Who’s This?

Who’s This?

Completist Siskoid

Will also beat dead horses for money or room and board.

And… yep, confirmed on Starman II as well.

Why no Aquaman legacy a millennia on, DC?

B. Great catch on Congo Bill!

C. Killer Croc in his original incarnation was one of my favorite Batman villains. He was basically a slum kid with a skin condition who grew up to become a brutal Tony Montana style crime lord by killing his way to the top. Rob would have been distrubed by Waylon being beaten by a racist cop with a belt buckle as a child. Dan Jurgens did some outstanding early art on the character.

D. When do you tend to hear a B/C-list villain’s name? In team surroundings. What teams has Chronos been on? Exactly. He was in that group of time-themed villains during Zero Hour, but otherwise, his touch is little felt outside the Atom’s sphere. For instance, if I recall correctly, Chronos didn’t start doing time travel stuff until the ’80s, during guest appearances in books like World’s Finest Comics and Blue Beetle. Before that, he was another of Atom’s long line of sub-Batman goons with a gimmick– timepiece weaponry. In our Halloween crossover, I featured a story where Chronos stole the Time Pool from Professor Hyatt, which wouldn’t have been necessary if he had that area sewn up. The time travel really kicked in after Chronos cut a deal with Neron during Underworld Unleashed and fought the Legion of Super-Herores. Really great Jansonesque inking on his entry, and you’d hunch too if your nemesis was half a foot tall. Finally, Chronos has to be up there with the worst costumed characters anyone has ever heard of. What a mess. Finally, how did you guys miss the fact that Chronos’ facial features were based on Richard Nixon? Kane modeled Hal Jordan after a pre-fame Paul Newman, as well.

E. Who’s Who: Claw The Unconquered

F. I think Carlo Barbieri did a good job of reforming what little worked about Clock King’s costume. Great origin for such a doofus.

G. Infantino self-referenced his own New Look Batman story in posing Cluemaster for his entry.

H. I’m with Rob on Colossal Boy. Not nearly collosal enough.

I. I think I’ve said “Dominators” when I really meant “Controllers,” like, a lot, for a very long time.

J. Ideas I fell in love with but will never get to see: A 1950s set series involving plainclothes period super-heroes who agreed to work with the government rather than retire to combat BEMS/UFOs/fugitive Nazis/etc. Commander Steel would have been like Violent Marv– the team’s resident angry bigot misogynist who can still be relied upon to take and bring the pain. Conversely, he’s the idealistic speechifying right winger who clashes with King Faraday’s cynical, pragmatic, quiet leftist. The New 52 rendering moot super-heroic ties to decades of real world history has smothered much of my love for the universe, to the point where DC Bloodlines has essentially become a pin-up blog. It just doesn’t matter anymore.

K. Copperhead is one of those villains that is either intense or ridiculous, depending entirely on the artistic interpretation. He looked creepy-cool on his debut cover, “The Brave and the Bold #78,” relishing squeezing the life out of Batman after felling Wonder Woman and Batgirl. His Underworld Unleashed redesign was pretty solid, but eliminated the disturbing quality of an oversized head on a lithe body. The broadness of the face and flat nose is what mutes the recognizability of Broderick’s style. Broderick is usually more pointy, where this better resembles Bob McLeod.

L. Cosmic Boy was the prototype for Cyclops, and is basically what would have happened if Scott Summers had stayed clean cut and pure hearted, instead of a scumbag.

M. Count Vertigo is a great looking villain who transcended Green Arrow’s rogues gallery, by not by enough to register with broader audiences. I adore ’80s Trevor Von Eeden, before he took on more of a Neal Adams influence in the ’90s. It was so stylized and minimalistic– true pop art as much as comic art. Von Eeden claims credit for designing Black Lightning, which Tony Isabella doesn’t count as “creating,” but most fans would dispute (especially Kirby/Ditko ones.)

N. One of my early comics featured the Creature Commandos, so I have a soft spot. I think DeMatteis laid down some pathos for these guys.

O. I don’t think Ditko did any Who’s Who, either. He was working at the indies like Pacific at that time, and likely was militant about it. Dennis Fujitaki of Delgado fame did the Shade entry. I’m actually 100% behind Shag, having tried to read Creeper stories from Ditko to the ’70s back-ups to his run as a supporting player in Eclipso to the various deconstructions of the ’80s/’90s/’00s. He was created as a Shadow riff with Joker madcap outlandishness. It does not work. It has never worked. Creators have tried to will the Creeper into being something viable, but the character is just a collection of incongruent bad ideas. From Keith Giffen to Vertigo, it just won’t run. Anj will try to explain the appeal at a later time on DC Bloodlines through a series of posts.

P. Gail Simone did some good stuff with Crime Doctor, then weirdly killed him off.

Q. “Whatever Happened To… The Crimson Avenger?” (10/1981). Definitely a better character in dying than in life, and I agree about this springboard being better that the one Johns eventually used.

R. DC has tried to make Cyborg happen for decades, as I complain in Victor Stone: Affirmative Action Cyborg.

S. Loved the DIY Spanish Who’s Who anecdote! Makes me feel less insane my own self.

T. Since the original X-Men were failures consigned to reprints prior to the All-New, All-Different relaunch, I don’t think things could have gone better for the Doom Patrol at a slight turn of fate. The New Doom Patrol bears this out.

U. How bad does it suck to name your kid after a super-heroic identity that is striken from continuity? Please answer in essay form.

V. My returning to the podcast= Chinese Democracy? The Two Jakes?

Anywho, I have to say I was disappointed that Rob knows almost no Legion history. Because we share so many other similar likes and dislikes, it seems sad somehow that Rob doesn’t appreciate the Legion Goodness. However, it was awesome to hear Shag school Rob on Legion lore. You tell him, Shagg Lad! It seems like my favorites are also Shag’s (Rokk Krinn is def one of my all-time favorite characters).

Regarding Commander Steel, I thought the reason that his grandson was not mentioned was because the profile was about the WWII character, and as so it says “the details of (his) exploits between 1941 and the present have not been officially recorded.” Atleast, that’s the way I thought his profile was written. Besides, him turning into an S.O.B. is a few months in the future, so maybe DC didn’t want to commit to that atrocity here?

I could never tell if Cinnamon was wearing a white suit or a black suit. It looks white on the cover but black on the profile. I could never get past the odd inking of her suit. I, like Shag, liked that she and Night-hawk ended up being earlier versions of Shayera and Katar.

The best Creeper story I’ve ever read was one of the first: the end of the “Bat-Murderer” story-line where he guest-stars in DETECTIVE. I have not liked him in really any other story.