Welcome back to the column. Aren’t you excited? JLA/Avengers #4 comes out today. Get pumped. On a sad note, I have never missed Baltimore more than now because 1) if I were still there no doubt my case of the new DC Heroclix would be enroute, and 2) My best friend Jason and I would have an all out battle to commemorate the release of JLA/Avengers #4. But what are you gonna do? B, I know you are excited that JLA/Avengers #4 is coming out. I bet you can’t wait to see Iron Man stick it to Green Lantern. (I will enjoy it no matter what…but GL happens to go down to a sonic attack, you won’t find me complaining. –B)
Link time!
Leonard gets a link, but only go there if you’ve read the Watchmen first.
Mike Z gets a link, and makes me more interested in Marvel Characters than I have ever been.
DOL gets a link. See if you can find the pictures of Daron. There were topless pictures of me cirtulating around the net, but I sued to have them removed. B, where can readers find pictures of you? (Actually, I’ve got my own fansite. –B)
Black is the place to go for your Final Four coverage and a preview of the upcoming Baseball season by the very talented (and proud father) Aaron Cameron.
B, I know you have links for the reader. (I do? Oh..of course…um…go here. –B)
Last week was a pretty good week for comics.
Human Target #8: Read the review
Common Grounds #3: Review forthcoming.
Kinetic #1: Review forthcoming.
Wanted #3: The story builds nicely.
Outsiders #10: Black Lightning character development? (I hated this issue with a fiery passion. I complained last month that they had one too many guest stars, so they go and throw in another. It’s bad enough the main freaking characters haven’t had any development in four months, now they go to the trouble of having The Huntress guest star and she gets two panels. I’m giving Judd one more arc to win me back. –B)
Hawkman #26: Not filling fill in. (I believe that should be unfulfilling fill in, M…and it was…sadly, it was probably also the best comic I read last week. –B)
Losers #10: Pulse pounding excitement!
I also got loads of DC Comics indexes from Mile High Comic this week. They were having a killer sale, and I stocked up. JLA indexes, Doom Patrol indexes, Teen Titans, Legion, Crisis and Hawkman indexes. A certain Mark Waid contributed to many of these indexes. Thank you Mr. Waid.
I also got Superman Secret Files #1, which is now apparently obsolete, as a result of Birthright. Gee, thank you Mr. Waid. Question time!
Marshall got the lyric at the end of the column correct so he gets the first question answered.
So I picked up pretty much the whole Resurrection Man series in the fifty cent bin at my loacal comic store, and I must say I enjoyed it allot. I was disappointed that there were only 27 issues. My question is did Resurrection Man make any appearances after the series ended? Do you know if there are any plans for him in the future? Don’t you just love good cheap comics?
(reading the Justice League of America Index #3) Did you know Johnny Dune from Justice League of America #96 has yet to make another appearance in the DCU? Oh I’m you said something about Resurrection Man? Yeah it was a cool book. I miss it. But back to Johnny Dune…(Uh…that was a pretty crappy answer, M…you feeling ok? –B) (Whoa…this place is even cooler than I imagined! –M) (M?! How the hell did you get back here?! –B) (It’s the day before April Fool’s Day, B…you know as well as I do that means the Hypertime walls separating the normal font and bold type dimensions are at their weakest…I figured I’d finally drop by and see your pad. –M) (But…who’s writing the column then? –B) (Oh, I left a Bizarro in charge. –M) (A Bizarro?! Hmm…sadly enough he made it through the entire intro and it wasn’t even noticeably different…and he’s still more insightful than Tim Stevens…anyhow, I guess I’ll handle your question, Marshall…to the best of my knowledge, Resurrection Man has not made any significant appearances since his series ending, somewhat surprising since he played such a large part in DC One Million and has a storied past with one of the DCU’s big bads, Vandal Savage. Next big DC story involving time travel perhaps we’ll get to see him again, or maybe Grant Morrison, who struck me as a fan of the character, will use him if he gets back on a mainstream DCU book. –B) (Ooh, shiny…-M) (Don’t touch that! –B)
Hallsy asks
Could you try and explain just what the hell is going on in the Superman titles right now? For a while, I’ve only been reading Superman and I didn’t even bother to read #201 because it is making absolutely no sense to me. Who is Mr. Majestic and where did he come from. Also, I picked up Action Comics this week for shits and giggles. Why is Supes on Krypton with no memory of Earth? And why is Krypton even around? I’m guessing this is all a result of Superman #200 but I’ve read that a few times and still don’t understand a word of it….
(reading Superman Secret File and Origins #1, sobbing) I’m going to miss you sterile Krypton, with your cool outfits and birthing matrixes. We had some good times together. Huh, Superman right not? It’s a madhouse, A MADHOUSE! (Man, M…this Bizarro kinda sucks… -B) (Hey, ixnay on the mentioning he’s a izarrobay…he doesn’t know that, and if I play my cards right he’ll keep thinking he’s me well past “collection day†on Saturday…it’s been a long couple of months in Vegas, B. –M) (Right…anyhow, to start, Mr. Majestic is a character from Wildstorm, the line Jim Lee started when he was still at Image then brought over to DC; he originally appeared in WildC.A.T.S., I believe. After Superman #200, “time storms†caused by Supes’ battle with Braniac opened a rift between dimensions that dragged Majestic to Metropolis on DC Earth. He helped out, saved the city, made googly eyes with that floozy Lois Lane, then set off to try and find a way home, which he will do in an upcoming mini-series. As for Supes, I haven’t read all of “Godfall,†but from what I’m gleaned flipping through my buddy’s copies, the same wacky time storms dropped Supes in the infamous bottle city of Kandor, the city from Krypton he found shrunk down and put in a bottle in his Fortress of Solitude, and he’s got amnesia. Some chick who’s grown up hearing legends of Kal El and Metropolis took advantage of this, pretended to be his wife, then stole his powers and made for the outside world. I may be missing spots, but I’m sure M will catch you up next week…he’s busy raiding my fridge at the moment. –B)
Sgt Michael J Fermin do you have a question about a DC concept?
One of the best concepts I like from DC was the Suicide Squad Stories. Question one who were members of the squad both series and did anyone stay legit after serving their term, besides Major Disaster.
(reading Losers #10) Dude, that was so sweet. Cuz he was all “we don’t kill people†and then she was like “snap†and then he said “funny.†Oh the Suicide Squad. Um Batman was part of the team, and he’s like all on the side of law and order. So I’m saying Batman. (Oh crap, actual work…-B) (Ooh! You’ve got Twister! –M) (Right! Work it is! The best thing I can do for you is direct you to DC ace Michael Kooiman’s site on the Suicide Squad; while you’re there, check out his main site as well, a must read for any DC fan. –B)
JohnBritton do you have a question for the column?
What are the top three greatest JLA/JSA team ups of all time? There have been one a year (basically) since who knows when. What are the best?
(reading All Star Comics Index #1) The Golden Age rocked! Oh team ups. I like that one where they had to save the Earth, because they were the only ones who could do it. But then they also had to fight. That was way cool. (I’m so looking for some Blue Kryptonite right about now…was blue the one that killed Bizarros? –B) (Dude, I’m on vacation…I thought I found white Kryptonite once, but it turned out it was just crack…another reason I’ll be laying low here for a bit. –M) (Great…some of my personal favorite JLA/JSA team-ups have recently been captured in the first two volumes of Crisis On Multiple Earths, but hopefully there are still more on the way, because there are some excellent ones still to come. Just picking three? That’s tough…the second one ever, introducing the Crime Syndicate, from Justice League of America #29-30 is a must…the introduction of the android Red Tornado from JLoA #64-65 was also a classic, as was the very next one from JLoA #73-74, where the teams faced Aquarius and Black Canary’s husband made the ultimate sacrifice…later team-ups featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes and Black Canary’s true origin were also quite good, though the issue numbers escape me…I’m hard-pressed to pick just three, but if I had to, I guess the Crime Syndicate one, the Aquarius one and the Legion one, but just about all of ‘em were good…I’ve even got a soft spot for the one with Eliot S! Maggin as a hero and Cary Bates as the villain. –B)
Blue MM do you have a Batman question?
I found two old JLA comics from the early 80’s (4 & 5), which was the Batman led JLA with Captain Marvel, Guy Gardner and the like. Anyway the question is: Why did the Bat stop leading the JLA (I googled the archives for JLA but didn’t see it, so sorry if it was answered)?
(reading Crisis on Infinite Earths Index #1) Did you know that the cover to Crisis #5 features the head shots of 96 different characters? Batman leaving the JLI, hm. Oh that was because of house rules about violence with other JLI members. It’s like the “Real World,†when Bats knocked out Guy the JLI took a vote and he was kicked off the team. (I’m about to pull a Batman on this Bizarro…-B) (But he’s so cute…-M) (Batman stopped leading the team when they got U.N. sanction and became the Justice League International in issue #7, collected in Justice League: A New Beginning, but he remained with the team, staying in the background. It’s hard to pin down when Batman “officially†left the team, if indeed he ever did, because his role just kept decreasing, with him showing up every few issues, until he just stopped somewhere around the #25 mark. –B)
Mike Z do you have a question?
What was up with Team Titans?
(reading Teen Titans Index #2) Did you know that Matt Murdock appreared in Teen Titans #23 (from 1969). Isn’t that weird? Oh, TEAM Titans. It was all just a bad dream, dreamt up by Parallax. (Hmm…that wasn’t too far off, may have to consider giving this guy M’s job. –B) (I’m standing right here! –M) (I know. Anyhow, the Team Titans first appeared during “Titans Hunt,†then their “origin†was given during Armageddon 2001, when Waverider touched Nightwing and saw a group of future Titans, led by ‘Wing, fighting in a future run by Lord Chaos, Donna Troy’s son grown up very wrong. The Teamers came back in time, minus their Nightwing, to try and kill Troy before she gave birth, but instead they ended up teaming with the original Titans and defeating Lord Chaos, who followed them back, and somehow preventing Donna’s son from ever becoming him. After that, they stayed in the present for awhile, living with Donna and her husband Terry Long, and their Nightwing came back as well, but hooked up with Raven, who was evil at the time, and became Deathwing, a poorly dressed villain with two nipple rings, which was lame, as opposed to my one, which is cool. However, Zero Hour revealed that the future the Team Titans thought they came from had never actually existed; Extant, aka Monarch, aka Hawk, aka Hank Hall, aka a continuity nightmare, had created their, and hundreds of other timelines, with “Titans†in each whom he could activate a mental control over and make into an army of slaves at his whim. He did so during Zero Hour, pissing off people who had read the title and suddenly saw all their favorite characters become mindless zombies in an army of nameless hundreds; to make matters worse, after Zero Hour, they all ceased to exist…except for Mirage, Terra II and Deathwing, who for some reason did not vanish. During the “Year One†Annual, the Time Trapper showed up and revealed to the three that they were actually from the DCU proper but he/she had implanted them with false memories so they could be sleeper agents in Extant’s army…one would at this point wonder why the Trapper thought three sleeper agents, none of whom were particularly powerful, would do squat against an army of hundreds…but I digress. Mirage was some South American chick, Deathwing was just some thug and Terra didn’t want to see who she was, because she was afraid she was the original psycho Terra, resurrected by the Trapper. Mirage and Terra would serve a bit more time with the core Titans team until they disbanded; Deathwing faded into obscurity and is probably currently residing in the Bay area. Mirage and Terra still do cameos during big Titans events like JLA/Titans; in the second Titans Secret Files & Origins, Terra had gone to Markovia to visit the original Terra’s brother Geo-Force and have a DNA test done to figure out who she was; G-F told her she was not the original Terra, relieving her, but the test results he withheld showed she was in fact the original; to this day, it’s still kind of up in the air, but current Teen Titans writer Geoff Johns has said he’ll probably get to it eventually. –B)
JohnBritton do you have another question?
David and Goliath — great story. What comics version of the little guy taking down the big guy are the most compelling? Offhand, I’m thinking about Atom and Green Arrow taking down Darkseid, and Green Arrow taking down Parallax. Really, Green Arrow taking down almost anybody counts. How about the lamest? Like when they show someone trouncing Superman and Green Lantern, and suddenly Super Marvin pokes him in the eye and saves the day? Okay, that never happened, but stuff like it has.
(reading Common Grounds #3) I love this book. It is such a cool read. David vs Goliath you say. That’s easy. Green Arrow, he fights demons every month. (The Bizarro speaks the truth. Green Arrow has been responsible for many cool David vs Goliath moments though; my favorite, actually, may have been the second Green Arrow, Connor Hawke, taking out The Key before joining the JLA after he’d done away with the whole team. Why was it so cool? Because Connor ran out of arrows so he raided a memorial of his Dad’s old weapons, only to find…the boxing glove arrow. Glorious. –B) (Speaking of boxing, I’ve got a hot bet waiting for me back on Earth-regular font. I’ve got my mortgage riding on that “White Buffalo†guy who Tyson KOed after getting out of the pokey. Thanks for having me, B! –M)
(reading The Doom Patrol Index #1) Garguax, why aren’t you a major player in the DCU? Maybe with the Byrne reboot (complete with birthing matrixes, I hope) you will receive your rightful place in the pantheon of DCU villains. Lamest, that’s easy; Green Arrow, he fights demons every month. (I couldn’t have said it better myself. Although I think completely inexperienced hero Amazing Man II sewing together a costume and defeating The Overmaster at the end of “Judgment Day†while the World’s Greatest Heroes sit around and bicker kinda sucked…but then, so did that entire storyline. Oh good lord, M left the toilet seat down, this is a friggin’ bachelor pad… –B)
Well the column comes to a close. I’m going to read some comic books. Send me your questions and don’t forget to hit the Message Boards to post comments. Your question for the week Which reboot has piqued your interest the most; Superman or The Doom Patrol?
“Sweet sugar pie, oh I wish you were mine.â€
