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Post by Farrar on Sept 18, 2015 9:43:17 GMT -5
Ahhh... looked it up... it's not that similar (though that costume would totally work for Ivy).. love the crown! Maybe you can review that Poison Ivy story here at some point. It's in the Batman Showcase Volume 2 (Batman #175-188 and Detective Comics #343-358). |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 18, 2015 20:14:57 GMT -5
I don't have any Batman ones at the moment, but I have been really digging them, so that possiblity definitely exists.  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 3, 2015 23:32:06 GMT -5
 Hawkman #2 Fox/Anderson 'Secret of the Sizzling Sparklers' Yet another random alien invasion (man, they hated Earth in the Silver Age)... though these aliens like to turn stuff into interlocking circle towers. The towers turn out to be good aliens, who are enslaved by this current batch of bad ones. They explain that cosmic rays can give the aliens super sense and take over the world. Hawkman decides a sparkler coated in firefly stuff will defeat them, and somehow it works. The End! Completely forgettable story.. at least Mavis made a cameo Rating: D History: F 'Wings Across Time' A dig finds what they think are Icarus' wings, and they want Carter Hall to try them out to get some money for the museum. It works, but on the way home Carter is attacked by some bank robbers that blast him with a bazooka, tearing up his wings. He goes back to the museum and uses the Icarus ones to win day. Seems like Fox, or some editor, wanted to get the legend on ICarus in there. Cute, but 'good' is an overstatement Rating: C History: D- |
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 5, 2015 18:33:14 GMT -5
Hawkman #2 was the first and only issue of Hawkman that I bought when it came out. I didn't like it any more than you did; that's why I never bought another!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 5, 2015 18:38:39 GMT -5
Hawkman #2 was the first and only issue of Hawkman that I bought when it came out. I didn't like it any more than you did; that's why I never bought another! This was the first one in the collection that felt really phoned in... up to this point, it was neck and neck with the Atom as my favorite. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 8, 2015 22:06:27 GMT -5
 Batman #78 'Manhunter from Mars' Hamilton/Kane/Schwartz Gotham is being plagued by the Stranger, who seems 'unearthly'. Turns out he's a Martian Fugitive. Batman and Robin track him to the forest, and put a giant metal detector to find his ship. Instead, they find the Martian Police, trying to track him down. Batman teams up with the Martian Roh Kar, but Robin gets captured and strapped to a rocket. The good guys save the day, in the end. This isn't J'onn at all... not sure why they put this in there. These Martians are just humans with weird outfits, as most of DC's one off aliens are. It's just odd they used Martians instead of making up a planet like usual. They have trouble with Earth's oxygen, but otherwise seem unremarkable. Rating: C- History C (no actual first appearance, just the name in lights) Detective Comics #225 Samachson/Certa 'The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel' The first of a very, very long run of Detective Comics backups for J'onn Dr. Erdel uses his robot brain, but accidently summons J'onn J'onzz to Earth, then promptly dies... trapping J'onn on Earth. J'onn takes on the guise of John Jones, and decides to help Earth out while he's stuck there, and gets a job as a detective. To be continued. J'onn's powers off the bat are shape shifting, intangibility, and some sort of microscopic telekenesis. (He goes to water (I guess the ocean) and uses his 'mind over matter' powers to somehow extract gold.) He also implies he can't age, and does mention his fear of fire. Not much to the story, but a good set up. Rating: B History: A (1st J'onn J'onzz) |
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 9, 2015 7:24:42 GMT -5
I assume you're working from the Martian Manhunter Showcase. or you'd know that the Martians in Batman #78 are green-skinned like J'onn and not just "humans with weird outfits." Although I don't know for sure, I'm guessing that issue sold well enough to justify creating a new series featuring a Martian protagonist, hence its inclusion in the Showcase as the series' sorta kinda pilot.
Cei-U!
I summon the precedent!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 9, 2015 12:26:48 GMT -5
I suspected as much, but yes, I'm reading the showcase, so it's black and white. In that format, they look alot like the aliens from the last Hawkman story, not to mention the last couple Flash ones.... it's alot like the 'all aliens have funny bumps on their head in ST:TNG' syndrome Even green, they're not very similar, either in naming (no 's) or look. Really it's only the name of the story that seems similar... I wonder if the editor was simply not familiar, saw the name, and included it? I'll have to check when I get home and see if it's edited by an actual comic book person or a Time-Warner bean counter of some sort |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 9, 2015 12:32:37 GMT -5
Ok, so I decided to go grab a colored image of good 'ol Roh Kar. There's a bit of a similarity, I suppose. he does have the chest-bullseye straps, and he's green. His gear looks alot more like Adam Strange than anything else, though. Also, no evidence of any of J'onn's powers, though I suppose he could have been hiding them to not make Batman nervous.  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 17, 2015 9:08:47 GMT -5
Detective Comics #226 Samachson/Certa 'The Case of the Magic Baseball' Big Bob Michaels is out of jail, and is a great pitcher. He wants to go straight, but the mob wants him to throw games for them... John Jones is on the case! He uses his 'Martian Molecular Hypnosis' to make the ball dance around when Bob is week and hums one in, and again when he's at the plate to turn a line drive out into the game winning homer. When the mobsters head out to take revenge, he captures them... the end! Martian Powers on display: Passing through walls, Invisibility, Prophecy (he looks into the future and sees a 1-0 score, which he then makes happen), Martian Molecular Hypnosis (which is alot like Telekinesis) - Interestingly, we only know he's a Martian this story because he says so, he appears as John Jones the entire story.. we see only the shadow of his Martian form when he uses his powers: - The baseball teams playing are the Flamingos and the Wonders... ugh. I guess this is before they started calling all of Gotham's teams the Knights. Though, come to think of it.. it never actually says this IS Gotham, or anywhere else, so maybe it isn't?  Detective Comics #227 Samachson/Certa 'The Man with 20 Lives' We get an extended origin recap this time (almost a full page rather than a panel)... instead of J'onn lamenting hell get home 'someday' when Martian master space travel, he names the 'Star-Ride' project as in process. He also states he eliminated crime on Mars during 'the Great Evolution'.. I wonder if that stuff ever comes up again? The criminal this time is Monte Fisk (Did Stan swipe that name from here for Kingpin?).. John reads his mind to find out how he got away with a shooting... the crook timed his shot with a clock striking twelve. He tells the crook he knows, and bedevils him with his Martian Powers (seeming dying several times) before the bewildered Fisk confesses. The End! Martian Powers on Display: - Telepathy(against an unwilling host), Intangibility/INvisibility (at the same time), Flight - We see the 'weakness to fire' on display.. .as being in in close proximity to a fire (when Fisk crashes his car) knocks J'onn's powers out for 'hours' Luckily, the bad guy went and confessed in the mean time - We actually 'see' J'onn in Martian form this issue, both when he's brooding in the origin recap, and in ghostly variety when he's using his powers (rather than the shadow effect used last issue..except for the only pic I could find, naturally). It does seem he's a secret from the public, though.  |
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 17, 2015 10:30:44 GMT -5
Stan Lee never gave Kingpin a civilian name. Frank Miller did, in Daredevil #170.
Cei-U!
I summon the correct credit!
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 17, 2015 13:28:39 GMT -5
Detective Comics #226 Samachson/Certa 'The Case of the Magic Baseball' - The baseball teams playing are the Flamingos and the Wonders... ugh. I guess this is before they started calling all of Gotham's teams the Knights. Though, come to think of it.. it never actually says this IS Gotham, or anywhere else, so maybe it isn't? There has been some discussion on various blogs about where the Martian Manhunter stories take place. I've got 15 or 16 issues of Detective Comics from the Martian Manhunter era and the location I remember seeing mentioned from time to time is Middletown. The blogger Scipio of "The Absorbascon" has written extensively about the Martian Manhunter, and he has taken his cue from the use of "Apex" in the names of companies and organizations in the Martian Manhunter stories to postulate the existence of Apex City, though I don't think Scipio claims it's ever been explicitly called that. He also cites evidence from the stories to say it's in Florida. As much as I respect Scipio's efforts with regards to many of the burning issues facing Silver Age scholars, I disagree with him on this one. (Although maybe Apex City is a section of Middletown? Or perhaps it's a nearby community?) My reasons are personal. My hometown is Middletown, Indiana, and I get a kick out of reading Martian Manhunter stories and pretending that they are taking place where I grew up, although I must admit that I seldom see any locations that bear more than a passing resemblance to the streets I trod as a youth. I might try to find some of Scipio's best Martian Manhunter posts and link to them, but I think I'll put them on the Martian Manhunter thread that's floating around. Edited to add: A little preliminary browsing finds a reference that it's Middleton, not Middletown, and it wasn't used until 1988! Is my memory that bad? I though for sure I saw "Middletown" in the actual stories! If that means I have to read a bunch of Martian Manhunter stories over the next few days, SO BE IT! |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 17, 2015 15:54:15 GMT -5
Stan Lee never gave Kingpin a civilian name. Frank Miller did, in Daredevil #170. Cei-U! I summon the correct credit! Seriously?!? Wow, that's crazy! This isn't the first time I found a 'Marvel' name on a throwaway DC character, so I figured.... I had no idea Kingpin went without a real name so long. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 17, 2015 15:55:29 GMT -5
I'll keep my eyes peeled for Geographic references, don't you worry!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 17, 2015 22:36:32 GMT -5
Detective Comics #228 Wood/Certa 'Escape to the Stars' Master Thief Alex Dunster is on a high tech crime spree, which leads him to the machine that brought J'onn to Earth. Dunster seems to figure it out, but the Manhunter has to get him man... he tried to apprehend him instead of using the machine to go home after he escapes.. and of course it gets smashed in the tousle. The End! Martian Powers used: Intangibility, Super Martian Hearing, X-Ray Vision. Funny how a different writer came in to do something so important to long term plotting as destroying the chance J'onn could go home! Strangely, Dunster uses what looks like Nitro to try to attack, and it show flames shooting about, not bother J'onn at all.. also, apparently Electricity is different enough from fire to not effect him. No city name, but we do get J'onz with one 'z' here... I assume that's just a bad edit..kinda suprised they didn't fix it for the collection (but happy).  Detective Comics #229 Miller/Certa 'The Phantom Bodyguard' John is assigned bodyguard duty for a rich guy who thinks his partner is trying to kill him after he gets tossed off a cliff (luckily he landed in a drying fishing net.. really!) After a couple accidents, the rich guy decides he needs a gun.. and reveals it was a trick to kill his partner with an excuse all along! Luckily, our hero figured it out ahead of time, and took all the bullets! The end! This one is an actual detective story, with really little sign of superheroing. J'onn does use his Martian face to scare the sharks, but that's it. The rest is staight crime story... it it works quite nicely. This is the first one written by Jack Miller, who writes every story in the rest of the volume (up past Issue #300)... it's definitely a good start! On the geography front, we get some coast line and a cliff, so probably not in the mid-west. Detective Comics #230 'The Sleuth without a Clue' We get an extended origin recap (I guess with the new writer)... no other sign of Martian Powers, though, other than a montage of past cases.. there's a comet going by that cancelled them out, apparently. Despite the handicap, John finds the Farrow Gang and save the chief's job! The End. This felt like a fill in, which is odd, since it's not. Strangely, John escaped being tied up by human means, rather than being intangible for a second... not sure what happened there. More evidence that it's a coastal city and the newspaper is the 'Daily Gazette', but nothing else, other than it's really odd that the other people aren't called by name. John's boss is just 'chief' (Not sure if it's meant to still be the Captain Harding of before).. and even the 'chief' calls the District Attorney 'D.A'.. which is really odd. |
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