The Flame of Py'tar

29.8.10

JLA-Z #1 Despero art by Dean Haspiel (November, 2003)

A bit of the old, a bit of the new...

28.8.10

Fifty Years of Despero

On August 25, 1960, the first issue of Justice League of America shipped, introducing the world to the three eyed despot of an other-dimensional world, Despero! The villain only appeared once more in the 1960s, and twice again in the 1970s, always locked in combat with the League.

Despero started the '80s by kidnapping Martian Manhunter and running another losing gambit against his least favorite super-team. Blinded by hate and frustration, Despero turned both murderous and borderline suicidal, entering the Flame of Py'tar to be reborn. With massively enhanced powers and radically altered appearance, Despero took on the weakest and least respected incarnation of the League, and still managed to lose.

By 1990, Despero was a rampaging beast whose only reason for living was to kill super-heroes, and the fans liked it. In fact, DC briefly managed to turn Despero into an anti-hero under the control of artificial intelligence, but by the end of the decade, he was merely a disembodied spirit. That didn't stop Despero from being a pain in the neck for huge swaths of the DC Universe though, and most recently, the villain has been seen ruling his home planet of Kalanor and working with outer space agents to maintain the peace.

From object of ridicule to one of the best known DC villains, featured on cartoons and in toy lines, Despero has come a long way in half a century. While I plan to make this year's "December of Despero" the best yet, I felt the Idol-Head needed to belatedly observe the birthday of one of the greatest Martian Manhunter foes of all time this weekend. Presented here are two means of celebration:

When I created Martian Manhunter: The Rock of the JLA through my WebTV account, I had very limited resources. There was only a few megabits of storage space available, I didn't have an actual computer to produce scans, and I could only post a few pages to any given site address before I couldn't load the page myself. To deal with this, I built multiple connected sites, which existed at a variety of home pages. Despero's page had an off white background with a bunch of computer rendered floating eyeballs, a background shared by the original Vile Menagerie.

I was still figuring out what I was doing while I was drafting my initial posts on this blog, and at first I tried to organize my posts as I had done my WebTV material. Justice League Detroit was created as a storehouse for Martian Manhunter posts from the mid-80s, and only became a blog of its own as an afterthought. I did the same thing with another "secret" blog that's been around almost as long, The Flame of Py'tar: A Blog for Despero the Destroyer! The blog was intentionally garish and amateurish, intended to mirror the original look of The Idol-Head. To show how dated it is, there is a banner at the bottom of the page promoting Michael Netzer's crusade to save Martian Manhunter from death in Final Crisis, and a parody version advocating his murder that I'm not sure was ever used here. Anyway, that blog never quite came together, but I never had the heart to delete it either. I just updated it with every relevant Despero article from this blog, so if you'd like to easily page through everything we've done so far, check it out.

Alternately, here's a selection of what I feel are the best posts we've done about Despero in the last three years (almost to the day, actually,) and I'll try to add a few more in the next few days...

18.8.10

DC75: Daddy Is Dead, Child (Justice League America #38, 1990)

While everyone else was busy scowling and dredging up traumatic childhood memories, the Justice League International franchise was laughing all the way to the bank. Denied proven commercial heroes due to iconic revamps and the distaste of overly series fellow creators, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis instead sold the idea of heroes paling around like real people to a buying public starved for something different. Utilizing the gift for facial expression of artist Kevin Maguire, Giffen & DeMatteis cast lesser-knowns in the first successful comic book super-hero situational comedy. The formula hit a speed bump two years in with the departure of Maguire, but a reasonable enough facsimile was found a few months later in the young Adam Hughes.

While the JLI often touched on darker themes, the nature of the characters and the book itself never allowed the proceedings to become especially grim. While this kept the tone light, it also meant attempts at deeper character work were brushed off as set-ups for a gag, limiting the book's story potential. Perhaps sensing a leash forming, Giffen and DeMatteis began stealthily asserting their right to go dark.

In an issue which had begun with five page Spy magazine parody, a savage beast was introduced. This was the hulking Despero with a fin-mohawk, revitalized in the waning days of the previous Justice League of America as a force to be reckoned with, but little exposed to date. Readers presumably took one look at a nude pink alien roaming around, and waited for the jokes to start.

It would be a long wait. Despero found one member of the old League in a vegetative state, and ended his sad existence. Bodies were strewn about, one victim had a slightly goofy look of surprise, but there was nothing funny about this. Despero located the home of another former Leaguer, murdered her family, then arranged the bodies in natural looking positions. The retired heroine Gypsy came home with schoolbooks in hand, distracted by her daily business, until being greeted by the dawning realization that her entire family was dead.

Adam Hughes had a gift for mood Kevin Maguire had lacked, which was exploited to the fullest extent by this script-flipping move by Giffen & DeMatteis. Suddenly, after three years of readers taking for granted that everything in a JLI adventure would turn out alright, they were confronted with real stakes and deadly consequences. The actual body count turned out to be fairly low, with no other recognized characters perishing, but the threat left an impression on readers from then on. The story elevated the book from good fun to monumental, established Despero as one of the premier DC villains, and elevated the Martian Manhunter's viability as a commercial character. As an unfortunate side effect, Giffen & DeMatteis then struggled to restore the humor of the series, going too broad, and soon hobbled when no suitable replace could be found once Hughes moved on. A creative high point for the team also proved something of a terminal prognosis, leading to the end of their era.

Check out more highlights from the past 75 years of DC Comics at The Truly Most Memorable Moments of the DC Dodranscentennial

5.8.10

DC75: Despero Enjoys Chess (Justice League of America #1,1960)

God may not play dice with the universe, but the despotic alien Despero sure got a kick out of chancing the lives of the Justice League on a board game. The image of a blank-eyed League seated at a table presided over by the evil mutant is creepy, and watching teammates perish as a hero struggles through a deadly game of chance has become downright routine in its constant homage.

For the full story, read Justice League of America #1 (10-11/1960), or check out more highlights from the past 75 years of DC Comics at The Truly Most Memorable Moments of the DC Dodranscentennial

7.6.10

IGN's Top 7 Martian Manhunter Villains of All Time

Last year, the comics department of IGN.com put together a list of their Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time. A number of J'Onn J'Onzz adversaries showed up, so I thought some direct links might be in order, as well as their individual rankings. I agree with IGN's rational for the post part, at least as it applies to where these here folk fall. Prometheus making it out of the bottom rungs is one of a number of unforgivable black eyes against the list as a whole...

96. Despero

84. Doctor Light

46. Doomsday

41. Mongul

36. Vandal Savage

35. Gorilla Grodd

6. Darkseid

25.5.10

The Top 10 Despero Covers

Today, we'll be looking at the nemesis of the Manhunter from Mars. There is no shortage of impressive images of Despero the Destroyer. However, because he's often the big bad in a big reveal during a story, the covers often do not reflect the magnitude of his presence. In fact, I'll cop to the latter five as being almost completely arbitrary choices, because I'd say only the top five are truly great representations of this menace.

10) Supergirl #17 (January, 1998)

The Destroyer drawn by Gary Frank. It's just so pretty.

9) Superman/Batman #33 (March, 2007)

Literally chewing up a host of alien heroes in his jagged maw

8) Justice League Task Force #31 (January, 1996)

Just a striking image of Despero in bondage-- no small accomplishment.

7) Justice League Task Force #27 (September, 1995)

The finest cover example of Despero's gun-toting, anti-heroic, "the Savage Dragon stole my bit" period.

6) Justice League of America #133 (August, 1976)

Flanked by the world's greatest heroes, Despero kills Superman and ask who wants next.

5) Justice League of America #251 (June, 1986)

The first clear cover image of Despero reborn as a finhawked badass of massive scale.

4) Justice League of America #178 (May, 1980)

A great riff on Despero's debut, beautifully rendered by Jim Starlin, and the first indication of personal animosity toward the Martian Manhunter.

3) R.E.B.E.L.S. #12 (March, 2010)

Nothing says "we're in trouble" like someone holding Despero's severed head, while nothing quite says "our way out is almost as frightening as how deep we're in" like Vril Dox grinning.

2) Justice League America #39 (June, 1990)

I almost threw in the issue where Despero crash lands in the JLI's midst, but he's just a funky colored blob in an intentionally obscured image. Here, you can clearly see the result of his onslaught, and the beginning of his fan favorite villain status.

1) Justice League of America #1 (November, 1960)

The original. The classic. One of the most inspirational and imitated covers of all time.

Check out more spotlight countdowns of great art from the past 75 years of DC Comics Covers at DC75: Top Character Covers of the Dodranscentennial

6.1.10

Justice League of America #177 (April, 1980)

Aquaman: Took on a Russian trawler in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean illegally harvesting dolphins. "You people never learn, do you? You think you can rape the sea, the way you've raped the land! Isn't it enough you spill your wastes in our waters? Isn't it enough you sink oil tankers in breeding grounds? In Neptune's name, you may not have had enough-- but I have!" The Sea King took a few lumps, but called on a whale to bat the sailors off their ship. Strangely, they then transformed into large, bobbing, featureless and angular statues.

The Atom: Helped a pal foil kidnappers in Ivy Town by riding along in the payoff briefcase. Was shocked when the creeps turned into two statues like Aquaman's with a third appearing with religious iconography.

Green Arrow and Black Canary: Dressed as bikers in Star City, the pair karate chopped their way into a white trash/supremacist rally. They were then attacked by an animated statue of a knight riding a horse's head, a chess piece brought to dangerous life. A Canary Cry shattered it.

Batman and Superman: Having foiled hijackers at Gotham Airport, the World's Finest were assailed by fiery cannonballs from mobile castles/rooks. Switching to kryptonite projectiles, the Man of Steel was bowled over, leaving the Dark Knight to detonate explosives in yet another chess piece.

Zatanna: On the JLA Satellite in orbit 22,300 miles above Earth, Zee compared the reported assaults while on monitor duty. "You're the detective, Batman. I'm 'just' a sorceress. But from where I sit, it looks like you've all been involved in the opening gambits of some cosmic chess game, with deadly pieces... I think we'd better call an emergency meeting!"

Elsewhere in the cosmos, a purple flying saucer rested in outer space. Within sat a chess board, half filled with pieces representing the full JLofA membership, including Elongated Man, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, the Flash, Red Tornado, Wonder Woman, and the rest. Not among them was a long absent former member, the Manhunter from Mars, who was instead bound in the opposite chair. Manhunter's chess pieces having largely fallen, his opponent cackled.

"HAHAHAHAHA! It seems the opening moves have all ended in my favor! How ironic that I should be pleased by the victories of the Justice League... I, Despero, who despise them more than I despise any other group of beings in the universe! But you see, that's why I've chosen them as my champions, J'onn J'onzz... for the irony! In this game I have forced you to play, you must defeat and kill your friends in the Justice League, using those pieces I created for you... for if you fail, and lose the game... then your fellow Martian exiles will die, and you will be to blame! YOUR MOVE, MARTIAN MANHUNTER!"

"The Graveyard Gambit" was by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin.