2005 Upper Deck Justice League of America VS System CCG Card DJL-075: UN Recognition

Illustration by Gus Vazquez.

I tried to cover Justice League International in earlier days of the internet, with much slimmer wiki availability, so I cross/sub-referenced my interest to death and tapped out. The book was definitely the second leg of my outsized interest in Martian Manhunter, following my much favored Super Powers figure. I do recall flipping through the first issue at a mall bookstore, and being put off by the Guy Gardner of it all. Some weird off-brand Green Lantern was plotting to lord over his leadership credentials to a Justice League lacking a Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Atom, or Hawkman? I don't think I knew the bird-lady in the black and blue costume with a headband. I definitely had the barest exposure to Mister Miracle, in that garish red, yellow, and green get-up with the giant collar. Shazam was all over old Treasury Edition ads, and I caught his cartoon on the rare occasions I was up early enough on Saturday mornings, but he was still an off-brand Superman. Blue Beetle I saw in Chartlton Action Hero house ads when I'd catch a cheap Thunderbolt or Judomaster back issue at the flea market. I had the Manhunter and Dr. Fate action figures, but that alone wouldn't cinch a sale, or else I'd have picked up one of those Detroit issues I'd also tossed through at the mall. Batman was the only draw, but I knew him from The Brave and the Bold, so he was a team-up slut. His joining a group was no sign of quality, or else I'd have bothered with The Outsiders.

I got JLI #8, "Moving Day," at a dinged copy discount at a comic shop shortly after release. It was one of the rare funny books that was legitimately funny, especially J'Onn J'Onzz's endorsement of Oreo cookies by the caseload. He was a standout in one of my favorite single issues to that date. Shortly thereafter, I moved to Nevada, where the convenience store comic rack was way more open to DC Comics than Houston's. Heck, they even had spinner racks, which were scarce here, and that expanded the selection in general from what would fit from a small shelving area near the register. I still picked up JLI irregularly, as I was much less interested in any issues without Kevin Maguire artwork, or that seemed to be telling a serious story. I was there for the comedy. That was not what I got in Martian Manhunter #1, the only book I got at my only trip to a comic shop anywhere near Vegas. I hated everything about it, especially the wasted opportunity and elevated cover price. Put me off Martian Manhunter as a soloist for years afterward. Instead, I gravitated toward that Guy Gardner guy as the best part of that ensemble, because he was never played straight.

Outside of annuals, I lost interest in JLI around the time Ty Templeton left, and Adam Hughes was coming on. I hadn't been into the book for a while, so it wasn't te fault of the art change, but rather the tonal shift. They kept insisting that I needed to take these b/c-listers seriously, and I just couldn't. It was like when Moonlighting got mired in all that soapy relationship stuff when I just wanted snappy mysteries with wry, knowing humor.

2006 Upper Deck DC Infinite Crisis VS System CCG Card DCR-145: 3...2...1...

Illustration by Gus Vazquez.

Appropriately enough, I'm running late and short on time...

2005 Upper Deck Justice League of America VS. System CCG Card DJL-032: Reform the League

Illustration by Ariel Olivetti.

As I've mentioned a number of times over the years, I had no exposure to J'Onn J'Onzz in the '70s or early '80s. There were house ads for the War of the Worlds arc from Justice League of America #228-230, and I especially recall Chuck Patton & Dick Giordano's cover to the last issue featuring Martian Manhunter battling The Marshal, which was glorious. However, I was not reading any DC Comics in real time during this period, and probably saw that ad in a copy of Blue Devil that I bought at a flea market months after release, if even in the 1984 calendar year. I was definetely hip to the Alien Atlas through a figure and mini-comic from the 1985 second series of Kenner's Super Powers Collection, but I probably bought that at a deep discount some time after initial release. A 1986 DC Comics Subscription Ad stands out in my memory, but by then I'd already read Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, the first proper comic that I received new and have a firm recollection of the Sleuth from Outer Space playing a role. Though I didn't buyt any, I did toss through some late run issues of Justice League of America in '86.

All this is to say that even though I didn't read any material from the period of the Detroit Justice League, this blog wouldn't exist without it. Even if Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons had done their proposed Martian Manhunter mini-series in the early '80s, that alone wouldn't have gotten us an action figure in 1985. Most probably, we would have gotten J'Emm, Son of Mars, and maybe that guy would have landed on some lesser team like The Outsiders, making J'Onn J'Onzz a redundancy. More likely, J'Onn or J'Emm would have been killed off during the Crisis, since we didn't need two Martian heroes in the streamlined new continuity. Regardless, I might never have made J'Onn's acquaintence, or made it later, and in a different form.

I don't think of the Detroit team as a true standard-bearing Justice League. They were failed X-Men bandwagon jumpers. But because they were short-lived, before my time, and novel, and came to embrace them. I love Gypsy as an expansion of the Martian family, and a surrogate daughter. I love Vixen as a compelling and trailblazing heroine. I still don't care much for Steel, but I see value in his lore, and I'm a big Dale Gunn booster. Vibe... well... an icon I put together for the blog served as the basis for the title sequence of a DC Nation short. It may be my personal largest (if mostly forgettable) contribution to popular culture. Plus I grew quite fond of Zatanna and Aquaman and Sue... not so much Elongated Man. I see the Detroit League as more J'Onn's team than the Magnificent Seven ever were. Martian Manhunter is a misfit, and he's more vital with his own kind.

2007 Upper Deck DC World's Finest VS System CCG Card DWF-101: Technocrat - Geoffrey Barron

Illustration by Cat Staggs

Not gonna lie-- I cursed out loud at the sight of this card. I was not expecting to have to look closer at a card of a forgotten '90s Outsiders member to find a Martian Manhunter cameo next to Green Lantern Hal Jordan. At least it's a nice looking piece or art-- better than the subject deserves, surely.

2007 Upper Deck DC World's Finest VS System CCG Card DWF-157: Pick a Card

Illustration by Ed Benes

As I progress through an inventory of the VS. System gaming cards for my own purposes, I'm finding that the 2007 sets are the biggest pains in the butt to get a good look at, and World's Finest is the most tedious set. Not the most work though, since so many of the cards are immediately ruled useless and uninteresting to me. The artist selection is fine, and I have no basis to judge the gaming dynamics. My issue is that the vast majority of the cards are Batman and/or Superman and/or their familiar extended casts going through the motions. Of course, that's expected of any DC Universe project, but also, it's the default mode of the DC VS. System from the very first Gothamcentric set on to the second Metropolitan set and so forth. As with Overpower before it, DC VS. entered a gaming space already well established through a breadth of Marvel Universe properties by drilling down deep in Batman and Superman lore across hundreds of cards. Unlike Overpower, VS. System then went back for yet another combination Batman/Superman set to absolutely scrape the bottom of the barrel. I mean, Lex Luthor and The Joker are among the most famous super-villains around, but do I need that "literally" illustrated across combined dozens of gaming cards? Part of the reason why, despite recent Absolute-fueled consistent dominance of monthly comics sales charts, DC has otherwise remained in Marvel's shadow for my entire (and increasingly advanced) lifetime. Because Marvel will build out an entire cosmic sub-universe that keeps incredibly negligible characters like Nova marketable to audiences, but DC will always retreat to their half-dozen or so core franchise, with Batman and Superman making up about a third each, and everything else squeezed into that final third (mostly Green Lantern, Flash, and the Justice League brand.)

All this is to say, here's a friggin' Joker card where he's seemingly pitted against the JLA, as represented by card-in-a-card representations of the DC Trinity and the League itself, as represented through the Manhunter from Mars. I'd be more pleased if I didn't figure it was just a way to avoid slighting either the Flash or Green Lantern fandoms by only featuring one of them in the available space (or pitting them against the fans of Aquaman, Green Arrow, and so on.) I've been doing this blog for 19 years, and general Sleuth-stanning for longer, and there's still Martian Manhunter fandom to speak of. If we were in U.S. politics, we wouldn't even be the Green Party, as thematically appropriate as that might be (though clearly less so than the GL Corps.) We're more like that one guy in New York whose whole platform is "The Rent Is Too Damn High!" Anyway, it remains to be seen if I find any more cards in this set relevant to Martian interests, and whether I can find a scan that's bigger the 220px if I do.

2007 Upper Deck DC Comics Legends VS System CCG Card DCL-052: Intangible

Art by Dustin Nguyen

Here's another one of those tough-to-find DC Comics Legends card scans. It's a shame too, because they afforded much more image space with this set. It's also a good thing, because I had to blow this sucker up from 220px, so a tiny picture would have made it that much worse.

Particularly in my message board/versus board days, I heard cries of "overpowered" a lot, and I gave plenty of consideration to paring down the Manhunter's power set to make him more palatable. But what powers to cut? I had some ideas, but I never wanted to give up intangibility. It's one of if not the most strikingly dissimilar powers to Superman, who also gets called "OP" plenty, so it's not easy to find uncommon ground from Kryptonian to Martian. Typically, it's supernatural characters who become immaterial, like ghosts and mythical deities. Much less associated with aliens, which helps distinguish J'Onn J'Onzz from every other prominent character. That said, the Barry Allen Flash vibrated through objects often, so it wasn't even unprecedented among the founding five members of the Justice League of America. I'd argue that Kitty Pryde's "phasing" and the Vision's density control are more broadly known among fandom than Manhunter's own brand. Christopher Priest really leaned hard into Manhunter's own density control if his stint on Justice League Task Force in the '90s. I was never comfortable with that, just like I don't care for Vision being assigned proper flight after years of more accurately "floating" in a manner similar to zero gravity in outer space. You know I loathe homogenization of characters and universes in comics, so that everyone has a potential duplicate of everything in any given story. But also, I really like intangibility, and like Hal Jordan, I thought I liked the Vision until I got to know his stories better.

Ultimately, I'm down with "OP." Why should super-heroes be made smaller to suit the lack of imagination in creators and fans? Craft stories big enough to take advantage of those abilities, instead.

2005 Upper Deck Justice League of America VS System CCG Card DJL-154: World's Greatest Heroes - Team-Up

Illustration by Joe Phillips.

The Legends period was such an important time for J'Onn J'Onzz. I was not very interested in DC Comics Pre-Crisis, and that only started to change when Marvel's top artist took over Superman. I had some exposure to George Perez, and in fact New Teen Titans was one of the few DC titles I occasionally sampled, but John Byrne was a staple. Not only had I loved his X-Men work, but I was always up to toss through one of his (very DCish) Fantastic Four issues, and I bought reprints of his Spider-Man work in Marvel Tales (though I barely gave Alpha Flight a Titans-level sniff.) Where I only bought a single issue of Who's Who, I got a late start on the first volume of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, I continued to buy it routinely in the second, "Deluxe Edition." Byrne art was on most covers and a great many entries. He wasn't just Marvel to me-- he was "comics," and with Legends he was at DC Comics. I did buy an issue of Perez's Crisis on Infinite Earths, and I would soon enough sample his Wonder Woman, but I got there through the door Byrne was holding open.

I didn't actually buy a single issue of Legends new, as I had ten consecutive issues of Secret Wars, but I did catch a bunch of tie-ins in first run or through recent-ish three packs. As with Secret Wars, I could feel the events in Legends reverberate through other titles. It felt fresh, and important, even without the context that the public being turned against their super-heroes by a demagogue was echoing the anti-comics crusade of the 1950s. But I could feel that tension, from creators who lived through it, reflecting on it through their work. I finally got to read some of the core mini-series through a friend's copies in 1988, by which point I'd graduated from only knowing the Alien Atlas through the Super Powers Collection into proper monthly comics. But seeing that Post-Crisis DC coming together here, with the Manhunter from Mars near the fore, it felt like a coronation. Suddenly, DC Comics mattered to me, and more shockingly, J'Onn J'Onzz finally meant something to DC Comics.

That having been said, I don't remember Captain Atom being involved with Legends at all. DC largely recreated that character after purchasing him from Charlton Comics, and getting in somewhat on the ground floor with a character I had only the slightest prior awareness of was, at the time, even more intriguing to me than some Jolly Green Giant in a cape. I bought a number of issues of Captain Atom's solo titles in the period before I reached Legends. Seeing the Charlton Action Heroes fully and effectively integrated into the New(er) DC was exciting, and I've long associated J'Onn J'Onzz with their "welcome wagon." It reminds me of how I waxed rhapsodic over that same possibility being afforded the Wildstorm integration early into the New 52. I loved seeing the Sleuth from Outer Space making a new welcome wagon out of Stormwatch. So less than a year in, he quit that team and mindwiped everyone to never remember that he'd ever been a member. A bitter disappointment, but an excellent metaphor for the New 52 and that abortive Wildstorm integration. What integration? What Wildstorm? Who are you people?!?

2004 Upper Deck VS. System Superman: Man of Steel CCG Card DSM-095: Toy Soldiers

Illustration: Adam Archer

2007 Upper Deck VS System DC Legends CCG Card DCL-118: Felix Faust - Soulless Mystic

Illustration by Wellington Alves

Commissionpalooza I

With the blog's 20th anniversary next year, I'd really like to take care of old business, like unposted commissioned art that I've sometimes been sitting on for over a decade. I've got a lot of pieces lying around, and it can be hard to keep track of what I've got online already, and in what state. This is especially true of the section where I'm supposed to put artwork, Pictures of Martian Manhunter, having a note of last update as 6/4/11. I only started collecting commissions in 2010, and virtually none were in that mix. So I figured that I should create a repository post to help me sort it all out, and while I was at it, I figured I might as well show off some of my non-Alien Atlas art for what has always been my primary blogging audience. I have too much material for a single post, and it was too much work to not milk for more days. Also, if you think I've been holding back on you in the Sleuth from Outer Space department, I literally have dozens of pieces devoted to other interests that hardly anyone has seen. Since there are overlapping artists, I'd like to hold back those galleries until I can offer something more comprehensive. I also cut out the one-off artists sorted together by year at 2013, because I started all those jam projects in 2014, and those are still being reckoned with...

Karl Altstaetter

• 2015 Ice Amazing Houston Comic Con Jam Sketch
• 2016 Vandal Savage Amazing Houston Comic Con commission

Chris Beaver

• 2012 Human Squirrel Comicpalooza Commission
• 2012 Hunter Commander J'en Space City Con Commission
• 2013 Kishana Lewis Commission
• 2014 Diabolu the Wizard Comicpalooza Jam Sketch Detail
• 2014 Princess Cha'rissa Comicpalooza Jam Sketch Detail
• 2016 Cynthia Scott as Corporal Cynthia Dietrich Comicpalooza Commission

Damon Bowie

• 2012 Glenn Gammeron Comicpalooza Commission
• 2012 B'rett Comicpalooza Commission
• 2012 The Prophet Comicpalooza Commission

Pat Broderick

• 2014 B'rett Comicpalooza Commission
• 2014 New 52 Martian Manhunter Comicpalooza Commission
• 2014 The Marshal Comicpalooza convention jam art

2010

• Zook Convention Piece by Ethan Van Sciver

Ian Chase Nichols

• 2023 Dawn of the Dead Charlie Peters as WGON-TV Crew Member Fan Expo New Orleans Commission
• 2023 S'vor Fan Expo New Orleans convention sketch

Brian Denham

• 2011 Bel Juz Commission
• 2013 New 52 Martian Manhunter Commission
• 2014 Houston Comicpalooza Marco Xavier Vulture Jam Sketch Detail

Derec Donovan

• 2023 Fan Expo New Orleans JLA JAM The Flash segment
• 2023 Fan Expo New Orleans Darkman Commission

2011

• Mister V Comicpalooza Commission by Phil Hester
• Scorch Comicpalooza Commission by Roderick Thornton

Brad Garneau

• 2015 The Vixen Amazing Houston Comic Con Jam Sketch Detail
• 2016 Tybalt Bak'sar Amazing Houston Comic Con Commission

Brad Green

• 2021 “Justice League Extreme #1” Aquaman & Batman fanfic commission art by Brad Green
• 2021 “Justice League Extreme #1” Artemis fanfic commission art by Brad Green
• 2021 “Justice League Extreme #1” Bloodwynd fanfic commission art
• 2021 “Justice League Extreme #1” fanfic commission art by Brad Green
• 2021 “Lords of the Ultra-Realm” fanfic commission
• 2021 “Primal Force” fanfic commission art by Brad Green

Paul Gulacy & Walden Wong

• 2014 Bel Juz Comicpalooza Commission
• 2014 Telok'Telar Comicpalooza convention jam art detail
• 2017 Heroes Convention WildStar Jam Headshot

Kiriska

• 2012 Human Squirrel Comicpalooza Commission
• 2013 The Human Squirrel Comicpalooza Color Bust Commission
• 2012 The Human Falcon Comicpalooza Commission

Andy Kuhn

• 2010 Doctor Trap Commission
• 2011 Ma'alefa'ak Comicpalooza Commission

2012

• Zook Space City Con Commission by Arthur “Art” Adams
• Despero Comicpalooza Commission by Matt Frank
• Ma'alefa'ak Comicpalooza Commission by Tyler Kirkham
• The Devil Men of Pluto Comicpalooza Commission by Paul Maybury
• Ma'alefa'ak Space City Con Commission by Whilce Portacio
• The Human Flame Comicpalooza Commission by Rob Reilly
• Patrolwoman Diane Meade Comicpalooza Commission by Marcio Takara
• Cay'an Comicpalooza Commission by Jonathan Thibodaux

Sam Lotfi

• 2013 TOR, the Robot Criminal of Mars Comicpalooza Commission
• 2014 The Human Flame Comicpalooza Jam Sketch Detail
• 2025 The Martian Criminal Baytown Eastern Rim Funny Book & Vintage Con Commission

Josh C Lyman

• 2013 Thythen Space City Con Commission
• 2013 Vulkor, the Capsule Master Space City Con Commission

Kevin Maguire & Tony Kordos

• 2014 Comicpalooza Professor Arnold Hugo head sketch
• 2023 Fan Expo New Orleans Martian Manhunter figure sketch

Antoine Mayes

• The Alien Robots Space City Comic Con Jam Sketch Detail
• 2015 The Doom Shadow Space City Comic Con Jam Sketch Detail
• 2015 The Giant Watery Hand of Gilgana Space City Comic Con Jam Sketch
• 2015 Horn Firing Creature of Gilgana Space City Comic Con Jam Sketch
• 2015 Porto Comicpalooza convention sketch
• 2016 Porto “The Man of 1,000 Disguises” sketch by Antoine Mayes
• 2014-2016 Vulture Jam Art featuring Mr. V by Antoine Mayes

Lane Montoya

• 2012 Princess Cha'rissa Comicpalooza Commission
• 2012 Jemm, Son of Saturn Comicpalooza Commission
• 2012 Gypsy Comicpalooza Commission
• 2013 D'Kay D'Razz Comicpalooza Commission
• 2014 The Headmaster Comicpalooza Commission

Marat Mychaels

• 2010 Commander Blanx Comicpalooza Commission
• 2013 Commander Blanx Comicpalooza Commission
• 2015 Grandmother J'onzz Space City Comic Con Jam Sketch Detail

2013

• Venomee Comicpalooza Commission by Kaleigh “Kalo” Hvizdos
• Hunter Commander J'en Comicpalooza Commission by Bob Layton
• Zook Comicpalooza Commission by Amanda Lafrenais
• Martian Manhunter Comicpalooza Commission by David Mack
• Genie of Gensu Comicpalooza Commission by Kaitlyn Richardson
• Martian Manhunter Space City Con Head Sketch by Art Thibert
• Triumph Comicpalooza Commission by E.K. Weaver
• Bel Juz Space City Con Commission by Robert Wilson IV

Mark Nasso

• 2012 Fernus the Burning Space City Con Commission
• 2013 Korge, the Last Angry God Commission
• 2015 The Cobra-Beast Space City Comic Con Jam Sketch Detail
• 2019 Dawn of the Dead John Amplas as Rico Comicpalooza Commission

Adrian Nelson

• 2011 Bloodwynd Comicpalooza Commission
• 2012 Malefic Space City Con Commission WIP
• 2012 Ma'alefa'ak Space City Con Commission
• 2015 Glenn Gammeron Amazing Houston Comic Con Jam Sketch Detail
• 2015 J'Onzz Family Portrait Artist Jam featuring H'ronmeer
• 2016 Aliens 30th Anniversary Ricco Ross as Private Ricco Frost commission
• 2019 Dawn of the Dead Fandemic David Early as Sidney Berman jam
• 2019 The Osprey color commission

Tommy Duy Nguyen

• 2016 Michael Biehn as Corporal Dwayne Hicks Space City Comic Con Commission
• 2016 N'or Cott Houston Comicpalooza Commission by

Vo Nguyen

• 2012 Cameron Chase Space City Con Commission
• 2012 Bette Noir Comicpalooza Commission
• 2013 Cay'an Comicpalooza Commission
• 2016 Aliens 30th Anniversary Mark Rolston as Private Mark Drake Jam Art

Eddie Nuñez

• 2016 Green Lantern John Stewart Amazing Houston Comic Con Jam Sketch Detail
• 2023 Pop Culture Power Show JLA JAM Green Lantern John Kyle Rayner segment

Brent Peeples

• 2012 Commander Blanx Comicpalooza Commission
• 2015 Gypsy Amazing Houston Comic Con Jam Sketch Detail

George Pérez

• 2013 Commander Blanx Comicpalooza Head Sketch
• 2013 Houston Comicpalooza Thanos Head Sketch

Nick Pitarra

• 2011 B'rett Comicpalooza Commission
• 2012 The Saturnian Criminal Space City Con Commission
• 2012 Despero Space City Con Commission

2010 "DC Universe Vol.1: JLA" Martian Manhunter by alexmax

Click To Enlarge

Just for fun, here's me taking a stab at the DC superheroes in an animated type style. Inspired by the Bruce Timm cartoons and movies, but at the same time trying not to copy them. I had so much fun doing this that I'd like to try doing some other "sets" of characters (hence why I called it Vol. 1!), and put my own spin on some of them.

Of course I had to begin with the JLA, and my favorite JLA lineup is the one from the relaunch in the mid 90's. It had the best contrast of personalities with seasoned veterans, younger heroes, reluctant members, etc.

Here is what I was thinking as I did each design...

Superman: My favorite. More athletic than hulking (so the mild-mannered reporter persona can be believable). The "S Shield" should be as big as possible.

Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, my second favorite comic character. A cross between his first two looks, kind of like what he has in the comics these days, except I don't like the white gloves and the logo on black. Slimmer, and younger, than any other hero.

Batman: Hard to make Batman look unique. Picked my favorite look for him.

Wonder Woman: Adam Hughes boots, Byrne's bracelets, current belt, big tiara.

The Flash: Wally West. Uncovered eyes to distance him from the JLU design. On the thin side like Kyle, but with muscled legs.

Aquaman: late 90's version. A guy living in the depths of the sea should be huge to withstand that kind of pressure. Monster calves to swim.

Martian Manhunter: More "squared" than the JLU version.

Another one that's been in my drafts folder since 2011, probably because I was going to use the art segments for the various heroes to crossover between my blogs. Despite the watermark, I'd rather just get this posted and move on.

2005 Upper Deck Justice League of America VS System CCG Card DJL-055: Maxwell Lord - Financier

Illustration by Cully Hamner.

This is just a cameo appearance by J'Onn, so I thought twice about featuring it, but hey-- I got dates to fill. Max was still a good(ish) guy around 2005, but this was the same year as Countdown to Infinite Crisis, so the heel may already have been turning. My main cause for pause to reconsider this was that it seems like Cully Hamner may have drawn influence from the likeness of another wealthy New York elite that turned into a global super-villain, and that semblance is more repugnant to me than a bullet to Ted Kord's brain.

2007 Upper Deck DC Comics Legends VS System CCG Card DCL-054 : Mightiest Heroes

Art by Kalman Andrasofszky.

Another certified rare card from this set that I can't buy or find a normal sized scan for. The artist is probably best known for spearheading the modern era relaunch of Captain Canuck.

2005 Upper Deck Justice League of America VS. System CCG Card DJL-180: H'ronmeer's Curse

Art by Joe Bennett.

As of this writing, I still haven't pulled the trigger on buying a single Vs. System card. I actually played Overpower, and I have enough high quality base/chase cards packed out of boxes direct into 9-pocket sleeves to make it worthwhile for me to eventually plug in the holes. Collecting a CCG from scratch with only online resources twenty years after release is probably too big an ask for me. I have no great desire to put together any more Batman/Superman heavy card sets (see, again, Overpower,) and the more diverse sets like Justice League of America go hundreds of cards deep at various levels of availability. There are some really choice artists working on the set, but going back to granddaddy Magic: The Gathering, all these paintings are done dirty by postage stamp presentations in favor of game mechanic text.

All this is to say that I'm just prettying up scans swiped from eBay listings, and despite not being a valuable card, there are no good English language scans of this particular card handy. For presentation purposes, I doctored up an Italian-language card, but figure someone might be curious about a translation. The card is of the "Plot Twist" type, which I believe translates into an Event card in Overpower speak (which I stopped playing well before this card came out long enough ago to drink legally.) In layman's terms, it's a card that's played to change a gaming dynamic.

In this instance, "Ongoing: At the start of your attack step, if you control a non-stunned character, each player stuns a non-stunned character he controls with cost 2 or less." Hey Upper Deck-- your pronouns are out of date. Admittedly, I don't recall a single solitary girl ever playing Overpower in my vicinity. I think I knew a trans-femme in the broader super-hero trading card sphere though, and certainly women played more popular CCGs, even in my day. So, shouting out from Woke.0?

The flavor text quote reads, "For the weaker Martians, the curse is deadly."

Justice League of America's Vibe #1-3 (April-June, 2013)

Martian Manhunter had a cameo in the debut issue of Vibe's solo book as a head shot in a preview of the upcoming Justice League of America. The following issue, the Alien Atlas stood beside Colonel Steve Trevor, Katana, Vibe, Stargirl, and Hawkman in front of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. for a press conference presided over by President Barack Obama to announce the formation of the J.L.A. A photo of J'Onn also turned up on a corkboard at A.R.G.U.S. in the third issue.

Francisco Ramon was recruited by Agent Dale Gunn of A.R.G.U.S. to serve as the hero Vibe under orders from Director Amanda Waller. Given a costume and the codename "Vibe," Ramon would use his command over vibrational frequencies to detect breaches from other dimensions. He was also secretly expected to be a potential weapon against the Flash, just as the Martian Manhunter was a planned counter against Superman. The J.L.A.'s covert reason for being was to give the United States an option to take on the original Justice League with their own super-heroes, should it prove necessary.

The American League wasn't the only bit of dirty business Amanda Waller was up to, as she also imprisoned super-powered subjects in her underground laboratory dubbed "The Circus." There was already a containment cell that literally had Vibe's name on it if he ever fell out of favor. In her New 52 debut as part of a first issue cameo, captive subject Gypsy looked on from confinement, and wasn't the only such prisoner by a fair margin.

In the following issue, a menacing alien courier roamed the streets of Detroit until he was confronted by Vibe and brought low with the aid of Dale Gunn. It carried a scroll featuring extraterrestrial writing, which was eventually turned over to Waller, who brought it for a visit to the Circus. "...It has your name on it, doesn't it? Written in your language. It's a letter. Someone went to a great deal of trouble getting this to you..." The prisoner asked after the fate of the courier, and explained that the letter was a request from her father to come home. "You seem to prefer a more nomadic existence. That makes you something of a trans-dimensional... Gypsy." Waller wanted the girl to tell her father that she was safe and well cared for, but if he decided to try to take his daughter back, he'd share her "accommodations." Gypsy felt that Waller had no right to keep her, and Amanda agreed, but also noted that some of her superiors would prefer that her holding facility become an abattoir. "I want out! I'll take my chances out there! Please..."

Finally, feedback from a confrontation between Vibe and Kid Flash caused the power dampening generated in some of the Circus' cells to falter, allowing Subject 24 ("Gypsy") access to her abilities. Creating the illusion that she was a guard who had been trapped in her cell, Gypsy lured another guard into freeing her and escaping. The stories were written by Geoff Johns & Andrew Kreisberg & Sterling Gates, with pencil art by Pete Woods & Andres Guinaldo & Fabiano Neves. Yes, that is a lot of names for three issues, isn't it?

2005 Upper Deck Justice League of America VS System CCG Card DJL-109: Power Siphon

Illustration by Keron Grant.

I forgot to mention yesterday that even though my card scans are often squared rectangles, gaming cards almost always have rounded corners like poker cards, because the rigors of gameplay would swiftly wear down pointed corners. The points would poke your hands (as was still the case if you played with plastic sleeves,) and it would create a point of vulnerability for the card to be permanently bent (or "marked,") and the sides could begin to separate from each other. Another thing that I forgot as I started looking into the VS. System is that I have old man brain, and it would wear me down.

I've been a little obsessive over the Vs. System, because I realized while working on the DC Secret Files Podcast that the short form periodical reference books like Who's Who were abandoned in the '90s in favor of trading cards. They returned in comic book form as Secret Files and Origins specials, but those were far from comprehensive in their coverage, so you needed trading cards to supplement them for snapshots of the full scope of the DC Universe in the '90s. But also, getting into the 21st century, the non-sports comic book trading card market was virtually extinct, and almost none of those sets featured original art. It was just reprinted, repurposed material from the comics industry. Also, the Secret Files books themselves were increasingly few and far between in the aughts. But see, collectible card games were still a thing, had a broad scope in service to gaming mechanics, and I finally realized my usual resource Trading Card Database effectively "hid" these cards in a separate gaming catalog. Suddenly, properties that I'd struggled to find resources to cover were at my virtual, digital fingertips. All these Vs. System posts are the fruit of searches for these cards on places like eBay.

The quality and resolution of these images vary wildly, and the availability of images from the later sets are thin. What I really wanted was to get my hands on the actual cards to pull my own scans. However, most eBay listings for individual cards start at a dollar each, plus shipping, and I'm looking at needing hundreds of these things. I don't want to get buried in duplicates of a card game that I'll never play by buying not-inexpensive boxes, where there are even boxes available to buy. So one day, my gal and I hit numerous comics and gaming stores, plus a gaming-specific co-op "convention" open most weekends on the other side of town. This took up much of the day. We came home empty-handed.

For starters, the only actual Vs. System product we found was at Houston's oldest comic book store. They only had Marvel cards, in packs, collecting dust in a plastic case on a back wall counter. The card I'm featuring today can almost book a rental car without any insurance hassles. Why would I even think anyone would have a decades old gaming system in stock? Even though VS. System had way more releases than the Overpower I did collect, and I saw them being sold in more shops, that was also probably during the Bush Administration. Hell, HeroClix is much more recent, and nobody has carried those in nearly a decade. The only hybrid comic/card shops that I know of to still exist are all like that one-- local institutions-- around my advanced age. Only after did it occur to me that I never see sports cards outside of department stores nowadays, or single trading cards outside of booths in antique malls.

I do see gaming cards, but guess what? That's still mostly Magic and Pokemon. Almost nobody has those bulky cardboard boxes, or even the wooden shelving anymore. It's all plastic and glass now, enough to hold active modern card packs and encase high dollar key singles. Common deck building stuff is what you buy the packs for, and then trade with your community, not the shop. I'm sure the prices come from matching online dealers, because who would bother to print a guide in 2026? At gaming specialty stores, Vs. System isn't necessarily even a memory. How many shops have opened and closed since the cooling of J-horror and the rise of K-Pop, itself an institution now, rather than an emerging scene?

At that CCG convention thing, my gal was going booth to booth with a picture of a Vs. System pack on her phone like we were working a missing persons case. We also called some shops on said device (not helped by her initially asking for "Vee's Cards,") and almost nobody even knew what we were talking about. Here, they had sports cards. There was a stray comic booth where I tried to buy a $3.50 Comics Journal, before determining it was actually a $350 wall book because of some early McFarlane art. There was a tiny representation of comic book trading cards in a few binders. There were some of those intricate cardboard boxes from back in the day. They did not contain twenty year old VS. System singles, nor should they have. Why would they? Only an old man who sees that broad expansive of time as a blip, despite my entire relationship with my previously mentioned old lady being contained within than expanse, could delude himself into thinking otherwise. What do I know about modern CCG retailing, or any hobby retailing? I haven't gotten my regular comic fix at an LCS in near on a quarter century.

And so, back to eBay, casting my net far and wide for viable scans. Probably ordering singles to fill those gaps. And torturing y'all with the product of these efforts. An old man boring you with tales of a card game that could attend college that he never even bought himself.

2005 Upper Deck Justice League of America VS System CCG Card DJL-188: Rallying Cry!

Illustration by Duncan Fegredo.

Both the sportscard and comic book markets started heating up in the 1980s, feeding off one another, so that your average comic shop carried sports cards and vice versa. A lot of this was Mom & Pop stuff, so everybody was learning how each business type worked as they went along, and you tended to value every investment. In the case of cards, you'd typically open up at least one box of a desirable set to see which chase cards you could score to display in a case, and to have common singles to sell or trade to help customers put together sets. Even when you weren't actively making money on those loose cards directly, you provided a service, and by being a resource brought people into the store. Even as the trading card market took a downturn, the rise of collectible card games heightened the value of singles. Game players needed multiple copies of the same useful cards in customizing decks for play, or even just to have enough duplicate cards to maintain multiple active decks for various strategies of gameplay. Just as your Beckett was cooling down, your Scrye was heating up, and games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon kept the lights on when other hobby businesses were closing down.

I myself played Overpower and Star Wars, and usually kept my decks in sleeves. Since I was a DC guy, the only box of Overpower that I ever bought for myself was the JLA expansion. Aside from starter packs (basic pre-built decks of first editions,) everything else I got from loose individual packs, or by buying/trading single cards through other players and shops. As was typical, I usually carried my cards in a prefab folded cardboard box that held a single row of cards on their side, and was about 10 inches long with a built-in lid. At the shops I ran and frequented, single cards were usually kept in a variant of these boxes, which I'd guesstimate were something like a foot & a half wide and maybe two feet long. These were more complicated to build, because they would hold multiple rows of cards with separate cardboard slats that were folded into the larger pre-cut template. Cards in these boxes were stood up, and you had a separate folding lid template that could be used to keep dust and debris out of the boxes, or to secure them for transport. That's how you could safely get them to shows/conventions, though being cardboard, you wouldn't want them to be hit with anything more than the lightest of rain sprinkles. At least here in Texas, we'd have stacks of these boxes in our shops, usually supported by wooden shelving behind the counter or in the back room. If you had the right build, you could also get comic book short boxes on those shelves, and because you valued all that stock that you'd put money into, there were often a lot of each type of box around. Of course, in the '90s, after the bottom started to fall out, everybody had overstock to liquidate. You didn't want to pay property taxes on product that wasn't moving. You had to cut your losses at some point, or drown in them.

2007 Upper Deck VS System DC Legends CCG Card DCL-268: Overwhelming Odds

Illustration by Adam DeKraker & Jeff Albrecht.

Thanks to my doing extensive research into these Vs. system cards for another project, I'm flush with material for these daily posts, but Google itself has been working against me. First, I couldn't post comments here or elsewhere, nor schedule, but I did (eventually) do real time posts. For a while now, I could only access my Google accounts through Chrome, which is in no way my default browser at home. However, my desktop Chrome stopped logging into anything last night, and will barely function as a browser. I was busy elsewhere today, hoping it would correct itself, and failing that, I seem to have successfully accessed the blog via a different browser. Hence, the 14 hour late post that I could have easily served up at 2:25 a.m. (get it?)

Anyway, here's a Miss Martian cameo to change things up very slightly, and because it will (hopefully) be the latest post for less than half a day. If you'd prefer a better look at M'gann M'orzz, I posted her Ryan Sook drawn character card back in '09.

2005 Upper Deck Justice League of America VS System CCG Card DJL-073: Staged Attack

Illustration by Billy Dallas Patton & Kris Justice.

Annoying to have Google/Blogspot/Blogger's comment mechanism break down for two days a few days into the only multi-day posting I do here all year*. Especially because I was working on fairly substantial comments to other people's blogs, so I guess the timing was actually good, because I could just tuck those into one of these posts to pull out later. And anyway, Saturday morning is a perfect time to address the matter, since I was never going to have much to say about a sportsball-themed gaming card by unfamiliar artists** featuring a gambling-themed super-villain team I never had much use for. Just another "X" on the calendar.

* Scheduling/posting was giving me trouble too, so I'm glad I got anything out at all.

** Even their names sound more like football players' than comic book drawrers. This post brought to you by DraftKings.

2005 Upper Deck Justice League of America VS System CCG Card DJL-054: Martian Manhunter - J'onn J'onzz

It's wild to me that I haven't previously posted this card, as it features two of my favorite things. Kevin Nowlan is one of my all-timer comic book artists, and getting a commission from him was a dream come true (...for me. Him, I think not so much.) Probably a contributing factor was the assumption that I would have posted it by now, and so perpetuated my not actually doing so. Plus, reposting scans is the laziest thing I ever did as a blogger, and I've always seen it as low value filler. But time brings respectability, and a lot of the places that I drew from for these images are no longer readily accessible. For instance, a bunch of these VS. System posts used to link to Ryan Sook's website for larger resolution original art, and now it redirects to a Swedish casino gaming website. I once found a decent enough scan of Arthur Suydam's virgin art to repurpose it as a mock cover for a Despero: The Greatest Stories Ever Told trade paperback. Now I can't find an unmarked scan of the actual card online or in my personal files. There's luckily still an eBay store that features scans of many of these cards, so I'm exploiting that resource while I can, because I might be the resource one of these days.

2007 Upper Deck DC Comics Legends VS System CCG Card DCL-022: Martian Manhunter - The Last Martian

Art by Juvaun Kirby

This one has a bit of history. I first featured the original line art in a post from 2009, taken from Kirby's seemingly defunct deviantART page, which is substantially altered/cropped/enhanced on the actual card. I'd first attempted a directory of these cards in 2014, long abandoned and forgotten, using links to a CCG specialty shop that no longer offers the cards (or images of same.) This effort was aided by LissBirds, a sweetheart of a regular commenter who I think I scared off with my pivot to podcasting (and our bro-y "locker room talk" among friends.)

As I've been researching the VS. System, it seems like the DC Comics Legends expansion is very tough to come by. I can't find any boxes available online, and eBay listings for individual cards are uncommon. I'm mostly having to do broader Google searches until I tumble upon old CCG sales pages that typically no longer offer the card for purchase. It's a very large expansion at 273 cards, the last DC set, and the second from last Vs. System release overall. It features some really beautiful art by Ryan Sook and others, but also some of the most hideous pieces of the game (often by John Van Fleet, doing what looks like CGI of a quality more in line with early '90s stuff like Donna Matrix. I have to work for every image, and this one? I had to blow it up to reach 400 pixels. There's also some element to this that was exclusive to tournaments/conventions, and there are a ton of repeat characters, so this may be some sort of re-release/compilation set. Whatever-- it's a toughie, and I wished I'd started on this when there were more online resources available.

Strange Brain Parts: "Maybe Absolute Martian Manhunter Isn’t Great?" Video Essay

I often watch the videos of Strange Brain Parts, and appreciate that there's a channel that does the kind of deep dives into the "above ground" comics of interest to a fellow well traveled Gen-X reader. He's a lot better at social engagement than I'll ever be, with his own Discord and five-figure subscriber base offering hundreds of comments to individual videos. I'm exhausted just thinking about maintaining that, never mind the precarious nature of being financially supported by YouTube. His videos pop-up in the algorithm of my TV, but when I tried to search out a specific one online, I was forced to sign in just to view the thing. It's an odd model from my standpoint, but I was happily surprised my first post in months got a comment and a few views within a day. Who am I to talk?

Anyway, I had a few people reach out to me here and elsewhere about my thoughts on Absolute Martian Manhunter. I haven't finished collecting a Martian Manhunter comic in floppies since the 2015 volume, and I haven't even finished reading a run since the 2006 mini-series. I haven't truly enjoyed a book with "Martian Manhunter" in the title since the one from 34 years ago by an artist who's been dead for a decade-and-a-half and a writer we don't talk about anymore since he went to prison for the worst things. My opinion of Absolute Martian Manhunter should be as predictable as the setting of the sun and rise of the moon. But I did buy the trade paperback in softcover, and I had it read back in April. I did the action figure post first, because I felt it was more timely, with a plan to review that first volume the following week. But I always had something more interesting to do, and now that I have the second and final volume waiting for me... I can't really remember much about the first. So I'll reread it and do a review of both volumes this month, when I feel a compulsion to get it done, but that's kind of a review unto itself.

I never expect something like an Absolute Martian Manhunter video essay to find me. I mostly watch political/broader creative media commentary on the TV, as most comic book vlogging feels like a waste of my time. But one of the channels I already watch covering the rare book with six-figure sales will prompt that sort of thing. The video criticizes the book from directions that I hadn't really considered, because I was hung up on considerations both broader and much more specific to my interests. Still, I support all the views expressed here, and will add my own insights later in the month.

Hopefully you can see it, if the embed doesn't also prompt a dang sign-in. I hate the 2020s.

2007 Upper Deck VS System DC Comics Legends Game Card DCL-059 "Telepathic Link"

Art by Cat Staggs.

This one is darkly humorous to me, because the post has been sitting in my drafts since before Photobucket started watermarking or omitting all of my blog images. They were my primary hosting site for years, especially my most productive period, and the prospect of going through all those posts for revisions contributed to my crashing out as a blogger. Anyway, as I sniff around for easy material in a largely unplanned 19th anniversary observation while simultaneously going deep into the VS. gaming system card for more pressing hobby concerns-- synergy! The jpeg from my files is dated 3/3/2011, and I managed nearly three more years of relatively daily posting from that point, so I guess this just got lost in the shuffle (so to speak.) Expect more of these throughout the month.

2026 McFarlane Toys Martian Manhunter Family of Figures

My understanding is that McFarlane Toys is going to lose their license to produce DC Comics action figures later this year. Whether it's severe restrictions on which characters they can produce in these final month, or the company losing its mind, their final year selections are deep cuts. There can perhaps be no greater evidence for this than their being multiple Manhunter from Mars-related offerings. Actually, the Ryan Kendall figure is the greatest indication, since he starred in the only Black Condor title ever produced 34 years ago that was cancelled after only one year despite being drawn by Rags Morales. This material has never been collected, he was killed off two decades ago, and there is no appreciable fan base for what looks like a dollar store knock-off of the Total Justice Hawkman. So of course I'll pick one up if I find a substantially better deal than the $26.99 initial asking price.

But again, what piques my interest and prompted this post was the J'Onn J'Onzz connection, which begins with the new Martian Manhunter DC Comics Page Punchers. I have to confess that I've rarely been wowed by the sculpts on the McFarlane DC figures (obviously excluding Ambush Bug & Cheeks the Toy Wonder.) Aside from using a similar lime green shade as on my beloved Super Powers figure, the only reason I'd buy this Manhunter is the novelty of the smaller format. Well, that and the cloth cape with folded-down collar. I also found it odd that rather than reprint a solo comic for the Alien Atlas, it was a Dan Jurgens Justice League with the crazy convoluted origin of Bloodwynd. Well, about that...

McFarlane will produce the greatest mass market Bloodwynd action figure ever, mostly because it's the only one ever, setting aside some nice custom jobs that I've seen over the years. It's designated as a "Red Platinum Edition," which is code for "overpriced GameStop exclusive" at $34.99 (the Manhunter is a still bogus $27.99, btw.) Sh'yeah, right. I will inevitably own this toy, probably when m'boy Fixit snags it for a fiver from one of his many thrift scene connections in a year or so. Besides essentially possessing J'Onn's body for a time (maybe-- it's a very confused story,) Bloodwynd also served in the same short-lived League iteration as Black Condor.

The connections don't stop there, either. The Martian Marvel beat up Captain Marvel in an iconic JLI bout (adore the cape, not digging the spikey hair.) Aztek was a JLA teammate (why did they sculpt his helmet like a Dragon Fruit?) The DC Direct Eclipso was maybe that line's best sculpt, and the Sleuth from Outer Space was prominently cover-featured in the final issues of his solo series, with this McFarlane pass being the closest anyone has come to his look from that period (though this is more JSA/Robinson JLofA.) Bronze Tiger dated Gypsy and trained her in the martial arts. Say, why hasn't anyone ever done a Martian Arts pun? I'm a big Ben Turner fan, but this New 52 design barely registers as the same character, plus I understand that he was a were-tiger? Jeez, the New 52 was dumb as a bag of hammers.

Miss Martian is the most obvious Manhunter Family brand extention, if not necessarily the most accurate. She was created for Teen Titans, best known from the Young Justice cartoon, and fell off after barely brushing against J'Onn J'Onzz in books like Brightest Day. This is another $34.99 job, so unless I opt to buy the other two Page Punchers, I don't see this one coming home. She's had a few figures now, and I haven't bought any yet. Honestly, my female alien telepath of choice from this lot would be Saturn Girl, which also has a funky sculpt, but I have a great affection for the post-Zero Hour "Archie" Legion and no Imra Ardeen representation to date. I also have to say, as much as I hate those awful "drawn" statues with the fake comic book linework on them, but I flipped for the Gangbuster. I couldn't care less about the character, but this was a perfect example of how to employ that technique.

Superman Sonderausgabe #6 - Superman gegen Mongul! (1981)

I never thought of Cologne as a must-visit locale for comic book fans. However, my second trip to Germany was going to be too brief to do anything substantial, so I Googled some nice looking shops within walking distance of where we were staying. As it happened, there were actually several very appealing and quite varied fandom-related stores in the area. Some were more geared toward Generation X nostalgia, like 1970s actions figures, lunch boxes, and such. One was a three story deal in the heart of the tourist section that gives Forbidden Planet a run for its money. My Gal found a vintage Playmobil from her childhood in their basement, while I hoarded a bunch of cheap '80s/'90s digest reprints of U.S. comics for "stocking stuffers." I was quite pleased to find Red Circle and First Comics representation in that department, although the condition on the latter was so poor that it's physically warped (while reprinting Warp.)

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Given the oft-noted fastidiousness of Germans, I was surprised to observe that they don't know how to store comic books. For instance, all of those digests were loose on a freestanding display rack, and some had been mauled to pieces by small children and clumsy adults (guilty.) They don't use standardized comic boxes either, with that mega-store I mentioned employing wooden shelves with dividing panels instead. Houston's own Bedrock City Comic Company has a similar set-up, with the key difference being that the Germans also don't use backer boards. Their vintage "floppies" are often on a thinner, glossier stock than their Bronze Age U.S. counterparts, and on top of that, they love sealing their comic bags with 3-inch-plus strips of tape. I over-zealously chanced opening them while on the road, and surely put some crimps in them spines, where a wiser man would have cut them free with scissors instead.

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I bring this up in part because there was one specific shop that I had targeted when getting the lay of the land. While on vacation in Europe, we saw plenty of modern style comic shops full of Panini reprints or North American imports, usually with at least some selection of more antiquated formats. This one shop in Cologne though was a proper Android's Dungeon hole in the wall. Mind, it probably still had more square footage and better bones than your average dusty old American dump, but it was still a dim and cluttered mess with treasures of yore. I could have easily spent a whole day there, and way too much money, but I had already punished my wallet and suitcase miserably at early stops. I needed to be as swift and objective-minded as I could be in the time allotted.

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This was tough because there were boxes everywhere, and again, random old repurposed and tape-reinforced cardboard of quite varied dimensions. Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed a smallbox small box (about a square foot) off of an eye-level but deep shelf, and set it on another chest-level box. A severe and socially disinclined shopkeeper that was already giving my gal hairy eyeballs just for taking up the limited space scolded me in Deutsch. Following his gestures, I was meant to take any given box to a cluttered wooden table nearby to peruse, since again, these comics were not held up by backer boards. I had been selfish in many of my prior purchases, but also, there wasn't that much representation of the Bronze Age DC favored in my blogging/podcasting circles. Here I had a good chance of digging up varied Silver/Bronze reprint floppies of their childhood favorites, and I did. Several nifty old numbers and a few more contemporary items that were reasonably inexpensive, so I didn't feel to guilty about it.

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There was one though that kind of broke the bank. The first Mongul story from 1980's DC Comics Presents #27 has been reprinted a bunch of times, thanks mostly to his being immortalized in "For the Man Who Has Everything." However, that introductory story arc by Wein & Starlin was pretty well regarded by Superman fans even before Moore & Gibbons got to him. I thought for sure I'd gotten the UK hardcover collection with the original Bolland cover at some point, but I guess not, so this German edition is my first oversized collection of DC Comics Presents #28 with Supergirl and DC Comics Presents #29 with The Spectre, plus unrelated bonus reprints. Despite his fallen posture, the Jim Starlin Martian Manhunter cover remains a personal favorite, so it's nice to have it on squarebound cardstock in a 9" x 12" presentation. The interiors are also on a heavier white stock, recalling the Baxter format, which is much more vibrant than the original comics without becoming glossy eyesores. The inside covers are plain white, and the random reprint stuck between the first and second Mongul chapters is a Supergirl serial that started in 1971's Adventure Comics #408. Mike Sekowsky is joined by inker Dick Giordano for a tale of green-skinned alien invaders that concluded in Adventure Comics #409. I feel this was worth my 25€, but I do feel a bit bad for not feeling the same about getting a similiar edition featuring Firestorm's induction in the Justice League of America (as advertised on the back cover) for my buddy Shag. Eh, he's well traveled enough to go get his own, plus I already got him other cool stuff.

DC in Germany

• Aquaman in Top Comics Wassermann Nr. 108 (1970)
• The Atom & Aquaman in Superman-Batman Heft 8 (April 1976)
• Wonder Woman in JLA - Die neue Gerechtigkeitsliga #31 (1999)
• GrimJack in Die Cosmic-Ranger Nr. 3 (1985)