Character Spotlight: Split-Face

This one's very interesting, but a great blog called The Absorbascon got to before I could. I would recommend clicking that link before reading any further because it's a great article with a lot of twists and turns.

But if you must have some idea of what you're getting into before you click through, just know that the first Dick Tracy film (1945) featured a villain called Split-Face...

...and that villain was brought into the Dick Tracy comic strip (which seems to treat all previous Dick Tracy stories as canon) two days ago.

Seriously, though: just read the article.

Group Spotlight: Ten Rings

This is an important one! But CBR already wrote about it, so I’ll defer to them.

The gist is that the Ten Rings are a terrorist organization led by the Mandarin that debuted in Iron Man (May 2008), and Ironheart #1 (November 2018) has finally brought it into the comics ten years later. You can read about it in more detail at the following link:

https://www.cbr.com/mcu-ten-rings-iron-man-ironheart/

As you can see, the symbol isn’t completely the same, but it’s close enough.

Wolverine's Heat Claws

I don't know what to make of this one, I really don't. It may very well be the strangest entry on this blog, and may I remind you we've had characters imported before they debuted, characters imported as different characters, characters that technically immigrated but never appeared in the thing they immigrated from, whatever oddness was going on with Venom's Spawn, and more. But first, some backstory.

As you may know, Wolverine died back in 2014 in the aptly named miniseries Death of Wolverine. Everyone knew at the time that his death was a stunt, but what people didn't realize was how long it would take for him to come back. Four years gone for a character of his magnitude is a lifetime, especially since there was a reality reboot in the middle there. Marvel had the perfect opportunity to erase Wolverine's death during the Secret Wars event and they chose not to use it. That's huge.

But now Wolverine has returned, in the equally aptly titled miniseries Return of Wolverine (September 2018), except there's something different about him. His claws, specifically. There's something different about his claws. They're "heat claws".

At San Diego Comic-Con in July, the writer, Charles Soule, stated in a video message that the heat claws are based on Wolverine's appearance in the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom. But here's where it gets weird: nobody knows what he's talking about.

Basically, Wolverine doesn't have heat claws in Marvel vs. Capcom (1997). He doesn't have special claws of any kind. The closest thing people can figure is that he's actually talking about Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011).  In that game, Wolverine's special moves are depicted as a series of flashing slashes. This could've given Soule the idea for Wolverine to have energy claws.

Some other fans have suggested that Soule is mistaken about the video game that influenced him, and that he was actually talking about the X-Men arcade game from 1992. Although Wolverine didn't have heat claws in that, either, his swipes were often illustrated with an energetic effect.

No matter how you slice it, everyone agrees they're a canon immigrant but no one is sure where from. And that's nuts.

Batmobile Through the Ages

The Batmobile has been a mainstay of Batman's world since its inception, and it pretty much always has a very distinctive look in adaptations, which goes on to influence the Batmobile designs in the comics, when not outright being featured (usually as a cameo in a garage scene). I've posted about Batmobiles on this page before, but for my 300th post, I thought I'd try to do something a little more thorough. I don't pretend it's comprehensive, and it probably can't ever be, but it does give a pretty full picture regardless.

Batmobile '66

This vehicle from the 1966 Batman tv series is arguably the most influential and well-known of all the Batmobiles, its impact can still be seen today. Although rarely brought into the comics as-is, it changed how Batmobiles were drawn for a long time. Some examples:

Detective Comics #356 (Aug 1966)

Brave and the Bold #68 (September 1966)

Batman #204 (June 1968)

Detective Comics #362 (Feb 1967)

Detective Comics #371 (Nov 1967)

Detective Comics #377 (May 1968)

The top left picture was a slow beginning, mainly taking the "double bubble" aspect of the tv car. And the Brave and the Bold example mainly highlights the addition of the rear afterburner, which becomes a design mainstay, especially in adaptations. But after that, it really takes shape.

Also, the 60s Batmobile does appear in a show-accurate form a few times:

Superman/Batman #2 (September 2003)

Detective Comics #850 (Nov 2008)

Nightwing #152 (Jan 2009)

(Prime Earth) - Batman Beyond #14 (Nov 2017)

Batmobile '89

If the 60s Batmobile isn't the most influential, then this one is. Actually this one may have that one beat, since some of the following Batmobiles - each with their own share of influence - are ultimately based on this one as well. Some examples:

Legends of the Dark Knight #29 (Feb 1992)

Batman: Run, Riddler, Run #1 (Mar 1992)

Batman: Black & White #2 (May 1996)

Legends of the Dark Knight #64 (July 1994)

Legends of the Dark Knight #95 (Apr 1997)

Legends of the Dark Knight #156 (June 2002)

Catwoman #35 (Sep 2004)

Superman/Batman #21 (May 2005)

Batman: The Return (Nov 2010)

Batman & Robin #25 (July 2011)

Just like with the 60s Batmobile, although the design is almost never 100% authentic, you can clearly see how the shape of these Batmobiles is inspired by Anton Furst's Batmobile. And occasionally a film-accurate design does emerge:

Batman & Robin #19 (Jan 2011)

Batman #1 (Sep 2011)

Batman: The Animated Series

This Batmobile is inspired by the one above, but as you can see, it went in its own direction. And since many people consider Batman: The Animated Series (1992) to be best depiction of Batman, you better believe it's influenced comics designs. Interestingly, the cars based on this design tend to be more accurate overall than most of the other ones.

Detective Comics #784 (July 2003)

Detective Comics #840 (Jan 2008)

Batman & The Outsiders #14 (Dec 2008)

Batman #1 (June 2016)

Batman Forever

This Batmobile was designed by H. R. Giger for Batman Forever (1995), with some Schumacher neon added, but at its heart, it's still has a lot in common with the previous two Batmobiles. Although as striking design, it has - to my knowledge - only inspired one Batmobile, the toned-down version seen below. But it has also appeared in group shots, as you can see at the bottom of the page.

Batman 80-Page Giant (2011)

Batman and Robin

This one has not yet appeared in the comics on its own or inspired any comics Batmobiles, but it does appear in a group shot below.

The New Batman Adventures

This one is possible my favorite Batmobile design, but again, it's essentially the Anton Furst Batmobile. Really, it's the back half of '89 with the front half of Batman and Robin. But hey, whatever works. It's appeared twice in somewhat modified forms.

Legends of the Dark Knight #208 (July 2006)

Batman #5 (Oct 2016)

Tumbler

Batman Begins (2005) took a different approach to the Batmobile. For one thing, it wasn't called that. For another, it was originally created as a military vehicle and then modified by Bruce Wayne. So it has more of a tank-like appearance than the sports car look it usually has.

Surprisingly, as successful as Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Batman films has been all around, the Tumbler hasn't made much impact on the comics. But that's not to say it's never appeared, and the one time it did (and was actually used, I mean) was pretty faithful.

Detective Comics #20 (July 2013)

DCCU Batmobile

Like the Batman & Robin Batmobile, this one has not yet appeared in the comics on its own or inspired any comics Batmobiles, but it does appear in a group shot below.

Group Shots

Occasionally, artists will like to do a wide shot of the Batcave featuring a wide variety of vehicles from Batman's history. I believe the first people to do this were Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee in Batman: Hush (seen below). In any case, these shots always include at least one screen Batmobile. I've provided three examples below. I don't believe these are the only time a shot like this is done, but they were the only ones I could find.

Batman #615 (May 2003): (bottom left) Batman Forever (1995), (top middle) Batman (1989), (bottom middle) Batman (1966), (above Batman '66) Batman: The Animated Series (1992), (above Batman: TAS) Batman & Robin (1997)

Detective Comics #850 (November 2008): (L to R) Batman (1989), Batman Begins (2005), Batman: The Animated Series (1992), and The New Batman Adventures (1998)

Detective Comics #988 (September 2018): (L to R) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Batman (1989), Batman Begins (2005), Batman Forever (1995)

Character Spotlight: Warhawk (sorta)

One of the tricky things about canon immigrants is that they're not always an exact match. Take Zizz, for instance, whose look comes from an alternate reality version of Justice League's Hawkgirl, and that's pretty much all they have in common. This example is pretty similar.

In case you're not familiar with Warhawk, he's a member of Justice League Unlimited who first appeared in the Batman Beyond episode "The Call" (November 2000), and he's actually shown up on this blog several times before - but always in a version of the Batman Beyond future. And in that future, he's Rex Stewart, the son of Green Lantern John Stewart and Hawkgirl.

Therefore, it's quite surprising when someone who looks like him shows up in an alternate PRESENT as a member of the Justice League. This happens in Justice League of America #26 (October 2008) during a time when the trickster god Anansi spins a new reality, which changes the makeup of the team.

As you can see, the team includes someone called Hawk who looks an awful lot like Warhawk, except he has red armor for some reason.

...or does he? In this later scene, he was what looks more like silver armor reflecting red light. Is that what the top picture is supposed to be too? That would make sense since he has Firestorm floating in front of him, but it's not affecting the coloring of anybody else, whereas in the bottom image, Vixen is tinted red as well.

So I'm not sure what's going on there, but it counts regardless.