[John C]

When you're living on your savings, this economy is pretty scary. The only difference between 2

[Guardian7]

Earlier in the post (and yes I know this is an older one), someone mentioned about visual appeal of certain characters. Namely; Arrow and Fantom (Fantoman).

I believe that Mini-Midget and Ritty had great looks as well.
Man of War was VERY visually appealing and so to was Fire Man.
Masked Marvel had a good look and appeared (it seems) on a lot of covers.
TNT Todd looked like some kind of Golden Age (Legion) Wildfire.
Blue Lady had a really great look.
Airman and Owl both were visually appealing.
and finally I think that Solarman and Star Spangled Brannor were decent enough lookings as well.

Visually I Amazing Man needs something. But I am not sure what. I personally wouldn't change much of anything as he visually is good looking. I know the remake of him in the "Protectors" comic was hideous (nothing anywhere nearing his better looking haydays).
Though I guess most of the characters that appeared in that god awful "Protectors" series were not that well designed (Though maybe Zardi the Eternal Man looked okay...).

Just my opinions.

G7

[narfstar]

Given how short lived the company was it is surprising how many fans they now have. I too am a big Centaur fan

[darkmark]

I tried writing an Amazing Man story or two for Malibu when the Protectors came out.  The stories weren't great enough and they weren't accepted. So much for that.

[bchat]

darkmark - It might not have been that your stories weren't good enough.  RA Jones had longterm plans for the character, and maybe your story conflicted with that.  They also planned to do a one-shot or mini-series for Amazing Man, so again, it's possible that your story was "great enough" but simply did not fit within their plans.

Did you ever do anything with the stories (post online, rework into something else)?

Guardian7 - I'm a fan of both the original Centuar characters and Malibu's Protectors.  I don't think what Malibu did was "hideous" or "god awful".  Anything Malibu did with the original Ferret's costume could only have been an improvement.

[Guardian7]

Bchat - I have all of the Protectors. In my honest opinion they were truely bad comics (bad writing, designs and artwork). Just an opinion (But one shared by many).
I personally saw Ferret as just Wildchild from Alpha Flight (jumping on the Wolverine Craze due to the name... and I dislike that character too - I wish Thunderbird had lived and Wolverine had died in X-Men #96 - I have never liked the character or any of his replicants that have appeared).
Course no less than my feeling Gravestone (Fantom) was just some twisted take on Ghost Rider.
Amazing Man couldn't have looked more hideous. Just the worst looking character in the book.

Which is all sad since I have been into the Centaur Comics (HUGE FAN) since a three span article in a Comics Feature I have from back in the 80s (Yes I still have them).

Though I did not like the series. I did support it (now that is dedication to something I feel could have become worthwhile - Though I wouldn't have held my breath for that particular series).

To each their own I suppose.


Darkmark - So what was the story? was it more of the original flair? or something designed for the umm newer version? (You don't have to give away the entire story in case your saving it for "One Day!"... just a basic idea.

Ideally if I did a comic it would probably feature:

Amazing Man (with Tommy and definitely Zona)
Fantom
Arrow (or the Marksman - though the Arrow would be used in some capacity/possibly solo or a team-up comic)
Blue Lady
Man of War
Fire Man or Blue Fire
Vapo-Man or Electric Ray This would be a hard choice because I like both.
Owl (or possibly Air Man - Though like Arrow, Air Man would be used in some capacity)
Plymo
Super Ann (with Mighty Man somewhere in there)
TNT Todd cause he is cool looking!

Certainly King of Darkness, Shark, Mini-Midget/Ritty, Iron Skull and Solarman, would all make appearences in some way or manner.

The Inner Circle also be a part of it.
Reef Kinkade is an awesome character and I loved his adventures (But there are a lot of characters that were pretty awesome like him - even some of those with only One-Shots).
Agent type stuff using the Inner Circle with Characters like Masked Marvel and Star Spangled Brannor would be way sweet.

Here is a sketch I did of Masked Marvel and an older looking Star Spangled Brannor which I used my fast capture to quickly do some shading stuff with to give a better look of what I was going for (by no means a finished piece - and yes I know Brannor should be Branner and it should be "Star Spangles" Branner).



I would love to redraw the Chuck Hardy Stories (Though I think my style just would never measure up to the gorgeous originals and their quirky appeal). I love them and the Land Beneath the Sea.

Lord... I could blither on and on about Centaur!

Cya
G7

[darkmark]

Nope, never did anything online w/ that.  Wasn't too satisfied with it myself.  I did reintro A-Man's sidekick and girlfriend from the Golden Age, but I don't think they were too interested in that.

[comicsnorth]

For what it's worth, Malibu's Ferret remains my favorite Wolverine knock-off, and considering how many characters that covers, that's quite a compliment.  Still, I have a strong affection for the truly wonky Centaur Ferret as well.

One thing I never understood about the Protectors is why Man of War & Amazing-Man both moved their emblems from their chests to their pants when they were "modernized", and why did Aman start wearing a mask, when he didn't seem to be maintaining any kind of secret identity?

-Comicsnorth

[bchat]

comicsnorth - I liked Malibu's Ferret well enough, although I found most of the issues fairly weak.  I think they were turning a corner with the return of Iron Skull and the introduction of Deathsong in issues 9 & 10, but alas, the line was cancelled at that point.  That's not to say that I hate the original Centaur Ferret, but there's no getting around the fact that he was saddled with one of the worst costumes I've ever seen a Golden Age character wear.
  Amazing Man was supposed to get his own series from Malibu at one point.  I'ld imagine that the issue of his wearing a mask would have been addressed eventually had that materialized.
  I thought Man of War's costume looked alright depending on who was drawing it.  Some of the artists working for Malibu didn't extend the eagle's tail all the way down into his shorts.

[narfstar]

You all have better memories than I. I have the Malibu stuff and read it but do remember it.

[Guardian7]

Man of War was probably the closest they got to being right.

The rest... ugh.
I disliked Air Man's feet.
Aman looked hideous.
Blue Lady was absolutely removed from anything resembling her original aspects (which would have been massively more interesting than what they did).
Gravestone...
Ferret... I understand the need to alter him... but I just wish they had not done the standard chip on his shoulder wolverine knock off like they did. just massively unappealing (To me).
The Shark... lol... what was that all about?
Arrow was pretty damn close and I didn't mind the costume (Though I would have prefered his original look or at least something that vaguely resembled it).
The intro of Fury shocked me...
Iron Skull... not so sure about all of that...
The Eye - Whatever... it was a vague creature/aspect anyhow.

All in all I think they could have done better. they tried. I will give them that. I have all the issues and well there is that (At least I did support it... even if I was utterly dissatisfied).

The Issue with Masked Marvel was very distasteful I think (and kinda disrepectful), But then everyone was starting to jump on the "KILL WAGON".

G7

[Ed Love]

With the Protectors, I just felt that really they were just new characters using the old names and in some cases motifs and powers. They were ok but nothing really special. Likewise, the artwork and the storytelling, none of it was really layered or great other than the few Neal Adams influenced Hawbaker covers. I don't mind some tweaking and re-designs, but felt for the most part, they chucked a lot of what made the characters interesting.

Am I the only one that remembers interviews/news in a comics magazine with promo art and that the Protectors were to be MORE than just the Centaur characters, they had redesigns of the Holyoke Catman and Mango's villain the Claw for example?

Been reading a whole lot of Centaur books lately, trying to get decent images of all the characters. There are some strange characters. It's interesting in just how many characters have some kind of gas type power: Amazing Man, Blue Lady, Fire Man, Vapo-man, Mantoka. Even the Sentinel appears and disappears with a bit of flame & smoke and Man of War could transport via explosions. We have TWO modern day Native American heroes in Mantoka and the Red Blaze, and the pioneer hero Ermine whose main thing is to kill marauding Indians. A cross-dressing hero called Cat-man, a flying Eye, and the super powered Speed Centaur. A stretching size changing hero in Mighty Man and his opposite number the permanently shrunken Mini-midget and Ritty with the Midget most often wearing Aquaman's orange and green. Why does the Shark wear a mask?

[John C]

Why does the Shark wear a mask?

Without the mask, he's just some pasty dude running around in his underpants, really, and nobody wants to read about that.

But yeah, one of the things I like most about the Centaur books is that the characters unilaterally look almost like the writers submitted the stories as a joke to see if anybody was paying attention.  Even someone as simple as the Masked Marvel just had to be balding.

I'd say they're as weird as they get, but there was the Gernsback book someone posted that made NO sense...

[JVJ]

Why does the Shark wear a mask?

Obviously to hide from the dolphins and the whales, Ed...

(|:{>

[Guardian7]

I haven't downloaded it yet... but I was curious if it was really the Gods that Craig Carter summoned from his ring... or if it was just some sort of aspect of them (I think there is a difference due to the fact of how they would act - at least by terms of their "True" mythological counterparts).

That was funny by the way JVJ... hiding from the Dolphins and Whales (Maybe when he took the mask off... he was Arthur Curry/Aquaman and just said his Dad was a lighthouse keeper.

The Shark's dad was a bit of a flip character. He kinda cracked me up when he wasn't being bumpkin-headed.

If Craig Carter used his ring... could "Pops" Neptune pop out? Hmm food for thought there.

G7

[comicsnorth]

I've read the first Craig Carter story, and Neptune didn't show up in that.  I am wondering it Nep or Mars from Man of War turn up in Craig's second and final appearance, which of course is in that legendary Wham Comics #2!

-comicsnorth

[darkmark]

Guardian:  It was more in the original flair and I did a couple versions of it, one as a stand-alone short story and the other, I think, as a two-issue mini.  Both dealt with the death of AMan's sidekick Tommy at the hands of a Nazi ally of the Great Question's.  (In the first one, AMan used psychic power to distort the Nazi's body into the shape of a swastika, which, of course, killed him.)  I figured the Great Question's name was derived from the "great question" of life after death, and the Great Que was obsessed with what happened to the souls of the people he killed.  Zona was in the second version, too.  So much for that.

[crimsoncrusader]

I've read the first Craig Carter story and he does literally summon the gods or mythological creatures. Zeus comes out of the ring frequently and interacts with Craig. He also rides Pegasus for transportation.  The cool thing about him was while he only was shown summoning Greek myths when Craig asks if he could summon Thor, Zeus confirms he could.

[Ed Love]

Have to keep in mind that inter-strip continuity wasn't very big back then. Heck, continuity drifted by the wayside just as the strips progressed such as the decade that Iron Skull operates in.  Even if Neptune or Mars was used, they probably wouldn't reflect their counterparts in the other strips. Plus, I'm not sure if Pop Neptune was meant to be THE Neptune. The backstory evolved and changed a bit over time. His firs appearance suggests he's supposed to be the Neptune and is the father of all undersea beings, but later it's revealed that the Shark is the son of Neptune and a Mermaid which would be a little incestuous if the first statement is true (although common enough in Greek myths). It also gets revealed that a couple of centuries earlier, Pop Neptune was actually the Shark, so the names become more of job titles than real names. I sometimes wonder if his long life hasn't driven ole Pappy a little bit nuts.

If you are doing a modern series while trying to keep as much of the history possible, characters like Man of War, Craig Carter, Pop Neptune and the nature of the gods is something that eventually has to be addressed and reconciled. Even moreso if you go the SUPERPOWERS route and bring in heroes from other companies that include Vulcan (Ace), Thor (Fox), Hercules (MLJ), Diana (Communale), the god Mars (Fiction), Thesson (Nedor), Atlas (Great). Even Ibis once encountered Loki and called on Thor to handle him.

[comicsnorth]

I would never have expected Craig Carter's version of Neptune or Mars to be the same as the ones in the Shark or Man of War, I just thought it would be interesting to see them.

Actually, if Neptune's relationship with that mermaid was incestuous, that would actually strengthen the case for Nep being an Olympian god...it has long bugged me tho that not only did the Shark's mother never put in an appearance, neither did any mermaids or mermen of any kind.  Centaur gave us at least two different species of amphibious frog-people (in Chuck Hardy & Reef Kinkaid), but no mer-folk that I've seen.

On at least one occasion, Man of War, who had the powers of all the Olympian gods (or sometimes just the ones with planets named for them) channeled the power of Neptune to breath under water.

-comicsnorth

[Guardian7]

Even though there are or never truely has been any sort of continunity in the pages of the Centaur heroes (This being mainly do to NO CROSSOVERS which connects/knits the fabrics of fictional realities togather)... I still believe there is a case for it.
If only due to the Cover of Stars and Stripes #2. Primarily... because Mini-Midget is sitting on Amazing Man's shoulder which the Atom (E1) would do many times on Superman's (E1) shoulder. WEAK... I know... but M-Midget is seen intereacting with Aman on that cover at the very least.

I still believe there is the smallest likelihood of a connection between Craig Carter's magic ring and the myths of legend (which might include their representitives within the pages of Centaur... or at least eventually would have, if "Centaur" had continued).

G7

[comicsnorth]

I think it's unlikely that Centaur would ever have developed any cross-strip crossovers on their own, even if they had lasted longer, as Golden Age crossovers were pretty rare at even the longest running companies.  Look at how long Superman & Batman shared the covers of World's Finestbefore they ever teamed up in that title!  And as for the mythological characters, DC continues to have multiple conflicting versions of Hercules running around, along with a number of other gods that pop up less frequently.  I must confess, I keep thinking about how much fun it would have been if some of the creators who had more than one Centaur character had crossed over their own creations at some point--Red Blaze really should have met Fire-Man, and it would have been fun to have the Owl fly thru a Mighty Man adventure.  I'm not really sure what Dash Dartwell could have done for Dr. Synthe, tho...

I still find it odd (as I believe I mentioned somewhere up thread) that Centaur never made the obvious choice of putting out an "all-star" title, with Amazing-Man, Fantoman, the Arrow, Masked Marvel & Man of War, but even if they had, I doubt that a team would have formed in the process--the All-Winners Squad was an obvious development, but didn't happen until after the war, after all.

-Comicsnorth

[Roygbiv666]

I think it's unlikely that Centaur would ever have developed any cross-strip crossovers on their own, even if they had lasted longer, as Golden Age crossovers were pretty rare at even the longest running companies.  Look at how long Superman & Batman shared the covers of World's Finestbefore they ever teamed up in that title!  And as for the mythological characters, DC continues to have multiple conflicting versions of Hercules running around, along with a number of other gods that pop up less frequently.  I must confess, I keep thinking about how much fun it would have been if some of the creators who had more than one Centaur character had crossed over their own creations at some point--Red Blaze really should have met Fire-Man, and it would have been fun to have the Owl fly thru a Mighty Man adventure.  I'm not really sure what Dash Dartwell could have done for Dr. Synthe, tho...

I still find it odd (as I believe I mentioned somewhere up thread) that Centaur never made the obvious choice of putting out an "all-star" title, with Amazing-Man, Fantoman, the Arrow, Masked Marvel & Man of War, but even if they had, I doubt that a team would have formed in the process--the All-Winners Squad was an obvious development, but didn't happen until after the war, after all.

-Comicsnorth

I recall reading somewhere (therefore, I technically have no citation) that continuity primarily developed to make characters more believable. After all, real people (generally) remember what happened to them last week/month/year, so if characters don't, it can ruin the whole willing suspension of disbelief. "Continuity porn" is the obsessive compulsion that everything must fit together - sad, really.

At any rate, even the early JSA "team-ups" generally consisted of them meeting up at the beginning of a mission, then going their separate ways to have a little adventure, then get back together at the end to wrap up the case. I dont' think they were really a "team up" in modern sense.

Anyway, that's the beauty of something like "Project:Superpowers" - you can see all these Golden Agers together, albeit in a modern context.

[JVJ]

I recall reading somewhere (therefore, I technically have no citation) that continuity primarily developed to make characters more believable.

I think continuity developed simply to get people to buy more comic books. If the story "continued" in the next issue or in a different title, the odds increased that the reader would then buy it. Simple, really. Stan Lee took it to extremes and then the characters began to "remember" what had "happened" last issue. Sadly, those extremes are now the "norm."

(|:{>

[Roygbiv666]

I think it's unlikely that Centaur would ever have developed any cross-strip crossovers on their own, even if they had lasted longer, as Golden Age crossovers were pretty rare at even the longest running companies.  Look at how long Superman & Batman shared the covers of World's Finestbefore they ever teamed up in that title!  And as for the mythological characters, DC continues to have multiple conflicting versions of Hercules running around, along with a number of other gods that pop up less frequently.  I must confess, I keep thinking about how much fun it would have been if some of the creators who had more than one Centaur character had crossed over their own creations at some point--Red Blaze really should have met Fire-Man, and it would have been fun to have the Owl fly thru a Mighty Man adventure.  I'm not really sure what Dash Dartwell could have done for Dr. Synthe, tho...

I still find it odd (as I believe I mentioned somewhere up thread) that Centaur never made the obvious choice of putting out an "all-star" title, with Amazing-Man, Fantoman, the Arrow, Masked Marvel & Man of War, but even if they had, I doubt that a team would have formed in the process--the All-Winners Squad was an obvious development, but didn't happen until after the war, after all.

-Comicsnorth

I recall reading somewhere (therefore, I technically have no citation) that continuity primarily developed to make characters more believable...

Oh, yeah, it can be found here:
http://enterthestory.com/realtime_continuity.html