Monday, July 07, 2008

Morti-Colored Kryptonite

Jericho and Starfire (Kory Anders) are two of the Teen Titans and the namesakes of two of the cutest and most rambunctious cats ever.

Okay, it has been too long since I updated, but that is the by-product of having to turn in my laptop with my resignation letter. Nowadays, I get to surf the 'net only when Jennifer brings her computer from work and doesn't need it for herself. Anyway, I won't be blogging much this summer, so I have to make this one count.

I was reading comics the other day (surprise, surprise) when I came across an add for the new series of "Showcase" action figures. Part of the ad really caught my attention:



I love the gimmick of including other heads to simulate Supes being affected by Red Kryptonite. Truth be told, it got me in a nostalgic mood. I have very happy memories of reading silver age "Red K" Superman stories, where Clark is turned into a giant or an infant or a robot. Red Kryptonite, and Kryptonite in all of its various incarnations, just so perfectly sums up what made me love comics in the first place: that silver age emphasis on just fun escapist story telling where anything could happen, but nothing really changes. Seriously, when was the last time you saw "Superman, Lion-Headed Man of Steel" in a comic book?

Okay, before this devolves to me just complaining about the current state of comic books, the discussion of Kryptonite leads me to our Mort game for today. As the picture below shows, back in the silver age there was a whole rainbow of different types of Kryptonite, each with its own plot-advancing properties. Simple question then: Name the different types of Kryptonite and what each one did.



Speaking of nostalgia, I have often in this blog extolled the virtue of Ambush Bug, one of my all time favorite characters in the DC universe. Because I read a disgusting amount of comic book news websites, I have known for a while that a new Ambush Bug mini series was coming, but I didn't know that it would receive the sort of hype that it has. I literally sqealed with delight, for example, when I saw this house ad in most of my DC comics a few weeks ago:



I have no clue what "unvictorious" means or how it relates to the "plot" of the mini-series, but that picture is just so perfect for the type of humor Ambush Bug brings to the universe. When comic books are taking themselves more and more seriously, we need a character who will point out the silliness of it all and say lighten up.

The Ambush Bug comics are notoriously bad for biting the hand that feeds it, which is why it is so surprising to see the amount of editorial support this mini-series is getting. This weeks "DC Nation" (the last page of every DC comics comic) was even dedicated to hawking the series.



So, in short, support the Bug and bring comedy back to the comics!