Thank-you so much for the work you put into this show. I have learned a great deal and really enjoy it because of that. When I got back into comics (during Civil War and Infinite Crisis), the DC and Marvel encyclopedias, as well as Wikipedia, really helped me figure out who the characters are, and I appreciate character history. Keep it up!

I’m with rob, original format all the way

I heard Tom Artis died, Xum

The honeymooners indeed

Thanks for another tiptop show, a few comments.

I’m with Rob, I prefer the original format, rather than having to faff about with clunky folders and having to put pages on order – there is no better ordering system than alphabetical.

I like that cover, it’s frothy and fun.

I’m tickled to hear that ‘mort’ in the comic book sense was ever ambiguous, it seems so obvious. But then again, there is SO much that goes over my head, it’s untrue.

Love love LOVE Amazing Man’s costume, it’s like A-SS teammate Tarantula’s in being too stylish for the time, but gorgeous.

I was delighted that the little jaundiced people were written out of Ray Palmer’s life, opening the way for the sheer delight that was Power of the Atom. I loved Ray grabbing his life back, having new powers and generally not wearing a ridiculous loincloth over his costume. We were back to a world in which Ray’s six inches was special, rather than him being a titchy person among fellow shrimps.

Axis Amerika – what’s ‘mort’ in German?

Blackhawk – a strapping man in leather with a peaked cap, what’s not to like?

Blackhawks – I say, why no English stereotype?

Black Thorn – she’s welcome to the glasses and hair of the post-Crisis Phantom Lady, I hate Dee the dog-killer.

Blue Trinity – Lordy, they were boring.

Brainiac – Milt Fine, note how ‘Milt’ is just two letters away from ‘Mort’? He was just rubbish, the classic Brainiac couldn’t come quickly enough.

I never read a single issue of the original Checkmate, they didn’t pique my interest at all in Action Comics. I did think the revamp sounded interesting, but then I read it … Greg Rucka’s admirable attempt at realistic spy speak sucked the life out of the script.

Chunk was great, dropping him, along with the magnificent Mary West, was one of the excellent Mark Waid’s few bad moves when he took over The Flash.

The Crimson Avenger – it’s a shame that the only story anyone can cite is his death scene, and that was done better in the Doom Patrol.

Duchess – sigh, Ostrander, Yale and O’Donnell were so very, very good, even making a dull Fourth World biddy interesting

Danny Chase – the reason people hated him was that he was written as a conceited, over-entitled pipsqeak and drawn with a ginger bowl cut. He should’ve Inc dissected by the Controllers, not hanging around with a once-decent team of teenagers of pensionable age.

Doctor Fate II – I enjoyed the DeMatteis/McManus series lots, though the romance was seriously icky.

Doctor Mist – And talking of creepy, honestly, he’s more irredeemable than Shagg. It’d be interesting to see if anyone could do anything with him that doesn’t involve him and a team of not-as-good-as-the-Justice-League heroes. Primal Force got close, but the final issue retroactively ruined the series, by being unintelligible. I do like that Dr Mist was created by H Rider Haggard. I believe artist Tom Artis is no longer with us, sadly.

Doctor Occult – the name business is hilarious. I wonder if there’s a Sneezy and Dopey Occult out there.

Doom Patrol – I enjoyed this version of the team, bar Erik Larsen’s art, which just wasn’t for me.

Dumas (pron. Dumbass) – I’ve never read a book with him in it, but that costume. It’s as bad as the horrific Manhunter outfit.

Felix Faust – I will not accept, Shagg, that he’s not one of the biggest villains in the DC Universe, having starred on one of the most iconic covers ever. OK, it was a, let’s say, ‘homage’, but even the accompanying story was amazing.

Firestorm was just wonderful and they threw it away; I’m not saying I didn’t like some of Ostrander’s stuff, but the Russian version was strangely proportioned and dull, while the elemental was, well, just not Firestorm.

Forever People – I’ve only ever read them in the most recent series, which was great fun from DiDio and Giffen, otherwise, space hippies, bah.

Gangbuster – I liked Jose Delgado as a supporting character, but not as a dull, fifth-rate superhero, with no powers and a self-limiting concept (Gangbuster; he busts gangs. Zzzzz)

Garguax- comics needs more green fatties. That is all.

Ghost – yes, the look is unfortunate, and he’s obviously no gentleman, but I enjoyed the few stories I saw him in.

G’Nort- H’ate. Oh, I was sure he sometimes had an apostrophe too. Anyway, he was stupid looking and so crap even Itty wouldn’t have him as a sidekick. The Honeymooners reference is lost on me, I didn’t even know Ed Norton was acting back then.

Godiva II, by virtue of keeping a Brit offstage, was obviously a tosser. Why call a character Godiva if she’s neither nude nor hair-themed?

Green Arrow – I hated the Seattle years, he should’ve been in a decent superhero costume, driving the Arrowcar and stocking up on boxing gloves.

Green Flame showed how a nothing character could have her blank slate filled with glowing goodness. To this day, she’s lighting up the DCU, in JL3001.

Green Lantern II – ah Hal, if only you know what lay ahead. Mind, hasn’t he already started the reprehensible ‘romance’ with Arisia around this point, so he was already ruined as a character. Shagg, Hal didn’t take the identity of Pol Manning, he had it imposed on him when his memory vanished when he was pulled into the future.

Green Lantern Corps – I loved this bunch, it pains me that there’s not been a consistently readable GL Corps book in years.

Harlequin II. She was called Marcy. Nuff said.

U) While I was interviewing J.M. DeMatteis about anything but G’nort, his love for the character “beyond all reason” still came up. I don’t particularly like or dislike Ed NORTon as the basis for a comic book character, but I also only see him as a utility for comedy involving other characters. To me, Justice League Antarctica and “Aliens Night Out” are about my enjoying the story’s stars reacting to circumstances created by this furry device/prop.

V) Until I glanced at the credit, I had no idea Michael (Mike?) Collins drew Godiva, as it’s far better than and doesn’t remotely resemble a familiar artist I tend to consign to the Alex Saviuk spectrum of resigned tolerance. Given her limited exposure and overall look, I assume she’s a terrible character, but she looks hot (…and, uh, an empowered being with unlimited potential, or whatever I need to say to not totally objectify her, even though I doubt she’s worth the effort.)

W) I didn’t know Rob Liefeld was doing layouts for any Who’s Who besides the Legion edition. Truth to tell, I’ve always liked Mike Grell as an artist, but I’ve never been much impressed with him as a writer, especially if you exclude Warlord. The visuals were the strong suit of The Longbow Hunters, and the series that followed suffered journeyman art by the likes of Ed Hannigan and Rick Hoberg. I can’t explain how such lethargic craft limped along for seven years, except I guess DC readers missed it the first time when it was done better by Frank Miller in Daredevil. Such a long wait until Connor Hawke validates this series’ existence.

X) The strongest impression Green Flame ever made on me was in the last issue of JLI with Kevin Maguire as the regular artist where he did an impressive job of drawing her breasts as she spent the entire issue in bed sick with Gene Bomb. I’m not a breast man, but he gave them a grand sense of volume and texture. I want to like Bea because she’s a highly visible Latin heroine (eventually) with decent powers, and I liked the idea of her being a secret agent for Brazil. Unfortunately, I’ve always found her to be defined by sex appeal and her relationship to other characters like Ice & Guy Gardner. She’s also never been terribly effective in her adventures. I don’t recall Fire ever saving the day, and even in Checkmate, she was one of the lesser agents, barely an afterthought of a presence around the likes of The Wall and The Typical Greg Rucka Heroine: DC Edition whose name I forget (Sasha Bordeaux.)

Y) Joe Staton isn’t a favorite, though it’s funny how I’m fine with him drawing stories for John Stewart or Guy Gardner, but he’s the artist of my most pronounced hatred of Hal Jordan. I liked the zombie Lantern, but seeing him in this entry just reminded me how Steve Englehart threw out clever concepts like a power ring that failed to allow its bearer to die in favor of trying to pull off DC’s 19th quasi-Marvel team book, this time made up of characters that all have the same powers.

Z) I agree that Mark Waid pulled a Roy Thomas and turned Who’s Who into a catalogue of the changes made to characters in the Secret Origins title that he also edited. I feel the decision to focus on second entries for contemporaneous but ultimately inconsequential characters like Harlequin II instead of continuing the original volume’s mission of cataloging the whole of DC history rendered Who’s Who irrelevant and to be honest, increasingly undesirable. I’ve got hardbound copies of the Updates sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust while I schlep to the comic room to pull individual issues of the main series out of long boxes. When Rob joked “it’s all downhill from here,” he was late by about six episodes. Update ’88 is the nadir of Who’s Who, with the looseleaf and even Secret Files climbing out of its slump.

Chris

You make a big deal of the Ghost being subprint-free, but so is Axis Amerika. In the Ghost’s case at least, regardless of why the art was originally commissioned, it’s interesting that he’s a fading character and the background is solid, whereas most characters are solid with “transparent” surprint backgrounds.

Hard to take Black Thorn seriously, and it’s not just the horrendous costume – it was the name of a character in my very first D&D campaign and a real jerk. Not much of a difference between the character and the player, come to think of it.

Agree with Frank (it BURNS) that Dumas was only ever cool under Doug Rice’s pencils, and that’s almost true of Mark Shaw’s Manhunter costume as well.

DISAGREE with Frank (ahhh Calgon take me away!) on Gangbuster though. Loved that era of Superman, liked José (elevated Trinity for me), and liked the twist with Superman in the role.

Agree with Phylemon (it double-burns!!!) that the Duchess surprint is lacking. The lines are too thick to make the art at all legible. Still love the character though.

Green Lantern Corps: There are only 4 left but let’s show a bunch of them anyway? Well at least the zombie GL got into the shot

Junior groups inside a group? How about Legion Academy? Recently had their own strip in Adventure Comics.

All’s good. We’re all buddies here in the Nuclear Submarine!