State Your Opinion on A Character

[Anubis]

How about Earth 2 JSA?

 

[WompuM]

Never read anything of his.

 

[Anubis]

You should probably get on that.

 

[sandwraith]

I'm kind of surprised most people don't have an opinion on Jack Knight. I would have imagined he would at least garner some attention from a visual perspective if not for his character.

 

[Mystirious]

How about Earth 2 JSA?

I think I'll probably be buying that one

I love Nicola Scott's art and I am pretty interested to see how Robinson writes these characters. He used a lot of golden age comic book characters really well in Starman so JSA might be a pretty neat series if he writes them as well as he did in that series

Are you going to get it 'Nubs

 

[Anubis]

I don't know.

We'll see how funny my money's looking by then.

 

[Mystirious]

I hope your able to pick it up if it is good 'Nubsy

 

[SpideyInATree]

It's the journey. It doesn't really start to hit it's stride until like volume 3.

I see. I will have to give it another shot then. If for nothing else I'll get some pretty sweet Tony Harris artwork. It just didn't hit me like the way people have talked it up.

 

[sandwraith]

It picks up quite a bit after A Wicked Inclination which has Jack teaming up with the Golden Age Sandman, Wesley Dodds.

I recommend you give the Omnibuses a look because they won't skim on the "Times Past" issues which are sort of flashback issues into Ted Knight, the Shade and Opal City's past and history which really ties into a lot of the main story.

Depending on who you ask, Starman's lead character isn't really Jack but it chronicles the closing years of Ted Knight, Jack's father.

Harris sort of stops penciling the book after Star My Destination arc but Peter Snejberg who is a pretty good artist in his own right rounds out the series pretty well.

Think of Starman as a HBO original series about legacies. It's not the Superhero Sopranos mind you but it has that tone about it. Don't go into it expecting fisticuffs and spandex.

Best way to describe it is a reverse-Invincible title.

And you'll like how they address some of the corniness of the Golden Age. There is an issue I love to bits where Jack has a "Talk with David" which are sort of intermissions where Jack's brother David gives him advice from beyond the grave. David sets up a dinner party with some of Ted Knight's closest deceased friends including the original Mr.Terrific, Dr.Midnite, Hourman, Zatara, Black Canary and the Red Bee (if I recall, that was about it). Anyway, the heroes give their two cents about how Jack is treating Ted and each parts their own wisdom while Red Bee grates on everyone's nerves until he finally explodes by shouting how no one ever gave him respect back while he was alive. He then goes on to remember an adventure he shared with Ted Knight, and I remember him saying something like:

Red Bee: He had a rod drawing power from the stars. I had a couple of trained bee. But he still treated me like an equal. I'll never forget that...

Really touching moment.

 

[Anubis]

Ted was awesome.

 

[sandwraith]

Nubs I'm killing this thread. Tested and proven. All on you now man.

 

[Anubis]

I thought Womp was in charge.

But okay.

Aquaman

 

[sandwraith]

I was fond of the bearded, hooked variant of the character but I was actually warming up to the Arthurian Waterbearer arc post-Obsidian Age JLA (I don't care what anyone says, the Obsidian Age storyline sucked).

If most fans could get pass the whole "talks to fish" rib they keep trying to use to justify their hate for the guy, people would start to realize that Aquaman is easily the most power guy on the planet. 2/3 of the world is covered in water and if you believe in the whole "Darwin's Theory of Evolution", all life began thanks to some fish that crawled out of the sea which could mean that Aquaman could control just about anyone.

The Lady in the Lake gave him a much needed secondary power that all powered superheroes have been getting over the years (Flash's vibrating abilities, GL's almost limitless powers...etc etc) and I hope they stick with that.

 

[The Question]

Simply the best. How one ****** cartoon could ruin the reputation of a man who's been punching out Naval torpedos and psychically dominating the minds of great white sharks since the 40s I will never know. The man is made of awesome.

What I love about him is that in a way he's a foil to every other member of the league. In part, he's something of an anti-super hero: He doesn't have a secret identity, and generally has little time for the kinds of theatrics his peers employ. He grew up on his own taking care of himself, which means he has his own unique set of parental issues to contrast with those of his fellow Leaguers, and which also means that he has a much more pragmatic worldview and approach to things as he's used to a daily struggle for survival. Like Diana he's royalty, but unlike her he's an active head of state as opposed to a diplomat, and his nation is much larger, has a much more diverse population, has many more problems with crime and the like, and has much more to lose and gain through trade relations with the rest of the world. His responsibilities to Atlantis and to the world as King really mean that, unlike most of the League, it's what he does in his day to day life that is his largest responsibility to the people of the world, as his decisions as the leadr of the largest and most technologically advanced nation on Earth could save or doom the lives of billions. Being a super hero is almost like his hobby, a community service side project that is a break from the stress of being a leader. Add to the fact that, long with being as large and advanced as I said, Atlantis is basically an old school fantasy kingdom with tech thrown in, that means a lot of the stuff he has to deal with at home involves barbarian warlords, evil sorcerers, and lovecraftian horrors.

And in terms of personality, he's a pragmatist full of righteous anger and world weary snark, which works great in a team dynamic. Over all Aquaman is a boss.

 

[Spike_x1]

He's neato. Really liked the Waterbearer storyline.

 

[Lord]

He was created after Namor and seems tto have a lot in comon

 

[Hound55]

He was created after Namor and seems tto have a lot in comon

Aquaman is always on the rag..?

 

[Franklin Richards]

Aquaman didn't gain all those Namor features until the 90's.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

And some of his best stories came as a result of his rejecting them.

Aquaman is so underrated it hurts. He's one of my favorite DC characters, and they seemed to have a good thing going with the water hand and the Sub Diego situation. From there, it seemed like all they really needed to do was give him an event about reclaiming the throne of Atlantis. Instead, we got the Aquanewb and then Arthur died. Now Johns is bringing him back but throwing out a lot of great elements that could've strengthened the character. Still, at the very least, he'll get publicity and some decent sales with Johns' name attached, so I can't be too mad.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Simply the best. How one ****** cartoon could ruin the reputation of a man who's been punching out Naval torpedos and psychically dominating the minds of great white sharks since the 40s I will never know. The man is made of awesome.

What I love about him is that in a way he's a foil to every other member of the league. In part, he's something of an anti-super hero: He doesn't have a secret identity, and generally has little time for the kinds of theatrics his peers employ. He grew up on his own taking care of himself, which means he has his own unique set of parental issues to contrast with those of his fellow Leaguers, and which also means that he has a much more pragmatic worldview and approach to things as he's used to a daily struggle for survival. Like Diana he's royalty, but unlike her he's an active head of state as opposed to a diplomat, and his nation is much larger, has a much more diverse population, has many more problems with crime and the like, and has much more to lose and gain through trade relations with the rest of the world. His responsibilities to Atlantis and to the world as King really mean that, unlike most of the League, it's what he does in his day to day life that is his largest responsibility to the people of the world, as his decisions as the leadr of the largest and most technologically advanced nation on Earth could save or doom the lives of billions. Being a super hero is almost like his hobby, a community service side project that is a break from the stress of being a leader. Add to the fact that, long with being as large and advanced as I said, Atlantis is basically an old school fantasy kingdom with tech thrown in, that means a lot of the stuff he has to deal with at home involves barbarian warlords, evil sorcerers, and lovecraftian horrors.

And in terms of personality, he's a pragmatist full of righteous anger and world weary snark, which works great in a team dynamic. Over all Aquaman is a boss.

The Question just said everything that needs to be said. Aquaman is awesome, yo.

 

[PaleRider]

Love him, and I think the single most underrated character in comics. It gets old hearing people that have never read a comic in their life talk crap about him. My personal favorite version is the hook hand version.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Aquaman didn't gain all those Namor features until the 90's.

And some of his best stories came as a result of his rejecting them.

And note that Aquaman's progression into acting that way was just that at least, a progression of all the crap he was going through for the last 25 years of publishing. It's rather annoying when people label the 90s as the time he was too much like Namor as though it was done over night. All PAD did was go the logical route the character was already going. But since he also had a very different physical appearance people think that is when he got to be more angry.

 

[WompuM]

I thought Womp was in charge.

But okay.

Aquaman

I never claimed to be in charge. I just said I would post when I could, but that a lot of days I wouldn't be able to so people should have a fun, casual attitude about it. Much like a college freshman girl if you know what I'm saying.

As for Aquaman, he's done wrong so often that I understand why the general public isn't aware of how great of a character he is. Personally, nothing is better for me the the BatB cartoon of him.

 

[BLACKVULCAN]

Dig Aquaman alot!!! I hated that stupid "Superfriends cartoon tarnished his fictional life!( why on earth if you could swim would you need a jet ski?)in the book he was nothing like that.He was an awesome, noble character, full of dignity and respect His son was killed by Black Manta was some sad ass *&^% and dealing with all that. After that cartoon and funny how different forms of media affect other kinds.Dude went to wearing a bubble helmet around his head and being lame! Which in turn caused that whole acting like a "jerkweed, namorizing" of him to try and remove the fishy smell that cartoon left on him!( you cant just be a good guy anymore you know, now you have to come off acting like jerk to be loved!)he has always been a noble ass powerful character and one of my Favs. come on! the dude rules 75% of the earth surface.that dude is a bad man and still he doesnt get the respect he deserves. They still dropped his ass for Hawkgirl in the JL cartoon!( which pissed me off initially to no ends). The general populace might not give him love ,but i got mad love for the King!

P.S. never read Jack knight so i gots nothing!

 

[Mystirious]

I loves Aquaman. He's a great character and he's definitely one of my favourites. It's annoying how a lot of people think that all he can do is talk to fish. He's the king of the gorram oceans and he is sauce

Ted was awesome.

He really was