Comic Book Resources

The Clark Kent one seems too obvious, but I'll give it a shot -

Nightwing used to be Robin
Atom Smasher used to be Nuklon
Clark Kent used to be Kal-El

Are they all somehow fictional Kryptonian names? I know Nightwing got his name from some Kryptonian legend, but I don't know where Atom Smasher got his name. Checking wikipedia, it doesn't look like it.

For the 12/18 game: All three issues feature expatriate characters? The Defenders issue is part of the Red Guardian II/Presence storyline, New Mutants shows Magik on the cover, and the X-Factor issue featured the Genoshan X-Patriots.

For 8/20 -- All three covers feature characters whose pre-Crisis Superman links were radically altered by Crisis on Infinite Earths. Lady Quark was no longer an Earth-6 native who teamed with Superman to battle the E-1 counterpart of her dead hubby Lord Volt, Mon-El was renamed Valor and (between Crisis and Zero Hour) his lead poisoning and Phantom Zone exile were no longer the result of Superman's actions, and Nightwing couldn't have named himself after Superman's (and later Van-Zee's) Kandorian crimefighting identity.

For 3/26 -- All three covers feature characters created by Mark Gruenwald. Gypsy Moth/Skein from Spider-Woman #10, Misfit from West Coast Avengers #41 (behin the scenes debut in Captain America v.1 #331, the Nigh Shift's debut), and Landslide from that Olympics-themed Marvel Treasury Edition.

For the cover game of 4/23...

the only similarities in the artists is that, aside from doing a lot of work for DC, their NAMES have 2 similarities (as weird and obscure at it might seem):

All three have names with the letter "B" in them, and all three have names that have DOUBLE-letters in them:

José Ramón Bernadó Kneff (J.L.T.F cover)

Barry Kitson (Legends of the Dark Knight cover)

Bill Jaaska (X-men cover)

It's a silly link, yes. But aside from that, I can't find another link to the three artists.

Yeah... that's all I got.

~P~
P-TOR

I can't believe Manga Khan appeared outside the Giffen League. Almost enough to make me want to hunt that Starman issue down, if I didn't already suspect it probably wouldn't be any good.

Just thought I'd mention that STURG posted a (probably) correct answer to the 12/4/06 quiz (he posted it today):

He wrote:

Cover theme game: All feature people who were adopted?

Just thought I'd mention it HERE in case no one checked the original quiz page.

I wouldn't want STURG to lose out if he is right.

~P~
P-TOR

Thanks for the catch, P-TOR!

PAul,

The Starman issue is decent. GIffen plot and David script, if I recall correctly. Not quite as good as the best of the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI, but not bad. I think the character on the cover is called Mr. Nebula (the cosmic decorator), not Manga Khan. I don't recall if Khan is in the Starman issue or not, but he does appear in the Mr. Miracle solo series that ran alongside the JLI for a while. Those stories were by Doug Moench, a talented writer whom I don't think really had a feel for the JLI style.

All of which leads me to believe that the theme for 8/20 is makeovers - Lady Quark, I think gets a new costume and decides to start a new life in that issue of Starman. Mr. Nebula does redesigning of planets, and the Teen Titans issue involves a whole new direction.

Cover Theme for 7/6/07

Villainous brothers? Crazy Eight's was Speedfreak; Red has a brother who seeks revenge on the Challs; and Batman had his kooky brother Thomas Wayne who no one remembers.

I meant 7/2/07, but you knew that, yeah?

I'm pretty sure I got 7/2: each has a Leslie on the cover.
Leslie Thompkins, Leslie Ann Shappe (Crazy Eight), Leslie “Rocky” Davis

I posted a follow-up to sturg's guess on that same page, but I proposed the answer might not be that they were all adopted, but that they are all orphans.

For the 12/18 game: All three issues feature expatriate characters? The Defenders issue is part of the Red Guardian II/Presence storyline, New Mutants shows Magik on the cover, and the X-Factor issue featured the Genoshan X-Patriots.

That is some impressive in-depth thinking there, Omar, but Red Guardian would have to be on the cover for that to work.

For 3/26 — All three covers feature characters created by Mark Gruenwald. Gypsy Moth/Skein from Spider-Woman #10, Misfit from West Coast Avenger

Correct!!

the only similarities in the artists is that, aside from doing a lot of work for DC, their NAMES have 2 similarities (as weird and obscure at it might seem):

Not the only similarities.

And yeah, I'm pretty sure that Atom-Smasher was not adopted. Am I wrong there?

And as far as orphans go, it doesn't really count if his mom dies when he's in his mid-20s, does it? So while the orphans bit is clever, I don't think it really counts.

Only now, the wrong answers are getting a lot more clever than the ACTUAL answer to that one.

I’m pretty sure I got 7/2: each has a Leslie on the cover.
Leslie Thompkins, Leslie Ann Shappe (Crazy Eight), Leslie “Rocky” Davis

Correct!! Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to find a cover with Leslie Thompkins on it!?!?

Cover game 4/23: All of the artists worked on the Wolverine comic at one point?

More specifically, they all drew 2 or less issues of Wolverine? The first ongoing series, that is.

Not to take that away from you jazzbo, but I hope thats not it.

I saw that similarity and passed at it, because if the unifying link between comic book artists is that they have worked on the same title at some point in their careers, then this contest has kinda jumped a shark of some sort.

But, that's just how I'm looking at it.
It might be a completely valid similarity.

~P~
P-TOR

It's the only link I could figure out, so I took a stab at it. We'll see if it's the answer Cronin is looking for.

Nah, that's not it.

Again, the more wrong guesses I get, the sillier I feel about the right answer! But then I think, "Really, it is no sillier than the ones people DO get right," so I then feel less silly.

Dick, Clark and Albert all have the middle initial J.

I feel silly even proposing this one (true as it is), but as you say, it's no sillier than some of the others.

The answer is not THAT silly, but eh, that IS true, and it is clever enough, so I'll give you a cool point for it!

For the Nightwing, Atom Smasher, and Clark Kent all assume brother figure roles to a legacy successor

Nightwing--Robin
Atom Smasher--Damage
Clark--Connor

That or they all commited an act of murder against a foe that they paid pennace for.

Theme game for 12/18 (I posted this on the original page, too, but just in case...):

They all feature characters whose names are words that are normally spelled with a "C", but spelled with a "K" (Lunatik, Magik, Havok)?

Correct!

I totally thought that one would have been gotten quickly (admittedly, to lower the odds, I picked a cover where A. Lunatik was not featured prominently and B. His name was not on the cover, so as to remind folks of his name.

Correct!

I totally thought that one would have been gotten quickly (admittedly, to lower the odds, I picked a cover where A. Lunatik was not featured prominently and B. His name was not on the cover, so as to remind folks of his name).

For the one with Hellboy, the Maxx, and Archie: all of them have a leading female character who is blonde?

OR, for Hellboy/Maxx/Archie- are they all comics that were plotted by the artist but scripted by someone else. I've never read any Archie, but I know that Hellboy was scripted by John Byrne, and I'm pretty usre Sam Kieth plotted The Maxx by himself, with Messner Loebs "just" providing the script...

There are more unsolved ones, aren't there? Like "the three Jugheads" and "I told you before, Green Goblin ISN'T on the cover!" Or have those been nabbed, finally?

and, oh yeah, some potential answers:

12/4: Nightwing, Atom Smasher and Clark Kent (not Superman) have all been accused of murder, then cleared.

7/23: Hellboy, the Maxx and Archie all appeared in other comics before getting their eponymous series? Hellboy was in SDCC Comics, the Maxx was in Darker Image and Archie was in Pep Comics. And as a bonus, Monkeyman & O'Brien were first in Dark Horse Presents...

here's another one for Hellboy/Maxx/Archie, that depends on my lack of knowledge about Archie- has there ever been an Archie animated series? If so, well, so have the other two.

yeah, but we already tried that one...

There are more unsolved ones, aren’t there? Like “the three Jugheads” and “I told you before, Green Goblin ISN’T on the cover!” Or have those been nabbed, finally?

Yeah, those have been gotten.

1. Each cover was a remake of a previous Archie cover.

2. Each character (Spider-Man, Scorpion, James Rhodes) wore an alien symbiote at one time or another.

As for the Archie, Maxx and Hellboy one, I'll give another (rather large, I think) hint.

Imagine you are playing six degrees of separation.

All of them have met Gen13 before (Archie, Maxx and Monkeyman & O'Brien all have)?

All of them have met Gen13 before (Archie, Maxx and Monkeyman & O’Brien all have)?

Basically, yes!

There ya go! Another one down!

To be more specific Betty & Veronica met Grunge but that still counts, I think.

On the Nightwing/Atom-Smasher/Clark Kent one, they all have had to fend off romantic advances from a "co-worker" (Nightwing, Tarantula; Atom-Smasher, Stargirl; Clark Kent; Cat Grant).

A hint for the Kent/Rothstein/Grayson one - the connective theme is really something that is quite specific to these three characters. I cannot think of another character from DC Comics, offhand, that I could plug into one of their spots and still maintain the theme (although I have no doubt that there IS one I am not thinking of - and I can think of a couple of Marvel characters who work).

Kent, Grayson, and Rothstein are all adopted?

my next guess was that they've all had parents die but then come back to life (Batman was electrocuted and technically dead until he was revived, Atom-Smasher's mom was killed in a plane crash by Kobra and later saved via time-travel, and Johnathan Kent had a heart attack at the same time Clark fought Doomsday), but I don't think they're the only three who that would work for...

For Clark Kent, Atom Smasher and Nightwing.

It's silly, but I'll take the shot: They all dated Red Heads at some point? Clark dated Lana, Dick dated Starfire, and Al...I don't know...

For Clark Kent, Al Goldstein and Nightwing:

Is it that they've all had ponytails?
I was going to say mullets, but I don't think Clark Kent wore his hair in a mullet, just a ponytail.