Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 22
October 25, 2016
Sheep Might Fly: The Patrician Part 3
New episode of “The Patrician” by Tansy Rayner Roberts
This short story featured in Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts. This story won both the Washington SF Small Press Award and the Ditmar in 2012. If you enjoyed Julia Agrippina’s Secret Family Bestiary, this is the story about what happened next (cough, two thousand years later).
Clea Majora lives in a replica of a Roman city, built in the Australian outback. When a hero comes to town to rid the world of lamia, manticores and other ancient monsters, she is drawn to his quest, and forges a friendship that will last for a lifetime.
You can find me on Twitter & Tumblr at @tansyrr and @sheepmightfly, and on Facebook at @tansyrroberts. To support my online writing and Sheep Might Fly, check out my Patreon page.
October 23, 2016
Galactic Suburbia Part 154 Show Notes
In which Wonder Woman and Hillary Clinton both come under fire for being in public while female…
WHAT’S NEW ON THE INTERNET?
Wonder Woman turns 75 and
Analysis of the protest against Wonder Woman as honorary ambassador on the Mary Sue
Twitter: #wonderwoman75
CULTURE CONSUMED
Alisa: Crosstalk, Connie Willis; Bloodchild Octavia Butler
Alex: Saga vol 6; Bridging Infinity, ed. Jonathan Strahan; The Martian, Andy Weir; Swarm, Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti.
Tansy: Verity Down Under, Supergirl, Luke Cage, Class Eps 1 & 2
Don’t forget: Letters to Octavia Butler open for submissions
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!
October 18, 2016
Justice League Annual #1 (1987)
THE PACKAGING: The first JLI Annual is included at the end of Justice League International Vol 2, though it is pretty much set here, just after Booster joined the team and before Guy gets his Nice Guy Designer Brain Damage. Annuals are traditionally the enemy of comics filing systems, as they are often created in a separate bubble from the ongoing title and don’t always have a proper place to slot in that entirely makes sense.
THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis writing (Giffen plotting and DeMatteis writing dialogue), with Bill Willingham on pencils. Inked by six different people (I’m so not typing all their names) & lettered by Bob Lappan.
THE TEAM: Batman, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onnz), Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Booster Gold, Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Mister Miracle (Scott Free), Captain Marvel & Dr Fate
GUEST STARS: The briefest of cameos from Dr Light, back in Tokyo after quitting the League.
THE STORY: A reluctant Guy Garder is set to monitor duty, and alerts the League to four similar incidents happening around the world: people exhibiting all the signs of old-school zombieism in Paris, Tokyo, New York and LA. Blue Beetle is especially concerned by how many of these incidents are in proximity to a Kord Industries centre, this being the massive tech corporation he runs in his spare time.
One by one, the League falls to the influence of the spreading virus, including Dr Fate who throws away his helmet while under the influence, allowing his human host to become vulnerable. J’onn J’onnz saves the day by wearing the helmet himself in order to tap into the godly forces available to Dr Fate, and ultimately by swallowing the original seed of the infection.
Because he is better than Batman.
THE CHARACTERS: The extra page count is definitely working for the Justice League! We not only get some nice scenes for all the characters, but some serious development that the regular series didn’t actually offer. In particular: Dr Fate is integrated with the rest of the Justice League! Blue Beetle expresses how stressful his double life is! Black Canary getting more than 2 sarcastic lines in an issue!
Most importantly, we see J’onn J’onnz stepping up and taking the leadership role while the narrative (along with Black Canary) acknowledges that Batman is terrible at managing people. Almost as if there’s some foreshadowing going on here!
THE COMEDY: There aren’t really any laugh out loud moments here, but the humour is relaxed and feels natural, emerging from the characters.
THE ART: Willingham does a fairly good job of conveying Maguire’s designs of the characters, so it’s recognisable as the same comic.
THE KITCHEN SINK: this one standalone issue does a great job of summing up this era of Justice League, before it acquired its International ‘I’. Separating everyone into pairs for their missions allows for lots of great characterisation, and it’s really nice that J’onn stands out as the hero of the piece. I love him so much.
But let’s talk about monitor duty. Here we learn that Scott has set up an elaborate computer system which uses a complex algorithm to sift through trouble spots and reports worldwide in order to pinpoint the kind of disasters and crimes that specifically require the involvement of superheroes. And yet this system requires a human person to sit and stare at the screen while on monitor duty, instead of just having a pager or some other kind of alert system. Even for late 80’s technology that seems pretty retrograde. Right?
October 17, 2016
Sheep Might Fly: The Patrician Part 2
New episode of “The Patrician” by Tansy Rayner Roberts
This short story featured in Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts. This story won both the Washington SF Small Press Award and the Ditmar in 2012. If you enjoyed Julia Agrippina’s Secret Family Bestiary, this is the story about what happened next (cough, two thousand years later).
Clea Majora lives in a replica of a Roman city, built in the Australian outback. When a hero comes to town to rid the world of lamia, manticores and other ancient monsters, she is drawn to his quest, and forges a friendship that will last for a lifetime.
PART ONE: LAMIA
PART TWO: GARGOYLES
You can find me on Twitter & Tumblr at @tansyrr and @sheepmightfly, and on Facebook at @tansyrroberts. To support my online writing and Sheep Might Fly, check out my Patreon page.
October 11, 2016
Justice League #4
THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis writing (Giffen plotting and DeMatteis writing dialogue), with Kevin Maguire on pencils. Inked by Al Gordon & lettered by Bob Lappan.
THE TEAM: Batman, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onnz), Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Green Lantern (Guy Gardner) Mister Miracle (Scott Free), Captain Marvel & Dr Light (Kimiyo Hoshi, briefly). Dr Fate is noticeably absent yet again, and Maxwell Lord is moving the chess pieces from a little closer to the action. INTRODUCING BOOSTER GOLD!
THE STORY: Batman and the Justice League finally get a confrontation with Maxwell Lord over his presumptuous behaviour in taking over their management and inviting new members without their permission. Dr Light and Booster Gold, annoyed at being caught up in the drama, both quit and storm out. While Kimiyo has places to be, Booster gets distracted outside by an attack of classic super-villain team The Royal Flush Gang. First fighting them on his own, and then melding his skills and ingenuity with that of his new non-teammates, he blitzes the audition and is granted the mighty honour of a tiny Batman smirk. Maxwell Lord celebrates by announcing “his” League’s new member to the press. They’re gonna have to do something about him…
THE CHARACTERS: Obviously this one is all Booster, all the time. His introduction comes with humour and only hints of his backstory (hey, he read up on our pop culture so he could make jokes we would get!), but the important character note is the way that the team is beginning to gel, despite Guy’s best efforts.
Beetle’s ongoing concern that he’s been typecast as the tech guy and isn’t getting in on the action is blown away when he and Booster join forces to blast the bad guys — I love that they get a little duo action in this very first shared appearance, even if apparently half of it is planned offpage. Still, there will be lots of good scenes between these two in the future.
I’m very disappointed to see Kimiyo leave, not only because that leaves us with One Girl in the Justice League for a few issues, but because she’s a favourite of mine. Still, I know she’ll be back even if she will be less cranky upon her return, and I ALSO know that there are a lot of female characters coming soon to the Justice League, which is good because right now the panels are over-full with dudes shouting at each other.
The fight scenes are excellent (and most of the issue is one huge fight scene) because the writing and art is working together to show us how the Justice League is coalescing as a team : previously, everyone got something to do in the fight, but here, the characters are talking to each other more, showing a greater awareness of what their teammates can do, and joining forces to create extra smackdowns.
THE COMEDY: Booster sets himself up as a comedian from the start, and the Royal Flush Gang set themselves up as the butt of every joke, knowing somehow that their job is to get smacked around while following up on punchlines. Justice League has shifted from being a comic where the characters tell jokes, to a comic where characters tell jokes ABOUT TELLING JOKES. We’re so meta around here.
There’s some good sass in this one too — including a marvellously deadpan moment between Bats and J’onn:
Booster: Did you see THAT, world?! Did you see what Booster Gold and the Justice League just did?!
Martian Manhunter: He’s make a fine addition to the team, Batman — if only he wasn’t so lacking in energy and enthusiasm.
Batman: We’ll have to get him to work on that.
This issue also features one of my favourite Booster moments of all time, when Ten of Spades pulls the “you wouldn’t hit a lady” line on him, and he promptly slugs her.
THE ART: Some really good action sequences here, as Maguire has realised that the only point in having characters like Captain Marvel and Guy Gardner on a super team is if we get to watch them getting punched in the face a lot.
I love the faces that the characters pull when being hit!
The Royal Flush Gang is one of my favourite villain sets, mostly for the gorgeous aesthetic of their costumes (it’s certainly not for their personalities), which are based on traditional deck-of-cards-art.
Also really enjoying the rocky outcrop outside the cave headquarters, which will serve as the background of MANY fight scenes in MANY issues to come.
THE KITCHEN SINK: The team that I think of as Justice League International is becoming more of a Thing with the arrival of Booster, and also with J’onn J’onzz climbing out of his depression to join Batman in rolling his eyes at the antics of the kids.
Maxwell Lord, of course, is the main wild card. Knowing the role he has with the League for many years to come, it’s bizarre to realise he is basically taking them over by stalking and insinuating himself into their lives. But… that doesn’t mean he’s a bad person. Right?
Right?
BONUS CHARACTER HISTORY: Booster Gold
Booster Gold has the honour of being the first original character introduced to DC Continuity after the Crisis of Infinite Earths (because, you know, they were kind of short on arrogant white dudes). He was created in 1986 by Dan Jurgens for his own title, which ran until early 1988, winding up 6 months after his introduction to Justice League.
Booster’s rarely-used real name is Michael Jon Carter, a college football star from the future whose life was ruined after his father used him for illegal gambling stings. With the help of a robot called Skeets, Michael stole several items from the superhero museum where he was working as a night watchman, and travelled back to the 20th Century via Rip Hunter’s Time Sphere, using his knowledge of the future to live comfortably in the past.
He attempted to launch himself as superhero ‘Goldstar,’ but accidentally introduced himself to President Ronald Reagan by his football nickname of ‘Booster’ after saving him, and the two names got mangled together, which stuck.
None of this is important as the fact that by joining the Justice League, Booster finally gets to meet his BFF and platonic lifemate (depending how weak/strong your slash goggles are, fans), Blue Beetle. THEIR FRIENDSHIP IS ETERNAL AND UNBREAKABLE AND NOTHING HURTS.
October 10, 2016
Sheep Might Fly: The Patrician Part 1
New serial for the podcast!
“The Patrician” featured in Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts. This story won both the Washington SF Small Press Award and the Ditmar in 2012. If you enjoyed Julia Agrippina’s Secret Family Bestiary, this is the story about what happened next (cough, two thousand years later).
Clea Majora lives in a replica of a Roman city, built in the Australian outback. When a hero comes to town to rid the world of lamia, manticores and other ancient monsters, she is drawn to his quest, and forges a friendship that will last for a lifetime.
You can find me on Twitter &; Tumblr at @tansyrr and @sheepmightfly, and on Facebook at @tansyrroberts. To support my online writing and Sheep Might Fly, check out my Patreon page.
October 9, 2016
Galactic Suburbia 153 Show Notes
In which letters are written to Octavia Butler.
What’s New on the Internet?
British Fantasy Awards: Letters to Tiptree won one!
No Award on Conflux & Asian Flavours in SFF fandom.
Octavia project: Octavia Estelle Butler was born on 22 June, 1947, and died in 2006. In celebration of what would have been her 70th birthday in 2017, and in recognition of Butler’s enormous influence on speculative fiction, and African-American literature more generally, Twelfth Planet Press is publishing a selection of letters and essays written by science fiction and fantasy’s writers, editors, critics and fans.
We are looking for letters addressed to Butler, which should be between 1000 and 1500 words. We are paying 5cpw up to $USD75 for letters, to be paid on publication. We are looking for World First Publication Rights in English, and exclusivity for the first twelve months of publication.
Submissions: octaviaproject@twelfthplanetpress.com
More Butler stuff: Radio Imagination
Tansy’s new releases: Bounty (the final Fablecroft book) & Unmagical Boy Story
CULTURE CONSUMED:
Alisa: Jamberry & business training.
Alex: so much culture. In particular: just finished Once Upon A Time season 2; the Patternmaster series, Octavia Butler; The Starry Rift, James Tiptree Jr; Goldenhand, Garth Nix.
Tansy: The Life & Times of Angel Evans, by Meredith Debonnaire; DC Superhero Girls: Hero of the Year; Revolutionary Art: Writing For Social Justice webinar series; Hex – How to Be a Fan on iView; Labyrinth Board Game Facebook page; Dracula’s Feast on Kickstarter.
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!
October 4, 2016
Justice League #3 (July 1987)
THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis writing (Giffen plotting and DeMatteis writing dialogue), with Kevin Maguire on pencils. Inked by AL Gordon & lettered by Bob Lappan.
THE TEAM: Batman, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onnz), Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Green Lantern (Guy Gardner) Mister Miracle (Scott Free), Captain Marvel & Dr Light (Kimiyo Hoshi, who still hasn’t managed to swap her business suit for a costume). Dr Fate is noticeably absent this month, and Maxwell Lord is moving the chess pieces from a distance.
GUEST STARS: Wandjina, Silver Sorceress, Blue Jay and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev (who is on Maxwell Lord’s speed dial).
THE STORY: After retreating from Bialyan air space, the Justice League monitor the skies, and eventually spot their three “nukebusters” heading for Russia. They pursue them, only to be stopped in yet another attempt to break international borders by the Russia’s mecha answer to superhero bullshit. IT’S THE ROCKET RED BRIGADE, YOU GUYS!
Guy Gardner singlehandedly takes on the Rocket Reds, and the rest of the League join in the fight. Thanks to all the panic caused by a bunch of superheroes apparently besieging a nuclear reactor, the Russian nuclear scientists try to shut everything down too quickly, and spark a potential meltdown. Maxwell Lord smooths over the diplomatic niceties with Actually Appearing In This Comic Gorbachev, who orders Rocket Reds to cease fighting the Justice League.
The Rocket Reds and the Justice League stand helpless in the face of impending nuclear disaster. Silver Sorceress is devastated to realise that she and her friends have set off the very horror they hoped to prevent. Wandjina sacrifices himself to stop the core from melting down (his super power is handwavery) and hovers on the brink of death by radioactive agony. The Russians take their invaders prisoner, and firmly evict the Justice League from their country. Which, fair enough.
A baffled and dispirited League return to their secret headquarters to find that Maxwell Lord has dropped in for a visit, and he’s brought a friend — their new member, Booster Gold!
THE CHARACTERS: Blue Beetle may be the comedy guy, but he’s determined to show he has hidden depths — randomly chatting to Black Canary about Dostoyevsky before he remembers he’s in a comic book and not a Russian Book Club. Dr Light, meanwhile, has been reduced to bitching about random annoyances.
Guy Gardner really likes to punch things. That’s his character note. And he brings some uncharming all-American patriotic racist claptrap to the battle, along with his signature move of flying at the enemy before any of his team can follow, thereby getting beaten up the worst. Of course he’s going to throw himself against a brigade of Rocket Reds (big burly Russian dudes in robot suits) while singing “God Bless America.” Subtlety is for other superheroes.
Batman, the leader who thought it was a good idea to transport Guy Freaking Gardner to Russia in the first place, actually says “Well, thanks to Gardner — we’ve got ourselves smack in the middle of an international incident!” and promptly ends Captain Marvel to join the party.
The big action sequence at the heart of this issue gives everyone something to do — Black Canary gets to roll out her martial arts and canary cry, Dr Light blasts with her photonics, and even Mister Miracle gets to show off a few tricks. (Seriously, he brought lockpicks to a nuclear fight, let him stay on the bus.)
THE COMEDY: Blue Beetle’s role as the one who cracks jokes when everyone else is frowny-face finally comes to the fore, mostly because of sleep deprivation. Team, he’s the pilot, make sure he gets a nap! Also in the smartass brigade: Captain Marvel (who, let us not forget, is a 10 year old trapped in the body of a buff superhero, a premise that is deeply disturbing on many levels), while Batman and Martian Manhunter compete for who can be the straightest straight man, and Guy Gardner has no sense of humour at all.
But no, wait! Batman made a funny! Just when Blue Beetle least expects it… we get a Star Trek joke from Batman! Yes, this is indeed the comic I remember, full of chaos and banter. Just took a little while to warm up.
It’s even more noticeable that the sarcastic banter is spreading to characters outside the Justice League — the Silver Sorceress has developed a dry wit since Issue 2, and the dialogue of the Rocket Reds is completely adorbs.
THE ART: Kevin Maguire’s style melds well with the dialogue of De Matteis – we’re getting fewer panels, often several panels worth of dialogue packed into a single shot, giving the impression that four or five conversations are happening simultaneously. If anything sums up the Justice League International, it’s ten superheroes trapped in the Bug, talking over each other.
THE KITCHEN SINK: This storyline may have come to an abrupt close (for now), but it’s key to the development of the team as a whole, and seeds the idea that superheroes need to be thinking about the ramification of crossing International borders.
BONUS CHARACTER HISTORY: Blue Beetle
Blue Beetle started out in Charlton Comics, in an entirely different universe! The original Blue Beetle, Dan Garret, began his crime-fighting antics in 1939: a police officer who took magical vitamins to gain powers (very Roger Ramjet) and hung threatening scarabs from strings, to upset criminals. In the 60’s he was revamped as Dan Garrett, archaeologist who transformed into a superhero via mystical scarab.
Ted Kord was a gifted athlete and genius inventor who inherited the Blue Beetle legacy from his mentor Dan, but never had any relationship with the aforementioned mystical scarab.
When DC Comics bought out Charlton in 1985, they acquired a stack of characters. Alan Moore hoped to be allowed to to reboot many of them for his out-of-universe graphic novel Watchmen, and used them in his original proposal to Dick Giordano. Giordano liked the pitch but wasn’t keen on the characters being appropriated for the story as they would clearly be killed off or otherwise rendered “dysfunctional” by Moore’s grim take on superhero landscape as dystopia. Let’s face it, he wasn’t wrong.
The Charlton characters were absorbed into the main DC continuity during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event (yes, that again), while Moore renamed the characters of Watchmen, though many of them retained familiar elements.
If you ever wondered why Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle seems a lot like Alan Moore’s Nite Owl (and there are so many other potential comparisons, look at Dr Manhattan and Captain Atom side by side), that’s kinda why. It went both ways — there are many points in Blue Beetle’s later career that you can see clearly see that his writers are being influenced by or at least slyly referencing Moore’s Nite Owl, such as his battle with getting older, losing fitness and gaining weight.
I have a lot of feelings about Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle.
BONUS BONUS CHARACTER HISTORY: Rocket Red Brigade
These Russian mecha pilots first appeared in the pages of Green Lantern in 1987, only slightly before their appearance here in Justice League! They were built for Russia by Kilowog, a regular Green Lantern character who is basically a cross between Chewbacca and Q. (Kilowog’s engineering skills would be utilised quite heavily during the Justice League International years)
The most important Rocket Red for our purposes, Dmitri Pushkin, appears for the first time in this issue, though we’ll meet him properly later.
Unmagical Boy Story Part 13
Final episode uploaded!
“Unmagical Boy Story” is a 13-part sequel to “Fake Geek Girl,” and is original to this podcast. SERIAL IS NOW COMPLETE!
One magical university, divided between the Colleges of the Real and Unreal. One pub. One indie band. A lot of drunk witches on a Friday night. One shattered friendship, due to be repaired. One Practical Mythology paper which really has to be finished by Monday… Oh, and trolls. Let’s see who survives Friday night drinks!
Part 13 – Monday Morning Reprise, Adulting is Over-rated – in which we return to Monday morning, Viola’s conference paper gets a little too close to the bone, and friendship milestones are achieved!
Catch up on previous episodes here!
Part 1 – 7PM, Little Black Dress Alert
Part 2 – 8PM, Friday Night Cover Charge: Two Drinks
Part 3 – 9PM I Hate That Song So Much Right Now
Part 4 – 10PM The Band Takes a Break
Part 5 – 11PM Second Set Contains New Material (Don’t Feed the Trolls)
Part 6 – 12 Midnight – After Party
Part 7 – 1AM: Regrettable Things You Shouldn’t Have Said
Part 8 – 2AM – Ill-advised Hook Up
Part 9 – 3AM – Clearing the Air
Part 12 – 6AM, The Best Hangover Breakfast in the City
Sheep Might Fly has its own Twitter account: @sheepmightfly
and its own Tumblr account: Sheep Might Fly
Follow along for updates, previews and other Sheep Might Fly specific chatter!
Master list of Sheep Might Fly serials.
Support Tansy & Sheep Might Fly at Patreon.
September 27, 2016
Justice League #2 (June 1987)
Previously on the JLI Reread: Justice League #1
THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis writing (specifically Giffen plotting and DeMatteis writing dialogue), with Kevin Maguire on pencils. Inked by Al Gordon & lettered by Bob Lappan.
THE PITCH: Yep, nothing funnier than nuclear test sites, doomed worlds, ragged survivors with PTSD… are we sure that this is the sitcom era of Justice League?
THE TEAM: Batman, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Mister Miracle, Captain Marvel, Dr Fate (who stars in his own 1 page mystery separate from the team) and Green Lantern (Guy Gardner). Dr Light’s credentials are still under review because, I don’t know, Batman finds competent women suspicious.
THE STORY: Batman interrogates a furious Dr Light about who told her she was in the Justice League anyway. A media attack on the League’s dodgy status riles up Guy Gardner, but the real news is happening all the way over in the tiny European country of Bialya (remember that name!), where three unknown superheroes have attacked a nuclear facility, determined to save humanity from themselves. Blue Jay, Wandjina and the Silver Sorceress come from another dimension, where the planet was wiped out in nuclear war, leaving them the grim, tormented survivors of their dead world. Colonel Rumaan Harjavti, leader of Bialya, listens to the tragic story of these heroes and promptly decides to manipulate them into invading Russia. Batman and the Justice League, meanwhile, are way too late to prevent this disaster, and may be about to create an international incident by entering Bialyan air space without authority!
Meanwhile, in the Maxwell Lord report, he is still up to no good, in this case interviewing one Mr Gold. I WONDER WHO THAT COULD BE?
THE CHARACTERS: Clearly the characters of most interest to the writers in this one are Colonel Harjavti and the three nuclear vigilantes: they actually get most of the page time. Meanwhile, Guy continues to be an asshole, Captain Marvel has decided the only way to survive this team is to troll him constantly, and Black Canary and Blue Beetle have declared themselves in charge of sarcasm. Martian Manhunter has basically checked out. Batman is still very firmly in charge, and totally not being the Alpha that this pack needs him to be. Do better, Batman!
THE COMEDY: For a story about nuclear holocaust survivors and looming intergalactic war, this one is… well, at least we have Blue Beetle and Black Canary to bring the snark.
THE ART: Great character, great action, great heavens, what is Silver Sorceress wearing on her head?
THE KITCHEN SINK: So here’s the thing. When I originally read these comics, we didn’t have Wikipedia. I also didn’t originally have this trade edition, so I read the Justice League in entirely the wrong order, starting with the Death of Superman in 1992 and working my way back. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get to read Issues 1 & 2 at all until I sourced the trade, many years later. So I never had a hope of understanding the weird twisty Champions of Angor plot, or the Bialya stuff, or whatever. I was along for the ride, man.
It makes way more sense in order.
I am really liking how terrible Batman is at leading, and that Black Canary is the only one who knows him well enough to call him on it. Someone page the Martian Manhunter, we need to stage an intervention!
BONUS CHARACTER HISTORY: Guy Gardner
A longtime supporting character in the Green Lantern comics universe, Guy first appeared in the late 60’s as Hal Jordan’s understudy: both men were chosen as potential successors for the dying Green Lantern called Abin Sur (in charge of Space Sector 2814), but Hal won out because a) he was closer, b) Gardner was doomed to die young if he was picked, c) a retconned time-travelling Booster Gold made it so.
Gardner and Hal became pretty good friends, and occasional partners. After Gardner was hit by a bus, John Stewart (AKA the best Green Lantern) was tapped to be Hal’s back up. Later, when Gardner was believed dead but was actually trapped in the Phantom Zone, Hal stole his girlfriend Kari Limbo and totally nearly married her. Gardner’s history of brain damage caught up with him, and he was left in a convenient coma.
Then the 80’s happened… and you guessed it, the Crisis of Infinite Earths!
Among the many complicated narrative threads in this event, Guy Gardner was revived and rebooted massively, his new personality set up as a parody of Eighties Machismo: this Guy was arrogant, violent, unstable and borderline sociopathic. After being let loose as a villain, he was eventually reinstated by the Green Lantern Corps and put in charge of Hal Jordan’s previous beat (Hal was promoted sideways into the job of recruitment).
This endorsement did not tone down Guy’s megalomaniac tendencies at all! But surely being put in a Justice League team would help tone him down… right?
BONUS BONUS CHARACTER HISTORY:
The Champions of Angor
In 1971, these characters were created by Mike Friedrich so that the Justice League could fight an alien superhero team, both of them thinking the others were villains. A pastiche of the Avengers, Wandjina, Blue Jay, Silver Sorceress and Jack B. Quick (mourned by his friends in 1987 as Captain Speed) were based firmly on Thor, Yellowjacket, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
In the same month this issue was published, Friedrich’s friend Roy Thomas put a similar team in The Avengers, as a pastiche of the Justice League – The Squadron Supreme featured Hyperion, Nighthawk, Power Princess, Doctor Spectrum & the Whizzer, who were based loosely on Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern & the Flash.
Later appearances of this post-Crisis retconned version of the Champions of Angor renamed their team the Justifiers and added more characters retrospectively to the lineup: the Bowman (an archer with a femme fatale complex), Tin Man, the Bug and charmingly, T.A (a girl with wings).
Remember how there was no Wikipedia when I first read these? I had NO FREAKING IDEA about a) who the Avengers were apart from Steed and Mrs Peel, b) that Silver Sorceress and the others were pastiche characters. But oh, finally, her terrible headdress is explained. How do you parody the worst superhero costume of all time? Make it uglier and brown!
