Mid-March Leaflets

There are a number of subjects I want to touch on but for which I might not have enough material to build a whole post around, so they're going to get sort of a "bullet-point" treatment.

-- First, congratulations to Jason Loo and his Pitiful Human Lizard project for reaching their Kickstarter funding goal with almost two weeks to spare. For the time being, the campaign header will remain at right in order to (hopefully) help Jason achieve his stretch goals, but the main one has been reached and that's great.

Finances permitting, I may even give my own contribution a bump.  I originally ponied up $15 for the 52 page first issue (shipping included).  I debated increasing that to $30 in order to get a print as well from one of these artists: Kalman Andrasofszky, Evan Munday, Vince Sunico, Eric Kim, Brian McLachlan, Shane Heron, Christopher Yao, Paris Alleyne, Te'Shawn Dwyer, Jahnoy Lindsay or Matt Simas.  The one at right is the Eric Kim one and I dig it plenty, but I have yet to see all of them.  Anyway, it might be a nice addition to the Canuck Hero Shrine.

-- Had a pleasant surprise this morning while looking over the most recent items on Newsarama.  One article featured early June solicitations from DC comics, including a few from their Future's End summer event. Shortly after writing about Plastique's role in that company's universe, she's specifically mentioned in a teaser for the seventh issue of that series.

THE NEW 52 – FUTURES END #7
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO, JEFF LEMIRE, DAN JURGENS and KEITH GIFFEN
Art by AARON LOPRESTI and ART THIBERT
Cover by RYAN SOOK
On sale JUNE 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T 

The two halves of Firestorm encounter big troubles: some personal, some potentially deadly! And Plastique comes face to face with the DC Universe’s horrifying future! Five years from now, the DC Universe is reeling from a war with another Earth, leaving the world unprepared for an approaching evil that threatens to destroy the future. Can a time-traveling Batman Beyond help a massive cast of the DCU’s finest avert the impending apocalypse? Find out in this new weekly series that will forever alter the direction of The New 52!

How about that?  I know very few people care aside from myself, but for those who do, there are big zings ahead for our girl!

-- I stumbled into Saint John, New Brunswick based Water Front Studios recently.  Their Facebook page is quite active, and one recent wall post included an image of Red Leaf's flagship character.

Thought I would share a little project we are working on,..the Leaf!..with writing by Paul Beale penciling by Kinosuke Bintuo Edan and inking by yours truly!..this is Red Leafs main character who meets Paul's own character Stun Ray and of course a battle of forces ensues!  This will go along with our newest story that will be featured in Manga Ganda #3.  This is a long way off but since my artist did such a bang up job on the pin up pages of the character I wanted to give you a preview of our up coming project!

The first issue of the Manga Ganda book was published by Red Leaf, I believe late last year.  There are two versions; the original, which can be bought digitally here, and the Hal-Con 2013 exclusive version with a different cover, available here.

The Official TSOG Plastique Appreciation Post

Plastique.  Based on her basic description as a French-Canadian terrorist, a completely lame character.  But she's actually had a fair amount of impact (pun not originally intended, but also not avoided) on the DC Universe and is a far more complex character than she might appear.

Upon starting this blog a couple of years ago, I wrote individual posts about the Canadian characters in the DCU.  Most had only appeared a handful of times and among them, to my knowledge, Plastique is the only one to transfer over to the New 52.

She first appeared in Firestorm #7 (cover-dated December 1982).  Frankly, she seemed like little more than a throwaway villain, but she resurfaced in later issue of the series (33 to 36 in a story in which the other members of her terrorist group attempted to break her out of prison).  When blackmail failed to achieve the desired results, a colleague infiltrated the prison in which she was being held and injected her with a liquid that gave her the ability to cause explosions with a touch (as opposed to wearing explosives as she did previously).  She used her new power to escape, and teamed with Killer Frost briefly before being captured by Firestorm again.

Her next prominent appearance was in the Captain Atom series (1987), starting in issue two.  Captain Atom was drawn by Pat Broderick at the time, who had also drawn the Firestorm issue in which Plastique was introduced.

In this issue, Atom attempts to infiltrate Plastique's terrorist group.  He fails, but he does manage to uncover Plastique's plans to bomb New York and Ottawa and, of course, prevent it from happening.

But while Atom stopped her with a metal-covered punch to the face (well, she HAD strapped explosives to him earlier, so...), she earned a certain amount of respect for him when they met again in issues 7 and 8.

They faced off while on similar missions in Cambodia (working for different sides towards the same goal). Plastique was responsible for a distraction which caused Atom to be critically injured, but she also found herself in a position where her survival depended on his. While she took care of him, and he reciprocated, a relationship developed between them.

They were engaged and briefly married.  During that time, Plastique partnered with Captain Atom in the Extreme Justice team (which also included Firestorm.  Awkward!).

Their marriage did not last long, however, and Plastique returned to her villainous ways, usually as a member of the Suicide Squad, appearing in books such as Checkmate, Birds of Prey, Manhunter and Justice League.

Now I knew that she had since appeared in the New 52.  She was among the villains who ganged up against Firestorm in issues 19 and 20 of his book last spring.

She is not identified as being Canadian as such but she did display the traditional ridiculous French accent that finds its way into comics, so we assume that her background as a Québec terrorist remains regardless of how outdated it is.

I was more impressed with her appearance and degree of involvement in the Trinity War and Forever Evil storylines.  In the first chapter of the former, which takes place in Justice League #22, she is anonymously sent to take Madame Xanadu out of circulation.

Guess what happens next?

As the villains begin to rule, she makes the occasional cameo in the Forever Evil mini-series, but apparently she will be further involved in the ARGUS and Rogues Rebellion spin-off minis as well over the next month or two.

She's also been animated, looking rather hawt with short hair in Justice League Unlimited...

...and made a few TV appearances in episodes of Smallville. Although I believe her background was significantly different in the show, the actress portraying her, Jessica Parker Kennedy, is appropriately Canadian.

So our girl may not may not quite get Wolverine levels of exposure, but she does make her presence felt. It may be a while until we see her again after Forever Evil runs its course but sooner or later, maybe in the rumoured Suicide Squad video game,or in the Ontario-based Justice League United, she'll be back to cause trouble.

Canadian Heroes all over the map

Added a new toy!  Hope it works!

There's a new button at the end of the bar under the banner.  It is rather unimaginatively called "Map".  If you right click to open it in a new window, you will be taken to, well, a map which displays the birthplace and/or base of operations of a number of Canadian comic book characters.  They are separated by categories at the bottom left, that you can choose to isolate or remove from view using the legend at top right.  Use the scale at top left to zoom in and out.

Some notes:

• Daydreamer is not a member of Alpha Flight but I couldn't have her in the Indy category either, so she's with the Marvel team.
• Credit to Heroes of the North for eschewing the obvious choices for home towns.  For example, Acadia is in New Brunswick, but rather than make her a Moncton native, she is from Bouctouche.
• Look WAY up to find Snowbird.
• The old South Park gag about "downtown Canada" could well have been based on DC Comics.  Not a single character has a defined place of birth.  Plastique is clearly from Quebec, but where?  And in the case of a character like Sparx (whom I suspect has faded out of continuity with the New 52 anyway), her home town of Timberton is in British Columbia, but fictional.

There are some glaring omissions due to lack of info, or perhaps of clarity of that info.  Even though he is bar none the most prominent Canadian character in comics, Wolverine's actual birth place is actually quite vague.  I have seen it referred to as both southern and Northern Alberta, making it somewhat hard to guess.  I've also found one source which claims he was born in New York state.  Strange that this wouldn't have been determined by now.

In many other cases, there is consensus, but not specification.  Marrina was born (hatched?) on the coast of Newfoundland, but I don't know where on that coast.

Anyway, I have 30 characters currently listed, but it's still being worked on.  If the map does not display properly for you, please slip me a word at jf4nier@gmail.com to let me know.

DC Comics Can-Con, part 1: Plastique

Surfing around message board and comment sections of various comic websites, I've often seen a perception by many that DC Comics does not have Canadian characters.

That's not quite true. DC does not have a Canadian super-hero team to match Marvel's Alpha Flight. However if someone were motivated to create one, they would have some decent buildings blocks.

Most of the characters have had little exposure but they do exist and have been active in recent years. The one with the highest degree of exposure would undoubtedly be Plastique.


Mind you, calling her "high profile" would be similar to making reference to Snow White's tallest dwarf. In this context, it's quite a relative term. You could be forgiven if you'd never heard of her as her appearances came in brief spurts over the course of three decades.

Her real name is Bette Sans Souci but as you might conclude from her business name, her abilities revolve around explosives. She used to wear bombs on her suit but she has since developed the ability to create explosions "naturally" as a result of some sort of genetic manipulation. Or something.

She first appeared in the original Firestorm series (#7 in 1982) as a French Canadian separatist terrorist (ugh) and later in Captain Atom, a character to whom she was briefly married (off panel, I believe). She has been also a member of Extreme Justice and the Suicide Squad and appeared in an episode of Smallville.


Plastique would fill the "hot French Canadian chick" role just fine on DC's Canadian team. And God knows it ain't a Canadian super team without one!

Edit: Change of plans. Next up: Flying Fox!