InsaNINETIES - Fighting American

I'm straight up confused at how Rob Liefeld was able to publish Fighting American without getting his ass sued. Seriously, just look at this cover and explain to me how this was okay with the Marvel legal department:

And that's just the start! Just wait to see what happens when we crack the cover!

First though, a bit of backstory. You see, back in 96, Marvel was in dire economic straits and, in an effort to make some money, they farmed out a few characters to comic legends Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld (yes, he's a legend even if he's the butt of every comic joke on the interwebs). It was a very controversial move at the time, to say the least.

The deal was the two would get four books - Iron Man and The Fantastic Four for Lee; The Avengers and Captain America for Liefeld - and a year to do all the continuity-free stories they always wanted to do. It was like a proto-Ultimate universe, but without the option of the original recipe to fall back on. The results were a mixed bag.

While Lee's books were fine, Liefeld ran into scheduling and sales issues. That is to say his sucky ass books were late, and Marvel wasn't having any of it; they fired him.

Down, but not out, Liefeld did what any self respecting creative type would do and quickly respun his plots and pages into this:

At which point he was promptly threatened with legal action by the powers that were at Marvel. After what I can only assume must have been some ridiculous negotiations, Marvel agreed to let Liefeld release his book as long as he altered the costume a bit and never had the American in question throw his shield. The result was Fighting American:

"But," I hear you saying, "you said you were surprised that Marvel didn't sue him. Sounds like they threatened and he relented. End of story." (sidenote: you should really stop talking to your computer, people are going to think you're crazy)

That's the thing, I thought that was the end of the story too until I picked up an issue from a quarter bin and saw this hulking brute:

Followed quickly by these familiar commandos:

And not to mention, Fighting American's spunky girl sidekick:

The book is littered with blatant Marvel rip-offs and no one said a word about it!

Crazy, right? It's like Marvel focused on the character on the cover, that they totally ignored the ones underneath it. I'm honestly shocked, and kind of impressed, that Liefeld got away with it. Not that it mattered really.

Fighting American is like most knock-off books: incomprehensible and generic. In the issue I had, the second of his entire run, he fought The Hulk Smash before indulging in a ten page flashback and ultimately deciding to retire as Fighting American.

Ultimately, Fighting American met the same fate as Doom's IV, Bloodstrike, Prophet, and (probably) The Infinite: Obscurity. It's too bad too, Fighting American could have been a real classic....

I'm lying. But it could have been alright...

Okay! It would've been mediocre at best...

Fine! It would have been terrible. I just wanted to see him to more crazy Marvel knockoffs. A blue and orange Iron Man, an all-black Spider-Man, or a Red Goblin? The possibilities are ENDLESS and would have been have been ripe for late aught's blogosphere snark.

Sigh... A man can dream, right?

Gunfire: The Marvel Character That Should Have Been

Recently a friend of mine inherited a sizable chuck (like 15 short boxes) of early to mid 90s DC comics and asked if I wanted to take some of the books off his hands. Never one to say no to free comics, even those from a publisher I rarely read from an era better left forgotten, I leapt at the chance. While I tried to pick out some of the more interesting titles (Millar/Hester on Swamp Thing, Waid's Flash run, Ennis/McCrea Demon, etc), i just couldn't resist all those deliciously awful 90s series like Guy Gardner Warrior, Extreme Justice, and, the most 90s book of them all, Gunfire.



Created by Len Wein and Steve Erwin, Gunfire is a six year-old's imagination (or maybe just my six year-old imagination) come true: He can turn anything into a gun. Wrenches, sticks, lead pipes, tire irons, construction girders, it doesn't matter; as long as he can point it at something, he can make it shoot.



Pretty awesome, right? Well, awesome for the 90s at least.

Anyway, secretly Gunfire is Alex van Horn, the newly anointed CEO of the technology firm Van Horn Industries after his shady father died from a space alligator bite. Don't ask, it's DC in the 90s. With all kinds of cash at hand, Alex decides to use his powers to put Van Horn Industries on the up and up by destroying all of the misappropriated Van Horn tech. This quest puts him up against a litany of technological freaks, from guys in armor that can shoot stuff and guys in armor that can deflect stuff, to a man with transparent skin and even his own not-so dead father.

It's, um... an interesting book, if not a little repetitive and derivative. For those really interesed, I live blogged this earlier in the week. Go relive the madness, if you dare.

Throughout my experience with the book, I couldn't quite shake an uneasiness with the book; like, it just felt wrong. At first, I thought it was because I wasn't used to DC books, and that off-ness was just me being out of my comfort zone. Not a bad theory and it helped ease those thoughts for a while. That is, until I saw this:



And it hit me, Gunfire is totally a Marvel character. Admit it, if you saw him hanging out with Nomad and Deathlok, you'd totally think they were a new (and totally badass) super team. Probably something with 'Extreme', 'Revenge', or ' Deadly' in the title. Or, more likely, all three like: The Extremely Deadly Revengers! But I digress.

Unlike most DC characters, Gunfire's base of operations was in New York and not some fictional coastal city. More, aside from a brief appearance from The Mirror Master and the fact that he first appeared in an issue of Deathstrike, Gunfire has no ties to the DCU at large. No wonder I kept expecting a mention of the Daily Bugle.

On a more meta level, Gunfire doesn't fit the traditional mold for a DC hero. Normally the DC heroes are gods striving to live among men or, more so at the time, the latest in a legacy of heroes. Gunfire however is just a kid thrown in over his head trying to clean up the Van Horn name.

Last but not least, his villainous and not-so-dead father looks just like Stryfe. Because I think we can all agree that Marvel (and to an extent Image) had the market cornered when it came to behind-the-scenes armored supervillains.



In the end, I can't decide if Gunfire got let off easy by being in the DCU. At Marvel, he probably would have gotten a bit of a push in '94 before fading into obscurity only to be used as a punchline to a Bendis joke fifteen years later. At DC, even though he more quickly drifted into obscurity, he never became a joke. Instead, Sterling Gates cut off his hands during New Years Evil and Garth Ennis made fun of his powers in Hitman # 1,000,000.

Oh well, better luck next time Gunfire. Until then, you'll always be my favorite Marvel Hero that never was.

Wait. Did Speedball and Namorita Sleep Together?

Am I crazy, or did Speedball just make a very suggestive remark about how Namorita appreciates the responsible use of his powers? I mean, I can buy it. What else are six, highly attractive, aggressively hormonal, and scantily clad teenage heroes going to do in their down time?

Also: I will never look at Speedball the same way again.

This potential relationship was brought to light courtesy of the 1993 classic Darkhawk #26 from Danny Fingeroth and Tod Smith.

Exploring the Insa-NINETIES: Jack Flag

It's time for another journey into those wonderfully wild, and woefully underrated, 1990s; A time when men could only grimace and scream while the women just pouted and posed. Today, we'll be looking at the America-themed hero, Jack Flag.

You remember Jack Flag, right? Popped up ever so briefly at the end of Gruenwald's Captain American run? Looks like Grifter (from the WildC.A.T.S) but with multicolored hair? Most recently a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy after he was paralyzed by Bullseye?

Still nothing? Well, you don't know what you're missing.



As a quick aside before we get started, I gotta talk about how strange the Fighting Chance story arc was. Nominally, it was a story line born out of the time period where every major hero had to go through some kind of major change, be it death, a crippling, or a cloning. In this case, the super soldier serum flowing through Cap's body was slowly destroying him. So Cap, in his infinite wisdom, decided to keep this from everyone and go 'tie up some lose ends' before his body gives out.

Anyway, so you'd think that this, chapter 10 of 12 would be neck deep in big decisions, character reveals, talk of a successor, and/or the start of a big fight with the major bad guy of the arc. You'd think, but you'd be wrong. Instead, we get this guy:



Don't get me wrong, the man's got a flair for theatrics and I'm VERY glad that he exists, I just wonder about the timing of introducing a new character that close to the end of a major storyline, and more, don't involve him in the the major storyline. Just seems weird, but what do I know, I'm just a guy reading the book 16 years later.

Whatevs. Jack Flag arrives on the scene brandishing quite possibly the coolest weapon ever.



That's right, a WEAPONIZED BOOM BOX.

Man, you put him and that thing on a motorcycle on a cross country road trip with the Ghost Riders and Nomad to discover America and I think you'd have the greatest comic ever written. EVER.

So, he pops on the scene to take down the Serpent Society (I mean, duh, who else would he take out with his boom box?), only to get caught in the act by the head snake himself, King Cobra. So he does what any of us would do, and spit out the most ridiculous lie he can think of.



And they buy it. Well, kinda...

Well, not really. I mean, come on, it's not exactly the best undercover act in the world and he his dealing with the fourth or fifth most prominent terrorist society in the Marvel Universe. They play ball though, sending him on a fetch quest that will force him to cross paths with Mr. Hyde.

It quickly turns out exactly how you think it would.



Somehow, miraculously, Jack's able to use some nearby props to distract Hyde and scamper off before he knows what happened.



So now that he knows that the Serpent Society knows he's totally talking out of his ass, what does he do? Goes right back to the Serpent Society, of course. What he lacks in brains, he makes up in testicular fortitude, I guess.

Jack's reappearance with the Serpent Society is marked with what is quite possibly one of my favorite reaction shots of all time.



Hats off to you, Jack Flag. May you get your outer space shit together so you can come back with your boom box and fight for your strange definition of the American dream.

Exploring the Insa-NINETIES: 8-Ball

Oh, the 90s, what a woefully underrated crazy-ass decade. All anyone thinks of when they think of you is big guns, bigger muscles, and even bigger tits. Thankfully, there are connoisseur of the 90s like myself to set the people straight.

Today, it's my pleasure to introduce you to the sensational character find of 1991: 8-Ball!



For the record 8-Ball is an ex-pool shark / military propulsion system designer, who built himself a pool cue that could magnify any force, donned a silly helmet, and turned to a life of crime. You know, standard stuff. Good for him for living what he loved... I guess.

He even convinced three other dudes to hang out with him wearing somehow more ridiculous costumes.



Ridiculous costume, even more ridiculous henchmen, it's like he's straight out of the sixties. I guess all he needs now is some kind of themed mode of transportation, like a flying cue ball or...



A flying 8-Ball rack, yeah that works.

Naturally, a villain like this must face off against some pretty grounded, street level heroes. Right? A guy like this totally smacks of Nomad or maybe even Thunderstrike. So where'd he first appear:



Sleepwalker. The book about the crazy alien that can only interact with this world when his college-aged slacker of a host is sleeping or otherwise unconscious. Yeah, goes together like chocolate and chicken: It's kinda weird, but if you just go with it I guess it makes sense.

Unfortunately, I don't know much else about the guy. I assume he continues to be a headache for ol'Sleepy, but I can't say for sure. I mean, you can't just get rid of a character made of pure gold like this, can you?

The only thing I do know is it looks like I have some Sleepwalker back-issues to go through.