So here we are again, burning through Alex Ross material from the book "Mythology" masquerading as Manhunter-related product I'd never buy. Don't get me wrong, the image in appealing and well thought out, but by God, is the man ever stuck in the 70's. I was too young for Shazam!, either animated or live action, but I certainly remember hating Plastic Man from an early age. Maybe it was Hula, perhaps the creeping domesticity, probably the lack of anything resembling a menace, and certainly the awful live action openings... lameness, thy name was Plastic Man. The Art Spiegelman book improved my opinion of the character, and I have no problem with Plastic Man as a JLA member from the Morrison period. What I take issue with is Ross's nostalgia reek, associating Plas and Shazam with the Satellite crew just because he could. I recognize that both characters are iconic outside of comics, though that is becoming increasingly less true beyond children of the 70's, since their original fans are pensioners at this point. Furthermore, comic fans don't really seem inclined to accept either of these two as true Leaguers, and DC frankly is still lacking in quality super-teams outside the JLA and Titans. Both characters got by for decades without DC, so they should be able to prop up their own blasted crew.
Moving on, we see Martian Manhunter clinking glasses with Red Tornado, showing he's a bigger man than I am. I haven't had the time yet, but I'm planning on bringing back and expanding the old "Knock-offs" editorial material from the old "Rock of the JLA" site, so you just know I have plans to shine the light of my jaundiced truth upon "The Red Usurper." But hey, its Christmas time, so I'll lay off for now. Not that the alien, the android, or myself actual subscribe to the doctrine. Well, maybe Red Tornado. What a poseur...
Why do I imagine that you would not care for the story I am writing in my head featuring Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado on Monitor Duty on Christmas Eve?
ReplyDeleteSeeing as Red Tornado is dismantled in every third story (Spartian 1 in 7, Vision: 1 in 5, NoMan: 1 in 1,) I'd say there's a 33.3% chance of my taking some pleasure from it.
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