Ah, puberty...

deviantArt user nebezial is up to more mischief featured the good Captain and some of his JLA teammates. Click to embiggen or check the link above to see more cool artwork.

Your explanation makes my head hurt...

I woke up last night and, naturally, started thinking about story ideas for Captain Marvel. Because, really, when else does one naturally go over Captain Marvel stories?

Anyway, I started thinking about how DC wimped out and decided to refer to Billy's alter ego as "Shazam" from now on because they were afraid to take on The House of Mouse. (Grrrr....)

Anyway (again), at 3 in the morning, while thinking this over, I started to realize (4 years later, I know, but I can be a little slow) that this puts Captain Marvel Jr. in a bad spot. If there's no Captain Marvel, then there's no Captain Marvel Jr. because then there's no Captain Marvel for Freddy Freeman to idolize. And if there's no Captain Marvel, then that puts Mary Marvel in a bad spot too. And the 3 Lieutenant Marvels. And Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. And probably any other number of characters. I'm sure someone else had brought this up before because they're quicker on the uptake, but by this one wimpy decision DC's messed up a dozen or so characters in their library.

"How shortsighted that seems", I thought, and thus guaranteed that I wouldn't get any more sleep last night.

I'll be right there...

deviantArt user nebezial (doesn't that sound like a manga series?) plays off the fact that Billy's still a kid.

Kataclysmic Kane Krossover!!

Among the many delightful images at the Cosmic Code Authority Facebook page, I found this delightful mash-up image. Click here to go straight to the post, but make sure to browse around and check out the really creative images going on there!

Captains Marvel!

Over at the Byrne Robotics forums, I found this little gem. Not only does Mr. Byrne offer a rendition of Mar-Vell's silver-haired look, but he also give him a pair of non-Nega-Band wrist blasters like he used to wear when he wore his green and white Kree togs!

Billy looks quite amused.

Can Miracleman come out to play?

In this variant cover for the upcoming Miracleman: Silver Age #3 (which pays homage to the classic cover for Superman #252), Miracleman misses out on the fun of the Silver Age.

Poor Miracleman...

...


If you'd like to see a nice article on the cover from which Carlos Pacheco is referencing, head over here for some nice scans and a cool index to show who all is enjoying themselves in DC's Silver Age.

Miracle Jam! (May contain seeds)

While wasting time doing research, I came across this delightful jam cover for the Miracleman reprint series. See, I'm old enough to remember reading this as it was published, so seeing this brought back a wave of nostalgia. I remember being particularly fond of the Warpsmiths (which are discussed in this nice article over at the Forbidden Planet blog). I recall this striking image cementing that fondness:

Looking at the design, I can see that the same infant stimulation color aesthetic of red, black, and white that has been a success for characters like Deadpool, Harley Quinn, and Spider-Man is in full evidence here. The Warpsmiths were a bit like a spookier and weirder Green Lantern Corps/Lensman Corps that played a key role in Miracleman's origins. 

Follow the link for more beautiful images and cool links. I may have to do a follow-up...

Catching up with Monica Rambeau

While perusing Facebook to see what's been going on in the world while I was away at the Rock of Eternity (see previous post), I came across this article from last year which offers a nice summary of the ups and downs of Monica Rambeau's comics career.

I was lucky enough to encounter Ms. Rambeau in her very first appearance and I've been a fan ever since.

And if anyone is having trouble pronouncing her last name, here's a little video clip that provides a helpful guide.

Whoa!

It's easy to lose track of time when visiting the Rock of Eternity! I'd better get back to work...!

Time to welcome a new member to the Marvel Family!!

Everyone has been reporting about the new Ms. Marvel (but I get my info from The Beat, so that's what I'm linking to) and we're no exception here at The Clubhouse. Still, here's the New York Times article that the Beat gets its quotes from.

While the articles are short on specifics so far, we do have these details:

With most superheroes, when you take away the colorful costume, mask and cape, what you find underneath is a white man. But not always. In February, as part of a continuing effort to diversify its offerings, Marvel Comics will begin a series whose lead character, Kamala Khan, is a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City.

No exploding planet, death of a relative or irradiated spider led to Kamala’s creation. Her genesis began more mundanely, in a conversation between Sana Amanat and Steve Wacker, two editors at Marvel. “I was telling him some crazy anecdote about my childhood, growing up as a Muslim-American,” Ms. Amanat said. “He found it hilarious.” Ms. Amanat and Mr. Wacker noted the dearth of female superhero series and, even more so, of comics with cultural specificity.

The Beat goes on to explain Kamala's boxing glove hands and background:

Kamala has body-morphing powers, a power-set which sets her up for heroism – but also for problems at home, with her conservative family and social life. After she gains her powers, she’ll be taking on the Ms Marvel mantle in tribute to her hero, Carol Danvers, whom she will be attempting to follow in the steps of. In perhaps a telling quote from the announcement interview with George Gene Gustines, Wilson states:

Captain Marvel represents an ideal that Kamala pines for. She’s strong, beautiful and doesn’t have any of the baggage of being Pakistani and ‘different’.

Which speaks volumes about the personality of the character already. 

Jeepers, with hands like that, hopefully she (and Carol Danvers) will make an appearance in the next Marvel vs. Capcom game.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out. It looks pretty exciting!

Holy moley! Marvelman has a Wikia page!

Never having officially appeared in a Marvel comic, Marvelman is in a bit of limbo until Marvel actually does something with him. Still, I was surprised to see that Micky Moran has an entry on the Marvel Wikia.

Among the interesting notes along the bottom (which I've copied in case the notes get edited away):

• Marvelman was created as a 'replacement' for the original Captain Marvel when publishers Len Miller & Sons, who held the rights to reprint Fawcett Publications' Captain Marvel stories in the UK, were denied any further stories to reprint by National Comics' (DC Comics) legal action against Fawcett. The characters of Marvelman, Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman are effectively new versions of Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and Mary Marvel (poor Mary having undergone an unexpected sex change to become 'Johnny Bates') created by Mick Anglo. In place of the original Captain Marvel's trademark cry of Shazam, Marvelman used the code word Kimota to effect his transformations, while the wizard Shazam himself was replaced by 'astrophysicist' Guntag Bargholm and Station Whiz News by the Daily Bugle. The character was later revived in an updated form by Quality Communications in 1982 in the anthology magazine Warrior and these stories were later reprinted, and subsequently continued, by Eclipse Comics, though for the US market he was renamed 'Miracleman'. The ownership of these later stories has been the subject of a lengthy and controversial legal battle, though Marvel now own the rights to the original version of the character. The series ran from 1954-1963.

• Analogues of Marvelman and Young Marvelman (Miracleman and Rick) existed on Earth-238, but were seemingly slaughtered by the Fury.
• The version of Marvelman's origin given here is the original, from 1954. Later accounts contradict or revise it to a significant degree. Many of the powers listed above were also not apparent in the character's original incarnation, Marvelman then being restricted to basically super strength, super speed and flight.

Note the links to Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and Mary Marvel on the DC Wikia. Also note the link to the Fury, which was a major storyline in the Captain Britain book.

Oh, heck. While we're doing this, here's the entry for Marvelman's history:

Micky Moran was a young orphan working as a copy boy for the Daily Bugle (no relation to the other Daily Bugle) who was apparently given the power to tap into the 'key harmonic of the universe' by an Astrophysicist by the unlikely name of Guntag Barghelt (sometimes spelled Barghelm or Bargholm), although it was never made clear what an astrophysicist was doing with this information to begin with. Simply saying the word 'Kimota' (which is very nearly but not quite 'Atomic' spelled backwards) would transform the adolescent Micky into the adult, and superhuman, Marvelman! This gift, the dying Barghelt bestowed upon Micky because he was honest, studious and good, and would therefore use his powers only in the cause of justice. Later, Marvelman would obtain two kid sidekicks: Dicky Dauntless, AKA Young Marvelman, and Johnny Bates, AKA Kid Marvelman, collectively known as the Marvelman Family.

And here's a listing of his powers and abilities:

Powers

Superhuman strength,Invulnerability,Superhuman stamina,Superhuman speed,Flight,Superhuman senses,longevity,Force-fields and concussive energy blasts with the potential to gain greater energy manipulation powers,telepathy and telekinesis. Marvelman over time will steadily increase in power.

Abilities

Scientific Genius-Level Intellect

Strength level

Class 100+; Michael can lift well over 100 tons

Weaknesses

unknown

I don't imagine doing this sort of thing with all of the characters covered in this blog. I just thought that this entry will end up changing once Marvel reveals their secret plans with lots of fanfare and hype for Marvelman.

Some of the folk covered at this website...

...are combined in this great image by John Trumbull.

This image is showcased in an article on CBR in their The Line it is Drawn column. There are some other great images there, but this is the one in the interests of this blog. Go check it out. Make sure to check out John Trumbull's artwork as well. Look for the one where Boston Brand meets the Ghostbusters.

Click to embiggen.

This week, at The Fire and Water Podcast...

Over at The Fire and Water Podcast, Shagg Matthews and Rob Kelly cover volume 14 of Who's Who. And who might be included in that particular issue? I wonder...

If you haven't been listening to Shagg and Rob's podcasts celebrating the publication of Who's Who, you could do well by starting with this one. Bear in mind that Rob has a long standing grudge against Captain Marvel, but we'll try not to hold it against him. Much.

Awesome art by Kurt Schaffenberger. Click to embiggen and read the entry.

The Thing battles Black Adam!

Fan favorite website Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues! has been posting covers of fantasy match-ups featuring inter-company crossovers the likes I used to dream about when I was a wee lad. (And probably would nowadays if I had the time!)

Here's a rather cool cover featuring the Thing squaring off against Black Adam. Black Adam (before the nu52 era of books) seemed to be positioned as the Sub-Mariner of the DC Universe with his "is he a hero or is he a villain?" status. Plus the fact that he's dressed in black and yellow, is often seen sporting pointed ears, and seems to go to the same barber as Namor helped to visually cement that impression.

Fairly Odd Captain Marvel

Over at Odd World Pixels, Chris Lopez reimagines different characters as part of the cast of Fairly Odd Parents. Some of the results are fairly odd.

Here, he imagines Captain Marvel in a way that reminds me of Jorgen von Strangle or the Crimson Chin. (Yes, I watch TV with my kids.) If you poke around Chris' posts, you can see a nice variety of different takes on well known characters. (His J. Jonah Jameson one is pretty darned good.) Go check them out.

Captain Marvel sighted in Springfield

Ever wonder what the original Captain Marvel would look like if he appeared on "The Simpsons"?

Well, wonder no more!

Over at Springfield Punx, moderator Dean T. Fraser has been steadily making Simpsons versions of your favorite characters. In addition to the good Captain here, he's got versions of Doctor Who (several incarnations), members of the Batman family, and much more. Go check it out. It's a wonderful labor of love. He even has tutorials on how to do your own versions, and a healthy section of fan art from other people.

Well worth a look.

Random Panels

The always-amazing Ben Caldwell draws the good Captain (with inks by Derek Fridolfs and borrowed from his deviantArt page) in these panels from (I believe) a recent issue of Justice League Beyond. I'll have to check into this further. I'm not sure if this is a future version of Freddy Freeman or if it's still Billy Batson, but it's still pretty good and worth sharing!

Carol Corps fans the flame on Tumblr

Over on Tumblr, fans have created a fun page devoted to Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, Known as The Carol Corps, they have a bunch of cool images, fan art, and all-around neat things centered on their love for the current Captain Marvel.

They even have a link to cool papercraft models of Captain Marvel, Black Widow and Sharon Carter.

There are also plenty of cosplay images and cool previews of a Captain Marvel-styled hoodie.

This would be a cool hoodie to see at the mall. Why is Marvel not doing this already?

The Carol Corps also have a cool deviantArt page where they collect submissions of fanart of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel only. No Ms. Marvel (or Binary, I suppose) imagery please. That page is also worth checking out.

Carol Danvers' Captain Marvel News

I have to figure out some way to differentiate Carol Danvers' current incarnation as Captain Marvel without constantly mentioning her name. But in the meantime, here's another story from The Beat talking about the relaunch of her title, with Kelly Sue DeConnick as writer and David Lopez on art.

Click on image to embiggen. Oh, and the image above is by Leinil Francis Yu, not David Lopez.

The comments below the article suggest that the book was not doing well, and that hopes for a stable creative team will help sales improve. Let's hope this is the case.

Who is...The Original Writer?

Over at The Beat, Heidi MacDonald points to an article which points out that Alan Moore is not listed in solicitations for the upcoming Miracleman reprints. It seems as though The Original Writer Formerly Known as Alan Moore (from now on referred to as TOWFKAAM) wishes to have no dealings with Marvel and wishes to have his name struck from the reprints. More details in the link above.

Maybe Moore should come up with a sigil much as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince had done.

 

 (Oh, and if Alan Moore should come across this and read it, please don't curse me. I completely understand if you don't want to deal with Marvel/Disney. I just think that the moniker "Original Writer" seems like a silly and non-creative way to deal with this. Surely something more clever could have been done.)

Still, as Heidi suggests, I think I'll hold onto my original editions as well.