Bad guy Acey Turk may have gotten better in later issues, for all I know.

We've seen Richard Dragon comics here before, and despite featuring DC's kung-fu master, his buddy who would later become the Suicide Squad's Bronze Tiger, and superbad assassin Lady Shiva, they haven't been great. Maybe today's? Yeah, maybe not: from 1977, Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter #16, "The Doom Seer" Written by Denny O'Neil, art by Ric Estrada.

This issue features ice-skating eskimo assassins, and Ojo of R'as al Ghul's League of Assassins. He was actually on more than a couple episodes of Young Justice...and he was cooler there. We don't get to the meat of his evil plan this issue, but in the same vein, both Shiva and Ben aren't as cool as they would be later. Ben isn't even the Bronze Tiger yet, merely the sidekick: he'd have to get brainwashed and a bit evil to really come into his own as a character.

This was a cheap find at the comicon, that I kinda picked up because it's not a book I see every day. Still, not great.

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Today: Amanda gets the band back together, the Tiger's true face, and Batman blows up a church.

I don't have a huge run of it, so when I find a mess of random issues for fifty cents a piece, I have to grab them: from 1990, Suicide Squad #41, "The Phoenix Gambit, part two: Embers" Written by Kim Yale and John Ostrander, art by Geof Isherwood.

Even though he's supposed to be manic-depressive, Count Vertigo sounds more like he's tripping hard, as he leads Vlatavan troops against Soviet forces. While riding a bronze statue in a park...don't those usually have riders? It's also a very conveniently located statue, since he's actually still in position to lead there. Vertigo is slowed down a bit when super-strong Stalnoivolk throws explosive Molotov at him--the latter name's a bit on the nose, then. Meanwhile, Amanda Waller recruits Vixen, who wants to find the MIA Bronze Tiger. And a small South American country is on the verge of open rebellion against its ruling general "and his whore!" Which isn't very nice, but said whore is none other than Poison Ivy, who wanted to control the general and the country. She's about to bail, when Batman arrives with an offer: help out Amanda Waller, or he'll leave her for the rebels.

In a dive bar in East Africa, Waller and Vixen find Ben--or rather, Bronze Tiger, since he claims Ben never existed. He had been brainwashed before, by the League of Assassins, so it's unclear how much of who he was remained. Having remarkably little tolerance for tomfoolery, Amanda makes him "wipe the gunk off" his face.

Next, they head to a South Pacific island where Waller had stranded the traitorous backstabbing "Boomerbutt," Captain Boomerang. Boomerang had built a giant well, boomerang, the kind he used to hassle the Flash with, and planned on using it to escape the island. Vixen launches it without him and it flies straight into a rock, so Boomerang opts to join Waller's squad.

Finally, in London, Batman visits a "cyberchurch," which is actually "a front for a murder-for-hire organization." Ravan claims each of their murders delays the arrival of Kali for a thousand years, but Bats blows up the church and hauls Ravan off for the Squad. And the issue ends with Deadshot, hired to kill Amanda Waller...

So much of this book was tied to the time, but still a lot to like there. Now if I could find that last issue...

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"Catfight."

Has either Bronze Tiger or Catman shown up in DC's new 52 yet? I could look it up, but I doubt Catman is still Deadshot's hetero lifemate; like they were in Secret Six. As long as Catman isn't rolled back to being Catwoman's stalker again, he should count himself lucky.

Have a good weekend!

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