Super Friends of Dorothy
Comics discussions, with flair…
Welcome to Earth X
Sep 3rd
Just a recap.
Earth-One is where the main DC Characters exist like the Justice League and Teen Ttians
Earth-Two is where the World War II era heroes exist like the Justice Society and the All-Star Squadron
Earth-Three is where the heroes are the villains and the villains are the heroes and home to the Crime Syndicate
Now meet, Earth X!
The Earth where instead of the Allies winning World War II, the Axis did. In that universe the heroes band together to form an underground resistance group known as The Freedom Fighters.
Uncle Sam is the leader and possesses power in direct proportion to America’s strength. Uncle Sam is strong, tough as nails, and extremely charismatic. It is rumored that Uncle Sam was created during a mystic rite by the founding fathers of the nation and has assumed many different forms over the ages including a Minuteman, and even two individuals when the country was torn apart in the Civil War as Billy Yank and Johnny Reb. Sam has possessed the ability to increase his size and to be aware of happenings on American soil without witnessing them or being told, making him at least clairvoyant when it comes to America.
Human Bomb is Roy Lincoln and he is sealed in his hazardous materials suit to protect others from his powers, that of a living bomb for when the Human Bomb touches anything he creates an explosion. While working with his father on an experimental weapon, Nazis stormed the lab and killed his father. Roy drank the concoction they were working on in an effort to hide it from the Nazis and to commit suicide. The liquid changed his body at the molecular level giving him the ability to create explosions whenever his exposed skin touched the air.
Phantom Lady is Sandra Knight and is an extremely attractive woman and the daughter of a senator. When Sandra thwarts an attempt on her father’s life the adventuring bug bites and she takes on the mantle of the Phantom Lady. Using a Black Light Ray she is able to put her opponents into pitch-black darkness or to make herself invisible. Phantom Lady wears a purposefully revealing outfit in order to distract her male combatants. And for the 1940s, she was a little pin-up hottie.
The Doll Man is Darrell Dane who perfected a chemical formula that once drunk allowed him to shrink to six inches high and retain his normal strength. Eventually Darrell’s fiancee would drink the same formula and become Doll Girl to aid him in his crime fighting.
Black Condor was Richard Grey who was found as a child amongst his murdered parents and raised by condors. It is impossible not to draw the Tarzan analogy, isn’t it? The child was feral when found by a recluse who had a time domesticating the child to normal human standards. Once Richard was old enough he tracked down his parent’s killers and found his justice. Richard can fly after being taught the secrets of the Condor race and used his abilities and most likely a borrowed black light ray gun from Phantom Lady to fight crime.
The Ray is Lanford “Happy” Terrill was caught in a balloon accident when he was struck by lightning on a clear and sunny day, now he can convert his body into living light and fly at that speed.
The above heroes made up the majority of the Freedom Fighters however others have helped the Freedom Fighters out on occasion.
The original Firebrand is Rod Reilly and he is the cousin of the second Firebrand from the All-Star Squadron. He had no fire powers and was more a swashbuckling type of hero.
Originally called Invisible Justice, the Invisible Hood who is secretly Kent Thurston would assist the Freedom Fighters on a few key adventures. Kent’s cloak rendered himself invisible allowing him to a master of subterfuge.
Neon the Unknown was one of those bizarre mystical characters who would pop in and do some weird stuff and take off. After drinking some magic water Neon was able to blast people with mystic energy from his hands and he gained the ability to fly.
And finally, the Red Bee.. was Richard Raleigh, an Assistant District Attorney who could control bees… yeahhhhh…. A hero who could be defeated by an epi pen. Let’s move on shall we?
The Freedom Fighters were mostly owned by a company named Quality Comics which was bought out by DC Comics and all those characters migrated over to join the DC Heroes. The Freedom Fighters would be migrated off to Earth-X for their adventures which explains why no other heroes from the DC Canon guest-starred in those stories.
There is ONE hero who came from Quality that is fairly popular who was not a member of the Freedom Fighters.. a drum roll for everyone’s favorite..
Eel O’Brien was a petty thief back in the day when he was betrayed by his fellow thieves and exposed to a liquid that changed his molecules into a malleable plastic. Plas (pronounced Plahz) can stretch his body, form shapes with it, is nearly invulnerable to most forms of harm, and his sense of humor serves to cause his enemies to underestimate him as a buffoon. Over the years Plastic Man has anted up his game and is one of the big guys in the DCU.
Before we leave Earth-X.. a classic cheesecake shot of Phantom Lady..
Hubba-Hubba!!! This costume was actually cited for corrupting the youth by Dr. Wertherm in his tome “Seduction of the Innocent” and Oh, lookie, Blue Beetle.. hmmmm.
Next Up: Earth-4 and the Heroes of Charlton Comics!
Groovy Daddy-O
Aug 25th
Oh the hippie, dippy, trippy, late sixties gave way to the love, peace, flower child which traveled through the remainder of America’s struggling civil rights adolescence. While America had passed a civil rights bill, their first Catholic President was assassinated. While desegregation moved forward more violence against African Americans continued in the social holdouts of racism. When some college students followed the Hippie life and dropped out, they became icons of a social war as the younger generation told the older generation, stop sending us to die in your wars. Young men burned draft cards and ran to Canada to avoid the death machine that was Vietnam. A later President would soon be exposed to be criminally implicated in campaign tampering and would resign in disgrace. No one over 30 would ever be trusted again.
It is in this backdrop that the Teen Titans are created.
While Robin, Speedy, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Aqualad had existed for a while now, they had rarely teamed up. In fact, Wonder Girl’s admission is an editorial flub as when she first appeared she was a younger version of Wonder Woman, not a separate character. Eventually, to make the two characters completely distinguishable, Wonder Girl a.k.a. Donna Troy got this new snappy costume change cover and ditched the golden eagle and blue star spangled shorts.
To mirror the characterization that Aquaman was receiving in Justice League of America, Aqualad began to feel more like a fish out of water as well and summarily left the group.
As the time went on for the Teen Titans they needed new members and they got them and they mirrored the times of their creation.
Brothers Hank and Don Hall were selected to become the spirits of war and peace in America. Whenever Hank and Don are in danger or need to respond to danger they are able to say their names “Hawk” “Dove” and they transform into their distinctive costumes. Hawk is the aggressor. Hot tempered. Strong. Shoots first and asks questions never. Dove is the peaceful one. Calm. Agile. Defensive.
While in battle Hawk will concentrate on brutal close combat, Dove tends to play “dodge ball” with anyone who targets him for attack.
Lilith Clay and Gnarrk
Lilith Clay is a psychic sensitive girl whose free spirit and love for mankind leads the Titans down towards the path of enlightenment. Lilith plays a major role in helping tame another titan, Gnarrk, a large cro-magnon whose brute strength is only tempered by Lilith’s soothing voice and attention. Both Lilith and Gnarrk only wear street clothes and are not seen in costumes in this era.
Aquagirl
Of course, where there is an Aqualad, there must be an Aquagirl. Though not a member of the Titans, Tula became the major love interest of Aqualad over the years and she would be a supporting player in Titans tales for years to come.
Mal Duncan and Bumblebee
Mal Duncan is the first African American Titans character. Hanging with the Titans Mal served as a regular guy, although I guess at this point in the DCU, his blackness could be considered his super power. Along with Lilith, he served as a Greek chorus member to point out when the more iconic titans would not see things from a more street/real point of view. Eventually Mal would gain the identity of The Guardian and be given a horn that he calls his Gabriel’s Horn and would become known as The Herald.
Karen Beecher becomes Mal Duncan’s girlfriend and acts as a calming effect to Mal’s hot headed tendencies. While black males in comics were traditionally introduced as the “angry black man”, black women had not been that explored in comics with Karen being one of the first of DC’s ethnic females.
However Karen wasn’t just a pretty face, she was a scientist and an inventor. She used her skills to create her costume that enabled her to fly, shoot stinging rays, a honey gun to glue up the works, her antennae picked up police scanner bandwidth and other sounds from a fair distance away. She manages to win her own place on the team and stands alongside Mal with the Titans.
Harlequin
Harlequin is (we think) Duela Dent and in her many, many appearances she has stated that she is the daughter of Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Two-Face, Scarecrow, well, you get the picture.
Originally created as a Joker foil for Robin and Batgirl, Duela proved very popular and moved quickly from villain status to “misunderstood heroine.” Ditching the female Joker clothes and moving towards a more traditional Harlequin outfit, Duela carried any number of joke like gag gadgets with her and continuously played pranks on her teammates and villains alike. She carried seltzer bottles, a pipe that blew bubbles of glue or tear gas, roller skate shoes, and had a natural unpredictability in combat.
As time went on, additional Titans characters merged with some of the above to create Titans West to compete with Titans East which brings us to this great cover moment…
You know that Beast Boy is Changeling of the New Teen Titans, right?
The original blonde Bat-Girl, Bette Kane, who was the sidekick and niece of the original Batwoman. A teenage tennis prodigy, Bette is a natural athlete and has one heck of a backhand.
Golden Eagle is Charlie Parker who idolized Hawkman and through some hocus-pocus, Charlie was able to become a teenage version of Hawkman via Hawkman’s enemy, the Matter Master. Charlie found himself with a Thanagarian harness and wings, however without the past lives, Charlie did not have Hawkman or Hawkgirl’s affinity with weaponry.
The Teen Titans would sail into obscurity shortly after this cover was published and they would languish in comic book limbo for the most part except for guest starring roles for all the main sidekicks. Again, being gone does not mean that they are forgotten and New Teen Titans artist George Perez made sure to pay tribute to the original Teen Titans, featuring Mal in his Guardian outfit, Harlequin’s new outfit, and G’narrk (next to Lilith).
Next up, we visit a new earth and The Freedom Fighters!
Seven Soldiers
Aug 20th
The Seven Soldiers of Victory are a group of characters bound together in the Golden Age on Earth-Two, where the Justice Society hang their hat and their roll call has some familiar names.
Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy and the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy are four that we have talked about previously which leaves us three new heroes to introduce. Just remember this is Earth-TWO.
The Crimson Avenger is Lee Travis, a newspaper man of the late 30s and early 40s in the Golden Age. He first emerged as a shadowy figure skulking in the background to dole out justice to those who needed to be stopped and were unable to be stopped by conventional means. The Crimson Avenger is a striking figure in his early costume evocative of the pulp heroes of the day, but eventually will adopt a red and yellow costume with a sun motif on his chest that is more evocative of a traditional super-hero costume.
Crimson Avenger is assisted by an able Asian martial artist named Wing. One of the Crimson Avenger’s trademark move is appearing from the midst of a cloud of crimson smoke. Crimson Avenger despite his athleticism is a normal human being possessing no super powers… for now.
Sir Justin was one of the younger knights in King Arthur’s court who was sent to go on a quest to vanquish an ogre. On his way to do his duty, Sir Justin was set upon by highwaymen and in the resulting melee Sir Justin pierced a tree that had been the prison of the great mage Merlin.
Grateful that Sir Justin removed the prison, Merlin imbued the knight with many gifts. Sir Justin’s armor is practically impenetrable by man made weaponry, his sword is capable of slicing through all manner of obstacles, and his horse, Victory, was given wings and renamed Winged Victory.
Justin continued northward with his new abilities and while he did the deed to the ogre, he and his horse were buried alive in an avalanche where they lay dormant in suspended animation until the early 40s when Sir Justin was discovered and he reemerged to defend the United Kingdom from Hitler and the powers of the Axis.
Greg Sanders is a country music singer who is the latest in a line of family heroes. While the first Sanders that we know of lost his life in battle with native Americans while fighting for expansion of the West, his descendant and Greg’s father became a sheriff out in the West. When Greg’s father was murdered, he took it upon himself to avenge his father’s death and became the Vigilante. Wearing white jeans, cowboy boots, a blue cowboy shirt, a red bandana around his neck and his face as a mask, and topped with a white hat the Vigilante strikes a very imposing silhouette. Vigilante was often helped by an Asian assistant named Stuff who was very good with ju-jitsu.
Greg is a normal human with a mastery of the lariat and his six-shooters. He is an expert horseman and motorcyclist and is sometimes seen with his trusty guitar.
The Seven Soldiers of Victory, also known as Law’s Legionnaires, were all operating individually when a villain named The Hand received word that he was terminally ill. The Hand decided to go out with a bang and gives his plans to various other villains who are all confronted by and defeated by the individual 7 Soldiers.
Angry beyond belief, The Hand invites the heroes to his home which is a lot like 13 Dead End Drive, a trap in every corner for he plans to kill them all. The heroes of course team up to defeat the villain and Sir Justin, probably longing for a new round table, suggests the heroes become a group.
Together they all serve as members of the All-Star Squadron during World War II but in a fight with the Nebula Man, Crimson Avenger’s assistant Wing was killed and the 7 Soldiers were lost in the time stream until the above comic book where the 7 Soldiers appeared again.
Next Up: We’ve talked about them before, but now we’re delving into the history of the Original Teen Titans!
Swords and Sorcery
Aug 17th
When Dungeons and Dragons started as a game, it was an amazing thing and amazing things have a tendency to get caught up in a lot of frenetic energy, and eventually you find the obsessed. This happens with Teen Idols, TV Shows, Sports Stars.. but lets focus on D&D for just a half a second.
The idea of heroes brandishing a sword and vanquishing a dragon was hardly new. Don Quixote jousted with windmills. King Arthur had his Knights. Beowolf’s sword went snicker snack. Even the Biblical David went toe to toe with a Giant.
However, when people got obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons went into this inner world of game playing, obsession became a bad thing. The most upsetting of these cases resulted in accusations of demon worship or even suicide. Hardly the end result of a game most of us would want to play.
So, why are we obsessed with the world of swords and sorcery? What is it about that genre of fantasy that calls us to it? Unlike the scientific trappings of science fiction where all the fantastical things occurring are explained away by science, in fantasy one can have a race of talking trees, beings that wield powerful spells, and almost always a quest with a fantastical end goal in sight.
Here are some of DC’s most famous forays into the world of Fantasy…
Amethyst is the rightful heir to the throne of Amethyst in the mystical Gemworld which is found in its own dimension. Her parents were betrayed and overthrown by the evil Dark Opal and Amethyst was taken by her Nanny, Citrina, to Earth to live life protected from her pursuers. As Amy turned 13, she received an amethyst necklace for her birthday which opened a portal beckoning her back to Gemworld.
When Amy passes through the portal she becomes a grown woman of 21 and while she is learning she seems naturally adept to her new purple powers. Amethyst’s goal is to save Gemworld and the remaining ruling houses from the tyrannical rule of Dark Opal.
Arak, the Son of Thunder, is an Indian brave kidnapped by Vikings to go back to Europe in order to serve as a fierce warrior in the Viking’s. Arak fought hard and brave and some guess that his tomahawk was mystical in nature and certainly he did not fight the normal foe in Europe.
Arak eventually was killed in battle and reincarnated later as a shaman. Perhaps he could be a modern day Apache Chief character?
Arion is the Lord of Atlantis thousands of years prior to its sinking. Arion fought against his brother Garn Daanuth and the encroaching ice age to preserve Atlantis and its people from a frozen death. Supported by a royal court of supporting characters he shares that in common with our next hero on the list.
Arion’s magicks are quite powerful and he will step up and be part of DC’s most famous cross over ever at its very inset.
Warlord is Travis Morgan, an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who was flying his plane above the Arctic Circle only to have his plane be sucked into a dimensional hole which took him to the inner world of Skartaris. A world of fascinating fantasy.
Travis acquires a wife named Tara, who begats a daughter, Jennifer and along with their allies Machiste and Shakira, the Warlord fights to free Skartaris from the evil Deimos and his minions of mutated lizard men. The world of Skartaris has more dangers than just Deimos however, and that is what makes the Warlord’s world a great place to visit.
Travis is quite adept at most weaponry including guns, swords, axes, and knives. Naturally charismatic, he is a great leader and tactician.
Next Up: We’re going to do a few super-teams.. First up.. The Seven Soldiers of Victory!
Weird Science
Aug 11th
Time to explore some crazy stuff that DC came up with from robots to aliens to puppets gone wild..
Well the 60s were good to us, right? Brother Power is an a suit of rags on top of a tailor’s dummy form. Dressed by Hippies (don’t ask) the tailor’s dummy was brought to life via a bolt of electricity. The hippies were taken with his innocence and were very impressed when the dummy exhibited super-strength. They named him Brother Power the passive hero. Brother Power is amazingly strong and durable and there is some question as to whether he is really, truly a living being.. or not.
Doctor Will Magnus and his amazing Metal Men. Magnus is one of DC’s foremost scientists and he has teetered on madness on a few occasions. Quite well off the eccentric doctor decided to create robots to serve him and mankind. His first was made out of Platinum and he named her Tina. Soon after, Magnus realized he could create different Metal Men with other properties to explore and fight to save mankind, for robots don’t really have feelings, right?
Gold is the group leader, Lead is the protector, Iron is the strong guy, Mercury is the loud mouth, and Tin is small and timid.
All of the Metal Men share the property of their metals.. and that goes to personality as well. Gold is gleaming, Tina is constantly flirting with Doc Magnus who is oblivious, Iron is steady, Lead is slow, Mercury is sarcastic (“Did you know I’m the only one of us who is naturally liquid at room temperature?”), and Tin frequently stutters. Tin built himself a robot girlfriend who went by “Nameless” who died in battle.
Rac Shade, The Changing Man, from the other-dimensional world of Meta, (I said the 60s were good to us.. now hush up!) Sometimes agents from the Meta-Zone would visit the Earth-Zone to spy, see what was going on, for dinner, you know.. the usual inter-dimensional hopping. Shade got involved in some corporate espionage involving the M-Vest which is where he gets his powers. Instead of letting the M-Vest fall into the wrong hands in Meta, he took it to Earth and stowed it away for when he would need it. Shade’s M-Vest changes his appearance based upon the emotions of those viewing him.. this causes him to appear distorted to onlookers. His vest provides for travel back to the Meta-Zone as well as a force shield and flight.
As the cover shows, Ultra, the Multi-Alien is actually space man Ace Arn whose body was fired upon simultaneously… (yeah I know.. long shot) by all four of the alien criminals you see.. basically fusing Ace’s body into the amalgam you see before you.
Ace gained Strength, Invulnerability, Flight, Electricity, and Magnetism. Yes, he’s weird but I have a soft spot for weirdo aliens. Ace defeated the four villains and threw them into jail. He did find a way to revert back to human form and now can switch back and forth from normal human to Ultra with ease.
Weird huh?
Next Up: Sword and Sorcery Time! Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld! Arak, Son of Thunder! Arion, Lord of Atlantis! and Warlord!
Oh snap, look at the colors.
Aug 1st
I updated WP and was checking more into the new 3.0 features, and happened to run across a theme that said “bright, colorful, sorta comic-geeky, Darren will like it.” So I dropped it in. I just do things like that.
It’s Mystique from digitalnature. Hope you enjoy it.
More Wild West Stars
Jul 27th
Here we are again in the Wild and Woolly West… More heroes have taken up the call to tame this era of human history and here they are.
El Diablo…the Devil of the West is Lazarus Lane. He was a broken man with pangs of remorse about a fellow bank teller who was killed because Lazarus did nothing to stop it from happening. When he managed to find the bank robbers they threw him into a shallow river where he was struck by lightning. Found by an Apache shaman named Wise Owl, he nursed Lazarus back to life (on the third day no less) and explained that Lazarus was now two men, the body of Lazarus Lane and the spirit of a restless avenger. In addition to being an excellent marksman he is an expert with knives, bolas, and the bullwhip. He also has an uncanny ability to escape certain death, whether this is some sort of mystical mojo or not remains to be seen.
Johnny Thunder and Madame .44… John Tane was the son of a sheriff and a teacher. While John’s father believed in dealing out justice with guns, John’s mom believed that education would solve all the world’s ills. John swore to his mother that he would never wear a gun and followed her footsteps becoming a teacher. As time marched on John’s father got older and policing the little town of Mesa City just became harder and harder to do on his own. John had to help his father, but how, since he couldn’t break his word to his ma. He would don a cowboy outfit, change his hair, dumb down his speech, and put on his six-shooters and Johnny Thunder became a big help to the sheriff and folks of Mesa City.
Then came woman trouble in the form of Madame .44. Jeanne Walker was her real name and she was the daughter of a man who had helped find one of the largest gold deposits in the West. Jeanne’s father was swindled out of his part of the mine and was unable to get his claim recognized in court. He died bitter and broken leaving Jeanne on her own. Jeanne decided that she would get even with evil men who were unable to be punished by ordinary laws. She donned an all white get up and dyed her blonde hair red. She became a photographer in the wild west and was very connected with those who were rich.. and corrupt. Madame .44 would discover these evil men’s secrets then rob them to give the goods back to the families, minus a portion kept to keep her gang from rebelling. Then she came across Johnny Thunder…
Both John and Jeanne suspected each other’s true identities and finally worked together to defeat a common foe named Silk Black. Once that adventure had been concluded, John and Jeanne revealed their identities to each other, got married and lived happily ever after with their son and daughter, Charles and Becky.
John is a school teacher and as is the case in those days extraordinarily well read and educated for your average Western man. Jeanne is known for her trick shots with her guns and being the Robin Hood of the West.
Oh and p.s. John’s horse, was named Black Lightning….
Nighthawk is Hannibal Hawkes, a renowned fix-it man who had a penchant for fighting evil in his spare time. Seeing as how his work made him rather nomadic, Nighthawk roamed the West traveling from town to town putting down evil men and doing right by folks. Nighthawk did for a time travel with an orphan, kind of like an unofficial sidekick, but he eventually dropped the child off at a good home for orphans and kept up his Nighthawk identity more and more, fixing things that really mattered.
Pow-Wow Smith is a Sioux Indian who left his tribe to investigate the White Man out of a sense of curiosity. Pow-Wow managed to gain employment as a Deputy Sheriff with his learned abilities of tracking and weapons. Eventually becoming Sheriff Pow-Wow is one of the most respected Sheriff’s in the Wild West.
Matt Savage, Trail Boss is a possible relative of Scalphunter, Brian Savage from the previous post. Matt ran cattle from Texas to Kansas becoming the boss of some of the most ornery cowboys you done ever seen. From hostile ranchers, rustlers, coyotes, mad Indians.. Matt Savage has seen it all out there on the plains of the West.
Trigger Twins.. Walter and Wayne Trigger to be exact. Walt is the real sheriff of Rocky City, but when things get too dicey, he calls in help from Wayne who puts on an identical outfit to lend a hand.
and finally The Wyoming Kid… Bill Polk also known as Johnny Jones, the Wyoming Kid is the son of a slain sheepherder who was killed by a man named Clagett. Many folks assumed the local rival cattleman was involved, but the Kid figured out that wasn’t the case. Wyoming set out to find this mysterious killer and to bring him to justice. Of course, this brought him in the path of many strange characters.
So, ready to come back to the present day? How about we talk a bit about those freaks of science.. Doc Magnus and his Amazing Metal Men, Ultra the Multi-Alien, Shade the Changing Man, and Brother Power the Geek!!!
Welcome to the Wild West
Jul 23rd
With the waning of super-hero popularity in the 50s with the end of the war, western themed heroes had found their way into America’s hearts. Comics were then as they are now a reflection of the popular trends of the time
So, from left to right in this Justice League story is Bat Lash, Cinnamon, Jonah Hex, and Scalphunter facing our modern day gunslingers, Flash, Zatanna, Green Lantern, and the Elongated Man.
Most of the Wild West characters have the same set of sensibilities. A matter-of-factness about them that modern sensibilities consider blunt or even rude. Most know how to use a gun, survive in the harsh climate of the West, ride horses, etc.
From there the skills get a little more diverse. Some are excellent trackers, while others are more educated and can do something we take for granted, read. Some are gamblers and others have had extremely hard lives and are not trusting of anyone near them making allies a very difficult prospect.
Bat Lash is a colorful character cut from the Mississippi riverboat card sharks. Always an eye for a profit or a pretty gal, Bat Lash is more a rogue than the typical white hats of the Wild West, but his heart is in the right place.
Cinnamon, the first female law in the Wild West, her father gunned down when she was a girl she swore to bring the bad men to justice. In addition to be a fine shot, Cinnamon uses a sheriff’s badge shuriken. She’s well aware she is attractive but she does not tend to play on that too much, preferring to be thought of as “one of the men” in a male dominated field.
Scalphunter is known as Kee-Woh-Noh-Tay or originally Brian Savage if you please. Brian who was kidnapped as a child by Kiowa indians was raised by them and learned their ways. An excellent tracker and woodsman Scalphunter is the mix of both worlds, the white man who is an Indian.
Jonah Hex, the most famous of the DC Wild West heroes. Jonah has led a cursed life. Born to an abusive father and abandoned by his mother who could no longer take the father’s abuses, Jonah’s dad eventually sold him to members of the Apache nation. Jonah learned the way of the Apache and excelled at tracking and hunting. Jonah won his “freedom” from the Apache tribe but had spent so much of his formative years with them he decided to stay.
His second family betrayed him when sent on a raiding party a fellow brave and romantic rival to the affections of the chief’s daughter knocked Jonah unconscious. Jonah awoke in the midst of another raiding party of white men and Jonah was shot. Saved by a trapper, Jonah joined a third family for a while until he finally enlisted in the confederate army.
As time moved on, Jonah realized that he could not stay true to the Confederate army as he too had been enslaved when he grew up. Leaving the Confederate army and turning himself in to Union forces, the Union soldiers held Jonah and used him to raid the rest of his regiment. Shortly thereafter, Hex was the instigator of the Fort Charlotte Massacre. The Union soldiers had planned to kill all the Confederates but they needed the Rebels to stage a breakout, which they forced by withholding food. All the Confederates were killed except for Jonah who managed to survive to kill the Union commander of the post.
Jonah eventually found his way back to the Apache settlement, only to discover the rival brave had since married the chief’s daughter. The chief, not knowing why Jonah was alive, since his son-in-law had told him Jonah had died, demanded the two fight in a duel. The dishonest brave again sabotaged Jonah and instead of using Native American weapons, Jonah had to use a knife, which killed the brave.
The chief was disgusted with Jonah and had the other braves hold Jonah down where he was branded with “the mark of the demon” giving Jonah his distinctive scarring.
Jonah then headed to the closest place he could with a bar, to drink himself into oblivion, he discovered a man outside assaulting a woman. Jonah flash-backed to his dad’s rage at Jonah’s mother, and instantly shot the man dead. The sheriff then brought Jonah some gold and told him he could make a lot of money chasing down bad men. And the most famous bounty hunter of the DCU was born.
Next up: We’ll finish up the Wild West heroes… Nighthawk! Johnny Thunder! Pow-Wow Smith, Madame .44, and El Diablo!
Whoops!!!
Jul 21st
Yes. It’s true. If technology can build it, then I can find a way to break it.
It’s a gift, what can I say?
I know I am missing some All-Star Squadron, Justice Society of America stuff, Invisible Kid II’s induction into the Legion, and some of the guest stars we have recently done. I will go back and pick those up but first my priority is to rebuild the posts about JLA #200 which have all been lost in the interim except for the opening 2 and the final one.
So bear with me folks and hopefully the SFOD will rise even greater from the internet ashes.
– Darren
Sorry for the interruption
Jul 21st
As the designated techo-dweeb, I know I should have backed up SFOD even more than normal because of Darren’s uncanny superpower of defeating technology. For killing it’s ability to simplify tasks. From near and far. And over the network. On a system he only logged in to edit through a well-known package.
The flip side is, FatCow was being very very painful to work with on the database issues, so the site has been moved to BlueHost. We’re recreating the posts and fortunately all of the flat file backups were just peachy, so Darren’s not having to scavenge images for days again.
Oh and I somehow didn’t notice I hadn’t enabled any prettier URLs for SFOD, so I’ve fixed that. Update your links where appropriate since post IDs will be different and now just ugly old reminders of a painful few days 