In Justice League Of America #134 (1976), we find out that Ralph Dibny has a rather inflated opinion of his fighting prowess:
Now, granted, this is pre-Flames-of-Py'tar Despero, who was more of a mind-power and manipulator baddy...but he's still Despero, who at this point had taken on the entire Justice League--solo--a number of times.
In fact, in this very issue, Elongated Man has seen Despero take punches from Wonder Woman and Supergirl without going down. And yet...
I'm trying not to laugh at the dead guy here. But come on, Ralph...did you really expect your "best punch" to succeed when Diana's and Kara's weren't sufficient? That's cute, but you're not in the JLA for your punching power.
[Aside: if he's still dead. Like most of the revived JLAers in Blackest Night, Geoff Johns has completely forgotten about him, which is pretty amazing because while the turgidly paced 8-issue series has only enough story for 4 issues, Johns has tossed away the only interesting part of the whole premise in order to pad things out with stupid ring games. Oh, well...]
By the way, am I the only one out there who seriously prefers chess-playing, brain-manipulating Despero...
...to the "Hulk Smash" steroid-abusing Despero, who can stand up to simultaneous punches from Superman and Captain Marvel?
Maybe it's just me, but I liked him more as a unique, wonky, could-only-have-come-out-of-DC's-Silver-Age villain...
...than as the dime-a-dozen retrofitted-because-super-strong-characters-are-easier-to-write-than-mind-characters 1980s onward version:
Ahh, it probably is just me...
Now, granted, this is pre-Flames-of-Py'tar Despero, who was more of a mind-power and manipulator baddy...but he's still Despero, who at this point had taken on the entire Justice League--solo--a number of times.In fact, in this very issue, Elongated Man has seen Despero take punches from Wonder Woman and Supergirl without going down. And yet...
I'm trying not to laugh at the dead guy here. But come on, Ralph...did you really expect your "best punch" to succeed when Diana's and Kara's weren't sufficient? That's cute, but you're not in the JLA for your punching power.[Aside: if he's still dead. Like most of the revived JLAers in Blackest Night, Geoff Johns has completely forgotten about him, which is pretty amazing because while the turgidly paced 8-issue series has only enough story for 4 issues, Johns has tossed away the only interesting part of the whole premise in order to pad things out with stupid ring games. Oh, well...]
By the way, am I the only one out there who seriously prefers chess-playing, brain-manipulating Despero...
...to the "Hulk Smash" steroid-abusing Despero, who can stand up to simultaneous punches from Superman and Captain Marvel?
Maybe it's just me, but I liked him more as a unique, wonky, could-only-have-come-out-of-DC's-Silver-Age villain...
...than as the dime-a-dozen retrofitted-because-super-strong-characters-are-easier-to-write-than-mind-characters 1980s onward version:
Ahh, it probably is just me...
No, it's not.
ReplyDeleteAnd that "best punches" line sounds more like Hal than Ralph. Even if Hal had only Ralph's powers.
Can't we have both? How awesome would it be to have a Hulk-built character swear off fisticuffs and begin talking out his problems with the JLA-- obviously through his fangs. Maybe he could set a monocle on his third eye and read a bit of Proust now and again? I'm imaging a big, pink Brainy Gremlin-- pseudo-sophistication punctuated by random, swift acts of ultra-violence.
ReplyDelete