Never mind. I found 2 references on your blog to Detective Comics #226. Thanks!

Re: “…Middletown’s local baseball team, though it isn’t clear whether they’re the Flamingos or the Wonders.”

You don’t my any chance have any Title/Issue #s for references to either team, do you?

Interesting to hear all of the cities in Iowa that are referenced, over in the Marvel Universe my hometown of Waverly, IA, a present day booming metropolis of 11,000 people or so is the birthplace of Hawkeye! How many of you can say you share a hometown with an Avenger?!

I always felt like the way they portrayed Metropolis, it was New York City during the day, while Gotham tended to be New York at night. I could also see Gotham City as being in Chicago, with all of the organized crime. There is quite a bit of shipping that goes on in the great lakes, so Chicago being on Lake Michigan would still work.

I’m sure one of the other comments from listeners touched on this, but I’m guessing that the “Star Gate” was used in comics over “Boom Tube” via one (or all) of the three volumes of the Super Powers comic mini series that DC put out. One of those was written by Kupperberg, so it’d make sense that he went ahead and tied them together once and for all here in this RPG sourcebook.

I have always wanted to own this Atlas but have never gotten around to picking it up…I really need to get on that.

Can’t wait to hear what you guys cover next.

Should we just go ahead and call it DC RPG: The Hero Points Podcast Annual 2014?

My copy of the Atlas was badly water damaged in a longbox several years ago, from the upper third of the spine out several inches, but it’s still readable. I keep it handy on the bookshelf next to my desk, just ahead of where my Showcase Presents/Marvel Essentials start to roll out. My Martian Manhunter Showcases would make it a shelf & a half worth of that lot, but they’re never actually on the shelf because I use them so much.

Nice interview! I can see the work done here more fully thanks to the podcast overview. I never noticed/appreciated the breakdown of industry/sports/etc.

Middleton, CO is the established home base of Dr. Saul Erdel in the Post-Crisis revision of the Martian Manhunter. However, there’s some debate about where Middletown, home of Professor Mark Erdel and Detective John Jones’ Silver Age adventures was located. Scipio Garling thinks it’s Florida, but he also redubbed Middletown “Apex City” on a personal whim, so I dispute that. Personally, I favor the region surrounding New England, which is lousy with Middletowns. Given its presumed proximity to Gotham City, it could also be one of the ones in New York or New Jersey.

Speaking of “Apex,” as with all DC Comics reference works, no one ever bothered to look at old Martian Manhunter stories to note all the references to Apex companies in his strip. Neither is Middletown’s local baseball team, though it isn’t clear whether they’re the Flamingos or the Wonders.

Some reg’lar folks from the Atlas not referenced in the podcast include stats for Ray Palmer’s buddy Norman Brawler and wife Jean Loring, as well as Captain Atom’s science chief Dr. Megala and Metal Men creator Dr. Will Magnus. Jack Ryder, Vic Sage and Wayne Tarrant are all under public figures.

Diablo Island is my favorite international location, followed by Gorilla City. Two hours is a long podcast, but still, any time I tuned out for half a minute you guys had already jumped a dozen pages.

So far, now that I’ve got my own weekly podcast, nobody’s tried to “take the mickey” out of me. So much for the concept of karma, eh? As a one time conceptual art effort, I’d be willing to try a Skype session. Sounds like a scheduling nightmare, though.

Shag, for the love of god, double “L”s in Spanish words/names are pronounced as “Y”s.

The Silver Twist also appeared in Green Lantern v2 #110. Tne interesting thing about the Silver Twist phenomenon (doo doo dee doo doo) that was not mentioned in the Atlas is that the dimensions Green Lantern and Green Arrow travelled to seemed to be keyed to one of the traveller’s subconscious in some way. This was to explain why they ended up in a Robin-Hood-type of scenario in Green Lantern v2 #92 (Ollie’s influence) and a John-Wayne-Western-like scenario in Green Lantern v2 #110 (Hal’s influence).

And Darkseid saying “Silver Twist” made my day. Thank you.

Best,
Xum

Chris: You’ll find the Twist in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #92 (December 1976-January 1977).

I did find it fascinating to find out the back stories of the lesser known towns in the DCU, like Ivytown, Blue Valley, etc. Made the world, and the universe, just seem that much more real and alive.

The interview with Paul Kupperberg was a blast. I’m sure researching the book was a mind-numbing experience. Bringing in obscure things like “The Silver Twist” you mentioned, shows how deep he dug for info. I’m not certain, but I’d guess that weird space phenomenon (that does indeed sound a lot like The Nexus from Star Trek: Generations) came from the later O’Neil/Grell/Sauviak run of Green Lantern/Green Arrow, which was a straight super hero book.

Looking forward to hearing more!

Chris