Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Births, Deaths, Marraiges & Ressurections

No matter how hard i try the DC, Marvel et al Universes are too big to keep up with exactly what milestones are going on.

And not that continuity matters that much anymore, but maybe this thread can keep tabs on what is happening to the characters out there, so if you really care you can track down an issue.

One warning, because of the nature of these entries there are continually going to be spoilers for something somebody reads, so read on at your own risk...

Spoilers...

p

o

i

l

e

r

s
.
.
.
.

as of Zatanna #1. i am unhappy to report the deaths of:

Ibis the Invincible & his wife Taia, Fawcett heroes of the forties, they have since joined the DCU.

Dr. Thirteen, ghostbuster.

They died attendeing a seance trying to ascertain the latest threat to all creation. They will be missed until we see them again.

as of Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1:

Ted 'Blue Beetle' Kord.

Died uncovering a conspiracy to eliminate meta-humans in the DCU.

how is zatanna ?

Ah, poor Thirteen. Ended up in an asylum at the end of his Vertigo special a few years back, IIRC. And his whole initial concept as a skeptic finding rational explanantions for so-called mystical events could only go so far in a world with guys like the Spectre running around.

Captain Marvel recently died and was immediately resurrected in "New Thunderbolts"

Dinah Soar died over in "GLA". So did Mr Immortal, but that's nothing new...

I have a hunch a lot of people are going to end up dead in "Secret War", but we'll probably have to wait a year to find out.

Wolverine has been racking up the death *and* resurrection count:
Wolverine - dead and resurrected
Elektra - dead and resurrected
Northstar - dead and resurrected
Slyde - dead and resurrected
Spot - dead and resurrected
Shokk (I think that was his name) - dead and resurrected

Hornet - just plain dead

I came in on this storyline when I heard the buzz about Northstar. I didn't know Wolverine had been subjected to the 'treatment'. (Guess I really should read those text pieces...)

Wolvie's close to normal again mentally, isn't he? There *is* hope for Jean-Paul, if so... since I *know* Marvel's not gonna leave Elektra as brainwashed assassin for long. If they stabilize *her*, they'd better not leave Northstar as a villain...!

I have no idea who Slyde, Spot and Shokk are or were. Where else have they appeared?

Wasn't Spot an old Spider-Man villain who could teleport through these black spots that he took off of his costume? I think he was a one-off villain from the early 80s.

As close as he actually gets, yeah.

They were all from "Spider-Man". Slyde (mostly white frictionless outfit, green goggles) and Spot (white costume, black spots - teleporter) were villains. Shokk (maybt it was "Shoc"?) was a hero. His body was malleable like Mr. Fantastic, but I think there might've been more to it than that.

Slyde has appeared exactly three times ever, all against Spider-Man. He's like a Speed Demon rip off, who was kind of a Quicksilver rip off (who some may argue, is similar to a Flash rip off).

Spot appeared as a Spider-Man villain for PPTSS #98-100, then dissapeared for 30 years, came back in the mid-90's as a total joke (with the Grizzly, Gibbon and Kangeroo II), but soon faded away again.

Yes, when it comes to Spider-Man villains, even I'm surprised at the dorkiness of my memory.

You missed that the Spot's been killed twice now (once in ''Tangled Web'' and here), and both times they forgot that he doesn't wear a costume - that's actually what he looks like.

And Speed Demon was a first-generation Flash <strike>homage</strike> rip-off, since he started as the Squadron Sinister's Whizzer, with each of the SqSin a counterpart to a JLA member (Hyperion=Superman, Dr Spectrum=Green Lantern and Nighthawk=Batman being the other three. Not coincidentally, a team of Avengers rips called the "Justifiers" appeared in JLofA around the same time, who, unlike the SqSin - who spawned the Squadron Supreme who in turn have spawned Supreme Power - only became important in any sense a couple of decades later in the Giffen/DeMattis JLI and - in particular - Breakdowns, where the dénouement revolved around the last moments of the Silver Sorceress' life [Silver Sorceress=Scarlet Witch, oc]). [Now has that sentence got too many clauses or what? ]

SHOC (yes, all caps. I think the letters even stand for something) was created by Howard Mackie shortly after the Clone Saga. He was a student who bonded to an armour-thing his dad had invented which channelled Darkforce (IIRC) energy, allowing him to fly and do simple GLesque tricks, with the rub that, eventually, it would kill him.

The only good thing about SHOC was that Romita Jr. was drawing him and he looked cool. Mackie's writing was good at this time, but the characters during that brief period were pretty dull. For example, SHOC.

'Boot, it's funny too how Spot started as a serious theat/assassin of the Kingpin and has somehow become a total joke. This undoubtedly is b/c of his very dumb name.

" only became important in any sense a couple of decades later in the Giffen/DeMattis JLI"

You think maybe there oughta be a "rule" about doing sequels where you're only allowed to bring back long-ago charascters IF the stories they originally appeared in have been REPRINTED?

I'm also thinking about the multitude of comics involving Whitney Frost/Madame Mask and her father, Count Nefaria-- while the stories she orignally appeared in (the Archie Goodwin-George Tuska run of IRON MAN) were out of print for decades, and have only recently been reprinted-- if only in B&W.

This has long been a problem with many comics series. Until the last 10-15 years, much of the runs of too many books could NOT be enjoyed by newer fans, because how/where were they gonna read the stories?

No.

Firstly, by all accounts their original appearance was as an inconsequential throwaway in the deepest, darkest DC Silver Age as a silly JLA-Avengers "crossover."

Secondly, everything you needed to know about the characters (whose situation had changed utterly since their first appearance) was made clear in their JLI apps, as it should be.

Thirdly, and more generally, you shouldn't have to shell out anywhere between $10 and $50 to understand a $3 story you're currently reading.

Fourthly, the tone of modern comics is very different from Silver and early Bronze Age comics, and a fan of character's modern appearances may well hate the talking-down-to-you style of DC Silver Age comics, or even the less patronising rambling style of Marvel Silver Age comics.

Fifthly, the original stories have probably been shot to hell by retcons ANYWAY and thus wouldn't help you get into the characters, or character development since may achieve the same result.

I could go on, but I'll stop at "Fifthly" for now.

SPOILERS for this week's comics ("Invaders")
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
DEAD: Jim Hammond, the Human Torch (blew up into little bits in the final issue of "Invaders")