Swamp Thing-
Started out as one-shot story in IIRC House Of Secrets.
Then becomes superhero title.
Then Vertigo.
Then Retcon-Swampy is not a transformed scientist, but a plant with the memories of a man. Swampy is not mutated freak, but a powerful earth elemental.
Doom Patrol-
Started out as superhero title.
Then, DP is killed.
Then, New DP with all different people.
Then Vertigo
Then Retcon- The Chief caused all the “accidents” that created the DP. AND He was never a paraplegic. He just faked it for 20 years or so.
Golden Age Sandman- Crimefighter in suit, weird blue/gold gasmask and a cape. Fights crime and uses sleep gas.
Then Vertigo Reboot-Sandman Mystery Theater. Hard Boiled Noir detective in suit and WWI gasmask.
Shade, the Changing Man-Ditko created a man from the dimension of Meta. Shade wore an M-vest which created forcefields. These forcefields distorted his features, hence the Changing Man bit.
Vertigo Reboot-Shade is an alien from Meta. His mind must change host bodies. His power stems from control of a psychic force called The Madness.
Kid Eternity- Dorky kid dies due to celextial clerical error. He's sent back to earth with amazing powers.
Vertigo Reboot-Kid is standard GenXer in grim world. His mission is to help humanity evolve spiritually.
What Else
Brother Power got a Vertigo Retcon in an issue of Swamp Thing. BP is not just a strange, living, tailor's dummy. BP is a Doll Elemental.
The Prez got a reboot/retcon in a Vertigo limited series.
Ditto Black Orchid
The gas mask costume was the original. My cite is the JSA Archive Edition Volume #1, which clearly shows Sandman in his mask. The b&g came later, in the later 1940’s, along with his side-kick, Sandy.
A mistake, IMHO. The old costume could have been jazzed up some, but the new one looked stupid.
Between the original version and the crappy Vertigo version is the (wonderful, btw) E. Nelson Bridewell retcon that Kid Eternity is Captain Marvel Jr’s brother (or cousin). The cosmic screw-up was that Freddy Freeman (Cap Jr.) was supposed to die in his boating accident and Kit Freeman (Kid E.) was supposed to be be crippled in HIS boating accident. The Fates (or whoever) got the two mixed up, but it’s all for the best becasue it created two heroes (all revealed in a wonderful run with great art that started in World’s Finest in the 280s or so and continued into Adventure when it went to digest size around #490 or so)
You mean the new costume with the yellow-and-purple tights? I’ve never understood why they changed it, especially when it was almost idential to the Tarantula, a proto-Spider-Man.
Tarantula changed to a snazzy brown suit in a story in All-Star Squadron, which was set in 1942. Of course, this is all pre-Crisis, and I have no idea if DC has written anything about the Tarantula since.
Hey! Jack Kirby designed the purple and gold costume.
[sub]but even Jack could have an off-day…[/sub]
That said, another retcon was based on the fact that the original Tarrantula’s costume looked a LOT like the Kirby Sandman costume. In All-Star Squad, Thomas explained that the costume was designed by one woman and they both adopted it (I believe Dian designed it and showed it to the Tarrantula while interviewing him. She was then snuffed (EVERYONE ignored the fact that she was killed. Everyone hated it.) and both the Tarrantula and the Sandman adopted it in honor of her)
In reference to the Marvel ripoffs of certain DC superteams, the Shi’ar Royal Guard (or Guardians, or whatever…been awhile) in the X-Men continuity is/was suspiciously similar to DC’s Legion of Superheroes (not the reboot version).
Gladiator=Ultraboy. There were also cognates to Karate Kid/King, Shadow Lass, Saturn Girl, Princess Projectra, Chameleon Boy, etc.
Peyote, he may be referring to the Silver-Age iteration of the original Sandman costume. In the Silver-Age, when we saw Sandman in the suit, it wasn’t the cool Vertigo version where he’s wearing a normal suit and a real gas mask; in the Silver Age, Wesley dressed in a bright GREEN suit (no-one has a suit that color), a purple cape, an orange fedora and his “gas mask” was more-or-less a yellow and blue hockey/goalie/Jason-esque mask. It looked nothing like a real gas-mask. Trust me. It made the Kirby version look wonderful by comparison.
He was also given a “wirepoon” gun which A) shot sand which could be fused into glass to do Green-Lantern-esque stunts (glass lassos, handcuffs, etc) and B) shot the sleep-gas. (This was during the same period (Bat-mania and Go-Go checks-circa 1966) where Dr. Midnite was given a “cyrotuber” gun which did such wonders as shoot an “anesthetic laser-blast” and a beam which made people dizzy and shot ice/cold “so I won’t have to rely on my old-fashioned blackout bombs.”)
Jonathan Law is currently living in the same building as Dick Grayson, in Bludhaven. There have been a few references to his former life as the Tarantula, but he only did that so he could hang out with the heroes and write his book.
Again Fenris gets a bullseye worthy of Green Arrow, Deadshot or...Bullseye. Actually, the discussion of purple and yellow tights almost made me check page 1 to see who you were talking about. I managed to miss that version completely.
Killer Moth-Last I read of him (Shadow Of The Bat-“The Misfits”) he was just a minor league villian. I’ve also got a Wizard villain year in review and a New Year’s Evil that make Prometheus out to be the evil Batman. Wasn’t that supposed to be KM’s job? He had the suit, the belt, a Mothmobile. Was he simply forgotten or was there a reason he was never given “Batman’s evil twin” status?
Killer Moth’s biggest claim to fame is that he was the villian in Batgirl’s first appearance (Barbara Gordon version) in Detective Comics#359, January 1967.
Suspicious, hell; it was blatant. The Imperial Guard was created with the help of Dave Cockrum, the (then) current X-Men penciller, who had recently come over from DC’s Legion…with a whole lot of Legion costume re-designs in his sketchbook. Guess who ended up wearing those?
In any case, Gladiator wasn’t Ultra Boy, he was Superboy/Mon-El. The Ultra Boy equivalent was Smasher. Saturn Girl was Oracle, Tempest was Lightning Lad, Mentor was Brainiac 5, Hobgoblin was Chameleon Boy, Starbolt was Sun Boy, Impulse was Wildfire, Fang was Timber Wolf, Titan was Colossal Boy, Midget was Shrinking Violet, Nightside was Shadow Lass, Astra was Phantom Girl, Magic was Princess Projectra, Quasar was Star Boy. (Other members of the guard were added later by writer/artist teams that did not include former Legion creators.)
One of the more amusing DC/Marvel mutual knockoffs was pulled off by writer/artist John Byrne. In one month, he drew a Fantastic Four cover showing the Gladiator mixing it up with them, and also a Superman cover with Supes in the exact same pose, mixing it up with four near-equivalent members of the Legion; Braniac 5 (genius), Blok (big rocky tough guy), Sun Boy (flame on!) and Invisible Boy (duh).
IIRC he was swimming to an Atlantean city when an underwater weapons test blew it up (hey, we didn’t know it was there…). He was far enough to survive, but the concussion gave him amnesia. The Torch found him, and recognized him. Remembering the test made him mad at humans, which he was big time at the revival. His aging doesn’t matter, he’s only part human, IIRC. They just had to put him in storage a while.
Yup. The rocket containing BP crashes back to Earth. He creates
a series of giant bodies for himself until one of Swampy’s fried hippy friends tells him that people are getting freaked out. BP walks off in a normal sized body to see how America has changed since he’s been gone. I’ll provide an issue number in another post.