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[Ed Love]

More than one Golden Eagle, got the GA one that looked a bit like Blackhawk with a color change and the Teen Titans one.

Silver Sorceress (compadre of Blue Jay, though she didn't wear much silver).
Silver Ranger
Speed Silvers
Silver the horse

[phabox]

Lets take a look at what we have in the way of 'Whites'-

White Feather

White Indian

White Mask

White Panther (aka Red Panther ?)

White Rajah

White Rider

White Streak

White Tiger

White Witch


Going 'Back to Black' I think Kirby had a character in his 'Fourth World' series called the Black Racer, somewhat tellingly like many characters with a similar name he was a Negro/African-American.

Thank Heavens that when Luke Cage was renamed from 'Hero For Hire' they DID'NT call him " Black-Power Man"  !!!

-Nigel

[John C]

Silver Sorceress (compadre of Blue Jay, though she didn't wear much silver).

One imagines that she inherited her--errr--chromoclastic tendencies from Silver Streak, who, being a speedster, could at least have had the decency to leave behind a sparkling contrail or something when he ran.  But nooo...

[Ed Love]

I don't know why people keep saying the White Panther and the Red Panther are the same character. Other than the latter taking over the former's slot in the book, there is nothing similar to them in look or m.o. The White Panther actually had powers, the Red Panther was a costumed jungle lord. Now, the Red Panther's second costume is almost identical to the Congo Raider apart from color scheme so CR's one story was probably lifted.

[John C]

It's yet another of those oft-repeated "facts," Ed--we recently discussed some similar issues with Blue Beetle.  Someone, somewhere along the line, before having read the comics, says "I assume this is the case," then everybody thereafter takes it as an article of faith.

In this case, though, I think it clings despite the source material being available, because comic fans tend to like to form a "universe" around every set of characters and make them fit together.  And, of course, two characters from the same series having the same motif?  They MUST be related.

[phabox]

I did my original listings years ago, long before the internet gave me the chance to actually read these characters stories so got most of the info from the works of Ron Goulart and others so any mistakes like Red/White Panther being the same character ( or not as the case may be) would have came from these sources.

-Nigel

[Ed Love]

I'm running into the same problem with the Centaur characters. When I made my lists, there was little actual comics from the company reprinted, so I relied heavily on Geoffrey Tolle's webpage. Actually working on a Centaur project and reading the majority of the comics for the first time, I am discovering that he had left a lot of information from a fanfic history he had been working on in the information and having to go through and cull a lot of erroneous info out of my site. The core info is basically true, but there's a lot of added details just not in the stories (such as characters' real names).

[phabox]

A Few left overs;

Cinnamon

Gray Seal



Purple Claw

Purple Mask

Purple Tigress

Purple Zombie




Yellow Claw

Yellowjacket *



and what about BLOND ? is that a colour ?

If so that would give us;-

Blond Bomber

Blond Phantom

Back to Black once again their was also the 'original' Batman-The Black Bat but as far as I know he was only a pulp character like 'the Man of Bronze' Doc Savage but of course he did cross over into comic books.

I think thats about all from me for now so over to you Ed.

-Nigel

[John C]

Back to Black once again their was also the 'original' Batman-The Black Bat but as far as I know he was only a pulp character like 'the Man of Bronze' Doc Savage but of course he did cross over into comic books.

Like most popular Nedor Pulp characters (and like many Pulp characters in general), the Black Bat did make the transition into the comics, but under name.  You'll find Tony Quinn as Tony Colby, the Mask.

Based on his calling card and mask, I assume that he was originally supposed to be the Owl, but changed at the last minute.  Maybe because there were other Owls getting launched, and they were already in hot water over the Black Bat himself.  Only the original writers and editors would know that for sure, however.

(Along similar lines--though it doesn't help the color discussion--Ace's Raven character is a renamed Moon Man without the absurdly fragile mirrored glass helmet.)

[phabox]

Did'nt The Black Bat PREDATE Batman by about four years?

That being the case would have put DC/National in the wrong I would have thought  .

-Nigel

[Ed Love]

There were different Black Bat (& Bat) characters, there was an otherwise un-named detective who solved crimes but he didn't wear a costume. The Tony Quinn version who debuted with a very similar look as Batman debuted in the pulps almost simultaneously as Batman did in the comics. The story goes that neither could prove the other was more than a coincidence due to the closeness of the time they hit the streets, so Nedor agreed not to do a Black Bat comic. The pulp character had a respectable pulp run. One has to wonder though, as Finger did read a lot of pulps and Kane is known for his swipes and taking credit where it wasn't due: Batman did have a whole lot of pulp influences. Doc Savage through training and gimmicks, the Whisperer where the title character is Commissioner James "Wildcat" Gordon (and Wildcat was one of the proposed names for Robin and did get used as another character created by Finger), the glove fins came from the Black Bat, the Bat Signal from the Phantom Detective, Batman's origin story is almost verbatim to the Bat whereas Black Bat's origin was used for Two-Face and Dr. Mid-Nite

[John C]

I can't prove anything, of course, because nobody who was there would ever admit to such a thing, but I have what I think is a pretty solid working theory of what happened with the Black Bat and Batman.

What we DO know is that the Black Bat was considered and planned early in 1939, but was put on hold for a while.  Then, DC asked Bob Kane to come up with something new, and both Batman and the Black Bat hit the stands within a month of one another.

When DC threatened to sue, Whitney Ellsworth acted as go-between between the companies and brokered the deal, being an old friend and colleague of Ned Pines at Nedor/Standard/etc.

Add in the accepted story of Batman's creation (that Kane came up with a hodge-podge of unworkable ideas which were fixed by Bill Finger), and I think the story falls into place nicely.  (But remember, it's only speculation.)

It sounds to me like Ellsworth might have gotten wind of the Black Bat when it was proposed.  When Kane submitted his clunker Batman design, editor Ellsworth would have taken the "abandoned" Nedor idea and suggested his favorite elements to Finger, who worked on them with Kane.  You'll notice that Batman became MORE like the Black Bat in costume, not less, by the way.  Finger added the scalloped gloves, for example, well after the first Batman (and Black Bat) story hit the stands.

Then, when legal action was a distinct possibility, they only guy we know had a foot in both camps smoothed it over, probably by admitting that he screwed up and didn't want to get anybody at either company in trouble.

And yeah, the Black Bat turned out a really good run, lasting to 1954, as I recall, with good sales numbers all the way (I've heard him referred to as "second tier," which is high praise, considering that only really puts him behind the likes of Doc Savage and the Shadow).  They're also decent stories, from the few that I've read.  Nothing spectacular, but certainly enjoyable.

[Yoc]

Nice topic going here guys, please keep the coming!

[Janus Wolf]

You know you can learn alot from the characters here, and get some good ideas. Black, White, Gold, Silver, Green, Blue, Red, Purple all kind of sound cool. But what about Brown?

[phabox]

Brown IS a tough one, how about former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D Laura BROWN ?

-Nigel

[darkmark]

Well, there's always Walt Kelly's The Brownies.

[KnightRandom]

And let's not forget the worst character concept in the entire history of comics (and boy is that saying a lot), the Black/Brown Bomber.

[John C]

You know, while Isabella's description suggests that the actual writing was terrible (and I dislike the origin, since he wouldn't actually be Black at all), I don't see the Black Bomber--as a concept--as being particularly odious.  Think of the civilian identity as the real villain of the piece, and you have a series where we cheer the villain on because we know his hubris-laden fall will lead to good things for the community.

It's lacks the satisfaction of, for example, having Superman rewire Luthor's death-dealing gizmo to protect peoople, but it could still be a lot of fun.

Not that I'm disappointed with how things turned out.  Black Lightning is a great character (in Isabella's hands, at least) and definitely wouldn't have gotten out there had the Bomber been kept.

(Incidentally, would the Brown Hornet count...?  Never made it to the comics, as far as I know, but he's still kinda-sorta a superhero.)

[Ed Love]

I would guess that part of the reason there's a paucity of "Brown" characters is the fact that the color was a difficult one for printing at the time. Of what we consider the main colors from a crayola box, brown and gray are made up of 3 primary colors. Working in the newspaper on graphics, always tended to hate getting things that specified brown or gray as colors because it wouldn't take much on the press end to make the color look like something else or at least not the shade or hue desired. Also, since they use another color, it also means a 50% increase in chance that the color won't register. Thus, a lot of times when you see orange used, it's meant to be brown (ala the GA Sandman's hat and gloves), grays often looked to be a bit purple.

Lastly, I'd say just that for some reason a character called the "Brown X" just doesn't have that ring or pizazz in the name or color. It just sounds a bit blah and underwhelming.

[John C]

Thus, a lot of times when you see orange used, it's meant to be brown (ala the GA Sandman's hat and gloves), grays often looked to be a bit purple.

I'm feeling very disillusioned about Sandman, now.  Imagining him in brown and gray isn't nearly as interesting.

Next you'll be telling me that the Hulk was changed due for the sake of better coloration...

(Yes, I know that's exactly the case.)