Character Spotlight: Dr. Howard Hodges

Dr. Howard Hodges first appeared in the Batman Beyond episode "Heroes" (1999). He was a friend of the scientists that became the Terrific Trio and (purposefully) caused the accident that led to them getting powers. The intent was to kill Mike Morgan so Dr. Hodges could get with Mike's girlfriend, Mary, but Mary and another scientist named Stewart Lowe were caught in the radiation blast as well, which gave them powers. Mike became 2-D Man, Mary became Freon, and Stewart became Magma.

In Batman Beyond #13 (October 2017), he appears in Freon's flashback as he tries to return Freon to health.

Character Spotlight: Gorath

The current run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by IDW is trying to more or less be the definitive TMNT story by synthesizing all the Ninja Turtles media that came before it. As such, that means it has had a ton of canon immigrants and will continue to have many more.

This week: Gorath!

This is a weird one, folks. Gorath is an alien who appeared in the Battle Nexus Tournament beginning in "The Big Brawl, Part 2" (2004).

He later appeared in IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #74 (September 2017). Only this time, he's a...judge? He presided over Krang's trial until he was killed.

Team Spotlight: The Terrific Trio (Prime Earth)

I've mentioned the Terrific Trio on this blog before, but there's a difference. For one thing, that was on Earth-12 and this is Prime-Earth. But more importantly, that version of the Terrific Trio had a different roster with similar powers. This version has the same roster.

The Terrific Trio are a team of superheroes-turned-supervillains that fought Batman in the Batman Beyond episode "Heroes" (1999). The team consists of 2-D Man, Freon, and Magma, and they're clearly based on the Fantastic Four.

In Batman Beyond #13 (October 2017), Freon appears.

Later, 2-D Man and Magma are mentioned.

Character Spotlight: Vernon Fenwick

The current run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by IDW is trying to more or less be the definitive TMNT story by synthesizing all the Ninja Turtles media that came before it. As such, that means it has had a ton of canon immigrants and will continue to have many more.

This week: Vernon Fenwick!

Vernon - or Vern, as he was often called - was a creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, who first appeared in the pilot (1987). As the Channel 6 cameraman, he usually accompanied April O'Neil on stories, although he often played the role of antagonist by blaming the Turtles for things they didn't do.

He later appeared in IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #78 (January 2017). Although not officially named, the character is a Channel 6 cameraman who accompanies Burne Thompson, who is also a character from the animated series.

In keeping with IDW's philosophy of pulling from all parts of TMNT history, this version of Vern (if indeed that's who he is) more closely resembles Vern as played by Will Arnett in the recent pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films that came out in 2014 and 2016.

Hulk vs Thor

Changes are inevitable in adaptations. And sometimes, even when a specific story is adapted, the changes made to the story can sometimes be adapted back into a different story. 

Planet Hulk is a perfect example.

"Planet Hulk" was a 2006 storyline in which the Illuminati (an organization of Marvel bigwigs that have their noses in everything) exiled the Hulk to space, where he landed on the planet Sakaar and was forced into gladiatorial combat. Most notably, he had to fight the Silver Surfer.

When Planet Hulk was turned into an animated movie (2010), Silver Surfer was replaced with Beta Ray Bill, who is essentially an alien Thor. (In case you're unfamiliar with Beta Ray Bill, the short version is that he took over as Thor briefly, then Odin gave him his own hammer called Stormbreaker).

"Planet Hulk" was also a large part of Thor: Ragnarok (2017). In this case, Hulk fought actual Thor.

This scene in particular made a huge splash with fans, particularly because of a line Thor says where he's excited Hulk shows up ("Yes! I know him! He's a friend from work."), which was suggested by a fan during a set visit.

So when Incredible Hulk #711 (December 2017) decided to revisit Sakaar's gladiatorial games - no doubt to coincide with the movie, which came out in November - they had the new Hulk (Amadeus Cho) fight Odinson (an unworthy Thor). Except they twisted it a bit by reversing the roles - they even give Hulk the "friends" line!

What's most interesting is that Greg Pak wrote both the original Planet Hulk storyline and this one!

Character Spotlight: Burne Thompson

The current run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by IDW is trying to more or less be the definitive TMNT story by synthesizing all the Ninja Turtles media that came before it. As such, that means it has had a ton of canon immigrants and will continue to have many more.

This week: Burne Thompson!

Burne debuted in the first episode of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, aka "Turtles Tracks" (1987), where he was the editor of Channel 6 News. In other words, he was April's boss, and often provided sort of a J. Jonah Jameson-type role.

He made his comics debut in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #78 (January 2017), although the comics version is just a reporter instead of the editor.

The Maybe File: Jason Todd's Resurrection

Posts on this site are not always cut-and-dried (or on time; sorry it's late this week!). I wish they were. And there are definitely a lot of entries that should either clearly be on the site or should clearly not be, but there are also a lot of maybes, and including them comes down to a judgment call. This one is by far the maybe-est. In fact, I'm creating a new category just for it, because it's close enough that I wouldn't feel right not including it, but still hazy enough that I feel like including it is cheating a bit. So I'm including it with a big caveat.

This week in The Maybe File: Jason Todd's resurrection.

The quick and dirty backstory on Jason Todd is that he was the second Robin, who Batman met when he tried to steal the Batmobile's hubcaps. Jason was more violent and reckless, and fans voted for the Joker to kill him. He stayed dead for almost twenty years when he came back as the Red Hood (Joker's original identity).

Here's where it gets weird: to explain how he came back, along with other incongruities in the DC Universe, the event Infinite Crisis (2006) said that Superboy-Prime punched the walls of reality and the reverberations caused events and details to change throughout time and space.

I know.

That's not a story that's very conducive to adaptations, so when it came time to turn the Red Hood storyline into Batman: Under the Red Hood (June 2010), they said Ra's al-Ghul brought Jason back to life with one of his Lazarus Pits. He felt responsible for Jason's death since the only reason Joker was around to kill him was because al-Ghul had hired him.

That same month, a miniseries called Red Hood: The Lost Days came out that filled in the gaps between his death and return. It doesn't explain how Jason was returned to life, but Talia al-Ghul did use the Lazarus Pits to restore his health and memories.

And in the New 52, he was specifically brought back to life by the Lazarus Pits, which was first mentioned in Red Hood and the Outlaws #0 (September 2012).

This evidence is in no way conclusive. On one hand, the Lazarus Pits are a pretty effective, already existent, on-franchise method of replacing the Superboy punches; I'm a little surprised they didn't go with that to begin with. On the other hand, the timing of Red Hood: The Lost Days is such that it pretty much has to be some planned synergy. But on the first hand again, that miniseries didn't replace the Superboy punches so much as add to them. And to add to the confusion, the same person wrote the original Red Hood story and the movie, and although he didn't write Red Hood and the Outlaws, he did write several Batman books in the New 52 so he may have had some influence.