Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Archie's Mighty Crusaders.

Thanks for NOTHING, Jerry-freakin-Siegel!

http://www.mightycrusaders.net/cheeks.html (http://www.mightycrusaders.net/cheeks.html)

Here's the highlight, for me:

"He went from sacking Quarterbacks to tackling crime..."

(http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/13937/400/13937_4_001.jpg)

Well, this could be a long list.  But here's a definite cotender: Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer.

Honestly, why would anyone want to read about a guy who has to turn into a vehicle to have an action scene?  And why bother changing to a costume before turning into a UFO?  Extra credit, though, for giving a fat guy his own book.

(http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1835/400/1835_4_3.jpg)

Here's another loser.


(http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2055/400/2055_4_35.jpg)

Is that...Ariel Sharon???

I hope and pray that "New Pin-Up Poster" isn't of Fatman.


Buying Marvel Premiere is like playing Russian Roulette with your sanity. Will THIS be the issue that will destroy my mind?

Ahhh, MARVEL PREMIERE. The comics equivalent of those Harry Potter beans where one is butter toffee-flavored, and the next is earwax-flavored. On the one hand, you had Steve Gerber giving us Guardians of the Galaxy, or the creation of Iron Fist, or Woodgod (who, for my money, is the most entertaining character that mag ever produced, even more so than the breakout character Iron Fist). Or, you have Mantlo's Legion of Monsters, or...3-D Man.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe/msg/e26cfb1d71e97bbb

Yeah, 3-D Man looks like a half-boiled Kermit.  The weird thing is, I think he's back in continuity now and in a new Marvel team book (?).

No, scratch that.  The really weird thing is that I actually saw this comic on the stands back in the day...and bought it! :o

3-d man certainly has an awesome cover and a great Canadian connection: Jim Craig did the original int. art, as i recall.

Just because they never caught on doesn't mean they are bad ideas --so Fatman transforms into flying saucer (btw, how cool is that?).  What about the millions of other transforming heroes --Marvels's 80s Capt. Marvel has to transform into light to fly, for instance, and then there were those transforming robots --what were they called?

3-d man has tons of potential and fits into that 70s "Defenders"-type hero mold of also-rans (Nova, Omega) that Julian was mentioning in another thread.

Worst superhero comics ever published?  Secret Wars II?  The crappy 3rd string JLA with Vixen and Vibe?  Most of Image?  Really, a fish in the barrel question.

"Hot on the heels of Ms. Mystic #3 comes...."

(http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3841/751/1600/Skateman01.jpg)

http://the-isb.blogspot.com/2006/04/dollar-comic-review-skateman-1.html

I eagerly looked forward to Ms Mystic #1 after reading an awesome, career-spanning interview with Adams in the Comics Journal, circa 1981.  One of those disappointments you remember forever.

I'm a proud owner of Thunder Bunny #1:

(http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/t/thunbunn.jpg)

So is that kid just applauding, or should I take he's activating his transformation into a steroid freak with a rabbit's head?

Because if that's the only way to get super, it ain't worth it.

And yeah, Ms Mystic was a let-down.  Almost worth it for the nude (or nearly) scenes in issue...2, was it?  Except that Neal's really not that good at drawing women.  They look like boys with balloons on their chests. 

Come to think of it, maybe he was just ahead of his time...

Other things that had a Canadian connection:

The XFL
Al-Queda


Okay, with you so far...


Captain Marvel, and an Ariel Sharon-looking fat man, both turn into stuff. Which means they must be EXACTLY THE SAME!

Are you also, by any chance, a fan of Scrappy-Doo and Jar-Jar Binks?

The real "money shot" for me, is the fact when Fatman changes into a saucer, his face is still on it.


I agree! A 3-D Man/Bat-Mite/Jar-Jar Binks/Scrappy-Doo crossover might be the only comic in history where merely touching it actually gives you AIDS.

The only reason he's being used in AGENTS OF ATLAS is because the population of 1950s Marvel heroes is so alarmingly tiny that you had to bring in a character from a romance comic (Venus) to get anything like a quorum.


Far be it for me to interfere with dissing Gerry Conway, but...

Did any Image comics have a book about a fat man that became a flying saucer? No! Thus, Fatman > Image.

why is it that when Julian posts something insane, I am the one who gets all the hate mail?

Just saying. You can send them to Great Rao too :P

TELLE writes:


Umm...not at all?  


Well, they're all lousy.  Is that what you meant?  80s Captain Marvel was lousy, TV's "Automan" was lousy, the "TurboTeen" cartoon was lousy...the list goes on.  

I kind of liked "Transformers"...not the vehicle version but the one where the robots turned into animals as a means of coping with the environment of a planet they crash-landed on.  But even when they looked like animals, they were still robots, with metal parts beneath.  Flesh and blood changing to steel, rubber and gears is a bit much for me.  Logically if Turbo Teen ever lost a tire, then when he became a human again he should've been missing a hand or foot.

Wow, I can't believe I said "Turbo Teen" and "logically" in the same sentence. :o


C'mon, 3-D main is a 6th-tier character at best.  He's like one of those superheroes invented for comics made to promote Radio Shack products or Tandy computers.  Hey kids, it's Duncan Yo-Yo Man!  

The whole point seems to have been that he was "typically 1950s."  I'm guessing because "Happy Days" and "Grease" were big at the time (Hello, Jack?  It's the 70s now!).  No doubt his fellow heroes were Hula-Hoop Girl, Ducktail Lad, the Beatnik and Baron Bryl-Cream.



I think every title that's been around for more than a few years has had at least one lousy run, and I tend to view mini-series like Secret Wars as "storylines" rather than seperate entities unto themselves.  That is to say, SWII may have been a lousy idea, but it used okay to great characters, whereas "Fatman" is bad from the ground up.

If we ARE to include Secret War-like books, however, virtually every crossover title ever done is a contender for me, especially DC's: Armageddon, Millenium, Bloodlines, Invasion, War of the Gods and Zero Hour, off the top of my spleen.


JulianPerez writes:


Two nefarious points in the Axis of Evil.  :D :D :D


No, but if Fatman had been popular, you can bet Image would have ripped him off.  Image comics are definitely in a class by themselves when it comes to "worsts"; worst writing, worst art, worst lapse of ethics, worst case of hype exceeding ability.  But the concepts were often fine.  And why not?  The concepts were "Superman", "The X-Men," "the Spectre" and so on...

In fact, the only books the Image crowd never swiped from (but should have) were books on human anatomy.

TELLE writes:


Exactly.  Just like the XFL.  Not to mention Diet Coke, the Edsel, Klinton Spilsbury as the Lone Ranger, Don Johnson albums and Cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch.  

Or, he said, returning to the theme of the thread, this comic:

(http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2768/400/2768_4_001.jpg)


As ably chronicled here: http://blogzarro.com/?p=154
 (http://blogzarro.com/?p=154)

As a sidenote, I just noticed Julian's karma rating is a staggering negative 39!! 

This feature is turning out to be a lot more entertaining than I expected.  :D

It's a blatant ripoff of Captain Marvel. The only differences are:

1) Clapping instead of Shazam!

2) The blondeness of the hair

3) having Hoppy's head. Also, the difficulty of drawing rabbit hands must have also convinced the artist to go with gloves instead.

I also just notice that my Karma points are going downhill fast as well, LOL!

 ;D

I'm not falling like a stone like Julian but, yeah, my karma is nosediving.

Can we please turn it off??????????????????? It doesn't mean anything.

 I would definately put most of the Image line up in the "worst" category (except maybe Savage Dragon).  Hmmmm.........  how about that "Comics Greatest World" line up from Dark Horse? Or that company founded by Jim Shooter after he left Valient? Or how about Valient itself? Just go back and look at a comic catalog from 1993 and it shouldn't take you long to find something!

Anything with the words "Scarlet Spider" in it. ;D

Now there's been a lot of loose talk in this thread dissin' the 80s Captain Marvel, and all I have to say about that is that I still have the Spider-Man annual in which she first appeared and she is fantastic and I want to marry her.

As for really bad superhero comics, you can always count on Rich Buckler. I've never actually been able to locate a copy of this, so I can only dream about how bad it is, but chances are it is a serious contender: http://www.toonopedia.com/reagan.htm

anything by Rob Liefeld or anything produced by his studio during while at image.

Julian's response to my last post actually made me laugh out loud, even though (or maybe because?) it was full of more non sequitors, ad hominens and hobby horses than usual.  Which brings up an interesting point: Julian posts quite a few things here that I don't even bother to read but the things I do read make me pause for thought and actually strive to compose coherent arguments in response.  Which is why it was baffling to me how his karma got so low --I always tried to use the karma feature to reward thoughtful posts like Julian's and karmic-ally "neg" boring or otherwise lazy posts (like many of my own --too bad I couldn't take away my own karma!).

More on topic: the two organizations Julian mentions had/have more U.S. connections than Canadian.

Even more on topic: Dell's Dracula was pretty bad.  A major title by a major (the biggest) publisher.

And re: Fatman, some good things about Fatman  --the alien who gave Fatman his powers (shades of GL) was a shapeshifter like the Transformers, making his change all the more logical.  As well, it is cartoon shorthand, used by many of the greatest superhero cartoonists of all time (if CC Beck won't do, how about Fradon's Metamorpho or the Metal Men?  I'm sure we can find examples in Wayne Boring and Dick Sprang as well) to draw a face on anthropomorphized or transformed characters.  Why slag its use in Fatman?  Fatman is like if Uncle Dudley got a green suit and real powers!  He is powered by chocolate milk!  He is an rich fat guy, not a young muscular WASP!  In short, Fatman is awesome and not at all like Jar Jar Binks!

Fatman answers the question, what if an awesome comic book character like Tubby got superpowers?  Great team-up idea: Uncle Marvel, Bouncing Boy, Little Lotta, and Fatman!  (these are some of my favourite characters, especially now that I am old and fat).  The Blimp Brigade flies again!

Can we start up the Karma thingie again, except maybe call it Dogma points or something?

and it would be unclear whether negative dogma is good or bad?

Justice League Detroit and Secret Wars II were some of the worst, but the Captain Marvel who yelled "split" and his android body parts would split off is the worst in my opinion.

(http://dialbforblog.com/archives/46/cap1.gif)

http://dialbforblog.com/archives/46/


(http://dialbforblog.com/archives/46/cap4_pg3.gif)

I didn't mind 3D Man all that much and thought that he was somewhat interesting.  The Fly was OK for me as well, and his origina wasn't any more absurd as any other character at that time.  His grown up adventures as part of the actual Mighty Crusaders were by far worse.

(http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/1954/thunderstrikexb4.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

That's was the worst one for me because i never really cared for substitute heroes(expecially a bad one like this)..

You know guys, I can still kick some butt, just that I have to make it a point to stop trying to kick Superman's butt because I always get mine kicked and handed back to me on a plate. Now as for that picture of Thor. He looks too much like Aquaman in the JLA animated series and his hammer isn't big enough.  As for that so-called depiction of me splitting up like that, even that's just silly. Everybody is always putting up a fus about my duds, that guy's duds top the tamale and that looks more like what Red Tornado does anyway. That guy looks like a store bought mannequin.

Super Green Beret

Although the horrid Liefeld comic where Jesus Christ fights the Olympian panthenon has got to be up there as well.

There is also THE DOOM COMIC
http://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/

Doom....very funny indeed !   Thanks