Gene Colan draws the Batman Rogues Gallery
So not long after I wrapped up my Twelve Days of Who's Who marathon series, the great Grantbridge Street posted scans from that issue of Detective Comics with the awesome Dick Giordano cover of the Rogues Gallery. You know, this one.
The issue itself was something of a filler, with Batman and Jason Todd going through all the rogue profiles with the purpose of catching readers up with the villains before the big blow-out anniversary issue, Batman #400. Both issues were less remarkable for their stories by Doug Moench and more for the showcase of several great artists, including main Detective Comics artist Gene Colan, who drew the pages below.
Colan, who recently passed away, has a devoted following from his decades of comics work. While I love his artwork as a whole, the way he draws characters has often felt lacking, and the below images give a nice sampler of his portraiture talents. The bios by Doug Moench also show
Oh Doug Moench, it's so cute that you're already trying to push your original character who only appeared in one story (over three issues) at this point, as if Roman already stands toe-to-toe with everyone else here. Hell, even the Scarecrow doesn't merit an inclusion in this issue's roster of great villains, but Roman does! It'd be one thing if the Black Mask ended up playing an integral part in Batman #400, but aside from a one-panel appearance, he never does anything. So yeah, this is just Moench trying to make us believe that the Black Mask is a big deal. That's just adorable, Moench. Adorable.
Yes, that sure is a "hi-tech" look. I love Marshall Rogers' costume design for Deadshot, I do, and I think it's much better than any other attempt to improve it over the past decade. But calling it "hi-tech" is kinda judicious for a costume that doesn't serve any purpose beyond the eyepiece and gauntlets. Gauntlets which, I might add, are FAR MORE PRACTICAL AND STEALTHY FOR AN ASSASSIN THAN USING A HUGE, UNWEILDY MACHINE GUN, JIM LEE. Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to rant. Just been bugging me for a few months is all. Man, I miss the real Deadshot with his ridiculous costume, practical weaponry, and awesome mustache. Sigh.
I find it interesting that Moench is already holding the Joker up as the greatest "mass murderer in existence," when I don't recall the Joker having quite achieved the same insane body count that he gained in later years. Was Moench just ahead of the curve, or was this the status that the Joker was supposed to have even if the actual stories didn't back it up?
"Hardened criminal, highly dangerous." This, too, is adorable for whole different reasons. Had anyone actually even TRIED to update Killer Moth as a badass threat during the 80's, or even the Bronze Age as a whole? Was he still skating on his status as a major villain from the Silver Age? Man, if DC was still trying to push him as a major villain by this point, it's no wonder he got such a backlash into loserdom.
I miss this Mad Hatter and his random chimp sidekick. He might have stood a chance of becoming fleshed out into a great villain in his own right, but the one-two punch of Grant Morrison and Jeph Loeb sabotaged the character to such an irreparable degree that not even the wonderful Roddy McDowall version in B:TAS could have salvaged him. Le sigh.
"I, Waddle." "Man of a Thousand Umbrellas." Man, it's no wonder that people starting to no longer take the Penguin seriously as a villain. That's just silly.
Incidentally, something I want to rant about quickly: I was reading the preview pages for Tony Daniel's latest issue of 'TEC on IGN.com, and there are several comments like "Why has the Penguin evidently bought a fat child`s version of the Joker's pants and vest? It's distracting," and "I thought that was The Joker. The pants are very misleading." You mean the pants that he's ALWAYS worn, and which Daniel is now bringing back? Guh. Bloody kids today who don't know their goddamn comics history. I blame the vidj'ya games.
When the hell was her name at one point revealed to be "Penelope Ivy?" Because that sure as hell wasn't the name she had in her Who's Who file published around the same time! Was this Moench just writing out of his ass? That said, I suppose it's more logical that a poison-immune woman would rename herself Poison Ivy if Ivy was already her name, but still, that one's a mystery to me. Actually, there doesn't seem to have any mention of immunity nor powers of any sort. She was just a cunning, intelligent human criminal who is very skilled with poisons, potions, and general Evil Botany 101. In some ways, I kind of like that better than her being all plant-powered "Mudda NAYTCH-ya!" since it, like Scarecrow, deals with her not just as a criminal but also a brilliant scientist.
Colan's Ra's seems to have the perfect combination of Flower Power and Glower Power, whereas Talia seems to be a ghost. Also, as far as Ra's aliases go, "the Mischief-Maker" is certainly one of his least intimidating. It makes me think of Ra's frolicking around in a forest playing tricks. It's a delightful image, don't get me wrong, but still weird. Also, between the "yellow eyes," "hypnotic presence," and long claws, Moench seems to think Ra's is something between Dracula and Fu Manchu. Which, upon consideration, I can understand.
Nothing about this Riddler drawing makes sense, from the pose to the proportions to the incredibly impractical boomerang, one guaranteed to stab his palm or slice off his fingers when it comes back. It also, I should point out, is not "shaped like a question mark" as the bio indicates, which makes sense such a boomerang wouldn't work at all. I forget, did Moench actually have the Riddler use these in the one Riddler story he wrote? Either way, we sure as hell never saw boomerang-throwing Riddler anywhere else. It sounds like a noble-but-failed attempt to try and make the Riddler more dynamic and action-ready for comics rather than just being an intellectual "headache." Considering that the Riddler would soon be openly viewed as a loser and failure even by the DC writers, I think tbis was a last-ditch effort to make him more suitable for fight scenes at least.
This bio comes hot off the heels of Moench and Colan (and Tom Mandrake)'s intriguing-but-bad Two-Face story with Circe the Red Witch, for those interested in the context. I didn't care for Colan's Two-Face there, and I especially don't much like it now, as he seems to be a hunchbacked dwarf. Colan plays with some pretty wild perspective, and it seems to work less and less the more I examine his characters. As for the bio itself, it's pretty standard without anything especially wacky nor annoying, which makes it an exception from the usual Moench-penned Two-Face story.
The issue itself was something of a filler, with Batman and Jason Todd going through all the rogue profiles with the purpose of catching readers up with the villains before the big blow-out anniversary issue, Batman #400. Both issues were less remarkable for their stories by Doug Moench and more for the showcase of several great artists, including main Detective Comics artist Gene Colan, who drew the pages below.
Colan, who recently passed away, has a devoted following from his decades of comics work. While I love his artwork as a whole, the way he draws characters has often felt lacking, and the below images give a nice sampler of his portraiture talents. The bios by Doug Moench also show
Oh Doug Moench, it's so cute that you're already trying to push your original character who only appeared in one story (over three issues) at this point, as if Roman already stands toe-to-toe with everyone else here. Hell, even the Scarecrow doesn't merit an inclusion in this issue's roster of great villains, but Roman does! It'd be one thing if the Black Mask ended up playing an integral part in Batman #400, but aside from a one-panel appearance, he never does anything. So yeah, this is just Moench trying to make us believe that the Black Mask is a big deal. That's just adorable, Moench. Adorable.
Yes, that sure is a "hi-tech" look. I love Marshall Rogers' costume design for Deadshot, I do, and I think it's much better than any other attempt to improve it over the past decade. But calling it "hi-tech" is kinda judicious for a costume that doesn't serve any purpose beyond the eyepiece and gauntlets. Gauntlets which, I might add, are FAR MORE PRACTICAL AND STEALTHY FOR AN ASSASSIN THAN USING A HUGE, UNWEILDY MACHINE GUN, JIM LEE. Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to rant. Just been bugging me for a few months is all. Man, I miss the real Deadshot with his ridiculous costume, practical weaponry, and awesome mustache. Sigh.
I find it interesting that Moench is already holding the Joker up as the greatest "mass murderer in existence," when I don't recall the Joker having quite achieved the same insane body count that he gained in later years. Was Moench just ahead of the curve, or was this the status that the Joker was supposed to have even if the actual stories didn't back it up?
"Hardened criminal, highly dangerous." This, too, is adorable for whole different reasons. Had anyone actually even TRIED to update Killer Moth as a badass threat during the 80's, or even the Bronze Age as a whole? Was he still skating on his status as a major villain from the Silver Age? Man, if DC was still trying to push him as a major villain by this point, it's no wonder he got such a backlash into loserdom.
I miss this Mad Hatter and his random chimp sidekick. He might have stood a chance of becoming fleshed out into a great villain in his own right, but the one-two punch of Grant Morrison and Jeph Loeb sabotaged the character to such an irreparable degree that not even the wonderful Roddy McDowall version in B:TAS could have salvaged him. Le sigh.
"I, Waddle." "Man of a Thousand Umbrellas." Man, it's no wonder that people starting to no longer take the Penguin seriously as a villain. That's just silly.
Incidentally, something I want to rant about quickly: I was reading the preview pages for Tony Daniel's latest issue of 'TEC on IGN.com, and there are several comments like "Why has the Penguin evidently bought a fat child`s version of the Joker's pants and vest? It's distracting," and "I thought that was The Joker. The pants are very misleading." You mean the pants that he's ALWAYS worn, and which Daniel is now bringing back? Guh. Bloody kids today who don't know their goddamn comics history. I blame the vidj'ya games.
When the hell was her name at one point revealed to be "Penelope Ivy?" Because that sure as hell wasn't the name she had in her Who's Who file published around the same time! Was this Moench just writing out of his ass? That said, I suppose it's more logical that a poison-immune woman would rename herself Poison Ivy if Ivy was already her name, but still, that one's a mystery to me. Actually, there doesn't seem to have any mention of immunity nor powers of any sort. She was just a cunning, intelligent human criminal who is very skilled with poisons, potions, and general Evil Botany 101. In some ways, I kind of like that better than her being all plant-powered "Mudda NAYTCH-ya!" since it, like Scarecrow, deals with her not just as a criminal but also a brilliant scientist.
Colan's Ra's seems to have the perfect combination of Flower Power and Glower Power, whereas Talia seems to be a ghost. Also, as far as Ra's aliases go, "the Mischief-Maker" is certainly one of his least intimidating. It makes me think of Ra's frolicking around in a forest playing tricks. It's a delightful image, don't get me wrong, but still weird. Also, between the "yellow eyes," "hypnotic presence," and long claws, Moench seems to think Ra's is something between Dracula and Fu Manchu. Which, upon consideration, I can understand.
Nothing about this Riddler drawing makes sense, from the pose to the proportions to the incredibly impractical boomerang, one guaranteed to stab his palm or slice off his fingers when it comes back. It also, I should point out, is not "shaped like a question mark" as the bio indicates, which makes sense such a boomerang wouldn't work at all. I forget, did Moench actually have the Riddler use these in the one Riddler story he wrote? Either way, we sure as hell never saw boomerang-throwing Riddler anywhere else. It sounds like a noble-but-failed attempt to try and make the Riddler more dynamic and action-ready for comics rather than just being an intellectual "headache." Considering that the Riddler would soon be openly viewed as a loser and failure even by the DC writers, I think tbis was a last-ditch effort to make him more suitable for fight scenes at least.
This bio comes hot off the heels of Moench and Colan (and Tom Mandrake)'s intriguing-but-bad Two-Face story with Circe the Red Witch, for those interested in the context. I didn't care for Colan's Two-Face there, and I especially don't much like it now, as he seems to be a hunchbacked dwarf. Colan plays with some pretty wild perspective, and it seems to work less and less the more I examine his characters. As for the bio itself, it's pretty standard without anything especially wacky nor annoying, which makes it an exception from the usual Moench-penned Two-Face story.