New 52 Justice League # 1

by Mark Rodriguez

I never had the chance to blog about the 52 Justice League's big intro, but now that the newly announced Justice League War animated feature will be based on the first 6 issues, now's a good a time as any. Unlike past animated movies like Under the Red Hood or Justice League Doom, this time I had the chance to read the original story first to notice any differences in the animated version. Right of the bat, the first change I heard about was them replacing Aquaman with Shazam in the upcoming animated issue. It also seems like they want to put some kind of buddy-buddy relationship between him and Cyborg. We'll see how that works out.

Even though it's 6 issues long, you'll soon see that this story wasn't particularly deep. It was mostly the heroes discovering the existence of each other and stopping a random invasion attempt from Darkseid. So that also leaves for a lot of room for extra padding and subplots to make this story long enough to be a feature film. Anyways, let's check out The New 52 Justice League issue 1.

Justice League part 1 opens with Batman chasing some of sort thing, while the Gotham City PD are chasing after him. This takes place 5 years before the present time, and at this time the world didn't know or trust superheroes, so Batman is being hunted by the police. Batman jumps rooftop to rooftop, tossing smoke bombs to cover his tracks from the police helicopters. He tosses a grappling hook right though the escaping person's leg as he jumps across another rooftop. Batman and the person tumble and roll, with Bats pinning him down and asking him what he was doing by the docks.

The man is some sort of monster and he unleashes some sort of explosive blasts that knocks Batman back. The monster starts to punch Batman until suddenly a neon green light fills the area. A fire truck made out of glowing green energy runs by and slams into the monster, almost knocking Batman off the ledge. As Batman climbs back onto the rooftop, he sees the Green Lantern, who is surprised to see that Batman is real. Bats tells him that he's 'too damn bright' and he should turn it down before they're seen.

Just then the police choppers spot them and start to open fire. Lantern makes a force field to protect them. Batman says the world is afraid of them. Lantern says he says that like it's a good thing, and Batman replies with 'it's necessary'. The monster suddenly sprouts wings and smacks Lantern with them. He then shoots out a mouth blast that blows up the helicopters. Before Batman can do anything, Lantern sends green bats to help save the fallen helicopters.

The monster suddenly grows spider-like legs and escapes to the city below. Batman chases after him and tell Green Lantern to 'take his flashlight and go home' since Gotham City belongs to him. Lantern tells him that the whole space sector belongs to him and there are thousands of Green Lanterns out there patrolling across the universe. Batman doesn't care much about his story and tells him that the monster was spotted trying to plant a bomb downtown, and when cops tried to attack it, it would spit fire from its mouth.

Green Lantern says he has the fires covered as green energy fire trucks are putting them out all over town. He then asks Batman what his powers are, if he can fly or have super strength. He is surprised to find out he's 'just a guy in a bat costume'. Batman suddenly reveals he has Green Lantern's ring in his hand and asks him what it does. As Lantern is surprised as how he got it off, Batman determines it must work off his concentration. Lantern gets his ring back and the heroes throw threats at each other until Batman spots the spider-monster fusing something to a wall.

Lantern flies into it, saying that if it's some kind of bombed, the monster just armed it. The monster says 'For Darkseid' and then explodes in a vicious wave of fire. Batman and Green Lantern are safe in a steel safe made of green energy. Batman says he blew itself up on purpose and tried to take them with it. Lantern says whatever the monster came to do, it did it, and he uses his ring to try to identify the bomb. He's surprised the ring can't identify it, and after Batman examines it, he determines it's some kind of alien computer. Lantern says it might be related to 'that guy in Metropolis' since he heard he's an alien. Batman's heard of him and says he's dangerous due to his power levels. Lantern says he won't be problem for him and says he can fill him in on their way to Metropolis.

It is said  his power level reaches that of over 9000.... 

Batman and Green Lantern arrive in front of some sort of Lexcorp facility and Bats complains about how they arrived in Metropolis is glowing green jet, which would have drawn too much attention to themselves. Bats notices the area looks like Superman was in some kind of fight, but Lantern ignores him and says he'll go in and restrain Superman for questioning.

Seconds later. a red and blue blur socks Green Lantern clear across the battlefield. Superman says he can't be handled easily and stands before Batman. He asks him what can he do.

While many complained about the differences from this version of the Justice League with the one before Flashpoint, I saw it a fresh new starting point for me to get to know these characters. Since I was mostly just a Batman fan, and his story wasn't so much as changed, more like streamlined, this was the chance for me to get into the 'whole new series' and see the characters in their new outfits.

A fun little detail I noticed is that back when people were announcing and giving sneak peaks at the epic brand new N52 costumes, they were gonna give Wonder Woman black pants. The original previews for this cover showed her in the black pants. I guess in the end they decided to change her back to her more traditional star-spangled bikini bottom at the very VERY last minute.

Yeah, people complain about the Martian Manhunter not being a core member anymore, and apparently being replaced by Cyborg, who was one of the Teen Titans. For some reason DC has been pushing Cyborg a lot, making him a big part of the Flashpoint storyline, and even adding him in the animated feature Justice League Doom when he wasn't in the original story the movie was based on (JLA Tower of Babel). For whatever reason, Cyborg was upgraded from being one of the Teen Titans to being one of the founding members of the Justice League.

My personal complaint with the New 52 is how they had to get rid of Batman's costumes. He wore a variety of bat-suits throughout the years and he keeps some of them on display in the Batcave. I know they didn't want to confuse the readers with a different Batsuit in this '5 years earlier' storyline than what he would wear in Batman # 1 and Detective # 1 and so forth.... but still... this (as well as flashbacks throughout the New 52 Batman series) totally retcon it so Batman's New 52 outfit is the ONLY outfit he ever wore. I'm sorry... but I'm always gonna treasure the classic blue outfit with the yellow oval as part of his history from back in the day.

As for the story itself, there's not much to say since at this point it's mostly a Batman/Green Lantern team-up. I love theses scenes, especially when Batman snatched his ring and when Lantern discovered Batman is just a guy in a costume, without any actual super powers. I also like how Batman isn't particularly impressed by the guy that can create basically anything out of thin air. Green Lantern goes into detail about the Green Lantern Corps watching over every bit of the galaxy, and he's like 'uh-huh'. And I loved the 'take your green flashlight and go home' line.

As for Hal Jordan, people complain he was too cocky here, but hey, he's young, he's new, and for lack of a better term, he's still pretty green. I'm not up on Green Lantern's comics, so I assume after discovering these awesome powers that just boggle the mind with his ring (he's somehow controlling green fire trucks to put out fires all over town while hanging with Batman) he hasn't really encountered anything that was an actual threat to him... until he runs right smack into the wall known as Superman.

For more Justice League stuff here's my review on Justice League The Flashpoint Paradox

and also my other Justice League related reviews-
My review of Justice League- Doom
Epic Randomness of the Dark Knight (my first review co-starring the N52 Superman and Flash)
Epic Randomness of the Dark Knight part 2 (more N52 Superman and Flash cameos)

Philly Cheese Steak Inspired Sloppy Joes

Mark and I devoured all the sandwiches before we could take a picture...So I had to borrow a picture...
source: blogchef.net

Who likes sloppy joes and philly cheese steaks?! *Crowd starts cheering* Well I found a recipe that combines both of those favorite foods into one delicious sandwich. It's a philly cheese steak inspired sloppy joe. I found this as a random recipe people share on Facebook. I said hey, let's give it a try! And it was super delicious!

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 small sweet onion
1 green bell pepper
1/4 cup steak sauce
1 cup beef broth
Provolone cheese
Buns

1. Prep by chopping the sweet onion. Seed and chop the green bell pepper.
2. Brown the ground beef along with the chopped peppers and onions
3. As the food is halfway cooked add the broth and steak sauce. Cook the rest of the way through.
4. Allow the mixture to simmer so the sauce can thicken.
5. Spoon mixture onto the buns. Finish the sandwich with some provolone cheese on top and place under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is melted.

Death of Superman 1 (Superman Man of Steel # 18)

By Mark Rodriguez

I still remember the media out roar when DC announced the death of Superman. Of course now we can laugh and be like 'oh puuuh-leeeeze, as if they'd really kill Superman', but back then it was really announced everywhere that Superman was going to die for reals. I remember it hitting the papers and tv news. I mean when have you ever seen the evening news announce Batman's son was dying soon or that Doctor Octopus took Spider-Man's body? Everyone was surprised and they were asking if DC was gonna put it all on Batman now since they killed off their cash cow.

I still remember my dad seeing the news reports with pics of Doomsday beating the Man of Steel bloody and being like 'what is this garbage? Superman getting black eyes and bleeding as if he was a normal guy?" Of course we know guys in the comics like Lobo and Darkseid can go toe-to-toe with or even kill Superman if he's careless, but dad's Superman mostly stopped bank robbers or giant robots without breaking a sweat. And even though my memory is foggy, I doubt General Zod or that lame-ass Nuclear Man ever drew blood in the Christopher Reeves movies.

I still remember a friend of mine bringing the TPB to high school back then and letting me read it. Now I was finally able to order and buy a reprint and I'll start reviewing it part by part. Let's go back into the past when Doomsday came for Superman.

'Doomsday Part 1 starts 'somewhere else' (it literally says so) as a gloved hand is punching away out some sort of metallic prison. After six pages of Kraanging against the metal prison, this mystery monster finally breaks free and bursts out from underground.

The one who is known as Doomsday is coming to the place that is known as here

Superman flies overhead as a random black kid watches him, feeling lucky that he saved his life twice. He goes out to buy glow-in-the-dark spray paint. The owner asks if he's gonna use that in the subway... which is probably something he should have asked before he sold it to the kid.

Elsewhere there are monsters called Underworlders led by one called Clawster that are living in the sewers and hypnotizing the underground workers to help them take control of the power station. The kid gets his stuff together and heads out to the sewers, since the monsters have taken his mother. He plans to leave markers with the glow-in-the-dark spray paint to prevent from getting lost.

At the Daily Planet, Lois Lane gets an anonymous tip telling her to send Superman to the basement under the west side power station since Metroplis is in danger. She leaves Clark a message on his computer (at this point she knows Clark is Superman) and heads off.

Elsewhere, the monster, trapped in some kind of green containment suit with one arm still tied behind its back, reaches out and lets a bird fly to his hand. He then laughs evily as he squishes it in his grasp.

Superman returns to the Daily Planet after patrolling the city in search of the Underworlders, and turns back into Clark Kent. Just as he sees Lois' message on his comp, the lights go out. The Underworlders celebrate that they caused the blackout and can now control the city.

Underground, Lois is snooping around when suddenly a large hand grabs her shoulder. She retaliates with a back kick. Unfortunately, she just kicked Clawster, who has rock-like skin, so she falls and grabs her foot in pain. Clawster laughs at her plight, and guy with a shotgun that's with them recognizes her. Lois also knows the guy as someone named Charlie that she sees at a homeless shelter.

That's a pretty awesome kick!

Lois Lane is tied up and feels betrayed and Clawster explains that Charlie learned he is a reject from society just like them. They also have war machines they intend to use to attack the city. Charlie convinces Clawster that Lois would make a good hostage. Clawster agrees but mentions their boss doesn't take prisoners. The black kid is hiding in the area and overhears this, fearing the worst has already happened to his mother.

I have to say, this version of Lois Lane is kinda hot....

Elsewhere the monster punches a tree into splinters. He then starts destroying the forest... because he can.

The kid makes it back to the surface telling himself he should have alerted Superman sooner about the monsters instead of believing their lies. Maybe they don't really have his mother, but he knows they DO have Lois and she will die if he doesn't help. He heard of how the people in Gotham call in Batman with the Bat-Signal, so he tries spray painting a giant S on the street hoping he will see it. Sure enough, Superman does show up, and the kid, named Keith tells him what's going on.

Underground, the Underworlders are preparing to use a giant drill vehicle they call the Borer to cause damage in the city above. Superman shows up and quickly shoves the Borer back. One of the monsters tries to distract him with a grenade, but Superman snatches it and jams it into Clawster's mouth, making it explode and knock him out. The others activate their war machines, but Superman gets past them all and grabs their leader before he can make a break for it. He demands to know where Lois is, but the monster tells him she's probably been killed already by Charlie since they don't take prisoners.

Meanwhile the monster brings down a bridge, causing massive destruction with all the traffic in the way.

Superman don't take no crap when Lois Lane is involved!

Superman soon arrives and sees Charlie with Lois and is about to sock him out. Lois kicks his butt and stops him, telling him that Charlie is their informant. He's a pacifist from the 60's and was able to get the inside info on the Underworlders, and was also the one that sent Lois the note earlier. He just didn't expect Lois to show up and get captured, but he managed to the convince the others that he was going to kill her.

She sure is into kicking everybody today.

Charlie will take Clawster and the rest to trial in the Underworld. Lois offers jobs for Charlie and his friend, but they both agree that they'd rather take their chances underground. As Superman and Lois leave, they wonder if they should have told him about another problem they have named Bloodthirst. Charlie's friend says it's their own problem but they at least know they can count on Superman if they need him.

Elsewhere, the monster runs into a driver in a big truck (the same kind that Optimus Prime is) and easily knocks it over and blows it up. As the monster walks off laughing, the state trooper starts to request for back up as the monster is tearing up all of the interstate as it heads East. The guy on the radio decides this is something bigger and its a job for the Justice League.

Poor Optimus Prime couldn't transform and roll out fast enough....

Well this was an interesting start of an epic story. I assume back in the day everyone was full of awe and wondering just who or what this powerful creature was, able to cause so much destruction with one arm tied behind its back. Sadly we'll find out there isn't much to this monster except that it is an unstoppable force of hatred and destruction and any other information we discover about Doomsday happens in future stories. But for right now, I'm sure at the time everyone was curious about this super powerful being.

The rest of the story was ok, but I guess if I read the past 17 issues of Superman Man of Steel, I would have known more about Keith and the Underworlders. Clawster and his gang seemed to be recurring threats since Superman was already out on patrol looking for them before the story even started. As for Keith, no idea why he thought they had his mother, but I feel sorry for her (and Keith) if they really did kill her.

I have to say, Lois Lane was kinda bad-ass with that kick she threw. Too bad it was against a rock alien monster that could barely feel it. I have seen Lois use basic self defense skills before to try to prevent from being captured... but unfortunately for her, the kidnappers are either real big strong guys or monsters that would give Superman a run for his money... so she ends up being captured anyway.

Superman took care of Clawster and the rest without much problems. The war machines shooting at him slowed him down a little, but he still made short work of everything. A small example of how powerful the Man of Steel can be before he runs into the brick wall known as Doomsday.

I don't have to much to say about this particular part of the story except that it's an interesting beginning and of course I can't wait to see what happens when Superman finally goes face to face with Doomsday.

If you want even more Superman fun, check out what Johnny and I thought of the Man of Steel movie, and also my review on Superman Unbound.