It´s Wonder Woman Wednesday !

Today Lynda Carter, the one true ( and as far as live action adaptions the only ) Wonder Woman of tv celebrates her 62nd birthday so I thought it´s about time to put the spotlight on DC´s amazon princess.

I already did a post about the Wonder Woman tv show and one about Lynda Carter´s other tv and movie appearances on her 60th birthday and since there´s nothing I could add to it let´s talk about the comic instead.

Right now the new incarnation of Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang ( occasionally ) is one of the few good books of the NEW 52 and I´m eagerly awaiting the third hardcover which comes out in September so there´s really nothing I could say about that which I haven´t already said. But, as coincidence would have it - and I really don´t believe in coincidences - just Yesterday I started re - reading John Byrne´s WONDER WOMAN issues upon which I stumbled ( and I really almost stumbled over them the way the comic boxes were piled ) while putting my brother´s comics in order. I know, I probably shouldn´t do that but since he´s in Spain at the moment that´s a rare occasion I just had to use - think of it as an additional birthday gift if you will. Now, as with most comics my brother collects they are kept in several places so there still are some missing issues of John Byrne´s run. One of the main reasons I wanted to give it another go was that I wasn´t sure what exactly happened in those issues but I also wanted to see if they would hold up after all this time.Or rather if the reading experience would be different with a bit of distance.

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES AND THE WORST OF TIMES

John Byrne came onto the book after a phenomenal run by William Messner - Loebs and Mike Deodato that was really all about fan service and booty. Not that there´s something inherently wrong with that. I mean, FINALLY somebody who could draw hot women was working on a book with a female lead character. And it was selling like cupcakes.

Who would have thought ? Here the two big comic companies were fighting against babe artists drawing books with female leads for decades as if their life depended on it and suddenly if happened.

And the ground didn´t break open and swallow all life on the planet, the earth didn´t stop spinning and the sky didn´t fall and no other apocalyptic scenario was played out. I guess it all was just superstition on part of the publishers. Well, it still is when you look at most of the output Today but while there didn´t happen too much storywise ( at least in the single issues ) there was enough eye candy in the issues to keep the readers happy. And I´m not excluding myself in the least bit. Heck, I have the original issues AND the german translations and I really didn´t need them to read again or compare both versions. It was just printed on better paper. But we all were enthralled. Even the german publishers - which at that time was DINO - started with those issues and closed the collection before reaching the Byrne issues because " they could not hold up to the high standard of the previous run " or something along those lines.

And that was what a lot of people thought about the John Byrne issues. For those not familiar with the storyline by William Messner - Loebs, the story started in THE CONTEST where Diana lost the title of Wonder Woman to Artemis in a contest. Artemis went out into " man´s world " to enforce peace by any means necessary while Diana donned a new black costume ( why have all new costumes to be black ? ) and did her own thing. After issues of Diana wondering if she really helped to promote the idea of peace between the sexes in man´s world the grand scheme behind all was revealed. Diana´s mom Hippolyta, queen of the amazons, rigged the contest because she had a vision that something would happen to Wonder Woman. It was also implied that Herakles was her father.

Which made more sense than her father being Zeus like it is in the NEW 52 since there already was an established history with Herakles and the amazons. What I always found a bit hard to swallow was the different approach to this part of Herakles´ or Hercules´ story by DC and Marvel.

I mean after Dan Slott defamed Starfox as a rapist in one of the most ridiculous stories in a long line of ridiculous stories in the She Hulk series I halfway expected him to tarnish Hercules next. Although because there was no equivalent to Wonder Woman in the Marvel universe I don´t know who would have sued Hercules. But they mostly keep quiet about it and I think the only time it was really addressed was in issue 2 of AVENGERS / JLA by Kurt Busiek and George Perez ( which is really required reading for any fan of the Avengers, the Justice League or comics in general ) when Wonder Woman is all gun ho about opening a can of whupass on Herc and he´s all : " Hey, what´s the big deal here ? I didn´t do nothing wrong. "

I mean the way Hercules is always written in the Marvel universe I doubt he would even realize it if he had treated the amazons badly. Or if he had he would just downplay the whole bit as just a minor jest.

Anyway, back to Wonder Woman and John Byrne I have to say I really didn´t like it when I first read it. Because when John Byrne takes over a book he´s not gonna do the same thing the guys before him did. John Byrne´s doing his thing when he´s doing his thing. And in the case of Wonder Woman it meant using all the shiny Jack Kirby toys like Darkseid and the New Gods and Metron ( who is neither of Apokalips nor of New Genesis as the Byrnster himself never gets tired of reminding readers in later runs ) and Etrigan and dozens of other guest stars.

And I was really not that impressed by the whole storyline. Although I have to say that even upon the second reading and now with me having much more appreciation of the whole Jack Kirby stuff and John Byrne as a creator the first five to six issues are still kind of a hard sell. Byrne needs a few issues before he really starts to get a feeling for the characters and he has a direction for the whole thing.

PARADISE ISLAND LOST ( OR RATHER BYRNED TO THE GROUND )

The whole exodus from Paradise Island seems more of a statement than really story relevant and I think it could have been achieved without destroying Paradise Island and such a high body count for the amazons. You can just realize that it´s not your thing at the moment and just walk away to search for your place in the grand scheme. It doesn´t always have to be life and death and doom and gloom even if it´s comic books.

Another thing I didn´t like was the new costume John Byrne gave Wonder Woman. I had expected a more traditional costume after the flashdance outfit she got from Deodato but this new costume was just - well, lazy. Just two stars on each side of the pants, a tiara that´s much to big to be anything than a distraction during fights and the new size of her bracelets was just ridiculous. Now I know that drawing all those stars on the pants really takes a lot of time and John just wanted to do his own thing but back then it just looked lazy to me. What I DID like very much was the way John Byrne drew Wonder Woman in her civilian threads when she goes " undercover " in the first issue. For all I cared she could have worn jeans, a t - shirt and the ponytail for the whole issue. It really is strange how the biggest differences in her looks has to do with her hair.

  
Deodato´s black costume aside, the only other time her look changed drastically was when later on they cut her hair. It sounds sexist and ever since India Arie we all know " I am not my hair " but it´s also true. 

But as I look on the clock it´s once again time to wrap things up. I wanted to write a bit more but for some strange reason my security program had to do a full scan which slowed things down a bit.

So, let´s get to the meat and potatoes right away. I really did enjoy the whole run much more so far which could have something to do with the fact that I was explicitly reading because of John Byrne and was ready for all the usual tropes he uses. In fact I was strongly expecting it. I relished appearances by characters like Cave Carson and hisspelunking crew going to the center of the earth or the Phantom Stranger and Etrigan although I have to say I liked him much more in the BLOOD OF THE DEMON series John Byrne did a few years later. Initially I even thought new Wonder Woman supporting character officer Mike Schorr appeared in that series but it was just another guy who looked like him. Mike gets a lot of play in John Byrne´s run ( even knowing that his main purpose is providing exposition for the readers ) and he´s just fun to read.

Another delight is reading the letters pages especially with the hindsight of knowing what will come in a few decades down the road. So, sorry, partner but you will have to suffer the new Wonder Girl for quite a few decades. She will be in Young Justice and eventually even become a full fledged member - and for a time even leader - of the Teen Titans.

Or, like a great philosopher once said : Sorry about your damn luck !

  
Wonder Girl says : " This is just the beginning. Suffer, dude ! "

Last but not least I have to mention the covers. During the run by Mike Deodato - and at least 30 issues before that - Brian Bolland was just churning out one brilliant cover after another.

He really doesn´t do much interior work anymore so losing this parade of instant masterpieces in favor of John Byrne made the transition just more painful for me. As big a fan as I am of John Byrne, give me a Brian Bolland cover any day. But this is a bit eased once Jose Luis Garcia Lopez takes over as regular cover artist. Like Brian Bolland he really should do more stuff and that man can´t draw a subpar picture - ever. I mean, just look at this cover below. My god, what a master of perspective and composition. He even makes Kyle´s threads and the Zapp - Superman costume look good which is really no small feat in itself.

So maybe I can read more Wonder Woman issues Tomorrow. I´m slowly coming to the part with the missing issues which is right in the middle of Hippolyta´s new / oldadventures as Wonder Woman with the Justice Society and the whole re - re - re - writing of Donna Troy´s origin.

Why do they always have to do that ? It´s like a scab and the writers just keep poking at it and poking at it until it pops. And it gets worse and more convoluted each time. I know that it´s probably a tradition or a rite of passage for writers to write one WHO IS DONNA TROY ? story but that´s one part of John Byrne´s run I´m really not looking forward to. I just wonder into how big of a trainwreck DC is going to turn this storyline into in the NEW 52 continuity now that they seem to have run out of new ideas and started to milk old stories like the death of Robin.

IT`S THAT WONDERFUL FEELING OF DEJA VUE AGAIN

No post is complete without some covers from my DEJA VUE section and since I mentioned the whole " Who is Donna Troy / Wonder Girl ? " thing I wanted thise covers but then I remembered that I already did that. So instead here´s Donna Troy making a splash with her new costume.

 
Anyway, I wanted to put this on the blog Today since while it was a really exhausting day with sudden bouts of rain during work - and at the last minute - and all Tomorrow ( or better Today since it´s already past three o´clock ) is my special day and I want to just chill. I just hope I have bought everything I need and that the only time I have to leave the house is to go to the ice cream parlor for an extra big ice cream bowl. I hope you have a great Wonder Woman Day, you all.

In my last post I put a video of a Roger Corman video at the end and since it will probably take a while longer than planned before I can do that post here is another one that is really worth watching. It´s an adaption of Edgar Allen Poe´s THE PREMATURE BURIAL in which a few changes have been made that don´t distract from the enjoyment of the movie.
 


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It´s that old feeling of deja vue again

There will be no new post Today because I´m preparing my next posts. Although what I should be doing is resting - it´s my free day after all. But once again I´m sitting in front of my laptop and looking for new pics, in this case for the new cover homage section on this blog.

So I will not be doing a post Today, sorry. Nope, I just won´t so don´t even try it. I´m going to deactivate my laptop right now and then I´m going to get some potato chips and some coke, lie on my bed and watch an episode of BONES or GREEN LANTERN ANIMATED or some old episode with David Tennant as DOCTOR WHO.

That´s right. So, before I get to that I wanted to mention that the picture above is - of course - not the cover of an actual comic but something somebody made up. Because, sadly, the X - Men and the Legion have never met within the pages of a comicbook. Part of the picture is from the DARK PHOENIX SAGA, as you´re probably aware of ( I already posted that cover ) and the rest is from LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES 296.

Another Legion - related cover is issue 18 of the shortlived VALOR series.

The book started good with Mark Bright on the art but then the artists got worse and worse and the whole reason for doing the series in the first place - namely replacing Superboy in DC continuity with Mon El because after CRISIS there never was a Superboy who could have inspired the kids to build the Legion - got too confusing.

What I can´t believe is that I did not put the following one in the first batch of CRISIS covers. I did read MAN OF STEEL when it came out and PANIC IN THE SKY was one of my favorite storylines from that time.

Well, the whole Draaga storyline basically. I just love that storyline and from time to time I go back and re - read it. Boy, I was so thrilled when they put Draaga in the WARWORLD two parter of the animated series. I still get goose bumps when I watch it.

Here´s another cover with Supergirl taking the position of Superman in a nice role reversal. It´s the penultimate issue of the Peter David run and since I didn´t read most of it - or if I did I blocked it - so it is understandable that I blanked on it.

The book could have been really great if Peter David wasn´t always so preoccupied with building stuff up that he doesn´t notice when he´s boring his readers to death. If he would have just done it another way - skip a few years to the future and get right to the fun stuff of Supergirl and Power Girl and a few alternate Supergirls partying and having fun - I bet he would be still writing this book. Anyway, the new book with Supergirl seems to be pretty solid and since my brother´s birthday is coming up I will finally be able to read the second trade.

Now this one is for the 50th annual edition of the CRISIS, I think.

It´s another zombie variant cover by Arthur Suydam and while I´m glad that the comic industry still gives work to the old veterans I was already bored with the first MARVEL ZOMBIE series. So for me the second, third and so on were totally unnecessary. But there seems to be a market out there for that kind of stuff, otherwise Marvel wouldn´t be making so much dough with it. The old saying that the market only supports the best books is just a saying and really doesn´t have any truth to it.

Case in point : MAJOR BUMMER. A really funny, action - packed thrillride of a series with mindblowing art by Dough Mahnke who draws the best aliens ever and that was canceled with issue 15 while crap like DEADPOOL has five different titles at the same time. But I guess we get the comics we pay for. Anyway, if you haven´t read it that´s almost a crime.

Get out, look for the issues, it´s a great read. Sadly you can probably find the complete series ceaply in bargain bins.

Now one CRISIS homage cover where I never made the connection is the cover for COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS 80 PAGE SPECIAL by Jim Lee and Alex Ross. That´s because we see it from the other side.

See what a difference a small change of perspective can do ? Man, I get all misty - eyed just thinking about the fact that back then they wrote a sequel to CRISIS that was so brilliant because they had started planting the seeds three years in advance. Three years. Now it seems they don´t plan three months in advance.

Anyway, I remember that the comic was really pretty good with a shocker ending and a really low price of 1 dollar. Good times.

And speaking of INFINITE CRISIS, Todays last CRISIS homage cover is a tie - in issue for that, FIRESTORM 21 with lots of Firestorms on the cover.

I have to say I never read the restarted series because for me Firestorm was Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein. I really wasn´t interested in anybody else playing the part so I just skipped it.

Once again it´s time to wrap things up on this post I´m not writing Today. Because I´m not working, you see ?  As always here is a video for your further enjoyment and this time it´s a real treat.

A few days ago I saw a documentary about pop culture icon Roger Corman that prompted me to write a post about him. Which I will probably do next. But in the meantime I want to put THE INTRUDER on the blog. It´s also known under the titles SHAME or I HATE YOUR GUTS.  It was William Shatner´s first lead role and he plays a white supremacist who comes into a small community to stir trouble in a southern town that is about to integrate its high school.

Roger Corman mortgaged his house to make it and he claims it is the only film of the over 300 he's produced to lose money.



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The dual dynamics of the Dynamic Duo

You know, after I had spent so much time on my last entry about JUNGE GIGANTEN - and fellow blogger Terry Hooper did such a nice plug for it - I was tempted to leave it on the top of my blog for a few weeks.

But I have a few things to add to the subject, or rather further elaborate on it, and since it will be the Fourth of July Tomorrow I guess my american readers might be looking for something new to read.

Fine, in our last post I had covered my first encounters with the Teen Titans through the german JUNGE GIGANTEN editions, how difficult it is to collect the american editions and the various incarnations of the book and the various teams but I guess we kind of stopped before we could get to the most important part - namely why the run by Marv Wolfman and George Perez is considered such a classic run by most comic readers.

TALKING ABOUT MY GENERATION

We already established that the Teen Titans started out when the teen sidekicks of Batman, Flash and Aquaman decided to start their own little club, to be joined later by Wonder Girl and Speedy who replaced Aqualad.

And while they all had adventures of their own, they were pretty much still under the shadow of their mentors. The first incarnations of the team pretty much focused on topics that the people at DC thought would appeal to younger readers such as racial tensions and the protests against the Vietnam War and when the characters reached their early 20s the team simply disbanded - probably because DC felt that young readers could no longer identify with them. Now this may be true or not, but the point is moot anyway since the book had it´s highest success when Marv Wolfman decided to bring back the team with a focus on the young adult heroes and their struggle for independence and acceptance. A story element that was introduced in the YOUNG JUSTICE tv show from the get - go.

Now don´t get me wrong, THE NEW TEEN TITANS also had epic superhero battles, which were wonderfully rendered by George Perez who initially didn´t think the book would last longer than six issues.

But the parts were it really did shine were the small character moments where Marv Wolfman would flesh out the problems, hang ups and angst of those young heroes on their way to adulthood so incredibly believable. Okay, some of it may seem stiff and overladen by Todays standards but back in the time you didn´t see this kind of writing in other books and you definitely did not see it in Marvel´s top selling UNCANNY X - Men book. At least not with characters that were so young which is one of the main reasons why Teen Titans took the top spot in the reader´s favor.

Young readers - and I was one of them following their exploits in Junge Giganten - could identify with their fights and struggles to be accepted as heroes in their own rights by the law enforcement as well as their older superhero contemporaries and mentors. Especially Dick Grayson, who started as Robin on the team, has a really interesting story arc in the series, depicting his long journey to emancipation that starts with opposing views with his mentor, a break up of the longstanding Dynamic Duo and which ends with him forging his own identity under the name of Nightwing. It´s a perfect example of how the members of Teen Titans were allowed to grow and get older which in the case of Robin lead to one of the big paradoxes in modern comic continuity : namely that Batman doesn´t age above the age of 30 but Robin does. That´s right, back in the Silver Age the writers had no problems making Batman old with many comics depicting the adventures of Dick Grayson as the new Batman.

I know some of these stories were just imaginary stories, some were hoaxes and others took place on alternate earths but back in the day there were some really weird stories involving Robin who was often used in his primary function : as a bullet trap or sacrificial lamb.

HONEY, I KILLED THE ROBIN !

Now some people may not see it this way, but there was a reason why Robin was wearing bright colors while Batman was dressed in black and grey : Robin´s main purpose was to draw enemy fire away from Batman.

And judging from many covers of the time the writers treated the character accordingly with stories that had Robin dying or at least emphasizing that the position as Robin was a temporary one at best. There were a lot of stories with Batman holding Robin try - outs, or the partnership of Batman and Robin breaking up for various reasons ( most often than not involving a woman ) the most severe of them the demise of one of them. Todays focus is on Robin but there also were a lot of stories in which Batman died, was killed or committed suicide.

Todays readers may think that stories like BATMAN R. I. P., A DEATH IN THE FAMILY or the recent story involving the son of Batman are new and unique but all of these stories - and many more - have been around before. Especially the death of Robin ( which was just recently rehashed way too soon in the NEW 52 ) is kind of an ongoing theme throughout the various decades up to the point where it´s getting repetitious. 

For the longest time it seemed that Robin was only included in stories as part of the " Batman and " equation to do the work Batman couldn´t be bothered with or to take on the role as damsel in distress or at least the weaker link of the team that had to be rescued.

Characterization only happened when necessary for the story and when it wasn´t convenient anymore retconned or outright ignored. The thought of Robin becoming his own entity wasn´t really entertained until he became the leader of the reformed Teen Titans under Marv Wolfman.It´s true that the seeds of this had been planted before as you see Dick Grayson going on solo missions more and more and starting to disagree with Batman on crime fighting methods. He´s no longer content with just following orders which ultimately leads to a split which happened in two versions.

In Pre - Crisis continuity Dick and Bruce part entirely amicable and Dick passes the mantle of Robin voluntarily to Jason Todd while Bruce gives every impression to be pleased with his ward´s coming of age. Before CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS the second Robin was just a copy of the original one with a similar origin story although his parents were killed by Killer Croc. After Crisis he got one of the most stupid origin stories where he was a street kid and orphan who got adopted by Batman when he tried to steal the Batmobile´s hub caps. Which kind of makes sense if you apply the logic of Batman using Robin as a distraction : " Wow, look at that stupid kid. I bet he´ll make an excellent bullet trap ! " 

This also changed the seperation of Batman and Robin as in the Post - Crisis stories Batman was less pleased with Dick´s growing indepenency, going to such lengths as informing him that if he doesn´t want to be his partner on Bruce conditions anymore he has to retire as Robin.

Which leads to a few awkward moments when reading the Teen Titans in regards to the relationship of Batman and Robin if you don´t know.

In the crossover between THE NEW TEEN TITANS 37 and BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS 5 ( I actually bought the second part of this crossover three times : once in the german version and twice in the original version ) Batman is starting to treat Robin like a sidekick again until Robin pulls rank because he knows more about teamwork. At the end of the issue they both shake hands and congratulate each other.

In issue 39 of THE NEW TEEN TITANS Dick announces that he quits the Robin identity because he´s not Batman´s partner anymore but there is no mention of a new Robin or to his identity. As far as I could ascertain from the internet Marv Wolfman wanted to evolve Dick Grayson while the writers of BATMAN wanted to keep using Robin so Gerry Conway and Don Newton created Jason Todd who was headed in that direction even if it wasn´t set in stone exactly how that happened. Fact is that when it finally did he was changed after CRISIS into such an unsympathetic, hated and alienating character for the readers that they decided to kill him in one of DC´s biggest publicity stunts ever. And though this particular death still haunts Batman to this day it didn´t last forever.

As to the repercussions of it, it was addressed in the parts that crossed over in the A LONELY PLACE OF DYING story ( the BATMAN issues of this crossover are not included in the third volume of the TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS 3, but we will get to that later on ) and earlier in issue 55 when Robin goes to talk with Batman at the batcave and Bruce decides that after the death of Jason he will become a solo act. 

Of course the whole Robin thing started to deteriorate when Dick Grayson became Nightwing, Tim Drake became Robin and later on Red Robin, Jason Todd came back from the dead to take up the mantle of Red Hood and Damian became the latest Robin, who just got offed in the NEW 52.

Not to mention that Dick Grayson became Batman when Bruce Wayne was killed by Darkseid and teamed up with Damian as Robin. Or - which in my opinion was the shortest and most illfated tenure as Robin - when Stephanie Brown took up the mantle and soon afterwards got herself killed only to be retconned back to life later on. And it really wasn´t so much her becoming the new Robin but rather Batman drafting her into this position when Tim Drake wasn´t willing to play ball anymore.

The whole absurdity of Robin suddenly being a girl while Batman pretended it had always been this way must have somehow eluded the creative people at DC because I really have no other explanation for it. The only thing I liked about the whole trainwreck was the issue of the restarted TEEN TITANS in which Superboy told her that she wasn´t the real Robin, only a girl wearing his clothes.

" You are not welcome at Titans Tower! We already have a Robin! "

For those of my readers trying to keep tabs ( and I´m having a hard time with it here myself ) Stephanie Brown was formerly the costumed character Spoiler who´s main hang ups was to screw up the crimes of her father, the villain Cluemaster and dating Tim Drake when he was Robin.

She also took on the identity of Batgirl after she had proven she pretty much sucked at being Robin - by instigating a gang war that totally got out of control in an attempt to..well, basically suck up to Batman.

THE ROBIN THAT WOULDN`T STAY DEAD

Going over all these incarnations of Robin you can´t help but notice that none of the people who became Batman´s sidekick managed to stay dead.

Stephanie Brown was resurrected and became Batgirl. Jason Todd was resurrected and became the Red Hood. And while Dick Grayson didn´t die as Robin he was fated to die during INFINITE CRISIS, a decision on which DC backpaddled due in a large part to the avid female fanbase that controls Nightwing´s destiny in secret. I really don´t know what it is but Robin does seem to have a habit of returning from the grave. Which leads to another big dilemmas of Batman lore : with so many Robins coming back from the dead Batman´s status as a loner is seriously diminished. I mean, it´s only natural that when they keep dying and Batman keeps on taking new sidekicks under his wing who also keep dying and subsequently coming back at one point in time there will be an army of Robins and former Robins to dwarf the membership of the Legion of Super - Heroes.

Which would be a really great story if it was written by Grant Morrison.

So, in closing and making the segueway back to Teen Titans, here the characters really developed and were fleshed out. It´s true that in some cases it was really convoluted as the example of Robin shows.

But that was something all the characters had in common. They all had a shared history that made them more like a family than a team going through all the ups and downs in life. Like with Wonder Girl who first was introduced as Wonder Woman´s sister only to be retconned again and again with each new origin story becoming more ludacris than the one before until it became as confusing as Power Girl´s. Even some of the newer members like Beast Boy, who was rejected earlier on because he was too young to join, had some backstory with the Doom Patrol that was interesting to discover for the readers. Which was something he had in common with the new additions Cyborg, Raven and Starfire. You really didn´t know anything about them and in some cases you were learning about them at the same pace as the other team members.

What´s more, they became such an intrinsic part of the team over the years that I have trouble with a Teen Titans team that doesn´t include Cyborg. It just feels all kind of wrong having him on JUSTICE LEAGUE because he really doesn´t belong there. And the same goes for Starfire on RED HOOPD AND THE OUTLAWS. Not to mention how horrible she´s written now. I mean, she was always depicted as a liberated and openly sexual active character but in a way that was consistent with her as a three dimensional character. Yes, she was shown in bed with Dick Grayson in the first Baxter issue but not in a gratuitous way and they had been a couple for quite some time. She wasn´t written like male wish fulfillment.

But I already wrote about this when the NEW 52 started and it´s time to wrap things up for Today anyway. It´s my free day but instead of sleeping the sleep of the just my nose is running all the time because it rained so much Yesterday. It did however prompt me to use the opportunity and write this since I wasn´t getting any sleep whatsoever. Ah, the internet would be such a bleak place without all the insomniacs.

So, we covered a little bit of ground in regards to the Teen Titans although most of the post was about Batman and Robin and the weirder aspects of the Dynamic Duo. Sorry, it all got a little away from me there and I totally blame it on my fever induced headache. As usual, here are a few websites without whom I couldn´t have done this post, to which I want to give a shout - out, indispensable all. First of all, if you want to know more about the Teen Titans head over to the Teen Titans megasite Titanstower , especially the library where you can find all kinds of articles and exclusive content in their New Teen Titans archive especially about the Titans Hunt Era . Also use the Teen Titans on DC wiki for further info.

Once again we didn´t get to discuss the TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS so we´ll come to that part in one of our next posts - unless DC decides to revamp another old story and really make Batman younger than Robin.

   
Likewise I don´t have a Titans related video in this post. Instead here is the trailer for the new animated Avengers series AVENGERS ASSEMBLE which, in my opinion, shows pretty well which why EARTH`S MIGHTIEST HEROES was such a good show and at the same time exemplifies the problems I have with the new Avengers comic.

Which is that there is too much meddling by the corporate guys. I don´t know if it´s true that they want to get rid of the pesky comic guys because they believe they know better how to handle the franchise. The fact is it falls flat the same way the comic doesn´t deliver anymore : you know it´s supposed to be epic but it just doesn´t hit the necessary bases. Like if you have to explain a joke or when you announce that something is cool. Like a tiny guy once said : Do or do not. There is no try.



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