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Firestorm Fan April Fool’s Day Post-Game Report

April Fool’s Day is one of my favorite “holidays”!  It’s a time for harmless pranks, surprises, and laughs.  Me, I’m a giver.  I like to “give” on April Fool’s Day.  That’s why visitors to FIRESTORM FAN this past Friday were greeted with an entirely new look for the site…

Firestorm Fan on April Fool's Day - B'wana Beast's Blog

Much to the surprise of everyone, FIRESTORM FAN had been transformed overnight into B’WANA BEAST’S BLOG! Click the image above for a closer look and to see more of the page.  There were 10 new posts about B’wana Beast just waiting to confuse and befuddle the faithful readers of FIRESTORM FAN.

I was fairly pleased with how it turned out.  The new page layout was especially cheesy-looking (as I intended), and I fell in love with my goofy B’WANA BEAST’S BLOG logo!   I thought the 1960s checkerboard topper was just the right touch.  My good friend Ravenface later suggested adding an additional apostrophe to the final title, resulting in B’WANA BEAST’S B’LOG!  That’s brilliant!  If I’d continued with the B’wana Beast site I totally would have added that extra apostrophe.

An ironic aspect of this re-branding was that I knew practically nothing about B’wana Beast before I wrote those posts.  I had seen him in Animal Man years ago, but had no recollection of those stories at all. Each post I wrote, I learned a little more about the Jungle Master.  By the end I had taken a shine to the character, especially his portrayal in Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series.

Based upon some comments and message board posts, I apparently fooled a few people (or rather they were kind enough to play along).  I guess changing the focus of your blog from a C-level character to an F-level character isn’t that astonishing, so some folks didn’t give it a second thought.

THE CROSSOVER

The real “wow” factor of this April Fool’s Day joke was the number of blogs that changed their focus from low-profile characters to even lower-profile characters.  There were nine different sites participating in this re-branding crossover.  Below I identify the blogs involved and present a screen-shot of their site from April 1:

  • DC BLOODLINES: A blog for lesser known DC characters transformed into a site dedicated to the independent powerhouse, Marshal Law! The five sites below are all run by our good buddy and master blogger, Frank Lee Delano!  Take some extra time to check out his April Fool’s Day posts.  He constructed them in such a way that they look like several independent posts.  The reality is that he created just one post per site last Friday, but carefully formatted each one to look like multiple posts.  Amazingly clever!

DC Bloodlines blog became SFPD, a blog dedicated to Marshal Law

  • DIANA PRINCE AS THE NEW WONDER WOMAN: This Wonder Woman blog went in a bold new direction focusing on Airboy’s supporting character, Valkyrie!  Plus it was done entirely in German!  How cool is that?!?!

Diana Prince as the New Wonder Woman blog became Wunderbar Valkyrie

  • POWER OF THE ATOM: The blog for the Atom and Captain Atom metamorphosed into a site dedicated to the 80’s sci-fi classic, Dreadstar!

Power of the Atom blog became Dreadstar and Company

  • JUSTICE LEAGUE DETROIT: The blog dedicated to the Detroit-era of the Justice League was remodeled to focus on it’s hippest member, Vibe!  Paco is one of my favorite forgotten characters, so this was a special treat!

JJustice Leage Detroit blog became Vibe's Beat Street Blog

  • THE IDOL-HEAD OF DIABOLU, the Martian Manhunter blog shape-shifted into a site dedicated to the obscure supervillain, the Osprey!

The Idol-Head of Diabolu blog became the Aviary of the Osprey

  • SPEED FORCE: The Flash blog changed it’s vibrational frequency and became a blog dedicated to Barry Allen’s evil twin, Blue Cobalt!   Kelson and crew did a really great job transforming their site –  redirecting to a new URL, changing the overall color from red to blue, the Twitter feed, and more!

Speed Force, a Flash blog, became Cobalt Blue

  • BOOSTERRIFIC: The blog dedicated to the king of capitalism, Booster Gold, was preempted by the comrade of communism, Red Star!  On Friday, Boosterrific redirected viewers to a new URL – RedStarFire.info.  I instantly fell in love with that gorgeous and iconic banner!   Great job, Walter!

Boosterrific blog became Red Star Fire!

  • THE INDIGO TRIBE: This Green Lantern blog was hijacked by Roscoe Dillon, The Top!  Our pal liquidcross had some fun channeling the undead spirit of The Top.  Be sure to read the comments!  Hilarious!

The Indigo Tribe, a Green Lantern blog, became Nobody Tops The Top

  • FIRESTORM FAN: And finally, it was goodbye Firestorm and hello B’wana Beast for this blog!

CONCLUSION

This crossover was a blast!  It was very loosely organized and each blogger did their own thing.  I enjoyed pulling together my B’wana Beast site and posts, but enjoyed even more reading what everyone else did for the crossover!  The folks above deserve applause!  Please visit their sites and heap praise upon them!

We’ve begun something of a tradition for April Fool’s Day blog crossovers.  It all started back in 2009 with our big “Vibe: Rebirth” crossover – ONCE UPON A GEEK, SPEED FORCE, JUSTICE LEAGUE DETROIT, FORTRESS OF BAILEYTUDE, CRIMSON LIGHTNING, and K-SQUARED RAMBLINGS!  That’s still one of my favorites!

For further 2011 April Fool’s Day recap coverage, be sure to check out Speed Force and Frank’s sites (such as The Idol-Head of Diabolu)!

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled Nuclear Man programming.

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10 Comments

  1. […] 2: The Irredeemable Shag has another recap with screenshots of all the participating blogs over at FIrestorm […]

  2. Boosterrific says:

    “I guess changing the focus of your blog from a C-level character to an F-level character isn’t that astonishing, so some folks didn’t give it a second thought.”

    Is there an official “level” scale for character rankings? I wouldn’t have thought that Firestorm was a level C, but I guess it depends on the scale. He was JLA alongside Black Canary, who by power and general popularity — familiar to comics fans but not the general public — should probably be considered a B-lister. And Black Canary probably does rank a rung above Firestorm…. Hmm.

  3. Frank says:

    As groovy as B’wana turned out, you could always stick those materials in a third “whatevs, whenevs” blog. I confess I did have to stifle a cutting remark once or twice, just in case you really did have an abiding passion for the Beast. I’ve always found him a slightly embarrassing curiosity, beyond his funny interpretation from Justice League Unlimited. He was like the super-heroic Johnny Bravo.

    Speaking of embarrassing, ixnay on the aise-pray. I’m really glad you got the S.F.P.D. formatted to look like the flag in the background. I kind of got that effect on one of my computers, but my tiny laptop only displayed the back of Martial Law’s head. It looked like a patriotic asphalt burrito.

    Did you have to paste in the Osprey logo, or did you manage to dig that page out of some online queue? Either way, I’m sorry you had to go to that trouble for such a lame page. It also sucks to have been built up on a Vibe page and get the crap I threw up there. At least S.F.P.D., Valkyrie and Dreadstar turned out okay. I think the nation of Germany may have a bone to pick with me, though. Next year, those page and comment links will all work on the single post.

    Great recap, Shag! I love looking at all those pages, and I’m especially pleased to see Red Star Fire lives on!

  4. Frank says:

    Booster, I would assume the super-scale is more like a Q rating than a power gauge. For instance, Booster Gold has carried two solo series for multiple years each, while Martian Manhunter limped along for three years on just one. However, his presence on the Justice League and other cartoons trumps Gold’s. Regardless, they’re both still firmly C-list, because most of the world could give a toot about either of them. Firestorm is in the same boat, even though you could fit every page of solo Booster Gold and Martian Manhunter stories into just his first run, and he made all those Super Powers animated appearances. We’re all still looking up to the B-lists of Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Supergirl, Spawn and others with far greater commercial and global recognition accomplishments.

  5. Shag says:

    @Boosterrific @Frank – Thanks for the comments! Yes, I was basing my rating scale on the average American’s knowledge of superheroes.

    In my opinion for example…

    The “A” list is composed of: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Robin, and soon Green Lantern. Basically these are the blockbuster stars of TV (live action or cartoon) and movies. Yes, believe it or not, pretty much everyone has heard of Aquaman.

    The “B” list is composed of: Martian Manhunter, Atom, Hawkman, and Captain Marvel. These are characters that are somewhat-commonly known from TV (old or current shows) or action figures. I’d say back in 1985 Firestorm belonged in this category; nowadays not so much. Heck, even the Wonder Twins would probably qualify for this category.

    The “C” list is composed of: Firestorm, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Red Tornado, Doctor Fate, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Cyborg, and others. These are folks that have crossed over from comics to action figures and TV shows (appearing more than just one time), but are still not household names.

    Feel free to share your own rating system!

    Shag

  6. outburst says:

    You had me for a few minutes, mainly because the site looked so good and you obviously put a lot of time into it.

    But, fool me once…

  7. Shag says:

    @outburst – Thanks! I’m gonna have to work harder next year. >;-P

  8. Frank says:

    Definitely a dispute in our ratings, Shag.

    The “A” list is composed of: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Robin, Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

    The “B” list is composed of: The Flash, Supergirl, Batgirl, Hawkgirl, Superboy, Captain America, Blade, Ghost Rider, the Punisher, Daredevil, the Phantom, Shazam, Spawn, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Green Lantern and Thor.

    The “C” list is composed of: Doctor Strange, the Silver Surfer, the Martian Manhunter, the Atom, Hawkman, Firestorm, Green Arrow, Booster Gold and pretty much anybody else who ever crossed over into other media or had some measure of fame in the industry itself.

    The “D” list is everybody that isn’t so bad that they belong further down the alphabet.

  9. Shag says:

    @Frank – Beside folks like Atom and Hawkman, where do we deviate from each other? I included Atom and Hawkman in the “B” category because they had cartoons in the 1960s, appeared on Super Friends, action figures in Super Powers, and still appear on lots of generic JLA merchandise. Hawkman even appeared on Smallville recently. I felt they were a little better known than others.

  10. […] for the laughs guys! If you enjoyed these pranks, then check out the 2011 April Fool’s Day blog crossover in which 9 different blogs pulled similar s…. In that instance, Firestorm Fan was rebranded as “B’wana Beast’s Blog!” […]

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