Z: "Z" end...oh, and yeah...Zatanna!

Z 

is for Zatanna.

It's also "Z" end of the A to Z Blogging Challenge and, while I've had a great time, I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling a bit of relief. It's been great meeting a ton of new bloggers, as well as finding a lot of new blogs to stalk follow. I've learned a lot this month, not just about writing, but about a lot of other myriad topics such as ballroom dancing, astronomy, movies (lots of movies), places/landmarks, author's books, as well as a metric ton of 'slices of life'....which I always love reading about.

I also want to thank each and every one of you who stopped by, left comments, asked questions, etc. I realize my theme wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I really appreciate you all indulging me in my 'heroic walk down memory lane' and, at least, pretending to be interested.  :D

Now, onto our last heroine.

Zatanna Zatara was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson. She debuted in  D.C. Comics Hawkman #4 (November, 1964)

Born of the same race as Madame Xanadu, Homo Magi, Zatanna was a natural sorceress, following in the stage magician footsteps of her father, Giovanni (John) Zatara (also a Homo Magi). Having aided the Justice League on a few cases, she finally joined in 1978 and was touted as one of the League's most powerful members, due to Superman's vulnerability to magic. 

One of her 'Justice League' looks.

While a very powerful sorceress, Zatanna has to not only speak her spells aloud, but she also has to say them backwards in order to work her magic. I guess that was her price for magic.

There's always a price for magic.

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I'd also be remiss if I didn't thank the entire A to Z Crew. Their effort and dedication to making this a fun and well run event really showed and I appreciate their work. If you haven't already, stop by and show 'em some love :) 

• The Madlab Post (Nicole Ayers)
• Tossing It Out (Arlee Bird)
• Amlokiblogs (Damyanti Biswas)
• Alex J. Cavanaugh (Alex J. Cavanaugh)
• Life is Good (Tina Downey)
• Cruising Altitude 2.0 (DL Hammons)
• Retro-Zombie (Jeremy Hawkins)
• The Warrior Muse (Shannon Lawrence)
• The QQQE (Matthew MacNish)
• Leave it to Livia (Livia Peterson)
• No Thought 2 Small (Konstanz Silverbow)
• Breakthrough Blogs (Stephen Tremp)
• Spunk on a Stick (L. Diane Wolfe)

I hope you all had a good a time as I did, this past month, and thanks again :)

Stop back Wednesday when things get back to what passes as "normal" around here and I share some writing insecurities with another Insecure Writers Support Group post...

X: Madame Xanadu!

X 

is for Madame Xanadu.

Now, this is one of the more obscure (at least to me) characters I've come across and I only, really, chose her because (believe it or not) characters that begin with "X" are sort of scarce. I mean, sure, I could have maybe done the "X"-Men...I did a group for "L"...but with all their movie exposure, Professor Xavier's most gifted of students aren't really that obscure these days. 

Anywho....Madame Xanadu debuted in the D.C Comics series Doorway to Nightmare #1 (February,1978) as a "hostess", of sorts, for the last book in D.C.'s "mystery" line of books and was a forerunner to their Veritgo line.

The youngest sister of Arthurian legends Morgaine Le Fay and Viviene (the Lady of the Lake) the family were descendants of the lost tribe of Atlantis....a race known as Homo Magi, due to their affinity for practicing magic. Due to her Atlantean heritage, she was very long lived and traveled the world for many years and becoming the adviser to many rulers. One of these rulers was Kublai Khan and his court at Xanadu...where she took her current name from. 

While not strictly an 'adventuring' superhero, per se', Xanadu possesses a vast array of mystical powers. 

• Sensitivity to the occult and other mystical phenomena
• Can use tarot cards to sense and interpret the future
• Can banish demons
• Levitate object
• Teleport herself and others.

Xanadu is also immortal after beating Death in a game of cards.

Madame Xanadu has resurfaced in D.C.'s newest continuity as a member of Justice League Dark and, once again, an adviser to the mystical community.

After our day off tomorrow, "Y" not stop back on Monday to see who else I dig up?

S: Starfire!

S 

is for Starfire.

O.k, this character was so obscure that even I had a tough time remembering her. 

Created by David Michelinie and Mike Vosburg, she debuted in D.C. Comic's Starfire #1 (August, 1976) and was the first heroine to headline a comic for D.C. since Supergirl, back in 1972. 

Unfortunately, the series only ran eight issues before being cancelled.

Starfire hailed from an alien world which was a mixture of sword and sorcery and science....sort of like Thundarr the Barbarian. She was, basically, a freedom fighter who wanted to free all human slaves on the planet, which was ruled by two warring factions. 

She was your typical sword and sorcery type....skilled in hand to hand combat, tracking, archery, and swords(wo)manship. I'm almost ninety percent sure I had an issue, or two, of this book, back in my youth because the character was familiar. Not vivid, but it still rang a bell.

At first, I was going to feature the original character to have the 'Starfire' name....Leonid Kovar. He was a character who appeared back in the original run of Teen Titans, back in 1968, and later, upon finding out the New Teen Titans had a new member codenamed "Starfire", changed his name to one more befitting a hero from Mother Russia....Red Star.

Red Star

Starfire

Check back tomorrow for a cowboy or an Indian....I haven't made up my mind, yet, but don't worry....you'll have your "T" :)

It looks like we're in the home stretch....how are you holding up? Still having fun?

O: Oracle!

O 

is for Oracle.

I'm sure most of us have heard of Barbara Gordon. Daughter to police commissioner Jim Gordon and, secretly, the 'Domino Daredoll', Batgirl.

Right? 

She's been around since the 1960s and was created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino at the request of the Batman television show's producer. They wanted a female counterpart to Batman that could debut in the comics and the t.v. show at the same time.

Well, did you know that D.C. Comics later took this character and totally revamped her?

It happened back in 1988 when Barbara retired her 'Batgirl' identity to live the 'normal life'. 

Yeah, like that ever happens. 

Carrying out a vendetta against his arch foe, Batman, The Joker shoots Barbara and severs her spine. She becomes a paraplegic and is confined to a wheelchair.

Always touted as one of the most intelligent characters in the D.C. Universe, Barbara takes on the persona of "Oracle", becoming a top notch computer hacker, information broker, and team coordinator for many of D.C.'s heroes and teams. 

Making her debut as Oracle in Suicide Squad #23, she offered her services (anonymously) to the government agency, Task Force X. This laid the foundation for the mysterious "Oracle" to pop up in different books and offer information to whoever needed it and, always, on the side of the angels. 

In Suicide Squad #38, she was revealed as the former Batgirl and asked to join. Later, she became a mainstay in the all female Birds of Prey series, elevated to new heights by writer Gail Simone.

In a 'good news/bad news' turn, D.C.decided (via their latest universe 'reboot') to bring Barbara back to her former Batgirl glory, taking 'experimental' therapies to regain her mobility. That's good for old school Batgirl fans but, over the years, Oracle became a character that many disabled fans could identify with, as well.

As far as powers went, Barbara didn't have any but, in her prime, she was an Olympic level athlete, had martial arts training, a photographic memory and a deep knowledge of computers and information systems. As Batgirl, she also carried various gadgets just as her male counterpart, Batman, did.

As a personal note, Batgirl Barbara Gordon has always been one of my favorite female characters in the D.C. Universe.....regardless whether she wore a cape or was confined to a wheelchair. 

Stop back tomorrow for a visitor from the Great White North, eh?....

K: Kid Flash!

K 

is for Kid Flash. Yes....Kid....Flash....

Created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, Kid Flash debuted in Flash #119 (1959) as a sidekick to the fastest man alive...The Flash.

The costume was, originally, worn by Wally West (later by Bart Allen)...the nephew of Barry (The Flash) Allen. Wally gained his powers in the exact same way that Barry did, which defied almost all logic. I mean, you can almost believe that a lightning bolt smashes through a window, shattering a wall full of chemicals, and dousing a police lab scientist....giving him super-speed. But, to have it happen twice?? I'm not sure if they were just being lazy on the origin stories here, or what, but that's what they went with.

They're the ones getting paid, so what do I know?

Anywho, Wally has been a staple in the D.C. Universe for many years whether it be on his own or as a member of the sidekick group, The Teen Titans. 

The New Teen Titans, by Marv Wolfman and George Perez was a series instrumental in developing the character deeper than he had ever been developed before. It was here where he revealed his identity to his parents (before that, only Barry knew his secret), fell in love, and decided he wanted a "normal" life. 

Yes, he was one of 'those' sort of super heroes. He could, almost, outrun light...and yet wanted the big house and white picket fences of suburbia, like his parents. 

Wally's powers were, pretty much, identical to his mentor, the Flash. He could run at superspeed by tapping into the "Speed Force". This force also lets him vibrate his atoms to allow him to do such things as walk through solid object, run on water and up the sides of buildings, and create mini vortexes with his arms and hands. Also, like his mentor, when he runs he is surrounded by an aura that protects him from friction and lets him breathe.

Later on in Wally's career (come on, you didn't think he was really going to have a 'normal' life...did you?), after taking up the mantle of his dead friend and mentor, he becomes just 'The Flash' and begins to mainline the "Speed Force" instead of just tapping into it. His powers grow to not just include himself, but he could give others superspeed. 

He also manages to marry and have two children....both of which exhibit his speedy tendencies. 

While I was never a huge fan of Kid Flash, I did like him within the Teen Titans dynamic where he was characterized as the 'wholesome kid from the Leave it to Beaver family'. A characterization that didn't quite follow him to other books. 

Tomorrow, with a little 'luck', we'll talk about another lesser known hero...

J: Jack T. .Chance!

J 

is for Jack T. Chance.

(Before I get into this post, proper, I just want to give myself a little 'high five' for making this my 100th post to the blog, since starting back in August of 2011. Woo hoo! :) Also, in the past four months I've posted around 55 entries which is more than I did in 2010 and 2011...combined.)

Now...on to letter "J".

Jack T. Chance was created by John Ostrander and, as the story goes, loosely based off another Ostrander character....GrimJack.

For the uninitiated, the Green Lantern corps was founded by an ancient race of beings called The Guardians as a, sort of, intergalactic peace keeping force. Choosing a champion from each planet and giving them one of the most powerful weapons in the galaxies (the amazing power ring), the Green Lanterns are to keep peace in their respective sectors while still adhering to the Guardians strict code of non-lethality.

Jack T. Chance was the exception to that rule.

From the planet Garnet, also known as "Hellhole" due to it being one of the worst criminal planets in existence, Chance was chosen basically as a last resort. A loose cannon...and one of the Guardian's secret weapons on the war against evil.

Chance was given something that no other member of the core had been given before that time.

He was allowed to use more "questionable methods to get the job done...,but there was a catch. While most Green Lanterns had jurisdiction over an entire sector of space, Chance was to be confined just to his planet. The ring wouldn't work offworld and he was to be subjected to periodic checks by the Guardians to make sure he wasn't getting too out of hand. As if there was such a thing on Hellhole.

Even though he was a very minor character in the Green Lantern lore, I always liked Jack. He could 'stick it to the man' and get away with it, because they needed him to keep a lid on his planet. 

Chance billed himself as a "good, bad man", chain smoked, and carried a big gun as backup to his power ring. He refused to wear the typical Green Lantern uniform and, instead, just put a pin on his lapel to designate his membership in the Corp. Plus...he wore a bolo tie and I was big into bolo ties in the 90s. Don't judge. :P

Like another rebel Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, Jack T. Chance was a nice change from the usual 'boy scout' type member of the Corp...even reciting his own oath while recharging his power ring.

The typical oath goes like this:

In brightest day, in blackest night

No evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil's might

Beware my power, Green Lantern's light.

Jack's oath was:

You who are wicked, evil and mean

I'm the nastiest creep you've ever seen!

Come one, come all, put up a fight

I'll pound your butts with Green Lantern's light!

Chance was killed when the entire Green Lantern Corp tried to stop the galaxy wide threat known as Parallax and his ring crushed.

And before you ask, no, I don't know what the "T" stood for. :)

Tomorrow we'll speed along with one of the big gun's sidekicks....

E: Elongated Man

E 

is for Elongated Man. Yes...you read that right...Elongated....Man.

Ralph Dibney, the Stretchable Sleuth, fought crime under, perhaps, the worst superhero name out there....The Elongated Man.

Partially created by D.C. Comics editor Julius Schwartz, it's said that Schwartz didn't realize that the company owned the rights to the name Plastic Man (having bought the old Quality line that previously owned the name) or he would have never used the name "Elongated Man". I tend to believe that story. EM was created as a supporting character for The Flash and wound up getting backup stories in the Fastest Man Alive's book. He and his wife, Sue, would travel the country in a convertible, looking for odd mysteries to solve.

Just how does one go about becoming a silly putty superhero? Well, in Dibney's case, he was always fascinated with the Indian rubber men he had seen at carnivals and wanted to emulate their contortion skills. Why....I have no idea.

Anyway...

Doing some research, he found that they all drank a juice extracted from the root of a plant found in the Yucatan...the gingo plant. They used the plant to make an elixir called Gingold. Figuring out a way to make his own, he drank it with incredible results. He found he could stretch his body in a way more extreme manner then the 'rubber men' he had seen at the carnivals. Later on, his origin was amended to include that he had a "meta gene" that interacted with the Gingold, giving him his spectacular results.

Sounds plausible to me...

Known for twitching his nose when he 'smelled' a mystery (it was his trademark), Ralph was a skilled detective, but usually took a backseat to Batman because.....well...he's Batman!  it's also said that he was one of the first Silver Age heroes to reveal his identity to the public and marry his love interest. Regardless, though, Ralph was a pretty popular character, just saddled with a cornball name.

One of the reasons, I think, that Dibney was such a popular character was that many of his stories featured not only him..., but his wife as well. Sue Dibney was Ralph's anchor and kept him grounded in a world where they knew people who could fly, create objects with power rings, or breathe underwater. The pair were very reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man films. They had that sort of repartee that a lot of couples, married or not, could identify with.

D.C. decided to kill Sue Dibney in the Identity Crisis series, leaving Ralph a husk of a man.....the happy go lucky, joke cracking, Elongated Man was gone.

Ralph reappeared in the maxi-series 52, looking for a way to bring Sue back from the dead. At the end of the series, Ralph finally figures out something that many of his friends had been telling him....Sue wasn't coming back. 

Finally resigned to his fate, Ralph comes across a 'wish granting' gun (hey, I didn't make it up) and wishes to be reunited with his wife....even in death. Thus brings the end to the Elongated Man, but was the birth of Ralph and Sue Dibney....Ghost Detectives.

I wonder if they've ever come across Doctor Occult? I'll have to look that one up. Hmmm...

Check back tomorrow as we fly high with a real cool cat.

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During the month of April, for the sake of trying to keep my posts brief,  I'm going to be putting my Healthy Writers Club entries on hiatus. 

Never fear, all you health nuts, I'll be resuming my HWC posts the first Friday in May and I'm going to have some interesting news to share.

Stay tuned!

D: Doctor Occult!

D

is for Doctor Occult.

Richard Occult (aka The Ghost Detective) was a supernatural detective created by the same team who created Superman....Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. He debuted in New Fun Comics #6, back in 1935 under the name Dr. Mystic where he travels to a mystic realm, flies, and wears a cape....thus becoming the very first caped hero in comics (Superman didn't appear until 1938).  

As Dr. Occult, his usual garb was as shown above....a suit, trench coat and fedora. If nothing else, the Doc had style! He also had the "Symbol of the Seven"...a mystic talisman that focused his abilities, could exorcise as well as drive off demons, and did just about anything else the writers needed it to do.

A strange character deserves a strange origin story, I guess...

December 31st, 1899...a pair of infants are to be sacrificed to Satan by an evil cult. The two are rescued by another cult...known as The Seven. Seeing potential in the two, they raise the children..one boy and one girl..and train them in the 'mystic arts'. The boy they name Richard Occult and the girl they name Rose Psychic. Since Richard seemed to have the most magical talent of the two, he's given the mystical Symbol of the Seven. Soon after, the two were told to leave, go into the world, and fight evil. Simple enough, eh?

Occult went to school, excelling in the sciences (another scientist!) and earned a doctorate...becoming a legitimate 'doctor' in the academic sense. After that, he and Rose set up a detective agency, taking any and all cases involving the supernatural or the unexplained. 

The Doc had a long and varied career in the D.C. Universe and was usually called in when someone was recruiting a bunch of magic using types to deal with some manner of supernatural threat.  He used his powers to fight off aging...thus allowing the writers to pull him out of the mothballs anytime a story called for a 'mystical character you haven't seen in a while'. 

I've always loved the 'pulp' type heroes and they don't get much pulpier than the good Doctor.

 Tune in tomorrow for "E". A post I'll be trying to 'stretch' out....ahem

C: Chlorophyll Kid

C 

C is for Chlorophyll Kid

Yeah, I know...he sort of looks like a loser and, from his costume, you can probably tell what his power is.....

You guessed it....

...he can make plants grow. 

Really fast. 

'What sort of superhero is he?', you might ask. Well...he's a substitute hero.

In the far flung 30th century, D.C. Comics had a group of futuristic teens called the Legion of Super Heroes. Young men and women from different planets and each with a peculiar power which was, usually, an ability native to their home world.

There was Cosmic Boy, who could control magnetic forces. Saturn Girl, who could read minds. Lightning Lad, who could generate lightning, Phantom Girl, who could sidestep dimensions and walk through walls...etc., etc. Each hero's name went along the lines of "kid", "lass", "lad"....even Superboy (travelling from the past and who had inspired the group to form in the first place) was a member.

In order to become a member of the Legion and get access to their cool clubhouse as well as a Flight Ring (which let you fly...duh!), you have to try out. 

What happens when you fail your Legion tryout?

Why, you form your own group...the Legion of Substitute Heroes!

While most Legion applicants had natural powers, Ral Benum of the planet Mardru got his by falling into a vat of 'hydroponic serum'. He survived and gained the power to stimulate plant growth. Don't you just love those old 60s origin tales? :)

After one particular Legion tryout, a group of rejects consisting of Polar Boy (made things cold), Fire Lad (projected flames), Night Girl (super strength/invulnerability, but only at night), and Stone Boy (could turn to stone, but couldn't move after) got together with Chlorophyll Kid to form their own group.

The Legion of Substitute Heroes!

Their goal.....support the Legion where they could and help their fellow sentient beings. 

Chlorophyll Kid didn't have an outstanding run....in any book...but was a fun character who had a lot of potential, I always thought. I also loved the idea of a misfit group that would pinch-hit for the main hero group in times of trouble.

The Kid and his pals were fun heroes for a more fun time in comic book history.

Tune in tomorrow for "D" and a bit of....magic.

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Also, since it's the first Wednesday of the month (man, time sure flies by) it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post.

The brainchild of uber-author and blogger, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the IWSG is a time for self reflection and to discuss what, as writers, makes us feel insecure.

This month, I'm happy to say, I don't have a lot to be insecure about. While I haven't been doing much writing, I have been keeping my blogging "schedule" that I set up back in January. In my case, structure, repetition, and routine are paramount for my writing.

Just sitting down to write...regardless of what I'm writing...is a great big step forward for me, and it's something I've been doing pretty diligently.

While I want to keep up with my blogging, I'm going to have to transition my routine over to writing my stories and not just blog posts.

Slowly, but surely, I think I'll get there.

Thanks, again, to the Ninja Captain for that great shout out yesterday and all the kind words from you guys in the comments. With blogging buddies like that, it's hard to be insecure about anything. :)

A to Z: A is for Adam Strange! / Music Monday

Today, for those of you who may not have heard (and, if not, where have you been?), is the start of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. The 'challenge', as it were, is to post an entry a day, each day in the month of April. The only exception is Sunday, giving us twenty six posts. Each post corresponds to a letter of the alphabet.

Today is "A"...tomorrow, "B", etc., etc.

The list of bloggers participating is pretty impressive....over 400, according to the sign-up list. A lot of these bloggers are going with themes to make it a bit easier to bring it all together, which I thought was a great idea.

My theme is going to be 'Obscure Superheroes'. Some of these men and women you may have heard of, but I'm pretty confident in saying that I'll have a few that you haven't.

To kick things off, A is for Adam Strange.

A       

Adam was  a D.C. comics character created in the late 50s by Gardner Fox. Fox was asked to come up with a 'science fiction' hero and came up with his answer to Flash Gordon. Strange was an  archaeologist who was zapped by the 'Zeta Beam' from a planet called Rann (a la Jon Carter). Stuck on a strange world, Adam found friends with some of the natives and fell in love (ah, good, ole, space opera). When the effects of the  beam wore off, Adam was zapped back to Earth. Strange had all sorts of adventures on Rann as well as becoming and adventurer on Earth and mingling with the likes of Superman and Batman.

Strange had no powers, per se, just advanced technology (jet pack, laser pistol), skill in hand to hand combat (as any self respecting archaeologist would), and a heroic spirit.

The character remains active to this day, as far as I know.

Tune into tomorrow for...."B"!

Just because it's the A to Z Challenge doesn't mean I still can't throw in a quick Music Monday selection.

A little something to get your feet tapping... Twisting By the Pool, by Dire Straits.