I have already proposed a revision of the Superman versus Batman chess set. I have proposed a DC superheroes versus DC supervillains set. Below is my third proposal:
DC
King – Superman
Queen – Wonder Woman
Bishop – Green Lantern
Knight – Batman
Rook – Flash
Pawn – Checkmate Field Agent
Marvel
King – Thor
Queen – Storm
Bishop – Iron Man
Knight – Captain America
Rook – Hulk
Pawn – S.H.I.E.L.D. Field Agent
WereVerse Universe Baby!
WereVerse Universe at Google Drive Link
Posted in Art, Comic Book Critique, DC vs. Marvel
Tagged Batman, Bishop, Captain America, Chess set, DC vs. Marvel, Flash, Green Lantern, Hulk, Iron Man, King, Knight, Pawn, Queen, Robin, Rook, Spider-Man, Storm, superhero chess set, Superheroes, Superman, Supervillains, Thor, Wonder Woman
This post will compare sidekicks of the DC and Marvel universes. Which universe has the best sidekicks? First of all, what is a sidekick? Wikipedia provides the following definition “A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies”. Wikipedia in the same article expands on the functions of a sidekick “Sidekicks can provide one or multiple functions, such as a counterpoint to the hero, an alternate point of view, or knowledge, skills, or anything else the hero doesn’t have. They often function as comic relief, and/or the straight man to the hero’s comedic actions. A sidekick can also act as someone more relatable to the audience than the hero, or whom the audience can imagine themselves as being (such as teen sidekicks). And by asking questions of the hero, or giving the hero someone to talk to, the sidekick provides an opportunity for the author to provide exposition, thereby filling the same role as a Greek chorus”. A sidekick is not a villain’s henchmen or the romantic interest of a hero which is generally referred to as a companion.
The picture above got me thinking about sidekicks. The picture is from page 199 of the graphic novel Bizzaro Comics (2001). Bizzaro Comics is a hilarious collection of indie writers and artist’s parodies of DC comic titles. This picture is from the story titled Without You I’m Nothing and follows the travails of obscure discarded sidekicks. I am a comic book historian and do get a kick out of stories that use obscure characters like this story does. I was not able to identify all the side kicks in the picture but have a partial answer key at the end of this post. This post also attempts to provide definitive lists of sidekicks in the DC and Marvel universes and the Wikipedia definition was strictly adhered to. Many obscure characters that have not been included in prior lists of this nature have been included in this post. Below is a definitive list of DC sidekicks that will be discussed later.
List of DC Sidekicks
| Superhero | Sidekick | First Appearance |
| Aquaman | Aquagirl 1 (Lisa Morel) | Adventure Comics #266 (November, 1959) |
| Aquaman | Aquagirl 2 (Tula) | Aquaman (vol. 1) #33 (May-June 1967) |
| Aquaman | Aqualad (Garth) | Adventure Comics #269 (February 1960) |
| Aquaman | Topo (Octopus) | Adventure Comics #229 (October 1956) |
| Aquaman | Qwsp | Aquaman (vol. 1) #1 (January-February 1962) |
| Batman | Ace the Bat Hound | Batman #92, June 1955 |
| Batman | Alfred Pennyworth (Butler) | Batman #16 (April-May 1943 |
| Batman | Bat-Girl (Bette Kane) | Batman #139 (April 1961) |
| Batman | Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) | Detective Comics #359 (January 1967) |
| Batman | Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) | Legends of the Dark Knight # 120 (August 1999) |
| Batman | Robin 1 (Dick Grayson) | Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) |
| Batman | Robin 2 (Jason Todd) | Batman #357 (March 1983) |
| Batman | Robin 3 (Tim Drake) | Batman #436 (August 1989) |
| Batman | Robin 4, Spoiler, Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) | Detective Comics #647 (August 1992) |
| Batman | Robin 5 (Damian Wayne) | Batman #655 (September 2006) |
| Batman | Robin Earth II (Richard Grayson) | Detective Comics #38 (April, 1940) |
| Blackhawk | Lady Blackhawk (Zinda) | Blackhawk # 133 (February 1959) |
| Blue Devil | Kid Devil | Blue Devil #14 (July 1985) |
| Booster Gold | Goldstar | Lobo #5 (May ’94) |
| Booster Gold | Skeets | Booster Gold (vol. 1) #1 (1986) |
| Captain Marvel | Captain Marvel Jr. | Whiz Comics #25 (December 1941) |
| Captain Marvel | Lieutenant Marvels | Whiz Comics #21 (1941) |
| Captain Marvel | Mr. Tawky Tawny (Anthropomorphic Tiger) | Captain Marvel Adventures #79 |
| Captain Marvel | Uncle Marvel | Wow Comics #18 (October 1943) |
| Captain Mid-Nite | Hooty the Owl | All-American Comics #25 (April, 1941) |
| Chameleon Boy | Proty I | Adventure Comics #308 (May 1963) |
| Chameleon Boy | Proty II | Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #72 (October 1963) |
| Crimson Avenger | Wing How | Detective Comics #20 (October 1938) |
| Flash | Impulse (Bart Allen) | Flash (vol. 2) #92 (June 1994) |
| Flash | Kid Flash I (Wally West) | The Flash (vol. 1) #110 (December 1959) |
| Flash | Kid Flash II (Iris West) | Kingdom Come #3 (July 1996) |
| Flash | Kid Flash III (Bart Allen) | Teen Titans (vol. 3) #4 (December 2003) |
| Flash | S’kidd Flash | Flash vol 2 #235 (February, 2008) |
| General Glory | Ernie the Battling Boy | Justice League America # 46 (January 1991) |
| Green Arrow | Amber Archer (Connor Hawke) | Green Arrow vol 2 #0 (October, 1994) |
| Green Arrow | Arrowette | World’s Finest Comics #113 (November 1960) |
| Green Arrow | Speedy I (Roy Harper) | More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941) |
| Green Arrow | Speedy II (Mia Dearden) | Green Arrow (vol. 3) #44 (January 2005) |
| Green Lantern | Gen’ma | Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #6 |
| Green Lantern | Doiby Dickles | All-American Comics #27 (June 1941) |
| Green Lantern | Terry Berg | Green Lantern (vol. 3) #129 (October 2000) |
| Green Lantern | Thomas Kalmaku (Pieface) | Green Lantern (Vol. 2) #2 (September-October 1960) |
| Icon | Rocket | Icon #1 (May 1993) |
| Johnny Thunder | Black Lightning the Horse | Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) |
| Joker | Harley Quinn | The Batman Adventures #12 (September 1993) |
| Justice League of America | Snapper Carr | The Brave and the Bold #28 (February-March 1960) |
| Justice League International | G’nort (Green Lantern, Humanoid Dog) | Justice League International #10 (February, 1988) |
| Knight | Squire (Cyril) | Batman #62,(December 1950) |
| Little Boy Blue | Tubby, Toughy | Sensation Comics #1 (January, 1942) |
| Martian Manhunter | Zook | Detective Comics #311 (January, 1963). |
| Mr. Scarlet | Pinky the Whiz Kid | Wow Comics #4 (1940) |
| Owlman | Talon | Teen Titans vol. 3 #38 (September 2006) |
| Plastic Man | Woozy Winks | Police Comics #13 (November 1942) |
| Robin | Flamebird (Mary Elizabeth Kane) | Teen Titans #50 (October, 1977) |
| Tomahawk | Dan Hunter | Star-Spangled Comics #69 (June 1947) |
| Sandman | Brute | The Sandman #1 (May 1974) |
| Sandman | Glob | The Sandman #1 (May 1974) |
| Sandman | Sandy the Golden Boy (Sandy Hawkins) | Adventure Comics # 69 (December 1941) |
| Space Ranger | Cyrll | Showcase #15, (July 1958) |
| Star Hawkins | Ilda (Robot) | Strange Adventures #114 (March 1960) |
| Star-Spangled Kid | Stripsey (Pat Dugan) | Action Comics #40 (September, 1941). |
| Superboy | Pete Ross | Superboy #86 (January 1961) |
| Super-Girl | Comet the Super-Horse (Biron) | Action Comics #292 (1962) |
| Super-Girl | Streaky the Super-Cat | Action Comics #292 (1962) |
| Superman | Bo “Bibbo” Bibbowski | Adventures of Superman #428 (May 1987) |
| Superman | Jimmy Olsen | Action Comics #6 (November 1938) |
| Superman | Krypto | Adventure Comics #210 (March 1955) |
| Superman | Super-Girl | Superman #123 (August 1958) |
| TNT | Dan the Dyna-Mite (Daniel Dunbar) | World’s Finest Comics #5 (Spring 1942) |
| Vigilante | Stuff the Chinatown Kid | Action Comics #45 (February 1942) |
| Wonder Woman | Etta Candy | Sensation Comics #2 (Feb. 1942) |
| Wonder Woman | Wonder Girl 1 (Wonder Woman as a teenager) | All-Star Comics #8 (December 1941), |
| Wonder Woman | Wonder Girl 2 (Donna Troy) | The Brave and the Bold vol. 1 #60 (July 1965) |
| Wonder Woman | Wonder Tot | Wonder Woman #105 (April, 1959) |
Robin wins the best DC sidekick prize easily. Robin is the first teenage super hero sidekick and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Robin has been flattered to death. DC went ahead and created an army of teenage sidekicks. Eventually the teenage sidekicks of the major superheroes founded a teenage sidekick version of the Justice League called the Teen Titans. The original Teen Titans included Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin and Wondergirl. Later still, Young Justice is created. The Teen Titans and Young Justice meet in a giant sidekick crossover between their two groups.
The obvious absurdity of Robin is that crime fighting is dangerous work even for an adult like Batman and introducing a minor to crime fighting makes no sense whatsoever except as a plot device. Batman’s villains were obviously very aware that Robin was the weak link and Two-Face even referred to Robin as the boy hostage. The psychologist Fredric Wertham decided there was a homosexual subtext in the Batman and Robin relationship and wrote about this in Seduction of the Innocent. Batman goes through a whole slew of Robins and eventually one gets killed brutally by the Joker with a crow bar in a Death in the Family. Jason Todd is the lucky Robin to suffer death and the best part is that readers entered a poll to decide if he lived or died. Truly a low point in comic book history but a lot of Batman issues were sold so all in all the project was a success. Later Robin 4 (Stephanie Brown) in the identity of the Spoiler is even more brutally killed by the Black Mask with a power drill.
Of course no one really dies in comic books so Jason Todd return as the Red Hood and wants some payback from Batman for letting him die and secondly, and probably more importantly letting the Joker live. The five Robins all get starring roles after Batman “dies”. The ex-Robins have all become heroes in their own right. I would argue that the Red Hood is an antihero not a villain. Robin 1, Dick Grayson, has become Nightwing. Robin 3, Tim Drake, becomes Red Robin. Stephanie brown is resurrected from her power drill death and becomes Batgirl. The male Robins are all potential impersonators of the dead Batman. The Red Hood gets in the act and kind of forces Dick Grayson to become the new Batman because if he doesn’t then the Red Hood will assume the role. The potential heirs to Batman agree that the death of Batman should be hidden and one of them should pretend to be the original Batman. This is similar to the Phantom, the ghost who walks that has the son of the prior Phantom assume the role of the Phantom so as to give the illusion that the Phantom never dies. The Robins are basically sons of Batman but unfortunately there is more than one son i.e. more than one Robin and succession is not clear. This jockeying between the Robins is largely covered in the Batman miniseries Battle for the Cowl but this power struggle affected all Batman related titles of the last year. Dick Grayson does a good job impersonating Batman but doesn’t fool Commissioner Gordon. The new Batman of course needs a new Robin and gets a psychopath kid, due to being trained by the League of Assassins since childhood. This new Robin is the long lost son of Bruce Wayne and called Damian Wayne. Confused? Everyone is confused so don’t feel bad. I am sure the writers of the Batman lines have cheat cards on their desks. Will the barnacles of Batman history eventually sink the line? Maybe!
Robin and his teenage copies at DC and even Marvel have so dominated the sidekick market in comic books that readers tend not to look at the broader literary concept of a sidekick when looking at comic books. Another Batman sidekick is Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred provides an alternate point of view to the audience as well as the ability to aid Batman when he is hurt. Alfred has surgical skills gained when Alfred was an army medic. Alfred was also in the theater and can pretend to be Batman when needed. This is a rarely used skill of Alfred that is nevertheless crucial when someone is too close to discovering Batman’s identity. Robin is presumably too small to provide a similar function and anyway Robin needs to be by Batman’s side so people don’t think Robin is pretending to be Batman. Alfred Pennyworth can be extremely critical and sarcastic with Batman unlike the army of Robins. Alfred provides an “adult” perspective about Batman to the reader. Alfred has known Batman since he was a child. Alfred is aware of the how the killing of Batman’s parents made Batman a great crime fighter at the expense of a normal life. The Red Hood has argued with Batman that most of his hard core rogues gallery only fear death and the fact that Batman does not kill and the fact that the villains know this limits the effectiveness of Batman as a crime fighter. Batman may be able to instill fear in common criminals but provides more challenge than fear to the likes of the Joker. In Batman #647, Alfred actually agrees with the Red Hood mentally but does not express his views to Batman verbally.
Batman is a serial teenage sidekick mentor and there is something very creepy about this. Any “normal” person would not expose even one minor to extreme violence and certainly would not continue this behavior after the death of Jason Todd much less the subsequent death of Stephanie Brown. Alfred has expressed dismay about the use of teenage sidekicks many times to Batman. However, Alfred in the end is the dutiful butler who does what his master wishes despite any misgivings about such a course of action. Alfred’s subordination to Batman’s wishes despite sarcastic remarks is what makes Alfred a sidekick rather than an equal partner. Batman is not the only member of the Batman story line with a sidekick.
The Joker, Batman’s archenemy, has a sidekick! Villains generally do not have sidekicks but henchmen, minions or lackeys. Villains are generally egomaniacs and incapable of having long lasting meaningful relationships or so the theory goes. Villains see their henchmen as disposable cannon fodder. The Joker generally treats those around him in precisely this manner but there is one exception and that is Harley Quinn. Harley Quinn was a female psychiatrist that treated the Joker at Arkham Asylum and turned to the dark side rather than curing the Joker. Harley Quinn is in love with the Joker but the relationship has clearly never been consummated. The Joker obviously sees Harley Quinn as a capable sidekick even if Harley Quinn wants more. Harley Quinn is a near superhuman gymnast who uses her skill with great combat effectiveness. Harley Quinn wears a Jester outfit and became friends with Poison Ivy at Arkham were she ironically resided after her break down. Harley Quinn provides comic relief to Joker stories that despite the name of the Joker were not very funny before Harley Quinn showed up.
The Joker had been jealous of Batman having Robin as a sidekick in the silver age and got his own one-shot sidekick in Batman #186 called Gaggy. The main function of Gaggy was to provide comic relief to then Joker since such comic relief led to the Joker having great crime ideas. Gaggy rather simplistically hated Robin and managed to knock Robin out with a head butt to the stomach. Gaggy was never heard of after that one issue. I think an issue in which Gaggy, embittered by being discarded by the Joker, targets Harley Quinn for assassination might be interesting. Harley Quinn turns to Batman to figure out who is trying to kill her and clues are left that the culprit is a dwarf with a penchant for practical joke paraphernalia. Since not an awful lot of characters fit that description, Batman deduces that the culprit is Gaggy! Did I mention I like obscure comic book characters? Batman’s sidekicks on the whole do not provide comic relief. This is not the case of Captain Marvel.
Captain Marvel also has an army of sidekicks but largely for comic relief. Mr. Tawky Tawny is an anthropomorphic tiger i.e. a funny animal that gets into all sorts of silly trouble Captain Marvel can save the tiger from. Uncle Marvel is an older bumbling version of Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel was always a sillier line than his doppelganger Superman.
Flash is another serial sidekick character that has gone through three Kid Flash characters. Kid Flash was clearly inspired by Robin. Super speed is a major power that is very much underestimated in comic books. Basically you can hit the bad guy a hundred times and dodge whatever the bad guy tosses at you. “Realistically” the foes of the Flash should stand no chance against the Flash. Captain Cold has a freeze gun. The Flash should be able to dodge anything the cold gun can come up with. A teenager with super speed is still incredibly powerful despite being a teenager unlike Robin who has no super powers and even the inferior strength of someone who is younger. Maybe a Kid Flash can only punch with half the power of an adult but a hundred punches later and even the toughest boxer is going down.
Green Arrow has had two teenage sidekicks named Speedy. The first Speedy grows up to become a heroin addict, but recovers, and there is some suggestion that maybe crime fighting as a teenager might not be all that healthy psychologically and contributed to the heroin addiction.
Superman only has one teenage sidekick and that is Jimmy Olsen. In the silver age, Jimmy Olsen was officially Superman’s best pal and again very creepy if you think about it. Superman is perennially in his early thirties and if I saw some thirty year old hanging around a teen rather than a guy his own age then I would wonder exactly what function this teenager serves. Jimmy even has a watch with an ultrasonic signal that allows him to call Superman when he is in danger. Lois Lane does not have such a watch! Teenage guy gets the watch but not the gal? Maybe the silver age Superman had reasons for not marrying Lois Lane that had more to do with subconscious gender preference than any other reason.
Superman has a dog called Krypto. In the silver age, Batman got a dog called Ace but there is no comparison with Krypto and Ace in terms of importance. Superman in the silver age was Superboy and Krypto and Superboy were constant companions. This is one of the healthier sidekick relationships in comic books. Krypto cannot talk but can communicate to the reader via thought balloons that show what Krypto is thinking. Krypto’s attempts to understand Superboy’s behavior using canine logic were pretty cute and comical and one of the few things that made the otherwise lame Superboy title work.
The current Supergirl has no hyphen between “Super” and “Girl” in her name. The current Supergirl is a hot babe in a half shirt who has fled to the 31st century to avoid being a sidekick! The silver age Super-Girl, on the other hand, was very much a sidekick. She was teenager attending high school and was kept as a secret weapon for much of her silver age career. Super-Girl was Superman’s cousin so no fear of hanky-panky that would make her a companion. However, Super-Girl does try to match Superman up with an adult version of her on another planet!
Super-Girl has sidekicks in her own right! Super-Girl has a super cat named Streaky and a super horse named Comet. Somewhere in the Superman family there is a super monkey named Beppo but I am not really sure who he belongs to. All the super animals unite with Proty to create the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st century. Years later Marvel will make its own group of superhero animal sidekicks. Proty is the sidekick of Chameleon Boy who is a member of the Legion of Super Heroes of the 31st century. Proty I sacrificed himself to revive the dead Lighting Lad but a Proty II soon shows up. Proty I and II are aliens that look like blobs and can mimic just about any form.
That leaves us with Wonder Women’s sidekicks. The silver age Woman had several sidekicks. Etta Candy was a fat rather stupid college student who was supposed to be used for comic relief but was more obnoxious than funny. The silver age Wonder Woman went through a rather silly phase in which she had adventures with herself as a Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot! Wonder Woman used Amazonian technology to create films of herself that showed “what if” adventures with her younger versions. I have to tell you I was maybe seven when a lot of these adventures came out originally and I was totally confused. I assumed Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot were sisters of Wonder Woman and didn’t find out the “truth” until I was in my thirties. Wonder Woman is probably one of those silver age titles that is really hard for modern readers to digest but the title had a fantasy quality that was very different from the more sci-fi quality of most silver age stuff and appealed to my young imagination. Wonder Woman may go down in literary history as the only character that had two versions of herself as her own sidekicks. The graphic novel Bizzaro Comics (2001) does have a story with Wonder Tot and Wonder Girl racing to sit next to Wonder Woman during lunch and destroying half the Amazon city in the process. Later, a more Robin like Wonder Girl was created as a sidekick.
Below is a list of Marvel sidekicks that will be discussed at the end of this list:
List of Marvel Sidekicks
| Superhero | Sidekick | First Appearance |
| Avengers, Iron Man | Edwin Jarvis (Butler) | Tales of Suspense #59 (Nov 1964) |
| Captain America | Bucky I | Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941) |
| Captain America | Bucky II (Rick Jones) | |
| Captain America | Free Spirit | Captain America vol. 1 #431 (September 1994) |
| Captain America | Jack Flag (Jack Harrison) | Captain America #434, (December 1994) |
| Captain Britain | Jackdaw | The Incredible Hulk Weekly #57 (April 1980) |
| Captain Marvel | Falcon (Sam “Snap” Wilson) | Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969) |
| Daredevil | Foggy Nelson | Daredevil v1 #1 (April 1964) |
| Deadpool | Weasel | Deadpool: The Circle Chase #1 (August 1993) |
| Deadpool | Blind Al | Deadpool #1 (Jan. 1997) |
| Deadpool | Bob, Agent of HYDRA | Cable & Deadpool #38 (May 2007) |
| Doc Samson | Geiger | Captain America vol. 1 #431 (September 1994) |
| Doctor Strange | Wong | Strange Tales #110 (Jul 1963) |
| Falcon | Redwing (Hawk) | Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969) |
| Franklin Richards | H.E.R.B.I.E. (Robot) | Fantastic Four #209 (August 1979) |
| Hulk | Jim Wilson | Incredible Hulk v1 #131 (September, 1970) |
| Hulk | Teen Brigade | Incredible Hulk v1 #6 (March 1963) |
| Hulk, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Avengers | Rick Jones | Incredible Hulk v1 #1 (May 1962) |
| Human Torch | Toro | Human Torch Comics #2 (Fall 1940) |
| Inhumans | Lockjaw (Dog) | Fantastic Four #45, (December 1965) |
| Ka-Zar | Zabu (Sabertooth Tiger) | X-Men #10 (Mar 1965) |
| Fantastic Four | Franklin Richards (Son of Reed Richards & Susan Storm) | Fantastic Four Annual #6 (November 1968) |
| Fantastic Four, Franklin Richards | Valeria Richards (Daughter of Reed Richards & Susan Storm) | Fantastic Four vol. 3 #54 (June 2002) |
| Fantastic Four | Lockjaw Puppy (Dog) | Fantastic Four vol.3 #9. |
| Nick Fury | Dum Dum Dugan | Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1 (May 1963) |
| Shadowcat | Lockheed (Small Dragon) | Uncanny X-Men #166 (Feb 1983) |
| Speedball | Niels, Hairball (Cat) | Speedball #1 |
| Spider-Man | Jackpot | Free Comic Book Day Spider-Man: Swing Shift (May 2007) |
| Spider-Man | Ms. Lion (Dog) | Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends #1 |
| Spider Girl | Scarlet Spider 3 (Felicity Hardy) | Spider-Girl # 46 |
| Taskmaster, Agent X | Sandi Brandenberg | Taskmaster Mini-Series (2002) |
| Thing, Captain America | Demolition Man aka D-Man | Captain America #328 (April 1987) |
| Wolverine | Jubilee | Uncanny X-Men #244 (May, 1989) |
| Young Allies | Whitewash Jones | Young Allies Comics 1941 |
The first sidekick on the list is Edwin Jarvis who is a butler at Avengers Mansion that in turn is owned and operated by Tony Stark. Tony Stark is of course Iron Man. Jarvis is an obvious clone of Alfred, Batman’s butler, but is much more one dimensional and provides comic relief rather than insight into the super heroes he deals with unlike Alfred. Alfred was a medic during a time of war and may be old but is obviously tough and handles sensitive Batman impersonation missions. Alfred would beat the crap out of Jarvis in any altercation.
Bucky is probably the most famous sidekick in the Marvel universe. Bucky is Captain America’s sidekick from the golden age that was killed in the golden age. In 2010, Bucky was resurrected after more than forty years just to make sure whatever faith readers had in comic book continuity was crushed once and for all so that suspension of disbelief via continuity would be rendered impossible once and for all. Comic sales are down way down. The recession and competition with other media are to blame but decisions like the Bucky resurrection don’t help. Anyway, Captain America is put into suspended animation minutes after Bucky is “blown up” and the guilt Captain America feels upon reawakening in the silver age is a major part of the Captain America story line. Captain America over the last forty years continually demonstrated how the trauma for the death of Bucky affected him mostly in the form of nightmares. Batman has never shown this level of trauma about the deaths of his Robins.
In the first silver age appearance of Captain America (Avengers vol. 1, #1) Captain America runs into a teenager he mistakes for Bucky, Rick Jones. Rick Jones is the side kick of the Hulk but this doesn’t stop him from later becoming Bucky II. The Hulk is not too pleased with this and this leads to altercations between Captain America and the Hulk. The Hulk has a point. Bruce Banner was exposed to gamma ray radiation while saving Rick Jones and became the monster called the Hulk because of Rick Jones. Yeah, Rick Jones owes his life to the Hulk’s alter ego but heck Captain America has wavy blonde hair and also is not a monster, literally, so Rick Jones decides to become Bucky II. Rick Jones is not a very loyal sidekick and becomes Captain Marvel’s sidekick later on. I guess Captain Marvel’s wavy silver hair beat Captain America’s wavy blonde hair. Rick Jones is currently a Hulk type called A-Bomb and is really digging not being a sidekick anymore despite having Hulk monster type problems. Captain America has had other sidekicks beside Bucky I and II including Jack Flag and Jackdraw. Heroes in both the DC and Marvel universe seem to either have slews of sidekicks or no sidekicks. Are sidekicks addictive? For the records there have been several Captain Americas with their Bucky sidekicks but I am only dealing with the Steve Rogers Captain America.
Foggy Nelson is a sidekick of Daredevil. Foggy Nelson is the law partner of Matt Murdock the alter ego of Daredevil. Foggy provided a great deal of comic belief in the beginning but has matured into a more competent brilliant lawyer that is an asset to Matt Murdock. Foggy has an incredible case law memory and might even superior to Matt Murdock as a lawyer but does not have the confidence of Matt and is therefore generally not the lead lawyer. Without Foggy, the law practice of Matt Murdock would have gone down the toilet during his many, Daredevil caused, MIA stints. Foggy Nelson has a paunch and food related jokes are his comic relief contribution.
Deadpool is a hilarious anti-hero that has had several equally hilarious sidekicks including Weasel, Blind Al and Bob, Agent of Hydra. My favorite is Bob, Agent of Hydra. Bob is a parody of henchmen and the number one lesson he learned from Hydra was “hiding behind each other”. Under pressure, Bob tends to shout “Hail Hydra”.
Doctor Strange has and adult Asian manservant from Tibet named Wong. Wong may not know much magic but he is a master martial artist. Wong is fairly subservient compared to other comic book sidekicks. If you do visit Doctor Strange at his Sanctum Santorum in New York then you have to get past Wong first. His role as a literal gatekeeper gives him some power that a lesser servant would not have.
Marvel decided to transform the son Reed Richards and Susan Storm from a typical omega level angst driven mutant to a Calvin type character, as in Calvin and Hobbes, character with great success. Franklin is a side kick to the Fantastic Four that provides a child’s perspective of the Fantastic Four as well as comic relief. Franklin is also a scientific genius who can modify his dad’s super science gadgets but generally his attempts to improve dad’s gadgets lead to disaster. Franklin has his own sidekick, H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot. H.E.R.B.I.E. provides a logical to the point of absurdity perspective to the childish antics of Franklin. H.E.R.B.I.E. constantly tries to convince Franklin H.E.R.B.I.E. to leave his dad’s lab alone but he is ultimately a subordinate that is then forced to try to clean up the mess created by Franklin.
The Hulk got over the loss of Rick Jones and adopted Jim Wilson. Jim Wilson was an inner city, Black teenager that very poignantly died of cancer later. Doctor Strange has an Asian sidekick. The Hulk has an African-American sidekick. The Lone Ranger has a Native American sidekick, Tonto. Does anyone see a pattern here? My next post will be titled DC vs. Marvel: Multicultural Heroes and I will examine the issue of race in the DC and Marvel universes in detail.
In 2009, Marvel untied all the animal sidekicks into a team called the Pet Avengers. The Pet Avengers are a rip off of the Legion of Super Animals over at DC. The Legion of Super Pets was played straight and this was probably a bad decision given the absurdity of the concept. The Pet Avengers is a silly title with lots of comic relief and one of my favorite current titles. I am not sure how far you can go with this concept but so far so good. The members of the Pet Avengers include Redwing a hawk of Falcon, Lockjaw a giant dog that can teleport of the Inhumans, Zabu a saber tooth tiger of Ka-Zar, Lockheed a small dragon that is a sidekick of Shadowcat, Hairball a cat belonging to Speedball and Ms. Lion a dog belonging to Spider-Man. The team includes Throg is a frog with lesser versions of Thor’s powers and is not a sidekick of Thor but a hero among his frog tribe in his own right. The interplay between the animals is what really makes the team work. Krypto and Streaky were a dog and a cat in the same legion but the fact that dogs and cats don’t get along was never really explored. Hairball the cat thinks Ms. Lion is an absolute idiot and worse, a dog! Ms. Lion is the only one on the team that doesn’t have super powers is very much the pampered house dog of Spiderman’s Aunt May. Ms. Lion claims the right to membership based on her sidekick status alone.
The sidekick status of the members is highlighted in one story of Tails of the Pet Avengers: The Dogs of Summer #1. In the story titled“Garbage Grief”, Franklin Richards teams up with the Pet Avengers flanked with his own sidekicks H.E.R.B.I.E. and Puppy. Puppy is a miniature version of Lockjaw complete with his powers of teleportation. In this story Puppy does manage to teleport the Pet Avengers to deal with a giant humanoid garbage creature that Franklin created more or less accidentally. So this is a sidekick crossover albeit on a much smaller scale than the DC Teen Titans/Young Justice crossover. Another treat of this particular issue, is that the origin of Puppy is finally dealt with. Puppy has been a fixture of the Fantastic Four for a while but his origin has not been dealt with until this issue. Turns out Puppy is the grand pup of Lockjaw and is a present of Franklin’s future self to himself in the past. In another issue, Tails of the Pet Avengers #1 has an adventure with Redwing the hawk titled “Birds of a Different Feather”. Redwing the sidekick of Falcon is chased by a pigeon that wants to be a sidekick of Redwing. Redwing refuses this offer at first but the pigeon pulls a masterful guilt trip to change the mind of Redwing.
I also have to mention the Incredible Hercules that ran from 2008 to 2010. Hercules is teamed up with Amadeus Cho. Amadeus Cho is really smart, mutant level smart but Hercules is Hercules! Normally Amadeus Cho, the brainy, sixteen year old, nerdy teenager, would be the sidekick but an argument can be made that Hercules is the sidekick even if Hercules would smash anyone who suggested as much. In one issue Hercules is up against his old enemies the Amazons. Amadeus Cho is captured by the Amazonians. Amadeus Cho is referred to as the eromenos of Hercules (Incredible Hercules #121, 2008) by the Amazons during his captivity. Amadeus Cho is not happy with this appellation at all. This is one of the few issues that points out the obvious, when older men have sixteen year old guys as buddies then there is usually one sort of relationship at work going back to Greek times. This is an intelligent comic book line that turns the sidekick conventions upside down in an extremely funny manner.
The most famous teenage sidekick of Marvel is Bucky but Bucky is not nearly as important to comic book history as Robin. Probably getting killed in the golden age for plus forty years didn’t help the career of Bucky at all. Marvel has other teenage sidekicks like the golden age Toro but all and all Marvel does not have the rooster of well known teenage sidekicks that DC has. DC also wins in terms of teenage sidekick teams. DC has the aforementioned Teen Titans and Young Justice. Marvel has teenage teams including the Young Avengers and the Runaways but they are not sidekick teams but teams of teenage heroes. In many ways Marvel sidestepped the need for teenage sidekicks by making more teenage heroes than DC. Spiderman began his career in high school. The X-Men operate out of Xavier’s Academy which trains teenagers. The New Mutants are teenagers that go to Xavier’s Academy and are not sidekicks. I think overall Marvel may have been smart to make teenage heroes to fulfill many of the teen identification functions of teenage sidekicks.
DC just has a lot more sidekicks than Marvel period. DC has 71 sidekicks on their list. Marvel has 34 sidekicks on their list. Beyond numbers, DC has a rooster of more famous sidekicks especially in the teenage sidekick category. DC and Marvel have pursued different strategic approaches to the use of teenage sidekicks in their respective universes. Marvel, however, is doing great things with animal sidekicks with the Pet Avengers and funny sidekicks like Franklin Richards and H.E.R.B.I.E. Unfortunately, a two year trend does not negate the fact that DC has historically had the most and best sidekicks.
DC wins the sidekick wars!
Answer to DC Sidekick Quiz
1. Stripsey
2. Proty
3. Doiby Dickles
4. ?
5. Streaky?
6. Brute
7. Qwsp
8. Glob
9. Cyrll
10. Mr. Twaky Tawny
11. Zook
12. Ace the Bat Hound
13. Wing
14. ?
15. ?
16. Ilda
17. Skeets
18. ?
19. ?
20. ?
I do wonder if some of the sidekicks I can’t figure out are actual sidekicks in DC comics. Number 5 might be Streaky the Super Cat but looks more like a mouse than a cat.
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Tagged Ace the Bat Hound, Agent X, Alfred Pennyworth, Amber Archer, Aquagirl, Aqualad, Aquaman, Arrowette, Avengers, Barbara Gordon, Bart Allen, Bat-Girl, Batgirl, Batman, Bette Kane, Biron, Black Lightning the Horse, Blackhawk, Blind Al, Blue Devil, Bo "Bibbo" Bibbowski, Bob Agent of HYDRA, Booster Gold, Brute, Bucky, Butler, Captain America, Captain Britain, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Captain Mid-Nite, Cassandra Cain, Cat, Chameleon Boy, Comet the Super-Horse, comic book, comic books, Connor Hawke, Crimson Avenger, Cyril, Cyrll, D-Man, Damian Wayne, Dan Hunter, Dan the Dyna-Mite, Daniel Dunbar, Daredevil, Daughter of Reed Richards, DC Comics, DC vs. Marvel, Deadpool, Demolition Man, Dick Grayson, Doc Samson, Doctor Strange, Dog, Doiby Dickles, Donna Troy, Dum Dum Dugan, Edwin Jarvis, Ernie the Battling Boy, Etta Candy, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Felicity Hardy, Flamebird, Flash, Foggy Nelson, Franklin Richards, Free Spirit, Garth, G’nort, Geiger, Gen'ma, General Glory, Glob, Goldstar, Green Arrow, H.E.R.B.I.E, Hairball, Harley Quinn, Hawk, Hooty the Owl, Hulk, Human Torch, Icon, Ilda, Impulse, Inhumans, Iris West, Jack Flag, Jack Harrison, Jackdaw, Jackpot, Jason Todd, Jim Wilson, Jimmy Olsen, Johnny Thunder, Joker, Jubilee, Justice League International, Justice League of America, Ka-Zar, Kid Devil, Kid Flash, Knight, Krypto, Lady Blackhawk, Lieutenant Marvels, Lisa Morel, Little Boy Blue, Lockheed, Lockjaw, Martian Manhunter, Marvel Comics, marvel vs. dc, Mary Elizabeth Kane, Mia Dearden, Mr. Scarlet, Mr. Tawky Tawny, Ms. Lion, Nick Fury, Niels, Octopus, Owlman, Pat Dugan, Pete Ross, Pieface, Pinky the Whiz Kid, Plastic Man, Proty, Puppy, Qwsp, Redwing, Richard Grayson, Rick Jones, Robin, Robin Earth II, robot, Rocket, Roy Harper, S'kidds'kakoth, Sabertooth Tiger, Sam “Snap” Wilson, Sandi Brandenberg, Sandman, Sandy Hawkins, Sandy the Golden Boy, S’kidd Flash, Scarlet Spider, Shadowcat, Sidekick, sidekicks, Skeets, Small Dragon, Snapper Carr, Son of Reed Richards, Space Ranger, Speedball, Speedy, Spider Girl, Spider-Man, Spoiler, Squire, Star Hawkins, Star-Spangled Kid, Stephanie Brown, Streaky the Super-Cat, Stripsey, Stuff the Chinatown Kid, Super-Girl, Superboy, Superhero, Superman, Susan Storm, Talon, Taskmaster, Teen Brigade, Terry Berg, Thing, Thomas Kalmaku, Tiger, Tim Drake, TNT, Tomahawk, Topo, Toro, Toughy, Tubby, Tula, Uncle Marvel, Valeria Richards, Vigilante, Wally West, Weasel, Whitewash Jones, Wing How, Wolverine, Wonder Girl, Wonder Tot, Wonder Woman, Wong, Woozy Winks, Young Allies, Zabu, Zinda, Zook
Braniac ponders the God/Sandwich paradox
Introduction
This is the third post in a series dealing with technology in the DC and Marvel universes. The first post dealt with weapons at:
http://foxhugh.com/2010/04/06/marvel-vs-dc-weapons/
The second post dealt with transportation technologies at:
http://foxhugh.com/2010/04/08/dc-vs-marvel-transportation/
This post deals with robots in the DC and Marvel universes. Robots come in three flavors: good guys, bad guys and funny. Which universe has the coolest good guy robot and which universe has the coolest bad guy robot? Which universe has the funniest robot? I refuse to make a distinction between robots and androids in this post. The terms are used haphazardly in both universes and basically in comic books the only real difference is that the androids are more human looking than the robots. This is fairly superficial distinction and even this is not a consistent factor. In more sophisticated science fiction universes there is some attempt to also distinguish between robots and androids using some quality of sentience rather than mere appearance. Below is a list of DC robots with at least their first appearance in parentheses.
List of DC Robots
One robot stands out in the DC universe as the ultimate baddie and that’s Brainiac. Brainiac is so famous that the word is now derogatory slang for someone who is too brainy. Brainiac has changed from the golden age and is currently human. Brainiac also changed from being green skinned humanoid with studs in his head and wearing a pink yes pink outfit to being made of metallic silver and looking a lot more robotic. For me the classic Brainiac will always be the green guy with pink tights. This Brainiac went around shrinking cities and putting them in bottles. The guy collected cities! I collected comic books and this guy is collecting cities. How cool is that? One of the cities was Kandor which Superman confiscated and kept in his Fortress of Solitude. Kandor was the source of many, many adventures with the Superman family in the silver age which seem silly now but were great fun when I was a kid. Brainiac also had an indestructible force field that he could project around himself via a belt or around his space ship. Superman could not penetrate this force field and Brainiac was basically impervious to attack from Superman. Brainiac also teamed up with Luthor on and off and of course each one tried to prove he was more brilliant than the other. Brainiac had a twelfth level intellect which I guess is pretty smart.
I do want to mention the Metal Men. The Metal Men were a team of good robots that had their high point in the sixties. The Metal Men included the Gold, Lead, Mercury, Platinum and Tin and they premiered in Showcase #37 but soon got their own title. The one adjective I would use to describe the Metal Men is zany! They were shape shifters and had the personality traits of their respective metal. Mercury was volatile. Lead was steady and so on. Platinum was female and of course was in love with her creator Dr. Magnus. This love was not reciprocated and was an ongoing plot line.
The Metal Men mostly fought other robots which makes no sense whatsoever except that in sixties logic the robot title should have lots of other robots. The Metal Men inhabited their own little corner of DC robot land. The second most famous good robot in the DC universe is the Red Tornado. The Red Tornado is a long standing member of the Justice League of America and spent a lot of time spouting robotic angst about not being human. I really don’t like the Red Tornado at all. The name is stupid. The costume is stupid. The angst rhetoric is forced and not well done. The Metal Men win!
DC has used robots for comic relief a great deal. The Metal Men were basically a funny tile if you consider zany to be a shade of funny. DC did have at least one ongoing character that was a funny robot. Star Hawkins was bumbling private eye of the future who first appeared in Strange Adventures #114 in 1960. Ilda was his robot secretary and the brains of the team. Ilda provided consistent comic relief in a manner similar to Rosie the Robot in The Jetsons. As I have pointed out in other posts in this series, DC has a much greater willingness to mix genres for extremely silly effect. This isn’t even the silliest DC private eye title of this period. That honor belongs to Detective Chimp. These silly early silver age DC titles do not age well.
You have not one but three robot dogs: C.A.P.D. Robbie the Robot Dog and Thor the Thunder Dog. Robot Man of course has to have Robbie the Robot Dog instead of a regular dog. Why? No reason just more DC zaniness. Robbie can talk and Robot Man and Robbie had some very surreal conversations. L-Ron is a robot that works for the Justice League and is obsequious to the point of hilarity. Skeets is the side kick of Booster Gold and is not as funny as L-Ron but has his moments. L-Ron wins the funny robot category in the DC universe.
There are some pretty powerful robots in the DC universe including Amazo, who has all the powers of the original Justice League of America but can absorb more powers beyond that. The Shaggy Man is another scary robot who has vast strength and vast recuperative powers and is a mindless fighter who can take on the whole Justice League at the same time.
For sheer weirdness, G.I. Robot is probably the winner in the DC universe. G.I. Robot is a robot that runs around in standard G.I. gear. This is a mix of science fiction and the war comic genre. Not a lot of companies have the guts to mix these two genres and perhaps this is just as well.
The winner of the best DC evil robot is clearly Brainiac. The winner of best DC robot hero is not a hero but the Metal Men group as a whole. The funniest robot is L-Ron.
List of Marvel Robots
Some of the top evil robots in the Marvel universe include the Sentinels, Ultron and the Super-Adaptoid. Probably the most powerful evil robot is Super-Adaptoid. The Super-Adaptoid is a clear clone of Amazo. The Super-Adaptoid absorbs the powers of the Avengers. A common what if battle on bullentin boards is the Super-Adaptoid versus Amazo which is basically an extension of the Avengers versus JLA what if battle? The Super-Adaptoid while a lot of fun visually, due to all his super powers, doesn’t have much in the way of characterization.
Ultron does not have this problem! Henry Pym, Giant-Man, Yellow Jacket, etc. is the creator of Ultron. Ultron is one scary looking robot who is made out of adamantium, an indestructible metal, and can project massive energy bolts. Ultron may be tough looking but he is a big softie at heart and even creates his own robot mate called Jocasta. Jocasta’s mind was based on the brain patterns of the Wasp, the wife of his “father” Henry Pym. Jocasta is a robot copy of Ultron’s “mother”. Ultron is filled with Oedipal rage towards his creator. Jocasta rejects the love of Ultron because she doesn’t like meglomaniacal sociopaths who want to destroy all organic life on Earth. What a picky lady! Ultron is no quitter when it comes to the game of love and creates a second robot lover called Alkhema and was more ruthless than Jocasta but ended up turning on Ultron as well. Poor Ultron!
Poor Ultron!
The Sentries are created to hunt down mutants and actually there are different models with vastly different power levels. The Sentinels often try to capture mutants so they have all sorts of gadgets for this purpose including gas, nets, cables, you name it. The Sentinels have probably appeared in more issues than all other evil Marvel robots put together. The Sentinels are an interesting plot device but have zero personality with very few exceptions. The Master Mold was kind of an individual. There was the Sentinel with a big 2 on his chest so he’s named Sentinel 2. Sentinel 2 appeared in Avengers # 104 and was mutated when he flew towards the Sun. A batch of Sentinels had decided that the source of mutation was the Sun so they attacked the Sun! No one said the Sentinels were geniuses. That mutated Sentinel was destroyed by his fellow sentries when they realized he was a mutant of sorts.
There is Nimrod who is an advanced Sentinel from an alternate future that takes on a human identity and starts to grow more human. Nimrod and Master Mold merge to create Bastion and an overly complicated plot line, the great weakness of Marvel plotlines. However, all in all the Sentinel are a mindless army that is dangerous precisely due to their simple cognitions that often lead to draconian solutions. I love the Sentinel but just find Ultron more interesting. Ultron wins the evil robot title in the Marvel universe.
The top two good guy robots in the Marvel universe are the original Human Torch and the Vision. The Human Torch was huge during the Golden Age and current comic book readers are probably not aware of this. The fist important comic book crossover was a battle between the Human Torch and Namor the Submariner in Marvel Mystery #9 back in 1940. This is of course a fire versus water theme. The android Human Torch came back in the silver age in Fantastic Four Annual #4. Despite this reappearance the android Human Torch is nowhere near as popular as he once was.
Probably the most famous robot of the current Marvel universe is the Vision who is a member of the Avengers. The Vision was probably created by the same scientist, Phineas Horton, who created the Human Torch but this plotline keeps changing. The Vision had a long running affair with the mutant the Scarlet Witch. There was lot of angst in the relationship and Quicksilver, the brother of the Scarlet Witch, and also a mutant, was extremely vocal about his opinion that the relationship was an abomination. There is of course the irony that Quicksilver is a target of anti-mutant prejudice but this does not stop him from being prejudiced against robots.
I will mention that the Human Torch and the Vision are both referred to as androids probably because they are pretty human looking especially the Human Torch. The Vision had bright red skin and currently is ghostly white so, minus make up, is not passing for a human. The Vision used to be chock full of all sorts of deep emotions and existential angst but is currently lacking in emotion much to the chagrin of the Scarlet Witch. The Vision wins the good robot title in the Marvel universe.
There aren’t as many funny and/or zany robots in the Marvel universe as in the DC universe. There is the Humanoid Experimental Robot B-Type Integrated Electronics or H.E.R.B.I.E. for short created by Reed Richards who provided some comic relief in the Fantastic Four title and that’s about it. There isn’t even one robot dog in the Marvel universe and maybe that’s a good thing. Most of the humor in the Fantastic Four title involving H.E.R.B.I.E. is slap stick rather than verbal and not that funny.
H.E.R.B.I.E. was hilarious in the title Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius. The art was cartoony and Franklin, the son of Reed Richards was a very Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes, type character. H.E.R.B.I.E. plays the serious nanny trying to keep Franklin out of trouble with little success. The Awesome Android provided comic relief in volume two of the She-Hulk that was a funny title overall. However, H.E.R.B.I.E. in Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius is funnier and of course H.E.R.B.I.E. is one of the major characters in this title versus the peripheral role of the Awesome Android who changes his name to Awesome Andy. While the title She-Hulk is very funny, Awesome Andy isn’t necessarily all that funny. H.E.R.B.I.E. wins the funny robot contest in the Marvel Universe.
Conclusion
Brainiac is one of the top super villains of all time and clearly wins the bad robot category. A fight between Brainiac and Ultron would be a lot of fun to watch and is the subject of at least one online post (http://www.electricferret.com/fights/issue_186.htm). Who wins the good robot category? The Metal Men have a zaniness that the Vision does not but they are definitely an acquired taste and the Metal Men comic book was always a second rate title. The Vision is an important member of the Avengers. The Avengers are a first rate title. The Vision wins the good robot category.
I do want to mention that the Vision and the Red Tornado are both red and androids. The Vision belongs to the Avengers. The Red Tornado belongs to the DC equivalent of the Avengers, the Justice League. Is this a coincidence? I think not.
L-Ron is funny but H.E.R.B.I.E. is funnier. Marvel wins the good robot and funny robot contests and wins overall. DC won the weapons and transportation posts so this is a comeback for Marvel. I would make another observation about the role of robots in the DC and Marvel universes.
Marvel has a lot more robots than DC! DC has 114 robots. Marvel has 257 robots! I counted all sorts of one-shot robots from the Metal Men title and the DC count was still much lower than the Marvel count. My after the count theory is as follows. Marvel has a consistent multiverse, so many robots get double or triple counts depending on which universe in the Marvel multiverse they appeared. DC’s multiverse is a total mess! Don’t get me started.
I think the idea of multiple universes to explain away continuity lapses was a great invention that was started by DC but DC decided to use a Crisis of the Infinite Earths comic book series to get rid of the other multiverses and create one universe. That might have been ok but they then created a brand new 52 system that assumes there are only 52 universes. There is also something called Zero Hour, and something else called hypertime. I almost vowed to never ever read another DC comic book after the Crisis of Infinite Earth fiasco but let’s face it I am addicted to comic books and need overpowers reason in the long run. The way DC has handled their multiverses has led to a destruction of DC universe continuity.
I urge all comic book writers to repeat the above three sentences at least once a day in a mantra like manner! Plus there are comic book geeks like myself that love their ability to explain the history of a comic book universe and this is a task that is largely impossible with the DC universe. I would also like to make a comparison of how DC and Marvel have treated robots in their respective universes from a historical perspective.
In the golden age robots were treated in a similar manner by both DC and Marvel. Jack Kirby created a slew of monsters in the golden age before the success of the silver age Spider-Man and many of these monsters are robots that have ended up on the list Marvel robot list. Even the one-shot robots had great names and you remembered them. The Marvel golden age monster stories often had a Twilight Zone style ironic twist at the end that stuck with you after you read the story. Marvel titles that featured monsters include Tales of the Unexpected, Strange Tales and Amazing Fantasy. Amazing Fantasy was a title that was pure monsters until Amazing Fantasy #15. Amazing Fantasy #15 is the issue in which Spider-Man premiered and this was the beginning of the end of Marvel’s golden age monster stories. Long before everything was reprinted in graphic novels, Marvel honored their golden age monsters in the silver age with the Fantasy Masterpieces title that I collected avidly having missed the golden age due to my age.
There were plenty of one-shot robots in the equivalent DC titles Strange Adventures, Tales of the Unexpected and Mystery in Space that are on the DC robot list but even their inclusion in my DC robot list did not change the numbers that much. DC and Marvel in the golden age treated robots in a similar manner. Overall, the robot stories of Marvel, especially those by Jack Kirby, were superior to those in DC in the golden age. However, in both universes in the golden age, robots were one-shot characters limited to certain omnibus titles with an ironic twist at the end but things changed in the silver age.
In the silver age, Marvel developed over reaching themes using robots that DC does not have even now. Overall, humans in the Marvel universe see robots as the equalizer in their dealings with superhumans. The Marvel universe uses robots a lot more as a tool of government. Marvel assumes that the relationship between government and superhumans will be antagonistic. Robots are a major tool of the government to combat superhumans in the Marvel Universe.
The Sentinels versus mutants storyline is a giant one in the Marvel universe that has no equivalent in the DC universe. There is even a little retcon pre-Sentinel history. TESS-One is a robot created by the US government to fight super soldiers like Captain America near the end of 1945. The right hand of the government creates super soldiers and the left hand of the government creates the robot contingency plan to destroy them if they get out of hand. . S.H.I.E.L.D uses Life Model Decoys (LMDs) to infiltrate and spy on enemies but in at least one storyline the LMDs turn on S.H.I.E.L.D because they are tools without conscious who can be controlled by others. Agent Cheesecake is a quite gorgeous LMD that goes the extra mile and seduces targets! Agent Cheesecake is probably the sexiest comic book robot and maybe the sexiest robot period.
Agent Cheesecake
You just have to love Marvel’s paranoid vision of the world! This use of robots by government includes alien governments. The Kree are an intergalactic empire and their use of robotic Sentries as immortal sentries at the peripheries of their empire, where a Kree humanoid base is not practical i.e. Earth, is also a major storyline that has no equivalent in the DC universe.
All in all, the Marvel universe has a more developed thematic way of dealing with robots than the DC universe. What makes robots special? Obedience and functional immortality! They are the perfect servants of the state that needs obedient servants that can mimic the functional immortality of the state. Leaders come and go but the goals of the state can be enforced in the long run via robots. Robots are also tool of state whose obedience and immortality can be the downfall of the governments that create them. The Sentries in alternate Marvel time lines often outlive the US government that created them and enforce the Mutant Registration Act in a draconian manner that is ultimately harmful to humans and not just mutants.
This idea of technology out of control is of course a major science fiction theme. I don’t think it’s just science fiction anymore. The US government seriously looked at a Star Wars ballistic system that would have had to operate at the speed of light to be practical and humans and their command, control and communications systems (C3) cannot operate at this speed. The C3 of Star Wars would have had to been relegated to computer systems. Since the Star Wars system is basically defensive that’s ok but sooner or later someone would have decided, well heck why stop there and get rid of that obsolete football the Prez carries and hand the whole shebang to the computers. I don’t worry too much about Sentries over even Skynet, of the Terminator movie series, but I do worry about a computer in the future with bad code that starts WW III due to a glitch. Our technology is moving ahead much faster than our international social systems and eventually we will go the way of the dinosaurs. Bigger computers are great but we also need wiser minds to control those computers.
I think DC is still stuck in a very fifties usage of robots where robots are a novelty and more modern themes of robots as out of control technology due to social rather than novelty reasons is absent. Individual robots go haywire in the DC universe but the idea that social systems such as the government are haywire and create haywire robots as a result is not explored. The robot as novelty was highlighted in DC’s Metal Men. I love the Metal Men! However, the Metal Men are totally dated. The way Marvel uses robots is just a lot more interesting that the way than how DC does. This is my third post comparing technology in DC and Marvel and I want to make an overall observation.
Marvel treats technology in a more consistent thematic manner. Iron Man’s armor leads to the Armor Wars. Mutants are treated with a consistent pseudo science genetic “Gene X” explanation. Adamantium, a super metal, is used consistently to create many super weapons. Robots as institutional servants and the plotlines that follow from this idea are repeated. The government continues trying to create super soldiers after the success of Captain America and the Weapon X program that creates Wolverine and many other characters is the result.
DC treats technology in a much more haphazard manner. Technologies are created for one issue and never seen again. There are far fewer overreaching storylines in the DC universe that tie the different technologies together. Technology has more continuity in the Marvel universe than the DC universe! Again!
I think whatever the results of individual posts in this series, Marvel treats technology in a superior manner compared to DC.
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Posted in Comic Book Critique, DC vs. Marvel
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In this installment of DC vs. Marvel, I compare the weapons of the DC universe with the weapons of the Marvel universe. The weapons are broken into three power levels. Each universe will have a winner declared in each category and the universe that wins in the most categories is the overall winner. The weapons will be judged in the areas of aesthetic, conceptual and/or utilitarian design. In other words, which universe has the coolest weapon in each category? This is not a “which weapon is more powerful” contest.
The weapons in the top power category are called (1) Cosmic Weapons. These are the really powerful weapons of the DC or Marvel universe. A person with this sort of weapon can take on a team of superheroes such as the Justice League or the Avengers or perhaps even shake the foundations of the universe. A good example on the high end of a cosmic weapon would be the Infinity Gauntlet of the Marvel universe. With the Infinity Gauntlet you can take on an army of superheroes and more. Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to challenge the combined might of Galactus, the Stranger, the titan Epoch, Love and Hate, two Celestials, Master Order, Lord Chaos, Kronos, Death and Epoch. An upper end Cosmic Weapon can alter reality. The range of the weapon can vary from global, at least, to galactic. A cosmic weapon is even difficult to conceptualize using pseudo science. This is part of the attraction of a cosmic weapon.
A good example of a weapon on the low end of this category would be the Sun Eater used in the DC Universe. The Sun Eater can give the Legion of Superheroes a hard time but it will take forever to eat enough suns to change the foundations of the universe. I wouldn’t try to take on even Galactus alone with a Sun Eater. Galactus might eat the Sun Eater!
The next power level would be (2) Super Weapons. These weapons enable the wielder to take on a heavy duty superhero such as Superman on the upper end of the power scale. Green Lantern’s ring would be a good example of a super weapon on the upper end. You might be able to defeat Superman with a Green Lantern ring, probably not, but you would have a chance at least. On the low end, Captain Cold’s cold gun can let a super villain take on a hero like the Flash. I would strongly urge any potential super villains out there not to try to take on Superman with something like a cold gun. A Super Weapon cannot be constructed in the real world but can be conceptualized with pseudo science.
The last level is what I call (3) Street Weapons because they are the type of weapons you see used on the streets. Often they are normal weapons that have been enhanced with some tinkering. On a good day, you might be able to take on a half a dozen street crooks with one of these weapons but you probably need some special martial arts skill to do this. A good example of this type of weapon would be Daredevil’s Billy Club or Batman’s Batarang. A street weapon could be constructed in the real world but probably would have to be adapted considerably due to real life technical constraints.
1.0) COSMIC WEAPONS
1.1) Cosmic Weapons – DC
Some of the cosmic weapons in the DC universe include the
Anti-Life Equation
Book of Eternity
Miracle Machine
Spear of Destiny
Sun-Eater
Warworld
The Spear of Destiny is the spear used to pierce the side of Jesus Christ. Hitler used the Spear of Destiny in the DC Universe to keep the American superheroes from liberating Europe. Superman was given the task of killing the Spectre with the Spear of Destiny in one issue. The Spectre is the most powerful being in the DC Universe and anything that can kill him has to be pretty powerful. The Spear of Destiny gives the wielder the ability to control the minds of super powered individuals, massive reality warping and extremely powerful holy abilities
The Book of Eternity is a book that contains the story of existence. If absolute knowledge can lead to absolute power then does absolute corruption follow…? The wielder of the book also is granted vast magical powers.
This idea that knowledge is power is also explored in the concept of the Anti-Life Equation that will destroy all life. Darkseid is obsessed with the equation and according to him in one issue the equation is:
loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=dark side
If Darkseid says the equation then the victim has mathematical certainty that all life and existence are futile and that serving Darkseid is the only point in existence. This is mind control but mind control that can be shared via the internet and presumably even intergalactic communication systems that advanced races would possess. A master of this equation could rule the cosmos with but a sentence and a good media outlet. Those controlled could be asked to repeat the message to even more beings so the equation would spread exponentially. In short, the equation has metamemetic properties. For a definition of metamemetics please read:
Someday I will master the science of metamemetics and use this blog to rule the world!
Bwa-ha-ha-haaaa!
Two of the DC Cosmic Weapons are from the Legion of Superheroes storyline. The Sun-Eater is a living nebula with the ability to snuff out whole stars. The Sun-Eater was created by the Controllers to destroy unworthy worlds. The Miracle Machine was also created by the Controllers. The machine can convert thoughts into reality and was given to the Legion of Superheroes as a reward for destroying the Sun-Eater controlled by a renegade Controller. Braniac 5 used the machine to repel an alien invasion of Earth. The combined armed forces of Earth and the Legion of Superheroes were losing the war so this is a good weapon to have on your side. Warworld is a whole world filled with weapons not just on the surface but from the surface to the core. Superman was barely able to stop even one skyscraper sized missile launched at Earth and the Warworld presumably has countless missiles and all sorts of weapons. Presumably even a team of superheroes could not even begin to shield Earth from an attack from Warworld but I doubt you could change the cosmos with this weapon.
1.2) Cosmic Weapons – Marvel
Some of the cosmic weapons in the Marvel universe include
Casket of Ancient Winters
Cosmic Cube
Evil Eye of Avalon
Infinity Gauntlet
Serpent Crown
Odinsword
Ultimate Nullifier
Wand of Watoomb
The most powerful weapon in the Marvel universe is probably the Ultimate Nullifier. The Ultimate Nullifier is generally in the possession of Galactus. Korvac used the Ultimate Nullifier to destroy a universe in the multiverse. The drawback is that use of the weapon is suicidal. Whoever wields the Ultimate Nullifier is also destroyed!
A close second in the Marvel universe in terms of power might be the Infinity Gauntlet. You can take over the universe with the Infinity Gauntlet. Whether or not you could destroy a universe with the Infinity Gauntlet has not been determined. The cosmic cube was the most powerful weapon in Marvel universe for years and years since it could alter reality with a thought but later the range of this weapon was set at a global level.
Before the appearance of the cosmic cube the most powerful weapon in the Marvel universe was the largely forgotten Odinsword that even graced the cover of Thor #156. The Odinsword was supposed to end the universe if drawn from its scabbard and this idea really struck my imagination when I was a youth in the sixties. Later, Odin absorbed the life force of all Asgardians, blew up the enchanted armor known as the Destroyer, to gigantic size, and grabbed the Odinsword to take on the Celestials and got blown up for his troubles so this event shows this sword is not in the same league as the Ultimate Nullifier or the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos was able to defeat two celestials and heavy-duty company with the Infinity Gauntlet. Korvac was able to destroy a whole universe despite the Celestials.
Dormammu once used the Evil Eye of Avalon to merge his dimension with that of Earth. The Eye of Avalon was hexed by the Scarlet Witch and the ensuing energy disaster temporarily destroyed Dormammu and drove Loki mad. Maybe the Evil Eye of Avalon is third in terms of power in the Marvel Universe.
Cosmic weapons in the Marvel Universe that allow you to take on a band of superheroes, but probably not take over the cosmos directly, include the Wand of Watoomb and the Serprent Crown. The Wand of Watoomb enables the wielder to mentally project and absorb mystical energy, create force fields, control weather, open dimensional portals, observe events in other locations, and heal wounds. The Serpent Crown gives the user superhuman strength, telepathy, mind control, telekinesis, the ability to cast illusions, the power to project destructive bolts of mystical energy and even the mental ability to manipulate matter and energy. The Casket of Ancient Winters is Asgardian and allows the wielder to control infinite cold. A very specialized weapon but anything of infinite power belongs in the cosmic range.
1.3) Winner
For sheer originality the Anti-Life Equation wins! The ultimate cosmic weapon would not be concrete but abstract. This confirms what you always knew in your heart, algebra can end all life in the universe! E=MC2 is an equation that has changed the world more than just about anything. I think of the Anti-Life Equation as a super advanced version of E=MC2. I am sure just such an equation is just around the corner in real life.
2.0) SUPER WEAPONS
2.1) Super Weapons – DC
Adam Strange’s Ray Gun
Aquaman’s Hook
Black Lantern Ring
Black Manta’s Battlesuit
Blue Beetle’s Scarab
Blue Devil’s Trident of Lucifer
Blue Lantern Ring
Braniac’s Space Ships
Braniac’s Force Field
Calculator Battlesuit
Captain Boomerang’s Trick Boomerangs
Captain Cold’s Cold Gun
Copperhead’s Armor
Deadshot’s Wrist Mounted Firearms
Disintegrator Sphere
Dr. Fate’s Helm of Nabu
Emerald Eye of Ekron – Emerald Empress
Entropy Aegis Armor
Exectutioner’s Atomic Axe
Fiddler’s Fiddle
Golden Girdle of Gaea
Golden Glider’s Iceskates
Green Lantern Power Ring
Hawkgirl’s Dart Gun
Hawkman’s Protonic Lance
Hawkgirl’s Wings
Hawkman’s Wings
Heat Wave’s Gun
HERO Dial
Icicle’s Cold Gun
Indigo Power Ring
Kanjar Ro’s Gamma Gong
Kinetic Hammer
Lasso of Lightning
Mageddon
Mega-Rod
Mirror Master’s Trick Mirrors
Mr. Freeze Cold Gun
Orange Lantern Ring
Orb of Ra
Orion’s Astro-Harness
Phantom Zone Projector
Piped Pipers flute
Psi-Scimitar
Psycho Pirate’s Medusa Mask
Qwa-Bolts
Red Power Ring
Sandman’s Sand of Sleep
Sandman’s Dreamstone
Sandman’s Helm of Dreams
Sargon the Sorcerer’s Ruby of Life
Sonigun
Soultaker Sword
Spear of Lonea
Star Man’s Cosmic Rod
Star Sapphire
Steel’s Apokolips Armor
Toastmasters
Trident of Neptune
Trident of Poseidon
Trident of Triton
Weather Wizard’s Wand
Webgun
Wonder Woman’s Bracelets of the Aegis
Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth
Xantha Charge
Yellow Power Ring
The two most famous weapons in the DC list are probably Green Lantern’s power ring and Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth. Recently, DC decided to add a whole rainbow of power rings to their universe and I think this is diluting the brand. What’s next a purple Hulk? The creator of Wonder Woman also invented the lie detector! The Lasso of Truth is the ultimate lie detector! I think both weapons are great but slightly prefer the Lasso of Truth due to its interesting origins.
2.2) Super Weapons – Marvel
Beetle’s Armor
Black Blade of Baghdad
Black Knight’s Ebony Blade
Black Knight’s Ebony Dagger
Black Knight’s Power Lance
Black Knight’s Shield of Night
Blacklash’s Whip
Blizzard’s Suit
Bloodaxe
Big Wheel
Caliburn
Captain America’s Shield
Chorus Sentry
Cobalt Bomb
Controller’s Slave Discs
Convincer
Cosmic Control Rod
Crimson Dynamo’s Armor
Crimson Gem of Cyttorak
Cyclone’s Suit
Destroyer (Enchanted Armor)
Doctor Octopus Tentacles
Dr. Doom’s Armor
Dragonfang Sword
Eagle Shield
Electroplasmic Wand
Energy Shield
Excalibur
Exorcist Gun
Eye of Agamotto
Firebrand Suit
Firepower’s Armor
Firesword
Fiver Fingers of Annilation
Gamma Bomb
Ghost Rider’s Chain
Ghost’s Battlesuit
Golden Mace of Hercules
Grim Reaper’s Scythe
Guantlets of Ares
Hofund
Hurricane’s Wings
Iron Man Armor (Earth-200151)
Iron Man’s Armor
Iron Monger’s Armor
Jet Parlyzer
Justiciar
Kurokaze
Mandarin’s Ten Rings
Mandroid Armor
Megingjord
Mirage’s Holographic Suit
Mysterio’s Helmet with Holographic Projector
Mysterio’s Gloves and Boots that Emit Hallucinogenic Gas
Odin’s Thrudstok
Polestar’s Magnetic Gauntlets
Pyro’s Battlesuit and Flamethrowers
Quantum Bands
Ringmaster’s Top Hat with Portable Mind-control Device
Rhino’s Polymer Armor
Ronan the Accuser’s Universal Weapon
Sakki
Scell
Scorcher’s Suit and Flamethrowers
Shocker’s Gauntlets
Silver Surfer’s Surfboard
Son of Satan’s Trident
Spymater’s Battlesuit
Staff of Polar Power
Star-Blazer
Star Shield
Stilt-Man’s Armor
Stormbreaker
Streamsword
Sun Shredder
Sunbeam Ray Gun
Surtur’s Twilight Sword
Sword of Bone
Sword of Fangs
Sword of Frey
Sword of Kamnu
Sword of Light
Sword of Might
Sword of Night
Sword of Ultimate Shadow
Swordman’s Sword
Taskmaster’s Solid Energy Weapon
Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir
Titanium Man’s Armor
Ulik’s Pounders
Ultra-Diode Ray
Unicorn’s Power Horn
Vulture’s Wings
Whiplash’s Gauntlets and Battlesuit
Wizard’s Power Gloves
Wrecker’s Crowbar
The three most famous weapons in the Marvel list are Thor’s hammer, Captain America’s shield and Iron Man’s armor. Captain America, Iron Man and Thor are all members of the Avengers so you often get to see these incredible weapons together in one great comic book.
2.3) Winner
I loved Iron Man the movie! One of the major subplots of the movie is the creation of Iron Man’s armor. Could you do this with any other weapon in the DC or Marvel universe? I don’t think so. Iron Man’s armor is the coolest super weapon because of its story line and plausibility. DC and Marvel are tied at this point and the next weapon decides which universe has the coolest super weapons.
3.0) STREET LEVEL WEAPONS
3.1) Street Level – DC
Azrael’s Armor
Batman’s Batarang
Batman’s Utility Belt
Catwoman’s Cat o Nine Tails Whip
Catwoman’s Retractable Claws
Deathstroke’s Staff
Green Arrow’s Trick Arrows
Hawkman’s Claw of Horus
Huntress’ Crossbow
Joker’s Acid Squirting Flower
Joker’s Cyanide Pies
Joker’s Electrified Joy Buzzer
Joker’s Exploding Cigars with Nitroglycerine
Joker’s Razor Sharp Throwing Cards
Lobo’s Chain and Hook
Penguin’s Trick Umbrellas
Robin’s Battle Staff
Sandman’s Gas Gun
The three coolest street level weapons in the DC universe all come from the Batman family and include the batarang, utility belt and the Joker’s squirting flower. Joker’s Squirting flower doesn’t squirt water but squirts Joker venom or acid.
3.2) Street Level – Marvel
Black Widow’s Gauntlets
Boomerang’s Trick Boomerangs
Daredevil’s Billy Club
Jester’s Trick Artificial Hands
Jester’s Ball Bearing Marbles
Jester’s Exploding Popcorn
Jester’s Flying Discs
Jester’s Explosive Rubber Balls
Jester’s Yo-Yo
Gladiator’s Wrist Mounted Rotating Circular Blades
Green Goblin’s Glider
Green Goblin’s Pumpkin Bombs
Hawkeye’s Trick Arrows
Paladin’s Armor
Mockingbird’s Battle Stave
Moon Knight’s Boomerang
Moon Knight’s Golden Ankh
Moon Knight’s Throwing Irons
The coolest street level weapon in the Marvel universe is Daredevil’s Billy club. A close second might be the Green Goblin’s equipment that led to the Hobgoblin who used the same equipment. The Green Goblin glider probably belongs in the super weapons category. The pumpkin bombs definitely belong in the street level category since they are basically grenades with a gimmick.
3.3) Winner
The Batman family sets the standard for street weapons in comic books! The difficult choice is trying to decide which Batman family weapon is the coolest. I actually created a utility belt! I was living in Taiwan at the time and Taiwan is beset with typhoons, earthquakes and the threat of invasion from mainland China. More as a conceptual exercise than anything else, I made a utility belt designed to facilitate survival in all three of Taiwan’s scenarios. My buddies got a real kick out of the belt and made various suggestions. The emphasis of the belt was survival rather than military usage so my belt had totally different stuff than Batman’s belt. I actually think the belt I created would be semi useful. I vote Batman’s utility belt as the coolest street weapon since it is actually possible to create to some extent.
Conclusion
The Anti-Life Equation is the best cosmic weapon. Iron Man’s Armor is the best super weapon. Batman’s utility belt is the coolest street level weapon. DC wins two out of three categories.
DC wins!
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WereVerse Universe Baby!
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Tagged Adam Strange’s Ray Gun, Anti-Life Equation, Aquaman's Hook, Azrael’s Armor, Batman’s Batarang, Batman’s Utility Belt, Beetle’s Armor, Big Wheel, Black Blade of Baghdad, Black Knight’s Ebony Blade, Black Knight’s Ebony Dagger, Black Knight’s Power Lance, Black Knight’s Shield of Night, Black Lantern Ring, Black Manta’s Battlesuit, Black Widow’s Gauntlets, Blacklash’s, Blizzard’s Suit, Bloodaxe, Blue Beetle’s Scarab, Blue Devil’s Trident of Lucifer, Blue Lantern Ring, Book of Eternity, Boomerang’s Trick Boomerangs, Braniac’s Force Field, Braniac’s Space Ships, Calculator Battlesuit, Caliburn, Captain America’s Shield, Captain Boomerang’s Trick Boomerangs, Captain Cold’s Cold Gun, Casket of Ancient Winters, Catwoman’s Cat o Nine Tails Whip, Catwoman’s Retractable Claws, Chorus Sentry, Cobalt Bomb, Comic Book List of Weapons, Controller’s Slave Discs, Controllers, Convincer, Copperhead’s Armor, Cosmic Control Rod, Cosmic Cube, cosmic weapons, Crimson Dynamo’s Armor, Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, Cyclone’s Suit, Daredevil’s Billy Club, Darkseid, DC Comics List of Weapons, DC vs. Marvel, Deadshot’s Wrist Mounted Firearms, Death and Epoch, Deathstroke’s Staff, Destroyer (Enchanted Armor), Disintegrator Sphere, Doctor Octopus Tentacles, Dr. Doom’s Armor, Dr. Fate’s Helm of Nabu, Dragonfang Sword, Eagle Shield, Electroplasmic Wand, Emerald Empress, Emerald Eye of Ekron, Energy Shield, Entropy Aegis Armor, Evil Eye of Avalon, Excalibur, Exectutioner’s Atomic Axe, Exorcist Gun, Eye of Agamotto, Fiddler’s Fiddle, Firebrand Suit, Firepower’s Armor, Firesword, Five Fingers of Annihilation, Galactus, Gamma Bomb, Ghost Rider’s Chain, Ghost’s Battlesuit, Gladiator Weapons, Golden Girdle of Gaea, Golden Glider’s Iceskates, Golden Mace of Hercules, Green Arrow’s Trick Arrows, Green Goblin Weapons, Green Lantern Power Ring, Grim Reaper’s Scythe, Guantlets of Ares, Hawkeye’s Trick Arrows, Hawkgirl’s Dart Gun, Hawkgirl’s Wings, Hawkman’s Claw of Horus, Hawkman’s Protonic Lance, Hawkman’s Wings, Heat Wave’s Gun, HERO Dial, Hofund, Huntress’ Crossbow, Hurricane's Wings, Icicle’s Cold Gun, Indigo Power Ring, Infinity Gauntlet, Iron Man Armor (Earth-200151), Iron Man’s Armor, Iron Monger’s Armor, Jester Weapons, Jet Paralyzer, Joker’s Acid Squirting Flower, Joker’s Cyanide Pies, Joker’s Electrified Joy Buzzer, Joker’s Exploding Cigars with Nitroglycerine, Joker’s Razor Sharp Throwing Cards, Justiciar, Kanjar Ro’s Gamma Gong, Kinetic Hammer, Korvac, Kronos, Kurokaze, Lasso of Lightning, Legion of Superheroes, Lobo’s Chain and Hook, Lord Chaos, Love and Hate, Mageddon, Mandarin’s Ten Rings, Mandroid Armor, Marvel Comics List of Weapons, Master Order, Mega-Rod, Megingjord, Metamemetics, Miracle Machine, Mirage’s Holographic Suit, Mirror Master’s Trick Mirrors, Mockingbird’s Battle Stave, Moon Knight’s Boomerang, Moon Knight’s Golden Ankh, Moon Knight’s Throwing Irons, Mr. Freeze Cold Gun, Mysterio’s gloves and boots, Mysterio’s Helmet with Holographic Projector, Odin’s Thrudstok, Odinsword, Orange Lantern Ring, Orb of Ra, Orion’s Astro-Harness, Paladin’s Armor, Penguin’s Trick Umbrellas, Phantom Zone Projector, Piped Pipers flute, Polestar’s Magnetic Gauntlets, Psi-Scimitar, Psycho Pirate’s Medusa Mask, Pyro’s Battlesuit and Flamethrowers, Quantum Bands, Qwa-Bolts, Red Power Ring, Rhino’s Polymer Armor, Ringmaster's Top Hat with Portable Mind-control Device, Robin’s Battle Staff, Ronan the Accuser’s Universal Weapon, Sakki, Sandman’s Dreamstone, Sandman’s Gas Gun, Sandman’s Helm of Dreams, Sandman’s Sand of Sleep, Sargon the Sorcerer’s Ruby of Life, Scell, Scorcher’s Suit and Flamethrowers, Serpent Crown, Shocker’s Gauntlets, Silver Surfer’s Surfboard, Son of Satan’s Trident, Sonigun, Soultaker Sword, Spear of Destiny, Spear of Lonea, Spymater’s Battlesuit, Staff of Polar Power, Star Man’s Cosmic Rod, Star Sapphire, Star Shield, Star-Blazer, Steel’s Apokolips Armor, Stilt-Man’s Armor, Stormbreaker, Streamsword, street weapons, Sun Shredder, Sun-Eater, Sunbeam Ray Gun, super weapons, Surtur’s Twilight Sword, Sword of Bone, Sword of Fangs, Sword of Frey, Sword of Kamuu, Sword of Light, Sword of Might, Sword of Night, Sword of Ultimate Shadow, Swordman’s Sword, Taskmaster’s Solid Energy Weapon, Thanos, the Stranger, the titan Epoch, Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir, Titanium Man’s Armor, Toastmasters, Trident of Neptune, Trident of Poseidon, Trident of Triton, two Celestials, Ulik’s Pounders, Ultimate Nullifier, Ultra-Diode Ray, Unicorn’s Power Horn, Vulture’s Wings, Wand of Watoomb, Warworld, Weather Wizard’s Wand, Webgun, Whip, Whiplash’s Gauntlets and Battlesuit, Wizard’s Power Gloves, Wonder Woman’s Bracelets of the Aegis, Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth, Wrecker’s Crowbar, Xantha Charge, Yellow Power Ring
I want to welcome Animal Man (DC) and She-Hulk (Marvel) to my humble blog. What many comic book readers may not be aware of is that both characters share a very unique super power. Animal Man and the She-Hulk possess metafictional awareness. They are aware of the fact that they are comic book heroes and that they inhabit a comic book reality and from time to time have broken the fourth wall that separates reader from fiction.
Hugh Fox: Let me start with the She-Hulk. What’s it like knowing you are a comic book character?
She Hulk: First of all I didn’t always know I am a comic book character. I first possessed metafictional awareness during the run of the Sensational She-Hulk by John Byrne. That was a blast. I got into arguments with John. I could tear up the page. I could walk through advertisements. I could even make appeals to John’s Editor, Renee Wittstaetter. She even bound and gagged John and locked him in a storage closet in the issue #50 which unfortunately was also the last issue. I did not have metafictional awareness prior to this series. When I acquired metafictional awareness I read my earliest title run the Savage She-Hulk and can’t help but think what a dope I was back then and for the record I am not drawn very well and the plots aren’t very good either. The creators of the Savage She-Hulk also neglected my potential sexiness. Come on I can be really hot. John was great and I thank him for making me a sexier character and a more aware character than I had been previously. There are some good points about the Savage She-Hulk. I am proud to point out that I was the last Marvel creation of Stan Lee perhaps the greatest comic book creator ever. Stan Lee was assisted in my creation by John Buscema.
Hugh Fox: You have had metafictional awareness in recent years as well as I recall.
She Hulk: This happened years after the cancellation of John’s run. In 2004 the series titled simply She-Hulk was launched and I kept my metafictional awareness in that series which I am sad to say came to an end in 2009. I would like to make a plug for the graphic novels that collect my adventures of that run. The first volume is titled Single Green Female, the second volume is Superhuman Law, and the third volume is titled Time Trials. I especially liked how I could go to the long boxes in that series and get answers to problems.
Hugh Fox: I am not sure I know what you are referring to.
She Hulk: The law firm I worked for had long boxes of every Marvel comic book ever published and the boxes basically acted as a database I could use.
Hugh Fox: Knowledge is power!
She Hulk: You better believe it. I could also use other long boxes due to my metafictional awareness. Let me give you one example. I visited NYC Comics and found the key to defeating Titania who had potentially infinite super strength at the time. Titania was wearing a really hot dominatrix type outfit at the time that really showed of her legs which I have to admit are pretty good. Great cat fight by the way. I even had my Jupiter suit torn to shreds by Titania in that fight. Fortunately, I was wearing a sexy white and purple Lycra gym suit underneath. I am amazed that series got cancelled since you would assume guys who buy comic books would love a good cat fight. I mean sex sells doesn’t it?
Hugh Fox: Are you saying you don’t mind being a comic book sex object?
She Hulk: I like being alive and if some sex is needed to keep me alive then so be it but I am so much more than just a sex object. My overt sexuality is just one side of my character. I see myself as kind of a Sex in the City character in the Marvel Comics New York. My career as a lawyer for super humans was a major plot line in my last series and I had very complex soap opera type relationships. I mean my poor cousin the Hulk just runs around smashing stuff and has dialogue like “Me Hulk, me smash puny humans”. Ninety percent of the time he is running around in the same torn purple pants. I mean who ever heard of purple pants for a man? I mean it’s a great color for a woman but a man? They gave a similar torn type wardrobe in the cover of issue one of the Savage Hulk series which did nothing for my figure but in the later series I got to wear all sorts of great corporate but sexy outfits as a lawyer. My superhero outfits were great as well.
I especially liked my form fitting lycra Fantastic Four uniform. I didn’t care for the Jupiter Suit that I mentioned which was more a space suit than anything else even though I did get to change the color from yellow and green to white and purple, my trademark colors but of course the Jupiter suit only existed to be torn away later in my fight with Titania.
Hugh Fox: You are pretty quiet Animal Man. What are your thoughts about having metafictional awareness?
Animal Man: I am glad someone enjoyed having metafictional awareness! My own experience has been very different that of the She-Hulk and quite terrible. Like the She-Hulk, I did not have metafictional awareness during my early years. I first appeared in Strange Adventures in 1965! That makes me a lot older than the She-Hulk and for the first twenty years of my existence I was a third tier super hero with no metafictional awareness whatsoever and wandered in and out of comic book limbo.
Hugh Fox: Comic book limbo?
Animal Man: I don’t know how it works in the Marvel universe but in the DC universe when your series is cancelled, and you don’t make any guest appearances in other titles then you end up in comic book limbo. Kind of where the forgotten super heroes go. At least that is the way the place was explained to me by Merry Man of the Inferior Five who was an inhabitant of comic book limbo when I visited the place. Now this brings up a paradox. If he is in a comic book explaining comic book limbo then he is an active super hero and should not be in comic book limbo.
Hugh Fox: I get what you are saying. The Inferior Five were very much inactive superheroes that were totally wiped out during the crisis of infinite Earths but yeah their appearance in a current comic book means they are once more part of the DC continuity. But if you take this logic to its extreme you can’t portray comic book limbo at all and this would destroy what I felt was a very good comic book and plot necessity trumps a paradox in fiction.
Animal Man: Spoken like a creator. Well anyway, in the eighties, Grant Morrison, a Brit was brought on board to DC along other with other Brits like Alan Moore and the Brits where given the task of revamping old and out of date characters like myself. Alan Moore reinvented the Swamp Thing. Grant Morrison decided to reinvent me! If only Alan Moore had picked me instead. The Swamp Thing didn’t have an easy life by any means under the reign of Alan Moore but he got a better deal than me. Grant Morrison was a sadistic and horrible creator!
Hugh Fox: How was he sadistic?
Animal Man: I didn’t receive metafictional awareness all at once but little by little via a torturous plot line that ran around two years. My family got killed. My reality slowly melted around me. I spent time in comic book limbo as I mentioned before, and this was not pleasant let me tell you. The reader was more or less aware of what was going on at least a year before so basically I am not having fun with the readers like the She-Hulk but being manipulated for effect.
Hugh Fox: What do you mean?
Animal Man: I met a character in the Coyote Gospel called Crafty that was a thinly veiled Wile E. Coyote of the Road Runner cartoon series. Crafty made a deal with God, creator like you. God would end the endless cartoon violence of Crafty’s universe if he agreed to enter the DC universe. Grant tortured Crafty over and over again in this sick story. In the end Crafty dies in my arms horribly but is totally unable to communicate why he was in the DC Universe because he is a cartoon character. The reader knows what is going on but I am made a fool of. Was Grant Morrison punished for this evil comic book in the universe of the Creators? No, Grant Morrison got an Eisner Award for Best Single Issue of 1989! There are civil rights organizations, animal rights organizations, and women’s rights organizations. I think there is a real need for an organization to defend the right of comic book characters in order to prevent this sort of injustice!
Hugh Fox: You aren’t real. Crafty isn’t real. You aren’t really feeling pain.
Animal Man: Maybe you aren’t real! Maybe you are just some character in a comic book or movie or whatever. Have you ever thought of that?
Hugh Fox: I am not sure if I am in a virtual reality but I am sure a virtual reality would be more numerological than a non-virtual reality.
Animal Man: Anyway, at the end of this torturous metafictional story line I got to meet my creator, Grant Morrison and he dismissed all my pain and suffering very callously and told me some baloney about the death of his cat. I had my family brutally killed and he is comparing that with the death of his stupid cat! Creators have no perspective whatsoever.
Hugh Fox: I guess if you are going to be a metafictional character you are much better of being in the Marvel Universe than the DC Universe.
She Hulk: Based on what Animal Man has said, I don’t think it’s a universe thing but a creator thing. You get someone like John as a creator and you have a great ride. I have never met Animal Man before this post but if you get someone like Grant Morrison then your metafictional existence is extremely painful. Too bad you can’t pick your creator. I also think being female is a plus since most creators are guys and guys treat female characters better than male characters.
Hugh Fox: You think so? In the DC universe you have had the following terrible things happen to female characters. Stephanie Brown (Spoiler, Robin IV, Batgirl III) was brutally tortured by the Black Mask with a power drill and shot to “death”. In Green Lantern #54 showed Kyle Radner coming home to his apartment and finding his dead girlfriend stuck in the refrigerator.
She Hulk: That’s horrible I hope none of those creators ever get a hold of me.
Hugh Fox: Actually one of your creators, John Byrne was mentioned in a section on the list but this section has since been removed. Yeah there is a whole debate about how female characters are killed and/or tortured in horrific ways in order to generate more sales among the largely teenage male audience. The name for this controversy is called Women in Refrigerators Syndrome. There is an infamous list of examples of women who have been killed or tortured horrifically in comic books. This list was created online by comic book fans in 1999. The list is a work in progress as new comic books come out.
She Hulk: Despite my metafictional awareness, this awareness is strictly limited to the Marvel universe and I had no knowledge of the events you have mentioned. The DC universe sounds like a horrible place for women.
Hugh Fox: Ok you two this a DC vs. Marvel post which is in turn part of a series of such posts on my blog and it’s time for less talking and good old slug fest.
Animal Man: Are you kidding just look at her. She is a female version of the Hulk. Based on the events of War Hulk I would say the Hulk is the strongest being of the Marvel universe. Unlike the She-Hulk I have some knowledge of the Marvel universe. My terrible experiences have made me aware that ignorance is not bliss but a path to suffering and I have expanded my metafictional awareness as much as possible. Besides there are no animals in this post from I can mimic powers from and I do not sense any animal kingdom on this post. That’s my super power readers. For example, if I am around a bird I can fly. I don’t grow wings or anything, I just can fly. I once mimicked the strength of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and that’s about as strong as I have ever been and this is nowhere near She-Hulk levels. And I already know that my super power is totally implausible, even by comic book standards, which is saying a lot, and maybe that’s one of the reasons Grant Morrison decided to pick on me.
Hugh Fox: You want animals? I’ll give you animals. I hereby create the entire animal kingdom on this post. Hey, I have an idea why don’t I get a Kryptonian animal on board? That way you would have powers that equal or surpass that of Superman. Hulk vs. Superman fights are very popular online and this would be a variant of that sort of fight. You absorbed the ability to fire lightning from your face from an alien creature so your ability to mimic alien animal powers is already established.
She Hulk: I don’t know much about this Superman character but if he is strong enough to take on the Hulk then I am not interested. I am not my cousin the Hulk. My cousin took me out with a single blow in the War Hulk series, well he didn’t take me out totally, but I had enough sense to stay down. Look having metafictional awareness means you aren’t as dopey as the superheroes that do not possess such awareness. You get some perspective and with metafictional awareness and are a lot less likely to engage in simplistic heroics or at least that’s the case with me.
Hugh Fox: I am the creator and ruler of this post and I order you two to start fighting. I hereby cause Beppo, the Kryptonian super monkey, to appear so Animal Man can be almost as powerful as Superman just as the She-Hulk is almost as powerful as the Hulk. You won’t have the strength of Superman but you will have the greater agility a monkey has relative to a human. The contest should be interesting.
Animal Man: I evoke “plot plausibility” which even governs creators. Why would two super heroes that have no grudge whatsoever just start fighting?
Hugh Fox: Happens all the time in comic books!
Animal Man: Come on you are a better creator than that!
Hugh Fox: Yeah I suppose you are right but how do we decide which universe wins if there is no slug fest?
Animal Man: Before my family was killed brutally I was a pretty good parent and one way I settled conflicts between my son and daughter was through a paper, scissors, stone contest.
Hugh Fox: Ok I can live with that. It’s got a kind of metafictional dry humor to it that fits this post.
Animal Man and the She-Hulk go ahead and do paper, scissors and stone with their hands and She-Hulk counters Animal Man’s scissors with stone. So DC beats Marvel in this post.
She Hulk: Hey, why did you let me win?
Hugh Fox: First of all I just want to say I love both your titles. I am into metafiction. My novel Half Square is metafiction. I love comic books so of course I am going to love a metafictional comic book but I prefer your metafictional comic books to those of Animal Man partly partly because of the art if you know what I mean, heh, heh.
She Hulk: So you let me win because I’m hot? Well I can live with that.
Hugh Fox: No, not totally, you are a super smart lawyer and let’s face it Animal Man isn’t too bright and a blue collar guy if I recall correctly. Smarter people do better in games of strategy than dumber people or one would assume. Last but not least you would have some of that female intuition which I think is largely a greater awareness of body language at a subconscious level and that’s important in a game like paper, scissors, stone. I think all things being equal women are more likely to win paper, scissors, stone than men although I have no empirical basis for this belief but think it might be an interesting and funny study.
She Hulk: Well whatever your reasons, thanks. No hard feelings Animal Man. If DC and Marvel ever decide to do another crossover then make sure to look me up. I would love to have a long talk with someone else with metafictional awareness and have to admit I am kind of curious about the DC Universe.
Animal Man: I will definitely look you up. The Avengers/Justice League crossover made a ton of money for both DC and Marvel so I think another crossover is inevitable. I don’t mind losing at all and just glad we ran into a creator that was smart enough to avoid yet another senseless comic book slug fest.
Hugh Fox: Well readers, that’s the end of this post. I think a comic book featuring Animal Man and the She-Hulk having some metafictional adventures as a team could be interesting.
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Other DC vs. Marvel Posts
WereVerse Universe Baby!
Posted in DC vs. Marvel
Tagged Animal Man, Batgirl III, Beppo, comic book limbo, Coyote Gospel, Crafty, DC vs. Marvel, Fourth Wall, Grant Morrison, Green Lanter #50, Hulk, Inferior Five, John Buscema, John Byrne, Krypton, Kyle Radner, Merry Man, Metafiction, metafictional awareness, Renee Wittstaetter, Road Runner, Robin IV, Savage She-Hulk, Sensational She-Hulk, Sex in the City, sex object, She-Hulk, Single Green Female, Spoiler, Stan Lee, Stephanie Brown, Superhuman Law, Superman, Time Trials, Tyrannosaurus Rex, War Hulk, Wile E. Coyote, Women in Refrigerators
Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers
Recently, Lockjaw and various super pets of the Marvel universe had a cosmic adventure in Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers. I am old enough to remember the Legion of Super Pets of the silver age of DC comic books fondly and couldn’t help but notice many similarities. Because of these memories and the recent Marvel title, I was inspired to write this post. Heroic pets have existed in other media. In particular, Lassie and Rin Tin Tin existed in film and television but the invention of comic book super heroes led to the very particular super pet. A super pet is the animal sidekick to a super hero.
Krypto
Probably the most famous super pet is Krypto, Superman’s super dog from Krypton. Krypto has had many solo adventures in DC comic books and even his own animated series on the Cartoon Network that started in 2005. The series is regular who’s who of evil super pets. Some of the evil super pets include the Joker’s hyenas Bud and Lou, Catwoman’s cat Isis, The Penguins trained birds (Artie the Puffin, Griff the Vulture, Waddles the Puffin), and Lex Luthor’s pet iguana Ignatius.
Krypto inspired a whole list of super pets that now appear dated. I think one explanation of why super pets where so popular in that period but not now is that quite simply the median age of comic book readers during the silver age was much lower than now. Younger readers like stories about animals and pets more than older readers. A lot more children’s books are about animals and pets than adult books. The success of Krypto apparently inspired many more DC super pets.
Beppo
Beppo the Super Monkey from Krypto showed up later. Krypto had super intelligence for a dog which meant he had human intelligence on Earth. This in turn means Beppo should be pretty smart, a lot smarter than Krypto, that’s for sure, but we never see any evidence of this difference in intelligence in the Super family stories of the time. The way these two animals show up at Superboy’s doorstep is hilarious.
Jor El, Superman’s father, presumably a great and compassionate man, rockets his sons pet dog into space to test his rocket to Earth! Beppo is also rocketed into the void by Jor El. I think if my dad used my dog for a dangerous experiment that led to the dog’s seeming demise, then I might be a little angry about this. Superboy never shows any ill feelings about his father’s actions whatsoever. I can accept Beppo being hurled into the void since he is a monkey and we assume specifically purchased to test the rocket. Krypto is another matter. Can’t Jor El find some stray dog at the dog pound on Krypton? Jor El has to use his son’s pet dog? Given that Krypto and Beppo have human intelligence you would also assume they would hate Jor El but this point is never brought up either.
Dogs are supposed to have a sense of smell 1,000 times more powerful than a human being. Both Superboy and Krypto have super smell but presumably Krypto’s super smell would be a 1,000 times more powerful than that of Superboy. Superboy fought some pretty sorry villains, mostly petty crooks, compared to Superman, and many times the Super Boy bad guys gave him the slip since he had super powers and they didn’t. Superboy never ever used his own sense of smell to track a crook.
The use of super smell is pretty much ignored during the silver age by both DC and Marvel. A current poll at the Comic Vine puts Superman at the top of the super smell list
(http://www.comicvine.com/super-smell/41-19/)
One could argue this is a recent development and Superboy did not have super smell but his dog could still be used to track bad guys. Later Wolverine, a Marvel superheroe, will use super smell to pursue bad guys and figure out the true identity of a shape shifter. Mystique, is an enemy of the X-Men, and can change her appearance and thus fool the other X-Men but not Wolverine as demonstrated dramatically in the first X-Men movie. Superboy never used Krypto to track a bad guy down using scent. Instead Super Boy relies one hundred percent on flying around and using his super vision and if the crooks are smart enough to hide in a lead shielded place then they get away.
Steaky
Supergirl later acquired a super cat called Streaky. Streaky was a normal Earth cat that was exposed to X-kryptonite and acquired super powers. Streaky was not poisoned to death but instead became a super cat. Super girl also managed to acquire a super horse called Comet. Comet was not from Krypton but was a centaur turned into a super horse by Circe, the sorceress, and this meant that Comet was invulnerable to Kryptonite. Comet had the power of telepathy unlike the other super pets. Just as a horse is more powerful physically than a man, Comet was presumably more powerful physically than Superman physically. This meant Comet was the most powerful character of the Superman family. Comet as a character is worth analyzing more closely.
Comet
Comet was in love with Supergirl! Comet even had an affair with Supergirl when he was temporarily a man. Supergirl also rides Comet into battle. Interestingly, Superman never rides Comet. I don’t think most men would like to literally ridden by the object of their affections but maybe I am wrong about this. I suppose, sooner or later, the DC Imprint, Vertigo, will do a reboot of Comet or even all the super pets, with more mature themes explored.
The Superman family inspired the creation of a Batman family. Superman is a family guy. Batman is at his best when he is a loner and does not need a Batman family. Batman associates perhaps but not a family. Oh well, they had Batman fighting aliens in the same time period. If Superman has a dog then so must Batman. Batman adopted a dog called Bat-Hound. Bat-Hound was a normal German Sheppard that wore a mask. Actually, Bat-Hound was not the stupidest member of the silver age Batman family by any means. Police use police dogs and Batman is kind of a super policeman and the ability of a dog to act as a hound and follow a scent could be useful to Batman in a pursuit situation. Batman did use Bat-Hound to track criminals using the dog’s sense of smell! Very recently, Batman used the current incarnation of Krypto, who has normal canine intelligence, to track down a crook with his sense of smell. Further proof, if needed, that Batman is smarter than Superman or at least Superboy. Bat-Hound and Streaky did appear on Krypto’s animated series.
Other superheroes of that time period also had super pets but they were extremely minor characters. The Atom had a bird that he rode to battle called Ms. Mina. Aquaman has a regular aquarium of finny friends but I would put the giant seahorses Aquaman and Aqualad rode at the top of his super pet list. This lack of Justice League super pets meant that a Justice League of Super Pets was not possible but the creation of a super pet club was possible using another angle.
Proty II
Superboy and Supergirl belonged to something called the Legion of Superheroes in the 30th century. There were over 20 something legionnaires but only one super pet in the bunch. Chameleon Boy had a super pet called Proty II. Proty II was a big yellow blob that could shape shift. Not much of a super power I supposed but adding him to the Legion of Super Pets meant that club wasn’t exclusively a Superman family club. Proty also had the power of telepathy like Comet. Poor Proty, surrounded by super pets with at least a half dozen super powers and all he can do is shape shift. The situation was probably difficult for Proty to say the least. Supergirl meets a descendant of Streaky, called Whizzy, in her first adventure with the Legion of Superheroes and the descendant can talk unlike Streaky. This character is never seen again but logically a talking super cat would be a welcome addition to the Legion of Super Pets.
Adventure Comics 322
I have included the cover of Adventure #322 above. Comet and Proty are the only two members that have telepathy as a superpower and very appropriately are the only two talking to each other via thought balloons, the comic book version of telepathy. The plaques at the table conference table give Krypto and Streaky names but Comet and Beppo are simply referred to as super-horse and super-monkey and their names are not used. I guess only some pets rate an actual name on their plaque.
Lockjaw
Lockjaw is the leader of the Pet Avengers. Lockjaw can teleport, has super strength, and is a giant. The Avengers consist of Lockheed, Redwing, Ms. Lion, Zabu, Niels the Cat, and Throg. The biggest difference between Lockjaws team and the Legion is that Lockjaw’s team has pets that do not have super powers. The members that have powers are Lockheed, Zabu and Throg. Zabu is a sabretooth lion. Lockheed is a miniature dragon about the size of a cat that can fly, has very tough hide and can exhale fire. Throg is a frog version of Thor and probably has about one tenth the power of Thor or maybe even a lot less. The other super pets are normal animals. Niels the Cat aka Hairball, generates a kinetic energy field, like his owner Speedball, and this means he can bounce around and is super slippery. Cats are pretty slippery anyway so I think catching Niels would not be easy.
Redwing is a hawk that works with the Falcon and at least has super hero experience. Ms. Lion is a rather silly dog that belongs to Aunt May, the Aunt of Spiderman, and would probably get destroyed in a fight with even a normal street mutt. Ms. Lion has ribbons in her hair! However, Ms. Lion did sacrifice her life to save Hairball and was only revived later by the power of the infinity gems. So how would a battle between the Legion of Super Pets and Lockjaw’s Super Pet Avengers turn out? The two super pet teams have both claimed a particular park in the New York as their territory. Krypto and Streaky have clearly marked the park as their territory! The Marvel Avengers try to argue that the park should be open to everyone but Krypto promptly responds human concepts such as sharing territory have nothing to do with animals that live by a different code.
Comet knows what is going to happen next and wants nothing to do with the events that will follow. Comet has known Krypto for years and years and knows that he is ruthless when it comes to defending his territory. Comet, as mentioned, is a centaur in animal guise and has had it hanging around a bunch of animals. Comet is also thousands of years old and is sick of baby sitting the other super pets especially Beppo who he suspects was driven insane by his years alone in space. Beppo is not the only member of the super pets that might have psychological problems. Comet is sick of Krypto’s obsession with dinosaur bones that are obviously rock and not bone. Comet is sick of Streaky getting high on catnip all the time. Comet is sick of being ridden by Supergirl, actually he doesn’t mind that part so much but still. Most of all Comet is sick of how all of them refuse to learn how to use a toilet. The Legion headquarters stinks to high heaven. Comet flies off to a far off planet governed by intelligent horse creatures that have achieved space travel and are more advanced technologically than the humans on Earth. Comet misses Super Girl but when elected king of the planet, due to his many super deeds, gets over it.
The Legion of Super Pets looks at the sorry underpowered Avengers team that is giving them a hard time. All the other animals on Earth have enough sense to treat them like the top dog, top cat or whatever and decide and example needs to be made once and for all. Streaky goes after Zabu the sabretooth and Zabu puts up a valiant struggle but Streaky is about a million times stronger than Zabu and invulnerable to boot. Streaky grabs the back of Zabu’s neck with her teeth and rattles him like a rag dog until Zabu’s neck is broken. Streaky feels a little sorry since Zabu was kind of hot.
Krypto chases Niels all over town and despite superspeed and superflight and super smell has a hard time even touching Niels much less fighting him. Krypto loses interest in the chase and Niels gets away to fight another day. Krypto returns to the park and bites Ms. Lions throat and she promptly dies. Throg zaps Krypto with lightning and the lighting actually hurts due to its magical origin and the vulnerability of Krptonians to magic that may even be higher than that of normal humans. Krypto decides to not take any chances and uses his ultimate weapon, heat vision. Krypto zaps Throg with his heat vision. Even Thor would be in trouble but a frog is especially vulnerable to heat vision. The amphibian quickly dehydrates and dies. Streaky flies after Redwing, the hawk, and swats him out of the sky with fatal results to Redwing.
Lockheed flies towards Streaky and breathes fire all over Streaky. Streaky is grateful since the flames remove a lot of dirt she had accumulated during the battle. Superman uses a super flamethrower at his Fortress of Solitude to clean his uniform and Streaky always thought this was a pretty good idea. Streaky has never told Krypto that she finds his body smell to be too much and wishes he would learn to clean himself with his tongue like she does. Streaky slashes Lockheed throat with her claws and Lockheed bleeds to death.
Proty turns into a bush and avoids the battle. The Avengers don’t have a chance! Krypto tells the rest of his team to hold off on attacking, the leader, Lockjaw since he wants to save that pooch for last. Krypto is going to teach Lockjaw who is top dog once and for all. The Legion surrounds Lockjaw. Lockjaw looks at the mutilated bodies of his friends and vows revenge. Lockjaw teleports the Legion and himself to a Kryptonian style planet and all the super pets lose their powers except Proty. “If only Comet hadn’t abandoned them”, thinks Krypto just before he loses his super intelligence and the ability to formulate full sentences.
Lockjaw has super canine strength in his jaw and at one time locked down on the Thing’s arm and the Thing could not get away. I would estimate Lockjaw is eight feet from nose to tail and probably weighs in excess of six hundred pounds. Basically Lockjaw is a giant bulldog. Lockjaw chomps all the Kryptonian super pets to death. Proty turns into a local shrub in order to hide from the wrath of Lockjaw but Lockjaw as a dog easily sniffs him out and chomps his head off or rather the upper part of his body since Proty doesn’t really have a head. Lockjaw promptly spits Proty out of his mouth since Antareans taste like plastic mixed with detergent. Lockjaw doesn’t mind eating the odd robot now and then but Proty just doesn’t taste good.
The Marvel team wins but a terrible cost!
After I wrote this post Marvel published The Marvel Pets Handbook. The writers of this handbook graciously admit that their “Distinguished Competitor” (DC) had a head start in the super pet area but that Marvel is taking the lead in this category and I have to agree. The handbook includes entries for
Ant-Man’s Ants, Ape, Aragorn, Beasts of Berlin, Bill & Don, Blaze the Wonder Collie, Brightwind, Cerberus, Collector’s Creatures, Cosmo, Cr’ree, Currs, Deuce, Devil Dinosaur, Diablo, Droog, Ebony, Freki & Geri, Frogs of Central Park, Garm, Giganto, Hell Storm’s Demon-Steeds, Hellcow, Hellhorse, Ina & Briri, Kerberos, Kraven the Hunter’s Menagerie, Krill, Lobo, Lockheed, Lockjaw, Man-oo, Max, Mole Man’s Monsters, Monkey Joe, Munin & Hugin, Niels, Nimo, Old Lace, Outcasts, Princess Python’s Pythons, Preyy, Puppy, Red Ghosts’ Apes, Redwin, Saint, Sassafras, Sleipnir, Strider, Tippy-Toe, Toothgnasher & Toothgrinder, Valinor, Valykrior Steeds, Vixen, Watchdog, Zabu, and Zar. There is even an appendix of Cowboy Horses of the West and another appendix of miscellaneous pets. This handbook should really be titled “Marvel Animal Handbook” since the entries go way beyond just super-pets and mention just about every animal that has ever appeared in the Marvel universe and had a name and even some unamed animals.
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Posted in Comic Book Critique, DC vs. Marvel
Tagged Ant-Man's Ants, Ape, Aragorn, Artie the Puffin, Bat-Hound, Beasts of Berlin, Beppo, Bill & Don, Blaze the Wonder Collie, Brightwind, Bud, Catwoman, Cerberus, Chameleon Boy, Collector’s Creatures, Comet, Cosmo, Cr'ree, Currs, DC vs. Marvel, Deuce, Devil Dinosaur, Diablo, Droog, Ebony, Freki & Geri, Frogs of Central Park, Garm, Giganto, Griff the Vulture, Hairball, Hell Storm's Demon-Steeds, Hellcow, Hellhorse, hyena, Ignatius, iguana, Ina & Briri, Isis, Joker, Kerberos, Kraven the Hunter's Menagerie, Krill, Krypto, Lassie, Legion of Super Pets, Lext Luthor, Lobo, Lockheed, Lockjaw, Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers, Lou, Man-oo, Max, Mole Man's Monsters, Monkey Joe, Ms. Lion, Ms. Mina, Munin & Hugin, Niels, Niels the Cat, Nimo, Old Lace, Outcasts, Penguin, Preyy, Princess Python's Pythons, Proty II, Puppy, Red Ghosts' Apes, Redwin, Redwing, Rin Tin Tin, Saint, Sassafras, Sleipnir, Streaky, Strider, Throg, Tippy-Toe, Toothgnasher & Toothgrinder, Valinor, Valykrior Steeds, Vixen, Waddles the Puggin, Watchdog, Whizzy, Zabu, Zar
Archie has finally proposed to Veronica and in honor of this event I have written the following post about teenage humor comic books.
This is the sixth post in a series that pits non superhero genre heroes from the DC and Marvel universes against each other. The first post looked at Westerns and Western heroes (http://foxhugh.com/2009/02/13/dc-vs-marvel-western-heroes/ ), the second post looked at war comics and war heroes (http://foxhugh.com/2009/03/21/dc-vs-marvel-war-heroes/ ), the third post looked at women’s comics and working women (http://foxhugh.com/2009/04/11/dc-vs-marvel-working-women ) and the fourth post looked at space operas and spacemen (http://foxhugh.com/2009/04/20/dc-vs-marvel-spacemen/ ). The fifth post analyzed funny animals (http://foxhugh.com/2009/06/10/dc-vs-marvel-funny-animals/ )
The genre of this post is teenage humor and the heroes are the teenagers of this non superhero genre. The ultimate comic book archetype of this genre would be Archie published by MLJ/Archie Comics. The enduring success of Archie has created many imitators over the years. Archie was so successful that characters in his universe became spin off titles. Some of the Archie characters that had their own titles include Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Reggie and even less well known characters such as Principal Weatherby, Dilton Doily, and Big Ethel. Interestingly, Archie went through a superhero phase. The Archie superhero stories were written as parodies of regular superheroes. Archie was Pureheart the Powerful. Jughead was Captain Hero.
The DC teenagers include Scribbly, Buzzy, Binky, Scooter and Debbie. Scribbly the boy cartoonist was invented by comic book giant Sheldon Mayer for Dell Comics in 1936. Scribbly moved to the back pages of DCs All American Comics in 1939. The last appearance of Scribbly in that title was in 1944. When Archie became popular, Scribbly returned in his own series for 15 issues between 1948 and 1952. Binky then appeared in the back pages of DC’s other two teen humor titles, Buzzy and Leave it to Binky.
Buzzy was a hipster, unlike Archie, and one of the few none Archie clones in this genre. Buzzy was part of a five-piece combo. Buzzy graduated from the All Funny Comics anthology to his own title that ran from 1944 to 1958. Buzzy became more and more an Archie clone during the run of the title.
Binky started in his own title, Leave it to Binky, immediately in 1948 in response to the success of Archie. Binky was a teenager in high school and his title lasted until 1958. Binky won the Shazam Award for best inker in 1970 and this is not a genre known for winning awards.
Scooter was the main character in the title Swing with Scooter that was launched in 1966 almost ten years after the demise of Buzzy and Binky. Scooter was named after his scooter that he used for transportation and was a British mod. A mod can be considered a type of sixties British hippie. Scooter was transplanted to Laurel City, USA. Scooter was lucky enough to be born in an era when crossovers became more common and he met the likes of Batman and Superman. There will be no such teen humor/superhero crossover until Archie meets the Punisher published in 1994.
Scooter is probably the only DC character of the teen humor genre that I remember. I was born in 1957 and missed all the other DC teens due to my age but vaguely remember running into Scooter in the newsstands. My own parents were into the whole hippie, mod, whatever thing in the sixties, and because of this, I found the character a little interesting but even as a youth was smart enough to realize this comic book was being written by people who had no idea what was going on in the sixties counter culture. The writers were middle aged, the slang was more lame than hip. When a 12 year old can figure this out about your dialogue then your title is in trouble. I had been an on and off, tepid fan, of Archie since I was eight years old until I was about 14, so the problem wasn’t that I didn’t like the genre. The problem wasn’t I didn’t like Scooter. Scooter lasted 36 issues and for a non superhero genre that is pretty good so maybe the slang worked on other less worldly teens.
Debbi starred in Date with Debbi that ran 18 issues from1969 to 1972. Debbi was a red head. Debbi looked like a female version of Archie, right down to the chubby cheeks and this is not a good thing! I am surprised the series lasted as long as it did.
I have mentioned in other posts, in this series, how the DC imprint Vertigo has consistently rebooted non superhero material from DC’s obscure comic book past. I challenge Vertigo to do a miniseries about DC’s long lost teens. How about a look at the teens twenty years later? The DC teens are all working as office workers at a paper company, no, the paper company has already been done, maybe a computer support company. They go to a bar and reminiscence about their lost youth and decide to do something crazy as a group. Look up their lost loves? This would give an excuse to see all their supporting casts. Go to Thailand? Maybe they do something even crazier. Maybe they take acid together in Amsterdam that was accidentally mixed with alien DNA and they merge into Super Hip. Maybe a road trip where they see their lost loves, go to Thailand and then go to Amsterdam.
Super Hip briefly appeared in the Adventures of Bob Hope DC comic book and basically could alter reality as this super power is referred to nowadays. Mostly Super Hip displayed Superman type powers. Super Hip’s alter ego, Tad, went to Benedict Arnold High School. Super Hip is one of those totally obscure DC characters that didn’t even rate a mention in Who’s Who in the DC Universe. Super Hip was drawn in a cartoony style that was reminiscent of teen humor characters. I think Super Hip was some sort of misguided attempt to combine a super hero with a teen humor character.
The Marvel teenagers include Millie the Model, Chili and Patsy Walker. Patsy Walker was popular from the 1940s until 1967 and even supported several spin off titles. Patsy Walker was a red head and her romantic rival was black haired Hedy Wolfe. Betty and Veronica, of Archie Comics, of course are blonde and black haired respectively and minus super hero costumes perhaps hair color is needed to differentiate comic book characters in situations where a lack of a consistent house style can confuse young readers. In 1973, Marvel brought back the name but totally rewrote the character, and made Patsy Walker the alter Ego of the super heroine known as Hellcat. This is similar to what Marvel did with Night Nurse, a romance genre heroine that was remade into the nurse of super heroes.
There is some overlap between romance comics and teenage humor comics. For example, Millie the Model went back and forth from being a romance comic to a teen humor comic. The art on the cover lets the reader know which version of Millie they are dealing with immediately. The romance comic version of Millie the Model issues were drawn in a more realistic fashion. The teen humor version is in a cartoony style that imitated the Archie Comics house style.
Chili was the red headed rival of Millie and in her own series was consistently a teen humor title. The clothes that Millie and Chili wore are a big part of both series. Both titles featured paper dolls and outfits in the comic book. Many of the Millie comics, the romance version, showed off very glamorous fifties type outfits. Many covers of Millie had her sporting evening gowns and furs. Not exactly something you would wear to the mall. I think Marilyn Monroe might have been the inspiration for these covers. Chili,in her own series, on the other hand, consistently wore very mod clothes with bright colors and even pant suits and wore stylish clothes you might actually see in the mall in the late sixties and seventies.
Despite the difference in art styles between the teen humor and romance genres, there are many similarities in plot lines. Both genres highlight male/female relationships in general and love triangles in particular, but the story line of a romance comic leads to love or a broken heart while the story line of a teenage humor comic leads to a punch line.
Another interesting difference between the plot lines is that teenage humor generally portrays a young man such as Archie being pursued by two gals such as Betty and Veronica. In romance comics, a woman is pursued by two men. One of the men would be the wild one and one the stable one. In teenage humor the main difference between the two gals would be the color of their hair. Although upon further examination Betty represents the nice girl next door while Veronica is more of a vamp but the main difference between them is definitely their hair color. A Mad Magazine parody of Archie named Starchie highlights this lack of difference between Betty and Veronica. Starchie tells that parody version of Jughead that Betty and Veronica are drawn totally differently despite the fact they have had identical poses and are drawn exactly alike, except for their hair, throughout the parody.
Teens in this genre do not fight but instead compete romantically and generally win or lose via practical jokes. The three Marvel female teens, Millie the Model, Patsy Walker and Chili go out on a group date with the DC teens, Scribbly, Buzzy, Binky, Scooter and Debbi. There are four women and four men so someone is going to go home alone. Millie the Model is a model! In teen humor comics looks are everything so all the guys go after Millie, leaving Patsy and Debbie to sulk in the soda shop and reflect how unfair life is.
Patsy, Debbi and Chili decide to play a trick on the guys. After all fellow red heads have to stick together when dealing with gorgeous blondes! Patsy and Debbie slip some pepper and salt into the sodas of the guys while the boys all stare at Chili and Millie walking to the restroom together. Chili is deliberately doing her sexiest walk, in her tight, oh so sixties, short, short little dress. Did I mention that I have very fond memories of sixties styles? The boys all choke on their foul tasting sodas and Patsy, Debbie and Chili laugh their heads off. The boys agree this is a very funny joke and that they deserved their treatment because of how they ignored the red heads. Scooter is a mod, with a sixties, as opposed to fifties view of sexuality and has actually been with a woman. Scooter starts to reflect that Chili is pretty mod and that the competition for Millie is just too intense. Later Scooter and Chili will marry and then divorce. The Marvel red heads hurt the DC men, even if they had help from a DC gal, so Marvel wins!
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Posted in DC Comics, DC vs. Marvel, What if comic book fights?, What if comic book situations?
Tagged Adventures of Bob Hope, All American Comics, All Funny Comics, Archie, Archie Comics, Archie Meets the Punisher, Batman, Betty, Big Ethel, Binky, Buzzy, Captain Hero, Chili, comic book, comic books, Date with Debbi, DC teen humor, DC vs. Marvel, DC X, Debbi, Dilton Doily, fanfiction, Hedy Wolfe, hipster, Hugh Fox, Jughead, Laurel City, Leave it to Binky, Millie the Model, MLJ Comics, Night Nurse, Patsy Walker, Principal Weatherby, Pureheart the Powerful, Reggie, romance comics, Scooter, Scribbly, Shazam Award, Starchie, Super Hip, Superman, Swing with Scooter, teen humor, Veronica, Vertigo, Who’s Who in the DC Universe
This is the first in a series of posts that compare DC versus Marvel non-superheroes. The second post compared war heroes (http://foxhugh.com/2009/03/21/dc-vs-marvel-war-heroes/). The third post compared working women (http://foxhugh.com/2009/04/11/dc-vs-marvel-working-women/) What if DC cowboys and Native American heroes took on the Marvel cowboys and Native American heroes? First, who are they? The following is a list of major DC Western heroes: Arak, Ballon Buster, Bat Lash, Big Anvil, Black Bison, Brass Buttons, Captain Fear, Cinnamon, Dan Hunter, Don Caballero, El Castigo, El Diablo, El Papagayo, Firehair, Frenchie, Hawk, Son of Tomahawk, Healer Randolph, Johnny Cloud, Jonah Hex, Kaintuck Jones, Long Rifle, Lord Shilling, Madame 44, Miss Liberty, Nighthawk, Pow-wow Smith, Roving Ranger, Scalphunter, Serifan, Silver Deer, Stovepipe, Strong Bow, Super-Chief, Terra-Man, Tomahawk, Trigger Twins, Vigilante, Whip, Wildcat, Wyoming Kid.
The Marvel list is a lot shorter and includes American Eagle, Annie Oakley, Apache Kid, Arizona Kid, Ghost Rider, Gunhawk, Kid Colt, Matt Slade, Phantom Rider (Modern West), Outlaw Kid, Rawhide Kid, Red Warrior, Red Wolf, Ringo Kid, Shooting Star, Tex Morgan, Tex Taylor, Texas Kid, Texas Twister, Two-Gun Kid, Western Kid, and Wyatt Earp. When the two lists are put side by side we notice a couple of interesting differences between these two universes.
DC has some superhero type cowboys and Native Americans. Super-Chief is basically a superman type Native American. Terra-Man fights Superman. Some Marvel Western heroes that are more superheroes than Western heroes and include American Eagle, Texas Twister, Red Wolf and Shooting Star. The “Western superheroes” would absolutely destory the more traditional Western heroes with their superpowers so they are going to be kept off the contest roll call.
Marvel also has a couple of real life Western heroes in their universe unlike DC, mainly Annie Oakley and Wyatt Earp. What both companies share is a list of very obscure characters. Marvel Westerns are described as having a big three that include the Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid and Kid Colt. The three kids were united in the title Mighty Marvel Western that ran from 1968-76 and perhaps this was an attempt at some sort of genre synergy.
So a logical contest would be the big three of Marvel versus the big three of DC. Number one on the DC list has to be Jonah Hex due to critical acclaim, popularity and longevity.
Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex first appeared in the seventies, not the fifties and sixties like most comic book Westerns, and has managed to survive to the present. This is largely because Jonah Hex is an anti-hero and has had more interesting plot lines and superior artists and writers than other comic book heroes. I have written about Jonah Hex in another post (http://foxhugh.com/2008/05/19/the-lone-ranger-vs-other-fictional-gun-slingers/).
Number two in the DC pantheon would be Tomahawk due to longevity. I was born in 1957 and first started reading comic books in 1964 as detailed in my Comic Book Autobiography (http://foxhugh.com/about/comic-book-autobiography/). I remember Tomahawk fondly. As a kid I always saw Tomahawk as a Davey Crockett/Daniel Boone copy because he wore a coon skin hat. The series was set interestingly in the revolutionary war rather than the Wild West but when I was young I noticed the coon skin hat more than historical details. I actually owned an imitation Davey Crokett coon skin cap so of course I would read a series with someone with such a hat on the cover! Daniel Boone, the Disney TV series, was also very popular when I became aware of Tomahawk. I was surprised to find out while researching this post that the Tomahawk series lasted from 1950 to 1972 for a total of 140 issues! This may be some sort of record for a Western comic book. This means Tomahawk came before the Disney movies and TV series, to my surprise. Tomahawk even appeared the 2008 series The War that Time Forgot.
Bat Lash
Number three on the DC list is Bat Lash due to critical acclaim but not longevity. Bat Lash won the Alley Awards in 1968 and 1969 for best Best Western Titles. Bat Lash only lasted eight issues. I also picked Bat Lash because he actually appeared on an episode of Justice League Unlimited alongside Johan Hex in “The Once and Future Thing”. This means Bat Lash has not totally joined the ranks of Westerns in comic book limbo. Bat Lash was inspired in part by spaghetti Westerns of the time and I love spaghetti Westerns and this is my list! Last but not least I have some vague memories of the issues I read as a kid and the same cannot be said of other Western fare I read when I was young. Bat Lash is the weak link of my DC selection and I welcome comments.
The DC heroes face off against the kids of Marvel but Jonah Hex is missing. The Marvel kids outnumber Bat Lash and Tomahawk, brought to the Wild West via a cave that allows time traveling or whatever, and manage to send them running for cover and they are pinned down. Suddenly a stick of dynamite is tossed from a second story window and lands right in the middle of the Marvel kids and blows them into little pieces. Jonah Hex is no fool. He does not fight great gunfighters like the Marvel kids head on. Bat Lash and Tomahawk are sickened by this dishonorable victory and ride away vowing to never associate with Jonah Hex again! Jonah Hex could care less.
Another interesting contest would be between two supernatural Western heroes. DC has El Diablo. There is more than one reincarnation of Diablo but the Wild West version is host to a minor demon. El Diablo showed up alongside Bat Lash and Jonah Hex in the afore mentioned Justice League Unlimited episode “The Once and Future Thing”. El Diablo could actually be the third most significant DC Western hero rather than Bat Lash. The host of the demon is in a coma and the body only moves around when the demon roams the West seeking vengance.
Phantom Rider
Marvel’s supernatural Western hero is the Ghost Rider, not the one with the bike, but the one with a horse. The horsey Ghost Rider was retroactively renamed the Phantom Rider by Marvel but sorry the name on the comic book cover is the correct name no matter what Marvel decides later on. The Ghost Rider wore a phosphorescent costume and was not a ghost at all. Even minor demons can defeat fake ghosts so that match goes to El Diablo. Now try to keep this straight, the story plot device of El Diablo is very similar to the Ghost Rider that rides a bike. The modern Ghost Rider is also possesed by a demon. The bike Ghost Rider is about a thousand times more famous and relevant than the horsy one but the horsey one does make an appearance of sorts in the Ghost Rider movie as the caretaker (Sam Elliot) who was a Western version of the Ghost Rider.
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Posted in Comic Book Critique, DC Comics, DC vs. Marvel, Marvel Comics, Non-fiction, What if fights?
Tagged Alley Awards, American Eagle, Annie Oakley, Apache Kid, Arak, Arizona Kid, Ballon Buster, Bat Lash, Big Anvil, Black Bison, Brass Buttons, Captain Fear, Cinnamon, comic book, comic books, cowboys, Dan Hunter, Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett, DC Comics, DC vs. Marvel, DC vs. Marvel Westerns, DC Westerns, Don Caballero, El Castigo, El Diablo, El Papagayo, fanfiction, Firehair, Frenchie, Ghost Rider, Gunhawk, Hawk, Healer Randolph, Hugh Fox, Johnny Cloud, Jonah Hex, Kaintuck Jones, Kid Colt, Long Rifle, Lord Shilling, Madame 44, Marvel Comics, Marvel Westerns, Matt Slade, Miss Liberty, Native Americans, Nighthawk, Outlaw Kid, Phantom Rider, Pow-wow Smith, Rawhide Kid, Red Warrior, Red Wolf, Ringo Kid, Roving Ranger, Scalphunter, Serifan, Shooting Star, Silver Deer, Son of Tomahawk, spaghetti Westerns, Stovepipe, Strong Bow, Super-Chief, Terra-Man, Tex Morgan, Tex Taylor, Texas Kid, Texas Twister, Tomahawk, Trigger Twins, Two-Gun Kid, Vigilante, Western Kid, Whip, Wildcat, Wyatt Earp, Wyoming Kid
I probably own every issue of the short lived Valiant Universe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valiant_Comics) and in my view the demise of this line was a sad day in comic book history. The Valiant line was conscious attempt to make a better super hero for reasons I will outline in the introduction.
One way to arrange comic book universe battles is to match up opponents that are more less doppelgangers of each other. This is what happened in the DC vs. Marvel miniseries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_vs._Marvel)
that matched up such doppelgangers as Aquaman (DC) and Namor the Submariner (Marvel). The advantages of the doppelganger approach are many. The main one is you get contests between more or less equal heroes. Secondly, you can keep a score card. Maybe universe X has the strongest hero but Universe Y has the fastest one. DC may have more heavy hitters in the area of magic but Marvel has more heavy hitters in the area of the power cosmic. You put the top mage of the DC Universe, Mordru, against the top mage in the Marvel universe, Dr. Strange, and of course Mordru wins but in another category such as the power cosmic, DC wins. The Silver Surfer, for example, easily defeats the Black Racer. I did not apply the doppelganger approach to my earlier D&D vs. Marvel post and am trying to do this with a future post, DC vs. D&D.
I have tried to apply this logic to the DC vs. Valiant post as much as possible. The problem is that many of the DC characters were created in simpler times when the one gimmick rule applied. The Flash was the fast guy. Green Lantern had a power ring. If they had any other talents or weapons then this never came up. Thanks to Stan Lee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_lee), at Marvel, heroes starting having something resembling characterization and DC followed suit but not to the same degree as Marvel.
This use of characterization meant that psychological stuff could impact the fight not just their super powers. This so called Marvel Revolution started with the Fantastic Four. The Thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_%28comics%29), of the Fantastic Four, is not as strong as the Hulk or Thor but he is a disciplined fighter. When the Champion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champion_of_the_Universe), an Elder of the Universe, challenges the “strongest” heroes of the Marvel universe to a boxing match, the Thing wins not the Hulk or Thor. The Thing wins because he follows boxing protocol. The Hulk just goes nuts and is dismissed from the ring. Thor pulls out his hammer and is also dismissed for breaking the rules. In Secret Wars II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Wars_II), the Thing single handily stops and army of evil doers from touching the Beyonder through sheer will power rather than strength. Ben Grim, the alter-ego of the Thing is a tough New York from the wrong side of the tracks who never gives up. Daredevil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daredevil_%28Marvel_Comics%29) has gone up against the likes of the Hulk and Namor and his determination to keep fighting to the end have enabled him to achieve pyrrhic victories against both these Marvel powerhouses.
Later still, heroes started carrying weapons! This makes total sense to me. If I was the Green Lantern I would still carry a 45 to shoot those giant yellow eagles that seem to be all over the place when you are a Green Lantern. The Green Lantern ring is helpless against yellow colored objects. Interestingly 45’s don’t share this weakness. Green Lantern could have just plugged any number of yellow colored menaces during his career. Better yet why not get one of those nifty utility belts from my buddy Batman? If I was the Flash I would definitely grab some shrunken and knifes that I could hurtle at super speed like the Whirlwind, of the Marvel universe, eventually did. Ok the Flash is a good guy and can’t use bladed weapons that kill but how about rubber balls that he throws at varying levels of super speed for different levels of lethality?
The Valiant universe is a later more complex universe than DC and Marvel and this complexity makes doppelgangers harder to find than between DC and Marvel. The Batman aversion to guns, a prime example of the weapon monomania that plagues comic books, does not exist in the Valiant universe. Most of the Valiant heroes will grab and use weapons as opportunity allows. Being a martial arts enthusiast and big fan of weapons of opportunity I like this characteristic of the Valiant universe. The X-O Manowar, a Valiant hero for whom a post will be written, is a barbarian that understands swords and does not fully understand super armor, when abducted by Aliens, but understands a weapon is a weapon and you might as well grab a good one when you can.
Also, I have noticed that Valiant heroes, inherited from the Gold Key Comics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Key_Comics)
line, often have a category of villain they go after rather than just fighting bad guys in general and this is characteristic is hard to match in the DC or Marvel universe. There will be 22 posts in this series including this one. In comic books there is a fashion to start a series with zero rather than #1 and I like to be fashionable. Anyway, this is the numbering system of the major arcana of the Tarot and therefore good enough for me.
The Valiant heroes covered in the series will include:
1) Archer & Armstrong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_and_Armstrong)
2) Armorines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armorines)
3) Bloodshot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodshot_%28comics%29)
4) Dr. Mirage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life_of_Dr._Mirage)
5) Eternal Warrior (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Warrior)
6) Geomancer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_McHenry_%28Valiant_Comics%29)
7) H.A.R.D. Corps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.A.R.D._Corps)
8) Harbinger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbinger_%28comics%29)
9) Magnus, Robot Figher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus,_Robot_Fighter)
10) Ninjak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjak)
11) Outcast (http://www.valiantentertainment.com/wiki/index.php/The_Outcast)
12) Psi Lords (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psi_Lords)
13) PunX (http://www.valiantentertainment.com/wiki/index.php/PunX)
14) Rai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_%28comics%29)
15) Secret Weapons (http://www.valiantentertainment.com/wiki/index.php/Secret_Weapons)
16) Shadowman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowman_%28comics%29)
17) Solar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_%28comics%29)
18) Timewalker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timewalker)
19) Turok (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turok),
20) Visitor (http://www.valiantentertainment.com/wiki/index.php/The_Visitor)
21) X-O Manowar( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-O_Manowar)
I have about 100 plus “What if fights” planned for this blog so stay tuned. We have to assume that for these fights to even happen both fighters live in a common universe. Anyway this is the assumption I will make in all “What if fights” since the whole how they meet thing is repetitive and tiresome. The same assumption will be used in the “What if dates” post the second major category of this blog site.
My other website at:
Posted in DC vs. Valiant, Fiction, Valiant Comics, What if comic book fights?, What if comic book situations?
Tagged Archer & Armstrong, Armorines, Ben Grim, Bloodshot, Champion, Champion of the Universe, Daredevil, DC vs. Marvel, DC vs. Valiant, Dr. Mirage, Elder of the Universe, Eternal Warrior, Flash, Geomancer, Gold Key Comics, Green Lantern, H.A.R.D. Corps, Harbinger, Hugh Fox, Hulk, Magnus, Marvel Revolution, Ninjak, Outcast, Psi Lords, Rai, Robot Fighter, Secret Wars II, Secret Weapons, Shadowman, Solar, Stan Lee, Submariner, The Beyonder, Thing, Timewalker, Turok, Valiant Comics, Visitor, X-O Manowar
