Rob's Room: 1970 Hanna-Barbara Licensing Guide

1970 Hanna-Barbara Licensing Guide (via Spicy Horror tumblr)

Cool Characters: The Chaste

 

The Creation: The Chaste is a fictional mystical martial arts enclave led by Stick, that was created by Frank Miller in the pages of Daredevil #187 for Marvel Comics.

The History: The Chaste are an elite group of mysterious warriors whose base lies atop a mountain in an unknown location that can only be accessed by climbing "The Wall," a sheer cliff. The climb also serves as an entrance exam - those who fail the climb are not considered worthy. The primary function of The Chaste is to combat The Hand, an evil ninja group dominated by a demon. Led by Stick for a time, and now led by Stone.

The Origin: Master Izo was one of the founding members of the Hand several hundred years ago, and was a close follower of their leader, Kagenobu Yoshioka. (Yoshioka was a blind martial artist, who used a radar sense to fight and "see" the world). Izo blinded himself in order to see the world in the same way Yoshioka did and develop his radar sense. However, when Yoshioka died, Izo left the Hand because it was growing darker, more dangerous, and devolved into a ninja cult criminal organization, prone to serving a demon known as the Beast.  In order to counter the Hand, Mater Izo founded a rival martial arts group, known as the Chaste. However, soon after the team's creation, Master Izo was voted out by his students for his excessive drinking and gambling, which they found disgusting. Therefore, the leadership of the Chaste was then given to Stick.

Abilities: Chaste members are required to rid themselves of emotions that are considered impure. They have also developed mental abilities of either a psionic or mystical nature, such as the power to communicate telepathically. The warriors have developed astounding mental and physical abilities, and their names are associated with powers or weapons they have mastered.

Stick - Leader of The Chaste. He is known for his use of the bō (staff).
Stone - Stick's second-in-command. Can withstand any physical attack, as long as he is aware of it.
Shaft - Uses a bow and arrow.
Claw - Uses handheld metal blades (similar to Wolverine's adamantium claws) in combat.
Star - Uses shuriken.
Wing - Power of levitation.
Flame - Power of pyrokinesis.

If Electra had become a Chaste member perhaps she would have adopted the name of Sai.

Elektra's Story: After her father's death, Elektra went to Japan, to study the martial arts at a school headed by a sensei who had been cast out the Chaste years before for being unworthy of membership. Under this unnamed sensei's guidance, Elektra achieved great prowess in the martial arts. However, she was filled with hatred towards the world for the death of her father. The sensei told her about Stick's order in the hope that Stick could teach her how to achieve the peace of mind and spirit that had been attained by all members of the Chaste.  Stick accepted Elektra as a pupil, and she was trained by him for a year. During this time, she improved her combat skills even further and also began learning to develop and use the same mental powers possessed by the members of the order. Finally, though, Stick expelled her, since she was unable to rid herself of the destructive emotions that had filled her since the murder of her father. Stick realized that Elektra might join the Hand as a result, as indeed she did. Still later, Elektra left the Hand and became an independent mercenary assassin.

The Daredevil Story: The Chaste and the Hand have clashed in battle for many years. Daredevil (Matthew Murdock) first encountered members of the Chaste during a period when he had temporarily lost his radar sense. He sought his old master, Stick, to help him recover his abilities. At the same time, the Hand ascertained Stick's whereabouts and launched an attack. The blind old man was able to thwart the four attackers, but he knew he needed help in the event of another attempt on his life. Stick summoned the other six members of the Chaste. Only Stone, Shaft, and Claw arrived; Star, Flame and Wing were presumed to have been killed en route. The Hand’s deadliest warrior, Kirigi, had been resurrected for the battle, but was defeated by the surviving Chaste warriors. Soon thereafter, a gang of the Hand's ninja stormed Matt Murdock's apartment, attacking the Chaste, Daredevil and the Black Widow. Claw was killed, and Stick soon realized they were fighting a losing battle. He joined hands with Shaft, and together they drew the life energy from the attacking ninja. The ninja dissolved, but all the energy that transferred to Stick and Shaft was too much to contain. Both were killed. Stone later learned the Hand would attempt to resurrect Elektra. Stone, Daredevil, the Black Widow could not stop the theft of Elektra's body from her grave. At a church, the Hand was in the final stages of Elektra's resurrection when the trio arrived to halt the procedure. Daredevil though heard Elektra's heart beat, and he attempted to revive her with a variation of an energy transfer once performed by Stick. Daredevil thought he had failed. But as the Hand fled, Stone saw that Daredevil had somehow cleansed Elektra's soul. Stone secretly took her body back to the Chaste's mountain base and completed her resurrection there. Later, Stone dealt with a traitor in his group: a new recruit named Spear, who sided with the Hand's warrior, Izanami, in battle. Stone and Elektra also returned to New York City to confront the Snakeroot's attempt to forge a new warrior, Erynys, from the dark essence of Elektra that resided in John Garrett. During that mission, Daredevil discovered Elektra was alive. Erynys was defeated, but her dark essence re-entered Elektra. The Chaste could not allow Elektra to return to their group; because there was no guarantee she could control the impurity that the essence carried. The Chaste have since been involved once again in battle with the Hand in Japan. It has also been revealed that Stick has been reincarnated as Baby Karen.

Dork Note: I would love to see a well done mini-series of this group - maybe revolving around Stone.

Cool Character: Bigfoot/Sasquatch from Six Million Dollar Man

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is an alien cyborg created by a group of aliens visiting earth; he was constructed by the alien Shalon in imitation of a lower form of life from the alien homeworld, using a technology called "Nyosynthetics," an advanced form of Bionics which are powered by Mergeron. He was created to cultivate mystery and fear in a remote part of the Pacific Northwest in order to protect the location and identity of the alien's secret base. 

Actors: Bigfoot was played by two different actors, well known for their extraordinary height. André the Giant originated the role in the initial two-parter followed by Ted Cassidy in all subsequent appearances. 

  André the Giant

 Ted Cassidy

Fun Fact: A scene from "The Secret of Bigfoot" was recreated for the 2004 TV movie, Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Charlie's Angels' with Ben Browder playing Lee Majors (playing Austin) and John DeSantis as Bigfoot. DeSantis is only credited as "Bigfoot," not Andre the Giant nor Ted Cassidy. Like Cassidy before him, DeSantis is also best known for playing the character of Lurch, in The New Addams Family, a series produced in the late 1990s. 

Toys: Bigfoot was an extremely popular character, and one of only three televised villains to receive his own Bionic Bigfoot action figure.

Cool Characters: Legion of Super-Pets

First Appearance: Adventure Comics #293 (February, 1962)

Publication History: The Legion of Super-Pets is a fictional team of super-powered pets in the pre-Crisis DC Universe. Members include Krypto the Super-Dog and Streaky the Supercat. The team first appeared in Adventure Comics #293 (February 1962), though most of the members had appeared in earlier issues. Significant appearances during the Legion's Adventure Comics run include issue #322 (July 1964) in which Proty II is initiated onto the team; issue #343 (April 1966) in which the Super-Pets help the Legion battle the Luck Lords; and issue #364 (January 1968), "The Revolt of the Super-Pets!" The team only rarely appeared after the Silver Age and have not made any appearances post-Crisis, though Krypto has become a supporting character in the Superman titles.

Origin: The alien creatures known as the Brain-Globes of Rambat decide that in order to succeed in their plan to move Earth to their own solar system, they must defeat Superboy. When they are unable to gain control of Superboy, they summon Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the future and mentally command the trio to capture him. After Superboy is defeated, the Brain-Globes of Rambat release their hold on the Legionnaires. When they notice that the Brain-Globes cannot control animals, the Legionnaires gather Krypto the Super-Dog (from Superboy's present), Streaky the Supercat and Beppo the Super-Monkey (from Superman's present), and Comet the Super-Horse (from a few weeks in Superman's future) to battle the aliens. The pets defeat the aliens and are named the Legion of Super-Pets, the animal branch of the super club. They are then returned to their proper time periods. Proty II would later join the team. 

Krypto the Super-Dog: Kal-El's puppy, Krypto, was lost in space before the destruction of Krypton. After Kal-El grew into a boy, Krypto found his way to Earth and the two were reunited. (Adventure #210)

Beppo the Super-Monkey: Beppo was a lab monkey of Superboy's father, Jor-El. The monkey stowed away aboard Kal-El's rocket and plagued the Boy of Steel with much mischief. (Superboy v.1 #76)

Comet the Super-Horse: Circa 1000 BCE, a centaur named Biron was granted super-powers by the sorceress Circe. But Circe's enemy, the sorcerer Malador, transformed Biron into a horse and banished him to a planet in the constellation Sagittarius, where he remained for almost 3,000 years. Biron was freed from his imprisonment by Kara Zor-El's passing rocket ship. He then followed her to Earth, where she became Supergirl and named him Comet. (Action #292; 1st app. Adventure #293)

Streaky the Super-Cat: Supergirl's Earth cat Streaky became a Super-Cat through exposure to a newly created Kryptonite isotope called X-Kryptonite. (Action #261) Supergirl later met Streaky's descendant, Whizzy, in the 30th century. Whizzy was never a member of the Super-Pets. (Action #287)

Proty II: a small amorphous creature from Antares II. The Super-Pets met Proty II when they were asked by the Legion to guard the Legion clubhouse. Proty recounted how the his race gained their shape-shifting abilities centuries ago. He underwent a series of trials to prove his worthiness and joined the Super-Pets. (Adventure #322) NOTE: Read more about Proty's race. Proty was introduced to the Legion as Chameleon Boy's pet (Jimmy Olsen #72) but it was soon clear that his race were fully sentient, and far more intelligent than normal Earth animals. Like his predecessor, he was selfless and quick to enter dangerous situations. When one of Triplicate Girl's three bodies was slain by Computo, Proty II attempted to distract Computo by posing as the Weirdo Legionnaire. (Adventure #341)

Fun Fact: The Legion was parodied in an episode of Robot Chicken. Comet, Streaky, Krypto, and Beppo appear, along with "Hissy the Super-Snake". Superman returns to the Fortress of Solitude from a month in space to find the pets have all frozen to death because their babysitter mistakenly thought she was watching them the month after.
Fun Fact: The Legion of Super-Pets (Beppo the Super Monkey, Streaky the Super Cat and Krypto the Super Dog) appear in the DC Nation Superman 75th Anniversary short that was shown at New York Comic Con 2013 and will be included in the Man of Steel DVD.

Cool Character: Grendel Prime

The Story: Grendel-Prime breaks into the complex in the Dakotas where Jupiter Niklos Assante, child heir to the Orion Assante, the first Grendel-Khan, resides. Prime kills all of the guards protecting the children, and takes Jupiter with him. Jupiter's step-mother (and Crystal's mother) Laurel Kennedy, who has been ruling the world as Regent until Jupiter is old enough, and who has been keeping the children under house arrest in the Dakotas as she builds her own power base, arrives at the compound to find the destruction and devastation caused by Prime. She dispatches a squadron of Red Devils in pursuit of the abductor. Prime easily slays the Red Devils. He is obviously taking care of Jupiter, and has not simply kidnapped him. He begins to train Jupiter in basic survival skills. While traveling through the OPEC nuclear wastelands Prime and Assante stop at a ruined stone building to retrieve fresh water from a well. They are taken captive by a group of mutants that blame technology for all of their problems. Grendel-Prime, weakened from the radiation, is unable to fight all of them off and is nearly executed. A group of rebels that oppose the rule of Laurel Kennedy, led by Azif A Barouk, defeat the mutants and knock Prime out from behind. He awakens underneath the ruins of the Vatican to find himself partially disassembled and paralyzed from the neck down. His captors know of Jupiter's identity and interrogate Prime about what he is doing with Jupiter. Prime activates a holographic projection of Orion, in which he gives the bearer permission to do whatever he needs in the name of the Grendel-Khan. It turns out that Grendel-Prime was created by Orion as his personal paladin through a secret plan called Project Athena. He actually died several times in the process of being turned into a cyborg. He is now charged with protecting Jupiter until he is old enough to rule. While Azif and his rebels are deciding what to do with Prime, a group of vampires kills Jupiter's guards and kidnaps Jupiter. When news gets to Azif, they reassemble Grendel Prime and he recharges himself with their generators. The team saves Jupiter and kills most of the vampires, including two old enemies of past Grendels, Kierch and Pellon Cross, whom Grendel Prime stabs through the head with his laser sword. The young Jupiter realizes that this is not the appropriate time for him to re-appear. Taking charge himself for the first time, he orders that they remain in hiding in the wilderness. 

Ten years pass, and in that time Jupiter trains himself and builds the power of the rebel army.  Grendel-Prime and the other rebels attack the Sun House, the seat of government, which contains Orion Assante's legendary weapon the Sun Disc. The rebels literally catapult him through the roof of the Sun House, after which he cuts his way through the guards and runs towards the Sun Disc. Orion Assante had implanted the components required to activate the Sun Disc within Grendel Prime's mechanical body. He turns on the Sun Disc and destroys a satellite orbiting the Earth, giving Jupiter access to the worldwide communication network he needs to proclaim his status as Grendel-Khan. Jupiter becomes the new Khan with the happy agreement of the public. However, soon after helping Jupiter to take back the throne, Grendel-Prime leaves. The duty he was charged with was to assist Jupiter in seizing control, and now his job is finished. He rides off, never to be seen by Jupiter again.

Continuing Story: Many years later, Grendel-Prime is working on a machine to make contact with the spirit of Hunter Rose. He wants to find the true meaning of Grendel, which he feels has been lost. In order to power the machine, he needs diamonds, living people, and a fragment of the skull of Hunter Rose, which they apparently get from the Khan's archives. They activate the machine in New York under the site of Rose's home.  Grendel-Prime steps in to communicate with Rose.  However, Grendel-Prime is accidentally sent back in time to the era of Batman. After few minutes Grendel-Prime is ejected from it, returning from the past in a highly damaged condition. He kills the man who saw him appear, grabs his bike, and rides off.

Abilities: Grendel-Prime is a cyborg created by Orion I. His body possesses superhuman strength and durability. His mechanical body is usually solar powered, but he can also recharge himself using electrical power sources.  He is bullet-proof and immune to radiation, although it drains his energy. He can breathe normally in toxic atmospheres. He can create a solar flare around his body that can melt materials including ice, steel mesh, and synthetic adhesives, although this drains him of much of his energy. If he is disassembled, he can remotely control his separated body parts. In a later era Grendel-Prime has rebuilt himself with the ability to fly by projecting out spear-like rods from his shoulders and arms.

Weapons: Grendel-Prime uses a laser sword and can create an energy shield on his arm. He also uses a gauntlet that can shoot small missiles and various pistols and rifle

Ride: Grendel-Prime uses a hover bike with a sidecar. This bike is capable of traveling over land and water for great distances, including intercontinental ocean travel. It has metal shields that can protect the sidecar against most conventional attacks. He can summon the bike by remote control.

Jeremy's Junk: Train Ride Characters

Now, this is what I call a brilliant use of boredom!

Train Ride Characters

Cool Character: Deathlok the Demolisher (Original)

 

Clipped from Wikipedia: Deathlok (also referred to as Deathlok the Demolisher) is a fictional cyborg published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Astonishing Tales #25 (1974), and was created by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench. A recurring theme among these characters is that a dead human has been reanimated with cybernetic technology. "Deathlok technology" has also been used thematically by Marvel writers in other stories.

Publication: Although initially announced as the new lead feature for Marvel's Worlds Unknown comic, under the title "Cyborg," the first Deathlok series ran in Astonishing Tales #25-36. This initial version of the character, Luther Manning, later guest-starred with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #46, Marvel Spotlight #33, Marvel Two-in-One #26, 27, 28, 34 and #54, although one appearance was actually a robot and not the genuine Deathlok. The Luther Manning Deathlok then appeared in Captain America #286-288.

Clipped from Marvel History: In Deatlok’s reality the Heroic Age ended in 1983, when Roxxon Oil Company’s Nth Command enacted Operation: Purge, using their Nth Projectors to banish Earth’s super-humans to lethal extra-dimensional realms. Having exhausted their Projectors, Roxxon attempted to conquer America via conventional means, which degenerated into mass chaos and worldwide war, with mysterious explosion devastating Manhattan and a dozen other American cities. The U.S. military eventually retook America, but C.I.A. and various splinter groups fought for control.

Luther Manning had joined the Army several years prior to Operation: Purge, but in 1985 he was torn apart by a concussion bomb during a training exercise. Wishing to preserve Manning’s knowledge and experience, Simon Ryker selected him for Project: Alpha-Mech when Manning did not survive surgery. This C.I.A. project, spearheaded by Simon and his brother Harlan was designed to build armies of cyborg super-soldiers. However, each Ryker had his own agenda, causing them to split from the C.I.A. Simon wished to use the cyborgs for world domination, while Harlan saw the cyborg form as perfection and wanted an army of his Homo Ascendent to replace humanity with cyborgs. After five years in stasis, Manning’s body was reanimated as the cyborg Deathlok. He was named so, because he can be locked in a death-like state. Harlan Ryker directed Deathlok’s construction but soon went off on his own, converting himself into the cyborg Hellinger and continuing to design his own Alpha-Mech warriors.

Simon Ryker oversaw Deathlok’s training and early missions, but the cyborg began to rebel against his programming as his human memories returned. Escaping Ryker’s control, Deathlok learned that he was legally dead and that his wife had since married his old friend Mike Travers. Despondent, but incapable of suicide due to his internal programming, Deathlok devoted himself to ruining his former master. Having been transformed into a cyborg himself by Harlan after suffering injuries during the Heroic Age, Simon sought to merge with the Omni-Computer with oversaw the city, becoming the powerful cyberspace entity the Savior Machine. However, Deathlok forced him out of the Omni-Computer with the aid of C.I.A. agents, leaving Ryker hopelessly incoherent from the rapid reversals he had suffered. The C.I.A. tried to restore Deathlok to life by transferring his mind into a clone of Manning, but succeeded only in duplicating his memories in that body, leaving Deathlok essentially unchanged.

Deathlok worked for the C.I.A. (focusing on the threat of Hellinger), but shortly after encountering the time traveling Spider-Man of Earth-616, he met the enigmatic Godwulf. A rebel working to liberate America, Goldwulf was actually a repentant former member of the Nth Command. Trying to prevent Hellinger from locating Deathlok, Godwulf displaced him across time prior to Operation: Purge. Arriving on Earth-616, Deathlok aided the occult agent Devil-Slayer against the demon-worshipping Cult of Vera Gemini. Goldwulf tried to restore Deathlok to his own time, but Hellinger had observed his banishment and tried to lock onto Deathlok himself. However, Deathlok was instead pulled back to Earth-616 by the Fixer and Mentallo, who implanted a control device into him and used him in a plot to assassinate the U.S. President. Foiled by the Fantastic Four and shape-changing alien Impossible Man, Deathlok was captured and his control device eventually disengaged by London’s top cyberneticist and bio-geneticist, Professor Louis Kort. Remaining stuporous, Deathlok was taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and later stolen by agents of Roxxon.

Deathlok was studied by Earth-616’s Harlan Ryker at Roxxon’s Brand Corporation subdivision, who designed a robotic Deathlok which was destroyed by the Thing and Quasar while invading Project: PEGASUS. The original Deathlok was re-programmed as an agent of Nth Command, who had been developing their Operation: Purge. Meanwhile, in Earth-7484’s year 1993, Godwulf sent the Luther Manning clone back to Earth-616 to locate Deathlok. Deathlok slew him, but the dying Manning’s touch somehow restored his memories and neutralized his programming. Deathlok led Captain America to a portal to his time, where they joined with Godwulf and his Redeemers (Big Man, Gentle Sam, Iron Butterfly, Sage and Swashbuckler) in defeating Hellinger before his army of Doomsday-Mechs could attack humanity. Hellinger took control of Deathlok’s cyborg systems, but his human mind resisted and he slew Hellinger. Captain America returned to Earth-616, using his new knowledge to shut down Nth Command and prevent Operation: Purge, diverging the two realities. While working at Cybertek, Earth-616’s Harlan Ryker later designed his own Deathlok for the U.S, military, into which was placed the brain of soldier John Kelly. However, when Kelly disputed mission orders, the onboard computer lobotomized him. A computer copy of Kelly’s mind subsequently operated the Siege cyborg, also designed by Ryker. The next Deathlok was pacifist Michael Collins, whose brain was placed into the cyborg against his will. He escaped Cybertek’s control, becoming a heroic vigilante for a time.

Back in Earth-7484, Deathlok and the Redeemers followed Godwulf against foreign monarch Timestream, who, unbeknownst to all save Godwulf had been empowered during Operation: Purge and had supported Hellinger’s defeat. Timestream’s base was destroyed, but the Redeemers died and the assault sparked retaliatory nuclear attacks from three sides. Deathlok abandoned Godwulf after learning he had been withholding information. Deathlok subsequently worked alongside a rehabilitated alien Deviant Lord Tantalus, but ultimately failed to lead the world to a better future. Learning that the Red Skull (Johann Shmidt) had backed Nth Command and that his agents were rebuilding Operation: Purge in Earth-616, Deathlok revisited that reality, where his systems suddenly shut down and S.H.I.E.L.D. captured him. Believing him under their control, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Dr. Parker repaired and upgraded him, but Deathlok suddenly rebooted and escaped, destroying the Purge technology and returning to Earth-7484. 

In 2011, eighteen years after Hellinger’s defeat, the cyborg Manning fought for survival as the Demolisher, his computer having long since crashed. He was recruited by Timestream (secretly the foreign monarch he had fought years before) and agreed to help him in exchange for altering time so that he would never have become Deathlok. In reality, Timestream’s mad plot endangered Earth-616, Earth-7484 and all of time itself, leading the regulatory Time Variance Authority to send Godwulf to stop him. Timestream recruited the Luther Manning of Earth-616 to assist his agents, while Godwulf enlisted Earth-616’s Siege (John Kelly) and Deathlok (Michael Collins). After various time travel expeditions, the Demolisher learned Timestream’s secrets and turned against him and Michael Collins destroyed Timestream. Still disgusted with Godwulf, the Earth-7484 Deathlok stole one of his time gauntlets and traveled to Earth-616, where he lived in solitude in Manhattan’s sewers after briefly working with the Tunnel Dwellers society. He was later drawn into a massive struggle involving the heroes Daredevil (Matthew Murdock), Blackwulf (Lucian), the Tunnel Dwellers and the long retired Peacekeeper against agents of the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), the mercenary Bushwacker, the mad King of the Sewers and his cult and the Mayan Devourer. After saving the innocents living beneath the streets, the Demolisher wandered off, to contemplate his existence.

At some point, Luther Manning would be recruited by X-51 of Earth-9997 to become a member of his Heralds. A group of super-humans from alternate realities. He had gathered them to warn alternate realities of the danger of the Celestials who reproduced by impregnating worlds and manipulating the DNA of the planets dominant species into being unwilling antibodies. Each member of the Heralds would be granted their fondest wish upon completion of their mission. As payment for her agreement to join the Heralds, Deathlok wished to become human again. He would be teamed with Wolverine of Earth-811, Iron Man 2020 of Earth-8410, Bloodstorm of Earth-1298, Spider-Girl of Earth-1122, Killraven of Earth-691 and Hyperion of Earth-1121. The team would be split into groups of two, with Deathlok joining Killraven, they would travel to Earth-1124, a world ruled by Satyrnin
.
After fighting an army of Stayrnin's soldiers, the two heroes eventually surrendered and were taken to Satyrnin. Stayrnin was uninterested in the information the two had to provide, and was more interested in her attraction to Killraven. Killraven would stay behind while Deathlok (figuring he got a raw deal) would return back to Earth-9997. 

Returning to Earth-9997, each member of the group having varying degrees of success, they arrived to find that the Watcher of Earth-9997 was being judged by his alternate reality counterparts. After a brief battle against the collective of Watchers (in which Killraven came to the rescue), they were beaten when X-51 had them all teleported to the surface of their own Earths, making them guilty of the same crimes that Watcher-9997 was guilty of. 

After some time on Earth-9997, X-51 recovered a device that was used by Merlin to restore Captain Britain to life. He would use the device to create a new body for Luther Manning based on a DNA sample, he then intended to transplant Manning's brain in this new body. If X-51 succeed in doing this remains to be revealed. 

Further, it is unknown when and where Manning was plucked from reality and brought to Earth-9997. Figuring for the success of the brain transplant, it is possible that Manning's trip to Earth-9997 has yet to happen in his personal chronology. However, Manning was taken at a point prior to X-51 knowing how to travel to alternate realities without creating a divergent reality, so it is entirely possible that when X-51 took Manning from whatever he originated, he created a divergent reality in the process. However, at this present time the logistics pertaining to these events have yet to be explained.

Cool Characters: The Hellions (Massachusetts Academy)

First appearance: The New Mutants #16 (June 1984)
The original group of Hellions was apprentices of the Hellfire Club and students of its White Queen Emma Frost. While attending classes at Frost's Massachusetts Academy, these young mutants secretly trained in the use of their powers in an underground complex beneath the school. They were longtime rivals of the Professor Charles Xavier's students, the New Mutants, and once held their own against the X-Men. The original Hellions were:

• Catseye (Sharon Smith), an American girl who could transform her body into a purple feline or semi-feline state and shift her size between that of a house cat or a panther. This granted her razor sharp claws, enhanced senses and physical attributes, plus a prehensile tail. Catseye originally believed she was a cat with the ability to transform into a human.
• Empath (Manuel de la Rocha); a handsome, yet cruel and arrogant young Spanish man with the ability to sense and manipulate the emotions of others. After a brief attempt at reforming, he is currently incarcerated in the X-Men's virtual reality prison on Utopia.
• Jetstream (Haroum ibn Sallah al-Rashid), from Morocco, could generate bio-thermal energy that allowed him to propel himself through the air and move at superhuman speeds. Aided in flight by bionically-implanted jets that focus his energies and a cybernetic guidance system.
• Roulette (Jennifer Stavros), an American girl from Atlantic City who could psionically influence probabilities, usually through colored disks of energy she generated and threw towards her targets: white disks for good luck, black disks for bad.
• Tarot (Marie-Ange Colbert), from Lyon, France. She could psionically manifest the images on her tarot cards as physical constructs, and possessed a limited precognitive ability focused through her cards. She was resurrected by Christopher Aaronson, but returned to death after he was depowered by the events of "M-Day".
• Thunderbird (James Proudstar), the younger brother of deceased X-Man John Proudstar (the original Thunderbird), who possessed similar superhuman physical attributes, senses, and healing ability. He reformed and has served on the several X-Men teams and is currently a member of the X-Men.

White Queen Emma Frost had another potential Hellion in Firestar (Angelica Jones), but kept the girl from joining the team on field missions while grooming her to be Frost's personal assassin. Firestar eventually learned of Frost's plans and left the Massachusetts Academy.
After suffering a severe trauma at the hands of the Beyonder, a number of the New Mutants were transferred to the Massachusetts Academy by Magneto (then headmaster of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters), due to their apparent need for psychic therapy from Emma Frost. While at the Academy, the transferred New Mutants - Cannonball, Wolfsbane, Karma, Cypher, Magik, and Magma - were inducted into the Hellions. However, they soon returned to Xavier's School after their recovery and the revelation that the White Queen had employed Empath to coerce Magneto into allowing the transfer. After an alliance between the X-Men and the Hellfire Club and Magneto's ascension to the Inner Circle as its White King, relations between the Hellions and New Mutants improved.

Magma, realizing she held feelings for Empath, eventually returned to the Hellions and the Massachusetts Academy; the two would later leave the team to travel to her home in Nova Roma. James Proudstar also left the Hellions, reemerging with Cable and the remnants of the New Mutants in X-Force.


Superstrong and durable Beef (Buford Wilson) and bioelectricity-projecting Bevatron (Fabian Marechal-Julbin) were later additions to the group, and were present when the Hellions unsuccessfully challenged the New Warriors over the allegiance of their former member, Firestar.
The original Hellions however came to an end when Trevor Fitzroy and a squadron of Sentinels attacked a Hellfire Club function; Jetstream and Beef were killed immediately, while Tarot, the rest of the Hellions and many guests, erroneously believed to be unnamed Hellions were captured and drained of their life energies by Fitzroy. Emma Frost's guilt over her students' deaths led to her eventual reform. These Hellions were some of the many deceased mutants resurrected via the Transmode Virus by Selene and Eli Bard during the "Necrosha" storyline running through New Mutants, X-Force and X-Men: Legacy. They survived and are once again acting as a team.

Cool Character: Manhunter (1970's Paul Kirk)

Clipped from Wikipedia: In 1973, the names of Manhunter and Paul Kirk were resurrected in a story by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson in Detective Comics #437 Simonson noted that:

He [Archie Goodwin] had this idea for doing a back-up story for Detective Comics which he was editing. He was going to do a lead Batman story and then have an eight-page short story in the back. He thought he would try to invent a character and do him in a way that contrasted with Batman. While Batman was dark and grim and very urban, this would be a guy in brighter colors and the whole world would be his stage. Where Batman was more or less an empty hand combatant, this guy would carry weaponry.

Contrary to popular belief, although the name was chosen as an acknowledgement of the 1940s character, it was not the original intent of the creators for this to be the same character. However, this link was later established within the series to quickly provide backstory within the limited eight-page structure.

Kirk carried and used primarily three weapons: a Bolo Mauser, a Katar (कटार), and two suriken "throwing stars". These are carried by Kirk as part of his costume, on the chest. Said Simonson of his costume design, "I did a bunch of preliminary designs and I think Archie thought my first costume was a little complex, but then I did a bunch of variations. They were just simpler and not as a good, so we went with the original design. The only difference was originally I’d given him nine throwing stars. Archie wanted to include martial arts in the strip and I came across something that said nine was a mystical number in some of the martial arts cultures. But somewhere along the way I realized that drawing nine throwing stars in every damn panel was going to be a big problem. So we fixed that!"

Paul Kirk had been killed by an elephant on safari in the 1940s, but his body had been cryogenically preserved and eventually resurrected by the Council, a secret society dedicated to controlling the world. After his return from death, Kirk was given a healing factor devised by a geneticist-member of the Council (it was later retconned that the healing factor was due to nanobots injected into him) and was trained extensively in the martial arts by Asano Nitobe. He was also the genetic source for many clones, which the Council intended to use as their paramilitary arm, with the original Paul Kirk as their leader. Manhunter defeated the Council, deliberately sacrificing his life to do so.
 

In the 1990s to create a one off story, the aforementioned "Final Chapter," with the Paul Kirk character, the project was terminated by the death of Goodwin while it was still in preliminary development before the dialogue was written. However, Walt Simonson's acted on his wife Louise's suggestion that the story be completed without dialogue as a "silent" story so as to not minimize Goodwin's contribution to it.

Action Figure and Statues Released by DC

Fan Made Mego Figure

Dork Note: The Manhunters' costume has that 1970's flair; which shouldn't work but does.