Flashback Friday: Bullseye's Appearance

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

This week: Bullseye's appearance!

Bullseye, the long-time Daredevil villain with perfect aim, has one of the best looks around, in my opinion.

But in the early 2000s, comic book adaptations had a strange relationship with comic book accuracy. Although they were looking to the comics for stories more than ever before, the character designs were generally more "realistic" and "down to Earth". That's why, in Daredevil (February 2003), Bullseye looks like this below. The strange thing is that he asks for a costume halfway through the movie, but still doesn't get one.

In the miniseries Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target #1 (September 2002), Bullseye starts wearing plainclothes to draw less attention to himself, but someone complains, so he draws a target on his forehead like so (below). Now I know what you're thinking: this came out almost half a year before the movie. What gives? Well, the movie design had been released by June 2002, so that gives plenty of time for both the fans and the comics creators to become familiar with it.

 In Daredevil #48 (June 2003), we get an even more movie-accurate version. In the next issue, we learn it's a tattoo instead of a scar.

But then in Daredevil #49 (July 2003), Daredevil carves it into his head, meaning it will become a scar.

He was back in his classic outfit by Thunderbolts #110 (January 2007)...

...although interestingly, the ditching of his costume seemed to only happen in Daredevil. Whenever he appeared in miniseries during this time, such as Identity Disc (June 2004), Bullseye: Greatest Hits (September 2004), or Punisher vs. Bullseye (November 2005), he wore his classic outfit.

Presumably he still has the scar, but we never see it.

Character Spotlight: Andy

Of all the comic strips out there, only a handful are household names. Of those, Peanuts is probably the most well-known. And of all the Peanuts characters - and there are quite a few - none is so well known as Charlie Brown's dog, Snoopy. In fact, I'm sure you've heard someone refer to the Peanuts strip or franchise as a whole as "Snoopy" before. It stands to reason, then, that if everyone loves Snoopy, you know what they'd love even more? MORE Snoopy!

With that in mind, we got our first mention of Snoopy's brother, Spike, on August 4, 1975:

And we meet him on August 13, 1975:

After that, Snoopy's other siblings were slowly introduced: Belle in June 1976, Marbles in September 1982, and Olaf in January 1989. But that's only half  of the litter. The other three - Andy, Molly, and Rover - were introduced in the 1991 tv special, Snoopy's Reunion.

Andy then later appeared in the comic strip on February 14, 1994:

Interestingly, Molly and Rover never appeared in the comics. So even though Snoopy does canonically have two siblings we've never met, there's no guarantee they're Molly and Rover.

Andy made several more appearances in the strip, always accompanied by his brother, Olaf. His last appearance was September 27, 1999. about six months before the final strip ran.

Flashback Friday: Chloe Sullivan

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

This week: Chloe Sullivan!

Chloe Sullivan first appeared in the Smallville pilot (2001) as one of Clark's friends and the editor of the Torch, the school newspaper.  She was also into researching all the strange things that have happened in Smallville and chronicled them on her Wall of Weird. And she's Lois Lane's cousin. As she got older, she got into hacking, got a job at the Daily Planet, and started dating Jimmy Olsen.

Chloe - or rather, her name - made two cameo appearances in Superman: Secret Origin.  In Secret Origin #1 (September 2009), her name appears on a cast...

...and in Secret Origin #4 (January 2010), Lois has a Post-It reminding her to call Chloe.

She made her first official appearance in DC Comics in the Jimmy Olsen back-up feature of Action Comics #893 (September 2010).  The comics character combines Chloe's journalistic background of the early Smallville seasons with her relationship with Jimmy Olsen of the later seasons.

That's pretty much it for her, though she did get a mention on Supergirl, in the episode "Midvale" (November 2017). Kara mentions Clark has a friend named Chloe who's good at hacking and has a Wall of Weird.

She has not appeared in the New 52 or Rebirth, and I highly doubt she will. Chloe's actor, Allison Mack, has gotten into some pretty serious legal trouble lately, and while I won't get into the nature of her alleged crimes, suffice to say it's tainted her and the character pretty permanently, I suspect.

Clayface's New Origin

Many people are unaware of this, but there have been several people who have gone by the name "Clayface" over the course of Batman's history. Arguably the two most important are the first and second ones. The original was an actor named Basil Karlo who, in his first appearance at least, wore the costume of a movie monster he played (Clayface) to attack people connected to a remake of one of his movies. The second, Matt Hagen, was a treasure hunter who touched some protoplasm and gained the powers to reshape his body, but the effects were temporary and he would continually have to return to the protoplasm to regain his powers.

 

These two characters were combined to create Batman: The Animated Series's version of Clayface, who first appeared in the two-part episode, "Feat of Clay" (September 1992). In this series, Matt Hagen was a famous actor until a car accident ruined his face. Since then, he has started working for Roland Daggett, who gives him a substance called Renuyu each month that allows Matt to reshape his face - and therefore also lets him look like other people. Daggett uses Matt's abilities for corporate espionage and asks him to try to kill Lucius Fox while disguised as Bruce Wayne to help facilitate a merger between Daggett's and Wayne's companies. The plan doesn't work, so Daggett cuts off Matt from Renuyu, and when Matt breaks into the factory to get some, Daggett's goons cover Matt with it and force him to drink liters of the stuff. This, of course, turns Matt into Clayface.

Matt Hagen is the only Clayface in the DC Animated Universe, but the comics are less picky. Prior to this series, there were four, which is not that surprising. There were also multiple Two-Faces and Mad Hatters, for instance, for reasons we won't really get into. But unlike these other characters, DC has continued to introduce new Clayfaces, for a total of nine as of this writing.

That being said, the comics likewise seem to have settled on Basil Karlo as the "main" Clayface, and to that end, featured a retelling of his origin in Detective Comics Annual 2018. Although it's not an exact retelling of "Feat of Clay", it does feature more beats from that than from Basil Karlo's original debut in Detective Comics #40 (April 1940). His face is disfigured in a car accident, and he fixes that using a chemical called Renu - no "yu" on the end in this version, since it's not meant to be a cosmetic...

...which is still made by Roland Daggett's company, spelled with one "t" in this version for reasons that aren't clear.

Similarly, being doused with loads of the Renu turns Karlo into a hulking mass of goo like the animated Clayface.

This, however, is NOT the first time The Animated Series has influenced Clayface's appearance. I've previously written about that. It's due for a Flashback Friday, but I don't know when I'll get around to it.

Flashback Friday: Gizmo

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

This week: Gizmo!

Teen Titans was notorious for playing fast and loose with the designs of characters. So although Gizmo had already appeared in comics, beginning in The New Teen Titans #3 (November 1980)...

...when he appeared in the Teen Titans episode "Final Exam" (2003), it was in a greatly altered form. 

Gizmo kept the same appearance in the comics until February 2004, when he appeared in Teen Titans #8:

When he next appeared in Outsiders #12-14 (May-July 2004), however, he had an appearance closer to his animated counterpart.

And then in DC Special: Cyborg #5 (September 2008), he suddenly looks A LOT like his animated counterpart.

In the next issue, we learn this is Gizmo II, the original Gizmo's son (October 2008).

Gizmo II only appeared in a couple issues and hasn't seemed to survive the New 52. Gizmo's new appearance did for a little while, but he has since changed it. never got the full beard back, though.

Costume Spotlight: Captain America's Armory

In Captain America #12 (July 2019), we learn that Captain America has an armory of sorts. We've seen this with characters like Iron Man and Batman, but it's a first for good ol' Captain Rogers. In doing so, however, we're treated to a variety of costumes from throughout his history, including a few I wouldn't exactly expect to see.

On the far left is, naturally, the costume from his first appearance in Captain America Comics #1 (1939). But more intriguing is the one next to it. This one isn't from the comics at all, but instead, the 1979 tv movie, and its sequel, Captain America II: Death Too Soon (also 1979).

These movies featured a very different Captain America more inspired by Evel Knievel. There was still a tie to the 40s, though it was because Steve Rogers's father was a famous government agent of the time, also known as Captain America. And there was still a super-soldier serum, though it was more of a super-steroid derived called FLAG (Full Latent Ability Gain) from Steve's father's own physiology. Everything else about the story is different.

The suit after that is the Commander Rogers outfit from circa 2010, but the next two are VERY interesting. The first is Captain America's World War II uniform from The Ultimates #1 (January 2002)...

...and the next is his modern outfit from the same issue. Which means they're from Ultimate Marvel, an entirely different comics universe. What's going on here? Are they relics from the merging of Earth-1610 and Earth-616 in Secret Wars? Or is there some other explanation?

Finally, there's this one. I can't totally be sure it belongs on this site, but I'm including it to put it to the masses. It looks like it's probably from some animated project, but I can't figure out which one. So what say you? Is this suit from some tv or movie, maybe a toy line or Hostess ad? Is it from some comics alternate reality? Or is it just from some run-of-the-mill comics storyline and I simply don't recognize it?

Let me know if you know!

Flashback Friday: Ms. Lion

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

This week: Ms. Lion!

Ms. Lion first appeared as Firestar's dog in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981), but she keeps Aunt May company whenever the heroes have to go fight crime.

He first appeared in comics as a member of the Pet Avengers in Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1 (May 2009).

He also appeared with the Pet Avengers in Thor and the Warriors Four #1 (April 2010) and Tails of the Pet Avengers: Dogs of Summer #1 (July 2010), although these are considered alternate realities.

Then the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends version appeared in comics during the Spider-Verse event in Amazing Spider-Man #7 (October 2014), after Morlun has killed the heroes on this Earth.

Strangely, Ms. Lion is only yellow on Earth-1983. Every other time he's appeared, he's been white. I'm not sure why that is.

Nickname Spotlight: The Last Son of Krypton

Superman has accumulated a lot of nicknames over the years. The Man of Steel, The Man of Tomorrow, The Metropolis Marvel, and one more are some of the most popular, and in fact, they were used to help create the personas of the four characters that appeared in the storyline "Reign of the Supermen" after Superman died fighting Doomsday.

It's that last one I want to talk about today.

"The Last Son of Krypton". The nickname was created by Elliot S. Maggin, and the story goes that he'd wanted to include it in the comics for a long time but editorial would never let him. He used other, similar nicknames, such as the Colossus of Krypton and the Last Survivor of Krypton (more of a description than a nickname, really), but never got to use that specific phrase, an epithet that is now so strongly tied to the character. And how did it become attached to the character in the first place?

Simple: Maggin wrote a book.

See, in 1978, Superman: The Movie came out, and they wanted a tie-in novel, so Maggin wrote this, a story that covers Superman's origin just like the movie does. I say "just like the movie does" because, despite being a movie tie-in - you can see Christopher Reeve's photo right on the cover - it doesn't really have anything to do with the movie. It diverges from the movie in many major ways, including spending time as Superboy and teaming up with Lex Luthor to fight aliens.

The important thing is that the novel had a different editor than the comics, so Maggin wasn't told no!

I can't find a comics appearance before Action Comics #687 (April 1993, above), but there must be one. If you find one, let me know!

Flashback Friday: Samurai

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

This week: Samurai!

Samurai always makes me a little sad to think about. Everyone wants to use him, but no one wants to use him, you know? You'll see what I mean.

Samurai debuted in the eighth episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour (segment: "Volcano" (1977)). His main powers are that he can turn into wind and also become invisible, but occasionally he was also seen to control flame or cast illusions.

Samurai's first comics appearance was a cameo in Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 (June 1985), but it's easy to miss him even if you're looking. Panel 4, far right, next to Catwoman.

He appeared more fully in Super Powers #1 (July 1986) and he would go on to appear in every issue of the miniseries. Strangely, even though the comic is a tie-in with the toyline that would also be adapted as the last couple seasons of Super Friends, the Justice League does not recognize Samurai and Samurai does not seem to have ever been a superhero before; in fact, he debuted as a villain - although brainwashed. Ultimately it doesn't matter because this story is not in continuity.

He later appeared as a toy in Green Lantern #89 (June 1997), but obviously this doesn't really count.

His next cameo was as a member of the Super Friends in the "Crisis One Million" section of DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1999). Superwoman used a bad luck generator and made Hypertime fold in on itself, causing numerous alternate Justice Leagues to appear together.

His first appearance in mainstream continuity was a - you guessed it - cameo in a group shot in the Infinite Crisis #5 section of the Infinite Crisis hardcover (December 2006)...

...while his first full appearance was in Justice League of America #46 (August 2010), though again, he's playing an antagonistic role against his will.

Another version of Samurai (using his same first name, Toshio) appeared in Justice League of America 80-Page Giant #1 (November 2009) as a samurai in 1223.

And finally, Samurai did survive the New 52 and Rebirth, though fittingly only as a cameo: in Doomsday Clock #6 (July 2018), the backmatter addresses superheroes in the East, and Samurai is listed on Japan's team.

A strange thing I noticed while researching this post is how similar it is to Golden Pharaoh's: Super Powers volume 3, Green Lantern #89, Doomsday Clock backmatter...a lot of things line up. What a strange coincidence.

Anyway, Samurai has fared slightly better in adaptations. A version of him called Wind Dragon appeared in the Justice League Unlimited episode, "Ultimatum" (December 2004)...

...and then Young Justice featured a female version of him called Asami Koizumi in season 2 for several episodes, beginning in the episode "Beneath" (May 2012).

He also makes cameos in Scooby-Doo!: The Mask of the Blue Falcon (2013) and The LEGO Batman Movie (2017).