Manic Monday Bonus--Don't Play Marbles With Solomon Grundy!

Look, there's a reason your mother never allowed you to go play marbles in the swamp:

You're only scared now??

Anyway, Solomon Grundy--terrible sport. Never play marbles with him. or any game whatsoever, I'd imagine...

From All-Star Comics #33 (1947)

Repurposed On Monday

And not at all connected to what I discussed earlier today...

...I was much happier when Solomon Grundy was just a super-strong, dim-bulb swamp-born reincarnation of a nasty miser, and not "The Death God," not the "avatar of the Grey," etc.

I like a lot of what James Robinson is laying down in Earth 2.

But man, I shudder to see what he's going to do with the pink Thunderbolt...

Friday Night Fights--Born On Monday Style!!

OK, this week shall be a test.

Last time I ran a Golden Age battle in Friday Night Fights, it got ZERO votes. None. Even though it featured Spy Smasher fight a Nazi Lion in the Roma Colosseum while searching for the plans to the secret super-weapon that Leonardo Da Vinci invented.

So I'm trying it again. Because there's gotta be some Golden Age love out there, right? Right??

Solomon Grundy has broken free from Green Lantern's little green force bubble prison, and stormed across the country seeking out dark vengeance.

Begin!!














Green Lantern's not really finished, is he, kids??

Nah...Hawkman and the rest of the JSA showed up at the last second, Doc Midnight revived Green Lantern, and Grundy was imprisoned on another planet, surely never to return...

But even Spacebooger is in awe of the tremendous beatdown Solomon laid down there!!

Gardner Fox and Paul Reinman show that the Golden Age knew how to f$%^ up a super-hero in All-Star Comics #33 (1947), as reprinted in Super-Team Family #4 (1976).

Now, you don't have to vote for me when you go and vote for this week's winner. But if you don't, there's gonna be more Golden Age stories comin'...

Swiped On Wednesday

It was kind of a light week at Ye Olde Comic Shoppe, so on a whim, I decide to pick up Faces of Evil: Solomon Grundy #1. What the hell, right? And, it's a one-shot that's only $2.99!! Are you taking notes, Marvel?!?

Anyway, it's apparently time to reboot Solomon Grundy, which DC does from time to time. Almost anything would be better than that mess that Brad Meltzer gave us during the JLA relaunch. Don't get me wrong--the idea of an evil, intelligent Grundy has some appeal, but it was so poorly handled (give him Red Tornado's body? With Amazo's powers? WTF?!? That's his evil genius plan?!?) as to be a waste of time, especially when Grundy was immediately killed again.

This one-shot was written by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins, with art by Kolins. And, well...it reeks of, shall we say, familiarity?!?

Grundy first reappears as a reborn puny Cyrus Gold:

OK, that's new. But he wastes his rebirth murdering a sweet old man and his dog, reminiscing about what a miserable bastard he was back in the 19th century, and beating the crap out of a nice lady (really, that much violence in a Geoff Johns book?? Who would have thought?) Big surprise, he ends up dying, and inevitably, he is reborn as Grundy:

Well, aside from initially reappearing as Cyrus Gold, this version of Grundy isn't so different. And then he ends up in a fight with Killer Croc:

Hmmm, old Jade-Jaw's...oh, I mean Grundy's grammar has gotten worse. But that's not really new. What else you got?

Ohhh...so Gold's intellect is awake inside there, and Grundy hears it...and hates his puny alter ego. This is getting more and more familiar...until finally:

Oh, dear...so now Grundy transforms back into puny Cyrus Gold when he gets tired.

Seriously.

Hmmm. I'm sure glad we've come up with something all new and all different for Solomon Grundy, as poor Cyrus Gold tries to cure himself of the effects of the gamma bomb...oh, ahem...I mean curse. Because within each of us, oftimes, there dwells a mighty raging fury...oh, ahem, I mean Grundy.

Still, it beats the Red Hulk...