New Crusaders VS Before Watchmen: Bestial!

Who watches the Watchmen, Before Watchmen were in vogue? We will find out as DC Comics launches this cast of Charlton-homage characters back into the spotlight. And amongst the headliners will be Nite-Owl, aka affluent inventor Daniel Dreiberg, who utlizied his love for birds and gadgets to supplement his true love of superheroics. Adopting the alter ego of his hero, the original Nite-Owl, Dreiberg had a modest career alongside his fellow costumed Crimebusters.

Another legacy hero is that of Evette, a young women taken under the wing of the original Jaguar in his zoologist Ralph Hardy identity, who ultimately steps out of the shadows and into the light as his heir-apparent. Considering that Jaguar had his own Rescue Squad which included three lovely ladies who each adored Hardy's alter ego, specifically one known as Cat-Girl, it seems natural that another would gravitate towards the swashbuckling hero and join the New Crusaders.

What we learn of Evette after her heroic debut, and of Daniel Before Watchmen, will be interesting tales told in the months ahead...

Originals VS DC Dopplegangers: The Jaguars

Ralph Hardy, the noted archeologist and secretly the crimson crusader known as the Jaguar, was noted for being a ladies man. However, he may just meet his match should he ever encounter Maria de Guzman, herself the Jaguar in another universe. Both gained superhuman physiques including strength, agility and reflexes as well as senses unmatched amongst their fellow humans. However, while Ralph's power was dervied from a belt he was bequeathed with, Maria gained her powers through her heriditary lineage. Who would win in a match versus each of these feline furies? Maria, who would steal Ralph's heart, of course! Although Cat Girl may have something to say about this encounter, since hardy is her man!



Creative Crusaders: No-Charltons Allowed!

At long last, after an absence of two and a half decades, aside from the occasional cameos in crossovers with the Archie/Riverdale gang, the real Red Circle gang returns. Or at least, their forebearer... the Shield... several years older and showing his age at last. Introducing a new generation of heroes is an entice prospect, and given that the original publisher is stated as commiting to continuing the continuity of the MLJ originals is a project diehard fans will appreciate. It is our sincere wish that the Charlton crew likewise one days gain their own seperate niche, apart from the crowd scenes of DC's universe.

With that in mind, Judomaster would fit nicely as the Shield doppleganger in such an endeavor, as he as well would've aged somewhat since his last "Charltonesque" appearance on a separate Earth in the mid-1980s.  A new generation debuting in the style of the "Boys from Derbe" would definitely have a unique spin to it, as we'd previously seen with a new iteration of the Blue Beetle and characters like E-Man that took concepts such as Captain Atom and turned them on their head. With a newer version of the Comet, Web, Inferno, Web-Girl, Jaguar and Steel Sterling setting the  pace in Archie's updated universe... one wonders what became of the originals.. Are these the children of the Mighty Crusaders, carrying on their parents' proud tradition? Particularly, the though of a Web-Boy sired by John and Rose Raymond would be interesting, given his mother's apprehension towards heroics. And who would Jaguar-Girl's mom be, given that the original Ralph Hardy was a ladies man with at least three different love interests who formed his Jaguar Rescue Squad!

This Archie adventure excites yours truly than a "new 52" mired in a mob scene. Perhaps DC will see the success of Archie's new line of characters... should they stick with them and make them true to their core concepts... and create a new world for the refuges of Charlton. And we're not talking about the "pre-Watchmen" tales... but the originals themselves!

Marvel Mondays: Creature Counterparts

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

Introducing the new Jaguar Rescue Team!

Why this was never a crossover is a true mystery. What more could you ask for... a ferocious (or is it furocious?) feline fighter and a trio of love struck sassy lasses.

Oh sure, Cat Girl, Kree-Nal and Jill Ross were a bevy of beautiful broads, however they were quickly forgotten by the time the object of their affection... Jaguar... was revived in the 1980's. However, Josie and the Pussycats are an enduring legacy who hit the big screen.

Imagine had they have met... once would have been all it took for instant sparks to fly and the teen troubadour trio's unsheathed claws to aim squarely at one another... competing for the love of the crossbreeding of Kal-El and Logan. Think about it, having Superman and Wolverine all wrapped in one would make even Lois Lane, Lana Lang and Lori Lemarus jump for joy!

(Wait a second... Lois=Jill, Lana=Cat Girl, Lori=Kree-Nal! Wild!)

Can we solicit here on this prominent forum a request for Archie to make this pairing a reality?

Crossover Month: Animal Men Unite!

One debuted in 1961 under his own title for fifteen issues plus several backup tales in other magazines and a crossover with another hero, the other appeared in 1965 then resurfaced four more times in the silver age. Yep, Jaguar was far more successful, probably because Archie Comics was fishing for the next new hero. Animal Man was simply another character created to fill a series losing readership at DC Comics.

These two, while remarkably similar in adopting powers of animals thanks to exposure to energy from out-of-this-world. Yet A-Man's limitation of needing to be near an animal to keep his power meant his tales were one-note and limited the credibility of his access to such abilities. Jaguar, on the other hand, had limitless potential, except that his publisher mainly focused on teen comics not heroes.

Sideline Sundays: Cuddly Buddies

Every A-list hero has to have an animal sidekick. It's not optional... it's necessary to get any street cred in the comic community.

Okay...maybe not. Still, Jaguar and E-Man a way with their furry friends, even when they are a bit temperamental at times:

Are energized beast boys had a couple animal buddies... well E-Man's is well known as Teddy-Q, former pet of a henchmen for megalomaniac Samuel Boar. Now reformed and carrying on quite an intellectual life, thank you very much.

Alas, we were never formerly introduced to Ralph Hardy and Jill Ross' furry friend... we'll call him Monkey-Lad. But c'mon, from this one panel... wouldn't he have supported a backup feature? You gotta love him!

Teddy-Q had potential himself for greatness although he never quite realized this potential in his fictional life. Although he ended up as a server at a restaurant that seemed oblivious to all the parasite attached to his fur while he was dishing out food to customers.

Yep both of these dogs were really the cat's meow. Although not quite as gifted as their faithful fake fauna friends.

Team-Up Tuesdays: Celluloid Heroes

Over in a parallel universe adjacent to MLJ, a group of teenagers decide to dress as their fictional heroes for the opening night of "The Shield". What Archie (aka the Shield), Betty (aka the Comet), Veronica (aka the Jaguar), Jughead (aka the Web) and Reggie (aka the Brain Emperor) didn't realize is that their heroes were REAL. Oh wait...this was 2002...two years after Archie and gang had met them in His Weird Mysteries #3 and 14. Guess they forgot... but then again continuity has never been what one would call a strong staple in the World of Riverdale, now is it?

What is interesting about these selections is how dead-on they were to their heroic counterparts. Reggie is definitely the "big bad" within his teen clique. Betty is the "looker" (wearing goggles, get it?) while Ronnie was always the catty one. Jug never let no girl keep him from his higher calling, just like the Web, only Mr. Jone's calling wasn't capturing criminals but consuming calories. By the way, wouldn't Big Ethel have made a wonderful "Pow Girl" aka Rose? That would be old school Ethel, natch.

As for Archie being the Shield, well there's history where the two of our resident red-heads are concerned. Consider his first cover on Pep #43:

A rather disturbing cover the next issue, maybe some building resentment on the Shield's part now that this punk was gaining more fans than he:

Despite this, our boy Arch never waivers in his adulation for his hero, even envisioning himself as the colorful crusader in action!

Charlton never had quite the same phenomenon where a humor character took top billing from heroes. Oh wait, there was ONE red-head:

Course you probably can't make out his hair color in this black-and-white rendering of Charlton Portfolio, but he's the guy right at the top in the middle of the page. Sad to say, E-Man never made it quite as big as the once and future Pureheart the Powerful... known the world over as Archie Andrews (more on Pureheart in future posts, never fear).

Friday Fiends: The Brains of E-nimals Week!

Two repetitive foes of Jaguar and E-Man first appeared as alien exiles turned invaders, each were "heady" villains that used superior mental abilities and technology from their worlds to subjugate Earth. Alas for both, they had their hands full with this pair and their allies. Still, the persisted in their dauntless schemes to rule their adopted home.

Brain Emperor's initial (and sole silver age), appearance was Mighty Comics #1. A mental mutant from the planet K-Shazor, his brief reign of terror was squashed by a solar eclipse. His stellar travels led him to a blue world, third from the sun Sol. He once more attempted to cause an entire global population to bend to his will, but soon found that his own device backfired when used by his new adversaries, the Mighty Crusaders. Using their combined willpower, they banish this baddy.

He returned years later, coinciding with the Crusaders who themselves left behind retirement for their spandex superheroics. Realizing the potential threat of his foes rallying behind the legendary original Shield (recently unthawed from his stone like state), he framed the hero for a murder. Simultaneous, he recreated a fellow fiend named Eterno who quickly went from alleged automaton of the Emperor's to an even bigger threat. Realizing this, Brainy traveled to his old foe Comet's spaceship to enlist him in battle against their common foe. Little realizing another was following his dimension journey, who would soon unseat his plans.

Eventually, the combined forces of B.E. and the Crusaders defeat Eterno and his ersatz MLJer bodies. He continues to operate behind the scenes orchestrating a world wide network of crime under his influence, and yet eventually he is tracked down by his Mighty enemies including the Jaguar who captured the weapon used to frame the Shield. Left humiliated with tail between his legs, he assumed a more human disguise  as the Dragon Head and employed a couple of agents,Eraser and Marital Law to attack the Fox while Emperor, under the guise of Brian Head, attempted to woo the heart of Fox's alias Paul Patton's girlfriend Delilah Monaco. And miserably failed both times. But the malcontent broke up the pair as revenge and further tormented them.

Brain Emperor then returned to his overt career as major league supervillian and enlisted the Riot Squad to deal with the Crusaders. Meanwhile, he banished the fair Darkling (the person who was tracking him above) to interdimensional limbo in a mindless state. He would one day return to wage war against the combined assemblage of virtually all his foes, using a legion of lethal larcenists. However, they ended up in an alternate reality that proved havoc to his alien physiology. So he just stole the body of local jock Moose Mason to lead his adversarial army to a futile final battle. His further activities are unknown. But the Jaguar is waiting.

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The OTHER Brain is the one we were introduced to yesterday during E-Man's origin story. He is from Sirius One, sent as an advanced scout (or persona non-grata) of his race to unleash a bomb on Earth, preparing it for an impending invasion. Originally headed for Pluto, a certain sentient package of power from an  ancient supernova impeded his journey, causing his craft to crash land on our fair planet, thus moving up his time table and his locale for heretofore mysterious further schemes vs E-Man.

The two future foes begin the first a long line of battles, the first proves E-Man the victor.  Attempting to use a bomb to start a chain reaction that would make the Earth the perfect tool for the Brain's master plans, he failed to anticipate any obstacles. Despite superior mental acumen and technology. However, instead of caging the cagey cranium, the energized Alec Tronn leaves the ten-ton tumor in a field thinking he is permanently defeated. How wrong he was! The Brain realized he needed to enlist two youths that are the personification of Entropy.

While they wreak sizable destruction and nearly end the life of E-Man's main squeeze Nova, they are vanquished and then each Entropy twin is separated from the other by E-Man's positively charged blast which stymies the Siriusian.

And try again the Brain of Sirius would, several years late in 2006 which was 30 years from his initial debut. This time, he faced the combined might of two energy heroes, E-Man and the newly re-powered Nova Kane. He didn't fare much better, but until he is imprisoned once and for all he persists in his attempts to aggravate the life of the alien avenger.

Origins of Jaguar and E-Man: E-nimals Week

 Jaguar gains his belt in Adventures of the Jaguar # and learns his origin years later in Mighty Crusaders #7 and the Fly #7!

Next we turn our attention to E-Man's first appearance and his origin from E-Man #1, while further developments on his genesis came later.

So many parallels between these two heroes. Both utilize an ancient strip of energy to harness their animal-like abilities. Both have spunky sisters, for E-Man it is Vamfire and for Jaguar it is Rose Raymond. Both have inscriptions of the core principles that make their powers work written on their costumes. Each flies using the powers of jets. There are two immortal in their myths (for E-Man it is himself and Vamfire, for Jaguar it is Cat-Girl and Varigon). They each can change their appearance to a beast, and both prefer a cat form. And each has a gallery of gals in their lives.

We've also just met perhaps E-man's deadliest foe, the Brain. Tomorrow we learn more about the diabolic schemes of two alien brains who continually caused our power-packed-pair problems! See you then.

Hump-Day Humour: E-nimals Week Yucks

Team-Up Tuesdays: E-nimal Week - Gal Pals

Continuing our "E"-nimal Week festivities, we introduce the gal pals of the powered protectors, Jaguar and E-Man, which also share remarkable characteristics to the lads. First, the brunette girls next door who aided the boys on some cases in a strickly plutonic nature. Or was it?

Rosie and the Ross. Ms. Ross, first name Jill, was the long suffering assistant to her enigmatic boss and also confirmed her suspicions that Mr. Hardy also moonlighted in his scarlet under-roos. There was little doubt that she was the good girl in Jags life, and the one he *should* end up with. Did he? Nah. And Rosie, however, only stuck around for a short while... then was gone.

The main squeeze for the guys was two firebrands. Cat-Girl lost her powers due to radiation while Nova gained powers by radiation! However, Nova's new lease on life (caused by an inner Earth sun going nova itself) caused her to lose her humanity. She later lost them.... only to regain them later (with a different comic book publisher).

Both orange clad gal pals had a preference turning into cats, each had near limitless powers they lost in the end. Apparently, Cat-Girl thought quite a bit more of herself than had Nova. Even after she was stripped of her immortality and various vague powers, she did grabbed what prestige she could as wealthy socialite Lydia Fellin.

Two malevolent lasses from outer space caused the dudes some difficulties, Kree-Nal an alien siren that changed men to beasts and Vamfire, an energy being created by the same nova E-Man came from! Both dropped their harsher edges. Vamfire found love, a mutated human named Eco-Man, while Kree-Nal swam alone.

Eventually, the "E"-nimals' girls joined forces to show them that the fairer sex packs a punch. While E-Man eventually succumbed to his overwhelming feelings for Nova (plus, Vamfire was kinda his "sister" so it would be gross if they paired up, and Rosie just never had the E-chemistry going for her), Jaguar and his alias Ralph Hardy stayed the Lady's Man that never settled down with any of the gals. Both chick magnets!

The Jaguar and the E-Man: E-nimals Week!

 

This weeks festivities commenced yesterday with aconsideration of some tangenal allies of our heroic duo. Today, we ponder the very core of E-nimal Week: Jaguar and E-Man!

Jaguar spent the first few decades of his life as mere Ralph Hardy, a world renowned zoologist whose hobby, coincidentally, was traveling the world. On an archeological dig in Peru, found himself face-to-face with a nasty big snake. Thankfully, he also was face-to-face with some ancient Inca drawing showing the ancient people facing this beast armed with a belt. This special belt, which he likewise conveniently discovered in time to save the day, has an inscription on its buckle "He who loves the animal kingdom may wear this belt and be transformed into a human jaguar" (sheesh that is one honking big belt buckle!).

This ancient clothing accessory, the nucleon energy belt, came equipped with standard issue superhero spandex. It was later revealed by the creator of the belt, Varigon (more on his later) that the first human on Earth to wear this garment was an Incan lady. She wore the same unisex costume and battled the same slithering serpent. The belt itself gave Ralphy several useful abilities that both helped him fit with his fellow heroes and helped to stand him apart. Of course there was super strength and a rhino thick hide.

He was also granted mastery of all animal life, with the ability to telepathically control them (unless plot deem that they pose as a menace, as was often the case).

 His dual persona gradually effected far more than his mustache (which disappeared when he transformed from Tony St...er Ralph Hardy into Jaguar). He slowly gained a bestial nature, which he always suppressed as his parents acknowledged that he always felt more at ease with animals than men. Such as on this occasion when he was attempting to restore his powers through a dream.

The belt itself emitted a constant spray of "nucleon" jet fuel which propelled Jaguar at high speeds through the air with but a thought. These two jet packs attached to the belt were never used as more than an instrument to achieve thrust and altitude. And to keep his trousers up.




For E-Man, he didn't inherit an ancient energy source.. He WAS the ancient energy source, spawned from a supernova as a sentient life form.

After acquainting himself with material life forms he discovered on Sirius IV, he eventually came to Earth and formed a replica of a human body. At which point he adopted the alias of Alec Tronn, named by a very important woman in his life (more on her later).

Among his abilities was the aforementioned shape changing, which allowed him to adopt a variety of forms. He had a pre-disposition towards animals, for some reason. And rockets, which he used to jet his body through the sky. He also projected energy blast from his hands with varying results against his variousf foes.

When he restructured him molecular arrangement to mimic various forms of life, he quickly picked up their attributes and abilities as if instinctively. He was the personification of Einstein's theory of relatively "E=MC2" literally Energy equals Mass times Conversion Squared. In fact, on several occasions Einstein himself appeared in his adventures as a narrator!

Alec had a courageous and kidding nature that allowed him to most of the time keep a cool ahead and appraise situations using an even keel disposition. Even those times when someone tried to keel haul him! One thing more about both E-Man and Jaguar... they were ladies men! Which we'll learn more of tomorrow. Such as Nova Kane in the picture above side-by-side her E-man.