can an editor. That way we have no Ice debacles. And perhaps the proper usage of "it's." Maybe that last one's dreaming too big.

--Better treatment for Martians. Let's see J'onn J'onzz get the Silver Age treatment: working in a human guise solving crimes as a PI or a police detective. With a captain he has to answer to and a partner he has to keep his secret from, and possibly a baby-talking space creature. And dammit, the man needs a hat in keeping with a noirish interpretation.

--Cassandra Cain coming back as (one of the) Batgirl(s). And while we're at it, Barbara Gordon gets to stay as Oracle. None of this "Death of Oracle" business. It's nice to have a disabled hero to look up to. And a hero who uses her brains. And who sasses Stephanie Brown.

--While the "proper" Silver Age Justice League can be re-established, why not let the original Justice League International operate again? Booster Gold, Ted Kord, J'onn J'onzz (splitting his time between the JLA, JLI, and detective work--busy guy), Mr. Miracle, Fire and (innocent sweet) Ice, a not-evil Maxwell Lord, and Guy Gardner. And the mangy, evil alley cat.

--Harvey Dent is a vain, short-tempered lawyer on the edge of sanity, and don't you forget it. Anytime he's written with multiple personalities, he's not a villain, he's a victim. While we're at it, don't get rid of the coin, DC, like you teased in Streets of Gotham. And don't ever get rid of that suit, ever.

--New well-thought out villains. While it's time for some older villains to make some new appearances, I think some villains get used a bit too much. Either dig through the archives and look for some obscure ones or one who just aren't used much, or create some new ones. Good ones, that is. JLA villains, Batman villains, someone for the Martian Manhunter to fight who is not D'kay or Cay'an, etc.

--Adam Strange getting his old costume back. It's the little things that matter when you've got a subtle character. Also, don't fix what isn't broke, DC. Barry Allen is still wearing the same suit last time I checked.

--Batman: The Brave and the Bold to be un-cancelled. Really, DC, what are you thinking getting rid of this show?! It's the perfect showcase for any and all DCU characters, obscure or famous. What a way to build the franchise for young viewers. (And kids at heart.)

--The Justice League in live-action format. I don't care if it's a TV series or a movie, or a special episode of Smallville. I want a glimpse of a live-action Justice League. That's a stretch, I know, but I'm dreaming big.

Finally, I'd like to thank all of you out there in Comics Make Me Happy Reader-land. I love connecting with people who share my common interest, and I've had so many good conversations over the year and have enjoyed reading your blogs. What kinds of New Year's resolutions (comics-related or otherwise) are you guys making?

Here's to 2011!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2010-12-23T23:41:00.000-08:00

Today (the 23rd,) was actually Festivus, so I hope you all aired your grievances and competed in Feats of Strength.

Now that you've pinned your relatives and won glory by climbing the Festivus Pole, it's time to usher in Christmastime. Justice League Style.

Here's a nice little bit of Christmas cheer courtesy of the Justice League and featuring CMMH! favorite, the Martian Manhunter. Sit back and grab a cup of hot chocolate and relax.

Anyone else slightly amused that no one cares that Batman spends Christmas alone?

Custom Green Lantern iPad by Jim Lee

2010-12-18T22:21:00.000-08:00

Despite being a diehard Apple fan since before the days of Macintosh, I really can't see the point in owning an iPad.

But this particular iPad would be awesome to own!

How'd you like Hal Jordan on the back of your iPad? Wow, that sounded somehow not right. Jim Lee did a series of iPads (including some Batman ones) which were given away to lucky fans at New York Comic-Con.

Just a few reviews

2010-12-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm a little behind in my comics-reading. There doesn't seem to be anything really exiting me lately in the comics world.

I did have a chance to read Booster Gold #39 on the weekend. When Giffen and DeMatteis took over from Dan Jurgens, I was a little thrown off by the change in tone. Jurgens did a nice job continuing the groundwork laid down by Geoff Johns, and G&D took a few steps back. The stories got ridiculously silly and even violated a few of the intricate time travel "rules." Being a fan of the JLI years, it hurts to not like something written by Giffen and DeMatteis 100%. But this month's issue jettisoned the silliness for the serious side of the Booster Gold/Blue Beetle dynamic. I'm hoping they continue along the lines. The downside is, that this month's story seemed like an effort to hammer the final nail in Ted Kord's possibly-but-never-to-be-resurrected coffin.

That, and I read the Batman Annual. I must have subscribed to it a year ago, and forgot to drop my subscription, so finding it in the mail was a bit of a surprise. And what, may I ask, is going on in the Bat-universe? I finally dropped my last tie to the Bat-world, Streets of Gotham, a few months ago, and now I have no idea what's going on. I had a vague notion about Batman Incorporated, but apparently the government of France has signed a deal with them. And not only that, but Bruce Wayne himself approaches the French prime minister and acts like...well, Batman. What happened to playing the foppish playboy to derail any theories identifying him at the Batman? If Bruce Wayne swoops into your country, finances Batman, Inc., and throws all sorts of technical jargon around and acts and speaks like the World's Greatest Detective, isn't that all a little too obvious? *sigh*

Ah, well, I'm hoping some good comics will come my way soon.

1989 Mayfair Games DC Heroes Fire Character Card front

2010-12-13T00:23:00.000-08:00

Eep!

That week went by fast! I've been preoccupied with non-comicsy things lately, and kind of got out of my little comic blogging routine, and before I knew it, the week was over.

Anyway, I know Chanukah and Mayfairstivus are over, but the menorah is still lit in the town center (last time I drove past anyway), so I'm using that as my excuse to post what cards I have left. (Or maybe I should save them for next year?)

Here's Beatriz DaCosta's card:

Bea looks like she's feeling a combination of boredom and annoyance, so I can only guess she's on monitor duty and Guy Gardner said something idiotic to her at the same time. It looks like G'nort grabbed a bottle of blonde dye at the A&P instead of green by mistake, so that's why we're not seeing Bea in her usual acid green tresses. She also decided to mix things up with an orange cami under her jacket. I guess even superheroines get tired of wearing the same thing every day. (Just ask Wonder Woman!)

Let's look at Bea's stats:

Being a second- (or maybe even third) stringer, Bea's stats are expectedly on the lower side. What will be fun to do is compare her stats to her friend Ice, becuase I always assumed their powers were more or less equal in intensity. I don't know if that's how it really is in "real" life, but I'd like to think that best friends have an equal chance to save each other in battle. It just seems right to me.

Let it also be noted that Bea is one of the chosen few heroes (along with Booster Gold and John Constantine) to be listed as attractive. Mayfair is pretty selective with who they consider attractive.

Well, sorry to fall off the face of the Earth for a week. It was a nice trip in orbit, though.

Harley Quinn Pencils by Loston Wallace

2010-12-06T20:12:00.000-08:00

I love how word gets around so quickly on the internet! Over the weekend, Loston Wallace, who drew the sketch I featured the other day, sent me a note of thanks along with some hi-res scans of his Harley Quinn art.

I love seeing art before it's been finished, either inked or pencilled, becuase I feel as though it's a window to the artist's process. Stare as I might at pencilled or inked comic art, though, and I think maybe I'll learn through osmosis how to draw like that.

Loston says he used a B pencil on Bristol board (a thicker, smoother kind of paper) to draw this sketch, which was later finished and colored in Photoshop. I love how clean the lines are. I'm a sucker for some nice line weights, what can I say? If you'd like to see more of Loston's art, you can check out his website or his DeviantArt page.

Characters!

2010-12-04T01:25:00.000-08:00

Since this blog isn't character-centric, I thought I'd list the characters you'll see appearing on this blog. Just so you have a little heads up. Also, I needed another tab up there besides my Pull List, and I'm having fun with Blogger's tab feature.

So here's my favorite characters, in no particular order:

Martian Manhunter
Two-Face
Booster Gold
Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)
Adam Strange
Hal Jordan and other Green Lanterns (yes, even Guy Gardner)
Batman
Harley Quinn
The Phantom Stranger
Fire and Ice
Just about any other Justice League International character
The Atom
Just about any Bat-villain
Rip Hunter
The Flash (Barry Allen)
Huntress
The Metal Men and Dr. Magnus
The Rocketeer (okay, I know, not DC, but still)
Vril Dox
Magnus, Robot Fighter (also not DC)
The Spirit

Okay, I lied. They're definitely in some kind of order.

1989 Mayfair RPG Game Card: Batman

2010-12-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

I was poking fun at Batman in my post from last night, and Frank took that as a sign that Batman was destined to be covered on this blog. I am a pretty big Bat-fan, after all.

First off, a shoutout needs to go to Tom Hartley, who sold Frank his Mayfair RPG card set for a very fair price, I'm told. I didn't get to thank either of them yesterday for their part in this. So thanks, guys!

Now let's take a look at the Batman card:

Batman looks pretty spiffy in his blue-and-gray Batsuit. I hadn't realized until recently that Golden Age Batman wore gray and black and that the blue was (correct me if I'm wrong, folks) a Silver Age addition. Though modern Batman runs around in gray and black today, kids Batman still sports the blue and gray. I guess gray is too boring to children. (Can you tell I'm looking through toy catalogs for my nephews?)

Let's take a look at Bruce's stats, shall we?

Never one to miss a stray detail, DC made sure Bruce's stats reflect even his most eccentric hobbies, like his stint in Gotham Community Theater when he once danced Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. You don't get an Actor stat of 8 without a little greasepaint. The folks at Mayfair also made sure to factor in Bruce's time spent as a juvenile deliquent immediately following the death of his parents by giving him a Thief stat of 10. Yes, he swore to avenge them, but not without keying a few Studebakers, hassling a few soda jerks and knocking off a Walgreen's here and there. What, you think a rich, privaleged, well-balanced guy like Bruce Wayne doesn't commit crimes and act like a jerk in his spare time? Oh, the evidence is here, my friends, and it is hilarious.

Let it also be noted that the Bat Rope (TM) is only the length of 4 A&P stores put end-to-end, and that could be a drawback when chasing Man Bat up Wayne Towers, which is about 6 A&P's in height. I guess that's where an Advantage like having Superman (TM) as your personal peon comes in handy.

And, like I predicted yesterday, Bruce Wayne's Wealth stat is indeed 5,000,000. That means he'll win any battle, becuase money always trumps intelligence, brawn, and sheer brute strength in any fight. Don't you remember that part in Final Crisis where Batman dropped a couple hundred Ben Franklins in front of Darkseid and said, "Dance big man, dance!" and then Darkseid sent Bruce on a lovely little vacation back in time to show his appreciation?

That's also the reason why Darkseid is such a pimp.

Want more Mayfairstivus coverage? Want to air your grievances? Go ahead and shout at random people on the street, and then check out these sites:

The Anti-Didio League of America

The Aquaman Shrine

Booster Gold: BOO$TERRIFIC
The Continuity Blog

DC Bloodlines

Diana Prince as The New Wonder Woman
Doom Patrol: My Greatest Adventure #80
Firestorm Fan
Flash: Speed Force
Girls Gone Geek
Green Lantern Corps: The Indigo Tribe
Hawkman: Being Carter Hall

Justice League Detroit
Martian Manhunter vs. The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Once Upon A Geek
Power of the Atom
Subject: Suicide Squad [Task Force X]
Supergirl Comic Box Commentary

1989 Mayfair RPG Game Card: The Question

2010-12-01T21:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Comics Make Me Happy!'s small and meek contribution to the Mayfairstivus, the blogosphere/RPG card enthusiast/comic book fan's answer to Festivus. I shall now perform Feats of Strength, and then Air My Grievances. Wait, I do that last one enough as it is.

I am in no way qualified to comment on this RPG game, as I've only played an RPG game once in my entire life. I have pretty fond memories of sitting down during my best friend's weekend-long high school graudation celebration and playing a Star Wars Episode I Phantom Menace RPG card game with her boyfriend, and any attempts to play RPG games since have ended with myself or one other person swearing at a game manual and yelling at each other. Really, it doesn't work for me unless there's an experienced player around who can explain the rules. But I did like making the little spaceships that went along with a recent Star Wars trading card/miniatures game.

Anywho.

Let's file this RPG game under the category of "Awesome Things I Missed Out On When They Came Out," along with The Goonies and The Breakfast Club.

The front of the card shows the original Question, Vic Sage, looking pretty spiffy and all 80's, fresh from his Denny O'Neil run. Too bad you're dead, Vic, or you'd be happy to know shoulder pads are making a comeback. I'm not really sure if those awesome elevated shoes would be a success today or not, though.

The back of the card shows his stats. Having non-powered humans characters in a game with somebody like Darkseid always makes me smirk. It's pretty indulgent to think even Batman could take on, oh, I don't know, Sinestro. I don't know what Batman's stats are, but here are Vic's:

These stats are chock-full of suprises. Like Nike (TM), Hub City (TM) has become a valuable intellectual property, along with Charles Victor Szasz (TM), and I had to pay DC fifty cents just to write this sentence. Vic ranks a 9 in willpower, and I'm assuming that's a scale of 10, so that means Vic would make an awesome Green Lantern. Green Lantern Question: oh yeah. Someone please draw me that fan art for me, will you?

I also never knew having a Secret Identity could be a drawback. I kind of thought that would be an advantage, but what the heck do I know? Vic is lacking some initiative, which I'm sure the nuns at the orphanage told him on a daily basis, and apparently all those martial art sparring sessions with Lady Shiva didn't do a bit of good, becuase that Strength stat is still suck at 4. Too bad whoever came up with these stats didn't count all the Zen teaching and Eastern philosophy towards the Spirit, Mind, and Aura stats, otherwise Vic would be off the charts.

He's also got a Wealth rating of 5. I'd like to know how wealth plays a part in this game. Can you buy off Doomsday if you have enough in your bank account?

Check out other blogs participating in the Mayfair RPG Festivus Crossover:

The Anti-Didio League of America
The Aquaman Shrine
Booster Gold: BOO$TERRIFIC
The Continuity Blog
DC Bloodlines
Diana Prince as The New Wonder Woman
Doom Patrol: My Greatest Adventure #80
Firestorm Fan
Flash: Speed Force
Girls Gone Geek
Green Lantern Corps: The Indigo Tribe
Hawkman: Being Carter Hall
Justice League Detroit
Martian Manhunter vs. The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Once Upon A Geek
Power of the Atom
Subject: Suicide Squad [Task Force X]
Supergirl Comic Box Commentary

JLA Overload Wallpaper

2010-11-27T01:10:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't mind your desktop a little busy...

Someone had a lot of fun Photoshopping various pieces of Alex Ross art together to make this. (Which can be downloaded here, in case you're interested.) I think it's really cool, but my brain would hurt if I had to find desktop icons on top of it.

It would look pretty cool on a wall, too...

Harley Quinn Sketch by Loston Wallace

2010-11-21T23:32:00.000-08:00

November is just a crazy, and kind of bleak month, and I can't get my act together, and Frank from the Idol-Head of Diabolu was nice enough to call this to my attention. So here's just a little something.

Though I'm pretty sure it's digital, I like the brush rendering used for the coloring, which makes it actually look like a sketch and not a scene from a comic. A nice choice, I think. And Harley's smile is a nice blend of crazy and sweet.

Picasso Superhero Portraits

2010-11-16T21:25:00.000-08:00

From the "Okay That's Kinda Cool But I'd Never Want to Spend $65 For One" files, I give you:

Picasso Batman.

And Picasso Superman.

And Picasso Green Lantern.

You'll now have some really bizarre dreams. You're welcome!

If you really do want to buy any of these prints, you can do so here. And see some Marvel ones here. Oh, Etsy. Will your wonders ever cease?

Impel DC Cosmic Cards #112--Adam Strange

2010-11-14T19:22:00.000-08:00

Coming to the comics world only recently, I wasn't aware that there were superhero trading cards. I honestly don't remember seeing any comics cards at all the card shows I went to in my teenaged years, but then again, I always made a beeline to the baseball card booths. (Though I did see hockey cards once.)

Here's an Impel DC Cosmic trading card featuring CMMH! favorite Adam Strange:

I'm not sure if the "Heroes From Beyond" label applied to a certain set of superheroes, i.e. sci-fi superheroes like Adam Strange or Captain Comet, or all DC heroes, but it would interesting to know.

While the obverse of the card is all Silver Age silliness, the reverse hints at the Bronze Age changes which Adam underwent during the Man of Two Worlds story arc:

Hooray for calling it a rocket pack and not jet pack!

Comics Go Historical?

2010-11-11T22:08:00.000-08:00

It's funny how legitimate conversations can veer into the world of comics. This past week one of the history teachers at work brought up how there might be an error in the AP History textbook regarding Aaron Burr. While she was doing research online, her conversation consisted mostly of, "Did anyone know that [fill in random Aaron Burr fact here]?" about three times and me replying, "Yes, I did." I'm not really a history buff, but I was a little obsessive about the Federalist era there for a while. Let's just say that Alexander Hamilton was the Hal Jordan of his day, and that entertains me.

So, while on our respective lunch breaks, we were all trying to figure out whether Aaron Burr held a position in Jefferson's cabinet, and being the Paragon of Information of my workplace, I went immediately to Wikipedia, and of course this jumped out at me:

Leave it to comics to make history more awesome than it already is. And thank you, Wikipedia.

Are you as surprised as I am that Hal actually knew what year Aaron Burr died?

How often to you see something historical in a comic book today? Comics today seem to exist in a cultural bubble: I'm not sure what world the characters live in. I know they live in the U.S., becuase pop culture references get dropped every now and then. Because I'm just one of those people that likes to learn random things, I kind of miss the "educational" value that comics had in the Silver Age. Even if they got the science wrong in a Flash comic, at least they were trying. And there were those little articles in between the stories that were somehow related to the stories: an article about astronomy in Mystery in Space, for example. I think reading a comic would be a little richer if some knowledge was added to the mix, and if those little informational columns came back, they could be an incentive to buy single issues, assuming they aren't printed in trades.

Well, if you consider going on a power trip and prompting the aliens' western territories to secede from the Union, well, then sure, I guess he succeeded.

While I don't need an overtly-historical story like this one to make me happy, I'd like a little mention of something I could use to win Jeopardy someday. Maybe the Flash rogues were the ones really responsible for stealing The Scream, for example?

My favorite panel. Too bad this didn't happen in real life. In the sequel to this story, Hamilton shows up and is all awesome and finishes what the monster started. Okay, not really, but that would be cool.

No comics this week!

2010-11-07T21:34:00.000-08:00

Saturday is usually the day when my comics arrive, but Brightest Day #13 was the only comic on my pull list, and it wasn't worth the extra shipping cost to have it sent to me, so I figured I'd wait till next week.

It feels like I haven't read a good comic in a looooong time! Espeically back issues. Every older story that I'm currently interested in reading, like the original L.E.G.I.O.N. run, isn't available in trade paperback format, and I don't feel like hunting down single issues.

Oh, and there always this:

My sweet, wonderful Adam Strange comic that I've been waiting for since August looks like it will never see the light of day at this rate! I need my rocket packs and ray guns fix, darnit!!

In other news, you probably won't be seeing much of me this month. Like kalinara over at Pretty Fizzy Paradise, I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo, for short) for my fourth year in a row. As you can imagine, writing 50,000 words in 30 days is kinda a time drain.

Some good comics are coming out next week, so I can't wait until then!

Why do you read comics?

2010-11-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

During my weekly existential crisis I was wondering: what's the main reason people read comics? I haven't even come to an answers as to why I read them other than they're a fast read, and that can't be a good reason. I like the pretty pictures, too, but that doesn't seem like a valid reason to like a medium, either.

There's just something inherently cool about comic book characters that I can't quite put my finger on. Yet at the same time, I really don't think of too many stories or comic book plots as memorable or meaningful. With a few exceptions, I can't think of any great quotes from comic books that I find particularly memorable like I do from movies (both comic-based and not) and TV shows. I mean, I sit there and say the lines along with the actors every time I watch Seinfeld, but there aren't too many comics that I'll re-read to that point.

Two comics that pop into my mind when I think about them as an actual story in the "graphic novel" sense are The Long Halloween and Martian Manhunter: American Secrets. Both made me invest in the plot and left me wanting to find out what happens, and both had characters whom I found had a depth to them and that might stand to lose something. The other story that pops into my head in terms of character is any Justice League International story. The plots of those JLI stories were entertaining, but it was the characters and how they related to each that I really enjoy. And thinking about Silver Age stories, which are often lacking any sort of depth (or sense), they are just so imaginative that they become entertaining.

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out why I buy certain ongoing titles today. Most stories are lacking meaningful characters whom I can relate to, and the plots are pretty formulaic. So what's the point of reading them? I've been reading R.E.B.E.L.S. since last summer for the sheer purpose of hoping to find a panel showing Adam Strange standing in the background. For me, it's character that interests me and keeps me coming back, even if it's a cameo appearance. I've since kept R.E.B.E.L.S. in the pull list becuase I find Vril Dox entertaining, and now I'll read it without an Adam Strange appearance.

What are your reasons for reading comics?

What I imagine DC writer's meetings are like

2010-11-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

Scene: Swanky DC Boardroom

Random DC Editor Unqualified to Do His Job: So, Winnick, we've got this Brightest Day thing going on. We've got to figure out some new angle to sell books now that Giffen left.

Judd Winnick: Heh. I'm glad that old geezer left. Now I've got the book all to myself and I can do whatever I want! Muahahahahaha!!!

Random Editor Who Knows Less About DC Characters Than Fans Do: So, Juddmeister, you got any ideas?

Judd Winnick: Well, sort of. You remember that--what was it called--really stupid version of the Justice League that was in the 80's? You know--what's it called?

[Silence]

IT Guy Who Happens to Be In The Room Fixing Ethernet Cables: The Justice League International?

Judd Winnick: Yeah! That's it! Wait, who are you again? Can you like get me a coffee or something? So we've got Maxwell Lord being evil and all that. But come on, guys, been there done, that. Lame-o. Let's really blow the socks off these readers. It'll be awesome!!

Random DC Editor Unqualified to Do His Job: What do you have in mind?

Judd Winnick: Well, you've these two girls, right? Fire and Ice. And Ice is all boring and no one ever liked her. So how about this: we make her BADASS.

Random Editor Who Knows Less About DC Characters Than Fans Do: Hmm...badass might not be enough to sell books.

Judd Winnick: Oh, wait till you hear what I have in mind!! Not only are Fire and Ice gonna fight each other--it's gonna be so hawt!!--Ice is gonna turn all ice-elemental-monstery, and look all unhuman and stuff.

Artist-guy Who Draws Generation Lost But Whose Name I'm Too Lazy to Google: Dude, we've got to do something about Ice's costume. I mean, like, she's always got this stupid half-sweatshirt thing covering up her boobs. We've got to get rid of that. She's like the only heroine not showing cleavage.

Judd Winnick: Hell yeah!! When Fire and Ice have this big fight--and it's so going to be in character, don't worry editor-guys, she's gonna turn all icey and go whoosh and her clothes are going to burn off so we can lose that stupid boob-cover.

IT Guy Who Happens to Be In The Room Fixing Ethernet Cables: Don't you mean "freeze" off and not "burn off?"

Random Editor Who Knows Less About DC Characters Than Fans Do: Still, this has been done before. I can't think of any specific examples, but I know heroes have fought each other. Hey, look! A pigeon!

Judd Winick: Well, get this!! We'll make it completely character-driven! We'll go back and explain to the unknowing audience all about Icemaiden's tragic origins and how she killed her father and all this stuff...

Artist-guy Who Draws Generation Lost But Whose Name I'm Too Lazy to Google: Can I draw her in a midriff even though she lives in Norway?

Judd Winick: DUDE, that makes TOTAL sense. Why didn't I think of that? Because all hot girls should always dress in midriffs, even if it's twenty below zero. I mean, that's like a comic book RULE.

All three bow their heads before a portrait of Dan DiDio and recite the Oath of Comic Book Writing: "We shall always portray our heroes as badasses. Our characters will only be motivated to become heroes after a tragic childhood. Decent characters will be killed off for no reason other than to sell books. All women will wear thongs and wear bras as tops and be angry all the time to show how strong they are. Our crossovers will never be bound by the laws of logic, lest they actually make sense. Batman is the bestest character ever. In the name of the Mighty Morrison, we pledge our allegiance. Amen."

Judd Winick: Ohh! Oh!!! I just thought of something!! I'm going to make Ice swear like a trucker! I mean, if a character doesn't swear, they're a total wimp, right?

IT Guy Who Happens to Be In The Room Fixing Ethernet Cables: How much do you people make for this?

Random Editor Who Knows Less About DC Characters Than Fans Do: Okay, that all sounds great. Let's make comics, people! Now, who wants a donut?

* * *

Thus ends the worst blog post I've ever written.

Wearing a costume and running around fighting crime/causing crime is the most impractical thing EVER

2010-10-30T00:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, after days of swearing at pieces of fabric and stabbing my fingers with pins, and spending half a day in a mask and headpiece, I've come to the conclusion that there is no practical value whatsoever in dressing up to fight crime or perpetrate villainy. I couldn't blink with the mask on, I couldn't grab anything with gloves (let alone type), my little wrist cuffs kept on falling off, my sleeves rode up, the pants twisted around, and the headpiece got really, really annoying, and the white "face paint" (jerry-rigged white concealer stick, really), got on everything, so I couldn't even touch my face. And even though I wasn't running around, I was wearing heels. Argh! Cosplay is not fun! I can just imagine the joys of dressing up as Wonder Woman.

So that got me thinking who has the most practical costume?

The best I could come up with was The Question. Just a man in a suit. That's pretty easy to run around in, though maybe not the best for actual hand-to-hand combat. The hat might fall off, too, but no big deal.

Any Green Lantern can generate his or her costume from their ring, so that's carte blanche to have whatever kind of costume your heart desires. So Green Lantern costumes = practical.

Shapeshifters get a pass, too, considering that their clothes are a part of their body. (I think. No one's ever answered that question to my satisfaction.)

So, hooray for these guys.

Anyone want to add to the list?

Oh, here's a picture of Vril Dox. His outfit is pretty practical because it's a military uniform. And he's got jodphurs. I like jodphurs. And Vril Dox.

Can Mars just go away now?

2010-10-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, my comics finally came and I got a chance to read Brightest Day #12. Of all the stories, I'm liking the one revolving around the Martian Manhunter one the least.

Since the Martian Manhunter is one of my favorite characters, I had really high hopes for his story arc. I thought Brightest Day would be an opportunity to take the character back to his roots, or maybe back to his roots with a little twist of noir.

Instead, the J'onn's antagonist is basically a female version of Malefic. *sigh* (For the record, I really don't like Malefic, J'onn's evil twin brother, for those of you who don't know who he is.) Coupled with that is an origin retcon, which always bug me to no end.

But all of that out of the way, here's what I think really needs to happen to bring the charcater of the Martian Manhunter to new heights:

Get rid of Mars.

Get rid of it! I don't mean obliterate the planet Death Star-style, but just let it stay in the background, not the forefront. Here's why:

1. Mars is so poorly defined. Is it a war-like culture reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs? Is it a planet/nation of philosophers and poets? Honestly, I can't keep track of what Martian culture was like.

2. And while we're at it, can we cut out the whole "the entire planet has the same culture/government/language bit? As much as I love Star Wars, the fact that Tatooine is entirely desert makes no sense. (Okay, "Galaxy far, far away," so I guess it has different rules.) Yes, I know there were White Martians, which to me, are a mess to begin with anyway. There were Pole Dwellers, but they got retconned out, I tink. But take a look at these speech bubbles from Brightest Day #12:

The Martian Symbols of Love and Hate? Slip "Earth" into that sentence and it makes no sense. Can you think of the Earth symbol for danger? The Earth symbol for love? If someone dropped you off a country with a completely different language and culture, would you even know what a stop sign looked like?! ARGH! A whole planet can't have the same culture!

I think somewhere in the DC universe it was explained that Earth has a variety cultures. To me, that's just an excuse to have a lack of imagination. That's why whenever I see a female alien creature with hardly any similarity to humans yet is still drawn with bosoms to identify her as female, I start wanting to throw things across the room. It makes no sense and it's just lazy. Heck, even abs shouldn't be the same. Which brings me to point 3.

3. The Green Lantern universe handles aliens and alien cultures much better than any incarnation of Mars ever could. So you know what? Let's just forget everything about Martian culture, leave it as some sort of vague understanding that it was slightly different than Earth culture, and let J'onn J'onzz move on to superheroing and detectiving, and leave the aliens to the mythos that does it well. Stop trying to define Mars, becuase the whole Mars history has gotten so convoluted, that there's just no way you can define it with any modicum of logic short of another history-changing Crisis.

4. Every story centered around Mars, by default, makes the story about J'onn J'onzz being an alien, not about what he does as a superhero. There is no forward motion in a story that basically boils down into a character trying to figure out his destiny when he already chose it decades ago. In any recent story that I can think of, J'onn J'onzz doesn't DO anything other than try figure out who J'onn J'onzz is. He's become the Odo of the DC Universe, for those who have seen Deep Space Nine: he is only defined by his race and how different/similar he is to them. Sure, Odo was the security guy who bantered with Quark, but he was the "good Dominion guy," too. There's more to J'onn than just being the de facto "good" alien of the JLA.

5. Quick: name three things Superman stands for. Okay, try that with J'onn J'onzz. It's nowhere near as easy, is it. Why? Because any major Post-Crisis story involving J'onn J'onzz--except American Secrets and DC: The New Frontier--boils down to "Should I like Mars more or Earth more?" The more Mars is in the foreground, the less J'onn J'onzz's core values are. And I don't mean core values as in "Earth is more important to me than Mars," which is a passive value. I mean it in the sense of what a hero considers is worth fighting for and acting upon, like "Truth, Justice, and the American Way."

6. Get rid of Mars, get rid of the Superman parallels. The less J'onn is torn between two worlds, the less he is like Superman, and the more he can do other things to make him different. You know, like be a detective. Kind of how he started out.

Okay, rant is finished. Anyone got any counter-arguments? Or some Maalox?

Talking Comics With the Uninitiated, Part 2

2010-10-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

So a while back I had a conversation with my mother about Wonder Woman's new costume and how much she hated it.

I'm starting to get my Halloween costume together. Two years ago I made a promise to someone (who's going as the Joker) that I'd be Harley Quinn, which left me kind of at a loss as to how to pull off a work-safe (a.k.a. not super-tight) Harley Quinn costume. Lo and behold, I managed to pull it off by finding a jester costume to modify. I have no sewing machine skills, so this is where my mother comes in. She has no idea who Harley Quinn is.

I had been showing her various pictures of Harley to give her an idea of what she looked like, but I never explained to her who she was exactly. Actually, I did, but she wasn't listening at the time.

Apparently my mother thought the costume was a part of her body or her skin something, and not like an actual suit. I don't know what goes on in the heads of non-comics readers...

Mom: Well, I don't know what all these superpowers do to people!

Me: She doesn't have superpowers, Mom. She's just a girl in a suit.

Mom: Oh. But what about the horns?

Me: They're part of her costume! She's got pigtails and stuff.

Mom: Okay. You still have to make the glasses yet, right?

Me: They're not glasses! That's a mask!

Mom: Oh.

Me: And she doesn't have superpowers. She's just crazy.

Mom: What?

Me: She's nuts. She's the Joker's sidekick.

Mom: She's a villain?! Wait, I thought she was a hero!

Me: *facepalm*

Mom: So she's a devil or something?

Me: No! She's cute!!! See? She's all like clingy and the Joker's all like, "Get off of me!" It's funny!

Mom: Okay, I guess she's kind of cute.

I then started asking my mother if she could take the headpiece apart and re-sew it back together because the black and red were on the wrong sides and she's like, "Does it REALLY matter?" And of course I'm like, "YES." Never offer to make anything for someone with OCD. She is going to switch the sleeves around because they don't match at all, but I conceded the headpiece and the tunic, so it will be backwards, so I'll just have to pretend I'm Bizzarro-Harley or Left-Handed Harley or something.

You can just imagine how entertaining it will be when I take her to see the Green Lantern movie next summer.

Are All Characters Sacred?

2010-10-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

The two part "Starro the Conqueror" episode of Batman: the Brave and the Bold which featured B'wana Beast had me thinking deep thoughts the other day about minor characters.

It seems as though that both the comics industry and comics fandom operate under the premise that any character, no matter how small, out-of-fashion, ridiculous, or poorly thought out, is sacred. For the former, it is because they are intellectual property that might garner profits, for the latter, it is out of emotional attachment and identification.

Is this a valid premise, however, for a creative industry? Should all characters be above censure, even if hardly anyone likes them? Is it okay to admit a mistake, forget a character was created, and move on?

I offer this up as an open-ended question, because I have not come to a conclusion myself. I can offer points on both sides of the argument: there are some characters I just don't like, and at the same time, I applaud the efforts of writers who can take an obscure character and bring him or her to new heights. That being said, I don't like to see legacy characters trotted out in low-quality stories just for the sake of selling books.

But I teared up a little at the end of a cartoon about B'wana Beast, so that's got to count for something.

Adam Strange by Alex Saviuk

2010-10-22T00:02:00.000-07:00

Part of my love for Adam Strange stems from how many cool flying poses the guy can assume. Carmine Infantino always managed to draw so many awesome poses for Adam in his Silver Age stories that communicated a realistic sense of motion through the air. I also love it when superheroes have their own flying styles, or even fighting styles, that pushes them into the realm of iconic and original.

So whenever I see a contemporary artist find a cool pose for Adam Strange, I'm very happy.

75 Favorite Moments in DC History: Number 49

2010-10-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

49. Justice is served, Harvey Dent style (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #62-63, 1997.) (***Potential Spoilers!***

I know hardly anything about The Punisher, but the more I think about it, the more I think I'd like him. Sometimes I need a break from the peaceful-warrior style of Justice served by heroes like The Martian Manhuner, and I need a Machiavellian approach to satisfy those darker yearnings for Revenge...er...Justice. (Did I mention I'm half-Sicilian?)

Fun Fact: My Mom's dog is a Chow Chow!

There's a book I have called Batman and Philosophy in which one of the essays examines whether Batman's decision to not kill the Joker is causing more lives to be lost. Depending on the mood I'm in, I'll waver between, "Don't sacrifice your morals and break your one rule!" to "Oh, just kill him already and be done with it!" But Bruce Wayne won't ever pull a trigger, even in the name of Justice.

But guess who will?

All Batman villians must laugh when shooting their henchmen. It's just tradition at this point.

Yeah, that's right, Batman: Harvey Dent will get your dirty work done. Good thing about leaving things to the Fate of a coin toss: it's really good at absolving guilt. The good portion of Harvey's psyche decices to emerge and punish criminals under the mantle of "Janus." He's pretty darn close to being a superhero, too: he dons a mask of the Greek god Janus and some black robes and starts punishing criminals and righting wrongs, and even twarts Two-Face's plans to destroy the city, becoming his own nemesis. I could get used to this.

Plus, as an added bonus, we get to see Harvey Dent in a naval uniform and speak all piratey and shoot people with a gun that makes really cool sound effects:

C'mon, say it out loud, you know you want to: SHFF!!

Oh, and slap people around, too.

If anyone at DC is looking for a "new" angle to take Harvey Dent in, instead of the hoodie-wearing-betrayed-by-his-own-gang incarnation, you could always revisit this.

Just don't forget the military uniform, okay?

Happy Monday!

2010-10-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

It's Monday. Yay.

We all need a little pick-me-up, so how's this?

A lovely picture of Ice, a.k.a. Tora Olafsdotter, looking all cute and adorable and holding an even cuter and adorable-er baby seal. Awww. Look at the cute little expression on his face! And his cute little flippers! And Tora's holding him so gently so he's not all scared. Wouldn't it be nice if comics had more scenes like this in them? Who doesn't love cute little furry animals being held by sweet, nice superheroines? (Judd Winick, I guess. And maybe Satan.)

You know, this is much better than scenes like in last week's Generation Lost where Ice's outer self freezes off revealing her deep-down-off-the-chain ice elemental/bad girl center. Let the Freudian analysis commence on that one.

Actually, forget the analysis and just look at Tora holding a baby seal. It's a lot more relaxing this way.

Hooray for denial!

DC Universe Classics Jemm Figure

2010-10-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

For all fans of Mars and Saturn, the DC Universe Classics line has recently released both a Jemm, Son of Saturn figure, and two variations of the Martian Manhunter. The guys who run Actionfigurepics.com just posted some pics of Jemm, so if you're curious, check them (all) out, because I think Jemm looks pretty cool. (I would post a pic here, but the creators of the site don't want things reposted, even though I found an easy way around their don't-take-photos-from-our-site-coding.) If you don't feel like clicking links to see his picture, I can try to describe Jemm to you:

He's got ears that are pointier than Spock's yet not quite as substnatial as Lord of the Rings elf-proportions, he's got E.T. fingers and mustard yellow eyes.

Kinda sounds like lyrics from a Beatles song when I put it that way...

A Rannt for Weakness

2010-10-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

I have to start out by saying that this idea is all Scipio's fault. Again. That guy really gets my brain working.

If you don't know, Scipio, in his blog The Absorbascon, has a peculiar dislike for the people of Rann and their appointed defender, Adam Strange. Being an Adam Strange fan, this always irked me, even if I did find myself laughing at the majority of his posts skewering "those filthy stinking Rannians."

Scipio's point of contention against Rann is that it is a planet populated by weaklings who have fallen into a level of idol worship so pathetic that its citizens are inspired to build life-size dolls of Adam Strange and have trapped in him a codependent relationship because Adam Strange seeks out those who need him to fulfill his sense of self-worth. (He even had a whole label devoted to Why We Hate Adam Strange And Those Stinking Rannies.)

Everyone's entitled to like or dislike whomever he or she desires and lots of fun can be had through satire, but too many people climbed on the "I hate Adam Strange" bandwagon for me to find much fun in it. The crux of the hatred hinges on the fact that Rann, as a planet, is weak.

To which I say, "So what?"

Rann was a peaceful country, which had developed all sorts of technological wonders. A weak planet is nothing more than a story-telling device to show how an ordinary Earthman can become a hero under the right circumstances, just like Gotham is so ridiculously corrupt to highlight Batman's endeavors. Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars was not peaceful by any means, but they certainly had trouble with leadership. That is, until Earthman John Carter came along and fixed everything.

The second part of the argument is that Adam Strange is a direct ripoff of Flash Gordon. Well, I'm not historian, but I'm pretty sure Flash Gordon ripped off John Carter of Mars. Shakespeare ripped off a few things from Greek mythology (and possibly Philip Marlowe), too, so I guess we can throw him under the bus while we're at it, too.

Which brings me to the second point of my whole rant: is weakness in comics ever justified, especially for the female gender?

I work in a place that constantly promotes "strong, independent women." I hear that so much I think my employer may have trademarked that phrase. But this is exactly what we want in real life: strong, independent women capable of making a difference in the world. But in fiction, especially a story about superheroes, does it make any sense for every single character to be strong and capable of saving themselves?

I'm pretty sure Lois Lane has been criticized for having to be saved by Superman. Sure, she can take care of herself in lots of situations, but if Darkseid shows up in Metropolis, I'm pretty sure she'd be helpless. What's a superhero if he can't save his girl?

Or vice versa?

Expecting everyone to be strong and capable deprives comics of one of its essential facets: saving those dear to you. Yes, historically, many of those needing saving were women, but those women in need of saving were balanced out by the existence of female superheroes. Let's have a variety of personalities and a variety of strengths: for any woman in need of rescuing, we have a female superhero. For every woman shown who cannot stand up to a thug in an alley, set aside a quick panel or two and show her expressing a different kind of strength (psychological, emotional, willpower, etc.) in another aspect of her life. I feel that comic writers are operating under the fear of portraying women in a stereotypical fashion, when all they need to do is think realistically. Show a few men who need saving as well. Honestly, who among us wouldn't run screaming if Despero landed on our front doorstep? It's only human.

And the human element is what I like to read about most in my comics.

Adam Strange pinup by MachSabre

2010-10-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Frank from the Idol-Head of Diabolu for pointing out a sketch of one of my favorites, Adam Strange.

MachSabre looks like he's completing a superhero alphabet, which is such a cool idea for an art project. If I could draw people with even a modicum of skill, I'd try a superhero alphabet. Because not only would Adam Strange be first, Ted Kord would be second.

Make Your Own Hawkgirl Mask...In Only An Hour!!

2010-10-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

I was cruising the aisles of Joann Fabrics with the maternal unit today getting my Halloween plans in order. I happened to see one of the little free project sheets sticking out from one of racks while looking at the in miscellaneous aisle in the back of the store:

Forget Bruce Wayne going back in time and being Cave Batman. How about a Neolithic Hawkgirl?

And of course, when I saw this, I immediately flipped out and took one. Incredulously, the instructions say "one hour" for the crafting time, which I find highly dubious. I find it even more dubious that anyone would want to make this in the first place, even if it is cool-looking. But I did find it interesting to know that you can sculpt leather just by soaking it in water and letting it dry. You learn something new every day I guess, right?

Rivets? Does anyone know how hard it is to rivet leather with hand tools?

So who's going to go make a Hawkgirl/man mask? Come on...you know you want to!

Real Life Heroes: Electron Boy

2010-10-08T23:24:00.000-07:00

I just happened to hear about this story via a commenter in Shag's blog, Once Upon A Geek. Did anyone hear that Seattle was saved by Electron Boy from the clutches of Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy?

Electron Boy's alter ego is Erik Martin, a thirteen-year-old boy living with liver cancer. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted him his wish to be a superhero for a day, which involved training with Spiderman, riding through the city in a DeLorean, and saving the Seattle Sounders soccer team, several civilians, and a city worker, ending in a dramatic showdown at the Space Needle.

You can read about the amazing efforts of the city of Seattle, including its citizens, police force, and city council, as well as the heroics of Electron Boy and the Make-A-Wish Foundation here, and here. It might make you tear up a little, though.

I got nothin'

2010-10-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

It seems like a pretty slow week, comics-wise, with nothing too major out on the shelves. My Adam Strange Brave and the Bold is STILL running late, so I don't know when it'll be shipped to me. Other than that, I have nothing new and exciting to report. I envy bloggers who can riff about all sorts of topics under the sun and are gifted with a wellspring of inspiration which drives them to produce interesting posts day after day. I, myself, on the other hand, just kinda sit there and look at the blank new post window hoping for something interesting to pop into my head. I never was any good with coming up with original ideas. I figure there's only so many analyses or "interesting" observations I can make about the comics world before I run out of the few ideas I already have.

So, I throw the ball to you, dear reader: is there any topic you'd like to see me talk about? Or would you like my opinion on a certain topic? Or just want to ask me anything? Carte blanche.

I think I just spelled that wrong.

75 Favorite Moments in DC History: Number 50

2010-10-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

50. J'onn J'onzz goes back to John Jones (JLA #104, 2004, collected in JLA: Pain of the Gods.)

I'm a big fan of small moments in comics. Some belittle those, and the reviews on Amazon for the trade reflects that. (I think someone called this trade the "Pain of the Reader.") Okay, some of the stories seem a little forced, and even the Martian Manhunter one isn't stellar all around, but I see it as a nice break from fighting interstellar armies and sorceresses and Darkseid all that. It's all about variety for me.

Anyway, for whatever reason, the JLA are in the mood for getting some heavy duty feelings off their chests. While John Stewart is talking about that whole Xanshi debacle, J'onn decides he needs to be "elsewhere."

And that elsewhere is as a temp worker at a detective agency in his guise of "John Jones" (complete with hat. Who-hoo!), where he manages to creep out his bosses despite being a stellar employee. So one of his superiors decides to send "Loony Linda" to follow him around to make sure "there are no bodies in his refrigerator--and if there are..."

Linda and J'onn find themselves having dinner and during their conversation, J'onn just picks up and leaves. The next night, J'onn is getting all Batman on an abusive husband, and Linda accidentally sees that John Jones isn't human.

Linda shows up on John Jones's door shortly thereafter and tells him she saw him.

John Stewart then shows up and congratulates Linda on figuring out what's really driving J'onn to act the way he is, and that Mr. Stewart had had it backwards the whole time. J'onn wasn't feeling uncomfortable fitting in.

I know some long-time readers thought J'onn had regressed socially, but I read this early on in my comics reading career, so I came in with a fresh mind. It was nice to see J'onn in his secret identity doing some detective work and helping regular folks down on the street. I really miss that. Who says only Batman has a monopoly on the "little" crimes?

Besides, artist Ron Garney and colorist David Baron did a fine job of evoking the John Johns aesthetic from the 1950's, with a few touches of Darwyn Cooke's work in DC: The New Frontier, and that's a combination I'd definitely like to see more of. I mean, look at J'onn's little New Frontier-inspired apartment, complete with Oreos and chair right in front of the TV:

Apparently they don't have mothers on Mars that tell you not to sit too close to the set.

Harley Quinn, Feminist

2010-10-04T22:31:00.000-07:00

I know, that title probably doesn't seem right to you. But bear with me for a while, and maybe I can illuminate you about my line of thought. Who's up for a good old fashioned thesis?

Thesis: Harley Quinn is a feminist character.

I hate to go all feminist rant, because that just isn't me. But here's the one feminist argument that I can make, which is a little different from most. To me, sexism is the stereotyping of female characters to represent a certain role or set of behaviors, based on society's expectations of what a "woman" is.

Taking a broad view of Wonder Woman, for example, I see a serious-minded woman who promotes peace, and who is somewhat of a mother figure. So, Woman = mature, responsible, serious, motherly. Wait...how can that possibly be a bad thing?

Have a look at this ad:

So Woman exists only to tame her man, make him grow up and settle down, deny him all sorts of fun stuff, and generally just suck all the fun out of his life. Oh, and to buy her diamonds or whatever girls supposedly want. (Don't get me started on jewelry ads.) Geez, marriage sounds like hell.

That's a really hit-you-on-the-head example, but ironically, I had forgotten about it. It was this commercial that stuck out in my mind:

While the guy is listening to the end of his favorite eight-minute song, the girl sits there on the pavement, rolling her eyes, waiting for him to be finished with his juvenile antics.

Because girls never do anything eccentric or silly. Only boys are allowed to "be boys."

Why does this commercial bug me? Because way back in high school, my friend and I did pretty much the exact same thing. Driving her home, her favorite song came on the radio, so she made me drive through an empty parking lot (at 2 a.m., no less) and circle the lot until it was over. Ahh, the indiscretions of youth.

I totally shot my thesis in the foot by drawing on personal experience, but so what, it's my blog and I can make or break the rules of logic here.

So who is Harley Quinn? She is fun, she's childish, she's eccentric, she's free-wheeling. She is the opposite of every stereotyped responsible mother sacrificing her time to drive the kids to soccer practice, and who points to a meticulously-balanced checkbook when her husband pleads for a new Dodge Charger. She's liberated herself from the stereotypical female domestic roles of responsibility, maturity, and seriousness. If it were up to Harley, she'd sit around in her PJ's eating cereal and watching cartoons and playing in her room full of toys all day. Not only would she buy her man a Chevy Charger, she'd buy him a machine gun as well, and shred the checkbook, too. Harley took one look at society's expectations of her and said, "Heck with this. I'm buying a pair of hyenas for pets."

Counter-argument: Harley Quinn is a "battered woman" and is not way an empowered female character.

Counter-counter-argument: Did I mention she has a whole room full of toys?