1995 Skybox DC Villains: The Dark Judgment Scarth Trading Card #7

A most intriguing man, this Mr. Scarth. On the surface, he appears to be nothing more than a hired gun, a thoroughly obnoxious lout. Yet, he possesses strength far beyond the norm... and his claim of "nothing can hurt me if I see it coming" is no idle boast. He does seem quite durable.

You know the '90s were running out of visceral nouns combined with hardcore verbs to form rad new character names once you got to Scar... th. Scarth! Yeaaaaah...

I wonder if painter Thom Ang even had reference for Scarth, seeing as how the art goes out of its way to obscure the figure. Let's take a silhouette, then shine a bright yellow light right up against it to essentially form a negative of the first silhouette. What colors is this guy (flesh, hair, costume?) I realize he's in a sewer or something, careful not to extend his gun arm at innocents/into a treacherous darkness, but I always misread this image as Scarth accidentally shining a flashlight in his own face. He's obviously too extreme to see standard spots, so I expect he'd have shatterstars instead.

There were actually three Chase Lawler Manhunter villains in this set, and unlike White Lotus, Scarth appeared in almost every issue of that especially low-selling book. I guess that qualifies his appearance, but I'd still chalk this up to DC having an unreasonable amount of faith in their Zero Hour spin-offs. At least Xenobrood had the excuse of being a mini-series (and no trading cards!)

Relishing New Year's Evil this week? Find more malicious pin-up fun at the following blogs:

• Circe by Kent Williams @ Diana Prince: Wonder Woman
• Darkseid "Gathering of Evil" by Steve Stanley @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
• The Baron by Tony Harris @ Power of the Atom

1995 Skybox DC Villains: The Dark Judgment White Lotus Trading Card #29

Dark Judgment was a weird ass trading card collection. Most comic sets focus on their most popular heroes, then something like half as many of their most popular villains, then the (often new) characters the company were pushing to promote. Dark Judgment was an all painted set of nothing but super-villains, which even the the blackest days of the '90s was a dodgy proposition. Again, you had the top dogs of universal atrocity, your second stringers who were currently active, and then you've got White Lotus.

Keen of eye and steady of hand is Miyeko Yanamoto, the White Lotus. Obviously, this Lotus is no delicate flower... Her body armor is a miracle of high-tech ordinance. White Lotus fancies herself a ninja for hire but still follows a tiresome code of honor. She'll have to drop that, if she's to work with me.

I was hard core into the DC Universe in the mid '90s, and I drew a total blank. I checked at ComicVine, and the only White Lotus they had a listing for turned up four years later as a member of the Supermen of America, individually or as a group eligible for a listing under Bitter Andrew's Nobody’s Favorites, if they haven't already (note to Weiss: please add a search engine or something, for archival sake.) Wikipedia and Google searches were similarly unhelpful. Finally, the Grand Comic Database turned up a White Lotus from 1994, although her alter ego is listed as "Nona Lin." While more important and much longer lived villains went unnoticed, the featured antagonist of two issues of the Chase Lawler Manhunter series got a painted card by Simon Bisley.

Like I said, weird ass friggin' set.

I'm not the only blogger relishing New Year's Evil this week. Find more malicious pin-up fun at the following:

• Shadow-Thief by John Van Fleet @ Being Carter Hall
• Circe by Bill Sienkiewicz @ Diana Prince: Wonder Woman
• Darkseid by John K. Snyder @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu