Nick Fury's Freaky Vacation!!

If you having been reading the Nick Fury miniseries, well, than you've been missing stuff like this:

Click on those panels to embiggen them to full-pyschedelic style...

In case you're wondering, Nick Fury Jr was trying to take a vacation, but ended up in a Potemkin village used to train assassins, so he had to fight the entire town. Because comics.

This trippy little mini-series was from James Robinson (writer), Aco (pencils), Hugo Petrus (inks) and Rachelle Rosenberg (colors). And man, it is head-trippingly good. Like the issue where Fury had surgery to temporarily make him an Atlantean because there was a Hydra spy in Atlantis and Namor wouldn't accept help from S.H.I.E.L.D. but the process would only work for 3 hours and then Attuma showed up and...

Or you get the second best train fight ever:

You know, I didn't think it was possible to get me to like Nick Fury Jr., but these cats did.

The series is done--it was just 6 issues--and I heartily recommend you seek it out when it hits trade, or ends up in discount bins, or when Comixology has a sale.

Also, that Aco guy? I think he's a keeper. Maybe we could chip in to buy him a full name...?

From Nick Fury #3 & #5 (2017)

Friday Night Fights--Bash The Bully Style!!

There are some people that you just shouldn't pick on, as we find out in this week's Friday Night Fights.

Popeye has sent Swee'pea to the store to fetch some spinach. Yes, things were really different back then...

Anyway, the poor tyke encounters a loathsome bully.

Well, after the store, Swee'pea decides to try and sneak back home through the villain's hood.

Bad move.

Knocked him clean out of his shoes!!

Spacebooger regularly makes toddlers run errands for him.

Stupid bully from Popeye #62 (1961), as reprinted in Classic Popeye #62 (2017), by Bud Sagendorf

Now is the time for you to go and vote for my fight. Why? You don't support bullies, do you? Than go vote!!

5,000th Post Contest-A-Rama!!

Well, this is post #5,000.

Yeah, it's just an arbitrary round number, and yeah, we just celebrated our 10th anniversary of the blog a couple of months ago.

Still, 5,000 strikes me as somewhat more significant, as a measure of depth. Blogging for 10 years? No big deal. Averaging 500+ posts per year? That some serious wastage of time.

And serious wastage of your time, reader. For which I feel obligated to reward you.

And so, our first (and perhaps last) official Slay Monstrobot contest!!

Let's start with the prize. Via a complex series of circumstances, I just happen to have an extra copy of this fine book laying around:

Between 1941 and 1945, Hitler was pummeled on comic book covers by everyone from Captain America to Wonder Woman. Take That, Adolf! is an oversized compilation of more than 500 stunningly restored comics covers published during World War II, featuring America’s greatest super-villain. From Superman and Daredevil to propaganda and racism, Take That, Adolf! is a fascinating look at how legendary creators such as Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Alex Schomburg, Will Eisner, and Lou Fine entertained millions of kids on the home front and buoyed the spirits of GIs fighting overseas by using Adolf Hitler as a punching bag!

Well, that seems an appropriate prize for this cow-town puppet-show of a blog.

And how shall someone win this most excellent tome? As I cryptically hinted earlier this week, just create your own super-hero team!!

By which I mean, take some preexisting comic characters--however many you want. 2? 7? 140? They can be from any company, past or present. They can be any previously published heroes, past or present. Just make a fun, kick-ass, interesting team. The best suggestion wins.

NOTE:

A) All entries MUST have an original name for the team, not one that's been used before, or a variation of one that's been used before. Get creative, people. You can do better than West Coast New Gods.

B) You have free reign on your choice of heroes, but you might want to keep in mind your judge's predilections. Multiple versions of the same person probably won't find my favor (i.e. Logan from three different time periods); different characters using the same identity are somewhat more likely to meet my approval. Insert characters from non-super-hero tales at your own risk. Also, this is a team of heroes, and your judge is mighty tired of villains being "redeemed" willy-nilly. Still, your team, your choices, and I'm willing to keep an open mind.

C) Show your work. If you think it will help, explain why your characters would work/fit together well. Give the team an origin/motivation, if you like. Pick a particular universe for them to operate in, if you like. Attention to detail may help!!

D) The sole criteria for this contest is whatever tickles snell's fancy. It's completely arbitrary, so just repeat to yourself, "it's just a silly contest, I should really just relax." All decisions final. Legalese, legalese, whatever.

All entries should be left as a comment to this post. You're on the honor system--no swiping ideas from other entries. All entries must be received by Thursday 10/5. Winner posted whenever I get around to it.

Go to it!!

When Nova Fought Megaman On Star Trek!!

You know who really freaked me out as a kid?

THIS guy freaked me out.

 All right, all right, make your Capcom video game hero jokes. Get it out of your system. This was a full decade earlier!

So who was Mr. No Face?

Well, about 6 months ago, Caps Cooper and his uncle Nat were hiking in the wilderness, when they stumbled upon one of those incendiary time-portal pools that you hear so much about:

Fortunately, when he wakes up a kajillion years in the future...where Marv Wolfman...ahem...homages...about three different Star Trek episodes:

That "we don't know how to rebuild humans properly" is straight from The Cage/The Menagerie...

Well, Nat manged to sneak away and come back to our time, where he called himself Megaman, and tried to get back with his awful wife and family.

Let's emphasize that the helpful molecule was a female molecule, just so we can crib from another Star Trek episode, Metamporphosis...

After a couple of issues of pointless fisticuffs, we completely and totally using the ending from Charlie X:

For comparison...the end of Charlie X:



All righty then.

Megaman turned up quite awhile later in a Quasar story, because of course Mark Greunwald lived to revive obscure Marvel characters. Then he had a teeny tiny cameo during Secret Invasion. Since then...nothing.

C'mon, Marvel...bring back the no-face who freaked me out as a kid. There are generations who haven't been freaked out yet (and hundreds of more Star Trek episodes to borrow stories from)!!

From Nova #8-9 (1977)

The Best Way To Become A Super-Heroine, Statistically Speaking!

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

Betty Barstow, secretary to a gruff but lovable private detective, has plans for the night.

And she decides to go as...a super-hero!!

You almost certainly know where this is going, because this is the exact same origin as Batgirl!!

Of course, she stops by the cemetery to visit a client, the watchman, and stumbles upon a Scooby Doo crime:

Fortunately, Betty is skilled in Jui-jitsu!

It turns out the crooks were using fake ghosts to scare away the watchman so they could use one of the tombs as a headquarters for their counterfeiting ring. As always happens.

But the big takeaway--crooks beaten by A GIRL!!

Well, Betty knows a good thing when she stumbles onto it!!

Look, that's at least two super-heroines whose origin is "woman goes to masquerade dress as hero, ends up fighting crime with her self-defense skills." Ladies, if you want to become a hero, that's the course I'd recommend--it's bound to work!!

It's worth noting that Silver Scorpion was Timely/Marvel's first female super-hero--heck, she even predated Wonder Woman!! But after only 3 stories, she vanished, until Roy Thomas brought her back in the 1993 Invaders mini-series--because of course Roy Thomas brought back an obscure Golden Age hero. Unfortunately, she was put into this horrendous post-Image armor:

Ewww.

Later she was retconned into having hung out with the Invaders and the Liberty Legion, and then further retconned into the retcon-created V-Battalion, which ran around quietly hunting escaped Nazi war criminals.

But in my heart, she will always be the hero whose origin story crossed Batgirl and Scooby Doo.

From Daring Mystery Comics #7 (1941)