A Juggernaut Journal of Justice-Jammed Jargon (for superhero fans and aspirants)

Cafe Society
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#85 - Supporting Cast: The secondary characters that routinely appear in a given series. Frequently they consist of non-powered friends, relatives, co-workers and love interests of the main hero. They may or may not be privvy to the secret identity of the hero/heroine, or may know the hero/heroine in his secret identity personae and be unaware that the person they know is in fact a superhero. Supporting Casts alter over time as secondary characters are written out, killed off and newer characters are added.

Spider-Man: Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, Mary-Jane Watson Parker, Robbie Robertson, etc.

Batman: Robin, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, Aunt Harriet.

#86 - Love Interest: A particular secondary character to whom the main hero / heroine is attracted to and has some sort of relationship with. Romantic relationships are usually desired, but thwarted for some reason or other. Love Interests are frequently taken hostage, and sometimes killed off, but rarely ever become happily married to the hero/ heroine.

Superman: Lois Lane (Kent)
Spider-Man: Betty Brant, Mary-Jane Watson (Parker), Gwen Stacey
Thor: Nurse Jane Foster
Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor

#87 - Comedy sidekick: A bit dated; this particular kind of sidekick would provide humourous gags to the adventurers’ escapades. They tended to reinforce the hero/heroine’s “heroic” qualities by appearing clumsy, oafish and slow-witted in comparison. Alas, they often tended to be overweight, and sometimes were even “comic” takes on crude stereotypes. Comedy sidekicks waned in popularity after the golden age.

Wonder Woman: Etta Candy
Plastic Man: Doiby Dickles
the Blackhawks: Pieface
the Spirit: Can’t recall the guys’ name offhand, but the Spirit was often accompanied by a short black man who was drawn to resemble a monkey and talked in “colored speech” ("Miz Speerit! Dem gangstahs shore were mighty vi’lint wit’ ya!)

#88 - the Golden Age: Period between 1939 - 1951 which saw a huge boom (and gradual cresting) in the comic book business because of the advent of the ‘superhero.’ The superhero archetype was quickly formatted during this time, and most of the iconic heroes were created in this time period - Superman, Batman, Captain America, Plastic Man.

#89 - the Silver Age: 1956 - 1971. Resurgence of superhero comics due in large part to: 1) the revamping of several major DC superhero series (Flash, Green Lantern, JLA), and 2) iconoclastic new characters & series from Marvel Comics (Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man) that broke the mold of established superhero archetypes & mores set down in the Golden Age.

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Wasn’t Tom “Pieface” Kalmaku Green Lantern II’s full fledged sidekick? He help defeat villians and conceled Hals Identity.

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In real life, there was a member called Pieface of the Chicago Blackhawks, a hockey team , but I think you are thinking of Chop-Chop, of the comic book Blackhawks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McKenzie

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Art Vandelay. The Spirit’s partner was Ebony White. Most comic sidekicks (As Jimmy Olsen, Snapper Carr and Star Hawkins Ilsa the Robot were arguably) were pretty relevant right up until the end of the Silver Age.

Good post.

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Ulp! Uh, ehhh…I stand corrected. My apologies. :smack:

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#90. Superhero funeral. Among the more curious traditions of the superhero culture. Superhero attendees come dressed in uniform or costume, or modified versions of each, for fallen colleagues and their family members. In many instances, death occurs without benefit of the corpus delecti, which often precedes evidence of either a mistaken passing or possible resurrection. Superheroes who are believed to have fallen in battle are frequently interned without a wake or a corpse. Eulogies may be delivered by the heroes’ fraternity, family and supporting cast. In many superhero comics it is traditional for a life-sized statue, either of the hero or religious symbol, to adorn the gravesite.

The ordinary person is unlikely to gain admittance to the superhero funeral, any more than s/he is likely to be invited to a superhero wedding. A memorial park or superhero museum may be erected if the hero had an urban **base of operations ** commemorating her/his service to humanity. NOTE: superhero wedding and superhero memorial park to be defined later.

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90 sure stopped dead this thread. I mean…

No, I can’t make it sound anymore funny then it is. Or rather, isn’t.

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sidebar to sidekick: It occurred to me that the sidekick phenomenon is pretty much exclusive to DC comics superheroes and pulp-inspired heroes like The Green Hornet (and Kato), the Lone Ranger (and Tonto) and the Spirit (and Ebony). Stan Lee reportedly hated sidekicks – which is why the Marvel Universe is largely devoid of them, and he killed off Bucky right away. This helps explain why the “Family” concept is so rare outside the DCU.

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Okay, this one is ging to end up being long, overly academic, and probably controversial. I’ll welcome any debate or corrections. So be it. I’m also breaking the alphabetical rule, and going with chronological instead. Keep in mind that I’m sticking to a superhero-centric outlook, so I’m ignoring the most important parts of the Golden Age.

#91 Ages: A comic book “age” is an era in publishing. While mostly of interest to comic book historians and collectors, students of superheroism should also know these terms, as a hero’s historical origin often reviews several facets of their character. As an “age” is a arbitrary mark, their exact begininngs and ends are often in dispute. The generally accepted ages are Platinum, Gold, Silver, and often Bronze. Other putative ages (not described below) include **Atom **(1947-1956), **Copper **(1986-1992), and **Chrome **(1992-1999). Almost all systems leave the present era unnamed.

#92 Platinum Age: (1828-1938). Comics didn’t start with superheroes. This era represents all that came before. Most of these comics were actually reprints of newspaper strips, an appropriate irony since the current market is leaning more towards tradepaperbacks reprinting individual comics, than teh small pamphlets themselves. This was prefer the modern superhero, but many enduring tropes have their origin in comics of this era.

#93 Golden Age (1938-1956): And then there was Superman. Golden Age superheroes are heavily influenced by pulp novels and are thus more violent and tougher than their later successors. Villains included gangsters, mad scientists, and, of course, America’s Axis enemies. Golden Agers are often the most “iconic” of supers, tough and smart, but pure and utterly moral, and the look of bright primary colors and capers was established in this era. Superheroes (and comics in general) slumped in the post-war era, and almost fell of the map. Those heroes that didn’t survive the dry spell are often wedded to the WWII era, and are thus either old or relegated to flashbacks when they appear in later eras.
**Examples:
** The Justice Society of America, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America.

#94 Silver Age (1956-?): The superhero famine ended in 1956 with the reintroduction of the Flash. Instead of simply continuing the Golden Age Flash’s adventures, a new character was created with the same name. Eventually, DC extended this practice to the rest of the JSA. Silver Age heroes generally have a more science fiction than fantasy flavor to them, are more cerebral, and more innocent than their golden age predecessors. Their adventures were also more fantastic. Aliens, monsters, and super-powered madmen became the main threat to humanity in these years. The Silver Age was also the dawn of the Marvel Age of comics, in which fantastic adventure was wedded and contrated to realistic everday life and its problems. The date of the silver age’s end is highly controversial. Popular contenders include the death of Spider-Man’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy (1971), the defection of Jack Kirby from Marvel to DC (1970), and DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths (1986). About the only thing everyone agrees on is that the Silver Age did in fact end! Examples: The Justice League of America, Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, the Avengers.

I don’t know the Bronze Age very well, but I think it deserves its own entry. Anyone up for it?

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**#95. Desperation brand extension, ** also known as ** Animals in Spandex. ** Primarily a function of DC comics in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when writers were cudgeling themselves to find new plotlines. Consists of mapping lead hero’s abilities or attributes onto other entities. Think Krypto the Superdog and the other animals that formed the (shudder) Legion of Super-Pets with Streaky the cat, Beppo the monkey and Comet the white horse, all with — forgive us, Edna — CAPES (Superman capes, of course.) Batman also had Ace, the Bat Hound, complete with mask (obviiously to protect his secret identity!) and maybe others (?).

One site calls them “the secret shame of the Silver Age.” That can’t be far from wrong.

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A dangerous classification to use. Quite a few people use it to mean the modern age.

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Really? I’ve only seen it applied to pre-Superman stuff. I should note that I didn’t invent the term , although I did bundle in the stuff that’s here called “The Victorian Age”.

Today’s comics are almost always just called “The Modern Age”, although I have heard “The Dark Age” and “The Iron Age”, mostly from angry Silver-Age fans.

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'Cardboard’s the first term I ever heard for the modern age.

But, yeah, there’s enough people using ‘Platinum Age’ for now that attempting to correct the term was pointless - at least in the comics discussion groups I’m in.

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AAAARRRRRRGH!!! had a nice typed out reply and I knocked my mouse on the floor with my elbow and my whole reply vanished. AAAAAAAAARRRRRGH!!! I had links. I had clever ripostes.

Okay. Briefly…

I think the umbrella term Modern Age can plausibly include both the terms Bronze Age which may be defined by “relevent” comics starting with the GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW 13-issue road trip to find the soul of America in issue #76; the first instances of widespread ethnic diversification of superheroes (Luke Cage, the Falcon, the return of Black Panther, Shang Chi); the first overt allusions to sex, violence, politics and social issues. What quickly followed was a Dark Age where antiheroes dominated the top selling comics, beginning with the advent of both Batman the DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and WATCHMEN. Other characteristics of Dark Age comics were widespread revamping and retconning, graphic depictions of sexuality, violence, adult language and psychosexual overtones. Also, comic companies began letting marketing decisions dictate gimmicks and storylines to fuel the speculator’s market. We’re in a Platinum, or perhaps, a** Postmodern** Age where you’re seeing several dynamics at work 1) widespread nostaliga for the superhero silver age 2) Slight increase of genres outside the superhero mainstream 3) deconstruction of superheroes from their pulp origins (the Alan Moore method) or revamping via imprints (the Marvel Method). The Postmodern Age is arguably the real start of the creators superstardom consistently outshining the characters they right about. By this measure, I’m inclined to think the Postmodern Age began with either the formation of Image Studios or whenever DC/Marvel started doing creator exclusivity contracts.

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:confused: Don’t you mean Woozy Winks?

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Also a “Platinum” Age in terms of what the books cost! I mean, three bucks! :eek: I can remember when they cost a quarter! And when and why did they start printint them on slick paper?

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CORRECT! Woozy Winks was Plaz’s sidekick.

Doiby Dickles was the Golden Age Green Lantern’s sidekick.

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Hee hee. I remember quarter comics, too – I started reaing my uncle’s collection – although I didn’t start buying them personally until they were about 35 cents.

I think comics started getting slick paper in the early 80s when DC went to Baxter press.

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Oh, come on. We can surely reach 100 terms, but Askia has to publish a book and give us all free copies and author credits.

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Sorry, Askia, but I can not think of any examples to give here. Perhaps a relisting of what has yet to be covered would be nice. However, you might want to combiune your forces withCaptain Comics Round Table > Comics > SUBMISSIONS for FAQ List