Tiny Titans Darkseid Is So Cute...

From tiny titans: Adventures in Awesomeness trade collection. A book that makes me squee with delight every time I read it. Which is often.

Hey, Look! A New Post!

Well, it's been like what, two weeks since I last updated this blog? Sometimes real world responsibilities set up an ambush for you and you have no choice but to take care of it and leave everything else (like a blog about comic books). Anyway, I'm back and let's hope I won't go away for long after this, huh?

So what's this? John Stewart and the Martian Manhunter arrive at the planet Xanshi. They were assigned to Xanshi by the Highfather and Darkseid to destroy the Anti-Life Aspect before it destroys the planet and put the Milky Way galaxy in peril.



So off the Lantern goes without his Martian partner because he's ring is all-powerful and all that...


Whoops...
The thing they were sent there to destroy is in freakin' yellow, the one colour a Green Lantern's ring cannot fight against (pre-Green Lantern: Rebirth) and John Stewart just left his all powerful Martian friend a few thousand kilometres behind him. This will not look good on his resume, that's for sure. But wait...


Who the heck is this guy? Seriously, who is he? Look at the first panel up there. The locals have a distinctive look. This guy looks like Jerry Garcia. Is that how writer Jim Starlin looks like? It just took me out of the story for a second. It's like seeing a Charlton Heston cameo in a silly comedy or something.

20 years ago, a Cosmic Odyssey threatened to destroy the galaxy. Jim Starlin and Mike Mignola were there to chronicle it. The collection is still available online or you can wait till September and get the new edition. Probably nothing new other than a new foreword maybe.

Shut Up, Paco!

Yeah, Vibe, because your shockwave abilities are oh, so cool.

I have an irrational dislike for Paco Ramone a.k.a Vibe, can you tell?

B'wana Beast: Alpha Male

There are two reasons why I love Grant Morrison. First, he brought back crazy stories into the pages of superhero comics when he took over Doom Patrol when everyone else was going for grim and gritty. The other is when he saved B'wana Beast from obscurity and reintroduced him to a new generation of comic fans in the pages of Animal Man. Because that made the writers of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon show remember B'wana Beast as well and that, in turn, prompted Adam Beechen to feature B'wana in an issue of the Justice League Unlimited comic.

That's why I love Grant Morrison.

Anyway, in issue #29 of the JLU comic, the League is up against mind controlled gorillas in Seattle and they're actually having trouble subduing the apes. Mainly because there's no help from B'wana Beast. He's off doing his "Lord of the Jungle" thing, much to Superman's chagrin.


B'wana's such a jerk...but I love him, the big lug.

Superman then asks Animal Man to go talk to B'wana Beast seeing as how they both have animal-related powers. B'wana ain't interested, baby.

B'wana Beast gives help to no one, whelp!

So then the League receives an emergency call from Mexico City. Queen Bee is holding the entire city ransom. Lots of money or she'll sic her mutated killer bees on the populace. Not nice. The League goes to work. Superman orders Animal Man and B'wana Beast to try and channel abilities of natural bee predators like wasps or bears but B'wana Beast ignores him because:

Yeah. He's off doing his own thing again until, that is, when Animal Man gets into trouble





So BB isn't such a jerk after all.

Awwww.....

I love the all-ages superhero comics. Justice League Unlimited, Tiny Titans, DC Superfriends, Batman: Brave and the Bold, Marvel Adventures. They're not pretentious and they tell their story in one issue. Plus, I can share them with my kids. This story is collected in Justice League Unlimited: Heroes and was written by Adam Beechen with art by Carlo Barberi and Tom Fowler.

Batman Has Eggnog With The Kents

Awkwaaaard. And does Clark have boobs in the background there?


From Justice League Unlimited: Heroes by McAvennie, Greene & Massengill

Great Moment In Comics History No. 8: Holy Crap, Kal-El!

Not really that far back to be considered 'history' but check this out:


Jay Garrick gets struck by lightning and what does Superman from Earth-22 do? He jumps in and punches away the lightning bolt!!

That is hardcore.

From Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come, Part Three by Johns, Ross, Eaglesham and Pasarin (DC, 2009)

Before The Identity Crisis Retcon, Dr. Light...

...was kinda of a dweeb. He was a joke, a B-list villain who couldn't even win against a bunch of kids. So John Ostrander got permission to use him in Suicide Squad, the mid-1980s comic where obscure DC villains get a second chance or get killed. No one knew what Ostrander wanted to do with Dr. Light so in #36, we were surprised when the Doctor actually wanted to turn over a new leaf and be a hero (after getting some pep talk from the ghost of Jacob Smith Finlay, the first Dr. Light).


So the new 'heroic' Dr. Light gets to prove himself in everyone's favourite dystopia, Apokolips, but not after more morale boosting from the ghost of Jacob Finlay.




It was all a trick! Finlay wanted revenge! But wait...


Poor Finlay. First he gets murdered then he gets to spend all eternity with his murderer because causing someone's death won't get you into Heaven. We all know now that (the second) Dr. Light is back on Earth and is actually a rapist (gee, thanks a lot, Dan Didio). So when was he resurrected? And who is that ugly troll? That creature is one of Satan's minions and Light himsellf would be resurrected in another awesome issue* of Suicide Squad, a series that had pure awesomeness oozing out its pages in just about every issue even though it was saddled with less than stellar pencillers all throughout its run.

*yeah, I plan to blog about that particular issue soon. It's a hoot, I tell you.

Friday Night Fights: OPP - round 12

You know what? Call it lazy, call it 'phoning it in'. I don't care. I've won TWO OPP fights, boyo! If I want to showcase something ho-hum like a middle aged Batman kicking Superman in the jaw, well then, by golly, I'll do it!

Spacebooger has more fights from the other guys...but none of them won twice!

Dark Knight Returns by Miller, Janson and Varley

DC Comics Library: The Batman Annuals volume one

I know what I will be reading at work tomorrow...during lunchtime, that is, 'cause reading when you should be working is wrong.

I'm not a huge fan of the Silver Age Batman, having grown up reading his grim and gritty adventures post-Dark Knight Returns of the 1980s. Still, this panel sold me on this book:


Jungle Batman clubbing a panther! How can anyone not like that?

Friday Night Fights: OPP - round 11

Sobek eats Osiris in the pages of 52 volume 4 by Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid & Giffen.

Spacebooger does the same to all the jerkwads he meets. That's just how he rolls.

It's Just A Comic Book. Cut Away, Kid!

That's right! I let my kid cut out a comic book page! It's a comic book, not the the damn Mona Lisa, people! Besides, blame DC if you have to. It was them who put all that cut-out finger puppets and masks in the DC Superfriends back pages. They wanted the comic book damaged, the way it was meant to be.

Burnout

Damn, am I burned out already on superhero comics? It's only been 4 years since I came back to Marvel's and DC's respective universes and already I feel bored with their stuff. Not a good sign. I don't wanna leave but what's the point of throwing money into stuff you don't enjoy them?

Just finished reading the third collection of DC's The Brave and the Bold and I was less than impressed. It wasn't as bad the second collection but not as good as the first one either. As a fan of done-in-one, not necessarily in-continuity stories, I think BotB opened well with a huge bang and then whimpered pretty quickly soon after. I dropped Justice League when it became a pin-up gallery and I'll be dropping JSA with they finish collecting the 'Kingdom Come' storyline. This title, out of all of them that I buy, has been the most disappointing. The revival of the JSA early in the new century was a hoot. Great plots, great pencils...the later ones weren't so hot but overall the Justice Society was fun to read. Now not so much. If Marvel has Brian Bendis as their master of decompressed writing, DC has Geoff Johns.

And speaking of Marvel, it looks like I'll be dropping all three Avengers trades (Mighty, New & Initiative) with their Secret Invasion collection. "I'm not a Skrull! You're the Skrull!" was funny for about half a page, Bendis.

When reading Showcase Presents: Enemy Ace or Essential Defenders vol. 1 is more fun than reading the current stuff from the Big Two, maybe it's time to focus more attention and money on their old stuff. Of course, there's always the smaller publishers. It's not all a lost cause, I admit, but if you want to read about superhero adventures there's no place better than Marvel & DC and these days those companies aren't hitting many of my buttons.

Yeah, But She Took Care of 7 Single Men!

That's true. In fact, Ms. White was quite crap in all forms of combat. (click on image for monster size and to find out what the hell I'm talking about)

Wonder Woman backbites another fictional character in Wonder Woman: Ends of the Earth hardcover collection by Simone and Chang.

Friday Night Fights: OPP round 8

Colonel Rick Flag punches a fat Russian while Deadshot cheers him on in Suicide Squad #7, DC, 1987 by Ostrander, McDonnell & Lewis

Spacebooger wishes he could do what Flag's doing in that panel ('cause you know, Spacebooger broke his hand and all...)

Comics Kids Can Read Without Bleaching Their Brains Afterwards: DC Super Friends: For Justice

Let's celebrate this new month by watching Batman and Wonder Woman ride dinosaurs. Just because we can.



DC Super Friends: For Justice collects the first seven issues of Super Friends and is perfect for the kids. Not as zany as Tiny Titans but it has Batman riding a dinosaur and all the Super Friends exchanging costumes and masks just to fool Felix Faust. Wonder Woman got to change with Aquaman. They wisely stuck Aquaman in the background so we couldn't see his smooth legs. Smart thinking, DC. Nobody wants to see that.


Faust also failed to notice "Wonder Woman" had a hairy chest. Felix Faust isn't very smart, Batman.

Remember That One Time When Batman Had A Free For All In A Ring Of Fire?

Silly super villain.

See, Batman figured out you are all Martians and in the DC Universe Martians fear only fire.

Batman is awesome and scary.

From JLA: The Deluxe Edition, vol. 1 by Morrison, Porter & Dell (DC, 2008)

All-Star Superman vol. 2 (DC, 2009)

I've said all I can say about Morrison's and Quitely's take on Superman over here. So I'm not going to say anything else for the second volume except: It is frickin' awesome. That is all.



Lois' eye-roll is just perfect.

Friday Night Fights: O.P.P. (round 4)

That's actually Wally West in super-speed mode bitchslapping Mark Shaw a.k.a Manhunter in Flash #22, DC, 1989. By Messner-Loebs, LaRoque & Mahlstedt.

More one panel slaps, punches and kicks over at Spacebooger

I Needed A Reason To Drop Some Books Anyway...

There are a few names today that will make me drop a title from my 'must-buy' list if those names appear in the credit box:

Jeph Loeb, Rob Liefeld, Ed Benes, Judd Winick, Brad Meltzer, Mark Millar and a couple of others.

Hey, if you like their work then more power to you. I don't. Different strokes and all that. Well, here's a piece of news that has just come to my attention: Judd Winick will be writing "Batman".

Oh, SNAP!

A part of me hopes that they were joking but since it was announced on a frikkin' WonderCon DC Panel, it's safe to say they were serious. Oh well, I was looking for a trade or two to drop. Looks like Batman will be the one.

Great Moments In Comics History No. 7: German WW 1 Fighter Aces Are BAD ASS

Here's the situation: Rittmeister Hans von Hammer, "Enemy Ace" to the Allied forces, finds himself in a bit of a pickle over the skies at the Western Front. His tri-wing Fokker has been riddled with bullets and he's going down in flames. Is this the end? The hell it is!







The "Enemy Ace" saves himself from being a burnt smudge on the ground by grabbing hold of the axle of another airplane and hangs on for dear life while British fighters chase after him and his saviour over the skies of France. Just try to wrap your head around that one, will you?

This classic scene of bad-assery can only come from the mind of Robert Kanigher and the pencil skills of Joe Kubert. Reprinted in Showcase Presents: Enemy Ace (DC, 2008).

For more of DGR's Great Moments..., click the appropriate label below.