Characters That Never Were

[Shellhead]

I was reading a wikipedia entry on Infinity, Inc., when I stumbled across this bizarre reference:

"Just in case you feel like a ride on a cat-cycle... the lady's name is La Garro!"



La Garro never appeared in DC comics, but her design is similar to Wildcat II, aka Yolanda Montez. Instead, they included Star-Spangled Kid on the team, in fact making him the leader of Infinity, Inc.

What other characters have appeared in promo materials but never actually got into comics?

[Slam_Bradley]

Roy the Boy has talked about La Garro a few times in Alter Ego. She basically morphed in to the female Wildcat.

Did Ditko's Zero Man ever appear?

[Bill Angus]

Although she did eventually appear, the Magenta character from Teen Titans apeared in one of those DC samplers years before she was actually realized in a story.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

Are there any more of these character?


J.A.P.

[Jonathan]

Here's one I've always liked - though since my mind's all muddled from the conflicting info I've read on this over the years, my info's probably somewhat off. :p

In the early 1970s, Dave Cockrum created Nightcrawler, Typhoon, Quetzal, and Trio and teamed 'em with Reflecto and Power Boy as "The Outsiders," a spinoff of the Legion of Super-Heroes. DC rejected the idea, though.

The Outsiders:



Cockrum obviously reused Nightcrawler when he started working on the X-Men, and IIRC, Typhoon and Quetzal were the basis for Storm.

The Stangers, aka the Devastators, were going to be the Outsiders' enemies:



The woman in the middle's named Foxglove or Belladonna. The rest, clockwise from her, are: Sidewinder, Manta, Tyr, and - Wolverine.

[MWGallaher]

I always figured they changed "La Garro" to "Wildcat" at least in part because they didn't want to continually explain to letter-writers who think they know Spanish that "No, it is not supposed to be 'La Garra'!". (And I don't remember Sandy the Golden Boy participating in Infinity, Inc. If he did, it must have only been some brief appearances at the start, but this ad makes it sound like he was going to be a significant member of the group.)
As for "more of these characters", Jeremy, I can think of a few that got mentioned in comic books, either in specific advertisements or in letters pages or Bullpen Bulletin text pieces, that never saw the light of day: Joe Kubert's The Redeemer and a series called Pandora Pan were hyped at DC, but never hit the stands, and Marvel made references to a series called Midas the Million Dollar Mouse back when they thought they had a big hit in Howard the Duck. And then there was a full-page promo of "Starhawk" who was supposed to be featured in the following issue of Marvel Super-Heroes, but wasn't. A similar-looking character with the same name joined the Guardians of the Galaxy many years later, but I don't know whether he was really based on the character they'd intended for that issue of MS-H.

[Alan2099]

I remember seeing a few scetches of Liefeld characters that never made it into X-Force, including one that looked like he might have been a male version of Feral.

[MDG]

John Byrne created a team called "Freaks" that made their one and only appearance in the "History of the DC Universe" portfolio.

http://www.artofjohnbyrne.com/cgi-bi...&IMG=5&LARGE=0

MDG

[Bill Angus]

...And I don't remember Sandy the Golden Boy participating in Infinity, Inc. If he did, it must have only been some brief appearances at the start, but this ad makes it sound like he was going to be a significant member of the group.

I'm pretty sure that Infinity Inc. ad was also from one of the DC Samplers (IIRC they were a 2-page spread per title). They were pretty great for teasing upcoming plans/plotlines that might not happen for years to come (if at all). I believe they were supposed to show you what was coming up in the next year (without really telling you anything) - at least that's how I remember the first couple approaching it (for the books I read, anyway)... but generally the creative team expected to tell many more stories than they actually managed to.

I imagine when they were prepping Infinity Inc., they planned on grabbing all of the kid/teen/younger partners from Earth 2 and make a team of them (which is pretty much what they did), and that would've make Sandy as likely a candidate as any... unless you remembered what they'd done with him in Justice League of America with the whole sand-monster thing.

I'm not sure... but he may also have been featured in one of those DC Comics Presents back-up features: Whatever Happened To? - which was a weird thing in and of itself. It's primary function appeared to be keep characters copyrights alive, but they often used it as a place to kill off characters (albeit generally with very nicely done stories - I was particularely fond of the Crimson Avenger one).

Okay... I think I'm just starting to ramble, so I'll shut up now.

[Cei-U!]

Bill is correct. DC Comics Presents #47 (July 1982) features the back-up story "Whatever Happened to Sandy?" (itself a sequel to the "Whatever Happened to the Golden Age Sandman?" story from #42) in which the former Golden Boy is restored to human form (still a teenager physically and emotionally but in his 50s by the calendar) and reunited with Sandman. Not counting his appearances in the 1940s-set All-Star Squadron and Young All-Stars, he was not seen again until the Last Days of the Justice Society Special in '86.

Cei-U!
I summon the Robin wannabe!

[Alan2099]

In Stryfe's strike file there was a character called Holocaust. Later a Holocaust appeared from the Age of Apocalypse but the character shown in Stryfe's strikefile didn't need a containment suit like his AOA counterpart.

One of the Pin-ups in X-men #1 showed a group of villians. Among those villians was a zombielookinf female character with a gun for an arm. She's never made any other apperance or even been named so far.

[Scott Shaw!]

Both Molson/Lightning Comics' FATMAN THE HUMAN FLYING SAUCER and TODD HOLTON, SUPER GREEN BERET carried ads for a "swinging" CAPTAIN SHAZAM comic...which, of course, never appeared.

Aloha,

Scott!

[Loren]

The Keebler New Teen Titans PSA books starred a character called "The Protector" who never appeared in a DC book, because he was basically a fill-in for Robin.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

I remember seeing a few scetches of Liefeld characters that never made it into X-Force, including one that looked like he might have been a male version of Feral.

The male Feral prototype was named Cougar!


J.A.P.

[Aaron Kashtan]

If you want to be pedantic, all fictional characters are "characters that never were." ;)