Comix Secret HQ

Zbeng!

2012-01-16T16:42:00.000-08:00

Zbeng! is Israeli humor comic series targeted towards teens, written by Uri Fink. The series focuses the everyday life of adolescent students of an fiction high school in Gush Dan. It spoofs Israeli culture, adolescent experiences, society and the overall human condition. The comic's characters are basically all exaggerated stereotypes. The main characters (there are too many to list save the main four) are:

Gal Tichon- He is the main protagonist. He is a popular kid that everyone likes. He likes surfing and playing the electric guitar. As such, he is the guitar player of the My Limpy Sister band. His girlfriend is Sigal (although them breaking up between them is common).

Jinji / Ronen Sagiv- He is Gal's red head friend. He obsesses over sex despite every women that meets him hates him. He is the My Limpy Sister's bassist.

Sigal Sagi- She is Gal's girlfriend. She is also a "feminist-left wing-vegetarian" and a well-liked and skilled student.

Yaron Tichon- He is Gal's book worm, computer nerd brother. He loves to preform experiments in his lab despite a majority of them ending badly.

Zbeng! is a strip for a teen magazine called Ma'ariv La'noar. It immediately became popular upon first appearing in August 17, 1987. It started as a single page strip, but soon expanded to being multi-paged. Part of the comic's success is due to the author's willingness to change characters to reflect the times. Despite its popularity, Israeli parents and educators criticized it for it's stereotypical characters, "portrayal of sexual activity" and contempt for authority (especially adults).

My source was the Wikipedia page ""Zbeng!".

Fab Four

2012-01-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

You are probably wondering why I am talking about the Beatles. I am not. I am talking about the superhero team that starred in the Dell Comic series Super Hero.

Four kids, Reb, Tom, Polly and Dan, went to the Dell Hall of Heroes which wax statues of heroes despite Dell only having a handful other superheroes and not enough for a museum. They wandered into the "Future Room", which for some reason had experimental robot superheroes. Doctor Luuki (the discredited maker of the robots) caused an electrical explosion causing the Enndo-Man robot to come alive and go berserk. The explosion also caused gave the kids the ability transfer their minds into the remaining robots. They stopped Enndo-Man and Luuki and become the super hero team Fab Four. They also fought the Coal Man, Johnny Boom Boom, Mr. Nutt and the Clown. The Fab Four's comic Super Hero lasted four issues.

The teams members were Crispy (really Reb), who could freeze things; Hy (Tom), who could generate sound waves; the super fast, resistance to heat, Polymer Polly (Polly), who was also super fast and generate super strong polyfilament fibers (hence her name); and El (Dan), who has x-ray, infra red and heat ray vision.

My sources were the International Catalogue of Super Heroes pages "Fab Four" and "Dell / Gold Key Comics".

New Guardians

2012-01-12T15:47:00.000-08:00

The New Guardians were a superhero spurned off out of the crossover Millennium. The Guardians of the Universe (who are basically the CEOs of the Green Lanterns) found several humans, with "superior genes" that are suppose to help humanity survive for the next millennium by passing their genes on, and gave them super powers. They got their own series. It became infamous for SnowFlame, a cocaine-powered super villain.

Their members were racial (and, in Extrano's case sexual) stereotypes. The team consists of Betty Clawman (a disembodied head with ill-defined powers); the Spanish stereotypical gay man Extrano (who has magic powers); the plant man Floronic Man (who should be a villain, but isn't in this series), the Chinese Gloss (who has earth-based power that somehow involve dragons); flying, self-replicating, energy-using Harbinger (who accidentally killed her boss the Monitor); the English, electromagnetic field-controlling Jet; the Japanese cyborg Ram; and Green Lantern's pal Thomas Kalmaku (who gained the power to "bring out the best in people").

In the "New 52", a New Guardians team appears. The team are representatives of the various Lantern Corps. Members are Kyle Rayner (Green), Fatality (Star Sapphire), Arkillio (Sinestro), Saint Walker (Blue), Bleez (Red), Munk (Indigo) and Glomulus (Orange).

My references were Atop the Fourth Wall episode "New Guardians # 2" and the Wikipedia page "New Guardians".

Marville

2012-01-06T15:03:00.000-08:00

Marville was a parody comic created for the U-Decide contest. U-Decide was a contest to see if Peter David's Captain Marvel series, Bill Jemas's Marville or Ron Zimmerman's Ultimate Adventures would sell better.
The actual comic itself is suppose to be about (it loses focuses as it goes on) Kal-AOL. Kal-AOL is the son of Ted Turner from the year 5002. When Ted thought the Earth (now called AOLon, due to being bought by AOL) was going to be destroyed by meteors, he used his time machine (made out of old video game systems) to send Kal-AOL to the past, where he tries to be a superhero despite his lack of superpowers.
Marville was poorly received. Lewis Lovhaug called it one of the worst comics ever made. Similarly, Comic Alliance listed it as one of "The 15 Worst Comics of the Decade". The some sources of criticism were the "lame" jokes and out-of-date references to Ted Turner.
My sources were a Google search of "reception of marville comic", the Wikipedia page "Marville (Comics)" and the Atop The Fourth Wall episode "Marville # 1"

Countdown to Final Crisis

2011-12-30T16:47:00.000-08:00

Countdown to Final Crisis was a weekly comic that was suppose to lead up to the event, Final Crisis. It was largely attempt to recreate the success of the critically acclaimed series 52. The comic started at issue 51, but counted down to issue 1. It was created on model where a single writer wrote every other issue in a rotating cycle. However, this caused the continuity between issues to alter. The main writers were Sean McKeever, Justin Gray, Tony Bedrad, Jimmy Palmiotti and Adam Beechen under Paul Dini, the head writer. However, editorial mandates on where the story would go took creative control out of the hands of writers. The story was panned for having tie-ins with important plot points (IE important plot points happening out of the comic), mischaracterization, pointless plot points and inconsistencies in art and story (most notably with the Trickester and Pied Piper's high tech handcuffs changing in each issues). Also since each issue touched on each of the story arches, so each only got a handful of panel. As such, the overall comic did not flow like a true narrative and excessively stretched out the story. So for example, Jimmy Olsen took 15 issues just to find out no knows why he has powers.

The story started with Darkseid playing with minifigures of various DC Comic heroes. Jason witnessed Duela Dent being killed by a rogue Monitor, named Solomon, who want to kill people in the "wrong" reality. Bob, another Monitor, went to the Source Wall, which tells him that a "Great Disaster" is coming and Ray Palmer (the former Atom) is needed to stop it. Jason and Donna Troy (former Wonder Girl) talked and Forerunner (an agent of the Monitors) tried (and fails) to kill them. Bob, Jason, Donna and the current Atom (who is leaves and is replaced by Kyle Rayner) looked for Ray Palmer, who in another reality. They hopped to reality to reality but basically get Ray Palmer is another reality. The Jokester, an good guy version of the Joker, joined, but died soon after. Solomon tried to kill them, but Monarch, who hates the Monitors, is gathering troops to fight the Monitors. Jason seemly shot Donna and turned evil. Mary Marvel was now powerless. Madame Xanadu tells her not to go to Gotham. Mary does so anyway and meets up with Black Adam, who gives her powers, which makes her evil. Mary meets a poop-eating demon (I'm not making this up) and defeats it. Mary meet various mystics to try to understand her powers. Eclipso was making Mary do random evil things. Trickster and Pied Piper tried to go undercover in the Rogues (enemies of the Flash) to take them down, but accidentally killed Bart Allen. The duo got tied together by high tech handcuffs and tried to avoid the capture by Suicide Squad. PP turned out to homosexual and the Trickester was homophobic. Jimmy, while investigating Dent's death, discovered he's gaining knowledge for no reason and the ability to gain super powers when in danger. Jimmy got sidetracked so he can investigate the death of the New Gods. Jimmy tried (and failed) to find out why he has his powers only to be kidnapped by Forager, a New God supporting character, so they can work together. Holly Robinson is invited to a woman shelter by Anthea (Granny Goodness in disguise) on the former Paradise Island. GG wants to make Earth women to Darkseid's army. Holly meets Harley Quinn. Karate Kid does random things in the present (he's from the future). He turns out to be infected by an unknown illness and cannot go back to the future. Triplicate Girl tries to aid him to find a cure for KK's illness. They meet Buddy Blank (the former OMAC), because he has a super computer called Brother Eye. They (including Blank and his son) end up in Bludhaven. Injected randomly in narrative are scenes with the Monitors debating if they should do something. This first half of the series was noted for major plot points happening outside of the comic like the death of the New Gods.

The second part is often seen as the better half of the series. This is mainly due to dropping the tie-ins and focused on the actual story. However, this part of the series was still critically panned. The Monitors (all 70 of them despite there suppose to be only 52 of them, including Bob) debated if they should do something. Karate Kid and his team meet Firestorm and they discovered there something under Bludhaven. Jimmy and Forager went to Apokolips (a planet ruled by Darkseid). Bob teleported his group away including Jason (who seemed to change sides). The Monitors decided to do something. Bob's group were teleported to wasteland. It turned out that Jason's killing Donna was fake out to distract the enemy long enough for them to flee. In a previous, "happy" reality, this reality's Lex Luthor and various other people were killed by adult, time and space-punching Superboy Prime (now called Superman Prime). He DESTROYS THE ENTIRE REALITY. He tortured Mr. Mxyzptlk (ignoring the latter's god-like reality warping). Bob's group went into the Batman Beyond universe and finally found Ray Palmer on Earth 51 (a paradise Earth). It turned out this universe's Ray Palmer was killed and the our reality's Ray Palmer replaced him. It turns out that Bob wanted (completely out of the nowhere) to KILL Ray Palmer. It turned out Solomon and Bob were working together and Bob was going to lead Solomon to Ray Palmer, who was the "key" to having the Monitors merge together (this creates a plethora of plot holes). It turned out killing Duela was just to start this plan. Monarch and his army came to Earth 51 and killed the passive heroes of this Earth and the reality itself. Ray Palmer revealed that it was the dead Ray Palmer who was suppose to stop the Great Disaster. This world's Batman made Jason into Red Robin (a reference to the much better than this Kingdom Come series). Superman Prime arrived on the Monitor's base and demanded to be taken to the "perfect" Earth. Its revealed that the Earth 51 Ray Palmer was immune all illness. This Earth's Justice League discovered a living germ called Morticoccus. This Ray Palmer, fearing there could be other Morticoccus(es), went to work in attempt to give every reality at least one person with his immunity. Superman Prime discovered the "perfect" Earth is the one being destroyed and flew off to it. When confronting Monarch, Superman Prime gave the most infamous line of this entire series: "I'll kill you! I'll kill you to DEATH!!!". Monarch and Superman Prime duked it out. The rest of Bob's group got a message to go "to Apokolips". A nameless Monitor took them there. Superman Prime accidentally broke open Monarch's armor unleashing energy destroying all of Earth 51, but Superman Prime survived. Karate Kid's health started to decline, but claimed he knew their was a bunker under Bludhaven. In said bunker, Professor Stein, a supporting character of Firestorm, was being tortured by Desaad. Desaad took over Firestorm's powers, but Karate Kid's gang managed to free his powers. Desaad fled to Apokolips. The gang accidentally activated Brother Eye (I have no idea how), which merged with Desaad's left over tech and send itself and our gang to Apokolips. Trickster and Pied Piper were stilled in the same situation as we last saw them. Trickster got shot and died. This causes the cuffs to active a 24 hour to exploding countdown. Piper used his flute to slow down the countdown. Piper (still cuffed to Trickster's dead body) went into the desert and hallucinated that the body was talking to him (complete with offensive gay jokes). Pied decided to cut off the arm of the Trickster so he wouldn't have to drag the body. Piper was teleported Apokolips (noticing a theme?). On Apokolips, Jimmy was still a slave. Eclipso handed Mary off to Darkseid, only for her to rebel and leave. Eclipso convinced her to give Darkseid's job a chance. But, the next issue had them fighting and Mary rejecting her offer. Jimmy used his powers to free Forger and himself. Forager's first reaction was to kill Jimmy for hitting on her, but she calmed down before she could so. Jimmy used his powers to escape (with Forager) to Earth, where they made out. Mary gave up her powers in regret for her misdeeds. Mary (who was in midair) fell into a sea outside where "Athena" is training the women. Holly and Harley discovered Hippolyta, former Queen of the Amazons. She teams up with the duo so they can defeat the false Athena. Forager revealed she think the soul of the New Gods are in Jimmy's body (hence his powers). Hippolyta's group gain Mary as a member. Jimmy discovered Forager left and left a message to go "to Apokolips". Its revealed Solomon and Darkseid manipulated the whole thing as part of a bet with the power of the "power of Multiverse" being the prize. Hippolyta exposed Athena as Granny Goodness. After GG used her powers to create a portal to Apokolips, Holly, Harley and Mary gave chase. Desaad revealed that Piper's mind-controlling music is actually a musical version of the Anti-Life Equation. Our female heroes freed the Greek gods, who Goodness imprisoned. The gods gave them powers and restored Mary's powers. Brother Eye started to merge with Apokolips. Morticoccus turned out to be Karate Kid's illness. Pied Piper somehow used his music to blow up Apokolips. While Darkseid and Solomon were gloating, Atom overheard their plot to unleash the Morticoccus virus so they can recreate the universe. The heroes had a debate over if they should kill Karate Kid. Solomon revealed Darkseid put the souls of the New Gods into Jimmy so he could have them for himself. Solomon accidentally teleported the heroes to the wrong reality when he got annoyed by their yelling. Despite the heroes' best effort, Morticoccus had mutated due being in Karate Kid's body thus making it impossible to cure. It started to spread and caused humans to become animal-like and vice versa; and caused full scale nuclear wall. This reality's Green Lantern accidentally spread the disease into space. So, the Great Disaster happened... and DC didn't have it guts to have it happen in the MAIN reality that the readers actually care about. This is basically an excuse for Planet of the Ape-style Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth to not be in continuity. Buddy hid his son in the bunker as Triplicate Girl was killed by rats. The remaining heroes returned to their home world... and this is NOT the end. The heroes spilt up to prevent their world from being effected by the Great Disaster and to get on with their life. Darkseid corrupts Mary with "evil" power of Black Adam. Mary kidnapped Jimmy. Donna and Kyle tried to explain what is going on to the Justice League. Superman (not Superman Prime) arrived to save Jimmy. Ray Palmer shrank into Jimmy's body and altered it to allow him access to all the powers. Jimmy use this to turn into a giant, turtle boy. Orion, Darkseid's son, comes out of nowhere and gets killed, but kills Darkseid with him. In the epilogue (the last issue), Pied Piper somehow is alive; Donna, Kyle and Forager decided to "monitor the Monitors"; and Holly and Harley look at an oversized moon.

My sources was the Atop The Fourth Wall Episodes "Countdown Prologue", "Countdown Part 1" and "Countdown Part 2"; and Wikipedia "Countdown to Final Crisis".

Critic Corner: The New 52

2011-12-27T05:55:00.000-08:00

I bought several of DC Comic's New 52 titles. So, here what I though.

For Justice League, see my previous review. Legion of Super Hero was good for Legion Fan, but it ignores the reboot. It gets 3 out of 5. Stormwatch was okay, but not anything special. It got 3 out of 5. Justice League Internation was fun. It gets 4 out of 5. Red Latern was one of the best of the bunch, but it focuses a bit too much on Atrocitus. It gets a 4 out of 5.

Scud: The Disposable Assassin

2011-12-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

Scud is a "Heart Breaker Series 1373" disposable assassin, a type of robot assassin that one can get from vending machine. Scud was sent to kill Jeff, a mutant with "mousetraps for hands, an electrical plug for a head, and a squid of a belt". However, by reading a label on his back via a mirror, Scud discovered if he completed his mission he'll explode. Not wanting that, after mortally wounding Jeff, he takes her to hospital and become freelance mercenary to pay bills.

The creator, Rob Schrab, abandoned the book on issue 21, but returned to resolve the cliffhanger.

My source was Wikipedia.

Combo Man

2011-12-23T13:42:00.000-08:00

Rick Wilder is a superhero with the powers of various Marvel superheroes and villains including Wolverine, Punisher, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Human Torch, Doctor Doom, Magneto and Cyclops. Any awesomeness of this character was ruined by the fact he also happens to be an advertisement for the Combo snack food.

After seeing a teacher being threaten by A.I.M. (a group of scientists that make weapons terrorists especially HYDRA) agents, Rick Wilder ate a combo that turned him into Combo Man. He easily beat the A.I.M. agent, but they send the Super-Adaptiod on him. Of course, Combo Man defeats him. Unsurprising, Combo Man's comic, Combo Man, had only one issue.

My sources were Comicvine page "Combo Man" and Deadknight's "Unbelievable" list page 2 on the same site.

8-Bit Theater

2011-11-30T14:39:00.000-08:00

[Red Mage, Thief, Black Mage and Fighter]

8-Bit Theater is a comedy sprite comic (a comic that uses video game sprites in the art) that parodies Final Fantasy and role-playing stereotypes. The Light Warriors (a group of misfit adventurers) try to defeat four demons based on the four elements.

The Light Warriors are the protagonists. They are based on the character classes in Final Fantasy, but are presenting as dysfunctional, incompetent, and causing more harm than help. The members are:

Black Mage- He is a wizard that is weak, but has incredibly destructive spells. He is comically evil to the point his conscience doesn't split his concepts of good and evil, but evil and atrociously evil. He hides his face, because it drive people who see it mad.

Fighter- He is a ... guess what? ... a fighter. He is specialized with swords and is extremely resilient to damage, to the point of shaking off lethal attacks. He is also extremely child-like and naive (especially towards his friends' unheroic traits), but has a heart of gold.

Thief- He is the Elven prince of Elfland. He is extremely skilled in stealing things, to the point of stealing intangible objects, and finding loop holes. He is extremely arrogant (especially to non-elves and his "friends", who he think of as his lackeys) and cowardly.

Red Mage- He claims to the last of an order of Red Mages. He is very knowledgeable, but also delusional (he thinks the world runs according to table-top RPG rules). Due to powergaming, he can use white and black magic; and bends the rules. He is the team's strategist, but his plans are complex and bizarre, often with physics foiling them.

My sources were the Wikipedia pages "8-Bit Theater" and "List of 8-Bit Theater Characters".

Anti-Matter Man

2011-11-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

Little is known about the Anti-Matter Man. What is known about him is he was a ten-foot cosmic being from the anti-matter Qward. He discovered the positive matter alternate realities of Earth 1 and 2. He wanted to come to explore the Earths. However, due to his antimatter nature and lack of empathy for positive matter beings, he was a danger to both of the realities. The Justice Society of America and the Justice League teamed up to exiled him back to the antimatter universe. However, he may come back any day.

Anti-Matter Man had "strange and unpredictable" powers. If he touches positive matter, he will explode. He is immune to magic that doesn't originated from his universe. He has matter manipulation (both organic or not) and can effect superhuman's power. He is vunerable to pyshical attacks.

My sources were Wikipedia and DC Database.

Hostess Advertisements

2011-11-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

One of the well-known comic-related topic was the late 70s and early 80s Hostess ads. These ads usually involve superhero being attacked by some random villain. Of course, they manage to defeat them with Hostess products. For example, Batman actually defeated a mummy by pacifying him with Twinkes. These ads first appeared in Marvel and DC Comics. However, after they decided to stop these, Archie, Harvey, Whitman and Gold Key Comics started to show these ads. However, they stopped appearing. These have been parodied by The Preacher and Radioactive Man. My main source was wikipedia/

Marvelman

2011-10-30T05:36:00.001-07:00

The creators of Captain Marvel was sued by DC Comics for "copying" Superman. So, in Britain, Mick Anglo created a rip-off called Marvelman. Marvelman was cut and paste Captain Marvel. Micky Morgan gain the power to become Marvelman (who had Captain Marvel-like powers) by saying "Kimota" ("Atomik" backwards) by an astrophysicist. He has two sidekicks: Dicky Dauntless aka Young Marvel and Jonny Bates aka Kid Marvelman (rip offs of Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel). They had bland adventures until they were canceled in February 1963.

Marvelman became a strip for Warrior. Alan Moore wrote Marvelman, which was the first superhero he wrote, with darker themes. An adult Micheal Morgan is a reporter who can't remember his adventures as Marvelman until he accidentally see "atomic" backwards and say it. Uttering the word (which is pronounced like "Kimota") turns him into Marvelman. He regain his memories but no one remembers Marvelman save for comic books. He battles against a power-mad Kid Marvel, resulting his in his innocent alter ego going insane with guilt. Marvelman manages to muscle his way into a secret bunker, where he discover the truth: he was part of "Project Zarathustra", where the government tested alien tech on human resulting in them gaining superpowers. Said humans were unconscious and had their mind fed comic book adventures as memories. On their "last " mission, the government tried to blow them with a nuclear weapon because the project was terminated. Marvelman turned to normal and lost his memories, but Young Marvelman was killed. Marvelman discover his wife is going have a child who could become the first naturally born superhuman. Warrior stopped at issue 21. Due to pressure from Marvel Comics, the hero was changed to Miracleman. He got his own series that lasted for 16 issues. Two alien races called the Warpsmiths and the Qys come to Earth. We discover there are other native superhumans on Earth. The aliens, Miracleman, the brand new Miraclewoman and their allies have a gory battle with a now insane Kid Miracleman (he is Kid Marvelman). The battle kills 40000 people and ends with Miracleman killing KM in his non-power form to prevent him from going on another ramage. In the last issue, the superhumans take over the world and are worshiped as gods. This series is characterized by extreme violent and gore that was to such a degree that was never seen before.

Neil Gaiman took over the series at issue 17. He plotted the series to have three books: "The Golden Age", "The Silver Age" and "The Dark Age". In "Golden Age", Miracleman and superhumans make the world a utopia via alien tech. Although, Miracleman question they are doing the right thing. This volume focuses the people affected by these event a la The Sandman. Neil Gaiman finished the first two issues of "The Silver Age", but didn't actually finish it. In the issues he did finish, Kid Miracleman was brought back...again.

Marvel Comic has gained the rights to the character. They plan to reprint various stories. They are trying to sort out some the copyright debates.

My main source was Wikipedia.

Superlópez

2011-10-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

Superlopez is Spanish comic parody of Superman.

He was born Jo-Con-El (which means D*mn-The-Brat) on the planet of Chiton (which means Shut It). He accidentally activated a spaceship sending him to Earth, where he landed was adopted by Barcelonan parents. His took the secret identity of Jaun Lopez and got a job with a bad-temper Lois Lane parody Luisa Lanas, his not-so-pal parody of Jimmy Olsen named Jaime Gonzalez Lidenbrcok; and his demanding unnamed parody of Perry White.

Like any hero, Superlopez has enemies. These include Escariano Avieso (a evil professor), Lady Arana (which means Lady Spider), a parody of Al Capone called Al Trapone and Refuller D'Abastos (a mob boss).

Superlopez has allies too. His main allies are the member of El Supergrupo (which means The Supergroup). The members include a Doctor Strange parody El Mago (which means Wizard); a Captain America parody Capitan Hispania (which means Captain Spain); an Iron Man spoof Latas (which means Tin-guy); a parody of the Fantastic Four's The Thing called Bruto (which means The Brute) and La Chica Increible (which means Incredible Girl), who is a generic parody of token female superheroes.

My main source was Wikipedia.

Lethargic Lad

2011-10-12T17:15:00.000-07:00

Lethargic Lad is comic created by Greg Hyland. It started out as a normal comic. However, there is now a webcomic version of it (see http://www.lethargiclad.com/).

Lethargic Lad is the main character. He suppose to be the protector of Infantino City. He has the "power" of lethargy, which causes him to inactive and slow. He rarely talks, but instead utters "Umm..." His alter ego is Larry Ladhands, a parody of Bruce Wayne. He is rich and lives in mansion, under which is the Lad Cave (a parody of the Bat Cave), where he keeps his various tech.

The only other major character is Sailor Steve. Sailor Steve is a male otaku (a person with obsessive interests) friend of LL. He often dresses like Sailor Moon characters. He knowns a lot about Japanese pop culture (even more than some Japanese people).

My main source was Wikipedia.

Raruto

2011-10-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Raruto is a Spainish webcomic that is a parody of the popular Naruto manga and anime series. It's made used by Jesus Gerica Ferrer (the "u" and "i" have acute accents, but I couldn't put them on here) also known as Jesulink. He began it as a hobby, but started to feel like it was "responsibility" and tries to satisfy his readers.

The series has three main characters: Raratuo, Kuchilla Saske and Flora Margarina. Raratuo Zumomaki is the titular character. He is a parody of Naruto. He is the villiage idiot that has "a demon fox" trapped inside his body. Kuchilla Saske is a parody of Sasuke Uchiha. He hates "everything, white above all". Flora Margarina is a parody of Sakura Haruno. She is pointless for most of the series. She has spilt personaility and usually solve her problems violently.
The comic has been translated into Catalan, Chinese, French, English, Portuguese and Italian. A handful of strips have been translated into English. My main sources were the Wikipedia pages "Raruto" and "List of Raruto Characters"; and a Raruto Wiki (that I had to translate) page "Raruto" and "Flora Margarina".

Rat-Man

2011-10-07T04:19:00.000-07:00

Rat-Man is an Italian comic about an inept superhero of the same name. The comic started out as a parody of Batman, but evolved into having complex continuity. It's also known for breaking the fourth wall, engaging storytelling and Monty Python-style nonsense humor.

Rat-Man's alter ego is Deboroh La Roccia. He lost his parents at the mall and was adopted by Janus Valker. He was originally Rat-Boy (a-la Superboy). He became a superhero to fulfill his fantasy of heroics. He joined the second Secret Squad (the first one was destroyed by a mole) formed by the scientific research centre that Janus works at: Elsewhere. In reality, an evil entity called Shadow tried to manipulate the team to take over 'No Name Country'. However, the Men in Tights, a team that embrace the dogma of the first Double S, clashed with the new team. No Country lost its faith in superheroes. After he quit and the Shadow attacked Janus, Rat-Boy fled to No Name City. He became MarvelMouse. He was forced to compete in gladiator battles. The American-style heroes were dying out and being replace by Manga-style characters. After defeating the "ultimate manga" Dragon, he decided to become a real superhero again. Now as Rat-Man, he became the protector of No Name City and one of the few superheroes left (aside the Double S controlled the Shadow). The Shadow (now controlling the body of Janus Valker) tried to destroy the the second Secret Squad to make a third one. This causes the team is disband thus making Rat-Man the last superhero. Rat-Man in 2003 entered a coma and woke up in 2005, where he has been replaced by a multitude of heroes. He retired and tried to make an animated series whose failure caused him to become a bum.

the Shadow tried to make Deboroh his vessel only to be foiled by Rat-Man's friends. Janus manages to overcome the Shadow with the last bit of humanity he has left: the memory of being Deboroh's father. Rat-Man (struggling to become a hero again) goes to New York only find all the villains are gone and the heroes are addicted to their own power. Rat-Man convices them to retire and he returns to No Name City to become a hero again.

My main source was Wikipedia.

Nexus

2011-10-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

Nexus lives 500 years from now. He is really Horatio Hellpop, the son of a Communist General. He gained "Fusionkasting" (see below) from Merk (an alien entity). He has to kill a certain amount of mass murders as payment for his powers per "cycle". He will have maddening dreams and strong headaches until he he kills the murder.

Now, you are probably asking "What the @#$% is 'Fusionkasting'?". In the Nexus universe, Fusionkasting is the power to psychically draw energy from star's core. This will give the user super powers. However, this doesn't work across dimensions. Most of Fusionkasters use flight, force field generation and energy beam projection. Other common powers are super strength; degrees of telepathy; and telekinesis. Nexus and Plexus (I can't find out who he is, but he mentioned once) have display energy absorption, matter creation / transmutation and teleportion, but no other Fusionkaster has display these powers.

The series was inspired by Space Ghost. It has a clear and distinctive style a la Alex Toth's cartoons and "commercial illustrators of the 1940s and 1950s". The series' artist ironically later drew a Space Ghost comic. Mike Baron (the writer) also included social satire such as media channels being overwhelmed by ads and an analogue to the Internet.

My main source was Wikipedia page "Nexus (comic)".

The New 52

2011-09-30T04:25:00.000-07:00

The New 52 is the name given to the 2011 DC Comic relaunch. The name comes from the fact 52 titles was rebooted. In this new universe, superhero are victims of suspicion and hostility.

The "Justice League" titles are Justice League, Justice League International, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Captain Atom, Fury of Firestorm, Green Arrow, Savage Hawkman, Mr. Terrific and DC Universe Presents. The "Batman" titles are Batman, Detective Comics, Batwing, Batman: The Dark Knight, Batman and Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman, Nightwing, Catwoman, Birds of Prey and Red Hood and the Outlaws. The "Superman" titles are Action Comics, Superman, Superboy and Supergirl. The "Green Latern" titles are Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corp., Green Lanterns: New Guardians and Red Laterns. The "Young Justice" titles are Teen Titans, Static Shock, Hawk and Dove, Blue Beetle, Legion of Superheroes and Legion Lost. The "Edge" (don't ask) titles include Stromwatch, Grifter, Deathstroke, Suicide Squad, OMAC, Blackhawks, Men of War, Voodoo and All-Star Western. The "Dark" titles are Justice League Dark, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Frankenstien, Agent of S.H.A.D.E., I, Vampire, Resurrection Man and Demon Knights.

My main source was Wikipedia.

New Men

2011-09-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

The New Men were an Image Comic team created by Rob Liefield that extreme similarities to the X-Men. The New Men got their powers from the Nu-Gene (X-Gene rip off). The original team consisted of the leader Reign (Cyclops) who had telekinetic (that manifest like Cyclops' eye blasts) and telepathy abilities; Byrd (Angel) who had talons and wings; the teleporting Exit (who had the personality of Iceman); Kodiak (Beast), who could turn into a man-beast; and Dash, who was super fast. John Proctor (a rip off the Chief from the Doom Patrol) mentored them, who turned out he actually was working for the aliens that created the Nu-Gene (called the Keep) and wanted to "harvest" the people with it for the aliens. Later, two "old" members rejoined Narcisse (a vampire) and Dusk. Also, Pilot (Bishop knock-off), who from the future, joined them to stop the Keep, but didn't tell them about the Keep; and so did Bootleg (Jubilee and Mimic), who could copy people's "powers". In Extreme Destroyer, the New Men discover the turth of the Nu-Gene and Proctor. After defeating the Keep and getting a new member Sundance, they disbanded... only to come together later. My sources were Wikipedia pages "New Men (Image Comics)" and "Bootleg (comics.)"

Major Bummer

2011-09-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

Zinnak and Yoof were two alien college student on Earth heroes. To aid their study, they send out Extreme Enhancement Modules (or EEM for short) that when open give the receiver powers. They wanted to give one to a lawyer named Martian Lewis, but, not know that in phone book last names first are printed first, they give to a slacker Lou Martian. He gains super strength and intelligence, but can only use the latter when he concentrate. His powers prove to be a burden: Lauren Isley, her cat, Val Andrist, Gecko and Franic Dutton (all of whom (including the cat) got powers via EEMs) bug him and try to make him the leader of their team (which he doesn't want to do); and his EEM cause him to attract trouble like villains such as Tyrannosauruas Reich and Nunzio. Lou really just wants to sleep, eat and play video games, but finds himself unwilling caught in bizarre and impossible adventures. My sources were Comicvine and Wikipedia.

Twisted Toyfare Theatre

2011-09-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

Twisted ToyFare Theatre is a humor strip in ToyFare magazine. The strip consists of pictures of Megos (a line of toys). Often, these Megos are used to parody pop culture.

Megos are based on other forms of media like Marvel Comics, Star Trek and Star Wars. Most of the Megos in this are based on Marvel superheroes. The characters are mostly caricatures of the original characters. For example, Iron Man is comedic drunk, the Gobots are Transformer wannabes and the Defenders are a pathetic superhero team and do menial tasks. The strip often has Robot Chicken-style humor (in fact ToyFare is written by people that worked on Robot Chicken).

My sources are the Wikipedia pages "Twisted Toyfare Theatre" and "ToyFare"

Zenith

2011-09-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Zenith is the first superhero Grant Morrison ever wrote.

Character Overview

Robert Neal Cassady McDowell is selfish and spoiled pop star. He is the son of two members of Cloud 9 (a British military superhero team turn into hippies). As such, he has super powers. However due to his biorhythm cycle, these powers only work sometimes. In order for him to do anything heroic, he has to be forced by Peter St. John (a former member of Cloud 9).

Powers

His main powers are super strength, flight and invulnerability. He also has limited telepathy and fire manipulation, but he lacks the discipline to use these two. As mentioned before, his powers sometime works, but sometimes not.

References:

My sources were Wikipedia and Comicvine.

Big Bang Comics

2011-09-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

Big Bang Comics was comic that homage the Golden and Silver Age of Comic Books. The comic was originally published Caliber Comics. The series was cancelled and picked up by Image Comics. Now, the comic is independently published. The characters for the series are homages to various Golden Age and Silver Age superheroes. The Silver Age stories took place on Earth-A, but the Golden Age stories took place on Earth B. Some characters of note are Ultiman (Superman homage), Knight Watchman (Batman) and Dr. Weird (Mr. Justice). A notable feature of Big Bang Comics is its use of metaficiton. In the Big Bang universe, there are several imprints (that in reality never existed) that published the characters. This was used to give add more depth and development to the series' characters.

The Conglomerate

2011-09-11T17:06:00.000-07:00

The team first appeared in Justice League Quarterly # 1. Claire Montgomery, ex-wife of Maxwell Lord, formed the corporate superhero team the Conglomerate to rival the Justice League International (see my "Justice League" post for more info). The first team consisted of the leader Booster Gold (who recently quit the JLI), Gypsy, Reverb, Vapor, Echo, Maxi-Man and Praxis. Despite initial hostile, they became friendly with JLI. However, the team drifted apart. However, the team was suppose to have a competition with the JLI. So, Claire used Norman the Doorman (who has dimension-related powers) to get members new members: Slipstream, Scarab, Elasti-Man, Frostbite, Fiero and Deadeye. They turned out to be villains from the antimatter world of Qward. The Justice League ended up having to stop them. The most recent version was led by Templar, a British superhero. This team consisted of Reverb (now using the alias of Hardline), Nuklon, Jesse Quick and Echo. Their current status is unknown. My source was Wikiepdia and the image is from Comicvine.

Critic Corner: Justice League # 1

2011-09-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hi. I just bought and read Justice League # 1, which the first comic for new 2011 DC Comic Reboot or "The New 52". So, I decided to review it. This was written by Geoff Johns, pencilled by Jim Lee, inked by Scott Willaim, colored by Alex Sinclair and lettered by Patrik Brosseau.

The comic starts off with Batman chasing a guy with a mouth full of fire. He meets Green Lantern and they try to figure why aliens are bombing Gotham.

I bought this for $4.99. That is TOO MUCH. 90% of this comic is Batman and Green Lantern yelling at each other and neither of them are all that likable. Despite Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern, Batman, Flash and Cyborg being on the cover, only Batman, Green Lantern, Superman and Cyborg at in and the latter two have cameos. Also, every 2 or 4 pages there is an ad for another comic coming out in"The New 52". Despite the fact Jim Lee is a talented artist, the art here is average at best. The only interesting was a kamikazee alien yelled "FOR DARKSEID!". I give this a 2 out of 5.

Critic Corner: Youngblood # 1

2011-08-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

After watching the Nostalgia Critic and Linkara, I decided to revamp the Critic Corner. I am going to review Youngblood # 1. This was created, written, inked and penciled by Rob Liefeld; colored by Brain Murray; and lettered by Hank Kanalz.

The comic has two stories. The first story deal with home team of Youngblood. This consists of Badrock (who is very much like a teenage version of the Thing), Photon (who has flaming hair), Chapel (who has guns), Vogue (a "Russian defector"), Diehard (who we learn nothing about) and Shaft (has string less bow and arrow; and the de facto leader). Someone tries to kill Shaft, but Shaft stops them. Then, the team assembles which takes 5 hours. Then, Diehard beats up a villain called Strong Arm and the story ends with other heroes coming in.

The second story deals with the away team. This consists of Brahma (who super strong), Riptide (who generates and controls water), Psi-Fire (who has telepathy, telekinesis and fire manipulation), Sentinel (who is a copy of Iron Man), Cougar (a copy of Sabertooth and Wolverine) and Combat (an alien who in this has around 14-feet tall, but is human size in the next issue). They are trying to arrest Hassan Kussein, who is hiding in a compound.

This comic is horrible. It's unpleasant to look at. In one scene, Shaft's body looks like it was blown up like a balloon, but it's normal in all other scenes. The first story doesn't have a proper resolution and this isn't resloved in the following issues. In the second story, Psi-Fire graphically murder a person and the rest of the team are mildly annoyed and cover it up. Also, Combat's gin changes sizes from panel to panel. For a group that suppose to be "The Next Generation of Heroes" as the tagline says, they are not heroic in any fashion. I give his comic 2 out of 5.

Marshal Law

2011-08-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

Marshal Law is comic that is published by various comic publishers. The comic satires superheroes. The series started as a six-issued miniseries and has have several one-shots. It's noted for its use of nudity, graphic violence and social satire.

In the near future, San Francisco is in ruins due to a massive Earthquake. Due to excessive genetic engineering, superheroes are commonplace in this ruined city. However, Marshal Law is a "super hero hunter" that deal with rogue superheroes with maximum force and pleasure. Despite being violent and uncharismatic personality, he has a strong moral compass. He is also aided the crippled Danny and Kiloton (who psychically imposing and polite).

In the original series, the main storyline was Marshal trying hunt down a serial killer and rapist called Sleepman. However, his enemies include Public Spirit (the most powerful superhero, who Marshal claim is corrupt), Private Eye, Persecutor and Suicida (an insane, murderous ex-soldier).

My sources was Wikipedia article "Marshal Law (Comics)".

Spiderman: One More Day

2011-07-28T04:48:00.000-07:00

One More Day was event in the Spiderman comics. It proved to near-universally panned.

The basic plot is that Aunt May is shot (the bullet was meant for Spiderman). So, Spiderman seeks the help of the greatest scientists in the Marvel Universe, who can't help a bullet wound. Mephisto (the Marvel stand-in for the devil) offers Spiderman to save Aunt May exchange for his marriage with Mary Jane and agrees on the ground the Mephisto will erase the memories of Spiderman revealing his identity.

This event was praised for it's art, but criticized for it's writing. I haven't read it, but I have a few questions: 1. Why can't the greatest scienists in the Marvel Universe mend to a bullet wound? 2. Why does Mephisto want their marriage and not their souls? 3) How can Mephisto do this? He never shown any powers remotely like this before.

My source was Wikipedia.

Society of Modern American Science Heroes

2011-07-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

The Society of Modern American Science Heroes (or SMASH for short) is a superhero team in the Tom Strong series. Each member is actually a Golden Age character that was owned by Nedor Comics, but fell into public domain. The team consisted of American Crusader, Black Terror, Cavalier, Fighting Yank I-II, Green Ghost, Liberator, Ms. Masque, Pyroman, the Scarab, Tom Strange, Tim Roland and The Woman in Red.

In this mythos, all of the original Nedor Comics story actually took place on an alternate Earth called "Terra Obsura". In the Silver Age, Tom meets the team for the first time. However, as soon as he leaves, Obsura gets attacked by a moon alien awakened by the moon landings. During the battle, Ghost, Black Terror and Tom Strong's sidkick, Mike Ellies, died and the rest of the team were put in stasis fields except for Tom Strange, who traveled 30 years into the future. 30 years later, in "Modern Age", Strange and Strong freed the team and they battle the alien (who was builting a base on Earth) with the aid of a computer Black Terror's sidekick, Tim Roland, made. Depsite defeating the alien, Fighting Yank died. During this time, Ghost turned into his name sake and re-named himself "Green Ghost". Unable to adapt to 21st century life, the team decided to disband. However, three years later a "technology plague" stated to turn tech useless and send Obsura back to the Dark Ages. The team re-united and discovered a person called Mystico and his plague so removes the powers of science-power heroes. So only the magic-powered Liberator and Scarab have their powers. After Ms. Masque de-active his powers, Tom Strange convinces Mystico to be a force for good. Years later, they meet Captain Future (another Nedor Comic hero) and have to battle the Terror 2004 (an evil version the before mentioned computer). However, a time-travelling version of Black Terror helped the team defeat it.

My source was wikipedia.

Doom's IV

2011-07-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

The Doom's IV was a comic created by Image Comics that a tie-in to a movie based on the comic being made at the same time. They did a similar thing with Kick-Ass. The movie wasn't made due to Marvel complaining about Fantastic Four similarities (personally I think they are being nit-picky). I find it notable for have a 1/2 issue.

The series was about a group of renegade heroes called the "Doom's IV" battling the Doom's Corp. (which begs the question why the heroes have "Doom's" in their name) led by Syber Idol. The team consisted of Burn (who can generate flames from her hands), Slyder (able to phase through matter), Brick (who has sand-based abilities) and Grimm (who uses future weaponry).

My sources were http://www.atomicavenue.com/atomic/titleddetial.aspx?TitleID=3478, Atop The Fourth Wall episode "Doom's IV # 2" and "Doom's IV # 1/2".

1963

2011-07-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

No. This is not talking about comics in 1963. I am talking about an Alan Moore series called 1963. He and Image Comics used it to spoof the Silver Age of Comics (roughly 1956 to 1970).

Each issue parodies a comic that Marvel made during the Silver Age. For example, issue 1 featured Mystery Incorporated (no connections to Scooby Doo), which parodied the Fantastic Four, while issue 2 featured the Fury (a parody of Spider-Man and Daredevil) and Sky Solo, Lady of L.A.S.E.R. (a female Nick Fury parody). The comic had in-jokes from Stan Lee-like pen names such as "Sturdy Steve", "Jaunty John" and "Affable Al" to make fun of business practices of the time. "Affable Al" is jerk that steals the credit for the creations of his employees and encourages people to buy his book How I Created Everything All By Myself and Why I Am Great (a parody of Stan Lee's Origins of Marvel Comics). The comic was intended to end with a "80-page giant", where the heroes of the comics go to the "future" of 1993 and discover how the Silver Age led to "grim and gritty"-style 90s comic, but this was never completed due to the creators going to other projects. My sources were Wikipedia.

Guardians of the Globe

2011-07-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

The first incarnation Guardians of the Globe appeared in Invincible # 7. This version was a parody of the Justice League of America. The members were Darkwing (Batman parody), who is like Batman without the ears; Red Rush (Flash), a super fast Russian; War Woman (Wonder Woman), who may be a lesbian; Aquarus (Aquaman), who is more fish than man; Green Ghost (Green Lantern), who can phase and fly via a gem he appears to shallow; Martian Man (Maritan Manhunter), who can shapeshift and fly; and Black Samon and the Immortal (the only non-JLA parodies members). They were all sent to their based in Utah only to be killed by Omni-Man (a supporting character of the comic). Only Black Samon (who wasn't on duty at the time) and the Immortal (due to his powers) survived. Robert Kirkman (the writer) explained the reason for the JLA parodies was "I have 18 pages to introduce them and make readers care about them before I killed them. Using archetypes is the best way to that".

The next team was formed by the US government after the murder of the first. It was supervised by government agent Donald. The team consists of Dupli-Kate, Robot, Rex Splode from Teen Team; Black Samon from the original team; and new characters Monster Girl and Shrinking Ray. The team did poorly, leading to changes: Bulletproof and Immortal joined. Shortly, the Immortal became leader. Most of the team's most powerful members had to stop a martian invasion, while the members on Earth had to stop the Lizard Legion from taking over nukes. Dulti-Kate and Shrinking Ray died.

A parody ad had fictionally advertised a Guardians of the Globe mini-series. However, a real series came out. The team started out with Brit, Yeti, Bulletproof, Outrun and Kaboomerang. However, El Chupacabra, Pegasus, Kid Thor, Japandroid, Cast Iron, Le Brusier, Best Tiger and Knockout joined as the series went on.

My sources were wikipedia and Invincible volume 2 "Eight is Enough".

Pyroman

2011-06-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

History

Pyroman was created by Nedor Comics. Somehow working with high-voltage electricity, he allowed him to gain the ability to store and control electricity it. He discover this ability when he was sent to the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit. He used his powers to clear his name and become a superhero.

The character fell into public domain and as such any comic company could use him. AC Comics reprinted his Nedor Comics adventures and a made a few new one. In American's Best Comic's Tom Strong series, he is revealed to be a member of the Society of Modern American Science Heroes or SMASH (which consists of public domain Nedor Comics heroes). He (with the rest of the team) are put in suspend animation and are revived 30 years later by Tom Strong, only for them to disband (althought they come back together 3 years later). Dynamite Entertainment said Pyroman would be in their Project Superpowers series. Age of Adventure reprints several Golden Age Pyroman story.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Pyroman

http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/SMASH_(comics)

Review: Green Lantern

2011-06-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

As you know, a Green Lantern movie has come out. So, I am here to review it.
The movie is about a hot-shot Hal Jordon (Ryan Reynolds) is given membership into the Green Lantern Corp. by Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison). But, the other lanterns don't have must faith in Hal, especially Sinestro (Mark Strong). However, a rogue Guardian of the Universe, exposed yellow fear energy, called Parallax (vocal effects done by Clancy Brown) breaks free and plans to eat Earth. Also, there is a sub-plot about Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) becoming infected by the fear-energy and get a bulgy head and telepathy / telekinetic powers at the lost of his sanity.
I thought this was a good movie. The visual were great. The plot was strong. The only thing I don't like about the film is how Hector's transformation scenes took forever.

Review: X-Men Shows

2011-06-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

The X-Men have had several television series: X-Men (1992-1997), X-Men: Evolution (2000-2003) and Wolverine and the X-Men (2008-2009). I have seen episodes from all them and I am going to review them here.
X-Men was the first cartoon to based off of the X-Men and last the longest. I admit I've only seen a handful of episodes (so I have no idea what the overall story arch was), but I liked them. The story and characters were strong. However, I thought the voice casting was the weak point. For some reason, the voices didn't seem right especially Puck in "Repo Man".
X-Men: Evolution was the next series created. Unlike the previous series, here most of the X-Men were teenagers (save Prof. X, Wolverine and Storm, who acted as their mentors). I thought this is series was awesome except for one thing: the episode "Sins of the Son" had a twist ending which made the rest episode make no sense.
Wolverine and the X-Men was the most recent. The series focused on the X-Men trying to prevent Days of Future Past-like future with the help of a future version of Prof. Xavier, who somehow can telepathicly "talk" to him from the future. This series focused way too much on Wolverine and I don't like him that much. So, this series wasn't very enjoyable except for the episodes focusing on Nightcrawler (my favorite X-Man).

Common Grounds

2011-06-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Common Grounds is a six issue mini-series about superheroes / supervillains (such as Acidic Jew, Mental Midget, Speeding Bullet, Flammabelle, American Pi and so on) and their lives "in and around" a coffee shop chain called Common Ground.

The comic focuses on 13 self-contained stories focused on a huge amount of superheroes and villains. The comic explores themes unusual for superheroes such as obesity, second chances, religious faith, suicide, guilt and regret. The writer does so by focusing the characters as humans rather than as almighty protectors of justice.

The series started as a 1990s series called Holey Crullers (a reference to Robin's campy catchphrase "Holy [horrible pun], Batman!"). In 2004, it was revamped as Common Ground (the name of the coffee store). The reason the store is named that is because it serves as a common ground for super heroes and supervillains.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Grounds

O.G.R.E.

2011-05-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

Organization for General Revenge and Enslavement

The first O.G.R.E. was a small "mercenary terrorist group". They were led by a guy in a black hood called Supreme One, who led a group of foot soldiers with red helmets and brown uniforms. They were hired to steal some nukes. Aquaman and Mera interfered with this plan and convinced two agents Huntress and Typhoon (who were working for the group, because O.G.R.E. threaten to kill them) to turn on O.G.R.E., who they defeated. Months later, a guy named Krako re-organized the group. He threatened the UN, but was defeated by Aquaman. He tried (and failed) to bomb Atlantis, while Black Manta distracted Aquaman. However, the government located and destroyed their HQ.

Ocean Going Research Exchange

A second O.G.R.E. was formed, but it doesn't seem to have ties to the original one. It's also simply called the Exchange. Founded by Jordan Wylie (the CEO of Merrevale Oil), it tried to discredit the Sea Devils' environmental actives and had hostile encounters with Aquaman. Aquaman accused Jordan of ruining the environment, resulting in Jordan losing his job. O.G.R.E. decided to make Jordan "less visible".

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.R.G.E._(comics)

Master Order and Lord Choas

2011-04-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

History

Master Order and Lord Chaos are two "brother" entities that embodies their namesake and balance the other. They seem to be all-powerful and nearly all-knowing. The duo are rarely seen, but have several notable appearances. They manipulated Spider-Man into getting Warlock to battle the villain Thanos. They watched Odin and Dormammu play a "cosmic game of chess". The duo helped battle against the god-like Beyonder. Then, they imprisoned the In-Betweener (their servant turned evil). Later, they are seen at Eon's (another cosmic entity) funeral. In their most recent appearance, they (and other "abstract" cosmic entities) deemed Thanos unworthy of the Infinity Gauntlet and attacked him, but soon turn their attention on Nebula, when she got the gauntlet. They were seen witnessing Warlock's "cosmic trial" to see if he is worthy of the gaunlet.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_ORder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Chaos_(MArvel_COmics)

Nextwave

2011-04-24T06:37:00.000-07:00

Above: Captain, Tabitha, Monica, Aaron and Elsa
This is my 200th post!

Overview

This series focuses on a group of B-list heroes: Monica Rambeau (former Captain Marvel), Tabitha Smith (former X-Force member), Aaron Stack (Machine Man), Elsa Bloodstone (a monster hunter) and the Captain (a new character, who used to be "Captain [censored]", the word is so vuglar Captain America once put soap in his mouth and threw him in a dumpster). The group joined the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort (or H.A.T.E.) to stop the Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction (U.W.M.D.s). However, they discovered a terrorist group called the Beyond Corporation was actually funding H.A.T.E. So, they stole a vehicle called the Shockwave Rider (which is bigger on the inside than the outside akin to the TARDIS from Doctor Who) and battled U.W.M.D.s and H.A.T.E., while being hunted by the leader of H.A.T.E., Dirk Anger (an over-the-top parody of Nick Fury).

The series tends to have story arcs lasting a mere two issues. The comic has extreme comedy and violence and shows flashbacks of various heroes acting out of character for comedic effect. It also parodies the superhero genre in general. Warren Ellis (the guy who wrote the series) stated "I took The Authority and I stripped out all the plots, logic, characters and sanity".

Cannon or Not

A confusing issue is whether the Nextwave takes place in the Marvel Universe or not. Ellis state concern wasn't due to the "harm" it would due to the continuity. However, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and Civil War: Battle Damage Report claimed otherwise. The Battle Damage Report claimed that the Nextwave's members might have had their memories and personalities altered by H.A.T.E.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextwave

Powers

2011-04-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

Overview

Powers is a police procedural comic with a science fiction twist. In a world, where superpowers are common, but not completely everyday, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim are police officers that deal with homicides that involving "powers" (a slang term for superhumans).

Walker used to be a "power" himself and was a superhero called "Diamond". However, he lost his abilities and became a police officer. Despite the latter, he still has contacts in the superhero community.

Deena Pilgrim, his partner, has a dark secret: she managed to get superpowers to battle a super villain called Bug, but this led her to accidentally kill her abusive boyfriend in self-defense and she hid the evidence. However, she manged to redeem herself later in the series.

Similar Series

Gotham Central focused on the cops in titular city and their interactions to superhumans.

Alan Moore's Top 10 was also about superpowered cops solving cases involving superhumans, which worried the creators of Powers. However, Moore said the series were different as Top 10 is about "superpowered cops" where as Powers is about cops that deal with superhumans.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_(comics)

The Maxx

2011-04-21T04:18:00.000-07:00

Overview

The titular character, Maxx, is a being who exist both in the "real" world and an alternate reality called the Outback. In the Outback, he is the the protector the Jungle Queen, but in the real world, he is a homeless man, who wears a purple superhero costume (see above). The Jungle Queen also has a "real world" counterpart named Julie Winters, who is a social worker that often bail Maxx out of prison. While Maxx is aware of both realities, Julie isn't.

Plot

In the first story arch, a serial killer Mr. Gone (who has a telepathic link to Julie) is constantly calling Julie, but she ignored him. The Maxx was protecting Julie, so Mr. Gone had to get help from the Isz, the main predators of the Outback. Mr. Gone reveal that he was once a friend of Julie's father; the Outback was actually controlled by her subconscious and other people have them; and Julie accidentally created a rip between the real world and the Outback causing the creation of Maxx. Julie started heal herself and her Outback. We meet a depressed teenager, Sarah, who doesn't want to be like her father, Mr. Gone.

In the second story arch, Julie and the former Maxx (whose name is revealed to be Dave) have disappeared, so this story arch focuses on Sarah. A giant yellow, slug monster called the Iago (who is from the Outback) came into the real world and has a list of people to kill... including Juile and Sarah. Sara (as she spells it now) was hounded by a homeless man named Norbert, who she realized is her "Maxx". Julie and Dave resurfaced to battled the Iago. Norbert, Sara, Dave, Mr. Gone and Mark (Julie's son) try to stop the Iago, who kidnapped Juile and went into Sara's Outback and save her. Mr. Gone reveal time is running out for the group. Then, they are reborn into a new reality. In this new reality, Mr. Gone is a professor and Dave is a janitor at the same school. It's implied despite living completely different lives, they still have connections to the Outback and each other.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maxx

Trashman

2011-04-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

Overview

In a near-future, America became a tyrannical, fascist state. Harry Barnes' wife was murdered and he was on the run from the police. He met Citizen X (the leader of an underground anarchist group), who trained him to be a master of the "para-sciences" giving him super powers. Using these powers and a variety of weapons, he became the defender of middle class people, oppressed by the fascist police forces and the greedy rich people.

Powers and Abilities

He has super strength, speed, stamina, reflexes, agility, durability and equilibrium. While not completely invulnerable, most weapons cannot harm him. He can alter his shape and molecular structure and turn back at will.

Notes

Trashman was one of the few superheroes in the Underground Comix movement. The comix had profanity, sex and gory violence, which till then where alien to superheroes.

Many times the characters break the fourth wall.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trashman_(comics)

Tharg the Mighty

2011-04-13T15:43:00.000-07:00

Overview

Thrag the Mighty or Mighty Thang is the fictional editor of the real British science fiction comic 2000 AD. However, he usually appears in his own strip and rarely appears in the actual stories. Thrag is an egoistic tyrant from the also fictional planet Quaxxann that orbits the real-life star Betelgeuse, but works in Britain. Unlike most stereotypical aliens, he refers to humans as "Earthlets" as oppose to "Earthlings". He abuses his droids (robot caricatures of the real-life staff) that work on the comic and destroys them when they displease him. His favorite "food" is polystyrene cups. Although he speaks perfect English, he peppers his speech with "Betelgusian" phrases. He often battles the parasitical "Thrill Suckers" (who try to steal the comic's thrill powers) and the Dictators of Zrag (who try to take over the comic to liven up their dull planet and are constantly used as scapegoats by Tharg).

Catchphrases

"Borag Thungg, Earthlet" (which means something to the effect of "Greetings, human".

"Zarjaz" (Excellent)

"Grexnix" (Someone rude or ignorant)

"Nonscrot" (Someone who doesn't read 2000 AD)

"Quaequam Blag!" (expression of outrage or suprise)

"Rigellian Hotshot" (a form of toture)

"Scrotning" (exciting or good)

"Squaxx dek Thargo" (Thrag's friends, usually used to refer to loyal readers)

"Splundig Vur Thrigg" (Farewell, so long)

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tharg_the_Mighty

Magog

2011-04-12T04:51:00.000-07:00

Fictional History

Kingdom Come

Magog first appeared as an antagonist in the series Kingdom Come. He killed the Joker causing the public to praise him as a hero. This caused Superman (who disliked Magog's methods) to withdraw from the world. During Superman's exile, superhumans become more violent like Magog. At an unknown time, Magog formed the Justice Battalion. They battled Parasite, which led to him literately tear Captain Atom apart, causing him to explode like a A-Bomb, with Alloy and Magog being the only survivors. This lead Superman to return from his exile and reform the Justice League. They found that Magog was sorry for what he has done and was traumatized. He was sent to a superhuman prison and spent most of his time in his cell. When the rogue superhumans were freed and battled the JLA, Magog avoid fighting and tried to save as many lives as he can. At the end of the series, he has decided to retire to Paradise Island. Note these events take place on Earth-22 and are non-cannon.

Justice Society of America

Introduced into the main continuity, this version of Magog was once Lance Corporal David Reid and fought in the War of Iraq. He touched a "stone fragment of the Old God Gog", which filled his body with plasma energy, but ruin his left arm. He would later gain a lance-shaped device that allowed him to control it. He was allowed to join the JSA, because he is the great-grandson of Frank D. Roosevelt. They helped a person known as Gog fight against a rogue military attack. Gog turned Magog's right eye and ruined armed to gold. It turns out that Gog was actually evil and the Society turns on him with Magog killing him. Magog left to join his family farm. He rejoined the team, but clashed with the other members due to his military personality.

JSA All-Stars

He quit the JSA again and joined a team called the All-Stars, which was composed of mostly younger heroes.

Solo Series

Magog got his own series. In the first story arch, he battled against the Flashpoint, a mysterious weapon making group run by D. P.Macklin. This series also fleshed out the character some more in various ways such as his origin and new rogue gallery. Macklin framed Magog and (even though he cleared his name) he got kicked out of the All-Stars. Magog discovered the Cult of Gog was manipulating him and he seemly died stopping them. But, it later seen alive.

Generation Lost

Magog tried (and failed) to capture Captain Atom, who was framed by a telepathic Maxwell Lord. Maxwell Lord met a being known as the Entity, who revealed that Magog could cause a war among Earth's superhumans (akin to Kingdom Come). After Magog tracked down Captain Atom, Atom manged to convince Magog that Lord was manipulating him. Lord (unhappy about this) killed Magog, but used his powers to make it seem like that Atom did it.

Powers

Magog's body is full of plasma energy that he controls via his staff. He has super strength and durability (he was seen surviving a nuke). He can fly. He was once seen being able to teleport people, but this power has not been seen after he killed Gog. He is able to use various forms of super-vision in his "blind" eye. According to Keith Griffen (who wrote his solo series), he actually has more power than he knows about.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magog_(comics)

Floating Timeline

2011-04-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Archie (above) and the gang are still teens despite the fact in real time they would be on retirement funds.

Concept

A floating timeline is an excused in pieces of fiction such as comics to explain why they don't age as much as they should. In a FT, events are changed so they happen more recently. For example, in a FT, if a comics says "10 years ago", it actually means "10 prior to you reading this". So, this is how come characters in lets say the Peanuts for example stay young even through the strip ran for 50 years. However, despite the characters not changing, technology and tends may change.

Comic Book Examples

In DC and Marvel Comics, while the characters do age, it's at a much slower rate. For example, in 20 years, Spider-Man only aged 4 or 5 years.

A better example is Archie, where the characters never age and have been in high school since 1941.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_Timeline

Marvel Chronicle

Life in Hell

2011-03-28T16:42:00.001-07:00

Blinky, Sheba and Bongo (Above)

Overview

The comic is about anthropomorphic rabbits and gay brothers Akbar & Jeff. It explores topics like death, work, love and sex. The comic often has serialized story lines.

History

Life in Hell was a self-published comic book created by Matt Groening. Matt gave copies of it to his friends and sold them at a record store he worked at. The strip later appeared in Wet magazine and the Los Angeles Reader. While he never fully gave up on the strip, he has trouble doing it due to his involvement with television.

Recurring Characters

Blinky- He is main character and an everyman despite being a rabbit. He is often bitter and depressed. He usually has a dead end job and embodies alienation and dread. He often sees a therapist and has a bad apartment. Despite this, he usually is full of wise sayings.

Sheba- Blinky's girlfriend. She and Blinky are often used a generic couple when the plot demands one.

Bongo- He is Blinky's one eared illegitimate son. Matt has made several references to him in cartoons he works on.

Akbar & Jeff- Two "brothers or lovers... and possibly both". Matt claims they are gay. They have Charlie Brown-like shirts and fezzes and own many businesses such as Akabr & Jeff's Bootleg "Akbar & Jeff" T-Shirt Hut. They some time appear in 16-panel grid strips that only they appear in. Unlike most of the characters, they are human.

Matt Groening and his sons sometime appear as rabbits.

Snarla- A cat that looks like Lisa Simpson. She is Bongo's love interest and classmate.

Mr. Simpson- Blinky's dog boss. He predates The Simpson cartoon.

Gooey, Screwy and Ratatouille- A parody of Huey, Dewey and Louie and are Akbar and Jeff's triplet nephews.

Recurring Situations and Gags

Fake Magazines

How to Guides

Miniseries- Strips told in a mock textbook-style

Akbar & Jeff Discussing About Their Relationship

Binky Tries to Meditate

Ads for Akbar & Jeff's Shady Businesses

Bongo Trapped In Detention

Bongo Being Unhappy With The Huge Amounts of Gifts He Gets For Christmas

Shadow Rabbit- Blinky's shadow towering over Bongo, when did something wrong despite his claims he didn't (even though it's obvious he did)

How to Draw Blinky

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_In_Hell

Liberty Legion

2011-03-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

History

The Liberty Legion were a group of B-list Golden Age superheroes assembled by Bucky in 1942 to save the Invaders from the Red Skull. The heroes included: the Blue Diamond, Jack Frost, Red Raven, the Thin Man (no connection to the movie), the Whizzer, Miss America and the Patriot. After saving the Invaders, they became superhero team protect America from the Nazi, while the Invaders fought them overseas. Many of the LL's members that been re-introduce into the Marvel Comics continuity.

Liberteens

The Liberteens (pun on "libertine") were a morden day teenage version of the Liberty Legion, with each member being based on a LL member. During the Secret Invasion, it turned out that their leader Revolutionary (based on Patriot) was a Skrull sleeper agent. The skrulls tried to kill the Liberteens via pioson gas, but Whiz Kid (Whizzer) saved her team mates.

References:

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Legion

Flaming Carrot Comics

2011-03-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

Titular Character

The titular character is a surrealist parody of superheroes. The Flaming Carrot was once a normal person, but became brain damaged after reading "5,000 comics in a single sitting" to win a bet. He decided to become a superhero (likely because of his mentally instability): the Flaming Carrot. He protects Palookaville (where he lives) and Iron City (which happens to be near by).

His dialogue tends to be disjointed and peppered with non-sequiturs and odd pop culture references. He is often a womanizing, hard-drinking and mentally unstable individual (likely a parody of the "grim and gritty" antiheroes), but somehow still is on the side of the Establishment and once acted like a "clean cut, all American" superhero. He also often reflects on pieces of philosophy, why someone would become a superhero and the side effects of having a speaker transplanted into one's chest (don't ask).

So far, FC has stopped a Communist take over of Iron City, 3 alien invasions, the Man in the Moon, an army of clones of Hilter's boots and Death itself. He also formed a group of blue-collar superheroes called the Mystery Men.

Powers and Abilities

His mask has live flames on the top of it (hence his name) and a secret compartment for odd gadgets (such as a nuclear-powered pogo stick). He has a utility belt full of seemingly useless stuff that still proves lethal in combat. He wears flippers on his feet in case he needs to swim. Unlike most superheroes, he is completely willing to use firearms and has been seen using a semi-automatic pistol.

References:

http://en.wik,ipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_Carrot_Comics

Limited Series

2011-03-11T04:17:00.000-08:00

A limited series is a comic with a fixed amount of issues.

History

In 1979, Dave Sim was hospitalized, due to overdose of grass and LSD. During this time, he came up with the idea for Cerebus the Aardvark and to limit it to 300 issues. Cerebus was the very first limited series (although somehow Dave failed to realize the latter).

DC Comic, which was suffering from the damage of the DC Implosion, decided to experiment with this style of story telling, which proved successful. Later, Marvel Comics and Dark Horse Comics adopted the style of story telling.

Length

Although 4 to 6 issues is the norm, the number of issues can vary. Gen13 ran for 4 issues, while Squadron Supreme and Watchmen had 12 issues. Usually, an issue of a limited series will say on the cover what the limit of issues is.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_series

Batman

2011-03-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

Publication History

Creation

Batman was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Bob's early design of Batman was a Superman-look-alike with a domino mask and stiff bat wings coming out of his back. Finger gave several suggestion to improve the character's look such as him having a cowl and cape. Batman was influenced by Zorro, the Phantom, the Shadow (who is often mistaken for Batman-knock off), Doc Savage and Sherlock Homes. Although many stories did not actually give credit to the creators in that time, later, the title panel would every now and then give Bob credit.

Early Years

First appearing in Detective Comics # 27, Batman started out as a hero who had little remorse for killing the villains. The character evolved over time. In issue 29, he got his trademark utility belt and in issue 31 he got the Bat-Plane and bat-shaped boomerangs. His origin wasn't revealed until issue 33. By issue 38, the character was be soften up by introducing the first Robin to act as his "Watson". Batman got his own comic, which not only introduced Joker and Catwoman in the first issue, but also his "no killing" rule.

1950s and 1960s

Due to the criticisms of Seduction of the Innocent, Batman became much softer and a less dark hero and had more female supporting characters. The comic started to become more sci-fi oriented and introduce characters like Bat-Mite and Ace the Bat-Hound, who would later be erased from the Batman mythos. He also became a founding member of the Justice League.

New Batman

Editor Julius Schwartz made major changes to Batman such as removing Bat-Mite and making the comic more detective-oriented again. Due to the popularity of the Batman television show featuring Adam West, the comics gained a campy touch. Writer Dennis O'Neil would later try and keep Batman away from the campy overtones. But, sales were bad.

Back to the Basic

Thanks to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, Batman regained popularity as well as returned to his dark roots. A notable event was when fans could vote on if Jason Todd (the second Robin) would live or DIE! Lets just say things did turn out too good for Jason. In "Batman R.I.P.", Batman was killed. In "Battle for the Cowl", Dick Grayson (the first Robin) became the new Batman.

Character Biography

Origin

Young Bruce Wayne was leaving a movie when his parents where mugged. The mugger (later revealed to be Joe Chill) killed his parents. On his parent's grave, he swore to fight crime. After spending years of training in fighting, he decided to become a vigilante. But, he wanted to inflict criminals with fear... but how? One night, a giant bat flew into his study. Taking his as an omen, he decided to become "a bat" and became Batman. By day, he was an irresponsible playboy.

Golden Age
After several years of brutally fighting crime, Batman witnessed the Flying Graysons killed. He took their son (Dick Grayson) under his wing and dubbed him "Robin". The duo would fight many enemies such as Catwoman, Joker and Riddler. Batman had a few adventures with the Justice Society of America. Later, Alfred Pennyworth became his butler (in this version this is the first time Batman met him) and discovered that Batman and Bruce Wayne were one and the same. Also, Vicki Vale (a Lois Lane knock off) became Batman's first girlfriend that didn't try to kill him.

Silver Age

The Golden Age Batman was rewritten so he existed in a reality known as Earth-Two, where he married Catwoman. The main reality Batman's origin was given a new twist: Joe Chill was hired to kill Batman's parents. It was revealed his dad (Thomas Wayne) stopped a mobster called Lew Moxon. Lew hired Joe to kill Thomas and his wife (which he did). This Batman became a founding member of the Justice League of America (the Silver Age counterpart to the JSA). Later, Robin decided to go solo. Batman's stories became darker such as his arch-enemy Joker became more sadistic and psychopathic. Later, Batman quit the JLA and joined the Outsiders, only to quit later too.

Modern Age
Batman was rebooted to be much darker. Also, Alfred was rewritten to be a father figure to Bruce. Batman got a new Robin: Jason Todd. Jason tried to find his genetic mom... only to get beaten half to death and blown up by the Joker. This caused Batman to become even more dark. However, he still had more Robins. A villain called Bane broke his back and Batman gave Azrael the mantle of the Bat, while he recovered, which he did. However, upon battling the god-like Darksied, his mind is sent to parallel worlds. However, it seems more like Darkseid actually killed him. Dick Grayson ends up becoming the new Batman. Through a complex series of events, Bruce gets back to normal and decides to open up Batman Inc.

Homosexual Interpretations

The before mentioned Seduction of the Innocent accused Batman and Robin of being a gay couple and them a "homosexual fantasy". However, creators disagree if Batman is gay or not. While Alan Grant says Batman isn't gay, Frank Miller views them as a "homophobic nightmare". Devin Grayson, a writer, said while he doesn't think Batman is gay "It depends who you ask".

References:

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman

http://www.comicvine.com/Batman/29-1699/

Thor

2011-03-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

Marvel Comics

In version of Thor, Odin thought Thor needed to be taught a lesson in humility. So, he transformed him into a medical student named Donald Blake with a lame leg. Donald had no idea he was Thor. However, he found a walking stick and upon striking against a rock, it became his hammer and he became Thor. Thor became a staple superhero in the Marvel Universe.

DC Comics

A more traditional version of Thor appears in The Sandman. He is over-musclar idiot with a hammer able to change size. In "Seasons of Mists", he accompanies Odin to the Dreaming and keep an eye on Loki, while they tried (and failed) to convince Morpheus to give them the key to hell. In the "Kindly Ones", he taking Loki back to Hel, but Loki nearly tricks him into killing him (Hel is much worse then death), but Odin stopped him.

Comico Comics

Here is a wannabe hero that often causes more help than harm. He appears in the Elementals series.

Willy Vandersteen

Willy, a Flemish comic artist, created a caveman called "Tor" (in Dutch the difference in "T" and "Th" is rarely noticed). However, the actual god Thor appears as being very powerful, but bound by responibility.

Valhalla (comics)

Thor (the guy in the picture above with the red hair) appears in a comic called Valhalla, which, despite being base on mythology, makes jokes involving other pieces of fiction and current events. Here is he a powerful, but honest, god. In this, he is married Sif.

Others

Weird Comics featured a scienist that gained the powers of Thor from a lightning bolt.
Thor appears in Life Eaters.
Image Comics have had two villainous versions of Thor.
The comic strip BC has caveman named Thor.
El Cazador De Aventuras, an Argentinan Comic, featured Thor in it's Ragnarok remake.

References:

Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_(comics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_(Comico_Comics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_(Marvel_Comics)

The Sandman "Seasons of Mists" and "The Kindly Ones" TPB

Shade, the Changing Man

2011-03-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

Steve Ditko Years
Rac Shade was a secret agent from the Meta-Zone, an alternate dimension, which is part of the even bigger Zero-Zone. Rac was framed for treason and was sentenced to death. Of course, Rac went on the run and tried to clear his name. He used the M-Vest that allows him to generate force fields and cause his appearance to change depending on the mental state of the viewer (hence "the Changing Man"). Mellu Loron, his former girlfriend, wanted to kill him, because she (incorrectly) thought he killed her parents. However, she changed her mind upon discovering that he saved her from the Area of Madness, which causes people to waste all their bodily functions on screaming. However, Rac is immune to the Area of Madness, due to his M-Vest. He was finally caught and put on trial. But, he leaped into the Area of Madness to escape. He joined the Suicide Squad, but ended up accidentally killing one of his own friends. Feeling guilty, he went back to his home dimension and hasn't been heard from since.
Peter Milligan

During the "British Invasion", Pete revamped Rac. Now, he was a poet sent to Earth to stop it's ever-growing madness. In this version, his vest was the "Madness Vest" and granted Shade reality warping powers. Despite the surreal nature of the comic, it took place in the DC Universe. The series used controversial (for that time) ideas and concepts (such as transgenderism and the JFK assassination). So, DC Comic created an imprint company for it and the other controversial comics called Vertigo Comics. The comic got a cult following, despite not selling in large numbers, and ran a full 70 issues.

Similar to Doctor Who, Shade had the ability to return from the dead, but with a new form. He has had a total of five forms: "the red-head poet", "the Changing Woman", "the black-haired lunatic", "the heartless mod" and "the bedraggled obsessive". Currently, he is a supporting character for John Constantine in Hellblazer.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade,_the_Changing_Man

Kingdom Come

2011-03-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

Promotional Art for Kingdom Come

Plot

10 years prior to the story, the Joker killed the staff of the Daily Planet. He was sent to trial, but a new superhero called Magog killed the Joker and people called him a hero. Upset that the public is treating this murderer as a hero, Superman withdraws from world at large. Due to Superman not being a role model for superheroes anymore, superhumans simply battle each other without cause or concern for the bystanders.
Impending Disaster

The story is told from the point of view of Norman McCay, who gains from the Sandman the ability to see into the future. With the help of the Spectre, he jumped through time and space to see what's happening. Magog's Justice Battalion tried to kill Parasite, but Parasite tore Captain Atom open... causing an explosion and killing millions of people.
Second Coming of Superman

Superman finally decided to come back and try to stop the rogue superhumans. He reformed the Justice League to include some of the "old" heroes (Green Latern I, Hawkman, Dick Grayson [now called Red Robin]) and reformed superhumans like Avia (daughter of Big Barda and Mr. Miracle). However, Batman thought that Superman was being too idealist and formed the Outsiders (which consisted of non-powered heroes [such as Green Arrow] and second and third generation heroes). Lex Luthor formed the Mankind Liberation Front (consisting of Silver Age villains and third generation villains).

Pact

The Justice League created a superhuman prision, but it was filled up within two weeks of its creation and pressure built as the superhumans started riots. Meanwhile, Batman discovered that Lex Luthor has brainwashed Captain Marvel. The prisoners of the before mentioned prison killed Captain Comet and Captain Marvel frees them. This leads to the JL and the rogue superhumans to clash.
Armageddon
While things get worse, the U.N. decided to nuke the superhumans. Wonder Woman and Batman stopped two of the planes with the bombs. But, one got pass them. Meanwhile, Superman and Captain Marvel clash. But, Superman managed to free Captain Marvel from the brain washing. Captain Marvel used his lightning bolt to cause the bomb to explose in mid-air, but it killed most of the superhumans.(Green Lantern managed to save a few) Superman went mad and runs amok (he thought everyone else died). However, Norman talked him out of this saying this was why humans fear the superhumans.
Epilogue
Batman opened up a hospital for the superhumans harmed in the previous battle and Superman restores the farm lands destroyed by Captain Atom exploding.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Come_(comics)

Webcomic

2011-03-05T06:29:00.000-08:00

Xkcd (the comic above), a self-sustaining webcomic

Format
One of the reason people choose to make webcomics is because of the "infinite canvas" (the idea that on the web comics can spread out in any direction infinitely), rather be confined to the "finite" canvas of a piece of paper. Some web comics, such as Argon Zark!, have animation and interactive elements. Most webcomics use a traditional 3 to 4 panel format, although some comics use a style similar to comic books and manga.
Content
Webcomics (due to their independent nature) usually manage to escape the censorship of mainstream comics, hence enjoying freedom similar to the Underground Comix movement. However, the content can cause trouble, like when the Catholic League complained about the "blasphemous treatment of Jesus" at the hands of artist Eric Monster Millikin.
History
Starting around the 1980s, the first webcomics included Witches with Stitches and T.H.E. Fox. However, more and more people started to make webcomics to the point of an estimated 38,000 webcomics being published.
Business
Some webcomic creators have actually been able to work full-time on their webcomics, because they make money off them from banner ads on their site. A notable example is Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (who make Penny Arcade). Others (such as Kaja and Phil Foglio) use webcomics to reach out to a wider audience. Some comics such as Order of the Stick and Diesel Sweeties have seen print.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webcomic

Marvel Apes

2011-03-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Plot

In a loose parody of Marvel Zombies, Gibbon's (a mutant with a simian appearance) finds his whole life went down the tubes when his wife left him. Due to boredom and depression, he let Fiona Fitzhugh experiment on him. Fiona discovered that he is "connected" to an alternate reality. Unfortunately, she accidentally sucked them both into this reality (later designated as Earth-8101), which was full of simian versions of the Marvel characters (such as Spider-Man's counterpart, Spider Monkey). While there Gibbon helped the Ape-Vengers (counterparts to the Avengers) stop Doc Ooktavius (an orangutan Doc Ock) and was allowed to join their ranks. Meanwhile, Fiona tried to get this reality's version of Reed Richard's (a baboon) help. Gibbon got to known the members of the Ape-Vengers... only to see them brutally kill Doc Ooktavius. While a gorilla Captain America chases him, Gibbon discover that "Captain America" is actually Baron Blood's counterpart (a vampire) and was using the Ape-Vengers as a way to get food. With the help of a group of heroes, Gibbon found the real Captain America frozen in ice. Then, he thawed him out and the duo stopped Blood.
Sequels / Spin Offs
The comic has several sequels such as Marvel Zombies: Evil Evolution, where the Marvel Zombies meet the Marvel Apes, and four one-shots: Amazing Spider-Monkey, Speed Ball Special, Grunt Line and Prime Eight.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Apes

Marvel Rating System

2011-02-27T14:05:00.000-08:00

History
Due to Marvel's turning againist CCA, they adopted the Mavel Rating System. It started out in 2001 as:

All Ages
PG
PG+
Parental Advisory / Explicit Content

The Motion Picture Association of America got mad as they hold the copyright for the term "PG rating". So, Marvel changed it to:

All Ages
PSR (Parental Supervision Recommended)
PSR+
Parently Advisory / Explicit Content

However, in 2005, they switched to a new version of it:

All Ages
A: Apporiate for age 9 and up
T+: Teens and up
Parental Advisory
Max: Explicit Content

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Rating_Systam

Pearls Before Swine

2011-02-25T05:03:00.000-08:00

Clockwise: Rat (Top right), Pig, Goat and Zebra the four main characters

Origin
Stephen Pastis (the creator of the strip) tried (failed) to get a comic called Rat (about a depressing philosophical rat) and The Infirm (about a struggle lawyer). He combined elements of both strips to make Pearls Before Swine. Several syndicates liked it, but weren't sure if it was marketable. However, United Media decided to put the strip on the Internet and see what kind of buzz it would make. Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert and fan of the strip) showed his fans the strip, which sparked enough interest for the strip to be published.

Characters

Rat- He is a megalomaniac rat. He is self-center and acts out his own interest with disregard for other people's feelings. As such, everyone hates him (save Pig). He also thinks he is much smarter than he really is. He has been known to break the fourth wall to complain about the strip. He often writes very bad pieces of literature (such as Angry Bob Vol. I-III) that everyone hates.
Pig- He is a kind-hearted, but naive and unintelligent pig. He is Rat's roommate and suffers the most abuse from him, but is dumb enough to think of him as a friend. He has a habit to talking to inanimate objects to the point of forming a "Fruit Buddy" club. His least likable trait is the fact is he is a cannibal.
Goat- He is an intellectual goat. However, he can barely stand the stupidity of Pig and cruelty of Rat. He often criticizes the poor quality of Rat's literature (such as Angry Bob Volume II, where Bob "un-dies").
Zebra- He is a zebra who tries to deal with the predators attacking him and his herd. A recurring gag early on in the strip is that his herd will do stupid things to try (and fail) to avoid getting eaten. He has a cat named Snuffles (who was revealed to be a terrorist).
Guard Duck- He is a guard hired by Pig, because a guard dog was too expensive. GD starts as having a temper-problem, but was changed so he sees the whole world as a battle field. He often suggests militaristic solutions to problems in the neighborhood.
Crocodiles- The main antagonists. The Fraternity of Crocodiles (the official name is "Zeeba Zeeba Eata") are a group of stupid crocodiles, who speak very poor English and have odd accents. Their main goal is to eat Zebra (who they called "Zeeba"), but never succeed.
Larry-He is the dumbest of the crocodiles and is possibly the leader. However, he doesn't live in the Zeeba Zeeba Eata house. He has a wife, who is much smarter than him, and a son, called "Junior", who is not only smarter than him, but also a pacifist and vegetarian.

Name

The title comes from Matthew 7:6, where Jesus says "Neither cast ye your pearls before swine". In the context of this comic, Rat thinks he is the wisdom being wasted on "the swine" (Pig).

References:
Pearls Before Swine: Sergeant Piggy's Lonely Heart's Club Comic

Various PBS strips

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearls_Before_Swine_(comic_strip)

Giant-Size X-Men # 1

2011-02-24T17:09:00.000-08:00

Plot

The X-Men (Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Iceman and Angel) and Havok and Lorna Dane are sent to an island to find a mutant, but all of them (save Cyclops) disappear. So, Cyclops told Professor X what happened. Prof. X gathered Storm, Nightcrawler, Bashee, Sunfire, Wolverine, Colossus and Thunderbird to save the X-Men. The team discover that the mutant that the first group looked for wasn't on the island. He is the island and feeds on mutants. So, the old and new X-Men gang up him and launch him into space.

Legacy

The mutants Xavier gather would later become the second generation of X-Men.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaint-Size_X-Men

The Essential X-Men

Zot!

2011-02-20T13:34:00.000-08:00

Protagonists

Zachary T. Paleozogt- a.k.a Zot. He is blond hair, blue-eyed teenage hero from an alternate Earth. He flies via rocket boots and fight villains with boundless optimism and a ten-shooter laser gun.
Jenny Weaver- She is a very sensitive girl. She is the point-of-view character.
Butch- Jenny's bully brother. Due to an accident, he turns in a talking chimpanzee when in Zot's world.
Zot's Uncle Max, who is an inventor, artist and surrogate parent to Zot and is eccentric.
Woody- Jenny's "sweet", but "nerdy" boyfriend
Peabody- Zot's robot guardian / butler
Terry- A lesbian friend of Jenny's
Ronnie- An obsessive comic writer
Brandy- Ronnie's girlfriend
George- A genius who is also lazy
Bob- A violent and rude "nerd"
Elizabeth- Bob's quiet sister

Antagonists

Bellows- He hates that his inventions (which are un-friendly to the environment) aren't used any more.
9-Jack-9- He is assassin that can travel through electric signals
Dekko- Max's friend turned insane cyborg
The Devoes- A cult that thinks humans should have monkeys. They have a guns that turn people into monkeys.
Zybox- A soul-wanting super computer
The Blotch- A businessman / gangster with a "warped face" that tries to stay out of jail.

Story Arcs

1-10: Jenny Weaver, a lonely girl, meets Zot, who is trying to stop robots who what to get a special key. The duo, after some chaos, discover that Sirius IV, a theocratic tyrant, is trying to steal the key and go to his world. Only to discover he was planning to use this an excuse for a holy war against Earth. The duo trick Sirius to gloat about his plan... on live television, leading to a revolt against him.

11-27: Zot had to battle a series of villains.

28-36: This story arch focuses on characterization and end with a cliff hanger where the characters are going to Zot's home.

10 1/2 and 14 1/2- Non-cannon back-up stories where stick figure versions of the characters are in absurd and surreal situations.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zot!

Gnorm Gnat

2011-02-10T05:16:00.000-08:00

I am going to talk about a comic strip as oppose to a comic character. Gnorm Gnat was created by Jim Davis, but he failed to get the strip published. However, his mistakes here led to his more successful creation of Garfield.

History

While working with Tom Ryan on the Tumbleweeds strip, Davis saw the possibilities of humor with insect characters. However, he failed to get it published. One editor said that despite his good gags and art "nobody can relate to bugs!" (although it's argued that The Far Side [which has many insect jokes] has disproved this). Jim literally killed off Gnorm via getting stepped on. Then, Davis went to create Garfield.

Characters

In 20 Years & Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection, Davis explained about what the characters were intended to be like:

Gnorm Gnat- The titular character. He was suppose to be the straight man and sometimes acts like Walter Mitty.
Lyman- An insane buck-toothed doctor
Freddy- A fruit fly with two weeks to live
Dr. Rosenwurm- A highly intelligent worm
Cecil Slug- Stupid
Drac Webb- Tries to eat the other characters

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnorm_Gnat

The Smurfs

2011-02-09T13:06:00.001-08:00

You are probably thinking some to the effect of "why is Skippy talking about '80s cartoon characters on a comic blog?" Well, that cartoon series was based on a Belgian comic.

History

The soon-to-be creators of the Smurfs were having dinner together. However, Andre (one of the creators) forgot the word "salt" and asked for "schtroumpf" (I think it means something to effect of "thingamajig"). This inspired them to introduce a tribe of small, blue elves called that in their sword and sorcery comic Johan et Pirlouit. The character proved popular enough to their own stories and later comic. In Dutch, they were called the Smurfs, which was adopted by English speakers.

The Smurfs and their Culture

The Smurfs are small blue, look-like, 3-crab apple-tall beings. Despite looking very much alike, they usually have at least one notable characteristic that they were named after. They appear to age much slower than human as most of them are 100 years old. Most of the Smurfs are male, with extremely few females.

Their language is usually what ever language the comic is translated into, but they have a tendency of using the word "Smurf" for multiple meanings aside from referring to themselves, making it somewhat hard to understand them.

Their village is located in forest and they live in small mushroom houses. Despite the fact humans live near the forest, it is difficult (if not impossible) to find the village.

The Smurfs don't use money, but have a cooperative economy, where each Smurf does a job in society and get necessities of life in return.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smurf

EC Comics

2011-02-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

History
EC Comics started out as Educational Comics and was founded by Max Gaines. However upon Max's death, his son, William Gaines, took over and renamed it Entertaining Comics. While publishing a variety of comics, the most well-known were his horror comics: Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear. These comics had gruesome and ironic tales told by horror hosts. Mad became popular around the same time. Due to the backlash against comic books at the time period, the comic code authority was formed. However, its rules killed off the 3 horror comics. Bill would later clash with the code several times. One notable incident involved a story called "Judgement Day", in which an astronaut doesn't want a robot-populated planet to join the Galactic Republic, because the robots' practice of segregation. The code wouldn't approve this because the main character was black. But, Bill still ran the story. Later, the company would focus solely on Mad, even when it's editor quit due to him not getting enough control of the creative process. Later, Bill made money off of licensing his famous horror comics.
References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EC_Comics

300

2011-02-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

Poster for the movie

300 is a comic book mini-series done by Frank Miller. It was later adapted into the film of the same name.

Plot

King Leonidas of Sparta gathered his 300 best men (hence the name) to stop a Persian invasion force despite being outnumbered. The deformed Ephialtes wanted to join, but due to his inability to lift his shield correctly (which would ruin their phalanx) was rejected. For two days and nights, the Spartans held off the Persians. After he failed to sway Leonidas to his side, the Persian king met with Ephialtes, who revealed to him a secret pass that would allow them to ambush the Spartans, which they do. So, the Spartans forced Dilios (a trusted aide) to leave, so he can tell their story. Despite being offered the chance to surrender (and have all his men alive), Leonidas goes on fighting, leading all the Spartans into getting killed. Later, Dilios told his troops about the story prior to the Battle of Plataea.

Criticism

Both the movie and comic have criticized for egregious historical inaccuracy and the offensive way the so-called "Persians" were portrayed.

References:

Wikipedia

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!

2011-01-31T04:24:00.000-08:00

History

Origin

Superman discovered that the citizens of his home were acting like primates. He investigated and discovered that a mysterious barrier around the Earth was the causing this. A ray tried to hit Superman, but he used a meteor to protect himself, but destroyed the meteor and sent it to Earth-C, an anthropomorphic animal world. Various denizens gained super powers from the meteor fragments. The animals (who would later became the Zoo Crew) teamed up with Superman to stop the ray (which was turning the animals non-anthropomorphic). They found out that Starro was the culprit and he was hiding on that reality's Pluto. After beating Starro, the animals decided to become the Zoo Crew. Early on, they had trouble working together in battle, but improved with time.

Back Together

The team made a come back in the Teen Titans # 30-31. Kid Devil read a comic called "Whatever Happened to Captain Carrot" (a obvious reference to Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"). In a parody the darker themes in comics, Little Cheese is dead, Yankee Poodle was a fugitive accused of killing the president, Captain Carrot drowned his guilt for the death of his sidekick in drink, Fastback is missing and Pig-Iron and Rubberduck were underground superheroes. Alley-Kat Abra was the only fortunate one and was now a famous magician. A hero called American Eagle reformed the team to avenge Little Cheese's death. Then after investigating, they discovered that Alley-Kat Abra (who refused to join the reformed team) killed Little Cheese, framed Yankee, trapped Fastback in the future and sold the team's secrets to the government. Alley-Kat was sent to prison and the Zoo-Crew went off to save Fastback.

Countdown

We discover that Earth-C is actually Earth-26. With the aid of Chip Hunter, they managed to free Fastback. President Benebuck Arnold formed the Collar ID Initiative (a parody of Marvel's Superhuman Registration Act), but the Zoo Crew refused to comply and operated on the sly. The team members got their alter egos back (except Yankee, who was making money on her getting framed). The team battled various enemies and freed Alley-Kat, who revealed that an impostor took her place and did all of the horrible things. Starro managed to get all of the team (minus Pig-Iron) to forget how to use their powers. Rash Al Paca started to flood the planet. Benebuck reveals the Collar ID Initiative has removed all of the planet's superpowered being's powers. So, the Zoo Crew got help from the Just'a Lotta of Animals (who are from an alternate dimension) to get most of the animals onto a giant ship. However, they accidentally end up on New Earth (the main reality) as "normal" (non-anthropomorphic) animals.

Final Crisis

In Final Crisis # 7, Monitor Nix Uotan restored the Zoo Crew to their "normal" forms.

Members

Captain Carrot- He gains Superman-like powers from eating "Cosmic Carrots" (carrots effected by meteor fragments). These abilites last for roughly 24 hours (although exertion to a high enough level could speed it up the time limit) He has an alter ego as Roger Rabbit (later changed to Rodney for legal reasons), a cartoonist.
Alley-Kat Abra- She is a magic user that uses her "Magic Wanda" (magic wand) to cast spells.
Pig-Iron- He worked in a steel mill until a meteor fragment knocked into a vat of melted steel turning him into a giant metal version of himself with super strength and invulnerability.
Rubberduck- He was a movie star, but a meteor fragment allowed him to become super stretchy.
Yankee Poodle- She was a journalist, but got the ability to shoot force beams (shaped like stars and stripes) from the meteor.
Fastback- He is a turtle that is ironically super fast now.
Little Cheese- He was a mouse that got the ability to shrink into tiny sizes from eating a piece cheese from the moon (as opposed to getting them from a meteor fragment). He is now dead.
American Eagle- He is really Johnny Jingo, a radio reporter. He has no powers, but uses Batman-like gadgets.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Carrot_and_His_Amazong_Zoo_Crew

Gorillas in Comics

2011-01-30T06:48:00.000-08:00

Please laugh.
What the Heck I am Talking About?
Due to the popularity of gorillas in forms of media such as King Kong, comic books had a large amount of stories featuring gorillas. Later, there was backlash against the "silly" plot device.
History
Oddly, in the Silver Age, gorillas were used as gimmicks to get people to buy comics. However, due to gag covers, rarely did the comic actually have more than few panels involving the gorilla story. There were a lot of brain-transplants and King Kong knock-offs. Several rumors emerged about the wide use of gorillas:

Publishers thought that by simply putting a gorilla on the cover, it would increase sales.
To not abuse the winning formula, DC Comics would only have 1 gorilla comic per month (except for "gorilla month")

Due to comics becoming a more respectable art form, there was backlash against this gimmick. However, these comics have gained collector value. In the Modern Age of Comics, mainly to due Silver Age nostalgia, comic book creators have referenced this gimmick.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_in_Comics
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/14/JimmyOlsen98.png

Seduction of the Innocent

2011-01-27T04:53:00.000-08:00

To comic book readers, this is the bible of Satan.

Content

Fredic Wertham (the author) blamed comics for juvenile delinquency. The book, in reality, is mainly based on undocumented events, which may have not even happen. He claimed that reading comics would cause kids to do the same thing as the characters in the stories. Despite superheroes not being popular at the time, Wertham made incredibly stupid and rash statements about them: he claimed Batman and Robin were a gay couple, Wonder Woman was lesbian and Superman was a fascist. The book has gone out of print, due to the fact that it uses comic panels and he didn't ask permission from any of the companies.

Legacy

This book caused a Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency meeting, where there was a debate between Wertham and Willaim Gaines, publisher of EC Comics. Despite the SSJA not taking Wertham's side, they suggested to publishers to tone down the comics. This led to the formation of the Comic Code of Authority. Despite banning everything Fredric complained about, he thought it was "inadequate" to protect the youth.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_innocent

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/Seduction_of_the_Innocent.jpg

Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC

2011-01-25T16:43:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm a Marvel... and I'm a DC is a web show created by ItsJustSomeRandomGuy on Youtube.

Format

The series is a parody of the Get a Mac television commericals, where a PC and a Mac (played by human actors) would compare and contrast each other, usually with the Mac winning. In this, comic characters would compare and contrast (or talk smack as some would put it) their recent movies and each other in humorous ways.

Rounds

The series is divided into rounds, which are similar to seasons in a television show. Round 1 focused on Superman and Spider-Man, but had cameos of Batman and Hulk, who would later become recurring characters. In Round 2, Iron Man and Batman talk smack. Round 3 focused on the characters from the Watchmen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine at each other's necks. Round 4 has had (at time of press) only two episodes: "Iron Man 2 and Jonah Hex" and "The Musical", where Iron Man sings about how the flaws in his movies were for the sake of Marvel Movies' continuity, only to have Batman point the continuity error in Iron Man 2, where the new actor playing Rhodey looks different from one that played him in Iron Man. To which, Iron Man said "Shut up."

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ItsJustSomeRandomGuy

Superman Curse

2011-01-23T08:16:00.000-08:00

The Superman Curse is an idiotic theory that any one who plays Superman or is involved with adapting the character is doomed to a horrible fate.
Supposed Victims
The following are actors commonly sited as beening victims of the Superman Curse. There are few more I didn't list, because the list was too long.

The Fleischer Brothers- They made the classic Superman cartoons. After making them, they started to fight and lost money and had to sell their company.
Kirk Alyn- Played Superman in serials and failed to find work else where.
George Reeves- The first actor to play Superman on television. He was found shot dead.
Danny Dark- Played Superman for the Super Friends cartoons and died of pulmonary hemorrhage.
Christopher Reeve- Play Superman in the movie of the same name. He fell of a horse and his body became paralyzed from the neck down.
Margot Kidder- Played Lois Lane and suffers from extreme bipolar disorder
Mark Pillow- Played Supes in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and never starred in another movie

People Who "Escaped" the Curse

Despite the latter, the various actors who played Superman and members of his supporting cast, such as Brandon Routh, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Jon Cryer, to name a few, led successful acting carrers

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_Curse

Flash of Two Worlds

2011-01-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

The "Flash of Two Worlds" is a story in The Flash issue 123, which introduces the concept of the DC Multiverse.

Plot

The Barry Allen Flash is doing magic tricks at a charity event. However, during one trick involving him vibrating his molecules so fast they're invisible, he disappears from the stage and reappears in another city. Turns out that this city is Keystone City, home to the Jay Garrick Flash, who was previously written off as being a comic-in-a-comic. Barry (after looking up Jay in a phone book) met with Jay Flash. He discovers that Jay retired the same year his comic in Barry's reality got canceled. Barry thinks that the comic's creator was unknowingly basing the comic on events in Earth-2 (Jay's reality). Meanwhile, the Thinker, the Fiddler and the Shade united to get revenges of their old nemesis, Jay Garrick. The Flashes split up: Jay takes on Shade, Barry takes on Thinker, but the evil guys escaped and figure out there are two Flashes and warn Fiddler. Fiddler uses his magic music to mind control the duo and have them commit crimes. However, as the villains get the loot, the Flashes capture them and reveal they had jewels in their ears to block the music and played along to fool them. Jay decides to come out of retirement and Barry goes home.

Legacy

Due this comic's success, many of the DC's Golden Age characters were revived. Later, crossover between Earth One (Barry's reality) and Earth Two (Jay's reality) became a yearly theme in the Justice League of America comics and led to the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_of_Two_Worlds

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Flash_v1_123.jpg

X-Babies

2011-01-17T14:16:00.000-08:00

History

In Uncanny X-Men Annual # 12, since the X-Men are assumed dead, Mojo (see his post) was left without his # 1 rating generator. He tried to create his own version of the X-Men. After numerous failures, he created the X-Babies (younger versions of the X-Men). They rebeled againist Mojo and he was going to kill them... only to discover his ratings were higher than ever. There have numerous versions of the X-Babies, usually they are younger versions of the current X-Men roster. X-Babies had several villain teams such as the Brotherhood of Bullies (based on the Brotherhood of Mutants). In Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem, a group of X-Babies were on the loose and Mojo tried to take advantage of their crushes on each other and "child-like" flaws to get them to sign contracts, but Kitty Pryde saved them. In the new X-Babies miniseries, the X-Babies discover that Mojo created the "Adorable X-Babies" (newer, cuter version of the team, but with shallower personalites), which became his # 1 rating generator.

Roster

The current members are:

Colossusus (Colossus)
Creepy Crawler (Nightcrawler)
Cyke (Cyclops)
Shadowkitty (Shadowcat)
Psychild (Psylocke)
Shower (Storm)
Sugah (Rogue) (I'm as clueless as you are)
Wolvie (Wolverine)

Former members include:

Archangel*
Bishop*
Boyo (Banshee)
Charlie X (Prof. X)
Dazzler*
Gambit*
Havok*
Iceman*
Longshot*

*Please note some of the members without nicknames sometimes had "Lil'" in-front of their names when being referred to.

Notes

The X-Babies are a parody of the fad of creating younger version of popular characters also called "babyfication".

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Babies

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/Xbabies.png

Mojo

2011-01-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

Character History

The denizens of what would be the Mojoworld had an inability to stand up right and they could not evolve to counteract this. However, a scientist called Arize invented exoskeletons that allow them to do the latter. Depspite this becoming popular, a few of the denizens refused to use these and used motorize platforms. The so-called Spineless Ones took over the world. Their leader, Mojo, became in charge of all the planet's television and film media. He was assisted by his loyal (but sarcastic) robot servant Major Domo. So many people watched it, Mojo had to create genetically engineered slaves to do all the work. One of these, Longshot, rebelled and (despite having his memories wiped) escaped to Earth. Mojo later turned Longshot's girlfriend Ricochet Rita into Spiral (Mojo's insane warrior) . Mojo de-aged the X-Men into children, but the New Mutants saved them. Mojo discovered that the X-Men boosted his ratings! Later, he created a younger version of the team called the X-Babies. But despite boosting ratings, they rebelled against him. Mojo was seemly killed and was replaced by Mojo II: The Sequel, who was just as bad as Mojo. Mojo returned. Due to his inability to learn from mistakes, he created more X-Babies until every X-Man had a X-Baby counterpart, all of whom rebelled against Mojo. He created the Mitey 'Vengers (Avengers) and babies versions of Age of the Apocalypse villains to stop the X-Babies, who also rebelled. However, Mojo (off screen) managed to defeat them somehow. He would later plague the X-Men numerous times to try and boost his ratings.

Powers and Abilities

His multi-legged platform has several weapons built into it such as particle beams and a mechanical tail. He is also very strong and can easily lift a grown man with one arm. He has magic powers proportional to his "worship of his followers" (the popularity of his shows). He is seen to be immune to Rogue's powers as seen as he bear hugged her. Mojo is a "force of death and corruption", as such his touch can age humans and wither plants. Doctor Strange claims if Mojo was on Earth long enough he would cause "natural" disasters such as storms.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojo_(comics)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Uncanny_X-Men_461.jpg

X-Men: The Ultimate Guide

Big Barda

2011-01-15T14:39:00.000-08:00

Character History

Barda was a New God born about 250 years ago. She was on the planet Apokolips (ruled by Darkseid). Barda was taken from her mother by Granny Goodness and trained her to lead the Female Furies battalion (which she did). However, she fell in love with Scott Free (an enemy of the evil Darkseid). She later helped lead a rebellion led by the New God Himon. The duo freed Scott. She went to Earth and married Scott (who now called himself Mister Miracle). She became an on / off member of the Justice League and helped them in various crisises. She briefly left Scott, due to him being insensitive. She later resume her romance with him. After resigning from the JLA, she and Scott settled in Connecticut suburbs, but never stop helping people in time of need to the point she became a heavy hitter member of the Birds of Prey team. She was killed in Death of the New Gods # 1. But, she was reincarnated in Final Crisis.

Powers and Abilities

Like all of the New Gods, Big Barda is immortal. She also has super strength and durability. She's skilled in hand-to-hand combat and all weaponry / warfare. She has been seen fighting Wonder Woman to a draw. Her main weapon is the Mega-Rod. The latter produces powrful energy bolts and allows the user to increase gravitational forces. She is also able to summon / use the Aero-Disks, which allow her to fly.

Trivia

The Teen Titans (in the event of 52) are shown to have a Big Barda-like member called Little Brada. Her connection to Big Brada is unknown.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Barda

http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/img/b/BigBarda.jpg

Frankenstein (Dell Comics)

2011-01-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

Dell Comics tried to cash in on the superhero craze, while getting horror fans to read it too. This is what they came up with.

Overview

This guy seems to be unrelated to the traditional monster. He was created by "the Doctor" (not the British time traveller) and somehow gave him "superior intellect and the strength of fifty men". He was dormant for over 100 years (and completely ignoring the concept of decaying), until a lightning bolt gave him life. He donned a rubber-like mask to hide the fact his face is green. He also dubbed himself Frank Stone, inspired a chuck of masonry that happened to have FRANK engraved in it. He befriended the millionaire Henry Knickerbocker and, when the old man croaked, he got his money and became rich. The only person that knew Frankenstein's alter ego was William, his butler, however, Miss Ann Thrope (pun off of "misanthrope), a Lois Lane-like character, suspected that Frank and the hero were one of the same.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(Dell_Comics)

http://upload.wikimedia/org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Dellfrank.jpg

Gag Covers

2011-01-08T05:22:00.000-08:00

Gag Covers refers to a marketing technique used in comics in the Silver Age of Comics, most notably DC Comics.

What is it?

A gag cover was a cover where something shocking and seemly out of the ordinary (usually a character such as Superman acting grossly out of character), so the fans will buy it. However, the cover usually had little to do with the actual storyline if at all.

Response

This technique to sell comic books has come under criticism. Robin (one of our followers) says "that's cheating" and Skippy from Comix Serect HQ says "it's a pathetic and cheap marketing technique that is totally selling out the comic characters' pride.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_in_comics

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Lois_Lane_No_93.jpg

Dream of the Endless

2011-01-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

Dream is a member of the Endless, a group of living personifications of their name sake. Dream (as the name implies) controls dreams. However, in Gaiman's world, Dream also defines reality.

Morpheus

Morpheus is the first Dream of the Endless and is much older. Despite usually appearing to be a tall, “bone-white” skinned man with black eyes and unusually colored pupils, his appearance is known to change 'depending on who's watching'. For example, while Mister Miracle saw him as a man, Martian Manhunter saw him as Lord L'Zoril, a Martian god with the appearance of a flaming alien skull. However, when many gods were meeting with Morpheus, he appeared in the same form. To confuse the matter more, Bast, goddess of cats, said "I much prefer you in cat form, Dream old friend". So, it’s unknown how this appearance thing works. He likes to wear a helmet that is made out of the skull of a now-dead enemy of his, which is also his sigil to the other Endless. His speech bubbles tend to appear wavy and black with white lettering in normal caps (as opposed to the other character’s block caps).

Despite ultimately being heroic and responsible, he does have some negative traits. He tends to be cold, selfish and unwilling to accept change. The most extreme example of this was in “The Kindly Ones”, where he lets various denizens of the Dreaming (the heart of Morpheus’ domain) including Able, Fiddler Green and Merv Pumpkinhead, die in gruesome deaths instead of trying to save them (although he later let himself die to stop the Kindly Ones ). He is also usually blind to his flaws, but he can confront them if someone points them out. If an Endless loves a mortal, it will end badly. As a general rule, all of Morpheus’ romances end badly.

Prior the The Sandman series, it’s implied he is even more of a jerk. In “Preludes and Nocturnes”, he is imprisoned for 70 years and his kingdom falls apart. He escaped and after getting back his bag of sand, helmet and ruby, he started to rebuild his kingdom. In “Season of Mists”, he allows Loki to walk the world free. In “Brief Lives”, he kills his son (who was begging to be killed as he is now a bodiless head). In “The Kindly Ones”, Lyta Hall (who thinks Morpheus kidnapped his son, though Loki did it) released the Kindly Ones on the Dreaming and they go on a rampage (they’re able to do so because he killed his son). After several of his servants and friends die, he allows himself to be killed to stop them.

Daniel Hall

Prior to becoming the new Dream, Daniel was the infant son of Lyta Hall. His father was Hector Hall, whose ghost was manipulated by Brute and Glob (two nightmares) to become the lord of dreams. They did so in a forgotten corner of the Dreaming. Morpheus came and imprisoned the duo, “killed” Hector and sent Lyta back to reality. He later dubbed Lyta’s son Daniel. Loki kidnapped Daniel, but Lyta thought Morpheus did the deed and sent the Furies after him. Morpheus sent Matthew (A man now transformed into a raven) and the restored Corinthian (a nightmare loyal to Morpheus) to save him (which they did). When Morpheus was toast, Daniel (because he was a “child of the Dreaming”) became the new Dream.
The new Dream was a mix of Daniel and the entity of the Dreams. Unlike Morpheus’ speech, his was mostly normal, except for his word balloons being wavy. Notably, Daniel is much more nice and gentle than Morpheus. However, he is also inexperienced in some matters. So, he relies on the advice of the raven, Matthew, who worked closely with Morpheus.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_(DC_Comics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Hall
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Dream.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Danielhall.jpg
The Sandman TPBs

Seaguy

2011-01-02T13:54:00.000-08:00

Seaguy and Chubby Da Choona playing chess... with Death.

Publication history

Seaguy is a 3 volume comic written by Grant Morrison (who did All Star Superman, Doom Patrol, JLA, Animal Man, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Invisibles, and Batman) and drawn by Cameron Stewart. Grant created Seaguy to be the opposite of the popular "bad-ass" characters, which he felt were "trendy and unconvincing". He wanted to make two sequels to Seaguy, but it had low sales making the latter unlikely. According to rumors, Grant said he would do the 52 series if he could do Seaguy sequels. Eventually, Morrison got the okay to do so. The first volume was simply called Seaguy. The second was entitled "The Slaves of Mickey Eye". The third one, "Seaguy Eternal", has not being put into action yet.
Plot

In a seemly perfect world, where most people think all the world's evil is gone, superheroes aren't needed. As such, Seaguy is just a guy in a wet suit with a talking tuna fish named Chubby Da Choona. However, the duo discovers that Xoo, a food staple of their world, is alive and they try to protect it. The comic combines light-hearted whimsical and dark tragic elements, but each adventure get more tragic than it's predecessor until he learns the secret of the moon.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaguy

http://mildmanneredcast.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/seaguy-wins.jpg

The Amazing Screw-On Head

2010-12-24T22:15:00.000-08:00

Plot
Screw-On Head worked for President Lincoln, who wants him to stop Emperor Zombie (undead occultist) and his goons (Dr. Snap & the vampire, Madam). The terror trio stole a manuscript that allows the owner to acess the temple of Gung. Gung was a warlord, who gained supernatural powers from a "melon-sized jewel". Screw-On (with of his manservant Mr. Groin and his dog, Mr. Dog) hunted down Zombie, but Zombie found the treasure of the temple: it wasn't a jewel, but "a small parallel universe" inside a turnip. So, Zombie freed the demigod inside, only to have SH defeated it in combat.
Characters

Screw-On Head- He is a robot that is literally a screw head. His head can be removed and place into other bodies somewith superpowers. He is Lincoln's top agent in occult matters.

Emperor Zombie- He is a highly intellgent zombie with a lust for power. He turned himself undead using forbidden knowledge.

Mr. Groin- Screw-On's ninth manservant.

Madam- Vampire lover of Emperor Zombie.

References:

The Wikipedia Page

Superhero

2010-12-17T05:04:00.001-08:00

A superhero is a stock character that battles crime and injustice. However, despite the name, by most people's definitions, to be a superhero you don't need actual powers. Sometimes these heroes are referred to as costumed crime fighters. A female hero is often called superheroine.
Common Traits

Extraordinary Powers and Abilities- Almost all superheroes possess an extraordinary power / abilities. This range from “normal powers” like kung fu skills to super powers like heat-ray vision.
Strong Moral Code- Usually includes a willingness to risk one's life for others and an unwillingness to kill.
Motivation- Superhero motivations range from a sense of responsibility (Spider Man) to desire for vengeance against crime (Batman).
Secret Identity- Used to protect the hero's friend and family. It has decreased in popularity due to the Fantastic Four.
Distinctive Costume- See Common Costume Features
Supporting Cast
A Job with Minimal Supervision or Being Insanely Rich
An HQ
Origin
Weakness- The Achilles' heel of the hero.

Although most heroes like to be solo, sometimes heroes will form a team. Also, sidekicks have decreased in popularity.

Common Costume Features

Mask- Hide's the heroes' face hence protect their identity. Some heroes wear helmets instead.
Symbol- A visual icon for the character (ex: Superman's S, the Fantastic Four's 4)
Form-Fitting Clothes- Often referred to as spandex, but some heroes predate it's creation.
Some times the costume has functional use (Batman's utility belt)

Despite being closely associated with superheroes, few heroes wear capes and a majority don't.
Headquarters
Usually, superhero HQs have several common traits:

A safehouse to protect themselves
Laboratory
Research library
Armory
Communication Center
Garage / Dock/ Hangar
Defenses for the HQ
Trophy room
Medical Center
Common Area to hang out

Trademark Status
Despite the fact the term “super hero” is used generically, DC Comics and Marvel Comics jointly join the copy right to the term. However, some people argue that it does not met the legal status to be copy righted, and as such, it is a “misuse of trademark law to chill competition”.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhero
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Fleishersuperman.jpg

Captain Ultra

2010-12-09T04:59:00.000-08:00

Fictional Character Biography

An elderly psychologist couldn't pay the plumber Griffin Gogol. So, he offered to cure Griffin of his smoking problem. We discover the psychologist is actually an alien. His treatment activated Griffin's previously unknown powers. He became Captain Ultra and donned colorful and clashing costume. However, the treatment gave him pyrophobia. At first, he tried to be a villain and join Frightful Four. At first, they accepted (due to his wide range of powers). However, when one of them lit a cigarette, Ultra fainted and was rejected. He decided to become a hero. Moving to Chicago, he began a minor solo superhero career and battled minor villains. Doc Samson helped the Cap to get over his fear and he became a stand-up comedian and fought with Ekl'r, the Demon Without Humor. He went on an across-country comedy career, but his superhero career made this difficult. Griffin joined the Nebraska team part of the Initiative program (a government superhero program). He once battle Iron Man to protect his team.

Powers and Abilities

The Captain's main powers are super strength, endurance, durability, reflexes and flight. Apparently, his "ultra-potential" allows him to get a wide variety of powers. As such, he has also displayed intangibility (he can pass through objects), super breathe, X-Ray vision and once told an "ultra-joke" (the reader is left to fathom the meaning of that).

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Ultra

http://www.marveldirectory.com/pictures/individuals/c_1d/captainultra.gif

Earth Prime (DC Comics)

2010-12-07T04:55:00.000-08:00

History

In the originally, Earth Prime was the real universe that you and I come from. In Flash #179, while hunting a monster called the Nok, he got stuck in Earth Prime. He met his editor, Julius Schwartz, and the duo somehow created a new cosmic treadmill to get Flash home. It was stated that the writers of Earth Prime based their comics on actual people and events (just in alternate universes). In Flash # 228, Earth Prime's Cary Bates discovered he could effect the events in Earth One and went on a rampage there, only to be stopped by Elliot S. Maggin. Earth Prime began to differ from our reality and it had two heroes: Ultraa and Superboy-Prime. Earth Prime was destroyed in Crisis of Infinite Earths # 10. In Infinite Crisis # 6, Superboy-Prime conviced Alexander Luthor to draw inspiration for his new "Earth" from Earth Prime (he calls it an "ideal world"). He went looking for it and (in a nod to the original Earth Prime) looked at readers and reached out for our reality. In 52, Earth Prime was restored.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Prime

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/EarthPrimeFlash179.jpg

Inferior Five

2010-12-06T17:21:00.000-08:00

History

In Megalopolis, a mad scientist was on the loose. Myron Victor (the son of Patriot and Lady Liberty, members of the Freedom Brigade) told his parents they were too old to be heroes again. They agreed... but forced him to become a hero! Any way, he gathered the sons and daughter of various members of FB and (due to their incompetence) dubbed themselves the Inferior Five. The team first appeared in Showcase #62, 63, and 65 and then got their own series, which lasted 12 issues (however the final two issues were titled the Inferior 5 not the Inferior Five). The team met various parodies of Marvel heroes (such as a jab at Fantastic Four called the "Kookie Four").

--Current Status --

The team has made several cameos in the modern continuity. Dumb Bunny is a supporting character in the 1st Angel and the Ape miniseries. Merryman and Dumb Bunny appear in a crowd in Superboy. In Bulleter, Dumb Bunny appears at a superhero convention. In 52 week 18, the Blimp was at Booster Gold's funeral. In Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, Merryman is the king of Limbo. Dumb Bunny played a important part in Ambush Bug: Year None issue 3. In The Brave and The Bold #35, the Legion of Substitute Heroes team up with them. Here, the 5 were from 1972, but got stuck in 2010.

Members

Merryman-Myron Victor is an intelligent weakling and the leader. He is the only member aware of their disadvantages. He dresses like a jester, because he thinks he's making a fool of himself and should "look the part". In Final Crisis, he helps fight off Mandrakk "the dark Monitor".
Awkwardman-Leander Brent has super strength and can live underwater. However, he is clusmy (hence his name) and needs to be exposed to water a lot.
The Blimp- Herman Cramer is overweight hero with the power to fly... but without speed.
White Feather- He is a great archer, but is easily scared.
Dumb Bunny- Athena Tremor is "strong as an ox and almost as intelligent."

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferior_Five

http://www.cosmicteams.com/cosmic/inferiorFive.html

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/Showcase_62.jpg

The Roach

2010-12-02T05:03:00.000-08:00

History

He has also has been called the Cockroach... and Moon Roach... and Captain Cockroach... and Wolveroach, Purel Platonic Priest Roach, the Sacred Secret War Roach, the Super Secret Wars Wolveroach, normalroach, Sgt. Preston Roach, Punisheroach,Venomroach -- should I go on? This is mainly due to his multiple personality disorder. We first meet the Roach using the alias of the Cockroach (a parody of Robin Hood and of Batman), who tried to hunt down the criminals that killed his parents (due to his mental instability it's unknown if his parents were actually killed), but usually he beat up some poor sap and took his money and hid it in his chimney. He also had the alter ego of a merchant who doesn't like magical items, because he thought they were bad for businesses. Cerebus stole his already-stolen money. Months later, the Roach reappeared as the patriotic Captain Cockroach (a parody of Captain America) and got an albino sidekick called "Bunky" (a parody of Bucky), who was also nuts. His 86ed this and became Moon Roach (Moon Knight), who used darts shaped like crescents. This identity lasted a long time. During this time, he sometimes slipped into the Roach-Hulk persona and gained a weakness to frostinite: normal ice and snow. Since then, he has also become normalroach (normalman?); Punisheroach (Punisher), who hunted a drug dealer with cross- bows; Wolveroach (Wolverine) and Swoon (Neil Giaman's Sandman). He haunts the Earth Pig (Cerebus) when he least expects it.

Powers

He has super strength and is resistant to damage. Over time, he has gained some telepathic powers.

References:

http://internationalhero.co.uk/r/roach.htm

http://www.beguiling.com/images/cerebus84.jpg

Corinthian

2010-11-29T04:21:00.000-08:00

History

Sandman

In "The Doll House" story arch, he deserted the Dreaming and went to the waking world. He decided to become a serial killer that had a taste for eyes, but this was not what Sandman wanted (he wanted the Corinthian to show humanity it's own dark nature). After 40 years, Sandman destroyed him. In "The Kindly Ones", Dream created a new Corinthian with some of the memories of the previous one. He was sent to find and protect Daniel, where he battled Loki and Puck and ate their eyes.

The Sandman Presents: The Corinthian

This 3-issue mini-series we learn how the Corinthian I entered the waking world and learned to kill people. Here he displayed the ability to possess people.

The Dreaming

In The Dreaming spin off, the Corinthian II returns to Earth in the "Souvenirs" story arch. He later hunts down Echo, but accidentally killed Matthew. So, he punished with becoming human and begins to understand human nature better and then is let back in the Dreaming.

Abilities

Despite the fact he lacks eyes and has mouths instead, he doesn't appear to have any trouble with sight. When he eats people's eye, he can see what happen in their life. He can possess people, but his victim 's eye are replaced with mouths and gain white hair. The second Corinthian is skilled at hand-to-hand combat. He was seen snapping the neck of a supernatural wolf with out much effort. He is also resistant to damage and is fearless.

Name

In "The Kindly Ones", Puck refused to tell Corinthian if his name is derived from "the letters, the pillars, the leather, the place, or the mode of behavior." This is likely a reference to the Letter to the Corinthians (which has phrase "Dark Mirror", which Dream use to describe the Corinthain), Corinthian style of pillars, Corinthian leather and Corinthian behavior (" indulging in luxury and licentiousness"). Neil Gaiman (the writer of The Sandman) revealed the name came from the mode of behavior.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_(comics)

The Sandman: The Doll House and The Kindly Ones

http://www.idenise.net/blog/wp-content/corinthian.jpg

Robin

2010-11-25T07:24:00.000-08:00

History

During a conversation of Batman's creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Bill was bugged by the fact "that Batman didn't have anyone to talk to" and decided to make Robin Batman's "Watson". Despite popular belief, Robin is named after Robin Hood not the bird (although some recent appearances of Robin contradict this).

Dick Grayson

Dick was the first Robin and has proven to be the most popular. Dick was the son of a family of acrobats, but Boss Zucco kill them for not paying him money (he sabotaged the ropes). Batman adopted the boy and trained him to be his ward. They took down Zucco. In the 1980's, Robin flew the nest and became Nightwing. More recently after the apparent death of Batman, Dick has become the newest version of Batman.

Jason Todd

Jason was an overly-cheery carbon copy of the first Robin right down to his origin (although Todd's parents were killed by Killer Croc). After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Jason's origin was rewritten so he was an orphan that Batman met when he trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile. After helping stop bank robbers, Batman took him under his wing. However, this version was unpopular. The fans got to decide if Jason lived or died! By a slim amount of votes, Jason died. In A Death in the Family, he was beaten to death by a crowbar. However, he somehow survived and became the Red Hood II. After Infinite Crisis, Jason became Nightwing, but later 86ed it for the alias Red Robin. As Red Hood (again), he tried (and failed) to ruin Batman's rep.

Tim Drake

Tim was a Batman and Robin fan boy, who managed to put 2 and 2 together and figured out who Batman and Robin really were. He managed to convince Batman to make him the 3rd Robin. He was better received than Jason. He joined Young Justice and later reformed the Teen Titans. After the events of Final Crisis and Battle For The Cowl, Tim became Red Robin.

Stephanie Brown

So far, she is the only cannon female Robin. She was Tim's girlfriends, who first used the alias the Spoiler. However, she took up the mantle of Robin, when Tim resigned. She was fired by Batman for disobeying him. She tried to prove her worth, but accidentally caused a gang war, that she seemly died in (it turned out Dr. Leslie Thompkins faked it). Stephanie is now the newest Batgirl.

Damian Wayne

He was illegitimate son of Talia al Ghul and Batman. Batman didn't know about Damian, until Talia gave him to Bats to take care of. Having been trained by the League of Assassins, Damian is violent and lacks morality and discipline. He was very murderous, leading him to clash with his father (who swore to never take a life). In Battle for the Cowl, Alfred made him Robin and got him to save Tim. Now, Damian is Dick's (who is the new Batman) sidekick and Dick thinks he still needs training.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_(comics)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/67/BatmanRobin.jpg

Heckler

2010-11-24T05:39:00.000-08:00

Overview

Stuart "Stu" Moseley is the co-owner of Eats, a diner in the ghetto side of Delta City. However, he also fights injustice with sarcastic wit and a bright and colorful costume as the Heckler. The origin and motivation of the Heckler is unknown. He might simply be a glutton for punishment. It seems he doesn't get respect as a hero or as Stu. Notably, Stu appears to be "slightly anal, frustrated and awkward", but when he is the Heckler, he seems to be a completely different person.

Powers and Abilities

The Heckler relies on his wit to make insults to make his enemies madder and sloppier, which he takes advantage of. He can "annoy the hell outta of nearly anyone", which may not be limited to the animal kingdom.

Despite only average strength and agility, he seems to have above average durability. He has been seen recovering from falling from staggering heights and being eaten by a monster. His durability teeters on the edge of superhuman.

Supporting Cast

Ledge- A mentally challenged friend of Stu. Despite being illiterate, he somehow can use computers. He gives the Heckler info. He is the only person who knows about Stu's alter ego.

The Minx- She is a gun-toting vigilante. However, all the criminals she hunts seemed to have gone on awkward dates with her.

François- He is the obsessive head chef at Eats.

Mr. Dude- He is a costumer of Eats, who sometimes give the Heckler criminal info.

X-Ms - She protects a Christmas-themed part of Delta City named " Tinseltown".

Enemies

Boss Glitter- He is a very dainty mob boss.

P.C. Rabid- A celebrity, who wants to boost his rep by destroying the Heckler's.

Bushwack'r- A parody of Wild E. Coyote. He is a bad luck bounty hunter that wants the Heckler.

El Gusano- He is an assassin that works for Boss Glitter.

John Doe, The Generic Man- A blank slate, who is able to remove the individual characteristics of an environment. He tries to take over Delta City.

The Cosmic Clown- He is android killer clown from space. He thinks Earth circuses are bent on murder.

C'est Hay- He is a killer made out of straw and / or hay. He has delusions of being an actor causing him to act oddly.

The Four Mopeds of the Apocalypse- They are sidekicks to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The FMA includes Famine Lass, Kid Pestilence, Plague Boy and Skippy (Death).

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_(comics)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Heckler_1.jpg

Supreme

2010-11-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

History
Pre-Alan Moore
Supreme first appeared in Youngblood # 3, but as a flip book. In his spin-off series, the character was portrayed inconsistently. At one point, he was an angel of vengeance, who used the Scriptures to justify what he's doing. At other times, he claimed to be a god to the point he beat up Thor and stole his hammer. Another time, it was claimed that he was a criminal that the government experimented on him, turning him superhuman and the priest Father Beam turned him good.
Alan Moore
In the “The Story of the Year” story, Alan added a touch of metafiction to the story. He also used this to explain why Supreme was portrayed inconsistently. The newest version of Supreme is Ethan Crane, a “mild manner” artist for Dazzle Comics, who gained Superman-like powers from a meteor made out of Supremium. Alan's Supreme discovered that he is in a reality that is an ever-changing story and he was simply the newest version of Supreme. We discovered that the “retired” versions of Supreme are in an alternate reality called “Supremacy”. At first, Alan's Supreme was an amnesic, but regained his “memories”, only to discovered this was a merely a background story being filled in for him. We are also introduced to Supreme's Lex Luthor-based enemy Darius Dax, who (after possessing Judy Jordan (a friend of Supreme)) transferred his mind into a Supremium-robot and became the Supremium Man, an obvious homage to the Kryptonite Man. Due to the time-altering effects of Supremium, he fell back in time and paradoxically became the meteor that gave Crane his powers in the first place.

Alan's work continued until the series ended with issue 56.
Supreme got a mini-series called Supreme: The Return that wasn't actually finished. What did happen was the following: Judy's mind is transferred into a “Suprematon android”. She falls in love with a living Suprematon android and they get married. Supreme is not having such an easy time with his romance. Diana Dane (Lois Lane) was getting annoyed by how Ethan “gets all weird and runs away”. But, Crane manages to fix the relationship by revealing to her his alter ego. Dax was sent to Daxia (similar to Supremacy), where he met other versions of himself and used their combined intelligent to escape. Then, he caused Billy Friday (Jimmy Olsen) and Master Meteor to fuse into a composite being.
Powers
Supreme is one of the most powerful beings in the Image Universe. He has superhuman strength; molecular adaptation to any threat; speed, stamina, durability, breath and vision. He has been seen defeating the Youngblood team single handily. But, he is vulnerable to effects of Supremium.
Supremium
Supremium is a homage to Kryptonite. Although it the source of Supreme's power, he can also kill him. Supremium (similar to Kryptonite) comes in different colors (with different effects), which include:

White- It's fatal to Supreme. It's similar to Green Kryptonite
Amber- Warps time
Onyx- Erases time
Sapphire- Effects probability
Ruby- “Transmutes matter”
Violet- Has random effects. It's similar to Red Kryptonite.

Villains

Darius Dax- He is archenemy of Supreme. Like Supreme, he has numerous incarnations. These have ranged from being a mean business tycoon to a Nazi.
Emerpus- He is alternate reality version of Supreme from the Backward Zone, where time turns backwards, who “unaverts” disasters.
Gorrl- A living galaxy.
Korgo- He is warlord from space. He battled Bill Clinton under the Cosmic Dictators Guild rules and wins. But he faked being defeated by Supreme, so he could escape Hillary Clinton and returned to the Hell of Mirrors (a prison that Supreme uses to store super villains). .
Master Meteor- He battled Supreme, when he was Kid Supreme. Due to a time travel accident, he fused with Billy Friday and the composite being blamed Supreme.
Optilux- He is a religious alien that transformed into a being of pure light (with a messiah complex). He turns cities into light that he holds in captivity.
Televillain- Former TV repairman Reuben Tube can teleport via televisions and enter the fictional worlds.
The End- He is a powerful villain that is the unofficial leader (everyone else is scared to oppose him) of the Hell of Mirrors. He is never seen save his shadow.
Shadow Supreme- He is an evil clone of Supreme created by Dax (who Double S is completely loyal to). He looks like Supreme, except for a dark color scheme.
Slaver Ant- She is a humanoid ant-like creature, who ejects altering chemicals. She once escaped Supreme's mirror prison and tried to build an ant-lair.
Vor-Em- He is lion-like humanoid warrior.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_(comics)
Supreme # 1
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/Supreme_Issue_41.jpg

What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?

2010-11-19T14:51:00.000-08:00

Publication History
This story was mainly a way for DC Comic to answer to the critics of Superman's methods in the age of anti-heroes. The title is a play on the song (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? by Nick Lowe and Superman's catchphrase "Truth, Justice and the American Way".
Plot
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
Superman was going to Libya to stop a terrorist attack. Superman was surprised to find that something else stopped the terrorists: something with more power than a King Kong-sized cyborg gorilla. We discover that the gorilla and 2,000 Libyan soldiers were killed by a superhero team called the Elite... in 4 minutes. President Lex Luthor doesn't care about the Elite unless the heroes attack Americans. The Elite sent a message to every computer saying basically they'll kill anyone they think is "part of the problem". Superman was worried about both the message and the possibly of him being outdated. Superman flied to Japan to stop a group of Japanese villains. The villains seem to have gotten the upper hand... only to be murdered by the Elite in gruesome ways. The Elite took our hero to their base. We discover the team is somewhat arrogant and are unwilling to stop using their lethal methods. After talking to his dad, Superman discovered (despite a few critics) the Elite is becoming very popular. Later, Superman battled a group of aliens and an evil pair of Men In Black copycats. After defeating them, the Elite come and Manchester Black (the leader) told the Hat (a member) to kill the villains and their families. To which, Superman KO ed Hat. To which, the Elite decide Superman is now their enemy and decide to fight and kill him. But, on Superman's request, they teleport Jupiter Moon's Io, so no bystanders will get hurt (but the battle is being recorded live). Despite trying to reason with them, the Elite attack him. After seemly killing Superman, they hear him say "I finally get it now...", much to the team's confusion. Then, Superman seemly killed all the members (except Manchester, who is seemly lobotomized hence not being able to use his powers). We discover Superman faked this to show the Elite how it feels to be the victim of their form of lethal justice. The Justice League arrested the team.

The Elite

The Elite is a group of antiheroes that based on Wildstorm's Authority (whose members constantly use lethal force). Members were:

Manchester Black- Based on Jenny Sparks, but he has telepathy and telekinesis as opposed to Jenny's electric-based abilities. He is the leader.
Menagerie- Based on Engineer. She has a symbiosis with a mysterious green substance on her body that make her a living weapon.
The Hat- Based on the Doctor (not Doctor Who). He uses a magic hat (hence the name).
Coldcast- He is only member not based on an Authority character. He can manipulate electromagnetic power.

References:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PatchOBlack#p/c/14/14V7lBXGtFo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNZ_AQ2EwBg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_So_Funny_About_Truth,_Justice_%26_the_American_Way%3F
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/44/Action_Comics_775.jpg

Squadron Supreme

2010-11-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

History
In Avengers # 69, the cosmic-powered Grandmaster created the Squadron Sinister (Roy Thomas' villainous jab at the Justice League) to battle the Avengers. The Sinister guys consisted of Doctor Spectrum (Green Lantern homage), Hyperion (Superman), Nighthawk (Batman) and the Whizzer (Flash).

In Avengers #85 – 86, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, Vision and Goliath (members of the titular team) accidentally got sent to Earth-712. The team was confused upon meeting the Squadron Supreme. The team is identical (except for being good) to the Squadron Sinister. After a fight, the two teams teamed up to fight the evil mutant Brain-Child (no connection to the similarly named animated Tick series character).
In Defenders, Over-Mind and Null the Living Darkness mind controlled the Squadron Supreme. Despite aid from the titular team, Earth-712 was left in a post-apocalyptic state.
In the Squad's self-titled mini-series, it's reveal the Squadron Sinister (who the Supreme guys are a revamp of) were actually evil copies of the Supreme guys. The Supreme team (on Earth-712) voted on whether or not to do the “Utopia Program” (which was a plan to make the world or at least America a Utopia, but involves taking it over). Everyone (but Nighthawk, who thinks they “should serve and not rule”) voted for it. The team (minus Nighthawk) took over America. They revealed their secret identities, added strict gun control laws, invented a way to resurrect the dead and set up behavior modification centers in prisons. However, things went bad. Golden Archer (Green Arrow) tried use the behavior modifications to make Lady Lark (Black Canary) love him (she refused to marry him), leading him to be booted off the team. Amphibian (Aquaman homage) became disgusted with the team's methods to the point of abandoning the surface world altogether. Nuke (Firestorm) went mad upon discovering he was releasing unnoticed radiation, which killed his parents and went on a rampage resulting in Doctor Spectrum killing him. Tom Thumb (loosely based on the Atom) died due to cancer, that he foolishly didn't tell anyone about. Despite trying to get Earth-616's (the main reality) Avengers to help, Nighthawk was forced to get 3 of his former enemies (including Golden Archer, now using the alias Black Archer) to help him stop the Squadron Supreme. In the battle, members from both teams (including Nighthawk) were killed. Hyperion realized that despite their good intentions they had become dictators. The team (or whats was left of it) decided to return power to the government.
In the graphic novel Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe, the Squad (now Hyperion, Lady Lark [using the alias Skylark], Power Princess (Wonder Woman), Whizzer, Arcanna [using the alias Moonglow] (Zatanna) and non-homage members Haywire and Shape) got stuck in the main reality. Only to be returned in an Avenger storyline.
In Squadron Supreme: New World Order, we discovered big corporations were using the Squadron's tech to run the government. With the help of the Exiles, the Squadron tries to set up a fair system of government.
Earth-31916
The Marvel's Marvel MAX imprint created a comic called Supreme Power, which focuses on a completely redesigned version of the team that exist on Earth-31916.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadron_Supreme

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadron_Sinister

http://skew.dailyskew.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/squadron_supreme.jpg

X-Statix

2010-11-12T18:17:00.001-08:00

Publication History
Peter Milligan and Mike Allred revamped the X-Force comic. However, the series took a very odd turn. They turned the team into celebrities in the hero business for fame and fortune. Also, there was a new satirical tone towards the superhero genre added. The team would constantly lose members. In the first issue of this revamp, almost every member died. This was not universally accepted. Many fans wanted “their X-Force back”. Later, the team 86ed the name "X-Force" and became the "X-Statix" (complete with a new comic series). Then came the greatest controversy of the comic! Peter wanted Princess Diana to appear as a undead superhero. This was leaked and greatly objected to (most notable of the objectors was the Daily Mail). So, she was replaced by Henrietta Hunter (a fictional pop star). Sales bombed, so in one last jab at the superhero genre, the entire team died. The comic got a spin-off called X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl, which starred a minor member called Dead Girl and parodied comic book deaths.
Fictional History
During a mission trying to save the Boys R Us boy band, the X-Force was massacred. Only Doop (the cameraman), U-Go Girl and the Anarchist survived. Later, Guy Smith (a.k.a. the Orphan and Mr. Sensitive) joined and became leader. The team tried to save Paco Perez, a mutant whose chest might have cures to diseases, from a dictatorship. But in the process, Saint Anna and Bloke (two new members) were killed. Guy refused to let Paco be “stripped mined” and hid him. This angered the Coach, who tried to kill Guy, only to have U-Go Girl (Guy's girlfriend) kill him. The streetwise Spike (no connects to the similarly named X-Men: Evolution character) joined. After going into Doop's mind, the team discovered they had to change their name for legal reasons. U-Go Girl died and gave the team their new name on her last breathe: the X-Statix. Venus Dee Milo joined the team and they battle a reality warping fan boy of U-Go Girl, who was holding a town hostage. They let him join, but he was later poisoned by Lacuna (a time-controlling ally of the team). Guy passed leadership on to the Anarchist. Henrietta Hunter (a zombie pop star) joined the team. Lacuna revealed the truth of the then-current owner of the team's, Spike Freeman, shady deals. Spike attacked Lacuna, only to be killed by Guy. But, Lacuna was killed by Spike and the team's public image was destroyed. The X-Statix (in an attempt to reclaim their image) battled Mr. Code and the Random Killers, but Phat (a new member) and Hunter were killed. Russian terrorists kidnapped Doop, only to have the X-Statix and the Avengers to save him. Despite disbanding, all of the team was killed on one last mission.
Roster

Anarchist- He is African Canadian, who is the team's self-proclaimed token. He can fire energy bolts via his acid-like sweat.
Bloke- He could change color (some of which increased his strength). He revealed himself to be gay, shortly before he was killed.
Dead Girl- She is an undead hero able to reform her body, control her limbs (even if they are detached) and has telepathy with the dead.
Doop- He is a bizarre pickle-shaped creature that speaks in what is seemly gibberish, but the other characters can understand him. He is the cameraman.
El Guapo- He is attractive mutant with a sentient skate board.
Henrietta Hunter- She is an undead pop star with enhanced psychical and mental powers.
Mysterious Fan Boy- He is a super powerful fan boy of U-Go Girl. He has reality warping powers.
Orphan (a.k.a. Mister Sensitive)- He is the team's unofficial leader. He is a suicidal mutant with antennas and superhuman sense, speed and levitation.
Phat- He is parody of Vanilla Ice or Eminem, who (eventually) is openly gay and able to soften / increase the size of any of his body via expanding his fat tissues.
Saint Anna- She is an Irish-American mutant able to levitate / control of motions of objects and heal people.
Spike- He is a controversial African American character, who makes fun of the Anarchist.
U-Go Girl- She is a blue-skinned teleporter. She has been emotionally linked with Zeitgeist and then Orphan.
Venus Dee Milo- Her body is made out red energy. This allows her to teleport, fire energy blasts and heal minor wounds.
Vivisector- He is a bookish werewolf-like mutant with enchanced senses, agility, speed and razor claws and fangs. Like Phat, he is homosexual.

Mentors

Coach- He is the mentor for the X-Statix, but he was very manipulative. It's revealed he caused the Boys R Us disaster. He tried to sell Paco to medical companies, only for Paco to be saved by Orphan. He tried to kill Orphan, but this ironically led to his own death.
Spike Freeman- He is an amoral billionaire, who funded the team. He is (obviously) addicted to thrills (he play Russian Roulette voluntarily). He was killed by the Orphan when he was trying to help defend the murders of innocent people.

Allies

Lacuna- She is an on / off ally of the X-Statix and a talk show host.
Professor X- He help build Orphan and Venus Dee Milo's special suits.
Wolverine- He is old friend of Doop.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Statix
http://marvel.com/universe/X-Statix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Sensitive
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/X-StatixIssue1.jpg

Plastic Man

2010-11-07T07:18:00.000-08:00

This is my 150th post!

Fictional Character Biography
Pre-Crisis
Patrick "Eel" O'Brian was a crook that specialized in safe cracking. During a heist at Crawford Chemical Works, Patrick and his gang were confronted with by a night watchman. During their attempt to escape, Patrick was both shot and doused with an unknown acid. While fleeing, he passed out because of the gun wound. He was tended by a monk, who turned Pat's life around. During which Patrick discovered the acid somehow gave him rubber-abilities. He decided to use his powers for good and became Plastic Man. Plas (as he is nicknamed) retained his identity of Patrick to get info about the criminal underworld. Plas got himself a comedic sidekick Woozy Winks, who originally protected from harm by the forces of nature, but he simply became Plas' bumbling, loyal friend. Plas later became a member of the FBI and almost completely ditched his identity as Patrick. In the Silver Age of Comics, we meet a new Plastic Man, who was the son of the original. It was later revealed this guy was from Earth-Twelve (not the main reality).

Post-Crisis
Plastic Man's origin story was rewritten. Here his name is Eel O'Brian. In this version, he reformed, but was oblivious to his power and accidentally scared people. After realizing he was the monster everyone was scared of, he decided to jump off a bridge! However, Woozy Winks (who now is a mental patient that was ejected from the institute due to lack of funding) stopped him. Woozy convinced him to use his powers for profit. But, neither of them were sure if they should be criminals or heroes. So they flipped a coin. Hero won. After the public accidentally dubbed him "Plastic Man" (Eel wanted to be "Elastic Man"), the duo set up shop in New York. He also became a JLA member and played roles in several storylines. In “Tower of Babel”, several JLA members are sent 3,000 years in the past. Plastic Man was frozen and then shattered. The JLA couldn't find all the pieces, due to the lack of suitable technology. Back in the present, we discover he is still alive! He was reassembled and he reveals he lost his nerve and wanted to live a normal life. He quit the JLA. It's revealed his desire to become normal was mainly caused by his belief that his son needed a normal father. Batman convinced Plas to become a hero again.

One Year Later and Countdown
In One Year Later, we meet Offspring, Plastic Man's son, who has similar powers and costume to him. In Countdown To Mystery #1, Plastic feels that people having treating him as a joke. So, Eclipso mind controls him into being evil. But, Bruce Gordon managed to free Plas. Green Arrow/Black Canary #8, Green Arrow freed Plas from Dr. Sivana, who was trying to use Plas' DNA to give the amnesiac Connor Hawke superhuman healing and make Connor his pawn. In Justice League of America vol. 2, he is member of the titular team. However, Doctor Light II (Kimiyo Hoshi) questioned his effectiveness causing them to fight. But, this ends when the duo stops the Royal Flush Gang. In Justice League: Cry for Justice, he has a not-so-friendly encounter with Prometheus. In Blackest Night, a zombie Vibe tore his heart out, but Plas' powers saved him. In Justice League: Generation Lost, he (and several other heroes) tried (and failed) to find Maxwell Lord.

Powers and abilities

Malleable Physiology- Due to existing in a fluid-like state, Plas can reshape his body at will.
Malleability- He can stretch his body to superhuman lengths. No limits have been given.
Size Alteration- Plas has been seen becoming inches tall and the size of skyscraper.
Shape-Shifting- He can alter his body to look like other objects.
Color Change- A rarely used ability. Plas can change color, but it needs intense concentration. So he doesn't like using this power.
Invulnerability- He can withstand things that would kill a normal person.
Regeneration- He can regenerate / recreate damaged tissues. Although this takes a long time, it's faster than a normal human's.
Telepathic Immunity?- Batman claimed Plas is immune to telepathy. This appears to not be ture.
Immortality- As seen in “Tower of Babel”, he seems to not age or at least does so extremely slowly.

Weakness
Due to his fluid-like state, too much heat can “melt” him and too much cold can freeze him. In some versions, chemicals like acetone destabilizes his body, but he'll become normal when the chemicals are gone. In most versions, he cannot change his color, but his son can.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Man
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/Plastic_Man_17.jpg

LGBT Themes in American Comics

2010-11-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

To my support for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights, I am writing this post on LGBT themes in comics.
Comic Strips
Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury was the first comic strip to directly talk about homosexuals, where it introduced Andy Lippincott, who was gay. This character later died due to an AID-related death. This storyline led Garry to be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. However, three newspapers (out of the 900 carrying the strip) refused to publish this. Mark Slackmeyer, a long time supporting character, was revealed to be gay, which got some people mad. In Bloom Country, two of the main characters met a gay couple. However, not all coming out of characters have being well received. Lynn Johnston's For Better or For Worse decided to make one of the characters gay, which lead to him receive death threats by people who oppose homosexuals. The widely circulated strips Candorville and The Boondocks have gay characters appear time to time. Several webcomic creators are openly gay / lesbian and some their work features gay and lesbian characters. Heavy Metal touches on many issue involving sexuality.

Mainstream American comic books

Historically, mainstream comics excluded LGBT characters. This was mainly because of the homophobic Comic Code of Authority. However, recently, comic book creators have added LGBT characters to make their fictional world more realistic. For example, Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic has included transgender characters.

DC Comics
Batman and Robin have been accused of being a gay couple. So, female characters (such as Batgirl and Batwoman) were added. Despite this, the duo have continued being associated with being gay. The Nightmaster might have been gay, but this was unclear. The New Guardian member Extraño (whose name means “Strange”) was the first obvious homosexual comic book character. But, some people thought he was too stereotypical. In Hellblazer #6 and 7 and Swamp Thing #74, John Constantine fought with gay bashers. The Sandman: A Game of You story (1991) and a 1992 Legion of Super-Heroes storyline explored transgender themes. In The Authority, two of the members, Apollo and Midnighter (seen above), were a gay couple to the point of being married. Recently, the newest version of Batwoman is lesbian and characters (such as Icemaiden, Sarah Rainmaker and the reformed Pied Piper) turned out to bisexual.

Marvel Comics
Sadly, Marvel has had a less favorable history in this matter than DC, mainly due to Jim Shooter, who banned LGBT people from Marvel Universe. However, several gay characters got their own titles, but with warning labels on them, to avoid angry conservative protests. But this was later ditched and there has been same-gender sex scenes. Northstar of the Alpha-Flight was the first major gay character in Marvel Comics. Other LGBT mutants include fan-favorite Mystique and Destiny. Phat, Vivisector, and Bloke (until they died), of the X-Statix, were all gay. X-Factor's Rictor and Shatterstar (both males) turned out to bisexual (they had an on-panel kiss). In Witches, Brian Patrick Walsh, the bad girl, sleeps with other women. In the 2002 revamp of Rawhide Kid, the titular character became one of the first openly gay characters. In Young Avengers, Hulkling and Wiccan were revealed to homosexual.

Archie Comics
In Veronica # 202, we meet Kevin Keller, a new kid in town. The titular character fell in love with him. However, Kevin reveals to Jughead, he is not interested in Veronica and is closeted homosexual. He asks Jughead to not reveal his sexuality, which he agrees (he was mad at Veronica). Most of the story focused on Veronica's cluelessness.

Other publishers
In the 1990s, there were several comic book companies that decided to ditch the Comic Code of Authority. These included Malibu, Image and Dark Horse comics. Due to not being bound by the CCA, they had greater artistic freedom and created several LGBT characters. These include Malibu Comic's Spectral and Turbo Charge, Gen13's Sarah Rainmaker (created by Wildstorm, which DC later bought). In Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, we meet lesbian characters like Willow, Tara and Kennedy; and Andrew (who is a closeted homosexual).
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_themes_in_comics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batwoman
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a5/Midnighter_wedding.jpg
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/For_Better_or_Worse_coming_out_panel.PNG

Minicomic

2010-10-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

Overview

Minicomics are a way for making comic books on a small budget. They are usually hand made. Creators usually use photocopy to make the panels fit on the small pages. The term has a bit of a complex history.

History

You're probably thinking a minicomic is a small comic -- what is so complex about that? Well there is more to the tale. Originally, there was a standard size. Digest Comics were 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall, while a minicomic was 5.5 inches by 4.25 inches. But, nowadays there is no standard size. Sizes can range from slightly smaller than a "normal" comic to the size of a U.S. stamp. Most of them have unusual sizes and graphic designs. Minicomics are usually photocopied, but in larger amounts, offset printing might be used. Currently, the term "minicomic" emphasizes the handmade aspect, rather than the actual size. So, by loose definition, one could say a single photocopied page could be a minicomic. Also, it important to know that most creators directly sell these comics (as opposed to getting a comicbook store to do it). They can be sold through the mail, ordered on websites or even sold by small bookstores and publishers that sell zines(in this context it means that is a small circulation publication). Usually, minicomics have no editors, giving the creators more freedom. The United Kingdom has a similar concept, but their version is called "British small press comics".

Alternate Meaning

The term minicomic has also been used to refer to small comics given away with toys, such as the Masters of the Universe and two of the Transformers toylines.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minicomic

http://www.rdrop.com/~half/Personal/Hobbies/Comics/Cynicalman.gif

Too Much Coffee Man

2010-10-28T15:41:00.001-07:00

Publication history
"Too Much Coffee Man" can refer to a comic strip by Shannon Wheeler or the main character of the latter. Too Much Coffee Man started as a minicomic that was made, photocopied and published by Wheeler. At first, each issue of TMCM had 300 copies, then it went up to 12,000 copies. During the first run, to save money, Shannon stapled all the issues by hand. He swore (publicly) he would never do this again. Shannon and three friends formed Adhesive Comics, but Shannon became the sole owner when his friends decided to quit. From 1994 to 1996, Dark Horse Comic (they published Hellboy and various Star Wars comics) published the strip in Dark Horse Presents # 92-95. Several issues of TMCM were also publish by Wheeler. The comic was renamed How to Be Happy, with Too Much Coffee Man with the Jan. 23, 2006 issue. The name was simplified to How to Be Happy and TMCM didn't appear again until Jan. 21, 2008.
Overview

Too Much Coffee Man (the character) is an everyman who spends most of his time at his apartment or a coffee shop talking / debating about politics or exchanging thoughts. He has also been in a U.S. prison and outer space. Due to excessive amounts of caffeine, his nerves are shot, so he very rarely sleeps. He wears a spandex version of red long johns (referencing how superheroes are sometime called "long-underwear characters"), with a flap for restroom purposes. He has a mug on his head (although it's unclear if this just part of the costume or not).
Other Characters

Too Much Espresso Guy- He is a cold-hearted and cynical friend of TMCM. Their friendship seem to be based on a shared pessimism and mutual loneliness. He has an espresso cup strapped to his head.
Too Much German White Chocolate Woman With Almonds- She is a mutual friend of TMCM. She worries a lot. She has pale skin and large almonds on her face.
Underwater Guy- A parody of Aquaman. He is another friend of TMCM. He has the ability of staying underwater for indefinite amounts of time. However, he wears a wetsuit and diving snorkel and mask.
Mystery Woman- She is TMCM's secret love.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Much_Coffee_Man

http://wpcontent.answcdn.com/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d9/TooMuchCoffeeMan21.jpg/250px-TooMuchCoffeeMan21.jpg

Prez

2010-10-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Fictional History

Something of an Origin

Prez Rickard was the son of Martha Rickard. She named him that because she thought he was going to president. They lived in a town called Steadfast, where the clocks were all out of sync... until Prez fixed them. A shady business man called Boss Smiley (whose head looks likes his namesake) hired him to run for senator (but Smiley wanted this to be a front), when the age limit for senators was lowered. Prez, who was an idealist, rebelled against Smiley, earning his ire. 45% of Congress (who were under the age of 30) voted to have the president ial age limit lowered as well. Prez was elected president of the United States. His mom became the vice-president. His sister was his secretary. Eagle Free (a native American with deep understanding of animals and friend of Prez) became the head of the FBI.

Prez: First Teen President

Prez in his series had to face very strange enemies. These included legless vampires, led by George Washington's great-great-great-great-great-grandnephew; the political boss, Boss Smiley; and evil chess players. He also was attacked due to his feelings about gun control. He his series was cut short by the DC Implosion (for more info, check the post about that).

Later Appearances

Supergirl (1970 series) # 10 (1974): This issues implies Prez is president of the America on Earth-One. The titular character saved Prez from an evil politician and a witch, who looked like the DC horror host Eve.
The Sandman # 54 (1993): In here a darker version of the Prez mythos appears. Here his watchmaking skills are emphasised. Here, he became president without Boss Smiley's help (although it's implied he might have pulled a few strings). Prez managed to do miraculous things, like solving the energy crisis. He later meets Smiley again at party, where Prez reveals nothing but rumors is known about Smiley. In response Smiley threatens him if runs again. Prez does run again and his girlfriend is killed by woman obsessed with Ted Knight and did this to get his attention (à la John Hinckley, Jr). After being confronted by Smiley and the end of his term, he vanishes from the public. He died (sources differ on how this happen) and ends up in Smiley's domain. The titular character (the Sandman) saved Prez from Smiley and let Prez go the "other" Americas (in other dimensions) and help them.
In the one-shot Prez: Smells Like Teen President, a generation X teen looked for Prez, who according to his mom is his father. Here it's reported Prez died of a brain tumor that Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush's dishonstey aggravated.
In Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Lex Luthor created a computer program that took on a human form. Then, it became the Commander in Chief. Its name was "Rick Rickard" and looked like an older version of Prez

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prez_(comics)

The Sandman: World's End

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman:_Worlds%27_End

http://www.bluecorncomics.com/pics/prez.jpg

Megaton Man

2010-10-21T05:32:00.000-07:00

Overview
Trent Phloog has a job as a hero in Megatropolis as Megaton Man. He is a overly-muscular, dim-witted hero. He has super strength, durability, flight, "Megaton-Vision" (X-Ray Vision), and self-detonation, the last power is activated when he says "Overkill". How he got these powers are unknown, two possibilities of how he gained these abilities were given:

He was bitten by a radioactive frog (reference to Spider Man)
His powers were the result of a military megasoldier program (reference to Captain America)

He was originally Megaton Lad (likely a reference to Superboy) and had a dog sidekick Plutonium Pup (Krytpo parody). After the death of PP and his 21st birthday, he actually called himself Megaton Man. He is a member of the VM gang. Due to an error in his bureaucratic paperwork, MM has to re-take his high-school exams. During his first time in high school, he played the clarinet. Trent is married to Stella Starlight (the alter ego of a superheroine Mother Earth) and the two had a child. Recently, Megaton discovered alternate versions of himself: the Golden Age Megaton Man, the Silver Age Megaton Man and the Russian Megaton Man (likely a reference to the Russian Zod).
Supporting Cast

X-Ray Boy- Larry Barton is the sidekick of Megaton Man. He ordered fake x-ray goggles from an ad, but by mistake got real ones released by the Pentagon. The power burned off his left arm (don't worry he replaced it with a robotic one) and fused into his eyes, turning them green. The Pentagon asked for the goggles back, and because the power remained with him, he gave them back. The goggles killed the people at the Pentagon. Now, Larry's friends aquired the goggles. He is a member of the VM Gang. He is not to be confused with a villain of the same name.
Yarn Man- Bing Gloom is called the latter, because his body is completely made out of yarn. He was a member of the Megatropolis Quartet, but is now a member of the VM Gang. Kozmik Kat is his sidekick.
Phantom Jungle Girl- Donna Blank is an activist and also a superheroine (although has no actual powers). She is an ally of Megaton Man.
Cowboy Gorilla- He is a talking gorilla from Texas. He was a member of the Megatropolis Quartet and now is an on / off member of the VM Gang.
Kozmik Kat- He is laid-back, anthropomorphic feline version of Megaton Man. He will attack people within reason and doesn't believe in violence againist women. He is possibly a parody of Streaky the Super-Cat. He is a mascot for the VM Gang.
Gower Goose- He is a cowardly anthropomorphic goose and a heavy drinker. He helps the VM Gang by doing odd jobs. He is a good friend of X-Ray Boy and has a crush on Moonstone of the Tomb Team. He runs a radio station and is presenter for WUCK radio station.

Enemies

Kickstand Kid- He is the first villian Megaton Man fought as Megaton Man. KK is a young boy with a robotic body with guns built into every part of it. Due to the fact MM is bulletproof, KK was easily defeated.
Dr. Software- He was an enemy of the Megatropolis Quartet (which is now disbanded). He plagues Megaton and his old enemies.
Bad Guy & Bulky Guy- They are two clumsy behemoths. They caused chaos for various incarnations of Megaton Man. They have been defeated by the current Megaton Man, Miss Megaton Man, Golden Age Megaton Man and Anti-Matter Woman.
Irving the Living Cactus- He is an enemy of Yarn Man. Irving can use his spikes to rip Yarn Man apart. He was seemly killed by an electric shock at the hands of X-Ray Boy, but he was merely dehydrated. He was thrown into a river populated with chemicals as such he gained a new anthropomorphic form and became an enemy of VM Gang.
Tomb Team- They a group of supernatural beings living in catacombs of Ypsilanti Cemetery, Michigan. The team only speaks German. Megaton Man, Yarn Man and Cowboy fought them and the TT seemly perish in battle. But, Count Dracula brought the Frankenstein Monsters back to life and is trying to do the same with his daughter. Members of the Tomb Team were:

Forbidden Frankenstein- He is a “purple behemoth”.
The Bride of Frankenstein- The wife of the the guy above. She speaks both English and German.
Dracula's Daughter- A green-skinned vampire that isn't affected by sunlight. She pesters her dad a lot. She bit Cowboy Gorilla and put him out of action for a long time.
An unnamed now deceased werewolf
The Mooncat- She is a spoiled nurse turned demoness

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaton_Man
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/Mmleap.gif

King Tut

2010-10-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

Batman (TV Series)
First appearing in “The Curse of Tut”, Professor William Omaha McElroy (played by Victor Buono) was an overweight egyptologist working at Yale University. During a student riot, he was hit on the head and got amnesia. Then, he thought he was King Tut reincarnated. He tried to take over Gotham, but the titular character and his sidekick defeated him. In the process, he was hit on the head and returned to normal. His next appearances would follow the same pattern: he would get hit on the head. Thinking he was Tut, he would go on a crime spree, only to have Batman and Robin stop him. Then, somehow he would get hit on the head and returned to normal. He couldn't get jailed, because of what he did (see insanity defense). In a notable episode, he created a drug like potion called “abu raubu simbu tu”, which he could use to “subdue the human will”. Despite being tricked in taking the drug, Batman (who was unaffected due to the fact he coated his stomach with buttermilk) got him to take the drug and he became Batman's slave and was taken to the police station, where his real self came out. In Tut's final appearance, when digging for valuable minerals near the Wayne Manor, he dug into the Batcave and discovered Batman's alter ego. Batman used a spray to mind-swipe the henchmen, but Tut escape. He was going to reveal Bats' identity, but when Batman was provoked to raise his voice, a rock hit Tut and turned him back and forgot Bat's secret. Adam West (who played Batman) said in Back to the Batcave that Tut was the only villain made for the series that was a success.
Batman Confidential # 26

Recently, a very different version of Tut appeared in Batman Confidential # 26. Now, Tut is Victor Goodman (homage to the actor Victor Buono). Vic is an evil Egyptologist, who kills rich people and leaves clues, akin to the Riddle of the Sphinx. Batman teamed up with the Riddler, who was mad at Tut for stealing his trademark habit. The duo took down Tut.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Tut appears several times in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon. But, he only appeared in jailbreak scenes. In “Day of the Dark Knight!”, he appears (in a jailbreak scene) with other Adam West Batman villains: the Archer, Shame, Louie The Lilac and Egghead. Due to copyright reason with FOX, he is referred to as Pharaoh in the synopsis.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Tut_(comics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_(TV_series)
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100408215650/batman/images/4/4f/King_Tut_Victor_Buono.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eml71FrfONw/SeKxLL0SsDI/AAAAAAAAAHw/SzFVvqeO6ds/s320/KingTut_Modern250x300.jpg

Terrific Whatzit

2010-10-08T04:30:00.000-07:00

History

No one would think Merton McSnurtle, a "funny animal" turtle, would be a superhero. But, he was given super powers by Prince Highness (entity of good) and Prince Lowness (entity of evil). They gave him these power to settle to bet: if a completely honest person had super powers, would the power corrupt him? McSnurtle was the only person that they could find that fit the bill (he was too lazy to be evil). With these powers, he decided to become a superhero. When duty called, he would remove his shell and don a costume similar to the Golden Age Flash's. Then, he would fight crime as the Terrific Whatzit (he was called this because it was hard to tell what animal he was without the shell). He fought crime for 17 issues in Funny Stuff. Later he appeared in Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew # 9, he was retcon so now he was the uncle of Fastback a member from the titular team.

Powers and Abilities

His main ability was super speed. However, there was variation in the power, but speed was emphasised the most. He had a "Automatic Conscience", which was an annoying voice in his head that wouldn't shut up, until he solved the crisis at hand. His shell was also removable, which is odd for a turtle.

Reference:

http://www.toonopedia.com/mcsnurt.htm

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2OgpsMgKSls/SdUXAbGCH9I/AAAAAAAABf8/2p3Q8CUqhuY/s400/fa25.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrific_Whatzit

Ultra the Multi-Alien

2010-10-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

History

Pre-Crisis

Ace Arn was from an unspecific time in the future were space travel was common. One day, he crashed on an alien planet. Four aliens from four other planets shot him with ray guns that were supposed to turn him into one of them. But, they all fired at the same time. As a result, each quarter of his body was transformed to be like that of one of the aliens, giving him a very Metamorpho appearance (and a combo of their super powers). Combining the first letters of the home planets the alien and the first one of his name, he got U-L-T-R-A, and dubbed himself "Ultra". He discovered a device that could turn him back to Arn and vise versa. He had several adventures in Mystery in Space, till the comic got axed.

Post-Crisis

Wizard Magazine featured Ultra as the "Mort of the Month", a featurette showcasing low-quality characters. Grant Morrison used the character in Animal Man (as a denizen of Limbo) and in the Aztek mini-series. In Starman # 55, he, with the aid of Space Ranger, looked for the fourth Starman's cosmic staff. In the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. storyline, Young Justice, Star-Spangled Kid and S.T.R.I.P.E. tried to stop a group of Larroo (one of the aliens that attacked Ace and turned him into Ultra), who plotted to turn everyone in Blue Valley into Larroo. It was also mention while the Larroo invented the ray they sold it to other races. In Infinite Crisis, Ultra (somehow) traveled back in time to the present and (with other space-themed heroes) aided Donna Troy in the fallout caused by the Rann-Thanagar War. In Superman/Batman # 31, he was among the alien heroes being overwhelmed by an alien force and went on a rampage. In issue 33, he (with the mind-controled alien heroes) tried to destroy the titular characters, but his mind was released from the mind control and Despero (who did the mind control) was defeated. In Action Comics # 867, Brainiac attacked the planet Larroo. Superman could do nothing as Brainiac capture (and shrunk) a city, containing the four races that were involved with Ultra's origins, that was trapped in a force field created by Ultra. The aliens' sun was destoryed. In the same storyline, Ultra appeared as one of the heroes fighting Brainiac on his ship. Although he hasn't appeared recently, Vixen (half-jokingly) says he is a potential Justice League member.

Powers

Each quarter of his body (and it's limb) has a different power. They were:

The upper right of his body was super strong.
The upper left has magnetic powers.
His right leg gave him flight.
His left leg is a bolt of lightning.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_the_Multi-Alien

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091015071634/marvel_dc/images/thumb/2/2d/Ultra_001.jpg/200px-Ultra_001.jpg

Decompression

2010-10-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

What is it?

In comics, decompression refers to a type of story-telling that has strong emphasis on art and character interaction. However, this tends to make the plots longer. Decompression is often used in widescreen comics (a type of comic where the panels are usually very wide for a cinematic effect).

History

Decompression had a strong effect on mainstream comics in the 1990s and 2000s. Traditionally, comics have several (sometimes unrelated) stories in one issue. However with the rise of decompression, usually comics only have one story. It is often claimed the influence of Manga caused decompression. Manga, which is usually less costly to print, uses decompression extensively. The 1974 manga Shin Takarajima (by Osamu Tezuka) popularized the technique. The "cinematic style" became very popular and was used a lot by other Japanese artists. Akira (by Katsuhiro Otomo) was one of the first manga to use this style and become popular among comic fans. The Authority (by by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch) was one of the first of commercially successful Americans comic to use decompression (the dominant style for the first twelve issues). Due to the success of that comic, the style had been adopted by comic creators across the US.

Criticism

Of course, like many things, decompression had it's share of critics and has been a subject of debate. Critics have accused the style of over-stretching the length of the plots, hence thinning out the pages' content for more sales and money, despite a limited amount of work. Defenders claims that the style doesn't over-stretch the plot, but makes the characterization more rich. Some see the style being driven by trade paperbacks' popularity. Said paperbacks, usually collect six comics and the style (with stories lasting several issues) would give a desirable length to the stories.

Compression

Due to the criticism involving decompression, comic creators Warren Ellis, Dan Slott, and Brian Wood decided to experiment with a new style, which they dubbed "Compression". In Warren's Fell, Global Frequency, and Planetary, the stories only last one issue and Nextwave only has two issue story lines. Slott's story archs involving the She-Hulk and the Thing usually last from 1-3 issues. Wood's Demo and Local are all single-issue comics, where sometimes there are no recurring characters so the stories can be self-contained "short stories".

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_(comics)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3a/AXM14.JPG

Forbush Man

2010-10-01T14:39:00.001-07:00

History
Not Brand Echh
Forbush Man was a revamp for Irving Forbush, the mascot for a Mad-like comic called Snafu. Like his predecessor, he was a mascot for a comic. In FM's case, it was Not Brand Echh, Marvel's silver age parody comic. Although appearing on the cover of issue one, he doesn't get a story 'till issue five. In The Origin of Forbush-Man, it's revealed he was Irving Forbush, a fictional gofer for Marble Comics. His Auntie Mayhem was responsible (albeit indirectly) for his costume. She slammed a pot on his head (when she was mad at him) and gave him the disguise he wanted so he could be a hero. He later cut two holes in it and put on red long johns (with the letter F on the front). Numerous in-jokes imply Forbush might be Jewish. When he went to fight crime, (having no powers) his dumb luck was necessary to defeat his foes (such as the Juggernut (Juggernaut)). In his next appearance, he tried (and failed) to join the Revengers (Avengers), S.H.E.E.S.H. (S.H.I.E.L.D.) and the Echhs-Men (X-Men). However, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band invited him, but he decided to "quit while I'm still behind". In issue 13, in a loose parody of Silver Surfer # 5, he battled the Strangie (the Stranger). There was more Jewish references and superhero parodies (Spidey-Man (Spider-Man), The Thung (The Thing), The Human Scorch (The Human Torch) and The Simple Surfer (Silver Surfer)) appear.
What The--?!
He became one of the staple characters of What The--?!, which poked fun at the Marvel Universe and beyond. He died in a parody of the Death of Superman at the hands of Dumsday (Doomsday).
Nextwave
Please note the Nextwave series may or not be part of the Marvel main continuity. He is a member of the New Paramounts (funded by the Beyond Corporation©, yes the "©" is part of the name), whose members are former Not Brand Echh characters. Here, he has an illusion casting ability called Forbush-Vision and is a villain (and possibly a Broccoli Man robot). Tabitha Smith (who was unaffected because apparently she has no mind) managed to kill him.
Powers
In Not Brand Echh and What The--?!, he had no powers, but lots of dumb luck. In the Nextwave, he has Forbush Vision, where the victims are exposed to hallucinations that make them think they're in a hellish (from their point of view) reality and slowly die, while trying to resist. Despite claiming he is "the greatest power in human history", he is easily defeated by Tabitha Smith.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbush_Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Forbush

http://www.asminor.info/microheroes/NotBrandEchh-ForbushMan-IrvingForbush.gif