Justice Blog of America

I cannot find myself disagreeing with any of these. In fact, I double-dutch agree with a couple of ‘em.

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Some YouTube goodness to share on a Sunday.

Captain America #37 and #38: Two more excellent entries in the “Death of Captain America” Saga from Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Frank D’Armata (with Mike Perkins providing some of the inks in #38). I missed #37 when it hit the stands last week, and my friendly neighborhood comic book shopkeeper managed to dig up a copy for me.

It turns out that the Steve Rogers that Sharon Carter found in suspended animation was the 1950’s Cap, not Steve Rogers will all assume will reappear eventually. Since the reveal is a month old, I feel no shame for spoiling the surprise. This was one of the first Cap storylines I encountered when I started reading comics in the early 1970s, and I think I’m going to enjoy what Brubaker does with it.

The understated, realistic art from Epting and D’Armata only ads to the somber mood of this title.

Brubaker deftly handles a rather large cast of recurring characters, both heroes and villains. The plotting and pacing is perfect.

Justice Society of America #15: I’m a fan of Geoff Johns, normally. But he doesn’t seem to be handling the huge cast of characters very well. He’s been given a thankless task in this book though: Making sure every character in the classic mini-series “Kingdom Come” has an Earth 1 counterpart. This month’s issue is essentially a continuation of the fight scene that started in the middle of last month’s issue. Next month, they fight the “real” Gog. Joy.

Justice League of America #21: And here we go. This issue is almost entirely a prequel one of the upcoming multi-mini-series, mega-crossover “Final Crisis” event. We see “Libra,” a villain from the 1970s who I had almost forgotten, establish the (I dunno, 12th?) version of the Injustice League/Secret Society of Super Villains/Legion of Doom. Ooooo … but this time, they mean business. I am so not impressed. The only one of these event’s I’m looking forward to is the one with the Legion of Superheroes.

Catwoman #79: Selina’s back from her stint on the Hell Planet from the late and unlamented “Salvation Run” mini-series. Maybe, maybe, we can have a few issues in a row in which this delightful character isn’t crow-bared into the latest multiple-miniseries, mega-crossover, the-universe-changes-forever event.

The Brave and the Bold #13: This is the weakest offering of this series so far. But that’s still praise, considering how strong the other issues have been. What I like about this title is something that appealed to be about the first run. No one seems to care all that much what’s going on in other titles. In this issue, Batman and the Golden Age Flash team up to foil the Penguin and Professor T.O. Morrow, who are using android samurai to take over a company owned by Bruce Wayne. The opening page struck me as something the late, great Jim Aparo would have penciled and inked. The Batman in this book wasn’t the dark brooding Batman, but the Batman who worked and played well with others, and who actually engaged in lighthearted banter with another character.

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Emma Frost (aka “White Queen”) is to the X-Men what Power Girl is to the Justice Society. Namely, she walks around, for no apparent reason other than she’s an exhibitionist, in a costume that shows off her massive cleavage.

I am not complaining.

I tried to search for an image of the character from the, comics, but even with “safe search” set to “on” Google was spitting out images that were waaaaaaaaaay unsafe for work.

I still think his run on JLA was the best.

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Best. Interview. EVAR.

Via BoingBoing:

Thomas Denton of comic blog Say It Backwards has a nephew who was diagnosed with cancer. A charity called Candlelighters helped his family out. Thomas decided to use his connections in the comics world to organize some charitable auctions featuring original artwork by various artists to give something back to the organization. Apparently Time Warner (who own DC comics, who in turn own Superman, Batman and most of the cool superheroes who wear capes) objected to the selling of the pieces featuring their copyrighted and trademarked characters on eBay, specifically Superman from what I understand.

Boo! Boo!

It looks like we have another Easter egg in the Iron Man movie:

Right there, below Tony Stark’s armpit, on the desk. Doesn’t that look like Captain America’s shield?

It would make sense for Stark to have a role in creating the shield, considering it’s supposed to be composed of a mix of Adamantium and Vibranium, two very high-tech substances in the Marvel Universe.

But Cap started using the shield about six decades before Stark donned his iron long-johns. That’s in the movie. In the comic’s, it was about two decades.

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I have no idea how long this will last until Marvel demands it be removed. But for now, enjoy.

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Yep, that’s really her costume from the comics:

For all the rave reviews, I thought the movie was at best three out of five stars. Robert Downey Jr. was superlative as Tony Stark, but then Downey is a superlative actor.

I thought it got off to a slow start, frankly. They could have cut 10 minutes off the front part of the movie easily. The James Rhodes character served no real purpose, and Terrence Howard was the wrong actor for that character anyway. And Stark didn’t spend enough time in the armor. And the anti-war message was simplistic, and laid on a little thick.

So count me among those who are disappointed.

I did stick around to the end of the very long credits to see the “Easter egg.” And a very cooooooool Easter egg it was. All I can say is that they have more than a few heroes left before than can do a movie about those cats.

Cross posted to It’s Billy’s Blog.