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

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 IX!

The ninth 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 IX, discussing characters such as Green Lantern (three different GLs, the Corps, and the Guardians), two incarnations of Green Arrow, Geo-Force, Gentleman Ghost, and many more! We wrap up the show with Who’s Who Listener Feedback! This episode sponsored in part by InStockTrades.com!

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

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

You can find the ninth 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 (60 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!

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 IX! Click the image to enlarge.

Who's Who: The Definitive Guide to the DC Universe #9 cover by Paris Cullins and Dick Giordano

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18 Comments

  1. Siskoid says:

    Yay, Who’s Who IX!

    Cover: All the ghosts up top is one of my favorite bits as well. Don’t forget Gentleman Ghost up there! There’s a LOT of people hanging on to girls. Godiva serves as public transport even more than Golden Glider. Surprise: GI Robot is not tangling with the GL robot. Question: What’s giving the Guardian of the Galaxy a headache?

    Garn Daanuth: I don’t care what the pronounciation glossary says, I always pronounce the two A’s. So it’s garn Dah-ah-nooth. Anyway, this guy was the villain in my first Justice league of America story, as a wizened old man, so while I don’t give a crap about Arion, Garn will always a place in my imagination. Pronouncing “Arion” remains, I think, controversial because look at Garn’s Known Relatives. See what Arion’s name used to be spelled like? Ahri’ahn. That seems to contradict the glossary, doesn’t it?

    Gemworld: The map is great because in the middle of this Rainbow Bright girly princess jewel countries is a territory called the Bog of One Thousand Despairs. Rob’s Game of Thrones + Girls would be a pretty obscene show. It’s Game of Thrones + She-Ra Princess of Power. And Shag you forgot my favorite Die Hard, Die Hard in a hockey arena, AKA Sudden Death.

    General Immortus: Great art, very much so. Surprised Shag didn’t mention Elasti-Girl’s hotness. Shag also forgot the crippling of the Chief seen from the other side in the Chief’s own entry.

    Gentleman Ghost: Kubert for the win. And a macrabe subprint too. They missed a trick by giving him actual eye and hair color in the Personal Data. There was room for a joke there. He can’t have faced the Scoobie Gang because he’s an actual ghost, not a fraud.

    Geo-Force: This is the green suit, rather than the original brown, and the green is really dirty in my copy. Really odd printing. That said, GF sucks, has always sucked and will always suck. He is, I believe, the root cause of the Outsiders’ suckitude.

    Ghost: One of those characters who’d never appeared in the DCU prior to Who’s Who, and Alec Rois would have to wait until 1988’s Captain Atom #14 before he was actually introduced, though he’s got a spot in the multiversal super-villain team in Crisis #9.

    Ghost Patrol: http://siskoid.blogspot.ca/2013/05/who-are-ghost-patrol.html
    Additional reading: http://siskoid.blogspot.ca/2013/05/the-ghost-patrol-humiliate-hitler-some.html
    They.re wearing the uniforms they died in, by the way, French Foreign Legion suits, but they must have gotten those cool patches in the afterlife somewhere.

    G.I. Robot: Have JAKE and Swamp Thing ever met? Because they really look alike. Robot dogs make sense, robot cats are just ridiculous though. They’d always be on sleep mode.

    Gizmo: This guy should be a hero, not a villain. I mean come, on. He’d be cool.

    Global Guardians: Wow, Rob was a xenophobic kid, for someone who’s fetish character is a FOREIGNER. Or is Atlantis the 51st state? Probably based on this entry’s cool factor, the Guardians started showing up in JLI and other places (like that terrible Teen Titan Spotlight Tintin hommage). Dr. Mist has been showing up regularly in JLDark. They do have the problem a lot of non-American heroes have and that’s their ethnic focus. Marvel had the same problem in Contest of Champions. It’s like if you’re a superhero in another country, you MUST be your country’s Captain America or otherwise have an ethnic component so that Americans can tell what country you’re from. Even the lone American in the team HAS to be Native American. It’s a little silly, though very Super-Friendly.

    Glorious Godfrey: Small feet, big hands. It’s all I really think about him. No wait, I love his Occupation – Revelationist.

    Golden Gladiator: He’s next on my Who’s This? list, likely published this week. Russ Heath also did the Sea Devils in volume XX (makes sense), but that’s it.

    Golden Glider: UPSKIRT ALERT! Never could get beyond the hair style. And even if I did, she’s still a weaponized figure skater.

    Goldface: Is there a Kang action figure so we can paint him yellow and mod a Goldface action fig? No wait… why would anyone want a Goldface figure?

    Gordanians: OWW! That Gordanian just SHOT ME! Well, might as well take a break here at the half-way point to lick my wounds.

  2. Anj says:

    Loved the podcast even if this technically *isn’t* one of my favorite issues. I am not a big Green Lantern or Green Arrow guy so I have no special attachment here. That said, I have a few comments:

    1) Green Lantern Corps – Boy, that Brian Bolland is amazing. As mentioned, every one of those characters looks great. And the head shots are wonderful. That guy needs a ‘praise be his name’ sort of tagline. He even makes the crystal GL look good!

    2) Grimbor – Now I am a big Legion fan. I can remember an arc where he literally wraps 2 giant chains around the Earth which weakens everyone and makes Earth unapproachable. I recall how ludicrous it looked that Karate Kid was ‘chopping’ these enormous chains looking for some inherent weak point.

    As for the surprint, I thought it was good that Cham’s antennae were ‘cuffed’ because they are how Durlans change shape. You need to disable the antennae to disable Cham.

    Lastly, look at Light Lass in the surprint and tell me again that she isn’t the hottest Legionnaire (as either Light Lass or Lightning Lass). I cannot wait for the reviews of the ‘L’ and ‘P’ issues of Who’s Who.

    3) Global Guardians – just a couple of quick comments.

    Tasmanian Devil was ‘killed’ and his pelt used as a rub by Prometheus in the rather bad Justice League: Cry for Justice. When it looked at poorly since he is one of the few openly gay characters in the old DCU, the ‘death’ was retconned into just being flayed. He healed.

    I always thought Tuatara had a great design looking sort of lizradish. But what a lame power – a third eye that can look through time. And how does that mesh with his suit?

    And lastly Rob – you call Owlwoman hot? Look at that picture again. She is clearly the poor man’s Dawnstar. I ask that the “Owlwoman is hot’ comment is retracted and corrected to ‘Dawnstar is hot’.

    Anyways, as always a great podcast thoroughly enjoyed!

  3. Siskoid says:

    Gorilla City: The Gorilla Curse means you learn about the City’s existence, your days are numbered.

    Gorilla Grodd: Sienkiewicz really makes Grodd fearsome and dangerous.The bald guy in the background really puts me in mind of the Ultra-Humanite, another brain-hopping ape, although the hop went the other way.

    Granny Goodness: And we didn’t know we needed Ed Asner voicing her on the WB cartoons until we got it.

    Gravedigger: I completely understand Shag’s point about never knowing how old the war characters were. Logic would dictate they were from the time they live in, the 40s, but the ascension of war comics came much later. Really makes you wish first appearances were dated. Then again, it gives some heft to many more recent characters.

    Green Arrow I: Tuksa does a nice Jack Kirby GA, that’s for sure. I’m all about boxing glove arrows. I am.

    Green Arrow II: The switch can’t have happened with the goatee, because Star Trek has taught us that beards meant to mark other-dimensionality makes you evil.

    Green Lantern I: I’m a big enough fan of the character that I have a DC Direct action figure of him. If I had the money, I’d probably have a complete Golden Age hero collection. There’s nothing in the subprint I would want to sacrifice, but I wish the logo was bigger so you could really make out his little head in the lantern. The star-heart thing, I first remember from Secret Origins, a story by Roy Thomas, which came later. Maybe he established it in All-Star Comics or All-Star Squadron? I bet the retcon dates to one of those JLA/JSA crossovers actually… FOUND IT – Denny O’Neil tied the two GLs together in the 70s. That would clock it at GL/GA #111.

    Green Lantern II: Hal has apparently gotten used to getting hit in the head because his odd pose is the result of avoiding knocking it on his logo…

    Green Lantern III: …ergo the bar of soap story.

    Green Lantern Corps: Charlie Vickers in the Titans? That makes sense! At least he got to be in the issue, unlike another little-known Earth Lantern called Guy Gardner (who made the list at the very end of the run, granted).

    Green Man: Elevated to epic scale by him kicking a dinosaur in the head. That is so awesome I don’t even care about his other appearances.

    Grimbor: I’m with Rob. The central figure is Giordano all the way – even looks like his Human Target – while the S&M club in the background is Hamilton. (I think he also did Abnegazar, Rath & Ghast, but don’t have the comic near me to check.) That said, my high school counselor never said I could become a Chainsman when I grew up.

    Grim Ghost: Also on my list of Who’s This? He went from this issue to Secret Origins, and then not around much despite the attitude change (Gay and Grim are really opposites). Not that I’ve done the research yet.

    Green Team: What, they couldn’t scratch a couple of millions together to pay for page space? They got the shaft. I fixed it here: http://siskoid.blogspot.ca/2013/05/who-are-green-team.html

    Guardian: Another version of the Guardian I really like is the one in Grant Morrison’s 7 Soldiers. I love how they’ve integrated the whole idea of playing second fiddle to newsboys in that. Wish that version was still around, no offense to Mr. Harper.

    Guardians of the Galaxy: Lots of dead space on this one. How about some Manhunters and Lanterns in the back there?

    Listener Feedback: Fishnuts is… I don’t know what that is. But covering Ambush Bug 3 is a great idea (for an April 1st podcast?). Where else will you get to talk about the Green Team, Mopee, Glop, Egg Fu, Itty and so on.

  4. rob! says:

    Guardians of the GALAXY, Siskoid?

  5. Siskoid says:

    Yeah, I keep hearing that one, so it’s obviously stuck in my brain.

  6. A few random thoughts….

    The cover is awesome, but I still think Hal Jordan deserved to be on the front much more than, say, Jack O’Lantern did. Grodd looks awesome. I’m with Shagg regarding the look of The Guardians of the Universe in the book; the version on the cover is what they are supposed to look like. Alan Scott Green Lantern was left-handed, so drawing him with his ring on his right-hand shows that Paris Cullins didn’t know the character well. I’m surprised the editor and Dick Giordano let this go through. If you don’t believe me check out the art by George Freeman this issue or the All Star Squadron or Justice Society entries by the incomparable Jerry Ordway(or the vast majority of Alan Scott appearances in the comics). He’s a leftie.

    Gentlemen Ghost is the best illustration this issue (followed closely by the GL Corps by Brian Bolland and Gorilla Grodd by Carmine & Bill). I just loved the actually *hanging* James Craddock drawn here. *shudder* And this was the only time I ever remember seeing his actual face. Awesome!

    I LIKED The Global Guardians. One of the reasons they have several “first appearances” is because the heroes appeared individually before they became a group. Before they had been given their name, as a kid I wrote stories about them, but I called them The League of Nations. Still kinda like that name. 😉

    I never liked the character Gorilla Grodd, but gosh he’s imposing here. By the way, one of you said that all gorillas look alike, but that is not true. Each gorilla is unique.

    I don’t like that Green Arrow was given brown hair as a retro change. Totally unnecessary, in my opinion. By the way, that figure in the background is not Oliver teaching Roy archery, it is Quoag (pronounced kwo-ag, Shagg).

    I gotta disagree that the John Stewart illustration is great. To me, the full-color figure looks like he’s standing on background John’s head. That throws the whole thing off for me.

    Regarding Grimbor and Charma, I always pronounced it charm-a, but I actually know a woman named this and she pronounces it kar-ma. Anyway, they were designed by Mike Grell, not Dave Cockrum. Cockrum’s designs were always futuristic but useful. The really weird crap was Grell’s. (Phantom Girl=Cockrum, Cosmic Boy=Grell) S/LSH 221 is a really good story; the women use the boys’ passion against Charma against her in a nice twist.

    The Legion was full of very hot women and very handsome men. Can’t we all just get along? (I vote Dream Girl as Most Beautiful, by the way, sorry!)

    The Guardian as drawn here by Kane look more like Hector Hammond. Did he get these characters mixed up?

  7. Siskoid says:

    I’m not sure there’s a dispute as to the most “beautiful” Legionnaire, Russell, only the “hottest”.

    Dream Girl may well be the most beautiful, just as post-Zero Hour Violet might be the “cutest”, but hottest? We’re still fighting about that one.

    Because hotness is in the, uhm, eye of the beholder.

  8. Haha, okay, Siskoid, I stand corrected. 😉

  9. Anthony Durso/The Toyroom says:

    THE BIG GREEN ISSUE!

    The cover: While Paris Cullins does an admirable job, I really missed George Perez doing the covers.
    It’d be interesting to see what his take would be on the covers he didn’t do..

    Letters page: BOY! Does David Bedard of Saskatchewan, Canada take Len Wein and company to task! Almost like some folks do after they listen to the Who’s Who Podcast! Geeks!

    Gemworld: I was reading bits and pieces of Amethyst back in the day but I don’t think this was worthy of a two-page spread.

    General Immortus: Not only has he probably encountered Vandal Savage over the years but it’d be
    cool if there was some back story with Anton Arcane as well.

    Gentleman Ghost: Like Rob, I first encountered Gentleman Jim Craddock via the Super Friends. Post-Crisis (long post-Crisis actually) they clarified that he was indeed a ghost and his death had ties to past incarnations of Hawkman and Hawkgirl (Nighthawk and Cinnamon if I recall the story).

    Geo-Force: Love the Outsiders. Love Jim Aparo. Just not loving this page.

    Gizmo: Attention Marv Wolfman…we get it. Gizmo is a genius. But does his last name have to
    beat us over the head with that fact? O’Jeneus? C’mon!

    Global Guardians: Some coolness going on with some of the characters but quite a bit of lameness
    with most. But I think that’s to be expected when you try to shoe-horn characters created for the Super Friends universe into the actual DCU proper.

    Golden Glider: Big fan of the story arc (Flash #261-263) where she tries to screw with Barry’s relationship with Iris with her flunky The Ringmaster (who preceded Chillblaine)

    Gorilla City: The “erroneous” published account of the origin of Gorilla City featuring Green Lantern is from “DC Super-Stars” #14 (1977) and was written by….Bob Rozakis.

    Gorilla Grodd: I know that he’s a hulking gorilla but the background is a bit sparse doncha think?

    Granny Goodness: aka Bea Arthur

    Green Arrow(s): How cool would facing pages have been?

    Golden Age and Silver Age Green Lantern: How cool would facing pages have been? (If they added a half page of Gleek and gave G.I. Robot a full page it would have worked!)

    John Stewart: His pose is a bit off and if you remove the surprint I’m not sure exactly what he’s supposed to be standing on (besides the top of his head)…

    Green Lantern Corps: Brian Bolland did the covers for the original “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps” mini-series.

    The Green Man: As usual, I’m not feeling the full page Omega Men love…

    Grimbor: Shouldn’t that be GrimBORE? Ugh! Gimme Composite Superman as a Legion foe over this ass-clown.

    Grim Ghost: If DC hadn’t changed him from Gay to Grim would Sienkiewicz’s art have worked as well?

    Guardian: Some Kirby stuff in Who’s Who is good…this isn’t one of them…Very boring.

    The Hottest Legionnaire: If we’re going by Who’s Who pages, then my all-time favorite Saturn Girl is out of the contest because that page and costume sucks. Bring on the pink bikini!

  10. Frank says:

    l) The Ghost was one of the few Charlton Captain Atom super-villains, as he typically fought aliens and godless commies. He got use in the Bates/Broderick series, as well. Potts gets enough of the Ditko across, but why not just get Ditko?

    m) One of my early comics was a G.I. Robot/Creature Commandos team-up, which was very cool. A commentator on one of my blogs suggested Gizmo as Cyborg’s legacy rival for a new Injustice Gang. Perez created Gizmo, and I think he supplied many such entries for characters he was responsible for. Associating these two entries makes me want the New 52 G.I. Robot to have been Silas Stone’s grandfather. What?

    n) I totally dig the classic retro vibe of Ed Barreto’s Global Guardians spread, and I’ve had an unhealthy enthusiasm for this team since I was first exposed to them. They have such enormous, never remotely realized potential from a conceptual standpoint. Icemaiden was not Ice because Giffen/DeMatteis screwed up her name in JLI and turned Tora into a separate character rather than contradict themselves. Dr. Mist was a powerhouse before he was thrown under the bus as part of a Zatanna origin retcon, but he went on to form Primal Force and is part of the New 52 in Justice League Brand Dark Lager. It was the second Jack O’ Lantern who joined Primal Force, as this one formed a nefarious alliance with Queen Bee and got himself killed as a result. He rocked that green/purple color scheme. The Olympian from Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman run was not related to this guy. Owlwoman was a big part of an ongoing Guardians serial in JLQuarterly. Tasmanian Devil joined General Glory, Bluejay and Silver Sorceress in JLI’s baldfaced swiping of Marvel characters for no apparent good reason during fallow years, while simultaneously lifting The Fox from Archie. Wild Huntsman was important in the short-lived Zero Hour Manhunter series. I generally agree with Rob’s point, except these guys were less a reflection of international heroic ideals and more a collection of cultural stereotypes that foreign readers roundly mocked. The JLI ran them through the meat grinder early on, with about a third of these guys killed in a single issue of JLQ.

    o) It’s funny that Shag used the term “Theakstonized,” since Theakstonization was a process for reprinting comics where back issues were bleached of color, embellished by an inker, and reshot when there were no file negatives available. I think Bill Black’s AC Comics still uses the technique for their public domain Golden Age collections.

    p) Russ Heath is a baaad mother. He drew a Catwoman story for LOTDK that was hawt. Big in the war comics.

    q) Golden Glider was very much a “why do you exist” Bronze Age thing. Geoff Johns milked her corpse for Captain Cold characterization. Chillblaine was in the Robot Chicken DC Special.

  11. Gentleman Ghost! Have to love a Hawkman baddie being drawn by Joe Kubert. Although, despite being the most common Hawkman villain whom people think of nowadays, Kubert never worked on him in the Silver Age. Post-Crisis, Craddock is most definitely a ghost, and his origins were changed a little bit to have a stronger connection with Hawkman and Hawkwoman, his spectral state being related to their curse of reincarnation. Regarding the New 52, Gentleman Ghost did appear for a three issue arc in Savage Hawkman.

    Geo-Force! OF COURSE Jim Aparo has to draw Geo-Force. I imagine that his first appearance is called out specifically as the preview because said Outsiders preview was a special feature section of TB&TB #200. I like Geo-Force but I will not subject myself to the slings and arrows of other commenters so I will leave it at that.

    Gizmo at least kept stuff in his pouches, right?

    Glorious Godfrey was my avatar online for a long time. I’m a big fan of Godfrey and think he was used to great effect in the early days of Forever People, preaching his gospel of Anti-Life. Creepy stuff.

    One of the Golden Glider’s Chillblaine boy-toy’s murdered her Post-Crisis. Captain Cold killed this guy in revenge, unsurprisingly.

    Alan Scott has always been my favorite Green Lantern. I used to use this fact to shut down “Hal vs. Kyle” style arguments back in the 90s and 00s. Someone would be ranting about how much they loved either Hal or Kyle, I’d say “Eh, he’s not my favorite Green Lantern,” and the other party would get riled up, then I’d say “I like Alan Scott,” and they’d deflate and have to agree that Alan Scott was cool. Hee!

    As far as George Tuska, I always have a sort of dissonance with guys like you because of my connection to his work on Iron Man. The character of Iron Man was well suited to Tuska — the grimmace which he added to the armor’s faceplate is, to me, definitive of the late Silver Age to Bronze Age Iron Man — as was the strip itself. Tuska always did great work on Tony’s female companions (Pepper, Marianne Rogers, Whitney Frost, Janice Cord and so forth) and the twisted faces of the antagonistic members of the Stark Industires board of directors, a recurring theme in this era. I recognize that not everyone likes Tuska, and that he doesn’t seem to fit with more traditional superhero strips, but on Iron Man his stuff works very nicely.

    Thanks again for the great show guys! Always a hoot!

  12. Phylemon says:

    A couple of quick points of disagreement.

    Finally read all of my KIrby Fourth World Omnibuses (my Goodness that is great stuff), and Forever People is actually my favorite part of that epic (with the exception of the seminal “The Pact” from the New Gods). Big Bear in particular, who is pretty much a cypher for the X-Men’s Beast, has become one of my favorite characters after this reading (only preceded by Booster Gold, Ambush Bug, Jericho from the Teen Titans, B’wana Beast, and, of course, Composite Superman).

    I also want to take issue with the notion that Who’s Who couldn’t work as a print comic today. Although I love the idea of an E comic that will direct you to places where you can buy appearances of old characters (hey, maybe this will motivate Comixology to offer more older stuff), I think what always made Who’s Who distinct from similar titles, OHOTMU for example, is that the entries are not designed to be complete retellings of a characters histories. Who’s Who, as the name implies, is the best answer to the question, “Who is Goldface?” If I ask that, I don’t want a blow by blow of everytime the character appeared, I want a brief overview of that character’s motivations, powers, etc. If comics are done well, that sort of an overview will not “be outdated as soon as it is printed”. The problem is with comics that have to do huge reboots or have something major go on in every issue, not with a printed encycopedia. Or maybe I’m just an old, grumpy comic book guy.

  13. Frank says:

    z) I’ve never not like John Stewart, and through the process of elimination stated above, he’s become my favorite. Steve Englehart made it clear that Stewart was superior to Hal, and Gerard Jones continued that take into the occasionally brilliant Mosaic. I’m not big on the military hardass take from more recent years, but Stewart as the most intelligent, introspective, progressive Lantern makes me love the dude. Let’s jack with Jordan’s creepy ass again and turn him into the villain of a movie reboot with Stewart as the new lead! I do wish he wore a mask though, since he looks cooler with the color contrast.

    aa) Every time I read a Hal Jordan comic, it turned me off of reading more. The only time I enjoyed the book before John Stewart took over in the mid-80s was the Corps specials, which were amazing sci-fi anthologies for their time. Given though, I believe I would land amongst the Star Sapphires, as my primary motivation is passion. Bolland Is.

    bb) I wanted to see more Grimbor in Legion comics, but doubt I’ve ever encountered him in story. I think Liefeld did the Legion Who’s Who profile. Giordano seems to have “fixed” Hamilton in the foreground to make him more static and “on model,” unfortunately. Is Shag familiar with Steve Lightle? I don’t think that artist is the artist Shag is thinking of. I’ve seen Lightle employ a number of styles, but none that look exactly like Craig Hamilton.

    cc) Screw DC. Their Ghost is Gay. Atlas’ was Grim. Even Bill Sienkiewicz (no spellcheck needed, amateurs) couldn’t make him more Grim than Gay.

    dd) I like that the Guardian uses a policeman’s badge as a shield. I love Captain America. I want to at least like the Guardian. I do not. He’s tolerated more often than not, especially as a Superman hanger-on. Bleh.

    ee) The Guardians are quite famously modeled after David Ben-Gurion, main founder and the first Prime Minister of Israel.

    ff) I bought The Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition. I never picked up the looseleafs when they came out, but I did purchase them bound together in black & white twenty years out of date. This is because I appreciate a universe of characters being illustrated by a variety of artists that would have otherwise never come together. I find that most online resources are poorly written, unfocused, overly long, and favor contemporary interpretations. Printed reference remains of its time, a snapshot of its point of creation without the adulteration of later retcons. Quality wins out over relevance.

  14. Phylemon says:

    “This is because I appreciate a universe of characters being illustrated by a variety of artists that would have otherwise never come together. I find that most online resources are poorly written, unfocused, overly long, and favor contemporary interpretations. Printed reference remains of its time, a snapshot of its point of creation without the adulteration of later retcons. Quality wins out over relevance.”

    This! A thousand times this, Frank! I always hear the “Who’s Who is unnecessary because we have the internet” argument, and I think it completely misses the point on a number of levels. The printed version serves a different purpose (one which Frank eloquently shows the internet fails at) and as an added bonus it shows where the character was in a specific moment in time. Exactly!

  15. Martin Stein Returns says:

    Notice that the Green Team, widely perceived as Firestorm’s current replacement series, didn’t even RATE a Who’s Who entry back in the day.

  16. Other than Shag and Rob sorta, kinda, maybe asserting as such, there is no indication anywhere that The Green Team is Firestorm’s “replacement series.” The books share no creative staff (save letter Travis Lanham, who letters quite a number of New 52 titles), nor editors, and are not in the same “family” of titles.

    Also note that as of the writing of Who’s Who, the original Green Team had exactly one appearance, in First Issue Special #2. They would not appear again in a published DC comic until 1990 (Animal Man). So no, the original Green Team did not warrant a mention in Who’s Who as they had not even had a story which involved the rest of the DCU at the time of it’s publication.

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