Hawks & Haters

He-Man Hawkhaters Club (9 figures at 398 points)

ID	Name	Points
o090	o090: Unique Injustice League (tm) Gentleman Ghost (tm)	83
cdF004	cdF004: Feat Injustice League (tm) The Society (tm)	0
cd064	cd064: Rookie Calculator (tm) Dr. Light (tm)	57
leF002	leF002: Feat None Damage Shield	10
ic021	ic021: Veteran None Blackfire (tm)	76
o026	o026: Experienced None Shadow Thief (tm)	47
cdF003	cdF003: Feat None Ambush	5
cdF006	cdF006: Feat None Running Start	5
le093	le093: Unique Kingdom Come (tm) Hawkman (tm)	115

versus

Hawks & Co (6 figures at 400 points)

ID	Name	Points
o060	o060: Veteran Justice Society (tm) Hawkman (tm)	135
U018	U018: Veteran Justice League (tm) Hawkgirl (tm)	51
o003	o003: Veteran Police (tm) Blackhawks (tm)	35
o048	o048: Veteran Justice League (tm) Atom (tm)	64
U070	U070: Rookie None Doctor Fate (tm)	85
o002	o002: Experienced Police (tm) Blackhawks (tm)	30

Things That Made Me Happy...

in my comics this week.


The new house ads for the Flash. Heh. Heh heh.

Hey! Tom Kamalku really is an Eskimo! We need more good artists like Daniel Acuna, folks.

Hal Jordan frenching a Zamaron in the midst of battle. I make fun of Hal alot, but as I've said before, his unpredictability and lateral thinking really do make him the best.

In solving his immediate problem with a kiss, Hal creates a much larger -- like, universe-threatening -- problem. Ladies and gentlemen; Hal Jordan!

So, Donna isn't calling Hippolyta "mother"? Interesting...

Leonidas the Wonder Lion. He needs to become permanent member of the Wonder Woman cast.

What -- no female lions on Themyscira?

Crazed obsessed scientists doing dangerous experiments in downtown Metropolis that go horribly wrong, turning them into power-drunk supervillains. Kurt Busiek knows what makes Metropolis interesting.

Superman snarking off to reporter Lois Lane, then trying to mollify it lamely. Plus, Kurt Busiek knows what makes Clark Kent an interesting person and a good reporter.

Brainy invents a timeviewer. Well, of course, he does! I love the Legion.

Chamelon and Invisible Kid calling Brainy on his BS.

Proof that the Supermullet was in a different universe.

The Brainiac family reunion.

The return of the fabulous Sensor Girl!

Liberty Belle, like any newlywed, tries to fix up her friends with blind dates. And, like Jesse, I love the idea of Wonder Woman going out with Mister America, whoever he is now.

Oh, for those who didn't buy the Superman Family Showcase... Jimmy Olsen once gained the power of superspeed in "Jimmy Olsen, Speed Demon" (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen 15, September 1956). Just so you know.

Lightray dying. I just hate the New Gods.

Superman's pal, Jaime Reyes. You deserve to be reading Blue Beetle, you know.

Adam Beechen on Titans is a wonderful gust of fresh air. Thanks to his writing, I even enjoyed the teen angsty parts. And he does a GREAT job with Nightwing & Robin and Troia & Wonder Girl.

My New Art

I'm the proud new owner of some artwork by Patrick Gleeson.

This one is, of course, the crowning jewel: it's the first page of the Pfeiffer run on Aquaman. You know ... the one that had Aquaman in it.


That alone would make it worthwhile, regardless of what it was a picture of. But it's a dead floating panda. Not only is that one of the most brilliantly synoptic images in comics that's been created during my lifetime, it is a perfect example of the appropriate use of silent panels and cinematic technique (which I've railed against when they are used for decompression). Besides, like any true Washingtonian, I harbor a secret, seething hatred of all things panda.

This next one is another masterpiece of comic book illustration, where words are not necessary; it's the first view of the new coastline of San Diego.

Note how the panels "pan out" in subject, from the intimate loss of a single loved one to the vast scope of the entire disaster. Oh, Sub Diego, we hardly knew ye.

The third may not impress you much, "why, it's mostly some fish in panels without the background filled in!" Ah, but it's one of my favorite comic book pages of all time, in its subtlety and power. Yep, it's just fish swimming in an aquarium in their usual random way. That is, until the last panel, where they are suddenly facing the same way. Toward to the sea. Toward Aquaman. Who's coming.

It's enormously creepy and a reminder of how scarily powerful Aquaman is; he's not a mere force of nature, he's a force over nature. He tosses around the biosphere like Batman would a batarang.

The final one doesn't have the same kind of simple power as the others, but it's a marvelous example of the use of different visual ranges to tell a story and the use of different spaces to contextualize the images with one another. Besides, it's got both Lorena and Koryak.


I'm still trying to figure out where to display these in my house and which (if any!) should be at the DC Big Monkey store.

I think the dead floating panda one will just go over my bed.

Groovy Chick Month 11: Mrs. Thirteen

If Daphne from Scooby-Doo lived in the DCU, whom would she grow up to marry?

Dr. Thirteen!

Marie Thirteen is today's groovy chick. Dr. Thirteen may be somewhat unprepossessing, but, his wife? Va-va-va-voom!

This is how she looks when suddenly awakened by a strange noise in a spooky house.
How does she walk in that thing?

Intelligent and independent, she's also every bit the ghostbreaker her husband is.



Nor is she your typical damsel-in-distress. Here she is breaking a large vase on the head of an extraterrestrial invader; yes, really.

Marie Thirteen--Vasebreaker!

And she's a lusty woman, not afraid of her needs! Here she is hungrily eyeing Dr. Thirteen's butt:

Terry, is that a table leg, or are you just happy to see me?

She seems to have passed away at some point (due to "magic-related causes"), it's still a bit vague whether she was Traci Thirteen's biological mother or what. It's quite hard to picture her living in "Hell's Heart, Washington D.C.'s worst neighborhood" (*snicker*). I am SO sure.

It doesn't make much sense to me, but then again, she lives in universe where no one questions Hawkman's continuity. Still, such a groovy chick, central to backstory of two such interesting characters as Terry and Traci Thirteen, deserves a better, fuller end-story.

I wish some writer would tell it.

BIG MONKEY PODCAST IS UP!

THE FIRST BIG MONKEY COMICS PODCAST is now available on line!

Thank you for your suggested "Do's and Don't's"; they were very helpful and we did our best to follow them. I hope you enjoy the show, because we certainly had fun doing it. Please be merciful with your feedback (it is our first attempt at such a thing and we hope to improve).

Once Ben figures out how to set up "the RSS feed", it will also available on what my grandchildren call "the I-Tunes" so you can listen to it on something called "the I-Pod". If you know how to do that, please go tell him.

The podcast features some bloggers you just may have heard of before:

• Ben Hatton of Those Wednesdays as "The Voice of Moderation";
• Devon Sanders of Seven Hells as "The Voice of Black Manta"
• Scipio Garling of the Absorbascon as "The Voice of Aquaman"
• Jonnie Brooks of Jon Hex Lives as "The Voice of Experience" and
• Jon Carey of Facedown in the Gutters as "The Voice of Johnnie Walker".

Our topics are the current writing on JLA, Marvel's 50 State Initiative, and Decompression in Modern Comics Writing. Any topics you'd like to see us discuss on future podcasts? Just write Ben and let him know.

This podcast was easy for us to arrange because conversations like this go on all the time at Big Monkey (and I mean ALL the time). Please join us at Big Monkey, where the Conversation About Comics is non-stop fun!

Shocking Revelation

I am such an idiot. I can't believe Brad fooled me like this! And please forgive me if you figured this out already yourself.

But I didn't figure it out until this morning.

The Legionnaires aren't in the present to resurrect Lightning Lad.

They are here to someone else entirely, using lightning.

Someone who helps New Earth discover Earth One (the Bronze Age version of Earth); someone who will in the near future make it possible for New Earth and Earth One to team up to (somehow) preserve the version of the 31st Century that these Legionnaires call home. That's why they had to come to the past.

In fact, Lightning Lad is surely the final member of their team and should arrive any issue now; he's probably the source of the lightning they use in their resurrection scheme, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he loses his arm in the process.

It's the only thing answer that puts all the puzzle pieces into place, including why retailers have been encouraged to double their orders on an upcoming issue of a particular comic.

Nice one, Brad; very, very nice. I owe you one.

Great Things

The new "GOON" shirt that's now available from Big Monkey's on-line store, in a wide variety of colors to match any supervillain's outfit.

____

Best thing I've found at Wikipedia for a long time comes from the entry on Tyroc.

Scream effects

Among the screams in Tyroc's arsenal:

• EEYYAAAHH! - pyrokinesis
• AHHRRRRRR! - force field
• OYYUUUUUU! - teleportation
• ARRRRHHHH! - explosions
• ZZZRRRUUGGHH! - telekinesis
• UIUUIEEEE! - transmutation
• ARRREEEEG! - weather manipulation
• IRRRRWWWW! - chlorokinesis
• CCCIIIRRR! - vertigo
• RRRYYYY! - wind manipulation

______

Jon's new sidebar item over at Facedown in the Gutters.



Heh. Heh heh. Speaking of Jon, he was part of the Big Monkey podcast last weekend; it was great to have him there, except we kept breaking up every time he said, "I write Facedown in the Gutters". Well, that would explain a great many things, Jon...
_______

The new "Duo Character" figures that will coming out in the summer Heroclix sets.

"Duo Characters
A character with the attack symbol
is a duo character. Duo characters may
not be carried and have the Duo Attack
special ability.
DUO ATTACK (optional):
Give the character a power
action to make a duo attack. It makes two separate
attacks against opposing characters as free actions
(making two separate attack rolls). These attacks
may be close combat attacks, or ranged combat
attacks with a single target. Resolve the first attack
before making the second; the character’s damage
value is modified by –1 for the second attack, to a
minimum damage value of 1. If the character is KOd
as a result of the first attack in a duo attack, the
second attack is not made."

We don't know yet who might be on such dials, but it's interesting to speculate! I hope it's used to make generics (say, GOONS) with a little more utility.

___

Blockade Boy has gone back to weekday posting. Thank god.

_____


My new SUB DIEGO heroclix map, which came in the mail this week from Xion! It's subtastic! Thanks again to Kyle Latino for designing it; Kyle, all water-breathers thank you.