Somebody's a Space Invaders fan. Previously, we checked out the Calculator's early appearances against Black Canary, the Atom, and Batman. Today, the villain faces the Atom again, but he previously "immunized" himself against the Tiny Titan, who's powerless to stop him. Then who could? What about Air Wave? ...who? From 1981, Action Comics #524, "Catastrophe by Calculation!" Written by Bob Rozakis, pencils by Alex Saviuk, inks by Vince Colletta.
I'm going to look this up to get this right, but I'm worried when I do, I'll find out Air Wave was turned into energy and launched into space or outright killed in the eighties or some crossover. (Yep, pretty much!) He made it through Crisis on Infinite Earths, anyway; but not Infinite Crisis. This youngster was the third Air Wave, a young legacy hero, and cousin of Hal Jordan. When the Calculator breaks out during a court appearance, after getting the location of the "Hurricane Harness" weapon from Professor Hyatt, the Atom is stopped cold. Still, one phone call later, Atom picks up Air Wave and tags him into the fight, with a nice opening even. The Calculator is not super impressed.
Despite his backtalk, the Calculator is beat by Air Wave, but doesn't count it as a total loss, since he's now "immune" to his power. Again, somehow. Still, that just means someone new has to kick his ass every time. Eventually he'd be getting whupped by Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys or something.
2 comments:
I gotta' say after seeing this, the Calculator really shouldn't have been jobbed out like he was. Sure, that whole gimmick of getting his ass kicked just to be immune to another attack didn't seem like the smartest idea, but it kinda' worked? Maybe? Except that to be the ultimate, he'd have to have gone through every major and minor superhero before earning invulnerability.
He just should've been written better, as a guy who occasionally, or at first, outsmarts the hero big time. before a last minute hail mary by the hero at the end.
The only really good thing to come out of Identity Crisis, was the Calculator's revamp into the evil version of Barbara Gordon's Oracle.
They could still use that gimmick today if they wanted to. Such a waste.
Beaten by Airwaves? That's just embarrassing.
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