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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2017 10:43:43 GMT -5
Heroes like Hal Jordan and Barry had no edge and had interchangeable personalities with many of the DC characters. They redefined Hal as a daredevil in the 90's, It's too bad he wasn't that way from the beginning. I agree. Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Ray Palmer...they had different costumes and powers, but exactly the same voice, for far too long. That's why I've always preferred Marvel as far as the Silver/Bronze age stuff went. They had actual characterization. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2017 10:00:37 GMT -5
I personally thought the trial storyline was the only time te pre-Crisis Flash was remotely interesting. Well, that and when Iris died. The rest of the time Barry Allen was basically just a nice guy with no discernible personality fighting equally one dimensional villains.
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2017 9:23:55 GMT -5
Bronze Age Brian
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2017 2:21:02 GMT -5
He's not right. Neither are you. That makes three of us.  Take a breath and de-SNKTT. I love lots of crappy comics, too. Yes, but you see the point I was trying to make is: it's not a crappy comic. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 20, 2017 18:49:25 GMT -5
e's not right. Neither are you. This series remains one of my favourite DC titles, regardless of how many seem not to appreciate it. I enjoyed it but here was a underlying reason that Batman wrote about the JSA adventures, I think he was trying to solve a mystery from beyond the grave. I hope I'm remembering correctly. You are remembering correctly. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 20, 2017 18:36:30 GMT -5
It wasn't. It was a fascinating and well crafted exercise in pulling a lot of stories together into a cohesive history. I think you and I look for very different things in a story. Slam's right. I forced myself to reread this last year. The final three issues were like castor oil. And this is from someone who really wanted that series to be great. The covers are excellent, though. I guess we have to agree to disagree. This is Roy at his worst: the complete opposite of fascinating and well crafted. The plot is a convoluted mess, the art uninspired, the motive unclear. I want to say that Roy needed more time and space to tell the story because it's all so rushed and crushed, but the problem with Roy when he gets like this is that his lack of disciplined storytelling expands to fill the number of issues he's given. He's not right. Neither are you. This series remains one of my favourite DC titles, regardless of how many seem not to appreciate it. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 20, 2017 3:50:49 GMT -5
Some older folks in Massachusetts still call soda "tonic." My father in law calls it soda pop which is what soft drinks are really. It wasn't until I was drinking age I realized soda is just carbonated water. I don't think I've ever heard "soda" or "soda pop" used in Britain, and I haven't heard "pop" used since the 1970s. We don't really seem to have a generic name for soft drinks. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 19, 2017 18:15:19 GMT -5
I still rather like it. What's wrong with it? I'm a continuity freak, so it's really everything I could wish for...  The "mystery" was utter nonsense. The reason for it made no sense, especially since it was freakin' Batman that made the thing up. I was just stupid. Absolutely nothing happened in four issues. Not one thing. It was like reading a very uninteresting alt-history book...with all the action taken out. It was Thomas at his most verbose as a scripter and his most anal retentive as a historian. And he didn't manage to be interesting in either role. It was a complete and utter mess. It wasn't. It was a fascinating and well crafted exercise in pulling a lot of stories together into a cohesive history. I think you and I look for very different things in a story. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 17, 2017 17:26:27 GMT -5
I loved the Liberty Legion, particularly Red Raven and Blue Diamond. I want them back!
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 17, 2017 17:14:38 GMT -5
I have the original art of this. It's signed Ron Wilson and it states on the back that the inker is in fact John Romita The cover inking doesn't look very Romitaesque to me. GCD suggests John Tartaglione, with only the redrawing of "Sunny Jim" Callaghan's face being by Romita. But they think Fred Kida was still inking the interiors, so they could be wrong. The interiors are very definitely not Fred Kida. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 17, 2017 13:06:02 GMT -5
My Earth Two counterpart was born in London in 1922, and went into journalism on leaving school, initially doing menial work for a local newspaper, but eventually writing for the nationals. That reserved occupation kept him out of the fighting in WWII, and he retired in 1988. He now lives in a retirement home in Brighton, and though he's no longer married, he is still in a long term relationship with a widow 25 years his junior who lives in the same place. He has a cat called Dennis.
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 17, 2017 12:22:44 GMT -5
In sharing this thread on facebook, I've encountered A LOT of diehard fans of this series. I hope a few will chime in and offer some insight as to what they love so much about this series. It would make an interesting counterpoint. From my POV, it's that I love the Golden Age characters and everything about that period of history, and actually really enjoy Roy's obsession with continuity and making things fit together; I'm aware I'm probably in the minority there, but it appeals to the obsessive side of my nature. I'm also a huge fan of Frank Robbins's art. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 17, 2017 11:35:09 GMT -5
Captain Britain #24 (March 1977)Script: Gary Friedrich/Larry Lieber Art: John Buscema/Tom Palmer "The Fall of the Fourth Reich?"  There are some major changes this issue, right in the middle of a still ongoing storyline. First, while Gary Friedrich is still plotting the thing, he is now apparently being assisted with the dialogue by Larry Lieber. Second, Herb Trimpe, the co-creator of Captain Britain, is gone-replaced by John Buscema, with inks by Tom Palmer. And third, and rather more jarringly than either of those things, the strip is no longer in colour! Until the launch of this title, aside from parts of a few very early issues of Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-Man Comics Weekly back in 1972, all Marvel UK's titles had been printed entirely in black and white aside from the covers. When Captain Britain was launched on the world, his arrival was considered important enough to shell out for then quite expensive colour printing on at least part of his book; the CB strip itself and the Nick Fury reprints in the back (the Fantastic Four reprints that filled the middle of each issue were still monochrome). The trade-off was that this was the only Marvel UK weekly with a newsprint cover rather than the usual glossy one. However, sales clearly haven't been as good as Marvel hoped, since with this issue the whole interior of the book becomes black and white like the rest of the Marvel UK line...though it does now at least have a glossy cover. Small comfort, to us readers of the time... Anyway, on to the story: having escaped the Skull's clutches, Captain Britain wastes quite a bit of time trying to convince Chief Inspector Thomas to actually listen to his warning that the entire country is in jeopardy, and then getting away from Thomas and his men when they predictably refuse to do anything except try to arrest him. Commandeering Thomas's car, CB demands to be patched through to the S.H.I.E.L.D heli-carrier and, after being patched through to Nick Fury over at S.T.R.I.K.E Command by Dum Dum Dugan...crashes the car while swerving to avoid hitting a dog. Oh, Brian! Anyway, the stunned superstar eventually clears his head enough to give Fury the location of the Red Skull, and Fury duly assembles a strike team. We then shift scenes to the clock tower, where Lance Hunter is still trying to defuse the Skull's germ bomb before it blows at midnight (basically, this scene is only here to remind us of that particular plot strand) before cutting back to the Skull's lair, where Captain America and the Prime Minister are in a cell about to be blown up by an explosive device. Even as S.H.I.E.L.D launch their attack on the warehouse, Captain Britain returns and takes a flying leap at the bomb that's about to kill the two captives...only for it to seemingly blow up in his face! This story really is dragging on a bit now, and the whole interlude with Thomas is ridiculous, but it's certainly not short of action. I'm really going to miss those rich, vibrant hues, though...
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 17, 2017 10:50:54 GMT -5
Captain Britain #23 (March '77)Script: Gary Friedrich Art: Herb Trimpe/Frank Giacoia "The Night Big Ben Stood Still!"  This episode of our saga (with Frank Giacoia now replacing Fred Kida on inks) begins somewhat puzzlingly, as Captain Britain-still lashed to a stake awaiting execution-rather randomly announces that "It appears that Parliament has voted to refuse the Skull's ultimatum". How he could be in a position to know this is unclear, as it's clearly only just happened and it seems unlikely that the Skull's HQ has a live news feed in 1977, but never mind, let's just go with it! As it turns out, he was wrong anyway; even as the captive Prime Minister Callaghan declares that "no man is more important than freedom", Lance Hunter calls the Skull (better late than never) to confirm that Parliament has indeed voted to give in to his demands! Needless to say, this all seems more than a little unlikely, but what the hell; it gives Captain Britain and his star spangled counterpart the push they need to break free of their bonds and start beating up Nazi henchmen again, and that's the main thing! Meanwhile, back at S.T.R.I.K.E, Hunter rather abruptly wakes up Nick Fury (who he drugged, remember?) and tells him what's been going on. The surrender was a ruse to buy time; now, Hunter wants Fury to take over at S.T.R.I.K.E while he, Hunter, goes to try defuse the Skull's germ bomb-which the fiend has hidden inside the clock tower at Westminster! The bomb will detonate when Big Ben strikes midnight, apparently. Fury complains that he should be the one to tackle it, but his British counterpart rather satisfyingly overrules him and departs. Back in the Skull's warehouse base, our heroes have split up; Captain America is still happily beating up Nazis, while Captain Britain has been sent to look for an exit and seek out help. Even as Hunter races against time to find the bomb inside the clock tower while the Red Skull reaches for an ominous looking big red button, CB escapes from the warehouse and flags down a passing motorist! Unfortunately, by a staggering coincidence, the motorist is his nemesis, Chief Inspector Dai Thomas... An aside: rather irritatingly, Friedrich has made the same mistake everyone makes when referring to the Elizabeth Tower, calling the tower itself "Big Ben". In fact, Big Ben is only the name of the large bell inside the clock.
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 17, 2017 10:12:05 GMT -5
Captain Britain #22 (March '77)Script: Gary Friedrich Art: Herb Trimpe/Fred Kida "Mayhem at Midnight!"  The seemingly endless Red Skull saga continues. As Lance Hunter tries to dissuade Nick Fury from undertaking an utterly pointless one man search of a city of eight million people, Captains Britain and America sneak into the deserted warehouse their unwilling informant pointed them towards last issue. Captain America initially protests that the Skull is "far too cunning to set up shop in such a hackneyed setting as an abandoned warehouse", but then concedes that he may indeed have decided to place his headquarters in "a place so stereotyped it would be overlooked". So basically, he can say he was right whatever the outcome proves to be! As it turns out, the warehouse is indeed Skull Central, and our heroes first fall into a very obvious trap (a trap door deposits them in a giant water tank) and escape it, then get into a fight with a mob of henchmen, before the Skull appears and announces that he will kill the captive Prime Minister if they don't surrender. Predictably, the Captains comply. Meanwhile, Fury is still demanding that he and his S.H.I.E.L.D forces be allowed to take over the search for the Skull and his germ bomb, much to the annoyance of Hunter who "won't chance a foreign agency provoking an international incident". I can see his point, but on the whole his next move-shutting Fury up by jabbing him with a hypodermic which puts him to sleep-seems a bit of an overreaction! Still, at least Lance can now get a bit of peace in which to do his job, while Nick slips into a rather pointless nightmare about London falling to germ warfare... This installment ends with the Skulls Nazi horde about to mobilize on London, as Hunter tries to explain the gravity of the situation to Parliament while, in Docklands, the two Captains and Prime Minister Callaghan stand tied to stakes awaiting a firing squad. "Hackneyed" is an understatement, really...
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