Egg-cellent! Batman the Brave and the Bold #16

[skjam]

The other appearance of Wonder Woman this week, Batman The Brave and the Bold #16. Apparently, there are some licensing issues preventing WW from being a guest on the TV show (and its record with female guest stars is a little wonky), but no such restriction applies to the tie-in comic book. And we have the first modern appearance of Egg Head, a villain from the 60s Batman TV show. As it's a new comic, four pages.



We open with a Batman/Teen Titans crossover, with Nocturna as the baddie. Some unfortunate coloring errors in the first few pages. Once Nocturna is dealt with, Batman learns of a distress call from Wonder Woman.





Naturally, part one of Egg Head's plan works perfectly, the heroes are captured, and Egg Fu is summoned.



I figure some of you might want to iconize Egg Head in that last panel.

How does it come out? That would be telling.

And because I happened to get it in a grab bag this last weekend, a Wonder Woman sketch by Eric Lervold.





Your thoughts and comments?

Suggested tags
char: Batman/Bruce Wayne
char: Wonder Woman/Diana of Themyscria
creator: Eric Jones
creator: Eric Lervold
creator: Landry Q. Walker
publisher: DC Comics
title: Batman the Brave and the Bold

Comments

[foxhack]

I was going to ask why this Egghead guy looks like Vincent Price...

[skjam]

Yep, that's his actor. So go ahead and imagine Mr. Price's hammiest voice for his dialogue.

[thebigapricot]

[proteus_lives]

Oh, that's wonderful.

Godspeed Price. You wonderful bastard.

[tacobob]

I saw a show about him many years ago, and he mentioned that he liked to go to his movies and sit behind the young girls after the lights were turned off, and when the movie ended and the lights were switched back on, he'd just sit there smiling at the girls, who ofcourse would freak out. Kind of creepy, but funny. The Price was always awesome. :D

[psychopathicus_rex]

Yeah, apparently he was a really, really cool guy in private life. EVERYONE liked him - just about everyone in Hollywood was pals with ol' Vinnie Price.

[sistermagpie]

Just when I think I couldn't like Vincent Price more, I hear stories like this.

[thatnickguy]

Egg-Fu and Egg Head teaming up?

This is the greatest comic of all time.

But...I don't know, but is it just me or does Wonder Woman just look...really off? Really not crazy about the artist's rendition of her. Everything else is faboo, though.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Yeah, I'm not wild about the way she looks, either. Depiction of females in general is hit-or-miss in the B&B comics - they often wind up looking all chiseled and angular.
Also, I don't expect many to agree with me here, but I don't like the skirt. I understand that the bathing suit-type outfit can be a little much at times, but there is a REASON why Marston abandoned the skirt after the first issue - visually speaking, it doesn't WORK; it's too distracting to the eye. (Also, to my mind, it makes Wondy look like a Can-Can dancer.) Clearly, this is supposed to be the Golden Age Wonder Woman, so why not go with the bicycle shorts that she usually wore?

[skjam]

It looks even weirder on Wonder Girl at the beginning of the issue.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'll take your word for it. Actually, that's kind of interesting, because I think the skirt might work a bit better on someone younger - for some reason, skirts are more girlish than womanly to me.

[skjam]

Maybe if it was a shorter skirt, like above the knees. But it fits with the Wonder Woman outfit in this issue, so I'll let it pass. Nocturna, on the other hand, just looks wrong not having pale skin.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Uh, yeah, she WOULD, given that part of her backstory, if I remember correctly, is that she's allergic to the sun.

[nevermore999]

It wasn't a skirt actually- they were culottes, very loose shorts that were popular among female atheletes in the 1940's. Marston's wife warned him against a skirt, saying it would be up around her shoulders. Culottes resemble a skirt most of the time, but there are quite a few panels with Wondy's legs spread apart where you can see she's in shorts.

http://www.carolastrickland.com/comics/wwcentral/costume_indices/wwcost1.html

[a_clericalerror]

I own a few pairs of those, though most of mine are longer like pants. They're really comfortable.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, OK, culottes, then. (Always wondered what those were.) Still, as you say, they LOOK like a skirt most of the time, and most subsequent artists have rendered them as such.

[retro_nouveau]

Love the series so much. Can't have Bruce or Diana, ok. How about Babs, speaking of Oracle?

Good to see Egghead, not so good to see Egg Fu. Although having Egghead creating him actually makes Egg Fu seem a lot less ridiculous. So can King Tut be next?

[psychopathicus_rex]

I don't think he CREATED him - he's described as a form of 'Egg-traterrestrial life', which implies that he's from outer space or another dimension. That great big egg machine is probably some sort of transporter that teleported him in from wherever he was.
What I think we need is to see Egghead in the main DCU - we HAVE had King Tut there, and he was awesome. Now they just need to do the same for Egghead - although, of course, an ancient Egyptian theme is much easier to adapt to modern-day comics than a crazy guy obsessed with eggs. Ancient Egypt has mythology, gods, ancient treasure, mummies, pyramids - what do eggs have? Err... breakfast? Easter? Chickens? I think the best bet would be to de-emphasize the obsession with eggs, and just have him be a really smart guy with a penchant for bad egg-related puns.

[skjam]

Egg Fu was summoned, not created. His actual name in-issue is Y'ggphusoggoth, the Second Sign of the Great Ending. Batman just shortens it to taunt the eldritch abomination.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

Y'ggphusoggoth? Really? That's adorable.

[hatman]

"What have I told you about trusting dangerous and obsessive criminal geniuses?"

"To be fair, you tend to warn everybody about everything."

"Point."

So much love.

1. Never use an evil supergenius as part of your plan. I mean... duh.

2. Don't trust a dangerous, obsessive criminal genius. Instead, trust Batman. A dangerous, obsessive criminal-fighting genius.

3. "You warn everyone about everything." That's just beautiful.

4. "Point." Hard to find a Batman who will admit to that in this day and age. There are some advantages to bringing in a dose of Dick Sprang from time to time. (That and the Music Meister ep with NPH.)

[jlbarnett]

that's going be become a Scans_Daily meme, isn't it?

[hatman]

Which one? #3, I assume? Because, really, now that you mention it, there are a few possibilities...

[zordboy]

So... many... egg... puns...

[comicoz]

Which is why the old TV was distilled awesome.

Egghead was well after they finally decided that the show was hammy and not serious and just went with it.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

The show was never terribly serious (though it was a touch less overplayed) from the get-go; it was basically an affectionate send-up of the more ridiculous Silver Age Batman stories (I'm sure if they had the budget and/or FX tech they had now we'd've seen more giant props and crazy costumes).

[iluvpurplegoats]

I never watched the 60's series to appreciate Vincent's performance as Egghead, so here I am imagining a Professor Rattigan performance :D

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

The appropriate episodes are floating around YouTube-- just do a search for "Vincent Price egghead".

[aaron_bourque]

its record with female guest stars is a little wonky

I'd still rather have her on it than not. They wouldn't butcher the character (well, much) and it would give her tremendous audience recognition.