When I was a kid, the randomness of 70's syndicated TV was in so many ways, the very best thing.

Back then, television wasn't so much curated as it was available. Episodes of shows would routinely be shown out of order. One day you'd be watching an episode of Batman from 1966 with Julie Newmar chewing up the scenery and the next, one with Eartha Kitt's Catwoman just owning every damned inch of the screen.

Back then I I didn't know why my Catwoman kept changing but when a pair of cat ears would appear, I was a happy little guy.

I pretty much had the same experience with The New Scooby-Doo Movies. In the roulette wheel that was afterschool syndicated TV, you were just as likely to see Scooby and the gang team up with awesome TV mainstays as The Addams Family as you would as you would Sandy Duncan.

Yup. Sandy Duncan.

When I was a kid, one episode of The Scooby-Doo Movies was super special. Each day, I'd sit in from my tv and hope with all of my little heart that that day's episode would feature Batman and Robin as voiced by Super Friends voice actors Olan Soule and Casey Kasem.

The days that it did were some of my favorite days in front of the tv.

That's why today, when I saw the above preview, I became a kid again. Batman and Robin and The Scooby Gang.

And Batman brought friends along: Black Canary. Plastic Man. Martian Manhunter and yes, Detective Chimp.

My love for DC Comics and it's vastness was rekindled with the Batman: The Brave and The Bold cartoon series and it only becomes better with Scooby.

I'm going to get this. I don't need it to be good. Just know that right now, I'm be as happy as a kid.

Labels: Batman

A few years back, after shuttering Seven Hells!, I, along with some of my favorite bloggers and writers, went off and formed a new collective blog, "Second Printing." It lasted for a good while and while there I did a lot of work I'm proud of. What I thought I'd do is revisit some of the work I did there and update some of the ideas for where comics are at this very moment in time.

First up, The New Mythology, Revisited:

The old god lay broken and battered. The hammer of the god lay silent, in need of a champion.

“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.”

The man from another planet reaches down, grasping for the power of a god. He is found worthy.

With that, the war is won.

With that, a war we had no idea was being waged had been won. Superman, the champion of our new mythology, won.

The superhero, won. It took up the mantle of mythology and won.

That was my first thought upon reading the final issue of JLA/Avengers, issue 4. Comics are the new mythology.

In this mythology, men like Maxie Zeus, with his delusions of godhood, ultimately defers to the guise of one of America’s greatest contributions to the new mythology, the gangster.

In our medium gods are secondary. In the case of SHAZAM!, the gods grant power and get out of the way. Hercules gifts a young boy with his strength leading to the youth's becoming known as "The World's Mightiest Mortal." 

In Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente's Incredible Hercules run, he has to side with The Hulk to remind everyone of how incredible he is. In the pages of Captain Britain and MI:13, Excalibur, sword of King Arthur, is now in the hands of a daughter of immigrants.

The new mythology is Jack Hawksmoor of The Authority, born and bred to master the urban settings of glass and steel, making him the first truly new superhero creation of The 21st Century.

In the Wonder Woman movie she is given the name, "The Godkiller."

The new mythology is Jane Foster taking up the mantle of Thor while dealing with breast cancer because The Odinson is found unworthy, again.

Sometimes, we forget we’re the keepers of this new mythology.

Mythology, new and old, is forever and right now.

The new mythology is yours and more so than ever, comics are the new mythology.

How we keep it is up to us.