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Speaking of lips, I like that the Joker’s only apparent cell decoration is a representation of his own smackers around his window:
Sure was nice of Arkham Asylum to paint up the Joker’s wall ‘specially for him. …Unless, of course, the Asylum staff wasn’t responsible for it, and the Joker just up and painted those lips himself…which raises the question what he painted them
with, and frankly, we’re better off not knowing. (Maybe he sneaked in some fingerpaints from the patient activity room, but then I start wondering “
whose fingers” and, well, there we go.)
images from DC Comics Presents #72 (August 1984) by Paul Kupperberg, Alex Saviuk & Dennis Jensen
We interrupt our continuing discussion about rereading old comics to bring you Bizarro Joker:
from DC Comics Presents #71 (July 1984) by E. Nelson Bridwell, Curt Swan & Dave Hunt
§ November 22nd, 2011 § Filed under batman § 6 Comments
I particularly could have used that trunk-loaded giant boxing glove yesterday on a driver that was stuck in traffic right behind me, leaning on her horn trying to get me to move when I was very obviously blocked by a truck stopped right in front of me:
Of course, if it were a big ol’ freaking
Joker car in front of that person, I doubt she’d been honking, because, well, I’m sure she wouldn’t want a repeat of
what happened to poor ol’ Charlie.
Anyway, let’s just take a moment and enjoy a fine Batman splash page by Jim Aparo. Fine work by a true comics legend.
from Brave and the Bold #191 (October 1982) by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, and Jim Aparo
…and it’s the image from this 1995 DC ad template:
Just picture that emblazoned across the manly chest of the
nerdinet’s premiere Batmanologist…Forever.
I would also like to take issue with the premise of this ad, from the same Batman Forever campaign:
As I recall, the Bat-frenzy that hit during the initial Tim Burton Bat-films release didn’t repeat itself for the following films in the franchise. I think we
may have seen a slight bump in interest when
Batman Returns came out, but the Batfilm-bump was pretty much no longer a sales influence by the time
Forever was released. (And is it just me, or does that picture of Batman anticipate the post-Flashpoint redesign nearly 16 years ahead of time?)
And, from 1997…yeah:
“There might be
Batman and Robin memorabilia in this store? We better not go in!”
Now, if I were Bully, I’d probably have dozens of examples ready to go, but alas, I am no stuffed bull, and thus only have the two immediately available. But I do so love the occasional chart, diagram, or other collection of evidence used when someone is trying to puzzle out some secret identity or other:
I also liked when the handlettered text is thoughtfully arranged so that none of it would be obscured when someone placed their thumb over the page.
And then there’s this cover detail from one of the earliest Superboy stories I ever remember reading (in a ’70s reprint):
I hope those aren’t a pair of Clark’s glasses made using the glass from his Kryptonian rocket ship that brought him to Earth as a baby. The material for those are in limited supply, and you’d figure Clark would keep better tabs on them.
I wonder if there’s something like this in a Green Arrow comic, with pictures of Oliver Queen and Green Arrow side by side with the notation “Queen’s beard and Arrow’s beard – CONNECTION?”
images from Superboy #93 (December 1961) by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye, and Batman #134 (September 1960) by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff
So hey, the final cover by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes for Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #1 has been revealed with the previously blacked-out figures now not blacked-out, and they are revealed to be…
…John Constantine and Zatanna! Well, I can see why they blacked out Constantine, since he was the big surprise reveal at the end of
Brightest Day #24 (er…SPOILER), but not so sure why Zatanna was kept under wraps. Ah, well, I’m sure they had their reasons.
And in DC’s ongoing quest to part me from my money by forcing me…yes, forcing, at gunpoint…to buy two copies of the same damned thing, here’s the limited retailer incentive variant cover by J.G. Jones for said #1:
Well…okay, that’s pretty good. Kinda prefer this one to the regular cover. But it doesn’t matter because I’m getting both, regardless.
That first cover is fairly amusing, though, with dour ol’ Batman, Superman and Zatanna pulling their best sourpuss faces, with John lightin’ up a smoke right there in front of them. Just the idea of Constantine pulling his irreverent “I’m gonna jerk you guys around and you won’t even realize it” routine on DC’s superfellas (and gals) sounds like fun. Let’s hope it is.
This put me in the mind of other times Constantine kinda sorta met Superman and Batman…he’s met Zatanna plenty of times, of course, since she’s a bit easier to fit into Constantine’s milieu. But to squeeze Batman and Superman together with our favorite Hellblazer, one must look back to the mid-1980s and Crisis on Infinite Earths:
That’s from
Swamp Thing #46 (March 1986), and I think this is the only time Batman, Superman and Constantine appear together in the same image ’til that cover up above. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong.
Of course, they’re not really interacting there at all. They just happen to be in the same room during that scene shown in Crisis on Infinite Earths #5, where several dozen characters are gathered together on the Monitor’s satellite. (Constantine doesn’t seem to actually be in that two-page group shot in Crisis #5, though Swamp Thing is. NOTE: I’m also bad at “Where’s Waldo,” so don’t take my word for it.) However, a couple of issues earlier, Constantine and former Doom Patrol associate Mento (whom Constantine is manipulating toward his own ends) run into a familiar Caped Crusader during the early stages of the Crisis:
I don’t know why I find this funny, but after Batman makes his “well, nice to meet you, but I gots things to do, kids” parting remarks, there’s this great panel of Batman running away:
That shot of Batman putting on his “I’m thinking really hard” face is a good one, too.
UNRELATED except for the fact that this is from one of the Swamp Thing comics I was scanning pics from: in #46 we see all the heroes (plus Swampy and John) called together by Alexander Luthor, the son of the Earth-3 Luthor (and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask someone old to explain it to you), and Swamp Thing has this reaction to hearing the name:
Now, I don’t know if this is one of these things I’ve noticed before but it’s been so long since I’ve reread these I’ve forgotten, or that I just picked up on it now, but Swampy’s “premonition” is apparently of his seeming “death” a few months later in #53, in which Lex Luthor (of Earth One, or Post-Crisis Earth, or whatever you want to call it) was involved.
Or possibly the premonition was foreshadowing that, 20 years later in the Infinite Crisis crossover event series, Alexander Luthor would turn into a complete asshole. …Hey, given Alan Moore’s dabbling in the magical realms, I wouldn’t put it past him foreseeing this.
panels from Swamp Thing #44 (January 1986) by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, Ron Randall and John Totleben; and Swamp Thing #46 (March 1986) by Moore, Bissette and Totleben
from Brave and the Bold #122 (Oct. 1975)
From Yahoo! Answers:
This response gets right to the point:
“batman is a superhero dont listen to what anyone says they r complete dumb asses lol batman could very well be the greatest superhero in DC he might not have superpowers but he can defeat superman”
This next person goes the comparison route:
“batman is probably the best superhero. All the others are cheap.
Superman just says ‘hold a sec, busy flying and being a superhuman alien who’s indistinguishable from humans.’
Spiderman is all, ‘Yo, dude! Check out mah spiderskills. I love how radioactivity is equal to magic’
But batman says, ‘Hey, with a butt-load of money, anyone can be a superhero.’”
I’m assuming he meant “Spider-Man.”
BONUS: Everything old is new again:
Best answer, as chosen by the person originally asking the question:
“Only if it’s powered by kryptonite!”
Kryptonite lightsabres, man. Possibly the greatest thing the Internet has brought us (as discussed before).
So I received for Christmas the slipcased oversized-hardcover edition of JLA/Avengers by Kurt Busiek and George Perez, giving me a change to revisit this fun intercompany crossover series and enjoy the crazily-overstuffed pages of art. And while there are lots of momentous events in the story that get the most attention, like Superman wielding Thor’s hammer, or the Avengers fighting Starro…I think one of my favorite moments is this brief meeting between Batman and the ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Thing:
Batman’s “uh…okay, sure” look makes it for me.
To see this panel in context, Bully the Little Stuffed Bull has the full page, presented as part of his 2009 365 Days with Ben Grimm series.
From the “Daily Planet” news page in January 1980 DC Comics comes this story with a headline that’s hard to beat:
It’s been a while since Superman’s been described as the “Krypton Comet,” hasn’t it? Though apparently it
is the name of
some amusement park rides.
I’m going to have to check the back issue shelves at the shop and see if we have a copy of this, even if the actual comic has a lot to live up to. So sucking Kryptonian blood would make Dracula “invulnerable to wooden stakes?” Aim high, Drac! Though admittedly, that would be a priority for Dracula, I suppose.
• • •
Meanwhile, at
Yahoo Answers:
The “best answer” is supposedly
“read the killing joke,it will explain why there are so much alike in different aspects.”
But I think we all agree the real best answer is
“What do you mean? Batman defeated the Joker. Jack was splat in the first one…”
Source(s):
=) ‘Wait ’till they get a load of me.’-Joker”
And the Joker was never seen again. The end. (Well, except for that other Batman movie. And the cartoon. And the video games….oh, and the comics, too, but surely those don’t hold the influence over the franchise the way the Tim Burton adaptation does.)
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