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Who is Black Manta? The Origins of Aquaman’s iconic villain

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Black Manta is one of the most fearless supervillains in the DC Universe, and one of the pettiest there is – next to Eobard Thawne aka Reverse Flash. He just hates Aquaman, pure and simple, and wants to destroy the Atlantean world.

Why Black Manta is so fixated on making Arthur Curry’s life hell? That’s the question you could ask yourself. And one that didn’t find an answer for a long time in the comic book pages of the DC Universe.

Black Manta was created by Bob Harney and Nick Cardy and made his debut in Aquaman #35 in September 1967. Though Aquaman’s nemesis made his first appearance here, it was not the first time the two characters fought, as the story made it clear they clashed before – in untold stories. But Manta was not given clear motivation at all.

The readers would have to wait more than 25 years to discover Black Manta’s first proper origin story and more so to discover his real name. His complete name, David Milton Hyde, was given only in 2020 in Aquaman Vol. 8 #62. Proof that you don’t need a (solid) backstory to ruin the life of a superhero and become an iconic villain!

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Who is Kraven the Hunter?

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Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery is composed of animal-themed characters like the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, the Scorpion, and plenty more, but also of people who altered—voluntarily or not—their bodies to become super-powered or who built some kind of devices to commit crimes like Sandman, Electro, Shocker, Hammerhead, Hydro-man, and of course, the Green Goblin.

Kraven the Hunter found its place in the middle of that. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (see our Spider-Man Reading Order to find the story), Kraven came to New York wanting to hunt Spider-Man. This Russian is after “the most dangerous game.”—like another famous fictional Russian big game hunter, General Zaroff.

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How old is Deadpool in the comics?

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Trying to guess the age of a comic book character can be considered a sport in itself, as the timeline is never completely fixed, and relaunches and retcons often disrupt the timeline. It becomes yet more complicated when your character is shrouded in a little bit of mystery.

It worsens when your character has a particular relationship with the truth, like Deadpool. It’s not completely his fault, though. Deadpool’s brain doesn’t function normally because of the regenerative nature of his cells and the bizarre experiments he was subjected to, with drugs, virtual simulations, death, and memory implants.

Some rumors on the web imply that Deadpool was born Wade Wilson in Regina Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1973, but that information has never been verified (and comes from the movie, anyway). He may have had an ordinary childhood. Or not. He may have killed his parents. Or maybe they’re alive.

Wade Wilson has a lot of pasts, making it difficult even for him to know the truth about himself. If we’re not sure when and where Wade Wilson was born, what do we know?

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Reckless: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Pulp Graphic Novel Series

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At this point, when it comes to crime comics, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s comics have eclipsed David Lapham’s (Stray Bullets). If you talk about the genre, you irremediably think about Criminal, then comes other favorites like The Fade Out, Kill or be Killed, Fatale… 

With the award-winning Pulp, the duo confirmed that they don’t even need to connect their work to Criminal anymore—like with My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies—or to another series to find their audiences in a different format. They became the brand. Everything they try is basically a winner.

Reckless doesn’t contradict that. It is a new crime series, for sure, but the creative team decided to try a different publication approach. Each story is self-contained and collected in one 144-page hardcover graphic novel.

It’s like reading a good old pulp novel, but with Brubaker’s writing, Sean Phillips’s pencils, and Jacob Phillips’s colors, the result could almost qualify as a reinvention of the genre by the form—published by Image Comics.

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Who Is Tom Strong? Exploring the World of Alan Moore’s Golden Age Superhero

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In 1999, Alan Moore launched America’s Best Comics, an imprint of WildStorm–still at Image Comics at that time. The idea was to develop a line of comics partly based on the 1940s Golden Age of comic books, partly motivated by Alan Moore’s passion for magic. Today, the most famous comics series from the imprint is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen–Top Shelf and Knockabout Comics later published the series–, but Tom Strong became the more developed universe.

Created by Alan Moore and artist Chris Sprouse, Tom Strong is a “science hero” who, with his wife Dhalua, his daughter Tesla, the enhanced ape King Solomon, and his robotic valet, Pneuman, fought science criminals and other supernatural/paranormal dangers for decades, but also at different times, worlds, and realms.

Tom Strong was born on the fictional West Indian island of Attabar Teru. There, his scientist parents put him in a high-gravity chamber and gave him an intensive education. Plus, he grew up eating a root used by the natives of the island for health and long life. When he got out, he was stronger, faster, more intelligent, and healthy than the average human being. He became an adult and married Dhalua, the daughter of Attabar Teru’s Chief Omotu. Together they relocated to Millennium City and had a daughter named Tesla.

In the civilized world, Tom Strong became a science hero who fought masked “science villains” like Paul Saveen, the Nazi Ingrid Weiss, the mechanical-molecular megalomaniac Modular Man, Aztecs from an alternate Earth, and more.

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Who is Poison Ivy? The origins of Dr. Pamela Isley

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Batman Rogues Galleries is, almost without a doubt, one of the most iconic, and Poison Ivy is no exception to the rule. She’s also one of the most visually striking characters, often barefoot with a green costume made of leaves and vines.

Poison Ivy was created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, at a time when Batman was massively popular thanks to the 1960s live-action television series. As a result of the show and Catwoman’s popularity in it, they wanted more female villains. To respond to this demand, Carmine Infantino and Robert Kanigher created Poison Ivy who made her debut in Batman #181 in June 1966 (where she was penciled by Sheldon Moldoff). The character never made it to the show.

The character was in part inspired by the short story “Rappaccini’s Daughter” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is about a young woman who tends a garden of poisonous plants and becomes toxic herself. Her design was modeled on Bettie Page, with Ivy having the same haircut and figure.

Poison Ivy is a woman with a poisonous touch who can manipulate all plants. She also possesses a complex and rich history and became more and more powerful with time and several retcons…

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Namora: The Origin and History of Namor’s Cousin

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Less than ten years after Namor made his debut, his female counterpart was introduced on the pages of Marvel Mystery Comics #82. Namora – full name Aquaria Nautica Neptunia – is, like her cousin Namor, a hybrid and one of Marvel’s first mutants.

Soon played by Mabel Cadena on the big screen in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Namora was created by artist Ken Bald (and an unknown writer), though several of her Golden Age appearances were written by Bill Everett who also designed her costume.

She’s the daughter of an Atlantean father and a human mother who lived several adventures next to her cousin in the Golden Age but was unfortunately killed off in the ‘60s. Namora continued to appear in a number of flashbacks but only made her permanent return to the Marvel Universe in 2006.

Though Namora didn’t have the chance to become a major player in the Marvel Universe, she still had the time to become a hero and make the undersea world safer!

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Little Nemo in Slumberland, Winsor McCay’s influential comic strip

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Little Nemo in Slumberland, New York Herald, January 7, 1906

One of the most famous Little Nemo in Slumberland comic strips today was published in July 1908. Considered a masterpiece, it shows the young Nemo atop his bed which had grown crazy long legs and was walking among buildings.

At this stage, creator Winsor McCay was working for the New York Herald for a few years and had already produced many illustrations and comic strips. He came to work for publisher James Gordon Bennett in 1903 where he was doing caricatures of officeholders. But it was in Telegram that he began experimenting with the comic strip form: a sequential panel called “Hubby Goes Shopping with the Usual Results” was published on December 24, 1903.

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Werewolf by Night Comics: Origin, History, and Reading Order Explained!

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1972 was a year of transition for Marvel Comics. Stan Lee was promoted and started handing over his management responsibilities to his protégé, Roy Thomas, who became the new editor-in-chief of the company. This was also the year that Marvel finally surpassed DC Comics in terms of overall sales. Superheroes were not that widely popular at the time. Their popularity was waning, so Marvel diversified to stay relevant.

Taking advantage of the loosening of the Comics Code, Marvel launched new horror titles like The Tomb of Dracula, Ghost Rider, The Man-Thing, and Werewolf by Night, of course. Back then, Roy Thomas was trying a lot of new concepts.

The title Werewolf by Night was not entirely new when it debuted as an ongoing series in the 1970s. Marvel Comics had previously used the title in 1953 for a short horror story published in Marvel Tales #116, during the company’s Atlas Comics era. However, the 1970s Werewolf by Night introduced an original character and mythology, marking a significant departure from the earlier standalone tale. Conceived by Roy Thomas and co-plotted with Jean Thomas, the series was scripted by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Mike Ploog.

As was common practice at the time, the new Werewolf by Night character was first introduced through an anthology title—Marvel Spotlight #2 (February 1972). The initial storyline unfolded over three issues, concluding with Marvel Spotlight #4. Following a positive reception, the character was given his own ongoing comic book series, launching with Werewolf by Night #1 in September 1972. This not only solidified the presence of supernatural horror within Marvel’s publishing line but also paved the way for the introduction of other monster-themed characters and series throughout the 1970s.

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Heroes Reborn: Marvel Heroes, Image Style, the famous 1996 relaunch

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In 2021, Marvel published a new Heroes Reborn storyline. The company loves confusing readers by using the same titles over and over. But why Heroes Reborn? The 1996 original storyline was not a success and does in fact has not the best reputation. Let’s take a look back at that strange pure 1990s experiment.

Everything started in 1992 when Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Whilce Portacio, Jim Valentino, and Marc Silvestri left Marvel to form Image Comics. Those creators found big success at Marvel. In fact, they were quite famous and wanted the company to recognize that in ways that were not agreeable for Marvel—they wanted better treatment, pay, and rights.

Everybody thought that they were coming back quickly, but Image became an instant hit that changed the industry forever. And then, the comic speculator bubble burst in 1993, changes in the distribution of comics created cash flow difficulties for some publishers, and poor sales numbers certainly didn’t help.

In fact, 1996 was a very bad year for Marvel. In January, the stock price dropped, and 275 staffers were laid off, and it was not the first time nor the last that year. In December, Marvel Comics declared bankruptcy—in truth, that was mostly the result of a battle to control the company between leaders that didn’t care for comics.

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