Friday Night Fights--Smash The Hippo Style!!

We have to have fights featuring kicks on Friday Night Fights?

No problem. And given that the Luke Cage series starts today...?

The story kind of sets itself up here...

OOOOFFFFFF!

Spacebooger would like you to know that Hippo is really an evolved hippopotamus who was originally named Mrs. Fluffy Lumpkins. Even though he was male. Don't ask.

Well, you saw the credits, but to reiterate, Luke foot-smashing Mrs. Fluffy Lumpkins was from New Avengers: Luke Cage #1 (2010), by John Arcudi and Eric Canete

Now is the time for you to go and vote for my fight. Why? Dude--Luke Cage vs an evolved hippo!! Need I say more?!? Now go and vote!!

Monkeys > Magicians!

Marvo the Magician has a sidekick, Tito the "highly-trained" monkey.

And honestly...

...when you have a monkey who can do that, who needs magic?

We're looking forward to it, Marvo!

From Sure-Fire Comics #2 (1940)

How To Describe The Fortress Of Solitude In 21st Century Terms!

Needed to be said:

You tell him, Clark.

Now if only someone would dare say that to Batman...

From Action Comics #964 (2016)

2000 For 2000

Today is a pretty big day...

It's the 2000th issue of 2000 AD.

Two thousand. Think about that. You add the runs of Action And Detective, and you're still shy of 2000. That's a lot!!

[Yes, yes, I know some of you will say "it's not the same" or "it doesn't count" because 2000 AD is weekly. I'm not sure why that matters--2000 consecutive issues is 2000 consecutive issues, to heck with the frequency.

And let's not forget that Action was a weekly comic for the better part of a year, pretty much doing the same thing that 2000 AD has always done, as an anthology series with rotating features. So if you feel that being weekly somehow makes #2000 for 2000 AD less legitimate or noteworthy than Action's upcoming #1000, well, than you damned well better subtract 30-some from Action's numbering and celebrate a lot later if you want to be consistent. Plus the fact that Action is twice monthly these days. Plus the fact that Action rebooted and did a second volume for 5 years before returning to its original numbering, so you can hardly claim with a straight face that they had 1000 consecutive issues. I'm just sayin.']

Anyhoo, I can't claim that I have the deepest knowledge of 2000 AD's history, although I am a current (digital) subscriber, and have a probably-not-entirely-legal digital collection of a lot of their past issues (shhh, don't tell Dredd). And I'm sure not going to claim that I love everything that has appeared in it's pages--some stuff seems to be too British to translate well, and some long-running features are pretty continuity-dense for a newbie to penetrate easily. Then again, that may be a feature, not a defect.

Thrill-master Tharg has a pretty good explanation why that is part of 2000 AD's success:

2000 AD creates entire worlds, entire fictional universes, dishing them out in 5-6 page bursts every week for 40 years.

And if you think about the sheer number of creators whom we revere today that cut their baby teeth working for 2000 AD, well, we American comic book fans owe 2000 AD on heck of a debt of gratitude.

So all hail 2000 AD!! 2000 progs down, many thousand more to go!!

The Answers Man's Wrongest Answer EVER!!

From the Ask The Answer Man column in Adventure Comics #455 (1978):

I love you, Bob Rozakis, but this is so wrong!

Leaving aside all of the economic issues--sure, I know they couldn't continue to produce 100 pages monsters for 50¢ or 60¢--I'm really not sure you can say "contains no reprints" as a positive, and not a negative.

Nothing against new stories, but for a comics fan of the right age, those reprints were a godsend.

Recall, if you will, in that mid-70s era, these old stories were nowhere as nearly accessible as they are today. Comic shops certainly weren't as available to the majority of readers. There were no trade paperback collections or omnibi awaiting us in bookstores. There was no internet or Comixology, no place to legally (or even illegally) download gigabytes worth of old comics.

So for a lot of those older Silver Age stories, and especially the Golden Age tales, these 100 Page Spectaculars were literally the only source a couple of generations of comics fan had to access them, aside from the random garage sale or flea market.

My first exposure to Kid Eternity, and the Silent Knight, and the Star-Spangled Kid, and Superman Red/Superman Blue, and Wildcat, and Johnny Quick, and...well, let's just say that for me, and no doubt a lot of today's creators, our first exposure to a massive chunk of DC history came from the reprints in these humongous comics.

Marvel, of course, had a much shorter history. Yet during this era they had entire books dedicated to reprinting the early Silver Age stories of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Avengers, etc. Meanwhile, aside from the reprints in the 100 Page Spectaculars (and a few other similar projects), DC showed little interest in sharing its past.

So, yeah, yay for Dollar Comics. But boo for no reprints!!

Ape Law!!

There's someone new bringing law and order to the streets of Mega-City One:

Oook!!

Yup, an intelligent ape is acting as a "jimp" (judge imposter), fighting the bad guys...

Bat burglar? Gee, that's familiar looking fellow...

But our jimp makes a monkey out of him!!

You can count on...

From Judge Dredd Megazine #376 (2016)

Manic Monday Triple Overtime--Because Some Mornings You Just Need To See Mary Jane Go-Go Dancing!

Back to work? Bleccch, right?

Let dancing Mary Jane make it all better for you!

Plus, she takes pictures!

And gets rescued by Spider-Man!!

OK, all better now. Back to work!!

From Amazing Spider-Man #59 (1968). The cover is by John Romita. The panels are layouts by Romita, pencils by Don Heck, inks by Mike Esposito

Manic Monday Bonus--Why Comic Book Terrorists Hate Comic Book Americans!

It turns out that we have no idea how the 1% lives, at least in the DC Universe.

Katma Tui was injured by some cosmic space thingie, and is recovering at Carol Ferris' mansion while being tended to by Green Arrow and Black Canary.

A doctor is finally summoned, and after the decision is made to take her to the hospital...

Bad move, archer!!!

Why?

"Those rich Americans are always being carried!"

Man, I guess the income gap is even worse than I imagined, because somehow I had no idea about this phenomenon!!

Then again, judging by their behavior, these aren't the brightest terrorists:

Well, that's really all I had. Let's just watch Ollie and Dinah kick some terrorist ass:

So, rich Americans--avoid having anyone carry you, because that will just make you a target for terrorists. That means you should go easy on the litters and such, as well...

[Note to Sally--Hal was on Oa, being Hal, when this was happening...]

From Green Lantern #97 (1977)

Manic Monday--Superman Needs More Monkeys!!

You know what Rebirth Superman really needs?

More freakin' apes!!

Also needed:

A mynah bird given super-powers and intelligence by kryptonite--but he's evil!?! Yes!! Add it to my pull list NOW!!

You know what else we need?

Nah, never mind. That's just silly...

From Super-Team Family #167 (1974)

And Then There Was That Time Galactus Ate Krypton...!

A mild-mannered reporter with amazing powers has shown up at the Daily Bugle, and asked Spider-Man to tutor him in the ways of being a super-hero.

But Pete's a bit suspicious, and has Reed investigate "Virtue's" origin...

Well, no wonder nobody trusts Kal-El these days...I guss we'd better take all the extra-terrestrial infants sent to Earth and drown 'em or something...

From Marvel Knights Spider-Man #16 (2005)