Sunday Afternoon Awesome: X-Cutioner's Song Toys

Wandering through Target in the Palisades Mall this past Saturday evening, my friends and I were congesting the aisle containing the actions figures per usual and causing the poor red-shirted employee who wanted to re-stock to wonder why a group of charismatic, handsome 20-somethings would be so interested in a Brave and the Bold: Batman/B'Wana Beast two-pack while their wives and girlfriends looked on impatiently.

Before I could answer this gentleman's inquisitive gestures (which I was not going to do), what should I spy with my little eye but the embodiment of awesome in adorable toy form...

...none other than a friggin' Super Hero Squad X-Cutioner's Song four-pack that included not only Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean Grey (or "Marvel Girl" as the packaging labels her) in their vintage 90's costumes as seen on X-Men: The Animated Series, but a cute and cuddly rendition of the Chaos Bringer, Mr. "Stab His Eyes!" himself, Stryfe! Let's take a closer look...

Before anybody asks (because these pics don't really show it), yes, on the top of the package it does indeed say "X-Cutioner's Song," so I'm not just coining it that because of the character assortment. TJ made the astute observation that this was a curious branding given that likely nobody born in this or last decade has any idea what that title means, but I surely didn't care as learning that we somehow were involved in the production of the this toy in 2009 made me tickled pink to be a Marvel employee.

Here is the long version of what "X-Cutioner's Song" was. The slightly shorter (or maybe longer, we'll see) is that it was a twelve-part crossover between Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force that came out in 1992 when I was ten and in the midst of becoming a ginormous X-Men fanatic. Me and my buddy Matt Corley would ride our bikes to the comic shop each week to pick up the newest chapter then race home to take turns reading them (being one year older than Matt and playing the seniority card was awesome in this case).

The gist of the plot is that mysterious X-Force villain Stryfe poses as Cable, whom he is the identical twin of (but we didn't know why at the time), attempts to assassinate Professor X, kidnaps Cyclops and Jean Grey so he can take them to the moon and whine to them about how awful his childhood was, and also manipulates Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister and their various lackeys into assorted tasks that keep the X-Teams preoccupied. My favorite chapter was probably the fourth, where the X-Men and X-Factor hunt down X-Force, who didn't know where Cable was but were presumed guilty accomplices until proven innocent, and the younger team holds their own for a bit before getting demolished.

There were other free-for-all skirmishes throughout the crossover, as the X-Men also scrapped with the Mutant Liberation Front, Dark Riders, and various other henchmen types as well as going up against Apocalypse and then Stryfe himself. I remember one particular issue of X-Factor where Wolverine and Bishop went after Cable in a fight drawn by Jae Lee that at the time I thought was hideous, but looking back from a perspective that is able to tolerate not every art style needing to look like Jim Lee find quite stunning. The melees were broken up nicely by Stryfe's oft-over-the-top Shakespearean soliloquies and laments to Cyclops and Jean about how awful his life was and how it was all their fault. Throughout, obviously the implication was that Stryfe was the grown-up child Cyclops had once sent to the future, but it was never explicitly stated.

X-Cutioner's Song is a story I'm in no great rush to go back and read now, simply because I remember it through such fond childish eyes and would possibly be let down when it doesn't live up to my recollections. However, it was probably the single story that hooked me for certain as a lifelong comics fan, and hokey and bombastic as parts of it were, I will maintain it was fast-paced, well-constructed, and flat-out fun; it wasn't Watchmen, but it wasn't aspiring to be. It also had the artistic talents of the aforementioned Mr. Lee, Andy Kubert, Brandon Peterson and Greg Capullo going for it in tandem with the seasoned writing trio of Peter David, Fabian Nicieza and Scott Lobdell.

Anyways, finding these toys 17 years later, in Super Hero Squad form no less, was a joy for me. Even better, the package and online listing for the product does indeed provide a brief if somewhat inaccurate synopsis of the story (Wolverine wasn't the one who had the necessary power to save Cyclops and Jean on the moon, it was Cable and Havok by virtue of Styfe constructing a forcefield that would only allow in people with Summers and/or Grey DNA; Wolverine didn't do much after tracking down Cable). That this info will not be lost to future generations is a tremendous relief to me.

Linko! XXX

It's been a crazy busy week as I went to see Phish in Detroit on Wednesday, so I've gathered very few unique links for Linko! this week. To make it up to you people, I've collected a bunch of stuff that fits into one of three categories: art from DeviantArt, things written by Douglas Wolk and funny videos. But there's other stuff in there too...READ ON!

* Andy Khouri and his friend are right: This is a nice Batman pinup by Chris Stevens.

* I've always thought Joey Mason had some terrific stuff. From his work on Howard M. Shum's under-appreciated comedy series Gun Fu to his few issues of the much missed superhero satire The Mighty Offenders, he really deserves a bigger audience (though it's nice he's doing a little work on Super Human Resources). Anyway, the above X-Statix pinup is a bit of a departure from his regular style but still really fun.

* Hey, is it just me, or is the Phantom the comic book character with the highest ratio of cool imagery to shitty stories ever created? Seriously, y'all...jungle adventures get boring reeeeeaaaaaaaal quick. The above piece by some guy named Kent proves the first part of my point at least. (Last two images Via)

* Link to Douglas Wolk writing Link #1: I'm pretty sure I've said both of these things in Linko! before, but 1) my friend and critic Douglas Wolk is pretty great and you should follow his Twitter to see all he does rather than read things I steal for here and 2) I'm not sure what the heck the site Hilobrow is really for or what its name means but so long as they keep posting things like Douglas' mini essay on Chester Gould, I'll keep reading. Also: I totally had a reprint of that Mrs. Pruneface comic as a kid, and it freaked me the fuck out.

* Link to Douglas Wolk writing Link #2: I went on a whole tear of reading former Sleater Kinney member Carrie Brownstein's NPR blog "Monitor Mix" a while back as Brownstein tried (and I think failed) to get into Phish, so I was very glad to see Douglas step in and writer a killer post for that site on how "The Death of Mistakes Means The Death of Rock."

* Link to something related to Douglas Wolk writing Link: As I've seen a lot of people shamelessly whoring themselves out for success in music, I'm not sure I can get 100% behind the idea of "The Death of Selling Out" but this article made an interesting counterpoint to Douglas' piece, so I'm including it.

* Link to Douglas Wolk writing Link #3: I'm not sure why, but Douglas writes about the year in music, 2004 Edition, here.

* Cullen Brown posts the weirdest links Link: A Peruvian gang has been killing fat people to sell their fat on the black market.

* This was fun: a slideshow covering the history of Flight Attendant Uniforms. (Via)

* Ever see Jackie Chan participate in some totally fucking over the top and officially licensed "Street Fighter II" cosplay? Well, now you can. (Via)


* I'll fully admit that I don't get the full nostalgic effect of this mash-up of the Adam West "Batman" series and early '70s TV series "Emergency!" because I'm a youngin, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's pretty cool-looking. (Via)

T.A.P. - The Adventure Project

When I was a camp counselor way back in the late 90's/early 00's, there was nothing I hated more than going on field trips (I had long since conquered mosquitoes by adopting an "if you don't show fear, they won't bite" attitude and refusing to wear bug spray, which totally worked). I hated six hour roundtrip bus rides, I hated having to be out in the sun in one location for hours, I hated having to choose between crappy packed sandwiches or over-priced beach/amusement park food, and I hated having to deal with my campers wanting to know when the fuck we were leaving.

One time we took a trip to Mystic, Connecticut (ironically now the home of Megan's parents and somewhere I go many times a year), which they had taken only the oldest kids to the year before with great success but which was a disaster when you factored in a bunch of 12-13 year-olds who are too old to go to the aquarium but too young to spend the day shopping. Rather than put my boys through the agony of spending half a day in an Army/Navy store where they couldn't afford anything, I ponied up my own cash to take them to the movie theater and kill a few hours; unfortunately, there were only two movies playing, and since none of them were old enough to see an R-rated horror flick, I ended up sitting through Runaways Bride with eight 13-year old boys (and most of the rest of the camp, who had reached a similar impasse).

After I picked up a bit of tenure and became assistant director of my assigned age group, the only time I really threw my administrative weight around was to make sure that if I didn't have a day off when we went on trips, I at least hung around the camp and did busy work rather than go through those weekly nightmares. My buddy Tom Rosoff was of a similar demeanor and would pull the same routine.

One week while the rest of the camp was at Water Country or something, Tom and I were sitting around trying to figure out how to kill time between naps since we had no intention of actually mowing the fields or whatever job was left for us. We were sitting on the deck of the camp's boathouse overlooking Lake Quacumquasit, Tom most likely smoking his 25th cigarette of the day, when we gazed across the water at the ominous green mountain located on the other side and suddenly both came to the same conclusion:

"We should do T.A.P."

"T.A.P." was our acronym for "The Adventure Project," which was a scheme we had been working on all that summer. Basically, both Tom and I had been attending Camp Frank A. Day for nearly a decade at this point, yet neither of us really knew what was on the other side of the lake. Sure, we had driven the road that wound around plenty of times and seen the nice summer homes and random yarn stores, but we both found it intriguing that there was this huge mound of forest nobody we knew had ever explored and became convinced something magical lay at its summit.

We grabbed my trusty DV camera and went about documenting what we knew would be the odyssey of a lifetime (not thinking it would also be video proof we had not been doing our jobs that day). Fueling up on some Subway we had run into town to snag earlier and hopping in Tom's beat-to-shit white Saab, we began our journey to T.A.P. Mountain. Watching the tape later, we enjoyed pointing out to fellow counselors (not campers) that I kept swerving the camera around during our drive over to avoid getting Tom smoking on camera while still allowing him to provide his portion of the narrative flow.

Arriving at the base of the hill (we gave up our "mountain" misconceptions pretty quick), we ditched Tom's car in the least illegal looking place to park, checked the camera batteries (all good) and began our ascent. Right off the bat we saw a "No Trespassing" sign and took turns filming each other chuckling in it's direction, or literally laughing at danger if you will.

It's times like this I wish my friend Nelson hadn't borrowed a cable for my camera and never given it back the next summer as I can't provide documentation of the things we saw on T.A.P., but they were something. Not even twenty paces up and we spotted an abandoned looking house straight out of the Blair Witch Project we took care to avoid because while we weren't afraid of the law, we were terrified of ghosts.

A little ways after the haunted house, we started venturing into unoccupied terrirtory, which meant a shitload of thornbushes and us regretting wearing shorts. Tom had burned himself on his calf a week earlier while playing with some incense or something so we showed the scar close-up on camera and claimed that he had gotten it from one of the thorns and we had to cauterize the wound with his lighter.

We made it through the briar patch, but hit a bit of a dead end not long after as we came up against a fence surrounded with barbed wire. Luckily this was only a minor setback as we had no problem blatantly lying to the people we had told we would climb this mountain all summer. We went back down a little ways to a clearing, filmed Tom saying we had gotten past the barbed wire and that we were headed to the top. We went back down a little more to what looked like it could have easily been the top (we were surrounded by woods, it's not like people were going to know) and filmed a triumphant Tom kissing a tree and us congratulating ourselves.

Our mission unaccomplished but committed to film nonetheless, we drove back to camp proud of our adventures. Once there, Tom dared me to ride on the roof of his car while we slowly pulled in since nobody was there, then proceeded to speed off the road and swerve wildly through the unpaved areas of camp, nearly killing me in the process because he can be a dickhead. In a moment of supreme karma, he ended up hitting a stump and knocking a large portion of the exhaust pipe clean off the bottom of his car. We told our bosses this was what prevented us from mowing the fields.

There is no moral to this story.

Pimping Our Stuff: Twilight of the Midnight Sons

So the new Marvel Super Heroes: What The--?! stop animation extravaganza went up today, and I must say that while I have a special place in my heart for all eight of the little shorts we've produced so far, certainly "Twilight of the Midnight Sons: Twi Harder" makes me beam with pride a bit more than any other.

As always, the real star of the show (besides the toys) is boy genius Alex Kropinak, who spends hours building the sets, customizing the figures, shooting what he needs and then meticulously editing it until you get the incredible final product. Alex is truly a wunderkind and a perfectionist who excels at a very unique job; I stand by my claim that nobody does this better than him and What The--?! is as good as it is primarily because of him.

All that aside (and it's a lot to put aside--seriously, 90-95% of the show is Alex), you may notice myself and Sean T. Collins listed as the primary writers for this episode, and I am quite pleased with the work we did.

I have been campaigning for months, probably nearly since we started What The--?! to do a Twilight parody as it seemed like (to borrow a phrase from my boss, John Cerilli) the lowest hanging fruit around and just itching for a send-up in the style I knew we could do it. I pitched it on numerous occasions in numerous forms, usually to decent response but not enough to get it made. All I knew was that there was comedy to be had in one of Marvel's vampires becoming the object of Twilight-esque female affection, I just didn't know how I wanted to get there (my earliest draft involved Blade becoming a teen idol--I'm glad we didn't go with that).

However, when the entire What The--?! team met recently to map out our next few months worth of episodes, I brought up a skeleton pitch I had refined a bit with Alex's help, noted we had a few weeks until the new Twilight flick, and with the help of my peers, things quickly came together. Morbius became the new lead and we were off to the races (he's such a gross-looking figure there could really be no other choice).

I turned around a plot with the basic dialogue and fired it off to Sean; he tweaked the lines and made sure it all synched up with the source material (since he's actually seen the movie), making it ten times better in the process (credit Sean for the "Twi Harder" portion of the name as well). Me and Alex did some quick voice casting (mad props to Margarita Vaisman for nailing Kitty Pryde--in the "she got the voice of the character" sense, pervs), he worked his magic, and here we are.

I do hope you check out this new episode and enjoy, whether you're a Twilight fan, a hater, or have no idea what I'm talking about. I'm proud of the work and proud of the dudes I worked with; looking very much forward to our next collaboration.

Melrose Memo IX: Cahuenga

The facts: the original Melrose Place is probably my favorite television show of all time. I could write an essay on why, but let's just leave it at "it is" for now. I have waited patiently for a decade, and now at long last my beloved Melrose has been remade for a new generation...but will it be any good? That is what I will explore here each Tuesday night (or Wednesday evening) in the Melrose Memo. I understand that those of you coming here for comics, movie or general geek news probably have little to no interest in hearing my thoughts on this program, but people--it's Melrose Place.

Now, as my friend Sean would say, read on if you wish, but do not allow me to spoil the elaborate mythology of this show for you; in other words, watch before reading!

-So here it is: the pivotal return of Heather Locklear to Melrose Place that everybody involved with the show (and yours truly) is hoping will wipe those ratings woes away like blood off a knife randomly found on a construction sight and identified as a murder weapon with no forensics necessary. Well, we'll have to wait a bit to see how the second coming of Amanda Woodward impacted the numbers, but as far as how I think she performed, we can cover that right now...

-Before I even get down to picking apart the Amanda/Locklear-specific stuff, there's no question her mere presence was a game-changer, as the show took on a different tone and feel, and that's a good thing. Clearly the behind the scenes folks saw this episode as a jumping on point and opportunity to tweak some of the stuff that wasn't working before, and they did a really nice job in many regards. From the first scene where Jonah and Riley were a far more loving and far less bickery couple you could feel the difference--after all, what fun is it to watch an already miserable couple get destroyed when Amanda can obliterate a happy one instead? Also of note, there were a solid three hot hook-up scenes that went to the places a primetime soap is capable of going as opposed to holding back, and besides being another Melrose staple, stuff like that gives the show a needed adult edge. I'm not sure if Heather Locklear gave suggestions, if the writers and producers watched old tapes, or they just decided it's time, but new Melrose felt more like old Melrose in all the right ways this week.

-What can I say: Heather Locklear is Heather Locklear. She didn't get the reputation she has as one of the most entertaining television actresses of her generation on empty hype, she's really really good. And good lord does she remember how to play Amanda Woodward, who remains over a decade late the undisputed Queen bitch of television! Within her first two minutes on the show, Locklear effortlessly rattled off more biting, hilarious, catty lines than the entire cast has mustered thus far, and she did it as if she shot her last episode of Melrose last week! I was a bit concerned the writers might not "get" Amanda in the way they whiffed on Jane or Jo and seem to struggle with Michael sometimes, but Heather Locklear (much like Laura Leighton) clearly doesn't need any help from the script, she knows how to bring this character to life all on her own. Her presence remains immense and definitely every second she wasn't onscreen I was wondering "Where's Amanda?" but a little restraint is good as this is still an ensemble show. As far as how she looks, there is no denying Heather Locklear has finally started to age over the last few years (it took a long-ass time), but she has done it mostly gracefully, though some botox is evident and actually hurt her voice and delivery more than her looks. All in all, I don't know whether or not Heather Locklear can save Melrose Place for a second time or not, but if she doesn't, it certainly won't be for a lack of skill or trying.

-And as an aside, as much as I adore Laura Leighton and Thomas Calabro, Heather back in the "Special Guest Star" spot just feels right.

-So anyways, there were other people on the show tonight as well...

-Auggie looks extremely comfortable in jail. I see a prison drama in Colin Egglesfield's future (or at least a direct-to-DVD movie that takes place in a prison).

-"When you're speaking into a phone, you don't need to lean closer to the glass in order for them to hear you" -Megan on David's conversation with inmate Auggie

-Despite attempts in the media to hype some "Battle of the Bitches," it became evident pretty quickly that Ella is nowhere even near a match for Amanda. Right down to her physicality, Ella/Katie Cassidy is twitchy, neurotic and constantly freaking out about something going wrong, whereas Amanda is supremely confident in every action she takes and never lets any hint of vulnerability or doubt show through. Since it's clear there's no competition here, I hope the writers take the opportunity to tinker with Ella's character a bit and move her further away from just being Amanda-lite (what's the point with the real thing around?) so Cassidy can recapture some of that promise she had in the early episodes.

-Wow, Jonah's subplot with getting his movie made and his relationship with that studio chick vanished faster than Andrew Shue's career.

-While she is still my least favorite character on the show, I am now obligated to like Riley at least a bit more upon learning she is from Boston. Yay for shoutouts for Roxbury, Beacon Hill and The Globe!

-"Stretching the truth" is how it begins, Riles. Megan and I both cackled when she said that line; there's hope for her yet.

-I love that hours after getting fired from his high level job, Caleb is apparently just wandering the streets hoping to warn Ella of Amanda's treachery without a hint of concern for his own future. I guess he was killing time before a Lakers game.

-Auggie played dumb and unaware so naturally when he came back to the apartment complex to find that that little murder charge seems to have freaked out his neighbors slightly.

-I was so worried they gave Ashlee Simpson the night off. Still going to miss her!

-"She probably liked that movie" -Megan, after Vi's great line about "if a guy heads off to Mexico after you sleep together, he's probably just not that into you."

-Nice bowtie and Jimmy Olsen look, Jonah (we're still a comics blog, folks!).

-David continues to be a fucking fashion icon. Just when I thought he couldn't top his summer scarf ensemble from last week, he hits the hat trick this week with the all black leather Night Rider gear, the "world's lowest v-neck" white sweatshirt, and a triumphant denim jean jacket dismount. Well-played sir!

-Speaking of David, I get the feeling he's the only character who stands a chance of holding his own with Amanda and anxiously await their first scene together.

-The triumphant return of Michael's Transformer car!

-Lauren didn't look that great in the outfit she wore to impress David, certainly not as fetching as she has in some of her hooker gear. What does it say about this girl that she dresses up for prostitution and down for her crush? That she's got her priorities straight, that's what!

-It took ten episodes, but Ella's bisexuality finally paid off! Katie Cassidy's ability to recite dialogue while making out with a chick was impressive and obviously the type of thing The CW looks at when casting.

-I was definitely hoping Lauren wouldn't comment on the fact that David was only able to make her that nice dinner by breaking into her apartment as I wanted to make the point here myself. Oh well...

-New Melrose definitely has an edge over old Melrose when it comes to sex scenes thanks to the advancement of multiple camera technology. Miss the generic 90's softcore porn music though.

-"She's on her period" -Megan's explanation for Lauren's failure to close the deal with David

-I must admit, Auggie emerging from the pool like the Creature From the Black Lagoon and scaring the shit out of Jonah and Riley was pretty rad. I'm fairly certain he could literally snap Jonah in two.

-That's pretty irresponsible of the MP residents to have a fully-stocked bar by the pool of their apartment complex which is only guarded from the outside world by a flimsy gate that fails to prevent murder.

-Auggie has incredible chemistry with that bottle of gin.

-Violet's method of proving to Auggie that she believes in him, which was essentially removing her top and having sex with him, was great. Touches like that keep Melrose Place grounded in reality.

-Towards the end, I was a bit concerned that they were going to soften Amanda by having her ease into some sort of mentor role to Ella, so I was gleefully relieved when she called Riley's school and got her fired just to be a bitch. On the subject though, Megan and I were both under the impression you could use sick days to do pretty much whatever you want, up to and including modeling shoots for jeans. I hope that never comes back to bite me...

-Much as I'm glad Amanda has arrived, I still do miss Sydney/Laura Leighton and would be pretty upset if they don't get at least one post-v1 series finale flashback scene together. The ending of the episode was brilliant to the nth degree, as Syd fucking with Amanda from "beyond the grave" is wonderful, as is involving Amanda in the murder mystery, which instantly makes it a hundred times more intriguing.

-Good as this episode was, it was definitely a testing of the new waters, and the temperature seems just fine. The teaser for the next episode looking awesome, particularly with an Amanda/Michael scene! In general though, having Amanda in the building and interacting with all of the characters as opposed to just Ella is a great move, and I'm glad she won't remain on the periphary like Michael kinda has. She's truly one of the best characters ever played by a great actress and all of these young turks stand to gain tremendously from acting opposite her.

-Wonderful start to another bold new era--fingers crossed for that ratings bump! The bitch is back!

What's On Rickey's Desk?

So as you may have surmised, I was in New York a week back visiting the offices of DC and Marvel. Beyond chatting up as many staffers as I could in an attempt to squeeze out some exclusive info for CBR, I took a few minutes to stop by the work stations of my illustrious co-bloggers and thought I'd share what I found as a killer way to waste five minutes of your time. Let's start with Rickey (because I went to DC on Thursday)!

As you can see from the wider angle shot above, Rickey's desk is anchored by a ton of comics (including a rad Blue Beetle trade and equally rad but lesser-read issues of Teen Titans Go!) but more importantly it holds a copy of Diamond's Previews catalogue where every month retailers and fans with too much time on their hands read up on the coming comics. For everyone who still hadn't figured it out, a big chunk of Rickey's day involves writing DC's solicitation copy for Previews so it's nice to see he can admire his own hard work up close.

More importantly, Rickey rocks a whole crazy crap load of...er...crazy crap picked up from over his years in service to comics. While his small work space certainly doesn't hold a candle to his chock-full apartment, there was plenty of knick-knackery at play. Aside from some crazy Scott Pilgrim promotional sticker I've never seen anywhere else, you can see a photo of Rickey and his lady friend (and great blogger) Sam from Christmas. Rickey's the elf. He's also got some nice J.G. Jone Final Crisis which for some reason looks different than the other versions I've seen. This could be some promo piece DC did, or it could be a Rickey original. Back in the Wizard days, he used to draw over the covers of comped comics to create things like a special "Blood and Thunder Driven By The Knives of Donkeys" variant for Dave. Anyway, nice to see a little Marvel love in there too.

As for the bevy of action figures...I've got nothing. Sorry, gang, but I know next to nothing about toys and see very little there that jumps out at me as "totally Rickey!" in terms of character picks. Any comments on why they're cool is welcome. Also: I don't get what's up with the bag of change.

Swinging to the left towards his computer monitor, Rickey's rocking a neato-rific (do you think I'm going to run out of 4th grader adjectives by the end of this post?) statue of Superman going toe-to-toe with Darkseid. Again, I'm not sure who made this or designed it or whatever (DC Direct?), but I do know that Rickey and I both crush super hard on Jack Kirby's Fourth World stuff and particularly love Darkseid as one of DC's premier villains. Still, I hope he didn't pay too much for that thing. Statues are too expensive!!!

On the other edge of Rickey's desk, I spotted this totally bizarre Batman hat. I mean, I guess it's perfect if you want to pretend your face is Batman's junk, but otherwise it's seems a little silly to rock a Batman hat with neither a picture of Batman or his logo clearly visible. When I pointed this out to Rickey, he said, "The logo's under the bill. You can see it on the one I put on Alex Ross Superman..."

So, um...mystery solved!!

The last thing Rickey insisted I show all of you was what he looks at out of his window all day: a creepy little wooden boy who lives in a window chewing on a giant piece of string!

It's kind of unnerving, and so rather than just explain what it's all about, I'm hiding dude's reason for sucking on that thing behind the jump. Give it your best guess before you click!

Those characters...

As I mentioned the other day in my Son of Satan post and as I discussed with Dan on the podcast last week, there have always been for me certain characters in comics that I've seen or heard about countless times, read less than a handful of their actual appearances, and yet am utterly fascinated by for whatever reason. To put it as I did to Dan, when people ask me for my dream Avengers, I almost always include Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, despite not owning or having read a single Shang-Chi comic book (until recently).

There's something about these characters' look, their core concept, or some intangible I can't put my finger on that makes me always bring them up in conversation and imagine their comics are these great lost treasure troves, but don't motivate me enough to actually hit the back issue bins and get to scrounging up their appearances.

As I already mentioned, Son of Satan is one, but here are some others...

Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu
Number one with a bullet and the first example I thought of because I seriously know next to nothing but the basics about this dude, but for years have thought there is something intrinsically badass about him and have wanted his profile in the Marvel Universe to rise for no real good reason. I think a lot of this comes from my childhood idolization of Bruce Lee and interest in the martial arts, since right down to his look, Shang-Chi is in many ways Bruce Lee as a comic book character. Having read up a bit mostly through Marvel Handbooks, I also think the idea that Shang's archenemy is his dad is a well-worn but still neat road, and love the fact that he worked as a British Intelligence officer since that's just so odd. Honestly though, I also just love saying "Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu" all the way through.

Richard Dragon
It seems only natural to flip from Shang-Chi over to the guy I consider his DC counterpart in Richard Dragon. I actually did read his short-lived Chuck Dixon/Scott McDaniel ongoing (and found it quite underrated) and thanks to the largess of Andy Serwin have in my possession a random issue of Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter, but my fandom for the character is, I believe, larger than that meager exposure would normally breed. Again, the martial arts angle is my in, and I think the fact that it's a white guy doing the chopping and kicking made him stand out in a way he perhaps would not had he been a carbon Shang-Chi clone. The main hook for me with Richard Dragon though is that DC I think moreso than Marvel has always had a somewhat more official hierarchy of who the toughest hand-to-hand fighters were, something the aforementioned Mr. Dixon really hammered homes in the 90's; characters like Lady Shiva and Connor Hawke were always at the top of the list, but it was always referred to in passing that even they were kinda in awe of Richard Dragon and that he could probably take guys like Batman pretty easy, so that phantom imposing presence just made him awesome to me.

Werewolf By Night
Why when given the opportunity to pitch a story for perhaps my only shot at writing for Marvel did I select Werewolf By Night as the star? In the interest of full disclosure, I knew I wanted to do a funny story and I have always found Werewolf By Night hilarious, which obviously a werewolf isn't generally supposed to be, but I can't help it. It's right there in the name: he's a Werewolf By Night--when else would he be a werewolf? Aren't all werewolves only werewolves by night? It just makes me laugh. This started long before I even knew his name was Jack Russell, which is also somewhat humerous. All this aside, having actually read some early Werewolf By Night stuff as well as a guest spot he did in Peter David's Hulk over the past year or so, I have a newfound appreciation of the character depth Gerry Conway and others gave him, and the pathos of his story. He's also got this insane history involving curses and gypsies and aliens, but I literally just found that out like last week.

Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt
The only Peter Cannon appearance I can ever remember reading is his one-panel turn in Crisis On Infinite Earths where he gets punched out by somebody (I want to say Jay Garrick, but truthfully, I'm not sure and both my trade and my Absolute are in the other room). Really there are two things about him that intrigue me: he is the Charlton character I know the least about and he was the template for Ozymandias in Watchmen; I think that's enough though, right?

Deathlok
I don't think I'm alone when it comes to having an immediate reaction made on me by Deathlok based on his visuals alone--that dude just looks awesome and Rich Buckler should get what the kids call "mad props" for his fantastic design (with Mike Zeck getting credit as well for immortalizing him further on some excellent Captain America covers). I knew a bit about the Michael Collins incarnation of Deathlok in the 90's and always thought the "pacifist in the body of a cyborg killing machine" thing was a clever angle, but somethig about the original Luther Manning model has always been magnetic. Sure there's the fact that he's essentially a zombie cyborg with all sorts of tubes sticking out and an American flag looking all sorts of out-of-place on his chest, but all the alternate future stuff is a draw as well. I enjoyed the first issue of Charlie Huston and Lan Medina's new mini, so I'm hoping it holds up and this is one of those characters I can actually transition into a legitimate and semi-knowledgable fan of.