Proper disposal of a pedophile 101 with Catman & Deadshot

So I'm gonna switch gears here folks from something earlier this week that was fun to a more serious subject matter. There's no planning process, I just write postings on the fly depending on what's inspiring me that day. Do you all remember the 1988 Deadshot mini-series in which Deadshot's late son Eddie was murdered by a pedophile? Well Deadshot dealt with him pretty well by shooting his son's murderer to pieces starting with the knees and making his way up to the head. A fitting end for that type of bottom feeding scum of a sex offender.
But I'll tell ya, Catman has it down even better when it comes to properly disposing of human garbage like that. In Secret Six #16 we see Catman and Deadshot (disguised as cops) hijack a prisoner transport by ambushing and subduing the guards using brutal but none lethal force. They spring this guy who was convicted of raping and murdering a young girl. Of course the convict thought it was his lucky day but it soon turned out to be his worst nightmare as he discovers that Catman and Deadshot were paid by the victim's father to get him out of police custody so he could avenge his daughter.
So later the pedophile murderer is strapped to a table and the father is given a knife. He's about to get started but then looses his nerve. Even with righteous revenge as a motive it still takes strength (not the physical kind) to inflict excruciating pain on another person. It's just not something most of us are cut (no pun intended) out for. Some, might call the ability to do so a "gift". And as you will see here Catman has that gift. Which he passes on to the victim's father in the form of some helpful tips to insure he does what needs to be done. We don't actually get to see anything beyond this point but we as the readers can assume that the murdered girl can now rest in peace and that the scum bag in the last panel will be resting in pieces knowing that the father is about to go medieval on his ass.

DC Universe Catman character profile:
http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/heroes_and_villains/?hv=origin_stories/catman&p=1

My Nightshade is a center fold

I've been debating with myself for a couple of months now about publishing a posting like this. That lovely illustration to the left actually came to me by way of a follower of this blog who happens to be of the fairer sex believe it or not. This now is the second sexually explicit illustration of Nightshade I've come across and I couldn't find out who the artist was on this one either. This is kinda weird to me because she's never really been that kind of sensual heroine. I mean I would expect to find this sort of stuff for Powergirl, Poison Ivy or even Starfire but Nightshade? By the way I hope the bare chest isn't bothering anybody out there cause I'm kinda partial to it. So I did a little research on the Squad's mistress of the night and found some comic book appearances in which artists had her showing off assets other then her shadow realm powers.
What your looking at below is some clip art from Justice League International #13 in which were seeing the Squad prep for a mission to Russia in order to bust Nemesis out of jail. Well actually we're seeing a little more then that here but you know what I mean.

And to the right here we have a scene from Checkmate #20 (Fall of the "Wall") featuring a non mini-skirt costume that is showing less skin but is more form fitting. Going back to the mini-skirt version of the costume I have to say it's pretty silly to think of a super heroine running around on dangerous missions and fighting crime in that thing. Not that I'm complaining however. And speaking of skirt lines, that black box was something I indeed did add to the original illustration before publishing it. The original doesn't leave ANYTHING to the imagination and even I have some standards of modesty for this blog. But they mostly apply below the waist, not above.

Superman & Batman Public Enemies: finally a non sucking animated film from a comic book franchise

Over the years I've watched my fair share of animated films from both DC and Marvel and they pretty much all have one thing in common, they suck! Sometimes they start off good but pretty much with out exception by the time your half way through or maybe a bit further you pretty much stop caring what's going on. I mean there's probably been an exception or two that don't come to mind at the moment but you know I'm basically right.
The premise is that Luther buys his way into the White House pretty much like how it goes in real life. He has a program to bring super heroes and criminals alike into the employment of the federal government so in that way it reminds me of both the Task Force X premise as well as the Marvel Civil War series. Superman and Batman don't trust Luther and aren't down with his party line so now their fugitives. By the way, it just kinda popped out at me, did Power Girl do something different with her hair? It features almost every hero and villain from the DC Universe which is awesome. Several members of the Suicide Squad are in it but with the exception of Waller they only really make cameo appearances.
The animation is tight, many of the JLU cartoon voice actors are present and there's no shortage of memorable dialogue including Lex calling Waller a "bitch". The story flows pretty well and in general it just works in ways so many other animated DC and Marvel films didn't. Check out the Youtube clips bellow and decide for yourself and come back here and let us know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyJaLwcC4Sg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y880iYrh0H8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_4Re65oTiQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEGpU581CnE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I_Le-KpSxI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX6-1gTOxcY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJmONJQf2jw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkEnX5MQpcw&feature=related
Normally I hate those music video montages of animated shows or movies but this one ain't bad and you get to see more of the movie not contained in the other links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG2SEwYtPGQ&feature=related

The Suicide Squad on Smallville and making the case for Pam Grier as The Wall in Green Lantern

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9LYGAKuaqc&feature=related

So today I was cruising around on youtube when for some reason I started watching Smallville clips. Well I came across one that feature the Suicide Squad to my surprise. We'll sort of surprised. Ya see I've heard past episodes with Checkmate make references to Task Force X but nothing ever seemed to come of it. But as far as this Suicide Squad appearance goes what we seem to be getting mostly is references made to the Squad. But in the clip that I found we do see Rick Flag (Ted Whittall) along with some meta-human agent working under him that was a tele-porter. After doing a bit of research I discovered that Deadshot showed up at some point as well in the series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id1HB95lXgM&NR=1. I actually remember Plastique from an episode but I also remember it being kinda lame. Now if any of you out there are saying hey I told him about this already or something to that effect I'm sorry. It's just that I've been outta the Smallville loop so long things having to do with it just kinda go over my head. It wasn't a bad show at first but after the first 3 or 4 seasons the writing just floundered forever. I tried to get back into it when Checkmate was written into the series. But it used to piss me off something fierce how you would have to sit through an otherwise boring episode to just get maybe 10 minutes of Checkmate (and Pam Grier) only to find out next week's episode was another uninteresting episode with a possible snippet of Checkmate.
Ya know I tried to get through this posting with out careening off the road into my Pam Grier is so hot routine, but like a White Snake song "Here I go again". One of my latest hobbies has been to find different ways to portray Grier from old photos of her as Hero for Hire's Misty Knight. I know so many of you out there will disagree with me but I think she would make a good Amanda Waller for the Green Lantern movie. Now that she's older and carrying a little more weight then from her Foxy Brown days or even from when she was on The "L" Word (a nice show about lipstick lesbians : ) I think she looks the part better. Especially when you consider the new vision I have for the character I've been talking about lately. And of course she's got the right attitude which I hope you all will agree with me on at least. Rather we're talking about her Foxy Brown, The "L" Word or Smallville days Pam Grier will always be one cup of hot chocolate I'll gladly have no matter what the weather is like. At any rate, have a look at Pam in this Green Lantern production photo (my latest digital "trickeration"). You have to admit she's not at all out of place as The Wall. Ok she's not C.C.H Pounder but she's a pretty good stand in for her. Need more convincing? Try this on for size: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCwcSMbTVRk

Amanda Waller by returning Portuguese artist Aliera

So a couple weeks ago Aliera sent me a pencil sketch of Amanda Waller that she did on a whim. It took one quick look to see that the rough draft she had done was going in the right direction. But unfortunately being a mom, wife and nurse doesn't leave her with a whole lot of free time to continue working on stuff like this. And then there's me, as impatient as ever. Therefore I decided to bring it into photoshop and experiment a little bit. I layed down some subtle colors tones and also added some shading here and there to give it a little depth and viola. One of the things I like about how Aliera drew Amanda Waller is that she gave "The Wall" a more feminine look while still showing that Waller is a woman not to be trifled with. This is in keeping with what I was talking about a couple of postings ago and how I would like to see DC portray Amanda Waller from now on. Left click on images to magnify. http://uryel.tumblr.com/post/796145739/why-you-dont-fuck-with-amanda-waller-take-2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaXXfnLKam0

Killings my business & business is good

In my very first posting about everyone's favorite gun for hire I talked about how much I love it that he can take on meta-human opponents and still kick ass just by keeping his cool and using strategy. Characters like Deadshot make me feel like if I ever went up against some dude 3 times as big as me that I could take him down as long as I kept my cool. Hey it worked for another David a long time ago. Perhaps you're familiar with the fable of David & Goliath? My parents sure were.
Deadshot of course uses all sorts of firearms as opposed to a sling. And along with his penchant for 100% accuracy he can take down just about anybody by exploiting their weak spots. So if a genetically engineered armored cyborg beast thing that has you trapped at the bottom of an elevator shaft comes for you, what do? huh hot shot, what do you do? We'll apparently it's quite simple. Just stick your guns in his face and open fire repeatedly, problem solved.
Or in the event of some sort of man dog sorta thing with really big teeth getting the drop on you. Simply insert your Dirty Harry six shooter in it's mouth and pull the trigger. Even Michael Vick couldn't top that kind of doggy care. But holy shit what about a vampire!? What the Hell do you do against the undead with just a gun!? No problem, if you keep your head (couldn't resist). You just gotta quickly run through all the traditional ways a vampire can be "killed". Let's see a stake through the heart, garlic, holy water, fire, silver, sunlight (fuck Twilight!) and . . . . I got it! I'll just blow his head off.

And when it comes to terrorists with super speed? No problem there either for a
guy who can see each beat of a humming bird's wings.

How about that Floyd, a real lady killer huh? Come to think of it why would this female super speed terrorist be running around in a cocktail lounge out fit complete with mini skirt?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fx5OtNJ8K4&feature=related

14 years old with suicidal tendancies

One day way back in 1987 this knuckle head friend of mine who was always buying the first issues because he thought they'd be worth money some way showed me a copy of SS#1. It started off rock n' rollin right away with that training session Jihad attack on the airport and concluded with the Task Force X mission briefing with a introduction to all the members. I would say probably at the time Boomerang was the stand out member given his inability to keep his mouth shut. So I got my own copy with the intent to see how things go in the next issue.
Issue #2 is off to a good start by giving me a laugh over what Boomerang is thinking about Nightshade's boobs. Shocking huh? But hey I was 14 at the time. That issue really kicked ass because of four main reasons. That being the way each member of the Squad took down their targets, Plastique's betrayal, Nemesis revealed as a double agent (who takes her down) and Mind Boggler getting gunned down at the end. I mean it's more nuanced then that but that's it in a nut shell.
So I'm ready for issue # 3 at this point. I knew and liked Darkseid pretty well but my familiarity with The Female Furies was scant. But I thought hey, a bunch of ugly broads from Apocalypse trying to pull a prison break at a maximum security federal prison that has Task Force X gimme a break! Oh boy was I ever wrong! Task Force X get their asses handed to them by the Furies big time. Those were some bad ass bitches I have to say I was surprised and impressed.
The thing about issue #4 that had me kinda leery at first was it's rather unimpressive cover. I was really wondering if things were about to go down hill at this point but I got it any ways on the strength of the first three issues. Surprise surprise wrong again! Another great read involving a plot that deals with contemporary race relation issues while at the same time developing the members of the Squad even more. It was an all around well written story with a great A-Team like ending. I mean sometimes I love it when a Task Force X plan comes together.
And that was pretty much it. I got side tracked at one point as far as getting the book on a monthly basis and some years later had to go hunt down a shit load of back issues to complete my collection which was a real pain in the ass. But basically I've been suicidal ever since and loving it.