Heroes

Heroes is a serial saga about people all over the world discovering that they have superpowers and trying to deal with how this change affects their lives. Some of the superheroes who will be introduced to the viewing audience include Peter Petrelli, an almost 30-year-old male nurse who suspects he might be able to fly, Isaac Mendez, a 28-year-old junkie who has the ability to paint images of the future when he is high, Niki Sanders, a 33-year-old Las Vegas showgirl who does things that are mysteriously connected with mirrors, Hiro Nakamura, a 24-year-old Japanese comic-book geek who literally makes time stand still, D.L. Hawkins, a 31-year-old inmate who can walk through walls, Matt Parkman, a beat cop who can hear other people's thoughts, and Claire Bennet, a 17-year-old cheerleader who defies death at every turn. As the viewing audience is discovering the nature of each hero's powers, the heroes, themselves, are discovering what having superpowers means to them as well as the larger picture of where their superpowers come from. Tune in each week to see how these heroes are drawn together by their common interest of evading the series' antagonist who wants to harvest their super-DNA for himself. Their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the world! The series will star Greg Grunberg (Alias), Leonard Roberts (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Milo Ventimiglia (Gilmore Girls), and Hayden Panettiere (Ally McBeal, Guiding Light). Tim Kring (Crossing Jordan, Chicago Hope) is the series' creator. The pilot is set to be directed by Dave Semel (American Dreams, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Beverly Hills, 90210). Heroes will be produced by NBC/Universal/Tailwind.

Who Wants to be a Superhero?

Who Wants to be a Superhero? is a reality series on the Sci-Fi channel hosted by comic god, Stan Lee. Stan Lee is credited as being creator or co-creator of Spiderman and Daredevil among others. The premise of the show is that contestants are to dress-up as their own superhero and show what their superhero is all about. The contestant selected by Stan Lee as the worst is eliminated every episode. The prize is huge for the comic fan, they get their character written into one of Stan Lee's comics and a movie starring the superhero will be shown on the Sci-Fi channels. Other not so great prizes include trips to Universal Studios Florida and other things. Who Wants to be a Superhero? is popular and continues to draw sci-fi and comic fans alike.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew

Captain Carrot & His Amazing Zoo Crew in 1982. It contained their first new funny animal superheroes in decades — and with the exception of a few licensed properties, their last foray into the funny animal genre for decades to come.

Writer Roy Thomas and artist Scott Shaw!, the group's creators, had collaborated once before, on "Man-Spider" (a funny animal send-up of Marvel's Spider-Man). They originally conceived their superhero gang as "Justa Lotta Animals", a take-off on The Justice League of America — but DC's existing licensing agreements made it more feasible to go with a completely original cast. Thus were born Alleycat-Abra, Fastback, Pig Iron, Rubber Duck, Yankee Poodle and, of course, Captain Carrot himself.

The Zoo Crew debuted as a free 16-page insert in DC's New Teen Titans #16 (February, 1982). The first issue of their own comic was cover-dated a month later.

Like most superheroes, these guys had ties to other characters belonging to the same publisher. Before his transformation, Pig Iron had been Peter Porkchops, who was a DC star from 1947-60. And the speedster, Fastback (who you knew had to be a turtle), was the nephew of McSnurtle the Turtle, who goes back all the way to Funny Stuff #1 (Summer, 1944). There were also frequent guest appearances by The Dodo & the Frog, The Three Mouseketeers, Nero Fox, and other DC funny animals from the 1940s and '50s — and even, on one occasion, Marvel Bunny, who was originally published by Fawcett. Even minor characters, like Bo Bunny and Doodles Duck, sometimes turned up in crowd scenes.

One connection which was not intended was with a Walt Disney feature that came along just a few years later, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Captain Carrot's secret identity was Roger Rabbit. To avoid confusion (to say nothing of possible legal entanglements, since Disney's Roger did appear first, in the form of prose fiction), the DC character's first name was retroactively changed to Rodney.

The 1980s comic book market was not receptive to funny animals, even if they were superheroes. Captain Carrot et al. lasted only 20 issues, the last dated November, 1983. Nor did the property make the transition to TV animation, as had originally been hoped. As was the case with their contemporary, Night Force, DC promised to revisit the characters in occasional mini-series and specials. But only one, The Oz-Wonderland War (1986), ever appeared. They guest-starred with a latter-day incarnation of The Teen Titans in 2005-06, but have otherwise been ignored.

Not many people today remember Captain Carrot & His Amazing Zoo Crew, but of those who do, many have become vocal advocates of the character. DC has very little interest in its funny animal properties these days, but if their attention ever turns that way again, this will probably be one of the first they look at.

Team Members

The members of the Zoo Crew include:

• Captain Carrot: Roger Rodney Rabbit of "Gnu York"; a rabbit. The leader of the team whose real name is Roger (or Rodney, as the latter comics named him to avoid confusion with the Disney film Who Framed Roger Rabbit) Rabbit. He would eat one of his "cosmic carrots" (as Rodney called them), Rodney would gain superpowers for roughly 24 hours although major exertion could exhaust the powers sooner, which include super-strength, endurance, heightened hearing and vision senses and a super-powerful leap. As such, he is the only member who has to constantly replenish his powers and keeps a pair of carrots holstered on his person for such a need in emergencies. The source of these carrots was initially a windowbox which he grew carrots in, which one of the meteor fragments had struck. Later he arranged a grow-op at the team headquarters to ensure an adequate continuous supply. In his alter ego, Rodney is the writer and artist of the comic book Just'a Lotta Animals.
• Alley-Kat-Abra: Felina Furr of "Mew Orleans" (a parody of New Orleans, Louisiana); a cat. A martial arts instructor and student of the mystical arts, Felina uses her "Magic Wanda" (a magic wand) to cast various types of spells.
• Pig-Iron: Peter Porkchops of "Piggsburgh" (a parody of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); a pig. Struck by a meteor fragment, the diminutive Peter fell (along with the meteorite) into a vat of molten metal in the steel mill where he worked. The consequent chemical reaction transformed his now-enormous body into living steel, with strength and invulnerability to match. Peter was originally a character from an earlier series of DC "funny animal" comics. Pig-Iron was also nicknamed the "Swine of Steel" (perhaps inspired by the Gilbert Shelton character Wonder Wart-Hog, the "Hog of Steel") and "Porcine Powerhouse".
• Rubberduck: Byrd Rentals of "Follywood, Califurnia" (a parody of Hollywood, California); a duck. Byrd, a movie star, was given the power to stretch his body into any shape and length when a meteor fragment struck his hot tub. Byrd Rentals' name is a parody of actor Burt Reynolds. Rubberduck was also nicknamed the "Malleable Mallard."
• Yankee Poodle: Rova Barkitt, also of "Follywood"; a poodle. Rova, who worked as a gossip columnist, was interviewing Byrd when they were both struck by meteor fragments. Rova gained the ability to project a repelling force (in the form of blue stars) with one hand and an attraction force (in the form of red-and-white stripes) with the other. Rova Barkitt's name is a parody of gossip columnist Rona Barrett.
• Fastback: Timmy Joe Terrapin of the fictional "Okey-Dokey" (a parody of the Okefenokee) swamp in the American south; a turtle. While trying to catch a bus to "Kornsas City" (Kansas City, Missouri), Timmy was struck by a meteor fragment and gained the ability to move at superchelonian speed. Fastback was also nicknamed the "Reptilian Rocket." Timmy Joe is not the first superspeedster in his family. His uncle Merton McSnurtle was secretly The Terrific Whatzit, a crime fighter during the Second Weird War. One issue mentions McSnutle's participation in "Operation Overlard". (Battle of Normandy)
• Little Cheese: Chester Cheese, a student at Follywood High School; a mouse. Chester had the ability to shrink from the comparable size of his teammates to a size of only a few centimeters, and was the only team member to not gain his powers from a meteor fragment (rather, he gained them from eating a piece of experimental cheese brought back from Earth-C's moon).
• American Eagle: Replaced Little Cheese on the reconstituted Zoo Crew after the latter's demise.

The Legion of Substitute Heroes

he Legion of Substitute Heroes were founded by Polar Boy, Night Girl, Stone Boy, Fire Lad, and Chlorophyll Kid, five young heroes whose powers were not sufficient to earn them membership in the Legion of Superheroes. After receiving a consolation prize (a Legion flight belt), the five disconsolate teenagers decided to form a group that could pinch hit for the Legion. After several failures as superheroes, the Subs manage to save the Earth from an invasion by Plant Men while the Legion is off planet fighting a decoy armada of robot space ships.

At first operating in secrecy, the Legion of Substitute Heroes is gradually recognized by the real Legion as a valuable asset. Members of the Legion of Substitute Heroes include:

• Antenna Lad has the power to tune into any broadcast from any era, but mostly at random.
• Chlorophyll Kid (Ral Benem from the planet Mardru) has the power to make plants grow super fast. He gained this power after falling into a vat of super plant growth formula as a small child. He has stated at various times that he can only accelerate plant growth, not control plant life, although some of his appearances seemed to contradict this.
• Color Kid (Ulu Vakk from the planet Lupra) can change the color of objects. Gained his power after being struck by a ray from another dimension. In the 1985 Legion of Substitute Heroes one-shot comic, he was temporarily known as Color Queen after being exposed to Granderian Gender-Reversal Germs by Infectious Lass.
• Double-Header has two heads as a result of gradually splitting into two identical beings.
• Fire Lad (Stag Mavlen from the planet Schwar) gained the power to breathe fire (often accidentally, as he suffers from allergies that cause him to sneeze) after inhaling vapors from a crashing meteor.
• Infectious Lass (Drura Sepht) spontaneously generates infectious diseases.
• Porcupine Pete (Peter Dursin) has quills he can shoot from his body (although generally not very accurately).
• Stone Boy (Dag Wentim from the planet Zwen). The people of Zwen gained the power to turn into stone as a way of hibernation on a planet whose night is six months long. Throughout most of his appearances, Stone Boy could only transform into an inanimate, insensate stone statue and was often used in humorous ways (e.g. being dropped on a villain from above by his teammates), or at best as a distraction while the other "Subs" carried out some mission. However, during the Five Year Gap, he underwent hypnotherapy and gained the ability to stay conscious during his transformation and, eventually, even to move in his stone state.
• "Arm Fall Off Boy"' (Floyd Belkin of the planet Lallor) has the ability to detach his own limbs at will. His background was largely unexplored, but in the post-Zero Hour version of the comic he tried out for Legion membership in Legionnaires #43 (December 1996) using the name Splitter. He made it through the initial interview and was one of five finalists, only to literally fall apart under fire during the last test. He went on to join the Heroes of Lallor.

The Justice Society of America

It began in late 1940, when DC Comics (then known as All-American Comics), created a new comic book series called All-Star Comics. All-Star included several stories, each featuring a different popular costumed character of the time : Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, etc.

With the Winter 1940 issue, #3, the format changed. Writer Gardner Fox decided to have all the primary characters meet in a single story, not for the purpose of stopping some major crime spree, or to save the world from destruction. They met for dinner.

This was the humble beginning of what was the first and, quite possibly, the best super hero team ever put together.

Those in attendance at the first meeting of the Justice Society included :

The Flash (Jay Garrick) The Green Lantern (Alan Ladd Wellington Scott) Hourman (Rex "Tick-Tock" Tyler) The Atom (Al Pratt) The Sandman (Wesley Dodds) Hawkman (Carter Hall) Dr. Fate (Kent Nelson) The Spectre (Jim Corrigan)

Two other characters decided to "crash" the dinner party : Johnny Thunder and the original Red Tornado. Johnny was allowed to stay as the official JSA "mascot"; Red Tornado only hung around for one page, as an embarrising tear in her costume demanded a hasty retreat. Too bad, too, as the JSA would not have an opportunity to induct another female member until issue #9, when Wonder Woman joined.

Unlike other comic book characters of the time, and most comic books today (John Byrne's run on She-Hulk nonwithstanding), the JSA realized they were comic book characters. When Flash and Green Lantern were given their own comic books, they left the JSA and became reserve members. The reason cited ? They were busy chasing bad guys over in their new titles !

The Flash served as the JSA's first chairperson, for issues 3-6. In issue #6, The Flash left, as he was busy over in his new title, All-Flash Comics. Johnny Thunder took his place as a full member, and Green Lantern became the second chairperson in issue #7.

Green Lantern served a one-issue office, as he was also awarded his own comic book. In issue #8, Green Lantern was replaced by Dr. Mid-Nite (his buddy from over in All-American Comics), Hourman took a leave of absence (it was revealed years later in All-Star Squadron that Hourman had joined the Freedom Fighters) and was replaced by Starman (who starred (pun intended) over in Adventure Comics with Hourman). Hawkman became the new chairperson and because the Golden Age Hawkman never got his own comic book (he shared with Johnny Thunder, The Whip, and, of course, The Flash over in Flash Comics), he remained chairperson until his apparent death (?) during Zero Hour in 1994.

Also in isuue #8, there was a backup feature introducing a new character who would eventually become the first female JSA member : Wonder Woman.

Over time, new characters joined the JSA and the membership roster was constantly changing. The team appeared in every issue of All-Star Comics from issue #3 (Winter, 1940) to issue #57 (Feb./March, 1951). With issue #58, the title was changed to All-Star Western. In official DC history, the Justice Society retired in 1951, during the age of McCarthyism, because they refused to let the US Government know their secret identities. Many of the team members settled down and started families during this time.