The JOE SHUSTER Awards

The Fourth Annual Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards

Stalker - Beware The Man With The Stolen Soul

From The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe:

In a dimension of sword and sorcery, a young boy challenged the might of the Demon Lord Dgrth, won immortality but lost his own soul. Regretting his actions, the heroic young warrior began a seeminlgy eternal quest to regain his lost soul. However, the being, now known as Stalker the Soulless, never accomplished his mission. After millennia of soul-searching and acts of heroism, his mind became dark, corrupt. At the same time, his power increased, and more and more, he looked like a duplicate of Dgrth, his bane. Finally, he decided that the only way to know final peace would be to destroy the universe itself. After causing the destruction of his own realm, Stalker went from world to world, from dimension to dimension, leaving dead heroes, gods, and whole universes in his tracks.

In 1945, Stalker was transported to Earth by a group of Nazi occultists who had attempted to summon the diabolic Koth. Absorbing the power of the Spectre, Doctor Fate, and other magic heroes, Stalker began his extermination of Earth. The Justice Society and many of their friends and allies fought Stalker's mind-controlled Nazi Disciples, and later Stalker himself. With the help from Doctor Occult, who sacrificed his own soul to give Stalker one, the menace was thwarted, and Stalker finally knew peace.

From Wikipedia:

STALKER is a 4 issue comic-book series created in 1975 by Paul Levitz (writer), Steve Ditko (penciller) and Wally Wood (inker), and published by DC Comics.

The series takes place on a world that appears epic fantasy-based, but when the protagonist travels to his world's version of the underworld, men in astronaut garb can be seen among the hordes of doomed souls, perhaps inferring that the humans on this world were originally stranded galactic travelers.

A young urchin boy trades his soul with the demonic god of warriors for the skills and toughness to survive this hostile, amoral world. He grows up to be the most deadly warrior to walk the earth, but finds it impossible to enjoy without a soul. He eventually fights his way to the demon god in the depths of hell and defeats him, only to discover that the deity has already used of the energies of the traded soul. The only way to get his soul back would be to end the existence of the god, which can only be brought about by the end of all war.

After the cancellation of the title, Stalker would not appear until the 1990's series JUSTICE SOCIETY RETURNS which cast Stalker as a now insane villain, destroying dimension after dimension in his quest to end all conflict. This notably contradicts Stalker's original characterization as an individual capable of acts of heroism and mercy to even evil opponents despite his supposed lack of a soul.

Project Superpowers: Samson

PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #3 arrived this week with a cover featuring Masquerade and The Mighty Samson!!

Samson debuted in FANTASTIC COMICS #1 (December 1939), but that story didn't feature his secret origin. And I figured an origin is better than a first appearance. I may be wrong. But the story you're going to get is from SAMSON #1, because that does feature his origin.

We also see how Samson acquired his sidekick, David, in this story. Although David made his first appearance slightly earlier in FANTASTIC COMICS #10 (September 1940).

Okay, blah, boring, read:

SAMSON #1
(Fall 1940)

You can download SAMSON #1
and lots of other awesome golden-age goodness
from Golden Age Comics Downloads!

Batman and Robin: Always be Prepared!

I'm not quite sure why they feel the need to carry it in their utility belts. Maybe just in case the mood strikes?

But, hey, at least we know that it also comes in handy for crime fighting!!

Project Superpowers: Before the Masquerade

PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #3 arrived this week with a cover featuring Masquerade and The Mighty Samson!!

Diana Adams, aka Masquerade, made her debut in EXCITING COMICS #51 as Miss Masque. One interesting thing is the story starts out: "Greed...begins a startling new chapter in the drama-packed life of Diana Adams...as once again she assumes the perilous role of Miss Masque..." The only problem being: this was her first appearance! Can you imagine the poor kids of the time scrambling to try and find her earlier adventures? Miss Masque had been preceded by The Woman in Red, perhaps the writer had gotten the two confused.

In fact, the Alex Ross design of Masquerade almost shares more in common with The Woman in Red than Miss Masque.

Alrighty, now onto the story! The first adventure of Miss Masque!!!

EXCITING COMICS #51
(September 1946)

Tomorrow @ Comics N Things: The Golden Age SAMSON (and David!)!!

You can download EXCITING COMICS #51
and lots of other awesome golden-age goodness
from Golden Age Comics Downloads!

DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures DVD

Wow. This one completely flew under my radar (I'm usually better than that, LOL)! And it looks like a hot one!!

TvShowsonDVD announced this Warner release on April 21st.

Basically all Warner has committed to so far is that it'll be released on August 12th, it'll include 18 episodes on two discs, a documentary on the Filmation studio, run 126 minutes and cost $24.98 SRP.

TvShowsonDVD speculates that the 18 cartoons will be:

• Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
  
  • Evil is as Evil Does
    
  • The Vanishing World
    
  • Sirena, Empress Of Evil
• The Flash (Barry Allen, with Kid Flash Wally West)
  
  • The Chemo-Creature
    
  • Take a Giant Step
    
  • To Catch A Blue Bult
• Hawkman (Katar Hul of Thanagar)
  
  • Peril from Pluto
    
  • A Visit to Venus
    
  • The Twenty-Third Dimension
• The Atom (Ray Palmer)
  
  • Invasion Of The Beetle-Men
    
  • The Plant Master
    
  • The House of Doom
• The Teen Titans (Aqualad, Kid Flash, Speedy and Wonder Girl)
  
  • The Monster Machine
    
  • The Space Beast Round-Up
    
  • Operation: Rescue
• The Justice League (Superman, Atom, Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman)
  
  • Between Two Armies
    
  • Target Earth
    
  • Bad Day On Black Mountain

Ultimate Origins #1 - Michael Turner variant

When I first mentioned the variant cover for ULTIMATE ORIGINS #1, I cracked that I'd have a hard time deciding between the Simone Bianchi cover and the Turner variant. Which is because I am decidedly not a Turner fan.
Since then, I've seen the Turner variant...

Holy Moley!! I had to check the signature to make sure that was really by Turner. That's hot!
Turner's women are usually drawn skraggly and anorexic looking. But -- woo!

52 vs Countdown vs Trinity

Are people just stupid?
I keep reading over and over all over the internet people whining about how they aren't going to read TRINITY because "52 was a let down" or because "COUNTDOWN sucked."
I'm like "What the huh?"
How is that any kind of relevant argument? Because all three titles were/are weekly?
Seriously, that's like saying "TEEN TITANS sucks; so I'm not going to read JONAH HEX -- they're both monthlies!"
If you can't stand Kurt Busiek. If you think Mark Bagley is a hack. If Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman aren't your cup o' tea. Those are perfectly fine reasons for avoiding TRINITY.
But if you're basing your decision on stories/titles/characters/creative teams that are COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY UNRELATED -- what the hell?

FINAL CRISIS #1 cover

So I was over at DCComics.com and came across the cover to FINAL CRISIS #1 with what appears to be the final design/dress/layout/whatever:

Honestly, this cover does absolutely nothing for me. It doesn't jump out. It doesn't say "BUY ME!" There's no excitement. No grab. Nothing. If I wasn't already sold, I'd probably just pass it up.

FINAL CRISIS: First Look!

From Entertainment Weekly:

Roughly two decades after saving the world(s) in Crisis on Infinite Earth, and a couple of years after staving off an Infinite Crisis, DC's go-to do-gooders — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and more — will round out the trilogy with Final Crisis. In the series (out monthly for seven issues beginning May 28), ol' Justice League nemesis Libra returns to corral a rogues' gallery of villains to upend all that is good and pure.

Red Skies!! AAHHHH!!

Five pages from FINAL CRISIS (art and script!)!
JG Jones take on DARKSEID!