Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case Files #62: The Human Bomb

Bad guy fall down, go boom. Literally.

The Golden Age of comics was a screwy time.  All manner of publishers put out all manner of characters, and many superheroes, the ones that weren’t blatant rip-offs of other superheroes, had some really bizarre powers that they used mostly to fight Nazis and homegrown criminals.

That would be why we even had the Human Bomb.

Going Through The DCAU Part Seventeen

And we’re back with more cartoon superhero talk with Tom and Jimmy.

This week, we’re covering “Zatanna,” “The Mechanic,” and “Harley and Ivy”.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Hero Case Files #49: Amethyst

Superheroes have long been portrayed as a male power fantasy.  The majority of them tend to be male, and who wouldn’t want to be a powerful do-gooder who always saves the day?

So, what would a superhero designed to appeal to young girls look like?  The answer there may be found with Amethyst, the Princess of Gemworld.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #39: The Beefeater

The Justice League was originally DC’s premier super team, the big guns team you called in when really serious problems that even Superman (theoretically) could not stop alone came a’ callin’.  Then, Post-Crisis, the League was actually turned into a book that was largely played for laughs.  That run was actually hugely popular.  Heck, Watson likes it, and he largely dislikes comics these days.  Considering the run occurred about the same time as Frank Miller and Alan Moore had (inadvertently in Moore’s case) made superheroes a lot less fun and funny, that means a whole lot more.

And hey, we got the Beefeater from that period, too.

Podcast Reaction: The Steve Trevor Edition

She’s right there, dumbass!

 

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.

Jimmy Writing A Podcast Reaction Column? Well, It Was All About Comic Books.

I’m sure Tom Kelly could speak to this much better than I can, and probably will in his podcast reaction column, but there seems to be some misunderstanding around the DC Multiverse and what the end of Convergence sets in motion.

Ryan is right that the original Crisis destroyed the multiverse. However, it hasn’t remained that way for 29 years.

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.

Slightly Misplaced Comics Heroes Case Files #2: The Unknown Soldier

“Hey, Unknown Soldier, STOP HELPING THE NAZIS!”

He was a mystery man, a soldier and assassin who made Axis agents tremble during World War II.  He also had no name.  That was deliberate.

He was…the Unknown Soldier!