tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93388642024-03-19T03:10:03.865-05:00The WastebasketTony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.comBlogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-20798006975633571572015-09-28T01:00:00.001-05:002022-02-06T14:07:53.165-06:00The Emma Peel ChronologyTo mark the 50th anniversary of the first appearance of <b>Emma Peel</b>, in the fourth season premiere of the British spy show <i>The Avengers</i>, I decided to put together a chronology of the character’s experiences. Though the series was designed to work without continuity—i.e., the episodes could be broadcast in any order—when the episodes are viewed in the sequence they were produced, some interesting character development becomes apparent. The relationship between Emma Peel and her partner-in-adventure, John Steed, is initially rather more edgy and distant before settling into the freewheeling camaraderie they are best remembered for. A close examination of the episodes also reveals a growing trust between top professional Steed and his “talented amateur” partner. But rather than merely summarizing the episodes, as such synopses are readily available, I chose to look at the stories strictly from Emma’s point of view. This gives a fresh perspective on these classic tales. Some discussion of the chronological placement of the episodes is offered in the Notes section at the end, though the chronology generally follows the original production schedule.<br />
<br />
And now, the first part of <b>The Emma Peel Chronology!</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>October 1964</b><br />
<br />
Late in the month, Emma Peel is practicing her fencing moves at her penthouse apartment in Hampstead when John Steed stops by to recruit her to assist him with one of his cases. Within the hour, they are on a train to the east-coast hamlet of Little Bazeley, where four of Steed’s fellow agents have vanished in the past year. Another passenger, Jimmy Smallwood, is also on his way to Little Bazeley and chats with Emma, showing her photos of his brother Tom, the local blacksmith there. Upon arrival that evening, all three of them head for the local pub, where Emma and Steed pretend not to know each other. They meet three locals, “Piggy” Warren, Jill Manson, and Mark Brandon, whose behavior is immediately suspicious. Smallwood soon goes to visit his brother, but the locals prevent Emma and Steed from leaving the pub. After discussing the case in Steed’s room, Emma finally returns to her own room and goes to bed.<br />
<br />
The next morning, Emma reports to the primary school, claiming to have been posted there by the Education Ministry. Manson, the headmistress, insists the students are all on holiday, despite it being the middle of the term. With nothing much to do, Emma soon goes looking for Steed and finds him on the beach. They stumble upon Jimmy Smallwood’s body—he was murdered last night and hidden in a sand dune. They immediately pay a visit to the blacksmith, and though he claims to be Tom Smallwood, he looks nothing like the man in the photo. Next, Steed asks Emma to look into the parish records while he checks out the abandoned RAF base nearby. At the local church, Emma meets the vicar, Jonathan Amesbury, but they discover the pages covering the last several years have been torn out of the record books. Thus, Emma returns to the empty school to search the place. There, a dying man stumbles in and reveals himself to be the real Mark Brandon. He point Emma to a photograph on the wall and manages to give some cryptic warnings before he dies. Emma takes the photo to Amesbury, who confirms that Manson and Brandon are impostors. Unfortunately, Amesbury, too, is an impostor, and Emma is taken prisoner. She is soon rescued by Steed, and they realize that Little Bazeley is the staging area for a foreign invasion and everyone in town is an impostor. They track the spies to an underground bunker at the airfield, where the invasion force is training for battle. After fighting with the impostors, Emma and Steed manage to trap the invasion force inside the bunker. Steed then calls in his agency for the mopping-up operation, and he and Emma return to London.<br />
<br />
<b>December 1964</b><br />
<br />
Emma visits Steed at his apartment at 4 Queen Anne’s Court on Tothill Street in Westminster. He tells her of his latest case, eleven well-organized murders with not a single suspect. The only link between the victims is they all had their portraits taken recently at the same photography studio. Posing as a reporter for a business magazine, Emma interviews Jessica Stone, the widow of the latest victim. During the interview, Mrs. Stone and her brother-in-law, Robert Stone, quarrel over whether there are any recent photographs of the deceased. Emma thinks Mrs. Stone is lying and reports her suspicions to Steed afterwards. Steed reports that the portrait photographer, Fred Beale, said he only shoots portraits for the Togetherness Marriage Bureau, so Steed is off to check them out. He asks Emma to find out whether the eleven victims were married or not, so she spends her afternoon digging through the police reports. Later that night, Steed phones Emma and sends her to see a man named J.G. Henshaw at a nearby address. He refuses to explain why and hangs up abruptly, which annoys Emma. When she arrives at Henshaw’s apartment, Emma sees an attractive woman rushing out before discovering Henshaw drowned in the bathtub. Angry, Emma confronts Steed, believing he could have prevented Henshaw’s murder if he’d acted faster. She then reports that all the victims were bachelors except the latest one, Jonathan Stone. Steed suggests that Emma should pay a visit to the marriage bureau herself in the morning.<br />
<br />
Thus, the next day, Emma meets with the marriage bureau’s proprietor, Adrian Lovejoy, but he receives a call from his managing director and sends her off to the photography studio. There, Beale shoots Emma’s portrait, and while she’s waiting for the prints to be done, she sees Robert Stone questioning Beale, though she can’t make out what they’re saying. She delivers the portraits to Lovejoy at the Togetherness Marriage Bureau, and he interviews her about what she’s looking for in a man. Afterwards, Emma returns to Steed’s apartment, where they compare notes. Steed tells Emma about his date with Barbara Wakefield, which was arranged by Lovejoy and his assistant, Walter Dinsford. Wakefield seemed a bit too interested in Steed’s tale of a cousin who stands between him and a vast fortune. Emma suspects Wakefield might be the woman she saw leaving Henshaw’s apartment last night. Steed then heads back to Togetherness. A few hours later, Emma and Steed meet up again, and Steed informs her that Togetherness is really an assassination bureau—and they’ve assigned Steed the task of killing Emma. Thus, the pair concocts a scheme to catch the conspirators.<br />
<br />
In the morning, Emma pretends to be dead, laid out in a special coffin provided by Steed’s agency. Lovejoy and Steed stand over her, discussing their arrangement, and then, after Lovejoy has left, Steed tells Emma to remain there the rest of the day while he finds out who the “managing director” is. He leaves her a bottle of champagne to help her pass the time. However, Lovejoy soon returns with some henchmen, and they seal Emma in her casket and carry it out to a hearse. Luckily, she is able to slip out through a false panel and escape before she is discovered. She heads back to Togetherness, where she finds Robert Stone sneaking around. Stone convinces Emma that he’s not part of the conspiracy, so they work together to search the premises. However, Wakefield discovers them and holds them at gunpoint as Lovejoy, Dinsford, and the others enter with Jessica Stone. Mrs. Stone reveals that she is the “managing director” now, having taken over from her husband after murdering him for sleeping around. Steed suddenly appears and a fight breaks out. Emma easily overcomes Mrs. Stone, but has a difficult time with Barbara Wakefield, who is an efficient killer. Finally, with a little help from Steed, Emma is able to defeat Wakefield. The conspirators are taken into custody, and Emma and Steed learn that Beale was also part of the cartel.<br />
<br />
A week or so later, Steed wakes Emma before dawn one morning so they can drive out to the country house of Sir Clive Todd. There, she meets two of Steed’s superiors, Sir Jeremy and Major Plessy, and learns that Todd was shot in the head last night while breaking into a government strongroom in Whitehall. Steed tells her that this was only the latest incident in a rash of damaging security breaches, and it falls to them to discover the “diabolical mastermind” behind it. Emma dons a nurse’s uniform so she can question Todd when he regains consciousness. However, when Todd wakes up later, he claims to have amnesia. Then, Dr. Fergus Campbell arrives from Steed’s agency to take over Todd’s treatment, though he’s pessimistic about his patient’s chances. Steed flirts with Todd’s daughter, Davinia, before leaving to run down some leads. While Steed is out, one of Todd’s friends stops by and speaks with Campbell, though Emma does not meet him. Todd eventually becomes a little more lucid, so Emma tries some word-association with him. Steed enters and questions Todd about RANSACK, but before Todd can answer, Campbell gives him a lethal injection. Distraught, Campbell insists he doesn’t know why he administered the poison, though he admits to being a member of RANSACK, a club for the intellectually gifted, just like Todd and the man who visited earlier, Desmond Leeming. Steed decides to have Emma infiltrate RANSACK, so she returns to London for a job interview with Leeming and a Professor Spencer. Afterwards, she reports to Steed that Spencer took her on as his secretary, and he and Leeming were very impressed with her high IQ. Furthermore, she assures Steed she filled out his entrance exam so he’ll be accepted as a member.<br />
<br />
The next day, Emma reports to the Dorrington Dean College for Young Ladies, a boarding school near Oxford out of which RANSACK is temporarily operating. She meets the school’s gamesmistress, Holly Trent, who is taking care of the grounds while the students are on holiday. Emma spends most of the day going through RANSACK’s files, but nothing seems out of the ordinary. When Steed arrives, Emma passes him the answers to the next intelligence test so he’ll be sure to pass. In the evening, she pays Steed a brief visit in his dorm room and they compare notes on the case. Then she retires to her own room for the night.<br />
<br />
In the morning, Emma finds Steed in the gymnasium and he questions her about a secret meeting she attended last night. Emma knows nothing about any secret meeting and thinks Steed is confused. Leeming then announces a special meeting has been scheduled for 6:00 PM. Later, back in her room, Emma hears an announcement that the meeting has been rescheduled for 5:30. She then joins the others for a twilight ramble in the woods, though Steed fails to appear. During the hike, Emma slips a pine cone into her jacket pocket.<br />
<br />
Steed confronts Emma the next morning, but she again remembers nothing unusual happening the night before. However, she is surprised to discover that the “pine cone” in her pocket is a metallic object not likely to be found in any forest. Steed catches up to her later in the gymnasium and reports that a missile base on the coast was burglarized last night, and no one can figure out how the thieves pulled off their heist. Still dubious about Steed’s assertions, Emma goes about her day, posing as Spencer’s secretary, then returns to her room. She finds a note from Steed telling her to unplug her radio. An hour later, Emma hears people walking down the corridor outside her door and follows them back to the gymnasium. She notices that everyone else is in a trance, and realizes unplugging her radio must have prevented her from being hypnotized again. Leeming calls the meeting to order, but his superior hides behind a screen and speaks through a voice-altering system. This mysterious leader announces that Steed is a spy and asks for a volunteer to kill him. Emma immediately offers to do it. She takes a bow and arrow and heads out to the archery range, where she finds Steed. She lets off an arrow in Steed’s direction in case anyone is watching, then they quickly compare notes. She returns to the gymnasium and tells Leeming that Steed is dead. However, Leeming pulls a gun on her, revealing that they found Steed’s note in her room. Steed comes to the rescue and fights with Leeming and his henchman while Emma tackles their leader, who turns out to be Holly Trent. Emma prevails against her foe, and Trent, Leeming, and their henchmen are taken into custody. The other members of RANSACK are cleared of any wrongdoing. Later, Emma and Steed learn that Dr. Campell had also been hypnotized and killed Sir Clive Todd after Leeming triggered a post-hypnotic suggestion.<br />
<br />
Two days before Christmas, Emma arrives at Steed’s apartment to find him haggard and sleepless. He reveals that he’s been having a vivid recurring nightmare for the past week. In the dream, Steed saw Freddy Marshall, an old friend whom he’s been investigating as a possible security leak. They are shocked when Marshall turns up on the front page of the newspaper, dead from a cerebral hemorrhage. Later that afternoon, Emma returns with groceries to make dinner. She sees Steed is having a restless nap. When Steed wakes up, Emma helps him go through his mail, mostly Christmas cards from old girlfriends, including Cathy Gale. Suddenly, Emma invites Steed to accompany her to a Christmas party tomorrow at the country estate of publisher Brandon Storey. Steed accepts, looking a little out of sorts.<br />
<br />
On Christmas Eve, Steed picks Emma up at her apartment and they drive out to Storey’s estate in Steed’s vintage Bentley. When they arrive, Steed recognizes the house from his nightmares. The butler, Jenkins, admits them and shows them to their rooms. After settling in, Emma and Steed attend a cocktail party, where they meet their host, as well as Emma’s friend Jeremy Wade, who got her the invitation in the first place. Emma is amused that Steed seems noticeably jealous of the handsome young Wade. She meets other guests, such as Martin Trasker and Felix Teasel, a psychoanalyst. Steed excuses himself to take a nap and later returns to tell Emma about the vivid nightmare he had, in which he saw a woman who has only just arrived, the noted psychic Janice Crane. Emma’s concern for Steed’s mental state grows during the fancy-dress ball that evening. She urges him to seek psychiatric help, but Steed blows her off. When Crane then draws Steed into her mind-reading act, Emma has had enough. She intentionally drops her wine glass to disrupt the performance, then confronts Wade about the goings-on. He admits to being involved in a “psychic experiment” and promises to meet her later to explain. However, after everyone has gone to bed, Emma seeks out Wade only to find he’s been murdered. She immediately goes to Steed for help, but he appears to have gone mad. Emma then turns to Teasel for advice, but he pulls a gun on her to keep her from interfering. As soon as Teasel lets his guard down, Emma attacks him and knocks him out. She goes back to Steed, who reveals that he’s only feigning madness and that Teasel is a fellow agent. They believe there’s a conspiracy to steal state secrets telepathically, and they deliberately kept Emma in the dark so she couldn’t inadvertently jeopardize their operation. Emma and Steed then track the conspirators to their hidden lair downstairs, where they fight with Jenkins, Trasker, and Storey, who is disguised as Father Christmas. Jenkins and Storey are shot dead, but Trasker and Crane are taken into custody. Steed is pleased that Freddy Marshall’s death has been avenged, while Emma mourns for Jeremy Wade.<br />
<br />
<b>January 1965</b><br />
<br />
Emma decides to take a refresher course in applied medicine, focusing on forensics, thinking it will prove valuable for her investigative work. Toward the middle of the month, Steed summons her to the boardroom of Todhunter Industries, two hours after the chairman of the board died suddenly. Steed explains that Norman Todhunter was the sixth top executive to die recently under mysterious circumstances, and the only connection between the victims is a banker named Henry Boardman. Steed plans to meet with Boardman and sends Emma to the funeral parlor to collect Todhunter’s personal effects. There, Emma questions the undertaker and learns that Todhunter’s body had a curious bruise over the heart. She also notes that Todhunter’s paging device, or “bleeper,” has disappeared.<br />
<br />
The next day, Emma decides to follow up with Todhunter’s answering service. She meets the proprietor, J.P. Warner, who boasts of having more than five thousand “bleepers” in service. During their chat, Emma recognizes one of Warner’s employees, having seen him at the funeral parlor yesterday. Warner identifies the man as Fitch, his “resident mechanical genius,” and mentions his work as an engineer during World War II. Emma assumes Fitch was at the undertaker’s to retrieve Todhunter’s “bleeper,” but when Warner doesn’t know anything about it, her suspicions are raised. Later, Steed tells Emma of his meetings with Henry Boardman, a broker named Frederick Yuill, and the stock-market wizard Ben Jago. He suspects the murders are part of a plot to manipulate the stock market.<br />
<br />
Following Steed’s suggestion, Emma contacts John Harvey, one of Boardman’s junior executives. She poses as a new client, recently returned from Barbados, and flirts with Harvey until he invites her to Boardman’s next cocktail party.<br />
<br />
On the night of the party, Emma and Steed arrive at Boardman’s apartment separately and pretend not to know each other. Boardman introduces his wife, Ruth, and Steed playfully tries to poke holes in Emma’s cover story about Barbados. Emma and Steed become concerned when Frederick Yuill fails to show for the party. After securing an invitation to Boardman’s next wine-tasting event, Steed takes his leave. Emma waits several minutes before departing as well. She meets up with Steed in the parking garage, where she finds he’s been attacked by two thugs on motorcycles. They head immediately for Yuill’s apartment, where they find him dead. The only clue is a strange tear in his vest, right above his heart. Emma and Steed discuss the case while going through Yuill’s papers.<br />
<br />
Five days later, Emma and Steed attend the wine-tasting event, where she is again chatted up by John Harvey. Steed and Boardman engage in a wine-tasting duel, and Emma gets the feeling that Boardman and Harvey don’t trust either of them.<br />
<br />
Thus, the next day, Emma visits Harvey at his office again, to try to charm her way into his confidence. When Warner drops off a case of his “bleepers,” Harvey brags to Emma about his investment in this new technology. She then goes to have tea with Boardman and charms him as well. Later that night, Emma dons a zippered leather catsuit and sneaks into Fitch’s workshop to search the place. She discovers photos of Steed’s pocket watch, taken at the wine-tasting event, but Fitch catches her red-handed. Holding Emma at gunpoint, Fitch admits that he’s rigged a bomb in Steed’s watch to kill him, brags about the other murders he’s committed, and considers the most appropriate means of killing her. Taking his time about it, Fitch ties Emma up and puts her in a cupboard. Luckily, Steed soon comes to the rescue, having learned of Fitch’s plot from his accomplice, Ruth Boardman. Steed and Fitch fight until Fitch accidentally shoots himself with his homemade bicycle-pump gun. Emma and Steed then discover that Fitch outfitted the “bleepers” with a telescoping capillary needle to turn them into the perfect murder weapon. <br />
<br />
As dawn breaks, Emma and Steed plant undoctored “bleepers” on their remaining suspects to flush out the rest of the conspirators. Emma is still at the bank when she hears a gunshot and rushes into Boardman’s office, finding he’s been shot by Ben Jago. She follows Jago down to the wine cellar, where he and Harvey are holding Steed at gunpoint. Emma drops a crate on Jago, knocking him out. She disarms Harvey, but he starts choking her until Steed smashes a wine bottle on his head. Emma drops their burly henchman with a karate chop to the kidneys. Harvey retrieves his gun and starts shooting at them, but Steed knocks him out with a well-aimed champagne cork. Jago, Harvey, and Ruth Boardman are all taken into custody.<br />
<br />
<b>February 1965</b><br />
<br />
Emma is deep into her research for a paper on thermodynamics when Steed summons her to meet him at Pinter’s Department Store. When she arrives, Emma is annoyed at first, but is willing to help out when Steed explains that one of his fellow agents was gunned down and dumped in an alley last night, the only clue being a Pinter’s receipt in his pocket. Steed asks her to work undercover as a sales clerk, so Emma arranges an interview with the store manager, Robert Wentworth. She is hired immediately and assigned to the ladies’ underwear department, where she meets the store detective, Jarvis, who intimates that something odd is going on. She also overhears other employees talking about the “king” who lives in the Department of Discontinued Lines on the top floor. Steed checks in with her a little later, revealing that the staff is talking about Horatio “King” Kane, a wealthy industrialist who acquired the store a year ago. Steed goes off to try to meet with Kane, so Emma returns to work. At closing time, she overhears one of the clerks complaining to Jarvis about not being invited to the frequent “senior staff” meetings held after hours. Jarvis then confronts Emma about her inquisitive behavior, so she claims to be from the Ministry of Labour. After agreeing to collaborate with Jarvis, Emma heads home and tries to make some headway on her scientific research. However, Steed turns up with a black eye, received when Wentworth threw him out of Kane’s quarters. Steed leaves Emma some purloined newspaper articles about Wentworth’s inglorious military career in the Congo. Later that night, Jarvis phones Emma and asks her to meet him at the store. When she arrives, though, Emma finds that Jarvis has been stabbed to death with a Kaiser blade.<br />
<br />
The next morning, Emma returns to work at Pinter’s, where she informs Steed about Jarvis and gives him some leads to follow up on. After lunch, she is chatted up by the store’s chief accountant, Tony Marco. When she shows Marco the dead agent’s receipt, he immediately takes her to see Wentworth. Finding herself locked inside the staff lounge, Emma stumbles upon a secret door that leads her to a makeshift laboratory. There, she discovers a missing nuclear scientist, Professor Popple, working in leg-irons. Unfortunately, she is captured by Wentworth and his henchmen, tied up, and hidden inside a rolled-up carpet. A couple of hours later, after closing time, Steed finds her, and she leads him back to Popple, who’s in a drug-induced stupor. Emma realizes that Popple’s computer runs on punch cards that are disguised as store receipts. She feeds the receipts into the computer, and it prints out the plans for a nuclear bomb. After Popple becomes lucid enough to confirm that there’s an atomic bomb in the store, Emma and Steed set off to search for it. After several hours, they’ve found nothing, but then Emma realizes the bomb is actually incorporated into the structure of the building itself. They are caught by Kane and one of his gun-toting henchmen, and Kane delights in describing his plan to blackmail the country—after destroying London. When Wentworth arrives, Steed suddenly attacks them with a ping-pong-ball gun, then he and Emma split up to try to reach the basement to disarm the bomb. They fight their way through Kane’s henchmen, but, realizing his scheme is unravelling, Kane activates the elevator that will trigger the detonator. Finding a crowbar, Emma and Steed manage to pry open the gates at the last moment, stopping the elevator’s descent. Kane, Wentworth, and their underlings are taken into custody, Popple is freed from his imprisonment, and the atomic bomb is safely dismantled.<br />
<br />
<b>March 1965</b><br />
<br />
About a month later, Steed recruits Emma to help him investigate the murders of four top executives in the electronics industry, all of whom were apparently killed by a super-strong, bulletproof assassin. The victims all prove to have had appointments with the Hirachi Corporation, a Japanese electronics firm with a revolutionary new technology, so Steed decides to pay them a visit. Suspecting that the killer is a martial-arts expert, Emma goes to check out an exclusive karate training academy. There, her interest is piqued when the sensei mentions a student he calls “Oyama,” who can reputedly split a door with his bare hands. The sensei is dubious about Emma’s commitment to the martial arts until she proves herself against his female assistant. He is then happy to admit her as a student. Later, Steed stops by Emma’s apartment to tell her of his meeting with Mr. Tusamo at Hirachi. When he develops the film he shot in Tusamo’s office with his microcamera, Steed finds they now have a list of the competitors for Hirachi’s European concessions. Four of the companies are linked to the murdered executives and only two remain, so Emma and Steed each pick one to investigate. Thus, Emma heads over to Jephcott Products, Ltd., posing as a buyer for a department store, and meets with Mr. Jephcott, the owner. That evening, she returns to the karate dojo, where she is surprised to discover that “Oyama” is Jephcott himself, instantly making him her prime suspect.<br />
<br />
Emma goes to see Jephcott again the next morning, but he is tied up in board meetings and is unavailable. She stops in at Steed’s apartment to make herself a cup of tea, and they discuss his upcoming appointment at United Automation, the last name on Hirachi’s list. Emma then returns to stake out Jephcott’s factory, and Steed joins her there after his appointment. Finally, the light in Jephcott’s office goes out, but when he fails to emerge from the building, Emma and Steed enter to check it out. They find that Jephcott has been murdered like the others, with a huge hole smashed through the wall of his office. They return to Emma’s apartment, where they conclude that the head of United Automation, Dr. Clement Armstrong, must be behind the killings, despite being confined to a wheelchair. Steed decides to pay Armstrong another visit, and, to prevent United Automation from getting the concession, asks Emma to call Mr. Tusamo at Hirachi to assure him a competing offer will come in the morning. Steed leaves her with a sleek pen that Armstrong gave him earlier. Emma makes the call to Hirachi, then waits anxiously for Steed to contact her. As midnight approaches, Emma decides to join Steed at United Automation in case he needs help. Once there, she finds a storeroom full of electronic parts, where she comes face to face with the assassin, a massive humanoid robot. Emma empties her gun into it, but the robot shrugs off the bullets and keeps advancing. Steed appears and yells to her that the pen is a homing device, so she throws it to him. Steed uses the pen to cause the assassin to attack a janitorial robot. Dr. Armstrong tries to intervene in their battle, but is accidentally killed by the robots. When the janitorial robot is destroyed, the assassin becomes inert, having no further programming. Steed then tries to apprehend Armstong’s accomplice, Benson, but he has managed to escape. As they head back to Emma’s apartment, Steed informs her that Armstrong called his robots “Cybernauts” and planned to use them to take over the country. When they arrive, Emma is not too pleased to find that the Cybernaut assassin smashed her front door and patio doors while she was out.<br />
<br />
<b>April 1965</b><br />
<br />
A series of mysterious failures of the country’s radar-defense network prompts Steed to ask Emma to join him at a government early-warning station, where they discuss the problem with a Dr. Palmer. Suspecting sabotage, Steed decides to focus their investigation on the late Hubert Marlow, who was developing a radar-jamming device before his sudden death last month. Steed then goes to check out some leads in the nearby town of Pringby, leaving Emma to dig through Marlow’s personnel and research files. In the early afternoon, Emma comes across an appointment scheduled in Marlow’s diary for the day he died and decides to check it out. She drives to the address in Pringby and finds it is an undertaker’s shop. Inside, she is shocked to find Hubert Marlow’s corpse, looking surprisingly fresh. Later, Emma meets up with Steed at his apartment and reports her finding. Steed is surprised, as he saw Marlow alive that very morning. Having discovered something shady is going on at the Sir Horace Winslip Hospital for Ailing Railwaymen in Pringby, Steed decides to send Emma in undercover as a nurse.<br />
<br />
The next morning, Emma reports to the hospital as a new trainee nurse, using false credentials supplied by Steed’s agency. The head nurse, Miss Thirlwell, gives Emma a brief orientation, then puts her to work. Emma soon meets a chatty colleague, Nurse Spray, who has a crush on the head surgeon, Dr. Johnson. During her rounds, Emma discovers a suspiciously heavy box of flowers, but Thirlwell shoos her away before she can check inside the box. As evening approaches, Spray informs Emma that all the trainees are being given the night off, since the senior staff will be operating and the O.R. is strictly off-limits. Curious, Emma hangs around until Steed arrives to check in with her, telling her of his meeting with the eccentric Sir Horace Winslip. Hearing footsteps approaching, Emma and Steed duck around a corner, from where they watch a coffin being carried into the operating room. Since there is a guard posted at the operating room door, they decide to investigate the florist, whose shop is located next door to the undertaker Emma visited yesterday. Inside, they discover numerous electronic components hidden amongst the flowers. They slip into the undertaker’s shop through a connecting door, where they find coffins with holes drilled in the lids. Steed comes across a ledger with burials scheduled several weeks in advance, and when they plot the locations on a map of the area, the graves form a ring around the radar station. Emma and Steed hide as a group of pallbearers enter and exchange one coffin for another. After the men have left, Emma and Steed’s suspicions are confirmed—the coffin contains a radar-jamming device, powered by a solar cell on an antenna that rises through the hole in the lid. Determined to find the devices’ control center, Emma follows the pallbearers back to the hospital, arriving just before dawn.<br />
<br />
Slipping inside the hospital, Emma pulls a gun on Thirlwell, ties her up, and takes her place in the operating room, where Johnson and his assistants are assembling the jamming devices. Unfortunately, Thirlwell soon gets free and exposes Emma as an impostor, whereupon she is gagged and tied down to the operating table. Not wanting another death to draw attention to their activities, the spies decide to stage an accident involving Winslip’s scale-model railway line, located on his adjoining estate. A couple of henchmen tie Emma to the tracks, then drive the train towards her. Luckily, Steed arrives in time to fight off the henchmen and divert the train before Emma is run over. After driving the train back to Winslip’s sheds, Emma and Steed return to the hospital and apprehend Johnson, Thirlwell, and their co-conspirators. Sir Horace Winslip is extremely grateful to Emma and Steed for exposing Johnson’s duplicity.<br />
<br />
A couple of weeks later, Emma accompanies Steed to interview the noted physicist John Wadkin, who has resurfaced after having gone missing a few years ago. Steed is hoping Wadkin will give them a lead on seven other missing physicists. When they arrive at Wadkin’s home, Emma meets one of Steed’s colleagues, Agent Varnals, who objects to Emma’s presence. Steed is frustrated to find that Wadkin’s mind has been shattered, leaving him little more than a mental vegetable playing with an abacus. Emma recognizes that Wadkin’s condition is the result of being brainwashed, and Varnals confirms that he believes Wadkin was held in a Manchurian prison camp called Nee-San. Emma is disturbed to learn that Steed seems to know the camp from personal experience. They next interview Wadkin’s Chinese-born wife, Anna, and though she comes across as evasive, Emma feels that she is trustworthy. Steed then leaves, but asks Emma to remain so she can speak with an old associate of Wadkin’s who will be there shortly. When Dr. George Cullen arrives, he proves to be argumentative and uncooperative, as he considers Wadkin to be a traitor due to how quickly he spilled his secrets. Cullen is unable to get through to Wadkin, who becomes extremely agitated after seeing the number 621 on his abacus. While Emma is arguing with Cullen, Wadkin is kidnapped by men posing as Chinese laundry workers. She fights with one of the kidnappers, but the bumbling Varnals gets in her way, allowing the man to escape. Cullen storms off, and Emma checks the house and grounds for clues. About a half hour later, a man named Leonard Pasold shows up, looking for Cullen, but Emma tells him Cullen has already left. When Steed eventually returns, Emma fills him in on what has occurred. Steed notes that Cullen is in London for a conference, staying at the famous Chessman Hotel, and decides that he and Varnals will keep him under surveillance. Annoyed by Varnals’ attitude toward her, Emma returns home.<br />
<br />
Emma is not surprised when Steed phones late the next morning to ask for her help. She meets him at the Chessman Hotel and learns that Cullen disappeared during the night and was replaced by an impostor who checked out before breakfast. Curiously, Cullen had been given Room 621 when he checked in. Steed asks her to go undercover on the hotel staff, but she gives him a hard time about it, still annoyed at the way Varnals treated her. She spots Pasold arguing with the desk clerk about Cullen’s disappearance and points him out to Steed. While Steed goes to talk to Pasold, Emma reluctantly meets with the hotel manager, Mr. Carter, and gets herself hired on at the reception desk. A little while later, Steed, who is now passing himself off as “Monsieur Gourmet,” the celebrated hotel critic, asks her to check back through the records to see if Wadkin had been staying in Room 621 when he disappeared. Emma digs out the record books, but Carter sees her and becomes suspicious. They are interrupted when Carter must scold some Chinese laundry workers for coming in through the lobby rather than using the service entrance. Recognizing the men from yesterday, Emma goes snooping in the basement and discovers Pasold’s body in a large laundry basket. On her way back to reception, Emma is intercepted by Carter, who sends her up to Room 621. Expecting a trap, Emma enters the room with trepidation. Sure enough, she finds the windows and door suddenly blocked by steel panels as gas pours out of the air vent to render her unconscious. When she comes to, Emma finds herself in what appears to be the Nee-San prison camp in Manchuria. An Asian man in a Red Chinese Army uniform interrogates her, but Emma sticks to her cover story. Still groggy from the effects of the gas, she is very worried. However, Steed soon comes to the rescue, and, while fighting with the guards, Emma discovers that the camp is merely a mock-up and she is still, in fact, in the Chessman Hotel. As they return to the lobby, Steed informs her that the hotel’s owner, Max Chessman, was selling secrets to the Soviets in exchange for permission to build a chain of hotels across the Eastern bloc. Chessman and Carter are arrested as traitors, and the eight kidnapped scientists are set free.<br />
<br />
<b>May 1965</b><br />
<br />
Emma accompanies Steed to the small town of Lower Storpington when a local resident is found drowned in the middle of a dry field. Another resident, a wannabe prophet named Jonah Barnard, has been writing crank letters to the <i>Times</i> about an apocalyptic flood, and Steed thinks there may be a connection. After dropping Steed off at Barnard’s house, Emma drives out to interview the dead man’s brother, Eli Barker. Revealing himself to be an ardent follower of Barnard’s, Barker directs Emma to the local distillery, Grannie Gregson’s Glorious Grogs, for he believes his brother must have fallen into a tank of spring water while trying to steal liquor late at night. Emma goes to the distillery posing as a journalist, but the director, Dr. Sturm, gives her the brush-off. She is curious about a row of raincoats and umbrellas hanging in a corridor, so she returns to Barker’s cottage and convinces him to show her where his brother snuck into the distillery grounds. They agree to meet at 9:00 PM, so Emma drives back to Barnard’s house to join Steed. However, Jonah Barnard informs her that Steed has already left, so Emma leaves a joke message for him. That evening, Emma goes to meet Barker, but he doesn’t show up. She finds a gap in the fence and slips inside, and while snooping around, she finds Barker—dead by drowning, just like his brother. She immediately informs Steed, and they compare notes on the investigation.<br />
<br />
The next morning, Emma and Steed inform Barnard of Barker’s death. Then, while Steed goes to the distillery, Emma heads over to the train station to collect a load of meteorological equipment. She unpacks it in Barnard’s barn, where he is building his ark. When Steed returns, he and Emma drive out to the field where the first victim was found and set up the equipment. The field has a stationary cloudbank hovering over it, which Barnard claims has been there for several days, and Emma confirms that the initial readings are very strange. They then return to Barnard’s to meet up with Sir Arnold Kelly, an expert meteorologist Steed has called in. Kelly finds the results baffling, so the three of them head back to the field to conduct further tests. Emma and Steed are alarmed to discover that their equipment has been smashed in the meantime. Leaving Kelly to set up his own equipment, Steed drops Emma off at Barnard’s then heads back to the distillery. A little while later, Sturm’s assistant, Martin Smythe, shows up and forces Emma at gunpoint to accompany him to Sturm’s laboratory, where she is tied up and laid in Sturm’s giant mechanical wine-press. Sturm tortures Emma for information, but she refuses to talk. During the interrogation, Sturm brags that he has created the ultimate weapon—torrential rain on demand—and plans to sell it to the highest bidder. Emma mocks him as a “diabolical mastermind.” Finally, Sturm’s secretary, Joyce Jason, enters and calls him and Smythe to an important meeting. Once they have left the room, Steed and Barnard emerge from a hatch in the floor and free Emma from the wine-press. They go to destroy the rain machine, fighting their way through Sturm’s henchmen. During a brawl in a chamber where heavy rain falls constantly, Smythe and the henchmen are defeated and Sturm is electrocuted when his device overloads. Steed calls in his agency for the mopping-up operation, and informs Emma that he discovered Kelly’s body in the tunnels under the distillery; he’d been drowned like the others. Smythe, Jason, and their henchmen are all taken into custody.<br />
<br />
Several days later, Emma arrives at Steed’s apartment to find him unconscious on the sofa. A man in a trenchcoat sneaks up behind her, but Emma incapacitates him with ruthless efficiency. Suddenly, Steed awakens and reveals that it was merely a test to prove that Emma is fit to assist him with his cases. Satisfied, the man in the trenchcoat, Major Carson, reports that the mysterious Soviet spy known as Colonel Psev is expected to infiltrate a high-level defense conference in a couple of days. Though no one knows what Psev looks like, his four-person entourage arrived in the country last night: Joseph Pudeshkin, Boris Shvedloff, Alicia Elena, and Andrei Vogel. Steed asks Emma to pose as a clerk at a model airplane store near the Soviet embassy, as radio-controlled planes are one of Psev’s few known hobbies. Hours later, Emma sells a top-of-the-line kit to a minor official from the embassy, confirming Steed’s suspicions.<br />
<br />
At the shop a day or so later, Emma takes a call from the Soviet embassy requesting a replacement kit, and she agrees to deliver it personally. While at the embassy, Emma spots Steed through a doorway. However, when she visits him at his apartment that evening, Steed denies having been there, and Major Carson corroborates his story. Emma worries that Psev may be planning to replace Steed with an impostor, but Steed blows it off as too unlikely.<br />
<br />
The next evening, Steed asks Emma to accompany him to a cocktail party at the Soviet embassy. At the last minute, though, he is summoned back to HQ, so he drops Emma off at the party and takes her Lotus to his meeting. Inside the embassy, Emma mingles with the other guests, wondering which one might be Colonel Psev. She chats with the ambassador, Vladimir Yaroslav Brodny, a nervous little man whom Steed has known for some time. Finally, Steed arrives, but Emma immediately suspects him of being an impostor. When Steed flubs a trick question, Emma slips out to find a phone and calls Major Carson. However, the line is cut off and Emma is then taken prisoner by Pudeshkin, Shvedloff, Elena, and Vogel—and Steed. She is tied up and locked in an office.<br />
<br />
In the morning, Emma is relieved when Steed comes in through a window, until Psev’s entourage enters and reveals that it was a trick. Steed introduces himself as “Gordon Webster,” then receives his instructions to kill the real Steed and infiltrate the conference. On his way out, “Webster” throws a glass tumbler into the fireplace near Emma, leaving shards of broken glass within her reach. While Psev’s entourage monitors the progress of their scheme, Emma surreptitiously severs her bonds with the glass shards. When “Webster” finally returns to make his report, Emma leaps up, knocks out a guard, takes his gun, and tries to force “Webster” to surrender his miniature camera. Unfortunately, Psev’s entourage overcomes Emma and disarms her. “Webster” then insists he will turn over the microfilm only to Colonel Psev in person, so the six of them enter the colonel’s private office. The room proves to be empty, and the four spies reveal that they are P.S.E.V. collectively. Satisfied, “Webster” hands over the film, and while the four spies are examining it, he and Emma slip out of the embassy and make their way across the grounds. At the first opportunity, Emma attacks “Webster” and seizes his gun. However, Steed insists that he and his superior, Major Plessy, guessed the truth about “Psev” and cooked up the whole impostor scheme to expose them. When they are attacked by an armed model airplane, Emma accepts him as the real Steed and hands him back his gun. Steed shoots down the model plane, but then a miniature bomber comes after them. Luckily, Steed is able to hijack the remote-control frequency with his portable phone and sends the bomber back into the embassy, where it explodes, killing the four spies.<br />
<br />
<b>June 1965</b><br />
<br />
Emma visits Steed at his apartment, where she learns he is looking into the recent disappearances of a number of prominent horticulturalists. She is surprised to learn that the latest victim is her old acquaintance Laura Burford. They drive out to Surrey to interview Burford’s fiancé, Alan Carter, who wears a hearing aid. Carter tells Emma and Steed of how Burford just walked out of their lab, carelessly destroying months of research, and vanished. He also tells them that the president of their local Horticultural Circle, Sir Lyle Peterson, has been acting strangely of late. Emma is immediately suspicious of Peterson, and Steed decides to pay him a visit in the morning.<br />
<br />
While Steed goes to visit Sir Lyle Peterson, Emma makes inquiries with the company that supplies Peterson with horticultural equipment. When Steed returns, he reports that he found Laura Burford at Peterson’s estate, along with the other missing horticulturalists, working on some secret project. For some reason, Steed adds, they had set up an oil derrick on the grounds, despite there being no oil in Surrey. Steed then shows Emma a plant with poisonous barbs that someone hid on his car seat, clearly hoping to do him in. A phone call from the equipment company sends Steed and Emma out to an abandoned farm near the village of Denby, where they are shocked to discover a lost space capsule. Steed calls in the military and the area is quickly cordoned off. They soon find that the capsule crashed back to earth about a month ago after colliding with what appears to be the remains of an enormous plant from outer space. Emma notices that the plant resembles the seed pod of a dandelion, and her analysis is soon confirmed by an expert botanist, Dr. Sheldon. Steed sends Emma to chat with the locals while he goes to talk to Alan Carter again. In the local pub, Emma finds Peterson’s supplier, Joe Mercer, having his lunch. He informs her that Peterson has been placing strange orders for the last month, which she realizes coincides with the arrival of the alien pod. She then rendezvous with Steed and they check in with Dr. Sheldon, who reports that the alien plant may have been intelligent and would see human beings as a food source. Emma and Steed begin to suspect that Peterson found a second seed pod that was intact, and it has been exerting some form of mind-control on its victims. Steed picks up a couple of hearing aids like Carter’s, as he has deduced that they somehow interfere with the plant’s mental influence. Then, along with Dr. Sheldon, they drive out to Peterson’s estate with a powerful herbicide. They pass through Denby in the early evening and find the entire village deserted, save for Mercer, who also wears a hearing aid. When they reach the estate, Emma, Steed, and Sheldon find the plant has already grown so large as to engulf the house, and it appears to have eaten numerous people. Peterson’s chauffeur turns up and shoots at them, but Emma finds a discarded shotgun and kills him. Peterson himself then comes after them with a shotgun, but Emma disarms him and Steed places a hearing aid in his ear, releasing him from the plant’s control. Peterson immediately realizes the plant will seed soon and wipe out the human race. The plant then grabs Sheldon with its tendrils, and while Steed rescues her, Emma fights her way to the herbicide, which Steed dropped during the altercation with the chauffeur. Unfortunately, Emma loses her hearing aid in the struggle, and she falls under the plant’s influence. She starts dumping the herbicide onto the floor, but Steed stops her. Steed and Emma then fight over the herbicide until Steed manages to head-butt her into unconsciousness. When she comes to, Emma finds that Steed managed to kill the plant in time, and the world is safe. However, she is saddened to learn that the plant apparently ate both Laura Burford and Alan Carter.<br />
<br />
A few days later, Emma and Steed are punting on a lake near the village of Manderley in Dorset when Steed mentions a rash of mysterious bird die-offs. He then announces he must return to London, and suggests that Emma find out why a man’s been watching them with binoculars from a nearby tree. Emma confronts the man, who calls himself Quince and explains that he is a birdwatcher doing his own investigation of the die-offs. During their conversation, they wander onto some private land and are confronted by a belligerent gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. The landowner, Peter Omrod, rides up on a horse and intervenes. When Emma claims to be from the British Trust for Ornithology, Omrod invites her to come riding sometime. Later, Emma meets up with Steed and he tells her about Silent Dust, a deadly pesticide that could be turned into a devastating weapon if it fell into the wrong hands. Steed suspects that the bird die-offs indicate that someone in Manderley has obtained the secret formula. Thus, Emma takes a room at the village inn.<br />
<br />
A couple of days later, Emma is at the local pub, where she meets an embittered flower breeder named Croft. Emma considers him a likely suspect, but then Quince appears and tells her he’s discovered something about the birds. Seeing that Mellors is watching them, they decide to meet by the lake after nightfall. However, when Emma arrives for the meeting later that night, all she finds are Quince’s broken spectacles.<br />
<br />
In the morning, Emma and Steed compare notes, then Steed asks her to find out about a chemist named Prendergast, who developed Silent Dust while working at the Fellows Fertilizer Company. Before leaving, Emma is amused to see Steed cozying up to Beryl Snow, a loud-talking woman in equestrian gear. At Fellows Fertilizer, Emma learns that Prendergast died six months ago, and that Peter Omrod routinely tested the company’s experimental products at his farm. She then phones Prendergast’s daughter, Clare, a local artist, and commissions a sculpture. They agree to meet later that evening. Emma then goes looking for Steed, only to find he has disappeared. While asking after Steed at the pub, Emma runs into Omrod, who invites her to a fox hunt. She excuses herself and continues her search, which soon takes her to an abandoned house on Omrod’s estate. There, she discovers Quince’s body in a cupboard. Suddenly, Steed stumbles in, delirious from a leg injury and with a bullet in his shoulder. Emma patches him up, and when he regains consciousness, Steed reports that he was shot by Mellors, and asks her to have a powder sample he found there analyzed, as he believes it may be Silent Dust. She takes the envelope, then rushes off to meet Clare Prendergast, leaving Steed to deal with Quince’s corpse. While posing for the sculpture, Emma learns from Clare that Omrod was her father’s only friend, who stood by him after he was ostracized for creating Silent Dust. Emma is convinced that Omrod is their prime suspect.<br />
<br />
The next day, Emma returns to London and drops off the sample for analysis, then drives back to Manderley. When she arrives, Steed informs her that Omrod has been buying up numerous plots of land in the area, even though he claims it’s no good for farming. Steed also suspects that both Croft and Snow are part of the conspiracy, along with Omrod’s employees Mellors and Juggins.<br />
<br />
The following afternoon, as they are preparing for the fox hunt, Emma tells Steed that she has received a report identifying the powder as highly concentrated Silent Dust. Their suspicions are confirmed, but, as the hunt begins, she and Steed get separated. Realizing she is on her own, Emma follows Omrod and Snow when they break off from the pack. Emma efficiently takes out Snow and then overhears Omrod and Juggins planning to use Silent Dust to turn Dorset into a desert. Emma draws her gun and confronts them, but Mellors disarms her. Undaunted, Emma makes a run for it, but Omrod and Juggins pursue her on horseback. Out in the fields, Emma knocks out Omrod with a judo throw. Juggins comes after her with a whip, but Steed arrives and defeats him. The conspirators are taken into custody and their supply of Silent Dust is confiscated and destroyed. <br />
<br />
<b>July 1965</b><br />
<br />
Early in the month, Emma accompanies Steed to a military reunion at RAF Station 472 Hamelin, which is scheduled to be closed down. When a barking dog darts across the road, Steed swerves to avoid it and crashes his Bentley into a tree. They decide to walk the remaining half mile to the base, and along the way Steed regales Emma with tales of his days carousing there during World War II. However, when they arrive at the camp, the whole place appears to be deserted, although the officers’ mess is decorated for the party. While looking around outside, Emma and Steed find abandoned crates of milk bottles piled up on the airfield. They head over to the squadron leader’s quarters, where Steed notices all the wine glasses are shattered. Wanting to get a bird’s-eye view of the base, Emma and Steed climb to the top of the air-traffic control tower. They are surprised to see a milkman running across the tarmac, and shocked when he is suddenly shot in the back by a sniper. By the time they reach the milkman, he has died. Nearby, Emma discovers an unconscious rabbit. Mystified, they decide to split up and continue looking around the area. Emma finds the milkman’s body has been moved onto his lorry, but then an ear-splitting sound causes her to black out. When she comes to, Emma finds herself gagged and strapped to a dentist’s chair in the base infirmary. An armed guard stands nearby, but he ignores her as she struggles vainly to free herself. After quite some time, Steed finally arrives, knocks out the guard, and releases Emma from the chair. Finding ampules of truth serum, they deduce that someone is hypnotizing the base personnel and extracting intel from them with the drug. When the victims awaken an hour later, they must be unaware of the lost time. Sure enough, Emma’s wristwatch is one hour ahead of all the clocks in the camp. As Steed plays around with the dentist’s drill, Emma realizes it’s wired into an ultrasonic device and deduces that it must be used to induce the hypnotic trance. Suddenly, the base dentist, Philip Leas, enters, holds Emma and Steed at gunpoint, and admits to being the mastermind behind the scheme. He reveals that post-hypnotic suggestions were planted in the minds of the base personnel, so they would become unwitting sleeper agents at their next postings. Steed attacks Leas and fights with him while Emma battles his two henchmen. After defeating her two opponents out in the corridor, Emma returns to the exam room to find Steed laughing uncontrollably. Seeing Leas unconscious on the floor, Emma realizes that Steed accidentally opened the valve on a tank of nitrous oxide, filling the room with laughing gas. She begins to laugh as well as she breathes in the fumes. Leas and his henchmen are turned over to the base security detail, and the party continues as planned. Emma meets several of Steed’s old war buddies, like Geoffrey Ridsdale and “Porky” Purser, and hears many tales about Steed’s wartime exploits. <br />
<br />
<b>August 1965</b><br />
<br />
Steed presents Emma with a letter from a Mr. Angus De’ath who is seeking advice on opening his family’s Scottish estate to the public. Emma agrees to drive up to Castle De’ath and pose as a publicity consultant while Steed passes himself off as a historian studying the family’s past. Thus, Emma writes to Mr. De’ath to inform him that she will visit the castle in a few days.<br />
<br />
When Emma arrives at Castle De’ath in her Lotus Elan, she meets the laird of the clan, Ian De’ath, though she first mistakes him for Angus, his cousin. Ian is annoyed that Angus has hired a publicity consultant, as he hasn’t yet decided whether to consent to opening the castle as a tourist attraction. Angus appears and proves to be a jolly sort of charmer. He introduces Emma to “Jock MacSteed,” whom he believes to be researching the infamous 13th laird, known as “Black Jamie.” Their conversation soon turns to a tragic accident that occurred last week, the drowning of a scuba diver in the nearby loch. However, Steed takes Emma aside and mutters that the victim was apparently tortured before he was drowned. While Emma gets settled into her room, Steed goes out fishing. She then has a look around the castle, but while she is down in the dungeon, two men attack her and knock her out. When she comes to, Emma finds that both men are gone, so she staggers back upstairs, where Ian chastises her for going into the dungeon alone. Upstairs, Emma tells Steed what happened, and he reveals that his agency believes there is a connection between Castle De’ath and a commercial fishing crisis that is threatening the national economy. Later, at dinner, Angus regales them with tales of the glorious history of Clan De’ath, as well as Black Jamie’s treachery 500 years ago, which resulted in his being walled up in the castle’s tower. Now, he says, Black Jamie’s ghost is reputed to haunt the castle, and Ian confirms it. When Steed decides to turn in, Emma goes to bed as well. However, during the night, she is awoken by the sound of bagpipes. The mysterious music leads her back into the dungeon, where she notices the rack’s parts have been oiled recently. Suddenly, the lights go off and the door is locked, forcing Emma to spend the rest of the night dozing on the rack.<br />
<br />
In the morning, Steed finally finds Emma and lets her out of the dungeon, reporting that he was nearly murdered in his bed last night. Suspecting there’s more to the ghost stories than the cousins are letting on, Steed asks Emma to read up on the history of the castle while he goes “fishing” in the moat. Ian soon finds Emma in the library and again expresses his reservations about opening the castle to the public. Later, after learning some interesting facts about the castle’s construction, Emma sneaks back into the dungeon to verify that it’s much smaller than it should be. Suddenly, two of Ian’s employees, McNab and Roberton, enter, prompting Emma to quickly hide inside an old iron maiden. She is curious when the two men mention detecting a blip in the moat with their radar, and then discovers that the iron maiden actually disguises a passageway to an underground bunker filled with generators. After a quick look around, Emma goes to report her discovery to Steed, but she is unable to find him. Ian appears then and asks her to leave immediately, as he has decided the castle shall remain closed to the public. As she packs her bag and departs, Emma is convinced that Ian is the mastermind behind the fishing crisis and must have taken Steed prisoner. Thus, she parks her car in a secluded spot down the road, waits until dark, then slips back inside the castle. She returns to the underground bunker to search for Steed and finds it contains a submarine docking station, which suggests that Ian and his cronies are sneaking enemy submarines through the loch, into the moat, and docking them in flooded pens beneath the castle. Around midnight, Emma comes upon a secret passage into the tower, where McNab is playing the bagpipes to mask the noise of the underground machinery. She attacks McNab, and their fight takes them back into the main area of the castle, where she finally throws him off a balcony overlooking the dining room. The De’ath cousins enter, and Emma is surprised to learn that Angus is the spy, not Ian. Angus suddenly stabs Ian with a dirk and stuns Emma. When she comes to, Emma sees Steed and Angus battling with claymores. Spotting Roberton about to shoot Steed in the back, Emma grabs a handy crossbow and kills him. Panicking, Angus bolts for the dungeon, and Emma warns Steed that the iron maiden is an escape route. However, when they reach the iron maiden, they realize that its inner door mechanism failed to open because Steed blew up the control panel in the bunker, so Angus died a gruesome death when the torture device slammed shut. The remaining conspirators are then taken into custody, and Emma and Steed return to London. <br />
<br />
<b>September 1965</b><br />
<br />
Steed phones Emma and asks her to meet him at the apartment of Ted Murphy, an agent who was murdered while engaged in routine security work. When she arrives, Emma finds a man with a stocking on his head ransacking the place. He attacks her, and though she fights back, he manages to tangle her up in a chair long enough to escape. Steed then arrives and is frustrated that the apartment has already been trashed by their enemies. However, Emma discovers numerous golf score sheets that all show scores only for the first 12 holes. She also finds brand-new golf equipment and a golf ball bearing the insignia of the Craigleigh Golf Club in Surrey. She immediately phones the club and arranges for Steed and herself to become members. Emma realizes that this case may prove to be especially challenging, as she really doesn’t know anything about golf.<br />
<br />
The next day, Emma and Steed drive out to the Craigleigh Golf Club. When they arrive, the golf pro, Jerry Collins, harasses them about a tournament being in progress, but they insist they are new members. When they spot one of the scientists Murphy had been keeping an eye on, Dr. Peter Adams, Steed attempts to arrange a foursome. Unfortunately, Adams’s golf partner proves to be belligerent and foils Steed’s plan. Thus, Steed leaves Emma to play along behind Adams, while he goes off to snoop around the clubhouse. Later, Emma is curious when she sees Adams and his partner intentionally skip putting on the 13th green. She is distracted when a runaway golf cart nearly runs her down, and when she goes to catch up with the two men, she finds they have vanished. Emma meets up with Steed at the clubhouse, and he is concerned because Adams is an expert on missile defense and a prime target for spies. Steed goes off to snoop around some more, leaving Emma to be chatted up by Bertie Waversham, the asinine club captain. Still, Emma manages to learn from Waversham that Adams’s golf partner is some kind of radio technician named Frank Reed. Steed soon returns and shows Emma a rifle bullet he found in Reed’s golf bag. They conclude that Reed has kidnapped Adams, but then Adams reappears looking none the worse for wear. Fearing Adams may be a willing participant in whatever’s going on, Emma and Steed decide to keep a close eye on him. Their patience pays off later that evening when Adams and Reed suddenly disappear during a brief power outage. Emma and Steed split up to search the golf course, but she is soon waylaid by Collins at the 13th hole. They fight in a sand trap, but Emma defeats him handily. Collins explains that he thinks Reed is up to something, as he keeps insisting on being paired with Adams for specific tee-times, and even tried to bribe Collins to pair him with Adams for tomorrow’s tournament. Now one of the golf carts is missing, and Collins is convinced that Reed has stolen it. Hearing the golf cart nearby, Collins scrambles out of the sand trap, only to be struck in the head with a golf ball and killed. Startled, Emma sees the golf cart, with a long metal cylinder mounted on it, disappearing into the woods. She rendezvous with Steed, but when they return to the 13th hole, Collins’s body is gone. Steed suspects he wasn’t really dead, so they split up again to search for him. Emma breaks into the clubhouse, where she finds the modified golf cart under a tarp. Surprisingly, the metal cylinder turns out not to be a weapon but a telescope. Emma discovers a star map and photographs it with her micro-camera. Then, Reed and his caddy, Jackson, enter, prompting Emma to hide. She overhears them discussing Adams, then Jackson admits to having killed Collins with his golf-ball gun. Reed declares that he means to beat Steed in tomorrow’s tournament by any means necessary, so Emma tosses a golf ball into a rack of clubs and slips out while the two men are distracted. She reports what she has learned to Steed, and they make their plans for tomorrow.<br />
<br />
In the morning, while Steed plays Reed in the first round of the tournament, Emma sneaks around to move Steed’s balls into more favorable positions and mess up Reed’s balls. Thus, after 18 holes, Steed easily defeats Reed, knocking him out of the tournament. Steed is then scheduled to play Adams in the afternoon, but he is suddenly shot in the head with the golf-ball gun. Emma can’t see who fired it, but she assumes it was Jackson. Luckily, Steed’s hat was lined with chain-mail so he was uninjured, though he feigns having a headache to avert suspicion. Emma develops the film she shot last night and studies the star map, finding one particular star that shouldn’t be there. She contacts the Greenwich Observatory to inquire about it, then returns to the clubhouse to inform Steed. Later, as Steed heads out for his afternoon match against Adams, Emma receives a phone call from Greenwich. Professor Minley informs her that the errant “star” is actually a single-channel TV satellite called <i>Vostok II</i>, which will make its final pass over Surrey in about an hour. Realizing the spies must be hijacking the satellite signal, Emma rushes out to tell Steed, but Reed abducts her at gunpoint and takes her to an underground bunker hidden in the sand trap at the 13th hole. There, she learns the mastermind behind the scheme is a club member named Colonel Watson and that Adams is indeed selling secrets to the Eastern Bloc via TV transmission. Emma is handcuffed to a chair, and becomes very worried when she learns the spies are planning to kill Steed with a land mine on the 12th green. When the mine is detonated, Emma fears the worst, but then Steed marches Adams into the bunker, having evaded the trap. During the ensuing fight, Emma turns the chair she is handcuffed to into an effective weapon. Adams, Reed, and Jackson are defeated, but Watson makes a run for it. However, Steed manages to knock him out by hitting him with an expertly driven golf ball at long range. Though her chair was smashed to pieces in the fight, Emma is stuck wearing the handcuffs until Steed gets around to finding the keys.<br />
<br />
A couple of weeks later, Emma meets Steed at the country home of a Dr. Gibson in Hertfordshire, where a local farm hand, Gatt Kendrick, has reappeared after vanishing for three days. Kendrick was one of four missing locals, and was found in a coma wearing tropical kit and with an arrow in his back. Steed suspects the arrow was poisoned, but Gibson insists he’s tested it and found no trace of anything that could induce a coma. The sound of drums draws Emma and Steed outside, where they find a strange symbol has been chalked on the front door. Steed returns to London to pursue some leads, and Emma, thinking she recognizes the symbol, contacts an entomologist named Professor Swain. When he arrives, Swain confirms that the symbol comes from the religion of Shirenzai, a sort of voodoo practiced by the natives of the tropical country of Kalaya, where he has conducted much of his research. Over Gibson’s objections, Swain performs a Shirenzai ritual on Kendrick and asserts that the man is the victim of Kalayan magic. After Swain has left, Emma phones the Kalayan embassy and learns that a Colonel Rawlings operates a Kalayan Ex-Servicemen’s Club in the estate next door to Gibson’s. When she gets off the phone, Emma discovers that Gibson, too, has fallen victim to the “curse.” She gets the comatose physician into bed, and when Steed finally returns, they compare notes. Emma tells Steed what she has learned, and he reports that Kendrick and the other missing men all served in Kalaya in the army. Leaving Emma to watch over Kendrick and Gibson, Steed heads next door to infiltrate Rawlings’ club. She passes the evening reading a book, <i>Tribal Customs of Kalaya</i>, which Steed brought for her. Eventually falling asleep in a chair, Emma is awoken by a slamming door and discovers that Kendrick and Gibson are gone. She summons Swain, who agrees to return to the house to consult with her. However, after he arrives, Swain argues with Emma about his assertion that the two men became like zombies and walked out on their own. She believes it more likely they were kidnapped, and that their mysterious malady may be related to the common sleeping sickness carried by the tsetse fly. Incensed, Swain storms out, only to promptly vanish as well. Finding Swain’s spectacles in the driveway, Emma is unnerved to see the symbol of Shirenzai painted on the windshield of his car. Locking herself inside the house, Emma spends a restless night waiting to hear from Steed.<br />
<br />
Early in the morning, Steed finally phones and says he saw Kendrick and Gibson at Rawlings’ place late last night, and Emma confirms that they disappeared during the evening. She reports that Swain also went missing, but Steed hurriedly hangs up the phone. The day passes with no further word from Steed, so, after midnight, Emma decides to sneak next door to look for him. She is amazed to find that the jungles of Kalaya have been recreated inside a huge greenhouse on Rawlings’ estate, complete with Kalayan natives in traditional costumes. Disguising herself as a native girl, Emma soon spots Swain and follows him to a meeting with Steed and another man, Simon Trent. Trent and Swain boast about their scheme to destroy the native Kalayan government with a new strain of sleeping sickness carried by specially-bred tsetse flies. Spotting Kendrick and Gibson lying on cots under some mosquito netting, Emma tries to slip in and check on them, but Trent catches her. Emma fights him off as Steed knocks Swain down, then tosses Emma the case containing the infected tsetse flies. They make a run for it, but get separated in the jungle. Emma is soon captured by one of Trent’s henchmen, but Steed swings down on a vine and rescues her, Tarzan-style. Once Trent, Swain, and their goons are defeated, Emma and Steed expose the tsetse flies to the cold, rainy weather outside, killing them. During the mopping-up operation, Emma meets Colonel Rawlings, who is half mad and believes he’s still living in Kalaya. Kendrick, Gibson, and the other victims soon recover, and Emma and Steed receive special commendations from the Kalayan government.<br />
<br />
<b>October 1965</b><br />
<br />
While Steed is on holiday, Emma attends a fancy-dress party that lasts all night. She leaves shortly after dawn and walks back to her car. Suddenly, an old woman on a bicycle crashes on the other side of the road, so Emma runs over to help. Unexpectedly, the old woman produces a hypodermic needle and injects Emma with a powerful sedative. When she regains consciousness, Emma finds herself inside a giant birdcage in a warehouse, still wearing her skimpy costume from last night’s party. Her captor, a bearded fellow, soon appears and refers to her as “Lot 17.” Emma realizes she is to be auctioned off to an intelligence agency behind the Iron Curtain, but she is confident Steed will soon come to her rescue.<br />
<br />
As the days pass, Emma becomes increasingly worried. Her initial escape attempts are stymied. After testing the bars of her cage, she thinks she might be able to bend them enough to slip out, except that she is closely watched around the clock by armed guards. The guards are supervised by a woman who carries a whip. Emma decides to bide her time and wait for an opportunity. Finally, after ten days, Emma’s captor reveals that there is a bidding war over her between someone named Ivanov and a “real English gentleman” named “Mr. ffitch.” Emma suspects that “ffitch” may in fact be Steed.<br />
<br />
The next day, a closed-circuit television camera is brought in and set up outside Emma’s cage, and she realizes the auction is finally going to take place. As the bidding begins, Emma is relieved to hear Steed’s voice over the intercom. Posing as “Wayne Pennyfeather ffitch,” Steed wins the auction with a bid of £200,000. Several minutes later, Steed enters the warehouse with a blond woman at his side. As Steed brawls with one of the guards, Emma manages to grab the whip-wielding woman and bend the bars enough to get her head stuck. Emma then takes the keys off her foe’s belt and frees herself from the cage. Steed defeats his opponent and, smiling, introduces the blonde as “Mrs. Emma Peel.” Emma then learns that the blonde’s real name is Georgie Price-Jones and she is an actress hired to impersonate Emma during the kidnapping scheme, who then assisted Steed with his investigation. Emma’s captor, Gregorio Auntie, and his accomplices are taken into custody.<br />
<br />
<b>November 1965</b><br />
<br />
Several weeks later, Emma meets Steed at a country house where an East German agent named Willi Fehr is being held after being discovered trying to dispose of a dead body. Fehr appears to be catatonic, but Steed is convinced he’s faking. They discuss the case with Steed’s military contact, Captain Noble, who provides them with a photo of a tattoo on the dead man’s arm. Back in town, Emma tracks down the tattooist, Fintry, who reveals that the tattoo belonged to a man named Arthur Peever. Later, Steed reports that Fehr is dead, having been shot by Noble during an escape attempt. His own inquiries having come to nothing, Steed asks Emma to follow up on another clue, a repair stub from the exclusive Piedi’s Shoe Shop. Emma heads to the shop, where she finds that Piedi is a foot-fetishist with a phony Italian accent. He is smitten with Emma’s feet and informs her that the repair job was for a dance school, Terpsichorean Training Techniques. Emma goes straight there and, seeing a help-wanted sign, applies for a job with the proprietor, Lucille Banks. Impressed with Emma’s dancing skill, Banks agrees to give her a one-week trial run. Emma is introduced to two other instructors, the smarmy Ivor Bracewell and a young woman called Nicki. The drunken bandleader, Chester Read, stumbles in, but Emma is not impressed with him. Then, a student enters, and Emma is surprised when Nicki introduces him as Arthur Peever.<br />
<br />
Early the next morning, Emma checks in with Steed and Captain Noble, who can no longer speak due to injuries sustained during Fehr’s escape attempt. She then heads to the dance school, intent on seeing if the shoes Piedi repaired fit the man calling himself Arthur Peever. It turns out they do not. Later, she receives a phone call from Noble asking for the address of Fintry’s tattoo parlor. Due to his injured throat, Noble can communicate only by whistling in Morse code, but Emma is able to understand him. Finally, after a long, grueling day of dance lessons, Emma returns home and collapses into bed.<br />
<br />
The following day, Emma tries to chat up Peever, but he remains aloof. She then learns from Nicki that Banks has a habit of giving diplomas to mousy, anonymous men even if they are horrible dancers—like Peever. Suddenly, Banks enters with Steed, who has signed up for lessons. When Emma gets a moment alone with him, Steed reveals that Fintry has been murdered, but managed to tattoo on a sausage that his killer has a rose tattoo on his wrist. While hiding the sausage, Emma stumbles into a scheme by Nicki and Piedi’s assistant Bernard to sell shoes to the students behind Banks’s back. Realizing that Bernard would therefore know if the man calling himself Arthur Peever is an impostor, Emma makes up an excuse to leave and rushes over to the shoe shop. When she arrives, though, she finds that Bernard, too, has been murdered. Emma is convinced that the dance school is crooked.<br />
<br />
After conferring again with Captain Noble the next morning, Emma and Steed both head back to Terpsichorean Training Techniques, where they learn a gala dance has been scheduled for that evening. Snooping around in a storeroom, Emma spies on Banks practicing to switch out one dancing partner for another behind a screen. Chester Read discovers Emma, but she quickly makes up an excuse and hurries away. That evening, as the gala gets underway, Steed returns and informs Emma that Noble has determined the school must be a front for an organization that sneaks enemy agents into the country. During the dancing, it becomes clear that Steed is the target of the next impostor, and that Bracewell, who sports a rose tattoo on his wrist, is the killer. Emma and Steed foil the scheme so that the impostor clubs Bracewell rather than Steed behind the screen, then Emma dances the impostor back behind the screen, where Steed clubs him. They then change partners and dance Banks and Peever into Banks’s office, where Emma and Steed knock them out as well. Chester Read menaces Emma with a dagger, revealing himself as the mastermind behind the operation, but Steed knocks him out, too. Read, Banks, Bracewell, and Peever are then arrested while Nicki is cleared of any wrongdoing.<br />
<br />
<b>December 1965</b><br />
<br />
Emma and Steed drive out to Faversham Military Hospital to consult with Dr. Harold Long of the Psychological Warfare Department. There, Emma learns that a 60-year-old high-ranking general, Woody Groves, has been killed playing chicken on lonely country roads. Also, Gordon Lamble, the head of the chemical warfare establishment, has been injured while trying to scale St. Paul’s Cathedral. Steed explains that there were five earlier incidents that were just as baffling, and asks Emma to watch over Lamble while he investigates Groves’s death. A little while later, Emma and Dr. Long find Lamble on the ledge outside his window, apparently contemplating suicide. However, he then climbs back inside and returns to his bed. Long administers a sedative, then opines that Lamble’s mental state resembles shellshock. When Steed returns that evening, Emma reports what happened. Suddenly, the door to Lamble’s room slams, and when they enter, Emma and Steed find Lamble suffocated to death. Curiously, they find an envelope on his bed containing four white feathers, the old symbol of cowardice. Recalling that General Groves had a black rose pinned to his coat, Steed decides to have another look around Groves’s office. Emma goes home to bed.<br />
<br />
Late the next morning, Steed comes to Emma’s apartment to report another suspicious death, this one a test pilot at RAF Hamelin. Like Groves, the pilot had a black rose pinned to his lapel. Steed notes that last night he observed a member of Groves’s staff, Major Robertson, place a black rose on the general’s box of medals after playing “Last Post” on a bugle. Thus, he sends Emma to interview Robertson, posing as a probate expert dealing with the disposition of Groves’s belongings. Emma uses Robertson’s interest in phrenology to get him talking, and while he’s ranting about the lack of danger and excitement in modern warfare, she sneaks a look at some of the papers on Groves’s desk. Robertson catches her and sends her over to the regimental museum. He soon joins her there and gives her a guided tour. After a little while, Emma excuses herself and returns home, convinced that Robertson is smitten with her.<br />
<br />
In the morning, Emma receives a tin of chocolates from Robertson, but before she can open it, Steed arrives and shows her a postcard he found on the corpse of a Lt. Stanhope, who was machine-gunned after arranging to meet Steed last night. The postcard shows a picture of Manton House, a military museum, and Steed intends to check it out. When Emma then shows him the tin of chocolates, Steed reacts as though it contains a bomb. He opens the tin with extreme caution, but it proves to be harmless. As he pops a chocolate into his mouth, Emma realizes he was having her on. Steed heads out to Manton House, so Emma returns to Groves’s office under the pretense of creating an inventory. There, Robertson continues yesterday’s discussion about the need for danger in one’s life, and Emma plays along. Convinced that she’s a kindred spirit, Robertson produces a black rose, pins it to his coat, and invites Emma to Manton House. Robertson drives her there at breakneck speed, taking reckless chances at every opportunity. Emma is annoyed but says nothing. When they arrive, Robertson introduces her to other members of his secret society, suggesting she could be dubbed “Diana” or perhaps “Pallas Athena.” They then run into Steed, who is also wearing a black rose and is passing himself off as “Bacchus.” Emma claims to be very interested in joining the “Danger Makers,” as they call themselves, so Robertson goes off to arrange her initiation. Steed tells Emma they need to discover the identity of “Apollo,” the group’s leader, but then Robertson returns and escorts Emma to another room. There, she is handcuffed to an elaborate electrified rig and made to walk across a couple of see-saws while avoiding a lethal shock. She passes the test and is unshackled, but then Dr. Long enters and holds Emma and Steed at gunpoint, revealing that he is “Apollo.” Emma is locked in an upstairs bedroom, but she escapes by knotting some sheets together and climbing out the window. She soon finds Steed in the attic, but he’s already knocked out Robertson and freed himself. Steed reveals that the Danger Makers are plotting to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London tomorrow, so he and Emma invade the group’s planning meeting and start a fight. Long flees and Steed chases after him, leaving Emma to be overpowered by his four accomplices. She is dazed for a moment, then catches up to them in the initiation room, where Long is about to shoot an unarmed Steed. When one of the Danger Makers objects, Long shoots him instead. Without hesitation, Emma leaps onto one of the see-saws, flipping Long onto the rig, where he is electrocuted. The remaining Danger Makers drop their black rose boutonnieres onto Long’s corpse and leave the room. However, Steed has them rounded up and taken in for questioning.<br />
<br />
A week later, Emma accompanies Steed to the Queen’s Theatre in London, where he informs her of a series of childish pranks played on foreign diplomats, which have been very embarrassing to the British government. Then, in a nearby luxury box, an emir sits down only to have his chair collapse under him. Amid laughter from the audience, the humiliated emir storms out. Emma and Steed leave as well, and as they are driving through the city, Steed reveals that their prime suspect is the Honorable John Cleverly Cartney, who was sitting near them at the theatre. In fact, Cartney has been spotted in the vicinity of most of the pranks. Thus, Steed asks Emma to pay Cartney a visit while he checks out some of Cartney’s known associates.<br />
<br />
The next day, Emma visits Cartney at his home, posing as a representative from a charity organization. Cartney immediately turns on the charm, and Emma does find him attractive. Even so, she resists his advances and notices a curious entry in his day planner. As she is leaving, a friend of Cartney’s comes in, whom Cartney introduces as Lord Darcy. Emma then rendezvous with Steed at his apartment, where he reports that he broke into Lord Darcy’s home and found a box full of rubber scissors. When Emma mentions the entry in Cartney’s day planner, Steed realizes it is a reference to a ribbon-cutting ceremony to be held within the hour. Assuming the pranksters have switched out the real scissors for a rubber pair, Emma and Steed race to the site of the ceremony, watching the proceedings on a portable television. However, when the diplomat tries to cut the ribbon, he is electrocuted. Steed notes grimly that the culprits have moved from simple pranks to cold-blooded murder. They return to Steed’s apartment, where he decides to make contact with Lord Darcy while Emma pays another visit to Cartney. Relishing the opportunity, Emma drives back to Cartney’s house and is a bit annoyed to find him hanging out with a bimbo named Sara Bradley. Delighted to see Emma again, Cartney invites her to a meeting of his private club. He escorts her into a banqueting hall where several men and women in 18th-century costumes are carousing. Cartney reveals that it is a modern incarnation of the infamous Hellfire Club and introduces Emma to his friends as his guest of honor. The “lords” of the club introduce themselves in an elaborate and archaic manner, using obvious aliases. Emma observes their revelry with curiosity, trying to get more information out of Cartney. Suddenly, Lord Darcy enters in a highly agitated state, demanding to speak with Cartney in private. He mentions the rubber scissors, but Cartney quickly cuts him off and calls a special meeting of the “superior members.” Cartney and his “lords” then escort Darcy out, and Emma takes the opportunity to make her exit.<br />
<br />
A day or so later, Lord Darcy is found dead, a victim of drowning. Emma is convinced he was murdered by the Hellfire Club, so she meets Steed at the funeral chapel where Darcy is laid out. When Cartney arrives to pay his respects, Steed claims that Darcy was just about to recommend him as a new member of the club. Cartney invites Steed to their meeting later that evening. Emma returns home and waits to hear from Steed. He finally contacts her to report that his initiation was successful and that he has confirmed the Hellfire Club was behind all the pranks. Furthermore, they’re now planning something really big. Thus, they make plans to attend the club’s “Night of All Sins” gala tomorrow night.<br />
<br />
The following evening, Emma and Steed return to Cartney’s house, dressed in Regency-era costumes, and find the party already in full swing. Amidst the revelers, they spot a sedan chair full of crates labeled “fireworks” being carried down into the cellar. Emma follows and determines that the boxes actually contain dynamite. She hurries upstairs to warn Steed, but Cartney has her hustled off to change into a “more appropriate” costume. In another room, Emma is drugged so she does not resist as two women re-do her hair and make-up, then dress her in a black whalebone corset, silk panties, lace-up leather boots, opera gloves, and a leather collar with three-inch-long steel spikes. A chain leash is hooked to her collar, with the other end looped around her wrist. She is given a live snake to hold, then a black cape is draped around her and she is led back to the party. There, Cartney introduces her as “the Queen of Sin.” Several men grab Emma, lift her over their heads, and carry her throughout the house as the snake slithers off to the warm hearth. Later, while watching a bare-knuckled boxing match, Emma’s mind slowly clears. Suddenly, one of the fighters recognizes Steed as the man who broke into Lord Darcy’s flat several days ago. Steed freely admits it and is forced to fight a duel with one of the “lords.” While everyone is distracted by the swordfight, Emma slips off back to the cellar and knocks out the two men who are stockpiling the crates of dynamite. However, Cartney appears and attacks her with a bullwhip. Emma tries to avoid the lash, until Cartney accidentally snags the lever that opens the trap door he is standing on. Cartney drops into a deep well and drowns. Emma heads upstairs and finds Steed has won the duel and locked all the guests in the banqueting hall. After changing back into her original costume, Emma heads for home. The surviving “lords” of the Hellfire Club are arrested for treason.<br />
<br />
Emma and Steed celebrate Christmas together and look forward to another year of foiling the machinations of Britain’s most diabolical masterminds.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Notes</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>October 1964 –</b> “The Town of No Return” was written as an introduction for the character of Emma Peel, though Diana Rigg had already filmed numerous episodes before production was completed. Thus, I place it first on the chronology. The story takes place in the middle of a school term, and there are leaves on the trees. It’s generally warm enough to go without coats outside, though Steed does complain about how chilly it is at night, so I place it in late October.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>December 1964 –</b> In “The Murder Market,” Emma gets uncharacteristically angry with Steed after finding Henshaw’s corpse in a bathtub. This suggests she is unaccustomed to seeing dead bodies at this point and is unfamiliar with Steed’s methods. She also has a rough time during her climactic battle with Barbara Wakefield, suggesting that Emma’s fighting skills are still somewhat underdeveloped. It’s not terribly cold outside, though Emma and Barbara both wear fur coats. The trees in the cemetery are bare, as they are at the Dorrington Dean College for Young Ladies in “The Master Minds.” Again, Emma wears a fur coat, but the weather is still mild enough for late-night rambles in the woods. “Too Many Christmas Trees,” naturally enough, takes place at Christmas, so I slot it into the chronology in late December.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>January 1965 –</b> In “Dial a Deadly Number,” Emma’s hand-to-hand combat skills still seem somewhat lacking, though she’s definitely improving. When outside, Emma wears furs and Steed an overcoat, suggesting the weather has gotten colder. Emma wears her iconic zippered leather catsuit for the first time in this episode.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>February 1965 –</b> Emma is still a bit antagonistic toward Steed in “Death at Bargain Prices,” suggesting that it’s fairly early in their relationship. Also, Steed seems very impressed by Emma’s victory over the henchman Massey, indicating that she’s made a breakthrough in terms of fighting technique. There are no leaves on the trees outside the department store.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>March 1965 –</b> Emma’s martial arts skills are sufficiently developed by “The Cybernauts” to win her a spot at the sensei’s exclusive dojo. It’s conceivable she continues training there in the months to follow. The weather seems to be improving, though the trees are still bare. At least the birds are singing!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>April 1965 –</b> We see in “The Gravediggers” that most of the trees have leaves on them again, and the weather is warm and pleasant. Emma even wears a sleeveless outfit. In “Room Without a View,” Agent Varnals’ attitude toward Emma suggests she has not yet been fully accepted by Steed’s organization as a suitable operative. During the episode, George Cullen specifically says that it’s 1965.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>May 1965 –</b> Emma’s zippered leather catsuit is presumably ruined during the fight in the rain chamber at the conclusion of “A Surfeit of H2O,” as she never wears it again. In “Two’s a Crowd,” Ambassador Brodny says, “At this time of year, the blossoms will be on the trees,” indicating that it is springtime. Given the lack of continuing supporting characters, it’s interesting that Steed mentions Major Plessy, who appeared in “The Master Minds” and is apparently one of his superiors. Major Carson obviously assesses Emma’s suitability at the start of this episode in response to Agent Varnals’ concerns about her last month. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>June 1965 –</b> “Man-Eater of Surrey Green” and “Silent Dust” clearly take place during the summer. After Steed is shot in the line of duty, he takes about six weeks off to recuperate.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>July 1965 –</b> With “The Hour That Never Was,” Emma starts regularly wearing fashions designed by John Bates. The story takes place during Steed’s convalescence. The weather here is sunny and warm.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>August 1965 –</b> In “Castle De’ath,” it’s warm enough up in Scotland for Steed to spend an afternoon fishing in a kilt and scuba diving in swim trunks, so it must still be summertime.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>September 1965 –</b> Although the weather is pleasant for golf in “The Thirteenth Hole,” Emma has a fur jacket and Steed wears an overcoat, suggesting the approach of autumn. Likewise, in “Small Game for Big Hunters,” it’s cold and rainy at night and Emma covers up with her fur jacket while sleeping in a chair. There are still leaves on the trees in both episodes, though.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>October 1965 –</b> At the beginning of “The Girl from Auntie,” it’s warm enough for a woman to walk around outside in a bikini and for Emma to wear a skimpy costume. She does have her fur jacket around her for warmth, though, and the weather in London is rainy. At this point, Emma and Steed have been working together for at least a year, and she has clearly come to trust him implicitly.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>November 1965 –</b> In “The Quick-Quick-Slow Death,” Emma is wearing a fur coat and Steed sports an overcoat and gloves, indicating that the weather is turning chilly again. A calendar at the bank says it’s the 23rd, placing this fairly late in the month.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>December 1965 –</b> Steed continues to wear an overcoat and gloves while outside in “The Danger Makers.” Apparently the closure of RAF Station 472 Hamelin, described in “The Hour That Never Was,” was delayed until the end of the year, if not cancelled entirely, as the base is seen again in this story. There appears to be a mixture of trees with and without leaves in the exterior scenes, placing this episode very early in the month. By the end of “A Touch of Brimstone,” though, the trees are bare again, revealing the onset of winter.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Next</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2013/01/emma-peels-leather-catsuit.html"><i>Previous</i></a><br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-39711255252138469512014-07-30T12:12:00.000-05:002015-07-09T16:23:34.366-05:00Dropping Acid in the Negative Zone<i>In this excerpt from</i> Amazing Dope Tales & Haight Street Flashbacks <i>(Summertown, TN: The Book Publishing Company, 1980, pp 16–17), Stephen Gaskin reminisces about his experiences with Marvel Comics in the San Francisco counterculture of the late 1960s.</i>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Pop Culture</b></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
When I was in college, I hardly read anyone who was alive—that’s what you do in college, because everyone in the English Department is so competitive that none of them can agree on anyone who is alive, because they think they’re better than all the living ones.
<br />
<br />
I started tripping with Charlie and Linda and Paul and John and Bob and Kemo and them guys. We went over to this house, and it was far out. Charlie and Linda lived there together, just lived together. It blew my mind. They were one of the first young couples I’d met who just lived together. I was from square country.
<br />
<br />
They had lots of rock ‘n’ roll records, and they had lots of comic books. They had Doc Strange, a whole box, all in order. And they had a whole box of Fantastic Four, all in order. And they had a whole box of Thor, all in order. They had a <i>lot</i> of comic books.
<br />
<br />
There was a lot of pop philosophy coming out in the comic books at that time. They
pointed out to me that comic books had changed: it used to be that they were very stick-figured like Superman and Lois Lane; but in the Fantastic Four, the characters had <i>personalities,</i> and <i>interacted</i>. They hassled with each other, and had problems and phobias and stuff; they had to conquer themselves to do things. Doc Strange had to do a lot of self-conquering. The battles he fought were not always something outside that could be done with a <i>savate</i> kick: he had to come in and get to himself inside. It was said that some of that continuity was being written by acid-takers. I don’t know if that was true, but that’s what was being said. And we believed it, because it looked like it.
<br />
<br />
So they were running all this pop culture, and they would use metaphors from comic
books in their trips. On acid trips, they’d talk about how <i>this was just like when Thor happened across the bridge in Valhalla when Loki and Thor were having it out.</i>
<br />
<br />
I hung out and got stoned with these kids, and listened to the Who play <i>Boris the Spider</i>, and had it about scare me up my tree. <i>Boris the Spider</i> was
scary, I realized. And the Who was even scary, some.
<br />
<br />
They taught me the Tolkien trilogy. They told me about Gandalf the Grey.
<br />
<br />
These were people who were students where I was teaching. We talked about magic and telepathy of every form. We went through and combed all of our experiences, and talked about it together. They were my first tripping partners, and some of my first
teachers.</div>
<br />
<br />
Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-27410751268540021152013-09-09T19:50:00.000-05:002019-09-10T11:17:06.208-05:00Those Kinky Sixties 2In the early 1960s, “kinky boots,” which had been popular in the underground fetish scene for decades, began to emerge into the fashion mainstream, as demonstrated by this article from the January 3, 1964 issue of <i>Time</i> magazine.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgdSPlNP42Y1a4d4a-pNSfJ_uU5kQVcyNlilEvgXZMgOW0-HvU-_c7DslGfEH4fMI5RMvVm9lPseme3XF4G8GnQdB2JgnltnNBg3xpLEPpxlGVMPzM-tnnwQLkKo0dQlZvJLS/s1600/Boots+Boots+Boots-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgdSPlNP42Y1a4d4a-pNSfJ_uU5kQVcyNlilEvgXZMgOW0-HvU-_c7DslGfEH4fMI5RMvVm9lPseme3XF4G8GnQdB2JgnltnNBg3xpLEPpxlGVMPzM-tnnwQLkKo0dQlZvJLS/s1600/Boots+Boots+Boots-1.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Notably, the article makes no mention of the pervy provenance of the “lady-lion-tamer” boot that it breathlessly describes, making only oblique references to its impracticality and sexiness in contrast to the perfunctory rubber rain boot. The kinkiness is further obscured by references to wholesome characters from children’s literature such as Christopher Robin and Peter Pan.
<br />
<br />
The specific examples given in the second paragraph, “made of fake leopard or silk faille or nylon mesh or even real leather” reference an article in the May 12, 1963 <i>New York Times</i> fashion section, which led off with four photos of those specific styles. Clearly the writer of the <i>Time</i> piece was using the previous year’s newspaper article as a source. Even that article, written by Leonard Sloane, called boots “a seemingly unlikely prospect for fashion honors in the women’s shoe industry” and marveled at the rapidity with which high-fashion boots had caught on in the American market. However, Sloane also ignores boots’ long history as a prominent sexual fetish item.<br />
<br />
The reference to the magazine’s BOOKS section directs the reader to this photograph of teen-age novelist Caroline Glyn.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgjcyH0HbltJ9bxsHHdLir063z_tkEpsOsyakECjC-56vvYtKIQElpNs_mlFveZeYtH3fUl0wq4yXUCMOprC-RdFmPpc4d292fSIna_dcVbpSl5ma3VkXt7who1vNqnuoZJHX/s1600/Boots+Boots+Boots-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgjcyH0HbltJ9bxsHHdLir063z_tkEpsOsyakECjC-56vvYtKIQElpNs_mlFveZeYtH3fUl0wq4yXUCMOprC-RdFmPpc4d292fSIna_dcVbpSl5ma3VkXt7who1vNqnuoZJHX/s1600/Boots+Boots+Boots-2.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
It’s hard to imagine a world where even style-conscious women were dubious about wearing boots and had to be encouraged to do so by articles such as this one. But, just two weeks later, the <i>New York Times</i> would run a helpful article on the proper care of leather boots. And, unknown to the editors of <i>Time</i> magazine, the go-go boot craze was just around the corner.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2005/08/those-kinky-sixties.html"><i>Previous kinkiness</i></a>
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-12461562824838553932013-01-16T23:43:00.000-06:002017-07-18T23:22:41.178-05:00Emma Peel's Leather CatsuitThough the character of <b>Emma Peel</b> is closely associated with the zippered black leather catsuit she wore in the title sequences and promotional materials for her first season on <i>The Avengers</i>, she wore the outfit only a few times in the episodes themselves.
<br />
<br />
Below, Mrs. Peel battles a well-dressed henchman in a photo-comic based on the extended fight scene from “Death at Bargain Prices,” which premiered in October 1965. Diana Rigg plays Emma Peel and George Selway is her opponent, with Patrick Macnee making a cameo as John Steed.
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZcBz6bAwbhAMBZ5RFxgVsVDJ89hRDCUfbcFTwMffvIukJpdSPyivKGWMFJyH8i0ttv4fed-Mv7TL64GO-qSUpZgbjPhaC1OX-6Wqd6tSLEfQj7-2nqnF6U2HV641ztYy0vzF5/s1600/DBP-A.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZcBz6bAwbhAMBZ5RFxgVsVDJ89hRDCUfbcFTwMffvIukJpdSPyivKGWMFJyH8i0ttv4fed-Mv7TL64GO-qSUpZgbjPhaC1OX-6Wqd6tSLEfQj7-2nqnF6U2HV641ztYy0vzF5/s1600/DBP-A.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="596" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPJMwTm0wRX7N1NLAyjZeg91j-li64oghtKXfnPTc7TeTvlTMB-ixpFKPSdhA07pqwAAwXOOyY-eoU2zGDrGTmn65nbyDSSYtSftCPV1uPm7m9CTen5acZ4EqypmCLIVdwTsJ-/s1600/DBP-B.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPJMwTm0wRX7N1NLAyjZeg91j-li64oghtKXfnPTc7TeTvlTMB-ixpFKPSdhA07pqwAAwXOOyY-eoU2zGDrGTmn65nbyDSSYtSftCPV1uPm7m9CTen5acZ4EqypmCLIVdwTsJ-/s1600/DBP-B.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="590" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3CYmzMDlMBeejtRb8T30qSf3_CteDgBuRUKpYAeg67xlWBjhWQBdIXm-m1Zwu0GcJvNQnu-p0C1iBHRALoXylDgh4bSMwrC_P22ZzTeXR9_qYc_ekcG20tjT1lWROtVpFLS8w/s1600/DBP-C.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3CYmzMDlMBeejtRb8T30qSf3_CteDgBuRUKpYAeg67xlWBjhWQBdIXm-m1Zwu0GcJvNQnu-p0C1iBHRALoXylDgh4bSMwrC_P22ZzTeXR9_qYc_ekcG20tjT1lWROtVpFLS8w/s1600/DBP-C.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="569" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikMDLqO485oqgRwsNvz1oTK3fhEWtEAM1BJ3Dp227ydbf1e6Fr5VEq6kw9TiLuyMjyzfOPuWqpVRdef_JVpF3fzD6gjfN9FH5OMYcTMR1pap1zXN-LlLKUP3_zCptGhny3jKo-/s1600/DBP-D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikMDLqO485oqgRwsNvz1oTK3fhEWtEAM1BJ3Dp227ydbf1e6Fr5VEq6kw9TiLuyMjyzfOPuWqpVRdef_JVpF3fzD6gjfN9FH5OMYcTMR1pap1zXN-LlLKUP3_zCptGhny3jKo-/s1600/DBP-D.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="709" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxw3R0BZyAGcbXPtjB3uKsQsEMb8YTISgJTYv8OSRsiz3CWZraUERRly1Z65OhbnQJIfNw2N-28kZLFU_cR8c-DW8rjByXX8aQ7am2HPJG7FuiXM0AWeI9gc6Rw3aUQO5oMBA/s1600/DBP-E.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNxw3R0BZyAGcbXPtjB3uKsQsEMb8YTISgJTYv8OSRsiz3CWZraUERRly1Z65OhbnQJIfNw2N-28kZLFU_cR8c-DW8rjByXX8aQ7am2HPJG7FuiXM0AWeI9gc6Rw3aUQO5oMBA/s1600/DBP-E.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="738" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB0n2XsNqxyHJZsHyWW59aRhe5Pog_LBM-JrLr5KRZiPw_VwntdZqXgKw4QlQia_gDNcci4jff5sTZM0PETCdq01zRJrInbJNyel3Hd4pjHijyjK4qS6teYtc_Uv2hkrfRQHVb/s1600/DBP-F.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB0n2XsNqxyHJZsHyWW59aRhe5Pog_LBM-JrLr5KRZiPw_VwntdZqXgKw4QlQia_gDNcci4jff5sTZM0PETCdq01zRJrInbJNyel3Hd4pjHijyjK4qS6teYtc_Uv2hkrfRQHVb/s1600/DBP-F.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="706" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP5dbpp-jSVcwF7qo6Gffg08FPvhwnxK1AQbreetA9SVy7EbgL4sufWHVIc9uxFz3iyTRPILc5TN8eEgLVFTT39RTfzl_L0Hdxfx8NXPy8Mif3BerQdcMtog4l_8JqnahR9Fms/s1600/DBP-G.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP5dbpp-jSVcwF7qo6Gffg08FPvhwnxK1AQbreetA9SVy7EbgL4sufWHVIc9uxFz3iyTRPILc5TN8eEgLVFTT39RTfzl_L0Hdxfx8NXPy8Mif3BerQdcMtog4l_8JqnahR9Fms/s1600/DBP-G.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="744" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zYxDRPea2lH3keQyn6RZhjRDCyxisvqFABNl9jc2bv7kv7itvaAbAYV4vriXpVVyqYHTiyXxMnTuIScrp9_gklC37sPTjcSHHIqVwi2rPoYAo4oX57ZnC8fkuR4dD1xJKLfh/s1600/DBP-H.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8zYxDRPea2lH3keQyn6RZhjRDCyxisvqFABNl9jc2bv7kv7itvaAbAYV4vriXpVVyqYHTiyXxMnTuIScrp9_gklC37sPTjcSHHIqVwi2rPoYAo4oX57ZnC8fkuR4dD1xJKLfh/s1600/DBP-H.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="926" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEBQT9WeveOAxyLS7SB0yu3N9cein8grkBZ6o_noKPAjvRJmD41JLM6TEDqRkCXvH0h02AKGNgmFtRM5Xc6XsPoFReJUPp6vH2w4_mYTl-t63LXk-SO_uUwnuA2gykobMeLhc/s1600/DBP-I.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEBQT9WeveOAxyLS7SB0yu3N9cein8grkBZ6o_noKPAjvRJmD41JLM6TEDqRkCXvH0h02AKGNgmFtRM5Xc6XsPoFReJUPp6vH2w4_mYTl-t63LXk-SO_uUwnuA2gykobMeLhc/s1600/DBP-I.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="910" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRBsc-KNEpkKCmM5FnEBN_-QWQ8-EYS0H-to-e3iT-Ex7_rAXynQTIENDWAB0NgDQ8Db4Gj8CB8axPuj2Scyy4ctKyxNWJBdCmWedwFq99qiqU8iNHuntRs8EnlfM5ehiGNEY/s1600/DBP-J.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRBsc-KNEpkKCmM5FnEBN_-QWQ8-EYS0H-to-e3iT-Ex7_rAXynQTIENDWAB0NgDQ8Db4Gj8CB8axPuj2Scyy4ctKyxNWJBdCmWedwFq99qiqU8iNHuntRs8EnlfM5ehiGNEY/s1600/DBP-J.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="554" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidV-jgG99BhkLol39qy9dBGji2Hvip4o1zCNiV_i3a_cf5Q0AgNFoXdn7JAA4cAeSoTzeD5jTgwnsybTlcugsqdu9P34FGr6IirwGR1t5Eu7dz3avKvn4xlsarYeiN3R-b5zFl/s1600/DBP-K.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidV-jgG99BhkLol39qy9dBGji2Hvip4o1zCNiV_i3a_cf5Q0AgNFoXdn7JAA4cAeSoTzeD5jTgwnsybTlcugsqdu9P34FGr6IirwGR1t5Eu7dz3avKvn4xlsarYeiN3R-b5zFl/s1600/DBP-K.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="790" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFU978ILx4f1w0ITFNueY_0JmmrBmihdmsmk72RV0kSTOB6lLo_BUGHXbelpgBz0_qzjBXP3jWLSypLB2JarSOTI8C_4nq9VndyUmWvFTPLLhdjQBnypxkU-FTkcMF_qWFiDn0/s1600/DBP-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFU978ILx4f1w0ITFNueY_0JmmrBmihdmsmk72RV0kSTOB6lLo_BUGHXbelpgBz0_qzjBXP3jWLSypLB2JarSOTI8C_4nq9VndyUmWvFTPLLhdjQBnypxkU-FTkcMF_qWFiDn0/s1600/DBP-L.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="619" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTE4EwX4QVeK8DPEpBBDGyB8ZjpY16p5zOv8vwZlqicxvbeX2E_ia9pIDftGdmhCc51eC38Mg_DCyKriejBBgvDPRWDOIjSLIhUYr2w8vSH5b6eQpskcv6yscwvP4vtHM1qGoW/s1600/DBP-M.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTE4EwX4QVeK8DPEpBBDGyB8ZjpY16p5zOv8vwZlqicxvbeX2E_ia9pIDftGdmhCc51eC38Mg_DCyKriejBBgvDPRWDOIjSLIhUYr2w8vSH5b6eQpskcv6yscwvP4vtHM1qGoW/s1600/DBP-M.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="880" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHGmzGMwonTEOJ7S4-zJiW1ItBfaXX7NgyIC0qu6WLnUOc5hLHeUYemvH8eQeaAPPzKjs2jqjE8mvVFblIPTxLdzJYarDrYCZmgxMDHUKWcy7RM2JYVyjZh-5IpchJX69nQ7Lh/s1600/DBP-N.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHGmzGMwonTEOJ7S4-zJiW1ItBfaXX7NgyIC0qu6WLnUOc5hLHeUYemvH8eQeaAPPzKjs2jqjE8mvVFblIPTxLdzJYarDrYCZmgxMDHUKWcy7RM2JYVyjZh-5IpchJX69nQ7Lh/s1600/DBP-N.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="1022" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoCMo7HCEyQTDyv2cvneOzC7cy7GG9PD0NXTrjbmvU2z69GUpL8N9ZAvtPZEYFrE04G4Sc87bEivgumdX_yk7KTebgY9K0G93Hs9UiN3O1LYRbkp0Nz8xa17WaFDe6a8IGxyx/s1600/DBP-O.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoCMo7HCEyQTDyv2cvneOzC7cy7GG9PD0NXTrjbmvU2z69GUpL8N9ZAvtPZEYFrE04G4Sc87bEivgumdX_yk7KTebgY9K0G93Hs9UiN3O1LYRbkp0Nz8xa17WaFDe6a8IGxyx/s1600/DBP-O.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="695" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjZdQxxRThoE2qWqKJbx45QfmyrPzb6YXw9N1m8LGOvC9eckyZneqbxLWrSOHpVOUKmRLSul6et5wq-xnLwi7MmuA4FlxNarKxCbLr0Ck7ulM5D0w7Ensmnkjj33li2O_Jg8J/s1600/DBP-P.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjZdQxxRThoE2qWqKJbx45QfmyrPzb6YXw9N1m8LGOvC9eckyZneqbxLWrSOHpVOUKmRLSul6et5wq-xnLwi7MmuA4FlxNarKxCbLr0Ck7ulM5D0w7Ensmnkjj33li2O_Jg8J/s1600/DBP-P.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="582" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-emma-peel-chronology.html"><i>Next</i></a>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2012/03/emma-peel-queen-of-sin.html"><i>Previous</i></a>
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-67030737811300764522012-03-25T15:14:00.000-05:002017-07-18T23:11:59.758-05:00Emma Peel, Queen of SinDiana Rigg made quite a splash in “A Touch of Brimstone,” an episode of <i>The Avengers</i> first broadcast in February 1966. Her character, Emma Peel, is made over into a kinky “Queen of Sin” while investigating a group of subversive anarchists called the Hellfire Club. Her climactic scene is presented below in comics form. This is appropriate since the episode inspired a similar storyline in <i>Uncanny X-Men</i> nearly fifteen years later. The scene also features Peter Wyngarde as villain John Cartney and Art Thomas as the hapless lackey who takes a beating.
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcd4rsRDWjIBKjO5RmO6TO2O4MVPuwdjpySLlCjX-wNM7yTbpk3uWm6NXnJ_icfCRzovXUV37UcrbCIFnltB74F6zOG_SB69RjXFasms4CzKEDvnvSFsK78j6OGQT6llOha5Wq/s1600/TOB-C1.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcd4rsRDWjIBKjO5RmO6TO2O4MVPuwdjpySLlCjX-wNM7yTbpk3uWm6NXnJ_icfCRzovXUV37UcrbCIFnltB74F6zOG_SB69RjXFasms4CzKEDvnvSFsK78j6OGQT6llOha5Wq/s1600/TOB-C1.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="776" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdq1rVR5_dDMlSqOEtmCQExq3JBOMzm3n6P1PxZappl9FBQBa3Cfs7qHChuMitrmd3H5sJwrmWrq8wc4vDA-a1-rPTtXhyOVWpZ6IwQhp7N3hPPZr8bAD86WNhJhyphenhyphenV723FqtXe/s1600/TOB-C2.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdq1rVR5_dDMlSqOEtmCQExq3JBOMzm3n6P1PxZappl9FBQBa3Cfs7qHChuMitrmd3H5sJwrmWrq8wc4vDA-a1-rPTtXhyOVWpZ6IwQhp7N3hPPZr8bAD86WNhJhyphenhyphenV723FqtXe/s1600/TOB-C2.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="525" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvAz0s-KXm0FM1nFvwB4YmfF6AyY2mGa4A59WMvkJCfHePITbPcOwCjkhFKZ-B1jygU2ez0OpPOM1Yq_b1IfTxBrrIJp4L82HMGUJJPTh7onxfHiGghRqbf9M20U2_Uj1AO1FM/s1600/TOB-C3.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvAz0s-KXm0FM1nFvwB4YmfF6AyY2mGa4A59WMvkJCfHePITbPcOwCjkhFKZ-B1jygU2ez0OpPOM1Yq_b1IfTxBrrIJp4L82HMGUJJPTh7onxfHiGghRqbf9M20U2_Uj1AO1FM/s1600/TOB-C3.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="721" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ZrcoG7EaftDVqOGzf27dJ8Jnprub015gW36pQC0Jl0NdOcrCNlyzyN4QgYwuMVegHUkmx2rYjQVqqVPARqOWvDhXc7GBWY0SrlAvul_NhPSY_CXJFc4WnK5E2QZtmDWnIuu0/s1600/TOB-C4.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ZrcoG7EaftDVqOGzf27dJ8Jnprub015gW36pQC0Jl0NdOcrCNlyzyN4QgYwuMVegHUkmx2rYjQVqqVPARqOWvDhXc7GBWY0SrlAvul_NhPSY_CXJFc4WnK5E2QZtmDWnIuu0/s1600/TOB-C4.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="605" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPdL8-THWem_J0D_6zix8o164Fe_qv6g3WvqQNMn3G6wN_mc9mJiWiUzPT4jndRuCqvUeMRzVktuEjhE-O7ODqLvdlk-c5RoMfiFZb8dNK2RtiIknAsNPIUGZnckAbWoWwRp9/s1600/TOB-C5.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPdL8-THWem_J0D_6zix8o164Fe_qv6g3WvqQNMn3G6wN_mc9mJiWiUzPT4jndRuCqvUeMRzVktuEjhE-O7ODqLvdlk-c5RoMfiFZb8dNK2RtiIknAsNPIUGZnckAbWoWwRp9/s1600/TOB-C5.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="466" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj61zysqG5pvBm8KpKRKHhJHUcc8OWn6KJEj8MkLEvTm6j4vBX1jZvIxHOclmQCNUg5tSVCzH-l39Fie2VJWHZPLy4bNKYWoxDIV6w7g5qGJYrCgBf63ev_NBfIPqJ-flZ54uuG/s1600/TOB-C6.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj61zysqG5pvBm8KpKRKHhJHUcc8OWn6KJEj8MkLEvTm6j4vBX1jZvIxHOclmQCNUg5tSVCzH-l39Fie2VJWHZPLy4bNKYWoxDIV6w7g5qGJYrCgBf63ev_NBfIPqJ-flZ54uuG/s1600/TOB-C6.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="629" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifwDZCTwerJ63AbIkCNJBOVGOt84yYN4JrbpLZftZuIwjivVPlWu5fDV1-16t7pQhhBi3a4Q9QLve-YJEpu97l8kqK8YgXScAjHc7T7oQyGeT2ZOQL9787BtnEK_htuFf26saL/s1600/TOB-C7.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifwDZCTwerJ63AbIkCNJBOVGOt84yYN4JrbpLZftZuIwjivVPlWu5fDV1-16t7pQhhBi3a4Q9QLve-YJEpu97l8kqK8YgXScAjHc7T7oQyGeT2ZOQL9787BtnEK_htuFf26saL/s1600/TOB-C7.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="559" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizGvvhRJeQXNN19XOIqmlbGh5bMPUMb5Y3ef_aE-mIF-_59fg9p8xdx4zLE_LheCgDOYLm_sC5Kefn2BQn9VeX8T-pV3oUkFIeYk0W6EopJy5wQQzmCQSnv_9tOiPd7ihoYatU/s1600/TOB-C8.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizGvvhRJeQXNN19XOIqmlbGh5bMPUMb5Y3ef_aE-mIF-_59fg9p8xdx4zLE_LheCgDOYLm_sC5Kefn2BQn9VeX8T-pV3oUkFIeYk0W6EopJy5wQQzmCQSnv_9tOiPd7ihoYatU/s1600/TOB-C8.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="551" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3erycRG4R86uaTARqckTIagXwJsMUvGgxpSllQ9LJVayGzrkDk9m4JwMLstaSW-Qn9wIwaV01RYLEWm_LbGmPGosrMmwtLHfNg_6dU16qnaNOMagAHhbCmQ158wTUAsXINVDs/s1600/TOB-C9.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3erycRG4R86uaTARqckTIagXwJsMUvGgxpSllQ9LJVayGzrkDk9m4JwMLstaSW-Qn9wIwaV01RYLEWm_LbGmPGosrMmwtLHfNg_6dU16qnaNOMagAHhbCmQ158wTUAsXINVDs/s1600/TOB-C9.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="867" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Sh3Dd4HlSK2s9tPYYC4H1FMiw4CCFx3rM-JUU8C3v2VtqLYIzexsO2NFqfQVtygfUxA9J139KHF31zTMBhEWrITg6fbONB8kU-PK6FVf8rmimVfy2oRs08Ps6lVDNA6nYzwA/s1600/TOB-C10.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Sh3Dd4HlSK2s9tPYYC4H1FMiw4CCFx3rM-JUU8C3v2VtqLYIzexsO2NFqfQVtygfUxA9J139KHF31zTMBhEWrITg6fbONB8kU-PK6FVf8rmimVfy2oRs08Ps6lVDNA6nYzwA/s1600/TOB-C10.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="577" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYi2UeNBO_de4treEeV4hd7ssIpCEyV68dZtakg4q3qQ4FizPAUABDBfICc5zYV1MG8Z8Fj92-zuEDvJgmQVHINE1q6B-6tryEb2GhnY6c-gbQjtbRAyK8svvPdn04MtKET6Ou/s1600/TOB-C11.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYi2UeNBO_de4treEeV4hd7ssIpCEyV68dZtakg4q3qQ4FizPAUABDBfICc5zYV1MG8Z8Fj92-zuEDvJgmQVHINE1q6B-6tryEb2GhnY6c-gbQjtbRAyK8svvPdn04MtKET6Ou/s1600/TOB-C11.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="826" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKO2_vqCV1So44aZYzIIF6AUDIzmA2JpJ5U1iejfXNRYoN8_L3PY02TF2cxwicBFhrKjyAOx5xoaQ4NDb0RKIn7U9vElRnRzxF7s37P9fZqZiwzJRVgiXD9WDXQ8w_iTnoM_-u/s1600/TOB-C12.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKO2_vqCV1So44aZYzIIF6AUDIzmA2JpJ5U1iejfXNRYoN8_L3PY02TF2cxwicBFhrKjyAOx5xoaQ4NDb0RKIn7U9vElRnRzxF7s37P9fZqZiwzJRVgiXD9WDXQ8w_iTnoM_-u/s1600/TOB-C12.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="765" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLRsYrDo48WfAmfT_h0GYp3mSFrD0BqnD_5IVZ8_28T61v2epXFZ9aARrdPphWGvFPDs7gdLWXewzUKVFmp-nFwrmKllXlqp_206PxsMjGLkA7X908CtUTS27fuLFLMJXXPSuk/s1600/TOB-C13.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLRsYrDo48WfAmfT_h0GYp3mSFrD0BqnD_5IVZ8_28T61v2epXFZ9aARrdPphWGvFPDs7gdLWXewzUKVFmp-nFwrmKllXlqp_206PxsMjGLkA7X908CtUTS27fuLFLMJXXPSuk/s1600/TOB-C13.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="719" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbICgW-yRwGo1ke3NxN8j9Bi-0z5KvglpvdHxPF9tNS_g4QTCyPCqF6sjHpv4c84oHb7SVxPMWPj8K8Ilj-vjS3wgbpBCPJM7gzNozD5RgVuwSyuPKsC6JGFFyjeABWMUSlz3u/s1600/TOB-C14.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbICgW-yRwGo1ke3NxN8j9Bi-0z5KvglpvdHxPF9tNS_g4QTCyPCqF6sjHpv4c84oHb7SVxPMWPj8K8Ilj-vjS3wgbpBCPJM7gzNozD5RgVuwSyuPKsC6JGFFyjeABWMUSlz3u/s1600/TOB-C14.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="786" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZZV9DTlJlEQw45S7-ftGSJHvuPt1R82JTRWkjWDgOoovE7VMJ3jg7B9Ir5qm0TN2XpQSm8uEGxuf43HivUQB_Y0KRN3lcwExZ87wO04T1CbAwM5z7SSisn2HsJTuP4Dm8dSR/s1600/TOB-C15.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZZV9DTlJlEQw45S7-ftGSJHvuPt1R82JTRWkjWDgOoovE7VMJ3jg7B9Ir5qm0TN2XpQSm8uEGxuf43HivUQB_Y0KRN3lcwExZ87wO04T1CbAwM5z7SSisn2HsJTuP4Dm8dSR/s1600/TOB-C15.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="567" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2013/01/emma-peels-leather-catsuit.html"><i>Next</i></a>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2010/11/emma-peel-in-black-leather.html"><i>Previous</i></a>
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-36661606876500514042011-12-07T16:50:00.000-06:002017-07-18T23:02:18.690-05:00Emma Peel in Black Leather<b>Emma Peel</b> is world famous for her zippered black leather catsuit, which was featured in the <a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2009/12/steed-mrs-peel-opening.html">opening</a> and <a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2009/12/steed-mrs-peel-closing.html">closing</a> segments of her first season on <i>The Avengers</i>. Curiously, despite the iconic status of this costume in the realm of television adventure, no one seems to know who actually created it. Fashion designer John Bates is celebrated for the avant-garde outfits he designed for Diana Rigg to wear on the show, but he was not hired until the season was well underway. And in fact, after his arrival, Rigg no longer wore the leather fighting suit in the episodes themselves.
<br />
<br />
In her 1997 book <i>Fetish: Fashion, Sex, and Power</i>, Valerie Steele suggests that Emma Peel’s costume was inspired by the work of prominent fetish fashion designer John Sutcliffe, whose leather outfits were popularized through his magazine <i>AtomAge</i>. Though Sutcliffe was not directly involved in the program, producers Julian Wintle and Brian Clemens were certainly familiar with his ideas. Furthermore, Steele claims that the producers originally intended Mrs. Peel to wear a leather hood and facemask with her catsuit, but then changed their minds. No source is cited for this statement, so I don’t know where she got this curious bit of information.
<br />
<br />
The credits on the episodes pre-dating Bates’s arrival name wardrobe supervisor Jackie Jackson, whose job it was to provide costumes for the actors to wear. If anyone were to know the actual origin of Emma Peel’s most famous outfit, I suppose it would be she.
<br />
<br />
Below, Mrs. Peel makes like a thief in the night in a photo-comic based on “Dial a Deadly Number,” which premiered in December 1965. Diana Rigg wears the iconic catsuit as she plays opposite John Carson as the villain.
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv0DKBMx9HssxAAV1GX25bZPY9caDKXhUzC12wNXuglRf299NfGNi0_weFA9DJsuGTd7Dwka5prJUGIbzFn4sbv9wZ_2dEVZ-ErYkf5UhoxLbNfQbEzLGQPKuWrEWv1wMKlpJe/s1600/DDN-A.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv0DKBMx9HssxAAV1GX25bZPY9caDKXhUzC12wNXuglRf299NfGNi0_weFA9DJsuGTd7Dwka5prJUGIbzFn4sbv9wZ_2dEVZ-ErYkf5UhoxLbNfQbEzLGQPKuWrEWv1wMKlpJe/s1600/DDN-A.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="938" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9qz27zn9e0ZdpVtqVY2_pNEtfZFFibW4wHxC5tti5_ucmvjutRxWqnQ6Mwe063Pddhl6jqw1tYiHcK06jNVE04PMeHYa9QjCg_DWtIRpEzbkZaEpAMFkOd2ANisBMkXgwwA1c/s1600/DDN-B.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9qz27zn9e0ZdpVtqVY2_pNEtfZFFibW4wHxC5tti5_ucmvjutRxWqnQ6Mwe063Pddhl6jqw1tYiHcK06jNVE04PMeHYa9QjCg_DWtIRpEzbkZaEpAMFkOd2ANisBMkXgwwA1c/s1600/DDN-B.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="974" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_j-EdjwAITKbmnC_j6QHNhVzV4vCuQUH8J9T8dIhhlmGJd4E6tk3zRk5DsMUR30IwLxHLR4f69wxOs3BEkXdTUownP7ooNHgBn1KiJJ-daOogcXwrCKXmu5IhbyklCbRvV-nM/s1600/DDN-C.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_j-EdjwAITKbmnC_j6QHNhVzV4vCuQUH8J9T8dIhhlmGJd4E6tk3zRk5DsMUR30IwLxHLR4f69wxOs3BEkXdTUownP7ooNHgBn1KiJJ-daOogcXwrCKXmu5IhbyklCbRvV-nM/s1600/DDN-C.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="584" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJOdUusbcRX-IOEN9FZXpnVMwBobMg5KyTt99mNAThN7iEIb1wiubGF6cEp83C4qws5mhith3aLo7kWCv5kpeldRAPwLb6CjTiYnMminbJQ-D5-xaLoGaJ9SdKPQmP55zQL4sc/s1600/DDN-D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJOdUusbcRX-IOEN9FZXpnVMwBobMg5KyTt99mNAThN7iEIb1wiubGF6cEp83C4qws5mhith3aLo7kWCv5kpeldRAPwLb6CjTiYnMminbJQ-D5-xaLoGaJ9SdKPQmP55zQL4sc/s1600/DDN-D.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="659" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhilOYi8HJlHh-nv6jWmLOgXDiFmviDozAOzsw1DbT2RzpohpfaiKU-uD8lKFyiXDkXp9K48dHv9rDLRs-EZlcAoSkzfskxjmnSfB3xCBT3-DiKx5G-Zhn_11bU1_XPt4YKHJ1s/s1600/DDN-E.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhilOYi8HJlHh-nv6jWmLOgXDiFmviDozAOzsw1DbT2RzpohpfaiKU-uD8lKFyiXDkXp9K48dHv9rDLRs-EZlcAoSkzfskxjmnSfB3xCBT3-DiKx5G-Zhn_11bU1_XPt4YKHJ1s/s1600/DDN-E.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="627" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSxu7LZMY572IggKPT1VWRmmBTymZC1HYyHQidcSw1IbgefKIpI6X_tUfNFjvNEJ4wJ0cxcSXGRm3k_J7h7mNvdWunoYPLm5nSN8L_val34QOgow_L9pKYevzvMKSsZ4ejFhsm/s1600/DDN-F.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSxu7LZMY572IggKPT1VWRmmBTymZC1HYyHQidcSw1IbgefKIpI6X_tUfNFjvNEJ4wJ0cxcSXGRm3k_J7h7mNvdWunoYPLm5nSN8L_val34QOgow_L9pKYevzvMKSsZ4ejFhsm/s1600/DDN-F.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="859" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQZzUe90HlY9UlPVm-mmfz_MgBZPS0rvQLPjMTXTwlUUtbmi5Iz3hWlWBUpt6df3qdNUhVDKfvEuyvWbHo56RqUXYskS0Njtk62SRk5yEcR-KOXToRzf3-CiLO7-xvps8s3yKd/s1600/DDN-G.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQZzUe90HlY9UlPVm-mmfz_MgBZPS0rvQLPjMTXTwlUUtbmi5Iz3hWlWBUpt6df3qdNUhVDKfvEuyvWbHo56RqUXYskS0Njtk62SRk5yEcR-KOXToRzf3-CiLO7-xvps8s3yKd/s1600/DDN-G.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="956" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXVxchGLBOYMF-fId7ZblLTcF3lZHF0-CerIQVY76Yycg_YxwHpIheKoJdgPMjcxjEL_Gk-xn8RGZGnc5gSMX5K-yeIajCGxbsw9fezBxM5st8zlN3jMAfT9BzX5Pp3Kbd1lf_/s1600/DDN-H.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXVxchGLBOYMF-fId7ZblLTcF3lZHF0-CerIQVY76Yycg_YxwHpIheKoJdgPMjcxjEL_Gk-xn8RGZGnc5gSMX5K-yeIajCGxbsw9fezBxM5st8zlN3jMAfT9BzX5Pp3Kbd1lf_/s1600/DDN-H.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="712" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh62TBbNraF0lYIeTfbAm9-MJCld3Fd3-zAXtrmh-bnlVfbltlDeUk5qCouRCF7_YcAoIDidM4WtGIVKxPdFUq3M8FOQ_U1m4XP7hSNJYvW3aYQRw_LbGONaBkZNKLt8rXayyl6/s1600/DDN-I.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh62TBbNraF0lYIeTfbAm9-MJCld3Fd3-zAXtrmh-bnlVfbltlDeUk5qCouRCF7_YcAoIDidM4WtGIVKxPdFUq3M8FOQ_U1m4XP7hSNJYvW3aYQRw_LbGONaBkZNKLt8rXayyl6/s1600/DDN-I.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="788" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGcahFN6ekqe3Vz1k0RCSfGSYRKzcjZvaJi8L-y_jeM0MTc3WqLOdmahSbjq4rVEWSYIy5q0LLZEVYZYP09T4intNOPz6KgbBvYBZGRYWNrLY98c-u4fVaHkG1HV_c9LzzR66/s1600/DDN-J.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGcahFN6ekqe3Vz1k0RCSfGSYRKzcjZvaJi8L-y_jeM0MTc3WqLOdmahSbjq4rVEWSYIy5q0LLZEVYZYP09T4intNOPz6KgbBvYBZGRYWNrLY98c-u4fVaHkG1HV_c9LzzR66/s1600/DDN-J.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="896" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFvrOWvqICUWv2Q0XqUs6oPMxSm5GWeZadbn-xJn57bcDnX9IRaZqhpdsgLsYsj7P0NiPOs9jnowlFyccXV4giDA7eDlmidPoUVUf6uwoxhwMkz0rM5oSfU2iGPSe1GNADSdoo/s1600/DDN-K.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFvrOWvqICUWv2Q0XqUs6oPMxSm5GWeZadbn-xJn57bcDnX9IRaZqhpdsgLsYsj7P0NiPOs9jnowlFyccXV4giDA7eDlmidPoUVUf6uwoxhwMkz0rM5oSfU2iGPSe1GNADSdoo/s1600/DDN-K.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="293" /></a>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2012/03/emma-peel-queen-of-sin.html"><i>Next</i></a>
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-40834850893286533502011-09-22T10:13:00.000-05:002017-07-19T11:23:45.674-05:00Hitler Surrenders<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>HITLER SURRENDERS, Says “We Were Only Foolin’”
</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">BERLIN—Adolf Hitler offered a conditional surrender today, telling Allied leaders that Germany was “only foolin’” when they invaded Poland and was “just messin’ wit’” France during the occupation. He reportedly told General Eisenhower to “lighten up,” saying, “try to crack a smile, your face won’t break in half, I promise.” He went on to castigate Allied commanders for “makin’ a big deal out of everything.”
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The German Chancellor claimed that the Nazi party itself was “a gag” intended to “get the goats” of left-wing intellectuals, and that the Axis Alliance merely represented those in on the jape. He explained, “Mussolini understood my humor. He ‘got’ it. Hirohito, well, I was never sure if he was smiling because he thought it was funny or because he didn’t understand a word I said.”
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Hitler described the systematic murder of several million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other ‘undesirables’ as “a practical joke,” saying, “Maybe it was in poor taste. But jeez, these days you have to be Sourpuss McHumorless or have the Political Correctness police jump down your throat!”
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels added, “Everyone knows the Allies have no sense of humor.”
</span><br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-65431325592291251092011-08-24T13:50:00.003-05:002017-07-18T15:34:56.578-05:00A Strange HoroscopeThere’s been some controversy in astrological circles since scientists pointed out that the stars have significantly shifted since the zodiac was first described many centuries ago. Certain parties have even suggested revisions, including new signs and symbols, to bring astrology back in line with astronomy. These ideas have been largely rejected by the purveyors of traditional horoscopes. However, such problems are unavoidable when trying to reconcile a static system rooted in tradition with the chaotic, ever-changing universe surrounding the Planet Earth. These inconsistencies will only worsen with time, especially as science increases our understanding of the true nature of outer space.
<br />
<br />Therefore, perhaps the time has come to abandon the well-worn zodiac, with its curious menagerie of animals, chimera, people, and inanimate objects. A much more reliable system can be devised using instead the various mystical powers invoked by Marvel Comics’ resident Sorcerer Supreme, <strong>Doctor Strange</strong>. Not tied to the physical universe we can observe through telescopes, this system cannot be so easily debunked.
<br />
<br />In order to be as helpful as possible, I have prepared a sample horoscope using this new mystical cosmology. I’m sure you will find its words of advice to be eerily relevant to your own life!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><strong>CYTORRAK</strong>
<br /><em>March 21—April 20</em>
<br />
<br />You may feel like you’re stuck with some pretty tough restraints, but this doesn’t mean you should be seeing red. Constraints are not always a bad thing, for often they force you to be more creative. In the end, you may find yourself being more effective than if you had been free to barrel ahead like a juggernaut.
<br />
<br />Element: Air
<br />Energy: Male
<br />
<br /><strong>POHLDAHK</strong>
<br /><em>April 21—May 20</em>
<br />
<br />If you’re feeling a bit like a charlatan, there may be a reason for it. Perhaps you need to polish your skills so you can reach the level of success you desire. You can’t be an in-betweener about it, though. It requires commitment.
<br />
<br />Element: Earth
<br />Energy: Female
<br />
<br /><strong>FALTINE</strong>
<br /><em>May 21—June 20</em>
<br />
<br />If you think you’ve been a bit too hot-headed lately, this may be a good time to step back and make some long-range plans. Family can often help with this process, but they can just as often be an impediment, so be careful. However, don’t take so long that you lose the fire in your belly; it’s the source of your strength.
<br />
<br />Element: Fire
<br />Energy: Male
<br />
<br /><strong>MUNNOPOR</strong>
<br /><em>June 21—July 22</em>
<br />
<br />When life starts making you feel like you’re trapped in a maze, take a moonlit stroll and make a list of 12 things you hope to accomplish. You may find it illuminating.
<br />
<br />Element: Water
<br />Energy: Female
<br />
<br /><strong>HOGGOTH</strong>
<br /><em>July 23—August 22</em>
<br />
<br />You’re not alone, so be ready if a helping hand must be given or accepted. Your wealth of experience will make you a most valuable team player, especially when the path ahead seems unclear.
<br />
<br />Element: Air
<br />Energy: Male
<br />
<br /><strong>OSHTUR</strong>
<br /><em>August 23—September 22</em>
<br />
<br />You’ll be able to accomplish anything you set your mind to if you trust in yourself. Aim for the skies, and you’ll soon feel right at home. A keen eye and a steady hand will help you hit the target, so take good care of yourself. Remember, there’s no such thing as “too smart.”
<br />
<br />Element: Earth
<br />Energy: Female
<br />
<br /><strong>AGAMOTTO</strong>
<br /><em>September 23—October 22</em>
<br />
<br />You have a vision of your current project, and no one can see it as clearly as you. Trust your own innate wisdom and let your mental “third eye” guide you. You don’t need a crystal ball to know where you need to direct your energies. Whether you see yourself as a lion or a caterpillar, you can be a leader.
<br />
<br />Element: Fire
<br />Energy: Male
<br />
<br /><strong>IKONN</strong>
<br /><em>October 23—November 21</em>
<br />
<br />Don’t be fooled by imitations, and accept no substitutes, especially when it comes to friendship. People may try to get the better of you, but you can see right through them. Watch how the phonies fade away when you start calling them out for their deceptions.
<br />
<br />Element: Water
<br />Energy: Female
<br />
<br /><strong>WATOOMB</strong>
<br /><em>November 22—December 21</em>
<br />
<br />A breezy manner and a light, effervescent personality may be your best defense when storms blow up, as they inevitably do. Remember, the right attitude can accomplish more than any magic wand.
<br />
<br />Element: Air
<br />Energy: Male
<br />
<br /><strong>RAGGADORR</strong>
<br /><em>December 22—January 20</em>
<br />
<br />If someone is raining on your parade, you don’t need to go over to the dark side. A sudden change of direction may be all that’s needed, and you’ll soon be running rings around your competitors.
<br />
<br />Element: Earth
<br />Energy: Female
<br />
<br /><strong>NIRVALON</strong>
<br /><em>January 21—February 19</em>
<br />
<br />Things can seem pretty dark at times, and others may be counting on you to light the way. However, you can accomplish much more working with your significant other than you’ll ever be able to do by yourself. Help each other to be knights in shining armor.
<br />
<br />Element: Fire
<br />Energy: Male
<br />
<br /><strong>VALTORR</strong>
<br /><em>February 20—March 20</em>
<br />
<br />When life gets murky, it can be hard to tell right from wrong. Watch out for the snake-in-the-grass who comes in friendship but means to lead you astray, and, more importantly, make sure you’re not the viper in someone else’s bosom.
<br />
<br />Element: Water
<br />Energy: Female
<br />
<br />
<br />In the name of the Venerated, Everlasting Vishanti, so mote it be!
<br />
<br />
<br /><span></span>Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-31028115558798372152011-07-25T14:22:00.000-05:002017-07-18T15:35:09.508-05:00Marvel Universe Relaunch!In my <a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2011/07/reboot-marvel-universe.html">previous post</a>, I suggested that the time had come for Marvel to reboot their comic book universe. Rather than start completely from scratch, though, I thought Marvel would do better with a starting point developed by updating where the <a href="http://originalmarveluniverse.blogspot.com/">Original Marvel Universe</a> stood just before the Fantastic Four first gained their superpowers. Thus, I outlined the “current” circumstances of over 240 characters, which offered myriad tantalizing story possibilities. I thought this would serve as a firm foundation on which to rebuild a shared universe in the tradition started by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and all the others who contributed.<br />
<br />
As I continued to think about it, I realized this was just the first step. As others have done, I came up with a plan to relaunch the entire line of Marvel Comics as a response to DC’s recent “New 52” initiative. For what it’s worth, here’s how I would do it.<br />
<br />
Fifty-two being an arbitrary number, and somewhat unwieldy, I would trim it down to forty titles a month, released ten per week. This isn’t too far off from Marvel’s current output of regular ongoing titles. Next, I felt variety was extremely important -- variety of subject matter, tone, genre -- which has been sorely lacking in the tunnel-vision strategy of mainstream comics for some time. This also keeps readers from feeling they need to buy all 40 titles to keep up with what’s going on. Some are more interconnected, more “plugged in” to the shared universe, than others. Some can easily stand alone, though all share common elements that reward taking a completist, or “big picture” approach to collecting. A “win-win” for everybody.<br />
<br />
Also, many of the titles below would be designed to have a limited life-span, to be replaced by “all-new, all-different” properties after they’d run their course. This would help keep things fresh as the new Marvel Universe rocketed onwards and upwards.<br />
<br />
If it were up to me, I would relaunch the Marvel Universe as follows:<br />
<br />
<b><u>FIRST WEEK</u></b><br />
<br />
<b>1. Fantastic Four</b><br />
While testing an experimental warp-drive spacecraft in high Earth orbit, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Sue Storm, and her brother Johnny Storm are exposed to strange energies that transform them into something more than human. Celebrated as the Fantastic Four, they use their superpowers to explore the world’s most mysterious places, and battle whatever weird menaces they find there.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Spider-Man</b><br />
High school student Peter Parker receives superhuman abilities in a bizarre laboratory accident, and does what any self-respecting teenager would do: he tries to cash in! Unfortunately, his show-biz career as the mysterious Spider-Man is cut short by personal tragedy, forcing Peter to learn a bitter lesson about responsibility. Desperate to earn money as a news photographer, Peter uses his Spider-Man identity to get spectacular shots of New York’s most infamous criminals, whom he invariably ends up fighting.<br />
<br />
<b>3. X-Men</b><br />
Professor Charles Xavier has created a school for mutants, where he trains his first class of students in the use of their uncanny powers. Fearing persecution, the students have adopted the codenames Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman, Beast, Banshee, Havok, and Polaris. Xavier dreams of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants, but realizes his students may have to fight for their place in a world that hates and fears them.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Iron Man</b><br />
Tony Stark has felt like a target since his parents died under mysterious circumstances, leaving him in charge of the family business, an international technology firm. When he is nearly killed during a kidnapping scheme, Stark constructs an invincible suit of high-tech battle armor and swears he’ll never be vulnerable again.<br />
<br />
<b>5. Thor</b><br />
Thor, son of Odin and prince of Asgard, has been banished to Earth because of his bad attitude. Good for Asgard, bad for Earth. This is one thunder god who doesn’t suffer fools gladly, least of all foolish mortals. His hair-trigger temper and unstoppable magic war-hammer spell trouble for anyone who gets in his way. But learning to be a better man is his only hope of returning home. The beautiful emergency-room doctor Jane Foster wants to help, but can she survive the chaos that surrounds Thor long enough to try?<br />
<br />
<b>6. Hulk</b><br />
A laboratory accident turns withdrawn scientist Bruce Banner into the ultimate Jekyll & Hyde. His green-skinned alter-ego Hulk is a distorted mirror image: physically strong but morally weak, and may prove to be the most dangerous man on the planet. After Hulk makes a shambles of Banner’s life, the fugitive scientist goes on the run, trying to keep his inescapable “enemy within” from hurting anyone else.<br />
<br />
<b>7. Black Panther</b><br />
The noble king of the prosperous African nation of Wakanda, T’Challa, the Black Panther, upholds his sacred duty to protect his people’s greatest treasure, the unique substance called vibranium. He’ll need all his intelligence, cunning, and fighting skills to fend off spies, mercenaries, and thieves from every corner of the globe. He soon discovers, however, that his greatest enemies may lurk within his own government.<br />
<br />
<b>8. Ant-Man & Wasp</b><br />
Pym particles are the key to all superpowers, but only one man understands how they work: Dr. Henry Pym, the molecular biologist who discovered them. Of course he becomes a target for every terrorist group, subversive organization, and two-bit crook with delusions of grandeur. However, the wealthy young socialite Janet Van Dyne has taken a shine to Dr. Pym and is determined to keep him from meeting the same tragic fate suffered by her renowned scientist father. When Pym’s wife Maria is murdered by his enemies, he agrees to empower Van Dyne and himself to fight back. As Ant-Man and the Wasp, this unlikely couple finds action, adventure, and romance!<br />
<br />
<b>9. Black Widow</b><br />
International superspy Natasha Romanova goes rogue when her handlers try to have her killed after a botched operation. She searches for allies she can trust while tracking down and getting revenge on the men who betrayed her.<br />
<br />
<b>10. Tales from the Swamp</b><br />
An anthology of strange tales of suspense featuring a rotating cast of eccentrics in the steamy swamps of the southern United States. In the Florida everglades, disgraced biochemist Ted Sallis agrees to help Dr. Wilma Calvin re-develop the lost “super-soldier” serum of World War II, unaware that his sexy girlfriend, Ellen Brandt, is working for a subversive organization. Her meddling causes Sallis to be transformed into a terrifying monstrosity called the Man-Thing. Meanwhile, not far away, young sorceress Jennifer Kale explores the astonishing alternate worlds she finds within a spacetime rift called the Nexus of All Realities. Elsewhere, Jericho Drumm battles zombies in the bayous of New Orleans and southern Louisiana.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>SECOND WEEK</u></b><br />
<br />
<b>11. Doctor Strange</b><br />
Master sorcerer Stephen Strange protects the earth from all manner of mystical menaces as he travels the world collecting occult artifacts. Whether he’s exploring mind-boggling alternate dimensions or fighting off demons and monsters, the dashing Doctor Strange knows how to use magic with style.<br />
<br />
<b>12. Hawkeye</b><br />
Former carnival performer Clint Barton uses his unparalleled skill with a bow-and-arrow as a modern-day Robin Hood on the streets of Chicago. He is equally adept at busting corrupt corporations and protecting the people from street crime, all while living according to his mantra: free-wheeling, free-loving, and freeloading!<br />
<br />
<b>13. Logan</b><br />
The Canadian secret agent known only as Logan is the best there is at what he does, and what he does is covert-ops! A mysterious experiment stripped him of his memories, but left him with an unbreakable skeleton and razor-sharp claws that can slice through anything. His most closely guarded secret is that he is a mutant with enhanced animal-like senses and the ability to rapidly heal any wound. The rough-and-tumble Logan frequently crosses paths with straight-shooting CIA agents Carol Danvers and Michael Rossi, as well as their gruff superior, Nick Fury, in the course of his globe-spanning missions.<br />
<br />
<b>14. Inhumans</b><br />
Since the dawn of time, the Inhumans have dwelled apart from humanity in the lost city of Attilan, hidden deep in the Himalayas. Each member of their race possesses a devastating super-power, which makes ruling them a challenge for their young king, Black Bolt. Palace intrigue and Machiavellian machinations are the order of the day as Black Bolt pursues the beautiful princess Medusa while fending off his traitorous brother Maximus. But how long can the Inhumans hide their existence from the world outside?<br />
<br />
<b>15. Department H</b><br />
As head of a secret project within the Canadian Ministry of Defense, James MacDonald Hudson has been tasked with creating the perfect superhero to protect his nation and its people. High-tech research & development, radical biochemical experiments, tracking down mutants, and even magic and mysticism are all fair game as Hudson and his team seek to accomplish their mission.<br />
<br />
<b>16. Ka-Zar</b><br />
Since he was a boy, Kevin Plunder has been lost in the mysterious Savage Land at the bottom of the world. Now calling himself Ka-Zar, this brutal and savage young man sets out to conquer his jungle home before he is enslaved by its bloodthirsty inhabitants or eaten by its prehistoric flora and fauna. But the greatest threat of all may prove to come in the form of beautiful scientist Bobbi Morse, the last survivor of a doomed expedition who sees Ka-Zar as her only hope of getting home alive.<br />
<br />
<b>17. Mystique</b><br />
Mutant shape-changer Raven Darkholme is perhaps the world’s most devastatingly effective covert operative, due to her ability to precisely mimic the appearance of anyone she meets. However, when she stumbles on a top-secret multinational initiative to build mutant-hunting robots called Sentinels, her priorities change. Raven begins investigating the Sentinel project while continuing her government missions, knowing that tipping her hand could make her lover, Irene Adler, a target.<br />
<br />
<b>18. Patsy Walker</b><br />
Former reality-TV child-star Patsy Walker is having difficulty settling into life as a celebrity “has-been,” a process not made any easier by her vicious and demanding “stage mom,” Dorothy. Patsy’s sunny, Orange County lifestyle suddenly takes a dark and frightening turn when dabbling in the occult gets her involved with a mysterious orphan named Daimon Hellstrom.<br />
<br />
<b>19. Where Monsters Dwell</b><br />
FBI agent Jimmy Woo takes the cases no one else will touch: crimes so gruesome they could only be committed by inhuman monsters. Jimmy has learned the hard way that humans are not necessarily at the top of the food chain, especially after the sun goes down.<br />
<br />
<b>20. Werewolf by Night</b><br />
High school student Jake Russoff has a problem. He’s a werewolf. Luckily his mother, Laura, and his step-father, Philip, know all about it, because Jake’s father was a werewolf too, until the night a silver bullet brought him down. Jake has another problem: his annoying little sister Lyssa. She’s not a werewolf yet, but in a few years, who knows? Jake is ready to run away and lose himself in the Sierra Madre Mountains when he meets a mysterious teen beauty named Topaz Taboo, who tells him if he helps her find an ancient book of spells called the Darkhold, it contains the cure for his curse. Topaz then leads Jake into a dangerous world, where he finds there are worse things than being a werewolf.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>THIRD WEEK</u></b><br />
<br />
<b>21. Avengers</b><br />
There are some menaces too great for any single superhero to withstand. Thus, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, and Wasp band together as the Avengers. Their first mission leads them to recruit both the Black Panther and Hawkeye, as the renegade robot Ultron and its spectral android servant the Vision try to steal a sample of vibranium from the University of Chicago. A loose-knit, ever-changing membership roster allows the Avengers to respond to all manner of threats with just the right force. Captain America, the Black Widow, Hercules, and others soon join their ranks as well.<br />
<br />
<b>22. Sub-Mariner</b><br />
Prince Namor is forced to leave his undersea kingdom of Atlantis to search the ocean depths for three ancient artifacts: Neptune’s Trident, the Sword of Kamuu, and the jewel known as the Eye of Zartra. However, the despotic warlord Krang is determined that Namor’s quest should fail. Mystery and adventure await as young Namor tries to prove himself worthy of being the one, true Sub-Mariner.<br />
<br />
<b>23. Captain Marvel</b><br />
The world believes Captain Marvel to be one of its greatest superheroes. No one suspects he is really a spy for the galaxy-spanning Kree Empire. His mission is to test earth’s super-powered population, to determine who will be allowed to serve the Kree and who must be destroyed when their invasion armada eventually arrives. What better way to do that than to help superheroes battle supervillains? Only one thing threatens his mission: his own emerging sense of justice.<br />
<br />
<b>24. Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants</b><br />
The mutant known as Magneto knows a war with mainstream humanity is inevitable, and it’s a war he is determined that mutants will win. As such, he has rallied a group of militant mutants to his cause: Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Mastermind, Toad, Pyro, Gypsy Moth, Mesmero, and Unus the Untouchable. Though strong-willed and fractious, Magneto believes they may be mutantkind’s last, best hope for survival.<br />
<br />
<b>25. Hercules</b><br />
Bored with life in eternal Olympus, Hercules has defied the edict of his father Zeus and come to earth in search of adventure. His love of wine, women, and song quickly earns him as many admirers as do his amazing heroics. But he must stay one step ahead of the implacable Huntsman the gods have dispatched to drag Hercules home. Like all challenges, Hercules meets this one with a hearty laugh.<br />
<br />
<b>26. Sunfire</b><br />
Teenaged Shiro Yoshida hates living in New York, but his father’s job at the United Nations gives him no choice. His attitude begins to change when he manifests mutant powers that enable him to fly and shoot flames from his body, inspiring him to become the brash superhero Sunfire.<br />
<br />
<b>27. Cable</b><br />
The mysterious cyborg soldier-of-fortune known as Cable knows something bad is going to happen in the year 2025, because he’s traveled back in time to stop it. Unfortunately, he arrived twenty-five years early and has been forced to live in an era that seems very primitive to him, while trying to pick up the threads of his original mission. His inscrutable motives make Cable shockingly unpredictable as he tries to avert the coming global catastrophe.<br />
<br />
<b>28. Mantis</b><br />
Though only a teenager, the girl called Mantis may be the world’s greatest practitioner of the martial arts, and she will need all of her skill as she leaves the temple of the Priests of Pama to search her native Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia for her missing father, a German mercenary named Brandt. Her unique philosophy makes Mantis an enigma to everyone she meets, from international financiers to drug-smugglers and pirates. But those who underestimate this young girl soon regret it.<br />
<br />
<b>29. Red Wolf</b><br />
Will Talltrees joined the military to escape life on an Indian Reservation in Montana, and is now a member of Navy SEAL Team 11, performing special-ops missions around the globe. Will has a unique advantage over his fellow SEALs, though—the mystical entity Owayodata appears to him in the form of a red wolf to guide him in times of danger.<br />
<br />
<b>30. Tomb of Dracula</b><br />
Dracula, Lord of Vampires, is revived after a century entombed in his castle in Transylvania, and is horrified to discover that the modern world has nearly wiped out all the other vampires. He sets out to rebuild his legions of the undead, despite the opposition of expert vampire hunters like the elderly Quincy Harker and his young assistant Rachel Van Helsing. Dracula’s personal code of honor and air of sophistication belie his ruthless, savage instincts, and he knows how to use the seductive power of evil to his advantage.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>FOURTH WEEK</u></b><br />
<br />
<b>31. Captain America</b><br />
The lost hero of World War II is found frozen solid in the Arctic, but miraculously revives upon being thawed out, due to the legendary “super-soldier” serum that made him the ultimate fighting man. Now a man out of time, Steve Rogers must find a place in this daunting world of the future, while bringing old-fashioned justice to criminals of every stripe.<br />
<br />
<b>32. Daredevil</b><br />
Blind attorney Matt Murdock has made a reputation for himself with his skillful defense of super-villains who are brought to trial. However, using the hypersenses he developed in a freak childhood accident, he has also become the masked vigilante Daredevil, to ensure that justice is done, whether in the courtroom or on the streets.<br />
<br />
<b>33. Ghost Rider</b><br />
For most people, the Ghost Rider is a legend they tell around campfires, a frightening skull-headed demon said to haunt the loneliest back roads of America. But for Johnny Blaze, the legend is horrifyingly real, for Blaze is the Ghost Rider, cursed to wander the highways and byways of North America on a flaming motorcycle, searching for evildoers to punish with his soul-searing hellfire.<br />
<br />
<b>34. Falcon</b><br />
Los Angeles street gang member Sam Wilson turned to crime in the wake of his parents’ unsolved murders, but now his 13-year-old nephew Jim has convinced him to make up for his past misdeeds. Adopting the masked identity of the Falcon, Sam uses his insider’s knowledge to thwart the crimes of both his and rival gangs. It’s a dangerous game as Sam must protect his secret identity at all costs, or see young Jim pay the price.<br />
<br />
<b>35. Punisher</b><br />
Frank Castle returns from his tour of duty in the U.S. Marine Corps only to witness his wife and daughter gunned down by mobsters. He dedicates himself to a one-man war on crime, using all his military skill and hardware to become the fearsome Punisher.<br />
<br />
<b>36. Moon Knight</b><br />
Marc Spector is a special-ops commando for the United States Marine Corps with a gift for unconventional warfare. Deployed to hotspots around the world, Spector battles terrorists, insurgents, traffickers, and anyone else who threatens America or its interests. His personal code of honor and preference for striking by night have earned him the codename Moon Knight.<br />
<br />
<b>37. Nekra</b><br />
Nobody knows the power of hate better than Nekra Sinclair, an albino African-American goth chick who also happens to be a mutant. When she whips herself into a frenzy of negative emotions, Nekra becomes super-strong and invulnerable, as well as savagely violent, which serves her well living on the streets of Los Angeles. Her only friend is Jerome Beechman, a boy who looks like an ape but can bend women to his will using his mutant pheromones. Life is a bitter struggle for survival for these two teenaged outcasts, who are determined to live free or die.<br />
<br />
<b>38. S.H.I.E.L.D.</b><br />
As head of the new clandestine agency S.H.I.E.L.D., Alan Chamberlain is responsible for keeping America’s ever-growing superhuman population under control, and he’s going to do it by the book. Unfortunately, the terrorist group HYDRA, led by Wolfgang Von Strucker, has other ideas, and they’ve got Chamberlain in their sights. Besieged on all sides, will S.H.I.E.L.D. survive the forces seeking to tear it apart?<br />
<br />
<b>39. Masters of Evil</b><br />
From his hidden lair in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil, mercenary Helmut Zemo has decided to create an unstoppable army of super-villains. He’ll use any means necessary to imbue his unscrupulous recruits with the requisite superpowers, which leads them on a worldwide campaign of murder and extortion. With Nathan Garrett, Erik Josten, Sergei Kravinoff, Karla Sofen, Elihas Starr, and Calvin Zabo willing to do whatever it takes, Zemo’s Masters of Evil quickly become a force to be reckoned with.<br />
<br />
<b>40. Sword of Atlantis</b><br />
In the twilight years of the legendary Age of Atlantis, some 20,000 years ago, Lemurian princess Zartra escapes from her Deviant captors and battles her way to freedom. With the help of the sorceress Zhered-Na, she seeks to forge an alliance with Prince Kamuu of Atlantis, the only kingdom still unconquered by the subhuman Deviants. Encountering vampires, werewolves, and the enigmatic Eternals, Zartra relies on her warrior skills to get her safely from one adventure to the next.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Of course, even the best approaches can be wrecked by poor execution, such as “writing for the trade,” and whether the current editors and creators at Marvel would be capable of turning around the company’s declining fortunes is open for debate. I might just have to fire everybody and get all new people in there to make my idea work. Well, almost everybody.<br />
<br />
Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-87476974670522923462011-07-01T12:32:00.005-05:002017-07-18T15:35:20.589-05:00Reboot the Marvel Universe!With DC Comics hyping the upcoming relaunch of their entire line of superhero titles, perhaps this would be the ideal time to <span style="font-weight: bold;">reboot the Marvel Universe</span> as well. After 50 years, Marvel continuity is a big mess, and rather than just piling on more events, more revelations, and more retcons, I think they should just take the opportunity to chuck it all out and start over again. Marvel actually considered taking such drastic action around the time of their 25th anniversary, but decided against it. Curiously, DC did do a major continuity reboot at that time, spearheaded in their mega-crossover series <i>Crisis on Infinite Earths</i>. Well, I think the day has finally come for Marvel to follow suit. In 2011, the stars have aligned and historical patterns have overlapped, making now the perfect moment to forge a brand-new Marvel Universe.<br />
<br />
Rather than start with a completely blank slate, however, I would advise building the new Marvel Universe on a solid foundation based on the <a href="http://originalmarveluniverse.blogspot.com/"><b>Original Marvel Universe</b></a>, and structuring it to forego the infamous “sliding time-scale” to proceed instead in “real-time.” Forget “the Illusion of Change” and let the characters grow and evolve so they remain fresh and interesting as the years go by. If it was good enough for Stan Lee in the 1960s, it should be good enough for Marvel in the 21st century.<br />
<br />
In order to be as helpful as possible, I present a handy “Who’s Who” guide to the new versions of the characters, where we would find them today, and some of the backstory that the new continuity can germinate from. <br />
<br />
It would not be necessary to force the new Marvel Universe to develop strictly along the lines chosen by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (and all those who followed in their footsteps). Instead, take the information below and let your imagination run wild!<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<b>The New Marvel Universe—2011</b></div>
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Aarkus</span> was a green-skinned alien from another dimension who was drawn to earth in 1940 by Dr. Enoch Mason, a scientist. Dubbed “The Vision” by the press, Aarkus fought crime until becoming disgusted with the human race. In 1943, he returned to his home dimension and has not been seen since.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">St. John Allerdyce</span> is an Australian journalist with a couple of novels to his credit. He is also secretly a mutant with the ability to control and manipulate fire.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">David Angar</span> is a radical social activist in San Francisco, California.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Amara Aquilla</span> is the 5-year-old daughter of Senator Lucius Antonius Aquilla in Nova Roma, a lost colony of the Roman Empire hidden deep within the Amazon rainforest. Amara is a mutant with as-yet latent geothermal powers.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Todd Arliss</span> is a 19-year-old Olympic swimmer from Pasadena, California. His older sister Diane thinks he is selfish and spoiled.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bruce Banner</span> is a 31-year-old nuclear scientist from Dayton, Ohio, who currently works for the United States Defense Department at an Air Force Base in New Mexico designing a new weapon powered by gamma radiation. In 1986, his mother was murdered by his father, who was subsequently committed to a mental institution, leaving Bruce severely traumatized. He was taken in by his aunt, and in 1998 Banner enrolled in Pennsylvania State University’s pre-med program, where he befriended a Canadian student named Walter Langkowski. After a year, however, Banner transferred to New Mexico State University to major in nuclear physics. There, he became roommates with Peter Corbeau, another science major. In 2003, Banner started graduate school at Cal-Tech. He took his job with the Defense Department in 2008 and then met the base commander, General Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross, a veteran of the Iraq War, and the general’s introverted daughter Betty, who is now 22. Banner finds Betty attractive, but is too withdrawn – and too intimidated by her father – to pursue the relationship.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Betty Barstow</span> was the secretary to a private detective named Dan Hurley. In 1941, she became a costumed crimefighter known as “The Silver Scorpion,” relying on her martial-arts skills. The following year, however, the mob discovered her secret identity and murdered her and Hurley.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Clint Barton</span> is a 20-year-old archery expert who performs at a circus under the name “Hawkeye the Marksman.” He and his older brother Barney were orphaned in 1999, and after five years in foster care in Iowa, they ran away with a traveling carnival. While Clint worked with circus performers Jacques Duquesne and Buck Chisholm to develop his skills with a bow & arrow, Barney drifted into a life of petty larceny. In 2009, Clint became very disillusioned when he discovered Duquesne stealing from the circus to pay off a gambling debt. Duquesne tried to kill him and then fled the country, but Clint survived thanks to Barney’s intervention. After recovering from his injuries, Clint returned to work and soon replaced Duquesne as the star attraction.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Georges Batroc</span> is a French mercenary and a master of <i>savate</i>, a form of kickboxing.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jeanne-Marie Beaubier</span> is a 16-year-old student at Madame DuPont’s School for Girls in LaVelle, Quebec. She was separated from her twin brother Jean-Paul after their parents were killed when he was adopted by their mother’s cousin, RCMP officer Louis Martin. The Martins could not afford to keep Jeanne-Marie as well, so they placed her in an orphanage run by nuns. After Martin was transferred to northern Quebec, the family lost contact with Jeanne-Marie and she grew up unaware of her brother’s existence. In 2009, the harsh conditions at the school led Jeanne-Marie to attempt suicide by jumping off the roof. However, her mutant powers of supersonic flight emerged and saved her life. Believing it to be a sign of divine intervention, Jeanne-Marie told the nuns what had happened, only to be punished for blasphemy. This caused Jeanne-Marie to suffer a psychotic break, entering a fugue state in which an uninhibited alternate personality took over for several days. The further punishment she received as a result caused Jeanne-Marie to repress this second personality, and she has become more withdrawn than before. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Quentin Beck</span> is a disaffected special-effects designer and stunt man working in Hollywood.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jerome Beechman</span> is a 17-year-old mutant who began to resemble a mandrill when his powers manifested at puberty. However, he also gives off powerful pheromones that allow him to control women. A runaway, he lives life on the streets with his partner, a mutant “goth chick” named Nekra Sinclair.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tania Belinskya</span> is a 27-year-old medical doctor in St. Petersburg, Russia.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Black Widow</span> was a psychic who called herself “Claire Voyant” until the demon Mephisto manipulated her into becoming an immortal killer who made evil men her victims. She disappeared during World War II and has not been seen since.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Alison Blaire</span> is a 10-year-old girl from Long Island with latent mutant abilities, who dreams of becoming a pop singer and achieving international fame and fortune.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Johnny Blaze</span> is a 17-year-old orphan from Waukegan, Illinois, who lives with his father’s old Army buddy and business partner, Craig “Crash” Simpson. Blaze’s father and Simpson started a motorcycle stunt show in 2002, but Barton Blaze was killed attempting a spectacular leap. It took two years for Johnny to overcome his fear of motorcycles and begin learning stunt-riding techniques alongside his foster sister, Roxanne Simpson. However, in 2009, Johnny Blaze crashed his bike while trying a dangerous pyrotechnic stunt, and his foster mother was fatally injured when the bike’s gas tank exploded. On her deathbed, she made Blaze promise to never ride in the stunt show, and he has tried to honor that promise ever since, though “Crash” and Roxanne both think he is just a coward.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Emil Blonsky</span> is a soldier and intelligence operative in the Croatian Army.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tandy Bowen</span> is a 7-year-old girl living with her divorced mother in Shaker Heights, Ohio, who dreams of being a dancer when she grows up.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Brian Braddock</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Elizabeth Braddock</span> are 15-year-old twins going to school in the English county of Essex. Their older brother Jamie is a famous racecar driver, and their father, James Braddock, is a noted scientist. The children are unaware that their father is from the dimension of Otherworld and is an associate of the wizard Merlyn. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Boris Bullski</span> is an officer in the Ukrainian army, known for his harsh and belligerent manner. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Carl Burgess</span> was a brilliant young District Attorney in New York City who, in 1940, became a costumed crimefighter known as “The Falcon.” However, after only a few weeks, he was beaten to death by a gang of hoods.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">William Burnside</span> discovered the formula for Abraham Erskine’s super-soldier serum during the Korean War, and offered it to the U.S. government in exchange for the chance to be the new Captain America. Burnside underwent plastic surgery and legally changed his name to Steve Rogers in preparation for his role. However, the war ended before the project could be completed, so the government cancelled the deal. Rogers, as he was now called, became a history teacher and met another Captain America fan, Jack Monroe, among his students. When a new Red Skull threatened the United Nations building in 1955, Rogers and Monroe injected themselves with his super-soldier serum and became the new Captain America and Bucky to fight him. They continued going after communist spies and other criminals until flaws in the formula caused them to suffer psychotic breakdowns in 1956. The pair began targeting anyone they considered not “pure-blooded” Americans, and were subsequently arrested by the FBI and exposed as frauds. After serving his sentence, Burnside/Rogers was institutionalized and died in a fire in 1979.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Cable</span> is a cyborg from the distant future marooned in the present day. He makes his living as a soldier-of-fortune and keeps his true identity a secret.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Davy Cannon</span> is a minor crook who uses his mutant ability to spin at high speeds to help him commit his robberies and elude capture.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jerry Carstairs</span> was a ham radio operator who tried to become a costumed crimefighter called “The Thunderer” in 1941. That winter, though, he slipped off an icy roof and fell to his death.<br />
<br />
<b>Sharon Carter</b> is a 23-year-old from Richmond, Virginia who just started her career at the Central Intelligence Agency. She is inspired by the World War II exploits of her grandmother, Peggy Carter.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sean Cassidy</span> is a 31-year-old detective in the New York Police Department. Born and raised in Ireland, he started his career with Interpol but resigned in 2008 after his wife Maeve died while he on an undercover assignment. Wanting to distance himself from painful memories, he immigrated to the United States. Since reaching puberty in 1994, he has possessed the mutant ability to create powerful sonic waves with his voice, but not wanting to be thought a “freak,” he keeps this power a secret. Cassidy is unaware that he has a 4-year-old daughter called Theresa Rourke being raised by his cousin Tom, a known criminal.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Frank Castle</span> is a 24-year-old soldier in the United States Marine Corps serving in Afghanistan. His wife and child live in New York City.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Issac Christians</span> is a 59-year-old student of the occult who serves as mayor of his hometown of Christiansboro, Virginia. After fighting in the Vietnam War, he refused to return to the United States for many years, wandering Southeast Asia and India to study with mystics and sorcerers. Eventually, his family responsibilities drew him home, but he has never gotten over his youthful resentments.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Maximilian Q. Coleridge</span> is a 22-year-old college student who has majored in law and criminology, having dedicated his life to fighting crime after his parents were gunned down by crooks in 1999. After graduation, he plans to travel to Nepal to study the martial and mystic arts.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rusty Collins</span> is a 5-year-old boy with latent mutant abilities living in Tulsa, Oklahoma.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Commandos</span> were four costumed superhuman adventurers who teamed up in 1993 to handle missions too dangerous for conventional law-enforcement or intelligence operatives. The Crimson Commando, Stonewall, Super Sabre, and the Yankee Clipper meted out their own harsh brand of justice until the Yankee Clipper was killed in action a year later. Her death led her partners to develop deep feelings of bitterness toward the world. They offered their services to the government following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 as special agents against terrorism. Knowing the trio were loose cannons, the government declined the offer and persuaded them to retire from crime-fighting. The disgruntled adventurers retreated to a private estate in New England, and have not been seen since.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Curt Connors</span> is a herpetologist who lost his right arm to a grenade while fighting in the Iraq War. In his Florida laboratory he is attempting to develop a serum to rejuvenate his lost limb, as many lizards do.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Corbeau</span> is a 32-year-old Nobel-Prize-winning scientist known for his work studying the sun. In 1999 he met Bruce Banner when they became roommates at New Mexico State University. His research on solar radiation has recently led him to correspond with Charles Xavier, an expert on mutations.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Roberto da Costa</span> is a 4-year-old boy with latent mutant abilities living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Carl “Crusher” Creel</span> is a hardened criminal doing time in the New York State Penitentiary.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Lorna Dane</span> is a 12-year-old girl in San Francisco who was adopted by her aunt and uncle after her parents were killed in an accident. She possesses latent mutant powers of manipulating magnetic fields. Though her hair is naturally green, her parents have been dying it brown since she was a small child.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Drew Daniels</span> is a 20-year-old cattle hand from Amarillo, Texas.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Carol Danvers</span> is a 26-year-old intelligence operative for the United States Air Force who grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. She has been working with her partner, Colonel Michael Rossi, since he began training her in 2003. In the last year she has started working occasionally with Nick Fury of the CIA and a Canadian intelligence agent known only as Logan.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Raven Darkholme</span> is a mutant with the ability to alter her appearance. Her natural form features indigo skin, yellow eyes, and blood-red hair. She uses her abilities to earn a living as a covert operative.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Wilbur Day</span> is an inventor and engineer from New York City, who is getting tired of being pushed around.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Esteban Diablo</span> is an alchemist who has been artificially extending his life since the mid-9th century. Though born in Spain, he had long been ruling a small province of Transylvania until 1926, when his subjects revolted and sealed him inside a massive crypt. He waited several years for his lover, Lillian von Loont, to free him, but she never did. His elixir of immortality has kept him alive ever since, though he remains hopelessly trapped. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bruce Dickson</span> was a scientist exploring the Himalayas in 1940 when he stumbled upon the lost civilization of Kalahia. The denizens of this realm used their mysterious technology to grant Dickson the ability to make his body paper-thin. He returned to America and became the costumed crimefighter known as “The Thin Man.” In 1942, he was a founding member of the Liberty Legion, which formed in order to rescue the Invaders from the Red Skull. He remained with the group until they disbanded after the war. He returned to Kalahia, only to find it had been destroyed by an old enemy, Agent Axis. Abandoning his heroic identity, Dickson spent the next forty years trying to track down Agent Axis and get revenge. He finally accomplished his goal in 1989, smothering his elderly foe to death. Dickson was charged with murder, but died before being sentenced to prison.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Max Dillon</span> is a lineman for the New York Power Authority.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Victor von Doom</span> is the 39-year-old dictator of the nation of Latveria, located in the Balkans. Known to his subjects as “Doctor Doom,” he rules through fear and the power granted him by his highly sophisticated suit of armor. The rest of the world, however, is unaware of Doom’s coup d’état and thinks Latveria is still a constitutional monarchy ruled by a prime minister. After growing up in Europe, Doom enrolled at the State University of New York in 1995, where he became rivals with another science major, Reed Richards. Doom was convinced he could develop a technology to contact his mother’s spirit in hell. Two years later, Doom was expelled after an unauthorized experiment he was conducting exploded. Seeking a mystical means to contact his dead mother, Doom traveled to Tibet, where a group of reclusive monks provided him with his first suit of armor. The mask was still red hot when Doom put it on, thus destroying his already scarred face. Some years later, Doom returned to America and engaged in a secret collaboration with Nathaniel Richards, Reed’s father, to build a time machine. Doom believed he could use the time machine to cross the dimensional barrier and reach his mother. In 2005, Richards succeeded in making the device operational, but was lost in an alternate universe. Within two years, Doom had built a copy of the device for himself and used it to acquire knowledge, wealth, and technology from the past and the future. Finally, in 2009, he seized the throne of his native country to establish a power base for his nefarious schemes.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Lemuel Dorcas</span> is a marine biologist based in Florida, interested in the potential of generic engineering.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Heather Douglas</span> is a 17-year-old native of Los Angeles being trained in the martial arts by a group of Eternals living on Saturn’s moon Titan. The Eternals are also helping Douglas develop her latent psionic powers, which has enabled her to convince herself that she is a goddess. She was taken in by the Eternals in 1998 after a renegade member of their society, Thanos, killed her parents while on a reconnaissance mission to Earth. Unknown to Heather, the Eternals changed her dead father, Arthur Douglas, into a tremendously powerful being called Drax the Destroyer, who has been battling Thanos ever since.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bobby Drake</span> is a 13-year-old boy with latent mutant powers living with his parents in Fort Washington, New York.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jessica Drew</span> was born in 1978, but due to radiation poisoning, she was placed in suspended animation in 1981 by her scientist father, Jonathan Drew, and his colleague Herbert Wyndham at their Citadel of Science on Wundagore Mountain in the tiny Balkan nation of Transia. Though she was meant to be in stasis for only a few months while an experimental treatment based on spider venom took effect, events have conspired to keep her there up to the present day. Since being placed in her stasis tube, Drew has aged at an extremely slow rate.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Anthony Druid</span> is a 38-year-old researcher of the occult and a master hypnotist.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jericho Drumm</span> is a 31-year-old psychiatrist who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He left the island in 1997 to attend college in the United States and has not returned. His twin brother, Daniel Drumm, has become the Houngan Supreme of the island of Haiti, and is known there by the title Brother Voodoo.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Zelda DuBois</span> is a snake charmer from Darlington, South Carolina, who recently hooked up with Maynard Tiboldt’s crooked circus.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fred J. Dukes</span> is a mutant from Lubbock, Texas, who works at a traveling carnival, performing a routine based on his enormous girth, invulnerability, and ability to make himself immovable. Unaware of the scientific explanation for his strange appearance and abilities, Dukes considers himself a freak of nature.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Paul Duval</span> is a chemist from Fontainebleau, France.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sybil Dvorak</span> is a 14-year-old girl from Focşani, Romania, whose mutant powers of telekinesis have recently manifested. Living with a Romani tribe, Dvorak is training herself in using her powers to manipulate fabrics and other “soft” materials.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Norbert Ebersol</span> is an unscrupulous engineer and mechanic from Dayton, Ohio, who works odd jobs while peddling his inventions to the criminal underworld.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Electro</span> was a famous robot built in 1940 by Professor Philo Zog, who used it as the main weapon of the crimebusting operation he organized and financed. A year later, Zog and most of his agents were killed when Nazi spies attempted to steal Electro for use by the Third Reich. The robot was destroyed and Zog’s laboratory exploded, burning up all his blueprints and research notes.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Enclave</span> is a group of four world-renowned scientists who began faking their own deaths in 1993 in order to withdraw from the world to pursue their shared goal of ruling the Earth. Maris Morlak, Carlo Zota, Wladyslav Shinski, and Jerome Hamilton have established a research installation on an island in the North Atlantic, completed in 2003, which they call the Beehive. Since then they have labored to discover a process by which to create artificial life in order to engineer a slave race to fight their wars of conquest for them.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jacqueline Falsworth-Crichton</span> is an 86-year-old English aristocrat who fought with the Invaders during World War II as the super-speedster known as “Spitfire.” Her father, Montgomery Falsworth, was the costumed commando called Union Jack during the First World War, an identity her brother Brian inherited in the war against Hitler. She gave up her costumed identity at the war’s end in 1945, and by the end of the decade her powers had completely faded away. In 1951 she married the British nobleman Lord Crichton, and their son, Kenneth Crichton, is now 59 years old. As far as anyone knows, Lady Crichton is the last surviving superhero from World War II.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Montgomery Falsworth</span> became the first superhero of the 20th century when in 1914 the British government asked him to become a costumed commando called “Union Jack.” Later in World War I, he joined with other masked men to form Freedom’s Five, including the Phantom Eagle, Sir Steel & Silver Squire, and La Chevalier Cramoisi. Their greatest foe was Falsworth’s own brother, a vampire who called himself Baron Blood. When the war ended in 1918, Falsworth retired his costumed identity and settled down to raise a family, having two children, Brian and Jacqueline. In 1939, Falsworth and his son had many bitter arguments about Nazi Germany, which led Brian to go to Germany with his friend Roger Aubrey. When war was declared in September, the young men were arrested and sent to prison camps. In 1942, Falsworth and his daughter befriended the Invaders, which led Falsworth to don his Union Jack costume for a final showdown with Baron Blood. However, Falsworth’s legs were crushed during the battle, leaving him confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Jacqueline then joined the Invaders as Spitfire, and they soon learned that Brian had been fighting the Nazis inside Germany as the Mighty Destroyer. Brian then joined the Invaders as the new Union Jack, and Aubrey assumed the role of the Destroyer. In 1945, Baron Blood was at last destroyed, and his remains were entombed in the Tower of London. Falsworth and his family retired to their country estate, and in 1952 Jacqueline gave him a grandson, Kenneth Crichton. Sadly, a year later, Brian was killed in an automobile accident. Montgomery Falsworth died in 1981 while fighting a resurrected Baron Blood. He was 90 years old.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Wilson Fisk</span> is a New York City crime boss with numerous investments in legitimate businesses as well. He passes himself off as an importer of spices to cover his criminal activities. In 1992 he married a beautiful and sophisticated woman named Vanessa and they have an 18-year-old son Richard. Though already wealthy and very successful, Fisk still has plans to bring all of New York’s criminal rackets under his control.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Flexo the Rubber Man</span> was a robot created in 1940 by scientist brothers Joel and Josh Williams. Though intended to help the brothers with their research, Flexo ended up being used to prevent various acts of sabotage by enemy agents. Ultimately, the Nazis tried to steal Flexo for their own use, murdering the Williams brothers in the process. Unable to make Flexo obey them, the Nazis destroyed the robot and burned down the Williams’ laboratory. All their research was lost.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Marvin Flumm</span> is a shoe salesman in Watford City, North Dakota, and a mutant with low-level telepathic ability.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dominic Fortune</span> is a 54-year-old retired costumed adventurer who was active between 1983 and 1996 and currently lives in New York. In 1984 he prevented the East German spy Wolfgang von Strucker from assassinating a United States senator, and he encountered Strucker again in 1991 while helping Logan and the Russian soldier Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov rescue Natasha Romanova from a group of ninja assassins. Fortune enjoyed his celebrity and was the closest thing America had to a superhero during that period.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill Foster</span> is a 22-year-old college student from Los Angeles, California, studying to be a biochemist.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bob Frank</span> became a costumed superhero called “The Whizzer” in 1940 after gaining super-speed in a bizarre incident involving his scientist father, Dr. Emil Frank. In 1942 he was a founding member of the Liberty Legion, where he met the superheroine Miss America. The two soon fell in love, and later in the year they both joined the Invaders. After the war ended, they served in the All-Winners Squad to fight domestic crime, but retired in 1948 when Miss America got pregnant. They got married and took jobs at a nuclear power plant in New York, but his wife was exposed to high levels of radiation when the plant was sabotaged by an old enemy. As a result, their son was born a dangerously radioactive mutant. The government took custody of Robert Frank, Jr., and encouraged the grief-stricken parents to take an extended vacation. Unfortunately, Frank’s wife soon got pregnant again and died in childbirth. Unable to cope with so much tragedy, Frank became a drunken derelict and a drifter. He finally died in 1982 at the age of 63.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Emma Frost</span> is a 20-year-old mutant telepath from Boston, Massachusetts. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Nick Fury</span> is a 46-year-old agent of the CIA who is renowned for having led the Army’s “Howling Commandos” during the Gulf War in 1991. His father, Jack Fury, was a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War who was killed during the Tet Offensive. Nick and his brother Jake then grew up on the mean streets of Manhattan, often brawling with members of the notorious Yancy Street Gang. Nick joined the Army in 1990 and soon rose to a leadership position. While serving with the Howling Commandos, Sgt. Fury fell in love with a nurse named Pamela Hawley, but she was killed during an attack. He also received an injury to his left eye, which has been slowly failing ever since. After the war, the Howling Commandos were sent to apprehend the freelance mercenary Wolfgang von Strucker. Though their quarry escaped, Fury and his men were able to wipe out Strucker’s infrastructure and seize his assets. Strucker tried to get revenge on Fury in 1993 by kidnapping and torturing him after Fury was involved in a helicopter crash in Somalia. Fury escaped and, after recovering from his injuries, returned to active duty with the Howlers. The squad disbanded after a few years, but the surviving original members regrouped following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. A year later, now-Colonel Fury retired from the Army and took a position with the CIA, having been recruited after assisting the agency in Afghanistan. In 2010 he began working occasionally with Carol Danvers and Michael Rossi of Air Force Intelligence and the Canadian secret agent known only as Logan.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">MacDonald Gargan</span> is a hard-boiled private investigator in New York City.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Nathan Garrett</span> is a scientist from London, England, who conducts research into genetic engineering at his family’s ancestral castle. In his spare time, he tinkers with electronic weapons based on the medieval implements found throughout the castle. His financial situation is growing increasingly desperate.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dirk Garthwaite</span> is a construction worker in New York City with serious antisocial tendencies. He’s been known to threaten people with a crowbar.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Alexander Gentry</span> is a scientist and engineer who has been unsuccessful in finding a buyer for the bulky battlesuit he has designed.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Greer Grant</span> is an 18-year-old native of Chicago, Illinois. She is looking forward to starting as a science major at the University of Chicago in the fall.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Louise Grant</span> was a secretary from Hoboken, New Jersey, who worked for the Mark Mason Detective Agency in Manhattan. In 1946 she developed the glamorous masked identity of “The Blonde Phantom” to assist her boss with his cases. Within three years, she retired from costumed crimefighting to marry Mark Mason. They soon had a daughter Wanda. Louise died in 1995.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Robert Grayson</span> was the son of German astrophysicist Horace M. Grabsheid, who changed his name after immigrating to the United States in 1984, when Robert was an infant. Seeing nuclear war as inevitable, Dr. Grayson planned to build his own spaceship so he and his son could remain safely in orbit during the conflagration. However, after making radio contact with the colony of Eternals living on Uranus, Grayson built a more advanced ship with their help. In 1988, Grayson and young Robert flew their ship to Uranus and joined the Eternals, believing their society to be a Utopia. Robert was then educated amongst the Eternals’ advanced technology and philosophy. In 2000, Robert was given a pair of energy-manipulating wristbands and sent back to Earth to spread the Uranian way of peace and justice. Called “The Millennium Boy,” Robert soon became the preeminent superhero of the day. In 2001, Millennium Boy learned that his father had fallen ill and the Eternals lacked the knowledge of sickness and infirmity needed to treat him. Unable to get a bank loan to purchase medical supplies, Millennium Boy faced a significant delay while he raised the funds he needed. By the time he made it back to Uranus, he found the Eternals’ colony has been destroyed and everyone there was dead. Driven insane with grief, Millennium Boy set a course back to Earth, intent on taking vengeance on everyone who had delayed his departure. However, while en route, a malfunction in the ship caused him to enter a state of suspended animation, and the ship slowed to the point that it will take 15 years to reach Earth.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jean Grey</span> is a 14-year-old mutant with telekinetic powers who lives with her parents and older sister in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Her telepathic powers first manifested in 2007 when her best friend, Annie Richardson, was hit by a car and died in Grey’s arms. After withdrawing into herself, Grey was eventually referred to Charles Xavier, who had had success in the past with similar cases. Xavier used his own telepathic powers to suppress Grey’s until she is old enough to handle them. He then began training her to control her remaining telekinetic abilities, encouraging her to keep these powers a secret. Grey has made several visits to Xavier’s mansion in Westchester County to assist him with his research into human mutation, and has met his colleague from Scotland, Dr. Moira MacTaggart. Recently, Xavier revealed to Grey and MacTaggart the prototype for a mutant-detecting machine called CEREBRO. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ben Grimm</span> is a 36-year-old test pilot from New York City who recently resigned from the Air Force to take a job at Richards Laboratories in California, at the urging of his college roommate Reed Richards. Grimm had once promised to pilot Richards’ spaceship should he ever manage to actually build it, and the project is rapidly nearing completion. Though trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with a woman he met at his last Air Force base, Dr. Linda McGill, Grimm has developed something of a crush on Richards’ gorgeous young girlfriend Sue. Her little brother Johnny, though, is just an annoying pest. Grimm grew up on the streets of Manhattan, and in 1992 had become the leader of the notorious Yancy Street Gang, but left the gang a year later to join the Air Force. He enjoyed his time in the military and in 1994 he was involved in missions with Captain Simon Savage’s Leatherneck Raiders and Sgt. Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos. He then went to college on the G.I. Bill at the State University of New York, where he met Reed Richards and Victor von Doom. Upon graduation in 1999, Grimm returned to the Air Force to become a test pilot. He nearly died in a crash in 2008, but was saved by his friend Desmond Pitt. Nevertheless, the two began to lose touch after Pitt took a position at NASA. Earlier this year, Grimm was surprised to hear from Richards, who was finally ready to take him up on the offer Grimm had sort of meant as a joke.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sam Guthrie</span> is a 7-year-old boy with latent mutant powers who lives with his parents and siblings in Cumberland, Kentucky.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Henry Peter Gyrich</span> is a government agent with the National Security Administration.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Frank Hall</span> is a 48-year-old physicist from Banff, Alberta, Canada, who is investigating the properties of gravity at a research installation in the Rockies.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Thomas Halloway</span> was a costumed adventurer called “The Angel,” who made his debut in 1939 and inspired a host of imitators. After a very successful career, he was killed while fighting crime at the end of 1946.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Felicia Hardy</span> is a 14-year-old girl in New York City whose father is a notorious cat burglar.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Quincy Harker</span> is a 66-year-old vampire hunter from London, England, who dedicated his life to destroying all vampires after Dracula killed his parents in 1961. After successfully staking Dracula’s daughter Lilith in 1995, Harker was crippled by Dracula as an act of revenge. Undeterred, Harker built a special wheelchair containing an anti-vampire arsenal and continues to seek the final destruction of Dracula himself.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Daimon Hellstrom</span> is a 20-year-old college student majoring in Religious Studies and already an expert demonologist. He is the son of a demon called Marduk Kurios who disguised himself as a human in the early ‘90s to sire half-breed children. His mother, Victoria Wingate Hellstrom, committed suicide in 1998 after discovering her husband’s true nature. Marduk Kurios then left Daimon in foster care and took his three-year-old daughter Satana with him to his infernal realm. Hellstrom is determined to prevent his father from carrying out any more sinister schemes on earth.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bruno Horgan</span> is an industrialist from New York City who is not above ripping off his customers for his own profit.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">James MacDonald Hudson</span> is the 29-year-old head scientist for Department H, a top-secret research and development agency within the Canadian Ministry of Defense, formed in 2008, which is concerned with developing high-tech weapons for the government. Hudson’s 20-year-old wife Heather serves as his secretary. On their honeymoon in 2009, the Hudsons discovered Logan, reduced to a feral state, in Wood Buffalo National Park and brought him to Department H to study his mutant healing factor and adamantium skeleton and claws. Though Logan has since been recruited into Canadian military intelligence, the Hudsons continue to feel protective of his physical and emotional well-being. James MacDonald Hudson is currently searching for inspiration for a positive new direction for Department H to take.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Human Torch</span> was an android created in 1939 by Professor Phineas T. Horton that could burst into flame, fly, and control and project fire. The Torch initially worked with the NYPD to bring down racketeers and other dangerous criminals and created a civilian identity for himself under the name Jim Hammond. In 1940, he met a 12-year-old mutant boy named Thomas “Toro” Raymond who possessed similar abilities. They became a successful crimefighting duo, and a year later were founding members of the Invaders. The Human Torch and Toro served with the team throughout the war, and nearly apprehended Adolf Hitler in his bunker in 1945. To stop Hitler from blowing up the bunker and killing everyone inside, including Toro, the Torch was forced to incinerate him. After the war, the Torch and Toro fought crime with the All-Winners Squad and partnered briefly with the mysterious Sun Girl. Then, in 1949, a gang of mobsters used an experimental solution to neutralize the powers of the Human Torch and Toro, but the chemical caused the Torch’s artificial body to shut down. He was awakened four years later by a nuclear bomb test, discovering that the criminals had buried him in the desert. He tracked down Toro and found he had been brainwashed to serve the Communists and was currently blowing up ammo dumps in Korea. After rescuing Toro, the two resumed their crimefighting crusade. In 1955, however, the Human Torch realized the radiation that freed him from his grave was causing him to lose control of his powers. Rather than be a threat to mankind, the Torch said goodbye to Toro and flew out to the Nevada desert. There he tried to destroy himself by going nova, but merely deactivated himself again. His body fell to the ground and was soon covered by the desert’s drifting sands, where it remains to the present day.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Inhumans</span> are a race genetically engineered by the alien Kree in prehistoric times, whose society has evolved along Kree lines separately from mainstream humanity. Since 2005, the Inhumans have been ruled by the usurper Maximus, brother to the rightful king, Black Bolt. Maximus masterminded a civil war in their hidden city of Attilan, which is located in a remote area of the Himalayas, by turning three of their worker drones (called Alpha Primitives) into super-intelligent energy beings known collectively as the Trikon. The 29-year-old Black Bolt was driven into exile, and is currently hiding out in New York. His consort, Medusa (age 27), was lost in the Himalayas during the battle and, suffering from amnesia, has made her way to the south coast of France. Their cousins Triton, Gorgon, and Karnak (all in their mid-twenties) have been forced to serve Maximus. The youngest member of the royal family, Medusa’s sister Crystal, is 19. The outside world remains unaware of the Inhumans’ existence.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jack Frost</span> was discovered in the Arctic by a scientific expedition and brought to the United States in 1941. Researchers dubbed this “ice elemental” Jack Frost, but he soon escaped from their facility and became an outlaw and killer vigilante. His reputation was rehabilitated somewhat when he joined the Liberty Legion in 1942 and served as a spy-buster and crimefighter throughout the war. Following the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, he returned to the Arctic, disgusted by humanity, and has not been seen since.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">J. Jonah Jameson</span> is the 47-year-old publisher of the New York City newspaper the <i>Daily Bugle</i>. He started at the <i>Bugle</i> as a copy boy in 1979, became a full-time reporter in 1984, and steadily worked his way up to the top. His son John Jameson, born in 1986, is an Air Force test pilot training to be an astronaut. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Abner Jenkins</span> is a mechanic from Baltimore, Maryland, who works a low-paying job at a factory making airplane parts.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tyrone Johnson</span> is an 8-year-old boy with a bad stutter, who lives in a ghetto neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Angelica Jones</span> is a 3-year-old girl with latent mutant powers.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rick Jones</span> is a 16-year-old orphan from Scarsdale, Arizona. He has been moved around a variety of state institutions due to disciplinary problems, and has just taken up residence with his aunt in a small rural town in New Mexico near an Air Force base. Rather than getting a job, Jones hangs out with other local teens, taking often risky dares to prove himself.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Erik Josten</span> is a mercenary from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army after being caught working as a smuggler. He is currently in the employ of Helmut Zemo and based in Brazil.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Madeline Joyce</span> acted as the costumed superheroine “Miss America” from 1941 until 1948, serving in the Liberty Legion, the Invaders, and the All-Winners Squad. She became romantically involved with her teammate Bob Frank, the Whizzer, and they both retired from their costumed identities when she accidentally became pregnant. To make ends meet after getting married, they both took jobs at a nuclear power plant in New York. Unfortunately, Joyce was exposed to high levels of radiation when the plant was sabotaged by an old enemy, and their son was born a dangerously radioactive mutant. The government took custody of Robert Frank, Jr., and encouraged the grief-stricken parents to take an extended vacation. Unfortunately, Joyce soon got pregnant again and died in childbirth in 1950, at the age of 30. Her second baby was stillborn.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bonita Juarez</span> is an 18-year-old student in Taos, New Mexico, who is looking forward to starting college. She plans to major in social work.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Eugene Judd</span> is a 47-year-old soldier-of-fortune from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who is considering retirement. Formerly a very tall man, Judd encountered an ancient Persian sorcerer in the Middle East in 1989, whose spells left him only about one meter tall. Furthermore, Judd has realized that he has not aged appreciably since that fateful encounter. Judd has had run-ins with his fellow Canadian Logan on several occasions, both before and after his transformation, and though they sometimes work for opposing sides, they have developed a mutual respect.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jennifer Kale</span> is an 11-year-old girl from Citrusville, Florida, who lives with her younger brother Andy at the Kale family farm near a swamp that contains a mystic portal called the Nexus of All Realities. Since the death of their parents, Jennifer and Andy have been raised by their grandfather, Joshua Kale, who is the head of a group of minor sorcerers called the Cult of Zhered-Na. Jennifer is very curious about her grandfather’s books of spells and other magical artifacts.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Karl Kaufman</span> served the Allies in World War I as the mysterious flying ace known as “The Phantom Eagle.” He kept his true identity a secret to protect his parents, who were still living in Germany. He soon joined the other mystery men Union Jack, Sir Steel & Silver Squire, and La Chevalier Cramoisi in a special commando squad known as Freedom’s Five. Near the end of the war, Kaufman attempted to get his parents out of Germany, but was discovered by the German pilot Hermann von Reitberger, who machine-gunned the Kaufman family to death. The Phantom Eagle was 26 years old.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Spencer Keen</span> was a superhero known as “The Blue Blaze,” active for several months in 1940. After lying in suspended animation for nearly 90 years following a freak accident in a college science lab, Keen awoke to find himself super-strong and basically invulnerable. However, while Keen was battling a villain called Dr. Vortex, the two men tumbled into a flooded limestone quarry and drowned.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Zebediah Killgrave</span> is a former spy born in Rijeka, Yugoslavia. While conducting industrial espionage, Killgrave was exposed to an experimental chemical that gave him the ability to control other people. However, the chemical also changed his skin color to purple, and so he is often referred to as “the Purple Man.” Killgrave mainly uses his powers to force others to support his life of indulgence and leisure. He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with a beautiful woman he mind-controlled into marrying him and their infant daughter Kara.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Hannibal King</span> is a novice private detective from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ulysses Klaw</span> is a scientist and international criminal from Vlaardingen, the Netherlands. In 2003, he led a band of mercenaries into the African kingdom of Wakanda to steal the ultra-rare mineral vibranium. After killing King T’Chaka, Klaw and his mercenaries were driven off in defeat when the king’s son T’Challa attacked them with their own sonic disruptor weapon. Klaw continues to covet vibranium and is currently scheming to make another attempt at invading Wakanda.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Misty Knight</span> is a 21-year-old college student in New York City who plans to enter the police academy.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ivan Kragoff</span> is a 56-year-old scientist who was born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. He currently studies cosmic rays for the Russian Federal Space Agency.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sergei Kravinoff</span> is a big-game hunter and mercenary from Russia, known professionally as Kraven the Hunter.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Valentina Allegra de La Fontaine</span> is a 33-year-old Italian countess. In 1993, her parents were murdered by the Maggia and Val spent many years waging a vigilante war against organized crime. She was then recruited as an intelligence operative for the Italian government, but became disillusioned after a few years and resigned. She has since used her private fortune to live the life of a transcontinental party girl, but secretly harbors an ambition to once more serve the cause of international justice.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Scott Lang</span> is a 20-year-old college student from Coral Gables, Florida, who is majoring in electrical engineering.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Walter Langkowski</span> is a 30-year-old scientist from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. In 1999, he entered Pennsylvania State University on a football scholarship and there met Bruce Banner, who inspired Langkowski with his passion for science. Though Banner soon transferred to another university, Langkowski decided to follow in his footsteps and major in nuclear physics. Upon graduation in 2003, Langkowski was drafted to play professional football for the Green Bay Packers. After three years, Langkowski retired from sports and used the fortune he had earned to pursue his true goal of becoming a nuclear physicist.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ebenezer Laughton</span> is a contortionist and entertainer from Rhinebeck, New York, who bills himself as “Umberto the Uncanny.”<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jubilation Lee</span> is a 1-year-old girl with latent mutant powers who lives with her parents in Beverly Hills, California.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rachel Leighton</span> is a sales clerk at a boutique in Austin, Texas.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Logan</span> is a Canadian mutant of indeterminate age who knows no other name for himself. After growing up in the wilderness of northwestern Canada, Logan became a merchant marine in 1976 and sailed around the world. Reaching China the following year, he had several adventures with a beautiful Chinese girl named Rose. By 1980 he had moved on to Japan, where he began studying the martial arts under a ninja master named Ogun. In the process, he became an enemy of a cult of assassins known as the Hand. In 1986, Logan broke with his sensei and left Japan severely disillusioned. He wandered the world for several years, until settling on the island of Madripoor. There, in 1991, Logan helped a Russian soldier named Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov and the American adventurer Dominic Fortune rescue a young girl, Natasha Romanova, from the Hand. Logan soon left Madripoor and made his way back to Canada, where he enlisted in the Army and received commando training. Four years later, he became a field agent for Canadian Intelligence, and in 2000 was recruited into a black-ops unit, where he met Victor Creed, Silver Fox, and a handful of other agents. After making many enemies in the CIA during missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, Logan and his team were soon targeted as potential test-subjects for the clandestine Weapon X program. In 2008, the CIA arranged an accident that got Logan cashiered out of the intelligence service, then promptly kidnapped him. He was taken to a facility in Windsor, Ontario where, along with his team, he was subjected to a mental reprogramming procedure. Then he was transported to a secret research installation in Canada’s north woods, where the Weapon X scientists fused the unbreakable metal adamantium to his skeleton and implanted six bionic adamantium claws in his forearms. However, Logan managed to escape from the complex during his subsequent training regimen, though his mind had been shattered, leaving him little more than a savage animal. Logan was discovered by James and Heather Hudson in 2009 when the couple was honeymooning in Wood Buffalo National Park. They took him to Department H and nursed him back to health, though he had no memory of his life before meeting them. After receiving psychiatric treatment, Logan was then recruited back into Canadian intelligence and retrained as a secret agent. He has recently begun working occasionally with Nick Fury of the CIA and Carol Danvers of Air Force intelligence.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Lillian von Loont</span> met the alchemist Esteban Diablo in 1923, after her husband was killed in a car crash. Lillian was also badly injured, but Diablo used his arts to restore her to health, and they soon fell in love. She studied the secrets of alchemy until 1926, when Diablo’s subjects, fed up with his tyrannical rule, imprisoned him within a massive crypt. Von Loont killed Diablo’s treacherous servants and fled back to England, where she continued her studies. In 1936, she finally discovered the means to transform other elements into gold, and returned to Transylvania to take revenge on the peasants who imprisoned her lover. Subsequently, she traveled the world until she had tracked down every one of her targets and transformed them into golden statues. Eventually, old age caught up with her, but Von Loont used her arcane arts to preserve her life within an artificial body, fashioning a beautiful golden mask to hide her now ghastly features. Taking up residence in a mansion on Tamarind Island near Vancouver, Canada, she became known to the curious locals as “Gilded Lily.”<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Chen Lu</span> is a scientist from Lanzhou, China, who specializes in working with highly radioactive materials.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Carl Lucas</span> is a 24-year-old inmate at Seagate Prison, a maximum-security facility on an island off the coast of Georgia. Growing up in Harlem, Lucas and his friend Willis Stryker had become small-time crooks. Eventually they both fell for the same girl, Reva Connors. Having made money as a racketeer, Stryker was initially the more successful suitor, until his savage beating at the hands of Maggia goons scared Connors off. She began dating Lucas, who was trying to go straight, but Stryker saw it as a betrayal and framed Lucas by planting uncut heroin in his apartment. Shortly after Lucas was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Connors began seeing Stryker again, only to be killed in a drive-by shooting by more of Stryker’s enemies. Lucas vowed to avenge Connors’ death, and his constant escape attempts have landed him at Seagate, where he is constantly mistreated by the racist guard Albert “Billy Bob” Rackham.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Cornelius van Lunt</span> is a financier with a vast personal fortune who lives in New York City.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dan Lyons</span> began his career as the superhero called “The Black Marvel” in 1941 after being enhanced to nearly superhuman levels of fighting skill by a secret Native American ritual. Within a year, he became the chief nemesis of a gang of mobsters called the Order of the Hood, which eventually managed to capture Lyons and torture him to death.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jeff Mace</span> was a reporter for the <i>Daily Bugle</i> who, inspired by Captain America, became the costumed crimefighter called “The Patriot” in 1941. After America entered World War II, Mace became a founding member of the Liberty Legion, and served with them until the Axis powers were defeated. In 1946, he became the third Captain America when the second was killed while fighting the android Adam-II. Mace immediately joined the All-Winners Squad as his replacement. When the second Bucky was shot in 1949, Mace recruited Betsy Ross to become his new partner, as the Golden Girl. The following year, they retired their costumed identities and got married. Mace resumed his career as a newspaper reporter in Boston, Massachusetts. He died of cancer in 1983 at the age of 64.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jamie Madrox</span> is a 12-year-old boy living on a farm in Kansas, with the mutant power to create duplicates of himself. His father, a scientist, has created a special skin-tight suit to dampen his powers, although the suit itself makes Jamie feel “different.”<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Magnus</span> is the alias of a 32-year-old man from Yugoslavia whose Croatian family was wiped out by Serbian forces engaged in “ethnic cleansing” in 1990. The terror of this incident prematurely activated his mutant power to manipulate magnetic fields and he survived by deflecting the bullets away from himself. Five years later, he met his wife, a Romani called Magda, as they were fleeing from Serbian soldiers. Together they escaped into the Carpathian Mountains and eventually made their way to Vinnitsa, Ukraine, where their daughter Anya was born. In 1999, Magnus ran afoul of some local gangsters, who prevented him from saving his daughter from a burning inn. The trauma of her death caused Magnus’ mutant powers to manifest again and he killed everyone at the scene. Witnessing the event, Magda fled into the night, thinking her husband had become a monster. Magnus went into hiding to escape from the police and was unable to follow her. By 2006, he had wandered to Israel, where he was volunteering at a psychiatric hospital. Here he met Charles Xavier, whom Magnus soon began to suspect was a mutant like himself. They teamed up to rescue one of Xavier’s patients, Gabrielle Haller, from the terrorist Wolfgang von Strucker and his HYDRA organization. With Xavier’s help, Magnus defeated Strucker, but then stole the fortune in Nazi gold Strucker had been after, to use for his own campaign to ensure that mutants become the new rulers of the earth.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Mandarin</span> is a former businessman in China who lost his fortune in 1999. Refusing to do manual labor to earn a living, he set off in search of a way to restore his former power and status. Wandering China, he eventually came upon the fabled Valley of Spirits, where he discovered a crashed spaceship. Using the alien technology he found inside, particularly ten weaponized rings, he has recently set himself up as a warlord amidst the rugged terrain of western China. His nickname “the Mandarin,” which was originally used to mock his arrogance, is now spoken in fear by the people he has subjugated.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Xi’an Coy Manh</span> is a 9-year-old girl with latent mutant powers living with her parents and siblings in Vietnam. Her twin brother Tran shares the same latent powers. Her uncle, Nguyen Ngoc Coy, is a local crime lord.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mantis</span> is the nickname of a 15-year-old girl in Vietnam who is being trained in the martial arts at the temple of the Priests of Pama, a group of monks descended from the alien Kree. Her uncle is a local crime lord known as Monsieur Khrull, whose intense racism led him to murder her mother for marrying a German man. Gustav Brandt, a mercenary, escaped from Khrull’s men by fleeing into the jungle with his baby daughter, though he soon went blind from his injuries. The Priests of Pama took them in, suspecting that the girl was in fact the Celestial Madonna. After Brandt learned to compensate for his blindness, he departed, leaving Mantis with the priests, who have educated her in their own unique philosophy.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Flint Marko</span> is the alias of a professional criminal in New York City, who was born in Queens as William Baker. He adopted his <i>nom du crime</i> in 1999 to protect his mother, who had taken up residence in Fort Lee, New Jersey.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jean-Paul Martin</span> is a 16-year-old mutant with the power of super-fast flight who lives in Quebec, Canada. He is unaware that he has a twin sister, Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, living in an orphanage near Montreal, who has developed identical mutant powers. When their parents were killed in 1995, Jean-Paul was adopted by his mother’s cousin, RCMP officer Louis Martin. Unable to afford to raise Jeanne-Marie as well, the Martins placed her in a Catholic girl’s home. They intended to stay in touch with her, but soon after the family was relocated to northern Quebec. Then, in 2001, the Martins were killed in an accident and Jean-Paul was placed in foster care. When his mutant powers began to emerge in 2009, Jean-Paul realized he had the potential to be a world-champion downhill skier, and is currently working toward his goal of competing in the next Winter Olympics.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Milos Masaryk</span> is a soldier born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, who is currently doing intelligence work for the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Philip Masters</span> is a 57-year-old scientist who was born in Dragorin, Transia, though he has been living in the United States since 1960. On a research trip to the country of his birth in 1979, Masters discovered a radioactive clay on Wundagore Mountain, and took several samples home with him to study. He soon learned the substance had almost magical properties and stockpiled as much of it as he could get his hands on. By 2000, Masters had fallen in love with the wife of his research partner, Jacob Reiss, and arranged an accident to get Reiss out of the way. Masters soon married Reiss’s widow, Marcia, and adopted his daughter, legally changing her name to Alicia Masters. Alicia had been blinded in the accident that killed Reiss, and out of guilt Masters has striven to be a good father to her ever since. Following his wife’s recent death, Masters has become unhinged and has started experimenting with the radioactive clay’s more dangerous properties.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Wanda Maximoff</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pietro Maximoff</span> are 11-year-old fraternal twins with latent mutant powers living with their adoptive parents, Django and Marya Maximoff, among a Romani tribe in the Balkans. They are unaware that their biological parents are Magnus and Magda. Their mother was pregnant when she fled from her husband after he slew the people who prevented him from rescuing their daughter Anya from a burning inn in Vinnitsa, Ukraine. Magda made her way back to the Balkans, and her pregnancy had nearly come to term when she reached Wundagore Mountain. She was taken in by the High Evolutionary’s servant Bova, an artificially-evolved cow-woman, who served as Magda’s midwife and delivered her twins. Magda named them Wanda and Pietro, but, as soon as she was able, she left her babies behind and fled into the night, terrified that her husband might be following her. Bova took the infants to her master, and, realizing they needed a human family to nurture them, the High Evolutionary took them to a nearby Romani camp. The Maximoffs had recently lost their own twin children and agreed to raise Wanda and Pietro as their own. Wanda’s mutant power to alter probabilities has only just begun to manifest, and she is considered a jinx by the other members of her tribe.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Hank McCoy</span> is an 18-year-old student from Dunfee, Illinois, whose mutant powers give him a somewhat ape-like physiognomy and gymnastic ability. Brilliant at science, he is starting college in the fall on a football scholarship.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Alejandro Montoya</span> is a 16-year-old student in Madrid, Spain, with the mutant ability to generate electrostatic charges within his body. His fascination with swashbuckling heroes has led him to study swordfighting and hand-to-hand combat techniques.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Danielle Moonstar</span> is a 7-year-old girl from Boulder, Colorado with the latent mutant ability to generate psychic projections. Her father, William Lonestar, saved Charles Xavier’s life during the Iraq War, and Xavier was present for Danielle’s christening a little over a year later. Her grandfather is a shaman called Black Eagle.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michael Morbius</span> is a 37-year-old scientist from Greece, who has just been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Elton Morrow</span> served in the Liberty Legion during World War II as the superhero known as “The Blue Diamond.” He discovered a giant azure diamond during an expedition to Antarctica in 1941. The diamond exploded, embedding minute particles in Morrow’s skin, when his ship was attacked by a Nazi submarine. Morrow suddenly found himself to be invulnerable to injury, and when he returned to America, he created a costumed identity for himself. When the war ended in 1945, the Liberty Legion disbanded and Morrow retired from his role as the Blue Diamond to return to his career as a research scientist. He disappeared in 1981.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Barbara Morse</span> is a 26-year-old graduate student from San Diego, California, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is working with Dr. Wilma Calvin, who is attempting to recreate the legendary super-soldier formula from World War II.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ororo Munro</span> is a 12-year-old girl with emerging mutant abilities to control the weather. After being orphaned in Cairo, Egypt in 2004, she lived on the streets as a pickpocket and petty thief. She recently left Cairo and is walking south towards Kenya. She has just saved Prince T’Challa, heir to the throne of Wakanda, from a gang of kidnappers, and he has decided to accompany her on her trek until he must return to his own country.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Matt Murdock</span> is a 24-year-old student at Columbia Law School, pursuing his Juris Doctor degree. In 2002, Murdock was blinded in a traffic accident when he was exposed to strange radioactive chemicals. However, he soon discovered that his remaining senses had been heightened to superhuman levels. For a few years Murdock studied with a blind martial-arts master called Stick, who helped him develop a “radar sense” that allows him to navigate through the world better than a sighted person. In 2005, Murdock enrolled in Columbia University and met his roommate Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. He also fell in love with fellow student Elektra Natchios, but during their sophomore year, her father, a Greek ambassador, was murdered, so Elektra dropped out of school and left the United States. Murdock had tried to save her father using his superhuman abilities but failed, and is heartbroken at having lost Elektra as well. Matt’s father, “Battling” Jack Murdock, is a washed-up prizefighter who is getting mixed up with a crooked manager.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Namor</span> is the 41-year-old heir to the throne of the undersea kingdom of Atlantis, known on the surface world as the Sub-Mariner. In the year 2000, he disappeared from the public eye and has been living as an amnesiac vagrant in New York City ever since. Namor’s father, ship captain Leonard McKenzie, and his mother, Princess Fen of Atlantis, met in 1969 when McKenzie’s ship, the <i>Oracle</i>, was conducting research off the coast of Antarctica, directly above the submerged kingdom. Depth charges from the ship had threatened the Atlanteans, and Fen took it upon herself to investigate. When she learned that McKenzie’s actions were not meant to be hostile, she decided to get to know him better. She soon became pregnant, but the lovers were separated when Thakorr, Emperor of Atlantis, assumed Fen was being held against her will and sent a strike force to rescue her. McKenzie, unaware that Fen was pregnant, recovered from his injuries and returned to the United States. Nine months later, Fen gave birth to Namor, a mutant hybrid of <i>Homo sapiens</i> and <i>Homo mermanus</i>. As he grew up, Namor was popular with most Atlanteans, but a few hated him for his “fishbelly” pink skin and the “freakish” wings that sprouted from his ankles when he hit puberty. Thus, in 1989, two of his childhood friends conspired to get rid of Namor. Meranno and Byrrah hired a mercenary army to attack Atlantis in the name of the surface world, causing extensive damage to the kingdom. Emperor Thakorr was injured in the attack and was left comatose. As acting emperor, Namor decided to attack the surface world in retaliation. His destructive rampages through coastal cities terrified the surface-dwellers, who dubbed him “The Sub-Mariner.” In the early ‘90s, Namor had several battles with the flaming hero of World War II, Toro, who came out of retirement to try to defeat him. Eventually, Namor learned of the treachery of Meranno and Byrrah, and that not all surface-dwellers were his enemies. He made efforts to understand the ways of the surface people and to protect Atlantis’s interests, though his volatile personality made him unpredictable. Finally, in 2000, Namor lost a battle with the telepath Paul Destine, who used the mystic artifact known as the Serpent Crown to destroy Atlantis, killing Thakorr and Fen, and then erased Namor’s memory and left him in an alley in a New York ghetto. The Atlanteans were left a disorganized band of refugees, wandering the ocean’s depths.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">William Nasland</span> fought for the Allies during World War II as the costumed superhero “The Spirit of ’76,” beginning in 1942. After the original Captain America disappeared in the winter of 1945, Nasland was asked to take over as the new Captain America, and he was honored to do so. Joined by Fred Davis as the new Bucky, Nasland fought alongside the Invaders until the end of the war. Subsequently, he became a founding member of the All-Winners Squad to fight domestic crime. However, in 1946, Nasland was killed in action while trying to stop the evil android Adam-II from assassinating a young politician named John F. Kennedy. He was 28 years old.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Luchino Nefaria</span> is a 48-year-old crime boss from Rome, Italy, who is currently the head of the international crime syndicate known as the Maggia. His wife Renata died in childbirth in 1986, and Nefaria secretly arranged for the baby to be raised as the daughter of wealthy New York financier Byron Frost, who launders money for the Maggia. The girl, Whitney, now 25, still has no knowledge of her true parentage.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Noble</span> fought in World War II as the costumed adventurer called “The Fin.” Originally a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, Noble’s ship sank during a training exercise in 1941, but he discovered that he could breathe underwater and survive the crushing pressure at the bottom of the ocean. Fearing he was some kind of freak, Noble did not return to the surface world, but wandered the ocean’s depths until coming across the small subsea kingdom of Neptunia. When Neptunia became a target of Nazi submarines, Noble’s heroic efforts earned him the Neptunians’ loyalty and they crowned him their new king. Neptunia then declared war on Germany, and Noble made many daring attacks against the Nazis on both land and sea using an enchanted cutlass he had discovered in an ancient shipwreck. Due to his distinctive headgear, he was dubbed “The Fin” by the American press and considered a sea-faring super-hero. At the end of the year, he joined Captain America and the Human Torch in forming the Invaders and fought as a member of that team throughout the rest of the war. In 1946, Noble helped form the team’s post-war counterpart, the All-Winners Squad. That team disbanded in 1949, but Noble continued to fight evildoers at home and abroad until his death in 1958.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Otto Octavius</span> is a research scientist from Schenectady, New York, who is developing a new technology to safely handle hazardous materials.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Shanna O’Hara</span> is a 28-year-old veterinarian at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Born in Zaire to American parents, O’Hara was traumatized in 1989 when her father accidentally killed her mother while trying to shoot a leopard. Since taking her job at the zoo last year, she has demonstrated a specially affinity for big cats.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Norman Osborn</span> is a research scientist and business executive in New York City. He came to prominence in 2004 after stealing the research of his partner, Mendel Stromm, and then arranging for Stromm to be sent to prison for 10 years. Osborn’s son Harry is 16 years old.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Leland Owlsley</span> is a financier in New York, nicknamed “The Owl” for his uncanny financial wisdom. However, his success is largely due to illegal manipulations and other shady dealings.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Parker</span> is a 16-year-old high school student from Forest Hills, Queens, New York. Since 1998, Parker has been living with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May, after his parents were killed while on assignment for the CIA. He is unaware of the nature of his parents’ work and the exact circumstances of their deaths. He is a gifted science student but shy and withdrawn.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Arthur Parks</span> is a college student from New Brunswick, New Jersey, who is studying lasers.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Petruski</span> is a petty criminal from Gary, Indiana, who is fascinated with pastes and glues.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kevin Plunder</span> is the 21-year-old son of an English lord, and has been marooned since 1999 in the Savage Land, a hidden jungle filled with otherwise extinct flora and fauna, including dinosaurs, located on the continent of Antarctica. His father was killed shortly after their arrival in the artificially-maintained rainforest, and his only companion since that time has been a sabertooth tiger he calls Zabu. Having reached manhood, Plunder is in the process of hunting down the primitive “man-apes” who killed his father. Only vaguely remembering his childhood in England, Plunder has adopted the name given to him by the man-apes, “Ka-Zar,” which means “Son of the Tiger.” He is unaware that his younger brother Parnival, left behind in England, has turned to a life of crime to support himself.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Alex Power</span> is a 1-year-old boy living with his parents in Richmond, Virginia.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jonathan Powers</span> is an actor from Hoboken, New Jersey, who has failed to make it big in either New York or Hollywood, and had turned to petty crime to support his extravagant lifestyle.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">John Proudstar</span> is a 14-year-old boy from Camp Verde, Arizona, with emerging mutant powers that give him heightened senses and reflexes. Though he feels ashamed of his freakish abilities, John knows his 7-year-old brother James looks up to him. He looks forward to the day he can leave the reservation and join the Army. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kitty Pryde</span> is a 6-year-old girl from Deerfield, Illinois, with the latent mutant power to phase through solid objects. Her grand ambition now is to be a dancer.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Henry Pym</span> is a 25-year-old genius-level research scientist from Elmsford, New York, who has already finished his education and begun his career. In 2010 he met Maria Trovaya, the daughter of a brilliant geneticist from Chechnya, who had fled from the violence in that region following the breakup of the Soviet Union. They quickly fell head-over-heels in love and decided to get married. Maria convinced Pym to take her back to her hometown of Grozny for their honeymoon. Believing the fighting had ceased, Pym agreed. However, shortly after their arrival, Maria was killed in a terrorist attack. Pym became distraught and, returning to the U.S., retreated from his grief into ever-more bizarre research projects. Though his new theories have been ridiculed and he has been ostracized by the scientific community, Pym has recently discovered a subatomic particle that he believes has the power to cause objects to change their physical size. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Abdul Qamar</span> is a 16-year-old student living in Saudi Arabia.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Doug Ramsey</span> is a 6-year-old boy with the latent mutant ability to decipher any language.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Danny Rand</span> is a 13-year-old boy from New York City who is currently studying the martial arts in the extradimensional city of K’un-Lun, where he has been since 2007. His father, a native of K’un-Lun, had brought the family to the Himalayas in search of the dimensional portal, which was opening at that time, describing K’un-Lun only as a mystical realm. However, his father’s business partner, Harold Meachum, betrayed them, leading to the death of both of Danny’s parents. Danny alone made it to K’un-Lun, where the inhabitants agreed to raise him and train him until the portal reopens in 2017.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Calvin Rankin</span> is a 15-year-old high-school student from Passaic, New Jersey, with an abrasive attitude.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Rasputin</span> is a 10-year-old farmboy in Siberia with the latent mutant power to turn his flesh into organic steel.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Red Raven</span> fought for the Allies during World War II as a member of the Liberty Legion. As a baby, he was the sole survivor of a plane that crashed into the floating island of Aerie, concealed in a cloudbank, that was the home of a population of avian Inhumans. In 1940, he decided to leave the Aerie to explore the world of his birth parents, using the artificial wings the “Bird-People” provided him. He soon became a costumed crime-fighter, and in 1942 was a founding member of the Liberty Legion. However, in 1944, he learned of a plot by the rulers of the Aerie to take advantage of the turmoil caused by the war to conquer the human race. Fearing the Bird-People would be wiped out in such a battle, a desperate Red Raven released a gas that put everyone on the island into suspended animation. After securing the comatose population, Red Raven hid the island on the bottom of the ocean and then placed himself in suspended animation as well. They have remained so ever since.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Thomas Raymond</span> was a mutant with the ability to burst into flame, fly through the air, and project fire from his body in various forms. In his youth, he acted as sidekick to the Human Torch, an android possessed of the same abilities. Known by his nickname, Toro, Raymond met the Human Torch in 1940, when he was only 11 years old. After Toro’s parents were killed by a criminal known as “the Asbestos Lady,” the Torch became his legal guardian. At the end of 1941, they became founding members of the Invaders, and fought against the Axis powers throughout World War II. In 1945, the Torch and Toro cornered Adolf Hitler in his underground bunker, meaning to bring him to justice. However, the Torch was forced to incinerate the Nazi leader to prevent him from blowing up the bunker and killing everyone inside, including Toro. With the war over, Toro joined the Torch in forming the All-Winners Squad to battle domestic crime. However, in 1949, a gang of mobsters used an experimental solution they had obtained from Soviet agents, which allowed them to neutralize Toro’s flame powers and deactivate the Torch. Toro was taken behind the Iron Curtain and brainwashed into becoming a secret weapon for the communists. He was finally rescued in 1953 after the Torch had been revived by a nuclear bomb test. Back in America, Toro’s mental conditioning was broken, and he and the Torch resumed their crimefighting crusade as equal partners. Unfortunately, the radiation that had revived the Torch slowly caused him to lose control of his powers, and in 1955 he said goodbye to Toro and disappeared into the desert. Disheartened, Toro retired from crimefighting and stopped using his powers. He eventually met and married a woman named Anne and lived a relatively normal life for many years. In 1990, Toro came out of retirement to battle the Sub-Mariner, who had recently begun staging attacks on cities along the Atlantic coast, and eventually persuaded Namor that not all surface-men were his enemies. Sadly, these adventures proved too strenuous for Toro and he soon suffered a fatal heart attack. He died in 1992 at the age of 63.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Owen Reece</span> is a janitor at a scientific research installation in New York City.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">James Rhodes</span> is a 20-year-old airman in the United States Air Force.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Reed Richards</span> is a 39-year-old beyond-genius research scientist from Central City, California, and head of the California-based Richards Laboratories, which he inherited from his father. Richards began taking college-level courses at Cal Tech in 1986. He was recruited by U.S. Army intelligence in 1991 as an encryption expert and served during the Gulf War. After his tour of duty, he resumed his education at SUNY, where he became roommates with football star Ben Grimm. Richards spoke often of his ambition to build a spaceship, and Grimm half-jokingly promised to pilot it should he ever succeed. Richards had a rival of sorts in Victor von Doom, also a brilliant scientist, who was expelled after one of his experiments went badly awry. In 2003, Richards enrolled in Columbia University to pursue yet another advanced degree. It was here that he met Susan Storm, the niece of his landlady. Though she was much younger, they stayed in touch after Richards graduated in 2005 and returned to California to work for his father. Two years later, after working obsessively on a secret project, Richards’ father vanished without a trace. However, he had made arrangements for his son to take over the family business. Richards immediately devoted all the company’s resources to his starship project. In early 2011, as the project was nearing completion, Richards contacted Grimm to take him up on the offer he made in college. Grimm resigned from the Air Force and took a position at Richards Laboratories to train for the mission to space. In the spring, Susan Storm, now working as a model in New York, flew out to spend the summer with Richards and they quickly fell in love. Recently, however, Richards encountered an alien monster that was intent on wiping out the human race. Using his scientific knowledge and ingenuity, Richards defeated the alien by dispersing its molecules over a wide area. Convinced that advanced extraterrestrial races pose a clear and present danger to the planet Earth, Richards now sees his starship project as vital to the survival of the human race.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kyle Richmond</span> is a 21-year-old reluctant business executive in New York City. Following his mother’s death in 1999, Richmond was sent to boarding school, since his father was constantly away on business. He soon developed a reputation as a troublemaker. Despite his poor academic record, Richmond was accepted to the exclusive Grayburn University in 2008 due to his father’s wealth and influence. However, Richmond was expelled the next year after a drunk-driving accident which he believes to have killed his girlfriend Mindy. His father died in a plane crash soon after that, and, rejected from military service due to a heart murmur, Richmond agreed to take over the family business. Leaving the actual running of the company to others, Richmond now lives the life of a playboy, while searching for a means to cure his heart condition.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Richard Rider</span> is a 9-year-old boy living with his family in Queens, New York.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Steve Rogers</span> served the Allies during World War II as the symbolic super-soldier Captain America. Born in New York City in 1921 and orphaned at the height of the Great Depression, Rogers was a frail and sickly youth. When he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army in late 1940, Rogers was classified 4F and rejected. However, he was immediately recruited by General Chester Phillips for his super-soldier program, Operation: Rebirth. Rogers was flown to Washington D.C., where he met the mastermind behind the project, Dr. Abraham Erskine. Within a few weeks, Rogers was injected with Erskine’s super-soldier serum and subjected to high-energy vita-rays, emerging from the process as physically perfect as a human being could be. Unfortunately, a Nazi spy had infiltrated the proceedings and shot and killed Dr. Erskine. Unable to duplicate Erskine’s success, the government decided to make Rogers into a patriotic symbol and a special-missions commando, similar to Britain’s Union Jack of World War I. Given a red, white, and blue costume and a bulletproof shield, Rogers became the masked hero Captain America. A few months later, Rogers acquired a teen-aged sidekick, Bucky, and the pair quickly became a media sensation. After America entered the war, Rogers fought alongside other super-heroes in the Invaders, as well as conducting numerous solo missions. In 1944, Bucky reached his 18th birthday and gave up his costumed identity to join the Army as a regular soldier. Soon after, while in France, Rogers fell in love with an American girl fighting in the French Resistance, although he knew her only by her code-name, “Mademoiselle.” She disappeared during the liberation of Paris, and Rogers was unable to find her. Then, in the winter of 1945, Rogers had his final battle with his arch-nemesis, the Red Skull, who was buried under tons of rubble in a collapsing bunker in Berlin. Returning to England, Rogers was assigned to stop the theft of an experimental drone plane from a base on the North Sea, where he was reunited with Bucky. His old enemy, Baron Heinrich Zemo, launched the plane towards Germany, but when Rogers and Bucky leaped aboard to stop it, they discovered it was booby-trapped. The plane exploded, killing Bucky and throwing Rogers down into the icy waters below. The super-soldier serum in his blood caused Rogers to go into suspended animation, and he was carried by the current into the Arctic, where he remains, entombed in ice, to the present day.<br />
<br />
The girl who will be known as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rogue</span> is currently a 7-year-old with latent mutant powers living with her family in Mississippi.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Natasha Romanova</span> is a 27-year-old spy born in Stalingrad, U.S.S.R. (now St. Petersburg, Russia). Orphaned as a young girl, she was discovered living on the streets of Madripoor in 1991 by Russian soldier Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov. Realizing the girl was descended from the Russian royal family, Bezukhov vowed to raise her as his own daughter. However, she was soon kidnapped by the terrorist Wolfgang von Strucker, who was working with the group of ninja assassins known as the Hand. With some help from Logan and Dominic Fortune, Bezukhov rescued Romanova and took her back to Russia. He enrolled her in the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg and got himself a job in electronics. Bezukhov married in 1997 and soon had a son, Yuri. In 2003, Romanova graduated and became a professional ballerina in the famous Kirov ballet company, which put a tremendous strain on her relationship with her boyfriend, a brilliant college student named Andrei Rostov. A year later they broke up and Romanova took the hotshot jet pilot Alexi Shostakov as her lover. They married in 2005 and became something of a celebrity couple. However, two years after that, members of the Russian intelligence community decided that the Shostakovs would make excellent covert operatives. Incidents were arranged to convince each one that the other had died and then they were recruited separately. Shostakov was taken to Siberia for training while Romanova was assigned to the KGB’s former Moscow training facility, the infamous Red Room. There she was trained by a former KGB agent named Alexi Bruskin and proved highly adept at spycraft. In 2008 Romanova was sent on her first mission outside Russia, to assist an operative called Danny French in stealing an experimental device from the Project Four installation in Nevada. Since she was successful, she was sent to New York to infiltrate Stark International under the alias “Natalie Rushman.” She has been passing the secrets of Stark’s technology to the Russians ever since.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jack Russell</span> is a 14-year-old student living in the suburbs of Los Angeles with his mother, step-father, and sister Lissa. He is unaware that his biological father, Gregory Russoff, was a werewolf and that he will inherit his father’s ancestral curse on his 18th birthday. He is equally unaware that he was born Jacob Russoff in Transylvania and that his step-father Philip is really his father’s brother. Nor does he know that his grandfather, Baron Gregor Russoff of Transylvania (also a werewolf), obtained the Darkhold, the ultimate book of black magic, in 1971 from the sorcerer Taboo. In 1999, Gregory was killed by a hunting party while in his werewolf form, and a year later Gregor died while battling the demon Chthon on Wundagore Mountain. Jack and his mother fled Transylvania for California, where she married Philip shortly after Lissa was born, changing their names from Russoff to Russell. The Darkhold is currently in a California warehouse along with the rest of the contents of Castle Russoff.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ted Sallis</span> is a 34-year-old chemist from Omaha, Nebraska. In 2007, he initiated a research project at Empire State University that the United States military soon classified top-secret and codenamed Operation: Sulfur. Its aim was to alter human biochemistry to enable people to survive even the most toxic industrial pollution. By 2010, however, Sallis determined that his serum would mutate people into horribly disfigured pollution-breathing monsters. He convinced a review panel to condemn the project and the government had no choice but to shut it down. Sallis has recently received overtures from Dr. Wilma Calvin to join her project to recreate Abraham Erskine’s super-soldier formula, and he is considering it.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Leonard Samson</span> is a psychiatrist from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who currently practices in Albuquerque, New Mexico.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Basil Sandhurst</span> is a research scientist from Kittery Point, Maine, who is developing mind-control technologies.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mark Scarlotti</span> is a college student from Cleveland, Ohio, studying electrical engineering. He has been awarded a summer internship at Stark International in New York.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Larry Scott</span> was a masked vigilante known as “Father Time” in 1941-1942. His father was executed in the electric chair after being convicted of murder, though Scott maintained he was innocent. Unhinged by the experience, Scott took up a scythe and began killing criminals. Eventually someone overpowered him and killed him with his own weapon.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Shang-Chi</span> is a 14-year-old student of the martial arts at a retreat in Honan, China. He is the son of an international criminal mastermind and his American-born wife, though Shang-Chi is unaware of his father’s illegal activities.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Gregor Shapanka</span> is a research scientist from Szombathely, Hungary, who works in the cryonics division at Stark International in New York.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sebastian Shaw</span> is a 33-year-old multi-millionaire industrialist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the CEO of Shaw Industries, and a mutant with the power to absorb kinetic energy. Shaw keeps a love-slave named Tessa, who is also a mutant.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Nekra Sinclair</span> is a 17-year-old mutant from Los Alamos, New Mexico, with the power to convert negative emotions into strength and invulnerability. A “goth chick” runaway, she lives on the streets with her partner, Jerome Beechman, a mutant with ape-like features and powerful pheromones.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rahne Sinclair</span> is a 4-year-old orphan girl in Scotland with the latent mutant ability to shapeshift into a wolf. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Marrina Smallwood</span> is an 8-year-old girl, hatched from an alien Plodex egg mapped with human DNA, living in a small fishing community in Newfoundland, Canada. Despite her strange appearance, Smallwood has been accepted by the locals since they find her amphibious abilities useful.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tabitha Smith</span> is a 2-year-old girl in Roanoke, Virginia, with the latent mutant ability to generate explosive energy spheres.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Samuel Smithers</span> is a gardener and groundskeeper. Born in London, England, he is currently employed by the wealthy Evans family of Long Island.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Karla Sofen</span> is a 25-year-old graduate student from Van Nuys, California. She is studying to become a psychiatrist, but is financing her education by dallying with various gangsters.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Marc Spector</span> is a 21-year-old heavyweight boxer from Chicago, Illinois. Feeling his career is winding down, he is considering joining the U.S. Marine Corps.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Gwen Stacy</span> is a 16-year-old high-school student in New York City. Her father, George Stacy, is a captain in the NYPD.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tony Stark</span> is a 25-year-old genius-level inventor and head of Stark International, a company he inherited in 2007 after his parents were killed in a car crash. Stark is currently constructing the massive flying fortress called the Helicarrier for the nascent international security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division), among other weapons and hardware. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Elihas Starr</span> is a research scientist from Queens, New York. Though brilliant, he is bad-tempered and his co-workers mock him with the nickname “Egghead.”<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Samuel Sterns</span> is a manual laborer from Boise, Idaho, who works at a nuclear research facility.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Johnny Storm</span> is a 17-year-old high school student from Glenville, New York, on Long Island. He lost his mother in 2005, and his father was convicted of manslaughter and sent to jail in 2007. Since then, Storm has been raised by his sister Susan, with help from an aunt who lives nearby. In the summer of 2011, Storm has gone to California to hang out with Sue and her boyfriend Reed Richards. Thanks to his interest in fast cars, Storm has quickly made a number of new friends.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Susan Storm</span> is a 22-year-old model from Glenville, New York, on Long Island. After the death of her mother in 2005, her father went into a downward spiral and was finally convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison in 2007. Storm has been raising her younger brother Johnny ever since, though she has help from an aunt who runs a boarding house near Columbia University. It was at her aunt’s boarding house that Storm met Reed Richards, a much older college student, in 2003. She fell in love with Richards and has kept in touch with him since then. In the spring of 2011, Richards invited Storm to spend the summer with him in California, and she happily accepted. After a few weeks together, they decided to get engaged. After school let out, Johnny came out to California to join her. Storm recently assisted Richards in destroying an alien menace that had come to wipe out the human race, and understands why he works so obsessively on his project to build an interstellar spaceship.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Stephen Strange</span> is a 49-year-old sorcerer who lives in a mansion in Greenwich Village, which he calls his Sanctum Sanctorum. Strange went to medical school in the 1980s at the University of Pennsylvania and studied to be a neurosurgeon. He went into private practice in 1995, by which time both his parents had died. Earlier in the ‘90s, he had been engaged to a woman named Madeleine Revell, but she ended their relationship when she realized he was becoming too arrogant and cold-hearted. In 1997, Strange crashed his sports car and sustained nerve damage that ended his surgical career. Too proud to work as a consultant, Strange then squandered his fortune seeking a cure for his condition, alienating his few friends in the process. By 1999, Strange was desperate enough to travel to Tibet in search of a miracle-worker known only as “The Ancient One.” Within a year, Strange found his way to the Ancient One’s remote retreat in the mountains, where the weird old man refused to help him. However, a sudden blizzard prevented Strange from leaving. While there, the former doctor discovered that the Ancient One’s pupil, a Transylvanian called Baron Mordo, was trying to kill his master. Mordo used his spells to prevent Strange from revealing the plot, so Strange asked the Ancient One to teach him magic. Seeing the good in Strange, the Ancient One agreed and released Strange from Mordo’s spells, of which he was already aware. Strange experienced an epiphany and dedicated himself to the study of the mystic arts. Strange soon got to know the Ancient One’s devoted manservant, Hamir the Hermit, and his son Wong. Months later, Mordo tried to kill Strange, but the novice sorcerer defeated him. The Ancient One then banished Mordo from the temple, and he returned to Transylvania, vowing revenge. Strange studied with the Ancient One until 2008, when he was ready to return to the world as a Master of the Mystic Arts. Accompanied by Wong, Strange moved to Greenwich Village and established his reputation as an expert on the occult. Doctor Strange currently uses his magic powers to aid people who seek him out, though he occasionally assists the police with particularly mysterious cases.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Wolfgang von Strucker</span> is a 61-year-old mercenary and terrorist and leader of the international criminal organization HYDRA. He was recruited by the East German intelligence services in 1984, but went rogue soon after when a mission to assassinate a United States senator was thwarted by Dominic Fortune. Strucker retreated to the western Pacific and made a name for himself there as a freelance mercenary. In 1991, on the island of Madripoor, he agreed to assist the clan of ninja assassins known as the Hand in kidnapping a young Natasha Romanova, whom the Hand wanted for a mystical ceremony. However, his plans were again ruined by Dominic Fortune, along with a mysterious Canadian called Logan and a Russian soldier named Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov. In 1992, Strucker suffered a major setback when Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos wiped out his infrastructure and seized his assets. Left nearly destitute, Strucker learned that an associate of his knew the location of a cache of Nazi gold, hidden during the closing days of World War II. Unfortunately, the man was fatally wounded by his enemies, so he tried to use an experimental hypnosis technique to implant the information in the mind of an Israeli prostitute named Gabrielle Haller, but the process left her catatonic. Foiled again, Strucker hid out in Japan, where he infiltrated and took over a secret society bent on world domination. After assassinating the group’s leader, Strucker renamed it HYDRA and established a new headquarters on a lonely island in the Pacific Ocean. In 1993, this base, called Hydra Island, was destroyed by Captain Simon Savage and his squad of Navy SEALs, “The Leatherneck Raiders.” Strucker was on the run again, and caught up with Nick Fury in Somalia. Knowing the Howling Commandos thought Fury had been killed in a helicopter crash, Strucker tortured his foe until Fury managed to escape. Strucker then returned to Europe and organized a secret group of scientists to create high-tech weapons for HYDRA, setting up a dummy corporation called Advanced Idea Mechanics as a front. In 1994, while in Bosnia, Strucker discovered a group of extraterrestrials hiding out while repairing their spaceship. Strucker killed the aliens, as well as everyone else in the village, and seized their otherworldly technology for use by HYDRA. Five years later, one of Strucker’s lovers gave birth to twins. Strucker was proud of his offspring and named them Andrea and Andreas von Strucker, unaware that they were mutants with latent powers. In 2006, Strucker learned that Gabrielle Haller had finally been brought out of her catatonic state by an American therapist named Charles Xavier. Strucker and a squad of HYDRA mercenaries attacked the psychiatric hospital in Israel to capture her. They took her to Kenya and forced her to reveal where the Nazi gold was hidden. However, they were attacked by Xavier, a telepath, and another mutant called Magnus, who possessed impressive magnetic powers, who had come to rescue Haller. Strucker was no match for their mutant powers, and Magnus took all the Nazi gold for himself. Nevertheless, Strucker got away, and has been at large ever since, slowly building up HYDRA’s power base, until they are ready to take over the world.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Leopold Stryke</span> is a manager at the New York Aquarium on Coney Island. His brother Jordan is an advertising executive on Madison Avenue. Both have criminal tendencies and are suckers for a get-rich-quick scheme.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Scott Summers</span> is a 15-year-old orphan living in a state-run institution in Omaha, Nebraska. His younger brother Alex is living in a foster home not far away. Although he doesn’t remember the event, Summers’ parents were kidnapped by aliens from the Shi’ar galaxy in 2004. Both Summers boys are mutants with emerging powers. Scott had been experiencing severe headaches and eye-strain until discovering that ruby-quartz crystals alleviated his symptoms. An optometrist agreed to make a pair of goggles out of the substance, which Summers wears all the time, day and night. When he needs to remove them, he keeps his eyes tightly closed for fear the headaches will return. His caretakers believe Summers was brain-damaged when his parents were killed. Deeply unhappy, he is planning to run away to New York City.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sun Girl</span> was a mysterious super-heroine who appeared one day in 1948, became a media sensation, then disappeared just as abruptly in 1949. She worked briefly with the Human Torch while his regular partner, Toro, was on a leave of absence. Many theories surround Sun Girl, but the truth was never discovered.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kevin Sydney</span> is a mutant shapeshifter able to mimic the appearance of other people.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Will Talltrees</span> is a 22-year-old soldier in the U.S. Marine Corps from Wolf Point, Montana.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">George Tarleton</span> is a technician for the subversive organization Advanced Idea Mechanics.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">T’Challa</span> is the 24-year-old heir to the throne of Wakanda, a remote African kingdom. In 2003, the unscrupulous Dutch scientist Ulysses Klaw invaded Wakanda with a heavily-armed band of mercenaries, intent on capturing the source of the ultra-rare mineral vibranium. They killed the king, T’Chaka, but the teenaged prince T’Challa attacked them with their own sonic disruptor weapon and drove them off. T’Challa was then sent abroad to complete his education at the finest universities of Europe and America, accompanied by his friend B’Tumba. In his absence, Wakanda has been ruled by B’Tumba’s father, N’Baza, as regent. Having just graduated, T’Challa was touring eastern Africa on his way back to Wakanda when an attempt was made to kidnap him. He defeated the kidnappers with the help of a 12-year-old girl called Ororo, a mutant with limited control over the weather. Fascinated by her, T’Challa has decided to accompany her on her trek through Kenya before returning to his native land.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Thor</span> is the mythological god of thunder worshipped by the Vikings a thousand years ago. Since 1999, he has been banished from his extradimensional realm of Asgard and has been living on Earth with no memory of his true identity. Odin, king of the Asgardians, took possession of Thor’s enchanted hammer, Mjolnir, and forced Thor to assume the mortal guise of Donald Blake, a medical student with a bad leg. Blake trained to be a neurosurgeon and far surpassed the skill level of his peers. In the summer of 2011, he went into private practice in New York City and hired Nurse Jane Foster to work at his office.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Maynard Tiboldt</span> is the ringmaster of a traveling circus, which is really just a cover for a gang of thieves. They mainly target small towns along rural highways.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mark Todd</span>, a former newspaper reporter, fought the Japanese Army as the costumed commando known as “The Blazing Skull,” beginning in 1939. He was killed in action in 1942.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Adrian Toomes</span> is a 59-year-old mechanic and inventor from New York City, who has nearly perfected a rig to allow a person to fly like a bird.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Topaz</span> is a 12-year-old girl from India who serves as the familiar for a sorcerer called Taboo. In 2005, Taboo found Topaz in a refugee camp and learned how to harness her empathic powers to serve his own selfish ends.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mortimer Toynbee</span> is a 19-year-old mutant from York, England, with superhuman agility and a fawning, obsequious manner. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Michael Twoyoungmen</span> is a 46-year-old former surgeon from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In 2003, his wife died from a terminal illness, and Twoyoungmen blamed himself for failing to save her with his medical skill. Their young daughter Elizabeth blamed him also, and Twoyoungmen sank into a profound depression. Leaving Elizabeth with his neighbors, the large McNeil family, Twoyoungmen retreated to a remote cabin in the wilderness to be alone with his grief.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Angelo Unuscione</span> is a 23-year-old professional wrestler and a mutant with the ability to generate a force-field around his body. He bills himself as “Unus the Untouchable.”<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Janet Van Dyne</span> is a 20-year-old socialite in New York City, the daughter of the wealthy scientist Vernon Van Dyne. Her father has been one of America’s most noted scientists since the 1980s.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rachel Van Helsing</span> is a 29-year-old vampire hunter.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Wendell Vaughn</span> is a 16-year-old high-school student in Wisconsin.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Seth Voelker</span> is an economic analyst from Kenosha, Wisconsin. He has recently begun working for the Roxxon Oil Company.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Klaus Voorhees</span> is a research assistant from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who works for the internationally renowned herpetologist Ezekiel Shecktor.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kurt Wagner</span> is a 13-year-old circus acrobat in Germany with a number of bizarre mutations that have been present since birth, including dark-blue fuzz all over his body, yellow eyes, a prehensile tail, and six fingers and toes. He has only recently developed the ability to teleport short distances, disappearing and reappearing in a puff of smoke. Abandoned at birth, Wagner has been raised at the circus by Margali Szardos, a sorceress posing as a gypsy fortune-teller, alongside her own children Jimaine and Stefan. The circus folk accept Wagner despite his strange appearance, and audiences assume he is just wearing an outlandish costume.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Patsy Walker</span> is a 19-year-old former reality-TV star from Centerville, California. She has a strained relationship with her mother, Dorothy Walker, the ultimate “stage mom,” and is dating her former co-star, Buzz Baxter.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jennifer Walters</span> is a 24-year-old student at the UCLA School of Law pursuing her Juris Doctor degree. As a child she was close to her cousin, Bruce Banner, but they have since drifted apart.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Miles Warren</span> is a biology professor at Empire State University in New York City, interested in cloning.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">John Watkins</span> was a British Army lieutenant who was believed killed by the Nazis in 1940. He survived and adopted the masked identity “Citizen V” to wage a one-man guerilla war against the Axis powers across Europe. He left the “V” symbol at the site of his victories to inspire the local resistance movements. He was killed for real during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Dane Whitman</span> is a 23-year-old graduate student in physics from Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was inspired to pursue a career in the sciences by his uncle, Nathan Garrett.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Simon Williams</span> is a 24-year-old business executive from Paterson, New Jersey. He has recently inherited the family business, Williams Innovations, a technology firm. He and his brother Eric are frustrated that the company is unable to compete with the much larger Stark International.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jim Wilson</span> is a 12-year-old boy living with his family in a Los Angeles ghetto. He is unaware that his uncle, Sam Wilson, has recently moved to the city and joined a criminal gang.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sam Wilson</span> is a 19-year-old from Harlem, New York, who has moved to Los Angeles in the wake of his parents’ murders. Angry with the world, Wilson has renounced his former devotion to community service to join a street gang, going by the nickname “Snap.” Though his older brother Gideon lives in the city with his wife and son, Wilson avoids them out of shame.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Colleen Wing</span> is a 17-year-old girl being raised by her grandfather in the mountains of northern Japan, where she is learning the martial arts. Her father teaches Asian history at Columbia University in New York City.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Wyatt Wingfoot</span> is a 17-year-old high-school student living on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. His father is a famous athlete, and though talented at sports, Wingfoot worries about living up to everyone’s expectations.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bentley Wittman</span> is a “celebrity genius” who makes frequent television appearances, often showing off his bizarre inventions along with his knowledge of arcane trivia. Though his cable-TV show <i>Wizard!</i> has been quite successful, he has grown increasingly bored and searches for new ways to challenge his vast intellect.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jimmy Woo</span> is a 36-year-old FBI agent who, since 2006, has been trying to apprehend the international criminal mastermind known as the Yellow Claw.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Warren Worthington III</span> is a 15-year-old student at a private boarding school on Long Island, who goes to great lengths to conceal the feathery white wings that have been growing out of his back since puberty. He fears that they will soon be too large to hide beneath his clothes.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Wundarr</span> is an alien from the planet Dakkam, who was an infant when his ship crashed in the Florida Everglades in 1997. Though he has been growing physically at a normal rate within the ship’s womb-like interior, his cognitive development has been severely retarded.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Herbert Edgar Wyndham</span> is a research scientist from Manchester, England, who works at his private research facility on Wundagore Mountain in the tiny Balkan nation of Transia. In 1978, Wyndham attended a genetics conference in Geneva, Switzerland, at which he met Jonathan Drew, Wladyslav Shinski, and Arnim Zola. Shortly afterward, a mysterious visitor presented Wyndham with a document detailing the advanced genetic science of the Inhumans. This allowed him to take his experiments to a new level, and Wyndham soon succeeded in artificially evolving a dog into humanoid form. However, the dog-man escaped from Wyndham’s laboratory and terrorized Manchester until the police hunted it down and killed it. Wyndham realized he would need to conduct his future experiments in a remote area, and in 1980 he partnered with Jonathan Drew to build a research facility on land Drew had acquired in Transia. They hired Horace M. Grabsheid to design the installation for them, and funded the project by mining the uranium from Wundagore Mountain. The following year, the facility was plagued by a werewolf, who killed Drew’s wife. Drew became further distraught when his daughter Jessica succumbed to radiation poisoning. He administered an experimental treatment derived from spider venom, then placed her in suspended animation. Leaving her in Wyndham’s care, Drew abandoned his research and returned home. A month later, Wyndham succeeded in capturing the werewolf, learning that his name was Gregor Russoff. Struck by the similarities between Russoff’s werewolf form and the dog-man he had once created, Wyndham made a deal with Russoff—Wyndham would prevent his murderous rampages if Russoff would agree to be a research subject. By 1998, Wyndham had perfected his genetic accelerator and created a race of “New Men” by evolving various animals into sentient humanoids. Drew finally returned and helped harness the creatures’ animalistic instincts by training them in medieval chivalry as the Knights of Wundagore. In 2000, the Knights of Wundagore battled the demon Chthon, who had been imprisoned within Wundagore Mountain in the days of Camelot. During the battle, Gregor Russoff was killed. However, at the same time, the cow-woman Bova was acting as midwife to Magda, who had made her way to Transia after fleeing from her husband’s terrifying magnetic powers. Magda gave birth to mutant twins, naming them Wanda and Pietro. Sensing potential in the baby girl, Chthon imbued Wanda with some of his magic before being driven out of Earth’s dimension, planning to use her in the future to escape his imprisonment. Magda abandoned her babies, so Wyndham found them a foster family among the Romani living at the foot of the mountain. Drew left shortly afterwards to take a job at the British Museum, and Wyndham continued his experiments. Having slowly become something of a “mad scientist,” Wyndham now insists on being referred to as “The High Evolutionary.”<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Jason Wyngarde</span> is a middle-aged mutant in England with the ability to generate convincing illusions. He makes his living as a stage magician and supplements his income with the occasional petty larceny. He also uses his powers to trick beautiful young women into sleeping with him.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Charles Xavier</span> is a 35-year-old researcher of genetic mutation in humans, who works primarily at his home, a large estate in Westchester County, north of New York City. He is also a mutant with highly developed telepathic powers. Both he and his stepbrother Cain Marko were orphaned in the early ‘90s. Arrangements were made for Xavier to attend a private boarding school, where he pursued an accelerated course of study. He attended Bard College and received a degree in Biology in 1997, then enrolled in Oxford University for graduate study. There he met Moira MacTaggart, an unhappily married student of genetics, and they had a passionate affair. When the Iraq War broke out in 2003, Xavier decided to enlist in the U.S. Army to serve his country. He found himself serving alongside his stepbrother Cain Marko, though Marko soon disappeared in a cave-in while they were patrolling an ancient archaeological site. Not long after, Xavier was badly wounded in combat, but his friend William Lonestar saved his life. While in the hospital, Xavier received a letter from MacTaggart ending their relationship. Depressed, Xavier retreated to the Greek island of Kirinos to recover from his injuries after receiving a medical discharge. Trying to lose himself by traveling the world, Xavier would find himself in Colorado in 2004 to attend the christening of William Lonestar’s daughter Danielle; in Cairo, Egypt in 2005 where he battled another mutant telepath named Amahl Farouk; and in Haifa, Israel in 2006 doing consulting work at a psychiatric hospital. There he met the man called Magnus, who proved to be another mutant, possessing impressive magnetic powers. Xavier succeeded in using his telepathy to bring a young woman, Gabrielle Haller, out of a catatonic state. However, she was immediately kidnapped by Wolfgang von Strucker and his HYDRA mercenaries and taken to Kenya to help them find a cache of Nazi gold hidden during World War II. Xavier and Magnus teamed up to rescue her, though Magnus took the gold for himself and left. Xavier returned Haller to Israel and she became his lover for a time, but within a few months, he left her to continue his travels, unaware that she was pregnant. While exploring Tibet in 2007, Xavier encountered an alien being who tried to kill him. Xavier survived, but his legs were crushed and he was confined to a wheelchair. Utterly defeated, Xavier finally returned home to Westchester and devoted himself to studying genetics, becoming something of a recluse. In 2008, Xavier’s success in treating Gabrielle Haller led to him being asked to meet with a traumatized local girl named Jean Grey. Xavier discovered Grey was also a mutant telepath, and helped her deal with her emerging powers. In 2009, Xavier took a position at Columbia University, where he met a medical researcher named Karl Lykos. They collaborated briefly when Xavier believed Lykos to be a mutant, but when he discovered he was wrong, Xavier distanced himself from Lykos. He renewed his association with Moira MacTaggart, who had founded her Mutant Research Centre on Muir Island, off the coast of Scotland, in 2006. They continued to work with Jean Grey while Xavier perfected his mutant-detecting CEREBRO machine. He recently demonstrated the prototype for MacTaggart and Grey, though there are still bugs to be worked out.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Yellow Claw</span> is an international criminal mastermind from China who is over 120 years old. He uses arcane chemicals to unnaturally extend his lifespan, which have given his skin and eyes a sickly yellow hue. Since 2006 he has been plagued by the FBI agent Jimmy Woo, who has disrupted most of the Claw’s schemes in America. His grand-niece Suwan, inspired by her love for Woo, has also interfered with his plans, but the Yellow Claw is unwilling to kill his only living relative. For the last couple of years, the Yellow Claw has been keeping a low profile.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Shiro Yoshida</span> is a 14-year-old student in Agarashima, Japan, with emerging mutant powers to generate blasts of flame from his body. His father is an ambassador to the United Nations.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Calvin Zabo</span> is an unscrupulous medical assistant from Trenton, New Jersey, with a checkered employment history.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Helmut Zemo</span> is the 25-year-old leader of a mercenary army based in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil, where he was born. His father, Baron Heinrich Zemo, fled from Europe at the end of World War II, and his mother was one of Heinrich’s many Brazilian concubines. Already quite elderly, Heinrich Zemo died when Helmut was still a boy, but he did pass on his intense hatred of America to his son.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Arnim Zola</span> is a 66-year-old geneticist who conducts his experiments at his ancestral castle on Weisshorn Mountain in Switzerland. In 1978 he attended a genetics conference in Geneva along with Wladyslav Shinski, Herbert Edgar Wyndham, and Jonathan Drew. However, he made little significant progress with his theories until 1987, when he discovered a cache of scientific papers left by the ancient race known as the Deviants. He began a radical new line of research into the creation of artificial life. Zola’s project was developed further in 1991 when a mysterious visitor presented him with a document detailing the advanced genetic science of the Inhumans. Aware of his own mortality, Zola is currently working on engineering a new body for himself, hoping to thus prolong his life indefinitely.<br />
<br />
<br />
The possibilities are endless! Another 50 years of exciting comic book stories could easily be mined just from the information presented above, let alone with all the new ideas that would be added to the mix by today’s most talented writers and artists. Hit the kill switch, Marvel. It’s time to reboot!<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2011/10/marvel-universe-relaunch.html"><i>How I Would Do It</i></a><br />
<br />
Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-61280871406271975832010-11-23T12:34:00.011-06:002017-07-18T19:08:37.713-05:00Frank Robbins Fashions<b>Frank Robbins</b> remains one of the most controversial comic book artists among aficionados. Although his true claim to fame is the <i>Johnny Hazard</i> newspaper strip, which ran from 1944 to 1977, Robbins is best known to most comic book fans for his 1970s work on superhero titles like <i>Batman, Captain America</i>, and <i>The Invaders</i>. His distinctive artwork was a far cry from the preferred “house style” at either Marvel or DC, and was so different, even strange, that many young fans absolutely hated it. But, a familiar refrain in discussions of Robbins and his art is that these fans who reviled it in their youth eventually developed an appreciation for it as they grew up and matured. I certainly count myself among their number.
<br />
<br />
As a child, I found Robbins’ awkward contorted figures laughable, his faces cartoony and exaggerated to the point of silliness, and his scenes cluttered and overwrought. About the only good thing I could say about Frank Robbins was that his work wasn’t bland. But I was at a loss to understand what people like Stan Lee and Roy Thomas saw in his art that made them so enthusiastic about it. They touted getting Frank Robbins to work for Marvel like a major coup. But as Robbins’ tenure at Marvel was relatively brief and his work was generally easy to avoid, I didn’t think much about him for many years. But as I started encountering the work of Frank Robbins again in Marvel’s line of “Essential” reprints, I found my attitude toward him had softened, and his oddball approach didn’t turn me off as much as it once had. But it wasn’t until I attended the 2006 Masters of American Comics exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and saw original art by Milton Caniff that I finally “got” what Frank Robbins had been trying to do.
<br />
<br />
Frank Robbins imitated Milton Caniff, in the same sense that both John Byrne and Bill Sienkiewicz imitated Neal Adams, Paul Gulacy imitated Jim Steranko, or Dan Adkins imitated Wallace Wood when they were starting out. Caniff, famous for his pioneering newspaper adventure strips <i>Terry and the Pirates</i> and <i>Steve Canyon</i>, is listed as a major influence on virtually every comic book illustrator of their generation. Artists as disparate as Jack Kirby and Mike Sekowsky would acknowledge their debt to Caniff, but no one aped Caniff’s stylistic quirks as closely as Robbins. Somehow, seeing Caniff’s drawings in person caused an epiphany, and all of a sudden Frank Robbins’ art made sense. I started seeking it out to regard it with a fresh eye, and far from grotesque, I now found it dynamic and fascinating and fun. And what surprised me most of all was that Frank Robbins proved to have a definite eye for the ladies, as well as an unexpectedly kinky fashion sense.
<br />
<br />
While working on my series of profiles of <a href="http://originalmarveluniverse.blogspot.com/2005/09/omw-isis.html">Obscure Marvel Women</a>, it struck me that several of them were based on the designs of Frank Robbins. I never would have expected that, so I thought it merited a closer look.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIhquk8PtSfsH5lK-shyehRXJtOwMGf-79_T6u5oew5v0Ka0OiSPnr27NOEgmhsFAI7-10unW8KqnlSS-M0zFWCQ5ryvvHOsVRC2-1MWJyLv5knWQRHimS0E0iS1Ke5B7WgrHO/s1600/Ghost+Girl-s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIhquk8PtSfsH5lK-shyehRXJtOwMGf-79_T6u5oew5v0Ka0OiSPnr27NOEgmhsFAI7-10unW8KqnlSS-M0zFWCQ5ryvvHOsVRC2-1MWJyLv5knWQRHimS0E0iS1Ke5B7WgrHO/s1600/Ghost+Girl-s.jpg" /></a></div>
Frank Robbins’ most successful series for Marvel was unquestionably <i>The Invaders</i>, which was set during World War II. Here, his Caniff-inspired art seemed appropriate, and his detailed knowledge of the period helped establish a sense of verisimilitude (although, as on <i>Happy Days</i>, the period flavor was undercut by anachronistic 1970s hairdos). In the 14th issue, Robbins introduced a team of British superheroes formed as part of a Nazi plot to undermine the Invaders. These characters, called the Crusaders, were part of a sort of intercompany idea exchange and were analogous to DC’s WWII-era super-team the Freedom Fighters. (DC ran a similar story wherein the Freedom Fighters battled analogs of the Invaders.) The female member of the team, <a href="http://originalmarveluniverse.blogspot.com/2008/07/omw-ghost-girl.html">Ghost Girl</a>, was based on Phantom Lady (a character dating back to 1941), but Robbins’ design for the new character was entirely his own. Clad in a sleeveless silver lamé bodysuit with silver opera gloves and a long silvery wig attached to her mask, Ghost Girl easily showed up her more conservatively dressed rival Spitfire in terms of sex appeal.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Frank Robbins also did a fair amount of work for Marvel’s horror titles, and here again his outré approach lent itself more readily to the material. In two vampire-themed stories he did for <i>Dracula Lives!</i> and <i>Adventure Into Fear</i> we find more evidence of Robbins’ penchant for erotically charged fashions.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXU45BmITH9eXQmtk11NqbmShuYlRwRpgSpN0_tQLgNOEEvikkTTe_tdeWBCzUX0Q0xdIVN6zFuj2ZtgbOSmSyAcSgQIGAm78023QSd9NuwvLtyu8LnmCDMcWgk05Hy6ZPeBaJ/s1600/Ursula-Martine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXU45BmITH9eXQmtk11NqbmShuYlRwRpgSpN0_tQLgNOEEvikkTTe_tdeWBCzUX0Q0xdIVN6zFuj2ZtgbOSmSyAcSgQIGAm78023QSd9NuwvLtyu8LnmCDMcWgk05Hy6ZPeBaJ/s1600/Ursula-Martine.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
In “The Lady Who Collected Dracula,” we meet <a href="http://originalmarveluniverse.blogspot.com/2006/11/omw-ursula-lensky.html">Ursula Lensky</a>, a Manhattan socialite with a serious vampire fetish. Ursula likes to parade around in a black leather minidress with a dangerously plunging neckline, black leather opera gloves, and knee-high boots. Prominently placed buckles are another recurring Robbins fashion motif, as seen in both these examples. <a href="http://originalmarveluniverse.blogspot.com/2010/10/omw-martine-bancroft.html">Martine Bancroft</a>, featured in the “Morbius the Living Vampire” series in <i>Adventure Into Fear</i>, appears in one story sporting this burgundy leather peek-a-boo ensemble with matching thigh-boots. A big belt accentuates her hotpants, and the outfit is accessorized with a gold lamé cape. Why Martine was dabbling in extreme fashion was not explained, but perhaps hanging out with her vampiric boyfriend brought out the beast in her.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtUnHOmUCZ-piThe4qifgy0AUEXK-H3HN1OT-duZ8WmOOuHN5QUyHv8EYFR3QB2R6qAu9znF1ebubqHSGVsUUIarwMeTFDYLEjas5b2IHebqv6lRtrjGLBmAHBDmDnL7IHi1q/s1600/Kriegerfrau.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtUnHOmUCZ-piThe4qifgy0AUEXK-H3HN1OT-duZ8WmOOuHN5QUyHv8EYFR3QB2R6qAu9znF1ebubqHSGVsUUIarwMeTFDYLEjas5b2IHebqv6lRtrjGLBmAHBDmDnL7IHi1q/s1600/Kriegerfrau.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Invaders</i> #17 introduced us to the Third Reich’s ultimate bad-girl, Kriegerfrau. She was generally referred to as “Warrior Woman” for the benefit of the English-speaking audience, though a closer translation would actually be “Mrs. Warrior” -- which would also be more appropriate given that her number one mission seemed to be to marry the Übermensch. Robbins’ design for this character obviously draws on the stock Nazi dominatrix that was a common fixture of men’s magazines in the second-half of the 20th century. (I don’t know, maybe they still are.) Again we have lots of leather with knee-high boots and gauntlets. She’s covered with straps & buckles, and the only splash of color is provided by her Nazi swastika armband. Her favorite accessory? A bullwhip, of course. How better to punish those liberty-loving men she so despises?
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjZUhRX8VnXaymx8cK9sQB21nVHn5EHuE7a4f0uMJtS5_inAH-SoFDOiqh5Fez85kfrkeJxjmMy2k6icopZoaRZz_H6OP299-6vAl_zHnHxK5K3xis9xE_65WEDv_Xhcciedxu/s1600/Karla+Sofen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjZUhRX8VnXaymx8cK9sQB21nVHn5EHuE7a4f0uMJtS5_inAH-SoFDOiqh5Fez85kfrkeJxjmMy2k6icopZoaRZz_H6OP299-6vAl_zHnHxK5K3xis9xE_65WEDv_Xhcciedxu/s1600/Karla+Sofen.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Another “bad-girl” design by Robbins, that seems to have gone a little too far for Marvel’s editors, appeared in <i>Captain America</i> #192, which was his last issue on the title. In the story, Cap infiltrates a meeting of numerous gangsters held by the villainous psychiatrist Dr. Faustus, and on hand is Faustus’s gun-moll Karla. She would return later as the equally villainous psychiatrist Dr. Karla Sofen, a.k.a. Moonstone, and enjoy a long and distinguished career as a super-baddie. At this point, however, she was apparently still completing her degree and working for Dr. Faustus to finance her education. Now, when <i>Captain America</i> #192 was first printed in 1975, Karla was colored so as to appear to be wearing an orange bodystocking with brown leather accessories. Seeing the art in black & white in <i>Essential Captain America</i> v. 5, it becomes clear that Robbins had something more risqué in mind. Karla is meant to be eye-candy for Faustus’s criminal guests, as well as bolstering the rather rotund mastermind’s unspoken claim to sexual potency, so it makes sense she would be practically nude, her modesty preserved only by a strategically wrapped ammo belt and a well-placed holster, as Robbins drew her. I think it more likely, furthermore, that her matching gloves, boots, mask, and choker would be black. I present her here as I believe she was intended to appear.
<br />
<br />
<br />
In the last panel of the same issue, a crowd scene in which Captain America passes among the somewhat shadier-looking denizens of New York City, we see the following woman giving Cap the big eye. She’s a totally throwaway anonymous background character, but her rather striking outfit seems to be the quintessence of Frank Robbins’ fashion sense. A very tight, very shiny, and very skimpy top & miniskirt combo accessorized with knee-high boots and opera gloves of brown leather, with a big brass buckle at her waist. This outfit would not be out of place in a high-end fashion magazine of the 1970s or today. The double-ponytails and big round glasses mark her as “brainy,” adding to her sex appeal. However, given the setting she appears in, it would come as no surprise if a man had to pay cash money to secure this lady’s company for the evening.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQLHyF-EqZ6_os3z4hFhYBDuLIq-73i6zyigHUHeBs6RIgsAZtgbQACs2SyVWdRpXclUwN4DWvQFRIL2t88gjA47emJH8Ov46GXy-id2_Uu5pXoUNqRjRpLOvupvVHHt39mN4g/s1600/Girl-192.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQLHyF-EqZ6_os3z4hFhYBDuLIq-73i6zyigHUHeBs6RIgsAZtgbQACs2SyVWdRpXclUwN4DWvQFRIL2t88gjA47emJH8Ov46GXy-id2_Uu5pXoUNqRjRpLOvupvVHHt39mN4g/s1600/Girl-192.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Although a great many comic book readers failed to appreciate Frank Robbins’ artwork, it is pretty clear that he enjoyed what he was doing, and we can only envy a guy who was paid to draw sexy girls wearing outlandish costumes.
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-73158633320653856132010-11-11T15:34:00.004-06:002017-07-18T15:46:54.919-05:00Tony Television Special #4<em>At the <strong>Tony Television Network</strong>, originality is our watchword. We refuse to torture our audience by rehashing the same tired plots over and over and over again. And let it never be said that we shy away from controversial subject matter by playing it safe and sticking to the same bland, inoffensive concepts. No way, José! Our commitment to the startling, the shocking, the never-before-seen, and the groundbreaking -- our commitment to you, the discriminating viewer, is best demonstrated by our fourth television movie event! The drama, the grandeur, the excitement, the novelty that you demand are all here in one gut-wrenching package that is destined to go down in history as one of the greatest films of all time, with undreamt-of cross-marketing possibilities! Nothing you have ever experienced could possibly prepare you for this feature-length drama! Merely burn into your brain this immortal tagline: A Long Time Ago, On an Island Far, Far Away…</em><br /><br /><br /><strong>HEAVEN’S WARRIORS</strong><br /><br />The story opens with an exciting car chase through the countryside of Northern Ireland as a 1977 Lotus Esprit sportscar is pursued by a British RAF Police truck. It is the autumn of 1978. The sportscar temporarily eludes its pursuers as it races through a small village. The driver slams on the brakes in front of the village pub, and a large St. Bernard leaps out of the passenger-side window. The driver, a beautiful dark-haired woman, commands the dog to “stay,” then roars off. The military truck speeds past a moment later, taking no notice of the dog sitting near the pub door. Further down the road, the truck finally catches up to the sportscar and forces it into a ditch. Soldiers leap out, guns drawn, and place the woman under arrest. <br /><br />Later, as she is interrogated at an RAF base, we learn that she is <strong>Lady Leah O’Grady</strong>, and is suspected of conducting espionage for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). She remains defiant, despite the cold, intimidating demeanor of her asthmatic captor, <strong>Group Captain Garth Eder</strong>. He accuses her of stealing the blueprints for a new bomber the RAF is testing at the base, but she responds with only wisecracks and mockery. He orders her taken back to her detention cell, and promises her she will regret not cooperating. Meanwhile, as evening falls, a Rolls-Royce pulls up to the village pub where the St. Bernard is still patiently waiting. A butler gets out and clips a leash to the animal’s collar, on which is attached a decorative brandy barrel. The dog happily bounds into the posh vehicle, which then pulls away and disappears into the night.<br /><br />The next morning, the butler and the dog are found staying at a nearby bed & breakfast, which is a farmhouse owned and operated by Lawrence and Beth Owens. Their orphaned teenage nephew, <strong>Skye Walker</strong>, takes a shine to the St. Bernard. The butler, who introduces himself as <strong>Mr. S. T. Keough</strong>, tells the boy that the dog’s name is <strong>Artie</strong>. He goes on to say he needs to deliver the pet to an old friend of his employer, Owen Kearney, who is thought to live in the area. Skye replies that the only Kearney he knows of is Old Ben Kearney, a reclusive drunk with a mysterious past. Later that afternoon, while playing with Skye, the dog escapes from the yard and runs off into the hills behind the farm. Skye and Mr. Keough give chase, but are soon accosted by a gang of local hooligans. They are saved by <strong>Old Ben Kearney</strong>, who appears suddenly with his shotgun and scares off the troublemakers.<br /><br />Kearney takes Skye and Mr. Keough to his ramshackle cabin, where Artie the St. Bernard is waiting. Skye is in awe of the huge crucifix hanging on the wall, and notices the various other religious paraphernalia scattered throughout the tiny hovel. Old Ben reveals that he is, in fact, Owen Kearney, the notorious IRA explosives expert who made a name for himself nineteen years before during the Border Campaign. He claims to have known Skye’s father back in those days, before he was murdered by RAF Group Captain Garth Eder, a ruthless operator known to have ties to MI5. He takes out a pistol, saying it belonged to Skye’s father, and offers it to the boy. Then, Kearney opens the brandy barrel at the dog’s throat and removes a small canister, which contains a microfilm of the stolen blueprints and a note from Lady Leah. Saying he needs to get the microfilm to Londonderry, Kearney tries to recruit Skye to the republican cause by playing on his Catholic sympathies, but the boy is not interested. However, on the way home, Skye sees smoke rising from over a hill, and as he reaches the top, he discovers that his farmhouse is on fire. British troops are standing around doing nothing but watching it burn down. Then he sees his aunt and uncle, in handcuffs, being pushed into an RAF Police van. Skye watches in horror as his uncle suddenly fights back, only to be shot in the head. His aunt’s anguished screams are silenced by a second gunshot. Gripped with a desire for revenge, Skye returns to Kearney’s cabin and says he wants to join the IRA.<br /><br />Knowing military roadblocks would prevent them from driving all the way to Londonderry, Kearney takes Skye, Mr. Keough, and Artie into Omagh, where they visit a rowdy pub with a shady reputation, the Moss & Ivy. There, they strike a deal with two drug smugglers, a Swede named <strong>Hans Olaf</strong> and his incomprehensible sidekick “<strong>Debacle</strong>,” a Rastafarian ganja-head, to ferry them north aboard their twin-engine Cessna the <em>Maltese Falcon</em>. They narrowly avoid a police raid on the pub and a subsequent attack by gangsters gunning for Hans to reach the airfield and take to the skies. But, upon reaching Londonderry, their flight over the O’Grady estate reveals only a smoking crater -- the manor house has been bombed into oblivion. <br /><br />Kearney learns that Lady Leah is being held in the military prison on an RAF base several miles to the west and plans a jailbreak. Skye convinces Hans and Debacle to help by playing up Lady Leah’s great wealth and influence and suggesting they will be rewarded handsomely for their efforts. Their greed gets the better of them and they agree. Kearney spends some time teaching Skye how to fight, and tells him how to draw extra strength and resolve from prayer to Saint Michael, the Archangel, patron of all Heaven’s warriors. When they are ready, the quartet infiltrates the base with Skye and Hans disguised as British soldiers and Debacle pretending to be their prisoner. While they work on freeing Lady Leah, Kearney goes to sabotage the base’s power station and cause a blackout. <br /><br />The plan goes flawlessly until they get Lady Leah out of her cell, when they are spotted by a group of armed guards. Hans holds them off, but Skye isn’t sure what to do. Seizing the initiative, Lady Leah takes Skye’s gun and shoots the hinges off a metal grating covering a window. She then smashes the window and they all jump out, landing in a trash dumpster. Unfortunately, the dumpster is lifted just at that moment and emptied into a garbage truck, with the four unlikely comrades tumbling down among piles of rubbish. They are nearly compacted before Mr. Keough arrives and forces the truck driver to switch off the mechanism. They commandeer the garbage truck and make a break for the rear gate in a blazing gun battle, waiting for Kearney to kill the lights.<br /><br />Unfortunately, at the power station, Kearney is confronted by Group Captain Eder, which leads to a shootout in which Kearney is mortally wounded. The garbage truck pulls up and Skye yells to Kearney to jump in, but the old man has a different plan. Though he draws a bead on Eder, he pauses, intentionally allowing the soldier to shoot him dead, confident that his martyrdom will bind Skye to their cause more than ever before. As Skye screams in rage, Hans floors it and the garbage truck smashes through the poorly-defended rear gate and escapes. They soon reach the <em>Maltese Falcon</em> and take off, leaving their pursuers far below. They escape from a couple of RAF helicopters by executing some daring aerobatics inside a cloudbank.<br /><br />Lady Leah directs them to a hidden IRA stronghold outside Ballycastle, where she and her comrades plan a daring attack to blow up the RAF base and destroy the new bomber in its hanger. The leader of the cell, Dooley, informs Leah that the new plane was used to destroy her estate, killing her family and all their servants, as a test run. Outraged, Skye insists on participating in the attack, but, to his disappointment, Hans and Debacle say they’ve had enough, take their money, and leave. The IRA assembles a convoy of explosive-laden trucks and drives them to the base under cover of darkness. Skye is behind the wheel of one, with Artie the St. Bernard on the seat next to him as a good-luck charm. <br /><br />Upon arriving at the base, the trucks smash through the front gate, scattering the soldiers. They quickly regroup and open fire. However, as the trucks crash into the base’s buildings, they explode. The fires spread rapidly until the entire complex is a raging inferno. Group Captain Eder leaps on a motorcycle and daringly rides among the trucks, shooting the drivers through the windows and windshields. The out-of-control trucks crash into each other, going up in enormous fireballs. Meanwhile, Skye directs his truck at the hanger containing the new bomber. He crashes through the door and slams into the plane, but the explosives fail to detonate. He and Artie get out of the truck, dazed. Reaching the edge of the hanger, Skye watches the battle raging outside. But Group Captain Eder spots him and steers his motorcycle towards the hanger, getting Skye squarely in his sights. Suddenly, the <em>Maltese Falcon</em> buzzes the airfield and Debacle fires a machine gun from his open door, causing Eder to wipe out. Seizing the moment, Skye spins around, draws his father’s gun, and aims at the gas can on the back door of his truck. His head is still a bit fuzzy from the crash and his eyes won’t focus. Then he remembers Owen Kearney’s words and says a solemn prayer to St. Michael. He pulls the trigger. Multiple explosions rip the truck and the bomber to shreds and set the hanger on fire. In the confusion, Skye and Artie steal a Jeep and flee into the night.<br /><br />Skye, Artie, Hans, Debacle, and the few surviving IRA guerillas rendezvous at Ballycastle the next morning, where Lady Leah congratulates them on a decisive victory for their cause. Mr. Keough brings out their best whiskey and they begin their celebration. Debacle proposes a toast to something no one can quite make out, so everyone merely drinks to whatever it was with a hearty laugh. <br /><br />The End. Cue sweeping orchestral score.<br /><br /><br /><em>We here at <strong>TTN</strong> can really see this leading to a six-movie epic! It’s gonna be huge!! And just wait till you see the Holiday Special…!!!</em><br /><br /><br /><em><strong>Previous:</strong> <a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2010/04/tony-television-special-3.html">Tony Television Special #3</a></em><br /><br /><br /><span></span>Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-10668224727327778312010-09-28T16:37:00.026-05:002017-07-20T15:03:25.628-05:00Gallifrey at WarAs an addendum to my <a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2004/12/brief-history-of-gallifrey.html">Brief History of Gallifrey</a>, which is based solely on <i>Doctor Who</i>’s original 1963-1989 run on the BBC, I present a short synopsis of what was revealed during the tenure of erstwhile show-runner Russell T. Davies about the cataclysmic <b>Time War</b>, the events of which occurred between the original series and its 2005 revival.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div center="" style="text-align: center;" text-align:="">
<b>A BRIEF HISTORY OF GALLIFREY (Con’t.)</b></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQJxlv-vHidzQBhfe6N21LgOITlITtY9Hq4Z_YG3d4Gfhqh_fOYcrh8_pIhkRWayH9l5fvBNrqwxXX2RnD1CNly_0uayHNGjMrUoYQxRDNg5ai9q5Th8cIAq2Sqpek8FSY0fGv/s1600/Time+War+A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQJxlv-vHidzQBhfe6N21LgOITlITtY9Hq4Z_YG3d4Gfhqh_fOYcrh8_pIhkRWayH9l5fvBNrqwxXX2RnD1CNly_0uayHNGjMrUoYQxRDNg5ai9q5Th8cIAq2Sqpek8FSY0fGv/s1600/Time+War+A.jpg" /></a></div>
After regenerating into his eighth incarnation, the enigmatic time-traveler known only as the Doctor is summoned back to his home planet of Gallifrey, for his people, the Time Lords, have gone to war with the Daleks, a murderous race considered the greatest threat to all living beings throughout the universe. Since the Daleks have finally perfected their own version of time-travel technology, the ensuing conflict takes the form of a “Time War.”
<br />
<br />
As the Time War begins, the Daleks suddenly vanish out of time and space, leaving only their fearsome reputation behind.<sup>1</sup> This places a great strain on the time-continuum, which the Time Lords alleviate by sealing the entire Time War inside an impenetrable “bubble” called a time-lock. It also limits the collateral damage from their warfare to lifeforms that are considered “time-sensitives.”<sup>2</sup> The Sontarans, despite their well-earned reputation as warriors, are excluded from participation in the Time War.<sup>3</sup>
<br />
<br />
Seeing the necessity of ending the threat of the Daleks, and hopeful that some good will ultimately come from the conflict, the Doctor fights on the front lines of the Time War. However, he is sickened by the carnage he witnesses during a battle known as the Fall of Arcadia. Unfortunately, the war leaves him no time to reflect or come to terms with what he is experiencing.<sup>4</sup>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nE-Zwi9Zt1mcE7uzIxrfjlhAzlcbne_r6Ksb3_0gkmR7L5_NwcInnLrZ7pDXIl2ZN1Kd1JMgprCvg1mfQo4yWX1pc2NQw4ntQM-oH5epa3qCy_sBCXBLnbu9PvOYHzG1Oflu/s1600/Time+War+B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5nE-Zwi9Zt1mcE7uzIxrfjlhAzlcbne_r6Ksb3_0gkmR7L5_NwcInnLrZ7pDXIl2ZN1Kd1JMgprCvg1mfQo4yWX1pc2NQw4ntQM-oH5epa3qCy_sBCXBLnbu9PvOYHzG1Oflu/s1600/Time+War+B.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
In the very first year of the Time War, the prime Dalek command ship is destroyed when it flies into the jaws of a creature known as the Nightmare Child at a point in space called the Gates of Elysium. The Doctor is present and tries to save his old enemy Davros, creator of the Daleks, but fails. However, unknown to either side, Davros is rescued by a Dalek who has traveled from the future and broken through the time-lock at the cost of his sanity. Learning from his savior that the war will eventually exterminate both the Daleks and the Time Lords, Davros goes into hiding and begins growing a new race of Daleks from the cells of his own body.<sup>5</sup>
<br />
<br />
With the loss of Davros, the Daleks appoint leaders from among their own ranks, known variously as the Supreme Dalek or the Emperor Dalek. Certain Dalek strategists begin to suspect that the loss of Davros has left them at a disadvantage in the war, due to the Time Lords’ unpredictable emotional responses, which the Daleks lack.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1rDFW-QKJtmtIDRKQ7pGASHRjdiuXQvMKzZHDP3LVB0yKGQkQSXxlMk4Vb6vnlViAWjh5q-CoABim3t9pqFcnCIg1Iqdouji5V7cXd0FAs963aJlzZWmvemSKHXD5FR1awuh/s1600/Time+War+C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1rDFW-QKJtmtIDRKQ7pGASHRjdiuXQvMKzZHDP3LVB0yKGQkQSXxlMk4Vb6vnlViAWjh5q-CoABim3t9pqFcnCIg1Iqdouji5V7cXd0FAs963aJlzZWmvemSKHXD5FR1awuh/s1600/Time+War+C.jpg" /></a></div>
Hoping to press their advantage, the Time Lords “resurrect” the Master, believing him to be the perfect warrior for the Time War.<sup>6</sup> As the Trakenite body he had been inhabiting was corrupted by a mutation that clouded his mind with animalistic savagery, the Master is granted a new Gallifreyan body, complete with a new set of twelve regenerations, and sent into battle. The Master initially goes along with his conscription, looking for a way to turn the entire situation to his advantage.
<br />
<br />
After one particularly intense battle, a single Dalek is somehow blasted through the time-lock and hurtles down the time vortex until eventually crash-landing on the planet Earth in the 20th century. Its armor badly damaged and its weaponry useless, the Dalek is made the prisoner of a succession of humans over the years to follow.<sup>7</sup>
<br />
<br />
As the Time War rages on, the physical forms of the Gelth are destroyed, leaving their entire population trapped in a gaseous state. They begin searching for a way to regain solid bodies.<sup>8</sup>
<br />
<br />
At some point, the Daleks develop their technology so as to use the background radiation of the time vortex as a power supply.<sup>9</sup> This makes them more formidable than ever, and they attack the Time Lords with renewed vigor.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fkAdtSUYTN8_nRvUfB2Fm_ZY3bVuiJVkixV6K8JVr5NKmUB3nvu9VlbsUpEeupIjvyUrRAuh-qHGP4mLXmnQw9mN0Ud1zbik9adMdkXVF6d5neTO81J4ijru-JpGRxpNax5v/s1600/Time+War+D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="210" data-original-width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fkAdtSUYTN8_nRvUfB2Fm_ZY3bVuiJVkixV6K8JVr5NKmUB3nvu9VlbsUpEeupIjvyUrRAuh-qHGP4mLXmnQw9mN0Ud1zbik9adMdkXVF6d5neTO81J4ijru-JpGRxpNax5v/s1600/Time+War+D.jpg" /></a></div>
Unbeknownst to the Doctor, Time Lord engineers create a transdimensionally-engineered prison ship in which millions of Daleks are incarcerated.<sup>10</sup> They hope that this more humane solution will allow the Time Lords to salvage some of their lofty principles after the war is won.
<br />
<br />
However, out of a growing sense of desperation, the High Council of the Time Lords votes to awaken the first and greatest Time Lord in history, Rassilon, from his eons of suspended animation. Upon his emergence from his tomb at the center of the Death Zone, Rassilon is reinstated as their Lord President.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2d8Lww4_4JFdaZah67QROt1SszwnXJXDmgF5FHNLSmsbpvEwkvP-QLypsb44qeizYRaatHmxJ4jUrU_nhQjTg6WHMtt04Y2ssTp2NlPrE5k1O0eNEdSibKuFDbNq5EIHF2Ok9/s1600/Time+War+E.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="154" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2d8Lww4_4JFdaZah67QROt1SszwnXJXDmgF5FHNLSmsbpvEwkvP-QLypsb44qeizYRaatHmxJ4jUrU_nhQjTg6WHMtt04Y2ssTp2NlPrE5k1O0eNEdSibKuFDbNq5EIHF2Ok9/s1600/Time+War+E.jpg" /></a></div>
The resuscitation process causes Rassilon to regenerate, though unfortunately, his latest incarnation is even more power-mad and vengeful than his previous one was. These flaws were the reason the Time Lords had sentenced him to perpetual suspended animation in the first place, but the High Council now believes they will be an advantage against the Daleks.
<br />
<br />
Over the objections of the other councilors, Rassilon brings forward in time a half-mad soothsayer known as the Visionary to advise him on his conduct of the Time War. To the consternation of all present, she predicts that the war will end with the destruction of both sides.<sup>11</sup>
<br />
<br />
After Rassilon wins a succession of devastating battles against the Daleks, a secret order of Daleks known as the Cult of Skaro is created. They are genetically engineered to possess emotions and to have a sense of individuality so that they may think as their enemies think and thereby negate the Time Lords’ strategic advantage. Existing independently of the authority of the Dalek Emperor, the members of the Cult of Skaro even go so far as to adopt individual names. The Doctor eventually hears legends of their existence, to which he lends little credence.<sup>12</sup>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ3aJcDpy2I1jFcSv2X1uNfQGfu_EYlVxK3WdXQPuQbBxisAAnaeK-fedujhlWT7SCVnfUraqODgWtZu8KrhH7hFxQaIMIgC8K5jZTb3C7rNZpemMWXuiXTdUNpYjANQx_aQxA/s1600/Time+War+F.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="143" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ3aJcDpy2I1jFcSv2X1uNfQGfu_EYlVxK3WdXQPuQbBxisAAnaeK-fedujhlWT7SCVnfUraqODgWtZu8KrhH7hFxQaIMIgC8K5jZTb3C7rNZpemMWXuiXTdUNpYjANQx_aQxA/s1600/Time+War+F.jpg" /></a></div>
The Nestene Consciousness loses its food stocks when its protein planets are destroyed. The Doctor attempts to save the homeworld of the Nestene Consciousness, but ultimately fails.<sup>13</sup>
<br />
<br />
When the Master witnesses the Dalek Emperor taking control of the Cruciform, he becomes so frightened that he deserts the war, fleeing to the veritable end of the universe, near the year 100 trillion as humans reckon time. He uses a Chameleon Arch to change himself into a human being so neither the Time Lords nor the Daleks will be able to find him.<sup>14</sup> The Master’s time capsule is able to penetrate the time-lock, but it is destroyed in the process.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6gYWccHHEJQgIP0i6SosJ_8auNErLlZtypBUxMeQdyNVrF3L4LUK0tmONLGvwWeQ_VAdK9Vb_7H54o7Y8CfNFjuzfDaI89u2C-GePr3Exj3eeVqOxMHJV3-5YbtgEnShKEQ6D/s1600/Time+War+G.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="152" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6gYWccHHEJQgIP0i6SosJ_8auNErLlZtypBUxMeQdyNVrF3L4LUK0tmONLGvwWeQ_VAdK9Vb_7H54o7Y8CfNFjuzfDaI89u2C-GePr3Exj3eeVqOxMHJV3-5YbtgEnShKEQ6D/s1600/Time+War+G.jpg" /></a></div>
The Master, now in human form, is found naked and alone on the coast of the Silver Devastation. He has no memory of his true identity and his only possession is an unassuming “fob watch,” which contains the essence of his Time Lord self. Barely aware of the fob watch due to its perception filter, he assumes the name “Yana” and becomes a scientist, eventually growing into an old man.<sup>15</sup>
<br />
<br />
After the Master’s desertion, both the Time Lords and the Daleks resort to increasingly horrific measures in an attempt to gain any advantage in the Time War. Among the abominations unleashed in battle are the Skaro Degredations, the Horde of Travesties, and the Could-Have-Been King with his Army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres. The Doctor soon realizes the area within the time-lock is turning into Hell. Though at its outer edges the Time Lords can conduct business as usual, at the heart of the time-lock millions of combatants die every second, lost in bloodlust and insanity, only to be continually resurrected by time itself to face death again and again.<sup>16</sup>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW3VvyuUkrOUdHTbCdnX0KDFVhyphenhyphenPxWa4eSzFC4rV3QtW4Sg8o9bZy_jtvgKVE2ZU2flm-P6Nwb6URXVixOAG8oBlU1frGzC1ePXmVH7BQ1r_fHyw8aNooIbZg5JxG0lCg-WBPo/s1600/Time+War+H.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW3VvyuUkrOUdHTbCdnX0KDFVhyphenhyphenPxWa4eSzFC4rV3QtW4Sg8o9bZy_jtvgKVE2ZU2flm-P6Nwb6URXVixOAG8oBlU1frGzC1ePXmVH7BQ1r_fHyw8aNooIbZg5JxG0lCg-WBPo/s1600/Time+War+H.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
The Doctor realizes he is the only one who can end the war. As such, he tries everything he can think of to bring this about. Sadly, his heroic efforts come to naught.<sup>17</sup>
<br />
<br />
As the inevitable end of the Time War approaches, four members of the Cult of Skaro capture one of the Time Lord prison ships and escape with it into the Void, the area of null-space that exists between dimensions, so that their race might survive the coming armageddon.<sup>18</sup>
<br />
<br />
Rassilon finally decides the only way to win the war is to bring about the end of time itself, an apocalypse he believes the Time Lords can survive by abandoning their corporeal forms to become cosmic entities of pure consciousness. Learning of this plan, the Doctor is forced to accept that the Time War has changed his people right to the core, corrupted them, and made them more dangerous to life in the universe than any of the enemies he has fought in the past. He decides that he must do whatever it takes to stop them.
<br />
<br />
The Doctor slips away in the TARDIS. Members of the High Council realize he is gone, but a quick search turns up nothing. They are aware that he still “possesses the moment” and fear he may use it to end the war, destroying Time Lords and Daleks alike.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF-y8KOVequmSm6ZfiQywaiITnRKCcCdO4VzaRaZWaIepa2eUrfQjY44eyM0nnzYdunCCXGs2vw2A8oWU5gv_HexmKM4koSrorVAm9UkYz8Ddsa9ljSLYGammgPVZ22UDMZ8_Y/s1600/Time+War+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF-y8KOVequmSm6ZfiQywaiITnRKCcCdO4VzaRaZWaIepa2eUrfQjY44eyM0nnzYdunCCXGs2vw2A8oWU5gv_HexmKM4koSrorVAm9UkYz8Ddsa9ljSLYGammgPVZ22UDMZ8_Y/s1600/Time+War+I.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
The High Council of the Time Lords meets in special session on the day the Visionary has foreseen will be the last of their existence. The Chancellor shares with Rassilon one further prophecy from the Visionary, which suggests that the Doctor and the Master will somehow both survive the war and continue their personal conflict into the future, with the planet Earth as its focal point. Inspired, Rassilon hatches a plan to enable Gallifrey to escape the time-lock, and thus its imminent doom, by forming a psychic link to the Master’s mind that extends beyond the time-lock’s beginning and end.
<br />
<br />
The Time Lords send a signal back to the moment when the young Master first looked into the Untempered Schism — a rhythm of four beats that echoes the heartbeat of a Time Lord. (This ever-present “drumbeat” would prove to be a major contributing factor to the Master’s psychopathic tendencies as he grew older.) Then, to make the link a physical one, Rassilon removes a large diamond — a “white-point star” — from the head of his scepter and hurls it to Earth in the early 21st century, where he knows the Master will find it. Predictably, the (future) Master uses the white-point star diamond to open a conduit through the time-lock, planning to conquer the Time Lords as part of his latest scheme. Meanwhile, Rassilon addresses the full Time Lord council, having them vote on whether the Time Lords should accept their destruction or escape into the future to complete his plan to win the war. The council votes with Rassilon nearly unanimously — only two among them dissent. Angered, Rassilon commands both dissenters to assume a stance of shame. Along with two councilors, Rassilon leads the dissenters to the mouth of the conduit to confront the Master and the Doctor of the future.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd2J1L1xhg8wBw9E5MM8xyqv5vWbQ5UBpBf3W-55oOzm7N9geT1A_n-xuDvGZu19p4mXTHtfqD3wlTn1koNPiS3nHWNE29l_O1FEOWLFubNpQkibfyaCTb7r7cu5nA87wlffRu/s1600/Time+War+J.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="127" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd2J1L1xhg8wBw9E5MM8xyqv5vWbQ5UBpBf3W-55oOzm7N9geT1A_n-xuDvGZu19p4mXTHtfqD3wlTn1koNPiS3nHWNE29l_O1FEOWLFubNpQkibfyaCTb7r7cu5nA87wlffRu/s1600/Time+War+J.jpg" /></a></div>
Outside the time tunnel, the (tenth) Doctor convinces the (future) Master that the Time Lords must not be allowed to escape from the time-lock, for they will merely unleash untold horrors upon the universe before destroying it completely. Thus, the friends-turned-enemies join forces one last time. The (tenth) Doctor destroys the white-point star, causing the conduit to collapse, as the (future) Master attacks Rassilon and drives him back into the warp as it closes. Though Gallifrey itself had begun to materialize right next to the Earth, as the conduit closes it is drawn back into the warp, reverting to its previous location in time and space.<sup>19</sup>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGjiKSyPk9GS8U2_bEqdV7sVCOa-7WaR2JYLEqKbRh792smfQ0AYF-VzJs0VZGfIEC_841EmQMhyFp03ZPbSO2UaWsB3ipTQABuRopi9GvJv3a3fGPEO2WFqUDAssh2jOT4Cb/s1600/Time+War+K.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGjiKSyPk9GS8U2_bEqdV7sVCOa-7WaR2JYLEqKbRh792smfQ0AYF-VzJs0VZGfIEC_841EmQMhyFp03ZPbSO2UaWsB3ipTQABuRopi9GvJv3a3fGPEO2WFqUDAssh2jOT4Cb/s1600/Time+War+K.jpg" /></a></div>
Shocked to see Gallifrey beginning to dematerialize, and feeling he no longer has any choice, the (eighth) Doctor initiates the destruction of the Dalek fleet. In one second, ten million Dalek warships burn up, exterminating the entire Dalek race.<sup>20</sup>
<br />
<br />
As the Daleks die in the Doctor’s inferno, one ship manages to slip through the time-lock while it is weakened by the (future) Master’s meddling. It hurtles through time, a crippled hulk, until coming to rest near Earth circa the year 200,000. The last surviving Dalek conceives a plan to recreate his species using human tissue as a basis.<sup>21</sup>
<br />
<br />
Amidst the inferno, the planet Gallifrey is destroyed just as it rematerializes, reduced to rocks and dust adrift in space. Every remaining Time Lord is killed except the Doctor. Isolated from the conflagration aboard the TARDIS, he is the sole survivor.<sup>22</sup>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4meOtMxBFdzXqnmHmyI56KrnTddVgEyK1YqHaedgxE3YDv22pMbRP2wJY_521vJlnI7NEqXmWYAyIBCiDnwzMKP-yHbPi4bc0Gn9YqZH25CjlW-vW113TsXRYBiz7k1TXPBkJ/s1600/Time+War+L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4meOtMxBFdzXqnmHmyI56KrnTddVgEyK1YqHaedgxE3YDv22pMbRP2wJY_521vJlnI7NEqXmWYAyIBCiDnwzMKP-yHbPi4bc0Gn9YqZH25CjlW-vW113TsXRYBiz7k1TXPBkJ/s1600/Time+War+L.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
The process of destroying the Daleks and the Time Lords grievously injures the Doctor, causing him to regenerate into his ninth incarnation. His new physical appearance is affected by his emotional trauma, and he becomes a gaunt, intense figure with his hair shorn in mourning.<sup>23</sup>
<br />
<br />
For a time, the TARDIS drifts aimlessly in space as the Doctor grieves. With the destruction of Gallifrey, his whole family has been wiped out. He realizes the Laws of Time prevent him from saving any of them.<sup>24</sup> The inferno has also badly damaged the interior of the TARDIS, forcing the Doctor to make extensive repairs.
<br />
<br />
Eventually, the Doctor resumes wandering the universe in the TARDIS, though he is now completely alone.<sup>25</sup>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH5pdzeDjss5LeYd-ozfeduCwz71gQFKwpeyBHlF12hUFaD3gP4RMwxHlaYUGFkabCQJCrq7SZXr1TOq8KJ1hj3cB0Tg0mfS7in8h9SNULI4sS7Z1wtP4LW4qm3ufNNmJ4FJjB/s1600/Time+War+M.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH5pdzeDjss5LeYd-ozfeduCwz71gQFKwpeyBHlF12hUFaD3gP4RMwxHlaYUGFkabCQJCrq7SZXr1TOq8KJ1hj3cB0Tg0mfS7in8h9SNULI4sS7Z1wtP4LW4qm3ufNNmJ4FJjB/s1600/Time+War+M.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
_______________________________________
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;">
<sup>1</sup> 27.13 “The Parting of the Ways”<br />
<sup>2</sup> 27.3 “The Unquiet Dead”<br />
<sup>3</sup> 30.5 “The Sontaran Strategem”<br />
<sup>4</sup> 28.14 “Doomsday”<br />
<sup>5</sup> 30.13 “The Stolen Earth”<br />
<sup>6</sup> 29.13 “The Sound of Drums”<br />
<sup>7</sup> 27.6 “Dalek”<br />
<sup>8</sup> 27.3 “The Unquiet Dead”<br />
<sup>9</sup> 28.14 “Doomsday”<br />
<sup>10</sup> ibid<br />
<sup>11</sup> 30.18 “The End of Time”<br />
<sup>12</sup> 28.14 “Doomsday”<br />
<sup>13</sup> 27.1 “Rose”<br />
<sup>14</sup> 29.13 “The Sound of Drums”<br />
<sup>15</sup> 29.12 “Utopia”<br />
<sup>16</sup> 30.18 “The End of Time”<br />
<sup>17</sup> 29.13 “The Sound of Drums”<br />
<sup>18</sup> 28.14 “Doomsday”<br />
<sup>19</sup> 30.18 “The End of Time”<br />
<sup>20</sup> 27.6 “Dalek”<br />
<sup>21</sup> 27.13 “The Parting of the Ways”<br />
<sup>22</sup> 27.2 “The End of the World”<br />
<sup>23</sup> 27.1 “Rose”<br />
<sup>24</sup> 27.8 “Father’s Day”<br />
<sup>25</sup> 27.2 “The End of the World”</span>
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-26431929539309535052010-04-20T13:42:00.004-05:002017-07-18T15:47:22.474-05:00Tony Television Special #3<em>We here at the <strong>Tony Television Network</strong> have never worried about competition from niche-oriented cable-TV outlets, because we’ve beaten them at their own game! Our intrepid research teams have scavenged through file cabinets all over the globe to produce our third special presentation, which is nothing less than the ultimate in niche entertainment! Remember, for spine-tingling real-world chills and pants-wetting true-life thrills, nobody does niche like TTN!</em><br /><br /><br /><strong>SHARKS VS. NAZIS</strong><br /><br />This astonishing feature-length documentary uses cutting-edge computer-generated imagery, live-action reenactments, and the latest technological developments in deep-sea cinematography to tell the little-known story of one of the strangest battles of the Second World War.<br /><br />In the spring of 1942, the infamous Nazi submarine U-113, under the command of the cunning Korvettenkapitän Jurgen Unterwäsche, broke formation with its “wolf pack” to pursue an Allied troop transport ship into the Caribbean Sea. However, before the devious U-boat crew could launch a single torpedo, they were savagely attacked by a clan of freedom-loving Great White Sharks. Proving themselves the deadliest predators in the ocean, the sharks disabled the sub just west of the Grenadines, forcing the crew to abandon ship. Fighting the sharks tooth and nail, only a few of the Nazi mariners managed to make it to safety on the beaches of Union Island. They spent the rest of the war in an Allied P.O.W. camp.<br /><br />This gripping tale of a forgotten chapter of World War II is narrated by Peter Coyote.<br /><br /><br /><br /><em><strong>The Tony Television Network</strong> -- Bringing You History’s Mysteries of the Natural World!<br /><br /><br /><strong>Previous:</strong> <a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2005/05/tony-television-special-2.html">Tony Television Special #2</a><br /><br /><strong>Next:</strong> <a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2010/11/tony-television-special-4.html">Tony Television Special #4</a></em><br /><br /><br /><span></span>Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-53981544979732856312009-12-10T10:13:00.001-06:002017-07-18T22:40:16.955-05:00Steed & Mrs. Peel -- ClosingThe closing credits sequence for the fourth series of <i>The Avengers</i> bookends the episode with the same approach used in the opening titles. This series of still images, cut together in time with the music, showcases the signature items that defined the characters in the minds of many: Steed’s bowler hat and Mrs. Peel’s leather boots. The sequence concludes with the characters driving away in Steed’s vintage Bentley. Fennell, Johnson, and Clemens would later form their own production company. Incidentally, the ABC logo at the end refers to the Associated British Corporation, not the American TV network.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh1tXQWqQkudBeYFogyKgFMu_AADyDuUCrWF93TZHvsSIInUyxSTC0gHKPFcX59_3apX9YUJEalZT8Q83PbWtICbXqL0hUff49EsTq1zBKotnSfOvVAQ83URnkKJaK5IzSswhn/s1600/Avengers+Titles-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh1tXQWqQkudBeYFogyKgFMu_AADyDuUCrWF93TZHvsSIInUyxSTC0gHKPFcX59_3apX9YUJEalZT8Q83PbWtICbXqL0hUff49EsTq1zBKotnSfOvVAQ83URnkKJaK5IzSswhn/s2550/Avengers+Titles-b.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2010/11/emma-peel-in-black-leather.html"><i>Next</i></a>
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-76196067851684182372009-12-09T14:02:00.002-06:002017-07-18T22:36:49.254-05:00Steed & Mrs. Peel -- OpeningThe title sequence for the fourth series of <i>The Avengers</i>, the first also to be shown on American television, produced some iconic images of the main characters, debonair super-spy John Steed and leather-clad martial-arts expert Emma Peel. Through the use of static images, the sequence shows that the pair is by turns flirty and violent, while showcasing Mrs. Peel’s considerable sex-appeal. The theme music which accompanied it was adapted by bandleader Laurie Johnson from his earlier composition entitled “The Shake.”
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixDhYZUMhkVH4FE8dA3lgUtgDKhYS3fItblftipYjUw5LueEIXsCwdF3s83rjaI2BtO5KKPmi5hh2wBcTLebmOkEugPBNJacbXrc6g6sPOrOmv0NL0xqYJMHn8vbR7OWI3izuH/s1600/Avengers+Theme-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1256" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixDhYZUMhkVH4FE8dA3lgUtgDKhYS3fItblftipYjUw5LueEIXsCwdF3s83rjaI2BtO5KKPmi5hh2wBcTLebmOkEugPBNJacbXrc6g6sPOrOmv0NL0xqYJMHn8vbR7OWI3izuH/s1256/Avengers+Theme-b.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<i><a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2009/12/steed-mrs-peel-closing.html">Next</a></i>
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-87907599511281737292009-12-08T13:54:00.004-06:002017-07-18T22:31:55.092-05:00Steed & Mrs. Peel -- IntroWhen the British adventure show <i>The Avengers</i> debuted on American television in March 1966, a special pre-credits sequence was added to explain the premise to its new audience. The brief, highly-stylized scene introduces the main characters, secret agent <b>John Steed</b> and his civilian associate <b>Mrs. Emma Peel,</b> and also gives a sense of the program’s distinctive flavor. While I’ve always been a big fan of the show, I think the sequence works just as well, or perhaps better, in “comic book” format, as seen here.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVjc0Fsqf8BOnA6oydhzQlEVwj21_HHzFERC_qvVS5Cu5zevqA0bPvQHFyWuvsAOZmXhujoyi79POkqCBEUQEXIX1IefWmPGFmWiZ3of-HNmoPlu2T40kLJea2vsSWJSTQuJwl/s1600/Avengers+Intro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1892" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVjc0Fsqf8BOnA6oydhzQlEVwj21_HHzFERC_qvVS5Cu5zevqA0bPvQHFyWuvsAOZmXhujoyi79POkqCBEUQEXIX1IefWmPGFmWiZ3of-HNmoPlu2T40kLJea2vsSWJSTQuJwl/s1892/Avengers+Intro.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;"><i>For the ultimate guide to all things </i>Avengers,<i> visit David K. Smith’s <a href="http://theavengers.tv/forever/">The Avengers Forever</a>.</i></span>
<br />
<br />
<i><a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2009/12/steed-mrs-peel-opening.html">Next</a></i>
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-39698648223402070872009-11-30T14:35:00.000-06:002017-07-18T15:35:54.120-05:00It Happened in RutlandFollowing <a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2008/09/crossover-that-wasnt.html">The Crossover That Wasn’t</a>, the characters from the Marvel Universe and their fellow superheroes from the DC Universe came one step closer to meeting in an unofficial crossover event that found them in the same place at the same time, though they never actually crossed paths with each other. The time was Halloween and the place was Rutland, Vermont, which is known for its annual parade in honor of All-Hallows Eve.<br /><br />Rutland and its Halloween Parade had already been featured in stories by both companies in previous years, but this time it was clear that a single story wove through issues of <em>Justice League of America, Thor,</em> and <em>Amazing Adventures.</em> The common thread is a sub-plot featuring four real-life comic book creators, writers Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, and Len Wein and colorist Glynis Wein, who travel to Rutland for the parade and get caught up in the paranormal events that ensue.<br /><br />However, when studying the overall flow of time in the Marvel Universe, continuity-pioneer George Olshevsky realized that the Rutland Halloween story with the Defenders in <em>Marvel Feature</em> #2 must have happened simultaneously as well, adding yet another layer to the already complex storyline. Fortunately, all the overlapping stories can be blended seamlessly, which I have endeavored to do here.<br /><br />Though unstated, the semi-crossover was made possible by a dimensional convergence -- in effect, the Rutland in the Marvel Universe fused with the Rutland in the DC Universe for a little over 24 hours. Direct dimensional counterparts -- such as the two sets of Steve, Gerry, Len, and Glynis, as well as Roy Thomas and his wife Jeanie and parade organizer Tom Fagan -- merged upon entering the zone of convergence. They would have shared memories of both the Avengers and the Justice League, and it would have seemed perfectly normal, for as long as the convergence lasted. When the convergence finally collapsed, reality righted itself and the people involved were none the wiser.<br /><br />Here, then, is the full and complete story of the craziest <strong>Rutland, Vermont Halloween Parade</strong> ever held:<br /><br /><br /><br />On the evening of October 27th, on the outskirts of Rutland, Vermont, two boys are fishing in Otter Creek when they witness a large meteorite crash into the earth with a tremendous explosion. Curious, the boys approach the site of the impact and discover what appear to be large chunks of amber. However, when the shadowy figure of a man emerges from the smoldering rocks, the boys flee in a panic. The man is <strong>Loki,</strong> the Asgardian trickster, and he immediately sets into motion his latest scheme of revenge against his half-brother Thor.<br /><br />Loki fires a bolt of eldritch energy from his hands into the sky. It arcs across the North American continent all the way to the west coast, where it revives the <strong>Absorbing Man,</strong> who has been trapped for about a year following a battle with the Hulk. Once free, the Absorbing Man is driven by voices in his head to make his way to New York City.<br /><br />Loki, meanwhile, comes upon the remote home of the reclusive <strong>Tom Fagan,</strong> where he poses as a poor, lost traveler to take advantage of Tom’s good nature. Since Tom has stocked up on food and drinks for his coming Halloween party, he offers Loki a meal. Once inside the house, though, Loki ensorcells Tom and makes him his unwitting servant.<br /><br /><br />The Absorbing Man reaches New York by the evening of October 29th, where he challenges <strong>Thor</strong> to a fight. But, after knocking each other around the city streets for a little while, the Absorbing Man abandons the battle and is magically transported to Rutland, where the voices in his head drive him toward Tom Fagan’s house. There he meets Loki and learns of his plans to finally destroy Thor.<br /><br /><br />All day on October 30th, the Absorbing Man hides out in Tom Fagan’s barn while Loki outlines his plans. Then, when Tom’s out-of-town guests begin to arrive, Loki assumes the guise of the “lost traveler” once more. That evening, an eerie red glow is seen atop Bald Mountain, just northeast of town. Loki realizes the glow is the result of a ritual of black magic being performed on the mountain to open a portal to the dimension of the dread <strong>Dormammu,</strong> and factors it into his plans.<br /><br />Meanwhile, on Bald Mountain, Dormammu’s cultists succeed in opening a portal through which they can communicate with the demonic entity and tell their dark lord that their plans are proceeding. Members of the cult are already in New York City to kidnap Dormammu’s enemy, Doctor Stephen Strange, for the ritual tomorrow that will enable Dormammu to conquer the earth.<br /><br />However, the cult’s spells have an unintended side-effect due to the dimensional instability that occurs there every Halloween: the walls between this reality and a parallel world collapse, causing two different Rutlands to merge into one. The area of dimensional convergence covers a ten-mile radius around Bald Mountain.<br /><br />In the Greenwich Village Sanctum Sanctorum of <strong>Doctor Strange,</strong> the Master of the Mystic Arts sees a vision of Dormammu in the Orb of Agamotto and considers summoning his sometime allies, Prince Namor of Atlantis, a.k.a. the Sub-Mariner, and the incredible Hulk. However, the sorcerer is tricked by a false image of his mentor, the Ancient One, into sending his astral form high into the sky above the city. When he returns, he finds a spell has blocked access to his physical form, which is being kidnapped by several hooded figures. When his manservant <strong>Wong</strong> tries to intervene, he receives a savage beating. Strange’s body is loaded into a station wagon and driven north out of New York.<br /><br />Luckily, Wong had been on the phone with his master’s estranged lover, <strong>Clea,</strong> when the attack occurred and she became worried when he did not come back on the line. Arriving at the Sanctum Sanctorum, Clea revives Wong and learns what has happened. Using the Orb of Agamotto, Clea manages to send a psychic summons to both Namor and the Hulk.<br /><br />Back in Rutland, a couple from New York, <strong>Roy and Jeanie Thomas,</strong> arrives at Tom Fagan’s house to help him finish the float for tomorrow’s Halloween Parade. Roy mentions that they heard talk on the radio driving up about mysterious red lights atop Bald Mountain. Tom tells them some of the local legends about the mountain, which has long been a site of paranormal phenomena. Still subtly affected by Loki’s spell, Tom’s manner is unusually creepy.<br /><br />About a half-hour before midnight, Tom invites Roy and Jeanie to another Halloween ritual that goes back many years, gathering at a particular crossroads on the edge of town to hear “Old Mistress Sarah” chant the names of those who are to die within 24 hours. Arriving at the site, they join the crowd in time to see the elderly woman appear as she does every year. As the nearby church bells toll midnight, Old Mistress Sarah surprises the crowd when she reads off the names of Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Hawkman, all members of the Justice League of America.<br /><br />Around the same time, the <strong>Sub-Mariner</strong> and the <strong>Hulk</strong> arrive in Greenwich Village, where they are met by Clea and Wong, and they both agree to assist in the rescue of Doctor Strange. Clea hypnotizes the Hulk so that he will change back into Bruce Banner. They return to the Sanctum Sanctorum to try to determine where Strange has been taken.<br /><br /><br />Just before dawn on October 31st, Roy and Jeanie get their first look at Bald Mountain from Tom Fagan’s yard. Some of the other party-goers are already up and getting into their costumes. They then work together to put the finishing touches on the parade float.<br /><br />An hour or so later, the station wagon bearing Doctor Strange’s body arrives in Rutland after driving all night. It pulls up to a ramshackle cabin at the foot of Bald Mountain, where they plan to wait until dusk before carrying the body up to the site of the ritual. After surrounding the body with black candles to keep the shielding spell potent, the cultists discuss their plans to enable Dormammu to possess the body of Doctor Strange so he can enter and conquer earth’s dimension. With devilish glee, they predict that Dormammu will cause Bald Mountain to erupt and bury Rutland in a lava flow. Having surreptitiously observed these events, Doctor Strange’s astral form then flashes back to New York and slips inside Wong’s body to better survive the prolonged separation from his physical form.<br /><br />Later that morning, in the parallel universe, <strong>Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow,</strong> and <strong>Hawkman</strong> assemble for a meeting aboard the Justice League’s orbiting satellite. They are startled to learn they were actually summoned by the enigmatic <strong>Phantom Stranger.</strong> Having encountered the Phantom Stranger previously, Batman vouches for him, and the rest of the team agrees to hear him out. He explains that the evil sorcerer Felix Faust plans to take advantage of the annual dimensional instabilities to unleash a horde of demons in Rutland, Vermont that very night. The team agrees to investigate.<br /><br />Not long after, <strong>Felix Faust</strong> arrives in Rutland, and is drawn to Tom Fagan’s house when he senses Loki’s magical energies. He sequesters himself in a small room on the house’s top floor and begins preparing himself for the incantations he will perform once the sun goes down. Loki also senses Faust’s presence, and realizes he can take advantage of whatever chaos this interloper may cause.<br /><br />During the afternoon, four friends from New York City -- <strong>Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, Len Wein,</strong> and his wife <strong>Glynis Wein</strong> -- lose their muffler while driving Steve’s dilapidated car to Rutland for the parade. Gerry mentions having had problems in Rutland the year before as well.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Hawkman spend the entire afternoon searching the area of Rutland for anything out of the ordinary, but have no success since the forces of evil are all laying low until nightfall.<br /><br />At dusk, Hank McCoy, the former member of the X-Men known as the <strong>Beast,</strong> and his ex-girlfriend <strong>Vera Cantor</strong> find themselves stranded several miles west of town. Hank has recently mutated further into a somewhat ape-like form with blue-black fur, but has managed to disguise himself in order to appear human. Vera has enlisted his aid for a looming crisis in Canada, though she has yet to reveal any details, and they were en route to Quebec when Vera’s car broke down. After failing to flag down any passing vehicles, Hank resorts to desperate measures. Out of sight of Vera, he sheds his disguise and lopes across the road as the next car approaches, making sure he is seen. The car happens to be the one bringing Steve, Gerry, Len, and Glynis to Rutland. Steve slams on the brakes, and, freaked out by the strange apparition, they get out to have a look. Hank quickly puts his disguise back on, gets Vera, and flags down the four New Yorkers before they can get underway again. The quartet agrees to give the hapless couple a ride into town.<br /><br />As they drive off, a dimensional portal opens, depositing the <strong>Juggernaut</strong> onto the road. However, before he can go anywhere, he is sucked back into the Crimson Cosmos, where he has been trapped for a year and a half. Unknown to the Juggernaut, the phenomenon is caused by the incantations of the cult of Dormammu, who are beginning their long ritual high up on Bald Mountain. Their spells further weaken the boundaries between dimensions, allowing the Juggernaut to materialize briefly in the vicinity of his hated enemy, Hank McCoy.<br /><br />Soon, the four New Yorkers, along with Hank and Vera, arrive at their motel in Rutland. Hank and Vera thank them for their kindness, then go into town to find a restaurant. Steve, Gerry, Len, and Glynis check into the motel and stow their luggage in their rooms. After getting cleaned up, Glynis puts on her Supergirl costume, but Len’s costume rips when he’s putting it on, so the guys elect to keep wearing their regular clothes instead. The four friends walk up to the start of the parade route to check out the preparations and enjoy the carnival atmosphere. After a little while, they decide to head out to Tom Fagan’s place, as he is expecting them.<br /><br />Twenty minutes later, Steve’s noisy car rumbles up to Tom’s house, and their host greets them at the door in his Batman costume. The four friends also detect the subtle change in Tom’s demeanor caused by Loki’s spell. He tells them that everyone is just getting ready to leave for the parade. Just then, the real Batman appears, leading the rest of the JLA to Tom’s house. Knowing from the previous Halloween Parade that Tom is one of the event’s organizers, Batman decides to let Tom know about their ongoing investigation. Tom is thrilled to have actual superheroes attending the parade, and asks them to ride on his float. Not seeing any harm in it, the Justice League agrees to participate. The heroes then head into town, but before Tom leaves his house, Loki checks in with his thrall to make sure that everything proceeds apace. Sensing that Thor is approaching, Loki sends the Absorbing Man out into the woods to ambush the thunder god when he arrives.<br /><br />Tom rides into town with Steve, Gerry, Len, and Glynis. On the way, they ask if Hank and Vera can come to the party later, and Tom is happy to extend them an invitation. At that moment, Hank and Vera are having dinner at a restaurant on Main Street, unaware that the Juggernaut briefly rematerializes in the alley behind the building. The Juggernaut sees the parade getting ready to start, but before he can leave the alley, he is drawn back into the Crimson Cosmos.<br /><br />As the Halloween Parade begins, Clea, Wong, Namor, and Bruce Banner arrive in Rutland, having made the journey by bus. They immediately notice the eerie red glow bathing the mountaintop and head out of town to investigate. Meanwhile, back at Tom’s house, Felix Faust begins his own sorcerous ritual, drawing demonic energies into the woods surrounding the town.<br /><br />Just then, Thor arrives in the area, having used his enchanted hammer, Mjolnir, to track the Absorbing Man’s “mystic trail.” With the thunder god are his Asgardian companions <strong>Sif</strong> and <strong>Hildegarde.</strong> Thor immediately senses the evil forces that have been unleashed by Felix Faust and Dormammu’s minions. Suddenly, the Absorbing Man attacks and Thor battles him.<br /><br />In town, Steve, Gerry, Len, and Glynis run into Hank and Vera again and tell them they are invited to Tom’s party later. However, their discussion is interrupted by the sudden materialization of the Juggernaut atop one of the parade floats. He smashes the float but then is just as suddenly drawn back into the Crimson Cosmos. However, in the confusion, Glynis has disappeared and Len, Gerry, and Steve begin a desperate search. Hank sends Vera back to the motel to get a room for them, then ducks into an alley and strips off his disguise. Knowing people will mistake his blue and furry form for a Halloween costume, the Beast sets off in search of the Juggernaut.<br /><br />Glynis and Tom, along with several other parade-goers, have been mystically mesmerized by Loki and are compelled to walk through the woods to where Thor is fighting the Absorbing Man. The thunder god defeats his opponent by knocking him into Otter Creek in mid-transformation, causing the villain to absorb the properties of the water and be washed away with the current. Thor scarcely has time to catch his breath before Loki reveals himself, claiming he will use the dimensional chaos to supercharge his magic and thereby destroy Thor once and for all.<br /><br />Loki first sics Tom’s dogs on Thor, having magically transformed them into slavering monsters. When Thor summons a vortex of wind to carry the canines away, Loki turns to his human victims, draining their life-forces to power the fearsome Fire-Sword. Thor is outraged and attacks his brother, but the duel does not go well for the thunder god. Watching from nearby, Sif and Hildegarde know they are honor-bound not to interfere in Thor’s fight.<br /><br />Meanwhile, in the woods on the opposite side of town, the Beast encounters the Juggernaut when he rematerializes. The Juggernaut recognizes his old foe despite his mutated appearance, and their battle leads them up to Chittenden Reservoir, where the Juggernaut smashes a power station. However, the Beast soon loses his enemy when the Juggernaut’s massive frame keeps slipping on the loose dirt and rocks of the forest. The former X-Man then heads back towards town.<br /><br />As Sif and Hildegarde watch Loki gaining the upper hand in the battle, they are suddenly visited by the Norn Queen <strong>Karnilla,</strong> who offers to use her magic to save Thor’s life if Sif will agree to help her track down her lost love Balder the Brave. Sif initially refuses the deal, but then Loki manages to separate Thor from his enchanted hammer, gloating that he need only hold Thor off for 60 seconds to then be able to kill him in his mortal guise as Dr. Donald Blake. Panic-stricken, Sif agrees to Karnilla’s terms, and so the sorceress immediately conjures up a fierce thunderstorm with driving rain that distracts Loki, allowing Thor to retrieve his hammer in the nick of time. Instantly, Thor calls down lightning to strike Loki, destroying the Fire-Sword and releasing those in Loki’s thrall. Loki himself has suddenly been struck blind, and stumbles off into the woods, losing Thor in the darkness. Giving up the search, Thor meets up with Hildegarde, who tells him Sif has gone off with Karnilla. Angered by this turn of events, the two Asgardians return to New York.<br /><br />Glynis, Tom, and Loki’s other victims wander back into town with no memory of what has happened to them. Glynis soon meets up with Len, Gerry, and Steve again, to their great relief. Then the four friends decide to find a place to get something to eat.<br /><br />Clea, Wong, Namor, and Bruce Banner climb Bald Mountain to find the black rite is underway. A dimensional portal has already been opened and Clea is horrified to see Dormammu lurking within. Unfortunately, they are discovered by the cult members, of whom there are at least fifty, and while some continue the ritual, others attack the intruders. Banner quickly turns into the Hulk and he and the Sub-Mariner batter the horde of cultists. Before Dormammu can commandeer his host body, though, Doctor Strange’s astral form emerges from Wong and re-enters his own physical form. Strange then battles Dormammu in the dimensional gateway, and the mystic forces they unleash against each other shake the mountain to its very foundations. The people on the streets of Rutland fear the mountain is erupting like a volcano.<br /><br />There is a sudden landslide that wipes out the cult. The Hulk and the Sub-Mariner manage to protect Clea and Wong until Doctor Strange emerges from the collapsing portal. His power dampened by his exposure to the earth’s environment, Dormammu has decided to retreat, thus freeing Strange to carry Clea and Wong aloft with his Cloak of Levitation. The Hulk and Namor are caught in the final avalanche, but they manage to survive and dig themselves out. Grateful for his friends, Doctor Strange takes Clea and Wong back to the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York while the Sub-Mariner and the Hulk go their separate ways.<br /><br />Steve, Gerry, Len, and Glynis are hanging out at a restaurant in town, where they have been for over an hour waiting for repairs to be completed on the floats wrecked by the Juggernaut. Glynis, still wearing her Supergirl costume, goes to the bathroom, but when she has not returned 20 minutes later, the guys become concerned. They ask a waitress to check the ladies’ room for them, only to discover that Glynis has vanished once again. Len is worried, but Gerry promises they will find her.<br /><br />Glynis has been ensorcelled a second time, now by Felix Faust to serve as one of the host bodies for his demon horde. His spells also cause the Justice League, who are standing on one of the floats going down Main Street, to see all the other floats vanish into thin air, with the throng of spectators standing in a glassy-eyed trance. Baffled, the superheroes decide to pair off and canvas the area for the missing floats.<br /><br />In the woods outside of town, Flash and Hawkman encounter a trio of costumed parade-goers who have been possessed by Faust’s demons. The possession has endowed the victims with superhuman powers to match their costumes. Joined by “Adam Strange” and “Captain America,” Glynis uses the powers of Supergirl to defeat the heroes. Flash and Hawkman collapse to the ground, feeling their life-force ebbing. Glynis and the two men are then teleported away to another part of the woods, where the demons plan to open a portal to their own dimension so they can invade the earth in their true forms. However, the Phantom Stranger appears and removes bits from the costumes of the fallen heroes, in preparation for performing some magic of his own.<br /><br />Elsewhere in the woods, Batman and Green Lantern are likewise defeated by “Robin,” “Spider-Man,” and “Thor,” while Superman and Green Arrow are overcome by “Captain Marvel” and the 1940s “Flash.” From his hideout, Felix Faust exults over his easy victory, but the Phantom Stranger visits each of the dying heroes in turn to collect his token.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Len, Gerry, and Steve search frantically for Glynis around town, then decide to go back to Tom Fagan’s house to look for her there. They are unaware that the Beast is very nearby, collecting his disguise from the alley where he left it, and is himself planning to make his way to Tom’s place, hoping to meet up with Vera there. Loki, having stumbled blindly through the woods, also draws near Tom’s house, following the mystic emanations from Felix Faust’s spellcasting. They all arrive at Tom’s house just minutes before midnight.<br /><br />Hank McCoy enters first to find the party is already in full-swing. He passes Roy and Jeanie Thomas while looking for Vera. Suddenly, though, the Juggernaut smashes through the wall to continue his relentless pursuit of the Beast. Hank runs upstairs to lead him away from the other guests. He goes all the way up to the attic with the Juggernaut following close behind. In a desperate gamble, Hank removes his human-looking mask and huddles up on the floor, hoping to take the Juggernaut by surprise. When the villain enters the dimly-lit room, the Beast suddenly spins around and snarls. The Juggernaut draws back, startled, only for an instant, but it is enough for the Beast to leap on him and tear off his magic helmet. The Juggernaut falls backwards down the stairs to the second-floor landing, feeling his superhuman strength suddenly diminishing. At that moment, the clock strikes midnight.<br /><br />Simultaneously, the Phantom Stranger has assembled the dying members of the Justice League at the same intersection where Old Mistress Sarah made her predictions 24 hours earlier. As the church bells toll midnight once again, the Phantom Stranger reads off the names of the heroes while tossing the items he had collected from each of their costumes. He thus breaks the spell of imminent death, allowing the Justice League to revive.<br /><br />The spell broken, Faust’s demons are driven out of their host bodies, which had gathered not far from Tom Fagan’s house. Felix Faust curses his failure and, hearing the commotion in the hall, decides to make good his escape before he is discovered. Just as Len, Gerry, and Steve come upstairs to look for Glynis, they pass the Juggernaut on the landing, with the Beast in hot pursuit. Making it outside, the Juggernaut tries to steal Steve’s car, but it won’t start. The Beast leaps at him, knocking him out of the passenger-side door. They tumble into Tom’s yard and continue their brawl.<br /><br />Len, Gerry, and Steve enter the room where Felix Faust has been hiding, seeing the wizard about to jump out the window. They initially assume he is trying to commit suicide, but then Faust levitates down and steals Steve’s car, making the engine start with the last of his fading sorcerous might. As the car roars away, the portal to the Crimson Cosmos opens above the weakened Juggernaut and he is drawn back into his extradimensional prison.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Hawkman have rushed to the scene to battle Faust’s demons before they can assume new host bodies. Glynis and the others awaken from their trance, though dazed, and catch glimpses of the battle as they head for the lights of Tom Fagan’s house. The Justice League makes short work of the demons and manages to drive them back through the doorway to their home dimension before it collapses.<br /><br />As the Beast stands brooding in the darkness, Glynis wanders up to meet the three guys, who are watching helplessly as Faust drives off in their car. Len asks her where she was, but her memories are too scrambled to give a clear answer, though she thinks she saw some kind of battle raging in the woods. Gerry is mad, but Glynis puts him down for making such a big deal out of everything. Suddenly, Loki comes running out of the trees toward the fleeing car, trying desperately to reach this alien sorcerer before he disappears. To the horror of the four New Yorkers, Loki misses the car and runs right off a cliff. However, before Loki can hit the ground at the bottom of the gorge, he is teleported away by Dormammu, who has just conceived of a new plan of conquest. Assuming Loki to have been one of Tom’s costumed guests, the four friends immediately have their host call the Rutland police.<br /><br />Not far down the road, Felix Faust is pulled over by the police for his missing muffler. Since he is wanted for breaking out of jail, the officers take him into custody.<br /><br />With nothing left to sustain it, the dimensional convergence collapses about ten minutes after midnight and the two parallel Rutlands naturally disentangle themselves. In one world, the Beast slowly makes his way back to the motel to meet up with Vera, and in the morning they buy a car from a local farmer to continue their journey north into Canada. In the other world, the Justice League extends an offer of membership to the Phantom Stranger, but he elects to merely disappear. The teammates then return to their orbiting satellite headquarters to file their reports on the mission.<br /><br />In both worlds, the Rutland police comb the gorge by Tom Fagan’s house in the morning for any sign of a body, and when none is found, the baffled Steve, Gerry, Len, and Glynis are let off with a warning for filing a false report. Steve then has the lost muffler replaced and the quartet drives back to New York City. After hearing the shocking news that 50 members of their community were killed in a landslide on Bald Mountain last night, Tom Fagan makes arrangements to have the gaping hole in the side of his house repaired before winter sets in. He also begins making plans for next year’s Rutland, Vermont Halloween Parade.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:+0;"></span>Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-89747607334867877092009-11-05T08:33:00.001-06:002017-07-18T19:16:10.303-05:00Clea's Fashion ParadeDoctor Strange’s girlfriend <b>Clea</b> always had a unique sense of style. Not surprising considering she came from another dimension. Created by Steve Ditko, her earliest outfits were as bizarre as the abstract landscapes that she inhabited.
<br />
<br />
<br />
When she first appears in <i>Strange Tales</i> #126, it seems that Clea is dressed to the nines in this elaborate outfit that includes gloves and high-heels. It also introduces the distinctively-patterned leggings that would become her trademark. It’s no wonder Doctor Strange was smitten with her.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc7XO8XxCotpSpsKR8bnImd07gTInMF5X3Fjd9N4wSJuY9RNzSahVquFgOEn8kp3BRDQKu4qD0dorq3qXX62_D2-D91xW8DlaujWClneehg53lSEcqHWg11Huzjeo6cZgFGdI3/s1600/Clea-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc7XO8XxCotpSpsKR8bnImd07gTInMF5X3Fjd9N4wSJuY9RNzSahVquFgOEn8kp3BRDQKu4qD0dorq3qXX62_D2-D91xW8DlaujWClneehg53lSEcqHWg11Huzjeo6cZgFGdI3/s1600/Clea-1.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Clea is dressed somewhat more conservatively the next time we see her, in <i>Strange Tales</i> #132, wearing this floor-length gown with long, tapering sleeves. Since she is with a man whom she addresses as “father” who doesn’t really look like her actual father, Orini, we might assume that she is in the Dark Dimension equivalent of a church speaking to some sort of priest. Dormammu is something of a self-styled deity, so it would make sense that his own “royal court” would have some sort of organized religious structure about it. And like many churches on Earth, Clea clearly feels it is appropriate to “dress up” to attend.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgukHTjtNqfJXLFwJWcMQkd2dyW_H-v-q7pXmYIYyLY2rrIwh2cs9_XOf4n89pp0L90cKZXujxU6S2saoCcCcc7HdHUaHMIgo8OMlMB6m5VG-bBX4_OEUAdpEJY-sNfYYtCOOXK/s1600/Clea-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgukHTjtNqfJXLFwJWcMQkd2dyW_H-v-q7pXmYIYyLY2rrIwh2cs9_XOf4n89pp0L90cKZXujxU6S2saoCcCcc7HdHUaHMIgo8OMlMB6m5VG-bBX4_OEUAdpEJY-sNfYYtCOOXK/s1600/Clea-2.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
In the next issue, Clea goes casual in this comfortable-looking long-sleeve red T-shirt and pink tights (again with heels), accessorized with an elaborate ornamental collar. Its yoke-like design might be symbolic of the oppression suffered by Dormammu’s subjects. We might also note that, while living in the Dark Dimension, Clea also seemed partial to layering with horizontally-striped turtlenecks, which might suggest that her native realm is a bit chilly as well as dark.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8XBbJEt-yiOJaes33VZTECMsi2yJeU-2UrcU6gK8GiO6_jDsfutXpJsH6WYLPrd3OREJuuffi_0CXdoGznEwRnjiktzR7TKKnMipG7G9LTJGNpSZ1An-m2qFM7H7K7MFgA6k/s1600/Clea-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8XBbJEt-yiOJaes33VZTECMsi2yJeU-2UrcU6gK8GiO6_jDsfutXpJsH6WYLPrd3OREJuuffi_0CXdoGznEwRnjiktzR7TKKnMipG7G9LTJGNpSZ1An-m2qFM7H7K7MFgA6k/s1600/Clea-3.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Clea first opts to wear purple in this ensemble from <i>Strange Tales</i> #134, which features a wide, shiny waist-cinching belt. It is interesting to note that she seemed to favor stiletto heels in her home dimension, but largely abandoned them after taking up residence on Earth. Clearly the laws of physics as we know them do not apply in Dormammu’s realm, and she thus was forced to rethink her footwear choices once she had to start walking on solid ground.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiezrhObjg3EwMUKsCBmb59nW1wBTVM2cf4zDdrR3Fn3paeUT04ku8gpSVo8PeVi_JoJZa_tmcWs2n5vZ_GY0e82KbYMEWjlBoQEcQhNWu6uhxCP1KZ2gNc3lO-zFAd1qSuVDe1/s1600/Clea-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiezrhObjg3EwMUKsCBmb59nW1wBTVM2cf4zDdrR3Fn3paeUT04ku8gpSVo8PeVi_JoJZa_tmcWs2n5vZ_GY0e82KbYMEWjlBoQEcQhNWu6uhxCP1KZ2gNc3lO-zFAd1qSuVDe1/s1600/Clea-4.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
After a period spent lost in one of the numberless nether-realms, Clea adopted her best-known look, which she would sport regularly during the period she served as Doctor Strange’s disciple. It was first seen in <i>Doctor Strange</i> #171 and was apparently designed by Tom Palmer. (Eventually her shirt became more of a bodysuit.) It was both functional and comfortable, while still retaining an alien quality that reminded her of her home world.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Q_N4gdyx-B462tNutH4e4YKuar0xhXogZ4IcHuYhcDYL79eKW6QTB8q7uDnqlCPy0IBpLcwAJrcT0biRFOPinH10s58XY1GeKAUBYg1UNUVU46R59eDXU1pjm3mkK5oXWHeI/s1600/Clea-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Q_N4gdyx-B462tNutH4e4YKuar0xhXogZ4IcHuYhcDYL79eKW6QTB8q7uDnqlCPy0IBpLcwAJrcT0biRFOPinH10s58XY1GeKAUBYg1UNUVU46R59eDXU1pjm3mkK5oXWHeI/s1600/Clea-5.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
After Doctor Strange was captured and tortured by a race of extradimensional demons called the Undying Ones, he gave up the mystic arts for a period of time, until he recovered from the trauma. During this period, Clea was left to fend for herself in the unfamiliar environment of New York City. Worse, the mystic powers she had once possessed, derived from her native Dark Dimension, had faded away during her exile, and she had not yet mastered Earth’s occult forces. Thus she was forced to assimilate somewhat into the local culture, as evidenced by this outfit seen in <i>Marvel Feature</i> #2. It was designed by Ross Andru, and shows that Clea knows how to make a fashion statement in any universe.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHY3l0Okc7s2xHHtNZYpg_3SO9kNpx-KXihkkBoy1s_Oc4zrKfqgCLopV0mHSSmFAC5Dms4Eh8MUMDoo4SsUgIv2-GP2JvXEO65CiKPDJhAK5p9PT1n2e5zhD4O9PJrNib2VAP/s1600/Clea-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHY3l0Okc7s2xHHtNZYpg_3SO9kNpx-KXihkkBoy1s_Oc4zrKfqgCLopV0mHSSmFAC5Dms4Eh8MUMDoo4SsUgIv2-GP2JvXEO65CiKPDJhAK5p9PT1n2e5zhD4O9PJrNib2VAP/s1600/Clea-6.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
After Doctor Strange returned to sorcery, Clea became his disciple, moving in with him in his Sanctum Sanctorum. She would continue to push the envelope of fashion from time to time, as we may see in future posts.
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-45846801845455273682009-06-29T15:13:00.008-05:002017-07-18T17:50:22.247-05:00(Homo) Superior vs. Inferior (Five)By 1966, industry leader National Comics (now better known as DC) was all too aware that the recently re-energized Marvel Comics was rapidly gaining on them in popularity. Upstart that it was, and keen to cultivate a hip image, Marvel was well-known for ribbing its competition, and the staid, conservative National proved an easy target. However, the editors at National were not above striking back, and the vehicle for one of their most elaborate spoofs of Marvel was their own lampoon of the superhero genre, the <b>Inferior Five.</b>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQmlRcv1zfI8EGOMmMGLXuMxvy57hyphenhyphenxFY93a6wsrIfIvTNDrmeqoDMjTxmoSfKhLIVSD4aAX8vMsarh5k0iQN1Mlh6Sw2daoW88q-rmtODQGJTr-EuqpngdmSFWW625XeDnapq/s1600/Showcase+65-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQmlRcv1zfI8EGOMmMGLXuMxvy57hyphenhyphenxFY93a6wsrIfIvTNDrmeqoDMjTxmoSfKhLIVSD4aAX8vMsarh5k0iQN1Mlh6Sw2daoW88q-rmtODQGJTr-EuqpngdmSFWW625XeDnapq/s1600/Showcase+65-1.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
In their third try-out appearance in the anthology title <i>Showcase</i> (#65), written by E. Nelson Bridwell with art by Mike Sekowsky & Mike Esposito, the hapless team of superhero wannabees encounter this familiar-looking quintet of super-powered students:
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFBJi0LGx8iiV6yjc5Vt5qGOsXphZHeRxKZ75xhHHiJjUg8LbpTveHRFQZpZTcpmtKIG5PEuYxlHxQ-ycJSAImG55OCJArsVLebDYLIL9GwLEewYYF6dluUdRn8vUseVv1Irv1/s1600/Showcase+65-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFBJi0LGx8iiV6yjc5Vt5qGOsXphZHeRxKZ75xhHHiJjUg8LbpTveHRFQZpZTcpmtKIG5PEuYxlHxQ-ycJSAImG55OCJArsVLebDYLIL9GwLEewYYF6dluUdRn8vUseVv1Irv1/s1600/Showcase+65-8.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
The X-Men may have seemed ripe for parody at this time, as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had already passed the book on to other creators (Roy Thomas & Werner Roth), who could not generate the same chaotic dynamism found in the title’s early issues. Although, as it was hardly one of Marvel’s top books, we can say it may have been too easy a target, and one may wonder why National singled this property out for special ridicule.
<br />
<br />
The tale opens at Dean Egghead’s Academy for Super-Heroes, as the entire staff walks out and leaves the Dean to fend for himself with his rambunctious students. Dean Egghead is a straightforward caricature of Professor X, and even shares his telepathic powers.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSnlyjnTZEdIRIwucurawyXnjV3BNZrzSTcD4iACi6Ya_AWycRaik2ySsup5OtNhzldlnhss7-VOr96l9AJMmPRIWDCQFOKMce7hkgXh-jwuSQh2yHPe4ztw-5nl3mlPyXGakX/s1600/Showcase+65-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSnlyjnTZEdIRIwucurawyXnjV3BNZrzSTcD4iACi6Ya_AWycRaik2ySsup5OtNhzldlnhss7-VOr96l9AJMmPRIWDCQFOKMce7hkgXh-jwuSQh2yHPe4ztw-5nl3mlPyXGakX/s1600/Showcase+65-2.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
When no superheroes will answer the Dean’s call for help, he turns to the Inferior Five, recruiting them as his new faculty. As they enter his Academy for the first time, he introduces them to his five uncanny students. Rather than “mutants” like the X-Men, these students are described as being “atavistic,” i.e. throwbacks to earlier epochs. Therefore, instead of seeing the next stage in human evolution, we are presented with evolution working backwards, suggesting these characters are even more “inferior” than the Inferior Five.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ2cWR0untXQdtiFQP0R5RZOMHa7KehMc0zHrGHXvtErjNXGbmJRjvCUv0dv52rBk4ZBxLxda_KLoLSCLBI2f0q4Z1_DGtIHtafXqz7VKE4Z9xpTWZBV93zyiRgdS5vzNsCC_z/s1600/Showcase+65-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ2cWR0untXQdtiFQP0R5RZOMHa7KehMc0zHrGHXvtErjNXGbmJRjvCUv0dv52rBk4ZBxLxda_KLoLSCLBI2f0q4Z1_DGtIHtafXqz7VKE4Z9xpTWZBV93zyiRgdS5vzNsCC_z/s1600/Showcase+65-3.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
The star pupil (who also gets the most “screen time”) is Harry McElhinney / The Ape, a bookish monkey-man who sends up Henry McCoy / The Beast.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6MLDVe1za8A89PmFpzKjN2bj3DBaIyeacBgJVJoQvRcZ5Ck4TJzWGQcHs_egU2Kb3w2r4uoSv6Dm5QtsybEdbKJtjLrZTB5Mk1JAPdtvUNPCd0Hux7tVJVOJ2GwRYZyA4c1g/s1600/Showcase+65-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6MLDVe1za8A89PmFpzKjN2bj3DBaIyeacBgJVJoQvRcZ5Ck4TJzWGQcHs_egU2Kb3w2r4uoSv6Dm5QtsybEdbKJtjLrZTB5Mk1JAPdtvUNPCd0Hux7tVJVOJ2GwRYZyA4c1g/s1600/Showcase+65-4.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
Next we meet Irish Autumns / Basilisk, a clever parody of the similarly mythology-themed Scott Summers / Cyclops. Rather than red force beams, his eyes emit a white ray that turns people to stone. Despite the mis-aligned word balloon pointer, it is the Dean who is speaking.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU16IVhUgQfUYJX0ZBtqjbJRxquB8KmzPcYQ3lNEWb0pjVcyLr6gLavhtVgwwjF1DDmfoabDDE2ezAST9TgglWwpwz2tIazy_IdRsHHsz5cqOJkke_q4MTR1i5BdZka6ERkOlN/s1600/Showcase+65-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU16IVhUgQfUYJX0ZBtqjbJRxquB8KmzPcYQ3lNEWb0pjVcyLr6gLavhtVgwwjF1DDmfoabDDE2ezAST9TgglWwpwz2tIazy_IdRsHHsz5cqOJkke_q4MTR1i5BdZka6ERkOlN/s1600/Showcase+65-5.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
We are then introduced to the brown-winged Melvin Murgatroyd XIV / Icarus, a tow-headed and uncouth youngster who is the opposite of the glamorous Warren Worthington III / The Angel.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoo4cxP5qNMc5CKHAQpKtnWY45QF4PuOVL_55A3ri5YKYlv0iy565JsDGgaxVsao2fDy-Xrj0nFrY-erWfTGkGQyLpWnNTXiBiQZTwq_mYsJtXP-4pa_SkYuSAHRr0zFFDDGds/s1600/Showcase+65-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoo4cxP5qNMc5CKHAQpKtnWY45QF4PuOVL_55A3ri5YKYlv0iy565JsDGgaxVsao2fDy-Xrj0nFrY-erWfTGkGQyLpWnNTXiBiQZTwq_mYsJtXP-4pa_SkYuSAHRr0zFFDDGds/s1600/Showcase+65-6.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
Next up is Billy Gander / Winter Wonderlad, a goof on Bobby Drake / Iceman. Rather than turning into either a snowman or a human ice-sculpture, Billy becomes a walking iceberg by encasing himself in the stuff.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNkFBPmA61bfnZJKVY-pgi4apw3t8QS7WW6PtHqPkxuJxqIFIiEEV7hw9AWMpSgOiU_At_gph2V5TGmUoVYwZnasXT4im9dR2EdagotdRyMiBsUw_drm25PcaYSz5iZjESw9l/s1600/Showcase+65-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNkFBPmA61bfnZJKVY-pgi4apw3t8QS7WW6PtHqPkxuJxqIFIiEEV7hw9AWMpSgOiU_At_gph2V5TGmUoVYwZnasXT4im9dR2EdagotdRyMiBsUw_drm25PcaYSz5iZjESw9l/s1600/Showcase+65-7.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
Lastly, we meet Penelope Pink / Levitation Lass, a dark-haired version of Jean Grey / Marvel Girl. With the help of the Inferior Five’s resident airhead, Dumb Bunny, Penelope immediately ditches her saggy-baggy school uniform for the more revealing version seen above.
<br />
<br />
Like the X-Men, the heroes-in-training at Dean Egghead’s Academy also have villainous counterparts, a rival team that is diametrically opposed to their do-gooding philosophy. Instead of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, we are presented with the Fraternity of Atavistic No-Goodniks.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqweFGZVEtMpeFzHH-hjqJNuwBhHJvJFPAHPyobP8XRsuGXakFGW28-txtxwAjt8sBpeipDhqIyRHjiKc1HIfbkdhMnlImpq8-hKSnGayAI75BLojd2zq9okkAyQY9yPxdotRh/s1600/Showcase+65-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqweFGZVEtMpeFzHH-hjqJNuwBhHJvJFPAHPyobP8XRsuGXakFGW28-txtxwAjt8sBpeipDhqIyRHjiKc1HIfbkdhMnlImpq8-hKSnGayAI75BLojd2zq9okkAyQY9yPxdotRh/s1600/Showcase+65-9.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
Frog Man is an obvious analogue to the Toad, and Pterano Don Juan bears a passing resemblance to Mastermind. The Amoeba may be a take-off on the Blob, and I can only assume that Angel Fish must stand in for the Scarlet Witch. I guess there’s a sort of logic to replacing a witch with a mermaid, both being creatures of folklore. Their leader, Dr. Dinosaur, really has nothing in common with Magneto, but he is the only truly funny concept in the book, as his special power is that he has two brains – one in his head and one in his ass. Hence the two-pronged attack needed to bring him down:
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhf_gVBtYuRXXT-5cn7YvCM7m3IoSIGDKvU4mQI_KVgOalIqRmV9hsACHsRQ8_76inGAdlEFpqfxMtKmy4hqk7rvxMX6saT9GASEE0UCPUiNw7EA4nodRZcom_QPSbqyKlK68z/s1600/Showcase+65-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhf_gVBtYuRXXT-5cn7YvCM7m3IoSIGDKvU4mQI_KVgOalIqRmV9hsACHsRQ8_76inGAdlEFpqfxMtKmy4hqk7rvxMX6saT9GASEE0UCPUiNw7EA4nodRZcom_QPSbqyKlK68z/s1600/Showcase+65-11.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
Curiously, during the heroes’ field-trip to the big city, Bridwell throws in a random dig at the long-running rivalry between the Fantastic Four’s Thing and the Yancy Street Gang, which, while making for a decent gag, seems a bit out of place.
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqT03cAndLeAYcUKKV7wXmalH_juegsdvcnLgeXzCgfM4aBC-iew12Ie0KUj0pbka518pSPMkACQK9AYyNND7RgnOIvqBU30FLRljnIMfLiZ_RoW538pW576Q2e6g5cE37rUr/s1600/Showcase+65-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqT03cAndLeAYcUKKV7wXmalH_juegsdvcnLgeXzCgfM4aBC-iew12Ie0KUj0pbka518pSPMkACQK9AYyNND7RgnOIvqBU30FLRljnIMfLiZ_RoW538pW576Q2e6g5cE37rUr/s1600/Showcase+65-10.jpg" title="©1966 National Periodical Publications" /></a></div>
<br />
Marvel Comics would get a little of their own back about a year later with the publication of their own lampoon comic <i>Not Brand Ecch,</i> which would send up DC’s characters in a similar fashion.
<br />
<br />
Stan Lee has since said in interviews that he intentionally played up the idea of an intercompany rivalry “to make it fun” for the readers, and no doubt in order to inspire brand loyalty among the fans. He claims to have enjoyed a jovial camaraderie with the personnel over at National Comics, and the good-natured spoof of one of Marvel’s franchises seen in this issue of <i>Showcase</i> seems to support his view.
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-27697007842853906362009-06-04T15:56:00.000-05:002017-07-18T17:22:30.786-05:00Proper GalactusJust another reason I prefer to read Silver Age comics in Marvel’s black & white Essential reprints. When I take a look at <i>Fantastic Four</i> #48, for example, I can fill in the colors in my mind’s eye. Therefore, I get to see a proper Galactus, like this:
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXGmbR7LTrvSbirdPMggaNYyRM7h1_vkDasxPNccS00WObSRjyUdse9DXyHj8pignwCSeyjfcACPSEl7SeVdFCV1xc3e9kCX6hd964tMCa2taL0UzkS3kPsETD-m1Cv5-qLL7/s1600/Proper+Galactus-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXGmbR7LTrvSbirdPMggaNYyRM7h1_vkDasxPNccS00WObSRjyUdse9DXyHj8pignwCSeyjfcACPSEl7SeVdFCV1xc3e9kCX6hd964tMCa2taL0UzkS3kPsETD-m1Cv5-qLL7/s1600/Proper+Galactus-b.jpg" data-original-width="600" data-original-height="713" title="©1966 Marvel Comics Group" /></a><br />
<br />
But when I read the same story reprinted in the slicker Marvel Masterworks line, I am forced to see a Galactus who looks like a reject from some outer-space Christmas pageant.
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO1jHbIzTPmY77tJfweumgPqC3dR7RLVdBfZId7CqrLKkSPMbx_pA37XLcpm9vihayTPWxRQz5eWFBwLEC7hWgfrmyK1MIrSMPVjYYykkK4WyODpa7HtgotX9sbEaV5pFJt6b-/s1600/Christmas+Galactus.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO1jHbIzTPmY77tJfweumgPqC3dR7RLVdBfZId7CqrLKkSPMbx_pA37XLcpm9vihayTPWxRQz5eWFBwLEC7hWgfrmyK1MIrSMPVjYYykkK4WyODpa7HtgotX9sbEaV5pFJt6b-/s1600/Christmas+Galactus.jpg" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="473" title="©1966 Marvel Comics Group" /></a><br />
<br />
For all the wonderfully expressive work done by colorist Stan Goldberg and his assistants throughout the 1960s, it is all too clear sometimes that they were coloring as fast as possible. The wildly shifting color schemes Galactus displayed in his first several appearances shows that they didn’t always have the luxury of doing much design work in advance. Hindsight now makes the color in these old comics more of a distraction than an enhancement.
<br />
<br />
<br />
Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-62455684217189511662009-03-11T12:03:00.002-05:002013-03-14T10:53:25.372-05:00A DC Universe ChronologyWhen I decided to do a quick chronology of the <b>DC Comics</b> universe, I opted to take the opposite approach as my OMU project. Whereas with the <a href="http://originalmarveluniverse.blogspot.com/">Original Marvel Universe,</a> I disregard publishing dates to “defragment” the timeline, I here used the publishing dates as a starting point to catalog the events of the DC universe, creating an entirely new history in the process.<br />
<br />
For example, I placed Batman’s debut in Spring 1939, as that was the date of the character’s first appearance. I then extrapolated from that a date for Bruce Wayne’s birth, then plotted out a reasonable lifespan and worked into it the major events of his life. Other men replaced him as the generations passed. Other characters were dealt with in the same manner, causing them all to intersect in very interesting ways.<br />
<br />
The result was something akin to the “Earth-Two” alternate reality, or the tales of “Batman II and Robin II” that appeared occasionally in Silver-Age Batman titles, or John Byrne’s <i>Generations</i> series. I was inspired primarily by the 1995 graphic novel <i>The Golden Age</i> by James Robinson & Paul Smith.<br />
<br />
In this version of the DC world, the characters age, reproduce, and die like real-life people. I find it opens up all manner of story possibilities, and it’s fun to ponder what it might have been like had the DC Universe evolved in this manner. The timeline is limited pretty much to the 20th century, and is by no means complete.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here, then, is a (not “the”) <b>Chronology of the DC Universe!</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1894</div>
Cyrus Gold is murdered in Slaughter Swamp outside Gotham City. His corpse will later be reanimated as the failed elemental <b>Solomon Grundy.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1899</div>
<b>Richard Occult</b> is born, and is soon after rescued from devil worshippers by the Mystic Order of the Seven, along with a baby girl who will be raised as his sister and called Rose Psychic.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1900</div>
<b>James Corrigan</b> is born.<br />
<br />
James Gordon is born in Gotham City.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1908</div>
<b>Kent Nelson</b> is born to Sven and Celestine Nelson.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1912</div>
<b>Janos Prohaska</b> is born in Krakow, Poland.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1913</div>
<b>Wesley Dodds</b> is born to Edward and Marina Dodds.<br />
<br />
<b>Rex Tyler</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1915</div>
<b>Bruce Wayne</b> is born to Thomas and Martha Wayne in Gotham City.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1916</div>
<b>Carter Hall</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Lois Lane</b> is born to Sam and Ella Lane.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1917</div>
<b>Alan Scott</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Oliver Queen</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Johnny Thunder</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1918</div>
<b>Jay Garrick</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1920</div>
Kryptonian infant <b>Kal-El</b> crash lands outside Smallville, Kansas and is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who rename him <b>Clark Kent.</b><br />
<br />
Archaeologist Sven Nelson is killed in Mesopotamia after accidentally awakening the ancient entity called Nabu the Wise. Nabu trains young Kent Nelson in the arts of magic.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1921</div>
<b>Selena Kyle</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1922</div>
<b>Sheira Sanders</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Ted Grant</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Libby Lawrence</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1924</div>
Thomas and Martha Wayne are shot dead in front of their terrified son Bruce.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1926</div>
<b>Billy Batson</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Sylvester Pemberton</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1927</div>
<b>Dinah Drake</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1928</div>
<b>Dick Grayson</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Roy Harper</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Daniel Dunbar</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1929</div>
<b>Barry Allen</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1931</div>
<b>Katherine Kane</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1933</div>
<b>Jason Todd</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1935</div>
Richard Occult becomes the mystical detective known as <b>Dr. Occult.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Ray Palmer</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>Will Magnus</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1936</div>
<b>Hal Jordan</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1937</div>
Selena Kyle first becomes a prostitute.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1938</div>
Clark Kent moves to Metropolis and adopts the identity of <b>Superman.</b> He meets ace reporter Lois Lane at the newspaper where they both work, <i>The Daily Star.</i><br />
<br />
Wealthy socialite <b>Tex Thompson</b> decides to become an amateur crimebuster.<br />
<br />
Giovanni Zatara begins using his magical abilities to fight crime as <b>Zatara, Master Magician.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1938</div>
Superman meets his first great nemesis, the wheelchair-bound mad scientist called the <b>Ultra-Humanite.</b> He also first meets cub reporter <b>Jimmy Olsen.</b><br />
<br />
Publisher <b>Lee Travis</b> takes on the underworld as the shadowy <b>Crimson Avenger,</b> assisted by his Chinese manservant Wing.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1939</div>
Bruce Wayne begins his crusade against crime as the fearsome <b>Batman.</b> He presents something of a problem to new Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1939</div>
Wesley Dodds becomes the gas-mask-wearing hero called the <b>Sandman.</b> He meets the lovely Dian Belmont.<br />
<br />
Batman battles his first major villain, the evil <b>Doctor Death.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1939</div>
Batman perfects the helicopter-like vehicle called the <b>Batgyro.</b> As Bruce Wayne, he meets the lovely Julie Madison.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1939</div>
Selena Kyle changes professions, becoming a jewel thief.<br />
<br />
<b>Darrell Dane</b> becomes the size-changing hero <b>Doll Man.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1940</div>
Jay Garrick leaves Midwestern University to become the super-fast crime-fighter known as the <b>Flash.</b><br />
<br />
Also, Carter Hall begins his career as <b>Hawkman,</b> and meets Sheira Sanders, whom he believes to be the reincarnation of his wife from a previous life in ancient Egypt.<br />
<br />
Policeman Jim Corrigan is murdered, but returns as the mysterious crime-fighter the <b>Spectre.</b><br />
<br />
After taking his newly-developed Miraclo pill, chemist Rex “Tick-Tock” Tyler becomes the super hero known as <b>Hourman.</b><br />
<br />
Johnny Thunder develops uncontrollable magical powers courtesy of his “pet lightning bolt.”<br />
<br />
Billy Batson first says the magic word SHAZAM and becomes earth’s mightiest mortal, <b>Captain Marvel.</b><br />
<br />
Batman first encounters the sadistic genius <b>Dr. Hugo Strange.</b> Also, after shooting many a criminal, Batman renounces the use of guns in his crimefighting crusade.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1940</div>
Orphaned Dick Grayson joins Batman’s crusade as <b>Robin,</b> the Boy Wonder.<br />
<br />
Superman first encounters villainous tycoon <b>Lex Luthor.</b><br />
<br />
Batman and Robin first battle the Clown Prince of Crime, the <b>Joker.</b> Soon after, they clash with seductive jewel thief Selena Kyle, better known as the Cat. Batman also unveils the original <b>Batplane.</b><br />
<br />
Kent Nelson begins his career battling supernatural villains as <b>Doctor Fate</b> and meets the lovely Inza Cramer.<br />
<br />
The Metropolis newspaper <i>The Daily Star</i> changes its name to <i>The Daily Planet.</i><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1940</div>
Gotham City resident Alan Scott discovers a mysterious artifact and becomes the costumed adventurer <b>Green Lantern.</b><br />
<br />
Lanford “Happy” Terrill gains energy-manipulating abilities and becomes the superhero known as the <b>Ray</b>.<br />
<br />
Selena Kyle adopts the new nom de crime <b>Catwoman.</b><br />
<br />
Batman and Robin fight Basil Karlo, the first <b>Clay Face.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1940</div>
Al Pratt becomes the diminutive hero called the <b>Atom.</b><br />
<br />
Carter Hall marries Sheira Sanders.<br />
<br />
The Ultra-Humanite has his brain transplanted into the body of movie starlet Delores Winters, and perishes in a volcano soon afterwards.<br />
<br />
Catwoman dons her first super-villainess costume.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1940</div>
Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, the Atom, Doctor Fate, the Spectre, Hourman, and the Sandman band together to form the loose-knit <b>Justice Society of America,</b> and put up with irritating hanger-on Johnny Thunder.<br />
<br />
Inspired by the recent appearances of costumed crimefighters, middle-aged housewife <b>Abigail Mathilda Hunkle</b> dons a makeshift costume and calls herself the <b>Red Tornado</b> as she battles neighborhood menaces.<br />
<br />
While battling Batman, Dr. Hugo Strange is killed.<br />
<br />
Alan Scott takes a job as a radio engineer at the Apex Broadcasting Company.<br />
<br />
Perry White is made editor of the Metropolis paper <i>The Daily Planet.</i><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1941</div>
Scientist <b>Ted Knight</b> becomes the caped hero <b>Starman.</b><br />
<br />
Tex Thompson fights the good fight as the mystery man called <b>Mr. America.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Paul Kirk</b> becomes the masked crimebuster <b>Manhunter.</b><br />
<br />
After the final defeat of Clay Face, Batman unveils the first customized <b>Batmobile.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1941</div>
<b>Charles McNider</b> swings into action as <b>Doctor Mid-Nite.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1941</div>
Sheira Hall becomes <b>Hawkgirl.</b><br />
<br />
Small-time hood <b>Eel O’Brien</b> becomes the super-elastic <b>Plastic Man.</b><br />
<br />
The military squad called the <b>Blackhawks</b> is formed to combat the Nazis. They are led by Janos Prohaska.<br />
<br />
<b>Joan Dale</b> becomes the costumed crimefighter called <b>Miss America.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Sandra Knight</b> becomes the <b>Phantom Lady.</b><br />
<br />
Chemist <b>Roy Lincoln</b> transforms himself into the <b>Human Bomb.</b><br />
<br />
Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor loses his hair in a freak accident.<br />
<br />
Green Lantern first meets his streetwise sidekick Doiby Dickles.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1941</div>
Superman and Batman meet for the first time.<br />
<br />
Newsreel photographer <b>Johnny Chambers</b> becomes the lighting-fast hero <b>Johnny Quick.</b><br />
<br />
Sylvester Pemberton and <b>Patrick Dugan</b> join the war effort as the <b>Star-Spangled Kid</b> and his adult sidekick <b>Stripesy.</b><br />
<br />
Mystery writer <b>John Law</b> becomes the mystery man called the <b>Tarantula.</b><br />
<br />
An Arthurian knight called <b>Sir Justin</b> emerges from suspended animation to battle evil as the <b>Shining Knight.</b><br />
<br />
Batman and Robin must defeat Jonathan Crane, the eerie criminal called the <b>Scarecrow.</b><br />
<br />
Starman first battles the villain known as the <b>Mist.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1941</div>
Oliver Queen debuts as crime-fighting archer <b>Green Arrow,</b> along with his teenaged sidekick Roy Harper, a.k.a. <b>Speedy.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Aquaman</b> first leaves Atlantis for the surface world.<br />
<br />
The Sandman trades in his gas-mask for a superhero costume and picks up a young sidekick, <b>Sanderson Hawkins,</b> also called <b>Sandy,</b> the Golden Boy.<br />
<br />
<b>Greg Saunders</b> becomes the gun-slinging mystery man called the <b>Vigilante.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Bob Daley</b> assumes the identity of <b>Fatman</b> and serves as Mr. America’s sidekick.<br />
<br />
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, thereby drawing the United States into the war.<br />
<br />
When American Army aviator Steve Trevor crashes on Paradise Island, Amazon princess <b>Diana</b> is selected to accompany him back to the world of men, where she comes to be called <b>Wonder Woman.</b><br />
<br />
In Gotham City, Oswald Cobblepot begins a life of crime as the umbrella-wielding <b>Penguin.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1942</div>
<b>Terry Sloane</b> begins his career as <b>Mr. Terrific,</b> Man of a Thousand Talents.<br />
<br />
Boxer <b>Ted Grant</b> becomes the masked adventurer called <b>Wildcat.</b><br />
<br />
Dr. Mid-Nite and Starman join the JSA.<br />
<br />
Hourman perfects his powerful Miracle Ray machine.<br />
<br />
Doiby Dickles learns Green Lantern’s secret identity as Alan Scott.<br />
<br />
Green Arrow, Speedy, the Star-Spangled Kid, Stripesy, the Shining Knight, the Vigilante, and the Crimson Avenger band together as the <b>Seven Soldiers of Victory.</b><br />
<br />
While on a mission as Manhunter, Paul Kirk vanishes without a trace.<br />
<br />
The JSA offers an associate membership to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1942</div>
Four slum orphans and Metropolis policeman Jim Harper join the war effort as the <b>Newsboy Legion and the Guardian.</b><br />
<br />
Chemistry teacher <b>Thomas N. Thomas</b> and his student Dan Dunbar also fight the Axis powers as <b>TNT and the Dyna-Mite.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1942</div>
Captain <b>Rip Carter</b> leads the international quartet of teenagers called the <b>Boy Commandos.</b><br />
<br />
When district attorney Harvey Dent is disfigured by acid, he becomes the criminal mastermind <b>Two-Face.</b><br />
<br />
Superman first battles Oswald Loomis, better known as the villainous <b>Prankster.</b><br />
<br />
Dr. <b>Robert Crane’s</b> brain is installed in a mechanical body, and he soon comes to be called <b>Robotman.</b><br />
<br />
After a return to Paradise Island where she wins her magic lasso, Wonder Woman joins the JSA.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1942</div>
Tex Thompson joins the war effort, now calling himself the <b>Americommando.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1942</div>
Kent Nelson enrolls in medical school, using his magical abilities to assist him with his studies.<br />
<br />
<b>Tim Drake</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1943</div>
Rex Tyler is forced to stop taking the Miraclo pill and retire as Hourman.<br />
<br />
Bob Daley parts ways with the Americommando and retires as Fatman.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1943</div>
When her father is killed by the Nazis, Libby Lawrence becomes a costumed adventuress called <b>Liberty Belle.</b><br />
<br />
John Law gives up his costumed identity as the Tarantula.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1943</div>
When TNT is killed in action, his sidekick the Dyna-Mite returns to civilian life as Daniel Dunbar.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1943</div>
Superman first battles the villainous <b>Toyman.</b><br />
<br />
Wonder Woman first faces the wrath of Priscilla Rich, a.k.a. the <b>Cheetah.</b><br />
<br />
Green Lantern encounters the ageless conspirator known as <b>Vandal Savage.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
1944</div>
<b>Wally West</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<b>“Snapper” Carr</b> is born.<br />
<br />
The second Speedy, later Arsenal, is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1944</div>
Tex Thompson’s heroic career comes to a sudden halt.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1944</div>
Superman first encounters the mysterious extradimensional imp known as <b>Mr. Mxyztplk.</b><br />
<br />
Starting a new trend, the Joker and the Penguin join forces against Batman and Robin.<br />
<br />
Ma Hunkel dons her Red Tornado guise for the last time.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1944</div>
The undead strongman Solomon Grundy first menaces the world.<br />
<br />
The Justice Society first battles the <b>Psycho-Pirate</b> when he kidnaps Hawkgirl.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1945</div>
The Spectre leaves earth for an extended period.<br />
<br />
Kent Nelson retires from adventuring as Doctor Fate to practice magic and medicine privately.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1945</div>
The war in Europe ends with the defeat of the Axis Powers.<br />
<br />
The Seven Soldiers of Victory disband and Lee Travis retires his Crimson Avenger identity.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1945</div>
The war in the Pacific ends with the nuclear bombing of Japan.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1945</div>
Libby Lawrence calls off her quest for vengeance as Liberty Belle.<br />
<br />
Wildcat is made a member of the JSA.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1946</div>
Wesley Dodds retires as the Sandman.<br />
<br />
Ted Knight hangs up his cape as Starman.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1946</div>
<b>Connor Hawke</b> is born to Oliver Queen and his girlfriend Sandra Hawke.<br />
<br />
<b>Zatanna Zatara</b> is born to Giovanni and Sindella Zatara.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1946</div>
Alan Scott becomes manager of radio station WXYZ in Gotham.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1946</div>
Kent Nelson marries Inza Cramer.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1947</div>
Terry Sloane abandons his identity as Mr. Terrific.<br />
<br />
The menace of Solomon Grundy is finally ended by the Justice Society of America.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1947</div>
Green Lantern first battles small-time hood <b>“Crusher” Crock.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Garth</b> is born in Atlantis.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1947</div>
Dinah Drake begins her stint as the crimebuster called the <b>Black Canary.</b><br />
<br />
The JSA first battles the time-traveling villain <b>Per Degaton.</b><br />
<br />
“Crusher” Crock adopts the identity of the <b>Sportsmaster</b> to again battle Green Lantern.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1947</div>
The <b>Injustice Society of the World</b> forms to counter the invincible JSA. Its founding members are the Wizard, Brain Wave, the Gambler, Per Degaton, the Thinker, and Vandal Savage.<br />
<br />
Molly Mayne is hired as Alan Scott’s secretary at WXYZ. To attract the attention of the dashing Green Lantern, she decides to become the costumed criminal called the <b>Harlequin.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1947</div>
Flash meets Rose Canton, the split-personality villainess called <b>Thorn.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1948</div>
Black Canary joins the JSA, and first meets private detective Larry Lance.<br />
<br />
<b>Barbara Gordon</b> is born to James and Sarah Gordon in Gotham City.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1948</div>
Batman first meets Vicki Vale.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1948</div>
Batman finally discovers the identity of the man who shot his parents, a minor thug by the name of <b>Joe Chill.</b><br />
<br />
Dick Grayson assumes the identity of <b>Nightwing.</b> Jason Todd is recruited to be the new Robin.<br />
<br />
The Atom begins to manifest super-strength.<br />
<br />
A new Injustice Society replaces the first: the Wizard, the Fiddler, Huntress, the Icicle, Sportsmaster, and Harlequin, who betrays her criminal comrades to free the JSA from their clutches.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1948</div>
Batman and Robin first encounter Eddie Nashton alias Edward Nygma alias the <b>Riddler.</b><br />
<br />
Green Lantern learns the Harlequin is now an undercover agent for the FBI.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1948</div>
Sylvester Pemberton and Pat Dugan end their partnership as the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1949</div>
Flash learns the Thorn’s true identity, and he, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman help her find treatment for her condition.<br />
<br />
Al Pratt retires as the Atom to wed Mary James.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1949</div>
Ted Grant gives up his career as Wildcat.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1949</div>
Superman first encounters the deadly mineral called kryptonite, and discovers he is not from Earth at all, but is the last son of the planet Krypton.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1950</div>
When the original Batmobile is destroyed, Batman and Robin build a new, more advanced model.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1950</div>
When the original Batplane is stolen, Batman and Robin build a new, more advanced model.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1951</div>
Jay Garrick retires the Flash in order to settle down and marry long-time girlfriend Joan Williams.<br />
<br />
Alan Scott relinquishes the role of Green Lantern when he is made vice-president and general manager of the Gotham Broadcasting Company.<br />
<br />
Charles McNider gives up being Dr. Mid-Nite.<br />
<br />
Zatara mysteriously disappears.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1951</div>
Carter and Shiera Hall are killed in action as Hawkman and Hawkgirl.<br />
<br />
The Justice Society of America disbands after battling a villain known as the <b>Key,</b> who makes good his escape.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1951</div>
<b>Captain Comet</b> goes into action.<br />
<br />
Sir Justin ceases to battle as the Shining Knight.<br />
<br />
Dinah Drake retires as the Black Canary and marries her boyfriend, detective Larry Lance.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1952</div>
<b>Dinah Lance</b> is born to Larry and Dinah Drake Lance.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1952</div>
The mysterious <b>Phantom Stranger</b> makes his first appearance.<br />
<br />
Superman and Batman finally learn each other’s secret identities.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1952</div>
Jason Todd is killed by the Joker.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1953</div>
Billy Batson ceases to transform into Captain Marvel.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1954</div>
Superman and Batman begin occasionally working as a team.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1954</div>
Johnny Chambers finally gives up being Johnny Quick once and for all.<br />
<br />
Greg Saunders retires as the Vigilante.<br />
<br />
Captain Comet’s brief career also comes to a close.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1955</div>
<b>J’onn J’onzz</b> arrives on Earth and assumes the identity of John Jones, but soon becomes known as the <b>Martian Manhunter.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1956</div>
Bruce Wayne retires and Dick Grayson succeeds him as the new Batman. Tim Drake is recruited as the new Robin.<br />
<br />
Alan Scott gets Rose Canton pregnant, but their relationship ends.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1956</div>
Plastic Man retires from crime-fighting.<br />
<br />
Katherine Kane adopts the crimefighting identity of <b>Batwoman.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1956</div>
Barry Allen develops super-speed and begins calling himself the <b>Flash.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1956</div>
Rose Canton gives birth to twins and puts them up for adoption. The girl becomes <b>Jennifer-Lynn Hayden</b> (adopted by Julian and Myrna Hayden) and the boy becomes <b>Todd James Rice</b> (adopted by Jim and Shirley Rice).<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1957</div>
Four non-super-powered men form the <b>Challengers of the Unknown</b> in order to seek out adventure.<br />
<br />
<b>Jessie Chambers</b> is born to Johnny Chambers and Libby Lawrence.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1957</div>
Oliver Queen is killed in action and Roy Harper becomes the new Green Arrow. The second Speedy joins him.<br />
<br />
<b>Stephanie Brown</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1957</div>
Selena Kyle retires as Catwoman and opens her own escort service.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1957</div>
Charles McNider begins working for the FBI keeping tabs on metahumans.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1958</div>
Superman first battles the villainous <b>Brainiac.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1958</div>
<b>Adam Strange</b> is first transported to the planet Rann in the Alpha Centauri system.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1959</div>
Batman and Robin first tangle with the sinister <b>Mister Freeze.</b><br />
<br />
Scientist <b>Rip Hunter</b> invents a time machine, which he uses to explore earth’s past and future.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1959</div>
Test pilot Hal Jordan receives his power ring and becomes the new <b>Green Lantern.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1959</div>
Wally West becomes the Flash’s sidekick, <b>Kid Flash.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1960</div>
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, and Green Lantern band together to form the <b>Justice League of America,</b> and they acquire a teen-aged associate called “Snapper” Carr.<br />
<br />
Garth first joins Aquaman on his patrols of the seas as <b>Aqualad.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1960</div>
<b>Ralph Dibny</b> becomes the <b>Elongated Man.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1961</div>
Two aliens from the planet Thanagar assume the identities of Carter and Shiera Hall, as well as <b>Hawkman</b> and <b>Hawkgirl,</b> to study earthly crime-fighting.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1961</div>
Green Arrow joins the Justice League.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1961</div>
Green Lantern first crosses swords with the evil <b>Sinestro.</b><br />
<br />
Kathy Kane’s niece <b>Betty Kane</b> begins her occasional outings as the original <b>Bat-Girl.</b><br />
<br />
Ralph Dibny marries his sweetheart Sue Dearborn.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1961</div>
Ray Palmer becomes the size-changing hero called the <b>Atom.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1961</div>
Batman and Robin must battle Matt Hagen, the second Clayface.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1962</div>
J’onn J’onzz makes his first return to Mars after being marooned on Earth six years earlier.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1962</div>
Dr. Will Magnus unveils his team of shape-shifting robot crimefighters, the <b>Metal Men.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1962</div>
Atom joins the Justice League.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1963</div>
Rex Tyler marries actress Wendi Harris.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1963</div>
Dr. Niles Caulder recruits Cliff Steele (the new Robotman), Rita Farr (Elasti-Girl), and Larry Trainor (Negative Man) to become the <b>Doom Patrol.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1964</div>
Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad join together as the <b>Teen Titans.</b><br />
<br />
Batman unveils a new state-of-the-art Batmobile.<br />
<br />
Barry Allen gets engaged to Iris West.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1964</div>
Kathy Kane retires as Batwoman.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1964</div>
Hawkman joins the Justice League.<br />
<br />
Rita Farr marries Steve Dayton, but remains in the Doom Patrol.<br />
<br />
Zatanna first casts her spell over the world’s evildoers.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1965</div>
While in Egypt, <b>Rex Mason</b> is transformed into <b>Metamorpho,</b> the Element Man.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1965</div>
<b>Garfield Logan</b> becomes a junior member of the Doom Patrol known as <b>Beast Boy.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1965</div>
<b>Donna Troy</b> becomes <b>Wonder Girl,</b> and she and Speedy join the Teen Titans.<br />
<br />
Dinah Drake Lance has an extramarital affair with Ted Knight.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1965</div>
<b>Buddy Baker</b> becomes the super-hero <b>Animal Man.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1965</div>
Barry Allen and Iris West are married.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1966</div>
Batman and Robin first meet the deadly villainess <b>Poison Ivy.</b><br />
<br />
Teenager <b>Robby Reed</b> discovers a mysterious dial that transforms him temporarily into a wide variety of super-heroes.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1966</div>
<b>Rick Tyler</b> is born to Rex and Wendi Tyler.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1966</div>
Barbara Gordon becomes the motorcycle-riding heroine <b>Batgirl.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1966</div>
The Flash’s wife, Iris Allen, dies.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1966</div>
<b>Ted Kord</b> becomes the super-hero <b>Blue Beetle.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1967</div>
The Spectre returns to earth after more than 20 years.<br />
<br />
After years of searching, Zatanna is reunited with her missing father, Zatara.<br />
<br />
In Africa, Mike Maxwell becomes the super-hero <b>B’wana Beast.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1967</div>
Barry Allen is killed in action, and Wally West becomes the new Flash.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1967</div>
After circus aerialist <b>“Boston” Brand</b> is randomly murdered, he begins a posthumous crime-fighting crusade as <b>Deadman.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1968</div>
TV reporter <b>Jack Ryder</b> begins his nocturnal adventures as the <b>Creeper.</b><br />
<br />
The android crimefighter called the <b>Red Tornado</b> makes his debut.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1968</div>
The Doom Patrol are killed while on a mission to a remote island, although Beast Boy is not among them.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1969</div>
After Wonder Woman temporarily loses her powers, Steve Trevor is killed.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1969</div>
Dinah Lance becomes the new Black Canary.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1969</div>
Dick Grayson retires and Tim Drake succeeds him as the new Batman, joined by Stephanie Brown as the fourth Robin.<br />
<br />
Roy Harper retires and Connor Hawke becomes the new, goateed Green Arrow.<br />
<br />
Larry Lance is killed.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1969</div>
The new Black Canary joins the JLA.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1970</div>
Ted Grant retires from boxing as the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1970</div>
Green Lantern and Green Arrow take to the road in search of America.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1970</div>
Batman meets the terrifying creature called the <b>Man-Bat.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1971</div>
The second Speedy becomes a heroin addict.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1971</div>
Batman first matches wits with the devilish <b>Ra’s Al Ghul.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1971</div>
Murdered scientist <b>Alec Holland</b> seemingly rises from the dead as the <b>Swamp Thing.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1972</div>
Jenny-Lynn Hayden becomes the super-heroine <b>Jade</b> and her twin brother Todd Rice becomes the super-hero <b>Obsidian.</b> They are reunited via an empathic connection after their powers begin to manifest themselves.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1973</div>
Jessie Chambers becomes the superfast heroine <b>Jessie Quick.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1973</div>
A mysterious crimefighter calling herself the <b>Black Orchid</b> makes her debut.<br />
<br />
<b>Ray Terrill</b> is born.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1976</div>
Another refugee from Krypton, <b>Kara Zor-L,</b> arrives on Earth and becomes the super-heroine <b>Power Girl.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1976</div>
Barbara Gordon is crippled by the Joker, forcing her to give up being Batgirl.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1976</div>
Tim Drake’s back is broken by <b>Bane</b> and he must retire as Batman.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1977</div>
High school principal Jefferson Pierce becomes the super-hero <b>Black Lightning.</b><br />
<br />
The second Speedy, now clean and sober, becomes <b>Arsenal.</b><br />
<br />
Alan Scott loses his job when the Gotham Broadcasting Company goes bankrupt.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1978</div>
Superman kills off his Clark Kent identity, rather than explain why he has not aged in 40 years.<br />
<br />
Jay Garrick gives Alan Scott a job at his company, Keystone Labs. Soon after, Jay reveals to the world that he was the original Flash in an interview in <i>We</i> magazine.<br />
<br />
High school student <b>Ronnie Raymond</b> and physicist <b>Martin Stein</b> are fused into a single being known as <b>Firestorm,</b> the Nuclear Man.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1978</div>
Bruce Wayne briefly returns as Batman and kills the Joker.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1979</div>
<b>Guy Gardner</b> first becomes a member of the Green Lantern Corps.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1979</div>
Katherine Kane is murdered.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1979</div>
Terry Sloane, the former Mr. Terrific, is murdered.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1980</div>
Recovered from his injuries, Tim Drake returns as Batman.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1980</div>
The new Teen Titans form. Members include <b>Cyborg, Raven,</b> and <b>Starfire.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1981</div>
Teenagers <b>Chris King</b> and <b>Vicki Grant</b> discover Hero Dials that transform them temporarily into a wide variety of super-heroes and super-heroines.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1981</div>
Wonder Woman reveals her true identity to the world.<br />
<br />
Lee Travis dies.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1982</div>
Connor Hawke retires and settles down with Dinah Lance to start a family.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1984</div>
<b>John Stewart</b> takes over as the new Green Lantern.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1985</div>
The Spectre leaves Earth once again.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1986</div>
Michael Jon Carter arrives from the future and becomes the super-hero <b>Booster Gold.</b><br />
<br />
Lois Lane dies of lung cancer.<br />
<br />
Selena Kyle dies of a sexually-transmitted disease.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1986</div>
Having slowly gone insane, Hal Jordan dies while trying to destroy the universe.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1987</div>
Kent and Inza Nelson both die.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1987</div>
Superman first battles Siobhan McDougal, a.k.a. the <b>Silver Banshee</b>.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1988</div>
Sylvester Pemberton dies.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Spring 1989</div>
Bruce Wayne dies. Tim Drake retires as Batman.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1989</div>
Mary Elizabeth Kane becomes the superheroine <b>Flamebird</b>.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1990</div>
Dinah Drake Lance dies of cancer.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1990</div>
Jessie Chambers retires from her career as Jessie Quick.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1992</div>
Ray Terrill becomes the second superhero known as the <b>Ray</b>.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1994</div>
<b>Kyle Rayner</b> becomes the new Green Lantern.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1994</div>
<b>Bart Allen</b> becomes the super-hero <b>Impulse.</b><br />
<br />
Johnny Thunder contracts Alzheimer’s disease.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Fall 1994</div>
Rex Tyler dies.<br />
<br />
Charles McNider dies.<br />
<br />
Al Pratt dies.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Early 1996</div>
<b>Cassie Sandsmark</b> becomes the new <b>Wonder Girl.</b><br />
<br />
Johnny Chambers dies.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1997</div>
<b>Cissie King-Jones</b> becomes the super-heroine <b>Arrowette.</b><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1998</div>
The super-hero team <b>Young Justice</b> is formed.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Summer 1999</div>
<b>Courtney Whitmore</b> becomes the new <b>Star-Spangled Kid.</b><br />
<br />
Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont die within weeks of each other.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 1999</div>
Hal Jordan rises from the dead as the Spectre.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
Late 2000</div>
Ted Knight dies.<br />
<br />
<br />
While a new generation of super-heroes moves into the 21st century, it is interesting to note that Superman and Wonder Woman are functionally immortal and are still going strong at the end of this chronology.<br />
<br />
<br />
Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-3959849058415654982008-09-01T00:58:00.000-05:002017-07-18T15:07:52.999-05:00The Crossover That Wasn't<strong>Intercompany crossovers</strong> have long fascinated comic book fans and pros alike. Before the first official Marvel/DC crossover, 1976’s <em>Superman Versus the Amazing Spider-Man,</em> various stories appeared that skirted around the legal issues involved to explore what might happen if the two publishers’ characters met. Perhaps the best example of this is the invention of the Squadron Supreme, transparent analogs of DC’s Justice League of America, who made their debut in Marvel’s <em>Avengers</em> #85 (March 1971) by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. The creative team reworked villainous versions of DC’s heroes, the Squadron Sinister, which they had created for a story less than a year and a half earlier, and added new characters to create an eight-member super-team from a parallel world. I thought it would be interesting to take another look at that two-part adventure and see how it would have played out if the Avengers were actually transported into the DC universe to meet the genuine articles rather than the pale imitations.<br /><br /><br /><em>Here, then, is the “first meeting” between the Avengers and the Justice League, in “The World is Not for Burning!”</em><br /><br /><br /><strong>F</strong>ollowing an adventure in the extradimensional realm of Polemachus, seven Avengers are ready to return home. Thor decides to use the space-warp capabilities of his enchanted hammer Mjolnir to return himself and his teammates to earth, calling upon the aid of his all-powerful father Odin to guide them on their journey. However, only three of them reach the correct world, while Goliath, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and the Vision are transported instead to a different destination. To their horror, the four heroes find themselves existing as intangible phantoms witnessing an earth in its death throes. All around them, people are dying from the unbearable heat as the sun swells to fill the sky. Quicksilver spots a discarded newspaper lying on the sidewalk, and its date reveals they have shifted some three weeks into the future. Out of pure desperation, the Scarlet Witch unleashes one of her most powerful mutant hex bolts, enveloping her teammates in its unpredictable energies. With a sudden jolt, they find themselves solid again as passerby are startled by their sudden materialization. Goliath finds the nearest newsstand to discover that it is once again mid-December. Things seem to be back to normal, though Goliath wonders why the clerk failed to recognize them.<br /><br />The Avengers quickly return to the Fifth Avenue mansion that serves as their headquarters, but their collective sense of misgiving grows as the house is subtly different both inside and out. Immediately after entering the structure, however, their progress is halted by automated defense systems they are unfamiliar with. A deep, commanding voice rings out from the top of the stairs, and the four startled heroes look up to see a man in a dark-hued costume with a black-and-gold bat emblem on his chest. He introduces himself as Batman and calls them intruders. When the Avengers stand their ground, the Batman leaps over the banister and strikes the Vision squarely in the chest. Having increased his own mass exponentially, the Vision is unfazed by the blow, and realizing he is outnumbered, Batman slips through a hidden passageway in the wall. The Avengers pursue him into the depths of the mansion, only to discover an entire team of superheroes meeting in a high-tech conference room. They stop short as they come face-to-face with Hawkman, the Atom, Green Arrow, and the Black Canary.<br /><br />Goliath grabs Batman before he can send a message warning the rest of his team that their security has been compromised. The inevitable argument is interrupted by a video message from a masked man identifying himself as Green Lantern, calling his teammates in the Justice League of America at their temporary headquarters in Gotham City. The Avengers finally realize they are stranded on a parallel world. Green Lantern, in Coast City with Superman and the Flash, reports that the rocket Brain-Child One is ready to blast off for its close-proximity survey of the sun. The Avengers quickly deduce that the dying world they foresaw was not their own, but this earth, and that the solar rocket must somehow be the cause. However, their intention to stop the launch is misread by the Justice League, and a battle breaks out, which rages for several minutes. Within the building, Quicksilver knocks out Green Arrow while the Scarlet Witch overcomes the Black Canary. On the street outside, the Vision and Goliath manage to defeat the Atom, Hawkman, and Batman. Taking charge, the Vision orders Goliath to bring the unconscious Batman along with them as they commandeer a sleek skycraft and head for California to stop the launch. As the craft zooms through the sky, Batman regains consciousness, but the caped crusader assures the Avengers that he believes they are sincere, despite their outlandish story. He agrees to help them save the world.<br /><br />Soon arriving at the launch site, the Avengers rush to confront Superman, Green Lantern, and the Flash, but the members of the Justice League naturally assume they are under attack and initiate an immediate launch. However, the Scarlet Witch causes a malfunction in the rocket with her hex power, and the blast-off is aborted. Batman appears then, giving his teammates the code-word “Dark Tower” to establish his bona-fides, and then tells them he is convinced that the rocket poses a threat to all life on earth, and the launch must be delayed while they check it out. The Justice League members are puzzled because there should be nothing in the rocket capable of causing the sun to go supernova, for Brain-Child designed it merely for scientific research. When the Avengers ask who “Brain-Child” is, Green Lantern fills them in: a ten-year-old mutant super-genius named Arnold Sutton who designs sophisticated technology for the American military from his remote stronghold on an island in the Pacific Ocean. Sutton is a recluse, Green Lantern reports, due to his freakish appearance resulting from a distended cranium. The Vision suspects Sutton may be dangerously embittered and planning to unleash his juvenile wrath against the world. The Avengers and the Justice League agree to team up to investigate.<br /><br />The eight superheroes travel to Sutton’s island stronghold and are met with robotic defense mechanisms. Through an intercom, Brain-Child freely admits that he designed the rocket from a special alloy that would have triggered a chain reaction in the sun, causing it to go nova and destroy the earth. Before the heroes can react, Brain-Child fires on them with powerful force blasts, causing them to retreat. The Vision suggests they split into teams of two to try breaking into the fortress at four different points. Agreeing with the plan, Green Lantern disables their enemy’s “spy-eye” device using the emerald energies from his power ring.<br /><br />Thus, Quicksilver and the Flash approach the complex known as the Dark Tower (so called in reference to the works of English poet Robert Browning) at super-speed. However, they are met by a tremendous shock wave that knocks them off their feet. The resulting rubble then flies up and attacks them, animated by some unseen force. In response the two speedsters create a vortex that sucks up all the loose rocks. Unfortunately, no sooner have they dealt with that problem than they are attacked by the citadel’s very walls. Meanwhile, the Scarlet Witch and Batman succeed in opening an access hatch into a service corridor, only to find their way blocked by a large muscle-bound android. Batman attacks, but the unspeaking brute easily overpowers him. It then turns its hypnotic gaze upon the Scarlet Witch, causing her to lose all memory of who she is and what she’s doing there. The Vision and Green Lantern are also stymied upon entering the building when they encounter a giant amoeboid creature, which not only multiplies itself, but also adapts itself to negate their powers.<br /><br />Only Goliath and Superman succeed in reaching the innermost chamber and confronting Brain-Child directly, but the super-powered “freak” turns his formidable mental energies against them, decking Goliath with a heavy piece of machinery and knocking out Superman with a massive discharge of electricity. Goliath recovers quickly, though, and uses some nearby wreckage to fashion a crude crossbow, using Superman’s unconscious form as the bolt. The impact sends Brain-Child crashing from his throne, and overtaxed by his exertions, the young villain passes out. Instantly, the fortress and all it contains dematerializes into nothingness, leaving the perplexed superheroes standing on a barren island. A groggy Arnold Sutton cries out for his mommy and daddy, as the dissipation of his mental energies has induced a form of amnesia, with an accompanying reversion of his skull to normal proportions. The menace of Brain-Child is no more. Superman and Batman assure the boy that he will be well taken care of.<br /><br />Just as the superheroes begin to celebrate their victory, however, the Vision, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Goliath do a fast fade as they are pulled back to their home universe by the tireless efforts of their teammates. Thor, Iron Man, and the Black Panther greet them upon their rematerialization in Avengers Mansion. While the others head upstairs for coffee, the Vision remains behind to brood. Quicksilver asks him why, and the Vision muses whether they are truly home, or merely on another of the seemingly infinite parallel earths that exist in the multiverse. They may never know for sure.<br /><br /><br /><span></span><strong>Notes:</strong><br /><br /><span></span><span style="font-size:85%;">It seems likely that Odin was working behind the scenes in this story, given that Thor invokes his unfathomably powerful father on the very first page. Doubtless Odin dispatched the four Avengers to the other earth (whether it’s the Squadron Supreme’s world or the DC Comics version of earth), giving them first their ghostly vision of the planet’s impending doom. Then it was Odin’s hand, rather than the Scarlet Witch’s, that effected the time-shift, allowing the heroes to prevent that world’s destruction. He let Thor return to the Marvel earth, knowing the enchanted might of Mjolnir would be needed to bring the taskforce home when their mission was completed. Also, he almost certainly prevented the lost Avengers from being rescued too soon, which accounts for their dematerialization mere moments after the battle is won. This is more palatable to me than a string of wild coincidences.<br /><br />At this time, the Justice League had its headquarters on an orbiting satellite, which would make it almost impossible for the Avengers to stumble into one of their meetings. Thus, I assume that the satellite was temporarily disabled, perhaps due to a damaging battle with a gang of super-villains, and the team was meeting at an urban installation owned by Bruce Wayne that bore an uncanny resemblance to Avengers Mansion.<br /><br />At the conclusion of the original story, Doctor Spectrum uses his power prism to reverse Arnold Sutton’s “giant head” mutation. However, this would be beyond the capabilities of Green Lantern’s power ring, so I assume that the transformation occurred naturally as a result of Brain-Child burning out his mental energies battling eight superheroes simultaneously. This minor change still goes along with Roy Thomas’ intent of having a clean, happy ending in the tradition of Julius Schwartz-era DC comics, which he then counterpoints with the ambiguous uncertainties of the Marvel-style ending which follows.<br /><br />Naturally, in this story produced exclusively by Marvel personnel, the DC characters wouldn’t make a very good showing of it. Superman, especially, would be embarrassed. If it had been meant to be an intercompany crossover, it’s very doubtful the editors at DC would have approved the story as Roy Thomas wrote it, since it kind of makes their heroes look second-rate.<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><em><a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2009/11/it-happened-in-rutland.html">More Crossover Goodness!</a></em><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:+0;"></span>Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-76367212839859571722007-03-07T21:25:00.000-06:002017-07-18T19:30:00.835-05:00Dr. Zayre - 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglTmWcCuNAfSMdleCJIQ9cDbEd6iyQS5aZ_QjPUhjjBEuLSpMWXtqrIFbFohj7pcgILzWGcbuoYnaVgwIAPetm3wso9-A3QO-yNQ2WHfXsuG7Ve5sPC35AcVc5QLJkvpkhz7Aw/s1600/drzayre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="175" data-original-width="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglTmWcCuNAfSMdleCJIQ9cDbEd6iyQS5aZ_QjPUhjjBEuLSpMWXtqrIFbFohj7pcgILzWGcbuoYnaVgwIAPetm3wso9-A3QO-yNQ2WHfXsuG7Ve5sPC35AcVc5QLJkvpkhz7Aw/s1600/drzayre.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Greetings, my friends. Once again, I, <b>Dr. Zayre,</b> have occasion to say a few words to dispel a most troublesome heresy that has been reported in recent days. I was alerted to this outrage by my illustrious cousin, our Minister of Science and Chief Defender of the Faith, and have taken it upon myself to speak out publicly against it. It would seem that certain Chimpanzee scientists are claiming to have observed humans in the wild fashioning primitive weapons with which to hunt small animals. Let me assure you, this is utter nonsense and ridiculous on the face of it. Man simply does not possess the intellect for such a complex task.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Let us examine the claims of these so-called scientists more closely. Upon a recent expedition to the very edges of the Forbidden Zone, they say they observed adolescent female humans breaking sticks off trees, sharpening one end with their teeth, and then jabbing these makeshift spears into tree hollows in search of small game. Should the stick come out bloodied, the human would attack with more vigor until its prey was extracted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">A fascinating story, and if we could believe it, a frightening one at that. And yet these scientists have provided no definitive proof to support such an extraordinary tale. While they have displayed a few “sharpened” sticks, they have provided not so much as a single photograph of a human engaged in this behavior. Are we merely to take their word for it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Furthermore, the chief researcher involved, and the main proponent of these claims, is an outspoken advocate of the heresy known as evolution, an insidious theory that contradicts the Sacred Scrolls. What sort of credence can we lend such an ape, who goes against over a thousand years of received wisdom? I say, if such an ape cannot accept the Truth as handed down to us from the Lawgiver, how can we accept the truth of her conclusions?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It is heresy, plain and simple. And a dangerous one, at that. Imagine the terror that would grip our fair city at the mere thought of a horde of human savages brandishing weapons, ready to stab us should we venture beyond a populated area. The violent nature of these animals is well-documented, but they have long been seen as little threat to our civilization, due to the frailty of their forms, the weakness of their muscles, and their lack of the divine spark, what scientists now call “sentience.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">We must call into question the motives of anyone who would seek to frighten us with claims that these harmless animals might one day rise up, creep silently into our homes, and stab us all in our sleep. What do they hope to gain with these scare tactics? Political advantage, no doubt. And a weakening of our moral fiber, which they hope to then exploit for their own gain. The false assertions of these Chimpanzee troublemakers should be silenced before they bear their poisonous fruit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">I urge the President of the National Academy to convene a tribunal to deal with this issue once and for all, so that decent, hardworking apes can rest easy at night.</span><br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9338864.post-1096540907890600262007-02-18T13:26:00.000-06:002017-07-18T19:29:21.268-05:00Dr. Zayre - 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoX98CrapJTtSFUYqcd24VegHsOj4d87Hl5NC8gD-0WlxOf1yuimUwhg6wB_1tujCw9H7W33AWcquxlP6IK3tPsytB7KaWjUo-UL-hHKbFkjXX2yWiF8Snajyltk2sNTijOvn/s1600/drzayre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="175" data-original-width="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoX98CrapJTtSFUYqcd24VegHsOj4d87Hl5NC8gD-0WlxOf1yuimUwhg6wB_1tujCw9H7W33AWcquxlP6IK3tPsytB7KaWjUo-UL-hHKbFkjXX2yWiF8Snajyltk2sNTijOvn/s1600/drzayre.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Greetings. I am <b>Dr. Zayre.</b> Perhaps you mistook me for my more famous cousin. Heh, heh. I understand. We are, after all, cut from the same cloth. I would like to settle a very foolish question that has been going around of late, for I feel it falls to those of us possessed of the faculty of wisdom to enlighten those beneath us. Some heretical elements have been questioning the wisdom of our great Lawgiver in his decision to entrust the military establishment to the Gorillas while directing the Chimpanzees into the halls of academia. They argue that it is self-evident that Chimpanzees are, and have always been, more aggressive and warlike than Gorillas, even in the most primitive days of pre-history. And Gorillas, they add, have long been known for their pacifistic natures. Thus, the Lawgiver’s decree seems paradoxical. But I say to you, this is precisely the point, my children.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The Lawgiver, in his infinite wisdom, ensured that ape society would never suffer the hardships of unnecessary war by entrusting our defense with those who would by their very natures avoid strife whenever possible. And when no other option remained, the tremendous strength and massive brawn of the Gorilla would surely carry the day. Thus, the lowly and savage Baboon hordes have been kept at bay and our cities remain safe.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">In like fashion, the innate aggression of the Chimpanzee has been channeled in a positive direction, to the benefit of society, by having it yoked to the millstone of scientific enquiry. The fierce debates that rage within the halls of academe, the scholars’ often hysterical screechings carrying for miles across the landscape, allow for the expression and release of this energy without resorting to barbarous displays of brute force or wanton chaos and destruction, as was too common among our savage ancestors. The Chimpanzee can thereby be a useful member of society despite his innate shortcomings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">I am happy to say, however, that there is no contention on the point of the Lawgiver’s having charged we the Orangutans with the administration of society, for our solitary and contemplative natures allow us to develop the wisdom necessary for such an awesome responsibility. One shudders to imaging the chaos that would ensue should the reins of government be handed over to a platoon of slow-witted militaristic Gorillas or a pack of hysterically argumentative Chimpanzees.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><i>All praise to the Lawgiver!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><a href="http://thewastebasket.blogspot.com/2007/03/dr-zayre-2.html"><i>Furthermore...</i></a></span>
<br />
<br />
<br />Tony Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03133143645643661225noreply@blogger.com0