2023 Pop Culture Power Show JLA JAM Green Lantern John Kyle Rayner segment by Eddie Nuñez

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I was trying to seek out new artists that I'd never commissioned before, at least not for a jam, with this JLA piece. However, thanks to a seven year gap, I'd forgotten that I'd a) gotten something from Eddie Nuñez before, b) that it was another Martian Manhunter-related jam, and c) that it was a Green Lantern. Ah well, he did good work, I wanted to get this thing done after five years of trying, and Nuñez was one of the two artists that showed up to this thing that I wanted to get anything from. I believe that this was the last year of the Pop Culture Power Show, out in a small convention center of the southwestern suburb of Stafford, TX. It has since moved closer to town and rebranded as Houston Pop Culture Con, for a bigger (but not exactly large) show in a hotel. It's still on the rinky-dink side, but probably 2+ times what it was. It's still a bit of a cluster getting registered for the thing though.

Eddie Nuñez

• 2016 Green Lantern John Stewart Amazing Houston Comic Con Jam Sketch Detail
• 2015-2017 Martian Manhunter Comrades Jam
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JLApe: Gorilla Warfare (1999)

In Legends of the DC Universe #19 (August, 1999,) the arrogant and generally disagreeable "Gordon Matthews" infiltrated Manchester Junior High School in Alabama to act as a rival to Bart Allen. Meanwhile, Max Mercury investigated the theft of four gorillas from the Manchester Monkey Business School, which trains simians for show business. Max discovered three of the apes raising an international ruckus while wearing helmets that siphoned from the Speed Force. The fourth gorilla was in the custody of "Gordon Matthews," who revealed himself to Impulse as Gorbul Mammit, the son of Gorilla Grodd, looking to continue his legacy feud with the Flash Family. Having kidnapped Bart's young friend Carol Bucklen, he intended to transfer her mind into the "seductive body" of the fourth gorilla, to make her intelligent enough to serve as his bride, but Impulse foiled the scheme. Grodd was amused, but felt that the boy was thinking too small. A cute story by Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt, Pop Mhan, & Romeo Tanghal.

Elsewhere, relations between Gorilla City and the human world heated up and cooled down inside a week, with the assassination of Solovar and the rise of the Simian Scartlet that launched hostilities against the United Nations in JLA Annual #3. Then gorilla agents assailed Bludhaven and Atlantis in Batman Annual #23 & Aquaman Annual #5. As explained by Martian Manhunter in his second annual, "Led by simian sorceress Abu-Gita, apes invade the island nation of Themyscira." [Wonder Woman Annual #8]

"In Central City, the Flash, Max Mercury, and Impulse are enslaved by the long-time outlaw called Gorilla Grodd-- to charge his Speed Force reactor, providing the morphic resonator array with a power source to substitute for The Eye of Poseidon." J'Onn isn't usually a sexist, but he missed listing Jesse Quick. Walter West, an older version of Wally from a darker timeline, had lost his battle for self-control after being turned into "Flashorilla." Despite having four super-speedsters on the scene, none were fast enough to avoid getting turned into gorillas themselves. They were then put on treadmills to power another attempt to further spread the ape-conversion process. "Chimpulse" actually started to figure out that he'd been duped into Grodd's service, but then got distracted by unlimited access to bananas. More typically, Chimpulse got distracted from the distraction, and needing stimulus beyond running in place, returned to philosophy. His questioning of Grodd's plan played poorly with the pleebs, but won over the speed-apes. Further, while evading capture, Impulse vibrated through a wall and reverted to human. It was deduced that the Speed Force assists in reforming speedsters under this type of circumstance, and reset their matrix to its default. The speedsters then dismantled Grodd's apparatus, but the super-gorilla himself evaded capture. "The Apes of Wrath" was by by Brian Augustyn, Doug Braithwaite, and Robin Riggs. The Flash Annual #2 (October, 1999) was a cute story that the artists did their best to play for laughs, but their basic style is still too seriously inclined for the material. It just creates a Roger Rabbit effect of mashing cartoons against real world humans that don't quite match up.

Martian Manhunter continued, "In Washington, the smuggled components of the gorilla-built war machine dubbed 'Grogamesh' are assembled. Piloted by Ulgo, Grogamesh kidnaps Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane, and is defeated by Superman." Despite being played for villainy in early episodes, Ulgo had a legitimate urge to avenge his slain uncle, which was exploited by Abu-Gita, who concealed the more sordid aspects of her magical incantations. In Metropolis, the Monk of Steel was failing to control his feral inclinations, but was swayed by encountering his wife. Her first suggestion to find the scientist Emil Hamilton didn't pan out, as he had gone full ape, so Supermonkey decided to "kill or cure" by flying near to the sun. There was a fake-out when he appeared to grow to Titano proportions, but he had in fact reverted to Kryptonian, and the giant was the fur-covered Grogamesh. In battle, that was burned away, revealing the metal bohemoth beneath the facade. In fact, those pelts were key to resolving said battle, as they were made from the skins of a thousand sacrificed apes, as part of Abu-Gita's plot to more literally invoke the heroic legend of Grogamesh. As a modern moderate, Ulgo was disgusted by this betrayal of his principles, and began to understand that he had been misled. Oh, and Young Justice turned up too late with a giant exploding banana, just in case. Against the odds, Superman Annual #11 (October, 1999) managed to immediately recycle the pun title "The Apes of Wrath," this time by Abnett & Lanning, and Joe Phillips with Faber & Stull. Phillips already trends toward a cartoonish art style, so here he simply had to lean into it. It helps land a few good bits, like a variation on the "it's a plane" dialogue, exclusively in grunts.

The Gorilla incarnation of Kyle Rayner was unable to restore himself to humanity on his own, so he was assisted by J'Onn J'Onzz in Green Lantern Annual #8 (October, 1999). "Thanks to my rather duplicitous efforts, Green Lantern was restored to normal, as has been the rest of the JLA." In fact, the entire episode of Gorilla Warfare was then resolved in Martian Manhunter Annual #2 (October, 1999)...

2021 “Justice League Extreme #1” fanfic commission art by Brad Green

About a year ago, our friend Siskoid started a new podcast called Who's Editing, a thought experiment "in which Siskoid and his guest... open an issue of Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe and imagine a line of books based solely (and obligatorily) on the heroes found within." I've been said guest on one occasion (with more to come;) coloring within the lines there and early on. However, after a few editions, I found the novelty of participating in the premise on a regular basis wearing off, as I wanted to play more with the continuity of the given characters, rather than focusing on the elevator pitch aspect. So my own personal comments-only side game, essential scrawling unwanted graffiti on the bathroom walls of Siskoid's forum, became less Who's Who and more DC Challenge. Basically, I slowly developed an overarching narrative for a theoretical ongoing line of books under my editorial stewardship, communicated through fake solicitation copy from a Previews-style order catalog, incorporating typically several variations on the concepts offered in each sequential issue of Who's Who. Unlike Who's Editing, it involves all the entry concepts, not just the heroes, and I put an emphasis on New 52/Rebirth continuity from the past decade, because that's my biggest DC Comics blind spot. It's way more interesting to research stuff that's unfamiliar, and to find ways of incorporating counterintuitive/unpopular elements.

The Justice League edition, "Volume XII," was of particular interest to me. Part of the core premise for "my" universe was that the JLA had been killed in a Boom Tube incident during a major conflict between Apokolips and New Genesis. Since the demise of the League was the tipping point for all the circumstances in my meta-narrative, the arrival of a new League twelve volumes in would presumably be a big deal. In one of the few moments of planning well in advance, I knew that I wanted to deny a typical changing of the guard member rotation. The roster has been reshuffled so many times for real that doing it on something with no rules lacked ambition. I felt like you had to do something dynamic with the premise, as well. I didn't even want to have a book with the title of "Justice League." While I semi-backslid on both of those plans, with The Satellite League being a revival of the Bronze Age interpretation of the JLA, and feeling the need to expand on the '90s Extreme Justice title to include the word "League," but I'm still happy with the twists I have in mind.

In the case of "Justice League Extreme," I hit on the notion that if I was going to replace the JLA, why not literally staff the team with infamous replacements of the classic League from "The Dark Age of Comics?" To my knowledge, it had never been done before, despite most of these temporary stand-ins being active around the same time in the early-to-mid nineties. That was actually the foreseeable problem, because many of these characters were tied to specific storylines and periods, often bearing temporary looks, rarely drawn by the same artists or together. I could copy and paste preexisting images into a Chromium Colorforms group shot, but in the hyperstylized EXTREME '90s they would obviously be visually at odds, unnaturally posed, and require tons of reference/paint work. Thanks to the pandemic, I haven't gotten many art commissions over the past two years, and thanks to my paranoia, I'd rather not have any shipped to my home by mail. I'd considered fully digital art in the past, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to explore that avenue on a project where the lack of physical art would be beneficial. No way could I get a quality seven-figure drawing from one artist over a convention weekend for a reasonable price. In digital, with a reasonable time frame, at an agreeable per-negotiated rate, would be vastly preferable.

Unfortunately, being a jackass, I lollygagged for at least half a year between realizing what I wanted to do and actively pursuing it. Via an online service, I browsed through dozens of available artists, but the clear favorite for this project was Brad Green. Not to be cutting, but the only people still drawing in a "90's style" were either period superstars with outrageous quotes or, y'know, objectively bad at art. I wanted a modern (also good) artist who could evoke the excitement of the nineties and render all those (literally) edgy looks, but without turning it into a pastiche. I also wanted someone with the aesthetic of American super-hero work, who could juggle seven figures in kinetic poses that could look like a legitimate offering from a major publisher in 2021. Brad Green was my only choice that checked every single box, and the only artist I contacted, so I'm really glad that he was game.

Among the four Supermen that arrived after "Doomsday," Steel had been a part of the Morrison/Porter JLA alongside the electric blue Superman, while The Eradicator was in the Outsiders. Cyborg Superman was revealed almost immediately to be evil, so the only team he ever joined was the Sinestro Corps. "The Metropolis Kid" grew into the Post-Crisis Superboy for over 100 solo issues and serving on numerous teen teams. Eradicator felt the most appropriate for the theme here, but I'd forgotten about the plan when I abused and disposed of him earlier on. It worked out though, because no one character could encompass "Reign of the Superman," so I now had an excuse to do a mash-up of most of them, with a New 52 spin to boot. "Do Eradicator but make him Cyborg" is a pretty lousy bit of art direction, but Green killed it with the mingled elements and the cool exagerated arm (then topped himself with the glowing energy effect.)

Green Lantern was the easiest choice for this piece. I could have reached from some obscurity out of the quarterly anthology, or brought back Warrior, but in truth Kyle Rayner was the most successful '90s replacement. He revitalized the franchise and was its champion for over a decade, until DC seemingly sabotaged him in pursuit of restoring Hal Jordan after thoroughly assassinating his character. While the subject of some fan debate, I personally love Rayner's original Darryl Banks design, but I understand that many hate it and find it hard to draw. Brad Green had no such issues, at least from my view of his results. Sadly, I'd forgotten about having written a first draft of the "Extreme Justice" copy with Kyle as the Omega Lantern, to acknowledge the modern White Lantern trajectory of the character. The design still sings, but more so with the green, and I was a jerk for asking Green to change the colors after he'd already done the flats. He still made it work though, and even added a neat energy effect.

Dark Flash was the toughest choice for this piece. Wally West was the earliest replacement out of the gate, in the '80s, and was a conservative standard-bearer. Nothing much "extreme" about that. Wally had been replaced by Bart Allen, but that was a blip, and then again by Barry Allen, the guy he had himself replaced. All wore the same essential costume. I toyed with using minor future Flash John Fox, but his suit is hideous, and he was as much of an uninspiring reach as my other candidates. I finally landed on the short-lived grimdark alternate future Walter West, who at least looked good, though his stint had negligible impact in comparison to these near-contemporaries. Smartly, Brad Green focused a lot of attention on the Scarlet Speedster, from his foreground positioning in a "flashy" running pose to his determined expression and probably the heaviest concentration of rad crosshatching of any hero. Would could have been a (forgive me) also-ran is instead a highlight of the piece.

Brad Green could have stopped work at several points in this process and I would have been perfectly content with the result. There was a finished "pencils" stage with a lot of rough energy squiggles and loose cape outlines that already exceeded my best hopes going in. The figures were already extremely well balanced, detailed and numerous without feeling crowded or static. Green wasn't satisfied though, redrawning Artemis from scratch, one draft leaving her hair and costume details in blue-line sketch form. That one was then "inked" into a final draft with a digital background, and I was done. No further work needed. I'm happy. Another time, all the colors were flats and Kyle Rayner was still a Green Lantern. I still feel bad asking him to change that so late in the game, but he made it work regardless. We ran out of time and I tweeted and linked to a version that still had some flats as the version married to the "blurb" posting. Again, I was done, and said so, but the artist wasn't. He added more tones, muted the debris to emphasize the figures, added energy effects... he just kept at it until he had a piece that DC should be so lucky as to publish themselves. I hope he runs off some prints to sell at shows. I'd buy one even if I hadn't had a hand in its creation. These results are absolutely glorious, I'm bowled over by how excellently this turned out, and it was an absolute steal to boot. I'm so giddy with this piece that I want to do more in digital for this project. For variety, I'll probably try out some different artists and approaches, but I'll actively seek out more opportunities to work with Green again. I doubt I'll ever come up with anything else this demanding, but I don't need to in order to appreciate the pleasures of his style and careful craftsmanship. I can't recommend him highly enough for your own prospective commissions!

“Justice League Extreme #1” by Brad Green

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"The Way of the Warrior" Podcast Part 1

Luke Jaconetti is an infrequent contributor here at DC Bloodlines, plus he’s a brother in the Justice League of Bloggers with his Hawkman page Being Carter Hall. Recently, Luke guest-starred on Shawn Engel’s Green Lantern podcast Just One of the Guys, covering the “Way of the Warrior” crossover.

Guy Gardner had been fighting with Hal Jordan over who would serve as Green Lantern of Earth. When he lost, Guy spent a mini-series looking for a new source of power to continue being a super-hero, which ended up being the yellow Qwardian power ring stolen off the corpse of Sinestro. After a little over a year in his own series, Guy learned that the Green Lantern Corp had been destroyed by a Hal Jordan driven mad by the destruction of Coast City. Gardner led a team of powerful heroes against Hal, but the unit failed. Gardner's power ring was destroyed, and after another quest, Guy Gardner gained the ability to turn his body into a shifting variety of weapons thanks to an unknown alien Vuldarian heritage, and took on the codename Warrior. This attracted the Tormocks, who had been enemies of the Vuldarians before they had been wiped out, and now sought their last living representative.

Meanwhile, the greatest heroes of the DC Universe were brought together by Ganthet the Guardian to assist the last remaining Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner. Hal Jordan, now calling himself Parallax, wanted Rayner's ring for his collection...

I thought folks might like to give these podcast episodes a listen, which you can download here. I was fairly fit to burst with comments, so I'll take advantage of promoting the podcast and run them below.

Green Lantern #63 (Begins at 8:11) I’m not sure if I ever actually read “Parallax View”… I may have just thumbed through it. I never committed to Ron Marz’s Green Lantern run, but guest stars and events kept me coming back so often, I probably ended up with a quarter or more of it in my longboxes. Most of it was alright, but this one always struck me as pure stunt-- all sizzle and not a bite of steak. Also, in 1995 I was not following books for Martian Manhunter, but was most certainly doing so for Wonder Woman. Alas, no Diana, no dice.

I like how each of the Green Lanterns had their own personal types of ring constructs. Alan Scott seemed to favor Arthurian imagery and flames. John Stewart’s intricate designs were my favorite, but Kyle Rayner’s pop culture/anime stuff was cute. Guy Garner’s should have been more violent and over the top, like something from Looney Tunes mixed with Rambo, which is sort of how he manifested during his Warrior days. Hal Boredan always had the most low-to-middlebrow constructs, which suits him, but it’s also one of many reasons I can’t stand the dude.

Following Zero Hour, Oliver Queen shaved off his goatee, and occasionally wore the same type of suit most associated with his son Connor Hawke. He was still alive in the summer of 1995, as he wouldn’t perish until the following year’s Green Arrow #100-101. Like two peas in a douchebag, I have about as much regard for Ollie as I do Hal. I could see him stiffing a waitress on a tip over some trumped up grounds, but that would have nothing to do with his being a liberal. If anything, evidence would suggest a liberal would be a better tipper, even if you subscribe to the notion of their being elitists looking to “take care” of the “lower classes.” Tightwad conservatives, bootstrap Randians, and faux-Christians who can’t imagine tipping more than they tithe are far more likely to stiff the service industry.

Black Canary was a brunette who wore a blond wig as a disguise until the first Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey special in 1996. There was always fan confusion on the matter, so DC finally gave up and had Dinah start dying her hair instead.

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1994 Zero Arrow Green Arrow redesign style guide turnaround by Mike Norton & Scott Hanna

I read X-Men comics throughout the ‘80s, and even when I dropped the actual books in the early ‘90s, I still followed the ersatz versions in the Avengers, New Titans and Justice League lines. The League was the least suited to ape the mutants, since they were still straightforward super-heroes working with the U.N., and their interpersonal dynamics were never familial/unified by minority. Thanks to all the Post-Crisis reboots and the bias against the comedy in JLI, only the dregs of DC Comics were made available across three team books, and DC has never been as egalitarian as Marvel to boot. Evidence of DC’s contempt for Wonder Woman includes her being forced to lead J.L.A. teams that included Nuklon, Obsidian, Crimson Fox, Metamorpho, de-powered Fire, Icemaiden, Agent Liberty, Black Condor, Maxima, de-powered/Liefeld-armored Booster Gold, Blue Devil, El Diablo, and the Yazz as members. I don’t miss any of those series, but the last year and a half of Justice League Task Force under Christopher Priest are very good reading involving some seriously underwhelming characters legitimized by the book’s overall quality. Bucking the contemporary trends, the Neal Adams/John Buscema influence seen in artists Sal Velluto and Ramon Bernardo holds up better two decades on than the Image wannabes.

I was a fan of the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI, but I didn’t bother with Jurgens’ awful continuation until years after initial publication. As a Wonder Woman fan, I decided to use the #0 issue to jump back on Justice League America in 1994, and suffered through a year of miserable crap that mostly continued/wrapped storylines from the deservedly cancelled Justice League Europe from which the “new” creative team had come. The book finally began to improve after the “Way of the Warrior” crossover, to the point that I was almost sorry to see it go in 1996. Those Flicker appearances bugged me, because he was never properly introduced in J.L.A., under the assumption that he’d be familiar to Green Lantern readers and the rest of us could go screw.

Guy Gardner: Warrior #32 (Begins at 45:33) I jumped on Guy Gardener with #20, totally dug it through #25, bought all the back issues, and watched its steady decline from there. Decent crossovers and surprisingly great fill-in artists buoyed the book for a while, but in retrospect "The Way of the Warrior" was when the wheels fell off. The plot was a stupid disjointed mess, and after this issue, the art and storytelling on the flagship book of the event was the worst of the lot. After Chuck Dixon and Beau Smith had spent over a year turning Guy into a respectable hero, it seemed like this one violent temper tantrum was throwing all that effort into the trash. I was cool with the new costume and tats so long as Mitch Byrd was drawing them, but nobody else made it work for me. Smith had a terrible habit in these issues of having every damned character tell the readers fawningly how much more powerful Guy was and how much he had changed. The hard sell was sickening, like everyone was breaking character mid-show to sell Marlboros or Ovaltine. Hawkman did a nice job announcing his primary role in the crossover by ordering Extreme Justice and the JLTF to fall in and prepare for war.

There have never been a lot of female artists in comics, and especially in 1995, the ones who were had "girlie" styles that weren't in step with the times. For a while, Joyce Chin was the only woman who could hang in the Chromium Age. She wasn't at 100% by this point, but I liked her work, and watched it improve through another project with Beau Smith, Wynonna Earp. Most of this issue is kind of rough, with a few exceptionally bad panels, but there were others where Chin strutted. Wonder Woman, Tigerman and Arisia came out best. Chin's married to Arthur Adams, by the way.



I hate it when Christ imagery is used in relation to Superman. He was created by Jews as a diaspora allegory with an origin story cribbed from Moses who continues to act more like the Zionist conception of a messiah than the Christian one. The most Christlike DC icon should be Wonder Woman, created by gentiles espousing a universal approach to redemption in line with the school of Hillel. Even her predilection for BDSM recalls the Passion. Luke’s description of her compassion and “bountiful love” is spot on, so when she runs around stabbing people and choking them with her lasso, it might as well be a cat o’ nine tails. I liked Guy Gardner in JLI, but I became for a time a devoted fan of the character after his thoughtful interaction with Wonder Woman in Warrior #20. I came for the Amazing Amazon’s guest appearance, and stayed because Beau Smith impressed the hell out of me with that moment. It’s a shame he never wrote the character in her own book, as his handling was better than most of the folks who did.

Justice League America #101 (Begins at 1:14:45) I knew that I no longer my Hawkman collection, but I thought for sure J.L.A. was still somewhere around the house. So much for certainty. They're gone too. When I read these comics (OMFG) EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO, I didn't realize that Obsidian was supposed to be gay. I just thought he was suicidally depressed and annoyingly needy.

I met Chuck Wojtkiewicz at the 2000 San Diego Comi-Con. If I recall correctly, he pronounced his name “Voight-kev-itch.” It took me a long while to warm to his work, but by the end of his run I was really into his expressive figures and voluptuous ladies. I inquired about buying some of his art, including pages from a rejected New Gods proposal. He was asking $200-250 at a time when I’d been spoiled by $40-100 pages by bigger names in the early days of eBay. Good stuff though. Like a lot of guys after the bust, he moved on to animation, and then into video games (including design work on the DCU MMORPG.)

Hawkman #22 (Begins at 1:24:23) It’s funny when Luke characterizes the Hawkman/Guy Gardner team-up as true “warriors.” Katar Hol’s more reluctant, contemplative soldier/policeman seemed to match that more than the zealous bloodletting of the avatar/Hawkgod version. Meanwhile, Guy always seemed puffed up playing as a tough guy, even though he was just a gym teacher, unlike his hero cop brother. See also the subdued attitude of the ex-marine sniper John Stewart versus the swagger of the civvie Guy. I guess “Weekend Warrior” doesn’t have the same ring to it.

At the time, it drove me nuts that Wonder Woman was featured so prominently on covers for this crossover, and in a book written by William Messner-Loebs, but did not join in with her own title. In retrospect, this took place during the writer’s final arc on the title, so there was no room for her to get involved. Mike Deodato Jr. was leaving with #100, and I believe Messner-Loebs was pushed off the title after three years to make room for John Byrne. Diana’s little known stint as a back-up dancer for C+C Music Factory was her sad stab at Doomsday/Knightfall infamy, and if you think it looked bad in black, you should have seen Brian Bolland’s garishly colored original design (I think I remember a red or pink Exposé mini-jacket.) Both the redesign and the arrival of Artemis were a commentary on/satire of the Chromium Age, as best as I can tell. Then again, Messner-Loebs joined Ed Benes for an Artemis mini-series, so maybe it was an example of totally selling out. Both Guy Gardner and Diana were on that series of crappy holofoil silhouette 100th issue covers within months of one another. Messner-Loebs was off Hawkman just a few months later, then he took over Thor from Warren Ellis for his last good run in the comics industry.