Murd's Time Bubble: The Twenty-Ninth Time Talkback
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
Return with Murd to those dark, portentous days of late 2001. Some spots to explore on our two-hour tour: the Fantastic Four (a la Grant Morrison), 'Our Worlds at War', the Mighty Thor, and more! (2:19:18)
Listen here.
Listen here.
Comments
I never got my complimentary blanket or hot cocoa though? And, to make matters worse, this was the response I got when I asked about it ...
As for Rude’s style, it’s three cups of Kirby, two cups of Alex Toth, a half-cup of Russ Manning, a half-cup of Alex Raymond, a heaping tablespoon of Paul Gulacy, a half-teaspoon of Gene Colan, and then seasoned to taste.
By all means, give a golden-anniversary gander to Mad Monster Party?; you'll love it! Barring the "egg-crazy wraiths" sequence in Here Comes Peter Cottontail, it's the closest thing to a Rankin/Bass Halloween special the world will ever see.
And yes indeed, Chase is a diamond in the rough. Easily one of my favorite titles of the late 1990's. And the story in the very title you mentioned, Murd, is available in the Chase TPB that DC published back in 2011! https://www.instocktrades.com/TP/DC/CHASE-TP/SEP110179
I somehow lost my copy and had to buy a new one for my shelf a few years back, but happy to see it's still available.
I always enjoy the Time Bubble episodes.
As for "Mad Monster Party," it is a beloved classic which dances across my TV every Halloween. Its orange dvd box is sitting on my coffee table as we speak (along with "Young Frankenstein") and I look forward to watching Phyllis Diller steal every scene she is in, yet again :)
T'was another rollicking Time Bubble, Murd. Thanks for cheering up my month!
...or will...
In keeping with the time-displaced conceit of the Time Bubble, I rarely listen to the latest episode in a "timely" fashion, preferring to await a "time" when I will have a large block of "time" to listen. Thus, I arrive late---or, in a near future when others discover the "Bubble," it will all seem as "timely" as that "time" when Flash faced off against the Turtle, and "time" appeared to stand still.
Anyway. One thing I love about these episodes is that they invariably launch me on a search into my longboxes. Your call for Grodd insights certainly prompted me to rush upstairs to my mancave and open up the Flash box.
I've pulled together Grodd appearances across both the "Barry" and "Wally" titles, from writers Cary Bates, Williams Messner-Loebs, Mark Waid, and Mr. Johns. Thanks, in part, to the terrible storms we just had up here in New England, I've managed to read through up to the point where you found yourself in the Bubble (Flash 178 & Secret Files #3). I plan on reading through those and the follow-up storyline featuring Grodd in Flash 192-194 and will check in, soon, with an analysis of Grodd and his characterization under Johns.
Excelsior!
@nweathington It's interesting that you seemed to have been turned off by Johns' handling of The Rogues when that's probably what he is most respected for doing at DC. What about that drove you away from the title?
Sidebar: As a result of this—and I think I've told this story here before—my wife talked to Carmine Infantino at a Pittsburgh Comicon (2001 or 2002, I don't remember which) and told him how much our son was enjoying the Flash comics he drew, and Carmine asked to meet him. We had left him behind with grandparents, though, but told our son about it and said he ought to write Carmine a letter, which he did. Carmine wrote back a very nice letter, complete with a small head sketch of the Flash, and our son took it in for Show-and-Tell at school (well, a xerox of the letter anyway—I wasn't going to let him get it messed up in his backpack). He has the letter framed on his wall.
@Adam_Murdough, your assessment of the issue in question, and the characterization of Grodd, in this episode of the Time Bubble is spot on. This is not the Grodd we have seen before (or, at least, not the Grodd seen in stories from Cary Bates, William Messner-Loebs, and Mark Waid, going back to issue 294 of the Barry Allen series). Johns definitely amps up the animalistic side of Grodd, to the point where it is plainly the focus and almost completely overwhelms the super-simian's personality. Grodd's psychic powers--his "force-of-mind" powers--are almost an afterthought and could almost be missed by new readers to this title.
Unlike previous encounters, there is no indication that Grodd is even a thinking animal, let alone an ape from a civilization as advanced as those of Gorilla City. Grodd has always been intimidating, due to his size and viciousness coupled with his mind powers. This is what has made him stand out as a villain. Grodd has always utilized his super-intellect and force-of-mind powers to get the upper hand on the Flash and Solovar and anyone else in his way by not just pummelling their minds with his overwhelming psyche, but by also changing his form to that of a human (to trick the other apes into letting him out of his cell) or by taking control of the pets of Keystone City to form an army living within everyone's homes. He uses his super-intellect to outsmart and overwhelm his adversaries, and, like so many comic villains, is often outdone by his own arrogance and self-importance (thx, thesaurus.com). We get none of that in #178 from Geoff Johns.
I hoped that maybe it could be explained away by the drugs used to subdue the super-simian. Maybe this was a one-off, a look at the savagery hiding beneath the intellect, revealed by the drugs. But . . . that was not the case. In the "Run Riot" storyline, a little over a year later, Gorilla Grodd's characterization is exactly the same. All that has changed is that he no longer has blood dripping from his lips. It was, I have to say, a disappointment, especially after reading those earlier stories (which all entertained to one degree or another).
And now, I wonder if my positive thoughts about Geoff Johns's run on Flash (of which I only have a scattering of issues leading up to #200, at which point I jumped back on the Flash train) and his handling of the rogues might be wrong--or, more to the point, not what I'm looking for now. Judging by this experience, and @nweathington's thoughts above, I think I need to go read some of the other issues I have of his run and take an assessment as to whether I want to fill those gaps, or just continue filling in my Barry Allen run. We'll see.
All that said, thank you, Adam, for launching back into the world of the Flash. I've dropped in on the nu52 and Rebirth titles, but they haven't done it for me. Thankfully, I have the CW series to get my fix (though with the latest season, #3, I only watched the first half dozen or so episodes, skipped the middle, then watched the final "storyline," so we'll see about that, too), and I have my longboxes. Maybe it's time to rummage around through there for some more Flashy goodness.
-chris