Character: Liberty Belle
Publisher: DC Comics
Artist: Joel Priddy
Reviewer: Vito Delsante

Libby, as she was known to other members of the All-Star Squadron, was never really one of my favorites. I think she was even the Chairman of the Squadron when I was reading it (around Crisis on Infinite Earths). She was best fleshed out in The Golden Age, by James Robinson and the great Paul Smith. Let’s take a look at what Joel did…

First, lets tart with the head…while she isn’t wearing a mask (as she did in the comics) Joel touched on something that is key to the character (as well as key to just about any Golden Age-themed heroine) and that is the Veronica Lake archetype. Libby, Black Canary, Red Masque…all have their roots, pardon the pun, with the original blonde bombshell. It’s the hair, the way it sweeps down over the eye. It’s quite possibly something that is easily overlooked, and I commend Joel for catching that.

The Eisenhower jacket is a perfect accessory/costume element as well. Shortly after the War, women were wearing these left and right and while the fashion trend is about 10 years to early (in the sense of character continuity) it fits perfectly. Her pants and her boots are pretty much standard issue, but I think another great add here is the bell and hammer. Can anyone tell me what Libby’s powers are? No one? Don’t Wiki it…when the Liberty Bell is rung in Philadelphia, she gets a rush of adrenaline. Also, she has some level of sonic powers, but I think that was retconned in after they took Black Canary out of the Squadron and put her into the JSA (and she went to Limbo, fought Raganarok…blah blah blah). But, in her original origin, she was given a replica of the Liberty Bell by a guy named, no kidding, Paul Revere. Joel has taken that and gone a step further and possibly even given her a weapon.

It’s a safe assumption that Jesse Quick (Libby’s daughter) will be taking up her mother’s mantle in the new JSA series. It’d be a great treat to see her in this costume. We can dream, can’t we?

Character: Chemo
Publisher: DC Comics
Artist: Tom Kelly
Reviewer: Joel Priddy

Well, geez, this is pretty freakin’ cool.

Chemo, a walking chemical holocaust in a clear plastic shell, should be one of DC’s more terrifying villains, but that bad-boy image is seriously indercut by a doughboy figure. As an opponent of the Metal men, its goofy appearance fit in just fine. But, now that Dc is handling it as a serious threat, or at least as a four-color Hurricane Katrina metaphor, Chemo desperately needs a new, more menacing look.

And, let me ask you, would you want this Chemo walking towards your hometown? It looks toxic, volatile, and deeply malicious.

Tom Kelly has submitted a number of designs, all of which worked as neat-o illustrations, but I had to wonder how many of them would translate out of Kelly’s particular style. This one, especially, works as a character design as well as an illustration. Kelly’s Chemo would be more difficult to draw than the present incarnation, but that’s why cartoonists make the big bank, right?

On a character level, an explanation would be needed for the sudden appearance of a skeleton amid Chemo’s swirling sludge. Chemo is nothing but a bunch of failed chemical experiments a whimsical and at least slightly moronic scientist poured into a giant humanoid-shaped plastic receptacle. The chemicals reacted to each other (something no scientist could have ever predicted happening), and the result was an unpleasant new form of life, capable of animating its shell and prone to rampages. So where does the skeleton come in? Did Chemo accrete it out of, uhm, say evil radioactive minerals? If so, why? Or did whoever patched it up after the Society splattered it all over Bludhaven provide in with it as part of an upgraded plastic suit?

In any case, congratulations to Tom Kelly for making Chemo’s appearnce match his character.