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

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 XXVI!

The twenty-sixth 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 XXVI, discussing characters such as Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, The Zoo Crew, Angel & The Ape, Guy Gardner, and more! We wrap up the show with your Who’s Who Listener Feedback! This episode sponsored in part by InStockTrades.com!

Be sure to check out our Tumblr site for several 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 twenty-sixth 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 (157 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 beautiful cover by Paris Cullins and Dick Giordano for Volume XXVI! Click the image to enlarge.

Who's Who The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe volume 26

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36 Comments

  1. Siskoid says:

    Congrats on the landmark, guys. But is it even the halfway point ;-).

    When you say they’ll never do another Who’s Who again, remember that they did announce it just before Flashpoint, just another crime to add to the New52’s long list. Announced at the same time as the new history of the DCU mini-series (DCU: Legacies), which they did pointlessly put out. Hey, the original was ALSO published just as they were rebooting the universe; there would have been a kind of symmetry to that.

    The Wizard: The Injustice Unlimited member you can’t name, you’ll meet in the updates. It’s Hazard. And yes, she IS the Gambler’s daughter.

    Wonder Girl: Beautiful, of course. Even Terry Long in the surprint can’t ruin it. I like how Kanigher cleaned up Bob Haney’s continuity mess. These two guys were wild. The convoluted history means she could apply for Legion membership and get it without a proper try-out.

    Wonder Woman 2: Great job again Xum! We should crowd source Who’s Who’s missing pages. At the very least, you should run a contest inviting listeners to submit how such a volume’s 32 pages would be filled. (We’ve already got 6 already covered.)

    Wotan/Odin: I’m gonna have to revoke your Asgardian credentials, guys. But then, I’m friends with a guy who writes “Thor” under religion in any given census. 1987, when this issue came out, is when Mignola started doing work for DC, including the Phantom Stranger and World of Krypton mini-series, which would be followed in ’88 by Cosmic Odyssey and Gotham by Gaslight in ’89.

    Wrath: He’s come back in the New 52. That’s all I have to say about that.

    Zatanna: Gray Morrow’s art is awkward on superheroes, and while I like the costume (it took me a long time to like the stage magician outfit), it just doesn’t look good here. What’s up with her lopsided hair? The surprint is gorgeous, of course.

    Angel and the Ape: I don’t know that Foglio had pitched it yet, since his mini was 4 years away at this point, but Oksner was the original artist on the strip,so great to at least get him as an inker.

    Cannon & Saber: Wikipedia says this about their sexual orientation…
    Since the pair’s debut, there had been some minor clues that Cannon and Saber were more than just partners in crime. In Vigilante #35, though, Saber is shown giving a scantily-clad Cannon a back rub. When asked to confirm the relationship in the letters pages of a subsequent issue, editor Mike Gold said, “Yes. Saber and Cannon were indeed gay. Does it make a difference? No.”

    Captain Triumph: The Earth-X Firestorm? Think about it, Shag.
    And I’d say he was an omission since he was a pretty important Quality hero, just not in the Freedom Fighters (at least not in the team’s original appearances). Who’s Who has used Golden Age heroes who got far less exposure.

    Dragonsword: Tom Yeates is really this issue’s surprise MVP.

    Neutron: Definitely an omission. After all, Jinx got an entry and she had 0 history when she joined the Fearsome Five. Always been a fan of Neutron. Without looking, Andru at least did the Metal Men, didn’t he?

    The 1000: I was gonna call bull on this entry making it when Booster Gold didn’t, but then you reminded me of the 100, so… I guess.

    As you might imagine given part of the issue focuses on “forgotten characters”, vol.26 gives me a lot of stuff for my Who’s This feature! Captain Triumph, Captain X, Dragonsword, and Knodar have all been targeted. In the W-Z entries, I also think I’ll have to do the Wyoming Kid.

  2. I can vouch that Ross Andru drew the STAR labs entry at least, because it just so happened that I was looking at it earlier before I listened to this pod-cast. And I’m pretty sure Siskoid is right in his assertion that Andru did the Metal Men, too.

    I always wondered why The Wizard’s late-70s SSOSV uniform didn’t make it anywhere in the entry. Even if he gave up on that suit, it was still worn for several years. It should have been included in the surprint at least.

    The Wyoming Kid retired in 1979 and opened up a chain of steak-houses called Cheyenne Roadhouse. I’ve eaten at one, they aren’t bad.

  3. James Hartz says:

    (this is actually Wolfgang Hartz, I’m using my dad’s computer because my own is having problems)
    As a batman fan, I have some egregious omissions of my own. Look closely at Croc’s entry in volume V and you will find a reference to a criminal named squid and in parenthesis (see squid). Well, squid never got an entry. Also, in some of the letter columns the editors said that batman villains like film freak and black mask (who made their debuts during who’s who) would get entries in the updates but they never did either. But the worst omission has to be Joe Chill, the murderer of bruce wayne’s parents, and without whom there never would have been a batman!

  4. rob! says:

    I completely got the Ross Andru thing wrong, I’m glad I posed it as a question and not a statement of (erroneous) fact, like I normally do.

  5. Xum Yukinori says:

    Fantastic “mid-series finale”, gentlemen. Thank you for allowing me to make a small contribution to it.

    Some random comments:

    Letters page: I thought that the “Pat Broderick Charlton Heroes poster” may have been the same image used in this house ad, which looks a little like Broderick may have penciled it:

    https://charltonhero.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/charltondc.png

    However, I am not entirely sure because the signature in the lower right corner reads “J B Higgins”, which means artist-colorist John Higgins. Whether Mr. Higgins painted over Pat Broderick’s artwork or did this piece entirely by himself is anyone’s guess… unless anyone else can confirm?

    Wizard: The “woman with the dice on her…” um… well, she is Hazard, but she is actually the granddaughter of the Golden Age JSA villain the Gambler. As I recall, she had “probability altering” powers similar to a certain Marvel Comics character… a witch clad in scarlet (the name escapes me at the moment…). She and the other young villains in the surprint is part of the Wizard’s “new” younger Injustice Society created specifically to take on Infinity Inc.

    Wonder Girl: Not to get pedantic, but the small figure of Wonder Girl pushing the “Pérez rubble” is in her then-current costume (notice the star pattern in the top) and not her original costume, when her hair would have been in a ponytail.

    Wonder Woman I: The story of Princess Diana buying nurse Diana Prince’s identity and credentials actually happened in Sensation Comics #1 (1942). This also happened in the history of the Earth One Wonder Woman (as chronicled in DC Special Series #19: a “Secret Origins” digest). Fun fact: the Earth One Diana Prince married a man named Dan White, and their son, Marvin White, is the same Marvin from the Super-Friends Wendy and Marvin duo…

    Wonder Woman of Earth One: Thank you again for including this in your show. One interesting item of note is that when Steve Trevor was resurrected as Steve Howard, he actually knew Wonder Woman’s secret identity until he was killed (again). I omitted that detail due to space constraints, and my need to minimize the risk of this piece turning into a Steve Trevor of Earth One entry…

    Oh, and her and Steve’s marriage by Zeus is only legally recognized in the state of California…

    Wonder Woman II: Regarding Shag’s question about post-Crisis Steve Trevor: he was actually a bit older than Diana, and he became romantically involved with, and later married, post-Crisis Etta Candy.

    Wotan: If it helps, his name was pronounced “WHOA-tan” in the Young Justice animated series.

    Guy Gardner: FYI, the “other dimension” Guy was thrown into by the power battery explosion was originally the Phantom Zone, but the Crisis changed that particular bit of history…

    Knodar: I think the reason Knodar’s fedora and domino mask works is the same reason it works for… the Spirit!

    Neutron: Ross Andru drew four other Who’s Who volume one entries: the Metal Men, Signalman, Son of Vulcan, and S.T.A.R. Labs.

    The 1000: Extant was indeed Monarch, who used to be Captain A… I mean… Hawk… (somehow…)

  6. Xum Yukinori says:

    Nubia: Not to “spoil the magic” for Rob, but I actually came up with the pose of the main figure for this piece, taking a Don-Heck-drawn head from a panel from Wonder Woman #206 and drawing the body in the best Don Heck style I could muster… I also created the logo using a Greco-style typeface.

    Also, Rob, what you thought was Zeus in the surprint was actually Mars taking the baby Nubia from Hippolyta. This was a composite of two cleaned-up panels that were also from Wonder Woman #206.

    Golden Age Aquaman: I am very glad you liked this entry, Rob. My wife Namiko laughed so hard at your “I want to take this listing behind the school and get it pregnant” comment, which I will interpret as high praise indeed.

    BTW, my Weather Wizard “That oughta do it” aside was actually a nod to WW’s running gag line in his appearances on the “Legends of the Super-Heroes” TV specials (which seemed to get canned laughter every time he said it).

    And thank you, gentlemen for bestowing upon me the Yellow Dot Lifetime Achievement award. I suppose I should get started on the Human Flying Fish and Satin Satan custom entries so I can be truly deserving of this honor…

    Cheers.

  7. You did it! Great Doors reference in the opener.

    A few thoughts:

    • I had that Charlton poster! Looks like another artist painted over Broderick’s pencils. Here is a link:http://www.vicsage.com/promo/johnhigginsposter.jpg

    • In the Wizard entry, that is Hazard, with the dice-boobs. I believe she is related to the Gambler, and is certainly a new version of that character. She pops up in the Updates.

    • Also in the Wizard’s entry, they put the bit in about Black Canary (which was now out of continuity thanks to Crisis), but not the fact that the Wizard made the E2 Superman disappear for a WHOLE year, leading to the marriage of Clark Kent and Lois Lane in the classic tale in Action #484? By the way, Cindy and I cover this issue in the next episode of Super Mates (PLUG!).

    • The bit about Wonder Woman buying her identity as Diana Prince is 100% legit from the earliest Wonder Woman stories. Apparently the Earth-One WW did the same thing, because writer E. Nelson Bridwell revealed that Marvin White, that Junior Super Friend, was the son of the REAL Diana Prince, now with the surname of White!

    • Was Wotan the first comic character with the famous Wolverine hairdo?

    • Rob, you don’t like the Wrath?!? What is wrong with you? Seriously, I get what you are saying about piling too much on to Batman’s origin, but that comic blew my young mind. The follow-up story in Batman Confidential a few years back wasn’t bad, either.

    • Xum’s custom pieces were pitch-perfect. I agree all of these should have been included. Nubia was strangely swept under the rug, it would seem .You think DC could have used that diversity!

    Again, congrats fellas. I’m personally looking forward to the Star Trek episodes. And Shagg is right, the binder series has some great art. To me, that’s the 2nd coming of Who’s Who. I was totally captivated by the ability to customize the organization of those pages.

    Chris

  8. D’oh, the artist who painted the Charlton poster was John Higgins. It’s right there in the link!

    Chris

  9. Anthony Durso/The Toyroom says:

    Congrats on completing the 1st phase!

    Cover:

    • Beating a dead horse at this point, but it would have been nice for Perez
    to bookend the series with cover art, especially since Wonder Woman is the marquee character. What else was he working on at this point? Just “Wonder Woman”, right? C’mon,Perez!

    • What’s with that wavy stuff in the background?

    Wow…This has to be the most f’ed-up issue of Who’s Who considering the entries that
    appear. Talk about shooting themselves in the foot by increasing it to 26 issues
    without having a plan for 26 issues.

    Wizard:

    • I’m a bit confused on why the art doesn’t depict his 70s costume. Especially since all of the trouble he went to in “Secret Society of Super-Villains” to acquire the cloak, gloves and amulet. (This is also the same costume he wore in the now-infamous
    JLA/SSOSV mind-switch which eventually led to “Identity Crisis”)

    • There was a revived Injustice Gang in “Infinity Inc.”
    Hazard (the Gambler fill-in) and Icicle were modern versions…
    (Check your “Who’s Who Updates”! They’re HEAVY with Infinity Inc and Young All-Stars related entries. Believe me, they’ll make you long for the days of New Gods,
    Atari Force, Omega Men and Warlord ancillary characters hogging up the real estate)

    Wizard World: I have NO USE for anything remotely related to LOTR/The Hobbit.
    One of the things on my bucket list is to die without ever seeing any of these movies.

    Wonder Girl:

    • I believe this logo may have been previously used on a WG pin-up
    in “New Teen Titans Annual” #1

    • I can’t remember off the top of my head, but did Nick Cardy do any art for
    “Who’s Who”? He would have been perfect for Wonder Girl also, not to mention
    the influence he had on DC Comics covers in the 70s.

    Wotan: In later continuity, Wotan adopted the body of a woman…So there’s that.

    Wraith: This character was much more effective when Grant Morrison amped up
    his powers and changed his name to Prometheus…

    Wyndde: Whhyye?

    Wyoming Kid: I think the criteria should have been if you were a western character
    that didn’t appear in “Crisis On Infinite Earths” you’re not worthy of a full-page…

    X’Hal: The LAST of the Omega Men related entries! Hallejuiah!

    Yellow Peri: A special thank you to Shag for recapping her entry and doing
    the extra research because I don’t believe I ever took the time to read it
    myself. By this point of “Who’s Who” I was thoroughly exhausted by some of
    their selections.

    Zatanna: This whole entry is a miss for me. Yet another example of a costume
    that only looks cool when George Perez (the original designer) draws it.

    Zoo Crew: Why did Captain Carrot get all of the vehicles named after him?
    It’s in his contract….the book was titled “Captain Carrot and HIS Amazing Zoo
    Crew” after all…not just “Zoo Crew”.

    Zoot Sputnik:

    • Having a Fred Hembeck entry is a great idea but an imaginary
    character from another character’s strip, and a HUMOROUS strip I might add,
    doesn’t deserve a listing when humorous characters like Binky, Stanley and His
    Monster, Sugar & Spike, et al didn’t get a shot.

    • Here’s my vote for a DC TPB collection (or some format) of the Hembeck
    strips from the Daily Planet page in the 70s.

    Angel and the Ape:

    • My favorite entry of the book!
    • Phil Foglio’s mini-series didn’t come along until 1991!

    Blackjak: My favorite Atari Force character. I would have killed for a solo mini-series
    back in the day.

    Captain Triumph: A neat premise, but when it’s used by Dr. Double-X it’s lame?

    Dragonsword: For some reason this entry always reminds me of the “Dragonslayer”
    Marvel movie adaptations I bought off the newsstand but NEVER read.

    Knodar: Reminds me of the type of villain you’d see on Batman ’66. And not in
    a good way…

    Wonder Woman (Earth 1), Nubia, Aquaman: Xum has done a great job with these
    entries (as well as the previous Silver Age Superman). This is what “Who’s Who” was
    supposed to be about, showcasing the history of the DC universe.

    Unfortunately, the editorial agenda of “Crisis On Infinite Earths” got in the way and many deserving characters were shunted out of the way in favor of pushing others who were perhaps less deserving but were more current.

    And as much as I loved “Atari Force” it’s kinda sad that these characters who were published by DC for a brief period of time (20 issues and an annual) have a lasting presence in “Who’s Who” but the Silver Age Superman does not…

    Suggestion: Maybe to beef up the History of the DC Universe episode, also cover the portfolio? Not a lot to say probably, but I’d be interested in hearing what you have to
    say on what was included and what was missed.

  10. Joe X says:

    Episode XXVI! First series completed.

    They used to have Imaginary Stories where Wonder Woman teamed up with Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot.
    Oh the John Byrne WG retcons. Only he could simplify things by making them even more convoluted.
    And now there’s a brand new nu52 Donna Troy, who appears to be created from the petrified remains of Hippolyta.

    I believe it was 4 issues of Wonder Woman that had to be published per year.

    If you’re a fan of Tom Yeates, pick up the Epic series Timespirits he did back in the 80s.

    That Zatanna-Adam story is the same one as what happened to Carol Danvers in Avengers.

    Zatara creator Fred Guardineer brought the reverse-speech magic to other characters like Merlin the Magician and Tor Magic Master.

    Angel and Ape were later retconned deeper into the DCU, as she was the half-sister of Dumb Bunny of the Inferior 5, and he was the grandson of Gorilla Grodd.

    Ron Harris drew Roy Thomas’s Alter Ego series, and did some All-Star work as well.
    Roy was also planning on using Captain Triumph once All-Star Squadron got up to that point in time, but hte book was cancelled before then.

    Guy only appeared 7 times before Steve Englehart took over GL, so “Update” is correct.

    Knodar showed up in one of those Roulette house scenes, where artists showed that they had access to Who’s Who, regardless of current continuity.
    Knodar should have hung out with those other 25th century refugees, Booster Gold and Reverse-Flash.

    Neutron was in the Power Girl entry, I think. PG picked up some Supergirl continuity post-Crisis. He might have been in a Doom Patrol related entry as well.

    Guys, I have had a great time with the Who’s Who podcast, and can’t wait for the next series to start. Take a well-deserved victory lap.

  11. Jeff R. says:

    So, going into this issue I thought that’d I’d have trouble with the regular Egregious Omission of the Month (for WXYZ), but since they used this issue as a go back and catch up, I’d do the same and give the EOotM for the issues before I was doing this (I started with an offhand comment about the Kryptonite Man in XIII.) (I tried to avoid characters who made this reprise, but honestly out of those Angel and Ape, Guy Gardner, and Neutron are likely the only ones who would have been on my list. Maybe the 1000 too.) So, and some of these are admittedly more Egregious than others:
    1: Abigail Arcane(AKA Abigail Cable.) The Honorable mention goes to Astralad, because if they’re going to include just one ill-conceived anachronistic character from The New Adventures of Superboy, it should be the Kiss-like rock star touring early 1960’s Smallville for some reason rather than the blonde chick who names herself with a weak pun on a racist trope, even if she did have a single modern-era appearance at the time of this publication.
    2: Batman Jones
    3: Blue Beetle (Dan Garret)
    4: Chameleon Chief
    5: Composite Superman II, since both versions were distinct and amazingly important characters in the history of the DC Universe.
    6: Doctor Gym’ll
    7: Dubbilex (Given how many Kirby Kreations who never saw the light of day again made the cut, this omission seems like a major misstep.)
    8: Fireman Farrell
    9: Green Flame, who had two chances to appear in the issue, solo or with the Global Guardians, but didn’t make it in either way.
    10: Hayfoot Henry
    11: I Ching
    12: Julie Madison, to make up for the mis-naming last time around.
    But it turns out that there was an obvious EOoTM for the WXYZ portion as well, Woozy Winks (who at least made your song, but made the last line of it a bit of a lie…)
    We’ll see if anything jumps out at me during the updates, but this may be it for the award at least until you reach the specialist volumes (Legion, Star Trek…)

  12. Frank says:

    1) You guys are way too hard on the cover. I’d have to say this is one of my favorites of the non-Perez covers, because Wonder Woman (YAY!) and the enthusiasm with which the larger figures interact (fewer entries to represent.) The anatomy may not be 100% accurate, but Cullins is working in a more exaggerated style than most of the other artists. Once again, I blame inker Dick Giordano for mishandling the finishes on an art style not in his wheelhouse, and consistently demonstrating the passion of Vinnie Colletta on this assignment.

    A) The Wizard entry is… Okay. So not one of JLGL’s better works, to the point where I don’t even recognize it as his, at least from the main figure. I’ve always had an interest in the character because of his role in the Injustice Society, but nobody’s ever written a story with him that I responded to on even the level of a Fiddler. Dude’s got a Fiddlemobile. I don’t see a Wizard-Copter anywhere.

    I’m going to pretend I didn’t even see the Wizard World entry.

    B) Lovely drawing of Wonder Girl. I used to like Donna Troy as a kid, and she was unquestionably the sexiest New Teen Titan, but her continuity issues exhausted me to the point where I kind of hate her now. Not when I’m looking at this drawing though. Something about the patent leather boots and skin tight red one-piece. *bites knuckles*

    C) I cannot get into Trina Robbins’ Wonder Woman. I liked Meet Misty as a kid, but her aping of Harry Peter makes her already stiff art even more awkward without evoking the weirdness of the original Amazing Amazon artist. For the record, Etta Candy was a sickly anorexic who Nurse Prince “treated” with candy, and is therefore responsible for the sugar addiction that swoll the girl up. The original stories were mad, and I get a kick out of them.

  13. Anj says:

    Thanks for another great episode. And special thanks to Xum for the unbelievable ‘missed’ pages. Some quick thoughts:

    0) Cover: I agree with everyone that we deserved a Perez cover to wrap up this series.

    1) Wonder Girl: Like Shag, I loved Donna when reading Titans growing up. The art is so wonderful on this page. I had forgotten the twists and turns of her origin with multiple adopted families, etc. And that was before the Troia retcon! Still, I would take this origin 100x over the ‘evil Donna coming out of a cauldron’ the Finches are giving us.

    2) Wotan: the art here is so great. Mignola’s DC stuff stands up. Gotham by Gaslight is my favorite work. And Wotan should be a big bad as he is both a sorceror and a brilliant scientist.

    3) X’Hal: Put her in the Hyathis/Manhawks/Reactron/Warlock of Ys pile of forgettable characters who I love. This is probably because she was such a key player in the ‘Teen Titans’ arc where we first met Blackfire. While I think the Omega Men are a cursed group, I like X’Hal.

    4) Zatanna: I agree that the main art piece seems off. There sure is a lot of weirdness to her origin. One thing I like is how her powers were reduced late in her JLA career. If you read the letter columns back then, everyone complained she was simply too powerful. I did like the ‘search for Zatanna’s mother’ arc.

    5) Zatara: It was Swamp Thing #50 where he died and it is a great death, sacrificing himself to save Zatanna. Of course, this leads to Zatanna hating Constantine.

    6) Dragonsword: Great art

    7) Mekanique: the first paragraphs of this origin are a recap of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. And she looks like the robot from that movie. Boy, she had a too big a role in Crisis crossovers in All Star Squadron and Infinity Inc. She’s a robot!!!! Blow her up!!!

    Anyways, thanks soooooo much for this series. Can’t wait to listen to the rest of the Who’s Who stuff.

  14. Siskoid says:

    Jeff: Green Flame IS in the Global Guardians entry. Watchootalkinabout, Willis?

  15. Martin Gray says:

    That was another fun podcast, a total treat, thanks chums.

    The shiny look of Wonder Woman apart, I like the cover too – lots of verve and pizzazz.

    That Wonder Girl logo dates back to her first appearances in the mid-Sixties, eg: http://www.comics.org/issue/19088/cover/4/

    It’s fair enough Fury wasn’t in the Wonder Woman I entry, given that she never appeared in a single one of her strips. Infinity Inc doesn’t count.

    Yankee Poodle inspired Stargirl’s costume. It’s just a shame Courtney didn’t go with the flower child tiara.

    Why does the Yellow Peri not have harem pants? She obviously should have them. Oh well, cute shoes.

    I laughed at the exchange around Gray Morrow:
    Rob: ‘The art is fine.’
    Shag: ‘I disagree, it’s OK’

    Of course Nubia deserved an entry, she’s the canonical sister of a superhero (though woefully underused). Well done to Xum for the excellent work on Nubia, Wonder Woman II and the rest.

    Shag, you mentioned that only a few issues of the Perez (you kept ignoring Potter and Wein and co, mean gits) WW issues had appeared at this point … while the Trina Robbins book, which I liked, had tenuous links to the old series, it wasn’t part of the reboot.

    Shag (oh, I do love to finger wag), why on Earth Prime would you think ‘Wotan’ might be pronounced ‘Wu-tan? I know you had your Wutang Clan, or whatever, gag, but still…

    Rob is so right, parallel Batman villains are rubbish. Prometheus was a particular joke, with his fireguard face.

    Count me in as a Tom Yeates (‘Yeets’? Yipes) fan too, loved his Swamp Thing.

    Hal deserved danger money for banging that fruitcake Kara Limbo. Guy Gardner was better off in a coma than dating that manipulative pretendy gypsy. That Star Trek woman, Deanna Troi, nicked her speech patterns (along with a Wonder Girl’s name, almost).

    Siskoid, as I remember it, that new Who’s Who was basically finished, then cancelled due to the new 52 revamp – Robert Greenberger could confirm.

    It’s amazing that with all those spare pages at the back, they STILL ignored Alfred and the Fortress of Solitude.

  16. Jeff R. says:

    Siskoid: Got some bad information somewhere. (Probably comics.org, misreading her non-appearance on the cover.) Okay, a backup for 9 would be the Gorilla Boss of Gotham City.

  17. Siskoid says:

    Martin: Alfred was represented by the Outsider, just like Lana was Insect Queen and Jimmy was Elastic Lad.

    Whether you agree or disagree with that notion, it still doesn’t explain why Commissioner Gordon didn’t make it in AT ALL.

  18. Joe X says:

    You’re right, Frank. That Wizard piece looks more like McFarlane than JLGL(PBHN). I wonder if Todd was supposed to do it and flaked at the last minute. Had he left DC for Marvel by this time?

  19. Siskoid says:

    Joe: No because he did a number of pieces for the updates. Go Chroma! Remember him? No? Hm. Me neither.

  20. Martin Gray says:

    Yeah, I remember that stuff, Siskoid, just agreeing with earlier podcast comments that such important characters should have discrete entries.

  21. Siskoid says:

    And most only would in the SECOND update. Supporting characters get no respect.

  22. Frank says:

    W) Great, great Silver/Bronze Age Wonder Woman entry. Detailed, accurate and well written. I especially like how prominently and artfully Diana Prince and I-Ching are incorporated into the collage. Kudos to Xum!

    I’ve read less Bronze Age Wonder Woman than I’d like, but despite having a fairly comprehensive Crisis-To-Crisis collection, I feel the most like that was “my” Diana. Wonder Woman and Superman both reached their canonical peaks Pre-Crisis, by which I mean their ultimate accumulation of mythology consistent with common perception of the characters. After the Crisis, both were stripped of the lion’s share of their lore, never to be truly restored, and both were skewed away from their core in the collective consciousness to more niche, inaccessible, compromised alternatives. Superman stopped being a tragic Last Son of Krypton, and became a cornfed ex-jock with folksy living parents. Wonder Woman stopped being a science-fantasy secret agent of a quasi-feminist agenda embedded in the military and became an amorphous peace ambassador who went all in on tired Greco-Roman mythology. After a quarter-century of that, is it any surprise the characters have become so lost conceptually that the only thing DC can think to do with either is to pair them off? Weird tangents like the dowered Diana Prince and the return to World War II in the grand scheme expanded what could be done with Wonder Woman, while everything since the Crisis has shrank and marginalized the character’s bearing on popular culture.

    I enjoyed the Perez relaunch at first, but with time and perspective, I now find it toxic. Greg Potter’s rendering the origins of the Amazons as an island of traumatized isolationist victims is downright disturbing, never mind the incongruity of reincarnation as a key aspect in a Greek myth. Cheetah joined the legions of cat-women in comics, shedding all her sub/text. Silver Swan switched from a commentary on the true bleak soul of an “ugly duckling” to unwitting pawn. Most of the old villains were abandoned, replaced by the constant reappearances of The Enchantress with a punk rock dye job in Circe. Diana herself went for a complex, mature heroine to a one-dimensional naive woman-child. Whatever salvation Perez offered by spearheading the relaunch was undone by the end of his lengthy, dull run with the terrible art of Chris Marrinan and the not yet ready for prime time Jill Thompson. Everyone who followed was pushed by the fans Perez brought in to stay true to his narrow vision, and the character continues to suffer for it, even as her Red Sonjafication rebels against those restrictions in the least compelling or distinctive way possible.

    D) I’m just not as wowed by Wotan as everyone else. I see this as an awkward period of transition from the more conventional early work to the full Mignola to come. Never got the character, either. The Wrath is a cool concept if you can appreciate dark reflection analogues, but I agree with those who think Prometheus pulled it off better. Prefer DeCarlo on inks, not unlike fellow assimilator Bob Layton. Wyynde is an Arion character, which is by default sub-Omega Men, though the art is nice. Ditto the spiffy Yeates Wyoming Kid entry, or as I like to call him, “who?”

    X) X’Hal is gross. She reeks of Me Generation/Reagan Youth rape culture, and should be buried on GOR where she belongs. I hate Starfire even more than usual when I think about her being a devout follower. Also, Tod Smith Forever For The Lose.

    E) After Captain Carrot and maybe Pig Iron, when I think of the Zoo Crew, I think of Yankee Poodle. But I don’t think often or much of it, so whatever. It was a thing I bought one time as a child.

    F) There’s got to be an ethnic slur buried somewhere in Yellow Peri, but she’s awful even without it. The Zamarons seemed to get lost in the shuffle once the Star Sapphires became another color corp, but I can’t say as I missed them, as they were nigh indistinguishable from some of the worst takes on the Amazons.

    Z) I was introduced to Zatanna through the Perez costume, and will always have a soft spot for it, even as I objectively realize it’s a Scarlet Witch rip-off and Zee is better when she sticks to top hat and tails. Certainly if Gray Morrow’s involved in the rendering. It also maintains the legacy aspect with Zatara, where the daughter has long outshone the father in notoriety and popularity. I must say though that while most DC Golden Age material is a snooze, Zatara was the closest they ever got to Fletcher Hanks. The only thing more insane than Zatara’s power levels were his gonzo adventures.

    H) There were probably some obscure Golden/Silver Age characters that could have been thrown Fred Hembeck’s way without resorting to Zoot Sputnik, who I nominate as exemplar of the wasted, unearned entry that cost a more deserving character one of their own. Zoot zooted Zook! Meanwhile, I support the nifty Zyklon entry, where Michael Bair recalls his previous Phantom of the Fair.

    G) I bought the Vertigo Angel & the Ape mini-series with the sweet Art Adams cover, and either the first issue of the ’80s mini or some Secret Origins type thing. Always dug Phil Foglio, but on any given day I’d take Detective Chimp over Sam Simeon. Blackjak got a solid entry, but I miss the naked Dart lying in the grass from her’s. Also, dude makes me think of BlacJacMac from Grimjack, and now I want a Who’s Who in Cynosure.

    P) I kinda dug Cannon & Saber as the great lost associates that could have elevated Superninja to Cobra Commander caliber in his war against Chuck Norris’ Karate Kommandos. As it is, they’re the best ambiguously gay male assassin duo in the entire DC Universe.

    T) Captain Triumph is a cool premise in the public domain, and Alan Weiss had a fun turn with it in the Crack Comics issue of Erik Larsen’s much mourned Last Issue Project. Wanted to see Will McIntyre’s long lost twin brother reuse it before the New 52 wrecked all such fantasies.

  23. My favorite entry in this episode was the Wyoming Kid. The Kid, and Western Comics as a publication, helped keep DC afloat during the intermezzo between the Golden and Silver Ages. He’s not the most exciting cowboy character, and it was unfortunate that he never made a comeback in the Silver and Bronze Age.

    Regarding the Wyoming Kid’s father being bushwhacked and murdered during an “undeclared war between the cattle ranchers and sheep ranchers,” there was a series of open, violent conflicts between cattle ranchers and sheepherders in the mid-to-late 19th century and into the early 20th century, and did take place in the Wyoming border region.

    Known informally as the “Sheep Wars” these conflicts were over grazing rights — essentially the cattlemen considered the sheepherders to be invaders who left the public free grazing lands worthless after they passed through. This was escalated by the growing trend of the cattle ranchers to fence in their land, leading to conflicts with both the sheepherders and the cattle free rangers (the latter known as the Cut Wire Wars or Fence Cutting Wars).

    The Sheep Wars and Cut Wire Wars are often used in Western stories in various media as background or setting to get two sides into conflict with each other. A great example is the 2003 Kevin Costner film Open Range, which is recommended.

    Love the show guys! Keep it up!

    1. Another example of this Western plot is in the Broadway show and musical, Oklahoma!

  24. Phylemon says:

    I suppose I really should congratulate you on reaching the milestone of this 26th episode, but put me firmly in the, “You’re not done yet” category. Still, with the exception of the Ambush Bug episode which I am eagerly looking forward to, it is all down hill from here. This first run was the best of the best, and I’m sad to have lost the excuse of this podcast to pull these issues out and look at them from time to time.

    Looking ahead, it occurs to me that you ought to give a warning to the faithful listeners that they only have a few months to reorganize their binder edition updates. I assume that you will being going through these issue by issue, which makes sense, but I wonder how others have their’s sorted. Mine are currently organized alphabetically by alignment, with heroes and villains in separate binders.

    Okay, on to comments from this episode. In short, I have always loved this issue. Some of my favorite characters are in this issue.

    1. I really want to criticize Rob for making an In-Stock Trade recommendation that isn’t old school DC, but how do you attack someone for being pro-Women-in-comics.

    2. I prefer Wizard’s 70’s costume. As a matter of fact, between this and Zatanna, I can officially say I am against magic based characters either fighting or committing crime in top hat and tails. This is definitely Mandrake’s fault.

    3. Others have corrected you on the Wonder Girl entry, so I won’t retread the same ground. It is a beautiful piece of art, though.

    4. As much as I love Gorgeous George Perez, nothing good came from his Wonder Woman reboot. The fact that every take on her since has been heavily influenced by her Greek Deity origins instead of the fun silliness of the Silver and Bronze age is a microcosm of everything wrong with DC as a whole. Even the recent Sensation Comics digital series, which was billed as an opportunity to see the character from different perspectives, has been lacking in fun. Hopefully Wonder Woman ’77 will be more fun when it is released in print.

    5. I remember reading and having my mind blown by Batman Special #1 when it first came out. I completely agree with Shag about the problem with parallel origins in theory, but The Wrath worked. I was very excited a few years back when it was announced that he would appear in an arc of Batman Confidential. Unfortunately, the story didn’t live up to his first appearance.

    6. Wyynde’s entry makes me want to read the Arion’s series. He is powerfully built and looks like an absolute beast.

    7. X’Hal: Should this character be vilified for being part of the Omega Men universe, or praised for being part of the awesome 80’s version of the New Teen Titans? As a side note, I am absolutely giving a chance to the new Omega Men comic coming out in a few months. Maybe it signals better times ahead.

    8. Yankee Poodle and the Zoo Crew are one of the reasons I am a life long lover of comics. I have every issue, even the thoroughly average Oz-Wonderland Wars, and will always sing their virtues. I’m looking forward to Captain Carrot’s appearance in Convergence.

    9. The Yellow Peri is my absolute favorite character in this issue. I had picked up her issues in New Adventures of Superboy before this issue had come out and found her fascinating, a new variation on the Bat-Mite or Mxyzptlk formula of a more mischievous and less evil opponent for the Man of Tomorrow. I enjoyed seeing her reappear in the 52 maxi-series.

    10. I’m a little embarrassed that I gushed so much about Gray Morrow last episode only to be greeted with the Zatanna entry this month. The surprint is nice, though, so maybe some of the “off-ness” of the main image is the coloring or inking? I do prefer this outfit to the fishnets look, though.

    11. I absolutely believe Angel and the Ape deserved to be in Who’s Who. Their appearance so shortly after we were told that humor characters like Sugar and Spike don’t belong, though, is the perfect example of how desperate they were to fill these last few pages. For the record, my vote would be the talking kid duo taking this space before the Simian cartoonist and his gal pal.

    12. It’s hard to believe that Jose Luis Gracia Lopez (PBHN) drew both Blackjack and the Wizard in this entry. Blackjack is the much more clean drawing.

    13. The costume for Capatain X is the prettiest thing in this issue. I love those colors and design.

    14. Poor Guy Gardner. Constantly proving the value of the mentally disabled in our society.

    15. Knodar looks like a character I should praise to high heavens. Haven’t read any of his story, but the entry makes it sound like he had some fun capers.

    16. The 1000. I love these guys almost exclusively because they were in Booster Gold. “Jurgens House Style,” by the way, is the furthest thing from an insult to me.

    17. Believe what you will. The Jericho-loving redhead from my Local Comic Book Shop is very real. And, Rob, you should have been able to tell that she was a female. I called her cute. There is no such thing as a cute red-headed male. They are only creepy.

    Fair warning, I’m going to be absolutely insufferable on the next edition of the podcast. Ambush Bug #3 is, hand’s down and without qualification, my favorite comic book of all time. This is my “find my joy” moment. I bought the issue in a 7/11 in Nags Head, North Carolina, where my parents had taken me for vacation. While my brother and sister and parents enjoyed the sand and the surf, I refused to leave the hotel room, pouring over the issue. My mom put her foot down and made me go to the beach, so I took my new prized possession with me and sat on the beach, still reading through this amazing issue. I took it to dinners and to the pool. I read it until it was in tatters over a long weekend. On the long car ride home, I sang the Krypto and Streaky songs on page 6 (even if I didn’t know what the tune “Windy” was), helped “Bop-A-Badguy!” on page 9, and forced my mom to promise to make a Teriyaki Burger following the recipe on page 12 (although she never actually did).

    Decades later, my wife and I vacationed in the same town. We passed by the beaches and the site of the Wright Brothers’s famous flight, because the first landmark I wanted to show her was where I bought this comic. Sadly, the 7/11 was no more, having been replaced by a Surf shop (Did all the 7/11’s close down when they stopped selling comics?).

    There is so much to love about this issue. From the very first splash page image (which is the best visual representation of what the phrase “infinite earths” meant) to the letters page (which contains Ambush Bug’s real origin story and a very accurate depiction of how I feel about this issue). More than anything, the sense that there were parts of the DC universe that “THEY” in power over at 666 Fifth Avenue didn’t want me to know about made a deep impression on me. You want to know why I love Jericho, The Forever People, The Yellow Peri, etc.? In a real sense, they are the Egg-Fu’s, Binky’s, Quisp’s, Inferior Five’s, and Mopee’s of the current age of comics. They are the ones that no longer fit in the tiny, tidy, little universe created by the new “THEY”.

    I have so much more that I can say about this issue, but I will save them for when I have heard the podcast that is actually about the issue. I will just say that this issue is the only one I own that I have had to replace, repeatedly. I am on my fifth copy. I still have my original copy, although much like Ambush Bug’s copy of Lois Lane #48, it is now in liquid form.

  25. Caleb says:

    Perfect timing! Archie has just started to rerelease !mpact comics digitally as part of their Dark Circle super hero line. !mpact is next right?

  26. Sean Koury says:

    Another great episode, guys. Looking forward to more.

    Lots of Zoo Crew in this issue, which is a win for me. 😉

  27. Kyle Benning says:

    I’m very late to the party leaving Feedback here, but I just wanted to be sure to send you guys a big congratulations on making it through the first volume of Who’s Who. That is a whole lot of content and takes a whole lot of dedication to put out 26 episodes of that heavy of content load with as high of quality as you two have done every single episode. The Who’s Who Podcast truly is one of the best podcasts out there, it’s been a blast to listen to, so thank you very much for both of your dedication and effort, and congratulations again. I can’t wait for Ambush Bug and the next volume.

    A note about the cover, I’ve always really dug how the two Wonder Womans (Wonder Women?) interacted and shared a lasso with Donna Troy holding the slack. Great cover despite not having a whole lot of heavy hitters on the cover. My only criticism is regarding Wotan. His left hand always bugged me, I get that his hand and arm are at a bit of weird angle (weird indeed, try duplicating it, it makes my surgery-repaired shoulder and arm hurt) but his left hand, especially the thumb position, always bugged me.

    Still a great cover, and I miss this classic look to Wotan, as much as I have enjoyed the New 52 Earth 2 title for the most part (enjoyable and interesting story, I just don’t always agree with the characters they selected to tell it with), I don’t particularly care for their updated character design for Wotan.

    I’m eagerly looking forward to the next and all future Who’s Who Episodes, keep ’em coming, and thanks again for all of the hours of entertainment at work!

    PS Xum great stuff with all of your bonus entries, those things are awesome!

  28. Victor Wachter says:

    I’ve been thinking that Angel and the Ape would be cool in an Amalgam comic, mashed up with X-Men’s Angel and the Beast, called Beauty and the Beast. They could be paranormal investigators who have to fight Stan Lee and his Monster.

    Yankee Poodle’s right hand/left hand powers were inspired by Volto from Mars, the star of cereal ads in the 1940s that were similar to Hostess ads. He had magnetic powers and would always explain that the right hand attracts and the left hand repels. He’d stop the crooks and then eat Grape Nuts to recharge his powers. Roy Thomas must have liked the character because he also gave Amazing Man similar powers in later issues of All Star Squadron.

    When Knodar appeared in Infinity Inc, I thought he ‘d be a cool new villain for them because he had magnetic powers (Wow, Roy did really like magnets, huh? How do they work anyway?) and that always meant trouble in the X-Men. But I bet if I looked in the issue now, he’d seem ridiculous.

  29. Siskoid says:

    Victor, remember the Marvel series already called that? Dazzler was the beauty to Beast’s, umm, Beast.

    In other news…

    Who’s Captain Triumph?
    http://siskoid.blogspot.ca/2015/03/whos-captain-triumph.html

  30. Frank says:

    I) feel bad for Firestorm that he got stuck with Captain X as his predecessor in retroactive legacy building. Hideous costume.

    2) The Crisis on Infinite Earths struck down my first attempt at my final comment for the ultimate episode of WWVI, then my replacement got lost in time and space, only emerging now, quite possibly just ahead of your recording the Ambush Bug history episode!

    Y) I’m going to go off the ranch and say that I think everyone was wowed by the special effects on Dragonsword. Yes, the color hold is effective with lots of lines, but it’s not actually all that intricate. The rest of the image looks like your average role-playing module, tempered by its bland Prince Valiantitude.

    V)uldarian! Like most people, I became aware and enjoyed the antics of Guy Gardner in JLI, but he was my favorite character for a few months after Emerald Twilight/Fallout when he manned-up under Beau Smith and especially Mitch Byrd as his solo title was rebranded “Warrior.” I stuck with that series to the bitter end and bought all the back issues, even though the book swiftly became bottom-rung Image-chasing dreck with a host of bad replacement artists and I eventually realized Guy had become Ben Grimm by way of Ultimate Warrior and Bushwacker. However, the brief period where Guy was Jack Burton on an Indiana Jonesalike adventure with the glorious unique art of Byrd still make me happy to reflect upon today.

    Gardner was a very minor character prior to his revival as a psychologically unbalanced threat to the multiverse during crisis (the Countdown/Ignition story is a Green Lantern classic.) Steve Englehart dumped the unloved Guy on the JLI team in leau of giving up control over the better Lanterns for that team book, only to beg for Guy back after Giffen & DeMatteis reshaped the character into cowboy conservative comic relief.

    K) I researched whether Knodor was not only a Mort of the Month, but perhaps even the first in the Wizard Magazine series. Couldn’t find anything to back up my memory of him serving as the prototype of poop.

    M)echanique struck me as nifty when I saw her first in DC house ads, then in actual A.S.S./Infinity Inc. issues. I like the idea of repurposing public domain fantastical media for period retcons, but the character didn’t seem to do much for anyone. Somebody should have revived and enlivened her before the WWII era ceased to matter to DC heroic continuity.

    Q) Neutron is so one of those guys who hangs around the periphery of the DCU without impressing anyone. Oh yeah, that guy– the member of the Fearsome Five I couldn’t recollect when trying to list its members. Too bad Ross Andru didn’t get more and better profile work.

    Y) The 1000 have flair for a run of the mill criminal conspiracy consortium.

    N) Nubia is easily my favorite of Xum’s Who’s Who corrective actions. The art is perfect and clearly more challenging than his other efforts, given the lack of period Nubia reference to directly draw from or black and white reproductions of her story for the surprint. In a comicdom brimming with lame token black characters shoehorned into iconic books, Nubia was Wonder Woman’s exact equal and sister-creation. Not only was she cool and powerful, but her role was so vital to Amazing Amazon storytelling that it’s been repeatedly filled by other, whiter characters like Artemis. Nubia should have been an ongoing frienemy, and if she had the character could have been to Diana what Black Manta is to Aquaman– an essential part of the hero’s canon and one of the most formidable, popular, and necessary black characters in comics. Instead, she was tokenized and discarded when her concept made it clear that she should have been a major player.

    R) I’m not as into Xum’s Golden Age Aquaman as Rob because how could I be and also an expanded representation for the hero isn’t as important to me as Nubia’s complete lack of official recognition. Plus, Bronze Age Wonder Woman. It’s darn spiffy though, and illustrates Aquaman’s early, more distinctive origins.

    3) Shag might want to get his sadistic laughter out of the way now regarding the longevity of the OHOTMU podcast. I received exactly one response from an interested party who’s a friend of a Who’s Who commenter. I’ve also failed at getting Mac & Fixit motivated to produce for that prospective podcast. At the moment, there’s no definite indication that we’ll ever even make it to episode one, which is a shame, since I put together a boss theme song months ago.

  31. phylemon says:

    Came by to see if a new Who’s Who podcast had dropped. C’mon, guys, it’s been six weeks.

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