Crowning Moments of Awesome: The DCAU

When it comes to comic adaptations, the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) is pretty much the cream of the crop. Running for over a decade, the shared universe included Batman: the Animated Series, Superman: the Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and the various tie-in movies and comics that connected to them. While the animated series aren’t comics, I think they’re awesome enough to deserve a list of Crowning Moments of Awesome all their own.

Random Blogness: The Flash and the Dumbest Idea Ever

Flashpoint is the big DC event for the summer. As with most comic crossover events, I’m not really keeping up on it. However, I did get a look at some of the closing pages of Flashpoint #2, and it made me laugh quite a bit.

In a nutshell, Flashpoint‘s plot is that Professor Zoom, a villain of the Flash’s, has gone back in time and mucked around with things quite a bit, turning heroes into villains and villains into heroes as a result. Aquaman and Wonder Woman are engaged in a war that threatens several continents, Batman is actually a murderous Thomas Wayne, and other odd stuff. In the case of Barry Allen, aka the Flash, he never got his superpowers. He’s also one of the only people who realizes how messed up the world is, and he’s out to fix it. But first, he plans on recreating the accident that turned him into the Flash. It apparently doesn’t occur to Barry that an origin of, “I spilled a bunch of toxic chemicals on myself and then got struck by lightning” isn’t something he should try to go through again. So we get the following pages:

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Barry Allen: He might have called himself the Flash, but he wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the box.

Crowning Deaths of Awesome and Sadness

Comic book deaths are a punchline these days. A few years ago when Captain America died, no one expected the death to last more than two years, even though Marvel swore up and down that it would stick (sort of like how Spider-Man unmasking during Civil War was supposed to stick and not get retconned away thanks to a deal with the Devil). Despite the fact that a comic book death currently translates into little more than a cheap sales gimmick, there have still been some really good ones over the years. Even if they didn’t stick, they were chilling, touching, or otherwise hugely influential. What follows is my totally biased opinion of the best deaths comics has had to offer.

The Biggest Damned Fight Ever: Rounds 91-100

Round Ninety-One: The Jedi Council
The Jedi Council has observed Bruce Campbell’s actions over the past ninety rounds with growing concern. Bruce is undisciplined, and therefore prone to irrationality and hatred. As such, his potential to join the Dark Side is immense. Ultimately, the Jedi decide that he needs to be disposed of for the greater good. In making this decision, however, they do their specialty of waiting and debating until it’s too late. Bruce’s specialty, on the other hand, is action. Once he gets word of what the Jedi are planning, he goes out to proactively solve the problem…with a chainsaw.

Finally, the Jedi reach a decision.

“So we’re in agreement about how to dispatch of Bruce Campbell then,” asks the council’s head. Then he realizes what’s happened, and states the obvious. “Oh, wait. I guess we’ve already been cut down by Bruce while we were debating. And I guess he killed me, too. Well, I’d better shut up and lie down, because corpses can’t talk.”

With that, the last of the Jedi lies down and goes back to being dead, ending the impossibility that just happened. Round Ninety-One goes to Bruce Campbell.

The Flash versus Carrie Cole

There are actually three Flashes. Back in the 40s, there was Jay Garrick, who somehow managed to keep a secret identity despite the fact that his costume was a frisbee on his head. Then there was Barry Allen, who came up with the red spandex costume that looks so very lame. Finally, there was Wally West, who started as Kid Flash and then became the regular Flash after Barry bit the dust. Now Barry’s back and…oy vey. It doesn’t matter which one we’re using in this fight, because they all have the “super” power of running really fast. Then there’s my friend Carrie, who also runs really fast but also has several other super powers. Her appearance marks the first time I’ve used a real person in any of my fights (well, a real person that I’ve met…I have a suspicion that George Bush and Christopher Walken are also real).

Justice League: Kryptonite

Click here to download the video.

This video combined Three Doors Down’s “Kryptonite” with Cartoon Network’s Justice League cartoon (first two seasons, before it became Justice League Unlimited). Unfortunately, because I didn’t have all the clips I needed, there is no actual kryptonite in the video. Ah well.

I also wound up putting the opening title card on a second time at the end instead of the usual ending title card, which I guess works out now that the Screamsheet is moving on over to WordPress and all.

You’ll have to download the video by clicking the image above, as this video again falls into YouTube’s frustratingly inconsistent policing policies. The song is available in many forms on YouTube, including in music videos, and the episodes featured here can be found in full over on YouTube. Someday, I’m sure somebody will explain to me the fine details of their policies. I just hope the explanation doesn’t involve blind lobotomized monkeys like I think it does.

Dr. Horrible + Justice League: Brand New Day

This video is a celebration of things that are awesome. The music is from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and the clips are from Justice League Unlimited, showcasing the magnificent bastard that is Lex Luthor. The opening and ending clips both come from the episode “The Great Brain Robbery,” in which the Flash and Lex Luthor switch minds. Hilarity ensues.

You can also download the video as an AVI file right here.

Rest in Peace, Superfriends

Click here for the first half of the episode. Technology allows me to share my pain.

I might seem mean-spirited with these rants against Superfriends, but I only complain because of all the hours I spent watching and enjoying that show as a kid (proof that television rots your brain). This time around, I’m graduating to the more “mature” version of the show, Challenge of the Superfriends. I’ve been raiding YouTube for clips, and sat down and revisited one of the episodes of that series called “Rest in Peace.”

After a jazzy opening that reminds me that both Apache Chief and Giganta need to start wearing underwear when they rampage through a city, we start with a shocking scene: one of the Superfriends has been killed. The narrative takes its sweet time telling us who died, but it’s pretty obvious that the only major Superfriend missing from the crowd is Batman. He’s even got a bat-shaped tombstone, which kind of kills the mood by making me laugh out loud. Holy bat-funeral!