Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #1 (1991)

Great Mignlola cover. Denny wrote the script. Ten other artists inked and penciled the rest.

I don't know why it took so many people to finish this annual. Probably because it's an annual and everybody working on it had plenty of other regular paying gigs and were cajoled into helping out on this story. Or, and this is way less plausible, Denny O'Neil was all, "I've envisioned the first six pages in Aparo's style. Then nine pages of Giffen's nine panel grids. Then some of Joe Quesada's overwrought craziness! Then, um, just whoever you can get, I guess. But finish with some Aparo! Man, love that guy!"

Batman has journeyed on foot through harsh blizzard conditions to a monastery high in the mountains in Korea (North? South? Denny didn't say!). He doesn't know why he's come, dragging a heavy duffel bag and its unknown contents the entire way. I think Denny picked Jim Aparo for this prologue because Aparo does a really good surprised Batman face.

Batman is surprised that he doesn't know what he's up to.

I'd go as far to say that Jim Aparo is the only artist that has ever drawn that face on Batman. Most artists can't even conceive of a shocked or surprised Batman. But when doing Batman and the Outsiders, Aparo had Batman making this face 80% of the time! "Halo! Put your tits away! Human girls usually wear shirts!" "Metamorpho, stop lighting your farts on fire!" "Black Lightning, you left your wig in the shower again and it scared the batcrap out of me!" "Geoforce, you suck!"

Somehow, Batman fucked up his destiny by choosing violence. The Master, an old man who trained Batman many years ago, says that Batman has embraced violence too eagerly and while he has a gift for it, he warns that it will destroy him. So The Master gives Batman two choices, either embrace peace or — "I'll take the second choice!" yells Batman!

I bet what lies at the heart is a big fucking gun.

Batman is so averse to pacifism that he doesn't even care if total murder and mayhem lie at the heart of a life of violence. What else could it be? Either become Vegan Daddy Hugbucks, or BatPunisher. There is no middle ground!

Batman's challenge awaits on the other side of a mystery door that leads to a world that looks like Keith Giffen drew it and Malcolm Jones III inked it. The Master reminds Batman to take his duffel bag and Batman heads out on his quest.

Batman finds himself in a strange hellscape where a red narration box constantly mocks him. And don't think it's just Batman having intrusive thoughts. Something actually seems to be speaking to him in his mind because it tempts him into leaving his duffel bag behind and he answers it by speaking aloud. Okay, maybe — just maybe — they're intrusive thoughts and he's just arguing with the part of him that really wants to dump whatever the fuck he's been carrying through the mountains. If the end credits didn't specify that Dennis O'Neil was the only person to script this story, I'd really believe that Keith Giffen wrote the dialogue for this part. Maybe he did. Scripting is totally different from dialogue and Keith Giffen knows that better than anybody after working with J.M. DeMatteis for so many years.

If this were Giffen dialogue, it would be a bit snappier. And you'd have to read it four times to figure out what they were talking about.

Batman encounters several devils who try to take the duffel bag from him but he beats the shit out of each one that tries and never gives up his burden. Is this a retelling of The Last Temptation of Christ? Batman never gives in but then the only thing he's been tempted with so far is giving up his heavy bag. If only David Finch or Tony S. Daniels were drawing one of these sections, Batman would be tempted by several women exiting showers and wearing only towels. He'd definitely fail that temptation! I mean, I'd definitely fail that temptation!

Batman discovers another door. On the other side is a world conceived of by Joe Quesada and Joe Rubinstein. He finds he has left Hell and found himself in a medieval castle. So last challenge was by Nikos Kazantzakis; is this challenge by, um, whomever wrote Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! I didn't think that sentence through to the end or I would have formatted it in a way that didn't depend on my (or anybody) knowing the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Anyway, it looks like maybe Batman is going to get to fuck a woman and then get fucked by a knight! Two times lucky!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! It's going to happen! Man, if she turns into a vampire and sics a massive lizard on Batman instead of fucking him, I'm going to be really disappointed.

Batman drinks from the goblet and gags because it's, um, blood. Goddammit!

How do I always forget I'm reading comic books and not pornography?

The vampire explains to Batman that he's free to go if he can get past her giant lizard. She also gives him a hint as to how to kill it. In the previous landscape, the final demon he confronted begged Batman to kill it before it escaped to torment mankind above. But Batman chose not to kill it and it froze in place. Again, Batman chooses not to kill. He tricks the dragon with the old spear-holding-open-the-mouth trick, gets his duffel bag, and escapes. Once again, without killing.

I guess The Master know Batman wouldn't choose pacifism. But he apparently wants to see if Batman can continue to choose not to kill in various violent scenarios, each one more dangerous than the last. Perhaps The Master was worried that anybody who commits as much violence on other humans as Batman does would surely, one day, succumb to actually killing his rivals. So he's brought him halfway across the world to test Batman's will and patience.

I hope Jason Todd's corpse is in the duffel bag!

Batman hikes through the next portal into a challenge drawn by Tom Lyle and inked by Ty Templeton. This one seems to be based on The Day the Earth Stood Still. Do you think Batman will choose murder in this scenario when he can't think of the word that follows Klaatu and Barada?

Oh, sorry. It's based on Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.

Like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (my knowledge based on Wikipedia and not my stupid memory which I hate even though it's better than Pickle Boy's memory (my writing assistant who stopped remembering things about 26 years ago (based on trying to have discussions with him on House of Leaves immediately after we'd read it and most of his half of the discussion being, "I don't remember that part! I need to re-read it!"))), Batman defeats the alien by using sound. But first he has to call a National Guardsmen fat and shove him to the ground. He doesn't throw a sandwich at him but now, in my mind and stupid memory, he always will have thrown a sandwich at him when I think about this story.

The alien tells Batman that he fucked up by crashing his flying saucer into the Capitol Building and to recover from his humiliation, he needs to kill a human in one-on-one combat. Batman doesn't want to kill him so instead he tells the alien he can just find asylum in America because in 1992, America still cared about helping people. Or maybe it didn't. But Batman did! By not killing the alien even when the alien was practically begging for it so that he wouldn't be the laughingstock of his people, Batman has passed yet another test in controlling his violent nature.

Do you think Batman failed his violent nature test in The Poison Tomorrow when he, arguably, caused the truck to crash off of a bridge and almost certainly kill the two men in the cab? Or was that just part of proving that Batman walks the walk and doesn't just talk the talk because earlier he questioned Green Arrow's decision to save one person over thousands. Batman allowed those two men to die to save thousands of babies because he's a true hero and also it totally wasn't his fault! Those idiots who smashed themselves to smithereens at the bottom of the chasm were responsible for their own lives!

"See you later, fatso!"

Just so you know, I don't approve of Batman fat shaming that soldier even if Batman only did it to save his life. The soldier wanted to fight the alien himself and Batman decided to choose a worse form of violence than actual violence: patting a slightly overweight guy on the stomach and hinting at how fat he's getting. Is Batman my uncle?!

Batman's next challenge takes place in Dan Spiegle's steamy dark version of Gotham. This test will be easy! Batman's spent his whole life not killing people in Gotham!

It might not actually be Gotham though because it's 1920s Chicago and Batman's now in The Untouchables. To pass this test, Batman will have to ignore the advice of Sean Connery! And who can ignore the advice of Sean Connery?! Oh, um, you know what? I hope everybody ignores the advice of Sean Connery because isn't he the guy who said, "You're wife doesn't clean the dishes, you slap her. She yells back at you, you put her in the morgue." Or something like that. I'm not mad at my memory this time because why would I need to remember a terrible quote about domestic violence?!

Batman walks out of the misty night and stumbles on some mobsters bootlegging. They immediately begin firing bullets out of their tommy guns at an alarming rate. You can tell because while most guns go "POW!" or "BANG!", tommy guns go "BRRRAT!" Even Batman finds it terrifying!

How come fans got so angry at Kevin Smith when he made it canon that Batman pissed himself when Denny O'Neil made it canon that Batman shit himself? "BRRRAT!"

The FBI shows up and in the confusion, the Mobsters steal Batman's duffel bag. Batman's desperate to get it back because it probably contains a much needed change of underwear. As well as Jason Todd's corpse, of course.

Batman steals one of the FBI Agent's cars and gives chase to the escaping mobsters. They lead him on a chase directly to the location where they're delivering the illegal hooch. I think in the '20s, if you got the items you were smuggling to your home base, the cops had to stop pursuing you, snap their fingers in disappointment, and say, "Shucks! We'll get 'em next time!" Too bad Batman isn't from the '20s! He crashes his car into the bar and does his chronologically first crashing through the skylight.

Excuse me. I do not think that's true, Batman!

I'm pretty sure the modern equivalent of a speakeasy is just a fucking bar!

See in that panel where Batman notices the trucks are unloaded? Those trucks arrived in the middle of a high-speed chase with loads of gunfire! That's why I made up the thing where I equated playing tag or hide-n-seek to smuggling liquor. Why else would they be so confident to stop running and shooting and casually get out of the truck and unload the booze?

Once again, Batman doesn't kill anybody. He even goes so far in the other direction that The Master must be stroking his beard and raising his eyebrows and thinking, "I've never seen anybody like him!" Because a fire breaks out as Batman gets his duffel bag back and instead of leaving an unconscious gangster to roast, he tries to save him. It doesn't work because the floor collapses sending them into an underground river and the gangster drowns but, you know, in a test like this, it's mostly about Batman's intentions and less about how successful he is.

Look, he did everything he could. Now it's up to the unconscious man to save himself from drowning.

Falling in a river and resurfacing acts exactly like walking through a door so now Batman's in the world of James Blackburn and Michael Golden. I've never heard of either of those artists! I've heard of John Blackburn but not...I mean, no, wait. I've never heard of him either! Not knowing Michael Golden is just ignorance on my part. I've seen, at the very least, his Man-bat profile in Who's Who (the binder version)!

Is that the right-way round?

Batman finds himself in a snowy landscape. He decides, after so many tests, the best thing to do is take a nap in the snow. Sure, he's also soaking wet from the plunge in the river. But he built a fire! And his suit probably has electric blanket technology sewn into it.

Before he can freeze to death in his sleep, Batman's awakened by the butt of a rifle in his back and being called a pig in German.

Has anybody actually shit the same pair of trousers twice?

Uh-oh. This is Batman's real test! It's like that time Mulder found himself on a ghost ship full of ghost Nazis and he wanted nothing more than to kill every single one of them because they were the perfect symbol for everything he stood against. Meanwhile Scully was all, "There's no such thing as a ghost! Where is everybody? How come I don't get to participate in this story?!" What I'm trying to say is if there's something that Batman feels he can reasonably kill without feeling like he's actually killed anything, it's an undead Nazi. But The Master might not agree with that technicality!

Batman, having dealt with zombies probably at least forty or fifty times in his career, realizes fleeing is his best option. Besides, this test isn't "Stop undead fascism". This test is "Can you live by violence without letting it corrupt you into killing your enemies"? Up until now, Batman's had an easy time of it. Does he kill a demon begging for it? No, you never help a demon! Does he kill a dragon? No way! He's just doing his dragon thing being a dragon! Do you kill a pathetic alien loser? Why waste your time? Do you simply let a mobster burn to death even though none of it is really your fault? No but you probably shouldn't have let him drown either! So The Master is all, "I need to make this test hard! What or who can I throw in front of Batman to really tempt him into murder?!"

Uh-oh. Now I want him to fail! I don't want to think about what it says about Batman if he passes after this test!

Dennis O'Neil has written the only story that matters! How far will Batman go to preserve his rule about not killing somebody? How much evil will he allow to remain in the world just so he can look Superman in the eye and say, "Well, I've never killed anybody" (and then mutter, "Technically.")? Because as we saw in The Poison Tomorrow, Batman has the capacity to think about "If somebody raises some thing or person or ideal above everything else (Green Arrow needing to save Dinah (or Batman needing to never have killed!)), then how many will die (thousands of babies (or, in Batman's case, everybody The Joker murders after every time Batman doesn't kill him))?" Surely Batman isn't responsible for every murder The Joker commits when Batman catches him but doesn't kill him. Because Batman is just following Jesus's words and ideals about redemption. And also Gandalf's!

Batman decides his only way to escape this army of undead Nazi's is to use Hitler as a hostage. As he chases the tank with Hitler in it, it crashes backwards through an old bridge. He has his chance! Does he save Hitler? Or does he let him fall?

So Hitler was a metaphor for an even worse evil? The Joker?! That's backwards, right?

Batman realizes that the voice that's been mocking him all along was The Joker. And the head wound he kept receiving in every "fantasy" was an actual head wound he received from The Joker throwing a rock at his head. Yes, the burden he was pulling along all this time, the burden the voice kept trying to get him to leave, was The Joker. Batman was hallucinating from a fever brought on by the cold and the head wound.

Batman's grand philosophical response to this debate is "Shut up." Everybody online could learn a thing or two from Batman.

At one point, The Joker learns that Batman hallucinated that The Joker was Adolf Hitler and The Joker is all, "I'm flattered!" Which is the appropriate response by The Joker because having The Joker be all anti-Nazi and constantly trying to prove it with that bit where he's insulted by The Red Skull's Nazi affectations is stupid, useless bullshit. He's fucking crazy. He's a murderous madman. Proving that even he hates Nazis doesn't mean shit. "Oh, wow! Even The Joker hates Nazis! Well, let's applaud The Joker for having one rational belief although none of his beliefs are rational so why are you relying on this one being so?!" This, for me, is The Joker's canon response to Nazism and Adolf Hitler! He's pleased as punch to be anywhere in Hitler's league! That says more about how shit Hitler and the Nazis are than having The Joker somehow defend hating them!

Apparently Batman and The Joker were in a plane crash and Batman is dragging The Joker to an army medical station. On the final page, Batman answers the question as to why he won't kill The Joker and it's all the standard bullshit that I can't buy into. "Oh, I'd be no better than you!" "Oh, I believe all life is sacred even the life of a person who keeps taking lives over and over again and promises to keep doing it." "Oh, I just don't want to give you the satisfaction of seeing me fail my test." Maybe those answers are satisfying to some people on some level. But I still think the only real reason to keep somebody like The Joker alive is practically religious. It's utterly Christian. And it's the thing I said earlier about Christ's words on redemption. But, as I also mentioned, it's more because of what I learned from Gandalf. We don't have the right to bring back those who have died even if they deserve to be alive, why do we think we have the right to take the life of those we think should be dead? Of course, Gandalf's early words to Frodo are given the strength of an author writing like 900 more pages to prove Gandalf right when Gollum, who everybody wanted to kill, accidentally saves the world when Frodo loses the strength to do so. I guess real life isn't that cleanly written and perhaps there are some people who a real life Batman should kill. Or maybe we should develop techniques to convince evil people to kill themselves! That shouldn't be too hard, right? Maybe some Christian Rock band can learn how to backwards mask some hypnotic shit like that!

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #1 Rating: A-. I know I don't rate annuals. But guess what? I'm tired of ending every annual explaining to readers why I didn't rate the stupid fucking annual! And since my ratings on every other comic book don't actually mean shit (seriously. Try to make sense of them! It'll drive you mad!), why not just rate these fuckers too? This issue might have gotten an A+ if that last page where Batman explains himself to The Joker was left out. He should have just left his response as "Shut up." This is the problem with Batman and the Internet! People always feel they need to explain their positions to other people who don't actually give a shit about your position or your explanation. They're just the fucking Joker trying to rile up your shit. Even "Shut up" is too much. You do know just about every site (except the Nazi site now, I guess?) has a well-executed Block function! Use it, guys! Use it for everything! Man, I block people who haven't even engaged with me who just slightly irritate me! Sometimes I'm just in a mood and I don't want to see a screenshot on Bluesky from Twitter and I'll be, "Get the fuck out of here, BronyFucker2003!" And that'll be after really enjoying some of BronyFucker2003's anthropomorphic animal sex sketches!

The Batman Adventures #1 (October 1992)

No, I do not own Issue #12.

I guess it's time to read a cartoon? What was I in 1992? A child?! No, I was a grown-ass man by then, according to scientific biological consensus with how human beings age if not by the measure of my maturity or income or quantity of sex I'd had. I don't remember being particularly excited about Batman: The Animated Series, or maybe I wanted to be but it just didn't happen. Because I do remember, after all this time, that the first episode featured Man-Bat. I probably tuned in excitedly for the first episode and then couldn't be bothered to remember to watch the second episode because I was having so much sex that day. By the time the 3rd or 4th episode would have been airing, I would have been turning 21 and riding a mechanical bull because, at the age of 12 or so, my friend Bob Henline and I made a pact to ride the mechanical bull at the Saddle Rack when we turned 21 (he turned 21 two days before the first episode of Batman: The Animated Series aired). And that we did! On a side note, the lady who was allowing me to touch her taint while I came in my pants was there that night. She gave me a Lobo t-shirt for my 21st birthday. I was so cool! Drinking! Riding mechanical bulls! Sort of having sex! Getting a Lobo t-shirt! Purchasing and reading The Batman Adventures! What a life I once led!

Now my life is remembering my life. Which is pretty good too because I don't get exhausted from having lived it and I can sit in the shade with an iced tea and do absolutely fuck all.

The first episode of this comic book cartoon begins with The Penguin playing the part of Pelafina while his henchmen play the part of Johnny Truant and The Penguin is all, "Get thee to an OED!"

I guess I could have also made an Infinite Jest Hal Incandenza memorizing the dictionary reference.

Do you think Danielewski and Foster both inserted these "the main character knows the dictionary backwards and forwards" moments in their books because they themselves couldn't help but use all the great big words they spent their entire childhoods obsessing over learning so they could seem better than all of us plebes who spent our time outside the house having fun? But also, there's the ambiguous narrative of both texts as to who's really writing and/or directing everything? The readers all know it's ultimately the author. But the author, being (typically) outside of the narrative, must be left out of the equation. So do the characters use words they shouldn't know in Infinite Jest because James Orin Incandenza has been directing their lives from the after life, a ghost putting his thoughts into people's heads, directing his final version of Infinite Jest (obviously a massive retelling of the story since the first five (or was it six?) Infinite Jests were of the PGOAT apologizing to her baby for birthing it into this world of pain, the baby being played by the audience via camera tricks and perspective, an audience who were technologically reduced to that of the infant character by holographic lenses invented by James?

What I'm trying to say is that everything you need to know to understand Infinite Jest resides in the footnote that lists James Orin Incandenza's filmography. And everything you need to know about House of Leaves resides in Blair Witch II: The Book of Shadows. Okay, maybe that's not right. But you will find loads of titties in that so it's worth a viewing.

The Penguin, angered at being called an idiot, very nearly shoves his umbrella up the nose and into the brain of the guy who insulted him. But at the last minute, everybody remembers this is a comic book based on a cartoon and exposed brains shouldn't be a part of it. So somebody interrupts The Penguin before he can stab this guy's temporal lobe. Apparently somebody has just delivered a massive interactive television! The Penguin switches it on and discovers he's got a new friend.

It's The Joker, right? Or maybe Simon Stagg?

I think the guy on the television needs to bone up on the dictionary himself if he thinks "persecute" is an intransitive verb. I mean, I guess it could be. I guess I could run around exclaiming, "I persecute! I persecute!" But most people are going to be all, "Oh yeah? Who? Just, like, everybody and everything? What are you talking about, you dumb piece of shit?"

If I were to receive a surprise interactive television and a shadowy figure appeared on the screen and told me to do crimes with it, the first thing I'd ask is, "Are you a cop?" Because a television has to tell you if it's a cop or else it's entrapment. Even if that were legally true and not just a legal urban legend, we all know cops lie so that isn't what I'd do. The first thing I'd do is say, "Man, don't you hate cops? They're so fucking stupid. You know, I heard to become a cop, you have to eat dog shit every day in training. And most cops love doing it! You've totally heard that and agree, right?" But The Penguin doesn't have to do that because on of The Joker's henchmen switches the light on and reveals that it's The Joker even though his hairstyle in the dark already revealed it was The Joker. Or Simon Stagg. But it wasn't Stagg so, you know, The Joker.

Oh, I guess you can blow out people's brains in a comic book based on a cartoon. It just has to be just off-screen.

Where did The Joker get the technology for Interactive Television in 1992? Did he invent it? If so, why not give up a life of crime and get rich selling Joker Interactive Televisions? Or, because we know The Joker is insane and loves playing with Batman, just use the profits to poison more of Gotham's water supply more often? Also, why does The Joker need The Penguin to steal something for him? Does The Joker currently have a bad case of diarrhea so he needs to stay close to his toilet? And why would The Penguin willingly team-up with the most insane person in Gotham? The Penguin is a nearly legitimate business man! He does crime for power and money not for obsessive or insane reasons like most of Batman's gallery of arch-villains.

The Penguin successfully pulls off The Joker's crime later that evening. Batman, arriving to the scene of the crime too late, still smashes through a window causing more damage than The Penguin and his goons. Batman investigates by asking the tied-up guard who committed the crime but the guard didn't see anything. Batman immediately ends the investigation because looking for other clues is fucking boring. He swings away on his Bat-Rope leaving the guard to think, "When did this window get smashed?"

Apparently The Penguin's attempts to sound better educated by learning new words daily comes on the heels of his dramatic change of persona in the public eye. He has, of late, been presenting himself as an actual, honest-to-God legitimate business person, giving to charity and appearing on television talk shows to redeem his reputation. He smokes while on television which makes me see him as a villain but then I remember this was published in 1992 and smoking had yet to be completely banned everywhere except casinos. Can people still smoke in casinos? I don't know because I haven't been in one in many, many years. I think the last time I visited Las Vegas was when that stripper offered to stab me in the face for $20 and I was all, "I'm in love!"

But Batman isn't falling for that shit! Not because he has evidence to the contrary but because he's a paranoid motherfucker who doesn't believe anybody can really change.

Okay, it's circumstantial, but I suppose that's evidence. You've bested my best argument, Bruce!

Alfred pouts Bruce some tea but Bruce doesn't drink tea. The caffeine really makes him edgy, especially when he's fully hopped up on amphetamines.

Bruce does a little research and realizes that The Penguin has been robbing banks owned by Gotham philanthropists which has bankrupted the philanthropists and allowed The Penguin to take over as the most charitable person in Gotham. Ha ha ha! Oh, cartoon economics! Thinking billionaires could be bankrupted by a few casual bank robberies! Have they never heard of the FDIC in Cartoon Gotham? Hell, forget any kind of federal insurance protecting wealthy people and their financial institutions! We've already seen that even if the insurance industries go broke betting on bad investments, the federal government will bend over backwards to make sure all the billionaires retain enough money to keep getting their dicks sucked by other financial institutions, investors, and all the fucking morons who still invest in the stock market. I don't mean they're fucking morons because the stock market isn't eventually lucrative for regular people who keep their money in it over a long period of time. I'm saying they're fucking morons for participating in a scheme that just makes the ultra-wealthy even more wealthy. Get your fucking money out of that shit! Let it die! Stop putting new money into their rigged system!

What was I talking about? Oh yeah! The Penguin has become the darling of Gotham high society! Although can he really be anything more than a passing fancy, being that he's fat, deformed, and ugly? That statement wasn't meant to offend fat, deformed, and ugly people! It was meant to offend high society by pointing out how fucking shallow they are! I would never do anything to hurt my fellow fats, deformeds, and uglies! Solidarity!

Bruce attends the Policemen's Charity Banquet. Oh, you modern kids might not know what means! Police used to have to beg for extra money to commit their illegal acts on the citizens they purport to protect. Obviously they don't need to engage in that kind of grift anymore because politicians from every party just love it when they give cops enough money to wage war on the poors. They know the poors are getting poorer and angrier thanks to their inability to give a fucking damn so they have to keep increasing the amount of money to police to keep the poors in check. Anyway, these Policemen balls usually honor the biggest donors.

Was allowing The Penguin to alternately go by "Oswald Cobblepot" for public appearances deemed too confusing for younger readers?

After The Penguin receives an award for being so generous, Commissioner Gordon rips it from his hands to hand over to the real recipient of the award: Bruce Wayne! Bruce managed to toss two million dollars at the Gotham Police just to piss of The Penguin. But now Batman can't say he hasn't killed anybody with a gun because that two million dollars is going to go toward killing a lot of poors. Also maybe Batman doesn't count the people Bruce Wayne gets killed when Batman declares he doesn't kill. Oh yeah, that totally tracks.

That ends the first two acts of the story and we still haven't found out what part The Joker's been playing in all of this. Maybe Kelley Puckett just forgot all about The Joker's appearance!

The last act is just The Penguin trying to rob and bankrupt Wayne Tower just like Batman figured. Piss off The Penguin and he'd go for Bruce next. Batman's waiting for them at Wayne Industries, takes all the henchmen out one-by-one, and finally confronts The Penguin. The Penguin, being dumb and low class and barely knowing any words from the dictionary, confesses thinking that Batman can't have him arrested just on the circumstantial evidence of having broken into Wayne Industries' vaults and being caught red-handed. Obviously the only way somebody could be arrested for robbery is if somebody videotaped it!

D'oh! I mean, "W'augh!"

The final panel shows The Joker happy about having got some scroll from The Penguin that's probably some blueprints of an important building or old Court of Owls' porn. But that's a story for another episode!

The Batman Adventures #1 Rating: B. Some panels from next month's comic appear after the letters page and it features Catwoman which reminds me that I've still got a Batman: The Animated Series Catwoman figure somewhere. I guess I was into the show somewhat. Not enough to really remember it but enough to have comics and action figures from it. Also I did just turn 21 around this time so maybe I got black-out drunk way more often than I realized! Maybe I just lost some memories when I was thrown from the mechanical bull? Also, this seems to be the only issue of this series that I own. Why couldn't stupid me have just stuck with the series for a full year?! I could be so rich if I'd owned Harley Quinn's first comic book appearance! If I had access to a time machine right now, I'd waste it because the way I'm feeling, I'd go back to 21 year old me and just kick him in the fucking balls.

Elongated Man: Europe '92 #4 (April 1992)

Sonar trapped in Ralph's bunghole.

So far I've enjoyed this series but I'm also sort of glad it's over. I don't imagine Elongated Man could make four issues interesting without Sue Dibny, and I don't think Sue can carry much more than four. She's adorable and all but she's still married to the nose twitcher. And Sonar?! Please. Why'd I even mention him? Never more than an F-tier Green Lantern foe, he's only elevated in this series because his cohorts are all ridiculous foods from various European countries. Sadly, no villain based on a Communion Wafer attacks any of the conferences.

Last issue ended with Ralph being stalked by the Wurstwaffe, a mob of German supervillains that dress like sausages. This issue begins with them beating him senseless with a massive German penis.

I just wanted to show the German guy's cock. Dibny's head is way too far out of frame.

These German chodes reveling in violence remind me of some certain half a country of people but I just can't put my non-American-Nazi finger on it.

Each member of the Wurstwaffe's personality is based on the type of sausage they are. Bloodwurst makes people bleed by killing them. Weisswurst is a white guy who is shocked at the violence of the others for some reason. Leberwurst is, um, alive? Like a "liver," a person who lives? No? Knockwurst knocks people's heads together. Bratwurst whines. I think that's all the types of sausage there are. I suppose I just don't get some of the German-to-English punning, or I'm missing some literary trope because why is Liverwurst such a mother figure to the group? I get why they all hate him because Leberwurst sounds gross. But why does he always do everything for everybody? Oh! Is that because the liver is the workhorse of all the organs? But then why is Weisswurst such a Goddamn pussy? Does "white" imply "innocent and naïve" here?

After defeating the Wurstwaffe, Ralph learns who's behind the attacks on the European ambassadors.

You'll wait until Sue saves the day?

Sonar reveals to Sue how he tricked the Justice League into believing he was imprisoned by sending over a drunk Sonar look-a-like with substandard weapons. But his plan worked so well that Bito was left insulted by their belief that Sonar was such an incompetent asshole. That just expresses the importance of branding. You don't name yourself "Sonar" while using sonic weapons and think you're going to be the next villain to stymie every hero in the DC Universe during a big summer Annual event. At best, Sonar is just Count Vertigo with a worse name; at worst, he's just a toddler making a racket with his noisy toys.

Sue tries to piss him off by sarcastically asking him if he keeps the people of his country away from outsiders so nobody could see how happy they are.

Ouch, Bito. Not now, man.

Don't worry if that caption doesn't make sense to you. You just read this post divorced from the context of the day it was written.

Bito explains that he keeps the population of Modora away from technology so that things don't ride mankind and whatnot. He also points out that nobody in Europe believes in a superior race. Except for Bito. He still believes because he believes he is superior. Being that he's gone off on this Nazi tangent, Sue decides to do the right thing.

Saving the world one punch at a time.

Sue's act of defiance lights a fire under the people of Modora who begin a secret campaign to revolt. They fear they can't count on outside help since Modora is separated from the rest of Europe by a large mountain range and Archduke Bito's sonar technology blocks all forms of communication from entering or leaving the country. Little do they know, a hero has just parachuted into their country using his body as a parachute after stealing airfare from an airline flying between Berlin and Athens. These heroes really just do whatever they want, don't they?

I'm not against the heroes doing whatever they want! I trust they'll use their outrageous powers for the common good because of the pretext that I'm reading about their exploits in a comic book from 1992 when comic books still pretty much cared about heroes being heroic. But if Elongated Man were real, I wouldn't trust the fuck out of him. Although if Elongated Man were real then Sue Dibny would be too and, well, that's pretty hot.

The Modorans shoot Ralph out of the sky and he's knocked silly by the fall. But not killed! I knew he was invulnerable. I wonder if being invulnerable also means you can't get Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy? Imagine how punch drunk Ralph would be, well on his way to more serious brain issues. He's already been concussed about ten times in just the last few days alone.

Ralph uses a herd of sheep on the ground to help him escape the Modoran military when they come looking for him.

This is a clever way to make a joke about the sheepherder fucking his sheep because the Comics Code Authority can't refute that this kid just names his sheep after their wool styles.

This entire series has been way more horny than it has any right to be. I suppose the title Elongated Man just sets the tone for loads and loads of sex jokes. Plus his wife is super horny.

The people of Modora nurse Ralph back to health in the few minutes they're given before the army breaks down the door where they're keeping Ralph. Ralph escapes out the chimney which must never be used because he doesn't wind up looking like a frat guy on Halloween who doesn't give a shit about social norms or historic context and believes speech is free for everybody except people who might criticize his ignorant choice of costume.

Ralph heads to Bito's castle to save Sue but she's already saved herself. So instead, he gets into a fist fight with Bito who, obviously, explains his entire plan. It's not that complicated. He just loved getting rich selling weapons to various European countries and knew he'd sell way less weapons of war with a united Europe. Did he not think, "Maybe I can sell other shit? Like Modoran Beats Headphones? Or Surround Sound Stereo set-ups? Why does everything have to be about war and fighting? Why are so many people so fucking angry all of the time?

This isn't about me! I'm not really angry all the time anyway! I'm just being hyperbolic for the LOLs! Stop fucking critiquing me! I critique you!

Nobody even waffles. They fucking hate Sonar, don't they?

Once the people revolt, Bito stops fighting. He refuses to raise a weapon against his people, seeing them as innocent waifs corrupted by the outside world. He flees to defeat the world later in an arc over in Justice League Europe later. For now, Sue and Ralph simply finish their vacation in the quaint country of Modora while completely forgetting about the European Union because boring.

Elongated Man: Europe '92 #4 Rating: A. Sue saves the day, just like we all knew Sue would. It's a trope as old as The Bible where the main hero/detective must win the day but they're kind of incompetent so their right hand man/woman/cat/dog does all the work to make sure that the villain/Son of God is apprehended and brought to justice. But the brains behind the mystery solving is seldom as sexy and horny and flirtatious as the one in this story. Sue Dibny just steals this entire narrative. That's probably why Sue and Ralph are such an iconic couple in the DC Universe. Because alone, Ralph Dibny is annoying. But with Sue at his side, they become a comedy pair and an example of a couple who really care about each other (even if one of them is fucking disgusting. How does Sue get it up after seeing what Ralph can do with that neck? I suppose it's because she also gets to see what Ralph does with his penis and ass sphincter). Overall, good book. Good story. Great fucking art. And only whatever children Gerard Jones victimized while writing this were hurt! Hmm, that's not actually a good trade-off, is it? Forget I even mentioned Gerard Jones' criminal hobbyhorse which he was ultimately convicted of so I can mention it without fear of legal action! Hopefully after Mosaic, I won't have much more of Gerard Jones's work to read.

Elongated Man: Europe '92 #3 (March 1992)

From Copperhead's Who's Who entry: "Weaknesses: nausea inducing carnival rides."

If Elongated Man accidentally kills Copperhead this issue, the Italian courts will not find him guilty because his defense is "My wife is off fucking an Archduke." In Italy, if your spouse fucks a royal from any country, you're allowed one free murder (two if they're small). The Flash, on the other hand, isn't allowed any free murders so punching a guy in the face while running at superspeed is a huge risk.

Wait, Ralph. Why? Does Wally West hate Italians?!

I would think, statistically, The Flash would be the guy you'd most expect to bump into anywhere in the world. Being he's practically the only one who can be anywhere at anytime for any reason and not because he's such a huge fan of traveling abroad and learning about other cultures. Does The Flash need a passport or am I just asking ridiculous questions now? Obviously, he's a masked vigilante! Certain laws can never apply to you if nobody knows who you really are. Like, um, most of them, I guess! Shit. Are superheroes the baddies?

I didn't know Wally West was gay.

I don't think Wally is gay because he'd rather be at somebody else's wedding. Not even gay people probably love that. I think he's gay because he has such a close relationship with his mother that he wants to help her get in her dress! Weird. Maybe I shouldn't have said gay; maybe what I meant was incestuous.

Wally informs Ralph that he's here in Italy because Sue called him. Sue must have seen some news footage of Trampolina with Ralph in the background sticking both of his eyeballs out about five feet and screaming, "Ayoooogah!", while clapping his hands which he stretched to look like seal fins.

Things I have learned from this mini-series: Wally West is from Nebraska. Ralph Dibny is from Nebraska. Sue Dibny's private parts are constantly steaming hot and throbbing.

Who would have ever thought I'd be nostalgic for a time when Europe was trying to form a peaceful coalition of countries working together instead of everybody being right wing fucking bastards who just want to split and divide and act like assholes.

I was probably paying so little attention to European politics in 1992 that I barely understood what was going on in this comic book. In winter of 1992, I was probably most concerned with how to ditch the woman who took my virginity because I wanted to sit in my basement and play Apple IIe games and she wanted to, you know, do stuff. And I don't just mean sex stuff! I mean like go out to eat. Or go to the boardwalk. Or hang out with friends! She was so needy with all of her normal person, mundane desires!

I can't believe she wanted to fuck me! Such a loser! I mean me, not her!

Oh wait. I got the dates wrong. That was 1991 when I was trying to ditch her! In '92, I was trying to ditch the woman who began fucking me while I was sleeping! Although she was pretty easy to ditch because she knew what she had done!

I was just re-watching Peep Show recently and had forgotten that Mark had the same thing happen to him! But he felt a bit weirder about it because he was dreaming about his mother when he woke up to being fucked. I don't remember what I was dreaming. Probably something about me being at a party and shoving my dick in the oysters.

Ralph questions Calamari who reveals that somebody calling themselves the "Friend of Eurocrime" sent out some messages about how Europe will be harder to do crimes in if the Union happens. So all the criminals who are as dumb as the average conservative American who fell for that shit and began attacking the conferences and ambassadors to get them to stop. But Calamari decides to quit because he didn't realize he'd have to battle The Flash!

Meanwhile in Modora, Sue makes an excuse so she doesn't have to get to know Bito any better over wine and a nice cozy fire. It seems he's not as charming as he thought he was. So now he just has to eavesdrop on her all night. What a creep.

Wally West gives Ralph some last minute advice before running back to Nebraska to catch his mother's wedding.

The Pied Piper knows what's up. I'm surprised Wally listened to him.

Ralph already suspected the American ambassador because he's a huge chud. But he was so eager to blame everything on the guy Sue is hot for that he didn't trust his feelings. Sure, we all know his jealous feelings are the feelings pointing toward the correct leader of these assassination attempts. But it wouldn't be a mystery without a number of suspects! And, what do I know? Maybe it is the American chud! I've never been good at solving mysteries even though I read loads of Alfred Hitchcock books and magazines as a kid!

Sue's beginning to long for Ralph to be by her side as the shine begins wearing off of Bito's archdukiness and his good manners and his charming personality and his deep, deep pockets. But it doesn't last long before she's hopped up and ready to hop some other man.

Oooh! Stanford! A fancy lad!

I know Sue is just being friendly. I'm not one of those guys who thinks just because a woman is nice to me it means she's interested. Hell, a woman can practically put her hand down the front of the pants and I wouldn't think she's interested! I mean, I'd figure it out pretty quickly in that case. But mostly I'm pretty fucking blind to it.

Sue fishes about for some information about Modora from this young engineer working at the Institute of Loud Sounds. But he quickly realizes he's going to get himself in trouble, what with all of the technology in the place being built around sound probably meaning everything has a microphone in it. Which it does. He takes off before he reveals something that might make Sonar disappear him.

"Away" is bolded because Sue usually seduces them.

Seduce is a synonym for fuck a person's brains out. I figured over half of America are illiterate dullards so I should explain the easy (although less easy than other) words.

Bito learns that all of the shitty European super villains are giving up on the plan because they're afraid to battle Elongated Man. Did I say they were shitty? I meant super duper shitty. Imagine being afraid of Elongated Man?! What the fuck? This must be Gerard Jones' way of taking the piss out of Europe. All they can muster are stereotypical villains like Lutefisk from Denmark and Toad-in-the-Hole from Britain and L'Escargot from France and Calamari from Italy. The only villains willing to keep on going are the German villains. They're probably going to be based on Sausages and Genocide.

The next conference is in Berlin so we'll find out soon enough!

Yeah, yeah. I know I kept saying the first conference was in Berlin back in Issue #1. But I was being purposefully stupid! Duh! I'm an American! I didn't recognize the Eifel Tower and the French language and the long breads!

Ralph continues to investigate at the Berlin conference but he really mostly just spends time with his head interviewing Trampolina and his lower half probably in a bathroom somewhere tugging one out.

That's it. I'm now a member of the Pink Party.

Ralph drags himself away from Trampolina when he sees the French Ambassador arguing with the German Ambassador, mostly because the American Ambassador was pushing their buttons. The English Ambassador whines about the entire party and marches off to find some cucumber sandwiches. That's when the Sausage Brothers, um, attack?

Whatever is happening here just caused me to make currywurst in my pants.

It's understandable that one of the Sausage Brothers has a gigantic uncircumcised boner. Trampolina's flippin' hot.

It's weird to describe a penis as "an uncircumcised penis," right? That's just a fucking penis. I should only point out if it's been circumcised. Saying "uncircumcised" is like using a double negative.

The German gang of sausage men call themselves the Wurstwaffe. They manage to subdue all of the Ambassadors and then begin sneaking up on Ralph as he contemplates the mystery of the mysterious assassins. Meanwhile in Modora, Sue has caused a bit of trouble by investigating too much and she's being arrested by the Modoran army.

Yes, "arrested" just meant "arrested" and not "consensually fucked by." Sue's not just a sex object for your prurient thoughts! Get your head out of the gutter! Sue's an intelligent woman with a great personality and, in a few more years, footprints in her brain! So stop being so crass!

Elongated Man: Europe '92 #3 Rating: A. Why is this stupid comic book so entertaining? I think because it's so stupid! It's just fun and I'm always saying after I say a lot of nonsense and vulgar words, "Comic books should be fun!" You might not remember me saying that recently but I'm pretty sure I said something like that back when I was reading The New 52's Demon Knights or All Star Western! Oh, and Gotham Academy! And Batgirl when she was living in that gentrified hipster part of Gotham! Fun comics are so much fun!

Elongated Man: Europe '92 #2 (February 1992)

If I ever see Warp out of his costume, I'm going to have nightmares about it until I die.

Characters whose costumes make their necks look impossible terrify me. Like Black Manta. And I guess Warp as seen here although Warp could be using his warp technology to make his face appear at the other end of that Dune Sandworm collar he's wearing. This being terrified of neck dysmorphia stems from being a small child flipping through a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and seeing that one Tenniel illustration depicting Alice after she's eaten a bit of the "Eat Me" cake.

I used to flip quickly through the book to get a glimpse of this image and scare the shit out of myself. On purpose.

Maybe this is why I can't stand The Elongated Man! That fucker can't spend ten minutes without stretching his neck out to ridiculous lengths.

Last issue, we learned that Sue Dibny wants to fuck the ruler of Modora, Sonar. We also learned Ralph Dibny wants to fuck mysteries more than he wants to fuck Sue. How is this the strongest marriage in the DC Universe? I mean before Sue was murdered by Brad Meltzer. Maybe Elongated Man constantly has his dick inside Sue and that's what really turns them on. How, you're asking? Please. The easiest trick in the book! He just stretches his penis down to near microscopic levels from his pant leg to Sue's hoo-hoo. Then he expands it as big as Sue wants! And there's no fear of somebody accidentally snapping it by tripping on it or something because Elongated Man is indestructible, right?

Ralph and Sue have traveled to Modora after being invited by Archduke Bito (who is also Sonar). They had been invited to some European Union summit in Paris for some reason and discovered that ambassadors were being targeted for assassination. Ralph thought that they should stick with the European Union Tour of '92 so they could attempt to catch the culprit but Sue, after being continuously hot-breathed by Sonar at the meeting where an ambassador was killed, realized he was probably the culprit. She convinced Ralph they should go to Modora to investigate and maybe have sex with its leader, if there's time.

Archduke Bito gives the Dibneys a short tour of the idyllic country life married to technologies of the 21st Century. It's such a utopian setting that Ralph can't help thinking Archduke Bito is up to no good. Also Sue wants to fuck him so obviously he doesn't trust the son of a sheepdog.

She's so fucking repulsed by him!

Archduke Bito probably blows his supervillain reveal too early in this mini-series for Sue to accidentally fuck him. Which is probably why she's so horny for Captain Atom later. I like to think she eventually did fuck Captain Atom but that means she would have had to beat out Catherine Cobert in the dash to his dick. Sure, he could have fucked them both, but Cap seemed way too awkward to pull that off. I'm sure he just fucked one of them one single time and then blustered his way out of the laundry room swearing to avoid all contact with them until he died and/or became Monarch and/or didn't become Monarch because DC editorial are cowards but he had already been written out of everything because he was supposed to be Monarch which is why he ended up in that fucking terrible Armageddon: The Alien Agenda. My main point is that Captain Atom probably fucked Sue and Catherine, probably at different times.

I just realized something. Does the plot of this mini-series have nothing to do with Sue's high horniness levels?! Fuck. Have I just let my male gaze run rampant all over my critique of this story?! Shit shit shit. Um, okay, forget about Sue's swollen vulva and Ralph's fat and also microscopically thin hog! It's time to get serious about political intrigue and the formation of the European Union which the British never really took to heart which is why they up and fucked themselves about thirty years later.

Ralph finally realizes why he finds Archduke Bito so familiar: he's Sonar, an old Green Lantern foe! But Sue is all, "Sonar's in jail, you jealous idiot. It can't be him."

Goddammit, Sue! I'm trying to move away from the "Sue's displaying legendary volumes of horniness on main" thesis statement!

It's possible Sue and Ralph discussed all of this "Bito is Sonar" stuff in the shitter on the plane into Modora so they know they're being eavesdropped on everywhere (except in the shitter of the plane because, ew, gross). So they're making as big a display as possible of their marriage in sexual shambles and Sue basically rubbing one out every time Bito's name is mentioned.

I'm sorry! I'd love to drop all the "Sue wants to fuck Bito" shit but I think it's integral to catching the baddie!

While Sue gets changed for dinner with Bito, Ralph stretches himself throughout the building's vents to spy on Bito. Seems a bit gay when your hot wife is sexily undressing in the next room! I don't know if women undress sexily because any time a woman undresses to me, it's fucking sexy. Except if it's because she just fell in a vat of sewage and is throwing up all over the place as she tears off her shit-matted clothes. That's only slightly sexy. But she'd probably appreciate me running in with a hose and, oh boy, now it's getting very sexy!

Ralph discovers Bito has been setting eavesdropping equipment all over the European Unity Tour's various locations. He then discovers Sonar's costume to put the nail in the mystery's coffin. But then he trigger's a trap and is killed by a blast of sonic noise. Ralph's lower half is still in his apartment though so that's going to be a gross little discovery for Sue.

Do you think Ralph's shits are normal? I'm not thinking about Ralph's shits because I like to think about another man's shits. I was just thinking, "Don't you shit when you die?" Then I was picturing Sue coming out of the bathroom putting on her last earring and discovering the unmoving lower half of her husband with massive ropes of shit streaming out of his boxers and his upper torso hanging out of the window. Then she'd probably yell, "Yahoo! Bito's dick, here I come! And come! And come! Oh mama!"

I can only picture sexual situations as Looney Tunes cartoons.

How can you ever again get wet for a man whose body you've seen do this?

At dinner, Bito admits that Modora suffers from the shame of Sonar, one of Bito's relatives who stole his name. Bito keeps the costume in his bedroom as a reminder. Also Sonar stole all of their sonic technology. Sue nods her head and says, "Yes, yes! That all makes perfect sense. Excuse me while I mop my pussy with one of these expensive napkins."

After dinner, Ralph catches a report from Italy that some villain named Calamari has disrupted the European Unity conference in Rome. He begins packing while Sue does not begin packing at all. She refuses to go with him. She doesn't say it's because he's constantly stretching his neck to fifty meters and twitching his nose like a rabbit finishing up a gram of cocaine but we all know those are two of the biggest reasons. She does sort of admit she's embarrassed by him so I guess that covers what I mentioned.

Is that "amazing technology" bit a threat about how she's about to use Sonar's vibrational sound machine?!

Ralph and Sue are hamming it up a bit too much in that last page for anybody to believe they're being serious. I mean anybody who doesn't actually think they're about to fuck Sue Dibny. If I were Bito and listening in on this, I'd probably have to change my underpants before Sue arrived in the library. And quickly make up an excuse about how the Linden Trees outside the window are currently in bloom.

Ralph travels to Italy without Sue while Sue "investigates" Bito. Ralph still seems to think the culprit might be the American ambassador because he's basically against the European Union and, you know, he's American. For some reason, he doesn't suspect the Italian Ambassador, Trampolina.

Sue Dibny who?

I have, from time to time, been known to say ACAB. But Trampolina in a sexy cop costume obviously doesn't count. She's the only good cop.

Sue winds up shopping a bunch and mooning over her husband who left her to fend for herself while Ralph winds up walking through dark alleys alone missing Sue. But Sue doesn't get attacked by Copperhead, Calamari, and Warp on the final page of the comic book. And Sue doesn't appreciate the appearance of The Flash just as she's about to be killed by the three aforementioned villains.

Elongated Man: Europe '92 #2 Rating: A. It's weird how much I'm enjoying a comic book about Ralph and Sue not getting along on their European vacation because Sue wants to get dicked 24/7 and Ralph doesn't want to do any dicking. Maybe being all rubbery causes a loss of testosterone? Or maybe there's another reason I just can't put my finger on.

Elongated Man: Europe '92 #1 (January 1992)

Sue would rather be getting dicked hard than stopping this snail guy from robbing a cotillion.

By the '90s, Elongated Man was never going to be a strong enough character to carry his own series. And we all know the only reason he got this mini-series was due to his wife, Sue. Sue's probably the only reason I picked it up. Oh, and it only cost $1.00. People would take a chance on more comic books when they were easily affordable. I could make $20.00 in one day of yard work around my block, buy fifteen comic books and still have enough to go see a movie with my friends or hang out at the mall for 5 hours straight or take the bus to Great America where I had a season pass that probably cost only $20.00 itself and which let us spend all summer there. People often talk about inflation as if everything evens out between wages and how much shit costs. But they're fucking wrong because kids used to be able to afford to do a ton of shit with not much cash because a dollar went further and also because they were fucking allowed to go places without parents and people didn't completely freak the fuck out. And we didn't have iPhone lifelines to each other. We just disappeared into the Santa Cruz mountains on our bikes on a Saturday morning and our parents didn't know if we were alive or dead until we got back in the evening. Or called from Santa Cruz hoping they'd come pick us up because we actually biked from Santa Clara to Santa Cruz and didn't want to have to ride back over the Santa Cruz mountains to get home. But then our parents were all, "You fucked up, man. That's on you. Figure it out." So we shrugged and hitched a ride back up the mountain in the back of some guy's pickup truck after a detour where he took us down this weird side road into the forest to show off the boxing ring in his sketchy youth camp. Eventually he took us back to the ridge and we rode back down into Cupertino where we stopped at Taco Bravo for dinner before heading back down Bascom and into Santa Clara where our parents were all, "So what did you guys do?" And we were all, "Oh, nothing. Just riding around."

You know how many times I almost died riding my BMX or 10-speed up the Santa Cruz mountains? Like, um, three times probably! Four if you figure that guy we hitched a ride from thought better of murdering us all!

Oh, I know another reason I might have picked up this comic book: Mike Parobeck's art! He did a run on Justice Society of America later that same year which I also picked up mostly because of the art and the cover price. I dig his animation style.

Based on all the clues in this opening splash page, I'm going to guess this takes place in Berlin.

Why is Elongated Man chasing down Copperhead in the streets of Berlin? I don't know! This comic book began "In Media Res" which means "in the middle res". I suppose if I were a superhero having a nice day out in Berlin and suddenly saw a person dressed as a giant man-snake and is a known American hit-man, I might feel compelled to stop him doing whatever hit-manning he might be doing.

Although Sue makes at least four pretty strong arguments about why I might just mind my own business.

Three of Sue's arguments are not those cops who can maybe take care of the local crime themselves. Her four strong arguments (as if I need to explain such obvious arguments that any man can plainly see with their own eyes) are her fashion sense, her speed, the cute shocked expressions she makes, and her vulva.

Sue saves Ralph's life by throwing her fancy hat at Copperhead who apparently has a fancy hat phobia because he freaks out as if a crocodile had just latched itself to his face. It only keeps him down for a few moments but that's enough time for Sue's three non-arguments to catch up and arrest him.

The appearance of Warp interrupts Ralph who was probably about to finish, "Gay Park, Berlin, Germany."

Warp teleports Copperhead away from the cops. But now Elongated Man's nose begins twitching and Sue's vulva unswells because she knows there won't be any more fucking on this vacation. Ralph Dibny has a bigger boner for mysteries than he has for Sue's underpants. I guess he solved that mystery years ago and there's simply no allure for him anymore. Oh! I think I just solved the mystery of why they're in Gay Park, Berlin!

Sue reminds Ralph that they don't have time for mysteries that don't concern locating her sex opening with his sex rod and then doing sex. Except also they don't have time for that because they have to go to some fancy banquet where some minister of something is going to announce some policy of something. I could probably explain it better but it's fucking boring and the speech bubbles are plastered all around Sue trying to get dressed for the event so most of my brain power was used up in getting the boner while looking at Sue in her slip.

Ralph decides to wear a hideous purple tuxedo to the event and Sue points out that it's as ugly as his Elongated Man costume. Ralph seems to act like this is the first time he's heard that criticism when it seems like it should be the five millionth time he's heard it.

Does "provincial" mean "homophobic"?

That was a rhetorical question because I know the answer is yes.

Sue breaks the 4th wall at the bottom of page six as she gives Ralph a handjob.

You don't know. That could be Ralph's dick.

At the banquet or buffet or whatever the fuck large political gatherings on which a fuckton of the population's money has been spent, Ralph winds up swamped by fans wanting pictures and autographs. It must be a slow night at the rich people's party if Elongated Man's the most famous person there. Sue strictly told him no stretching or being famous so when he goes against her strict party rules, she wanders off to find a super hot guy in a uniform and tight pants to fuck.

Is it gay for me to want to see Sue's delicate hand pull this gentleman's giant hog out of his pants to watch it stiffen across a few panels? Whatever. I'm gay then! Fuck off.

That gentleman is Sonar. You can tell because he has such a mastery of sound that he can make his speech bubble go behind his leg! Maybe that indicates he's talking out of his asshole? Or his penis is speaking that line about loving the collision!

I'm fairly certain we see Sue Dibny orgasm on the next page.

She's so disappointed when she finds out he knows she's married!

Sue and Ralph have such a strong marriage that Sue doesn't mind when Ralph clumsily flirts with his hot co-workers and Ralph doesn't mind when Sue eye fucks Captain Atom and Superman and Sonar and pretty much every other guy aside from Wally West and Dmitri Pushkin. Also I think maybe you can take the "eye" out of that last sentence. My theory is that Sue Dibny was dying from uterine cancer after having an affair with Captain Atom and Ralph faked her "murder" with help from Jean Loring to save her reputation. Sue may or may not have been in on it. Also Jean Loring may or may not have been in on it. She was probably tricked into participating in Sue's euthanasia.

Sue does enjoy fucking a lot of hot guys who don't bend weird and have twitching noses but she doesn't like it when they think it's going to be easy to get into her underpants.

Spot on? Amazingly perceptive? Right on the money?

I'm sure a lot of people love the stability of Sue and Ralph's marriage, something to be counted on for all time (I mean, until Identity Crisis, of course). But I think Sue is too hot and sexy to not imagine her fucking every hot guy she lays her eyes on! I bet she'd even fuck Etrigan!

Has Sue Dibny ever been in a DC movie? I think she should be played by Aubrey Plaza.

Somebody named L'Escargot crashes the party really, really slowly. He terrifies nearly nobody until he begins puking slime on diplomats. And while it doesn't really cause anybody any harm, it's super embarrassing for the host country of the party, Germany. Ralph tries to catch L'Escargot with his gigantic rubber fist but L'Escargot just cums in his hand and escapes.

I didn't spend all those years as a man and not learn that "SPLORK" is the sound effect of a penis ejaculating.

If Ralph can jerk off some guy at this party, then Sue has every right to get her hands around some penis too.

Sonar manages to knock out L'Escargot with his sonic powers while making it look like he simply punched him out. And also, I was wrong about the slime not causing anybody harm.

See? German!

I just realized the reason for this 1992 European Tour. They're holding these conferences to work out all the kinks in forming the European Union! It's existed for over half my life so it's something that I tend to forget hasn't always been a thing. No more Francs and Deutschmarks and Lira and Goldoons! Although still Pounds for some reason. I suppose Brexit shouldn't have been too surprising when your country feels exempt from completely switching currency the way everybody else did.

I don't know which ambassador for what country was killed by L'Escargot but it wasn't the French or the German or the Italian. Thank God it wasn't the Italian ambassador!

How did any of this get past the Comics Code Authority?!

Ralph begins to suspect that the person behind the attacks must not want a united Europe! And he's really suspecting that America would be that person! I mean country! Unless it's just the American ambassador going rogue and then person is okay. But I suspect it's probably Sonar! Because, you know, he's a villain.

As things settle down at the party and the corpse is hidden away in a backroom, Sonar invites the Dibnys to Modora. But Ralph, seeing how Sue has been looking at him all night and smelling the sex fumes coming from her drippy drawers with his twitchy nose, refuses the invite. Smart man! But later that night, Sue can't stop thinking about Sonar's fat cock on her tongue.

"Don't you think we should be experimenting with other dicks in or around my other orifices?"

Now I really, really think Aubrey Plaza should play Sue Dibny in a movie and not just in the fantasy playing in my head right now.

Ralph sort of refuses to take Sue seriously because he's taking his marriage for granted. But Sue doesn't want to take their marriage for granted. Sue wants to fuck Count Bito.

I guess technically this comic book isn't X-rated but it's definitely caused an abundance of X-rated panels in my head.

Elongated Man: Europe '92 Rating: A. I understand that Sue doesn't actually want to fuck Sonar. I get that she's the Penny to Ralph's Inspector Gadget, the snickering cat to Ralph's Hong Kong Phooey. Ralph thinks the mystery is in Paris. I mean Berlin. But Sue already realizes the mystery will be unraveled only once they're allowed in Modora. And she probably doesn't want to fuck Sonar but he definitely makes her wet. Why won't Ralph fuck Sue while speaking in a Modoran accent? Doesn't he love his hot young sexy wife?! I can't believe I enjoyed an Elongated Man comic book this much.