Showing posts with label Damage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Damage. Show all posts

Monday, June 17, 2013

2012 “Sins of Youth Titans” Baltimore Comic-Con commission by Bobby Timony

Click To Enlarge


“Sins of Youth (Argent, Damage, Starfire, Flash and Cyborg) sketch by Bobby Timony from the Baltimore Comic Convention, September 2012”
Bobby Timony

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Thursday, October 11, 2012

2010 “The Atom's Family: Damage” animation-style fan fiction by N:TAS

Click To Enlarge

N:TAS DCU: The Atom's Family: Damage 10-06-10


"NightwingTAS" continues his Atom animated series concept cavalcade from the Super Buddies message board by resurrecting a spirit of the '90s...
"Grant Emerson life has changed a lot during the Infinite Crisis. His father returned and has been helping him to control his powers. He also became close to Jesse and Rex Tyler, even joining them as members of the JSI. Grant has finally found the family and friends he has always longed for."

Good for Grant! He was always such a whiny little bitch, giving him some happy could only be an improvement. One of these days, I need to cover my partial run of Damage from when I collected the title on the monthly. He had a pretty great set of costumes, and while this one apes his lesser Sins of Youth gear, that unusual color scheme remains oddly effective.

Get Familiar

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Dragon*Con 2011 Damage Cosplay

Click To Enlarge


Rare is the Grant Emerson cosplayer, despite the character appearing on an even rarer 1990s fumetti cover. About that...

"Check this out... the guy in the Damage costume is wearing THE Damage costume. Apparently he made the costume used for the photo cover... Afterwards, they mailed the costume back to him. That's what he's wearing in that photo. I believe he's also the same guy that cosplayed Indigo Lantern Atom last year. Thought you'd dig that."

I did indeed, and thank The Irredeemable Shag of Firestorm Fan and Once Upon a Geek for both the photo and the info! Also swell that he caught an unmasked Ray Palmer in the background, for continuity. We'll get back to him later...



Dragon*Con 2011 CosPlay

Thursday, August 11, 2011

2010 Teen Titans Zero Hour in color art by Bill Walko

Click To Enlarge

Clockwise from upper left: Supergirl (Linda Danvers,) Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, Darkstar Donna Troy, Damage, Impulse (Bart Allen,) Rose Wilson, Terra (Tara Markov,) Arsenal (Roy Harper,) Mirage (Miriam Delgado,) Jarras Minion.

You know who I haven't brought up in a while? Damage. Poor little bastard. Between Breach, my needing to finish posting on Captain Atom: Armageddon (which has been in the can for months BTW, but I want to do delayed tie-in with other blogs,) and the imperative to get some Tiny Titan material back in the pipeline, Grant Emerson's gonna chill for a while yet. Best to kick it with fond memories of better days (so long as you weren't reading the actual New Titans series, which was garbage by that point.) More cuteness at the Walko's deviantART gallery

Monday, February 7, 2011

2009 Black Lantern Damage design by Joe Prado

Click To Enlarge


This was supposed to have posted last week, but I didn't realize the auto-publish never kicked in. Bygones.

It still ticks me off to think of the stupid, pointless waste of killing Grant Emerson. There were a ton of fun concepts no one ever played with after the Damage series ended, not the least of which being his accidental leveling of the city of Atlanta, GA. The genetically engineered "son" of a fair chunk of the All-Star Squadron, the kid was powerful enough to ignite the Big Bang at the end of Zero Hour, and he owed his existence to Vandal Savage. In a universe with a lot of meh villains, Damage could have made a fantastic heel turn. Instead, he was a cheap death in an overrated event at a time when he was treated as a second-rate Nuklon... a character lacking the popularity to have much impact in passing, and at a time when everyone expected a reset button to undo all the killing anyway.

Damage went through a number of costumes, and every single one of them was seriously happening, thanks to their incorporating nuclear and bio-hazard iconography. I believe this is also the best of all the designs Joe Prado is selling. I don't know the price because it's listed with a "PI," but I know the character himself was sorely undervalued. Thanks to Bleeding Cool for promoting this piece in a gallery.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

1995 Skybox DC Villains: The Dark Judgment The Baron Trading Card #80


Art by Tony Harris

A former Nazi war criminal, the long-lived Baron runs a vast covert network, engaging in illicit activities around the world. The Baron is incredibly powerful, and has displayed a huge tolerance for pain. There are some who even claim that he is no longer human. I know his secret... but I'm not talking.

I have always been into Baron Blitzkrieg. There aren't two finer words that could be combined in the English language for naming a super-villain, so they had to reach out to der Vaterland for that extra element of evil. Here's two more glorious tastes that taste great together: Nazi Superman. It's so deliriously comic-booky it gives me a sugar high just thinking about it. Blitzkrieg's also had some awesome costume designs with atypical but acceptable color schemes, like the yellow suit with a red iron eagle and cross as the chest symbol, with arm length orange gloves/thigh highs incorporating swastikas. Baron Blitzkrieg was so bad, he made Red Skull look like a moderate. They even threw in some magenta every now and again, because all those high ranking Nazis were kinky like that.

Baron Blitzkrieg started out as a Wonder Woman villain, but thanks to Roy Thomas, got around to punching most every World War II era super-hero at some point. As the '90s were wont to do, Baron Blitzkrieg was deemed to gaudy and dated, and got an update. Surprisingly, "The Baron" just got cooler, establishing that Blitzkrieg was still getting his von Strucker on with a secret criminal organization. The Baron switched to a brown uniform shirt, gray pants, and flared knee-high leathers, so you know he was still up for a ride. The Baron was twisted up in Damage's origins, and brought him a mentor figure in the form of Iron Munro.

Despite claiming a love of Damage, Geoff Johns killed of Baron Blitzkrieg in Infinite Crisis, and Damage himself in Blackest Night. The world is a poorer place for the loss... unless you're Jewish, gypsy, gay, mentally or physically handicapped, a member of the All-Star Squadron and are otherwise non-Teutonic.

Relishing New Year's Evil this week? Find more malicious pin-up fun at the following blogs:

Saturday, December 4, 2010

The World's Smallest Jewish Super-Hero?




There's been some confusion regarding religion and the Atom, so to set my own head straight, I figured now would be a good time to explore the matter.

I don't believe the faith (or lack thereof) of Al Pratt has ever been dwelt upon. The name Pratt is Dutch, and the Netherlands were good for Jews until the Nazi occupation, but nothing in his personality strongly indicates a specific religious background.

Ray Palmer's mother was Jewish, which makes Ray one by birth. "Half-Jewish" is kind of a wonky term, because according to Jewish law, you either are or are not one. You can lay secular claim to being half-Jewish through your father, but since it's passed through the mother, Talmud would designate Ray as fully Jewish. Obviously, stated/practiced faith and communal acceptance would come into play. However, Susan Palmer was almost certainly non-practicing, as her adult son claimed ignorance of the Hanukkah story. Ray married Jean Loring in a church (not that she wouldn't have insisted,) and has expressed atheistic sentiment (unceasingly favoring science over the supernatural.) Despite my own occasional claims and others I've heard (including my recent accidental and stomach-turning visits to two white supremacist message boards,) Ray Palmer is likely only Jewish by the broadest standard.

Albert Rothstein is pretty unambiguously Jewish. For starters, his name is Albert Rothstein. Al has popped up in a Hanukkah-centric story or two, and turned down a relationship with Beatriz (Fire) da Costa because she wasn't of the faith (also: trampy.)

I don't recall Grant Emerson ever being remotely religious.

I'm open to correction here, but I thought I remembered Ryan Choi being an atheist.

So okay, we've established that despite popular misconception, none of the Atoms are especially Jewish, but Atom-Smasher is. I'm kind of bummed about that, but there you go.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Justice League of America Wedding Special #1 (November, 2007)



The bachelor party of Oliver "Green Arrow" Queen was attended by a mass of male heroes, including Damage (who was seen hanging out with Dick "Nightwing" Grayson) and the All-New Atom Ryan Choi, chatting with Adam Strange. Atom-related villains Deathstroke the Terminator, Giganta, Cheshire, and Doctor Light appeared in the story, but our heroes did not progress past the party. Enjoy the cameos, folks!

"Unlimited, Chapter 1: Injustice League" was by Dwayne McDuffie, Mike McKone and Andy Lanning.

You can read this story from different perspectives at the following blogs:

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Top 5 Damage Covers



I followed Grant Emerson's solo series for nearly a year, so I have some misguided nostalgia for this asinine character. The son of Al Pratt, whose genes were toyed with by Vandal Savage, and also made ties with the Young All-Stars/All-Star Squadron.

5) Damage #12 (April, 1995)
Not as cool as the Ray photo cover, and that guy is clearly not in his mid-teens, but still neat.

4) Justice League Task Force #25 (July, 1995)
A nuke powered hero coming out of a nuclear sign with his nemesis Vandal Savage worked into a slot for good measure... and this was just a friggin' guest shot.

3) The Titans #18 (August, 2000)
Stepdaddy dealt you the bad touch, Grant. Just cry it out.

By the way, I'm reading a Ryan Choi Atom trade paperback for familiarization and future posting, but the recent DC death that really bothers me is Lian Harper. That poor sweet kid should have been untouchable, and Arsenal will always be a lesser character for her passing.

2) Damage #5 (August, 1994)
A good view at Damage's original costume, plus his primary supporting cast and foe from the first year.

1) Justice Society of America #6 (July, 2007)
What is the deal with Damage getting so many interesting costume designs? They all wore him, y'know?

Friday, May 7, 2010

2009 Blackest Night #4 variant cover by Rodolfo Migliari

Click To Enlarge


When I mentioned how strange it was to see an Atom variant cover earlier this week, it totally slipped my mind that Ray was on another chase edition just last year. Joined by an even less commercially viable partner than Firestorm-- Damage of all people, here's Atom's painted premium edition. Any interest in my covering Damage here, while he's been called to mind (R.I.P.)?