Barda and Scott - Moving Day!

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

This is a very special story to me. Well, not really, but it is where I got my icon from.

Around the time of the Bwa-Ha-Ha League, Keith Giffen actually managed to get the greenlight on what was basically a sitcom revolving around Mr. Miracle and Big Barda, who were trying to lead a simple suburban life, complicated enormously by the fact that they were superheroes. Booster Gold and Blue Beetle stopped over, their neighbors got suspicious, there were the Robot Beatles (not robotic beetles, mind you)... fun stuff. It's not quite as good as Jack Kirby's characterizations, IMHO, but it's very hard to dislike. I mean, just look at 'em.



In today's installment, our intrepid heroes (and Oberon) are moving out of the suburbs to the big city. That's right, it's Moving Day (what can I say, Giffen likes this plot). As always, disaster, flirtiness, and banter ensue.

I love how Barda is reworking her old "oppress planets" energy into saving money on groceries. How much does the JLI pay them again?



That's Shilo Norman at the end there. We'll skip him, because you don't need proof that not everything Jack Kirby invented was genius, do you? "Yeah, let's take Mr. Miracle, then get rid of everything that makes him distinctive and likable." Meh.



That last panel was THIS CLOSE to being my preview image.



Ignore Scott's emo; he comes around. I love Barda's facial expressions and poses here. I think it's Kevin McGuire on art, in which case the title really lucked out. You could icon any of those panels and get icon love on any self-respecting DC comm.



The family settles in to watch Oberon's home video while Barda finally gets to try out her canned chili.

Oberon: Do you smell something?

Barda: Uh, sorry guys...

Comments

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

Okay, I was just about to head out and then something hit me: Oberon calls Barda's mega-rod the "father-rod" here, and it made me think...Barda has a "father-rod" and Scott has a mother box. Those are some oddly complimentary innuendos right there.

Is that done on purpose? Has everyone already noticed that or am I just really slow on the uptake?

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

It's not really called a father-rod, Oberon is just being a perv. He also asks if Scott accidentally throwing a couch at Barda is "something kinky [they] do."

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

I realize that it's not really called "father-rod", but it's a relatively phallic-shaped object, and calling it a father-rod just made me think about the fact that Barda has an object that's vaguely masculine, and Scott has a mother-box (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=box). Both husband and wife carrying around powerful objects whose names/shapes have to do with the opposite sex. I just found it odd, but interesting, that their possessions compliment each other that way. (Or is Scott not the only one who has a mother-box?)

Of course I could just be looking for patterns where there aren't any.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

It could just be something Jack Kirby thought was clever. He did that a lot, so a guy whose specialty is escaping from danger and who has a mother-box, he's complimented by a woman who's a big bruiser and she has a big rod. So he definitely could've meant it to be taken 'that way'.

Alternately, the Mega-Rod is the world's most ungainly metaphor for the clitoris.