So not too long ago, while finishing up reading Action Comics#589 from John Byrne's run on Superman,
I went to go put it up on my comic book shelf. Well I just happened to notice the back of the comic, and I saw this:
Yep. American Defense. One of many truly cheap knock-offs of the popular GI Joe brand. What makes this one of, if not The ultimate rip-off of the Joes I think, is the advertising effort put forth by K-Mart. The dollar stores sure as hell don't advertise their knock-offs, but but then retail giant, K-Mart does. Huh. And I'm sure at the same time they were selling the real deal right next to each other on the store pegs. Crazy world we live I tell ya.
I never saw or played with these at the time, but I'm sure there's some you , ahem, older readers(coughRandomnerd, Shlomo, and Googumcough) that probably had or played with these.
Here's some examples of just how far the rip-off line went as far as went in copying the whole GI Joe experience:
Why there's even an archive site devoted specifically to these knock-off American heroes. Just crazy.
Finally, while I was browsing through my back issues of Wizard Magazine looking for an article, I picked up #101, and thumbed through it. To my surprise, on page 72, Some Wizard staffer mentioned that even back in February 2000(3 years before Daredevil, and 5 before Nolan re-energized the then broken franchise) Warner Bros were considering Affleck for the role as Batman. Take in account this was fresh off Affleck's performance in the blockbuster(wasn't it) movie Armageddon.
Wow. So I guess knowing that, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Affleck was always on Warner Bros. radar, just more know considering his roles and directorial performances in The Town and Argo. Damn.
Alright, that's me for this week.
Peace and chicken grease muthafuckasssssssssssssssss:)
