Thursday, December 06, 2007

Things That Made Me Happy

... in my comics this week.


So, the Badass Monitor is from Earth-8? Heh; of course he is.

I don't love Jonah Hex just because he ties women up to be cannabilized alive by tongueless mutilated murders. I love him because he does it with such aplomb.

Wonder Woman confirms that Ryan Choi is, indeed, a hottie.

Like me, Desaad has a Heroclix room.

Giganta fights commando? TMI!

If you haven't been reading Countdown, it's probably time to start.

I think "The All-New Atom" is the most quotable comic book of all time.

Bob the Monitor Tivos himself?

Did you notice that the scene where Jay and Wally discover the emptiness that used to be Earth-2 is an homage to the same scene in Crisis on Infinite Earths (page 303, for those with the trade)?

Brother Eye goes mobile; now that is an Eyephone.

The secret mastermind of Ivytown may be ... Lady Cop?

Why does Wonder Woman question Black Canary's judgment? Because she doesn't really think she's running the JLA either.


Yes. Yes, Starman, I do. Thanks for asking.

Red Tornado, discussing his own uselessness.

Amazon slobber.

Granny Goodness being called a feckless harridan. Really, anyone being called a feckless harridan.

Wonder Woman and the Giant Floating Head.

Tim looked really good in Robin this month, despite being almost laughably out of character.

Oh my god, did Geo-Force actually do something ... useful?

Nix Uotan? Who names himself Nix Uotan?


Because you're a tramp, Vixen. You always have been.

Batman utterly ignores Black Canary's command decision and laughs in her face about it. Because he doesnt really think she's running the JLA either.

I gasped with shock when I saw what Wonder Woman was holding in her hand; I shouldn't have been shocked, but I am very pleased.

Thank you, Dwayne, for remembering her arm.

Do not ask Jonan Hex to supply the pinata at your birthday party.

A "Ted Grant Grease-Grabbing Grill"; priceless.

Batman's firm handshake.

26 comments:

Jacob T. Levy said...

If you haven't been reading Countdown, it's probably time to start.

Really? Has it gotten that much better?

Anonymous said...

Did you notice that the scene where Jay and Wally discover the emptiness that used to be Earth-2 is an homage to the same scene in Crisis on Infinite Earths?

Can someone clarify the difference between "homage" and "plaigirism" for me? I'm a little fuzzy on it. (Unless, of course, it's so simple as to be, if you like the artist doing it, it's an homage; if you don't, it's plaigirism.)

Red Tornado, discussing his own uselessness.

Didn't he do that in pretty much every issue for the first two years he was in the JLA? (I was reminded of that because I happened to be reading the Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol 3 TPB with my son this morning.)

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque said...

You really should add more pictures in your "things I loved..." posts. They're very useful for those of us who don't buy every comic book out there.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque

SallyP said...

You're right of course. "Feckless Harridan" is such a LOVELy term. And Geo-force actually DID something relatively badass! Who knew?

Black Canary should just give up at this point, nobody is even bothering to listen to her anyway. I did enjoy the transformed Kpyptonite butter knife though.

And Obsidian showed up in one panel! Woohoo!

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else find the graveyard scene in Justice Society of America to be extremely disturbing? How about Batman's reaction to a second Superman being to figure out how to get him to leave (after locating the kryptonite ring, of course).

Jacob T. Levy said...

How about Batman's reaction to a second Superman being to figure out how to get him to leave

When I read this part of JSA, I suddenly thought about the goofy old Silver Age classic Superman Red/ Superman Blue. And then I thought: "If Superman all by himself makes such a huge difference in the world that his walking away creates the prehistory of Kingdom Come, shouldn't a world with two Supermen, a Power Girl, and a Supergirl start to look like the SR/SB world?" Of course, things could go bad and we could all end up serving the Kryptonian overlords-- hence Batman's worry. But one way or the other, the multiplication of Kryptonians ought to be having some noticeable effect.

Derek said...

"I think "The All-New Atom" is the most quotable comic book of all time."

Not to mention that Simone always drops those tangentially relevant quotes during the narrative. I've heard some people complain about those, but I love them.

"I gasped with shock when I saw what Wonder Woman was holding in her hand; I shouldn't have been shocked, but I am very pleased.

Thank you, Dwayne, for remembering her arm."

I need help with these two.

May I add something that made me happy in my comics this week? The guys from The Totally Rad Show showed up behind the brain guy on the second page of All-New Atom. Nerdy synchronicity at it's best.

Anonymous said...

First Black Canary deafens Giganta, then waits until she's unconscious before telling her to put on some underpants. Conclusion: Black Canary doesn't really want Giganta to wear underpants. Either that or else Black Canary is kind of dumb.

Plagiarism = copying someone else's work with the intention of persuading others that it's your own inspiration. Homage involves the intention that your audience recognize you are aping someone else's inspiration.

Anonymous said...

Hey Scipio, I think only you can answer this one. So Firestorm was telling the Legion of Doom a fascinating story about a supposed ace up his sleeve, before Batman rudely interrupted. But what on earth did Firestorm think was this ace up his sleeve? That Batman now owned a pen?

NecroVMX said...

Nice to know not everyone's on the "let's bash countdown" bandwagon

Anonymous said...

***""I think "The All-New Atom" is the most quotable comic book of all time."***

It's just like reading a dictionary of quotations, with comic panels added.

It's one thing to add an occassional quote for flavor, or poignancy, but Simone uses it as a substitute for writing her own captions.

She's not a writer, she's a rapper--with heavy on the sampling.

Scipio said...

"when I saw what Wonder Woman was holding in her hand"

Last page of the Atom.

"Thank you, Dwayne, for remembering her arm.""
JLA.

"That Batman now owned a pen?"
Yup.

"It's one thing to add an occassional quote for flavor, or poignancy, but Simone uses it as a substitute for writing her own captions."

If you really believe that, you may not be smart enough to read her work. I was referring to the fact that she dialogs her characters in engaging, quotable ways. If Jimenez had had WW say, "I appreciate truthfulness in all its forms," it would have sickening; when Simone has her say it, it's hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Anyone see Booster Gold? Black Canary is not even supposed to be the leader of the JLA. That's a time-traveling conspiracy plot to screw up history. It makes so much sense in that light.

Scipio said...

Good point, Zeta.

Anonymous said...

Plagiarism = copying someone else's work with the intention of persuading others that it's your own inspiration. Homage involves the intention that your audience recognize you are aping someone else's inspiration.

So what you're saying is, the sole difference between plaigiarism and homage is intent? But who can know that for sure except the artist? (Maybe I should have tried to convince my fifth grade English teacher that my book report was an "homage" to the author of Cliff Notes.)

Patrick C said...

This isn't directly related to this post, but it kind of is. In JSA Kingdom Come Superman said his Earth is gone. Are we now down to 50 Earths? Earth-22 and Earth-15 are now just gone? This multiverse is shrinking rapidly.

Also, from Black's Law Dictionary:

Plagiarism: The deliberate and knowing presentation of another person's original ideas or creative expressions as one's own.

So yes, it's all about intent. While he didn't give credit to the original artist, it was clearly an inside thing to those who had read Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Anonymous said...

"So what you're saying is, the sole difference between plaigiarism and homage is intent? But who can know that for sure except the artist? (Maybe I should have tried to convince my fifth grade English teacher that my book report was an "homage" to the author of Cliff Notes.)"

Sadly enough, the world is full of grey areas and abstractions, and you won't find an objective scientifically-quantifiable distinction between "plagiarism" and "homage". I imagine your fifth grade English teacher understood that, so your fiendish plan would have been doomed to failure.

Anonymous said...

The secret mastermind of Ivytown may be ... Lady Cop?


I think you're misreading this (and I did too, at first.) I think the bad guy is addressing Lady Cop when he says "The Master, Chief Warner. Who do you think runs this town?"

He's addressing Chief Warner, not talking about her. The confusion is multiplied by Chief Warner/Lady Cop being in plainclothes and apparently dying her hair or being the victim of a coloring error.

Allan said...

"It's one thing to add an occassional quote for flavor, or poignancy, but Simone uses it as a substitute for writing her own captions."

If you really believe that, you may not be smart enough to read her work.
>

This statement is especially idiotic when you consider that only one of these quotes appears in the entirety of the latest issue, which just so happened to be the most enjoyable entertainment experience I've had since the last Gail Simone comic I read.

Scipio said...

"He's addressing Chief Warner, not talking about her. "

Ah! Thank you. I did not realize that was her, for just the reasons you mentioned.

Anonymous said...

"If you really believe that, you may not be smart enough to read her work."

Bullshit. If you must resort to insulting me personally, then you undoubtedly cannot defend her heavy handed use of quotations.

Scipio said...

Hmm, not really trying to insult you.

Not really trying to "defend" something I don't think needs defended.

But if you think that Gail Simone, who uses this technique in only one book as part of its particular feel, does so because she's incapable of writing otherwise, then you must not be smart enough to realize she's making up a good many of them herself.

I respect that her use - perhaps overuse-- of the technique might not be to your taste. Tastes do vary.

But if you're not smart enough to realize that it's a conscious choice (good or not) on her part to create an academic atmosphere for a book about a college professor instead of an inability to do it another way (despite the evidence of all her other work), then, yeah, you are demonstrably probably not smart enough to read her books.

CalvinPitt said...

Did anyone mention to you that in the World War Hulk: After Smash comic, there is a scene where Hulk uses haiku to issue a threat? It was in the Mini-Marvels story at the very back of the issue.

I thought with your love of haiku, that might be of interest to you, even if it was Marvel related.

Scipio said...

REEEALLY?

Can you send me a scan of that, Calvin?

CalvinPitt said...

Well, I don't have the comic myself, but they have the entire three-page story on scans daily, so let's see if I can get the link to work:

Hulk Haiku

Stewart said...

This will not have effect in reality, that is what I believe.
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