RAR #57: ASTA TWELVETREES

Though her character in RESIDENT ALIEN usually looks fairly mundane, here's Asta in full Native American regalia during a shamanic vision with her dad.

MONSTER MASHUPS #77

Just finished this review of BOA VS. PYTHON, which, as I explain in the review, counts as a mashup and a "sort of" crossover.

MONSTER MASHUPS #76

 

It's been six years since I reviewed the two WAXWORK films, both of which are chock full of monster mashup goodness, though in slightly different ways. The following is excerpted from one of  my ARCHIVE essays:

In the first WAXWORK, the protagonists are menaced by assorted doppelgangers of evil entities. Two segments are devoted to generic versions of a werewolf and a mummy, and there's a climactic fight-scene in which the good guys contend with a small army of freaks, also mostly generic like zombies and vampires, though there are some very loose visual references to figures like The Invisible Man and Audrey II of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Yet there are two extended sequences devoted to the protagonists contending with both the canonical Dracula and a very fictionalized version of the Marquis de Sade-- both of whom count as "monsters" in my system. So by the terms I've used earlier, WAXWORK qualifies as a "high-charisma" crossover, even though none of the evil entities are "real."

The second WAXWORK, which includes a markedly different origin for the doppelgangers, also includes lots of generic types: more zombies (with an obvious hat-tip to DAWN OF THE DEAD), a disembodied hand, various aliens (including The Aliens), and a "ghost girl" possibly patterned on the spirit from THE HAUNTING. However, this time the "high-charisma" entities include versions of Doctor Frankenstein and his Monster, Mister Hyde, Jack the Ripper, Godzilla, Nosferatu, and a sorcerer based on the villain from Roger Corman's 1965 film THE RAVEN. To be sure, the sorcerer fits the persona of a "villain" rather than a "monster," but the others all register as monstrous presences, even though all of them, except for Frankenstein and his creation, only appear for a minute or so. 

Still, it's not hard to imagine the WAXWORK concept being done with no strong references to any established characters. Had this been done, the movies would not be crossovers, only mashups, like the one seen in the monstrous adversaries in the Mexican kiddie-film TOM THUMB AND LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD-- though that film is a "hero-crossover" because of the teamup of the titular fairy-tale protagonists.

RAR #52: THE INDIAN MONSTERS

 In FOUR FAVORITES #2 appeared one of the most bizarre "Real American" menaces: a group of colossal Indians who can't be harmed by bullets because they can dodge them (!)

An evil scientist uses them as cat's-paws because he finds out that they're cannibals he can manipulate with their love of human flesh. Magno and Davey get involved. Only in the Golden Age...

RAR #51: YOUNG EAGLE

One of the last new titles launched by Fawcett Comics before they closed down their principal comics line in 1953  was YOUNG EAGLE, lasting 10 issues from 1950 to 1952. The titular hero was an Indian scout who went around having two-fisted adventures fighting Caucasian owlhoots and heading off problems with local Indian tribes. In addition to being a handsome guy who spoke perfect English, he also had a horse named Thunder and a trained eagle named Clawfoot. Art and stories were serviceable but very formulaic, so I wouldn't be surprised if even enthusiasts of Golden Age comics don't remember him.

MONSTER MASHUPS #75

 

I'd mostly forgotten about this mashup until I started paging through old GHOST RIDERS, There's a good reason I forgot it, as it's a pretty formulaic encounter of the Ghost Rider and the Werewolf By Night. About the only interesting thing is that the Rider is more monstrous than the wolf-man.

MONSTER MASHUPS #74

There are fourteen English-language collections of the manga series NURSE HITOMI'S MONSTER INFIRMARY, but reading the first didn't fill me with the desire to check out any more. The titular Hitomi is a cyclops who works as a high school nurse-attendant, in a world where various monsters just pop up every once in a while and all the norms just accept their presence. The stories in Volume 1 are all about the same: a teenager is at odds with his or her developing monster-nature-- invisibility, an elastic tongue, turning into a giantess or a Thomasina Thumb-- and Nurse makes it all better with reassuring words. Not much humor or horror.