Eclipso: The Darkness Within: Action Comics Annual #4 (July 1992)

I'm sure Superman's mouth is full of milk and not Billy Batson's spunk.

Eclipso: The Darkness Within: Action Comics Annual #4 (July 1992)
By Dan Vado, Chris Wozniak, Karl Altstaetter, Karl Kesel, Trevor Scott, Steve Mitchell, Albert De Guzman, and Matt Hollingsworth
Cover by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti
Edited by Dan Thorsland and Mike Carlin

The Cover
Being an art critic is so far beyond my capabilities that I'm completely stymied by the color palette. I guess there's an abundance of purple to indicate the Eclipso possession. But why the lime green background? Maybe they're fighting in a jelly mold? I do appreciate how Superman's muscles were drawn thick with sexy veins while Billy Batson retains his "I'm from a totally different comic book company universe and actually a child in a thick, veiny man's body" flat, clear, animation-style facial features. At least the sticky white residue in Superman's mouth has kept me from pondering how he's been Eclipsed being that he's full of sunlight and Eclipso's one weakness is sunlight and also he's full of somebody's semen. Not Billy's because that would be too wrong to even consider. I guess Superman's possession was pre-explained earlier when Eclipso pointed out how his power is magical in nature and we all know how susceptible Superman is to magic for some reason. Maybe they didn't have magic on Krypton? Man. Imagine a world without close-up magicians approaching your table during dinner? What a dream!

The Story So Far
A bunch of loser super heroes have been Eclipsed because they're losers. Yes, I know Wally West was Eclipsed. The king of losers. I didn't even like Barry Allen but Wally? What a piece of shit. All of you assholes who just love Wally West to death are fucking wrong. I mean, sure, I never read Flash so it's possible I'm wrong. Not likely but possible! I only know Wally West from Justice League Europe and that guy was a fucking idiotic sex pest who shouldn't have been allowed around women. The fact Power Girl never ripped his balls off is testament to how much power the Comics Code Authority had.

Also some people have started to go missing without being Eclipsed and we have to assume that Bruce Gordon has gone Ozymandias style. Bruce Gordon is missing and so is Blue Beetle. My guess is he's grabbing up all the heroes capable of making a gigantic fake sun to shine into the crater on the moon since the real sun isn't cutting the mustard. Stupid sun. Can't even shine into a fucking crater on the side of the moon that bare asses itself to it at least once a month. I don't know how space works so I'm assuming that's how often that happens.

The Story
Since Bruce, Mona, and Blue Beetle are all missing or Eclipsed, Superman and Fire's butt have gone to recruit Mona's dad for some reason. I guess he's also a solar scientist? Is that how Bruce and Mona met? Do I even care?

Even Mona's dad doesn't give a shit and it's his world that's in danger.

Every time I type "Mona's dad", I can't help thinking "Anna Madrigal". Stupid brain! You're a man and a girl!

Superman decides to leave this man alone which is great because who the fuck is he? Why is he suddenly a character in this story?! I barely know why Mona and Bruce Gordon are in this story let alone Anna Madrigal! I mean Mona's dad! Does he piss sunshine? Does he fart solar radiation? One fact about him: he's clinically depressed. At first I thought Booster was just exaggerating but Chris Wozniak made sure to draw a bottle of pills in the background of one panel. Plus that shot of him lying in bed with his knee up and his arm thrown over his face? Classic depression pose!

Booster talks like a eugenicist and Booster is from DC's future so, um, guess what, everybody? The racists apparently won!

I don't know if Booster means "them" as in academics or as in people with no powers or what but since Booster Gold is a working class guy whose whole schtick is based on stealing his gear, I suspect it's both? He's what rich racist elite Republicans would call a "real American". Which totally explains why he's also a sexist creep (as seen in the Eclipso: The Darkness Within: Justice League America Annual and pretty much every other Justice League America issue).

Superman's plan to save Mona and the people of Crater Bay (who were all Eclipsed in whatever series the last Superman annual was in. Man of Steel? Superman? Adventures of Superman?) is to give himself to Eclipso in exchange for freeing the regular people who always let Booster Gold down. Then it's up to the Justice League to stop Superman from doing whatever Eclipso wants to do with him. It seems like a bad plan in a number of ways but the worst way is that Superman must not remember the current roster of Justice League America. Who the fuck's going to stop him? Ice? Fire? Bloodwynd? Blue Beetle? Booster Gold? Doesn't he remember these are the people who couldn't even stop Doomsday from killing him? Oh wait. I guess he hasn't learned that lesson yet.

Obviously the plan would be to call Batman and borrow his Kryptonite. But since that plan is too obviously obvious, I guess they'll drag Billy Batson out of class and remind him that he's an alternate member of the League.

Did Wozniak model this shot of Superman off the Thanksgiving Day Parade float of Supes?

I'm never going to get through a full annual if I keep scrutinizing every panel but I'm glad I am because I just noticed this tiny figure of Booster Gold in the background. You know how Booster Gold usually has no indication of genitalia? Well, well, my friends. Discover the truth!

Booster Gold has a massive schlong.

Booster Gold, Fire, and Ice decide they'd better find a way to defeat Superman before he gets himself Eclipsed for the good of a few dozen yokels (and Mona). Clark's an idiot! He might be able to negotiate a deal to save a few people for a little while. But at what cost? No, his best bet is to stay unEclipsed and help Crater Bay by defeating Eclipso. Why's he acting so dumb?!

Look, that was a rhetorical question. I know why he's acting so dumb: Dan Vado is writing this.

We, the readers, being smarter than Booster Gold, Fire, and Ice combined, know that they should contact Batman and get his help. Instead, they decide to ask Hairy Lex Luthor for some advice. He and his team have developed a Solar Trap based on Bruce Gordon's solar work. But he's not sure it will work because, um, Dan Vado is writing this, I guess? Is this the the short period of time when Lex Luthor was trying to act humble because he was supposed to be his own Australian son and he didn't want anybody realizing it by whipping out his brain-dick every time he was asked to help solve a problem? Now he's all, "Man, having hair really mellows a guy out! I'm barely angry anymore! Chicks want to fuck me and I can finally masturbate again without fear that my bionic hand will rip my manhood off!" I suppose Angry Lex could have built a solar trap that definitely works but Angry Lex was also always stressed out and screaming at people. Chill Lex can barely fucking care because he's thinking about all the puss that's going to be on his face later.

Ice contacted my dick. Did that joke work? Did it make sense? Fuck it, I'm with Chill Lex now. Who cares if shit works when you've got puss on your face!

And what I mean by puss on my face is, um, cookie crumbs. They're fucking everywhere! I probably shouldn't have learned to eat cookies from Cookie Monster.

Night falls on Crater Bay and Superman heads over to throw his (and everybody on Earth's) life away. Superman doesn't even make sure Eclipso lets the hostages go before he picks up the Black Diamond and tries to get angry. What the fuck? The whole point is to save people? Why would Eclipso let them go if Superman becomes Eclipsed first? Like I said, Clark's an idiot.

It's possible Superman's learned enough about the Black Diamond to get mad at Eclipso so that when he turns, he'll have to beat the shit out of Eclipso before Eclipso can manipulate him. But probably not because I've still got a whole pile of The Darkness Within annuals to get through. And the last Superman one has Superman Eclipsed on the cover fighting Guy Gardner and Lobo at the same time. I know! I came directly into my pants when I saw that!

Superman becomes Eclipsed but we never find out what made him so angry because Eclipso just starts manipulating him immediately. Did Dan Vado not read his editorial notes for the story? It's probably because . . . no, no. You know what? Dan Vado founded the Alternative Press Expo so I'm going to give him a free pass on this. It was probably editorial's fault anyway. I'm sure Vado was all, "Yeah but in all the other stories, the character had to enact vengeance on the thing that made them mad before Eclipso could properly control them?" And Editorial was all, "Shut up, Dan Vado. Did you read the Flash Annual? He didn't enact vengeance on anybody, did he?" And Dan Vado was all, "I don't know because I didn't read it. It hasn't been published yet. Nobody sent me the script." And Editorial was all, "You think you're so smart, don't you, Dan Vado? Well just make Superman angry and Eclipsed and we'll worry about any inconsistencies!"

Also, I'm only on page 17 so any "inconsistencies" will probably be explained away and I'll feel stupid for making this stink. Anyway, did I mention that even though Chris Wozniak has been drawing a fucking awful Superman, he does a cute Ice?

You know I think she's cute because I bypassed a dozen panels of Fire's ass to scan this panel.

It's possible Ice is cute here because the inker has changed between the terrible Superman panels and this panel. It's hard to tell because what the fuck do I know about how an inker's style changes a penciller's style?! I told you right at the beginning that I'm not an art critic! Besides, there are like eighteen inkers credited for this thing!

Meanwhile, during a scene that I'm positive was going to end in Lex Luthor and Professor Emil Hamilton fucking, Bruce Gordon's Ozymandias Plan claims two more victims. You know, the two who were definitely about to fuck: Emil and Lex.

Back in Crater Bay, Captain Marvel arrives to scold Superman and also hit him a lot. "Hey man! Golly Gee Whiz, dude! Why you being so gosh-darned mean?" They beat each other senseless for many, many pages. Neither one seems to have the upper hand even if Captain Marvel's power stems from magic and, well, that's Superman's main weakness! I guess the magic that makes Billy strong and invincible doesn't mean the strength itself is magical. At one point during the fight, I'm convinced that Captain Marvel is just Martian Manhunter disguised as Captain Marvel because, um, why would fire hurt Captain Marvel?

Is he just pretending the flames hurt so the reader feels a little bit of drama and tension during this pretty spectacularly boring battle?

The only reason I knew this couldn't be Martian Manhunter is because Martian Manhunter is pretending to be Bloodwynd right now. He's too busy to pretend to be other people.

By page 35, I begin wishing instead of discussing the story, I just went through and scanned pictures of Ice and Fire's asses. Because, oh boy, are there a lot of panels highlighting them!

I've got a pretty good idea for a coffee table book!

Yeah. I stopped caring about the story and just began scanning butts. Fucking sue me.

The Ranking!
Luthor and Hamilton's solar trap works but overheats almost immediately. So everybody in Crater Bay is saved but Superman manages to get away. And Mona is nowhere to be found. On the plus side, did you see all of those butts? I'm sure there's a moon joke to be made here but I'm way too horny to think of it. I think I just figured out what's in Superman's mouth on the cover. It's my own dried semen from 34 years ago!

History of the DC Universe: Book Two (February 1987)

This cover's much cooler due to the color and Swamp Thing.

The editors at DC called this the History of the DC Universe because it's better than A Chronological List of Our Various Trademarks. My only problem with the last issue was how it spent 47 pages touting their amazing fictional universe and its heroic creations only to end with "But the real heroes are the American military. Go Joe!" I'm the kind of person who believes in loads of shit but hold nothing sacred so it always rankles me a bit when people have to go out of their way to thank the military. We get it! We should probably pretend that the people tricked into military service so they can be the violent arm of our military industrial complex are heroes because who wants to be tricked into service and then constantly reminded of that huge mistake?!

I mean, freedom isn't free and I'm glad loads and loads of foreigners were killed so that, um, I don't know. The suburbs are safer? Are they? I don't know, I'm just a stupid jerk whom people can't stand because I say shit like "Our veterans were mostly tricked into joining the military!" I'm the most pro-soldier a person can be because I don't think they should be used to invade foreign nations in the name of making me feel safer. I'm fine without them. I don't need their help! I'd rather they stay home and enjoy a nice iced tea while watching Jeopardy! and still collecting a paycheck from the taxes I pay! See? I support them and want them to be safe! Unless they're the kinds of chodes who joined up because they want a socially acceptable excuse to kill another person. Then I hope they meet an IED. Obviously they're still better than cops. I would never put a veteran in a wicker man.

And all that will occur? Shit. She's going to bore me with Legion drama, isn't she?

If Harbinger discusses the Legion of Super-heroes, I hope she at least tells me who will be fucking whom in the future and put down, for the records, a clear and pristine picture of Phantom Lass's tits.

Last issue ended in the middle of World War II, leaving the most ignorant readers on tenterhooks as to how that turned out. Luckily for them, Harbinger continues in the middle of the war. I hope we get to see how Adolf Hitler died in the DC Universe. I hope it wasn't the same boring way as in our universe. I hope Sgt. Rock tore his mustache off and shoved it down his throat before inventing docking using Hitler's peen and a grenade. You know what? That's such a great way for Hitler to die in the DC Universe that I'm just going to commission Travis Charest to draw that page and staple it into my copy of History of the DC Universe: Book Two.

Are they fighting alongside the Allies or are they engaged in an elaborate sex act alongside the Allies?

Harbinger decides not to explain the history of the war because she knows George Perez will just draw a series of Daily Planet newspapers with headlines walking everybody through all the key points of World War II as the papers stretch across two pages. Instead, she uses her time to just list all of DC's trademarks that were popular during the war and/or characters in later war comics with stories that occurred during the war: The Haunted Tank, The Guardian, The Newsboy Legion, The Creature Commandos, GI Robot, Viking Commando, Mademoiselle Marie, Captain Ulysses Hazard, and, of course, the Unknown Soldier representing all the real heroes. You know the ones. The ones people are going to think I trashed at the beginning of this comic book when I was just expressing how I'm a conscientious objector who supports soldiers but not the military industrial complex that uses them and I don't jerk off to the American flag with my curtains open so the whole neighborhood can see how patriotic I want them to think I am.

And as the men, monsters, and paperboys fought the Nazis at home and abroad, the broads were in the home doing important work of their own.

So a diaphragm wasn't one of Merry's 1000 gimmicks, hunh?

Harbinger explains that after the war (which ended when the last Daily Planet newspaper's headline read: "War Ends!"), the government turned on the costumed heroes. It led to the '50s being the worst decade to live through but the one people were most nostalgic about in subsequent decades, probably because a lot of people are secretly racist. Joseph McCarthy and a spineless media existed in the DC Universe as well so paranoia ran rampant, causing all the heroes to retire rather than reveal their secret identities, even Jay Garrick who somehow hid his identity because he wore a stupid metal cap? Or was he constantly blurring his face with super speed? Anyway, the public heroes hid away while the government created Task Force X. Things were looking bleak and censorious. The worst times are the ones where stupid, fearful people somehow grab the public spotlight and cowardly power-hungry assholes rise to power exploiting that fear and paranoia. You know the kind of times I'm talking about. You know.

But things were about to change! Great things were on the horizon for the DC Universe! A baby was about to crash into a Kansas field! A lighthouse keeper was about to get the fuck of his life! And a married couple out with their child were about to get gunned down in a spray of bullets and pearls! Oh, what a great time to be alive!

You know who was alive during the childhoods of these soon-to-be great heroes? The Phantom Stranger! "Who's that?" you ask! "I don't know!" everybody says, even Harbinger, the Monitor, and DC's editors and writers. "He's just this guy, you know? Probably Judas but, you know, that's just wild speculation! He might also be Lazarus! Or Gary Gygax!"

But wait! Harbinger, you have forgotten one very important hero! No, not Captain Comet. No, not Martian Manhunter. Yes, yes! That's it! Wonder Woman!

From "Krypton, Atlantis and Gotham City" to "Krypton, Gotham City and Paradise Island." Look how quickly Aquaman's forgotten when a better, third hero comes along!

Obviously Wonder Woman had to be at least fifteen to nineteen years younger than all the men. Imagine how gross it would have been to have a woman sharing the spotlight who was their same age?! Too old!

Meanwhile, some Charlton history bleeds into DC history when Dan Garrett finds the Blue Beetle scarab and exclaims, "I hope when I retire, whoever takes up the mantle of Blue Beetle has no powers at all and loves to crack the lamest jokes!" He eventually gets his wish, the lucky bastard. I wonder if breaking into an Egyptian tomb would allow me to get my wish? Probably not. One of the last things one of my numerous deceased friends who still haunt my Facebook friends list did was take a dream Death on the Nile trip to Egypt to float down the Nile and visit a bunch of ancient tombs. She was dead by the end of the year and her husband just months later. Do I now believe in Egyptian curses? Fuck, man, when did I not believe?!

After that, Harbinger mentions two super creepy moments:

One admittedly more creepy than the other because it is rape but something super fucking gross about a 10 billion year old man taking in a parentless little girl and raising her to wear Galactus's head for underwear.

Yes, I'm still trying to make "Harbinger's costume looks like Galactus upside-down" even though it's neither the correct color or shape. Who cares? Let people have things they love!

I just re-read the Monitor thing and I also find the sentence "The child was brought to his satellite and was raised into adulthood" super fucking disturbing. I can't help but think of livestock, of things being nurtured and grown only to be used for the appetites of men.

But never mind the rape of an unnamed woman and the kidnapping of a lost child for unknown reasons, Harbinger seems to say, as the reader turns the page from those two panels at the bottom right to this:

Superman is an anagram for "rape sum'n". Sorry! After that Trigon panel, I have Marv Wolfman Brain.

Who do you think has used rape as a plot more: Marv Wolfman or Alan Moore? Write your answers down on a torn sheet of paper using a red crayon, fold the paper once, slide it into a Pepsi bottle from the '80s (the squat ones not the tall thin ones), and lob it backwards over your shoulder into your nearest police precinct. Do not forget to light the paper on fire and put some gas in the bottle too (for accuracy). I'll post the results of the poll next month!

Batman gets a full page spread opposite Superman because they're historically total opposites in that Clark is a nerd and Bruce is a jock. The only problem is that Batman has to share a teeny, tiny corner of his page with Robin, the Boy Blunder (as Alfred used to call him. Unless that was The Joker '67?).

The page after Batman is a full page spread of Wonder Woman. Ha ha! Fooled you! Of course it isn't because she's not as important as the two men even though, just a page earlier, Harbinger said she was. No, she doesn't even get a small mention. I guess she's been mentioned enough, probably because she didn't help the world the way Black Canary and Merry did.

The next two pages highlight eight more heroes and not one of them is Wonder Woman. You might be surprised to find that they are, like Superman, Batman, and Robin, white men. Oh, you weren't surprised? Sorry! I thought you were more naïve than that. Excuse me while I recalibrate how much I patronize my readers. Here's the mistake! I had the dial set to "Bunny Rabbits". I'll turn it up to "Newly Owned Ferret". Better?

Do newspapers typically print corrections to their articles in the middle of the article because that's what I'm about to do on this blog entry!

CORRECTION: The two pages following Superman and Batman detail nine characters, one of which is, in fact, a white woman: Hawkwoman. I know, it hardly counts seeing as how she's only included because Hawkman was deemed important enough to be mentioned this quickly in the History. I would have left him out entirely but then I've never been a fan, especially after Liefeld's attempt to write a Hawkman story during The New 52. I could blame Liefeld's failure on Tony S. Daniel who failed to write the first batch of New 52 Hawkman stories but when have I ever let Rob Liefeld off the hook? Never! Fuck that guy! He once drew a panel of Deathstroke with something (a tree or patch of grass or something) bisecting Deathstroke in the foreground and forgot to draw one of Deathstroke's legs on the other side of the bisecting object! There's being bad at art and there's so bad at art that you forget to add major body parts to the person you're drawing bad at art! So bad! And worse at writing!

I'm going to assume that Harbinger lists the heroes in the order of importance so I'll put her list here, seeing as how it's so historical.

DC Superheroes By Importance

1. Superman.
2. Batman.
2 and 1/2. Robin.
3. The Flash.
4. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan).
5. The Atom.
6. Hawkman.
6 and 1/2. Hawkman's wife, Hawkwoman.
7. Aquaman (I'd argue too high on the list. Much too high!).
8. Captain Atom.
9. Green Arrow.
10. Blue Beetle.

If you're thinking, "That can't be the top ten most important heroes in the DC Universe! They forgot X!", you have a point. But she'll get to X, I'm sure. There are still so many fucking pages in this thing and all Harbinger is really doing is listing heroes and explaining who they are in a few simple sentences.

No wonder I've never liked Hawkman! He came to Earth to learn how to do his job from Earth cops?! Fuuuuuuuuuck! Die in a fire in a giant Wickerman, you piece of shit!

If any cops are reading this, before you judge me too harshly, I just want you to understand one thing: I fucking hate cops.

I might have felt Aquaman was too high up on the list and I suspect Harbinger might also since she introduces him with "The hybrid from Atlantis finally came forth as Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas. He sucks."

After Harbinger lists the top ten heroes in the DC Universe, forgetting Wonder Woman somehow, she lists a few heroes and heroic organizations by how sexy they are. She does this vertically in three columns.

The Sexiness Scale goes from the "dry as the Mojave" Guardians to the "how did this room get so full of pussy juice and jizz" Dolphin.

Pussy Juice and Jizz sounds like Don Draper's second favorite cocktail.

I think everybody can agree on Harbinger's Sexiness Order: Guardians, Cave Carson, Challengers of the Unknown, Adam Strange, Starfire, the Sea Devils, and Dolphin. I'm sure some people think Cave Carson was probably pretty sexy based on the Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye but you realize there's a reason he explored caves, right? Major Uggo! Just no rizz at all. The original Troglodyte.

From here, Harbinger moves fully into the Silver Age of Heroes and a time when DC's editors were all, "Comics are for kids so they don't have to make much sense! Just put a fucking weird cover on the thing and who cares what happens in the pages!" Meanwhile, Marvel was busy writing to the incels of the time who were all, "I'm just like Peter Parker! My boss hates me and I can't get laid either!"

Harbinger so doesn't want to have to explain Wonder Girl and her relationship to Wonder Woman that she completely leaves out Wonder Woman and takes no questions on why a teen group made of young partners of the JLA includes a girl who has no adult companion in the JLA panel above.

Harbinger mentions the Metal Men, B'wana Beast, Ultra the Multi-Alien, Metamorpho, Mera, Zatanna, Eclipso, Dial "H" for Hero, the Question, Prince Ra-Man, Deadman, The Creeper, and Johnny Man, Son of Vulcan in a bit about the philosophical drive for people without powers risking their lives and the obviousness of people with powers saving people for easy clout. But she doesn't spare a single word for Ragman even though George Perez too the time to draw him with the others!

Here's something I just learned from this comic book (which I must have known since 1987 but immediately forgot because I did read this in 1987): Mera was born on a water planet in another galaxy. What? No way! Not that I don't believe Harbinger has studiously researched this history and taken great care to get the facts correct but I'm checking the Who's Who anyway! This can't be right!

Oh! Okay, I knew this. It was Harbinger's use of the phrase "born in another galaxy on a planet of water" that confused the fuck out of me. I think Harbinger needs to add a correction!

Leaving the historical aspect of her history fully behind her, Harbinger begins contemplating the question of what makes somebody a hero? Ostensibly, this helps fill out her historical record with all the groups that fought for justice throughout time. Realistically? It's the most efficient way to list one DC trademark after another. King Faraday. Sarge Steel. Rick Flag, Jr. The Suicide Squad. Mockingbird. The Secret Six. The Doom Patrol. Robot Man.

Harbinger concludes that what makes a hero a hero, and what has enabled humanity to rise above all creatures that preceded them, was their ability to sacrifice for the greater good. Really? I think ants probably do it much better.

But then she realizes she's been conflating "humanity" with "heroes" so she quickly adds, "Heroes are not confined to Earth!" She then goes on to explain The New Gods. She adds Brainiac to the list even though he's evil and then some other nonsense that I don't recognize before getting right back to just listing Earth heroes, those with powers and those without! Peacemaker! Firestorm! The Manhunter! Firebird! Warlord! Jemm! Atomic Knight! Baron Winters!

But then, again realizing she's concentrating too much on Earth, Harbinger begins listing some other places!

Stop reminding me that Halo is actually just a weird bubble of light! She was my big crush when a teenager!

I thought this "History" was going to be full of some kind of timeline of the DC Universe but it contains less information than Who's Who. I guess that makes sense since Who's Who contains a lot of information over multiple issues and this history tries to cover thousands of years of history in just two prestige format books. But I really think a large poster that you unscroll horizontally that just lists a timeline with various names listed by the years would be more useful.

With the last third of the history left, and even more heroes having been listed (sometimes literally as when Harbinger just lists Blue Devil, Power Girl, Black Orchid, Air Wave, Vigilante, and Red Tornado), Harbinger turns her attention to Crisis on Infinite Earths and the history of the thing that never happened which allowed the universe to be the way it now is.

I see the advantage of just listing the heroes with brief description because try explaining Infinity, Inc, post-Crisis!

Wonder Woman finally gets a mention, I guess because her history was so changed by Crisis on Infinite Earths that it made no sense to include her anywhere else. Also, I guess her soul was the soul of the unborn baby of the cavewoman murdered early on in the first book of this history? I never read any Wonder Woman in my early comic book years.

Lastly, Harbinger mentions all the future shit but that's future shit so who cares? She thought she could set down the future history of the DC Universe in 1987?! Zero Hour hadn't even happened yet! So naïve!

History of the DC Universe: Book Two Rating: C. The first book felt more like a history book, probably because it had so many eras to cover. Since this book concentrated on the 20th Century, most of it post-World War II, it simply became a catalogue of heroes who have appeared in DC comics. This turned the history into an introspective look into what makes a person a hero. Eventually, Harbinger comes to the conclusion that if you follow the "so-called Golden Rule", as she puts it, you're a hero! Congratulations to anybody who follows it! And even more of a congratulations to anybody who follows the inverse expression of it (Do not do unto others that which you would not want done unto you!). We can all be heroes! But the limiting nature of this half of the history made it far more boring than the first. Luckily, Pérez's art makes the entire thing worthwhile. It's fun to just gaze at all of the various characters and landscapes he's drawn for this thing.

History of the DC Universe: Book One (January 1987)

This feels like I'm about to read an encyclopedia cover to cover. But one written by Marv Wolfman.

Apparently New History of the DC Universe just came out so I should probably read that and throw this one in the garbage. Will this be like reading Charlie Brown's Super Book of Questions and Answers from 1976 and realizing that half the answers are wrong now? Or, to be fair to Charlie Brown, more fleshed out and understood. I believe in the Charlie Brown book, one of the questions is what killed the dinosaurs and the answer doesn't even mention the possibility of an asteroid hitting the Earth. Wait, I have it right here! Let's read the answer together!

Not really, Patty. Some dinosaurs still exist. Like Republicans and your mom.

I remember reading a book on Luis Walter Alvarez's asteroid hypothesis in high school (on my own! It wasn't an assignment!), probably 1985 or 1986. Big discrepancies in scientific knowledge like this often cause dolts who believe in "common sense" and "gut instincts" to scoff at anything scientists do. But that's because they don't understand the difference between a hypothesis or a theory or a Theory. It's hard to explain it to them but maybe if you say something like, "You know how seeing your brother do ballet makes you think he's gay? That's a hypothesis! Now you have to run experiments to see if evidence backs up your hypothesis, like throwing dicks at him and seeing if he puts them in his mouth or his butt. If he does it often enough, you could probably up it to a theory. But you probably can't call it a Theory until he looks you in the eye and says, 'God how I love guzzling semen!'" Or something. I don't know! I'm stupid!

What I'm trying to get at is that this History of the DC Universe was written just after Crisis on Infinite Earths so I'm guessing it explains the new, at the time, history of the DC Universe based on the events of Crisis. So I doubt Wolfman will have a section where he explains Infinity, Inc or Power Girl. Best to just ignore that shit. Also, this is pre-Zero Hour so I probably could have binned this shit thirty years ago!

Let's see how much I know about DC's history based on the cover by guessing all the characters in the letters!

H: Darkseid.
I: Uncle Sam of the Freedom Fighters.
S: King Solovar of Gorilla City with Grodd plotting behind him.
T: Baby Kal-El's rocket ship.
O: Amazing Man whom I only really know from DC's Who's Who.
R: Etrigan the Demon.
Y: No idea. A Lazarus Pit?

OF: Hourman.

THE: The Blackhawks? With some other nerd?

DC: Black Condor of the Freedom Fighters.

U: Abnegezer, Rath, and, um, Nikto?
N: Jonah Hex.
I: Some incarnation of Vandal Savage?
V: Broot? Was that a guy? One of them aliens from the Vega system?
E: Hawkman.
R: Starfire and some other Tamaraneans.
S: The bombing of Dresden!
E: Um, uh, Nathaniel Dusk?

And that's the history of the DC Universe! Thank you and goodnight!

Oh shit. Forget that. There's like forty-eight more pages in just this first book! It's a history of the universe as written by Harbinger, seemingly the only person left in the DC Universe who remembers the Multiverse. So maybe there will be a chapter on Infinity, Inc. I can already tell her history's going to be incorrect because she's going to mention Krona gazing on the beginning of the universe and as we've seen in Ganthet's Tale, that didn't really happen the way everybody thinks it happened. So maybe I should have thrown this book in the garbage around 1992! Judging DC's history of trying to fix their history only to make things way more complicated, perhaps I should have paid for this book at the counter of Brian's Books, walked outside, and tossed it in a trash can. But I'm sure the New History of the DC Universe finally got it all down correctly!

Harbinger begins by explaining how God ejaculated and his seed flew across the vacuum of space to become billions of different civilizations. She then goes on to describe those civilizations in as detailed as she can get in one small paragraph.

Is she telling us there are 1000 planets with beings like The Endless?

Harbinger decides to discuss the Oans next because they were the first race to become super advanced without destroying themselves. Also what else is there to discuss in the first billion years of the DC Universe? Maybe she could have spoiled why Destruction left The Endless since they obviously existed and all of that happened even if Gaiman hadn't written it yet. Harbinger knows everything, right?! But no, the greatest thing to happen in the first billion years was when Krona, using his Time Television, caught God masturbating and caused not only the universe to lose billions of years to its life but also created the Anti-Matter Universe somehow. God was probably upset that somebody caught Him masturbating so He retroactively created a masturbation room where He could jerk off in private. That's the Anti-Matter Universe and that explains why it's so crusty. Is it crusty? It must be! It's God's jerk off sanctuary!

This isn't just the face of somebody walking in on somebody masturbating; it's the face of somebody catching someone masturbating weirdly. Or the guy he caught had a weird dick. I bet Louis C.K. saw this face a lot.

Oh yeah, the legend that Ganthet proved wasn't true was also that Krona had unleashed evil into the universe. I guess evil didn't exist until the anti-matter universe existed. I guess down didn't exist either. Or despair. Or hate. Or dogs. Or, um, squares?

To combat this new evil, the Oans preceded to fail to stop it in a variety of ways. They created Psions to combat evil but having been created to be apex predators, they just decided to be evil shits and multiply across the universe causing havoc, like rabbits in Australia. So then the Guardians made the Manhunters because, as robots, they couldn't breed and had to follow orders. But then they were all, "Why are we following orders?", and they fucked off too. So then they made the Green Lantern Corps which I guess worked out pretty good for awhile? But that wasn't all their problems! They also had other Oan nemeses who were trying to fix shit their own way, like The Controllers and probably the Zamarons. But all that history doesn't matter because it doesn't involve the most important creatures in the universe: Earthlings!

Demons infested Earth along with bells, wheels, and ketchup.

Meanwhile, Pariah, who doesn't fucking matter anymore because his Krona shit never caused a domino effect that took down all but one dimension (except, I guess, it did? Which is why there's only one dimension left? Except nobody's supposed to remember that the final dimension was never the only dimension?), watches the beginning of the universe from his world. But he doesn't see the actual beginning of the universe; he sees the fake beginning of the universe that Wopbopaloobopawopbamboo set up to fool anybody with a Time Television. He watches it for awhile before the Creator of the Universe gets tired of him spying on him and knocks him through a fucking panel border.

"I'd like to poo in peace, you purple-headed pervert!"

Next, Harbinger reminds everybody of yet another voyeur: Destiny. At least this guy's blind so God doesn't get too embarrassed about him watching everybody. But the pervert does write everything he witnesses down in his little perv book. That's probably why it's chained to his arm. Can you imagine if it ever fell into the wrong hands and they realized all Destiny cared about was watching people wank? Or not watching, I guess. Listening? That's worse, right?

Death isn't born yet because, as she says, she's born when the first life springs up. Destiny gets to be born as soon as anything comes into creation. He pops into existence and begins writing in his book, "I'm going to call this a book. And the thing I'm writing with is a pen. And all the words I just made up to express the idea of these objects, I'll call language. I can't wait to hear the first creature fuck itself!"

Destiny listens to a meteor crash to Earth and he writes a little fanfic piece about a caveman with the name Vandar Adg who became immortal by touching the meteorite and which also changed his name to Vandal Savage which is pretty hilarious because the words "vandal" and "savage" would later represent the kind of person he is! Another caveman also becomes immortal thanks to the meteorite but he just eventually takes up the name Immortal Man because he's fucking boring.

I have no idea who this woman is.

Harbinger mentions Anthro because she's contractually obligated to make sure all of DC's trademarks make it into the history. He gets credit for, I don't know, making it so Cro-Magnons were able to defeat the Neanderthals? I guess that shit was entertaining to kids in the '60s but after that, nobody wanted to read about this cave-prick until Grant Morrison tripped balls, remembered Anthro existed, laughed for forty fucking straight minutes, and decided to use him in Final Crisis.

After Anthro, not much happened in the DC Universe for thousands of years. But then Atlantis and Skartaris popped up so DC was able to sell some Arion and Warlord comic books. I don't know if Warlord made any huge mistakes because Harbinger doesn't even mention him but Arion allowed Atlantis to sink beneath the waves which would be catalyst for giving DC their worst superhero ever created: Aquaman!

"Boo!"
"Hiss!"
"You suck!"
"Eat dolphin dick!"

See? People fucking hate that underwater twat!

Anyway, a few thousand more years passed by before some shit went down in Egypt.

So any history DC purchases can just be cut and pasted right into the DC history books?

If the wizard Shazam was from Egypt, why the fuck does his stupid acronym use Greek gods and, um, Solomon? Sounds like a self-hating Egyptian to me. Oh wait. Never mind! Black Adam's SHAZAM uses Egyptian Gods. But then why does the wizard change them for Captain Marvel? Were the Egyptian Gods too, um, you know what? You insert whatever derogatory attributes you would apply to Egyptians there. I can't think of any Egyptian stereotypes at all because I'm super pure and innocent! Or maybe the wizard who helps Captain Marvel isn't the same wizard?! Maybe some Greek upstart wizard murdered the Egyptian wizard and took over the "Let's turn little boys into strapping, muscular men!" business! Talk about cultural stereotypes! Um, not that I'm talking about them. I'm suggesting you do your own cultural stereotype research to discover that Greeks were into stuff that people also loved blaming Persians for!

It's dangerous to study history when you're an edgelord!

A thousand or more years pass but since they don't involve Batman, Harbinger just gives them a brief one-paragraph synopsis.

Harbinger is as bad as me when I get bored reviewing a comic book and just summarize the last ten pages in two sentences.

Is this thing I just noticed something?

I suspect, since Marvel hasn't sued over this, I'm reaching.

Harbinger fills up some space telling the origin of the Greek Gods because I guess that's pretty important for characters like The Titans (I mean, not really, but whatever) and Wonder Woman. It's definitely a great addition because George Perez draws a bunch of titties! I'd scan them in but I think George only got away with it because they're mostly hidden by the fold. I won't explain any of this because if you're interested, you probably know a thirteen year old who rabidly knows every thing about the Greek Gods, heroes, and monsters. "Like some mythological thing my 8th grade boyfriend would have known about," as Betty Finn's best friend once said.

Harbinger adds a footnote about how New Genesis and Apokolips were both created when the Greek Gods hid Olympus from the world. Is that canon? What am I saying?! Of course that's canon! It's in the History of the DC Universe! What I meant was "Had that previously been canon"? No, you know what? I don't fucking care. Unlike Harbinger, I don't want anybody to remember Pre-Crisis history! Feed me the new stuff only!

Hmm, if I want only the new stuff, I should head down to Excalibur Comics and pick up the New History of the DC Universe tomorrow! Then I can wipe my ass with the pages in this one.

Next, we learn about the early years of the Vega system. It must have been written by Marv Wolfman because it begins with rape and then there's a little rape in the middle and it ends with a rape chaser. Maybe it has less rape than that but who cares once you get the first one! Some near-God named Auron is created, 200 Citadelians are created (199 of them clones), and the blasphemous exclamation Starfire loves to use came into being. I think the point is that whenever a writer wants to do some political analogy using war and violence, they just create a new race in the Vega system for their morality play.

Not pictured: rape. I think.

The Amazons get their moment, kicking Heracles' butt and fleeing across the ocean to Paradise Island which lies in, um, The Bermuda Triangle? Wait. Seriously? How the fuck did I never know this New Themyscira history? And after it was almost destroyed, it became a group of islands off the east coast of the United States? What the all-fucking forever fuck is this nonsense?! Man, I can't wait to get the New History of the DC Universe so I can throw this book at a cop and tell him to shove it up his asshole!

Harbinger turns her attention to Tibet even though she doesn't really want to. But she has to mention that a green meteor crashes there (the green flame from the cover that I, um, jokingly suggested was a Lazarus Pit. Ha ha!) which would become a gay lantern in 2000 years. How do I know she didn't really want to talk about Tibet and the rest of the East? She makes her prejudices well-known in her history!

Goddammit, Harbinger! Stop doing the work of mediocre white men for them!

As everybody who has learned their history from Twitter, nothing much was happening during the rest of world while Rome created civilization and rational thought and algebra (which is weird they called it that though) and art and, well, just about everything ever! And not just Rome! The totally white white men who lived their while being white and male. Where would we be without Rome?!

For being the center of man and his activities, all Harbinger has to say about Rome is that men fought for the praise of Caesars. By the next page, Rome had already fallen and all we learned about them was that some guy named The Golden Gladiator was pretty fucking good at gladiating. Also Blackbriar Thorn rose and fell and was buried for later. But that's so far on the edge of Roman Civilization that it makes a mockery of the whole "center of man and his activities" line.

I don't want to argue with this timeline of things because this is DC's History and not actual History. I just wanted to scan in Etrigan and The Shining Knight.

Following the fall of the Round Table, Harbinger gives a quick rundown on all of DC's Viking characters and some other fictional characters that I guess DC must have done illustrated comics of their stories, like Robin Hood and The Three Musketeers. A few locations are mentioned: Gorilla City, Gemworld, Nanda Parbat. They're not tied into the history in any way though. Maybe Harbinger's editor was all, "Stop concentrating on Europe and especially stop saying things like 'the center of of man' and 'while central Europe headed for its renaissance and return to supremacy'." For some reason she also mentions a Spider-Cult in the Vega Star System. I guess that'll be important later?

Also rabid dogs, vampires, and sexy women exist too.

Halfway through this book and not a single Black person has appeared. Sure, Egyptians but they were portrayed as white as so many people are wont to do. The closest we've come to anything dealing with Africa in this history is Gorilla City and I'm not fucking touching the implications of that with my henchman's ten-foot pole!

I'm not suggesting that maybe DC Comics had a bit of a problem depicting characters other than white men in their first few decades. Maybe the fact Tomahawk was a white guy or that Firehair, a white woman raised by Blackfoot Indians after they slaughtered all the other white people in her wagon train, was the most important character in a story about Native Americans or that they mention the Civil War without once mentioning what it was about or even showing one fucking Black American are all just editorial mistakes! That's all I'm saying! I'm sure the erasure of pretty much all the other people of Earth in favor of white stories was just a small mistake in their very early years!

Where's Jenny Freedom?! Give me so many fucking Jenny Freedom stories! I want them now! I want to lock it all up in my pocket it's my bar of chocolate! Give them to me now!

Following the civil war stuff with no mention of slavery at all, Harbinger gives us a double-page spread of all the Western characters that came out of DC. These characters are somewhat more varied than the others, with a few Native Americans and a couple of women. Still not a single Black character though. I'm beginning to think putting Amazing Man on the cover was a late editorial choice. "Wait! Don't we have any Black characters in DC's early history?! I'm sure there was a guy on All-Star Squadron, wasn't there?!"

World War I gets a smattering of mentions but since it's followed immediately by a page dedicated to my favorite villain of all time, I'm gonna have to say, "Get the fuck out of here, Great War! Brother Blood has entered the chat!"

I fantasized about going as Brother Blood for Halloween pretty much every single year of my youth but never attempted it.

As history and technology progress, Harbinger reminds us that magic never went anywhere by mentioning Doctor Occult. He's the guy in the "E" on the cover. I think my guess of Nathaniel Dusk was more probable than Doctor Occult! And I didn't even think my guess was probable!

And then Krypton exploded. So sad! Anyway, one baby survived. Also a whole bunch of other Kryptonians because writers kept wanting to use more Krytponians in their stories until basically everybody on the planet seemed to have survived at some point or another.

How the fuck did Elon Musk make it into this history?

World War II gets its moment in the sun because things are really taking off now! I don't remember how they really dealt with Earth One and Earth Two post-Crisis. Did they just merge their histories since they were the most famous stories? Or did the Justice Society get erased from existence? Did the final issues of Infinity, Inc. just have the various characters fading slowly from reality as their home had been obliterated by the Anti-Monitor? Did the JSA fight side-by-side with the retconned All-Star Squadron? I mostly don't know this stuff because anything that had a whiff of Earth Two when I was younger felt like old person comic books! Even Infinity although I did read my cousin's copies at the time. They were printed on Baxter paper!

Obviously I could have just kept reading instead of asking stupid questions because Harbinger answers them all! The Justice Society formed before World War II but then were tasked by Roosevelt to run secret missions against the Nazis. It wasn't until Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese that the Justice Society was joined by many other American heroes to form the All-Star Squadron!

And just like that, 44 pages into a 48 page comic book, we get our first Black character: Amazing Man! Also note he's the only Black character out of dozens of heroes.

The Blackhawks get the final named mention (there's a picture of the Freedom Fighters when Harbinger mentions, lowercase, freedom fighters) but the book basically ends by being all, "But the real heroes were the soldiers!" And that's the first book of DC's History! They don't have that much more history since it's only a two book series. And I bet the second book is like 50% about Batman.

History of the DC Universe: Book One Rating: A. It was a fun look at DC's characters throughout their history but it only gets an A rank thanks to George Perez's stunning pencils (inked by Karl Kesel). Plus they snuck in some titties without any kind of mature warning on the cover!

The Hellblazer #9

Is this a crystal ball that shows what's happening around it or just a reflection?

Today on Twitter, I saw the the most weaselly euphemism for "I'm a racist!" ever. Some guy said, "I'm idealogically opposed to government handouts." And that's the base of the Republican Party for y'all! It's easy to get angry at somebody calling that racist because there's nothing inherently racist about the words in the statement. But historically and contextually, it's easy enough to break down. They believe white people work hard for what they have and that minorities do nothing but leech off the system. We're still living under the myth of the black welfare queen because so many people bought into that notion. They truly believe their taxes are supporting black people who want nothing more than to have to not to work thanks to government handouts. But they can't say, "I'm sick of supporting those niggers." Hell, even I can't say that while pretending to speak the language they would use if there wouldn't be serious repercussions for using it! So pretend I didn't say it. So instead, they say shit like "I'm idealogically opposed to government handouts." You see the same kind of racism in the defense of gun ownership. White people believe in their right to have guns to protect themselves (you know, from those leeching criminals who won't get a job because free government money makes for such a lucrative and luxurious lifestyle (all y'all racist white people know who I'm talking about, right? Wink, wink!)). But does society really believe everybody has a right to bear arms? Apparently not because white people pretty much never get shot in public for carrying a gun yet black people get shot in public all the time because somebody thought maybe they possibly thought perhaps they had a gun? Or else they just find it's a good enough excuse to say they thought the black person had a gun after shooting them for being disrespectful.

Apparently people's main real gripe about socialized healthcare is that some people would be getting healthcare without paying into the system. They have no problem with paying insane rates to private insurers because the other people their dollars are being used to help are also paying into that system. But God forbid somebody who hasn't paid any taxes because they can't find a job and they can't afford it because they can't afford anything else either should be allowed health care on everybody else's dime. Fucking God Who Doesn't Exist forbid anybody should have empathy towards their fellow human beings and think, "You know what? The measly amount of taxes I actually pay when you really look at my tax return is hardly affected by a national health care system." It's easier to be idealogically opposed to the idea that if I were richer, I definitely wouldn't want to pay more taxes on the upper end of my earnings. So, I suppose, the statement isn't proof that the person who said it is racist. But the fact that Republicans are lining up behind Trump to destroy Obama's legacy in every way they can, no matter how many of their constituents it hurts, seems pretty fucking racist. Donald Trump himself may or may not be racist. He's definitely still butthurt over Obama making fun of him at that White House event which really caused this whole mess in the first place. Thanks, Obama!

It's crazy to think that the main thing these rich old white fucks can't handle is being laughed at. Look at Jeff Sessions trying to convict a woman for laughing at his confirmation hearing. It's no wonder they think The Daily Show and This Week Tonight are equivalent to their state propaganda channel of Fox News.

Laura Silverman just Tweeted this which is what I was trying to say in my horribly digressive and rambling way: "People wonder why they're called racist for the way they vote. There's no other logical motivation for voting against ur economic interests ...than not being able to get past having to share those resources with people you've deemed, unlike yourself, to be unworthy of them. None."

The Review!
Now that I've called a bunch of people who probably don't think they're racist racists, I'm going to angrily read this comic book!

I'm not the only person beginning my composition by alienating a hefty percentage of potential readers.

Constantine has no real thematic reason to take a dump on comic book collectors on the first page but he sort of ties it up at the end by comparing collecting things to keeping a journal of experiences. And he's after a journal so there's the way into the story! Also he's following a flying, glowing trainer across the skies of Paris. You can tell it's Paris because the Eiffel Tower is big as life right there on the first page. You can kind of see a tiny piece of it on the stage-right-hand side of the above scan.

John has tracked down the kid who stole the journal that might have the secret to killing Djinn in it with the help of a sexy woman named Sexy Sexytime. Did that sound like convincing French? I would use her real name but that would involve remembering it or actually looking at the comic book which would take less time than explaining why I called her Sexy Sexytime. I think her name was actually Misabel Lefuvque or something. She offers John some advice as she ditches him.

I'm sure there are some readers who know John is bisexual and don't know what fags are whose heads just exploded.

It seems John wants the journal because it has the location of the Djinn's home magic lamp. Was that racist? That was probably racist. I hope I didn't offend any Djinn-kin out there. If I were having sex with a Djinn-kin and they asked me to rub something vigorously, I'd walk out due to their lack of imagination. I would be all, "I will grant you three wishes if all of those wishes are to swallow a huge load of cum!"

Do you like how in my fantasy, I deliver huge loads of cum? In reality, it would probably be a slight trickle due to all the masturbating I get up to.

My friend Sony Tilva (no relation to the equipment manager for the Phoenix Coyotes, wink, wink!) once told a story about how he hadn't nutted for a long time before masturbating on his back so when he came, he gave himself an inadvertent facial. I hope his hockey buddies don't read this and judge him! Although knowing Tony ... I mean Sony! ... he's probably already told them all that story.

Meanwhile in London, some political intrigue or something is happening. I think some guy insinuates Theresa May is a lizard person and that everybody who voted for Brexit might as well be living in the colonies.

Here's a bit for the nerds and also for the people who are halfway intelligent enough to score reasonably well on Jeopardy.

John and Mercury eventually get an address leading them to the journal. What they don't realize is that Misabel made sure they received that address. So I'm guessing the journal isn't actually there. Unless the French translation of "journal" is "trap."

The Ranking!
No change! This is a monthly and I don't always write detailed commentaries about it, so I might be a little confused by some of the story. And it's not helping that I didn't really write much of anything about the part that I'm a bit confused about! The Djinni at the Tate Club had some guy high up in May's cabinet (or her personal assistant (or the person in charge of telling her what the real powers want done)) is forced to face the truth of his life: the "real power" behind it all is just a guy pretending to be Jesus Christ. So the Djinni has him kill Pseudo Jesus to prove his loyalty to the Djinn. No the Djinn control London! Or something. But they still need to stop Constantine before he finds Abby and completely fucks up their plans. I don't know why they need Abby but I guess The Rot is essential to their plans of world domination.

The New Titans #69 (September 1990)

This is the second half of a story by Barbara and Karl Kesel. That’s right. It was not written by Marv Wolfman. He’ll be back to ruin this comic book next month. But for now, I will just sit in amazement and think about how much better this book was during the two issues not written by Marv Wolfman. The Royal Flush Gang had bad guy motivations which had nothing to do with being one of the Titans’ mothers or fathers. They even had some internal intrigue in their gang as The Gambler posed as The Joker to fuck with their shit. And Danny Chase’s story arc made sense and he wasn’t completely annoying (just slightly annoying). Oh, and the Titans actually stopped some bad guys for once.

I bet Marv Wolfman read this story and screamed, “That’s it! I’m never taking a month off of this book again! Fucking scabs making me look bad! Now I’ve got to bring back Deathstroke the Terminator so that fans instinctively think I wrote a better story than one with the stupid fucking Royal Flush Gang! I wonder if I can get the Kesels blacklisted?!”

The New Titans #68 (July 1990)

This two-part story (continued next issue) wasn’t written by Marv Wolfman so I don’t think it’s in continuity. I mean, obviously it isn’t in continuity anymore since it’s a Preboot story. But I mean even when it was published, nobody thought of it as in continuity! It was a good idea to add the Joker to the Royal Flush Gang though. Even if it’s not really The Joker. That was a spoiler for a twenty-six year old comic book so I think it’s okay to say it without a warning.

It's a fair summation of the JLA at the time. But it's also a delusional view of the Titans at the time. "Real heroes." Who the fuck is paying this jerk?