A Halloween Mort

The Black Racer was the "avatar of death" in Jack Kirby's little corner of the DC Universe. As a side note, "avatar" may be the most overused word in all of comicdom. It's kind of like one of the editors found a thesaurus, started browsing, but never got past the A's. As an additional side note, there are far too many characters that represent death in DC Comics.

Anyway, The Black Racer was Sgt. Willie Walker, a bedridden Vietnam Vet who was called on to harvest the souls of dead New Gods (apparently this whole "Death of the New Gods" thing isn't a new concept). Black Racer can transport himself anywhere in the cosmos with his ski's (making him in someways DC's Silver Surfer, who was also a Kirby creation). As I mentioned previously, he himself was killed in the first issue of Death of the New Gods. His death throws into confusion what is happening to the souls of those New Gods who are still yet to die.

Alright, our new mort is a Marvel character perfectly suited for a Halloween entry. Enjoy!

Racing to Obscurity

Daddy Long Legs, known originally by his birth name of Ramsey Kole, wanted to be a dancer but was too short. To fix this, well, shortcoming, Kole approaches Bill Foster, the hero who must have been created in the 70's because he's also known as Black Goliath. Dr. Foster refuses to help the short dancer, so Kole attacks him from behind and steals the ingredients for the scientist's growth formula. Unfortunately, the homegrown brew is not as effective as the original formula and Kole's extremities are elongated to frightening proportions. Unfazed, the newly christened Daddy Long Legs takes over a theater to have an audience to dance for. Unfortunately, the audience is unappreciative of his talents and he vows revenge. Enter Spider Woman, who takes the goofy mort down pretty easily.

Okay, for the record, what does it say about Bill Foster as a super hero that after being embarrased by some short guy whose whole dream in life is to be a dancer, he has to call in Spider Woman to make the save? Wow, Clone Thor ain't looking so cruel no more, is he?

To stem off comments by those of you who might say this in a less PC way, yes the new mort is another African American. I should hold onto these until February and have an African American History Month countdown, but that just isn't going to happen. By the way, today's Mort apparently died in a comic last week, but he is so mort-y that it wasn't even publicized.

Tall, Dark, and Glass-Jawed Mort

With more thought, I think I was unfair to our Morts from last week. The first issue of the Order was only so-so, but the two subsequent issues have been really good. It is recommended reading. For those unaware, Tony Stark created the 50 state inniative in the wake of Marvel's Civil War. The innitiative created a super human team for each of the states in the union. The Order is the team stationed in California; Los Angeles to be exact. The membership of the Order consists of:

Top Row (Left to Right):

Aralune (Becky Ryan) - A pop diva with shapeshifting power. Imagine if Britney Spears were a Skrull (which might explain some things).

Supernaut (Sgt. Milo Fields) - Crippled in some undisclosed incident, Supernaut fights injustice in a large battlesuit.

Anthem (Henry Hellrung) - The field leader of the Order is actually an actor who used to play Iron Man in the Marvel Universe's Avengers TV show. He has the powers of, "a supercell Thunderstorm" (whatever that is).

Bottom Row (Left to Right):

Calamity (James Wa) - A former major league baseball player who lost his legs in a car accident, Wa created artificial legs and has the ability to move at super speed.

Veda (Magdalena Marie) - Veda can create geomorphic constructs (dirt people) that follow her mental commands.

Mulholland Black - She draws strength from Los Angeles itself to enable her to wield a really big hammer.

Alright, the new mort is obviously an enemy of Spider Woman. Who is this long-legged mort?

Non-Chaotic Morts

Our last Mort was Emoticon, one of the reoccuring characters in Gail Simone's Welcome to Tranquility. It is an excellent read that you shouldn't miss out on (particularly the first arc, which I have if anyone wants to borrow it). Emoticon is one of the thugs that hangs out in the small town of Tranquility and is the apparent grandson of the former supervillian The Typist, who blinded and disfigured him to give his secret origin a touch of "tragedy". Emoticon's mask allows him not only to see, but it also broadcasts his emotion through an LCD screen, affectively making it impossible for him to lie convincingly.

The new morts are not all that good, but it has been a long day. I will have to do some research before I post the answer next week naming each one of these morts, so save me the time by doing your own research and I can just piggy-back off of you.