Standing Up For Superheroes (April 2001)
by Tim O'Shea
Tim O'Shea is a 33-year old desktop publisher/senior online news editor for The Comic Reader and a regular contributor to CBEM who lives in Atlanta with his wife and son. Tim, who has been reading comic books on a weekly basis since 1977, thinks he's the only rabid comic book fan who intends never to attend a convention.
(excerpt)
Well anyway, I decided it was time to start reading these borderline gems, when I stumbled across JLA #197 ("The Final Showdown between the Secret Society of Super-Villains and the JLA," the cover brags.) It's a fun read from December 1981, Earth-2 and the legendary Justice Society roll out to confuse the continuity police once again in a tale called CRISIS IN LIMBO (a good five years before THE BIG CRISIS runs everyone's butts over). It's George Perez art so hey that's a blast to enjoy no matter the story Gerry Conway gave him to work with. I just love any panel that has The Atom nonchalantly sitting on the shoulder of Batman, as if today's version of the Dark Knight would let anyone touch him, much less sit on his shoulder (!?!). (Imagine that scene today: Ray Palmer - confused after his divorce, living in a jungle that's set afire, de-aging to the point of his teen years, then re-aging and being partnered to the point of bottom-level obscurity as a mentor to Firestorm - accidentally sits on Batman's shoulder, who responds by instinctively snapping his neck [but I'm a little off track here].)
Anyway, I get to the end of the tale and read the letter column: "I just finished reading issue #192 of Justice League of America. Stunning. This month's tale was the best of all my DCs I picked up. Centering around one member of the group (Red Tornado) and at the same time involving the other heroes was an excellent idea. Even though there were 25 pages, I thought that my reading ended too soon. Red Tornado has fast become one of my favorite heroes. It is about time that he starts acting like the hero I know he can be. As for the art, what can I say? Welcome back, George. Your pencils have been missed (although Buckler did a very admirable job in your absence). Besides being my favorite artist, you draw the best Red Tornado this side of the border (and the other side, too!) Todd McFarlane - Calgary, Alberta, Canada"
I love finding gems like this. I wonder where good old Red ranks now? This is unfair to dredge up a letter from almost 20 years ago. What I wrote in 1981 I would not want to see published today. But I only employ this example to prove a strange point about myself.
Odds are Todd McFarlane has not read a DC/Marvel superhero comic book in a very looong time. Lawsuits, merchandising and traveling with Mark McGuire's (home run) balls is the kind of stuff that occupies his days at this point in his life. I don't begrudge him this, I'm happy that company-owned books and characters are beneath him now, as the characters he creates can make him more of a profit then the income he was cheated out of when he did not own the characters. Whatever. I've never been able to read Spawn myself, but I'm glad enough people can that Todd can pay his bills and then some.
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Thu, 23 Nov 2006 08:56:19 CST
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #195 (Oct 1981)
