Character Spotlight: Prince Daka

(Before we get to the post proper, I'd like to thank user Shadzane for suggesting this character in a comment on the Batman Not-So-Super Post over a year ago. I don't know if I had seen it before, but I saw it last week and was able to corroborate the information he provided, so here it is!)

Prince Daka has the distinction of being the very first villain Batman fought on screen, all the way back in the 1943 serial, Batman. As such, there's not much to him beyond being a racist caricature.

Prince Daka, known in America as Dr. Tito Daka, is part of a Japanese nationalist cult called the Rising Sun that plans to orchestrate a Japanese occupation of the United States from within. In addition to his secret base (called the Cave of Horrors), located in LA's Little Tokyo, and his elite gang called the League of the New Order, he also has a machine called the Electrical Brain that turns people into zombies - real, brainwashed-slave zombies, not flesh-eating, undead "zombies". He was, of course, defeated by Batman.

You'd think that a character like that, especially being so prominently featured, would be gobbled up quickly by the comics. But actually, he didn't appear until All-Star Squadron #42 (1985), and even then, his last appearance was the next issue.

And although I haven't read the issue, it seems like there's even less to him than in the serial. I'm going to assume that much of his backstory is the same, but in the issue proper, his goal is to attack America with a squadron of invisible jets and a team of Japanese nationalists known as Tsunami, Kung, and Sumo the Samurai. The two issues were published in the 80s, but they take place during World War II, making him a period-appropriate villains.

Superboy: "Rajah's Ransom"

In 1960, DC considered making a Superboy tv show called The Adventures of Superboy. George Reeves's The Adventures of Superman had just ended a few years prior and they were trying to prolong the cachet of that show. It didn't work. They did produce a pilot, however, called "Rajah's Ransom", which you can see the first half of here. And that pilot was later turned into a comic book story for Superboy #88 (1961), called "The Saddest Boy in Smallville!". Another story in that issue is called "The One Man Team" and is adapted from a non-produced tv script.

Below are two pages from "The Saddest Boy in Smallville!" which feature some characters from the pilot: John and Tommy Hunter, and the bad guys The ABC Gang.

Who Raised Bruce?

Everyone knows the story - especially because adaptations won't let us forget - of how young Bruce Wayne's parents were killed in front of him and he was raised by the loyal family butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Gotham (2014) has been getting a lot of mileage out of this, although we've also seen it in the Batman movies and most other adaptations. That wasn't always the case, though.

In fact, before Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985), Alfred started working for Bruce as an adult. He first appeared in Batman #16 (1943) as an actor/amateur criminologist whose father had once been the butler for the Waynes, and he became Bruce's butler to fulfill his father's dying wish. With Alfred not around during his childhood, Bruce was instead brought up by his Uncle Philip (a guardian in absentia), Dr. Leslie Thompkins, and the Wayne housekeeper Mrs. Chilton (who was secretly the mother of Joe Chill, the killer of Bruce's parents). All of this information was introduced at different times, but you can find it all in one story in The Untold Legend of Batman (1980).

But then, in 1985, the animated series The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (the last season of Super Friends, renamed to match a line of Kenner action figures at the time) produced an episode called "The Fear", which featured the first ever depiction of Batman's origin outside of comics. In the episode, Scarecrow has attacked Gotham City, and Batman, dosed with fear has, finds himself in Crime Alley and remembers his parents' deaths.

It's here where we learn that not only did Alfred raise Bruce, he also helped train him. (And I think it's worth noting that the shot above looks like it could've come straight out of Batman: The Animated Series. We unfortunately can't say the same of the shots below.)

Frank Miller would use this idea in The Dark Knight Returns (1986), and then like most things he introduced in that book, incorporate them into the DC Universe proper in Batman: Year One (1987).

Scott and Jean's Marriage

I don't want to accidentally plagiarize anyone, so I'll note that I read about this on Comics Should Be Good and you can read a more in-depth version of it at that link. But the long and short of it is that there had been plans for Cyclops and Jean Grey to get married as far back as 1990, but they kept getting put off or cancelled by creators shifting books, leaving books, and higher-ups not wanting it to happen. However, when Bob Harras learned that X-Men: The Animated Series was planning a similar storyline, he used that to convince Marvel editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco to have it happen in comics as well and coincide with the show. And it did, in the summer of 1993.

Gadget Spotlight: Lasso of Truth

Everyone knows the story: Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston, who also invented the lie detector. This is why Wonder Woman has her Lasso of Truth. Makes sense, right? After all, Marston didn't have any problems injecting other parts of his life into the book, such as his love of bondage or his idea that women are superior and should rule the world, so why wouldn't he include a reference to his day job?

Well...it's not that simple. First of all, although Wonder Woman first appeared in All-Star Comics #8 (1941), she didn't get the lasso until Sensation Comics #6 (1942). And the lasso - then called the magic lasso - didn't compel people to tell the truth. It actually forced people to do whatever Wonder Woman wanted, and sometimes that happened to be answering her honestly. So you see, the lasso has more to do with his night life than his day job.

In the Wonder Woman tv series (1975-1979), however, perhaps because of standards at the time, Wonder Woman only used it to make people tell the truth. So it follows that after Crisis on Infinite Earths, the lasso would be reintroduced as the Lasso of Truth in Wonder Woman #2 (1987), which it's been called ever since. 

Spider-Verse: Spidey Super Stories

Spider-Verse is a currently running event in the Spider-Man comics that will involve every* Spider-Man we've ever met, including several Spider-Women and Spider-Girls (not to mention Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Hams and whatnot), and several brand-new versions. The premise is simple: there's a group of people trying to wipe out every Spider character across the multiverse, so all the Spider characters will team up to stop them. This is, of course, a massive event - multimedia even, since it will also feature in the Spider-Man Unlimited video game and the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man - and given the premise, it's only natural that it will add a few entries to this catalog.

*I say "every" because Marvel says "every", but there are a few that won't be showing up, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. (Although see here for more information on that.)

Today's entry is Spidey Super Stories.

The Electric Company was an educational sketch comedy show that ran on PBS from 1971 to 1977 and was meant for children who had graduated from Sesame Street. The original cast featured such talent as Morgan Freeman, Bill Cosby, and Rita Moreno, and it was very successful. One of the recurring segments, beginning in 1974, was "Spidey Super Stories", which featured Spidey taking on different bad guys, none of whom were from the comics. One interesting feature of the shorts was that, despite being live action, Spider-Man spoke in word balloons to help children learn how to read.

This Spidey was mentioned in Spider-Verse #2 (January 2015), along with another Spider-Man. But whereas (speculation time) that Spider-Man may only be mentioned because they don't have the rights to use him, I think this one may only be mentioned because it'd be hard to convey that his word balloons are actual word balloons, whereas everyone else's word balloons are just speech.

Spider-Verse: Turn Off the Dark

Spider-Verse is a currently running event in the Spider-Man comics that will involve every* Spider-Man we've ever met, including several Spider-Women and Spider-Girls (not to mention Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Hams and whatnot), and several brand-new versions. The premise is simple: there's a group of people trying to wipe out every Spider character across the multiverse, so all the Spider characters will team up to stop them. This is, of course, a massive event - multimedia even, since it will also feature in the Spider-Man Unlimited video game and the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man - and given the premise, it's only natural that it will add a few entries to this catalog.

*I say "every" because Marvel says "every", but there are a few that won't be showing up, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. (Although see here for more information on that.)

Today's entry is Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is a 2011 Broadway musical by Julie Taymor, the woman behind The Lion King Broadway musical, Across the Universe, and several other things. If you're familiar with her work, you can definitely tell she did it. The sets, especially, are her all over, which means they're quite inventive. They use weird angles, perspectives, and optical illusions to make the stage feel like a comic book panel or to see the world how Spidey sees it; there are several moving parts, such as conveyor belts and panels that rise and lower, and projectors are used to distort scenes or otherwise enhance them

That being said, the production was pretty much a mess from Day 1. The villains costumes are atrocious, and the story wasn't much better, because it tried to tie the whole thing to Arachne and make her the villain, and because of its Greek ties, it included something called the Geek Chorus. The story was eventually rewritten to diminish the unwanted elements as much as possible...but not get rid of them entirely, which probably turned out even weirder. Another problem was that the musical featured extensive use of wire work and aerial stunts, which makes sense, but frequently injured cast members.

Even so, this version of Spider-Man was mentioned in Spider-Verse #2 (January 2015), along with a second Spider-Man:

Spider-Verse: Turkish Spider-Man

Spider-Verse is a currently running event in the Spider-Man comics that will involve every* Spider-Man we've ever met, including several Spider-Women and Spider-Girls (not to mention Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Hams and whatnot), and several brand-new versions. The premise is simple: there's a group of people trying to wipe out every Spider character across the multiverse, so all the Spider characters will team up to stop them. This is, of course, a massive event - multimedia even, since it will also feature in the Spider-Man Unlimited video game and the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man - and given the premise, it's only natural that it will add a few entries to this catalog.

*I say "every" because Marvel says "every", but there are a few that won't be showing up, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. (Although see here for more information on that.)

Today's entry is Turkish Spider-Man.

What's that, you say? You didn't know there was a Turkish Spider-Man? That's because there's not. Officially. See, back in the lawless 1970s, there was little movie produced in Turkey called 3 Dev Adam, which translates to "3 Giant Men".

As you might be able to tell from the poster, this movie is about Spider-Man, Captain America, and a luchadore named Santo (who is 100% a real person). What you definitely cannot tell, however, is that Spider-Man is a villain, or that he looks like this:

See, this Spider-Man is a crime lord with a gang (Spider's Gang) who, appropriately enough, has been counterfeiting US dollars. Captain America finds out and is none too pleased, so he teams up with his girlfriend Julia and his favorite wrestler (I'm guessing??) Santo to take down Spider-Man and break up the counterfeiting ring. Unauthorized materials are weird.

Anyway, this Spider-Man showed up in a crowd shot in Spider-Verse #2 (January 2015).

Spider-Verse: Spider-Man The Manga

Spider-Verse is a currently running event in the Spider-Man comics that will involve every* Spider-Man we've ever met, including several Spider-Women and Spider-Girls (not to mention Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Hams and whatnot), and several brand-new versions. The premise is simple: there's a group of people trying to wipe out every Spider character across the multiverse, so all the Spider characters will team up to stop them. This is, of course, a massive event - multimedia even, since it will also feature in the Spider-Man Unlimited video game and the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man - and given the premise, it's only natural that it will add a few entries to this catalog.

*I say "every" because Marvel says "every", but there are a few that won't be showing up, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. (Although see here for more information on that.)

Today's entry is Spider-Man: The Manga.

In the 1970s, Marvel tried to bring Spider-Man comics to Japan, but they were not very successful. Instead, Japan tried again with Spider-Man: The Manga, originally written by Kosei Ono and drawn by Ryoichi Ikegami. The manga told the story of Yu Komori, a high school student who gains spider powers and starts to fight crime as Spider-Man. Overall the series was pretty faithful to the original comic, except that the radioactive spider came from Yu's own experiments and he didn't decide to start fighting crime because his uncle died (though he does have an aunt Mei). Originally the series adapted Spider-Man villains, but when Kosei Ono was replaced with Kazumasa Hirai, the book started to go in its own more violent, more sexual direction.

In Spider-Verse #2 (January 2015), a Spider-Man counters the idea that all Spider-Men are Peter Parker with the fact that he met a Japanese kid named Komori:

In case you're wondering about the other Japanese Spider-Men that Spider-Man Black mentions, you can find out more here and here. There's also another one, which you can learn more about by googling "Marvel Mangaverse".

Spider-Verse: Marvel Vs Capcom

Spider-Verse is a currently running event in the Spider-Man comics that will involve every* Spider-Man we've ever met, including several Spider-Women and Spider-Girls (not to mention Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Hams and whatnot), and several brand-new versions. The premise is simple: there's a group of people trying to wipe out every Spider character across the multiverse, so all the Spider characters will team up to stop them. This is, of course, a massive event - multimedia even, since it will also feature in the Spider-Man Unlimited video game and the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man - and given the premise, it's only natural that it will add a few entries to this catalog.

*I say "every" because Marvel says "every", but there are a few that won't be showing up, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. (Although see here for more information on that.)

Today's entry is Marvel vs. Capcom Spider-Man!

The Marvel/Capcom relationship first began in 1994 when Capcom made The Punisher, a side-scrolling beat 'em up. This was followed by X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994) and Marvel Super Heroes (1995), two fighting games that created the basic format of the Marvel vs. Capcom series using only Marvel characters. Capcom would mix these with their hit Street Fighter series in X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996) and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), and then finally brought other characters into the mix in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (1998), which led to Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), and Marvel vs. Capcom Origins (2012). It also led to a slew of other Capcom vs. titles that aren't relevant here. Of these games, Spider-Man appears in all but The Punisher, X-Men: Children of the Atom, and X-Men vs. Street Fighter. Makes sense.

Just like Spider-Verse #1 featured a couple short stories about Spider-Men from other media, Spider-Verse #2 (January 2015) does as well, and this time it's arcade Spider-Man:

"Web Ball", "Spider Sting", and "Maximum Spider" are special moves featured in all of the games he appears in. Morlun, however, has never appeared in the games.

Spider-Verse: Movie Spider-Men (!!!)

Spider-Verse is a currently running event in the Spider-Man comics that will involve every* Spider-Man we've ever met, including several Spider-Women and Spider-Girls (not to mention Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Hams and whatnot), and several brand-new versions. The premise is simple: there's a group of people trying to wipe out every Spider character across the multiverse, so all the Spider characters will team up to stop them. This is, of course, a massive event - multimedia even, since it will also feature in the Spider-Man Unlimited video game and the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man - and given the premise, it's only natural that it will add a few entries to this catalog.

*I say "every" because Marvel says "every", but there are a few that won't be showing up, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.


...at least, that's what my Spider-Verse boilerplate has been saying, but haha! The writers tricked us! Or maybe tricked Sony, I'm not sure. Either way...

Today's entry is the movie Spider-Men!

Of course, we'll never actually see them, but they were clearly referred to in Spider-Verse #2 (January 2015):

Spider-Man Blue is clearly referring to Tobey Maguire, who played Red Pollard in the 2003 horse-racing movie based on a true story, Seabiscuit. But more importantly, he also played Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sony's Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Spider-Man 3 (2007).

And Spider-Man Black is talking about Andrew Garfield, who played Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network (2010), but also played Peter Parker/Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). Whether he'll continue in this role remains to be seen.

This is big news. The Spider-Verse writers have mentioned that there are eight Spider-Men they aren't able to use, and although it doesn't seem like anyone knows who the eight officially are, the top two always mentioned are Maguire and Garfield. (Other possible ones include Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, Spider-Man (CBS), Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Electric Company, and the Amalgam comics characters Spider-Boy, Spider-Boy 2099, and Unfriendly Neighborhood Spider-Clone #1. As you can see, that's more than eight; Spider-Boy has in fact appeared, although perhaps illegally, and Electric Company was listed in the examples of every Spider-Man ever appearing, so that one's probably ok.) But even though we'll never see them, we know they're out there, somewhere, fighting for the rest of the multiverse along with the rest of their spider-brethren.

Just A Small Little Thing: The Stark Industries Logo

Even though Stark Industries has existed in the comics since 1963, it never really had a logo. When the name did appear on a building or product (usually a building), the name has been written simply and inconsistently, like so:

This is true as recently as Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 (April 2012):

So when they made the movie Iron Man (2008), they had to create a logo for the company, and they came up with one that was simple, sleek, adaptable, and recognizable. That is to say, it's a pretty good one.

And I don't know if this is the absolute first appearance of it in comics, but it definitely appeared in this month's Ant-Man #1 (January 2015) when Scott Lang is looking for a new job.

UPDATE (6/28/16): I have found an earlier instance in Moon Knight #9 (November 2014). It's not the full logo, but it's obviously derived from it.

Spider-Verse: Mini-Marvels Spider-Man (And A Bonus)

Spider-Verse is a currently running event in the Spider-Man comics that will involve every* Spider-Man we've ever met, including several Spider-Women and Spider-Girls (not to mention Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Hams and whatnot), and several brand-new versions. The premise is simple: there's a group of people trying to wipe out every Spider character across the multiverse, so all the Spider characters will team up to stop them. This is, of course, a massive event - multimedia even, since it will also feature in the Spider-Man Unlimited video game and the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man - and given the premise, it's only natural that it will add a few entries to this catalog.

*I say "every" because Marvel says "every", but there are a few that won't be showing up, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

Today's entry is Mini-Marvels Spider-Man.

From 1999 to 2001, Marvel published a comic strip called Bullpen Bits in "Bullpen Bulletins", a page set aside in comics each month to deliver news and answer fans' questions. The comic strip was drawn and written by Chris Giarrusso, and it presented the majority of Marvel heroes as children who always wear their costumes (even in their everyday lives) and sometimes fight crime but mostly just hang out.

Since Bullpen Bits ended, they've been collected in numerous trade paperbacks and one-shots, usually along with new material by Chris Giarrusso or others, under the name Mini-Marvels.

In Amazing Spider-Man #12 (January 2015), this Spider-Man can be seen as a member of the "Spider-Man Recruitment Drive" that started last month with Ultimate Spider-Man and 1967 Spider-Man:

Note the diminutive stature, cartoony hands and feet, and - arguably the most notable feature - the black part of the costume instead of blue.



Also worth mentioning is that in the bottom panel of the page this Spidey appears on, Ultimate Spider-Man calls this team the "Web Warriors", which Other Ultimate Spider-Man (Miles Morales) objects to.

This, of course, is a reference to the current season of Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors, which features a four-part Spider-Verse crossover event.

Spider-Verse: Spider-Man J

Spider-Verse is a currently running event in the Spider-Man comics that will involve every* Spider-Man we've ever met, including several Spider-Women and Spider-Girls (not to mention Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Hams and whatnot), and several brand-new versions. The premise is simple: there's a group of people trying to wipe out every Spider character across the multiverse, so all the Spider characters will team up to stop them. This is, of course, a massive event - multimedia even, since it will also feature in the Spider-Man Unlimited video game and the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man - and given the premise, it's only natural that it will add a few entries to this catalog.

*I say "every" because Marvel says "every", but there are a few that won't be showing up, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

Today's entry is Spider-Man J (スパイダーマンJ).

Spider-Man J is a 2004 manga about a 15-year old boy named Sho Amano who gains his spider-powers through supernatural means. His goal is to prevent a villain named Lord Gokibu from stealing the fossil of the Insect King, and the only person who knows his secret identity is a detective named Makoto. Other supporting characters include counterparts to Aunt May, Mary Jane, and Harry Osborn. Sho is shy and doesn't have many friends, but he does have three pets: a cat named Leo, a dog named Par, and a bird named Don. This is a shoutout to the tv show Supaidaman, which featured a robot named Leopardon.

He first appeared in American comics in a cameo in Amazing Spider-Man #9 (October 2014)...

...though his first full appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #12 (January 2015). I don't know if he shows up anywhere but this group shot, but you can tell it's him by his small stature, his black-and-white costume, and the fact that you can see his pupils through his mask.

Spider-Verse: Supaidaman

Spider-Verse is a currently running event in the Spider-Man comics that will involve every* Spider-Man we've ever met, including several Spider-Women and Spider-Girls (not to mention Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Hams and whatnot), and several brand-new versions. The premise is simple: there's a group of people trying to wipe out every Spider character across the multiverse, so all the Spider characters will team up to stop them. This is, of course, a massive event - multimedia even, since it will also feature in the Spider-Man Unlimited video game and the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man - and given the premise, it's only natural that it will add a few entries to this catalog.

*I say "every" because Marvel says "every", but there are a few that won't be showing up, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

Today's entry is Supaidāman (スパイダーマン).

Supaidaman is a 1978 live-action tv series produced by Toei. The show is about a motorcycle racer named Takuya Yamashiro, who finds a crashed warship called the Marveller and its dying pilot, Garia, the last survivor of the planet Spider. Garia injects some of his blood into Yamashiro, which gives him spider-like powers, and he also gives him a bracelet that can shoot webs, make his costume appear, and control the ship Marveller, which can transform in the robot Leopardon. With these powers and weapons, Yamashiro fights Professor Monster and the Iron Cross Army.

Yes, it's basically Spider-Man meets Green Lantern meets Power Rangers, and funny you should mention that, because without this show there wouldn't be a Power Rangers. The popularity of this show led to Toei wanting to make a Captain America counterpart called Captain Japan, but this evolved into a show called Battle Fever J, about a team of five country-themed heroes. Toei considered this series to be the third Super Sentai program (just Sentai prior to this season) and was the first to include giant transforming robots, a holdover from Supaidaman. This season made Super Sentai a success and giant robots a staple of the series, which meant both were still around a decade later, allowing Kyuryu Sentai Zyuranger to be adapted into Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Thanks, Spider-Man!

Anyway, Yamashiro first appeared in a cameo in Amazing Spider-Man #9 (October 2014)...

...though his first full appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #12 (January 2015), as you can see here:

He speaks Japanese, he has his transformation bangle, and he's piloting Leopardon. I'm sure the "emissary from Hell" line is from the show too. As far as I know, this page is pretty much the bulk of his appearance. He shows up, fights the bad guy with Leopardon for a bit, and then presumably loses. Still, I've been looking forward to this appearance for months and I was starting to think he was going to be one of the ones that can't show up.

Gadget Spotlight: Supermobile

I'll refer you to the recent Comic Book Legends Revealed piece on this because anything I write will border on plagiarism, but to give you a quick rundown, Corgi wanted to make a Supermobile toy to counterpart the success they were having with the Batmobile, and they wanted DC to include it in the comics. DC obliged in Action Comics #481 (January 1978):

But Corgi didn't actually release the Supermobile toy until 1979. There were two versions, a model-sized one and a Matchbox-sized one:

Costume Spotlight: Supergirl

Superman: The Movie was a major hit in 1975 for everyone involved, so it's no surprise that it led to numerous sequels and left an indelible mark (for better or worse) on the Superman franchise. What many people don't know, however, is that it even had a spinoff, 1984's Supergirl.

Production for the movie began in 1983, and for test shots they used a Supergirl costume of their own design, which had a very contemporary look:

DC, for unknown reasons (but probably corporate synergy), decided to give that look to Supergirl in the comics as well:

The design first appeared without the headband in Supergirl #13 (September 1983), and then she made the headband in Supergirl #17 (January 1984). This wasn't a huge deal because Supergirl changed her costume all the time; readers could even submit their own designs that might make their way into the book. As you might have noticed, this costume is the one she wears on Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (1985).

However, there's one hitch: by the time the movie started actual production, they had changed the costume!

Regardless, despite Supergirl not being nearly as successful as the Superman movies, it was able to leave its mark on the franchise as well.