Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case Files #64: Dex-Starr

If the first image I pull is this one, this story is probably not ending well.            Sorry, Jenny.

The basic concept of the Silver Age Green Lantern was that the Guardians of the Universe created an intergalactic police force that would patrol various sectors of space, armed with a ring that could do more or less anything the wearer wanted it to with sufficient willpower.  All the energy in the ring came out looking green, and that was that.  Originally, a single yellow ring was worn by former Green Lantern turned bad guy Sinestro.  Writer Geoff Johns explored that concept, and came up first with the idea of another Lantern Corps armed with yellow rings like Sinestro’s.  And hey, if you’re going to have rings that work off green (willpower) or yellow (fear), why not try some other colors?

That’s where Dex-Starr comes in, one of the most tragic anti-heroes in recent comics.  Yes, it is tragic.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #58: Baby Wildebeest

They grow up so fast.

Babies are many things.  They can be cute, gooey, smelly, and the apple of their parents’ eyes.  They also tend to be fragile.  Babies are the things that we may want to protect the most in any given situation.

So, what if the baby in question actually somehow becomes a superhero?  To answer that question, we come to Baby Wildebeest.

See The New Suicide Squad Trailer Tonight On The CW

Tune into The CW this evening as Kevin Smith and DC head guru Geoff Johns will introduce the new DC Cinematic Universe in the special DC Films Presents The Dawn Of The Justice League.  The show will also debut the first trailer for Suicide Squad.

After the cut, check out a commercial for the special as well as more of the awesome Suicide Squad posters seen above.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #45: Faith

I think she got the power of heart to form Captain Planet.

A common theme to many a Misplaced Hero is that many times there’s only a single creator who’s really enamored with the character.  Oh, other writers and artists may have a decent run with the character, but often once the original creator moves on, the character is quickly relegated to the background or written out of the book entirely.  That is more or less what happened to Snapper Carr.  Creators showing favorites is nothing new, such as how Geoff Johns dealt with Black Adam, or Brian Michael Bendis’ clear love for Luke Cage.  But sometimes the creator love goes to a new character that doesn’t always stick around long.

One such example there is Faith.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batfleck! Solo Movie Coming Soon?

If this, Netflix and Charlie Cox don’t make you forget my Daredevil movie, I give up.

It’s not officially official but more “where there’s smoke there’s fire” rumors are popping up again that Mr. Ex-Jennifer Garner is preparing to star in and direct a solo Batman film.  This rumor cycle brought to you by Deadline with the added spin that Affleck will co-write the film with DC’s chief creative officer and current Justice League scribe Geoff Johns.

There is no rumored release date for said movie, but you’d have to think DC/Warner Bros would want this in theatres as hot on the heels of Batsoup and Suicide Squad as possible.  Those two films have release dates of March and August 2016 respectively. When trying to figure out where Warners would place this, keep in mind the current release date for the first Justice League film is Nov 2017.  And at some unknown date in 2017 we are supposed to get the Lego Batman movie.  With Flash and Aquaman feature films due in 2018, I can see some shuffling of DC properties here if this rumor holds up.

There is a Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice panel at San Diego Comic-Con tomorrow that may give us some clarity on all of this.

Not Just A Pixar Character! The Original Elasti-Girl

“I’ll just put this down somewhere.”

Gabbing Geek Jenny has, in the past, stated her belief in Madam Xanadu as an iconic character.  I tried one before to to suggest that maybe Phantom Lady had a better claim to that title under her criteria (does not have a male version, has not cameoed in a movie or TV show, has an origin story older than the mid-90s, and has been read by Jenny).  Jenny said Phantom Lady’s costume sucked (which, to be fair, it does), but maybe for my weekly “This one died!” column we can try a different character with a better claim than Madam Xanadu.

Let’s talk about Elasti-Girl.  And I do not mean the one in The Incredibles.  Pixar actually asked DC for permission to use the name, and it was granted so long as the name was never used in the marketing.  If you get that action figure from The Incredibles line, her name will be listed as “Mrs. Incredible”.

But let’s talk the original.

Barry Allen: Why Exactly Isn’t He Still Dead?

He looks like he’s tripping over his own feet in that pose.

Crisis on Infinite Earths probably didn’t kill off anywhere near as many characters as its reputation.  But reputations are kinda screwy that way anyway, considering how many people are probably unaware how any “squeal like a pig” scenes make up so little of the movie Deliverance.  But there were really only two deaths in that story that really matter as far as DC was concerned.  Three if you count Prince Ra-Man, and nobody does.  One was Supergirl.  The other was the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen.  Both of those characters stayed pretty dead for a while, but Barry’s was actually remembered by the general public, or at least by his superhero peers.

The funny thing was, Barry dying may have been the best thing to ever happen to the character.

Slightly Misplaced Comics Hero Case File #7: Dr. Thirteen

This isn’t him, but this is the person whose face pops up a lot when you do a Google Image search for “Dr. Thirteen”.  I am not sure who she is, truth be told.

I’ve always thought it must be tough being an atheist superhero in one of those big superhero universes.  Think about it.  Many heroes have firsthand knowledge of the presence of gods, angels, the afterlife, and demons.  And while many superhero characters are rarely identified as belonging to any particular faith or lack thereof, the only atheist hero I can think of is the Michael Holt version of Mr. Terrific, and he was an atheist because he couldn’t believe God would let his wife die as opposed to the idea of just not believing in God.  Holt was also as a member of the Justice Society, where he spent time with the Spectre, the embodiment of the Wrath of God, and probably had some encounters with Zauriel the angel on the Justice League.

But if we really want to see how not accepting something despite it being right in front of his face works, we really need to discuss Dr. Terrance Thirteen.

From A Certain Point Of View: Political Perspective In Speculative Fiction

Way back in the year 2000, I was snooping around the DC Comics message boards and came across a debate over who the various members of the Justice League at the time would vote for in the 2000 Presidential election  One particularly memorable individual insisted that all the various Leaguers would have obviously voted for George W. Bush except for that “treehugger” Aquaman.

There is one problem with this assumption:  Aquaman at the time couldn’t really vote in an American election.  He was the king of Atlantis.  You know, foreign citizen.  And given the way he was being written in his solo title at the time, it probably didn’t matter much to him who the president was.  Plus, there aren’t many trees to hug on the  bottom of the sea.  Oh, and he’s a fictional character.