Tag Archives: Saturday Comics

The Saturday Comics: Superman’s Greatest Weakness!

16 Mar

March 16, 2016

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Superman! Defender of Truth, Justice, and the American Way!
Superman! Last Son of Krypton!
Superman! Powerless Against the Giant Sequoia Tree!

Wait, what? Superman is powerless against kryptonite, right? What’s this nonsense about trees? Check out this page from Justice League of America 29. This is the JLA’s first battle against the Crime Syndicate, an evil version of the Justice League from Earth 3. Here, Superman is in pitched battle against Power Ring, the unimaginatively-named evil Green Lantern.

Seriously, that's just a tree. Even Charlie Brown did better against the Kite-Eating Tree.

Seriously, that’s just a tree. Even Charlie Brown did better against the Kite-Eating Tree.

The sticky tree shavings stuck to Supes and did who-knows-what but it caused him to lose the power of flight and fall to the ground. Yeah. Well kiddies, that was the Silver Age for you.

I will go out on a limb (HA! Pun intended!) and say that since Supes is vulnerable to magic, and it says that Power Ring has a mystic ring (sheesh, they really needed to come up with a better name), then those must be magic wood shavings.

The magic wood shavings stuck to Supes and, instead of just getting him all sticky with sap, they drained his ability to fly. Ok, sure, why not?
I’ll tell you why not. Because they did not affect his super power to create a vacuum with his super suction, that’s why not. I call shenanigans on this comic book.

However, I will not even try to explain this panel from Justice League of America 21, where the bad guys sit around and discuss fiddling around with vibrators.

Justice League 21

 

 

 

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The Saturday Comics: Introducing Red Hot!

28 Sep

September 28, 2015

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red hot 1 2

ISSUE 1
Mike Luoma
Rhys ap Gwyn

ISSUE 2
Mike Luoma
Juan Carlos Quattordio
Bettina Fertitta

How do you prove you’re a hero?

That’s the question the new Red Hot is out to answer in Introducing Red Hot. He’s a third generation hero, just starting out, and eager to prove he’s worthy of his legacy. As you might imagine, things do not go smoothly, and a simple bank robbery has far-reaching, and deadly, consequences.

The story is fast-paced and in this age of stories that take five issues to tell what should be wrapped up in five pages, that’s refreshing. The fast pace does not sacrifice either plot or character development. I’m going to keep this review spoiler free, but you will be introduced to not only Red Hot, but the super-group The Team and various members, including Leader One, Mister Velocity, and Mind Man. In a field dominated by The Avengers and the Justice League, it would be easy to simply write a Superman analog, a Batman-type, and a Captain America stand-in to round out the cast, but each character has a distinct personality, and none are designed to look like obvious knock-offs. Effort has gone into making these characters distinct.

Mike Luoma writes the book and his dialogue shows an ear for realism. The art favors dynamic layouts and bold colors, and that just adds to the fun. The artists change from the first to second issue, and while the art is clearly different, both have a similar style, keeping Red Hot consistent from issue to issue.

The bottom line is that these are fun comics. They are serious and dramatic, but handled in such a way that you know you are in a comic book universe. So many other, hugely-selling comics strive for “realism” and lose the magic of the comic book medium. This one embraces it.

I’m ready for issue three.

Mike Luoma has written more than just Introducing Red Hot. If you like this, check out his other works. You can get Introducing Red Hot in digital or print, plus Tales of The Team, Vatican Assassin, and lots of others at Indy Planet just by clicking here: http://www.indyplanet.com/front/brand/Glow-in-the-DarkRadioComics/

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