John Ostrander on race in America

Suicide Squad #4 (Volume 1) 1989  Hawkworld #27 1992

Just this past weekend I found this Hawkworld issue in a $1 box. Written by John Ostrander and penciled by Jan Duursema it centered around the media savvy white supremacist vigilante White Dragon who tried to pass himself off as a crime fighter. I've actually enjoyed the work that Ostrander and Duursema have done on Hawkman in the past as well: http://suicidesquadtaskforcex.blogspot.com/search?q=hawkman
Because White Dragon was on the Squad during the 2008 mini-series "From the Ashes" I knew that he was William Heller from Suicide Squad #4 of the original series. Despite the under whelming cover art that was probably one of the best comic book issues I've ever read when it came to social commentary stories. The Squad's mission was to discredit William Heller who was doing the same shit but this time with a trick cross bow under the name William Hell who's "crime fighting" only consisted of capturing criminals of color.

John Ostrander & Jan Duursema

As White Dragon, Heller was in at least a couple of Hawkworld issues in which topics like American race relations, democracy and the line between free speech and hate speech are explored. There were some odd inconsistencies in regards to Heller's name and powers between his appearances in both volumes of the Suicide Squad and that of Hawkworld which I don't understand but it's possible there was just some over sights in writing: http://www.catskillcomics.com/JanDuursema/Hawkman/29-12.jpg
Heller was a real piece of shit who used statistics and some cherry picked facts to validate his insidious agenda. But that tactic of manipulation is not something that is practiced exclusively by hard right wingers and reactionaries it's something leftist radicals do as well. Believe me I know I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Did I also mention Heller was a misogynist piece of shit too? Well I'm happy to say he eventually messed with the wrong ma . . . I mean woman with that bullshit who put him in his place . . . permanently. You might say this lady was a real blast for Heller.    http://suicidesquadtaskforcex.blogspot.com/search?q=plastique+suger+tits

Suicide Squad "From the Ashes" 2008 mini-series

Red Hood and the Suicide Squad plus some Owen Mercer cosplay

Left click to magnify

So I think it's pretty obvious why I threw this piece together from borrowed art that had the right look to it. I like the idea of pairing up Red Hood with members of the Suicide Squad that have all been Batman adversaries. Be sure to magnify this one it really pops.

Good job dude you really got the look down and I think this is presently the only Owen Mercer cosplay out there. Hopefully we'll see more in the future.

Next up, John Ostrander, Luke McDonnel and Jan Duursema on race relations in America

One possible good thing about the new DC 52 found Under The Red Hood

I want to digress a bit for this posting to talk about something else that has gotten my attention recently. For probably the first 6 months after the DC relaunch I had no idea who or what the Red Hood was. Then finally by chance I stumbled across some video clips on Youtube of Batman: Under the Red Hood. Again we see DC out doing Marvel by light years in the arena of well done animated movies and TV programming (case and point,Young Justice).
I spent a good part of my day off on Friday hunting numerous reviews and previews online of all 16 issues of Red Hood and The Outlaws to get an over view on the series and it's characters. First off, I love the concept of former Batman side kick Jason Todd coming back from the "dead" as a Punisher style vigilante who comes at odds with members of the Batman family. Both the movie and the comic book series had some great moments of exploring Todd's anger issues of his murder by the Joker and his resentment toward Batman over it. Aside from that I just love his kinda non-costume urban street wear look. This is more like what I've always wanted Deadshot to look like in both the old and new DC Universes. The potential for the Red Hood character and the Suicide Squad practically has my mind racing when I think about all the will of the minds and intellect type confrontations Batman and Amanda Waller have had over the years in the old DCU as well as in Justice League Unlimited.

Red Hood and The Outlaws #8

Now when it comes to Roy Harper (Arsenal ) and Kori (Starfire) in the 52 relaunch it's a bit of a mixed bag. Harper isn't that different from the old DCU but he's not as serious of a character and his self deprecating humor at times is a bit heavy handed. Needles to say there's no Teen Titans, Cheshire, daughter or drug addiction in his back ground (as of yet anyways) which I don't know if I could ever get used to for the Roy Harper character. As for Starfire there's that whole thing about the TnA and her sexuality in general we've all heard plenty of already. Not a big issue for me and in general I'm more over all accepting of her rebooted character and her origin.
I have to say I did enjoy a lot of the snappy dialogue between this threesome team. And speaking of threesomes I kinda almost expected things to go in that direction given the dynamics of this team along with the more contemporary pop culture writing of comics these days. From an art work stand point it was all around pretty sharp no real complaints on that end except for maybe an issue or two. After having reviewed this series do I wish I had picked up this book when the relaunch got started? I would say kinda sorta but at the same time not really. I'm still not into the new DCU but of all the titles I've tried out if there was one that was worth picking up still I think it would be Red Hood and The Outlaws.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

A good chunk of Batman: Under the Red Hood can be watched on Youtube clips. These are some of my favorites when it comes to the Jason Todd and Batman confrontations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcr2nyygFxc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os3VkJzsCVg

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kscfb9XzPs

Young Justice was awesome today! We finally got to see some long anticipated confrontations that made for some of the best fight scenes this season such as between Sportsmaster and Black Manta. In general the episode had some really well thought out writing check out the preview clip below:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYSk1lb_tc

Next up: Red Hood and The Suicide Squad!

New creative team for the Suicide Squad announced

Well this certainly comes as welcomed news. Too early to say if this new creative team will take the book into a different direction that more mirrors the John Ostrander era or if it will be more of a "meet the new boss same as the old boss" kinda deal.

 "Just as DC has been giving some indie comics folks like Charles Soule, Ray Fawkes, and Jeff Lemire time in the spotlight within the DC Universe, so too are they about to bring a name from the indies that's been receiving much acclaim as of late: Ales Kot.
Kot is best known for his works at Image -- Wild Children and Change -- but as of May, he'll also be the new writer on Suicide Squad alongside new artist Timothy Green II. The creative team won't be the only thing changing however, as the solicitation coming soon from DC also promises new team members and a totally new direction as Amanda Waller brings on some new recruits."

By the way did any of you check out those art work links in the last posting? There's some really good stuff there done by more talented individuals then myself.

And finally I want to throw in a belated fuck Valentine's Day message. I've never had a Valentine's Day where I wasn't single or in the midst of some fucken drama with someone I was with for which VD just added to the awkwardness. A friends with benefits kinda arrangement is about as close it gets for a "happy Valentines Day" as far as I'm concerned.

Cartoon Network can kiss my Arsenal! (new fan art)

Left click to enlarge

 I've been wanting to sketch some kind of Young Justice Suicide Squad fan art since the December last month but I just couldn't get it together. So with the recent bad news thanks to those asshole executives at cartoon network I finally managed to work on this over the weekend while listening to 80s heavy metal on Youtube for several hours straight. I don't think it's the best things I've ever done but I think it turned out okay.
Also on Youtube I saw some previews of what cartoon network is going to replace GL and YJ with. It's gonna be another lame ass Teen Titans for pre-schoolers series along with a Batman CGI one. Every Batman series since the Paul Dini cartoon has sucked bat balls so I'm sure this new CGI series will probably also suck. But even if it's better then I'm anticipating it won't be nearly as satisfying to watch as YJ.
Not too upstage my own work but yesterday I found some amazing Young Justice fan art on Deviant Art you all need to see: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=Cheshire+Young+Justice#/d51zhvt
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=roy+harper+&offset=168#/d3fejia
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=Ms.+Martian+young+Justice&offset=0#/d4psj4u
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=Blue+Beetle+young+Justice&offset=168#/d571sop
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=Artemis+Young+Justice#/d3rab68
http://www.gamingunion.net/news/batman-arkham-city-nightwing-dlc-bundle-announced--6645.html

What happened to the Squad that I used to know?

I was just feeling kinda sentimental about the Ostrander Suicide Squad era of  late. Ditto for Greg Rucka's work on Suicide Squad related narratives in his story lines most notably in Checkmate. That awesome Deadshot panel is from Checkmate #18 which was the beginning of the "Fall of the Wall" story line. I've been meaning to post that for a while now. That was a really good story line among others things Amanda Waller was confronted about running Task Force X covertly even though as the White Queen directing field operations was not in her mandate.
Below is a page that I randomly found on the net from what I believe is an issue of  DC's Countdown that chronicled the super villain round up efforts for Operation Salvation Run. In the last year or so I've found a few of these Countdown tie-in back issues (mostly in $1 boxes I'm happy to say) so hopefully I'll find this one too some day soon. I really miss this stuff from the old DCU. Now I won't even have new episodes of Young Justice to look forward to before long with the recent bad news. There's always back issue boxes but when it came to new stuff Young Justice was all I had to look forward to with DC comics.

 Just wanted to update you folks on that Nightwing Captain Boomerang Jr. issue I mentioned in the last posting. I ended up going back to my local comic shop to see if I could find it again that $1 box and indeed I did so I got it using my trade in credit. This ended up being a really good issue and among other things this is where Owen quits The Outsiders: http://www.comixology.com/Outsiders-Five-of-a-Kind-1-of-5-Nightwing-Boomerang/digital-comic/JUN070159
http://majorspoilers.com/2007/07/27/dc-comics-sneak-peek-of-the-week-7/#more-1975
http://thebatfamily.wordpress.com/ http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles/7/marvel-vs-dc-war-the-avengersdecoy-elite-vs-the-bat-familydane/578017/  After having read this issue I see now that it wasn't just Owen's Captain Boomerang legacy that had Batman a bit leery of Owen's membership in The Outsiders. It was also because of him having worked for Amanda Waller which he was actually still doing. As I mentioned earlier in this posting running Task Force X (official name for the Suicide Squad) was something Waller and King Faraday (her bishop) tried to keep quiet but that secret eventually ended up being discovered as scene in this clip art from the Outsiders Checkmate crossover storyline. Waller, Faraday and Count Vertigo were all eventually ousted from Checkmate at around the same time Owen left the Outsiders after which they were all working together again at Belle Reve as seen in the 2007 From the Ashes 9 issue Suicide Squad mini-series written by John Ostrander.

Rather it was in the pages of Checkmate, DC Countdown, Salvation Run or in Suicide Squad titles (but not the Giffen series) this was the era where buying and reading the Suicide Squad was a real joy. But with the relaunch, it's barely worth my time to follow it online.

FUCK YOU cartoon network!

Left click to enlarge

Well I was saving this art work for a Feb.1st posting but I guess I might as well post it now along with the fucked up news I just got from Dale. Google search Young Justice cancelled to see what I mean. There's nothing more I can ad to that other then to say that cartoon network in the absence of YJ ( and also Green Lantern which had been pretty good lately) has nothing but dumbed down shit I wouldn't have even found watchable as a pre-teen kid. The only exception would be Star Wars which has some descent episodes now and then even though in general I hate almost all the shit that has to do with the prequels.

All right so now that I got that out of my system this is Deadshot from the Young Justice comic issue 24. Talk about an awesome costume redesign! I think I like it even better then any version in the old DCU. This is more along the lines of what the DC 52 version of Deadshot's costume should have looked like as opposed to that overly elaborate clunky looking get up he wears now.

Left click to enlarge

Now what we have here is some clip art from a Nightwing and Owen Mercer one shot. I actually saw this in a $1 bin a couple of weeks ago I don't know why I didn't pick it up I think I'll look for it again the next time I'm there. This is an interesting bit of dialogue it never occurred to me that Batman would be holding it against Owen that he's Digger's son and using the same name even though he was one of the Outsiders. Like with the Deadshot appearance in the Young Justice comic book this makes me so wanna see Owen at least make a guest appearance at least on the Young Justice but now that'll never happen. Things just ended so badly for Owen in the old DCU it would have been nice to have seen him again in most any DC continuity.

And speaking of good DC cartoons here's some character sketches that were done in the same illustration style as we saw in Justice League Unlimited. Rick Flag, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, Plastique (although not in costume) all have been on that series but now we can get some idea of how Bronze Tiger and Nightshade would have looked like on that show. BT looks ok here but Nightshade is especially done illustrated well here
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