Cheshire, Deathstroke, Checkmate and what I didn't know about Roy Harper before

Left click to enlarge

Just last night I stopped by my local comic shop on the way home wanted some reading material for the last weekend of the year. As good fortune would have it I found some Teen Titans back issues that featured Roy Harper and Cheshire in some $1 bins. As you can see the stories took place after the whole Qurac nuking incident in which Cheshire manipulated Deathstroke into helping her get a nuke which she used to destroy the terrorist nation of Qurac.
Two things I didn't realize before is that indeed Harper had been an agent of Checkmate at on time. Which is ironic because I had no idea before I put this fictitious cover art for a Red Arrow, Checkmate, Suicide Squad cross over issue earlier this year. Another thing I found out in these Titans issues I picked up is that Harper has the ability to utilize almost any object as a deadly projectile weapon begging the question of how a hypothetical contest between him and Marvel's Bullseye would go down. That would be a close call cause Roy's one tough hombre with some mad hand to hand combat skills too.
Let me bring your attention to the clip art below that I found online which is out of  Deathstroke #19. This is the issue where it all went down with Quarac's destruction aside from Cheshire and Deathstroke you can see Checkmate agents fighting some of Deathstroke's henchmen. She's holding her own pretty good there with a guy who could give Bronze Tiger and Batman a run for their money. Kinda makes me rethink that Elektra vs Cheshire posting I had a while back. I sure would like to find this issue in a $1 box some day but I think I be willing to buy it as a regular back issue too.

Left click to enlarge

Last but not least I found something absolutely bad ass on youtube. It's a montage video of many of the DC Universe's Who's Who series front and back cover art. The music for the video is by AC/DC can you guess what song was chosen? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_oAknKKlzk

That's gonna do it for the Suicide Squad blog this year see you all in 2013

Fire, some of the hottest heromorph work I've ever seen

I'm at a loss for words on this one this is one of the best heromorphs I've ever seen. It's by the guy who did the Plastique heromorph I posted last summer.

Left click to enlarge

Funny how when Fire was with Checkmate everybody kept giving her that "you're not in the Justice League or Global Guardians anymore" schtick. I gotta tell ya that dialogue from Vertigo in response to Fire giving him shit about making that guy toss his cookies is great I have to find a way to use that some day in a conversation. Aliera if you're reading this would you be so kind as to translate "Vai se danar" for the rest of us?

Best Amanda Waller fan art I've ever seen

This is by an artist who goes by the Deviant Art handle of  TSBranch. Here he really nails Amanda Waller in what I think is the best contemporary representation of what the character should like. Check out the rest of his work I think you'll especially especially like his character redesigns: http://tsbranch.deviantart.com/gallery/

Tiger & Vixen "The untold story" (new fan art!)

Hey folks check out the fan art this lovely young lady from Trinidad & Tobago came up with. I would have loved to have read a story about two characters having achieved some sense of normalcy back in the old DCU so this concept is a real gem. From the artist's own words about this fan art: http://sodaesketchbox.blogspot.com/2012/12/fp-tiger-vixen.html

Weekend round up of happenings with the Suicide Squad relaunch I don't care much about

For those of you who read my other blog you may know already that I was back issue hunting after work last night. While there I noticed Suicide Squad #15 was out already which surprised me since I thought #14 just hit the shelves only a couple of weeks ago or there abouts. Just goes to show you how much of a disconnect I have with new comics these days. But since I was there I browsed it a bit and it apparently looked like little more then Joker/Harley story. I think the only other thing of any significance in the issue was Deadshot turning out to not be dead although that hardly came as a surprise.
I noticed the cover of Grifter #15 had Deadshot on it and it turns out that some other members of the Squad are in it too. But it seems to me that Harley has had her hands a little too full lately with the last Squad mission and now the Joker to be on a Squad mission going after Grifter for what ever reason. Plus, didn't Deadshot just "come back to life"? I dunno I suppose this isn't the first cross comic book titles that lacked some consistent continuity we've ever seen. Just for the record I didn't care enough about any of this to buy either issues it was just some thoughts I had upon discovering these issues on the shelves last night. Good art work in both issues though I can't much complain about that.

Left click to enlarge

I went to go see if the tessatechaitea.blogspot had done reviews of either issues yet but didn't see any so far however the Aquaman review offered a little something that I found somewhat interesting so I did some further looking into. Apparently Waller is trying to recruit Black Manta for the Squad but so far is not having much success. Good art work in that issue to you can read more on that here: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=70357

Ok now back to the Ostrander Squad for a bit. I'm adding this Shade the changing man fan art into this posting as an after thought. This has been on Deviant Art for a long time and I've thought about posting it before. The thing is, I like it over all but it just has one thing that I REALLY wish was different. I like the use of color, the shading and the over all line work style along with the low keyed mood. But his legs are too damn small! That might just be the artist's style but his legs not quite being in proportion with the rest of his body is the only thing that keeps this from being a great rendering in my eyes. I'd certainly be happy to get some input on this from other people out there.

Ed Benes's pencils for those Suicide Squad JLA cross overs

When I think of great comic book artists the name Ed Benes doesn't come to mind. I didn't start getting familiar with his stuff really until just a couple years ago or there abouts. That is to say, when I did see his stuff I loved it but could just for a long time not put a name with his work. Had he hit the comics scene in the 80s it would have been a different story for me.

Did I hear Waller call Roy Red Arrow? Oh Roy, if only you knew back then what the DC Universe would have in store for you in the coming days. As to what Hawkgirl is talking about in regards to Cheshire having destroyed Qurac I may do some browsing in back issue bins on that storyline. If Quarac sounds at all familiar to you that's where the Suicide Squad's first ever mission was (see issues 1 and 2) with the objective to take down the meta human terrorist group known as the jihad. Over the years Quarac would be a reoccurring story line in both the pages of the Suicide Squad and Checkmate in the late 80s and early 90s. There's even a short but very interesting wiki page for this fictional nation although as far as I'm concerned Quarac really does exist it's just known to us in the real world as iran: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qurac

Looking at all this really does bring back some great memories and reminds me of why I just don't care much about what DC is publishing these days.

Happy Hanukkha from The Hayoth

For some reason I'm in the mood to do a Hanukkah theme posting featuring the Israeli meta human team The Hayoth which were co-created by John Ostrander and first appeared in Suicide Squad #45. Yesterday was the first day of Hanukkah so I decided to treat myself at my favorite Jewish restaurant appropriately named Holy Land which is in Oakland. As luck would have it just a few blocks away as I was leaving their happened to be a public menorah lighting so it all made for a nice evening.
Contrary to popular opinion Hanukkah is not the Jewish version of Christmass. In fact it's not even a religious holiday. Hanukkah celebrates an unlikely victory of the Jewish rebels known as Maccabees (hebrew for hammer) over an invading Greek army. A lantern was lit as a tribute to the victory but despite only having enough oil for 2 or 3 nights it some how continued to burn for 8. Hence, "8 Crazy Nights". If you haven't seen this video I made last year check it out it features Jewish superheroes from both DC and Marvel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVRWGClMRDw&feature=player_embedded

Ok, here's the deal with Young Justice right now

So after yet another weekend of no Young Justice I decided to do some investigating to what the @#$% is going on. Apparently it's just a matter of the season (#3) being over. No solid information on if and when there's going to be a season 4 although I'm assuming there will be one eventually at some point next year. What a bummer, and I gotta tell the new Arrow series is by no means giving me any sort of YJ hold over fix for the time being. I've seen a couple episodes now and the show's not doing much for me to be honest. I don't think it's bad, so I understand if it holds some appeal to others but while watching it so far I can feel my attention drifting during the episodes which is not a good sign.
For those of you who might want to get up to speed with season 3 here's a complete list of the episodes. I can tell you that at least some of the full episodes of the tale end of the season such as Before the Dawn, Satisfaction (Roy Harper bad ass!) and Darkest can still be easily found on Youtube.

Just adding this as an after thought. This lady who goes by the handle of White Lemon on Deviant Art really goes all out for the love of cosplay. It looks like some of the final images utilize photoshop work to enhance her costuming but it all comes together pretty nicely as a finished product. I would really like to see her do Nightshade and Plastique I think her technique would be great for those Squad ladies as well. I was at comic shop last night and I was browsing at Suicide Squad #14 and I had to admit the dialogue with the Joker at Deadshot's "funeral" was pretty funny. Especially with the whole post mortem circumcision schtick. Another good reason why I want to be cremated I don't want sharp objects next to my junk for any reason dead or alive.

Left click to enlarge

She does a bunch of other cosplay you outta have a look at so here's a link to her Deviant Art gallery: http://whitelemon.deviantart.com/gallery/ As if this can't get any better she happens to be from Spain. Time to brush up on your Espanol fellas! I just totally dig when I learn about people from foreign countries who embrace the comic book and sci-fi stuff from America as passionately as White Lemon does here. And speaking of which why can't I ever find a woman like this here?

For my bucket list: cosplay vixen Ya Ya Han as Cheshire

WARNING: Sexually explicit posting. I'm sure most of you are no stranger to Ya Ya Han. Even if you don't know her by name you certainly do from the multitude of erotic cosplay images and videos she's got all over the internet. So then you also know she's done just about every comic book and sci-fi character that's ever existed. Except for of course Cheshire, who she would be perfect for. Do I really need to explain why? Kinda like how I don't need to explain why I want to see her Cheshire some day before I die.

Left click to enlarge. No Viagra needed.

Oh and huh, Ya Ya has a Facebook page (look at those legs!). I already sent her a message request about some Cheshire cosplay so let's see if that  . . seed I planted (so to speak) ever bares any fruit. Gentlemen, get your boners ready cause here's her link: http://www.facebook.com/yayacosplay

P.S. Hey Cartoon Network! When the #$%& are you guys gonna start running some new Young Justice episodes WTF!?

Random cool old DCU Suicide Squad fan art

I just really wanted to have something posted here for the first of the month so I russled up some cool fan art of some of the Squad members from the old DCU. The Deadshot/Batman piece is by Bob Haynes, Count Vertigo is by Jeremy Haun, Captain Boomerang is by Ransom Getty. My apologies to Try Worrell who's Bronze Tiger I added some color to. It looked good on it's own as a simple line drawing but next to these colored renderings it needed a little something extra. Doesn't BT look like he's yelling "waassuuuuup!" just like back when that was a pop culture catch phrase for about 15 minutes?
Also wanted to say I spoke to Dale Bagwell (Mr. Morbid's House of Fun blog) on the phone for the first time. We had a good time bullshitting on the phone  it's nice to be able to put a voice with the faces and blogs for a change. Also wanted to give you guys a heads up on a Suicide Squad #14 review. Even if you're not picking up this book this guy knows how to keep you in the loop on what's going on while having you crack up with his uncensored sarcasm: http://tessatechaitea.blogspot.com/2012/11/suicide-squad-14.html?showComment=1354426144652#c506564957253375271

The best Bond according to Captain Boomerang

From the pages of Checkmate #16 (Vol.1). This scene is one of my favorite Boomerang moments from the old DCU. I can't help but wonder if it would have been written differently had the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig Bond movies come along prior to this issue having been published (1989). At any rate I'm happy to share this with you all given that new comics these days give me very little to get excited over or blog about.

On a side note here I just wanted to mention my latest discount back issue score. Last week in S.F. I found G.I.Joe #2, 26 and 27in a 3 for $1 box. I used to have #1 so it was nice to be able to read #2 finally after all these years and it was quite good. It's probably been about 20 years since I last read 26 & 27 (first origin story of Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow) but I think it was an even a better read for me now then it was to me back then. Great stuff, a damn shame the movie sucked ass.

Judy Dench from James Bond Skyfall and The Wall

I just saw Skayfall today and I thought it was pretty good. I dunno if I'd say it was better then Casino Royale but it was certainly better then Quantum of Solace which I can't even remember what the plot was. Although I've been watching James Bond movies since I was a kid it just hit me today how much the "M" character reminded me of  The Wall. The parallels between the characters are so obvious I can't believe I didn't see it till now. They're both shrewd ball busters who have to keep tough guys who are hard cases in line for the sake of national security.

And speaking of tough women for those of you who have seen Skyfall, if the MI6 agent that was working with Bond through out the movie looked familiar to you it maybe because that was one of the survivors from 28 Days Later (great movie). Her name is Naomi Harris and she was starring opposite Killian Murphy as the character Selena. Good looking black woman with English accents turn me on something fierce I tell ya!

In case your wondering what happened to the Arrow/Count Vertigo posting I had before this one there was something about it that was causing problems with knew postings. Random text from the Arrow article was showing up in blocks on new postings for some reason. I've never encountered anything like that on Blogger before it was really fucken pissen me off! I tried different shit but in the end the only removing that posting seemed to work. Sorry to all of you who left comments but that posting had to go just like a body part with gangrene.

Next up, find out which James Bond was the best according to Captain Boomerang.

Sasha Bourdeaux fan art by Tsbranch

I just found this on Deviant Art tonight. Although I like the art work it's self I also liked what the artist had to say about the character. It's definitely discussion worthy just the type of stuff I love to find for this blog.

"WHO?!? You would ask. Former bodyguard to Bruce Wayne, turned Checkmate operative. Yeah, I went there. I dug through my old Bruce Wayne: Murderer issues and found her a compelling character. Probably cuz Greg Rucka was writing it. Maybe. But beyond those issues, she had her death faked and re-emerged as an agent of Checkmate, even the Black Queen. Who knew?

You know she could have been DC’s Maria Hill, if you think about it. A good counter to Amanda Waller and even now in the DCnU she could be Maxwell Lord’s right hand. Her backstory doesn’t have to change much, just some tweakin."

Vixen, so damn hot!

It's not like a blogger needs a good reason to post some nice fan art of Vixen. Now we all know Vixen was with the Suicide Squad for quite some time and had a long running "association" with Bronze Tiger for quite a while too. But I'm also hoping some of you haven't seen some of this art work I'm featuring here today.
Any thoughts who you'd want to see play Vixen if they ever made a live action movie with the character? I've heard Halle Berry's name being dropped and although she looks the part well I kinda can't shake that tragic Catwoman movie from some years back. On the other hand I'm kind thinking the tennis star Serena Williams would look insanely hot as Vixen. If you're not sure what she looks like Google her now. I really dig women with curves and some muscle on their frame. Just so damn hot!

By Shelton Bryant

On hiatus

I found this Bronze Tiger character sketch card by legendary Marvel artist Sal Buscema. I had no idea he had ever done anything for DC. Of course my favorite work by Buscema was his pencils in Rom spaceknight but finding some art work he had done for one of my favorite DC characters is pretty awesome as well.

Left click to enalrge

I'm adding an update here about something that's been bugging me ever since I first posted this and it just hit me. Some of the art work in this Buscema sketch card looks a lot like a couple of the panels from BT's show down with Female Fury Stompa in Suicide Squad #3. Kinda makes me wonder which came first. This is almost a "Who Made Who" kinda question I'm sure we'll never get a definitive answer on.
And with that I bid you all farewell for a while. I started a new job as a crew member a couple of weeks ago for an oil recovery vessel. It's a temporary gig (till mid Dec.) but if all goes well it will lead to more long term assignments. So far it's going well and I'm learning a lot but the hours are taking some getting used to. I'm working 10 hour days and some weekends. Just last week I worked 58 hours. I'm just too burnt out for blogging right now and things have been pretty quiet here lately anyways so this is probably a good stopping point.
Like me many of you are less then thrilled with the Suicide Squad relaunch but the reviews are still fun to read especially some of the scathing ones. Check out this one for issue #13 it's hilarious: http://tessatechaitea.blogspot.com/2012/10/suicide-squad-13.html?showComment=1350459907017#c3206054003636953527

My vote for Amanda Waller in 2012 is in the mail

I'm so sick and tired of this presidential race which feels more like the latest lame ass "reality" show. All these fucken talking heads with their mind numbing rhetorical analysis and these stupid poles. I've never believed in any of the extreme rhetoric about Obama but by the same token I've found him to be a disappointment. That pretty much started at the beginning of 2009 when it seemed like he was making health care reform his top priority instead of getting America back to work. All this while the CEO scumbags who largely got us into this mess were jumping out of the financial disaster plane in their tax payer funded golden parachutes as it crashed in the mountain.
But I also know that there are a lot of republican neo-cons who are obsessed with bringing Obama down and have that as a higher priority then trying to do something about the suffering of every day Americans who are on hard times. Recently I had some good fortune come my way in regards to moving forward on a new career path and it had nothing to do with all the shit slinging in Washington. In short, I feel more removed from the political process then ever and I decided to make my voting ballet reflect that. By the way how did that fu@#$% $%&# cindy sheehan get on the ballot!? I've seen her at anti-U.S./pro-terror demonstrations in S.F. over the years and I can tell you she hates Obama every bit as much as the neo-cons do. But that's not why I hate her. This video my friend made from a protest we were at in S.F. earlier this year is why I hate her guts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py3rElWA9uM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Harley Quinn reboot versus Cheshire from Young Justice

When I paired up Cheshire against Elektra it was almost unanimous Elektra would come out on top. But I suspect you'll find this pairing to be on a more even playing field. Cheshire probably has Harley out done in the actual martial arts skill level department but when it comes to shear cunning they're pretty close. But Harley's unpredictability might make up for any lack of hand to hand combat skills and give her an edge. For those of you who watch Young Justice you've seen how how much of a skilled combatant Cheshire is. And when properly motivated Harley has shown she can take down bad asses like Deadshot, Savant and even out fox the likes of Amanda Waller. So who gets the likely  win here? Speaking of Young Justice it was another good episode. We didn't get to see either Roy Harpers this time but after last weekend I can't complain. One can't help but wonder what will happen when Cheshire finally meets the original Roy. That could make for a love triangle the likes even Jerry Springer hasn't seen yet! There's probably a future Jerry episode like that coming soon however : )

How about some Suicide Squad t-shirts already!?

Just messing around in photoshop and thinking of more things that I'd love to buy some day but will never see for sale anywhere.

I got your fu@#$% splash page right here folks!

This is the first time I've ever posted something that was not at all related to this blog. Truth is I just love this splash page and I just wanted to share it. It comes from ARMOR #2 published in 1986 by Continuity Comics. Seeing something like this in a comic book back in my early teens just blew me away. Pretty amazing stuff cmon folks give the man a hand.

So much awesome stuff today!

Left click to magnify

Left click to magnify

For this posting I'm going to spare you all a lot of my ramblings. I just wanted to feature some cool and some what uncommon custom figures along with some corresponding clip art as a reference. All these figures are great but in terms of detail and the care that was put into to them I think the best ones are for Vertigo, Sasha Bordaeux and Peacemaker.

Left click to magnify

It looks like I may have found another good candidate to play Bronze Tiger. Actor Idris Elba has had no shortage of work in recent years but sci-fi comic book fans may recognize him most from his recent work in Ghost Rider 2 (marginally better then the first which sucked ass) and Ridly Scott's Prometheus. The website I found this at had action star Jason Statham as Deadshot which is a pretty good casting call too.

 So, I hope you all saw the Young Justice season premiere yesterday. The episode was called "Satisfaction" and it lived up to it's name for those of us who were eagerly awaiting it. The episode covered a lot of ground but it's main focus was on the original Roy Harper and his recovery since having been found in the final episode of the previous season. Needless to say we get pretty much the whole low down on the Roy Harper/Cadmus/The Light mystery.
 

Posting of Amanda Waller commission art by unknown artist and lots of boobs

I like this piece! This version of Amanda Waller reminds me of how she was drawn in the Checkmate series. Still on the curvy side and still with short hair yet more feminized with out ever really being overtly sexualized. The clean lines and flat colors with very minimal tone variances works really well. Plus the expression on her face really has that "I'll teach that son of a bitch not to mess with me" look we all love. Good job however you are that did this I'd be a chubby chaser for this Amanda Waller any day.

I didn't make this I happened to have found it along with that Waller commission art. It seems to go with the general theme of this posting. Ya know I was thinking about that zero issue. You would never have seen the Amanda of the old DCU running around in a tank top for an entire issue showing off cleavage that could give Power Girl a run for her money. By the way, have we heard anyone call her "The Wall" yet in the relaunch?

 Now with all that being said I'd like to end this posting with some delicious Power Girl cosplay. And I don't feel like this makes me some sort of hypocrite because Power Girl was a gratuitous sex symbol even in the old DCU already.

A real life Captain Boomerang!

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzaMDp3dgJc&feature=related

Owen Mercer The Ladie's Man

Left click to enlarge

Here's a memorable moment from the Checkmate and Outsiders cross over saga known as Check Out. I've been able to find most of the single issues for the entire story arc in $1 bins but I'm still missing two. The basic premise is that Checkmate "recruits" several metas for a mission on Oolong Island which is used as a base of operations by the Chinese government for all kinds of crazy shit. That's Owen Mercer (Capt. Boomerang 2) there along with his roving hand which happens to be on the ass of the Black Queen's knight Josephine Tautin "Mademoiselle Marie". Notice that's not the usual costume he's wearing? As far as I know it was just for this cross over story which is too bad. I've never minded the costume he had through out his career in the old DCU but that one he has there is pretty slick  I kinda wish they had stuck with it.

 I absolutely love this splash page! It's drawn so damn well in every respect. The only thing that's missing is having Batman face down in a puddle of his own puke. Aside from disrupting a person's equilibrium Vertigo can also use his power to induce sudden bouts of extreme nausea. I can hardly contain myself when I think of all the douche bags out there I would love to use that power on! Another interesting little factoid about his power is that he can scramble the guidance systems missiles and rockets. How about that Vertigo huh? Actually that's Count Vertigo to you peasant!

Mullet alert!!!

A few days ago I found DC Showcase #11 in a $1 bin. Now if you recall I was interested in it because it featured a team up with Deadshot & Peacemaker against Kobra. But some previews of a few of the pages I found online didn't look to promising as far as the art and story went : http://suicidesquadtaskforcex.blogspot.com/2012/08/dc-showcase-deadshot-peacemaker-take-on.html   WOW was I ever right what a piece of shit this issue was. I should have given that dollar to a homeless person or something. It featured 3 different stories and they all ranged from lame to uninteresting. As if all that wasn't bad enough what the fuck was up with Nightwing's hair!? He was sporting this mullet that was something between a San Francisco bull dyke and an inbred redneck from Tennessee.

Well I'm happy to say Nightwing is not sporting a mullet on Young Justice and that indeed we do have new episodes to start looking forward to next weekend. In the mean time you might want to check out these links with some behind the scenes YJ chat at this year's Comic-Con along with some previews to this up coming season's episodes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4yzEv2K9zY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrs-_kZCIBQ&feature=related