Tuesday TV Touchbase: Stuart Fails To Save The Universe

Last week Andrea and I caught up to the season 1 finale of Stuart Fails To Save The Universe.  

How you feel about this show probably depends on your opinion of it's progenitor, Big Bang Theory.

If you hated BBT (and I know you're out there, Dean!), well, I may as well be Sisyphus rolling a rock up a mountain when it comes to the futility of making an appeal for Stuart Fails To Save The Universe.  

I will say that while having a working knowledge of BBT provides a level of (dare I say it) nuance and (I can't be serious) depth to the proceedings, I think it is possible to (let's say) "enjoy" SFTSTU without the BBT connection.  

The universe, nay the multiverse, is in danger and the 4 people least qualified to save it need to save it.  

Stuart, Denise, Bert & Kripke have travelled from universe to universe in a desperate quest to save a broken reality. 

Among the worlds they've encountered:

• A pleasant world of peace and tranquility if you don't mind the electric shock nodules implanted in your neck by our A.I. overlords. Acclaimed film/TV/stage actor Christine Baranski explains everything.   
• Another pleasant world of peace and tranquility free from technology. It's a nice place until Kripke introduces the concept of capitalism.  
• A world where science is a myth and magic is real.
• A world where humans descended from cows. It's like our world but with more eating grass, corn and cud. 
• A world where everyone is a centaur.
• A world where everyone is telepathic.  
• A world inhabited by DC Comics' super heroes and villains. At last, a world that Stuart finally understands. 

And the world they encounter in the season finale:

Where Stuart Fails To Save The Universe is a multi-cam sitcom on CBS where Stuart, Denise, Bert and Kripke discover they are fictional characters.....

....portrayed by Kevin Sussman, Lauren Lupkus, Brian Poeshn and John Ross Bowie.

It's a bit of a mind fuck.

The season ends with Stuart, Denise, Bert and Kripke leaving the studio where Stuart Fails To Save The Universe is shot and wandering outside into the dark, towards Burbank and an uncertain future.  

What the who where when now? 

Stuart Fails To Save The Universe is admittedly an absurdist mess, one weird ass logic defying Earth after another, a random journey guided by the over riding principle that Stuart somehow started this mess of a fractured and dying reality and it's somehow his responsibility to fix it.   

In addition to Stuart having NO idea how to accomplish any of this, he now has a nemesis, The Adversary, aka "the swirling ball of cosmic shit".   

Is Stuart Fails To Save The Universe a good show? I really don't know.  I like it well enough and it makes me laugh. But I can't help feeling like something crucial is missing, something to bridge the absurdist comedy and the high concept sci-fi.  

After Chuck Lorre, Bill Brady and Zak Penn spent a season throwing stuff at the walls to see what sticks in season 1, maybe season 2 will have a bit more purpose and structure to make some sense of what they built.

SPOILER: the only people from The Big Bang Theory who do not appear in SFTSTU are Howard, Leonard and Sheldon. Otherwise, we do get alternate versions of Raj, Penny, Amy and Bernadette. 

If it's the end of the season for Stuart Fails To Save The Universe, it's also the end of the season for the Official Stuart Fails To Save The Universe Podcast.  For some reason, Andrea insisted we make watching the podcast part of our viewing schedule.

The podcast hosted by Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton actual runs longer than the episodes it covers.  Each nearly hour long podcast has 2 sections, an interview with one or more of the actors from the show and the other half speaking with the production staff who work on the show's costumes, sets and scripts.  

I will say the production staff does deserve kudos for having to create a new set each week for a different universe.  Also commendable is the work they do on the one recurring set in the series, Stuart's comic book shop.  The shop has to be adjusted in ways both subtle and obvious to reflect the particular quirks of a specific universe.

For example, in the centaur world, all the super hero action figures have be transformed into half-horse.  Except Aquaman who is a seahorse. 

Wil and Felicia interviewed Chuck, Bill and Zak a few times where the writing/producing trio make it very obvious their making up shit as they go along.   

Which may explain my issues with the lack of purpose and structure I had with Stuart Fails To Save The Universe.  We'll see if season 2 can remedy that.  

Side note: I recently re-discovered a webseries from Funny Or Die from about 10 years or so back called The Earliest Show starring Lauren Lupkus (Denise from SFTSTU).  Lauren and co-star Ben Schwartz play a pair of TV talk show hosts who anchor a show that broadcasts at 3:00 A.M. The two hosts are way too damn happy to be hosting a show at this ungodly hour.

I had watched this series back in 2016. I was reminded to seek it out again when it came up during an interview with Lauren. 

    

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Coming up on future editions of the touch base:

• Scrubs
• Lanterns
• Abbott Elementary 
• Blue Skies 
• Batman: Caped Crusader

And more! So much TV, so little time! 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

Full Of Sound and Furry

Normally my Monday blog post about politics usually focuses on whatever dumb fuckery that goddam motherfucker Donald Trump did in the last few weeks/days/minutes/right now.
I'm gonna let Dave Columbo do the heavy lifting on that one.

But I couldn't let the moment pass without comment on another goddam motherfucker who stumbled into the spotlight last week with what may well be the MOST dumbass thing ever said on the U.S. Senate floor.
I miss the days when I could get through a political themed blog post without saying "goddam motherfucker" but there are so many of them and so intent on being goddam motherfuckers.
Let's deal with this piece of shit, Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
Sen. Tuberville took to the Senate floor to address the greatest problem facing our country.

• So he's gonna take on the high price of groceries? 
• High gas prices?
• The cost of healthcare?
• The war with Iran? 

Really, people! You think those things are real problems?!?
How can you not see the threat that Sen. Tuberville so clearly perceives?
That the pilot on your airline flight could be dressed as a squirrel?

Here we see Staci Lydic and The Daily Show having some fun with Sen. Tuberville bringing this threat to our attention.

Chris Hayes tries to make sense of this odd obsession Tommy has.

OK, I've listened to this a few times now: Is he pronouncing "fetish" as "fetis"?
Notice that Tuberville is delivering his remarks in front of a visual aid that reads  "Transgenderism Is A Mental Disease".
What does being trans-gender have to do with being a furry? Does he think the LGBTQ+ community considers "squirrel" a gender? Who knows with this goddam motherfucker!
And as for this "Transgenderism Is A Mental Disease" nonsense on this sign....
Really?  Let's see what the experts have to say about that.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) clarifies that the term "transgender" is not a psychiatric diagnosis. The diagnostic manual (DSM-5) separates identity from pathology, though it includes gender dysphoria—which defines the psychological distress an individual may experience due to an incongruence between their gender identity and their sex assigned at birth.  
Also weighing in on this topic?
 The World Health Organization (WHO) removed gender identity-related categories from its mental and behavioral disorders chapter in the ICD-11, reclassifying gender incongruence under conditions related to sexual health to reduce stigma and reflect that gender diversity is not a mental illness.
There is a link of mental health issues associated with the transgender community as noted on TransHub.Org.
Research shows that a disproportionate number of trans people experience worse mental health than the general population, including higher rates of suicidality (12 times more likely), diagnosis with a mental disorder (3 times more likely), and experiences of psychological distress.
We also have found that this is not because these problems are innate for trans people, but because of what we call social determinants of health, which use the conditions in which people live to understand their health experiences, among others.
But the condition of being transgender itself is NOT a mental health defect. 
I will caution that I am looking at this issue from the outside in as a hopefully supportive ally of the LGBTQ+ community and I trust I'm expressing myself correctly. 
But this I have NO doubt I am saying this correctly: This right here is a tale told by an IDIOT, full of sound and furry, signifying nothing. 

(See what I did there with the Shakespeare quote, changing "fury" to "furry"?  I don't mean to brag but damn, I think that's clever.)   
Tommy Tuberville is a profoundly stupid man.
He thinks the three branches of the United States government are “the House, the Senate and executive,” rather than the legislative, the judicial, and the executive.
He once said he doesn't like to read things, preferring to make up his own mind.  
While ranting about the transgender community, he decides to attack "furries" with the completely unsubstantiated claim they're flying airplanes?  
Since he does not read things, I wonder where the hell did he hear about this "problem"?   
If you wonder why the legislative branch is doing fuck all the rein in Donald Trump's worse impulses, it's because Congress is littered with stupid people like this goddam motherfucker, Tommy Tuberville.
Although soon Tommy Tuberville may not be the stupidest person in the U.S. Senate.  He may well become the stupidest person in a governor's office.  
Tuberville is running for Governor of Alabama as the Republican nominee. 
Doug Jones, the Democratic opponent, is by every measure a better qualified and certainly smarter candidate.  
Since Alabama is a deep red state that consistently votes against it's own self interests, Tuberville is leading in the polls by a margin of 49% to 41%.  Which leaves about 10% of the electorate unaccounted for and uh oh! What if they vote for Jones? 
So it doesn't hurt to gild the lilly with a little culture war woo-woo and hence Tuberville's Senate floor uninformed appeal against the evils of furries and transgenderism.
It's the kind of bullshit that pushed Donald Trump over the top here in North Carolina in 2024 and it'll probably do the trick for Tuberville in Alabama as well.      
To understand the voters of Alabama that keep the state firmly in the red, let me paraphrase Gene Wilder from Blazing Saddles:  
"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the South. You know. Morons!"
And who better to lead them that the biggest moron of all, Tommy Tuberville.
Let him tell his tales told by an idiot and while he may well win his election as Governor of Alabama, in the larger tapestry of history, he will signify nothing. 
Which is a nicer way of saying: Fuck you, Tommy Tuberville, you (say it with me one more time!) goddam motherfucker!

Star Trekking: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 4 -"Tomorrow's Enterprise"

Today's edition of Star Trekking brings us to season four finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with an episode called "Tomorrow's Enterprise".

The title recalls the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" where some wibbby-wobbly timey-wimey causes one Enterprise to miss a date with destiny and propels the next Enterprise into an altered future with disastrous results. 

"Tomorrow's Enterprise" works on a different plot and scale but the premise is the same:  wibbby-wobbly timey-wimey connects one Enterprise to another and creates a future that is not meant to be.

At the center of it is Lt. Nyota Uhura. 

Captain Pike and his team have taken the Enterprise to survey a cosmic phenomenon called a "white hole". Uhura picks up a strange signal from the anomaly. 

Then the white hole emanates bursts of energy that strike and incapacitate the ship. 

During the strike, Uhura is injured. And she picks up a communication of Scotty screaming Uhura's name.  Uhura urgently communicates with Scotty who is just fine. Just running around trying to get the ship up and running but otherwise, it's just another day on the Enterprise.  

Although ordered to stand down to rest and recover from her injury, Uhura keeps on keeping on, trying to get to the bottom of that mysterious signal she picked up.  After about 300 attempts to clean it up, Uhura gets a message. 

From Lt. Nyota Uhura.  

One year from now...

Captain Kirk and his team have taken the Enterprise to survey a black hole which is not behaving like a black hole normally does. A  shuttle needs to go in for a closer look. 

No, not THAT closer look.

On the shuttle is Scotty, Uhura (sporting a 1960's Nichelle Nichols hair style) and recommissioned Erica Ortegas (who has swapped out her butch lesbian buzzcut for a for a different lesbian hairstyle.)

Uhura picks up a strange signal from the anomaly. Then the black hole emanates bursts of energy that strike and incapacitate the shuttle and the Enterprise.  Uhura is injured and Scotty beams her back to the Enterprise.  

A second later the shuttle explodes.

On the Enterprise, Uhura is frantic to somehow save Scotty and Ortegas. Kirk reminds Uhura that she was the only one on the shuttle, Scotty died over a year ago and Ortegas is teaching at Starfleet Academy.  

The who what when where how why now?

Although ordered to stand down to rest and recover from her injury, Uhura keeps on keeping on, trying to get to the bottom of that mysterious signal she picked up.  After several attempts, she gets a message.  

From Lt. Nyota Uhura.  

Everyone say it with me: wibbby-wobbly timey-wimey!

The two Uhuras are communicating across time.  Something has happened between these two times that was not supposed to happen and it's up to the two Uhuras to fix it.

What follows is a fairly clever use of time travel as the two Uhuras collaborate.

Uhura-Kirk finds out they need a formula that will take a year to calculate.

Uhura-Pike asks Spock to run that calculation.

Uhura-Kirk finds out from Spock that for the formula to work, it needs a dilithium diamond but it take a year to grow one of those.

Uhura-Pike sets that up.

Uhura-Kirk retrieves it.

But the technobabble solution to fix the wibbby-wobbly timey-wimey, save the Enterprise (twice!) and stop Scotty from being killed doesn't work and...

The two Uhuras switch places.

Uhura-Kirk is now on Pike's Enterprise.

And Uhura-Pike is on the Enterprise a year in the future with Kirk.

Trying to follow Starfleet protocols about time travel and polluting the time line, the two Uhuras try to play it cool that they have travelled in time. 

But (and I like this bit)....

Captain Pike is too genre savvy not to realize the Uhura in front of him is not his Uhura.

Captain Kirk is too genre savvy not to realize the Uhura in front of him is not his Uhura.

The rest of the episode involves a desperate race against time to figure out what is really going on with the white hole/black hole phenomena, how to save the Enterprise (twice!) and stop Scotty from dying. 

SPOILER ALERT (but not really because Scotty is in the original series and the movies and a TNG episode), everything works out as the two Uhuras return to their respective times with a greater appreciation of they will be and where they come from. 

Yep, that's Christine Chapel sporting a 1960's era up do like Majel Barret wore on the original series.

Also, Chapel mentions she dated a girl once so Trekkers, off to your fan fics about THAT. 

Kudos to Celia Rose Gooding who has to do double duty as two different versions of Nyota Uhura.  And the differences come from more than just a change in hairstyle.

Uhura-Kirk is more relaxed and confident, coming into her own as the kick as legend that Mariner gushed about to Uhura-Pike back in season 2.  

There is a storyline involving Scotty tentatively trying to strike up a relationship with Uhura-Pike while we see Scotty and Uhura-Kirk are a couple.

No, there was nothing about that in the original series but in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Scotty and Uhura are acting like a couple so this is a retroactive fix to whatever that was.

(As much as we want forget Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, it seems Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will not let us. It's brought up Sybok at least twice.) 

"Tomorrow's Enterprise" is a very strong wrap up for season 4 of SNW.  

Next week on Star Trekking, a look back on season 4.

  

Movie Time: Supergirl

In 2025, James Gunn delivered a new Superman movie that was witty and thrilling, a film I very much enjoyed.  So did a lot of other people with the movie racking up a very strong box office and nearly unanimous positive reviews.

Feeling very hopeful about the future of the DC cinematic universe under James Gunn, I was anxious to see what would come next.

Which brings us to today's movie post.

It... Movie Time! 

Earlier this summer, Supergirl was released and failed to replicate even a portion of the success of the 2025 Superman.

It certainly did not bring me into the theater to see it.

A week or so back, Supergirl turned up on HBO Max and I thought I would give this movie a try from the comfort of my own Fortress of Ineptitude home.  

I rather liked the movie but I am clearly see why it went bust in theaters.   

If what you know of Supergirl is the perfectly composed Melissa Benoist from the CW series who was as likely to solve a problem with a super speech of super positivity than to super punch it, well....

This version of Supergirl ain't that.

As we caught a glimpse of at the end of the 2025 Superman film, Zara Zor-El is a frequently inebriated party girl who likes to pub crawl on worlds with a red sun.

Super powers that include invulnerability preclude getting drunk.

We pick up with Kara with her dog Krypto  "celebrating" her 23rd birthday on the planet Holzherr.  I put that in quotes because for all the partying and the drinking, Kara does not appear to be having much fun.

Unlike Kal-El who was rocketed off Krypton when he was infant, Kara grew up with her Kryptonian parents, living her life in a Kryptonian culture.  She remembers all of that before they all died.  

Kara's legacy with Krypton is a burden her cousin can not understand. 

While drowning her pain in an alien bar, Kara meets Ruthye Marye Knoll.  Armed with her father's sword, Ruthye is on a quest of vengeance against Krem, a alien thug who slaughtered her parents and her brother.

Krem and his gang of Brigands are ruthless, malicious punks who traffic in stolen weapons, wealth and women.

Or more accurately, young girls to serve as breeding stock for the all male Brigands.  

While stealing Kara's ship, Krem shoots Krypto with a poison dart, a poison that will take the dog's life within 72 hours if Kara cannot recover the antidode.

Going all John Wick, Kara resolves go after Krem.

Ruthye resolves to accompany Kara.

Kara say no.

Ruthye goes with her anyway.  

What follows is a gauntet of weird aliens, dark and dreadful cities and unforgiving alien landscapes as Kara and Ruthye encounter various obstacles on their quest.

Things do get a bit easier once Kara hits a yellow sun system and powers up for some epic ass kicking.  

Along the way, Lobo shows up for... reasons.  

Jason Mamoa's Lobo does bring a welcome jolt of comics accurate chaotic energy to the proceedings but to be honest, he feels extraneous.

Lobo feels like a studio note that said we need some reason for men to see a movie about Supergirl.  

Speaking of Supergirl, Kara does suit up in the big red S super suit for the movie's final act for high flying cape flapping action.

My assessment is I made the right call in not seeing Supergirl in the theater.  The movie feels sort of small.  

Watching it from the comfort of home, this smallness seems less of a problem. The main thing of interest to me in this film has less to do with any potential spectacle and more on the relationship between Kara and Ruthye.  

Which really doesn't resonate as strongly as it should as the film rushes past various plot points to a proscribed conclusion.

I almost thing that Supergirl would have benefit from being a TV series in the mode of Lanterns with a slow burn story arc that would've provided more chances for depth and nuance in the Kara and Ruthye dynamic and more power to Kara's growth from where we find her to where she winds up.  

Kudos to cameos from David Corenswet as Superman who still such a hopeless dork. 

When Supergirl was released back in June, reviews about the movie as a whole were most decidedly mixed, leaning towards negative.  But one consistent point that was made across all those reviews is that Milly Aycock is awesome as Kara.

An assessment I agree with.  Her Kara is not something we're used to seeing in the Superman mythos, a character floundering with her trauma, her grief and loss.  Her attempts to dull her pain with partying and drinking could feel like whiny self indulgence but this is a young woman who has earned this and we feel that pain. 

But even with all that she's going through, Kara still can't stop her self from trying to help when someone else is in pain,  like Ruthye. 

Ultimately, I see why Supergirl didn't play well on the big screen there is enough good here to make me think this movie deserves a better reception that being known as the pariah of the DC Cinematic Universe.   

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Tomorrow, Star Trekking brings us to the season 4 finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.   

Your Friday Video Link: Are You Ed Sheeran?

Since Ed Sheeran's been in the news lately,  this week, Your Friday Video Link asks the question: Are you Ed Sheeran?

Doctor Who would like to know.  

Also in the news lately is the promise... and threat... of A.I.

From Saturday Night Live - U.K., King Charles is forced to confront this dichotomy of A.I. in a very familiar form.

Also Ed Sheeran turns up. 

And that's all the Ed Sheeran we can take for today.

We're back this weekend with Movie Time and Star Trekking.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another. 

Even Ed Sheeran.   

Comic Book Retro 50: September 1976

And we're back for another edition of Comic Book Retro 50 where I look back at what comics a young Dave-El was pulling from the spinner racks lo these 50 years gone!

So what pray tell got my pocket change in September 1976?

Let's kick things off with Justice League of America #137 with a cover by Ernie Chan.

I know I've given Ernie a lot of grief for his covers during this era at DC Comics but this ain't half bad. 

Holey Moley! Are we finally getting that much anticipated Captain Marvel vs. Superman match up? 

"Crisis in Tomorrow" by  E. Nelson Bridwell, Martin Pasko, Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin kicks off Part 3 of the annual JLA/JSA crossover, this year including the heroes from world designated as Earth S.  ("S" as in Shazam!) 

The world where Captain Marvel and the rest of the Marvel Family resides has been primarily represented by other more obscure heroes formerly published by Fawcett Comics.  

Here we see the Green Lanterns of Earth 1 and Earth 2 teamed up with Ibis the Invicible.  (Invincible has long as no one slaps that stick out of his hand.)  

Mr. Atom was a long time robotic nemesis of Captain Marvel. 

Speaking of robotics, Superman's alien android enemy Brainiac shows up turn Hal Jordan into a skeleton.

For reasons.

Evil reasons.

Reasons of evil.  

King Kull is still working his malevolent machinations from the Rock of Eternity for... well, you know...

For reasons.

Evil reasons.

Reasons of evil.  

God bless E. Nelson Bridwell who I was always admired as a classic fan boy make good but I wonder if even he understood everything that was going on in this storyline.

Meanwhile, Billy Batson, Mary Batson and Freddy Freeman have been shut off from their magic lightning from the Rock of Eternity.  But Johnny Thunder shows up with his Thunderbolt who provides his own magic lightning to transform our intrepid youths into Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr.  

You can see why Bridwell kept the Marvels off the table until now because they rapidly take out King Kull and his machines in one single epic illustration.  

Wait! We've got 2 pages to go and quite the dangling loose end to resolve: Superman is still on a "HULK SMASH!" rampage due to King Kull's Red Krytonite.

Ooh boy! We're gonna get that epic Supeman vs. Captain Marvel throw down promised on the cover! 

Well...  no.

Wait! That's it? After all that King Kull did over three issues..

For reasons.

Evil reasons.

Reasons of evil.  

We're just gonna fly off and that's that?

If this was not enough about JLA#137, click here for Alan Stewart's more extensive post about this issue.  

I remember young Dave-El was a bit disappointed by the anti-climatic ending but to be fair, Cap using his wisdom to defeat a foe rather than his fists was in character for the Big Red Cheese.

Looking back on it now, JLA#135-#137 was a lot of nonsense that barely held together but at the time, other than the anti-climatic and rushed resolution, young Dave-El rather enjoyed this ride. 

What else did Dave-El buy in September 1976?  

There's Isis#2  with a cover by Mike Vosburg & Jack Abel 

 "The Creature from Dimension X" by Steve Skeates, Mike Vosburg & Vince Colletta gave us some sci-fi action that the TV show producers could scarely dream about it.

"Lost & Found" by Steve Skeates, Mike Nasser & Frank Giacoia was a more grounded short story in keeping with the tone of the TV series.  

Ernie Chan & Bob Oksner provide the cover to Superman#306.

"Backward Battle for the Bizarro World" by Martin Pasko, Curt Swan & Bob Oksner gives us a return of Bizarro but in a different way than he was presented in the 1960's.

While Bizarro had all the powers of Superman, that aspect was rarely explored and stories deferred to Superman having to figure out Bizarro's backward logic and how to convince him to stop being a pest.

Here we see Superman and Bizarro in a direct super powered confrontation.  

Superman declares Bizarro has "not even alive" which makes it OK to kill him?  Marty Pasko is really channeling some over the top drama here. 

Bizarro is all messed up as he mistakenly believes his home planet, the square shaped Earth known as Bizarro world, was destroyed.  

The resolution still comes down to Superman figuring out Bizarro's backward logic and using it to resolve the conflict.

There's also a dramatic wrap up on the Toyman plot that continued from last issue.  

Marty is trying to bring some Marvel level angst to Superman.

We needs some silver age DC goofiness. Oh, that wacky Steve Lombard, what a schmuck! 

On to Green Lantern#92 with a cover by Mike Grell. 

"The Legend of the Green Arrow" by Denny O'Neil, Mike Grell & Bob Smith sends Hal, Ollie and Sinestro through a plot device called a "Silver Twist" that deposits our cast into a mash up world of alien tech and a rustic medieval culture.

Conveniently, Hal and Sinestro's rings don't work and given there's a plot afoot parallel to the legend of Robin Hood, Ollie is in his element for a change.  

Trying to relive the glory days of the O'Neil/Adams GL/GA run but leaning away from social relevance and towards sci-fi and fantasy, Denny O'Neil was clearly hard pressed to figure out how to make Green Arrow work.  

From SPACE to the FUTURE, it's Mike Grell on the cover art again for Superboy#222 and ah geez, it's this guy again?

In "This Legionnaire Is Condemned", writer Cary Bates (with artists Mike Grell & Bob Wiacek) is determined to make us care about Tyroc.  

You may recall Tyroc was created to answer the question "Why are there no black people in the Legion of Super Heroes?"  

You may also recollect the answer (straight out of Stephen Miller's wet dreams) was that all the black people were living on their own island.  

The Legion tells Tyroc that since they have green folk and orange folk and blue folk, black folk are welcome too. And Tyroc decides to give them a chance.

Tyroc's subsequent appearances do seem to be centered around a disturbing recurring theme.

• It's assumed that Tyroc (the ONLY black man on the team) is up to bad shit. 
• It turns out Tyroc was just sacrificing his reputation and identity to flush out some kind of threat.   

Cary Bates has been writing the Legion since they took over the Superboy title as of issue #197.  This issue is his last issue.

This would also be the last we would see of Tyroc for a long time.  He would have a cameo for the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl in  All New Collectors' Edition C-55 and a quick pop in for Superboy & the Legion of Super Heroes#250. 

He will get a 3 issue arc in Legion of Super Heroes#263-#265 (1980) which ends with that island for only black people shifting to another dimension and Tyroc leaves the Legion.   

Back to September 1976, the back up is a short story written by Jim Shooter with art by Mike Nasser & Bob Layton. Since I began reading the Legion (Superboy#205, August 1974), this is the first NEW story I've seen not drawn by Mike Grell.  

"Death of a Legend" is about a super hero who is more celebrity than hero but has to rise up to face a dangerous challenge. 

For more teen team action with Teen Titans#45, sporting an Ernie Chan/Vince Colletta cover.   

"You Can't Say No to the Angel of Death" is written by Bob Rozakis with art by Irv Novick & Vince Colletta.  

Taking over from Joe Orlando is Julius Schwartz as editor.

Let's do a quick flashback to Teen Titans#44 when Mal Duncan cobbles together some different elements from other stories and characters to create a super hero identity to help him rescue the Teen Titans.

Art by Pablo Marcos & Bob Smith

Julius Schartz did not like that.  He wanted Mal to have his own original identity that was not assembled from spare parts.

So with issue #45,  Speedy starts to rag on Mal about his borrowed super hero persona.  

This is a bit much from a kid sidekick whose whole schtick is a borrowed identity from his mentor, Green Arrow. Who calls himself "Speedy"? 

Mal leaves Titans HQ with a full mad on at this jackass.  

Mal goes up against a Gotham street gang called the Wreckers who set off a bomb explosion.  Caught in the blast, it appears Mal Duncan's number is up as Azrael, the Angel of Death, has come to claim him.

Mal challenges Azrael to a fight.  The angel Gabriel is summoned to referee and the fight is on.  

Mal wins which pisses off  Azrael. 

OK, are you guys following all this?

So Mal puts the horn to use to summon the Titans to help finish off the Wreckers.  

So this was the solution to Julie Schwartz's mandate for Mal to have an original skill set?  OK, points for "original" maybe but it's also muddled and absurd.  

While the Guardian identity may have been a borrowed one, Mal was able use that identity to take direct action and save his friends.

This new concept just means all Mal can do is holler for help and teleport his friends into danger.  

Side note:  Issue #45 marks the the first appearance of Karen Beecher who will become the costumed hero Bumblebee.

After a couple of months of not picking up an issue, I returned to the fold with Action Comics#466, sporting a weird but dynamic cover by Neal Adams of grown up Lex Luthor beating up baby Superman?  

"You Can Take the Man Out of the Super, But You Can't Take the Super Out of the Boy" is the actual title for this adventure by Cary Bates, Curt Swan & Tex Blaisdell.  

The bit is that Lex has figured out a way to de-age both physically and mentally his hated foe, working from the premise that an older, wiser Lex can easily defeat a young, less experience Superman.

He tries this trick out on Batman and Flash before zapping Superman with his de-aginator thingy.

It's another Ernie Chan/Vince Colletta cover for Detective Comics#466.

Ernie Chan & Vince Colletta are also on the interior art which does not favors for the script by Len Wein,  "Signalman Steals the Spotlight".

I'm not sure where this Len Wein tale came from.  Len had left DC about 2 years back to set up shop at Marvel and would not return to DC on the regular until 1978.   

This story is a bit of an odd duck. Signalman was a Z-list bad guy from the 1950's and should've given Batman little trouble.

Instead, Batman gets knocked out and tied up inside the Bat-Signal turned death trap. 

Gotta admit Batman bursting out of the Bat-Signal like that is pretty impressive.  

The back up sees the Calculator taking his schtick up against Green Arrow this time in "Take Me Out of the Ballgame".

Bob Rozakis's script is illustrated by Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin.  IIRC, this is Rogers' debut work as a professional comics artist.   

Rogers will go on to acclaim as the artist for Steve Engelhart's run on Batman in Detective Comics.  (But let's save something for next years' posts on Comic Book Retro 50.) 

We see that Calculator's scheme to immunize himself against super heroes is working.  Guest star Elongated Man (who defeated Calculator last issue) is unable to help Green Arrow.

OK, one last book for September 1976 and we're not done with baseball.  

DC Super Stars#10  with a cover by Ernie Chan is branded as "Strange Sports Stories".    

Strange Sports Stories was an anthology comic that ran for 6 issues from 1973 to 1974.   It featured (do try to keep up) Stories about Sports that were (this is the key element) Strange.  

This special leads off with an ALL NEW 18 page tale called "The Great Super-Star Game" by Bob Rozakis and JLA artists Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin.  (As if Dick and Frank weren't stressed enough with the annual JLA/JSA crossover.)  

It's heroes vs. villains!

Uncle Sam from Freedom Fighters is the umpire.

For the good guys, we've got Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Plastic Man, Robin and Kid Flash.   

For the bad guys, up on deck are Sportsmaster and Huntress (hopping the dimensional divide from Earth 2), Lex Luthor, the Joker, Chronos, Doctor Polaris, Felix Faust, Matter Master, Tattooed Man, Weather Wizard and Amazo.  

Why pray tell is this game happening?

The Huntress and Sportsmaster set up a baseball game between heroes and villains. 

Villains win?  Huntress will remain a villain. 

Heroes win? Huntress will become a hero.

Really! 

Here's a page of the game play for this thing that actually happened! 

Of course the villains cheat but the heroes win and here's the last page for all of that.  

Rounding out the contents are some reprints.

From Strange Adventures#59, it's "The Super-Athletes from Outer Space" and from Green Lantern#39, Hal Jordan has to compete in the "The Fight for the Championship of the Universe"

Both stories pencilled by Gil Kane.   

And that is that for what a young Dave-El bought in September 1976.

Next week's comic book post is a Comic Book Retro Spotlight.  Before the events of JLA#135-#137, we'll take a look at a prior crossover between Earth 1 and Earth S from 1974.  

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Thanks to The Tom Breevort Experience, the Grand Comic Book Database. Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books and Mike's Amazing World of Comics.