Digital Comic Museum
General Category => Comic Related Discussion => Topic started by: phabox (RIP) on April 27, 2010, 05:49:04 AM
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The other day I got talking to a non comic book fan who I am friendly with and the subject of 'Insect comic characters' came up and even then right off the top of my head I managed to come up with a decent list of heroes but I wonder how many I may have missed ?
Also what about 'baddies' like Marvels Beetle to name only one ?
Here's what I have so far:
Ant-Man (Hank Pym and Scott Lang)
Black Widow ( three so far ?)
Blue Beetle ( four at last count ?)
Fly Girl
The Fly/Flyman
Fly-Man (Clip Foster)
Green Hornet
Hooded Wasp
Human Fly
Red Bee
Spider-Man
Tarantula
Wasp
Waspett
Yellowjacket ( three so far ?)
Do the 'Spider' themed characters count as insects :-/
if so there are at least half a dozen more names that could be added to this list.
-Nigel
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Still not sure if the eight legged 'Spider' characters should be listed with the insect heroes so here they are on there own for now.
Apart from the three names listed above we also have:
Alias The Spider
The Spider (Richard Wentworth)
The Spider (Jerry Seigels UK Anti-Hero)
Spider Girl
Spider Queen
Spider Widow
Spider Woman (Helen Goddard)
Spider Woman (Jessica Drew and others)
Any More ?
-Nigel
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My favorite is Swarm. A Spider-Man villain who is a Nazi made out of bees.
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Doing this from the library so don't have access to my notes, but:-
B-Man (Harvey Comics)
Insect Queen (Lana Lang) (2 of these aren't there? With the other one being Lana from a different Earth)
and from the U.K. please welcome:-
Captain Hornet
And I'm sure there is another Fly Man - South American, perhaps?
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Think there may well have been an Earth-Two Insect Queen pre-crisis who showed up in a 'Mr and Mrs. Superman' story some years back.
I Thought of Harveys B-Man myself later, just for the record he was only called that on the cover and was known as 'The Bee' inside the book.
-Nigel
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I know where my Harveys are, so I'm off for a dig through them and a read at The BEE. I'd forgotten that. Thanks.
Just thought, wasn't there a Silver Scarab? DC, I think.
Blue Beetle was published under the name of Le Fantome D'Acier in France in 1946.
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A Couple more 'Tarantulas', Count Eugene Lycosa appeared very briefly in Weird Suspence Tales from Atla/Seaboard in February 1975 and I believe that Spider-Man may also have fought a foe by this name.
-Nigel
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"Honey Wasp" also appeared in the Hooded Wasp series in Street & Smith's "Shadow Comics." Ace had an interesting character who called himself "the Black Spider."
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Ha!
kusunoki, the SWARM issue of Amazing Spiderman was one of the first I ever read. A great villain!
Nice topic Nigel, thanks.
:)
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Also lets not forget the Ambush Bug ::)
-Nigel
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The Ticks Moth friend and there was another character called the Moth
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Batman had an Enemy called 'Killer Moth' and I seem to have a vague memory of a DC baddie based on a grasshopper, may have been in one of Bob Haney's books, ring any bells with anyone here ?
-Nigel
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The Moth was a Steve Rude superhero. And I remember that "grasshopper" guy and I'm sure it was in an issue of B&B. I can almost see the cover. There's so much rubbish in my memory, it takes a while for answers to pop out.
The Scorpion from Atlas/Seaboard
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Actually, the two Grasshoppers were in a 1960's issue of DETECTIVE. Batman also fought a villain called the Wasp (and an Ant-Man), and Swarm was originally a CHAMPIONS villain. Let's not forget the Hellgrammite, whom Batman and Creeper fought in BRAVE AND BOLD (and later Green Arrow fought in WORLD'S FINEST). There was a one-shot character named Bee-Boy in an old SUPERBOY. I guess we've got Wildcat's foe, the Yellow Wasp, and let's not forget Marvel's bad guy The Beetle. And, yep, the Silver Scarab was the son of the Earth-Two Hawkman and Hawkgirl and appeared in INFINITY, INC. before dying and becoming a Sandman, and then dying, period. Plus there's the Scarab in PROJECT: SUPERPOWERS. Also Spider-Man's villain the Human Fly...we could go on like this forever.
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How about Bee-29 The Bombardier? I've forgotten the publisher, but I filed my copies with my "Carlson's Comics." Granted, he's a real bee and basically a funny animal comic, but he's also very much a hero.
Peace from Paris, Jim (|:{>
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The Moth was a Steve Rude superhero. And I remember that "grasshopper" guy and I'm sure it was in an issue of B&B. I can almost see the cover. There's so much rubbish in my memory, it takes a while for answers to pop out.
The Scorpion from Atlas/Seaboard
Hey, don't forget about the Fox Features character called the Moth, who appeared in Mystery Men Comics #9 to #12!
And Marvel had a super villainess named Gypsy Moth.
Also, if you're going to include scorpions as "insects", who can fail to mention the infamous Spider-Man foe of that name, premering in Amazing Spider-Man #20?
DHFH
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Since I feel the need to be extra obscure (plus, just about everything else that comes to mind is rather taken), Warren ran a few stories about "The Gray Grasshopper" near the end of their run.
And neither probably quite counts, but there are at least two more Human Flies. One was a real-world stuntman who got a Marvel series adapting him as a quasi-super-agent kind of guy. The other was the "cover name" of the IW Blue Beetle reprints.
Plus a bunch of non-silver Scarabs, like Nedor's, the Fox Blue Beetle opponent, the Captain America serial villain. And I feel like there were a bunch of Roach-named characters once the Tick hit it big.
Oh, and the rather on-the-nose Bug-Eyed Bandit.
There'd also be a smattering of worms, too. Hey, if scorpions count (and if they do, I think it's AC's Scarlet and Timely's Silver, and I think a couple of others...including one from Harvey, no?)
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Yes Darkmark. And Hellgramite Was His Name, rings a bell. But wasn't he just a big, daft grasshopper look-a-like? This is a bit silly, but good fun.
JohnC, what a great list. I find myself chasing round trying to find visual refs. for all thes characters. Love the idea of worms.
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so how about Snakes ? now having many heroic qualities they seem to be more the domain of villians, in fact at one time Marvel had enouth to make up a whole 'Serpent Squad' -Cobra, The Eel, Princess Python and the Viper ( former Madam Hydra) made up most of the membership.
Seem to remember a few 'Copperheads' one from Brave and the Bold, one from Marvels' Daredevil and maybe even an old serial hero.
Anyone think of a few more ?
-Nigel
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OOOhh! snakes. The Copperhead appeared in an Italian comic version of Mysterious Dr. Satan - 3 issues.
And we had King Cobra, who had a long run in Hotspur in the 70's, with some stories drawn by Ron Smith.
(http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae289/masquerouge/KC001094.jpg)An Italian villain, originally named Sadik, when reprinted in France, was called Cobra, then Naja (French for cobra) Don't ask me why. Haven't a scooby.
The Black Cobra appeared in a 1/2 page ad. in Atom, Robot Adventurer (Pulp MediaPubs.) 1976 and was described as, "In the style of The Spider". I leave the rest to your imagination.
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"Cobra" was nearly as ubiquitous a villain name as "The Brain." Offhand, I can recall Magno and Davey, the Flash, Thor (and other Marvel characters), Captain America (golden age version), and some masked gunfighter (they all tend to look alike to me) all tangling with villains named The Cobra, and I believe the silver age Batman also faced a King Cobra if memory serves. If I can think of that many different cobras, I'm sure there were at least a few more.
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And back to insects. I was racking my brains cos I'd mentioned a South American Fly like character and it was El Hombre Mosca (the Fly Man). Thing is the info. I found on him says he's Mexican, so it's only luck I got there.