If the Ultra-Humanite counts as a transgender villain(ess), maybe the Hyena can too? It makes a sort of sense that a woman repeatedly belittled by her father for not being tough and masculine enough would transform into a less feminine and more muscular body.

Here are my boring thoughts on issue 10:

This is the cover that I like least. Never noticed it before, but there is really none of that fun interplay we have seen in previous covers. It’s beautiful (they all were) but this is definitely lacking something.

Did you notice that Sam Glanzman drew the Haunted Tank entry. Glanzman wrote the autobiographical USS Stevens stories about his time in World War II, including a whole new batch of them in the recent “Joe Kubert Presents” mini-series. If you didn’t read that series, you really missed out, particularly as much as y’all praise Kubert’s art.

I also think Hawk and Dove would work well today, although they would need to be updated some. Hawk could be a Tea Party cypher and Dove could be the voice of the “Occupy” movement. It would take a good writer to present them both even handedly, but it could be fun.

I did not realize until this very moment the pun about Tao Jones. That is awesome and makes me like the character ten times more than I did already (although ten times zero is still zero, so I guess it doesn’t change all that much after all).

I’m definitely going to have to pick up some Hercules Unbound! Sounds like a great list of creators and a true undiscovered gem.

I agree with Anthony Durso / The Toyroom. Highfather’s real name is pronounced Isaiah, like the Biblical character, at least in my opinion.

All three Perez entries are stunningly beautiful, as is the Ordway Hippolyta.

Sad you didn’t make more mention of the most recent Human Target TV show. It was a wonderful show, albeit too short lived.

Is anyone else concerned that, at least based on the floating heads, Juggler is not the one in Hunter’s Hellcats who is juggling the grenades. It kind of looks like Snake Oil, which would be bad, since Snake Oil would probably make the grenades too slippery to properly juggle (although is there really a “proper” way to juggle grenades?)

I’m clearly in the minority here, but I always think of Huntress as Helena Wayne, and the switch back to this origin is the one and only thing that DC has done right in the New 52.

Golden Age Shiera had brownish-red hair, at least she does in my Golden Age Hawkman Archives. Sheldon Moldoff always made her look gooooooorgeous.

Murphy Anderson drawing Golden Age Hawkman? Well played, Who’s Who. Well played! A bit ironic but still much appreciated.

Joe Kubert drawing Silver Age Hawkman? Well played, Who’s Who. Well played! Talk about a perfect match for a character and an artist. By the way, Police Commissioner Emmett was a long running supporting character for Hawkman and was around as late as the 80s solo book.

Shayera/Shiera as Katar/Carter’s secretary made for some great comedy bits with Mavis Trent, before Mavis got disintegrated by Thanagarian invaders. I always loved her tendency to use Thanagarian technology while Katar used classical weapons.

I think Rob wants Hawkwoman and Mera to team up because they both have red hair. By the way, in the New 52, Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders) is on Earth 2, while Shayera Thol is a Thanagarian princess on the main Earth.

When Sterling Gates wrote Hawk & Dove, he made an interesting twist in the Dove (Dawn Granger) character — that as the Avatar of Peace, Dove was driven to eliminate conflict, even if that meant in lethal manner. An intriguing concept, so of course it was abandoned shortly afterwards.

Sorry this is so late, and sorry that you guys didn’t care for my exit tag idea. But good show anyway!

http://sacomics.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/gunner-sarge.html

And Anthony, spot on, the Losers died two different ways during Crisis, it was a real headscratcher.

Thank you for touching on the Darkseid pronunciation debate. I don’t know if either of you have ever seen the Toy Hunter show on Travel channel, the guy in that I believe is from Rob’s stomping grounds. He did a Super Powers themed episode, and like every other episode, he kept spouting off blatantly wrong information, including pronouncing Darkseid as Darkseed at least 100 times in the episode. I was about to pick up my TV and throw it out the window. Obviously he’s a poser nerd, and not cool like the rest of us, otherwise if he had seen a single episode of Super Powers he would have realized how stupid he sounded.

Shag mentioned never being able to get into Deadman, I highly recommend that he checks out New 52 DCU Presents #1-5 that focused on Deadman, and I thought that was a pretty great story, one of the real gems story arcs out of a generally lackluster New 52. I hope Deadman eventually gets his own Ongoing in one of the upcoming New 52 Waves, so that he can have an absolutely awesome series that is then cancelled prematurely. *insert sad waa waa waaaaaa noise here* I also really dug the Deadman series that was drawn by the great Dan Jurgens in Action Comics Weekly.
I share Shag’s love for the Paris Cullins covers and Paris’s awesome work on Blue Beetle and Blue Devil. I think Who’s Who is probably Paris Cullins best cover on the Who’s Who series, man do I love that one! I recently got to meet Mr. Cullins at SpringCon in St. Paul, Minnesota, it’s a great Con every year, and features a lot of greats like Dan Jurgens, Pat Gleason, Phil Hester, and Doug Mahnke who all appear each year. This year Paris Cullins was added to the guest list and man was he a blast to meet. He may be one of the all-around most positive and enthusiastic creators who ever worked in the comic industry. He is still very passionate about the industry and was a blast to talk to, he was very passionate about Blue Devil, and had so much love for the character still to this day. You can tell he loved working on the character, and loved the innocence and fun that the DC Universe had in the 80’s. He shared a great story with me, of how he really got his big break at DC, when he moved from an inker to penciller, thanks to him helping out in a major time crunch. He said one day he walked into DC HQ and was called back into the JLA editor Len Wein’s office, to be told that they the regular artist Rich Buckler was behind and only had 2 pages done, and the book was due tomorrow. They asked Paris if he could pencil the remaining pages for the entire comic…in 24 hours!! And guess what? He did it! He said he penciled on the train and bus on the way home, stayed up all night, and completed the entire issue (except for the 2 Buckler pages) in 24 hours. It was an amazing anecdote, and crazy to think that he could do a whole issue in 24 hours when Jim Lee can’t even stay on schedule for more than 2 months in a row. Of course I had to get my Firestorm issue #24 signed by Cullins, which featured a Blue Devil back-up story. I was also able to get the issue co-signed by Pablo Marcos, who inked Cullins on that issue, who was also a guest this year at SpringCon. Unfortunately I was unable to get a Cullins’ sketch, due to spending my money on a sketch from another incredible guest at SpringCon this year….Jose Luis Garcia Lopez! I picked up this awesome Superman sketch from Jose.
[IMG]http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k607/Kyle41/IMG_20130519_162641_328_zpsb0fdee55.jpg[/IMG]

Obviously it was worth every single penny. I hope to meet Cullins again, and get a Blue Devil and Blue Beetle sketch. I would recommend SpringCon to everyone, you should really try to make it some year, and it’s totally worth it for the sole reason of getting to chat with Dan Jurgens in person every year.
Here’s my personal Who’s Who story. I’m probably a little younger than a lot of the people who share these stories, as I’m only 25. I first got into comics at a pretty young age, as I first just looked at the pictures until I began to learn reading using comics. I inherited a fairly large comics collection from my dad’s brothers, who unfortunately had MD and passed away. Being wheelchair bound while growing up in rural Iowa on a dairy farm, 10 miles outside of a small town of 500 people, there was little my uncles had for entertainment. So they got into comics and had subscription to comics like GI JOE, Transformers, Fantastic Four, Superman, Green Lantern, and many others including Who’s Who, Crisis, and even DC Sampler. When they passed away when I was very young, I inherited all of their comics. Some of these, such as the Byrne Fantastic Four, Who’s Who, and Crisis comics are arguably some of the greatest superhero comics ever produced. So I was incredibly spoiled growing up with my first exposure to comics being some of the greatest ever. I think that’s why even though the comics were produced before I was born, the 80’s will always be my favorite era of comics, and definitely the era, especially with DC that identify with the most. Sadly most of my issues are very worn out from being looked at so much with less than careful hands when I was little. I guess it’s time I should try to replace those with copies in better conditions.
EPISODE #9
Regarding the cover, Shag mentioned that all of the Green Lanterns were coming out of a giant Lantern symbol, I may be mistaken, but I believe that it wasn’t simply the Lantern symbol, but that it’s actually supposed to be the Central Power Battery on Oa. I believe that was the Power Battery design at the time in the comics. It’s disappointing that the Power Battery itself didn’t get its own Who’s Who listing.
I agree with the sentiments of both of you that Geo-Force never really broke through. It really seemed like there was a big push by DC to make Geo-Force (and maybe the whole Outsiders) relevant by setting up Geo-Force as major player in Crisis. He is one of the 15 characters plucked from multiple earths by Harbinger in issue #1 of Crisis.
I laughed so hard when Shag said Granny Goodness was hot; I spit NOS energy drink all over my computer monitor at work.
Gordanians appeared (fairly) recently in what might be my favorite Batman Brave & the Bold episode, the one where Aquaman is depressed because he wasn’t able to stop some illegal whaling; he spends most of the episode depressed but accompanies Batman to Rann with Adam Strange to stop the Gordanians who have enslaved Rann. Aquaman finds his true hero spirit in the end, and helps Batman and Adam Strange defeat the Gordanians. They also appeared in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons.
Speaking of the great Batman Brave & the Bold cartoon, and Who’s Who, did you ever notice that Green Arrow, which was portrayed as the Golden Age Green Arrow in the cartoon, had his quiver over the wrong shoulder in the show? In the comics the strap goes over his right shoulder, including in his portrayal in Who’s Who. But in the B&B cartoon his quiver was always shown over his left shoulder. Wow I’m a nerd for noticing that, but not as big of a nerd as Shag with all of his role playing games.

EPISODE 10
Regarding Harbinger becoming weaker the more dupes she has, yes that is touched upon in Crisis issue #1. After plucking the 15 characters from multiple timelines and Earths, just before she blacks out and pulls back the dupes into one form, she mentions how much it drains her and makers her weak. That’s why she blacks out and is missing when the Anti-Monitor’s shadow creatures attack the assembled heroes and villains inside of the Monitor’s ship.
I agree with Shag, the 4th World Entries and all of the drama is like something off of a soap opera or Dallas. All of the back stabbing and drama always triggers a voice in my head chanting “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry” whenever I look at these old entries.
Terry Beatty would very shortly be a pretty consistent contributor to DC , as the co-creator of Wild Dog, which premiered less than 2 years later, got its own mini, and then a decent run of stories, all penciled by Beatty in the pages of Action Comics weekly. Who’s Who must have just been his foot into the door at DC; obviously they liked what they saw from his Who’s Who work.
I share Rob’s disdain for Todd McFarlane, it feel like it is a crime against humanity, an absolute felony, that they tainted the purity of Infinity Inc. that had gorgeous Ordway art, by allowing McFarlane to do a few issues. I don’t know how you go from one of the nicest and biggest legends in comics ever, Jerry Ordway, to perhaps the biggest DBag ever to work in comics. It would be like having Ordway draw Superman or Captain Marvel, and then hang over art duties to Liefeld. Barf. One can’t deny Todd HAD incredible talent at one point, however I find anything he touches to be off-putting due to his baggage. To put it in an analogy that Shag can relate to, it would be like Carmine Electra coming out and saying she had syphilis, after that it would be hard to consider her hot.

I’m glad Who’s Who has won Shag over to the side of Kubert lovers. My jaw almost hit the ground when listening to one of the early episodes when Shag said he wasn’t a fan of Kubert’s art. Blasphemy! It’s good to hear that he’s been won over! I’m glad I got a chance at C2E2 in 2012 to get some stuff signed by him before he passed. A short funny story, I used Comicvine (stupid me) to track down some special issues Kubert worked on. Well Comicvine incorrectly pointed me to World’s Finest #172, which it claimed it reprinted a Kubert War story in it, and also incorrectly listed Neal Adam’s as Curt Swan’s inker for the cover. So silly me without double checking (it didn’t help that credits were scarce at this time), I took it along to C2E2 and got it signed by both Neal Adams and Joe Kubert, when neither of them actually worked on the book. The issue cover (it’s a gorgeous one) was actually inked by George Klein, and while it did reprint a War story from GI Combat that Kubert worked on, it wasn’t Kubert’s story from that issue. Regardless, of the blunder, it is a gorgeous book, signed by 2 comic legends, and will always have a special place in my collection. From now on I refer to Comicbook DB just like Shag, but obviously that has its errors as well.

Have you guys ever considered doing a Crisis on Infinitive Earths Podcast? It’s not like you guys are already super busy or anything, but I think that’d be a great addition to the Fire & Water family of Podcasts. It is the greatest comic event of all time, and since it’s mentioned during every episode of Who’s Who for obvious reasons, it only makes sense that it gets its own podcast as well!

That’s the end of my long nerd rant, but I can assure you, despite my lengthy rant, I do not live in my parent’s basement like the guy in the letters column of Who’s Who vol. IX. It’s really nice to look back at these to a much better time of the DCU, after each podcast brings back so many fond memories, and it’s a nice escape to a much more enjoyable and all around better era of the DCU compared to the sad New 52 DCU with its many glaring plot holes and all around editorial disdain for the DCU World builders of the past like Jurgens, Ordway, and Perez. I want to compliment you on your one-two punch of podcasts, between Who’s Who and Fire & Water; it’s a nice comparison of then and now. Thanks for such a great show again guys, keep up the great work. Fan the Flame and Ride the Wave!

-Kyle Benning

PS Composite Superman rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay not really, he’s a stupid concoction, but you have to admit that he is at least visually appealing.

Really appreciated the high praise for “The Dude”Steve Rude! one of my favourite artists in the industry!

Also Jerry Ordway is most commonly refered to as the “Ordster” or my personal favourite… “Big Jerry”