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