The other day, one of Rob's readers at The Aquaman Shrine alerted him to the fact that my (and 33% of my readers') internet browser of choice, Mozilla's Firefox were offering Aquaman themed personas. "Personas" are like customizable themes for a browser, except, per Wikipedia, they're "more basic, easier to create, and easier to install, but are limited to changing the header and the status bar of the browser." That's fine by me, because I'm a creature of habit who enjoys a familiar navigation environment. Light ornamentation is all I ask, and amateur designers have gone nuts in the arena of darling superficial augmentation. Of course, I wouldn't be mentioning this if you couldn't choose from the above two Martian Manhunter Personas.
Available absolutely free for download:
Martian Manhunter - Ed McGuinness 3 active users.
Justice League of America-Ed McGuinness 1,323 active users
JLA Collection 12 active users
That first one looks so nice, you'll feel remorse for opening additional tabs.
Now, you may note a disparity in that number of active users. I still haven't replaced my unauthorized Jules & Vincent Pulp Fiction Persona from the add-on's original launch on computer #1 with the JLA one, but I am most certainly the third user of the solo Martian Manhunter on scanning computer #2 (my primary of late.) Won't you join me in enjoying the fine work of Mr. McGuinness and designer Gabe Guterres? I understand if you prefer your Chrome or Safari, but really, Internet Explorer? Crash happy, bug laden, utilitarian, tired default Internet Explorer? Join us in the year 2010, won't you?
Speaking of relative popularity based on Personas:
Superman- 76 related personas, 3,704 users of most popular one
Batman- 120 related personas, 1,900 users of most popular
Wonder Woman- 21 very loosely related, 64 users of legitimate top
The Flash- 14 specific personas, 51 users on top choice
Green Lantern- 30 personas, 200 on top (382 for 2 part image)
Aquaman- 4 personas, 15 on top
Green Arrow- 6 personas, 32 on top
Black Canary- 2 group shots
The Atom- invisible to the naked eye
Hawkman- laid an egg
Hawkgirl- 4 personas, 2 on group shot w/other heroines
Red Tornado- Hah-ha! Usurper!
Steel (John Henry Irons)- 1 with 4 users
Zatanna- 1 on 1
Vibe, Vixen, Gypsy, Steel and the Elongated Man: Not even.
Shazam- Listen to Rob Kelly clapping, folks.
Steel has more users than J'onn? And no love for Hawkman?
ReplyDeleteI bleed Apple silver, so I'm a Safari user, with Firefox being my backup. Buuuut...at work, I use Firefox. I should install this there. Then my coworkers will think I'm even MORE crazy than they thought before. Muaha. But then I'll have to field a lot of questions from kids asking me "Who the heck is that?" and I'm not sure if there's enough free hours in my work schedule to comprise my "Martian Manhunter is Awesome" monologue.
It also annoys me to no end to see Batman in group JLA shots "flying." You wish, Bruce/Dick/whoever you happen to be this month.
Just finding Steel is tricky, so I commend the effort. There's twice as many generic "steel" pages as Superman, where I found him. "John Henry Irons" works too.
ReplyDeleteIs J'Onn's costume worksafe?
"Is J'Onn's costume worksafe?" Ha! I didn't even think of that. For the kids: yes. For coworkers/administration who often find the most innocuous things corruptive: probably not.
ReplyDeleteI did see one Blue Beetle persona up there, which is just an abstraction of his costume, with only 2 users, so I might show some JLI love instead and play it safe. Too bad there just isn't a full-out JLI persona.
I've got J'onn on my home computer, at least, which replaced my previous NASA "Night Launch" theme. He looks pretty darn cool, and I like the red Martian gravel in the footer.
Ha! For once Shazam doesn't hog the spotlight.
ReplyDeleteLiss, I tried your usual suspects, and only found a terrible Harvey Dent Persona. Just a bunch of random pics and a garbage border.
ReplyDeleteThe red sands of Mars looks good, for sure. I'm rockin' Steel temporarily on the laptop, and he's got nice textured borders as well.
I just searched for the Two-Face one now, and it is pretty uninspiring. If I were better at graphic design I'd make one myself. A Harvey Dent theme just has to be split right down the middle in two different clashy colors. Preferably purple, and that crazy orange checked pattern he sometimes wore in the 60's/70's.
ReplyDeleteThe Martian Manunter one works so well becuase it's perfectly suited for a landscape layout. He's flying right out of my browser window...!
I really liked the McGuinness take on Manhunter. I have the figure of it on what passes for my mantle. Too bad J'onn only gets to be beaten up off panel in that story...
ReplyDeleteAll I remember about that story was the art, that Gorilla Grodd was eating people, and the Morrison was pumping up his international heroes. I approve of all three, but the details didn't stick with me.
ReplyDelete