On hiatus until further notice

Sorry folks but I'm kinda distracted right now by a series of mounting problems since earlier this year I really need to get sorted out sooner then later so I can finally have some degree of peace of mind. Can't give you all a time frame when I can get back to all this Blogger stuff as of yet. You might want to just check back here once a week to see if anything has changed.

Ok Dale, here's my sorta gay posting

I just realized that I've hardly ever talked about the back ground characters of the Suicide Squad title which was largely made up of Belle Reve's staff that also acted as support personal for Task Force X. In all there's been close to a dozen or so. Probably the most notable of the group was Sheeba's (high tech voice controlled helicopter assigned to Task Force X) pilot Briscoe, Flo Crawley (Waller's niece), heavy transport pilot Karen Grace and the prison shrink Dr. Simon LaGrieve. Others included the head of security "Murph", from the IT dept. John Economos, the prison chaplain Father Cramer, infirmary chief Mary White (Waller's older sister) and Dr. Simon La Grieve's assistant Marnie Herrs. There's probably a couple more I'm not thinking of but that just about covers em all except for the head of vehicle maintenance Mitch Sekofsky. I applaud Ostrander for adding a sense of realism to the original Suicide Squad by touching on a subject that wasn't quite as mainstream in the late 80's as it is these days. Left click on clip art to magnify.

Granted, Mitch Sekofsky was not a primary character in the Suicide Squad title but despite his limited appearances Ostrander was able to make him the focal point on a lot of hardships facing many members of the gay community outside of overt homophobia. However, this was still years before all the same sex marriage drama would become such a hot political topic.

Among other things it's stuff like this that made Ostrander's writing so compelling on this series. Having grown up mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area I can say I've known members of the gay community who have gone through exactly what this clip art is speaking to. Rather it was Flo Crowley's infatuation with Ben Turner (Bronze Tiger), Karen Grace's major chip on the shoulder over the bad history between her and Rick Flagg or Marnie Herrs's lack of professional detachment from Lawton ( Deadshot) Ostrander managed to create a supporting caste of characters that added to the richness and drama of the Suicide Squad story lines.
Let me digress a bit here. I saw the movie Haywire recently which featured MMA (mixed martial arts) champion Gina Carano. As far as the movie it's self goes I thought it was just all right but Carano alone made it worth while to watch. Nothing hotter then a hot woman who kicks the asses of tough guys all over the movie screen. Carano is another great candidate to play a live action version of Duchess a.k.a Lashina from the Female Furies.

Here she is fighting Michael Fassbender (but not as Magneto).  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeuarppF2jk&feature=related

Young Justice episode Salvage - More Awesomeness!

As of this weekend's episode of YJ I feel like I'm finally getting more of a grip on the future tense story line. But that's not to say it hasn't been good and with no shortage of surprises such as Aqualad having turned into Black Manta's evil protege. It's just taking some getting used to but with the Roy Harper clone back in the picture it's starting to get really interesting. It so blows me away how this side kick archer character has become such a compelling character to follow.
He's like watching some kind of horrific traffic accident in slow motion. Tragic as it is you feel forced to keep watching as you hope for the best but bracing for the worst as far as how it's going to end up. Don't you just love the bangs and 5 o'clock shadow he's sporting in this episode? I think the 5 o'clock shadow is now the universal bench mark indicator for when someone is officially a burn out.
Needless to say the Roy Harper clone is once again wrestling with all sorts of issues I'm not going to go into in this posting cause it would take forever to write about and I spend too much time as it is on these blogs. Just go to Youtube and watch the episode! I talk so much about YJ I outta just make this a Suicide Squad-Young Justice blog.

Unfortunately I only have a few comic book issues today that have Roy Harper a.k.a Speedy. Two of which are Suicide Squad 13 and 14 in which Roy helps the Squad take down a Colombian drug cartel. As you can see from the clip art it seems that it's been decades now that Roy has been the "glass is half empty" kinda guy. But you all know that already of course. I gotta tell ya folks it scares me sometimes how much I can relate to his character. I mean I never had his drug problems but tell me his cynical outlook on life isn't a sign of the times when you see things like this shitty economy, the Wall Street Occupy Movement and even the Tea Party?

 Speaking of drugs, anybody out there remember or have this one shot special from the early 80's. Back when I was in 3rd grade numerous copies of these were being distributed around grade school campuses including mine. I remember thinking how cool it was that my school was actually giving my friends and I free comic books.
This was part of the Nancy Reagan "Just say No to Drugs" campaign. Drugs had been around for decades prior to the 80's of course but it seems like it was around that time that the "War on Drugs" came into the forefront of the American conscience. This was also around the time that the HIV virus (aids) emerged as a real public national health issue. Prior to that it had largely been thought of as a "gay problem" but among other things learning that it was also being spread by intravenous drug users helped to change that kind of thinking. By the way folks, Dan from IADW apparently doesn't watch YJ because of some attention deficit disorder I can't sit still long enough kind of bullocks. Please give him some shit in the comments section! The episode links are below.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdEHiubGjV0&feature=related

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KChfEb5Fh5c&feature=relmfu

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWliWLNV78&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY7f8cUeYME&feature=relmfu

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9iPyFgY-Tg&feature=relmfu

Suicide Squad 2 Raise the Flag mini-series re-covered

Just something I put together in photoshop using some elements of the original cover art and some of my own past Suicide Squad fan art both digital and hand drawn. The original cover art (left) was done in 2007 by Javier Pina. If you're going to suggest I send this to the re-covered blog I already did. Although he's posted my stuff in the past he was being an asshole about this one as well as another submission (see today's ROM blog posting) so I decided to post it here for obvious reasons.

Ok guys, Adam Glass (video) in his own words about some of the Suicide Squad relaunch controversy

So my friends, here is the face behind the controversy. For about the first 10 minutes of this 18 minute interview Glass talks about the Squad relaunch in which he covers a hand full of aspects of the the title including Waller's weight loss, Harley's new direction (along with the hook up with Deadshot), the renaming of Kobra into Bisalisk and other things to come. Unfortunately, there's no mention of any other Squad members from the Ostrander series making future appearances (FUCK!) during the interview.

 http://dev.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=38538 

Awesome Deadshot cosplay & The Shadowpact

Now this is one cool find. This dude made the Deadshot outfit from the 2005 mini-series that featured cover art by Mike Zeck. I've said this before and I'll say this again that this has always been my favorite Deadshot "costume" minus the ribbed condom mask. I would have much preferred the rebooted Deadshot had looked more like this but whatever. It's too bad this guy didn't have a brown trench coat but this is still pretty sweet.

Anybody out there ever read the Shadowpact (2006 - 2008) series? Given that the series had two former (Nightshade & Enchantress) Suicide Squad members that were with the Squad from the very beginning I took some interest in it recently. I've been doing a little reading up on it on the net and it seemed like a fairly good series especially if you're into stories and characters based on the supernatural. Shadowpact was deputized by Checkmate in Checkmate issues #9 and 10 in order to help infiltrate Kobra. I happen to have #9 I should see if I can find #10 somewhere.

I guess by the time the Shadowpact series came along the Enchantress character had evolved quite a bit into a somewhat different personality. Because back in the Ostrander Squad series she was a really ruthless psycho with no shortage of mystic raw power that the Squad only let loose when absolutely necessary. And as you can see from the cover of Suicide Squad #11 it put her at odds with fellow Squad members like Nightshade here. Back in issue # 6 Deadshot had to get her under control by grazing her head with a bullet and who can forget Legends #3 in which Bronze Tiger puts her out with a vulcan nerve pinch? Classic Suicide Squad moments from the 80s!

Suicide Squad #9 & Resurrection Man #9 reviews

Well what we have here is the first cross over story line into another DC title. Waller sends the Squad to kill Mitch Shelley but deliberately with holds any information about his resurrection powers. Apparently Shelley's powers have Waller thinking he can be used in some part of grand scheme of hers. The Squad clashes several times with Shelley and a rival agency's operatives ( The Body Doubles) that also wants him. When it's all done and said Waller manages to get what she wants by cutting off one of Shelley's hands while he is "dead" . . yet again.
These issues featured a more ruthless Amanda Waller then we've seen before and I think things are coming to a head with her and Deadshot. Harley has seemingly reverted to her alto ego Harlene Quinzel as a result of having been shot in issue #6 and Yo-Yo finally managed to get out of King Shark's belly while he was unconscious. There's a new member on the Squad called Iceberg I'm pretty unenthusiastic about. I would have probably liked him better if he had a better name like "Icecube" or "Icebro" given that he happens to be black. Resurrection Man seems like a pretty cool character and both issues had plenty of good one liners, quips and witty pop culture references.
But the Resurrection Man issue pissed me off by having what by any reasonable estimation was Count Vertigo on the cover but not having him inside the issue at all again denying us the full return yet again (Capt. Boomerang in issues 3 & 4) of a long standing Suicide Squad member from the old DCU. I have to admit this sort of thing is wearing on my patience. Abnett & Lanning have not been on my list of favorite writers lately with the way they sodomized the ROM spaceknight legacy in their Annihilators series so I suppose it should come as no surprise they would do a bit of the same on my favorite DC title as well. As for Adam Glass, he's a good writer but I really think the Suicide Squad is going to start seeing a drop in readership soon if they don't make some roster changes and I ain't talkn about more characters like Iceberg. You can see some previews of the issues at the links below.

http://ifanboy.com/articles/preview-suicide-squad-9/

http://www.comicvine.com/news/exclusive-resurrection-man-9-5-page-preview/144654/