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Post by MDG on Feb 21, 2019 10:51:40 GMT -5
I love fourth wall, breaks, Earth Prime, writers light-heartedly appearing in comic stories. (Although nobody's ever topped Fantastic Four Annual # 3.) I think it was basically self-promotion - writers don't need to do that kinda stuff now-a-days because they have twitter - but more power to 'em! A little goes a long way, though. Stan and Jack's appearance in FF Annual 3 was not the focus of that story, but a funny, ironic, unexpected moment that is far more memorable as a result than any of those Bates bits. Bob Haney provides probably the best exception:
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 21, 2019 11:15:13 GMT -5
A little goes a long way, though. Stan and Jack's appearance in FF Annual 3 was not the focus of that story, but a funny, ironic, unexpected moment that is far more memorable as a result than any of those Bates bits. Bob Haney provides probably the best exception: ABSOLUTELY! The more illogical the better where these things are concerned. Another oddball favorite of mine: Doom Patrol 121:
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 21, 2019 12:44:24 GMT -5
Lest we forget, the excellent, "His Name Is Kane!"
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Post by badwolf on Feb 21, 2019 13:18:52 GMT -5
He knew it would happen someday!
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Post by rberman on Feb 22, 2019 5:58:43 GMT -5
JLA #130 “Skyjack at 22,300 Miles!” (May 1976)Creative Team: Written by Martin Pasko. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: In a story set between JLA #79 and #80, Hawkman introduces his teammates to the JLA satellite. A moon rock at S.T.A.R. Labs hatches a Dharlu alien creature which hitches a ride up to the satellite with Hawkman and The Flash, playing “mix and match” with their bodies and its own in the process, resulting in a trio of foes. While fighting the whole JLA quite effectively, the aliens hitch an engine to the JLA satellite and rocket off into space. After a lot of fighting, Hawkman and The Flash are separated from the alien and restored to their regular bodies. The alien then flees into the satellite computer— both physically and in terms of control – and it remains there to this day, correcting some flaw in the hardware that’s not really explained. Continuity Notes: The Flash missed “The Battle with the Doomsters in JLA #78-79!” This story takes place shortly after Snapper Carr betrayed the JLA to the Joker in “JLA #77” My Two Cents: This is what’s called a “bottle episode” on television, a story that uses only existing cast and existing sets to film an episode on the cheap. All of the action is on the JLA satellite, and it’s all variations of the heroes fighting a single monster in that enclosed space, with occasional forays into outer space to add extra danger. It’s high on action, low on characterization, and interesting mainly for the retcon plot twist that the JLA are fine with their computer being permanently hybridized with an alien about which they know little. Check out this wall of exposition at the end of the issue: The other point of interest is that page 5 is mostly a diagram of the five decks of the satellite, which has a very different layout than the one shown in a similar diagram several years prior. The JLA satellite is said to be 22,300 miles above the Earth. This is a little less than 1/10 the substantial distance between the Earth and the moon, so it’s much further out than I would have expected. By contrast, the Hubble space telescope is 340 miles above the Earth. The JLA satellite must be going incredibly quickly at that distance, to maintain geosynchronous orbit above Metropolis. The Atom compliments Black Canary’s looks and requests mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from her. Nice professionalism! Green Arrow gets one vulgarism “Far freakin’ out!” along the way as well. Is the Dharlu a slave of the JLA? The gist of this issue makes the Dharlu an animal threat which insinuates itself into the JLA computer system and can’t be removed, but the JLA discover that it’s actually doing a sort of service there anyway. But then Superman says he has "trapped" the Dharlu in the computer, implying that it could be removed. Future issues will put a more insidious spin on the whole Dharlu thing; stay tuned.
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Post by zaku on Feb 22, 2019 6:13:43 GMT -5
The Atom compliments Black Canary’s looks and requests mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from her. Nice professionalism! Sometimes I forget that Mad Men is practically a documentary...
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Post by rberman on Feb 23, 2019 6:57:20 GMT -5
JLA #131-132 “Sonar” (June-July 1976) Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. JLA #131 “The Beasts Who Thought like Men”: Cash (as in paper money) is the vector of a plague which gives super-strength to its maddened victims. Society quickly switches to using the new biometrically-locked “Ultima Cred-ID” cards developed by Professor Dunkirk of S.T.A.R. Labs. Later, animals all over the world start acting oddly smart, while the people around them act oddly violent. An army of Queen Bee’s smart bees attacks New York City (not Metropolis!) and lays the JLA low. It’s all the fault of sonic waves emitted by the new credit cards, as planned by Professor Dunkirk. What is his game? JLA #132 “The Beasts Who Fought like Men!”: The JLA prevail against Bee-men who turn out to be mannequins filled with actual bees. But returning to the satellite, they are incapacitated by a sound gun wielded by old GL foe Sonar. It is he who, disguised as Professor Dunkirk of S.T.A.R. Labs, has foisted these booby-trapped credit cards upon society. Supergirl busts into the JLA satellite, prompting Sonar to flee. The revived JLA chase him to Washington D.C. while also dealing with another Queen Bee attack in Chicago. Queen Bee has been pretending to be a victim of Sonar, but really she’s more of an opportunist, spring-boarding off his sonic plot with a domination scheme of her own. They both end up captured and headed to prison. Covers That Lie: At no point are the JLA locked up in a zoo. They do tussle with aggressive zoo animals in both issues, and at one point when the animal fight each other, there’s a brief preachy moment in which this conflict is attributed to animals absorbing human stupidity. Wait, don’t regular animals already fight each other in the wild? Continuity notes: “GL first fought Sonar, who hails from the tiny Balkan country of Modora, in Green Lantern #14!” My Two Cents: The evils of credit cards get a “very special episode” all their own. The point is that cash is a decentralized currency, whereas credit cards create a single point of failure which can be hijacked for criminal purposes. But Sonar is also responsible for infecting the world’s paper currency with maddening “Nucleo-Sonics” as well, which just goes to show that villains gonna villain, no matter what form of money we use. The money-plague is forgotten by the end of the story. There’s probably some political statement intended in Sonar’s attack on the U.S. Capitol building – perhaps an oblique reference to credit companies unduly influencing Congress? I must say I found the constant battle in these issues repetitive, though that may just reflect that like many forms of media originally released over numerous months, comic books don’t feel the same when binged as they do when “used as intended.” This story was basically one fight after another with not much to talk about in summary, but Black Canary does get a hero moment when she uses her scream power to counteract the sonic effect, which is quite a sensible plot development. There’s one unintentionally hilarious moment when Superman is incapacitated by a bee that flies into his ear. Luthor, take note of this weakness! Then he’s AWOL in the second issue, and Supergirl asks for the JLA’s help in finding him, leading to #133’s story. Green Lantern sends the bees “far over the Atlantic Ocean” to remove them without killing them. But unless they’re close enough to shore to return and cause problems, he effectively did kill them, right? #132 is the most egregious example yet of the trend of lazy covers with characters on a featureless background. More will be ahead like it intermittently. This one also says “DC Salutes the Bicentennial” on the cover and has the number 6 in the upper right corner. This was part of an incentive: If kids cut out these patriotic banners and numbers from 25 of the 33 DC comics, they could earn a Superman belt buckle. Note the language intended to prevent distributors from gaming the offer.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Feb 23, 2019 16:19:19 GMT -5
The cover for 132 is a classic for the ages. What kid could resist some exciting Green Lantern vs. giraffe action?
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 23, 2019 16:26:26 GMT -5
The cover for 132 is a classic for the ages. What kid could resist some exciting Green Lantern vs. giraffe action? Only sorta yellow-colored animal, so he probably gave GL a run for his money.
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Post by rberman on Feb 24, 2019 8:28:19 GMT -5
JLA #133-134 “Despero” (August-September 1976) Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. JLA #133 “Missing—One Man of Steel!”: Aliens kidnap Superman 400 light years to defend their world against Despero, whose literal third eye has a wide variety of convenient powers. The aliens didn’t have enough power to beam the whole JLA to their planet, and they’re afraid Superman won’t help them solo, so they enact an elaborate subterfuge in which actors wear super-suits to impersonate the JLA and sort-of mimic their powers. This surprisingly fools both Superman and Despero, but Despero is still able to win the battle and capture both Superman and the fake JLAers. You can see here below that Despero has his suspicions about the fake heroes, but he never figures it all out. J LA #134 “Battle at the Edge of Forever!”: As the JLA race in Hawkman’s spaceship to rescue Superman, both they and Despero are plucked from their spaceships and pitted against each other by two bored Krill super-aliens. Despero is able to prevail against each pair of JLAers put in his path, and when he starts getting tired of all this, the aliens control his mind to force the skirmishes to continue. Supergirl convinces the two aliens to root for opposite sides in the game, and they fall into conflict with each other, evening the odds and allowing Despero to lose. Continuity notes: Despero is “An old enemy of the JLA, first encountered in issue #1!” My Two Cents: Neither the concept nor the execution of the fake JLA plan makes sense, but it does provide fun opportunities for the subterfuge to succeed at points and fail at points. Despero is a kitchen sink villain with an endless array of both tech and super-abilities. The cyclops aliens who kidnap Superman aren't hurting for tech either. Early in #133 when Supergirl suggests that Superman’s kidnapper could be either a “he or she,” I thought Conway was just being egalitarian. But it turned out to be foreshadowing; the alien race appears to consist entirely of females, albeit with a single eye and no mouth on their heads. The second issue was more entertaining with the introduction of the Krill, who have weird three-boned arms. Is this story venturing into meta-narrative, with omnipotent characters who write scenarios for superhero fights to amuse themselves? A later letter to the editor thought so. Issue #134’s title homages the Star Trek episode “City on the Edge of Forever,” but the plot is more like the episode “Arena.” Supergirl frets that she taught the Krill to fight, but surely they knew that already; their whole shtick involves getting lesser beings to fight. These and future issues are subdivided into named chapters. This time they are “All the World a Stage” and “When Heroes Fall!” for #133, while #134 has “The Enemy Unknown!” and “The War Which Wouldn’t End!” The Krill call Supergirl “the soft one” based on watching her cry on a video screen. Kind of a strange description. Despero indulges in a moment of Freudian self-analysis concerning his desire to conquer Earth: This story is missing a lot of beats. Or less charitably, it has a lot of plot holes. Superman ran away from Queen Bee in issue #131 after he got a bee in his ear (chortle). Supergirl declared him missing at the end of #132 and kidnapped in the next issue. How does she know? Issue #133 establishes that the JLA have no idea where Superman is. One panel implies that the aliens plan to contact the real JLA following the defeat of their fake JLA, but if this was a viable tactic, the premise of the whole issue is invalidated. #134 opens with Hawkman’s spaceship on a head-on collision course with Despero’s spaceship, which is carrying as captives both Superman and the alien actors disguised as the JLA. How did this state of affairs come about? By the end of the issue, Despero is captured (wrapped up by Elongated Man, not an effective prison for a teleporting villain), Superman is free without comment, and the alien actors in their JLA super-suits totally disappear from the story. Dick Dillin gives a nice view of the surface of a star as Superman is pulled to the alien planet. Check out all the flares and arcs.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 24, 2019 11:47:22 GMT -5
The Cybermen are impersonating the JLA! Call the Doctor!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 24, 2019 13:41:30 GMT -5
The cover for 132 is a classic for the ages. What kid could resist some exciting Green Lantern vs. giraffe action? It was cool enough to entice me to buy it at age 8.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 24, 2019 15:31:33 GMT -5
It was cool enough to entice me to buy it at age 8. I could say the same thing about JLA #133, except I was still 7 when it hit the spinner racks.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 24, 2019 15:47:28 GMT -5
It was cool enough to entice me to buy it at age 8. I could say the same thing about JLA #133, except I was still 7 when it hit the spinner racks. I bought #134. I just didn't have the hang yet of buying consecutive issues. Or maybe I just never saw them because I went to the store so sporadically.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 24, 2019 16:05:37 GMT -5
Ha! I never got #134. And yeah, at that point I was still picking up comics pretty haphazardly - the deciding factor was usually how nice I thought the cover was and/or if the book had Spider-man in it.
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