Things That Made Me Happy...

in my comics this week.

• Looks like Kyle's got a job pencilling for IDW.
• Wonder Woman wishes her boots had heels.
• I need to use that buster-blocking technique myself!
• Batgirl (the real one) is in three different books this week.
• You did remember that Janus is the god of doorways, didn't you?
• Gorillas with briefcases. And their contents.
• I'm positive that those three villains have never appeared all in the same panel before; if Killer Moth had been there the world would have ended.
• See? Without Interlac, everything falls apart. LEARN INTERLAC, YOU NASSHEADS!
• I did not expect to see Elvis driving the Batmobile this week.
• "Actually, I like to do my own cooking" are very odd last words.
• Why Anti-Venom is a threat to Spider-Man. Clever.
• Hippolyta understands the true function of men.
• Theo? Really? I was expecting "Ocuphagor" or "Kleptoculus". Theo?
• Gauntlets-n-rapiers is almost as cool as bullets-n-bracelets.
• So, when did Mike Grell do a Batgirl costume?
• Allison's secret.
• The camera's keyed to a tracking device? That's... amazing!
• Judd Winick's inability to use any voice except the same one the Buffy characters all speak with officially became amusing this week with his, um, "dialog" for Dr. Sivana. Or maybe Judd's just never read a Captain Marvel story before.
• "Try ducking." Hawkman is one of the DCU's few natural comedians.
• Norman Osborne. Love that man.
• What Hippolyta wants from Nemesis.
• Speaking of which, that traffic cop is the PERFECT way to stop Mordru!!
• The Strange Costumes of Batman!
• Wonder Woman tries to get her mother out of the picture.
• "Why an eight-year-old boy appears to have age 9 years, we don't know." Two words: Black Arrow (or Green Canary). Or Judd Winick. Or plot contrivance.
  
• It's like... like Old Spice is listening in on my dreams...!
• "Is there no sense of accuracy in this production?"
• I don't think I've seen someone completely covered in eyeballs before.

The Shield: Who He Is, and How He Came to Be

How does it begin, the glory that is the Shield?

With the least modest intro ever.

I bet Stan Lee's kicking himself for not thinking of this first.
"I'll rewrite the National Ant'hum to inclood Spiduh-Man's name!"

Our story begins in 1916, with the Shield's dad, an army intelligence officer, Lieutenant Higgins. Lt. Higgin's own intelligence is clearly directed forward, beyond the present and into the future. Although he's foresighted enough to already be wearing the fashions of three decades into the future, he's oblivious enough not to notice that his "superior" is actually a delusional (and rather effete) member of the Salvation Army.

"Further, you will procure for me a soft pretzel, lightly salted, no mustard. Good man."

Tom Higgins, you always know what to say: "Yes". You always say yes to anyone with a badge, or a flag... .

Anyway, like most junior army officers, Tom's also a cutting-edge biochemist.


Oh, how Colonel Pince-Nez would be displeased. You know, Tom, you were supposed to go to the Jersey Shore, not make immediately for your laboratory, where it looks like you employ your underage, unsupervised son in the mixing of highly volatile chemicals, in flagrant violation of several laws that didn't yet exist in 1916.

Thus did the young Shield invent the Flaming Pomegranate Cosmo,
that would one day put the fire in "Fire Island".

Actually, this is Joe Higgins IV. Tom's previous sons are dead (Joe I died from sulphuric asphyxiation, Joe II was reduced to handful of dried chemicals caused by Hantzsch pyridine synthesis, and Joe III experienced what the coroner could only deem "spontaneous combustion").

Meanwhile, his dad works to adapt Red Bull as a personal lubricant.

"Let's see, two quarts of Altoids cut with Viagra,
dissolved in a solution of two parts Moxie to one part absinthe..."

Suddenly, the smell of absinthe reminds Tom of his assignment on the Jersey shore...

"You do that, son, because if that suspension is allowed to separate, the components will spark a plasma explosion, vaporizing the apartment and probably a good chunk of Widow Haggerty's place next door. See you soon!"

Of course, instead of going to the Jersey Shore, the easily distracted Tom makes immediately for Georgetown, where he (like every other man) is stalked by Middle Eastern clothiers...


Really. Do NOT go clothes shopping in Georgetown, if you value your life, 'cuz those Middle-Eastern clothiers mean business, and they're armed with shoe trees...

"In the back seat, we have there suits just your size,
you will love the fit, and, for you, a special deal!"

Later, at the Haberdashery of Ambush, Tom escapes out the window while they're having his jacket altered:
Now we know where the Shield gets it from: apparently, the nervous habit of bursting into song at highly inappropriate moments (formally, Ethelmermania, or, colloquially, "Broadway Tour-ette's Syndrome") is genetic. The really gay among you may recognize Tom's little ditty from Act 2 of Cy Coleman's Defenestration Follies of 1940.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Steve Niles at Big Monkey!

Steve Niles, author of such horror titles as

• 30 Days of Night,
• Criminal Macabre,
• Wake the Dead,
• Batman: Gotham County Line, and
• Batman: Gotham After Midnight

is doing a signing with us at Big Monkey this Wednesday evening.

Steve's a local boy, and we're happy to welcome him back to his old stomping grounds here in the District. Join us, won't you!

Why Magnus is Better than You, Fanboy

Because, unlike you, Magnus is not afraid to wear his Saturn Girl costume on the way to ComicCon.

Vibe vs. Geo-Force

Today, number of fans of Vibe on Facebook?

50.

Number of people in the Geo-Force fan group?

2

Really. And yet Geo-Force continues to get things like Final Crisis tie-in one-shots, while Vibe lies, waiting, in that glass container at the Secret Sanctuary...

Ollie. Hal. Barry. Arthur. And, now it's time to bring back the final missing member of the Iconic Justice League: Paco.

VIBE NEEDS YOU!

Vibe had NO fan page on Facebook?!?!?

Unacceptable!

Well, I fixed that: Vibe's Facebook page.

Gerry Conway, Vibe's creator, sent me a message yesterday: "Vibe has fans???"

YES, Gerry Conway, Vibe has fans. He lives, like Santa, in the hearts of small children everywhere. Every time a Latin child does his first pop and lock, Vibe is there. Whenever an inner city youth thinks, "I want to leave this gang-life behind and put my banana-colored parachute pants in the service of justice," Vibe lives again.

His joy in living, his Golden Age devil may care attitude, his devotion to heroics; Vibe was-- IS --an inspiration to us all.

I wasn't able to get Seth Johnson (Hi, Seth!) to make a Vibe heroclix figure (which is why I have to have mine custom-made... both of them), but I will NOT let this unique hero be forgotten.

Please befriend Vibe, as Vibe befriended the world.

Ivory Soap

Today, I want to talk about Ivory Soap, politics, and comic books.

Ivory Soap is, of course, the greatest triumph that advertising has ever had. Even greater than the transinframetatextual product placement in Eureka (which is so stunningly bald that you have to consider it a PLUS rather than a negative, particularly since it means lots of Sheriff Carter shirtless *swoon*).

Ivory Soap is the greatest triumph of advertising -- and will always remain so -- because its makers took the product's overwhelmingly damning defect and made it the very selling point of the product. "So pure, it floats."

If you think about for even two seconds, it will hit you; soap isn't supposed to float. For soap to float it has to be less dense than water, and for it to be less dense than water, it has to be ... full of air. Which, of course, Ivory Soap is. That's why a bar of Ivory Soap the size of a miniature Dachshund disappears after about one week of shower usage. Not only have you been convinced to buy AIR, you been convinced to buy Ivory Soap precisely because it's full of air.

This takes a special kind of Harold Hill-ian chutzpah. Oh, perhaps, there was a time (say, 1891) when there actually was a great utility to the floating function, because most people took baths instead of showers. Even then, two seconds of thought could undo that advantage, but, of course, advertising's goal is not to allow you to think that long, anyway. You aren't supposed to think about the product, just feel about it, and feel good.

This takes a little cleverness: "Ivory Soap: it's full of air!" is not a particularly good slogan. "It floats!", however, is 99 44/100% genius, and had Proctor & Gamble cleaning up for decades. It's BS so pure it floats.

Once you recognize the principle, you can recognize it everywhere in salesmanship. The aforementioned Harold Hill sells band uniforms will the promise that there's no extra charge for the four weeks of anticipation that it takes for them to arrive. I "sell" Things That Made Me Happy by touting that it doesn't give you information you want.

And in politics the principle is in full swing. Inexperienced candidates are "fresh outsiders". George Bush isn't dull-witted, he's "a man of the people" or "not elitist". Instead of being a guest on Jerry Springer, Sarah Palin becomes an example of middle-class family values, precisely because her underage daughter got pregnant and now has to marry the baby-daddy.

Selling its candidates on the virtue of their flaws is more a Republican tactic, I think. The Democratic Party simply denies that its candidate have flaws at all, or pushes the idea that those flaws are private and utterly unrelated to their function as our representatives. In short, in this regard, the Republican Party is Marvel, and the Democratic Party is DC. There; that'll give you something to argue about at the comic shop today!

But enough of me on my soapbox. None of this is the real point of this post. The real point of this post is:

Armed with the Ivory Soap Principle, how would you sell some of DC's characters?

Things That Made Me Happy

...in my comics this week.

• Okay, now, THAT is rough sex. Even for Jonah Hex.
• "I keep mine in my locker."
• Flashbacks should always be in sepia tones.
• At the risk of sounding stupid... I love the lettering in Spider-Man. Yes, really.
• Well, all of the characters I might expect to see in a man/man/woman threesome, he wasn't high on the list.
• "When he said my part involved terrorizing a disturbed child, I tuned out everything else."
• I think that's the first man to man liplock I've seen in a comic book. Er, I mean, a mainstream comic book.
• So, if we see Two-Face loading two guns in the second act, does that mean he has to fire them in the fourth?
• My gods, are they actually starting to make Hush... work? For ME? The world is ending.
• Carol's father.
• You know, I have no earthly idea who James Peaty is. But, I'll tell you this, he's a good writer and he's completely turned Supergirl around in one issue, and you deserve to start reading it now.
• Peyton Riley? Nice. Very very nice. Dini's still got it.
• I think Alfred reads Polite Dissent... .
• The Secret Six give the tackiest gift ever.
• From now on, I'm having apple pie for dessert as least once a week. Probably on Saturday.
• Speaking of dessert... Cat-Man serving ice cream.
• The Spider-Man splash page continues to prove: Wally Wood was right, that panel does always work.
• What's that, Todd? You want me to tell everyone to buy the comic with you, kissing, in it? Yes, Todd; I will tell everyone to buy that comic.
• Far as I can tell, the anti-matter Utah is the same as ours.
• Bane says: "Love is complicated."
• Jonah Hex using a napkin.
• "Berating you is my job, not yours."
• I always thought Catwoman was heartless, but not that heartless.

Why Magnus is Better than Brad Meltzer

Because Magnus invented square, color-coordinated speech. Seven years before Meltzer was even born. And coordinated it with his eyes.

Face me!

Sigh.

I am now on the Facebook; my sons, Ramon and Paco insisted.

Anyway, befriend me there, if you wish, as well as Big Monkey Comics.

Which Earth is this anyway?

Well, the folks at MTV wasted no time in spoiling whatever glory I might have felt from being among the Comic Blog Elite.

They sent an email to the CBE folks trawling for "young people obsessed with a pop culture phenomenon", to convince them "this was their chance to be heard" on some new freak-show designed to make their viewers feel better because at least they aren't, you know, that guy who dresses up like a Klingon.

On the one hand, this is great validation for CBE. On the other hand, it's still demeaning that producers looking for obsessed fanboy freaks to make fun of go straight to comic book bloggers. It was so upsetting, in fact, that I spent my entire evening last night bitching about it to my life-sized mannequin of Vibe, ruining an otherwise lovely candlelit dinner for two.

Of course, among our own little troop, it's easy to admit that our fondness for comics has colored our worldview. Heck, that's part of their purpose!

But, sometimes -- admit it -- you can forget for a second just which Earth you're on...

The other day, I glanced at some text in an ad for a certain backpack line named Velocity 9, and, before I could realized what it was, my first thought was

"Great Rao, Vandal Savage's drug cartel has reached Earth-Prime!"

How embarrassing.

I remember another from quite a few years ago. A distraught friend call me on the phone to break the news to me: "Princess Diana is dead!" I replied, "Um, yeah, sure. I know that already, Michael. But don't worry, she'll be back within a year or so, I'm certain."

So, I've shared some of MY "Which Earth is this, anyway?" moments with you. Now, it's your turn. When have you suddenly caught yourself confused or miscommunicating because your head's just a bit too close to the staples in your comics?

How Tough is the Shield?

So tough he eats hand-grenades for breakfast.
Every morning.


So tough he beats sharks.
With chains.


So tough he sets himself on fire.
Unafraid to flame in public.


So tough that his best friend is
J. Edgar Hoover.

ESCAPE FROM ARKHAM

Well, I was going to post about the Shield again today.

But THIS, I believe, takes priority (at least, for some of us).

I've known this for a while, but was sworn to secrecy. Now that it's been leaked by others elsewhere, there's no real point in trying to keep quiet...

THE LIST OF THE FIGURES IN THE NEXT DC HEROCLIX SET, "ARKHAM ASYLUM":

001 WHITE MARTIAN (generic)
002 MANHUNTER (As in "No Man Escapes The")
003 MULTIPLEX
004 THE QUESTION (Renee Montoya)
005 FLORONIC MAN
006 GOTHAM CITY DETECTIVE
007 TWO-FACE
008 STREET THUG
009 KID DEVIL
010 GORILLA GRODD
011 THE RIDDLER
012 AMANDA WALLER
013 HUMAN BOMB
014 SCANDAL SAVAGE
015 PLASMUS
016 BATMAN
017 MAN-BAT ASSASSIN
018 SOLOMON GRUNDY
019 LASHINA
020 ANARKY
021 MISS MARTIAN
022 HITMAN
023 WONDER WOMAN (Diana Prince)
024 COUNT VERTIGO
025 JOHNNY SORROW
026 NIGHTSHADE
027 FIREFLY
028 ARKILLO
029 PER DEGATON
030 AMON SUR
031 CAPTAIN GORDON
032 LIGHTNING LORD
033 THINKER
034 ROBIN
035 GHOST FOX KILLER
036 ZOOM
037 ELEMENT LAD
038 PENGUIN
039 COSMIC KING
040 DOCTOR DESTINY
041 FRANKENSTEIN (from 7 Soldiers)
042 VENTRILOQUIST (w/Scarface)
043 CALCULATOR
044 YELLOW LANTERN (Bizarro)
045 CIRCE
046 LYSSA DRAK
047 ULTRA-HUMANITE
048 BIZARRO #1
049 BLACK MANTA
050 METRON
051 MAD HATTER
052 BATGIRL
053 THE TOP
054 DESPERO
055 SABBAC
056 THE FLASH (Jay Garrick)
057 SATURN QUEEN
058 CHANG TZU (aka Egg Fu)
059 THE JOKER
060 SUPERMAN PRIME
BITB Clix: 061 THE CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME - Joker escaping Arkham Asylum

LE's
101. Crispus Allen (as Spectre)

PRIZES: "No Man's Land" Event dial prize for Winner, Fellowship and Envoy, as well as an exclusive "Bizarro World" BFC card and "The Asylum" map for all players (up to 16)!

Naturally, I have a lot to say about this.

But I'd prefer to save it for your own comments...

Things That Made Me Happy

in my comics this week.

• Hawkman's expository soliloquy.
• Brainiac 5 doing, well, what only Brainiac 5 can do.
• The perfectly logical explanation of why Superman (et al.) are better than their anti-matter countparts.
• How can anyone not be able to tell the difference between the waltz and the cha-cha?
• Hey, looks like Gog took the same classes on Divine Retribution that the Spectre took.
• "I'll walk with Gog"; that would make a great song title!
• That is almost exactly how a dog thinks.
  
• What Geoff did with Lance. As ALWAYS, Geoff's plan seems obvious in retrospect, but you never, ever, ever see it coming!
• "Ding-dang".
• The Lyapunov terminus boundary. In a frickin' comic book.
• Of course; that's who Enigma is.
• I don't know who Wonderdog is, but I feel I owe him a great debt of gratitude.
• The magic wand joke in Spider-Man. Nice one.
• How to represent "helium voice" in a word balloon.
• Thank you, Robin, for not acting like there's nothing else going on in your other books.
• You know, I'd want a dog like that... if I didn't already have one.
• "Yes, I know my own name, thank you." Occasional real-world reactions to expository exclamations can be refreshing!
• Oh, grife, Kin'thea is falling for the charms of Garth, and I think I am, too.
• The ending to Teen Titans Year One is... odd. Disturbingly.
• Ultraman is still a moron.
• The pantry at Legion HQ is unusually ... well stocked.
• Well, really, the only good thing I can say about that is: I got to see Geo-Force's throat get slit.
• Aqualad's showercap. Particularly since it took me a full minute before I asked myself, "Why is he wearing a showercap?"
• Okay, I shouldn't find "Anti-venom" brilliant; but I do anyway.
• "Shut up. No questions. Do as I say." Really; how can you not love that man?

The Big Monkey Heroclix Token Postcard

Ah, now this one I'm proud of. It's not just decorative, it's functional (that is, if you play Heroclix).

This is an oversized Big Monkey postcard, with 15 tokens you can cut out and use in your Heroclix games! They are designed to go with my new full-size Heroclix map of the Big Monkey store in the District (you'll see that later, I promise, once it's available to buy from Xion Games).

All these tokens are people and things you might find at Big Monkey.

The Light Objects (in yellow) include:

• Spinner racks, with some loose comics nearby that you just might recognize;
• a Heroclix table, with my own "Iceberg Lounge" map on it;
• our famous sale table, where fortunes have been won and lost;
• and our beloved Civilian Bench, where the comic book pilgrims deposit their significant others while they pay their respects at the Big Monkey. It's the Wailing Wall of comic books, and if you look closely you can see a girlfriend lying on it unconscious, overwhelmed by the rarefied atmosphere of high-level comic book discussion at Big Monkey.

The Heavy Objects (in red) include:

• Bookcases, spilling over with quality trades and hardcovers;
• A file cabinet, container of sub files; "the perfect container, the container of all our hopes for the future";
• The picnic table (it goes outside on the rooftop deck behind the store);
• and the safe, where fortunes are stored and hopefully not lost.

The Special Objects (in blue) include the Absolute Edition and the Rare Issue. Either may be picked up by any figure in the game.

The Absolute Edition grants whoever carries it Deflection, because it's thick enough to deflect mere bullets and blasts of ill-defined energy. If an attack against the holder of the Absolute Edition succeeds, the Absolute Edition absorbs one click of the damage and is removed from play.

The Rare Issue grants whoever carries it immunity from long-range attacks, because no comic book character would risk harming a rare issue. If a close combat attack against the holder of the Rare Issue succeeds, the attacker takes the Rare Issue as his own. The Rare Issue cannot be destroyed; it's been bagged and boarded, you see.

The Big Monkey Bystanders (in brown) include:

• The Customer, as portrayed by the charming Lauren Martella, head of the Big Monkey Women's Discussion Group;
• The Player, as portrayed by the avuncular Tom Price, Wizkids Envoy and host of the on-going Big Monkey Heroclix tournament series;
• The Staff, as portrayed by the angelic James Rambo, host of our fortnightly Crime Alley Cinema night.

All these bystanders have the Big Monkey Team Ability: no figure may attack them if they have the opportunity to attack some other figure instead. This should keep them on the board a good deal longer than your average meatshield.

It'll be a while before I get them back from the printer, but when I do, maybe I can mail you one (for a modest PayPal fee to cover expenses).

Another Big Monkey Postcard: Crime Alley Cinema

The Foes of the Shield

Sadly, the Shield doesn't have much in the way of named villains or supercriminals. He mostly fights nameless evil spies from two fictionations, Stokia and Nordica. Oh, look, here he is ethnic-profiling two Stokian spies ...

"Good gravy, the O'Dares are hijacking the plane!"

Hmm. Two tough looking, nearly identical guys with receding hairlines, in intimate but animated, handwaving conversation, wearing brightly colored outfits, while traveling together on an airplane in adjoining seats. See, I would just assume they were gay, not Stokian, proving the Shield is cleverer than I. Unless, of course, these are gay Stokians, or perhaps Stokia is a gay country entirely. You know: "I'll Stokia, if you'll Stoki-me, too."

The Stokians have a real way with words, and are experts in the Bee Ay Bay code:

Nice outfit, sister Stokey; International Male convinced you that would work, huh?

As I say, the Stokians have a way with words, but it doesn't always make for the best Smack Talk (for most Stokians that means saying, "I'm going to give you SUCH a slap!"). After all, I'm hooked on the hi-octane villain talk comics are known for. I'm used to villains who say things like:

• "I can still dispose of you directly, using the funneled psychic energy of fourteen adolescent brains!" or
• "You are helpless! You are pinioned by a thought wall!" or even
• "I am the Princess Maru. My genius will destroy America!"

Compare to those espresso shots of villainspeak, this is pretty weak tea:

"Oh, and Lincoln's dead, too! So there!"

Worst part is, this sort of taunting just lowers the level of intellectual discourse between hero and villains, diluting the force of their use as metaphors for conflicting concepts of societal self-organization.

See? I told ya.

Neither are villains impressive when they gather like grade-schoolers in their Garanimals and play at having "big adventures".

"Then we'll make a snow fort and throw snowballs at passing girls!"

Still, he does have one really cool set of enemies...
the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces.

Things That Made Me Happy

... in my comics this week.

• You deserve to get the joke on page 10 of Legion of Three Worlds, so know your Interlac.
• The Joker playing with a new toy line from Mattel.
• The cover of Robin.
• Well, the "Speed Force" is now officially magic, as far as I'm concerned.
• "You missed."
• Interactive Olsen hologram: "I'm guessing you're asking about the enemies of the Legion?"
• Who IS Red Robin? I love a mystery!
• R.J.'s entrance; R.J.'s exit.
• Batman versus the cement.
• The Clayface cave. Very clever.
• Superman's proposed solution to Superman Prime, which only he would dare come up with.
• "I will be free!" Really, if you're not buying SuperFriends, you're missing out on some of the best characterization of DC's icons in years.
• Hey, isn't Jason's plan the same one that got Stephanie in trouble during War Games?
• Findster. Ebuy. Macintech. Youspace. I just love DC's Fortune Faux Hundred companies.
• The Joker as an actual gangster, not just a psychokiller. Refreshing.
• Catwoman disguising Superman as ... well, himself, essentially.
• Crediting the writer and artist together as "storytellers"? Classy. A little ambiguous, but still classy.
• "Make Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane". Adorable.

The Shield: Cons

He has the annoying habit of crowing about his recent tricks. In song.
I hate when guys do that. Unless it's me.


The Shield can't hold his breath forever. Wussie.

He's kind of doppish, as we say where I'm from. Zo darn doppish, in fact.

I skipped the part afterward, where he crashes through the tree. Yes, really.


The Shield is not particularly, shall we say, observant. In this scene, he pushes a bad guy out of the way, and then stand their reading files without noticing the man piling up explosives behind him. Next time, he needs to leave the Ronco Electronic Ear at home and spring for some handcuffs instead...

Gotta love the flying, but otherwise undamaged furniture; the Hotel Braganza must get all its stuff from This End Up.

For You Heroclix Folk

Suddenly, I'm looking forward to the new "Arkham Asylum" Heroclix set very much...!

A Batman who sits hidden on the edge of a roof (From Among...) eying a foe, cancels the foe's defensive ability (Outwit), increases his own damage (perplex), throws down a free Smoke Cloud beside the enemy (Dark Knight), then charges to attack him (From Among) under cover of the smoke cloud... all in one turn?!?!?

It's a dream (or nightmare) come true!

The Shield: Pros!

As promised, I will now teach you what you need to know about... THE SHIELD! Remember, this guy is one of the old MLJ heroes who's going to be introduced into the DCU proper via Brave & the Bold.

He can scale walls and was doing it 22-years before Spider-Man was created. He scales them by... um... okay, I have no idea how the Shield is able to simply... adhere to sheer walls. Force of will, I guess.

And he keeps doing it. Which is very very odd. Why? Because he could simply LEAP to the top of a building instead. More on the leaping later.

He has an electric ear, just like on the commercials. He likes using it a lot, although it never really seems to work. Kind of like that Popeiler or juicemaster you get on QVC and are too proud to give up on. It's kind of endearing.


The Shield is a master chemist. No, really, he's got a PhD and everything.
He'll be perfect to tend bar at the DC Holiday Special!


Unlike many heroes, he's an exemplar of cranial sturdiness:
This man needs to be partnered with Hal Jordan immediately.

He does this... jumpy thing. Usually at planes. FBI 1, TSA 0!

Oh, and he's fireproof. More on that...

The Justice League of Arcana

We superhero fans love our supergroups. Our publishers know this and so they sometimes cobble together teams to satisfy our appetite that wind up being pretty unsatisfying. You ever go to one of those events where you think there's going to be a buffet, and what's actually offered is a variety of h'ordeurvres? That's how I feel reading the likes of Infinity Inc and Outsiders.





But that's not my point. I've always like the idea of a sort of "Mystic League of America", a supergroup of mystics formed along the lines of the JLA/JSA. I thought DC had this concept locked when they created the Sentinels of Magic, but they never ran with it. Even worse, they went instead with the Outsiders of Magic, the Shadowpact; on the whole, readers didn't go with them.





Why didn't/doesn't this idea fly? Is it because, unlike the spandex crowd, magician's powers are too vague and indistinguishable from one another? Too little interest in magic characters?






I picture a group very much like the Sentinels of Magic, but narrowed down a bit. More like the classic JLA rather than a JLU of magic (because perhaps early over-expansion of the Sentinels watered down the concept and hindered its popularity; a club to which everyone belongs doesn't have a lot of perceived value!). I'd even make sure there was a bit a parallelism going on, like so.


























Dr. Fate, in for Superman
Phantom Stranger, in for Batman
Zatanna, in for Wonder Woman
Tempest, in for Aquaman
Blue Devil, in for Green Lantern
Deadman, in for Flash
Dr. Occult, in for Martian Manhunter