I’m going to start off my fifth year by letting you know…
…that no one lays a verbal smackdown quite like Darkseid:
from Swamp Thing #62 (July 1987) by Rick Veitch & Alfredo Alcala
“You’ve spent too much time trying to unravel the physics of reality, Metron, and not paid enough attention to cabal. Let me warn you — there shall be no room for intellectuals in this universe when Darkseid solves the Anti-Life Equation.”
Two things: one, Metron is such an obsequious dork in this issue, desperate to offer knowledge in trade to Darkseid for access to the “X-element” he needs. Quite a contrast to the all-wise, all-knowing, unflappable Metron that usually pops up nowadays.
You just know that if Metron were real, he’d be some overbearing, socially maladjusted know-it-all who would immediately start groveling and panicking the second he suspected he wasn’t going to get his way.
Two, the phrase “academic chicken” has been floating around in my head for twenty years, ever since I first read this, just waiting for the opportunity to whip it out on somebody. Haven’t had the chance to do so yet, but my time will come, oh yes.
Bonus images: Metron and Darkseid kicking back in their respective chairs – Metron in his Mobius Chair, Darkseid in his Swamp Thing chair:
Long story there about the Swamp Thing chair.
And here’s a glimpse at a handy space-chalkboard featuring an apparent segment of the aforementioned Anti-Life Equation:
How do you square the swastika?
