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Curated playlist

American comics characters

  • Green LanternGreen Lantern is not one hero but a long succession of them, all published by DC Comics, and each wears a ring that answers to the mind of its owner. The ring draws on imagination, fearlessness and what the stories call the electromagnetic…
  • HomelanderGarth Ennis, who created Homelander together with the artist Darick Robertson, offered a blunt way to picture him. In Ennis's words: "It might help to think of the Homelander as having all the self-control of… let's say… a…
  • Hägar the HorribleThe Viking in Hägar the Horrible pillages Paris, then can't make his stolen palace plumbing work at home.
  • The ShadowThe Shadow is a fictional crime fighter whose catchphrase has outlived most of the stories told about him. "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" Those words opened the radio adaptation and earned a lasting…
  • Shazam (DC Comics)Shazam, the comic book hero also called Captain Marvel, headlined an issue, Whiz Comics #2, that sold over 500,000 copies. The hero at its center is a boy who becomes a towering adult by speaking a single word. Yet this same character…
  • Soldier BoySoldier Boy is a superhero name worn by three different men in the comic series Herogasm and The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and John McCrea. On television, the name belongs to a single man who combines all three. One comic version is a…
  • Black NoirBlack Noir is the name shared by three characters in The Boys, a story created in comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Eric Kripke later developed it for television. In both versions, Noir belongs to the Seven, a hedonistic and…
  • Alfred E. NeumanAlfred E. Neuman has appeared on the cover of more than 550 issues of Mad, the American humor magazine. He is its fictitious mascot, a scrawny boy with red hair, freckles and protruding ears. Almost every time, he faces the reader head-on.…
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers tells the first part of his own story from inside a collapsing mine near Pittsburgh. The opening three frames of his newspaper strip are narrated in his voice. "I was 20 years old when they stopped the world war and mustered me…
  • Betty BoopSinger Helen Kane sued the makers of Betty Boop in 1932, claiming they stole her voice. The studio won the 1934 trial.

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