Thursday, December 24, 2009

DC Holiday Special '09 #1 (February 2010)



No Atom this year, but here's a holiday treat starring Red Tornado!

John Smith had searched fourteen toy stores across three states for Ecko Geckos, and at the latest, he could barely get a clerk off his cell phone long enough to utter the familiar, "We're out." Smith needed the doll as a Christmas present for his adopted daughter Traya, and a little old woman offered him hers-- for just $200. Even at a 345% mark-up, a fellow customer was willing to one up the quoted price and pay $250. "If you really cared about your kid, maybe you would've tried harder. Disturbed by the desperation, avarice and indifference of the jerks in this store, Smith used his tornado powers to trap everyone inside by depositing mounds of snow at all exits. In the face of this turn, some customers began reconsidering whether rampant consumerism reflected the true spirit of Christmas, and Smith suggested everyone sing along with the holiday music piped over the sound system. However, the cell phone obsessed clerk had already called the fire department, so that in short order, everyone would be free to blow off any actual meaning to the holiday. "My fellow shoppers learned nothing from the experience."

The next morning, Smith and his wife were roused by Traya. Though Smith had finally procured an Ecko Gecko, his child wasn't in any particular rush to unwrap it. "--I have all day to find out what I got. Right now, I just want to be thankful for what I have." Ah, orphans of war torn countries lend perspective to us lousy Yankees. "On Christmas, I bought my daughter a present... but she gave me a gift."

"A Night Before Christmas Story" was far better than Red Tornado deserves, as written by David Tischman, with charmingly emotive art by Adam Archer and Sandra Hope.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

The Tiny Titan Master Index

Editorial
The search for Ray Palmer... stuff.
The Martian march towards death row...
M.O.T.A
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Merchandise
Defenders of Freedom shirt and the usual business
The All New Atom Heroclix
Justice League party loot bags!
Atom switchplate
The Search for Ray Palmer: The T-shirt!
DC Super Heroes Super Healthy Cookbook
Atom transfer
Atom switch plate: Part 2

Toys
Al Pratt
DC Direct's JSA Atom action figure
Atom Pocket Super Hero
Ryan Choi
First Appearance - DC Direct: Ryan Choi
Ray Palmer
Justice League Unlimited action figure
Justice League Unlimited Atom 10"
DC Super Heroes from Hasbro
Model and Toy Collector #24
JLA Pocket Heroes: Day 1 - Box set
JLA Pocket heroes: Day 2 - Martian Manhunter with JLA Conference Table and Chairs
Justice League Unlimited Atom 10 inch #2

Chronos
Chronos Heroclix figurine

Cards
Comic book foldees 1966: Atom
Atomo- Super Amigos trading card!
Atomo trading card (a.k.a. The lil Captain)
Another (Power of the) Atom card?
The Atom and Hawkman "Great Teams" trading card (1989)
Skybox card - 1994
DC vs. Marvel impact cards
VS Card: Ray Palmer * The Atom
Hombre Atomico card!
VS Card * Chronos
VS*Chronos - Injustice Gang card
The Atom "Legacy" card

Comics
The All New Atom #1
The All New Atom #2
The All New Atom #3
The All New Atom #4
The All New Atom #5
Sword of the All New Atom #13
The All New Atom #14
The All New Atom #15
The All New Atom #16
The All New Atom #17
The All New Atom #18
The All New Atom #19
The All New Atom #20
The All New Atom #
The Brave and the Bold #9
Brave and Bold #73: Crisis on Earth B-List!
Countdown Special: The Atom #1
Countdown Special: The Atom #2
Green Lantern #24 (2007)
Hembeck Atom
Hembeck Comic Reader #197 Back Cover (1981)
JLA #27
JLA Classified #
JLA Classified #47
JLA Classified #48
JLA Classified #50
JLA Classified #51: First Contact
JLA Classified #52 - The Truth Hurts
JSA #54:Thanksgiving
Justice League of America #110- DC 100 SUPER SPECTACULAR PAGES: The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!
Sword of the Atom - Book One: Stormy Passage
Sword of the Atom - Book Two: A Choice of Dooms
Sword of the Atom - Book 3: Mourning's End
Sword of the Atom - Book 4: Look Homeward, Atom

Art
JLU Atom sketch double header!
Norm Breyfogle sketch
Model and Toy Collector #24
Fred Hembeck sketch
Michael Netzer Atom and The Martian Manhunter sketch
Michael Netzer Atom and The Martian Manhunter sketch #2: We will not go quietly into the night...
Atom vs. Ant-man: #1 - Gary Gretsky
Atom vs. Ant-man: #2 - Gary Gretsky

Pin-Ups
The Atom: Who's Who Entry
The Atom (Golden Age): Who's Who entry
Sword of the Atom: Action Pin-up No.1!
Sword of the Atom: Action pin-up Part 2!
DC Comics Super Heroes coloring book: Atom page
DC Comics Super Heroes Coloring Book: Atom page #2
Bug-Eyed Bandit Who's Who entry



Media
The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure animation cel
Justice League tv pilot 1997
Justice League tv pilot continued...
The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure production drawing

Ads
Comic Cavalcade ad
Debut of The Atom ad!
Debut of the Atom ad Part 2
Meet Chronos: Atom #2 ad
The Atom #10 ad
Aquaman and the Atom: The Brave and the Bold ad
The Atom team-up ad
The Atom subscription offer!
DC favorites subscription ad
Mystery in Space and The Atom ad
DC on TV Ad!
Comic Books price guide ad - 1983
Sword of the Atom insert (1984)
Power of the Atom ad poster
JLA vs. Teen Titans ad poster

Animal Man
Animal Man #1 ad!

Hawkman
Super Amigos: Hawkman!
Hawkman transfer
Hawkman Brave and Bold ad
Hombre Halcon bottle cap - 1978
El Halcon - the Super Amigos card!
Hembeck Hawk-heroes
Hembeck Hawkman #2
Hawkman patch
DC Official Licensee display
Hembeck Hawkman #3
Hawkman Super Powers stamp set

Mister Miracle
Super Powers: Mister Miracle

The Red Tornado
The Red Tornado Shrine: Minimates!
Red Tornado Shrine: Custom Red Tornado Lego!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Plan a strategy



Jones quizzed Palmer on a means to stop the Synthetic Men. Palmer explained that they were virtually invulnerable, needing only food to eat and the nitrogen in the air to breathe. Jones told Palmer to leave the rest to him, and escorted the scientist to safety.

John Jones watched the building from afar with his Martian Vision, invisibly sealing off exits as the Synthetic Men sealed their victory over the Lizard-Men. Then, at impossible speeds, Jones raced through the Heywood plant, collecting the unconscious bodies of the fallen reptilian aliens, and depositing them outside. Next, insuring the building was sealed up airtight, Jones began to inhale. Mighty Martian lungpower soon drained all the atmosphere out of the complex, and despite a ran of blows from several suffocating Synthetic Men, their threat was quickly extinguished.

Securing the collapsed Synthetic Men in vacuum tanks and binding up the Lizard-Men, Jones took the opportunity to explore the Heywood plant. There, he discovered that along with the cache of neoplasm used to create the synthetics, Heywood had also inherited a means of contacting Captain Comet, now long departed from his home planet. However, it was a Venusian interstellar broadcasting array, which could only transmit in their native language.

Try to contact Captain Comet with the Venusian device?
Leave well enough alone?

Fly to Detroit to defend the plant



With his inhuman speed, John Jones flew from Middleton to Detroit, where he landed a few blocks from the Heywood Defense Industries plant. Already, the disguised Lizard-Men had overtaken the facility. Using his incredible Martian Vision, Jones spied one conscious human being within the complex, physicist Ray Palmer. An unstoppable force, Jones barreled his way toward Palmer, and learned from the shaken scientist that a troop of invulnerable Synthetic Men within threatened a rampage all their own. These green-skinned artificial humans had already attempted to conquer the Earth back in 1952, and would have succeeded if not for the planet's sole superhuman defender of that day, Captain Comet. Now Jones had two menaces to juggle.

Attack the Lizard-Men?
Attack the Synthetic Men?
Plan a strategy?

Attack the Lizard-Men?



John Jones decided that swift action must be taken, and raced into the Heywood plant. Left and right were Lizard-Men and synthetic humans, each posing a deadly threat. No longer possessed of the quality of weaponry they once wielded, the Lizard-Men still had an easy enough time culling flame-throwing contraptions out of the laboratories with the compound. Meanwhile, the Synthetic Men were impervious to injury, and were super humanly strong. An explosion here, a powerful blow there, and John Jones found himself crumbling before his combined opposition. The Lizard-Men could not control the synthetics, and would have quite a fight on their hands. The physicist Ray Palmer knew the inner working of the Synthetic Men, and could perhaps aid in their destruction. John Jones would never know how it turned out, as the life of the last living Martian was snuffed out like a candle...

Unhappy with your ending? Then start over!

Attack the Synthetic Men?



John Jones decided that swift action must be taken, and raced into the Heywood plant. Left and right were Lizard-Men and synthetic humans, each posing a deadly threat. No longer possessed of the quality of weaponry they once wielded, the Lizard-Men still had an easy enough time culling flame-throwing contraptions out of the laboratories with the compound. Meanwhile, the Synthetic Men were impervious to injury, and were super humanly strong. An explosion here, a powerful blow there, and John Jones found himself crumbling before his combined opposition. The Lizard-Men could not control the synthetics, and would have quite a fight on their hands. The physicist Ray Palmer knew the inner working of the Synthetic Men, and could perhaps aid in their destruction. John Jones would never know how it turned out, as the life of the last living Martian was snuffed out like a candle...

Unhappy with your ending? Then start over!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Answer



Palmer's head was still swimming from the blow he'd received, and there was no escape for him. Captured and failing to see any other alternative, Ray Palmer eventually collected himself and wrote detailed instructions for the authorities.  They learned how to release and, as best as Palmer was been able to determine, control the synthetic troopers. He was then led to a squad car, where he was met by a plainclothes detective named John Jones. Jones argued with the other officers about who would be taking Palmer in for further questioning, until Jones grabbed Palmer by the shoulder, and literally blew the other policemen away with super-human breath. Jones ordered Palmer into the driver's seat of the squad car, telling him to drive as far from the scene as he could.

Palmer made it all the was back to Ivy Town before turning himself in to local police. Although he was cleared of any wrongdoing through his association with Heywood Defense Industries, Heywood himself pressed for Palmer's prosecution for revealing company and by extension state secrets. Ray Palmer served several years in federal penitentiary, and afterward, was too thoroughly disgraced to ever work in his field again. Worse, for the rest of his life, Ray never learned who John Jones was, or why any of the events that ruined his life had occurred.

Not happy with your ending? Why don't you start again?

The Answer



Ray Palmer correctly solved the equation, and combining the activating blend, animated the Synthetic Men. At about the same time, the authorities burst into the lab, and a struggle ensued. A synthetic trooper hurled Ray across the room and into another wall. Dazed, Palmer realized he was really tired of his head being abused, and that the synthetic men were rampaging out of control. In no time, the lab and exterior hallways were trashed by the synthetic men, and to add to Palmer's disbelief, the police began to shapeshift into anthropomorphic reptiles. Ray was relieved he hadn't set the synthetics against human officers, but now had to find a way to stop both.

Suddenly a plainclothes, still human-looking police detective bounded down a hallway right toward Ray. Palmer tried to hide, but it was as though the detective could see through walls, and Ray was caught. The officer revealed himself to be John Jones, investigating a case originating in his home of Middleton, Colorado. Jones quizzed Palmer on a means to stop the synthetic men. Palmer explained that they were virtually invulnerable, needing only food to eat and the nitrogen in the air to breathe. Jones told Palmer to leave the rest to him, and escorted the scientist out of the building.

While Palmer waited at a safe distance from the building, the whole area fell silent. Eventually, the real Detroit Police Department arrived, to find the Lizard-Men in bondage and the Synthetic Men suffocated to death. Having had enough adventure for the time being, Palmer quit Heywood Defense Industries, and returned to academia as an Ivy Town university professor.

The End

 

Release The Synthetic Men!



Ray Palmer determined that he had no choice but to release the synthetic men.With no time to lose, Palmer bolted from the room and raced for the area of the compound where the synthetics were stored. Palmer heard the pounding of feet from behind as he raced into the lab and sealed the door. While thudding came from without, Palmer began working on the equation needed to animate the synthetics. Tense minutes passed, as the police managed to drive a wedge through the lab door. Palmer had just one equation left to solve before he could turn the tables on his pursuers. Can you help him?

9x4 + 26x2y2 + 25y4 =

A) 35x6 + 25y6
B) (3x2 + 2xy + 5y2 )(3x2  -2xy + 5y2 )
C) (3x2 + 5y2 + 2xy) (3x2 + 5y -2x)
D) (3x2 + 5y2) - 4x2y2

Confess Everything



Palmer's head was still swimming from the blow he'd received, and there was no escape for him. Captured and failing to see any other alternative, Ray Palmer eventually collected himself and wrote detailed instructions for the authorities.  They learned how to release and, as best as Palmer was been able to determine, control the synthetic troopers. He was then led to a squad car, where he was met by a plainclothes detective named John Jones. Jones argued with the other officers about who would be taking Palmer in for further questioning, until Jones grabbed Palmer by the shoulder, and literally blew the other policemen away with super-human breath. Jones ordered Palmer into the driver's seat of the squad car, telling him to drive as far from the scene as he could.

Palmer made it all the was back to Ivy Town before turning himself in to local police. Although he was cleared of any wrongdoing through his association with Heywood Defense Industries, Heywood himself pressed for Palmer's prosecution for revealing company and by extension state secrets. Ray Palmer served several years in federal penitentiary, and afterward, was too thoroughly disgraced to ever work in his field again. Worse, for the rest of his life, Ray never learned who John Jones was, or why any of the events that ruined his life had occurred.

Not happy with your ending? Why don't you start again?

Surrender To Authorities



Ray Palmer wasn't about to commit an actual crime rather than avoid addressing phony charges. Ray met with a group of Feds in the lobby, who immediately began to interrogate him about the synthetic troops and Heywood's other developments. While Palmer wished to reveal what he could to the authorities, he was contractually bound to confidentiality on areas he was being questioned in. Palmer wondered how policemen knew so much about the science behind the synthetic troops, and as he began to ask his own questions, the feds began roughing him up. Palmer had not yet been handcuffed, and tried to defend himself, only to have the butt of a gun smash into his chin and leave him slumped against a wall. Ray realized that regardless of whether these men were really the authorities or not, they meant to extract information out of him by any means they deemed necessary. Once again, Ray had to decide, would he reveal all, or attempt escape?

Confess everything to the authorities?
Make his escape?

Crisis On Earth-Blog: The DC Challenge




You fail at life! Buddy, I've been there myself enough times, so don't let it get you down. Do what I do-- Dust yourself off and try again! High five!

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