Sgt. Fury Pin-Up

Tommy Lee Jones to be in Captain America

I just heard something that gave me more confidence in the Captain America movie. Tommy Lee Jones has just signed to play the Army office who recruits Steve Rogers and trains him after he takes the super solider formula. I love almost everything I see Mr. Jones in and this should up the quality of the movie. Maybe you can sign him to play the characters son in the 21st century as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. or maybe a no nonsense politican. Too bad they have already cast Nick Fury because Tommy Lee Jones would be a great Sgt. Fury.

The Umpire Strikes Back

With everyone celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of the Empire Strikes Back this week I was reminded of this book. It came out not long after the release of the hit film. It was co-autohred by flamboyant baseball Umpire Ron Luciando. This and other books he wrote were about his days as an Umpire from 1969 to 1979. He had many bouts with managers at the plate. His biggest advasary was Baltimore Orioles Manager Earl Weaver. He threw Weaver out of so many games that they finally kept him from being an Umpire when the Orioles played. When he named his top 5 toughest managers to deal with Weaver was the first 4. Frank Robinson was #5 and he called him Weaver's protege. In the eighties for a brief time he was a sports commentator with NBC. Saddly in 1995 he committed suicide. He is best remembered for his humorus books about baseball. Along with the Umpire Stikes Back they are Strike Two, The Fall of the Roman Umpire, Remembrance of Swings Past and Baseball Lite.

Sergio Aragones Stomps Star Wars

Since this is the 30th Anniversary of the release of the Star Wars movie the Empire Strikes Back I thought you would like to read this version by Mr. Aragones.

On sale this day in 1968

This is the ad for Plastic Man and Jerry Lewis that was released on this day in 1968.

He's a Genius...NOT!

When I look back on the history of comic book villains it isn't surprising that they lost to our favorite heroes. I mean they weren't very good with finances. They would probably spend millions of dollars to set up a bank robbery where they only got a few thousands of dollars. Worse yet is that they would spend the millions only to get revenge on the hero. There they don't even get some of the money to make up for what they spent. The silver age and early bronze age of comics were full of them.
The poster boy for these types of villains at that time was Lex Luthor. In a 1973 book of Action Comics he had escaped from jail. He had an uncerground hideout and spent money to build a tank that would fire at Superman and release a weapon that would transfer his hate to Superman. This made Superman insane with rage just at the thought of Luthor. He also built a chair that could trasnport him from place to place and a special glove that gave him enough strength that when he would hit Superman it could have killed him. Of course the plan didn't work but think of all that money just spent to kill Superman. His financial insanity was so well known that in that same book another crook disguised himself as Luthor and he had a rather elaborate looking gun just to rob a bank.
Eventually the creators had Luthor wise up. He used his brains for finances and now he nearly owns Metropolis. He even has started enough charites that he has most of the citizens fooled into thinking he is a much of a hero as Superman.

Another villian and sometimes anti-hero from the silver age is Eclipso. When he first appeared in 1963 he possessed the body of Dr. Bruce Gordon. Dr. Gordon was a good man and with the help of his friends he was able to keep Eclipso in his body but on some occassions he would black out and Eclipso would be free. Eclipso would always get a hideout and henchmen. Then he would proceed to rob museums and banks. Now here he was a villain who for months at a time didn't exist in the world. Suddenly he appears and has money to get the hideout and henchmen. Where did he get the money for all of that? I am certain it would have cost more then he would get to rob the bank. Of course he probably would find a place that had been abandoned and probably didn't have to pay the henchmen till after the bank was robbed.
While he didn't appear much he did star in a popular mini-series that led to a regular series. It was there that we found that Eclipso only possessed Dr. Gordon because he worked on solar energy and if he was a success then any solar powered weapon on the planet could be used against him. When he got the diamond the "Heart of Darkness" his power encreased and he was able to take over a small country. So Eclipso was really smarter then he acted but he still was defeated at the hands of superheroes. He book didnt seem to sell well and it was canceled. I part of his charm was that he was hardly around. He hasn't been seen much since. Too much of Eclipso is a bad thing.



Over at Marvel comics the villains made more sense. They hardly ever robbed a bank. That was beneath most of them. They just wanted to conquer the world. That is usually what Dr. Doom was trying to do. yet one thing stood in his way...Reed Richards. Not the Fantastic Four. Doom knew he could take care of the Thing, Human Torch and the Invisible Girl (later Woman) with one hand behind his back. It was the brain of Reed Richards that could always figure out was Dr. Doom was up to and how to stop him. Just the thought of Mr. Fantastic could drive Dr. Doom mad. He was wealthy and the dictator of his own country. Still there was never any doubt that he would risk loosing it all if he could defeat Reed Richards. He probably could have gotten everything back after that. He probably spent millions to create machines to send the FF back in time to get them out of his way. Perhaps he would find a way to hurl the Baxter Building into space. No matter what Dr. Doom did the Richards family would always win.
I know earlier I said he would bankrupt himself and his country just to defeat Reed Richards cause he would easliy get it back but that is also in doubt. How many times has he fought the Avengers, the Sub-mariner or members of the FF seperately and still lost. Golly even a teenage Spider-man defeated him and it was only his 6th battle. Remember he had at least 5 issues of his own and one from Amazing Fantasy under his belt. Spider-man was just a kid at that time and sould have been an easy win for the Doc.
So as you can see supervillains are not always very smart.

NBC Fall and Mid-season shows

I just saw some previews of NBC Fall shows and Mid-seaason replacements. Well here are the previews of 2 that I liked. First is the mid-season replacemnt show The Cape.

Now this new Fall show for NBC may only appeal to people who worked in a call center but if you ever tried to order something by phone you may like it too. It's title is called Outsourced. I am so sick of these one camera shows that I can't believe I am planning on watching this. Believe me that is a compliment.

Archie's Something Else!

I may not like the new direction that Archie comics is taking but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the old Archie series. Here is one of the Christian comic books that Archie comics gave the ok on for Al Hartley to produce back in the 1970's. If they were any bigger they would qualify as graphic novels. Read and enjoy Archie's Something Else. Hopefully it will give you something to think about.