2005 Comic-Con International: San Diego Souvenir Book art by Sam Guzzardo

In 2005, the Manhunter from Mars celebrated his 50th anniversary as a comic book hero. DC Comics didn't acknowledge it in any way, shape, or form, although the storyline "Crisis of Conscience" did show J'Onn J'Onzz the permanent exit door on JLA membership for the first time since 1984. This blog didn't start up until 2007, and while we didn't specifically celebrate fifty-five, I think it was a good year for our output overall. Also, 2010 was the year J'Onn was resurrected in Blackest Night, so there's that.

With all the hubbub around the 75th anniversaries of Superman and Batman in 2013-2014, and the presumed dual celebration of the Flash & Green Lantern crossing that landmark this year, I want to do something special here. It's a safe bet DC will once again forget the Alien Atlas' 60th, even though his birthday is a lot more legit than their shoving Barry Allen and Hal Jordan into the spotlight.

I suspect 2015 will be my last year of routine blogging, and I want it to be the best possible, so I've been working on projects to do the anniversary up right since spring of last year. I was lucky enough to stumble upon the '05 SDCC convention program book at Comicpalooza for ten bucks, which devoted 17 full pages to art and a text article for the Sleuth from Outer Space's half-century mark. Hopefully he'll get something like similar treatment in this year's edition, but in the meantime, I've scanned all of the 2005 pieces for presentation on Fiftieth Friday for the next few months. Enjoy!