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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2022 11:11:26 GMT -5
Dark Angel wrote a song about the Dark Judges. Warning: It's noisy. Never thought I'd see a Dark Angel reference here, very nice! Every time I see Dredd stuff, I always want to post "I am the Law" by Anthrax which came out just months later from this song/album. I'm a big fan of comic book references in music  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2022 12:42:37 GMT -5
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, the Ghost of Christmas Villainy brings things full circle with out simian antagonists and an encore reprising their appearance from last year's event featuring favorite romantic couples... Monsieur Mallah and the Brain I'm not sure who does the red beret and machine gun look better, Mademoiselle Marie or Monsieur Mallah, but the brain in a can is the perfect accessory for that look. Whether on their own, or as part of a larger ensembles, Mallah and the Brain always delight me when their villainy (and torrid love affair) is on center stage. I'm a sucker for simian characters, and aside from Sgt. Gorilla, Mallah is my favorite of these, and the brain in a container is a favorite trope of mine as well, so this combo is just a sheer delight of villainy for me. -M |
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Post by Rob Allen on Dec 23, 2022 13:04:08 GMT -5
2. The Frightful FourGeorge and I are on the same page here. This is the group, and the story, that started the incredible couple of years of Fantastic Four stories - From the Frightful Four to Doom & Daredevil and back to the Frightful Four, straight into the Inhumans and then the Surfer and Galactus and then "This Man, This Monster" and then the Black Panther... what a ride. I wonder if Kirby had the Inhumans in mind when Medusa was introduced or if he came up with them afterward. As others have mentioned, the group returned numerous times with different members because the basic idea is good. But nothing beats the originals.  
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 23, 2022 13:09:38 GMT -5
2. The Crime Syndicate of America | It's my turn to pay tribute to the JLA's evil doppelgangers of Earth-3!
I would have been introduced to this gang in 1974, when JLA #114,
a Super-Spectacular 100-pager, reprinted JLA #29-30, in which the CSA
takes on, in turn, both the JSA and then the JLA! And right there is one
of the things I enjoyed about this bunch: they didn't have some absurd
scheme to take over the world--they had already (basically) achieved
that!!!
Nope, they were motivated by the perverse instinct intrinsic to their
universe to be bad, something that Gardner Fox doesn't explicitly say,
but Fox's explanation--that since Earth-3 inverts most Earth-1 events, so
there are no super-heroes, only super-villains--doesn't exactly follow,
since there should then be heroic counterparts to, say, the Joker and
Captain Cold.
I'm a sucker for a good "evil twin" story, so I appreciated that the CSA
had specific Earth-1 counterparts (unlike the JLA and JSA, which didn't
match up one-to-one). The fact that the CSA got pretty far in defeating
both teams, sequentially, is testimony to how unbridled use of these
top-level superpowers would give them a significant advantage over
their principled counterparts.
I was disappointed to see the team and their Earth annihilated in
COIE #1, but I appreciated them getting such prominent demises,
and the suggestion that as the only superpowered beings of their
world, they would feel responsible to attempt to save it. DC promised
multiple one-shot Specials to support CRISIS, but those plans petered
out, leaving only the tangentially related LOSERS Special. They missed
the boat in not producing a CSA Special--I'd have loved reading their
mostly-undocumented origins and seeing their final days! |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 23, 2022 13:15:10 GMT -5
And on the eleventh day my choice is Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady 1989, Archie Comics Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Adventures was the first comic series that I ever got a subscription to as a kid and I loved how it gave me even more TMNT adventures just like I loved on Saturday mornings. I didn't end up encountering the original run by Eastman and Laird until much later in middle school so for the longest time, and to be honest even in my head to this day when I first think Ninja Turtles, this comic is the definitive version for me. Sure, Shredder and company are campy and not very threatening but their plots were fun and the jokes they'd crack in their dialog was always great and reads well to this day. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 23, 2022 13:21:21 GMT -5
2. The Seven (from the pages of The Boys)  There have been all kinds of evil analogues of the JLA over the years. But in The Boys, Garth Ennis, in his inimitable fashion, dials it up to 11. The Seven are corporate shills who pretend to be heroes, while mostly wallowing in hedonistic excess, wanton brutality and abject failure on the rare occasion any of them actually attempt to do something remotely heroic. Their "exploits" are manufactured by their corporate masters, while their true escapades are equally covered up. There's honestly so much more I could say, but it would get intensely political and I'd likely get banned. So, lets' just say that it's not an unreasonable view of powerful Americans. 
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2022 13:21:38 GMT -5
2. Insecticons (Marvel/Marvel UK, 1980s)The Insecticons are a faction, if that is the right word, within the Decepticons, certainly not a faction to be trusted (can any faction ever be trusted?). That’s the simple write-up. I am most familiar with them from the Marvel and Marvel UK comics. I like their independent, rebellious nature (too many Decepticons fawn over Megatron). But I have to include then on my list because a) they have a cool name, and b) their abilities are really interesting, such as the ability to form a swarm, the fact that they consume organic and inorganic matter, and one or two abilities I may have forgotten, including controlling the weather. If I was Optimus Prime, the Insecticons would be giving me sleepless nights. An Idento-computer is is a technological system that adapts a Transformer’s ability based on what is near, so when the Insecticons landed on earth, in prehistoric times, they ended up in a swamp; this meant that the Idento-computer gave them transformative modes based on local insects. Such a cool idea, such a great team. I end this write-up because autocorrect is beginning to bore me, with its attempts to change Decepticon, Insecticon and Idento-computer (I *loathe* autocorrect). Heck yeah, this is an outstanding choice. Insecticons were the coolest. |
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Post by DubipR on Dec 23, 2022 13:47:15 GMT -5
2. The Seven (from the pages of The Boys) I was hoping one of us would have The Seven on their lists. Was considering putting them up on there but passed on it. Fantastic choice Slam! |
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 23, 2022 15:00:34 GMT -5
11. The Joker and The Red Skull (Batman and Captain America, DC and Marvel, 1996)   “Made For Each Other”*Many of us have become, at least at times, as cynical, world-weary and dark as comics have, yet we’re still once in a while find ourselves caught in a mug’s game, hoping against hope that the beauty, charm, and innocence of whatever or whoever it was we fell in love with as a kid reading those four-color pulpy pages still beats pure and warm at its heart. Which brings me to Batman and Captain America, one of those bright spots in the darkness that is not only a superb example of a comic book story, but also a celebration of all that is exciting, artistic, and most importantly, endearing about comics. You all know the premise and the story. John Byrne is at his admirable best in balancing a love for the innocence and enthusiasm that beat at the heart of comic books with the more polished techniques of writing and art of contemporary comics. It is the “Silverado,” the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” of comics, a loving appreciation of all that super-hero comics can be and are, at least in our memories. So of course, Byrne knew that the villains of his story had to be as iconic and embedded in our psyches as the heroes, which left him no choice other than to team the Joker with the Red Skull. Skeletal, scarred and disfigured in body and soul, both consumed with the need to defeat, upstage and destroy their upstanding foes, they are capable of anything, completely untrustworthy and bound to backstab, double-cross and deceive anyone, including each other. Others have already posted about the virtues of this unique team-up, so I will only add that Byrne walked a clear line in his portrayal of the Joker as veering between clownishness and madness. Even though his madness is more than evident (he murders a number of soldiers with his laughing gas), the minuscule shred of morality on which the Joker acts is the hinge on which the story turns, and it adds a nice bit of nuance. As someone posted, it does remind us of the mobsters in “The Rocketeer” taking on the Nazis or Tony Soprano’s willingness to give the FBI information in the wake of the September 11 attacks.** To add an earlier example, let me offer 1942’s “All Through the Night,” a beauty of a movie, part gangster film, part spy film, and yet farcical throughout (If Preston Sturges had made a gangster movie, it would have looked very much like this.) Anyway, when Humphrey Bogart and his mob realize that they’re up against Nazis, and well, you can guess where their true loyalties lie. (Another example just hit me: Claude Rains at the end of “Casablanca.”) *Girls' Love Stories #84
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 23, 2022 15:49:09 GMT -5
As I alluded, I didn't put the time I meant to into this year's list and I apologise. I made a rough list of 12 when the theme was announced. And then I blinked and it was already 8 days in. So I made a second draft and then published it. A lot of my entries were decided on Tuesday without sufficient thought. And I'm not confident I would stand by this top 12 in the years to come. I'll stand by the top 2 though. My top 2 choices were obvious in my first draft and my final draft. We've seen this one plenty of times, including earlier today. It's because of this team that I decided not to include any earlier incarnations of the Masters of Evil. This is my favorite version, and I think the last page of Thunderbolts #1 is the best ending of any comic I've ever read. 2. Thunderbolts
Citizen V, Techno, Mach-1, Songbird, Atlas, Meteorite Incredible Hulk #449, Marvel, 1996  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 23, 2022 17:36:04 GMT -5
2. Galactus and The Silver SurferThe first time I realized I had a horse in the Lee vs. Kirby debate was when I read Silver Surfer #1. Without Jack Kirby's involvement, Stan Lee had soft-rebooted the character and undermined this beautifully complex relationship with Galactus that bordered on a kind of cosmic intimacy. Now the Surfer was just an unwilling slave, serving out his time in exchange for the lives of his planet and the woman that he loves. Lee missed the point entirely and undid what is undoubtedly my favorite Kirby creation. And I think it mattered tremendously that The Surfer neither understood nor cared that planetary genocide was wrong at first; by the end, he was a work in progress, seeking to understand more about himself and the world, and still feeling a strong bond to the master he betrayed only of necessity. The Surfer was no hero and Galactus was no monster. Life isn't always that black and white. Jack understood that. Stan not so much. Fully agreed!!! The second appearance of the Surfer in Fantastic Four further emphasized that he was not an unwilling slave struck with amnesia; he still had a hard time comprehending how people "worked". I loved him much better as an unfathomable alien than as yet another misunderstood good guy. I disagree. But it’s a debate for another thread. Paging kirby101 stat ! |
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Post by kirby101 on Dec 23, 2022 20:28:51 GMT -5
Kirby's concept was a being created by Galactus who slowly gains humanity from his contact with people of Earth. You can see this fleshed out in the 1977 Graphic Novel. The Surfer just comes into being from Big G. Lee did change all that to give us Norin Rad with even more angst from his loss of his planet and his love. Longing for the one they love is a major Lee trope. Readers loved the Surfer in the FF, to the point he was almost a regular. That was Kirby's Surfer. But Lee did get quit a following among older teens and College students with his, helped quite a bit by the astonishing Buscema art.
I loved the Silver Surfer book when I read it, being the right age for the hero the world doesn't understand. But I must admit, if done right, Kirby had the better concept.
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Dec 24, 2022 1:41:40 GMT -5
2. The Angel Gang
 Well confessor wrote it all much more intalekshul than me can, but I do have to add that it is the black humor of the Dredd strip in the early 80's which was a huge selling point for a lot of us. Dredd began to come of age with the Cursed Earth Saga which led straight to The Day The Law Died and then less than a year later the Judge Child. The latter 2 stories were especially laced with humor from the ridiculousness of Cal to Fergie to the Jigsaw Man to the above reprobates, the Angels. As horrible and evil as they were, there was laughter to be mined. Beggin to poison a captive cos I aint pizzened anyone for a whole day, or Mean Machine going bok-crazy with his dial stuck on 4 and a half, these are the things that are glued into your brain forever. Much like a quote from DR and Quinch, circa 1985 that I still use...S'Alright
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 25, 2022 12:28:25 GMT -5
2. Galactus and The Silver SurferOccurred in Fantastic Four #48-50 (March thru May 1966) By Jack Kirby At first I called BS on this , but yeah, They were an invading force and bad guys in that respect. I dispute that Lee had nothing to do with it. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 25, 2022 13:29:21 GMT -5
2. Galactus and The Silver SurferOccurred in Fantastic Four #48-50 (March thru May 1966) By Jack Kirby At first I called BS on this , but yeah, They were an invading force and bad guys in that respect. I dispute that Lee had nothing to do with it. Stan Lee himself has said that Kirby added the Surfer on his own initiative, his presence in the story a fait accompli when Stan received the penciled art boasrds for dialoguing. It;'s to Stan's credit, however, that he immediately grasped what Jack ws going for and tailored his script accordingly.
Cei-U! I summon the food for thought!
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