We last left Mr. Moth and the Martian Manhunter in a tense stand-off at the lighthouse!
J'onn's GOT to figure out a way to stop Mr. Moth, because, well, five pages are already gone and there's less than one left to go. Perhaps .... the vibrations caused by spinning? As previously mentioned, the first principle of Martian problem solving is: any problem that can be solved by spinning MUST be solved by spinning. To wit:
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| It's best not to think too hard about how J'onn is apparently spinning all the individual parts of his body separately. it doesn't look pretty, I'll guarantee it. |
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| You'd don't kneed to know WHAT problem you're facing, really, as long as you can solve that problem by spinning. |
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| No, I will not explain it. If you can't figure out how to use spinning to stop a charging lion, then, I'm sorry, you're just not enough of a Martian Manhunter to know. |
All J'onn has to work with is ... those colored bulbs?
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| Observe: the counter-intuitive Martian mind at work! |
Not a lot of room to spin inside a lighthouse, but....!
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| Really; it's a wonder J'onn is still single. |
Vibration is Martian-made!
Oh, dear. When J'onn spins, or vibrates, OR snaps his fingers...well, H'ronmeer alone knows what might happen! BRACE YOURSELVES!
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| Superior Martian understanding of pneumatics and anemology is J'onn's REAL superpower. |
Wait...what? That's .... well, I wouldn't have thought of that, J'onn. It seems to have surprised the artist, too, since he didn't have the fortitude to try to DRAW the bulbs being magically unscrewed by the inscrutable suctioning winds created by J'onn's vibrating hand.
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| Mr. Moth. Undone by riveting sources of light? THE IRONY! |
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| It was nice of them to let him keep the mask. |
Mr. Moth had a good run while it lasted, I suppose, but -- unlike the Human Flame -- he never got a second go. Which is too bad, they would have been a great pair, for obvious reasons. The helmet, which I'm guessing now is just molded plastic, had no special anti-Martian abilities. The most fascinating thing about the entire story is that, although moths' attraction to FLAMES (as sources of light) is their essential characteristic, there is not a single fire in the entire story. Fire is common in Apex City...but only when you don't expect it.
And no one in Apex City ever looked up to notice Mr. Moth's distinctively shaped and colored helicopter--with dangling loot--making its many passes from downtown crime scenes to his "remote" lighthouse lair. That would have given the police and J'onn at least a direction for searching. A cowardly and oblivious lot, those flockers.
ReplyDeleteAnd, unmasked, his head is reasonably normal-sized. Huh.
ReplyDelete>>>distinctively shaped and colored helicopter
What, yellow with fin wings? That could be *anybody*. It's not like he pimped it out as a MOTH-copter. It isn't even the same color as his mask, what kind of accessorizing is that?
I'm impressed that the henchmen have elected a spokesman to speak for both of them. Their union could probably do with better priorities, though, if they can't even afford neck-wear. It's a little weird that the bulb above Mr. Moth's head explodes when J'Onn punches him, though.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, letting him keep his mask and suit wouldn't possibly come back to bite them. Maybe that's why Mr. Moth was never seen again. He escaped and left town, so nobody wanted to talk about it anymore.
Although, he looks pretty old, which makes heaving all the loot around the lighthouse all the more impressive.
Cybrid, Steve has a point, though, that even if it's an off-the-shelf model, there's glowing loot dangling from the crane, a technology that nobody in Apex recognizes. Follow the money!
"It's a little weird that the bulb above Mr. Moth's head explodes when J'Onn punches him, though."
ReplyDeleteSYMBOLISM!
Lights OUT.
MY head is spinning! This has to be the trippiest book ever!
ReplyDeleteWait wait wait....
ReplyDeleteAfter all the physics defying, vibration unscrewing, and phosphorous coating, MM ends his greatest match-up by simply PUNCHING Mr. Moth?
That's just so...normal.
It's refreshing that the story doesn't make a big deal of the reveal of Mr. Moth's identity. Who is he under that mask? Just some guy. We don't know, and we don't care. All that matters is, he's in jail.
ReplyDeleteMore haiku from J'onn:
That Did It!
The vibrations of
My spinning body smashèd
Whatever it was!
Sally, I think that honor would have to go to the time J'onn fought an orchestra of sentient evil instruments.
ReplyDelete"sentient evil instruments"
ReplyDeleteI trust this will be the subject of some follow-up posts?
OH, I figured everyone knows that one already.
ReplyDeleteI think that sentient evil instruments would have to be every high school music teachers personal nightmare.
ReplyDeleteBut is the exploding light bulb (complete, I might add, with a little trail of debris to make it clear it's diegetic...the film kind, not the storytelling kind) an artistic flourish or did the otherwise (as Joshua points out) mundane punch actually set up oscillating vibrations that struck the single bulb? And if the former, is the fact that it was only one bulb among roughly seventeen imply that Mr. Moth was destined to return sixteen more times before Marco Xavier ruined his triumphant returns? Or given that the number of bulbs are reduced from panel to panel, does it represent that J'Onn has been hammering on Mr. Moth (a seemingly-elderly man, incidentally, who hasn't actually hurt anybody) for a while, before and after the knockout we see?
ReplyDeleteBut the real question is, what prisoner number did that mysterious, apparently affluent, moth-obsessed man get? Was it 234026?
ReplyDeleteHeh; funny.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see Captain Harding getting a little exercise in that last panel. I worry about him sitting at that desk all day.
ReplyDeleteI just hope he doesn't overdo it.
They're re-padding his chair.
ReplyDelete