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DC Universe Surgery

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This Sunday

21:11 / 06.11.05

Superman died in the early nineties. The mullet was on its way out if not entirely gone from the cooler-than-cool set. All our heroes must have a mullet at some point, though, from MacGuyver to Ziggy Stardust to Roy Fokker. It is the way of the world and it was only a matter of time before Clark Kent started disguising his Supermullet with a ponytail, with his not as long bangs still tucking back nicely even though that makes no sense.
Of DC's major heroes only two can sustain the cut for any length of time and still look cool, and those would be Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman. In fact Diana + Mullet + Bondage-Magicks-of-Truth = You Will Be FUBARed! Especially if you're a psychotic robot with a toady robot assistant and pictures of a green Brazillian not naked posing for fanboys.

The Falcon

23:11 / 06.11.05

Batman's always my first port of call when I'm researching psychology.

No, I meant just as a hook for an essay or something.

Probably not psych; probably psych. in English or something. Probably shut up time for me.

Evil Scientist

13:53 / 08.11.05

Does Seven Soldiers have anything to do with the current Crisis, or just an entirely different transdimensional Macguffin going on at the same time?? It's mainstream DC continuity right?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

13:58 / 08.11.05

AFAIK it is not related to Crisis and nothing happens in either Crisis or 7 Soldiers that affects the other. Though DC are so sneaky these days you never know for sure.

Mario

14:09 / 08.11.05

There is a theory that places the 7 Soldiers books AFTER Infinite Crisis

Spaniel

00:38 / 25.11.05

Right, this is more a question of taste than anything else. I've just read a bit of Batman Black Mask, or whatever the latest load of absolute bat bollocks is called. I need to know, are other readers happy with the portrayal of Bat's arch enemy, the Joker? It seems to me that Joker should be treated with exactly the same respect as Bats. He should be the THE badass amongst badasses. The very idea that Black Mask could get a gun to his head devalues Bats just as much as it devalues the Joker, because an A-List hero should have an A-List nemesis that pisses all over the rest of them.

Eloi Tsabaoth

10:37 / 29.11.05

Does anyone know if Moore's 'The Killing Joke' was named after the band, or were they both named after some other source? That is all.

Evil Scientist

11:20 / 29.11.05

As I understand it, Joker's never been written as someone who has vast combat skills. Whenever he has a physical battle with Batman it usually resulted with him being a bloodied, giggling, heap on the floor. On the rare occasions he does best Bats it's normally by the simple expedient of cheating his pale ass off.

Being able to get a gun to his head is no big deal.

Most Joker stories I've read seem to present him as one of the A-list badguys in the DC-verse, but he does tend to get his ass kicked quite a bit. It's part of his character that he can take a beating, get shot a few times, then come wandering over to you merrily chuckling away and squirting liquid smilex all over the shop.

I smiled when I heard in another Comics thread that he was pissed off about not being asked to join Luthor's league of supervillains.

Mario

11:25 / 29.11.05

Joker isn't scary because he's powerful, or because he can win fights.

He's scary because he's completely unpredictable. Everyone has that little voice inside their head that says "that's too stupid/dangerous/evil". But not Joker.

"King" said it himself: The Joker is too wild.

matsya

22:46 / 29.11.05

Okay, in "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow", the second chapter of that story, you've got the showdown in the arctic with the force-bubble over the fortress of solitude that's keeping all the other superheroes out. There's one guy in the group who I have no idea about. There's batman and robin and superwoman and martian manhunter and wonder woman, and then this odd dude in a pink vest with yellow shouldery things, shiny black thigh boots and a porno moustache. There's a scene where he's cradling one of the dead super-buddies and crying.

Who the hell is he? Oh, also: worst. costume. ever.

Jack Fear

23:13 / 29.11.05

Does anyone know if Moore's 'The Killing Joke' was named after the band, or were they both named after some other source?

The band, I think, was named after a Monty Python sketch. And for some reason I find it easier to imagine Alan Moore drawing inspiration from John Cleese than from Jaz Coleman.

00:49 / 30.11.05

Matsya, I haven't read the comic in question, but it sounds like you're talking about Vartox, who was some superhero pal of Superman's from another planet. He had a whole bunch of zany powers. I think he was Lana Lang's boyfriend for a while. I think he showed up fairly often in Superman comics pre-Crisis, and he was re-introduced post-Crisis in about 2001 or so in some Brainiac storyline.

Jack Fear

01:40 / 30.11.05

A wiki page about Vartox.

rabideyemovement

03:01 / 30.11.05

Ugh! Wretched costume! I've never seen him before. I have to hunt Vartox down now.

Rachel Melmoth

03:09 / 30.11.05

HOLY CRAP! I know what my next year's Halloween costume's gonna be. There should be at least one hideous man in leather undies in one comic every month, to make new comic book day an exciting game of Russian roulette.

Benny the Ball

05:54 / 30.11.05

A blatent rip off of Sean Connery in Zardoz if ever there was one...

Well, duh.

Thanks Jack. Is Vartox a compression of any book titles?

I have a question, Is the atom a single celled organism?

10:32 / 30.11.05

Dear me. No. He is a scientist who can shrink. He found a fragment of a white dwarf star that allows him to do so. That may be zany way-out pseudo-science, but it makes rather a lot more sense than him being a protoplasm who amazingly manages to pass as human. Probably.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:35 / 30.11.05

I think the link at ther bottom of that page saying "An external link to Zardoz, on whom the character of Vartox was visually based" or word to that effect might have been the cliue.

Incidentally:

Like Superman, Vartox is an alien and has adopted a new world which he has sworn to protect. He was originally a hero on his home planet of Valeron, which was destroyed.

Well, good luck Tynola.

Did Superman, when told by Vartox that he (Vartox) was far more experienced, respond "Yeah, experienced in letting your planet be destoryed, codfucker. I was a baby. What's your excuse?

FinderWolf

14:36 / 30.11.05

I LOVE ZARDOZ!!! What a bizarre movie. There's a huge booming voice shouting "Penises are evil!" That, and the revelation that they created this world/being from a taterred cover of an old edition of The Wizard of Oz - thus, all that shows on the cover is "Zardoz," it's so 'ending of Planet of the Apes' (the 60s version). (sorry to talk on unrelated topics, back to Superman! Can't wait for issue 2!)

FinderWolf

14:39 / 30.11.05

Dammit, I thought I was in the All-Star Superman thread when I wrote that. Sorry, I've got myself sorted now, carry on.

matsya

20:12 / 30.11.05

I like the phantom-self fighting crime when he doesn't know about it. That's a funky power. Right up there with super-ventriloquism.

I seem to recall that Zardoz was described by someone as "smack-bang in the middle of Connery's coke-phase". Thanks for the heads up. Now I must find those comics. Curse you, barbelith. Curse you.

The Falcon

21:59 / 30.11.05

Thanks fer the WIKI page, Jackster.

I was just reading 'Whatever Happened...' today, and was wondering who the guy pounding on Brainiac/Mxyzptlk's shield was. And there he is.

Aertho

00:17 / 04.12.05

Anyone paying attention to the 8C Madness —

What's the deal with Donna Troy. She's a goddess now, but she's got all these toys and stuff. In addition to having all the abilities she had as the Jimenez Troia, she can survive deep space flight, and shoot "moon" light? She lives on New Cronus, which looks like the acropolis smashed into a crescent-shaped asteroid, and acts like the Authority's spaceship and Sinister's laboratory. Instead of a magic lasso, she's got all these little silver balls that can teleport people and access to Harbinger's library -another mechanical ball.

What else can she do? Has there been anything documenting what she is anymore? Full-on goddess? Space-ready Wonder Woman class? Weird in-between character?

Mr Tricks

17:06 / 05.12.05

Some of it was expressed in the "RETURN OF DONNA TROY" mini. She's a human with the devine ah... "seed" of the Titan of Myth. So perhaps Demi-Goddess might be accurate. It's also been revealed that she's now the keeper of the history of the DC Universe as well as awareness of what went on before (multiple earths etc.)
New Chronos was the homw of the Titans. Sort of MC ESHER in Greece in Space. As they all left this universe (knowing of the coming Crisis) it's now her home base & Space Ship.

Aertho

17:34 / 05.12.05

Well yeah i gathered that much. I wasn't sure that if in recent weeks there's been something a bit more concrete that would distinguish this version of Troia from the immediatly preceding one. Besides the plunging neckline and sparkly hair?

Jack Fear

15:38 / 09.12.05

Not to be too smug, here, but: DC announces AQUMAN: SWORD OF ATLANTIS. Kurt Busiek is writing it, coming fresh off of CONAN.

See? It's not just me.

Billuccho!

16:02 / 09.12.05

Indeed. Aquaman would work excellently as Arthurian fantasy.

What I want to know is... why are they getting rid of Arthur, then?

Mario

16:10 / 09.12.05

Looking at the article, I'd say we aren't looking at Arthurian "high" fantasy, but more of the pulpish "heroic" fantasy. Less Lancelot, more Conan.

FinderWolf

16:25 / 09.12.05

Weeeird. I like the concept, but I'm not crazy about the idea of a New Aquaman (though Busiek's points about why adventurer-kings often don't work in fiction are pretty accurate, I think)... Jackson Guice's art is OK but not fantastic - his work on the recent Ellis-written JLA arc seems very very stiff and uninspired.

Benny the Ball

16:31 / 09.12.05

This also seems to point to Aquaman being the hero who loses his memory post 8C

Mario

17:44 / 09.12.05

Agreed. Some over at Newsarama suggest that the "Dweller in the Depths" is the original Aquaman, which makes sense. (Too much sense, really, which is why I'm half expecting a swerve

)

Our Lady Has Left the Building

07:43 / 10.12.05

So, if Aquaman loses his memory perhaps he could have fights with/team up with an android who's creator didn't make him properly so his skin bursts in to flame in contact with the air? Then maybe he could fight four amazing individuals who's contact with cosmic rays have given them fantastic powers? Then he- oh fuck it. If Aquaman lost his memory, isn't that Namor from sixty years ago?

Triplets

08:00 / 10.12.05

Poseidon willing,

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