Thursday, April 30, 2015

Probably Not Helpful Background Info for the Avengers: Age of Ultron Movie


Yeah, yeah.... we'll get to Batman soon.  It doesn't hurt to have a little break from the A-listers every now and then.  I'm not going anywhere any time soon, so we'll get back to him.

Let's take a look at Yellowjacket!  No, not that Yellowjacket.


I admit I was a little thrown for a second when I read "the Scourge of Sinners."  So, does he go around to buffet restaurants and fat-shame the gluttons?  "Sin" has a much wider definition than "crime," so he probably should reconsider taking on that wide of a playing field.

Another thing that struck me was that he didn't get top-billing in his own comic:


Yup.  That's him in the bottom right corner there.  I'm not 100% sure who the guy in red is yet.  But whoever he is, he gives not a single hoot whose name is on the marquee.

So, what of this Yellowjacket?  Well, he was a crime fiction writer who became a costumed crime fighter to get better at writing crime fiction.  Just like the original Tarantula did a few years earlier.

Anyway, borrowed origin aside, here's a look at his origin: 


Yeah... what about de goil?


Well, not really.  I see at least a forearm exposed, and they're totally steering clear of his pants.  Just like a dame to exaggerate and make things sound worse than they are.

Anyhoo, the yellow jackets hop right off and go back into their nest.  Or hive.  Whatever we call that thing where they live. 


Hmmmm... actually, a yellow jacket is a wasp.  I'd think you would know that, seeing as how you're keeping a swarm of them around your house.

Anyway, he slaps together a costume that he had to just have laying around for just such an occasion and (for no reason whatsoever) appears to have powers:


Hey?  Is he flying?  It's silly enough that he's taking out multiple armed gunmen by himself, but how is it that he's flying?


Seriously... he's flying, isn't he?

And then this happened:



Okay, both the Golden Age Tarantula and the Red Bee are going to come after this guy with a cease-and-desist order, if not a baseball bat.


You must "protect the law from your sting"?  What does that even mean?

Anyway, this all apparently makes him a much better crime fiction writer so he decides to keep it up.  Annnnnndddd... scene!

So, we have another case of Recycled Names! (tm!)  Personally, I always thought the name was pretty badass, although I was completely confused by Marvel's character when I first saw him.  Then again, this was my first encounter:


I knew nothing about Henry Pym, so I was totally confused as to why the bug guy was a giant.  I thought the Beast and the Vision were super-cool, though.

Anyway, I read through the end of the issue, and there were no other costumed heroes in the whole thing.  So I'm not 100% sure at this point who the red-shirted guy was on the cover of Yellowjacket Comics #1, but if you're getting elbowed out on the cover of your own title by someone who doesn't even appear inside the comic itself, you're in trouble.

See you tomorrow!

5 comments:

Smurfswacker said...

Actually, "scourge of sinners" is a great idea. Not by getting all serious like Foolkiller and that lot. Rather Yellowjacket goes around using his wasps to punish miscreants who break the Seven Deadly Sins. Sending the guys in to discipline a guy lusting after the girl next door. Zapping a slothful trespasser trying to sneak in a workday nap. Chasing gluttonous diners out of McDonald's. True, it could get redundant since all wasps can do is sting people. Still, think of all the prideful, greedy, and envious people he could hassle, and half of them wouldn't even know why they were being targeted. Of course he'd have to do all this with a cool head lest he succumb to wrath and sting himself. That shouldn't be too hard, though, because Yellowjacket hardly does anything himself; he just dispatches the troops.

What a concept! It's my gift to you. Make a million with it. Just don't get greedy.

Aaron Carine said...

He could be the hero of one of those Christian comics you find in laundromats. The ones where someone always goes to hell at the end. Yellowjacket would be stinging the sinners not to punish them, but to make them change their ways and embrace the Lord.

Adam Barnett said...

Having team-ups with Archie and the whole Riverdale gang!

Wasn't there some bad guy with the whole "all sins punishable by death, no matter how minor" angle in Green Arrow?

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

I would love to see a her named The Red Yellowjacket. And, as you know of my love for Dan Garrett as the original Blue Beetle, The Blue Yellowjacket.

We could do what Geoff Johns' did with the Green Lantern titles. Indigo Yellowjacket!

Adam Barnett said...

The Golden Yellowjacket!

Wait...