Flashback Friday: Lord Death Man's Name and Location

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: The name and location of Lord Death Man!

In 1966, at the height of Bat-Mania thanks to the hit tv show starring Adam West, DC released a Batman manga in Japan called バットマン (Battoman), and colloquially known as Batmanga in the West. It only ran for a year and featured a mixture of original material and material based on Batman comics of the time. One of the the examples of the latter category is Lord Death Man.

In Batman #180 (March 1966), Batman faces off against a foe known as Death Man, who dies as he's about to be brought to justice, only to later return. After this happens several times, Batman realizes he is simply faking his death each time, and at the end of the issue, he's struck by lightning and dies for real.

In the first three issues of the Batman manga (April 1966), Death Man appears as Lord Death Man, but otherwise follows the same plot as Batman #180.

Lord Death Man was later brought to comics by Grant Morrison in Batman, Incorporated #1 (November 2010). Grant Morrison's goal with his run on Batman was to make as much of his history as canon as possible. That included bringing back the Batman of All Nations, aka the Club of Heroes, and then expanded that idea into Batman, Incorporated in the series of the same name. Thus, Lord Death Man appeared as a villain of Mr. Unknown, a potential recruit as the Batman of Japan. Batman, Incorporated #2 then established that he and Death Man are the same person, although Batman suspects he's gotten some sort of upgrade in the years since they first fought.

Character Spotlight: Arkham Knight

Way back in 2009, Rocksteady Studios released a game called Batman: Arkham Asylum that redefined what a Batman game could be. Set in Arkham Asylum, it featured a creepy atmosphere, a wide variety of Batman villains used in clever ways, a dynamic fighting system, good storytelling, and most important of all, a focus on stealth that really put you in the mindset of Batman and feel what it's like to use his tricks to fight bad guys. There are few things more exhilarating than sneaking up behind a henchman, stringing him up from a gargoyle before he can alert the others, than lying in wait for another henchman to spot him so you can incapacitate him as well while he's distracted.

Needless to say, it was a hit.

This led to sequels, with Arkham City coming out in 2011 and Arkham Knight in 2015. (There was also Arkham Origins in 2013, but that was by a different studios, and a few mobile games, but none of those really count.)

In Batman: Arkham Knight, the Scarecrow has decided to unleash a series of attacks on Gotham and enlisted the help of the Arkham Knight to help him. The Arkham Knight is a more militarized take on Batman who wears the Arkham Asylum logo on his chest. By the end of the game, you learn that the Arkham Knight is Jason Todd, looking for revenge after Batman supposedly let him die. After the events of the main game, Jason takes on his standard mantle of the Red Hood for some DLC (downloadable content).

In Detective Comics #1000 (March 2019), which comes out today!, the Arkham Knight makes his comics debut. In a suit that looks very similar to his digital counterpart. This version believes that Batman is a cancer on Gotham and plans to eradicate him. He is almost certainly NOT Jason Todd, so who could he be? Time will tell.

Flashback Friday: The Scorpion Machine

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: The Scorpion Machine!

Way back in the long ago, when Shazam was still called Captain Marvel, he was the most popular superhero. So he got the first superhero serial, The Adventures of Captain Marvel, in 1941. The plot involved a criminal mastermind called The Scorpion trying to find an artifact called the Scorpion Machine that could supposedly turn sunlight into gold. It’s a serial so there’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the gist.

The Scorpion Machine makes its comics debut in The Power Of Shazam #24 (January 1997) as part of a story Spy Smasher is telling Billy and Mary Batson. In the story, Spy Smasher enlisted the help of their dad to help him find a machine called The Scorpion that was originally found by the Malcolm Expedition, which Batson’s father (Billy’s grandfather) was a part of. It was lost for a time and then turned up again, and Spy Smasher wanted to keep it out of Nazis’ hands.

Unfortunately that was the only time we saw it, but DC loves referencing that serial. Look up Whitey Murphy for another example!

Character Spotlight: Del Frye

I'm a big fan of The Immortal Hulk. I've never read it, I don't know much about it, but I still dig it. Why? Because after 40 years, there's a series that's finally introducing things from The Incredible Hulk television show into the comics.

This is crazy to me, and here's why: until, say, 2012's The Avengers, if you mentioned the Hulk, the average person would assume you were talking about the tv show (Yes, I'm aware The Avengers comes after two solo movies, and no, I didn't misspeak). The Hulk was Lou Ferrigno, his alter ego was David Banner, his catchphrase was "Don't make me angry...", and he was always on the run. End of story. The Incredible Hulk movie even arguably drew more inspiration from the show than the comics, going so far as to recreate the original experiment as shown in the show's opening credits each week. Yet, despite being a cultural touchstone and one of the most well-known comic book adaptations, it never made an impact on the comics...until now.

The first issue of Immortal Hulk, if you recall, introduced Jackie McGee, and in issue #2 (July 2018), the series brings over a much more minor character: Del Frye.

Del is the son of Dr. Frye, a scientist who was overcome with grief when his wife died. Seeing the Hulk as someone who couldn't die, he became intent on using gamma radiation to create a serum to prevent death. He tested the serum on Del, a football player and therefore prone to injury, but the serum didn't work and Del died. Del's body irradiated anyone who visited his grave and anyone they came into contact with, creating what came to be known as "the Chain of Grief". In addition, Dr. Frye became irradiated as well, and he turned into a creature not dissimilar to Batman Beyond's Blight.

This isn't quite how it happened on tv. Dell Frye - this version has two L's - first appeared in the Incredible Hulk episode "The First", a 2-part episode that aired during the show's fourth season in March 1981.

This version was the assistant of a doctor named Jeffrey Clive. He was dying from a rare blood disease, so Dr. Clive built a gamma ray chamber to try to cure him. As you can see in the picture above, it did not go according to plan. Dr. Clive managed to cure him, but Dell was still dying and getting worse, so in a strange turn of events, he kept trying to find a way to turn back into the creature - quite the opposite from the Hulk! Once Banner learns about a creature like himself who's been around longer than him, he goes to investigate and they agree to help each other: Banner will help Frye become the creature and Frye will help cure Banner. It doesn't work out, however, as Frye gets shot by police by the end of the episode and the Hulk has to escape.

Thanks to friend of the blog Thomas Parks for telling me about this one!

Flashback Friday: The Many Costumes of the Flash!

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: The Flash's costumes!

This is an interesting one because it seems like every time The Flash gets to be on tv, his suit changes. When Barry Allen debuted in 1956, he had the following appearance, and he kept it until his death in 1985.

When Wally West took over as The Flash following Crisis on Infinite Earths, he used the same costume.

When The Flash (1990) debuted on CBS, Barry Allen wore essentially the same costume, but as you might notice, it's a darker red and the belt is angled instead of straight across.

These changes were then given to Wally West's version of The Flash in The Flash #50 (March 1991).

Later, Wally West appeared as The Flash in Justice League (2000), but with two further alterations: one is the simplified lightning bolt logo, and the other is that the belt is now two distinct lightning bolts.

After Barry Allen came back in The Flash: Rebirth, DC needed a way to tell the two Flashes apart. In issue 5 (November 2009), Wally received a new costume that incorporated the animated changes.

These changes have continued to various degrees in DC's New 52 and Rebirth. Barry Allen received the angled belt but kept his classic logo, while Wally West kept everything but changed the gold to silver to further differentiate him from Barry Allen (and now has free-flowing hair to better match his Kid Flash suit):

And I know what you might be asking: what about his current show? Did it happen there? It did! But I've already covered it.

Group Spotlight: Dogs of Hell

Five years ago, almost to the day (March 11, 2014), Agents of SHIELD aired the episode "Yes Men". The episode is notable for a full-on guest appearance by Sif - not just a cameo like with Nick Fury - and for being an early hint that Ward is a bad guy, but it's also notable for introducing the Dogs of Hell to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Dogs of Hell are a motorcycle gang the the villain of the episode, Lorelei, is able to take control of through the hypnotic powers of her voice. This was their only appearance in Agents of SHIELD, but not their final appearance in the MCU. A different branch of the club played a major part in Daredevil season 2 (March 2016) as one of the three participants in the gang war that season revolves around. They later had brief appearances or mentions in The Punisher (November 2017) and both seasons of Iron Fist (March 2017 and September 2018).

Here's where it gets fuzzy. The Marvel Wikia claims that their first appearance in comics is in Civil War II: Kingpin #2 (August 2016). This would make sense, being only a few months after they were so prominently in Daredevil. And a biker gang DOES appear in that issue, but I can find no indication that they're actually the Dogs of Hell. If anyone can corroborate that information, let me know.

But that's all right, because they definitely do appear by name in The Immortal Hulk #1 (June 2018).

This is honestly my favorite kind of canon immigrant. It's not there to promote anything, it's not driven by any kind of nostalgia, it's just the comics realizing an adaptation filled a gap in some way and continuing to use it because it makes sense. Marvel never had a reoccurring motorcycle gang before. Now they do. And if they want, they can get a lot of mileage out of that.

Flashback Friday: Roxy Rocket

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: Roxy Rocket!

Roxy Rocket is a rare DOUBLE canon immigrant. She first appeared in Batman Adventures Annual #1 (January 1994), a comic series based on Batman: The Animated Series and set in its continuity.  Her gimmick, and it's a good one, is that she's a stunt actress who was fired for trying to make stunts too dangerous, so she turned to crime to get her thrills that way.

She later appeared in the series proper in the episode "The Ultimate Thrill" (1998).

Her first comics appearance was a cameo in Detective Comics #822 (August 2006)...

...though her first full appearance wasn't until Batgirl (vol. 3) #6 (January 2010).

And that's pretty much it for her outside a few out-of-continuity appearances here and there, although she did get a cameo in Justice League of America: Rebirth #1 (February 2017), which means she survived the New 52. Not everyone can say that!

Character Spotlight: Cousin Itt

I have to be honest: I'm not completely comfortable with this post. I'm going through with it based on much less concrete information than my usual standard, but the information I do have comes from the Paley Center for Media, and I'm willing to trust them.

The Addams Family is a franchise I'm sure you're all familiar with. Everyone knows the hit 60s tv show and its famous theme song, along with the two movies. Fewer people, but still many, know about the two cartoons, the 90s tv movie and series, and the pinball machine (and yes, as the best-selling pinball machine of all time, it deserves a mention). But relatively few people know that these characters originated as a series of New Yorker cartoons by Charles Addams, which debuted in August 1938.

Over time, the two characters presented in this panel - I hesitate to call them Morticia and Lurch because almost none of the characters have names in the comics - were joined by the patriarch of the family, the two children, the grandma, and the bald man. They didn't feature in every Charles Addams panel, but all of his work had a similar air of the strange and macabre that felt like it belonged in the same world.

One of the most memorable Addams Family members is Cousin Itt, who debuted in the episode "Cousin Itt Visits the Addams Family" (February 1965). He's a small, hirsute character who talks in squeaks and is apparently quite the ladies' man.

In The Paley Center's "We're Gonna Pay a Call on...The Addams Family", they write about Itt's creation:

Two more characters were added at [producer David] Levy’s suggestion: a disembodied hand. . .and a hair-covered relative who spoke total gibberish. The first became Thing, a reference to a previous New Yorker cartoon that had warned a worried mailman to “Beware of the Thing.” (This sign, in fact, appeared in the pilot episode). . .The latter creature was dubbed “Cousin Itt” and would not be a weekly regular but show up on an erratic basis. His sporadic appearances, however, quickly made him a favorite. Approximately three feet in height, his hair ran to floor length covering him entirely. He sometimes sported a hat and a pair of sunglasses just to offset the shag look. In anticipation of his appearance on the show, Addams drew a cartoon starring the hirsute creature answering the telephone with “This is It speaking” for the October 12, 1963, New Yorker issue. (For the series the furry cousin added an extra “T” to his name). 

Here's the comic in question:

As you can see, this panel was published over a year before the episode that introduced Cousin Itt. But as I said, I'm inclined to believe the Paley Center. For one thing, they're the Paley Center. But for another, this is the only character in the entire series of New Yorker cartoons that gets a name. And I think it makes a lot of sense if that's because the character originated on the tv show, where the rest of the characters got their names.

Flashback Friday: Serpentino

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: Serpentino!

This is going to be a quick one, but sometimes you gotta take what you can get.

Back in the 70s, ads in comic books would sometimes be presented as a comics page itself. The most famous of these were Hostess, and you can check out a . . . host . . . of examples at seanbaby.com. Here's just one.

But they were created for other products, too, and one such ad for a Rubik's Cube kind of puzzle called the Magic Snake appeared in Marvel Team-Up #126 (December 1982). In the ad, Hulk fights a new villain named Serpentino, who is then distracted from the fight by a Magic Snake puzzle.

Serpentino WAS included in the Marvel Universe eventually, but don't be surprised if you've never heard of him. His only appearance was in a text feature in New Avengers Most Wanted Files (October 2005) that said he's remained in prison since his initial capture.

But hey, it still counts!