After a couple injuries, Dwade reclaimed top 5 status after his revival in the 08′ Olympics. His 09′ season was incredible, he carried Miami on his back and statistically had the best year by  a 2 guard since Michael Jordan. I don’t think there’s a better guard in the league with a better blend of skills. He scores and creates for others, he’s a great defender, he rises to the occasion when it matters, and he’s in the line between making everyone around him better and it’s time for me to take over. The difference between Dwade and Kobe is that the Lakers never liked playing with Kobe until 08′ but everyone loved playing with Dwade since high school.

I remember in 2006, Dwade averaged 39 ppg, 8 rpg, and 58 of 73 free throws in just the final four games of the NBA finals. In that span, Wade turned into the single best player in the league and did the opposite of Kobe, which was balancing the line between deferring teammates and taking over games. I call Wades final performance better than any of Michael Jordan’s, simply because Jordan never dominated a finals game to that extent.

Before anyone reading this starts flipping out, no where did I say that Wade was better than Jordan. Wade plays in an era of no hand checking or hard fouls. I do have to say that the referees won Miami the title in 06′, especially the famous Tim Donaghy. I’m not going to make any excuses, other than if Dirk would’ve made those free throws, Dwade would still be in the same category of my boy Carmelo.

Another thing that shocks me is Wades ability to block shots. Note to all the Centers in the league: If you see Dwade coming don’t even try it. He’s only 6′4, but he has been throwing it down on big men in embarrassing fashion since he entered the league. He might not have the flash of other dunkers with their windmills or 360’s, but very few 6′4 and under can throw it down like him.

Is it me or do the Heat and the Bulls have some sort of rivalry going? Maybe it’s because that’s Wades city where he should be playing. The best game i’ve ever seen Wade play came on March 9th 2009 against Chicago. Miami trailed most of the first half until Wade kicked in his beast mode. He had 48 points and 12 assists along with a 30 ft 3 pointer that gave Miami the lead 54-52. At the end of the third quarter, Miami had a 10 point lead until Ben Gordon and Derrick Rose brought the Bulls back 104-101. Wade hit a clutch 3 that took them into overtime, and into double overtime. Tied at 127 a piece, with 4 seconds left, Wade stole the ball and hit a game winning floater and left his home town with a 130-127 win.

I don’t care what people say, Wade is a better player, and a better 2 guard than Kobe Bryant. He’s the only person i’ve seen take punishment on the court every single night like Allen Iverson. The only difference is Wade isn’t a freak of nature.

Written by Stan Berkowitz
Directed by Butch Lukic and Dan Riba
Original Airdate: November 9, 2002
DVD: Justice League, Season One

Summary: Returning from a mission, the League finds itself on a dramatically changed Earth, ruled by a tyrannical dictator named Vandal Savage. A chance encounter with an alternate Batman leads the League to go back in time to where things went wrong – World War II, where the Nazis, armed with frightening new technology, are in the process of changing history.

Arc Notes: Start of the Vandal Savage trilogy, some slight development of the Hawkgirl / GL relationship, first appearance of Blackhawk Island.

Debuting Characters: Vandal Savage, Steve Trevor, the Blackhawks, Sgt. Rock, Easy Company, The Unknown Soldier, and someone who is very likely Cassandra Cain makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her cameo. Plus, the only Justice League appearances of Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, and Tim Drake.

Featured Characters: Wonder Woman and Green Lantern.

Other Team Members: Everyone but Batman.

Background:

As we’ve talked about throughout these pieces, a lot of DC’s (and a couple of key Marvel) characters originated prior to World War II, and much of their early popularity was attributable to their role as morale boosters for the troops. However, several more characters appeared during the war itself, styled as much more directly fighting the Axis powers. While most of these characters were popular, they were a little too limited in their purview to really hang on after Hitler had stopped complaining about TO signing with the Bills.

This episode features two of the more prominent WWII properties under DC’s umbrella. The one that has more relevance in the modern era is Blackhawk and his squadron of not-egotistically-named-at-all Blackhawks, which, as presented, are a squadron of elite pilots who have suffered at the hands of the Nazis and operate as a mercenary squadron of sorts out of their hidden headquarters on Blackhawk Island. The members shown in this episode represent a small portion of the overall squadron in the comics, and their series actually lasted a really long time post-WWII, even if it never was as popular as in its heyday. Of course, the Blackhawks had some amusing experiments through the years in an attempt to keep them relevant; one of the funniest (immortalised in Waid, Augustyn and Kitson’s brilliant JLA: Year One) was when, to keep up with the times, the Blackhawks turned into superheroes:

No, I’m not sure what they were thinking either.

The Blackhawks’ most recent high-profile appearance was in Cooke’s The New Frontier, which I might wind up taking a look at during the upcoming break between seasons, while the sole surviving member of the squadron, Zinda “Lady Blackhawk” Blake was Barbara Gordon’s pilot in Birds of Prey.

The other major characters to appear in this episode are Sgt. Rock and EZ Company, who represent WWII-era characters created after the war – 1959 in Rock’s case. The best way to think of them are DC’s equivalents to Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos, a team of military heroes that straddles the line between ordinary men and the more gimmick-laden mystery men of the era. Rock eventually grew so popular that he had a series renamed after him, and virtually every DC story set in or around WWII (unlike Nick Fury, part of Rock’s history is that he was killed with the last bullet fired of the war) includes an appearance by Rock and his crew.

This episode was on the books for a long time as the season finale, as the WWII and time travel aspects of it immediately sprung to the creators’ minds as a suitably epic way to wrap up the first season of Justice League. However, Bruce Timm had been dissatisfied with elements of the first season, and this story in particular, as he explains:

… what happened with “Savage Time” was that there were a lot of things going on at that time internally. We were really rushing to finish the season, and there were some problems with the first draft and the second draft structurally. That was a very difficult show to beat out properly, because there was a lot happening. We had three or four major plot threads that had to pay off by themselves and then also had to dovetail into the main plot. That ate up the time we had for rewrites. So the final draft of the script was not quite as polished as I would have liked….

Bruce Timm, Modern Masters, p. 76

The story itself didn’t avoid delays, as it wound up airing much closer to the debut of the second season than the end of the first, although the first couple of parts aired on Cartoon Network Australia soon after Metamorphosis. If memory serves, Cartoon Network justified the delay by claiming they were holding off on airing it until Veteran’s Day.

We’ll talk about Vandal Savage next time he shows up, since he’s much more of a presence in that one.

Thoughts on the Episode:

First of all, the most important thing is to note the major screwup of this episode: American troops didn’t fight in Caen during WWII – Canadian and British forces secured the city in the aftermath of D-Day. The timeline’s slightly different and all that, but, geez.

We’ve already seen the classic sci-fi alternate universe storyline, so realistically it was only a matter of time until a time travel episode made air. While this certainly wouldn’t be the last episode to deal with time, it does greatly benefit from both a longer run-time and a more focused setting than some later efforts. Time travel is always a tricky concept to deal with (even Doctor Who, the granddaddy of time travel SF, runs into issues), but the idea is handled pretty well in this story. It’s actually hurt more by the viewer’s knowledge of Vandal Savage in retrospect than anything else; at first, this seems merely like a scientist going back in time and changing the past to his benefit, which is actually a throwback to a story referenced in All-Star Squadron and roughly a million other works of science fiction.

Of course, the issue in stories like these is that most of the Justice League can handle themselves against modern weaponry, so the vast majority of enemy forces they encounter aren’t really an issue. This is handled in a clever way by the story: two of the most powerful three team members, J’onn and Diana, are written out of the main fighting relatively early on in the storyline, and GL’s ring quickly runs out of charge. As a result, even though Superman is still his normal self, the League’s resources are diminished to the point where it’s not a joke to imagine WWII-era technology giving them trouble, even before it gets augmented.

The usual problem with three-part episodes rears its head here – for the most part, they’re stories which are too long for two parts, but don’t have quite enough for a full three (that gets avoided in the final three-part episode of the series, though). Here, most of the time does get shunted to characterisation, which is a positive; Green Lantern’s military training allows him to fit right in with Easy Company, even if John gives up a little bit when compared to Batman as a leading man in this type of storyline.

The real subplot winner is Wonder Woman, as her meeting with Steve Trevor both is a little bit of a payoff for her season-long journey to understanding the worldview of women outside Paradise Island as well as giving her a chance to show off just how powerful she really is (the bit at the start of part three is Superman-level in scope, something Diana doesn’t really get to show off that often). Steve Trevor’s not quite enough of a charmer to think that Diana would fall for him at first sight like we’re supposed to believe, but I’d rather have that aspect of the character underplayed lest he turn into a WWII equivalent of Flash. Diana’s visit to the veteran’s home at the end is actually really poignant, and while it doesn’t have the sheer tearjerker value that the second season finale would bring, it’s a nice ending.

The showpieces in this story, however, are the action scenes, and for the most part they’re top notch. The Blackhawk attack on Savage’s engine factory is pretty clunky, but the scenes in and around Caen and especially the final air battle are great. As noted in the commentary track, someone in the animation studio really must have had a thing for planes, because all of the aerial combat shots are very well done. Again, you sort of have to put plot considerations aside and go with the fact that this story is a tribute to the war comics that would show superheroes tearing through Nazis without meeting much resistance – these aren’t supposed to be even or even fair fights. What’s really great is that the writers managed to even give Flash – who’d normally be next-to-useless in a fight over open water – something to do. While the battle between Savage and John isn’t decisive in any way, it does give him enough of a comeback that, when Hawkgirl comes back to rescue him, you don’t feel as though he’s running away from a superior opponent.

While this story isn’t amongst the best of the seasons, I do agree with Timm’s assessment that it’s an effective bridge into the much higher-quality second season. And after the stinker that was Metamorphosis, it’s a good pallette cleanser before the really serious stuff starts up again.

If anyone makes any jokes about frozen Hitler as a palette cleanser, you’re banned.

Grade: B. The action’s great, but the secondary leaguers get a little lost.

Random Thoughts:

• The introduction with the alternate-universe Batman is cut a little short, but it does have one very nice easter egg buried in it:
  Yup, it’s the Dixon-era Bat-family, with Dick, Barbara, Tim and Cassie Cain. I know some people think the dark haired girl is the Clayface fragment, but… c’mon, seriously, now. This would be the last appearance of every character save Nightwing, who makes a brief cameo in the final season of JLU.
• Flash’s place as the most compassionate member of the League is cemented in this episode, with his questioning of Hawkgirl’s decision to leave GL to the mercy of the Nazis and immediately dashing back into combat, then refusing to accept Hawkgirl’s defence of her actions later.
• The bit with Superman bursting into flames while battling the German air force is a shoutout to the original Human Torch, who fought the Nazis in the 40s alongside Captain America and the other Invaders.
• Does John Stewart have bad luck in season finales or what? Fried by Savage here, then getting the stuffing knocked out of him in Starcrossed, then the whole time paradox incedent.
• Neat technical bit from the commentary – the backgrounds on this episode are too bright because of a difference in calibration between the computers that scanned the painted backdrops in North America and the computers that outputted them at the animation studio in Korea.
• Okay, I can’t decide if there’s one Savage or two in the present time. He lived his normal life until 2002, went back in time to 1944 – where his prior self already lived – and went down with the transport. The catch, of course, is that he’s immortal, so either he’s buried at the bottom of the ocean and can’t escape, allowing his original self to appear later, or time just corrected itself. Me, I’m going with the latter. Or I wrote this too late in the day and totally forgot about the scene where Savage explains exactly what he did and instead got mixed up with The Time Warrior and other similar stories.
• Although the time portal was supposedly unstable, so how the heck did Savage know where the laptop was going to land? Screw it, I’m just writing this entire mess off to time travel making my head hurt.
• While we’re at it, Savage’s time machine design would show up again in his final appearance.
• I doubt it was intentional, but the fact that this episode ended with Superman hugging Batman and the second season premiere saw them placed at odds with each other right off the mark is a nice contrast.

Line of the Episode: “Kill me? You’re welcome to try.” Vandal Savage, hinting at his true nature.

Flash Line of the Episode: “Bats, you’re starting to scare me.” Starting?

Next time: PHEW! One whole season down. So I’m going to do a wrap-up post, then sit down and watch “Legacy” for the first time in about 10 years. Maybe New Frontier after that.

Next Justice League: Season Two kicks off in style, as Darkseid and the New Gods return for “Twilight”, as the series as a whole gets a LOT darker.

(Last Updated Nov 25, 2009 @ 7:26 pm EST)

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On Sale: Dec 2, 2009

Retail Price: $2.99 USD

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About Comic: The Flashes of Two Cities – Barry Allen and Wally West – battle the undead Rogues. Will the legendary speedsters be able to handle the Black Lantern Rogues’ revenge? Plus, witness the resurrection of Barry’s greatest enemy, the Reverse Flash in this hyper-speed miniseries event reuniting the fan-favorite FLASH creative team of Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins!

*Unconfirmed 1st Print Cover*

For full Information on this comic book please click on the following link “Blackest Night: The Flash #1“

Till Next Time,

Remy “Se7en”

I’ve been kvetching about Flash: Rebirth, mainly because it seemed so dull despite having something like 15 speedsters and the always-dynamic art of Ethan Van Sciver to prop it up.  With last week’s issue 5, though, I think I’ve pretty much given up on caring.

My main problem with Barry Allen is that despite being the fastest man alive he’s never been that interesting.  Part of this could be that he was never “my” Flash, having started reading comics post-Crisis, but part of it is definitely because I don’t find tardiness and exceptionally strong ethics to be especially compelling character traits.  Compare this to Wally West, who in his time has been a quitter, a mercenary, powerless, a womanizer, a family man, etc.  Some of those worked more than others, but he’s definitely been built up as a strong character.

However, my main problem with Flash: Rebirth has been Geoff Johns, whose contribution to the character of Barry Allen is establishing that REALLY LIKES bow ties.  Okay, that’s a cheap shot, but it’s not far off. Zoom is a standard time traveling villain cliche (“Remember that time you stubbed your toe and the dog ate your homework?  THAT WAS ME!”) and our extended cast of speedsters only serve as Greek chorus.

The biggest disappointment, however, is the way scenes are constructed.  We are often skipped from the middle of one scene right into the middle of another.  At one point we see all 30 of our speedsters running, Wally spouts some generic pseudo-science, and then suddenly — everyone is in new costumes*!  We then cut to another scene, then jump back and see “Impulse!” being exclaimed in mid-sentence.  The argument COULD be made that this is just how we would see speedsters, always in mid-sentence/mid-action, but I don’t buy that argument, and I don’t recall Johns writing this way when we was writing the ongoing series. I’ve been impressed with almost everything Johns has worked on (including an excellent Avengers run),
but this just isn’t up to his usual standard.

*Setting aside Jesse Quick’s horrible new onesie, I dig Wally’s new uniform.  It takes the strengths of the original, and mixes in various other designs he’s had from the past (white eye slits, darker red color, stylized belt), and adds a Batman-esque nose.  The other thing that really stood out was the 3D, shieldlike chest emblem.  I liked it when Van Sciver did it to Green Lantern and I like it here.  I think it’s a really strong idea to have symbols like badges of a sort.  I think we could take that idea to just about every character, but still I hope DC (and Marvel, if they’re paying any attention) will try not to overuse the concept.

The Justice Society of America is finishing its first arc under the new creative team. Blackest Night is out. AND we should get some good Jay Garrick and Shade action in Justice League: Cry For Justice.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #33

Written by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges; Art and cover by Jesus Merino
The traitor stands revealed, and his part in the destruction of the Justice Society of America is complete. While the team’s headquarters lies in ruin, the same fate has befallen the team itself! Hold on to your seats, because the JSA as we’ve known it is torn asunder!
DC Universe | 32pg. | Color | $2.99 US | Preview

BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM! #10

Written by Art Baltazar and Franco; Art and cover by Byron Vaughns
As Captain Marvel struggles to keep his power under control, a new, dangerous enemy enters the scene and takes Mary Marvel out of the picture. Will our favorite Captain succeed in this new adventure all alone?
Johnny DC | 32pg. | Color | $2.50 US

BLACKEST NIGHT #5

Written by Geoff Johns; Art and cover by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert; Variant cover by Rodolfo Migliari; Sketch variant cover by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert
The moment you’ve hungered for finally arrives! Who controls death in the DC Universe? NEKRON – Lord of the Undead! The dark being behind the undead Black Lanterns makes his presence and purpose known, and our heroes discover they’re not only fighting for their lives, but their after-lives as well. Don’t miss this game-changing issue from superstar writer Geoff Johns and stellar artist Ivan Reis!
DC Universe | 40pg. | Color | $3.99 US

JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #5 (OF 7)

Written by James Robinson; Art and cover by Mauro Cascioli
Supergirl and Shazam join the team as Prometheus is finally captured! His evil machinations are revealed, but even so, the League may be unable to stop the villain’s disturbing plans as he cuts down one of the members! Don’t miss this shocking new issue that’ll have everybody talking.
DC Universe | 40pg. | Color | $3.99 US

There’s not much on my radar for this week, which is probably for the best.  Between keeping up appearances here and the 15 pounds of quarter books I picked up over the weekend, I’m booked up!

FLASH REBIRTH #5 (OF 6) – I tend not to be a stickler for continuity in the sense of “Spider-Man was here this month, how can he be over here at the same time,” I have NO IDEA where this fits in.  And it’s a bit of a snoozefest (though with deceptively dynamic art), so it’s an odd duck.

JESUS HATES ZOMBIES LINCOLN HATES WEREWOLVES GN VOL 03 – Never heard of this, but on the title alone I’m pretty interested.  Has anyone read this?

SHOWCASE PRESENTS DC COMICS PRESENTS TP VOL 01 – This could be a real winner.  I’m intrigued, even though I’ll probably hold off on picking it up.

I also want to give a shout-out to Wayne at Time Warp Comics in Boulder, CO.  His shop recently celebrated it’s 25th anniversary and had a full month of events scheduled, culminating over the weekend with a signing by Bill Willingham.  Since Fables is the only book I’ve successfully gotten my wife to read (and look forward to), it (and he) has a special place in my heart.

So, I guess that’s it for me.  What are YOU getting?

Este tomo recopila lo que fue la saga Justice League of America: The Nail (El Clavo), la cual se desarrolla en una realidad alternativa. La historia relata cómo un clavo en la carretera impide que los Kent descubran el cohete donde venía Kal El, el bebé alienígena que se convertiría algún día en Superman.

Como resultado, los más grandes héroes no se reunirían tal como los conocemos, todo por causa de un clavo. Sin un símbolo de integridad y un líder que inspire grandeza, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, The Atom y Green Lantern deberán llevar a cabo una batalla contra el desprecio público y las desconfianzas personales para trabajar juntos en la protección de un mundo que les teme.

Esta saga fue escrita y dibujada por Alan Davis.

Para ver un preview lo puedes descargar desde acá.
Más información de la página de DC Comics, acá.

Villain: “Not only are you doomed, but so is everyone else you’ve touched–!”

The Atom: “Jean Loring — I’ve signed her death warrant!”

The Flash: “I gave Iris West — the kiss of death!”

Green Lantern: “Carol Ferris — in deadly danger!”

Batman: “Robin — what have I done to you?”

Telling concern, dude.

I was torn on what image to use for this weeks list because DC just put up a new Freddie E. Williams E. Williams II cover for the Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant but then I read the preview to this weeks The Flash: Rebirth and saw some awesome Jay Garrick action. In addition to that Scott Kollins continues is Solomon Grundy story in Superman/Batman, Justice Society of America Vol. 3 comes out in softcover and Lightning makes a few pre-powered appearances in Black Lightning Year One courtesy of upcoming Hourman & Liberty Belle co-feature writer Jen VanMeter.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA 80-PAGE GIANT

Written by Zander Cannon, Kevin Grevioux, Felicia D. Henderson, Jen Van Meter, Jerry Ordway, James Robinson and Matthew Sturges; Art by Roberto Castro and John Floyd, Neil Edwards and Wayne Faucher, Renato Guedes and José Wilson Magalhães, Jesus Merino, Jerry Ordway, Freddie Williams II and others; Cover by Jerry Ordway
The newer members of the JSA explore the team’s mansion headquarters and learn a thing or two about themselves in 7 exciting stories from today’s top creators in this oversized special! But who directs the group through the deep, dark halls of building? Is it a friend, or a very dangerous foe?
DC Universe | 80pg. | Color | $5.99 US | Preview

THE FLASH: REBIRTH #5 (OF 6)

Written by Geoff Johns; Art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver
The greatest threat to face the Flash Family in decades stands revealed! A new hero will step into an old speedster’s boots! And Barry Allen will make the ultimate sacrifice: his life! Oh yeah, you read that right, but you’ll never believe just what it means! They always say nothing will ever be the same, but trust us, this one will rewrite the history books!
DC Universe | 32pg. | Color | $2.99 US | Preview

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #66

Written by Scott Kolins; Art and cover by Scott Kolins
The Blackest Night blankets the world of Superman and Batman yet again! But this time it’s not what you think! Get ready for a team-up of epic proportions as Bizarro and Man-Bat face down the undead power of Black Lantern Solomon Grundy!
DC Universe | 32pg. | Colo | $2.99 US | Preview

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA VOL. 3: THY KINGDOM COME PART TWO

Written by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross; Art by Dale Eaglesham and Ruy Jose; Cover by Alex Ross
The Kingdom Come Superman continues to crusade against evil alongside his new Justice Society teammates – but is he the only one who can stand against the threat of Magog? And what are Gog’s true motives? This hard-hitting new volume, now in trade paperback, collects JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #13-18!
DC Universe | 192pg. | Color | Softcover | $19.99 US

BLACK LIGHTNING YEAR ONE

Written by Jen Van Meter; Art and cover by Cully Hamner
The electrifying origin of Black Lightning is collected in this hot new title featuring the complete 6-issue miniseries. See how Jefferson Pierce went from teacher to the hero of Metropolis’s Suicide Slum, taking on Tobias Whale and the crime syndicate The 100 along the way.
DC Universe | 144pg. | Color | Softcover | $17.99 US

Written by Keith Damron
Directed by Butch Lukic
Original Airdates: September 20 & 27, 2002
DVD: Justice League, Season One

Summary: The sorceress Morgan LeFey seeks out the Philosopher’s Stone, but coming into contact with her power causes J’onn to be tempted by the possibility of a reunion with his long-lost family.

Debuting Characters: Morgaine LeFay, Mordred

Focal Character: J’onn J’onzz

Other team members: Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, with Etrigan taking a guest role.

Cameos: Too many at the costume party to track.

Background:

Well, since this is the episode that finally gives us a full Etrigan origin, might as well cover that.

DC has historically not trod in Arthurian legend as much as Marvel, with only a couple of significant characters coming from that period. The original, Sir Justin the Shining Knight, is relatively minor but will get a significant feature role late in JLU. The Demon is the other, created by Jack Kirby during hs 70s DC return as a character based on Arthurian lore – complete with an origin that, as seen here, involves Merlin cursing Jason Blood.

What’s really interesting about the character is that, owing to the passage of time and proximity to magic, Jason Blood has often been written as very capable of performing superheroic acts without even needing to call on Etrigan – again, with the lack of depth in DC’s magic-user ranks, the Jason Blood character offers a lot of storyling possibilities. In fact, Blood has joined the JLA (on an interim basis, back when Nightwing took over the team) with the understanding that the Demon wouldn’t come into the picture. For a character that’s got elements of the Hulk sprinkled into it (Etrigan’s relative malevolence changing depending on the whims of the creative team), it’s a neat hook.

Thoughts on the Episode:

This is a very strange one, but it’s a the first season favourite. It doesn’t really come together into a whole as the structure is more of a series of disconnected scenes rather than one linear narrative. The action jumps from Arthurian times to Batman and Jason in England, to “Mars”, to the hilarity of the party at Hickman’s to the Watchtower to a lengthy battle revolving around a J’onn / Etrigan showdown that serves as the climax. Normally, that would be a recipe for disaster, but the combination of a great four-member team (as noted earlier, both Batman and Flash showing up in an episode usually means that episode will be, at a bare minimum, good) and the fact that the episode’s refusal to pick a tone keeps the viewer guessing somehow works out.

Aside from the individual scenes, though, it’s a bit weird to watch this episode after Harry Potter fever has tapered off a bit and think that this episode hit the air just as it was ramping up into the full-blown pop culture frenzy that made such an impact on this decade. “Knight of Shadows” is built around the Philosopher’s Stone – which admittedly wouldn’t be recognisable as a Potter plot device by any of the Americans watching – which now seems like a bit of a rip-off, but any time a superhero series can leverage myths and legends in order to make a MacGuffin seem a bit more relevant, it’s good for me.

Another notable point in this episode’s favour is that, in what is essentially Etrigan’s third outing in the DCAU, we finally get an origin for him. Before, he was merely a mystic cursed with a demonic “other”, but now the basis for that curse is revealed, in a really nice cold opening featuring a much younger-looking Morgaine, ogres, knights, and even a cameo from Merlin. That Jason wasn’t entirely purehearted could probably have been gathered from his earlier appearances – he certainly seemed to empathise with Batman’s feelings regarding Talia – but the fact that he essentially single-handedly caused the fall of Camelot adds a whole lot of tragedy to his background. That sets up the main thread of the episode: contrasting J’onn’s ability to be tempted by the restoration of his pre-invasion life with Jason’s failure to resist a similar level of temptation.

After Etrigan’s first two appearances were built to through a large proportion of the story in which they appeared, in this story Blood doesn’t waste any time in making the transformation, and basically remains as Etrigan for the entirety. Mind you, Etrigan is a lot more verbose this time around, chatting casually with Batman – well, as casual a conversation as a Demon can have with the Dark Knight – about J’onn’s descent into temptation and what exactly Batman would do in order to come out ahead in the situation. Bruce’s answer, “Whatever. It. Takes”, echoes earlier dialogue of his from both Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond. Of course, even if we hadn’t said it earlier, we know enough about Batman that the answer isn’t surprising.

On the other hand, this is the first real J’onn focus since the premiere (in contrast to the assumption seemingly everyone held when the episode title appeared in listings that this would be a Batman episode), and we do learn quite a bit more about him here. His status as a sole survivor was briefly touched on earlier in conversation with Superman, and J’onn’s desire to see his family again will prove to be eerily reminiscent of Superman’s deepest desire (which we’ll see a couple of seasons from now). It’s not hard to see why J’onn would like to be back on Mars; unlike every other league member, he actually had children killed by the invaders. Sure, there’s orphans left and right, but as we’ve already seen with Aquaman, a parent who has his children threatened is something else entirely. J’onn’s descent into temptation is handled very well, and the resolution – a wayward telepathic attack on Etrigan flooding his brain with Blood’s memories of how Morgaine betrayed her agent – is a natural outgrowth of everything else in this episode.

Of course, with all the tragedy in this, there needs to be some comedy, and while Flash does his usual good job of letting some of the air out of the tension balloon with the occasional acerbic remark, the standout in terms of comedy is… well, let’s not put too fine a point on it: it’s Wonder Woman and Flash visiting the Playboy Mansion, complete with thinly-veiled Hugh Hefner analogue Harv Hickman. In-jokes abound, from the costuming (we’ll see many of these again as the New Gods plotline picks up) tot he people inside the costumes (I think a couple are supposed to be Timm and Dini, or at least their DCAU equivalents who’d already shown up in a Batman episode). Heck, even Wonder Woman gets to be funny, flirting with Harv and then apologising when she takes out his worm form.

The second half of the story is somewhat more conventional – if you can call resetting London to its 8th-century equivalent conventional – as the League first has to deal with the ogre army seen in the cold opening while on board the Watchtower, and then take the fight to Morgaine and Mordred. The revelation that both of them are significantly powerful makes for a nicely balanced battle at the climax, one that the League doesn’t really win.

As noted, you wouldn’t think that this would work in any way, but it somehow remains very watchable, while being very character-focused. The next Justice League episode on the schedule is going to be almost completely the opposite – a plot-focused episode that doesn’t really work in spite of all outward appearances – so I guess the bottom line with these is that looking at this series on surface value alone doesn’t clue you in to much.

Grade: A-. The contrast between J’onn and Jason, which I didn’t really get when I first saw this episode in 2002, raises the episode to amongst the best of the first season. Well, that and Flash interuptting an investigation to hang out in the grotto.

Random Thoughts:

• Before anyone paying very close attention to the credits asks – it’s a different Michael Gough.
• I actually had to look up Flash’s “Cecil” reference. Rare of the writers to somehow out-obscure even me.
• This episode makes it obvious that the only way to get to the Watchtower is the Javelin 7. That slight design problem would be resolved with the second, more elaborate tower at the beginning of JLU.
• I think Etrigan reverting to Blood when J’onn’s psychic attack knocks him unconscious is a goof – generally, it’s been the case that the reversion couplet needs to be spoken to accomplish that.
• Yet another example of the J’onn gambit, even if it doesn’t work this time.
• Sadly, we’d never see Etrigan speaking entirely in rhyming couplets in the DCAU.

Line of the Episode: “I’d love to see your stone, Mr. Hickman.” – Diana’s certainly learnt a bit since “Fury.”

Flash Line of the Episode: “Under that goofy green skin, I guess you’re human after all.”

Next Justice League: One of my favourite DC heroes gets a very mediocre episode to show himself off, in “Metamorphosis.”

Next Time: Back to Batman Superman Batman for a bit – I still need to do “Knight Time”, so that’s up next.

The Blackest Night Saga continues with Issue 4!

Ho ho! I just picked up the latest issue of DC’s on-going epic crossover and I just can’t wait for it to end. Each month is a grueling wait to see what the creative team of Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis have up their sleeves. The latest issue doesn’t detail much about what Hal Jordan & the Indigo Lanterns are up to and focuses very much on Barry Allen (the Flash), the Atom & Mera as they fend off the Black Lantern horde of undead heroes & villains on earth. Pretty cool stuff.

The Broken Steel logo

And here’s some news from the gaming front: Am in the midst of downloading the “Broken Steel” expansion also since I’ve been sitting on my unused credit on my Singapore PSN account. I’ve heard some good things about the expansion from my colleague over at 9/10.com. It’ll be good to continue the adventures of the Wasteland Wanderer and go past the level 30 cap. The download’s taking a bit of time so I might just leave my PS3 on today whilst I’m at work. Fallout 3 was and still is a great game. Am missing RPGs on the PS3 though and I’m very tempted to pick up a copy of Bioware’s “Dragon Age: Origins”.

“Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” was really awesome and I’ve yet to find time to write up a review of the game. I’ll have to make time to do that cos’ there are quite a few differences compared to the original and while its a great game I think I preferred the original a lil’ bit more. The new one feels different even though it kept a lot of the gameplay elements of “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune”. Multi-player is fun too but it takes ages to get into a game cos’ you’ve gotta wait and wait for player match-ups. Look out for a review soon cos’ I really wanna write this one up properly.

I’ve also been re-reading a lot of my older comic books lately in my spare time on weekends and on what free week nights I have. I’ve been going back to the following old favourites on & off over the past few years and here are some books that you should look up if you’re into comic books:

• Infinite Crisis
• Crisis on Infinite Earths
• Earth X

Really good stuff. Anyways, just thought I’d write up something a bit more fun instead of all the serious reflections that I’ve been putting up in the last week or so.

Have a great day everyone!

Today we have a bit of a round-up of a few things I have done lately.

First we have the birthday card I made for Aimee. 

Liberty Meadows Birthday Card

 Aimee is big fan of Liberty Meadows and Frank Cho.  I picked up a cheap copy of Liberty Meadows #4 and used the cover to make the card.  I also took a panel from one the strips in the book and put it in the inside of the card.  She really liked it.

Next we have a few Peanuts Christmas cards,

Peanuts Christmas Cards

 During one of my many excursions to Hobby Lobby, they were having a sale on rubber stamps and ink pads.  I saw this stamp and thought it was pretty cool.  The other day I finally got around to giving it a run through.  This went much easier than the one other time I tried stamping and picture looked really nice on the blank card.  All that was left was for me to flex my coloring in the lines skill from way back and color in the stamp with some colored pencils.  These turned out pretty nice.  I would image a fair number of people will be receiving one of these cards during the holiday season.   Oh, and  can you guess which cards I used the white colored pencil and which i did not?

And finally, we have my first attempt at an artist trading card,

Flash ATC

I used the Flash comic I cut up previously for the Corner Art Collage I put up last week.  Basically, I glued a bit of the comic page to the trading card as the background and then glued the Flash on top of that background.  Because I was not paying attention to what I was doing, I ended up with Flash on top of two layers of cardstock.  It ended up being a pretty nice effect.  I am still not sure what I think of this card yet.  I go back and forth on whether I like or not, but I submit it for your approval none the less.

And last but not least, I wanted to get the hype machine going on what will Monday’s blog post.  It is awesome and quite possibly the coolest thing I have done so far.  You will look upon Monday’s update and be lost in the awesomeness of my creation, or at least I hope you will like it.

I am not kidding, it is really freaking cool.

Anyway, let me know what you think.  I’ll take the good with the bad, but hopefully there is more good than bad.

They were too legit to quit.

via splashnology

In this episode Santa, SR and Amanda begin by discussing The Flash comics, which Amanda has recently started reading. We talk about the plot and the background of some the Rogues, the villains in the series. SR explains to us comic conventions. We also go back to talking about our plans for NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month, is a recurring topic for us as all three of us are participating this month. In this discussion we’re trying to convince SR to join us. We also talk about the FakeAPStylebook Twitter account. The boys also harass Amanda about Gossip Girl. The Flash, NaNoWriMo Part II, Twitter and Stuff

Written by Andrew Kreisberg
Directed by Dan Riba
Respectfully dedicated to the memory of Gardner F. Fox
Original Airdates: April 21st & 28th, 2002
DVD: Justice League, Season One

Summary: An accident launches the Justice League into a parallel dimension where they encounter heroes from a simpler time who Green Lantern read about as a child.

Debuting Characters: The Justice Guild of America (Tom Turbine, The Streak, Black Siren, Green Guardsman, Catman… er, not that Catman.)

Focal Character: Green Lantern

Other team members: Hawkgirl, J’onn J’onzz, Flash; Superman and Batman make brief appearances in the bookend scenes

Cameos: Lex Luthor appears in a non-speaking role in the cold opening.

Background:

One of the earliest stories on the drawing board when Justice League was pitched was a throwback to what became a DC yearly tradition in the 1970s and early 80s: a crossover between the JLA and the Justice Society (we’ve talked about them before), who, due to timeline issues, had been explained as occupying different alternate worlds. However, the episode itself wound up being one of the most problematic in DCAU history.

Upon setting up the story as a very silver-age feel story – complete with the JSA acting like they were from the 50s or 60s – DC balked at the treatment. As Timm explains:

DC Comics publisher Paul Levitz had some concerns with the story.  He felt the story as written disrespected the JSA and was overall an inappropriate use of the characters.  We pleaded our case, but we could clearly see his point, too:  the DC guys have spent a lot of time and effort in revitalizing the JSA recently (to the point here it’s now one of their most popular titles) we certainly didn’t want it to seem as if we were saying the JSA was a joke.  No disrespect was intended on our end—quite the opposite!  We wanted the story to be a love letter to the original JSA and a bittersweet nod to simpler times.

Bruce Timm, interview by Toonzone.com

From Timm’s thoughts as well as the commentary track, the change was made very late in the process – late enough, in fact, that enough animation and design work was completed to put together a brief trailer:

I’d tend to agree with Paul Levitz on this one – to have the actual JSA act and behave like the Justice Guild does in this episode, even if it may have been somewhat accurate, would seem horribly out-of-step with the modern rendition (especially The Streak’s line about GL being a “credit to (his) people”) and may have resulted in people being less likely to pick up one of DC’s marquee titles. I doubt that anyone who wasn’t paying close attention would have even noticed what had happened, and the end result doesn’t lose anything thematically.

The members of the JGA are:

• Tom Turbine – atomic powerhouse, based on The Atom. Al Pratt was originally just an incredibly strong short guy, but later gained atomic strength.
• The Streak – speedster, based on the original Flash, Jay Garrick. Jay inhaled fumes from heavy water and gained superspeed. Go with it, it was the 40s. I think Jay’s recently made his animated debut thanks to Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which is why that show is so great.
• The Green Guardsman – based on the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who found a mystical lantern that granted him the power to create emerald-tinted energy constructs based on his own imagination. He later used a fragment of the lantern to shape a magic ring, which he actually wore into battle rather than haul the lantern around.
• Black Siren – based on Dinah Lance, the Black Canary. Nothing more than a tough woman in fishnets. Don’t confuse her with her daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, who is the modern Black Canary and will appear later in JLU.
• Catman – this is the interesting one, as based on the video above he’s obviously supposed to be Wildcat (Ted Grant, former heavyweight boxing champion – he also shows up in JLU). However, there actually is a DC character named Catman. Timm and company can be forgiven for forgetting about him as, at the time, he was believed to be dead. In a weird twist, writer Gail Simone did one of comics greatest salvage jobs on Catman, and he’s now one of the lead characters in her Secret Six series (along with Deadshot, who we saw earlier).

Their opponents are also all based off classic DC villains:

• The Music Master = the Fiddler.
• The Sportsman = the Sportsmaster.
• Mr. Blizzard (HA!) = the Icicle.
• Sir Swami = the Wizard

Lastly, the antagonist is a collection of tributes, from Roy Thomas and Ray Bradbury as his original name, to the original Brainwave (a JSA bad guy) with the look of GL villain Hector Hammond.

Thoughts on the Episode:

To resort to cliche, the old yarn says that you shouldn’t meet your heroes. Green Lantern gets to do exactly that in this episode, and, well, I’m not sure how well it works out for anyone concerned.

The Justice Guild, as noted above, comes off as earnestly goofy, but perhaps a bit too much of a parody of the originals to really be effective when things go to hell in the final 15 minutes or so of this one. Prior to that, it really is a fun riff on the old JLA / JSA team-ups, complete with the classic Gardner Fox JLA episode setup of the teams splitting into smaller units to deal with multiple threats. But, and perhaps this is the product of being a cynical fan, the expectation that there’s going to be a swerve means that the JGA never quite settles in as guest stars. I was half-expecting them to be the evil ones keeping the world in its unchanging state in order to hang onto their fading glory, but even though they actually what they were supposed to be on the surface the overall “… something isn’t right…” tone of the episode hurts when the characters actually stumble onto the mystery.

However, when everything does shake out, the ending goes from a light mystery to something a lot bleaker, and that firts the story a lot better. Firstly, the actual confrontation with the Injustice Guild is a pretty good action scene, which comes across better than the action sequences at the end of the first half. Then we get to the downright scrary revelation of Ray, and the realisation that the heroes are going to have to figure out a way to beat both Ray and the robot.  The scene of the post-apocalyptic world is about as bleak a resolution as you’ll find in Justice League – even though the people have been freed, they’re not any better off than they were before the League showed up, and in fact they may not be long-lived, exposed as they are now to the radiation-choked planet. The ending lacks a bit of punch, which is the result of a change made after the first animation was done – the sky of the ruined world was supposed to be a nuclear winterized yellow as opposed to the cheery blue it wound up, but the producers thought that leaving people with the idea that the survivors were simply going to choke to death on radiation without hope of rebuilding was a bit too bleak.

Although the JGA initially comes across as goofy, though, their final self-sacrifice is very well-done, complete with the conscious choice to essentially commit suicide. The last section of the episode isn’t very happy at all – in spite of Flash’s attempts at humour, it’s very much a downer of an ending as GL has to face up to the fact that while his heroes were that in the end, they were living a hellish existence for a very long time. The final scenes of GL and Hawkgirl consoling each other is a nice hint of the future, but also shows that the League looks out for its own.

The nearly-there character designs are all pretty acceptable substitutes for the actual JSA members; it should be no surprise that I like The Streak the most, as the outfit both invokes the classic Flash colours and reminds me of an F-1 racer’s outfit from that era. And as much as I like Alan Scott, let’s face it… he has perhaps the ugliest outfit in comics history that doesn’t have anything to do with moths.

Grade: C+.

Random Thoughts:

• This is another episode pairing GL and Hawkgirl, and as opposed to their “meet cute” in War World, here they’re already showing signs of tenderness towards each other.
• I’m not sure how Lex got out of jail, while wearing the battle armour no less, but it’s a cool enough cold opening.
• From the looks of the original version trailer, this was going to be more of a time travel storyline, or at least the league members would be aware that the JSA were from out of time.

Flash Line of the Episode: “Does anyone else notice how those two are the only cops in this town?”

Next Justice League: So Jack Kirby, Hugh Hefner and King Arthur Walk into a bar… “A Knight in Shadows.”

Next Time: Maybe that little bit of special content I promised, because I need to push the next JL episode to next Monday in order to get an appropos comic review this weekend.

by Geoff Johns (writer), Ivan Reis (pencils), Oclair Albert & Joe Prado (Inkers), Alex Sinclair (colorist), Eddie Berganza (editor)

The Story: We’re deep in Act II of Blackest Night, so things aren’t going so good. The Flash, Mera and the Atom are being overwhelmed at the JLA headquarters. The heroes of the rest of the world are being overwhelmed as well. The Earth, as the new focus of the war of light, needs a field marshal, but the Indigo Tribe has taken Hal Jordan, the most obvious choice, away. A hero steps forward. But is it too late? That slow charging of the Black Lantern power battery has reached 100%.

What’s Good: Things are pretty bad at the midpoint of DC’s zombie apocalypse. If you like your heroes in tight spots, and watching some of them have their hearts ripped out, this is your book. If you like heroes, real, old-fashioned, inspiring heroes, then this book is for you. A hero is only as good as the villain he fights, and in this case, Johns has given the villains pretty much all the cards. The tension in the writing is high, and the pacing is great. There are so many twists and turns that the book seemed like a larger experience than 27 pages it was. As a throw-away compliment to Johns, the dialogue was excellent: natural, tense, doubtful, inspiring, fearful, denying and spooky, depending on who was talking.

Reis, Albert, Prado and Sinclair deliver some very fine art as well. I’m loving the Flash effect of having two images of the Flash in any given panel. It really communicates the essence of the Flash. The colorist and inkers really have to take some credit for this too. No doubt Reis has in mind what he wants things to look like based on his pencils, but with the Flash effects (and some light effects), the inkers have a much harder time of figuring out where they have to ink heavily (it is a horror book), where they have to ink lightly, and where Sinclair is going to add color with no lines at all. It all works really well.

What’s Not So Good: I am not an unseasoned DC reader, but when you crowd dozens and dozens of dead heroes and villains into the pursuing background, color them all gray, drop 20-50 lbs off of each one and remove the skin in some cases, it gets a little hard to recognize who exactly the heroes are facing. This detracts from how we experience the torment of the heroes. I don’t have a solution. The art has integrity of vision to it that I have to respect, but as a form that communicates the story, I think some trick has to be found for letting the reader know who everyone is in any panel. The reason superheroes had brightly colored costumes in the first place was not to serve the story, but because when old printing plates got hot and art got blurred, it was the only way to tell people apart in the four-color world. Technology has advanced since then, but I think an event like Blackest Night is facing this same problem.

Conclusion: Blackest Night is the event that everyone should be following. Don’t miss out.

Grade: B+

-DS Arsenault

by J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Jesus Saiz (artist)

The Story: After sustaining injuries from an experiment gone awry, the Flash finds himself in World War Two Belgium and joins up with the Blackhawks in an effort to survive the war long enough to heal and find a way back to his own time.

The Good: It isn’t often that a comic can be entertaining as well as literate, but this is the second time this comic has defied expectations and delivered something more than just another superhero story.  A theme has begun to emerge in Straczynski’s work, a meditation of sorts on the nature of heroism, and it is one he explores to great effect here.  The Flash is characterized as being a man just slightly removed from the human condition, so consumed with superheroic ideals of justice and doing the right thing that, even in his weakened state, he tries to deal with the war as if it was another superhero battle.  Limping around the frozen battlefields of Belgium in his brightly colored costume, he is literally viewed by the Blackhawks as an abnormality and a joke.  When Flash crushes a Nazi ambush by knocking them all unconscious with rubble from a bombed out building, he isn’t praised for saving the day but instead admonished for letting the Germans live.  Straczynski uses this disconnect to underscore an incredibly important point about how, given the gruesome circumstances they were all forced to adapt to, the Blackhawks are every bit the heroes that Flash is, and perhaps even more so.

The Not So Good: I’d have to say my only complaint with this issue was that it wasn’t longer!  I generally prefer reading “done in one issues” and often use them when recommending comics to new readers, but that style of storytelling can actually work against the reader when the writer imbues it with as much thematic value and insight and JMS did with this issue.  I found myself wanting more story and was upset that more pages couldn’t be given over to further explore Flash’s time spent with the Blackhawks because as good as Straczynski’s story was, I couldn’t help but feel like it would have been that much better if he’d had another issue.

Conclusion: The Brave and the Bold seriously impresses me with stories that are as entertaining as they are insightful.  This is some quality storytelling here, and I have a feeling it’ll just keep getting better.

Grade:  A-

-Tony Rakittke

La Crisis en las Tierras Infinitas fue un borrón y cuenta nueva de la DC Comics que acabó con los multiversos y que marcó nuevos puntos de partida para su trinidad más emblemática. Siendo franco, a la larga fue lo único que logró. Porque su intento de reescribir una nueva continuidad, más coherente y más acorde sin caer en las inconsistencias de antaño, no quedó al ciento por ciento eficaz. Ni siquiera lo logró ese intentó noventero que fue Zero Hour (Hora Cero). Recuerdo lo de Hawkman y me dan arcadas. (Por cierto, aclaro que este artículo lo escribí ANTES de la que ocurriera la Infinite Crisis)

Antes de la Crisis, existía un mundo llamado Tierra 3, que era algo así como un mundo inverso a la Tierra de la Liga de la Justicia. En ella, existía el Crime Syndicate of America (Sindicato del Crimen de América), en que los superhéroes son supervillanos. La cosa quedaba algo así: Superman es Ultraman; Batman, Owlman (Hombre Búho); Flash, Johnny Quick; y Green Lanern es Power Ring. Y el único héroe que tenía este mundo no era otro que una réplica buena de Lex Luthor… que producto de la Crisis original sería el padre de uno de sus grandes protagonistas: Alexander Luthor.

Esta novela gráfica publicada en español por Sticker Design es ni más ni menos que el “regreso” de aquella Tierra y dentro de la continuidad post Crisis. Este espejo también tiene en Lex Luthor a su único héroe y el Sindicato del Crimen de América, las réplicas malvadas de la Justice League of America, son las rigen el planeta bajo sus malignos preceptos.

Grant Morrison entreteje una buena historia y muy convincente. Esta tierra es simplemente un universo de antimateria en que el bien es el mal y este se rige y estimula bajo sus propios preceptos. Y el dibujante de Frank Quitely, con un estilo bastante especial, imprime un sello que hace que Tierra Dos se sostenga como un tomo potente, bien escrito y visualmente atractivo. Eso sí, tiene un estilo bien personal que a más de uno puede que no le guste.

La cosa es que nos enteramos que este Sindicato rige en mala a su mundo. Ultraman, un astronauta que fue modificado con superpoderes; junto a Owlman (Un Bats especial y malilla); Johnny Quick un drogo súper veloz; la rica Superwoman, que es Lois Lane con superpoderes y es “bastante libertina”; y Power Ring, un mediocre poseedor del un anillo de poder mantienen en vilo un mundo en el cual la corrupción es la ley. Lex Luthor logra “escapar” a nuestro universo de materia positiva y se pone en contacto con los llamados superhéroes. Pero, no lo logra solo, porque aparece un avión con pasajeros de una línea aérea desconocida, dinero de dudosa procedencia y los corazones en el lado derecho del cuerpo. Y esto fue un detalle no menor.

Luthor convence la Liga de acompañarlos a su mundo en desgracia. Viajan al universo antimateria y haciendo eco de una misión de paz, capturan al Sindicato e intentan mejorar las cosas. Sin embargo, Batman se dará cuenta que la cosa no es tan fácil. Lo cierto es que debe haber un balance entre ambos y zacazonapas!. Es interesante que Owlman, listo como Bats, se da cuenta del beneficio de ello y cuando ocurre algo de lo que ya teníamos pistas suficientes, la Liga deberá tomar drásticas decisiones sin saber que hay alguien que tiene su propia agenda.

En general me pareció una historia convincente con guiños muy creativos y novedosos con vueltas de tuerca y otros nostálgicos que sirven de homenaje a la simpleza de antaño en cuanto a cómics de superhéroes. En suma, no es secuela forzada de nada sino que todo lo contario, un buen punto de partida para un concepto que la Crisis erradicó. Insisto en que no es una tierra paralela ni otra dimensión, sino es lo que en Star Trek se conoce como “Universo Espejo”, en la cual este Bicho amado por las masas sería malvado y quizás qué maldades haría.

Publicado originalmente en el Diario del Bicho Azul.

Everything must go!

I know – this isn’t very professional – but nobody pays me to do this, so I’m going to do it anyway!  I’m moving house very shortly, and that means I have a lot of possessions I need to off-load.  Sadly, that includes a massive pile of comic books.  Naturally, I’m selling them on eBay, and now I’m flogging them off to you, Dear Reader.  Oh, and there’s also a Super Mario Galaxy Strategy Guide if you need as well…Here’s a list:

		SALVATION RUN #1-7 Incl. Neal Adams Joker Variant Cover Postage cost: AU $4.99	1	0	AU $14.99	9d 20h	Sell similar
		Super Mario Galaxy Collector’s Edition Strategy Guide Postage cost: AU $6.99	0	0	AU $0.99	9d 16h	Sell similar
		BATMAN: Streets of Gotham #1 & 3 Comics by PAUL DINI Postage cost: AU $3.25	0	0	AU $1.99	9d 16h	Sell similar
		BATMAN UNSEEN #1 Comic by DOUG MOENCH & KELLEY JONES Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $0.99	9d 17h	Sell similar
		BLACKEST NIGHT: TITANS #1 Comic FIRST ISSUE (Ed Benes) Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $0.99	9d 17h	Sell similar
		COUNTDOWN to FINAL CRISIS #51 – 32 Comics (20 Issues) Postage cost: AU $4.99	0	0	AU $23.99	9d 17h	Sell similar
		ROBIN #169 Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul Part 5 Batman Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $0.99	9d 18h	Sell similar
		ROBIN #173 & 174 Comics by CHUCK DIXON Spoiler Returns! Postage cost: AU $3.25	0	0	AU $1.99	9d 18h	Sell similar
		SUPERGIRL #37 Faces of Evil: SUPERWOMAN New Krypton Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $0.99	9d 18h	Sell similar
		THE MIGHTY #1 & 2 Comics by Peter J. Tomasi (GLC) Postage cost: AU $3.25	0	0	AU $1.99	9d 18h	Sell similar
		BOOSTER GOLD #13 Comic (DC Comics) Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $0.99	9d 19h	Sell similar
		52: The Four Horsemen #1-6 Batman Superman Wonder Woman Postage cost: AU $4.99	0	0	AU $6.99	9d 19h	Sell similar
		The Death of the New Gods #1-4 Comics by Jim Starlin Postage cost: AU $4.99	0	0	AU $5.99	9d 20h	Sell similar
		The Death of the New Gods #6 & 7 Comics by Jim Starlin Postage cost: AU $3.25	0	0	AU $2.99	9d 20h	Sell similar
		COUNTDOWN to MYSTERY #8 Comic by Mark Waid, Gail Simone Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $1.99	9d 20h	Sell similar
		COUNTDOWN to MYSTERY #5 Doctor Fate & Eclipso Comic DC Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $1.99	9d 21h	Sell similar
		Brave & the Bold #17 SUPERGIRL & RAVEN by Marv Wolfman Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $1.20	9d 21h	Sell similar
		SUPERGIRL #30 Comic by Will Pfeifer (Catwoman) Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $0.99	9d 21h	Sell similar
		SHADOWPACT #17 Comic by Matt Sturges & Doug Braithwaite Postage cost: AU $2.50	0	0	AU $0.99	9d 21h	Sell similar
		TITANS #1 & 2 Comics – Nightwing, The Flash, Starfire Postage cost: AU $3.25	0	0	AU $2.99	9d 21h	Sell similar
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Story by Rich Fogel and Paul Dini
Teleplay by Dwayne McDuffie
Directed by Dan Riba
Originally Aired: March 10 & 17, 2002
DVD: Justice League, Season One

Summary: In the DCAU equivalent of a buddy cop movie, Flash and Green Lantern battle against a mentally-enhanced gorilla who wants to destroy his technologically-advanced home city.

Featured Characters: Flash, Green Lantern

Debuting Characters: Grodd, Solovar

Other Team Members: J’onn J’onzz, Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, Batman

Background:

We’ve already talked about the most famous of the team-up books – World’s Finest – but there were a couple of others that bear mentioning, beginning with the one homaged in this episode’s title, The Brave and the Bold (BatB). BatB was originally a tryout book, and is notable for containing the first-ever JLA story (along with the first appearances of the Teen Titans, Nemesis, and Metamorpho – all of whom we’ll probably talk about at some point in this section).

However,after sixty issues, the format was changed to something altogether different. Whereas World’s Finest paired Batman with Superman, and DC Comics Presents was later used to pair Superman with other heroes, BatB was DC’s way of pairing Batman with other, lesser-known heroes in an ongoing title. BatB was well-known for the often-weird writing of Bob Haney, but the book attracted its fair share of stories from the great artists that were kicking around the Bat-offices during its 1970s heyday, with personal favourite Jim Aparo turning in a notable run on the title that’s been partially collected in DC’s excellent Showcase digests (the second volume is worth tracking down – it has the Neal Adams stories).

However, with Batman’s loner status being played up in the 1980s (I know a man with two adoptive sons, a father figure butler, a might-as-well-be-surrogate-daughter and now an actual biological son isn’t, by any definition, alone, but just go with it), the “Brave and the Bold” moniker has been assigned to books featuring team-ups of any of DC’s heroes, although a Mark Waid-penned miniseries specifically teamed up Flash and GL in the 1990s).

Of course, these days “Brave and the Bold” is back being associated with Batman on TV via the awesome new series.

After seeing the Ultra-Humanite in the Injustice Guild story and then Titano, you’d think that the DC Universe would be practically overflowing with simian supervillains, or at least that I have a weird obsession with them. That’s not quite the case, but Grodd is one of DC’s bigger bad guys. He’s generally fallen under the Flash’s purview, even if he’s not a member of the “Rogues Gallery” per se. The version used in this episode is pretty close to the traditional version of Grodd, although the modern version is more animalistic than the edruite version seen here, which makes an entirely different contrast with Flash than the one shown here.

Thoughts on the Episode:

Of all the League members, Flash is the one that receives the lowest amount of overt character development during the series – in fact, you could argue that he doesn’t get an episode to truly shine until the final season of Unlimited. But this episode is what would become a typical Flash episode, where he’s cocky, receives his comeuppance, then pulls things together at the end to save the day. Although he’d have more spectacular moments, Flash certainly gets things together in this one.

Of course, another hallmark of a Flash episode is that it tends to focus more on humour than most, and this one’s all about bringing the funny. The cold opening is a great, if simple, joke in and of itself, and from then on it’s totally a buddy cop movie (with Green Lantern, perhaps a bit obviously, playing the Murtaugh to Flash’s Riggs). However, towards the end of part one the big fight is the mind-controlled Flash against GL, and for the first time in the series we get a sense of just how deadly a combatant Flash could be if he isn’t holding back – he holds his own against GL, who’s traditionally been viewed as one of the League’s heavy hitters. That Flash is capable of more than his surface immaturity is a theme in this one.

Grodd’s plan here isn’t the wisest, but as subsequent encounters with him would show, this version of Grodd isn’t great when it comes to big picture planning. At the very least, he seems to be unprepared for anyone interfering with his plan, which, considering he ensalaved Flash to get the isotopes for the generator in the first place, seems more than a bit naive.

Of course, the obvious point of this episode is that Flash is making rash mistakes the entire way through until he confronts Grodd at the end, at which time he finally starts thinking and outsmarts the super-genius, which is played out perfectly. Admittedly, the rest of the League exists solely to get to Gorilla City by the tail end of the episode to stop the other missiles, but this is Flash’s moment to shine, and it’s just about perfect. The intercutting of the scenes at the end of the story keeps the pace moving very quickly; with the long opening action piece being the biggest single sequence of the two episodes, this entire story flies along. While that can sometimes be the mark of a lack of plot, in this case it’s simply very good writing (unsurprising, as Dwayne McDuffie was involved with this episode… he’d go on to basically assume showrunner duties, at least on the script side of things,  as the series progressed).

In the end, it really does feel just like a good team-up issue of BatB, which isn’t shabby.

Grade: B. Again, biased towards any episode featuring Flash, but this one’s funny enough to make up for the problems – which mainly mean that the episode’s more a series of amusing bits (hence the larger-than-normal number of random thoughts) instead of a 40-minute epic.

Line of the Episode: Green Lantern: “Flash! Stop heckling the supervillain!”

Flash line of the Episode: “Oh yeah? Well you’re… naked!” (Hard to pick just one of each.)

• Hope you like the brief glimpse we get of Flash’s origin in this episode:

• …because that’s all the information we’re going to get out of him, origin-wise, for another season and a half. Suffice it to say that this was VERY confusing at the time.
• Most of the transformations later in Flash’s dream sequence are inspired by Silver Age stories; that type of stuff happened to Flash quite often, usually drawn by in appropriately weird style by Carmine Infantino.
• This episode probably caused a thousand disturbing fanfics to be written, because of this shot:
  (Shippers really outght to be isolated from the rest of society. We can all agree on that, right?) Anyway, this is another little thread that gets picked up again later, so we won’t talk too much about it now.
• Unlike the first Flash episode in STAS, there’s no re-use of the Flash TV music here.
• Given the nature of flashbacks on this show, it’s interesting how Solovar recounts exactly what happens prior to the cold opening when he’s talking with Flash and GL. Most of the time, flashbacks are talking about an ancient evil that has been sealed away and the like.
• Anyone who says this is a kids’ show needs to explain to me how kids are supposed to pick up the joke revolving around the famous quote from Planet of the Apes.
• This is the first episode of Justice League to take place in a city that explicitly isn’t Metropolis.
• The Flash vs Grodd fight from this episode was used as a boss sequence in WayForward’s excellent Flash game for the Game Boy Advance.

Next Justice League: One of the more classic team comic tropes is hauled out in “Fury.”

Next Side Story: I wanted it to be “Spell of the Siren” from GI Joe since that’s the exact same episode, but since I still haven’t used a Batman episode, it seems appropriate to review “Batgirl Returns” and “Girl’s Night Out.”

illustration was created in Photoshop CS3.
All artwork is copyrighted by Peter Campofiori, it is illegal to publish or print any such artwork or text without written permission by the artist