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.
Click To Enlarge
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.
Superman whined to himself about how he wished someone else was Superman, and how he's responsible for what happens to every bullet that bounces off his chest, and oh do cry us a river Man of Steel. No wonder so many people find you unsympathetic. Superman did this while smashing up the Toyman's city of malevolent playthings as the script writer caption box monologued like a low rent Alan Moore just as hard as he could, bless his heart. The physical Toyman was found to be a shirtless unkempt chubby geek overrun with Brainiac's nanotech who was obsessed with saving the children of the world in a vaguely pedo way, which is about as insightful as pointing out that wool is itchy, but the junior college will cash your Creative Writing 101 tuition check all the same. Finally, Toyman revealed how many nuclear warheads Brainiac had taken control of: "All of them." So money! So, so money!
Superman then flew to Scarecrow's city, where Green Lantern Hal Jordan handled citizens driven mad with fear. Yes fear. Will, against fear. Got it? This prompted Scarecrow to run away into a sewer... where the Joker happened to be lurking... dressed as Bela Lugosi's Dracula... and proceeded to bite his "Super Friend" on the neck for leaving him out of the Legion of Doom. META TEXT! Joker needs plastic fangs! META TEXT! Joker needs plastic fangs! META TEXT! Joker needs plastic fangs! META TEXT! Joker needs plastic fangs!
The Marvel Family flew the innocents out of Toyman's city atop a giant, er, top. Stretching men Plastic and Elongated were also essential for evacuations elsewhere. Most of the characters featured in the mini-series remained visible doing obligatory background stuff like that without contributing to the primary narrative. Lex Luthor was the main person responsible for finally corralling Brainiac, while others halted the doomsday missiles he'd launched. Zatanna was key to getting Superman to Brainiac over and over again, who was captured almost as an afterthought, and its not like his plan hadn't already been foiled. Basically, Superman was only around to rescue Zee after she was imperiled by the final leg of the pursuit. Later, the Man of Steel gave a frozen, miniaturized Brainiac to the Kandorian Museum. Batman-- get this-- Batman insinuates that this very capital-I IMPORTANT 
The extra long, extra torturous final "Chapter Twelve" was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite. None of these men have any share or even self-awareness.
Continue the story through these character-specific posts:
Hal Jordan waxed philosophical about his foe Sinestro while providing narration for this issue. "Thanks to Sinestro, I was given a taste of what it would be like to rule everything. Thanks to my enemy, I will now never become anything like him... I don't need to be the greatest anything anymore. I just want to help my friends. And my world." I'm not sure if that was meant as a rebuttal against "Emerald Twilight" or if it reinforced it. All in all, it would really only take another random blow to the head to send Hal off in any given direction anyway.
The big siege progressed. Metallo tore apart Platinum while the Man of Lead continued fighting Black Adam. Parasite decided that he needed to "end this," so he grabbed Adam's foot to steal his powers, then swiped the kryptonite heart out of Metallo. Bizarro was grappling with the Man of Lead, affording Parasite the opportunity to rip through "Superman's suit" to discover Lead had actually helped to conceal Captain Marvel. The power of Shazam slammed Bizarro into Parasite, then the Big Red Cheese gave Hal Jordan the order. Iron's armor over Jordan had concealed the fact that Hal was wielding Sinestro's lost spare yellow power ring (that had been lent to Grodd but stolen by Metamorpho) through a filter of blue kryptonite. The blue K immediately took out Bizarro, while Captain Marvel crushed the piece of green K Metallo thrived on.
Ross had fixed the incorrect Platinum symbol on Plastic Man's armor to shift it to Tin, but it was never explained how Gold could pretend to be Green Arrow and cover Superman at the same time. Anyway, the shiny gold mummy quasi-Shazam Superman was attacked by the Parasite. Black Adam thought Captain Marvel liked seeing him weakened, but Billy was too innocent to enjoy another's suffering, though he was willing to choke Adam until he said the magic word. The ensuing lightning bolt conveniently struck Parasite on its way to removing Adam's powers. Plastic Man contained the Riddler in his fleshy mass while Tin (absent his familiar stutter) separated to cage Parasite. It seemed from his demonstrated pomposity that Ross and company had confused Tin with Mercury, who the Flash was still wearing, at least until he was used to gag Teth-Adam.
Green Arrow had delivered Hal Jordan's power ring to John Stewart, who by the spoken narrative grace of Jordan had been allowed access to Hal's incredible power as Green Lantern to free the teenage super-heroes from the control of Brainiac's nanotechnological worms. The same tech briefly retook the Leaguers made vulnerable by their release from the Metal Men "armor," but John Stewart promptly liberated them. Hal Jordan is so awesome for allowing his Negro acquaintance to save the day (but not allowing him any lines of his own, heaven forbidding such impropriety.)
Yellow Lantern Hal Jordan continued to match Sinestro with the same type of power ring, openly acknowledging that should he falter, John Stewart and the Justice League would surely avenge him. In response, Sinestro offered the scintillating bon mot "Shut up. Shut Up. Shut-the-hell-up!" Does Korugar even have a concept of Hell? When in doubt while writing Green Lantern dialogue, always try to hear Nathan Fillion saying Hal lines and Vincent Price saying Sinestro ones. Jordan and Sinestro tapped out their power source and switched up to mano-a-mano. Jordan beat Sinestro bloody, claiming that it was not vengeance he sought, but justice. Then both men fell through the top of a black city-sphere, and John Stewart apparently laughed off-panel as he returned Jordan's power ring so he could save himself and Sinestro.
The villains present on the main scene were either shut down by force or through the disabling of Brainiac's influence. That left the previously hostage supporting casts to mingle with their heroes, or in John Stewart's case, to get stuck with Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku, Carol Ferris, and Hal's brothers. The Flash and Iris West had a sweet if inhibited WASP pseudo-embrace, while Superman and Lois Lane had a big ol' sloppy wet P.D.A. Supergirl looked on from a distance as Lana Lang and Jimmy Olsen milled about. Captain Marvel was oddly separated from Mary and Junior, preferring Zatanna's company (though who wouldn't?) Rita Farr held Robotman's brutally battered severed head.
The Super Friends followed Brainiac to Toyman's world, where Superman took the fight deep into the heart while everyone else tore apart duplicates of Brainiac in a somehow self-serious spread. Zatanna then teleported everyone but Superman to Scarecrow's creepy 19th century European faux city, though Green Lantern proved capable of taking it all on his own. The Indian girl from last issue was there, and her hands were already starting to hurt...
"Chapter Eleven" was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite. After wasting all those early issues on individual attacks and a couple on the back end on big fights, these guys are having a heck of a time trying to tie the plot threads together. At least Elasti-Girl is consistently prominent in the crowd scenes, thanks to her stature.
Continue the story through these character-specific posts:
Platinum (Again? Spread thin?) and Gold pretended to cover Green Arrow and Black Canary, but that duo was secretly teleported into a sewer tunnel by Zatanna. Once there, they were attacked by Clayface (again,) who was contained by Green Arrow's "shadow," Elongated Man. Once the deception was detected, Gold and Platinum tangled with Parasite and Metallo, 'Tina ending up worse for wear. Superman knocked Toyman about while keeping a choke hold on Bizarro, but then Lead taunted Solomon Grundy and Kal-El took the brunt of the resultant punishment.
Green Arrow insisted that Black Canary save her sonic powers for a planned moment of truth, but once the pair located the supporting cast hostages, Ollie was left to deal with the possessed Supergirl. Dinah argued against Ollie firing a kryptonite arrow at the Maid of Might, a discussion super-hearing easily allowed Kara to act upon. Supergirl dodged the arrow, which struck John Stewart in the chest. As it turned out, all went according to plan, since the arrow actually had a power ring on its tip. Green Lantern declared "You're not killing any super-heroes today, Supergirl. You're going to help us save the world. Just like always.
"Chapter Ten" was plotted and painted by Alex Ross. The script was provided by Jim Krueger, and the penciled layouts by Doug Braithwaite.
Continue the story through these character-specific posts:
