Batman and Robin #2

Dick Grayson is discouraged. He hasn’t been Batman long, the cops aren’t sure they trust him yet, Gotham PD just got attacked by a bunch of circus-freak ninjas, and someone used all the chaos to kill the Toad, the one link to the ominous Mr. Pyg. The new Robin, Damian al Ghul, Batman’s son, is out of control and runs off to try to get Mr. Pyg on his own.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I loved the circus freaks who attacked the Gotham cop shop — the brawling fat lady and the hyper-agile Siamese-triplets were particularly cool. But I thought the high point of the issue was, believe it or not, the conversation between Dick and Alfred. Alfred used to be an actor, and Dick used to be a circus performer, and they talk about dressing up as Batman as a show-stopping star performance. Just seemed like a really great moment for a couple of great characters, talking about parts of their lives that we always seem to forget existed. Nice issue, good fun, great art, great writing. Looking forward to more.

Detective Comics #854

I picked this one up because it got extremely good buzz, and I’m glad I got it. It’s the re-introduction of Batwoman, who got a high-profile entrance a few years ago in the “52” weekly series, then was mostly ignored when DC suddenly panicked about publishing a lesbian superhero. Anyway, Kate Kane is on the trail of the Church of Crime’s new leader and, in the process, meets up with Batman, who tells her to cut her long hair because it would be a liability in a close-quarters fight. Turns out the hair is a wig, and we get to meet Kate’s girlfriend — whoops, make that ex-girlfriend — and her dad, who assists her in the crimefighting biz. There’s a backup story in this one, focusing on Renee Montoya, the Question, as she tries to track down a kidnapped woman in L.A.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I like this Kate Kane a lot more than I did the closeted-socialite version of the character. This one is more of a tattooed punk-goth rocker, and it makes her about a thousand times cooler than before. Batwoman may actually be the new lead character in “Detective Comics,” which is fairly cool. The backup with Renee Montoya is pretty good, too. Wish the story were longer, but I guess that’s the point of backup stories, right?

This would be a great time for me to post something in-depth and profound about the greatness of America, the founding documents, the founders themselves, and the millions of people, civilians and military alike, who’ve helped make the country great. Unfortunately, I went and blew my fingers off with firecrackers, so we’ll just have to go with a bunch of comic book covers.

(Please use your fireworks safely and responsibly.)

Pfff, I’m too tired to come up with anything goofy to say today (and trust me, next week is going to be even more hectic), so let’s just go with: Happy Weekend! It’s time for FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Today, we’re pulling a panel from 1982’s Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew #1 by Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw! (The “!” is actually part of his name), as the entire Zoo Crew teams up to put the smackdown on Starro the Conqueror:

Our musical accompaniment for tonight: “Star” by the Roots. Not that close thematically, but it’s hard to find songs about beating up on giant starfish.

Green Lantern #42

Last issue, Larfleeze chopped off Hal Jordan’s hand to get himself a Blue Lantern ring — this issue, it’s revealed that it was all an illusion generated by the blue ring to get Agent Orange to leave Jordan alone. Fatality, now a Star Sapphire, puts the moves on John Stewart. Jordan briefly manages to grab Larfleeze’s lantern, turning him into an Orange Lantern for a few seconds (Yeah, looks like we’re gonna see Hal Jordan wearing every color of ring by the time this is all over.), then finally manages to get rid of the blue ring. At last the Guardians get Larfleeze to stand down by offering him something he really wants — the location of the fledgling Blue Lantern Corps. And finally, we get the official birth of the Black Lanterns.

Verdict: Thumbs up, I think. A few technical quibbles — I caught some errors with the word balloons — but not too bad. Larfleeze is a great deal funnier in this issue, as he becomes a poster child for fanboy entitlement. The bit with the Black Lantern at the end was pretty good, too.

Madame Xanadu #12

Nimue continues her magical investigation into a magical murder and attempts to warn a young socialite that her father’s life may also be in danger. She receives assistance from an unexpected source — Dian Belmont, girlfriend of Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman. Unfortunately, the nefarious Al Nar and his terrifying dog have already selected their next victim, and there may be no way to save him.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Al Nar is a great villain, so far. We also get some great historical adventure during the Spanish Inquisition, and I loved Nimue’s method of using magical origami to deal with a rude librarian.

Captain Britain and MI-13 #14

Last issue, Dracula killed everyone. This issue, he realized that it was just too blasted easy — he’d been trapped in the demon Plotka’s magical room of wishes that gives the illusion of the perfect life. So MI-13 is still alive, and the vampires haven’t achieved their victory yet. In fact, they’re way, way far off from victory, because the Brits now know Dracula’s plans, they’ve got ringers aboard the vampires’ ships, and Spitfire hasn’t actually been mentally dominated. British forces wreck the vampires’ ships and deal some heavy losses, but the vampires aren’t finished yet. Dracula still has Faiza Hussein’s father, and Dr. Doom has just given him Meggan, Captain Britain’s ex-wife, who now calls herself Gloriana.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great action, great characterizations, a great resolution to last issue’s cliffhanger. Just one more issue of this series left, so hold on to yer hats.

JSA vs. Kobra #1

The international nihilistic terrorism organization Kobra makes a few first strikes against the Justice Society and against Checkmate, the international espionage outfit. Unhappy with Kobra’s continuing existence, the JSA decides to strike back, capturing and interrogating a number of Kobra agents. Kobra makes an attack on a church that draws out the Justice Society, but it may have all been a false-flag attack.

Verdict: Ehh, I dunno. Doesn’t seem that bad, but is this really something we need a miniseries for? I’ll reserve judgment for an issue or two.

Texas Tech Associate Humanities Librarian Rob Weiner is getting another high-profile scholarly article published…

Yes, Mary Jane, there is a Spider-Man.

At least, that’s what pop-culture guru and associate humanities librarian for Texas Tech University Libraries Rob Weiner set out to prove in an article published in the International Journal of Comic Art.

A note to comic buffs: don’t get too wrapped up searching the skyline for web-slinging do-gooders just yet.

However, there’s good news for anyone who’s ever picked up a Spidey comic or just worn one of his T-shirts: thanks to you, Spider-Man has found life outside of comic-book pages.

In much the same way that editor Francis Pharcellus Church proved the existence of Santa Claus in his famous 1897 New York Sun editorial, Weiner contends that Spider-Man and his costumed peers have entered mankind’s collective consciousness, filling a shared need for heroes.

“When I started reading graphic novels, I was struck by the fact that stories about Spider-Man or Batman and Superman could have as many plot twists and turns as any story by Shakespeare, Stephen King or Leo Tolstoy,”  he said. “I was struck by how good some of the writing was for these so-called ‘kiddie’ books, and that somehow these archetypical characters like Spider-Man were replacing Odysseus and Zeus as part of modern mythology.”

Snooping around mankind’s collective consciousness for humanity’s new archetypical heroes is a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it…

Rob gave a talk about this topic at the Lubbock Comic Book Expo back in May, so it’s great to hear that he was able to turn the talk into something that folks outside of Lubbock will get to read and enjoy.

Power Girl #2

The Ultra-Humanite has captured Power Girl and is holding New York City hostage — by suspending it high above the earth and threatening to drop it. Ultra’s plan is to transplant his brain into Power Girl’s head, which PeeGee is not real happy about. Extended fisticuffs occur, the Big Apple panics, the Justice Society tries to maintain order, and Ultra tells Power Girl the latest version of his origin, in which he started out as a very sickly genius but, with the help of the kinkiest femme fatale ever, was reborn in the body of the mutant albino gorilla he now lives in. Finally, Ultra has drained her of enough solar radiation to allow him to start cutting into her skull — is there any way for Power Girl to get out of this?

Verdict: Thumbs up, but I gotta quibble about the Ultra-Humanite’s new origin — it leaves out a lot of the creepiest elements of Ultra’s traditional origins, like his co-opting of Hollywood starlet Delores Winters’ body in the ’40s. However, I love the characterizations of the employees in Starrware Industries while they worry about the world falling apart around them.

Wonder Woman #33

Wondy’s gravely injured, but she’s made it back to Themyscira — just in time for an attack by giant monsters. The Amazons fight the monsters, and eventually, Wondy joins them, after having her lasso and an ax taped to her hands, ’cause she’s too injured to hold them properly. In the end, the monsters are driven off, Ares apparently takes a mortal wound to the face, and Zeus appoints Achilles as the new ruler of Themyscira. Will Wonder Woman bother sticking around after all this?

Verdict: Thumbs down. The storyline was far, far, far too long, and for very little payoff. No one expects the Amazons to be out of power on Paradise Island for long, so this whole diversion is particularly pointless.

The Brave and the Bold #23

We start out this issue of DC’s semi-venerable team-up comic with Booster Gold fishing Rip Hunter out of a future timestream where he’s battling someone who appears to be the new Magog from the “Justice Society of America” comic. This soon leads to a confrontation between the two after Magog involves himself in a hostage crisis in Kahndaq. Magog is pretty good at tearing terrorists’ arms off, but he’s not so good on little details, like where bombs are located, or where child hostages are. Booster is a good deal better with those sorts of details, but he’s not the sort of guy who can intimidate a hardcore badass like Magog.

Verdict: Ehh, I want to like it, but thumbs down. The main problem is that there’s no connection between Booster and Magog — it comes across as an entirely random meeting. That’s worked just fine in previous B&B comics, but here, there’s just no common ground. Magog meeting Guy Gardner would’ve worked — they’re both tough guys, but there are still enough differences between them to allow for plenty of friction. By the same token, I could see a good story coming about from a meeting between Booster and the JSA’s current Starman — both come from the future, and it would be fun to see Booster try to deal with Starman’s various mental illnesses.

The Brave and the Bold #24

This issue does it right — Black Lightning and Static. You get two African-American heroes, both electricity-slingers. One is the older, more established character, while the other is from the newly re-introduced Milestone Comics universe. The conflict here is that Jefferson Pierce used to be a Cabinet member in former President Lex Luthor’s administration, and so Static suspects him of being crooked. So does another Milestone character — the pyrokinetic gangster Holocaust, who’s willing to roast both heroes alive just so he’ll look tough.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good characterization, good action, excellent art by Howard Porter. All in all, a fun comic. The next several “Brave and the Bold” comics will spotlight Milestone characters — I hope they give all of them the great treatment they give Static here.

Okay, all together now. What day is it? What time is it? What are we here for? June 26th Evening Watered-Down Margaritas? Wrong answer! It’s FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Our panel of pulverizin’ pain comes from October/November 1946’s Batman #37 by Jerry Robinson and an unknown writer, as Robin hits a guy so hard his heart explodes.

That is one seriously hardcore teen sidekick.

Tonight’s musical accompaniment comes from England’s most awesomely symphonic and theatrical rockers. Everybody on your feet for Queen!

No, wait, that’s not it.

That’s not it either.

Ah, there we go.

Well, gee, that was weird, wasn’t it? Like pretty much everyone else around my age, I grew up listening to Michael Jackson. The “Thriller” album really is just about the most perfect pop album ever, after years of amazing pop-soul hits with the Jackson 5. And the guy made some of the best and most iconic music videos ever. I think the “Thriller” album my sister and I bought when we were kids is still around (It’s stored at my parents’ house, ’cause they’ve got a stereo cabinet that was built for storing vinyl albums. Come to think of it, they’ve got an actual fer-realz record player, and none of us kids do), not that we’ve listened to much of it in ages. I’ve got the song “Thriller” on my Halloween mix-tape, but that’s about it.

Of course, I’ve avoided thinking about MJ in years — pretty much for the same reason I avoid thinking about Carrot Top, Andy Dick, Amy Winehouse, the Coreys, or anyone on reality TV — why waste precious brainspace on someone whose existence has become one long, painful slog of embarrassment?

So yeah, an awful way to go out, after a really awful decade of seemingly non-stop, self-inflicted humiliations. I’ll try to dwell on the awesome stuff he did instead…