I Predict A Lawsuit

Over on Earth-2, the bad Superman - brainwashed or possessed into believing he's the herald of Darkseid - orders his Parademons to destroy all the houses of worship to reinforce his belief that the only god is Darkseid.

I've condensed the captions from the first few panels on to the top of one that made me raise an eyebrow:

Scientology is one of the "fictions they have invented"?

I don't disagree but I'm surprised, knowing how litigious Scientologists can be, that DC let this through. Maybe their defence will be that on Earth-2, it's acknowledged as fiction?

Perusing Previews - October 2013

I'm sure the Create Your Own figures will be great fun for kids of all ages, but I have to wonder why you can get a Superhuman Male but not a Superhuman Female? Isn't that just reinforcing the idea that all female superheroes have to have the same body shape?

Monday Memories #39 - Martian Manhunter #1,000,000

Each Monday this year I'll be taking a look back at a random comic, prestige format issue, graphic novel or collection of reprints from amongst my 3,000 or so comics that date from 1962 to 2003 - I figured anything in the last ten years would be too recent to hark back to.

The comics are chosen completely at random and apart from a four week lead-in period, even I don't know what I'll be looking at in the weeks to come!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #241

Oh, how things could have been different...

Monday Memories #2 - Generations 3 #8

Each Monday this year I'll be taking a look back at a random comic, prestige format issue, graphic novel or collection of reprints from amongst my 3,000 or so comics that date from 1962 to 2003 - I figured anything in the last ten years would be too recent to hark back to.

The comics are chosen completely at random and apart from a four week lead-in period, even I don't know what I'll be looking at in the weeks to come!

Who Was Who Is Who #11

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, and with DC's New 52 well under way (how long are they keeping that title do you think?) I'm going to go through all my copies of Who's Who and see if I can predict who will make it over to the new DCU by the end of 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got a Demolition Team's chance.

DAILY PLANET - yes it's in place, no I'm not counting it. Why? It's a newspaper, people!

DARK CIRCLE - Legion villains, I'm pretty sure they're not coming back any time soon but that's where Dave Sopko, the official COEP Legion go to guy comes in. He says "Doubt we'll see them in the near future, short of a conversational mention here or there. I think that they will show up eventually, but probably a few years down the line."

DARK DESTROYER - villain from Atari Force. Do I have to say anything more?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #169

Mmmmm, plump piggies . . .

Justice League #6 Cover

So there it is, the cover for Justice League #6 which shows up next week. From Jim Lee's brief article over at the DC Source blog:

"“I wanted to create a cover which resonated with what I consider to be the most classic Darkseid story – namely the Great Darkness Saga – so that entailed the Justice League bowing down naturally to the power of Darkseid,” said Lee. “Except of course Batman who, despite not having powers, fights with all his strength in defiance.”"

Every member of the League bowing to Darkseid except for Batman, eh?

And Superman who's imprisoned off to one side.

And Aquaman who looks like he's about to mount Wonder Woman.

Still, despite that - cool cover.

Earth-2 And Worlds' Finest Covers

DC have revealed the covers of the forthcoming Earth-2 and Worlds' Finest series, so what do we have:

Earth-2's variant cover gives us Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman fighting against Parademons which makes me wonder (as it's a variant) whether this is meant to echo the recent battle of the Justice League against Darkseid and his minions in their title, or whether it is actually story related. Either way, the cover gives us no clue as to when the story will take place or whether the Earth-Two heroes are connected to either World War II or the Justice Society.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #164

Arkham fails to produce a worthwhile threat.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #159

Salaak obviously hasn't seen anywhere near enough buddy cop movies

Darkseid's Back

Actually, it's his front that's been revealed as DC show off Jim Lee's redesign of the DCU's big villain who, as they say, "has not appeared inside a DC comic since early 2009" . . . unless you count Justice League: Generation Lost #14 (November 2010) or DCU: Legacies #8 (February 2011) that is.

But anyway, here's the new look Darkseid:

Is it me or has the old fella put on a couple of pounds in the last couple of years when he's been hanging around in Limbo? He was always a sturdy chap but now he seems sort of . . . portly.

Still, at least he's lost the little mini-skirt he had for a while which left nothing to the imagination and led to more than one Basic Instinct style moment, like the time he flashed his own son Orion:

or when he gave Mary Marvel a bit of a shock in Countdown To Final Crisis:

No wonder she dropped her Soder Cola.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #151

Hal Jordan showing how NOT to win friends and influence people

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 . . .

Time Flies By - 1996

Last time I did this, I looked back at what I was buying twenty years ago. I figured there'd be little point doing the same time frame again as it would just be the same titles but moved on a month or two so I chose the completely arbitrary date of 1996, fifteen years ago, to have a look at what I was picking up back then.

Extreme Justice #17

Oh man - anybody else remember this title? It was pretty much a mess from the get-go and here it is, wrapping up in its penultimate issue a year and a half after its launch. Did it do anything except confuse the Captain Atom/Monarch relationship?

Ghost / Hellboy Special #2

A two parter team up between Dark Horse's big supernatural characters which, while nothing brilliant, was good fun as I remember.

Ghost #15

Despite the cheesecake covers, Ghost was a good read although it could have done with a stable art team. Eric Luke was writer throughout the first series and did a fine job of working out who Ghost was, particularly after a whole host of cross overs and guest stars were forced on him in the early issues.

Green Arrow #109

Conner Hawke - a damn fine character with a huge amount of potential who carried his own title for three years and joined the Justice League for goodness sake! And where is he now? In limbo after being turned into an amnesiac, indestructible victim by Mr Winick. Grrrr . . .

Green Lantern #74

Kyle and the Darkstars go up against Grayven, son of Darkseid and it's not pretty. I really enjoyed Ron Marz's run on Green Lantern which was straightforward superheroics at its best.

Hitman #2

One of my all time favourite series, Hitman was an irreverent, violent and above all fun look at the dirtier side of the DCU. Much missed.

Inherit The Earth trade paperback

One of several comics companies that Jim Shooter dabbled in, Broadway's Fatale series traded on the buxom title character but actually managed to overcome the T'n'A aspect and provide a story which, while never going to win a Nobel prize, was a good mix of espionage and superheroics. Sadly the company folded before we ever got to learn what happened to Fatale. Oh, wait - she turned up in the DCU under a different name.

Justice League America #111

Another Justice League title that was winding down. For some reason, while Gerard Jones produced several years worth of cracking Green Lantern stories, his Justice League stuff (when writing solo) never really gelled and when it was bad (Power Girl's son, anybody?) it was really bad. It was probably best that this title was put to rest in a few issue's time.

Justice League Task Force #35

And the other JL title in the stable at the time was also heading for cancellation. Never brilliant but never that dreadful either, JLTF was supposed to be the Mission Impossible side of the League, able to recruit any hero to go on a mission. I remember reading an interview with writer Christopher Priest where he said that as no-one ever gave him a mission to go on, he went ahead and did his own thing.

Preacher #14

Everybody remember when Cassidy was still the loveable rogue instead of what he became? Preacher was an undeniably good book and still bears re-reading every once in a while.

The Spectre #42

On the whole, The Spectre was a bloody good series but its low point, for me at least, was the storyline around this issue - The Haunting of America. It just didn't work for me and seemed to drag on way too long but I stuck with it none the less.

Friday Night Fights - Green Lantern's Might (Sorta)

Yay! I won last week's Fight! And who said Countdown to Final Crisis didn't contain anything worth while?!

At the risk of pushing my luck, I'm once more delving into the pages of Countdown... where we find dark Mary Marvel wandering around on Apokolips beating the crap out of anyone she can find.

Seriously, if Darkseid's giving you compliments you know you've gone over to the . . . err . . . dark . . . ummm . . .

Yeah, anyway, Mary's beating the snot out of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner but it's okay because here comes his ex, Donna Troy, to the rescue!

Oh wait - maybe not so much rescue as being battered by Mary using Rayner as a baseball bat!

I swear - the above is the best panel in the entirety of Countdown to Final Crisis! WHAP WHAP WHAP WHAP WHAP  I can read it for hours!

Mary (with her overly large head) declares herself the winner and if you all head over to Spacebooger and vote for me like you did last week, I can too!

This interesting use of a Green Lantern first appeared in Countdown to Final Crisis #3, cover dated April 2008, written by Paul Dini and Sean Mckeever with art by Freddie E. Williams II.

Friday Night Fights - Beware The Javelin, My Son!

DC has some fantastic villains, many of whom we've seen in this round of Friday Night Fights where Spacebooger has decreed that the bad guys win. The usual arch enemies - the Joker and Lex Luthor - spring to mind, but also the bigger, more cosmic guys: the Anti-Monitor and Darkseid for example.

The Javelin, however, cannot rank amongst them. He's a guy who flies. And throws javelins. That's it.

But that's still enough to kick Green Lantern's arse, though!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention - those javelins? They're trick javelins!

"Bright-eyes"?!! Is Jordan flirting with him?!

Flirting or not, it isn't going to help him as that damn Javelin has a . . . er . . . javelin just right for Jordan. Damn that yellow impurity!!

And who says Germans don't have a sense of humour?!

As you all seemed to enjoy Jordan getting beaten last week, I figured I'd stick with the theme of DC's current boy wonder being smacked around by second rate villains.

And remember:

Hal Jordan's humiliation first appeared in Green Lantern #173, cover dated February 1984, written by Len Wein with art by his majesty Dave Gibbons.