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WHO’S WHO: The Definitive Podcast of the DC Universe, Volume VIII

Who's Who: The Definitive Podcast of the DC UniverseThe Fire and Water Podcast Presents… WHO’S WHO: THE DEFINITIVE PODCAST OF THE DC UNIVERSE, Volume VIII!

FINALLY… Firestorm in WHO’S WHO!!! The eighth episode of our WHO’S WHO podcast is now available — the show that dares to tackle one of DC Comics’ greatest publications! Each episode Rob and I cover a single issue of the legendary 1980s series, Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe. This time around we chat about WHO’S WHO: Volume VIII, discussing characters such as Firestorm, Firehawk, Fisherman, Flash, Forgotten Heroes, Firebrand, Force of July, and many more! We wrap up the show with Who’s Who Listener Feedback!

Click here to read Jerry Ordway’s blog post discussed in this episode.

Be sure to check out our Tumblr site for a few pages from this Who’s Who issue: FireandWaterPodcast.Tumblr.com!

You can find the eighth episode of WHO’S WHO: THE DEFINITIVE PODCAST OF THE DC UNIVERSE on iTunes. Each episode is released as part of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST feed. While you’re on iTunes, please drop us a review. Alternatively, you may download the podcast by right-clicking here, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (69 MB).

Thanks to my co-host Rob Kelly, Sea King of THE AQUAMAN SHRINE, for doing all the post-production on this episode! Special thanks to Daniel Adams and Ashton Burge with their band The Bad Mamma Jammas for our fantastic Who’s Who theme song!

Have a question or comment? Send us an e-mail at: firewaterpodcast@comcast.net

One of the coolest aspects of each Who’s Who issue was the amazing wrap-around cover! Check out this impressive Paris Cullins and Dick Giordano cover for Volume VIII! Click the image to enlarge.

Who's Who: The Definitive Guide to the DC Universe #8 cover by Paris Cullins and Dick Giordano

Here are your Firestorm-related Who’s Who entries from this issue…

Of course we’re going to feature Firestorm himself! Below is the entry drawn by co-creator Al Milgrom! We’ve featured it here previously on FIRESTORM FAN, but it’s worth checking out again! Click the image to enlarge!

Firestorm the Nuclear Man by Al Milgrom from Who's Who

And you know we’re not going to skip Firehawk! Below is the entry drawn by Fury of Firestorm artist Rafael Kayanan and inked by Dick Giordano! We’ve featured this one here previously also, but it’s certainly worth repeating! Click the image to enlarge!

Firehawk by Rafael Kayanan from Who's Who

This issue also included Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. Firestorm appeared as a back-up strip in his series for several months, so I figured it merited including here.  Click to enlarge!

The Flash by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson from Who's Who

Finally, I wanted to include Firebrand from All-Star Squadron by Rich Buckler and Mike DeCarlo! While Firestorm only encountered her a couple times, I’ve always really liked the character. … and she’s fire-related … and she’s reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaallllllly cute.  :)  Click to enlarge!

Firebrand from the All-Star Squadron by Rich Buckler and Mike DeCarlo

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22 Comments

  1. Luke says:

    Both of the Flashes! The Force of July! The Forever People! And Firebrand!

    WHAT THE?! Firebrand?!

    I thought all of the Firebrands were Iron Man bad guys?!

  2. Anj says:

    Thanks so much for this podcast. I was in my early teens when Who’s Who came out. I loved the book so much I decided that they didn’t need to be pristine in a bag. To this day, my Who’s Who books remain unbagged, in a pile, on top of my long boxes. I have enjoyed these podcasts immensely and thought it was time to comment.

    I supposed I should have commented when you guys blew by Blackstarr several issues back. Almost no Supergirl mythos characters made Who’s Who. How could DC not put in an entry for Black Flame (stories in the 60s Action, 70s Adventure, and 80s World of Krypton mini) or Lesla Lar (prolonged storyline in the 60s Action and the 80s Superman Family)??

    On to my comments from this issue-

    1) Fatal Five – Indeed, Validus is the son of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl. He was mutated and thrust into the past by Darkseid, a sort of revenge due to his loss in the Great Darkness Saga. That was revealed in Legion Annual #3, released in 1984, aptly called ‘The Curse’.
    The Legion did bring these guys together originally way back with the Sun Eater. In that issue a rocket guillotine has been set up to cut off Mano’s hand!

    2) Ferro Lad – He did punch out Superboy to delived the bomb to the Sun Eater’s nucleus. Earlier in the story, the Sun Eater had used red sun energy on Superboy so Ferro Lad knew he was in danger.

    3) Firefly – What a weak character and entry! How did he make the cut and Black Flame didn’t! He fought the Creeper in the First Issue Special #7 and (I thought) fell to his death off of a lighthouse. I can only hope that is true.

    4) Firestorm – I also originally bemoaned Milgrom as the artist here given the stellar stuff that Broderick had done with the character. Now I actually appreciate this much more. I did think that the page set-up –the horizontal sort of main character in contrast to the surprint – really worked well.

    5) Flash (Barry Allen) – I also lamented the time spent on the Flash trial which was just an awful story arc. Somewhere along the way, a rewriting of the Flash’s origin has him (as he travels through time during his efforts in Crisis #8) become the actual lightning bolt which struck the chemical cabinet. He caused his own origin!

    6) Floronic Man – He was essential in the first Moore arc of Swamp Thing. Initially he is a brilliant scientist. He only becomes insane when he links with The Green (via a catatonic Swamp Thing). After that he wants to start a vegetable revolution and ends up insane and in Arkham. In my mind, this was his highest moment and he should never have been used again.

    7) Force of July – Why wasn’t Jerome Moore used more?? I have to admit his Onyx art (in the O issue) was another entry that stuck in my mind forever. It is a shame I didn’t see more from Moore.

    8) Fury – I really liked this character, especially her Post-Crisis origin, mixing nicely with her ‘new’ mother, the Fury of the Young All-Stars. I will also add that in Sandman she is ‘possessed’ by the actual Greek Myth Furies and ends up killing Morpheus, allowing Daniel to take up the mantle. Some of Infinity Inc. really worked for me (Fury, Obsidian, Jade). Others (Northwind, Skykid) just failed.

    9) The Gang – It did break my heart to hear you bash Daring New Adventures (thanks for the shout-out) although I can understand your ennui around The Gang. On paper, they should last 0.4 seconds against Supergirl. That book though was a very good look at Supergirl. She was really an independent here, confidant and strong. This felt like a she was nearing the end of the hero’s journey and about to flourish. Of course, this meant she was killed the month this book came out. As for The Gang, they appear in a couple of panels post-Crisis (Ms Mesmer is a wax statue in Supergirl’s wing of the Superman Museum in the 3oth Century in Sterling Gates’ Supergirl Annual 2, and all of in Sterling Gates’ Supergirl #59). On my blog, long ago, The Gang won a poll of which classic Supergirl villain fans would want to see return.

    Anyways, another great podcast and a really great issue. I think Ordway is a master but I fear that his style is considered dated (even though it isn’t). He would flourish on some of the more licensed material books out these days – put him on Steed and Mrs. Peel, Green Hornet, or other similar books.

    Anj from Supergirl Comic Box Commentary

  3. Siskoid says:

    Cover: Another nice link between characters is Firefly standing with the Gang, since they all have letters in circles on their chests.

    Fearsome Five: Neutron and Jinx both joined in the same storyline, in the Chuck Patton-drawn issues of Tales of the New Teen Titans, my first ever exposure to the Titans, in fact.

    Ferro Lad: Rob made me look at the anatomy closer and it weakened the drawing in my mind. Those knees are pretty low on the leg as well. Shame.

    Fiddler: My favorite drawing in the issue.

    Firebrand II: JAZZ HANDS! And not for the first time, Roy Thomas pays tribute to his beloved wife, Danette “Dann” Thomas.

    Firehair: Is there a story somewhere that makes Firehair an ancestor of Jimmy Olsen, or one where Jimmy is reincarnated from him? That sounds like something the Silver Age would have been all about.

    Fire Jade: The mask is sexy because it’s got a masquerade design to it. She’s like an elegant flapper in the 20s at a fancy dress party.

    Firestorm: Really deserved a 2-page spread becayse his personal data is so long, and his powers so complex, there’s hardly any room at all for his history! They could have sacrificed the fact that his fiery hair doesn’t harm him. That’s sort of a no-brainer.

    Fisherman: Luke McDonnell was 2 months away from his first JLA issue, but he did some work for Weird War Tales in #102, 4 years before. His only previous work for DC.

    Flash II: Mopee is from #167, you were close. Of course, I only know this story because of Ambush Bug #3, a true classic (AB3, not Flash167). Mopee has since appeared a couple times in the DCKids Super Friends series.

    Force of July: Beautiful illustration. However if you’re asking questions about the logic in any Mike Barr Outsiders story, you’re running up a blind alley.

    Forever People: Black Lightning ISN’T the same case as Vykin the Black or the Black Racer? The 4th World preceeds Black Lightning by 6 years, a time when, surely, racial politics were even more primitive.

    Freedom Fighters: They look much too small in the entry, even their heads do. A major disappointment for me.

    Fury: She’s not evil in the color hold, she’s being NAUGHTY. The Fury in Earth2 is working for Steppenwolf, so she seems to be both Earth2 Fury (Lyta) and a Female Fury. We don’t know much right now.

    The Gang: Yes I hate the Gang, especially how often they appear in Who’s Who. HOWEVER, I do like the color hold. It’s a lot of fun.

    Garguax: The name you’re looking for is Dorium, I believe. Those are his Plastic Men, his personal android army.

  4. Frank says:

    A. Better cover from Cullins this time, with more thought put into layout and connective tissue. Unfortunately, functionally, most of the characters seem to be filling space in the same fashion as the flowers. Giordano remains a shoddy inker.

    B. Steeeeve LIGHTLE! I love that the art recalls Curt Swan while actually being good! I respect the Fatal Five, but I never made it to a strong like, much less love.

    C. The Fearsome Five, beyond being plainly derivative of the Frightful Four, were always in the shadow of the Brotherhood of Evil/Society of Sin. Nothing quite dooms a team like being formed around Doctor Light circa New Teen Titans. Neutron is Sunturion. I just did a post on my blog where a guy suggested Gizmo as Cyborg’s Injustice Gang opposite, which I found inspired. Other than Psimon, these bozos were the definition of the paint-by-numbers opposition team. Damn me for saying so, but Judd Winick is probably the only writer to do anything interesting with the lot. Nothing says “a super-villain may force you into non-consensual homesexual/incestuous acts” like being formed around Dr. Light.

    D. I’m not used to Dan Spiegle drawing pretty. I recall him more as a cross between the worst aspects of Curt Swan, Gray Morrow, and Mike Sekowsky. Omaha started in the ’70s.

    E. Maybe Gil drew Faust’s head elsewhere in the color hold, and the text formatting forced an old school cut and paste? Felix Faust is a neat villain who has appeared in mostly bad stories. You know, he’s one of the few villains with a proper legacy through his son. Ivo’s not gettin’ none.

    F. Kirby was in clear decline during the ’70s, and his ’80s work is fairly horrid across the board. I was taught to hate Kirby through this later output, and had to learn that he was good in better days.

    G. Nice busy Ferro Lad entry by Dan Day and especially the underrated Larry Mahlstedt. I’m pretty sure Ferro Lad was a Jim Shooter creation, and was therefore fair game for teenage bloodlust.

    H. Weird seeing Sandy Plunkett and Joe Rubinstein in Who’s Who instead of OHOTMU, moreso because it’s on a Golden Age hard-two Earth-2 villain. Richard Lynch? I do believe Fiddler was responsible for shifting Keystone to limbo. I always thought Champions was too vainglorious a title for super-heroes, so let the bad guys rock the alliteration.

  5. rob! says:

    @Siskoid: Gah! I was so close getting that Mopee issue right! Nerd credentials revoked!

  6. Siskoid says:

    I had to look it up, Rob, and you were going by memory. I’m letting you keep your creds.

    And doing research on Firebrand, I found out what that torch thing was in the color hold: He used to leave those as a calling card!

  7. Anthony Durso/The Toyroom says:

    Another great episode!

    The run-down:

    Fatal Five- Yes Garridan Ranzz (Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl’s son) was kidnapped by Darkseid, brought to Apokolips and mutated into Validus as part of his “curse” that he laid down at the end of “The Great Darkness Saga”. Which sort of explains his mental lightning powers as well as the fact that Validus always seemed to share a rapport with Saturn Girl. I think he was eventually cured

    As for The Fatal Five themselves, they were Jim Shooter’s attempt at a “Dirty Dozen” storyline.

    Fearsome Five- I never cared for the later additions to the Fearsome Five. The original team were my first introduction into the world of “The New Teen Titans” with issue #7.

    Felicity- Another wasted page on an Omega Men character that could have been condensed IMO. I just really have no interest in these guys outside of their appearances in “Green Lantern” and “New Teen Titans”.

    Felix Faust- Gil Kane seems an odd choice considering Faust was primarily a JLA villain. What was Mike Sekowsky doing at the time of “Who’s Who”?

    Female Furies- By this point in “Who’s Who” I’m so tired of Kirby Fourth World characters….Ugh….

    Ferro Lad- This should have been a Curt Swan drawing. The Douglas Nolan parallel universe story took place in LSH #300.

    The Fiddler- It always bothered me that the character is all dressed up, playing a violin and yet he’s called “The Fiddler”. Normally I associate a fiddler with something out of “Hee Haw”…

    Firebrand II- Danette Reilly was named after Roy Thomas’ second wife Dann Thomas, who was often a co-plotter on “All-Star Squadron” and “Arak, Son of Thunder”.

    Firebug- A Bat-villain who seems to be a nothing more than a scene-filler when the inmates of Arkham stage a massive escape. Give me Calendar Man any day of the week over Firebug…

    Firefly- I most associate Firefly with a Steve Ditko Creeper story that appeared in “1st Issue Special” #7.

    Did I hear dissing of Killer Moth already? Not cool!

    Firehair/Firehawk/Fire Jade- OK, now I’m tired of fire characters.

    Fire Lad- I love the Legion but this is just wasted space…

    Firestorm- I like this drawing but normally I STILL don’t have the passion for Al Milgrom…LOL

    Fisherman- My 1st Aquaman comic was #58, featuring the Fisherman. Makes me wish Aparo had handled this artwork.

    Golden Age Flash- How cool would a Jerry Ordway pic have been? The Ian Karkull issue in question is All-Star Squadron Annual #3.

    Silver Age Flash- Ah-haaaaaa! One of my favorite entries in the entire series.

    On a side-note regarding Mopee…I’d love for DC to collect all of the imp characters in a trade paperback.

    Floronic Man- I prefer when he was just Plant Master and was involved with the Secret Society and fought The Atom, Green Lantern and the JLA instead of his mucking around with Swamp Thing, Black Orchid and The New Guardians (GACK!)

    Forager- Good Lord! More New Gods?! Zounds!

    Force of July- I need to crack open my issues of “Batman and The Outsiders” again. That was some good stuff by Mike W. Barr, Jim Aparo and Alan Davis.

    Forever People- See the comments for Female Furies and Forager…

    Don’t confuse the FP’s Infinity Man with the LSH’s Infinite Man. (see “Who’s Who” #11)

    Forgotten Heroes/Villains- I loved this concept at the time! I wish these characters had made it to at least a mini-series without relying on Superman to boost sales.

    Funky Flashman- The Roy Thomas inspired toady was named “House Roy” if I recall.

    Fury- Regarding Jerry Ordway…He’s getting the shaft from DC. And yet Rob Liefeld was working on 3 books for DC at one point last year. Unbelievable!

    Galactic Golem- A perfect example of why Superman’s Rogues Gallery isn’t as highly thought of as Batman’s. And on a related note, why didn’t the “Sand Superman” get an entry in Who’s Who?

    The Gambler-Funny…he doesn’t look like Kenny Rogers…

    The Gang- Wasted Space Alert!

    Garguax- The “weird creatures” are Garguax’s androids known as The Plastic Men or Plastoids.

    Looking forward to the big GREEN issue coming up next!

  8. Keith Samra says:

    What the Hell? I thought Frank had the Copyright on the long long as comments? I dont know whats harder, waiting for the comics to arrive in New Zealand before I listent to the podcasts, or reading all the comments after I listened to the podcast.

  9. Keith Samra says:

    Also im surprised the episode was only 2+ hours long, seeing as it is the FIRESTORM issue!

  10. Frank says:

    I cannot copyright quantity, but the rare quality of the Diabolu Frank trademark blend of pedantic aesthetic brutality remains peerless.

    I. I just read through Siskoid’s review of Firebrand’s golden age incarnation. My, but he was a fancypants, wasn’t he? Reed Crandall clearly delighted in drawing the dashing unencumbered male form in prance. It was a great looking modern swashbuckler strip. I never had use for any Firebrand, since the treatment of all of them since the Bronze Age has been lame. I especially hate the Roy Thomas version, a previously unmentioned sister who just happened to gain fire powers to make the heroic identity exceptionally on-the-nose. Given that her brother was born without nipples, they should have carried over the fraternal deformity, especially if the colorist couldn’t work her top. I’ll take it all back if someone retcons “Danette” into the first four color Christine Jorgensen and makes Madam Fatale her kindly “auntie.”

    J. Firedouchebag! This @$$hole appeared in one comic in 1979 and gets an entry. Even with the Who’s Who push, he’s only made a couple dozen appearances thirty years later, and that took three incarnations! Screw Batman the space-hogging jerk! GRRRRRR!

    K. Never liked Firefly, either. It took me years to appreciate Bret Blevins, but I like him quite a bit now. He went into animation, like Mike Manley, Jeff Johnson, Jerome K. Moore, Chuck Patton, Dusty Abell, etc.

    L. Not feeling Firehair. The world totally did not need another white injun.

    M. Firehawk got some really nice Kayanan art, and I dig the costume, but the character means nothing to me. I encountered her in Crisis and various other appearances, but my longest exposure was during the Stuart Moore run, and she came across as a Bronze Age Barbara Gordon wannabe.

    N. Fire Jade is an excellent example of how not to reach readers in 1985. Only at DC, man.

    O. Giffen is straight pimp on Fire Lad, an otherwise character character.

    P. He may have co-created the character, but I really do hate Al Milgrom on Firestorm. He places an underline and boldfaces every issue I have with the Nuclear Man. Pat Broderick or GTFO.

    Q. If only it had been a little later in the ’80s, the Fisherman would have been gutted by a new guy in this costume who would have de-geeked the Fisherman’s arsenal and christened himself something (anything) cooler. Bassassin? The Whaler? The Angler? Reelmaster? Bloody Gorton? I dig this whack ass costume, and this could have totally been the Sea King’s Hobgoblin. I wish Luke McDonnell and Bill Wray had done a dark fantasy continuation of the 1986 mini-series with a writer, as opposed to Neal Pozner. It could have been epic.

    R. I’m not into either of the Flash entries. Too flat and retro, plus that green color hold looks dreadful behind Jay.

  11. Luke says:

    Frank, actually, in the Sword of Atlantis, they did sort of turn the Fisherman into a badass, but not in the way you suggested. It was revealed the the Fisherman was an elder god style entity who possessed different men. That was pretty sweet.

    Although “Whaler” is a hell of a super villain code name.

  12. Frank says:

    S. Put a little P-Day on your tongue and trip out on MASTER OF THE PLANT WORLD! The Atom probably has the single most pathetic rogues gallery of any major DC hero, but somehow, the vast majority (like, four guys off the top of my head) got their own entries. The Panther was probably the only omission on the costumed foe front. Anyway, I still tend to associate the Floronic Man more with Swamp Thing, since I saw him there first, and reserve the Tiny Titan top spot for Chronos.

    T. Forager is Roach-Man, and all his people are relative humanoids living in the slums of Supertown. They were created by Darkseid as a plague on the food sources of New Genesis, and by Kirby as a hammy analogy for growing up as a poor immigrant in New York. Orion and company used to have to kick their asses, but Forager proved himself “one of the good ones” before dying in Cosmic Odyssey. Swell costume.

    U. Jerome K. Moore was SO much better than the Force of July deserved. He was the American Brian Bolland, for cripes sake! You look at this image and think the Force of July matter, and then they turn out to be Outsiders villains, thus inherently worthless. I like how the color hold of the American flag is all blue, giving the impression that the group only represents a portion of their nation’s people, rather than the full spectrum. Rob, there’s a few pages from the aborted follow-up to the 1986 Aquaman mini-series at his deviantART account.

    V. How dare you speak ill of the grandeur that is Jack Kirby’s most socially conscious work, Flower Children of Voltron in the Battle of the Planets! Ugh– ick– no.

    W. The Forgotten Heroes/Villains are cute. I can’t believe we’ve made it through two volumes of Animal Man and PAD on Aquaman without a properly nostalgic reunion of these guys. Immortal Man was a red herring for the secret identity of Resurrection Man until they teamed up with… oh yeah… other forgotten heroes to battle Vandal Savage at the end of that series. The Faceless Hunter from Saturn is not forgotten, as he turned up in Johns/Reis Green Lantern, and had a very memorably badass appearance on an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

    X. I honestly did not plan for the Freedom Fighters to land on comment-X. How cool is that? Cooler than this lamoid entry. Alex Saviuk could turn me off of a book like nobody’s business, and he embodies what Gerry Jones called DC’s Frigidaire style of tepid, functional art. Why didn’t they involve Murphy Anderson in this? Anyway, I think the Quality heroes are a lot of fun individually, but the Freedom Fighters team has always been DC’s opportunity to dump them all in one book until it gets cancelled to shut up fans asking after them. Plastic Man could have helped there, you guys. Better yet, reinvigorate the concept by getting the Fawcett acquisitions in there too, but noooo…..

    Y. I understand that Jack Kirby was treated poorly by Marvel, but low blows like Funky Flashman and my mental image of the guy as a little snarling ball of unexpressed resentment toward all of his collaborators make me something less than sympathetic. It’s hard to see “The Man” in there since we’re so far removed from his brief bearded phase. John Byrne also ribbed Stan Lee’s baldness by making him a pornographer in an issue of Fantastic Four. I thought the Thomas parody was named “Royboy.” Regardless, so tacky.

    Z. “Staring” at the Fury’s “costume” Shag? Really? We all know you were staring at her breasts and thankful they came in a pair. How could the Fury be half-Amazon if Amazons by definition are all female? Given Wonder Woman’s origins, I’d be more concerned with Fury’s genetic predisposition toward ceramics. For all this and more, like most of Infinity Incorporated, the Fury took a decent starting point and circled it as though it were a drain. That book lived and died on the Ordster (and Michael Bair, but not Todd McFarlane.) Not that DC was paradise under Paul Leavitz, but the company strikes me as especially scummy and desperate now that he’s gone. I’d be alright with Kirby doing rude drawings of Dan Didio. Hell, the man already looks like a rude Mort Drucker drawing.

    Aa. The Galactic Golem strikes me as a ready-made DC Comics Presents villain. They were all essentially Darkseid, the good ones anyway.

    Bb. There’s some funky anatomy on the Gambler, and his clothes drape improperly. What’s with the fat baby fingers?

    Cc. Garguax is one of the few Doom Patrol foes anyone can name that was not a proper member of the Brotherhood of Evil. This does the Doom Patrol no favors.

    Dd. Only Florida Man, the world’s worst superhero, would suggest my coming all the way from Texas to moderate his comments when all I need is his password and credit card information to get things done right here.

    Ee. Excuse me please, but an Aquaman and a Firestorm fan did not just criticize the Wonder Woman rogues gallery. Why yes, my head is twirling around on my neck and my long press-on nails are wagging in each of your faces. Half of Aquaman’s recognizable foes made it into the Legion of Doom, by which I mean Black Manta, and I’d be happy to hear Shag tell me all about why no team has ever accepted a Firestorm rogue that didn’t have “suicide” in their name.

  13. Phylemon says:

    Does anyone connect certain issues of Who’s Who to childhood memories? I picked up issue 9 (The Green Lantern issue) on my way to visit my grandfather on a long trip. Remember it like it was yesterday.

  14. Phylemon says:

    Siskoid,

    I absolutely agree that Ambush Bug #3 was a classic. It is my favorite single issue comic ever. I think that as a companion to the Who’s Who podcasts, we ought to make Rob and Shag review AB#3 as well. What do you say?

  15. Luke says:

    I know I have made the joke a bunch of times, but I am serious when I say that I never knew that there was any DC characters named Firebrand, only associating the code name with the rabble rousing Iron Man badguys. Comes with the territory I guess.

    The Fearsome Five’s finest hour was in Tiny Titans as far as I am concerned. In that book, everyone called Psimon “Brainiac” much to his chagrin. When all of the incarnations of Brainiac showed up, he hung out with them, and that didn’t help his argument.

    I like the Female Furies from their appearances on Superman: The Animated Series. Of course now I want to see Mad Harriet played by Phyliss Dyler. Also, Bernadeth has a great name, she sounds like she should be the front woman of a metal band.

    Firehair is a good character who is a part of the cavalcade of DC Western Comics characters who are not Jonah Hex, which is pretty much how the DC Western characters are divided. You’re either Jonah, or you’re Everyone Else. He’s always a good character to show up in a posse of Western characters or something like that.

    The Fisherman should team up with the Angle Man just for the pun. Fishing, Angling, huh? Huh? Huh?

    Golden Age Flash will always be a favorite of mine. Just a classic in all regards. I like the image quite a bit for Jay. As far as the Flash and the Fiddler, how many ways can you really show this? Silver Age Flash, well, what else can you say? Flash really deserves two pages; not saying that Batman didn’t deserve two pages, but you cannot argue with a character like Barry Allen having a double page deal. And Infantino? That’s a no brainer! Great layout and imagery. Unfotunately, Trial Of The Flash ran for so long relatively close to when Who’s Who was published that it had to be saddled in there.

    As for Forager, I think that was part of his deal, that he was a member of the Bug commune on New Genesis, but he himself was a humanoid New God who wore his full body outfit to blend in. The Bugs ran raids on Apokalips in order to steal supplies and food, and he was one of their leaders for a while. Then they turned on him, or something. It’s been a while since I read New Gods but sounds right to me as I type this.

    I LOVE the Force of July. As an Outsiders fanboy, I always dug Mike W. Barr’s evil teams of 5 who all matched up with the Outsiders, and these guys are my favorite of the bunch. They were the perfect foil for the Outsiders and matched up with Barr’s politics really well. The Outsiders were the weirdos and cast offs, while the Force was the “fire spunk pizzazz white-kneed babyface” crew whom when taken at face value, one would assume would be the heroes. But they were servants of their totaltarian masters. The cover copy on the Annual says it all — “It’s 1984: do you know where your freedoms are?”

    I’m the only Forever People fan I know. Check my link: http://ljaconesbunker.blogspot.com/2008/01/characters-i-like-forever-people.html

    Also, Vykin predates Black Lightning and Black Racer. He was the first superheroic Black character at DC.

    Thanks for the show guys! Keep up the good work with the WHO’S WHO!

  16. Luke says:

    Also, regarding Duo Damsel, I always thought if another one of her duplicates was killed, she could go by the name Mono Maid.

  17. Siskoid says:

    Phylemon: Completely agree.

    So more Who’s This? A whole week’s worth on the Forgotten Villains (yes, even Faceless Hunter, but it’s worth it to read his origin story).

    Atom-Master
    Faceless Hunter
    Kraklow
    Mr. Poseidon
    and Ultivac

    Because I hate coding links into comments sections, I’ll just give you the link for Who’s This? and you can just scroll down until you find what you’re looking for.

  18. Siskoid says:

    And last one from Vol.VIII…

    Who’s the Gambler?

  19. […] sure to check out Episode Eight of the amazing Who’s Who: The Definitive Podcast of the DC Universe hosted by Rob Kelly and the […]

  20. […] sure to check out Episode Eight of the amazing Who’s Who: The Definitive Podcast of the DC Universe hosted by Rob Kelly and the […]

  21. […] sure to check out Episode Eight of the amazing Who’s Who: The Definitive Podcast of the DC Universe hosted by Rob Kelly and the […]

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