Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Forgotten Superheroes Dept. - Captain Nice


Captain Nice was a ... oh, fooey on dis writin' game. Look it up yerself, ya lazy schnook. I ain't here fer yer edification. Freeload is Episode One, in glorious Blur-O-Vision™ and CrapColor®, but you're lucky to get that, you whining ingrate. This can be a weekly feature, should youse bums be desirous.

 

Post made possible by an unswerving devotion to US pop culture of the 'sixties.

36 comments:

  1. Your favorite superhero? Add value content by trying to explain why and wherefore, whydon'cha!

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  2. I like Flaming Carrot the most. He beat Death at lawn jarts. ;) - Useo

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  3. The Phantom "Ghost who walks" and his dog Devil.I sent away with coupon from back of comic to get a skull ring.Wore it to school and was shamed into taking it off by teacher! My Hero for many pre-teen years.

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  4. My vote is for Doctor Strange, not really a superhero at all - they would have called him Superstrange. Or Doctorman. Neither of which really works. But he was the only one to have legitimate rights to wear a cape. All the other cape-rockers look a little daft - why a cape? If I was actively thwarting evildoers the last wardrobe item I'd look for would be a fucking cape. My favorite DC superhero was Green Lantern, because I never had the least idea what his powers were, or how he used them, or why. Overheard in a DC meeting: "What's the most stupid name we can think of for a superhero?" "I know! How about Lantern Man? We can give him mysterious lantern powers!" "Great! But let's identify him with a color which ain't been used much - green?" "Green Lantern Man! I love it!" "We'll give him a dog! No! An ant!" "Green Lantern Ant!" (etc.)

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    1. Yeah!! My vote goes for Doctor Strange, too!! Just loved the artwork!!! .. and .. er .. Sargeant Rock!!! .. why? .. 'cos 1 comic book I read made me realise the futility of war!!!

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  5. Alan Moore's Miracleman. Superhero to end all superheroes, the logical endgame of the genre. But definitely a DC reader growing up, leaning toward the Batman spectrum of things but tried to read 'em all. I loved DC's "imaginary tales," wherein something was askew in their universe, fiction's fiction as it were, implying somehow that the regular books were in the real world. A real headscratcher that, even as a kid. I could use reading an 80-page giant right about now. Picking a super-villain is easy: Mano from the Fatal Five. That face obscured in a helmet full of methane and the slow pulling off of a glove to reveal a hand with a palm that disintegrate whole worlds with a single touch. Self-evident why I liked that guy . . . --Muzak McMusics

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  6. I liked Quark, with the Barnstable twins. Just the right age (24) to have my tongue on the floor.

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  7. Replies
    1. I just remembered Plastic Man. He wus swell. Those comics were hard to come by in the U and K.

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  8. Superdupont of course, saving the world from the anti France contingent (big job indeed). The only super hero wearing charentaises and flanel belt. Devised by Lob, Gotlib and Alexis in the 70's. Not the rugby player though.

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    1. The only French rugby player I can remember is Condom - I can't think why.

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  9. Was always big into The Hulk. The idea of a mild mannered getting angry and then becoming this humongus, raging, beast just kinda stuck with me. Too bad he's not real and with us now.

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    1. Extraordinary how all his clothes ripped away except for his cut-offs.

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    2. Indeed. But, given that it was "Made in America" what would one expect.

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  10. Space Ghost circa 1965-6 or so. Watched with my dad, who had grown-up--well, my dad, to his everlasting credit and my mother's eternal frustration, never grew up--as a big Superman guy (_The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_ was his age & vibe). So Superman too.

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  11. I wasn’t really into superhero comics, but in the very early 80’s used to buy Heavy Metal magazine (nothing to do with the music genre) featuring adult illustrated stories and illustrations by Philippe Druillet, Richard Corben, and Meobius (real name Jean Henri Gaston Giraud) amongst others. I guess there were superheroes in the mag, but I was too busy looking at the well proportioned women. There was also a very disappointing film spin off in 1981.

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    1. "I got that on import" brag here - as Metal Hurlant. Deluxe reading!

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    2. I faithfully bought Heavy Metal magazine every month, fantastic art!

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  12. Here's episode uno of Buck Henry's neat little superspoof:
    https://workupload.com/file/fHeDqdK2Pew

    Caveat griftor: the low, low visual quality you've come to expect at th' IoF©. It's the only available source. The quality doesn't bother me so much as the canned laughter, which takes some getting used to - it's like LOL made audible LOLLOLLOLLOL

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    1. Actually as a kid Batman certainly was on top, partly due to the weekly tv series and the daily appearance in our local rag comic section!

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    2. I was a big Batman fan, but never got into the later graphic novel or film incarnations. Who needs to be depressed by the inner torment of the Caped Crusader? Not I. The TV series was much more entertaining, and more subversive, than all that wrist-to-forehead angst. Comics = fun, consarn it!

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    3. It was subversive and, honestly, he and Robin looked like relatively normal folk...Alfred, OTOH, what was going on there. And the Bat signal was pretty cool...

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    4. It was subversive because it was an out-and-out parody while playing it straight. Great production values - eye-popping color (never seen since), those "Dutch Tilt" camera angles - a TV first, I think, brilliant guest stars, the sexiest, kinkiest women on TV, the comic-book sound effects ... yup. Stick yer Dark Knight where the sun don't shine, fanbois!

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    5. ... and did you know that those hair-raising stunts, such as the Dynamic Duo climbing up walls with the BatRope©, were not state-of-the-art "special effects" but actually performed by the actors? Kudos!

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    6. playing it straight...ish. It helped a friend of mine figure out his sexuality.

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    7. Was he "millionaire philanthropist" or "youthful ward"?

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  14. For all of you have a look here:
    https://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/
    https://readallcomics.com/

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  15. Thanks for the first episode. I quite liked it. Good cast, imho. A few good lol's. - useo

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    1. Passes the time (an IoF© Approved thirty minutes) quite nicely.

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  16. Never got into superheroes as a kid - maybe it was too overbearingly American for me. I did love 2000AD though with its headline act Judge Dredd, a Brit vision of the future condition of the origin-point for the post-war cargo cult.

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  17. I too never got into superhero stuff, but I loved Super Chicken, which ran for the latter half of 1967 (its cohort of Tom Slick and George of the Jungle were great, too). Like Beanie & Cecil, full of great puns (a villain inhabiting Isle of Lucy; Salvador Rag Dolly) and commentary on adult society.
    C in California

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    1. Super Chicken!! I also enjoyed Underdog and Shazam a wee lad

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