What's in a name?

So Heather was showing me this funny website last night called Groupiedirt.com. Yeah, there's plenty of kissing and telling on this site, as groupies from all eras(60's-2000's) give the dirt on the sexual prowess, or lack of, on famous rockstars. It's funny as hell to read/hear the things these groupies say about who's the best lover and who isn't. The obvious rockstars like Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, Steven Tyler, and others are on there. Most of these guys I just listed are given really good "reviews", which I figured as much, but some of the other ones had me going "hmm?" Take for example, one of my favorite rock lead singers Diamond Dave himself, David Lee Roth of Van Halen; according to one groupie he was "a major disappointment sexually and a "psycho," say female groupies who've been with him. Maybe that's because David is rumored to be now be more interested in California boys than California girls." Yeah, I'm not sure I'm buying Diamond Dave batting for the pink team. There's a nice range of band reviews, from Alice In Chains and Alice Cooper(who was reportedly a "dead fish") to boy bands and Whitesnake. I highly recommend checking out this website, if anything else to get a few laughs and some "yeah I though so's."  Now I can't personally verify every "review" from these groupies, so read these with a grain of salt, unless they can be proven otherwise.

Speaking of being given a bad name, all to often in the whole history of comic books, many characters are given names by their creators that sound good at the time, but don't age well. Or if they do, well they still be pointed out and laughed at occasionally. Take for example, oh I don't know, Amazo. Amazo's a bad-ass android who can temporarily or permanently(depending on who writes him) duplicate the super-powers of any superhero or villain. Not to mention the fact that his creator Professor Ivo created him with the stolen powers of the original Justice League, makes him a very dangerous entity. Of course he still has by modern standards a funny name which would lead you to believe he shouldn't be taken seriously. There are many, many more comic characters like this out there if you took the time to look. Still I say, don't judge them too harshly. History's filled with people with funny names, but their still regarded in a serious light. Examples? How about legendary NY Yankee's baseball player Yogi Bera. That's an nontraditional name, but you still respect the man right? How about Alice Cooper? True, it's not his real name, but it doesn't make him any less famous right?  Check out this skit on the topic:

...And Amazo was his name-o!

I recently snatched up a re-released DCUC Wave 5 Amazo figure from Amazon.com, and I must say he looks pretty damn good!

I know this is old hat by now, but I like him. I do wish the 4Horsemen/ DCUC would've sculpted or included some accessories or something for our favorite JLA android threat. He has GL's ring hand, but I would've liked to see him with WW's lasso as well as a GL construct or two to help really sell the figure. On the lasso, I think I'm going to make a custom one for him, out of either metal wire, or fabric. I'll post the finished results so you can see how it went.

You know Amazo's been around for a longgggg time. He's been around since the early '60's, June 1960 to be exact; and yet I feel like Amazo hasn't really had his time to shine yet. Sure he was the main villain, or at least one of the main villains recently in then JLA writer Brad Meltzer's initial storyline A Tornado's Path. He's had numerous sporadiac appearences before and since, but for some reason I don't think he's really had his due.

He came close in writer Mark Millar's guest issue of JLA during Grant Morrison's run. In that one, issue 27(Vol.4) March 1999, Millar has Amazo absolutely own the JLA! He takes out main seven, then takes down the reserves, and then after copying Firestorm's powers, he really lets loose taking out every other superhero that comes after him. It's not until The Atom shows up does things start to go up from there for the JLA. He tells Superman to disband the League, and somehow that makes Amazo stop in his tracks and he's suddenly defeated. Yeah I don't like how the story ended either, considering Millar really built him up to be virtually unstoppable, and then just by Superman yelling "The JLA is officially disbanded!" Amazo just freaks out and shuts down. Not a credible ending, but this was basically a one-shot by Millar before Morrison came back next issue for his 4-part take on the annual JLA/JSA meeting, So I guess a more satsifying conclusion to the fight probably wasn't possible. Still, makes you wonder if Millar was able to continue the fight next issue, what really could've happened.

I think this fight and maybe the one between Amazo and Batman and Nightwing, as well as the Red Tornado/Amazo storyline have been his best showing so far, but he's better than that. Remember how he was portrayed in the JLU cartoon? Unbeatable and totally bad-ass right? Not to mention writer Dwayne McDuffie's turn on him battling the JLA. He owned them until they were forced to teleport him far of in space somewhere.

Seriously think about it for a minute; Amazo's got all the powers of the original seven JLA members, not to mention he can replicate any other super-power he comes in contact with, how is he not a more credible threat than how he's usually written? Just as hard and tough as Despero is when you fight him, so should Amazo be. That's my opinon though, what do I know?

This is how it should be: