The Greatest G'Nort Stories Ever Told

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we turn our attention to one of the super-hero genre's proudest wearers of the green; a most distinguished member of that fabled cadre of interstellar policemen known as the Green Lantern Corps.  I speak of the greatest being ever to wear a power ring, none other than the inimitable G'Nort Esplanade Gneesmacher.  From the moment that he burst upon the scene in 1987's Justice League International #10, this furry wonder immediately captured the hearts and minds of comics fans the world over, and quickly became a beloved fan favorite.

Well, maybe not, but I like him.  Thus, I have compiled a list of what I consider to be the five best stories featuring the character. 

5. Justice League America #36 

"G'Nort by G'Nortwest"

by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Tom Artis and Art Nichols

For the number five spot on my list, it was a toss-up between this issue and Justice League Quarterly #2's "Designing Humans."

"G'Nort by G'Nortwest" finds G'Nort's "arch-enemy", by virtue of being the only criminal G'Nort ever actually apprehended, the Scarlet Skier, former "locater" for interplanetary designer Mr. Nebula, coming to Earth after being released from prison to seek revenge on the Green Lantern who put him behind bars.

The JLQ issue, in which Mr. Nebula comes to Earth looking for the skier and the Justice League must prevent him from redecorating the planet, is actually, in my opinion, a better story.  However, JLA #36 features G'Nort more prominently, so it makes the list.

4. Green Lantern #9-#12 

 "A Guy And His G'Nort"

by Gerard Jones, Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson

Although this was billed as the first ever Guy Gardner solo story, the JLI's brain damaged ring-bearer isn't exactly going it alone for these four issues.  He's got ol' G'Nort in tow as the two go on a quest to uncover G'Nort's true origins.  After the newly returned Guardians of the Universe reveal that they've never seen or heard of G'Nort before, Guy and G'Nort uncover a plot by the Thunderers of the Anti-Matter universe of Qward to discredit the Green Lantern Corps by distributing fake GL rings to idiots like G'Nort.  G'Nort, however, proves himself truly worthy of the ring when he sacrifices his power to save Guy.

3.  Mister Miracle #6  

"Barking Up the Wrong Tree"

by Giffen, DeMatteis, Mike McKone and Peter Gross

When some two-bit gangsters try to get a protection racket going in Bailey, New Hampshire, the small town where Scott Free (a.k.a. Mr. Miracle) and his wife Barda have settled down, Oberon contacts the Justice League for help and G'Nort answers the call.  Any story that contains the line "Help! A giant dog is trying to sell me insurance!" has got to be a classic.

2. Justice League America #51

 "My Dinner With G'Nort"

by Giffen, DeMatteis, Adam Hughes and Joe Rubinstein

I actually have two copies of this issue.  One is to read, and the other is bagged, boarded and signed by artist Adam Hughes.

When G'Nort drops by the JLI's New York embassy for a surprise visit, a bored of his skull Kilowog invites his "brother alien" out for a night on the town.  J'Onn J'Onnz, the Martian Manhunter, tags along to keep the pair out of trouble.  You can imagine how well that works out.  You've got to wonder who thought that taking G'Nort to see Cats was a good idea, and things only get worse when a super-villain attacks during dinner.

This issue was a serious candidate for the top spot on the list, but after some consideration I decided to give it to:

1. Justice League America Annual #4 

 "What's Black and White and Black and White and Bl..."

by Giffen, DeMatteis, McKone and Bob Smith

 After inadvertantly foiling a robbery, which they themselves had intended to commit, the quintet of inept second rate super-villains known as the Injustice League find themselves hailed as heroes and decide to go straight, offering their services to the Justice League International.  Together with G'Nort and the Scarlet Skier, they become Justice League Antarctica and soon find themselves facing a horde of genetically engineered, man-eating penguins.

There you have it, dear readers.  The Top 5 G'Nort stories.  Proof, if any were needed, that G'Nort Esplanade Gneesmacher is indeed the greatest canine Green Lantern of them all.

Top 5 Comics by John Ostrander

As you have probably gathered from the contents of some of my recent posts, I gots me a mad crush on Johnny O.  He's one of those writers whose name on a project will get me to consider buying a comic about a character that I would normally give a wide berth.  He has a talent for taking lame or under utilized characters and giving them depth and life.  Even his weakest efforts are worth reading at least once.  When he's at his peak, he exemplifies the best that comics as as medium, not just the super-hero genre, has to offer. 

Here, then, is my list of what I consider to be his five greatest accomplishments in the comics field.

5. The Kents--Essentially this is a Western, though it was likely its connections to the super-hero genre, and the Superman mythology in particular, that sold it to DC and to readers.  The 12 issue series, drawn by frequent Ostrander collaborators Tim Truman (issues #1-8) and Tom Mandrake (#'s 9-12), tells the tale of the ancestors of Jonathan Kent, Superman's Earthly father, and how they came to settle in Smallville, Kansas around the middle of the 19th century.  Ostrander uses this framework to dramatize the events leading up to the Civil War by placing members of this fictional family near the center of those events.

4.   Wasteland--Co-written with Chicago theater legend Del Close and drawn by a variety of  artists including Don Simpson, David Lloyd, Tom Artis, Ty Templeton, Tim Truman and William Messner-Loebs, just to list the ones I can name off the top of my head, Wasteland was an 18 issue experiment in reviving the horror anthology, though perhaps editor Mike Gold was more on the mark when he described it in the letters pages as a "black hole humor" book. Eschewing blood and guts for the most part in favor of more psychological horrors, Ostrander and Close produced short tales that were sometimes funny, often disturbing, generally thought provoking and always worth reading.  Among the highlights were the recurring adventures of The Dead Detective, a corpse who was nonetheless capable of thought, and constantly wondering why that was, and of getting involved in increasingly absurd situations, and the frequent biographical sketches showing incidents from Close's colorful past.

3. Deadshot--A dark, disturbing and compelling journey into the life and mind of the Suicide Squad's resident killer with a death wish, Floyd Lawton, a.k.a. Deadshot.  For more details on this one, see my previous post.

2. Hawkworld--Expertly blending super-heroics, hard science fiction and social commentary, Ostrander uses the characters of Katar Hol and Shayera Thal, visiting policemen from the alien planet Thanagar, to show the readers modern day American society as seen through the eyes of outsiders from a repressive totalitarian society, in the process challenging the reader to really think, for perhaps the first time, about the principles on which this country was founded and the rights and freedoms we so blithely take for granted.  This, by the way, is another series about which I have written previously.

1. The Spectre--My choice for the top spot on this list should be no surprise considering the glowing write up I gave this series last week.  By focusing on the Astral Avenger's human side, Jim Corrigan, as a three dimensional character rather than the Spectre entity itself as a cosmic force, Ostrander crafted the finest series of stories ever told about the character in his seven decades of existence, telling the tale of the spiritual growth of a lost soul struggling toward his ultimate redemption. 

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This list, of course, represents only my opinion, and yours may vary.  I'm almost certain that one particular regular reader of this blog will take me to task for not including Suicide Squad.  That was the hard part of making this list.  There was so much good stuff that it was difficult to decide what to leave off. If I were David Letterman, and this was a Top 10 list, Squad, as well as Firestorm, Grimjack and even Batman: Gotham Nights would surely have found its way onto the list.

Stan Lee's TOP 5 "Amazing Spider-Man" Story Titles

(I shall be honest here and admit that this is pretty much just a quick post put up mostly just to be posting something, as I've been on a bit of a streak lately and I'd like to try and keep it up as long as possible.  I'll take some time tomorrow and provide some more of the in-depth analysis and perspicacious prose you've come to expect of me in my next post.)

Perhaps Stan Lee's most overlooked talent was his ability to come up with attention grabbing and memorable titles for his little tales of super-heroic adventure, which ranged from the terrifically tongue-in-cheek ("Never Step On A Scorpion" or "You Think It's Easy to Dream Up Titles Like This?" from Amazing Spider-Man #29) to the magnificently melodramatic ("If This Be My Destiny...!" from ASM #31 and "O, Bitter Victory!" from ASM #60).   Below is a list of my five personal favorite story names from Lee's 105 issue run on Amazing Spider-Man:

5.

"Bring Back My Goblin To Me!"

(Amazing Spider-Man #27)

4.

"The Tentacles and the Trap!"

(Amazing Spider-Man #54)

3.

"If This Be Bedlam!"

(Amazing Spider-Man #74

2.

"The Molten Man Regrets...!

(Amazing Spider-Man #35)

1.

"How Green Was My Goblin!"

(Amazing Spider-Man #39)

 

It seems that the Green Goblin really got Stan's creative juices flowing, at least when it came to campy and creative story titles. 

Someday soon, I'll have to do a similar list covering Lee's run on Fantastic Four.

Top 5 Presidents With The Most Appearances In Comic Books

At the end of a long and thoughtful comment on the re-posting of my long winded and pretentious piece on "Watchmen As Alternate History," Jonathon Riddle closed with this thought:

"Which American president has had the most appearances in American comics? My guess would be Reagan."

Even though the comment is unsigned, I'm fairly positive that it was Jonathon, since this is a  question he has raised several times in our conversations off-line.  So, when I was trying to think of something vaguely politically themed to write about on this Election Day, I decided to find out the answer to  his question.

Arriving at that answer was  a simple, if somewhat tedious, matter of going to the Comic Book Data Base and counting the listed appearances of the U.S. Presidents. 

Of all the presidents listed on the site, the one with the most appearances is, of course, Lex Luthor.  You may remember that Superman's arch-nemesis was elected President of the United States of the DC Universe in 2000 and remained in office till he went full on battle-suited berserk at the end of the first Superman/Batman story arc, "Public Enemies." Of course, I didn't bother counting all of his appearances, which must number in the thousands.  Of the real world presidents listed, none had more than a hundred.  Although one came close.

Keep in mind that the info on this data base is by no means complete.  I added a previously unlisted appearance of Gerald Ford while I was doing my research, and I know of at least one appearance by LBJ that's not catalogued.  Also, Teddy Roosevelt isn't listed at all, and I know of at least one comic book appearance of the Rough Rider.  Of course, he is drawn as a Disney style anthropomorphised animal complete with cute button nose.  That's because said appearance is in Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.  And, hey, if we're counting fictional characters, how come Prez Rickard isn't listed there.

Anyway, without further preamble, I give you:

The Top 5 U.S. Presidents With The Most Comic Book Appearances

5. Abraham Lincoln

The Honest One earns extra points for appearing on one of the oddest and most memorable covers of the Bronze Age, the Weird Western Tales cover that accompanies this post.

4. George W. Bush

"Poppy," by the way, comes in 9th.

3. Bill Clinton

2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Even though he was President throughout almost the entire Golden Age of Comics, most of his comic book appearances come from the 70's and 80's

And it seems that Jonathon's guess was on the money.  With 92 appearances listed on the Comic Book Data Base, the most frequently appearing president in comic books is:

1. Ronald Wilson "Dutch" Reagan

Now, quit wasting your time reading comics blogs and go vote.

Top 5 Super-Hero Movies or TV Shows NOT Based On Comics

As you can see in recent posts, I've gotten on a list-making kick, and my post comparing the 90s Electric Superman to Steven Spielberg's Freakazoid inspired the following round up of five of the best super-hero sagas of movies and television that are not adaptations of comics.  

For a moment, I considered putting Batman Beyond on this list, since Terry McGinniss is an original creation for TV, but, in the end, he's still calling himself Batman and Bruce Wayne is still hanging around. Heck, if I were gonna include Batman Beyond I might as well throw in the Lou Ferigno The Incredible Hulk series, since it shared little other than a title with the comics that were supposed to have inspired it.
Also, although I've heard good things about it, and enjoyed other films by Sam  Raimi, especially the first two Spider-Man films and the Evil Dead series, I've never actually seen Darkman, so that's why it didn't make the list.

Anyway, the list I finally settled on follows the jump.  Please feel free to share your thoughts on this list, as well as any additions or substitutions you might have made.