This is the (mostly) the costume Wonder Man wore when I first was introduced to the character in John Byrne’s West Coast Avengers. Sans mullet, though. Because, y’know. Mullet.
290 – Wonder Man
289 – Wonder Man
Hollywood/Safari outfit, which I think is awesome.
288 – Star
Star was (is?) a supporting character from Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon, a character and creator I have gone on about at length. Star was sort of a Spider-Man-ish character, but Larsen added some twists and to the archetype and to the character itself, making him a beloved recurring hero.
Anyway, there’s a guy I know who’s about to go on even further about Larsen and Dragon, and I’m doing whatever I can to help that happen. Jim Purcell – online friend and longtime supporter – has started a podcast with some buddies of his called The Savage FINcast. The FINcast is dedicated to all things Savage Dragon and Erik Larsen related, and I have offered up some server space and bandwidth to allow The FINcast a place to call home on the internet.
Welcome to the Gutter Trash family, Savage FINcast! Check the show out over at fincast.guttertrash.net, and subscribe in iTunes or RSS feed!
287 – Wonder Man
Simon Williams in his original Wonder Man costume, when he was an undercover bad guy. Or something. The Avengers should have known he was a villain, because no heroes in the Marvel Universe wear green, only bad guys. If Wonder Man were in the DCU he’d be a mega-good guy. They love green over there. But being Wonder Man, he’d probably wear star-spangled daisy dukes and fuck-me boots.
286 – Wolverine
Old school whisker-mask, small eye-piece Wolverine. Also, I shortened the gloves and the flares on his boots. I went ahead and made his teeth metal, because they would be, right? No one ever mentions this. He could absotively bite the shit out of people. Finally, I’ve always thought that his mutton-chops should stick out of his mask. No mask can withhold those mighty sideburns.
285 – Conrad Lant
Spent the day at Horrorhound Cincinnati with Kurt Dinse, whose cartoon avatar is Conrad Lant, star of Kurt’s comic One Year in Indiana. Conrad is the world’s smartest death metal vocalist who is stranded in Indiana when his band stops touring. It is loosely based on Kurt’s own experiences, and one of the best comics around. Go email him and buy a copy. If Kurt had not been at the show today, I would have had a miserable time. Horrorhound Cincinnati, it’s guests and customers: go fuck yourselves.
284 – Darkhawk
Another non-DC request for Joe G., another character who I am mostly unfamiliar with, having only read a few issues that guest-starred bigger characters.
283 – Sleepwalker
A non-DC request from Joe Grunenwald! I’m fairly certain he doesn’t remember asking for this! I don’t know a thing about Sleepwalker, I think I read maybe three issues of his book in the early 90s, probably because Wolverine, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider or The Punisher guest-starred.
282 – Flatman
Back in the early 90s, John Byrne did a run on West Coast Avengers (Avengers West Coast?) that I absolutely loved, and part of his run was the introduction of The Great Lakes Avengers, a ridiculous team of Midwestern Superheroes who actually turned out to be pretty competent and powerful. Hawkeye and Mockingbird both left The Avengers to lend guidance to the GLA. They popped up maybe a couple other times, but were subsequently ignored for the most part.
In the mid-2000s, Dan Slott brought the team back for a mini-series and some one-shots that I enjoyed. They were goofy fun heroes, and sadly, I don’t think Marvel or DC has any room for that type of book anymore.
Anyway, the team consisted of Mr. Immortal, Doorman, Dinah Saur, Big Bertha and Flatman (pictured).
281 – Ultimate Nick Fury
At it’s core, I have no problems with Ultimate Nick Fury. But I do have a problem with the fact that he simply exists only to get the attention of Samuel L. Jackson. And hey, it worked! Unfortunately, this is so meta and so twisted in on itself, that there’s now no room for Ultimate Nick Fury to be his own character or have a personality. He is simply Sam Jackson fictionalized. But hey, now Jackson is playing the character in movies, so who cares?