Name: Felicia Hardy
Following a mention in the first Spider-Man film, Peter Parker's one-armed teacher, Dr. Curt Connors, would make appearances in both sequels (played by Dylan Baker). In the comics, Dr. Connors created a regenerative agent that regrew his arm but turned him into the animalistic Lizard. This is his last chance to show up on this list because he's set to be the main antagonist in the Spider-Man reboot film in 2012, this time played by Welsh actor Rhys Ifans (Spike in Notting Hill). That's some pretty crazy casting...
The criminal being tried by Rachel Dawes and who later escapes during the Arkham break-out to threaten her (played by Tim Booth) is very much from the comics. In the film, he "butchers people for the mob". In the comics, Victor Zsasz is a serial killer than murders entire families and leaves them in lifelike poses. He marks each kill with a cut on his body. You'd think a non-costumed character like that would be a one-off, but he captured the readership's imagination and has made frequent appearances since.
The scientist played by John Glover who gives Bane and Poison Ivy their powers in the terrible, terrible Batman&Robin, Jason Woodrue, started out life as a plant-inspired criminal in the pages of The Atom way back in 1962. In the 70s, he used a serum to mutate himself into a plant man during which time he faced the Flash and Green Lantern. He would later turn up in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and even become a hero (as "Floro") as a member of the New Guardians. He fell off the wagon again in the 90s and has been a thorn in the side of various heroes, mostly Batman. It's amazing to me that in current continuity (well, for the next week anyway), Woodrue has been made responsible for Poison Ivy's creation. Because movies are more widely seen than comics, it's frequent that movie mythology is imposed on comics continuity. But Batman and Robin's? REALLY?!
The most recent example of a comics villain hidden in plain sight is Arnim Zola, the Red Skull's scientific sidekick in the new Captain America movie (played by the Dream Lord himself, Toby Jones). This crazy-ass Jack Kirby creation from 1977 is a former Nazi with a synthetic body whose head is a camera and whose chest is a tv screen broadcasting his face. I doubt we'll ever see a "grown-up" version of Zola in the movies, but imagine if we did! (Arnim Zola also appears in the David Hasselhoff's Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD TV movie as a wheelchair-bound Dr. Strangelove wannabe.)
A recent ark in Detective Comics has turned Commissioner Gordon's little boy, James Jr., seen in The Dark Knight being threatened by Two-Face, in the "Peter Pan Killer". Who knew that Two-Face would leave such a mark? In the comics, James is a heavily disturbed individual who has always had a lack of conscience and who may or may not have spiked Gotham's baby food to create natural born criminals in 20 years time. Nathan Gamble should return to the role when he's an adult in my imaginary Batgirl & Robin film.
Name: Otto Octopussycat
And this is a FRIDAY! In 3D! And it's suggested it might be the OPENING WEEKEND!
The show about temporal anomalies through which the "Walking with" creatures come through to the present and the paleontologists who love to fight them came back this year a hiatus of almost two years. Series 4 aired in January, and Series 5 is airing now. Of course, that's all in the UK (or BBC America, which I don't get), and I'm waiting for DVD versions to be issued to Region 1.
But that's not the only Spielberg dinosaur project in the pipeline. The Hollywood Reporter yesterday reported that there were ongoing talks about rebooting the franchise with a fourth film. Good possibility that Terra Nova is being used to grease the market's wheels and progress some CGI development?
On Free Comic Book Day, the Discovery Channel unveiled a couple of upcoming series in a special free flipbook. One was about deadly sharks, the other was called Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Predators. While the art is competent, I'm afraid the story (about the "supercrocodile" Sarcosuchus) didn't agree with me. It tries to be a comic book version of the "Walking with" series, but fails by choosing the use the past tense in the narration. All the immediacy is lost. Of course, results may vary in the actual series, and this may yet prove a fun educational book for kids.
Recently, Power Girl and her cross-Earth cousin Superman could be seen fighting magical dinosaurs(!) in the pages of PG's comic, proving all the fun didn't go out of it when Palmiotti, Gray and the wonderful Amanda Connor left the book.
Meanwhile, we've had Spider-Man swinging bioengineered velociraptors(!) around in the pages of Heroes for Hire!
This month's issue of Doc Savage features the Man of Bronze fighting with a pteranodon!
And as if Master Robert Kirkman didn't have his fill of dinosaurs in his recent hit, Super-Dinosaur, he also features the return of Dinosaurus in the pages of Invincible #80 this month. It's pure awesome with a side order of shocking ending.
Lest I forget before I leave the comic book world, the Avengers Academy still features Reptil, a superhero who can turn into any kind of dinosaur.
And after getting only lukewarm reviews last year, the new Silurians are completely redeemed by Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat in the person of Madame Vastra, the Victorian Silurian samurai detective and monster hunter who, along with her butler and gay interspecies lover Jenny, became an overnight sensation after Series 6's mid-season finale. It seemed that for the better part of last week, people were more inclined to talk about the unlikely duo (and wishing very strongly for a spin-off series) than of the revelations about River Song. Quite right too. (Announcing heavy Doctor Who content next week. I've held my tongue too long.)
Amalgam Comics merged Carnage with Bizarro, but what about VENOM? Well, never fear, PaulC is here with all the answers and his amazing Amalgamation talents. Venom is of course merged with Superboy-Prime, for twice the evil twinage!
I may be cheating a bit here, because Spider-Man 2099 is actually amalgamated with Mon-El (Miguel O'Hara becomes Mig-El), but a Spider-Boy by any other name...
In 1996, it may have seemed appropriate to amalgamate Superboy and Spider-Man, seeing as both were clones of each company's biggest star. Both started out as teen heroes, and were quick with the banter. It certainly made for some of the most entertaining Amalgam comics (in both waves). Running around Cadmus as the awesome Arach-Kid, Spider-Boy was, in his every day life, Daily Bugle photographer Pete Ross, often partnered up with ace reporter Tana Moon. When Mary Jane Watson - Insect Queen shows up at the end of the issue, you really want there to be a whole series of these things.
What If vol.2 #20-21 (November-December 1990)
Altered history: In this reality, Spider-Man gets knocked out during the Spider-Slayer fight, and by the time he comes to and saves Mary Jane, she has to be hospitalized. Her life is saved, and she says yes to Peter's proposal. However...
...he suddenly gets cold feet. As his nightmares reveal, the incident made him realize he couldn't keep Mary Jane safe, and Pete once again lets responsibility run his life. He leaves her at the altar. The whole thing has give Spidey a "mad on" and he violently takes to the streets. But it's not enough for him, so he joins Silver Sable's agency to get even more jobs.
A belated visit to Aunt May's inspires Pete to maybe get back in the game, but this time with someone who can share the risk. He sends a letter to former girlfriend Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat (a letter, how quaint), and she answers in the only way Spidey-girlfriends know how:
They renew their partnership, both on the streets and under the sheets. The Black Cat ruthlessly deals with the threats of the era, including Kraven's last hunt (her violent take-down of the hunter ironically saves his life) and Venom (potentially separating the suit from Eddie Brock early). But her greatest foe is the ghost of Mary Jane Watson, and even when Pete asks Felicia to marry him, she can't help but itch for a cat fight.
But this little conversation occurs in earshot of a guy who puts 2 and 2 together and sells the information to the Vulture (of all the villains to call... anyway, he's killed for his trouble). Meanwhile, Pete and Felicia get married under assumed names to protect his secret identity.
Are they even legally married? The mustache says no. The marriage is immediately strained by the whole secret i.d. bit, as the Cat would rather be married to Spider-Man than lame Peter Parker. The soap opera is short lived however when the Vulture blows up Aunt May's house.
Spidey goes on a rampage, looking to make the Vulture pay. He catches up with him just as he's about to kill Felicia, but Silver Sable's crew (she's with Sandman and Paladin) prevent him from killing the Vulture. While the Vulture gets shipped to prison, Peter ends it with the Black Cat.
Awww, sad. Shouldn'ta been loose with the lips, girl. Soon, the Vulture is killed while trying to break out of Ryker's Island and Silver Sable's crew go after Spider-Man. But it was the Black Cat looking to atone, and in the final fight, she cops to it and pulls Mary Jane out of the crossfire too. MJ slips off her safety ledge, and as Pete jumps to save her from Gwen Stacy's fate, Paladin starts shooting, thinking the Cat pushed her. Oops!
She's dead! Widower Spider-Man continues to work with the supportive Silver Sable and eventually, romance blossoms between the two.
In other words, Spider-Man never learns. And the Watcher is quite the voyeur.
Spider-Man! Blue Beetle! The Question! Dr. Strange! The Creeper! Speedball! Shade the Changing Man! And all of them working out of the Avenging World!
Well, I can't say this comic is well put together much at all. Uneven art where every hero might as well be four feet tall is the least of its problems. Its structure is terrible, with an over-long epilogue filled with unmotivated happenings... Well, I'll let the comic speak for itself, I suppose.
Altered history: So Kraven kills Spider-Man before burying him (probably safer) as in the original story, goes out to lethally fight crime as a new Spider-Man, high on spider juice. The divergence occurs when Spider-Man is gone long enough for Mary Jane, who was about to move in with her husband, starts to panic. She assembles a crack team of super-heroes to check on the new, violent Spider-Man, letting on that her husband's disappearance in somehow connected, she just knows it.
The Torch (God rest his soul... no wait, I don't believe for a second he's dead, scratch that), Daredevil and Captain America each encounter Spider-Kraven, and they all come to the same conclusion. That's not Spider-Man! I'd even say they were a bit slow about it, especially since MJ sorta told them he was an impostor. It's been two weeks, and she's ready to spill the beans.
As in the original timeline, Vermin comes into the story and jumps J.J. Jameson. Spider-Kraven saves him by killing Vermin, though of course JJJ is sure he would have been next, if it wasn't for the interference of our three heroes. They follow Kraven to the graveyard, where the mad Hunter feels the need to eat of the spider directly!
They apprehend him before a Marvel comic would have had to show cannibalism (it was 20 years ago, we didn't realize how slippery the slope was) and find Peter Parker's body. Mary Jane cries for a page, then goes off to tell Aunt May who blows a fuse when MJ slanders her poor Peter by saying he was Spider-Man.
Then there's the quiet funeral, and you'd think that would be that. But no, it goes on. MJ and the heroes call a press conference where she reveals Peter was Spider-Man to clear his name of any of Spider-Kraven's wrong-doing. Even with Captain America RIGHT THERE, the press is all about calling the heroes' bullshit. Tabloid peddler JJJ says the real Spider-Man attacked him, so it must be true! And then of course, Jonah shows up on stage in crutches and there's a lame struggle with the Torch, which the press paints like THIS:
From there, super-heroes are investigated by Congress and public opinion turns against them. Even the Avengers and Fantastic Four quietly disband or go into hiding. Better not to fight this, says Reed Richards. ...WHAT?!? This would be completely ridiculous if not for the many real examples of this kind of behavior from the media and its consumers. Wait, it's still not over... MJ goes on to be a crusader, dedicating her life to removing the stain from her husband's name and that of all the heroes he brought down with him. Oh, and I'm pretty sure the Marvel Universe is overrun with villains inside of a week.
Mephisto's unhealthy fascination with weddings gets its start when he tries to undo Glen and Barbara's wedding plans. It's a Brand New Day for transvestite Glen/Ed!
Look who's in charge of wardrobe! Who thought he would one day be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office?
An Amalgamondays extra!