The Hound of Steel
August 8, 2013 4:25 PM   Subscribe

 
...when Batman would cavort through space and time and Jimmy Olsen would get turned into a giant Turtle-Man...
posted by JHarris at 4:33 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


I demand equal time for Ace the Bat-Hound!
posted by Rangeboy at 4:35 PM on August 8, 2013 [4 favorites]




I stole one of my old Internetting screen names from a memepool post (scroll down to the bottom): Whither Krypto?
posted by penduluum at 4:44 PM on August 8, 2013


I demand equal time for Ace the Bat-Hound!

Well, you can take that up with Ambush Bug.
posted by The Bellman at 4:47 PM on August 8, 2013


Pre-CrisIs Comet (the Super horse) is nuts.
posted by Artw at 4:56 PM on August 8, 2013


I suppose this would be the appropriate time to mention the Legion of Super Pets.

As someone who grew up with the Silver Age, I enjoyed all the Superman-related craziness of the era. It just seemed like part of DC's style, much as the "heroes with problems" idea was associated with Marvel.

As for the super pets, I liked Krypto (and Ace the Bat-Hound) just fine; Comet, Beppo and Proty were OK for secondary characters; but for some reason, I was especially fond of Streaky the Super Cat.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 4:59 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


Pre-CrisIs Comet (the Super horse) is nuts.

What is it about pre-Crisis Supergirl that made her so attractive to family members, sentient farmyard animals, and barely legal wanna-be journalists? Girl had it rough.
posted by zombieflanders at 5:13 PM on August 8, 2013 [2 favorites]


Can someone explain to me:

Golden Age = Considered the Best

Silver Age = Considered Inferior?
posted by MoxieProxy at 5:15 PM on August 8, 2013


but for some reason, I was especially fond of Streaky the Super Cat.

I dunno; that picture of Streaky saying "Gee" was maybe the most uncat-like thing ever.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:17 PM on August 8, 2013


TBH most Golden Age comics are super-clunky and pretty tough reads these days.
posted by Artw at 5:18 PM on August 8, 2013


Art Baltazar has been doing Super Pets for a long while (along with the now departed Tiny Titans, which my daughter loves with ferocity.) There are even Super Pets shorts in the DC hour on Cartoon Network.

Aw yeah!
posted by Kafkaesque at 5:25 PM on August 8, 2013 [3 favorites]


Honestly, a cat with super powers would be absolutely terrifying.

It might choose to 'super' ignore you before 'super' attacking your hands for no reason and tearing them apart, after which it would go and 'super' preen itself, cleaning your blood off it's delicate paws while you lay nearby thrashing around in a pool of your own blood and wishing you'd just gotten a goldfish instead.
posted by Pecinpah at 5:26 PM on August 8, 2013 [8 favorites]


That was pretty great.
posted by bstreep at 5:29 PM on August 8, 2013


A cat with Super Ignore powers could probably cause you to cease to exist. Fucker wouldn't care until it started wondering why the food wasn't being replenished.
posted by Artw at 5:31 PM on August 8, 2013 [2 favorites]


Glen Weldon somehow makes pomposity entertaining without ever getting deflated (Pop Culture Happy Hour is a good way to spend an hour each week).
posted by Etrigan at 6:19 PM on August 8, 2013


A real-life version of Streaky no doubt could wreak havoc on everyone and everything. It basically would be the pet owner's version of the "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" problem.

I can only defend my affection for the character by noting that, to a seven-year-old who liked superheroes and cats, the idea of a super cat just seemed cool. The pet cat we had when I was a kid was pretty laid-back; even if she had had powers, she likely would have used them to take lots of super-naps.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 6:47 PM on August 8, 2013


Speak the Talking Dog
posted by homunculus at 6:55 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


LOOK IT’S COMPLICATED
posted by Minus215Cee at 8:06 PM on August 8, 2013 [2 favorites]


A real-life version of Streaky no doubt could wreak havoc on everyone and everything.

Naaah. Even the Legion of Substitute Heroes could handle him. When they went back in time to ask a favor of Supergirl and she didn't recognize them she decided to order the entire Legion of Super Pets to attack them to "teach those phonies a lesson" (because superdickery), so Color Kid scared off Krypto and Beppo the Super Monkey by turning Stone Boy green (and of course Kryptonite is the only rock in the universe that's green) and Chlorophyll Kid grew some catnip, which completely distracted Streaky from murdering them. And then when Comet the Super Horse tried to stomp them, Night Girl saved them by holding up a chunk of sidewalk as a shield, in which Comet left a couple hoofprints, Hollywood-Walk-Of-Fame-Style, which is what the Legion of Substitutes had come back in time for in the first place.

So in conclusion, a real-life version of Streaky would not be big scary deal after all.
posted by straight at 8:09 PM on August 8, 2013 [3 favorites]


A super cat on catnip. A SUPER CAT ON CATNIP. A SUPER CAT ON CATNIP.

This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a purr.
posted by JHarris at 8:15 PM on August 8, 2013 [4 favorites]


Basically the Kid rampage but with more cat vomit and spraying. NOT JUST FOR KIDS ANYMORE!
posted by Artw at 8:18 PM on August 8, 2013


Duly noted, straight. I for one feel much better now, knowing precisely how to defend against any potential super-cat attacks.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 8:20 PM on August 8, 2013


Oh, and Artw - I agree completely about the Silver Agey goodness of "Batman: The Brave and the Bold." When I first became aware of the show, and its use of period characters like Adam Strange, Metal Men, Doom Patrol, and so on, I almost plotzed. In a good way.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 8:24 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


I can't imagine how George RR Martin's editor must have felt.

Editor: How many books long do you think Book 4 should be?

GRRM: ...

Editor: This is two books.

GRRM: But Cersei and Jamie and Brienne!

Editor: Yes, but this is 2,000 pages. We asked for 800.

GRRM: But Dorne! Those people are so important!

Editor: ...

GRRM: The Grayjoys!

Editor: ...

GRRM: Because soap opera!

Editor: Oh. Right.
posted by pkingdesign at 8:26 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


Not one mention of the SPCA: Space Canine Patrol Agents. I am disappoint.

Big dog, big dog!
Bow wow wow!
We'll stop evil
Now! Now! Now!


Okay, admittedly, it's not the Oath of the Green Lanterns, but still... it's not that the dogs can talk gracefully, but that they can talk at all.
posted by SPrintF at 8:31 PM on August 8, 2013 [3 favorites]


And "Marveldog," from Moore's Marvelman/Miracleman series, is one of the most terrifying things I've ever encountered in comics. When you feel a tremendous sense of relief when the hero crushes a puppy... well, you know something has gone wrong somewhere. Damn you, Alan!
posted by SPrintF at 8:43 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


Pre-Crisis Comet (the Super horse) is nuts.

More than the Peter David post-crisis version? A hermaphrodite centaur/pegasus angel of Luuurve. Kind of a proto-brony.
posted by bonehead at 10:37 PM on August 8, 2013


No Krypto discussion is complete without noting Elliot S! Maggin's wonderful Starwinds Howl, a novella about Krypto. (Link is to PDF.)
posted by bryon at 10:58 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


but for some reason, I was especially fond of Streaky the Super Cat.

Then you'll love Saturdays with Streaky, courtesy of Armagideon Time.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:05 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


Space Canine Patrol Agents

Aka Krypto's very own Legion of Superheroes. The sort of pure Silver Age concept that should be left alone because anymodern treatment could only damage it.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:08 PM on August 8, 2013


Can someone explain to me:

Golden Age = Considered the Best

Silver Age = Considered Inferior?
Naah, it's more that the generation of fans in the early sixties created this terminology because they felt that way, having grown up with G.A. comics in the forties. Now adults, they looked back at those comics as the best, because the golden age of everything is twelve. The terminology stuck, but has nothing to do with quality.

As to why they had to define both a golden and a silver age of comics, is because that generation of fans (people like Roy Thomas) was very much focused on superhero comics only and while comics had made a qualitative leap upwards in the fifties (until the comics code put an end to it), superhero comics had long fallen by the wayside.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:39 PM on August 8, 2013


A nd for what it's worth. supposedly now comics are in the Lead Age.
posted by happyroach at 12:39 AM on August 9, 2013


Black Mentallium age.
posted by Artw at 12:51 AM on August 9, 2013


I somehow missed the Space Canine Patrol Agents as a kid - maybe due to not being a regular reader of Superboy? - but they seem to be a properly goofy addition to the super-animal pantheon.

And thanks for the "Saturdays with Streaky" link, Martin Wisse, that should satisfy my super-cat-viewing-related needs for a while. Or as Streaky would say, "Meowr!"
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 3:06 AM on August 9, 2013


Why isn't Superman's dog named Bark Kent?
posted by NoMich at 6:08 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


Artw: "Pre-CrisIs Comet (the Super horse) is nuts"
Comet was Supergirl's pet horse and, while in his human form as Bill Starr, her brief boyfriend. Comet also had a brief romance with Lois Lane in her comic book.
That's... yeah. I don't know. It's some sort of powerful straight-to-the-id mainlining of the suppressed sexual fantasies of young girls who love horses, perhaps? I'm just stabbing in the dark here.

posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:13 AM on August 9, 2013


SPCA: Space Canine Patrol Agents.

Sigh. That's SCPA, SPrintF, SCPA. The article you link to specifically states they are not to be confused.

You had one job.
posted by Naberius at 7:34 AM on August 9, 2013


Can someone explain to me:
Golden Age = Considered the Best
Silver Age = Considered Inferior?


I think it's a reference to Hesiod.

In comics lore, there is no consensus that any "age" is best. It's just a term for popular trends in comics over a period of a decade or so. Silver age Batman/Superman are all about zany surrealism. The Bronze age (70's) Jim Aparo Batman doesn't have any glaring stylistic quirks, but it is notable for the absence of the excesses of the Silver age and the Frank Miller Gritty Age of the 1980s. There are good and bad comics to be found in any era.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:02 AM on August 9, 2013 [1 favorite]




So "Golden Age" didn't necessarily mean "back when comics were great" so much as "The earlier era when Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, etc. were first created."
posted by straight at 11:26 AM on August 9, 2013


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