Issue 41: Superhero Information Initiative
By Amdnarg Toh

Supergirl

During my decade-long hiatus of being involved in the reading, collecting, and generally being owned by comic books and comic book characters, some really weird stuff happened…

Comics got really dark.
X-Men changed costumes at least 12 times.
The only Avenger I knew was Captain America.
The original Robin became Nightwing, and replacement Robin #1 was killed by the Joker.
And… Superman died. It was the Death of Superman that awakened me from my lethargic non-comic book involved state.
And why? Not really because Superman died. I knew it was a ratings ploy from the start.

Because Supergirl wierded me out!

A bit of explanation first…

Doomsday was the mysterious monster being who began to terrorize the countryside around Metropolis, Superman’s adult hometown. The Justice League of America was dispatched to take care of him and they ALL, collectively, got their asses handed to them by this unknown beast. Of course, Superman was unavailable at the time, but eventually got the message and showed up to make Doomsday’s – well— er— day. Kal-el found out he was WAY in over his head, and sacrificed himself to stop Doomsday, dying in the arms of his wife, Lois Lane. But that’s not THIS story…

In a critical moment of the battle between Superman and Doomsday, Supergirl intervened. I figured “Hmmm… There might just be enough power between TWO Kryptonians to take care of this menace.” Within about two nanoseconds of her joining her cousin’s defense of Metropolis and humanity itself, she gets KO’ed by the big grey guy. And turns into a grey putty like substance, smoking like she had escaped from a fire!!! And she’s picked up by none other than Lex Luthor, but he’s got long red hair and beard!!! I had to figure this one out, so I turned to the Internet, which at the time was a bit in its infancy, and didn’t have the mountains of comic related information readily available, so I had to do my research the old fashioned way – by collecting and reading the different issues that had information in them about Supergirl.

A short bit of research on today’s Internet yields the following Supergirl “lineage”:

Kara Zor-El – The original version, who was Superman’s cousin from Krypton. Some story lines indicate she lived in the bottled city of Kandor, some have her being sent to Earth in a rocket, much like Kal-El. In the original story line, a small part of Krypton survived its explosion, was eventually in jeopardy, so Kara was sent to Earth by her parents to be raised by her cousin. She holds a secret identity, Linda Danvers. This Supergirl died in the Crisis on Infinite Earths series in 1985. However, she has been recently reintroduced into the DC comics storyline, (2004.)

Matrix – The Supergirl encountered in the Doomsday story. Turns out this incarnation of Supergirl was a being called Matrix. She was a created lifeform with shape shifting abilities who took on the persona of Supergirl to help her hero, Superman. She had telekinetic abilities, which allowed her to mimic a number of Superman’s powers. Her story takes a number of twists, eventually leading to her “merging” with a human named Linda Danvers, losing some of her powers, gaining them back, and eventually being wiped out of the universe by the 2005 Infinite Crisis storyline.

Cir-El – A short-lived Supergirl who was initially thought to be the daughter of Kal-El and Lois Lane, returned from the future, but was found out to be a genetically modified human.

Issue 40: Superhero Information Initiative
By The Dude

All Hail The Queen

If you have not heard, Ms. Munroe recently married T’Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther, and is now Queen of Wakanda, quite a step up from princess of some remote tribe in Kenya…oh, and smoking hot leader of the X-Men. Some would not have seen the beauty of little Orphan Ororo, but T’Challa fell in love at a young age. When a little 12-year-old street thug saved him from racist gang bangers. Storm was always the hero, even as a thief.

If you have lived in a hole, or some country that has no outside contact, like Wakanda, then you may wonder who this enigma of a woman is. Daughter of Princess N’Dare and Dave Munroe, Ororo Munroe is orphaned at a young age, and grows up as a pickpocket in Cairo. Some time in her teens Ororo begins to manifest some weird… ummm… talents, and heads out into the Serengeti, where savage cannibals kill and eat… wait that was a different African woman. I mean she was worshipped as a goddess. What would you do if some beautiful young African teen came wandering into your village and she could control nature, ride the winds, sometimes hers eyes glowed blue and she had pure white hair? Worship her until Professor X comes recruiting, that’s what.

Storm first joins the X-Men in Giant Size X-Men #1. She quickly becomes a fan favorite, and a powerful member of the team. So it’s not surprising that she eventually replaces Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops, as team captain. She continues to be on the X-Men line up in some form or fashion for over two decades, (in real world time), and most often as team captain. She even beats out Scott as team captain during a period of time when her powers are lost.

The loss of her powers is due to her being shot by a weapon of Forge’s. She is clueless to his involvement. So she has no reason to not fall madly in love with him as he nurses her back to health. Things don’t go so well for him, though, when she does find out. Thus starting an on-again, off-again relationship depending on who is writing the X-Men and which arc of the story line you are reading. Luckily Forge, Storm, and the writers all came to their senses and moved on.

Storm did this punk stint in the 1980’s, were she went with a black leather halter-top, skintight black leather pants and white Mohawk. I am sure you saw her guest appearance in Mad Max Beyond ThunderDome. (I think that was her.) It took her a while to grow that hair back, and reestablish her image as a regal African princess. If you came across her for the first time during the punk era, (me), it may have also taken you some time to see her as anything more than some bee with an itch. Looking back on it now, you may appreciate the significance of an African female leading a team of 90% white guys as far back as the 1970’s.

Now back to the present. After a whirlwind tour of the world where Black Panther and Storm visit other powerful mutant, and sometimes royal allies, they honeymoon as Mr. and Mrs. Fantastic. So Stretch and Peek-a-boo, (my pet names for Mr. Fantastic and Mrs. Invisible), get some much-needed alone time. After which, they returned to Wakanda to live happily ever after… and then they invited Wolverine to visit.

Issue 38: Superhero Information Initiative
By Amdnarg Toh

Superman – The Comrade of Steel???

Comics in the 40s, 50s, and 60,s were a fairly homogenous group. There weren’t many black, asian, or even redneck heroes. Most of the male heroes were handsome, with square jaws, barrel chests, and the females, (although not displaying the gratuitous amounts of flesh that they would in the 70s and forward), were generally drawn to be easy on the eyes.

The homogeneity extended to the types of villains that our heroes battled – Chinese, Vietnamese, Russians of all sorts, Germans, etc. Basically any non-white ethnic group was subject to villainization at the hands of the comic story writers.

However – since the world is now becoming one big global village, (someone wipe the smirk off my face), we’ve been faced with the reality that when a villain comes on the scene that’s about to enact his plan of world domination, more than just the United States’ cadre of super heroes should be responsible for saving the world.

We’ve also had to deal with some interesting “what-ifs.” One of the most interesting plot twists is: “What if Kal-El’s rocket were launched from Krypton several minutes later than it was, and instead of being found in a Kansas cornfield by John and Martha Kent, he were found in the Ukranian wilderness by a group of collective farmers?” In this tale, young Clark Kent is not taught truth, justice, and the American way. Rather, he is taught the values of communism.

The story is set in three scenes, the first being in the early 1950’s, when things appear to be fairly in line with the “normal” universe. However, the Soviet Union’s secret weapon is revealed – Superman. Instead of a cold war of nuclear proportions, the cold war becomes one of Superheroes pitted against another. Superman appears to be fairly benevolent, helping out problems in his country, and making his world a better place. He meets Wonder Woman, who falls in love with him, and they form an alliance of sorts to rule the world. Lex Luthor becomes Superman’s nemesis in the Unites States, using his super genius to try to thwart Superman’s power, eventually making a clone of Superman called Bizarro.

We then fast forward to the 1970’s, where Superman’s influence has caused major shifts in the continuity of the timeline. The USSR has grown to include all known countries except for the Unites States, and Chile. Stories are told about how dissidents in Superman’s regime are lobotomized and reprogrammed into obedient servants of the republic. Superman sees this as bringing order and stability to his world. Batman becomes a terrorist rebel, leading a group of Batmen in an attempt to overthrow Superman’s regime. Eventually he is captured and killed.

The final part of this sordid tale is set in a super-powered showdown in the year 2000. Lex Luthor has taken over as president and ruler of the United States. He has secretly been building up a legion of super-powered beings as the United States’ last line of defense against Superman invading the country. He forms the Green Lantern Marine Corps, headed up by Colonel Hal Jordan. Superman eventually defeats all of Lex’s super heroes, and the battle shifts to the White House, where Lex finally confronts Superman with the fact that he’s done little more than exert control over people in the name of freedom, all the while removing the freedom he wants for them by controlling them. In a last act of defiance, Braniac, who was captured and reprogrammed by Superman back in the 1970’s, reveals that he was not truly under Superman’s control, and triggers a destruct mechanism in his ship, which would destroy the planet. Superman takes the ship into space, where it blows up. It is assumed that Superman dies in the explosion, finally redeeming himself.

Luthor’s scientific genius eventually brings about the utopia that Superman wanted. Eventually it is revealed that Superman didn’t die in the blast, and is still alive. Lex’s descendants become smarter and more powerful. After a couple thousand years, it is revealed that the Earth is being torn apart by tidal forces, and Jor-L, one of Luthor’s great-great-great grandchildren, launches a rocket back in time, intending to rescue humanity, but the rocket falls into the countryside in the Ukraine, in 1938, which triggers the events in the story all over again.

Somehow this story has drawn a lot of accolades, mostly due to the careful writing of Mark Millar. Careful attention was paid to making parallels of a lot of DC comic characters and plot devices which made realistic extrapolations as to how those elements would play out in this alternate universe. Most noted was the portrayal of Superman’s unwitting good guy gone bad.

If it isn’t already abundantly clear, I’m kind of “drawn,” (bad pun – I know), to these alternate universe stories, mostly because of the tired story lines I sometimes see in mainline comic writing. This one was an artfully done realistic alternate universe that was pulled off without being campy at all, which seems to be a fairly common theme in alternate universe stories.

Issue 38: Superhero Information Initiative
By The Rambler

Learning how to be a Hero

Bart Allen: 4th Flash, First appearance, Flash V.2 #91 June 1994

There are days when I sit back and wish that I could still be a child, living out my dreams and fantasies. Most men do, and probably most women. However, in Bart Allen’s case, that’s what gets him into the most trouble and ends up being his most noble quality.

Bart is the Grandson of Barry Allen in the 30th century. He inherited speed from the time he was born. The Earth Government wanted Bart in order to study him and learn how to engineer his speed. Within two years, he aged to age 12. The scientists placed him in virtual reality in order to keep him sane and accelerate his learning. His grandmother, Iris, abducted him and illegally time traveled back to the 20th century in order to have Wally cure Bart of his accelerated growth, before it kills him. Wally understood that it was his accelerated metabolism. He forced Bart to run to the breaking point, where his body wants to give up. Finally, he pushes Bart past this point, jerking his body into a normal growth rate and taming the speed inside.

Now, the problem with Bart is the fact that he believes that reality works like virtual reality, where nothing will hurt him, and the world works according to the rules that no one really gets hurt. He runs headlong into problems without formulating a plan, and ends up depending on instinct. He Assumed the identity of Impulse and was put under the tutalige of Max Mercury in order to learn how to plan, think things through, and how to channel the speed force. Max moved him to Manchester, Alabama, and taught him to appreciate civilian life as well. He made good friends with Carol Bucklen, who helped him tap into his past with his Mother, Maloni Thawne. Maloni is the daughter of the Earth Government President, Who is a decendent of the Cobalt Blue legacy that comes from Barry Allen’s twin brother. President Thawne has genetically engineered Bart’s twin, Thaddeus Thawne, or Inertia. The problem with Inertia is that his goal is to kill Bart and become him. In these efforts, he nearly has trapped Bart in the Speed Force along with Max Mercury.

Bart assumes the role as the Flash, after he, along with the help of Wally, Pushes Superboy Prime into the Speedforce. He comes back aged to 20 years old, and has lost his speed. He tries to deny his call to be a hero, but in a bombing at the car factory that he works at, he goes into speed mode and nearly explodes. However, after assuming the mantle of the Flash, he valiantly becomes the hero, and moves to LA. Here, Inertia talks the other rogues into building a machine that will “Stop time.” In reality the machine absorbs the Speed force that is now fully imbodied by Bart. The machine works, taking away Bart’s Speed, and leaving him vulnerable. His girlfriend, Valarie Perez, deactivates the machine, releasing the Speed force, but it does not save Bart, who is killed by being beaten to death. He knew his future because his Grandmother from the future told it to him, but he tried to be the hero anyway.

Bart died, giving another name to the Flash legacy for Wally to embody. The nobility of Barry, and the childishness of Bart. Bart was idealistic and appreciated life for the sake of life. Bart left the Flash legacy with a call to return to the nobility of the silver age of Barry, and the lightheartedness of the joy of doing good.

Bart’s powers were dominantly Super Speed, but he could also control his body to vibrate through solid objects.

Issue 37: Superhero Information Initiative
By The Rambler

The Dark Flash: Idealistic Hero

Flash: Wally West, First Appearance: Flash V.1 #110 (Kid Flash) January 1960

So we’ve seen that college students and police scientists enjoy reading their comics for relaxing from work. However, this one is more true to form. Wally was a kid, like most kids, with a wild imagination and dreams to follow. He read the Flash and heard about him on the news. His room was full of childish drawings and writings about the Flash. He needed a hero, especially when his father was abusive and a scam artist. Rudolph West, Wally’s father, constantly crushed Wally’s dreams of being great.

This all changed when Wally visited his Aunt, Iris West, and her boyfriend, Barry Allen. Barry took Wally to his lab at the Police station, and Wally incurred super speed from the same accident that gave Barry super speed (lightning and chemicals.) Wally joined Barry as Kid Flash and ran with him until Barry passed away in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Wally then assumed the role of the Flash in the legacy of Barry. As Wally was developing speed under Barry, his body began to reject the effects of the speed, and Wally had to push through the pain, running until it almost killed him from the inside out. It jumped his body to get used to speed.

Wally was cocky and brazen, bouncing from relationship to relationship, and keeping shallow friendships. He revealed his identity and made “Super Hero” a job. He moved to New York, and battled Velocity 9, (Vandal Savage’s Speed drug), on the streets. Winning the lottery, he moved into a mansion and continued his big lifestyle. Eventually, Wally lost his speed out of fear of using it. Friends Tina and Jerry McGee doused Wally in chemicals and recharged him with lightning, causing him to speed across the nation, destroying everything in his path. The cost of damages destroyed Wally’s wealth, and he moved to Keystone City to be the Flash.

It is here that his character changes from arrogant to noble. Wally constantly strives to be like Barry, taking the weight of everyone in Keystone on his shoulders. He continually runs to stop all bad things, but fails when he does not check a fire and a woman is scarred in it. It is here that Wally’s nobility shines, for he forces himself faster and faster, until Max Mercury catches him and teaches him that he can’t be everywhere at once.

Key to Wally is his relationship with Linda Park, (reporter), and his connection to the speed force, (the plain of energy that gives speed.) Many times, Wally is forced to run so fast that he is absorbed into the speed force, but his love for Linda grounds him back to earth every time. They finally get married, and begin to start a family. However, a friend, Hunter Zolomon, loses his ability to walk, and pleads for Wally to go back in time and change it. When Wally refuses, Hunter tries to take the Cosmic Treadmill back to fix it, and it explodes, fusing Hunter with the ability to use time as speed. He assumes the mantle of Zoom and desires to teach Wally to be a better hero. In the fight, he causes Linda to have a miscarriage. After Wally defeats Zoom, The Specter comes to him and grants him his wish to erase his identity. Thus, Wally must relearn who he is and teach his family to accept it, especially after they blamed the miscarriage on the Flash. In another fight with Zoom, Wally is forced to re-watch, over and over, Zoom killing the future kids of the Flash. In an attempt to stop the present Zoom from tampering with the past, Wally trips him and causes the past Zoom to mess up. Immediately Wally is transported back to the present, Linda goes into labor and they have twins, (Jai and Iris).

Later, Wally sacrifices himself to the speed force with Linda and the children, forcing Superboy Prime into the force, and saving the world from him in Infinite Crisis. Only recently has Wally returned and taken the mantle of Flash again, with his wife and children.

The unique thing about Wally was that he befriended his enemies and helped them reform. The Pied Piper, Hartley Rathaway, became his best friend. This backfired many times as the Rogues thought that Flash was using them, or belittling them. So the rogues reformed late in Wally’s career.

The struggle with legacy made Wally a more noble hero than Barry, and a more real human than most masked heroes. He taught grace to enemies and love to friends. Wally truly is the Idealistic Hero.

Wally’s unique powers: He can run so fast he can pass through time, lending and taking speed away from objects and people, fast healing, and a direct channeling of the Speedforce. He seems to be an Avatar of the Speedforce on earth.