http://siskoid.blogspot.ca/2015/04/whats-dragonsword.html

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.

In other news…

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

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.

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!

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