Black Manta

Black Manta

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

the Unknown Soldier











Rangers lead the way:  Lonzo is the highest caliber special forces Green Beret.

Stalker is the proven truth when it comes to Army Special Operations; ready to deploy by land, air and sea anywhere in the world at a moments notice to respond to the latest contingency or crisis.  This Green Beret has executed the most critical special missions of direct action,  hostage rescue,  clandestine night fighting,  air field seizure,  infiltration and advanced Recon.  Missions so critical his superiors , superiors can't even talk about them.  The perfect warrior and epitome of the Ranger Creed.



The field commander of the original G.I.Joe team which consisted of Rock N Roll, Short Fuse, Scarlett, Breaker, Grunt, Zap, Grandslam, Snake Eyes and Flash.




Stalker has been in the OA1 top five figures since 1982, his first appearance.
Me and Stalker has destroyed all my neighborhood  friends teams of Joe's.
We firecracker ed their guys, won their vehicles and took home their weapons. Alpha Fight stands undefeated.

I still have multiple versions of the figure. Their a little rough for wear but who doesn't have battle scars? Here's one or two from my collection,  I added in a few new one's with my old ones and a couple of custom jobs too just to let you know were ready to roll if that's what you want to do (just saying).






Stalker with Rhino vehicle



Stalker: Infiltrator unit


Stalker was always prominent in the figure realm and has a multitude of action figures. In the G.I.Joe comics and cartoon though he had no true presence. After the first season of the cartoon he wasn't included at all.  Roadblock was the big strong Black guy that spoke everything in rhyme, that always bragged about being a gourmet cook. He's the African American that is G.I.Joe spotlighted not the multilingual medic bad ass Green Beret.?.  Don't get me wrong, I like Roadblock and I chalked it up to Stalker and Duke are figuratively the same guy;  the leader, the main character, the most interesting character to build around. So they couldn't have two (riiight). Add in that later the word stalker became a socially used negative descriptive word. Still, no excuse not to use Stalker the G.I.Joe in the mainstream (unless you have no creative talent).
Well Stalker was cool when he was in the cartoon.




Stalker could easily move right into his own individually mainstreamed verse in the world of G.I.Joe. With his own supporting cast of joes to go along with him. 
His squad would be Beach head, Gung Ho, Airborne, Shipwreck, 
Doc (Carla Greer) and Bomb strike.




Duke's team is usually Roadblock, Scarlett, Flint, Lady Jaye and Stalker

Snake Eyes support team is usually Storm Shadow, Jinx, kamakura, Quinn, the Hard master and the Blind Master. sometimes Stalker.

So these guys can cameo when it's Stalkers time to shine. 
I'd back up Lonzo's 1st team with 
 Spirit, Snow Job, Recondo, Bullet Proof, Dial tone and Alpine. 
But this is a OA1 dream production so who knows who might show up.
the October Guard would for sure.











Thursday, August 1, 2013

Bronze Tiger: Michael Jai White



Suicide Squad's 
Spec Ops secret weapon the Bronze Tiger will show up in season 2 of Arrow.  The word on the wire is that BT will form an uneasy alliance with China White, the leader of the triads in Star City. The Squad is said to be forming and the Bronze Tiger is the first agent of Waller's on the show. Bone crushing kick assery is sure to ensue.


Bronze Tiger is a martial arts Grand Master and former LOA assassin. Michael Jai White being a martial arts master himself understands how DC's super spy's fight game should be executed. The only question left is what will he look like.


this photo is from Michael Jai White's twitter page. I'm thinking this is from the set of Arrow so we might have the sneak peak at what the Tiger's urban ninja is going to be. Will he have the Tiger mask at some point in the Task Force X movie, will the claws be tricked out (come on DC let's do it

Truly I was hoping for a modern version of the BT classic look or tactical battle gear with martial arts accents. The leather jacket is cool too.
Believe me I'm not complaining.

  BT is in the building and the excitement level is high sports fans.



Essential Bronze Tiger

Who's Who may 85 volume III

Detective Comics #485,  489

Legends #1-6

Checkmate #6, 7 (Greg Rucka)

Suicide Squad  vI (John Ostrander)

SS mini series Raise the Flag #1-8

Suicide Squad #67 / Secret Six #17, 18


Best stand alone issue: Suicide Squad #38



Checkmate #7

Michael Jai White is