This file created by Jess Nevins, jjnevins@ix.netcom.com. Amalgam Annotations: Spider-Boy #1 (corrections/additions to my errors/omissions are welcome) p 1 We start off with Spider-Boy (a combination of Marvel's Spider-Man and DC's Superboy) fighting "Bizarnage" (a combination of Marvel's sentient alien vigilante Carnage and DC's Bizarro, who speaks like Bizarnage here and who is one of the great goofy characters of all time). They are fighting in Project Cadmus, which is a purely-DC super-scientific lab of some kind, originally created in the Superman continuity; Project Cadmus (originally called the DNA Project), created by the immortal Jack Kirby during his Fourth World run, was a lab which concentrated on cloning, among other things. As several people pointed out, "DNAlien" was the term for the genetic creations of the Cadmus Project in DC Continuity stories. In keeping with both his predecessors, Spider-Boy keeps up a line of amusing patter throughout the issue. His costume is also merging of the two heroes' costumes. We the reader also note that Spider-Boy doesn't have the wrist-web-shooters, but instead relies upon a gun. Why? It's a visual pun - it's a "web-shooter" - get it? Thanks to Tom Brevoort for explaining this to clueless me, who didn't catch it the first time around. p 2 "Director Harper" - is a reference to the DC Continuity Golden Age hero The Guardian, who was cloned & brought back during Kirby's run on _Jimmy Olsen_ when he created the Cadmus Project; the Guardian's real name is Jim Harper. In Amalgam Continuity Director Harper used to be the Guardian Angel; as Tom Brevoort kindly pointed out, this character incorporates the single most delightfully obscure - wonderfully, exquisitely, deliciously obscure - merging of the entire Amalgam line: DC's Guardian and the Angel of Marvel's Golden Age, who as far as I know hasn't been seen in 50+ years. During the Golden Age the Angel was only given a first name - "Tom" - hence the Guardian Angel's first name. Kudos to whoever thought of using him - well done! We also see "Reed" holding back "Rocky" - a nice merging of Marvel's Fantastic Four (the first of Marvel's Silver Age superheroes, led by Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic) and DC's Challengers of the Unknown (a group of ordinary men and woman who were living on "borrowed time" and used their lives to have great adventures; one of their members was boxing champ named Rocky). Reed is also called "Prof" - the names of another member of the DC Continuity Challengers of the Unknown. But we'll see more of these Challengers of the Fantastic later (anybody else out there want to see a monthly Challengers of the Fantastic comic? I mean, one that will continue after all this Amalgam stuff is done? Heck, price it up to $5.95 an issue - I'll take it!). Spider-Boy's comment about "that wacky Castle guy" who has a "deathwish" is a reference to Trevor Castle, the Amalgam Punisher; for more on him see _Bullets and Bracelets_ #1. p 3 "Johnny Storm," seen here as one of the Cadmus employees, is another member of the Fantastic Four - The Human Torch. Spider-Boy mentions that he, "Red," is always getting in trouble; Johnny Storm does always get in trouble, as does the original "Red," who was also a member of the Challengers of the Unknown. p 4 We see Johnny with a miniature clone of himself - as I said, that was the Cadmus Project's shtick originally - they seemed to clone just about everything. (Tom Brevoort adds further that in the original Kirby _Jimmy Olsen_ issues, "Newsboy Legionnaire Scrapper carried a miniature `Scrapper-Trooper clone' around with him. In Amalgam, as Mr. Brevoort put it, "The `Johnny Stormtrooper' pun was just too much for Karl (Kesel) to resist!" (I'm glad Mr. Brevoort pointed this out, as I'd have missed it otherwise) We also get a mention of a putative trip to the "Phantom Negative Zone." (a merging of DC's Phantom Zone, the dimension where all the Kryptonian villains were sent & imprisoned, and Marvel's Negative Zone, the dimension that Reed Richards discovered and that the FF have repeatedly visited) I'd be willing to pay quite a lot of money for the comic that chronicles that trip. p 5 We find out here that "Rocky" is also "Senator Ben Grimm." The "real" Ben Grimm, of course, is the Fantastic Four's The Thing; here, though, he's replaced the Challenger's Rocky and is human, rather than - rocky (another somewhat subtle pun on Mr. Kesel's part). The switch is a natural, though, if you think about it - the two were a lot alike in temperament. I'm unaware of any Marvel or DC precedent for making him a Senator, however. Senator Grimm here accuses a mustachioed assistant named "Dabney Donovan;" Donovan is taken whole from the Kirby DNAlien stories where he was one of the villainous scientists. (Thanks, once again, to Mr. Brevoort for correcting my original assumption that Dabney Donovan was long-time Challengers of the Unknown villain Multi-Man) Jim Smith adds that he was a Superman nuisance, and that, among other things, he created the Lex Luthor II body, populated the Metropolis underground with the Underworlders, and was the instigator of the 1994 "Battle for Metropolis." p 6 On this page we meet: - Sue Storm, Agent of SHIELD - Sue Storm being Reed Richards' wife in the Fantastic Four, and the superheroine The Invisible Girl; (I should have caught what Tom Brevoort points out, which is that she's called "Ace," the name of another one of original Challengers) - the one-armed Dr. Connors; in Marvel continuity Dr. Connors has one arm and is a superscientist, but his evil alter-ego is the villain the Lizard; - we get a reference to King Lizard, who was grown from Dr. Connors' missing arm (Doug Limmer rightly corrected my original note and points out that the Marvel Continuity Lizard came as a result of Dr, Connors trying to regrow his arm); King Lizard is a merging of Marvel's Lizard and the Superboy villain King Shark. Thanks to Mr. Brevoort for clearing up my confusion here. - Sue Storm's boss at SHIELD is Bruce Wayne, who in DC Continuity is the Batman; for more on him read _Bruce Wayne, Agent of SHIELD_. - We see yet another somewhat subtle pun here by Mr. Kesel; Spider-Boy calls Rocky "Sgt. Rocky," a reference to long-time DC Continuity war hero Sgt. Rock. (seen in _Bruce Wayne Agent of SHIELD_ #1) (what, no _Rocky and Bullwinkle_ puns?) - And is that a cameo by the seemingly-drawn-by-Kirby Machine Man? Mr Brevoort denies this - "just a miscellaneous Cadmus techno" - but I like my explanation better, so I'm keeping it :> p 7 More cameos: - Dr. Palmer, who asks Spider-Boy about studying his "white dwarf star" device. DC's Silver Age Atom was Ray Palmer, who got his shrinking powers via a fragment of a white dwarf star. Mr. Brevoort qualifies this by saying that only Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny are Challengers - the purple jumpsuits were just standard uniforms at Cadmus. - Hank Pym, in Marvel Continuity, was Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, and a few more incarnations; he jibes Dr. Palmer about the future being macro, not micro. Karl Kesel is having a little fun here with each individual's "real-world" obsessions. - an individual who we'll learn more of on the next page. He refers to the "zoomway" - an underground highway featured in Kirby's Fourth World run on _Jimmy Olsen_ - and he's also warming up the "Fantasti-wagon" to the words "Fantasti-wagon's engines to power...turbines to speed," the words that Batman, on the 1960s Batman television show, also uttered (along with Robin) as they were warming up the Batmobile. Jim Smith notes that the Fantasti-wagon is a merging of the Cadmus Whiz Wagon and the Fantastic Four's Fantasti-car. Daniel Wing also points out that this could be a reference to the "spider- mobile," which in Marvel Continuity Spider-man briefly drove. p 8 The individual with the four steel arms that we saw on page 7 is "Otto Octavius." In Marvel Continuity he is Dr. Octopus, long-time enemy of Spider-Man. Here he's a part of the Cadmus Project, which I enjoyed seeing - it was good to see him getting some respect. In Marvel Continuity he got his tentacles in an experiment-with-radiation-gone- wrong and was one of Spider-Man's worst foes until he was recently killed. Here his relationship with Spider-Boy is much more friendly. Octavius holds up a copy of the Daily Bugle, which in normal Marvel continuity is anti-Spider-Man; its publisher, J. Jonah Jameson, loathes Spider-Man. Here, Jameson is apparently trying to cash in on Spider-Boy's popularity by turning the Daily Bugle into a tabloid; the edition in question links Spider-Boy to "Insect Queen;" the DC Continuity Insect Queen is Lana Lang, the girlfriend to Superboy who gained her insect powers from a grateful insect alien; she eventually became a member of the Legion of Superheroes. (Nice to see so much of the old Legion's history being retained here) The Fantasticar takes off, its wheels turning over and transforming the car into a hovercraft; Kirby did this sort of thing all the time to heroes' cars, back in the Sixties. p 9 We learn here that Spider-Boy has actually been taken care by Octavius ever since something happened to Spider-Boy's "Uncle Gen" - i.e., Uncle General Thunderbolt Ross. The Marvel Continuity Spider-Man, Peter Parker, was raised by his Uncle Ben until Uncle Ben got killed by a robber. General "Thunderbolt" Ross is a central figure in Marvel's The Hulk continuity, being a nemesis of the Hulk for years, as well as being the father of Hulk/Bruce Banner's love interest and wife Betty Ross Banner. General Ross is the "last official surviving witness of the original Super-Soldier Experiment." (for more details on that experiment, see _Super-Soldier_ #1) Apparently, though, Ross decided to recreate the experiment, one way or another. So he got together a bunch of scientists: - the aforementioned Doctor Otto Octavius; - "Octavius' protege Peter Parker" (the Marvel Continuity Spider-Man's alter ego, of course) who "has an idea to create a clone with the genetic ability to manipulate gravity." (an ironic comment on the Clone Fiasco currently raging in the Spiderbooks, as well as being the "real" Superboy's origin - he was a clone created to replace Superman, but not from Superman's DNA. Thanks to the many people who corrected my original error on this) - Victor Von Doom, "before he became Dr. Doomsday and lost his marbles." Victor Von Doom is the Marvel Continuity Doctor Doom's alter-ego. Spider-Boy comments that General Ross "actually convinced those big brains to green light a college intern's psycho scheme;" Victor Von Doom, as a college student, had a similarly "psycho" scheme, one which went wrong and ended up scarring his face forever, the event that led to him becoming Reed Richards' mortal enemy. We see the experiment failing, and Peter Parker dying in the blast; there's a mention of "Operation Rebirth," which was the name of the Super-Soldier experiment in Real Marvel Continuity - the experiment that created Captain America. Thanks to everybody who caught this; I should have and didn't. Spider-Boy, the apparent test subject of the experiment, wakes up "like somethin' bit me" - more irony, as being bitten by a spider is how the "real" Spider-Man got his abilities. p 10 General Ross dies here in the same way that Marvel Continuity's Uncle Ben did - being shot by a burglar; here, too, it is this event that drives Spider-Boy to become a hero. p 11 "Ka-Zar's Skartaris" - Ka-Zar being one of the oldest Marvel heroes, a Tarzan knock-off who was later turned into a hero functioning in the Antarctic Savage Land; Skartaris being the alternate-dimensional world, accessible from underneath either the North or South Pole, where DC's Travis Morgan (the Warlord) operates. We also meet, on this page, Betty Brant - who is a long-time Marvel character and occasional love-interest for Peter Parker, and someone named "Rex" who'll we'll see again later. *sigh* gotta love these Legion of Superhero references. Spider-Boy exchanges quips with a computer named Computo. Computo was the mad machine, invented by Braniac-5 of DC's Legion of Superheroes, who ran amuck and nearly took over the world of the 30th century, as well as killing a Legionnaire. Here Spider-Boy uses him to "reposition the web-slinger" which Spider-Boy needs to fly. (Mr. Brevoort qualifies this by saying that it's both another pun, which I actually got but failed to note, and an aid to SpiderBoy, who can't fly, like Superboy can) p 12 We find out that "Rex," Spider-Boy's manager, is actually "Rex Leech," who in DC Continuity is Superboy's manager/agent/publicist/etc - same basic character (thanks to everyone who corrected my original error here). Spider-Boy makes reference to a "Professor Yatz," who gave him the "matter-transformer" which allows Spidey to change uniform. Prof. Yatz is the man, in DC Continuity, who created the device that Jack Ryder uses to change into the Creeper - the same device that Spider-Boy uses here. (Again, I missed this originally; thanks to all who pointed it out) And we finally get to see Spider-Boy's alter-ego - Pete Ross. Again, us long-time Legion of Superhero fans just have to love this - Pete Ross was Superboy's best friend, decades ago when there was a pre-Crisis Superboy. Pete Ross also was pals with the Legion of Superheroes. Someone calling himself Cthulhu points out that "Pete Ross" might also be taken as a combination of Peter Parker's name and General Thunderbolt Ross' name; this is yet another happy coincidence. p 13 "Ace reporter Tana Moon" is, in DC Continuity, a tv reporter in Hawaii and a possible love interest for Superboy. (thanks to everyone who cleared this up for me). She also appears in _Marvel vs. DC_ #1 (thanks to "Cthulhu" for pointing this out). We see J. Jonah Jameson - unchanged in any universe, I guess - talking with a reporter named "Ryder." Back in DC continuity Ryder is none other than Jack Ryder, the alter-ego of the Creeper (whose Amalgam identity, Nightcreeper, we saw in _JLX_ #1). But back there he's also a tv reporter and talk-show host and here he's a print reporter. Tom Brevoort points out that, since Nightcreeper was over in _JLX_, they didn't want to confuse the issue, so the Jack Ryder we see here is _not_ the alter-ego of Nightcreeper. It should be noted that in _Assassins_ #1 Jameson is called "J. Jonah White" - a combination of Marvel Continuity Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, and DC Continuity Daily Planet publisher Perry White. Again, changes made in one book were not carried over into another book. (Tom Brevoort adds that, as far as he is concerned, in Amalgam there's "J. Jonah Jameson," who publishes the Daily Bugle, and "J. Jonah White," who publishes the Gotham Bugle). p 14 More of the metatext I do so love; as Spider-boy is swinging towards the fight-on-the-dock, he's singing a tune recognizable as the theme song to the Spider-Man cartoon of the - 60s? 70s? The words are changed, obviously, but the tune remains the same. Very nice, Mr. Kesel. p 15 Enter the "New York Special Crimes Unit" to the rescue; I know that there's a "Metropolis Special Crimes Unit" active in the DC Continuity Superbooks; isn't there something similar in Marvel these days? Also, the members of the NYSCU are familiar; one is recognizably Flash Thompson (rival to Peter Parker back in Marvel continuity), but the others' identities are for the moment unclear. p 16 We get a little more idea of who the NYSCU members are. "Thompson" is, as I said, Flash Thompson. One is a blonde named "Roxy," who Mr. Brevoort points out is Roxy Leech, a Superboy supporting character who is just now taking the Police Academy exams in that book. Another NYSCU member is "Brooklyn" Barnes, who Roxy calls "Sarge" and who was apparently active with the "Young Commandos" during WW2. "Brooklyn Barnes" is obviously a merger of the DC Continuity hero "Brooklyn," from the Golden Age Boy Commandos, who grew up to become Terrible Turpin. He's even got Turpin/Brooklyn's hat. He is also (as numerous people pointed out, and which I should have caught originally) based on Bucky Barnes, who in Marvel Continuity was Captain America's sidekick during World War Two. (In _Super-Soldier #1, however, Jimmy Olsen seems to act as the Amalgam version of Bucky Barnes) Tom Brevoort adds that in Amalgam Bucky Barnes, not having Captain America to sidekick to, joined the Young Commandos - apparently the Amalgam version of DC's Boy Commandos and Marvel's Young Allies, both groups of children/teens fighting the Nazis during WW2. The leader of the NYSCU is "Captain Makoa," who in DC Continuity is a Hawaiian cop in the Superboy book (thanks to Tom Brevoort for explaining this). Finally, in one of those throw-away lines which only collectors of esoterica will understand, Brooklyn Barnes calls King Lizard "`Fin Fang' Doomed," a reference to the classic 1950s Marvel monster Fin Fang Foom whom King Lizard somewhat resembles. Thanks to Mr. Brevoort for pointing this out (I caught it the first time around, but somehow failed to include it in the original annotations). p 17 While looking through Pym's lab, Spider-Boy runs across the "Phantom-Negative zone protector," (maybe a typo? I don't know about any "Negative zone protector," but there's the "Phantom Zone Projector," which sends the bad guys into the Phantom Zone), the "Invisible Force-Field Belt" (a combination of Sue Storm's power and the force-field belt of DC's Braniac-5, of the Legion of Superheroes), and the "MotherCube," (a combination of the Mother Box, a supercomputer Jack Kirby invented for his Fourth World Mythos, and the Marvel's Cosmic Cube, the all-powerful thingamajiggy that Kirby also invented). p 21 Spider-Boy makes a reference here to Shatterstarfire and the Tamojorans, who are explained further in _X-Patrol_ #1. p 22 Again, we get the irony of Spider-Boy being a clone - like Superboy in DC Continuity, and - as was only recently revealed - like Spider-Man in Marvel Continuity (as Mr. Brevoort pointed out, but which I'd missed originally, Spider-Boy has _always_ known he was a clone; his comment on this page is a sarcastic/ironic one, rather than one of surprise, which was my original impression). p 23 Full-page shot of Mary Jane Watson, the Insect Queen. As I said, Lana Lang, in "real" DC Continuity, is the Insect Queen. The Insect Queen outfit here is a mixture of the "real" Insect Queen's costume and the costume of DC Continuity character Bumble Bee, a member of the original Teen Titans. Here, it's Mary Jane Watson. MJ had a decades-long flirtation going with Peter Parker in "real" Marvel Continuity until Christopher Priest finally had Peter do what we all wanted Peter to do, and kiss Mary Jane. That led to romance, and now they are married. Side note: Mary Jane Watson's first words to Peter Parker in "real" Marvel Continuity were: "Face it, tiger, you just hit the jackpot." Here she says, "Face it, Spider, you just hit the jackpot." A nice bit of synchronicity there by Mr. Kesel. Jim MoC also points out that her pose is similar to MJ's debut, after months of teasing the readers. Thanks to Tom Brevoort, "Cthulhu," Doug Limmer, Jim MoC, Doug Sichel, Marc Singer, Jim Smith, Elayne Weschler-Chaput, and everybody else whose name I didn't get for their additions and corrections. jess This file created by Jess Nevins, jjnevins@ix.netcom.com.