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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2014 20:13:10 GMT -5
Wrong cover, guy! And those missing half pages usually contained a house ad, though I seem to recall several Tootsie Roll ads in those spots as well. Cei-U! I summon the mystery solved! Something weird happened to my post... I had actually posted about the first TWO issues, somehow it took one image and the other text... not sure how the heck I managed that! Some of the stuff that got left off: There were definitely still 'lessons' in both issues... we get a little bit on Stalagmites and Stalactites in the origin issue, and a bit on the Salem with trials in the 2nd. I was happy to see when they referenced an element (Europium), they did so correctly with the right atomic number and such. I like that Jean Loring is smart, successful, and Ray has to be 'worthy' of her by being a great scientist. Of course, it being the 60s, they imply she has to stop being a lawyer if they get married, but that's the time talking. I hate the white dwarf star thing. First off, it's very, very heavy, yet Ray can weird it? Is he Goku now? silly. Then the whole 'he's wearing his costume all teh time but it so stretched out you can't see it' bit is pretty silly. I'll give'em props for HAVING an explanation, but it's a real silly one. I do like the 'science' aspect... even if alot of the explanations are silly, I like that they have them.. most of them are at least fun  Also, I agree the covers are great.. the art in general is very good, actually. It's been doing that to me a lot as well lately, look over your post in the BBCode when posting images and make sure everything is there before hitting create post. In Preview mode it is cutting out pics and/or text on me lately. Not sure what the deal is. -M |
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 5, 2014 21:57:25 GMT -5
Something weird happened to my post... I had actually posted about the first TWO issues, somehow it took one image and the other text... not sure how the heck I managed that! Some of the stuff that got left off: There were definitely still 'lessons' in both issues... we get a little bit on Stalagmites and Stalactites in the origin issue, and a bit on the Salem with trials in the 2nd. I was happy to see when they referenced an element (Europium), they did so correctly with the right atomic number and such. I like that Jean Loring is smart, successful, and Ray has to be 'worthy' of her by being a great scientist. Of course, it being the 60s, they imply she has to stop being a lawyer if they get married, but that's the time talking. I hate the white dwarf star thing. First off, it's very, very heavy, yet Ray can weird it? Is he Goku now? silly. Then the whole 'he's wearing his costume all teh time but it so stretched out you can't see it' bit is pretty silly. I'll give'em props for HAVING an explanation, but it's a real silly one. I do like the 'science' aspect... even if alot of the explanations are silly, I like that they have them.. most of them are at least fun Also, I agree the covers are great.. the art in general is very good, actually. It's been doing that to me a lot as well lately, look over your post in the BBCode when posting images and make sure everything is there before hitting create post. In Preview mode it is cutting out pics and/or text on me lately. Not sure what the deal is. -M At least twice to me, too. I thought it was my technical ineptitude. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 10, 2014 23:37:28 GMT -5
 'Prisoner in a Test Tube' two 12 pagers again in this one. The first was by far superior, where the Atom helps free a scientist that was captured by the communists (who aren't actually named, strangely). He was supposed to be coming to America to help Jean's dad with weapons research, but the 'bad guys' captured him and replaced him with a spy that looks just like him. Jean Loring, superspy sniffs him out, though, and gets the Atom to help. He's almost foiled by Flypaper and a test tube, but he prevails. It made me LOL when the Russians were 'torturing' the professor... they just threatened to brain wash him and he knuckled under... I guess what they really did is left to the imagination. Story: B+ Historical Revelence: C- (points for be firmly cold war era) 'The dissapearing Act Robberies' A repeat of the 2nd story, where another of Jean's friends gets falsely accused (this time, the fiancee of the one last time), and it's up to the Atom to help Jean save the day. He finds a researcher with a magic pill that unlocks your brain power and give your telekinectic powers. They're not enough to defeat the Tiny Titan, though. This felt alot like early Captain America, where every other episode is a 'martial display' or 'training session' that goes awry. Story: C Historical Relevence: D I'm starting to see why people like Jean Loring as a character.. she's pretty awesome, and certainly a bit ahead of her time. NO history or science lesson this time, though the CIA agent in the first story looks ALOT like Richard Nixon. |
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Post by Pharozonk on Jul 11, 2014 17:21:18 GMT -5
Jean Loring was pretty cool back in the Silver Age. It's too bad that DC butchered her character in Identity Crisis.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 11, 2014 17:46:44 GMT -5
Not that I was planning to, but I bet I'd really dislike Identity Crisis alot more than I did when it was new... I never really realized just how poorly it treated the DCU.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 30, 2014 19:32:54 GMT -5
 I was looking forward to this one, such a classic cover. The story fell far short, though, both due to the same formula used as the other stories (at least Supes and Batman do something), Flash being made a fool of, and the fact that only Snapper saved the day. At least we get Wonder Woman Vs. Dinosaurs! And did you know the LaBrea Tar Pits had alot of fossils? I do now, thanks to a footnote. It's funny how useless Batman is... quite a contrast to later. History: A Story: C- Apparently, more than one image in a post makes bad things happen... guess I'll do one at a time then |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 31, 2014 8:58:49 GMT -5
 So if you look up 'Silver Age team book' in the dictionary, I think you'll see this story. The top villains of 'Magicland' get together and steal a bunch of cars and tech, then swap with our dimension, causing all science to fail in our world, and all magic to fail in theirs... since they have some technology, they run rampant (though why they want to steal magical artifacts they'd made useless I don't get... perhaps they planned to swap back later). Back in our world, everything stops working.. cars, superpowers, electricity, everything... even matches. The Justice League gathers and decides to summon Merlin (using some legit Shakespearean witches spells... big cauldron and everything). Merlin sends them in three teams to find the bad guys. As a note, it's pretty great the JLA was able to amass a library 'with the sum of all human knowledge' in the short time they've been a team... they must have a heck of an off-panel staff. Or, you know, Wonder Woman takes care of it, since she's a girl. Anyway, we get the usual 3 fights with pairs of Leaguers, who each defeat their villain, who conveniently kept 1/3 of the spell each to swap the worlds back. I thought this was really silly at first, but now that I've thought about it... swapping back after they steal everything makes a little sense, as does keeping a 3rd each (to prevent double cross). I do think it was ridiculous they had Kryptonite, though, and it gets a bit tiresome that EVERY Green Lantern bad guy is yellow... can't someone use their head for 2 seconds and send Hal after the non-yellow people? The day is saved, and Merlin opens a big door home (as shown on the cover), only to reveal a hideous giant...wait no, it's just Snapper, who was playing magic. Everyone laughs and all is well. History: C- (as near as I can tell, Magicland is never heard from again) Story: B |
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Post by paulie on Jul 31, 2014 9:20:20 GMT -5
Not that I was planning to, but I bet I'd really dislike Identity Crisis alot more than I did when it was new... I never really realized just how poorly it treated the DCU. If Identity Crisis was presented as an Elseworlds story it might have been better received by some of the old guard. It featured tons of DC characters, had pretty decent dialogue and had a suspenseful story. Where it failed was that it made some of the poisonous, cynical, character revelations part of continuity.
I thought the panel that Mister Miracle and the Metal Men investigating the crime scene in no way treated the DC universe poorly. I thought that was awesome.
I also was amused that while the JLA flipped out over the mind-wiping, Doctor Strange over in Marvel land has been doing it for years with little to no rebuke as far as I remember.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 31, 2014 9:42:25 GMT -5
I'll have to disagree with the idea that Identity Crisis would have made a good Elseworlds. Identity Crisis was just not very good. Raping, mind-wiping, killing and burning Sue Dibny was excessive and not particularly clever. Then compounding that with another gratuitous destruction of a Silver Age character by making Jean Loring deluded and pathetic, that was also not very good writing. And that fight between the JLA and Deathstroke was just bad.
I don't remember that the dialogue was noticeably bad, so I'll concede that.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 13:41:20 GMT -5
It's been a while since I read Identity Crisis, but I remember not seeing the Loring reveal coming. Was it something that reader wasn't expected to be able to solve? Or was I missing some vital information from other titles?
Or am I just dumb?
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Post by foxley on Jul 31, 2014 16:46:35 GMT -5
Actually, Simon Magus and Magic-Land would crop up again years later in World's Finest #265 in 1980.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 6, 2014 23:28:54 GMT -5
That much be a Haney special  Back to Hawkman:  This was my favorite one so far... the Hawks head home, and after some R&R, they go after some strange criminals, who turn out to be Byth and his buddies. While the way he gets his powers back (liking envelopes one at a time with the ingredients of the pill he took) are a little...well, not scientific, it works well and is pretty clever. There's also the story of how Shayera and Katar first met, which is nice. Interesting that using low tech 'Earth' methods works for them (since the criminals have never seen them), where their fancy ray guns could be prepared for... I like it. No moral this time, but I hardly missed it. History: B Story: A- |
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Post by Action Ace on Aug 7, 2014 16:08:00 GMT -5
That much be a Haney special Nope, Cary Burkett |
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Post by MWGallaher on Aug 8, 2014 9:09:44 GMT -5
It's been a while since I read Identity Crisis, but I remember not seeing the Loring reveal coming. Was it something that reader wasn't expected to be able to solve? Or was I missing some vital information from other titles? Or am I just dumb? It was solvable, so I appreciated it for at least being a fair mystery. I remember getting in some testy exchanges on the old dccomics.com message board when I pointed my finger at Jean several issues before the reveal with someone who wouldn't accept what I thought was quite obvious evidence that Jean was faking her own murder attempt. Actually, the whole series triggered a lot of testy exchanges. I rather enjoyed the mystery...I guess I imagined it as a murder mystery with characters played by some of my favorite superheroes more than a real story about those superheroes' lives. As I recall, there were also a lot of clues that suggested that Captain Boomerang Jr. was not really Boomerang's son, but was the product of an affair between Barry Allen and Sue Dibney. I don't know if that was misdirection or an abandoned idea or whether I was just reading more into it than Meltzer intended, but it seemed pretty obvious to me. |
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Post by paulie on Aug 8, 2014 9:57:09 GMT -5
It's been a while since I read Identity Crisis, but I remember not seeing the Loring reveal coming. Was it something that reader wasn't expected to be able to solve? Or was I missing some vital information from other titles? Or am I just dumb? It was solvable, so I appreciated it for at least being a fair mystery. I remember getting in some testy exchanges on the old dccomics.com message board when I pointed my finger at Jean several issues before the reveal with someone who wouldn't accept what I thought was quite obvious evidence that Jean was faking her own murder attempt. Actually, the whole series triggered a lot of testy exchanges. I rather enjoyed the mystery...I guess I imagined it as a murder mystery with characters played by some of my favorite superheroes more than a real story about those superheroes' lives. As I recall, there were also a lot of clues that suggested that Captain Boomerang Jr. was not really Boomerang's son, but was the product of an affair between Barry Allen and Sue Dibney. I don't know if that was misdirection or an abandoned idea or whether I was just reading more into it than Meltzer intended, but it seemed pretty obvious to me. A well-stated review.
I guess I imagined it as a murder mystery with characters played by some of my favorite superheroes more than a real story about those superheroes' lives. I'm going to use this quote when trying to explain what I liked about Identity Crisis in the future. Now I need to one that I can use for what I didn't like about it...
I missed the Barry/Sue angle.
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