Welcome to the latest installment of your breath of snark free air!

Enjoy!

COOL COMIC THINGS

John Byrne realized this cool comic thing when he came up with the idea for Acts of Vengeance. Superheroes fighting supervillains they usually do not is a really cool comic thing.

How awesome is it when you see, say, Superman trying to match wits with the Joker?

Or Spider-Man doing all he can to take down the Juggernaut?

Of course, suspension of disbelief is a big part of this, and if you stretch it TOO far, it gets to be a bit silly some times.

For instance, Batman vs. Darkseid or Spider-Man vs. Firelord.

But within reason, mismatched superhero/supervillain fights are a really cool comic thing.

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! A cool point to the first one who figures it out!

1.

2.

3.

SNARK FREE CHALLENGE

Who do you think could tie the strongest knot - Green Arrow or Hawkeye?

COVER HOMAGE

One cool point to the first person who can tell me which cover this Superman: Man of Steel cover is homaging!

COOL COMIC MOMENT

This week's cool comic moment is courtesy of Gerry Conway who, in his own way, managed to do more for the Mary Jane/Peter Parker relationship than any other writer I can think of, including the writers who had them get MARRIED!

After the death of Gwen Stacy, Peter lashes out at Mary Jane, but here, there is a turning point in Mary Jane's characterization. Up until now, she WOULD leave the room after a blowout like this...however, now, she has matured to the point where she realizes Peter needs her, even if he is being mean to her at the moment.

Great scene.

This scene is echoed 27 issues later, when Peter is reeling from the "return" of Gwen Stacy. Again, he and Mary Jane had a falling out, but now it is Peter who is realizing how much Mary Jane means to HIM...and we get a great reaction shot, with a sound effect homage to the first scene.

I especially love the way Conway basically implies sex without being over the top. That was very well done.

A really cool comic moment.

Well, that's it for this installment of Snark Free Corner.

Hope you had fun!