The DC Bloodlines Podcast: The Green Fury meets The Super Friends

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After slipping to an unintentional monthly schedule with some uncomfortable elements and unfortunate timing, the DC Bloodlines Podcast returns for a thirteenth episode set on breaking its unlucky streak (and nearly broke Diabolu Frank with all the editing it required.) In this novel edition, special guest Pekita Trotamundos helps produce a two-person radio drama in the style of ABC-TV's 1979 Saturday morning favorite, The World's Greatest Super Friends. This is meant to reflect the early appearances of Brazil's premier super-heroine in the DC Universe, Beatriz da Costa, originally known as The Green Fury! Later known as Fire, she was created by E. Nelson Bridwell and Ramona Fradon for the comic book tie-in Super Friends #25, cover-dated October, 1979. After that brief cameo battling Superman, The Green Fury went on to appear in issues #42-44, with her origin finally revealed in a full length starring role in the series' final issue, the August 1981 cover-dated #47. Foregoing the usually biting commentary and contemporary music soundtrack, this episode is a loose adaptation of these stories featuring scores culled from numerous cartoon favorites of the era. However, there is a political subtext that's hard to miss. For a peek at the early Beatriz da Costa in action, here's a look at sample pages from The Super Friends #43 at Scans_Daily.


This episode's non-paying advertisers:

• Bedtime in the Public Domain
• Required Reading With Tom and Stella
• John Adams Letters From The Front

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2016 Fire Comicpalooza Jam Sketch by Lulu Lin

Beatriz da Costa, also known as Green Fury and Green Flame, is surely best remembered for her stint in Justice League International as the hot side of the super-heroine duo "Fire & Ice." That's the role she serves in this commission, a piece filled with "friends of Martian Manhunter" for the Alien Atlas' 60th birthday. I was still learning to what degree I needed to play "art director" on jams, with the correct answer being "75%+" or else you ended up with a collage where no one exists in the same space. In this case, I had a gap between the central figure in the piece, a partial VHS box cover style floating head, and a heroine drawn in full figure. A sort of JLI theme had emerged, and though it amounted to giving them short shrift, head & shoulders shots or Tora & Bea were placed opportunistically.

I had Ice done in 2015, and I kept meaning to add a flying Fire figure in the remaining space, but I kept putting it off. Maybe in the back of my mind I realized that was untenable, and I'm glad painter Lulu Lin had the good sense to better complement the existing Ice Maiden by having her best friend drawn to scale. She's mostly done in pencil with light inks for interior definition and a thicker overall outline. She's in full early '90s rocker mode, headband and all, but I like the delicate line the artist used here. She also shaded Bea's hair entirely in pencil, which unfortunately doesn't come through in this scan. Lin's paintings are very cool, and I hope someday to pick one of them up, but in the meantime urge you to check them out below...

Lulu Lin

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