If I Had A Buck... A Grave Concern!

Martinex1: It's the time of year for frightening thrills and morbid chills! Happy Halloween BABsters!

This round of our $1 Challenge focuses on the rather common cover theme of heroes in the cemetery.  Considering that super-heroes never stay dead, they sure spend a lot of time at the grave sites. For the Batman and Daredevil, it may seem like a more natural locale, while other covers may be more surprising.   Needless to say, both DC and Marvel seem to favor the setting.

So it is time to pay the ferryman - four quarters for four comics and safe passage.   Are these offerings tricks or treats?   Which do you think are the best?   Did you read any of the stories and did they live up to the dramatic covers?  Make your selections, share your choices and your greatest fears!  

Who's the Worst... Annoying Character?

Doug: The name of Snapper Carr was uttered in the hallowed halls of the BAB most recently. Is he the most annoying character in all of comicdom?

"With the right mindset, it's a lot of fun."

Doug: Are there comics that you have to get "psyched up" to read? You know -- stuff you feel like you should read but often have a tough time pulling the book off the shelf? I've remarked several times, although not recently, that most of Marvel's Silver Age titles should just be left laying if you're talking about the first 12-15 issues. Of course there are some exceptions -- Amazing Spider-Man was a hit right from the start, and I can generally make it through the first many issues of the Fantastic Four without much trouble. But you can have most of the early runs of Incredible Hulk and the Ant-Man/Giant-Man beginnings from Tales to Astonish; ditto the Human Torch feature in Strange Tales. But once most Silver Age Marvel comic books hit the middle teens or around issue #20, they all seemed to find their way and take off (at least in my opinion). Avengers definitely falls into the latter parameters. There were some hits in the first year, but I really start to pay attention once the Kooky Quartet arrives.

Doug: Our Super Blog Team-Up colleague Paul from Longbox Graveyard was alerting the world last weekend that he was reading the new four-color trade from DC, The Justice League of America: The Silver Age, Volume 1. He made the folllowing tweet, and I engaged him. Funny exchange:

Doug: What are your "brain-melting" comics reading experiences? We had a wonderful conversation last weekend about all kinds of comics. Maybe the comics that you have a hard time opening aren't even from the Silver or even Golden Ages... maybe they're from our very own Bronze Age or even beyond? And don't think you have to go all the way to brain-melting. "Slightly unpleasant" will suffice if that's all you got!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Bronze Age Babies

Doug: We want to wish all our readers the very best of the season, and that goes right on into the New Year. Thanks for spending time with us each day. Peace to you and to your loved ones.

I'm Looking at the Man in the Mirror -- JLA: Earth 2

JLA: Earth 2 (the Deluxe Edition)(2013; originally (c) 2000)
Grant Morrison-Frank Quitely

Doug: I wish there was such a thing as a graphic novel library. Sure, I know some libraries carry a nice selection of such things, but my local public libraries are not very large, and I am pretty certain that if the two local colleges have any such selections it's minimal as well.

No, I'm talking about going into one of the super-nice LCS and being able to check out or even rent their wares. I'd have done so with the book we'll be discussing this day. I've had my eye on it since, well -- it's release 15 years ago (and that is mind blowing, etc.). I first encountered the Crime Syndicate as an 8-year old, reading a reprinted tale lurking within the pages of Justice League of America #114 (Nov/Dec 1974), and liked them from the start. Last month I was able to score a copy of the edition I've pictured above on the Black Friday sale at cheapgraphicnovels.com. I paid only $6 for a paperback copy and I'm glad I now own it, but thankful that I didn't pay full price. I really do think it's the sort of book I'd read more than once; the pictures are pretty and the story was thought-provoking. It's not the best Justice League story I've ever read (the Paul Dini-Alex Ross big book might be...), but it was pretty good -- particularly for its publication date.

Doug: I guess DC has gone through 2-3 reboots since this story originally saw the light of day. I'm not really up on all that, but was struck by author Grant Morrison's theories on the then-forbidden fruit of the multiverse. Here Morrison gives a different take on the Marvel concepts of Counter-Earth, or the Earth of the Squadron Supreme, and the DC notion of Earths that vibrate at different frequencies. In Morrison's tale, the Crime Syndicate of Amerika inhabits what they call "Earth", which is part of an anti-matter universe. There everything is wrong -- Benedict Arnold is on currency, there are monuments built to Adolf Hitler, and crime is normal and even upheld. Ultraman rules the planet like a god with the assistance of his partners: Owlman, Superwoman, Power Ring, and Johnny Quick. Each of them uses their powerset to bring havoc to the citizens of the planet. For those scoring at home, these characters used to inhabit Earth-3, with the Justice Society of America hailing from Earth-2 and of course "our" world being Earth-1. Here, the hero of Earth is one Alexander Luthor, complete with that awesome green and purple battlesuit.

Doug: Luthor "escapes" the confinement meted out by Ultraman and makes his way to our Earth, a place that Ultraman will later call "Earth 2". The basics of the plot, without any exhaustive recollection here, is that Luthor has been wanting for quite some time to overthrow the Crime Syndicate. He's come to our planet to enlist the aid of the Justice League. Superman and his six pals are of course skeptical, but this Lex wins them over. After Luthor explains his plans, the JLA meets to decide if they should go through with this jump to the anti-matter Earth. Conveniently, it is decided that J'onn and Aquaman should stay behind on our Earth -- you see how that sets up a one-to-one fight with the Crime Syndicate. But, you'd be wrong, as that never materializes! And I think that's where Grant Morrison scores with this story. There are quite a few things that you might think are going to happen, but then it doesn't come off that way. Conversely, there are some lines of dialogue and/or plot details that give the reader pause.

Doug: Ultimately the JLA is faced with defeat; not at the hands of the Crime Syndicate, but a philosophical resignation to Morrison's posit that good cannot exist against abject evil (the contrary notion also true). And here I found myself putting the book down for a few seconds to ponder that. Although by now almost 15 years old, I wondered if Morrison had any idea how much more negative our world would become and the pessimism that sometimes seems to permeate our feelings, our perceptions. Morrison wrote pre-9/11, pre-War on Terror, pre-Great Recession... but his extreme position of pure good cannot triumph over pure evil (simply put, there's no reference point for an inroad) sure seems a topic for discussion in 2015, almost 2016. This wasn't the sort of book I'd expected when I cracked open the cover.

Doug: Frank Quitely's art is some sort of cross for me between that of Ed McGinnis and later Frank Miller. I draw those comparisons due in large part to McGinnis's affinity for chunky (read: thick) forms and Miller's faces. I find Quitely's art pleasing, and certainly fitting for the story. The coloring, for being "modern" is OK. I think from some of the scans I've provided you can see that it's not muddy, but does have some brightness here and there. Everyone's costumes seem to look "right".

Doug: My edition of the book comes with over 20 pages of goodies, notably Morrison's pitch for the project. What's cool about that is the fact that at some point Quitely doodled the heck out of the script, so there are some really cool thumbnails. There are also character designs.and Quitely's "storyboards" for much of the graphic novel. I always enjoy those "DVD extras" in the back of a trade or hardcover. Nice bonus. So if like the JLA, if you yearn for those multiverse days of yore, then I'd urge you to check this out. And who knows -- you might even be able to borrow a copy.

 

And Then I Saw It...

Doug: Venture with me to those days of yesteryear, when the men were men and the boys (and girls) got all wide-eyed and giddy when they entered the aisle at the supermarket with the magazine rack. Yep -- I'm talking about the Bronze Age, baby, with no Internet, no Diamond Previews, nothing at all to tell a poor soul what magnificent four-color love was about to enter my life. I have three distinct memories (among others) to share.

Doug: The first breath-taking moment I'll relate occurred at the Thrif-t-Mart on Broadway in Bradley, IL in the summer of 1977. Eleven-year old Doug was along with Mom on the weekly grocery run. As was my habit, I'd make my way over to the magazines and paperbacks. I felt all grown up looking at Parade, Creem, and their ilk. I was most enraptured by anything I could find that featured KISS. And then I saw it, right there on the bottom shelf just begging to be picked up: Marvel Super Special #1, starring KISS. Wowza. I grabbed it, leafed through it quickly, and then made a mad dash to the meat counter where I found my Mom. You may not think $1.50 is a lot of money, but back in those days that was "begging and pleading" money. But as she usually did, she said to put it in the cart. Yes!!!

Doug: Chronologically, my next moment came just a short while later, and it was a "twofer", so even better yet. I was at Belscot, a discount department store (sort of like a Wal-Mart or K-Mart) in Kankakee, IL. Not sure why that particular trip was being made, but you guess it -- I stole away to the magazines. And that store had a huuuuuuge magazine rack full of all sorts of goodies. On that particular day the pot o' gold happened to be Justice League of America #s 147 and 148! Not a regular JLA reader at the time, I had been however digging the Legion of Super-Heroes as well as the Justice Society revival in the pages of All-Star Comics. So to see all three teams in a throwdown, and against Mordru, was 10 tons of awesome right there. And again, the combined $1.20 price tag didn't seem to faze Mom and I walked out with all that comic book goodness.

Doug: Lastly, and this was also at Belscot but a few years later, I vividly remember having my senses shattered from a distance when Marvel Treasury Edition #21 met my eyeballs. We mentioned this one a few days ago -- the twice-up (that's original art talk to you) presentation of Fantastic Four #s 120-123 is spectacular. The John Buscema/Joe Sinnott art is worthy of the size, and what a grabber the cover is! And talk about pushing my luck... at $2.00 I'm sure I had to pledge to do some extra work around the house. But I exited the premises with that tome in my clutches -- you know I did!

Doug: I could go on, about the time I saw the Spider-Man novel, the first in that series, or the paperback that reprinted the first few issues of Amazing Spider-Man in color, or the similar offerings from DC that presented early tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes. But that's what you're here for -- to share those memories etched in your childhood's memories. I'm looking forward to it.