Snark Free Waters: August 2006

August Member of The Outsiders

August means "venerable; eminent," so who would I pick on the Outsiders?

Oh wait, I forgot this was the Snark Free blog.

Never mind!

August Member of Alpha Flight

August means "venerable; eminent," so who would I pick on Alpha Flight?

I am going to go with Puck. It is a tough call between him and Heather Hudson, but in the end, while she has strong ties to Wolverine and Guardian, I dunno...I think I just plain ol' like Puck better!

And he HAS been on the team for a long, long time!

August Member of the Titans

August means "venerable; eminent," so who would I pick on the Titans?

I am going with Donna Troy, for I think as she goes, so do the Titans.

When she was young and hip, so was the book.

When she got married and a little bit boring, so did the book.

When she came back with a confusing background, the book fizzled.

When she wasn't around? The book was not really all that good.

So I think she is the linchpin to the Titans!

August Member of the Defenders

August means "venerable; eminent," so who would I pick on the Defenders?

I am going to mix things up and go with Hellcat.

Yes, she is not a big hitter like the others, but the whole point of the others is that they really do not WANT to hang out in the Defenders. Patsy, however, DID - and it was often her enthusiasm that would hold the team together.

Note how long they lasted once she got married!

August Member of the X-Men

August means "venerable; eminent," so who would I pick on the X-Men?

I am going with Nightcrawler.

It's a very tough choice, especially because Wolverine and Storm have been there longer than Nightcrawler, but I think that Nightcrawler, while in the background, is as important to the overall coolness of the X-Men as Storm and Wolverine, and he manages to do it with a much lower overall profile.

August Member of the Fantastic Four

August means "venerable; eminent," so who would I pick on the Fantastic Four?

This is a tough one, but I think I would have to go with the Human Torch.

The Fantastic Four has managed to exist without the Thing easily. It exists without the Invisible Woman easily. It even managed to go without Mr. Fantastic for awhile.

But has the Fantastic Four EVER gone without the Human Torch for an extended period of time?

I say thee nay - and that's because he is such an important piece to the team.

August Member of the Justice League

August means "venerable; eminent," so who would I pick on the Justice League?

I would have to go with Martian Manhunter.

J'onn J'onnz has been on the most incarnations of the Justice League, serving with them on all sorts of different styles of team.

True, he was missing for a good, long period of time (what, something like 15 years, right?), but he made sure to show up when it counted!

August Member of the Avengers

August means "venerable; eminent," so who would I pick on the Avengers?

I think I would pick Hawkeye.

No other character has as much of their self-esteem wrapped up in the organization called the Avengers as Hawkeye does.

The Avengers are his life, and, luckily for them, he's made the most of it, as he has been quite an excellent member of the organization.

The August Members

To round out the last eight days of August, I figure I will do this - for each of the last days of August, I will pick who I think is, in my opinion, August member of each of the following superhero teams:

Avengers
Justice League
Fantastic Four
X-Men
Defenders
Titans
Alpha Flight
Outsiders

Remember, august means "venerable; eminent."

Enjoy!

What power do you think makes the least sense in comics?

I know that super speed often gets this one from folks, but you know what I think makes the least sense?

Intangibility!

It just seems so dangerous. I mean, how does Kitty Pryde, when she materializes, make sure she doesn't, like, merge with her socks or whatever?

And light is solid, right? So it would seem like she would have the same problem that people say invisible people would have - the light would go through her intangible retinas!

Am I wrong here? Has all this been explained in the comics?

What power do YOU think makes the least sense?

Monday Challenge - Give Emma Frost a new codename!

White Queen doesn't really work if she's not in the Hellfire Club, so come up with a new codename for Emma Frost!

Really Cool Scene - Blue Beetle Coming Out of His Coma

Blue Beetle going into a coma was one of the sillier results of the Doomsday storyline, as it seemed like Justice League America writer Dan Jurgens was simply taking the opportunity to write Beetle out of the series.

However, in Jurgens' fairly-acclaimed series, Destiny's Hand, which involved the Justice League fighting evil versions of the Justice League created by Dr. Destiny, in one of the cooler moments, Blue Beetle shows up out of nowhere to save the day.

You see, Dr. Destiny's dream powers somehow hooked up with Beetle's mind during the coma, so it woke him up, and since they were connected, he was able to exercise a degree of control over Destiny's machinations, thereby saving the day.

It was awesome to see Beetle return, as for awhile, I didn't think he'd ever come back (well, so long as Jurgens was writng, that is)!

Who Is It... for 8/19

1. This creator attended the High School of Arts and Design in Manhattan.

2. This creator wrote/drew his/her own comic book series in the late 90s.

3. This creator is male and is exclusive to one of the "Big Two" comic companies.

4. This creator's first work appeared in the pages of Marvel Comics Presents.

5. This creator had a popular stint as artist on Uncanny X-Men.

Who is it?

Who's Yer Fav'rit...

costumed, non-Falcon partner of Captain America?

D-Man?

Nomad?

Diamondback?

Jack Flagg?

Free Spirit?

Anyone I've missed?

Which books from this week did you have zero snark for?

Which comics were totally snark free for you this comic week?

For me, I had no snark at all for Marvel's Western title, Black Rider. Steve Englehart did a really nice story, I thought.

How about you folks?

Cover Gallery - Ernie Chan

Ernie Chan doesn't get as many props as he should. He was a great artist, as this Cover Tribute shows!

Top Five Police Captains in Superhero Comics

5. Shelly Conklin

She was the Code: Blue Captain. Remember Code: Blue? I thought they were a pretty cool supporting cast member during DeFalco and Frenz's Thor/Thunderstrike run.

I wonder what she's up to now.

4. Steve Traynor

The former Jetlad would probably be higher on the list, except we don't really see that much of the Top Ten police captain

3. Jean DeWolff

The same goes for Jean De Wolff. I liked her in the Spider-Man titles, but she was mainly a background character.

2. Maggie Sawyer

Well, you folks should all know I loves me some Maggie Sawyer.

She was such a great supporting cast member.

1. Captain George Stacy

I think we may actually have had cooler moments with Captain Stacy AFTER he was killed by Dr. Octopus.

Especially during Untold Tales of Spider-Man.

What a cool character he was.

Agree, disagree? Let me know, folks!

World's Greatest Artist Identification Game! - Final Day!

Here are the artists it COULD be:

Ron Frenz
Keith Giffen
Dan Jurgens
Erik Larsen
Mike Manley
Al Milgrom
Graham Nolam
Dave Ross
Paul Ryan
Eric Shanower
Bill Wray
Bruce Timm
Rick Veitch

Now here's the panel (click it to enlarge the image):