Sunday, January 29, 2017

TEX'S BACK-ISSUE QUEST EPISODE #45 Justice League Dark



Hey, there fellow Questers!!

    Happy Sunday to you - I hope the birds are chirping and the sun is a-shining for you in your wonderful worlds!

   Sure there is a lot of turmoil going on right now, and things are tense in the land that I love, the good ol' U.S of A., but that is just a bump in the road to our realization of a vision of a better world. We'll get through this, get our bearings, and get back to the goal of peace and prosperity for all (not just Americans) - which is the goal that I would have my beloved country seek with all vigor and vim. 

   But we must acknowledge the darkness that settles before the dawn...And when things get dark in the DCU, who does the Justice League turn to? They turn to the dark itself...The Justice League Dark!




This is my copy of "Swamp Thing" vol 2 #50, containing what some call the first full appearance of Justice League Dark!

    This amazing issue, written by Alan Moore, a writer credited with elevating comics to new literary heights, brings many members of Justice League Dark together for the first time to take on a threat of universal proportions. This book was written in 1986 - twenty-five years before "Justice League Dark" #1 would even see print. Issues #49 and #50 of this series are masterworks by Moore, pitting occult heroes and anti-heroes such as John Constantine, Deadman, Zatanna and The Phantom Stranger against The Great Darkness, a being whose power is equal to that of The Presence (DC's equivalent of God), but whose existence is devoid of all good and Divine Light. In reality, Moore's entire run on this series is a masterwork, especially given that John Constantine first appeared during this run - and there's the fact that Moore used this series to revive many of DC Comics' forgotten occult heroes and anti-heroes, like Zatara, Etrigan, Sargon the Sorceror, and most notably, Dr. Fate and The Spectre. You NEED to read this. However, Moore's vision of a team of forgotten occult heroes would only begin to be realized that day. Fans would have to wait until 2011, when DC rebooted giving birth to The New 52, to get the team of occult heroes and anti-heroes that they wanted and deserved:


It's my copy of "Justice League Dark" #1, the formal first appearance of Justice League Dark!

   When members os the Justice League (Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg) go to investigate the Enchantress' involvement in a series of deaths and bizarre happenings, the team faces powerful magic that they are unable to defeat - they barely escape with their lives. Alerted of the mystical disturbance in their own several ways, powerful occult individuals that will soon be Justice League Dark begin to individually converge on the threat. On to the FUN FACTS!!

FUN FACT 1: At one time, superstar director, Guillermo del Toro, was attached to make a live-action Justice League Dark film. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out.

FUN FACT 2: Fortunately, on February 7, 2017, an animated Justice League Dark film will be ready for purchase! YES! The film is rated R for violence.



FUN FACT 3: DC has always done occult heroes VERY well. Marvel's Doctor Strange is truly great, but wait till you get a load of Dr. Fate - your mind will be blown - his mythology is dense and captivating.

FUN FACT 4: TEX has some of the first appearances of some of the members of Justice League Dark. I will fill you in with some fun follow-on articles! Kewl? KEWL!

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Sunday, January 22, 2017

TEX'S BACK-ISSUE QUEST EPISODE #44 Blue Demon



It's been a long time....

     I shouldn't have left you...

     Without some dope comics to look through!!

     
 Hello, my brothers and sisters! It's T to the E to the X, back again with the grooves that make you MOVE and the books that make you LOOK! I apologize for the delays since the Holidays, but TEX has been swamped with real-life things that needed tending to.

 We only have fun when the work is done. You savvy?

  Today, I unleash a real, once-living-legend upon my fellow Questers! Feast your eyes on the one, the only....


BLUE DEMON!!!!!!

It's my copy of "El Increíble Blue Demon / The Incredible Blue Demon" #1! As far as my research has shown, this comic features the first appearance of the legendary luchador, Blue Demon, in comics!! This was EXTREMELY hard to come by - it took me YEARS to find one. It is more than likely SUPER SCARCE. A collector once offered me $800 for this comic - I said no, obviously. Luckily, I was able to get my hands on a few more early issues:


"El Increíble Blue Demon" #3!



"El Increíble Blue Demon" #6!!



"El Increíble Blue Demon" #8!!


"El Increíble Blue Demon" #13!! These are cool fotonovelas - this means the story is told in real pictures (with some art mixed in at times) with added word bubbles that tell the story!

     So, who is Blue Demon? You've might have seen him on late night TV from time to time, fighting bad guys and just looking really cool, but if you aren't a fan of lucha libre (Mexican pro-wrestling), or a fan of Mexican superheroes, you may not know who this blue masked dynamo is. Well, I reckon I'll just have to fix that.

    Blue Demon, or El Demonio Azul (lovingly called "Blue" by his fans), was born Alejandro Muñoz Moreno in Rinconada, Nueva León, Mexico in 1922. The son of a farmer, he left home at a young age in the mid 1930s to move to Monterrey, Nueva León to work on the National Railroad. It was there that his co-workers took note of the freakish size of his hands, and his immense physical strength and they gave him the nickname, "Manotas" - "Big Hands." In the early 1930's a new sport called lucha libre had begun taking Mexico by storm. It was professional wrestling, a sport brought from the United States to Mexico by a Mexican businessman named Salvador Lutteroth.  A lucky encounter with a famous luchador, Rolando Vera, in the mid 1940s put Alejandro on the path to stardom. Vera trained Alejandro, and soon Alejandro made his debut in March of 1948 wrestling in Laredo, Texas. However, the legend had not yet emerged.

   In September of 1948, Alejandro donned the famous mask for the very first time, and became The Blue Demon - El Demonio Azul! First wrestling as a "rudo" (called a "heel" in American pro-wrestling), Blue Demon's charisma and amazing ability in the wrestling ring quickly earned him a huge fan base. Blue soon formed a team with another famous masked luchador, Black Shadow, becoming Los Hermanos Shadow (The Shadow Brothers). However, everything would change when Black Shadow ran afoul of the most legendary, beloved and admired luchador of all time, El Santo, El Enmascarado de Plata / The Saint, The Man In The Silver Mask, who was then wrestling as a rudo. El Santo defeated Black Shadow - Black Shadow lost both the match, and his mask, and was forced to reveal his secret identity to the entire world. This precipitated Blue Demon's turn from rudo to técnico (called a "face" in American Pro-wrestling) and began a years-long feud between Blue Demon and Santo that made wrestling matches that were the stuff of dreams.

   Like Santo's, Blue Demon's rise was meteoric, leading to similar opportunities to those that Santo had been afforded in film and comic books. In 1961, Blue Demon got small roles in a couple of luchador films, but in 1964 he got the first of his several starring roles in "Blue Demon: El Demonio Azul" :



   Blue Demon would go on to star in more than twenty films and have his own successful comic published beginning in 1968. Like Santo's films and comics, Blue Demon's films and comics chronicled Blue Demon's adventures as he took on everything from crooks, to spies, to aliens to supernatural monsters. Blue Demon is an icon in Mexico, and both Central and South America. He died in 2000, suffering a heart attack at the age of 78, but Blue Demon's legacy lives on. Blue Demon's adopted son, Blue Demon, Jr., has had a long and prestigious career as a luchador culminating in amazing matches with El Hijo de Santo / The Son of Santo. Although Blue Demon, Jr.s' film career has never quite taken off well, he has, like his father before him, been the protagonist of a few comic book series:


It's my copy of "Blue Demon, Jr.: El Legado" / "Blue Demon, Jr.: The Legacy" #1!!


And issue #2 as well!! These comics were published back in 2005. Notice that Blue Demon's normal superhero attire has been replaced with cool, hip street clothes...kinda like what happened with Superman in early issues of the New 52. Coincidence? You decide.

More recently, Blue Demon, Jr. graced Robert Rodriguez's "Lucha Underground" on El Rey Network with his presence:


If you are a pro-wrestling fan, and you're not watching "Lucha Underground," you are REALLY missing out.

On UniMás, a new series is currently airing chronicling Blue Demon's life...And it is AWESOME! It is set for 65 episodes. I love it:



I love Santo, Blue Demon and lucha libre because it is fun, and exciting, - it's like watching a comic book come to life. I don't know if I would have learned Spanish as quickly if I hadn't fallen in love with lucha libre and it's two most legendary luchdores. I encourage you to check out some old lucha films and enjoy the cool, cheesy awesomeness, as well as checking out some great lucha libre from CMLL, AAA, or "Lucha Underground."

¡VIVA EL BLUE DEMON!

¡VIVA LA LUCHA LIBRE!


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Sunday, January 8, 2017

Slapstick #1 Review



"Slapstick" #1 from Marvel Comics -

    Steven Harmon was just a normal teenager (sort of) whose body was forever changed when he got trapped in a portal to a strange dimension called Dimension X. There Steve's body was transformed, becoming infused with living unstable molecules giving him a clown-like appearance and a toon-like near-indestructibility. Now, having made it back to his home dimension, Steve has taken the name, Slapstick, and turned to mercenary work to pay the bills, and remained hopeful about finding a cure for his appearance...And his lack of having a dingus. Because he'd like his dingus back, thank you. Slapstick uses his toon powers on to do his mercenary gigs with with zany gusto, spitting out looney quips (and bullets), and el ka-bonging anyone who gets in the way of his murderous mallet, Gertie. When Parker Industries has one of its tech shipments stolen, Slapstick takes the case to score some cash and cause some mayhem, but what he doesn't know is that Spider-Man is already on the case, and if they don't kill each other first, they'll have to take on a deadly baddie that may have the key to ending Slapstick's physical problems...Or ending his life.

    Reilly Brown and Fred Van Lente pen this rip-roaring, nutty, adventure, "Slapstick" #1. In all honesty, I picked this comic up on a whim, not really expecting to enjoy it very much, based on the cover; however, I was very pleased to find myself chuckling at Slapstick's antics. It's like watching a mentally unstable, emotionally desperate character from Tiny Toon Adventures fighting crime with homicidal happiness. It's messes with your suspension of disbelief a bit to watch a character so out of place, so cartoon-like, wander around in the 616, fighting alongside heroes like Spider-Man, but Slapstick just fits. It's as if the writers are saying, "Yeah, Civil War II, blah, blah, darkness and grittiness, blah, blah - but these are just comic book characters, so shut up and just enjoy it, fanboy!". I dig that. Quietly, Slapstick has that winning superhero complexity - he hasn't accepted who he is, and is overly focused on who he wants to be, which is who he was, which was who he probably didn't want to be - all the while hiding those serious issues behind Saturday morning cartoon zaniness, with all the blood that those cartoons thankfully omitted. Diego Orlotegui, the artist, seriously has the chops for this book. He does it all - from hilarious comedy panels, to laser-lit, and bullet-filled battle scenes, Orlotegui makes "Slapstick" #1 a fun book to look at. Slapstick is Marvel's answer to The Mask, and he is a whole lot more fun than Deadpool. I'm signing on for more Slapstick.

RATING: 8.5 out of 10. If you want a little mindless fun in your comics experience, then "Slapstick" is for you. If not, stay far away from this one.

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