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

[oddpuppets.insanejournal.com]

Thank Kirby for Barda.

[angelophile.insanejournal.com]

What comic/issue is this actually from?

[darklorelei.insanejournal.com]

I love them so much.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

Mr. Miracle volume 2.

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

Oberon following Barda around everywhere, constantly taping her as she's lifting and carrying stuff in skimpy workout gear, is kinda pervy. Naturally, I want a copy of the tape.

[liarashadowsong.insanejournal.com]

I love Barda and Scott. This is amazing. ^_^

[jkcarrier.insanejournal.com]

Funny stuff. Not sure who the artist is, but I don't think it's Maguire. Too many backgrounds, for one thing. ;-)

[gargoylekitty.insanejournal.com]

Definitely one of my favorite stories and just the thing I needed to start my day.

:D

[filbypott.insanejournal.com]

Scott handles Barda's mighty mega-rod gently, with care.

The jokes, they write themselves.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

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.

Yet another entry on my list of TV Shows I Want To See But Will Never Happen.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

I wish the CW would cancel Smallville and make a Scott & Barda show. For the same budget that gave us the Clark/Doomsday fight, you could get Barda lifting a couch with one arm. :)

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

OMG yes. And really, if they were willing to even consider making The Graysons, surely the Scott & Barda Show would stand a chance at being given green light.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

Or the green light, even.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

And every week/story arc have a different one of Darkseid's generals serving as Big Bad, Scott trying to put on shows, Barda trying to fit in, Oberon trying to make money... you certainly wouldn't have to do "Lana is the descendant of Kryptonian witches" kind of plots anytime soon.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

Oh, and then you could have that episode where Booster and Beetle visit, and if that goes well, there'll be a Blue & Gold spin-off series!

DC really does have a lot of sit-com worthy characters and teams. It's kind of funny that WB/CW automatically goes for the ones that are least likely to work as a TV show, where cheese, camp or general silliness aren't going to be detractors.

"Lana is the descendant of Kryptonian witches"

See, the benefit of not having watched seasons four and five as they aired, is that I mostly just skipped right over those crazy bits.

[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]

No live-action TV show is ever going to have the budget to give audiences the action they expect from summer blockbusters. Heroes is an A-list show and even they only show Sylar really slugging it out behind closed doors (I'm not kidding here, they do the literal "oh, what an awesome fight going on just off camera!" trope that South Park makes fun of). Birds of Prey could've remedied that by fixating on more down-to-earth action, but they tried to turn it into Smallville 2.0 with teen angst and a freak of the week.

The thing about Scott & Barda is they're more Moonlighting than Spider-Man. You could do five weeks of them dealing with comparatively minor threats/problems, then splurge on Barda having a city-destroying fight with Knockout or whoever.

Of course, if DC were listening to me, we'd have a Young Justice cartoon by now.

[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."

[leikomgwtfbbq.insanejournal.com]

Scott and Barda are so cute. I demand that they have a similar series running again. :D

[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.

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

Issue #21, to be exact.

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

It's Joe Phillips.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

they weren't Kryptonian

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

They had one of the Four Elements or whatever, so they were wrapped up in all of it. In fact, Kryptonian witches probably would've made more sense than actual witches who'd sworn a blood oath to kill Dean Winchester.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

oh, you're talking something in Supernatural for some reason?

I thought you were talking about the time Lana was possessed and then she stuck the members of her coven into Chloe and Lois.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

No, it's just that the same actor played Jason Teague, who was a descendant of someone who pissed Witch!Lana off and thus she swore to end the Teague bloodline.

In a show about Superman.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

While I'm far from an expert on Smallville, didn't it go on the air AFTER 'Birds of Prey'? So it wouldn't be BoP imitating Smallville, it'd be the other way round.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Barda is very well-written here. It's a nice bit of characterization that she desperately WANTS to be a good little housewife to her husband (although she'd still wear the pants in the relationship; I mean, who are we kidding here?), but she just can't quite make the mental transition between 'I SHALL SMITE YOU, VILLAIN!' and 'bake until fully browned, then garnish with parsley'. It's like if Conan the Barbarian and June Cleaver were sharing the same body.

[magus_69.insanejournal.com]

It's like if Conan the Barbarian and June Cleaver were sharing the same body.

...

...

...

... I HAVE SEEN IT! I CANNOT UNSEE IT!

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

Smallville started in 2001, Birds of Prey in 2002. In fact, I think BOP was one of the superhero shows trying to ride SV's coattails (back when shows would actually want to do that), like Aquaman and more recently The Graysons.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

It appears I have sparked an epiphany...

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

OK, my bad. I don't have a TV hookup, so I'm not really up on these things.
Grayson actually aired? Really? I thought it was one of those shows that were announced but never actually made.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

No, it set an impressive record for being canceled before it even got going. Even Aquaman got a pilot.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Ah. That's pretty much what I thought happened, but I wasn't sure.