Convergence: Shazam! #2

While Gotham Gaslight attacks Fawcett City with zeppelins and bombs, Captain Marvel flies over to Victorian Gotham but is attacked by the Victorian Batman — and he has a surprisingly tough time. But before long, the real bad guy makes his appearance — Mr. Atom, mentally controlling Gotham’s wonderful Victorian villains. Who will prevail, and who’s the mind behind Mr. Atom?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The high point was Batman’s Victorian rogues’ gallery. Cap and crew were reliably heroic and wondrous. The main quibble is that our heroes never really reacted the way they should’ve to Victorian Gotham’s destruction.

Convergence: Plastic Man and the Freedom Fighters #2

The WWII heroes of Earth-X are up against the Nazis and a bunch of dead robot superheroes from the future. There’s a temporary truce between Plas and his allies and the Nazis, who are all, after all, humans from the same Earth. But that truce doesn’t last long when the villainous Silver Ghost figures he can take out Plas and get control of the robots for himself.

Verdict: Thumbs down. There’s basically no reason to have the Freedom Fighters in here at all. They’re strictly background players. And even if you consider Plastic Man’s origins as a straight man to all the weirdos in Jack Cole’s comics, this version of Plas just doesn’t have anything funny to react to. The art is pretty great, though.

Convergence: Booster Gold #2

The older Booster meets up with Ted Kord! There is a joyous reunion, but this Booster is terribly ill — he’s overdosed on chronal energy, so he’s aging to death at top speed. Meanwhile, the younger Booster, Rip Hunter, and Goldstar escape the Legion of Super-Heroes, but the only way to save older Booster may be to expose him to even more chronal energy, leading to a surprising transformation.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This was a lot better than I was expecting — lots of emotional heft and a wonderful surprise ending.

Today’s Cool Links:

• The best news about the end of Convergence is that it opens up all of the DC multiverse again.
• I think the erasure of the X-Men and Fantastic Four from Marvel’s merchandising is a fairly weird story.
• The death toll for the Qatar World Cup is already staggering — and they haven’t even come close to finishing construction yet.
• Need some happy in your day? Here’s a bird taking a bath in its owner’s hands.

Convergence: Plastic Man and the Freedom Fighters #1

The Convergence crossover bounces over to Earth-X, home of the Golden Age Freedom Fighters — Uncle Sam, the Ray, the Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, Black Condor, and Doll-Man — and in this continuity, their leader Plastic Man. The Nazis have taken over the world, while the Freedom Fighters try to liberate America. They successfully lure the Nazi’s pet supervillain, the Silver Ghost, to New York City — just in time for the Dome to appear and cut off everyone’s powers. The team is eventually betrayed by, of all people, Woozy Winks, but before their execution, the Dome finally comes down and everyone gets their powers back.

Verdict: I think I’ll give this one a thumbs up. Plastic Man isn’t a constant comedian — but when he was introduced in the Golden Age, he was generally the straight man for other people’s comedy. We don’t get a lot of character work with the Freedom Fighters, but what we see seems okay.

Convergence: Shazam! #1

Oooo, classic Captain Marvel? Written by Jeff Parker and illustrated by Doc Shaner? Yes, I will sign up for that.

For whatever reason, the Dome over Fawcett City hasn’t been dropped yet, and the Marvels still don’t have their powers. Bulletman and Bulletgirl are still around to help, luckily, but after Billy Batson, Mary Batson, and Freddy Freeman follow Uncle Dudley and WHIZ station owner Sterling Morris after they’re acting shady, they discover that the Monster Society of Evil is still in operation, with Mr. Atom and King Kull working on deadly machines while Dr. Sivana and Ibac have been disguised as Dudley and Mr. Morris. Tawney shows up to help, but the villains still seem to have the upper hand — until the Dome finally comes down, and the heroes get their powers back! But now someone else is attacking the city…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Once again, while the Rebooted DCU can’t figure out how to make a Captain Marvel who isn’t a raging douchebag, the Elseworlds stories — like this one and the tale a few months ago from Multiversity — show that Captain Marvel is still relevant and cool and fun. Jeff Parker’s story is pretty near perfect, and Doc Shaner’s art is a beautiful blend of Golden Age style and modern technique.

Convergence: Booster Gold #1

Booster Gold is being held captive but is rescued by Skeets and Rip Hunter, who reveal that Booster is Rip’s father — no, wait, a Booster from another universe is Rip’s father, actually. Booster was being held prisoner in Skartaris — and in fact, just about every time traveler around was also being held captive there, too. They rescue the older Booster, the one who’s Rip’s father, along with Booster’s sister Michelle, the superheroine Goldstar. The older Booster is dying because he’s been exposed to too much chronal energy, and he now randomly teleports from one domed city to the next. The next time he teleports, the others track him to the city holding the 31st century’s Legion of Super-Heroes. Can they rescue Booster, or is it already too late?

Verdict: Thumbs down. The story is chaotic and confusing, and it isn’t helped by two Booster Golds who look almost identical.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Wow, here’s hoping for a fast recovery for awesome artist and awesome person Ty Templeton.
• A phone game that lets you see your own home as a haunted house? Please no. I already have too much trouble falling asleep.
• It turns out some of the “looting” photos you’re seeing are faked and likely posted by racist whites trying to make black people in Baltimore look bad.

Busy days ’round here, not much time for rigmarole, so let’s just jump right into it. It’s time for… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s battle comes to us from March 2006’s Plastic Man #20 by Kyle Baker. Plas and company are way in the background, ’cause all the action in this one is between Wonder Woman and Ra’s al-Ghul.

Busy weeks and months ahead — anyone willing to sell me a refrigerator, washer, and drier for cheap? How am I ever gonna get moved into that dang house?

Awright, it’s Friday, and a lot of us can look forward to a nice long Labor Day Weekend. I think that means we can get started with… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s battle comes to us from September 1942’s Police Comics #11 by the great Jack Cole. Plastic Man meets up with a villain who can grow to colossal size. What’s the best way to deal with a giant nogoodnik? Probably not like this:

Your lesson for this Labor Day Weekend is to avoid swallowing plastic. Stick with hot dogs, okay?

Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science #2

It’s 1930, and Atomic Robo is a relatively young robot, working for his creator, Nikola Tesla. But he runs into crimefighter Jack Tarot and desperately wants to join in his life of adventure. Jack wants nothing to do with him, but his daughter Helen thinks Robo is keen and pressures Jack to let him tag along in the next night’s investigations. During the day, however, Robo has to help Tesla conduct experiments (which means fighting interdimensional vampires), while Jack and Helen pose as reporters so they can interview F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, whose priceless crystal skull has been stolen. And that evening’s investigations lead Jack Tarot and Robo to an apparent monster sighting at a nearby university. Are they prepared for what is awaiting them?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Excellent action, comedy, and dialogue. You should be reading this.

Green Lantern/Plastic Man: Weapons of Mass Deception

I’m a complete sucker for anything with Plastic Man in it, so of course, I had to pick this one up. Plas has a lead about some alien thieves who are stealing nuclear material and organizing human criminals for some sort of colossal heist, and he recruits Hal Jordan to help him take care of the problem. This leads to multiple trips from outer space to Earth, as the two heroes take on the duck-like aliens (Why ducks? I have no idea.) and human criminals, and as they continuously butt heads about their wildly differing approaches to crimefighting.

Verdict: Thumbs down. It’s not particularly well-written, and it meanders all over the place. And I’m a bit irritated that comic writers who should know better keep writing my pal Plastic Man as a 95%-of-the-time screwup, or as someone who absolutely no one ever takes seriously. I’d just love for a writer to put together a story that acknowledges that Plas has been fighting crime since the ’40s, has been a member of the Justice League, and is vouched for by Batman and Superman. When both Grant Morrison and Frank Miller both agree that Plastic Man is made of pure stretchy awesomesauce, isn’t it time for the rest of the comics world to quit living in denial about it?

Awright, people, you’ve suffered through a long week, and it’s time for your traditional reward — the weekend, long may it reign! And what’s the best way to kick off our weekends? That’s right — with FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s battle comes from October 1943’s Police Comics #23 by the great Jack Cole, as the best superhero ever, Plastic Man, tries to unmask a disguised criminal:

Any fight that ends with the bad guy apparently exploding is a fight worth its weight in gold.

Well, it’s the end of another week, and that means it’s time to get the weekend started the same way our ancestors have been doing for generations — with a little of the ol’ ultraviolence and… FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s fight comes all the way from November 1948’s Plastic Man #14 and the story “A Hard Guy Called Concrete” by the great Jack Cole with Alex Kotzky on inks. This is not an issue I own, but I was able to read the entire story over on the Cole’s Comics blog — mad kudos to Paul Tumey for keeping Cole’s amazing artwork out there in the public eye.

Anyway, tonight’s painfest is all about Eel O’Brien vs. a concrete-skinned mafia boss called Concrete Cargill:

And a short note from SpaceBooger, the guy in charge of every week’s Friday Night Fights — he wants more people to vote for their choices for the best fights of the week. He even made a graphic to help remind you:

So go vote for your favorite fights, and have a wonderful weekend!

It’s been another crazy week, and if there’s any good remedy for a crazy week, it’s a nice heapin’ dose of prolific percolatin’ pain to start your weekend. In other words, it’s time once again for FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

This week’s Moment of Mangling comes from Police Comics #13 from November 1942. Written and illustrated by the great Jack Cole, “The Man Who Can’t Be Harmed!” introduced Woozy Winks to the world, and included the epic battle of Plastic Man vs. a bunch of rocks.

(That’s cool, Spacebooger, you know how it is, rockin’ and rollin’ and whatnot.)

Sure, sure, we all love Friday Night Fights — and don’t try to pretend you don’t, ’cause I’ll know you’re lyin’! But sometimes, we all need a bit of levity, right? Because usually, Friday Night Fights is dead serious business. So let’s go with one funny guy punching another funny guy in the face.

From JLA #15 by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, Gary Frank, and Greg Land: Plastic Man gets the drop on the Joker with a long-distance punch:

Bahlactus thinks that’s hilarious.