Thunder Agents at DC Week: Dynamo

The classic Dynamo in action as the lead he-man worker bee of the 1960's Thunder Agents. His super human might was matched by his modest can-do attitude. How would he be presented for a new generation with a different appetite in action hero?

Can't say this is too impressive a redesign, quite frankly. The unshaven look went out with Miami Vice (or Lost's Sawyer, which they may be going for). The bad boy making good vibe doesn't quite jive with the classic character. So sorry but its not that promising.

Thunder Agents at DC Week: The New Agents

Revisiting a classic is a tricky proposition which needs rock solid execution in order to work well.

DC Comics is reinventing the Thunder Agents to appeal to appetites of a more action-seeking audience.

And the final result?

Well, there is some resemblance and any venue wherein iconic characters of an under-appreciated genre is always appreciated. We'll dissect the individual members as they are being presented to us in 2010 and see how the reflect (or refract) the images of the originals.

She-Cat Returns to the Archie-Verse

We return to Archie and Friends #138 for yet another appearance of an under-appreciated heroine. Or maybe even two of them!

In addition to Marvelous Maureen flying on the left side of the panel, and the always tempermental Super Duck on the bottom, we see Delilah aka She-Cat flanked by Captain Sprocket. And not a sign of her on-again off-again boyfriend in his Paul Patton identity and her frenemy in his Fox alias. Perhaps she appreciated a guy who didn't hide behind a mask and was honest with her? Although chances are, they simply were at the wrong place at the same time to transfer from Earth-MLJ to Archie's world.

Undoubtedly, alongside the rest of her time and space lost allies, she returned to her home planet. Perhaps even allying with the recently reintroduced Green Cobra and Pow-Girl!

Pow-Girl Returns - Where is the Web?

In Archie and Friends #138, ramifications of a strange meteorite that crashed into the Pep Comics comic book store led to a portal from other dimensions into Archie's own! Notice in the 2nd panel two of the characters observed leaving the store is Pow Girl, aka Rose Raymond, suprisingly without her husband John aka the Web!

This was a character that could have had a great deal of potential had her subsequent appearances in Mighty Comics allowed Rose to develop this costumed persona. Instead, the editors and writers of the series (re: Jerry Siegel) apparently wanted to play up the "hen-pecked hero" angle of the Web.

Here Pow-Girl is accompanied by the one-shot character known as the Green Cobra. Tormented pulp collector Jerry Burton who's belief in the reality of the fictional character known as the Green Cobra tempts him into becoming the character himself! Dispensing justice in a very rigid fashion, his career is cut short by the loss of his wife, leading him to write himself out of the story...literally.

Apparently, the meteorite pulls individuals from another universe wherein they've languished in limbo for decades. Note that no Mighty Crusader is present on this occasion (they had previously traveled to this universe on two other cases). Nothing more is said of this pair though it should be worth noting that the Pow-Girl here is blonde and not a red-head as Rose was always displayed as. Could this be Jerry's wife, who was thought deceased? Or perhaps another woman adopting the Pow-Girl identity? When last we saw the Cobra, his life had ended however this event may've forstalled or erased that even, leaving him with a happy ending as a crime fighter aided by a woman who understands him well.

Meanwhile, Rose Raymond never returned to her one-shot alias, deciding to remain in marital bliss (or torment, for poor John who never heard the end about his career from her).

Alas, the portal didn't free any of Charlton's more obscurity oddities, such as the equally gun-wielding Masked Raider and his pal Talon the Eagle. It would've been interesting to see which won in a dual between the masked men, and between the Cobra and the Eagle.

Blue Beetle Redesign from Project Rooftop

Check out this awesome redesign of Ted Cord's Blue Beetle alias:

An excerpt from Ten Cent Ticker.com:

Based on the Steve Ditko’s redesign for the debut of Ted Kord under the mantle of Blue Beetle in 1996, Ian Sta Maria’s work here ties into the roots of the Kord character as a genius-level inventor. With Ted Kord having no superpowers of his own and a thriving technology-bent creative mind, one could easily see Ted Kord taking his costume to the next step with this more armored and functional costume.

Check out the full text here for this possible future of the Charlton's leaping legend.

The Fly versus the Blue Beetle Round 2

A Classic Match-Up in the Making (in our dreams!)

The Fly versus the Blue Beetle Round 1

Well...sort of. Is this Blue Beetle version 4 or 5?

Captain Atom and Iron Maiden: Reimagined

A Great Team-Up with Terrific Character Designs - in our dreams!

Fine Artwork in the Archie-verse

Fine art as determined by Monseur Jughead

Ugly Betty Reveals Self to the World!

Bamm-Bamm sez: "Put the helmet back on, Ugly Betty! You just ruined my childhood!"

The Short-Career of Blue-Flash Junior



Superheroing in the "real world" of Archie Comics!



Whatsitsname Wednesdays: The First Captain Atom

 The year was 1950, a period when superheroes were on the wane due to various factors. Comicbook publishers were downsizing or simply phasing out of existence, which left a void for enterprising young companies to fill the void. Among these was Nation-Wide Publishing.

Enter Captain Atom. No not that one, the original Cap whose title was filled with "approved adventure stories - all based on scientific facts and theories". Who exactly approved them we cannot say. The main character Captain Atom sported various gadgets including a uranium amplifier, a spectrascope, an atom submarine, and a walkie-talkie television; as well as vehicles such as an atom powered noiseless ram rocket, and an auto-gyro parachute.

Aided by his trusty companions Professor King and Rusty, he lasted all of seven issues through 1951 before being canceled and fading into obscurity.

Mainstream Mondays: Licensed Ladies

Every fictional comic universe has to have the strong female prescence that balances out all the testosterone leaping off the published pages, towing the line between sensitivity and sensibilities necessary to round out her male counterparts.

And so, as DC absorbed Charlton and then MLJ/Red Circle, Nightshade was more than simply Eve Eden, part-time government agent and partner of Captain Atom. Now she was in charge of leading a Suicide Squad of villains to right wrongs and redeem her teammates.

And Fly-Girl was no longer the female part of an age-old comic equation wherein the male dominated the partnership. Kim Brand was one of the web-hosts selected by the revised Web to wear one of his super-suits, which she promptly modified and improved upon. Joining him and a government licencsed team of Mighty Crusaders, her young career was not tied to this assemblage.

Foreign Fridays: Zoot-Suit Special in the Up-Above

Bell Features was a  Canadian publisher known previously as Commercial Signs of Canada from 1939-1942. During the golden age they published original material as well as reprints for the Canadian marketplace until 1954.

Among the properities they acquired briefly was Fox's star the Blue Beetle, who was featured in two of their comic anthologies. Initially appearing in 1948's Surprising Adventures #11, the Beetle reappeared in 1950's Zoot #13.

Apparently, Bell Features were more enamored with properties originating from MLJ Comics aka Archie, publishing Archie Comics (six issues), Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica (two issues), Archie's Pal Jughead Comics (one issue), and Archie's Rival Reggie (two issues). They even dipped into the pool of Quality Comics with reprints of Plastic Man and Police Comics.

Whatsitsname Wednesdays: Roly-Poly Comics

In 1945, during a period when MLJ Comics was transforming into the empire that would become known for its red-haired superstar Archie, superheroes were being phased out.

Still, trying to eck out whatever profits they could from their soon-to-be defunct superhero properties, the company authorized little known Green Publishing to reprint select stories from several of MLJ's anthology titles in the format of "Roly-Poly Comics".

However, the series was irregular in production and in number. Issues #2, 3, 4, 5, 7. 8. 9, and 13 were never published. This publisher also dabbled in other properies, mostly funny animals until 1957 when it closed shop.

Whatsitsname Wednesdays: Where Cap Atom Came From

Charlton Comics' Lawbreakers #1-9 became Lawbreakers Suspense Stories #10-14 then Strange Suspense Stories #16-22 transforming into This is Suspense! #23-26 which morphed into Terry and the Pirates #26-28 (two 26s!) then into a separate series Long John Silver and the Pirates until #32 while also reverting in a separate publication back to Strange Suspense Stories #27-77 before finally becoming Captain Atom #78-89.

Mainstream Mondays: The Rich Guy/Bug Boys

Continuing our series on the integration of Charlton and Archie/MLJ characters in the DC Universe, we next consider that archetype of the rich industrialist turned vigilante. Relying on his wits and his gadgets as he was not born with natural superpowers, this spunky type hero would exercise a bravado unmatched by his more powerful contemporaries, such as the cornerstones whom we considered last week in the forms of Captain Atom and the Shield.

Blue Beetle was the alias adopted by Ted Kord in memory of his deceased friend Dan Garrett aka the original Blue Beetle. Using science to attempt to replicate the ancient scarabs of their predecessors, each Ted Kord proved to be a more viable Blue Beetle for a modern age. Hence, this character wasn't as reimagined as were others from Charlton.

The Beetle quickly gained prominence when he joined the Justice League, as had Captain Atom, only in Blue's case his jovial nature and a friendship developed between himself and new character Booster Gold would quickly become a defining feature in this hero's legend.

John Raymond became the Web over at MLJ and then Mighty Comics in order to right the wrongs commited by his felonious brother. While not possessing the gadgets of the Beetle, this bug-inspired crimefighter had a sharp mental disposition that aided him in combating the illegal element. Incorporated into the 1960's version was a wife named Rose who dispised this identity. Quickly the character devolved into a joke.

However, the newly integrated Raymond at DC Comics had a more serious edge to him. Now a spoiled playboy instead of criminologist, its John's brother who is the do-gooder and is ultimately murdered. Deciding to use technology to create new line of heroes around the world, wearing specialized Web suits granting the wearer certian abilities, it is John who actually becomes the information broker turned superhero relying now more on his courage then the world wide web.

Foreign Fridays: F.E. Howard Publications

F.E. Howard Publications operated out of Ontario Canada during the early to mid-1940's and quickly became a distributor of MLJ Comic's star features.

Within Super Comics, published intermittently from 1943 to 1944, six issued were published with reprints of the Shield, Archie, Hangman, Captain Commando and others in the MLJ staple. Note the Shield's redisgned logo to reflect a more English-centric fanbase.

Other features picked up included Mister Monster and more obscure characters from other publishers. This was par for the course, as it were, allowing foreign publishers to pickup the rights of various characters from various American-based publishers and repackage them for local markets. Demand evidently wasn't very high as such series had short life spans.

Whatitsname Wednesdays: Hangman-Black Hood-Laugh

MLJ Comics' Special Comics #1 turns into Hangman Comics #2-8 then Black Hood Comics #11-19 graduating into Laugh Comics #20-400. On issue #85 the "Comics" is dropped from Laugh.

Whatsitsname Wednedays: Yellowjac-in-the-box-cowboy-space-western



Yellowjacket Comics #1-10 becomes Jack-in-the-Box #11-16 turns into Cowboy Western Comics #17-39 morphs into Space Western 40-45 then back to Cowboy Western Comics #46  transforms into Space Western Heroes and a swan song of Cowboy Western.