Who is this character..?

[Omac70]

Thanks to the help I received here last time, I was able to identify (and own again!) a comic I last had nearly 30 years ago... So I'm hoping one of you may be able to help me again...

Here's a scan of what's left of a comic cover I must have horribly mutilated in the 70s. I can remember the blue beast thing fighting the other guy in the comic itself, but I have no idea of the latter's name - which might have helped me track this comic down.

Can anyone supply a name for him? I'm not sure if the comic was actually named for him or not, but identifying him seems to be the way to go. And my memory had suggested it may have been a Charlton or Gold Key title, but I've not been able to find this comic after quite a bit of searching.

Any help would again be appreciated. :)

[MWGallaher]

http://www.atlasarchives.com/comics/brute03.html
That is The Brute, Atlas Comics, mid-70's. Regarded widely as a blatant imitation of Marvel's Hulk. The blue guy is the lead character ("The Brute"). The guy with the skull on his chest is "Doomstalker". The pieces are from the cover of Brute #3 (the last issue published).

[Omac70]

That is astounding. Absolutely astounding. I never cease to be amazed by this place.

Thanks very much, MW! That's great.

Atlas comics would never have lit a lightbulb for me - but they must have made it overseas. Time for me to buy another copy, now that I know what scissors aren't for. :)

[MWGallaher]

No problem, Omac! We like showing off our abilities to recognize obscure comic book characters around here. The Brute was one of my favorite of the few Atlas titles, although it's not highly regarded. It's interesting that you remember the antagonist ("Doomstalker") as the main character, though. I haven't read this issue probably since it was first published--he may have been portrayed as a relatively "good" guy (despite the name Doomstalker--typical imitation Marvel hyperbolic naming), since the lead character was something of an anti-hero.

[Omac70]

Funny how the memory plays tricks...

Before I picked up Marvel Two-In-One #15 again, the panels I had in my head depicting Morbius vanishing were very large with askew camera angles and lots of detail of dimension Z behind him - and lots of panels showing the act too. When I get the issue, you have one solitary and small panel of Morbius swiping himself away - my imagination in the intervening 30 years had made it all so much more cinematic!

So when I think back to The Brute comic, there's this creepy thing of other people being "infected" by something, slowly changing into blue-skinned red-eyed monsters. And they're all locked up but ready to break out - and Doomstalker arrives at the end to save the day! I hadn't thought of The Brute as a main character at all - just one of those infected.

Reading the synopsis of this issue, I really need to have a word with my memory... :rolleyes:

Just to add, as a weird thing: If I'd actually remembered this was an Atlas title, I might have gone to Wikipedia. And amazingly enough, this very issue is one of the few they show on that page!

[Red Oak Kid]

Funny how the memory plays tricks...



Tell me about it.

Here is the last page of Brute 3.

Looks like Doomstalker only appeared on the cover and the last two pages of this book. Pencilled by Alan Lee Weiss and inked by Jack Abel.

I can just imagine what Rich Buckler could have done with a character named Doomstalker.

A match made in heaven.

A Rich Buckler heaven.

[Omac70]

Thanks, Kid.

As predicted, it looks nothing bloody like what was in my memory.

Maybe I should stop trying to trace these old comics I used to have. The ones I have in my mind are much better. :)

[Red Oak Kid]

Thanks, Kid.

As predicted, it looks nothing bloody like what was in my memory.

Maybe I should stop trying to trace these old comics I used to have. The ones I have in my mind are much better. :)

Don't stop; we're having fun tracking these comics down.

[Simon Garth]

Tell me about it.

Here is the last page of Brute 3.

Looks like Doomstalker only appeared on the cover and the last two pages of this book. Pencilled by Alan Lee Weiss and inked by Jack Abel.

I can just imagine what Rich Buckler could have done with a character named Doomstalker.

A match made in heaven.

A Rich Buckler heaven.

Well that was weird - see the thought bubble in the last panel, with the connecting clouds linking it to the person under other bubbles, etc. Don't think I've ever seen that done before - and looking at that, I can see why!

[MWGallaher]

Wow, that is definitely abuse of comic book convention on that thought balloon, Simon! Good catch.
I haven't actually read these old Atlas comics in years, but Gary Friedrich's dialogue on that single page could stand as the definitive stereotypical bad comic book scripting of the 70's, couldn't it? "There, officers of the law! I have done your job for you!" Really cringe-worthy stuff...
Another thought: given the way Atlas radically revamped so many of their titles after a few issues, I wouldn't have been surprised if they had planned to turn "Doomstalker" into the lead character as of the next issue. I could see him killing off the Brute, overcoming the mysterious "master" whose "electronic impulses" he was compelled to obey, and carrying on as another generic superhero in a bad costume.

[Omac70]

Don't stop; we're having fun tracking these comics down.

Okay - better late than never. :)

But these are really vague memories I have from a couple of Superman comics I used to have, so not much to go on... (and we all know what my memory is like by now!)

The first one is again definitely from the seventies, with some of the action set in Morgan Edge's WGBS studios. I remember the story was about robotic duplicates of several of the main cast - Jimmy, Lois etc. - and I can picture a scene with several of them in bits, amputated limbs sending out sparks everywhere. And something about traffic lights going wrong, which isn't just me thinking of Superman III... :)

The other memory is even more vague, and is further evidence that lots of synapses have melted in the interim. But it's again Superman in the 70s, and it's a scene where a guy in the back of a bus is beginning to change into some sort of monster - the first sign of which is his eyes beginning to glow. His condition is contagious too, I think - and that's about it!

Possibly my memory of the above got mixed up somewhere along the line with my memory of the Brute comic, as that particular issue ended being something completely different to what I remembered!

Even Columbo would have difficulty with the 2nd one I know - so any pointers will not only be appreciated but regarded as small miracles.

[Cei-U!]

Here is the last page of Brute 3.


That's some really stinky dialogue there. Who scripted?

EDIT: Ah, I see Gary Friedrich was identified as the culprit further up the thread. Hard to believe this is the same guy who wrote the early Monster of Frankensteins.

Cei-U!
I summon the mockery!

[Red Oak Kid]

That's some really stinky dialogue there. Who scripted?

EDIT: Ah, I see Gary Friedrich was identified as the culprit further up the thread. Hard to believe this is the same guy who wrote the early Monster of Frankensteins.

Cei-U!
I summon the mockery!

I read the entire issue, and it's only the last two pages where the dialogue stinks.

According to the Atlas issue of CBA(16), as time went by, Publisher Martin Goodman and his son Chip interferred more and more with the editorial direction of the books. This caused EIC Jeff Rovin to quit and he was replaced by Larry Leiber who hired Friedrich to write a lot of the titles, which were being changed to try and please the Goodmans.

I think it is possible that those last two pages may have been rewritten by someone else at the direction of one of the Goodmans. Because as I say, the preceding pages don't have such hokey dialogue.

[Red Oak Kid]

Okay - better late than never. :)

But these are really vague memories I have from a couple of Superman comics I used to have, so not much to go on... (and we all know what my memory is like by now!)

The first one is again definitely from the seventies, with some of the action set in Morgan Edge's WGBS studios. I remember the story was about robotic duplicates of several of the main cast - Jimmy, Lois etc. - and I can picture a scene with several of them in bits, amputated limbs sending out sparks everywhere. And something about traffic lights going wrong, which isn't just me thinking of Superman III... :)

The other memory is even more vague, and is further evidence that lots of synapses have melted in the interim. But it's again Superman in the 70s, and it's a scene where a guy in the back of a bus is beginning to change into some sort of monster - the first sign of which is his eyes beginning to glow. His condition is contagious too, I think - and that's about it!

Even Columbo would have difficulty with the 2nd one I know - so any pointers will not only be appreciated but regarded as small miracles.

Thought I would bump this one back up, because I think some Superman fan might recognize these.

The second one sounds kinda familiar to me. Maybe an issue featuring the Parasite. Seems like there were a lot of stories where an average joe is taken over by some evil force and suddenly attacks an unsuspecting Supes. If I did read it, it would have been from around 1971/72 which was when I read the most Superman comics.