27 thoughts on “Friday Night Fights: Despero Times Call For Despero Measures

  1. Word to the wise:

    Serious threats to Earth do not wander around wearing a tattered bedsheet as a cape.

  2. I like the smile on Gypsy’s face. “Yo, Despero! What’s purple mutant for ‘You’re gonna get knocked the fuck out’?!”

  3. Was the top panel between takes or something? Everyone looks so happy, like someone just told a great joke offscreen or J’Onn flubbed his line.

  4. When I first read the second panel, I thought it said, “For I am Despero – and I hate myself.” I think it almost works better that way.

  5. “Serious threats to Earth do not wander around wearing a tattered bedsheet as a cape.”

    Yep. Fortunately for Desparo he’s wearing the UN flag as a cape after he kicked them around.

    Desparo was actually Bush’s initial pick for UN ambassador but his housekeeper was an illegal alien so John Bolton got the nod…

  6. This reminds me of why I always loved J’onn so much. Martian smack-talk is the BEST smack-talk.

    ;_;

  7. Post-Crisis JJ has such awesome gravitas, even with his smack-talk. It’s like getting your ass kicked by the voice of Morgan Freeman reading the plays of August Wilson. Also, check out the wind-up on that left hook! You almost expect a drumroll!

  8. When I saw the title in the RSS feed I assumed it said “Destro times” instead of “Despero.”

    ALL times call for Destro Measures on the ISB.

  9. “You are a tiresome– and dangerous– lunatic– –and I had my fill of you YEARS ago!”

    Apparently, this is what the majority of voters were thinking as they entered the booths on Election Day 2008.

    I’m pretty sure there were many occasions G.W. Bush was running around making threats while wearing a tattered UN flag as a cape during his Presidency, as well.

  10. If I remember correctly, this was right after Despero killed a robot masquerading as Mr. Miracle. As far as J’onn knew, Scott Free was dead. So he was *doubly* pissed.

    I think he wiped out most of the Detroit-era Justice League, too.

  11. Ah, ok…that makes more sense.

    Well, it was the 80s (or early 90s)…everything was more “extreme,” even in a well-written book like JLI.

  12. I always liked they way writers generally respected the history that J’onn had with Gypsy and Vixen, as basically the only survivors of the JLDetroit. All the other original leaguers of that era never seemed to acknowledge it happened.

    Kind of like the sillier days of the JLI, come to think of it.

    I look forward to Dan Didio moving along, and J’onn returning, and I think it’ll be in that order.

  13. “You are a tiresome– and dangerous– lunatic– –and I had my fill of you YEARS ago!”

    There are many people for whom I have been forced to encounter in life that I would have loved to say this to – then added J’onn’s physical response as the capper.

    Thank you, o comic books.

  14. If I remember correctly, this was right after Despero killed a robot masquerading as Mr. Miracle. As far as J’onn knew, Scott Free was dead. So he was *doubly* pissed.

    I think he wiped out most of the Detroit-era Justice League, too.

    Despero also just killed Gypsy’s parents which probably made J’onn triply pissed. Or at least 2.5 pissed. And we’re leaving out the part where the one true Green Lantern Guy Gardner saved J’onn’s ass.

  15. “You are a tiresome– and dangerous– lunatic– –and I had my fill of you YEARS ago!”

    With the compressed floating timeline, that’s probably not even possible. The whole Silver Age now probably lasted about six months, and this fight came about seven weeks after J’onn first met Despero.

  16. I believe Despero blows up the Mister Miracle robot after this scene. The sequence goes-

    Despero homes in on Steel, but finds he’s already brain-dead, then heads to Gypsy’s home where he murders he family. Then this bit happens and the fight winds up moving to NYC where the robot Mister Miracle gets blown up in the shuttle trying to distract Despero from crushing the Blue Beetle’s windpipe…

    -Citizen Scribbler

  17. I’ve always felt like the secret weapon to the success of the Giffen/DeMatteis run was Bob Lappan. He had a signature style that always added to the art (see ATARI FORCE and ‘MAZING MAN among others). For me, the tragedy of digital lettering is the loss of the extra bit of personality a letterer like Lappan could bring.

  18. in the first TPB for the JL run (the one from years ago) They talk specificly about getting Bob Lappan because he could fit all the words DeMatteis would right in the balloons without making them look crowded.