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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2019 13:28:35 GMT -5
I'm still reading All-Star Archives #8 and I've been thinking about the JSA members in my idle moments. And one guy that's been in my head a lot is the Atom. He seems kind of generic, but the more I think about it, I realize that he's actually kid of unusual for a costumes hero of the period. Most non-powered heroes were wealthy playboys (or newspaper publishers or whatever) or they had a gimmick of some kind. But Al Pratt was just a college student who decided to fight crime! He's never been one of my favorites but he was in too many JSA adventures to be ignored, so he's grown on me a bit. I cant think of ever seeing a reprinted Golden Age Atom story that wasn't from a JSA adventure. So maybe that's why I don't think about him much. I never saw his solo strip. I have a question. What was his major in college? I could look it up online and I probably will later tonight or tomorrow. But I was curious to see if anybody at CCF knows without looking it up. I've read pretty much all of the solo Atom stories from the Golden Age and I don't recall him ever declaring a major in the nine years he spent at Calvin College. However, since Al Pratt was a physics professor at his alma mater in his team-ups with the Silver Age Atom, I think it's safe to assume that had been his major. Cei-U I summon the perpetual student!
I wanted to add here ... he was a Tank Driver in World War Two. Served in the last few years.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 16, 2019 20:42:10 GMT -5
I'm still reading All-Star Archives #8 and I've been thinking about the JSA members in my idle moments. And one guy that's been in my head a lot is the Atom. He seems kind of generic, but the more I think about it, I realize that he's actually kid of unusual for a costumes hero of the period. Most non-powered heroes were wealthy playboys (or newspaper publishers or whatever) or they had a gimmick of some kind. But Al Pratt was just a college student who decided to fight crime! He's never been one of my favorites but he was in too many JSA adventures to be ignored, so he's grown on me a bit. I cant think of ever seeing a reprinted Golden Age Atom story that wasn't from a JSA adventure. So maybe that's why I don't think about him much. I never saw his solo strip. I have a question. What was his major in college? I could look it up online and I probably will later tonight or tomorrow. But I was curious to see if anybody at CCF knows without looking it up. I've read pretty much all of the solo Atom stories from the Golden Age and I don't recall him ever declaring a major in the nine years he spent at Calvin College. However, since Al Pratt was a physics professor at his alma mater in his team-ups with the Silver Age Atom, I think it's safe to assume that had been his major.
Cei-U I summon the perpetual student!
I found a couple of Atom stories at Four Color Shadows (They are actually kind of fun) and in one of the stories, Al Pratt is writing for the local paper when he gets done with classes. His expose on the local generic fedora-wearing, ferret-faced, moustached gangster gets him in trouble, so has to faint (as Al Pratt) and fix things as the Atom (with some help from a couple of tough-talking college girls who are pledging Mary's sorority. So maybe he was a journalism major for a while? Might help to explain why he was in college for nine years.
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 17, 2019 12:32:23 GMT -5
It's funny, I finally read a Space Cabbie story, in one of the DC Super Stars issues, then I run across a Justice League Action short that has the character featured (plus a space train and Jonah Hex). What are the odds? I also saw a Justice League Unlimited and enjoyed it as much as I've been enjoying the earlier non-Unlimited titled ones. I seem to like all the DC cartoons except the newest Super-Hero Girls... I preferred the less cartoony/exaggerated version before it. Of the Marvels I've only seen a few Guardians Of The Galaxy, and I did enjoy it as well, but seemed to draw more from the old comic books like Starlin's Warlock... like the movies, only with changes that don't seem to have much logic other than some of the original characters are replaced with others, and characters are included because they have to be or something.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2019 13:49:32 GMT -5
Marvel Masterworks
Ghost Rider: Vol. 1 Iron Fist: Vol. 1 and 2 Sgt. Fury: Vol. 3 and 4
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 17, 2019 18:06:09 GMT -5
Been reading Nobuhiro Watsuki's (of Ruroni Kenshin fame) Gun Blaze West after volumes 1 thru 3 popped up at work Not a bad book by any means, but definitely feels like a Wild West take on One Piece
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Post by brutalis on Oct 18, 2019 8:39:00 GMT -5
Been reading Nobuhiro Watsuki's (of Ruroni Kenshin fame) Gun Blaze West after volumes 1 thru 3 popped up at work Not a bad book by any means, but definitely feels like a Wild West take on One Piece Looks interesting and my love of the West requires me ordering this from Amazon. Into my cart ti goes! And comparison to One Piece is NOT a bad thing as I adore Luffy and his pirate crew!
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 18, 2019 10:28:32 GMT -5
Looks interesting and my love of the West requires me ordering this from Amazon. Into my cart ti goes! And comparison to One Piece is NOT a bad thing as I adore Luffy and his pirate crew! From what I've heard, the ending (as it's only 3 volumes long) is a bit of a let down and rather absurd
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 18, 2019 12:22:10 GMT -5
I haven't seen Gun Blaze West.. definitely will have to check it out though!
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 18, 2019 13:12:37 GMT -5
I haven't seen Gun Blaze West.. definitely will have to check it out though! Yeah, I'd never even heard of it before either. Which is funny considering that I knew about Watsuki's other title, Buso Renkin (even though monthly Shonen Jump had a lot to do with that).
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2019 13:48:46 GMT -5
DC Archives
Enemy Ace 1 and 2 Supergirl 1 and 2
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 19, 2019 14:41:31 GMT -5
DC ArchivesEnemy Ace 1 and 2 Supergirl 1 and 2 Supergirl: The Midvale Orphanage Years is one of my favorite runs in all comics. I especially like that story with Supergirl taking care of the Bizarro baby at the Fortress of Solitude with the Bizarros about to invade Earth and to top it off, the short and tragic life of Bizarro Supergirl!
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 19, 2019 14:42:31 GMT -5
(And Enemy Ace is pretty OK too.)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2019 16:27:42 GMT -5
DC ArchivesEnemy Ace 1 and 2 Supergirl 1 and 2 Supergirl: The Midvale Orphanage Years is one of my favorite runs in all comics. I especially like that story with Supergirl taking care of the Bizarro baby at the Fortress of Solitude with the Bizarros about to invade Earth and to top it off, the short and tragic life of Bizarro Supergirl! Same here too, that's one of the main reason that I wanted to read it today. I really enjoyed the Midvale stories and I was sad when Bizarro Supergirl dies. It's my 3rd complete reading and my dear friend Jeff who retired from running a LCS back in 2012 (I think) and he and I have all the DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks (over 120 books) in his downstair basement and I can get them anytime I want. I have a key to his basement door and I've always e-mail him when I'm coming or not.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2019 16:29:05 GMT -5
(And Enemy Ace is pretty OK too.) First time that I read it today! ... Great Art too!
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 19, 2019 17:37:13 GMT -5
I finished All-Star Comics Archives, Volume 8, this morning. I got a bit ahead of myself. I have a few things to say about All-Star Comics #36 - "Five Drowned Men" - but not quite so much to say about #37 and #38, so I'll post now about #36 and briefly talk about #37 and #38 tomorrow. (I've also been thinking a lot about the Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt. Did he live off campus? How could he have lived in a dorm and still keep his secret identity? Did he go home over breaks? What did he do over the summer? Did he have parents or a guardian who were ever mentioned? How did he get from the college (I think the town is called Calvin City) to the JSA meetings? Public transportation? Did he have a car? Did Green Lantern or the Flash carry him like a baby since he's so little? But that's a discussion for the future.) What I really wanted to talk about in a little detail is the Batman story in "Five Drowned Men." All-Star #36 is notorious (among obsessive JSA fans) for being the only Golden Age JSA story which featured Batman and Superman in their own stories, although they were mentioned as honorary members a few times and even appeared in cameos a time or two. Anybody who follows the JSA closely, and reads stuff like the JSA Companion and Alter Ego magazine knows that Roy Thomas is foremost among a group of passionate JSA fans who have gone over the stories with a fine teeth comb and uncovered a lot of anomalies and obsessive questions about who wrote or drew some of the stories, especially in the mid-1940s. The membership changes abruptly, the Spectre, Starman and Dr. Fate disappear, Wildcat appears just twice and Mr. Terrific appears just once and the Atom misses two adventures. And it looks like some of the stories have been redrawn to accommodate some of these changes where decisions seem to have been made during production. For example, there's a story where Starman seems to have been redrawn as Green Lantern because there's a few panels where Green Lantern is wielding the gravity rod instead of the ring. I'm not going to get into a lot of details about this. Everybody involved in these kinds of articles knows a lot more about it than me, and some of them have actually discussed it with the original creators! I find it very interesting and fun, especially when I get a chance to read one of the affected stories right after reading an article about it. But … I do have one minor comment about the Batman story in All-Star Comics #36. Batman and Superman show up because Al Pratt and Johnny Thunder can't make it. The rest of the JSA discusses what happened to them in a few word balloons. Al Pratt was injured in a basketball game, it seems. (Johnny has a cold.) So Batman and Superman show up to take their places. Some of the JSA scholars think that the Batman story was originally drawn for the Atom. I read the article about it (in The JSA Companion, Volume Two) just before I read "Five Drowned Men." (I've read it before , but it's been a while.) And they make some pretty good points. The most convincing point is how few Batman-type things he does! He doesn't used his utility belt. He doesn't swing around on his bat-line. He needs help from a mysterious stranger to get out of the death trap. But then I read the story. And it starts out "at a fashionable party in the Midwest metropolis of Zenith …" and that doesn't sound like a setting for Al Pratt! Bruce Wayne is there because he suspects the bad guy will go after a necklace of black pearls worn by one of the partygoers. I gotta tell ya … I've read a lot of Batman stories … and this sounds awfully familiar! Before the late 1950s, Bruce Wayne must have spent half his non-Batman time hanging around rich people so he can turns into Batman and protect their valuables! It does NOT sound like a set-up for a story with college student Al Pratt! I'm not saying this proves anything one way or another because it clearly doesn't. But I think it's easy to explain away some of the argument about how he's not like Batman. The story is only five pages, so there's not a lot of space to fit in a lot of Batman stuff like you might have in a 10- to 13-page story. And the guy who helps him out of the death trap? This mysterious stranger helps all the JSAers out of their dilemmas every four or five pages throughout the story. It's one of the contrivances you expect in a Golden Age JSA story. Gardner Fox probably wrote the story (although this is kind of controversial) and I'm not sure how much Batman he had written at this point. I think he did some of the very early Batman stories in 1939 and 1940, but Batman had changed a lot in a few years. Besides, fitting Batman into a five-page segment in a much longer JSA story would mean sacrificing some of the elements that readers might expect from the character. I'm not going to make a final judgment on this because I can see both sides. It was just something that struck me that I hadn't seen addressed in the articles about "Five Drowned Men." Next: I have to go now but I'm not quite done with "Five Drowned Men." I have to say a few words about why the bad guy is quite possibly THE MOST EVIL VILLAIN in DC's history!
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