"For all my powers, I could not save _____": An image thread

And what might your amazing powers be, Doctor Casino?

this thread has just turned into Po-Faced #3 is all

The Po-Faced Absurdity of DC Comics (picture thread)
Po-Faced Absurdity of DC Comics, Part 2: Son of Po-Face

yeah that wasn't really what I was going for - it's not like the title trope is unique to DC

as evidenced by the v first post

it happened organically

for all our powers, we couldn't keep the thread on topic

https://themiddlespaces.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/putthingsright-asm70.jpg

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/thor/256-1.jpg

this one is only four issues later

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/thor/260-1.jpg

awesome

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20051107154935/marveldatabase/images/5/59/Tales_to_Astonish_Vol_1_75.jpg

seems characteristic of Marvel to go the more self-absorbed route:
http://www.cyberattic.com/stores/pasttreasures/items/360646/catphoto.jpg

i think these final panels from daredevil 7 by lee and wood are an interesting variation or inversion of the kind of the thing this thread is getting at - ie what 'value' are superpowers - or, for what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul etc etc. stan is telling his readers, hey kids, courage and determination are more important than any silly superpower.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Panel-2.JPG

I can't get over the kitschy bad-taste of that Heroes Against Hunger cover. did that 'marvel superheros react to 9/11' book have one of these?

they had crying911doom.jpeg
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/doom-crying.jpg

stay on topic here kids (Marvel had Heroes for Hope - which was just as bad in content, altho the cover was standard "Wolverine is a badass" nonsense)

what 'value' are superpowers - or, for what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul

tbh I was thinking of it more in a Greek-tragedy sort of context, ie you are fucked no matter what you do or how badass you think you are, the universe is a merciless clockwork and you are just a pawn

"Not all my power can save..." is such a weird (and repeated!) construction compared to "All my powers cannot save..."

Not to be prosaic and such

if there's one thing Stan Lee is good at, it's mangling syntax

back on topic
http://archive.facetasm.com/bundles/bilderundworte/uploads/catalog/product/110001/item110814.1.thumb.300.jpg

I hate it when diseases won't die

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/0/3125/317691-18006-124072-1-world-s-finest-comic.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/d7/9b/c5/d79bc56c2eed2109d1bcf424bde0b532.jpg

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081101124342/marveldatabase/images/thumb/2/27/Incredible_Hulk_Special_Vol_1_4.jpg/300px-Incredible_Hulk_Special_Vol_1_4.jpg

lol what's up with that phrase and that character, you'd think it'd at least be "NOT ALL HULK'S POWER CAN SAVE HULK!"

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JLIXx7Zw0rE/hqdefault.jpg

"NOT ALL HULK'S POWER CAN SAVE HULK!"

lol

had detailed discussion w my wife last night about the difference between Hulk and Bizarro syntax

"Bizarro Hulk has excellent syntax, thanks for asking."

this is not quite the same thing but feels related

http://www.newkadia.com/Covers/S/A/Action%20Comics%201938%20series/actioncomics385.jpg

ok, i love that.

in the future, all doctors are white guys and they still use head mirrors for some reason

late to this but is that Aquaman cover upthread Aparo? somehow it doesn't all quite come together into a visually striking design but so many elements of it are wonderful

yup: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Aquaman_Vol_1_62

Aquaman and Mera are each about 13 heads high

just realised I don't think I've ever read a comic with Mera in it but I wrote her name without thinking

for all my powers, I could recall her

Love the 60s Aquamans by Aparo and Steve Skeates, amongst the most formally inventive of all Silver Age DCs eg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0aF72ivaEJI/TDlIyF5YdCI/AAAAAAAAEVA/LT2MEJpq0U0/s400/Aqua%252053%2520Splash%25202.jpg

pencilled, inked and lettered by Aparo.

wow, that's cool. when i started reading comics as a kid in the mid-to-late 80s, i was buying new batman comics which aparo was drawing alongside british reprints of older batman stories he'd drawn too, so his version of batman is pretty essential to me.

Gotta love the fact that even when Mera is berating her husband for the death of their child, she still calls him "Aquaman".

weirder still is that their kid was also known as 'aquababy' according to that wiki page

how is aquababby formed

Chewed up aquababby parts squashed between aquaman and aquawoman.

fish paste

Someone I know was Aparo's inker for a while - said his pencilled pages always smelled of cigar smoke!

i always imagined kirby's would too

Aparo's art is still the default "what a DC comic looks like" image in my head

DC's super hero line did kind of have a bit of a house look as they had a core group of artists that drew the books for years. It was a cleaner style and they were much tighter on enforcing character guides. I think the best artists in DC's usual line worked on the war and mystery books.

"DC super hero style"
Jim Aparo
Dick Dillin
Mike Sekowsky
Carmine Infantino
Irv Novick
Jim Mooney
Curt Swan
Kurt Schaffenberger

Obviously Joe Kubert was also one of DC's best artists, but he did Sgt. Rock, Tarzan and outside of Hawkman or covers, didn't do as much super hero comics. Kubert's style is also very much him and totally not that clean line look like the others above.

Always hated that house style stuff. Marvel ended up getting it too when some artists were pushed to look more like Romita and Kirby.

It's not that these artists are really bad because most were pretty skilled. Never understood Wayne Boring, Curt Swan, Al Plastino fans. I've seen so many people praise Aparo too but I don't get that either. I do like Kubert, Toth, Nick Cardy, Frank Thorne, Neal Adams, Frank Robbins, Ramona Fradon.

He only did the darker superheroes but I think Jerry Grandenetti is very underrated. Has a wonky charm (some of the anatomy is just way too bad to work though). His later commission work was even more eccentric.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080520172343/http://www.jergrand.com/index.php

What?! Plastino and Boring are incredible. So clean.

A lot of the love for Aparo, mine included, comes at least in part from the guy's ubiquity. 10 years on Brave & the Bold, then Batman and the Outsiders, then Batman during peak-Batmania. (not to mention defining runs on the Spectre and Aquaman). A steady hand on the rudder, contrasted during my fanboy heyday by Breyfogle's wilder Detective art.

Yeah, same here: my first serious comics collectings were Batman Aparo (everyone looking oddly timeless and muscly and as though they were should be wearing checked caps and smoking cigars even when they weren't) and Detective Breyfogle (lovely, sketchy underappreciated stuff)