Author Archives: JR19759

Back in the early 2000's, Marvel were looking to cash in on the anime boom that was going on in America at the time after the success of Japanese imports such as Dragonball, Sailor Moon and Pokemon. So, what they decided to do was to take some of their most beloved characters and give them the manga treatment, creating what was basically a manga-Ultimates line. Now, this is a great idea in theory. Take some of the most recognisable characters in western comics and apply eastern manga tropes, for example Iron Man became a giant mecha along the lines of a Gundam or an Eva, whilst Hulk became a kaiju. But, of course, this being Marvel, they can have the best idea in the world and still screw it up. There's plenty to talk about when it comes to the mangaverse here on What Were They Thinking? (the place where we look at all of the stupidest, most ill-advised things in comic book history). We could talk about the stereotypes, the fact that they took characters and tropes and mashed them together regardless of how well they fit or we could talk about just the general randomness of it all. But instead, let's take a look at one specific character in this whole thing. A character who came so out of left field that it's weird even for an alterniverse style story. I am of course talking about the mangaverse version of this guy:

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It's summer, even here on What Were They Thinking? (the place where we look at all of the stupidest, most ill-advised things in all of comics history), so I thought we'd take a break from all of the racism, drugs and rape that we usually cover to chill out for a bit and hang out with some superheroes down at the beach, or by the pool, or even on an alien holiday planet. Yup, we're going back to the 90's and taking a look at the Marvel Swimsuit Specials (because they made 5 of the damn things).

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So, last week on What Were They Thinking? (the place where we look at all of the stupidest and most ill-advised things in all of comics history) we talked about the New Guardians, specifically the villain in the first issue of their series, who was a vampire who infected non-caucasian people with AIDS when biting them. However, I also mentioned the villain of the second issue of the New Guardians series in passing as a further example of the series idiocy. Well, in for a penny in for a pound, we might as well take a look at this guy whilst we can, so Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce you to Snowflame.

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Rarely here on What Were They Thinking? (the place where we take a look at the stupidest, most ill-advised things in all of comic book history) am I actually lost for words about a subject we cover. I've managed to find things to say about Marvel running rape storylines with both victim blaming and the victim falling for the rapist, Frank Miller turning Batman into a child abuser and the Elongated Man into a viagra salesman, and I managed to talk about The Widening Gyre. But this week, I'm exactly sure what I'm going to say, purely because the sheer level of "WHAT THE ACTUAL" is so far off the charts. And surprisingly, we aren't talking about Marvel. Nope, it is back to DC we turn for this week, as we take a look at Hemo-Goblin.

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