Charlton, Incorporated: Slueth Suits

We think Vic Sage finally met his match, no offense Renee Montoya!

Marvel Mondays: The Other Yellowjacket

Quit complaining bug boy. Least you both have a gal to fly by your side!

Charlton, Incorporated: Atomic Aces

Lose the mohawk and maybe you'll get a gal, Al!

Marvel Mondays:Webheads Love Redheads

Think again, Spidey. Rose is more a nag than MJ. Course you don't have to worry about that these days, ey?

Charlton, Incorporated: Shady Romance

Marvel Mondays: Super-Soldiers

True, Joe, but at least Steve has (had?) an admantium shield which beats your supersuit!

Sitcom Saturdays: Derby's Funniest...er Finest

Last week we asked how a promotional still featuring the Charlton quartet compared with sitcom's fantastic four from Seinfeld. To sum up thus far:

• Jerry Seinfeld = Captain Atom
• Elaine Benes = Nightshade
• George Costanza = Question
• Cosmo Kramer = Blue Beetle

Well, let's check out one scene from our proposed new comedy for next fall's lineup, Derbyfeld:

(Yes, yes, lame. Give us credit for at least thinking outside the box if nothing else. You may now return to your serious online browsing, folks. Drive home safely)

Friday Fiends: Foreign Femme Fatales

Our twin masters of materializing, MLJ's minor league hero Bob Phantom and Charlton's major league villain the Ghost, had more in common than teleporting into troublesome situations. Or their flair for capes and cowls.

Both encountered foreign femme fatales that continually plagued their existence and nearly cost them their lives. Matching their mastery of manipulation of men and machines, Phantom and Ghost outsmarted Japan's Ah-Ku and Sunaria's high priestess using a combination of their potent prowess and their persistence patience even in the face of danger.

While the grand advisor of the Sunarian race of warrior women operated behind-the-scenes until the final confrontation between her people's Faceless One (although the Ghost was not, in fact, their legendary leader... he only looked exactly like him for some strange inexplicable reason), Ah-Ku repeatedly quarreled with Bob Phantom over several cases until she was finally defeated by her adversary.

There are a series of tales chronicled elsewhere on the web that preserve this little known fictional fiend for future fans of fabulous fab fighters of freedom. Although, from the picture above, it was Bob Phantom who was the "fiend" in her eyes, much like the Priestess. And, from a certain perspective, that is definitely true as both enigmatic entities were a thorn in the collective sides of our greedy gals and their minions.

Charlton, Incorporated: Insect Inventors

Which is cooler... a solar powered suit or flying bug? Yeah, we'd take the bug too!

Marvel Mondays: Creature Counterparts

Animal alias...check. Red jumpsuit....check! Strong physique...check! Wolverine style hair...check!

Sitcom Saturdays: A Comic About Nothing

When you boil down the fantastuc four of the Charlton Comics universe, you find startling similarities with a famous sitcom, Seinfeld:

1. The centerpiece of our quartet, Seinfeld, is bubbling with energy and thirsts to be a hero of the caliber of Captain Atom (well, of a certain Man of Steel, actually)
2. The femme friendly of our foursome can take care of herself in the tough streets of the big city, like Nightshade.
3. George is the man who questions life in all its complexities, like a Mister Vic Sage.
4. Then there is the creative mind and quirky personality, a dead ringer for Blue Beetle. 

So how would an actual Seinfeld promotional still work with the Charlton cast look? Tune in next week to find out...

Friday Fiends: Green With Greed

This installment of Friday Fiends is brought to you by the letters M D D. What do they stand for? An obscure but nevertheless enduring character in the Archie Comics mythos.

Mad Doctor Doom first appeared in the fall of 1962 as a foil for a Little Archie. Accompanied by his boy sidekick Chester, Doom (not to be confused with Victor Von at a Marvelous competitor, who appeared around the same time) continued to bedevil the lad eight additional times before graduating into the big time... and modern day... when he took on a grown-up Mr. Andrews under the alias of Captain Pureheart the Powerful. At times assisted by Pureheart's frienemy Reggie "Evilheart" Mantle, Archie's alter ego had to enlist the aid of his fellow heroes Superteen and Captain Hero to tackle the pair.

Not only was old Doom green with envy, thirsting for world domination (or at least, Riverdale rule) over on Archie's Earth, on the parallel Earth-MLJ where a golden age Archie and his gang rubbed shoulders with the likes of the Shield, another green skinned gone similar to the mad doctor arrived on the scene. Dueling with Steel Sterling, the Monster Master started out a normal scientist until his super-computer transformed him into something more hideous and heinous. And then, of course, Earth-Four had the Preying Mantis who also turned green while battling the Blue Beetle.

It was refreshing to see that Archie, Mighty, and Charlton Comics each decided to focus a bit of attention to that most ignored of minorites... the greenskins. Think it had anything to do with yet another scientist, a Mister Robert Bruce Banner, perhaps?