Ambush Bug and Quicksilver

 

Quicksilver can get impatient with most heroes, so I can only imagine how frustrating an adventure with Ambush Bug would be for him!   I'm guessing quite a bit, but it would be fun to read about.

Deadman and Quicksilver

 

Pietro Maximoff confused me a little as a kid.  Given his white hair and grumpy attitude, coupled with the way some artists drew him, I thought he was much older than he was meant to be.  He just seemed like kind of an elderly curmudgeon.  Later interpretations would be more accurate for his age, but those earlier appearances really threw me off.

Quicksilver Vs. The Rogues

 

Pietro Maximoff has a decidedly different personality than Barry Allen or Wally West.  It would be interesting to watch the interaction between him and the Flash Rogues.  There seems to be at least some respect between them and their usual speedsters, and I's like to see them go a few rounds with the ill-tempered mutant.

Avengers and The Teen Titans in "Mad March of the Mega-Men!"

 

I've had the Avengers meet The New Teen Titans on the blog - first in STF #1250, and then again in STF #3179, but for this Anniversary Issue, I thought it would be cool if Earth's Mightiest Heroes had an epic adventure with the original Teen Titans team.  With two such powerful teams, I needed to find adversaries that could give them a run for their money, and that's where the classic Kirby monsters come in!

Here are larger images of the individual stories:

The Avengers Vs. Chronos

 

Sure, there's Kang, The Lord of Time and others - but my favorite time traveling villain has always been Chronos.  I think it's because he was a foe of The Atom, who I also really like and that way cool creepy clock face mask he would wear.   The black and white striped leggings on the other hand... OK maybe he didn't have a perfect costume, but it worked for my young eyes!

Batman and Quicksilver in "A Split-Second Miscalculation!"

 

Batman's Bat-Planes have had many looks in the movies.  My favorite is still The Batwing from Batman '89, jut an ingenious design.  Affleck's ride wasn't as stylized, but still pretty cool.  The Japan sequence in The Dark Knight is a favorite of mine, but I was a little let down that he just used a normal looking plane there, couldn't it at least have been black?  Still, it was better than whatever they had Christian Bale flying around in for The Dark Knight Rises - I thought that was kind of ugly and resembled an unfolded cardboard box.  Let's hope Robert Pattinson has better design sense when he decides to take to the sky.

Batman and Quicksilver first crossed paths on one of my earliest covers, an MS Paint effort from 2010...

Batman & Robin and The Avengers

 

Set photos from the upcoming Batgirl movie seem to indicate that there is a Robin active in that version of Gotham City.  It's still uncertain as to how Batman will even be handled in that movie - Commissioner Gordon will be played by The Snyderverse's  J.K. Simmons, but Ben Affleck will have already retired from Playing the Dark Knight following the events of The Flash - a film which will also bring back Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne, setting him up to appear in Batgirl.  Maybe all of this will make more sense once we se a trailer, but it seems a bit crazy right now.

Batman met with The Avengers a few times way back in my Brave and the Bold: The Lost Issues! days - First when he tried to rewrite the team's roster, then when he was a part of the the original line-up and finally with Cap's Kooky Quartet...

Teen Titans Vs. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

 

Continued from yesterday's cover, we see the battle The titans have been training for.  Looking at these line ups, it seems like a pretty even match up - I' not sure which way it would go.  What say you?

Back when I collected original art, it was a lot more affordable than it is now.  Still, I could never afford a Jack Kirby piece.  I did pick up this Dan Adkins-inked Kirby image, though.  I examined it closely to see if there were any pencil lines under the ink and I couldn't see any, and plus the price was way too low, so I am confident that Adkins didn't ink over a Kirby original page - but it still looks cool so I was happy to get it:

The Avengers and Captain Marvel (Vs. Sivana!)

 

A lot of people loved Mark Strong as Sivana in the Shazam! movie.  While he made an effective villain, he seemed more like Lex Luthor with a scar on his eye to me.  I missed the short, ugly, maniacal classic Sivana from the comics.  I mean, he didn't even call Cap the "big red cheese" once!

The Avengers previously met Captain Marvel back in STF #259, and clashed with the whole Marvel Family in STF #1518...

Crimson Avenger and The Avengers

 

Thanks to comics' historian and Patron of this blog Marc Tyler Nobleman for suggesting this team up!

It's always a treat to feature the amazing artwork of Mike Allred.  Several years back, I was lucky enough to pick up some unused Allred artwork for a Justice League Monopoly game - for some reason they switched artists for the final product:

Quicksilver and Impulse

 

This would be a fun combo to see, I think.  While both are heroes with super speed, their personalities could not be more different.  Quicksilver is all business and often frustrated with the pace of the world around him, while Impulse enjoys the life of a speedster and is always looking to have a good time.  I'm betting that they would clash in some amusing ways.

The Flash and Quicksilver in "World's Fastest Fakeout!"

Word is that a Flash movie is still in production with Ezra Miller still set to star.  I hope there are some major changes made to his costume and performance if that is the case.  While I have liked him on other roles, Miller's Flash was easily my least favorite part of the ill-fated Justice League movie.

These speedsters have crossed paths in the past:

Quicksilver needed The Reverse Flash's help in taking down a possessed Barry Allen in STF #727...  Flash and Quicksilver  fought each other along with the JLA and Marvel Universe in STF #1900... they battled over getting into the movies in STF #678... and they first met way back in STF #15...

Coming Tomorrow: STF #2700!

Jesse Quick and Quicksilver

I always got a kick out of Quicksilver's attitude.  It was a nice contrast to the usual nice guy hero to have someone who, while still a good guy, could be kind of snotty at times.  I did wonder what Crystal of the Inhumans ever saw in him, though!  I quite liked the eventual explanation that the world seemed to move in slow motion to him, so he is always feeling impatient.  That made sense to me and also made him a little more of a sympathetic character, rather than just a jerk.

Black Racer Vs. Quicksilver

Well before characters like Guy Gardner pr USAgent hit the scene, Pietro Maximoff was the first hero I can remember thinking of as kind of a jerk.  Sure, there was Namor, but in those days I considered him as much of a villain as a hero. Quicksilver was always clearly on the side of good, fighting alongside The Avengers, Inhumans and X-Men - but there was no getting around his abrasive personality.  It was cool to see that not all superheroes had the same cookie cutter type of good guy personality, and it helped with the the group dynamics of the teams he operated with.  I did like the explanation later on that he could never fully shut off his speedy perception, so the world always seems in slow motion for him, leading to a state of irritation.

Justice League of America Vs. the Marvel Universe!

I loved the Tabloid-Sized comics that Marvel and DC used to put out when I was a kid.  We had a whole bunch - Secret Origins of Super-Villains, The Fantastic Four, Superman Vs. Shazam, Stories from the Bible, Tarzan, Dick Tracy, Batman's Villains, Marvel Holiday Specials, and more.  I have fond memories of lying down on the living room floor and seeing my favorite heroes in "big screen" action.

So, you see the line up here - who ultimately wins? I see Captain Britain, Black Bolt, Rogue and Iron Man winning for Marvel, The Atom, Superman, Batman, Flash and Wonder Woman winning for the JLA with Captain Marvel Vs. The Thing being a draw, so... advantage JLA!  I tried to make it close, though, so your opinion may vary.

Let the journey to STF #2000 begin!

Max Mercury and Quicksilver

This cover comes about as a result of a conversation by regular STF visitor Isaac, among others.  I enjoyed the mentor-student relationship that Max Mercury had with Bart Allen in Impulse.  I would have liked to have seen him have more interaction with Jay Garrick though - I'm sure those two Golden Age speedsters would have had plenty to discuss.

Johnny Quick and Quicksilver

The Flash TV show isn't shy about bringing in new speedsters and this whole season revolves around Earth-2, so I am holding out hope for a Johnny Quick appearance one of these days.  Even Jesse Chambers has been a character on the show recently, so the groundwork has already been laid.  I was a fan of Johnny's even before All-Star Squadron due to the reprints I read - I always thought his costume was cool, loved the short sleeves.

Justice League of America Vs. Doctor Doom (And More!)

Continued from yesterday's cover, we see that Doom is not done with the DCU yet!  It's amazing to look at a varied assemblage of heroes like this and realize that most of the characters are due to appear on the big and small screen in the next few years.  I'm most looking forward to Jay Garrick on The Flash and Doomsday's rumored appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It's a good time to be a comics fan.

The Avengers and Guy Gardner

With Loki and Ultron out of the way and Thanos on deck, I have been wondering which Avengers adversaries would I would like to see in future movies.  My first choice was Kang, but apparently his rights are tied up with the Fantastic Four characters, so we shouldn't expect to see him onscreen alongside Earth's Mightiest heroes any time soon.  The Masters of Evil would be great to see - they starred in one of my all-time favorite Avengers epics and would be a nice change of pace from the alien invasion / world domination plots that we have seen thus far.

The Spectre and The Avengers

One of the coolest things about the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron is that we will get to see Cap's Kooky Quartet in action.  Set photos have indeed confirmed that there will be at least one scene with these four fighting side-by-side.  But will anybody actually call them by the nickname Stan Lee provided so many years ago? My hunch is yes, and Tony Stark is my guess to utter the term.

The upcoming Constantine series is said to include a police officer by the name of Jim Corrigan!  Is this just a tease, or will we eventually see the Spectre appear on TV?  I hope so, because I've always felt that the ghost of vengeance has great potential in live action.