So, when you consider the cost versus what you get, there might have been some bright spots in the Silver Age. True, this was the villain you got:
Yes, we have a bad knock-off of the Tattooed Man and Mr. Polka-Dot, but we're only paying twelve cents here.
Okay, we have a really bad knock-off, but again.... twelve cents.
I'm not sure there's any relation between lobsters and webbing. I'm not interested enough to actually look it up myself, but don't lobsters just pinch you and taste delicious when dipped in drawn butter? I've never heard of a "lobster cobweb."
But again.... twelve cents.
And look! In the next issue we get Cat-Man again! He's still not awesome (and won't be for nearly 50 years), but I appreciate the effort:
Yes, things bordered on the ridiculous because the crux of the case was Cat-Man literally having "9 Lives" to use up, so he was free to endanger himself. But he never actually died and came back, so I'm not sure that really worked out. It was more like "I have 9 lucky breaks that will keep me from killing myself in a way that will land me on the Darwin Awards" power. But you'll keep your mouth shut and be glad you got a regular villain.
Because if you complain, we can always see a return to this:
So, while I think we have the right to expect something better for twelve bucks than The Rise of Arsenal mini-series, we shouldn't push people too far, or Grant Morrison will be assigned to write everything and then nothing will make any sense, ever.
See you tomorrow!
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5 comments:
"...we have a right to gripe louder than back in my day when you could get ten new comics for five bucks."
In my day you could get almost forty-two comics for five dollars!
BTW, Scorpio's a scorpion, not a lobster.
They don't pinch, they sting (lethally)!
And they're not very good eating.
But then, the cover shows Gemini as a pair of naked flaming men, and I don't remember anything about the Twins being...well...
Yeah. Scorpions don't make webbing either, but at least they're in the same class as spiders (Arachnida), so it's not AS silly as it could've been.
Still, I'm guessing the only reference the artist had was a lobster bib. I mean, that's clearly a lobster on the guy's stomach. There are no lobsters in the zodiac!
I imagine someone calling him on this, and him saying "Crabs, scorpions, lobsters, they're all the same. Kids won't know the goddamn difference, so fuck off already, wouldja?"
Re: "the Lobster"
I think the artist and the writer got their wires crossed.
Yes, Scorpio is a constellation and its symbol is the scorpion.
But the image on the costume of the Zodiac master is clearly a lobster. And, with the exception of the curled up hind quarters, the object thrown at B&R is clearly the same lobster.
Crazy?? Maybe. But the sign for another Zodiac -- Cancer -- is sometimes referred to as "the Lobster" (even though "crab" is more common) because the root etymology is the same for "crayfish" and "crab".
Stay in school, kids!
We always have the right to be annoyed at bad story telling. We are entering a bargain, some money for some fun. Still, I think we forget that most of us DID have fun with earlier stuff and are just to embarrassed when we see the same stuff through the eyes of an adult.
Zero guy here, ok zodiac whats his face, is rocking the other minor batman villain meme. The first of course is crazy ugly. The other is batman has a utility belt, I have a .... In this corner we have clue master, calendar man, etc. etc. The gag is what are they going to pull out of their jockeys next. In this crew a web spinning lobster is pretty mild.
Lazarus Lupin
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
art and review
If you're gonna do a motif...do it RIGHT!
You look like an idiot otherwise.
And the other villains will laugh and point at you as "the guy who threw a lobster at Batman"!
No wonder we haven't seen the so-called "Zodiac Master" since this one appearance (and a reprint)!
He threw a lobster at Batman!
Ironically, he was the LAST villain created before the more serious "New Look" Batman debuted four issues later.
(Of course a year after that, the Batman tv show started, and the "New Look" quickly went "camp"! But that's a whole 'nother story...)
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