Never Rub Another Man’s Rhubarb

There I was yesterday, catching up on the blogs I follow, when I saw this post over at Dale’s blog. Long time readers might recognise Dale as being the most prolific commenter here, and also supplied the script for Boy Wonders Part 2. He has a good thing going with skits using action figures but the latest one I linked to . . . * sigh * . . . he’s using a Lego character, and I had to respond . . .

Power Girl’s right – Hal is an idiot.

Hope you like it, Dale!

Who Were The Mightiest DC Heroes In 1977?

This is a genuine ad from 1977 where DC were touting stories “featuring the mightiest heroes of our time!

I’ve blurred the list of names and the cover of the comic.

Before you click the read more link below, take a guess at which five heroes (because of course they’re all men, this was the 70s after all) will star in this comic. I’ll give you a clue – Superman wasn’t one of them.

Have your guesses ready . . .

Continue reading “Who Were The Mightiest DC Heroes In 1977?”

New Justice League Titles

In recent news, Scott Snyder will be taking over Justice League and starting up a whole bunch of different titles. From the article:

Justice League: No Justice will be written by Scott Snyder, Josh Williamson, and James Tynion IV with art from Frances Manapul, and will run weekly in May. In No Justice, Brainiac arrives on Earth with a warning for DC’s heroes about an impending threat that can only be stopped if the Justice League joins forces with some of DC’s worst villains.

Who’s teaming with whom? Here’s some concept art from Frances Manapul to answer that very question:

I’m calling this team JLAliens (which is completely a call back to the Justice Leagues mini event from 2001) and while it’s nice to see Martian Manhunter back with the League . . . Starro? Really?!

JLMagic (or maybe JLDark again?) with what looks to be Raven on the left, though I may be mistaken.

JLMoney (because they’re all wealthy – wasn’t Changeling/Beast Boy the adopted son of Steve Dayton at some point?). As I don’t keep up with the Superman titles, I hadn’t realised Luthor was still wearing the S-shield.

JLScience? JLNerds? And I guess they had to shoehorn Harley Quinn in there somewhere.

First impression – 5 women out of team of 20? That’s not a brilliant score, is it? Why not Batgirl instead of Robin? Scandal Savage instead of Deathstroke? Soranik Natu instead of Sinestro? Literally any female character instead of Starro?

Second impression – no Green Lantern or Aquaman? Are they not in the League any longer?

Third impression – the uniforms. Because that worked out so well the last time the League went in for that look:

Just saying . . .

Reservations aside, I will, of course, be buying these, as I’m a sucker for the Justice League.

Which is why I own a complete run of Justice League Task Force.

Zero Hour Hardback

Reading through the DC solicitations for April and I come across this little beauty:

ZERO HOUR: CRISIS IN TIME HC
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by DAN JURGENS, JERRY ORDWAY and others
Cover by DAN JURGENS and JERRY ORDWAY
All of reality comes under attack when a mysterious force of entropy begins slowly erasing time itself—making its way from both the past and future toward the present! As history itself unravels around them, the heroes of the world–including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, the Justice Society and the Titans—scramble to fix the broken time stream. But even if they stop the true source of the chaos, the world they save will never be the same! Collects ZERO HOUR #0-4 in hardcover for the first time. Includes a new introduction by Dan Jurgens, updated timeline to the DC Universe and never-before-collected bonus material.

I don’t have a collected version of Zero Hour; not sure why, I just never bothered. That’s no judgement against the story – I have a good deal of fondness for it as I like Jurgens’ writing and art in general – but I’ve just not got around to getting a collection. A couple of things about the detail above caught my eye, though:

  • Collects ZERO HOUR #0-4 – no mention of the Showcase prelude stories which, I believe, were in the trade paperback
  • updated timeline to the DC Universe – is that the actual timeline that was in Zero Hour #0? The one that folded out of the back cover? Or is it a new, updated timeline? My guess would be the former
  • never-before-collected bonus material – it would be nice to know what that bonus material is, but I guess it’s a pot luck thing

The solicitations have it as $25 which will probably put it around £20 over here.

I might just treat myself, you know.