#steeljacket

[baambastic]

I think an overlooked aspect of potential BatFam stuff is how, because Tim had his own rogues gallery, a lot of those guys would probably carry that beef on with Damian. Sort of a sins-of-the-father situation, or sins of the predecessor in this case.

King Snake, the Baffler, Jaeger, Steeljacket, Michael Lasky AKA Dodge, Scarab, Charaxes, Detectives Cavallo and Wise, Electrocutioner, the General, etc.

[comicwaren]

From Daredevil Vol. 5 #022, “Supreme, Part 2”

Art by Goran Sudzuka and Matt Milla

Written by Charles Soule

[maxwell-grant]

So I’ve been catching up to Astro City,

And I’ve just finished the Tarnished Angel arc, the whole comic’s been incredible so far and it definitely deserves it’s reputation, but there’s something that popped up during said arc, revolving around the villain of that arc, that I wanted to talk about. Spoilers ahead.

So, a lot of Astro City revolves around archetypes familiar to superhero comics and what influences said comics, and there’s plenty of direct shout-outs to existing creators in the city’s locations, sometimes related to the subject of the stories. A giant mountain called Mount Kirby, a streetpass named after Shuster, Kiefer Square named after Henry C.Kiefer, etc. During the Tarnished Angel arc, we’re following Steeljacket, our ex-con supervillain turned detective, as he’s trying to uncover who’s been killing supervillains in his hometown, and he ends up meeting an old superhero named Hidalgo, who used to be a Zorro / Batman / Oliver Queen type of character. The story hints at Hidalgo’s nature as Steeljacket lists the places he’s crossing before he’s taken to the mansion, referencing both Bob Kane (Batman’s bastard dad), as well as Walter Gibson (The Shadow),

And sidenote, it’s pretty funny that Steeljacket’s meeting this character at a place called Patterson Heights, considering James Patterson would write The Shadow about 25 years after the release of this story. But moving on,

It’s revealed that Hidalgo used to be a great hero who was distraught and tormented over his repeated failings and unpopularity and his growing awareness of his own problems, so he ended up hatching a plan. He had a mad scientist enemy of his named The Assemblyman create a giant rampaging robot he could easily defeat to win back the crowd;

(Man, that scientist’s haircut and goggles sure look familiar...)

It didn’t work, people died, and his involvement was discovered, which led to his downfall. Eventually Steeljacket encounters a mysterious robotic supervillain by the name of Conquistador, who’s been hiring villains from Steeljacket’s hometown Kiefer Square for one big job across the entire city. He very quickly figures out that it’s Hidalgo setting up a trap, and later, Hidalgo tells him he intends to kill all the villains under his employ in order to make a grand debut under a new identity. 

Eventually Steeljacket holds him off long enough for the heroes to arrive and stop him for good and so on. But just to recap here, here’s the story of Hidalgo / El Hombre / Conquistador:

He used to be a heroic masked vigilante who fought crime on the streets, explicitly modeled after the pulp heroes who would most heavily influence urban superheroes like Batman, but who eventually committed great failings and/or underwent terrible tragedies that caused them to “die”, in ways figurative and literal, and eventually be reborn as cybernetic supervillains.

(Images from Al Ewing’s El Sombra trilogy, and Venture Bros)

Is this enough of a pattern for this to be a thing? I don’t know why this keeps coming up, nevermind those times the actual Shadow was turned into a cyborg or was seemingly used as a basis for cyborg characters

(Pictures from Bob Morane and Yu-Gi-Oh)

(Covers from Andy Helfer’s Shadow run and Masks 2)

Why this? Why cyborgs specifically keep cropping up in these contexts? Wouldn’t vampires or ghosts make more sense? What is it with Dark Avenger pulp heroes and killer cyborgs? 

Something’s going on, man.

[tonystarksredthong]

Hall of Infamy

Hall of Infamy (Villains):

Aleksei Sytsevich (Rhino)

Alex Wilder

Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur)

Ara Tanzeria

Bane

Carl Creel (Absorbing Man)

Carl Donewicz (Steeljacket)

Dario Agger (Minotaur)

Davis Harmon

Digger Harkness (Captain Boomerang)

Don Gill (The Blizzard)

Ebbtide

Eddie Ferbel 

Elliot Boggs (Magician)

Enigmo

Erik Josten (Atlas)

Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto)

Eshu (Master of the World)

Flash Thompson (Venom)

Frank Simpson (Nuke)

Fred Myers (Boomerang)

Gah-Ran

Greg(Aggregate)

Herman Schultz (Shocker) 

Dr. Hugo Strange (Doctor Strange)

J Q Stamp

Jason Blood 

Jerome Jackson (The Box)

Johann Schmidt (Red Skull)

Jon Webb (Skeleton Man)

Joseph (Cloneto)

Dr. Karl Malus

Kerwin Korman (Doomsday Man)

Lash

Lex Luthor 

Lineage

Lizard

Loki Laufeyson

Madcap

The Mandarin

Mark Scarlotti (Whiplash)

Max Dillon (Electro)

Maximus the Mad

Mephisto

Michael Korvac

Mikhail Rasputin (Rasputin)

Misfit

Modred the Mystic

Morbius the Living Vampire

Mr. Hyde

Neron

Orb

Pantu Hurageb (Reaper)

Paul Duval (Gray Gargoyle)

Paul Norbert Ebersol (The Fixer)

R'as al Ghul

Punch

Samuel Smithers (Plantman/Blackheath)

Temugin (Mandarin)

Thanos

Thomas Andrew Tresser (Nemesis)

Tiberius Stone

Tommy Elliot (Hush)

Victor-Creed(Sabertooth)

Victor von Doom (Doctor Doom)

William Baker AKA Flint Marko (Sandman)

General Wo (Sumo)

Wong-Chu

[biggoonie]

ROBIN VOL. 4: TURNING POINT TP

Written by CHUCK DIXON • Art by TOM GRUMMETT, PHIL JIMENEZ and others • Cover by TOM GRUMMETT and RAY KRYSSING In these tales from ROBIN #0, #6-13 and SHOWCASE ’94 #5-6, Tim Drake witnesses the start of a new era as Dick Grayson takes over as Batman in the wake of the “Knightfall” storyline. Plus, Robin faces off with Two-Face, battles Steeljacket and tries to deal with the legacy left by the Robins before him! On sale JULY 19 • 248 pg, FC, $24.99 US

[tessatechaitea]

Catwoman #27

Am I the only one at least partially disturbed with Catwoman, a person Bruce loves to fuck, dressed similarly to Robin? Is that what Gothtopia really is? A place that doesn't judge a man for wanting to fuck his young sidekick?

Gothtopia. Where sexuality isn't a spectrum; it's a Fudge Brownie With Walnuts Party and everybody is coming. On the brownies.

The issue opens with Batman and Catbird catching a couple of criminals on the rooftop. It's possible (and I'm going to do just a tiny amount of thinking about Nocenti's writing here. I know, I know. It's a bad habit and I keep falling back into it) that Ann Nocenti has no ability to comprehend the assignment she's been given. Gotham City has no crime. Everyone believes it's a warm, peaceful place. But here are two criminals committing crime and aware that everybody else is acting goofy. Not only that, the police show up and point out that crime is down 99% and the only crime left is suicide. Is that even a crime? Is Attempted Suicide a crime? If attempted suicide is not, why would successful suicide even be a crime since you don't have a live perp left to convict? Anyway, it's pointed out that no crime is happening while they're arresting two criminals for committing crime. Is it Ann Nocenti that's fucking up or am I to believe that everybody is so out of it that they don't have any clue what they're doing from moment to moment? And should I believe that these two criminals have broken free from the Scarecrow's toxin? So far the only ones to do that are geniuses like Batwing and Batman! Somebody keep an eye on these two evil genius burglars!

More sexy orgasmic kissing. I always figured Batman and Catwoman to be the type to come at the same time.

Catbird's friend, Selina Kyle (wink wink!), goes to the police station later to help counsel people who have attempted suicide. Once again, Ann Nocenti has a character mentioning that "a suicide attempt is, technically, a crime." Fucking bullshit. This is more of that "crocodiles prefer rotten meat" bullshit that Nocenti keeps pulling out of her ass. Does Ann Nocenti know anything about fact checking? Lord Google does a pretty good job if you ask him politely and turn on Safe Search so you don't get distracted. I know she does research for her stories because she always over uses lingo whenever she has a character involved in a new pastime or career. Half the time she doesn't even get the lingo right but she seems to feel like she's gotten the job done well if she can manage to stick as much of it into the conversation as possible. So now she's told me that crocodiles prefer rotten meat which is a lie. She's told me that cats can't swim which is a lie. And now she's saying that attempted suicide is technically a crime. Which is a lie. I'd be willing to blame Selina Kyle for having her facts wrong but the police earlier categorized suicide as the only crime left in Gotham. My point is this: you literally do get dumber reading an Ann Nocenti story! Anyway, Selina Kyle is going to get to the bottom of the rampant wave of Gotham Suicides! If she just asks the right questions and the people just tell her nonsensical answers, she'll crack this case wide open! Just like a Unicorn Detective!

Why isn't this an AMC Series?

Before Catbird has to join up with the Birds of a Feather and Bluebelle and Flying Fox, she receives one last call from a person worried about his friend. The caller purposefully misunderstands her advice and hangs up. And then Selina goes on with her life as we jump forward in time to Batman's incarceration in Crane's Health and Wellness Center. I should also mention, because I'm a petty bitch, that Bluebelle is spelled "Bluebell" in this issue. And then this is Catbird's reaction when the man she hasn't been able to keep her lips off of during the first few pages of this comic is put away for having a psychotic break:

"Welp, no time to wait and see what's wrong with Bruce. I guess it's time to reenter the dating pool!"

Words. Words are not enough. I'd like to explain how awful Ann Nocenti's writing is. I really would like to be able to express just exactly how terribly she puts the words next to the other words and then adds some more words until their whole purpose, as words, becomes hidden in their sudden unwordiness. No matter how many sentences she forms, her ideas remain inchoate. The ideas never venture forth from the primordial soup to become stories. They just kind of flop around, a mess of protein strands that never quite become life. And she has me torturing metaphors in my attempt to understand how she can be so ununderstandable! I'm not good enough at the wordsmithing to explain how bad Ann Nocenti's writing is. That last paragraph was my attempt and it was a sad miscarriage. Luckily you don't need me to see how horrible Nocenti is! Let me allow her to display her skill. Exhibit A:

Thank Jesus on High for the person that invented the trash can! Whatever did we do with all of our stinky things before then?

That night, Selina Kyle has a dream about her former self. She remembers that she's a thief. Oh! And here's where we get to the part where Ann Nocenti did her research to find out the names of various types of criminals! Like wheelmen and safecrackers and thieves and pickpockets and confidence men and escape artists and hackers and hustlers! Wait. Are escape artists actually criminals? I suppose she means people that escape from prisons and not people like Talon and Houdini! Anyway, Selina seems to know who she is in her dreams but she keeps denying it. She wakes up and gets back to being Catbird until she meets the guy she gave the bad advice to earlier. He's a man in bird armor. Is he Catwoman's opposite: Birdman?! And when she meets him, she begins to see the real Gotham flicker in and out in much the same way Batman and Batwing did before they broke the Scarecrow's spell. This guy's name is Steeljacket. I've never heard of him but apparently he's the second best burglar in Gotham but he seems to always try to steal the things that Catwoman has just stolen because he's, presumably, an idiot. And now he's trying to wake up Catwoman so she can become the best burglar in Gotham again? I guess he just can't handle success. Anyway, by telling Catwoman the truth and letting her beat the shit out of him, Catwoman somehow overcomes The Scarecrow's toxin. Batman and Batwing needed drugs to do that but then they're weak assholes. Now that Catwoman sees the truth, maybe next month she'll turn to Steeljacket and ask, "Who the fuck are you?" Catwoman #27 Rating: No change. Does anybody like Ann Nocenti? I want to hear from that one reader that defended Ann Nocenti a long time ago and said that he thought her dialogue was like David Lynch's dialogue! Can you still defend her after this god-awful run on Catwoman? Can you?! Dare you?!

[zenyogiwarrior]

Working on linking these techniques from Xiaohong Quan. Need to let go of trying to develop power and focus more on smoothing things out. Legs could do with more strength and conditioning. The further you go the longer the road seems to get 😝 Thankfully it's a labour of love and development. 100 days still going 💪🏻🙏🏻 #shaolin #kungfu #xiaohongquan #steeljacket #paidagong #qigong #fitness #martialarts #homeworkout #fitfam #perserverance #faith #karate #xinyiba #ironbody #bodyconditioning #kungfuworkout #personaltrainer (at Choshi, Chiba) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDERSowp2lD/?igshid=yqk8rz2y8y54

[zenyogiwarrior]

First time out of Tokyo to see family here since we got back from visiting relatives in the UK. We hadn't left Tokyo due to covid19 up until now. Still keeping up with the 100 day challenge. Some snippets of todays training. #steeljacket #shaolin #fitness #hardqigong #paidagong #calisthenics #fitfam #healthylifestyle #bodyconditioning #pt #personaltrainer #onlinecoach #onlinefitness #perserverance #shaolindisciple #japan #bodyweightworkout (at Chiba-shi, Chiba, Japan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CC-2eXdJNAH/?igshid=ei6s4kwgts99

[zenyogiwarrior]

More from today's training. First week complete of my 100 day challenge. Forgot how much the bamboo beater hurts the skin 😂 it's like getting slapped repeatedly. The metal beater penetrates deeper into the bones and organs. After a week the pain from bamboo stick has disappeared and am feeling pretty solid. Today I revisited some basic techniques especially Mabu jiada. And mixing the traditional and modern training together. #shaolin #kungfu #qigong #xinyiba #sanshou #sanda #steeljacket #shaolindisciple #kickboxing #hardqigong #72styles #yijinjing #personaltrainer #onlinecoach #onlinefitness #少林カンフー #少林気功 #鐵布衫 #パーソナルトレーナー #オンライントレーニング #心意把 #キックボクシング #格闘技 #易筋經 (at Tokyo, Japan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CC0IFSpJsaZ/?igshid=156xxgrjdzy50