Random Back Issues #120 - Hourman #12

 

Haven't looked at Hourman in one of these in over three years. Then, he had just given one of the original Hourman's old foes a chance to do some good, only to be whisked to the 853rd Century by the JLA of that era.

Two issues later, he's a pile of scrap. The JLA are fighting what are described as "Else-Men". Spheres of energy that, if they make contact with you, become a perfect version of you. Which means the Else-Men Hourman is Hourman as he was at the start of this series, a near-omnipotent god of time. Else-Hourman talks a lot of shit, daring him to try and use his time powers, but Hourman won't take the bait, recognizing it wouldn't work against a being with control of time who's expecting it.

Not that headbutts work any better. But since DC One Million Superman has super-telepathy, they worked out a plan where Superman tries to fry Else-Hourman with heat vision, but it's really cover for Hourman to use his time vision and de-age himself to a single chronometric drive. I'm not clear on how he then used a second burst on Else-Hourman and the other Else-Men to send them to wherever they were that long ago, but he managed it.

Superman takes him to Tyler ChemoRobotics for repairs, but before the foreman can begin, Hourman pleads for him not to. The android regrets throwing away godhood to hang out in a 20th Century coffee shop with Snapper Carr and his weird friends. He wants to be how he was before all that, but that's gonna be tricky, and costly.

Or not. With time vision worn off, Else-Hourman arrives, perfectly pissed. Then perfectly shutdown because, as the foreman explains, even a knockoff of a Tyler Co. product has a kill-switch. Well, that takes care of a body with similar abilities for Hourman, if the unseen boss will approve the work. The unseen boss, as we saw in Random Back Issues #30, is the original Hourman, and he's all for it.

So while the Justice Legion prepare for an imminent ass-whupping at the hands of the Else-Men, and Snapper and the others drift through time in Hourman's time-ship, the foreman prepares to transfer Hourman's head to the Else-Hourman's body. Amid this process, Hourman sees Metron, who is rather standoffish. Metron considers Hourman rejecting godhood a betrayal - proving he is the New God of Drama - but now Hourman has seen the light, and promises to forsake selfishness forever!

Or until next issue. Whichever.

{5th longbox, 192nd comic. Hourman #12, by Tom Peyer (writer), Steve Scott (penciller), David Meikis and Walden Wong (inkers), John Kalisz (colorist), Kurt Hathaway (letterer)}

Sunday Splash Page #250

 

"Conversion," Hourman #6, by Tom Peyer (writer), Rags Morales (penciler), David Meikis (inker), John Kalisz and Heroic Age (colorists), Kurt Hathaway (letterer)

Coming out of DC One Million, Tom Peyer and Rags Morales focused on a version of Hourman from the 853rd Century, now sightseeing in the 20th Century. With the notion ostensibly being that the android needed to learn more about not being omnipotent, the creative team made sure to create a lot of different people and aspects for Hourman to play off of and contrast with. They paired him primarily with former Justice League mascot Snapper Carr, for starters, now bumming around writing a memoir in his old home town. Snapper knew all about being human, and all about being around superhumans. He also knew a lot about failure and guilt, and didn't always exercise good judgment in his advice.

Snapper also knew a lot of more or less ordinary people, from his ex-girlfriend Beth, to her cantankerous sheriff of a mother, Aubrey. All of which gave "Ty" a chance to interact with people who weren't superheroes and learn about being human as well. Some of this played as comedy, Ty learning how to order a coffee and finding out he and caffeine don't mix. Some of it is more melodramatic, as Ty and Beth fall for each other, though the creative team blessedly avoid any love triangle with them and Snapper. And sometimes it's more serious, Ty resisting making decisions on his own, or Snapper and Beth dealing with their advice having negative consequences.

Because this is DC, there had to be a legacy aspect, so Hourman also tried to investigate the heroic tradition he was part of, mostly through the original Hourman. I don't know if the notion Rex Tyler tended to get a little nuts or boorish when he was on Miraclo was already going around, or if it started here (I feel like James Robinson nodded towards it at times in Starman), but the android gets glimpses of his ancestor that aren't too flattering.

Snapper also has to try and come to grips with that time the Joker tricked him into betraying the JLA, as well as the fact that at some point, he had space adventures as a guy who could teleport by snapping his fingers. Until he was captured and his hands got cut off. As far as I know, that's something Peyer retconned into Snapper's history, and I'm not sure why. To give him unresolved trauma that explains the fact he looks like shit constantly in this book and avoids contact with his old costumed pals?

The book uses flashbacks, both to the Golden Age and Snapper's Silver Age JLA adventures, and Morales adopts a more simplified style for those parts (although the layouts and number of panels don't change much), while Kalisz' color work tends to simpler, broader schemes. Trying to evoke a different age, even if the flashback reveals things weren't so simple as the legends say.

But there's the legacy of the name he carries, and there's the legacy of his origins: an android. So Amazo, as maybe the earliest example, gets set up as a sort of foil. One frustrated by his own limitations, and envious of the limitations Hourman didn't have originally. He pops up several times, with various designs, including what I thought was a pretty cool one with a skull face. I don't know why Amazo settled on that design, but it looked cool.

As Amazo keeps taking different approaches, it forces Hourman to confront different issues. At one point, he has to deal with the fact he brought Amazo back, and got half his time powers stolen. Another time, Hourman feels he's been supplanted by a more experienced version of himself, and runs off to sulk on an entire star system devoted to celebrating him, before getting forcibly jolted out of his funk by a very harsh psychotherapist. In the story the splash page is from, Amazo is stealing humanity from his victims, rather than power, turning them into automatons instead. Hourman's got to deal with this without Snapper, while Amazo taunts him about being far more human now.

The book ends with a time-traveling field trip for Ty and the supporting cast, with Hourman returning them home, then rushing off to fight Amazo one more time. I have no idea what happened to the character after that, since at some point, the original Hourman's son got cured of some weird time-disease he had and became the Hourman who ran around in Geoff Johns' JSA.

Random Back Issues #46 - Hourman #10

No, you don't understand. He's a demon, so decaf is like a triple espresso for him. Because it's evil. And he's a demon, so evil is good for him. Look, just give him the damn stimulants before he consigns us all to Hell, OK?

We last looked at Hourman five months ago, but 13 issues from now. Seems appropriate for a time-traveler. At the point, Torcher the demon and Dr. Togg, the Golden Age Hourman foe are ready to betray the rest of the group out of bitterness and general stupidity. Here, they're just being added to the supporting cast. Torcher's fresh out of Hell, and Togg's fresh out of prison.

Beth and Snapper are trying to introduce Torcher to local culture, since he decided to stay on Earth after Day of Judgement. Which I think was about the Spectre going nuts. I know, which time? Hourman shows up with Wendi Harris, who was the wife of the original Hourman. Ty tried helping her son, Rick, who has some sort of horrible disease, and fucked that up real good. He had to dump him in the Timepoint, where time never passes, until he can find a cure.

 

All of which leaves him a little leery of trusting a demon from Hell, because maybe his judgement's unsound. Snapper and Beth talk him through that, although Beth is also trying to figure out if something is going on between Ty and Wendi. Which I feel should be gross, because developmentally, Ty is maybe an adolescent, but also because I'm not sure whether he would be considered a descendant of her deceased husband, or a copy of him. Neither of those is great, but the former feels weirder than the latter.

While I'm trying to get over my wiggins about that, a Bill McDowell head of a Big Pharma company asks Hourman to please protect him. He hired Dr. Togg when the doc approached him offering his expertise in genetics. Togg got busy making "gombezis", which are dogs with bird wings and talons that just say the word "Gombezi" all the time.

Togg's watching all this and unleashes the gombezis. Ty and Torcher drive them off, but they grabbed Beth on the way out the door, because Togg's smitten. Beth does spend basically every issue in a crop top and shorts, but as Rick notes, Togg was in prison 58 years, so 'Pat Buchanan in a halter top' might have produced the same effect.

And that mental picture is the greatest crime Snapper Carr ever committed.

Hourman tracks them down, but not before Togg uses his monstroscopic lamp to make Beth like him. Ty flips out a bit and smashes the lab, but calms down, uses him time vision to undo the damage, and restores Beth and Togg to their "normal" states. Ty also offers Togg (or Rocco) his friendship, and a lab on his Timeship. He hopes Togg will find a cure for the mysterious disease Rick Tyler has. Togg is suspicious, and when Ty says that this is because Togg doesn't trust himself, Togg dismisses that as 'self-help crap.'

All that dealt with, Hourman and Beth have themselves a sunset walk on the beach. Just as the android's about to confess his feelings, the Justice League of the 853rd Century shows up, insisting he come home with them. Cockblockers. Tyler will ultimately get them to back off, but Batman, being Batman, decides that doesn't apply to him and will ultimately decide to butt in again later.

Because all Batmen, no matter the era, are jerks.

[6th longbox, 48th comic. Hourman #10, by Tom Peyer (writer), Rags Morales (layouts), Mark Propst (embellisher), John Kalisz (colorist), Heroic Age (seps), Kurt Hathaway (letterer)]

Random Back Issues #30 - Hourman #23

Wow, Hourman's got the '90s saliva trail going there something fierce.

This is right near the tail end of the Peyer/Morales Hourman series. The Hourman in question, an android from the DC One Million era, has decided to use the last of the fuel in his time ship to take all his friends (and a couple of his villains) on a little vacation through time. How nice.

Having not installed a bathroom on the ship, they pull over in 1954, still in Happy Harbor, where Hourman set up while he was being "mentored" in humanity by Snapper Carr of all people. While everyone else is using the facilities, Hourman assumes his secret identity of "Matthew Tyler", who looks like a '90s slacker/geek type guy. Doesn't exactly blend in, as he and Snapper run afoul of the local police. They're briefly saved by Aubrey Lee, mother of Bethany (Snapper's ex and currently dating Hourman), when she claims to be escorting these prisoners. Only problem is, she introduces herself as chief of police of Happy Harbor. True in 2001, not in 1954, especially since she's talking to the chief of police of 1954's Happy Harbor.

Aubrey beats the crap out of him, revealing he'll eventually be caught by the feds squeezing a school for the blind for protection money, dying broke and alone. He tries to shoot her, but Matthew stops the bullet and Aubrey, well, you see how that ended.

Back in the time ship, Snapper bemoans giving the gas station attendant a gold coin worth $600 to pay for Dave buying a case of beer (that he loves that stopped being made in 1971) and some pre-Code horror comics. Beth points out the money was from his book being published, when Snapper didn't even know that happened. Hourman knows who published it, but refuses to say. He also refuses to check in on his and Beth's future together, until she argues him into it.

Still in Happy Harbor, just 20 years in the future (so about a year from now), most of them drop in on Beth, finding her married not to Hourman, or Snapper, but Gary. Aubrey's useless schulb of a deputy. No one other than Gary seems particularly happy with that reveal. Give the audience what they need, not what they want, I guess. Up on the roof, old Hourman foe Dr. Togg, a demon called Torcher, and Dave's annoying teenage son Sticky are plotting a mutiny. Togg and Torcher because they're bad guys, I guess. Sticky because he's pissed they haven't left Happy Harbor yet. He wanted to see Woodstock '94!

I didn't even know there was a Woodstock '94. I just know the original one and the late-90s one, where everyone blames Limp Bizkit for a crowd of drunk idiots deciding to break and burn shit. Speaking as someone who has (unwillingly) gone to a lot of parties involving drunk people, they don't need encouragement to break shit. Anyway, Hourman's got Amazo's skull on his time ship like a hood ornament, and they're going to reactivate it. Definitely nothing that can go wrong with that plan.

And in the 853rd Century, the original Hourman is there running Tyler ChemoRobotics (then returning to his time with his memories erased), and gets a visit from Batman 1,000,000. He tries to fight him, but gets dosed with something that cancels the effects of Miraclo, but also 'paralyzes your psychological defenses against challenging new ideas.' OK, sure. Despite the Justice Legion A agreeing to leave their Hourman be, Batman is still spying on him, and he's not happy. He's Batman, no matter the time or universe, he's never happy. He tells Rex that the android let a cop be assaulted (leaving out it was by another cop, all versions of Batman also apparently being dishonest cocks), and Rex concludes he needs to scrap him.

The book only has two issues left after this, which involve android Hourman giving Original Recipe Hourman some much-needed peace, and the android and Snapper going their separate ways as Hourman rushes off to fight Amazo one more time.

[6th longbox, 61st comic. Hourman #23, by Tom Peyer (writer), Rags Morales (penciler), Dave Meikis (inker), John Kalisz (colorist), Kurt Hathaway (letterer)]