Sunday, April 28, 2013

God-Man

"God-Man: The Superhero With Omnipotent Powers!" is a superhero and religious parody in the Tom the Dancing Bug strip.
Overview
God-Man is an omnipotent superhero. As such, he is easily able to defeat his villains with little effort to the point he can teleport a person to Costa Rica unharmed by lightly shifting his weight (as seen in "Billy Dare, Smuggler's Cape chapter MVLXX") and vaporize a supervillain ("The Threat of the Purple Beetle"). However, blasphemy can weaken God-Man ( "Is the Pen Mighter than... God-Man?!"). He has the alter ego of Milton Baxter ("Close Call"). Somtimes, he teams up with other heroes such as God-God-Man ("Paradoxer Solved"), the Super Justice Team ("Lo, There Come The Evil 8") and Human-Man ("God-Man Human-Man Team-Up").
Despite being a superhero, God-Man tends to be extremely selfish and egoistical. The most egregious examples are  the unnamed 3-29-01 strip, where he prevents a Muslim from burning a God-Man comic book (portraying God as having a physical form is taboo in Islam) but allows the same man to deny his wife medical aid, and "When Strikes... Destructo", where he intentionally makes the titular character's life into a living Hell causing him to become evil in the first place and then beats him up.
God-Man has a gallery of villains that almost always only make one appearance each. Most of these villains try to turn people against God-Man, make people not believe him or disprove his existence. As such, he has villains such as the Kevin Smith-look-alike Blasphemy-Boy ( "Is the Pen Mighter than... God-Man?!"), Freshman Philosophy-Major Man ("Danger in the Dorm") and the God-Man impostor Doc Darwin ("Imposter Disaster"). The other villains are either generic villains (such as the titular villains from "The Menace of the Ooze" and "The Threat of the Purple Beetle") or normal human criminals.
Criticism
Some people found the comic offensive. Ruben Bolling, the writer, explained "God-Man isn't actually God. He is a straw man that I'm using to make fun of some people's very simplistic views about religion and philosophy."
References:

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Allied Supermen of America

Alan Moore's run of Supreme was a homage to Superman. The Allied Supermen of America, a superhero team from that book, was a homage of the Justice League and Justice Society.
History
Kid Supreme was sent back in time to WWII by the League of Infinity (a time travelling Legion of Super Heroes homage) and met the Allied Supermen of America (Justice Society of America). He joined the team. The team broke up in 1949, but came back as the Allies (as a homage to the then-current Justice League) in the 1970s with Fishmen (Green Arrow) and Spacehunter (Martian Manhunter) being new members. Supreme returned to his normal time. Supreme brought back the team to fight Hulver Ramik, who working for Optilux (a villain obsessed with turn people into light). They discovered Optilux was imprisoning the souls of heroes by trapping them in the astral plane. Using special helmets, they entered the astral plane and freed the heroes while trapping Optilux. Later, the team helped Supreme fight Darius Dax (Lex Luthor), who was in a robotic body made of Supremium (a time and space-warping substance). However, he ended up "falling" through time and became the meteor that gave Supreme his superpowers.
Members
  • Black Hand (Green Lantern)- Unrelated to the Green Latern villain of the same name, he wears a light on his chest. This allows him to create shadows puppets that are able to affect tangible objects.
  • Jack O' Lantern (Spectre)- He is a cosmic entity. Like Mighty Man, he uses humans as hosts. He has magical powers including the ability to summon objects (such as over-sized lawmowers). 
  • Mighty Man (Captain Marvel)- He is a cosmic entity that possesses humans (one at a time) and transform his host into a blond man with the generic Superman powers.
  • Fisherman (Green Arrow)- He was not a founding member. He should not be confused with the DC character of the same name.
  • Roy Roman the Mer-Master (Namor and Aquaman)- He can breathe underwater, fly and has super strength.
  • Spacehunter (Martian Manhunter)- He is an alien with flight and telepathy. He has the alter ego of Steve Strong. He was not a founding member.
  • Alley Cat (Black Canary and Catwoman)- She is a fishnet-wearing super heroine that carries a whip.
  • Professor Night (Batman and Dr. Mid-Nite)- He is a nonpowered hero with a female sidekick Twilight. 
  • Storybook Smith (Johnny Thunder)- He has the ability to rewrite reality by writing in his magic storybook.
  • SuperPatriot (Captain America)- He is a patriotic hero that would later become a cyborg.
  • Glory (Wonder Woman)- She is a half Amazon-half demon warrior.
  • Die Hard (Cybrog)- He is the first cyborg made by America.
  • Doc Rocket (Flash / Bulletman)- He is super fast.
  • Waxman (Sandman)- He has a "Wax Gun".
  • Supreme (Superman)- See the post I did on him. 
References:

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Twilight of the Superheroes

Twilight of the Superheroes is a crossover event proposed by Alan Moore. This never saw the light of day. The title is a references to Götterdämmerung (the name of which translate to "Twilight of the Gods"). The event would have brought back the DC Multiverse. However, the story would have been darker and portray the heroes as tyrants and murders. The proposal letter has been leaked on the Internet.
Preface
The proposal had a preface. In this, Alan Moore explains the problems he has with the superhero genre. He criticizes crossover event with being marketing devices, forcing readers buy books they don't want to understand what is going on and forcing the books to take part said event. He said the superhero genre needed more definitive ends to their stories. As such, he intended the Twilight of the Superheroes to be basically a superhero Ragnarok and avoid these before-mentioned problems.
Story
The story's framing device has future incarnations of Rip Hunter and John Constantine going to the past because of disaster in their time. Rip and John would appear in other comic and try to recruit or warn the main characters of those books. However, the creators of the the comics being published at the time would have the choice to participate or not.
The main narrative, which is told by the present and future John Constantine(s) talking to each other, is that in the future the world was controlled by superhero dynasties (such as the Superman and Wonder Woman's House of Steel, the Marvel Family's House of Thunder, an unnamed Teen Titan house, an unnamed Justice League house and a super villain alliance). However, Superboy and Mary Marvel Jr. wanted to get married. This act would have unite the House of Thunder and House of Steel thus destroying the status quo. Several characters, including Constantine, tried to stop this alliance. Batman form a cabal of non powered superheroes. The Green Lanterns, Thangarians and Martians form an alliance. The factions had a massive battle that killed most of the super-powered people. The story had a side story focusing on a superhero ghetto where old superheroes live.
In the framing device, it turned out Rip and John actually went back in time to cause the disaster, because it would free humanity from the tyrannical rule of the superhumans.
References:

Saturday, April 20, 2013

The Mocker

You may remember Steve Ditko made the objectivist comic Mr. A. Well, he made another objectivist comic: The Mocker. The comic focuses on themes of self-worth, redemption and corruption.
Overview
Tyler Rayne was a DA assistant that had an uncompromisable sense of justice. He was the investigating Senator Durn (the father of his girlfriend) due to charges of corruption. However, Tyler was framed for being corrupt (although he wasn't) and was sent to prison. After serving his sentence, mob boss Ziger offered to prove Rayne's innocent if Rayne would help gain information for his operation. Rayne accepts and used his secret powers to get the information from criminals.
Aside from Rayne, there are two other characters. Bram is a hard-boiled cop that has to deal with the facts his heroes are flawed and he made mistakes in his past. Ziger, who is perfectly okay with being evil, has trouble understanding how Rayne is confident and powerful despite not having a powerful position.
Power
Rayne has the ability to dim lights around and become invisible in the shadows created from doing the former thus "mocking their eyes" (hence the title). If he psychically touch someone, he can spread "darkness" over people, which causes an unpleasant sensation often causing them to confess.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mocker_(comics)

Friday, April 19, 2013

Demons Three

Abnegazar (left), Ghast and Rath (bottom right)
History
Abnegazar, Ghast and Rath (the Demons Three) are three demon brothers that billions of years ago ruled the galaxy. However, beings called Timeless Ones banished the demons. However, the demons had created three magic items (the Red Jar of Calythos, the Silver Wheel of Nyorlath and the Green Bell of Uthool) to free themselves. Felix Faust tried to get the JLA to find the items so he could free the demons. Felix accidentally made it so the demon would be freed a century later. JLA, who were time travelling, imprisoned them again. Abnegazar was killed by Doctor Fate. However, his brothers resurrected him. The Demon Three teamed up with Neron (a Devil-stand in). In Infinite Crisis, they are members of the Secret Society of Super Villains and helped Felix Faust in kidnapping Nightshade. The Red Jar, Silver Wheel and Green Bell had cameos in 52 and Teen Titans. They tried (but failed) to use the souls of the magic-users Zachary Zatara, Black Alice and Traci 13 to get out of Hell.
Powers
The demons are skilled users of malevolent magic. Because they are magic users, the writer have their powers be poorly-defined and depend on the plot.
References:

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Super-Turtle

History
Scientist Shh-Ell, a scientist living on the planet Galapagon (which is inhabited by anthropomorphic turtles), discovered the planet was doomed. As such, he convinced the Science Council to build 1000 spaceships to save their people. However, their slow nature caused them to only finish one before doomsday. As such, Shh-Ell launched his son, Tur-Tel, into space via the ship. Tur-Tel landed on Earth, where he was raised by a human couple and gain superpowers. The turtle became Super-Turtle, nicknamed "the Reptile of Steel". He fought enemies such as Brainy-yak and Superman (who he is a parody of).
He reappeared in Ambush Bug: Year None. Here is as a parody of Superboy-Prime. After living in limbo, Super-Turtle took the name Clark Kent and started to try to kill people he thought were "phony Super-[Turtles]" (according to Wikipedia), which include Bat-Mite and the Connor Kent Superboy.
Powers
Super-Turtle has the powers of Superman (flight, super strength, invulnerability, vision powers and etc).
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Turtle

Monday, April 15, 2013

Roh Kar, First Lawman of Mars

Roh Kar is often said to be a predecessor to the Martian Manhunter (although personally I don't really see the connection).
History
"Roh Kar, First Lawman of Mars" is the sole police office of Mars, which is a peaceful civilization with almost no crime. Using "televisoscopes", Martian learned about Earth. A martian, Quork, went on a crime spree and fled to Earth (since it has a similar atmosphere) with Roh Kar following him. Roh Kar met Batman and Robin. The trio figured out the Earth criminal, the Stranger, is really Quork and decided to team up. They found Quork, who ened up attacked them and kidnapped Robin. Quork managed to escape. Using a combination of Earth knowledge and Martian technobabble, Roh Kar and Batman found Quork. They managed to get Quork to inhale too much oxygen (Mars has less oxygen), which caused him to become temporally knocked out. Ron Kar left Earth saying he would imprison Quork on a prison on one of Mars' moon.
Powers and Weakness
Roh Kar had no powers, but had gadgets to make up for it. He had a compass that tracks people via brainwaves. He uses a jet pack, pistol and a "detectophone" device, "which broadcast sound to a listening device" (according to my source). Since Mars has less oxygen than Earth, Martians can become intoxicated if they deeply inhale the Earth's air.
References: