Character Spotlight: Agent Dolls

Wynonna Earp is a weird western series of miniseries about Wyatt Earp's great-great-granddaughter, who belongs to a special division of the US Marshalls that deals with paranormal crime. The series has been around at different times since 1996, but in 2016, it was adapted into a show on SyFy.

The show plays with the premise a bit. Whereas the comic travels all over the west and deals with a variety of strangeness, the tv is set in the town of Purgatory, which Wynonna has to protect from the Revenants, the ghosts of the 77 people Wyatt Earp killed with his magic gun, the Peacemaker. The show also gives a partner to Wynonna named Xavier Dolls, and somehow includes Doc Holliday as a character.

2016 also saw the release of a new comic miniseries, and you can easily see they were willing to make changes to better match the show.

One of those changes was the inclusion of Agent Dolls. He first appears in Wynonna Earp #1 (February 2016), only in the comic, Dolls is Earp's superior officer.

Note: Although Wynonna Earp did not premier on SyFy until July 2016, while the 2016 comic series debuted in February, SyFy bought the rights to the series in July 2015 and the show went into production in September 2015 with an automatic 13-episode order.

Character Spotlight: Gail Richards

This is a minor one, but it's still neat.

In The Ultimates #1 (January 2002), we see that Captain America, aka Steve Rogers, is engaged to a girl named Gail.

In The Ultimates #3 (March 2002), paying close attention reveals that Gail's last name is Richards

So what does this all mean? In the serial Captain America (1944), Gail Richards is the secretary and love interest of Captain America, aka District Attorney Grant Gardner.

As you might guess, the serial was quite different from the comics of the time. But interestingly, the serial itself exists within Marvel Comics continuity, presumably because Captain America's identity was classified at the time it was made. Whether intentional or not, the existence of the serial in the comics may provide a good example of why Gail Richards or Grant Gardner have never appeared in the comics personally (excluding Ultimate Marvel, that is).

Characters' Names: Venom's Spawn

This is a surprising one for me, so I'm glad to be able to share it.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing a line of Venom toys called "Planet of the Symbiotes". The internet tells me this line came out in 1996, which sounds about right. Symbiotes were all the rage in the mid-90s. I can't say why - even as a kid, I didn't see the appeal - but they were, so these toys didn't surprise me. A year later, they came out with a sequel series called "Along Came A Spider". Each of these lines were named after Venom miniseries that involve these characters, but don't have much in common with them beyond that.

I didn't recognize most of these characters at the time, but that wasn't anything new. I often learned of characters through toys. But here's the thing, which I didn't learn until today: some of these characters didn't have names until they released the toys!

The story behind this group of Symbiotes is that they were created from Venom by an organization called The Life Foundation. They first appeared in Venom: Lethal Protector #4 (March 1993).

In their appearances before the action figures came out, the Symbiotes didn't have names. They referred to each other by their host name. But no one would buy a Symbiote named Donna, so Toy Biz came up with more appropriate names. It's a little tricky to explain who has a toy-original name and who doesn't, so we'll go through them one by one.

Moving left to right on the group photo above, we'll start with Scream. The yellow Symbiote was first  designated Scream in Civil War Battle Damage Report #1 (March 2007).

Next up is Lasher, the green Symbiote. It was first called that in Carnage USA #2 (January 2012), although it's an interesting case in that the lettering makes it seem like "Lasher" may be the name of the dog that hosts this Symbiote, rather than the Symbiote itself. It's unclear.

In the middle, we have Riot. The grey Symbiote is first called "Riot" in Carnage USA #2 (January 2012).

After that, we have the orange Symbiote, Phage. Phage is a VERY interesting case. If you go back and look at the toys, you'll see one named Phage. But it's not a Symbiote! It's actually an alien called a xenophage, which is a predator of Symbiotes. Here's a picture of one:

Regardless, they had another Symbiote they needed a name for, and Phage is what they chose, no doubt because it was used in this toyline. Phage's name first appeared in Carnage USA #2 (January 2012).

You might notice the final (pink) Symbiote, Agony, is not in the toyline either. And no toy is named Agony. So I don't know where her name came from. Regardless, these Symbiotes (minus Scream) are part of a task force called the Mercury Team. Each soldier is assigned one of the Symbiotes and keeps them contained until they're needed, then bond with them just long enough to finish the task at hand.

Pretty neat, right? The immigrants that catch me off-guard are always my favorite.

For completion's sake, you might also notice there's a toy we didn't mention: Hybrid. Hybrid's name is from the comics, but it's not its own Symbiote. It's a combination of Lasher, Riot, and Phage, who first appeared in Venom: Along Came A Spider #1 (November 1995).

Edited to Add (6/27/21): As evidenced by the upcoming Extreme Carnage #1: Lasher (August 2021), Lasher is, indeed, the name of the symbiote and not the dog.

Logo Spotlight: Wonder Woman's Flying W

I couldn't come up with a special idea for my 200th post, so instead I'll spotlight something I would never have guessed was a canon immigrant without stumbling upon it: Wonder Woman's flying W!

From her first appearance in All-Star Comics #8 (1941), Wonder Woman had a golden eagle on her chest, like so:

It became simplified during the Silver Age, but was still clearly an eagle:

In the 80s, however, she suddenly had two W's connected in such a way that they have wings.

I always thought this was just a modernized redesign, perhaps coinciding with Crisis in Infinite Earths and the following relaunch of Wonder Woman, but not so. It actually appeared several years earlier.

In 1981, to honor Wonder Woman's 40th anniversary, DC president Jenette Kahn created the Wonder Woman Foundation. The foundation was a nonprofit designed to grant money to women over 40, and their logo was the flying W. Wonder Woman's costume was then changed in the comics to promote the organization.

How do I know it wasn't the other way around? Because that's the story in the comics too! Only in the comics, the Foundation actually created Wonder Woman's new costume as a gift to her. Check it out:

Pretty neat! This panel comes from a story in DC Comics Presents #41 (November 1981), which was an introduction to Wonder Woman's new creative team.

Character Spotlight: The Pigeon (Person)

Canon immigrants can come from a whole host of sources, which you've seen if you've spent any amount of time on this blog. They can even come from ads, and Hostess ads are especially popular in this regard. In the past, this has been something that Marvel alone did, but DC recently got into the game in Nightwing #11 (December 2016) with the introduction of the Pigeon.

CBR did a great write-up on her, and I encourage you to read it.

Costume Spotlight: Elektra

I'm pretty sure every one knows what Elektra looks like.

But just in case, when Elektra first appeared in Daredevil #168 (November 1980), she wore this classic outfit:

And she's worn that pretty much ever since. There have been some variations, such as this white version she wears on occasion...

...and Ultimate Elektra wore a black outfit similar to the 2003 film version (I can't confirm whether the Ultimate version was based on the film version)...

...but mostly it's been the all-red outfit, to the point where one of the biggest complaints fans had against Daredevil (2003) was that Elektra didn't wear red. (They fixed this for the Elektra solo film, which is the only thing they got right.)

Daredevil season 2 (2016), however, has Elektra wear a more practical outfit with a mix of black and red:

This month, Marvel gave Elektra her own series, and Elektra #1 (February 2017) features a suit that, while clearly more comic-booky than the Netflix, is clearly inspired by it:

I don't think that the series will go farther than that and give Elektra a French-Cambodian heritage, but stranger things have happened.

Country Spotlight: Sokovia

This one took me by surprise, though it probably shouldn't have since it's become such a turning point in the MCU.

In Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 2015), we're introduced to an Eastern European country called Sokovia. Sokovia is a major part of the story as that's where Baron Strucker's base is, that's where Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver live, and that's where Ultron decides to attack. It continues to be important in Captain America: Civil War (May 2016), because it's where Zemo's from and it's (obviously) a large part of the reason behind the Sokovia Accords.

Here's the weird part: I'm not entirely sure why they created Sokovia for the movie. In the comics, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are from the Eastern European country Transia, and that would've worked just as well.

Regardless, Sokovia is here, and it makes sense that the comics would eventually use it, which they did in Captain America: Steve Rogers #5 (September 2016):

Sokovia also appears in issue 7. Whether it'll become a staple of the Marvel Universe like Wakanda or Madripoor remains to be seen.