Daily Scans Below are the 2 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Daily Scans" journal:
September 11th, 2009
08:45 pm
[dr_hermes]

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Detective skills for super-heroes


See, this sequence is the sort of thing I would like to see Batman stories emphasise more. Observation and deduction are skills essential to solving mysteries and catching criminals. You don't see much of this lately, partly because it's harder for the writer to come up with than fight scenes and gore, but also because CSI-type gadgetry and doubletalk has taken over. One great aspect of the Doc Savage pulps was that (having been trained since infancy by experts),he was a multi-skilled genius with Olympic-level physical prowess ("Sherlock Holmes in the body of Hercules"). In one story, he ran up stairs with a full-grown man under each arm, then glanced into a ransacked room and could tell it had been searched twice-- because spilled liquids which dry at different rates were equally gelled. (This is one reason his fans say, "Doc Savage: adventure hero or THE adventure hero?").

This sequence is from Marvel's black & white DOC SAVAGE magazine, second issue from October 1975. Story by Doug Moench, art by Tony DeZuniga. Most of the story is a wild yarn about a huge cavern civilization of Reptilian people, a Mad Viking, lost treasure, that sort of thing. But to learn about this, the Man of Bronze casually shows some impressive detective ability. It's exactly the sort of engimatic clue that Lester Dent used to toss around in the pulps. What is that strange coin?

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August 26th, 2009
12:02 am
[kingrockwell]

[Link]

It's Not About The Answers: Behind The Mask Of Vic Sage, pt 8
A Martial Arts Week special!


O'Neil: Vic the Seeker (pt 4)
The Great Fables Crossover! (sorry Vertigo fans, not that one)

In 1988, Denny O'Neil set off to tell a great martial arts epic, and close the book on the O-Sensei, the old master introduced in Kung-Fu Fighter, responsible for teaching Richard Dragon, Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva. While I prolly should've held this one off until after I'd posted the arc from Question v1 16-18, where Vic and Ollie first met, well, who's fault was it starting Martial Arts Week now?
But though this crossover takes place in titles starring Batman, Green Arrow and The Question,

Current Music: Jimi Hendrix ~ "Crosstown Traffic"
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