Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 15

Justice League America #26: Slice & Dice or: There’s Something Very Wrong With Blue Beetle (May 1989)

THE PACKAGING: Volume 4 of the JLI trade, but take another look at that issue title — we’re not Justice League International any more! Or rather, JLI has become an umbrella brand, covering Justice League America (the continuing main title) and Justice League Europe. There will be more spin-offs to come! This is the first time that we have had a Justice League America title without a tiny ‘of’ popped in there, which helps distinguish this iteration from the Silver Age years.

THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen (Plot & Breakdowns), J.M. DeMatteis (Script), Ty Templeton (Pencils), Joe Rubenstein (Inks), Gene D’Angelo (Colors), Andy Helfer (Editor) Kevin Dooley (Assistant Editor)

JUSTICE LEAGUE ROLL CALL: Guy Gardner, Fire, Oberon, Blue Beetle, Maxwell Lord, J’onn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter and to everyone’s surprise, Batman. Is he still a member, or a guest star? He’s certainly acting like he owns the place…

GUEST STARS: Huntress (Helena Bertinelli), and a mysterious voice on the phone.

THE STORY: It’s just another day on the ranch. Blue Beetle is slacking off on monitor duty. After getting chewed out by the extremely managerial Oberon, he answers a phone with grumpiness and sarcasm.

After hanging up, Blue Beetle walks calmly to the kitchen, finds a knife, and savagely attacks both Max and Oberon.

Yep. That’s a thing that happens in this comic.

Guy and Fire are alerted to the drama when a bleeding Oberon staggers in their direction. Guy, who turns out to be surprisingly mature in a crisis, is about to chase after the rampaging Beetle when he is distracted by a massive burst of green flame…

Max runs for it, pursued by a murderous Beetle, convinced that overwork has caused his co-worker to turn into a terrifying serial killer. Exactly how hard have you been working them, Max?

(We get some mutterings from our hero turned slasher implicating that he serves his queen… wonder who that could be!)

Beetle is prevented from killing Max by a new superhero in town: the Huntress! Confused at the situation, because she’s pretty sure Blue Beetle is supposed to be a good guy, she fights him to unconsciousness… only to find herself in serious trouble when a highly suspicious Batman finds her standing over the bodies of his [friends] co-workers.

In the aftermath, J’onn reports to Batman and a bandaged Max that Oberon is stable in hospital. But what are they going to do about Blue Beetle?

THE CHARACTERS: This is one of my all time favourite issues, and definitely the best so far of this reread. The balance of horror and humour is spot on, the art is fantastic (all those swirling cloaks as the Huntress faces off against Batman), and Blue Beetle is chilling in his competence as he turns Very Very Bad. He’s so often treated as a joke, even by himself, so it’s great to be reminded that he can be lethal in the wrong hands.

This is also a great introduction for the Huntress, one of my all time favourite superheroes.

Even Guy Gardner is good here, showing surprising depth for what may be the first time. He’s a dick, sure, but a tiny part of him is concerned for Oberon, and for once he doesn’t let his overall dickishness sabotage the story.

THE COMEDY: This one’s not that funny — and yet there is humour in amongst the sharp-edges, and it’s far more effective than where the issue is wall to wall Bwa-ha-ha. It’s certainly clever, and the juxtaposition of the usual Blue Beetle jokes with his cold-faced killer routine is brilliant.

THE ART: There’s a bizarre tradition in this comic of opening with a panel of Guy Gardner making dramatic statements about his role in the League… and this one has always stuck in my mind as a particularly strange depiction of Guy as some kind of supermodel elf prince. He’s more comforting when he’s ugly.

Otherwise the art in this one is spot on — Templeton is more interesting when he’s not mimicking the Maguire style, and he draws Huntress fantastically. Almost as if giving a female character a full costume instead of a swimsuit encourages the artist to treat her like a capable person… His Batman is pretty great too, and there’s some very interesting composition in the dramatic shots.

THE KITCHEN SINK: What was with that green flame? Fire’s subpot is an odd storyline that happens around the edges of the comic instead of front and centre, and it took me a long time to figure out the chronology of it, probably because of not reading the issues in order (and I still haven’t read the Invasion mini-series). Basically, Bea’s powers have transformed into something with a heck of a lot more FIRE than her previous nose and throat mini-flames, thanks to that meta-human gene bomb virus. We’re going to hear more about that in issues to come.

But I think the important thing here is, faced with one co-worker on a murderous rampage against his boss, and a second co-worker unexpectedly bursting into flames, Guy made the choice to get Oberon to hospital and help out Fire instead of chasing after the violence and glory. Finally, character development!

Also I love that he calls her ‘Flame’ because why would he bother to take note of a code name change?

BONUS CHARACTER HISTORY: The Huntress (Helena Bertinelli)

Huntress is one of those strange, controversial characters whose post-Crisis identity was so radically different to her pre-Crisis identity that fans ended up taking sides over which version they liked best. Later, when the New 52 reboot caused fan consternation by erasing pretty much everything cool that happened between 1986 and 2011, our Helena became one of the eyes of that particular storm along with Oracle/Barbara Gordon, Lois & Clark’s marriage, and let’s not even start on Dinah Lance.

Ahem. The interesting thing about Huntress is, she started out as Batman’s daughter.

Back when DC Comics hosted a Multiverse, and Earth 2 was a little further along the timeline than Earth 1, Helena Wayne was the wealthy, successful lawyer daughter of millionaire (retired Batman) Bruce Wayne and his wife Selina Kyle (former criminal mastermind Catwoman). Helena created her own superhero identity, using elements of both parents’ costumes, and fought crime by night as well as by day. She was pretty great. There’s a trade, Darknight Daughter, which covers a lot of Helena Wayne’s adventures, and she also had many appearances in Infinity Inc, a team made up of second generation superheroes.

After Crisis, when the universes merged, there was no place for an adult daughter of Batman. So in 1989, Helena was given a different name and Gotham-based backstory when she was reintroduced to the DCU: she was now Helena Bertinelli, daughter of a notorious mobster family, who started fighting crime as a way to avenge her own violent past. It being the late 80’s she had rape as well as double parenticide as part of her tragic backstory. Her costume was redesigned, too — it still featured the purple cloak and other elements evoking Batman and Catwoman’s own costumes (though ironically the post-Crisis Catwoman did not wear the costume that inspired those elements any more) but now also featured religious iconography, specially a crucifix in every iteration, as well as a weirdly-tempting-fate-for-a-hero-who-uses-a-crossbow midriff window.

(So yeah, there’s a reason that these scenes with Batman being so suspicious of her are especially resonant — it’s like his teenage self come back to life, from another universe)

The new Huntress series (which ran for 19 issues) was launched only one issue before her appearance here in Justice League America, featuring her new origin story. Written by Joey Cavalieri and pencilled by Joe Staton, this Gotham crime comic was edited by the team of Andy Helfer & Kevin Dooley, who were already working on the JLI comics, which may have expedited this instant crossover.

The Huntress was to become a staple in the DC Universe through the 90’s and beyond, with significant storylines in Batman, Robin and Nightwing comics as well as her own titles and miniseries. She was a central character in the epic No Man’s Land Batman arc, in which she briefly took on the identity of Batgirl before Barbara Gordon passed it on to the newly-introduced Cassandra Cain. Helena Bertinelli’s Huntress would go on to become one of the key figures of the groundbreaking Birds of Prey series.

She was much mourned, when the New 52niverse discarded her to bring back the equally epic Earth 2 Helena Wayne. Why we gotta choose, DC?*

*A new Helena Bertinelli of Earth 1 was eventually brought into the New 52 DCU, as an Italian woman of colour partnered with Dick Grayson in his own comic.

While it was Helena Wayne who was the Huntress in the Birds of Prey TV show, the Helena Bertinelli version appeared on Arrow (which apparently exists in a Batman-free universe). Huntress (Helena Bertinelli wearing the classic costume of Helena Wayne) also appeared with “un-mother” Catwoman in this classic Birds of Prey themed episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, written by Gail Simone:

Sheep Might Fly: Death at the Dragon Circus Part 5

New episode is up! Death at the Dragon Circus: Part 5, In Which Kurt Has A Type



They used to be the Hammer and the Dove, a ruthless pair of living weapons for hire. Now they have reinvented themselves as Kurt and Inga Frostad, searching for all the key ingredients of a fresh start: a home, a community, a job that doesn’t require them to kill people. The Dragon Circus may be exactly what they need, as long as their old life doesn’t catch up with them…



PREVIOUS EPISODES:

Part 1: In Which Inga Was Not Expecting Dragons

Part 2: In Which Inga Learns To Fly

Part 3: In Which Brennan is Not a Civilian

Part 4, In Which Fin Needs A Friend

This novella was recently published in the ClanDestine anthology And Then: The Great Big Book Of Awesome Adventure Tales.

Thanks for listening to Sheep Might Fly! You can follow TansyRR on Twitter & Tumblr, like my page on Facebook at Tansy RR Books and sign up to my author newsletter. You can also support the podcast at Patreon for cool rewards, exclusive stories and more.

Galactic Suburbia 166

New Episode!

In which we debate the all important question, how much zombie vomit is too much zombie vomit?

WHAT’S NEW ON THE INTERNET

Clarke Award Shortlist

The End of Tropes Vs Women

Sleeping With Monsters Book coming soon!

CULTURE CONSUMED

Alisa: Rogue One, Santa Clarita Diet

Tansy: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Beauty & the Beast, Legion Ep 1, “Making the Magic Lightning Strike Me,” John Chu in Uncanny Magazine

Alex: The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu; Gemina, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff; The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel; other people’s culture consumed (Asher, Kathryn, Meredith)

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon – which now includes access to the ever so exclusive GS Slack – and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Justice League Europe #1: How Ya Gonna Keep Them Down On The Farm After They’ve Seen Paree? (April 1989)

THE PACKAGING: Justice League International trade Vol Five

THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen (Plot & Breakdowns), J.M. DeMatteis (Script), Bart Sears (Pencils), Pablo Marcos (Inks), Gene D’Angelo (Colors), Andy Helfer (Editor)

THE PITCH: Spin off time! There’s a whole new Justice League setting up shop in the Paris Embassy.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ROLL CALL: Captain Atom, Power Girl, Metamorpho, the Flash (Wally West), Wonder Woman, Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny), Animal Man, Rocket Red (Dmitri Pushkin), with Catherine Cobert and Sue Dibny in civilian support.

GUEST STARS: Maxwell Lord, Oberon, Inspector Camus

THE STORY: Here we go again! Captain Atom freaks out at being left in charge of a whole superhero team, knowing the kind of shenanigans that goes on around Justice Leagues. He is calmed somewhat by the soothing competence of Catherine Cobert, Embassy Liason.

The rest of the team make their own way in, one by one… and due to some serious teleporter malfunctions, they have to rely on superpowers and airplanes. As they start to get a feel for each other, Captain Atom hosts the awkwardest business meeting in the history of administration. But hey, at least he has an office.

A mysterious man dies on their doorstep with one word on his lips (“braces”), and while Captain Atom is determined to leave this clearly normal case to the police, it soon gets out of hand. Brainwashed hordes of civilians storm the embassy, laying siege to our heroes. The gravel-faced Inspector Camus reveals that their corpse is a known Nazi. Faced with certain disaster instead of just worrying about imaginary potential disaster, Captain Atom’s day actually improves… finally, it’s time to go to work!

THE CHARACTERS: Oh, what a difference a flaw makes! Captain Atom, who was so rigid and judgemental in the JLI, is heaps more sympathetic here as he collapses under the weight of his own anxieties. The soft, teasing presence of Catherine and the wave of jokes about Americans only serves to make him more likeable.

Wally West, one of my all time favourites, isn’t winning any hearts yet. His only contributions to the proceedings are to sexually harass Power Girl, and anticipate his future sexual harassment of Wonder Woman. Oh, Wally. Don’t do this to me too. I’m already dealing with Blue Beetle’s bullshit.

Dmitri comes off great, his sense of humour just a bit broader and more troll-like than everyone else’s, and I love the way he plays off the grumpier characters like Buddy/Animal Man.

Both Wonder Woman and Animal Man are already wondering why they’re even here which doesn’t bode well for the future.

We only get a glimpse of the loveliness that is Ralph and Sue’s marital bliss, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of that, and less of Ralph’s unfunny digs at Wally for being not as good as Barry Allen, the original Flash.

THE COMEDY: It’s all the usual sort of thing — banter, chaos and superheroes chirping each other. Dmitri takes it a few steps further by employing elaborate Russian literary practical jokes, which I enjoy greatly. People always assume that the dude who can’t speak perfect English is actually dumb.

If there’s a theme to this book as a whole, it’s making fun of Americans abroad. It… doesn’t get old.

THE ART: Gotta get this out there right away: I really can’t stand Bart Sears’ artwork. Even when I was first reading these in the 90’s when I didn’t even think about who the individual artists were, his work gave me hives.

His proportions are ugly, weird and wrong. His women look especially strange, all tiny heads and enormous hair. Boobs and butts everywhere — though at least the sexual objectification seems reasonably even. We get a lot of shots of Captain Atom’s butt. Who does he think he is, Nightwing?

I hates it, I do, but I love this comic. So. I will survive.

One note: while I really can’t stand anything about how Sears draws Power Girl, I do appreciate that he has made the choice to give her noticeable musculature around the shoulders and thighs. She looks like a bruiser, always.

(Cries, the art is so ugly)

THE KITCHEN SINK: My team, my team, my team! I didn’t get to see this particular issue until the release of the trade a few years ago, so my journey through Justice League Europe started with Issue 2 way back when. It’s lovely to see important characters like Catherine and Inspector Camus part of the story right from the start.

Camus has a grizzled noir-style look about him which suits Bart Spears’ art style in a way that many other characters simply don’t. I love that he drags an orbit of film noir with him, whenever he strides onto the page in his trenchcoat.

BONUS CHARACTER HISTORY: Animal Man

Animal Man began life as a minor superhero in the 1960’s, created by Dave Wood and Carmine Infantino. Buddy Baker was a Hollywood stunt man who received powers from aliens: He can mimick the ability of any animal. He mostly appeared in the ongoing title Strange Adventures, though he also turned up in a few issues of Wonder Woman, Action Comics, etc.

During Crisis on Infinite Earths, he appeared briefly as part of a superhero team called “Forgotten Heroes” which sums up his place in the pecking order of DC characters.

All this changed in the late 80’s when several British writers were brought in to reinvent minor DC properties as darker, more “adult” titles, which ultimately led to the DC Vertigo line. Alan Moore took Swamp Thing, Neil Gaiman took Sandman… and Grant Morrison took Animal Man.

From 1988-1990, Morrison’s run was memorable for its portrayal of Buddy as an everyman character balancing an ordinary domestic life with a bizarre world of magic and superheroes. It strongly promoted animal rights and anti-cruelty, as well as employing meta-narrative, surrealism and philosophy.

Issue #26, the last comic of Morrison’s run, featured the writer himself in conversation with Buddy, and having to justify the cruelty he had inflicted on the character (including allowing Buddy’s family to be murdered). At the end, the fictional Morrison waved a hand and returned Buddy’s wife and children to life…

Continuing with new creative teams, the Animal Man series went on to last 89 issues, and was one of seven existing titles that helped to launch the DC Vertigo imprint in 1993.

PREVIOUSLY ON THE ONE TRUE JUSTICE LEAGUE:

Justice League The Story So Far

Justice League #1 (May 1987)

Justice League International #24

Sheep Might Fly: Death at the Dragon Circus Part 4

New episode is up! Death at the Dragon Circus: Part 4, In Which Fin Needs A Friend



They used to be the Hammer and the Dove, a ruthless pair of living weapons for hire. Now they have reinvented themselves as Kurt and Inga Frostad, searching for all the key ingredients of a fresh start: a home, a community, a job that doesn’t require them to kill people. The Dragon Circus may be exactly what they need, as long as their old life doesn’t catch up with them…

PREVIOUS EPISODES:

Part 1: In Which Inga Was Not Expecting Dragons

Part 2: In Which Inga Learns To Fly

Part 3 In Which Brennan is Not a Civilian

This novella was recently published in the ClanDestine anthology And Then: The Great Big Book Of Awesome Adventure Tales.

Thanks for listening to Sheep Might Fly! You can follow TansyRR on Twitter & Tumblr, like my page on Facebook at Tansy RR Books and sign up to my author newsletter. You can also support the podcast at Patreon for as little as $1 per month.

New Rewards, Exclusive Stories at Patreon!

I’ve been renovating my Patreon campaign, which allows readers to pledge to support my various online writing projects, like the Sheep Might Fly fiction podcast, and receive cool rewards like books, postcards, naming rights to stories and glitter art as well as EXCLUSIVE TANSYRR CONTENT. Check out all the changes to the rewards and goals here at this update!

The new rewards include:

2 Exclusive Short Stories each year – for everyone at the $2 level & above. This is a big one, the most popular option from the poll earlier in the month. The stories will be delivered in ebook form, and be exclusive to Patreon supporters for at least 2 years. They might be about characters from some of the many fictional worlds I am currently juggling, or something completely new.

Galactic Suburbia Slack – access to this awesome new members-only discussion forum, also at the $2 level & above.

Manticores – mysterious snippets that will appear on the Patreon supporters-only feed, and sometimes in pieces of actual post sent out to supporters at the higher levels. This started out as a silly suggestion at the end of a poll and has turned into a project I’m really excited about, so stay tuned to discover it as it unfolds.

Random Act of Post – this $5 level (previously Random Act of Postcard) now includes postcards, story snippets or other small mailable items sent out to you 3 times per year by “Manticore Post”

Future goals to unlock: Exclusive Stories go up to 3 a year, an Extreme Essay Extra a month, The Inky Valkyrie Book Club, and a beautiful Midwinter chapbook.

Don’t forget! My new essay collection, The Fictional Mother, will be released next month, exclusively for my Patreon supporters.

Galactic Slacks

A Very Special Galactic Suburbia Announcement.

We’re doing a thing for our Patreon supporters!

Our Galactic Suburbia Podcast Patreon.

Alisa’s Champagne & Socks crafting podcast (the champagne is metaphorical) and Patreon.

Alex’s Acts of Kitchen foodie & cooking podcast and Patreon

Tansy’s Sheep Might Fly fiction podcast and Patreon

Out now: Dance, Princes, Dance

Winter has fallen over Castle Charming: a season of frosty sports, mistletoe kisses and desperate attempts at matchmaking. Chase and Cyrus, the castle’s resident Princes Gone Wild, are behaving suspiciously well. But who is dancing their way through a stash of expensive satin slippers every night? And who is the mysterious soldier from Sarge’s past?

All Kai wants to do is solve the mystery and write stories for his newspaper, with maybe a little lovelorn pining on the side. But his friendships in the castle collide with his professional loyalties, and he’s on the verge of losing everything he has ever wanted. Meanwhile, Dennis bottles up a secret he never meant to keep, Ziyi comes to terms with not being a princess any more, and they all have to figure out which Prince Charming is most in need of being saved.

When you hit rock bottom, only truth and fairy cocktails will set you free…

Available now at:

Amazon/Kindle (US)

Amazon/Kindle (AUS)

Amazon/Kindle (UK)

iBooks

Kobo

Smashwords

Justice League International #25: Repossessions (April 1989)

THE PACKAGING: Justice League International trade Vol Four

THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen (Plot & Breakdowns), J.M. DeMatteis (Script), Ty Templeton & Kevin Maguire (Pencils), Joe Rubenstein (Inks), Gene D’Angelo (Colors), Andy Helfer (Editor)

JUSTICE LEAGUE ROLL CALL: Pretty much just Blue Beetle and Booster Gold with a couple of small appearances by Oberon, J’onn, Fire and Guy Gardner

THE STORY: This is a rare standalone two-shot that could be a great piece of character insight but feels mostly like filler.

There’s clean up to be done at the Embassy after the last issue, but Beetle and Booster are called out on a repo job for their side business, and end up battling a vampire squatter from a derelict building.

The battle is vicious and nasty, and only gets worse as they realise this vamp is just a guy, you know. He is a miserable creature with a tragic backstory, and as Booster and Beetle start to question if they’re doing the right thing here, a mid-fight accident leads the vampire to fall to his death.

Super depressing, right?

THE CHARACTERS: An issue entirely about Beetle and Booster would be a great chance to develop these two characters and their friendship, but we don’t learn anything new about either of them. It all plays out like the worst Supernatural episode ever.

Yes, there’s drama and yes it’s good to see that they feel bad about how it all went down but… there isn’t much there there.

THE COMEDY: Almost all the jokes in this issue feel horribly inappropriate in the face of not only violent danger but also the dark, emo tragedy of the vampire and his story. By the end, Beetle and Booster look ashamed of themselves for cracking wise in the face of someone else’s horror movie, and fair enough too.

The little bit at the end with Guy lying in wait to punish them for skipping out on clean up duty is pretty great, though.

THE ART: eh, nothing special

THE KITCHEN SINK: there’s a weird continuity flaw at the beginning of this issue, where Fire (in her costume) is surveying the post-party-Khund-battle mess at the Embassy with the others. Considering that she spent the last issue in bed with a virus, and will be there again next issue, it’s super weird that she pulled on her superhero swimsuit to come down briefly and check out the clean-up.

NEXT TIME: Spin off time! Justice League goes Europe.

PREVIOUSLY ON THE ONE TRUE JUSTICE LEAGUE:

Justice League The Story So Far

Justice League #1 (May 1987)

Justice League #2 (June 1987)

Justice League #3 (July 1987)

Justice League #4 (August 1987)

Justice League Annual #1 (1987)

Justice League #5 (September 1987)

Justice League #6 (October 1987)

Justice League International #7 (November 1987)

Justice League International #8 (December 1987)

Justice League International #9 (January 1988)

Justice League International #10 (February 1988)

Justice League International 11 (March 1988)

Justice League International 12 (April 1988)

Justice League International 13 & Suicide Squad 13 (May 1988)

Justice League International 14 (June 1988)

Justice League Annual #2 (1988)

Justice League International 15 (July 1988)

Justice League International 16 (August 1988)

Justice League International 17 (September 1988)

Justice League International 18 (October 1988)

Justice League International 19 (November 1988)

Justice League International 20 (December 1988)

Justice League International 21 (December 1988)

Justice League International 22 (January 1989)

Justice League International 23

Justice League International 24

Galactic Suburbia 165

In which we feed our feedback back to you, with a side order of cheesecake! Get the episode here.

WHAT’S NEW ON THE INTERNET

Aurealis Award winners announced.

Ditmar prelim ballot

FEEDBACK:

Flea’s YouTube channel

Books mentioned in feedback:

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

Roller Girl

The Better Homes and Garden New Cookbook

Joy of Cooking

Amanda Downum’s Necromancer Chronicles

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

CULTURE CONSUMED

Alisa: S-Town; Sharp Edge, Marianne Delacourt

Alex: Babylon’s Ashes, James SA Corey; Harry Potter; Samovar

Tansy: Harry Potter + fanfic, Drop Dead Fred

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!