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.
Continue reading Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #58: Baby Wildebeest
The Justice League has been DC’s all-star team from its earliest founding. That is, unless you’re aware that the original purpose was to give exposure to the company’s lesser-known heroes, which would be why Superman and Batman only made sporadic appearances in the early missions because they were too busy to actually attend missions and meetings.
Some days I wish I could use that excuse to get out of meetings.
But, you know, in retrospect, the League was the all-star team. Then, around 1984 or so, Aquaman told the big names to take a hike if they were too busy to help and recruited some new heroes to fill the ranks for a period while operating out of Detroit. Those new recruits included Gypsy.
Continue reading Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #54: Gypsy
Over the years, DC’s Teen Titans group has been one of those perennial books that’s always around. At one time, The New Teen Titans, as written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by George Perez, was one of it not the hottest comic around, rivaling The Uncanny X-Men for popularity. The classic line-up that included Nightwing, Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, Changeling, Wonder Girl, and some others was all the rage. Other Titans came and went, such as Kid Flash, Speedy, Aqualad, Red Star, Pantha, and Wildebeest, but the core group was what the fan remembered.
Then, after the Zero Hour storyline, a new line-up appeared. Gone were most of the classic Titans, possibly due to no longer technically being “teens”. In its place was a line-up that at least looked interesting. There was former Speedy Roy Harper, now going by Arsenal. Donna Troy went by her real name and was, at the time, a member of the spacefaring police force, the Darkstars. Former Team Titans from a collapsed future timeline Mirage and Terra were there. So was the at-the-time only Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, as were two teen heroes from the period, Impulse and Damage.
Oh, and then there was Minion.
Continue reading Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #37: Minion
Last week, I wrote up about the “Planet Hulk” storyline. In that write-up, I mentioned how the Hulk has on occasion been a character that creators have been allowed a certain amount of experimental leeway with. One such writer is a personal favorite of mine, and one of the better Secret Wars spin-offs was a retake of his earlier work.
The writer is Peter David. The work was the two-part Future Imperfect mini-series.
This week on the podcast, Jenny and the guys talked comics. I, generally, use this site to talk comics. However, so does Jimmy, and he’s also doing a podcast reaction this week. In fact, it’s probably live as you read this, but not as I type this, so go read Jimmy’s column, or he’ll be a sad panda.
But I do that “Misplaced Hero” column, so let’s cover a character discussed during the GNOWs that isn’t really a misplaced hero but more of a misplaced love interest.
Many longtime DC Comics fans probably know Donna Troy as the original Wonder Girl, teenage sidekick to Wonder Woman, longtime member of the Teen Titans. They also probably know Donna’s backstory is a convoluted mess.
There’s a really good reason for that. Donna was added to the Titans by mistake and creators have been trying to fix that screw-up ever since.
Marvel Comics released the first issue of the new Secret Wars this past week. The issue in question ended with the destruction of both the main Marvel and Ultimate universes aside from a handful of survivors on both sides.
How likely is it that this new status quo will remain? What do you think?
Kurt Busiek and George Perez had a fairly epic run on The Avengers starting in the late 90s. They had the team take on Ultron and Kang. They had a mix of old and new characters. They made Carol Danvers interesting (yes, Jenny, I said it, and she’s been interesting ever since). There was beautiful artwork, stories that showed great understanding for everyone on the team, and a silent issue where Washington D.C. got destroyed, but the Avengers managed to get George W. Bush out, and only George W. Bush out, before everything went boom. I did not make that up.
They also put a new character named Triathlon on the team, and he was fairly lame. I only recently learned why.
Continue reading Slightly Misplaced Comics Hero Case Files #16: Triathlon
Week three continues and if Watson actually read comic books anymore he’s be losing his cookies that we get to meet our THIRD Aquaman in as many weeks. Watson, man, get in here. There was even a Wally West Flash story in week one and I know you loves some Wally West Flash.
Be sure to catch up on all the Convergence happenings with coverage of:
Week Three:Part One
Read on for Week Three spoilers after the break for Green Lantern Corps #1, Hawkman #1, Justice League America #1, New Teen Titans #1, Swamp Thing #1 and The Flash #1.
Continue reading Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Three Part Two
It is often said on the Gabbing Geek podcast (listen to it!) that I don’t read comics. Well I did once. So in talking to my buddy Phil Ray the other day, he asked me to write a post on my ten favorite Trade Paperbacks ever (“other than Watchmen, of course”). I would tell him writing for a website is not like being a DJ at da club because we don’t take requests, but he did introduce me to my ex-wife (thanks,jerk) so here we go…
Gabbing Geek 