Ranger Ryan Show

The Atom is a name shared by five superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The original Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt, was created by writer Bill O'Connor and artist Ben Flinton and first appeared in All-American Publications' All-American Comics #19 (October 1940). 

Lobo (Spanish and Portuguese for "wolf") is a character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. He was created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen, and first appeared in Omega Men #3 (June 1983). He is an alien from the utopian planet of Czarnia, and works as an interstellar mercenary and bounty hunter.

Free Comic Book Day is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to attract new readers to independent comic book stores. It usually takes place on the first Saturday of May and is often cross-promoted with the release of a superhero film. Over two thousand participating stores give away millions of comic books annually. The event was proposed by Joe Field in the August 2001 issue of Comics & Games Retailer magazine and Free Comic Book Day was launched in 2002, coordinated by the industry's single large distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors. FCBD has become an official Children's Book Week event and has inspired similar events for German- and Dutch-language comics industries. The twenty-first edition of FCBD was held on May 6, 2023.

We have had a wide variety of comics this month, though a little green in color. This has been a wild ride and we look forward to continuing the talk as we move on to May and start to enjoy some new topics. We have narrowed the playing field with DC versus Marvel versus Indie Publications. Now that we have been through two rounds of Grab Bag Month... Let's see where we stand.

Chaos! Comics was a comic book publisher that operated from 1993 until 2002, mostly focusing on horror comics. Their titles included The Haunted, Lady Death, Purgatori, Evil Ernie, Chastity, Jade, Bad Kitty, and Lady Demon. Chaos! creators included Brian Pulido, Steven Hughes, Al Rio, Mike Flippin, Justiniano, and Hart D. Fisher.

Chaos also published licensed comics for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and several bands. It was revived by Dynamite Entertainment as their imprint as Chaos! Dynamite Where Dynamite owns the rights to the characters expect Lady Death who was replaced by Lady Hel.

Green Arrow is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and designed by George Papp, he first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 on September 19, 1941 (Coved Dated November 1941), the same issue that debuted Aquaman. His real name is Oliver Jonas Queen, a wealthy businessman, owner of Queen Industries, and a well-known celebrity in Star City. He uses this position to hide the fact that he is the Green Arrow. Partly inspired by Robin Hood, Green Arrow is an archer who uses his skills to fight crime in his home cities of Star City and Seattle, as well as alongside his fellow superheroes as a member of the Justice League. The world's greatest archer, as well as a competent swordsman and martial artist, Green Arrow deploys a range of trick arrows (in contemporary times, they are referred as "specialty arrows") with various special functions, such as glue, explosive-tipped, grappling hook, flash grenade, tear gas and even kryptonite arrows for use in a range of special situations.

Spider-Woman is the code name of several fictional characters in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first major version is Jessica Drew (and later impersonated by Veranke), the second major version is Julia Carpenter, and the third major version is Mattie Franklin. Several alternate reality incarnations of the character have additionally received notoriety, including the Ultimate Spider-Woman, Ashley Barton, and Gwen Stacy.

Each issue of Grimm Fairy Tales has two parts: a frame story and a fairy tale. The frame story revolves around Dr. Sela Mathers, a Professor of Literature with the supernatural ability to help people to avoid bad life decisions by subjecting them to visions, in which they see themselves as the protagonists of allegorical fairy tales. As the series progresses, she struggles with the fact that several people ignore her lessons and ruin their lives anyway and begins using her ability to dispense justice instead (see issue #15 "The Three Little Pigs"). Sela's nemesis is Belinda, who has the same ability as Sela but uses it for evil.

From the Justice League's inception in 1960 up until 1984, the team's roster always included a number of A-list characters to draw in readers, such as Wonder Woman and Superman. But in Justice League of America Annual #2 (October 1984), the Justice League was revised to entirely comprise more obscure characters such as Vixen, Vibe, and the Martian Manhunter. The original A-list members would not be brought back into the cast until 1996. The motives behind this change were to dispense with the convoluted continuities of the classic characters by using lesser-known and new characters, thus giving the writers more flexibility to write character-driven stories; and to give the team a more youthful, hipper feel similar to that of the Teen Titans and the X-Men, which were selling better. The cast was multicultural: Gypsy was Romani, Vibe was Latino, Vixen was Black. However, the writing of Vibe and Gypsy was criticized for using clichés of their ethnic groups, symptomatic of writers who were well-meaning but out of touch, something for which said writers (Gerry Conway and Chuck Patton) later expressed regret. This era of the Justice League, which lasted about two years, is popularly known as "Justice League Detroit" because they were headquartered in Detroit.

She-Hulk (Jennifer Susan Walters) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, the character first appeared in The Savage She-Hulk #1 (November 1979). Walters is a lawyer who, after an injury, received an emergency blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner, and acquired a milder version of his Hulk condition. As such, Walters becomes a large, powerful, green-hued version of herself. Unlike Banner in his Hulk form, Walters largely retains her normal personality in her She-Hulk form, in particular the majority of her intelligence and emotional control. Furthermore, though she's much taller in her She-Hulk form, Walters's body mass is just as dense as that of her normal human self. In any case, like Hulk, She-Hulk is still susceptible to outbursts of anger and becomes much stronger when enraged. In later series, her transformation is permanent, and she often breaks the fourth wall for humorous effect and running gags, as the first major Marvel character to do so frequently, ahead of the more famous fourth wall breaker Deadpool.