Tales of the Black Freighter

Tales of the Black Freighter is a fictional comic series within the graphic novel Watchmen. The comic was read in several issues (issue 3, 5, 8, 10 and 11) of Watchmen by an unnamed youth.
Plot
We only see one story from Tales of the Black Freighter, "Marooned". So, I'm going to talk about the plot of that. "The Sea Captain" and his ship was attacked by the Black Freighter. The Captain was the only survivor. Wanting to warn his hometown, he made a raft out of the bodies of his dead crew. When he got home, he believed the town was taken over by the crew of the Black Freighter. This caused him to kill several innocent people (including his wife, who he mistook for a pirate). Realizing what he did, he fled to the shore. There he discovered the truth: the Black Freighter had come him not the town. He swam out to sea and climbed on the ship.
Logic Behind The Story
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons believed superheroes wouldn't be popular in the Watchmen universe. So, they chose to make it a pirate comic for it's "rich and dark" (Alan Moore) imagery. The comic was inspired by the Threepenny Opera song "Seeräuberjenny" (which translates to "Pirate Jenny"). The story is suppose to serve as a counterpoint to the world they created.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen

Karma Club

I wanted to do a post on the obscure comic Karma Club. However, all I could find was a Comicvine description of the premise (which sounds like it was copied from the back of a trade paperback). According to Comicvine, the premise is:

"Imagine a future world where teenagers are equals with grown-ups, money is earned by being a good person, and cities are called Megamalls! In the year 222, after Armageddon, this world really exists! It's the home of the KARMA CLUB, a teenage crime-fighting team made up of Kemmy, Shay, Arcus, Phoebe and Karina. The CLUB delivers sushi as a secret cover-up to keep their real superteen identities safe from the TUNNEL, the evil organization behind all the dangerous bad guys the CLUB constantly finds themselves battling. The TUNNEL's goal is to make the world a dangerous and dark place! Since money isn't paper-and-coin currency but instead measured by good deeds, called KARMA, the evil members of the TUNNEL forever plot to reverse all the good KARMA to bad KARMA. If the CLUB ever fails, bad guys will be wealthy and the Megamalls will be totally dangerous hives of crime! Will the CLUB ever find out who's behind all the plans to reverse CLUB? Every day, the KARMA CLUB gets a little closer to erasing evil from the streets and making the world a safer place!"

Let's look at how dumb this solely based on this description.

Teens and grown ups are equals? There is a reason why in real life teens and adults aren't treated the same. Teenagers are immature and will do stupider things than an adult would. By the logic of the comic, a 13-year-old would be allowed to see a R-rated movie, be in the army or drink alcohol.

So, good deeds earn people money. While people have a general sense of good and evil, what about killing a murderer? Is that good? Do you earn more money by doing a deed that is "more" good than others? If so, who decides that? In fact, who decides what deeds are good and how do they know if someone is being good? Are the Megamalls a totalitarian government that always watches its citizen like Big Brother? Wait a minute. If the only way to earn money is by being good, then how do companies like Toys R Us or Wal Mart earn money? Speaking of which, where does the money come from? Does the money come from the national reserves or do they just make more money? If the first is true, then the country is screwed if they need to fund a war. If it is the second, that is a great way to destabilize the economy and throw the Megamalls into an another great depression.

Speaking of which, cities are named "Megamalls". Are Megamalls corporate run city-sized malls where people live in their stores? If not, then why are they called "Megamalls"? Why aren't they just called "Megacities" like from Judge Dredd?

"In the year 222, after Armageddon, this world really exists!" What was "Armageddon"? Did a nuclear war happen? Did aliens attack the Earth? Did a reincarnation of Jesus fight the armies of Satan? I think that Armageddon would important enough to have a off-hand explanation such as "In the year 222, after W.O.P.R. caused thermonuclear war and only small chunks of humanity survived, this world really exists!".

Let's talk about Karma Club. In the description, KARMA CLUB and their enemies, TUNNEL, are always capitalized. Does KARMA CLUB and TUNNEL stand for something? If so, should it be spelt K.A.R.M.A. C.L.U.B. and T.U.N.N.E.L.? If not, why isn't spelt "Karma Club" and "Tunnel"? According the description, "Every day, the KARMA CLUB gets a little closer to erasing evil from the streets and making the world a safer place!". How do you "[erase] evil"? Do you mind wipe people in order to make them be productive members of society like in Squadron Supreme? Well in that comic, the idea of using the mind wipe was shown to be a morally arguable one with just as much evidence to support the side against it as the side for it. Do they kill the criminals? I think would be a bit questionable if the comic's heroes murdered people for their holier-than-thou crusade. Do you they imprison the criminals? That makes the most sense. However for the statement to be correct, they would have to make it so the criminals would never be allowed to leave thus "making the world a safer place".

Tunnel / TUNNEL wants to destroy the system of the good-deed economy. The description says "KARMA" refers to the money that they get for good deeds, but Tunnel want the economy to be based on "bad KARMA". How can there be bad money that you get for good deeds? If it meant "money that you get for bad deeds", why use the same term used to describe the exact opposite? So, they want to "reverse ... the ... KARMA". How do you do that? It's not that easy to completely restructure the economy unless the country is in some form of decline. So Tunnel can only pose a threat if there are ton of the other problems causing the country to collapse. Maybe the Karma Club / KARMA CLUB should focus on those problems to help the country survive long term and not the criminals who will pose no threat when the social / economic structure stabilizes.

References:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySuetopia
http://www.comicvine.com/karma-club-1/4000-273602/

Captain Strong

Ever wonder what Popeye would be like if he was addict? No? Well apparently DC Comics did. So, they created this Popeye-stand in.
History
Horatio Strong was stronger than most people. However, he founded "sauncha" (a strange extraterrestrial form of sea weed). Eating it gave super strength. As such, he decided to use this ability for good. However, it caused him to be irrational and suffer from "withdrawl pains". He rampaged until Superman stopped him. After being thrown in a hospital, he said he would never use the seaweed again. He became Superman and Clark Kent's (not figuring out they were the same person) friend.
References:
http://www.comicvine.com/captain-strong/4005-49291/

Professor Gamble

The "Captain Ersatz" trope refers to characters that are blatant stand-ins for other characters. Professor Gamble is Marvel Comics' Captain Ersatz for Doctor Who.
History
Professor Justin Alphonse Gamble was a member of Time Variance Authority, but quit the TVA and stole one of their time machines. He battled rogue Time Variance Authority robots called "Incinerators" (Dalek stand-ins). Using the name "Sergius O'Shaughnessy", he penned Day of the Dredlox, a Broadway play that glorified himself (which used his real name in the play). He helped Iron Fist and Luke Cage when they were stuck in the wrong time and being attacked by the Incinerators. Using a mini-Incinerator, the Incinerators broke in, took over his time machine and captured Gamble. They read his mind. Wanting to build a machine that would destory time itself, they went back to the time of Camelot to get the Starstone, which they need to built it. The Anachronauts freed Gamble. Gamble retook control the machine and expelled the Incinerators. Gamble set off to give Merlin the Starstone.
Powers and Abilities
Professor Gamble is genius inventor and thinker. He claims to be 95. If this is true, he would age slower than normal people. His time machine's exterior appearance is altered to make it seem like it is from the time period he is in. It is also bigger on the inside.
References:
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/jagamble.htm
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CaptainErsatz
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CaptainErsatz/ComicBooks

El Hombre

Bravo (left) and El Hombre (right)

El Hombre is an example of a superhero becoming a villain without even knowing it. He is another character from the awesome Astro City comic.
History
Carl Donewicz was the son of  a rich parents. He was fascinated by his uncle's whip techniques and study them. He inherited their own money when they died in a plane crash. Believing the Latinos (which he was among) in his home town needed a role model and wanting to impress Maria Alvarado, he became the superhero El Hombre. Despite originally fighting normal human criminals, he eventually fought villains such as the robot Platinum Blonde, the super fast Getaway and the self-duplicating Los Hermanos. After aiding the Honor Guard, they let him joined. Carl and Maria started to hit it off. Carl began to feel like he was losing his connection to the Latino community. His girlfriend Maria felt in love with the Latino Malcolm X-stand-in Ramon Vega (who is not connected to the real-life individual). Carl adopted an orphan Latino child as his sidekick Bravo. Things in his life started to fall apart when Maria married Vega. He lost his feeling of self-worth when he discover the Honor Guard used his image for merchandise and his merchandise sold the least well. Wanting to improve his rep, he asked the villain Assemblyman to build a robot for him to fight and give him a way to easily stop it. While the Assemblyman made the robot, he made it so the fail safe won't work. As such, the Honor Guard had to stop. Assemblyman, when captured, squealed about El Hombre forcing him to retire. Despite this, Brave continued to be a superhero.
El Hombre is most notable for his role in the "Tarnished Angel" story arch. Steeljack, feeling discouraged about his investigation of the death of minor villains, met Hombre and listened to his life story. Steeljack met up with the new villain Conquistador, a crime lord planning a massive amounts of robberies. Steeljack figured out Conquistador was Hombre. After no one listened him, Steeljack confronted the Conquistador. The Conquistador revealed he is El Hombre. He explained his plan to Steeljack: after getting several villains to commit crimes, he have them met together only to find "El Guerrero" (Carl's new identity) and be murdered by the "hero". Steeljack damaged the armor and caused it to short-circuit thus knocking Carl out. According to Bravo, Carl was thrown into an asylum "for the rest of his life".
Power and Abilities
El Hombre had no power or equipment that gave him superpowers. He seemed to very agile. He used a whip as his weapon of choice.
As Conquistador, he used a suit of high tech armor. While not stated outright, he seemed to have enchanced strength and durability when wearing it. The suit's armor distorted his voice (shown by unusual word balloons). According to Steeljack, he has an oxygen supply in his suit.
References:
Astro City "Tarnished Angel" TPB

Rex-Spolde

History
Rex was part of a poor family. However, his family agreed to a deal where a government agent gave them a luxurious life in exchange for their son Rex. Rex was trained to be a soldier. He also was experimented on to give him superhuman abilities. He performed various missions for the agent until he ran away for unknown reason. After discovering his family had moved on, he helped form the Teen Team. He was first seen helping Invincible and the rest of the Teen Team stop the Mauler Twins. Invincible quickly began to think Rex was a jerk. Rex had relationship Atom Eve, but this ended due to Rex cheating with their teammate Dupli-Kate. After the original Guardians of the Globe were killed, Rex was among the heroes trying out for the second Guardians of the Globe team. Despite fighting with Monster Girl, he was allowed to join. Rex ended his relationship with Kate when she cheated on him with fellow member Immortal. Robot transferred his mind to a clone of Rex. While most of the team was fighting alien called the Sequids, Rex, Kate and Shrinking Ray fought the Lizard League. Rex, despite the fact they ultimately won, lost his arm and had to get it replace by a robotic one. Rex started to become much more mature and serious about being a superhero. Upon hearing Invincible and Atom Eve getting together, Rex (much to Eve's surprise) was okay with it and wished them well. After Invincible stopped working for the government, Rex (with Robot, Monster Girl and Bulletproof) left the Guardians and recreated the Teen Team. Rex blew himself up (thus killing himself) to kill an version of Invincible from another universe in order to save his teammates.
Powers
Rex-Splode's main power is his ability to alter inorganic materials' chemical makeup thus causing them to explode. He also had limited superhuman strength and durability. His robot hand could fire exploding projectiles.
References:
http://www.comicvine.com/rex-splode/4005-41137/

Secret Wars

Transformers, G. I. Joe and He-Man are all television shows designed mainly to advertise toys. Comics are no strangers to creating comic simply to sell merchandise. Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars is an example of this as it is tied to the toy line of the same name.
Plot
The Beyonder was a cosmic entity that observed and was fascinated by the Marvel Comic superhumans. As such, he sent the X-Men (which consists of Professor X, Rogue, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Lockhead), Spider-Man, Magneto, Hulk, the second Spider-Woman, the Fantastic Four minus the Invisible Woman, the Avengers (Captain America, Hawkeye, Captain Marvel II, the Wasp, Iron Man II, Thor and She-Hulk), the Wrecking Crew, Doctor Doom, Absorbing Man, Kang the Conqueror, Doctor Octopus, the Enchantress, Volcana, Klaw, Ultron, the Lizard, Titania, Molecule Man and Galactus to the Battleworld, which is a planet he made. He put alien tech on the planet. Despite the fact the only explanation of the rules being "Slay your enemies and all that you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!", he leaves the various characters to their own devices. The heroes and villains had several fights. Doctor Doom got a chunk of the Beyonder's powers and killed all the heroes. However thanks to Klaw's manipulating him and being as dumb as a brick, Doom brought them back and the villains are defeated. Most of the character (with the exception of the Thing, who decides to stay and explore the galaxy) are sent home. The only really notable things that have any lasting effect is introducing some new minor characters, Colossus ending his relationship with Kitty Pryde and Spider-Man getting the black alien suit.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Wars
http://www.toymania.com/archives/secretwars/swc12.shtml
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MerchandiseDriven