Rob and fellow network all-stars Siskoid and Bass discuss "How Green Was My Gotham" and "A Christmas with Everything" by E. Nelson Bridwell, Romeo Tanghal, and Vince Colletta from SUPER FRIENDS #42! Plus Listener Feedback!
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Fun talk, everyone. Thank you.
I had a discussion with Uncle Tim Price and Uncle Martin Gray about this comic last October on Twitter, commenting about how the cover mistakenly showed the Green Fury flying without the use of her “proboscis propulsion” (Uncle Tim’s words; and Uncle Tim reasoned that on the cover she was using momentum to “keep [her] going” like she had done on page 5).
I asked if Green Fury needed to push in one of her nostrils with her finger in order to steer her nasal flight in the opposite direction, and that led to me creating this piece of “pop art” in my Digital Art class…
I never thought about a possible Alan Scott connection to the Green Fury’s “mystic flame” until Uncle Bass mentioned it. I wonder if she would recite a similar oath:
I shall breathe all over all evil,
For evildoers cannot stand the heat.
The hot breath of… the Green Fury!
Nahhhhh…
I like it, Isamu. Top art, it makes me smile. I remember being disappointed that Bea changed her hero name to ‘Fire’ as it’s so boring compared to Green Flame/Phlegm… mind, Green Fury was the best. I want to play the oath game too:
In coldest night
Or when it’s hot
No evil shall escape my snot
Let those who would cause Mankind’s woes
Beware my power, Green Fury’s nose
Grad episode, chaps, well done on getting Bass and Siskoid, I’m all for twofers.
It’s weird just how much more powerful Bea was originally, what with flame breath, illusions and another power we see in her next appearance. The metagene didn’t do her any big favours.
Do you think Green Thumb is another booger gag? A villain who’s been sticking his thumb up his nose? Whatever, it’s alarming how much space ENB gave to his backstory.
As regards Siskoid’s comment that he didn’t like Romeo Tanhal’s work when he took over Captain Atom from Pat Broderick.. wasn’t that Rafael Kayanan? Tanghal did ink, but he wasn’t overpowering.
By the way, am I the only one who looks at Green Thumb on the cover and sees a centaur? I think it’s the leg design.
I think Batman was The Batman since the beginning of the Bronze Age, with Denny O’ Neal Adams.
You’re probably right.
“Throws random alien seeds” is perfect! Need to defeat Superman? CAN DO! OH NO IT’S PAGE 22! So he drops the wrong seed and gets eaten
Wonder full show and episode.
Sad to hear this show is ending. But as my brother Jeremy always says “ it is what it is ?”
A hero who flys by blowing her nose . Did she do that when she became fire or did she fly like the human Torch later ? Also it’s could thing green fury didn’t have a cold or allergies one sneeze and she would half way to France .
Another fine episode. Each new episode is bittersweet since we are approaching the finale.
Siskoud mentioned how The Wonder Twins css as. Provide great visuals. This is indeed true. They often had interesting transformations. None more interesting than in the last episode of season 6 of The Super Friends! The segment is titled Stowaways from Space, and the Wonder Twins become an octopus riding an ice unicycle!
This story would have fit in with the Legion of Substitute Heroes: Chlorophyll Kid goes on a bad trip from accidentally enlarging the wrong type of mushrooms and Fire Lad (who suddenly realizes he can also breathe fire through his nose to fly and can finally ditch the bulky Legion Flight belt consolation prize) saves the day (with the help of Princess Projectra).
BTW, how cool would it have been in one of these backup features to have Gleek visited by Proty and given 3 impossible tasks as entry into the Legion of Super Pets?
Yeah, let me add my feeling of melancholy as this show nears its end – although it’s nice that Siskoid and Bass made a showing.
I have to say, although Tanghal and Colletta are nowhere near Ramona Fradon, based on the gallery page I don’t think the art was that bad. Colletta’s inking seems to mesh pretty well with Tanghal’s pencils and the end result is solid if unspectacular. And it’s always nice to see Green Fury; I’ve always been amused by her nose-flame propulsion system and was sorry to see it dropped later, along with the change of name to the generic Fire.
By the way, you guys joked about fireworks being used to celebrate Christmas, but since the early 1990s I’ve been living in a country, Croatia, where this is in fact a tradition. In some years it’s worse than others, with everybody lighting firecrackers and whatnot. But it was way worse in the 1990s, as one might imagine, during and just after the war, when actual firearms actually came into play (including, in one instance I still recall to my dismay, some clown firing off an AK-47 in a suburban neighborhood – luckily no casualties or property damage as far as I know).
Also, when Siskoid mentioned a TV show version of How Green Was My Valley, I at first thought he might have been mixing it up with Green Acres, but then double-checked and found that there were indeed to TV mini-series that adapted the novel, both produced by the BBC, the first in 1960 and the second in the mid-1970s.
Bea’s powers reminded me of an obscure but unforgettable villain from Archie Comics’ “Mighty Comics” super-hero line in the 1960s: In Fly Man #35, Fly Man and Fly Girl faced off against a villain named Phantasmon the Terrible, whose powers included shooting lightning from his nose as he dramatically boasted: “Behold! Lightning-bolts…crashing out of my nostrils!” The power was crazy enough to begin with, but the fact that he BRAGGED about it was the topper!
Hello Siskoid and Bass,
It was great hearing you on THIS show! Welcome aboard!
Rob – fantastic ad placement! I LOVED IT!
Regarding Geoffrey Selden the great actor who was away on vacation, whose memorabilia Green Thumb tried to steal – – – could it be some kind of, sort of, maybe, perhaps, a kind of, call out to Kathy Seldon who was played by Debbie Reynolds in ‘Singin’ In The Rain’?
I LOVED The Wonder Twins Christmas story! It was really nice that there was no threat to stop or an enemy to defeat – just the twins trying to help a family at Christmastime!
So, about that Wonder Twins story: Can we talk a bit more about that ridiculous cultural requirement to never accept charity, no matter how needy one is? It’s one thing to instill a solid work-ethic, but that’s a really toxic attitude to hold on to, and it’s not the first time it’s come up in this comic.
Agreed!
Awesome episode as usual! But wouldn’t dirt from Krypton just turn into Kryptonite?
As I understand it, if the dirt was taken from Krypton before Krypton exploded (as specified in the story), no, it would not turn into Kryptonite. Kryptonite (as I understand it) forms when fragments of the exploded planet go through some kind of change caused by either the explosion itself, or by traveling through space, or something like that. A pre-explosion sample would not thus have become Kryptonite.
(None of this suggests it would cause Kryptonian plants to have super-powers, of course, but that’s another matter)
Mister Baker-Wright is correct. The change was caused by the nuclear reaction from the explosion of Krypton. I remember reading one of my Dad’s Superman comics (issue 393), where the Master Jailer was able to hijack nuclear missiles and modify them to duplicate this reaction, so that when they struck Superman, they changed the Kryptonian fabric of his costume into Kryptonite.(!)
Apparently everything from Krypton becomes super on Earth. The Kryptonian fabrics of Superman’s costume became indestructible, as well as super-stretchy, much to Uncle Siskoid and Uncle Bass’s chagrin…
Merry Christmas, Rob, Siskoid, and Bass. Where is this exotic land of Canada you speak of?
Anyway, weird issue. While it’s not Ramona Fradon, I’ve always had a soft spot for Romeo Tanghal. He was the original inker for Perez on New Teen Titans, so that’s where I know him best. Plus, he’s got a cool name. It makes him sound like he’s always in a white suit smoking a long cigarette at an outdoor nightclub in Majorca.
The guys are right. Green Thumb would definitely fit right in in the background of a villain pub scene. His powers are actually pretty cool. When he grew that tree to rob the actor’s place, did he take time to decorate it before entering the apartment? Very festive of him. Green Fury blowing fire to burn away the smoke in an enclosed room may have not been the best way to protect the rare art. Plus, Batman may have faired a little better with Green Thumb if he skipped the hands-on-hip boasting and just punched him in the back of the head.
Once again, Aquaman gets the short end of the stick. He runs the whole way from the docks to the Hall of Justice, only to get one panel of dialogue and strangled by a weed. “Hey, Superman, I’m here (huff, puff). What’s the emergency? Wait, what? Who the hell is this guy? Batman calls me away from running Atlantis – ON A HOLIDAY – so I can watch Donny and Marie beat up Studio 54’s gardener? Does rich boy want to explain this to Mera? Some of us actually have a family, Bruce. Ugh, and did you hear Robin’s thumb pun? Just the worst. I used to think it was a dick move that you sent Kara to an orphanage, but you had it right, man, no sidekicks. Look at me, I’m saddled with Aqualad. It’s like mentoring Gabe Kaplan in hot pants. Sigh… can Thumb do cannabis? My weed guy died at the Jack in the Box concert.”
While it is custom for me to crush the back-ups featuring Roxette, this one was actually very sweet. No complaints.
Fun discussion fellas. I had this issue right off the stands. Since I missed issue #25, this was my intro to Green Fury/Green Flame/Fire. Even as a kid, having a flaming farmer’s hankerchief as a power was weird. I’m glad they ventually gave her a little more respectable power set. Bruce does seem a bit…creepy here. Modern eyes, and all that.
I remember thinking Green Thumb looked pretty cool (hey, I was only 5!). I do recall noticing his origin is somewhat similar to the comic version of Clayface II, Matt Hagen, who also found extraordinary powers while scuba-diving, and used them for rather lame purposes.
Having picked up most of the remaining issues of the title, it did seem like Green Fury was a full-time member, or at least a recurring reservist. I guess ENB figured, who was paying attention at this point?