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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2019 16:46:21 GMT -5
I downloaded the entire Last Angry God to my PC ... so I can have an online copy for future reference.
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Post by zaku on Feb 10, 2019 6:06:57 GMT -5
Judging by style, it seems to me a re-coloring. Perhaps it was yellow in the original print?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2019 9:21:56 GMT -5
Judging by style, it seems to me a re-coloring. Perhaps it was yellow in the original print? Here's the original print Zaku ......................................................................^^^^ Ring is Yellow!
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Post by rberman on Feb 11, 2019 7:58:58 GMT -5
JLA #116 “The Kid Who Won Hawkman’s Wings!” (March 1975)Creative Team: Written by Cary Bates. Art by Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano The Story: Green Arrow abandons his shift on JLA monitor duty to personally respond to fan mail addressed to Hawkman from Central City. Finding an ersatz Hawkman called Charley “ Golden Eagle” Parker tangling with criminal clowns and the villainous Matter Master, GA calls for reinforcements. Golden Eagle turns out to be a longhair orphan kid with the ability to transform into a winged form, thanks to the subconscious effect of Matter Master’s magic wand. The villain has a hilarious time playing Circe, transforming the heroes into three predator-prey pairs who attack each other, but of course they survive and defeat him in the end. As a cliffhanger surprise, Hawkman himself returns from Thanagar in the final panel to meet his super-fan Charley. Continuity Notes: None in captions, but Green Arrow spends a page thinking to himself about how Hawkman has been recalled to Thanagar and thus is not in a position to respond to his fan mail. Reprints: "The Challenge of the Untouchable Aliens!" ( JLA #15); Starman and Black Canary in “Mastermind of Menaces!” ( Brave and the Bold #61, 1965) Extras: Two pages of art matching heroes with villains from other heroes’ Rogues Galleries. Can you match them up properly? My Two Cents: This issue was a lot of silly fun, with a rodent-headed Batman, a fish-head Aquaman, etc. The overall story conceit invites young readers to put themselves in the hero’s shoes and discover, as Charley does, that it’s hard work. You might get your head turned into an animal head! The orphaned hippie kid Charley “Golden Eagle” Parker is a pun on bebop saxophone legend Charlie “Bird” Parker. The story opens with a view of the Skylab satellite, which was quite a big deal in the mid-1970s. At the time it seemed like the first of many such permanent human dwellings in space, but that hope hasn’t exactly panned out in the intervening 45 years. From here on out, JLA is a monthly publication. That means more issues between JSA team-ups.
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Post by zaku on Feb 11, 2019 8:08:45 GMT -5
... I never read JLA comics of that era, but I have to say that the tone seems quite, err, "different" from the Avengers of the same period...
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Post by tarkintino on Feb 11, 2019 13:59:06 GMT -5
JLA #116 “The Kid Who Won Hawkman’s Wings!” (March 1975) This issue is most notable for being the last to refer to the Super Friends cartoon on the cover, as that first season was less than a ratings winner and had been cancelled the previous year. From this point forward, any future versions of the cartoon will not be plugged on the JLA title. One, because DC moved to separate its serious group book from the silly cartoon, and two, they would launch an actual Super Friends comic aimed at the younger reader in November of 1976. Beginning with issue #117, the banner, "The World's Greatest Super-Heroes!" will grace JLA covers for an unbroken run until #143 (June, 1977).
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 11, 2019 14:12:01 GMT -5
JLA #116 “The Kid Who Won Hawkman’s Wings!” (March 1975) This issue is most notable for being the last to refer to the Super Friends cartoon on the cover, as that first season was less than a ratings winner and had been cancelled the previous year. From this point forward, any future versions of the cartoon will not be plugged on the JLA title. One, because DC moved to separate its serious group book from the silly cartoon, and two, they would launch an actual Super Friends comic aimed at the younger reader in November of 1976. Beginning with issue #117, the banner, "The World's Greatest Super-Heroes!" will grace JLA covers for an unbroken run until #143 (June, 1977). The ratings were perfectly fine, winning their time slot, consistently. The hour length was more the reason they didn't commission more episodes, for a time. However, they re-ran it, split into half hour segments, while H-B developed the All-New Super Friends Hour. They did make a conscious effort to include more action, in the new series, which was one of the factors in replacing the Junior Super Friends with the Wonder Twins.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 11, 2019 14:14:28 GMT -5
The Starman & Black Canary reprint is outstanding and would be referenced during James Robinson's Starman, leading to a revelation that Ted and Dinah had a brief affair.
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Post by rberman on Feb 12, 2019 8:22:57 GMT -5
JLA #117 “I Have No Wings, and I Must Fly!” (April 1975)Creative Team: Written by Elliot S! Maggin. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: Hawkman’s home planet of Thanagar has been infected by “equalizer germs” which magically induce uniformity of all sorts: everyone is now average height, average weight, average intelligence, etc. Hawkman too has been affected and now look so ordinary that the JLA can’t recognize him. Instead of explaining his plight, he lures the JLA to Mars and infects them with the Equalizer Disease too, causing their powers to be equally shared among each other—including him. This apparently gives them all enough invulnerability to hang out on the surface of Mars to discuss their situation without the benefit of any kind of protection. Hawkman abandons them and flies back to Thanagar to face The Equalizer alone. But he’s not powerful enough. Not even when the JLA arrive to assist can the bad guy be defeated, until the JLA choose to attack him with the power of… hatred! This somehow vanquishes him. Reprints and Extras: None; the Giant-Size experiment has ended. This issue has one story for twenty-five cents. My Two Cents: This run of JLA was plagued by musical chairs in the writer’s seat. Here, Elliot Maggin feels obliged to backpedal on some of what Cary Bates was doing last issue. Hawkman’s appearance at the end of last issue had been bait-and-switched into a hologram; he’s really in a spaceship orbiting Mars, lying in wait to attack his JLA friends as soon as they arrive. The JLA beam Charley "Golden Eagle" Parker up to their satellite then immediately head off to Mars, leaving him there to mess with stuff; he’s not mentioned when they return, but eventually he moves over to the Teen Titans starting in their issue # 50. These loose ends can’t help but detract from Maggin’s story. The title homages Harlan Ellison’s famed short story “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.” But the germ of this story appears to come from Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 short story “Harrison Bergeron” in which a society forcibly regularizes all its citizens, eliminating all outliers. I shudder to think how they split the difference to find the average of “male and female.” It’s a high concept, but its execution is a typical hamfisted Silver Age “misunderstanding story” whose suspense requires on a hero acting very uncharacteristically, attacking his friends rather than explaining his situation so that they can collaborate on an effective solution. I was a bit taken aback that the successful outcome involved all of the heroes thinking as hatefully as possible toward The Equalizer. I thought maybe this would force him to respond in opposite fashion, loving them so much that everything turns out hunky dory. But no, somehow their hatred just causes him to disappear and also cures them of the Equalizer Disease. Let’s hear it for the power of hate! OK then… More weirdness in the denouement: Hawkeye asks to be re-instated in the JLA. His planet is still infected by the Equalizer Disease, but rather than figure out how to deal with this situation, the JLA (including Hawkman!) just throws up their hands and turns their backs on Thanagar’s disaster. Such a strange story. The thief stole “Dilithium Crystals” from the Thanagar Museum! Somebody call Captain Kirk! The caption on the first page “The Equalizer’s flying, flying, flying; The Equalizer’s flying, the power of men to scorn” sounds like a riff on some early 20th century song, but I have no idea what it is. The last page is a poem as well, claiming that this JLA adventure will still be remembered long after human civilization has passed into dust.
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Post by dbutler69 on Feb 12, 2019 9:01:55 GMT -5
I like the idea that making everybody equal would weaken a society - it is fascinating. There are some goofy elements, as you point out (like Hawkman attacking the JLA), but between that premise, and what I thought was some pretty good dialogues (except Hawkman's "g" dropping) I thought this was a good issue.
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 12, 2019 9:10:53 GMT -5
... I never read JLA comics of that era, but I have to say that the tone seems quite, err, "different" from the Avengers of the same period... You could say that again. I don't think that the JLA ever reached it's potential until Grant Morrison came along and made them all awesome.
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 12, 2019 9:14:33 GMT -5
This issue is most notable for being the last to refer to the Super Friends cartoon on the cover, as that first season was less than a ratings winner and had been cancelled the previous year. From this point forward, any future versions of the cartoon will not be plugged on the JLA title. One, because DC moved to separate its serious group book from the silly cartoon, and two, they would launch an actual Super Friends comic aimed at the younger reader in November of 1976. Beginning with issue #117, the banner, "The World's Greatest Super-Heroes!" will grace JLA covers for an unbroken run until #143 (June, 1977). The ratings were perfectly fine, winning their time slot, consistently. The hour length was more the reason they didn't commission more episodes, for a time. However, they re-ran it, split into half hour segments, while H-B developed the All-New Super Friends Hour. They did make a conscious effort to include more action, in the new series, which was one of the factors in replacing the Junior Super Friends with the Wonder Twins. I remember watching Superfriends and hating it. They would capture someone trying to destroy the earth and there was never a punch thrown and often times the villain was not punished for fear of having * Gasp* violence in a cartoon.
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Post by tarkintino on Feb 12, 2019 13:24:00 GMT -5
This issue is most notable for being the last to refer to the Super Friends cartoon on the cover, as that first season was less than a ratings winner and had been cancelled the previous year. From this point forward, any future versions of the cartoon will not be plugged on the JLA title. One, because DC moved to separate its serious group book from the silly cartoon, and two, they would launch an actual Super Friends comic aimed at the younger reader in November of 1976. Beginning with issue #117, the banner, "The World's Greatest Super-Heroes!" will grace JLA covers for an unbroken run until #143 (June, 1977). The ratings were perfectly fine, winning their time slot, consistently. The hour length was more the reason they didn't commission more episodes, for a time. However, they re-ran it, split into half hour segments, while H-B developed the All-New Super Friends Hour. They did make a conscious effort to include more action, in the new series, which was one of the factors in replacing the Junior Super Friends with the Wonder Twins. I will need to take some time to go back into storage to look through my old collection of old issues of Daily Variety which covered cartoons' ratings performances, debut and cancellations, but I do recall the Super Friends considered low rated, hence ABC cancelling it. Another source called Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends Chronology notes that the original series "failed," but its revival years later was inspired by the success of ABC's two super-powered series, The Six Million Dollar Man (after three TV movies aired in 1973, the regular series premiered in January of '74) and Wonder Woman (the Lynda Carter series' pilot movie aired in November of '75). That theory seems rational, as both series had brought much attention to the idea of superheroic TV in a way not seen since the 1966-68 Batman series. I would add The Bionic Woman to that influence, as represented (audience perception / culturally speaking) on TV Guide in the relevant period-- That said, after the misguided handling of the 1st Super Friends series, one has to wonder why H-B would retool it to the degree seen in 1977's The All-New Super-Friends Hour; normally, successful TV series are rarely retooled in their 2nd year, because they were...successful. There's only a few exceptions, such as The Cosby Show's spinoff A Different World, which started as a breakout hit vehicle for actress Lisa Bonet's parent series character, but when she became pregnant and/or was fired, the series went through a significant retooling of the direction, characterization and tone of the series. Then again, A Different World was a major hit for NBC and too valuable to drop all due to Bonet's departure. That was not the case with the 1st season of the Super-Friends, which vanished for several years before returning as a very different animal--one arguably more "comic booky" (and appealing) than the moralizing/environmental PSA that was the 1st season. That retooling strongly suggests a drastic course correction to treat DC characters more like the superheroes they were supposed to be (your mileage may vary on how well H-B executed that).
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 12, 2019 13:33:29 GMT -5
The ratings were perfectly fine, winning their time slot, consistently. The hour length was more the reason they didn't commission more episodes, for a time. However, they re-ran it, split into half hour segments, while H-B developed the All-New Super Friends Hour. They did make a conscious effort to include more action, in the new series, which was one of the factors in replacing the Junior Super Friends with the Wonder Twins. I remember watching Superfriends and hating it. They would capture someone trying to destroy the earth and there was never a punch thrown and often times the villain was not punished for fear of having * Gasp* violence in a cartoon. That was pretty much the state of all cartoons, in the 70s, thanks to network censors, reacting to the watchdog groups. The first series of the Super Friends got around the issue by building the plots around a socially-themed mystery, thereby giving both a device to move the plot and satisfy the educational mandate. Most of the "villains" are misguided idealists who didn't consult the "proper authorities." There are a couple of crooks in the prof Baffles episode, who are manipulating him and the Raven is the closest to a pure super-villain. All-New Superfriends Hour was allowed to have more action, though no direct violence. Again, same as everyone else. However, actual villains and criminals appeared, including Manta (not called Black Manta, yet) and The Gentleman Ghost. That paved the way for Challenge of the Superfriends, with the Legion of Doom, formed of actual comic book villains (though Giganta was changed from evolved female ape to the 50 Ft Woman). That proved the most popular series of all, with tons of action, if, again not direct violence. The only cartoons to display violence, on network tv, in the 70s, were either reruns of 60s shows or were showcases for theatrical cartoons, like the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show/Hour. Filmations New Adv. of Batman wasn't able to have fisticuffs anymore than the Super Friends. When the later Marvel cartoons came along, you still didn't have direct combat. As a comic fan, I hated that you didn't get the action of the comics; however, the she sight of superheroes on tv, vs yet another Scooby Doo copy, was enough. I watched them all, including Space Sentinels, Tarzan & the Super 7, Plastic Man, etc, etc. Most were disappointments. Even the most exciting adventure shows, like Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Thundarr, still didn't have direct battle, though they got as close as they could and kept things dynamic. They couldn't compare to Space Ghost, which is why the later Space Star series, which brought back Space Ghost and the Herculoids, was so disappointing. They looked like the old shows, but the stories weren't as vibrant and exciting. Here's the thing, though; cartoons had a much bigger audience than comics, in the 70s. In the 60s it was a far closer comparison. By the 70s, comics were declining in sales, while cartoons were in their Golden Age. Far more viewers of the Super Friends were just average kids, who may have read an occasional comic book; but, weren't fanatical about it. They turned out for the show and subsequent ones. They also turned out for Scrappy Doo, to my utter horror. The later shows didn't have to have the heavy-handed morality tales, since Schoolhouse Rock and the mini-segments satisfied that, allowing the main segments to focus on plot and action (or comedy). As time went on, the networks seemed to worry less about that. By the Reagan years, the government didn't care as much, cable offered alternative venues for more violent things, like GI JOE, and the networks started cost cutting on Saturday morning. They did go after the theatrical cartoons, editing the looney Tunes stuff to the point that it killed the joke (especially the rabbit season/duck season trilogy).
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 12, 2019 14:00:44 GMT -5
The ratings were perfectly fine, winning their time slot, consistently. The hour length was more the reason they didn't commission more episodes, for a time. However, they re-ran it, split into half hour segments, while H-B developed the All-New Super Friends Hour. They did make a conscious effort to include more action, in the new series, which was one of the factors in replacing the Junior Super Friends with the Wonder Twins. I will need to take some time to go back into storage to look through my old collection of old issues of Daily Variety which covered cartoons' ratings performances, debut and cancellations, but I do recall the Super Friends considered low rated, hence ABC cancelling it. Another source called Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends Chronology notes that the original series "failed," but its revival years later was inspired by the success of ABC's two super-powered series, The Six Million Dollar Man (after three TV movies aired in 1973, the regular series premiered in January of '74) and Wonder Woman (the Lynda Carter series' pilot movie aired in November of '75). That theory seems rational, as both series had brought much attention to the idea of superheroic TV in a way not seen since the 1966-68 Batman series. That said, after the misguided handling of the 1st Super Friends series, one has to wonder why H-B would retool it to the degree seen in 1977's The All-New Super-Friends Hour; normally, successful TV series are rarely retooled in their 2nd year, because they were...successful. There's only a few exceptions, such as The Cosby Show's spinoff A Different World, which started as a breakout hit vehicle for actress Lisa Bonet's parent series character, but when she became pregnant and/or was fired, the series went through a significant retooling of the direction, characterization and tone of the series. Then again, A Different World was a major hit for NBC and too valuable to drop all due to Bonet's departure. That was not the case with the 1st season of the Super-Friends, which vanished for several years before returning as a very different animal--one arguably more "comic booky" (and appealing) than the moralizing/environmental PSA that was the 1st season. That retooling strongly suggests a drastic course correction to treat DC characters more like the superheroes they were supposed to be (your mileage may vary on how well H-B executed that). The Super Friends debuted in the 1973-74 season and was shown for its entirety. It was then shown the following season (1974-75) for the entirety, in a later time slot. It was not on the regular schedule for the 1975-76 season; but, was brought back in reruns for the summer 1976 quarter. It was not on the 1976-77 regular schedule; but, was again brought back as a summer replacement, in the half-hour version, in the summer of 77. The All-New Superfriends Hour debuted in the 1977-78 season. That's 2 straight years of full network runs, with the same episode set. Most shows were 16 half hour episodes, with maybe an additional quantity commissioned for the next year (like the original Scooby Doo). ABC had paid for two ears worth of tv, in one go, by buying the hour series. They ran it for 2 years. Now, the first year, it had Bugs Bunny and Yogi's Gang, as a lead in, and was opposite The New Scooby Doo Movies (CBS) and The Addams Family and Emergency +4 (NBC). Scooby Doo was the big rival; but, anecdotally, everyone I knew watched the Super Friends, from the premiere, then maybe watched the Scooby Doo episodes, when the reruns began. No one watched Emergency +4, though Addams Family had a bit of a cult following. The show was never moved and I recall a Thanksgiving broadcast of the Super Friends. The ratings seemed strong enough that ABC renewed the series for the following year; but, didn't order any further episodes. The following season (74-75) Super friends was moved to 2 hours later, losing the Bugs Bunny lead-in (Hong Kong Phooey got that plum spot). It ran against The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine and The Hudson Brother's Razzle Dazzle Show (CBS) and The Pink Panther and Star Trek (NBC). This was a much tougher slot, as Pink Panther drew strong ratings and, as I recall, Star Trek was pretty darn popular (anecdotally). I suspect the ratings performance of the second run was the factor in the network not renewing the show, or immediately commissioning a retooled version. At the same time, CBS didn't order new episodes of the new Scooby Doo Movies; and, instead, re-ran the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? That would suggest that Super Friends proved stronger, though the cost of the actual guest stars (the celebrities, rather than the H-B characters) might have factored into that decision. As it stood, ABC went right back to those Super Friends episodes for summer replacement, in 75-76 and 76-77 (the half hour version); so, the rating must have been strong enough for them to return, vs other shows. I'm betting the ratings vs cost in the second season factored into letting it go; but, its track record and the success of 6MDM and Wonder Woman convinced them to bring them back, as fill in for weaker material. I'd be willing to bet the first year ratings were great, while the second year's proved disappointing, leading the network to drop the show entirely; but, the memory was still good enough that they came back to them to try to draw ratings in the summer. I'd also bet the summer performances, coupled with the prime time hero shows, convinced them to ask H-B for another superhero show.
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