Friday Night Fights: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Wildcat

When I was a kid, I was a sucker for team books, and one of my favorites was the revamp of All-Star Comics in the late 70s, starring the Justice Society of America. However, the series had one drawback for me: it focused too often on Wildcat, a character I didn't care about at the time.

Now, the reasons I didn't like Wildcat were pretty clear: his costume was boring, he was powerless, and he was constantly written with this punch-drunk dialogue, with lost of "dems" and "ders."

But then I read All-Star 68 (1977). In this story, the Psycho-Pirate has used his emotion-influencing power to control the Golden Age Flash and Green Lantern. The rest of the Justice Society tracks Psycho-Pirate down, but the heroes are quickly dispatched by the villain and his two slaves.

Psycho-Pirate prematurely declares victory, however, when he discovers that one JSAer is still standing: Wildcat. As the bad guy says, "It appears least has been saved for last!"

Wildcat then calls Psycho-Pirate out by laying down the smack.



At this point, 8-year-old Dr. K was weeping in the face of the sheer awesomeness of this scene.
The mind-controlled heroes then collapse once the Pirate is out.

From that scene on, I was totally on board with Wildcat, and since then, Wildcat has always been a part of the Justice Society through several revamps, and even through several cullings of Golden Age heroes. Ever since then, too, I've been a sucker for the comic plots where the weakest member of a team is left standing, and the villain dismisses him or her to his regret.

Bahlactus declares a knockout!

Friday Night Fights: Parobeck Style!

Here are a couple of pages of onomatopoeic awesomeness from Batman Adventures 14 (1993), drawn by the incomparable Mike Parobeck.



It's another Friday night: time to check in with Bahlactus.

Friday Night Fights: Taking the Devil to School!

In my British Literature class this week, I've been teaching Christopher Marlowe's play, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, which, for those of you who only read texts with pictures, is an Early Modern play where a scholar sells his soul to Lucifer for 24 years of unlimited power. While the play may be considered a "classic" by those who spend their time in ivory towers, I've come to realize that it is lacking in one significant factor:

Wrestling!


So, to satisfy that need and to provide tonight's Friday Night Fights entry, let's have a few more images from Unknown Worlds 30, where professional wrestler Robert Harkness takes the Devil to school.


Satan, it seems, has a potty mouth. Why doesn't that surprise me?


Need more schoolin'? Bahlactus'll take you there!

Friday Night Fights: BLUHGG--SPLOOGE!

I know it's a little early to be using a panel from a Christmas comic, but since the stores are already decked out with X-Mas decorations just chomping at the bit for Halloween to move on its merry way, I figured it's not to early to start thinking about the holidays.

Especially when it involves Batgirl kicking Clayface in the head and results in one of the greatest sound effects of all time:

Image from The Batman Adventures Holiday Special (1995), by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm.

Remember to heed the call of Bahlactus.

Friday Night Fights: Hulk vs. Groot

Bahlactus rang the bell on a new series of Friday Night Fights last week, but unfortunately I was out of town that day and got back too late to contribute.

So, I'm making up for it with an entry that comes from what, it is safe to say, is the single greatest fight comic of all time: Incredible Hulk King-Size Annual 5, "And Six Shall Crush the Hulk"--scripted by Chris Claremont, plotted by Len Wein, and drawn by Sal Buscema and Jack Abel.

In these 48 pages of pure, high-grade awesomeness, Hulk fights 6 different creatures who originally debuted in pre-Marvel Atlas sci-fi comics. One of these creatures is the talking tree, "Groot, the Monster from Planet X."

Hulk, I know what you feel. Almost every day I find something that causes me to shout, "Go away, dream!"

Also, I want "Overlord of All the Timber in the Galaxy" to appear on my next set of business cards.

Hulk and Groot quickly commence to fighting, with Groot landing a devastating blow:

Meanwhile Hulk also relives a particularly traumatic childhood viewing of The Wizard of Oz:

Hulk completely splinters Groot, leaving nothing left but a stump, though that does not stop Hulk from continuing to shout at him:

This panel also very much resembles the average day in Dr. K's classroom.

Groot apparently recovers from this fight, as he is currently co-starring in the Annihilation: Star Lord miniseries, where he teams up with Rocket Raccoon.

I would also like to acknowledge the fact that I did not once take the easy road and make some kind of "Hulk gets wood" joke. We try to keep things classy here at the Super-Spectacular.

Friday Night Fights!: Meet the New Champ!

Ultimate Fighting Champion, Hollywood star, and new protector of Rann, Champ Hazard, coldcocks Adam Strange in Countdown to Adventure 1.



Story by Adam Beechen, art by Eddy Barrows and Julio Ferreira.

"Champ Hazard" is an awesome Silver-Agey name. For the next week, I will only answer to that name. Students have the choice of calling me either "Dr. Champ" or "Dr. Hazard." And I will speak of myself in the third person: "Today, we are going to learn to do things the Champ Hazard way!"

Bahlactus has rung the bell on another edition of Friday Night Fights!

Friday Night Fights: The Return of Aparo Style

It's Friday night: time for another edition of Bahlactus's Friday Night Fights! If you're watching WWE Smackdown! tonight, and you look real carefully at the crowd, you just might see Chris Sims and me cheering from the stands. We're pretty easy to spot: I'm wearing a bright green shirt, and Sims is the only one cheering for Finlay in a stadium full of Batista fans.

Tonight's Friday Night Fight comes from The Brave and the Bold 152, courtesy of Bob Haney and Jim Aparo, and it features one of the fightingest covers in Aparo's career.

In this issue, Batman fights a lederhosen-clad pack of thugs, while Atom punches a bag of gold (Atom hates that gold!).

The story is titled "Death Has a Golden Grab." I'm not quite sure what a "golden grab" is, but I did pay $10 for one in Singapore once. I don't remember anything about it, though, and the next day, I woke up in a pool of my own sick, and, for a week, I could only sit on an inflatable sheepskin pillow.

Nothing in the world makes me happier than watching Batman and the Atom beat on a bunch of guys in lederhosen, so let's take a closer look.




That guy's nose is now smelling the back of his throat.


Batman and Atom double-team on an uppercut!

Heed the call of Bahlactus!

Friday Night Fights: Back to School Edition

Bahlactus has rung the bell, and it's time to go back to school with this week's edition of Friday Night Fights.

Today's lesson: How to clear out a roomful of thugs with a single kick.

When you're Batman, and you have to fight a roomful of guys, things can get pretty exhausting, so you need to find easy ways to get the situation taken care of fast.

1) Find the bouncy guy.


2) Wait for it ... and KICK!


3) Let momentum do the rest.


There is probably a bigger Physics lesson here about speed, momentum, energy, friction, ricochet, angles, etc., but I'm not that kind of doctor.

This also may be a useful lesson for gym class.

Images from Batman 336, "While the Bat's Away...": plot by Bob Rozakis, script by Roy Thomas, and art by the awesome Jose Garcia-Lopez and Frank McLaughlin.

Friday Night Fights: Michael Vick Style!

It's another Friday night--are you prepared to heed the call of Bahlactus?


Batman provides step by step instructions for taking down two dogs at once.

From Detective Comics 485, reprinted in the Batman: Tales of the Demon trade paperback. Story by Denny O'Neil, art by Don Newton and Dan Adkins.

Friday Night Fights: Twenty Years of Schoolin'!

It's another Friday night! Are you prepared to heed the call of Bahlactus?

From Batman 332, words by Marv Wolfman, art by Irv Novick and Frank McLaughlin.

From the look on Karlyle's face as he goes down, I'd say that Batman didn't just punch him in the face--he punched him in the soul!

And I hope Karlyle got a receipt for that "twenty years" of training.

Friday Night Fights: Brother vs. Brother Aparo Style!

"Friday Night Fights: Jim Aparo Style" continues as Aquaman fights his half-brother, Ocean Master (from Adventure Comics 444--story by Paul Levitz and Gerry Conway, art by Jim Aparo). And it looks like Ocean Master has the upper hand!

Now that's some grip!

Ooh! Ocean Master takes him down by the throat!

"Orm, I believe you had mussels in garlic sauce for lunch. And those mussels were my friends!"

And Aquaman gets free to land one right on the jaw! But is Ocean Master down for the count?

No! Aquaman takes one right in the shrimp basket!

Bahlactus has spoken!

Friday Night Fights: Aparo Style!

Now that I started my own blog, one of the things I've been looking forward to is participating in Bahlactus's "Friday Night Fights" meme. So, I thought I'd kick things off Jim Aparo Style!

The first rule of Aparo Style: when fighting two or more guys, use one of them to beat on the others:

Aquaman obliterates the heads of two Atlantean guards in Adventure Comics 444

Batman makes one guy hit another in the junk in Brave and the Bold 132

Batman contributes to the early retirement of several of Gotham's Finest in Detective Comics 444

Hold on a second! I'm going to need a call from referee Chris Sims--do we have a combo here?