Oh yeah! I did see that Plastic Man cover after all. I didn’t know why he was fighting J’onn, but I love Plastic Man, so I bought the issue and promptly forgot all about it.
As for what I said about the Martian Manhunter … I think my source for that statement was Martian Manhunter #1,000,000 rather than from any deep research into past versions of the Justice League. But I’m intrigued: what was his pre-crisis reason for leaving?
First you have to know that pre-Crisis, Jonn wasn’t the last Martian- He was stranded on Earth (he couldn’t fly through space), but more shipwrecked than orphaned, if you see what I mean. Except in one retcon (JLofA #144—one of the best JLofA’s ever and a strangely similar story to New Frontiers, I might add) it was never really explained why Superman or Hal didn’t just fly him home. (The retcon was that Jonn thought that the “Good/Evil” battle had more or less been won on Mars and Earth was a new challenge)
In JLofA #71 (early '70s, late '60s), we learned that A) there were evil white Martians who were eeeevil and warlike ('cause, y’know, they were white-IMO there was a clear racial tensions theme going here) and B) there was war on Mars between the good green martians and the eeee-vil white martians (keep in mind, these weren’t Grant Morrison’s creepy alien white Martians. They were just eeee-vil warlike white guys. Given Denny O’Neill’s other ham-handed relevance stories, and the “racial tension” at the time, I doubt that this accidental) The upshot was that Jonn went home after that to either help the war or the clean-up effort (I forget which)
Somewhere after that, the Martians gave up on Mars and went to a new planet in a new solar system called “New Mars”. Between JLofA #77 and roughly JLofA #225 or so, Jonn only showed up two or three times. Around #225 (early '80s) or so, Jonn came back to the league (I don’t remember why) and hung out there (with Vibe/Gypsy/Vixen! :rolleyes: ) more-or-less until the Crisis.
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Regarding the Carol Ferris issue, I dunno. For a real serial killer, maybe, but we know (from previews and comments by the writer) that the serial killer will also be going after villian’s loved ones as well…plus, I don’t see how killing Carol would make Hal give the Spectre-power up. I think he’d go all “Vengance of God” on them (turn them to wood and use a chainsaw, that sort of thing), but the next victim (IMO) will be Jack Drake.
The Jean Loring death was badly telegraphed last issue (although I like the fact that the crossbow was exactly as useful as it should have been! 
) and the last two issues, the’ve been telegraphing problems for Jack
There’s no Robin at the moment and Tim’s dad is, in large part, the reason.
Tim’s the only member of the Batman family who’s on the job because it’s the right thing to do, and not because of a personal tragedy (Babs Gordon was another, before The Killing Joke.) and Batman (so goes the theory—I don’t like it or buy it at all) wouldn’t be comfortable working with someone who hasn’t experienced the same sort of tragedy that he went through.
Other possible victims include Jimmy Olsen (when’s the last time we saw him or that he played any real part in a story?), Perry White (ditto), and Lois (Chuck Austen has said he hates her and want Superman to get together with Lana) although I don’t buy that one.
Fenris
May all the saints of comicdom preserve us from the evil that is Chuck Austen. I have come to hold his aesthetic in the utmost contempt.
They should just lock him, John Byrne, and Chris Claremont in a room and see which of the three kills and eats the other two.
I think the most fascinating panel in IC3 was when Ollie took Wally aside and Wally asked why Supes and Bats hadn’t caught on to the mindwiping. Ollie says something like “people hear what they want to hear,” over a close-up of Supes’ ear.
Duh! Obvious, but not something you think about. He’s got super hearing. Stepping a few feet away to talk doesn’t give you privacy. :smack: But up until that moment, I hadn’t even thought about it. Beautiful. So Clark isn’t as much of a boy scout as he like to think he is. Ordinarily, I don’t people trying to “darken up” Superman, since his inherent goodness is the main part of his character. But this way it works. He knows what’s going on, and he knows that despite the moral complications, it needed to be done. But he can’t allow the ends to justify the means. He has to repress it and convince himself he doens’t know, and what he doesn’t know can’t hurt his moral superiority.
All in one panel. I’m really liking this series, even as a relatively new fan of the DCU, who wouldn’t have known who Sue Dibney was 6 months ago.
I kind of saw the close-up of Big Blue’s ear as a symbolic thing. During the big fight at the end of DKR, the recording in which Batman tells Robin the plan starts out “… by now he should be too busy to be listening”. Not canon, I know, but I do kind of have the impression the Superman’s super hearing really only works when he’s paying attention, which he clearly wasn’t in this case.
There’s probably a lot of stuff Supes isn’t paying attention to, because if he did, he would find out about the mind-tampering, and that’s something he just doesn’t want to know about.
**
While that was well-done, there’s a scene exactly like it in Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?”. Someone (don’t wanna spoil it) is snuffing Superman’s friends, and he’s gathered the remaing survivors in the Fortress of Solitude and all his enemies are gathered outside, waitng for dawn to attack. Jimmy and Lana sneak off, Jimmy to drink his Elastic Lad serum and Lana to sit in a bathtub filled with a liquid that gives her super powers.
Lana says something like “Ooooh! It’s so weird every time I do this…you can’t remember what it’s like to have super-powers…how your skin tingles when you become invulnerable, your senses expanding…x-ray vision…telescopic vision…”
Meanwhile, Superman’s having a heart-to-heart with Perry and says "Y’know the worst thing I’ve done? I’ve ruined Lois and Lana’s lives because I’m a coward. "
Cut back to Lana “super hearing…”
Cut back to Superman “Lana represents everything good about my childhood. I’m terrified of hurting her…but from the moment I saw her, it was Lois I loved. But I’ll never be able to tell her because I can’t hurt Lana”
And Lana’s face just falls as she says “C’mon Jimmy… Let’s show him who his real friends are.”
It’s heartbreaking.
There was a really cool pre-Crisis story where, very slowly so Clark wouldn’t notice, the Parasite stole Superman’s ablitiy to turn off his powers–and not the obvious stuff like heat vision or super-breath…stuff like super strength (he was crushing things he touched) and his super-senses–the hearing/sight/smell powers nearly drove him nuts. It was like a four part story and really, really good.
Replace Claremont with Rob Liefield, Todd McFarlane, and Jim Shooter and I’m all for it.
I see no reason they can’t ALL be locked in that room.
I’ll give you McFarlane and Liefield - what did Jim Shooter do, exactly?
Become a major-leage jerk when he went over to Defiant Comics, IIRC.
He was already a major league jerk then which is why they got rid of him at Marvel Comics.
\What is your damage with Claremont?
Byrne, Liefield, Shooter, McFarlane, Waid, and David are all known for their levels of primadonna histronics.
Claremont on the other hand… I’ve really not heard anything bad about.
Claremont Offenses - See : the version of X-Men immediately prior to Grant Morrison’s run; See also : the Claremont/Byrne run on JLA more recently.
Mark Waid and Peter David? Well, can’t say I’ve heard much about primadonna histrionics for either of them, and can’t say that sort of thing bothers me. When someone’s devolved into a horrible hack writer and still gets work based on stuff they did in the 70’s - that bothers me.
:mad:
He’s not a hack.
If you read Excalibur or Sovereign Seven you’d see he has more than his 1970s AND 1980s run on X-Men.
You want to be bothered by that, look to Byrne. After his brief run on the X-Men(which ended with #143 IIRC) and his Fantastic Four run in the 1980s, Mr. Destructive Hack has been revamping characters POORLY. It took fifty issues to fix what he fubared in Wonder Woman and they’re just getting the fixes in on his tragic run of Superman. That’s just some of his nightmarish work at DC.
The Vision being destroyed and the Scarlet Witch’s kids turning out to be part of Master Pandemonium’s soul? That’s just another sterling Byrne victim.
His art is incredibly sloppy. It used to be quite lovely and now he’s too lazy to do a decent background.
I think Claremont’s muse has been on an extended coffee break, but Byrne is now savaging the Doom Patrol and wreaking havoc with continuity once again.
Yeah, Claremont’s last run on *X-Men * in 2000 or so was really awful. I agree about people riding on the success of 20-year-old work. In my eyes, you’re oly as good as your work over the past year or so. Everyone’s going to produce a clunker now and then, but when they’re consistently sucktastic, I’m not going to buy their stuff. I’ll actively avoid and tell everyone I know to do likewise.
I don’t know if Waid or David act like primadonnas or not, but they tend to write good stuff. I don’t much care how they act since I’m just trying to read good stories. I don’t have to invite them over for a dinner party.
Can I just say that I think Baby Genuises 2 is a better idea than last week’s relaunch of X-Force?
I don’t know what all this has to do with Identity Crisis. Whose money is on Jack Drake not surviving the series? Or, in a new twist for the Batfamily, he almost gets killed and they’re able to catch the killer in time to save him. Either way, I think Jack’s going to be important.
I have a nice long run of Excalibur, actually. I think that’s where his decline began. It started off very well - but the Cross-Time Caper was fatiguing. Highlights of his 90’s career include collaboration with that paragon of writing, George Lucas, :rolleyes: , and… checking… wow! Heroes Reborn. That’s a lot of suckitude. Contest of Champions II… Fantastic Four’s Vol. 3… and we come to he and Alan Davis’s 2000 run on the X-Men which made me drop the book. Which I’d been collecting for … oh, 12 years or so up to that point.
cbawlmer : If they kill Jack Drake, then the whole Robin continuity issue gets even more snarled - they could pull it off, but I think it’d be hard.
I got the impression IC was happening a little bit in the future as far as the rest of continuity is concerned, sometime after Robin’s suited up again (you know he’s going to). Am I nuts?
Wish I knew. It’s certainly not ‘now’. But if it’s later, then the new Firestorm series is even weirder.
I’m not reading Firestorm. What would be weird about it?
No, you’re not nuts. I’m actually thinking (hoping) the same thing. I’m following the Batman titles, and the whole Robin continuity issue has actually detracted from my enjoyment of IC, which is a shame because it’s such a great story.
But it does look like Tim’s going to be pulling on his tights and giving them hell again in the near future. He did some serious out-of-costume ass-kicking in this month’s issue of Robin, and Stephanie was nowhere to be seen, although she did appear briefly in Batgirl as Spoiler.
As prominent as he’s been in IC, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack became a target. I love the interaction between father and son. It’s obvious that his worries about Tim being out risking his neck every night are taking a toll on him.