Superhero of the day: the Golden Age became Amazing with the Help of Uncle Roy

Because I'm a big believer in the humans that create heroes being just as important as the heroes themselves, I will now take a moment to introduce you, briefly, to Roy Thomas.

Roy William Thomas, Jr.  (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazinehero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E. Howard's character and helped launch a sword and sorcery trend in comics. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes – particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America – and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Thomas was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011.

The things they don't mention about Roy Thomas is that he revamped the Vision in the Avengers, created Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew, gave new life to sidekicks and second stringers in the Young All-Stars and , most importantly, created the first African American Superhero.

Okay, so Amazing Man is only first in a Retroactive kind of way, but there he was in the 1940's, fighting side by side with the legends of the Golden Age and becoming one of their number.

Will Everett was a promising young African-AmericanOlympian who had competed in the 1936 Summer Olympicsin Berlin, but his post-Olympic career devolved into a janitorial profession at a laboratory owned by Dr. Terry Curtis. During an accident involving the explosion of some equipment to which he was exposed (developed by the criminal mastermind the Ultra-Humanite), 

Everett quickly developed the ability to mimic whatever properties he touched (similar to Marvel Comics' Absorbing Man). For example, if he touched steel, then his body became composed of steel.^[

All-Star Squadron

At first, he was employed by the Ultra-Humanite as a henchman along with Curtis (as Cyclotron) and Deathbolt.  However, his sympathies soon swayed towards the side of good after repeated exposure to the All-Star Squadron, a team of both Golden Age characters and retroactive characters like himself, with whom he joined to defeat his former employer's machinations. He then served a lengthy stint as a member of this voluminous mystery man organization.

In February 1942, the Squadron helped Everett defeat the bigoted villain in his home town of Detroit, the Real American.  During the first Crisis, Amazing-Man was one of a group of heroes chosen by the Monitor to stop the Anti-Monitor's quest for destruction.   On a future case, Amazing-Man's powers changed so that now he had mastery of magnetism while losing his ability to mimic matter.

Civil Rights Activist

In the 1950s, his secret identity was revealed to the general public by J. Edgar Hoover. This act endangered the lives of Everett's wife and family. During the Civil Rights Movementof the 1960s, the murder of his nephew alongside two other civil rights activists spurred his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement of the time. He led marches against segregation across the United States of America, and also helped to quell riots in Detroit. Everett was also responsible for the capture of Martin Luther King's murderer James Earl Ray. In the DC Comics Universe, he is considered the third most important advocate for African American civil rights, behind acclaimed activists Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

Heirs

It was later revealed that his grandson, Will Everett III (a.k.a. "Junior") 

also developed mimicry abilities. Will Everett Senior was last seen in the hospital, visited by his grandson Will Everett III. The senior Everett was dying of cancer.  The status of his son, the father of Amazing-Man III, is currently unknown. For a brief time, his grandson carried on the legacy of Amazing-Man before dying tragically. Later, another grandson named Markus Clay 

would take up the mantle of Amazing-Man.

Superhero of the day and his creator: Plastic Man and Jack Cole

As much as I dig the wacky shape shifting impossibilities of Plastic Man, I am much more in awe of the mysteries and legacy left behind by his creator Jack Cole.  Plastic may be the greatest creation of a brilliant writer and creator who never seemed satisfied with his own life and career.

For those of you unfamiliar with Plastic Man read the stuff below.

Plastic Man was a crook named Patrick "Eel" O'Brian. Orphaned at age 10 and forced to live on the streets, he fell into a life of crime. As an adult, he became part of a burglary ring, specializing as a safecracker. During a late-night heist at the Crawford Chemical Works, he and his three fellow gang members were surprised by a night watchman. During the gang's escape, Eel was shot in the shoulder and doused with a large drum of unidentified chemical liquid. He escaped to the street only to discover that his gang had driven off without him.

Fleeing on foot and suffering increasing disorientation from the gunshot wound and the exposure to the chemical, Eel eventually passed out on the foothills of a mountain near the city. He awoke to find himself in a bed in a mountain retreat, being tended to by a monk who had discovered him unconscious that morning. This monk, sensing a capacity for great good in O'Brian, turned away police officers who had trailed Eel to the monastery. This act of faith and kindness — combined with the realization that his gang had left him to be captured without a moment's hesitation — fanned Eel's longstanding dissatisfaction with his criminal life and his desire to reform.

During his short convalescence at the monastery, he discovered that the chemical had entered his bloodstream and caused a radical physical change. His body now had all of the properties of rubber, allowing him to stretch, bounce and mold himself into any shape. He immediately determined to use his new abilities on the side of law and order, donning a red, black and yellow (later red and yellow) rubber costume and capturing criminals as Plastic Man. He concealed his true identity with a pair of white goggles and by re-molding his face. As O'Brian, he maintained his career and connections with the underworld as a means of gathering information on criminal activity.

If you are unfamiliar with Jack Cole, I have included the briefest of bios on the great and tortured man who never thought he was good enough and even when he had reached the "success" of a daily syndicated comic strip, it did not seem to be enough.

This is really speculation on my part, but all we have is speculation, nobody's talking.  Jack Cole had a wife, a house, a new syndicated comic strip, a cartooning gig at Playboy magziine and Hugh Hefner considered the man, not only a friend, but an inspiration (Hefner  being a bit of an artist his own self).

The mysterious death of Jack Cole plagues us still.  The people who know ain't talking, and the rest of us are left holding the (plastic) bag

 Jack Cole

Jack Cole created Plastic Man for a backup feature in Quality's Police Comics No. 1 (Aug. 1941). While Timely Comics' quickly forgotten Flexo the Rubber Man had preceded "Plas" as comics' first stretching hero, Cole's character became an immediate hit, and Police Comics '​ lead feature with issue #5. As well, Cole's offbeat humor, combined with Plastic Man's ability to take any shape, gave the cartoonist opportunities to experiment with text and graphics in groundbreaking manner—helping to define the medium's visual vocabulary, and making the idiosyncratic character one of the few enduring classics from the Golden Age to modern times. Plastic Man gained his own title in 1943.

Cole killed himself on August 13, 1958. R. C. Harveydescribed it as "one of the most baffling events in the history of cartooning".^[10] Cole was living at 703 Silver Lake Road in Cary, Illinois, about 40 miles northwest of Chicago, and told his wife at about two in the afternoon that he was picking up the mail and the newspapers. Driving his Chevrolet station wagon to Dave Donner's Sport Shop in nearby Crystal Lake, he purchased a .22 caliber, single-shot Marlin rifle. He phoned a neighbor between 5:15 and 5:30 pm to say what he was doing, and for the neighbor to tell Dorothy. Parked on a gravel road west of the intersection of Illinois Routes 176 and 14, Cole was found by three boys at approximately 6 pm, shot in the head but still alive. A McHenry County sheriff's deputy arrived and called for an ambulance ten minutes later. Cole died at nearby Woodstock Hospital at 6:45 pm

That morning, he had mailed two suicide notes, one to Dorothy (who at a coroner's inquest testified that he had given his reasons) and one to his friend and boss, Playboyeditor-publisher Hugh Hefner. The letter to his wife was never made public and the reasons for Cole's suicide have remained unknown. Dorothy never again spoke with her late husband's family nor with Hefner, and remarried approximately a year later.

Legacy

Cole was posthumously inducted into the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1999.^[

Cole's story "Murder, Morphine and Me", which he illustrated and possibly wrote for publisher Magazine Village's True Crime Comics No. 2 (May 1947), became a centerpiece of psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham's crusade against violent comic books. Wertham, author of the influential study Seduction of the Innocent, cited a particular panel of the story's dope-dealing narrator about to be stabbed in the eye with a hypodermic needle as an example of the "injury-to-the-eye" motif.

Superhero of the day: how many Robins?

The weirdest creation in all of comic books is the kid sidekick.  It is the source of much controversy.  It is the height of careless and irresponsible parenting and yet the ultimate story of togetherness between a parent figure and their ward/son/daughter.

The ultimate sidekick is also the first.  Robin, sidekick to Batman, is not just a carbon copy of his mentor.  This may explain the longevity of the character.  Being a separate and whole being, independent from its parent figure, Robin had the ability to spinoff and have his own adventures, his own opinions,and his own relationships to other characters in the DCU.

Every new Robin has been more controversial than the last and that's a good thing.  Fans get emotionally involved with their Robins.  I like them all for different reasons, and I do have a favorite but im not gonna tell you about my admiration and respect for Tim Drake, that wouldn't be fair.

Today we list the relevant Robins, the ones that count without exploring in too much detail alternate timelines and obscure futures.

Robin, The Boy Wonder

The character was first introduced in Detective Comics #38 (1940) by Batman creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Robin's debut was an effort to get younger readers to enjoy Batman. The name "Robin, The Boy Wonder" and the medieval look of the original costume are inspired by the legendary hero Robin Hood, as well as the red-breasted American Robin, which parallels the "winged" motif of Batman. He was born on the first day of spring, son of John Grayson and Mary Grayson, a young aerialist couple.

In his first appearance, Dick Grayson is a circus acrobat, and, with his parents, one of the "Flying Graysons". While preparing for a performance, Dick overhears two gangsters attempting to extort protection money from the circus owner. The owner refuses, so the gangsters sabotage the trapeze wires with acid. During the next performance, the trapeze from which Dick's parents are swinging snaps, sending them to their deaths. Before he can go to the police, Batman appears to him and warns him that the two gangsters work for Tony Zucco, a very powerful crime boss, and that revealing his knowledge could lead to his death. When Batman recounts the murder of his own parents, Dick asks to become his aide. After extensive training, Dick becomes Robin. They start by disrupting Zucco's gambling and extortion rackets. They then successfully bait the riled Zucco into visiting a construction site, where they capture him.

Robin's origin has a thematic connection to Batman's in that both see their parents killed by criminals, creating an urge to battle the criminal element. Bruce sees a chance to direct the anger and rage that Dick feels in a way that he himself cannot, thus creating a father/son bond and understanding between the two. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, DC Comics portrayed Batman and Robin as a team, deeming them the "Dynamic Duo", rarely publishing a Batman story without his sidekick; stories entirely devoted to Robin appeared in Star-Spangled Comics from 1947 through 1952.

Nightwing

In pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, the maturing Dick Grayson grows weary of his role as Batman's young sidekick. He renames himself Nightwing, recalling his adventure in the Kryptonian city of Kandor, where he and Batman meet the local hero of the same name. He maintains this identity during his role in the Teen Titans, and occasionally returns to assist Batman and his successors as Robin in the form of Jason Todd and Tim Drake, Tim in particular becoming a younger brother figure to him.

Grayson

The Nightwing title concluded in April 2014 at issue 30, and was replaced with a new title, Grayson, which depicts Dick having given up his life as Nightwing and going undercover as an agent of the Spyral organization where the former Batwoman Kathy Kane works. Written by Tim Seeley and former CIA counter-terrorism officer Tom King, the career change for Dick Grayson comes from the urging of Batman himself, who convinces him to remain dead to the world. Seeley stated that the series will be "leaning into" Grayson's sex symbol status. The character's look also is resigned with no mask but a blue-and-black outfit calling back to his pre-New 52 Nightwing days with an addition of a "G" on his chest, said to be reminiscent of the Robin "R".

Robin (Earth-Two)

Robin's origin and history begins the same as the classic version except the timeframe occurs when Detective Comics#38 was originally printed in 1940. Most of the events surrounding his formative years are the same, only earlier. After his parents are murdered in what appears to be a freak circus accident, Grayson confides in Batman. The hero advises him not to go to the police concerning what he overheard Anthony Zucco's men planning. Batman feels a kinship to the boy, a period of training ensues, and the young Dick Grayson becomes Robin. His first printed story is "Robin the Boy Wonder."^[4] Robin participates in the war-time only All-Star Squadron. His distant cousin is Charles Grayson, the scientific assistant of Robotman.

Silver Age History

Eventually, Robin assumes Batman's position as Gotham City's premier crime fighter. Unlike his Earth-One counterpart, who distances himself from his mentor's shadow when he adopts his Nightwing persona, this version adopts a costume which mimics several elements of Batman's own uniform (including an insignia with an encircled "R" surrounded by two bat wings).^[5] While his younger doppelganger attends and then leaves college prematurely, Grayson pursues further education to attain his law degree. Eventually, he becomes a practicing attorney in the law firm that eventually becomes Cranston, Grayson and Wayne.

Jason Todd 

is a fictional-antihero, and sometimes a supervillain, that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Jason first appeared in Batman #357 (March 1983)^[2] and became the second character to take up the Robin Identity, sidekick to the superhero Batman when Dick Grayson went on to star in The New Teen Titans.

Though initially popular, following a revamping of his origin by Max Allan Collins, the character as written by Jim Starlin was not well received by fans. For 1988's "Batman: A Death in the Family" storyline, DC Comics held a telephone poll to determine whether or not the character would die at the hands of the Joker, Batman's nemesis. He was killed off by a margin of 72 votes (5,343 for, 5,271 against). Subsequent Batman stories dealt with Batman's guilt over not having been able to prevent Jason Todd's death.

In 2005's "Under the Hood" story arc, the character was resurrected, eventually becoming the second character to take up the Red Hood alias and assuming a new role as an antihero who resembles Batman in many ways, except with a willingness to use lethal force and weapons.^[3] In 2013, ComicsAlliance ranked Todd as #23 on their list of the "50 Sexiest Male Characters in Comics".^[4]

Timothy Jackson "Tim" Drake (also known as Tim Wayne) 

is a fictional superhero appearing  in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman. The character was created by Marv Wolfman and Pat Broderick, and first appeared in Batman #436 (Aug. 1989). From 1989 to 2009, he was known as the third character to take on the Robin identity.

Following the events in Batman: Battle for the Cowl, he has taken up the identity of Red Robin.

Stephanie Brown 

is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Detective Comics#647 (August 1992) and was created by Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle.

The daughter of the criminal Cluemaster, the character originated as the amateur crime-fighter Spoiler.

She later served briefly as the fourth Robin and the third Batgirl. From 2009 to 2011, she was the star of her own ongoing Batgirl

Damian Wayne 

is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul,^[ and thus the grandson of Batman villain Ra's al Ghul. The character originally appeared as an unnamed infant in the 1987 story Batman: Son of the Demon, which was at that time not considered canon. Following this, various alternate universe stories dealt with the character's life, giving him various names. In 2006, the character was reinterpreted as Damian Wayne by Grant Morrison, and introduced into the main continuity in Batman #655, the first issue of the "Batman and Son" story arc.

Do you remember when toys were cartoons were comics were movies were nirvana

NOkay, so here's the thing.  I've been thinking about how many toys, toons, comics from my childhood were in more than one of those media and how many did not transfer all that well for one to the other.  Sure He-Man was a good toy, an ok cartoon, but a really crappy movie.  Thundercats was successful on TV and in toys, but does anybody remember th comic.  Transformers had okay cartoons and okay comics and awesome toys.  G.I. Joe was pretty awesome all around.  Below is a list of some multi-media hits and misses.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 (often shortened to TMNT or Ninja Turtles) are a team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, named after four Renaissance artists, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu. From their home in the storm sewers of New York City, they battle petty criminals, evil overlords, mutated creatures, and alien invaderswhile attempting to remain hidden from society. They were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.

The characters originated in comic books published by Mirage Studios before expanding into cartoon series, films, video games, toys, and other general merchandise.^[2] During the peak of the franchise's popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it gained considerable worldwide success and fame.

SilverHawks

Rankin/Bass followed up their successful ThunderCatsseries with this series about a team of human heroes in the 29th century who were given metal bodies and hawk wings to stop organized crime in the Galaxy of Limbo. SilverHawksfeatured many of the same voice actors who had worked on ThunderCats, including Larry Kenney, Peter Newman, Earl Hammond, Doug Preis and Bob McFadden.^[1]

Bionic policeman Commander Stargazer recruited the SilverHawks, heroes who are "partly metal, partly real," to fight the evil Mon*Star, an escaped alien mob boss who transforms into an enormous armor-plated creature with the aid of Limbo’s Moonstar. Joining Mon*Star in his villainy is an intergalactic mob: the snakelike Yes-man, the blade-armed Buzz-Saw, the "bull"-headed Mumbo-Jumbo, weather controller Windhammer, shapeshifter Mo-Lec-U-Lar, robotic card shark Poker-Face, weapons-heavy Hardware, and "the musical madness of" Melodia (uses a "keytar" that fires musical notes).

The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior

was a 1983 11-issue fantasy-based Marvel comic book with an associated toy line from Remco, consisting of seven figures, some vehicles and accessories.

The toys were first sold in late 1982; the Marvel Comics series was first published in the spring of 1983.[1] Since the toys were released first, many assumed the comic had been a licensed adaptation of the toyline, but Crystar and all of the characters in the toy line and comic book were created and owned by Marvel Comics, which had created the concept with the express intent of selling the license to a toy company.

Rom The Space Knight

was a toy co-created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy It was sold to Parker Brothers, and was the inspiration for the comic book series. The toy was originally named COBOL after the programming language but was later changed to "Rom" after ROM (read-only memory) by Parker Brothers executives.

The toy set a precedent for the game publishing company, which up until that time had only ever produced board games. As this was a new venture for the company and given that electronic toys were still very new, a decision was made to produce the figure as cheaply as possible. As a result, the final product had very few points of articulation, and twin red LEDs served as Rom's eyes instead of the originally envisioned green, which were more expensive to produce.

Battle Beasts

(ビーストフォーマー Bīsutofōmā?) is a line of small 2" tall action figure toys, in the form of an anthropomorphised animals with body armor and a unique weapon. Several figures have their left hand replaced by a weapon of some kind. Battle Beasts were created and largely produced by Takara and distributed by Takara in Japan (under the name BeastFormers) and by Hasbrooutside of Japan, beginning in 1987.

The Micronauts 

a group of characters based on the MegoMicronauts toy line. The first title was published by Marvel Comics in 1979, with both original characters and characters based on the toys. Marvel published two Micronautsseries, mostly written by Bill Mantlo, until 1986, well after the toy line was cancelled in 1980. In the 2000s, Image Comics and Devil's Due Publishingeach briefly published their own Micronauts series. Byron Preiss Visual Publications also published three paperback novels based on the Micronauts.

The Shogun Warriors 

were the central characters of a line of toys licensed by Mattel Inc. during the late 1970s that consisted of a series of imported Japanese robots based on anime and tokusatsu shows featuring giant robots. Originally manufactured in three sizes: the 24-inch (610 mm) plastic versions, the 3.5-inch (89 mm) diecast metal versions and the slightly taller but much more detailed and articulated 5" diecast versions, several vehicles were also offered as well as a set that could be put together to form the super robot Combattra. Midway through the line Mattel introduced some original plastic vehicles, exclusive to the U.S. for the 3.5" figures to ride in.

BraveStarr

is an American Space Western animated television series.[1] The original episodes aired from September 1987 to February 1988 in syndication. It was created simultaneously with a collection of action figures.

The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers

is an American animated Space Westerntelevision seriescreated by Robert Mandell and Gaylord Entertainment Company.[1] It was broadcast in syndication between 1986 and 1989.[2] The series combines sci-fistories with traditional wild west themes. It is one of the first anime-style shows produced mainly in the United States, although the actual animation was done by the Japanese animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha. At the time it aired, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers was considered a revolutionary children's show.[3]

Robotech

Prior to the release of the TV series, the name Robotech was used by model kit manufacturer Revell on their Robotech Defenders line in the mid-1980s. The line consisted of mechamodel kits imported from Japan and featured in anime titles such as The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Century Orguss and Fang of the Sun Dougram. The kits were originally intended to be a marketing tie-in to a similarly named comic book series by DC Comics, which was cancelled after only two issues.

At the same time, Harmony Gold licensed the Macross TV series for direct-to-video distribution in 1984, but their merchandising plans were compromised by Revell's prior distribution of the Macross kits. In the end, both parties signed into a co-licensing agreement and the Robotechname was adopted into the TV syndication of Macrosscombined with Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross And Genesis Climber MOSPEADA.

Thunderiders,

originally known as Team America, is a fictional superhero/motorcycle team from Marvel Comics. They first appeared in 'Spider-Man #269 (May 1982) as Team America. They were renamed the Thunderiders in Thing #27.

Captain America writer J. M. DeMatteis described Team America as "another one we kind of got forced into doing." The month following their May 1982 preview appearance in Captain America, the team's monthly self-titled series launched. It was canceled with Team America #12 (May 1983).

As you can see there are winners and losers and not everything was successful in every medium.

Pick your faves, I did, but I'll never tell.