1.
Black Hood
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The Black Hood is a fictional character created by MLJ Comics during the period known as the Golden Age of Comic Books. The Black Hood first appeared in Top-Notch Comics #9, October 1940 and he has been in four self-titled series as well as in his own radio show, Black Hood. In recent decades, the Black Hood has been licensed and sporadically published by DC Comics, however, the character reappeared under the new Dark Circle Comics line in 2015. The Black Hood first appeared in MLJs Top-Notch Comics #9 and he was created by Harry Shorten. The Black Hood became a character and was given his own title, Black Hood Comics. It lasted for 11 issues before being retitled Laugh Comics and becoming an all-humor title, a second series debuted as part of the original Red Circle Comics imprint. It lasted for three issues from June to October 1983 and this Black Hood was known as Thomas Kip Burland, the nephew of the original Black Hood. In 1991, a series was released under the Impact Comics imprint when DC Comics received the rights to the Red Circle superheroes. It lasted for 13 issues which included 12 regular issues and one annual, a fourth series was released under the Archie Comics imprint Dark Circle Comics in February 2015. In this version the man under the hood is Officer Gregory Hettinger who takes up the mantle of the Black Hood after accidentally killing the Thomas Kip Burland version. The series is a darker and serious take on the character and has a modern, violent spin as it examines cops. The series is written by Duane Swierczynski with issues one through five, haward Chaykin quest-illustrated issue 6 and Robert Hack will guest-illustrate issue 8. Greg Scott will start as the new artist in February 2016 beginning with issue 9. In his first incarnation, the Black Hood was a man of mystery who had been trained by a hermit to battle evil. His real name was Matthew Kipling Kip Burland, an ex-cop who had framed for grand larceny. Burland eventually cleared his name, but continued to wear the costume, Matthew Burlands love interest was newspaper reporter named Barbara Sutton. The Kip Burland Black Hood was unmasked in court by a character named Needlenoodle, thereafter, Burland became a private detective. The Black Hood is not the man of mystery whose secret identity is a police officer
2.
Archie Comics
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Archie Comic Publications, Inc. is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York. The company is known for its many titles featuring fictional teenagers including Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Sabrina Spellman, and Josie, the company began in 1939 as MLJ Comics, which primarily published superhero comics. The initial Archie characters were created in 1941 by publisher John L. Goldwater and artist Bob Montana and they first appeared in Pep Comics #22. With the creation of Archie, publisher John Goldwater hoped to appeal to fans of the Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney, Archie Comics was also the title of the companys longest-running publication, the first issue appearing with a cover date of Winter 1942. Starting with issue #114, the title was shortened to simply Archie, the flagship series was relaunched from issue #1 in July 2015 with a new look and design suited for a new generation of readers. Archie Comics characters and concepts have also appeared in films, television programs, cartoons. Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater formed MLJ Magazines, the company name was derived from the initials of the partners first names. Coyne served as MLJs bookkeeper and chief financial officer, Coyne and Silberkleit had been partners in Columbia Publications, a pulp company that published its last pulp in the late 1950s. Silberkleit had a degree from St. Johns University, was a licensed and registered pharmacist. His efforts were focused on the business, printing, separating, distribution, Goldwater was one of the founders of the Comics Magazine Association of America, and he served as its president for 25 years. Goldwater was also a commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League. MLJs first comic book, published in November 1939, was Blue Ribbon Comics, with the first half of the book in full color, top Notch Comics was launched in December 1939. In January 1940, Pep Comics debuted with the Shield, the first USA patriotic comic book hero, created by writer and managing editor Harry Shorten, the Shield was a forerunner of Joe Simons and Jack Kirbys Captain America, being published 14 months earlier. Until March 1944, the feature of Pep was the Shield. The Andy Hardy movies were an inspiration for Goldwater to have a book about a relatable normal person. Teenaged Archibald Chick Andrews debuted with Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones in Pep Comics #22, in a story by writer Vic Bloom, Archie soon became MLJ Magazines headliner, which led to the company changing its name to Archie Comic Publications. Siberkleit and Coyne discontinued Columbia Publications in 1960, in the late 1950s, Archie Publishing launched its Archie Adventure Series line with a new version of the Shield and two new characters. Publisher Jim Warren received a letter on December 6,1961, accusing Help. of copyright infringement, Warren was unable to recall the magazine, but he agreed to settle out of court rather than risk an expensive lawsuit
3.
Hero
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The concept of the hero was first founded in classical literature. It is the main or revered character in heroic epic poetry celebrated through ancient legends of a people, often striving for military conquest and living by a continually flawed personal honor code. The definition of a hero has changed throughout time, and the Merriam Webster dictionary defines a hero as a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities. The word hero comes from the Greek ἥρως, hero, warrior, before the decipherment of Linear B the original form of the word was assumed to be *ἥρωϝ-, hērōw-, R. S. P. Beekes has proposed a Pre-Greek origin. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the Indo-European root is *ser meaning to protect, according to Eric Partridge in Origins, the Greek word Hērōs is akin to the Latin seruāre, meaning to safeguard. Partridge concludes, The basic sense of both Hera and hero would therefore be protector, the word hero is used in English to refer either explicitly to male heroes or as a gender neutral form. The use of the male form hero as a gender neutral substantive is a modern advent, see also Gender neutrality in English. A classical hero is considered to be a warrior who lives and dies in the pursuit of honor, each classical heros life focuses on fighting, which occurs in war or during an epic quest. Classical heroes are commonly semi-divine and extraordinarily gifted, like Achilles, or, alternatively, are like Beowulf, evolving into heroic characters through their perilous circumstances. While these heroes are incredibly resourceful and skilled, they are often foolhardy, court disaster, risk their followers lives for trivial matters, during classical times, people regarded heroes with the highest esteem and utmost importance, explaining their prominence within epic literature. Hector was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War, Hector acted as leader of the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, killing 31,000 Greek fighters, offers Hyginus. Hector was known not only for his courage but also for his noble, indeed, Homer places Hector as peace-loving, thoughtful as well as bold, a good son, husband and father, and without darker motives. However, his familial values conflict greatly with his aspirations in The Iliad. Hector is ultimately betrayed by the gods when Athena appears disguised as his ally Deiphobus and convinces him to take on Achilles, Achilles was a Greek Hero who was considered the most formidable military fighter in the entire Trojan War and the central character of The Iliad. He was the child of Thetis and Peleus, making him a demi-god and he wielded superhuman strength on the battlefield and was blessed with a close relationship to the Gods. Achilles famously refuses to fight after his dishonoring at the hands of Agamemnon, Achilles was known for uncontrollable rage that defined many of his bloodthirsty actions, such as defiling Hectors corpse by dragging it around the city of Troy. Achilles plays a role in The Iliad brought about by constant de-humanization throughout the epic. Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with the gods, thus Heracless name means the glory of Hera, even though he was tormented all his life by Hera, the Queen of the Gods
4.
Supervillain
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A supervillain is a variant of the villainous stock character archetype commonly found in American comic books, sometimes possessing superhuman abilities. A supervillain is the antithesis of a superhero, Supervillains are often used as foils to present a daunting challenge to a superhero. Other traits may include megalomania and possession of considerable resources to further their aims, many supervillains share some typical characteristics of real world dictators, gangsters, and terrorists, with aspirations of world domination or universal leadership. Some notable examples of female supervillains are Catwoman, Mystique, Harley Quinn, Talia al Ghul, Supervillains are sometimes members of supervillain groups, such as the Sinister Six, the Suicide Squad, the Brotherhood of Mutants, the Injustice League, and the Masters of Evil. The dictionary definition of supervillain at Wiktionary Media related to Supervillains at Wikimedia Commons
5.
Superhero fiction
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Superhero fiction is a genre mainly originating in and most common to American comic books, though it has expanded into other media through adaptations and original works. A superhero is most often the protagonist of superhero fiction, although some titles, such as Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, a superhero is a type of stock character possessing extraordinary or superhuman powers and dedicated to protecting the public. The word itself dates to at least 1917, a female superhero is sometimes called a superheroine. SUPER HEROES is a trademark co-owned by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, such characters were generally referred to as mystery men in the so-called Golden Age of Comic Books to distinguish them from characters with super-powers. Normally, superheroes use their powers to counter day-to-day crime while also combating threats against humanity by their criminal counterparts, long-running superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Iron Man have a rogues gallery of such enemies. One of these supervillains might be the superheros archenemy, Superheroes will sometimes combat other threats such as aliens, magical/fantasy entities, natural disasters, political ideologies such as Nazism or communism, and godlike or demonic creatures. A supervillain or supervillainess is a variant of the character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies. They are sometimes used as foils to superheroes and other heroes, whereas superheroes often wield fantastic powers, the supervillain possesses commensurate powers and abilities so that he can present a daunting challenge to the hero. Even without actual physical, mystical, superhuman or superalien powers, another common trait is possession of considerable resources to help further his aims. Many supervillains share some characteristics of real world dictators, mobsters. Superheroes and supervillains often mirror each other in their powers, abilities, in some cases, the only difference between the two is that the hero uses his extraordinary powers to help others, while the villain uses his powers for selfish, destructive or ruthless purposes. Both superheroes and supervillains often use alter egos while in action, while sometimes the characters real name is publicly known, alter egos are most often used to hide the characters secret identity from their enemies and the public. Fans have termed the practice of bringing back dead comic book death. Another common trait of superhero fiction is the killing off of a significant other by a supervillain to advance the plot. Comic book writer Gail Simone has coined the term Women in Refrigerators to refer to this practice, often, many works superhero fiction occur in the a shared fictional universe, sometimes establishing a fictional continuity of thousands of works spread over many decades. Changes to continuity are also common, ranging from changes to established continuity, commonly called retcons, to full reboots. It is also common for works of superhero fiction to contain established characters. Crossovers often occur between characters of different works of superhero fiction, in comic books, highly publicized events are published featuring crossovers between many characters
6.
Fiction
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Fiction is the classification for any story or similar work derived from imagination—in other words, not based strictly on history or fact. Fiction does not refer to a mode or genre, unless used in its narrowest sense to mean a literary narrative. Instead, the context of fiction is generally open to interpretation, characters and events within a fictional work may even be openly set in their own context entirely separate from the known universe, a fictional universe. Science fiction, for example, predicts or supposes technologies that are not realities at the time of the works creation, for example, Jules Vernes novel From the Earth to the Moon was published in 1865 and only in 1969 did astronaut Neil Armstrong first land on the moon. Historical fiction places imaginary characters into real historical events, in the early historical novel Waverley, Sir Walter Scotts fictional character Edward Waverley meets a figure from history, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and takes part in the Battle of Prestonpans. Some works of fiction are slightly or greatly re-imagined based on some originally true story, often, even when the author claims the fictional story is basically true, there may be artificial additions and subtractions from the true story to make it more interesting. One such example would be Tim OBriens The Things They Carried, creators of fantasy sometimes introduce entire imaginary creatures or beings such as dragons and fairies. In terms of the separation between fiction and non-fiction, the lines are now commonly understood as blurred, showing more overlap than mutual exclusion. Even fiction usually has elements of, or grounding in, truth, also, infinite fictional possibilities themselves signal the impossibility of fully knowing reality, provocatively demonstrating that there is no criterion to measure constructs of reality. The Internet has had a impact on the creation and distribution of fiction. Also, digital libraries such as Project Gutenberg make public domain texts more readily available, the combination of inexpensive home computers, the Internet and the creativity of its users has also led to new forms of fiction, such as interactive computer games or computer-generated comics. Countless forums for fan fiction can be online, where loyal followers of specific fictional realms create and distribute derivative stories. Types of literary fiction in prose, Short story, A work of at least 2,000 words, the boundary between a long short story and a novella is vague. Novella, A work of at least 17,500 words, joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness is an example of a novella. Novel, A work of 50,000 words or more, cartoonist Character Fiction writing Legend Mythology Non-fiction Pseudohistory Eco, Umberto 2009. On the ontology of fictional characters, A semiotic approach
7.
Phenomenon
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A phenomenon is any thing which manifests itself. Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as things that appear or experiences for a sentient being, the term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon. In contrast to a phenomenon, a noumenon can not be directly observed, Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in this part of his philosophy, in which phenomenon and noumenon serve as interrelated technical terms. In modern philosophical use, the phenomena has come to mean what is experienced is the basis of reality. He wrote that humans could infer only as much as their senses allowed, thus, the term phenomenon refers to any incident deserving of inquiry and investigation, especially events that are particularly unusual or of distinctive importance. According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, Modern philosophers have used phenomenon to designate what is apprehended before judgment is applied and this may not be possible if observation is theory laden. In scientific usage, a phenomenon is any event that is observable, however common it might be, even if it requires the use of instrumentation to observe, record, another example of scientific phenomena can be found in the experience of phantom limb sensations. This occurrence, the sensation of feeling in amputated limbs, is reported by over 70% of amputees, although the limb is no longer present, they report still experiencing sensations. This is an event that defies typical logic and has been a source of much curiosity within the medical and physiological fields. A mechanical phenomenon is a phenomenon associated with the equilibrium or motion of objects. Some examples are Newtons cradle, engines, and double pendulums, in gemology, a phenomenon is an unusual optical effect that is displayed by a gem. Play-of-color, labradorescence, iridescence, adularescence, chatoyancy, asterism, aventurescence, lustre, group phenomena concern the behavior of a particular group of individual entities, usually organisms and most especially people. The behavior of individuals often changes in a setting in various ways. Social phenomena apply especially to organisms and people in that states are implicit in the term. Attitudes and events particular to a group may have effects beyond the group, in popular usage, a phenomenon often refers to an extraordinary event. The term is most commonly used to refer to occurrences that at first defy explanation or baffle the observer
8.
Comic strip
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A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. With the development of the internet, they began to online as web comics. There were more than 200 different comic strips and daily cartoon panels in American newspapers alone each day for most of the 20th century, Strips are written and drawn by a comics artist or cartoonist. As the name implies, comic strips can be humorous, starting in the late 1920s, comic strips expanded from their mirthful origins to feature adventure stories, as seen in Popeye, Captain Easy, Buck Rogers, Tarzan, and The Adventures of Tintin. Soap-opera continuity strips such as Judge Parker and Mary Worth gained popularity in the 1940s, all are called, generically, comic strips, though cartoonist Will Eisner has suggested that sequential art would be a better genre-neutral name. In the UK and the rest of Europe, comic strips are also serialized in comic book magazines, storytelling using a sequence of pictures has existed through history. One medieval European example in textile form is the Bayeux Tapestry, printed examples emerged in 19th-century Germany and in 18th-century England, where some of the first satirical or humorous sequential narrative drawings were produced. William Hogarths 18th century English cartoons include both narrative sequences, such as A Rakes Progress, and single panels, in China, with its traditions of block printing and of the incorporation of text with image, experiments with what became lianhuanhua date back to 1884. The first newspaper comic strips appeared in North America in the late 19th century, the Yellow Kid is usually credited as one of the first newspaper strips. However, the art form combining words and pictures developed gradually, swiss author and caricature artist Rodolphe Töpffer is considered the father of the modern comic strips. In 1865, German painter, author, and caricaturist Wilhelm Busch created the strip Max and Moritz, Max and Moritz provided an inspiration for German immigrant Rudolph Dirks, who created the Katzenjammer Kids in 1897. Familiar comic-strip iconography such as stars for pain, sawing logs for snoring, speech balloons, hugely popular, Katzenjammer Kids occasioned one of the first comic-strip copyright ownership suits in the history of the medium. When Dirks left William Randolph Hearst for the promise of a better salary under Joseph Pulitzer, it was an unusual move, in a highly unusual court decision, Hearst retained the rights to the name Katzenjammer Kids, while creator Dirks retained the rights to the characters. Hearst promptly hired Harold Knerr to draw his own version of the strip, Dirks renamed his version Hans and Fritz. Thus, two versions distributed by rival syndicates graced the pages for decades. Dirks version, eventually distributed by United Feature Syndicate, ran until 1979, in the United States, the great popularity of comics sprang from the newspaper war between Pulitzer and Hearst. On January 31,1912, Hearst introduced the nations first full daily comic page in his New York Evening Journal, the history of this newspaper rivalry and the rapid appearance of comic strips in most major American newspapers is discussed by Ian Gordon. The longest running American comic strips are,1, barney Google and Snuffy Smith 5
9.
Merriam-Webster
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Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, is an American company that publishes reference books, especially known for its dictionaries. In 1831, George and Charles Merriam founded the company as G & C Merriam Co. in Springfield, in 1843, after Noah Webster died, the company bought the rights to An American Dictionary of the English Language from Websters estate. All Merriam-Webster dictionaries trace their lineage to this source, in 1964, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. acquired Merriam-Webster, Inc. as a subsidiary. The company adopted its current name in 1982, in 1806, Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. In 1807 Webster started two decades of work to expand his publication into a fully comprehensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language. To help him trace the etymology of words, Webster learned 26 languages, Webster hoped to standardize American speech, since Americans in different parts of the country used somewhat different vocabularies and spelled, pronounced, and used words differently. Webster completed his dictionary during his year abroad in 1825 in Paris and his 1820s book contained 70,000 words, of which about 12,000 had never appeared in a dictionary before. He also added American words, including skunk and squash, that did not appear in British dictionaries, at the age of 70 in 1828, Webster published his dictionary, it sold poorly, with only 2,500 copies putting him in debt. However, in 1840, he published the edition in two volumes with much greater success. He shows ways that American poetry inherited Websters ideas and draws on his lexicography to develop the language, in 1843, after Websters death, George Merriam and Charles Merriam secured publishing and revision rights to the 1840 edition of the dictionary. They published a revision in 1847, which did not change any of the text but merely added new sections. This began a series of revisions that were described as being unabridged in content, in 1884 it contained 118,000 words,3000 more than any other English dictionary. With the edition of 1890, the dictionary was retitled Websters International, the Collegiate Dictionary was introduced in 1898 and the series is now in its eleventh edition. Following the publication of Websters International in 1890, two Collegiate editions were issued as abridgments of each of their Unabridged editions, with the ninth edition, the Collegiate adopted changes which distinguish it as a separate entity rather than merely an abridgment of the Third New International. Some proper names were returned to the word list, including names of Knights of the Round Table, the most notable change was the inclusion of the date of the first known citation of each word, to document its entry into the English language. The eleventh edition includes more than 225,000 definitions, a CD-ROM of the text is sometimes included. This dictionary is preferred as a source for general matters of spelling by the influential The Chicago Manual of Style, the Chicago Manual states that it normally opts for the first spelling listed. Merriam overhauled the dictionary again with the 1961 Websters Third New International under the direction of Philip B, gove, making changes that sparked public controversy
10.
Vigilante
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A vigilante is a civilian or organization acting in a law enforcement capacity without legal authority. Vigilante justice is often rationalized by the concept that proper legal forms of punishment are either nonexistent, insufficient. Vigilantes normally see the government as ineffective in enforcing the law, persons alleged to be escaping the law or above the law are sometimes the victims of vigilantism. Vigilante conduct involves certain degrees of violence, Vigilantes could assault targets verbally and/or physically, damage and/or vandalize property, or even kill individuals. In a number of cases, vigilantism has involved targets with mistaken identities, in Britain in the early 2000s, there were reports of vandalism, assaults, and verbal abuse towards people wrongly accused of being pedophiles, following the murder of Sarah Payne. In Guyana in 2008, Hardel Haynes was beaten to death by a mob who mistook him for a thief, Vigilantism and the vigilante ethos existed long before the word vigilante was introduced into the English language. There are conceptual and psychological parallels between the Dark Age and medieval aristocratic custom of private war or vendetta and the modern vigilante philosophy, when Jacob protested that their actions might bring trouble upon him and his family, the brothers replied Should he treat our sister as a harlot. Similarly, in 2 Samuel 13, Absalom kills Amnon after King David, their father, fails to punish Amnon for raping Tamar, recourse to personal vengeance and dueling was considered a class privilege of the sword-bearing aristocracy before the formation of the modern centralized liberal-bureaucratic nation-state. In addition, sociologists have posited a complex legal and ethical interrelationship between vigilante acts and rebellion and tyrannicide, in the Western literary and cultural tradition, characteristics of vigilantism have often been vested in folkloric heroes and legendary outlaws. Vigilantism in literature, folklore and legend is connected to the issues of dissatisfied morality, injustice, the failures of authority. Formally-defined vigilantism arose in the early American colonies and these people would assault accused thieves, rapists and murderers. When they assaulted these thieves, they would steal their gold, other than reports and newspapers, there are not many records of vigilantes. Few names or groups are known, later in the United States, vigilante groups arose in poorly governed frontier areas where criminals preyed upon the citizenry with impunity. The death of Joseph Smith, Jr. on June 27,1844, in 1851 and 1856, San Francisco Vigilance Movement sought to eliminate crime, an element of this movement focused on immigrants like the Sydney Ducks. This touched off a cycle of retaliatory battles and raids by the two sides in which some 29 people were killed. In 1858 San Luis Obispo vigilantes ended the reign of the bandit gang of Pío Linares on El Camino Real between San Luis and Santa Barbara. In October 1862 in northern Texas, several Unionist sympathizers were arrested and taken to Gainesville, seven were tried and hanged, and 14 were hanged without trial. A few weeks later, Unionist sympathizers were hanged without trial across northern Texas, known as the Great Hanging at Gainesville, it may have been the deadliest act of vigilante violence in U. S. history
11.
Spirit (comics)
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The Spirit is a fictional masked crimefighter created by cartoonist Will Eisner. The Spirit Section, as the insert was popularly known, continued until October 5,1952 and it generally included two other, four-page strips, plus filler material. The Spirit chronicles the adventures of a vigilante who fights crime with the blessing of the citys police commissioner Dolan. Despite the Spirits origin as detective Denny Colt, his identity was virtually unmentioned again. In the 1990s and 2000s, Kitchen Sink Press and DC Comics also published new Spirit stories by other writers, in 2011, IGN ranked him 21st in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes. In late 1939, Everett M. Arnold compiled a presentation piece with existing Quality Comics material, an editor of The Washington Star liked George Brenners comic-book feature The Clock, but not Brenners art, and was favorably disposed toward a Lou Fine strip. In late 39, just before Christmas time, Eisner recalled in 1979, Arnold came to me, martin asked if I could do it. It meant that Id have to leave Eisner & Iger was making money, we were very profitable at that time and things were going very well. Anyway, I agreed to do the Sunday comic book and we started discussing the deal was that wed be partners in the Comic Book Section and they agreed that if we had a split-up in any way, the property would revert to me on that day that happened. My attorney went to Busy Arnold and his family, and they all signed a release agreeing that they would not pursue the question of ownership and this would include the eventual backup features, Mr. Mystic and Lady Luck. Selling his share of their firm to Iger, who would continue to package comics as the S. M. Iger Studio and as Phoenix Features through 1955, for $20,000, Eisner left to create The Spirit. They gave me an audience, Eisner said in 1997. I sold my part of the enterprise to my associate and then began The Spirit and they wanted an heroic character, a costumed character. They asked me if hed have a costume, and I put a mask on him and said, Yes, he has a costume. The character and the types of stories Eisner would tell, Eisner said in 1978, I always regarded comics as a legitimate medium, my medium. Provide me with the most viable vehicle for the kind of stories I could best tell, the syndicate people werent in full agreement with me. N my first discussion with Busy Arnold, his thinking centered around a kind of character—a costumed character. And I argued vehemently against it because I had my bellyful of creating costumed heroes at Eisner and Iger, the characters name, he said in that interview, came from Arnold, When Busy Arnold called, he suggested a kind of ghost or some kind of metaphysical character
12.
Batman
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Batman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, originally named the Bat-Man, the character is also referred to by such epithets as the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, and the Worlds Greatest Detective. Batmans secret identity is Bruce Wayne, a wealthy American playboy, philanthropist, after witnessing the murder of his parents Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne as a child, he swore vengeance against criminals, an oath tempered by a sense of justice. Wayne trains himself physically and intellectually and crafts a bat-inspired persona to fight crime, Batman operates in the fictional Gotham City, with assistance from various supporting characters, including his butler Alfred, police commissioner Gordon, and vigilante allies such as Robin. A large assortment of villains make up Batmans rogues gallery, including his archenemy, Batman became popular soon after his introduction in 1939 and gained his own comic book title, Batman, the following year. As the decades went on, differing interpretations of the character emerged, the late 1960s Batman television series used a camp aesthetic, which continued to be associated with the character for years after the show ended. Various creators worked to return the character to his dark roots, the success of Warner Bros. live-action Batman feature films have helped maintain the publics interest in the character. The character has also intrigued psychiatrists, with trying to understand the characters psyche. In 2015, FanSided ranked Batman as number one on their list of 50 Greatest Super Heroes In Comic Book History. Kevin Conroy, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, Anthony Ruivivar, Jason OMara, Batman has been portrayed in both film and television by Lewis Wilson, Robert Lowery, Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck. In early 1939, the success of Superman in Action Comics prompted editors at National Comics Publications to request more superheroes for its titles, in response, Bob Kane created the Bat-Man. Collaborator Bill Finger recalled that Kane had an idea for a character called Batman, I went over to Kanes, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with kind of. Reddish tights, I believe, with boots, with a small domino mask, swinging on a rope. He had two wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings. And under it was a big sign, the bat-wing-like cape was suggested by Bob Kane, inspired by Leonardo Da Vincis sketch of an ornithopter flying device as a child. Finger suggested giving the character a cowl instead of a domino mask, a cape instead of wings. Finger said he devised the name Bruce Wayne for the secret identity, Bruce Waynes first name came from Robert Bruce. Wayne, being a playboy, was a man of gentry, I searched for a name that would suggest colonialism
13.
Spider-Man
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Spider-Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko, when Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, teenagers in superhero comic books were usually relegated to the role of sidekick to the protagonist. Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several book series, the first. In the 2010s, he joins the Avengers, Marvels flagship superhero team, Spider-Mans nemesis Doctor Octopus also took on the identity for a story arc spanning 2012–2014, following a body swap plot in which Peter appears to die. Spider-Man is one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes, the character was first portrayed in live action by Nicholas Hammond in the 1977 television movie Spider-Man. Reeve Carney starred as Spider-Man in the 2010 Broadway musical Spider-Man, in 1962, with the success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee was casting about for a new superhero idea. He said the idea for Spider-Man arose from a surge in demand for comic books. At that time Lee had to get only the consent of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman for the characters approval, in a 1986 interview, Lee described in detail his arguments to overcome Goodmans objections. In particular, Lee stated that the fact that it had already decided that Amazing Fantasy would be cancelled after issue #15 was the only reason Goodman allowed him to use Spider-Man. While this was indeed the issue, its editorial page anticipated the comic continuing. Will appear every month in Amazing, regardless, Lee received Goodmans approval for the name Spider-Man and the ordinary teen concept, and approached artist Jack Kirby. Lee and Kirby immediately sat down for a conference, Theakston writes. Steve Ditko would be the inker, when Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, Lee recalled, I hated the way he was doing it. Not that he did it badly—it just wasnt the character I wanted, Lee turned to Ditko, who developed a visual style Lee found satisfactory. Ditko recalled, One of the first things I did was to work up a costume, a vital, visual part of the character. I had to know how he looked, for example, A clinging power so he wouldnt have hard shoes or boots, a hidden wrist-shooter versus a web gun and holster, etc. I wasnt sure Stan would like the idea of covering the characters face and it would also add mystery to the character. Although the interior artwork was by Ditko alone, Lee rejected Ditkos cover art, as Lee explained in 2010, I think I had Jack sketch out a cover for it because I always had a lot of confidence in Jacks covers
14.
Superman
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Superman is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, high school living in Cleveland, Ohio. They sold Superman to Detective Comics, the future DC Comics, Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 and subsequently appeared in various radio serials, newspaper strips, television programs, films, and video games. With this success, Superman helped to create the superhero archetype, the character is also referred to by such epithets as the Man of Steel, the Man of Tomorrow, and The Last Son of Krypton. Discovered and adopted by a Kansas farm couple, the child is raised as Clark Kent, very early on he started to display various superhuman abilities, which, upon reaching maturity, he resolved to use for the benefit of humanity through a secret Superman identity. Superman resides and operates in the fictional American city of Metropolis, as Clark Kent, he is a journalist for the Daily Planet, a Metropolis newspaper. Supermans love interest is generally Lois Lane, and his archenemy is supervillain Lex Luthor and he is typically a member of the Justice League and close ally of Batman and Wonder Woman. Like other characters in the DC Universe, several versions of Superman have been depicted over the years. Supermans appearance is distinctive and iconic, he wears a blue costume with a red-and-yellow emblem on the chest, consisting of the letter S in a shield shape. This shield is used in media to symbolize the character. Superman is widely considered an American cultural icon and he has fascinated scholars, with cultural theorists, commentators, and critics alike exploring the characters impact and role in the United States and worldwide. The characters ownership has often been the subject of dispute, with Siegel, the character has been adapted extensively and portrayed in other forms of media as well, including films, television series, and video games. Several actors have portrayed Superman in motion pictures and TV series including Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, Siegels fanzine did not sell well. Siegel and Shuster shifted to making comic strips, which they self-published in a book they called Popular Comics, the pair dreamed of becoming professional authors and believed that syndicated newspaper strips offered more lucrative and stable work than pulp magazines. The art quality standards were lower, making them more accessible to the inexperienced Shuster. In early 1933 or in 1934, Siegel developed a new character, also named Superman, but now a heroic character and this first prototype of Superman had no fantastic abilities and wore casual clothing. Siegel and Shuster often compared this version to Slam Bradley, a character they created in 1936. Siegel shared his idea with Shuster and they decided to turn it into a comic strip, the first publisher they solicited was Humor Publishing in Chicago, after having read one of their comic books, Detective Dan
15.
Wonder Woman
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Wonder Woman is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character is said to be a member of the Justice League, demigoddess. In her homeland, she is Princess Diana of Themyscira, and outside of her homeland, Wonder Woman was created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston, and artist Harry G. Peter. He and his wife Elizabeths cohabitant, Olive Byrne, is credited as being Marstons inspiration for the characters appearance, Marston drew a great deal of inspiration from early feminists. The character first appeared in All Star Comics #8 in December 1941 and first cover-dated on Sensation Comics #1, the Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986. Wonder Womans origin story relates that she was sculpted from clay by her mother Queen Hippolyta and given life by Athena and her Amazonian-training helped to develop a wide range of extraordinary skills in strategy, hunting, and combat. Many stories depicted Wonder Woman rescuing herself from bondage, which defeated the damsels in distress trope that were common in comics during the 1940s, Wonder Woman has also regularly appeared in comic books featuring the superhero teams Justice Society and Justice League. Attempts to return Wonder Woman to television have included a pilot for NBC in 2011. Gal Gadot portrayed Wonder Woman in the 2016 film Batman v Superman, Dawn of Justice, Gadot will also star in the characters first solo live-action film Wonder Woman, set to be released on June 2,2017. Two months later she was dropped from her role as a UN Ambassador following a petition, in an October 25,1940, interview with the Family Circle magazine, William Moulton Marston discussed the unfulfilled potential of the comic book medium. Marston introduced the idea to Gaines, given the go-ahead, Marston developed Wonder Woman, whom he believed to be a model of that eras unconventional, liberated woman. Marston also drew inspiration from the bracelets worn by Olive Byrne, Wonder Woman debuted in All Star Comics #8, scripted by Marston. Marston was the creator of an apparatus, which was crucial to the development of the polygraph. Marstons experience with polygraphs convinced him that women were more honest in situations different than men, Marston designed Wonder Woman to be an allegory for the ideal love leader, the kind of women who should run society. Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world, Marston wrote. In a 1943 issue of The American Scholar, Marston wrote, Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, Not wanting to be girls, they dont want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Womens strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness, the obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman. Marston went on record by describing bondage and submission as a respectable and noble practice and this weakness served to subvert the damsel in distress trope, since Wonder Woman inevitably rescues herself
16.
Hulk (comics)
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The Hulk is a fictional superhero created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, who first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book The Incredible Hulk in May 1962 published by Marvel Comics. The Hulks level of strength is normally conveyed as proportionate to his level of anger, however, his uncontrollable power has brought him into conflict with his fellow heroes and others. Lee stated that the Hulks creation was inspired by a combination of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll, although the Hulks coloration has varied throughout the characters publication history, the most usual color is green. He has two catchphrases, Hulk is strongest one there is. And the better-known HULK SMASH. which has founded the basis for pop culture memes. The Hulk first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1, written by writer-editor Stan Lee, penciled and co-plotted by Jack Kirby, and inked by Paul Reinman. Lee cites influence from Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the Hulks creation, for a long time Id been aware of the fact that people were more likely to favor someone who was less than perfect. Its a safe bet that you remember Quasimodo, but how easily can you name any of the heroic, handsomer, ive always had a soft spot in my heart for the Frankenstein monster. No one could ever convince me that he was the bad guy and he never wanted to hurt anyone, he merely groped his torturous way through a second life trying to defend himself, trying to come to terms with those who sought to destroy him. I decided I might as well borrow from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well—our protagonist would constantly change from his identity to his superhuman alter ego. Kirby, commenting upon his influences in drawing the character, recalled as inspiration the tale of a mother who rescues her child who is trapped beneath a car, Lee has also compared Hulk to the Golem of Jewish mythology. In The Science of Superheroes, Gresh and Weinberg see the Hulk as a reaction to the Cold War and the threat of nuclear attack, in the debut, Lee chose grey for the Hulk because he wanted a color that did not suggest any particular ethnic group. Colorist Stan Goldberg, however, had problems with the coloring, resulting in different shades of grey. After seeing the first published issue, Lee chose to change the color to green. Green was used in retellings of the origin, with reprints of the original story being recolored for the next two decades, until The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #302 reintroduced the grey Hulk in flashbacks set close to the origin story, since then, reprints of the first issue have displayed the original grey coloring, with the fictional canon specifying that the Hulks skin had initially been grey. Lee gave the Hulks alter ego the alliterative name Bruce Banner because he found he had difficulty remembering alliterative names. Despite this, in stories he misremembered the characters name and referred to him as Bob Banner
17.
Hal Jordan
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Hal Jordan, known as Green Lantern, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created in 1959 by writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane, Hal Jordan is a reinvention of a previous character called Green Lantern that had appeared in 1940s comic books as the character Alan Scott. Hal Jordan is a member and occasionally leader of the police force called the Green Lantern Corps. He fights evil across the Universe with a ring that grants him a variety of superpowers, Hal Jordan ranked 7th on IGNs in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in 2011. In 2013, Hal Jordan placed 4th on IGNs Top 25 Heroes of DC Comics, after achieving great success in 1956 in reviving the Golden Age character The Flash, DC editor Julius Schwartz looked toward recreating the Green Lantern from the Golden Age of Comic Books. Like The Flash, Schwartz wanted this new character to have a different secret identity, origin, a long time science-fiction fan and literary agent, Schwartz wanted a more sci-fi based Green Lantern, as opposed to the mystical powers of Alan Scott, the original 1940s Green Lantern. He enlisted writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane, who in 1959 would reintroduce Green Lantern to the world in Showcase #22 by creating Hal Jordan, the character was a success, and it was quickly decided to follow up his three-issue run on Showcase with a self-titled series. Green Lantern #1 began in July–August 1960 and would continue until #84 in April–May 1972 and this creative team was responsible for introducing many of the major characters in Hal Jordans life. First was Carol Ferris, Jordans love interest and she was in charge of Ferris Aircraft, and as such, Hals boss. While she preferred Green Lantern to Hal Jordan, she took a role in trying to win him over. Although she gave Jordan some attention, her job and company always came first, second was Jordans best friend, Tom Kalmaku, who was both Hals mechanic and the chronicler of his super-hero adventures, after succeeding in working out his identity. An Inuit from Alaska, Toms nickname was Pie or Pieface, unlike Chop-Chop, Tom was a competent and intelligent character with a well-rounded personality, not a stereotypical buffoon. Despite the unfortunate nickname, Tom Kalmaku was among the first minority characters to be portrayed in this manner, Schwartz and company also allowed Jordan to have a family, which was another rare thing at this time in superhero comics. While he did not have a wife or children of his own, a reporter, Sue Williams, suspected Jim of being Green Lantern due to his appearance and his reputation of being scatterbrained. Starting in issue #17, Gardner Fox joined the book to share writing duties with John Broome, the quartet of Schwartz, Broome, Fox, and Kane remained the core creative team until 1970. Starting with issue #76, Dennis ONeil took over scripting and Neal Adams, ONeil and Adams had already begun preparation for the classic run in the form of their re-workings of another DC superhero, the archer Green Arrow. The first of these socially motivated Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories was written with Gil Kane slated to be the artist, in Snowbirds Dont Fly issues #85 and #86, it is revealed that Green Arrows ward, Speedy, is addicted to heroin. Speedy overcomes his addiction with the help of the Black Canary and this story prompted a massive public reaction, including a congratulatory letter from the mayor of New York, John Lindsay
18.
Captain America
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Captain America is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 from Timely Comics, Captain America was designed as a patriotic supersoldier who often fought the Axis powers of World War II and was Timely Comics most popular character during the wartime period. The popularity of superheroes waned following the war and the Captain America comic book was discontinued in 1950, since Marvel Comics revived the character in 1964, Captain America has remained in publication. Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, near the end of the war, he was trapped in ice and survived in suspended animation until he was revived in the present day. Captain America was the first Marvel Comics character to have appeared in media outside comics with the release of the 1944 movie serial, in 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume. I wrote the name Super American at the bottom of the page, Simon said in his autobiography, there were too many Supers around. Captain America had a sound to it. There werent a lot of captains in comics, the boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team. Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead, there were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from Kirbys, if they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were eager to join in on the new Captain America book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset, youre still number one, Jack, I assured him. Its just a matter of a deadline for the first issue. Ill make the deadline, Jack promised, ill pencil it myself and make the deadline. I hadnt expected this kind of reaction, but I acceded to Kirbys wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby, I wrote the first Captain America book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas, then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures. Al Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and Kirbys regular letterer and we wanted to have our say too
19.
Flash (Barry Allen)
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The Flash is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Barry Allen is the character to be known as the Flash. The character first appeared in Showcase #4, created by writer Robert Kanigher and penciler Carmine Infantino and his name combines talk show hosts Barry Gray and Steve Allen. Barry Allen is a reinvention of a character called The Flash that had appeared in 1940s comic books as the character Jay Garrick. The Flashs power consists mainly of superhuman speed, various other effects such as intangibility are also attributed to his ability to control the speed of molecular vibrations. The Flash wears a red and gold costume treated to resist friction and wind resistance. Barrys classic stories introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics, and his return to regular comics occurred subsequently in 2008 within the pages of Grant Morrisons Final Crisis crossover story and Geoff Johns accompanying The Flash, Rebirth limited series. He has since played a role in the crossover stories Blackest Night, Flashpoint, Convergence. Allen has appeared in various adaptations in other media, John Wesley Shipp played the character in the 1990 CBS television series and Grant Gustin currently plays him in the 2014 The CW television series. Barry Allen is a police scientist with a reputation for being slow, and frequently late. One night, as he is working late, a lightning bolt shatters a case full of chemicals and spills all over Allen, as a result, Allen finds that he can run extremely fast and has matching reflexes and senses. He dons a set of red tights sporting a lightning bolt, dubs himself the Flash, Central City University professor Ira West designed Allens costume and the ring which stores it while Allen is in his civilian identity. The ring can eject the compressed clothing when Allen needs it, in addition, Allen invented the cosmic treadmill, a device that allowed for precise time travel and was used in many stories. Allen was so liked that nearly all speedsters that come after him are often compared to him. Batman once said Barry is the kind of man that I wouldve hoped to become if my parents had not been murdered. As presented in Justice League of America #9, when the Earth is infiltrated by alien warriors sent to conquer the planet, some of the worlds greatest heroes join forces, Allen among them. While the superheroes individually defeat most of the invaders, they fall prey to a single alien, afterwards, the heroes decide to found the Justice League. Allen also becomes friends with Green Lantern, which would later be the subject of the limited series Flash and Green Lantern, The Brave
20.
Thor (Marvel Comics)
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Thor is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He has starred in several ongoing series and limited series, and is a member of the superhero team the Avengers. The character has appeared in associated Marvel merchandise including animated television series, clothing, toys, trading cards, video games. The character was first portrayed in action by Eric Allan Kramer in the 1988 television movie The Incredible Hulk Returns. Thor placed 14th on IGNs list of Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time in 2011, a different version of the mythological Thor had appeared previously in Venus #12-13. Lee in 2002 described Thors genesis early in the Marvel pantheon, following the creation of the Hulk and it finally came to me, Dont make him human — make him a god. I decided readers were already pretty familiar with the Greek and Roman gods and it might be fun to delve into the old Norse legends. In a 1984 interview Kirby said I did a version of Thor for D. C. in the fifties before I did him for Marvel. I created Thor at Marvel because I was forever enamored of legends, which is why I knew about Balder, Heimdall, I tried to update Thor and put him into a superhero costume, but he was still Thor. And in a 1992 interview, Kirby said knew the Thor legends very well, I felt that might be a new thing for comics, taking the old legends and modernizing them. Subsequent stories of the 13-page feature The Mighty Thor continued to be plotted by Lee, various artists penciled the feature, including Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, Don Heck, and Al Hartley. With Journey into Mystery #101, the series began a long and definitive run by writer and co-plotter Lee, Lee and Kirby included Thor in The Avengers #1 as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has appeared in every subsequent volume of the series. The five-page featurette Tales of Asgard was added in Journey into Mystery #97, the feature itself expanded to 18 pages in #105, which eliminated the remaining anthological story from each issue, it was reduced to 16 pages five issues later. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that the adventures of Thor were gradually transformed from stories about a superhero into a spectacular saga. Artist Chic Stone, who inked several early Thor stories, observed that Kirby could just lead you through all these different worlds, the readers would follow him anywhere. Journey into Mystery was retitled Thor with issue #126, Tales of Asgard was replaced by a five-page featurette starring the Inhumans from #146–152, after which featurettes were dropped and the Thor stories expanded to Marvels then-standard 20-page length. Marvel filed for a trademark for The Mighty Thor in 1967, after Kirby left the title, Neal Adams penciled issues #180-181
21.
Wolverine (character)
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Wolverine is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, mostly in association with the X-Men. He is a mutant who possesses animal-keen senses, enhanced capabilities, powerful regenerative ability known as a healing factor. Wolverine has been depicted variously as a member of the X-Men, Alpha Flight, the character first appeared in the last panel of The Incredible Hulk #180, with his first full appearance in #181. He was created by writer Len Wein and Marvel art director John Romita, Sr. who designed the character, as a result, the character became a fan favorite of the increasingly popular X-Men franchise, and has been featured in his own solo comic since 1988. Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas asked writer Len Wein to devise a character specifically named Wolverine, John Romita, Sr. designed the first Wolverine costume, and believes he introduced the retractable claws, saying, When I make a design, I want it to be practical and functional. I thought, If a man has claws like that, how does he scratch his nose or tie his shoelaces, Wolverine first appeared in the final teaser panel of The Incredible Hulk #180 written by Wein and penciled by Herb Trimpe. The character then appeared in a number of advertisements in various Marvel Comics publications before making his first major appearance in The Incredible Hulk #181 again by the Wein–Trimpe team. In 2009, Trimpe said he distinctly remembers Romitas sketch and that, The way I see it, sewed the monster together and I shocked it to life. It was just one of secondary or tertiary characters, actually. We did characters in The Hulk all the time that were in issues, though often credited as co-creator, Trimpe adamantly denies having had any role in Wolverines creation. The characters introduction was ambiguous, revealing little beyond his being an agent of the Canadian government. In these appearances, he does not retract his claws, although Wein stated they had always envisioned as retractable. He appears briefly in the finale to this story in The Incredible Hulk #182, Wolverines next appearance was in 1975s Giant-Size X-Men #1, written by Wein and penciled by Dave Cockrum, in which Wolverine is recruited for a new squad. Gil Kane illustrated the artwork but incorrectly drew Wolverines mask with larger headpieces. Dave Cockrum liked Kanes accidental alteration and incorporated it into his own artwork for the actual story, Cockrum was also the first artist to draw Wolverine without his mask, and the distinctive hairstyle became a trademark of the character. A revival of X-Men followed, beginning with X-Men #94, drawn by Cockrum, in X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine is initially overshadowed by the other characters, although he does create tension in the team as he is attracted to Cyclops girlfriend, Jean Grey. Byrne modeled his rendition of Wolverine on actor Paul D’Amato, who played Dr. Hook in the 1977 sports film Slap Shot, Byrne also created Alpha Flight, a group of Canadian superheroes who try to recapture Wolverine due to the expense their government incurred training him. Later stories gradually establish Wolverines murky past and unstable nature, which he battles to keep in check, Byrne also designed a new brown-and-tan costume for Wolverine, but retained the distinctive Cockrum cowl
22.
Iron Man
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Iron Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, the character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39. He instead creates a suit of armor to save his life. Later, Stark augments his suit with weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company and he uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man, while at first concealing his true identity. Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology, subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War themes to contemporary concerns, such as corporate crime and terrorism. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films, the character is portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the live action film Iron Man, which was a critical and box office success. Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGNs Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in 2011, in 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the quintessential capitalist, a character that would go against the spirit of the times, Lee said, I think I gave myself a dare. It was the height of the Cold War, the readers, the young readers, if there was one thing they hated, it was war, it was the military. So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies man, writer Gerry Conway said, Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just cant be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, but theres a metaphor going on there. And thats, I think, what made that character interesting, Lee based this playboys looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies man, without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes, Lee said. While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the issue to Lieber. The art was split between Kirby and Heck and he designed the costume, Heck said of Kirby, because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first, but I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts. In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had a model for Tony Stark. Heck replied No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the kind of characters that Alex Toth liked
23.
X-Men
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The X-Men is a fictional team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, the characters first appeared in The X-Men #1 and they are among the most recognizable and successful intellectual properties of Marvel Comics, appearing in numerous books, television shows, films, and video games. The X-Men are mutants, a subspecies of humans who are born with superhuman abilities, the X-Men fight for peace and equality between normal humans and mutants in a world where antimutant bigotry is fierce and widespread. They are led by Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X and their archenemy is Magneto, a powerful mutant with the ability to generate and control magnetic fields. Professor X and Magneto have opposing views and philosophies regarding the relationship between mutants and humans, Professor X is the founder of Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters at a location commonly called the X-Mansion, which recruits mutants from around the world. Located in Westchester County, New York, the X-Mansion is the home and training site of the X-Men. The founding five members of the X-Men who appear in The X-Men #1 are Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, since then, dozens of mutants from various countries and diverse backgrounds have held membership as X-Men. In 2004, Stan Lee recalled, I couldnt have everybody bitten by a spider or exposed to a gamma ray explosion. And I took the way out. I said to myself, Why dont I just say theyre mutants, in a 1987 interview, Jack Kirby said, The X-Men, I did the natural thing there. What would you do with mutants who were just plain boys and girls, so I gave them a teacher, Professor X. Of course, it was the thing to do, instead of disorienting or alienating people who were different from us, I made the X-Men part of the human race. Possibly, radiation, if it is beneficial, may create mutants that’ll save us instead of doing us harm. I felt that if we train the mutants our way, they’ll help us - and not only help us, and so, we could all live together. Lee devised the title after Marvel publisher Martin Goodman turned down the initial name, The Mutants. Within the Marvel Universe, the X-Men are widely regarded to have named after Professor Xavier himself. Xavier however claims that the name X-Men was never chosen as a tribute to himself, the name is also linked to the X-Gene, an unknown gene that causes the mutant evolution. The original explanation for the name, as provided by Xavier in The X-Men #1, is that mutants possess an extra power, one which ordinary humans do not
24.
Rogues gallery
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A rogues gallery is a police collection of pictures or photographs of criminals and suspects kept for identification purposes. In 1855, Allan Pinkerton founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, Pinkerton devised the Rogues’ Gallery — a compilation of descriptions, methods of operation, hiding places, and names of criminals and their associates. Inspector Thomas Byrnes of the late-19th-century New York City Police Department popularized the term with his collection of photographs of known criminals, Byrnes published some of these photos with details of the criminals in Professional Criminals of America. In comic book universes such as the DCU and the Marvel Universe, notable examples include the Batman rogues gallery, the Spider-Man rogues gallery, the Superman rogues gallery, and the Flash rogues gallery. Criminal record Mug shot Public enemy Wanted poster
25.
History of comics
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The history of comics has followed different paths in different parts of the world. It can be traced back to early precursors such as Trajans Column, in Rome, Egyptian hieroglyphs, an example of an early precursor to print comics is Trajans Column. Versions of the Bible relying primarily on images rather than text were distributed in Europe in order to bring the teachings of Christianity to the illiterate. In medieval paintings, multiple scenes of the same story appear simultaneously in the same painting. However, these works did not travel to the reader, it took the invention of printing techniques to bring the form to a wide audience. The invention of the press, allowing movable type, established a separation between images and words, the two requiring different methods in order to be reproduced. It was also during this period that the bubble was developed as a means of attributing dialogue. One of the first creators of comics was William Hogarth, Hogarth created seven sets of sequential images on Modern Moral Subjects. One of his works, A Rakes Progress, was composed of a number of canvases, each reproduced as a print, as printing techniques developed, due to the technological advances of the industrial revolution, magazines and newspapers were established. These publications utilized illustrations as a means of commenting on political and social issues, soon, artists were experimenting with establishing a sequence of images to create a narrative. Artists such as George Cruikshank helped codify such phylacters as balloons rather than scrolls and they now represented narrative, but for identification purposes rather than dialogue within the work, and artists soon discarded them in favour of running dialogue underneath the panels. Speech balloons were not reintroduced to the form until Richard F. Outcault used them for dialogue, the Glasgow Looking Glass, published in 1826, was arguably the first comic strip. A satirical publication, later known as The Northern Looking Glass, it lampooned the fashions, rodolphe Töpffer, a Francophone Swiss artist, was a key figure in the early part of the 19th century. The lack of laws at the time meant that pirated editions proliferated. It does not mean you just devise caricatures with a pencil naturally frivolous, nor is it simply to dramatize a proverb or illustrate a pun. You must actually invent some kind of play, where the parts are arranged by plan and you do not merely pen a joke or put a refrain in couplets. You make a book, good or bad, sober or silly, in 1845, the satirical drawings, which regularly appeared in newspapers and magazines, gained a name, cartoons. This usage became common parlance, lasting to the present day, similar magazines containing cartoons in continental Europe included Fliegende Blätter and Le Charivari, while in the U. S. Judge and Puck were popular
26.
Superhero film
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Most superhero movies are based on superhero comics. Almost immediately after superheroes rose to prominence in comic books, they were adapted into Saturday film serials aimed at children, serials such as Adventures of Captain Marvel, Batman, The Phantom, Captain America, and Superman followed. Another early superhero film was Ōgon Bat, a Japanese film starring Sonny Chiba based on the 1930 Kamishibai superhero Ōgon Bat, other successful entries emerged throughout the 1980s, from Richard Lesters Superman II and Paul Verhoevens Robocop to Tim Burtons Batman. Marvel Comics Captain America did not have a release and Roger Cormans The Fantastic Four was released neither theatrically nor on home video. Alex Proyas The Crow became the first independent comics superhero film that established a franchise, the success of The Crow catalyzed the release of a film version of Spawn, Image Comics leading character. The success of the darker Image Comics characters shifted the direction of comic book movies, Marvel soon released their films to become franchises, Men in Black and Blade. After Marvel bought Malibu Comics, Marvel and Columbia Pictures released the Men in Black film, the film became the first Marvel property to win an Oscar and the then highest-grossing comic book adaptation until the release of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man in 2002. Blade was also a mix of a traditional action film as well as darker superhero film with the title character having superpowers as well as carrying an arsenal of weaponry. The success of Blade began Marvels film success, and set the stage for further comic film adaptations. The success of the X-Men TV series had made 20th Century Fox license the rights in 1994. After the success of Men in Black in 1997, Columbia Pictures licensed the rights of Spider-Man in 1999. 20th Century Foxs X-Men became a franchise by its surprise hit. Later, one of the largest blockbusters of all time was released with Sam Raimis Spider-Man. One, Krrish 3, several non-action film oriented superhero films were released in the 2000s with varying ranges of success. Brad Birds The Incredibles for Pixar was a critically acclaimed digitally-animated family oriented superhero film, other hybrids include Sky High and Zoom which were fusions of the superhero and family film genres, My Super Ex-Girlfriend a combination of superhero film and a romantic comedy. Some series from the current and previous decades were also re-released, such as Superman II, bryan Singers Superman Returns is unique due to the fact that it is a sequel to the first two Superman films, yet also a reboot to the third and fourth films. The 2010s has generally continued the success of superhero films seen in the previous decade. In 2010, Matthew Vaughns adaption of Kick-Ass was released, followed by Iron Man 2 a month later,2011 releases included The Green Hornet, Green Lantern, and X-Men, First Class. Following references to the Avengers Initiative in the Iron Man films and The Incredible Hulk, Marvel released Thor on May 6,2011, followed by Captain America, the Avengers broke the box office record as the highest-grossing superhero film of all time
27.
Folklore
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Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes and they include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, the forms and rituals of celebrations like Christmas and weddings, folk dances, each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next, for folklore is not taught in a formal school curriculum or studied in the fine arts. Instead these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration, the academic study of folklore is called folkloristics. To fully understand folklore, it is helpful to clarify its component parts and it is well-documented that the term was coined in 1846 by the Englishman William Thoms. He fabricated it to replace the contemporary terminology of popular antiquities or popular literature, the second half of the compound word, lore, proves easier to define as its meaning has stayed relatively stable over the last two centuries. Coming from Old English lār instruction, and with German and Dutch cognates, it is the knowledge and traditions of a particular group, the concept of folk proves somewhat more elusive. When Thoms first created this term, folk applied only to rural, frequently poor, a more modern definition of folk is a social group which includes two or more persons with common traits, who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. Folk is a concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family. This expanded social definition of folk supports a view of the material, i. e. the lore. These now include all things people make with words, things they make with their hands, Folklore is no longer circumscribed as being chronologically old or obsolete. The folklorist studies the traditional artifacts of a group and how they are transmitted. Transmission is a part of the folklore process. Without communicating these beliefs and customs within the group over space and time, for folklore is also a verb. These folk artifacts continue to be passed along informally, as a rule anonymously, the folk group is not individualistic, it is community-based and nurtures its lore in community. As new groups emerge, new folklore is created… surfers, motorcyclists, in direct contrast to high culture, where any single work of a named artist is protected by copyright law, folklore is a function of shared identity within the social group. Having identified folk artifacts, the professional folklorist strives to understand the significance of these beliefs, customs, for these cultural units would not be passed along unless they had some continued relevance within the group
28.
Robin Hood
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Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore who, according to legend, was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Traditionally depicted as being dressed in Lincoln green, he is portrayed as robbing from the rich. Robin Hood became a folk figure in the late-medieval period. Little John, Much the Millers Son and Will Scarlet all appear and this view first gained currency in the 16th century. It is not supported by the earliest ballads, the early compilation, A Gest of Robyn Hode, names the king as Edward, and while it does show Robin Hood accepting the Kings pardon, he later repudiates it and returns to the greenwood. The oldest surviving ballad, Robin Hood and the Monk, gives even less support to the picture of Robin Hood as a partisan of the true king. The setting of the early ballads is usually attributed by scholars to either the 13th century or the 14th, the early ballads are also quite clear on Robin Hoods social status, he is a yeoman. While the precise meaning of this changed over time, including free retainers of an aristocrat and small landholders. The essence of it in the present context was neither a knight nor a peasant or husbonde, artisans were among those regarded as yeomen in the 14th century. As well as ballads, the legend was also transmitted by Robin Hood games or plays that were an important part of the late medieval and early modern May Day festivities. The first record of a Robin Hood game was in 1426 in Exeter, the Robin Hood games are known to have flourished in the later 15th and 16th centuries. It is commonly stated as fact that Maid Marian and a jolly friar entered the legend through the May Games, the earliest surviving text of a Robin Hood ballad is the 15th century Robin Hood and the Monk. This is preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, written after 1450, it contains many of the elements still associated with the legend, from the Nottingham setting to the bitter enmity between Robin and the local sheriff. The first printed version is A Gest of Robyn Hode, a collection of stories that attempts to unite the episodes into a single continuous narrative. After this comes Robin Hood and the Potter, contained in a manuscript of c, the Potter is markedly different in tone from The Monk, whereas the earlier tale is a thriller the latter is more comic, its plot involving trickery and cunning rather than straightforward force. Other early texts are dramatic pieces, the earliest being the fragmentary Robyn Hod, each of these three ballads survived in a single copy, so it is unclear how much of the medieval legend has survived, and what has survived may not be typical of the medieval legend. The story of Robins aid to the knight that takes up much of the Gest may be an example. The character of Robin in these first texts is rougher edged than in his later incarnations, of my good he shall haue some, Yf he be a por man
29.
The Scarlet Pimpernel
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The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution, first published in 1905. The novel was written after Orczys stage play of the title enjoyed a long run in London and popular success earlier in 1905. A wealthy English fop, he is known by his symbol, a simple flower and he succeeds by transforming himself into a formidable swordsman and a quick-thinking escape artist in addition to the strict secrecy of the groups movements. His identity is secret to all but his men, Marguerite Blakeney, French wife of the wealthy English dandy, is approached by the new French envoy to England with a threat to her brothers life if she does not aid in his search for the Pimpernel. She aids him, and then discovers that the Pimpernel is also very dear to her and she sails to France to stop the envoy. The title character established the notion of a hero with a secret identity into popular culture and he was a precursor to subsequent literary creations such as Zorro and Batman. The Scarlet Pimpernel is set in 1792, during the stages of the French Revolution. Marguerite St. Just, a beautiful French actress, is the wife of wealthy English fop Sir Percy Blakeney, when Percy found out, he became estranged from his wife. Marguerite, for her part, became disillusioned with Percys shallow and their leader, the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, takes his nickname from the small red flower he draws on his messages. Despite being the talk of London society, only his followers, like many others, Marguerite is entranced by the Pimpernels daring exploits. At a ball attended by the Blakeneys, a verse by Percy about the elusive Pimpernel makes the rounds, meanwhile, Marguerite is blackmailed by Citizen Chauvelin, the wily new French envoy to England. Chauvelins agents have stolen a letter proving her beloved brother Armand is in league with the Pimpernel, Chauvelin offers to trade Armands life for her help against the Pimpernel. Contemptuous of her seemingly witless and unloving husband, Marguerite does not go to him for help or advice, instead, she passes along information which enables Chauvelin to learn the Pimpernels true identity. Later that night, Marguerite finally tells her husband of the danger threatening her brother. After Percy unexpectedly leaves for France, Marguerite discovers to her horror that he is the Pimpernel and he had hidden behind the persona of a dull, slow-witted fop to deceive the world. He had not told Marguerite because of his worry that she might betray him, desperate to save her husband, she decides to pursue Percy to France to warn him that Chauvelin knows his identity and his purpose. She persuades Sir Andrew Ffoulkes to accompany her, but because of the tide, at Calais, Percy openly approaches Chauvelin in the Chat gris, a decrepit inn whose owner is in Percys pay. Despite Chauvelins best efforts, the Englishman manages to escape by offering Chauvelin a pinch of snuff, through a bold plan executed right under Chauvelins nose, Percy rescues Marguerites brother Armand and the Comte de Tournay, the father of a schoolfriend of Marguerites
30.
Pulp magazine
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Pulp magazines were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the 1950s. The term pulp derives from the wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, in contrast. The typical pulp magazine had 128 pages, it was 7 inches wide by 10 inches high, the pulps gave rise to the term pulp fiction in reference to run-of-the-mill, low-quality literature. Pulps were the successors to the penny dreadfuls, dime novels, although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines were best known for their lurid, exploitative, and sensational subject matter. The first pulp was Frank Munseys revamped Argosy Magazine of 1896, with about 135,000 words per issue, on paper with untrimmed edges. In six years Argosy went from a few thousand copies per month to over half a million, Street & Smith, a dime novel and boys weekly publisher, was next on the market. Seeing Argosys success, they launched The Popular Magazine in 1903, due to differences in page layout however, the magazine had substantially less text than Argosy. Haggards Lost World genre influenced several key pulp writers, including Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Talbot Mundy and Abraham Merritt. Street and Smiths next innovation was the introduction of specialized genre pulps, with each focusing on a particular genre, such as detective stories, romance. At their peak of popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, the most successful pulps could sell up to one million copies per issue, in 1934, Frank Gruber says there were some 150 pulp titles. The most successful pulp magazines were Argosy, Adventure, Blue Book and Short Stories, although pulp magazines were primarily an American phenomenon, there were also a number of British pulp magazines published between the Edwardian era and World War II. Notable UK pulps included Pall Mall Magazine, The Novel Magazine, Cassells Magazine, The Story-Teller, The Sovereign Magazine, Hutchinsons Adventure-Story and Hutchinsons Mystery-Story. The German fantasy magazine Der Orchideengarten had a format to American pulp magazines, in that it was printed on rough pulp paper. During the Second World War paper shortages had a impact on pulp production, starting a steady rise in costs. Beginning with Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine in 1941, pulp magazines began to switch to digest size, in 1949, Street & Smith closed most of their pulp magazines in order to move upmarket and produce slicks. The pulp format declined from rising expenses, but even more due to the competition from comic books, television. In a more affluent post-war America, the price gap compared to slick magazines was far less significant, in the 1950s, mens adventure magazines began to replace the pulp. The format is still in use for some lengthy serials, like the German science fiction weekly Perry Rhodan, many titles of course survived only briefly
31.
Jimmie Dale
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Jimmie Dale is a fictional character created by Frank L. Packard in 1914. He was just doing it for the sheer deviltry of it at first, dales adventures first appeared in Peoples Magazine and then were collected into novels with the serializations generally appearing the year before the novel version was published. The Adventures of Jimmie Dale Toronto, Copp Clark 1917 The further adventures of Jimmie Dale Toronto, Copp, Clark 1919 Jimmie Dale and he also appeared in a movie serial, Jimmie Dale Alias the Gray Seal, in 1917. Two Crooks and a Knave 11, Jimmie Dale/The Gray Seal is often credited with popularizing and evolving what would greatly influence later pulp and comic book heroes. He also established the concept of a secret hideout or lair, The Sanctuary. List of film serials Jimmie Dale entry in the Encyclopedia of Pulp heroes Jimmie Dale, An Overview by David L. Vineyard Sony Reader e-book version of Return of The Gray Seal
32.
Zorro
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Zorro is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega, a fictional character created in 1919 by pulp writer Johnston McCulley. He is a Californio nobleman living in Los Angeles during the era of Mexican rule, not only is he too cunning and foxlike for the bumbling authorities to catch, but he also delights in publicly humiliating them. The character has featured in numerous books, films, television series. Tiburcio Vásquez, Juan Nepomuceno Cortina and Joaquin Murrieta are cited as inspirations for Zorro, Zorro debuted in McCulleys 1919 story The Curse of Capistrano, serialized in five parts in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly. At the denouement, Zorros true identity is revealed to all, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, on their honeymoon, selected the story as the inaugural picture for their new studio, United Artists, beginning the characters cinematic tradition. The story was adapted as the film The Mark of Zorro, McCulleys story was rereleased by publisher Grosset & Dunlap under the same title, to tie in with the film. In response to public demand fueled by the film, McCulley wrote more than sixty more Zorro stories, the last, The Mask of Zorro, was published posthumously in 1959. These stories ignore Zorros public revelation of his identity, McCulley died in 1958, just as the Disney-produced Zorro television show was becoming popular. In The Curse of Capistrano, Don Diego Vega becomes Señor Zorro in the pueblo of Los Angeles in California to avenge the helpless, to punish cruel politicians and he is the title character, as he is dubbed the Curse of Capistrano. The story involves him romancing Lolita Pulido, an impoverished noblewoman, while Lolita is unimpressed with Diego, who pretends to be a passionless fop, she is attracted to the dashing Zorro. In later stories, McCulley introduces characters such as pirates and Native Americans, in McCulleys later stories, Diegos surname became de la Vega. In fact, the writer was wildly inconsistent, the first magazine serial ended with the villain dead and Diego publicly exposed as Zorro, but in the sequel the villain was alive, and the next entry had the double identity still secret. Several Zorro productions have expanded on the characters exploits, many of the continuations feature a younger character taking up the mantle of Zorro. Although McCulleys stories were set in Los Angeles during the era of Mexican rule and this is, of course, a sham. This portrayal, with variations, is followed in most Zorro media. In this show, everyone knows Diego would love to do what Zorro does, the Family Channels Zorro takes this concept further. While Diego pretends to be inept with a sword, the rest of his facade is actually exaggerating his real interests, Diego is actually well versed and interested in art, poetry, literature, and science. His facade is pretending to be interested in only these things, Zorro also has a well-equipped laboratory in his hidden cave in this version of the story
33.
The Shadow
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The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in 1930s pulp novels, and then in a wide variety of media. The radio drama included episodes voiced by Orson Welles, the character has been cited as a major influence on the subsequent evolution of comic book superheroes, particularly Batman. The first issue of The Shadow Magazine went on sale on April 1,1931, as in the magazine stories, The Shadow was not given the literal ability to become invisible. The introduction from The Shadow radio program Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, spoken by actor Frank Readick Jr, has earned a place in the American idiom. These words were accompanied by a laugh and a musical theme. At the end of each episode The Shadow reminded listeners that, Crime does not pay. The Shadow knows. Chrisman and Sweets felt the series should be narrated by a mysterious storyteller with a sinister voice. One of their scriptwriters, Harry Engman Charlot, suggested various possibilities, Charlot then proposed the ideal name for the phantom announcer. Thus, beginning on July 31,1930, The Shadow was the given to the mysterious narrator of the Detective Story Hour. The narrator was voiced by James LaCurto, who was replaced after four months by prolific character actor Frank Readick Jnr. The episodes were drawn from the Detective Story Magazine issued by Street and Smith, although the latter company had hoped the radio broadcasts would boost the declining sales of Detective Story Magazine, the result was quite different. Listeners found the sinister announcer much more compelling than the unrelated stories and they soon began asking newsdealers for copies of that Shadow detective magazine, even though it did not exist. Recognizing the demand and responding promptly, circulation manager Henry William Ralston of Street & Smith commissioned Walter B, Gibson to begin writing stories about The Shadow. The first story produced was The Living Shadow, published April 1,1931, Gibsons characterization of The Shadow laid the foundations for the archetype of the superhero, including stylized imagery and title, sidekicks, supervillains, and a secret identity. Clad in black, The Shadow operated mainly after dark as a vigilante in the name of justice, Gibson himself claimed the literary inspirations upon which he had drawn were Bram Stokers Dracula and Edward Bulwer-Lyttons The House and the Brain. In the 1940s, some Shadow comic strips were translated in France as adventures of Judex, because of the great effort involved in writing two full-length novels every month, several guest writers were hired to write occasional installments in order to lighten Gibsons work load. These guest writers included Lester Dent, who wrote the Doc Savage stories. In the late 1940s, mystery novelist Bruce Elliott would temporarily replace Gibson as the author of the pulp series
34.
The Phantom
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The Phantom is a long-running American adventure comic strip, first published by Mandrake the Magician creator Lee Falk in February 1936, now primarily published internationally by Frew Publications. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla, the character has been adapted for television, film and video games. The series began with a newspaper strip on February 17,1936, followed by a color Sunday strip on May 28,1939. In 1966, King Features stated that The Phantom was being published in 583 newspapers worldwide, at its peak, the strip was read by over 100 million people daily. Falk worked on The Phantom until his death in 1999, from then until the present, since 2016, it has been drawn by Mike Manley and Terry Beatty. Previous artists on the strip include Ray Moore, Wilson McCoy, Bill Lignante, Sy Barry, George Olesen, Keith Williams, Fred Fredericks, Graham Nolan, Eduardo Barreto. In the strip, the Phantom was 21st in a line of crime-fighters which began in 1536, swearing an oath on the skull of his fathers murderer to fight evil, Christopher began a legacy of the Phantom which would pass from father to son. Nicknames for the Phantom include The Ghost Who Walks, Guardian of the Eastern Dark, unlike most other superheroes, the Phantom has no superpowers and relies on his strength, intelligence and reputed immortality to defeat his foes. The 21st Phantom is married to Diana Palmer, they met while he studied in the United States and have two children, Kit and Heloise and he has a trained wolf, Devil, and a horse named Hero. Like the previous Phantoms, he lives in the ancient Skull Cave, the Phantom was the first fictional hero to wear the skintight costume which has become a hallmark of comic-book superheroes, and was the first shown in a mask with no visible pupils. After the success of Mandrake the Magician, King Features Syndicate asked Falk to develop a new feature and his first effort was to write and draw a strip about King Arthur and his knights. When King Features rejected the strip Falk developed the Phantom, a mysterious and he planned the first few months of the story, and drew the first two weeks as a sample. During his first story, The Singh Brotherhood, before disclosing that Wells was the Phantom Falk changed the setting to a jungle and made the Phantom an apparently immortal, thinking that there were already too many characters called the Phantom, Falk considered calling his hero The Gray Ghost. However, he could not find a name he liked better, in the A&E American cable TV documentary The Phantom, Comic Strip Crusader, Falk explained that Greek busts inspired him to omit the Phantoms pupils when the character was wearing his mask. He incorrectly believed that ancient Greek busts had no pupils which gave them an inhuman, in a 2005 interview for Comic Book Marketplace Falk said the Phantoms skin-tight costume was inspired by Robin Hood, who wore tights in films and onstage. The Phantom began as a strip on February 17,1936 with The Singh Brotherhood, written by Falk. That year, The Phantom was serialized in the Australian Womans Mirror, a Sunday Phantom strip was added on May 28,1939. During World War II Falk joined the Office of War Information, Moore also served during the war and left the strip to his assistant, Wilson McCoy
35.
Popeye
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Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. After Segars death in 1938, Thimble Theatre was continued by writers and artists. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments in its Sunday edition, written, the daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories. In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures and these cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer—and later Paramounts own Famous Studios—continued production through 1957. These cartoon shorts are now owned by Turner Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner, in 2002, TV Guide ranked Popeye #20 on its 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time list. Differences in Popeyes story and characterization vary depending on the medium, originally, Popeye got his strength from rubbing the head of the Whiffle Hen, changing to spinach by 1932. SweePea is definitively Popeyes ward in the strips, but he is often depicted as belonging to Olive Oyl in cartoons. The cartoons also occasionally feature members of Popeyes family who have never appeared in the strip, notably his lookalike nephews Peepeye, Pupeye, Pipeye, and Poopeye. There is no sense of continuity in the stories, although certain plot and presentation elements remain mostly constant. Popeye has, alternatively, displayed Sherlock Holmes-like investigative prowess, scientific ingenuity, Popeyes pipe also proves to be highly versatile. Among other things, it has served as a torch, jet engine, propeller, periscope, and, of course. Popeye also on occasion eats spinach through his pipe, sometimes sucking in the can itself along with the contents and he seldom appears to use it to smoke tobacco. Popeyes exploits are also enhanced by a few recurring plot elements, one is the love triangle among Popeye, Olive, and Bluto, and the latters endless machinations to claim Olive at Popeyes expense. Another is his near-saintly perseverance in overcoming any obstacle to please Olive and she is the only character that Popeye will permit to give him a thumping. Finally, Popeye usually uncovers villainous plots by accidentally sneaking up on the antagonists as they brag about or lay out their schemes, Thimble Theatre was cartoonist E. C. Segars third published strip when it first appeared in the New York Journal on December 19,1919, the papers owner William Randolph Hearst also owned King Features Syndicate, which syndicated the strip. It did not attract an audience at first, and at the end of its first decade appeared in only half a dozen newspapers. In its early years, the featured characters acting out various stories
36.
Philip Wylie
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Philip Gordon Wylie was an American author of works ranging from pulp science fiction, mysteries, social diatribes and satire, to ecology and the threat of nuclear holocaust. Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Wylie was the son of Presbyterian minister Edmund Melville Wylie and the former Edna Edwards, a novelist and his family moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he later attended Princeton University from 1920–1923. A writer of fiction and nonfiction, his output included hundreds of articles, novels, serials, short stories, syndicated newspaper columns, and works of social criticism. Most of his writings contain critical, though often philosophical, views on man and society as a result of his studies and interests in biology, ethnology, physics. At least nine movies were made from novels or stories by Wylie and he sold the rights for two others that were never produced. The Savage Gentleman Pulp historians point out that the themes of The Savage Gentleman are replicated to a degree in the pulp character Clark “Doc” Savage created by Lester Dent. - Richard A. Lupoff When Worlds Collide, co-written with Edwin Balmer, inspired Alex Raymonds comic strip Flash Gordon and he applied engineering principles and the scientific method quite broadly in his work. His novel The Disappearance is about what happens when everyone wakes up one day and his nonfiction book of essays, Generation of Vipers, was a best-seller during the 1940s and inspired the term Momism. Some people have accused Generation of Vipers of being misogynistic, the Disappearance shows his thinking on the subject is very complex. His novel of manners, Finnley Wren, was highly regarded in its time. In 1941, Wylie became Vice-President of the International Game Fish Association and this was adapted in 1956 by ABC Radio, as a one-hour drama narrated by Orson Welles. Wylie was also active in writing detective and mystery novelettes for a variety of magazines, five of them were collected in 2010 as Ten Thousand Blunt Instruments and Other Mysteries, published by Crippen & Landru in its Lost Classics series and edited by Bill Pronzini. Wylies final works dealt with the catastrophic effects of pollution. Notably, Wylie wrote L. A.2017, a 1971 episode of the television series The Name of the Game, the 90-minute episode was directed by Steven Spielberg, and featured Gene Barry, Barry Sullivan, Edmond OBrien, Severn Darden and Sharon Farrell. Wylie wrote a novelization of the story as Los Angeles. Wylies final novel, The End of the Dream, was published posthumously in 1972, Philip Wylie, and now the Philip Wylie estate, is represented by Harold Ober Associates. Wylie married Sally Ondek, and had one child, Karen, after divorcing his first wife, he married Frederica Ballard, who was born and raised in Rushford, New York, they are both buried in Rushford. She later married Jon Lindbergh, Charles Lindberghs son, Wylies niece Janice Wylie, the daughter of his brother Max Wylie, was murdered, along with her roommate Emily Hoffert, in New York in August 1963 in what became known as the Career Girls murder case
37.
Hugo Danner
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Hugo Danner is a fictional character and the protagonist of Philip Wylies 1930 novel Gladiator. Born in the late 19th century with superhuman abilities via prenatal chemical experimentation, Danner tries to use his powers for good, however, Danner grows disillusioned with his inability to find a permanent outlet for his great strength, and dies frustrated. Apart from Wylies novel, the character has appeared in a feature film and publications by Marvel Comics. Comedic actor Joe E. Brown portrayed him in a 1938 movie adaptation of the book, decades later the character starred in an adaptation titled Man-God in Marvels black-and-white comics-magazine Marvel Preview #9. He next appeared in DCs standard color comic book Young All-Stars in 1988 and 1989, in 2005, he returned in the comic-book miniseries Legend, published by the DC imprint Wildstorm. Here Danner, in the late 1960s, fights as a U. S. Army supersoldier in the Vietnam War rather than as a super Legionnaire in World War I. The frustration of my own muscles by things, and the superiority of machinery started the notion of a man who would be invincible. I gave him a name and planned random deeds for him, I let him tear down Brooklyn Bridge and lift a locomotive. Then I began to speculate about his future and it seemed to me that a human being thus equipped would be foredoomed to vulgar fame or to a life of fruitless destruction and he would share the isolation of geniuses and with them would learn the inflexibility of mans slow evolution. To that extent Hugo became symbolic and Gladiator a satire, after 14 years of research he finally discovers alkaline radicals that vastly improve muscular strength and the nervous discharge of energy. Hugo Danner is born on Christmas several months later and his parents imbue him with a strong moral compass during his formative years and warn him never to use his great strength in anger. However, during kindergarten, Danner nearly kills the schools bully in a fight after being assaulted by the child. This event brands him as an outsider in the eyes of the other children, because they treat him with such abhorrence, his only solace comes in the form of unleashing his powers within the Colorado wilderness. This stigma eventually wears off, though, and is forgotten by the time Danner enters high school, Danner leaves Colorado after graduating high school to attend Webster University. There, he becomes a football star and the most popular boy in school. During the summer months, he works as a strong man. However, after returning to college and accidentally killing another player during a game, he quits school, a year later, his ship is trapped in France by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He and a fellow American sign up with the French Foreign Legion, stories of Le Colorado quickly spread from trench to trench and Danner becomes a sort of mythical hero
38.
Kamishibai
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The exact origins of kamishibai during the twentieth century are unknown, appearing like the wind on a street corner in the Shitamachi section of Tokyo around 1930. The scroll depicts anthropomorphised animal caricatures that satirise society during this period but has no text and it can therefore be considered a direct precursor of kamishibai. During the Edo period there was a flourishment of the visual, etoki once again became popular during the later eighteenth century as storytellers began to set up on street corners with an unrolled scroll hanging from a pole. In the Meiji Period tachi-e, similar to those in the Edo period, were told by performers who manipulated flat-paper cut-outs of figures mounted on wooden poles, the Zen priest Nishimura is also credited to have used these pictures during sermons to entertain children. Another form of etoki was the Japanese modified stereoscope imported from the Netherlands, the artistic and technological developments of the Edo and Meiji periods can be linked to the establishment of kamishibai. This period is known as the Golden Age of kamishibai in Japan, kamishibai produced and narrated over this period gives insight into the mindset of the people who lived through such a tumultuous period in history. The Depression years were the most prosperous and vibrant for kamishibai, the early post-war period was particularly hard on the citizens of Japan who wanted to rebuild their lives in a rapidly changing environment. Comics became popular, in newspapers and magazines depicting scenes of life injected with humour. Five million children and adults were entertained across Japan daily during the post-war period, the gaito kamishibaiya parked their bicycle at a familiar intersection and banged their hiyogoshi together to announce their presence and create anticipation for the show. When the audience arrived they would sell sweets to the children as a fee for the show and they would then unfold a butai, a miniature wooden proscenium which held the illustrated boards for the narrator to change as he narrated the unscripted story. True artists only used hand-painted original art, not the kind found in schools or for other communication purposes. Kamishibai kashimoto were sought to commission and rent artwork to narrators for a small fee, the creation of these boards was similar to that of an American comic book company with each person separately doing the colouring of a panel. The principle illustrator would make pencil sketches that were then done over with thick brushes of India ink, many prolific manga artists, like Shigeru Mizuki, were once kamishibai artists before the medium went out of vogue in 1953. Kamishibai was also utilised as a source of communication to the masses, a news for adults during the Second World War. In the West, text and image eventually became separated because of the Gutenberg method of moveable type, in Japanese language of complex characters, it was much easier to employ the woodblock printing. The popularity of kamishibai declined at the end of the Allied Occupation, although this Japanese art form has largely disappeared, its significance and contributions have allowed kamishibai to be attributed as an origin for both manga and anime. As part of the Toyota Production System, kamishibai boards are used as a control for performing audits within a manufacturing process. A series of cards are placed on a board and selected at random or according to schedule by supervisors and managers of the area and this ensures safety and cleanliness of the workplace is maintained and that quality checks are being performed
39.
Mandrake the Magician
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Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk. Mandrake began publication on June 11,1934, phil Davis soon took over as the strips illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip is distributed by King Features Syndicate, Mandrake, along with the Phantom Magician in Mel Graffs The Adventures of Patsy, are regarded by comics historians as the first superheroes of comics. Comics historian Don Markstein writes, Some people say Mandrake the Magician, Davis worked on the strip until his death in 1964, when Falk recruited current artist Fred Fredericks. With Falks death in 1999, Fredericks became both writer and artist, the Sunday Mandrake strip ended December 29,2002. The daily strip ended mid-story on July 6,2013 when Fred Fredericks retired, Mandrake is a magician whose work is based on an unusually fast hypnotic technique. At various times in the strip, Mandrake has also demonstrated other powers, including turning invisible, shapeshifting, levitation. His hat, cloak and wand, passed down from his father Theron, although Mandrake publicly works as a stage magician, he spends much of his time fighting criminals and combatting supernatural entities. Mandrake lives in Xanadu, a mansion atop a mountain in New York State. Xanadus features include closed circuit TV, a road which divides in half. Lothar is Mandrakes best friend and crimefighting companion, Mandrake first met Lothar during his travels in Africa. Lothar was Prince of the Seven Nations, a mighty federation of jungle tribes, Lothar is often referred to as the strongest man in the world, with the exception of Hojo — Mandrakes chef and secret chief of Inter Intel. Lothar is invulnerable to any weapon forged by man, impervious to heat, cold and he also cannot be harmed by magic directly. He can lift an elephant by one hand easily, one of the first African crimefighting heroes ever to appear in comics, Lothar made his first appearance alongside Mandrake in 1934 in the inaugural daily strip. In the beginning, Lothar spoke poor English and wore a fez, short pants, in a 1935 work by King Features Syndicate, Lothar is referred to as Mandrakes giant black slave. When artist Fred Fredericks took over in 1965, Lothar spoke correct English and his clothing changed, Narda is Princess of the European nation Cockaigne. She made her first appearance in the second Mandrake story, Narda learned martial arts from Hojo. Theron is the headmaster of the College of Magic located in the Himalayas, Theron is hundreds of years old and may be kept alive by the Mind Crystal of which he is the guardian
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Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
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Captain Marvel, also known as Shazam, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker created the character in 1939, Captain Marvel first appeared in Whiz Comics #2, published by Fawcett Comics. Based on book sales, the character was the most popular superhero of the 1940s, Fawcett expanded the franchise to include other Marvels, primarily Marvel Family associates Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. who can harness Billys powers as well. Captain Marvel was also the first comic book superhero to be adapted into film, Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel-related comics in 1953, partly because of a copyright infringement suit from DC Comics, alleging that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman. In 1972, DC licensed the Marvel Family characters from Fawcett, by 1991, DC had acquired all rights to the characters. DC has since integrated Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family into their DC Universe and has attempted to revive the property several times, DC later officially renamed the character Shazam when relaunching its comic book properties in 2011. In addition, since 1972, the character has featured in two television series adaptations, one live action and one animated, by Filmation, and an upcoming Warner Bros. Feature film scheduled for release in 2019 as part of the DC Extended Universe, Captain Marvel was ranked as the 55th greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard magazine. IGN also ranked Captain Marvel as the 50th greatest comic book hero of all time, UGO Networks ranked him as one of the top heroes of entertainment, saying, At his best, Shazam has always been Superman with a sense of crazy, goofy fun. Fawcett Comics executive director Ralph Daigh decided it would be best to combine the team of six into one hero who would embody all six powers, Parker responded by creating a character he called Captain Thunder. Staff artist Charles Clarence C. C. Beck was recruited to design and illustrate Parkers story, rendering it in a direct, somewhat cartoony style that became his trademark. When Bill Parker and I went to work on Fawcett’s first comic book in late 1939, we both saw how poorly written and illustrated the superhero comic books were, Beck told an interviewer. The first issue of the book, printed as both Flash Comics #1 and Thrill Comics #1, had a low-print run in the fall of 1939 as an ashcan copy created for advertising. Shortly after its printing, however, Fawcett found it could not trademark Captain Thunder, Flash Comics, or Thrill Comics, because all three names were already in use. Consequently, the book was renamed Whiz Comics, and Fawcett artist Pete Costanza suggested changing Captain Thunders name to Captain Marvelous, the word balloons in the story were re-lettered to label the hero of the main story as Captain Marvel. Whiz Comics #2 was published in late 1939, inspiration for Captain Marvel came from a number of sources. His visual appearance was modeled after that of Fred MacMurray, a popular American actor of the period, Fawcett Publications founder, Wilford H. Fawcett, was nicknamed Captain Billy, which inspired the name Billy Batson as well as Marvels title. Fawcetts earliest magazine was titled Captain Billys Whiz Bang, which inspired the title Whiz Comics, in addition, Fawcett took several of the elements that had made Superman the first popular comic book superhero and incorporated them into Captain Marvel
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Golden Age of Comic Books
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The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from the late 1930s to circa 1950. During this time, modern books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many characters were introduced, including Superman, Batman, Captain America, Wonder Woman. The first recorded use of the term Golden Age was by Richard A. Lupoff in an article, Re-Birth, an event cited by many as marking the beginning of the Golden Age was the 1938 debut of Superman in Action Comics #1, published by Detective Comics. Supermans popularity helped make comic books a major arm of publishing, timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics, had million-selling titles featuring the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. The comic was published biweekly at one point to capitalize on its popularity, patriotic heroes donning red, white, and blue were particularly popular during the time of the second World War following The Shields debut in 1940. Many heroes of this time period battled the Axis powers, with such as Captain America Comics #1 showing the title character punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. As comic books grew in popularity, publishers began launching titles that expanded into a variety of genres, dell Comics non-superhero characters outsold the superhero comics of the day. The publisher featured licensed movie and literary characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Roy Rogers and it was during this era that noted Donald Duck writer-artist Carl Barks rose to prominence. Additionally, MLJs introduction of Archie Andrews in Pep Comics #22 gave rise to teen humor comics, the educational comic book Dagwood Splits the Atom used characters from the comic strip Blondie. According to historian Michael A. Amundson, appealing comic-book characters helped ease young readers fear of nuclear war and it was during this period that long-running humor comics debuted, including ECs Mad and Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge in Dells Four Color Comics. In 1953, the book industry hit a setback when the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was created in order to investigate the problem of juvenile delinquency. As a result, the Comics Code Authority was created by the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers to enact self-censorship by comic book publishers, at this time, EC canceled its crime and horror titles and focused primarily on Mad. During the late 1940s, the popularity of superhero comics waned, to retain reader interest, comic publishers diversified into genres such as war, Westerns, science fiction, romance, crime and horror. Many superhero titles were cancelled or converted to other genres, in 1946, DC Comics Superboy, Aquaman and Green Arrow were switched from More Fun Comics into Adventure Comics so More Fun could focus on humor. In 1948 All-American Comics, featuring Green Lantern, Johnny Thunder, the following year, Flash Comics and Green Lantern were cancelled. In 1951 All Star Comics, featuring the Justice Society of America, the next year Star Spangled Comics, featuring Robin, was retitled Star Spangled War Stories. Sensation Comics, featuring Wonder Woman, was cancelled in 1953, the only DC superhero comics to continue publishing through the 1950s were Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, Batman, Superboy, Superman, Wonder Woman and Worlds Finest Comics
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Fox Feature Syndicate
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Fox Feature Syndicate was a comic book publisher from early in the period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books. Founded by entrepreneur Victor S. Fox, it produced such titles as Blue Beetle, Fantastic Comics and it is unrelated to the company Fox Publications, a Colorado publisher of railroad photography books. Victor S. Fox and business associate Bob Farrell launched Fox Feature Syndicate at 480 Lexington Avenue in New York City in the late 1930s. For content, Fox contracted with comics packager Eisner & Iger, however, a transcript of the proceeding, uncovered by comics historian Ken Quattro in 2010, indicates Eisner in fact supported Fox and claimed Wonder Man as an original Eisner creation. After losing at trial, Victor Fox dropped Eisner and Iger, Joe Simon, a former Eisner and Iger freelancer, became Fox Publications editor. As one of the earliest companies in the field, it employed or bought the packaged material of a huge number of Golden Age greats. Lou Fine created the superhero The Flame in Wonderworld Comics, Dick Briefer created Rex Dexter of Mars in the eponymous series, george Tuska did his first comics work here with the features Zanzibar and Tom Barry. Fletcher Hanks wrote and drew Stardust the Super Wizard in Fantastic Comics in 1939 and 1940, Kirby retained the house name Charles Nicholas for the comic strip, which lasted three months. Kirby, additionally, created and did one story each of the Fox features Wing Turner, the race was broadcast over radio station WMCA. Throughout the 1940s, Fox produced comics in a wide variety of genres. With the post-war decline in popularity, Fox, like other publishers, concentrated on horror and crime comics. Following the establishment of Comics Code Authority in the mid-1950s, Fox went out of business, according to Nicky Wright, Competing well in the most sexy, sadistic, and violent category, Victor Foxs Murder Incorporated and Blue Beetle are noteworthy. When historians describe sleaze, sex, and violence as Foxs obsession and his best artists, Jack Kamen and Matt Baker, are much revered and collected for their good girl art. However, since Fox always started their stories on the front cover. Also, since Fox used remaindered issues, contents will vary from copy to copy of Hoot Gibsons Western Roundup, central Color Press of the same address filed likewise, listing liabilities of $513,587 and assets of $603,427. Fox was listed as president of both corporations, Fox Publications founder Victor Fox was born Samuel Victor Joseph Fox on July 3,1893, in Nottinghamshire, England, the fourth of six children born to Russian emigres Joseph and Bessie Fox. He had older sisters Annie, Rosie, Fanny E. and young sisters Etta G. the family relocated to the United States in March 1898, and within two years were living in Fall River, Massachusetts. By 1917, patriarch Joseph, a storekeeper, moved the family to New York City, where he opened a clothing business
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Flame (comics)
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The Flame is a fictional superhero that appeared in comic books published by Fox Feature Syndicate. The Flame first appeared in Wonderworld Comics #3 and he was created by writer Will Eisner and artist Lou Fine. The Flames first appearance was in Foxs Wonderworld Comics #3, dated July 1939, the Flame gained his own title in the summer of 1940, which ran for eight issues until January 1942. He was one of the titular Big 3, appearing in that periodical alongside Blue Beetle, Fox Publications folded in 1942, being forced to declare involuntary bankruptcy owing its creditors some $175,000. The Flames secret identity is Gary Preston, when Gary was a baby, his father Charteris Preston worked as a missionary in China. The elder Preston was washed away in a flood, but managed to save baby Gary by placing him in a basket, the basket was washed downstream to Tibet, where Gary was rescued by a group of lamas. They raised Gary in the lamasary, where they trained him in their mystical ways, through this training, Gary gained the ability to control fire and temperature, including his own body temperature. He also gained the ability to travel from place to place by materializing inside of flame, when he reached adulthood, Gary returned to America to fight crime as The Flame. In Wonderworld Comics #30 The Flame was joined by a female sidekick, Flame Girl was secretly Linda Dale, who was given similar powers as The Flame when Gary Preston was injured. Thanks to his training, the Flame has the ability to control fire and he can raise his own body temperature to the point where he can burst into flames, or melt bullets. He can control and direct any flame in his presence and he can also teleport from place to place by appearing inside of any fire source, no matter the size. The Flames one weakness is water, which can weaken him. In order to fire whenever he needs it, the Flame carries a small. The Flame is one of the public domain Golden Age characters appearing in Project Superpowers. The Flame at Don Marksteins Toonopedia, archived from the original on April 16,2012. History of the Flame and other Fox Feature characters The Newsarama article covering the upcoming Superpowers series
