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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 17:13:25 GMT -5
And, most recently, a contestant in the war for Hell, in which all the various manifestations of the devil in the Marvel Universe (including Mephisto, Hela, Satanna, and several others) all fought over control of Rayne Sincair (wolfsbane's) child. Strong Guy got himself killed to save Monet (his girlfriend.. and X Character orginally from the Generation X series), and got involved... and ended up winning. He was name overlord of hell, so he's techincally Mephisto (and everyone else's boss)... though no one else has referred to it in a comic since. Maybe it was actually a Mephistobot. an LMD...Lame Mephisto Decoy.... -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 11, 2014 22:29:00 GMT -5
OK, back on track...  Ugh.. the manhawks are pretty darn cool visuals, but what a clunker of a story. Apparently, they're a villain of the past, as your Katar Hol and his father faced them long ago. When they attack Earth, the police commissioner calls Thanagar, and we get the flashback. A few fun origin bits here, but the Manhawks are not given much motivation, and their powers are from coal (?) filament in their masks. The Thanagarians stopped them with a pressure gun that turned the coal into diamond. Because coal is such a good way to focus an energy beam... not Diamonds, oh no Back on Earth, the Hawks learn the Manhawks have changed their masks and are using Rubies instead to shoot Lasers (we get a little class on them.. boy, I feel educated) that teleport things a couple minutes into the future. Apparently, this allows them to shoot each other, and hide until time catches up of something... I wasn't clear. The hawks use thermite (another history note!) to subdue them and save the day. Not even Mavis' brief cameo could save this one. History: B (deep origin for Katar and the Thanagarians in general) Story: C- |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 22:49:18 GMT -5
Manhawks are truly terrifying.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 30, 2014 23:22:35 GMT -5
Guess I was just kidding when I said I was back of track... this time, though.  I definitely like the 2 12 page format better than 1 longer story with 'chapters' It seems like the latter were written with the possibility of being a back up feature, which means recaps. 'Earth's Impossible Day' - Apparently Thanagar has a holiday on it's July 4th (just gonna ignore the calendar nonsense as an over-simplification), where you're supposed to do 3 seemingly impossible things, then have a picnic to celebrate them after. Hawkgirl is bummed they're missing it, but then circumstances turn out that they do 3 seemingly impossible things, right on Earth, to bust up a series of somewhat related crimes. Fun quasi-science provided the background, and, other than what seemed to be a HUGE power boost to make one work (they fly fast enough in a circle to do the Flash thing and create a whirlpool to rise up and send water into a fire), it was a good read. Story: B HIstory: ?? (I can't imagine Impossible Day was ever mentioned again, no the generic mobster bad guys, but I don't know for certain) ' The Men who Moved the World' - An ancient race frozen in the arctic(who are people with animal heads) decided to move Earth into Venus' orbit to make the climate better so they can regain control of the Earth and wipe out civilization. Their plan works to perfection, except they forget that the days were shorter when Earth was closed to the sun (  ), so Hawkman just turns off their machine and all goes back to normal. This one was just TOO silly for me, but hey, the 1st one was really good, and 'Lansinar' is a great name for a lost city. Story C- History: D (I couldn't find any future reference to Lansinar, but seems like the sort of thing someone would re-visit.. maybe it was just too silly) |
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 1, 2014 12:00:18 GMT -5
Gardner Fox's stories are full of lost cities, subterranean ecosystems, hidden races, planets from another dimension, and other visitors from strange places, and the one thing they have in common is that they are never mentioned again.
That's one of the things I liked about Marvel back then - Stan didn't let things drop, he developed them and made them more and more interesting. Imagine if the Skrulls had never appeared again after FF #2, or if Ka-Zar and the Savage Land had never appeared after X-Men #10.
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Post by JKCarrier on Oct 1, 2014 12:12:41 GMT -5
History: D (I couldn't find any future reference to Lansinar, but seems like the sort of thing someone would re-visit.. maybe it was just too silly) IIRC, the Lansinar turned up again during John Byrne's run on Wonder Woman. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 1, 2014 12:56:58 GMT -5
History: D (I couldn't find any future reference to Lansinar, but seems like the sort of thing someone would re-visit.. maybe it was just too silly) IIRC, the Lansinar turned up again during John Byrne's run on Wonder Woman. Poor Lansinar. I think it would be better to remain in Limbo. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 1, 2014 22:07:45 GMT -5
You're absolutely correct! In fact, Wonder Woman #115 is titled 'The Men Who Moved the World'. Hilariously, the DC wikia lists that as the Lansinar's first appearance, and that they were created by Byrne. They list them in the Brave and the Bold listing, but don't name them as Lansinarians, but rather as unknown aliens. I don't usually change that kinda stuff, but it was very satisfying to do so  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 2, 2014 21:49:58 GMT -5
So I checked my spreadsheet, and it turns out I actually had Wonder Woman #117 (apparently, the Lansinarian story line was a 3 issue arc), so I checked it out.
He made them a pre-Egyptian society that accidently made the Earth tilt on it's axis or something, causing their empire to be in the arctic. While the people coped as best they could, the 4 leaders turned themselves into 'wild beasts' so they could conquer/coerce a new empire. They beat the Egyptians, but lost to the ancient Greeks (thanks to Zeus), so naturally they hate Wonder Woman.
In the end, they have the good guys completely trapped, but Wonder Woman points out that after 40,000 years living under the arctic ice, they Lansinarians would all die if they left.. they bought it and everyone went home.
Of note, the common Lansinarians(who apparently enjoy living underground in the arctic) gave Wonder Woman an invisible jet (because that's who Byrne rolls making old cool things new and cheesy), and I guess they're still there.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 4, 2014 7:52:50 GMT -5
I finally got the Flash Omnibus with this month's DCBS order (I feel like I ordered it so long ago), so I'll probably do a few of those in a row to catch up to the others. What's cool is it includes the 'last' Jay Garrick story from Flash Comics. Not so cool is the front flap says Flash is from COAST city, which is a really bizarre error.  I really like that cover... even if I like Hawkman's silver age costume better.. great mood. Anyway, the Flash story actually focuses a bit on Joan Williams(later Garrick), and how she feels bad she told some other guy about how Jay became the Flash. She then feels REALLY bad when someone calling himself 'The Rival' shows up with Super Speed and Super Speedy Henchmen. It turns out someone else in the lab was able to reproduce Jay's hard water experiment. Could this be considered the first even retcon? Really fun story with a plot twist ending, one of the better ones I've read of the age... not the best art (Carmine INfantino is FAR better), but decent. Story: A- (Would have easily been an A with better art) Historical Signifigance: A- last 50s Jay Garrick story, first evil Speedster,, The Rival turns back up in the Geoff Johns JSA series and Impulse, but certainly never reaches the level of the Barry Allen rogues. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 4, 2014 9:43:18 GMT -5
The artist on that last GA Flash story IS Carmine Infantino (inked by Bernard Sachs). He was still a Milton Caniff wannabe in those days, the unique style we associate with Carmine still a couple of years away. Cei-U! Thought he was done writing about Flash Comics for a while!  |
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 4, 2014 11:54:12 GMT -5
The Silver Age Carmine Infantino wasn't really Carmine Infantino. It was the Earl of Oxford using Infantino's name.
It's a fact! John Byrne told me!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 4, 2014 23:34:11 GMT -5
Wow, I would never have guessed that was still Infantino... he sure did get better! I think this is my first time reading the actual comics for Barry Allen, so if I say anything dumb, feel free to point it out .... I only read a few very late pre-crisis Flash books... my Flash is really Wally West. Anyway...  Two stories in this one (both full length, it seemed)....I guess they wanted the origin out of the way, then went right into a thief from the future and Flash time travel. I'm obviously not going to recap the origin story, but I will make a few comments: - It cracked me up that 'every chemical known to man' fits on one small bookshelf. Typical silver age DC, though - LOVE that Jay Garrick is a comic book character, I knew this was part of the story, but it's worth repeating how awesome it is - Seems like having Super Speed should have be alot harder to adjust to. I mean, he goes from not even realizing he had super speed to running on water to Time travel awfully quickly. - I hope the little wings on the boots go away soon (thanks alot, Cei-U, for getting me thinking about costumes!), they seem to disappear 3 or 4 panels every story. THe art is definitely better than the other Flash story though, and getting close to what I expected. - DC in the silver age sure did love to give a wink-wink to the readers, didn't they.. the last panel with Iris telling Barry she's love to meet the Flash I swear happened in the Atom and Hawkman, too. - I guess it was because they weren't yet committed to superheroes, but it's interesting it took 2+ years for the Flash to get into his own mag, while The Atom, Hawkman and others did it so quickly a few years later. |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Oct 5, 2014 3:26:39 GMT -5
I've read all of the early Flash stories in Showcase and find it hilarious, and disturbing, how Isis basically emasculates him at the end of every story. "You're the slowest human alive, Barry! Why can't I date a real man like the Flash?!" Geez.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 5, 2014 6:44:52 GMT -5
Yeah, either that was an on-purpose running in joke with the DC writers, or they just all thought it was hilarious.. it happens REALLY often, and not just in Flash.
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), so Hawkman just turns off their machine and all goes back to normal. This one was just TOO silly for me, but hey, the 1st one was really good, and 'Lansinar' is a great name for a lost city.
