Martinex1: It is Tuesday, therefore it is Follow the Leader time here at BitBA. Give us a great topic that we can sink our teeth into this fine October morning! What will it be? Comic books! Characters! Movies! Themes! Tropes! Music! Food! Literature! If it is Bronze Age; it is good with us! Get us started please!
17 comments:
Hey guys, On Vacation Prowler here!!!
We've done Avengers And X-Men, time to "cross the pond" so to speak and do the League, Justice League. No less than 6 or more than 12...
Nother Question: Was there a trend, hobby, collectible or some such that you just loved but not only were you the first kid on your block to have it, you were the ONLY kid on your block?
1) I don't know enough about DC to answer the question.
2) I was the only kid in my village who read Marvel comics (as far I was aware). I knew other Marvel fans but they didn't live in my village...
And I was the only Planet Of The Apes fan.
Will I didn't read the Perez/Englehart JLA issues in the later 70s, but the line-up looked good. My JLA tenure was more in the early '70s, so I'd take Supes, Batman, Lantern, Atom, Green Arrow, and Red Tornado.
Perhaps Black Canary, Aquaman and Hawkman if the story needed them.
I didn't like the Martian Manhunter much, and I didn't see much characterization out of WW when she was in the mix.
My first 10yrs was spent growing up on a farm outside a small Wisconsin town, so trust me, if there wasn't a kid near your age on the next farm over, your weekends and summer vacations were REALLY boring. Toys helped out a lot. My collecting was late '60s Captain Action and Major Matt Mason. GI Joes didn't come around until 1972.
As for my early '70s small-town life, I guess Marvel comic collecting and Star Trek were pretty much 'my thing', but I bought other stuff as well, just to jive with the local neighborhood kids.
Well I like to keep things balanced in terms of the sexes, so
Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Marian Manhunter
Black Canary
Zatanna
I was going to put Flash in there, but Martian Manhunter doesn't fare very well on his own like he and GL do, so I threw him in there.
I was the only kid on my block, save for the girl whose parents were Jehovah's Witnesses who didn't let her out all that much, so I just kinda did my thing and like David B said, toys helped out a lot.
Cheers!
I got in the Justice League during the late 80's reboot. That led to Justice League International then the split teams of Justice League America and Justice League Europe which became Justice League International then both teams re-merged into just the Justice League. Then I think Doomsday killed them all or some such nonsense...
Anyhoo, my favorite lineup would be:
Martian Manhunter
Black Canary
Booster Gold
Blue Beetle
Guy Gardner Green Lantern
Ice (previously Ice Maiden)
Fire
The Atom
Power Girl
The Flash
Bit of crowd but that's my lineup...
Second question:
I was so SOOOO excited when Marvel introduced it's Overpower Game. I could not buy enough boxes and booster packs. Heck, Toys R Us was carrying it! When I was picking up boxes in the hobby shops, I would ask if any other people were buying it also and it was usually "No, not really". I had my teams and power cards and everything ready to go and would keep an eye out at the local comic shops to see when the tournaments would be held. Seemed to be a big thing at Comic Conventions back East but nothing here. When my oldest got to be five, I taught her to play and we played for about a year. That was pretty much it. Still have all my packs, in boxes, ready to go...
(She's a very kinky girl
The kind you don't take home to mother
She will never let your spirits down
Once you get her off the street, ow girl
She likes the boys in the band
She says that I'm her all-time favorite
When I make my move to her room
It's the right time
She's never hard to please
Oh, no
That girl is pretty wild now
(The girl's a super freak)
The kind of girl you read about
(In new-wave magazines)
That girl is pretty kinky
(The girl's a super freak)
I really love to taste her
(Every time we meet)
She's all right, she's all right
That girl's all right
With me, yeah
Hey, hey, hey-heeeey
She's a super freak, super freak
She's super-freaky, yow
Everybody sing
Super freak, super freak
She's a very special girl
(The kind of girl you want to know)
From her head down to her toenails
(Down to her feet, yeah)
And she'll wait for me at backstage
With her girlfriends
In a limousine
(Going back in Chinatown)
Three's not a crowd to her, she says
(Ménage à trois)
Room 714, I'll be waiting
When I get there she's got incense
Wine and candles
It's such a freaky scene
That girl is pretty kinky
(The girl's a super freak)
The kind of girl you read about
(In new-wave magazines)
That girl is pretty wild now
(The girl's a super freak)
I really like to taste her
(Every time we meet)
She's all right, she's all right
That girl's all right
With me, yeah
Hey, hey, hey-heeeey
She's a super freak, super freak
She's super-freaky, yow
Temptations sing
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oooooh
Super freak, super freak
That girl's a super freak
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oooooh
She's a very kinky girl
The kind you don't take home to mother
She will never let your spirits down
Once you get her off the street).
The satellite era JLA is the one that's most familiar to me, so my I guess my League should consist of:
Super Man, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Hawkgirl, Hawkman and Firestorm. Of course, as in that era, not every member has to show up in every story.
I grew up in a kind of rural and out-of-the-way area like others here, with older siblings who were 5 and 7 years my senior, so I can relate to the concept of often being bored when I had free time. So comics were my main refuge there, and after about the third grade, I was actually kind of alone in sticking with that hobby among my school peers (I had one pal who also stuck with it longer, but he was mainly into Conan). I was also the only kid in my class who read Tolkien, and almost the only one into SF and fantasy in general (again, that pal who liked Conan was also into some of that stuff - mainly sword & sorcery). Other than that, I was never deeply into other stuff, like toys: I had a few of the Mego super-hero dolls, I had some of the Star Wars figures, etc. but they never held my interest for long. I also had about two or three of the Micronauts, and I'm pretty sure I was the only kid in my class who had those, so there's that (and I usually played with them and the Star Wars figures together, i.e., I was into crossovers before crossovers were cool).
Ever the notalgic one...
Flash, GL, GA, Black Canary, Hawkman, Dr. Fate (unless he was strictly a JSAer) and Atom. I decided to ix-nay the omnipresent Bats and Supes.
I would say I was the only kid on my block interested in Old Time Radio. Perhaps the only kid in Northwest Indiana, as far as that goes, lol. Nor, these days, do I know anyone in Chicago-land who listens to OTR which is too bad since there has been an excellent broadcast every Saturday afternoon from 1 - 5 PM for the last 35 years.
Wait - Maybe Marti has an interest in OTR, if I recall correctly? He would lumped into "Chicago land."
Since I am not as avid a JLA follower, I think I will mix it up and put some outliers on the team
1) Wonder Woman (Make her the Leader, plus I too am avoiding Supes and Batman).
2) Green Arrow (for the espionage missions and also to fill the loudmouth role).
3) Raven (Magic)
4) Red Tornado (Android powerhouse)
5) Metamorpho (Humorous oddball with outlandish powers)
6) Adam Strange (for space adventuring and science and general athleticism)
7) Black Lightning (for his power and down to earth perspective; I see him and Adam and GA teaming up a lot)
8)Elasti-Girl (because there should be a little Doom Patrol included and her size powers would be a nice change if the Atom cannot be around).
So those are my choices - I'm kind of "avengering" it up a bit.
And CH47 I do enjoy OTR. Don't listen to it as much now but was a fan of Abbott and Costello, Shadow, various mystery programs like Johnny Dollar, comedies like Life of Riley, etc.
Prowl, we have similar tastes as per the JLA. I read the League on and off for years, but only really got hooked by the 'bwahaha' team. So I pick Batman, Guy Gardner, Black Canary, Dr. Fate, Martian Manhunter, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle and Dr. Light.
As for my youth- there were other kids in our suburban neighborhood. So Hot Wheels, action figures and trading cards abounded. But I was the only one seriously into comics, and reading in general. Getting a lift to the public library was always a treat, and I'd usually come home with a stackful.
Ok... If we are allowed to go outside former JLA members, I would like to add Harley Quinn.
Her DC comics are actually pretty enjoyable and the only comic I buy monthly at this time. And the family and I watched Suicide Squad on DVD last night (free from the library, natch!) and found her character most entertaining.
I know, it's a weird fit. But with the uptight personalities over the years of Bats or GA or GL... it'd make for some interesting conversation and scenarios. And her "superpowers" (i.e., baseball bat) are certainly the equivalent of GA or Hourman or the original Atom or Black Canary or Hawkman or Batman or Wildcat...
My JLA is 70s flavoured: Aquaman,Mod Diana Prince,Hawkman, Atom,Deadman and Supergirl, operating out of a re-purposed Sinister Citadel in San Francisco. Captain Comet is an honorary member.
I didn't meet anyone who was interested in comics, sword & sorcery books and Dr Who until I was about 1
17! Don't know what happened there.
Hmmm, I'd probably go with Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Atom, and Zatanna. I know Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary are missing from that list, but I always thought they were a bit underpowered for the JLA.
I grew up on a pretty small block, so nothing comes to mind there; but in Grade 6, I and the guy who ended up being my best friend all through high school were the only two who were into Tolkien.
My JLA is the Len Wein era group. They were always my favorites.
Superman
Batman
Flash
Green Lantern
Green Arrow
Black Canary
Hawkman
Aquaman
Atom
Elongated Man
Red Tornado
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