Man, just imagine if this had been good . . .

So good friend Alex calls me and tells me I have to do a web search for Infantino art. I'm not much of a fan of his stuff (particularly the stuff I grew up with, which got real weird and had awful, wide faces), so I was curious. He said there was a great Cap Marvel/Billy transformation page with Samarai, even.

So I go looking and I find this.

Now, by all indicators, this was probably not a very good comic book.

But just imagine that it were!

Firestorm, Cap Marvel, Cyborg, Samarai, and Plastic Man? What an oddball combo. Plas and Cap I've loved since childhood, and those others guys I don't really care either way. But just imagine if some great writer/artist combo took this random assortment of action figures--I mean characters, and wrote a great story.

There's something to be said for randomness, and it's something I don't think we see enough these days. Everything is so carefully planned and deliniated. The DCU is so very neat and tidy. Even when it's awful rape comics, everyone stays within their boundries pretty much.

If you're going to have a silly shared universe like the DCU, why not go hog wild with it? Bring in guest stars that don't seem to make any sense. The best issues of Marvel Team Up, Brave and the Bold, or DC Presents were the ones with the characters that didn't seem to belong together. The writer really had to work to make a story out of Batman and Sgt. Rock, for instance. DC is hellbent on tying everything together. So it's high time someone just did a cannonball into the pool and had fun.

That's reason number seventy nine that I can't wait for Seven Soldiers.

EDITED PS: If this post seems rushed, I apologize. But someone had to stop Mad Brian Cronin's spree. Six posts in a row! Bloggers, we must be more vigilant, lest the untamed beast we call Brian escape from his cage once more.