The Incredible Mort

Jennifer and Randy both picked up on the subtle hints from our last character, who is in actuality "Omega, The Unknown." As I mentioned before, Omega was the titular character in a short lived series from Marvel. The series actually focused on James-Michael Starlin, a 12 year old boy who dreams about Omega at the beginning of the series. Shortly after the dream, James' parents are revealed as robots and the actual Omega saves his life. The remainder of the series focuses on James' attempts at living a normal life in the wake of his parent's betrayal and explores the mysterious connection between the boy and the hero. Unfortunately, the series ended before those questions were fully answered.

Alright a new mort is up, and he is a challenge. He appeared in one issue of The Incredible Hulk (Thanks for the DVD-ROM, by the way). Good Luck!

The Final Word in Morts

Last week's mort was Infectious Lass, Drura Sepht, a member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes. As her name implies, Drura has the ability to spontaneously infect people with all types of infectious diseases. Since the Legion takes place in the 31st century, where one would assume a whole slew of new diseases had been discovered, this ability made Infectious Lass a valuable Deus Ex Machina, able to bale her fellow substitutes out of all sorts of jams with a disease that had never been introduced before (I have a very clear memory, for instance, of her infecting someone with a virus that changed their gender).

Alright, we have a new mort, and he may be the mortiest mort I have ever offered up for your scrutiny. As the Stan Lee tag tells you, he is a Marvel mort. I will also tell you that he was the star of his own self-titled comic (that started in 1976), but it only lasted ten issues before being cancelled for low sales. This was not the end of our mort, however, as he developed somewhat of a cult following, so much so that it has even been announced that he will soon get another shot in an eponymous series. I've given you enough hints to discover the truth if you don't already know it, so get to work!

Poorly Dressed Mort

Joanna gets the prize this week, as she correctly identified American Eagle, Jason Strongbow. His latest appearance in the Marvel Universe was as one of the hunted anti-registration heroes in Thunderbolts. In what was my favorite fight scene of the last few weeks, American Eagle went one on one with Daredevil archnemesis Bullseye, surprising everyone by not only defeating the marksman, but crippling him, perhaps permanently. When I first read the story, I saw it as a great victory for "my" heroes, as the decidedly mort-ish American Eagle took out one of the A-list baddies (it's the equivalent of Booster Gold taking out the Joker), but the more I think about the current events in Marvel Comics, I've become convinced that either American Eagle or Bullseye is a Skrull. I'm calling that, by the way, so give me credit when it's revealed.

I've decided to move over to the DC Universe for a mort or two. To be honest, I can't remember if I've done this one or not, but since she was recently featured in an excellent back-up story in a major mini-series, I thought it would be nice to pull her out of the mothballs and dust her off for you. By the way, I think I'm coming down with a summer cold, not that this is a hint or anything. Just making conversation.

All American Mort

Randy had the right idea by researching Jimmy Woo since our Mort was the arch nemesis of the Asian-American super spy (and later member of S.H.I.E.LD.), exept that this is one of those rare cases where the hero appeared in the villian's comic, instead of the other way around. Last week's mort was Plan Chu, better known as "The Yellow Claw". The Yellow Claw was Atlas Comic's (the forerunner of Marvel) take on Fu Manchu. If you're like me, that probably doesn't mean a great deal. Yellow Claw was a scientific and mystical mad genius with plans to rule the world. He was also written with a bad Oriental accent and drawn with jaundiced skin because racial sensitivity was not a high priority for comic book creators in the fifties and sixties. Surprisingly, The Yellow Claw was brought back in the 2006-2007 miniseries Agents of Atlas, although it is there explained that his name is really the Golden Claw and not the Yellow Claw to get past some of the hang-ups with this character.

Okay, here is a special Independence Day mort for you, and one who proved himself to be quite the fighter in a recent issue of a Marvel Comic. No more hints; who is he?