Out With The Old

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With the DC relaunch happening I thought I'd do a spot of spring cleaning round here . . .

Justice League Detroit Redux - JLA Classified

Largely pilloried at the time of their original publication in the mid-80's, the Detroit League were given a much stronger outing in 2001 in JLA Incarnations #5 (as shown last week) and it wasn't too long before they cropped up again in the pages of JLA: Classified from 2006.

JLA: CLASSIFIED #22 - #25, written by Steve Englehart with art by Tom Derenick and Mark Farmer.

JLA: Classified was used to tell tales of the Justice League that weren't always set in the present so it was no surprise that the Detroit League showed up in its pages eventually. After John Ostrander's take on the team (again, see last week) Steve Englehart - writer of one of, if not the definitive Batman stories - should have done wonders with the team. Instead, it's a step backward as we join the League just after their defeat of Amazo and find J'onn J'onzz has brought them to Canada to go camping and Steel, for one, isn't happy:

"Second-stringers, third-stringers, and rookies" is how he describes the League. It's no wonder nobody likes them if they don't like themselves.

Monday Memes #35

With the DC relaunch fast approaching, one of the titles I'm most looking forward to is Justice League International which, of course, put me in mind of these guys:

Or did I mean these guys?

Who knows!

Justice Society Returns!

Earlier today I wrote "with no revealed plans for the JSA in the new DCU, you have to wonder what's going to happen to these guys."

Mere hours later I check my feed reader and what do I find:

"James Robinson confirmed that he is working on a new Justice Society project with artist Nicola Scott, and that the parallel world Earth-2 will make a return."

Now I'll be honest and say that Robinson's recent Justice League stories have been more miss than hit but I'm still excited by this news.

And Earth-2, too!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #143

Haven't we all, Guy, haven't we all . . .

What Oliver Queen Will Be Getting Everyone For Christmas

Over at Newsarama, there's an interview with JT Krul who's writing the new Green Arrow series. It doesn't give much away, although the line "Green Arrow has a brand new locale... and hasn't forgotten Dinah" gives me a bit of hope that in the new DCU, Black Canary and Ollie will get back together.

What caught my eye, though, was this:

"For the new 52, we'll be focusing on Green Arrow at an earlier part in his life as the emerald archer. He's still got a secret identity and he plays an important role with his father's legacy — Queen Industries. He doesn't run the whole place, but a corner of it called Q-Core, which is responsible for some of the more entertaining electronic devices in the DCU — like the Q-Phone and the Q-Pad."

Will we see any other heroes using the Q-Phone or the Q-Pad?

Keep an eye out for one of these in the new DCU . . .

(And you just know they'd be running Android . . .)

Well What Do You Know?

I have something in common with Solomon Grundy.

42 today - I am now the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.


(And if you don't get that reference, shame on you.)

New DCU! New Titles! New Logos!

Are you worried that come September you won't be able to spot your favourite DC titles on the racks of your local comic shop (disregarding the fact that some of your favourite titles won't actually be there)?

Never fear for DC have released all their lovely new logos in one handy spotter's guide which you can find here.

I've already butchered mine and this is what I'll be on the look out for:

Blue Beetle doesn't look as good as the last series, I think; Justice League International looks a little messy with the blue and black globe map effect; Mr Terrific looks cool; Resurrection Man's almost the same as the original; and Swamp Thing harks back as well.

Justice League Detroit Redux - JLA Incarnations

JLA INCARNATIONS #5, written by John Ostrander with art by Val Semeiks, Kevin Conrad and Prentis Rollins.

As seen last week, the Justice League Detroit's original run came to an end with Justice League of America #261. By the end of that issue, Vibe and Steel were dead, Gypsy had reunited with her family and Vixen had resigned. While both women would continue adventuring over the years (Gypsy even re-joining the Justice League in the form of the Task Force) it would be fourteen years or so before the full Detroit League were seen again.

In JLA Incarnations, John Ostrander wrote single issue tales of the Leagues various line-ups and, in #5, he dealt with the Detroit League during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Monday Memes #34

Want to intimidate the crap out of your enemies?

Charge at them!

It never fails, folks.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #142

Er . . . yeah, what Hassan said.

Dinosaur Down

Call me shallow, call me blood thirsty, I don't care but this:

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a warrior woman beheading a dinosaur with a chain . . . makes me glad I'm picking up Paul Cornell's Demon Knights.

Pinched from a small interview here.

Resurrection Man #3

From the solicit:

The femmes fatale known as the Body Doubles have finally tracked down the Resurrection Man – and they seem to know more about him than he does! As they set out to test his abilities to withstand death – literally – Mitch discovers a far darker truth: More than one unearthly power has taken a strong interest in his immortal soul.

Yay! The Body Doubles are back!

Bleedin' Cat

Been a while since I've poked fun at the American interpretation of the English language as spoken by us Brits but as I'm up to my neck in work getting everything ready to leave ship-shape before I have a week off, I thought I'd throw this one out:

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Now I know Giffen and Jones played things for laughs (mostly) in Justice League Europe but come on - "Ten thousand Sterling"?

You're havin' a giraffe.

Frankenstein And The Laws Of Optics

I've enjoyed Flashpoint: Frankenstein and The Creatures of The Unknown; it's been one of the more entertaining Flashpoint minis and was the main reason I decided to pick up the new Frankenstein series in September.

However, one thing in last week's issue #3 kind bugged me.

To recap, Frankenstein and his friends were attacked by Shrieve and her friends, including a G.I. Robot. With the arrival of the Bride, though, things turned out well for our horrible heroes and #3 finds them discussing what to do next:

Justice League Detroit - The End Of The League

So here we are, at the end of my look back over the Justice League of America title from 1985 to 1987 and at the end of the Justice League Detroit era. This post is a bit picture heavy but I wanted to capture as much of it as I could.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #258 - 261, written by J.M. DeMatteis with art by Luke McDonnell, Bob Smith, Bill Wray, Steve Montano and Bob Lewis.

Before we plunge headlong into The End of The Justice League of America a little bit of background is needed to the events of these issues.

Last week's look at issues #255 - #257 ended with Firestorm asking the League for help against a bad guy called Brimstone. This huge fire demon was sent to Earth by Darkseid as part of his plan to discredit the very concept of heroes and was his first wave of attack, along with Glorious Godfrey and Dr Bedlam. All of this was part of that year's summer event called Legends which was a sort-of sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths but didn't have the same scope and, to be honest, suffered from a frankly saccharine ending. Not John Ostrander's finest moment by a long stretch, though the art by John Byrne and Karl Kesel is excellent.

Anyhow, the League agree to help Firestorm and with him and some help from a time-lost Cosmic Boy, they attack Brimstone and are almost instantly defeated.

By the end of Legends #2, President Ronald Reagan issues an order banning costumed heroes from appearing on the streets. It's after this that we pick up with Justice League of America #258 . . .

Monday Memes #33

Ladies . . .

. . . and gentlemen . . .

They all do it by themselves at one time or another.

Fly, that is.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #141

Forever? Well, at least until September.

New Guardians #1 Cover

DC have released the cover for Green Lantern: New Guardians #1 over at their blog:

Not entirely sure why they bothered blanking out the Corps members in the original promo as it was always clear who would be in there:

Kyle Rayner front and centre, with Bleez, Munk, Glomulus, Saint Walker and Arkillo. I guess the only uncertainty was who the Star Sapphire would be and it looks like it's Fatality.

Still, I shall be getting this.

Coming Soon

The cover of DC Retroactive: JLA The 70s #1 from a couple of weeks ago:

and a part of the cover:

How the heck do DC know about my plans?!

A Bargain At Twice The Price

Well I've just ordered this:

Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash, twenty four issues for a mere £10.49 over here in the (currently) rioting UK.

That should keep me quiet for a few days.

Justice League Detroit - Adam

Over the next few weeks on a Tuesday, I'll be working my way through the Justice League of America titles from 1985 to 1987, trying to work out if the Justice League Detroit era really was as bad as we think it was. Why am I doing this? Why the hell not.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #255 - 257, written by Gerry Conway and J.M. DeMatteis with art by Luke McDonnell, Bill Wray and Bob Smith.

With Despero vanquished (as seen last week) and the Detroit League finally having pulled together to overcome such a powerful foe, you'd think the troubles of the much-derided team would be over.

I'm afraid not.

Monday Memes #32

Hands. They're versatile things, aren't they?

I mean they can go down . . .

. . . or up . . .

It's like they've got a hundred and one uses.

Well.

Two, at least.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #140

Deadshot asks what we've been thinking for a while

Blogger Encountered A Problem

Oops! Not sure what happened here.

Have a picture of Power Girl instead:

Best Cos-Play Ever?

Oh I know, it's a ridiculously hyperbolic post title but what the heck.

I've said before I'm not a huge cos-play fan but skimming through this gallery of photos from the recent Comic Con did allow me to see this:

R2-D2 in the flesh, so to speak. Makes a change from the ubiquitous slave Leia outfit.

Pants On, Pants Off

If Mr Miyagi had said that, I might have paid more attention to Karate Kid in the 80's.

As it is, I've paraphrased him as DC have revealed the final cover to the new Justice League book that's launching the whole reboot / relaunch thing:

The (apparently) big difference from the original preview images? Wonder Woman is no longer wearing pants (I'm using the America expression for trousers - over here in the UK, the idea that Wonder Woman doesn't wear pants means something entirely different.)

Newsarama very kindly put both images together for comparison:

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I'm not a Wonder Woman reader so aside from the internet, the first time I saw her in her new outfit of jacket and pants was in Justice League: Generation Lost and I have to admit to kinda liking the look on the comic page. Just seems a little odd that they're dropping the Jim Lee design on a book that he's pencilling.

Are DC caving to fan pressure? If so, there are a lot bigger things they could change their mind over.

Cherry Picking Canon

Erin over at Exploring The Time Lab posted a simple yet interesting question the other day:

"What would you change or keep in canon if you were in charge of the DCnU?"

She has her own ideas, most of which I agree with (particularly "Countdown never happened. Countdown happened for no one.") and it got me to thinking about my own choices.

First, I'd keep everything pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths. Even the really weird stuff because by keeping all of that, we get to keep this:

Yep - Crisis... itself. It's a great story and one of my all time faves. You keep Crisis... and you can then get to keep the good stuff that came out of it, principally the revamps of Batman and Superman. But you also get to keep Power Girl (as survivor of Earth-2 - the Arion stuff never happened) and Helena Bertinelli's Huntress which then leads into Birds of Prey which is well worth keeping.

I'm happy with keeping Infinite Crisis as it does form a good sequel to the original, but we can lose both Identity Crisis and Final Crisis from my new DCU. Keeping Infinite Crisis allows us to keep Villains United which means we keep Secret Six so all's well and good there.

I'd keep the Justice Society and, in general, keep most of the legacy heroes as well - Ryan Choi's Atom, Mia Dearden's Speedy, Conner Hawke's Green Arrow and Jaime Reyes's Blue Beetle off the top of my head.

52 would remain canon as well because I like having a multiverse, dammit, though Grant Morrison would not get to keep it all to himself and his long-touted yet never appearing Multiversity which, I suspect, will do for the multiverse what the original Crisis... did to Hawkman: make it so toxic no-one will approach it for years.

Oh and Ice has her original origin restored, though that should go without saying.

Justice League Detroit - Despero The Destroyer

Over the next few weeks on a Tuesday, I'll be working my way through the Justice League of America titles from 1985 to 1987, trying to work out if the Justice League Detroit era really was as bad as we think it was. Why am I doing this? Why the hell not.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #251 - #254, written by Gerry Conway with art by Luke McDonnell and Bill Wray.

Last week's run down of issues #246 to #250 ended with a couple of revelations - Batman rejoined the League and Despero was revealed as the new menace on his way for vengeance. Despite the cover of #251 showing Despero clutching the League in his hand, he actually takes a while to get to Earth so the story moves to concentrate more on the team members than any great threat.

Monday Memes #31

Seriously, now: if you were asked to pick one DC hero who was ready to pick up a weapon and smack one of his friends around with it, I'd be willing to bet this guy would come out on top:

Even his other half's up to it:

Hawkman. You gotta love him.