CSBG Archive
Snark Free Corner for 3/26
Welcome to the latest installment of your breath of snark free air!
Enjoy!
FUN WITH SELF-CENSORSHIP
Let me just say upfront that, like all things here at Snark Free Corner, I am not saying this to be snarky.
I understand completely that John Byrne, in December 1987/January 1988, did not feel like he had the leeway to have frank and outright discussion about homosexuality.
I think everyone appreciates his efforts in giving the comic world such a cool supporting character in Maggie Sawyer (as I mentioned here) who just happened to also be a lesbian.
Great job by Byrne
However, it doesn’t mean that, twenty years later, we can’t look back at the issues and laugh about how the whole “lesbian” angle had to be alluded to and not said outright.
It’s all in good fun.
So let me begin!
In previous issues, Lex Luthor is shown trying to blackmail Maggie with some photos he has of her in an apparently compromising position.
She doesn’t care.
In Superman #15, we see a woman call Maggie “babe” and the two of them hug as Maggie is very concerned about her daughter (who ran away from her father, who lived back in Star City, where Maggie was from).
Then we have Maggie explain to Superman her life story, including such choice lines as “I was…confused in those days. There were things happening in my head that I’d been denying for a long time. Things a proper Catholic girl didn’t even want to consider. When Jim popped the question, I thought maybe that was what I’d been looking for.”
and “With him gone almost all the time I was adrift. My carefully fabricated life was coming apart in my hands. That was when I finally started to come face to face with myself…with reality (this last panel showed Maggie in a bar standing next to, but apart, from a woman, with a male bartender as well).
Finally, as Superman is flying looking for her daughter, his thought balloon says “It certainly seems ridiculous in this day and age that someone as upright as Maggie Sawyer should have to give up her child because she’s”
And then, a flying creature flies by!
Saved by the cut-off sentence!!!
“Hold it!” he thinks as he then flies after the creature.
Readers were left wondering…”Because she’s WHAT, Superman?!?! POLISH?!? An alien?!?!? A witch?!?!”
Hehe…funny stuff.
COVER THEME GAME
As always, here is the game. I show three covers. They all have something in common, whether it be a character, a trait all three characters share, locale, creator, SOMEthing. And it isn’t something obvious like “They all have prices!” “They all have logos!” “They all feature a man!” etc.
In addition, please note that you must have some familiarity with comic book history to correctly guess these comics. You cannot guess the connective theme just by looking at the covers solely, you must have some knowledge beyond just the covers.
Good luck! One cool point to the first one who figures it out!
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3.

SNARK FREE CHALLENGE
Who would win in a game of chess – Doctor Strange or Doctor Doom?
COVER HOMAGE
Here’s how this one works.
I give you a cover, and you have to tell me a comic cover that homages this cover.
You get a cool point for each cover (one cool point per commenter, so one single commenter can’t just blow it all in one fell swoop), with double the cool points for any cover homage from four on

WHO IS IT?
Remember, tell me who it is and what number clue gave it away!
1. This character is from a planet other than Earth.
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2. This character once tricked Namor into invading the surface world.
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3. This character is currently dead (but has shown up at least one time in one of those “groups of dead people” things that the Avengers love so much).
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4. This character was once married to a character named Supernalia.
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5. Hulk gave this character the nickname “Sparkle-Hair.”
Who is it?
Well, that’s it for this installment of Snark Free Corner.
Hope you had fun!






19 Comments
Pedro Bouça
March 27, 2007 at 2:02 am
Cover homage:
What If (first series) #10.
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=32533&zoom=4
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)
MarkAndrew
March 27, 2007 at 2:40 am
I didn’t get the “Who Is It?” till at least question 6.
DanCJ
March 27, 2007 at 2:47 am
I’m so oblivious. I never even noticed that Byrne had been subtle about Maggie Sawyer.
Oh and unless there’s something I don’t know (which is entirely possible) I’d have thought Dr Doom would wipe the floor with Dr Strange in a chess game – unless Dr Strange used his magical powers to cheat!
Graham Vingoe
March 27, 2007 at 3:38 am
considering Dr Doom is a regular chess player you have to side with him over Dr Strange.
the “who is it” is Nebulon the Celestial Man- its was clue 5 that gave it away. the Nebulon/headmen saga is one of my all-time favourites
MarkAndrew
March 27, 2007 at 5:20 am
The guy with the Bozos? He had sparkly hair? I forgot.
Hee. Y’know what’s funny? Even after all that introduction, I betcha the people at the John Byrne forum are still going to get pants-wettingly angry.
Rusty Priske
March 27, 2007 at 6:03 am
I got Nebulon with #4, the Supernalia comment.
The first comics I ever bought were three issues of the Avangers, including the Avengers vs Defenders Annual featuring the two of them!
James
March 27, 2007 at 6:46 am
Homage –
Uncanny X-Men Annual #9 (with Storm weilding Mjolnir).
James
March 27, 2007 at 6:49 am
Also, is the “Who Is It?” Nebulon? I’m guessing from clue #4.
sean
March 27, 2007 at 7:06 am
Is the theme “immigrants”? Living Lightning is from Mexico, Avalanche is from Greece, and Skien/Gypsy Moth is from Romania?
I’m just hoping it’s something to do with Living Lightning.
sean
March 27, 2007 at 7:15 am
Doctor Strange: “What’s that, over there, behind you?”
Doctor Doom: (turns to look) “What?”
Doctor Strange: “Al-a-ka-ZAM”
(Doom’s queen disappears)
Doctor Doom: (turning back) “I saw nothing, fool. I am Doom.”
Doctor Strange: “Sorry, it’s my move, right?”
Doctor Doom: “That’s stra– odd. I thought I still had my queen.”
Doctor Strange: “Nope, she’s been wiped from existence for all eterni– er, I took it with my bishop.”
And Doom would *still* win.
Matt D
March 27, 2007 at 8:19 am
I love Infamous Monsters of Hollywood so much.
Jazzbo
March 27, 2007 at 9:04 am
Do they all feature villians who wear Hangman Hoods? I know a member of Night SHift used to, and that sure looks like a Hangman’s Hood on the Hulk cover.
And unless Dr. Strange cheated, Doom would kick his butt at chess.
DCD
March 27, 2007 at 9:37 am
King’s privilege, three moves at once!
Knight jumps queen!
Bishop jumps queen!
Pawns jump queen!
typo Lad
March 27, 2007 at 12:28 pm
All three covers feature members of the Night Shift?
Matt Brady
March 27, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Here’s an homage:
Thor. #400
buttler
March 27, 2007 at 2:09 pm
all three covers feature super-villains become (intentionally or not) super-heroes? night shift, thunderbolts, landslide . . .
Alonso
March 27, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Thor (v.1) #450 is a cover homage.
Sorry about posting two last time. Didn’t read the rules…
Rob M
March 27, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Does a cover homage count if it’s not on an actual comic book? The 2006 Overstreet Comib Book Price Guide, by John K. Snyder III
http://www.gemstonepub.com/06_cbpg.asp
John Seavey
March 28, 2007 at 9:20 am
Incidentally, I’d just like to share my snark-blocking moment of the day–the first meeting of Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Luke is having a bad day (because the story starts in medias res)…he’s having to kidnap Misty Knight, and he’s feeling very guilty about it. He feels even more guilty roughing up Misty’s friend and business partner, Colleen Wing, especially when he topples her improvised bookshelf-barricade back onto her and breaks her arm. Then Misty shows up, and despite her bionic arm, she doesn’t last long. Cage reaches down for the unconscious Misty Knight, cursing himself for a heel…and in the darkness behind him, we see a glow. A voice says, “Mister Cage? Turn around.”
The punch lasts two pages. One page for the punch, and another page (of three panels) for him to finally hit the ground somewhere across the street.
All done, BTW, by Claremont and Byrne. Truly an awesome sequence, and well worth looking up (in either Essential Power Man Volume Two or Essential Iron Fist Volume One…or Power Man #49, if you’re a purist.)