Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Since Squirrels Aren't Carnivores, How Scared Should You Really Be of a Giant One? Wednesday!

Here's something of historical reference for you hardcore nerdlingers from Detective Comics #310:


Who does that look like? Yup! The Elongated Man!

I originally thought that this "Rubberman" character was a precursor to the Elongated Man, considering we've got a stretchy guy wearing purple and all that. But, as is sometimes the case, I was mistaken. It turns out Ralph had shown up nearly two years earlier than Rubberman:



I know! It's amazing to me that, with the Silver Age Flash and Green Lantern in full swing and ushering in a new age of comics, Batman stories were still as lame as they were.

Still, in the very next issue we had a gigantic cash register, and that's always a good read:


I nominate "Legs" Danton as having the worst mobster name ever, right behind "Pouty Lips that Make You Bi-Curious" O'Halloran.

That notwithstanding, Detective #311 gave us the origin of Cat-Man, who (when he wasn't forgotten entirely for years at a time) would become the paragon of ineffective villainy until his badass reboot in Villains United.


That's right. Anything a "mere woman" could do, a man could surely do better. It's casual statements like these that make me understand why the Women's Movement was such a big deal. It's hard to believe people seriously thought this way. But then again, some day history will judge us as well.

Hey! It's a gigantic statue! Whew! It's been almost five pages since we've seen some over-sized prop in a Batman story!


Hmmmmm.... you know what this story really needs? A gigantic cat-shaped killer robot. Oh, there's one!:



Even the back-up J'Onn J'Onzz story gets into the act:




The Silver Age.... Give us twelve cents, and we'll give you some combination of aliens, giants and robots.

8 comments:

Britt Reid said...

"The Silver Age.... Give us twelve cents, and we'll give you some combination of aliens, giants and robots."

And most of the time they'll be invisible, criminal...or BOTH!

And I can't believe you've never heard of one of the most feared REAL gangsters of all...Legs Diamond!
Grown men trembled when they heard that name...and it wasn't from laughter, either!

Duy Tano said...

If by "lame", you mean goshdarned awesome, then yes!

Johnny said...

JJ better be careful, we all know squirrels love to nibble on nuts!

SM Newman said...

More Catman! Please!

MarvelX42 said...

From what I just read alot of squirrels are carnavores. From Wikipedia:
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some squirrels also consume meat, especially when faced with hunger.[6] Squirrels have been known to eat insects, eggs, small birds, young snakes and smaller rodents. Indeed, some tropical species have shifted almost entirely to a diet of insects.

Predatory behavior by various species of ground squirrels, particularly the thirteen-lined ground squirrel, has been noted.[7] Bailey, for example, observed a thirteen-lined ground squirrel preying upon a young chicken.[8] Wistrand reported seeing this same species eating a freshly killed snake.[9] Whitaker examined the stomachs of 139 thirteen-lined ground squirrels, and found bird flesh in four of the specimens and the remains of a short-tailed shrew in one;[10] Bradley, examining white-tailed antelope squirrels' stomachs, found at least 10% of his 609 specimens' stomachs contained some type of vertebrate, mostly lizards and rodents.[11] Morgart (1985) observed a white-tailed antelope squirrel capturing and eating a silky pocket mouse.[12]

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A giant squirrel would see JJ as a weird little green chicken or snake or something. Also if he was that big he wouldn't be able to find any acorns big enough to eat.

La Belle Esplanade said...

"Someday history will judge us as well." You're getting philosophical.

Donald said...

I assume the giant animals were the result of Random Ray usage?

Zocktastic said...

At first glance, that bottom left giant robot cat panel seemed to depict said beast coughing up a giant robot hairball. Filled with dangerous explosives and pesky allergens, no doubt!