The Unfunnies archive contains a number of scientist-types - Doctor Rocket, Professor Brainstorm, Professor Doolittle - but Professor Eureka might be my favourite.
I think that a lot of my love for him might come from this comic. It's not terribly funny, but I have to respect a man who takes on a whole turkey.
- from Strange Adventures No. 6
...we got in a collection of comics at the store yesterday that was just plain all over the place--a lot of beat-up Silver Age DC, some Marvel movie adaptations (Dune, etc.) and things that seemed like toy tie-ins that I don't remember any toys for (Animax, anybody?), and weird crap I'd never seen before, like a comic that taught kids all about...moving. Like, moving to a different house. It was no Moving with Richard Pryor, lemme tell ya. Anyway, one comic that I knew of, but really hadn't devoted much thought to since I was ten, was in there, and it got me thinking:
Hey, wasn't there a more recent comic with a similar title that also featured a white-haired protagonist with two sidekicks, one male, one female?
Be sure to tune in next week, when I blow the lid off the whole Get Along Gang/Authority connection.
Yes I bought comics; so many comics did I buy. Events, however have conspired to ensure that I've read almost none of them. As such, I have only two small observations this week:
1. Surefire way to make Johnathan sad: fill the newest copy of I, Zombie with printing errors. Specifically, one third to one half of the book was just the same two or three scenes repeating over and over, and not in the "this is an arty comic" kind of way. I guess it's a measure of how much I love the book that I was so devastated by this, but all that really means is that my enemies now have a new way to strike at me. !!! Maybe they already have!
2. Not that those Return of Bruce Wayne one-shots where he visits all of the extended Batman family and spies on them for a while have been excruciatingly awful, but Batman and Robin number 16 shows them all up by being one of those comics in which Grant Morrison writes something perfectly, in this case the reintroduction of Batman to the DC Universe (Mild Spoilers Ahoy). Batman appears at the climax of the Dick/Damian/Dr. Hurt battle (dramatic reappearance), utterly destroys the Doctor in a head-on confrontation (demonstration of essential Batmanishness) and gives his partners some credit/a great-big grin (proof that his attitude toward his peers has shifted away from insufferable and humourless). Zip, bing, bong, no White Casebook malarky required. Oh, plus he punches the Joker, which I'm sure he missed on his long voyage through time.
And that's it, pretty much. Good night, all.
Straight from Batman No. 142, it's the Ancient Mariner!
Yes, the Ancient Mariner, the villain who dare to take on the Batman himself armed only with age and an albatross! Presenting the summary of his career:
High Point of Career:
Unquestionably, the Ancient Mariner's greatest triumph was defeating the Dynamic Duo using only a simple albatross and his gnarled, arthritic fists. Especially impressive is the fact that Batman and Robin had just taken down five or six much younger men, though none of those were equipped with enormous seabirds.
Mode of Defeat:
Betrayal and fisticuffs. It just goes to show that you should never trust an albatross. Just like my grandmother always told me, really.
Low Point of Career:
Unquestionably, the revelation that the crimes were not actually being committed by the Ancient Mariner (aka Captain Stubbs) at all, but by his landlord Mr. Travis, who took the following circumstances:
a) Knew a crazy old man with a grudge against a shipping company.
b) Had befriended said crazy old man's pet albatross.
As a sign that he should steal the man's identity and become a nautical-poem-themed sea pirate. In Gotham City. Armed only with an albatross and a harpoon.
Honestly, the guy is going to have such a hard time living this one down that I don't think that he even needs to be sent to prison - he will never be able to lift his head again.
Carry on, Captain Stubbs. Carry on.
So... you may have noticed that after two weeks of talking about frightening things I didn't actually have anyhting to say on Halloween itself. Turns out that I completely flubbed the scheduling and ran out of things to write about. I mean, I could have gone into things like how I didn't like trees that looked like they had scales or my certainty that there were nameless horrors lurking in any sufficiently deep body of water, but without the visuals I just don't know if they would be that interesting to talk about. Let's just say that I was too addled by fear to realize that I should have saved the Monkey King.
To make up for it, here's the most terrifying image that I could locate at short notice:
ALL FEAR THE VAMPIRE ELEPHANT!
Living Between Wednesdays is a place for people who love comic books and superheroes.
