Green Lantern and The Whizzer

 

I always enjoyed adventures featuring Green Lantern and the Flash.  Placing the original GL alongside Marvl's first speedster whould have had the same appeal for me.

Wonder Woman and The Whizzer

 

This might have been a fun Golden Age pairing to see.  Here's another random villain from those days. It's too bad The Future man didn't stick around - I guess there wasn't much to his future after all!

All-Star Squadron and The Invaders (And more!)

When I was a kid, the 100-Page comics and Annuals that featured classic reprints were my introduction to the characters and creators of the Golden Age. It was cool to see the building blocks of the heroes and stories that I had been currently enjoying.  I thought that I would pay homage to those specials for this Anniversary Issue.

Here are the full sized images of each story: 

The Flash and The Whizzer in "Central City Substitute"

 The Speed Demon has tried to take over for a Flash on this blog before - namely Jay Garrick in STF #2161... Jay has met up with the Whizzer a few times as well - first in STF #293, then again in STF #822, and finally with the whole Liberty Legion in STF #2684... 

Seven Soldiers of Victory Vs. The Invaders in: "Victory Slap!"

 

This year may be a bit tougher than most to find things to be thankful for, but I am still counting my blessings.  I am glad I will get to see at least a few of my relatives today for the holiday.  I am also of course thankful to all who take the time to stop and visit this blog on a regular basis so that I can share my love of comic artists and characters with them.  Happy Thanksgiving!

These two teams first crossed paths in STF #2824...

The Flash and The Liberty Legion

The 10-issue run of Justice Society of America by Len Strazewski and Mike Parobeck is one of the absolute gems of the 1990's.  I was thoroughly enjoying it when it was abruptly cancelled, for some odd editorial reason.  I remember being disappointed, and from the way I have read others opine about the series, I was not alone.  At least the issues have been collected in TPB and on Comixology for new fans to discover.

I recall thinking the Liberty Legion was a cool team when I met them in the pages of Marvel Premiere and Marvel Two-In-One, but alas, they didn't make many more appearances over the years so they never got the chance to catch on.

Superman and The Whizzer

I always got a kick out of the Superman/Flash races, so it might be fun to see the man of Steel go up against some other speedsters.  I also get a kick out of reading  Superman's earliest adventures, and the closer race would be with him at the beginning of his career, before his powers started to dramatically increase during comics' Silver Age.  Plus, I love those cool original boots and "S" shield of his!

7 Soldiers of Victory and The Liberty Legion

The Seven Soldiers of Victory were quite a contrast from the Justice Society - in a good way.  The JSA for the most part was made up of incredibly powerful characters that could host a solo comic of their own.  The 7 soldiers mainly consisted of non-powered adventurers that usually appeared in back-up tales.  I liked the difference in roster types, it helped to make each team a little more unique to me.

JLA Vs. The Squadron Supreme in: "Last Team Standing!" Part Two

I was very sad to hear about the passing of artist Paul Ryan this week.  Like many, I first took notice of his work on the Squadron Supreme 12-Issue Maxi-Series.  I thought he did a great job illustrating Fantastic Four as well, even if some of the stories he worked on had some 90's indulgences.  Like Perez, he had an ability to work with large casts of characters without making the artwork seem too crowded. He was a gifted illustrator and he will be missed.

JLA Vs. The Squadron Supreme in "Last Team Standing!" Part One

Back in the days before intercompany crossovers became a reality, the only way fans could get an idea of what a DC/Marvel match up might be like was through analog characters.  The Squadron was always the best example of that in my opinion... maybe I just liked the fact that their Superman counterpart was a redhead like me.

The JLA first encountered the Squadron back in STF #205... and Superman faced off against Hyperion back in STF #144... Plus, who can forget when Dr. Spectrum joined the Green Lantern Corps...

This is only Part One of this Story - Make sure you return for Part Two tomorrow!

The Flash and The Whizzer in "Fatal Finish Line!"

With characters like Firestorm slated to appear, the upcoming Flash series sounds like it will be fully embracing its comic boot roots, and I think that's a very good thing.  More than any other character, The Flash has always been involved with Earth Two, so I hope that the original Flash, Jay Garrick, will play a part in the series eventually.  Parallel Earths would be a very cool concept to explore in the series.

The Flash and The Whizzer

I used this pairing as a back-up story on a previous cover, and I wanted to give them their own issue.  I really miss the classic Jay Garrick in the current DCU.  The new young version  the pages of Earth-2 just isn't the same for me.  I liked the elder statesmen role that he provided, along with Ted Grant and Alan Scott.  Plus, he's got a winged helmet, and I like winged helmets!

The Flash and The Avengers

I have heard bits and pieces about a planned Flash film for years, but Warner Brothers seems a bit hesitant to dive completely forward with one, especially with the underwhelming reception to their attempt with Green Lantern.  I still think that there's a great movie to be made and the character certainly has a built in recognition factor from his live action and animated TV appearances.  A movie would definitely have to provide some new ways of portraying super speed, more than just fast motion cameras and "bullet time" effects that we've seen hundreds of times by now.  The success of The Avengers means that we are by no means past the superhero movie fad, so I am sure it is only a matter of time before we see a Flash flick finally filming one of these days.