Those characters...

As I mentioned the other day in my Son of Satan post and as I discussed with Dan on the podcast last week, there have always been for me certain characters in comics that I've seen or heard about countless times, read less than a handful of their actual appearances, and yet am utterly fascinated by for whatever reason. To put it as I did to Dan, when people ask me for my dream Avengers, I almost always include Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, despite not owning or having read a single Shang-Chi comic book (until recently).

There's something about these characters' look, their core concept, or some intangible I can't put my finger on that makes me always bring them up in conversation and imagine their comics are these great lost treasure troves, but don't motivate me enough to actually hit the back issue bins and get to scrounging up their appearances.

As I already mentioned, Son of Satan is one, but here are some others...

Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu
Number one with a bullet and the first example I thought of because I seriously know next to nothing but the basics about this dude, but for years have thought there is something intrinsically badass about him and have wanted his profile in the Marvel Universe to rise for no real good reason. I think a lot of this comes from my childhood idolization of Bruce Lee and interest in the martial arts, since right down to his look, Shang-Chi is in many ways Bruce Lee as a comic book character. Having read up a bit mostly through Marvel Handbooks, I also think the idea that Shang's archenemy is his dad is a well-worn but still neat road, and love the fact that he worked as a British Intelligence officer since that's just so odd. Honestly though, I also just love saying "Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu" all the way through.

Richard Dragon
It seems only natural to flip from Shang-Chi over to the guy I consider his DC counterpart in Richard Dragon. I actually did read his short-lived Chuck Dixon/Scott McDaniel ongoing (and found it quite underrated) and thanks to the largess of Andy Serwin have in my possession a random issue of Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter, but my fandom for the character is, I believe, larger than that meager exposure would normally breed. Again, the martial arts angle is my in, and I think the fact that it's a white guy doing the chopping and kicking made him stand out in a way he perhaps would not had he been a carbon Shang-Chi clone. The main hook for me with Richard Dragon though is that DC I think moreso than Marvel has always had a somewhat more official hierarchy of who the toughest hand-to-hand fighters were, something the aforementioned Mr. Dixon really hammered homes in the 90's; characters like Lady Shiva and Connor Hawke were always at the top of the list, but it was always referred to in passing that even they were kinda in awe of Richard Dragon and that he could probably take guys like Batman pretty easy, so that phantom imposing presence just made him awesome to me.

Werewolf By Night
Why when given the opportunity to pitch a story for perhaps my only shot at writing for Marvel did I select Werewolf By Night as the star? In the interest of full disclosure, I knew I wanted to do a funny story and I have always found Werewolf By Night hilarious, which obviously a werewolf isn't generally supposed to be, but I can't help it. It's right there in the name: he's a Werewolf By Night--when else would he be a werewolf? Aren't all werewolves only werewolves by night? It just makes me laugh. This started long before I even knew his name was Jack Russell, which is also somewhat humerous. All this aside, having actually read some early Werewolf By Night stuff as well as a guest spot he did in Peter David's Hulk over the past year or so, I have a newfound appreciation of the character depth Gerry Conway and others gave him, and the pathos of his story. He's also got this insane history involving curses and gypsies and aliens, but I literally just found that out like last week.

Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt
The only Peter Cannon appearance I can ever remember reading is his one-panel turn in Crisis On Infinite Earths where he gets punched out by somebody (I want to say Jay Garrick, but truthfully, I'm not sure and both my trade and my Absolute are in the other room). Really there are two things about him that intrigue me: he is the Charlton character I know the least about and he was the template for Ozymandias in Watchmen; I think that's enough though, right?

Deathlok
I don't think I'm alone when it comes to having an immediate reaction made on me by Deathlok based on his visuals alone--that dude just looks awesome and Rich Buckler should get what the kids call "mad props" for his fantastic design (with Mike Zeck getting credit as well for immortalizing him further on some excellent Captain America covers). I knew a bit about the Michael Collins incarnation of Deathlok in the 90's and always thought the "pacifist in the body of a cyborg killing machine" thing was a clever angle, but somethig about the original Luther Manning model has always been magnetic. Sure there's the fact that he's essentially a zombie cyborg with all sorts of tubes sticking out and an American flag looking all sorts of out-of-place on his chest, but all the alternate future stuff is a draw as well. I enjoyed the first issue of Charlie Huston and Lan Medina's new mini, so I'm hoping it holds up and this is one of those characters I can actually transition into a legitimate and semi-knowledgable fan of.

The Son of Satan gets around

Y'know, I hardly think this is a revelation or anything, but I haven't seen it commented on anywhere, it's fairly interesting and when you it out loud/write it out it sounds kind of insane: Daimon Hellstrom, aka Marvel's Son of Satan has been appearing fairly regularly five pretty high profile comic books over the last few months--and a more diverse group of titles you are unlikely to find...

-In New Avengers he was a red herring for the new Sorcerer Supreme and battled the Hood and Dormammu with the likes of Spider-Man and Captain America.

-In Marvel Zombies 4 he was done up in his full cape and pentagram regalia as a member of the Midnight Sons helping to fend off the zombie menace.

-In Marvel Divas he attempted to tempt his ex-wife, Hellcat, into an illicit reunion by offering to cure Firestar of her cancer.

-In Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire he's currently bald, pierced and aiding Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch against Zadkiel and the Anti-Christ.

-And finally, he just showed up in Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural to apparently stab Jericho Drumm in the back and deliver him to his daddy down below.

This may seem like a random string of facts just kinda strung together (and it is), but think about it: Son of Satan is the new Wolverine! Actually, even Wolverine didn't appear in a flagship book like New Avengers, an off-the-beaten-path horror series like Marvel Zombies 4 and friggin' Marvel Divas in the span of like four months!

Guys, that is nuts! Daimon Hellstrom is blowing up!

Honestly, I pretty much dig Son of Satan, so I'm not writing all this as a mocking or derogatory statement. He's one of those characters who I have never really read any of his solo adventures, but am familiar enough with his deal and taken enough with his various visuals that I've always had an interest in getting to know more about him, it's just never happened (there are many characters I feel this way about, and I actually hope to craft a longer entry about them in the near future). Gary Friedrich was onto something pretty wacky when he thought it would be a neat idea for the son of the devil to become a super hero mainly because it would piss off his old man; that's pretty rad and unique motivation on one hand, and on the other, totally relatable. And you gotta love that most of his costumes (when he's not just dressing like a goth) have some sort of corny devil horn motif and tridents everywhere.

Anyways, while I'm all for Son of Satan getting some exposure, it just seems nuts--in a wonderful way--to me that after decades of the guy being a C-list occasional guest star on the fringe of the Marvel Universe aside from that Hellstorm: Prince of Lies series that Warren Ellis wrote back in the 90's (and which confused everybody even further as to Daimon's tricky last name), suddenly and practically simultaneously Brian Michael Bendis, Fred Van Lente, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Jason Aaron and Rick Remender all thought it would be a good time for this dude to make his comeback. It's that kind of brilliant comic book phenomenon you love to see where after years of obscurity a character can just be everywhere overnight.

It also continues the kinda cool to me trend of the last five or six years where the lost Marvel creations of the 70's who were always forgotten between the stalwarts of the Silver Age and the new hotness from the 80's and 90's have found new shelf life through a generation of writers who grew up reading them. There was really this entire wave of really neat characters with great looks who debuted in books like Marvel Premiere or Marvel Spotlight and then either went onto limited success or settled into obscurity who are now tearing up the charts. Son of Satan may well be the latest example (and Deathlok could soon join him), but this is a club that also includes Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, the original Spider-Woman, Moon Knight, Nova, Adam Warlock and more.

It's also refreshing proof that no matter how many times you think the comics industry is eating its own tail as far as using the same characters time and time again, somebody is going to come along and either create something new or remember a character that hasn't been seen in years and set out to show why they made an impression on them to begin with.