Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Please someone can give some information about this lost villain of the Golden Age Superman :?:
And why it was not re-introduced in the Silver-Modern Age continuity :?: Perhaps it was not too much different with is modus operandi from the Riddler :?:  (this is only my intuition tied to the name of the character).
Or just only because it was just too lame?

Yet someone else who needs to be added, until then check this out:

http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/superwhoswho/puzzler-action49.JPG


BTW, Checkers = Draughts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers

Are you saying that being the world's expert in "international draughts" makes this an even MORE tense match of wits than it at first seems? 8)

To my knowledge (and according to my brief research), the Puzzler pretty much sat out the Silver/Bronze Age.  Which kinda makes sense, what with The Prankster, The Toyman, and if all else fails, The Riddler around to take up the slack.  All I could find was an appearance in a JIMMY OLSEN from '68, and his unexpected appearance in the roster of villains in '73's AMAZING WORLD OF SUPERMAN.

However, the character (now a female) has made an appearance post-CRISIS, in Geoff Johns'/Joe Kelly's "Ending Battle" from a few years ago.  And in fact, judging by the cover, she's going to be part of the current storyarc that Johns is writing with Busiek.

Check out this cover:

(http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/1592/5198400x6002cl.jpg)

The new Puzzler is the gal on the left in the jigsaw outfit.  Pretty cool character design.

Dang, Superman's costume is torn once again... 8)

Thus proof that it's not really Superman.

:s:

They chose the very best from Superman foes for this cover. :twisted:

Another reason I love Geoff Johns and Busiek. I mean, if we had Johns whipping out an obscure - not even a SILVER ager, but a GOLDEN ager - out of nowhere and updating them for a new audience...dang. Seriously: dang. Geoff Johns nearly blew my mind when he had break into the JSA Thanksgiving Special the awesome but underused magical foe, the Wizard of Ys from GREEN LANTERN #47 (1966), who was a character so terrific I wonder why no one ever thought to use him again: red skin, jester hat, evil goatee, and with one of those mindblowing Schwartz science fiction ideas: the Wizard was from a universe that was left "solid state" after its big bang.

Busiek once used in THUNDERBOLTS a character that had only previously appeared in a Hostess Twinkie Ad (tragically, it wasn't those crocodiles in ballet dancer outifts that only eat gold but are sated by Batman giving them twinkies).



You know where I suspect the tradition of the captive or defeated hero on a cover first began as a real trend? Sure, there were probably single incidences of this kind of cover all the way back to 1930s, but I mean the single point that made this uncommon situation into a regular one.

I'm talking about John Romita's cover for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #39.

It would stand to reason it would be with a hard-luck guy like Spider-Man, who lost as often as he won, who was hardly invincible, that started this sort of cover trend.

What an image to set the mind on fire there, arousing curiosity, there was Spider-Man utterly helpless in the clutches of the Green Goblin, unmasked, his costume visible under his street clothes. The cover alone suggests hundreds of possible stories.

Also, it's good to see that, judging by that cover, they've finally brought  Live Wire from the cartoon into the comic book proper. Brownie points for my girl, Gail Simone on that. Though while Wire's electro-powers would be a match for Superman in the animated show, she needs a little more than that for comic book Superman. Like for instance, perhaps some kind of radio wave transformation or projection ability, or maybe some "Static Shock" esque electrical telekinesis.

Here you go folks!

http://superman.nu/wiki/index.php/The_Puzzler

:s: