31 Days of Scans - Favorite Era

Last one. I was going to reflexively say, "The '80s!" because there are quite a few things from that decade that formed my opinions on certain franchises. With the X-Men, coming in during a Secret Wars 2 tie-in, the issue after depowered Storm wrested away control of the team, it was a disinterest in Cyclops (actual distaste came later, with the '90s cartoon) and generally the rest of the Original 5 X-Men, an acceptance of Magneto as a good guy, fondness for Wolverine's brown costume, stuff like that. With Spider-Man, it was the importance of Mary Jane Watson (and to a lesser extent Felicia Hardy), rather than Gwen Stacy. Also, Norman Osborn was at best a specter hanging over Harry, but the Hobgoblin was the immediate threat.

But, I'd imagine the early '80s, which I'm less familiar with, aren't quite the same. So I'd say, if I were going to pick a 10-year stretch, simply to be arbitrary, let's go '84-'93. That still incorporates the things I mentioned above, but also a lot of other things. Like the New Warriors, or Acts of Vengeance, both things I love dearly, the former having made me a lifelong fan of Mark Bagley and Fabian Nicieza. It includes more of Harry Osborn's sad descent, but also that stretch where Spidey teamed up with several of his old foes who had reformed (mostly when Gerry Conway was writing). The idea that Spider-Man could encourage or inspire people to try a different route is pretty important to my idea of Spidey. I could throw in Doc Ock wearing suits, rather than green spandex, or Venom. I know, I don't like Venom, but it was his overuse in the comics of that time which cemented that. It's formative, just not in a positive way.

You could include things like my fondness for the early West Coast Avengers, like Hawkeye, Tigra, Hank Pym with "scientist adventurer" shtick, Iron Man in red-and-silver armor. I came to them years after the fact, but this was the era for both Rom: Spaceknight, and the Mantlo/Mignola Rocket Raccoon mini-series.

On the DC side, it puts us a couple of years into the Tim Drake era, which also brings Spoiler into the fold. Plus, we had Ray Terrill as the Ray by then, and he's still my favorite DC character, 20 years later. Again, I got to the party late, but Suicide Squad as a title I deeply enjoy. Though not from DC, GrimJack would be another late '80s series I found much later.

In a more general way, I think the comics of the time influence a lot about my expectations about superhero comics. I was listening to one of the Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men podcasts, the one about Storm and Forge fighting Dire Wraiths, and Rachel commented that there were just too many plotlines all at once. Between Storm losing her powers, confronting Forge, the start of the arc against the Trickster, Rogue struggling with Carol's memories, Colossus learning Illyana learned from Belasco, on and on. I saw her point, but for me, that's normal. That's how it's supposed to be. Lots of different arcs, some that go on for long periods of time while others wrap up sooner. Different ones rise to prominence and fade over time. The era I was introduced to comics in is probably why I'm comfortable, fond even, of thought balloons, and obvious recapping/expository dialogue. On a less positive note, it's also probably why I tend to not pay as much attention to an artist's stylistic flourishes, because I kind of take the approach their job is to help tell the story in a clear manner, full stop. I don't think that's wrong, but it devalues the penciler, making them more an appendage of the writer than a partner. Like I said, not every formative aspect was a positive one.

Well, that's it for this series.

31 Days of Scans - 5 Character Dream Team

I said last December I wanted to do a few of those "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" rosters this year, and thus far, I haven't. Because I decided to wait and kick it off with this one. As usual, these can be difficult, because there are so many options. Which is why I have to restrict myself in some ways, or I'll never make a decision. This time around, I opted for characters created outside Marvel and DC. So, same rules apply as the last time, only there'll be no Mastermind, since it states 5 characters only.

The Leader: Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener's Atomic Robo. For the purposes of this exercise, Robo is in his normal body. However, I'm not sure precisely when I'm taking him from. It might be simpler, in terms of getting the team together, to take him from the 1940s (for reasons that will become clear shortly). But if I take '70s Robo, we get possible Carl Sagan appearances and Robo wears a Gilligan hat sometimes. If I take current day Robo, we get the benefit of considerable experience and greater scientific knowledge in our Robo. With the present day, it's easy enough for Dr. Dinosaur's Time Bomb to throw Robo to the '40s, or perhaps another universe. There were his multiple run-ins with the Shadow from Beyond Time, or Tesla's device that opens a doorway to the vampire dimension (which Majestic-12 later got its hands on). Or something else we haven't seen yet. The options are there, and really, any Robo will be good.

So Robo is going to be the leader, but he's also going to be the brains of the outfit, at least as far as science goes. In more criminal areas, there are at least 2 characters on this team more experienced. However, given the nature of the world some of these characters inhabit, Robo is going to run up against some things he is going to have difficulty squaring with his views on how things work. Magic for one, time travel for another. One of the things I greatly enjoy about Atomic Robo is when he gets exasperated with stupidity or nonsense and resorts to sarcasm. Probably because that is how I respond to stupidity and nonsense. I expect this team to exasperate and confound Robo repeatedly. And everyone is a strong personality in their own way, so keeping them together is going to be a challenge. Especially because, in a crisis, Robo seems inclined to try and do everything himself and keep his Action Scientists at a safe distance. Understandable, since he's bulletproof and they aren't, but I doubt this crew will be as accepting. But he'll bring lightning guns, and lightning guns heal all wounds. With horrible burns, but still.

The Man with a Boat: Doug TenNapel's Earthworm Jim. This one is fudging it a bit since, a) Jim was originally a video game character, and b) the comics he did appear in were published by Marvel. But once again, Blog Commissioner allows it (all those illegal payoffs, er, paid off). Jim may or may not have a boat, but he does have a rocket large enough to carry a couple of passengers, and capable of traveling to other star systems. Close enough. (Note: One could substitute the Tick, and it would largely achieve the same effect, but I prefer Jim and it's my team, so nyeah.)

Jim operates in a sort of Silver Age world (which is why I can't be sure he doesn't have a Worm-Boat. He had a Worm-Cycle in the cartoon). Heroes keep their word, and triumph because they believe in things greater than themselves, like honor, or true love. Things that ought to be bizarre are treated as largely unremarkable. Radiation gives you super-powers, not cancer (though the powers are more likely to be funny than useful, as the need for jokes requires). Problems can be solved with science that makes not the slightest bit of sense. In a lot of ways, putting Jim on this team is a way to torment Robo with a heroic version of Dr. Dinosaur. There are going to be times Jim will suggest a completely idiotic solution to a problem (like dressing up as waiters to fool pursuing henchcats into eating explosives dressed up as seafood), and in the time it takes Robo to start listing all the ways that's nonsense, it'll work.

Of course other times, the nonsense solution won't work at all, because it's nonsense. In that event, Jim can just fall back on blasting things. Robo should at least appreciate having another person on the team who solves many of their problems with combinations of shooting, jumping, and hitting.

The Rogue: Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin's Bandette. This could put Bandette out of her depth, which by itself might make it worthwhile. Robo and Jim have both dealt with threats that could have ended existence. Then again, Bandette quite likes the world, because it has so many things for her to take from people, she'd be quite willing to help. Neither of the first two characters are all that great at stealth. But they are both fairly upright guys, so I wonder how much friction there would be about her stealing. Because it's a certainty if they storm the combined lair of Helsingard and Professor Monkey-for-a-Head and she sees a painting she likes, she'll take it. I'm pretty sure she can talk circles around Jim at will, which won't stop him from pleading she abandon her life of crime, and when that fails, probably trying to haul her off to jail.

Robo's going to be a harder sell. But Robo has worked with governments in the past, even though he doesn't trust their motives, because he fears how much worse they'll make things if he leaves them to clean it up themselves. So working with a thief who is more than happy to assist the police in bringing down other, more serious, criminals might be something he can live with. Until it puts the whole team in the crosshairs of someone better left alone. . .

I expect Bandette to enjoy the experience immensely. She's going to have an opportunity to steal things no one else from her world might ever have a chance to even see. She has the chance to become the greatest thief in the entire multiverse, which is the kind of challenge she'd love.

The Muscle: Dave Stevens' Rocketeer. Making Cliff the Muscle is a bit of a joke. If this were the old JLI, Robo would be J'onn, and Bandette would probably be Ted (she's too clever to be Booster). I'm not sure who Jim is, maybe the Big Red Cheese? He has that sort of upright, honest outlook, albeit a little more wacky than Billy. Cliff would be Guy, shooting off his mouth and getting punched in it. I fully expect him to be knocked unconscious within 5 minutes of this group being put together (and I expect Bandette to borrow the rocket pack about 5 seconds later).

Still, Cliff is generally an upright guy despite his temper, and he's more than willing to put his neck on the line. He has a little experience with super-science, so he ought to take a liking to the lightning guns at the very least. I do expect a giant talking worm to shock him (Bandette would probably just respond with some variant of how marvelous it is to meet a giant worm, and set about charming the pants off Jim. Even if she were flustered, she wouldn't show it). Cliff is probably the one who is going to struggle the most to prove his value, so he's going to overreach, make mistakes, try to butt into things that he should have stayed out of.

Also, if you think that Betty will team-up with Bandette at some point, probably to get their hands on some important classified documents, you're absolutely right. Betty's stubborn and enthusiastic nature ought to play well off Bandette's more playful outlook. There will also almost certainly be a team-up between Bandette's dog Pimento, and Butchie, that bulldog that hangs around the diner Cliff eats at most of the time. Hell, we have the possibility of an Atomic Robo/Doc Savage team-up, since the Doc is the one who designed the rocket pack. Hmm, could we tie that into Robo's Flying She-Devils of the Pacific mini-series? Rival jetpack designs, or the She-Devils could have improved on the Doc's design. Basically, my reason for possibly having '40s Robo is to say he and Cliff already inhabit the same universe. Their worlds can at least sort of coexist.

The Woman of Mystery: John Ostrander and Tim Truman's GrimJack. I know you're thinking John Gaunt isn't a woman, and you'd be correct. However, it was established that - spoiler for 25+ year old comic! - having rejected Heaven to save his best friend, Gaunt's fate was tied to the city of Cynosure, and he's doomed to be reborn until the city is destroyed. At least some of the future incarnations we saw in the double-page splash that explained this were female. It could be one of those GrimJacks. A good writer could do something with a character who is a woman currently, and has grown up as a woman, but also remembers past lives as a man just as vividly, and how they choose to identify themselves in light of that. I have no idea, frankly, how GrimJack would approach it, though I expect there'd be an adjustment period when he recalls his past lives and handles it badly. You need someone who isn't me writing this thing for that, but the potential is there.

Setting that aside, GrimJack brings a lot of experience to the table. Even if were aren't using a reincarnation (in which case he has multiple lifetimes), he has decades of conflict in his life. Robo's been alive for awhile, but he's lived comfortably enough he could spend time going to school, running a company, developing entirely new disciplines of science. Gaunt had to spend almost his entire life struggling to survive. Grows up in the shittiest part of Cynosure, the Pit. Gets sent to the Arena to fight for his life for the amusement of the upper class while still a kid. Gets out as a teen, finds a little love and peace in a pocket dimension, then returns home and finds himself in a battle against the literal forces of Hell. Survives that, joins a bounty group called the Lawkillers. Survives that, joins the Transdimensional Police, then the Cadre as an assassin, then becomes a freelance mercenary. He lives and thrives in a city that is constantly changing in size, shape, and population, where the physical laws that govern one street corner may have no bearing around the next block, and that too, is constantly changing. He's pissed off innumerable people, from politicians to bounty hunters to gods. Even if he did catch a bullet eventually, he made past 50 in a profession where a lot of people would be lucky to reach half that. He knows how to survive, is what I'm saying.

It's that knowledge I think the team really needs. Robo can be deceptive, but for him, that means he plays bullet magnet while someone else sets things in motion. Cliff is a generally lousy fighter, and not much good at making plans, and abandons the ones he does make at the drop of a hat. Bandette is sneaky, but tends to let fights drag out because she's having fun. As for Jim, well, despite his great big muscles and his really big ray gun, Jim is still an earthworm, which means he is pretty dumb. Gaunt fights dirty, using any edge he can get. Any weapon, any bit of his surroundings, any distraction, any moment of weakness in his opponent, GrimJack takes advantage of it. He wouldn't have lived as long as he did if he hadn't. Plus, he's getting old, and with the aches and pains, it's just better to end fights quicker sometimes, you know?

Also, I'm curious how he'd respond to Robo. Gaunt had a rule about not allowing Tourbots in his bar (those are ways for people to cheaply travel the city while sitting safely in a chair in an office somewhere, by placing their consciousness in a rolling trashcan), and once of his worst foes was Kalibos, an artificial intelligence that merged science with magic, and kills people to wear their skins so he can roam the city doing as he pleases (sowing discord and chaos as the ultimate expression of his freedom). So GrimJack might have some problems with artificial intelligence. Until Robo helps him put Kalibos down once and for all. Gaunt is, again in JLI terms, Batman, which is not something I'm hugely happy about given my frequent antipathy towards the Bat, but I don't see a better comparison. I do think that, once he got to know them, he'd develop moderately warm feelings. Jim might remind him of his friend Judah the Hammer, Cliff's a young hothead GJ would probably try to keep from getting his head blown off (that said, GrimJack is the one I expect to put out Cliff's lights in the first 5 minutes). I think he'd have to respect Bandette's skill (there will NOT be any romantic relationship between those two. however. Bandette is not spinning the wheel of likely death all his girlfriends have).

As for how you get them all together, rough draft, assuming Robo and Cliff occupy the same universe. There's a mishap with the portal, only they're thrown somewhere other than the vampire dimension, probably Cynosure (or the vampire dimension went into phase with Cynosure and they survived it long enough to emerge into the city, probably joining whatever forces from the city are keeping the vampires from overrunning the susceptible dimensions). At the same time, Bandette's world came into phase, and through some circumstances, she's come into possession of the Manx Cat. Maybe someone from Cynosure came to Paris and found her, and offered her the job. When the Cat gets stolen, GrimJack is the one who always gets dragged in to retrieve it. Which sets off a chase through the city, and Cliff, observing the chase, tries to help Bandette. Which doesn't go well, so Robo jumps in (literally), and GrimJack brings out the heavy artillery. Bandette probably hangs around to watch, or recognizes she has no idea where home is at this stage, and at some point, Robo falls into a section of the city where technology doesn't function, which hopefully slows things down enough nobody gets killed. As for Jim, I expect him to abruptly arrive after an incident involving him trying to make root beer in his garage for a box social he invited his rogues gallery to. He shouldn't have accepted a golf club from Psycrow to stir the mixture doing a thunderstorm. They could potentially end up in a section where technology can develop low-level sentience, in which case his suit would go out of control, and the whole group has to try and contain it, destroy it, or get it to a different area where it'll revert to normal.

Robo ponders the choices that have brought him to this place in "Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur", by Brian Clevinger (writer), Scott Wegener (artist), Ronda Patterson (colorist), and Jeff Powell (letterer). Commandeering a giant hamster to stop a shotgun wedding is just another day in the life in Earthworm Jim #2, by Dan Slott (plot), John Lewandowski (script), Barry Crain (pencils), Sam DeLa Rosa (inker), UL Higgins (pencils), Ed Laz (colorist). Bandette is living the dream in Bandette #3, by Paul Tobin (writer), Colleen Coover (artist), Ryan Jurgensen (digital production), and Irina Beffa (design). Cliff is more confident than he ought to be in Rocketeer, Chapter 4 (I couldn't figure out which comic specifically it would be in), by Dave Stevens (writer and artist), Laura Martin (colorist), and Carrie Spiegle (letterer). GrimJack's stint as a dentist ended swiftly amid complaints about his primitive working conditions in GrimJack #1, by John Ostrander (writer), Tim Truman (artist), Janice Cohen (colorist), and John Workman (letterer).

31 Days of Scans - Favorite Not-So-Canonical Romance

This is not a good category for me. I'm usually pretty much OK with romances the creative teams put forward, assuming they do the legwork to set it up (and don't crap all over a different pairing I like in the process), so I don't spend a lot of time musing on hypothetical pairings. The one exception is not from comics (not originally, anyway), and that's Buffy and Spike, because Season 6 napalmed that pairing for me, then salted the Earth it stood on. I would rather see either character (but mostly Spike because I hardly give a damn about Buffy) with any other character. But that's more suitable to a hypothetical "least favorite canonical romance", and like I said, I don't really consider it a comic book thing.

To the extent I do consider possible pairings that haven't been romantically involved, it's usually characters already established as being friends. It seems logical enough to me that they were friends, then it became something more. The thing is, I can't shake two concerns. One, that there are so few legit platonic friendships in comics that it kind of stinks to turn one into yet another romantic pairing, and two, since I'm usually thinking of two female characters who are friends, that it's just some pervy thing on my part.

But you know what, I did think of one pairing that's never happened in continuity that intrigues me.

Power Girl and Dr. Mid-Nite.

For whatever reason, Dr. Pieter Cross is one of the costumed types Power Girl hangs out with the most in recent history from what I can tell, albeit almost exclusively in comics whose creative teams involve Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Geoff Johns to varying degrees. But that's fine.

The two get along well, which is not something one can always say about Power Girl and other characters. The Doc is not threatened by the fact Kara is vastly more physically powerful than he is. Peej respects Mid-Nite's skills as a crimefighter and as a doctor. They seem to have an easy rapport. I feel like most characters' reactions to Power Girl's straightforward, confident personality fall into three categories: Mildly exasperated, admiring, irritated. Cross, probably from experience dealing with patients, just seems to accept it. He can enjoy talking to her, but if she starts to get defensive about something, he doesn't press. He recognizes that won't get anywhere with her.

Also, he's a moderately well-off guy with a strong community spirit, and Karen is a CEO who ran a company that tried to develop super-science that was helpful to the average person. I think the mutual interest in trying to improve the world outside punching things would provide some common ground, but there's enough differences they wouldn't overlap too much.

Also, Dr. Mid-Nite is a low-profile enough hero I don't think there's much risk of Power Girl becoming "Dr. Mid-Nite's Girlfriend", which is pretty important for the character, especially since she's largely avoided being a supporting character to a male hero up to this point. The nature of the threats they tend to face solo are different enough that, again, there wouldn't be too much overlap. They could each still have their own worlds, so to speak, and connect when and where it made sense. Plus, the adventures of Ollie the Owl and Peej's cat!

Power Girl and Mid-Nite react to this idea with predictable weariness in Power Girl #7. No, wait, they're reacting to the arrival of Vartox. Either way, the script is by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner is the artist, Paul Mounts the colorist, and John J. Hill the letterer. And the Doc had better consider his words carefully, or this thing is over before it begins in JSA Classified #1, by Geoff Johns (writer), Conner (penciler), Palmiotti (inker), Mounts (colorist), Rob Leigh (letterer).

31 Days of Scans - Favorite Canonical Romance

I think I knew the answer to this right from the start, but I had long enough for other possibilities to start elbowing in. I considered Ryoko and Tenchi, but I never saw them actually become a couple. Tommy Monaghan and Deborah Tiegel - that's "Tiegel" to you - gained a lot of traction. With those two I always think of the scene as they try to hold off the Mawzir's forces from inside the church. Tommy with a big shit-eating grin, asking, "C'mon, am I really such a bad guy?" and Tiegel responding "YES!" as some poor sap is getting launched through the background by an explosion. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent shot of it, so here's an extremely awkward moment instead.

Even so, the choice is Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson-Parker.

Jeez MJ, it's supposed to be a happy occasion.

When I first started reading comics, MJ and Peter weren't a couple. They were friends, probably the closest friends either had, but they weren't dating. MJ knew Peter was Spider-Man - had known for years - and now Peter knew that. MJ had understandable reservations, but she was still his friend. She helped him repaint his apartment after some punks torched it, and had even offered to let him stay with her. By the next time I got some comics, they were married, which seemed perfectly normal to me. They were friends, then they fell in love and got hitched. Made sense to me.

Of course, the first comics I had with them married were from Kraven's Last Hunt, which was a traumatic event for both of them. Peter for obvious reasons, being forcibly confronted with how he was likely to end up if he kept being Spider-Man. The next time he lost, he might not get off only being buried comatose for two weeks. As for MJ, she's left with uncertainty. Peter swung off into the night, and didn't return. She doesn't know what happened, and she doesn't have anyone she can talk to about it. She has to carry that fear and worry by herself. Peter returns, but almost immediately heads back out to find Kraven. This isn't smart, he knows, she knows it, but he still has to do it. Mary Jane doesn't want him to, she'd thought she lost him once, but she tries to support him. I always like those last few panels, Peter holding her hand to his face, it said a lot.

I suppose I like them because they seem to compliment each other. There's a certain similarity between the carefree, party girl attitude MJ often affected, and the wisecracking Peter does when he's Spider-Man. And in both cases, it had the effect of making others think they were shallow. When Gwen died, Peter outright accused MJ of caring about no one but herself, and a lot of the other heroes tended to look askance at Spider-Man. But just as Peter takes being Spider-Man very seriously, MJ is a thoughtful, empathetic person. She's known Peter was Spider-Man for years, and she guarded that secret carefully. While some of his enemies have learned his identity over the years, they didn't get it from her. Around Peter, MJ can drop the carefree attitude if she doesn't feel like, and express her fears openly. Mary Jane helps Peter from getting too hung up on his problems, or too full of himself.

I don't have a problem with Spider-Man being married. I don't buy that it makes life too good for him if he has someone waiting for him. Marriage presents its own challenges and problems from single life. Sometimes there are going to be problems waiting at home, on top of whatever went on at work. There's another person who has to be considered before making decisions. That other person will have their own problems, and their own decisions. There are going to be disagreements. Peter being a superhero meant some of the problems were kind of unusual, like his parents returning from the grave, or his old costume teaming up with a disgraced reporter to try and kill him. But money issues are still a possible problem, so were children.

I think they're a good couple. They argue, but they make up. They don't forget they love each other. They each will try to deal with things by themselves, to spare the other, but ultimately they share the load. And they were clearly attracted to each other. In the comics of my youth, those two were making out at the drop of a hat. This probably formed my impressions of marriage, but the couple finding each other attractive and acting on it, and this being presented as perfectly OK seemed fine to me.

Tiegel opts for an interesting opening move in some issue of Hitman. I'm going to guess Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea (penciler), Garry Leach (inker), Carla Feeny and Heroic Age (colors), and Willie Schubert (letterer). Mary Jane can't believe how bad her favorite TV show's gotten, and Peter gets a pretty good welcome for being away for two weeks without a word in Web of Spider-Man #32, by J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Mike Zeck (pencils), Bob McLeod (inker), Jason Tetrault (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer). Pete's reminded he can't slip bullshit past MJ in Spider-Girl #44, by Tom DeFalco (script and plot), Pat Olliffe (plot and pencils), Al Williamson (inker), Christie Scheele and Heroic Age (colorists), John E. Workman (letterer). Mary Jane has good news for Peter, which means they're doomed in Amazing Spider-Man #398 by DeMatteis (writer), Bagley (penciler), Larry Mahlstedt (inker), Bob Sharen (colorist), and Bill Oakley (letterer). The likely moment when the bundle of joy in the previous page was conceived in Amazing Spider-Man #381 by David Micheline (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Emberlin and Milgrom (finishes), Rick Parker (letterer), and Bob Sharen (colorist).

31 Days of Scans - Favorite Origin

I was looking back over these posts and discovered about 10 weeks in, I switched from listing the topic of the day in the title to what day it was. And I didn't remember having made a switch at all. That was a little disconcerting.

Favorite origin. I've thought about this, and I'm not sure I worry too much about origins. I understand how important they can be for the character, defining their motivations, providing a framework to mirror, invert, whatever for villains (Spider-Man as a teenager trying to use his power responsibly, fighting mostly older guys who gained power and immediately used it irresponsibly, for example). But, I don't know, so many of the origins are either tragic, or they're about how the character is some special chosen one type.

I guess I'll say Tim Drake. I'm not sure when exactly I learned his origin. Heck, I didn't even know his initial pitch was to Dick Grayson, for Dick to become Robin again, until I was researching this post. As for the rest, sometime after I'd already seen him in a few comics. He's not initially motivated by any personal tragedy of his own (though he is motivated by Batman's reaction to the death of Jason Todd). You could argue his being able to deduce Batman's identity where so many others can't is kind of a chosen one thing, but in the story it's presented as happening because Tim got really interested in Batman and applied that sort of geeky focus that kids will apply to things they're interested in, whether it's baseball statistics, dinosaurs, astronomy, King Arthur lore, whatever. For Tim it was Batman, which seemed kind of cool.

And it sort of plays up Batman as an inspirational figure to people. Normally comics focus on how he terrifies criminals, and how Bruce Wayne tries to use his fortune to address the causes of crime. But I think it's good to show Batman as someone who, because he stood up to the crime bosses, and the crooked officials and cops, and then continues to face down all the horrors Gotham produces, convinces other people do so as well. They don't all have to put on costumes and fight crime obviously. Gordon works within the system, but in Year One, he was a honest cop looking the other way before Batman. He became the guy who tried hard to clean up the GCPD once he saw there was someone else unafraid to stand up. Tim's another angle on that, someone who believes in what Batman's trying to do and wants to help. I guess that works as well as any.

Tim makes his pitch to Dick in New Titans #60, written by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, penciled by Perez, inked by Bob McLeod, colored by Adrienne Roy, and lettered by John Costanza.

31 Days of Scans - Day 26

Favorite Person of Color character day. Hmm, should I use a different term? "Favorite character who isn't a honky?" "Favorite non-Caucasian character"?

This should by all rights be Cassandra Cain, but I opted to go with Amanda Waller. For one, I already highlighted Cass in "Favorite Legacy Character", and second, I got some images of a scene I wanted to post when I highlighted Waller for my Favorite Characters posts last year.

This is from Suicide Squad Annual #1. Waller's come back to her apartment looking to take a breather from Tolliver and Senator Cray trying to blackmail her, and finds the doorman has let her daughter Sereetha into her home. Waller comments that she hadn't heard anything from her in over a year, and Sereetha grumbles about her mother's tendency to keep score. I can imagine have the Wall for a mom could have been tough. She would have done all she could, but I'd bet she'd expect you to do things how she wanted them done. It's about this point we learn why Sereetha's there: She's left her husband, because he's very much a "I'm the man and my word is law" kind of guy.

I love Waller's 'Oh, that book,' response. She's speaking from experience, but I wonder whether it's the dopes like Sarge Steel and Eiling she's thinking of, or if her husband was fool enough to try that on her. If so, I suspect he only did so once. As you can see, R.J. has arrived, expecting his wife to come home because he says so. When Waller learns her daughter is not only not going back to her husband, but plans to move in with Mama, she takes it as well as you'd suspect.

Those bottom two panels may be my favorite Amanda Waller scene ever. The ridiculous size disparity (are we sure R.J.'s a linebacker, dude looks like a damn O-lineman), Waller's head barely making it into the panel, and calling R.J. first an overgrown piece of beef jerky, and then 'chump change'. Prior to Suicide Squad, I had never seen that used as an insult, but I love it. Waller busts it out again later on Apokolips to refer to Granny Goodness and the Furies. Plus, of course, the threat to move in and make R.J.'s life miserable if he doesn't shape up. Cripes, Amanda Waller as a live-in mother-in-law? I'd say it sounds like a sitcom, but American Horror Story might be a more appropriate show.

For the record, the story ends with the couple leaving together, duly chastened, and Waller promising her daughter that she probably won't get Joe the Doorman fired for sending people up to her apartment without her say-so. Then Joe turned out to be a member of Kobra and everyone died. Kidding. I like this as one of those comedy bits Ostrander used to keep the book from getting too bleak, and also as a peek at Waller's life outside Task Force X. The reminder that she's a regular, everyday person like you or me, but has taken a position of considerable power and influence by will few can match (not to mention intelligence. Waller isn't a super-scientist, but she's smart, and she's sneaky. She sees the angles, and knows when to play them).

This story was written by John Ostrander, Keith Giffen and Bob Oksner are listed as artists, Carl Gafford is the colorist, and Todd Klein the letterer.

31 Days of Scans - Day 25

Today's for one's favorite adaptation into another media, which is a category with lots of choices. I loved both the recent Captain America movies. There's the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon. Batman: The Animated Series, Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited. Heck, there's even a few video games I'd consider. Batman Returns was my #4 Game Gear game, I really liked the Spider-Man game on the N64, and there's Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Tempting as all those are, I'm going with The Rocketeer. This may be a bit of a cheat. I saw the film in theaters when it first came out, but didn't read any of the comics until around 2009. I didn't even know it was based on a comic book until I found comic blogs. Still, it was an adaptation, whether I knew it back then or not, so as Blog Boss and Arbiter, I'll allow it.

Why do I love this movie? I know as a kid, the idea of finding a rocket pack. Cliff is already a pilot, he gets to fly fast and do dangerous stunts for a living, and then he finds something even better. He can fly faster, without a plane, than anyone else can fly with one. He gets drawn into a plot involving mobsters, Nazis, Howard Hughes, a fascist Errol Flynn, and a goon that got lost on his way to Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy movie.

It isn't a completely faithful adaptation. They use Hughes instead of Doc Savage, and Lothar isn't a circus strongman hell bent on revenge on Cliff. Bill Campbell plays Cliff as somewhat more affably clueless, rather than the extremely jealous hothead he is in the comics. Jennifer Connelly's Jenny likewise isn't nearly as fiery as Betty. But Campbell still gives Cliff that air of insecurity that drives him to take risks to prove he's worthy of Jenny, and Connelly has Betty's stubborn streak and wits, which help her see through Neville Sinclair's attempts to turn on the charm.

And, of course, Timothy Dalton going over the top as Sinclair. He seems like he's having the time of his life with his delivery. How he gets offended when Cliff suggests Sinclair doesn't do his own stunts. His response when Jenny learns that truth. 'Spy? Saboteur? Fascist. All of the above.' He gets more dramatic with each word he utters. He's really good at the melodramatic villain*.

The special effects don't look so great now, but for the era, they're solid. Sometimes Cliff zipping around with the rocket looks bad, but sometimes it looks very good, and that's what I tend to remember more. There's just enough humor, from Cliff and Peevy arguing (and their first test run of the rocket), and regularly interspersed gunfights, fistfights, and car chases. Lothar seems like an odd fit in the movie, but he works somehow. Maybe because Sinclair is such a sneaky, yet dramatic villain, the film benefits from a more direct, but understated henchman. Or maybe having a relentless, seemingly unstoppable, enemy is just a good thing to have in a film.

The Rocketeer is one of those films I can watch pretty much anytime (a list that also includes Hot Fuzz and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), which makes it a worthy selection.

* If they're going to do another Fantastic Four film in the future, get someone like that for Dr. Doom (if they insist on using Doom again)

31 Days of Scans - Day 24

Today is for Least Favorite Costume. Now, I want to emphasize that it's "least favorite", not "worst". There are countless costumes worse than the one I'm going to pick on here. The various female characters on the X-Men alone could fill a month of Sundays, depending on your sartorial preferences. Wonder Man had that god awful Christmas colored outfit for a stretch in West Coast Avengers (which would have bothered me more if Simon hadn't wound up in the role of "egotistical asshole" on the team, an impressive feat for a roster that had Tony Stark and Clint Barton). Then there were all the terrible "armored" outfits of the '90s: Captain America's, Daredevil's, that suit Ted Kord built for Booster, Azrael's Bat-suit I suppose (though there are certain artist who made that not look too bad to me).

But like I said, it's least favorite, and so I'm picking this, plainclothes, basic, whatever you want to call it look for Hawkeye. There's nothing distinctly awful about it. It's too simple for that. It's a t-shirt with a purple chevron on it and some sunglasses.

Which is the problem: It's dull. It would be a good outfit for someone trying to maintain a lower profile, but this is Clint Barton we're talking about. Low profile is not in his vocabulary. He's loud, he's boisterous, he's bragging and butting heads with people, demanding you notice him*. He was trained and spent a fair amount of his developmental years in a carnival, where the whole point is to draw attention, get eyeballs on you, butts in the seats.

Also, the old costumes are more practical, and sure, practicality is rarely my major concern with costumes, but I figure it's worth addressing. Clint is essentially a normal human. He doesn't have any enhanced resilience to injury, no healing factor or bulletproof skin. The older outfits offer protection from head injuries, though I suppose the sunglasses could be equipped to project a small repulsor field around his cranium. Clint's brash, but he isn't an idiot. A costume that has some sort of protection makes sense.

I will say I prefer the current outfit to the one from roughly Avengers #100, with the headband and the mini-skirt. That one's both ugly and impractical.

Clint demonstrates what I assume is proper bowman technique on a variant cover for Hawkeye #2 of the 2012 series, drawn and colored David Aja. The other two covers are from Clint's 2003 series. The first was penciled by Carlos Pacheco, inked by Jesus Merino, and colored by Frank D'Armata. The other was, well I'd swear that's Scott Kolins work, but the Grand Comics Database says Joe Bennett (who did do the interiors). If the GCD is right, Sandu Florea inked it, and Kickstart colored it. If it was Kolins, he inked it himself most likely.

* It might almost have made sense for that stint leading the Secret Avengers, except for the part where Venom and the Beast were both on the team, not to mention Captain Britain. Guy in a bright black-and-white living costume, big, blue furry guy, and a flying guy wearing a modified Union Jack does not exactly scream subtle. Oh yeah, and Valkyrie and her big, white flying horse.

31 Days of Scans - Day 23

Favorite Costume. There are a lot of different costumes I like. Spoiler's outfit, Storm's sort of punk leather jacket with the Mohawk look, at least a few of the Iron Man armors (although those depend on who is drawing it), the Scarlet Spider outfit, the Batman Beyond costume.

But for the purposes of this post, I'm going to pick the black-and-white Spider-Man outfit. I probably still like his classic red-and-blue duds more, but I talked about them when I did the Favorite Character post on Spidey. Besides, the symbiont costume was a heck of a lot easier for a little kid enamored with Spider-Man to draw.

The look's a little more limited than his original costume. It lends itself to stories where Spider-Man can lurk in shadows, the eyes and spider emblem shining out of them. You can do similar things with his original costume - Spidey's no stranger to surprising people from the rafters in that get-up - but the black-and white costume rarely seems to get used in more light-hearted or silly stories. It can be - like the one where Peter's landlord's husband spikes the punch at Pete and MJ's moving out party, and Spidey ends up fighting Hobgoblin while drunk - but it's not the norm. It feels like the black costume gets a lot of stories where Peter has to deal with a serious loss or psychological trauma (though he has his fair share in the classic costume, too), but the red-and-blue duds get the stories where it's mostly just Spidey having a less-than-stellar day. The ones where he's more the butt of the universe's joke than anything else.

So the black-and-white outfit is mostly associated with dark, frequently angry Spider-Man stories, and I'm hardly a huge fan of those. But in small doses - and most critically, done well - they can be good. And frankly, I like to see Spider-Man get fed up and stop fooling around with bad guys every so often. I like the jokes, I like the humor, the focus on protecting innocents first, but every once in awhile I just want Spider-Man to wreck a super-villain's face. So when the costume is shorthand for "Spidey's about to remind everyone how he's survived this long", I'm on board with that.

Besides, it's a really cool look. It's very simple, but it works at grabbing attention. It plays up the "spider" in "Spider-Man" a bit more. Despite the lack of web design, it makes him look more spooky, more alien. Big white eyes, framed by darkness, staring from out of shadows, like they're just hovering. The spider emblem much bigger, front and center, you can't miss it. It's playing up that fear some people have of spiders, lurking in the shadows, making traps, watching with their multiple eyes. The original costume is certainly odd in its own way, and if someone dropped down on me in the middle of a mugging wearing it, I'd probably be a little freaked out. But I'd know that was a person in there, just from the all the colors and the look of it. The black-and-white one, I'm not so sure, especially talking about something moving as fast as Spider-Man can. What would that even look like to the naked eye? A dark blur, leaping around, tossing full-grown humans like they're rag dolls, shooting webbing. Spidey's constant chatter would break the illusion a bit, but like I said, in a lot of stories where he wears that suit, he's not very talkative.

And, as demonstrated in the above picture of Eddie Brock, and the one before that of Kraven, just about anybody can look good in it. There were a lot of things I didn't like about Venom, but the look of him wasn't it. Mayday had her own variant for awhile, which wasn't too shabby (although Ron Frenz had altered his art style and not for the better, which hurt it a bit).

Spider-Man enjoys the miracle of a suit that heals you without asking for you to provide proof of insurance first in Ultimate Spider-Man #35, by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Transparency Digital (colorist), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer). Spider-Man shows he's no drunken master in Web of Spider-Man #38, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Alex Saviuk (penciler), Keith Williams and Mike Espositio (inkers), Janet Jackson (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer). The Kingpin really needs a better plan than, "fistfight pissed-off Spider-Man" in Amazing Spider-Man #542, by J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Ron Garney (penciler), Bill Reinhold (inker), Matt Milla (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer). Kraven experiences that awkward moment when he meets the person he's cosplaying as in Web of Spider-Man #32, by J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Mike Zeck (penciler and colorist?), Bob McLeod (inker), Ian Tetrault (colorist), and Rick Parker (letterer). Eddie Brock rocks that symbiont jacket like a boss in Amazing Spider-Man #375, by David Micheline (writer), Bagley (penciler), Randy Emberlin (inker), Bob Sharen (colorist), Richard Starking and Rick Parker (letterers).

31 Days of Scans - Day 22

Favorite Villain. If I ever get around to those supplementary entries to my favorite characters list, there is one villain who would jump ahead of today’s selection on the list. But one of the things about Dr. Doom – spoiler alert! – I like is he doesn’t always have to be the antagonist. He usually is, but there are enough times where his interests coincide with the heroes they can be uneasy allies. This guy, though, is always a bad guy.

I know I said I was going to try and avoid doing too many that would just be a rehash of the Favorite Character posts, even if they were a viable option, but there’s no better choice. I was trying to think of a possible manga/anime option, but all the ones I can think of were effective villains because I found them really annoying and easily hateable. I really wanted to see someone kill Gendo Ikari for example, or Vegeta (even after he wasn't the villain), or Legato Bluesummers. I think a favorite villain ought to be one I'm excited to see, not one that produces a response of, "Oh Christ, this guy again. Well, maybe he'll die this time." So, Arcade it is, then.

Everything I said last summer still applies. He’s still great at hitting people’s buttons, and making them practically throw themselves into his traps. However cavalier his attitude might seem, he clearly takes his work seriously enough to do his research on his targets.

He still loves to win, but loves to enjoy himself even more. And he's savvy enough to recognize being Captain Britain's arch-foe really doesn't have much future to it, so better to angle for a rematch with Spider-Man.

And in spite of his general code of kinda-sorta fair play, where there are ways out of his traps, if you can find them, he's still a bad guy. He won't bat an eye at inflicting pain on someone, including a bunch of teen heroes, if he thinks it's worth the time.

I still think you can use him as an adversary against practically any character, and someone could get some mileage out of his excellent track record of capturing heroes.

Arcade puts Braddock through the wringer, and bounces back from an inevitable defeat by preparing for another inevitable defeat in Marvel Team-Up #66, by Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne (artist), Dave Hunt (inker), Andy Yanchus (colorist), and Tom Orzechowski (letterer). Arcade gets the drop on Anya Corazon and Reptil with complete indifference in Avengers Academy Giant-Size, by Paul Tobin (writer), David Baldeon (penciler), Jordi Tarragona (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), and Dave Lanphear (letterer).

31 Days of Scans - Day 21

Favorite Event? Easy-peasy. Acts of Vengeance merited some brief consideration, but there’s really one only choice.

ANNIHILATION!

This event showed up at just the right time, when Civil War was making me sick of all the nonsense going on with Marvel Earth. I had no interest in watching alleged heroes punch each other over legislation, seeing the New Warriors dumped on, or watching Spider-Man reveal his identity to the world like a moron. On the other hand, give me a story that presents Annihilus as this terrible, single-minded threat to the entire universe, but has actually marshaled his considerable forces so he might actually carry out his goals?

Then throw in Thanos, who is helping Annihilus pretty much because he was bored and wanted to see what would happen if things got shook up a little. Of course they can’t trust each other. Annihilus trusts no one, is dead set on his plans, with the power to back them up. Thanos is more circuitous in his approach, always with contingencies, but no less powerful. Neither one would really like how the other's plans would turn out, where they to learn of them. That doesn’t mean they can’t cause a lot of damage before the partnership falls to pieces. Combine a being clever enough to bargain with two ancient beings to defeat Galactus, and also smart enough to turn Big G into a weapon, with a being crazy enough to actually use said planet-destroying weapon, and it’s bad for everyone.

So bad in fact, Kree and Skrull willingly teamed up. Ronan and Kl’rt weren’t happy about it (well, Super-Skrull enjoyed killing Kree traitors), but they did it. This whole part, where Ronan, Super-Skrull, and Praxagora storm the current ruling house of the Kree and find them negotiating a truce with the Annihilation Wave, leading to Ronan pretty much killing everyone and assuming control. Then he launches entire rocket-propelled city blocks loaded with Kree soldiers at the Wave. And all that’s really a sideshow to what Galactus was up to, and what Nova was about to face.

I know I cut part of that off, but I do like the jabs at what was going on with Civil War. 'It's as if they've forgotten how to be heroes.' 'The Annihilation Wave will rip the planet out from under them while they shoot at each other!' This was the point when Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s stretch writing Richard Rider began (they wrote the Annihilation: Nova mini-series, though Keith Giffen wrote the main series, and the above scene). Rich finds himself the last of the Nova Corps, carrying all the Corps’ power and knowledge, without going crazy, and save all life in the universe. Even if that means dying trying to take out Annihilus. Though that's still not a very good costume for Rich.

There’s a fantastic sense of momentum to the whole thing. Super-Skrull comes back from an apparently noble death in his tie-in mini-series, and there’s only enough time to vaguely handwave in the general direction of an explanation, because things have gotten even worse for the good guys. It wasn’t enough Annihilus had an army of millions or more bugs, or that the Negative Zone has its own super-humans, willing to fight for what they’ve been told is the survival of their home. The odds keep ramping up, and the heroes have to try a different approach. It plays up the idea that Earth’s heroes, normally such a potent force in these sorts of things, are too distracted with stupid crap to be of much help. Reed Richards isn’t going to pop-up with some doodad to reverse the polarity and toss the Annihilation Wave back into the Negative Zone, or disrupt the hive mind of the Wave. Drax is working for the United Front, killing lots of bugs, but it’s very clear it’s all a means to an end for him, Thanos’ end, which isn’t as good a thing as you’d think.

Oh, and this is the mini-series that introduced me to Cammi, at that point claiming ownership of Drax (she’d gained that in an earlier mini-series Giffen wrote I’d missed). Their whole relationship is a little strange, and it’s hard to say how much of what people imply is concern for her on Drax’ part is just projection on theirs. The ambiguity is interesting.

Things mostly work out. The day is saved. Most of the characters get happy endings of a sort, even Thanos (his doesn’t stick, but oh well, it was nice while it lasted). It sets things up for Nova’s ongoing, put Star-Lord back in circulation (Giffen sort of started that with his stint on Thanos, but this got Quill out of the prison and into action), which eventually led to Guardians of the Galaxy (I’m thinking of Abnett and Lanning’s version, but if you want to envision Bendis’, or the movie, that’s your call). It was always disappointing there was never enough time between events to really explore the new status quo (Annihilation: Conquest kicked off about six months after Annihilation ended), but that isn’t the fault of the event itself. I thought it put a lot of potential fodder for stories out there, even if it didn’t get used.

All images are from the primary Annihilation #1-6 mini-series, by Keith Giffen (writer), Andrea DiVito (artist), Laura Villari (color artist), and Cory Petit (letterer).

31 Days of Scans - Day 20

A story or book I could read over and over again. There’s a lot of those, but I’ll pick one in particular, though it isn’t a very happy one. I don’t know if the arc has a name, but it ran from GrimJack #31 up to #38 or 39, depending on how you want to look at it. Really, that doesn’t even cover it entirely, because there were so many things in this arc set up a year or two earlier in the book, and repercussions from it carried the rest of the way through the series.

I was going to do a plot recap, but trying to cover 8 issues of this series would have gone on too long, especially since I’d have to keep going back to describe things that happened earlier in the series that factor in. Basically, Gaunt’s worst tendencies and fears about himself all come together at the worst time. He’s dating an actual ghost, the fact she can’t die quite possibly part of the appeal to someone concerned about how many of his loved ones end up dead. He tries to help his best friend, BlacJacMac, get back together with his lady, because he feels each of them is letting their pride get in the way of something good (this turns out to be something Gaunt knows a little about), without success. Surly over that, he delivers some bad news to an old flame of his in a callous and straightforward fashion. The straightforward part is standard for Gaunt, who is big on truth, but not too concerned with its effects. As usual, this causes problems for him down the line, as it leaves Shari understandably furious.

Spook comes to him asking for help, and even though doing so will mean losing her forever – it involves completing her unfinished business – he agrees. Then he won’t leave when she asks, his stubborn desire to stay with her and see this thing through (and not walk away from someone he cares for) speaking up. It nearly gets him killed, and this puts him in a position where he’s all that stands between her and an innocent. Up to that point, he’s protected her, because he felt she deserved some revenge (not being above that impulse himself), but all the time he’s been hoping she’d be satisfied before it came to a certain point. He's out of luck on that score, as usual.

So Gaunt does what he has to, whether to protect Spook or that innocent live is up for debate, but either way, it leaves him drained. It confirms his fear that he’s poison. That all his talk about standing by his friends is a lot of hot air, considering that what he ends up standing beside is a bunch of corpses. Coming back to a trashed Munden’s Bar full of dead customers, injured friends, a triumphant Shari, and the Lawkillers - having escaped being marooned in the past where Gaunt and Spook left them, and looking for payback on both - doesn’t help. That’s a problem for Gaunt, he sometimes makes decisions for petty reasons, or just because he’s hurting and doesn’t care if others do as well, and they come back to bite him. They may take a circuitous route to do it, they may gather momentum and extra suffering as they go - a person looking for payback on GrimJack will find no shortage of potential allies - but those ugly choices he makes always have consequences.

He ends up in a graveyard, alone against three killers, doing what he seems to do best, piling up corpses. I do want to take a minute to highlight the following exchange between Gaunt and the Preacher. As awful as the whole situation is otherwise, I find it really funny (Ostrander's knack for humor amidst serious moments coming through, or maybe it's Kim Yale. I read someone online this week who attributed much of the lighter bits in some of Ostrander's work to her.). It’s also a decent representation of a lot of arguments about differing interpretations of religious texts over the course of human history.

Interesting points, Mister, err, Preacher. Mr. Gaunt, your rebuttal?

Excellent points, GrimJack wins the debate for Cynosure Seminary and Bar and Grill! It all leads to Gaunt and the Major, a passel of history between them (some neither of them even knows or understands yet), in a crypt. Even as Gaunt’s run his target to ground, and readied him for the kill, all his ghosts are doing the same to him. Throughout the series, other characters have talked about “the Dark” this state of mind GrimJack descends into where he’s extremely dangerous to everyone: Whoever he wants to kill, his friends, and himself. Up to now, he’s either had someone there to pull him back, or he’s managed to survive through luck or fortuitous happenstance. This time, luck turns against him, and there’s no one else around. Some are injured. Some are dead(er). Some are distant physically, others emotionally, and Gaunt pushed everyone else away because he feared what might happen to them. Which means he’s on his own, and that’s not good.

Of course, even when the Major appears to win, appearances can be deceiving. So we get an issue of the Major, a man who knows how impermanent death can be, unable to enjoy his victory, chasing the man he was sure he’d put in the ground. Then we find out what happened to Gaunt, and Ostrander and Mandrake put some wheels in motion for further down the line, with the Dancer and his plans, with Gaunt, and with Spook.

What’s impressive is how, as I read the story, I can feel all this building up against him. Not just the enemies he’s made, but all the weight he carries inside. Ostrander and Tim Truman did this to good effect on a broader scale  in their run, with the Trade Wars. We saw how Gaunt, who tends to focus on the small pictures because he can’t stand the bigger one’s stench, can be manipulated by people claiming to be all about the big picture, and it leads to a lot of death and destruction. But he’s a means to an end, which doesn’t make him feel less responsible, but it affects mostly people he doesn’t know or care about, and the ones truly responsible would have done it with or without him. This one is more personal, everything is aimed at him, everything is happening specifically because of him. Because of things he did or didn’t do, jobs he left unfinished, jobs he should have considered finished sooner, words he delivered carelessly.

And it's a good story for Mandrake's art. Lots of atmospheric fog, mist, and smoke. Plenty of high dark ceilings, creepy graveyards, or bombed-out bars full of looming shadows. The characters are mostly older, worn, the years showing clearly, except the one who's already dead, and half the time she looks like a wailing banshee thing. It's not a pretty, happy place, but it's not a pretty story, either.

A best friend ought to know when to butt out in GrimJack #31, by John Ostrander (writer), Tom Mandrake (artist), David Cody Weiss (letterer), and Linda Lessman (colorist). Gaunt doesn’t know when to give up the ghost in GrimJack #32, by Ostrander, Mandrake, Lessman, and Ed Panosian (letterer). Gaunt makes one last, doomed appeal to Spook in GrimJack #34, also by Ostrander, Mandrake, Lessman, and Panosian. Gaunt fights 3 crazy assholes in a cemetery that is naturally shrouded in mist in GrimJack #36, by Ostrander, Mandrake, Ken Holewczynski (letterer), and Ken Feduniewicz (colorist). The Major chases a GrimJack up, down, and all around in GrimJack #37, by Ostrander, Mandrake, Holewczynski, and Feduniewicz.

31 Days of Scans - Day 19

The theme for this week is to pick a character I used to hate, but now I like. Or at least don’t hate them. So, when I was a kid, I really didn’t like Captain America. I know, I know, you’re thinking how two days ago, I cheered Squirrel Girl for beating him up and wondering if I don’t still hate him. You have to understand, that was about him being old, not him being Captain America. That's ageism, which is totally different! Anyway, in my younger days I fancied myself a smart aleck with limited respect for authority, and Cap seemed like the definition of the stuffy, stick in the mud leader character to me, not a whole lot different than Cyclops on the X-Men cartoon.

Look at that speech he makes to Wolverine. ‘Furthermore, I think your general attitude –‘? What is that? I was wholly rooting for Wolverine to take him apart, especially since Logan was on the trail of the same bad guy as Cap (the days when Marvel misunderstanding battles were still common). That was my perception of Captain America: He made big, boring speeches while the cool characters tried to get stuff done, if only he’d shut up and let them do it. What saved him? For one thing, I got a little older, my feelings changed. Characters who stood for ideals didn’t seem so bad to me. But that’s boring and doesn’t really involve pictures, so let’s say there’s more.

Like Kurt Busiek’s Avengers run. Put Cap up against actual bad guys, rather than good guys he chooses not to trust, and the speechifying is more acceptable.

What’s more, make them serious bad guys. Villains out to enslave or eliminate the human race, and fully capable of taking down all the Avengers to do it, let alone one man with somewhat enhanced physical abilities. Have Steve Rogers square off against that, and still be able to make big speeches while going on the attack, and I’m good with it. For that matter, have him face long odds against a friend he feels has gone astray.

One of the issues that struck me the most when I first read it was from Geoff Johns’ stretch on Avengers. Thor has Odin’s power in addition to his own, and he’s taking a more active hand on Earth than his dad. Some people in a small Eastern European country have started to worship him, and when their government cracks down, Thor cracks down on the government. It’s near the Russian border, so they get spooked, which spooks the U.S. It’s on Latveria’s border, so Doom gets involved to make things worse, and then Iron Man tries to fight Thor with a suit powered by Asgardian magic. Into the middle of all that goes Captain America, and soon enough it’s just him against Thor.

Which doesn’t go real well, but it doesn’t stop Cap from getting right back in there and continuing to try and reach Thor with words, while also keeping him focused on Steve rather than on any of the nearby soldiers. I remember reading something on JLA/Avengers once, someone online saying how silly it was there’s a scene of Cap and Superman almost coming to blows, because what was Captain America going to do? Well, that’s kind of the point of Steve Rogers, isn’t it? If he thinks someone is wrong, is trying to oppress or bully others, he stands up to them, it doesn’t matter how powerful they are. He didn’t back down when faced with a Thor more powerful than he’d ever been before. He didn’t back down from Thanos when he had the Infinity Gauntlet. He’ll always stand up to oppose someone abusing their power, and he’ll keep trying to find a way to win. I think he was like that when I was younger, I just didn’t see it.

Diplomatic relations between Canada and the U.S. break down in Captain America Annual #8, by Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Zeck (penciler), John Beatty (inker), Jim Novak (letterer), Glynis Oliver (colorist). We learn genocidal androids hate trips to the dentist in Avengers #21, by Kurt Busiek and George Perez, Al Vey (finished art), Tom Smith (colorist), Richard Starkings and Comicraft (letterering). Cap punches Kang like he was just told Sally Floyd will say he can’t represent America because he doesn’t watch NASCAR and yeah, I used that joke for the Bagley post, but screw it, Civil War: Frontline was a goddamn trash fire, in Avengers #54 by Kurt Busiek (writer), Kieron Dwyer and Rick Remender (artists), Tom Smith (colorist), Richard Starkings and Comicraft (letterers). Cap gets pimpslapped by a god, and still commands respect in Avengers #63/478 by Geoff Johns (writer), Alan Davis (penciler), Mark Farmer (inker), Dave Kemp (colorist), Richard Starkings and Albert Deschesne (letterers).