Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Bob, Agent of HYDRA

Bob is a popular Deadpool supporting character.
History
Because of his wife accusing him of being unable to hold a steady job, Bob joined the terrorist group HYDRA (they have a dental plan). During his attack on a HYDRA base, Deadpool forced Bob into flying him to safety which Bob did mainly due to dumb luck (he doesn't know how to fly). Bob helped saved Weasel (a friend of Deadpool) from Wolverine. Deadpool and Bob were accidentally sent to the past where they helped Captain America and Bucky. Then, he helped Doctor Strange fix reality when T-Ray (Deadpool's archenemy) broke it. After Deadpool accidentally teleported dinosaurs from the Savage Land into New York, Bob unintentionally killed one of them thus making him an international hero. Bob nearly got killed by Tiger Shark only for Deadpool to save him. Later, Deadpool (wanting to be a pirate) forced Bob to be his parrot. In World War Hulks, Bob (due to having trouble with a time machine) sent dinosaurs to alternate reality, where the Thing was Blackbeard, by mistake.
Abilities
Bob has no powers. While he had HYDRA training, this apparently had lesson such as "If I can't see them they can't see me" and "Hiding behind each other". He has an extreme fear of dangerous enemies of HYDRA (including Elektra, Captain America and Wolverine to name a few). He also shouts pro-HYDRA slogans when stressed. However, he can be extremely lucky to the point he can fly a plane without training. Deadpool claimed Bob is extremely skilled at running away.
References:

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Arrow

Arrow is the first superhero that used archery as his / her gimmick. He also is the third superhero in existence. He was predated by Superman and Clock. He also he is in public domain.
Centaur Comics
Ralph Payne was a intelligence agent of the US. Feeling he wasn't fight crime effectively enough, he became the superhero Arrow. His main weapon was his bow and arrow. However, he is skilled at unarmed combat. Like every superhero of his era, he fought Nazi spies.
Malibu Comics
Arrow was one of the public domain superheroes revamped by Malibu Comics. Rick Parker is a Texas-born avid hunter. He worked for American Intelligence, but resigned upon discovering the US government funded an attack on an innocence Latin American village. He decided to fight for justice as the Arrow. Despite teaming up one or two times, this Arrow mainly worked alone.
Dynamite Entertainment
He appeared in Project Superpowers. In this version, towards the end of WWII, Fighting Yank trapped Arrow and several other heroes in the Urn of Pandora. He was freed 60 years later. Disoriented, he accidently shot and killed Fighting Yank. The Arrow now lives in New York.
References:

Monday, January 28, 2013

Bamf

Sound Effect
Bamf is an onomatopoeia used when popular X-Man Nightcrawler teleports. The reason given is that the air is rushing into the space where Nightcrawler used to be. Some fans also use the word as a term for teleportation.
Species
In issue 153 Uncanny X-Men, Kitty Pryde told Illyana Rasputin a fairy tale, where there are a race of beings called Bamfs, who look like super deformed version of Nightclawer. An unnamed Bamf helped the actual heroes of the story.
In Nightcrawler vol. 1, Nightcrawler was accidentally sent into an alternate universe that was almost the same as Kitty's fairy tale even the heroic Bamf appears.  He also discovered the female Bamfs are look more like female versions of himself than a female version of the Bamfs. Also, the males are flirtatious and lecherous making them annoying when with female Bamfs.
A recurring joke is the appearances of Nightcrawler dolls called "Bamfs". A group of creatures called Bamfs appeared in 2012 X-Men comics. Beast accidentally sent the Bamfs to our world. These creatures look more like the X2 Nightcrawler and nothing like the previous Bamfs. An alien zoologist claims they aren't really Bamfs, but is cut off before he can explain.
References:

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Vampirella: Revelations

Broadway, New York comic publisher Harris Comics got the rights to the character of Vampirella, a vampire-like alien from the planet Drakulon. They hired Mike Carey (as writer), Mike Lilly (penciler), Bob Almond (inkier), Jay Fotos (colorist) and Ed Dukeshire (letterer) to recreate the character in Vampirella: Revelations. Let's see what they did. The comic was published between 2005-06.
Plot
In issue 0 (don't ask), Vampirella slayed several vampires in a bar. During which, Vampirella explained how she kills fellow vampires to redeem his mother, Lilith. However, one vampire (none of them are named) claimed Vampirella isn't a vampire, but Vampirella shot him before he could say anything more.
Issue 1 began with Vampirella talking with a man named Harry. After a bar fight with more vampires, Vampirella revealed to Harry that she has false memories of Drakulon being an alien planet despite knowing that Drakulon is actually in Hell. Following Harry's advise, Vampirella visited Peter Glass, a blind psychic. Peter put her in a cage (he claims this is to protect himself) and use his powers to put Vampirella in a trace-like state where he and she see what really happen (Peter claimed he can do this due to "truth is the bedrock of the soul"). In this trace, they see Lilith talking to her demon lover Belial. After Belial mentioning how Lilith's vampire (or "wamphyri" as Belial puts it) children "deplete" her and make her sick, Lilith created a super-vampire immune to the vampire weaknesses to destroy the other vampires. This super-vampire is turns out to be Vampirella. The duo see Vampirella grow up (thus establishing the plot point of the "Heart of Drakulon", a crystalline structure). While the two are in a trace, three demons appear. One demon murdered a Peter and the other two kidnapped Vampirella.
In issue 2, we see a flashback shows the audience that Belial implanted the false memories to give her more motivation to kill other Lilith-spawn. In the present day, it turned out Vampirella's mind has regressed back to when she was a toddler. A demon soothsayer told Belial that Peter unintentionally broke her connection to the Eidolon, a magic mirror that Lilith used to cast spells on Vampirella, and the process broke her mind. The soothsayer claimed that a blood sacrifice might fix this. The Peter-murdering demon attacked Vampirella. Apparently Vampirella slayed his brother, when the demon wanted to do that himself. While the demon was winning, an astral project / ghost of Peter Glass used his powers to fix Vampirella's mind allowing her to defeat the demon and escape, much to Belial's chagrin.
In issue 3, Vampirella was being chased by demons riding fly dragon-like creatures. She ended up at Lilith's home. After seeing a near-skeletal, seemly dead Lilith, Vampirella entered the castle and destroyed the Eidolon. Belial (who caught up with Vampirella) sent several demons to attack Vampirella. She slayed the demons. However, this gave Lilith enough power to revive herself and fight Vampirella. However, Vampirella used the "Heart of Drakulon" to fry Lilith (somehow). She wounded Belial, but let him live so he would have to grieve for Lilith.
References:
  • Vampirella: Revelations # 0-3

Friday, January 25, 2013

Mopee

Mopee is a character that only appeared twice. However, he has become one of the most hated Flash characters. What made people so mad? Let's take a look.
The Barry Allen Flash got his powers from chemicals splashing on him after they were hit by lightning in a freak accident. However, The Flash #167 begged to differ. It claimed Mopee, a member of the "Initiate 10th Class of the Heavenly Help-Mates", had sent the bolt on purpose. However, Mopee was suppose to use something that belonged to Barry to give him his power. Since the chemicals were owned by the police station Barry worked at, Mopee had to replace them. 
Fans hated the idea of Mopee. The reason was why because he contradicted the basic concept of the Flash's origin being an accident. Mopee appeared in Ambush Bug # 3, which talked about the worst characters in the DC Universe. Here he also claimed to cause the origins of other characters such as the Hulk, the Fantastic Four and Superman. One retelling of Flash's origin showed Barry analzying a drug called Mopee. 
My sources are:

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Atomic-Man

Atomic Man / Atomic-Man (it is spelt both ways) is another public domain superhero.
After hearing about the creation of A-Bomb, Adam Mann was experimenting with Uranium-235. This radiation gave him super powers. Realizing the dangers of this element, he became a superhero. He fought mad scientists, criminals and communists.
He had a variety of powers. He had the standard powers of super strength, invulnerability and flight. However, he can emit radiation from his hand. He wore a lead glove to prevent accidentally poisoning someone.
My sources were:

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Sprite Comics

"If you can't draw, never fear, just steal some graphics from your favorite video game. And add yet another unlicensed pixel comic to the overcrowded, over stunk landfill of web comics." - Strong Bad
Sprite comics are comics (usually on the web) that use video game sprites (or slightly altered sprites) for a majority of the art. People usually make sprites comics due to the fact you don't need a lot of art skills and the ease of making them. Most sprite comics are parodies of the video games the sprites were taken from. Common video game targets are Final FantasySuper Mario Bros.Sonic the Hedgehog, PokemonLegend of ZeldaMetroidMortal Kombat and Mega Man. Common cliches include making the characters stupid, an author avatar, video game in-jokes and self-insulting humor. Sprite comics is different than pixel art comics as the sprites aren't original and taken from elsewhere.
History
The first sprite comic was Neglected Mario Characters. However, Bob and George (a parody of the Mega Man series) popularized these comics. Sprite comics were the most popular in 2000-2007.  However, they dropped in popularity recently.
Recurring Problems
Sprite comics have some recurring problems. Due to the ease of making them, untalented writer will make comics and not put effort into it. Not thinking about the color palette can easily ruin a sprite comic. While these sprite comics are easy to make, they still have to edited, but people tend to forget this. There are potential legal problems although these problems almost never comes up and the video game companies usually just ignore them.
References