Chris

As for why Deathstroke was listed under Terminator…I seem to recall they shied away from the Deathstroke name for a while, and called him Terminator more often. I guess when the 84 movie got some legs over the years, building to the inevitable sequel, DC went back to Deathstroke. This is just conjecture. He, Terra or Timber Wolf should have definitely got the cover. As much as I love Tarantula’s design, he had no business being there.

Speaking of Tarantula, an elderly version of John Law was a supporting character in Nightwing’s title under Chuck Dixon. He lived in the same apartment building as Dick Grayson. Unfortunately, Devin Grayson blew that building up, and Law with it, in her horrible, horrible run.

Nice B:TBATB sting at the end!

Chris

I think you’re totally right about the JSA/Thunderbolt confusion. Seems like someone at comicbookdb was confused when adding characters to the AMERICA v. JSA series & LAST DAYS OF THE JSA Special. The Peter Cannon character seems to have been added instead of Johnny Thunder’s genie friend.

P.S. Peter Cannon hung out with Justice League(s) Europe & Task Force for a short time, where he acquired a new eastern-influenced costume & short pony tail (ah, the 90s).

Aw come on, I give you the benefit of the doubt Martin.

Oh Rob, Terra Man is a space cowboy with a winged horse, how is that not awesome?

Hey, didn’t I say I want him and Ten-Eyed Man to be the villains in Batman v Superman?

I’ve always found Ra’s al-Ghul and daughter Talia excruciatingly boring, just a couple of generic Bond villains who tended to take Bats away from Gotham.

Shag was spot on about the Tarantula costume being gorgeous, but wrong – it immediately stood out as nothing like a Golden Age look.

Rob has to be right about a Tattooed Man and Illustrated Man connection, given Julie Schwarz was Ray Bradbury’s first agent. Old Abel Tarrant was pretty much a one-off among male DC characters, having had two very different, but equally hot, looks. That second costume was up there with the original Black Condor and Firebrand for swoonsome sexiness.

Hate hate hate Titans Tower, it’s ugly and top heavy. Apart from the branding, what was the point of the T shape?

Tellus – Rob is such a xenophobe

This is the only podcast ever to mention kerning – be proud!

I loved the new Doom Patrol too, and hated that Celsius got written off as a fantasist so far as being married to the Chief was concerned, then killed.

I always detested Deathstroke the Terminator, he was such a Mary Sue – all the Titans had to do was pile on him, or get Starfire or Cyborg to blast him, or Raven to dump him in a hell dimension, etc, but no, he was such a BIG threat because he had extra brainpower and, er, no depth perception. That ‘taking down the JLA’ scene in Identity Crisis was just one more reason to hate that book.

Terra was not called Tina, it was Tara.

Oh Rob, Terra Man is a space cowboy with a winged horse, how is that not awesome?

Given the Thinker’s headgear, he should have been called Colander Man

I agree with my fellow geniuses, surely this Aisha Tyler person meant Starfire, not Starro, when she said Starfish, ie a female character who resonated with her.

I’m not surprised Swamp Thing is on the cusp of cancellation – I’m enjoying Charles Soule’s work, but boy, it was hard to get through the 36-part or something Rot crossover with Animal Man that came previously. I bet a lot of people abandoned and never returned.

Q) Richard Howell drew Thanagar. No more need be said. Rob not knowing Tharok speaks volumes about his love of the Legion. Maybe he got a Bobbitt pump put in? Pretty picture of Thia, but I mostly skimmed NTT from the point of Perez’s departure until his return, so I don’t really remember her. I was disappointed by the JLGL Modern Masters volume because there were so few ‘finds,” where with other artists TwoMorrows were good about unearthing rarities or printing art for the first time in the mass market.

R) The Thinker was one of the very rare super-villains in the Atom’s rogues gallery, and fought both Atoms in the Silver Age under Gil Kane’s pen (though in the costume design department, that was perhaps not beneficial.) Trevor Von Eeden drew Thriller during my favorite period of his art, but I own not a single issue because it’s Thriller. I’m looking forward to Twin Peaks coming back on Showtime, because it’s such a linear, conventional, clear cut series by comparison to Thriller. Keith Pollard drew the entire OHOTMU Master Edition, which would be more of an accomplishment if it looked like the Thunder & Lightning entry instead of intentionally lifeless turnarounds.

S) Amazing Man was the granddaddy of all comic book heroes who get their extraordinary abilities from extreme concentration/discipline/etc. Peter Canon was directly influenced by him in concept, and visually his costume was taken from the Lev Gleason Daredevil. Pete Morisi was a police officer who moonlighted in comics back in the ’60s, and contested Charlton’s sale of Thunderbolt from jump as he had agreements with that company to retain creator rights. DC (surely influenced by Dick Giordano) settled the dispute by agreeing to a “use it or lose it” contract aka Marston’s on Wonder Woman, which is why the Mike Collins series was launched, and its cancellation saw rights eventually revert to Morisi. His estate has since licensed Thunderbolt to Dynamite Entertainment, which released a series that lasted even fewer issues than the Collins effort. I had a Charlton or Modern Comics issue of Thunderbolt as a kid that I bought at a flea market, and it was my entry point to the Action Heroes line. Morisi had a beautiful style that combined Alex Toth with Wally Wood and a hefty dose of classic George Tuska. One of those characters that if you haven’t read the original stories, you haven’t read the character.

T) I also had an issue of Judomaster as a lad, and Tiger was the kid sidekick. Yeah. I wasn’t as won over by Judomaster as I was Thunderbolt. Tiger was turned into the big bad of The L.A.W. mini-series, which was no damned good at all. Tigorr is an Omega Man named Tigorr drawn by Todd Smith. Steve Lightle went a little sparse with the Timber Wolf surprint, but I only care about the central figure and logo, which are rad. Always dug that costume.

U) Everyone in the comments references Time Commander’s being a member of a time-themed group of villains during the lead-up to Zero Hour, specifically in issues of Showcase, because no one has anything else to say about that character. Well, not me! I can point out that the team also turned up in issues of Team Titans.

V) Hey, I like Giffen’s Time Trapper.

4) The sad truth is that I’d resigned myself to the assumption that you guys were not listening to The Marvel Super Heroes Podcast and that I would just get my giggles taking the odd potshots at you for it. I was really sharpening my knives for that Ultraverse podcast, too. Then ya’ll had to go and be sweet toward us! Now I have to edit out the part of next week’s episode where I called you both commie satanists. While I clearly work blue, I’ve still ended up in the Rob position as grown-up straight man on the show, with Mac my Shag, and Fixit… in no way shape or form Michael Bailey nor Earth-2 Chris. There’s a lot of Fire & Water in the show’s DNA, but I apologize to Rob now and in the future for our constant comments right in his admonishment wheelhouse (For instance, this week’s discussion of whether Werewolf by Night’s penis is more wolf or man).

Shag, we’re on iTunes now with episode listings. #0-3, 9-10, 12-13 & 15 are non-Annihilation subject matter, but don’t listen to the Mail Bag sections at the end, which may have spoilers from previous episodes. Also, don’t listen to #6, which also isn’t related to Annihilation, but is just plain bad.

I also feel it is important that I admit that Rob was right about OHOTMU being more boring to talk about than Who’s Who. We recorded a first try at an OHOTMU podcast a few months back in the same style as this one, and it sucked worse than episode #6. The characters just stand there against a mono/non-chromatic background, and the first edition isn’t even drawn by well known/regarded artists. We’re still going to do an OHOTMU podcast in the future, but we’ve had to radically alter the format to make it work.

5) Looking forward to Xum’s Bronze Age Wonder Woman entry. Whoaaaaah Diana Prince!

6) Aisha Tyler and Rosario Dawson are two of the most beautiful women on the planet earth and comic savvy enough to break your heart to tiny pieces. Tyler would like to cosplay as Starfire, not Starro.

7) I would argue that The Predator was a separate entity from Carol Ferris requiring its own entry.

8) Interesting comments from Shag on Marvel’s purchase of Ultraverse. Usually, it’s DC that buys a company only to ruin it forever, but at least Wildstorm, Fawcett, Quality, etc. are still allowed to exist in some fashion. Ultraverse seems to be the only sub-universe not to appear in the upcoming Secret Wars. Malibu made a huge mistake in a dance partner.

Things get more than a little thin in these last few issues, where they’re clearly lowering their standards to fill up the pages.