Tag Archives: DC Comics

Comic Book Question 11

by Revis Edgewater

If you could create one character to stick into any comic book world (it can be a hero, villain, or even just a supporting character), who would you create and which comic book world would you send them to?

I could go the cheap way and tell you all about the three mutant brothers I created for my X-Men fan fiction… again… but that’s three characters, not one. I thought about trying to come up with a new villain for Daredevil. He hasn’t had a good new villain in a while. Although Muse wasn’t too bad. I also thought about coming up with a new Nightwing villain, one not connected to any of the other Bat family or Titans, but then I remembered that’s what they’re trying to do with Heartless.

Ten or fifteen years ago, I had an idea for a new character in the Moon Knight mythos, but it’s eerily similar to Hunter’s Moon, who just debuted two or three years ago. I’m not sure how they did it, but I’m convinced that Marvel stole the idea from me and tweaked it just enough to be different. Also around ten to fifteen years ago, I had an idea for a DC character who would basically be a foul-mouthed Looney Toons character come to life, but the more I thought about it, the more it sounded like The Mask.

No, it’s time to come up with something new… think… think… think…

I got nothing. So, instead, I’m going to take the easy way out and just pick one of the brothers from my X-Men story. I’m not going to pick the most powerful of the three. In fact, you could make the argument that he’s the weakest. Still, I’d choose him over the other two because I think his mutant power would make his interactions with the X-Men more interesting.

His name is Antonio Rodriguez, an Army veteran, and his mutant power is that he’s immune to mutant powers.

That may not seem like much, but think about it. There’d be someone who couldn’t be influenced or have their mind read by Jean Grey, Emma Frost, or Professor X. Cyclops could hit him with his optic blast, and it wouldn’t affect at all. Colossus couldn’t use his super strength to lift him up or punch him across a room. It was a plot point in the story I wrote because one of the characters I used in it was Chamber, and the only way he can talk is through his mutant powers. Their inability to communicate caused problems.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think that’s interesting.

What about you? Do you have an original character you’d like to drop into a comic book world?

Comic Book Question 10

by Revis Edgewater

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so I’m just going to hop right back into it with this:

If you could make a movie with any character, from any comic book company, that hasn’t already appeared on film, who would it be?

I thought about Aztek, the character from my DC “creative control” post, but I remember seeing something about him appearing in a couple of episodes of the Justice League cartoon. I also thought about picking Chamber, who I used in my Marvel “creative control” post, but I wanted to pick someone I hadn’t picked before. Then, I tried to think about a character that hadn’t been used yet in any movies or TV shows, but there is an overabundance of comic book shows and movies these days. That list is incredibly small. Still, I was able to come up with an answer:

Backlash

Backlash #1

Originally created by WildStorm and published under the Image banner, Backlash bounced around between Team 7 and StormWatch until he landed his own series. I didn’t discover him until he was already on his own, so everything I know about his story before then comes from Wikipedia.

His basic backstory is this: he’s 3000 years old. He was born in Atlantis to a human mother and a father who’s of an alien race called the Kherubim. Because of his long life, he only remembers bits and pieces of his past.

His alien heritage, along with a mutanigenic compound called GenFactor, have given him a number of abilities, including generating psionic whips, turning into mist, virtual immortality, and superhuman agility.

I actually like Backlash better, but there is a reason I chose Aztek instead of him (because DC now owns Backlash, and all the other WildStorm characters) for that post a while back. I’d want to be the one to write the Aztek story. I wouldn’t want to be the one to write the Backlash story. I’d want Brett Booth to write a new Backlash series, or in this case, movie.

One of the biggest reasons I even gave the comic a shot was because of the amazing artwork of Brett Booth. Not only is he credited as the co-creator of the character, but he also helped write or draw (sometimes both) all 32 issues of Backlash’s series, along with its follow-up WildCore. Nobody knows the character better than him. So, if I was given the chance to make a Backlash movie, the first thing I’d do is hire Brett Booth to write the story.

What about you? Is there a character out there who hasn’t been on screen yet that you’d like to make a movie about?

Comic Book Question 9

by Revis Edgewater

IF YOU COULD BE GIVEN COMPLETE CREATIVE CONTROL OF ANY DC CHARACTER, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE?

The first post I did in this series had almost this exact same question. The only difference is this time it’s about DC instead of Marvel. Much like the last one, it would be very easy to answer this with my favorite DC character, in this case Nightwing, but I don’t like to do things the easy way. I also wouldn’t like having to deal with all of the Batman and Titans writers who would be bugging me every time they wanted to use him in a story. So, I’m going a different way.

Aztek: The Ultimate Man

Aztek #1 by DC Comics

I’m guessing most of you out there have never heard of Aztek. It’s understandable. The above series was only 10 issues before it ended, and Aztek got folded over into the JLA. He had sporadic appearances in the JLA books until he was killed saving the world from the threat he was specifically trained to prevent. Then, Aztek was forgotten for a while until Rebirth, when a new female Aztek was introduced, used in one storyline, and was forgotten again.

Now, I haven’t read anything with the new Aztek in it, so I don’t know how good, or bad, she is. I have read the original’s 10 issue run. I’ve got to say that, when it first came out, I really liked it, so when I saw the digital version on sale on Amazon awhile back for only a couple bucks, I bought it immediately. Then I reread it…

…

I guess underwhelmed is the best way to describe how I felt after reading it the second time. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t nearly as good as I remember it being. There were too many teamups with other characters. Half of the 10 issues involved teamups with Justice League members (first Green Lantern, a two issue story with Batman, then Superman, and the final issue with the entire JLA). Granted, those teamups were necessary due to the overall story arc of the series, but I still didn’t like it. I thought he should’ve stood on his own before getting thrown in with others.

Plus (sorry if I’m spoiling this for anyone), except for the villains from his teamup partners, they killed off every bad person he fought. All of the villains that were made up specifically for this story (including the one that I thought would be a good fit to be Aztek’s main archenemy) ended up dead. Before you ask: no, he didn’t cause any of their deaths. The deaths were either the result of an accident or they were killed by other bad people.

Overall, I still like the character concept, I just didn’t like how they handled the story, and if I was ever given the chance, I already have ideas on where I would start to take it.

What about you? Which DC character would you pick?

Comic Book Question 8

by Revis Edgewater

It has been another awful week at work, so I’m picking a question that’s relatively quick for me to answer.

If you switched the rogue galleries of Batman and Spider-Man, which one would have the easiest time defeating the others?

To me, this one is simple. It’s Spider-Man. Spider-Man would have an easier time defeating Batman’s villains than Batman would have defeating Spider-Man’s villains.

I can hear all the DC enthusiasts now: “But, if you give Batman enough time to study his opponents, he could beat all of Spider-Man’s villains!” While that may be true, you don’t always get the time to study your opponents in the crime fighting game. If Batman were to come across Carnage in a dark alley, with no idea what the symbiote’s weaknesses were, I’m taking Carnage in that fight.

On the other hand, if you were to pit Spider-Man against any of Batman’s villains, he’d win those fights even without any prior knowledge of them. Plus, his quips and one-liners would probably annoy the crap out of villains like the Joker and Riddler.

What do you think? Do you agree with me, or do I have it wrong?

Comic Book Question 7

by Revis Edgewater

Who is the lamest Batman villain?

Batman has had many villains over the years. Some are iconic. Some are laughable. Which one do I think is the worst, as far as having a lame power/gimmick? If I actually sat down and thought about it, I may have a different answer, but I’m just going to go with the first one to pop into my head.

The Ventriloquist.

Now, I don’t know if he was ever in any comics, but I only saw him in the 90s cartoon. He showed up on multiple occasions in the background at Arkham Asylum, but he was the main villain in at least one episode. His gimmick, like his name suggests, is that he commits crimes with a ventriloquist dummy. Only, in his mind, he’s a good guy, and it’s the dummy that’s evil, forcing him to commit these crimes.

If I remember correctly, which is a big “if” considering how long it’s been since I watched the 90s cartoons, he ditched his original dummy, Scarface (a 1930s style gangster), when he got tired of Scarface bossing him around, completed his therapy, then had something bad happen to him, and got a new dummy that was even more evil than Scarface.

It could just be me, but all of that is incredibly lame. It’s like they ran out of ideas and had to throw something together in five minutes. How this character appeared in more than one episode is beyond me.

Who do you think is Batman’s lamest villain?

Comic Book Question 5

by Revis Edgewater

IF YOU COULD CREATE YOUR OWN AMALGAM UNIVERSE CHARACTER, WHO WOULD IT BE?

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll explain. Back in the late 90s/early 2000s (I could look it up, but I’m feeling lazy at the moment), the Big 2 in the comic book industry, Marvel and DC, did a huge crossover event. During this event, the main Marvel universe and the main DC universe merged together, creating the Amalgam universe; a universe whose heroes and villains were a combination of one character from each of two original universes. For example, years ago, I mentioned in a post that the most badass character in comics came from the Amalgam universe: Dark Claw, a combination of Wolverine and Batman. Imagine Wolverine, with his adamantium skeleton, claws, and healing factor, but also having Batman’s intelligence, resources, and fighting skills. Most badass character in comics.

His nemesis, Hyena (a mixture of Joker and Sabretooth), was pretty badass too. Some of the others I remember are: Super Soldier (Superman + Captain America), Amazon (Wonder Woman + Storm), Speed Demon (Ghost Rider + Flash, a combination I never would have thought of), and Sparrow (Robin + Jubilee). There were many more, but those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

As for my answer to the question, I put a lot of thought into it. I wanted to create a conflicted character, so I started thinking of two characters who were complete opposites. The first thing that came to mind was Superman and the Punisher, but Injustice Superman was basically that combination. Then, I went to Deadpool and Batman, the least serious comic book character and the most serious. But, finding a balance between the two would be tricky. It’s probably a little too tricky, so I moved on from that. That’s when I thought that maybe I should do two characters with opposite powers as opposed to opposite personalities. After pondering that one for a bit, I realized I was overthinking it, and I should just go with a combination I liked.

That’s when I came up with the Cajun Hood. I’m still not sold on the name, but I was trying to include both characters in it, and it’s the best I’ve come up with so far. The Cajun Hood is a combination of Gambit and the Red Hood. Both already wear body armor. When fighting up close, he’d use Gambit’s quarterstaff. When fighting from a distance, he’d use Red Hood’s guns, but he’d imbue his non-lethal rounds with Gambit’s mutant kinetic energy ability. He’d have Remy’s Cajun heritage and thief upbringing, but the Jason’s tragic backstory of being killed and brought back to life.

Personally, I think that would be an awesome character.

What about you? What would your Amalgam universe character be?

Hoopla

by Revis Edgewater

Hoopla is an app I have for my phone that works with my local library. With it, I’m able to borrow digital versions of things just like I’d be able to borrow the physical copies from the library. It has ebooks, audio books, music, movies, and TV shows. Mostly, I use it for ebooks and music.

The ebooks that I borrow are almost all of the same kind: comic books. While there are some single issue stuff, most of the comics available to borrow are collections, anywhere between 4-6 issues of a given title. I really haven’t used it on many Marvel titles, because I have Marvel Unlimited, but anything DC that I’ve read since their Rebirth event has been on Hoopla.

It’s also allowed me to read things I’ve never known about before, like Valiant Comics. Before Hoopla, the only Valiant character I’d ever heard of was X-O Manowar, and that’s only because he once had a Game Boy game where he teamed up with Iron Man. Now, I’ve read a number of their books.

There’s Bloodshot (which started off strong, but got weaker around 15-20 issues in when they put him with a team). There was ShadowMan (a mystic/voodoo story set in New Orleans). And, of course, X-O Manowar (which was probably the best of the bunch).

Hoopla also gave me access to comics from Dragon Age, Firefly/Serenity, and Dark Matter (although I think they lost the rights to the Firefly ones because I don’t see them anymore).

Out of the other things Hoopla offers, the only one that I really use is music. I don’t do audio books. The one time I tried one, it pretty much made me fall asleep. And, if I want to watch a movie or TV show, Netflix has a much better selection.

As far as their music goes, they have a decent selection. And, a lot of the time, you can get things fairly quickly after they’re released. I was able to borrow Disturbed’s newest CD the same day it was released.

While there are a couple of things that I don’t like about it (there are a limited number of titles you can borrow (12 a month) and that each episode of a TV show is considered one borrow), I really like this app. And, the best thing about it, it’s completely free with my library card. If you want to give it a shot, check out your local library and see if they offer it.