So 'dead means dead,' huh?

[superboyprime]

Unless you're a big name writer's pet character, I guess.

Congo Bill is still looking for his pal Malavar, the gorilla scientist who Prometheus kidnapped back in CRY FOR JUSTICE. From what he's been able to piece together, Malavar escaped and was last seen searching for the legendary Fountain of Youth. Figuring that wherever the Fountain is, it's their best lead, Bill and Starman seek out an individual they know for a fact knows its location.









They track down the Fountain of Youth, which turns out be a Lazarus Pit, in Florida. Malavar's there too.



Some bad guys attack, so Blue and Gold and friends have to fend them off long enough for Malavar's friend to fully resurrect. They do, and he does:





They use the JLA teleporters to send him home.

Comments

[jcbaggee]

Nope, this already announced relationship between Starman and Tasmanian Devil doesn't feel forced at all.

[shadowpsykie]

i don't think it feels forced. i kinda like the way Bill is like...

Bill: Dude, he's like, gay...

Mik:.... And?

Bill: well you are gay too...

Mik: .......

Bill: what?

i think its funny that the straight best friend thinks this. HELL MY SISTER did the EXACT same thing. i went out with her to a "Straight" club for her birthday and a gay friend of her's came and she was like:

Sister: Hey, he's gay you know.
Me: thats nice.
Sister: *looks at me* well?
Me: what?
Sister: go dance with him.
Me: What?!
Sister: he's gay!
Me: I know and?!
Sister: You're gay
Me: i KNOW.
Sister: so?
Me: Oh my god! Seriously, you think just because we are two gay guys we should just hook up? "Hi howsit going" "Good you?" "let's make out!" "Okay!"
Sister: yeah....

ACTUAL conversation. it was very funny in hindsight

Bill means well. and this really isn't any different than "He's dude, she's single." "Yeah, and?" "well you're single too"

honestly when i think Bill, i think a slightly smarter version of Santos from X-verse

its not like this scenario (both straight and gay) has not been used before. it seems like its starting off well.

[freezer]

I'm sorry, was I supposed to be disapproving of something? Because all I saw was REX THE MOTHERFUCKING WONDER DOG!

[majingojira]

AMEN!

[turtlefu]

Writing is bad, art is REALLY shitty fake manga BL crap.

Also, can I point out that, when previously written by Robinson, Mikaal never identified as gay, instead stating his alien heritage made him essentially omnisexual?
And now, he makes him "gay", because Robinson is backwards-progressive and any time a male is attracted to another male, he is automatically gay.

[nezchan]

I'm pretty sensitive to bad art, but other than that one unfortunate shot of Buddy yelling (what's with your face, dude?) this isn't bad as superhero stuff goes. I'm a bit mystified by the "fake manga" part, though, since it doesn't look at all like manga to me.

[suzene]

Meh. Marginal approval for un-murdering the queer character he offed in Cry For Justice.

ETA: Blue raspberry Starman is still very pretty, if a bit ham-handed.

[suzene]

Oh, lord. OK, having now read the big reveal, Starman's "gay doesn't work that way" lecture is officially the most absurd thing I have read in the last month. Reminds me of that page in AF v.2 where Northstar protests that he's not The Gay One, then spends the rest of the page pontificating OOC-ly on gay acceptance and how homosexuality is not a choice.

Dear writers,

These are characters, not soap boxes, K? If you want to prove how progressive you are, just do a good job writing my favorite queer characters in-character and as well-rounded individuals, and save the lectures for the message boards, OK?

No love,
Me

[suzene]

Also, is this Brett Booth on art? It would explain why Taz's anthro form actually looks more like his namesake these days.

[neev]

Yeah, I was surprised by that - the previous scans made him look like Bigfoot or something. This is definitely an improvement.

[lencannon]

Congorilla's constant nudity/butt up in the airness makes me SLIGHTLY uncomfortable.

[windiebird.livejournal.com]

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/geriasbonham/5355578707/)

[fajrdrako]

I've not idea who these people are or what's going on here but the blue guy is mighty cute.

Wonder if I should be reading this.

[k_red]

I thought the exact same thing, with an added bonus of Rex the Wonder Dog.

[nezchan]

This artist seems to like putting nicely built men in tight shirts or with no shirts at all, and...

...I'm sure I had a point there somewhere.

[ian_karkull]

Horrible, horrible art and utterly pointless story, but who cares, it's Rex the fucking Wonder Dog!

[mistersandman]

The cover is especially bland. This comic would have sold at least 10% more copies if it had Rex on the cover. A background would have been nice too.

[lieut_kettch]

Ah, Bill, falling to the classic mistake of straight white folk. Pair up the two Asians/black people/Latinos/gays/lesbians.

[suzene]

I did blink when Taz and Starman were described as prominent homosexual characters. I thought Starman was omnisexual, and Pied Piper, for example, has gotten far more attention in recent years than Taz has, even with his death.

[thanekos]

His humor and optimism, communicated with no lips through a tank filled with something that was probably pretty thick.

(I can't imagine Prometheus took him out of.. come to think of it, how would flaying help one understand his abilities?)

[icon_uk]

Amusing sign language. The occassional inspirational thumbs up when things are really down is probably more memorable than complex jokes at any other time.?

Oh and as for the experiments.... Checking his regenerative abilities, the limits of his metamorphing ability (His skin changes when the changes form, what happens when it's removed etc)

[blackruzsa]

I had no idea who these characters were until an earlier post alerted me that Taz would be getting together with some other gay character. Yup, feels forced. But as long as they have a slow, sensible buildup to a relationship and won't be fridged (AGAIN) afterward, I'm good with it.

Or they could do a total heel face turn like in Glee, say Taz is getting together with this character, then surprise us by putting him together with an entirely different character.

On another note, I hate how everyone assumes animals can talk to other animals, (i.e Pokemon, though they're not animals, you get my point) and love that they pointed that out in this one.

REX.

[teamrodent]

So would Rex play Meowth?

[perletwo]

OK, yeah, it's a dumb exchange. But I gotta admit the Sylvester and Paco Rabane bit made me snicker. {/is twelve}

[fleur_de_liz]

I will never accept these two as the Blue and Gold.

[silverzeo]

So is this the 34th time they reintroduce Rex in the DC-verse? So the Tazmania Devil looks like a giant rat.....

[superboyprime]

It's not really a re-introduction. They're just using the character.

[pyrotwilight]

So...umm...Bill...what about all those other dead folks? Too much work?

[sadoeuphemist]

No, no, you see, he was never actually dead! He was simply flayed and artificially kept alive until being put in the Lazarus pit which regenerated his technobabble technobabble technobabble.

The thing that gets me is, why the hell would Prometheus ever want to learn how to transform into a giant Tasmanian devil?

[espanolbot]

Interesting, this looks actually kind of interesting, if only for one issue.

As Linkara said, Cry for Justice should have been about Congorilla and Mikaal, as they were the only two that did anything interesting.

...Well the Shade did too, but I'm massively biased in regard to him anyways.

From what I remember, the quote from Starman in which Jack Knight is suprised that Mikaal is now dating a bloke, having previously been in a relationship with a woman, had Mikaal basically saying: "Jack, I'm an alien. You could no sooner understand my sexuality than you could a dolphin's."

[icon_uk]

You could no sooner understand my sexuality than you could a dolphin's

You mean Mik has got a restraining order from SeaWorld like Troy McClure? "When we say he sleeps with the fishes, we MEAN he sleeps with the fishes"

[icon_uk]

Yeah, the above in no way puts me off the concept or the characters, and it's rather fun. Plus, as many have noted. REX THE WONDER DOG! (And without the rather convenient power of speech which was fun, but sort of spoiled the point IMHO)

[q99]

Wait, I thought Animal Man was dead? With a whole mini about it?


And 'dead means dead' was something dropped with Hal ^^ They won't be not-resurrecting people until they stop killing them.

[thelazyreader]

Basically 'dead means dead' unless Dan the Didiot or his flunkies Johns, Morrison and Robinson feel otherwise. They practically own the DC Universe now, continuity be damned.

[thelazyreader]

Mikaal Tomas(the blue Starman) is supposed to be bisexual, not gay. Has that been retconned to expand DC's stable of homosexual characters?

[icon_uk]

He's not bisexual per se, he's dating outside his species when you get down to it (as are/have Superman with Lois, Starfire with Dick Grayson and many more),

Amongst humans, he's attracted to men, "gay" is probably more accurate a term for his earthound sexuality than anything else.

Plus, he's allowed to self identify as gay if that's what he feels he is. I recall an argument I had years ago when I suggested Willow from Buffy should count as bisexual since she had a relationship with Oz prior to meeting Tara, and it was pointed out (quite rightly) that the past is prologue, if after meeting Tara she realised she was gay, then that's what she is. Ditto Mik, if, after his relationship with Tony he's identifying as gay, that's entirely up to him.

[kirke_novak]

I am much more amused by the fact that the one animal =/= other animal is actually quite a fitting parallel for the fact that two gay people don't have to be attracted to each other.
"You're an animal, dog is an animal, you should talk" *facepalm*
"You are gay, he is gay, you should start making gay babies!" *facepalm*

Not sure if it's a right comparisment but all my friends try to set me up with guys based on my nationality. "I met this one guy, he's Polish, you should meet him". Appreciated but unnecessary.

Overall though, I actually find it adorable.

[zyriex]

Ahaha, that's actually a rather funny parallel and wonderful use of irony

[thehefner]

Man, DC's really pushing Brett Booth as the next big thing, aren't they?

[suzene]

Has he been getting more work than usual from them? I really enjoy his anthros, but his human expressions never seem to quite work. He was quite a good fit on the Thundercats revival, though.

[sianmink]

Quite a low ratio of pants to characters here.

I'm just sayin'.

[greenmask]

Lulz Mr Stique!

That's all I got, for now.

[greenmask]

No wait, I have more!

Seeing someone come back to life makes him realise his partner's death was final?

I.. I have to say I don'tget that.

[icon_uk]

TD's revival was down to any number of exotic variables, and Mik knows it woouldn't work for Tony, but seeing the zest for life which TD has does remind Mik of the sheer importance of living your life to the full.