365 Days of Defiance, Day 203: These colors don't run

Panels from Captain America Annual 2001 (November 2001), script by Dan Jurgens, pencils by Ignacio Calero, inks by Marco Galli, colors by Chris Sotomayor, letters by Chris Eliopoulos

365 Days of Defiance, Day 202: Well, I'll Be Super-Amalgamated

If there's one lesson you should know, even in a universe smushed together from two not-that-different realities, it's don't get in between a mother and her child. Also: don't try to lecture her in the middle of it.



Panels from Bullets and Bracelets #1 (Amalgam Comics, April 1996), script by John Ostrander, pencils by Gary Frank, inks by Cam Smith, colors by John Kalisz, letters by Richard Starkings

365 Days of Defiance, Day 201: All This and Earth, Three

Meanwhile on Earth-3 (or -2, depending on how Grant Morrison is countin'), the JLA has trapped their evil counterparts and are stirring up the population of a world where evil reigns and the top rulers of our country are corrupt and using their government positions for their own gainAHEM anyway Wonder Woman is rallying the rebellious spirit of the people to rise up against their oppressors because they have nothing to lose but the giant Green Lantern force field chains around their moon (trust me, it all makes sense in context)...



Panels from JLA: Earth-2 graphic novel (December 1999), script by Grant Morrison, pencils and inks by Frank Quitely, colors by Laura Depuy, color separations by WildStormFX, letters by Kenny Lopez
Of course, by the end of the story everything (give or take a national monument that needs to be super-repaired) is back to normal. Did the Justice League actually do any good, the conclusion asks. Well, now is the time to...heh heh heh...reflect.

365 Days of Defiance, Day 200: Now Ear This

Yes, Moptop Maniaks, you can be defiant just by playing a Beatles song! Exhibit A.

Exhibit B:



Panels from The Brave and the Bold (1955 series) #60 (June-July 1965), script by Bob Haney (who else?!?), pencils and inks by Bruno Premiani, letters by Stan Starkman

365 Days of Defiance, Day 199: IT'S COBBLESTONIN' TIME!

Panels from Secret Wars (2015 series) #6 (December 2015), script by Jonathan Hickman, pencils and inks by Esad Ribic, colors by Ive Svorcina, letters by Chris Eliopoulis

365 Days of Defiance, Day 198: Tonight we're gonna rebel like it's 2099

Panels from Black Panther 2099 #1 (November 2004), script by Robert Kirkman, pencils and inks by Kyle Hotz, colors by Jos&233; Villarrubia, letters by Dave Sharpe
And just what do the Powers that Be Doom think about this?

365 Days of Defiance, Day 197: We'll let blood build a bridge over mountains draped in stars

I'm a sucker for stories of defiance that feature heroes struggling against impossible feats of strength or will. Like giant Spectre holding two Earths apart and keeping them from merging.


Panels from Justice League of America (1960 series) #46 (August 1966), script by Gardner Fox, pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Sid Greene, letters by Gaspar Saladino
Of course, a crisis on Earths One and Two is best served by a team-up, like this giant hero joining forces with a tiny hero! (No, not me, I'm sorry.) Suddenly, it's Atom Ant! i mean, the Atom. Altho' why don't those new DC/Hanna-Barbera team up Ray Palmer with his Formicidae Earth-=HB equivalent? Because reasons, I assume.


Panels from Justice League of America (1960 series) #47 (September 1966), script by Gardner Fox, pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Sid Greene, letters by Gaspar Saladino
Spectre will willingly "sacrifice his existence" (and I think we all know how painful that can be) in order to save the twin Earths. Oh no! But then who will turn criminals against humanity into trees and chainsaw them into logs, or into candles to be burned on the Spectre's birthday cake? Anyway, Dr. Palmer ain't havin' none of that. Our favorite Tiny Titan Little Leaguer has applied The Patch to the Spectre's upper arm, which will reduce his cravings for nicotine at the same time it allows the Ghostly Guardian to shrink down to the size of a tiny pet store turtle!


Then, they blow up the Spectre. Boom! [SPOILER WARNING: he gets better.]


Earths-1 and 2 are saved, and even better: I have no idea how they did that. But good job at cosmic defyin', Mister The Spectre!

365 Days of Defiance, Day 196: No, Mister Bond, I expect you to defy

Panels from Licence to Kill graphic novel (Eclipse, June 1989); script by Richard Ashford; breakdowns by Mike Grell; finishes by Chuck Austen, Tom Yeates, and Stan Woch; colors by Sam Parsons, Sally Parsons, Mel Johnson, and Reuben Rude; letters by Wayne Truman

365 Days of Defiance, Day 195 and Today in Comics History, July 14, 1941: Cheese-Eating Resistance Guerillas

from "The True Story of Jean Hopper, V-Agent 13" in V...- Comics #1 (Fox, January 1942), pencils and inks by John Owen

365 Days of Defiance, Day 194: What's left in your arms when the static clears?

Tomorrow Woman! She's the woman of tomorrow...today! As featured in a comic book of yesterday.


Panels from JLA #5 (May 1997), script by Grant Morrison, pencils by Howard Porter, inks by John Dell, colors by Pat Garrahy, color separations by Heroic Age, letters by Ken Lopez
She's the first new recruit to the all-new, all-iconic Justice League, which only goes to prove: you didn't have to be on Super Friends to join the JLA. What her teammates don't know and we, the omniscient, all-powerful, and devilishly handsome audience know, is that Tomorrow Woman is a robot. An evil robot created and programmed by T. O. Morrow and Professor Ivo, charter members of the League of Evil Scientists Whose Names End in the Syllable "Oh"! She's been designed to betray and destroy the JLA from within their creamy, nougaty center.


But — you guessed it — Tomorrow Woman the robot is more human than some humans, partly because she's been programmed to evolve by proud father T.O. Morrow, but also because she's been hanging around with Superman and Wonder Woman and Green Lantern and all those other good guys and with all that goodness and heroism, it just plain rubs off on her. Meanwhile, on the island of Doctor Morrow, he's kind of proud of his surrogate daughter.


The moment of truth: a tense mission where, as it does in all issues of Grant Morrison's JLA, the fate of the earth rests upon the actions of the Justice League. So this would be a dandy time for her to do the big splodey-thing and kill off the JLA, the greatest heroes of this world! And Wally West.


Of course, as happens in stories like this, Tomorrow Woman sacrifices herself to save humanity (and Wally), and despite the failure to destroy the JLA, T.O. Morrow is actually kind of happy to see her evolve. Happier=, certainly, than when Batman bursts into their HQ and beats him and Ivo to a pulp, but allow the poor guy a moment of triumph as we shed a non-snythitic tear for Tomorrow Woman, the greatest Justice Leaguer we never remember.


NEVER FORGET TOMORROW WOMAN. Also, never forget, so that we might never repeat, Electric Blue Superman.


Thus finishes the finest JLA robot-becomes-human story, made even finer by the fact it doesn't contain Red Tornado.

365 Days of Defiance, Day 193: And now the shock surprise ending of Secret Empire

Panels from The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (March 2015 series) #5 (July 2015), squript by Ryan North, pencils and inks by Erica Henderson, colors by Rico Renzi and Erica Henderson, letters by Clayton Cowles

365 Days of Defiance, Day 192: Hey OMAC, who's your favorite '80s singing duo?

Panels from OMAC (1974 series) #3 (January-February 1975), script and pencils by Jack Kirby, inks and letters by D. Bruce Berry, colors by Jerry Serpe

365 Days of Defiance, Day 191: Wonder Woman jumps kicks the shark

Panels from Wonder Woman (1942 series) #156 (August 1965), script by Robert Kanigher, pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Mike Esposito, letters by Gaspar Saladino

365 Days of Defiance, Day 190: Doctors are strange when you're a stranger

Doctor Strange #3 (1974) boldly features (and apologizes for) a case of the Dreaded Deadline Doom, where, a handful of issues into the (bi-monthly) series, artist (and co-plotter) Frank Brunner couldn't get in the art on time. Today, they'd just postpone the issue another month or two and make us wait for it. Not in those days! The standard modus operandering of 1970s Marvel was to print a fill-in inventory story if the schedule was interrupted in any way — or, frequently, a reprint of an older issue. In those days, at least, if you couldn't hunt down back issues, the only chance you had to see the original stories was reading a reprint, but that's got to be a disappointment when you pick up a new issue.

Still, you can't say that Marvel didn't give us good reprints. (Go ahead: it's actually physically impossible to say that, right?) Most of the issue is a reprint of Doc's big-ass battle with Dormammu (yo mammu!) with classic Ditko art, and that story contains this vitally important debut of Doc's paramour Clea and a definite Declaration of Defiance!


Panel from Doctor Strange (1974 series) #3 (September 1974), reprinted from "Duel with the Dread Dormammu!" in Strange Tales (1951 series) #127 (December 1964); plot, pencils, and inks by Steve Ditko; dialogue by Stan Lee, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Sam Rosen
...and it's got a page and a half wrap-around bookend by Brunner which ends with this bold bravado:


Panels from "Amidst the Madness" in Doctor Strange (1974 series) #3 (September 1974), script by Steve Englehart, pencils by Frank Brunner, inks by Alan Weiss, colors by Jan Brunner, letters by Tom Orzechowski
After that it's even pretty easy to forgive Frank Brunner for missing #3's deadline, because here's the sort of art he created for issue #4:


Page from "Amidst the Madness" in Doctor Strange (1974 series) #4 (October 1974), co-plot and script by Steve Englehart, co-plot and pencils by Frank Brunner, inks by Dick Giordano and Bob Wiacek, colors by Linda Lessman, letters by Tom Orzechowski
WHOA.

Here's the bad news: obviously Brunner couldn't keep up with the schedule, because issue #5 is his last. He's replaced by Gene Colan, and '70s Colan is about as appropriate for Doc Strange as cookies are for your little stuffed truly.


Letter page segment from Doctor Strange (1974 series) #5 (December 1974)
Sadly, I don't think the Englehart/Brunner Fu Manchu project ever materialized, but Frank continued to do artwork for Marvel on Howard the Duck, Conan, and others, and co-created the classic First Comics series Warp. I've always felt we never got enough of Brunner's stunning art, but his work on Doctor Strange for Marvel Premiere #11-14 and Doctor Strange #1-5 are stone cold classic. Here's to you, Frank!

365 Days of Defiance, Day 189: It's hard to bury the hatchet holdin' a chainsaw

Panels from Fight Like a Girl #1 (Action Lab, November 2014); script by David Pinckney; pencils, inks, and colors by Soo Lee; letters by Adam Wollet

365 Days of Defiance, Day 188: Batman gets knocked down, but he gets up again

Panels from Batman (2016 Rebirth series) #20 (early June 2017), script by Tom King, pencils by David Finch inks by Danny Mik and Trevor Scott, colors by Jordie Bellaire, letters by Deron Bennett

365 Days of Defiance, Day 187: Heavens to Murgatroyd

Panels from "House Fires" in Suicide Squad/Banana Splits Special one-shot (May 2017), script by Mark Russell, pencils and inks by Howard Porter, colors by Steve Buccellato, letters by Dave Sharpe

365 Days of Defiance, Day 186: Time for Defiance

Panels from Back to the Future: Biff to the Future #4 (April 2017), story and script by Bob Gale and Derek Fridolfs, pencils by Alan Robinson, inks by Alan Robinson and Jaime Castro, colors by Maria Santaolalla, letters by Shawn Lee

365 Days of Defiance, Day 185: Mr. Batman Goes to Washington

Panels from "Batman Goes to Washington" in Batman (1940 series) #28 (April-May 1945), script by Alvin Schwartz, pencils and inks by Jerry Robinson, letters by Ira Schnapp
No one would definitely call Batman a patriotic character (aside from that one time where he dressed up as Star-Spangled Batman), but during World War II it was pretty much required for you to not only be patriotic but to turn in your old comics for scrap paper to...uh...I dunno, build tanks out of. I'm sure Bruce Wayne converted many of his ball-point pen and rubber glove factories to making big-ass guns for the Allies, and he likely spear-headed several local Gotham City events and rallies to buy bonds, but Batman himself (and, oh yeah, Robin) certainly had adventures that inspired a proud tear as you salute the ol' red stripes and White Stripes and all 48 good old American contiguous states. No foolin' though, Batman would salute as soon as Alaska joined the Union. Hawaii, though, as far as Batman was concerned — heck with it.

This is a story of defiance, not against the government ( — goodness no, National woukldn't dare in the '40s), and not even against the Axis powers, tho' there were plenty of cover images devoted to that, most infamously and wrongly Action Comics #58. No, this is about not only fighting criminal organizations rampant during the war (through use of a government crime database) as well as giving reformed ex-cons a chance to work in the wartime society. It was definitely a simpler time — let's face it, Batman's pride in the government crime database doesn't fit with his modern "don't trust nobody" ethos. But it's done with such a light touch it's forgivable, and give yourself the suspension of disbelief in a comic book world where the government is trying to help us all and bad guys can reform. Remember: once upon a time Gotham City was bright and cheerful and sunny and while clowns and quizzers freely roamed the streets, they were carefree pranksters who would have fun on top of giant appliances and really no more harm to anyone than one of those rubber-masked monsters those meddling kids chased down.

Bruce Wayne ponders the plight of reformed ex-cons who have gone straight but can't get jobs. Hmmm, too bad there aren't any main industries in Gotham for them to apply to. Instead, put on the old cape 'n' cowl and start a social media movement. Social media, in this case, meant that Batman asked to interrupt The Jack Benny Program to lecture on the radio for thirty minutes about his new employment idea. Gotham City warmed to the idea, but Don Wilson was furious.


Ex-cons reduced to doing nothing but sitting around, playing cards, and on average wearing one-third of a green suit like the idea, and Batman reads his fan mail after Alfred has already opened up all the envelopes and removed the snapshots that weren't appropriate for Robin to see.


Batman gets a letter inviting him to speak in front of the Senate, and WHOO HOO ROAD TRIP! This issue marks the first appearance of the Batmobile's famous Bat-Trailer, and NO I AM NOT KIDDING ABOUT THAT


Unfortunately, some real and unrepentant criminals want to pressure the Senate from voting for Batman's Jobs for Ex-Cons Bill. Rich private organizations trying to pressure and influence the government through shady means? Man, I'll believe in Superman, but this is a little crazy. Meanwhile, Batman gives the ex-cons a patriotic tour of Washington, prompting them to stand up straight and be as rock-steady as the Giant Ape sitting in the Lincoln Memorial WAIT A MINUTE GIANT APE?!? YOU BLEW IT UP! DARN YOU ALL TO HECK!


Time to visit FBI Headquarters and see how their patented 3 by 5 card system helps stamp out racketeers and fifth-columnists across the country! Crime cards! Collect 'em all!


Then they see the almost photographically detailed Capitol Building — eriously, nice job, Jerry Robinson! I'm sure if Bob Kane had done the Capitol it would have been red. Meanwhile...suspenseful caption strikes!


Batman and Robin are coshed by the bad crooks and that robot from Planet Express and spirited away to a warehouse, which only goes to prove: Golden Age Batman and Robin must have had some serious head injuries. Also: hash is settled.


And the good ex-cons hunt for and release Batman! To be fair, it was six days later, and they'd put 3,300 miles on the Batmobile joyriding around the Capitol area, but in the end they did the right thing.


And now, in the spirit of Batman Returns and Batman Forever...Batman Filibusters! Happy Fourth of July, everyone!