“…He stands in imminent peril of becoming the eternal pawn of THE INFERNAL ONE.”

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I have an odd fascination with the unpublished Redeemer series written and drawn by Joe Kubert, and originally intended for release in the mid-1980s from DC Comics. It may be because it was one of my early encounters with the comic book version of “vaporware” – an advertised and hyped product (prominently featured in a favorite comics ‘zine at the time, Amazing Heroes, containing several completed pages of the first issue) that ended up never appearing.

At the shop, we newly uncovered another old box or two of promotional comics material, including a handful of DC’s “Coming Attractions” flyers listing forthcoming funnybook releases, dated October 1983 through January 1984. The front page feature of the October flyer was Redeemer:


And here is the specific information for the first issue, including what I’m assuming is the cover, though I suspect some kind of, um, Speedos or something would have been colored onto the final product:


And over the next thee installments of “Coming Attractions,” we get the info for issues #2-#4:


No idea if it got any farther than that before folks realized this series wasn’t going to happen and, hey, we should probably stop telling people about it. But reading those descriptions…just picture Kubert drawing all that. This would have been one crazy and beautiful-looking series.

Bob Rozakis writes briefly about the series’ demise, citing, among other reasons, complaints regarding the religious connotations of the title. (Wonder how those people reacted to Preacher?)

This interview indicates that the completed Redeemer stories may yet appear in a forthcoming Kubert anthology series. Can’t wait to see ’em. (Also, Kubert is doing a new Hawkman story for this anthology series, and I know you folks want to see that!)

Sometimes a Superbaby has just about enough of your guff, grabs his bindle, and hits the road…

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…or “hits the air,” rather:


And just what does a Superbaby put in his bindle? The panel just previous to the one above reveals the answer:


Why, toy cars and planes, of course. NOT SHOWN: the Kent family pickup truck, crushed by Superbaby into a lump approximately the size of a tennis ball prior to its bindle insertion.

images from Superboy #189 (August 1972) by David George, Bob Brown & Murphy Anderson

In which I discuss my favorite topic.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, sir-links-a-lot 2 Comments

So I’ve become involved in more online funny business…some of my fellow Bureau Chiefs (the gang responsible for the still-ongoing Fake AP Stylebook and the forthcoming book Write More Good) have started a new project: specifically, Matt Wilson and Ken Lowery have created The Content Farm, a parody of those “how-to” instructional sites that pollute all your attempted Google searches. There is also a related Twitter feed with links to the Tumblr site, as well as original short gags. Anyway, I’ve been contributing to the shenanigans, with my first full-length piece “How to Make A Peanut Butter Sandwich” making it to the main site a couple of days ago. Ken wrote this piece, “How to Tell If You Are Bleeding from The Scalp,” which is my personal favorite and the entry I always cite when trying to explain this site.

We have lots more planned, so please keep visiting The Content Farm for more helpful hints and life strategies.

In other news involving me:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

filed under Categories superman 14 Comments


1. Drivers are going to have to stop waaaay back from this traffic light statue in order to see the lights change. Or they’ll have to strain their necks to see what’s goin’ on way up there.

2. I don’t know that I’d want to put my trust in a spring-wound traffic light.

3. Now I assumed that this seemed like an awful lot of effort to control traffic on a single-lane road, but maybe it’s simply there to frighten off anyone approaching from miles away.

4. I hope this statue ends up making an appearance in the series finale of Smallville.

OBEY

MY SAFETY CODE

image from Superboy #96 (April 1962) by Robert Bernstein & George Papp

“Spiderman is all, ‘Yo, dude! Check out mah spiderskills. I love how radioactivity is equal to magic.'”

filed under Categories batman, superman 10 Comments

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).

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Best Batman.

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“Batman…when I get out of jail, will you take me on a date?”

“We’ll have plenty of time to think about that, Catwoman…
several years, I’m afraid.”

“If I were to kiss you, would you think I was a…bad girl?”

“But, uh…no…no, of course not, Catwoman.
Kissing is one of the most natural things in the world! Uh….”

“…”

“Some people kiss almost every day, and I’m told…”

“Well…?”

“C’mon, Batman, the police are here!”

“Boy Blunder…!”

“Catwoman…may I take a raincheck on that kiss?”

“Certainly, Batman…anytime.”

“Holy mush!”

from the second season Batman episode “The Bat’s Kow Tow”

“I’ll appreciate some of you a lot more once I get this 12-foot-high electrical fence built around my house. Ha ha.”

filed under Categories smallville 8 Comments

So it looks like Michael Rosenbaum is returning to Smallville to reprise his role as Lex Luthor for the series finale.

Well, good…while the Lex/Clark conflict did wear out its welcome sometime in season 3, it would have been disappointing to have the series conclude without some “closure” (as such, given this is the beginning of the lifelong Superman vs. Luthor enmity) to this particular relationship which drove so much of the series. I realize they could have had another actor portraying Luthor, but it wouldn’t have been the same, really. I mean, the guy I talk about here, or someone like him, would have been okay, but…yeah, it’ll be nice to have Rosenbaum back. The handful of times he was allowed to be a full-on scenery-chewing villain were fun, and gave the show a bit of spark that it was missing.

Of course, being Smallville, I fear they’ll find a way to louse this up somehow, but we’ll see soon enough, I suppose. Still hoping for at least some screen time for Clark finally as Superman, but there’s still the possibility of Tom Welling in the red-‘n’-blues just for the final closing shot. Boy, wouldn’t that just honk some people off.

Speaking of people and the honking-off thereof, I did like this quote from the linked article:

“I appreciate all of their passion, their relentlessness, and even their threats. Ha ha.”

That’s one sarcastic “ha ha” at the end there. You know the dude was getting some serious better-turn-these-over-to-the-police emails from the crazier fans, especially after it had recently been reported he wasn’t coming back to the show.

So anyway, Smallville: usually fun, generally dopey, but it’s mostly been entertaining, and the actors are appealing, and I’ll actually miss the show once it’s gone, I imagine. Well, I won’t miss that season with the magic tattoos. What was up with that?