Character Spotlight: Curaré (Prime Earth)

Batman Beyond is no stranger to this blog, as long time readers well know. And Batman Beyond has well been a source of headaches for this blog. But last July, I sorted out the brand's sordid history in DC comics and figured out there are three separate versions: the pre-New 52 future of New Earth, Earth-12 (and Earth-50), and the post-New 52 future of Prime Earth.

Curaré has had a character spotlight before, so I almost don't want to give her another one. But I don't know how else to proceed, and I lay the confusion at DC's feet.

You can get the rundown of her New Earth and Earth-12 selves at the link above, but the important thing to know is that she's an assassin who first appeared in the Batman Beyond episode, "A Touch of Curaré" (1999).

She hadn't appeared in the future of Prime Earth when I made my posts last July, but she finally showed up in Batman Beyond #6 (March 2017):

Her past comic appearances revealed that her Earth-12 version is the brother of Kai-Ro, aka Green Lantern Beyond. Only time will tell if that holds true for this version.

Character Spotlight: Dana Tan (Prime Earth, especially)

Batman Beyond is no stranger to this blog, as long time readers well know. And Batman Beyond has well been a source of headaches for this blog. But last July, I sorted out the brand's sordid history in DC comics and figured out there are three separate versions: the pre-New 52 future of New Earth, Earth-12 (and Earth-50), and the post-New 52 future of Prime Earth.

As a main character on Batman Beyond, Dana Tan is present in each of these...although that's only a recent development. Before I get to that recent development, I'll walk you through the versions that have already been documented on this blog.

The first one appeared all the way back in my Batman Beyond Super-Post, where I said this:

 Dana Tan

Dana Tan first appeared in the Batman Beyond episode "Rebirth" (1999) as Terry McGinnis's girlfriend.  Her first appearance in comics is Batman Beyond [miniseries] #3 (October 2010).


 She was from the future of New Earth. This next one is from Earth-12:

Dana Tan, Terry's girlfriend, first appeared in "Rebirth" (1999), and also first appears in Batman Beyond 2.0 #1 (August 2013).

And finally, there's the one from the future of Prime Earth. We hadn't met her yet when I made my posts last July, but she finally shows up in Batman Beyond Rebirth (September 2016). This version, who lives in a future ravaged by Brother Eye (among other things), broke up with Terry a while ago and was under the impression he had died. Now she not only knows that he's alive, but that he's Batman. And she's not happy about it.

Character Spotlight: Baby Groot

He is Groot.

Groot has been killed and regrown before, but in the past, it always happened as a proportionally smaller version of himself. (I believe this is from Guardians of the Galaxy #1 (May 2008), but I could be wrong. Definitely that run, anyway.)

In Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and especially Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (2017), the new Groot, aka "Baby Groot", has child-like proportions and is considered a new character.

This is also the case in the new series, I Am Groot, out this month.

Aqualad Redux

The new Aqualad, Jackson Hyde, is one of the first Character Spotlights I did on this blog. You can view the original post here.

He got the short end of the stick because he debuted, both in comics and on tv (Young Justice, in case you didn't know), right before The New 52 happened, and then he disappeared. He didn't appear again until DC Universe Rebirth #1 (May 2016), and not as Aqualad.

To be honest, I haven't really known how to handle Rebirth, which is why it's taken me so long to post him. New 52 was easy; it was a new universe, so everything that showed up was new. But Rebirth is kind of a continuation of the previous universe and kind of a continuation of New 52 (of course, New 52 was also kind of a continuation of the previous universe, but that's a different topic), so I didn't know whether I should post him again or leave him alone because he's already represented on the site.

Thankfully, DC did me a solid. See, Jackson recently became Aqualad for real. And unlike his previous, dreadlocked self, Rebirth Aqualad has hair to match his animated counterpart. So even if I can't count this as a character spotlight, it still works as an appearance spotlight.

Of course, his costume and tattoos LESS like the animated version than it used to be, but I can't win them all.

Appearance Spotlight: Iceman's Jagged Form

Once again I have to think CBR for the assist, and you can read a more detailed background of this entry at their recent post on the subject.

But basically it goes like this: Scott Lobdell thought Iceman should be able to have greater control over his appearance, but the X-Men editors thought that Toy Biz - who owned Marvel at the time - wouldn't go for the idea since they had recently released an Iceman figure and would want the figure to match the comics.

However, Lobdell came up with a storyline that would allow him to play with the appearance temporarily. In Uncanny X-Men #314 (May 1994), the White Queen takes over Iceman's body and shows him he's not using his powers to the fullest extent.

Toy Biz saw this design and was basically like, "Whoa! Do you know how many action figures we could sell with that design?" So in 1995, they released an Iceman figure with a more jagged look and the ability to "grow" different parts of his body.

Iceman was changed in the comics to follow suit, of course, but it didn't happen all at once. In X-Men #50 (January 1996), he still had a smooth look overall, but he also had SOME shape control. His ice form had hair now, and he could turn his arms into spikes:

One month later, in Uncanny X-Men #331 (February 1996), he got the jagged look from the comics.

It didn't stick, but few things do in comics.

Character Spotlight: Farmer Brown

I've mentioned Farmer Brown on this blog before, in the Batman: The Animated Series super post, but the information was not complete until now, so he gets his own page!

Farmer Brown was a one-time villain in The New Batman Adventures. He first appeared in the episode "Critters" (September 1998), and despite his name and appearance, he's a genetic engineer who created mutant farm animals to terrorize Gotham.

Although he hasn't yet had a proper first appearance in comics, his name and likeness HAVE appeared. In Batman: Streets of Gotham #4 (September 2009), his name and likeness appear.

The issue is about a guy named The Broker who acts as a real estate person for supervillains. When Zsasz tells him he's in the market for an abattoir, the Broker sells him Farmer Brown's old pork factory.

Costume Spotlight: Darren Cross as Yellowjacket

A couple things you need to know upfront:

1. In the comics, Yellowjacket was a heroic persona of Hank Pym, but Hank Pym was going through some stuff at the time so he was kind of a dick.

2. Darren Cross died in his second appearance (the second part of a two-part story), but was later brought back to life and had been a recurring part of Ant-Man's recent series. Although he gained Hulk-esque powers in his first story, he's mostly just a businessman.

In the movie Ant-Man (2015), Yellowjacket is a suit Cross designs to sell to governments as a tactical espionage tool that uses Pym particles. He ends up wearing it himself to fight Ant-Man. As you can see, it looks pretty different to the suit from the comics...

...unless you're talking about the suit he finds in Astonishing Ant-Man #12 (September 2016), in which case it's remarkably similar (but not exact by any means).