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

They grow up so fast.
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.

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

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #56: Secret

Smoking kills.
Smoking kills.

Think about it:  Casper the Friendly Ghost is really creepy.  Not for the whole “wanting to be friends with people” thing, or even how the guys on Cheers observed that Casper must somehow lose all his friends between cartoons, or that one really warped episode where Casper befriends a fox pup that gets killed, only to have the fox’s ghost show up to immediately pick up where it left off with Casper (that’s some demented stuff right there).  No, the fact is Casper is a kid, always will be a kid, and he’s a ghost hanging around for some reason.  That’s some prime potential horror right there.

That sort of thing was realized a bit better with Secret.

Continue reading Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #56: Secret

Tom Recommends: Young Justice (Animated Series)

Gabbing Geek Tom Recommends v2

Animator Greg Wiseman has had a long string of animated series that have pleased fans but have always seemed to be cut short due to other factors.  He was forced off Disney’s Gargoyles and saw his Spectacular Spider-Man cut short due to the Spider-rights going to Disney.

Then there was Young Justice, an animated series set in the DC universe about a team of superhero sidekicks going on covert missions for the Justice League.

Continue reading Tom Recommends: Young Justice (Animated Series)

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Case File #23: Arrowette

These guys need to learn to read signs posted on trees.
These guys need to learn to read signs posted on trees.

The comic book version of Green Arrow is best known as being one of the few heroes with a distinctive political point of view.  Who does Superman vote for?  Who knows?  Green Arrow is an out-and-out bleeding heart liberal, and that’s probably one of his defining characteristics.

Except he wasn’t always that way.  The character existed for a good twenty years before his political perspective came up at all.  Prior to that, he was the standard white bread DC hero who did good because it was good and if he ever had a thought deeper than which arrow to use at any given moment, he sure didn’t share it.  In point of fact, the guy was a Batman rip-off, living as a millionaire playboy with his sidekick and ward in a big mansion with a cave and a car and a plane underneath his home.  It’s not much of a memorable era for the Emerald Archer.

This era also gave us Arrowette.

Continue reading Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Case File #23: Arrowette

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Seven Part Two

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Obligatory Aquaman money shot for Watson.

(Editor’s Note: Let’s all be kind to Jimmy and pretend it is the week of May 20th.  He really does try very hard to get his work done on time.  But for someone with commitment issues (ask Ms. Impossible) he can’t seem to say “No” to any project that comes his way.  So remember, it’s May 20th, Convergence is not over, and Jimmy is awesome.  Thanks from Gabbing Geek.)

Hey everybody!  A couple of clunkers in this batch of issues as we finish up the penultimate week of Convergence.  I’m looking forward to next week when the finale gets released.  I’m sure it will all start making sense at that point.  I’m sure nothing crazy and continuity shattering will occur and everything in the New 52 will be just as we left it two months ago.

Be sure to catch up on all the Convergence happenings with coverage of:

Week One: Part One, Part Two
Week Two: Part One, Part Two
Week Three:Part One, Part Two
Week Four:Part One, Part Two
Week Five: Part One, Part Two
Week Six: Part One, Part Two
Week Seven: Part One

Read on for Week Seven spoilers after the break for Convergence Justice League America #2Convergence Green Lantern Corps #2, Convergence New Teen Titans #2, Convergence Superboy And The Legion Of Super-Heroes #2 and Convergence The Flash #2.

Continue reading Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Seven Part Two

Who The Heck Is Donna Troy?

Look!  It's a messy origin story!
Look! It’s a messy origin story!

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.

Continue reading Who The Heck Is Donna Troy?

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Six Part One

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With Deimos becoming the main villain of this event, and Telos and his “Contest of Champions” being pushed to the wayside, Convergence is getting a bit more interesting.  The main mini-series anyway, the tie-ins are still not adding much.

Be sure to catch up on all the Convergence happenings with coverage of:

Week One: Part One, Part Two
Week Two: Part One, Part Two
Week Three:Part One, Part Two
Week Four:Part One, Part Two
Week Five: Part One, Part Two

Read on for Week Six spoilers after the break for Convergence #6,  Convergence Batman Shadow Of The Bat #2, Convergence Green Lantern Parallax #2, Convergence Superboy #2, Convergence Supergirl Matrix #2 and Convergence Superman The Man Of Steel #2.

Continue reading Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Six Part One

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Three Part One

convergence-3

I’ve come to the realization (not surprisingly) that I may be taking Convergence too seriously.  Trying to make sure it makes sense and ties into the history of the DC universe and multiverse…and it just doesn’t.  There are just too many continuity problems here that if I continue down the rabbit hole, I’ll never enjoy the 60+ (Dear God) remaining issues.  So I will make comments on such things, but if DC isn’t going to put in the effort to at least attempt to have things make sense, then I’m not going to bother either.

Be sure to catch up on all the Convergence happenings with coverage of:

Week One: Part One, Part Two

Week Two: Part One, Part Two

Read on for Week Three spoilers after the break for Convergence #3, Batman And The Outsiders #1, Adventures Of Superman #1, Superboy And The Legion Of Super-Heroes #1 and Wonder Woman #1.

Continue reading Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Three Part One

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Two Part One

convergence-2
Convergence #2

Welcome to Convergence Week 2.  If you read my coverage of week 1 of Convergence you saw that my Pre-Flashpoint DCU knowledge was nothing impressive.  Thanks to Tom Kelly for filling in some knowledge gaps and for an extensive comment on the Extremists of Angor.

Hopefully this week is a little more in my wheel house as the main combantants are Metroplis from the pre-Zero Hour universe and the world of Kingdom Come.  It’s been awhile but I have read Kingdom Come, and pre-Zero Hour would be right around the time I was actually collecting some DC books with the Death of Superman and Knightfall.  One of the side universes in the spotlight this week is the San Diego of Jim Lee’s Wildstorm universe, from which I read a handful of books back in it’s Image Comics days.  So things are looking up, time will tell.

Be sure to catch up on all the Convergence happenings with coverage of Week One: Part 1, Part 2

Read on for spoilers after break for Convergence #2, Batman Shadow Of The Bat #1, Supergirl Matrix #1, Green Lantern/Parallax #1, and Superboy #1.

Continue reading Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Two Part One