Reactions to the Thirteen "Lost" Characters (SPOILERS)

[The Baron]

This will contain my initial reactions to the thirteen "lost" characters, based on the information provided in the New Golden Age #1.  As is my custom, here are some irrelevant pictures to serve as spoiler space:

Thanos would live to regret interrupting Saitama's shopping trip. But not for long.

After Larry's death, Moe considered continuing the act with Joe DeRita and Emil Sitka, but then Moe died, and that was the end of it.

Anyway, on to the matter at hand:

1. The Golden Age Aquaman (Adam Waterman)  First appearance given as More Fun Comics #73. .  I've not read any Golden Age Aquaman stories, but from what I can find, the origin that they give him here is the origin that the character was initially given back in the day.,  Also, his costume is more like the original's. Not sure myself why a "Golden Age" Aquaman is needed when they could just as Marvel did with the Sub-Mariner and assume that Atlanteans live a really long time.
2. Betsy Ross (Elizabeth Rose) and
3. Molly Pitcher (Molly Preacher) First appearances given as Military Comics #6 (as Elizabeth and Molly) and Military Comics #7 (as heroes) Two schoolgirls who were given mystical artifacts by Miss America (Joan Dale) that gave them superpowers, allowing them to become Miss America's sidekicks. They're believable as Golden Age characters, down to their somewhat improbable origins.
4. Cherry Bomb (Gloria James)  First appeaarance given as Police Comics #25. She is a teenaged African-American, the daughter of Roy Lincoln's lab partner and a gifted chemist in her own right. When her father was murdered, she gave herself powers similar to Lincoln's, and became his sidekick. Another potentially interesting character.
5. The Harlequin's Son (Michael Mayne) First appearance given as Infinity, Inc.#1.  The gay son of Molly Mayne who used his mother's gimmicks as both a villain and a hero. He is said to have turned down an invitation to  become an Infinitor. No word on who his father was. I was never a big fan of Molly, so I'm not overwhelmed by him, but who knows, someone may put him to  good use as a character.
6. John Henry Junior (John Henry Irons) First appearance given as DC: The New Frontier #6. (I've never this comic, but apparently a character by that name did appear in it. In the 1950's, there was a hero called John Henry (John Wilson) who foiught the Klan using two hammers belonging to the original John Henry. and who eventually was killed by the Klan. Some time later, One of the hammers was given to young John Henry Irons (grand-uncle of Steel), who used it to become John Henry Junior.  Another character with potential,I think.
7. The Boom (Judy Garrick) First appearance given as Flash Comics #10.  She was Jay's teenaged daughter, who  had powers like his and used to  travel back in time to team up with her father as a young man.  Another character with potential, but they could have come up with a better name than "The Boom".
8. Ladybug (Rosibel Rivera)  First appearances given as Hit Comics #1 (as Rosibel) and Hit Comics #5 (as Ladybug) The teenaged daughter of a man who helped Rick Raleigh train his special bees. After an encounter with the villainous Prrofessor Pollen, she gained the ability to shrink to the size of a ladybug while retaining her full-sized strength.  Devising a pair of wings that enabled her to fly when at ladybug size, she became the Red Bee's sidekcick. A cute character, but I don't k ow that we're going to see many "Red Bee" stories anytime soon.
9. The Red Lantern (Vladimir Sokov) First appearance given as Green Lantern #1.  He was the result of a Soviet plan to create their own "Green Lantern" using a mystical artifcat called the Crimson Flame.  He was Green Lantern Alan Scott's nemesis but was missing, presumed killed, after falling out with his masters early in the Cold War.Another potentially interesting character. Of ccourse, "presumed killed" means he'll be back eventually.
10. Mister Miracle (Thaddeus Brown) First appearance given as Mister Miracle #1 (vol. 1, 1941) This is the same character that killed fairly early on in Scott Free's adventues on Earth, who  now is said to have had a number of adventures in the Golden Age as a member of the heretofore unkown Justice Society Dark.  Never the biggest Mister Miracle fan, but I could see potential here.
11. Quiz Kid (Raghu Seetharaman) First appearance given as Sensation Comics #2. An orphaned genius who became MisterTerrific's sidekick. Another interesting idea for a character., 
12. Salem the Witch Girl (Salem Rula Nader) First appearance given as More Fun Comics #56.  A teenaged sorceress,  she was the daughter of an Armenian-American immigrant and a woman from the witch city Limbo Town.  Ma and Pa Nader fled to another dimension, leaving Salen behind to inherite the "Limbo town Curse" *Worst parents ever!), which specified that anyone who became close to her would suffer "bad fates". Eventually, she became Doctor Fate's pupil. An OK character.
13. Legionnaire -  We are given no information.  The silhoutte that we are shown looks male and it wearing a Legion flight ring.  My guess is a Legionnaire with a Golden Age connection.

Overall, I hink that there's some potential here.  I notice that they tried to make the "Golden Age":  characters a good deal more diverse than they ever were back in the day.

[JD DeLuzio]

Wait, where does Moe fit into all of this?

[Randy Jackson]

Thanos has no chance 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Here are the thoughts I posted to the "What Comics Have You Read Today?" thread:

THE NEW GOLDEN AGE: Intriguing. This one-shot "reintroduces" several forgotten characters, mostly sidekicks, from the Golden Age. there's nothibng new about that; both Marvel (Sentry) and DC (Triumph) have tried that before with varying degrees of success. Much of this issue was drawn by Jerry Ordway, a perennial favorite of mine. Perhaps the most interesting feature of this comic is the faux "Who's Who" pages in the back of the book. If nothing else, this "new thing" seems to be well thought-out. Lots of time-jumps; somewhat difficult to follow. I would likely have been more enthusiastic about a story such as as this 15 or 20 years ago.

I've heard about Emil Sitka being considered as a replacement Stooge, but I've never see that photo.

[Philip Portelli]

Aquaman: Roy Thomas wanted to create a far more complex origin for the Earth-Two Sea King but then the Crisis happened and the origin got used for Neptune Perkins in Young All Stars where he was the grandson of Captain Nemo! 

The Harlequin's Son: this was originally meant to be part of Infinity, Inc including being gay. He was dropped as Roy didn't want any non-powered characters.

Giving all these mostly minor characters diversity sidekicks seems a little condescending to me. They don't seem important and they're not that creative! Especially Ladybug who is basically the Wasp! 

The Boom: *holding my tongue*

[Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas]

Feels like a bit of a scattershot approach.  Not as daring as it could have been, alas.  Most of those seem to be derivative characters, not a few being literally sidekicks that were not remembered.  A bit like Crimson Avenger's companion Wing, even.

There are however some good ideas there.  I take it that this Aquaman has yellow gloves?  For the longest time that has been the one way of telling Earth-Two's Arthur Curry from Earth-One's, who wears green gloves.  Making a real character out of him may be worthwhile.  Having a legionnaire visit the Golden Age for once can be interesting as well.  Or it could be Booster Gold, who is apparently underused these days.

Having them all be Golden Age characters is something of a problem, but also an opportunity.  It creates the potential to scratch a All-Star Squadron itch, but it may be overegging the pudding.  Particularly at a time when it is all but officially stated that DC doesn't much care about continuity anymore.

I will just assume that this is an alternate continuity pocket world and at some point the more succesfull among those characters will end up passing through one of Sideways' portals and end up in DC's Prime Earth or something similar.

[Richard Willis]

Not having bought this, I wasn’t sure if these were actual characters from the past or imagined ones. I think I now understand that they were not actual characters.

Cherry Bomb (Gloria James)  First appeaarance given as Police Comics #25. She is a teenaged African-American, the daughter of Roy Lincoln's lab partner and a gifted chemist in her own right. When her father was murdered, she gave herself powers similar to Lincoln's, and became his sidekick. Another potentially interesting character.

Sure, an African American female hero in the Golden Age. With a soft porn name.

The Harlequin's Son (Michael Mayne) First appearance given as Infinity, Inc.#1.  The gay son of Molly Mayne who used his mother's gimmicks as both a villain and a hero. He is said to have turned down an invitation to  become an Infinitor. No word on who his father was. I was never a big fan of Molly, so I'm not overwhelmed by him, but who knows, someone may put him to  good use as a character.

Somewhat coincidentally, the son of Alan Scott (who married Molly Mayne), Todd Rice (Obsidian) was briefly portrayed on the Stargirl TV series as gay.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Todd Rice was [eventually revealed to be] gay in the comics, too.

[Captain Comics]

My guess is a Legionnaire with a Golden Age connection.

Star Boy leaps to mind. He's been connected to the Starman/Star-Spangled Kid/Stargirl continuity.

Karate Kid has Earth heritage. But any ancestor of his would be playing for the wrong team in the 1940s.

The Boom: *holding my tongue*

They could have come up with a better name than "The Boom".

I know there are a LOT of speedsters, not just at DC (where I've lost count) but through comics history going back to the Golden Age. I'm sure most of the good names have been taken. But "The Boom" ... is just terrible.

Here's a handy reference page from The New Golden Age:

I got confused on the various Golden marriages and offspring mentioned or tangential to this discussion, so I looked it up.

• Jade and Obsidian are the children of Alan Scott (Green Lantern) with first wife Rose Canton (Rose and Thorn), as revealed in Infinity Inc. This appears to remain canon after New 52.
• Scott divorced Rose at some point and married Molly Mayne (Harlequin), and there has never been mention of children. Since it's now canon that Alan Scott is gay, is this still true? Rose as a beard makes sense for the era, but two beards stretches credulity, unless he's bi.
• It wasn't mentioned, to my knowledge, that Molly had any children prior to her marriage to Alan Scott, which was late in life and presumably post-childbearing. But Michael Mayne (Harlequin's Son) has now appeared in New Golden Age, begging the question of who his father is. Also, is he an only child, or has Molly seeded more surprises?
• Merry Pemberton (Merry of a Thousand Gimmicks, aka Gimmick Girl) married Henry King (Brainwave). Their children are Henry King Jr. (Brainwave Jr.) and Jacqueline Pemberton (Gimmix). Merry was killed in the comics, but got better in Young Justice. On TV's Stargirl, where Geoff Johns is showrunner, Merry and Henry Jr. are both dead, and there is no mention of Jacqueline. AFAIK, Jacqueline is still dead in the comics following Seven Soldiers #0.

That's what Mr. Google tells me. It's possible some of this has been retconned by New 52. Every site I looked at, from Wiki to DC Wiki, repeats the same line that Alan Scott is still happily married to Molly Mayne, which I don't think is (still) true, so everything is suspect.

[The Baron]

That page is not in my copy of  The New Golden Age.

Captain Comics said:

Here's a handy reference page from The New Golden Age:

[Richard Willis]

Merry Pemberton (Merry of a Thousand Gimmicks, aka Gimmick Girl) 

I don't think I've heard of this character before.

The uncommon name Pemberton makes me think she was related to Sylvester. Was she?

[Luke Blanchard]

She was introduced in Sylvester's feature and her feature then replaced his, much as with Black Canary and Johnny Thunder.

Sylvester's parents adopted Merry in Star-Spangled Comics #81 because a psychiatrist told them Sylvester needed companionship. She learned Sylvester and Pat were the Kid and Stripesy. She adopted the identity of Gimmick Girl in #82. In #83 Stripesy broke his leg and she teamed up with the Kid, despite his objections. From #84 she was the star, but at first the feature was still bannered with the Kid's name. Sylvester last appeared in costume in #83 and made his final, cameo appearances as Sylvester in #84. Merry's name was sub-bannered in #85-#86 and her banner replaced his from #87. The last instalment appeared in #90. 

The last adventure was the only one reprinted in the Bronze Age, in Adventure Comics #416. 

[Richard Willis]

Thanks, Luke.