Shhhh... It's a Secret

Reading Kalinara's latest fun meme, got me to thinking about my favorite characters and to share with you fine folks about some of the secrets and/ or guilty pleasures I believe they have and enjoy. So, here ya go :)

Jubilee - Is way smarter than Kitty Pryde, but she hides it because she would rather play video games than reprogram the Danger Room.

Big Barda - Her favorite thing to do when no one is around is to play with Barbies.

Booster Gold - He has thought about trying out for American Idol, but doesn't think he has a good enough voice or that the audience has the proper respect for Blondie. His audition song would be Rapture.

Guy Gardener - Secretly wishes he could draw as well as Kyle.

Superman - would actually perfer being a farmer or a reporter rather than a superhero.

Bruce Wayne - His favorite band (though he would never admit it) is The Cardigans.

Alex Summer - Way better at crossword puzzles than his brother Scott.

Well, there you go there's my list of secrets that I think these characters are witholding from the general audience.Hope you enjoy it :)

I'm dreaming of a geeky christmas

The other day I was watching the Justice League Unlimited episode "Kid's Stuff" if you haven't seen it I highly recommend giving it a watch. Anyways, while I was watching it I started thinking about how awesome it would be if they made a Justice League Kids cartoon akin to the Tiny Titans comics but starring the big seven of the Justice League. This could be such a great series. You've got a boy scout in Superboy, a kid with serious ADD in The Flash, the overly serious Batman (Batboy?) the bossy and powerful Wonder Girl, a geek Green Lantern and weird little J'onn J'onnz and the buttmonkey Aquaman (Aquaboy?). You could even have most of the plots being how the Legion of Doom is trying to control the neighborhood or bust up the Justice League's lemonade stand. Hilarity ensues.

Hopefully this won't be the last post of the year

Once again, I feel the need to apologize to the loyal few of you out there whom read my blog. I have been woefully neglectful of you these several months. Hopeful if god(s)'s willing. I will be posting on here regularly after the new year. I may have done a similar post to this on in the past. But, I feel it is time again to do a list of the Justice League I would have if I was writing the book. As some of you who have followed this blog for awhile may remember (or may not due to my sporadic posting) I am a big fan of lists. I enjoy creating reading them pairing them down. In short I am a big fan of lists and if no further delay here is my JLA team.

Superman - Even though I'm not a huge fan of Supes, in my mind there is no better leader in the DCU then the big blue boy scout.

Batman - He's Batman, he has a plan for everything. Hell, he's even got a badass singing voice (anyone remember way back when I posted that vid of him singing "Am I Blue"?)

Guy Gardner - Every JLA team needs a Green Lantern and since he's my favorite emerald guarding, he's on the team (ah the fun of nepotism).

Booster Gold - I really enjoyed his time with Bats and Guy back in the Justice League International books. As well as enjoying his current solo title and if nothing else he adds some good comic relief. Plus I kinda like the idea that with this team Kal-El could be a good role model for the goldster and help him become a true hero (in any time stream).

Stargirl - After all these years of having her being on the JSA roster and the superhero game become a bit old hat for her. I think it would be fun to move Courtney up to the majors with a spot on the League. Plus she could fill the Jubilee role on the team :)

Zatanna - I'm a big fan of Zatanna (as well as her costume,lol). Because of this and the fact that on a team like this you need someone who is able to handle the magic wielding foes the league occasionally goes up against she is a good person to have on the team (as long as she promises not to mind wipe her colleagues that is,lol)

Oracle - For while there she was the eyes and ears of Gotham City and I feel that her skills and computer suave would be ideal for use on the watchtower (yeah, in my book the watch tower also makes a comeback).

Wildcat - He's already taught most of these folks to fight anyways. Why not have the old, tough as nails hard fighting, hard drinking sonabitch that is Ted Grant on the team. Plus, it would be fun doing stories where he bitchslaps Lex Luthor or Mr. Freeze.

S.T.R.I.P.E. - All I got to say on this one is that he's a badass Mecha. He's on the team and if nothing else it would be fun seeing him and Stargirl interacting with the rest of the League as he tries to protect her and carry out his role as her step dad. While sitting next to Bats, Guy and, Booster.

So, there you have it my Justice League. Feel free to mock me for my choices. But, I think this team would really make for a fun and enjoyable book. i could even foresee Guy and Courtney becoming partners in crime not literally, but in getting some of the other teammates to loosen up (I'm looking at you Batman).

No Sushi For YOU!

I wasn't going to do another Aquaman post today. First of all because,I'm not really a fan (all though I did buy Aquaman Showcase volume 3 today, some maybe that Bob Haney wackiness will change my mind,lol). Second of all I was pretty sure I was all out of things to say about our aquatic friend (not to be confused with our favorite aquatic fiend,lol). but, looking at the popularity of the posts (and my opportunistic nature) I figured what the hell. So, here's another story idea for DC to consider. In this story Aquaman is upset after Japanese fishermen kill his favorite whale and declares war on Japan. He then forms an army of Atlantians and ocean creatures and attacks the tiny island. After the surprise attack the Japanese contact the Justice League hoping that his colleagues can talk Aquaman out of his blood lust for sushi lovers. Superman attempts to talk to Aquaman but, he is beyond reason claiming that Japan was just the first battle after they were defeated he would then move on to other fishing cultures until all those whom consumed his friends are dead. He then yells out "No Red Lobster or Joe's Crab Shack is safe while Arthur Curry lives!" With that Superman goes to Batman, since Batman being Batman has a contingency plan, just in case something like this ever happened. Batman gets on all his bat-scuba gear and hunts down Aquaman. When he finally finds him, Batman ties him up and forces Aquaman to watch as Batman perpares and then cooks up fried calimari for the rest of the Justice League. The story then ends with Aquaman locked up in the back of a JOe's Crab Shack.

Don't worry, aquaman. We'll take care of this one

So, in my attept to stop teasing Aquaman. I was thinking about how unfairly the Jutice League occasional treats him. I mean most of these guys (including Superman) only have one city to protect on their own and team up when there is a larger threat. Meanwhile, there's poor Aquaman prtecting all of the oceans, 70% of the Earth. All by himself, never asking for help and on top of this the Justice League treats him like a chump. WTF? Here's Aquaman protecting all the oceans and these cats that at most protect a State treat him like he's the hall monitor at the special kids school. That's just messed up.

What the hay...after all he is a farmer from Kansas

Well, since I really can't think of anything better to write today (even though,I'm feeling a lot better than the last couple of days,lol). I figured I'd do another post on Superman, today. So, for this post I thought I'd go into the characteristics that make Superman compelling to me. The first one being that he knows what is right and what is wrong there may be some conflict on how he gets there, but there is no conflict in whether he is on the side of angels. Next is the fact that he is an optimist. No matter how dark things get or how futile everything seems Kal-El sees the silver lining and knows that as long as there is a will there is a way. He has a working class work ethic. To Kal-El there is nothing that hard work can't overcome in order to achieve the right results. He is a Hero and his mission on Earth is to be a symbol of hope. As long as you follow these guidelines, I feel your Superman project will be successful. I also feel this was the reason Superman Returns was an utter failure (which it was). You can't humanize a god and you shouldn't give Superman flaws, especially by making him a dead beat dad and a stalker. Because, of this movie I realized Brian Singer wasn't the great film maker I had thought he was.

Faster then a speeding bullet... More powerful than a locomotive...

Even though, I'm still not feeling to well. I decided to write about the awesomeness that is the Fleischer Superman cartoons. I first discovered these cartoons in High School. Back then the local PBS station (channel 12, for those in the 303). WOuld play these short late at night when they needed to fill fifteen minutes of air time.
To me these cartoons are the difinitive take on Superman. Bruce Timm's series comes the closest out of all the other stuff to being as good of a take on Supes as the Fleisher cartoons. For me one of the things that the movies (especially) seem to miss is Clark Kent winking at the camera. At the end of almost every one of the Fleischer cartoons when someone makes a remark about Superman saving the day and Clark Kent would comment on it and then wink at the camera. Of course, the other thing I really enjoyed about this series was how he would complain about Lois Lane scoping him on yet another story. Clark Kent just never seemed to be able to get that front page story about Superman.If you haven't seen these cartoons I highly recommand you do so post haste. After that I think you'll feel the same way.

Up in the sky...It's a bird...It's a plane...

I'm feeling pretty sick today. So, I'm gonna keep the post for today pretty light. I was going to talk about the awesomeness of the old Fleischer Superman cartoons. But, since, I don't have the energy or brain power today. I'm just putting up a clip of it instead. I may blog about tomorrow if I'm feeling better.

Villians week: Darkseid

Well, now that villain;s week is getting close to the end here at Monkey Knife Fight. I thought i would talk about the villain that probably has given Superman and and the rest of the DCU the most problems. A villain so awesome only Jack Kirby himself could have created him...That's right...I'm talking about...

Darkseid


Seriously, of all the villains from either Marvel or DC comics Darkseid is my favorite. From terrorizing Mr. Miracle and the New Gods to become one of Superman's most terrifying foes. Darkseid is just plain awesome. Either, because of or in spite of the fact that he is fated to fail in his life's goal of making everyone in the universe bow to his might.As he quest to uncover the Anti-Life Equation and destroy the New Gods. He is both terrifying and comical in his verbose mannerisms.The in the
DC universe there is one villain as deadly, scary or, evil as... Darkseid.

Villians week: The Joker

Since, I can't think of anything else for this week. I'm gonna spend this week looking at my 5 favorite villains in comic books. Now, just to be clear this won't be a ranking of these five villains. It's just the ones I really dig, in no particular order. We begin with...

The Joker



What's not to love about the clown prince of crime. He is chaos incarnate, as Denny O'Neil has said on many occasions, The Joker is just as likely to kill you because he doesn't like your shoes as he is to give you $1,000 because he doesn't like your shoes. For the Joker all the rules and laws society has created are just one big joke on the poor saps that buy in to them. For me the best none comic interpretation of this character is Mark Hamill's portrayal of The Joker in Batman: TAS. As, good as Heath Ledger was as The Joker in The Dark Knight. I still hear Mark Hamill's voice when I read a comic with The Joker in it. He is the villain that all the other villains hate. Especially, villains like Darkseid and Lex Luthor. He isn't in it for the money or for power. He's in it for the shear fun of it (in his own deranged way). He has no moral compass or shame or sense of desencey. All he wants out of life is to kill Batman, a few Robins and maybe make a couple bucks along the way. which is the reason why he is such a fun villain. I think he's actually a bit funner when he takes on other heroes in the DCU rather than Batman, especially heroes like Superman.

Who puts Filing taxes in a video game

Today, I was watching X-Play and it got me think about how terrible the Superman video games have been. It also got me wondering, is there any way to make a good Superman game? Out of all the Super Hero games I've played none have been as horrible as the games starring Superman. I even remember (though this may not have been real) there being an Aquaman game and it being better than that Timm inspired video game. Now granted I believe that game has been ranked the worst game in the history of video games. Still, when Aquaman has a better game than you that's bad. Is there something about Superman that just inspires bad video games? I mean seriously, between that game and the Superman Returns game. They're practically unplayable. You would think that with his powers and villains, You could make a pretty kick ass game. But, so far the evidence says no. Personally, I would think the only power that would suck trying to put in a game would be his invulernability. Other than that you think it would be a cake walk using him as the main character. The other puzzling thing is how the games with him a supporting cast member usually do a good job with his powers and stuff.

Back at the Hall of Justice

So, a few days ago I did a post on my love of the show Spiderman and his Amazing Friends. In that post I hinted a little bit about how I don't feel Superfriends holds up as well as Spidey and his amazing Friends does. After writing that post I decided that in all fairness I should probably go back and watch some episodes of Superfriends to make sure I wasn't just talking out of my ass (not that that has ever stopped me, but still). So, as of late I've been watching episodes of Superfriends courtesy of youtube and I think I now know the reason the show hasn't aged as well as others like G.I. Joe or SahAF. The reason for this besides the fact that its target audience seemed to be a bit younger than the other shows I've mentioned. Its that the characters on Superfriends (besides Wonder Woman, simple because she was cast as the girl) all have pretty interchangeable personalities. Now this could be partially due to the fact that when the Justice League started up in the sixties the characters personalities weren't really distinct in any real way and that that was probably a hold over that became part of the show. This changed a little bit in the later seasons when they add folks like Firestorm. But, even then the main characters were pretty interchangeable except for their power sets. Without looking at the screen it's kind of hard to tell the difference between GL or, Superman or, the Flash, etc. just from their dialogue. I think had the creators of the show tried a bit harder to differentiate between characters the show would have stormed the whithers of time better than it has. Maybe, this should be a lesson for those whom wish to do cartoons today and in the future. Just a thought.

Jay's Justice League

I thought today I'd share with y'all, who would be in the Justice League if I wrote it and got to choose the team. So, here you go jay's Justice League.

Superman - 'Cuz you kind of have to have him in it to truly be the Justice League.
Batman - What can I say he makes everything 40% cooler.
The Question (Vic Sage) - I thought they used him to great effect in the JLU and ever since then I thought he should be a member.
Booster Gold - Just to make sure there's enough comic relief plus I'd have him mentor Jaime.
Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) - I was never a big fan of the Teen Titans and besides that I always thought it was more of a team for sidekicks. Plus I think it would hilarious to have Booster working as his mentor.
Guy Gardner - He should be on every team in the DCU as far as I'm concerned. Plus I think his interactions with Superman would be worth the price of admission. Of course, you also have to have a Green Lantern on the team, so....
Mr. Miracle - He makes a great dues ex machina.
Big Barda - She's Scott's wife so if you're gonna have him on the team you pretty much have to have her on it and plus She is just plain awesome.
Zatanna - You need a magician on the time and no one looks better in fishnets and a top hat than Zatanna does.
Stargirl - Every team needs a bubbly teenager. For me she'd basically fill in Jubilee's role in the X-Men (plus it would be fun doing jokes about her cosmic rod and Barda's mega-rod,lol)
Oracle - Someone has to do monitor duty while everyone else is fighting off the hordes of Apokolips and I personally feel she is the smartest person in the DCU and you can never have too many smart people on a team (unless it's the Avengers, since most of their smart people are really crazy as well). Plus she's great at tactical support.
Nightwing - Mainly because I still dig the Superfriends. Also, it would give him more time to hang out with Babs.
Wildcat - Just to have as a drill sergeant. Every team needs a drill sergeant.
The Flash (Wally West) - Every Justice League needs a Flash and since he's the one I'm most familiar with....

Well, there you have it. My Awesome Justice League team of awesomeness. I decided to go with a team of 14 member because that seems to be the perfect size for a Justice League team.
Agree/Disagree?

Conspiracy Theory

Something that always weirded me out in comics is that both Bruce Wayne's and Clark Kent's moms are named Martha and I think I have finally solved the problem with this. Here it is Martha was living a double life in the country married to Jonathan Kent and the other living in the city, but not just any city Gotham City as Thomas Wayne's wife. After years of living this double life Martha could no longer take it and decide the only way she could leave Thomas and their son was fake her own death. Well, she hired a man named Joe Chill to do this but, knowning how the Waynes were he decided that he would make a little extra money on the job by killing and robbing Thomas Wayne (when he was supposed to just fire blanks at Martha). He then carried out this gruesome task and after her friend in the morgue, pronounced her dead and let her go. Martha went back to Smallville and acted like nothing had every happened. Leaving poor Bruce Wayne an orphan while she helped to shape Clark Kent's value system never telling him about her horrible secret.