Strange Adventures Rules! (Even when new comics are delayed until Thursday).

A little magazine called Reader's Digest just named Strange Adventures the best comic shop in Canada. Was there ever any doubt?

Incidentally, we were the runner-up for best place to see polar bears.

In honour of this...honour...I am launching another contest. Right here, right now. It's another photo challenge, but this time I want y'all to send me a photo of your favourite comic shop. I would especially like to see a picture of you, in your favourite shop, holding your favourite comic. Something like this:

If you're shy, you can also have a picture of your favourite comic store clerk. Or just the store. Whatever. As long as it's a picture you didn't take off your favourite store's website. I want to see a little effort. If you want to say some nice things about your favourite shop, that would be cool. In two weeks, I will post all the photos and comments. You can email them to rachellegoguen at gmail dot com.

Here are some more pictures of Strange Adventures:

Tiina likes Runaways:

Ben likes JLA (specifically, Red Tornado):

Cal likes The Spirit:

Dave likes All-Star Superman:

Dave is a good drawer. He makes nice signs:

I don't understand RPGs:

This is our recommended rack:

Mine is the one with Batman and the Monster Men and stuff (and JUST the annual issue of Superman/Batman).

So I suppose you are all wondering what the prize is. I'ma send the winner, who will be drawn randomly, a copy of the first edition of The Spirit #1, signed by Darwyn Cooke, along with two very rare and limited Spirit buttons (all courtesy of Strange Adventures). Not bad at all!

So let's all show some love for our favourite comic shops.

Rating the Super Hunks #8: Wally West

I was biking all day and now it hurts to sit down. But I will suffer through it because it is Tuesday and that means:

a) New comics tomorrow!
b) Time to rate a super hunk!

I got some requests for this one. The fastest hunk alive,

Wally West, aka The Flash

Costume/Appearance: The Flash suit has always been one of my favourite superhero costumes, with its crimson and gold colour combo and lightning bolt details. Plus, it's very tight and leaves nothing to the imagination.

Wally basically took Barry's costume, which was great, and eventually made small alterations that made it just a little bit cooler. The two diagonal lightning bolts that meet in the middle is a much more flattering look than the straight across belt that Barry rocked. And removing the wings from the boots is a step in the right direction. Also, those big yellow boots are awesome.

I'm going to go on record right now and say that I don't like the shiny suit. You can wear a bright red hooded leotard with lightning bolts sticking out of the sides of your head, but you start making that shit shiny and it's just tacky. The little ear decorations should be metal, and the rest should be matte. That's a nice-looking costume.

I actually don't know how sexy the Wally West Flash costume is, really. I mean, it's got Jay Garrick's beat by a country mile, but still...

Yeah. It's pretty good. You have to be pretty damn fit to wear that thing and make it not look ridiculous.

Without the costume, Wally is reasonably good-looking. He gets my vote for sexiest Flash. He's also one of the few red-headed heroes. He's got nice enough features. Green eyes, good jaw line. Whatever. He's no Bruce Wayne. His head is kinda small for his body.

7/10

Personality: This section used to be called Alter-Ego, but some heroes don't have one. 'Personality' is more inclusive.

Wally took on the mantle of The Flash when he was about 20 years old, so he's always had a young, boyish charm thing going for him. In the Flash comics, he's a bit of a smart ass, but nothing compared to the way he's portrayed in the Justice League cartoons and related comics.

To be honest, I always found Wally to be kind of boring. I like his friends more. He's just your typical nice guy who's good to his mother, married a nice girl, had a couple of kids, and vibrated at the same speed as the Speed Force or something to stop Superboy and help save the world before disappearing to an alternate Earth. Nothing really to write home about.

It should be noted, though, that Wally has gotten a lot of action in the comics. And by that, I mean sexy action. Dude has been around.

7/10

Day Job: He doesn't really have one, except when he lost his memory and was an auto mechanic for the KCPD. Auto mechanics are pretty macho. I like that he won the lottery once. That kept him comfortable for awhile.

This guy has gotten struck by lightning and has won the lottery. Jesus.

7/10

Sexiness of Powers: He's really, really fast. Is that sexy? It's actually kind of freaky.

I guess it keeps him happy. And it's hotter than, say, not having super speed.

7/10

Cons: Wally can be a real dick sometimes. Like when poor Kyle became the new Lantern. He was also kind of a punk kid, but who wasn't, really? I can't hold that against him.

But I am holding the treatment of Kyle against him. Stupid Wally.

OH, and how about losing ALL of your lottery winnings in the stock market, Wally? Not cool.

- 3

Final Score: 25/40

Wally got 7/10 across the board, and I think that makes sense. He's a solid 7. Nothing to be ashamed about.

Bat Tractor!

Best. Batmobile. Ever.

Review of Braniac 5, By Johnathan

Not really. As with all of the core Legion members, Braniac 5 would be wicked hard to review, just because there have been so many versions of all of them. This is a review of a specific iteration of Braniac 5, circa 1982 (or 2982), Legion of Super-Heroes #284, just about when Paul Levitz started writing the series. It's a pretty good yarn, featuring plenty of fight scenes, more than a few meetings of the Legion council or whatever and a bit of plastic surgery. All of this is immaterial, however. The really important part of the issue happens about halfway through. Let's watch:
Hey, Dungeons and Dragons! The Legion is composed of nerds! Now I'm pretty sure that TSR was doing one of its rounds of advertising in DC comics at the time, so this might just be some blatant product placement. I'm also pretty sure that I don't care: there's only so much character development that can be done with troubled romances and familial turmoil - after a while it all just runs together in the memory. This, though, this did more to humanize these guys in one panel than, like, the previous twelve issues. Check it out, they're doing basically what my friends and I used to do! Plus, character classes have gotten cooler over the course of a thousand years - that Four-Armed Cyclopean Barbarian would kick the ass off of my Half-Elven Bard. Wonder who's playing the Wee-Legged Lizard Man?

The reason that this post is focusing on Braniac 5 is that he's clearly more into it that everyone else, which makes sense. He's right about them not finishing, too. They get called away to fight this guy:
Who doesn't look so much like a giant teddy bear in the rest of the comic, more's the pity. Then, after they're done:

Haw! That's all he wants to do! I love it so. Braniac 5 as the Legion Nerdboy is to me far preferable to all the times that he was a Spock- or Data-clone. Or that time that he went insane. Hell, I like it better than I do the version on the cartoon, and he's the best Brainy there's been in years. From now on my mental image of Braniac 5 in his off hours is going to be him in a wizard hat, rolling up NPCs.

JOHN APPROVED

Attention Music-Lovers!

This post has nothing to do with comics. I am hoping some of you music-lovers might be able to help me out.

This summer my band, The Stolen Minks, is going on tour across Canada. The whole country. Canada, as you may know, is, like, really big. Really, really big. So it's a whole lot of driving. We need mix CDs. Good ones. All kinds of different ones. If I am the only one making them, there will just be Loverboy on every single one.

So, here's what I propose: if you are one of those types who enjoys making mix CDs, you can make me one and mail it to me, and I will mail you one back. And I'll try not to put Loverboy on it.

If you'd like to help, just send me an email at rachellegoguen at gmail dot com. Our musical interests are varied. We love everything from the most misogynistic and profane hip-hop to the whiniest of indie nerds. From way old music to music that hasn't even been invented yet.

I'll be posting a full list of tour dates as soon as they are all confirmed, in case any of you want to see me do the other thing I am famous for. If you happen to be in a Canadian city, that is. We'll be leaving on July 18.

Our route (starting in the East):

Review of a Reviewer, By Johnathan

Specifically myself. I had planned a review based on the cover of last weeks Countdown, seen here:

Which had reminded me a lot of Showcase '94 #1, shown here:

It was going to be about how I thought maybe the artist of the former had cribbed off of the latter, but once I looked at it: no dice. I do prefer the Showcase '94 Joker though, in that he has actual human facial features that have been composed into what I like to call an 'expression' rather than having a deformed perma-grin. I'm never impressed when an artist on a joker-containing comic goes the route of simply carving his face into a maniacal shape and leaving it at that - it robs him of some of his charm/versatility.

But this is about me. For not actually looking at both covers together before planning my review:

NOT APPROVED