Regarding Machiste and “sword and sorcery” vs “sword and sandal:” Warlord is very much a sword and sorcery title, filled with fantasy elements and monsters; sword and sandal would be a “peplum” style adventure like a Hercules movie, or a “biblical epics” like The Ten Commandments, Spartacus or Samson And Deliliah. Early stories had Machiste with two hands — this is the basis for his Remco figure. (This is the same as Arak, who’s toy has a full head of hair like he did early in his series, not his more well known mowhawk.) Machiste’s name is derived from Maciste, a hugely popular Italian film character. The Maciste character is a super-strong adventurer who starred in a string of peplum films from the silent era through the 1970s. Now, why don’t we know Maciste in this country? Because his films were typically retitled during dubbing to star Hercules, Goliath, Samson, Atlas, Ursus, or one of the many Sons Of Hercules. So you may have watched a Maciste movie, and not known it! (Most likely Hercules Against The Moon Men.)

Mlle. Marie had a great one shot back in 2011, in the “5th week” Veterans Day event. In the issue, titled Star-Spangled War Stories #1, Marie had an adventure battling the Nazis and the Vischy French. Mlle. Marie is often forgotten about when talking about the classic DC War properties, mostly because she had a lot less appearances, but I’ve always liked her stories, as the French Resistance is ripe for story mining. The image of her “cliff hanging” while firing her machine gun is a reference to the cover to SSWS #88. She would get replaced as the cover feature in SSWS by The War The Time Forgot! I personally assume that this is due to DC not wanting a woman on the cover of a War book.

Major Disaster, one of the only guys improved by Underworld Unleashed. Waid and Augustyn did great stuff with him in Flash.

Malagigi is Arak’s companion and in many ways a mentor during Arak’s travels. Before that, he was a member of Charlemagne’s court and a close friend to Valda, the Iron Maiden. A long storyline involving Malagigi being held prisoner by the Queen of White Cathay dominated the second year of the title. He is something of a lighter character, but he also quite wise and can use magic to great effect.

Ironically, I just read the Manhawks-Lizarkons story in Showcase Presents Hawkman v.2! It’s one of the final stories from the Fox/Anderson run on the character in the 60s. I like the Manhawks, but you know me, I am more prone.

I like the Forever People, and even I have a hard time working up any sort of interest in Mark Moonrider. Compared to the other 4 kids, Moonrider barely even rates. Infinity-Man, who purposefully had no personality as he was a gestalt entity, was still more interesting than Moonrider.

Thanks for the show guys, enjoyed it.

Cc) Young Mary from the recent all-ages efforts is awesome.

Dd) Yes, it’s a case of being careful what we wish for. DC just announced Stephanie Brown will be returning to the DCU. Can I get a loud “Uh-oh!” ?

Ee) Except I think they won those fights more than half the time! Because the Outsiders suck as–I mean, are nincompoops.

Gg) I don’t think our You-Tube channels are going to make the Internet crash because of length, no. I think our word count is much heavier.

Aa) I had some of the Gil Kane drawn Martin Champion appearances in mini-comics boxed with Atari cartridges. I don’t see a lick of James Fry in the art, and it’s signed Villagran/Campos.

Bb) Whenever I’m tempted to use the r-word, I try to make it a less common comic booky term, like “nincompoops.” The extended Marvel Family is very nincompoopy. I wouldn’t have shed a tear for their getting pushed into a background color hold.

Cc) I like Mary Marvel, but I prefer her played younger to avoid redundancy with Supergirl.

Dd) I’ve always liked the premise of the Master Jailer. He should have been brought back earlier in the Post-Crisis era (he said, then recalled what they did to Terra-Man.)

Ee) The Masters of Disaster were as good as a team created to lose in fights to the Outsiders could be. Windfall was easily the worst of the lot, so of course she became a heroine. Didn’t New Wave murder Shakedown in an issue of Starman or an early JSA?

Ff) Turns out my copy of this Who’s Who has the “Captive Earth” poll insert Shag referenced. Didn’t catch that earlier.

Gg) My YouTube channel includes three Comic Reader Résumés running a total of less than 18 minutes and a bunch of cover countdowns that all run less than a minute, none of which have been updated since mid-September. That’s a fraction of the time I devote to listening to any single F&W Podcast. Rob can be such a… such a… such an Aquaman fan sometimes.

Hh) If you want a reference book, get OHOTMU. If you want a pin-up book with sparse instantly out of date notations, Who’s Who.

Ii) I’m a cat person. None indoor.

(Alex) Luthor (4) – As someone who thought Infinity Crisis was pretty awful, I only wish that Geoff Johns read the ‘stripped of his powers, cannot reopen this portal without destroying all reality’ piece of this entry. Also, I never really like characters that magically age quickly but then stop when young adults. He went from infant to young adult in a week … why not become elderly in 2 more weeks?

Maaldor – Another one of this characters that is so powerful that only a lame ending can save the day. After thrashing Superman and Power Girl, he defeats himself by looking into the madness of his own soul and imploding? I always thought that Maaldor would look into his own soul and be pretty self-satisfied. Then he would kill them and rule the universe.

Madame Xanadu – Just the best art in the issue. I found the origin listing interesting as it reads more like a pitch for the character/series than a true origin. The Wagner/Reeder title did much more to fill in the gaps.

Mal – have to laugh at Rob’s use of the phrase ‘salad days’ when discussing Mal’s younger thinner past. Works on all levels!

Mano – Love this Legion character especially for his first appearance. He destroys his whole planet by putting his antimatter hand to the crowd … and all because he was bullied! When the Legion meets him, his hand is about to be cut off by a rocket-powered guillotine in space (his hand where the head would typically be). Seems a bit medieval and bizarre. He had been caught by the Science Police when he tried to shake the hand of a dignitary! Silly silver age stuff at its best!

And then (I am sure I am opening myself up for more ridicule – especially given my defense of The Gang and Hyathis), my favorite entry of the issue:

Manhawks – I know you guys like comic ‘origin’ stories. When I was young … maybe 7 or 8, somewhere along the way someone got me an issue that had reprints of early Hawkman stories including the Manhawks one. I can remember thinking they looked visually jarring with the bird body and human masks. I wondered how bizarre they would look to see without the masks. Images of the end of the original Fly movie, a human head tacked onto an animal body, were in my head. I thought it was going to look horrible and awesome at the same time. I couldn’t wait to get to the end to see what that would look like. And then … at the end of the story … they are unmasked to reveal they are (dun dun dun) plain old giant hawks.

Mind blown!

Like major. I was dumbfounded.

I couldn’t believe the switcheroo that had been pulled. I was expecting something and got the reverse. They’re JUST giant hawks. At first, I was pretty pissed thinking I had been cheated of a ‘shock’ moment.

But then I thought that I actually got the best shock of all … a truly unexpected surprise. And that’s when I realized this was great story-telling.

Lastly, Shag I completely understand that the ‘hottest Legionnaire’ discussion is not based solely on the Who’s Who page. I do. It is the character as a whole. I just think it will be interesting to hear you say that Phantom Girl is the hottest Legionnaire when you review her Who’s Who page which might be one of the roughest representations of her.

Thanks again for a great episode. Would have loved to hear Frank dissect the Martian Manhunter page.