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Showing posts from August, 2023

Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey - No Sleep Till... Gotham!

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  NO SLEEP TILL... GOTHAM! HARLEY QUINN AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #1 Published:  12th February 2020 Cover Date:  April 2020 Cover Artists:   Amanda Conner / Alex Sinclair Writer:  Amanda Conner / Jimmy Palmiotti Penciler:  Amanda Conner Inker:   Amanda Conner Colourist:   Paul Mounts Letterer:   John J. Hill Editors:   Chris Conroy Introduction Harley is a complicated character in some way in that she's changed so radically in the three decades since her introduction, going from animated, to comics, to back to animated and the reason for this special movies! The thing is where you came upon Harley is how you tend to view the character, if you came in on the edgier reboot of the New 52 version then she still has the stink of a villain who murders buses of children just for fun!  Though in the last nine years, the character had been carving her own little corner of the DC universe as an anti-hero getting into her own little adventures. In fact, those stories were written by the very peop

Dial H for Hero #10 - Miguel and Summer Travel the Multiverse

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  Dial H for Hero #10 Miguel and Summer Travel the Multiverse March 2020 The clue is in the title, our titular heroes are travelling the multiverse after the series McGuffin. We start with two pages of various Earth, back when we had more than one and less than fifty-three, showing Batman Beyond Batman (Earth-12), Gender Swap Supes and Bats (Earth-11), Earth One Wonder Woman and first of all Earth 2. So this would be the New 52 Power Girl home after her adventures in Worlds' Finest! Truth be told this series looks interesting enough that at some point I need to take a look at the entire book.  

JSA vs. Kobra #6 - Engines of Faith, (Part Six): Shedding Skin

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ENGINES OF FAITH, SHEDDING SKIN JSA vs. KOBRA #6 Published:  11th November 2009 Cover Date:  January 2010 Cover Artists:   Gene Ha Writer:  Eric Trautmann Penciler:  Don Kramer Inker:   Michael Babinski Colourist:   Art Lyon Letterer:   Pat Brosseau Editors:   Rachel Gluckstern Introduction The problem with picking an arbitrary point to look at comics is that you'll always get odd little things like this where you get to look at the tail end of a series from another decade. In this case, this is part six of a mini-series about the JSA fighting Kobra, duh! I could easily skip this for the next and move it to the previous decade, but just for a little variety, I figured I'd cover it here. Strangely the fact that is not hosted on DC Infinite, hence harder to find online makes it even more tempting to cover here and now. So let's go... Sypnosis We start in media res if you could call that for the last issue of a run, with three Kobra minions charging invaders of their Majorca.

Action Comics #883 - Captain Atom, Chapter Five

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Action Comics #883 Captain Atom, Chapter Five January 2010 Captain Atom was in Justice League of America, and so was Pee Gee, This is a single-panel flashback, job done! That's what I thought though a little internet search showed it's actually from a Government Task force that he was on with Major Force, the villain of the issue ( Superman/Batman  #4) . 

JLA: Created Equal #1 - The Fall

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  THE FALL JLA: CREATED EQUAL #1 Published:   19th January 2000 Cover Date:  March 2000 Cover Artists:   Kevin Maguire / Joe Rubinstein / Dave Stewart Writer:  Fabian Nicieza Penciler:  Kevin Maguire Inker:   Joe Rubinstein Colourist:   Gloria Vasquez / Digital Chameleon Letterer:   Bob Lappan Editors:   Andrew Helfer / Jim Higgins Introduction So we start the new millennium of this reboot by covering my first-ever Elseworlds, if you ignore Tangent and Bombshells! And it's kinda sad that some of the points bought up in this mini, especially the second part (which we'll get to eventually) still have some resonance in 2023! And obviously, this blog being what it is we start with an Elseworld that probably no one has given any thought to since it first came out almost twenty years ago! Synopsis We open with a character we'll meet again later Maria Contranetti, a struggling comedian putting up a flyer, only for her coffee to be spilled by a rushing through Kyle Rayner, our curr

Justice League Europe #14 - You Oughtta Be In Pictures

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  YOU OUGHTTA BE IN PICTURES JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #14 Published:   3rd April 1990 Cover Date:  May 1990 Cover Artists:   Bart Sears Writer:  Keith Giffen Penciler:  Linda Medley Inker:   José Marzan, Jr. Colourist:   Gene D'Angelo Letterer:   Albert DeGuzman Editors:   Kevin Dooley / Andrew Helfer Introduction In one of those strange coincidences we're picking up with the JLE more or less where I left off last time, though to be fair I've been skipping things for a little while. Truth be told the handling of Pee Gee isn't one of my favourites and having seen them covered recently I've held back a little so I could get a little distance for a relatively fresh look at the book (hopefully). Sypnosis Seven years ago we have a relatively geeky person with his high-tech device of a video cassette recorder! When he's struck by electricity or lighting, lightning is all good for this in the DC Universe, his consciousness is somehow stuck in the device! But in a piece of

Adventures of Superman #463 - Speed Kills!

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Adventures of Superman #463 Speed Kills! February 1990 It's one of the classic Superman vs. Flash races, though this time it's caused by the efforts of one Mister Mxyzptlk. During the race we see various people reacting to the race. One of those is the current JLE, who at this time includes Pee Gee, she's less than keen on Wally Flash winning, which makes total sense considering how much of a pillock he is in the then-current JLE comic.  

Justice League of America #183 - Where Have all the New Gods Gone?

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  CRISIS ON NEW GENESIS or WHERE HAVE ALL THE NEW GODS GONE?JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #183 Published:   10th July 1980 Cover Date:  October 1980 Cover Artists:   Jim Starlin Writer:  Gerry Conway Penciler:  Dick Dillin Inker:   Frank McLaughlin Colourist:   Gene D'Angelo Letterer:   Ben Oda Editors:   Len Wein Introduction Everything these days has to be a massive crossover with the entire Multiverse in crisis, whilst in the 70s and 80s you got these (relative) low-key events where two or more teams just teamed up over both of their comics. Which I guess is weird as this involves New Genesis and Apokolips, y'know the New Gods that you'd figure would want, no need, to be in a big massive story. But somehow for me, these kinda stories have a bigger appeal, probably because right now there's a little bit of event fatigue. Synopsis We start, as with all these crossovers with the standard one-page explanation of how the JLA are from Earth-1 and the JSA on Earth-2, and becaus

Showcase #97 - Power Girl

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POWER GIRL* SHOWCASE #97 *The issue's story is unnamed. Published: 15th November 1977 Cover Date: February 1978 Cover Artists: Joe Staton / Joe Orlando Writer: Paul Levitz Penciler: Joe Staton Inker: Joe Orlando Colourist: Jerry Serpe Letterer: Ben Oda Editors:   Joe Orlando Introduction So this is a little bit of a soft reboot, a DC tradition in itself, I wanted a chance to cover some of the original comics (my original content being terrible) as well as look at a wider range of comics. It's a chance to catch some of those comics in a blank spot I have in the mid-90s. But where to start? I've covered her original appearance in All-Star Comic #58 several times already, so we're best than the comics that told Power Girls' origins, only two years after she was first introduced. And as is appropriate to my soft reboot Showcase is also a soft reboot of Power Girl, making her if not softer at least a more rounded character. It's also more relevant than ever, in m