While reading through one of the execrable "Millennium" issues the other day, I came across this character:
I drew up short for two reasons. One, I dare you to encounter a green and purple color scheme on a super-powered individual whose name is NOT "Kang" and take it in stride. And two, who the hell is Overthrow?
Look, I get it, these huge multi-book mult-issue mass crossover titles revel in throwing out completely obscure characters to titillate the hard-core fanboys, but Overthrow? Honestly? Even Blue Beetle, who's issuing the dialog from off-panel, seems stunned that such a random person is making an appearance, and the two of them go way back.
But I bet the reason you never really heard from Overthrow before or after this issue is his costume. In a word, it blows. Or in the words of Bart Simpson, it's achieved the seeming impossibility of both sucking and blowing at the same time. Besides the color scheme (which frankly is hard to get past, but I'll soldier on), I find it hard to take a guy seriously who got his hairpiece by mugging and subsequently scalping Carrot Top. Granted, that was a profound act of goodness for all humankind, but slapping that mop on top of a purple Round Table Helmet is just weird. I keep looking for the big red clown nose that surely just fell off that ensemble.
Due to the perspective of the figure (and the rubber-penciled efforts of Joe Staton) it's hard to tell what's going on with his crotch. (And by the way, if I had a dollar for every time a teenaged Jeff got the "What's going on with his crotch?" question I'd be a wealthy man right now.) Either that's a knee pad on top of a padded boot front, or this guy has serious ego problems.
I sure hope it's the latter, because a purple and green Carrot Top wannabe with a raging boner is just scary enough to get me reading further. Otherwise, it's just another sad, sad costume.
I’m also wondering about the purple air vent looking thing on his thigh.
Also is it the sad that the first thing I noticed was the weird crotch? I have been reading this blog far to long…
Actually, I think the unusal crotch ornament is a badly-rendered knee-pad… Think his leg is bent like his foot is standing on something beyond the edge of the rooftop, and the knee is place towards the camera. The air vent thing would probably be the front of his leg. Either that, or his leg is deformed and he DOES have ego issues… Anyway, its the hair that gets me, even more than the color scheme; never understood how it was practical to glue wigs to the tops of helmets… or is it growing through the headgear??? The entire thing makes my eyes hurt…
After consideration, I think the purple roundish thing IS a knee pad. His right leg is raised up on something. It’s just the odd perspective that makes it look groinal.
The hair coming from the helmet is, I know, an artistic thing. It allows better character recognition. It also allows someone to grab your hair, which would be a real-world negative. ‘No hair pulling’ must be part of the unwritten super-dude code.
Actually, this is a somewhat appropriate time to mention my favorite super-hairstyle. In the original Bat-Man TV show, Barbara Gordan had short, black hair. When dressed up as Bat-Girl she wore a shoulder-length red wig that came through her cowl. That was cool on several different levels. First, Bat-Girl matched her in-comic appearance. Plus it enhanced her disguise. And, if anyone did grab her hair, she would seem impervious to the pain as she smacked the fellow down.
Well, if he’s talking to the Blue Beetle, then, my thinking goes…beetle–think crabs, hence the crotch protection.
He has all the crap on him, but his torso is bare, it’s out of place.
It’s his knee. The perspective is wonky, but his foot is perched on something we can’t see, so we’re seeing his knee and shin there. You can see the top of the other knee-pad on the other leg, if you squint.
“Knee” is a weird word…