Friday, January 20, 2006

Brothers' beam bash

We're dedicating today's Comic Art Friday to the late, great Wilson Pickett.

I don't know whether the Wicked One was a comic art fan, but I'd like to think that if he was, he'd have appreciated this splendid contribution to my Common Elements gallery by MD "Doc" Bright.



Bright entitled this masterwork "Brothers' Beam Bash," as it pits two great African American heroes, War Machine and Green Lantern John Stewart, against one another in a battle of repulsor rays versus power ring.

What these two mighty champions share in common, aside from ethnicity, is the fact that both followed in the footsteps of other heroes who preceded them.



War Machine — real name, James "Rhodey" Rhodes — was originally the personal pilot of industrialist Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man. On several occasions, when Stark was either absent, injured, or fighting his ongoing battle with alcoholism, Rhodes donned the armor and identity of the Golden Avenger. In time, Rhodes — who ultimately advanced to a top management position with Stark Enterprises — established his own superhero persona in the armor of War Machine.



John Stewart first appeared in 1971 as a backup Green Lantern behind Hal Jordan. An educated professional — an architect by trade — Stewart nevertheless assumed the stereotypical posture of the "angry black superhero" that became a staple of '70s comics. Fortunately, subsequent appearances found Stewart maturing into a confident and competent character worthy of the Green Lantern mantle. Today, Stewart is familiar to TV animation fans as the Green Lantern who appears in the Cartoon Network series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

And that's the truth, Ruth.

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1 insisted on sticking two cents in:

Blogger Unknown offered these pearls of wisdom...

In many ways I prefer John Stewart as GL than Hal. John's more interesting with a more "human" personality than Hal's more traditional "I'm a superhero" stuff.

5:56 PM  

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