RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books comic book characters you love, who never quite made it

There are so many characters I enjoy re-reading stories of, that are wonderfully fun characters, that only appeared in a few stories.

But stories that however sparse and commercially unsuccessful, I treasure.

One I was re-reading is a backup series in the early 80's series SUN-RUNNERS 2-4, a hardboiled Phillip Marlowe-type private detective called "Mike Mohogany", who is a former ventriloquist dummy come to life. Written by Roger McKenzie and illustrated by Paul Smith.





Another I really enjoyed was "Greenberg the Vampire", who appeared in a Dec 1981 issue of BIZARRE ADVENTURES magazine, issue 29, written by J.M. Dematteis, and illustrated by Steve Leialoha. A laid back and friendly vampire living in contemporary New York City. (A magazine issue possibly harder to find, because it also has a beautifully illustrated version of Stephen King's "The Lawnmower Man", by Walt Simonson.)

Greenberg the Vampire was brought back in a 1986 Marvel Graphic Novel (# 20, Dematteis and Mark Badger) that was a disappointment and, my taste, not nearly as well done as the first story.



Those are two of mine. Feel free to list your own favorites.

Another I love, probably the first of this type I sought out, is Steve Ditko's the Creeper.

Around 1975 I got into the Creeper, after first seeing him in DETECTIVE 443 (a reprint of his first appearance in SHOWCASE 73, from 1968)



After his first appearance in SHOWCASE 73, he starred in BEWARE THE CREEPER 1-6 (by O'Neil/Ditko, 1968-1969).
And had two guest appearances, in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 70 (by O'Neil, Dillin/Greene, 1969) and BRAVE & THE BOLD 80 (by Bob Haney/Neal Adams/Dick Giordano, 1968)
Then in DETECTIVE 418 (O'Neil/Novick/Giordano, 1971)
Then in DETECTIVE 447 and 448 (by Wein/Chua/Giordano, 1975)
And THE JOKER 3 (O'Neil/Chua/Garcia-Lopez, 1975)
And by Ditko again in FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL 7 (1975)

After that there was a Creeper backup series in WORLD'S FINEST during the DC implosion era that I felt was very different from the previous appearances.

The best appearance since then was in JUSTICE LEAGUE 6 and 7, by Giffen-Dematteis and Maguire (1987).

Plus a few other short-lived series since then that also took the character in a way different direction.

I liked 'Mazing Man by Bob Rozakis and Stephen DeStefano. It was a fun series that had a short run with some specials. They also did a series called Hero Hotline that I also liked.

Another series that didn't quite make it was Great Lakes Avengers. They had some appearences here and there but where I really liked them was in their very own mini-series. It got some buzz at the time because each issue they killed a member off. Now that's something that doesn't appeal to me generally but how they do it provides for some great reading and I as a reader really ended up caring for this off beat team.

I loved Hero Hotline! They were in Infinite Crisis. They had assisted in evacuating some city.

MAZING MAN was a fun upbeat series. DeStefano was one of a large crop of talented humor artists of the early/mid 1980s.

I also liked Phil Foglio's adaptations of MYTH ADVENTURES, while they lasted.
Foglio had a one-shot called D'ARC TANGENT (1982) that was intended as an ongoing series but only lasted for one very good issue. About 2 aliens who have a strong psychic bond, and one survives their traumatic separation and crash-lands on earth in medeival times. A good and intelligent science-fiction story.



I actually never heard of the Great Lakes Avengers!

I looked up the 1989 miniseries.
By DeStefano, the same guy who did MAZING MAN!

Another I really loved is Dominic Fortune, by Howard Chaykin.

I first saw him in MARVEL PREVIEW 20 (1979, the first BIZARRE ADVENTURES issue), that collected the first two Dominic Fortune stories, reprinted from two previous Marvel magazines.



Then the series continued in new full color stories in HULK magazine 21-25 (1980), scripted by Dennis O'Neil, with Chaykin doing gorgeous full-color painted art. Fun period stories set in the 1930s, with stories doing tribute to Golden Age comics artists, an evil Shirley Temple, a buffoonish version of the Shadow, Nazis, zombies, and other imagery evocative of the 1930's, from the same era as O'Neil/Kaluta's THE SHADOW, but with a fun blend of tongue in cheek humor. I felt Chaykin's later work on AMERICAN FLAGG while good was not as fun as this brief run.

It is also in everything but name a continuation of Chaykin's character THE SCORPION (1975) for Seaboard Atlas. Although Chayin's art and storytelling ability in the later Dominic Fortune series is visibly improved. But if you read the BIZARRE ADVENTURES 20 issue and HULK stories and crave more, you can check these out.

Dominic Fortune is in Chaykins "Avengers 59" that just came out.

Thanks, I'll have to check that out, G-man.



Chaykin has done about a dozen variations of Dominic Fortune over the last 35 years, but I think he got it right the first time.
I think that particular run in HULK magazine were enhanced by the tight scripting and humor that Dennis O'Neil added to the mix. And the painted art that Chaykin did so well in that era.

This? I tried it and didn't care for it. I do like Chaykin's art.

I didn't see that. I was referring to this:

The ones I love and am familiar with are MARVEL PREVIEW # 20 (1980) and backups in HULK magazine 21-25.



I'm not familiar with the updated versions, that may or may not follow in that style. The newer stuff (if it's like Chaykin's other recent work) is pen-and-ink, whereas the HULK stories are painted art.

Thanks for your recommendations, Grimm. And you too, G-man.
I'll check them out.

Besides their mini a couple of years they had some appearences mostly in the West Coast Avengers title when John Byrne was on it. I think you would probably like the mini. (it was collected in tpb) It was one of those fun series that had alot of heart. For example, Big Bertha is actually a pretty model who's career is stalled because the midwest is a bad location. She stays anyways because of her friends.

They also had a few one-shots here and there. For a while they kept reinventing themselves based off of who was the "hot" team at the time. (GLX,New Great Lakes Avengers,Great Lakes Initiative,etc.) Fun stuff.If I remember right,Byrne had planned on doing a GLA mini-series when he was doing Avengers West Coast but after he left the book,it fell by the wayside.

Thanks for the suggestion, M E M, and Allan1 as well.

This sounds like exactly the kind of stuff I like.

Another character I like is Wonder Man, who has also gotten a one-shot here and there, but mostly appeared in AVENGERS, from about 150-220 in the 1975-1983 era.




I especially liked an opening segment of him in AVENGERS 181 (by Dave Michelinie, John Byrne and Gene Day) where Wonder Man and the Beast went to an Erroll Flynn movie together, and Beast got a bit philosphical explaining things to the more naive Wonder Man.

I also remember a scene in AVENGERS ANNUAL 10 (by Claremont and Golden) where someone comes to Avengers mansion and asks Wonder Man how things are going.
WONDER MAN: "well, I'm between engagements."
OTHER GUY: "Oh, unemployed, huh?"
WONDER MAN: "Exactly."

I like how Wonder Man is basically brought back from the dead, a living dead guy who can't be injured, and stories take him back and forth from being immensely powerful and superhuman, and at other times naive and vulnerable, despite his powers. He works very well as a supporting character. Maybe a one-shot here and there, but not quite rising to the level of having his own series.

I always thought WM worked best in those earlier Avenger stories too. Sort of a reluctant hero who had so much power but also alot of fear and insecurity. Even his costume he had for a long time (the red safari jacket) was a recognition of being a reluctant superhero. Wonder Man became boring after he worked through all his insecurities IMHO.

I know you're ignoring me, but I need to chime in and say how much I agree here. I'm a Simon William expert. He's my favorite all-time Marvel character. A Superman without all the corporate branding or godlike status. He was the 1930's Superman in modern America. His relationship/chemistry with the Beast is a timeless team-up, and it was his "normal" clothes (jacket, sunglasses, etc.) that first got me to notice him. Everyone else was wearing spandex. This guy was wearing clothes I could buy. Awesome. When he changed his look after he moved to the West Coast, I didn't enjoy it as much. The strength of using those sunglasses gave him an edge over just walking around with glowing red eyes.

Also, I always loved his use of hip/belt-rockets built by Tony Stark as his only mean of flight. When Busiek/Perez changed him into a purple-pure-energy being, I gave it a thumbs down. Glad he's back to the normal red-and-black sunglasses look.

BTW, he actually DID have his own series for awhile in the late-80's...



...but they never knew quite where to take him. There was a shitty storyline about how he was only as strong as his confidence allowed him to be. Lame.

I love Wonder Man so much, I saved up the money as a teen and bought (still own) his first appearance:



I'll just take the simple, humble stuntman Simon Williams any and every day of the week.

Here he is from 1986, in the jacket I liked so much too, courtesy of Bill Sienkiewicz (interior story by Dave Michelinie and Kerry Gammill)

I was lucky enough to start reading AVENGERS right when they brought him back as a regular character in the series. And this one-shot was about the time I largely lost interest in Marvel. I can't fairly assess whether Wonder Man got boring after that, since I wasn't reading at that point.

I was surprised to see, when I keyworded WONDER MAN to get this cover, that he had a 29-issue series starting in 1991!

You just make yourself look crazier when you pretend you're not reading my posts, David. We all know you are. I know you are. You know you are. Just roll with it and talk like a normal person. Otherwise, the disconnect is just....silly...

Your desperation is showing.

Your lack of comprehension is showing.

That's Never Stopped Me Before.

Don't stop dreaming about tomorrow, Frank...

It'll soon be here!

Heh

That's kind of like Jon is now in the Stormwatch series.

The DC Comics adaptation of Fritz Leiber's "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser".

Yeah, I have that four-issue series.
I picked it up after-the-fact in 2002 when I was on a completist Mignola buying spree (along with his complete HELLBOY run, DRACULA movie adaptation, first writer/artist story in LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, a single issue of SUPERMAN, and other stuff)

I actually was a little disappointed with this one, because I felt Williamson's inks blunted the quality of Mignola's art, that they were not a great collaborative team.

Two other appearances I like of Fafhrd and Grey Mouser were in CONAN 6 by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith (an amusing two page meeting with Conan).

And a brief 5-issue run of SWORD OF SORCERY (1973) by Dennis O'Neil, Howard Chaykin, "Crusty Bunkers" (i.e., Neal Adams and artists of his Continuity studio), Walt Simonson and a few others.

Heh. I didn't know about the 1990-91 mini. It was the "Sword of Sorcery" title I was thinking of. I have a few stories in the Swedish DC anthology "Gigant" from the 1970's. (Yay for cheap back issues!)

Verily and Amen.



Some of my favorite stuff I got for cover price or in the 50-cent bin, and I can't believe they're tossing away gold like this so cheap.
God bless e-bay and Amazon for filling out my collection with hard-to-find comics and trades at dirt-cheap prices!

E-man started out in Charlton Comics and had 10 issues. He still pops up here and there but those were the best IMHO. It would be nice seeing these collected in hardcover. E-man had a longer run with First Comics but the satire was usually to heavy handed and mean spirited for my taste.

I remember the E-MAN Charleton issues (1974-1975) and the later 1983 series from First Comics. I'm not a fan of Joe Staton's art for DC, but I think his work on the Charleton E-MAN series was among his best work.


I'm especially fond of John Byrne's Rog 2000 backup series (his first pro work?), in E-MAN issues 6,7, 9 and 10, later collected with some other earlier CPL fanzine material in Pacific Comics' 1982 one-shot ROG 2000 magazine size b&w reprint. With a really nice wraparound cover by Byrne.
Here's Byrne's beautiful 1982 cover for the Pacific reprint collection:


And for anyone unfamiliar with Rog 2000, here's a site that affectionately displays just about every story and pin-up of Rog 2000 in chronological order:

http://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2010/08/complete-rog-2000.html

Yeah, those Rog 2000 swing dance issues were great.

Oh it's spelled Charlton! HUH

Hmm. My old favourite which never went anywhere was actually a team: Infinity Inc.



I was an avid reader of All Star Squadron from about the time I was 15 or 16 and loved the appearance of a mysterious group from the future - the 1980s - in WW2.

I was a big fan of Brainwave Junior ( stupid name but an innovative idea for 1984 - the son of the JSA's biggest foe joins their children's group), Obsidian and Jade, Silver Scarab, and the girl Wildcat, Yolanda Montez. I regretted Roy Thomas' decision not to include a child of the Silver Age Flash and the Silver Age Superman and Lois Lane in the group. Northwind and Nuklon didn't do much for me: both seemed half-baked concepts.

Too many of the characters suffered at the hands of Geoff Johns in JSA, the Crisis in 1987, the writers of that big Eclipso event years ago, and even by Neil Gaiman - his use of Fury (daughter of the Silver Age Wonder Woman) in The Sandman was a very major plot line but left the emotionally scarred and fragile character almost beyond reasonable use going forward.

The newer versions of Infinity Inc have almost no resemblance to the original version.

I too enjoyed All-STAR SQUADRON (especially ANNUAL 1, that tied together the origins of the Golden Guardian, The Atom, and Wildcat with some wild new twists)


But the series I enjoyed even more was YOUNG ALL-STARS, that (with golden age Superman and Wonder Woman ret-conned away in CRISIS) created more pulp-oriented versions of Superman and Wonder Woman in new characters, in an alternate through-a-mirror-darkly sort of way. I also felt the art was very consistent with the Golden Age, much of it with beautiful art by then-newcomer Michael Bair.

Between INFINITY INC and YOUNG ALL-STARS (the two replacement books for ALL-STAR SQUADRON), I slightly preferred YOUNG ALL-STARS for its greater focus on the Golden Age continuity, whereas I saw INFINITY INC as more of an attempt to modernize the Golden Age heroes and bring them into the 80's, with more trendy outfits and so forth.

I was surprised when I got the INFINITY back issues to see this was Todd McFarlane's first work! I first discovered McFarlane later, when he was doing INCREDIBLE HULK (issues 330-344) with Peter David, which I still consider his best work.

NOBODY FUCKS WITH IRON MUNROE IN MY TOWN!!!

Wow. Just realized. Iron Munro. Simon Williams/Wonder Man. I think I've got a Golden Age Superman fetish...

Since my very first DC issue was the debut of Dick Grayson as Nightwing and the origin of Deathstroke the Terminator in the Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (Wolfman/Perez), I had no real knowledge or grasp how the Golden Age superheroes my grandfather collected fit into modern comic books, if at all. Then, the second DC book I picked up was Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 = Mind. Blown. Then, I saw a striking cover of a series that was ending: All-Star Squadron. It was the last issue, where Mechanique had been holding back the temporal changes from The Crisis (for some reason that I think was lost when Roy Thomas was forced to end the series due to the continuity changes). So, a group picture the All-Stars took in the middle of the book changed by the end of the book, to show that Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman no longer existed in their era. And THAT was the last issue. Next was something called Young All-Stars. Needless to say, I immediately sought out back issues of All-Star Squadron (including the much-elusive-for-me-during-childhood special one-shot "Last Days of the Justice Society of America" where they go to Asgard) and continued to collect Young All-Stars for some time to come. I hope they killed Neptune Perkins at some point. What a gaywad. I was okay with the Native American/Canadian flying owl guy. And besides the trauma of losing TNT to something as random and simple as a car exploding (leaving "Dynamite" to join the group) I enjoyed most of the run. But, it was obvious that after All-Stars was pulled, Roy had to kind of force it. He never really got his stride back, though...