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:

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Doctor Double X

History
Doctor Simon Ecks discovered how to enhance auras of humans to perform functions outside the body. When Simon created an aura duplicate of himself, the doppelganger (Double X) turned evil and dominated the weak-willed scientist's mind. Simon has fought Batman several times and was constantly sent to Arkham. The duo was originally called "Doctor X and Double X", but changed it to "Doctor Double X". He has teamed up with Rainbow Raider, a Flash enemy.
Powers
Simon Ecks / Doctor X is able to create an enegry copy of himself called Double X. Double X shares the same consciousness of Doctor Ecks, but can act on his own. Double X needs electrical energy to sustain himself or become dormant in Simon's body. When he is active, he has super strength, flight and energy blasts.
References:

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Yes, there is more than one Batman villain that is based on the works by Lewis Carroll. In fact, there were about seven, but we will get to that.
History
Dumfree and Deever Tweed are two criminal masterminds nicknamed "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" due to their names and resemblance to John Tenniel's portrayal of those characters. Despite often being mistaken for twins, they are cousins. They prefer to have henchmen to do their schemes for them and use their resemblance to each other to confuse their enemies.
Tweedledum and Tweedledee first met Batman and Robin, when Dumfree and Deever were committing a series of robberies in Gotham City. They became recurring enemies of Batman and sometime worked for the Joker. In War Games, Dumfree was killed in a police shoot out.
In Infinite Crisis, Tweedledee and a new Tweedledum (who turns out to be Dumpson Tweed, Dumfree's twin brother) were members of  Alexander Luthor Junior's Secret Society of Super Villains.
After reality was rebooted, there was a super villain group called the Wonderland Gang. The members included the Mad Hatter, a new Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Lion, Unicorn, Walrus and Carpenter. Ironically, Mad Hatter is the only member actually based on Alice in Wonderland with the rest are from Through the Looking-Glass (the book's sequel). It turned out Tweedledee and Tweedledum were actually running the Wonderland Gang and had mind-controlled Mad Hatter to pretending he was running the team. Batman freed the Mad Hatter and the two defeated the Wonderland Gang. The Gang later tried to escape, but were stopped by Batman, Nightwing and Robin. In Salvation Run, Tweedledee and Tweedledum were among the villains sent to an alien planet. They were freed by Hush pretending to be Bruce Wayne.
In The New 52 reboot, Tweedledum and Tweedledee were henchmen for Mad Hatter for the latter's plan to drive everyone in Gotham City insane. Here, Mad Hatter is manipulating them instead of vice versa. Batman quickly took them out.
Powers
The two brothers have fat bodies that allow them to bounce and roll like a ball. In The New 52, they seem to also have super resistance and strength.
References:

Friday, April 12, 2013

Supergod

This guy never appears in the comic (although he kind of look like Jerry Craven, who never wears that costume and is never crucifixied). 
Supergod is a five issue miniseries. It focuses on what happens when people try to literally create their own gods.
Plot
The narrator is Simon Reddin, a British ex-scientist. Simon is talking to Tommy, an unseen character. The story began when the British sent three astronaut into space in the hope of turning them into superhumans. After being exposed to space fungus (I'm not kidding), the astronauts merged into a three-faced being that the government dubbed "Morrigan Lugus" that has mushrooms on it.  Morrigan was sent to a secret research facility. For some reason, the scientists started to worship it as a god. India created the blue-skinned superhuman Krishna to "save India". Unfortunately, Krishna's idea of this involved decreasing the population by mercilessly killing people, which it did. Pakistan tried to nuke Krishna, who simply sent the nukes back and killed them. Iran created the superhuman Malak Al-Maut, hoping it will have a "connection to ... god". China created Maitreya, who almost immediately went rogue and escaped. Malak destroyed the city containing him and started to walking to Pakistan for unknown reasons. The US created the superhuman Jerry Craven, who thinks the US government can access Heaven. Simon, who is drunk, talked to Morrigan Lugus, who revealed it thinks humans are little more than monkeys that wear clothes. Iraq lost control of it's superhuman, Dajjal, who can see possible future timelines. Russia created Perun and captured him. Krishna started to rebuild the remains of India. Simon came up with the idea to try and have Lugus talk to the other superhumans. So, the British government decided to airlift Lugus to India much to Simon's and Lugus' joy. The Russian deployed Perun to kill Krishna. Lugus started to emit chemicals. Krishna killed Perun. Malak changed his course to India. Krishna killed Malak and destroyed a chunk of the moon in the process. Maitreya started to fuse people into a blob. Later, Krishna was surprised to see Maitreya riding a giant Cthulhu monster he made from the blob. Maitreya is killed also. Jerry joined Krishna to try and save the world. Dajjal, realizing how boring things will become, blew himself up thus killing him, Krishna, Jerry and most of Russia, China and Europe. Lugus, the remaining superhuman, spread his fungus across the world and effectively taking it over. In the present, Simon finishes his story. After taking off his clothes, he goes for a swim in order to sacrifice himself to his god: Morrigan Lugus.
Characters
  • Simon Reddin- He is the narrator. He was scientist that helped research Morrigan Lugus. His plan to stop the superhumans ironically ended up causing the apocalypse. He speaks to Tommy for most of the story before swimming to his god.
  • Morrigan Lugus- It is a superhuman that was created by three British astronauts being merged into one, giant being. It is a giant being with three heads and mushrooms growing out of its legs. Morrigan talks in various ways: with words, digital code and radio waves. It was kept in a secret base. When it was freed, it spread fungus across the world and created a "mycelial network" thus giving it control over the world.
  • Krishna- It was an Indian superhuman. It had blue-skin and various machine parts fused into it's body. It had the ability to reshape matter and create blue constructs. Its sole goal was to "save India", which it attempted to do in its own violent and insane way. It killed nearly everyone other superhumans in the story. It was killed by Dajjal.
  • Malak Al-Maut- It was an Iranian superhuman. It was suppose to have a "direct connection to the mind of god". However, it apparently didn't. It has vaguely defined powers. It has been seen using matter manipulation, causing nuclear explosions and break through the surface of the moon. It was killed by Krishna. 
  • Maitreya- It was a Chinese superhuman. Maitreya can reshape matter, but usually uses human matter instead inorganic materials. When the Chinese government told it to use its powers on criminals, it turned the officers into musical instruments and went on a rampage. It was killed by Krishna. 
  • Jerry Cravern- He was an American superhuman. Jerry was a test pilot turned into a Six Million Dollar Man-like cyborg. However, he seemed unaware of this. He tried to join Krishna only for both of them to be killed by Dajjal. 
  • Dajjal- It was an Iraqian superhuman. It was made of floating purple rock-like things with eyes that look like goggles. It had the ability to see possible futures and the power to create an explosion capable of killing himself, most of Russia, China and Europe and anyone near by (even other superhumans), which it did after realizing how boring things would become. 
  • Tommy- He is an unseen character. He listens to Simon's story via a phone. Nothing is known about him except for the fact he is an American.
References:
  • Supergod trade paperback

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Kill-Cat

History
Alan Williamson was the son of a rich parents. He never trusted his dad's business partner, Biff Brown. Alan, his family and Biff went on a safari. When Alan's parents were killed, Alan blamed Biff and tried to kill him despite no proof to support his claim. During the brawl, the ground they were on gave away and Alan fell into a pit onto spikes. The expedition team (thinking Alan dead) ran away fearing they would be blamed for the murder (despite running away would make it look more like they murder him). A native tribe found Alan and used magic to save him his life. This gave him the powers of a jungle cat. After living with the tribe, he went back to America to reclaim his birthright and find the murder of his parents. Biff, who turned out to have actually killed Alan's parent, became sick and tried to lie to Alan by saying he didn't killed Alan's parents. However, Alan saw through this. Alan took over his father's firm and became the Detroit superhero Kill-Cat. He funded his superhero career with his inheritance. He forced Biff to invest in a company doing illegal activities leading Biff to lose his fortune. Biff planned to kill himself. Kill-Cat confronted Biff on atop a bridge. However, Biff lost his footing and fell to his death much to Kill-Cat's joy. We see Kill-Cat several years later. He teamed up Mark Osborn (a guy from the future) and Kid Avenger to fight villains. Even later, the team was drafted to help fight an alien invasion and are useless. Kill-Cat tried and failed to join the Special Operations Strikeforce. However, he helped them several times. Kill-Cat and his friends have appeared time to time without doing anything really important aside from appearing in superhero gatherings.
Powers
Kill-Cat supposedly has the "abilities of the jungle cat" (according to my source). Kill-Cat is as strong as ten men. He has the agility of a cat. He has enhanced senses. He can turn his fingernails into claws (despite jungle cats not having that ability).
References:
http://savagedragonwiki.wikispaces.com/Kill-Cat

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Marvel 2099

Marvel 2099 was a Marvel Comic imprint.
Setting
In 2099, North America is a police state ruled by megacorpations (most prominent being Alchemax). Prior to the comics starting, there weren't any active superheroes. Present-day superheroes have basically become apotheosized (for example, there is the Church of Thor). Present-day in the Marvel universe has been retroactively been dubbed "Age of Heroes". This ended to due to a disaster that "set back society". However since Spider-Man 2099 went back in time and stopped the disaster, the 2099 world became a parallel timeline.
The main currency of this world is used by "cards" (ID / credit implants). The main types of cards are aluminum, gold and platinum. There is a fourth type: black. Black cards give their owners immunity to the law and unlimited funds. If people are "decreed", they are denied access to many public services and places.
History
The company was founded with following titles Punisher 2099Ravage 2099, Doom 2099 and Spider-Man 2099. The latter being the most popular. Due to fan request, we got X-Men 2099 and Hulk 2099 in a new titled 2099 Unlimited. The universe was expanded with Ghost Rider 2099. They decided to have Doctor Doom, who was accidentally sent to the year 2099, take over the United State. Doctor Doom (using a Captain America impostor as president) had several superheroes (Punisher, Hulk and several b-list heroes) killed off. Due to editor Joey Cavalieri being fired, much of the creative team decided to quit as an act of protest. In an attempt to save the line, Marvel 2099 launched the X-Nation 2099 and Fantastic Four 2099 titles. All the titles ended up being canceled and replace with the single title 2099: World of Tomorrow. It was canceled after eight issue effectively destroying the imprint. Marvel later published a completely unrelated comic Marvel Knights 2099.
References: