Who else would have their head wrapped in bandages?

The Invisible Man, Negative Man, early Dr. Doom, any number of aged actors or actresses after another face lift...

This strip has been pushed back a couple of times: I bought Cap there in August. I've mentioned before, I bought a spare (and dirt cheap) DC Infinite Heroes Hush, because I had hoped to put his head on a G.I. Joe for a quick and easy Unknown Soldier, but Hush's head is far to small for that to work. At least this figure is of Hush's best look: in some later appearances, he was drawn with loose strands of bandages hanging off in weird places. For some reason, he may have been shirtless with the trenchcoat, as well. I may have to try and find a scan, it wasn't great.

For at least two years, I've been meaning to do an Unknown Soldier week, and look at the last issue of his original series (with, as mentioned in the strip, Hitler's death) and his two limited series: one with a very 80's Iran-Contra feel from Jim Owlsey (Priest) and the Vertigo series from Garth Ennis. Still haven't done it, though, and I'm not organized enough to schedule something like that for, I don't know, Veteran's Day or Memorial Day or anything.

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Warning: This scene does not appear in this comic!

Not. Even. Close. From Batman: Gotham Knights #71, "The Shape of Things to Come, part four" Written by A. J. Lieberman, pencils by Al Barrionuevo, inks by Bit. I'm guessing this cover should've been used earlier in the story, but who knows.

I swear, it's like Lieberman lost a bet with editorial: "Sure, A.J. We'll give you your own Batman book to write."

"Yay!"

"But you have to use Hush. Every issue."

"Crap."

"And, you have to at least try to make him cool. No fair just having Batman pummel him for 22 pages. That's how we lost Prometheus."

"Damnit!"

"But we'll let you kill off a big name Batman villain. Maybe Poison Ivy or something."

"All right!"

"But we're not going to hype it at all. Or crossover with the other Bat-books. And she'll be Superboy-punched back to life in a couple months, so whatever, however you wanna do the thing."

"Bwah?"

"I'll level with you, A.J. We're trying to phase out Knights and replace it with a new number one. Basically, I need you to ride out the clock."

"How...how long do I have? How many issues?"

"With the delays, and the new creative team, trying to schedule a little lead time, we don't know. Don't worry. Just write in four issue arcs. We can stretch or crunch 'em as needed."

"If...if I write four issues and it's turned into three, do I get paid for four?"

"Funny. Don't use that." Read more!