RAR #73: ECHO

Here's my analysis of the first arc devoted to that cheery deaf Choctaw ECHO. Not a lot of Real American tropes except for this panel.

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 Review for GOTHAM SEASON THREE here.

This time both long arcs are full crossovers. The crossover-mojo of the first long arc, "Mad City," is mostly due to the three subordinate ensemble villains and the one villain-group crossing over with a new killer in town, The Mad Hatter. "Mad City" also plays host to a short arc of three episodes, in which the Joker-doppelganger re-appears. Being the only person mapping out this territory, I assign this short arc by the most interesting episode-title, "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies" (named for a song-title). In Season 2, the first long arc also played host to a three-episode Joker arc, which I term "The Last Laugh." Apparently the showrunners wanted to hold back on Joker-appearances in the first three seasons.

The second long arc of the second season focused on the monstrous creations of Hugo Strange, and the second long arc of Season Three, "Heroes Rise," once again offers some of the previous Bat-villains, like Mr. Freeze, Firefly and Strange himself. First-time additions include Ra's Al Ghul and his League of Assassins (renamed "League of Shadows') and what may be the first live-action depiction of his League-rival The Sensei. This version of the Sensei is loyal and bonded to his leader Ra's, and is never actually given that proper name, though Hugo Strange calls the character a "sensei."

MONSTER MASHUPS #103

 EVIL ERNIE takes on various monster-doppelgangers in a 1997 bit of whimsy.

MONSTER MASHUPS #102

I mentioned the 1960s MUNSTERS series in an earlier post, but I've now also reviewed most of the later iterations, except for a 2012 reboot pilot and the syndicated MUNSTERS TODAY series.

MUNSTER GO HOME

THE MINI-MUNSTERS and THE MUNSTERS' REVENGE

HERE COME THE MUNSTERS

THE MUNSTERS' SCARY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

THE MUNSTERS (2022)

MONSTER MASHUPS #101

 Archie Goodwin and Angelo Torres collaborate on a 1965 CREEPY story titled "Monster Rally."

MONSTER MASHUPS #100

 I've no idea how many monster mashups may be rattling around amid all the MAD imitations launched in the early fifties, but the uncredited creators of the Ajax-Farrell title MADHOUSE visited that particular well at least three times.

First, in "Going, Going, Real Gone" a bunch of spooks (one of whom resembles Peter Lorre) try to get teenaged "bop-kats" (why do I suspect the scripter made that one up of whole cloth?) to stop dancing in their haunted house.

Then in "Emily Ghost Guide to Midnight Manners" the titular advice-giver keeps one fang tucked firmly in cheek as she tries to tell a group of monsters how to scare a honeymoon couple. She shoulda taught them the lyrics to the Time Warp.

And finally, MADHOUSE #4, otherwise a reprint of previous stories, simply reworks an interior, Dali-esque splash from the "Real Gone" story to provide the issue's cover.

NOTE: There was a short-lived musical group called the Bop-Kats, but it was brief and the main guy behind it was born in 1939, so in 1954, the year MADHOUSE #4 was published, he would have been 15 or 16-- not exactly primed to hit the top of any music charts. But it's still more likely that the story's author made up the term on his own. 

Also, I got it backwards, MADHOUSE #4's cover used the interior splash art for the first appearance of "Real Gone" in 1954, and then used some other cover for a reprint misleadingly labeled #2, in 1957.

MONSTER MASHUPS #99

 In HOUSE OF SECRETS #63 (1963), Mark Merlin and his secretary

-- who'd finally started fighting mystic menaces in #59, instead of the alien antagonists they'd been battling since the feature began in 1959-- took a break from the magical. In "The Nest of Fear," the adventurers encounter three allomorphic critters--one looking much like the Frankenstein Monster-- created ET evildoers in invade the Earth.