Yeah, I'd like a little warning too:

Another short new one up at Articulated Discussion today! I'd like to do more of these with Frank and Vigilante, it's fun to have them as best buds.

We're going to have more strips up at AD, but we're always going to have the Wednesday strips here, too. Tomorrow, an extra-long look at a great, and possibly forgotten annual. Hope to see you then!

"Figures."

Yeah, those little Handful of Heroes figures wouldn't be in-scale there, but I don't care...

Tonight, probably going to go see the Crazies, since I saw the old George Romero version on YouTube some time ago (and surprisingly, I think you still could find it) and it should be pretty good. I'm not expecting Shakespeare, just a good solid horror movie. I'll let you know!

Then, my weekend will largely be setting up some new strips, which I'm excited for. I wonder if I've started the Question one yet...

OK, Riddler, OK, it's your story.

It's funny: I wouldn't have thought of myself as a Riddler fan, and I'm probably not: I don't have a proper Riddler action figure, although that's a distribution problem as much as anything...but, there's been more than a couple Riddler stories that I've liked, which is probably more than Joker ones. We'll start with this one: Detective Comics Annual #8, "Questions Multiply the Mystery" Written by Chuck Dixon, art by Kieron Dwyer.

DC's 1995 annuals were all under the "Year One" banner, which hadn't quite been used to death at that point. (Previously, we saw one of the Superman Annuals.) Luckily, even with four annuals, Batman didn't have to hash and rehash his origin; he could go back to some of his villains. Other annuals featured Poison Ivy, the Scarecrow, and Man-Bat; but this might be the best one.

In an observation room at Arkham Asylum, sick of what he feels is "obvious and tactless" needling, the Riddler finally relents to tell his story, "an epic of larceny and murder." His story, not the Batman's, even though the Batman has already foiled him more than once.

As a child, young Eddie Nigma had the typical child's questions; why is the sky blue, leaves green, and so on. Adults seemed to either not know or to have forgotten the answers, so Eddie determined to be "a guy with all the answers. Even if I had to make up the questions." When a puzzle contest is announced at school, Eddie is intrigued, but as a mediocre student, his chances are poor, until he discovers his calling in life: cheating. Eddie breaks into the school, practices the puzzle until he can do it under a minute, and easily wins the contest. The prize? A book of riddles...and the attention of the bullies. A lot of this may have been established before in earlier stories, but Dixon does a great job of showing Eddie's desperation for attention of any kind.

After school, Eddie settles into a workaday life, and is quietly going insane with boredom. When he notices a business with a safe full of cash, he starts working on how to get it, but even the theft doesn't thrill him:

As the Riddler, Eddie escalates his puzzles, finally getting himself the attention of the cops, but also of the Batman. Who is less than impressed at first:

More through luck than design, and a little bit from Batman's relative inexperience, the Riddler escapes. Refining his style and his puzzles, Eddie manages to pull a couple of big scores, before Batman brings him down. But his fall is a twist, and this issue has a good one. So more than that, I won't say; find a copy of this one yourself.

I will say, that Kieron Dwyer seems to have a handle on the Riddler, since he drew perhaps my third-favorite Riddler story, "Dark Knight, Dark City" with Peter Milligan. The last issue spins out a little for my tastes, but they do a good and crazy Riddler story. Maybe, we'll get to my favorite Riddler story later, though...

"Three franks a job? In this economy?"

Click to enlarge!

After the end of the Prisoner bit last week, I usually try to break up the Nightcrawler/Deadpool/Falcon strips a little; but I'm behind since I'm waiting on a few figures. Then, over the weekend I found a figure I've been waiting for since, um...2006? Shocker Toys Scud figure. Hell, I didn't even look at the price on that one, just grabbed him and made for the register, since I'd never seen one at retail before. (While long awaited, apparently they just hit mass retail the last couple of weeks. Might have to consider that Maxx figure, though.)

Check out Scud's review from OAFE.net to get some of the history on him; and my two cents? Buy him. Now. I've been buying a lot of clearance lately, so it was a bit of a shock to pay full price for a figure, but well worth it. Of course, you should buy the collected Scud as well, so chop-chop! Put your tax refund to that right now!



Ooh, taxes. Better look into that tonight...

Biting my tongue on any, "The Question is, how do I find him?" cracks.

A Steve Ditko page from the Question back-up in Modern Comics Blue Beetle #1. With a little luck, by the time I post this, I've got my DCUC Question figure from Big Bad Toy Store.

Although, if I'd held out a day or two, I would've ordered the Secret Wars Nightcrawler/Punk Storm two-pack, or at least tried to, since it appears to be out of stock already. (It may be back, so check it if you're interested!) Then again...and how to put this? It's not from Mattel, so I figure I have a chance of seeing it in stores. Maybe I'll run across the Question on the racks in the next week or so, and then I'll feel dumb...but I doubt it.

(Incidentally, I would bet that I'll buy more than one of those Nightcrawlers, so it's extremely likely I'll have a spare Storm to trade. We'll see...)

Some toy related discussion after the break!

Also, by the time I post this, the post-game analysis of the other Tuesday, a.k.a. Trap Jaw Day, should be in the books. There will be doubtless tons more discussion on other sites, but my understanding is that the new Masters of the Universe Battle Cat, and Trap Jaw, both sold out in something like twenty minutes. Mattel is doing a lot of things right, but distribution does not seem to be one of them.

For example: locally, one Target is clogged with the remnants of DCUC Wave 7: Big Barda, Captain Cold, blue Aquaman, possibly the whole wave with the possible exceptions of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. And two, maybe three Silver Banshees from the Target Exclusive Public Enemies wave. Finishing Brimstone around here looks like a tough one, since I've yet to see the second part of that batch.

(Thanks to It'sAllTrue's DCUC Guide, since I sure as hell don't remember what figure was in what wave.)

There are three Wal-Marts in my neck of the woods: the one nearest me, has no DCUC, and hasn't for some time. Of course. The next nearest did get at least one shipment of Wave 11, but the Question, Cyborg Superman, and Deadman were all long gone by the time I saw it, and they have not been restocked to date, after about a month. That Wal-Mart also has a full peg of four Cyborgs--the Sonic Arm version that was originally a KB exclusive back in 2008. To its credit, there may only be one Captain Cold on the pegs there.

The third, and most inconvenient for me to get to, was the only one to get the Imperiex exclusive wave, and is full of Foragers, a few Beast Boys, and a surprising amount of Power Girl. I'm still surprised by that one: I was quite happy to get her, and thought she would fly off the racks. I'm hoping to see some clearance there sometime, since that one's pretty full.

The Comic Book Shop did get DCUC for some time, but I think they ended up overstocked on Captain Cold and some of the rest of Wave 7. In the clearance of their mall store, you could, right now, get four Captain Colds for under ten bucks. Maybe more, if you ask nicely...they may or may not get future waves at this point, but seem to be moving the DC Direct Green Lantern stuff just fine anyway.

And Toys R Us and Fred Meyer both have had Waves 8 and 9, but don't seem to be restocking them: Fred Meyer, however, still has figures for under ten bucks. Need to get Commander Steel--like Guardian, knowing his history in the comics makes me laugh--and maybe Mr. Terrific. And there's probably a Captain Cold on every other peg at those stores, too.

Man, I'm worried Captain Cold is going to be like Banshee from the first wave of Hasbro Marvel Legends: an ugly, ugly figure that's everywhere, clogging the pegs and preventing any restock. In a recent sidebar on Blackest Night in Toyfare, writer Geoff Johns said he was looking forward to seeing a new Captain Cold figure. Please throw one at him if you see him at a show. I know where you can get some. Cheap. OK, don't really throw them, but Captain Cold's also had two DC Direct figures, so he should be good for a long while, right?

Ah, I'm beat and watching Lost, so this has gone on long enough. A Question strip will be forthcoming soon...

Wait, so Man-Bat flew through Bruce's window?

...and inspired him to become Batman? I'm confused.

Actually, this is a more-symbolic vision of Batman's origin, since Bats is recovering from a gunshot wound, in Son of the Demon, written by Mike W. Barr, art by Jerry Bingham.

Better known as the one where Bats fathers a son with Talia, this was out-of-continuity for some time, but seems to be back in since Damian's introduction in Grant Morrison's run. Actually, if I had to guess, it seems less in-continuity not because of Batman getting some, but because he seems a bit more laissez-faire about killing than usual. In the first twelve pages, several terrorists die as Batman tricks them into shooting each other, one gets a faceful of toxic waste, and others die in a helicopter crash. Later, when working with R'as al Ghul against the greater evil of Qayin, Batman encourages his men not to kill, but doesn't seem too broken up about Talia gunning some down, or leaving the bad guy Qayin to live or die on his own. Compare that to the Batman that has to bend over backwards to keep the Joker alive.

Still, it's a fun read, and I have the old version that I got for three bucks at a used bookstore. It's been reissued, but it'll cost you now.

I was thinking about the continuity issues of this one, since Batman: Year Two seems to be out right now, and I'm not positive I still have my copy of the trade. Year Two is thus out of print right now, so we'll see if I turn it up.

I kinda wish Bill could use that catchphrase every month:

From Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter #1, written by Kieron Gillen, pencils by Kano, inks by Alvaro Lopez and Kano. I picked up the three issues of this one the other day, and was surprised how much I liked it. Gillen manages dry humor and high tension, as Bill sets out to destroy the murderer of his race, the planet-eater Galactus. Although no one thinks his plan is a good one--not his oath-brother Thor, nor his informant Agent Brand of SWORD, nor even his own smartship Skuttlebutt--Bill will not be deterred, and his plan is a good one. Until you factor in the massive collateral damage, and the possible effects of defeating Galactus...


For good measure, the three issues of this series include reprints of Walt Simonson's Thor #337-339; his first three issues and the introduction of Beta Ray Bill. Oddly, I have multiple copies of #337--the original, the Ballad of Beta Ray Bill trade, and a reprint packed with Bill's action figure--and all featured a miscolored disc on Thor's chest on page 10. The reprint in Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter #1 is the first I've seen that was corrected. I don't have any of the fancier editions, so I can't say if it's corrected in that or not; but I only noticed because I've seen it so many times, it's weird to see right.

New at Articulated Discussion!

Over at Articulated Discussion, I've got another new One-Shots up! Maybe that'll make up for me doing just about nothing this weekend here...

In my defense, it's surprisingly nice out for February, so I have to take those kids and the dog to the park! And I did find a new figure, that had long been promised but I wasn't sure I would ever see on the shelves! (No, not a DCUC or Marvel figure...) Hope y'all are enjoying wherever you're at, and we'll be back Monday!

USA! (gent!) USA! (gent!) USA! (gent!)

Recently, It'sAllTrue.Net featured USAgent in their latest installment of Most Requested Figures, an endorsement I heartily...endorse. Former replacement Captain America, John Walker would go on to serve with the Avengers West Coast, Force Works, and Alpha Flight; although I have to say I prefer his black costume over his later looks. (For a while, he was wearing a riot cop ensemble that made him look like an angrier Judge Dredd. If that's possible.)

Still, the problem with making John a heroic character, is that in his first appearances under Mark Gruenwald, he was intended to be a bad example: a glory-hound, overzealous and violent, and far more right-wing than the more liberal Steve Rogers. While patriotic, he somehow managed to be a loose cannon and follow orders blindly. When his parents were killed, John also went a bit crazy, killing several men, and convincing himself his folks weren't dead for a bit. Then, when Steve became Cap again, and John took the USAgent title, now the writers had to somehow redeem this character. Or, make him the tool no one liked. Either or.

That's not to say USAgent didn't have any endearing moments, however. He did get to deliver a stout and not completely undeserved thrashing to Hawkeye, who, for good measure, was wearing his terrible armor costume at the time. (I remember Hawk not voting for his estranged wife Mockingbird's Avengers membership, and thinking he needed some thumping.) Then there's this little backup story, from Avengers West Coast Annual #5, "Don't You Daaare Miss It!" Written by Dwayne McDuffie, art by Grant Miehm.

When Wonder Man double-books, he manages to convince his Avengers teammates to cover for him, sending Vision, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and USAgent to...
...a monster truck rally. Only the Agent is enthusiastic; the emotionless Vision is mildly bewildered, while Hawkeye and Iron Man immediately begin plotting revenge...

Since there's only ten pages to this one, the villain shows up, and is dispatched, fairly quickly: the mutant Doctor Goodwrench, who can control machines, but also believes they are sentient and he is the activist of their rights. Vision and Hawkeye point out they aren't, and he isn't, and the Doctor is forced to realize he's "some kind of nut."

Even though he's not a guy I would personally want to hang with, USAgent is ripe for a comeback, because he's never been more topical: he's a proud American who is ultra conservative, a bit of a blowhard and a bully, generally not above shouting down opposing viewpoints...sound familiar? Oh, prove me wrong, right-wingers, prove me wrong. He's a bit too gung-ho, but I would be glad to get a USAgent Marvel Legend figure, since he's not entirely without likable qualities. You just have to dig. A bit.

Even if they never make a Preacher movie...I'd be OK with that.

From Preacher #32, "Snakes in the Grass" Written by Garth Ennis, art by Steve Dillon. Re-read all of Preacher last week, as I do every year or so, and it still holds up great. It's an odd one for me to go through, since I didn't start the single issues until #27; I have the trades up to there. As opposed to a series like Transmetropolitan, which I have as all issues, or 100 Bullets, all trades. (I still have to finish that one, though.)

Somewhere during Preacher's run, Vertigo phased out letters pages, which is a shame, considering it featured such great moments as #34, where Garth Ennis discusses his greatest irrational fear. It's crude and hysterical, so go find a back issue: you miss out on that kind of thing with trades, or at least you used to.

Hmm. This is the second time this week I'm bringing up something I'm not going to tell you. Jerk...

Another post directing you somewhere else. That's helpful, right?

Over at Articulated Discussion, I've got a new post up! How many incomplete Build-a-Figures, Collect-and-Connects, Build-a-Things can I rack up? Hoo, boy. Heck, it's worse than I let on, since I have Annihilus wings, Mojo guts, and Futurama robot parts floating about. Just check out over there while I do a count, kay?

"Dénouement."

Yeah, you never really find out why Number 6 quits either, do you? Or, maybe I forgot to wrap that up...let's pretend I planned that, 'kay?

"Time served."

Concluding (almost) our month-long rip on the Prisoner! Click to enlarge, and previous episodes: 4, 3, 2,1.




Almost concluding? Yeah, there's a little epilogue up later today.

By way of apology to Guardian:

Since I had some fun at Guardian's expense recently, when I saw this one in the quarter boxes, I had to pick it up. I think I might've had it when it came out in 1988 as well, but I'm not positive: Superman #27, "Of course you know, this means war!" Written by Roger Stern, pencils by Kerry Gammill, inks by Brett Breeding.

This issue is from before the Superman titles had triangle numbers, indicating what order Adventures of Superman, Action Comics, and Superman should be read in, but it does have an Invasion Aftermath Extra triangle. Previously in the main Invasion book and his own titles, Superman had been roughed up a bit by the Daxamites, the Thanagarians, and at one point was fished out of the river by Guardian and the Newsboy Legion. After helping out with a crashed alien ship in Australia, the exhausted Supes gets back to the Daily Planet, where a disheveled Clark turns in the story. White orders the front page replated, but also sends the obviously beat Clark home. His apartment trashed in a previous issue, Supes shaves, then falls asleep in front of the TV.

Shortly thereafter, Lex Luthor is having a meeting with Pentagon officials about salvaging alien technology, when the meeting is crashed by Gangbuster. Although at this point Lex was still hiding behind the facade of benevolent big-businessman, Gangbuster knows he's dirty, and is more than willing to cross a few lines to get at him. Luthor is rarely unprepared, however: this time, his secret weapon is Brainiac, which is a little less impressive since this is paunchy carnival Brainiac, but still.

Brainiac begins taking Gangbuster's mind apart, but Gangbuster's mind surprisingly is too strong for him, and Brainy goes down. Disoriented, GB flees out a ninety-story window, making a spectacular, and impossible, escape. Luthor hides Brainiac back in the closet he was keeping him in.

While running across rooftops, Gangbuster bumps into Guardian, who is happy to see him, but thinks GB might be going a bit too far. Gangbuster doesn't want to hear it, and slugs Guardian, much faster and harder than Guardian had expected. Guardian sticks it out, though, and later the enraged Gangbuster charges and sends them both off the roof; Guardian able to catch a ledge, Gangbuster falling seven-stories headfirst into a dumpster. Which he walks away from. Pissed. Obviously outmatched, Guardian still doesn't quit:

Gangbuster's costume tears, revealing...to be continued in Adventures of Superman #450! Yes, I'm not spoiling a twenty-two year old comic! And what are you gonna do about it? What? Google? Oh.

At any rate, Guardian seems very Captain America-like in this one; and this issue is thankfully devoid of the Newsboy Legion. It also doesn't mention any of his clone-business, Cadmus, or other baggage; which is probably just as well. I also don't remember how the big reveal that came out of this went over, since I know I was reading the Superman books on-and-off at the time.

Mr. Mind? Creeping me right out.

Picked up Dr. Sivana this afternoon, after getting Hoppy and Billy a week or two back. I don't know if I'm more afraid of losing Mr. Mind in the carpet, or him getting in my ear...

Playmates Star Trek bridge playset, revisited:

A while back, we did a review of Playmates Star Trek Bridge Playset. Since then, through various clearance sales, I've managed to pick up enough bridge pieces, by buying duplicate figures, to fill in all but one of the console slots.


The second wave of figures still hasn't shown up, to the best of my knowledge (it still shows as a preorder at Big Bad Toy Store) and I kinda doubt it will. Blue-shirt McCoy and gold-shirt Chekov were among the figures for that batch, but with a little effort you can do it yourself! And when I say little effort, I mean buying the figures, which you probably shouldn't pay more than a couple bucks for, then switching the heads. Easy as pie.

This one's for the DC historians:

This one is pretty much just for me and my sense of humor, yeah. Out for the weekend, so have fun!

It's like the armor version of Bjork's swan dress.

Ah, that's not too dated a reference, but then again, this isn't a new comic, either: Crossgen's been down for the count for some time now. I don't think I've read another Crossgen title, but luckily for us, this was a mostly done-in-one from 2001: Crossgen Chronicles #2, written by Ron Marz, inks by Dennis Jensen, and art by none other than George Perez.

Without knowing anything about the CrossGen universe and the Sigil marking that kept showing up, this one's set in the always popular fantasy world with some technology but people still mostly stab each other up with swords. The naval fleets of the Herons, led by Admiral Edvin above, brave fog and incoming bad weather in search of the Ravens, led by Edvin's old foe Alexi.

Between the storm and the battle, Edvin's ship is soon sinking, so he and his crew board Alexi's, which doesn't fare any better. As the ship goes down, Alexi thinks he's finally finished his longtime rival, who then gives it one more go before they're both swamped by the waves.

Alexi regains consciousness washed up on some island, wondering if there are any other survivors. Well, yeah, but...

Edvin wakes up in time to avoid being gutted, and they resume their battle, using whatever they have at hand, kicking, biting, and so on. For the better part of the next day, as the survivors of both fleets look on:

Eventually, Alexi, the ostensible bad guy of this, since he's the black hat; admits that this can't go on. Neither man can remember why they are fighting, but know the peace has to start with them, and the survivors that witnessed this battle without taking action against each other. The epilogue, with probably the big bad of the main series, underlines that Alexi brokered a peace and a ritual combat to take the place of full-scale war; but that the Ravens and Hurons may be headed back to the old ways shortly...

I have no idea if CrossGen's other titles were as accessible as this one, but of course, Perez's art on the large-scale battles or the single combat goes a long way. I got this ish for a quarter, but don't let that undersell it.

Getting advice from Hawkman is like catching a cold:

You may not want it, but it's coming, and there really isn't a lot you can do about it. Between his multiple reincarnations, and his tenure as a senior member of the Justice Society, Hawkman's invaluable decades of experience are doled out like bowls of soup to the junior members. Figure Katar gives advice like he's Dear Abby, only without the pesky inconvenience of waiting for you to write in and request it.

I may have one more Guardian strip, then might have that out of my system for right now. It references another, possibly even more obscure comic. Goody.

We've seen Batman waving a pistol around here before, and shooting away with rubber bullets, so here's Batman ready for all-out war. Don't worry, though: he's shooting "fast-acting tranquilizer darts," in Batman: the Cult #4, written by Jim Starlin, pencils by Berni Wrightson, inks by Bill Wray.

Damnedest thing: I only had issue #4 back when this came out in 1988, and I think I even had a spare copy from a friend's collection. I think I did eventually read the whole thing sometime, but #4 does a good job of catching you up. Conman and cultist Deacon Blackfire is two for three in his goals: 1. Beat Batman. 2. Take over Gotham City with his army of homeless. 3. Die a martyr's death.

While Batman's recovered mostly from the physical aspects of his torture, the drugging and brainwashing has taken a toll: Bruce is having nightmares of his parents as corpses, accusing him of abandoning Gotham; and describes himself as "nothing but broken glass inside." (Admittedly, Bruce might be having that nightmare just so Wrightson can draw the hell out of it.)

The Cult obviously came out post-Dark Knight Returns, both in the prestige-formatting, and the use (or overuse) of the TV-screen shaped talking heads panels, the tank-style Batmobile, and Robin as a soldier. In fact, aside from possibly The Man Who Has Everything, this is probably the most bad-ass Jason Todd Robin story: while later stories would have you believe Jason was a loose cannon, incapable or unwilling to follow any orders; here he's got Batman's back the whole way.

Even without the rest of the series, I liked this one. I know Starlin and Wrightson would reunite for Punisher: P.O.V. at Marvel, but I don't think I've read it.

If I get Forager, expect me to continue flogging this joke:

I think Wonder Woman is supposed to be a peaceful warrior, and not going around decapitating bad guys, but if she throws that shield at someone, that's exactly what's going to happen.

"Suspects."

It might be easier to narrow it down to who couldn't do this. Click to enlarge, anyway.
Man, Ultimatum the comic mini-series could only have been a million times better, if it had been about ULTIMATUM the organization; from Captain America and a few other books from the 80's.

In the original the Prisoner, you never really find out who's responsible for the Village. And there's probably a reason for that, since in the AMC remake, you do find out...which will just disappoint you, no doubt. Even if it was revealed to be the coolest secret society ever, it still wouldn't be that cool, because it won't be the one you imagined, even if you imagined something lame like, I don't know, evolved dinosaurs who were the secret power behind the English empire.

One and maybe a half more Prisoner strips to go, then we'll never bring up the remake again! Which will catch us up to everyone already not talking about it...

This is what Batman calls a "pep talk."

Think we have a lot of Batman stuff scheduled for posting, but this one is for my reference for an upcoming Question homemade strip. Coming as soon as I get a bloody DCUC Question, which may be arriving the first of never, the way local distribution looks. In my neck of the woods, one Wal-Mart has no DCUC, another is jam-packed full of Power Girls and Foragers, and one has at least four KB-exclusive Cyborgs. How does that happen?

Usually, when I do a homemade strip, I have the figure in hand; or I see it on the shelves and have an idea. But with the Question, there's a lot of ground that could be covered. Need to pick up that Blackest Night issue, too.

Anyway, this page is from Question #2, "Butterfly" Written by Dennis O'Neil, pencils by Denys Cowan, inks by Rick Magyar. In the previous issue, Charles Victor Szasz, a.k.a. Victor Sage, a.k.a the Question, Question Mark, that No-Face guy, etc, takes a beating from Lady Shiva, then a touch-up beating from some thugs, then a shot in the head with an air gun, before being dumped in the river. Shiva fishes him out, but Vic's not in great shape yet, and while bedridden he receives a little visitor. Maybe. It could well be a dream, and I'm not sure if either Batman or Question bring it up when next they meet.

I mentioned not really seeing this page for years, since I saw it first in an article in Comics Scene, probably fifteen years before I got a copy of the issue myself. Well worth the wait.

Maybe you have to register the name worldwide, not just domestically.

Tiny print? Click to Great White North-size!
I have no idea if Sasquatch ever threw Puck around. I guess typically you wouldn't throw a puck. Maybe Sasquatch curled him or something. Huh.

I'm also not positive if Guardian, or Puck, or most of the rest of "Awful Plight" are still alive. Or if Omega Flight is Canada's superhero team, or if they're still active either. I do know it seemed a little insulting to put USAgent on Omega Flight, but am not sure if that's harder on the Agent or Canada.

Another post will be up later, and while it's mostly a reminder for me, it's a cool page that I didn't really get to see for well over ten years. Check back!

Admittedly, it's harder than it looks.

Since I can't remember that many stories with Guardian, I can't recall if I've ever actually seen him throw that shield. While it would doubtless be plenty painful to be hit with, it couldn't possibly fly that well...

Although, that wasn't what Jim Harper had in mind when he picked it: after getting a stout beating from some of Suicide Slum's finest thuggery, Jim decides to get some off-the-books payback. Breaking into a costume shop, he puts together the iconic costume of the Guardian, or rather finds some tights, puts shorts on over them, and adds a hardhat. Still, since the thugs had guns, he decides he needs a little equalizer: a shield. It was 1942, but even so, great plan, Jim.


The shield is described as an antique, to lampshade it being bulletproof, but later Guardian would get an indestructible shield, but I'm not sure how or why it is. I don't know if there is in an in-story reason for it, other than Captain America's shield is, so...

Scan from Secret Origins #19, "The Secret Origin of Guardian and the Newsboy Legion" Written and adapted by Roy Thomas, pencils by Arvell Jones, inks by Greg Theakston. This one doesn't get into any of his later Project: Cadmus clone business, which may or may not be more interesting for you. And this issue also has the secret origin of Uncle Sam...who also doesn't do anything for me.

The post where I say I'm posting somewhere else:

New strip today, but not here! Head over to Articulated Discussion, where I've got this week's One-Shots! You should be reading there already, but check it out!

I had a couple reasons for getting the DCUC Guardian figure, but primarily because he strikes me as funny: like he's going to be cloned and replaced every time he's killed. Check out the strip, and let me know what you think!