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Monday, October 22, 2012

Who's Who: The Definitive Podcast of the DC Universe, Volume IV

sgThe Fire and Water Podcast Presents: WHO'S WHO: THE DEFINITIVE PODCAST OF THE DC UNIVERSE, Volume IV

This time around we chat about WHO'S WHO: Volume IV, discussing characters such as Captain Marvel, Cat-Man, Challengers of the Unknown, Cheetah, and many more! We wrap up the show with Who's Who Listener Feedback!


Be sure to check out our Tumblr site for a few pages from this Who's Who issue: FireandWaterPodcast.Tumblr.com!

Let us know what you think of the show! Send questions or comments to: firewaterpodcast@comcast.net

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Our fantastic opening and closing theme by Daniel Adams and The Bad Mamma Jammas!
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Thanks for listening!


8 comments:

Earth 2 Chris said...

Great podcast as always guys. A couple of comments:

Irv Novick was primarily known as a penciler and did indeed work on the Archie Super Heroes in the Golden Age. In fact, he was the co-creator of the Shiled, the first patriotic super hero, even predating Captain America. He worked on DC's war titles in the 50s and 60s, and by the late 60s he became one of the primary Batman artists, drawing the character up until the early 80s. He also had a long run on the Flash in the 70s as well.

The Dave Stevens Catwoman entry may be THE best entry in the entire series. Poor Brent Anderson's Catwoman didn't have a chance against this master of the female form. Anderson was an odd choice for Catwoman, as she had been a regular in the Batman books at the time, and any of the then current or recent artists would have made more sense. Anderson also drew the Batgirl entry in issue #2.

The Earth-One Catwoman, or her early Post-Crisis equivalent would get another shot at an equally sexy pin-up in the first Who's Who update, drawn by none other than Alan Davis. Me-frickin'-ow!!!

Not to beat a dead horse, but the team of Infantino and Anderson is considered by most to be a classic combination, despite their stylistic differences. The two did many classic Silver Age covers together, and contributed the bulk of artwork seen on Batman merchandise in the 60s.

Oh, and while the Cadre is pretty lame, their utility super-villain team status made them perfect for random villain pummeling on Justice League Unlimited, where they appeared at least once that I recall.

Tim said...

Made it about half-way thru the show on my way to and from work today...great so far, well worth the wait (though hopefully you won't keep us waiting this long again, lol)

One thing that struck me while listening to you talk about Captain Marvel and more specifically Captain Marvel Jr., maybe because of one of my other interests, was how Elvis Presley was a fan of the characters and is believed to have taken inspiration from them for his stage outfits! Alex Ross even modeled Marvel Jr. (now King Marvel) on Elvis in "Kingdom Come"! Just thought I'd share...can't wait for Volume V

Russell said...

Frank beat me to it, but I was going to comment on Irv Novick, too. He was the artist on THE FLASH and BATMAN when I first started reading those books.

Chemical King was one of my favorite Legionnaires (yeah, I like the obscure characters)and Chameleon Boy is another. Both Giffen and Jurgens did great jobs on these characters.

I expected one of you to mention that Dave Stevens' Catwoman illustration was based on some pin-up from the 40s (or 50s?). Not sure who drew it originally, though.

Would say Captain Carrot, Captain Cold, The Cheetah, and Chemical King are the best this time around.

The Toyroom said...

Another fun Who's Who podcast! Couple of points:

The Calculator wasn't just a Batman foe. He had a back-up
feature in "Detective Comics"
in the 70s were he was defeated
in consecutive issues by Batman,
Green Arrow, The Atom, Hawkman
and Elongated Man.

The Calendar Man uniform drawn in
his entry by Pat Broderick WAS
designed by Walt Simonson when he
illustrated "Batman" #312.

In "Camelot 3000", Sir Tristan was
actually in a love triangle with
Tom Prentice. Or actually, Tom
had interest in Tristan who had
interest in the reincarnated Isolde. Lancelot was involved in his own love triangle with King
Arthur and Queen Guinevere.

The Captain Atom pose by Denys
Cowan and Rick Magyar is a direct
swipe from one by Steve Ditko.
Almost makes me wonder why they didn't get Ditko to do the artwork
himself if they weren't going to change anything.

Captain Carrot- The Disney movie
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" didn't
come out until 1988 so I don't think that was an issue with his
alter ego's name, Roger Rabbit.
However, I do remember reading something at one point where Roy Thomas explained why he went from Roger Rabbit to Roger Rodney Rabbit but I can't recall exactly what.

Captain Comet was the primary hero
featured in the original 70s
"Secret Society of Super-Villains"
comic.

Besides Cat-Man, there was another
Bat-villain known as The King of Cats back in the 50s who I believe
was Selina Kyle's brother.

RJ Brande was revealed as Chameleon
Boy's father (and a Durlan) in the
mini-series "Secrets of the Legion
of Super-Heroes".

The artists on the two Cheetahs, Trina Robbins and Steve Leialoha,
are actually a couple so it's even
more interesting in the fact that
they were obviously aware of what
the other was doing. Which probably
explains why the characters are facing off against each other.

Not only did John Byrne draw The
Chief, but I think he also drew the rest of the original Doom Patrol entries as well as their origin in "Secret Origins Annual" #1 a few years later.

Looking forward to the next one!

Count Drunkula said...

Am I the only one that hopes the Chief, like Barbara Gordon, gets the use of his legs back when he finally debuts in the New 52 Doom Patrol?

Thanks again, Rob (and Shag) for mentioning my new Black Canary blog, Flowers & Fishnets. And more for bringing my attention to the amazing Dave Stevens' Catwoman entry.

Sphinx Magoo said...

Just adding my voice to the Calendar Man info...

When Calendar Man appeared in Batman #312, the issue was written by Len Wein and drawn by Walt Simonson. Walt Simonson designed 7 (yes, SEVEN!) awesome new Calendar Man costumes. The one pictured in the entry was only one of them. The other 6 were based around the days of the week from Monday to Saturday.

I remember being disappointed that only this one was ever displayed and that the other days of the week designs were excluded. The cover here (showing, I think, Calendar Man's Wednesday/Wotan's Day costume) gives a glimpse of the awesomeness contained within: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Batman_Vol_1_312

Russell said...

The ToyRoom left out Black Canary, who faced The Calculator immediately after The Atom did, but before the Elongated Man did.

And I remember some letter column editorial about Captain Carrot changing his name because of "Roger Rabbit" too.

cリnical said...

In response to The ToyRoom's great post, the movie may not have premiered until 1988, but the novel "Who Censored Roger Rabbit" was published in 1981. Disney purchased the rights to the book shortly thereafter. Robert Zemeckis seized the opportunity to direct it and was hired a year later, but Disney, less than impressed with his box office track record at that point, relieved him of the project.

The Mouse decided to take another swing at it later on, once Eisner took over the company. Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment was brought in to produce, and the wheels started turning for real. Wanna guess what year that was?

Yep. 1985.

So perhaps there was a connection after all.