Historical text from CxPulp:

skippcomet
01-30-2014, 12:39 AM
 
Hey, folks. I hope these "imaginary handbook" threads I occasionally do don't tick anybody off, especially the actual Handbook creators past and present.

This one I approached a little bit differently. I was thinking a bit ahead about the upcoming movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and wondered if there were enough Captain America-related characters or subjects to fill a hypothetical second Cap Handbook. So I viewed the IMDB page for the movie, the page listing of Captain America-related characters on the Appendix website, and re-read the Hardcover entries for some of the major characters appearing in the movie....and was so inspired that I ended up assembling a list of characters long enough to, in theory anyway, fill an actual handbook. Hell, I was even cutting some characters from the list (something I get the feeling the actual handbook creators dealt with themselves).

So, this is what I came up with. Let's start with characters who will appear in the movie whose comics counterparts I feel could use an update (and because I'm not sure how to do spoiler tags, I apologize if anybody has neither seen a trailer or read the IMDB page: Black Widow/Romanova, Captain America/Rogers, Crossbones, Sharon Carter, Falcon/Wilson, SHIELD. Next, a character from the movie that hasn't been covered since Update '89: Alexander Pierce. (Basically, if a character is played by one-half of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, in my world they get an entry.

The rest of the list:

Agent Axis (battled the Invaders, Cap & Thin Man)
Answer/Ferrari (terrorist brother of one of Cap's short-term love interests)
Blackbird (mercenary, agent of the Leader as Jackdaw, one of Superia's Femizons as Blackbird)
Blitzkrieger (German super-hero, met Cap during Contest of Champions, member of Schutz Heilliggrupe, killed by Zeitgeist)
Blockbuster (fought Cap as Man-Brute, later fought Omega the Unknown as Blockbuster, killed by Foolkiller)
Blue Streak (Corporation double-agent, fought Cap, killdd by Scourge, resurrected by The Hood)
Bombshell (partner of Oddball, fought Cap with the Death-Throws)
Captain America's Shields & Transportation
Izzy Cohen (of the Howling Commandos)
Commission on Superhuman Activities
Cottonmouth (Serpent Society)
Doctor Crime (Golden Age criminal who fought Cap & Bucky twice)
Domino (Conspiracy, Scourge of the Underworld)
Executioner (1950s communist spy, fought that era's Cap & Bucky)
General Argyle Fist (just for the name alone, and the Kirby art)
Golem (Goldstein, Invaders ally)
Hellfire Helix/Exo-Mind (Bloodstone character, Bloodstone Hunt)
Impala (BAD Girls, Inc.)
Iron Cross (Gruler, fought Invaders, Penance Council/V-Battalion)
Lady Lotus (fought Invaders, retconed to have been Lotus Newmark's true identity)
Left-Winger & Right-Winger (former allies of John Walker turned enemies, dead)
Lucifer (Quist, fought Cap & Falcon among others)
Madbombs
Meteorite (Redeemers, briefly led by Cap, killed by Graviton)
Minister Blood (agent of Red Skull, Mother Night's brother)
Morgan Conquest (Avengers event that Cap had a prominent role in)
Mutant Force/Resistants
National Force
Ivan Petrovich (Black Widow's mentor, met Cap in Madripoor during WWII)
Power Broker (Jackson)
Rattler (Serpent Society)
Rohjaz (Cap's 1602 AD counterpart)
Arnie Roth (Cap's friend since childhood)
Gail Runciter (SHIELD agent, would-be paramour of Cap)
Sisters of Sin
John Steele (full entry including his role in what led to Super-Soldier Serum's creation)
Sen. Eugene Stivak (Corporation agent)
Stone-Face (crimelord who's fought Cap, Falcon, & Spider-Man)
Super-Soldier Serum (including derivatives and test subjects, ala Gamma Mutates entry)
Leila Taylor (Falcon's on & off girlfriend)
Viper (Dixon/Stryke, Serpent Squad)
Vulture (Bellski, WWII foe of Cap & Bucky)
Julia Winter (aka Jack Monroe/Nomad's adopted baby Bucky)
Wrangler (Black Widow foe as Laralie, Superia's Femzon's)
Young Allies (WWII team of youths including Bucky & Toro)

And that's just what I came up with. Who would YOU add or subtract?
 
Eduardo M.
01-30-2014, 08:14 AM
 
I'd also consider the following entries, especially if some of the ones on your list get considered

Brother Nature (Steve Rogers foe)
Cap Gets Fired (is there another name for this event that can be used for an entry?)
Dimension Z
Tristam Macawber
Douglas Rockwell
Skeleton Crew
Skull House
Stars and Stripes hotline
Ethan Thurm
Warhead (Super-Patriot/Walker foe)
 
Andy E. Nystrom
01-30-2014, 08:38 AM
 
Captain America would invariably get an update of course.

Since he appeared in 11 Hostess ads a hostess related entry would be nice, maybe the aliens who crossed over into a Thor ad.

Looking at stuff from my "Never Been Kissed in the 2000s" thread and not covered above:
Batroc's Brigade deserves a one-pager at least because there's been so many variations over the years.
Death-Throws
Mutant Force
Various minor Serpent Society members like Puff Adder would make for good half-pagers
Doughboy
 
zuckyd1
01-31-2014, 05:08 AM

Eduardo M. wrote:

Cap Gets Fired (is there another name for this event that can be used for an entry?)

The unabridged Blockbusters list calls it "Long Road Back". (Though I can't say I'm particularly fond of that title either.)
 
skippcomet
02-01-2014, 06:56 AM
 
Batroc's Brigade and the Death-Throws were actually two of the subjects I cut from my list. Not because I don't think they deserve inclusion (Batroc's Brigade, IMO, definitely deserves an entry) but because I was leaning towards more individual characters getting entries. (This may be partially influenced by what I perceived as a later trend by the intrepid OHOTMU writers to do team entries more on teams whose individual members were less likely to receive their own entries.) When I looked up, for instance, Bombshell on the Appendix site, I didn't think there'd be much more to her history beyond her appearances with the Death-Throws and as a partner of Oddball on their own adventures, but it turned out I'd forgotten she was one of Superia's Femizons (and I'd bought a little over fifty issues of Gruenwald's run on Cap, including that storyline, back in the day) as well as that she's appeared elsewhere since then without either group, so I think she could support a full-page entry.

(I also think that of the "second wave" so-to-speak of Serpent Society members, both Puff Adder and Rock Python could best support full-page entries, due to their various appearances in and out of Cap's title. It's the likes of Coachwhip, Boomslang, and Fer-de-Lance that I think would best be served by a half-page entry.)

And I completely left off a character I fully intended to include: Skylark of Earth-712's Squadron Supreme. During the first year of the Busiek/Perez run on the Avengers, when both teams were being manipulated by Imus Champion, Skylark repeatedly found herself first fighting against, and later alongside, Cap to the point that she even remarked upon it in mid-battle. (Dig out those back issues if you don't believe me.) Reason enough to include her, not to mention it gives not only another Squadroner an entry but one who has only received a quarter-page entry at most in almost 30 years of Handbooks. (Poor old Amphibian shares that dubious distinction. Heck, even Shape, Haywire, Inertia, and Redstone got Master Edition entries.)
 
Sidney Osinga
02-02-2014, 09:36 PM
 
Another possibility would be entries for the new members of the Avengers: Manifold, Smasher (Dare), Captain Universe, (Devoux), Nightmask (Adam), Star Brand (Connor), Ex Nihilo, and Abyss. There could also be an entry for the Avengers Unity squad.
 
vanhornluke
04-04-2014, 12:04 PM
 
I'd love to see an oblique reference to Alpha Two from Sting of the Green Hornet #2. Or even more obscure, a reference to Jeannie Rogers's alternate future in Questar.