Saturday, May 19, 2012

B'enn B'urnzz @ Comic Vine



Like many (most?) of you, my introduction to the lion's share of the Martian Manhunter's Silver Age rogues gallery came from his first Showcase Presents volume. I owned most of his House of Mystery run, but those later issues were dominated by Diabolu Idol-Head monsters of the month, Vulture shenanigans, and the occasional (awesome) Professor Arnold Hugo extravaganza. I only knew B'rett from second hand recollections, and the Human Flame became a "thing" around that time thanks to Final Crisis. Scipio had a field day with the zany characters like Mister Moth and Humans Falcon and Squirrel, but B'enn B'urnzz fell through all those cracks. I familiarized myself enough with the character to add him to the Vile Menagerie barely into the blog's second year, but he didn't strike a chord with me, and I tended to neglect him.

B'urnzz showed his staying power around here during March Madness 2012, where he tore through competition with a ferocity I never would have imagined from his early defeat in 2011. I decided to reward him (and his fans) with a commission next week, and needed better reference than what I'd cobbled together in 2008. I figured while I was at it, I'd write him a new biography for Comic Vine. He already had a wiki entry there, which listed basics like his first appearance and powers. However, there was no art, and his entire synopsis was a single line like "Martian criminal hiding out on Earth," or near to that. I hope folks like the new image, and the punchy "all meat, no filler" history. He's no Mr. V, but I'm coming around to this guy...

2 comments:

LissBirds said...

Silver Age representation on Comic Vine...I'm all for it.

Diabolu Frank said...

Up to a point. I'd rather not see my new commission of the guy show up there after I post it here.