[John C]

I like to think that special mention should go to any of the major Golden Age heroes who were replaced in their own books by ordinary people and animals.  Daredevil got bumped by the Little Wise Guys.  Green Lantern was replaced by Streak, his dog.  To make it worse, the entire Justice Society, GL's refuge, was booted by a bunch of cowboys.  I mean, it was bad enough when the Star-Spangled Kid's strip got pirated by his kid sister Merry, but seriously, the rest of them, collectively, were replaced by a Golden Age Scooby Doo episode!

(See, it's four kids, a dog, and a bunch of cowboys, who'd be the villains...y'know, never mind.  Forget I brought it up.)

[rez]

This thread is cracking me up.
Half tempted to go digging to see what all might be in there.

Here's another one for everybody enjoyment. What a great guy and his co-stars!!!



Geo

[Geo (R.I.P.)]

This thread is cracking me up.
Half tempted to go digging to see what all might be in there.

Here's another one for everybody enjoyment. What a great guy and his co-stars!!!



Geo

I guess I should have explained his "super powers" more, which were that he could change into any kind of fruit conceivable to stop the inconsolable criminals. And of course as for his cover, was that he worked out of a grocery store, duh!!



Geo

[Yoc]

Among those bumped from their own books... After starring for years in Master Comics Capt Marvel Jr.  was bumped for a Sam Spade type named 'Radar'.
I hear CMjr 'never saw him coming.'   

And then there is also The Black Cat who was pushed aside for some horror fillers and even Capt. America was pushed off the boat to make room for the creepy crawlers for a couple issues before it folded in the GA.

-Yoc

[narfstar]

If you would like the Fruitman experience I have uploaded an adventure of his and his back up feature Sooper Hippie
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oddball_Characters_of_the_Silver_Age/files/

[loopyjoe]

Okay, here are some Archie characters who might belong on this thread:

The Comet: "After Professor John Dickering discovered a
gas "fifty times lighter then hydrogen", he injected it into his bloodstream
so that he could make great leaps into the air. He also discovered that when
he crossed his eyes, two beams of energy would fire out of them, disintegrating
anything he looked at." http://internationalhero.co.uk/c/comet.htm

Give that man a Nobel Prize!

And also the Web, simply because: "In the 1960's John's wife Rosie secretly trained herself and became his sidekick,
Pow Girl. Strangely enough, he didn't know who she really was." http://internationalhero.co.uk/w/web.htm

[boox909]

Okay, here are some Archie characters who might belong on this thread:

The Comet: "After Professor John Dickering discovered a
gas "fifty times lighter then hydrogen", he injected it into his bloodstream
so that he could make great leaps into the air. He also discovered that when
he crossed his eyes, two beams of energy would fire out of them, disintegrating
anything he looked at." http://internationalhero.co.uk/c/comet.htm

Give that man a Nobel Prize!

And also the Web, simply because: "In the 1960's John's wife Rosie secretly trained herself and became his sidekick, Pow Girl. Strangely enough, he didn't know who she really was." http://internationalhero.co.uk/w/web.htm

Pow Girl...now that is a totally new one on me... 

B.

[rez]

Entering comicdom in the middle '60s I can recall some fairly lame characters in DC's Legion of SuperHeroes
which seemingly had no limit. One character was Matter-Eater Lad who you guessed it, could eat anything. Another was Bouncing Boy who could blimp up nice and round and bounce all over the place.

These were serious characters not trying to be humorous although at the time it didn't appear too strange to have a superhero who could eat his way out of a prison wall.

I wonder if JimShooter had a hand in creating those guys.

[narfstar]

ME Lad and BB were part of the Legion proper as opposed to the poor saps who did not have powers worthy and formed the Legion of Substitute Heroes.  I LOVED EM ALL!!! There was nothing better to my juvenile mind.  They spent time writing stories that showed how valuable each of these lame characters could be to make us feel better about our inadequacies. And it worked.  I remember feeling uplifted.  My cousin lived in town and had a lot more money than I.  She read her books and passed them down to me.  She got all the Archie, Harvey and Superman family books.  Included in that was Adventure Comics because it had Superboy.  It also had the LSH which I believe above any other offering caused my life long love affair with the wonderful medium of comic books.

I also loved the Mighty Heroes over at Archie and The Web is often considered one of the more interesting as the hen pecked husband.

[Yoc]

I'm with Narf on this one.  I loved the Web! 
I always felt TVs 'Bewitched' had a 'Web' feel to it in an odd way.  I know it's just me - don't try and figure it out.   

[OtherEric]

Matter eater lad and Bouncing Boy were introduced well before Shooter took over the book (at the tender age of 13!)

Shooter did a lot to develop the character of Bouncing Boy, though.  He's one of my all-time favorite legionnaires.  (I'm an Adventure 247 away from having the whole run; so I'm definitely one of the insane LSH fans you run into on occasion.)

[rez]

Funny how those early Adventure issues with the Legion had such an impact on building the lifelong romance with comics. Thru all the ups and downs and selloffs that occurred over the years I always kept my Legion books. To have parted with them would have been some kind of sacrilege.

Do have a coverless247 and started chasing guest appearances awhile back. Think I got most of them. There were a slew.



The Substitute Legion had a character named StoneBoy.




He really rocked.

Matter eater lad and Bouncing Boy were introduced well before Shooter took over the book (at the tender age of 13!)

Shooter did a lot to develop the character of Bouncing Boy, though.  He's one of my all-time favorite legionnaires.  (I'm an Adventure 247 away from having the whole run; so I'm definitely one of the insane LSH fans you run into on occasion.)

[rez]

A Karma award goes to the first person to identify the comic title of this 'hero'...

[boox909]

A Karma award goes to the first person to identify the comic title of this 'hero'...

I am totally floored that such a thing was even published!

I can't wait to find out who this is!!! 


B.

[phabox]

Going on memory alone this character was one of the original 'Dial H' Heroes of Robby Reed in House of Mystery, not sure which issue but I'm guessing it was one of his earlier adventures.

-Nigel


H'mm Not as early as I thought, checking GCD 'Whatsis' was in fact from the 10th 'Dial H' House of Mystery issue, number # 165 March 1967, I even recall buying this issue 'new' when it first appeared in the UK round about September of 67.

-Nigel

[OtherEric]

That's it; you can see the H-dial.

[phabox]

Rather weirdly Plastic Man made his very first DC Comics appearance as one of Robby's H-Dial Heroes in House of Mystery_160 July 1966 before going onto his own ten issue series.

-Nigel

[rez]

SOCKAMAGEE Nigel!!! You have a beartrap memory recalling that!
One Karma coming your way.


And as if Whatsis wasn't bad enough the next hero, Howzis, sure gave him a run for his money...


And the splash from the past himself...

Going on memory alone this character was one of the original 'Dial H' Heroes of Robby Reed in House of Mystery, not sure which issue but I'm guessing it was one of his earlier adventures.

-Nigel


H'mm Not as early as I thought, checking GCD 'Whatsis' was in fact from the 10th 'Dial H' House of Mystery issue, number # 165 March 1967, I even recall buying this issue 'new' when it first appeared in the UK round about September of 67.

-Nigel

[BountyHunter]

I can't believe NFL SuperPro wasn't on the list.

Thrilled he's not, but still, in shock.  LOL

[rez]

That's right!
Ya know, I recall always seeing that comic and could never bring myself to read it.

I can't believe NFL SuperPro wasn't on the list.

Thrilled he's not, but still, in shock.  LOL

[rez]

[John C]

But if you're going to include the Dial-H identites, that might not be fair.  I mean, really, were ANY of them good...?  Even when Bob Rozakis tried to take it seriously, toward the end of the Adventure run, the concepts weren't exactly marketable.  Next, you'll be going after all the characters created in the '90s...

Howzis and Whatzis excepted, of course.  It's really scraping the bottom of the barrel when you can't even be bothered with the name.

On the other hand, how about a different direction?  What about the characters who really have nothing to recommend them, and yet became the favorites of both the writers and fans for no good reason?  The example that comes to my mind is Zatanna.  She's a legacy hero of a guy nobody remembers and whose stories made no sense.  She can do anything, which means that every story including her is required to explain why she didn't wave the problem away.  And in stories where she's allowed to be useful, her gimmick slows down reading the action while you rearrange the letters in the spell.  And she kinda dresses like a hooker.

While I don't deny that some writers have built interesting stories around her, I'd say that she should rate at least as crappy as the Red Bee, right?  Heck, she wasn't even introduced as a superhero--she was a damsel in distress soliciting (heh) the likes of Hawkman.  How sad a case do you have to be for Hawkman to be a step up?  "I'm all-powerful, but what I really need is a guy with wings and a mallet to help me!"

[rez]

HEY! I kinda liked that guy with the wings! Even thought that 3 issue run from whenever...10-20 years or so back... was pretty good.





eh, maybe I should go back and reread that early DC run. At least I liked them back then.
Then again I lived and breathed the Legion of SuperHeroes back in them days, too.

But if you're going to include the Dial-H identites, that might not be fair.  I mean, really, were ANY of them good...?  Even when Bob Rozakis tried to take it seriously, toward the end of the Adventure run, the concepts weren't exactly marketable.  Next, you'll be going after all the characters created in the '90s...

Howzis and Whatzis excepted, of course.  It's really scraping the bottom of the barrel when you can't even be bothered with the name.

On the other hand, how about a different direction?  What about the characters who really have nothing to recommend them, and yet became the favorites of both the writers and fans for no good reason?  The example that comes to my mind is Zatanna.  She's a legacy hero of a guy nobody remembers and whose stories made no sense.  She can do anything, which means that every story including her is required to explain why she didn't wave the problem away.  And in stories where she's allowed to be useful, her gimmick slows down reading the action while you rearrange the letters in the spell.  And she kinda dresses like a hooker.

While I don't deny that some writers have built interesting stories around her, I'd say that she should rate at least as crappy as the Red Bee, right?  Heck, she wasn't even introduced as a superhero--she was a damsel in distress soliciting (heh) the likes of Hawkman.  How sad a case do you have to be for Hawkman to be a step up?  "I'm all-powerful, but what I really need is a guy with wings and a mallet to help me!"

[misappear]

Back in Adventure Comics #306 (1963) DC concocted "The Legion of Substitute Heroes."  There was a character, Stone Boy.  He had the power to turn into an immobile stone statue.  Wow!

--Dave

[narfstar]

And all the Subs eventually earned the right to become Legionairres including Stone Boy. I always thought Polar Boy should have gotten in originally.