I Love New 52 Earth 2 (Spoilers)

The Earth 2 concept was 1st introduced in the pages of the classic Silver Age Flash story "Flash of 2 Worlds" in 1961 by DC's chief writer at the time, Gardner Fox.

Now in 2012 DC has revised the whole Alternate Earth as apart of their "2nd Wave" of their "New 52".
Earth 2 is written by James Robinson (The Golden Age & Staman) and art by Nicola Scott (Birds of Prey & Teen Titans).

Earth 2 starts out with a Big Bang, Earth has been devastated by an alien invasion lead by Jack Kirby's classic New God Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons. The last of Earth 2's Greatest Superheroes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman (I loved their costume designs more than their counterparts in the "mainstream" DC Universe) and their sidekicks, Earth 2's versions of Robin (who's Batman's daughter Helena) & Supergirl make make a last ditch effort one last stand against overwhelming odds.

In the trench's we meet U.S. Army Sgt. Al Pratt (the future Earth 2's Atom).

We find out that Wonder Woman is the last of the Amazons and that most of the Roman Gods are dead when she is payed a visit by Mercury (here Wonder Woman's patrons are Roman Deities instead of Greek) who says his farewell before flying off.

Earth 2's Wonder Woman killed by Steppenwolf.

Superman is blown up.

This leaves just Batman to destroy the Enemy base. In a tearful goodbye to his daughter Robin, Batman does just that, making the ultimate sacrifice.

But not before Supergirl & Robin escape through a portal, maybe heading to the main Earth of the New 52, where they become the Huntress & Power Girl in the pages of Worlds' Finest (another of the "2nd Wave" books) by Paul Levitz, George Perez, & Kevin Maguire.

The Huntress' look stays pretty much the same, while Power Girl gets a totally new look, much to the disappointment of Fanboys Worldwide :(

Then flash forward (no pun intended) 5 years later, the world recovers from what has been named "the Apokolips War".

We meet a young handsome billionaire CEO of GBS, Alan Scott (the future Earth 2's Green Lantern) who flies off to China in his private jet. DC plans on making this new revamped Alan Scott their much hype "Major Gay Superhero". 

So the guy who gets his superpowers from a magic green flame & who's weakness is wood is now DC Comics official Flaming Gay Man who is susceptible to Wood. Makes sense to me ;)

Then are introduced to a younger 21 year old college grad Jay Garrick as he is being dump by his girlfriend.

Just when Jay thinks his life is over the Roman God Mercury drops in front of him, which makes me question where has the God of Speed been for the last 5 years?

Any way, this leads to a much better origin for the Flash then his old Golden Age Origin which involved him breathing in "hard water" fumes.

It looks like the start of a new Justice Society forming, inspired by the heroic sacrifices of the Big 3.
When known at the end of Mr. Terrific's cancelled title that he travelled across dimensions, perhaps to Earth 2?

Robinson also plans on having Rex Tyler, the Hourman appear as Jay Garrick's ex-girlfriend Joan mentions going to for TylerChem.

With Earth 2 #4 debuts Hawkgirl, who takes the place of Earth 2's Batman as "the World's Greatest Detective" spotting twin .45s in each hand.

I Can't wait to see what Robinson got in-store for us next and how these heroes become the Justice Society.

~ Rajadevilman74

Free Comic Books: Secret Origin of the Blue Beetle

Here's a little bit of comic book history to start off at. The Blue Beetle is one of those superheroes with a very rich history dating all the way back to the "Golden Age" of comics with his 1st appearance in Fox Features Syndicate's Mystery Men Comics #1 in August 1939 by artist Charles Chuck Wojtkoski. He became a popular enough character that he even got his own radio series in 1940.

By the Mid-1950s Fox went out of business and sold the rights to Charlton Comics. When the popularity of superheroes started up again in the 1960s during the Silver Age of comics, Charlton revised the characters origin in 1964 as an archaeologist who finds an ancient Egyptian Scarab artifact that gives him superpowers.
The creator didn't really catch on so they gave him to artist Steve Ditko to rework again. Ditko had just come off Marvel Comics' Amazing Spider-Man, so Ditko transformed the Blue Beetle into somewhat of a Spider-Man clone in the back pages of Captain Atom #83 (Nov. 1966).

By the in mid-1980s DC Comics purchased many of Charlton Comics "Action Heroes" as a in-house gift for editor Dick Giordano. 
DC reintroduced the Charlton Action Heroes on the newly created Earth 4 in their massive opus maxi-series, Crisis on Infinite Earths, which would re-intergrate the whole DC Mulitverse into one contained Universe.
With that all set & done, DC then set to explain the origins & careers of the men who were the Blue Beetle in the new post-Crisis continuity in the pages of Secret Origins #2 by writer Len Wein & artist Gil Kane.

When all was said & done, the Blue Beetle was chosen over many more well establishment DC characters for his own on-going DC series (which lasted 24 issues, June 1986 to May 1988), written by Len Wein and drawn by Paris Cullins.

Not bad for a character who hadn't had his own series since 1968.

~ Rajadevilman74

Sexy Pin-Ups of the Past: Lana Weldon

Lana Weldon was born in Southern California in 1947. Her natural busty sized boobs (Measurements 48-26-37) graced the pages of many men’s magazines in the late 1960s & 70s such as Modern Man, Gem, Fling, & Dapper. Also known as Lois Wahl and Elaine Weldon.

                    Enjoy ;)

~ Rajadevilman74