Showing posts with label Target. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Target. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Target; the hero who WANTS you to shoot at him!

Created by Dick Briefer (who also created the Monster of Frankenstein series from Prize Comics) The Target was a scientist who created a suit of flexible bulletproof metal and used it to fight evil.
His sidekicks, the Targeteers were his alter-ego's business partners, as well.
They wore costumes of the same design, but in different primary (red, yellow, blue) colors.
All three each had a giant bulls-eye design on their chests, which tended to draw enemy gunfire in amazing amounts.
(It's never explained how the metal also absorbed the kinetic energy of the bullets that hit the trio. An isotope of Vibranium, perhaps?)

Interestingly, he didn't make his debut until issue #10 of Target Comics. (The previous issues featured a hero called The White Streak, who faded shortly after The Target made the scene.)
Atomic Kommie Comics™ now offers three classic covers as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line of collectibles, including the 1st appearance cover!
Note: As part of Alex Ross' new Project SuperPowers series, the Target & Targeteers were cover-featured on #5 along with The Arrow.
Don't forget to buy it, and EVERY issue of Project SuperPowers! It's one of the best series on the market today!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

SuperPowers Saturdays Cometh!

For the next few Saturdays, we're going to re-present the updated designs of the Project SuperPowers characters by Alex Ross along with links to a couple of Squidoo pages of background info and links about the series and characters...
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers
(featuring characters who've been cover-featured)
Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers Strikes Again!
(featuring the other characters)
Plus a solo page for...
The Classic Captain Future
(Both of them. Click on the link.
You'll see what I mean!)

In addition, you can find Atomic Kommie Comics™ kool kollectibles emblazoned with the ORIGINAL 1940s classic cover art featuring these characters (in alphabetical order)...
Captain Future (aka Zeus)
Cat-Man (was Cat, now Man-Cat)  
& Kitten
Dynamic Man
Fighting Yank
The Flame
HydroMan (now called Hydro)
Major Victory
(in Flag-Draped Heroes) 
The Owl
Silver Streak
StrongMan
(in Solo Heroes)  
The Target & Targeteers
at
Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™!
(unfortunately, The Woman in Red was never cover-featured, so there's no goodies featuring her...yet!)

And don't forget to buy the Project SuperPowers comics and collections including Black Terror, Death Defying 'Devil, Masquerade, and Project SuperPowers Volume 2!

Friday, April 9, 2010

The White Streak

The White Streak did not wear white, nor did he have super-speed.
Appearing in the back of the first issue of Target Comics in 1940, he was an ancient robot buried in a South American mountain for centuries, then discovered by a team of American archeologists and geologists!
Identifying himself to them as "Manowar", the robot explained (in English) that he was created by the now-extinct civilization of Utopia and deliberately left buried until reactivated in a time of world-wide strife!
(World War II had already started, though America had not yet entered the conflict.)
Manowar was meant to be a peacekeeper, ending conflicts thru his amazing abilities including super-strength, invulnerability, and optical energy beams with the impact of cannon shells!
After ending a local conflict (and gaining the name "White Streak" from the scientists, he traveled with the Americans back to the USA,
He figured out how to disguse himself as human, and taking the name "Dan Sanders", Manowar joined the FBI (who apparently weren't big on background checks in those days.) and, using their information resources, battled spies and saboteurs who were trying to harm the still-pacifistic USA!

From the second issue until the introduction of Target & the Targeteers in #10, Manowar was the cover feature.
After that, he went back to being a backup feature until America entered the war after Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941. The idea of a pacifist at such a time didn't seem viable, so the strip was dropped in favor of more aggressively-oriented characters.

Trivia: White Streak was created by Carl Burgos, who seemed to specialize in creating robot / android heroes including Iron Skull, the Silver Age Captain Marvel (who said "Split" and sent various body parts off to operate independently), and, most famously, the Golden Age Human Torch!

We, of course, found a place for such an offbeat character in the Solo Heroes section of Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™!
So, welcome him back!
A good man (or robot) is hard to find! ;-)