Add This To Your List of PopCultRefs

I spotted this awhile ago but forgot to mention it. It's just inside enough that, if you ever get a chance to use it, you'll be quite the show-off. Not that it'll likely ever happen, but you never know.

Anyway, if you see the words:

NAMTAB POTS!

maybe on a T-shirt, on a baseball cap, or even on a website, here's the story:

Brad Meltzer wrote Identity Crisis, a 7-issue mini-series for DC, a couple of years ago. It made him a household name in homes that read comics (and whatever types of homes really matter?) and in many ways launched DC's editorial direction they've been following ever since (with Countdown, and Infinite Crisis, One Year Later, and now 52). So it was kind of significant in the world of comics (and was also a best seller in comic and trade paperback format).

In Identity Crisis, one of the central plotlines involves sexy fishnet-stockinged magician Zatanna, who casts spells by saying things backwards (hey, I've told you before: I don't make this shit up!), using her powers to wipe the memories of certain super-villains who'd found out stuff they shouldn't have: like the secret identities of some of the heroes, for example! This sort of thing was common in comics in the 60s and 70s, and no one thought twice about it. In our current age, though, you can imagine the repercussions of such a violation of human rights! Part of the story was just how certain other heroes reacted to finding out about this, including Batman, who freaks. At a particularly crucial moment, the Caped Crusader is on the verge of throwing Zatanna and the JLAers who've gone along with her on their asses, when Zatanna shouts:

NAMTAB POTS!

She follows that little indiscretion up by wiping Bruce's memory of the entire episode, and sets in motion all kinds of bad things (his mind doesn't take kindly to being messed with). It's more or less the turning point of the story, because once they mess with the Dark Knight, you know the fecal matter's headed straight for the wind propulsion device. And it is. And it hits, hard.

So now, at least in comic circles, we've got a new PopCultRef addition, and you're all on the inside now, you lucky devils, you.