1. Although “surrogate” is a perfectly acceptable word, what you were looking for, Shag, was the word “analogue,” which would be a more accurate term for the way the Young All-Stars filled in for the Golden Age heavy hitters. Speaking of the Young All Stars, although I like the concept, I could never get into the series. The few issues I read seemed like such a let down from the greatness of Roy Thomas’ All Star Squadron.

2. Other than the Super Powers Action Figures, was Plastic Man ever really shown to be on Earth 1 prior to Zero Hour? I always saw him as an Earth 2 guy that got brought back into the fold after all the people who cared about continuity stopped making comics. Regardless, he is still a poor man’s Elongated Man.

3. Oh dear God in Heaven, I had forgotten about the Lords of Order and Chaos nonsense! The way that tripe permeated every late 80’s comic perplexes me to no end and is, more than anything else, the sign that DC was six months past its expiration date the same way that you can tell milk has gone sour by the smell.

4. Add me to those who like the Outsiders.

5. Yeah, it’s hard to justify giving Belle Reve 2 pages. I know the Suicide Squad was a big deal, but it is still 2 pages worth of a big gray block.

6. You guys could not be more wrong about Bizarro. This version is a grim aberration and the only real Bizarro was Bizarro No. 1 from the beloved Silver Age (although the version that has shown up in the recent mini-series will do in a pinch). If he did show up in a DC movie, he would most closely resemble this version and they would suck all the joy out of the character just as they have every character to recently be in a DC movie. God I miss Christoper Reeve! Side note, I’m surprised neither of you mentioned it, but this Bizarro’s S shield is facing the correct way, which is further proof that he is not the real B-man.

7. Blackguard may be the Jericho of your new podcast. I am a huge fan of Booster Gold and Blackguard’s status as BG’s first foe earns him a special place in my heart. The whole first arc of Booster’s initial series, which introduces not only Blackguard, but also his villainous co conspirator Minddancer before having Booster defeat the whole 1000 committee with the help of Thorn, is a thing of beauty. It’s hard to argue against Blackguard’s general genericness (elevated by the so-called Jurgens’ House style), but as we saw from Bad Samaritan and Black Mace, being generic isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

7a.You mentioned that it looked like Blackguard was designed for the Super Powers action figure line. Although he never made an appearance there, it was fairly easy to customize a figure for him with a Flash head and a Lex Luthor body (although I still need to add in the magenta ponytail).

8. Wasn’t there a Silver Age JLA foe who had the Bloodsport “materialize weapons out of nowhere” power? The name Weapons Master comes to mind, but I may be making that up. Regardless, Bloodsport’s powers are not unique.

9. I always wondered if these entries for Booster and Beetle being side by side in this issue was the inspiration for Keith Giffen making them a buddy bromance. It is probably just hindsight on my part, but looking at these two pages would make me want to put these characters together as a team. As a side note, I agree that Booster always looked best with his, “floppy hair.”

10. Update on Binky in Converegence: He was not utilized as well as I would have hoped, but it was still a pretty neat little appearance. In the Convergence: Supergirl Matrix mini, Supergirl is chasing Ambush Bug around the various cities (don’t ask). At one of these stops, they encounter Casey the Cop from the Sugar and Spike series. Their city is being attacked by some nondescript zombies. Casey mentions that the only people left are himself, Binky, and “those two little kids . . . that jabber away like they actually understand one another.” He even mentions that the zombies have already gotten to “Bob and Jerry” which is a great little sly reference to Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis, who had comedy comics at the same time as Sugar and Spike and Binky. Anyway, we don’t see the end of the story, but things look pretty dire for these simple innocent characters. Despite that, I’m choosing to believe that they pulled together and defeated their undead adversaries and Binky, Casey, and the kids have now set out to find survivors and rebuild their civilization (starting with the local soda fountain and comic book shop).

Anyway, congratulations on another stellar podcast. Looking forward to many more.

O) I knew Firestorm from the Galactic Guardians cartoon and guest appearances/crossovers, but not strictly as a solo hero in his own book. The one time I did read a few issues of Firestorm, it was during the blank slate period, and I didn’t stick around. Meanwhile, Captain Atom’s series was in the early going, he had similar powers and personality to the Ronnie Raymond Firestorm, plus the art of Pat Broderick, but telling more vital and compelling stories with a better supporting cast and more appropriate villains. So what I’m saying is that I not only follow Firestorm Fan for Shag rather than his hero of choice, but I specifically discount Firestorm because of my preference for Captain Atom. Also like Ronnie Firestorm, Captain Atom’s book sputtered out after a couple of years and never recovered from the loss of Broderick (though Blank Slate and Elemental Firestorm offered that book a second wind Nathaniel Adam was denied.) I never caught what an obvious Vietnamified update of Captain America Atom Mark II was, and that surely didn’t hurt my appreciation of the revamp. I also went back and read the right wing Charlton original version of the character, who is great fun and not at all like Doctor Manhattan: Man of the Atom (Solar was an equally obvious influence.) The “cover stories” assigned Captain Atom by the government were his out-of-continuity Charlton adventures. Talking of which, Captain Atom will take over the new Power of the Atom mini-podcast this week, covering his debut in Space Adventures.

P) As previously mentioned, I’m with Shag in disliking the DC Comics character Shazam/Captain Marvel, with the rotten “New Beginning” mini-series a good example of how nobody at DC knew what to do with the character, least of all Roy Thomas. However, I would be singing a different tune if Thomas and originally planned artist Don Newton had gone through with Captain Thunder, a more thoroughly contemporary revamp of Billy Batson as an African-American youth. The disrespect and shoddy handling shown to Captain Marvel at DC would have been much more vociferously challenged if he was DC’s Black Superman instead of a dumb little white boy constantly embarrassing himself in Superman’s playground. The World’s Mightiest Mortal and his Marvel Family were afforded a lot more consideration and entertainment quality at Fawcett, which is why the line survived into the 1950s, long after most other super-hero titles, and in spite of DC’s constant legal harassment.

S) Surprised to see Tailgunner Jo got a listing in Update ’87. Conrad Carapax looks like a clean-shaven Adolph Hitler. I also liked Marc Hazzard: Merc when Peter Davis wrote him (see my interview with PAD on the first Amazing Heroes Podcast.) Coachella is so hipster. Wait, Chimichanga? Oh yeah, I remember Carcharo! That was the Elvis movie where he tried to change his image with a Eastwood style spaghetti western. But seriously, how many sci-fi shark-man villains does DC need? Shark Week aside, they’re no gorillas. I have no recollection of Caress, not even her entry, which I forget as soon as I turn the page. I think Khunds is worse the way Shag says it, which sounds like a racial slur instead of an English one. Catalyst reminds me of Carapax, who also reminds me not to read Blue Beetle solo comics.

3) HotDCU was literally intended to be the epilogue to COIE, as in the original plan was for the old universe and main story to end in #10, and #11-12 were meant to be the laying out of the new universe. I don’t recall why that plan changed, though presumably they hadn’t figured out what exactly the Post-Crisis Universe was going to be yet, so they dropped a wall on Huntress instead (much to the surprise of her once planned mini-series writer/artist Jerry Ordway as he received the pages of her death to ink.)

4) Quality effort from Xum & Michael Bailey on Shag’s Who’s Who entry. I don’t think I rate as a nemesis to Shag, but more of a recurring frienemy. As such, I expect I’ll be one of those “dead link” (see…) entries that is teased but never materializes.

5) I never got to see a Heroes World shop, because Marvel in the ’90s. Oddly, I only just now learned there is a comic shop called Heroes World in Houston, but not the same thing. Grr, retailing flashbacks!

6) I never got around to commenting on the Film & Water Podcast on Blues Brothers, which was so effervescent it put a big dumb smile on my face driving home from a rough day at work.

7 ) There’s an Adam Warlock & Thanos podcast? Why am I still listening to you guys? Gotta go…

Now, comments posted at the other website that aren’t covered here …

There’s a great presentation of the Perez Ares in the recent digital Sensation Comics, with art by Jamal Igle.

Shag, I think you’re getting Bizarro confused with Nineties Solomon Grundy – Bizarro didn’t change with every appearance, he was the loveable version pretty consistently for decades.

You lads, learn to read. It’s Danny Bulanadi – ‘A’ in the middle.

‘Blackguard’ is pronounced ‘Blag-gard’, Shag. Do you not listen when people yell it at you?

I laughed at your comment, Shag, when you said an artist had ‘made it’ after noting he’d been in the film and TV industry. Did you really mean that’s the measure of success?

You are entirely correct, Rob – an entry for Belle Reve? I loved Suicide Squad, but come on!

Love you guys!

I think Byrne was completely doing an homage to that story, something he did early on in his run (see his first Mxyzptlk story, his Lori Lemaris story, etc).

We can still be friends.

And yeah, Bizarro as Frankenstein may be the “best” option if you’re “serious-izing” or “logic-izing” Superman, but where do you go from there? Nowhere, which is why Byrne immediately blew him up.

F) I missed talking about the weapons section on the inside cover. So familiar, almost as if DC were half-assed stealing from OHOTMU Vol I #15, the all-weapons issue. What’s not to like about WWII Nazi JLA analogues? Didn’t they bring back an updated Axis America in some modern era Justice League stories? I know Brian Murray best for ghosting Rob Liefeld on some pages of X-Force before graduating to launching the EXTREME Superman lift Supreme in the early days of Image. He was also swell in Groundhog Day.

G) Bad Samaritan could have been a good Nighshade foil twenty years earlier, but seemed out of place both in a then-modern team book and as a representative of “godless” commies. I think Baron Tyrano was in some Englehart issues of Green Lantern, but he clearly wasn’t a memorable part of that sweet run. Rick Leonardi is an artist I often can’t stand who is made or broken by his inker, but Karl Kesel works very fine on the Batgirl entry.

H) Mike Barr comes from an ambivalent place since he was the last writer on “my” well-adjusted manly Batman of the Bronze Age, but also wrote the deluded unreasonable bastard man-child proto-Miller G.D. Batman of The Outsiders. It also doesn’t help that his dumb team book euthanized Brave & The Bold. What I can say is that I’ve never been into Alan Davis’ take on the Batman Family, and I resent him for going with the Detective Comics run instead of the second Aquaman mini-series where he would have been better suited and have a more lasting impact. Davis was too soft focus and nice for Batman, the weak link between great Barr Bat collaborators like Aparo and Jerry Bingham.

I) Belle Reve was one of the best, most unique and most enduring contributions to the DC Universe made Post-Crisis. Bizarro hasn’t been in a Superman movie because they have historically downplayed their comic book elements in a misguided bid for mainstream acceptance and manageable budgets. It’s the same stinkin’ thinkin’ that has given us six Superman movies where Lex Luthor or a reasonable facsimile are villains in five and Zod two, but none feature Brainiac. Also, Bizarro as Frankenstein is so boring and unimaginative that I’m disappointed in Shag for even putting it forth as a desirable option.

J) I’m sure we’ve all heard enough times about how Black Adam only appeared once in the Golden Age before resurfacing in the 1970s series, but given how he’s eclipsed Captain Marvel in relative popularity and is the rare highly visible non-white DC character with a legit fan base, it’s a good thing that went down like it did. Had he been more firmly a honky or had spent years getting beaten up by the Marvel Family, he might not have been so primed for the accents that turned him into a DC contender. He even works drawn by Tom Mandrake, the least Marvelous artist to work on that set of characters.

K) When I bought the underwhelming Booster Gold #1 based on the unfulfilled promise of getting a free pin for my troubles, I think Blackguard was the best thing to come out of that deal. The cover was weak, looking like an unexceptional issue of Marvel Two-In-Team-Up-Super-Stories, and I hated Booster Gold immediately, but I liked that Blackguard kept up the color theme and made good use of an appropriately villainous term. Too bad he was treated as action filler so more time could be spent on the Booster concept (’80s “Greed Is Good” shill.) Black Mace is decent in a low key way for a Legion foe, but I have no knowledge of him. Bloodsport is badly designed with a skeevy backstory, and I’m glad Dan Jurgens stole the teleporting weapons bit for the ’90s Weapons Master.

L) I thought for sure that there was a Blue Beetle movie serial, but I guess there was only the short lived radio show. Still enough for inclusion in my never-to-be-realized DC answer to The Defenders featuring the biggest classic multimedia characters acquired but not originated by DC. Have the Jaime Reyes Beetle hang out with Captain Marvel and Plastic Man, while Ted rolls with the Charlton crew. Anyway, I never had much use for Dan Garret(t), especially since I’ve heard his stories were not exactly among the Golden Age’s finest. I’m not that into Ted Kord either, disliking the boilerplate Bronze Age too late Wein/Cullins series, though he earned some laughs in JLI. I suspect my never having read any of his Charlton stories contributes to this, since I usually prefer their versions of the characters to DC’s. Then again, he’s a Spider-Manabee, and I don’t have a high tolerance for those.

M) In my epic DC crossover that will never be, I killed off Booster Gold to motivate Blue Beetle to be a better hero, and then DC did the same thing but flipped the characters. In retrospect, they had it right, since Booster Gold is more unique and has more interesting things to say within the genre. Still not a fan, though.