The Twelve Days of Who's Who! Part Nine: From Anarky to Kadaver (1990-1993)

[about_faces]

By 1990, I suspect that DC was tired of the increasingly-crappy printing quality they were giving to their Who's Who books, and probably wanted to step things up for the collector's market. This is pure speculation on my part, just going by the fact that the new editions of Who's Who were a much higher quality, with better coloring and slick,

Comments

[killermoth]

"Man, I didn't intend to begin and end this part with Grant/Breyfogle creations! Maybe it's a sign that I need to finally collect that entire run and read it through, as well as the early Shadow of the Bat stuff. Grant's work is rarely what I'd call stellar, but it's proving more interesting, remarkable, and entertaining than I used to believe. If you folks have some favorite Alan Grant stories, let me know if the comments

[about_faces]

That's a great article. Go figure that Denny O'Neil's insistence of more continuity within the Bat-books proved to be Grant's slow undoing. Food for thought, especially for me who generally WANTS to see the classic villains brought in more often, and to have their past stories built upon. Hrmm. I guess when a writer's strengths is original characters, then he should stick to that rather than subpar, watered-down versions of the established villains, just because we've seen so many of those that they make the rogues seem old hat. Damn.

At the very least, I will be sure to track down "The Nobody" now.

[psychopathicus]

Boy, some of these bio-writers really could have used another look at the source material. I've read Anarky's initial story, and he did NOT "leave behind a trail of corpses" - he may have been TRYING to; he did put several people in the hospital, but corpses? No. Anarky has occasionally TRIED to kill people, but to my knowledge, he's never succeeded, and when he's written correctly, he doesn't even try. Anarky is not a killer

[about_faces]

Yeah, I sure as hell don't remember Anarky killing anybody! I suspect that Waid is a Capitalist running dog out to discredit the voice of the people! /Lonnie

Yeah, the fact that he really does have the best of intentions helps make him appealing, as does the fact that Grant did occasionally show him to be misguided, such as with Lonnie's plan to kill Batman. Unfortunately, the Batman he picked was unwittingly Jean-Paul, who proceeded to terrify the shit out of Lonnie after the latter's actions nearly allowed an innocent child to die. I need to read the Shadow of the Bat story with Anarky to see what, if anything, Lonnie learned from that royal screw-up.

As for Black Mask, yeah, it's like what you two are discussing with Clock King, how we're supposed to accept that a tangentially-related thing could spin out into a full-blown obsession. I wish we could see Moench try to revisit Roman now after all these years, but with Roman dead, I don't see that ever happening.

Kadaver seems to be a specialist in faking such situations - at

[lego_joker]

According to Grant, he did originally intend to have Anarky kill his targets - Breyfogle himself claimed that he'd believed for years that Lonnie had killed the dope-dealing rock star, until Grant cleared it up in an interview.

I love Lonnie on the basis of his costume alone - Hat + Full-face mask + Flowing robes + Scepter = One Happy Fanboy.

(Also, I've never read V For Vendetta, so there's that.)

Also also, I love the Adam Hughes piece. I think that the murkiness really works for the other inmates - Joker's front and center, signifying that he cares the most about the audience, while the others lurk in the background, plotting their own agendas and whatnot.

That, and they actually sort of look like a team of Anti-Heroes. I'd buy the hell out of that book.

[about_faces]

But it's such a ridiculous costume! I love all those elements too, but he looks like he should be the night watchman at some cathedral fortress in a Vatican dystopia or something.

(Also, I've never read V For Vendetta, so there's that.)

Ooh, if you get the chance, you definitely should. How do you feel about Watchmen? In my experience, when it comes to those two books, people who tend to LOVE one feel kinda meh about the other. They seem to each speak to very different priorities when it comes to what people want out of comics.

That, and they actually sort of look like a team of Anti-Heroes. I'd buy the hell out of that book.

Well, when you put it THAT way, I sure as hell would too!

[surrealname]

as i told you last night, i have decided to make it my mission to make anarky work as a character.

All of this art is exceedingly pleasing to me.

i have not so much to say here, as i have already talked out my plans for anarky with you last night, that said, for those of you who might be interested, there has been talk between hef and i about having me do i guest post here discussing the said little nobody that is Anarky and what could or should be done with him. expect plenty of, well, very very mean things to be said.

[about_faces]

So have I ever told you how much I would love to see a dysfunctional Defenders-type team consisting of Grant's Anarky, Ditko's Question, O'Neil's Green Arrow, and Giffen/DeMatteis' Guy Gardner? I mean, they would all hate each other. Every one would hate every other one. It'd be amazing. They'd need an Amanda Waller or Big Barda to smack them every now again to fight the bad guys rather than each other for once.

[surrealname]

...wonder woman. this is funniest if she is in charge of them. i think i was born to write this book.

[surrealname]

maybe powergirl. some one who it would be funny for gardner to sexually harass.