Steeler Sundays: "Where does he get those Wonderful Toys?"

For our post game wrap up from last week big season finale,  we thought we'd looked at the wonderful toys that are Men of Steel have used through the course of their illustrious careers and how they obtained them. And we're using a handy teaching tool, the wonderful power of alliteration.

The secret to Sarge Steel's accumulation of toys? Grabbing Greedy Goons' Great Gadgets. For instance note the ultra sleek Talon Copter which was once the possession of now disenfranchised foreign agent, the Talon, which was the method of capturing Sarge. And the stun gun. The hypno-chair hopefully came with a money back guarantee as it was fairly useless in controlling the Will of Steel. Nor does it recline.

The secret to Steel Sterling's possession of cool gimmicks? Devices Discovered During Dumpster Diving. Well that is not completely fair...only his supersuit and (apparently) his anti-gravity belt were found in a trash can next to a dumpster...but you get the idea. Why someone would throw out a flying belt is beyond me...although the Magnetic Menace found the foily of freely flying when he foolish felt the need to fly off with it. Never to return...as it headed straight for the stratosphere (until the 1980's when he apparently retrieved it). But fear not, for the genius dunderhead left behind his cool vehicle which Steel rechristened the Sterling Scooter. Check out all its gadgets! And then Monster Master was outwitted by his  sentient Robot-Brain Computer and then claimed by Sterling for use in his secret fortress. Yes folks, only in the comics...

So concludes the inagular season of Steeler Sundays. We'll revisit them once more when the next American Football (Gridiron for you blokes overseas) commences once more in August. Until then we are introducing a new feature next week: Sideline Sundays...where we feature some of the supporting characters who have been on the sidelines cheering our heroes on. And we'll sneak the Steel studs back for a cameo next Sunday with their girl Fridays in tow, Bess Forbes and Gayle Gaynor. Until then!

Friday Fiends: Monster Mash-Ups

In what is developing as a definite trend, we once more revisit our two old friends Blue Beetle 64 (which we'll call him for now) and Steel Sterling (the original Man of Steel...take that Kal-El) as they battle another set of Friday Fiends. And an uglier pair you will not find...

Praying Manis was a scientist named Hunter Mann. As you can tell, he is a bit green with envy over his friend who always seems Blue. Experimenting on insects and rodents to make a variable army of  monster minions.

Monster Master used his scientific acumen to create a robot brain which itself created a wide-variety of bad beasties. His obsession over Steel Sterling bordered on unbalanced, as was his taunts at his robot brain.

Beetle initially took on Mantis outside of Mann's laboratory home, and incredulously had not (or at least didn't verbally admit to) connected his GREEN skinned foe and GREEN skinned fellow acolyte of academia (remember though...this was the age when a green skinned guy could turn into a scrawny guy with ripped up the same ripped up purple genes then sneak onto an army base and no one was the wiser! Ah the silver age!).

Mon-Master grew tired of standing on the sidelines and transformed himself in the ultimate monster. Like Mantis he gained antennae and a green continence. Thankfully the robot brain's most endearing quality was its self-preservation otherwise Steel would've been molten slag.Then Sterling continued an odd pattern that separates him from his colorfully clad comrades...after defeating an adversary he steals the villain's device. First he claimed Magnetic Menace's vehicle, redubbing it the Sterling Scooter, and now the robot brain would accompany him back to his...fortress of soltitude? Or secret citadel (another homage Steel's writer Jerry Siegel made to his more famous creation, Kal-L). We'll revisit this.

Mantis' first scheme was thwarted by Beetle though he would return with a far grander plot, to freeze the world and usher in a new age where is spawn were the dominant creatures on Earth. Only he fell in love, and left himself open to a counter attack from his arch-foe...and from gravity.

Meanwhile Mon-Master returned when he was revived by Doctor Evil (this is before he was GROOVY BABY YEAH!) from the future, who had enlisted him as a henchman. Only it turns out that Steel and Black Hood have far more chemistry than this pair of larcenist loons. And the boys zooms off.

We never find out where Mantis landed, although an appearance by Mon-Master decades later showed that at least he landed on his feet. And so ends another bout with our boastful baddies. There is still one more diabolic duo yet to tangle with the boys. Who? Next week will tell that tale.

Friday Fiends: Malignantly Magnetic Marauders

This week we turn our attention to that favorite foil of silver age costumed champions, the magnetic malefactor. Or in the case of Mighty and Charlton Comics, the Magnetic Menace and Magno-Man. Originally, two aspiring scientists grasping the concepts behind electro-magnetic force, they encounter Steel Sterling and Blue Beetle. It doesn't go well for them.

On the short end of the stick, having been humiliated by our heroes, our villains engage them in battle using the awesome forces at their disposal, to exact vengence on the heroes! And the situation appeared grim!

The Foes use specialized vehicles to take on our  powered pair of pals:.Manace's hovers over the ground, Magno's burrows underneath it.

In their final confrontation,both baddies find themselves doomed as Magno, wearing Sterling's anti-gravity belt, is propelled high above the Earth, and Menace, while inside his drill, is crushed under the Earth!

 

Having lost his belt granting him the power of flight (he'd regain it once more in the 1980's), Steel from this point forward rechristens Magno's vehicle as the "Sterling Scooter". Nothing left for Beetle to salvage except a large piece of French artwork. And so end two one-hit Friday Fiends.