Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween folks! Dress appropriately, drive safely, and remember to take the razorblades out before you eat the candy!

Monster Vs. Monster, Final Round!

Ah, Solomon Grundy. You never let me down, my pasty-faced fiend. When you're talking comic monsters, you really can't avoid ol' Cyrus, can you? He's like Frankenstein, the Zombie, Wolfman and Dracula rolled into one. And, as a lead up to this whole Blackest Night deal-a-ma-bobber, he got his own series, which of course lead to him going toe-to-toe with some other notable DC monsters, including Bizarro:


Which ended surprisingly well. Who knew that two malevolent mutant man-children would get along so well, right? Right. Then, of course, there was a set-to with Amazo (a personal favorite of mine):


Which again, ended with Grundy coming out on top. And this lead to Grundy going up against the A-numba-one-stunna, the King of the Ring, the prototype...FRANKENSTEIN:


It did not end well. But really, what do you expect, putting the copy up against the original? It didn't work for Mechagodzilla, it ain't gonna work for Solomon Grundy. Poor Solomon Grundy, died on Saturday, buried on Sunday:

Came back as a Black Lantern on Monday. Oh god damn it, Frankenstein! Thanks a lot. Jerk.

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 12!

Frankenstein is a cover-hog. He shows up on more comic book covers than most any other specific monster, usually punching something or someone, up to and including gangsters, other monsters, super-heroes and once, Margaret Thatcher. Here's just a few of them, for this, the penultimate entry in the Monster Vs. Monster showdown!

And, of course, while this isn't really a cover per se, it is a nice visual. Frankenstein on a motorcycle heading forth to decapitate Darkseid. Granted, Batman got to Darkseid first, but really, wouldn't it have been altogether more awesome had it been Frankenstein? Way not to take the road less traveled, Morrison...

Be here tomorrow for Round 13 as I do a super-size post on the greatest comic monster of them all...SOLOMON GRUNDY! Watch as he battles Bizarro! As he smashes Amazo! As he shouts out his name repeatedly!

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 11!

It's Round 11 in the Monster Vs. Monster showdown! For this entry...redundant covers! Artificial man Vs. artificial man! Werewolf Vs. werewolf! Zombie Vs. zombie! Ghost Rider Vs. Ghost Rider! Whoever wins, we lose!

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 10!

Ah, two of my favorite comics this time, from two different publishers. Dracula vs. Frankenstein is a popular concept for horror comics. And why shouldn't it be? Two classic titans of terror, clashing over the corpse of a victim (usually Dracula's), makes for great conflict, don't it?

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 9!

Carrying over a bit from yesterday, we've got another great vampire/werewolf match-up for this round! This one of those great two-parters they used to do back in the day. Both parts came out in the same month, and the story was perfectly self-contained. Marvel Universe Dracula, being the bad-ass that Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan made him, royally schools the Werewolf by Night in his mag, before getting taken to town by the lunatic lycanthrope in issue 15 of Werewolf by Night. The fight ends pretty inconclusively, which is as it should be.

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 8!

This one is one of the most recognizable of the covers Frank Frazetta did for Creepy and Eerie. It's a classic and for good reason, what with the sheer badassery on display there. Lightning was induced to strike twice with Frank Frazetta' Dracula Meets the Wolfman, but the comic by all counts could not live up to the testosterone-laced nightmare fuel of that first fabulous cover.

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 7!

The Hulk Vs. Fin Fang Foom one shot from Marvel was a bit of an odd duck. Like the similarly themed Hulk Vs. Frankenstein, it's basically just twenty some odd pages of fight between two green goliaths, ending when the Hulk shot-puts F3 to the Moon. As you do in these situations.

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 6!

And today's entry comes courtesy of the Wachowski Brothers and Doc Frankenstein which is a comic wherein the Frankenstein's Monster beats up people with SCIENCE and we are given shots such as this:
I tried to get the panels where Frankenstein guns down a town full of old west werewolves with a maxim gun full of silver bullets, but well, no dice. So instead, Frankenstein fighting outlaws. Click to embiggen.

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 5!

Continuing the theme from yesterday's entry in the 2009 Monster Vs. Monster Match-Up, we have another titanic tussle, this time between Godzilla and Yetrigar! The latter of course being a yeti who was exposed to radiation and became a-well-bigger and meaner yeti. As happens on occasion when you let Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe write comic books.

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 4!

It! The Living Colossus didn't have his own series long, but he went out with a bang. Because frankly, it doesn't get much better than a story involving a giant special effect fighting a space-dragon, unless of course you happen to call said story "Five Claws of Death!". Also, the space-dragon knows kung-fu. Oh, Bronze Age Marvel Comics, you make me so very happy.

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 3!

What can you say about AvP that hasn't already been said? The galaxy's most dangerous life-form stalked by the universe's deadliest hunters. High concept material there. By and large, the comics have ranged from 'awesome' to 'meh' with most falling into the middling range. Still, the original series by Randy Stradley, Chris Warner and Phil Norwood was a damned fine science-fiction slugfest.
Of course, it did lead to this:
Which is horrible in its own special way. Pretty artwork though.

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 2

Carrying over from Round 1 a bit, we've got one of my favorite comics/double entendres, the first issue of Giant-Size Man-Thing! Muck monster vs. mud monster in a messy massacre most foul. That's all it's about really. There's a cult. They're doing stuff. But really, it's just filler until we get to the good stuff-Man-Thing vs. the the Glob, as depicted by the amazing Mike Ploog who does for swamp-beasties what Art Adams does for gill-men and Frank Cho does for monkeys, i.e draws them very well.
Conversely, if you like a bet less viscosity in your comic cover, go with this Tom Yeates (Thanks Robert!) number featuring Swamp-Thing battling the clay catastrophe known as the Golem...

Monster Vs. Monster, Round 1

Over the course of the days leading up to Halloween, It's Clobberin' Time will be presenting you with the best in monster mayhem that we can find without having to look too hard or too long. And to kick things off, we get the classic first issue of Marvel Two in One, wherein Bashful Benjy goes toe-to-toe with the Malodorous Man-Thing! In fact, folks enjoyed this slimy slug fest so much, it happened two more times!

Planetary Postscripts

Interesting set of posts here and here at Geoff Klock's blog, concerning Warren Ellis' Planetary. Having not yet read the final issue (or re-read the rest of the series in some time) myself, I can't say as to whether I agree with him, but he makes some interesting points nonetheless. Go read it and give it a think.

Mighty Meta-Marvel Manner

So. I've been thinking it over recently, as one does when one has an excess of time, and I've come to the conclusion that Brian Michael Bendis might just be smarter than I thought.
If you're keeping up with things, you know that the 'Dark Reign' (i.e. 'Norman Osborn wears big-boy pants now') storyline is coming to a close and the next big EVENT is coming...'Siege', which will see the original Avengers once more banded together against the threat of, well, Loki. Maybe Dr. Doom. And as I read this, I begin to think back. Waaaay back, to when Bendis first started playing with the big-boy toys.
It all started with 'Avengers Disassembled' didn't it? Bendis pulled apart the core of the Marvel Universe and replaced it with something else, just in time for that something else to get kicked around by 'House of M', the events of which led into 'Civil War', where the groundwork for 'Secret Invasion' was laid, which directly attributed to 'Dark Reign' which will end in 'Siege' where the Avengers, broken apart are reformed once more to set right all that has gone wrong since.
Does that, or does that not, sound like one big story, with the EVENTS of which we-as fans-have been complaining about being the merest chapters of a larger work?
Side events such as 'The Death of Captain America' and the various ups and downs of books like X-Men and Daredevil all tie into things in some way. It's as if the Marvel Universe, as a fictional construct, is being twisted to its ultimate breaking point-just how much can it take?-before it will all be put back in place again. The Spider-Marriage canon again, Captain America returned, Iron-Man no longer Hitler. Does it feel like that to you? Or is it just me?
Is everything that the Marvel Universe has been through in the past-what? Four? Five?-years all part of one ongoing meta-storyline, a-dare I say it-Crisis of universal proportions?
One story, written to boost flagging sales, attract new readers and rebuild a stagnating universe from the ground up over a period of several years. Just in time to attract the interest of the Disney juggernaut, I might add.
...
Think about it.
I could be wrong, of course. But wouldn't it be so much better if I were right?

The Return of the Green Hornet

So, with the movie on the way, I suppose this was inevitable. And a 'Year One' no less, which is often an excuse to simply rework a story everyone already knows in order to update it. Granted, it could be worse. They're leaving it in the proper time-period, and keeping with the traditional outfit. Too, I have a feeling that Matt Wagner (Grendel, Mage) will be a good fit for the title. After all, the original Grendel storyline is basically an inversion of the theme that gentleman-vigilantes such as the Green Hornet made popular. And, frankly, Wagner's work on Batman is-while perhaps not pitch perfect-quite damn good.
Too, Dynamite have a good track record so far with their work on the Lone Ranger. Tight, well-plotted stories with crisp art and all done with the style and flair you'd expect and none of the latent misogyny or racism that makes even the hardiest pulp fan cringe just a bit.
So, all in all, I'm looking forward to this.
Especially if they get into the Lone Ranger/Green Hornet connection, because frankly I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. Color me optimistic.

Kirby Copyright Conundrum

There's been a lot of talk lately, in rather more high class joints than this, about the recent attempts by the Kirby estate to reclaim ownership of the characters he created from Marvel. Whatever you think of the situation, there's little doubt that it's an intriguing one. Also, confusing, especially in regards to the non-Euclidean intricacies of American corporate copyright law. Luckily, for us laymen, Peter Waldkirch has written an article describing what it's all about, and what it means for both parties. Go take a look, then feel free to discuss in the comments section, providing that you remain civil.
And, just because I mentioned Kirby:
Devil Dinosaur kicking over a fire-truck, ladies and gentlemen. Is there anything that kooky red lizard can't kick into submission?

Villains with Potential-Lady Vic

I haven't looked at too many DC villains here, due to a purely personal bias, but I've got images stacking up on my hard drive, so, yeah. Onto today's installment, then.
Lady Vic. Lady Elaine Marsh-Morton, scion of a proud English line of mercenaries and assassins. She has a battle butler named Bivens and enough exotic weaponry to wipe out a small nation. She fought Nightwing.
That's it. She was one of a number of villains created to go up against Nightwing when he got his own book, appeared fairly regularly in said book, then wound up where every DC villain who isn't the Joker, Lex Luthor or Darkseid goes-the background. She's a face in the crowd, someone to use when you need to fill a gap. It's a shame, because frankly the ingredients are all there to make her the equal to, say, Deadshot in terms of popularity. It's just a matter of opportunity, really.
First off, let's re-consider her motivations. She's already rich, so assassinations and mercenary work have probably slid from being a priority to a hobby with her. Something she does to relax, or to break her out of a self-imposed lethargy, perhaps.
Lady Vic works for the challenge then. The more challenging the assignment, the better she likes it. She needs the thrill to function.
Imagine her being hired by a renegade Atlantean noble to kill whichever member of Aquaman's supporting cast is in charge of Atlantis these days. Or, even better, she's hired by someone with a mania for super-technology (like, say, the Scavenger) to get ahold of Hawkman's Nth Metal harness, Batman's utility belt or any number of items from the Flash Museum.
Since she's essentially a hired gun, she's simultaneously very easy to slot into a given book, and hard to develop beyond that two-dimensional status. Much like Deadshot, she'd probably flourish in a villains-only title. Consider this: Lady Vic puts together a group of like-minded assassin/mercenaries for a particular job, only to run afoul of the League of Assassins or Kobra, forcing the group to stay together. Perhaps they're caught between two factions within an organization, or even a law enforcement agency (such as Checkmate) and a criminal group. Or perhaps Lady Vic is one of a number of voluntary (or involuntary) participants in Roulette's underground fight club.

EL GORGO! Once More.

Did you know there's an eleven page preview of the upcoming third issue of El Gorgo! available right now, for free? Did I mention that it's free? It's free.

Indeed Sir, 'Tis Thus